Juno News - Danielle Smith stands by gender policies despite protests

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 welcome to canada's most irreverent talk show this is the andrew lawton show brought to you by true

00:01:20.440 north hello and welcome to you all this is canada's most irreverent talk show live on this

00:01:31.360 wednesday february 7th just after one o'clock eastern time 10 a.m pacific 2 30 in lovely

00:01:38.200 newfoundland hope you are having a wonderful day and wonderful week i wanted to today's going to

00:01:45.540 be i i think a very interesting show i've been telling you for the last couple days we're going

00:01:49.920 have premier danielle smith on the program that is going to be today i the the calamity i feared

00:01:56.240 might happen by jinxing it did not occur and we were able to proceed that interview was recorded

00:02:01.920 yesterday evening so we'll share that with you in just a few moments time we sat down at the

00:02:07.120 albany club which is a very lovely place it's a i don't even know how to describe it it's like a

00:02:12.160 it's a private club by definition but it's not they've allowed me i'm not a member but like

00:02:18.000 Like I've been told I could apply for membership and would probably get it.

00:02:21.320 So I don't think it's all that exclusive to use the old, I think, was it Groucho Marx or Chico Marx or Harpo Marx or Karl Marx?

00:02:28.800 I don't know.

00:02:29.480 Whoever said, you know, I'd never be a member of a club that would have me as a member.

00:02:32.680 That's kind of how I feel about it.

00:02:34.480 But I joke, it's a lovely place.

00:02:36.760 I actually spoke there when my book, The Freedom Convoy, came out.

00:02:40.200 And it was good to be back for this interview with Danielle Smith.

00:02:43.120 She was the keynote speaker of the Albany Club's big annual black tie dinner, the Sir John A. McDonald dinner.

00:02:50.000 And because it is Danielle Smith and this is Canada, she was met with protesters who have been following her as she's gone through Ontario.

00:02:57.500 She had an event in Ottawa on Monday that was protested.

00:03:01.120 They've protested her in Toronto yesterday.

00:03:03.780 I'm assuming whenever she appears next, she'll be protested.

00:03:06.320 all in response to the announcement that she made last week that we spoke about on the show

00:03:11.680 about parental rights, about caution and consideration and compassion for younger

00:03:18.800 people who are transgender, who are battling or grappling with gender dysphoria. The announcement,

00:03:24.100 I mean, there were a number of policies. She said they're going to ban any sex reassignment

00:03:27.720 surgeries for minors, any hormone therapy for minors under the age of 16, protecting

00:03:35.900 women's only sports and also insisting on parental rights if a youth under 16 wants to change their 0.56

00:03:43.320 name, gender, pronouns, etc. in school. These are policies that are incredibly popular

00:03:49.200 with the majority of Canadian parents across religious lines, political lines, geographic

00:03:55.120 lines, cultural lines, all of it. These are policies that are not just conservative, let alone

00:04:00.580 social conservative so really these protesters are in the minority you know that old line from

00:04:06.180 justin trudeau the fringe minority this is a literal fringe minority this is a literal fringe

00:04:12.200 minority that was coming out to protest danielle smith now the albany club is a very old building

00:04:17.300 it goes back to the 1800s i don't know when the current building was constructed but old buildings

00:04:22.260 do not insulate from sound very well so i was getting a little nervous when we were setting up

00:04:26.760 and starting to hear the chants from protesters who were like right outside we were on the third

00:04:32.660 floor they were right outside and below where we were and I was noted I noticed and I remarked to

00:04:38.500 Sean my producer and Jeff was there as well who's a videographer with True North I remarked that it

00:04:44.500 was odd that they ran out of the trans chants after like 15 minutes and they had already reverted to

00:04:50.140 from the river to the sea Palestine will be free which perhaps you believe perhaps you don't I'm

00:04:55.760 not sure what that has to do with Danielle Smith or the Albany Club. But Sean then sent me this

00:05:01.380 video later on because he was outside and they had again exhausted the trans stuff and the from

00:05:06.960 the river to the sea stuff and they were just shouting about intifada. Long live the intifada.

00:05:23.560 All right. Well, there you go. The Alberta premier, Danielle Smith, she's been told

00:05:26.900 long live the Intifada. That is all of these protests. If you've ever been to like a left

00:05:31.800 wing protest, first off, I hope you took a shower and got deloused. But if you've ever been to a

00:05:36.140 left wing protest, you'll notice that they all kind of converge by the end of it into the same

00:05:41.320 thing. They're indistinguishable. It's all about trans lives, black lives, Palestinian lives and 1.00

00:05:46.880 indigenous land. And it's all this sort of amorphous mass that is indistinct. So again, 1.00

00:05:52.080 when these people were carrying their trans flags and talking about liberation for Palestinians,

00:05:58.140 I was really encouraging. I was like, yes, why don't you go and take your message? I didn't say

00:06:02.600 this. I, you know, I just, I had to get home. I'd been away from home for a long time, but had I

00:06:06.400 said it, which is the most cowardly thing is like, if I were to say it, I would have said, I would

00:06:10.900 love for you to take your trans flag to Gaza and really spread the message of trans liberation of

00:06:16.400 Palestinian liberation all at once. But nevertheless, the protesters were a pretty 0.89

00:06:22.160 meager group there. There was this one clip I'll play for you. I want you to help me because I'm

00:06:27.600 actually having trouble figuring out what they're even saying in this one.

00:06:40.760 I have no idea. It's like rabble, rabble, rabble, rabble, rabble. So they're saying something,

00:06:45.280 they're chanting something what was it you thought they were saying sean sean uh i i had

00:06:49.560 him try to demystify it earlier i gotta find his uh oh stand up fight i didn't hear stand up fight

00:06:55.680 back i maybe you did that's fine um he sean was out there in the midst uh filming that so uh stand

00:07:01.920 up fight back might have been this the syllables match up yeah but the syllables match up of like

00:07:06.180 chicken cornbread uh that also matches up like it's just your four syllables is all i wouldn't

00:07:11.060 I wouldn't start counting the syllables

00:07:12.300 and saying that you know the words from that.

