Juno News - Lawyer says nursing college silences opinions

00:00:00.000 The lawyer of a B.C. nurse who had her license suspended for her stance on protecting female-only spaces

00:00:09.960 claims the nursing college is using its power to silence opinions.

00:00:13.860 A protest planned in Toronto in opposition to liberal mass immigration policies

00:00:17.840 has attracted the ire of leftist activists and politicians who are vowing to hold their own counter-protest.

00:00:24.440 The Liberals' online streaming act is facing renewed criticism by online law experts

00:00:29.480 saying it will strip away privacy safeguards.

00:00:32.520 Hello Canada, it's Wednesday, September 3rd, and this is the True North Daily Brief.

00:00:36.560 I'm Isaac Lamoureux.

00:00:37.640 And I'm Alex Sultan.

00:00:38.620 We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.

00:00:41.040 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.

00:00:49.240 The legal representative of a B.C. nurse who had her license suspended for her stance on protecting female-only spaces

00:00:55.900 said the rules must be applied equitably across the board.

00:00:59.480 And not selectively against opinions regulators disagree with.

00:01:03.260 Amy Hamm had her nursing license suspended and was ordered to pay $93,639 in legal costs earlier this month

00:01:11.120 by the disciplinary panel of the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives.

00:01:15.100 The measures came after she defended women's right to female-only spaces including change rooms, washrooms, and prisons. 1.00

00:01:21.660 Lisa Bildy, her lawyer, said,

00:01:23.380 Ham, a nurse educator for over 13 years, co-sponsored a Vancouver billboard in 2020 that read

00:01:45.000 I heart JK Rowling, referring to the author's support for women's rights and desire to protect female-only spaces.

00:01:52.100 The billboard received complaints from a Vancouver City councillor and activist before being taken down.

00:01:57.440 Bildy said, quote,

00:01:58.420 However, Hamm was not expressing her beliefs from her perspective as a medical professional, but rather as a private citizen.

00:02:16.020 The college maintained advocating for women-only spaces was discriminatory if it excluded transgender women.

00:02:22.140 So, Alex, what was the disciplinary counsel's response to Amy Hamm's defense in this case?

00:02:28.140 Well, Isaac, it's kind of the most absurd and insane response you could possibly expect.

00:02:33.160 Because what they have said is that Amy Hamm deserves not only to no longer be a nurse,

00:02:38.580 but also to pay this ridiculous fine because she one time claimed that she was a nurse on a podcast

00:02:45.120 or wherever else she happened to do that. 0.98

00:02:47.480 And that's absolutely accurate.

00:02:49.180 She is a nurse.

00:02:49.920 So, what the College of Midwives and Nurses is suggesting is that being a nurse is immutable.

00:02:58.200 If you are a nurse and you say you are a nurse, anything you say is said from the standpoint of a nurse

00:03:03.800 and you will always be a nurse and you cannot change that.

00:03:06.900 But what they were also saying simultaneously is that gender is mutable.

00:03:12.600 It is changeable.

00:03:14.280 This is incredibly unscientific and frankly outrageous and ridiculous.

00:03:18.760 And just because somebody happens to have a profession and they say something during the time in which they had that profession

00:03:25.460 does not mean that they are forever identified as that profession.

00:03:28.800 People are allowed to change their jobs.

00:03:30.840 Obviously, people cannot change their biological sex.

00:03:33.440 One other thing, just to confirm, Alex, was Amy Hamm's name was not on this billboard, nor was her profession or the nurses or anything to do with that.

00:03:41.680 Right. Like she just co-sponsored it. 0.99

00:03:43.260 So, I mean, even saying that this billboard is related to her identity in any way would be inaccurate.

00:03:48.880 Is that right?

00:03:49.780 What I'm trying to say is that she is being attacked by her profession on account of having that profession,

00:03:55.900 as if somebody can't simply change their profession.

00:03:59.280 I mean, I believe, to the best of my knowledge, that Amy Hamm wants to continue being a nurse,

00:04:03.780 but somebody is not defined for their entire life by a profession that they happen to have at one time.

00:04:10.220 It's a very strange argument, I believe, that the College of Nurses and Midwives is making in this case.

00:04:17.000 A planned protest calling for a pause to mass immigration and also calling for mass deportations of non-citizens,

00:04:26.480 illegal immigrants, terrorists, and fraudulent visa holders has drawn the ire of several Antifa activists and leftist politicians.

