Juno News - September 02, 2022


CBC fails to debunk “bugs conspiracy theory”


Episode Stats

Length

29 minutes

Words per Minute

184.27374

Word Count

5,344

Sentence Count

329

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

11


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Fake News Friday.
00:00:15.720 My name is Andrew Lawton, joined as always by Harrison Faulkner
00:00:19.700 for another week of debunking the much-needed debunkables
00:00:25.900 that we get from a lot of mainstream media.
00:00:27.740 Harrison, how was the week? Good, sir.
00:00:29.320 It's been good. I feel good that I've now resumed my normal position on the show, Andrew,
00:00:33.200 or at least some things that are normal,
00:00:35.020 because we're still in that sort of influx of co-host, host, and all that,
00:00:38.760 but it's good to be back and good to join you once again.
00:00:40.880 Yeah, we try to throw us all off kilter,
00:00:43.560 so we never just get too comfortable or complacent where we are.
00:00:46.140 It's a great strategy, really.
00:00:47.900 Let's talk a little bit about this one here.
00:00:49.880 So we've seen that conspiracy theorization,
00:00:54.000 and I guess that's the name for when you just start calling things conspiracy theories,
00:00:58.640 has become a favored pastime of the media.
00:01:01.480 In particular now, CBC claiming that insect protein, that eating bugs, is a conspiracy theory.
00:01:08.860 Here's the headline from an article this week,
00:01:11.240 how a London, Ontario cricket plant found itself at the heart of an international conspiracy theory.
00:01:17.860 And they talk about how this so-called conspiracy theory has been circulating for months.
00:01:21.680 It's been in English, it's been in Chinese, it's been around the world,
00:01:25.080 in the UK, in the US, and all of that.
00:01:27.360 And it involves a factory in my neck of the woods in London, Ontario.
00:01:31.540 Now, I am not in on the conspiracy.
00:01:33.420 I want to make that very clear.
00:01:35.100 But the point of it is that they're saying that people focusing on this facility,
00:01:40.660 this plant that's making crickets, for human consumption,
00:01:43.980 which was a tweet that was put out by the developers of this factory,
00:01:48.740 is a conspiracy theory.
00:01:50.900 Well, what's the conspiracy?
00:01:53.100 People saying, yes, we are going to be eating bugs in the future,
00:01:56.340 and a plant saying, yes, we're making bugs for people to eat.
00:01:59.620 Well, exactly.
00:02:00.860 What exactly does a conspiracy theory become a fact
00:02:04.540 when the people who are actually involved in the production of this farm
00:02:08.220 are admitting to talking about, for example, creating crickets for human consumption?
00:02:12.980 And then Ellis Don, the developers of this factory, Andrew, as you said,
00:02:16.600 they even admitted it themselves.
00:02:18.280 They said this is going to be the biggest cricket factory in the world.
00:02:21.300 This is going to be a, they're going to revolutionize the human diet, things like this.
00:02:25.100 I mean, it's just, it's ridiculous here.
00:02:27.120 And I find it bizarre, this weird sort of CBC cleanup act, almost,
00:02:32.220 trying to cover for this cricket farm,
00:02:35.720 when this cricket farm isn't really doing the job themselves.
00:02:39.160 They say they're trying to,
00:02:40.620 they say in the article that the cricket farm is now
00:02:43.220 not talking about human consumption because it's fueling conspiracy theories.
00:02:47.220 They're only talking about creating crickets for animal consumption.
00:02:50.380 But we all know, Andrew, that it's not really a conspiracy theory, is it?
00:02:54.320 That the idea of eating crickets,
00:02:57.080 the idea of eating bugs as a way to replace meat,
00:03:01.500 is not really a conspiracy theory.
00:03:03.420 The people that actually create these farms admit it themselves.
00:03:06.940 So it's very bizarre to me that when you've got Aspire,
00:03:10.440 the actual company who's making the, making the, this cricket farm on Twitter,
00:03:16.280 they talk about, they wrote a tweet that says things like this.
00:03:20.080 Throughout history, insects have been a part of our diets,
00:03:22.400 but how we raise them has evolved to scale.
00:03:24.480 We spoke with The Economist earlier this week and discussed our new facility.
00:03:28.100 So not really saying, Andrew, that these crickets are not for human consumption.
00:03:32.280 They're actually kind of leading into that.
00:03:33.760 And then they also wrote a tweet saying this.
00:03:35.280 Aspire pioneers precision insect farming at scale,
00:03:38.840 realizing the potential of nature through the power of tech
00:03:41.980 to enable innovative industries to create products and materialize
00:03:45.040 that prioritize the health and sustainability of our world.
00:03:48.080 If it's just for animals and not humans, Andrew, why don't they say it?
00:03:53.920 Yeah, I mean, the reality is when you talk to environmentalists,
00:03:57.800 the big thing they really harp on is that meat consumption
00:04:02.000 is terrible for the environment.
00:04:03.500 Cows, cattle, they take up a lot of space.
00:04:06.780 They have a lot of carbon emissions.
00:04:09.480 Bovine flatulence is the big issue that they all like to warn about in the United States.
00:04:13.740 So they basically say that, yes, all of us should be vegetarians
00:04:17.080 because it's better for the climate.
00:04:18.560 So it's not all that surprising when you see companies that are coming up
00:04:22.240 with alternatives to meat like crickets
00:04:24.380 because there is a growing appetite, no pun intended,
00:04:27.460 of people that are going vegetarian or going vegan even.
00:04:30.380 And I don't know how the vegans are on the crickets,
00:04:32.620 but I think some of the vegetarians are good with it.
00:04:34.780 But it's when you have people talk about this in like a central planning way,
00:04:38.860 like we need to start moving other people off of meat
00:04:42.240 as opposed to just letting people decide for themselves.
00:04:45.020 And this is where you talk about the World Economic Forum,
00:04:47.720 which promotes at great length the idea of cricket eating as the future
00:04:53.120 and a lot of environmentalist groups do.
00:04:55.060 But it's not a conspiracy theory when it's happening.
00:04:58.180 And it's like grade A gaslighting 101 to say,
00:05:02.140 no, no, no, this thing that you're looking at
00:05:03.940 and using their own words for is not happening at all.
00:05:06.900 You can't talk about that.
