Juno News - Lockdown Theatre

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's most irreverent talk show. This is The Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:12.840 Coming up, Teresa Tam dangles a carrot, letting kids play might be child abuse somehow, and budgets, not just about money, but tools to fight racial inequity. 1.00

00:00:24.300 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:30.000 Welcome to The Andrew Lawton Show, Canada's most irreverent talk show here on True North.

00:00:35.560 It is great to have you aboard this program. I come bearing fantastic news.

00:00:41.180 The lockdowns are on their way out. The restrictions are on their way out.

00:00:44.960 Canadians are once again going to be walking around free with COVID vanquished. 0.93

00:00:50.340 Yes, this is what Teresa Tam has said, that federal modeling data show lockdowns have slowed the spread of COVID,

00:00:57.040 that a less restrictive summer is on its way, but there's a little bit of a catch.

00:01:03.560 If 75% of Canadians have their first vaccines, or if 20% of Canadians have their second vaccine,

00:01:11.840 then we might see some restrictions.

00:01:15.320 Okay, I take away the celebration. I take away the jubilance.

00:01:18.860 And when you read these headlines, it sounds like the federal government has laid out some sort of a concrete reopening plan.

00:01:26.000 But let's listen to what Dr. Teresa Tam, the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, actually said.

00:01:32.880 When I say the summer, first of all, it's based on vaccine supply.

00:01:36.100 We're going to have a lot of vaccines coming up next week.

00:01:39.360 There's going to be a big delivery.

00:01:41.800 And so if the supplies continue as projected and everybody rolls up their sleeves,

00:01:47.860 at least, you know, in these kind of percentages, that is when you can and you lift measures when 20% have received a second dose.

00:01:57.080 It could be anywhere, you know, from somewhere in that sort of, I don't know, mid-July to August kind of time frame.

00:02:06.780 But even then, you have to be cautious and not sort of just lift everything.

00:02:13.020 You're going to lift things in stages and see what happens.

00:02:16.540 So that was about as unequivocal as it can get.

00:02:19.340 It's that, well, you know, maybe if this many people roll up their sleeves, as she said, we maybe could see by mid-July or August some easing, but it depends.

00:02:30.120 I mean, this is, again, proof that there are...

00:02:32.880 I've often talked about the moving goalposts of Canada's public health guidance.

00:02:37.580 Right now, there is no goalposts.

00:02:39.460 There is no end zone.

00:02:40.660 We're just supposed to keep running and running and running like Forrest Gump,

00:02:44.120 not having any idea where we're going or how long we're going to be doing it and without the laughs along the way.

00:02:49.340 Alan Silvestri, if you want to score the soundtrack to Canada's public health guidance like you did the actual Forrest Gump soundtrack, go wild.

00:02:57.200 But I don't want to watch this movie.

00:02:58.720 I'm waiting for it to end.

00:03:00.100 Because what we have now is the government not only continuing to fear monger about a lot of aspects of this,

00:03:06.920 but not giving any clear path to reopening.

00:03:10.060 And this is a very critical dilemma because on one hand, the government's saying that everyone has to get vaccinated.

00:03:15.660 On the other hand, as Justin Trudeau indicated a couple of weeks ago,

00:03:19.340 he said that, well, even with vaccines, we're still going to have some restrictions and so on and so forth.

00:03:24.720 And even this latest round of modeling, which is basically the government's way of just saying,

00:03:30.760 here are some random numbers that we think tell a story,

00:03:33.380 despite the modeling being more often wrong than it is right.

00:03:36.640 We have the government using this modeling and using these data to say that they have a plan

00:03:43.160 and that they have things under control when they actually don't, not even close.

00:03:47.640 But even with this, let's look at what they're actually proposing if the volume of people they want to get vaccinated get vaccinated.

00:03:56.400 So this is a slide from the federal government's modeling presentation where they say that high uptake of the first vaccine dose

00:04:03.940 will influence whether it will be safe to lift restrictive public health measures this summer.

00:04:09.740 Now, here's where we talk about the media telling a story that isn't necessarily what the officials were actually saying.

00:04:15.940 Because when I hear restrictive public health measures, I think of basically all of the public health measures

00:04:20.940 that are telling people how to live their lives, what they can do, where they can go, what can stay open, and so on.

00:04:27.160 But if you look in the fine print at the bottom,

00:04:30.640 physical distancing, mask wearing, and other personal protective measures

00:04:35.480 alongside current levels of testing and tracing would be maintained

00:04:39.840 even when restrictive public health measures are lifted.

00:04:43.420 So they're saying that forced social distancing, mask wearing,

00:04:47.240 whatever these other personal protective measures they're talking about are,

00:04:51.000 are not in fact the restrictive measures they're talking about lifting.

