Carney says Canadians are ＂getting ahead＂ while economy CRUMBLES
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Summary
George Ann Burke, a communications and political strategist, joins us to talk about the Air Canada jet crash and the fallout from it, as well as the recent mass shooting in Canada and the ongoing Israeli conflict in the Middle East.
Transcript
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While you may think Canada is in the midst of an affordability crisis, but Prime Minister
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Carney says Canadians haven't had it this good in over a decade. In a House of Commons debate,
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Carney dismissed opposition critics of his record on unemployment and food inflation.
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Let's look at what's happened to the United States since the summer. They have lost
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6,000 jobs. This country has created over 80,000 jobs. Let's look at what's happened to wages in
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this country. They are growing the highest in years, 4%. They're growing twice the rate of
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inflation. Canadians are getting ahead. Every single month of this government, Canadian wages
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have grown faster than the rate of inflation. Rents are at a 33-month low. Affordability is
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the best it's been in over a decade. Well, according to Statistics Canada,
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grocery prices have risen about 30% over the last five years. And last month, the economy lost over
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100,000 full-time jobs. While mixed martial arts promoter Dana White has offered to cover medical
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costs for one of the victims of the mass shooting at Cumberridge Secondary School in British Columbia,
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Dana White says he'll pay for 12-year-old Maya Gabal's access to specialized treatment
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at a brain trauma clinic in Los Angeles, and that includes covering the cost of family housing
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in Los Angeles during her recovery. Maya was shot three times in the school library by 18-year-old
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trans shooter Jesse Van Rootseller, who killed eight people last February the 10th.
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According to one political strategist, the uproar over Air Canada's English-only video
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following the deadly crash in New York is really all about politics in Canada.
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CEO Michael Rousseau released the video after Air Canada Jet slammed into a fire truck
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Tim Powers appeared on CBC's Power in Politics saying,
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this is really all about the coming by-election in Quebec.
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First of all, before I even get into that, I'd say,
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Let's call out the opportunism here and not just the bilingualism.
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Why is the prime minister, why are the blocs so passionate about this right now?
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he'll do what he can to defeat Bonny Crombie's bid
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What do you think of the possibility of Mayor Crombie once more
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and would you get involved to help stop her and help Mayor Parrish get re-elected?
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You know something? I never get involved in municipal elections
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but I will send an army down here to make sure I support Mayor Parrish.
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It was an absolute disaster under Bonnie Crombie.
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So what I say to Mayor Bonnie Crombie, bring it on. Let's go. We're ready.
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Well, Crombie left her job as mayor of the city in 2024 to run a failed election campaign
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as leader of the Ontario Liberals. According to NATO, Canada has finally hit the 2%
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of GDP target for military spending. It's the first time in 35 years that Canada has met its
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NATO target. Meantime, President Trump says, despite being the main contributor to NATO,
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the United States cannot count on its partners to help his country. Let's listen.
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We're very disappointed with NATO because NATO has done absolutely nothing.
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And I've always said 25 years ago, I mean, I was somebody that wasn't a politician,
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but I was always involved in politics and I understood politics. I said 25 years ago that
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NATO's a paper tiger, but more importantly, that we'll come to their rescue, but they will never
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come to ours. And I want you to remember that we said this, they didn't come to our rescue.
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Now they all want to help when they're annihilated. The other side is annihilated. They said,
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we'd love to send ships. They actually made a statement, a couple of them, that we want to get
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involved when the war is over. No, it's supposed to get involved when the war is beginning or even
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before it begins. Our guest today is George Ann Burke, communications and political strategist and
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expert. She joins us from Jerusalem. Welcome, George Ann. Thank you. Nice to see you.
