Juno News - June 27, 2025


Docs show Carney preparing for Alberta separation legal showdown


Episode Stats

Length

16 minutes

Words per Minute

134.55562

Word Count

2,280

Sentence Count

5

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 the president of a canadian ngo chanted quote death to america and other pro-islamic republic
00:00:12.060 in iran slogans heavily redacted documents show that ottawa is preparing legal arguments in case
00:00:19.040 albertans successfully vote in a referendum to separate from confederation a gazan canadian
00:00:25.100 organization is attempting to organize cross-country protests demanding that the canadian government
00:00:31.060 brings their family members from gaza into canada hello canada it's friday june 27th and this is the
00:00:37.940 true north daily brief i'm cosmon gerja and i'm clayton demaine we've got you covered with all
00:00:43.840 the news you need to know let's discuss the top stories of the day and the true north exclusives
00:00:49.060 you won't hear anywhere else a video going viral on canadian social media shows firas al-najim
00:01:00.160 chanting common islamic republic phrases in persian glorifying supreme leader ali kamene and chanting
00:01:08.420 death to america in front of the u.s consulate in toronto al-najim is the founder and head of the
00:01:15.700 canadian defenders for human rights organization an ngo that has taken pro-islamic republic stances
00:01:22.860 publicly such as lobbying the canadian government during a committee hearing to remove the terrorist
00:01:28.380 designation from the iran-backed hezbollah group in lebanon last month his organization called on the
00:01:36.340 canadian military to quote send troops and arms to the palestinian resistance in occupied palestine
00:01:43.040 gaza and pleaded with prime minister mark carney to quote call on david mcginty defense minister to
00:01:49.720 assist the liberation process al-najim spoke earlier this month with press tv an iranian state broadcaster
00:01:57.880 where he shared his views on the iran-israel conflict on the iran-israel confrontation warning
00:02:05.600 that any u.s military actions against iran would be a quote foolish move canada is already grappling
00:02:12.900 with concerns about potential iranian sleeper cells and regime officials hiding in canada who could
00:02:19.660 potentially target iranian dissidents according to former justice minister erwin kotler with growing
00:02:26.500 anti-israel sentiments in canada the islamic republic regime has seen increased support on canadian
00:02:32.880 streets carney spoke with cnn's christine amanpour where he said quote the position of iran has been
00:02:40.600 substantially degraded with regard to their nuclear capabilities and that iranian response that the
00:02:47.480 iranian response was quote consistent with leading up to a de-escalation clayton it's been quite some
00:02:54.420 time now where we've seen at least the palestine protest happening it's been over a year in fact
00:03:02.580 and now they seem to blend with these protests in support of the iranian islamic republic so what
00:03:13.260 precedent has been set from individual people or groups in canada when it comes to shouting things
00:03:20.840 like death to america on canadian streets and is there any accountability for these individuals
00:03:30.340 when they call for a destruction of our neighbor yeah so our listeners might recall during a protest
00:03:37.760 in vancouver uh just a day after the first marking of the hamas-led october 7th massacre in israel
00:03:45.700 an organization true north has been writing about for months prior sammy doon recorded themselves
00:03:52.460 burning the canadian flag and chanting burn burn canada burn burn america in israel although jewish
00:03:59.600 advocacy groups have been calling out this group for years as it's openly celebrated terrorist groups
00:04:05.440 and continuously posting homages to avowed terrorists and bragging about using popular front
00:04:13.080 for the liberation of palestine material the flag burning was the moment a canadian politicians
00:04:19.140 had enough so uh by the way the group has been operating in canada as a charity receiving tax
00:04:25.980 exempt status from the canadian revenue agency the whole time it's been promoting terrorism and
00:04:31.920 spreading anti-west messages conservative leader pierre polyev called on that group to be listed as a
00:04:37.180 terrorist entity and public safety canada later agreed that it was operating as a front for the pflp
00:04:43.900 a marxist leninist terrorist group they're also suing um the canadian government pierre polyev and uh
00:04:52.240 trudeau but we won't get into that true uh but true north has written about this guy firas al-najim
00:04:58.780 before interestingly enough the guy tried to host a remembrance day type vigil
00:05:04.600 in november honoring the death of hamas leader yaya sinwar and for our listeners if you don't know
00:05:13.000 hamas's charter states that their goal is to quote vanquish their enemy the jews many jewish advocates
00:05:20.600 highlight that honoring sinwar would be like hosting a vigil service to honor the martyrdom
