Juno News - King Charles III echoes Trudeau-era wokeism with land acknowledgment in throne speech

00:00:00.000 Noah, it's a high of 30 today, man. I'm telling you. I'm in my house. I'm dying. I haven't connected the AC unit yet because, you know, I got the portable one. You got to put it through the window. It's a whole thing.

00:00:10.600 That's the thing in Alberta. You guys are living in the third world. Barely any AC over there. You guys got to step your game up.

00:00:17.640 Yeah, and Alex is on the other side of things. It looks like he's bundled right up for winter, so I don't know what it's called.

00:00:22.720 It's very bipolar here in Vancouver. It's beautiful sun one day. It's like the Bahamas one day, and then, well, I guess, I don't know. Have you guys ever been to the Bahamas?

00:00:32.720 I haven't been to the Bahamas, but I've been to Vancouver, and that's my one problem with Vancouver. It's always raining, so.

00:00:41.640 Most of the time.

00:00:42.780 Always raining, and there's always homeless, so there's that.

00:00:45.780 Yeah, it depends where you are. All right, let's hop into things.

00:00:49.200 So, yeah, just starting off, guys, I mean, we saw, it seems like we see these land acknowledgments every day, but, yeah, there was a specific land acknowledgment that caught your eye and your neck of the woods there, Alex.

00:01:04.360 Did you want to talk to us about that?

00:01:06.620 Oh, yeah, this is an old one. It's just the funniest land acknowledgment I've ever seen because it looks like it's, like, straight out of a scene from Reno 911.

00:01:13.160 So, this guy just has this ridiculous mustache. The story itself is already ridiculous. So, what had happened was a fella who runs a food van versus a food truck, he sells ice cream out of his van. 0.97

00:01:26.500 He decided to load it up full of explosives and then, like, use it to block the only major bridge in Kelowna. It's a vital choke point between West Kelowna and regular Kelowna.

00:01:37.340 And, yeah, he threatened to blow up the bridge. It basically shut the entire region down for an entire day, and the RCMP thought it was more important to do a land acknowledgment than to address the fact that there's a crazy person threatening to blow up the bridge.

00:01:51.840 Good morning. My name is Corporal Michael Gauthier, Media Relations Officer with the Kelowna Central Okanagan RCMP Detachment.

00:01:59.780 Firstly, we acknowledge and respect that this land is the traditional and unceded territory of the Sox Okanagan people, who have resided here since time immemorial, and will continue to be here for many generations to come.

00:02:10.340 What made that land acknowledgment stand out to you there, Alex? I mean, they all seem the same to me. Like, it's just like, oh, we're doing this again?

00:02:16.440 Yeah, I mean, it's just like any other land acknowledgment. What is the point of this exactly? Like, I understand that virtue is good, but virtue signaling, what is the point of this?

00:02:28.720 Yeah, you had this guy just fiddling around, reaching for a document in his back pocket, like, oh my god, like, you know, let's get this over with. You've got serious issues to deal with it. I mean, you know, this is a serious story. This guy tried to blow up a bridge. That's like on some, you know, super villain type deal. So, you know, the fact that you're starting off this very serious press conference with the land acknowledgment kind of makes the whole ordeal look a little goofy.

00:02:55.800 Yeah, and we also saw the king deliver the throne speech, and I always thought to myself that land acknowledgments don't really stretch outside of Canada, because surely no other countries are doing this. I mean, why would they?

00:03:11.720 But then we saw the king deliver the throne speech, and he delivered a land acknowledgment as well, which left me scratching my head because I was like, oh, I guess in a way it does stretch outside of Canada. Do we have that clip?

00:03:26.560 I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered on the unceded territory of the Algonquin and Nishinaabeg people.

00:03:35.480 This land acknowledgment is a recognition of shared history as a nation. While continuing to deepen my own understanding, it is my great hope that in each of your communities and collectively as a country, a path is found toward truth and reconciliation in both word and deed.

00:03:59.720 Yeah, it looked like he was reading his notes pretty closely there. So I don't think he had the land acknowledgment memorized per se. But yeah, what did you guys think of the king delivering the land acknowledgment there?

00:04:10.500 Yeah, just before, I just want to preface this whole thing by saying he's the king of Canada. So it kind of makes sense that in the woke Canada that we exist in today, that our king is sort of reflecting back what this country has become over, especially these past 10 years of liberal rule, where the land acknowledgments have sort of become normalized in Canadian society, even if it is for an event that is completely unrelated to indigenous issues.

00:04:37.620 But the throne speech really highlighted exactly what the Carney government has been campaigning on and really, you know, highlighted some of the worst fears that some conservatives had.

00:04:50.180 For example, the land acknowledgment, it really shows that the Carney government is not moving away from the woke ism that Justin Trudeau had brought in during his time as prime minister.

00:05:00.800 And that really, I think, is a major concern for a lot of conservatives who've seen the wokeification of Canada as one of the big demerits of the past 10 years of governance, along with the economic issues, along with the immigration issues.

00:05:14.640 And, you know, the list goes on, let's say, but definitely the pervasiveness of wokeism is one of the things that a lot of Canadians were hoping Mark Carney might turn around on.

