Juno News - Legacy media ADMITS to protecting Carney

00:00:00.000 Well, a Canadian media organization isn't even pretending to be non-partisan anymore.

00:00:10.400 They've publicly declared their support for the Liberals, telling Prime Minister Mark Carney,

00:00:15.040 we've got your back. The Canadian Media Producers Association held its convention in Ottawa on the

00:00:21.000 weekend. CEO Reynolds Mastin had this message for Carney, who was in attendance.

00:00:25.360 And Prime Minister, know that every person in this room and the 180,000 people who work in this

00:00:31.960 industry have your back, just as we know that you have ours.

00:00:36.800 The Conservatives took notice. They were having their own convention in Calgary and Alberta MP

00:00:42.900 Rachel Thomas says it's proof the Liberals and media are in bed together.

00:00:47.120 Look, folks, regardless of whether you want to acknowledge or not, there is a love affair going

00:00:51.300 on between the current media landscape in this country and the Liberal government of Canada,

00:00:54.740 and we need to put a stop to that. Currently, this weekend, there was a summit of all media,

00:01:00.440 and this is a direct quote from the stage. Prime Minister, we have your back, just as we know

00:01:06.060 you have ours. This is what is said by the mainstream media just yesterday. Further to that,

00:01:12.420 the Minister of Heritage has said that the CBC is responsible for social cohesion. Folks,

00:01:17.220 this is propaganda at its finest. It needs to stop.

00:01:19.660 Well, it's not hard to see why the legacy media has aligned itself with the Liberals. It boils down

00:01:25.240 to money, lots of it. The Liberals handed almost $600 million in bailout money to struggling news

00:01:32.420 media outlets. One prominent conservative online influencer accused CTV News of giving conservative

00:01:39.320 leader Pierre Polyev an orange skin tone, a not-so-subtle likeness to that of Donald Trump.

00:01:47.440 Did CTV put an orange filter on Pierre Polyev?

00:01:50.640 More summits, more laws, more agencies, more corporate buzzwords, or more abracadabra.

00:01:58.620 What we need from this prime minister is one thing. Get out of the way.

00:02:04.440 Well, influencers like that, including, you know, Mario for the North, held a gathering

00:02:11.540 in Calgary and got a rousing welcome. Let's listen.

00:02:24.440 Well, they're loved in Calgary, but the Liberal government has them in the crosshairs.

00:02:28.240 Black Lock's reporter has this headline. Feds blame political actors. Heritage Minister Mark

00:02:34.820 Miller says they are political actors using the internet to undermine Canadians' trust in public

00:02:41.520 institutions. Turns out some conservatives are not particularly happy with them either.

00:02:47.580 This post by Blaine Badiuk.

00:02:49.740 Now that CPC26 is over, I want to be very clear about something. The free influencers' access was a

00:02:56.680 complete disgrace to the grassroots movement, while hardworking delegates paid thousands to attend.

00:03:03.160 Hand-picked influencers got free access to attend the entire thing.

00:03:08.360 And joining me now is Mario Zalaya, AKA Mario for the North. He's back from Calgary. He's back in

00:03:14.040 Toronto. And great to see you again, Mario.

00:03:17.000 You too. It's great to see you, Mark. Appreciate the time.

00:03:19.960 I know you were responding to that post by Blaine Badiuk that, you know, the free influencers,

00:03:26.440 AKA you and your colleagues, are getting a free ride, basically. And it's apparently

00:03:32.360 a disgrace to the grassroots movement. I know you were responding, but what's your take on that?

00:03:39.160 I mean, I'm obviously very surprised that this is the position that anyone would take,

00:03:45.800 because people like myself, I think people need to understand, I don't get paid by the party.

00:03:52.360 I don't get paid by anyone. And I would say, you know, virtually, not only am I, you know,

00:03:59.160 building trust, but I'm knocking on a hundred million people, a hundred million doors a month.

00:04:04.120 And so, you know, when we're talking about grassroots, grassroots movements, and, you know,

00:04:09.160 for them to say, this is a disgrace to the grassroots movement. I mean, I think it's just

00:04:15.640 completely insulting to everything that we do and what we stand for. And I think it's just a really,

00:04:23.720 really bad take. And I didn't have a great interaction at the convention either. And

00:04:29.720 neither did some of my colleagues. So there's an area that's designated for delegates. It's called

00:04:36.520 the leader's lounge. And it's a complete separate area. It's away kind of from everyone else.