00:07:14.760 But I don't know why chicken cornbread

00:07:17.040 was the first four syllable thing that came to my mind.

00:07:19.900 It might've been that like Southern restaurant

00:07:21.320 I went to in Washington, DC.

00:07:23.740 Nevertheless, this was what Danielle Smith

00:07:26.380 was grappling with.

00:07:27.320 Now I can say that she was unfazed by it.

00:07:29.700 We did the interview and she was quite unflinching

00:07:32.460 and unrepentant about the gender policies

00:07:35.440 that she announced a couple of weeks ago.

00:07:37.040 So I wanna share that interview with you.

00:07:38.740 We'll also talk on the other side of it

00:07:41.060 about the political repercussions of this beyond uh danielle smith because this has now entered

00:07:45.860 the federal realm we finally got some clarity from a conservative leader pierre polyev today

00:07:50.980 about his position but here was my interview with alberta premier danielle smith yesterday

00:07:55.700 at the albany club in toronto sitting at the albany club the mainstay of the canadian

00:08:02.420 conservative movement with alberta premier danielle smith premier always good to talk to you thank you

00:08:07.380 Thank you so much for joining me today.

00:08:08.980 My pleasure.

00:08:09.500 So how do you feel being in Ontario, first and foremost?

00:08:11.800 I know you haven't gotten the warmest welcome as we'll talk about from some folks.

00:08:15.120 You know, I've had a really warm welcome.

00:08:16.940 It's been amazing.

00:08:18.500 I had some great meetings with the minister as well as the opposition members.

00:08:23.120 I also had a chance to speak to the Economic Club of Canada.

00:08:27.700 And I'll be doing another speech this evening.

00:08:30.400 And, you know, my message is the reason I'm on the road is to tell people that Alberta's open for business.

00:08:35.780 Alberta wants to be part of a strong and united Canada. When Alberta does well, Canada does well.

00:08:40.880 And we just need to get the federal government out of our way so that we can continue to invest

00:08:45.160 in our economy. So I think people are liking that message. And I'm hoping to see more investment in

00:08:49.720 Alberta as a result. Well, we'll certainly get to that in a few moments. But I want to begin

00:08:54.180 starting off really about the announcement that you made a little over a week ago on

00:08:59.040 a suite of policies related to gender and health care for transgender individuals, the way they're

00:09:05.500 treated in the education system and in sports you packed a lot into that and I I wonder if I can

00:09:11.100 kind of offer a question here about why it took so long when we saw similar moves in Saskatchewan

00:09:17.320 and New Brunswick what was it that made now the moment and not months ago when people were pushing

00:09:22.660 your government to have an answer to these questions well I've been watching this unfold

00:09:26.280 over the the last number of years and I've I've also paid attention as we've seen lawsuits that

00:09:33.480 have generated, not just here, but around the world. We've watched as the policy that was

00:09:40.200 really began in the approach that was started in the Netherlands, started getting rolled back in

00:09:45.020 some of the Nordic and progressive nations in Europe. And then of course the UK in particular,

00:09:50.100 which made a pretty dramatic move to schedule the shutdown of their gender identity clinic, 0.77

00:09:56.180 Tavistock, as a result of a lawsuit. So I was watching this and seeing as well locally

00:10:02.620 there was a young transgender woman who felt pushed into, rushed into making a decision

00:10:08.440 prematurely and has had ongoing health issues as a result of that. So as I looked at this window

00:10:16.400 of the range of debate on it, I wanted to see if we could find a balance. We know that

00:10:22.620 transgender adults need better support in their medical decisions. There's a lot of aftercare

00:10:27.360 that has to happen because of surgery. There's lifetime hormonal treatment and managing 0.77

00:10:32.420 some of the side effects that has to occur, so we want to make sure that they have access to the

00:10:36.180 care that they need. But then we have to talk about when is it that a child should be making

00:10:40.720 these decisions that, in some cases, are irreversible. So we believe that these are

00:10:46.500 adult decisions to be made as adults, so no surgery until 18 and over, and no cross-sex

00:10:54.160 hormones as well until 16 and older. We think 16 is kind of the age where kids now begin to

00:10:59.200 understand the consequences of what it is that they're choosing. And we want to make sure that

00:11:03.620 there's a pathway to keep families informed along the way and involved along the way. So that was

00:11:07.960 the approach we wanted to take. You put forward in your announcement video what I and a lot of

00:11:13.020 people have lauded as being a very compassionate message, a very balanced and nuanced message. But

00:11:20.300 you fast forward to today, and I don't know how much of it people watching this interview can

00:11:24.360 here. But you've got protesters outside that have been chanting some pretty vile things inexplicably

00:11:29.900 about Palestine too, which I don't know if Alberta has a skin in the game on that foreign policy 0.99

00:11:35.440 debate. But you had the same thing in Ottawa, a lot of protesters here. And you also, from the

00:11:40.580 federal Liberal government, had some, I think, very torqued rhetoric in response to this. Randy

00:11:46.380 Boissoneau, an Alberta Member of Parliament for the Liberals, said this was the NATO moment. So

00:11:51.420 So do you think there's truth to the criticism you've had from some of your supporters, that you're trying to find a compromise with people that aren't willing to compromise?

00:11:59.100 Look, I know that there is not uniformity of opinion in the medical profession.

00:12:03.960 There's not uniformity of opinion in the LGBT plus community either.

00:12:08.380 And as a result, I consulted broadly to try to get a suite of proposals that I thought were going to be very reasonable.

00:12:16.040 I think the rhetoric and the way in which the protesters are reacting is it's not helpful.

00:12:22.720 They're not being truthful about what it is that I'm proposing because I'm very supportive of allowing and helping a person become who they want to be, whatever that pathway is.