00:04:55.220 When they say restrictive measures, they're only talking, it sounds like, about lockdowns,

00:05:01.060 about actual shutdowns, about stay-at-home orders, enforcement,

00:05:05.480 all of these things which, by the way, the federal government has said repeatedly

00:05:08.640 are not within its purview because it's provincial jurisdiction.

00:05:12.180 But nevertheless, even if the provinces go along with this,

00:05:15.760 what the federal government is actually saying here is that the new normal

00:05:18.920 is in fact something we need to accept.

00:05:21.600 That even when we're supposed to be happy that three-quarters of the population

00:05:25.140 have been vaccinated, we are still going to be wearing masks,

00:05:28.960 we're still going to have plexiglass barriers between booths at restaurants,

00:05:32.700 concerts probably not coming back, live shows, all of these things.

00:05:36.480 So it only really sounds like they're trying to dangle as a carrot in front of people

00:05:41.940 the summer that we had last year, the summer of 2020,

00:05:45.620 which felt a little bit more normal maybe relative to how it had been earlier,

00:05:50.320 but was not something we would want to live with as though it were the new normal.

00:05:56.120 And you know what?

00:05:56.960 The big problem that I have with this is that the government is putting so much stock in mask wearing.

00:06:02.480 I want to tell you a story about mask wearing because in, I think it was June or July,

00:06:08.200 I might be wrong about the specific date, but some point last summer,

00:06:11.200 I was in Calgary, Alberta for a Freedom Talk conference put on by our good friend of the show,

00:06:17.200 Danny Hozak.

00:06:18.320 And at the time, larger events in Alberta were allowed.

00:06:21.780 They could have, I think, 50 people per room and they could stack different rooms together.

00:06:26.260 So I think the conference had 100 or 150 people.

00:06:28.920 And I got on the plane from where I live in Ontario to Alberta.

00:06:33.760 And by the time I returned to London, Ontario,

00:06:37.480 the local government in my city had put a mask mandate in.

00:06:41.820 So at the time, they were just starting to see a little bit of an uptick,

00:06:45.400 an uptick on the so-called second wave.

00:06:47.480 And they said, all right, we have to mandate masks.

00:06:49.520 Masks were recommended at the time, but not required.

00:06:52.380 By the time I got home, masks were required in public places.

00:06:55.960 Now, this is something that I find to be tremendously important

00:06:59.900 because this so-called mask mandate has actually seen us through the second and third waves

00:07:08.240 by the government's own admission.

00:07:09.880 So how they think that masks work when the very worst parts of the pandemic have happened,

00:07:16.040 well, masks have been required in virtually all public fora,

00:07:20.000 workplaces, grocery stores, airplanes, buses, and so on.

00:07:23.660 Now, the logical response to this from mask proponents is,

00:07:28.040 well, those upticks have happened because people aren't following the orders.

00:07:32.940 Well, even so, it's proof that the mask mandate is not in fact working.

00:07:37.340 And as much as everyone likes to go on about, oh, those evil anti-maskers,

00:07:40.800 they are a relatively small in number.

00:07:43.020 I have been to grocery stores, on airplanes, I've been to different places,

00:07:46.640 and I actually have not seen at all anyone in these venues not wearing a mask

00:07:53.800 in the last eight months or ten months or however long it's been.

00:07:58.140 And the reason I bring that up is to say that the mask mandate has not worked.

00:08:03.080 So the idea that this is something with which we should be saddled in perpetuity,

00:08:07.780 something that should become a permanent fixture of Canada's approach to public health,

00:08:11.740 is actually quite a significant step away from where we should be going,

00:08:17.320 which is returning to the normal way of doing things.

00:08:20.400 And there are far too many people now, including those driving government policy,

00:08:25.000 who want us to believe that the old normal is just a distant memory,

00:08:28.800 and we need to start adapting to our lives as though COVID is endemic,

00:08:33.780 and taking a permanent approach, a permanent aspect of this anyway,

00:08:38.320 and prolonging it and never getting away from it.

00:08:41.260 And that's what I see coming from this modeling projection here,

00:08:44.500 that we are to understand the government is telling us that

00:08:47.540 they might lift some of the severe restrictions

00:08:50.620 if three-quarters of the population is vaccinated,

00:08:53.500 but we're still going to have masks, we're still going to have social distancing,

00:08:56.440 all of these things that they basically want us to start accepting

00:08:59.960 are just a part of life right now.

00:09:02.840 And that's not something that I'm prepared to do.

00:09:05.560 In fact, I don't think that's something most people,

00:09:07.340 I would hope, are prepared to do.