00:04:34.560 The so-called Canada First Rally is set to take place on September 13, 2025 at Christie Pitts Park in Toronto, Ontario.

00:04:41.600 One of the official posters for the march, organized by Joe Anajar,

00:04:44.960 a five-year activist and founder for the Canada First Movement, reads,

00:04:48.580 Stop mass immigration, start mass deportations, remigration is necessary. 1.00

00:04:55.060 The protest has garnered the support of UK-based activist Tommy Robinson

00:04:58.500 and is planned on the same day as a UK Patriot protest in London.

00:05:02.900 Anajar said the UK protest is expected to bring over a million people.

00:05:07.000 He said the Toronto rally is not just about Canada, but the entire Western world.

00:05:11.480 Anajar told True North that the protest isn't about making demands,

00:05:14.960 but to remind Canadians that it's okay to discuss the need to roll back mass immigration.

00:05:19.740 He said, quote,

00:05:20.440 Mass immigration is a very controversial topic, but my stance is that it's absolutely destroyed our country. 1.00

00:05:26.880 It's affected so many different things in our country.

00:05:29.840 Anywhere from housing to the crime spike in our country to just the total lack of respect for our culture and identity.

00:05:35.860 Canada took in 817,000 new immigrants in the first four months of 2025

00:05:40.940 when tallying up both permanent and non-permanent streams.

00:05:44.800 In a post to Facebook, former NDP MP Charlie Angus said the protest will bring, quote,

00:05:51.480 race haters.

00:05:52.620 And he is encouraging everyone to come out in defiance of the protest to, quote,

00:05:57.720 help preserve our history of inclusion and diversity.

00:06:00.660 He called on his supporters to, quote,

00:06:03.360 uphold the legacy of the Christie Pits riots in 1933 when 10,000 people fought in the streets against swastika clubs,

00:06:11.940 which were intimidating Toronto's Jewish population.

00:06:16.540 Anajar said choosing that location was coincidental,

00:06:19.340 as he didn't even know about the history of Christie Pits riots before organizing the event,

00:06:23.640 and he chose the site for its beauty and accessibility to Toronto's transit system.

00:06:27.800 In a post to X, Anajar showcased some of the comments from leftist activists

00:06:32.400 calling for violence against the anti-mass immigration rally

00:06:35.320 and said Angus's calls for counter-protesters to uphold the riot's legacy

00:06:39.600 could be an incitement to violence.

00:06:42.480 So, Isaac, what are some of the leftist politicians and activists saying about this protest?

00:06:48.700 And do you think what they're saying constitutes a potential incitement to violence on either side?

00:06:55.400 Yeah, Alex. Well, on one side, opponents of the rally are trying to frame this as a dangerous event.

00:07:02.100 For example, Toronto Councillor Diane Sachs issued an official statement calling it a hate demonstration,

00:07:09.100 saying it is rooted in primitive, disgusting beliefs about immigrants contributing less to Canada.

00:07:14.660 She went so far as to alert Toronto Police's Hate Crime Division

00:07:18.140 and warned residents to report any hate incidents connected to the protest.

00:07:23.040 And as you briefly mentioned, former NDP MP Charlie Angus has been equally vocal,

00:07:27.380 framing the rally as an echo of past battles with extremism.

00:07:31.360 But Joe Anajar, the protest leader, also highlighted one person organizing protests to be Christie

00:07:36.520 from the Workers' Action Centre,

00:07:38.760 and that organization previously called to give full immigration status to anyone working in Canada.

00:07:44.700 Posts circulating online from Antifa-aligned accounts have only added fuel,

00:07:49.220 with some comments openly threatening confrontation,

00:07:52.540 and Anajar said this is proof that critics want to silence dissent through intimidation rather than debate.

00:07:58.720 Anajar has also repeatedly pointed to Prime Minister Mark Carney's embrace of the Century initiative,

00:08:04.200 which is, of course, a plan to bring Canada's population to 100 million by the end of the century,

00:08:09.060 and he calls this as evidence that mass immigration is not just a temporary spike but a long-term agenda.

00:08:15.760 Anajar has also highlighted the economic angle,

00:08:18.100 arguing that companies exploit immigration to drive down wages,

00:08:21.700 using chains like Tim Hortons as examples of a Canadian brand that, in his words,

00:08:26.300 quote,

00:08:26.700 isn't even Canadian anymore.

