Juno News - Ep 01： CPC Leadership, Media Double Standards, and Sussex Security

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome to The Andrew Lawton Show on True North, the first edition of The Andrew

00:00:07.240 Lawton Show podcast. And what an exciting time. I'm very pleased to be doing this.

00:00:12.780 And ultimately, I want to thank everyone who came to the table and said, yes, I support this. I want

00:00:18.280 to listen to it. And even people who contributed money to the endeavor, let me set up this little

00:00:23.080 podcast studio, which is going to be the source of much fun in the months. And who knows, maybe

00:00:28.520 even the years ahead. So I wanted to start with a thank you. And I did a bit of a preview episode,

00:00:35.040 something like a trailer. For those who are interested, you can go back and listen to that

00:00:39.620 just to give a sense of what's going to be coming in this show. And at the same time, though, I also

00:00:46.100 think that no matter how much time you plan something, it is impossible for it to go without

00:00:53.140 a hitch. You may remember we launched this, I think it was in November, it might have been the

00:00:58.600 beginning of December or the end of November. No, it was in November. We said we're going to do the

00:01:04.280 Andrew Lawton Show, we're going to do it as a podcast, we're going to do it on camera and in audio

00:01:09.040 form. And we had said right from the get go that we were going to crowdfund it and then launch the show

00:01:15.900 in January. And it wasn't actually because we needed two months to prepare. It was more that you can't

00:01:21.480 really launch anything in the month of December, it just gets lost in the holidays. And November was

00:01:26.160 a bit too early, we needed a little bit of time. So in my mind, I'm like, oh, that's going to be

00:01:30.080 great. Everything's fine. We'll plan, we'll just wait, and then I'll have a nice little holiday and

00:01:34.820 come back and start with the show. And I ordered at that time, I think maybe the first week of December,

00:01:44.180 these things, they're called acoustic wall panels. And they're basically from this place in the US,

00:01:49.980 it's the only one that makes them. And they are these panels that serve two purposes. They absorb

00:01:55.340 sound. So they do not sound proofing, but sound dampening. And they also look nice. And the whole

00:02:02.980 point of this thing was to have something that's functional and stylish to put behind me, so that

00:02:09.280 you're not just looking at a blank, you know, central casting office wall. And these things are not there

00:02:15.560 on the walls, as you can see. Again, planned, paid, ordered, all of that stuff. The company takes a

00:02:23.220 little bit of time to make them, and then FedEx has to ship them. And FedEx was the weak link in all

00:02:30.060 of this, because they actually lost the package. So last week, this is how professional we are, folks.

00:02:38.040 Nothing works for us, which is just like, you know, the real operations. FedEx delivered them on

00:02:44.100 Thursday of last week, except they were nowhere to be found. I still do not know how they ended up

00:02:50.840 not being delivered. I called FedEx, I called the company, the company was like, well, take it up with

00:02:56.460 FedEx. They were very nice. But these things which were supposed to be on the wall, you know, three weeks

00:03:02.400 ago had just vanished into thin air. So FedEx decides to launch an investigation, which is

00:03:09.540 sophisticated in no way whatsoever. Because what FedEx does is they get you to describe where you

00:03:15.700 live. And then they talk to the driver to see if that, you know, refreshes his recollection about

00:03:20.520 where he was. And the FedEx woman said, well, you know, the driver is going to retrace his steps and see

00:03:26.680 if he can find out where these things are. And I'm like, the address is on the box, presumably.

00:03:32.400 The address is there. There's a number on my home. I didn't think anything more was required.

00:03:39.820 So anyway, don't I find the box myself yesterday? FedEx has still not responded to me with the

00:03:46.600 results of its investigation. But FedEx, nowhere to be found. The box I find with my neighbor still

00:03:55.640 sitting outside after several days. So I carried the box, but I did not get time to put the panels

00:04:03.160 up on the wall. I think the sound is actually going to be pretty good. I ran a few tests, but it will

00:04:08.380 hopefully look a little bit nicer behind me as episode two takes form in the next couple of days.

00:04:15.420 But I say that so that, you know, the behind the scenes, you get a look at how the sausage is made,

00:04:19.980 which is just such a glorious, glorious sausage here on the Andrew Lawton show. I don't think we

00:04:25.080 lose our iTunes clean rating for saying that. So no one to report it just in case. But we do have

00:04:30.760 some great things coming up on the show. Going to be chatting about the Sussex security debacle and how

00:04:38.240 no one seems to know who's going to be paying for their security as they live in Canada part time

00:04:43.300 or how much. Also going to be speaking a little bit later on about this just horrendous assault that

00:04:51.040 took place outside a court in Surrey on Kian Bextie of Rebel. And also I want to start off though

00:04:58.280 with a little bit on the conservative leadership race. Now I'm not going to go too long on this because

00:05:02.880 I do realize that the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race is going to be dominating much of

00:05:09.780 this show in the last week. It's been just nonstop people getting in, people getting out. But in the

00:05:17.160 next several months, it's going to be nonstop. So I don't want to overload each individual episode,

00:05:21.660 but it is going to play, I think, a role in each episode moving forward. The big news,

00:05:27.220 Brian Brulot is no longer running. Yeah, that's the big news. Brian Brulot. Did you even know Brian

00:05:34.440 Brulot was running? I only knew because I, you know, I'm paid to look at this stuff. I had never heard

00:05:38.940 of a Brian Brulot before. And still to this day, I'm not entirely clear what a Brian Brulot is,

00:05:45.920 except for the fact that he apparently worked as a staffer in a ministry in Kim Campbell's government

00:05:53.720 26 years ago, which is really, I mean, that's what it takes to be a heavyweight in the Conservative

00:05:59.260 Party of Canada leadership race sometimes. He was, I think he was the chief of staff to Kim Campbell's

00:06:05.640 public works minister. So he was like the guy that knew everything about, you know, all the

00:06:11.140 sewers in Canada when Kim Campbell was in the highest paid summer job in the history of Canada.