00:05:26.280 We saw before Election Day, he said that he would respect, you know, the heritage of our English, French and indigenous people, sort of hearkening back to a sort of nationalistic sense of self and of our nation.

00:05:41.940 Definitely not the post national vision that Trudeau had articulated, but the land acknowledgment concedes a point to the left that the Canada is in some sense illegitimate, that this land was seized illegitimately.

00:05:56.300 And, you know, I think we can acknowledge that, you know, the seizure of the land definitely didn't work out for the original inhabitants in the way that they probably had hoped.

00:06:07.000 That's largely because of disease killed off about 90 percent of the indigenous population.

00:06:10.980 It wasn't you didn't see the sort of violent conquests as you did in the United States in Canada.

00:06:16.800 And I think that, you know, history has shown that the British crown has tried to treat the indigenous peoples, at least fairly in the sort of historical context,

00:06:27.120 even if that didn't manifest itself in the most, let's say, beneficial policies for those peoples.

00:06:33.940 But, again, this land acknowledgment really is something to behold.

00:06:38.840 I mean, you can definitely tell that the Carney government, they wrote this part of the throne speech.

00:06:45.780 I mean, they probably write the entire thing.

00:06:48.220 I at least like to think that Mr. King Charles had not written or had written himself.

00:06:55.060 The last section of the throne speech was actually pretty good, talking about Canada and our sort of nationhood.

00:07:02.220 But it was definitely disappointing to see and surprising to see the king make this land acknowledgment and basically say that we're on this unceded territory.

00:07:12.860 And, you know, he said, quote, while continuing to deepen my own understanding, this was great.

00:07:16.380 With a great hope, a path is found toward truth and reconciliation in both word and deed, definitely repeating a lot of the center-left language on this issue for over a decade now.

00:07:28.980 Have you guys ever noticed that these land acknowledgments always say it's the unceded territory of more than one tribe?

00:07:36.300 Yeah.

00:07:36.560 I have, yes.

00:07:37.620 Like, isn't that strange?

00:07:40.320 I guess.

00:07:41.380 Because, like, the logical conclusion there would be, okay, well, let's let them fight it out then.

00:07:49.260 Yeah.

00:07:49.720 I mean, I'm not familiar with it.

00:07:51.540 Like, there's something kind of, kind of, in a sense, kind of nice about that in terms of, you know, like, fighting.

00:07:57.420 It actually swims upstream from white guilt because it's, yeah, I mean, it's themselves.

00:08:02.280 I mean, I'm not really sure, like, what the sort of territorial geographic sort of makeup of the different nations were.

00:08:08.800 But at the end of the day, you do bring up a good point in that, you know, these are nations who were fighting over the land long before Europeans came to Canada and just to North America in general.

00:08:19.760 So, this was not, like, land that had not been, you know, stained with bloodshed through warfare.

00:08:27.060 It definitely had.

00:08:28.420 And if you look at some of the ceremonies that some of the indigenous tribes had, they're quite violent and not merciful to their opponents.

00:08:38.260 Let's just say that.

00:08:39.700 Yeah, they didn't even have written maps. 0.99

00:08:41.900 Right, so, I think this whole, like, you know, song and dance of, you know, doing the land acknowledgments is stupid. 0.78

00:08:50.120 But the throne speech did have, like, some more substance just beyond the land acknowledgment. 0.91

00:08:55.720 Carney, or through the king, Carney talked about some of his priorities, many of which he highlighted throughout the campaign trail.

00:09:04.940 But what was noticeable, I think, in the speech was the lack of the condemnation of the United States and the lack of condemnation of U.S. President Donald Trump, definitely in stark contrast from what the rhetoric we heard from Carney on the campaign trail.

00:09:22.220 Now, there was a story that came out a few days before the throne speech that claimed that British ministers were trying to convince the Carney government to tone down the language, tone down the rhetoric when it comes to the United States.

00:09:34.060 So, it's a bit concerning that another country is trying to tell the Carney government how to write the throne speech and what the sovereign can and cannot say on behalf of his own country.

00:09:44.040 But it definitely took a much more moderate tone on Donald Trump, not really calling him out by name, not really talking about the tariffs, and really when trying to hint about those U.S.-Canada issues, really addressing it in a more indirect way.

00:10:01.120 So, like, what did you guys make of the sort of shift in tone that the Carney government has taken over the past few weeks on the Trump issue and how that was reflected in the throne speech?

00:10:11.920 Yeah, well, obviously, we've seen a strong shift in stance of Carney's government from essentially the election until directly after the election.

00:10:22.860 The tone changed almost immediately because, of course, Carney arguably based his whole electoral campaign on dealing with the United States.

00:10:34.980 But then, of course, we saw that maybe that wasn't the reality after the election.

00:10:40.200 And then we even later found out that, in fact, Carney had canceled most of the tariffs during the election process secretly.

00:10:47.340 Secretly. He didn't tell anyone because he's like, oh, we'll stand up to Trump.

00:10:50.500 But in the end, that wasn't the case at all.

00:10:53.220 And then we've seen Carney meeting with Trump.

00:10:55.980 And it's definitely not as combative as he might have suggested during the election campaign.

00:11:01.820 Which, hey, I mean, call it what you will, misleading, lying, whatever.

