Juno News - Charlie Kirk assassinated

00:00:00.000 beloved conservative commentator and founder of turning point usa charlie kirk was shot dead on

00:00:11.200 stage while speaking to a crowd of university students in utah civil liberties advocates say

00:00:16.880 an election canada investigation into juno news co-founder and journalist kian bexty's election

00:00:23.200 reporting could lead to a chill on journalism in canada ontario premier doug ford told unemployed

00:00:30.240 youth in canada that they quote aren't looking hard enough a mcmaster university professor is

00:00:36.240 emphatically denying he ever said gender treatment for minors was medically necessary despite co-signing

00:00:43.120 a letter saying otherwise hello canada it's wednesday september 10th this is the true north

00:00:48.800 daily brief i'm cosmon gerja and i'm alex sultan we've got you covered with all the news you need

00:00:54.480 to know let's discuss the top stories of the day and the true north exclusives you won't hear anywhere

00:01:00.080 else us president donald trump has confirmed that american conservative influencer charlie kirk

00:01:10.160 founder of turning point usa died from his wounds after being shot during a tour stop in utah

00:01:15.840 trump posted on truth social quote the great and even legendary charlie kirk is dead no one

00:01:23.840 understood or had the heart of the youth in the united states of america better than charlie he was

00:01:29.440 loved and admired by all especially me and now he is no longer with us melania and my sympathies go

00:01:36.160 out to his beautiful wife erica and family charlie we love you trump also ordered that flags be flown at

00:01:43.280 half mass nationally in honor of kirk according to the white house the incident occurred at a public

00:01:49.680 town hall at utah valley university where local students were invited to ask kirk questions hundreds

00:01:56.480 of youth gathered for the event when a gunshot was heard a video of the incident shows kirk collapsing

00:02:03.040 from his chair on x u.s president donald trump encouraged all to pray for kirk quote we must all

00:02:09.600 pray for charlie kirk a great guy from top to bottom god bless him u.s vice president jd vance

00:02:16.320 reacted to the news on x saying quote say a prayer for charlie kirk a genuinely good guy and a young

00:02:23.840 father according to media reports advance plans on heading to utah where the killing took place

00:02:30.560 federal bureau of investigation cash patel also issued a statement saying that federal authorities

00:02:36.400 were assisting in the investigation patel wrote we are closely monitoring reports of the tragic

00:02:42.640 shooting involving charlie kirk at utah valley university our thoughts are with charlie his

00:02:48.160 loved ones and everyone affected agents will be on the scene quickly and the fbi stands in full support

00:02:54.320 of the ongoing response and investigation conservative leader pierre poliev responded to the shooting

00:03:00.080 calling for the attacker to be brought to justice we will provide updates when able

00:03:08.720 civil liberties advocates say an election canada investigation into juno news co-founder and

00:03:13.920 journalist kian bexty's election reporting could lead to a chill on journalism in canada during an

00:03:20.400 episode of the canadian constitution foundation's podcast not reserving judgment the ccf's litigation

00:03:27.280 director christine van gein warned that elections canada's investigation into bexty and juno news

00:03:34.800 over its election coverage of a former liberal candidate could have a chilling effect on public discourse

00:03:41.440 in the country reporting even if it is not perfect reporting should not be targeted by an agency of the

00:03:50.240 government for the government for a sanction the way this is it's it's being investigated right now there

00:03:55.520 isn't a a charge or anything but the fact that there is an investigation at all shows really big problems

00:04:03.440 with the law and with selective enforcement by elections canada it feels a lot like this is a weaponization of

00:04:11.040 the law by some member of the public that we who we don't know who it is who didn't like the reporting

00:04:18.480 and they want to stop reporting like it elections canada launched a criminal investigation into bexty's

00:04:26.320 sourced report on allegations laid against former liberal candidate for calgary confederation thomas

00:04:32.880 keeper the commissioner of canada elections cited section 91 subsection one of the canada elections act as

00:04:40.800 the law that juno news is being investigated for the law makes it a criminal offense to knowingly publish

00:04:47.840 false biographical information about a candidate particularly one alleging criminal misconduct

00:04:54.000 with the intent to sway the results of an election juno news and kian bexty have repeatedly denied being

00:05:01.040 in breach of the law and stand by the original reporting which included multiple sources and attempts to reach

00:05:07.680 the candidate if bexty is found to be in breach of the act he could be liable to pay a fine of up to

00:05:13.600 fifty thousand dollars and face five years in prison van gein said quote i know that juno has retained