00:04:42.440 And a couple of members of parliament said, Mario, let's go. And they, in the way they say,

00:04:48.360 because I was on my feet most of the time. And I'm taking a lot of pictures, talking to a lot of

00:04:52.260 people because they see me a lot online and, you know, people just want to have conversations and I

00:04:58.200 want to meet people, but I was really tired. And one of the MPs, I think picked up on that and they

00:05:03.340 said, Mario, come up with us, you know, come with us. And they helped literally

00:05:06.320 escort me off to the leader's lounge. And so I was with them having conversations with about three

00:05:11.200 different members of parliament and other individuals of the party. And it was just a

00:05:15.360 great break. I was there for about an hour or so. And as I walk out, Blaine actually yelled at me

00:05:21.200 and made a bit of a scene saying, you're not supposed to be here. You're not allowed here.

00:05:24.880 And they didn't even let me throw in a single word. And it was pretty, I was more embarrassed for

00:05:33.040 Blaine than anything else, because if we had a discreet conversation, it would have been a

00:05:38.320 quick realization that I was actually a delegate and I wasn't an influencer. And I was there to

00:05:43.040 vote for Pierre. I was there to vote for national council and I was allowed and entitled to actually

00:05:48.480 be there. And I was escorted by multiple members of parliament to actually join them and have a good

00:05:54.400 conversation and get to know them a bit better. And so I think that there's something potentially more

00:05:59.120 that's going on because this whole take of influencers being there for free as a complete

00:06:04.320 disgrace also doesn't make sense because what we do is on social media, which is a form of media,

00:06:10.480 even mainstream media is adopting heavily as part of their viewership strategy to go on social media

00:06:16.080 because they're not getting the views that they used to on TV. And so to say that we shouldn't be in

00:06:21.680 there for free, it's a disgrace makes absolutely no sense when media is getting in there for free as well.

00:06:26.880 So there's just, there's no logic to the whole argument. I thought the whole thing was just a

00:06:30.320 bit silly. Now you did get a rousing welcome. There was that video of you on stage with your

00:06:36.960 friends and people were cheering. They seemed very happy to see you. That was probably, I think,

00:06:45.040 the closest thing I'll ever know what it feels like to be a rock star. It was honestly, I've never

00:06:53.840 experienced anything like that in my life. It was so incredibly humbling. I think the audio and the

00:06:59.040 sound that gets picked up, you know, by phones or, you know, by even cameras, it drowns out the

00:07:05.760 intensity of how loud it actually was. And people were going crazy. Like it was very, it was significantly

00:07:13.840 louder than any sort of audio I've ever seen of the recordings. And anyone that was there would tell

00:07:19.200 you the exact same thing. And it was really kind for, you know, Brett Wilson was there,

00:07:23.600 Brian Lilly was there. And, you know, I think they got a great idea of, you know, the impact that,

00:07:28.800 you know, influencers or, you know, conservative content creators actually have in the movement

00:07:34.400 and how many people were there. It was about a, I believe the capacity was 800, 900 people.

00:07:39.440 It was at capacity before the event even started. People started showing up at two o'clock. It wasn't until

00:07:44.320 630. People had booked out tables. And so when we got all this for free, we got security for free.

00:07:50.800 I had security following me around while I was taking pictures on the floor for free.

00:07:55.120 And I think this, it was a great testament to, I guess, the work that we've been doing for the

00:07:59.520 last year or two for, you know, Canadians and really just getting the word out and wanting to enact change.

00:08:05.440 Well, that's fantastic. I mean, I've been in media for literally decades. I've never needed security.

00:08:11.520 Yeah. But I have to ask you, I mean, you haven't been at this that long. I mean, realistically,

00:08:20.720 how many, what, a year, two years?

00:08:24.240 Yeah. So, so I would say TikTok is probably slightly over two years. My first account got banned.

00:08:30.240 And then the second account is probably maybe a year, maybe two years old. And then I, what I did is

00:08:35.120 last year, I actually created my accounts on the rest of the social media channels on X, on Instagram,

00:08:43.840 and on Facebook. And in the last year between those accounts, I think I probably gained maybe 700,000

00:08:51.200 followers. And who knows, maybe I average, I don't really look at the numbers in detail. But I think

00:08:57.120 between those three, maybe it's close to 80 million views a month, potentially more. But yeah, it's

00:09:04.320 something that just started slow and everyone starts at zero. And then it just kind of happens

00:09:08.480 and it snowballs all at once.

