Juno News - Carney Govt sides with BC NDP + Vancouver cancels Harry Potter

00:00:00.000 And welcome to Straight Up with Mark Petroni. Thank you so much for tuning in, my friends.

00:00:11.240 Prime Minister Mark Carney, looking to put his failed trade talks with Trump in the rearview

00:00:16.360 mirror as soon as possible, announced measures aimed at helping those who are hit the hardest

00:00:21.720 as a result of Canada's economic downturn. The government will roll out an automatic tax filing

00:00:27.920 system for low-income Canadians and make the national food program permanent ahead of the

00:00:33.640 long-awaited federal budget due November the 4th. In following the D.C. trade talks in which

00:00:40.860 Carney came back with nothing, Pierre Polyev, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada,

00:00:45.620 says it's obvious the whole elbows-up election campaign leading up to the April election day

00:00:51.340 was a gigantic fraud from the start. Let's listen.

00:00:54.100 I think we can now conclude that Mark Carney's entire elbows-up campaign was a gigantic fraud.

00:01:04.360 He didn't mean a word of it. Since the election has happened, he's done exactly the opposite of

00:01:10.060 everything he promised. And I should be clear, this was not a promise. This was the promise. So the

00:01:16.500 entire foundation of Mark Carney's election campaign was not only a broken promise, it was a fraud for

00:01:22.360 which thousands of Canadians are paying today with lost jobs. We cannot trust anything that Mark Carney

00:01:29.700 says. And the Conservatives are reminding Canadians they were sold a phony bill of goods during the

00:01:35.760 election campaign. I have personally argued on this show in the past, on my radio show, that the whole

00:01:43.180 elbows-up strategy was doomed from the start. For the same reason that a lightweight boxer wouldn't step

00:01:49.420 into the ring with Mike Tyson or any other heavyweight. I mean, if you try trading punches with a boxer who's

00:01:56.460 ten times your size, you're going to end up knocked out and probably hurt very badly. You've got to figure out a more

00:02:02.360 nuanced strategy to avoid trading punches with somebody you can't hope to win against. A bunch of other countries

00:02:09.340 realized that from the start. From the UK, the 27 members of the EU, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, they never bothered with 0.84

00:02:18.640 counter-terrorists because they knew it would only make matters worse. They ended up with trade deals that they

00:02:25.040 could live with. Canada took a different approach and it has failed. Momentum seems to be building for Canada to end the

00:02:32.680 so-called birth tourism. That's the long-standing policy in Canada that makes anyone born in this country

00:02:39.760 automatically a Canadian citizen. Even those born to temporary workers, foreign workers. Even tourists.

00:02:49.040 The Globe and Mail opinion page featured this headline. The Conservatives are right. Canada should end birthright

00:02:56.000 citizenship. Conservative member of Parliament, Vincent Ho, posted this video.

00:03:01.280 I want you to imagine this. You've worked hard your whole life. You paid your taxes, followed the rules,

00:03:07.520 and done everything right because you believe in the Canadian promise. But here's the thing.

00:03:12.960 Your tax dollars are increasingly being used to pay for benefits of people who have never paid their

00:03:17.520 dues. People whose parents just flew in on a visa, gave birth here, and left. That's called birth tourism.

00:03:24.800 And it isn't fair. So it's time to close this loophole in our system so children born to temporary 0.99

00:03:30.080 residents or visitors aren't automatically granted citizenship. Citizenship should mean commitment,

00:03:36.080 not convenience. Just like immigrants choose which country to immigrate to, Canada should also get 0.96

00:03:41.360 to choose who becomes a citizen. Well, the ruling Liberals have shown

00:03:45.360 little indication they want to close that loophole, at least for now. Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson

00:03:50.880 has waded into the ongoing spat between Alberta and BC over the proposed construction of an energy

00:03:57.120 pipeline to the Pacific. Not surprisingly, the Minister, speaking before the Senate, sided with BC Premier

00:04:03.840 David Eby saying projects need the support of the jurisdiction you build it through. Here is Hodgson.

00:04:10.880 What we have said is to build you need support of the jurisdiction you build through and you need

00:04:18.320 the support of First Nations. The proponent, in this case the province of Alberta, needs to get to attract

00:04:27.680 that if they want to build. That's something between the province of Alberta and the province of British

00:04:34.320 Columbia. We've said we will be a constructive participant in that three-way discussion.

