Juno News - February 02, 2024


Leftists up in arms over Alberta parental rights policy


Episode Stats

Length

42 minutes

Words per Minute

196.90201

Word Count

8,432

Sentence Count

557

Misogynist Sentences

21

Hate Speech Sentences

24


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 No, I don't know. I mean, even like the most left-wing comedians are now doing like right-wing
00:00:04.440 things because they've just been like forced to the fringes. Yeah, no, I think the right is having
00:00:09.280 like a cultural moment right now. It's like, it's, it's a counterculture. It's, it's cool. Like being
00:00:14.620 manly is now like considered being conservative, which I think is good for the movement. I think
00:00:21.120 comedy is the only industry that's kind of moving in this direction though, that's moving in the
00:00:25.700 direction away from political correctness, the radical far left. Like if you're, if you're on
00:00:31.460 that side, you've missed the boat and you're just not on the side of the majority anymore.
00:00:37.240 Yeah, there's a correction happening for sure. All right, guys, let's get this started.
00:00:47.340 Everyone, welcome to the podcast. We're starting a new program here at True North. It's called
00:00:51.660 Off the Record. We thought we would bring it to you every Friday. And the concept of the show
00:00:55.660 is that we just talk about the news. We talk about the stories and you, you know, you get our full
00:00:59.900 honest opinions and perceptions on our individual shows. So I'm joined by Andrew Lawton, who hosts
00:01:04.800 The Andrew Lawton Show, Harrison Faulkner, host of Race Showed, and I host my own show, Candace Malcolm
00:01:09.040 Show. And you're going to hear our opinions and our real thoughts on issues during those shows.
00:01:13.660 But we thought it'd be fun to get together and just talk about what happened in the week that was
00:01:17.860 and give you sort of a more relaxed and honest interpretation of, of the events that were. So
00:01:25.620 pleased to be here with you, Andrews, enjoying a nice glass of, what is that?
00:01:31.900 You said relaxed and honest. It's a Cabernet Sauvignon.
00:01:35.920 Good for you, man. So, so yeah, so let's, let's get to it, guys. I want to start by talking about
00:01:42.640 what I think is the biggest story of the week, maybe the biggest story of the year so far,
00:01:46.620 which is the Alberta Premier, Danielle Smith, unveiling a new, really a new chapter when it comes
00:01:53.620 to parental rights in Canada. I think that this is long overdue. This is something that is completely
00:01:58.260 in line with what almost every parent I know and talk to believes. And so, of course, you know,
00:02:05.220 the, the liberal powers and liberal establishment is losing their mind. It cannot happen. So, so here we
00:02:11.100 have Alberta Premier. I'll just play a bit of what Danielle Smith had to say when she was announcing
00:02:15.480 that reassignment, gender reassignment surgeries, castrations basically will not be permitted on
00:02:21.540 children in the province of Alberta. So that's what this, here's what this looks like.
00:02:25.580 After much discussion, the government caucus and I have therefore decided to implement the
00:02:29.820 following policies and guidelines as it relates to transgender minors and athletes, including
00:02:34.820 additional supports to assist transgender adults to secure the health care they need and the
00:02:39.920 counselling support for youth identifying as transgender to ensure they can successfully
00:02:44.400 work their way through their complex feelings and emotions as they grow to adulthood.
00:02:49.100 First, on the issue of gender reassignment treatments for minors. For minors age 17 and under,
00:02:55.920 top and bottom gender reassignment surgeries will not be permitted. For children age 15 and under,
00:03:03.040 puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the purpose of gender reassignment or affirmation
00:03:07.580 will also not be permitted, with the exception of those who've already commenced their treatment
00:03:11.980 at this time. So, Andrew, I'll go to you. What was your initial thoughts on this and how do you
00:03:18.100 think the Premier handled it? So, from a political comms perspective, she did phenomenally well because
00:03:24.640 she tried to preemptively deal with all of the standard criticisms that she knew she was going to face.
00:03:31.100 I mean, the first part of the video, and we had a little bit of it there, the whole thing is seven
00:03:34.240 minutes long. She's talking about how much she loves transgender people and supports them and
00:03:38.900 she's always talked to them and advocated for them and all of that. And then when she gets to the
00:03:43.000 policies, I mean, it sounds like, I mean, she doesn't have children, but it sounds like she is
00:03:48.020 being a mother in that capacity. And I mean, it sounds like she's being really caring and compassionate
00:03:52.760 but saying we need to draw a firm line on what we do on this issue. And I think she went far
00:03:58.760 far beyond how plain lawyers that have done similar policies. She went far beyond them in terms of how
00:04:08.360 she presented this. And I find it interesting, though, and we'll get to a bit of the criticism of
00:04:13.320 it. None of that matters because the people that dislike the policy don't care about that compassion.
00:04:20.840 They don't care how nice it sounds. They don't care about that. You know, it was as though she was just
00:04:25.200 going out into the street and executing trans people. That's basically the reaction that she
00:04:30.220 was getting on this. Right. Which is which is why I think in some ways conservatives try too hard
00:04:35.740 to appeal to the left and the left is never going to agree with you. Like the left is going to put a
00:04:40.300 target on your back and call you a bigot. Pretty much no matter what you do. And so in this in this
00:04:45.780 instance, you know, this is this is solid policy. This is long overdue. Again, I think this is in line
00:04:50.340 with what almost every parent that I talk to that I know that I interact with at my kids schools.
00:04:55.740 This is what people believe. This is people are like paranoid and terrified of the gender
00:05:01.060 ideological like steamrolling is happening in schools. And there's always stories and always
00:05:05.440 whispering like parents do not like this stuff. Right. And that the policy is sound. It's I loved