00:05:07.720 It's a conspiracy theory.
00:05:09.080 Yeah, exactly.
00:05:09.760 And again, there's so many examples of this.
00:05:12.140 And they've decided to go after this Aspire cricket facility,
00:05:15.980 this cricket factory, perhaps because it's the biggest in the world
00:05:18.400 and there's a lot of people talking about it.
00:05:21.040 But at the beginning of August, the Toronto Star wrote an article about this company
00:05:26.200 and about this new factory.
00:05:30.020 And then in the article, so from one month to the next,
00:05:32.860 Andrew, we've talked about this,
00:05:34.040 how conspiracy theories can go from being complete fact, absolute fact,
00:05:38.140 one month and the next month, they're a conspiracy theory or the other way around.
00:05:41.520 A conspiracy theory starts one month later, it becomes fact.
00:05:44.760 A month ago, these people at the Aspire cricket factory
00:05:48.460 we're talking about in the Toronto Star, this quote right here,
00:05:51.920 given the dire state of the world's food supply,
00:05:53.940 it's increasingly tempting to create a new alternative protein.
00:05:56.960 That's what the Star was talking about just a month ago.
00:05:58.960 So talk about gaslighting.
00:06:00.440 I mean, people must be reading this and thinking,
00:06:03.280 hold on a minute, did I just not read an article a month ago
00:06:05.620 saying that this is exactly for human consumption?
00:06:08.360 This is the kind of stuff that I think drives people nuts.
00:06:10.580 Yeah, so basically when they say it's a conspiracy theory
00:06:15.180 that folks are talking about this cricket factory in London,
00:06:18.920 they're basically focusing on one thing,
00:06:21.820 which is what are people saying and how does it differ from reality?
00:06:26.620 The only way I could think of if you were saying this was a conspiracy theory
00:06:30.940 is if you were arguing that this specific factory
00:06:34.500 was part of something that Trudeau was doing.
00:06:37.040 And I mean, it did get some government funding
00:06:38.720 or part of something Klaus Schwab was doing.
00:06:40.640 I mean, they do talk about why we're eating bugs and all that.
00:06:43.540 I don't think there's anything nefarious about the factory itself.
00:06:46.500 I think there's a market and they're going along with it
00:06:48.340 because clearly if you can make some money
00:06:49.820 off of people that are going to be eating bugs, then fine, do it.
00:06:52.860 But it's not at all something that I see,
00:06:55.900 even in the CBC article, where they can point to
00:06:57.960 where the conspiracy is
00:07:00.200 and what people believe that isn't actually correct.
00:07:03.420 And even there's this one professor they quote
00:07:06.080 who talked about how it's like,
00:07:07.960 oh, it's all part of the anti-government sentiment
00:07:10.280 and they're tapping into the same things we saw with the Freedom Convoy.
00:07:13.480 And then she says this is a cricket factory to make pet food
00:07:17.160 because that's where the evidence points to.
00:07:19.560 Yeah, but also human food.
00:07:21.180 So where's the fake news really coming from here?
00:07:23.200 The so-called experts or the so-called conspiracy theorists?
00:07:26.100 Exactly. I mean, evidence says,
00:07:28.460 this professor says the evidence is pointing to animal food,
00:07:32.460 but the people who actually run the facility
00:07:34.240 have been talking about human food the entire time.
00:07:36.420 Again, it's just a ridiculous story.
00:07:39.100 And one of those things that, again,
00:07:40.220 I think we've talked about this before too,
00:07:42.000 where a lot of these legacy media outlets
00:07:43.980 will play with their headlines,
00:07:45.160 knowing very well that the majority of people
00:07:47.420 that come across the headlines will read the headline,
00:07:50.140 maybe get to the first paragraph,
00:07:51.760 and then those that get to the first paragraph,
00:07:53.960 only a small portion of them will ever get to the end of the article.
00:07:56.700 So they can run with this fact,
00:07:58.480 they can run with this idea that this is just a conspiracy theory
00:08:00.960 and people will take it as fact without actually reading it.
00:08:03.520 And then, you know,
00:08:04.480 then they'll start questioning everything they see.
00:08:06.220 It's a very bizarre trend we're seeing.
00:08:08.700 The legacy media are trying to define conspiracy theories,
00:08:11.900 clean up conspiracy theories,
00:08:13.700 and take facts,
00:08:15.420 take things that maybe don't look so great,
00:08:17.580 and turn them into conspiracy theories to cover for these companies.
00:08:20.520 I don't know, maybe that's a reach,
00:08:21.760 but it's very bizarre.
00:08:24.180 Speaking of bizarre,
00:08:25.560 why don't you talk about what's happening in Alberta?
00:08:28.120 Well, so I read this article,
00:08:29.480 I saw a post on social media,
00:08:31.080 this is earlier in the week,
00:08:32.080 I think at the beginning of the week,
00:08:33.620 and it was Jason Kenney standing with Mark Mielke,
00:08:36.380 who's a part of the Winston Churchill Foundation, I believe,
00:08:39.360 and they had just announced the creation,
00:08:42.080 privately funded creation of a new Winston Churchill monument.
00:08:45.660 And when I saw that,
00:08:46.360 it was a really nice thing to see.
00:08:48.620 That's the kind of thing that I love to see.
00:08:50.360 People in this era, Andrew,
00:08:52.920 trying to defend history,
00:08:54.920 trying to build monuments to real heroes.
00:08:58.320 And Winston Churchill is certainly one of those.
00:09:00.340 But what a surprise.
00:09:01.400 So along comes a new Winston Churchill statue.
00:09:04.620 And just like that,
00:09:06.260 as we all could have predicted,
00:09:07.780 the legacy media,
00:09:09.400 CBC in particular,
00:09:10.360 they come along trying to bash the concept.
00:09:14.420 And the usual procession
00:09:16.160 of people trying to rewrite history,
00:09:19.240 talking about how Winston Churchill
00:09:20.960 is not deserving of monuments,
00:09:22.760 he's not deserving of new statues.
00:09:24.180 And in this CBC article,
00:09:25.560 they talk about how basically
00:09:27.380 this is Jason Kenney's way of declaring
00:09:30.400 what we must celebrate
00:09:31.320 and what warts be damned, I guess.
00:09:34.660 I don't really understand this.