00:04:40.640 The province of Alberta has some work to do. This from a government that promised to fast-track

00:04:46.800 key infrastructure projects that benefit all Canadians. You would think that a project like this

00:04:52.400 would qualify. Apparently, at least according to this federal government, it does not. Speaking of

00:04:57.920 British Columbia, the Vancouver Park Board has cancelled the Harry Potter attraction, bowing to

00:05:04.720 pressure from trans activists who oppose the views of author J.K. Rowling. Since 2019, Rowling's views about

00:05:13.120 sex and gender have drawn widespread condemnation from transgender people. She believes that you are

00:05:19.840 born either male or female and that there is no changing that. She's also expressed concerns about

00:05:25.520 women's rights and safety around men in women's spaces. Commissioners of the Vancouver Park Board voted

00:05:33.040 unanimously this week to apologize and publicly disavow J.K. Rowling.

00:05:38.720 As many of you may be way around liking other-sized comments about transgender people have caused

00:05:44.560 significant distress for many transgender and non-binary individuals globally and included here,

00:05:52.000 including here in Vancouver. I just had to bring in this particular individuals, transphobic and Holocaust-dening 1.00

00:06:00.720 us and on a lot of other issues. And J.K. Rowling has been one of, if not the most single

00:06:07.760 influential person on earth leading the charge against transgender rights.

00:06:13.520 J.K. Rowling, for her part, waited on X with this. To be honest, I didn't even know.

00:06:43.760 Vancouver Parks and Recreations had avowed me, so the disavowal hasn't been much of a blow.

00:06:50.480 Next time, send me a certificate of avowal and wait until I've proudly framed it,

00:06:57.760 hung it over my PC, and taken a selfie with it, then revoke it.

00:07:04.880 Columnist and sex-based activist Amy Hamm also weighed in on X.

00:07:09.760 Since the Vancouver Parks Board has vowed to never again host a Harry Potter Kids event,

00:07:17.440 I'd like to start an annual Stanley Park Harry Potter Meetup and group walk for kids, families,

00:07:25.280 and anyone who cares about free speech and reality.

00:07:28.480 Next year, see you there.

00:07:29.920 Amy Hamm is a columnist with the National Post. As a registered nurse based in New Westminster,

00:07:36.400 BC, she gained national attention, this was back in 2020, after co-sponsoring a Vancouver

00:07:42.880 billboard reading, I Heart J.K. Rowling, in support of the author's feminist views on sex and gender.

00:07:49.520 This sparked multiple complaints to the BC College of Nurses and Midwives.

00:07:54.960 Welcome to the show, Amy.

00:07:56.160 Amy Hamm. Hi, thank you so much for having me.

00:07:58.640 Amy Hamm. Great having you. Can you give us a little bit of an update on your personal matter there?

00:08:05.520 Sure. So, the latest right now is that a decision this March from a panel for the BC

00:08:12.720 College of Nurses and Midwives. They found me guilty of professional misconduct for my public

00:08:18.000 commentary made outside of work on gender ideology and standing up for women's sex-based rights.

00:08:25.200 So, that decision of professional misconduct is being appealed at the BC Supreme Court.

00:08:30.400 A penalty decision was also issued that said that I should have a one-month license suspension

00:08:36.880 and pay almost $94,000 in cost to the BC College of Nurses for this lawfare that they've put me through

00:08:43.760 for the past five years. A hearing spread out over more than a year that was 21 plus days,

00:08:52.240 so, you know, longer than a murder trial. It's sort of never-ending. So, that's being appealed

00:08:58.720 and I've also launched a Human Rights Tribunal complaint against the College of Nurses and

00:09:04.000 Vancouver Coastal Health. I was employed there for 13 years as a registered nurse and fired after

00:09:11.680 I was found guilty of unprofessional conduct for my comments.

00:09:15.920 That's quite an ordeal you've had to go through. Very disappointing. But I'm glad to see that it

00:09:22.160 hasn't discouraged you from speaking out on this issue.

00:09:24.800 Not at all. I think it's very important. It's crucial. Women are 50% of the population. So,

00:09:32.000 standing up for our sex-based rights, it's very important.