00:05:10.720 how Danielle Smith went out to the media afterwards and just took all their questions. And she's
00:05:15.660 fielding like the craziest, most deranged reactions. And she's like, you know, this is
00:05:20.400 in line with what's happening in Denmark, what's happening in Norway, what's happening in all
00:05:23.980 these, you know, progressive, liberal Scandinavian countries. And it's true. It's like it's like,
00:05:29.140 no, no, you are the outlier progressive left in Canada. You are the ones that are absolutely
00:05:34.780 out of step with the rest of the world and public opinion. And if anything, I think that Danielle
00:05:41.540 conceded too much on the ideological ground by, to your point, Andrew, talking so much about how we
00:05:47.840 love transgender people and being transgender is just a-okay and it's great. It's like, well,
00:05:53.660 that's not exactly true. And I don't think that most Canadians agree with that. I don't know. What
00:05:58.340 do you think, Harrison? Well, when I heard the original video, I kind of had the same reaction to
00:06:04.100 Andrew, which was, wow, this was actually very well done. This was professional and it was smart
00:06:09.720 politically to try and show that compassion. I didn't think that the reaction from the left was
00:06:14.760 going to be as deranged as it was. I probably should have, but I didn't actually think they
00:06:18.900 were going to be this way. It's unbelievable that they're talking about how this is horrific. And
00:06:24.380 this is the worst possible thing to happen when all that actually was really announced was men can't
00:06:31.140 compete against women in high school sports. We're going to stop that from happening. And people who
00:06:35.200 are, and kids who are aged 17 and under can't mutilate their own bodies. It's, it's unbelievable
00:06:40.540 that the reaction to a decision like that is frightening, horrifying, the worst possible
00:06:46.600 thing ever. It's, it's unbelievable. I can't believe it because you don't see people saying
00:06:51.140 that 17 year olds should be, uh, should be allowed to drink and get behind, you know, drive on their own.
00:06:57.500 But this is the exact same thing, but it's a, it's a life altering permanent decision. So why,
00:07:02.480 why is this, why is this so controversial? It's actually unbelievable that the federal government
00:07:08.340 and everybody else in the left is reacting this way. It's kind of, kind of frightening.
00:07:12.600 Well, I should say, uh, that this was like the invasion of Poland, I believe. Uh, if we go to,
00:07:19.260 uh, Randy Wosinode, let's roll that clip here. I I'm not, I'm not exaggerating. Let's roll that clip.
00:07:25.140 This is our NATO moment as an LGBTQ community. An attack on one of our communities is an attack on us
00:07:30.820 all. And I need allies and champions to stand up. We already have the social worker association of
00:07:36.580 Alberta, the Alberta teachers association, the Canadian civil liberties association,
00:07:40.280 and a gal who's already mentioned that they will start a court challenge on board. There will be a
00:07:45.760 rally at the legislature in Edmonton on Sunday. I will be there. And if there's ever been a time
00:07:52.280 in this century for people to stand up for the kind of Canada and the kind of Alberta we want.
00:08:00.220 I just love that. You know, it's a, you know, someone steamrolls into Belgium, uh, or Poland or
00:08:06.040 Greece, and we invoke NATO collective defense. That's the same as a policy supporting parental
00:08:12.280 rights, our NATO moment. Uh, we, we should use that by the way, whenever like, you know,
00:08:16.620 Bill C 18 comes out as like, this was our NATO moment as independent media. I mean, it's, it's
00:08:22.540 so silly to, to think. And, and, and he emphasizes that again, right? Like, this is like our once in
00:08:26.540 a generation, uh, moment to, to fight against the right, uh, or, or whatever. And it's like,
00:08:32.080 really liberals, this is the issue. Like, you think you're going to run the next election on this
00:08:37.160 issue? Like, like, it's interesting because there, there are some other criticism. We have a clip
00:08:41.460 we'll play in a second from another Trudeau minister where she's talking about how she doesn't
00:08:45.120 think that Danielle Smith did enough consultations and she didn't talk to enough, uh, trans kids,
00:08:49.380 I guess, uh, to, to, to, to, to introduce this policy. It's like, you know, here, here at
00:08:53.900 True North and through our journals, we talked to a lot of Canadians. They see a lot of public
00:08:57.800 reaction. And, and I would say that this is one of those issues that the left is just wrong on.
00:09:02.180 They're out of touch. And if, if the Trudeau government really wants to fight an election
00:09:06.260 and make this their like issue to die on, like, good luck, man. Good luck with that.
00:09:12.340 Parenting transcends politics on that. And that's what, I mean,
00:09:15.020 to the left, this is just a left versus right thing.
00:09:17.740 You know, exactly. And, and this is one of those issues where I just think that they,
00:09:21.280 they don't, they're not in line with public opinion. Uh, that, that, that most parents,
00:09:25.180 even if maybe they won't say it aloud to a pollster or someone calling up, I, I, I think deep down
00:09:31.100 when it comes to like your children and the fact that they go to school and someone might be telling
00:09:35.280 them that they're born into the wrong body, that there's something wrong with their body and that
00:09:39.800 they have to start taking like chemicals and life altering drugs that will prevent them from being
00:09:45.240 able to like have a normal sex life or potentially have children in the future. Like you're telling
00:09:50.500 little kids that, I mean, it's just, it's just so preposterous. And again, good on Danielle.
00:09:55.120 I want to play this clip from, this is Trudeau's minister of women and gender equality and youth,
00:10:00.460 which is apparently one ministry now. Uh, her name's Marcian. So here's, here's what she had to say.
00:10:05.720 Randy, Randy and I spent last night and into this morning, consoling kids, talking to advocates
00:10:17.400 and then saying, we will make sure and go back to our cabinet colleagues that everything is on the
00:10:26.980 table, anything that we can do, but the consultation with community, and this will be happening across
00:10:34.500 the country. Uh, I mean, it has been happening, but I'm going to be heading on the road and bringing