00:09:10.440 And this is where we talk about the fact that not only have the goals shifted

00:09:14.840 and the priorities shifted tremendously through this,

00:09:17.720 but there has been no clear plan.

00:09:20.800 And this allows things along the way to be very politicized.

00:09:23.660 You may remember on last week's show, I talked about the travel ban.

00:09:27.900 And the point that I raised, which was received better than I thought it was,

00:09:30.640 quite frankly, was that by the time the government talks about wanting to

00:09:33.660 ban flights from India or Pakistan as it did like an hour after my show came out,

00:09:38.360 it's already too late.

00:09:39.600 Because weeks earlier, the so-called variants had been detected in the dozens in multiple provinces,

00:09:46.140 so there's no real point in saying that the double teenage mutant ninja turtle virus

00:09:50.920 was something that was going to come on a plane,

00:09:53.040 and that was the only way we could get rid of it by banning those flights.

00:09:56.460 Which, by the way, did not stop people to come from India and Pakistan.

00:10:02.380 Someone in India just has to lay over in England or lay over in Frankfurt, 1.00

00:10:06.100 and all of a sudden there's no issues.

00:10:08.000 So the idea that these things are being passed off as good policy

00:10:11.860 is proof that the government is continuing more than a year into this

00:10:15.980 to just make things up as they go.

00:10:18.880 To make things up as they go without any indication of what the criteria for reopening will be.

00:10:24.920 And that's so important because a lot of these emergency orders

00:10:29.360 and the border shutdown between Canada and the U.S.

00:10:32.280 are implemented in four-week increments and 30-day increments,

00:10:36.600 and they're just extended every 30 days.

00:10:39.360 And the whole point of emergency legislation is that you have to put a sunset clause into it,

00:10:44.500 the rationale being that you don't want these things to require governments

00:10:48.100 to actively strip these powers from themselves.

00:10:51.700 But it's now become so rote to continue to renew this

00:10:56.080 that it is as though these things are permanent fixtures in legislation anyway.

00:11:01.240 Right now, the fact that the border is shut down between Canada and the U.S.,

00:11:04.940 despite the exemptions for cross-border trade,

00:11:07.260 is such a norm that it will just become very easy

00:11:10.840 to unquestioningly extend that every single time it comes up.

00:11:14.460 It was just extended most recently, a couple of days ago.

00:11:17.380 I have no doubt that in May it will be renewed again and again and again.

00:11:21.600 And it wouldn't surprise me if the Canada-U.S. border is shut down for at least two years

00:11:26.900 before it is reopened.

00:11:30.320 And I'm a believer in the fact that no country has a legal obligation to admit others to it. 0.88

00:11:35.900 So I'm of the mindset that if the U.S. wanted to shut its borders to Canadians,

00:11:39.700 I would oppose it, but it would have the legal right to do it.

00:11:42.740 So this is not about forcing countries to surrender their sovereignty.

00:11:47.000 It's about understanding the long-standing tradition

00:11:49.640 that Canada and the U.S. have a border that is there for security, yes,

00:11:54.780 that is there for control of goods, yes,

00:11:56.780 but that basically fosters a spirit of travel cooperation between these two countries.

00:12:03.880 Cross-border integration between Canada and the U.S. is a way of life,

00:12:07.880 especially if you are like the 90% of Canadians who live within,

00:12:12.180 I think it's 100 miles of the U.S. border.

00:12:14.920 There's a library in, I forget the Canadian city,

00:12:18.080 but in the American city is North Troy, Vermont.

00:12:20.420 It's a library and an opera house that actually sits on the border.

00:12:25.240 So you can go in one door and enter from Canada,

00:12:28.400 and you can go out the other door and exit into the United States and vice versa.

00:12:32.740 And I've always thought that the U.S. should just do like a vaccine clinic on its side of the opera house in,

00:12:39.040 I think it's North Troy, Vermont.

00:12:40.160 It might be Derby, Vermont or something like that.

00:12:42.340 And all the Canadians who want to get vaccinated and can't because of Trudeau's plan

00:12:46.060 can get American vaccines in the rural New England

00:12:49.580 and then head on home back through the way they came in.

00:12:52.600 But the whole point of this is that the government has not provided any reopening plan.

00:12:56.820 You've got people like Doug Ford in Ontario who are calling on the government

00:13:01.040 to do more to secure the border as though the border is not already closed.

00:13:07.460 And let me tell you something.

00:13:08.580 I get people emailing all the time saying,

00:13:12.240 well, what about the international flights coming in, this flight, that flight?

00:13:15.100 And they're pointing to all these flights that are coming in from China, from elsewhere in the world.

