Juno News - October 28, 2024


Food bank usage up 90% in Trudeau's Canada

Hosted by
Harrison Faulkner
Mentioned
Jaspal Singh Pierre Poilievre
Will Smith listen to UCP members and stand up for parental rights？ BC NDP eke out a majority government after mail in ballots counted

Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

173.11

Word count

1,577

Sentence count

121

Harmful content

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In March of 2024, over 2 million Canadians accessed a food bank in order to put food on their table. Of those 2 million, over 600,000 were children. According to Food Banks Canada, food bank visits from 2019 to 2024 are up 90% across the country. And yet the federal government tries to gaslight us that Canada s economy is actually doing well.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.080 How the hell is anyone existing in Canada? Like, I just, I feel trapped.
00:00:05.180 But the cost of living is outrageous in Canada.
00:00:08.360 An hour and a half in the pouring rain. Dude, you are a legend.
00:00:12.440 I'm a family of six, so here we go.
00:00:14.360 I can't function anymore.
00:00:20.180 Financially, I just, I don't understand anymore.
00:00:24.720 Where, where are we supposed to live?
00:00:26.240 Where can I live in a place where I'm able to enjoy my life as well?
00:00:32.320 Because I'm not enjoying it here.
00:00:40.380 Does Canada feel like a first world country to you?
00:00:43.900 Does Canada feel like the country it used to be and the country that people around the world look at as one of the world's advanced economies?
00:00:51.440 For you, it may be great, but for millions of Canadians, everyday life has become a struggle.
00:00:58.360 Headlines today indicate that Canada has surpassed yet another grim milestone.
00:01:03.600 For the first time in history, 2 million Canadians accessed a food bank in just one month.
00:01:10.000 In just March of 2024, over 2 million Canadians had to access a food bank in order to put food on their table.
00:01:19.100 Of that 2 million, over 600,000 were children.
00:01:23.300 Of course, those figures are actually conservative and the number is likely far higher.
00:01:27.600 When over 2 million Canadians have to rely on a food bank to stay alive,
00:01:31.480 when your people are starving in the streets, that is mission critical.
00:01:35.520 That is the top priority of your government.
00:01:37.660 Looking after your people first.
00:01:39.360 But of course, this is yet another inconvenient fact for a struggling liberal government.
00:01:44.880 Acknowledging this fact will likely only bring them more pain.
00:01:48.600 So the government is very likely just going to move along as though this is not happening.
00:01:52.780 And by the way, I don't know about you, but I don't feel as though the economic situation in this country has gotten any better since March.
00:01:59.900 And since that's the figure in March, I can only imagine what the figures are today.
00:02:05.060 Now before we get into this show, be sure to drop a like on this video.
00:02:07.700 Help us out by subscribing to the True North YouTube channel.
00:02:10.420 And the comment question for the episode is this.
00:02:13.060 Why are Canadians going hungry?
00:02:15.260 Let me know our answer in the comments below and let's get into it.
00:02:18.120 According to Food Banks Canada, food bank visits from 2019 to 2024 are up 90% across the country.
00:02:26.420 In Ontario alone, food bank visits from 2019 to today have risen by over 116%.
00:02:34.820 33% of those 2 million food bank visits in March of 2024 were from children.
00:02:41.440 And consider this statistic as well.
00:02:43.360 18% of food bank users in Canada are employed, which is the highest proportion ever recorded by Food Banks Canada.
00:02:51.480 The children are going hungry in this country.
00:02:53.960 And yet the federal government tries to gaslight us and to tell us that Canada's economy is actually doing well.
00:03:00.000 We have had some good news over the summer.
00:03:04.060 Inflation has now been within the Bank of Canada's target range for seven months in a row.
00:03:10.700 Wages have been outpacing inflation for 18 months in a row.
00:03:17.020 And that is really good news for Canadian families.
00:03:20.440 It means they bring home more in their paychecks.
00:03:23.520 Food Banks Canada also reported in June that 25% of Canadians have a poverty level standard of living.
00:03:31.420 The government, meanwhile, tells us that 10% of Canadians live below the poverty line.
00:03:35.980 25% of Canadians living in poverty.
00:03:38.880 That's what that means, by the way.
00:03:40.080 Let's not try to pretend as though a poverty-like standard of living is that much different than living below the poverty line.
00:03:47.400 A quarter of our country living in poverty.
00:03:49.960 Another food bank, this time out in Vancouver, are now turning international students away from the food bank.
00:03:56.940 After all, no international student should be entering a food bank.
00:04:01.580 No international student should have to rely on accessing food from a food bank to stay alive in our country.
00:04:06.520 The entire idea of the international student program was that students who came to this country could support themselves and have to prove they have the funding.
00:04:14.780 But nonetheless, this decision by a greater Vancouver area food bank to shut out international students,
00:04:21.400 specifically first-year international students, is receiving a lot of pushback from the Indian diaspora community in Vancouver.
00:04:28.900 The Greater Vancouver Food Bank says they are not providing food to international students in their first year,