00:10:40.400 forward, you know, the opinions and the life experiences of those, this impacts. So what I
00:10:47.560 wouldn't do is put out a statement without proper consultation and othering people before, you know,
00:10:55.980 I want to say blowing up people's lives.
00:11:00.200 Othering people and blowing up people's lives. Harrison, over to you.
00:11:03.220 Well, I find it kind of strange that the, uh, minister, both of those ministers were talking
00:11:08.520 late at night on the phone with trans kids and consoling them over the provision. Uh, it is a
00:11:14.000 weird thing to be bragging about, but yeah, you know, why don't they, can you just leave the kids
00:11:18.960 alone, please? Uh, and let them make their own decisions when they're adults. I want to bring
00:11:22.800 this point up though, as well, because this has been getting lost in all of the leftist reaction.
00:11:27.180 Danielle Smith's announcement, what people are not talking about is the fact that she's actually
00:11:30.840 making life for transgender people in Alberta who are adults easier. She's trying to actually get a
00:11:37.300 doctor who specializes in surgeries and transgender aftercare into Alberta. So she's actually trying to
00:11:43.960 make their lives easier while protecting children, allowing them to make their own decisions and not
00:11:48.620 ruin their lives. I don't know why Marcy Ian was on the verge of tears over the fact that children will
00:11:55.700 no longer be able to mutilate themselves without their parents' consent. It's a very strange thing
00:12:00.620 to fight on. And I guess if this is the hill they're going to die on, go for it. I don't think
00:12:04.900 you're going to win with the immigrant vote. And I don't think you're going to win with the majority
00:12:07.500 vote either. Well, let me just, uh, let me bring in, uh, Cheryl, uh, sorry, Chanel Pfaff, who's a
00:12:12.560 former teacher. She's a prominent conservative commentator because I, I agree with what she has to
00:12:16.740 say here. She says, I'll preface this by saying that I like Danielle Smith and I support her efforts to
00:12:20.540 address this. Unfortunately though, she was currently seeking to find a middle ground with a
00:12:24.160 cult. She's playing their game and using their language. Gender identity is not a real thing.
00:12:28.660 It's a made up term for something that does not exist. Biological sex, i.e. sex simply cannot be
00:12:33.800 altered. It is an immutable trait. I don't know how we are to fight this ideology when even our most
00:12:39.880 based politicians refuse to discuss the issue truthfully without ideologically written language.
00:12:45.940 I think Andrew, you and I are going to disagree a little bit on this, but part of the announcement
00:12:49.940 was bringing in all these resources to accommodate and facilitate more gender reassignment surgery for
00:12:56.160 adults as Harrison just mentioned. And to me, I mean, sure, I guess it's better that they don't
00:13:01.000 have to travel all the way to Quebec in order to get these services, but why are we as a society
00:13:05.900 facilitating this? Presumably this is a government funded as well. It's like really, is this where we
00:13:10.440 are in a society where we are saying, you know what, as long as you're an adult, you, you can
00:13:14.800 pretend to be a woman. You can, you can castrate yourself. You can, you can remove your sexual
00:13:20.020 biological organs if you want to go ahead. I mean, it's free society. Not only that, we'll pay for
00:13:25.140 it too. Like what kind of message is this sending? Where are we as a culture in 2024 where this is
00:13:29.880 like a hardcore conservative thing to do? Well, I mean, look, the paying for it, I think we can all
00:13:35.580 on this call agree on. I mean, there's a libertarian argument against paying for it and a social
00:13:40.140 conservative argument against paying for it and so on. Listen, I mean, we let people make decisions
00:13:46.080 that are not in their best interest. We let adults smoke. We let people do extreme sports. I,
00:13:50.800 I have seen people that have had more plastic surgery than I think the Lego factory has managed
00:13:58.380 to do. When you see them walking around with lips that are the size of hot air balloons and,
00:14:02.880 you know, other organs that have been inflated. Well, not organs, but you know, anyway,
00:14:06.420 it's off the record. You guys know what I mean? So, so I've seen all of that. And, you know,
00:14:11.080 I don't want the state saying you can't do that because it's not in your best interest. So there
00:14:15.880 is a libertarian argument for it, which is why I actually think Danielle Smith made the politically
00:14:20.620 wise decision here, which is to focus on children, focus on the area where there is a protective role
00:14:27.100 for the state. And even the most civil liberties minded people and individual freedom minded people tend
00:14:32.600 to agree that, that you, you protect the vulnerable. So yeah, should the government be bending over
00:14:37.480 backwards to go out of its way to bring all of these resources in? I don't think it's a priority.
00:14:43.420 And I, and I'd be interested in seeing to Chanel Fall's point, was Danielle Smith doing that because
00:14:48.480 she believes in that and she believes that's important or was she doing it because she wanted
00:14:53.060 that as a shield so that when people criticized her for being transphobic for the kids stuff,
00:14:58.380 she could say, well, no, we're actually doing all of this. If she believes it, look,
00:15:02.960 that's her government's position. Fine. If she's just doing it because she's trying to make this
00:15:07.580 concession, then I have a significant problem with that. But, but ultimately what's going to happen
00:15:13.160 here is we're, we're going to see jurisdictions shopping anyway. And, and I think the problem that
00:15:19.340 we were already going to see in Canada is that people from the United States were going to be
00:15:22.720 coming up North because you had provinces that are far more permissive with this. And I think that
00:15:27.660 when provinces start to take this seriously, it's actually a good thing, not just for
00:15:31.840 Canadians, but arguably for some Americans as well.
00:15:35.000 Well, so according to your logic, then this next story shouldn't bother you at all. So
00:15:38.980 David Menzies over at the Rebel.
00:15:40.620 I regret doing this show. I'm out. I quit.