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We're going to chat a little bit about the war, obviously, and you're in Israel right now. And so
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we're certainly interested in getting your take on what's going on there. But I want to start off
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with the story that caused a bit of a minor uproar in Canada, specifically the CEO of Air Canada,
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following this deadly crash at LaGuardia Airport in New York. Two pilots were killed,
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and the CEO came out and basically issued his statement on video, more or less completely in
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English. I mean, there were a couple of words in French, but that was it. And so the prime minister
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came out and suggested that he was, meaning the CEO, was not very compassionate in delivering
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his comments entirely in English. And so it seems to have distracted from the fact that two people
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were killed and that there are safety issues around what happened. And we have to find out
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exactly what caused it. Actually, let's listen to that clip first. And this is from Power and
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politics on the cbc this is tim power commenting on it first of all before i even get into that
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i'd say there's a let's call out the opportunism here and not just the bilingualism why is the
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prime minister why are the blocs so passionate about this right now what do they have to do
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this right now there's a crash people are dead why couldn't this be held off for a month why
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are they calling it right now because there's a by-election in terrible okay let's be frank about
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that so he says it's political pure and simple what do you think well it is political pure and
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simple um the prime minister of the country uh when there's a tragedy like this you would think
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that his natural instinct if he had any human instinct would be to speak to the families
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directly and through his public uh uh you know his public platform his podium to speak to the
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family expresses sorrow for them uh talk about how important it is to get to the bottom of what
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happened for the sake of the families and for the sake of canadians to know you know what were the
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factors that led to this terrible um occurrence uh but instead he complains that the ceo of air
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canada only spoke english when he did this and it shows that he lacks compassion um i don't think
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the definition of compassion is which language you choose to speak in it's actually what he said
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i don't know what the ceo said but i'm going to bet you that it was more compassionate than what
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mark carney said uh criticizing this guy for not speaking in french um i i just don't even
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understand uh what he would be thinking why we think this is good i know tim powers powers is
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correct mark this on your calendars i said tim powers is correct um that uh it was for political
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reasons that's why he did it is because of the by-election coming up in terribon i believe that
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firmly so it was political which is incredibly uh cynical of the prime minister to do um under
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these circumstances shameful and you figure it's all about the by-election that because of course
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the bloc has been raising this and so uh of course you've had outcry in the province of
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back by certain high ranking politicians demanding that this guy uh be fired i mean
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if this by-election hadn't happened wasn't due to happen i guess in april 13th maybe things would
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not be rolling out the way they are rolling out a thousand percent this would never have come up
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um you know they might not have liked it the bloc might not have liked it they might have
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complained about it um because they tend to complain about these things and that's fine
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But for the prime minister to talk about it is inappropriate, first of all.
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And secondly, to say that he wasn't being compassionate
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because he didn't speak in French is utterly ridiculous.
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Like I said, it was the content of what he said that mattered more.
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But not speaking the language that is the preferred language of Quebec,
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It's something for another day, not for that day.
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not for that day not under those circumstances right and the ceo is due to appear before
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official languages committee and as of comments so i guess he'll be expected to apologize in order
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to say yeah ma'am maxima culpa you know he's gonna have one of those things yeah well he'll
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come on and deliver all his comments entirely in french of course or try to all right let's talk
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about Jerusalem. Let's talk about what's going on. I guess the Iranians, the Americans are,
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they're supposed to be a kind of a lull or a pause in the ongoing war and the assault on Iran
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while both sides engage in some kind of discussions. We have a strange dynamic going on
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where Trump is coming out and saying the Iranians really want a deal. They're begging for some kind
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a deal, and then you have outwardly what they come out and announce to the world, which
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is, you know, we're not making a deal, we don't agree to his terms, and then laying
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out their own particular demands for some kind of a ceasefire.
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So it sounds to me kind of like Groundhog Day, except the original Groundhog Day was
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Nicolas Maduro, who did exactly the same thing.