00:09:36.560 So we're building a monument to Winston Churchill.
00:09:39.040 But it's a terrible idea
00:09:40.880 because Winston Churchill,
00:09:42.780 in this article, as they say,
00:09:44.240 was, they said,
00:09:46.100 no question,
00:09:47.100 he was a racist and a white supremacist.
00:09:49.400 They just put that out in the article
00:09:50.960 from a University of Calgary historian.
00:09:54.420 And then the article goes on to say,
00:09:56.000 and this part really got under my skin, Andrew,
00:09:57.480 the article then goes on to say that
00:09:59.160 why would we need a new monument
00:10:01.000 of Winston Churchill
00:10:01.760 when there are schools
00:10:03.180 named after Winston Churchill,
00:10:04.580 there are roads
00:10:05.700 named after Winston Churchill.
00:10:06.860 Surely that's enough.
00:10:08.320 That's enough for a man
00:10:09.440 like Winston Churchill.
00:10:10.540 And that caught me thinking,
00:10:11.560 we're seeing schools be renamed.
00:10:14.160 We're seeing roads be renamed.
00:10:16.260 So clearly roads and schools
00:10:18.840 are not enough to celebrate
00:10:20.300 these great heroes
00:10:21.100 that deserve far more recognition
00:10:22.520 than they're getting now.
00:10:24.100 It's just another classic CBC attempt,
00:10:26.460 in my opinion,
00:10:26.940 to bash the history of our country
00:10:30.020 and kind of play along
00:10:31.940 with this group of people
00:10:33.120 that are trying to vandalize,
00:10:35.200 tear down,
00:10:35.920 and essentially,
00:10:36.980 by doing so,
00:10:37.620 rewriting our history.
00:10:39.500 Yeah, I mean,
00:10:40.500 this has always bothered me
00:10:42.100 in general with historic figures,
00:10:43.860 but with Winston Churchill,
00:10:45.120 this was the original,
00:10:46.520 like the OG anti-fascist.
00:10:48.520 Like, this was the guy,
00:10:50.120 the left says they're anti-fascist,
00:10:52.280 this is the guy
00:10:53.140 who defeated Hitler
00:10:54.260 for crying out loud.
00:10:55.340 Like, you don't get more Antifa
00:10:57.320 than Winston Churchill
00:10:58.420 if you use, like,
00:10:59.320 the literal meaning of Antifa.
00:11:01.800 So the reality that they go around
00:11:04.260 and their preferred slur on people
00:11:06.120 is calling everyone a Nazi,
00:11:08.000 calling everyone a fascist,
00:11:09.220 calling everyone a white supremacist.
00:11:10.420 And then you take the guy
00:11:12.520 that liberated the world
00:11:14.020 in large part from fascism
00:11:15.800 and we say,
00:11:16.740 oh, well, you know what?
00:11:17.660 He might not have been big
00:11:19.980 on the transgender bathrooms.
00:11:22.000 Or, well, you know,
00:11:23.820 he might have made this joke
00:11:25.140 or that line or that quip.
00:11:26.660 One of the things,
00:11:27.380 so for starters,
00:11:28.220 he's British.
00:11:29.780 And I'm not making fun.
00:11:30.920 My whole family is British.
00:11:32.880 Brits talk differently
00:11:34.060 than non-Brits do.
00:11:35.440 So anytime you look at, like,
00:11:37.320 Winston Churchill's quotables
00:11:38.520 or same as Prince Philip's,
00:11:40.640 you have to accept that
00:11:42.200 and have a margin of British
00:11:43.980 around what the acceptable levels
00:11:46.060 of discourse are.
00:11:47.060 But more importantly,
00:11:48.040 we have to stop measuring people
00:11:49.480 against this yardstick of 2022.
00:11:51.620 And I think what Jason Kenney
00:11:53.040 is promoting here,
00:11:53.960 building a statue,
00:11:54.800 is fantastic.
00:11:55.960 I was just in Austria and Hungary
00:11:58.620 on vacation a few weeks back.
00:12:00.760 And when you walk around,
00:12:02.040 especially in Hungary,
00:12:03.020 you look and the statues
00:12:04.440 littering, littering
00:12:06.700 the entire downtown
00:12:07.720 of Budapest, for example.
00:12:09.380 And you look at it and you say,
00:12:10.700 I bet I could Google
00:12:11.520 all of these people
00:12:12.380 and find something
00:12:13.120 to cancel them over.
00:12:14.440 But you don't
00:12:15.200 because you accept
00:12:16.080 that they're a part
00:12:16.680 of a country's story.
00:12:17.740 They're a part of the world's story.
00:12:19.480 And I think we should
00:12:20.620 start a campaign
00:12:21.420 for every statue
00:12:23.020 that is taken down,
00:12:24.460 we build two of them.
00:12:26.000 For every statue
00:12:26.860 that's taken down,
00:12:27.440 we build two.
00:12:27.920 We build the Winston Churchill statue.
00:12:29.580 If they take that one,
00:12:30.460 we build another one
00:12:31.400 to Winston Churchill.
00:12:32.360 And then we pick
00:12:33.020 a bonus figure as well
00:12:34.120 and do that.
00:12:34.980 No, exactly.
00:12:35.700 That's the kind of thing
00:12:36.500 I love to see.
00:12:37.300 Or even, Andrew,
00:12:38.300 if a statue comes down,
00:12:39.700 you rebuild it in its place,
00:12:40.840 but it gets a little bit taller
00:12:41.840 every single time
00:12:42.760 it comes down.
00:12:43.540 So it becomes more...
00:12:45.760 So eventually Queen Victoria
00:12:47.540 is like 87 feet tall.
00:12:49.120 It's like, oh wow.
00:12:50.780 Step aside, CN Tower.
00:12:52.580 Queen Victoria is now
00:12:53.560 the tallest freestanding
00:12:54.760 structure in the world.
00:12:56.320 Wouldn't that be hilarious?
00:12:57.760 But here's my problem too.
00:13:00.200 This is the kind of thing
00:13:01.000 that when I saw this,
00:13:02.160 I'm not the biggest
00:13:04.180 Jason Kenney fan,
00:13:05.380 but when I saw this,
00:13:06.460 I thought this is
00:13:06.980 a fantastic initiative
00:13:09.360 from a conservative premier
00:13:11.620 in this country.