00:15:43.780 David Menzies, our friend over at the Rebel, broke this story, this incredible, like real life
00:15:50.940 Lady Ballers, the Daily Wire movie that just came out. He went down to Seneca College, which is,
00:15:56.120 you know, adults over the age of 18, right, Andrew? And here we have five men playing on a women's
00:16:05.000 volleyball team. So, so, so, so, hey, you know, they're, they're, they're, they're adults. They can do
00:16:09.260 as they wish. Let's, let's, let's play David Menzies clip here because it's really, really something.
00:16:15.180 David Menzies for Rebel News here at Centennial College in Toronto. And we have the latest example
00:16:23.720 of trans sanity to the power of five, quite literally. We were tipped off that this female
00:16:30.720 volleyball game that we witnessed earlier featured not one, not two, not three, not four, but five men
00:16:39.420 pretending to be females. Three were on Seneca, two were on Centennial. Gee, can you imagine which side
00:16:47.700 won? Not only that, the male players were always on the court. So you had biological female substitutes
00:16:56.280 just sitting on the bench for the entire game. So, Andrew, I'll let you respond.
00:17:03.440 Well, you've grossly mischaracterized my position on this. I think you should have the right
00:17:08.080 as an individual to live your life the way you want. I do not believe that you have the right
00:17:13.500 to impose that on others. So here we have an example where those five men are imposing their
00:17:19.880 choice on others who I don't know for a fact, I would assume didn't have a say in the matter.
00:17:25.840 And I think on athletics, absolutely. You are, you are imposing. I think there should be the ability
00:17:31.760 for people to create leagues that are open to people of all or multiple or no gender. It's
00:17:37.840 whatsoever. I don't know all the categories now. I think it was like Facebook, where when you choose
00:17:41.820 your gender, you've got like, you know, 97 options. So, you know, if there's someone wants to start a
00:17:45.880 league that will take the the pan gender, the agender, the transgender, the non gender, the male,
00:17:50.040 the female, all of that, fine, I don't really care. So I think that is my where my libertarianism is
00:17:56.120 there. It is not the ability to inject yourself into spaces that are supposed to be single sex.
00:18:02.260 And that's where I don't think there's any disagreement on from anyone on this call.
00:18:07.860 Well, I mean, to me, it just makes my blood boil that that moment where you see all of the female
00:18:12.020 athletes who, like, don't forget the sacrifice, the commitment, the dedication it takes to become
00:18:17.200 a an athlete at that level. Like it's not, you know, we're not talking about a beer league here,
00:18:21.300 we're talking about a college team. And to see them totally, you know, wasting their efforts
00:18:27.500 sitting on the sidelines are kind of almost acting like cheerleaders. There's no there's nothing more
00:18:32.920 infuriating. And see that then interestingly, the longer clip, which we didn't play, you can see that
00:18:38.140 the people around the team get like really angry and really defensive. And they start yelling at
00:18:43.460 Menzies and calling the transphobe and saying F off and talking about vaginas, like it gets really
00:18:47.980 deranged and weird. But it's weird to see how people react. It's like, they don't stop and think
00:18:55.060 like, what is right here? What is correct? All they think is, here's someone who's trying to
00:18:59.380 like disrupt what we've already agreed that we're going to do. How dare he? What do you think,
00:19:04.280 Harrison? Well, remember, David Menzies is going after the star athletes on these teams, guys,
00:19:10.220 these teams want to win. And so he's exposing the people who are, who are, you know, carrying the
00:19:15.580 team. So the will to win clearly has trumped any actual sane thinking for the volleyball athletes,
00:19:21.580 the volleyball coaches. Don't forget, remember, he did this whole story on a rugby player,
00:19:25.980 a man who was just injuring women on the field, clearly, the star player of that rugby team as
00:19:31.960 well. I laugh at the beginning where it looks like someone's trying to hit David Menzies with the
00:19:37.840 volleyball when he first starts his video. Anyway, I find the whole thing ridiculous, obviously. And
00:19:43.460 the reaction is very strange. They don't want to expose their, their, their, their, their, their
00:19:50.280 secret weapon, so to speak on their teams. And this is the kind of thing that proves Daniel Smith's
00:19:55.760 point about why the province has to stop this from happening. You have to protect the sanctity of
00:20:01.160 competition and sportsmanship in sports. Otherwise, the whole thing is just a joke. It's just this,
00:20:06.340 it's just this sneaky, strange, you know, feel to try and get your, get an advantage. It's very
00:20:11.860 strange. No, it's, it's terrible. Yeah. No, I was just going to, I can't remember when this came
00:20:17.780 out. I don't know if you guys saw it. There was some video that circulated. I probably saw it on
00:20:21.120 Jonathan. Gaming or females in gaming, uh, PSA. And it was this video of like all of these,
00:20:30.980 these younger girls, young women that were talking about being in the gaming world. And there was
00:20:35.820 probably in the video, only one female that was like, so you had like, you know, this montage of nine
00:20:41.360 people talking and like, I might've been all were male, but there, there was one that I think was
00:20:46.280 the most compelling example. And that's, again, that's going to be the future of sports. And you
00:20:51.120 and Candace have like compared this to that daily wire movie that either just, has it come out yet?
00:20:55.540 I haven't actually seen it. Uh, you gotta see it. It's hilarious. Is it good? Okay. Lady,
00:20:59.160 but lady ballers, was it? Yeah. Lady ballers.
00:21:01.760 Yeah, it does. I mean, lady ballers is, I mean, it's, it's, it's a, it's a pretty cheesy,
00:21:08.680 like low budget movie or whatever, independent movie, but, but the concept is like a bunch of
00:21:13.240 washed up high school basketball players decide to like reunite, uh, for their glory days. And,
00:21:19.160 uh, they're obviously like too old and out of shape to, to play for like a competition against
00:21:24.400 men. Men. So they like, you know, realize that they can game the system and they go play against