00:06:19.260 And this guy was like, yeah, you know, 26 years later, I think, I think I put in my due. I think

00:06:23.780 it's time for me to, to be the Conservative Party of Canada leader. And I don't want to totally,

00:06:29.700 actually, no, I do want to totally mock the guy. I don't think he's a bad person. I don't think

00:06:34.700 he's a dumb person. By all accounts, he's a nice guy. He's done fundraising and organizing

00:06:39.500 and all of this stuff. But he is completely a nobody in terms of politics. And there's a

00:06:46.720 difference between opposing career politicians and having people just try to bypass the effort

00:06:55.160 and work required. And this is the big problem that I have with a lot of the names that we're

00:07:01.160 seeing on this list right now in the Conservative leadership race. There's a guy out of Quebec

00:07:05.400 named Richard DiCari who is running as a social Conservative. Again, I know nothing about him.

00:07:12.080 Maybe he's good. Maybe he's not. But he's never had elected office before, so far as I can tell.

00:07:17.800 You've got another name, Rudy Husney, who as well as a former staffer who's now saying he's going to be

00:07:23.980 the next Conservative leader, and Brian Brulod, who was like the loudest and most vocal, oddly enough,

00:07:30.580 in saying, yes, I'm going to be running. And then, you know, three and a half days later,

00:07:34.300 no, I'm not running. I'm throwing my support behind Peter McKay, who hasn't even announced

00:07:39.200 he's running yet. So the guy who was like, by all accounts, the front runner, because he was the only

00:07:43.340 one in the race, has decided to throw his support behind a guy who's not yet in the race,

00:07:48.680 which is pretty much why we're off to a great start for the Conservative leadership race. But

00:07:54.480 I do believe genuinely that there are people from outside the political class that have things to

00:08:02.800 offer. And these are profile building exercises. And that's why we should always be somewhat

00:08:09.480 skeptical of them. Why should you be allowed to essentially build your profile off the backs of

00:08:18.320 a process that has nothing to do with you? And the reason it's down to crunch time now,

00:08:23.960 and it wasn't when, you know, all of these people first said they were getting in is because now you

00:08:28.420 actually have to put some serious money together. The Conservative Leadership Council has determined

00:08:33.760 that you need $300,000 and 3000 member signatures. Now, getting member signatures is very difficult,

00:08:42.560 especially because you need to go after depending on how the rules are structured existing members,

00:08:47.960 it's not just get people to join. That comes later when you need people to vote for you.

00:08:53.600 But it's actually about getting existing members to endorse your nomination. And I had to do this when

00:09:01.280 I was running for a nomination years ago. I know you're I say it might sound like it's like three

00:09:07.160 decades ago. No, it's like two years ago. But I was running for a nomination. And it's difficult to

00:09:12.980 find people that are members of the party paid up that know they are members of the party. You get

00:09:18.240 lots of people that you know, they were a member of the party. And they were they were a member when

00:09:22.240 Brian Brulot worked for the party. And their member expired around that time. And they just don't know

00:09:27.180 because they still get fundraising calls. So they assume I must still be a member. But it is difficult.

00:09:33.160 So that is going to weed a lot of people out. Now, a friend of mine pointed out that he was surprised

00:09:38.820 Brian Brulot didn't milk it a little bit longer until that cut off for the first 150 or the first

00:09:44.960 $25,000. That's what they have to put down right out of the gate 25,000. And then they have to put

00:09:50.760 another 25,000. And you know, it goes on and on. But I honestly think that we are going to have a bit

00:09:58.800 of a clown car leadership race to start. Because everyone who is even remotely interested is going

00:10:06.540 to say they're running. And then once the first couple of payment deadlines come, then I think

00:10:11.320 everyone's going to clear out. But I am going to tell you right now that as this race evolves, 0.99

00:10:18.700 we're going to be trying to get all of the leadership candidates on the show. We're going to

00:10:22.840 offer them a chance to talk about their vision for Canada, their vision for the Conservative Party,

00:10:27.560 for the Conservative movement. We're going to be doing as many of these in person as we can. I mean,

00:10:33.220 if we can only get someone on by Skype, we'll get them on by Skype. But I'm prepared to travel for it.

00:10:38.720 And I think it's going to be great. And I actually did this in the 2017 leadership race,

00:10:45.720 when I did my show on AM radio, and had them, almost all of the leadership candidates come out

00:10:52.440 of their way to come into the studio and sit down. Because there is a value to them in speaking to

00:10:59.580 people that are more sympathetic to Conservative issues. And I've always been candid. I am a

00:11:06.420 philosophical small c Conservative. I'm not a party loyalist. But I am someone that wants all parties to

00:11:12.840 do as well as they can. And I want the Conservative Party to really bolster Conservative ideas.

00:11:19.080 So in that sense, I'll give them an opportunity. I'll give them a fair shake. But I'm not going to

00:11:24.800 be a sycophant or a water bearer. That's basically the promise that I would make to you or anyone else.

00:11:31.660 But I do think there is an important dynamic in the leadership race that we're going to see.