00:13:12.680 It's obvious.
00:13:13.800 As I said before,
00:13:15.340 roads and schools
00:13:16.820 are not enough.
00:13:17.980 There are Queen Victoria
00:13:18.940 public schools
00:13:19.760 coming down
00:13:20.680 and being renamed
00:13:21.580 all across the country.
00:13:23.300 And we know,
00:13:23.780 for example,
00:13:24.180 in Toronto,
00:13:25.360 the city is spending
00:13:26.240 millions of dollars
00:13:27.100 trying to rename Dundas
00:13:28.320 because of how traumatizing
00:13:30.420 the street name is
00:13:31.160 for people.
00:13:31.720 It's clearly,
00:13:33.120 there is clearly
00:13:33.900 an attempt
00:13:34.380 from a part of society
00:13:36.740 to erase
00:13:38.120 or try and rewrite
00:13:39.220 the history
00:13:39.760 or try and
00:13:41.280 cast a shade
00:13:42.880 over our history
00:13:43.640 so that we feel
00:13:44.580 bad about it.
00:13:45.420 And right now,
00:13:46.600 in Queen's Park,
00:13:48.120 the statue of
00:13:48.900 John A. MacDonald
00:13:49.620 is currently boarded up.
00:13:51.140 I think it's been boarded up
00:13:51.920 for over two years.
00:13:53.000 And there's a conservative
00:13:53.720 government in charge
00:13:54.840 at Queen's Park.
00:13:55.480 That statue
00:13:56.760 is still boarded up.
00:13:58.140 So while we have
00:13:58.960 a conservative government
00:14:00.320 in Alberta
00:14:00.820 building new statues
00:14:02.440 using private funds too,
00:14:03.980 it's a completely
00:14:04.440 different thing
00:14:05.140 when the state
00:14:06.720 funds a statue
00:14:07.720 or when a group
00:14:08.940 like the Churchill Foundation,
00:14:10.340 I think that's
00:14:10.660 what they're called,
00:14:11.480 when they privately
00:14:12.320 crowdsource
00:14:13.360 the funds
00:14:13.920 to build a statue.
00:14:15.580 Right now,
00:14:16.300 the statue
00:14:16.760 of our first
00:14:18.500 prime minister,
00:14:19.180 the man who basically
00:14:19.980 created this country,
00:14:21.960 is boarded up
00:14:22.680 at Queen's Park
00:14:23.360 because we don't want
00:14:23.900 to offend people.
00:14:24.660 We don't want to
00:14:25.300 make people upset
00:14:26.880 about John A. MacDonald's
00:14:28.200 controversial views.
00:14:29.180 It's crazy to me
00:14:30.560 that we have the CBC
00:14:31.700 telling us that
00:14:32.620 actually, no,
00:14:33.200 these monuments,
00:14:34.380 they don't deserve
00:14:34.960 a place in our country.
00:14:36.180 We don't need
00:14:36.520 to build new ones.
00:14:37.940 It's just ridiculous to me.
00:14:39.340 And when I saw this,
00:14:40.580 I thought,
00:14:40.900 now that's a policy
00:14:41.700 I can get behind.
00:14:42.420 That's good to see.
00:14:44.000 Yeah, I didn't realize
00:14:45.160 the John A. MacDonald
00:14:46.040 statue is still boarded up.
00:14:47.320 Still boarded up, Andrew.
00:14:47.440 I generally try to avoid
00:14:48.360 downtown Toronto.
00:14:49.720 So that's actually
00:14:50.400 quite disappointing.
00:14:51.740 It's incredible.
00:14:52.440 It's this giant wooden box
00:14:54.680 at the top of
00:14:55.340 University Avenue.
00:14:56.420 Like, it's got,
00:14:57.000 it's a terrible eyesore.
00:14:59.200 And it's bizarre to me, too,
00:15:00.660 because behind it,
00:15:02.080 and I don't even know
00:15:02.600 if I want to say this publicly
00:15:03.760 because maybe there are
00:15:04.700 Antifa crazy people
00:15:06.180 that are going to do
00:15:06.760 something about it,
00:15:07.220 but behind it,
00:15:08.240 there's a Queen Victoria statue,
00:15:09.400 a beautiful Queen Victoria statue,
00:15:11.120 right up against
00:15:11.840 the Queen's Park grounds.
00:15:12.740 It hasn't been touched,
00:15:13.580 thank God.
00:15:13.980 It hasn't been vandalized.
00:15:15.580 But it's just,
00:15:16.900 it's crazy to me
00:15:17.680 that we allow a symbol
00:15:19.140 like John A. MacDonald
00:15:20.040 to be boarded up
00:15:20.960 for over almost two years
00:15:22.800 in the middle of Toronto.
00:15:24.360 It's,
00:15:24.580 it's a,
00:15:25.120 it's a terrible,
00:15:26.280 terrible thing that's happening.
00:15:27.400 So kudos to the people
00:15:29.160 that crowdfunded this
00:15:30.200 Winston Churchill statue.
00:15:32.000 I'd just like to see
00:15:32.920 more of them.
00:15:33.500 Wouldn't it be great
00:15:34.020 to have McDonald statues,
00:15:36.200 Churchill statues,
00:15:36.840 once again,
00:15:37.780 roaming the country?
00:15:38.540 It would be just fantastic.
00:15:40.240 I think one way around it
00:15:42.020 is that we have to accept
00:15:44.040 that most of these people
00:15:44.980 that take down statues
00:15:46.020 are complete idiots.
00:15:47.080 They don't know
00:15:47.680 or care about history.
00:15:48.940 They don't know
00:15:49.600 who Egerton Ryerson is.
00:15:50.880 They just are told
00:15:51.520 they have to hate him.
00:15:52.280 They don't know
00:15:52.600 who John A. MacDonald is.
00:15:53.940 So I think we just take
00:15:55.000 the name cards
00:15:55.820 off of the statues
00:15:56.820 and they won't know
00:15:57.600 who it is.
00:15:58.740 Exactly.
00:15:59.480 Those that are smart enough
00:16:00.880 to at least do their research
00:16:02.180 can think about,
00:16:03.220 oh, that's a nice statue.
00:16:04.360 And then everyone else
00:16:05.020 can just go about their day
00:16:06.020 like they always used to be.