00:13:19.860 Let me say something because I was at Pearson Airport a couple of weeks ago,

00:13:23.560 and I wish I got a picture of it,

00:13:25.100 but I looked up at there's like a four panel arrivals or departures board

00:13:29.980 that is in this one part of the terminal.

00:13:32.540 It's huge.

00:13:33.480 And actually, it might be eight panels because each vertical dimension has two levels on it.

00:13:38.660 And all of the flights for the entire day were on one of these eight panels.

00:13:44.340 So the idea that you can point to flight manifests and say,

00:13:47.880 well, these international flights are coming in is not really evidence of anything.

00:13:51.960 Flights are virtually non-existent.

00:13:53.980 And the people that are on those flights are people who have a legal right to enter Canada.

00:13:59.900 And yeah, there are exemptions to the travel ban for people that have extended family here,

00:14:06.040 people that have essential work to do here.

00:14:08.100 But most of the people on these flights are Canadian citizens coming home.

00:14:12.980 And I refuse to go along with any plan that bars citizens of this country from re-entering the country.

00:14:21.300 We have a two-week quarantine, which is meant to basically let people exhaust the virus from their system

00:14:28.340 if they have contracted it while they've been abroad.

00:14:31.160 But the reality is that Canada is right now more dangerous than a lot of the places from which people are coming.

00:14:37.000 Because elsewhere in the world, people have eased restrictions.

00:14:40.280 They've opened up because they have more of their population vaccinated.

00:14:43.600 The threat to Canada is not, by and large, coming from travel.

00:14:48.680 And when you do have situations like the double teenage mutant virus that have come in from India, 0.75

00:14:54.960 these are relatively isolated.

00:14:56.980 And they don't take away from the fact that travel-related cases are about 2% of the overall caseload in Canada.

00:15:05.020 And sacrificing the rights of Canadians, 0.99

00:15:08.060 which is what people calling for more restrictive border measures are doing.

00:15:12.580 Because at a certain point, that's all that's left.

00:15:15.500 To go after Canadian citizens and their right to return home, 0.99

00:15:18.700 which Australia did.

00:15:20.080 And by the way, stranded thousands of Australian citizens abroad

00:15:23.920 because they couldn't enter their own country.

00:15:25.880 I won't do that.

00:15:26.980 Certainly not for 2% of the caseload

00:15:29.700 when 98% is coming from people doing things in the country.

00:15:34.100 Community spread, workplace, etc.

00:15:36.080 And the whole point of this is that I've been calling since the very beginning

00:15:40.200 for an approach to the pandemic that puts science first

00:15:43.780 and doesn't take these universal restrictions

00:15:46.520 that are going after everyone

00:15:49.300 when we can isolate where transmission is taking place.

00:15:53.800 And Patti Hajdu, Polyburu Patti, the health minister, 0.95

00:15:56.680 had said this the other day.

00:15:58.420 In fact, just hours before the government banned flights from India and Pakistan,

00:16:03.080 health officials were saying that,

00:16:04.540 oh, well, you know, targeted travel bans don't work.

00:16:06.660 Now, in this case, I agree with them,

00:16:08.600 even if they are contradicting themselves.

00:16:11.060 But what was interesting is that Patti Hajdu said,

00:16:13.260 well, you know what, we've got universal measures

00:16:16.520 because we can't target these things.

00:16:18.360 And these are my words, not hers.

00:16:20.020 But she was basically saying that we can't play whack-a-mole

00:16:22.720 with all of these international areas.

00:16:25.060 And I'm inclined to agree,

00:16:26.760 unless you are prepared to say that Canadian citizens

00:16:29.660 do not have the right to return to their country. 0.60

00:16:32.900 But more importantly, the Canada-U.S. border

00:16:35.540 is where you have people that are exempt from quarantine,

00:16:40.460 exempt from testing,

00:16:41.320 because they work in cross-border trade,

00:16:44.020 they are truckers,

00:16:45.060 they are doing important things that, again,

00:16:47.480 have always had them going back and forth.

00:16:49.620 And I would again say,

00:16:51.080 do you want to sacrifice the Canadian supply chains,

00:16:54.340 the food you have on your grocery store shelves,

00:16:56.740 by tightening what is already a restricted border even more?

00:17:02.040 It's easy to step up and say,

00:17:03.720 oh, but flights are coming in,

00:17:05.000 but oh, the people are still coming across the border.

00:17:07.200 Yeah, it's easy to say that.

00:17:09.040 But the exemptions that are there are very minimal.

00:17:12.880 And I don't think the people calling for more border restrictions

00:17:16.760 and more travel restrictions

00:17:18.060 have thought through what the implications

00:17:20.360 of those measures will be.

00:17:22.480 We've got to take a break.

00:17:24.800 When we come back,

00:17:25.600 more of The Andrew Lawton Show here on True North.

