Juno News - April 16, 2026


Carney threatens Emergencies Act to block Alberta Independence？!


Episode Stats


Length

41 minutes

Words per minute

176.61227

Word count

7,259

Sentence count

312

Harmful content

Misogyny

8

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 the carney government could impose the emergencies act to shoot down efforts by alberta separatists
00:00:11.420 to leave canada that according to pro-independence activists in that province eyewitnesses say prime
00:00:18.380 minister carney let slip he'd impose the emergencies act in an off-the-cuff comment
00:00:24.100 at the Stelco steel plant in Hamilton, Ontario, last month.
00:00:28.500 This post by lawyer and pro-independence activist, Jeff Rath.
00:00:34.380 I just received a call from a Stelco employee in Hamilton, Ontario.
00:00:38.700 That person advised me that he was present when Mark Carney
00:00:43.040 visited the Stelco steel plant in Hamilton, Ontario, March 29th, 2026.
00:00:49.180 They advised that when Mark Carney was asked what he would do in the face of an Alberta independence vote, Mark Carney replied that, quote, there will be no Alberta independence because I'll invoke the Emergencies Act, unquote.
00:01:05.700 This was not reported by any mainstream media outlet who were present.
00:01:11.000 It demonstrates, says Jeff Rath, that Mark Carney has zero respect for the rule of law,
00:01:17.860 the Constitution of Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada, or the Parliament of Canada.
00:01:22.660 This should surprise no one.
00:01:25.740 Well, if that's true, it suggests the federal government will not respect the outcome of
00:01:31.040 a referendum vote in favor of independence this fall.
00:01:34.920 The Carney government could theoretically declare the secession effort a public order
00:01:40.320 emergency and a threat to Canada's sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity.
00:01:47.820 This post by Alberta Independent supporter David Parker.
00:01:52.260 If Mark Carney uses the Emergencies Act against Alberta Independence, I suspect America will
00:01:58.240 show up and remind him what a real military looks like.
00:02:03.320 Meantime, Carney can't keep the grin off his face after gaining a majority government through
00:02:08.820 a combination of floor crossings and by-election wins. Let's listen.
00:02:13.720 Hello. You have a big grin on your face. I do have a big grin on my face. I grant you, yeah.
00:02:22.780 Canadians have placed their trust in the government's plan. We now have reinforcements
00:02:27.520 to help implement that, and we're going to go straight away. So thank you very much.
00:02:32.500 Our guest today is lawyer Jeff Rath from Calgary, who is a pro-independence legal counsel.
00:02:39.900 Welcome once again, Jeff.
00:02:41.480 Thanks for having me on, Mark.
00:02:43.500 Talk a little bit about what happened.
00:02:45.720 This was a conversation that someone was privy to involving the prime minister in Hamilton, correct?
00:02:52.780 Well, it was more than a conversation.
00:02:54.320 It was on the 29th of March.
00:02:57.040 You Google it and look it up.
00:02:58.340 He was there, right?
00:02:59.320 Carney was doing this, you know, photo op tour of the Stelco steel plant in Hamilton, right? And, you know, being followed around slavishly by, you know, legacy media reporters. Rebel News had been barred from the event, you know, as usual, right? So we didn't have any independent media there.
00:03:18.840 And what I am told reliably by somebody who was president was that somebody asked Mr.
00:03:26.180 Carney, well, you know, what are you going to do in the face of Alberta independence?
00:03:31.020 And he effectively answered, well, I'm not worried about Alberta independence because
00:03:34.360 we'll invoke the Emergencies Act.
00:03:38.060 So, you know, in effect.
00:03:41.180 And again, so what happened is, you know, I'm working away on all the various things
00:03:44.800 that I'm working on right now with regard to our petition campaign and moving forward
00:03:48.680 to a referendum, I get a message in my office that a gentleman had phoned from Hamilton
00:03:53.220 that I needed to talk to about Mr. Carney's visit to the Stelco steel plant.
00:03:57.340 So I phoned him the other phone, you know, phone this person the other day and said,
00:04:01.760 Hey, what's, you know, what's going on?
00:04:02.960 I see that you called and he said, Oh, I just thought everybody in your movement should
00:04:06.380 be aware.
00:04:07.380 Mark Carney was doing a photo op tour of our plant with the legacy media, including CTV.
00:04:14.780 And when somebody asked him, you know, what, you know, what he was going to do in the face of Alberta independence, his response was that he was going to invoke the Emergencies Act.
00:04:24.840 So, you know, and I chatted with this gentleman for, you know, probably 15, you know, 15 minutes or more and, you know, went around and around the issue.
00:04:33.160 He seemed to be very credible. He was just very concerned that instead of dealing with things democratically, you know, as suggested by the Supreme Court and the Secession Reference, Parliament and the Clarity Act, etc.
00:04:44.780 you know, that Mr. Carney being the anti-democratic, you know, Chinese communist sympathizer that he is,
00:04:52.160 would simply, you know, invoke the Emergencies Act in the face of a successful referendum vote in Alberta.