00:16:07.080 Yeah.
00:16:07.600 And in a cashless society,
00:16:08.780 it's not even like
00:16:09.460 they can like check
00:16:10.180 against the currency
00:16:11.320 and be like,
00:16:11.780 oh, that looks like
00:16:13.060 McDonald's there.
00:16:14.060 And in any case,
00:16:16.120 we had last week
00:16:17.580 the media in a bit
00:16:19.240 of a flurry
00:16:20.000 over this verbal attack
00:16:22.580 on Chrystia Freeland
00:16:23.560 in Calgary.
00:16:24.780 You've seen the video now.
00:16:25.780 We don't need to play that.
00:16:26.980 My position on this
00:16:28.020 is that it's wrong
00:16:28.980 to harass people
00:16:30.300 in that way.
00:16:30.980 And it's not
00:16:31.380 particularly productive either
00:16:32.720 because you end up
00:16:33.580 looking like the jerk
00:16:34.900 and not them.
00:16:35.900 But anything that puts
00:16:37.360 someone in a position
00:16:38.380 where they're feeling
00:16:39.080 threatened is not good.
00:16:40.260 And that's true
00:16:40.680 whether you're going
00:16:41.200 after a liberal politician,
00:16:43.100 a conservative politician,
00:16:44.260 or whether you're going
00:16:44.960 after your neighborhood mechanic.
00:16:46.600 It doesn't matter.
00:16:47.800 But you have to look
00:16:49.060 at the double standards
00:16:49.960 that come out
00:16:50.840 from government
00:16:51.480 condemnations here.
00:16:52.700 And I'm not saying,
00:16:54.180 but what about?
00:16:54.840 I'm just pointing out
00:16:55.960 the hypocrisy here.
00:16:57.360 Justin Trudeau condemned
00:16:58.500 what he called
00:16:59.300 hate-filled rants
00:17:00.660 and violent words.
00:17:02.180 Take a look.
00:17:02.620 There's a huge reflection.
00:17:04.320 We have to have
00:17:04.840 both the kind
00:17:05.580 of country
00:17:06.300 we want to be
00:17:07.220 and to understand
00:17:08.980 that the tone
00:17:10.920 of our democracy,
00:17:12.460 the tone
00:17:12.860 of our political debates
00:17:13.780 is set
00:17:14.880 by those politicians
00:17:18.340 who get sent to Ottawa
00:17:19.700 to represent
00:17:20.460 their communities.
00:17:23.080 And if there isn't
00:17:24.480 clear condemnation
00:17:27.080 of the kind
00:17:28.240 of cowardly bullying
00:17:29.220 we've seen,
00:17:29.920 of the kind
00:17:31.200 of hate-filled rants
00:17:33.940 and violent words
00:17:36.840 used against people
00:17:37.960 to say this has
00:17:39.880 no place
00:17:40.460 in our democracy,
00:17:41.280 we can disagree
00:17:42.440 and we need
00:17:43.060 to disagree
00:17:43.660 with each other
00:17:44.420 on policies,
00:17:45.900 on perspectives.
00:17:46.880 That's a robust debate
00:17:48.380 that has to happen
00:17:49.240 amongst Canadians
00:17:49.960 to make sure
00:17:50.520 we're getting it right
00:17:51.380 as a collective,
00:17:52.280 as a country.
00:17:53.840 But to limit
00:17:54.980 the ability
00:17:57.760 of women,
00:18:00.840 of racialized Canadians
00:18:02.080 to serve
00:18:02.960 in government
00:18:03.900 or to hold government
00:18:05.940 to account
00:18:06.560 as journalists
00:18:07.560 which is the goal
00:18:08.900 of a number
00:18:11.400 of Canadians
00:18:12.440 with very loud voices,
00:18:15.060 well that's something
00:18:16.460 all parliamentarians
00:18:19.200 and all leaders
00:18:20.120 need to stand against,
00:18:22.900 need to be unequivocal
00:18:24.340 in being responsible leaders
00:18:27.360 to say no,
00:18:30.360 we are not going
00:18:31.820 to become
00:18:32.360 that toxic,
00:18:34.000 polarized country
00:18:35.180 that some think
00:18:36.000 we should become.
00:18:38.140 So,
00:18:38.880 this is never
00:18:39.920 a prime minister
00:18:40.780 that would stoop
00:18:41.500 to hateful words
00:18:42.800 or violent rhetoric,
00:18:44.360 right Harrison?
00:18:45.060 Certainly not,
00:18:45.920 no,
00:18:46.140 I mean,
00:18:46.400 what we know
00:18:46.900 from Trudeau
00:18:47.500 is he's the beacon
00:18:49.340 of civility,
00:18:50.220 Andrew,
00:18:50.580 he's a uniter
00:18:52.380 of this country,
00:18:53.580 someone who's presided
00:18:55.040 over a country
00:18:55.640 that's never been
00:18:56.100 more united
00:18:56.600 under his leadership.
00:18:57.980 I mean,
00:18:58.160 it's just absolutely
00:18:59.020 ridiculous and again,
00:19:00.440 not to say,
00:19:01.300 again,
00:19:01.580 we don't want to do
00:19:02.520 the whole whataboutism
00:19:03.380 but without it,
00:19:04.580 we're just not allowed
00:19:05.200 to call out
00:19:05.800 the selective outrage
00:19:06.760 that we get
00:19:07.180 from these liberal leaders.
00:19:08.800 I mean,
00:19:09.120 of course you have to
00:19:09.880 look at both sides
00:19:11.260 of this and say,
00:19:11.860 well,
00:19:12.240 where were you guys
00:19:13.300 when your prime minister,
00:19:14.980 your leader,
00:19:15.680 was telling
00:19:16.180 unvaccinated Canadians
00:19:17.240 that something
00:19:19.280 needs to be done
00:19:19.860 about them.
00:19:20.560 I mean,
00:19:20.840 we've seen the footage,
00:19:21.820 we've seen the videos
00:19:22.660 saying that the people
00:19:24.840 that were protesting
00:19:26.000 in Ottawa
00:19:26.380 are a small fringe minority
00:19:27.680 with unacceptable views.
00:19:29.100 Talk about uniting.
