In this episode, we discuss the sudden departure of Chrystia Freeland, the cancellation of Conservative MP Garnett Genuos' event at York University, and a new rule limiting free speech at public universities.
00:00:28.420Freeland has been caught up in a conflict of interest scandal after accepting an offer to be economic development advisor to Ukraine this week.
00:00:37.720That job offer was announced just days after Canada handed Ukraine $2.5 billion in aid.
00:00:44.600If you think the timing of that is suspicious, you're not alone.
00:00:48.620When exactly did Freeland receive the job offer from Volodymyr Zelensky?
00:00:53.160Was she already working for Ukraine when Canadian taxpayers were handed a bill for $2.5 billion in aid for her new employer?
00:01:04.000Did the Prime Minister demand she leave this week rather than have the stench of this scandal hanging over the government for weeks to come?
00:01:12.320So far, the Liberal Gun Buyback Program has fallen short, far short of expectations.
00:01:19.300The pilot program has only collected 25 firearms in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
00:01:24.320Government officials had hoped to collect 200 guns, not to be deterred.
00:01:28.740The Liberal government told CBC it's learned some lessons after the failure of this pilot program.
00:01:36.760Since 2020, Ottawa has spent millions of dollars banning and trying to buy back 2,500 makes and models of firearms, arguing they are really designed for warfare.
00:01:47.540York University has abruptly canceled an event featuring conservative MP Garnett Genuos.
00:02:34.480Thank you. It's great to be with you today.
00:02:36.520What happened at York University? Why was that canceled?
00:02:39.140Yeah, so we've been doing these events across the country, talking to students about challenges they're facing in terms of the national unemployment crisis, very high levels of youth unemployment.
00:02:51.220And the event we do is in a public area with a banner, inviting students to come over and talk and chat with students about their circumstances.
00:02:58.960And the York University Student Center, which is a student representative body that is responsible for controlling the space and booking these events,
00:03:13.320they rejected the event from being able to move forward this week.
00:03:18.780And the rationale they provided was saying that they don't want guest speakers to be in public areas, that if I'm going to be on campus, it has to be in a closed room.
00:03:29.760I guess maybe that means people that might disagree with me won't have to go through the agony of walking past me and seeing the materials I have.
00:03:39.820But we want to do an event where we can be in a public area and engage with students who walk by and want to talk.
00:03:46.300But I think this is concerning from a free speech perspective.
00:03:50.440Just, hey, let students have the conversations.
00:03:52.860Let me talk to students who want to talk.
00:03:55.600But this student representative body is preventing it from happening.
00:04:02.860I mean, York is pretty left wing from actually grew up very close to York.
00:06:23.340I mean, you had an agreement in place with the university before they pulled the rug from under you.
00:06:29.760Do you have any action you can take to try and change this?
00:06:35.560Well, I always want to work with student groups on campus that are hosting it.
00:06:39.880So we did an event at Concordia previously where the club was not ratified, but they wanted to host us anyways.
00:06:47.320And so we just showed up, and it was a really successful event at Concordia.
00:06:51.580I was kind of ready for possible disruptions, but no such disruption occurred.
00:06:59.280In the case of York, my hope is that we'll be able to come back and do an event at some point in the future.
00:07:07.460I received the information on fairly short notice about the event not proceeding on Friday.
00:07:12.680So we're not going to proceed on Friday, but I expect to be able to be back at York to talk to students there at some point in the future.
00:07:23.340And I'm hopeful that we'll be able to do that and do that in a way that doesn't put the hosting students in a difficult position, but still allows us to have conversations with students at the campus.
00:07:33.480I wonder if you can sue the university over what they did.
00:07:39.080Well, it's not the university itself, right?
00:07:43.900It's this student body, the student center officially.
00:07:50.840And I mean, the remedy I would like is just to be able to talk to students, right?
00:07:58.340The goal of this wasn't to have a bunch of controversy around it.
00:08:02.060It was just to be able to go and talk to students.
00:08:04.680So I'm hopeful that people will see reason in, if not the days, then the weeks ahead.
00:08:11.100And I will be able to create an opportunity where I can go and do what I would like to do, which is be available, hear from students, talk about their issues and concerns.
00:08:20.300Tomorrow, I am going to be at TMU, Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly Ryerson.
00:08:27.480So students from the city can certainly come by and talk to me there.
00:08:30.500But I'm still holding out hope to be able to do something on York's campus.
00:08:34.080So there's no word that the people at what used to be known as Ryerson will be trying to prevent your event or that it might be subject to protests or harassment?
00:08:47.880And I think it's been six campuses we've visited so far across four provinces.
00:08:53.300There hasn't been any harassment or disruption.