00:21:29.480 women and they dominate them. And it's, it's satire, but it happens, right? It's like,
00:21:34.200 this is literally what we're watching. And so when you go back and you watch lady ballers,
00:21:38.020 uh, you realize that it's not this like absurd scenario that they've just like created to mock
00:21:43.420 the left. It's like, this is literally happening every day, uh, especially in countries like Canada,
00:21:48.780 where everybody's just so polite and, you know, they want to be seen as progressive. They want to
00:21:53.800 be seen as good little liberals. And so they don't want to rock the boat. They don't want to say
00:21:57.460 anything, even though like deep down, I think you have to realize, especially if you have a daughter
00:22:01.800 or if you're a woman, I mean, look, I told a story before, but I grew up playing hockey. When I was
00:22:06.280 younger, I played with the boys because I was pretty good. And it got to a certain point where
00:22:10.740 biologically I was just different and I couldn't fight against my biology as much as I tried.
00:22:15.600 And it was just not really safe for me to play with the boys anymore. So I moved over to the girls
00:22:20.080 league. And at first I didn't like it because it wasn't challenging enough, but over time, it's like,
00:22:24.260 this is a space where I can excel and I can get opportunities and I can play. And this is my
00:22:28.980 sport. And you know, the idea that they, you know, that they would start inserting boys into that
00:22:34.880 scenario, it totally erases the whole idea of having women's sports. And it is absurd, but
00:22:40.320 I commend the guys over at the daily wire for having the courage to point this stuff out and really for
00:22:46.080 playing an active role in the culture, right? Like we're, we're journalists, we're nerds. We sit on the
00:22:50.280 sideline and we watch it all unfold and we comment on it. Whereas the daily wire, they're, they're
00:22:55.720 actually like in the culture now and they're like fighting a ground war. So I know you guys are both
00:23:00.500 going to cringe at this next clip, but here, here we have it. We live in a world where Ben Shapiro,
00:23:06.640 you know, the, the, the, the, the fast talking nerdy Jewish guy that hosts the most popular podcast.
00:23:12.280 He is now America's number one rapper. I think he might be the number one rapper in the entire world
00:23:17.440 with his song Facts. It came out last week. He's collaborating by the way, with a Canadian
00:23:23.520 rapper, who's actually a rapper, this guy, Tom McDonald, who's quite good and quite popular.
00:23:28.580 He has a large following in the independent world, but here it is. Here is Ben Shapiro
00:23:33.700 rapping a song that people are actually downloading and paying for. So let's play that clip.
00:23:38.220 And I think, I think they did it.
00:24:08.200 I think they got the billboard number one. I, I love the lyrics. I love that Ben embraces the fact
00:24:13.760 that he is this like nerdy guy that talks fast and, and, and here they are actually having a
00:24:18.900 voice. This is to my point. I think that the conservatives, conservatism is having a cultural
00:24:23.160 moment right now where, you know, people, people are going and downloading this song, not necessarily
00:24:28.300 because they like it or because they think Ben Shapiro is a talented rapper, which he isn't,
00:24:32.140 but because it's like fighting against the establishment. It's like a big middle finger
00:24:37.100 to the music industry, to the powers that be that we know manipulate everything. We know that they
00:24:42.760 have their hands on the scale. We know that the last thing that they want is for a conservative
00:24:46.700 pundit to become the top, especially someone who's been so critical of rap over the years.
00:24:52.180 And I think there's quotes of him saying that rap isn't real music and, and, and all that stuff.
00:24:56.000 So, so, so, so the fact that, that it's almost like a game to that moment. It's like, let's take
00:25:00.780 down the big guys. Let's, let's take down the establishment. And, and I think that, I mean,
00:25:05.540 I think it's awesome. Candace, does this rap song is Canadian content. Is this Canadian content
00:25:12.040 here? Because Tom McDonald is sort of the actual guy who actually made this look, maybe C11 actually
00:25:17.560 helped them out. Maybe it bumped up the algorithm on, on Apple and Spotify to get it going. I think
00:25:23.420 it's, I think it's great, but we should not be just, you know, praising Ben Shapiro. We have
00:25:27.340 another Canadian rapper who's now the number one rapper, unseated Drake. This is like, this should
00:25:32.320 be a big Canadian moment. Call it a heritage moment. Maybe if he wins a Grammy, he can thank
00:25:36.700 Justin Trudeau for fixing the algorithms for him. Bumped up the song a little bit. No, we should get
00:25:43.300 to get them to do like the theme song for off the record. It'll be, it'll be wonderful. Shapiro's got to
00:25:48.140 be the only guy who, when he raps, ends up talking more slowly than when he's speaking. That's
00:25:53.360 like the weirdest thing about that is that it's easier to understand him rapping than
00:25:56.960 when he's going off on the show, I think. Oh yeah. At times, you know, usually I listen
00:26:02.220 to podcasts at like 1.25 or 1.5, just to, you know, get, get to the point fast. When I
00:26:08.020 listen to Ben, I have to, I have to listen to it at one. Sometimes I have to like go back.
00:26:11.180 0.75 even. Yeah. 0.75 just to understand what he's saying. But the thing I like about it
00:26:16.120 is that other like rappers, like legitimate rappers are actually giving props to Ben and
00:26:22.560 saying that, you know, he, we have Nicki Minaj saying, you know, go listen to it and congratulating
00:26:27.860 him for his success. And, you know, of course, I think Ben knows that his music is kind of
00:26:34.500 cringy, but that's, that's the point of it. Right. And, and I think that he's, he's making
00:26:38.140 like multiple points at the same time by actually saying like, anyone can do this. See, look,
00:26:42.880 I'm doing it. And, and, and there he is. By the way, it wasn't, I mean, he wasn't just
00:26:47.960 number one in rappers. I saw that screenshot we put up of the iTunes charts. He, he beat
00:26:52.420 Billy Joel. Now, like that's now I don't know how old that's a turn the lights back on.
00:26:56.900 Let me look up how old that is. Turn the lights back on by Billy Joel. That's a, oh, that