00:17:31.760 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:17:38.640 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:17:41.060 The big theme of the program over the last couple of weeks

00:17:44.160 has been the level of enforcement that exists,

00:17:48.140 especially in Ontario,

00:17:49.380 but we're starting to see it elsewhere,

00:17:50.640 especially in British Columbia,

00:17:52.840 on these stay-at-home orders,

00:17:55.580 emergency orders, and so on.

00:17:57.620 And one of the big challenges that we've seen in Ontario

00:18:01.320 was, of course, the provincial government

00:18:03.200 issuing this directive.

00:18:04.920 The police could stop and question people

00:18:07.060 without any evidence.

00:18:08.420 Then they backtracked on it.

00:18:10.000 And the caveat was that police in Ontario

00:18:12.220 can now only question people

00:18:14.520 and demand information

00:18:15.520 if they have reason to suspect

00:18:17.020 they are engaging in what might be

00:18:19.180 an illegal gathering.

00:18:20.420 I know, it's the big crime now

00:18:21.920 being part of an illegal gathering.

00:18:24.300 Well, last weekend on,

00:18:26.000 I believe it was Sunday,

00:18:27.340 there was a group of families

00:18:29.860 that had been,

00:18:31.020 and I don't know the details of it,

00:18:32.380 but they were playing with their children

00:18:34.060 at a local park in Havelock

00:18:35.860 and the OPP came by

00:18:38.180 after getting what they said

00:18:39.520 were three or four calls.

00:18:41.540 Here's a little bit of that exchange

00:18:42.960 posted by one of the moms on Facebook.

00:18:45.860 I'm not here to sit and lay a bunch of tickets.

00:18:48.420 If it was something that was to continually see happen,

00:18:51.700 it is an option.

00:18:52.640 And so that is an option we can go down

00:18:55.400 and we don't want to have to go to that

00:18:57.520 Dallas office anymore

00:18:58.560 because everyone wants to enjoy themselves.

00:19:01.040 It's getting nice weather.

00:19:02.160 We're not doing anything wrong.

00:19:03.440 Like, this isn't an organized...

00:19:06.080 No, but, like, I drove by

00:19:07.280 and I saw people here and there separated,

00:19:08.960 so I didn't come.

00:19:10.000 Like, I drove by, like, half an hour ago,

00:19:11.740 but then we got, like, three or four calls

00:19:15.260 with a complaint from public members.

00:19:17.560 Yeah.

00:19:18.000 Tell them to do a lot.

00:19:18.960 Nothing about it, do you have all the complaint.

00:19:21.340 Yeah, it's your job to come out.

00:19:23.120 Yeah.

00:19:23.440 I just made your name.

00:19:24.860 That's all I need.

00:19:25.520 Is your name and date of birth

00:19:26.280 so I can get your good...

00:19:26.920 Why do you need to date it now?

00:19:28.120 No.

00:19:28.400 Because there's an emergency order asking.

00:19:30.920 Don't have a...

00:19:31.480 That's just the law.

00:19:32.640 That's got nothing.

00:19:33.260 That's the emergency orders.

00:19:34.760 I don't feel like I need to give my information.

00:19:37.640 Oh, no.

00:19:37.940 You're taking me to go to New York. 1.00

00:19:40.400 God damn it. 0.99

00:19:43.040 Now, I want to say, 1.00

00:19:44.080 it sounds like this woman 0.62

00:19:45.680 or one of the women

00:19:47.020 whose voices can be heard

00:19:48.460 was known to police.

00:19:50.160 I don't know if she's been an organizer

00:19:52.080 of anti-lockdown rallies.

00:19:53.460 Not that that matters,

00:19:54.260 but it sounds like there may have been

00:19:56.340 a deliberate provocation there,

00:19:58.680 in which case,

00:19:59.420 I still wouldn't hold it against her,

00:20:00.860 but I just want to be transparent about it.

00:20:02.680 However,

00:20:04.080 none of that justifies this.

00:20:06.820 So, and for some of these situations,

00:20:09.460 we're being asked to call CAS

00:20:10.480 to advise them as well. 0.83

00:20:11.780 Are you f***ing kidding me?

00:20:12.980 I know they're... 0.94

00:20:15.960 So, my kids hang outside?

00:20:18.380 I am.

00:20:18.940 So, it's something that we have been asked to do.

00:20:22.680 So, I need to make sure you guys are aware

00:20:23.900 that we've been asked to do.

00:20:24.800 We're going to get a CAS call

00:20:25.660 because we're taking our kids out

00:20:27.680 to be healthy and fresh air.

00:20:30.300 So, some people have a view...

00:20:31.740 How is that neglect?

