A free speech event at Thompson Rivers University featuring academic Frances Widowson was disrupted by protesters, who shouted obscenities and drummed to drown out the speakers. True North reporter Alex Zoltan was on the ground in Kamloops as chaos unfolded.
00:02:23.820People who are just asking for evidence to have to provide it. You're making the claim, do you believe
00:02:30.140that the remains of 215 children have been found? Yeah. Okay, so what evidence, what evidence do you have
00:02:35.740for that? I believe children, can you let her, can you just let her talk instead? Please don't enter.
00:02:40.440The 215 and all lois that were found in the ground. No, that's not what it was. This is what it was.
00:02:44.740It was 215 child remains in a mass unmarked grave. Okay, so don't lie. They did not say four and a half
00:02:52.960years ago anomalies. They said 215 child remains were found in a mass unmarked grave in Kamloops.
00:03:00.760This university continues to perpetuate that lie. Thompson Rivers University president, Dr.
00:03:08.140Irene, publicly stated that the event was not sanctioned, saying that the individuals were
00:03:13.860instructed that they didn't have permission to hold the event. Widowson, a key figure questioning
00:03:19.800the Kamloops mass graves narrative, and one of the authors featured in the book Grave Error,
00:03:25.860has faced mounting opposition during her recent events. An event at the University of Winnipeg in
00:03:32.620September erupted in chaos, where protesters allegedly assaulted members of her team,
00:03:38.400leading to one man being punched and a woman being spat on. The Kamloops event continues
00:03:44.900Widowson's tour across Canadian universities, a tour often met with protests and campus cancellations,
00:03:52.220as she and her colleagues insist their conversations are necessary for free expression and academic freedom.
00:04:00.180So Melanie, I watched some of this live coverage coming out from Alex, and it was quite hectic,
00:04:06.560but I'm honestly not surprised since this is in Kamloops, where the original claim about the mass
00:04:14.060graves comes from. But Melanie, you covered Widowson's event in Winnipeg and the ensuing backlash from
00:04:21.200that. Did you see any parallels between that instance and what happened in Kamloops this week?
00:04:27.700I think those are pretty hard to miss. What Alex captured in Kamloops follows pretty closely what I saw in
00:04:33.040Manitoba. Universities are supposed to be places where we can challenge ideas, but instead we keep seeing
00:04:39.680efforts to shut down honest discussion about these mass graves claims. Like in Manitoba, Frances Widowson has made
00:04:45.820quite the effort to improve the level of discourse on campus. She brought philosopher Peter Boghossian's street
00:04:52.300epistemology exercise to two Manitoba universities. The idea is simple. You basically lay out mats on the floor from strongly agree to
00:05:02.040strongly disagree, and people essentially move along the line to respond to a claim. So it's meant to lower
00:05:09.640the temperature because at the time you're focused on the question rather than each other. At the University
00:05:16.820of Winnipeg, she didn't even have time to set those up. Almost immediately, the drum started, people crowded
00:05:23.860in, and it essentially devolved into a pitchfork mob pretty quickly. They shouted insults and punched the
00:05:29.860camera man like you said. He was just there to document. They spat on a supporter and eventually dumped water on the gear.
00:05:37.460Frances later called it a, quote, breakdown of civilization. And that's exactly how it feels watching it back.
00:05:44.900Kamloops felt like it had the same atmosphere. So drumming, chanting, insults, all of it designed to create so much chaos
00:05:52.820that no one can really hear anything. No one's saying that people can't protest, but it does feel like
00:05:58.820scenes like this cross a line. The problem is when one man's protest becomes a veto on the rights of
00:06:04.740everybody else, you also see these juvenile tactics from institutions themselves. So back in Winnipeg, a professor
00:06:12.340emailed students calling Frances a, quote, residential school denier and warning them to essentially stay away.