00:12:32.700 what I think we have to be mindful of as adults is that kids don't necessarily have the full

00:12:39.600 context of what it means if they're making decisions for sterilization, what it means

00:12:44.020 if they're making decisions for cross-sex hormones that create permanent changes.

00:12:47.860 And until they are old enough to understand the ramifications of those, we think we have

00:12:51.680 to be very cautious. Give them support, give them mental health treatment, give them counseling

00:12:57.360 to make sure that they can develop the comfort level

00:13:01.940 so that they can make that decision.

00:13:03.520 But don't make that decision prematurely.

00:13:05.680 That's what we're concerned about

00:13:06.860 because I've read many stories of regret,

00:13:10.580 of people feeling like they got rushed,

00:13:12.740 people feeling they made the decision prematurely,

00:13:14.980 people detransitioning.

00:13:16.560 And we shouldn't be in that situation.

00:13:18.560 I don't want any person going through this

00:13:20.920 feeling like they made a mistake.

00:13:22.800 We want to make sure that every person

00:13:24.160 who makes this decision is confident

00:13:25.900 and happy with their choice

00:13:26.900 so that we're supporting them.

00:13:27.840 So that's part of the reason for the caution.

00:13:29.700 On polling we've seen on this, parents' rights specifically,

00:13:33.140 not some of the other aspects of this, there is massive support.

00:13:36.840 It cuts across religious groups.

00:13:38.360 It cuts across political groups.

00:13:40.000 This is not purely a social conservative issue.

00:13:42.660 I know you've never really identified as a social conservative specifically,

00:13:46.040 but it does touch on some of these issues that are claimed by these groups.

00:13:50.180 And one issue that's come up in the last few days is people saying,

00:13:53.040 well, if you're requiring parental consent for gender transition, why not parental consent for

00:13:58.560 abortion as well? I would say people want to know what's going on with their kids. That's the reason

00:14:03.380 why. And this is a long transition process. It begins with the renaming and the adoption of

00:14:10.620 pronouns, moves on to puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, and then ultimately ends up

00:14:15.380 in surgery and a complete transition. And families need to be involved in every step

00:14:20.360 of that process these are lifelong changes that a child is making and so we want to make sure

00:14:25.960 that the changes that they're making are ones that they can live with on the other issue as you know

00:14:30.440 i'm i'm i'm for choice and i do believe as well as similarly having a child is a lifelong decision

00:14:38.360 and it's a one that the the parent is the one principally who should be making that decision

00:14:43.080 and the parent is the one who is having the child so i um i think we have to make sure that young

00:14:48.120 people are not abused. And that's not the reason. Sexual abuse is not the reason for why it is that

00:14:55.240 they find themselves pregnant. But I would leave that to the child to make sure that they're making 1.00

00:15:02.240 a decision that they can live with. Are you concerned about the federal government trying

00:15:06.360 to involve itself in some way? Are there mechanisms the federal government even has available? Because

00:15:10.880 they've clearly decided this is a policy they take great issue with, that you're advancing in Alberta.

00:15:15.360 Well, I think, again, part of the reason for my caution and delay is I'd really hoped that we could depoliticize this.

00:15:24.620 There are serious concerns.

00:15:26.000 Hasn't really worked out, has it?

00:15:27.860 You know, it hasn't.

00:15:30.640 And I think that's a shame because I'm trying to be quite measured in the approach that I'm taking.

00:15:36.640 I have transgender friends.

00:15:39.260 I have a transgender staff.

00:15:41.900 I have a transgender family member.

00:15:43.980 I have spent a lot of time trying to understand how this community feels and what their needs are.

00:15:49.740 But I also know that there are a handful of people who have regret.

00:15:55.480 And that has me very concerned.

00:15:57.760 I've mentioned before Lois Cardinal.

00:15:59.580 I mean, her story stays with me.

00:16:01.660 And because she ultimately went to a point where she wanted to seek medical assistance in dying because of the complications that happened after her surgery 14 years later.

00:16:10.960 We've got to address those health needs. 0.92

00:16:12.860 We've got to make sure that people like Lois feel supported.

00:16:17.460 So I think it's being mischaracterized.

00:16:20.340 I think that people will see that the measures that we put in place that allow for us to attract more doctors who can do the surgical aftercare, who can give that long-term life care, I think people will see that we're actually going to be very supportive of the trans community.

00:16:35.200 I wanted to turn to what you started off talking about, which is the relationship between Alberta and Ottawa.

00:16:40.480 This week you opened up or reopened, I should say.

00:16:43.320 It's been closed for quite some time at Alberta's representative office in Ottawa.

00:16:47.380 And I'm curious where you think this relationship can go,

00:16:51.860 because I know you and your minister, Rebecca Schultz,

00:16:54.160 have had very harsh words for Stephen Gilbeau in particular,

00:16:56.500 and I won't pretend for a moment they haven't been undeserved.

00:16:59.640 But is it a relationship that can be fixed?

00:17:02.720 And what would that look like?

00:17:04.360 Not with Stephen Gilbeau. I mean, he's an ideologue.

00:17:06.000 But with Justin Trudeau. I mean, is he the problem or is the government itself the problem?

00:17:09.740 It's tough for me to tell because there are some ministers that he's put in place who have a very

00:17:13.260 constructive relationship with. Ones who are just as excited about some of the investments we're

00:17:17.960 making in our province as I am. Whether it's the Dow chemical petrochemical project that's net zero

00:17:23.040 or air products net zero hydrogen or Heidelberg and their plan for net zero cement or even

00:17:29.700 de Havilland and their aviation project. The federal government has partnered with us on

00:17:34.080 making sure those got to the finish line. So I know that there are ministers in that government

00:17:39.140 who want to see Alberta do well. It's just so baffling then why Stephen Guibault was allowed to

00:17:44.560 act like a renegade and just freelance on policy after policy after policy that works against that

00:17:51.240 end that would essentially shut down our industry. Not only damaging us, but damaging themselves.