00:08:59.600We've certainly had students come by and disagree.
00:09:01.300We've had, I mean, a few really good conversations, actually, with students who have different points of view.
00:09:08.540But also, I mean, the goal of these events in terms of being out and in traffic is also to create opportunities for students who aren't that political,
00:09:15.440who aren't normally kind of active in these political activities to be able to see what we're doing and come by and have a conversation.
00:09:23.960Because whatever you're studying, whether you're in a political discipline or not, politics affects your life.
00:09:28.780And students are living with those effects in terms of jobs and housing prices and other things.
00:09:34.360When I saw what you do and I congratulated you for it, I thought of Charlie Kirk and the danger that he was in and ultimately ended up being murdered while doing basically the same thing that you are doing.
00:09:50.440I mean, are you concerned, first off, for your own safety here?
00:09:54.720And is it possible that the university was spooked, that the student union was spooked by what happened in Utah to Charlie Kirk and for fear that something like that might happen to you?
00:10:06.000Has that entered your thinking at all?
00:10:09.200Well, I don't personally feel at risk in these situations.
00:10:18.620You know, I would say, as I said at the time, what happened with Charlie Kirk was terrible and it's concerning to see acts of violence or other instances of threats of violence against those who are involved in trying to have conversations about different issues.
00:10:41.180Personally, though, I haven't experienced any of that in the context of this work I've been doing on campuses and I have found so far, generally speaking, the people with whom I disagree have been very cordial and collegial.
00:10:57.140And even thanking me for taking the time to have these conversations, wherever you sit on the political spectrum, students are struggling with access to jobs, with housing affordability.
00:11:11.300These are real life practical issues for them that they want to have these conversations about.
00:11:16.680So I think it's important to be willing to confront difficult issues and have conversations even in the midst of controversy.
00:11:24.520But the events I've done, like the reason this is so bizarre is they have not been, they haven't been massive lightning rods.
00:11:34.180I'm just asking students, what's your life right now?
00:11:36.860How are you doing in terms of affording basic essentials that you need?
00:11:40.280And what can government do to better facilitate a reality in which you think having a good job and an affordable home is possible again?
00:11:48.620I have no doubt that your questions and the things you've been talking about are perfectly reasonable.
00:11:55.380But you're talking about environments where people have been radicalized, where you have, you know, far left.
00:12:03.080And these people are not pro free speech.
00:12:06.920You know, they think that people like yourself, you know, probably should be canceled.
00:12:11.660If you diverge even one iota from the groupthink that you see in these universities.
00:12:18.500And sure, the vast majority of people are going to be perfectly reasonable.
00:12:23.100But given that kind of environment, does it concern you that doing what you're doing could end up in some kind of clash with, frankly, some wingnut?
00:12:34.200Well, like, again, I think there's always a possible, a possibility of that happening.
00:12:43.420And I think it's a possibility that that exists, not, not just being on campus, right?
00:12:49.120So when you, when you do door to door camp canvassing, there's, there's also a possibility of having an interaction that, that turns very negative.
00:12:56.900And I think we as politicians need to be putting ourselves out there, being available for conversations with people, including people, people with whom we disagree, and, and doing everything we can to do so in a way that's, that, that doesn't, isn't going to create sort of problems for, for physical safety.
00:13:17.840Look, I, I, I, I, I worry sometimes that, like, the, the potential risks of those kinds of clashes you're, you're talking about, are going to lead to more disengagement, are going to reduce the likelihood of having the kinds of conversations across divides that we need to have.
00:13:35.280And, um, I think, you know, one of the things that was so admirable about Charlie Kirk is that he, in spite of, of some of the tension that could exist in those environments, he really believed in the importance of going in and having those conversations.
00:13:49.500Um, uh, and, uh, this is something that I think all of us in, on the elected side or not of public life need to be doing is trying to have conversations with people we disagree, uh, with and, and create opportunities for those exchanges.
00:14:03.600Um, but, but, but you're right that, that, that, that can carry some perceived risk and, uh, the implications of that is maybe some people choose to disengage from that, which, which makes us all worse off.
00:14:18.460Have any professors engaged with you at all during these presentations of yours?
00:14:26.080I haven't had a lot of conversations with faculty or administration, but I think I've had a couple.
00:14:31.760Um, that, that's not the primary goal of these, of these conversations and, and, uh, um, the, the focus is more on, on young people specifically, but, um, um, I'm not, I'm not recalling really specifically, but I think I've had a few conversations with professors.
00:14:56.980I, I think what you're doing is terrific and I was just, uh, I would just be careful because these are environments where you have radicalized individuals, as I've mentioned, and sometimes you can see them coming from, you know, a hundred yards away.