00:05:26.060 of adolf hitler while insulting the sacred day of remembrance that western countries like canada and
00:05:32.900 um and the uk hold for their veterans um this raises questions if saying death to america or the like
00:05:40.220 constitute constitutes incitement of violence and if it's not convictable i think canadians know
00:05:47.760 what people like this mean when they use phrases that are popularized by terrorist groups and their
00:05:53.380 leaders in canada heavily redacted documents show that ottawa is seeking constitutional advice
00:06:01.720 on alberta's independence from a top crown lawyer who successfully argued in the supreme court that
00:06:08.280 quebec had no unilateral right to leave canada after the narrow 1995 separation vote in response to a
00:06:16.200 freedom of information and privacy act request by true north the department of justice released legal
00:06:23.160 correspondence on alberta's proposed independence referendum in response to a freedom of information
00:06:28.840 and privacy act request by true north the department of justice released legal correspondence on alberta's
00:06:34.600 proposed independence referendum citing solicitor client privilege a vast majority of the documents
00:06:40.280 contents were blacked out except for the names of those consulted correspondence dated from may 15th to
00:06:46.440 may 23rd contains emails between the department of justice's senior general council on constitutional law
00:06:54.520 warren j newman senior general council on indigenous rights and relations uzma isanula and crown indigenous
00:07:02.200 relations senior director john topping despite the liberal government downplaying the magnitude of the
00:07:08.600 alberta independence movement the documents indicate that ottawa may be making contingency plans
00:07:14.840 to constitutionally challenge a successful referendum possibly at the supreme court level by employing
00:07:21.880 arguments of indigenous rights newman acted as co-counsel for the attorney general of canada in 1998
00:07:29.160 when the liberal government under jean christian shut down quebec secessionist arguments in the supreme
00:07:35.960 court of canada the court had agreed with the crown's arguments in its reference re-secession of quebec
00:07:43.320 judgment the court ruled that quebec could not legally secede from canada on its own because the
00:07:49.720 canadian constitution does not allow it and that secession could only happen through negotiations
00:07:56.040 involving all provinces and the federal government so cosmon after the last election we've seen a lot
00:08:02.520 of a resurgence of this sentiment of alberta separatism now that might not be enough to actually have a
00:08:10.200 successful referendum but if there was a successful referendum what are some of the legal arguments that
00:08:16.440 are likely to be at play yeah clayton while i'm not a constitutional legal expert who knows the ins and
00:08:24.520 outs of secessionist movement history within canada it's evident from these documents these emails that
00:08:33.800 the federal government is sort of preparing a response to what could be a successful referendum and
00:08:44.120 it seems to be a two-pronged response on the one hand they're consulting somebody who was the co-counsel
00:08:51.240 on the 1998 reference case for the uh quebec referendum that was super close it was a razor-thin
00:09:00.520 margin i think it was like almost 50.5 percent to 49.4 percent uh against vote uh voting for a separation
00:09:12.120 of quebec but they're consulting the co-counsel from that case and at the same time they're looping in
00:09:20.200 people and council from within the indigenous affairs department so that to me says they want to look at
00:09:29.720 this based on the historical precedent but then also raise some of the arguments that are currently at
00:09:38.680 play within alberta itself from first nations there who are essentially telling the provincial government
00:09:46.120 that they would they were going to refuse acknowledging any referendum that votes for
00:09:52.920 alberta to separate from confederation whether that actually is a credible argument legally speaking
00:10:00.760 because we've had legal experts say that it doesn't matter first nations do not have
00:10:06.920 the right to veto if a majority votes to separate from confederation in a province but they would have
00:10:15.080 the option after that separation to either remain within the province or the new country that forms or
00:10:23.080 remain within canada uh with regard to their existing agreements so yeah there's a lot of history here
00:10:32.520 and like i said i'm not an expert the some most of this stuff happened when i was just a tiny kid but
00:10:39.160 uh a lot of things are at play there was that 1998 reference and one of the things about the quebec
00:10:45.320 separation referendum from 1995 was the problem that the language itself of the referendum wasn't super
00:10:54.280 clear and that prompted the government the federal government under harper to introduce uh the clarity act
00:11:02.200 which mandated uh pre-approval of the clarity of a referendum question and also some more clarity on
00:11:11.320 what a majority threshold actually is to pass a referendum of that nature
