Juno News - Is Canada heading down the same violent path as the US？

00:00:00.000 Whenever I see scenes of political violence unfolding in the streets of the United States,

00:00:09.600 it's saddening. It's disheartening. But I say to myself, at least it's not happening here in the

00:00:14.960 streets of Canada. Or is it? Are we starting to get bad? The other day, Logan Couture, he's an

00:00:20.960 NHL player for the San Jose Sharks, but he's a Canadian boy born and raised in London, Ontario.

00:00:26.060 He stepped forward on social media to say he was out and about in Toronto the other night and he was

00:00:30.820 talking about politics and he said, well, if he was an American voter, but he's not, but if he was,

00:00:36.300 he would vote Republican. He would vote for the re-election of Donald Trump. And he says he was

00:00:40.840 sucker punched for saying that. He was assaulted. He was attacked for saying, basically, here's an

00:00:47.940 election in a democratic society that got two main parties and he's going to vote for one of the two

00:00:52.800 main parties. Attacked for that in the streets of Canada. It is so upsetting that that happened.

00:01:00.360 Logan Couture was called a liar. It never happened. Some people in the blue checkmark brigade said,

00:01:04.480 oh, this story seems fabricated. He just responded and said, well, okay, if you're not going to believe

00:01:08.960 me, you're not going to believe me. Now, I don't know all that much about Logan Couture. I see in a

00:01:12.960 story at the London Free Press, they talk about the charities and causes he supported. Seems like a

00:01:17.400 pretty decent guy. But regardless, why is someone in Canada, NHL player or not, being sucker punched for

00:01:25.240 expressing their political views? Now, more than ever, people seem to feel emboldened to become

00:01:32.620 indignant and infuriated when they learn that someone does not share the political views that

00:01:37.200 they hold. And usually, that's them being infuriated with people on the right. Conservatives,

00:01:42.720 people say they're going to vote for Donald Trump. This is unacceptable. It is so disappointing.

00:01:47.140 Look, I've been a political commentator for over a decade in this country. And do I have very strong

00:01:52.480 views? Yes, I do. But I've also learned from hearing back from viewers and listeners, readers,

00:01:58.100 you get the tweets, you get the emails. People have all sorts of different views for all sorts

00:02:02.720 of different reasons. People are complex. You'll meet people walking in the street at an event at the

00:02:07.100 park where I take my kids to play and they say I'm voting liberal, I'm voting conservative, NDP,

00:02:11.280 Green Party, communist even. They say I'm a Bernie supporter, Hillary supporter, Trump, Biden,

00:02:16.160 and Ron Paul, and so forth. And you go, okay. And then they tell you their story and you realize,

00:02:20.220 okay, there you go. This is a person who's expressing themselves in a democracy. Is it okay

00:02:24.800 to have a conversation, a vigorous debate, disagree with them? Sure. But this idea more and more now

00:02:31.100 that, okay, you don't vote the same way I vote. I'm having nothing to do with you. I don't even want

00:02:35.980 to talk to you. And in the case of Trump supporters, it's even okay for me to sucker punch them.

00:02:41.520 That's the way we're heading. And it's incredibly disappointing. It's sad. And I hope Canada does

00:02:47.060 not go any further down that path.

Juno News - August 27, 2020