00:00:00.000When I joined Independent Media two years ago, I was surprised at the level of vitriol leveled at me simply for doing the work of holding the government accountable without accepting taxpayer dollars.
00:00:11.860In the years since, those attacks have only increased along with the prowess of Independent Media.
00:00:17.080Earlier this month, the Tenet Media bombshell erupted, in which a conservative media outlet run by Canadians in the U.S. allegedly accepted $10 million in funding from a Russia state-controlled media outlet.
00:00:31.740Now, I didn't have anything to do with that, but that hasn't stopped online anonymous losers from accusing everyone in my field of being a covert Russian spy.
00:00:40.340No surprises there. But the slander took a weightier turn last week, when a Liberal MP accused a conservative influencer and social media editor of another independent media outlet of being paid by a foreign government.
00:00:54.460He's now being sued for defamation, and a lesson we can only hope translates into putting your money where your mouth is.
00:01:01.080We'll be hearing from internet sensation Cat Canada and the Countersignal Editor-in-Chief Kian Bextie today.
00:01:06.000Rebel News President Ezra Levant will join the show later to weigh in on Russiagate, as well as the failing Liberals.
00:01:13.500I'm Rachel Parker. Welcome to The Rachel Parker Show.
00:01:15.560Kat, Kian, thank you both so much for being here. I know that you both have a lot to do, since you were running your own media organization, and now you have this big lawsuit on your hands.
00:01:42.920So I want to start off, Kat, by just asking you, so Tenant Media, the Canadian Conservatives' Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan founded it.
00:01:52.200You really only got tangled up in this because you appeared on that show. You were interviewed by Lauren Southern.
00:01:59.000We know that the hosts who ran shows for Tenant Media say that they are also victims in this case.
00:02:03.680They did not know that Tenant Media was accepting money from Russia.
00:02:07.360Can you just start by telling us, why did you agree to appear on the show, and what did you talk about with Lauren when you first had this Tenant Media appearance that has now just blown up so much?
00:02:18.420Right, yeah. So I met Lauren just a few weeks prior to that at a freedom conference in Victoria, and we became, you know, acquaintances.
00:02:29.920She messaged me later down the road to ask me if I wanted to join her show to talk about communism and the dangers of it, given what state of our country is currently in under the Trudeau Liberals.
00:02:42.640And she wanted to basically see if I see any similarities happening currently in Canada compared to the country that I once lived in.
00:02:51.260And so I decided to absolutely go on her show and share my memories, my experience, my current observations within our own country here in Canada,
00:03:00.900and the warning signs and the danger signs of, you know, the rise of authoritarianism here, because I wanted people to know, I wanted to people hear, hear it from someone like myself who's lived under communism before, under an authoritarian regime before.
00:03:16.780So that's why I agreed to do her show.
00:03:19.560So you were essentially doing the show to warn Canadians about the dangers of authoritarian regimes, and now you're being accused, wrongly, of course, of being paid by authoritarian regimes.
00:03:28.540That's basically it, it's, if it wasn't so egregious in terms of what I've had to deal with, since the accusations have poured in baseless accusations.
00:03:40.400It's pretty funny, because, you know, the claims are so ridiculous, and the people who are making these accusations, don't do a single ounce of research before just throwing mud at the wall like that.
00:03:54.180I've, you know, I've agreed to do her show, I was on there once, I'm not, you know, implicated in anything, in any documents, basically just a third, you know, a third degree victim of whatever is happening with that situation.
00:04:08.940The outrageous thing here, if I may, is that Kat left an authoritarian regime to come to Canada, and she's lucky to be able to talk about it here.
00:04:21.940And then Mark Gerritsen comes into this conversation, as you showed on the screen earlier, to threaten, actually, to call for her to be dragged in front of Parliament.
00:04:32.020That is how authoritarian regimes behave, and it was predicated on a lie, which means that he was abusing his office to drag a journalist as some sort of cruel punishment.
00:04:44.460Look, I don't know if Mark knew that he was a liar when he tweeted that, or if he's just stupid, but here's the point.
00:04:52.180Journalists in this country have a right to exist, and they have a right to exist outside of government punishment for doing the work that they do.
00:04:59.960Kat has been super effective over the last few months, while she's been with the Counter-Signal, last few years actually, fighting against corrupt regimes around the world by exposing them.
00:05:11.500She does that here at home, she does that with regimes abroad in Europe, and she's not going to stop, she's not going to be intimidated by Mark Gerritsen, of course.