00:20:32.680 It's how big is that?

00:20:33.900 I know it is,

00:20:34.680 but I don't understand how that's neglect.

00:20:36.600 Yeah, go ahead, Clay.

00:20:37.480 Do whatever you'd like.

00:20:38.780 So, that's all I have to do.

00:20:40.180 Enjoy yourselves.

00:20:40.580 So, for some of these situations,

00:20:43.620 we are being asked to call CAS

00:20:46.020 to advise them.

00:20:47.520 Now, that is Children's Aid Society.

00:20:49.340 That is the Child Protective Services Division

00:20:51.700 of Ontario.

00:20:53.320 I don't want to get into the myriad issues

00:20:55.220 institutionally and structurally with CAS,

00:20:57.640 but police are saying

00:20:58.820 that they're being advised

00:21:00.080 when children are playing

00:21:02.220 to contact, in some cases,

00:21:04.820 Children's Aid Society

00:21:05.900 as though a parent

00:21:06.700 who brings their child out of their house

00:21:08.180 is in some way abusing their child.

00:21:11.500 Now, this is based on the hearsay

00:21:12.860 of one specific officer.

00:21:14.520 And in a statement to Toronto.com,

00:21:17.160 the Ministry of Children and Social Services

00:21:19.400 said the ministry

00:21:20.180 has not provided specific guidance

00:21:22.680 to Children's Aid Societies

00:21:24.240 to report parents

00:21:25.180 who are not complying

00:21:26.380 with the current stay-at-home order.

00:21:27.800 Although, that doesn't mean

00:21:28.820 that Peterborough County OPP,

00:21:30.780 whose officers are depicted in this video,

00:21:33.360 were not given direction

00:21:34.520 in some way to do that.

00:21:36.820 And again, I want to say

00:21:38.060 I think the officers

00:21:38.800 were being fairly reasonable

00:21:40.960 for most of the exchange.

00:21:42.480 They're saying

00:21:42.900 we're not here for tickets.

00:21:44.720 I didn't like that

00:21:45.500 they were asking

00:21:46.040 for personal information,

00:21:47.160 but they said,

00:21:47.800 listen, we're just here to educate.

00:21:49.300 They have to respond to calls.

00:21:50.860 I get that.

00:21:51.880 And as I've said,

00:21:52.680 I think frontline officers

00:21:53.760 are very much being put

00:21:55.400 in the line of fire

00:21:56.640 by a lot of these directives

00:21:57.900 and forced to enforce

00:21:58.940 legislation and regulations

00:22:00.760 that they don't

00:22:01.520 particularly agree with.

00:22:03.680 But when I hear

00:22:04.800 that there's some directive

00:22:05.920 somewhere in Ontario,

00:22:07.160 and we're not getting

00:22:07.900 a lot of transparency

00:22:08.760 about what it is,

00:22:09.840 that is saying that parents

00:22:11.120 who might violate

00:22:12.500 stay-at-home orders

00:22:13.480 are to be reported

00:22:15.060 to Children's Aid Society.

00:22:16.940 Forget about the fact here

00:22:18.400 that police have better things to do,

00:22:19.920 Children's Aid,

00:22:20.660 caseworkers have better things to do,

00:22:22.380 and all of a sudden

00:22:23.380 throw this onto them 0.98

00:22:24.640 is absolutely ridiculous. 0.97

00:22:26.620 But beyond that, 0.81

00:22:28.640 if we see around the world

00:22:30.500 that places are reopening,

00:22:32.100 trying to get back to normal,

00:22:33.260 much like we were talking about

00:22:34.540 in the first segment

00:22:36.020 of this program,

00:22:36.760 and in Ontario,

00:22:38.340 we're being told

00:22:39.840 that parents that want

00:22:40.900 to play at a park

00:22:41.720 might, just might,

00:22:44.040 be reported as child abusers,

00:22:46.740 because that's really

00:22:47.500 what's happening.

00:22:48.080 If you're reporting a parent

00:22:49.060 to Children's Aid Society,

00:22:50.320 you're saying that they are

00:22:51.360 being neglectful

00:22:52.300 or abusive to their child.

00:22:54.040 I would say abusive

00:22:55.180 is keeping a kid

00:22:56.240 locked up in a house

00:22:57.180 not allowed.

00:22:58.840 Not allowed to see their friends,

00:23:00.300 not allowed to go to school,

00:23:01.420 not allowed to play,

00:23:02.260 not even allowed to play

00:23:03.780 with the neighbor kid

00:23:04.700 at a park outdoors

00:23:06.160 without risking being

00:23:08.280 in violation of the rules.