00:05:20.960 counsel for this so they have costs associated with defending their reporting from this investigation it's

00:05:27.360 one of those situations where the process becomes the punishment so alex what were some of the other

00:05:33.760 concerns raised about this investigation into election reporting and what have other critics said

00:05:42.480 about how the government has targeted juno news over this well one of the biggest critics not necessarily

00:05:49.520 of the targeting of juno news specifically but of the law itself has been interestingly enough the courts

00:05:56.480 so the ontario court of justice the lower court already struck down a portion of section 91 1 which was

00:06:03.120 that they would they would want the government to pursue criminal charges against journalists even if they

00:06:08.240 made an error during an election cycle reporting on a candidate unknowingly um this is obviously

00:06:15.440 ridiculous um because it goes against the principle of mens rea somebody has to be aware that they're

00:06:21.520 committing a crime in order to to be fully guilty of it of course along with the act of spray that the 0.84

00:06:26.160 action of doing something and on the subject of actually doing something what i find also very confounding

00:06:31.840 about this decision from elections canada and in addition to the fact that they're pursuing charges

00:06:38.320 against bexty based off of a law that's already been deemed at least partially unconstitutional

00:06:44.000 the other thing that i find really strange is that it would be difficult burden of proof to show that

00:06:49.360 bexty engaged in any sort of misinformation on a political candidate because the liberals dropped

00:06:55.120 keeper and also keeper refused to respond for comment when asked about the contents of the article so i think

00:07:01.440 that this is a hopeless prosecution and i agree with the ccf insofar as i think that the process is

00:07:06.640 the punishment and i believe that this will not be successful but the government doesn't care

00:07:10.960 because they have an unlimited war chest um in terms of engaging in lawfare with citizens and i also

00:07:16.000 think it puts into jeopardy the perceptions of independence when it comes to elections canada the

00:07:20.480 fact that they are only enacting this law to target journalists who criticize the liberal government

00:07:24.720 ontario premier doug ford is under fire after dismissing concerns from young people struggling

00:07:32.080 to find employment telling them they quote aren't looking hard enough even as statistics canada reports

00:07:37.680 a surge in joblessness across the province speaking tuesday at a toronto board of trade breakfast

00:07:43.680 ford said that he gets frustrated when young healthy people say that they can't find jobs

00:07:48.400 he said quote i assure you if you look hard enough it may be in fast food or something else but

00:07:53.520 you'll find a job his remarks come days after statistics canada reported ontario lost 26 000

00:07:59.280 jobs in august the most of any province in the country ontario's unemployment rate dipped to 7.7

00:08:05.120 percent in august from 7.9 percent in july not due to job growth because more ontario's just

00:08:10.640 stopped looking for work youth unemployment in particular in ontario rose to 16.5 percent in august

00:08:16.880 from 16 in july significantly higher than the national youth rate of 14.5 percent in july 2022 the

00:08:23.280 province's youth jobless rate was only 10.1 percent compared to summer 2024 nearly 100 000 more

00:08:29.920 ontarians are unemployed with close to 206 000 youth age 15 to 24 jobless last month the greater

00:08:37.440 toronto area which experienced rapid population growth now faces a nine percent almost double digit

00:08:43.440 unemployment rate so cosmon is ford echoing what canadians feel about youth unemployment or do you

00:08:49.360 think that his comments are are tone deaf yeah i think tone deaf is a light way of putting it when

00:08:55.360 you look at the conversation around youth unemployment a lot of canadians are rightly looking at the 1.00

00:09:02.560 temporary foreign worker program as a reason why a lot of these traditionally entry-level jobs like gas

00:09:10.960 station attendants you know service jobs at tim hortons mcdonald's cashiers etc are being taken up

00:09:20.160 by low skilled imported labor which is one job taken away from a young canadian person who you know wants

00:09:30.160 to save some money for their summers or perhaps wants to pay their way through school or pay down some

00:09:37.360 of that student debt they acquired and if you actually look at the breakdown of the types of permits issued

00:09:47.120 under the temporary foreign worker program a majority of these permits are for jobs that require high

00:09:54.880 school education or less i think the number of permits for those that don't even require high school education

00:10:03.760 actually outnumber the jobs that require high school education so it's not high-skilled uh immigrant labor 0.98

00:10:11.600 that is being prioritized it's actually a lot of these jobs that would traditionally go to people who are just

00:10:18.720 getting a foothold in the job market trying to acquire some experience earn some money and those people of course are

00:10:27.760 young people primarily but also people who might be down on their luck or in between career paths so it's outrageous