00:04:59.900 So it doesn't surprise me. That's who he is as a human being.
00:05:03.140 I mean, I was speaking to my friend David Creighton this morning.
00:05:06.700 Creighton had a clip of him in Kelowna, you know, saying that he was going to invoke the Emergencies Act
00:05:12.100 to get major projects passed so I guess the suggestion was if anybody was to stand in the
00:05:18.140 way of Brookfield making money that Mr. Carney would think that that was a reason to invoke the
00:05:23.440 Emergencies Act and I think that's why Mr. Carney is going to the Supreme Court of Canada
00:05:29.160 to try to overturn you know not you know both the Federal Court Trial Division and the Federal
00:05:35.800 Court of Appeal when they said that you can't interpret you know the Emergencies Act as giving
00:05:41.340 you authority to call out the riot horses, to trample little old Indigenous ladies and
00:05:47.140 trample the Canadian flag simply because it's politically embarrassing to your government.
00:05:51.740 So obviously, you know, Mr. Carney wants to make sure that in the future, if, you know,
00:05:55.980 people are embarrassing him with bouncy castles and hot tubs on Wellington Street, that he
00:06:01.380 should be able to crush them with tanks the way that David Lamedy wanted to, you know,
00:06:06.000 back during Convoy 2022.
00:06:07.320 too. Theoretically, the government, and you're the lawyer, I'm not, but maybe you could correct me,
00:06:14.500 could declare the secession efforts by your organization and others as a public order
00:06:20.660 emergency and a threat to Canada's sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity.
00:06:26.600 Well, I think the problem with that is that the Supreme Court has already ruled on that to say
00:06:31.760 that it's not. As long as we're following a legal and constitutional process leading to an amendment
00:06:37.900 of the Constitution of Canada, it's a perfectly lawful form of political expression in Canada
00:06:44.280 that has not only been endorsed by the Supreme Court of Canada, but has been endorsed by
00:06:50.500 Parliament through the Clarity Act. And of course, you know, what I find really interesting about
00:06:55.560 this is that, you know, while Carney's out campaigning for by-elections or doing his
00:06:59.740 photo ops in Ontario telling people that he would happily crush Albertans
00:07:04.000 under his boots, you know, with the, you know,
00:07:06.820 by invoking the emergencies act that he wasn't campaigning in Quebec in
00:07:10.980 advance of the election around Montreal telling Quebecers that he views
00:07:15.540 Quebecers to be the chattel property of Brookfield.
00:07:18.540 And if they ever have the temerity to suggest that they should leave Canada
00:07:22.420 again,
00:07:22.820 that he's going to invoke the emergencies act and completely crush their
00:07:27.920 Democratic will, because that's who he is and what he can do as Prime Minister of Canada.
00:07:33.180 I don't know that they would have been as keen to give him a majority government if
00:07:36.360 they'd known that that's the way he thought.
00:07:38.740 Well, I am wondering if the same applies to Quebec as it does to Alberta.
00:07:43.960 If all of this is true and he would use the Emergencies Act to try and prevent Alberta
00:07:48.620 from going independent, whether or not the same applies to Quebec and whether or not
00:07:52.400 some of your contacts in the Quebec separatist movement,
00:07:57.000 who, by the way, have actually spoken out
00:07:59.360 in favor of Alberta independence,
00:08:01.760 how they would feel about that
00:08:03.160 and whether they're aware of it even.
00:08:06.180 Well, I've obviously been really busy.
00:08:08.060 We have a lot of other irons in the fire.
00:08:09.620 We've got, we're down to less than two weeks to go now
00:08:13.140 in our petition campaign, which is going extremely well.
00:08:16.840 Every time Carney opens his mouth, by the way,
00:08:19.000 I thank him for everything that he does
00:08:22.180 in favor of Alberta independence.
00:08:23.820 I'm very grateful to him.
00:08:25.440 In fact, Mr. Carney getting a majority government
00:08:29.260 through bribery and corruption
00:08:31.720 has literally been driving Albertans out in flocks
00:08:35.420 to sign the petition.
00:08:37.260 I was just speaking to my friend, Mr. Sylvester last night,
00:08:39.540 he spoke at an event in Lethbridge.
00:08:41.100 There was 125 people that showed up at an event
00:08:44.500 that he was at and over a hundred of them
00:08:46.640 had never been to an event before
00:08:48.500 and they were all determined to sign the petition
00:08:51.400 following the event because they're so upset about uh Mr. Carney corruptly bribing and cheating his
00:08:57.220 way to an unelected majority government so yeah we're you know we're you know we're happy that
00:09:02.560 that's where it's going I mean keep in mind that now that he has a majority I wouldn't put it past
00:09:06.680 him being the weasel that he is that he would you know try to amend the clarity act or change the
00:09:11.500 rules midstream or you know do anything that he could to try to frustrate what we're doing you
00:09:17.780 You know, as I've said previously on numerous programs that you can never underestimate, you know, the will or the ability of, you know, a liberal government to lie, cheat and steal.
