Journalists cry over mean tweets
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Summary
For your reward, you get Fake News Friday, the only show keeping canada's failing, fake and biased legacy media in check. This week, host Rupa Subramania sits down with reporter Harrison Faulkner to discuss the fallout from his reporting on a story he broke on the government's vaccine mandate for travel.
Transcript
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happy friday canada congratulations on making it to the end of the week for your reward you
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get fake news friday the only show keeping canada's failing fake and biased legacy media
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in check i'm harrison faulkner filling in for andrew lawton who usually fills in for the great
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candace malcolm who's taking some much deserved time off with her family now sitting in the seat
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i usually occupy is the very talented rupa subramania the host of the rupa subramania podcast
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now before i throw it over to you rupa i just got to say besides being one of canada's top
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journalists you happen you happen to have a real mack at getting a getting a rise out of the left
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on twitter now i don't know if it's intentional or it's by accident but my goodness you know how to
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get a rise out of them what's your what's your reaction been to the left's reaction of your
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reporting what's it been over two and two weeks now two and a half weeks yeah well well first of all
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harrison thanks for having me here it's a real honor to be here um and you know i i don't i don't
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think i'm the top journalist in canada i i don't even think i'm in the top 10 i'm just i'm just
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you know just a simple person sitting here in ottawa and uh writing on things that i care about and
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that's pretty much it and i'm not afraid to call it as i see it uh and uh but going back to your
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question uh and this was the big story that i broke a couple weeks ago on uh these court documents
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that reveal that canada's uh travel mandate um uh vaccine mandate for travel had no scientific
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rationale it was all driven by politics uh with the prime minister using the um the the vaccine mandate
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as a political wedge issue uh in the hopes of getting a majority um uh for an election he called two
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days after he announced uh the mandate um and the story itself got a you know an extraordinary
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amount of traction online a lot of people shared it i got many many messages of support and encouragement
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and people uh really glad that i uh that i got to the bottom of this uh but there were a few people
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i would say who were um more than just a few people who were really riled up uh i i would say uh at this
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uh at this um uh at my story they were um you know making accusations uh that this was well first of
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all they said these court documents didn't even exist um that i was making it all up um and then uh and
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then uh the federal court tweets um saying that hey guys uh given the extraordinary amount of interest
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in this case we're actually releasing these documents right now so that shut them up right away but then
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they had to move on to something else um and then they started calling me a russian agent and um you know
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the usual smear uh that that uh that you know those of us in the independent space are accustomed to
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uh being at the you know we're at the receiving end of such smears um and that um you know that i was
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just uh again making it up i'm a liar and so on and so forth no no one actually was engaging with the
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story no one was actually trying to um you know actually engage with what i was trying to say and
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what the court documents themselves reveal i mean you don't even have to believe me just look take a
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look at the court documents um and uh and and i and i flagged two uh two specific responses uh to my
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story uh one of them was from liberal mp mark greetson um and uh the other one uh being charles angus of
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the ndp mark greetson uh said that um you know he tweeted saying and he was by the way he was quote
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tweeting a journalist um who who who didn't even react to what he was saying which which in itself is
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pretty revealing um and mark greetson said that uh that that my story was uh was was uh blatant
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propaganda it was a lot that i was lying and that uh and and this kind of we shouldn't wait till the
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next election to confront uh this kind of blatant lying and propaganda it must be confronted now
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um when i read that tweet i was you know i was really taken aback i was uh you know it was it was
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chilling because this is coming from a politician from the governing party he's no garden variety
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um anonymous troll um and uh and he he you know he was taking such a strong uh position against the
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story that he didn't um he he didn't agree with and he was taking it out on not just the story but
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also the journalist and um and and then there was a second reaction from charlie angus of the ndp
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uh and uh and he said that uh this is written by a national post columnist the national post gets
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tons of money from the government so uh and so therefore you know they're they get money from
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the government and they're spreading bs and propaganda um yeah well insinuating insinuating
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that anybody who takes money from the government can't be writing critical articles about the government
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that's kind of the angle which is just exposing this whole thing to begin with and yeah i mean i think
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you know if if they had if the liberals knew that their mandates could stand on their own and there