00:10:36.080 to suggest that these individuals aren't looking hard enough i would ponder to ford what does it mean to look hard

00:10:43.840 enough is it 20 job applications where you don't hear a response is it 30 40 is it maybe two interviews where

00:10:52.320 you get declined for a job and then you see a temporary foreign worker hired in your place

00:11:01.200 gordon guyat the mcmaster professor widely regarded as the father of evidence-based medicine emphatically

00:11:09.440 denies describing youth gender treatments as medically necessary in an interview with beyond gender he admitted

00:11:16.400 signing a statement containing that phrase but said he would quote never use the term medically necessary

00:11:23.280 calling it completely wrong and adding he'd sooner quote jump off a bridge than use it the paragraph in

00:11:30.080 question from a letter guy at cosine said quote we will no longer accept funding from the society for

00:11:36.080 evidence-based gender medicine as recommended by community advocates we have also personally made a

00:11:41.600 donation to egale canada's legal and justice work noting their litigation efforts aimed at preventing the

00:11:47.680 denial of medically necessary care for gender diverse youth the mcmaster professor told interviewers

00:11:54.480 mia hughes and stella o'malley of genspect quote that was not my paragraph and i didn't read that part

00:12:02.000 carefully i was a dope couldn't discredit yourself by signing something with us with a paragraph that

00:12:07.680 clearly you don't hold with and that is is going to be positioned with your name what i wrote but

00:12:16.000 okay i was a dope okay i'm sometimes a dope i'm often a dope um the the what i looked at was we are

00:12:24.720 supporting this because of the act against the legislation that's what i took away that's what i took

00:12:31.280 away from it but you were afraid to be destroying four years work of second this was not a minor little

00:12:36.560 i'm a dope situation this was a phenomenal and you're disappointed with me and it's too bad and

00:12:42.080 so on so forth but you're picking out a couple of words is this is it why don't you look at why don't

00:12:49.360 you just focus on the overall message that i'm giving he said he intended only to oppose legislative

00:12:55.440 bans on treatment to not endorse the disputed label guyat said quote the fallout has been immense and

00:13:02.240 by signing my name is now attached to language i don't endorse mcmaster entered into a collaboration

00:13:08.000 with the society for evidence-based gender medicine in 2021 but guyat soon found their approach

00:13:14.640 problematic saying they placed quote zero value on patient autonomy he and colleagues issued a

00:13:21.040 statement cutting ties with the group and pledging donations to a pro-lgbtq legal group posing bans on

00:13:27.760 gender care for minors guyat said he was strongly opposed to governments using his studies to justify

00:13:34.320 restrictions he singled out alberta the u.s department of health and human services and more than 20

00:13:41.360 american states calling their reliance on his work quote egregious and unconscionable gordon guyat did not

00:13:47.280 respond to a request for comment this seems like a complete reversal for this mcmaster professor who

00:13:54.000 seemingly opposes any restrictions what is his actual stance on gender affirming care as far as

00:14:01.040 we know well as far as i understand it his he's he's kind of flip-flopped on it um and now he's of the

00:14:08.160 opinion that even though it may not be medically necessary and it may not even be medically advisable

00:14:14.480 for for someone especially a child to undergo transgender reassignment surgery he also doesn't think

00:14:19.440 that the government should be um in a place where they restrict individuals option to choose that

00:14:26.000 i think it's pretty disturbing that he's a leading medical expert on the subject and he's admitting

00:14:30.400 that he doesn't read things in full but i do appreciate the fact that he admitted to the error and i also

00:14:35.520 appreciate the fact that he is willing to engage with people on other side of the debate um guyat i learned

00:14:41.520 i wasn't very familiar with him as a figure until i stumbled across this story he actually ran for the ndp

00:14:47.680 at one point and i find that really interesting because typically um ndp being the party of the

00:14:53.920 left traditionally in canada is in favor of more government intervention in many parts of our lives

00:14:58.880 but he's taken this sort of libertarian approach when it comes to transgender reassignment surgery

00:15:03.520 so i don't know how he squares that circle i think that he might be a little bit confused but

00:15:07.680 again i appreciate his willingness to accept his error and also his willingness to engage with others

00:15:12.720 on all sides of the debate that's it for today folks thanks for tuning in you can stay on top

00:15:20.160 of new episodes every weekday by subscribing to the daily brief on itunes and spotify also while you're

00:15:26.240 at it make sure to hit us with a five-star rating and please leave a review

Juno News - September 11, 2025

Charlie Kirk assassinated

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