00:11:38.980 And that is this battle of, you're going to hear it, national unifier versus

00:11:46.040 these people that have these little regional pockets of support. And I mean, Jean Charest,

00:11:51.420 for example, who we know is running, based on a number of reports, is a guy that's going to say,

00:11:57.660 oh, well, if I run, I can win seats in Quebec that are normally closed off to Conservatives. And then

00:12:02.960 you'll get someone from Alberta saying, well, you know, we need someone that's going to stand up for

00:12:06.860 the Western voice. And then you're going to get someone that's going to come in. And Pierre Polly,

00:12:10.640 who it sounds like is running, is probably going to make the pitch. Well, I'm born in Alberta,

00:12:15.740 but I live in Ontario, and I've got a Western sensibility, but I come from a part of the

00:12:21.020 country that we need to support. And I speak French, so I can do Quebec. And the national unifying thing

00:12:27.260 is important. But I also am very cautious whenever electability, and I put that in big air quotes,

00:12:35.400 whenever electability becomes the priority above substance. Because I think style is important.

00:12:43.700 I think electability is important. I think all of these factors are relevant. But at the same time,

00:12:50.100 I also think that you need someone who has something to sell. I mean, it's if you're the

00:12:56.080 best salesperson in the country, but you don't have a product worth selling, I don't care how many

00:13:01.520 people buy it, because it's not something I personally want. It'll be gathering dust on my

00:13:06.080 shelf to torture the metaphor even further. So I think that is ultimately where things are going to

00:13:12.880 go with this. Like I said, let me know what you think, though. My email address, andrew at andrew

00:13:17.460 Lawton.ca. I think we're going to do some reader email stuff as the episodes progress. This is the

00:13:22.480 first episode, so I have no reader email for you. Listener email, whatever it is. Viewer email. I keep

00:13:28.340 forgetting. I'm doing this with a camera flashing at me as well. But that's all going to be coming up

00:13:34.360 in future episodes. We'll get a sense of what you think and who you think is best for the Conservative

00:13:40.640 Party of Canada. I want to take a little pivot, if I can here, into this gong show that's happened

00:13:49.720 outside the court in Surrey, British Columbia. Jessica Yaniv, who is the transgender,

00:13:56.580 wax my balls serial litigant in a number of cases that the Human Rights Commission ultimately shot 0.98

00:14:03.860 down, has become a nasty, nasty person when confronted by cameras, despite the fact that Yaniv has been a 0.98

00:14:14.600 serial publicity hound for months and even longer. And the reason I think this has changed is because

00:14:23.140 Yaniv has gone from being everyone's favorite victim to someone that the LGBT community wants 1.00

00:14:29.900 nothing to do with, the Conservatives want nothing to do with, the media wants nothing to do with,

00:14:35.420 and the only interest that exists for Yaniv is negative interest because of Yaniv's own conduct

00:14:42.100 and Yaniv's own actions. Now Yaniv right now is facing charges of possession of a weapon for brandishing a

00:14:51.240 taser on an interview with a transgender YouTuber, Blair White. Not been proven in court yet, not found

00:14:58.120 guilty, although Yaniv, because of negative publicity, wanted the judge to grant a publication ban,

00:15:05.220 and in court we had the justice of the peace it was, I believe, saying, you know, there's no precedent

00:15:11.000 for you think people are going to say mean things about you, so therefore no one should be able to

00:15:15.980 write about you. And I think that the Yaniv story sits a little bit uneasily with me because I see a

00:15:26.400 person who's genuinely unwell. I don't see a person who is just a renegade activist. I see someone who's

00:15:33.880 genuinely disturbed and I think who's very unstable. And again, I'm not a psychologist. I've never met

00:15:41.020 Yaniv. I'm okay with that. I've never interviewed Yaniv and have no interest in doing so. But I also

00:15:46.520 don't think you can say there isn't a newsworthiness, especially with the serial litigation that Yaniv is

00:15:53.820 filing. And there was another case, I think a week or two ago, where another complaint was filed against

00:15:59.880 another immigrant-owned salon. So it's a reverse class action where instead of everyone suing one 0.57

00:16:06.400 person, it's one person suing everyone. But I think there is a newsworthiness. The only outlets

00:16:12.060 that are really covering this are new media outlets, Rebel, Post Millennial, and True North. All outlets

00:16:19.280 had someone at the courtroom in Surrey when this happened. And it was Kian Bexty of Rebel that ended

00:16:25.760 up getting under Yaniv's skin the most prominently. And I'll talk about this in a moment, but in the

00:16:32.560 meantime, have a look at the video. If you're listening to the audio, listen to this exchange

00:16:37.060 that happened, which was leaving the courthouse. Leaving the courthouse. Bexty was recording

00:16:43.320 and asked if Yaniv will be pleading guilty. And then this happens.

00:16:48.440 Yaniv, will you be pleading guilty? What? No, don't touch me. Don't touch me. 0.96

00:16:52.480 Hey! Stop! Get away from me. Go away. Go away from me. Jesus, get away from me. Go away. Crazy

00:17:02.840 f***ing thing. Get away from me. Get away. Get the f*** away from me. Stay away from me. Get away 1.00

00:17:10.140 from me. Now. Right now. You hurt me? I'm calling the police on you. I don't give a s***. Get away from

00:17:17.020 me. So we want to protect that iTunes clean rating. So the bleeps were all F words if you

00:17:22.720 had any doubt in your mind about it. Kian sounds like he's okay. I don't know if he went to the

00:17:28.420 hospital or not, but he was tweeting about, you know, wanting a health card or wanting to know if

00:17:33.420 his Alberta health card would work in BC, which I believe it will. That's the one great thing about

00:17:37.720 universal health care, at least. And believe me, there's only one is that you can use any province's

00:17:42.240 health card in any other province, as I understand it, but gets assaulted. It appears on camera

00:17:50.200 outside a courthouse by someone who claims that they are the victim, that they're the one that's

00:17:58.040 being oppressed. They're the one who's being persecuted. They're the one who's being attacked.