00:06:19.140And in Kamloops, the university raced to say the event wasn't approved, but you don't hear the same urgency
00:06:26.180about protecting open debate. And I keep coming back to this. Why do so many people seem desperate for the
00:06:34.980worst possible story to be true? If there's no evidence of mass ritual murder by the Catholic Church,
00:06:42.180that should be good news in my mind. Surely that would make reconciliation easier, not harder.
00:06:49.140With soaring grocery prices pushing more Canadians into food insecurity, the state broadcaster,
00:06:57.620CBC News, is now actively promoting grocery stores that offer, quote,
00:07:02.500big savings by selling expired or near expired food. The segment was met with considerable backlash
00:07:10.020for normalizing the problem. Kind of grocery store in Quebec is promising big savings at a time when food
00:07:15.140prices keep rising. The low cost chain sells discounted items sometimes past their best before date.
00:07:21.300As the CBC's Gabriel Guindy found out, shoppers say the deals are hard to beat.
00:07:26.340I'm at a type of grocery store that's gaining a lot of momentum.
00:07:29.780It sells discounted items and people shopping here say they're saving a lot of money.
00:07:34.660I spent 52 days and if I would have it everywhere else, probably 150 dollars.
00:07:44.100The food is sourced through distributors and manufacturers. So products that are mislabeled
00:07:48.660or can be sold in regular grocery stores end up here, like this beef that was supposed to go to a
00:07:54.340restaurant. It's sold at a discount making prices more affordable. Another reason for why prices are so
00:08:00.660cheap is because they sell items that are near or past their best before date.
00:08:05.300The Quebec retailer gained momentum as more Canadian families struggle financially.
00:08:10.500The outlet noted their reduced items were safe to eat as, quote, best before labels indicate quality,
00:08:17.060not safety. A staggering one in four Canadian households now struggle with food insecurity.
00:08:23.780The problem is becoming more pervasive with one quarter of households now struggling to afford food.
00:08:30.500This includes going entire days without food or worrying about running out of supplies at home.
00:08:35.860According to a recent report from Food Banks Canada, there's been a 40% increase in poverty over
00:08:42.260the last two years. The charity released its 2025 poverty report card, giving Canada an overall
00:08:48.900failing grade of D. The grade reflects the federal government's poverty reduction efforts.
00:08:54.100So, Cosmin, what food categories have been the hardest hit by inflation
00:08:59.140based on the data from Statistics Canada?
00:09:01.460Yeah, Melanie, I think everybody listening has been hitting the store lately and is starting to notice
00:09:08.020things are getting prohibitively expensive out there. And it means a lot of Canadians are forced to make
00:09:15.060sacrifices at the grocery aisle. But when it comes to specifics, according to the latest data from
00:09:21.220Statistics Canada, the consumer price index says for September that some food categories have been
00:09:28.580absolutely slammed by inflation. We're talking about like 40 to 50% year over year increases.
00:09:35.940Now, leading the pack among those was coffee. So, your morning cup of roasted or ground coffee,
00:09:43.540which I admit I really rely on to kickstart my day. That has shot up a staggering 41% year over year.
00:09:51.780So, if you've been wondering why bags of coffee can cost up to $20 these days compared to what it used to,
00:10:01.140there's your answer. As for meat products, it's not faring much better. So, fresh or frozen ground
00:10:08.900beef jumped by 17.4%. Beef in general has been up by about 14%. Now, those who are vegetarians aren't
00:10:19.460left out of this absolute slaughter when it comes to prices. Nuts and seeds, which you might think are
00:10:27.620a budget option, also saw big price hikes at 15.7%. Going beyond proteins, you see fruit juices up 10.5%,
00:10:39.380chocolate, confectionery up over 10%. It really extends across almost every category, both essential ones
00:10:50.180and what you might call luxury categories. Some other interesting things, vegetables are up as well,
00:10:56.4201.9%. Cucumbers shot up 24.7% in a single month. Sugar, meanwhile, other sort of pantry staples also
00:11:09.620climbed 9.2%. So, yeah, whether it's coffee, a steak, or just having a snack, I think Canadians are really
00:11:18.740feeling the pinch across the board. And yet, you have CBC, instead of focusing on how we can tackle
00:11:27.460inflation, maybe through adjusting government spending, making cuts, and re-gearing the economy,
00:11:34.900they're promoting Canadians to purchase expired or near-expired food as a way to cope.