00:09:09.840 And the Liberals have noticed you now. There was that story in Blacklock's reporter,

00:09:16.320 Feds blame political actors. Heritage Minister Mark Miller says that people like you and your

00:09:22.960 colleagues are political actors using the internet to undermine Canadian trust in public institutions.

00:09:29.360 How do you feel about that?

00:09:31.920 He just declared war on all political influencers. And it should actually be very concerning, I think,

00:09:39.680 to everyone in Canada, because making statements like that is something that you would expect from

00:09:45.120 a communist regime. It's not something that you expect from a democracy. And free speech is

00:09:51.920 I guess a threat to the Liberals. And that's what effectively he's saying. And that's the only

00:09:58.080 interpretation of it. When you start looking at the bills that they're looking at implementing,

00:10:02.880 and I can't remember if it's C8, C9. I have them a bit jumbled in my head a little bit. But

00:10:08.160 there is one where they are proposing to be able to cut someone off the internet.

00:10:13.120 We covered it in detail. I remember I went into it in detail. And I was told you're a liar. You have no

00:10:18.080 idea what you're talking about. This is misinformation. Then Dr. Leslie Lewis, who's got her PhD in law, 0.87

00:10:24.560 literally said the exact same thing. And then you have other members of parliament coming out and

00:10:28.080 saying this is the craziest thing in the whole world. You have the constitution, I think it was

00:10:33.040 the JCCF or CCF. One of them, one of their lawyers put out a statement being like this,

00:10:37.920 basically saying this is crazy. Like this is not something that we do in Canada, and we all need to

00:10:41.920 stand against this. And the reality is, what they want to do is they want a minister to have the

00:10:48.720 ability to kick someone off the internet. And if they do, and you tell people about it,

00:10:53.600 they will find you $25,000. And so my response to Mark Miller is, I will pay that $25,000 if you do

00:11:00.080 it to me, because I will tell the world, if I get kicked off the internet, and you try to deny me that

00:11:04.000 access, because you don't agree with the things I'm saying, and maybe it doesn't meet up to

00:11:08.000 his journalistic interpretations of what he calls standards. I mean, I'm absolutely going to keep

00:11:13.840 doing what I'm doing. And I'm going to tell the world if I get kicked off the internet, I will pay

00:11:17.040 that $25,000 without a problem. Well, the Liberals certainly have their favorites, and they have

00:11:22.480 their people whom they don't like. The Canadian media organization, the CMPA came out, I guess,

00:11:29.120 they are the Canadian Media Producers Association. They came out and basically said,

00:11:35.600 Prime Minister Carney, we have your back. And we know that you have our back. So the implication

00:11:40.320 there is, keep giving us the money. And, you know, we'll direct our content into supporting you and

00:11:48.800 your electoral, your electoral aims. It's very disturbing. The Conservatives raised that during

00:11:55.120 the convention. What do you think of that? I'm actually going to be making a video on that today.

00:12:02.080 Because what's most interesting is the fact that they scrub that out. And the evidence that exists

00:12:08.480 is literally someone who recorded it. And they recorded that little portion of it, which we've

00:12:13.920 all seen on the internet now. But it's something that apparently you just cannot find. And it's not

00:12:18.400 easily accessible anymore. Because they want to kind of, they want to walk back that statement,

00:12:22.640 because it's very, very damaging, not only to the Liberals, but also to the reputation of the

00:12:27.760 industry, which is what we've all been basically saying for quite some time that, you know, the

00:12:32.800 trust in mainstream media has been eroded, not by me. And it's not by any sort of, you know,

00:12:38.240 conservative voice, content creator, or influencer. They did it to themselves.

00:12:44.400 Yeah, absolutely. And then they keep doing it. Because of course, you did a video and we played part of it,

00:12:50.640 where it appeared that they turned Pierre Polyev into more of an orange skinned tone person.

00:12:58.640 I mean, it was a not so subtle likeness to Trump, you know, as a way to equate him. I mean, the,

00:13:06.080 the subtext is like, you know, hammered to the head, obvious, you know, you don't like Trump. Well,

00:13:11.120 this guy is another Trump. And just to show you, you know, it's almost subliminal, you know,

00:13:16.800 if you're not looking for it, you're not really paying any attention, you know, you can sort of

00:13:20.480 make the equation here. What drew you to that story? Well, it, I actually randomly saw it on

00:13:27.600 TikTok. And I was like, you've got to be kidding me. So I downloaded the video and I reposted it

00:13:32.720 on X, I was completely shocked by it. And it reminded me a lot of what they did to what CNN did to Joe

00:13:39.200 Rogan. And I was always surprised Joe Rogan didn't sue them for it. But they put a green filter on him