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was justification for them to stand on their own i don't think they'd be reacting the way they did
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to your reporting rupa but you mentioned this point about anonymous online trolls and how usually
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journalists will face uh will face pushback and even hate from anonymous online trolls that's the game
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we all end up having to to play with but it's different when it's politicians it's different when it's
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actual journalists that are on the other side of uh on the other side of the house i mean that's
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just sort of that's just an unheard of thing but i want to i want to talk about this canadian
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association of journalists tweet because what we've been hearing it's it's really been i think it's been
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so overused and we've been hearing it for what four weeks now it's it's this whole new push from
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what we're seeing i think from a lot of legacy media journalists to make it seem as though they are
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victims that the rest of canada are attacking these journalists particularly these young female
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journalists and sending them death threats and sending them horrible messages now we're not going
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to condone any of that anyone who sends any messages like that are stupid they're dumb but the point that
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is the point that i think should be raised about this is the canadian association of journalists wrote
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on twitter they they tagged toronto star the hill times global news and they all kind of joint signed this
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list of demands which they sent to the police to what is it the toronto police ottawa police and the
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rcmp and i just want to read it because it's just ridiculous so they start off by saying enough is
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enough online hate against journalists must be addressed and then today the canadian association
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of journalists send a list of demands to the police including four federal ministers and the
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ontario attorney general so i'm going to quickly summarize this list of demands because the last
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one i think is just such a such a kicker so the first one is we need a comprehensive and
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cooperative approach to online hate across police forces recent threatening emails to journalists use
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similar language used by domestic extremist groups journalists who showed support for colleagues were
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also targeted and the next one is police forces must review and improve their processes for making
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complaints of hate speech and harassment victims should not be waiting hours on the phone to file
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complaints or be treated rudely and dismissed by officers see victims should not be threatened by police
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even i mean it's it's just it's just ridiculous number three we ask for greater transparency and
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dialogue from police forces to help keep journalists and all targets of hate safe and then and then here
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at the bottom i just want to list this off they write for the most part the targets of these hateful
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and threatening messages are women and women of color in canadian media we will not tolerate
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anymore enough is enough well there happens to be a woman of color a female journalist of color
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who receive not just hate from anonymous online trolls but hate from actual politicians in this
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country rupa i want to ask you did the canadian association of journalists ever bother to ask you
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how you were handling all the hate you were receiving for real journalism uh no i i what a shot
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i i i didn't even rate a mention in in their uh tweet or uh no i i you know i think i think as far as uh
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journalists in the independent space are concerned we just don't even exist as far as the legacy media
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is concerned right it's all about them look um of course you know if there are credible threats to
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one's personal safety i've been at the receiving end of that not not here in canada but overseas you
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know over the course of my career uh and when it comes to credible threats like that you go to the
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cops you go to the police and you you you and you allow uh law and order to take its course that's what
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most normal people do you don't take these threats to twitter and complain about it there you you you
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you know that that just makes no sense to me or you could do both why don't you do both uh the point
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is that you know unfortunately what what ends up happening what's ended up happening is the journalists
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instead of reporting on the story have become the story themselves and i didn't go to journalism school
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um i think you did but but i think this is this is one of the things that they teach you in journalism
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school you should never become the story yourself you should you should you should you should uh report
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on the story and that's a very important distinction and i think a lot of um many journalists um um
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you know especially those who identify themselves as being on the left um uh ideologically tend to
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forget this lesson and they make it about themselves for whatever reason i don't know maybe it's it's to
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gain more traction on social media it's to get more attention um i i i don't under i i really don't
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understand if you were to ask a journalist covering a war-like situation in you know whether it's
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afghanistan or um or you know in a conflict zone for example um do you see them taking to twitter and
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uh and and you know and and in you know and you know and saying that you know this has been happening