00:08:28.920 But beyond policy, there's a strong cultural dimension to his appeal.

00:08:32.260 He says older generations would be disgusted to see how major cities have become unrecognizable,

00:08:38.600 and argues that Canadians have been conditioned to avoid hard conversations about national identity.

00:08:44.260 For Anajar, the rally seems to be a chance to reset that conversation,

00:08:48.060 and he stresses over and again that it will be a peaceful event,

00:08:51.240 warning anyone who shows up looking for violence or even going as far as wearing masks

00:08:55.260 that they are not with the movement.

00:08:56.960 And one other thing I wanted to highlight quickly about Anajar and this event is how pro-Canada he's been about it.

00:09:02.880 He's really emphasized that angle that this is a pro-Canada event,

00:09:06.200 so he's really just trying to protect his vision of what Canada is.

00:09:10.700 And above all, he's calling for a very peaceful protest,

00:09:13.800 as opposed to the NDP former MP Charlie Angus,

00:09:17.360 who is evoking images of violent riots from the 1930s.

00:09:19.960 The Online Streaming Act is facing renewed criticism,

00:09:27.940 this time for inadvertently removing privacy safeguards.

00:09:31.680 University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist wrote in a blog post this week,

00:09:35.880 quote,

00:09:36.140 A provision stating that the Broadcasting Act shall be construed and applied in a manner

00:09:41.060 that is consistent with the right to privacy of individuals

00:09:43.780 was removed from the bill,

00:09:45.680 leaving in its place two near-identical provisions related to official languages.

00:09:49.700 He added, quote,

00:09:51.060 The net effect is that with little notice,

00:09:53.940 the Broadcasting Act has for the past two years included an interpretation clause

00:09:58.060 that makes no sense and efforts to include privacy within it are gone.

00:10:02.900 The error was first noticed by Monica Auer,

00:10:05.180 executive director of the Forum for Research and Policy and Communications.

00:10:09.540 The Department of Canadian Heritage confirmed it was aware of the, quote,

00:10:13.220 inadvertent oversight and would be, quote,

00:10:15.960 looking into it.

00:10:16.880 The Online Streaming Act forces platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Spotify

00:10:21.860 to promote and financially contribute to Canadian content.

00:10:26.000 Senator Julie Meville-DeChenne introduced an amendment to the Act

00:10:29.620 during its legislative process on the recommendation of the Federal Privacy Commissioner,

00:10:33.680 which ultimately became part of the legislation.

00:10:37.340 The Act originally stated it would be interpreted consistent with privacy rights.

00:10:41.560 However, 2023 Official Languages Bill mistakenly replaced this privacy clause

00:10:46.300 with a second provision on linguistic communities,

00:10:49.140 leaving the streaming bill with no privacy protections.

00:10:52.360 So, Alex, what are some of the criticisms of the Online Streaming Act

00:10:56.400 when it was first announced?

00:10:57.800 Well, many of the criticisms of the Online Streaming Act when it was first announced

00:11:02.260 are still the existing criticisms of the Online Streaming Act.

00:11:06.400 This is not a well-thought-out bill for many, many reasons,

00:11:11.520 and it's one that I think most Canadians will find pretty unpalatable for many reasons.

00:11:16.680 First of all, it already identifies an issue of too much government intrusion.

00:11:22.740 It makes it very, very difficult for businesses to deal with Canada.

00:11:27.920 Canada is requiring businesses to offer specific content and in specific languages.

00:11:33.660 As an online streaming platform, that makes Canada a less hospitable working environment as a company.

00:11:41.640 The other issue that you have with the Online Streaming Act as well

00:11:45.300 is that it could potentially target individual content creators in Canada,

00:11:50.640 therefore reducing opportunities for YouTubers and for other entrepreneurs

00:11:57.260 who want to create their own content.

00:11:59.860 It really is a very draconian and anti-free speech piece of legislation,

00:12:06.560 even just in terms of its effects, not necessarily its intention.

00:12:10.560 Again, I think it's important to remind listeners and also to remind ourselves that with liberal policies,

00:12:19.100 the rule, rather than the exception, is often that the path to good intentions is one to hell.

00:12:28.220 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in.

00:12:31.400 You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify.

00:12:36.320 Also, while you're at it, make sure to hit us with a five-star rating and please leave a review.

Juno News - September 03, 2025

Lawyer says nursing college silences opinions

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