Juno News - Jamil Jivani on “Liberal racism” in Canada’s institutions

00:00:00.000 A conservative MP says it's time to do away with the practice of recognizing a day or month

00:00:13.040 in honor of any particular ethnic group or heritage group, like Black History Month,

00:00:18.480 for instance, or even Pride Month. Jamil Giovanni is chairing a task force looking at things like

00:00:24.740 government-mandated diversity hiring practices. He's also sponsoring a petition that reads in part

00:00:32.260 these forms of empty virtue signaling tokenize ethnic communities. This tokenism undermines

00:00:40.420 social cohesion and does not promote Canadian identity and citizenship. Jamil Javani is our

00:00:47.780 guest today. He's the conservative MP for Bowmanville Oshawa North. Welcome, sir.

00:00:53.300 Good to see you, Mark.

00:00:54.900 Okay, is it really such a bad thing to honor particular groups like Black groups or Pride groups?

00:01:02.420 What's wrong with that?

00:01:04.360 Well, the federal government has this perpetual habit of creating more and more of these heritage months or commemorative days.

00:01:12.780 And all it really does is sort of divide us up into separate groups based on our identity or where our parents come from.

00:01:20.060 what i think a lot of canadians are concerned about is this is happening at the cost of a

00:01:25.400 united canadian identity and an understanding of what canadian culture or citizenship means

00:01:31.160 so when you know some of the some citizens approached me about sponsoring this petition

00:01:36.140 i thought it was a perspective that people need to take seriously because we are an increasingly

00:01:41.120 diverse society where i don't know how clear we are what we actually share with each other and

00:01:46.360 That's actually what makes us Canadian.

00:01:48.760 Yeah, in fact, the prime minister, though, he believes that we're a mosaic, not a melting pot.

00:01:54.300 And he said as much, I believe, when he was in Ireland.

00:01:57.440 How does that align with the view that we should be honoring all these different groups?

00:02:03.240 I think your petition mentioned something like 20 of them.

00:02:07.200 Yeah, that's 20 that the federal government currently recognizes.

00:02:10.260 And I'm telling you, they're adding more all the time.

00:02:13.060 There's more coming down.

00:02:14.140 So this is only going to get a longer list.

00:02:16.220 And I think it's time that we sort of pause and say, you know, whether Mark Carney wants to talk about melting pots or mosaics, to me, I think we all can recognize we need assimilation.

00:02:26.900 You know, people come from all over the world to this country, including my father, my grandparents, and they want to be part of Canada.

00:02:33.440 It is our responsibility as the federal government to provide an understanding of what being part of Canada looks like.

00:02:39.420 And I think that means honoring what makes us Canadian, our common bonds, our common heritage, our common history.

00:02:46.480 These months and these days get us away from that.

00:02:49.540 And I think that's the point that people need to take seriously.

00:02:52.100 If we want a strong nation, we have to have a strong sense of who we are. 0.97

00:02:56.360 Yeah, unfortunately right now, Jamil, you might agree with me.

00:02:59.720 It really feels like this country is very divided right now.

00:03:04.060 And unfortunately, we're seeing a growing amount of opposition to immigration.

00:03:09.420 I mean, my parents came over from Italy back in the 1950s.

00:03:14.880 You yourself have that kind of background as well.

00:03:18.340 And unfortunately, when you have a situation where people are not encouraged to accept Canadian values and just hold on to your own,

00:03:27.780 then we end up in a situation where people bring their own particular grievances from the old country and they become part of our country.

00:03:37.620 Isn't that the case?

00:03:39.420 Yeah, and that's why I think Mark Carney is insincere when he talks about these issues.

00:03:45.780 On one hand, he'll go to Toronto and do a speech at a synagogue talking about the need

00:03:50.440 to not bring your conflicts from other parts of the world into the streets of Canada.

00:03:56.320 And then on the other hand, he'll say, well, we don't have assimilation here.

00:03:59.440 It's like, yeah, he's not actually solving the problem he's describing.