00:17:56.900 That's the thing that's baffling to me is when Alberta does well, because the federal government

00:18:01.060 has a higher corporate income tax, higher personal income taxes, higher taxes generally across the

00:18:06.000 support, they do very well off the revenues generated

00:18:09.980 in Alberta that then go to fund the programs

00:18:13.580 that they support across the country.

00:18:15.080 So this has been one of the frustrations of our province

00:18:19.120 is that we are contributors to Confederation

00:18:22.120 and we're happy to be wealth creators,

00:18:24.660 but the ingratitude that we often see

00:18:27.180 from the federal government is almost like,

00:18:28.760 well, we wanna crush your economy, 1.00

00:18:30.460 but keep the money coming.

00:18:31.500 It doesn't work that way.

00:18:32.820 If they want us to be contributing members

00:18:35.300 to confederation and to help out, they've got to allow us to be able to develop our own wealth.

00:18:40.360 Yeah. And I think that's the one area that's always been tremendously inconsistent. I mean,

00:18:44.020 Quebec is a notable example of this. They spare no effort in cashing checks from Alberta,

00:18:49.280 but when it comes to developing the resource sector in Canada, they've been blocking it. And

00:18:53.400 I know you've had positive things to say about your discussions with Premier Legault in the past,

00:18:58.720 but is there a way to break through when you have premiers that are being very resistant to

00:19:03.800 development. I mean, British Columbia has always been a sticking point for getting Alberta oil to

00:19:08.360 market, but Quebec as well. Look, natural gas is a transition fuel. Canada signed on to COP and the

00:19:15.300 final communique, and it says right in there that natural gas is a transition. Yeah, the war was

00:19:19.960 supposed to be on coal, not on oil and gas. So let's act as if we're going to live up to the

00:19:25.080 commitment that we made and provide natural gas, not only to the rest of the country, but also to

00:19:29.060 the world. I mean, Quebec has enormous natural gas resources. They would be able to develop

00:19:33.740 carbon capture utilization and storage technology, develop hydrogen, develop ammonia,

00:19:38.020 and be able to support our international trading partners. They could do that too.

00:19:42.340 They're suffering from constriction in their electricity grid as well. I mean, they're at

00:19:47.480 the peak of their energy with the hydro development that they have. It's not going to be any easier

00:19:52.920 to get hydroelectric development done today. There's impact on the land, on biodiversity,

00:19:57.580 diversity, on First Nations rights. And so I think there has to be a bit of a reality

00:20:01.940 check in Quebec and there has to be a reality check at the federal level. In Europe, they've

00:20:06.300 embraced the idea that natural gas is a transition fuel so that we're able to bring everybody

00:20:11.760 up to a level of wealth and prosperity so that we can address the issue of energy poverty,

00:20:18.200 which is a very serious global issue. And I just feel like if you're going to sign an

00:20:22.220 agreement agreeing to those principles, then agree to all the principles. And I would like

00:20:26.760 to see Quebec and Canada do that.

00:20:29.600 I know your government sent quite a large delegation

00:20:31.780 to the most recent COP conference,

00:20:33.480 and I presume, without getting you to commit to anything,

00:20:35.980 that that will happen in the future.

00:20:37.440 I'll commit to it.

00:20:38.040 I'm going to Azerbaijan, and I am going to Brazil as well.

00:20:40.860 There's no way I can have Stephen Guibault.

00:20:42.880 As long as he is Environment Minister,

00:20:44.480 and I've called for him to be fired, and I stand by that,

00:20:46.940 as long as he is Environment Minister,

00:20:48.500 I will have to go to those conferences.

00:20:50.300 Because he cannot represent Alberta's interests

00:20:53.200 on the international state.

00:20:54.380 So you kind of answered the question I was going to ask,

00:20:56.620 which was whether you are able to or trying to do an end run around the federal government.

00:21:01.080 But is that what it's had to come to now, that provinces have to basically have their own, you know, their own diplomatic corps, basically, to start representing Canada's interests at the East Bora?

00:21:10.680 There's no question we have to. I mean, it's part and parcel of why we're represented now in Ottawa.

00:21:14.640 Quebec is represented in Ottawa. They have an office there.

00:21:17.840 And I find that very interesting, being that most of the civil service is from Quebec and that they're right across the river in Hull.

00:21:23.680 and yet they felt a need to be able to have a diplomatic office in Ottawa.

00:21:26.700 Well, if they're there, then we should be there too.

00:21:28.980 They're internationally at more international offices as well.

00:21:32.680 Internationally, they also go to all of these conferences.

00:21:35.180 And internationally, they also sign on to subnational agreements that are hostile to our interests.

00:21:40.460 So my view is that there are a lot of energy producing nations in the world

00:21:44.500 and subnational governments that want to do the right thing,

00:21:48.260 that want to find ways to share technology, use carbon capture utilization and storage,

00:21:52.760 develop hydrogen, develop ammonia, and increasingly in Alberta, look at things like geothermal and

00:21:59.880 brine lithium as a way of taking our current resource and using and developing it in a

00:22:04.520 different way. And we want to share that technology. So I want to assist in bringing

00:22:09.000 the subnational and national governments together who are energy producers so that we can share that

00:22:13.960 technology. And I think that the COP meetings are the perfect place to do that. So I think that

00:22:18.840 you'll see a much stronger presence of Alberta in the future.

00:22:23.020 I know it's very easy for Albertans who voted against the Liberals

00:22:27.680 in the vast majority of the province in the last federal election

00:22:30.420 to find a foe in the Liberal government right now.

00:22:32.720 And I think that probably makes your job easier in a way

00:22:34.980 because you can kind of point to Ottawa and this government.

00:22:37.320 But Alberta has not always had great success historically

00:22:40.320 with Conservative governments federally.

00:22:42.040 I think of the Brian Mulroney years,

00:22:43.540 which were perhaps preferable to Pierre Trudeau,

00:22:45.580 but not by much to a lot of people.