00:05:19.280But it's important that we lay down the law here and show people in power that they can't abuse journalists like this, they can't defame them.
00:05:28.000And what's the worst thing about this?
00:05:31.680She's one of the best people we've ever hired at the Counter-Signal, and the issue that she's facing now is constant death threats, constant abuse leveled at her, quoting Mark Gerritsen, someone who's in a position of authority over her and the rest of the country, actually.
00:05:46.940Mark Gerritsen is the deputy house leader of the governing liberals.
00:05:51.380He has a seriously senior position in parliament.
00:05:54.780He's actually the person that brings people in to testify in front of committees, and he said on Twitter that he wanted to do that.
00:06:02.780Now, he did offer a really, really, really hollow retraction, no apology at all, and that's just not going to cut it.
00:06:12.100You know, you might see the retraction that he posted.
00:06:24.420So if you click on that, you'll see that it says this account has been suspended.
00:06:28.440So anyone who's interested at all in getting to the bottom of this would click on that and would see, oh, maybe there is some weight to this.
00:06:34.860Maybe Kat actually did do something wrong.
00:06:38.680Her hands are totally clean in this situation, and she's a victim as much as anyone else.
00:06:42.660So, Kian, obviously, you know, he's got a lot of things wrong here.
00:06:46.120How concerning it is that a sitting Liberal MP, and as you mentioned, the Deputy House Minister, is not able to get basic facts about this case correct?
00:06:55.180Well, he's just obviously blinded by his ideology.
00:06:58.320He's blinded by the disappointing polls that the Liberals have been seeing, and they're desperate.
00:07:03.720And they take that out on who they perceive to be their enemies.
00:07:07.060And in this case, their enemy is Kat and the countersignal.
00:07:10.420Their enemy is anyone who holds them accountable for their actions.
00:07:15.100Obviously, you know, this is going to be a big issue for him.
00:07:18.740We're not concerned that he has to face an election.
00:07:21.000We're going to drag him to court if we have to.
00:07:23.260Our settlement offer is pretty, you know, extremely fair.
00:07:27.300In fact, we asked Mark to donate $1,000 to an Nanaimo food bank.
00:07:37.020That was a symbolic, we thought, of the damages he did, not just to Kat, but the damage that the Liberals have done to this entire country.
00:07:45.960Food bank usage is at an all-time high in this country.
00:07:48.940We thought that that would be fitting.
00:07:51.220We also asked him to post an apology tweet on his Twitter.
00:07:54.420It's three tweets long, and it's pretty specific.
00:07:58.900We'll see if he agrees to doing that or not.
00:08:01.480You know, it would be hugely humiliating for him to do that.
00:08:04.620But it's important that that sends a message to everyone who saw his original tweet.
00:08:10.000You know, the math here, over 300,000 people saw his original tweet.
00:08:15.540That's about 1% of the country, which is a huge number of people.
00:08:19.000Then, his poor retraction, which didn't even tag Kat properly, was seen by a similar amount of people.
00:08:26.700But those people are different because of the way the Twitter algorithm works.
00:08:30.140The first set of tweets were seen by people who support Mark Garrison and who hate conservatives.
00:08:36.260And it emboldened them to send Kat death threats.
00:08:39.960It emboldened them to hurl defamatory abuse, in fact.
00:08:45.640And then, this follow-up tweet was seen by people who don't like Mark Garrison already.
00:08:50.200Those are the people who would have shared it, obviously.
00:08:52.580So, there's a huge disconnect between the people that have actually seen an update to Mark's lies.
00:08:59.220And then, there's a huge amount of people who have seen that original tweet and haven't seen a thing since then.
00:09:04.820Every day that this stands is added damages to Kat's reputation.
00:09:09.800And, in fact, to the counter-signal as well.
00:09:11.440Because we are the ones that hired Kat and paid Kat.
00:09:14.560And we don't take money from the Russians either, just like, I assume, True North does.
00:09:18.460And mostly every conservative outlet or independent outlet in this country.
00:09:23.020So, Mark Garrison has a lot to lose here.
00:09:26.200And we're not going to back down at all because he needs to see justice.
00:09:30.880So, Kian, you're asking Mark Garrison to make a donation to a food bank to issue a proper apology and correction for his incorrect tweet.
00:09:39.780And I understand they are also asking him to unblock Kat off of Twitter, which is, you know, pretty custom for sitting members of Parliament.