00:19:31.080 The small fringe minority
00:19:34.600 of people
00:19:36.440 who are on their way
00:19:37.820 to Ottawa
00:19:38.320 or who are holding
00:19:40.400 unacceptable views
00:19:42.620 that they're expressing
00:19:44.040 do not represent
00:19:47.360 do not represent
00:19:47.380 the views of Canadians
00:19:49.240 who have been there
00:19:50.620 for each other,
00:19:51.840 who know
00:19:52.380 that following the science
00:19:54.540 and stepping up
00:19:56.460 to protect each other
00:19:57.560 is the best way
00:19:59.220 to continue
00:19:59.800 to ensure
00:20:00.480 our freedoms,
00:20:01.560 our rights,
00:20:02.300 our values as a country.
00:20:03.580 Ah, yes,
00:20:04.660 it seems like
00:20:05.380 just yesterday
00:20:06.340 that his political enemies
00:20:08.200 were an unacceptable
00:20:09.780 fringe minority.
00:20:11.100 And then there was
00:20:11.720 this clip
00:20:12.180 from the election
00:20:13.460 last year
00:20:14.060 where he was literally
00:20:14.800 campaigning
00:20:15.660 on this sort
00:20:17.060 of divisive rhetoric.
00:20:18.380 Oui, on va s'en sortir
00:20:20.020 de cette pandémie
00:20:20.640 par la vaccination.
00:20:21.960 Puis on en connaît tous,
00:20:23.800 des gens qui sont
00:20:24.560 en train d'hésiter un petit peu.
00:20:26.380 On va continuer
00:20:26.980 d'essayer de les convaincre.
00:20:28.260 Mais il y a aussi des gens
00:20:29.080 qui sont farouchement
00:20:30.120 opposés à la vaccination.
00:20:31.780 Qui sont extrémistes.
00:20:32.780 Qui croient pas
00:20:33.300 dans la science,
00:20:34.120 qui sont souvent misogynes,
00:20:35.860 souvent racistes aussi.
00:20:37.400 C'est un petit groupe,
00:20:40.520 mais qui prend de la place.
00:20:42.360 Et là, il faut faire un choix
00:20:43.760 en tant que leader,
00:20:44.760 en tant que pays.
00:20:45.360 Est-ce qu'on tolère
00:20:47.880 ces gens-là?
00:20:48.540 Ou est-ce qu'on dit,
00:20:49.020 ben, voyons,
00:20:50.160 la plupart des gens,
00:20:51.260 presque 80% des Québécois,
00:20:52.920 ont fait ce qu'il fallait faire.
00:20:54.100 Se sont fait vacciner.
00:20:55.260 On veut revenir
00:20:56.080 aux choses qu'on aime faire.
00:20:58.520 C'est pas ces gens-là
00:20:59.660 qui vont nous bloquer.
00:21:00.620 It's in French,
00:21:01.420 but he's saying
00:21:01.980 that unvaccinated people
00:21:03.460 are generally racist,
00:21:04.880 misogynist, extremist.
00:21:06.400 So, where is the
00:21:08.040 pearl-clutchy condemnation
00:21:09.680 of that
00:21:10.460 when you have a prime minister
00:21:11.820 who's deliberately
00:21:12.580 trying to inflame people?
00:21:13.960 And again,
00:21:14.380 not at all
00:21:15.860 for a second
00:21:16.620 am I justifying
00:21:18.040 people that lash out
00:21:19.640 and respond,
00:21:20.520 but it's that
00:21:20.960 I don't believe
00:21:22.040 they are actually
00:21:23.120 as interested in civility
00:21:24.560 and de-escalation
00:21:25.720 as they're pretending
00:21:26.980 when someone goes
00:21:27.840 after one of theirs.
00:21:28.900 That's all.
00:21:29.500 No, of course not, Andrew.
00:21:30.660 They're not interested in that.
00:21:32.540 They will use division
00:21:34.820 when it matters for them,
00:21:36.260 and then they will bring out
00:21:37.120 the unity card
00:21:37.980 when they have
00:21:38.860 this great opportunity
00:21:39.660 to talk about
00:21:40.400 why this is wrong
00:21:41.540 and when Canadians
00:21:43.280 shouldn't do it.
00:21:44.240 But what Justin Trudeau
00:21:45.200 said in that French clip,
00:21:46.480 I think,
00:21:46.980 and I thought about this
00:21:47.840 before we did the recording,
00:21:50.080 after watching that clip again,
00:21:51.660 that is probably going to be
00:21:52.640 one of the most disgraceful things
00:21:54.120 I think the prime minister
00:21:55.040 has maybe ever said
00:21:56.540 as leader of our country.
00:21:57.640 It's so unbelievably divisive.
00:22:00.280 You've seen that clip,
00:22:01.660 I'm sure,
00:22:02.020 many different places.
00:22:03.260 People use that
00:22:04.120 as a way to talk about
00:22:05.860 who our leader is
00:22:06.960 in our country
00:22:07.380 because of just how
00:22:08.120 insane it is
00:22:09.820 to say those words,
00:22:11.320 to say the things
00:22:12.140 that unvaccinated Canadians
00:22:13.640 are racist,
00:22:15.520 are misogynistic.
00:22:17.340 It's just unbelievable.
00:22:19.360 It's frankly
00:22:20.220 the lowest of the low
00:22:22.120 when it comes to dividing.
00:22:23.880 And again,
00:22:24.560 like we said,
00:22:25.520 not to try and make excuses
00:22:27.400 for bad behavior.
00:22:28.640 We can all condemn bad behavior.
00:22:30.720 But if you tell Canadians,
00:22:32.920 if you're a leader of a country
00:22:34.020 and you tell Canadians
00:22:34.740 that make their own medical choice
00:22:36.180 that they are
00:22:36.940 some of the worst things,
00:22:39.260 racist, misogynist,
00:22:40.620 for making their own medical decision,
00:22:42.620 there is going to be backlash.
00:22:44.220 There is going to be
00:22:45.140 a group of people
00:22:45.640 that are going to,
00:22:47.320 I think,
00:22:48.760 take things too far.
00:22:51.420 And that shouldn't take
00:22:52.940 a rocket scientist
00:22:53.920 to know that
00:22:54.420 that's going to happen
00:22:55.440 if you say those words.
00:22:56.480 And so,
00:22:57.240 I mean,
00:22:57.660 it's sad to see.