00:22:47.100 And I'm curious, not to force you back into your previous role as a political accommodator, but I'm curious what your sense is from what Pierre Polyev has said to you, either privately or what he said publicly, about what a change in that direction would mean for Alberta.

00:23:03.940 Would it make a lot of the issues that you have with Ottawa go away, or are there still some grave concerns you'd have that are general, regardless of who's in power federally?

00:23:11.400 One of the things I find that Pierre Polyev says a lot is, let the province run provincial

00:23:16.980 jurisdiction. Let the province runs the hospital. Let the province run the school system. Focus on

00:23:23.220 the things that the federal government should be focused on. They've got a big job to do.

00:23:27.080 They have to express who we are on the international stage in international trade and

00:23:32.660 foreign aid in national defense. They have to develop immigration policy. They have to

00:23:39.560 manage our money supply and the value of our dollar. These are all a justice system. There's

00:23:47.260 a lot that the federal government has to do, but they're not doing particularly well. So rather

00:23:51.760 than trying to tell me how to run my business, I think they should focus on running their own

00:23:55.280 business. And I get the very strong sense that Pierre understands just how much there is to

00:24:00.120 fix at the federal level. He has no interest in micromanaging the provinces. I think we'll find

00:24:05.240 lots of areas of collaboration. So if there's a change of government, I think it will be very

00:24:10.580 good for Alberta. Premier, thank you. My pleasure. That was my chat yesterday with Alberta Premier

00:24:18.500 Danielle Smith. I've often joked I used to be her go-to guest host or fill-in at 770 CHQR in

00:24:25.700 Calgary. So my joke, which is now overused, but you, well, it's my show, so you have to listen

00:24:29.880 to it again, is that I think the Constitution says I'm the acting premier now because I've

00:24:34.120 never technically been told I wasn't her fill-in so it was good to be radio colleagues good now to

00:24:38.480 sit down in a different capacity as she is the premier and I am well still a broadcaster but

00:24:44.400 having more fun than when I work for a legacy media outlet I must admit but she's done something

00:24:50.360 there that I think is very important now I was getting a little bit I don't want to say antsy

00:24:55.020 because I knew from sources I had spoken to in the Alberta government that something was coming

00:24:59.900 but I had wondered why it was taking so long. You may recall it was back in, I think, November that

00:25:05.000 the UCP had its AGM members overwhelmingly voted for parental rights policies. We had

00:25:10.120 the federal conservatives vote for this in September. We had New Brunswick push this in

00:25:14.700 the summer, Saskatchewan not long after. And a lot of people were saying, why is Alberta,

00:25:18.720 the conservative heartland of Canada, not doing the same? And when the announcement ultimately

00:25:24.260 came out, it became far more apparent why. The reason was because we had a government that was

00:25:30.280 doing a lot more. It's not even possible to summarize in one sentence what this legislation

00:25:36.220 is about, because it touches on healthcare, it touches on sports, it touches on education,

00:25:41.300 it touches on all of these things. And that was why, to bring it to the federal realm for a moment,

00:25:46.660 Pierre Polyev has had a bit of an out when people have asked him about it, because people have asked

00:25:50.600 in general terms there was a an exchange he had with a reporter for omni a couple of days ago

00:25:56.520 in which the reporter and i felt bad for the guy because it was just it wasn't even a reporter it

00:26:00.840 was a camera guy that had been given a question to ask and then he asks the question and it was

00:26:06.520 a terrible question terribly worded but he he didn't know anything about it he was just like

00:26:10.520 reading it to get pauliev's response so pauliev then you know does the pauliev thing with the

00:26:14.680 the media before he sort of pulled back on it. But what ended up happening there was he had,

00:26:21.720 the premise of the question was that Paul Yev is restricting access to transgender youth. It was

00:26:26.620 some variation of that. There was a better version of the question asked yesterday in Montreal by

00:26:32.840 Justin Ling, who's a left-leaning reporter, but he's been on the show. I've always had a very

00:26:37.820 cordial relationship with him. But Justin Ling asked a question, which I think was entirely

00:26:42.600 fair which was you know first off where do you stand personally on this and then more importantly

00:26:48.540 is it true this Globe and Mail story that said your caucus members are forbidden from speaking

00:26:54.060 out about it this came out a couple of days ago now again I didn't like Justin Ling's framing of

00:26:59.060 the policy itself which was non-specific as you'll see and Polyev seized on that but this was the

00:27:05.720 exchange in question. You often said you support medical freedom, that you oppose the state

00:27:13.280 imposing medical choices on the Canadians. Yesterday, you were asked about a new policy

00:27:19.020 in Alberta, which restricts health care for transgender youth in particular. You refused to

00:27:25.140 say where you actually stand on those regulations. You attacked journalists who asked you that

00:27:30.840 question as peddling disinformation for the prime minister. So can you say now where you stand on

00:27:37.240 the state restricting health care access for transgender youth? And can you confirm whether

00:27:42.560 or not your caucus is allowed to speak freely on this issue? First and foremost, you are spreading

00:27:50.020 disinformation and you refuse to even describe the policy proposals that are being debated.

00:27:56.100 You refuse to even list any of them. And the reason that you the reason you do, let's be clear

00:28:00.040 why you don't do it. Because you don't want to lose the debate. And so if you keep it vague

00:28:06.400 and you actually refrain from actually describing the policies that Premier Smith is putting in

00:28:12.480 place, then you think that you can misrepresent them and misrepresent conservatives.