00:23:11.600 And there was a story

00:23:12.380 True North reported on last week

00:23:13.940 that technically police are saying

00:23:15.980 they're allowed to force children 0.93

00:23:17.960 to identify themselves

00:23:19.460 if they believe that children

00:23:20.900 are violating the emergency order.

00:23:23.240 So now police are even saying

00:23:25.320 that they have a right

00:23:26.900 to demand children

00:23:27.880 identify themselves.

00:23:28.840 Now, you don't have a piece

00:23:29.840 of physical ID

00:23:30.620 until you're 16.

00:23:32.260 But the whole point of it

00:23:33.400 is that now kids playing

00:23:34.960 has been essentially criminalized

00:23:37.760 in Ontario

00:23:38.860 and in other provinces.

00:23:40.280 And this is not something

00:23:41.600 you can come back from.

00:23:43.580 You know, I've said

00:23:44.520 time and time again

00:23:45.540 that it's very difficult

00:23:47.180 for a lot of adults

00:23:48.140 to cope with this.

00:23:49.320 Someone who's in their 20s,

00:23:50.720 their 30s, their 40s,

00:23:52.100 it's a smaller and smaller subset

00:23:55.020 of your life that's affected.

00:23:56.520 That doesn't mean

00:23:56.920 it's not significant.

00:23:58.100 But it's a smaller and smaller

00:23:59.300 portion of your life

00:24:00.180 that's affected

00:24:00.780 the older you get.

00:24:02.260 For kids who are six years old,

00:24:05.060 this is going to be coming up

00:24:06.620 on a third of their life

00:24:08.460 that's been in lockdown.

00:24:09.920 It's going to be all they know,

00:24:11.400 especially since you're not

00:24:12.140 exactly online from zero to...

00:24:14.360 I don't know when you start

00:24:15.300 forming memories

00:24:16.020 that you hold later on

00:24:17.000 in your childhood.

00:24:17.700 But we're talking about

00:24:18.620 a third to half

00:24:19.960 to even more

00:24:20.740 of most children's lives.

00:24:22.760 And to say that,

00:24:23.640 you know what,

00:24:24.140 they should not be allowed

00:24:25.120 to play

00:24:25.700 is criminal.

00:24:26.980 There's no way about it.

00:24:27.780 To say that kids

00:24:28.420 should not be able

00:24:28.980 to play outside

00:24:29.740 is criminal.

00:24:31.180 There's no two ways about it.

00:24:32.460 And for any parent,

00:24:34.280 for any parent to be harassed

00:24:36.080 because they want to give

00:24:37.200 their kid a bit of fresh air,

00:24:39.080 you know,

00:24:39.360 it wasn't that long ago

00:24:40.420 when parents were fighting,

00:24:42.180 fighting to get kids

00:24:43.280 to want to go outside

00:24:44.260 and fighting to get kids 0.96

00:24:45.480 to want to play.

00:24:46.460 I was actually...

00:24:47.620 Where was I?

00:24:48.080 I was going to catch a plane

00:24:49.460 really early in the morning.

00:24:51.120 This was a couple of months ago

00:24:52.720 and I had gone through

00:24:54.580 the all-night McDonald's

00:24:55.780 drive-through

00:24:56.260 to get a coffee

00:24:56.900 on my way to the airport

00:24:57.700 because it was literally

00:24:58.560 4 a.m. or 4.30 a.m.

00:25:00.180 or something.

00:25:01.000 And I saw in the parking lot

00:25:03.100 a group of teens

00:25:04.660 in a van of some kind

00:25:06.420 that were all just hanging out

00:25:08.060 and I looked at them

00:25:08.700 and I could tell

00:25:09.320 that these were the kind

00:25:10.500 who had been out all night

00:25:12.480 just driving around,

00:25:13.700 which was something

00:25:14.240 that we used to do for fun.

00:25:15.720 And I was actually

00:25:16.720 really happy to see it

00:25:18.180 because I was glad

00:25:19.380 that that level

00:25:20.620 of normalcy

00:25:21.400 had been preserved

00:25:22.600 in some way

00:25:23.560 for these teens.

00:25:24.400 Now, I don't know

00:25:24.800 anything about them.

00:25:25.460 Maybe they were catching

00:25:26.120 a flight at 4.30.

00:25:26.980 Probably not.

00:25:28.000 But it looked like

00:25:28.860 they had been out all night

00:25:29.700 and just kind of chilling,

00:25:30.900 doing whatever they want.

00:25:31.900 And I was so happy

00:25:33.100 to see that

00:25:33.680 because now they could

00:25:35.120 get pulled over

00:25:35.840 and questioned

00:25:36.560 because if someone

00:25:37.280 looks in the car

00:25:37.960 and says,

00:25:38.320 oh, that looks like

00:25:38.780 a mass gathering to me,

00:25:40.240 they could be detained

00:25:41.820 for that

00:25:42.460 if there's suspicion

00:25:43.760 that it's a mass gathering.