00:11:07.900 At the end of the day, the United States are our most important ally.

00:11:11.340 And we would much rather be an ally to them than an enemy because we need them for so many things.

00:11:19.800 But most importantly, defense.

00:11:21.820 Yeah.

00:11:22.020 I mean, what have you thought, Alex, of the shift there?

00:11:25.960 Do you really believe that we need the United States for defense?

00:11:28.860 Yes, of course.

00:11:32.380 Imagine if China or Russia came to Canada.

00:11:34.760 We have no military.

00:11:36.500 Our defense is a joke.

00:11:37.940 We need the United States.

00:11:39.400 That's the issue is that you have to imagine it.

00:11:42.160 Yeah.

00:11:42.820 But there's no time in history in which the United States has ever defended Canada.

00:11:47.280 There is a time in history in which Canada has defended the United States under NATO Article 5.

00:11:51.980 When we went to Afghanistan and we were probably the toughest people there defending the United States.

00:11:59.700 The United States, I'll also just, if I may, the United States has not won a war in almost two generations.

00:12:07.980 The last time they won a war was World War II and barely, because they were barely involved.

00:12:13.540 They've lost every war since then.

00:12:16.160 When has the United States ever even offered to defend Canada?

00:12:21.100 Well, I think a lack of stomach in carrying out wars is not necessarily, it doesn't remove the fact that they have the most powerful military in the entire world.

00:12:31.200 And, you know, at the end of the day, if we piss off our continental ally, that's not doing us, it's better if they're on our side in the case of, say, a Russian invasion from the north. 0.62

00:12:42.800 We know that Russia, they want to really codify their position in the Arctic and potentially even encroach on Canadian territory in their efforts to solidify their control over the Arctic. 0.69

00:12:55.080 And certainly Canada needs to build up our own military, which has been massively gutted under, you know, the Trudeau government and even before.

00:13:04.020 But if we don't have the United States, you know, being an ally, providing intelligence at the very least, providing some material support, providing naval support, support from the air,

00:13:16.740 that would make our ability to counter those Russian threats in the north, it would make it a lot tougher, especially when the Russians, you know, they feel a bit more emboldened with their looking like a successful conquest of eastern Ukraine.

00:13:36.480 So, you know, it's definitely important that in a time when Russia is looking a bit more emboldened that we build up our military, but we also don't piss off our greatest military asset, who's also an Arctic country because of Alaska.

00:13:49.020 If I maybe flesh out my point very quickly, I'll just land my plane here, is the idea that I hear from a lot of the, again, I'm going to quote this, I'm going to use the term again, I don't care how much hate mail we get, Trump savior syndrome.

00:13:59.540 So these people who have Trump savior syndrome, who think that Donald Trump is somehow going to magically save Canada, they make two points.

00:14:06.840 The first point is, is that we need the United States because they protect us.

00:14:10.420 And then the second point they make is we need the United States because we've been invaded by China. 0.76

00:14:15.760 How can both of those things be true at once?

00:14:19.020 Well, I'll just touch on that.

00:14:20.600 If the United States is protecting us, how did we get invaded by China?

00:14:23.440 All right. Firstly, you asked when the last time, this was before, when the last time the United States said they'd defend us or something along those lines, it was actually when Carney and Trump recently met in the White House.

00:14:32.800 That was one of my key takeaways from the meeting because it was mostly fluff, but Trump did say clearly, we are your ally, we will defend you.

00:14:41.680 But just to touch on your point quickly regarding China and Russia invading Canada, I do have to say that I think their invasion, if it were to occur, would be much more tactful and secretive than actually invading us with an army.

00:14:56.200 It would be like through, I don't know, technological espionage, spy, spy warfare, you name it.

00:15:02.860 But let's just call it more secretive than a million Chinese troops coming in like through planes or something.

00:15:10.200 I don't think that would work out for them because, I mean, there are better ways to do things, right?

00:15:17.060 But moving on from that, we could talk more about the throne speech, especially the, we saw how conservative leaders,

00:15:26.200 across the country reacted to it, notably Pierre Polyev and Daniel Smith.

00:15:31.560 For example, Polyev was talking about how, what I took away from what he said was that talk is cheap.

00:15:38.280 Look, he said the speech was full of slogans and nice words, but lacked the action behind the words.

00:15:45.020 So they're talking about making Canada an energy superpower, but at the same time won't repeal Bill C-69, the No More Pipelines Act.

00:15:51.420 So it's kind of a contradiction there.

00:15:53.600 And I mean, there's an endless list that Pierre went through.

00:15:56.360 But yeah, what did you guys think about the conservative leaders' reaction to the throne speech?

00:16:02.440 And was it enough?

00:16:03.980 Was it the right reaction?

00:16:06.360 Yeah, I mean, he's right.

00:16:07.500 Like at the, until parliament, you know, is in session for long enough to be able to pass legislation,

00:16:13.640 and if, for the Carney government to be installed long enough to make, you know, significant decisions in the executive?

00:16:21.900 Yeah, I think it is all talk.

00:16:24.300 You know, talk is cheap.

00:16:25.460 But, you know, what has Carney really committed to when it comes to, say, the energy file, right?