00:28:19.300 This is exactly what Justin Trudeau has done. You notice that Trudeau has not given a single

00:28:24.220 example of any of the policies that premier smith has brought forward that he individually disagrees

00:28:30.460 with because he doesn't want to be specific about it and that's because he and you want to peddle in

00:28:38.300 disinformation in order to demonize uh premier smith and parents and justin trudeau has spread

00:28:49.260 hatred against parents he's accused muslim parents of being hateful because they were standing up

00:28:56.700 for their kids he's attacked christian parents he has suggested that parents cannot be trusted

00:29:03.740 with their kids and i disagree with him i think we have to trust parents no one cares for their

00:29:09.740 kids more than parents and that's why justin trudeau should butt out he should let parents

00:29:17.020 raise kids and let provinces run schools and hospitals

00:29:22.780 so again he gives a general support for what provinces are are doing and in general i think

00:29:30.300 he's saying the federal government shouldn't engage but he still didn't deal with the core

00:29:34.620 of the question and the core of the question is what do you think about this policy

00:29:39.020 and are members of your caucus allowed to do it and this is by the way now almost a full week

00:29:44.780 after it was announced i think six days after it was announced he knows the questions are coming

00:29:49.900 parties prep the leader and their members of parliament up the yin-yang with talking points

00:29:54.700 and messages for how to respond to these things and still there was not a cogent or cohesive answer

00:30:01.180 to the question at stake well we finally got one this morning on a key part of it but as you'll see

00:30:06.460 in this clip i'm about i i won't even comment on it i'll just share the clip with you right now

00:30:10.620 It's about two and a half minutes long because I want you to get the full back and forth of this.

00:30:15.060 And then I'll have some thoughts on the other end of it.

00:30:17.220 But this is this morning at a press conference that Pierre Pauly have held in Ottawa.

00:30:23.940 Do you support age restrictions for puberty blockers and hormone therapies for trans kids?

00:30:28.880 I think that Justin Trudeau is trying to divide and distract Canadians by spreading disinformation about the decisions that Premiers and parents are making.

00:30:41.340 What do you think? What do you think?

00:30:44.020 I want to know what you think.

00:30:45.260 It's your own party policy.

00:30:48.200 I think we should protect the rights of parents to make their own decisions with regards to their children.

00:30:53.960 and I believe that adults should have the freedom

00:30:56.860 to make any decision they want about their bodies.

00:30:59.420 With minors?

00:30:59.700 How much should you advance surgeries and medical interventions for minors

00:31:02.660 as your own party members suggested, sir?

00:31:04.140 Medical interventions like what?

00:31:05.640 That is the language that your party used.

00:31:07.320 What medical interventions?

00:31:08.480 Well, you would have to ask your party members,

00:31:09.860 such as puberty blockers and hormone replacement.

00:31:12.700 For minors?

00:31:13.600 Yeah.

00:31:14.160 Irreversible?

00:31:15.600 You're talking about irreversible?

00:31:16.460 I don't like to understand your question.

00:31:18.220 I just want to be clear.

00:31:19.060 No, I want to be clear.

00:31:19.880 You agree blockers for minors?

00:31:21.700 Puberty blockers for minors?

00:31:22.940 Yes.

00:31:23.060 Do you agree with that?

00:31:23.460 Do you agree with that?

00:31:24.000 I think that we should protect children and their ability to make adult decisions when they are adults.

00:31:29.480 So you think only adults should take puberty blockers?

00:31:37.560 I think we should protect children, let them make adult decisions when they become adults.

00:31:42.140 So that means you are against puberty blockers for kids under the age of 18.

00:31:47.800 Is that clear?

00:31:48.940 Okay.

00:31:49.400 Can I ask you about in Alberta?

00:31:52.100 By the way, I just want to make another comment on this.

00:31:54.640 Justin Trudeau is again puffing out his chest, trying to divide Canadians and attack parents who are trying to protect their kids.

00:32:02.120 He will, in the end, back down on this, just like he had to back down on his firearms policy,

00:32:08.820 just like he had to back down on bringing in medical assistance and dying for people suffering from mental illness,

00:32:15.540 just like he's backing down again and again and again he will back down on this because he is not

00:32:22.620 interested in protecting kids he's interested in using this as a divisive wedge to distract from

00:32:29.640 doubling housing costs and quadrupling carbon taxes on our people so you're against puberty

00:32:37.680 blockers for kids under the age of 18 what about yes i am what about parents in alberta having to

00:32:43.200 opt-in for sex ed? That's a decision for the province. So he gave a very clear answer there.

00:32:52.140 He's against puberty blockers for kids under 18. Okay, that's one of several policies that Daniel

00:32:56.800 Smith was putting forward. Now, I think if you're trying to block puberty after 18, something has

00:33:01.980 gone wrong. So generally speaking, if you're against puberty blockers under 18, you're just

00:33:06.540 against puberty blockers in general. But look at how difficult it was to get a straight yes or no

00:33:13.180 answer on that now journalists share some of the blame for that because they're not giving clear

00:33:17.240 unequivocal questions I mean if I were doing an interview with him on this subject I would go

00:33:22.380 and I'd list point by point every single aspect of the policy agree disagree agree disagree agree

00:33:27.740 disagree but but he's also I think playing deliberately coy here by not just answering

00:33:34.320 the question head on and and I to be honest I don't know what it is because Pierre Polyev is

00:33:39.660 very unlike previous conservative leaders who are just incapable of giving a clear answer on

00:33:45.880 anything. I mean, Aaron O'Toole, Andrew Scheer largely, post-leader Andrew Scheer is great.

00:33:50.260 Leader Andrew Scheer was a little bit more challenging in this regard. But Pierre Polyev

00:33:55.200 has always been clear and unequivocal on what he says. So why this issue is the one that gets him,

00:34:02.400 always. I mean, going back months when New Brunswick was doing what it was doing,

00:34:05.640 It would take days and days and days before he would come out and say, yes, I support parental

00:34:10.280 rights, by which point people have already had to kind of let sit this, well, why is he not being

00:34:15.640 clear? It's like, remember when Aaron O'Toole couldn't say whether he would meet with truckers

00:34:19.380 that were coming to Ottawa as part of the convoy. So the cynic in me, the political cynic is like,

00:34:25.260 well, are they waiting for polling to come back? But we know they're not because the polling is

00:34:29.160 back and everyone knows how popular these policies are. So it's a weird, I don't have an answer to

00:34:35.160 it. But there is an inherent aversion right now among the conservatives, I think, to want to deal

00:34:40.900 with this issue head on. They need to realize that this is the position that is the popular

00:34:45.200 position. It's the morally right position. We're talking about children, and it shouldn't take so

00:34:50.280 many attempts and so many days to get that question answered, which is what ended up happening today.