00:09:28.200 So, you know, we'll you know, we'll have to wait and see what comes.
00:09:31.700 There was this post by David Parker, who wrote, if Mark Carney uses the Emergencies Act against Alberta independence, I suspect America will show up and remind him what a real military looks like.
00:09:47.780 Well, I think David can be a little bit hyperbolic, but we certainly don't think that's what's happening. I am not advocating for foreign military intervention, you know, etc. We're confident that we are going to vote Alberta out of Canada this year with, you know, at least, you know, 60% of the vote in our favor.
00:10:08.720 You know, I guarantee that, you know, Carney bribing and cheating his way to a majority government this week, you know, is good for another five to 10 percent in favor of independence in the polls.
00:10:21.100 Right. People in Alberta are furious. And again, you know, people are just going, well, what's the point?
00:10:25.360 Like, we're completely irrelevant to the process. We have no say in what's going on and it's time to go.
00:10:31.220 You know, and there's a lot of people, too, that are talking about Danielle Smith's role in all of this and how, you know, as much as we want to blame Pierre Polly for his cowardice in not bringing down the Carney government before Christmas, the fact that Danielle has so normalized Mark Carney, you know, as this lovely man that she can meet with and she can hold his hand and brush his hand and play with the lapel of his jacket and look at him very coquettishly, you know, at events at the Stampede and all of those things, right?
00:10:58.780 that, you know, she's normalized him, right?
00:11:01.920 So, you know, it makes it open to MPs to cross the floor
00:11:04.920 to the, you know, to the Liberal government
00:11:06.520 because Danielle thinks he's a lovely guy
00:11:08.740 and he's a lovely person to do business with.
00:11:11.420 So who cares if you, you know,
00:11:13.040 why would you stay in opposition
00:11:14.420 when you can go work with this lovely man
00:11:16.400 that Danielle Smith loves so much?
00:11:18.860 You know, so I blame her for this
00:11:21.140 as much as I blame Pierre Polyev, to be frank.
00:11:24.680 Will there be a pause in a declaration of independence
00:11:28.140 after a referendum vote, say, decides that, yes, we want to move in favor of an independent Alberta?
00:11:34.780 Well, I mean, I think there's a lot of unknowns, you know, in the future, right?
00:11:38.620 Is, you know, is Danielle going to run for the leadership of the federal Conservative Party?
00:11:43.060 I mean, I've heard that, you know, from, you know, very knowledgeable sources within the Conservative Party of Canada
00:11:49.860 that, you know, Pierre's ouster is imminent.
00:11:52.460 You know, and these are coming from people that were in the war room during the last election
00:11:55.280 that know Conservative politics and are far more connected than I am,
00:11:59.660 you know, are literally telling us that, you know,
00:12:01.680 Pierre's removal as leader of the Conservative Party is imminent.
00:12:06.480 So we'll see.
00:12:07.480 I mean, there's going to be a lot of contenders.
00:12:09.060 I mean, Doug Ford might want to be leader.
00:12:10.600 Of course, you know, we laugh at the thought of Jason Kenney running for leader.
00:12:14.360 We know he wants to.
00:12:15.300 But, I mean, he couldn't get elected dog catcher in Alberta.
00:12:18.120 So I don't think that anybody in the Conservative Party
00:12:21.120 would be very smart to put Kenney in as leader
00:12:24.200 because you'd basically lose Alberta to the Conservative Party of Canada. 0.93
00:12:29.040 You know, Danielle's probably their best option.
00:12:31.460 So, you know, that would be interesting
00:12:33.800 because that would open up the Premier's chair in Alberta.
00:12:36.020 So who knows?
00:12:37.480 I'm not sure if French is up to snuff or even if she's interested. 1.00
00:12:43.180 Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, who knows? 0.99
00:12:45.360 I mean, I always say you can never underestimate
00:12:47.140 the megalomania of a professional politician.
00:12:50.740 So we'll see what, you know, we'll see what happens.
00:12:53.860 They always want that next shiny, more powerful job so that they've got more people that they can tell what to do. Right. So, you know, we'll see. We'll see what happens. I mean, I think I personally think it's a long shot as well. Right. That, you know, that that would happen. But it might. I know there's lots of people that have been courting her for sure.
00:13:12.280 what about the fact that some people feel there's no real face of the independence movement in other
00:13:20.480 words you know they see people like yourself and you know keith wilson uh videos and statements
00:13:28.720 and so forth but there's no face to this whole thing if you know what i'm saying no leader
00:13:36.620 I think that's a strength rather than a weakness, right?
00:13:40.980 Because, you know, if they get rid of one of us,
00:13:44.360 they're stuck with 100 more.
00:13:45.560 Like, we're just like a hydrant, right?
00:13:47.700 And, you know, get rid of me.
00:13:50.720 It's not going to stop the movement.
00:13:52.320 You know, lots of people have tried.
00:13:53.780 I mean, you know, I know Danielle Smith has reached out
00:13:56.440 to all these so-called influencers in Alberta.
00:13:58.340 And every time I would say something negative about Danielle,
00:14:01.160 they would all start attacking me.