00:18:02.420 And I don't know if there are going to be any charges filed for this incident or perhaps civil

00:18:09.800 litigation. Who knows? And to be honest, it doesn't matter as much to me. What matters is the double

00:18:16.200 standard here, that if a journalist is assaulted in any other capacity, you would have activist groups

00:18:23.320 lining up, calling it an assault on the press, people calling for justice. Whereas in this case,

00:18:30.200 they're weighing that belief, that moral belief against whether they believe Kian Bexty is a

00:18:37.940 worthwhile victim in their estimation. And you can see this on Twitter, by the way.

00:18:43.080 You know, there are, for example, and I'll read one of the tweets here. There was someone who said

00:18:47.440 that violence is never the answer unless Kian is on the receiving end of it. And we've seen this 0.94

00:18:55.640 happen whenever Sheila Gunn-Reed has been attacked. This is a shockingly common occurrence for rebel

00:19:01.520 reporters, by the way, to be assaulted in the line of duty. And the reason for that, and I'm not

00:19:07.620 justifying it, but I'm explaining it, is because they're going into the thick of it in a way that

00:19:13.160 other people in the media simply aren't. They're going in the midst of tense situations because that's

00:19:19.860 the best way to find out what's happening in the real world. But the problem with this is that

00:19:25.660 people are so focused on, can we say anything condemning the act without it sounding like we're

00:19:33.440 supporting the person who we hate and dislike? No, okay, we'll just stay silent. And Kian and I

00:19:40.980 actually got to know each other a little bit during the election campaign, the federal election campaign,

00:19:46.580 in which we were litigants in the same case going up against the Leaders Debates Commission.

00:19:52.140 And this was the case, I know you've heard me talk about it, but it was a significant case for me

00:19:57.220 and for True North that basically got Kian, David Menzies, also from Rebel and myself, court-ordered

00:20:06.100 practitioners of journalism, as Kian says, and I think it is Twitter bio. And the same thing happened

00:20:12.740 there, where people who had a moral belief that yes, the free press is important, had to couch that

00:20:19.800 because they didn't think the people who were fighting that fight, Rebel and True North in that

00:20:25.200 case, were necessarily worth being the martyrs on this issue or whatever the proper term is.

00:20:33.540 And this has to stop. And I did a video a few weeks ago where I took aim at political tribalism for

00:20:41.900 this exact reason. And the reason I think it's so important to end political tribalism is because

00:20:48.900 it puts people in these situations which are completely hypocritical, situations that give

00:20:56.340 no sense of consistency, which I think is a tremendously important value, and situations

00:21:04.500 where eventually you are not standing up for what's right because you're worried that doing so might

00:21:10.020 empower someone that you've already determined is not worth it. And I know this sounds like such a

00:21:17.180 cliche, but I'll say it anyway. You don't have to like or even respect Rebel to say, hey, maybe you

00:21:22.860 shouldn't be punched in the face or punched in the back of the head, as he says, outside a courtroom for

00:21:28.260 asking a pretty reasonable question of someone who is facing charges. And maybe if this does happen,

00:21:36.100 people should condemn it and call on police to do their jobs here. And on the way into court,

00:21:42.820 there was another video Kian had posted that showed police were more focused on getting

00:21:48.500 Yaneve in the building and getting Kian away than they were about just keeping the peace. Now in this

00:21:55.140 case, not having seen the full context, not having been there, it's possible their thing was just

00:22:00.420 de-escalation. This person's got to get in court, get Yaneve in court. Kian in this case appears to be 0.80

00:22:07.280 harassing her. We'll figure out what's happening later, but get Yaneve in the door. That I don't

00:22:13.200 necessarily like because it's based on what Yaneve is saying is happening, but that's a possibility.

00:22:20.200 Afterwards though, it's just Yaneve running towards Kian saying, get away from me, which if you've ever

00:22:28.400 told someone to get away from you, it's not the most convincing if you yell it as you are charging

00:22:33.720 towards them, which is what's happening here. So I think that Yaneve was a very fascinating and is

00:22:42.040 for many reasons, a very fascinating example in Canadian politics, because when the wax my balls

00:22:49.020 cases first came up, everyone was thinking, oh, well, you know, maybe this is, but, but, but what Yaneve

00:22:57.800 was doing was pushing a cultural trend to its logical conclusion. Okay. If you think that there

00:23:04.820 is zero difference between a biological woman and a trans woman, then you cannot say that a trans woman 0.97

00:23:13.500 does not have the right to demand people offer a genital wax. And, and there were a lot of activists 0.60

00:23:18.960 that were very uncomfortable with the fact that they were forced to defend something because of the

00:23:24.500 parameters that they set. And I think that Yaneve ending up being this just vile person has actually

00:23:34.140 helped them in a lot of ways because it's made it so that they don't need to talk about all of those

00:23:39.080 human rights issues. They can just talk about, oh, well, Yaneve isn't an example. Yaneve is not

00:23:43.900 representative of trans people. Yaneve has issues and, and they get to just move this completely off the

00:23:49.400 table in a way that I think probably helps a lot of these activists in a lot of ways. And that's just

00:23:57.260 me. So I'm glad Kian seems to be okay. I hope police take it seriously and investigate it. I hope that

00:24:05.440 there are charges laid, but ultimately I don't think there will be because I think everyone is caught up in

00:24:12.600 this mindset of, well, it's all about the context and you know, well, about the what if and, and the

00:24:19.620 feeling of being unsafe, because remember feeling unsafe is more relevant and more pertinent than

00:24:27.060 actually being hit right now. And I think that in 2020, it is more, you could be punched in the face

00:24:33.280 and have less of a grounds to say, I feel unsafe than just feeling it because you feel it.