00:04:03.360 The reason we have people fighting in the streets of Canada over issues that exist many,

00:04:07.760 many kilometers away from here is because we don't have proper assimilation. And people need

00:04:12.800 to realize you should have more in common with a fellow Canadian citizen than you do with somebody

00:04:18.040 from another country. And that's what a healthy society looks like. And unfortunately, the

00:04:22.800 numerical aspect comes into play to just the sheer volume of people that have come in over the last

00:04:29.140 11 years or so. There is a strong sense that we went overboard. In fact, even in some official

00:04:35.600 quarters. Even the government itself has acknowledged, well, maybe we went too far.

00:04:40.580 But it's created an enormous amount of tension. And you add to that crises around housing,

00:04:47.580 for instance, the jobs issue where you have growing resentment amongst Canadians who are

00:04:53.180 unable to find jobs. And then they see work awarded to foreigners through various programs,

00:05:00.940 work programs and temporary programs and so all of this is adding to the tensions in the country

00:05:07.340 and it's it sounds like you want to remind everybody that no this is actually a country

00:05:13.100 you're not coming to a place where the nation doesn't really exist that this is an actual

00:05:19.340 country with an actual culture and actual values is that where you're going with this yes that's

00:05:25.500 exactly right we have founding nations english and french we have a history of common law we have a

00:05:31.580 constitutional history we have been a place where people could proudly say they could guarantee

00:05:37.100 their kids a better quality of life if they worked hard and made a good living here some of these

00:05:42.300 things are i feel like they're under attack today in terms of our identity in terms of social

00:05:47.500 mobility here and we've got to preserve and protect that and that means honoring who we are as people

00:05:53.180 what you've rightly picked up on is what i would call the difference between immigration

00:05:57.820 versus mass immigration immigration at a certain level has always worked in canada because you've

00:06:03.340 been able to bring people together and assimilate people from different backgrounds when you reach

00:06:08.380 the level of mass immigration we've had for several consecutive years now you just can't

00:06:14.060 assimilate that number of people and i'll tell you mark i have people in my home community in oshawa 1.00

00:06:19.100 for example, who will come to me from different parts of the world and they'll say, I want to be

00:06:24.360 a Canadian. I don't feel like I'm part of this country. How do I become part of this country?

00:06:29.560 And that is not an immigration system that works. Yeah. I mean, there may be a certain stigma

00:06:35.840 attached to it, signing a petition like this, at least according to some who say, well, you sign a

00:06:42.600 petition like this and basically you're just anti-immigration. You're a racist. You don't 0.97

00:06:47.220 believe in other cultures you know that sort of thing is going to come out from those who oppose

00:06:52.940 what you're doing what do you think well i i certainly have no fear of being smeared by people

00:06:59.860 who disagree with me on this stuff the reality is i think this is what's in the best interest of our

00:07:04.080 country and our people and we've got to be able to tell the truth i know that there's been you know

00:07:09.060 stigma people being called racist and all sorts of other names for a long time now for wanting to

00:07:14.540 talk about immigration or wanting to talk about culture i think we should be over that and you

00:07:19.540 know part of my responsibility as a member of parliament is to do what i think is best to

00:07:23.980 represent my constituents and fight for the future of canada that i believe in and i don't believe

00:07:29.780 that a country where we're all divided and we have nothing in common is going to be good for us or my

00:07:34.760 future children or their future children and we have to keep the you know the best interest of

00:07:39.800 nation in mind. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, your views, like 180 degrees from, say, some of

00:07:47.460 those expressed by Justin Trudeau, for instance, who took shots at the fact that we have a European

00:07:53.500 background and he wanted to destroy it, all of this. And you're saying, no, this is part of the

00:07:59.200 forming of our country. Let's be proud of it and let's champion it. So I think that's where you're

00:08:04.500 going but it's probably going to take a change in government for that position to change uh is this

00:08:11.460 by the way part of your party's position your leader's position or is it yours or how where does

00:08:18.760 this come from well the way petitions work is uh you know citizens can write them and then ask a

00:08:25.000 member of parliament to sponsor them so it's not an official position that i'm taking on behalf of

00:08:29.960 anyone. It's me saying these citizens who are concerned about this issue deserve to have their

00:08:35.220 voice heard and the House of Commons should receive that petition and have to respond to it.