00:14:03.280 And, you know, we hate Jeff Rath, and he's not a leader,
00:14:05.840 and blah, blah, blah. I've never purported to be a leader, right? And I have no aspiration
00:14:09.780 whatsoever to ever run for public office. I couldn't imagine anything more boring and
00:14:14.140 more tedious than being in government. I have no interest in it. But I mean, I'm doing my
00:14:18.500 part. I'm, you know, certainly amongst our base and people that support Alberta independence,
00:14:23.200 you know, they appreciate the fact that I speak truth to power that I'm, you know, that
00:14:26.560 I, you know, that I lay it out there and tell people, you know, tell, you know, tell people
00:14:30.220 what I, what I think in a very unvarnished and straightforward fashion. And I'm not a
00:14:35.080 politician, and I never intend to become a politician. But if the feds under Prime Minister
00:14:42.720 Carney just flat out refuse to accept the results of a referendum, just say, for instance, you win
00:14:47.940 by 55% to 45% and declare independence, and the federal government just says, no, you're not going
00:14:55.840 anywhere. You're a province. Nothing has changed from our vantage point except that you won a
00:15:01.520 referendum and which we don't accept, and we're not going to accept the results of it. I mean,
00:15:06.720 what do you do then? Is it possible that you could try to leverage the support that you have seen,
00:15:13.740 say, in the United States to try and push the matter with the feds?
00:15:18.860 Well, again, you know, I'm not going to speculate on what's going to happen in the future. There's
00:15:23.440 all kinds of possible permutations and combinations. And it's also going to depend
00:15:30.660 on the will of the alberta government i mean there's lots of things the alberta government
00:15:34.340 can presently do within its you know within its property and civil rights power under you know
00:15:39.780 under the canadian constitution i mean just pass a law and says you know henceforth the federal
00:15:44.100 government has no collection powers in alberta to collect any taxes we'll collect them all and
00:15:48.500 we'll decide what portion of the federal taxes you know we're going to remit to ottawa you know as
00:15:53.460 an example right um you know we're not going to enforce you know various laws provinces do it all
00:15:59.140 the time I mean BC for years and nobody's flocked about it because the Liberals you know you know
00:16:04.240 are very pro-drug right you know BC was deliberately telling the government of Canada that they were
00:16:09.640 going to enforce massive sections of the Narcotics Control Act and that they were going to decriminalize
00:16:14.640 cocaine and heroin and you know and other you know other very pernicious addictive substances
00:16:20.500 and the federal government did nothing about it you know BC you know with regard to the
00:16:25.180 The fundamentalist Latter-day Saint commune at bountiful British Columbia, you know, deliberately chose not to enforce the polygamy and bigamy provisions of the criminal code, you know, and I guess, again, on the theory that, you know, federal liberals like polygamy and bigamy, you know, so, you know, I mean, provincial, provincial governments, you know, choose not to enforce federal laws all the time.
00:16:50.740 So, you know, I think a very aggressive, you know, provincial government following a positive referendum vote would have lots of levers that it could pull that could make Ottawa's life, you know, very difficult, you know, negotiate directly with the U.S. for pipeline access to the Pacific Northwest.
00:17:07.240 Right. Ottawa might not like it, but, you know, good luck telling the government of Alberta that, you know, that it can't build a pipeline crossing at Cootes or wherever there's a major highway going down into the States.
00:17:17.380 Right.
00:17:18.280 I'm just wondering how ugly things could get.
00:17:20.740 Well, again, we're a peaceful movement. I'm not advocating any military intervention by anybody. David Parker could be somewhat hyperbolic. I have to say, if you want to talk about the person that's destabilizing things and ratcheting up the temperature, it's Mr. Carney.
00:17:45.160 And again, to be clear, right, I spoke to one person who contacted our office, you know, to tell me that this had happened, right?
00:17:53.040 I was able to verify that Mr. Carney, in fact, was at Stelco on the 29th of March, you know, as indicated by the individual who reported this to me.
00:18:02.100 I was able to verify that there were, in fact, mainstream media there and that Rebel News had been barred from the event, as was reported to me.
00:18:08.220 um uh you know and if anybody's listening and it was at the stelco steel plant on um uh you know on
00:18:15.660 uh the 29th of march and heard mr carney say that i mean please you know tell us that this is true
00:18:20.900 or that you heard the whole thing and you were by mr carney's right shoulder the whole time and he
00:18:25.520 said no such thing you know all i'm telling you is that this person told me this i spoke to him
00:18:30.620 at length about it i asked him the question in several different ways he was absolutely confident
00:18:35.400 that this was said. I didn't get the sense that this was a false flag exercise or that this person
00:18:41.540 was just trying to make mischief by making this up, right? And, you know, as far as that goes,
00:18:47.500 it's perfectly 100% in keeping with Mr. Carney's character, previous public statements about the
00:18:54.980 invocation of the Emergencies Act, and the fact that he was the one that advised Justin Trudeau
00:19:00.620 to illegally seize the bank accounts of poor little single moms in Chilliwack, you know,
00:19:06.680 that have kids to feed because they sent 50 bucks to the convoy, right? So, you know, I mean,
00:19:12.440 Mr. Carney is an anti-democratic thug who has previously engaged in illegal conduct or had
00:19:19.680 previously engaged in advising the Trudeau regime to engage in unlawful conduct and illegally
00:19:27.320 seizing people's bank accounts and keep in mind those bank account seizures came before the
00:19:32.960 invocation of the emergencies act so it wasn't even under color of law or color of right you
00:19:39.000 know so this is who mr carney is as an individual so if you asked me who i would believe more this
00:19:44.660 individual from hamilton that worked at stelco that reported this to me or whether i'd believe
00:19:50.080 some denial for mr carney should a denial be forthcoming i would believe the gentleman who
00:19:55.280 called me from Stelco a long time before I'd believe anything Mr. Carney said.
