Juno News - Leftists up in arms over Alberta parental rights policy

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 0.80

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 1.00

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 1.00

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 0.93

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, 1.00

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 0.99

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 1.00

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 1.00

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 1.00

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 0.98

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 1.00

00:12:07.500 vote either. Well, let me just, uh, let me bring in, uh, Cheryl, uh, sorry, Chanel Pfaff, who's a 1.00

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. 1.00

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 0.99

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 1.00

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 0.99

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 1.00

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 0.98

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 0.96

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 0.99

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 1.00

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 1.00

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 0.99

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 0.99

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. 1.00

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, 1.00

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. 0.84

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. 1.00

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 0.76

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 1.00

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, 0.98

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. 0.94

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, 0.84

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 0.55

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 0.95

00:38:50.160 lady when people were burning down churches. And she just took the rhetorical match and kerosene 0.98

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, 1.00

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, 0.94

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 0.80

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 0.89

00:41:30.400 people who are out in the streets, protecting protesting against Israel and and promoting Hamas 0.96

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.

Juno News - February 02, 2024

Leftists up in arms over Alberta parental rights policy

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