00:09:47.480They shouldn't be blocking Canadians or certainly their constituents.
00:09:51.000When will we learn what his response is going to be?
00:09:54.240I think a lot of people have kind of been really eagerly awaiting your follow-up.
00:09:57.240When will we know what his response is?
00:09:59.860So, we gave him a deadline of Friday last week.
00:10:04.040He came back to us with a counter-offer, which we deemed completely unacceptable.
00:10:08.680He asked us to, if he settled and agreed to give money to the food bank, that we would never talk about this again.
00:10:16.240Which is, you know, a non-starter completely.
00:10:19.960We're not going to rely on one tweet from Mark Garrison to defend Kat's reputation or the counter-signal's reputation.
00:10:28.140We will talk about this until the end of time because it's the truth and because Mark Garrison lied and defamed one of our reporters.
00:10:35.960And we will stand up every single time and we will take this to the end because Mark Garrison needs to be held accountable.
00:10:44.060And everyone who's thinking about lying to push their ideological agenda, to push this hoax that Russia is for some reason behind every conservative in this country who doesn't like Justin Trudeau.
00:10:55.980So, it needs to stop and we are going to put a stop to it ourselves.
00:11:01.680And Kat, I just wanted to go to you one last time.
00:11:04.340What has the impact of this been on your personal life?
00:11:07.480I know Kian said that you've been receiving death threats.
00:11:10.120Has this been, you know, something that you found has really impacted your personal life or is it pretty much relegated to the online sphere right now?
00:11:16.800Well, for example, when it's anonymous trolls chirping at me with these ridiculous allegations that are completely unfounded, it's easy to just wave them away and to not think about it again.
00:11:29.380But when it's a sitting member of parliament dragging my name online, it certainly does, you know, have implications for my personal life because now I'm constantly wondering and looking over my shoulder.
00:11:43.440Like, is a crazy person going to come for me when I'm walking on the street?
00:12:21.660There will have updates on everything.
00:12:24.500And I should note, you know, our settlement terms to mark right now are extremely generous.
00:12:29.740As the publisher of the countersignal, I'm sort of, you know, trying to walk this line of defending our reporters, but also coming to a quick settlement so that Mark corrects the record and protects Kat's reputation.
00:12:45.840That said, if Mark doesn't agree to our terms, which expire today, we will go to court.
00:12:54.060We will sue him and our demands will change and the damages will change.
00:12:59.200Mark won't just be able to get off with a thousand dollar donation to a food bank.
00:13:30.500We were just joined by Kat and Kian who were telling us a little bit about the Countersignals lawsuit against Liberal MP and Deputy House Leader Mark Gerritsen as he incorrectly claimed that Kat was being paid by a foreign government following the fallout of the tenant media scandal.
00:13:46.120You've been commenting a little bit on this line online.
00:13:48.360I know you know a lot about defamation law.
00:13:50.580I just want to tell you what Kat and Kian are asking for and to see how likely you think.
00:13:54.780So currently the terms are set to expire today and if Gerritsen doesn't agree to a settlement, they will be going to court.
00:14:01.280But currently they're asking Mark Gerritsen to unblock Kat on X.
00:14:04.980They're asking him to make a donation to a food bank and to issue a correction and an apology tweet online to really set the record straight.
00:14:13.520Do you think that these are fair terms for Mark Gerritsen to agree to?
00:14:17.600Yeah, and they're very easy for him to agree to.
00:14:19.820I mean, he just has to swallow his pride.
00:14:21.320That's very hard for a politician to do.
00:14:23.580I suppose all of us are quite proud and we don't want to admit that we're wrong.
00:14:27.020But in terms of defamation law, that's a pretty light penalty.
00:14:31.540If I heard you correctly, they're not even asking for their legal costs, just a thousand dollar donation to charity and Gerritsen would get the tax benefit of that.
00:14:40.360I like the idea of Gerritsen not being allowed to ban Kat because, you know, as a journalist, she has a right to access information through government Twitter accounts.
00:14:51.620You may know that a couple of years ago I sued Stephen Gilbeau and then three other cabinet ministers for blocking Rebel News on Twitter.
00:14:59.440And we went to the federal court and we actually in the end got a consent order that they can't ban us for the rest of their careers.
00:15:05.620Because I think it's accepted law in Canada now that if it's a government, that is a public Twitter account, you can't discriminate any more than you could stop someone going into a government office like to get a driver's license.