00:20:00.500 Okay. Jeff Brath, thank you so much for coming on the show. We appreciate it.
00:20:04.680 Yeah, always a pleasure, Mark. Thanks for having me on.
00:20:07.100 A conservative activist in Ontario has been banned from Guelph University after what she claims was 0.97
00:20:13.240 an innocent conversation with some Middle Eastern women about the war in Iran.
00:20:18.220 Sarah Dotsert posted a video online claiming the university banned her merely for being close to
00:20:24.600 the conversation, not even engaging in it. Sarah Dotzert is a member of Unify Action, a pro-family,
00:20:32.120 pro-freedom campus group. She joins us now. Welcome, Sarah.
00:20:36.360 Hi, how are you?
00:20:37.800 I'm great, thank you. Maybe you could talk about what happened that led
00:20:43.480 the University of Guelph to send you a letter saying you were banned for life.
00:20:48.600 Yeah. Yes, it is really honestly the craziest experience ever. I wouldn't believe it unless
00:20:57.160 it had happened to me. So the reason that I am banned, at least the reason that they're claiming
00:21:03.160 that the trespass notice was even issued at all, was not connected to my work at Unify Action.
00:21:09.800 So we went to the University of Guelph one evening, it was March 6th, and we go there
00:21:16.680 just to attend a private religious function. So it's just like a private evening. I wanted to
00:21:23.560 attend outside. Visitors were allowed to attend this function. So I went. I had several members
00:21:29.160 of my family with me. And so my father, he was supposed to drop us off. And then there were two
00:21:35.240 of my siblings with me. And we arrive early. We're in our vehicle. We're eating our supper. It's
00:21:42.520 7 p.m. at night. And to our side, there is some Middle Eastern girls who like they're going back
00:21:50.560 and forth from their vehicle. I'm not sure what they were doing at the time. And we're in our 0.97
00:21:54.140 vehicle. It's like 20 minutes. We're eating our supper and chatting. And then we're about to go
00:21:57.540 in. So we get up. I leave the vehicle and I'm walking away and I'm waiting for my siblings
00:22:03.280 to kind of catch up for me. So I'm going slow. And behind me, I hear my dad. The side door is open
00:22:09.620 and the middle eastern girls are just really close to us so he kind of just leans leans back
00:22:15.680 he's still in the driver's seat he's like not moved at all just leans back and says hey what
00:22:21.300 do you guys think of the war in iran and i know that could be a very triggering question um but
00:22:27.820 not that you if you don't know my dad you would think it was like a wild question to ask but
00:22:32.560 my dad he he loves to talk to anyone he will he will have a conversation with anyone about anything
00:22:37.980 and I know like he's said repeatedly since this situation that he was simply trying to gauge their
00:22:43.960 feeling and know what they thought about the war because they must have had some feeling about it
00:22:50.640 and so that was his purpose in asking the question and they immediately it was taken with hostility
00:22:57.040 so I stop when I hear him ask the question because I'm still waiting for my siblings to get out of
00:23:01.280 the car and I sit there and I'm just standing there I'm witnessing this and so my siblings
00:23:07.760 are standing there between the vehicle. They're getting out. And the conversation continues. It's
00:23:14.020 about one minute. I don't think it really got too close to two minutes. So it wasn't a long
00:23:18.420 conversation at all. And my dad just asked them what they think of all the people that are being
00:23:24.480 unjustly having their lives ended in Iran and different things like that by the regime
00:23:30.260 and just their thoughts on it. And I believe America, the topic of America was touched and
00:23:36.320 topic of Trump, which is obviously a triggering subject. And that was all touched in that
00:23:41.920 conversation. It was very brief. And then the conversation ends with the one girl who was
00:23:47.520 standing by the driver's side saying, don't racially stereotype people to my father.
00:23:53.120 So for this whole thing, my siblings and I are completely silent. And one of the claims that I
00:23:58.320 understand afterwards that they have made is that they were being blocked from exiting their vehicle.
