Juno News - November 03, 2025
Liberal wants to clamp down on “hateful” religious scripture
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Summary
A pro-equity professor from the University of Virginia revealed a typically unspoken truth about trans rights and how they can conflict with the rights of girls during a talk at a diversity equity and inclusion conference. A liberal MP is pushing to limit the use of religious expression rights as a defense in hate speech cases, claiming that some verses in the bible are hateful . Prime Minister Mark Carney s culture minister is propping up a carbon tax as a key component of the government s climate policies.
Transcript
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a pro-equity professor from virginia revealed a typically unspoken truth about trans rights and
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how they can conflict with the rights of girls during a talk at a diversity equity and inclusion
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conference a liberal mp is pushing to limit the use of religious expression rights as a defense
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in hate speech cases claiming that some verses in the bible are quote hateful prime minister
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mark carney's culture minister stephen gibault is propping up carney's industrial carbon tax as a
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quote key component of the government's climate policies hello canada it's monday november 3rd
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and this is the true north daily brief i'm isaac lamaru and i'm clayton de main we've got you
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covered with all the news you need to know let's discuss the top stories of the day and the true
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at a canadian conference overflowing with marxist and anti-western academics a u.s professor
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highlighted a critical truth often ignored by diversity advocates quote trans policies
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frequently undermine the rights of girls at the ontario institute for studies and education
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center for leadership and diversity conference themed quote leadership for renewal sustenance and
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resistance in challenging times carol mullen a professor of educational leadership and policy
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studies at virginia tech university in blacksburg virginia presented a study on why education
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policymakers accept or resist quote trans students rights policies the presentation quote school board
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dynamics of trans student policy amid democratic backsliding detailed a study mullen conducted to
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understand factors influencing policymakers to adopt or reject trans right policies at school
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boards when asked to define trans rights mullen told true north that what she calls trans
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rights quote involves trade-offs in the minds of some communities and that any definition requires
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interrogation and to be unpacked she said if trans rights relate to self-expression gender expression
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and voice including to quote choose which restrooms and other facilities that they want to use without
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apology then there will be quote pushback from groups who believe their rights are being removed to
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accommodate we have the pushback um in in terms of even defining trans rights from the groups that
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believe um and we have to understand where that comes from too is that that's a trade-off for girls
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rights and so if you're going to define trans rights you have to define biologically speaking
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girls rights which can uh crowd out trans rights and you saw that in one of the quotes that i provided
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right um you know i'm uncomfortable with anyone thinking they can go into a girl's uh restroom or
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bathroom than anyone being a trans person so clayton what are some of the other things this professor
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said during her presentation and in response to true north's questions yeah isaac so this virginia
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professor carol mullen spoke about the struggles she and her research team had in conducting interviews
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for her study only three of 11 of the school divisions they reached out to responded and out of
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that two of them rescinded their initial acceptance so out of the 16 board members that were emailed from
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that one school board only one actually conducted an interview and mullen speculated that it was due to
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the changing landscape of acceptance for what she called trans student policies in at least her state
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of virginia one of the interesting things she noted from the study which had to be conducted by watching
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debates and meeting minutes as they weren't able to talk to anyone was that people were less likely
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to push for trans policies or adopt them if they went against the law which sounds obvious but it just goes
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to show there is a changing wind around these topics especially in the united states when true north
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pressed her to elaborate about what she meant by trans student policies she avoided mentioning anything
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aside from what she called the classic trans student issues such as trans identifying students in girls
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bathrooms and she said the study was more about the factors that led policy makers to adopt those
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policies widely rather than on specific policies one thing i can think of which we've seen happen in
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canadian schools is whether there should be a policy to tell parents that their child is identifying as
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a different gender in schools but mullen didn't mention those um and the study also asserted that
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you know you mentioned it when you're reading that the democratic backsliding was happening in america under
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trump and the term comes from the frankfurt school which includes things like critical theory or critical
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race theory which is probably more popular and it has its roots in marxism i found this interesting