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to them i i don't think so i think i think part of the journalists are not meant to be liked people i
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mean this is you've got to understand that um you know i like to be liked but i also understand that
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that's not going to happen with everybody that i that i interact with uh not all of my uh readers
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like me all the time and that's fine um i also get a lot of hate mail i also get a lot of people saying
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uh why don't you go back to where you came from um you know i could i could i could spend my time on
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twitter and uh and say and and say that this is you know i'm deeply offended i'm racialized so i'm a victim
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of uh of uh this sort of behavior and i could spend a lot of time dwelling on this but you know i
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rather move on because i think they're they're bigger bigger things to uh to care about uh you
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know and i i certainly don't want to be the story um so you know again uh you know not to belittle the
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experiences of people who um um get uh death threats their way or threats of rape i'm sure that's
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happening uh these are genuine threats these are credible threats take them to the cops let them
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decide you know let them investigate and get to the bottom of it um yeah i just don't see the purpose
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in you know in in just taking to twitter and then uh you know and coming up with a conspiracy
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theory that this is all coming from the right right of course yeah yeah but that's the easy
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that's that's sort of the easy way out and an easy way for them to continue to villainize a
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particular group of canadians that i think for the most part have a lot of have a lot of valid
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reasons to be upset at canada's legacy media now i want to i want to go back to a point you made
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you know when was the last time you saw a real wartime journalist a journalist who actually reports
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in the field in combat zone go on twitter and say you know these enemy combatants are firing bullets
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at me can can someone please step in and stop i mean it's so rude they're treating journalists so
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poorly i mean it's just ridiculous right i mean i i i i can't imagine any one of these crying
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journalists reporting in an actual war zone if they can't even handle twitter bots and twitter
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anonymous trolls writing messages about them then they can't do any real reporting and you make the
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point about journalists not wanting to be the story and they don't teach that in journalism school well
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i think they didn't used to teach that in journalism school that's why we have such a divide we have
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a group of journalists who are cut from the old cloth the real journalists in this country that know
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what it's like to uphold journalistic principles they know what it's like to really do the job of
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holding power to account then you have this new this new kind of fresh blood this new class of
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journalists that are occupying these legacy media newsrooms who have been told by their journalism
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schools because i've been in these inside of these classrooms that as a matter of fact it is okay for
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journalists to be activists in fact i remember in my second year in my second year at school we were
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given an assignment to write write a story about if journalists could be activists if journalists could
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make themselves part of the story and the professors were pushing that line to us so they they've told
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a whole new class of journalists that you need to find a way to make yourself part of the story you
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need to get yourself into it be an activist get in there for political causes and you know that's why
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i i consider i don't consider myself to be a journalist i consider myself to be in the media space there's
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a big distinction i know what i do is not right down the line but i don't pretend that i'm i'm one of those
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people and that's i think the big difference and i think canadians just want some honesty from these
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reporters and again it just shows you the canadian association of journalists they they are totally
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lacking in actually standing up for journalists in the field who receive real credible hate of course
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they weren't there to help you out rupa but no they weren't and and let me just tell you tell
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you something real quick here uh you know i i come from a family of academics and uh and you know people
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who uh you know have a view on everything and you should see the kind of hate mail that they get
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uh and they're not they're not uh you know they take it in their stride uh you know and again as i
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say it's not our job here is not to be liked by people i think that's a very that's the wrong approach
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i think your your your job is to report the facts as they are and let people come to their uh you know
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decide for themselves whether whether they believe you or not and if you get um hate mail that's par for the
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course that i get hate mail all the time i get all kinds of you know people are you know i get uh
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people you know from the progressive left i've i've been at the receiving end of racist attacks
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from the progressive left i've pointed several of these out on twitter just just out of interest
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uh uh and uh you know but i'm not i'm not dwelling on this and you know i certainly don't want to be a
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victim um and i take these things in my stride and if i genuinely feel threatened but here's the thing
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there's a difference between um you know getting a threat from an anonymous troll and getting an