00:09:35.920 Now, you were tweeting about this matter involving the Vancouver Park Board cancelling this Harry

00:09:42.240 Potter attraction. You were commenting about it, showing where you stand on this. How do you

00:09:49.920 categorize what just took place there with the Park Board? Why do you suppose they did what they did?

00:09:56.320 I mean, it's such a crazy story. It's been going on for several weeks.

00:10:02.240 And sort of the latest is this Park Commissioner, Tom Digby, has, you know, he tweeted about the

00:10:09.360 Park Board having a meeting. And these are grown men that were crying over the fact that there's a

00:10:14.480 Harry Potter walk for children happening in Stanley Park. They disavowed JK Rowling. They made an apology to

00:10:21.360 the 2SLGBT, etc., etc., community. And, you know, again, this is a children's Harry Potter

00:10:31.520 walk in the forest. And so Tom Digby's motion, which was passed unanimously to issue this apology,

00:10:39.120 was over, of course, his opinion about JK Rowling's views, which it was interesting. He described,

00:10:48.080 he said, I don't want to platform her ideas. I'm not going to actually tell you what they are,

00:10:53.920 but just believe me that this is a woman with bad opinions and we need to issue an apology and 0.98

00:11:00.640 counsel her. And then the other, you know, there's another commissioner sitting there who

00:11:06.000 didn't even know what her views were and just sort of went along with it, which is quite astounding.

00:11:12.800 Just outsourcing his critical thinking, outsourcing his moral judgment to someone else over, you know,

00:11:20.160 the views of JK Rowling, which apparently he's never heard and never been made aware of. And if you

00:11:25.040 actually know what they are, it's that she stands up for women's sex based rights, she stands up for

00:11:29.760 child safeguarding. So this, this situation with the Vancouver park board, it's really just sort of

00:11:35.440 a microcosm of cancel culture at large. And it would be hilarious if it weren't so disturbing.

00:11:42.480 Yeah, absolutely. There was also a reference to Holocaust denial,

00:11:47.280 where I found rather shocking. What was that about? Do you know?

00:11:50.800 You know, I, I don't even know where that accusation came from, but again, to see

00:11:57.040 that you can throw an accusation like that out and then you have commissioners just accepting it at

00:12:03.040 face value and agreeing to denounce this woman without asking to even see, can I see some evidence?

00:12:10.400 What did she say at all? It's really astounding. And this is, these are elected officials in Vancouver.

00:12:19.120 It blows my mind that anybody would vote for these people again, that are going to disavow someone

00:12:25.600 publicly and agree that someone is a Holocaust denier without even seeing a shred of evidence.

00:12:31.920 Yeah. And then Rowling responded to it, which is surprising. And this is a very high profile person

00:12:38.880 who has done a lot, but she obviously noticed and heard what had happened. And she responded in a way

00:12:43.920 that's kind of humorous poking fun at what had happened to her in the first, in the first place,

00:12:48.800 in terms of being avowed. She says, to be honest, I didn't even know the Vancouver parks and recreations

00:12:54.400 had avowed me. So the disavowal hasn't been much of a blow. So obviously she's managed to keep her

00:13:00.480 sense of humor around this. Of course. Yeah. And it's, you know, her fans love it when she gets

00:13:07.760 involved in comments on these things, because people around the world are saying these sorts of things

00:13:12.640 about her all the time. She doesn't always notice, but when she does, you know, you don't take a shot

00:13:18.080 at the queen because she, she doesn't miss when she hits back. 1.00

00:13:22.640 Yeah, she's yeah, absolutely. She's great with a response. And then your tweet,

00:13:27.360 since Vancouver parks board has vowed to never again, host a Harry Potter kids event. I'd like

00:13:34.000 to start an annual Stanley park, Harry Potter meeting and group walk for kids families for

00:13:39.360 anyone who cares about free speech and reality. Were you serious about that? Or was that kind of a half

00:13:45.280 joke? You know what? I am serious about it. I would like to start doing that. So if, if this event doesn't

00:13:53.040 come back next year and there hasn't been a shakeup at the parks board, then sure, I would love to host

00:13:59.280 an event like that. Well, because it's the kids who are suffering as a result of the cancellation,

00:14:04.240 isn't it? Ultimately, those are the people, you know, although it doesn't change, her views don't