00:16:30.640 He goes to a Quebec audience and says, we won't build pipelines.

00:16:39.700 And then, you know, he goes to Alberta, talks to Daniel Smith and says, oh, yeah, you know, drill, baby, drill.

00:16:46.680 So, like, you know, unclear when it comes to the carbon tax.

00:16:51.980 Sure, he was able to bring the consumer carbon tax down to zero with a government directive.

00:16:57.860 But he still has not just said that he would bring down the industrial carbon tax.

00:17:03.380 He actually has promised to escalate that.

00:17:05.600 So that's something that's going to be challenging affordability.

00:17:08.820 And on housing, we still don't really have concrete action beyond, say, the Housing Accelerator Fund that Justin Trudeau brought in and is not reaping results.

00:17:18.840 He says he's going to build this government department, build Canada homes.

00:17:22.840 But, you know, in my experience, crown corporations aren't necessarily the biggest driver of economic growth and development.

00:17:31.200 It's the private industries.

00:17:32.800 It's the builders who are actually the ones who are going to get houses built, not government departments, not government bureaus.

00:17:38.820 They're really good at spending money.

00:17:41.480 They're not really good at creating value.

00:17:44.820 And, you know, like, if you just go down the list of the things that he talked about in the throne speech, these are all things that he has not really made a lot of strides on.

00:17:55.680 Sure, certainly that's going to get some legislative approval on certain matters.

00:18:00.420 But on a lot of these issues, he hasn't proven himself to be credible.

00:18:06.500 And especially on the energy file when Albertans see that Stephen Gugbeau is still in cabinet, when they see that Melanie Jolie is still in cabinet, when they see that Anita Anand is still in cabinet.

00:18:18.940 You know, people get the idea that this is still the status quo.

00:18:22.400 So they really have a lot to prove in order to show that they're a change.

00:18:26.640 And I think voters are going to start to sour on them within six months if they don't start to show that change.

00:18:33.400 Yeah, interesting.

00:18:35.520 You said six months there, Noah, because, of course, Alberta Premier Daniel Smith previously gave Carney six months to do an official reset with Alberta, she said.

00:18:45.480 But then after the throne speech, she tightened that timeline.

00:18:50.680 She said she needs to see meaningful action within weeks, not months.

00:18:54.580 And what's most interesting to me is the most recent Leger poll I've seen was on Alberta separation showed that 41% of respondents would vote yes in a referendum compared to only 44% voting no.

00:19:09.420 Of course, the remaining percentage was I don't know or not applicable or whatever.

00:19:13.160 But, I mean, that's how close we're talking about.

00:19:16.460 And, of course, the Alberta Prosperity Project has submitted their petition question.

00:19:20.320 So a referendum vote on Alberta separation could be close.

00:19:24.420 And if Carney really doesn't show up for Albertans in any way, I think he's just going to push more and more Albertans away.

00:19:30.240 So this really could have long-lasting, meaningful consequences for the whole country, right?

00:19:43.640 Yeah.

00:19:43.820 If there's no tangible progress for issues that Westerners have, there's going to be a real movement for separation.

00:19:49.980 You know, Quebec, they're always unhappy. 1.00

00:19:52.200 Like, they're always complaining about something.

00:19:54.400 So that's a given, right?

00:19:55.520 He's going to have to, you know, finagle that.

00:19:57.600 He's going to have to deal with the Bloc Québécois in Parliament and, you know, with his Quebec MPs.

00:20:02.920 Okay, sure, like, that's a given.

00:20:04.760 But he doesn't really have representation in Calgary.

00:20:07.060 Correct me if I'm wrong, Isaac, but he only won – the Liberals only won one seat in Alberta.

00:20:11.340 So it's not like Albertans really even gave the Liberals, you know, any sort of real support.

00:20:21.500 So, you know, Carney's really going to have to understand what Albertans want when he doesn't have any Albertans in his caucus except for one person.

00:20:29.660 And then he's going to have to try and come up with solutions that also satisfy his Liberal base.

00:20:35.760 Like, you know, again, the reason why in Quebec he says,

00:20:38.900 Pas des audios duques, is because that sort of politics is really popular in Quebec.

00:20:45.340 But, you know, how is he going to, you know, satisfy the needs and desires of Westerners and Albertans when he has to also satisfy Quebecers?

00:20:55.560 How is he going to move on the energy file when it comes to getting projects reviewed quicker?

00:21:02.180 He said he wants one review to only be completed in two years instead of five.

00:21:10.400 Okay, I mean, how are you going to do that with Bill C-69?

00:21:13.720 And what is Stephen Guibault going to say if you try to, you know, repeal or amend Bill C-69?

00:21:19.800 Are you going to get, you know, certain defections?

00:21:21.560 Like, he's really balancing, you know, a high, this is a high wire act.

00:21:26.220 And, you know, he's going to have to show some political competence in this role.

00:21:30.420 Let's see, he's a, he's a bureaucrat by trade, not a politician.

00:21:34.080 But, you know, if he doesn't move on to these issues, he's going to have a real, real big national unity problem out West.

00:21:41.500 I think the parallels that we're drawing between Quebec separatism and Alberta separatism are really interesting and really insightful.