00:24:40.640 And that is where we are now. And it's making justice and law enforcement, I think, incredibly

00:24:46.360 difficult. We've got more coming up on the Andrew Lawton show in just a moment. Stay tuned.

00:24:51.620 We've got Aaron Woodrick from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation coming up in just a couple of

00:24:56.660 moments, but I, I, I, I'm laughing already because I'm looking at something that you can't see yet.

00:25:03.260 You'll, you'll see it in a moment, but you've got to just let me have my joy here.

00:25:06.280 So anytime you log onto Facebook, as you know, you see a bunch of ads for really weird things.

00:25:13.880 If you've ever seen an ad for this website called Wish, they sell the most bizarre things. And I'm

00:25:20.580 pretty sure they're doing it knowing that people are going to see it and say, that's ridiculous and 0.98

00:25:25.140 then buy it. But sometimes you see something that is a real thing that just doesn't seem that real.

00:25:33.600 And this happened with an ad I saw on Facebook for the Royal Canadian Mint, which sells a lot of

00:25:39.860 novel, not novelty coins, but limited edition coins, limited run stuff. And I don't know why

00:25:45.900 I saw this ad. I haven't been in the market for coins. I'm not a, is it Numis Mattis?

00:25:52.660 Numis Mattis? Is that someone who collects coins? I think so. You can tell we're doing this live

00:25:57.020 because I just asked questions and there's no producer to answer for me. I'll Google after the

00:26:01.600 fact, but by this point I've already committed to Numis Mattistry, Mattistism. This was a terrible,

00:26:07.120 terrible idea. Who, who wanted this show to come back? Anyway, I saw this ad on Facebook for a 10

00:26:13.760 ounce, pure silver, double concave coin wolves from nature's grandeur series. Now I'm not in the

00:26:23.660 business of buying Royal Canadian Mint coins. I have a few that I've been given as gifts that I actually

00:26:28.620 love, but I don't consider myself a collector. This particular one, $995, but Canadian Mint has your

00:26:37.780 back. You can just buy it for four monthly payments of $249.99. So that's an option if you really like

00:26:44.220 it. But tell me what you think of when you see this coin at a glance. Yeah, that was basically my

00:26:52.400 thought. And you could tell me to get my mind out of the gutter, but at a glance and scrolling

00:26:56.600 through Facebook, I thought it was like the two wolves copulating series from the Royal Canadian

00:27:02.320 Mint, celebrating Canadian biology, celebrating the wolf repopulation efforts in the Rocky Mountain 0.77

00:27:07.780 area. That was, I, that was what I thought. I was like, this is like a Me Too by Wolf taking place.

00:27:13.760 And, and, and then I, I finally, uh, you know, re-looked at it again. And I was like, this is okay. I can see

00:27:21.640 the legs are on the other side. So, I mean, that would be really awkward if, uh, if something was

00:27:26.840 happening there that was funny business. But then you realize the other issue, which is that if you

00:27:32.160 zoom in on the face, they actually look like the kind of wolves that I would draw. And I, I'm not an

00:27:39.300 artist, uh, but to help the, uh, the analogy along, the kind of wolves that I would draw after having a

00:27:45.880 few shots of vodka and with my eyes closed. And they, they looked like, did you ever see that,

00:27:52.420 uh, famous, it's now famous for the wrong reasons, restoration of a painting of Jesus that was done.

00:27:58.340 And, and Jesus just looked like they, they ruined Jesus basically in, in this artwork and, and the

00:28:04.040 restorer, I don't think has ever worked again. Or a more pop culture example, when Mr. Bean tried to

00:28:11.000 do the restoration of Whistler's mother in the Mr. Bean movie, that one as well. Another great

00:28:16.680 example. Uh, and I, first I thought, okay, maybe the wolves look like this because the coin is concave

00:28:22.720 and it's an angle thing. Uh, but then you turn it and they look just as bad, perhaps even worse head

00:28:29.620 on. And they've somehow sold 95% of the inventory of these they've had. And it's not even like people

00:28:38.020 are buying it as a novelty because they're going for, for a thousand dollars. And what I'm looking

00:28:43.980 up now, the value of silver in Canada, because this is 10 ounces of silver. Uh, silver is apparently

00:28:50.620 $23 an ounce today at the time that I record this. So let, let's just say $25 an ounce for simplicity.

00:29:00.160 Uh, that means this is a $250 coin that's being sold for a thousand dollars. So maybe they're preempting

00:29:07.300 that old idea that, you know, things are more valuable if they have a mistake on them and they're

00:29:12.200 like, oh, everyone's going to hate these wolves. So let's just sell them for a thousand bucks and

00:29:15.540 get rid of them. Uh, but this is the Royal Canadian Mint. And this, as far as government departments go,

00:29:21.900 the mint is not typically the one that I have a huge issue with. But again, anytime someone says

00:29:27.320 government can do it better, two wolves copulating the coin series brought to you by

00:29:32.580 the Royal Canadian Mint. I feel bad because apparently the artist is a very good artist.

00:29:38.640 Uh, and someone pointed me to other work they've done that was not terrible. So the artist himself

00:29:44.720 must be buying up all of this, uh, these coins. He's bought the 95% because he wants to make sure

00:29:49.760 no one else, uh, no one else sees them. Oh, what else is going on here? Also a fun story. The Tokyo

00:29:56.460 Olympics committee is warning people. Well, not warning people, assuring people that the cardboard

00:30:03.760 beds they're giving athletes will suspend the weight of two people doing the funny business

00:30:10.740 in the Olympic beds. The Tokyo 2020 committee has to outfit the Olympic village and they've got a

00:30:17.200 manufacturer who's built literally cardboard beds that will be used for the athletes apparently,

00:30:24.640 which is like, nothing says we're grateful for you for fighting for your country. Like here's a

00:30:29.940 cardboard box to sleep on. But, uh, one athlete in particular, Andrew Bogot, who's a Australian

00:30:37.080 basketball player says it's a great gesture until the athletes finish their events and thousands of

00:30:42.300 condoms handed out all over the village are put to use. But the manufacturer says, don't worry,

00:30:47.960 the bed can withstand a weight of 440 pounds and have been through rigorous stress tests. So

00:30:53.560 the manufacturers have been stress testing the Olympic beds, if you know what I mean.