00:24:04.880 well if you understand that my brother he was getting out of the vehicle at the time
00:24:09.860 and he was just standing there listening to the conversation so of course he was standing beside
00:24:15.860 the the passenger side door and they claimed that he was deliberately blocking them in which is
00:24:22.380 obviously not true he was getting out of the vehicle and he just stopped to listen to the
00:24:25.500 conversation so there's a lot of claims and like i understand them i i understand them for feeling
00:24:34.040 offended and I guess stereotyped. And I don't hold that against them for reporting the conversation
00:24:41.040 at all. I understand that they probably took it very, very, like it was a very racially stereotyping
00:24:48.620 sort of thing that that's what they thought. They didn't understand my father or his reasons
00:24:54.200 for even talking to them. He just wanted to know their feelings on it. But they, so what happens
00:24:59.520 is my siblings and I, the conversation ends and we walk away, we walk, we attend the function
00:25:05.840 and my dad drives off and he would be doing some errands and then coming back to pick us up.
00:25:12.360 So that's kind of how like the whole thing that they're reporting. And we walk into the building
00:25:18.720 and my siblings are with me and they actually walk in after us. These girls follow us in 1.00
00:25:25.260 and they take a picture of me without my consent and then I see them reporting us to the front 0.99
00:25:32.880 desk. It looks like they're like obviously flustered and think that there's been some sort
00:25:37.540 of abuse. I assume that's what they were saying and they report us and that's kind of the last
00:25:44.780 I hear of it until I receive the letter in the mail saying that my father and I are banned
00:25:49.740 and in the whole situation I did absolutely nothing and I think they understand that I did
00:25:55.240 nothing and I didn't say anything and I didn't see any cause to interfere in any way it was it
00:26:02.160 was simply a conversation that my father had and I don't I understand them for feeling offended I do
00:26:10.080 I don't hold it against them and my beef is not with them actually my beef was with the university
00:26:16.000 for banning me and my father. My father is an alumni of the University of Guelph,
00:26:21.440 so he attended there. This is his university. This is where he spent four years of his life.
00:26:27.840 He got a crop science degree there. What he did with that degree, actually, he went to the war
00:26:36.000 torn country of Somalia and risked his life, nine months of his life. He was in a war zone, basically,
00:26:42.800 feeding the impoverished people of Somalia because they had no food. So he spent his
00:26:49.200 nine months of his life and the culmination of his degree in Somalia helping these people and
00:26:55.920 serving them. And now they're trying to make the claim that this man is Islamophobic and racist,
00:27:01.680 which to me is outrageous. And for my part, I have close family friends who are also of the
00:27:07.820 Muslim community and I love these people so I understand that they think that it was racist
00:27:15.460 but I want them to understand that it wasn't and that we really we still care about these people
00:27:21.620 we love them and I honestly I want the situation to be resolved so my beef is not with these girls
00:27:27.920 at all my beef is with the university campus for banning us but not only that banning us without
00:27:35.700 even hearing our side because if you just hear one side where there's obviously a misunderstanding
00:27:40.500 then it just all sounds horrible um if you were to hear the one side you think that it would be
00:27:46.480 like this horrible racist attack which it was not at all yeah so that's the story right i mean it
00:27:54.500 speaks to the huge cultural divide between our country and say a country like iran which has no
00:28:00.400 free speech. In Canada, we do have free speech. And we have a culture of being able to be open
00:28:05.720 and free and asking somebody's opinion about something. And so that's what we take for granted.
00:28:11.380 And they don't have that over there. The problem is they're over here. And so maybe they're not
00:28:17.160 used to that sort of thing. And, you know, people who come here from those types of countries that
00:28:22.140 do not have free speech, they need to understand that they're in a place that does have free
00:28:26.840 speech. And I'm with you on the university issue. I mean, they need to understand that Canada has
00:28:31.880 free speech and that that campus supposedly is a safe space for free expression. Obviously,
00:28:40.100 it's not. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, what did your father do that was so wrong,
00:28:46.080 except ask somebody an opinion about something? And by the way, as far as blocking a car and like
00:28:51.020 that. Is the police involved in this at all? I mean, have they been asked to investigate this
00:28:57.240 matter? That's the wild thing. I don't know that they have. So I believe it was only campus security
00:29:04.800 that got involved and they sent the notice of trespass to the Guelph police. If charges had
00:29:14.160 actually been laid and it had actually been like a violent crime, then we would have known something.
00:29:20.060 the police would have actually done an investigation. At least that's my understanding of how our law
00:29:24.300 and justice system works, is that they would have looked at both sides and actually weighed the data
00:29:28.520 and the information. And I personally would love to know if there is footage, if there's like
00:29:35.060 security footage from that parking lot, because this is a parking lot, a visitor parking lot at
00:29:39.120 the University of Guelph. And if there is, then it would confirm our side of the story that there was
00:29:44.700 no seeking them out there was no chasing them there was no premeditated assaults and there
00:29:52.820 was no blocking their vehicle in yeah and I just think the whole story is incredible though and
00:29:59.960 the fact that the university is like they have they have not responded to my repeated request
00:30:06.320 to be like hey tell me what are the allegations against me what did I do specifically the only
00:30:12.880 reason that i'm banned and my other two siblings aren't is because my name was listed on the
00:30:17.920 license plate of our vehicle as a driver for insurance purposes and my siblings aren't listed
00:30:22.880 on that because they're just too young i think you have a human rights case here frankly i mean if
00:30:27.680 they want to have want to put this before a human rights tribunal you can i i think you have a case
00:30:34.160 if you want to go in that direction obviously that's entirely up to you but the idea that
00:30:38.160 somehow you or your father would owe anybody an apology simply for asking somebody's opinion.