00:08:40.700 And that's what I'm most looking forward to is seeing what is the House of Commons, what is the

00:08:44.420 Carney administration going to say to these Canadians? Are they going to say that they think

00:08:48.780 we need 10, 20, 30, 40 more of these heritage months? Or are they going to acknowledge that

00:08:54.100 we need to draw some lines here about who we are as a country and make sure that we're bringing

00:08:58.300 people together not dividing them apart and how soon will people be able to read the petition

00:09:05.580 and sign it if they decide that it's the right thing for them to do well we formally sponsored

00:09:11.420 it so now we're just waiting on the house of commons to put it online it should happen at

00:09:14.860 any moment and as soon as it's online we'll send it over to you and we'll also make sure we blast

00:09:19.500 it out on social media as well okay uh on another matter we have the industry minister melanie

00:09:25.420 traveling to China this week, supposedly to expand our country's electric vehicle sector.

00:09:34.100 We are already importing 49,000 of their vehicles. Do you know what they're up to? And

00:09:39.900 since you're plugged into what's going on in the United States with your friend J.D. Vance,

00:09:44.720 for instance, the vice president, you know, how is this flying south of the border?

00:09:48.640 well you know canadians are rightly concerned about how importing these vehicles will impact

00:09:56.740 our auto manufacturing but also our national security because we know these vehicles will 1.00

00:10:01.580 have the ability to spy on canadians and retrieve our data and share it with the chinese communist

00:10:07.300 government the americans are also concerned about how that's going to affect them i've heard from

00:10:12.680 americans saying well if someone owns one of these byd vehicles in toronto do they think they're

00:10:18.160 be able to drive that across the border because americans have refused to allow these vehicles

00:10:23.840 in their own country so there's a lot of problems here that are posed with the integration of our

00:10:28.960 of the canadian and american economy when you bring in something that is so disruptive

00:10:34.240 not just for workers but also for national security reasons i have no idea what minister

00:10:39.520 joe lee is up to but every time the carny government and china get in a room together

00:10:43.600 it doesn't seem to produce good outcomes for Canada so I am concerned. Yeah I mean we're heading 0.71

00:10:48.880 to the first deadline I guess July the 1st I think it is. I think that is the first

00:10:55.680 news mud deadline and which is not to say that it's over but a decision has to be made at some 0.90

00:11:00.880 point. The president has come out and you've heard him we've all heard him say we don't

00:11:05.760 need anything from Canada you know they need to deal more than us. How do you think this

00:11:12.560 is playing out now because we're we're kind of getting close to very close to that deadline and

00:11:18.240 we're still doing things that we know is irritating the trump administration is that a wise approach

00:11:26.080 in the midst of negotiations well the thing that i like to remind canadians of is that we have

00:11:32.640 another example to point to which is that mexico has dealt with a lot of the same challenges

00:11:38.480 of the united states as we have in terms of rhetoric in terms of tariffs and yet mexican

00:11:44.080 leadership has approached it in a much more constructive manner instead of getting emotional

00:11:49.040 or trying to exploit the politics of division between them in the united states they focused

00:11:55.760 on doing what's right by their workers and their businesses unfortunately in canada our government

00:12:00.320 has not taken that approach in fact what you're seeing now as we get closer to the july 1st

00:12:05.600 deadline for the review is we see in mark carney a leader who is trying to now convince the canadian

00:12:11.840 people that he's been doing enough and he's been trying his best the reality is for months and

00:12:17.200 months now dating back to october of last fall uh the canadian government has not taken this very

00:12:23.280 seriously has not done what they should do and now we're going to be dealing with the uncertainty of

00:12:28.320 when this deal gets renewed how long does it take that has had a tremendously negative effect on

00:12:34.160 investment in our country so you know carney may benefit from all this drama politically but the

00:12:39.680 canadian people lose out in the end when it comes to economics and security yeah we have a prime

00:12:45.920 minister who seems to be saying very different things depending on the audience so if you're

00:12:51.360 speaking to one group it's about the new world order which is going to come out of europe you

00:12:56.080 know the obvious implication is it's not going to be the united states you know we're going to be

00:13:02.000 pivoting towards europe and then when he talks to the americans at other times he's talking