00:34:57.480 So we'll have more on this, I'm sure, as the story unfolds. But I will say just on that Danielle

00:35:03.180 Smith interview I shared it was a bit interesting how as she and I were speaking the protesters

00:35:08.420 outside were chanting away and thank goodness we had really good uh lavalier mics that uh did not

00:35:14.080 pick up the background noise but we could still hear it and I I kind of felt bad for Danielle

00:35:19.000 Smith uh having not like as a you know message of political support but in general like it must be

00:35:24.140 weird to do an interview while you are being heckled and you can hear yourself being heckled

00:35:28.180 like I remember having uh Jason Kenney on the show at one point during COVID when he was you

00:35:32.780 very unpopular and uh jason kenney was we were with the program we used at the time which we

00:35:38.620 don't use anymore for live interviews would show well you were being interviewed while you were a

00:35:44.780 guest a live feed of all the comments that people were posting on any platform we were streaming to

00:35:49.980 so youtube comments facebook comments rumble comments they were all there and and jason

00:35:54.140 kenney he's doing the interview and i keep seeing his eyes darting over on the screen

00:35:58.620 to where the comments are coming in and he mentioned it after he's like these people

00:36:02.140 were saying I'm a, you know, Satan worshiper. They're calling me Klaus Schwab. So you're seeing

00:36:06.720 it. It's like, I mean, so mission accomplished for the commenters. But yeah, I imagine that

00:36:10.820 doing an interview while you're being heckled is not the most fun, but we were able to tune it out

00:36:15.080 and thankfully it didn't overwhelm the audio. So take that radical activists on King Street in 0.96

00:36:20.500 Toronto. We have been profiling and highlighting on this show the positives of the oil and gas

00:36:26.640 sector. It's a series we call Unjust Transition, our inversion of the federal government's so-called

00:36:32.080 Just Transition. And we have just two interviews left in this series to bring us to the end of the

00:36:37.120 week. So without further ado, here is my sit down in Calgary a couple of months back with

00:36:42.060 Rene Amaro, who is the CEO of Secure Energy. I'm joined by Rene Amaro of Secure. Just start

00:36:52.060 with a basic question for people that aren't as familiar with the ins and outs of the industry.

00:36:55.380 What are energy services and how do you fit into this landscape? Yeah, great, great question in

00:37:01.300 in terms of we've been around for all of 17 years you know started in 2000 uh it'll be 17 years next

00:37:09.060 year started in 2007 and march 2007 and and really try to develop a company that um was there to help

00:37:17.940 the oil and gas industry and which is now involved into many industries mining and industrial but

00:37:24.260 But the premise was that we wanted to be an environmental company.

00:37:30.560 We wanted to be involved with waste management, the byproducts of the oil and gas.

00:37:35.080 But we also wanted to be involved in some of the proactive practices of how do you actually reduce your environmental footprint.

00:37:42.180 And this was back before ESG was sexy.

00:37:45.080 Long before the Paris Agreement.

00:37:46.780 All the above.

00:37:48.100 but to give the testament to our customers they were also willing participants in that they could

00:37:56.380 see the old practices of 30 40 50 years ago were causing you know liabilities that they didn't want

00:38:03.920 to you know have in the future so there was all i think a mutual interest there how could we work

00:38:09.260 together we also wanted to help them in just the day-to-day production so you know the simple

00:38:15.240 things that that that look simple but are complicated is you know as you produce the

00:38:20.540 oil and natural gas there's also water byproducts there's waste that gets built up and and so

00:38:26.380 handling that day-to-day production waste as well and then finally finally we're helping with some

00:38:31.080 of the remediation and the reclamation of of their uh wells as they became suspended to abandonment

00:38:37.760 finally putting it back to what nature was there before the narrative we hear today certainly from

00:38:43.680 a lot of people in government and even more so in environmental NGOs is that the industry is the

00:38:49.380 problem to the environment and the government is the solution. So that doesn't square with

00:38:53.960 the story you've just told of the industry taking a leading role on this. So what are people missing

00:38:58.820 in this discussion? Yeah, first of all, you know, reading headlines or reading biased statements

00:39:07.040 versus getting out there and actually seeing what's going on is, you know, perception versus

00:39:11.500 reality and and so i've had the luxury of because secure has been very successful wanting to expand

00:39:18.220 all around the world and whether you go to texas or you could go to kazakhstan or you go to the

00:39:23.700 middle east it doesn't matter columbia um canada has not only the best regulations but the best

00:39:31.760 regulations that are followed there's there's a lot of countries that have good regulations but

00:39:36.680 they're not enforced so it's all about not only not only having good regulations but also following

00:39:42.300 but the great thing about our industry was that right from day one industry had an input and bought

00:39:49.920 into the new regulations so they didn't fight them and so as time developed they could see the

00:39:56.360 benefits of environment you know stricter environmental regulations was actually better

00:40:01.000 for the business long term. So before the whole ESG theme started to come about, our customers

00:40:07.260 were thinking, asking us to help them be more proactive with any type of environmental aspects

00:40:13.920 of the business. And you look at the environmental footprint that was around 50, even 15 years ago

00:40:21.660 versus today, the, you know, drilling eight to 12 wells on one pad versus, you know, having eight

00:40:28.800 or 12 leases all that is now on one lease you know so and then the pipeline coming from there to get

00:40:35.840 the oil or gas to to the processing plant to get it to the market huge smaller footprint everybody's

00:40:43.840 worked together in terms of reducing emissions we've been doing a lot of things a lot of product

00:40:48.860 was moved by truck now that's pipeline connected so you're taking trucks off the road that burn

00:40:53.780 diesel but you're also from a safety aspect you're not worried about all these trucks on

00:40:58.400 different roads and highways so all these little things are adding up to reducing the overall

00:41:03.520 emissions intensity it's also reducing their long-term liabilities so it's a win-win there's

00:41:08.740 there's not this is costing more business it's actually the right thing for not only the planet

00:41:14.480 earth but for their business and we've been able to create a business where we're adding value to

00:41:18.900 the customers and so that that's where it becomes a win-win. I know the words themselves are fraught

00:41:23.620 But we have the government articulating this so-called just transition that basically imagines a future without the oil and gas sector.