00:22:59.640 I think we can all agree
00:23:00.340 that it's sad to see
00:23:01.120 this sort of descent
00:23:02.860 into this lack of civility
00:23:04.720 we're all experiencing.
00:23:06.180 But it's not like
00:23:06.820 it's come out of nowhere.
00:23:08.160 No.
00:23:08.700 And I guess that's the point
00:23:10.120 is that if we want to have
00:23:11.580 a real discussion
00:23:12.540 about civility
00:23:14.280 and de-escalation,
00:23:15.320 you can't talk about
00:23:16.780 and treat your political enemies
00:23:18.340 the way the liberals are.
00:23:20.080 And I would also say
00:23:20.940 the way the media is
00:23:21.880 with a few notable exceptions.
00:23:23.760 So,
00:23:24.200 very well said.
00:23:25.440 But again,
00:23:25.860 I mean,
00:23:26.060 we've talked about
00:23:26.860 a lot of lighter stuff
00:23:28.060 on this show.
00:23:28.820 I think we need to get
00:23:29.660 to some more serious topics here
00:23:31.260 so that people don't feel
00:23:32.220 they were shortchanged.
00:23:33.500 And truly,
00:23:35.140 I mean,
00:23:36.040 I'm even a bit nervous
00:23:37.340 because there's a fair bit
00:23:38.120 of controversy in this.
00:23:39.280 But how do you make
00:23:40.780 a Nanaimo bar?
00:23:43.120 This has been
00:23:43.840 a legitimate question
00:23:45.080 that has entered
00:23:45.900 the political discourse
00:23:46.700 this week.
00:23:47.140 Like I said,
00:23:47.940 very controversial.
00:23:48.900 Pierre Polyev shared
00:23:50.380 this exchange
00:23:51.400 with a woman he met
00:23:52.200 in Nanaimo,
00:23:52.920 B.C.
00:23:53.280 Ladies and gentlemen,
00:23:54.560 I'm in Nanaimo
00:23:55.280 with Katrina
00:23:55.960 and guess what
00:23:56.940 she made for me?
00:23:58.060 You guessed it,
00:23:59.020 Nanaimo bars.
00:24:00.440 The best Nanaimo bars.
00:24:01.700 You left out the keywords.
00:24:02.540 It turns out
00:24:03.740 that she makes
00:24:04.380 the best Nanaimo bars
00:24:05.600 not in Nanaimo
00:24:06.560 but in the entire world.
00:24:08.620 What's the secret?
00:24:09.760 Love.
00:24:10.540 Love.
00:24:11.000 That's the secret ingredient.
00:24:12.300 Don't tell anybody that.
00:24:13.420 That's the patented ingredient.
00:24:15.180 If you share that,
00:24:16.800 you'll be hearing
00:24:17.360 from her lawyer.
00:24:18.560 But why aren't you making
00:24:20.000 as many Nanaimo bars anymore?
00:24:22.000 Well,
00:24:22.700 during COVID January of 2021,
00:24:25.540 I opened up
00:24:26.120 a small road stand,
00:24:26.900 bake stand
00:24:27.300 because I needed money
00:24:28.720 to pay my kids
00:24:29.620 school fees
00:24:30.220 and support fees.
00:24:30.960 Right.
00:24:31.160 And I found that
00:24:32.180 in times of COVID,
00:24:33.380 a lot of people,
00:24:34.260 mainly seniors,
00:24:35.180 were coming by
00:24:35.820 just for a friendly face.
00:24:36.940 We all masked up.
00:24:37.900 We all practiced
00:24:38.640 all the social distancing
00:24:39.600 but it meant a lot to them
00:24:41.220 to come in on Saturday
00:24:42.120 and talk with somebody.
00:24:43.300 Right.
00:24:44.020 Unfortunately,
00:24:44.680 I had a real setback
00:24:46.840 in February this year.
00:24:47.920 Right.
00:24:48.380 So I temporarily
00:24:49.180 shut down my bake stand
00:24:50.220 and now that I wanted
00:24:51.920 to reopen it
00:24:52.740 six months later,
00:24:53.880 the price of flour
00:24:54.680 has doubled,
00:24:55.480 sugar, butter,
00:24:56.660 and it's cost prohibitive
00:24:57.900 for me to reopen it.
00:24:58.740 Wow.
00:24:59.060 So the price of flour
00:25:00.840 sugar,
00:25:02.220 butter,
00:25:02.980 other ingredients
00:25:04.080 and eggs
00:25:04.720 in addition to love
00:25:05.960 that go into these
00:25:06.700 Nanaimo bars
00:25:07.300 too expensive.
00:25:08.920 Just too expensive.
00:25:12.120 Just inflation.
00:25:13.400 That's why we're going
00:25:14.060 to stop creating cash.
00:25:15.720 We're going to start
00:25:16.260 creating more
00:25:16.800 of what cash buys.
00:25:17.800 Get rid of the
00:25:18.260 inflationary taxes
00:25:19.480 so that we can have
00:25:20.440 more of these
00:25:21.560 love-infused
00:25:23.020 Nanaimo bars.
00:25:24.160 Because you want more,
00:25:24.760 trust me.
00:25:25.000 I will.
00:25:25.520 I can resist everything
00:25:26.720 except temptation.
00:25:28.140 Thank you.
00:25:28.540 The woman said
00:25:29.420 that the cost of goods
00:25:30.540 is going up
00:25:31.640 including the cost
00:25:32.960 of flour.
00:25:34.820 And a lot of people
00:25:35.500 would say,
00:25:35.840 wow, yeah, I understand.
00:25:36.800 Inflation's a bit
00:25:37.360 of a big deal there.
00:25:38.540 But no,
00:25:39.780 Jean Charest's campaign
00:25:41.280 co-chair,
00:25:41.880 Tasha Carradine,
00:25:42.800 who is a lovely woman.
00:25:43.860 I've worked with her
00:25:44.660 on projects.
00:25:45.360 We used to work
00:25:45.780 for the same company.
00:25:46.880 I don't quite buy
00:25:48.380 where she's going
00:25:49.040 with this one.
00:25:49.760 She points out
00:25:50.720 the real fact check here.
00:25:51.820 There's no flour
00:25:52.800 in Nanaimo bars.