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because it's through the democratic process that a lot of these changes are being made but they call it
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democratic backsliding and one of the features in the critical literature of democratic backsliding
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um is that democratic values are deliberately being undermined and so in this case namely taking away
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the rights of minority groups would be um one of those democratic values or democratic norms but as we
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heard from mullen in that clip she admits that to many the allowance of trans identifying males in girls
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private spaces could be considered a taking away of girls rights so the reversal of these policies could be
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considered by those same people a reversal of democratic backsliding which had already taken place
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liberal mp mark miller is defending his remarks about limiting religious defenses in hate speech cases
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stating freedom of worship is not threatened but public incitement of hatred should not be shielded by
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citing scripture miller who chairs the house justice committee made headlines thursday after questioning
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if canada's criminal code allows too much leeway for individuals to defend hate speech by referencing
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religious texts in in leviticus deuteronomy romans there's other passages there is clear hatred towards
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for example homosexuals i don't know i understand how the concept of good faith could be invoked if
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someone were literally invoking a passage from in this case the bible but there are other religious
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texts that say the same thing uh and somehow constantly say that this is good faith i mean
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clearly there are situations in these texts where these statements are hateful they should not be used
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to invoke uh or be a defense and there should perhaps be discretion for prosecutors to press charges
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i just want to understand what your notion of good faith is in this context where there are clearly
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passages in uh in religious texts that are clearly hateful on friday he reinforced the message online
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writing quote there should be no defense to the crime of publicly inciting hatred because for example
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someone relied on leviticus 20 13 or deuteronomy 22 22 which prescribed death to homosexuals and
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adulterers the remarks sparked criticism from conservative commentators and faith advocates
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who accused miller of targeting scripture and religious speech citing miller's reference to
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biblical chapters as quote hateful to lgbtq people political commentator jasmine lane posted it on acts
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writing quote mark carney's minister wants to control which bible passages can be read at church
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miller responded on the platform writing quote that couldn't be further from the truth you can read
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whatever you want however if you commit a public hate crime you shouldn't be able to use it as a defense
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to what otherwise would be a public hate crime this isn't rocket science so isaac this really just
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goes to the whole criticism that a lot of people say that the liberal government is anti-christian um
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what are some other examples that critics point to when they accuse this liberal government of being
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anti-christian yeah clayton miller's remarks about removing religious defenses for hate speech come
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after a series of incidents that politicians faith leaders and watchdog groups have cited as evidence
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of government hostility towards christians for example conservative mp leslin lewis criticized the
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government early this year after elections canada scheduled advanced voting over easter weekend calling
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it deeply concerning lewis said quote it's clear that the liberals have no respect for the christian faith
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they are only focused on serving themselves so they can hang on to a fourth term in power
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noting that the same government had previously postponed an election date to avoid a conflict
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with the hindu festival of diwali and then access to information records obtained by the free speech
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union of canada showed that parks canada revoked a concert permit for american pastor sean foict
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after heavy political and public pressure internal emails warned of legal and reputational risks before
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safety concerns were invoked even though there was no evidence of a violent or unlawful protest the
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documents showed the safety rationale was used as a pretext to justify a decision made largely to
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relieve public and political pressure then recently in the house of commons public safety minister gary
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ananda sangari admitted he had not met with any of the 123 christian congregations burned vandalized or
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desecrated in the past four years despite acknowledging he was aware of the attacks and conservative mp
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dane lloyd pressured him on whether hate crimes against christians were were a problem he asked
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quote is it because hate crimes against christians aren't a priority for this government and ananda
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sangri replied saying quote that is absolutely incorrect but confirmed that he had met with
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synagogues and mosques but not affected churches then the canadian anti-hate network has received almost
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one million dollars in federal funding according to conservative mp rachel thomas and they've also drawn
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criticism thomas said the organization used public funds to inspire independent advocacy and activism
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to disrupt and compete with far-right movements while defining far-right to include catholics and