00:27:02.940 came out. That's a new, so he beat Billy Joel even that like Ben Shapiro on the iTunes charts.
00:27:07.920 Impressive, man. These guys, they don't mess around. And like I said, people, people like
00:27:15.000 it. I don't, I don't know if it's irony or. Yeah. We'll put up the Nicki Minaj tweet. You
00:27:20.200 referenced this. She says, wait till they wake up and listen to what Ben Shapiro is saying
00:27:24.420 in facts. The outrage on this one will be a tad bit delayed. And then he had retweeted
00:27:29.960 that to say, yo, Nicki Minaj, bestseller rapper in the world. Can't get an invitation to the
00:27:34.980 Grammys. Can you hook a homie up? Uh, so I don't know if, if he gets invited to the
00:27:39.780 Grammys, that'll be fantastic, but I can't think of, I can't think of anything more embarrassing
00:27:45.160 for the music industry than seeing this pop up on the top charts of the songs in the
00:27:51.760 world. Okay. Ben Shapiro just beat everybody. You guys like all your professionals with all
00:27:56.280 your record labels. Like how absolutely embarrassing must that be to be a Ben Shapiro?
00:28:01.000 I hope he goes to the Grammy. Like he won't be invited, but I hope he like has his own little
00:28:04.360 thing in front of the Grammys at least. Totally. I want to see him show up with his glasses and
00:28:09.280 everything. I, it kind of reminds me of what, what we're doing right now at True North in the
00:28:12.380 publishing world, because, uh, basically, you know, we, we published Grave Error and it was
00:28:17.020 number one on Amazon. It was like selling thousands of copies, uh, over Christmas and doing really
00:28:22.280 well. You had, uh, the rebel published Mara Litch's biography, and this was mentioned in a
00:28:28.120 newsletter put out by, um, Ken White, who's, who's a publisher and very established person
00:28:33.400 in Toronto. And basically he noted that Mark Messier got a million dollar deal to write a
00:28:39.020 biography. Tamera Litch basically self-published through the rebel and her book has four times
00:28:46.100 as many like reviews and comments, like probably way more read than what the big industry people
00:28:52.760 are willing to pay millions of dollars for. Right. And it's like, this is kind of just
00:28:56.440 a wake up call. It's like, yeah, sure. You can spend millions and millions of dollars and create
00:29:00.500 like a hyper-produced, terrible song that no one's going to like in six months. And imagine how much
00:29:05.180 money these, these rap stars and rock stars, I mean, like you said, and you're outselling Billy Joel,
00:29:09.720 outselling Justin Timberlake's new song, like all of these really, really probably expensive to
00:29:15.240 produce songs. And, you know, you have Tom McDonald who is independent. He's not, he doesn't have a record
00:29:20.200 label. He puts it out himself. Probably didn't spend that much money on it. I mean, it was really
00:29:23.780 well done, well edited, but didn't spend that much money. And here they are running circles around
00:29:29.400 everybody else. So I think, I think it shows again, that, that, that the establishment is kind of
00:29:34.260 running out of juice and you can, you can apply that to any, you know, media publishing, book publishing,
00:29:40.260 music industry, maybe even like movies. I don't know. But, but again, I think that this is, this is,
00:29:46.960 this is all a good sign. Yeah. The one thing I'll point out on this is that people on the right
00:29:53.220 are prepared to do something they weren't always prepared to do, which is put their money
00:29:57.060 forward. When this happens, conservatives have always bought books, like, especially in the U S
00:30:01.820 conservative authors have always done tremendously well, like Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck and Sean
00:30:06.200 Hannity, like in, in back kind of the heyday of the, you know, 2010s, these people were putting out
00:30:10.920 a book a year and every one of them was New York times bestseller for, for years. And I think
00:30:15.300 conservatives, it took a little bit of time for that sort of Andrew Breitbart approach of, you
00:30:19.460 know, politics being downstream of culture to really be realized, but they're producing good
00:30:23.660 quality stuff and people on the right are buying it. I mean, it's not, they're not just like
00:30:26.720 spinning is the old radio term I was about to use, but they're not just, you know, watching the,
00:30:31.700 the Ben Shapiro clip on YouTube. They're actually buying it on a high tunes.
00:30:35.900 Yeah. I mean, I did. It was like a buck. I'm like, yeah, I'll do it. I want these guys to hit
00:30:39.300 number one. Like, why not? Right. Uh, Andrew, I know you wanted to talk about the, uh, the, the,
00:30:45.460 the trucker convoy. I know that they've, you know, we've had some justice here with the, uh,
00:30:49.980 courts striking down Justin Trudeau's actions, but the, but the liberals are still trying.
00:30:54.040 They're still trying to justify it. They're still trying to say that everything they did was,
00:30:58.160 was a-okay and just fine. So I'll, I'll let you, uh, I'll let you set up this clip here.
00:31:02.360 Yeah. I talked about it a little bit on my show earlier, but I thought it
00:31:04.960 kind of was important to revisit on, on this show because, uh, for starters, it was two years ago
00:31:10.540 from, uh, this exact day that the convoy was in Ottawa. It got there on kind of January 28th,
00:31:16.580 29th, depending on which leg of it. So, uh, there's a bit of an anniversary there,
00:31:20.420 but Jody Thomas, who up until a few days ago was Justin Trudeau's national security advisor. She was
00:31:25.240 the national security advisor throughout the course of the convoy's time in Ottawa was doing the rounds
00:31:30.920 on media, but like, by the way, national security people, I don't think should probably do the
00:31:34.860 rounds on media. But, uh, this was what she said in her parting interview on CTV.
00:31:39.940 I think, as I said, in my POC testimony, what we were seeing in terms of activity on the ground
00:31:45.240 and intelligence was very clear. Uh, the, there was a huge, huge occupation here in Ottawa.
00:31:52.140 It was increasingly violent. We were starting to hear language about weapons being in the trucks.
00:31:58.160 We had the, the arrest in Coutts, which was a significant weapons cache and very concerning.
00:32:05.320 The charges that have been laid there are indicative of what was going on.