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implied threat from a member of the governing party oh yeah um right um and the the latter is
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pretty insidious it is sinister i've experienced this kind of thing overseas and uh you know i i i
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worry about it you know i i'm telling you i i i you know it had a chilling effect on me and our
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anonymous troll tells me something i just blocked them and i move on uh but a politician a sitting
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a politician is an mp from the governing party says that this must be confronted now now you can
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make the distinction that he was he was referring to my story and not me but how do you separate the
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two no exactly and i think just before we move on to the next story there's so many important points
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i mean we could talk about this for an hour pretty much but there's so many interesting little
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points to talk about with this new push from the canadian association of journalists this this
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this approach to try and engage the police in the defense of a particular class of journalists right
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they're going to leave independent journalists behind but they want the toronto police the rcmp
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and ottawa police to come to the rescue of a particular class of journalists now a lot of
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people have pointed out that this is sort of a way to also justify liberal online censorship and
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maybe you could go down there i think there's definitely a conversation to be had about that
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but the caj has just routinely failed to actually defend journalists and this the toronto star is a
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part of this is a part of this sort of joint letter right this is the same toronto star that wrote a
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front page news story by pulling tweets that have apparently now been called into question these so-called
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tweets that that basically say the unvaccinated can go to die we don't care if there aren't enough icu
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beds for the unvaccinated they they they poured gasoline on a very very divisive issue back when
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the vaccine issue was right at the heart what we were discussing in this country and now after telling
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the end basically publishing on the front page that unvaccinated canadians can die the same toronto
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star is now saying that their journalists need the help of the police to come and defend them and it's
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important to know too where was the caj rupa when andrew lawton was pepper sprayed by police in ottawa or when
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alexa lavoite rebel was shot in the leg by a tear gas canister point blank by the police or for
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example when our own candace malcolm was basically being threatened by calistani extremists and had
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basically her house uh targeted and her real safety targeted by calistani extremists who didn't like her
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reporting uh you didn't see a bunch of police rush to the rush to the defense of uh outwardly to the
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defense of candace you didn't see the canadian association of journalists stop what they are
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doing and say we need to protect this journalist right to do her job you didn't see them there
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because i think the truth is they're really in it to protect one class of journalists and that
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i don't think is us i don't think they're here for the independent journalists they're not uh there for
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us and neither should we count on them to be there for us i think i think uh that that would be a
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complete waste of time and i think you know um you know as independent media gets stronger and i it is
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for sure uh and uh you know gains more traction with the general public uh they're gonna have to uh
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you know at some point acknowledge our existence and it'll happen sooner rather than later no i think
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it will and i think as as more canadians realize what they're getting from legacy media the more they
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cut the cable cord and and and cut their subscriptions to the globe and national
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posts and all these different places they're going to come to the legacy media and they're going to
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realize you know actually this is where real journal journalism is being done now switching gears
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because as you know those who those who watch this program know that we try to end the show
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on a bit of a lighter note we try and find something to laugh about on this show well there's a
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toronto star op-ed written by michael corin who's a former toronto uh what's what was it sun news
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network the failed sun news television network he was he used to work there the guy used to be a
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conservative but he's totally switched his position and he's now bashing conservatives as
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much as he can in the media well michael corin wrote a wrote an article in the toronto star
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and the headline is the headline is canadian christian nationalism not christian it's not
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canadian or patriotic patriotic either so you read that headline you probably think yeah you know
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probably not a ton of support for christian national nationalism in this country but then how how
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did i know rupa that in this article somewhere they were going to tie pierre paulia into canadian
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christian nationalism sure enough three paragraphs in there he is it seems to be the playbook for the
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legacy media oh my goodness yes it's it it read like a screed a rant and it had all the elements
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of verbal diarrhea from the left uh you know yeah you you get uh you have trump um you know you you have
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all of the the key keywords key buzzwords right you have trump you have the far right you have uh