00:13:45.760 when he decided to take Ivermectin. And so they put this green screen to make him look sick,

00:13:52.160 and he didn't look healthy. But the original didn't look like that at all. And this is,

00:13:57.440 this I feel is exactly the similar tactic in that video that I had reposted where it shows,

00:14:03.360 I can't remember if it was supposed to be CTV, I have to say, you know, allegedly or supposed to be

00:14:08.960 because I didn't see it for myself. But I saw the comparison of it. And what they did was,

00:14:13.520 was the exact same playbook is, you know, let's turn him a little bit orange. And the New York

00:14:20.000 Times just put out a hit piece on Pierre Polyeva as well, just saying that, you know, they, you know,

00:14:25.440 conservatives reelect a mini Trump, I can't remember what the title was. But they're trying to make,

00:14:30.960 it's always these kinds of, yes, and it's always the same type of publications institutions that are

00:14:39.360 always trying to draw that same conclusion, like, you don't want to elect this guy, he's just like

00:14:43.200 Trump, and Trump is very scary. And you don't want that in Canada. And that's the narrative that

00:14:47.440 they're going with. And it's, it's actually a, I think it's disgraceful. And it's a very disgusting

00:14:51.920 strategy.

00:14:52.480 It's interesting. I mean, as I said, I've been in this industry for a long time, and I've never seen

00:14:57.920 it quite like this. It's like the Wild West, you know, you guys kind of doing your own thing,

00:15:04.240 generating incredible number of views, you got the dying legacy media, basically taking hundreds of

00:15:11.040 millions of dollars from the government, and then kind of pledging their support to that government.

00:15:17.600 And then you've got the government itself tabling legislation that is designed to target people

00:15:23.920 like yourself. I mean, it's just absolutely crazy these days. I mean, you're coming into it at a

00:15:29.920 fascinating time, Mario. I am. And obviously, I don't have the depth or institutional

00:15:36.080 knowledge or experience that you have in the industry. So it must be I think it's actually

00:15:40.800 must be mind blowing to see it from your side of things. Because for me, this is kind of all I've

00:15:44.960 known. Like, it's funny, my norm is being is being comfortable and used to being attacked,

00:15:52.720 not only from the media, but also from the liberals. And to me, this is just kind of

00:15:56.960 everyday life for me. And so it's nothing new. But I can only imagine seeing it from your end,

00:16:01.600 it must just be the weirdest, craziest thing in the world.

00:16:05.040 It's interesting, very interesting times indeed. But where are you going with this? I mean, do you

00:16:11.440 see you have an aim? Because you're very goal oriented guy. You're a businessman. I mean, what's

00:16:17.440 what's the future for you? Is it politics? Is it just more media?

00:16:20.880 Or honestly, and here's the interesting thing, like, I don't, I'm not making any sort of

00:16:26.720 monetization efforts on media, and I'm not getting paid by anyone. So the media component aspect of it

00:16:32.640 isn't, it's truthfully not, I don't think it's really of interest for me. And truthfully, I think

00:16:38.240 I've been very explicit about me. As odd as this might sound, I actually don't like politics. I think

00:16:44.240 it's a very dirty, dirty game. And I think it needs a lot of cleaning up to do. And I wouldn't rule it

00:16:51.600 out completely. But I would just say it's, it's a no for now. And I think I would rather focus my

00:16:59.680 efforts on trying to educate Canadians with the things that I'm now aware of. And I think the reason

00:17:07.520 that's important is I think people need to keep in mind the fact that I was a liberal at one point,

00:17:12.720 and I was actually a liberal supporter nearly my whole life. At least I thought I was. And then I

00:17:17.520 come to the realization being like, wait a second, the party that I thought I wanted to support in my

00:17:24.480 ideals and what I want this country to be, it's not part of a liberal party platform at all. In fact,

00:17:30.720 it aligns so much more, like almost with 100% overlap with a conservative party. And I think

00:17:37.280 people need to realize that it's very difficult to find someone that you will agree 100% of the time

00:17:43.120 on. It's difficult to find a party that you will agree 100% of the time, even if you get 60, 65% of

00:17:50.080 the time on key issues like healthcare, you know, crime reform, you know, immigration, doing it 0.96

00:17:56.880 responsibly, growing responsibly, making sure that our taxes aren't going up, that life is affordable,

00:18:02.800 inflation, food costs, you know, all these things that none of that lines up with the liberal party.

00:18:08.560 What lines up with them is the promise with these nice sounding words, but the actions are not so nice.