00:14:09.920 change anything about how loved her work has been, you know, her books have been, how popular they have been

00:14:16.000 and the movies and everything else. I mean, this is a multi-billion dollar cottage industry around

00:14:22.320 these books that she wrote and kids love them. And so the idea that you can do this, punish kids

00:14:28.720 at the process just to go after her and diminish hers is I think ridiculous and cruel for the kids. 0.97

00:14:36.320 It is. And she does so much, you know, she has Lumos, a children's charity. She runs a rape, sorry,

00:14:43.200 crisis shelter called Beera's Place in Scotland. This is a woman who has, does an enormous amount of 0.90

00:14:50.880 philanthropy. And then you, as you said, this is an event for children to have fun

00:14:58.000 with stories that they grew up on and love immensely. And there are adults, grown men,

00:15:03.760 a couple of them apparently identifying as females standing there and talking about,

00:15:09.200 they're saying that actual harms have occurred because of JK Rowland's opinions, actual harm in

00:15:14.320 Vancouver. Again, without quantifying what harm has happened. And the only thing that they can come

00:15:20.320 up with is it's been emotionally difficult. So, you know, and we know that's what, that's all they

00:15:26.000 mean is hurt feelings. And, you know, if you're a grown man who's offended by a grown woman's opinion,

00:15:32.560 and that's more important to you than the enjoyment of hundreds, maybe thousands of children in Vancouver,

00:15:39.200 you need to take a look at yourself and, you know, sort yourself out because that, that is incredibly

00:15:45.520 self fish. Yes, absolutely. Now it's been about five years since you first sponsored that billboard,

00:15:57.120 I heard JK Rowling, and you're still making your way through the legal process with appeals and all of

00:16:04.640 this. You've been attacked, but has anything changed in terms of leniency towards people with

00:16:13.440 views like yourselves who believe in free speech? I mean, or are we still continuing down that rabbit

00:16:20.480 hole of punishing people whose views don't necessarily correspond with the, with the woke East is out there?

00:16:27.680 I think that on a population level, most Canadians know what the truth is. They are, they're sick of

00:16:38.880 this stuff. However, our institutions are still very captured and run by people who not only fervently

00:16:47.440 believe in, but are enforcing this ideology. And I think it's sort of the end of their reign of power,

00:16:53.600 or reign of terror, because their, their control over institutions won't last forever. But clearly,

00:17:00.000 you know, the, I'm a case in point that it's this ongoing lawfare is still happening. They do still

00:17:06.240 have some, some power, even though most people don't like it. And so I think the important thing is that

00:17:13.920 people need to stand up and say, I'm sick of this, I'm not going along with it, so that we can hasten

00:17:20.000 sort of the demise of this institutional takeover by, by these woke ideologues.

00:17:26.320 Now, besides the lawfare that you've had to go through, your activism has drawn attention

00:17:34.320 to you and people have gotten to know you and what you stand for. How do you describe the

00:17:40.480 interactions that you've had with people that, you know, people that you don't know? Has that been

00:17:46.240 tough or has that been encouraging? How do you characterize that?

00:17:52.560 It's, it's overwhelming support, especially in recent years, you know, when this started,

00:17:58.320 because I've been talking about women's sex-based rights for almost a decade now. And when it started,

00:18:04.880 there was the ratio of sort of support to abuse was a lot higher. And then as time goes on, it's

00:18:11.680 overwhelming, overwhelming support, which matches with what I said about, I think most people are

00:18:17.440 sick of this nonsense. We just still have an issue where not enough people have the courage to, to speak

00:18:25.280 out about it. It's, and I think, you know, it's not enough to just do it privately. We do really need

00:18:32.320 people to take a stand because this is, you know, this has wide ramifications. And I think people are

00:18:40.560 starting to understand that when it hits you, but like, let's say you have a daughter who's in sports

00:18:45.520 and suddenly competing against males. There are so many ways that this ideology can personally affect

00:18:50.880 people. And, um, it's, it's unfortunate that generally what it takes for someone to speak out is

00:18:57.200 that it hits them personally. Um, but it's so, it's taken over so much of our culture that I think

00:19:06.320 it is, it's starting to impact more and more people. Yeah. I mean, I think the country owes people

00:19:11.680 like you and billboard Chris, a huge, um, thank you, you know, for your activism, for what you've done.