00:11:43.140Perhaps normalizing expired food as a solution isn't the best option. I mean, this is a real problem,
00:11:52.180and Canadians deserve honest coverage, but also accountability for the government and some of
00:11:59.300these spending decisions, which have led to our current economic turmoil.
00:12:04.340The Department of National Defence's controversial new directive to train public servants in firearms
00:12:14.660and operating drones has sparked considerable backlash, with critics slamming it as, quote,
00:12:21.460ridiculous. The directive encourages public servants to join the Canadian Armed Forces,
00:12:27.860or the CAF, Supplementary Reserve, to increase the size of the army to 300,000 members. Toronto Sun
00:12:36.980journalist Brian Passifume compiled several public servants' reactions to the news, with several
00:12:43.620expressing discontent with the plan. Meanwhile, Chief of the Defence Staff General Jenny
00:12:50.340Kerrigan and Defence Deputy Minister Stephanie Beck signed off on the mobilization plan in May. The plan
00:12:58.340would train federal and provincial employees in a one-week crash course to handle firearms, drive trucks,
00:13:05.620and fly drones. First reported by the Ottawa Citizen, the supplementary recruiting push will prioritize
00:13:12.500volunteer public servants at the federal and provincial territorial level, with less restrictive
00:13:19.540entry standards. The plan states, quote, the entry criteria for the supplementary or other reserve
00:13:28.020should be less restrictive than the reserve force for age limits as well as physical and fitness
00:13:33.140requirements. The supplementary reserve is made up of inactive or retired CAF members who are willing to
00:13:40.260return to duty if necessary. Currently has 4,384 personnel, but would be boosted to 300,000 in the event of an
00:13:49.940emergency, according to the directive from Beck and Kerrigan. Once initiated, public servants would be
00:13:57.060required to do the one week of training annually. They would not be issued uniforms, and the time would not count
00:14:03.700towards their pension, but medical coverage would be provided for their annual military service.
00:14:10.660So Melanie, there's been a lot of talk about a recruitment crisis with the Canadian Armed Forces. Where does the
00:14:18.180Canadian military currently stand in terms of recruitment? And is training public servants once a year for a week really the best solution to address this?
00:14:29.780Honestly, the plan feels like Ottawa trying to paper over a crisis. Like you said, Kazmin, the public service
00:14:37.380reservists would get a one week crash course in guns and trucks and drones, and then an additional week of training each year.
00:14:46.580All while the military itself feels like it's under stress. According to the Office of the Auditor General of Canada,
00:14:53.220the CAF planned to recruit nearly 20,000 new people between April 22 and March 25, but they only managed
00:15:02.020to recruit about 15,000. Public servants already carry a heavy cost for taxpayers. Things like generous
00:15:09.140benefits, remote work controversies, bloated overhead. Having them shift into military roles without proper
00:15:17.220training uniforms or pension raises both logistical and ethical issues. The military's own audit shows that the recruitment
00:15:27.220process is leaking talent, training capacity is insufficient, and governance is weak. If they can't train and deploy regular recruits,
00:15:35.700how do they expect to absorb thousands of semi-trained volunteers? If the goal is a strong and resilient national defense,
00:15:42.980then proper investments and training should really come first. But it feels like the goal here is
00:15:48.980optics, you know, the kind of thing that says we're doing something. And Canadians can really see that for
00:15:54.980what it is. And given the chaos of recent public service debates, I mean, we're talking the, like I said,
00:16:01.780the remote work battles, right? The overspending, the low productivity. This directive also risks further eroding the
00:16:07.780public faith in our military. Now, I, for one, do not want to find out what happens when you ask people
00:16:14.260who don't even want to go into the office to sign up for military duties.
00:16:20.740That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday
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