00:25:54.640 Well,
00:25:55.260 believe it or not,
00:25:56.080 this is now something
00:25:57.000 we have to fact check.
00:25:58.240 Harrison,
00:25:58.540 what did you figure out?
00:25:59.880 Well,
00:26:00.360 so,
00:26:01.200 from what I saw,
00:26:03.280 it turns out
00:26:04.060 that to make
00:26:05.140 an Nanaimo bar,
00:26:05.760 you need graham crackers.
00:26:07.580 And it looks as though
00:26:08.820 in graham crackers,
00:26:10.800 there's flour.
00:26:11.800 So that would lead me
00:26:12.820 to think,
00:26:13.300 Andrew,
00:26:13.800 I'm not a baking expert.
00:26:15.440 I'm not a cooking expert
00:26:16.220 by any means.
00:26:17.680 But it would lead me
00:26:18.760 to believe
00:26:19.340 that that would mean
00:26:20.520 flour is in Nanaimo bars.
00:26:22.580 And I mean,
00:26:23.000 when you make such a
00:26:24.020 big statement
00:26:24.920 like Polyev did,
00:26:26.400 a real shot
00:26:26.960 across the bow,
00:26:28.280 and then the
00:26:29.920 John Charest campaign
00:26:30.820 comes in right behind it,
00:26:32.300 coming after them
00:26:32.900 for the flour statement,
00:26:34.200 clearly we needed
00:26:35.040 to figure this out.
00:26:36.320 And it turns out,
00:26:37.240 it looks as though,
00:26:38.520 not making any
00:26:39.480 serious statements,
00:26:40.980 not to get in the way
00:26:42.000 of this very serious
00:26:42.720 political dialogue,
00:26:43.460 but it looks as though
00:26:44.200 flour is involved
00:26:45.760 in Nanaimo bars.
00:26:47.140 Yeah,
00:26:47.320 if she is making
00:26:48.140 the graham crackers
00:26:49.020 from scratch,
00:26:50.400 there is flour in them.
00:26:51.580 I mean,
00:26:52.440 it's an amusing story
00:26:54.620 in some respects,
00:26:55.780 but it's also proof
00:26:56.640 of the danger
00:26:58.040 of political discourse
00:26:59.080 right now,
00:26:59.620 that if you are
00:27:00.180 against someone,
00:27:01.900 you will just
00:27:02.980 not even quite
00:27:04.000 think about
00:27:04.940 where you're going
00:27:06.160 with your attacks
00:27:06.940 on them
00:27:07.380 and the implications
00:27:08.160 of that.
00:27:08.940 Because when I saw
00:27:09.800 this video,
00:27:10.660 I thought the woman
00:27:11.520 was talking about
00:27:12.300 in general.
00:27:12.960 She runs a bake shop,
00:27:13.900 presumably she bakes
00:27:14.700 things other than
00:27:15.660 Nanaimo bars,
00:27:16.800 and they would involve
00:27:17.700 having to buy flour.
00:27:18.700 So I didn't even
00:27:19.140 necessarily know
00:27:19.920 it was just an example
00:27:20.980 of Nanaimo bars
00:27:22.600 and flour,
00:27:23.220 but that's what
00:27:24.120 people focus in on.
00:27:25.500 Well, no, exactly.
00:27:26.320 And you can imagine
00:27:27.440 the Sheree campaign
00:27:29.680 or Tasha Kiriden
00:27:31.060 sitting there going,
00:27:32.140 oh, we got them.
00:27:33.080 We got them on this.
00:27:34.040 There's no flour
00:27:34.740 in Nanaimo bars.
00:27:35.460 It's just a bizarre
00:27:36.780 sort of thing.
00:27:37.040 She's a plant.
00:27:37.780 She's a plant.
00:27:39.800 This is going to be
00:27:40.640 a great comeback.
00:27:42.940 We're going to get them
00:27:43.440 on the Nanaimo bar recipe.
00:27:45.240 Instead of talking about,
00:27:46.560 I don't know,
00:27:47.040 something actually
00:27:48.240 that matters to the campaign,
00:27:49.620 I've been seeing
00:27:50.880 a lot of people saying
00:27:51.760 after this whole
00:27:52.900 Nanaimo bar debacle,
00:27:54.280 this Nanaimo bar fallout.
00:27:55.540 Nanaimo gate.
00:27:56.100 Yeah, the Nanaimo gate.
00:27:56.980 A lot of people were saying,
00:27:57.960 can this just be over, please?
00:27:59.360 I mean, we've reached,
00:28:00.060 I think we reached a conclusion.
00:28:01.740 We spent a long enough time
00:28:02.860 talking about the issues.
00:28:03.860 Now we're talking
00:28:04.920 about Nanaimo bars.
00:28:06.180 Let's just move on now
00:28:07.240 and see where this goes.
00:28:09.040 I don't think we're going
00:28:09.600 to get any more
00:28:10.200 big policy statements
00:28:11.700 coming from any of these two.
00:28:12.960 So there's milk
00:28:14.060 in Nanaimo bars.
00:28:15.300 And the only reason
00:28:15.980 I bring that up
00:28:16.660 is to say that
00:28:17.360 the fact that
00:28:18.380 supply management
00:28:19.380 has somehow become
00:28:20.680 less controversial
00:28:21.660 than whether there's
00:28:23.020 flour in Nanaimo bars
00:28:24.900 is a sign that,
00:28:25.720 as you mentioned,
00:28:26.180 the leadership race
00:28:26.860 has gone on too long.
00:28:27.800 But it's over in eight days.
00:28:29.800 It's September 2nd now.
00:28:30.960 It's over on September 10th.
00:28:32.860 So fear not,
00:28:33.640 the Nanaimo gate
00:28:34.600 will be ending soon enough.
00:28:39.320 Ha ha ha!
00:28:46.660 And that's what we call
00:28:48.800 in the business,
00:28:49.600 my friends,
00:28:50.280 a callback.
00:28:51.140 What a great note to end on.
00:28:52.520 Harrison Faulkner,
00:28:53.280 always a pleasure.
00:28:54.040 I am Andrew Lawton.
00:28:55.080 This is Fake News Friday
00:28:56.440 on True North.
00:28:57.640 We will talk to you next week.
00:28:59.420 Thanks, everyone.
00:28:59.920 See you next week, everyone.