Juno News - November 04, 2025
Ford and Carney continue to butt heads over anti-tariff ad
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Summary
Canadian armed forces veterans are demanding access to psychedelic medicines to treat mental health issues related to their service to the country, and a majority ofCanadians are behind them. A veteran podcaster and advocate for veterans mental health criticized the Liberal government for inaction and harmful policies during a House of Commons committee meeting last Tuesday.
Transcript
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a canadian armed forces veteran laid into mps at a veterans affairs committee demanding action from
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the government to prevent suicide among veterans ontario premier doug ford is disputing prime
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minister mark carney's claims that he wouldn't have released an anti-tariff ad that led to a
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breakdown in trade talks with the u.s liberal industry minister melanie joe lee avoided answering
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questions about the government's controversial multi-billion dollar deal with the automaker
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stellantis hello canada it's tuesday november 4th and this is the true north daily brief i'm cosmon
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gerja and i'm jeff knight we've got you covered with all the news you need to know let's discuss
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the top stories of the day and the true north exclusives you won't hear anywhere else
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canadian armed forces veterans are demanding access to psychedelic medicines
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to treat mental health issues related to their service to the country and a majority of canadians
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are behind them kelsey sharon a veteran podcaster and advocate for veterans mental health criticized
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the liberal government for inaction and harmful policies during a house of commons committee
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meeting last tuesday on reducing suicide among canadian armed forces veterans in her opening
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testimony sharon lambasted the government and mps for failing to track suicide numbers among veterans and
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armed forces members and for offering euthanasia through its medical assistance in dying program instead
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she also noted the government has failed to deliver promise funding for psychedelic research and for
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the barriers preventing veterans from accessing potentially life-affirming treatments such as
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psychedelic therapy including psilocybin mushroom therapy you don't fix a broken system by euthanizing it
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people and while you fund death and continue to expand in 2027 you deny life-saving treatments i don't know
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psychedelic system therapy let's take that a proven peer-reviewed study and treatment to treat ptsd and
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depression other nations across the globe not only study it but successfully use it and canada continues
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to bury it in red tape i know this because i am the only person in canadian history to legally receive
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medical psilocybin outside of a clinical trial before i was approved health canada offered me electroshock
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therapy and i am so sorry they offered that to you don't you dare there are other solutions people
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so think about that this government would rather electrocute somebody who has a traumatic brain
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injuries brain into absolutely nothing instead of offering me a plant sharon credits the treatment
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for saving her life after she struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment resistant
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depression due to her service in afghanistan at the end of the hour sharon raised her voice as the
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committee was about to cut off her time to list a host of ways mps could work to prevent more suicides
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among the caf emerging treatments for veterans and first responders two years ago you said you were
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going to give us funding for psychedelic assisted research you said that we had the proof you said we
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had the evidence give us that true north was provided a abacus data poll which found that 51
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canadians support allowing the use of natural psilocybin medicines or quote magic mushrooms under medical
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supervision for therapeutic purposes to veterans first responders and others to treat depression
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addiction ptsd and end-of-life anxiety jeff this is definitely a huge and often overlooked issue
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how we treat our veterans after they've served so bravely for this country and a lot of them are
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just left out in the cold particularly when it comes to mental health and we've all seen those stories
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of veterans being told to access made instead of being given options for treatment so what are some of
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the other things that sharon asked for during this committee that might help veterans who are struggling
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with this sort of thing yeah cosmen during her testimony at the committee on veteran suicide
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prevention kelsey sharon laid out a whole bunch of specific asks beyond just psychedelic access
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she pushed hard for the government to start properly tracking suicide numbers among caf members
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and veterans which is something she said they've completely failed at so far leaving everyone in
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the dark on the real scale of the crisis she also demanded an immediate halt to offering medical
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assistance in dying as an option for veterans dealing with ptsd or treatment resistant depression
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calling it out as straight up harmful and sharing proof of cases where veterans affairs staff pushed
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it on struggling vets on the funding side she called for the full delivery of promised money for