00:15:21.120Now, I don't know if that applies to backbenchers like Gerritsen, but I think there is a good precedent in Canada that government Twitter accounts cannot block you any more than a government phone number could hang up on you because they don't like your politics.
00:15:36.840I'm glad to see the counter signal standing up.
00:15:41.260We fight for our people using the courts of law.
00:15:43.780But not a lot of groups on the right do it.
00:15:47.160We're not as litigious, even though we're harmed all the time.
00:15:50.120Now, let me just say a word about freedom of speech.
00:15:53.120I believe in freedom of speech, and I believe we should go quite far for freedom of speech.
00:15:57.960And I believe in the Canadian legal custom that you're allowed to express almost any opinion, even if it's an extreme opinion.
00:16:07.240But what's different is when someone, especially someone authoritative in government, says something that's not a matter of opinion, but says something false as a matter of fact.
00:16:17.880Because if Gerritsen, in this case, had just said, I don't like the counter signal, they're too pro-Russia.
00:16:25.420Okay, well, that's an opinion, and everyone can see that's an opinion, and you can agree or disagree or find it unreasonable or reasonable.
00:16:31.420But no one thinks of that as any more than, oh, there's Gerritsen mouthing off.
00:16:37.760He said, you are being paid from by Putin to do certain things to me.
00:16:44.000And it had an extra ring of credibility because there had been a revelation that another media group called Tenet Media had done exactly that, had taken $10 million from Russia to set up fake pro-Russian accounts or something, or to set up this sort of secret pro-Putin network.
00:17:05.960So the difference between Gerritsen giving his opinion, which is, I hate you, I don't like you, you're bad, you're pro-Putin, that's all identifiable as opinion, and people can take it or leave it.
00:17:17.240I really don't think it would persuade a lot of people.
00:17:19.540But what he did was he made a false fact.
00:17:21.900He said, as a factual statement, you are taking money from Putin to contact me and harass me.
00:17:29.140Well, that's not a matter of, you know, opinion.
00:17:41.700We heard what Katja said there about in her personal life, but let's talk about her professional life.
00:17:47.100If someone actually thought that she was not a real journalist but rather just a message machine for Putin, no one would take her seriously as a journalist.
00:17:56.540It could affect her prospects who would do interviews with her, her career prospects who would be written off.
00:18:02.480And the fact that it's based on her ethnicity, I understand she's Russian ethnically, that sort of implies she's culturally disloyal to Canada.
00:18:10.980So there were a lot of awful things there.
00:18:12.960And it's nice to see the liberals get smacked around.
00:18:15.700And frankly, that's something that we like to do here at Rebel News is to take liberals to court.
00:18:19.960I think we've done it seven times now.
00:18:22.100And we've had a few important victories over the years too.
00:18:24.280When we talk about you guys liking to take the liberals to court, I know that you yourself have been sort of swatting down your own allegations online of people accusing you of being a Russian propagandist or Russian spy or paid by a foreign government, whatever you want to call it.
00:18:39.920At this point, have you had to formally issue a defamation notice to anyone?
00:18:43.840Well, it's funny you say that because literally just last night, a couple of radical leftists claimed that we were somehow working with the Kremlin, which is the opposite of the truth.
00:18:57.120I mean, my family originally in 1903 came from the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, which is sort of the center of Jewish life in that part of Ukraine.
00:19:06.440So, ethnically, I mean, historically, I'm from Ukraine.
00:20:00.560They turned off the tap to Ukraine in the winter, and they used the cash from Europe to finance the war.
00:20:05.860So the idea of claiming that I'm pro-Putin when I wrote a book that is so anti-Putin it's not safe for me to travel to Russia, not that I would, is absurd.
00:20:16.320And again, people can say, oh, Ezra, you're not pro-Ukrainian enough, and that could be their opinion.
00:20:22.500But when you move from an opinion to what I saw a couple people on Twitter yesterday said, which is that we worked with the Kremlin.
00:20:29.520The Kremlin actually put things on our website.
00:20:36.060And, you know, obviously you don't want to go chasing every loser on the Internet, half of whom are anonymous.
00:20:40.720But if it's a high-profile person who has a lot of credibility, I think you've got to do something.
00:20:46.700I mean, Mark Garrison is a member of Parliament in the government.
00:20:50.520And although a lot of people consider him a clown, he's still authoritative in that he is part of the government.
00:20:57.300And if a member of Parliament accuses someone of being a Russian spy, that carries more weight than if some drunk hobo were to shout it out when you pass by.