00:41:31.220 And there are very real-world consequences to that.

00:41:34.640 And really, the stated objectives, I go back to what we were talking about a few moments ago, are things that you're saying the industry has already been committed to.

00:41:42.040 So where is the breakdown here?

00:41:44.560 And why has that work not really been rewarded by governments, not just in Canada, but around the world?

00:41:51.280 We're seeing a lot of the same.

00:41:52.440 Yeah, I think when I look at it no differently than someone picks up a new religion,

00:41:59.240 I'm not going to be able to convince them to change religion. 0.99

00:42:02.260 So if you have open-minded people that want to get away from the big cities

00:42:08.920 and come and walk in footsteps and actually see what's going on,

00:42:19.120 And most of our visitors that have come from other countries are astonished to see the cleanliness, how we have all this environmental protection.

00:42:32.860 We do sometimes two, three different liners to protect the earth.

00:42:37.400 You know, we have all these gas blanket systems to reduce emissions and make sure that they don't go in the atmosphere.

00:42:43.920 So when people actually get out there and touch it and feel it, they come away with a whole different story.

00:42:50.020 And this even goes to the investment world, which, you know, you hear about, you know, not wanting to invest in oil and gas.

00:42:55.880 A lot of our investors, we encourage them to go to the field and see what's going on and come away with a totally different perspective as opposed to reading headlines in a newspaper or a TV show.

00:43:07.200 Well, and I think that's why this series has been so valuable in these conversations, because there are a lot of Canadians that I don't think know one way or another.

00:43:15.740 So they're probably open-minded, and the first person or the loudest person to give them their position is probably the one that they'll take.

00:43:21.760 So I'll ask, I guess, more of a general question here.

00:43:24.920 I mean, what is it you think Canadians who are not connected to this industry need to know about it?

00:43:30.100 Well, I think, first of all, they can sleep at night knowing that the Canadian oil and gas industry

00:43:38.200 has the best environmental regulations and the best standards in the world.

00:43:41.740 So bar none, I've seen them, I've been there, bar none.

00:43:46.060 Second of all, this industry is not resting on its laurels.

00:43:52.280 It's saying, okay, we're going to stay number one for a long, long time.

00:43:55.520 So how do we capture CO2?

00:43:57.040 How do we reduce further emissions?

00:43:59.680 How do we make things more efficient?

00:44:01.660 And that's been a market-led process.

00:44:03.500 Yeah, and that has nothing to do with government.

00:44:05.860 That has to do with the DNA of our oil and gas industry.

00:44:10.500 And then secondly, as we've seen, and we have the coastal LNG pipeline going to Kitimat.

00:44:18.300 We have the TMX coming up.

00:44:20.620 We're going to be able to not only do that for North America,

00:44:25.680 But if you can start exporting that around the world, it starts to begs the question that if you can get more Canadian energy around the world, i.e. exported, then you're not only having high environmental standards, but you've got lower emissions and you're replacing production from a Nigeria or a Venezuela.

00:44:47.860 it does never mind all the ethical boundaries around uh being a democratic versus a tongue

00:44:54.200 democratic and and suppressing freedom so i mean i would just you know all i ask is people to get

00:45:02.020 the facts just get the facts and if you if you want you know uh please come out and see it but

00:45:08.960 just get the facts and and then at least then make your judgment renee amiro secure thank you okay

00:45:15.040 thank you renee amiro that was the penultimate edition of unjust transition i hope you've been

00:45:22.640 learning as much in these as i have it's funny so one of the things that journalists do oftentimes

00:45:28.460 is they kind of pretend to be experts in certain things you see this with like health journalists

00:45:32.980 that kind of think they're doctors and climate change reporters that think they're scientists

00:45:36.280 and all of that and i i am like the anti-expert i i love being a journalist because i love just

00:45:41.560 being able to ask really dumb questions to learn things about things and and if you here's the

00:45:45.940 little trick if you ever hear me ask someone i'm interviewing i shouldn't admit to this i shouldn't

00:45:50.640 admit to it but i'm going to because i believe in honesty if you ever hear me ask a question of like

00:45:55.240 for someone what would you tell someone who doesn't know anything it's me saying i don't

00:46:00.820 know anything but i don't want to admit that i don't know anything usually maybe once in a while

00:46:05.400 i'm i'm genuine about it but usually if i say yeah what would you tell someone who didn't if 0.97

00:46:08.900 because I'm an idiot. All right. That does it for us for today. We'll be back tomorrow to wrap up 0.98

00:46:14.100 the week. And also, if you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, we have a brand new show

00:46:17.780 every Friday on True North called Off the Record. I can't tell you too much about it because, well,

00:46:22.760 it's off the record, but you can catch that Fridays. And I will be, I'm not going to be on

00:46:26.940 every week, but I'm going to be on, I think, most weeks, including this week. So we premiered it

00:46:30.940 last Friday. We'll have episode two this Friday and who knows what will come after that. So

00:46:34.500 So without further ado, we'll wrap things up there.

00:46:36.980 Thank you, God bless, and good day to you all.

00:46:40.440 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Vaughn Show.

00:46:42.980 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

00:47:04.500 We'll be right back.

00:47:34.500 We'll be right back.

00:48:04.500 We'll be right back.

Juno News - February 07, 2024

Danielle Smith stands by gender policies despite protests

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