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psychedelic research trials and to tear down all the bureaucratic barriers blocking vets from therapies
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like psilocybin assisted treatment as her time was winding down she rattled off more urgent steps
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like expanding peer support programs run by vets themselves overhauling the disability claims
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process to make it faster and less traumatic and investing in community-based mental health hubs
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tailored to military trauma she didn't hold back on how the liberals in action is costing lives
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ontario premier doug ford says he has a quote different recollection of conversations with prime
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minister mark carney prior to releasing an anti-tariff reagan ad despite carney's
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claim that he advised ford to pull the campaign during a media scrum at queen's park in toronto
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on monday ford told reporters he would quote never apologize to donald trump after carney did you
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don't want to correct the public record here the prime minister says he had to apologize and he said
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that he asked you specifically not to run the commercial well again i'm not going to go back and
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forth i had a different recollection recollection of our conversation but that's you know people don't need
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that they want to move forward to get a deal to protect jobs and protect the economy of of ontario
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and of canada no again i'm i'm not going down that avenue uh i know i've talked to him this morning
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through text message we have a great relationship we're focused on the same areas and that's protecting
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canadian jobs ontario jobs the steel sector the auto sector life sciences and manufacturing ford said
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quote i've never apologized to donald trump donald trump's trying to destroy our province destroy
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our country steel manufacturing jobs and auto objective jobs steel jobs aluminum jobs the list
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keeps going on i'll never apologize to president trump and i'm going to continue fighting for the
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people of ontario and the people of canada ford noted he rejected multiple requests from the prime
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minister to take the ad down following u.s backlash he also said he understands carney wants a deal with the
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u.s but claimed the president would give canada a bad deal anyway what was the prime minister's tone
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when he asked you a couple of times to pull the ad was he personally angry with your actions no he
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wasn't he wasn't angry at all i i fully understand the position he's in he's trying to talk to the the
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president but the president was going to give us a terrible deal like they gave uk a terrible deal
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gave japan even a worse deal in my opinion and we weren't going to go down that rabbit hole of getting a
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terrible deal i always say uh no deal is better than a bad deal and that's what president trump
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wants he wants a terrible deal for canadians i take a different approach i want the amcan fortress
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american canadian fortress that we can grow the the pie create more jobs just like ronald reagan did
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on saturday carney told reporters in malaysia that he apologized to trump over the ad and that airing it
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was quote not something he would have done board said monday he doesn't recall carney telling him not
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to run the ad before it aired so cosmon what did carney say on saturday is carney lying about
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disapproving the ad before it aired as the reporter suggested and what was the most recent u.s response
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to all of this so yeah jeff this has been quite a back and forth not only from the u.s side to the
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canadian side but between carney and doug ford but the most recent happening i just saw in the news
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earlier that uh david eby the premier of alberta essentially backed out of a similar ad campaign
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now i'm not sure if he was going to use ronald reagan quotes in his ad but the bc government was
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set to do an ad blitz in the united states and they just backed out of that after speaking to the federal
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government and this comes after the weekend where mark carney was in malaysia and he told reporters
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that airing the ontario ad was quote not something he would have done and confirmed he had himself
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apologized to u.s president donald trump so the question is whether he's lying about disapproving
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of the ad beforehand or whether he looked on approvingly as doug ford has indicated or rather
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that was his interpretation that he put out there it's difficult to say because carney's saying he warned
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ford about this ad and now has taken some responsibility through that apology to donald trump
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but it does show a major rift between ottawa and ontario over handling the u.s trade relationship a
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rift that i don't think was really there before or at least it wasn't there and apparent in the public
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eye because doug ford and mark carney have presented this amicable relationship between each other and
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it's a carry-on from the relationship that ford has tried to project with former prime minister
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justin trudeau as well but the ad itself has quite a convoluted history and it's only a few weeks
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well maybe like a week or week and a half max but back in mid-october ontario launched this 75 million