00:30:58.220 And, uh, what the spokesperson said is as long as they stick to just two people in the bed,

00:31:02.820 they should be strong enough to support the bed and take from that, whatever you will about the

00:31:08.660 Olympic committee for Tokyo 2020. Yeah. The Tokyo Olympics coming up. I actually, this is the first

00:31:14.120 Olympic story I've seen. And of course it's a, the two wolves could be on the bed in the Tokyo

00:31:19.280 Olympics and would apparently be completely and utterly fine. And while we're on this little,

00:31:25.960 a darker turn through the Andrew Lawton show, I will tell you there have been reports of a man in

00:31:31.080 Mexico who took a stimulant for bulls and ended up with a three day erection, which is not like a new 0.69

00:31:39.500 love story, like the Hallmark movie, the three day erection. It's a medical affliction for a Mexican 1.00

00:31:44.360 man who ended up having to go to a hospital and unfortunately took the bull drug instead of the

00:31:50.300 human variant. Uh, but the good news is he was, uh, his, his problems were cured for three days. So

00:31:55.380 at least that was good. But, uh, this is why you should always look at the labels and the dosage as

00:32:00.860 well of anything you take a public service announcement from the good people here at true

00:32:06.040 north. Okay. When we come back, we will talk to Aaron Woodrick of the Canadian taxpayers federation

00:32:12.060 about the security bill for the Sussexes and is Canada going to be on the hook for it? That's

00:32:18.740 coming right up. You know, Canadians and Americans, and I think people outside of the United Kingdom

00:32:24.840 have been watching this whole, uh, they're calling it Megsit, uh, the, the exit from the Royal family for,

00:32:31.420 uh, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex for Harry, the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan colloquially.

00:32:37.160 And this has now come home for Canadians a little bit. This is not just some soap opera unfolding

00:32:43.800 across the pond, but something that may have real implications for Canadians, specifically whether we

00:32:51.140 are going to be on the hook for the security costs for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to make a home

00:32:57.080 for themselves in Canada. We know that Meghan Markle, back when she was an actress, had lived in Toronto

00:33:02.580 for a bit when she was filming Suits. We also know that the two of them have apparently been granted

00:33:08.480 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, a transition out of official and full-time Royal duties. They'll be

00:33:16.140 living during this transition part-time in the UK, part-time in Canada. We've also seen reports they may be

00:33:23.000 spending a bit of time in the U.S. as well, where Meghan's family is. But apparently, according to a

00:33:29.480 report in the London Evening Standard, Justin Trudeau offered to pay for the security costs, or rather to

00:33:36.240 get you and I to pay for the security costs. This was reported in the UK media. Then the PMO in Canada

00:33:43.060 wouldn't comment on it. Then Bill Morneau said, uh, there have been no discussions. And then Justin

00:33:48.640 Trudeau said they are in discussions about it. So we've had about basically four different stories,

00:33:54.700 three of them from the Canadian government in the last couple of days alone. I want to talk about this

00:34:01.260 and what it means for the Canadian taxpayers. Aaron Woodrick joins me on the line, federal director for

00:34:06.920 the Canadian Taxpayers Association. And also, as it so happens, the Duke of Lower Taxdom.

00:34:13.480 Thanks so much, Andrew. Appreciate the royal title.

00:34:15.220 So this is something that, I mean, for starters, there's a gross mishandling of the announcement

00:34:21.700 here, as I just mentioned. No one seems to know what's been agreed to, if anything. But certainly

00:34:27.600 on the table, there's at least a discussion about whether Canadian taxpayers will be on the hook

00:34:34.140 via the RCMP for protecting this couple and their son as they live in Canada. And I want to

00:34:41.200 get a sense here because we know how much security costs tend to amount when prime ministers travel

00:34:48.480 abroad. And I think that when foreign dignitaries come to Canada, it makes sense. Well, they're here

00:34:54.200 for a couple of days to protect them. This is not a program that's meant for people making Canada a home

00:35:00.880 though. No, it's not. It's a very different thing to provide a courtesy of security when people are

00:35:07.200 visiting versus when they are here permanently. And that's what we're talking about here. Again,

00:35:11.500 like you said, the details aren't clear. So we don't know if they're going to be here the whole

00:35:15.380 time, half time. But the point is, what is clear, I can tell you, Andrew, from all the correspondence

00:35:20.480 that I've been getting, is that Canadians are overwhelmingly concerned about having to pay for

00:35:27.040 the Duke and Duchess to be here. This is not a personal thing. The question is just a very simple

00:35:33.440 one is that, you know, what business do they have asking Canadian taxpayers to foot the bill

00:35:38.680 for their choice to want to spend time here? Yeah. And we don't have this American approach

00:35:45.020 of everyone except for, you know, seven people in the country getting lifetime secret service

00:35:49.540 protection. We are typically pretty modest about this. And it seems as though if they are living in

00:35:55.980 Canada, that's because they're departing from that role that requires that protection or at least

00:36:01.240 requires taxpayers to pay for it. So no matter what the amount is, and we've heard estimates that

00:36:07.580 it could be $1.7 million a year. You think of them as being under 40. I mean, that's millions and

00:36:15.120 millions of dollars in perpetuity for something that there's no real value to the taxpayers for and

00:36:21.400 no real necessity for it sounds like. Well, yeah, I think it's not just the amount for people. It's the

00:36:27.340 principle. People are saying, why should we be? Why are regular Canadians who pay their taxes and

00:36:32.260 expect important programs and services in return? Why is some of that money getting siphoned off to

00:36:37.240 pay for people who just decided that they wanted to live here and that we're somehow stuck with the

00:36:41.760 tab? The other thing I'd say, Andrew, is it doesn't square with their own ambition. I mean, to their

00:36:45.840 credit, the Duke and Duchess have said they want to be financially independent. That's their goal.