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people who identify as pro-life she called the group's work a great disservice that spurs further
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polarization elsewhere christian teachers matt and nicole alexander filed human rights and labor
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complaints after being fired by the renfrew county district school board for allegedly refusing to
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celebrate and affirm lgbtq issues alexander said quote it feels like there's no space for christians
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to be christian in the education system finally coverage discrepancies have also been highlighted by
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media observers while legacy outlets and politicians condemned sean foict for his biblical beliefs on
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gender and sexuality they remained silent during the canadian tour of imam abu tamia a salafi preacher
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known for anti-christian anti-western trades according to benai breath but taken together these cases have
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been cited by conservative mps advocacy organizations and journalists as examples of an uneven standard
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applied to christianity in canada's public sphere
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stephen gibault the former environment minister and vocal climate activist is championing the liberals
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industrial carbon tax as the linchpin of their climate agenda even as canadians grapple with rising
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costs prime minister mark carney will table his federal budget in the house of commons next week
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and gibault who now serves as minister of canadian identity and culture was asked by media what he'd
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like to see included as a quote staunch environmentalist well i think i mean clearly climate change continues
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to be an important issue i can't comment on what might or might not be in the budget obviously like
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you i'm very eager to see what what what will be in it but you hope but but the but the industrial carbon
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pricing uh is is is a key component of our of our climate change strategy i mean it is really
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the backbone and and for those who would have forgotten like it gave it gives us three times
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more emission reduction than than the consumer carbon pricing so eager to see what will be in the budget
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the liberals reduced their consumer carbon pricing scheme to zero in the lead-up to the last general
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election in april but kept its industrial carbon pricing scheme and while the liberals have claimed the
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consumer carbon tax is gone it technically still exists and could be reintroduced at any time
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for the tax to truly be done with it would require a vote in the house of commons to have it repealed
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on the campaign trail carney told canadians that the industrial carbon tax would not touch the
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wallets of everyday canadians however when cornered about it in an interview earlier this year he
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admitted that they would be paying for it but according to him only a quote marginal amount
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but whether or not the amount is quote marginal for consumers it's certainly weighing heavily on
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the steel industry a sector that has been struggling in the wake of u.s tariffs the taxes steel
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manufacturers are forced to pay are simply then passed on to the consumer so clayton what are some
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other environmental policies still on the books or set to be introduced by the carney liberals and what
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have critics said about them yeah so one thing that comes to mind isaac is something carney proposed
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during the election which are essentially carbon tariffs or tariffs on any country who doesn't
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have a carbon tax which carney's government approves of this was something chris sims from the canadian
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taxpayers federation hammered on about during the election and was contrasted by the fact that carney
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and his supporters kept beating the economic war drum over trump imposing his own tariffs sims noted how
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the tariffs would raise the tariffs would raise the prices of products from several countries including
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the u.s which canada imports the most goods and services from and she found that 73 percent of the
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world's countries could be hit by this you know quote border adjustment measure as they don't have carbon
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taxes and what was shocking was how little coverage this got as carney was uh you know finger wagging
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uh about uh trump imposing tariffs while he aimed at imposing his own tariffs i i suppose it's different
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because it's justified by climate activist ideology um and this also is in addition to the liberal
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government's tariffs on chinese evs which although there are other justifications for the tariff it also
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conveniently protects canada's corporate handouts to automakers to build its own evs and which many of
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those are not even being built anymore a lot of those companies are dropping their plans to do so
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another point um was of course the the liberal ev mandate and the mandate was pushed down the road but
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not eliminated if carney hadn't flip-flopped and delayed the rollout of the mandate it would have
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forced twenty percent of the new vehicles sold next year to be electric rising to sixty percent by 2030
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and a hundred percent by 2035 and you know and carney simply pause the rollout
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and it could be reintroduced at any time much like the consumer carbon tax
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that's it for today folks thanks for tuning in you can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by
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