00:21:48.020 Because when I think back to the convoy protest in Ottawa, I think the most terrifying thing about that for the Liberal Party, and by extension, the Laurentian elite, was when you had Quebecois, the fleur-de-lis and the Alberta flag flying side by side.

00:22:06.960 So they, they basically live on us disliking each other.

00:22:12.260 And when we come together, that's, that's the worst thing possible for them, because they, their political lives depend on these wedge issues.

00:22:20.220 Yeah, and just to, sorry, to correct you quick there, Noah, I think the Liberals actually have two seats in Alberta.

00:22:27.380 And if I'm correct, one seat in Saskatchewan.

00:22:28.820 It's a small miracle for them, really.

00:22:30.300 Yeah, one seat in Saskatchewan.

00:22:32.220 So Saskatchewan is, is even more conservative when we're talking about the West as a whole.

00:22:35.960 But, just quickly, I guess, while we're on the subject, what are the Liberals?

00:22:41.040 Three seats from a majority?

00:22:42.380 Four seats?

00:22:43.200 Yeah, how do you guys think that's going to work in the House?

00:22:45.740 Are they just going to, people have talked about the NDP potentially crossing over.

00:22:50.200 I mean, do you think they'll have a working majority?

00:22:53.060 Or are they going to actually have to work hard to accomplish that?

00:22:56.080 Or is it just automatic? 0.52

00:22:57.360 The NDP are a total disaster.

00:22:59.360 You could fit all of them into a minivan and none of them can get along. 0.91

00:23:03.840 No, seriously, they absolutely detest each other.

00:23:06.320 Don Davies and Jenny Kwan are, like, right next to each other here in Vancouver.

00:23:10.340 And they couldn't be more diametrically opposed on virtually every issue.

00:23:13.700 So, I find out, if the NDP aligns with the Liberals, at that point, they will just render themselves even more meaningless.

00:23:21.520 And it'll be their death now.

00:23:23.540 Yeah, I think you bring up a good point, Alex.

00:23:25.680 I think the fact that the NDP, their internal cohesion is weak, I think that will lead to them showing more deference to the Liberals.

00:23:34.280 Because, well, they have internal party matters to deal with.

00:23:37.720 They can't afford going to an election.

00:23:39.420 Imagine they go to an election with an interim leader and the MPs don't like each other.

00:23:44.580 I mean, they already suffered a monumental disaster a few months ago.

00:23:49.780 The disaster is going to, you know, get worse, if that's the case.

00:23:54.300 If they can't even, you know, get together and stay on a certain message, you know, you're going to have Leah Gauzen campaigning on basically a communist party platform. 0.99

00:24:03.460 And then, you know, you're going to have Don Davies trying to bring it back to the Jack O'Layton days.

00:24:08.020 And you're going to see, like, this huge contrast between the different candidates running.

00:24:12.040 It would be a crappy situation for the NDP if, you know, Parliament dissolved and an election was foisted upon them.

00:24:19.960 So, I think they're going to be deferential to the Liberals, at least until they get a new leader.

00:24:24.580 But even after they get a new leader, you know, they're not going to have a lot of money to work with.

00:24:29.400 You know, their fundraising is in the gutter.

00:24:31.920 They're not receiving funds because they have no official party status.

00:24:36.080 I think they're going to be really loathe to go to an election.

00:24:39.720 And the Bloc Québécois, you know, is in a similar position.

00:24:42.020 They went from 33 seats to 23 seats.

00:24:44.560 You know, they were expecting to gain seats and they lost some.

00:24:47.100 And, you know, it's a little demoralizing.

00:24:48.840 So, I don't even think Yves-Francois Blanchet is exactly itching to go to an election.

00:24:54.700 So, I think it's going to be at least a couple of years until we get another election.

00:25:00.280 I'd say 2027 at the earliest.

00:25:04.320 Yeah, and the Liberals not filing a budget now that you mention it.

00:25:07.400 I guess that is technically a vote of confidence that they avoid.

00:25:10.720 Because, obviously, if a budget is not passed, that puts the country into an election.

00:25:15.400 You just don't table any budgets.

00:25:16.260 You're not going to have to, you know, bring your government to confidence.

00:25:19.020 So, you know, it's a great tactic.

00:25:21.000 It's illegal, but good job.

00:25:22.580 Moving on from that, Alex, since you're the oldest one here, maybe you're the most familiar with Bono.

00:25:31.360 What did we think of what Bono was saying?

00:25:34.740 I mean, we see so often these celebrities talking about Canada.

00:25:38.380 They might not have stepped foot in Canada for decades, much like Mark Carney before he became prime minister.

00:25:46.820 Yeah, I mean, I don't know why Bono is chiming in on Canadian politics at all.

00:25:52.580 Like, he's the most irrelevant thing in the world after Canadian politics itself.

00:26:00.800 Like, when was the last time anybody got excited about a Bono song?

00:26:03.960 Yeah.

00:26:05.340 Yeah, in preparation for this podcast, I have to, like, figure out who's Bono, who, like, who exactly is U2, what are their songs?

00:26:12.880 You know, Isaac's telling me they have some classics.

00:26:15.720 Okay, I mean.

00:26:16.620 Yeah, you should check out the Joshua Tree.

00:26:18.340 That's, like, an old album.