00:30:43.840 I mean, if that's going to be an issue in this country, we have no free speech left.
00:30:47.300 It's dead. It's over. Not only on campuses, but outside because of some of these laws
00:30:55.300 that the liberal government are bringing in that are basically chilling, having a chilling effect
00:31:02.280 on people's ability long-held treasured ability to simply have open and honest
00:31:11.400 engagement with others it's absolutely ridiculous and the fact that they're even suggesting that
00:31:18.280 it's hate speech when i when i reached out to the the security office there the response that i got
00:31:25.000 back was that it was the tone and intent of the conversation that was unwelcome not necessarily
00:31:30.280 what was said so it isn't even like specific words that they're pinpointing here it was the
00:31:35.560 tone and intent and yet the letter still says that because of certain actions on march 6 that i'm
00:31:41.480 banned um which honestly is ridiculous at this point yeah what's your next move well i want to
00:31:50.860 have a conversation with these girls i want to understand where they're where they're coming 1.00
00:31:54.500 from. I want the breach to be healed. I want them to understand our side because I wish that they 0.96
00:32:02.120 were open to the conversation because I would love to have that conversation. I want this wound to be
00:32:07.160 healed. And I would love for the university without any further need for action. I would
00:32:13.020 love for the university to remove these trespass notices because this is ridiculous. This is my
00:32:17.920 father's university. This is my work that they're impeding. And I just, it's ridiculous.
00:32:25.620 It really is. Well, I want to thank you for speaking out because some people in your shoes 0.67
00:32:31.620 might've just shrugged it off and moved it on and nothing gets accomplished when people do that.
00:32:37.720 You have to be public. You have to go public and you have to raise these issues
00:32:41.640 in the public square, which is really all that your father was doing. If they didn't want to
00:32:46.960 talk to them. All they had to do is say, I got nothing to say to you, you know, go away, leave
00:32:51.080 us alone. And that would have been the end of it. I know that having been, we're having worked as a
00:32:55.700 journalist for decades, you know, it happens all the time. You want to talk to somebody and, you
00:33:01.140 know, we can put a mic in front of somebody's face. You can't force people to speak to you.
00:33:04.740 You walk away and say, I'm not talking to you for whatever reason. That's a freedom that we have.
00:33:09.500 We have the freedom to ask people questions, to engage with people, and they have the freedom to
00:33:13.740 say, I don't want to engage with you. Thank you very much. Goodbye and walk away. That's the way
00:33:18.980 it works in Canada. And apparently the University of Guelph doesn't understand that. But again,
00:33:24.720 I want to thank you for coming on the show and please stay in touch with us as this story
00:33:28.860 progresses. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you for helping me spread the word because I think this
00:33:36.400 does need to be talked about in the public square for sure. And I do hope that the university
00:33:40.880 listens to reason. I hope the director of security there listens to reason, and I hope that he
00:33:47.260 removes these trespass notices. Yeah, that's my hope right now. Sarah, appreciate it. Take care.
00:33:54.120 Thank you. Our guest today is Juneau News journalist Clayton Demain, who's been covering
00:33:58.860 this story. Welcome to the show, Clayton. Thanks for having me, Mark. I mean, so many of us saw
00:34:05.180 the video of Sarah
00:34:07.480 talking about how she'd been banned
00:34:09.440 from the University of Guelph. She was not
00:34:11.420 a student there. She was there 0.89
00:34:13.000 for another event, I believe a
00:34:15.260 Christian-related event
00:34:17.280 at the university, and somehow
00:34:19.400 there was an incident there in which
00:34:21.320 someone within
00:34:23.400 maybe shouting
00:34:25.440 distance of her, like her father,
00:34:27.500 was involved and engaged
00:34:28.920 in some kind of conversation with
00:34:31.340 people in a car next to her, and that,
00:34:33.800 out of all that,
00:34:35.180 came this incredible action by the university of guelph to ban her what do you make of this
00:34:40.700 yeah so uh talking to her it sounds like it was you know like she even asked them um to to tell
00:34:47.980 her what she did wrong and it seemed like it was just because she was in the same car she got out
00:34:54.060 of the same car um as that you know it was her father who who struck up this conversation she
00:35:00.620 was as she said 10 feet away and her brother actually got out of the car and was holding the
00:35:06.540 car door open um because the conversation was interesting and so he he she says he's 16 he
00:35:14.540 doesn't know what he's doing and he's just kind of listening into the conversation but it kind of
00:35:19.580 brings the question of is it uh does it cross a line to ask somebody from a certain community
00:35:26.540 about issues that are pressing in their community, right?