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you know what happened to him he went into the court today on trial for his crimes um so if i
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were um a betting person i'm not but if i were i would say that this war will be over pretty soon
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um the 82nd airborne and marines and another ship are being moved and should be there by friday i'm
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told um into the area um and i think the the very last thing that donald trump wants to do is put
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any boots on the ground, but he may do that on a very temporary basis to kind of take control
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over the last of what's left. Today, I think it was the Israelis actually killed the head of the
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IRGC Naval Command. They've gotten all the IRGC top people as well as all the other top people,
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the police guy, all the other military services are all gone, and the political leaders. If I were
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uh one of them and somebody offered me one of those jobs i'd say yeah no i'm not interested
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because as soon as you get your name attached to one of those jobs you're a target for the
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israelis and they don't miss so um i i just have a feeling that um they're they're saying this stuff
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for show at home uh that they they are not making any deals and whatever but um if they're gonna if
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they're actually being serious that's very foolish because uh donald trump is going look over there
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look over there we're making deals and really what's going on over here is what's more important
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and that is that he's getting uh people moved into place to do whatever i think he feels needs
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to be done um i did watch his uh cabinet meeting at least part of it today um in which uh he and
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hegseth and rubio and besant all spoke pretty much at length about the situation in iran they
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all had different roles the treasury secretary has the role of dealing with these sanctions
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the financial sanctions and things like that rubio of course is secretary of state so he's
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dealing on the diplomatic side hexas secretary of war on the defense side and trump being the
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leader of the pack uh you know he he had his things that he felt he should say and um i i think
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it's a amazingly interesting to watch the dynamic of that group they're tightly knit they work very
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closely together they are in tune with each other they know what they're doing i find it amusing
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that chuck schumer of all people uh is saying donald trump doesn't know what he's doing he's
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off doing this he's off doing that he's he's just he's he can't seem to to kind of get one thing
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done and he's not you know he's not a linear guy uh donald trump is not a linear guy he's
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a multitasker he's got a lot of things going on and he's got control all over all of it
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so um chuck can take a downer just chill out don't worry it's all good it's in good hands
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um but i could tell you i'm here now and i got here last night and i said everybody could thank
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me for the first night of sleep uninterrupted the iranians knew i was coming so instead of
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baking me a cake they gave everybody a night's sleep so we didn't have any alerts until this
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morning around seven o'clock uh there were several today um because they are shooting missiles into
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israel um and even though they're not we believe directly targeting jerusalem for a number of
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reasons public relations religious and other um when they shoot a rocket number one they're not
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always very accurate we think they're just now they're just dumping rockets wherever and if one
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happens to hit here oh well but it wouldn't have happened in the past the fact is though the big
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danger is the very thing that defends israel the iron dome and the arrow system and i forget what
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the third one is there's three arrow defense uh three missile defense systems for different kinds
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of missiles and when they do stop a missile they they destroy it in mid-air but there's shrapnel
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and there's pieces that come down my granddaughter lives in a town outside of jerusalem and took a
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picture today from window of her house and there was a huge piece of a missile that wasn't aimed
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at their town but was shot over their town was destroyed over their town and fell down on the
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ground which is why people are asked to stay indoors when those alerts happen it isn't necessarily
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that the missile is coming at that particular area but if they shoot it down people can get hurt
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i will say this um there are areas of the country that have been hurt pretty badly and one of those
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is tel aviv there have been a number of very serious incursions into uh by the way not military
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installations, but residential buildings, office buildings where people, just ordinary people
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work. So there's either a purposeful attack on civilians or complete disregard and just throwing
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everything that they have no matter where it lands. So Tel Aviv's going through a pretty bad
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time. There was an incident today in Haria and in Qasim, which is an Arab town, interestingly
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enough that both were hit by rockets today and they're using cluster bombs which last time I
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heard is a war crime so but apparently it's only a war crime if you accuse Israel of doing it even
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if they don't do it but if they actually do it because they've got video of these cluster bombs
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going off so if they do it apparently it's okay or not even okay they just don't talk about it I
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guess that's the easiest thing it's just don't talk about it um so it is it is interesting um
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i came over uh on the plane last night uh i left the night it's 12 hour flight so i left at one
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o'clock in the morning on the 25th and i got here at seven o'clock at night israeli time um and last
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night and uh the plane was not even remotely full which is partly because they're restricting the
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number of people that can go in and out of the country and partly because people just aren't
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coming over on tours because there's nothing to come touring for a lot of the businesses of that
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type are closed down um restaurants and things are open the schools are closed the kids are not
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in school right now the passover starts next week anyway so they figured let's protect the kids keep
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them out of the schools because they shoot at everything so at least they're home with their
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families and their parents can protect them everybody has safe rooms like this room that
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i'm in here um or bomb shelters in their buildings or live close to a shelter that they can get to if