00:26:19.380 It came up before I was alive.

00:26:20.920 I'm not that old.

00:26:21.680 But it's pretty good.

00:26:22.780 Okay, is that going to jive with your average Kanye West enjoyer, or is it, like, a...

00:26:29.460 Yeah, they're just talking up there about Kanye is way better.

00:26:32.160 Like, Yeezus is way better than the Joshua Tree, in my opinion.

00:26:35.260 But you should check it out.

00:26:36.340 It's, like, part of the musical canon.

00:26:38.900 Alex, you're going to get hate mail for that now, saying Kanye West is better than U2.

00:26:43.720 Yeah, we're tipping all the sacred cows.

00:26:47.200 Yeah.

00:26:48.420 Yeah.

00:26:48.940 No, I mean, you too. 1.00

00:26:50.980 But Bono is an idiot. 1.00

00:26:53.580 Yeah, no, it's funny. 1.00

00:26:54.680 I often think, like, people in Canada think everyone pays attention to our politics and everyone cares so much.

00:26:59.400 I don't think that's the case at all.

00:27:00.680 But then we do see celebrities that are kind of irrelevant, I guess, trying to take their spot back in the spotlight by talking about Canada for some unknown reason.

00:27:12.180 So, I mean, I don't know why anyone would do that, but...

00:27:16.900 Yeah, like, people like Bono, like, I hate when they do this, because they try and, like, reinforce this idea that Canada is, like, this inherently progressive country.

00:27:26.280 I mean, like, go back in history.

00:27:28.200 From 1867 to 1891, some of our most formative years, the conservatives governed the country for all but four years.

00:27:36.680 You know, like, this is a country founded by a conservative, or by conservatives, and it is a country that, sure, you know, for the past 75 years hasn't been great for the conservatives electorally.

00:27:48.800 But at the end of the day, Canadians do have some deep-rooted Canadian instincts, even if it is not reflected in our governance from our federal politicians in Ottawa.

00:27:58.680 But, you know, Bono doing this, you know, sort of just, like, reinforces this, like, progressive view of Canada that is actually just a bit of a myth.

00:28:06.800 I mean, you know, if you look at the polling just in December 2024, the liberals were doing great, you know.

00:28:12.540 We were going to have that conservative populist scary man that Bono was so fretting about.

00:28:18.780 But, and I think he's going to be disappointed in the next election results, you know.

00:28:23.780 I'd be very surprised if the liberals win five elections in a row.

00:28:28.040 But, you know, like, Bono's, like, comments here, he's, like, I'll just quote him, I'm so happy to be speaking to you Canadians at the time in your political life, coming together, showing the world how to do it.

00:28:39.520 I was always a fan of your mosaic, your culture, your reason, and never more so than now.

00:28:44.140 I mean, like, repeating, like, the whole mosaic line and saying, like, how our, like, our culture, our reason, we're just, like, smarter than Americans.

00:28:51.560 Like, it's, like, this very arrogant, sort of, like, self-conscious view that Canadians have of Americans. 0.99

00:28:58.840 And, like, sure, maybe President Trump does some stupid stuff with the tariffs. 0.98

00:29:02.440 But at the end of the day, you know, Americans are generally good people. 0.99

00:29:06.680 They're very much like us.

00:29:08.560 And we should respect them.

00:29:10.320 And we should love our fellow Americans as we do our fellow Canadians.

00:29:16.980 Yeah, bringing it back to Canada, I guess.

00:29:19.460 We saw some big news, perhaps bigger than some would know, because, obviously, the legacy media wouldn't ever be touching on this.

00:29:29.660 But CBC was celebrating the erasure of a popular conservative channel.

00:29:34.920 In fact, I think the most popular conservative YouTube channel throughout the election, if I'm right on that.

00:29:41.400 But, yeah, the CBC was applauding that this channel got deleted for questionable purposes.

00:29:46.440 Or deleted, I don't know if deleted or suspended, but questionable purposes at best.

00:29:51.100 Very unclear from YouTube's reasoning what rules were broken, if any.

00:29:56.040 And not just talking on the CBC, but also on YouTube.

00:30:00.140 I mean, this was shocking to me that they would get involved in something like this.

00:30:03.140 And that they would essentially be politically censoring conservative media on the platform.

00:30:10.740 I mean, yeah, what did you guys think of this channel getting taken down there?

00:30:16.400 My attitude towards the CBC is the same as my attitude towards Rachel Gilmore.

00:30:22.760 Let's just stop talking about them.

00:30:27.040 That's a great attitude.

00:30:28.220 You know, they're both irrelevant.

00:30:29.000 They're constantly desperate to make themselves relevant, right?

00:30:36.720 Because they're losing the market share on account of their own incompetence.

00:30:41.900 So let's just stop talking about them.

00:30:44.680 You know, like, obviously, this is something that should be contested with UBC.

00:30:49.300 Or not UBC, sorry, YouTube.

00:30:50.640 We should be dealing with this privately.

00:30:56.460 But let's just leave the CBC alone.

00:30:58.680 They're not relevant.

00:30:59.660 They're not important.

00:31:01.000 They are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

00:31:03.640 The more we talk about them, the more power we give them.