00:35:30.840 Like if a Nigerian Christian,
00:35:33.620 you know, you're talking to a Nigerian Christian, 1.00
00:35:36.080 would it be appropriate to ask them
00:35:37.640 about their thoughts on, you know,
00:35:39.920 the Nigerian government's lack of action
00:35:43.100 or action of, you know, Islamic terrorism
00:35:46.720 threatening their community?
00:35:50.560 Yeah, I mean, it shows a cultural difference here
00:35:54.920 when people come to our country, they're not used to sort of the free and open discussion of issues
00:36:01.480 that might be deemed controversial in their country. My issue is with the University of
00:36:07.620 Guelph, which seems to side with the anti-free speech side. I mean, I can understand why Canadians 1.00
00:36:14.260 will feel perfectly free to ask somebody, well, what do you think of this? Or what do you think
00:36:19.360 of that? You know, you can always say, you know, pound sand, I got nothing to say to you.
00:36:23.600 if you don't want to talk to them. But somehow this escalated to the point where they went,
00:36:29.380 I guess, filed a complaint with the university who had this ham-fisted reaction. And I think
00:36:36.780 this also speaks to the level of anti-free speech sentiment amongst the zealots in the
00:36:43.660 administration, not only at Guelph, but at universities across the country, really. What
00:36:48.640 you think yeah absolutely and as i i noted in the article the university actually has a commitment
00:36:55.360 to free expression to uphold free expression so i imagine if this became a charter challenge um
00:37:01.840 that will be brought up i've seen other cases where um that's like front and center is what
00:37:08.080 is the university's commitment to these rights that people have and it just goes to the question
00:37:13.280 of like should campuses be a place where free expression even if that conversation is unwelcomed
00:37:21.280 as the university put it to sarah um you know like should these conversations be allowed even
00:37:27.760 if they're challenging i mean i can't imagine how many interviews i have done with people that i
00:37:34.480 just put a microphone in their face and ask them a question which is basically the same thing here
00:37:40.560 you just asked, except you're including a television camera there as well. This is just
00:37:47.040 part of our culture in Canada. People need to accept that when they come here, they're moving
00:37:51.100 here, if they're students here or temporary workers or whatever, they have to understand
00:37:55.040 that they're not home where there's a very different view of free speech. You know, you come
00:38:00.500 to Canada, this is supposed to be a free country where we value free expression. And yet they now
00:38:06.760 felt that there was such a climate in Canada that they would gain by speaking to the university
00:38:14.380 and complaining about the fact that somebody had asked them a question or engaged with them
00:38:19.460 on an issue that they didn't want to be engaged with. So, I mean, this has implications that are
00:38:26.020 very bad news for anybody in journalism, because, you know, as you know, we do that sort of thing
00:38:31.800 all the time ask people what they think and we don't even think twice about it well here it is
00:38:37.080 now somebody getting banned or cancelled however you want to phrase it simply for possibly engaging
00:38:43.640 and in fact she's not even the one who did it she was just the one in proximity to somebody who did
00:38:50.120 it's crazy yeah absolutely and i mean like as a journalist i've been on campuses and asking
00:38:55.720 questions of people that might have been challenging. But one thing that that stood out
00:39:01.120 from Sarah Dodzer, it's like, you know, testimony to me, was that the the people involved are,
00:39:08.880 they were on her Instagram page. So you can look at the Instagram posts and actually see
00:39:12.560 a comment from one of the victims I tried to, or, you know, who says she's a victim of the father's
00:39:18.320 conversation. I tried to, you know, like, reach out to this person, they didn't, they didn't
00:39:24.820 uh let me follow them which would allow me to to ask them questions so i would love to do that in
00:39:30.040 the future um one of the things was that they they thought it was offensive that he was asking about
00:39:35.760 iran when people were dying but you know i don't know if you've spoken to people but i've spoken
00:39:40.800 to people uh who are iranian who have different opinions on the iran conflict right like um there's
00:39:47.600 people dying from the regime from you know the millions of protesters who are in the streets
00:39:52.780 There was like 30,000, upwards of tens of thousands of people who were killed by the regime.
00:40:00.040 So it's like a matter of, well, which lives are you valuing here and what is too offensive to ask about?
00:40:08.820 Because it's not a monolith.
00:40:10.420 Iranian people don't have, otherwise there wouldn't be protests in the streets in Iran, right?
00:40:16.280 Yeah.
00:40:16.880 And I'm also wondering about some of the bills that the federal government wants to
00:40:21.280 ram through that are basically going to clamp down those associated with hate speech, that
00:40:28.300 kind of thing, that are going to make it even more likely that people are going to be going
00:40:34.300 to maybe even end up charged simply for asking a question or posting it online.
00:40:40.980 It's just very, very troubling.
00:40:43.120 Clayton, thank you so much for coming on the show.
00:40:44.800 We really appreciate it.
00:40:45.700 Absolutely.
00:40:46.140 Thank you for having me.
00:40:48.060 Clayton DeMaine, Juno News.
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