00:32:11.080 Increasingly violent. There was no evidence at all presented before the public order emergency
00:32:16.920 commission that there was an increase in violence. There was no evidence to support the language
00:32:22.180 that she alluded. You can't, my air quotes were too wide. The language that she alludes.
00:32:28.300 I don't know. Somehow I got like some, wait, can I do that again? The confetti effect.
00:32:32.800 I know what happens. I think if you put like a thumbs up, okay.
00:32:36.080 What is happening?
00:32:37.360 I did it the other day on a podcast. You put a thumbs up and like little thumbs up popped up,
00:32:42.040 but yeah. Cause it's, yeah. It happened in a zoom call anyway. I just, I, whatever.
00:32:47.660 Small things amuse small minds as they say. Uh, so, uh, yes, where was I? So before the confetti
00:32:53.580 rained down upon me, uh, yeah, she was basically, uh, saying things that were not supported by any
00:32:58.660 evidence. I mean, there were rumors going around that there were weapons in trucks,
00:33:01.520 but police seized those trucks. They impounded them. There were, to my knowledge, zero weapons
00:33:07.060 charges that were laid in connection with the freedom convoys. So this idea, uh, that they were,
00:33:12.040 either acting on incredibly bad advice or just making things up is what I take away from that
00:33:17.180 interview. But she was doing that to justify the use of the emergencies act, which is unconstitutional.
00:33:22.120 But as you mentioned, government doubling down on this, I mean, Harrison, you spent some time in
00:33:25.860 Ottawa. Did, did you find any weapons caches while you were there? No, I didn't. Uh, I can't say I was
00:33:31.040 necessarily looking for weapons, but I didn't see them, didn't hear about them. And of course,
00:33:35.180 throughout testimonies that took place months after the freedom convoy and before the emergencies act
00:33:40.980 inquiry, the police even testified to that saying there were no weapons found in Ottawa. Notice she
00:33:46.620 gets away saying, she gets away by saying this on CTV news and CBC because the media won't push back
00:33:53.280 on her claims. They'll just allow it to be put out there as justification to unconstitutionally
00:33:57.760 violate the rights of Canadians. But if this were in any other media, if, if Jody Thomas tried to say
00:34:03.280 this to alternative media, which she never would, she'd get pushed back for it. It's blatantly just
00:34:09.220 trying to justify obviously the wrong decision. And they're still not telling the truth about
00:34:15.800 this. After all this time, they still refuse to admit the truth. Well, Andrew, maybe you can answer
00:34:20.940 this question. Is a national security advisor, a partisan liberal appointee, or is it a civil service
00:34:26.420 role? No, it's, it's a civil service role. I mean, she, she is the national security and intelligence
00:34:30.920 advisor to the prime minister, but she's a career bureaucrat. I mean, like, cause when I, I mean,
00:34:35.880 look, I don't want to besmirch her, her approach to work and her qualifications, but when you look
00:34:40.780 at her resume, like her first line item on her resume in the public service was working for
00:34:45.920 passport Canada. And then she eventually moved from there to being the coast in the coast guard
00:34:53.300 division. And she winds away, winds up in this position. So she's not someone who had a career
00:34:58.200 at CSIS. She's not someone who had a career in defense. She's not someone, her degree was in
00:35:02.720 commerce. So it's not even like she's someone who's, who's particularly well versed from an
00:35:07.000 educational perspective in security and intelligence. She's a career bureaucrat who
00:35:10.480 became the national security and intelligence advisor. But even though it's supposed to be a
00:35:14.760 nonpartisan role, it's astonishing to me how she has been deployed to use government talking points,
00:35:21.240 both at the public order emergency commission and in that interview.
00:35:25.200 Well, the deep state is real boys. Yeah.
00:35:27.160 So, I mean, the fact that, you know, she comes out talking like a liberal, she called it an
00:35:31.140 occupation, which, which, you know, when, when it's the left, when it's, you know, pro Hamas
00:35:36.580 people, they just call them peaceful protesters, guys, peaceful. Oh yeah. Ignore the threats,
00:35:41.080 ignore the masks, ignore the, the, the graffiti and the property dam. They're just peaceful
00:35:45.440 protesters. When it comes to truckers being peacefully or demonstrating their constitutional
00:35:51.220 rights, God-given rights to protest, to peaceful assembly, it's an occupation, right? She says
00:35:56.340 increasingly violent. I know I broke a story the first weekend after the, the, the, uh,
00:36:02.620 trucker convoy that they arrived in Ottawa and every media journalist was pulling their
00:36:07.740 hair out, losing their mind. Justin Ling was obsessed with the fact that these were like
00:36:11.460 violent MAGA Republicans or that they were Russian agents or something like that. Uh, I
00:36:16.060 went through all the police scans. I went through all the police reports. There was not a single
00:36:20.320 incident of violence, nothing, nothing. When you consider the fact that there were tens of thousands
00:36:25.040 of people out, it basically became like a giant street party. The fact that there was
00:36:29.440 nothing, like there were no, there weren't even, there were no arrests. There were, there was nothing.
00:36:34.580 There was nothing. It was an incredibly peaceful operation. It could have, it could have gone wrong.
00:36:39.320 And I know that there were provocateurs and people trying to, to make the truckers look bad,
00:36:44.340 but they, they showed incredible restraint. They were very orderly. They were very law abiding.
00:36:49.740 They were cleaning up their garbage. They were sweeping the streets. They were upstanding
00:36:53.340 citizens. And what, you know, what do we get from the civil servant? We get liberal talking points,
00:36:59.320 the exact same thing. They were violent. We heard rumors of guns. Uh, they were occupying. It's like,
00:37:05.220 no one takes you seriously. Like you, you watch someone like that on TV and you just think this
00:37:10.020 person is, has a political agenda. That's it. They have a political agenda and nothing else matters.
00:37:15.580 And the, yeah. And you go ahead, Harrison. Sorry. Well, I was going to say that the people