00:31:06.200 I'll just do it at that.

00:31:06.760 Yeah.

00:31:07.600 And, you know, YouTube said that the channel was terminated based on their policy on spam, scams, and deceptive practices.

00:31:15.240 I mean, if, you know, criticizing the liberal government is a scam or, you know, deceptive, I think that's, you know, that reflects really, really poorly on, you know, how we are valuing free speech in our civil society.

00:31:31.500 I think that the CBC, like, the only audience for a piece like this, you know, taking down this right-wing YouTube channel, like, that's the only audience for that piece is liberals.

00:31:43.380 It's progressives.

00:31:44.220 It's left-wingers.

00:31:45.360 You know, this is something that Press Progress would do.

00:31:48.100 You know, like, Press Progress, they would, like, send out, like, you know, request for comment to a conservative channel and then just, like, make up some fake story.

00:31:57.720 Like, that's basically what the CBC did, except it's a lot worse.

00:32:01.300 They actually just got, like, a channel completely taken down.

00:32:04.940 I thought YouTube, they have a three strikes policy.

00:32:07.620 I don't know, maybe if they're at, like, two and then they went over.

00:32:10.700 But, like, this completely banned the channel for, you know, making, sure, maybe some of it's AI generated, but content criticizing the government, definitely, definitely not a good look.

00:32:21.560 I am interested just to get the opinion of the room here, and I'm not playing devil's advocate on behalf of the CBC, but I think one of the issues was the AI, right?

00:32:31.440 Because they did that AI video of Ronald Reagan.

00:32:33.620 And I do have concerns about that technology, right?

00:32:37.040 Because as it becomes better and better, we do run the risk of entering into a misinformation crisis, right?

00:32:45.440 I'm just curious, like, what you guys think about that.

00:32:47.360 Yeah, no.

00:32:48.440 More adept with this technology.

00:32:49.920 If I recall from the article, the channel owner said they had found the AI elsewhere on the platform on YouTube, and that's how they got it.

00:33:00.520 And I don't know if they thought it was real or whatever, but just based on fair use alone, if it's somewhere else and you use it in a different way, you can easily legally use that.

00:33:09.360 I don't know how that would violate their policy, especially with the fair use deal.

00:33:14.160 But another thing, just touching on the CBC, I was looking at their financial report from last year, $1.4 billion in government funding, $1.9 billion in expenses, and about $500 million in revenue to just break even.

00:33:26.100 So, I mean, imagine you're getting $1.9 billion in government funding and you can barely break even.

00:33:31.800 I mean, $1.4 billion?

00:33:33.920 This is shocking.

00:33:34.960 I don't know how any Canadian taxpayer could be happy with the CBC in its current form, but especially, essentially, acting as a tool of the government and how could they operate any differently when they're getting that much money?

00:33:51.420 It's an inevitable consequence, right? 0.95

00:33:54.000 Yeah, getting all that money for content like this, it's kind of pathetic.

00:33:56.840 You know, I think, like, you know, there has to be some regulation when it comes to, you know, trying to make AI content that, like, looks like someone and sounds like someone and trying to, like, push a false narrative.

00:34:09.580 But, you know, this person, as you mentioned, found the video secondhand and then just, like, reposted it.

00:34:15.260 And, you know, I don't know if this was supposed to be, like, a video that looks like a real Reagan speech or something like that, and it's not.

00:34:23.840 But, you know, a lot of AI videos are just, like, made for fun or made to, you know, like, prove a point or, you know, a message.

00:34:31.340 So, I wouldn't, like, you know, be too strict on that.

00:34:35.040 I think there should still be allowed to be AI content on YouTube, even if, you know, people like me don't really like it.

00:34:42.060 You know, if people like it and advertisers are willing to put their ads in front of those videos, then I'll go for it.

00:34:49.920 You know, I think that should be fair.

00:34:52.360 I think, you know, the way that the CBC conducted this hit on this channel, it was really unfair.

00:34:58.100 Yeah, and I guess now the more that I think about it, the more I realize we're putting the onus on the user of the platform rather than the platform itself, right?

00:35:04.840 YouTube already employs a lot of AI technology.

00:35:07.940 For instance, if you put, like, a copyrighted song on YouTube, it'll flag it right away because its AI technology is so good.

00:35:14.580 So, they should really be using their AI technology to flag AI as AI rather than, you know, beating up the user for not being smart enough to do that themselves, if that makes any sense.

00:35:28.460 Yeah, that's a good compromise.

00:35:29.920 Just put a little message at the bottom of the video.

00:35:31.440 Yeah, and I've talked to a few lawyers just historically when writing the odd articles about AI and the laws surrounding it, and it's not clear.

00:35:39.440 So, I do agree with you, Noah, that maybe some clarification around what's acceptable on YouTube with AI and just in general would be nice.

00:35:47.200 But, I mean, attacking and taking down independent journalists for something like this, and as you said, one-sided example, isn't there a three-strikes rule?

00:35:54.660 Or maybe, hey, hey, you can't do this.

00:35:56.520 We're taking that video down, not your whole channel.

00:35:59.080 I mean, it does seem like an overreach to me, and I would consider it personally as political censorship.

00:36:07.080 I don't know how else you could look at it.