00:11:21.480 self-identified gazan canadians are organizing countrywide encampment style protests outside
00:11:27.880 immigration offices and parliament hill they are demanding that ottawa accept family members of
00:11:33.400 palestinians already living in canada a group that calls itself the gazan canadians league are attempting
00:11:40.040 to organize nationwide sit-in protests outside the federal legislature and federally run immigration
00:11:46.520 refugees and citizenship canada buildings on july 15th 2025 a day before parliament is set to return
00:11:55.240 from a break in a post promoting the protest the group said quote stand with gazan canadians we have
00:12:02.200 exhausted every door now we ask you grassroots movements organizations and caring people to stand
00:12:09.640 with us we will stay until canada reunites our families and fulfills its promise while immigrants
00:12:16.360 and refugees are not guaranteed that their entire families can join them in canada there are formal
00:12:21.960 pathways and processes they can pursue to petition the government for family reunification the gazan canadian
00:12:30.200 group has over 3 500 followers on instagram and describes itself in another post as palestinians living in canada
00:12:37.800 who advocate for the reunification of their families in gaza the group argues that the visa program
00:12:44.520 announced by former prime minister justin trudeau to take in gazan refugees has been
00:12:50.200 racist discriminatory and an overly complex process the gazan canadians have exhausted all other avenues
00:12:58.600 for family reunification criticizing canada for its quote lack of real urgency and action on the matter
00:13:06.520 some of the group's posts including a post saying the delay is quote institutional racism were liked
00:13:13.240 by anti-israel groups such as palestinian youth movement toronto independent jewish voices toronto
00:13:19.720 york region bds and ijv uft and union groups such as labor for palestine winnipeg one post the gazan
00:13:28.920 canadian league says the process relies on vetting palestinians with documents which are not available due to
00:13:35.160 israeli bombing and destruction and that the process is delayed because canadian officials have quote
00:13:41.240 capitulated to racists both inside and outside of the government some of the arguments that they
00:13:48.920 make as we just mentioned is that the documents required to properly vet palestinian refugees to
00:13:55.480 come into canada were destroyed due to bombing and the war that's happening in that region
00:14:02.120 but when you look at you have ukrainian refugees who were streamlined at a much higher rate now that
00:14:08.920 country is also at war there are regions that are facing bombardment and active fighting and there were
00:14:17.880 a lot of ukrainian refugees but with gazans there were only about 500 who were allowed to come to canada
00:14:25.480 as refugees since october 7th despite the government the liberals originally planning a 5 000 person
00:14:33.640 quota so could you enlighten us on why does it take so much longer for gazan refugees to come to canada
00:14:41.960 and what's at play there yeah absolutely cosmon so true north has spoken to both jewish rights groups and
00:14:49.960 an immigration lawyer about the logistics behind accepting gas and refugees into canada in the past
00:14:56.440 including last year and they bring up the fact that the area is ruled by a terrorist organization
00:15:01.560 hamas who simply does not keep the same records one might expect an immigrant from ukraine to have
00:15:07.560 available to them they lack the infrastructure that's needed for proper background checks without
00:15:13.560 proper records or a trustworthy administrative body in the country true north's been told that their
00:15:20.280 simply is no accurate way to determine whether or not the people we would be accepting from the
00:15:25.480 region are supporters of terrorism or agents of the terrorist group hamas itself sergio caris the
00:15:33.000 immigration lawyer i referenced spoke to us and said many of the palestinians seeking refugee in canada
00:15:40.520 illegally crossed the border into places such as egypt and because of this they also lack those proper
00:15:46.440 documentation and identification needed to vet them both caris and jewish advocacy groups such as cija
00:15:54.520 have also pointed out recent polls in the region which show massive levels of support for the hamas led
00:16:00.760 october 7th attack which left 1200 israelis slaughtered and hundreds more kidnapped with some still being held
00:16:08.760 captive today and people from the region report high levels of anti-semitic opinions as well so both
00:16:15.160 critics of gaz and immigration point out that this would almost guarantee that the already rising
00:16:23.480 levels of anti-semitism in canada would skyrocket even further not to mention how difficult it is
00:16:29.960 historically in canada to deport terrorists once they're already here
00:16:38.040 that's it for today folks thanks for tuning in you can stay on top of new episodes
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