00:21:06.200So, obviously, you don't want to chase down every liar on the Internet.
00:21:11.780But I think every once in a while you have to take a step to protect your reputation and to let people know that criticism is fine.
00:21:20.960But don't make up factual lies that are damaging.
00:21:25.180I mean, we have part of the essential Rebel News brand is that we never take money from the government.
00:21:31.900And it's true. We've eschewed all funding, especially from Justin Trudeau.
00:21:37.580So the allegation that we're actually working with the government, and not just the Canadian one, but a foreign one hostile to us, if anyone believed that, that would be so damaging.
00:21:48.920And again, that's not just, hey, Ezra, you should be more pro-Ukrainian.
00:21:52.680Okay, that's a matter of opinion. It could be right, could be wrong.
00:21:55.180But to say you are working with the Kremlin, they are putting things on your website, that's a false statement.
00:22:02.280But if someone says that authoritatively, someone might actually believe that.
00:22:05.860So I believe in every once in a while stopping to defend your reputation.
00:22:10.700And if someone won't correct the record voluntarily, get a judge to correct it.
00:22:15.080And I've had, you know, mixed results in defamation court, and we're probably in there too often.
00:22:20.420But I think that the liberals and their regime media get away with too much, partly because conservatives just roll over.
00:22:28.200We don't fight back in all the ways we can.
00:22:31.500The left is very good at fighting and threatening.
00:22:34.840And I don't believe in malicious litigation.
00:22:38.880I don't believe in vexatious litigation.
00:22:41.220But if there is a prominent person who says, I have factual evidence, you are letting the Kremlin publish on your platform.
00:22:51.300And if that is a lie, but he says it, that sounds like the kind of thing you got to go to court to get a judge to say that's a lie.
00:22:59.900We'll see what the courts have to say.
00:23:01.420You know, Ezra, initially when the Tenet media scandal broke and we saw some of the subsequent stories,
00:23:07.220there's certainly a lot of outlets on the left that are doing anything they can to tie the Tenet media scandal to outlets like Rebel News, to True North, to the Counter Signal.
00:23:15.620I thought, oh, this is turning out to be a big nuisance for us in the independent media.
00:23:19.460And you saw all the anonymous trolls come out and make those same claims.
00:23:23.140And then you saw, you know, a few real dummies like Mark Gerritsen take things a bit too far.
00:23:28.120And, you know, the Counter Signal is fighting back on that.
00:23:31.280And as you said, I think rightfully so.
00:23:34.120And, you know, they're a smaller player.
00:23:35.920They haven't been around as long as True North and certainly as long as Rebel News.
00:23:40.020And so I think for them to set this precedent that we're not going to allow ourselves and we're not going to allow our reporters to be slandered is good and important.
00:23:48.240And I'm wondering if you think that these desperate efforts on the left to tie all of us to the Tenet media scandal is ultimately going to backfire in the end.
00:24:25.760It was hot tubs and bouncy castles and peacefulness.
00:24:29.500And I think independent media helped do that.
00:24:32.220Okay, so now they're trying to have the Russian collusion narrative.
00:24:35.740And, again, they're just copying what they think works in the United States.
00:24:40.580This one, you know, how will they do on this one?
00:24:43.880The problem with the Tenet media story that you mentioned is that it actually was.
00:24:48.660There was some independent journalists who got – I mean, I don't know how anyone could think.
00:24:54.440And in the case of Tenet media, there was about a half a dozen journalists, independent journalists, citizen journalists, YouTubers who were invited to join.
00:25:03.520Not all of them knew where the money came from.
00:25:05.580But if they were getting paid $100,000 a video and they didn't think something was wrong, that's a head scratcher.
00:25:13.720I mean, other than Rockstars or Mr. Beast, no one makes $100,000 in a video.
00:25:18.660I think they should be more alive to it.
00:25:21.000But I think that that gave some fresh fodder to brand everyone a Russian spy.
00:25:40.980But part of some very important pipeline turbines had to be serviced – of the Russian pipeline were sent to Montreal to be refurbished by SNC-Lavalin, of all companies.
00:25:55.980Now, this was contrary to the Canadian sanctions.
00:25:59.780But Justin Trudeau waived the sanctions to allow this important Russian pipeline to be maintained in Canada while the war is going on.
00:26:10.640So, Trudeau is tub-thumping about how he'll be with Ukraine to the very end.
00:26:15.360Oh, except if it involves a lucrative contract for his buddies at SNC-Lavalin.