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nationalism you have pierre paulia you have the freedom convoy of course we can't forget those
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people so you know it just it just read like you know this this guy clearly it read like he had a lot
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of issues and he was just kind of uh you know you know going into this rant to get get this office
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chest uh but you know i actually had to read this nonsense uh you could and i blame you for this
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harrison sorry the things i have to do uh you know for true north but uh but anyway so you know he he's
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he's making you know he has a very specific interpretation of christianity um he doesn't
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like calvinism that's pretty obvious and he has this very you know he's this elite disdain uh you know
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that you know he says these people uh at the protest they had misspelled uh quotes from the
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bible or even misquoted from the bible so my question to him is does that mean that their
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faith is not genuine uh they're not christians uh if if they can't spell right um you know it all
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sounded very very elitist um and and more to the point about you know his criticism of of christian
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nationalism see you can you can be a christian and you can be a nationalist so you can be a
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christian nationalist you can you can be a christian and you can be a socialist uh as a matter of fact
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the foundation of the british labor party is christian socialism and the foundation of many political
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parties uh in europe um so if you can be a christian and a socialist why can't you be a christian and a
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a nationalist uh you know and so basically this guy i mean in this you know long rant you know
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he it comes across as though uh and it's it's unfortunate that this is coming from a an anglican
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priest uh or you know it doesn't matter that he's anglican but the fact that this is well from a
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priest in general i think yeah yeah i mean he just seems angry i thought priests were supposed to be
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kind and compassionate and understanding of the other but it was it was quite the opposite uh he
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just he just sounded very hateful in his op-ed uh and to me to my mind it sounded like he wanted a
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situation where uh basically a small power elite decides uh what level of religiosity we should
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have in society uh what brand of christianity uh we should have maybe even what brand of culture
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um it it just it just for me you know it was just um you know just plain nonsense yeah well i mean
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there's there's a the way that the legacy media do this they find the scariest words and put them
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together to try and gin up a lot of a lot of readership because as we know these guys are
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struggling to get viewers on their websites anyway so the more that they can use this sort of language
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and ride the american wave i mean if you're plugged into american news you'll know for example that a lot
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of people on the american right were having a total laugh at the atlantic this week when the atlantic
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tried to say that rosaries are now becoming a hate symbol an extreme hate symbol so of course and
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there's also been some talk about christian nationalism there's a congresswoman who
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proclaimed that she was a proud christian nationalist and of course that just got the
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left up in arms so but there's this very strange phenomenon happening where legacy media journalists
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are are so are so focused on trying to tie the the front runner in the conservative leadership race
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to the very worst elements of the of of politics in our culture and you don't see that from the
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independent media on the other side so you won't see that but it's very bizarre it's a very bizarre
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thing where they're trying to make pierre polyeth out to be this extremely dangerous uh very fringe
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politician and it's bizarre to me because they almost treat pierre polyeth worse than they do
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maxime bernier and anyone who knows the inside of conservative politics knows that pierre polyeth
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is not a nationalist he's definitely doesn't appeal to the christian nationalist or far-right voting
00:23:36.020
block and and his campaign is staffed with insider establishment conservatives so it's like this
00:23:40.720
they're trying to kind of bend reality and i i think this is all desperation and panic really
00:23:45.400
to me it really reeks of panic from them absolutely it's it's not at all bizarre i mean i that's what
00:23:51.480
i wanted to say it's actually all quite predictable actually a pierre polyeth would be very much a
00:23:56.700
centrist in american politics you know and that's that's that's that's the irony of this whole thing
00:24:02.040
they're panicking and uh because you know you you have these polls coming out that show that
00:24:07.380
younger people are turning conservative uh and uh possibly uh turning to pierre so i think i think
00:24:14.080
this is the kind of thing that really upsets them this is the kind of thing that could um you know
00:24:19.240
upset um you know existing narratives you know that they've so tried so hard to uh uh you know have in
00:24:26.680
place over the last few years and uh it's just it's just the elites you know it's just elite opinion
00:24:32.520
facing a direct challenge right now and uh and and they're trying to counter it by uh you know trying
00:24:39.100
to smear the conservative leadership race and particularly pierre polyethro whether you like
00:24:43.160
him or not that's a different issue but you know i think to tie him in with everything including
00:24:48.180
christian nationalism it's just really really bizarre it just is a sign of desperation as you say
00:24:52.900
yeah and i think they're starting to feel it too that they know as they're going to try and demonize
00:24:57.200
uh this new group of of fresh-faced conservatives that are seeing a new option and that's i think
00:25:03.920
their hope well that's going to do it for us on the show today thank you for spending your friday
00:25:08.260
afternoon with us have a great weekend this was fake news friday that was rupa supermania my name is