00:18:16.240 And I think that's what people really need to come to the realization to. And my efforts

00:18:21.360 are really about now educating people. And I think I've significantly changed my style over

00:18:26.880 even the past three, three to six months, where before is more like, you know, this is why they're

00:18:32.240 bad, bad, bad, bad. And I don't, I don't think that lands very well with Canadians. And I'd rather just 1.00

00:18:37.760 strictly even more than what I've been doing before is fully focused on facts. This is what's happening.

00:18:42.960 This is why this is the truth. I can show you the door, but I'm not going to push you through it.

00:18:46.960 It's kind of up to you to be able to kind of walk through that door. I think that's what my goal is.

00:18:52.000 And ultimately at the end of the day, I do this because I want the same opportunity in the same

00:18:58.400 life that I had growing up in Canada for my kids.

00:19:00.880 In the meantime, the liberals think you're a threat. Otherwise they wouldn't be attacking you with

00:19:06.480 legislation that could boot you off the internet and, you know, calling you names. Do you have any

00:19:14.160 concerns about having made an enemy out of the liberal party of Canada?

00:19:18.240 I've made a lot of enemies in the process and I think it just unfortunately comes with the territory.

00:19:25.840 But I also do think to a slight degree that there is impact in the voice that I'm making,

00:19:32.240 whether they like me or not. I think they're starting to see that some of the topics I've

00:19:36.160 talked about and been quite, I guess, a major advocate for are slowly starting to see the light

00:19:43.840 of day. And I'll give you a perfect example. For the past maybe year, I've been such a strong

00:19:49.920 advocate for a child offenders or a sex offenders registry list. We need to have one that is publicly

00:19:57.360 available to people. I need to know if down the street, there's someone that I need to worry about

00:20:03.040 making sure that my child isn't alone or isn't around. And I think it's a normal thing. And I think

00:20:07.840 when people harm young kids in general, and they are a violent sex offender, that the public has

00:20:15.360 the right to know. And they've basically foregone their ability to remain anonymous and live

00:20:21.840 effectively freely among us without us knowing. I think they got rid of that right for themselves

00:20:26.480 the second they did that to a child. And so I've been a huge supporter of that. And I talked about how,

00:20:32.240 you know, the US has had this on a federal level, each state has their own, and Canada needs their

00:20:38.160 own. And so, you know, a lot of things have happened recently, and the RCMP actually recently

00:20:43.520 launched one. And they said, look, we have a sex offenders list. And these are people who are,

00:20:48.720 you know, high, they're at a high degree of risk. And you go on the website, it is garbage. There's 0.99

00:20:54.480 four people on it, it's completely useless. And so this is very consistent with what the liberals do,

00:21:00.400 like, they're not serious about a lot of these things. They do it to try to shut you up to make

00:21:05.680 headlines. Because, you know, maybe people only will read the headlines and scan the headlines.

00:21:09.520 But when you look underneath, there's only four people in Manitoba, what about the thousands that

00:21:13.680 exist in Ontario, or the maybe 10s of 1000s across the country, the only people that have access to

00:21:19.280 that list is the RCMP. And so how does that help anyone? It doesn't, because it doesn't prevent

00:21:25.360 crime. It only allows people to, it only allows the RCMP to track the person after they commit to

00:21:30.800 the crime. And that, that to me is a huge injustice that I think needs to be rectified.

00:21:35.520 And I think if you're going to build something like this, and you have government resources,

00:21:38.480 and you're saying, hey, look, we have something, you do it right, or you don't do it at all.

00:21:42.080 And the consistent thing that the liberals have done is they've never really done anything

00:21:47.440 correctly at all. They tried taking portions and pieces of conservative policies, but they don't go all

00:21:52.720 the way. They don't. It's almost like you're up, you're up the plate. You know, the conservatives

00:21:57.120 want to hit a home run, and they're up the plate, and they bunt, and they decide to bunt, and then

00:22:01.360 they end up getting being out on first base. It ends up getting nowhere.

00:22:06.640 All right. Mario, thank you so much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it.

00:22:11.120 Thank you, Mark.

00:22:15.200 Thank you. All right. Now, if you enjoyed this show and you want to support the work we do here

00:22:19.840 at Juno News, consider heading over to junonews.com backslash straight up. That's junonews.com

00:22:27.840 backslash straight up, and supporting independent journalism like this.

00:22:32.640 We'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much for watching.

Juno News - February 02, 2026

Legacy media ADMITS to protecting Carney

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