00:13:07.920 about strengthening he's talking about you know new bonds with america um how do you

00:13:13.840 account for just the very different messaging that's going on depending on which audience he's

00:13:19.520 addressing well i think uh mark harney's strategy is what i would call flood the zone you put so

00:13:27.600 much stuff out there that you allow people to kind of see in him what they want to see if there's an

00:13:33.520 elbows up liberal who wants to see him as you know fighting up against donald trump then he's put

00:13:39.040 enough out there to please that person if there's someone who's maybe more pragmatic who wants to

00:13:43.680 see progress in their relationship with the united states he's trying to put that message out there

00:13:48.080 too he's trying to be as many things to as many people as he possibly can because at the end of

00:13:53.200 of the day, he has no results to point to. And really, that's what we should want from our

00:13:58.000 government leaders. We should be judging them by results, not what they say. Mark Harney would very

00:14:02.700 much like to keep saying whatever people want to hear, because that is all he has to offer right

00:14:07.560 now. And of course, there's also a growing sense by Canadians, and we're seeing that just in the

00:14:15.200 recent polling, that patience is starting to run out. We had a lot of promises being made during

00:14:21.160 election campaign people bought in 43 percent of canadians voted liberal in the last um federal

00:14:28.200 election and you know they gave him the benefit of the doubt it was going to take some time

00:14:33.480 so now we're well into year two and none of those promises have materialized are you find

00:14:41.560 are you finding that there's a growing sense of frustration around the promises that were made

00:14:45.800 and the lack of action on any of them.

00:14:50.120 Yeah, I think especially since Mark Carney got his majority,

00:14:54.280 he no longer has any excuses.

00:14:56.220 I mean, the guy has the ability to pass almost any bill that he wants.

00:15:00.400 He can move things through committee efficiently.

00:15:03.580 And so whereas they used to use the opposition parties as an excuse

00:15:07.280 and say, oh, they're obstructing us, he's got no excuse now.

00:15:11.060 And I think people are saying, okay, well,

00:15:12.620 now that you've got nothing standing in your way,

00:15:14.680 what are you able to achieve? He just lacks a vision for growing this economy. And that's why

00:15:21.080 he spends so much of his political capital on these weird bills about controlling the internet

00:15:26.840 and dictating what you can say and what you can read and what, you know, because I just don't

00:15:31.860 think they have a lot of ideas. He sold himself as this guy who is a master economist. And now

00:15:37.360 people are realizing he just doesn't have that much to offer. And he signs these MOUs in other

00:15:42.760 countries and he flies all around the world and comes home and whose life has gotten any better

00:15:47.640 since he's become prime minister i think it's a pretty short list maybe limited to the board of

00:15:52.380 directors at brookfield so as we wrap things up jamil um i just wanted to ask you since you brought

00:15:58.980 it up about freedom of speech issue and bill c 344 uh 34 rather um concerns around that and how

00:16:08.660 that's going to be received by the Americans when you're looking at the big tech companies. And

00:16:14.300 obviously, Trump has been a major defender of those companies. You know, how is that going to

00:16:21.380 possibly affect our trade negotiations? Well, we know that the last attempt, which is continuing

00:16:29.040 to control our speech, Bill C-22, got a lot of negative pushback from American businesses that

00:16:36.900 employ a lot of people in Canada. And so I would expect C34 will raise similar concerns.

00:16:42.820 What's interesting about C34 is they're taking a concern that a lot of people have, which is the

00:16:48.180 overexposure of minors to social media, and adding to that a whole host of ideas that would

00:16:55.460 actually restrict the speech of adults. And so I think it's going to be the source of a lot of

00:17:01.460 debate. And I can't imagine it's going to be popular in Canada or in the United States when

00:17:06.500 and people see just how much power Mark Carney

00:17:09.160 is trying to seize for himself.

00:17:11.620 Jamil Javani, thank you so much for coming on the show.

00:17:14.200 We really appreciate it.

00:17:15.440 Yeah, great chatting with you.

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00:17:36.500 Thank you.

Juno News - June 19, 2026

Jamil Jivani on “Liberal racism” in Canada’s institutions

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