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they need to um and um that's kind of the life that people live here my grandson-in-law my
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granddaughter has two young children um has made it made a video just for our family but if i'm
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talking to his oldest child who's three and a half about why are you in this room it's called
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a mamad it's a bomb shelter why are we here what are the sounds that you hear that know that you
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have to come here and she can imitate all the sounds she knows the difference between the alert
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sound the the missile sound and the iron dome sound and she imitates all the sounds and I said
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you know it's cute but it's not how sad is it that a three and a half year old child has to think
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like that she luckily has parents who don't frighten her they talk to her factually about
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it they make it just a part of her life every day so she's not scared but um you know this is the
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life that these kids are living uh it isn't normal i hope it will be over soon um you know
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uh that's that's what we're all hoping for is the support for the war strong amongst the regular
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folks i mean i understand the kids are obviously trying to make sense of it all and the parents
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are trying to uh i mean to your point explain and explain why it's going on but amongst the
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regular people there is support for the war strong uh yes i would say it is still very strong as a
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matter of fact um part of the reason is as strong as it is is that they know that the iranian people
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are with them as well they understand that the big the big danger has always been and and netanyahu
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if you recall went to the united nations and explained this in pictorial graphical met you
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know way to the dummies that sit there in the uh uh halls of the united nations to explain to them
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why iran and its current regime are such a danger to the rest of the world so we know that here in
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israel the iranians who lived under that regime and are still there under that regime to some
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degree they know very well and they're literally uh joined at the hip you know uh metaphorically
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on this and the israeli people feel like they can support it they understand how important it
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is they know that there will never be any peace unless the the uh mother of all instigators is
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taken care of and removed and their proxies hezbollah right now is under serious attack by
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israel they've moved troops into lebanon ground troops into lebanon and they're taking them on
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they're they're done playing around with these guys um they had pretty much demolished hamas
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you don't hear much from them these days um they uh the houthis are pretty quiet too interestingly
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enough i was kind of surprised they didn't get more involved the arab countries around israel
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uae saudi arabia jordan all these countries have pretty much said in the united nations
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iran's got to go it's enough already like they've been attacked themselves bahrain qatar kuwait
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they've all been attacked by the iranians in this war their facilities their oil facilities their
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their electrical facilities their infrastructure in their cities and they're they're done they said
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you know that's not that's not going to fly with us so they created a lot more enemies
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um on their side and the israelis know it so they're sticking together pretty pretty solidly
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on this there are always people who oppose it on some anti-war principle which is very nice but not
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real in this world unfortunately i mean canada's installation in kuwait was attacked and uh far
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as i know canada didn't even issue a condemnation of that action we tried to keep it quiet i guess
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that was the strategy by our government is let's just uh because nobody nobody sees social media or
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reads any other media outlets and the only way they get their news is from mark carney that must
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be the thought behind it everybody knows what happened and there have been many people even
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people from their own party criticizing them for not speaking up about this what why are you not
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you know talking about what a terrible thing was done and uh again i i don't understand the thinking
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the communications thinking it's the same thinking that they use to to get him to complain about
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the guy from air canada not speaking french so it's the same kind of nonsense yeah they should
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carry their comms team i think anyway well i think it was because he didn't want to get involved in
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the conflict and so it came out that our installation uh was bombed by iran an unprovoked
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attack that there would be some sentiment amongst the general public in canada that we should
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retaliate to do something at least condemn them but none of that they just tried to keep it quiet
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i think it's an absolutely shameful thing anyway i've certainly heard that from my friends i can
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tell you that people are shocked that he didn't even say this is a terrible thing that was done
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to our guys and we would like to find some way to help to contribute to making sure this can't
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happen again it doesn't mean you have to send in the entire military or even put in a lot of money
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but a little public support would have heard well stay safe thank you when are you sorry when are
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you coming back to uh april 22nd in theory however uh ll has canceled um most of the outgoing flights
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up to april 15th but as i said if this actually ends everything will go back to normal very quickly
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um here it is passover beginning next week on wednesday is the first night of passover
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um so it'll be a week of holiday and then after that um you know people aren't people are busy
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with their families on the holiday during that week anyway so it's a little quieter here um
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normally you'd have a lot of uh people coming in to celebrate the holiday here in israel it's a
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beautiful time of year often not right now it isn't but weather-wise but it usually is and it's
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supposed to be nice next week. It's spring, so it's lovely. And it's a great place to celebrate
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this particular holiday of freedom for our people. So we're just hoping this will end and then at
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least the last couple of weeks out here will be like normal. All the best to you and your family
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over Paso. Thank you. Thank you so much. Good to speak to you, Mark. Good to speak to you. George
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