00:36:09.920 Like, this is the top conservative channel during the election, and you take it down for questionable reasons at best.

00:36:15.400 I mean, yeah, just definitely not a good look for the CBC and not a good look for YouTube either.

00:36:21.480 But, I mean, when you're a media conglomerate the size of YouTube, I guess you can really do whatever you want with no consequences because there are no better.

00:36:30.300 Well, you're essentially a monopoly, right?

00:36:35.000 Yeah.

00:36:36.220 Rumble tries.

00:36:36.980 Yeah, I mean, yeah, no, there are other things, but YouTube really stands on its own.

00:36:42.360 Let's be real.

00:36:43.720 Yes.

00:36:44.440 That's how the CBC wishes it was with them compared to other news channels, and while it might be that way in funding, it definitely isn't in reach or viewership.

00:36:52.320 The state of our country would be shocking if that was the case.

00:36:55.500 Well, I think CBC has a reason to feel insecure, right?

00:36:59.060 I mean, again, I hate to take everything back to COVID and the convoy, but the mainstream media, not just the CBC, we're also talking about Chorus News, you know, CTV, Global.

00:37:09.160 They lost so much credibility, right, that people just stopped watching, and now they're basically dependent on government subsidies, and they're realizing that that isn't even sufficient, as you had pointed out, Isaac.

00:37:22.200 And so now what they're looking to do is just remove the competition as opposed to improving their own coverage.

00:37:28.500 If I'm not mistaken, Chorus has become a penny stock, and I remember there was some talk about Elon maybe buying it.

00:37:34.300 It's like, hey, Elon, what a deal.

00:37:35.620 You could buy Chorus for essentially pennies.

00:37:37.460 Like, hop on it, but no one wants to own.

00:37:41.020 I mean, owning a media company is no easy task.

00:37:44.140 Maybe you could buy it, Isaac.

00:37:45.220 Honestly, guys, it's worth so little money.

00:37:49.180 Like, we probably could.

00:37:50.380 Yeah, we could all pitch in to buy Chorus.

00:37:51.940 Yeah, yeah.

00:37:52.500 Like, it's worth the cost of, like, two duplexes in Vancouver.

00:37:55.540 I can't believe somebody else hasn't done this already.

00:37:58.240 We really should just do, like, a crowdfunding thing or something.

00:38:01.280 Yeah.

00:38:01.800 All the Trudor staff, you know, just put their money together, buy Chorus.

00:38:05.540 I think that would be exceptional.

00:38:07.480 But then you own this dog, right?

00:38:09.220 Like, it's a total dog.

00:38:10.960 I definitely can't afford one duplex in Vancouver, let alone two, Alex.

00:38:14.920 But those are, what, two million, two million a pop, probably, for three million?

00:38:18.880 I mean.

00:38:19.140 Yeah, for a full duplex?

00:38:20.580 Oh, dude, it's like, yeah.

00:38:21.700 It's more than Chorus Entertainment.

00:38:25.700 All right.

00:38:27.400 Just remember, everything you heard today was off the record.

00:38:34.520 Yeah, do you actually know, like, what the market cap is?

00:38:38.320 What do you get?

00:38:39.080 Just the name?

00:38:39.720 Like, do they have any assets?

00:38:41.200 No, you'd have to take on all of the debt, right?

00:38:43.540 And that's what I mean by it's a dog, because it's basically like buying a ship with holes

00:38:48.720 in it mid-sea, right?

00:38:52.080 Yeah.

00:38:53.000 Like, that's why nobody's going to buy it.

00:38:54.600 That's a nice analogy.

00:38:55.940 The stock is trading at nine and a half cents.

00:38:58.380 The market cap is 18.9 million.

00:39:00.920 And their debt is probably more than 18.9 billion.

00:39:04.960 I'm guessing yes.

00:39:06.920 Yeah.

00:39:07.280 Oh, my gosh.

00:39:08.360 So it's one of those things where it's worth more dead than it is alive, right?

00:39:12.340 Like, you know, whatever we could do to, like, put it out of its mercy, you know, grow to earth,

00:39:18.020 take their market share.

00:39:19.740 I think that that would be a merciful way to put them out of their misery.

00:39:23.580 Well, and, you know, with a lot of these people, too, that are working there, like, you can't

00:39:27.760 just fire them, right?

00:39:29.120 You'd have to pay out severances and so on and so forth. 0.99

00:39:32.100 So it would be a really, really, like, kind of a dumb thing. 0.96

00:39:35.080 It's a bad investment. 0.95

00:39:36.460 Don't.

00:39:37.400 I don't know.

00:39:37.820 It seems like you know what to do with it, Alex.

00:39:40.320 Maybe you should, you know, be seeing it all down.

00:39:43.520 Yeah.

00:39:46.460 Rename as Zoltan Entertainment.

00:39:48.100 Zoltz, yeah, another amazing Zoltzman production.

00:39:51.920 Yeah.

00:39:52.900 Buy up course, get all their buildings, turn it into affordable housing.

00:39:56.180 It's exactly like the Liberals' or what Pierre's plan was with the CBC.

Juno News - May 30, 2025

King Charles III echoes Trudeau-era wokeism with land acknowledgment in throne speech

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