00:37:20.800 who are protesting in Ottawa during the freedom convoy were fully aware of the fact that there
00:37:25.200 were people in the crowd trying to make them look bad. They knew that there were provocateurs there
00:37:30.140 that were going to try and disparage the image of the freedom convoy and make everybody look as
00:37:34.920 though they were evil and criminal. I, when I talked to them, they were well aware of that. And that's
00:37:38.980 why they went out of their way to do the good, to do, to do good things, to clean up after themselves,
00:37:44.640 to be respectful, to treat people with respect. Now, we didn't see that on the other side. We
00:37:50.740 saw Ottawa residents cursing at them, yelling at them, calling them, you know, terrorists and all
00:37:55.760 of that sort of thing. But people were fully aware of what, what the effort was, which was to try and
00:38:00.500 make them look bad. And they never fell for it. It doesn't, it doesn't seem to matter for the
00:38:03.820 politicians though. They just keep going on about these, these government talking points. It's
00:38:08.600 ridiculous. And what better contrast to this post from Harsha Walia on X, formerly Twitter,
00:38:16.900 Port of Vancouver blockade calls for immediate arms embargo on Israel. We are completely blockading
00:38:22.680 the Port of Vancouver at all entrances to refuse business as usual during an ongoing genocide
00:38:27.940 in Palestine. Canada must stop arming genocide. Now, just for context here, Harsha Walia
00:38:35.340 is the, you may remember her. She's a bit of a true North celebrity. She's the former
00:38:39.460 head of the BC Civil Liberties Association, which is a radical far left group. But she
00:38:44.020 was fired for being too radical for the BCCLA because she was the infamous burn it all down
00:38:50.160 lady when people were burning down churches. And she just took the rhetorical match and kerosene
00:38:55.180 to it all. So she's now saying we need to block critical infrastructure. And I've been waiting
00:39:00.700 since that. Put that tweet up for a second again, Sean. I just want to look at the date
00:39:04.460 here. So what's that? That's February 1st. So that was yesterday that that came out. No
00:39:10.980 emergencies act yet, despite the blocking of critical infrastructure. Hmm. Very strange.
00:39:17.940 Yeah. Yeah. It's almost as if the laws are applied differently in Canada, that the left can do things
00:39:23.620 and get away with it. And when working class people try it, not so fast, not so fast. I mean,
00:39:29.640 it's interesting just even seeing Justin Trudeau and how he gets harassed. I mean, look, the guy gets
00:39:34.260 harassed wherever he goes. He gets he gets called off and yelled at. But but recently, the people that
00:39:39.720 you see with the most amount of pressure calling out the prime minister, intimidating him are these
00:39:45.120 far left pro Hamas protesters. We saw a clip at the end of last year of him getting accosted in a
00:39:50.700 restaurant, which was actually quite terrifying. If you think about the fact that our prime minister
00:39:54.140 was like in a restaurant with a bunch of deranged people kind of surrounding him. You know, there's
00:39:58.560 a clip of him earlier this week. And, you know, again, a huge crowd of pro pro Palestine, pro Hamas
00:40:04.260 protesters harassing him. It's not a good look for the prime minister. But of course, you know, when when
00:40:09.780 it was before when it was sort of right when people angry about the vaccine mandate or angry about
00:40:15.200 his covid policies, it was like the biggest story in the country. Everyone wanted to talk about the
00:40:20.500 fact that these these right wing people were harassing our prime minister as a threat to our
00:40:24.060 democracy. And then and then meanwhile, these Hamas nicks are out there intimidating him, you know,
00:40:30.980 doing crazy stuff, blocking the port of Vancouver, openly bragging about it, you know, calling for
00:40:35.040 crazy things. And it's like, okay, all right. Good job, guys. Go ahead. Yeah, we've been informed by
00:40:43.420 our producer that the port of Vancouver is not actually closed. It's it's not been blockaded. But even if it
00:40:49.120 were, of course, the federal government wouldn't do anything about it. These are no, it was
00:40:53.120 blockaded. It was blockaded. They just restored it. Oh, okay. So they dealt with it. But without the
00:40:58.960 Emergencies Act, the Emergencies Act, isn't that interesting? Exactly. But of course, these are voters
00:41:04.720 for the Liberal Party, they see these people as potential voters for them. And they see that they saw the
00:41:10.120 truckers as, as what did Andrew Coyne call them anti social yawks. They look down at the truckers
00:41:18.340 because they are, they are predominantly conservative voters. That wasn't all of them. But that's how they
00:41:23.800 view them. They view the these rural working class people as people to look down at. And they view the
00:41:30.400 people who are out in the streets, protecting protesting against Israel and and promoting Hamas
00:41:35.380 exponential liberal voters. So of course, the rules aren't applied the same way at all.
00:41:39.700 Yeah, and I don't think they froze her bank account either.
00:41:42.240 What a coalition, eh? This is this is what the Liberals are running on these days, like pro terrorism,
00:41:47.640 pro transing the kids. Like this is by the way, the number of Palestinian flags I've seen in Twitter
00:41:54.000 accounts outraged about Danielle Smith's announcement on trans stuff makes me really, really wonder
00:42:00.180 about, you know, trans rights in Gaza. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
00:42:04.760 Yeah, it's it's a Venn diagram. It's like perfect overlap.
00:42:07.400 Or I guess we'll close that bridge when we get to it should be the expression now.
00:42:10.280 In this in this case. All right, guys. Well, thanks so much for tuning in. It's been fun. We're
00:42:14.680 going to come back and do it again next Friday. So thanks to you for tuning in. Have a great weekend.
00:42:19.880 And remember, everything you just heard was off the record.
00:42:29.160 It's like when you're at a movie and you like wait past the credits to see if there's a blooper
00:42:32.600 a deleteable post credits. Yeah. And it's always like the worst thing. It's like not funny at all.
00:42:39.240 And you're like, I can't believe I waited. I wasted like eight minutes sitting in the theater waiting
00:42:42.760 for that. I went through the lighting guy.