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campaign using these clips of ronald reagan and between october 21st and the 23rd trump gets word of
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it uh either he sees it himself or more than likely he was told by his own aides and own officials about
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this happening and he publicly denounces it but by october 23rd he cancels trade talks with canada
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specifically blaming this ad now ford agreed to pause the ads a day after the cancellation of trade talks
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but airs them one last time during the world series which prompts trump to retaliate
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shortly thereafter with a 10 percent tariff on canadian goods which is an immediate economic cost that
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canadians will have to suffer when those go into effect now ford is still calling it the most successful
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ad in north american history he has his own ministers and officials praising the success or so-called success
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of this ad but if we're measuring success by attention sure that might be true it's obviously a global story
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but the results can't be called successful under any measure we've seen an escalation of the trade war
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canadians are going to suffer because of this so it is really a matter of
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both ford and carney kind of projecting diametrically opposed visions and trying to
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pose themselves as the leaders in this trade war now we have to remember that ontario is a huge trading
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partner and a huge part of canada's trade relationship with the united states so they are sort of butting
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heads and stepping into each other's territory when it comes to trade relations with the united states
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and doug ford here is staking his own territory and making quite a significant move albeit a negative one
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for canadians at large when it comes to the overall dialogue between canada and the united states because
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right now we only have doug ford ford to blame for trade talks falling through now that wasn't ottawa
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who did that it wasn't ottawa's trade negotiators it was the premier of ontario
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liberal industry minister melanie jolie dodged tough questions from conservative mps about missing job
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guarantees in the government's multi-billion dollar deal with stelantis the exchange came as joe lee
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confirmed ottawa has begun a formal dispute resolution process against the automaker after it relocated jeep
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compass production from brampton ontario to illinois resulting in the loss of approximately 3 000 canadian
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jobs joe lee said quote the government will take the next step under the contracts to recover canadian
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taxpayers money this means that will start the 30-day period of the formal dispute resolution process
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in order to bring back production at the stelantis brampton facility joe lee told mps the government's
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move was in response to what it considers a violation of quote legally binding commitments
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made by stelantis in exchange for up to 15 billion dollars in federal and provincial subsidies
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joe lee said quote these actions are not symbolic they are the direct consequence of the violation of
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clear commitments she said in french when a commitment toward the canadian government is not
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respected on behalf of canadian workers there are consequences conservative mp raquel dancho pressed jolie
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repeatedly to identify where in the stelantis agreements there was a job guarantee for brampton
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workers you should be able to tell us if there is a jobs guarantee for the 3 000 jobs i think you're
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falling into the trap of trying to find a problem where there's none well the problem is that because
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the 3 000 people were laid off the government was trying committed thousands millions and billions
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in fact of dollars and we're trying to understand i don't know whether you want this to be a monologue
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are you this you want to me to appear because the question i'm asking you is very clear i don't need
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to be here jeff what was the minister's response to conservative mp raquel dancho's questions about there
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being no job guarantees in this contract well cosmon jolie basically sidestepped dancho's grilling by
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insisting the job guarantees were baked into the three linked contracts but she wouldn't cough up
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specifics like numbers or exact locations blaming commercial sensitivity when dancho pointed to a
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public contract that only mentioned guarantees for the next star plant and not brampton jolie shot back
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saying quote i must dispute what you just said this is not a fact and doubled down there's always job
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there's always job numbers guarantees that's exactly why the government of canada and also the
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government of ontario have decided to support the company later when conservative mp michael kuklilman
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asked why the agreements detailed dei quotas like 50 percent women non-binary on boards but skimped on
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brampton jobs she pivoted with are you against women being on boards overall she kept circling back to the
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dispute process kicking off to clawback funds and forced production back but never nailed down
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those elusive guarantees leaving the conservatives fuming about transparency
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that's it for today folks thanks for tuning in you can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by
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