00:26:20.960So, there really are some things I think we should be more careful of.
00:26:25.640I think Iran is running amok in Canada.
00:26:28.660700 Iranian agents, according to Global News, are operating in Canada.
00:26:33.240We know that China has compromised nearly a dozen parliamentarians.
00:26:40.960I think one of the reasons Trudeau is accusing domestic conservative peaceful opponents of being Russian is partly to distract from the actual foreign interference here.
00:26:53.000Iran, China, and frankly, to distract from his own cooperation with Russian oil companies.
00:28:49.780As some of you know, I have a deep interest in Alberta politics hailing from the province.
00:28:54.000And I've promised my Alberta followers that I would be paying close attention to Alberta news and do some Alberta coverage on my new show.
00:29:01.600So we're going to start by taking a look at this clip.
00:29:03.320You guys might remember, Jennifer Johnson was kicked out of the United Conservative Party Caucus during the general election and was told to sit as an independent.
00:29:11.860For comments that she made against the trans community, she is now hoping to get back into caucus and is doing that work of re-education.
00:29:20.600And we got a little look at what that was looking like for her this week.
00:29:45.800Before I would ever say, though, that this was a productive meeting and be counted to the list of contacts that you've reached out to in the queer community, I have to know a few things of where you sit.
00:29:55.100Will you state on the record right now that trans women are women?
00:30:13.680And I will be speaking out against this meeting because you are clearly not ready to have this.
00:30:18.100So I'm not going to be added to the list of meetings that you are going to have with people where you say, well, I met this person and this person.
00:30:27.100You can't say I've had these consultations and use that as justification for you to work your way back into caucus, which is why we know you're really here.
00:30:36.780This meeting is only happening because you're on Twitter, in the Twittersphere, and people are debating whether or not you're going to be led back into caucus.
00:30:49.300And I'm not going to be your Band-Aid.
00:30:50.740I'm not going to be your pinkwashing unless you can tell me right now that you believe that I, as a trans woman, right now, right here, am a woman.
00:30:59.680Then we don't have a lot to work on here.
00:31:02.660You want to talk about listening to the community?
00:31:04.360If you can't start with that basic foundational principle that we are who we say we are in our bones, then I don't think we're on the same page for working forward.
00:31:29.500But I will be speaking out against this meeting 100% if you can't say that right now.
00:31:34.980An absolutely stunning and honestly, frankly, quite sickening video to watch.
00:31:39.460It's clear that that trans individual was recording this from the beginning and was trying to get a clip of Jen Johnson to go viral online to have his 10 minutes of fame.
00:31:49.300Well, listen, Jen Johnson deserves our respect.
00:31:52.560She obviously really stood her own in there.
00:31:54.360She was being pressured to say that men can be women when we know that they cannot be.
00:32:00.480And I think a lot of times in politics, you know, she's been put in a very difficult situation being kicked out of the caucus and not being able to be as effective as an independent MLA.
00:32:10.240But, you know, I watched that clip and I have a lot of respect for her for standing her ground and for not being pressured.
00:32:17.160The individual that was in that clip was not interested in having a discussion with Jen.
00:32:21.940They were not interested in actually talking through some of the issues.
00:32:25.380They simply wanted MLA Jen Johnson to just go along and agree without thinking and to say the thing that they want us to say.
00:32:33.880And that's so much of what society has become nowadays.
00:32:35.780It's not about actually having dialogue with people and talking about our differences and our disagreements.
00:32:41.220It's just about needing to say the right thing all the time.
00:32:44.020That was what we saw during COVID with masks.
00:32:46.060It wasn't about whether or not masks were effective.
00:32:48.080It was just the act of putting one on to show that you were on the government side, that you were on medicine and you were on science's team.
00:32:55.680Even though many people doubted that they worked at the beginning of the pandemic, you might remember we were told we didn't need to wear them.
00:33:01.680And once that narrative changed, it became the most important thing.
00:33:04.300So for those of you who are in Alberta, I think that it is important to show Jen Johnson some respect.
00:33:10.420She's obviously being lambasted by the left on this.
00:33:12.620And many of us talk about how it's important to stand up for our beliefs, but we aren't actually challenged in the way that MLA Jen Johnson is being challenged right now.
00:33:21.480And, you know, some of us would probably crack under that pressure as well.
00:33:24.800So if you're in Alberta, make sure you send her office an email.
00:33:27.360Let her know that you're supporting her, that you appreciate her.