00:36:51.240 You can't be financially independent if Canadian taxpayers are footing the bill. So I certainly welcome

00:36:55.900 them saying that, and I hope that they can live up to that and not expect Canadian taxpayers to pay

00:37:00.800 their bills for them. Yeah, I think that's fair. And the one thing, and whenever this topic has

00:37:05.740 arisen in the U.S., for example, the point has been made that former presidents are immensely marketable

00:37:12.320 and they make millions on the speaker circuit doing books. They can afford private security if it's

00:37:17.540 something they value. And it sounds like for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who, as you know,

00:37:22.800 are working towards becoming financially independent. We know Meghan Markle has apparently been in talks

00:37:27.980 with Disney, as has her husband. These are things where, yeah, if they want to go it alone and they

00:37:33.760 think it's important, they could pay for this themselves. And if there's a specific risk that

00:37:39.700 they're facing, sure, I want the RCMP to be there. But we're talking about protecting people that,

00:37:46.000 as you note, ingrained in what they're doing, seems to be a desire to get off of the taxpayer's dime.

00:37:52.800 Absolutely. I mean, you can argue that it's just sort of get away from that lifestyle of living in

00:37:59.280 a bubble, of having all these official duties that they have in the U.K. And good for them,

00:38:04.100 right? And I recognize that some people like the couple personally, some don't like them. That's

00:38:08.960 not really what this is about. This is about whatever they choose, should Canadian taxpayers

00:38:13.940 be expected to just pay whatever it costs to deal with it? And I don't think a lot of Canadians

00:38:19.060 are willing to do that. I want to ask you more broadly about the challenge when it comes to

00:38:24.820 security costs, because this is always a tricky one. And of the things that you're going to spend

00:38:29.620 the taxpayers' money on, law enforcement security, if it's done smartly, if it's done well, I don't

00:38:36.320 think is bad. And same as protecting the prime minister. It costs a lot of money, but there's a

00:38:41.400 value there. How do you have that discussion seriously without it sounding like you don't take

00:38:47.140 the issue seriously? Yeah, look, I think a good example of that actually is the prime minister's

00:38:53.040 travel, right? We all know that he always flies. He goes on vacations on a government plane, and the

00:38:57.400 argument has always been for security purposes, right? And yet we hear Boris Johnson, the British

00:39:02.960 prime minister, flying commercial to go on his vacation. So it is a little bit strange to say,

00:39:08.080 well, how come the British prime minister can fly commercial and our prime minister cannot?

00:39:12.020 You know, when Boris Johnson flies, he saves piles of money for British taxpayers. Is it not

00:39:16.940 fair to ask whether maybe, would it not be cheaper for Canadian taxpayers to pay for a bunch of RCMP

00:39:22.680 security to travel with Prime Minister Trudeau on a commercial flight and save money? So I don't

00:39:28.500 think, look, no one is suggesting that we don't pay anything for security, but I think using the idea

00:39:34.300 of security as this, you know, blank check for any amount of spending is not a reasonable approach

00:39:39.820 either. Yeah, that's an important point, I think, because the whole premise of post 9-11 airport

00:39:46.080 security is that we've made airplanes and airports essentially the safest places to be. So arguably,

00:39:52.440 an airport is more secure than even an event the prime minister does. I mean, many people may know

00:39:57.820 I was trying to cover Justin Trudeau on the campaign trail, I got into, I think, one or two of his

00:40:02.100 events, no metal detectors, no pat downs, no wanding. So by the time someone gets on a plane with him,

00:40:08.340 if it's a commercial Air Canada flight or something, they've already gone through more screening than they

00:40:13.560 go through to access him most of the rest of the year. Yeah, I think when it comes to security,

00:40:19.380 the question always has to be asked whether or not there's a reasonable alternative that will cost a

00:40:23.500 lot less. And in terms of, you know, flying, that is the alternative. And again, we're looking at

00:40:28.500 the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is, you know, of equal or higher stature than a Canadian

00:40:32.860 Prime Minister in the world state. So it's hard to argue that there would be security threats that

00:40:36.920 face a Canadian Prime Minister that don't face a British one. And there are many other OECD countries

00:40:42.340 we've looked out where you have heads of state and Prime Ministers and Presidents flying commercials,

00:40:46.600 certainly on vacation, not for official business. But it so look, I think that, of course, we want

00:40:52.920 to ensure that people have security, but also just saying whatever it costs is no unacceptable answer.

00:40:59.900 Now, going back to the Sussex security question here, and it sounds like there's at least a dialogue

00:41:06.200 going on in the government. And we don't yet know if those initial UK reports were completely

00:41:11.700 fictitious, were a little bit embellished or whatever. We've just been getting conflicting

00:41:16.400 answers here. But you've said there's been a lot of interest in this, and not just from Canadian

00:41:22.460 taxpayers. Explain a little bit about how this has landed on your desk in the last couple of days.