00:19:18.800 It takes such courage. I mean, you look at what billboard Chris has put up with, you know, and he continues to do that. Just,

00:19:27.200 talk to people stand there with his billboard and put up with things that nobody should have to put

00:19:34.560 up with. And then you contrast that with what you've seen in some of the schools, for instance,

00:19:38.720 that allow biological males, you know, to compete with, with women and the parents who just sat there

00:19:45.840 and kind of put up with it as if it's perfectly normal, you know, and running the risk, of course,

00:19:51.120 that their daughters might get hurt. You know, you have to wonder whether or not there's a level of

00:19:55.600 Stockholm syndrome there amongst these people who've just so bought in to this attitude that

00:20:01.280 they're even willing to have their daughters potentially get injured in a sporting event

00:20:06.720 in order to continue on with this charade. Any thoughts about that?

00:20:10.640 That's not something that I can personally understand. You know, I have two sons, they're six

00:20:17.200 and eight years old. And, you know, it would be different, of course, if they were girls competing 0.84

00:20:23.520 against boys, but were something, you know, were the school to start using different pronouns for

00:20:29.520 them or something, I would, I would be irate, I would immediately step in. So I don't understand the

00:20:34.880 parents that sort of let this slide. I think, you know, 20, even 20 years ago, this is something that

00:20:41.840 people would have dealt with on a, on sort of a personal, not to say that I'm not talking about

00:20:48.800 violence, but just people speaking and saying, this is not okay. And for some reason, people are

00:20:54.720 terrified. They're terrified of speaking out now. And, you know, I guess I'm, what happened to me is

00:21:02.240 part of the reason is people understand that if you speak out against these ideologues, they will try,

00:21:09.360 they'll seek and destroy your entire life. And they have way too much power. It needs to be taken

00:21:14.800 away from them. You may very well have seen the statement that Trump made to Mark Carney when the

00:21:21.360 two of them were chatting. Trump did in fact bring up this whole issue around trans rights fight for

00:21:29.360 them and the fact that males were participating in women's sports. I mean, it's nice to see that at that

00:21:37.040 level. Did you have any thoughts about what Trump said, assuming that you heard it? I'm pretty sure

00:21:41.760 you did. I actually missed that. Okay. I mean, it wasn't a lengthy discussion, but he did bring it up

00:21:50.160 and Carney didn't seem to acknowledge it all that much. He didn't really say anything to counter.

00:21:56.880 Carney seems to be good at dodging topics that he doesn't want to speak about. I actually encountered him

00:22:04.000 in person on the campaign trail in the US shortly before he won the election. And I attempted to

00:22:10.480 bring up sex based rights as an issue, you know, approached him, introduced myself. And he was open

00:22:18.000 to taking my question. As soon as I said what it was, he just sort of laughed, flipped his hand at me,

00:22:23.520 turned around and walked away. Unbelievable. Yeah. But not entirely surprising. He was avoiding a lot of

00:22:32.560 controversial topics. How can people support your work? I'm one of the co-founders of a group called

00:22:41.280 COSBAR. It stands for Canadian Women's Sex Based Rights. And we are causebar.ca. So definitely going

00:22:49.520 to our website is a great way to support the women in Canada who are fighting to protect and retain

00:22:56.080 women's sex based rights. And our group right now, we have a lawsuit actually against the federal

00:23:02.160 government to remove biological males from women's prisons. So that's really important. And then the 0.99

00:23:08.080 other way I would say is my legal fight for the last five years has been funded by the Justice Center

00:23:14.320 for Constitutional Freedoms. And they're always taking donations. They do so much great work in this

00:23:20.080 country. So that, of course, is another great way to not only just to support me, but to support

00:23:25.680 rights and freedoms for all Canadians. They're just, I can't say enough about what an excellent

00:23:32.160 organization they are. Amy, thank you so much for coming on the show. We really do appreciate it.

00:23:37.440 Thank you for having me. All right. And that is it for this edition of

00:23:42.240 Straight Up with Marc Bertrone. Appreciate you tuning in. Let's do it again real soon,

00:23:45.600 shall we? We'll see you next time.

Juno News - October 10, 2025

Carney Govt sides with BC NDP + Vancouver cancels Harry Potter

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