00:04:34.020 which is awful, said Jaskaran Singh, an international student activist with Team We Care Canada.
00:04:40.160 If we want to help international students, this is one thing we can get rid of. 1.00
00:04:43.680 A Vancouver city councillor also took issue with the food bank for denying food to international students.
00:04:50.140 Neeraj Waliya with the Guru Nanak Food Bank says they provide food to all international students,
00:04:55.960 and he hopes the Greater Vancouver Food Bank will follow their model.
00:05:00.140 If a government-supported food bank says no to someone, that is very questionable.
00:05:04.300 Well, there's probably a reason why the food bank is saying no to these students.
00:05:09.400 That's because demand for food at food banks has reached record levels,
00:05:14.100 and international students should not be the ones to receive that charitable food 0.93
00:05:19.060 in front of Canadians who actually need it.
00:05:22.400 The Greater Vancouver Food Bank is not the first food bank to institute this policy.
00:05:27.020 A food bank in Brampton had to do the same thing and turn international students away.
00:05:32.060 It's not like there's any example of international students abusing food banks now, is there?
00:05:37.840 This exact issue was already addressed by a Mississauga food bank operator.
00:05:42.820 And let's just be honest about this.
00:05:44.600 When Canadians are suffering like this, when our people are starving in the street,
00:05:48.640 our country is in no position to open up our borders and allow for the rest of the world to come here. 1.00
00:05:55.660 And not only that, for the people to come here not contribute to our economy at all, 1.00
00:06:00.620 not help us build homes, not actually work in the healthcare industry,
00:06:04.740 but more likely delivering and driving for Uber Eats and qualifying for government subsidies,
00:06:10.220 and then lining up at the food bank to get free food.
00:06:12.680 That is the situation we're dealing with right now.
00:06:15.520 And it's absolutely unacceptable.
00:06:17.300 Also, how much money is Canada giving to Israel and Ukraine right now?
00:06:21.840 How many billions of dollars has this country given to random countries around the world
00:06:26.720 that do not respect our values and do not respect us as a country?
00:06:30.920 Are many of the countries that receive our foreign aid actually going to put it into use to protect their people?
00:06:35.900 Or are the leaders of those countries going to stuff the money into their own pockets
00:06:38.920 and get rich off of the charitable giving of our Canadian government?
00:06:43.580 Our country gives away billions and billions of dollars every single year.
00:06:49.120 When our people are struggling, when Canadians can no longer afford to buy food,
00:06:53.420 when Canadian children have to rely on a food bank,
00:06:57.280 when our people are dying in the streets due to drug overdoses,
00:07:01.280 when our indigenous population are still suffering disproportionately,
00:07:04.880 while the Canadian people are suffering,
00:07:07.920 this federal government wastes our money,
00:07:10.740 they sign billions of dollars away to other countries that do not deserve our money,
00:07:15.620 and they open up our borders to millions of people to come into our country 0.99
00:07:19.980 who will only end up being a lag on our system.
00:07:24.040 When Pierre Polyev says our country is broken, he's not wrong.
00:07:28.100 This system is deeply broken.
00:07:30.180 It is deeply broken, and it is frankly disgraceful.
00:07:34.220 A quarter of Canada's foreign aid budget could go to a national food bank program
00:07:39.100 to deal with increasing demand, for example.
00:07:42.520 We also, as a country, could be unlocking the power of Canadian energy,
00:07:46.800 which would allow us to drive down the cost of food.
00:07:50.300 We could be trying to grow our own food.
00:07:52.640 We could try to become a self-sustaining economy
00:07:55.840 and not rely on importing food,
00:07:59.020 which has driven up prices beyond reach for many Canadians.
00:08:03.060 There are things that could be done to make life for you,
00:08:06.020 your family, and your neighbors better.
00:08:08.200 But those things are not being done.
00:08:10.520 Instead, what does the government do?
00:08:12.480 They tell you to your face.
00:08:14.920 They tell you that your country, that our country,
00:08:18.340 is somehow doing well economically.
00:08:20.980 Canada has one of the strongest balance sheets in the world,
00:08:24.960 the lowest deficit, the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio.
00:08:28.300 It just could not be further from the truth.
00:08:30.800 All right, everyone, that's going to do it for us today on the show.
00:08:32.760 Thank you so much for tuning in.
00:08:33.900 My name is Harrison Faulkner, and this is Ratioed.
00:08:36.680 we'll be right back.
00:08:40.140 Just a minute.
00:08:41.680 We'll be right back.
00:08:44.580 We'll see you again next time.
00:08:45.960 We'll be right back.
00:08:46.720 We'll be right back.
00:08:47.620 We'll be right back.
00:08:48.580 We'll be right back.
00:08:49.700 We'll be right back.
00:08:50.680 We'll be right back.
00:08:51.960 We'll be right back.
00:08:52.560 We'll be right back.
00:08:53.400 We'll be right back.
00:08:54.240 We'll be right back.
00:08:55.300 We'll be right back.
00:08:56.460 We'll be right back.
00:08:57.460 We'll be right back.
00:08:57.520 We'll be right back.
00:08:58.980 We'll be right back.
00:08:59.600 We'll be right back.
00:09:00.640 We'll be right back.
00:09:01.160 You're right.
00:09:01.660 We'll be right back.
00:09:02.300 We'll be right back.
00:09:02.560 We'll be right back.
00:09:03.480 We'll be right back.
00:09:04.660 We'll be right back.