00:15:13.360Um, but I'd like to shift gears a little bit, uh, Christia Freeland is now going to be leaving her seat tomorrow.
00:15:20.960And originally her announcement seems to suggest she was going to hang around for weeks and then all of a sudden, poof, she's leaving tomorrow.
00:15:29.780Do you think the prime minister had a little chat with her and say, you know what, given you've accepted this position as economic advisor to Ukraine,
00:15:37.060and you're obviously in the midst of a conflict of interest, you should leave now.
00:15:45.640Yeah, it's, it's hard to speculate what, how the conversations exactly unfolded, but the, the idea that it didn't, this didn't occur to, to liberals in advance just kind of shows the, the problems with their political culture around conflict of interest.
00:16:01.120Uh, we have, you know, Mark Carney is the most conflicted prime minister in this country's history.
00:16:06.800Um, there are, there are so many different, different conflicts of interest that touch on him, uh, conflicts where there was, there wasn't even a basic level of disclosure, um, prior to him, uh, becoming prime minister.
00:16:19.560Uh, so there's, there's a culture of conflict of interest that starts at the top.
00:16:24.060Um, and I think with Chrystia Freeland, look, it's, it's very important to, uh, to make the appropriate distinction that, um, uh, you know, Canada has allies.
00:16:34.600Ukraine is an important ally of Canada.
00:16:37.860We, we, we, we support and wish our allies well.
00:16:41.140Um, but there's still a conflict of interest, right?
00:16:43.320It, it, it, it wouldn't matter if, if it was working for, um, a private company, a provincial government, uh, a, uh, any one of our allies and partners around the world.
00:16:54.060To be a Canadian member of parliament, um, you know, what, while also being a senior advisor to, to, uh, a foreign government, even an allied government, um, is, is clearly not appropriate.
00:17:09.200And the fact that this wasn't thought through just kind of shows the culture of conflict of interest that has come to exist in that party.
00:17:15.320Uh, late last month, the government of Canada handed Ukraine, quite the Christmas present, two and a half billion dollars in aid.
00:17:23.300I think we've given them by my account, just rough counted over 24, 25, 26 billion.
00:17:30.520Um, do you think the timing of that was suspicious that Kirstie Freeland, who was still an MP, we had no idea that she was about to accept this position may have been already aware of that job offer.
00:17:46.700And maybe help facilitate this aid, this two and a half billion dollars.
00:17:53.340And in other words, you know, did she have a conflict of interest in that move to give Ukraine, uh, this added aid money?
00:18:02.400I mean, does that make you suspicious at all?
00:18:04.720Well, I mean, I think, so one important point of precision here is that I don't, uh, from what I understand, the position that Kirstie Freeland is, is taking, uh, with the government of Ukraine is a, is an unpaid voluntary position.
00:18:18.120So, so in other words, we're, when I talk about conflict of interest, it's not an issue of her, her personally benefiting from this.
00:18:23.960It's, it's, it's, it's just more that, um, you know, you, you're, you're supposed to have in a general sense, one, one job at a time.
00:18:32.040Um, I, um, I, I believe the conservative opposition believes that, uh, a victory for Ukraine, uh, is important.
00:18:40.940Uh, and, uh, our criticisms of the government on this file have been, uh, that they've, uh, failed on sanctions and they failed to support the development of our energy sector.
00:18:50.720What we should have been doing from the beginning is consistently applying, uh, tough sanctions on, uh, Russian exports, especially in areas where Canada, Canadian industrial development could replace those products being exported by Russia.
00:19:05.920Uh, of course, we need to be, uh, strengthening our oil and gas sector, supporting oil and gas exports to be able to displace, uh, the export of Russian gas.
00:19:14.460Uh, I've also been quite vocal on the issue of Russian titanium sanctions.
00:19:18.240Uh, and, uh, we, we, we had, but then created exemptions for Russian, uh, titanium, uh, and the Russian titanium industry has been a big part of, of the, uh, the, the aggressive war that's, that's been waged in Ukraine.
00:19:31.800Uh, we should be sanctioning, consistently sanctioning the titanium industry and the Russian government hasn't been willing to do that.
00:19:37.140So, like, what frustrates me here is that, um, you know, there, there's a lot of talk about the spending, uh, but there's a lot of things we could do that would help Ukraine and be in Canada's, uh, national and economic interest.
00:19:50.160That is to be, uh, to be applying tough, consistent sanctions, uh, to, uh, Russian industries and for us to be developing, uh, alternatives to those Russian industries so that our European partners don't have to be reliant on, on Russia.
00:20:05.040Um, I think those are things we could be doing that would make a big difference to contribute to Ukrainian victory.