00:41:27.960 Yeah, I've been receiving queries from the British press, which is not usual for a Canadian taxpayer

00:41:33.200 advocate, but they have a similar question. You know, are you concerned about the cost?

00:41:37.700 Are Canadian taxpayers concerned? I should say they've been a little bit ahead of the curve,

00:41:41.440 because, you know, they started asking, and, you know, I had concerns. But I can tell you,

00:41:47.380 I've been getting a lot of correspondence from regular Canadians on this. I would say it goes far

00:41:51.980 as to say it's one of the hottest topics I've seen in quite a while, which is perhaps a little

00:41:57.220 bit surprising, given that we're talking about millions, not billions. But it just goes to show you

00:42:01.320 that there are a lot of people who have their noses out of joint, just at the idea that taxpayers are

00:42:06.540 going to be expected to pick up the tab. Yeah, I think the British are probably happy because now 1.00

00:42:11.020 someone else gets to. So they're happy that this is like a cost burden shifting endeavor for them by

00:42:16.100 the family coming to Canada. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Cost sharing arrangement.

00:42:21.260 So let me ask you then, because I know that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation every year does the

00:42:25.900 Big Teddy Awards, where you go and give the award for the government waste. I think the large

00:42:31.760 rubber duck might have been a contender one year. I think there have been other

00:42:35.000 significant endeavors to expose government waste. Do you think that as we enter the award season,

00:42:42.060 Oscar nominees just announced, the Golden Globes just happened. Is this an early contender for the

00:42:47.220 teddies? Boy, we'll have to see what the tab is. And we've never had an international, although we have

00:42:53.700 had a royal winner, the past winner for her lavish spending ways. So you never know. You could see the

00:43:02.540 royals on that list at some point. Yeah. So at worst case scenario, you can make a new international

00:43:07.020 category of, you know, the cross border, cross border government waste. Absolutely. That would

00:43:13.880 not be, that would not be above us for sure. All right. Aaron Woodrick, Federal Director for the

00:43:18.960 Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Always a pleasure, sir. Thanks for taking the time. Thanks a lot, Andrew.

00:43:23.420 I still like Megxit as the basically orderly departure from the royal family. And whether

00:43:31.680 Megxit or Brexit happens first, I think is the big challenge for the odds makers right now. I still have

00:43:37.100 my money out that Megxit will, I think everything in the world will take place before Brexit. So my money

00:43:43.020 is on Megxit taking place. And perhaps it's a model for Brexit. Maybe the UK can also get Justin Trudeau to

00:43:49.540 pay for their security costs as a condition of leaving the European Union. Who knows? But glad Aaron Woodrick

00:43:55.580 was able to join and glad he's getting some international exposure. I have a hard enough time getting

00:43:59.940 Canadians to care about government waste. And now all of a sudden, the people of Britain are interested in

00:44:05.480 government waste. So that's all fun. That's all fine and dandy. As we move into this new era of the royal

00:44:13.020 family, I've had some people that just despise that we are even talking about the royals. I've had people that I

00:44:21.280 know that love that we get an excuse to talk about them. And I've had people that are now like forced to

00:44:27.480 reassess whether they really like Prince Harry that much because he used to always be like the Canadian bad boy,

00:44:33.560 everyone's favorite. And now he's basically the one dismantling the thousand year tradition of the royals. So I'm not

00:44:41.280 exactly sure where things are going to land on this. Certainly, you know, how much does it cost to

00:44:47.480 give them, even if you were to give them one full time RCMP officer each, or let's say two so they can

00:44:54.460 cover off on on breaks, even three, let's say an RCMP officer makes 300,000 makes $100,000 a year. That is,

00:45:02.280 you know, $300,000 a year to give them three full time round the clock protective details. But

00:45:10.260 three people, there are two of them. So and then there's their one child. So that's 900,000 right

00:45:16.580 there. So it's easy to see how the costs could go up very quickly, which means that you need to go

00:45:23.440 back to the drawing board. And like Aaron said, it's not necessarily about just how much does it cost

00:45:27.700 specifically. But even more fundamentally, is this the kind of thing we should be paying for? And look,

00:45:33.700 I don't think you should scrimp on security. But I also think if you are leaving public life,

00:45:38.580 and you're making a conscious effort to move away from that way of living, then you can't bring the

00:45:44.500 best of both worlds. And if you must, Scotland Yard has to deal with it. You're them. It's the

00:45:50.240 British government that thinks you need protection. Let them send a Scotland Yard detail to live in

00:45:54.720 Canada for this. Are they going to do it? No. And the reason why is because they are making a point

00:45:59.840 of leaving that world. Like imagine, do you think that if they were to go to the US, that the Secret

00:46:05.080 Service is at all going to say, Oh, well, you know, I guess I guess we're now giving well,

00:46:09.680 the Secret Service probably would because they don't care about spending money. But but I don't

00:46:12.780 think they would. I can't imagine Trump signing off. Yeah, we'll give Prince Harry and that that

00:46:17.720 Duchess girl will give them security. I don't think it would happen. So I don't think Canada should as 0.95

00:46:23.120 well. We've got to wrap things up for today. We'll be back in just a couple of days with more of the

00:46:28.500 Andrew Lawton Show on True North. Head on over to AndrewLawtonShow.com. And you can subscribe on

00:46:34.280 all of the devices on iTunes, Google Podcasts, listen on Spotify, contribute to the show, which

00:46:40.040 really does mean a lot because we are a grassroots initiative and keep tabs on what's coming ahead in

00:46:46.720 the weeks and months to come. Thanks very much, folks. We'll talk to you next time. Thank you.

00:46:50.900 God bless and good day.

Juno News - January 14, 2020

Ep 01： CPC Leadership, Media Double Standards, and Sussex Security

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