00:25:45.080 So we should be

00:25:46.120 as a society,

00:25:47.160 as a culture,

00:25:47.940 and government,

00:25:48.660 yes,

00:25:48.860 should be doing this as well,

00:25:49.880 trying to preserve

00:25:51.140 as much as is possible

00:25:53.500 of normal life.

00:25:55.660 None of this 0.99

00:25:56.200 new normal crap. 0.99

00:25:58.300 We should be 1.00

00:25:59.220 fighting tooth and nail

00:26:00.780 to reclaim

00:26:01.720 the old normal

00:26:02.520 and if there are things

00:26:03.520 that need to be adapted,

00:26:04.700 adapt them.

00:26:05.780 But this broad strokes,

00:26:07.340 universalist approach

00:26:08.580 to completely

00:26:10.260 obliterate mobility

00:26:11.840 as though someone

00:26:12.660 leaving their home

00:26:13.700 in a car alone

00:26:14.860 is the problem

00:26:15.800 has to stop.

00:26:17.060 We've got to take a break.

00:26:18.380 When we come back,

00:26:19.040 more of The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:26:20.580 Stay tuned.

00:26:22.720 You're tuned in

00:26:23.820 to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:26:32.520 We are back.

00:26:33.680 This is The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:26:34.900 I joked last week

00:26:35.920 that I spent about

00:26:37.080 20 seconds

00:26:37.780 on the federal budget

00:26:38.820 because that's about

00:26:39.560 all of the interest

00:26:40.420 that I could muster up

00:26:41.380 and even then,

00:26:42.040 I think that's overstating

00:26:43.300 how interested I was

00:26:44.240 in that 20 seconds.

00:26:45.080 But I will say

00:26:46.080 I found a story

00:26:47.100 of the budget

00:26:47.800 worth talking about

00:26:48.720 because I think of a budget

00:26:49.900 as being about numbers.

00:26:51.760 I think of it as being

00:26:52.440 about dollars and cents,

00:26:53.740 about debt,

00:26:54.400 about spending,

00:26:55.180 about deficits,

00:26:56.020 about a little bit

00:26:56.960 of a strategic path

00:26:57.980 forward for a country.

00:26:59.180 But especially now,

00:27:00.220 my question is

00:27:01.080 can we afford it

00:27:01.980 and if not,

00:27:02.580 how are we going to get back

00:27:03.480 to something

00:27:04.040 a little bit more austere,

00:27:05.580 something that we can afford?

00:27:07.220 Well, I have missed

00:27:08.340 the mark entirely.

00:27:09.260 I didn't realize

00:27:09.880 the budget wasn't about money.

00:27:11.440 It's actually about

00:27:12.300 remedying racial injustice

00:27:14.120 according to some advocates.

00:27:16.000 CBC says the federal budget

00:27:17.580 took steps toward racial justice

00:27:19.660 but activists say

00:27:20.960 more must be done.

00:27:23.460 Advocates for Black,

00:27:24.980 Chinese,

00:27:25.440 South Asian

00:27:25.900 and other racialized Canadians,

00:27:27.420 the story says,

00:27:28.320 say the federal budget

00:27:29.300 does take a number

00:27:30.100 of positive steps

00:27:30.980 towards building

00:27:31.760 a more inclusive country

00:27:33.460 but more work

00:27:34.500 needs to be done

00:27:35.400 to address systemic racism

00:27:37.260 in Canada.

00:27:38.260 Now, I would have thought

00:27:39.280 that a budget

00:27:39.800 was one of the areas

00:27:40.880 that could be free

00:27:42.040 from this critical race theory nonsense

00:27:43.920 that we see ubiquitous

00:27:45.700 in every other area

00:27:46.640 of society now

00:27:47.620 but I was wrong.

00:27:49.020 Much like last week

00:27:50.500 when Kirsten Gillibrand,

00:27:52.360 the United States Senator,

00:27:53.540 said that pretty much

00:27:54.280 anything and everything

00:27:55.040 was infrastructure,

00:27:56.340 childcare is infrastructure,

00:27:57.800 not just bridges,

00:27:58.680 anything is infrastructure.

00:28:00.220 Now in Canada,

00:28:01.340 anything and everything

00:28:02.300 has to be a tool

00:28:03.500 to combat systemic racism.

00:28:06.180 So if you don't put more money

00:28:07.760 into these things

00:28:08.380 in the budget,

00:28:09.000 well, you can't just say

00:28:10.200 that a tax cut

00:28:11.000 is something

00:28:11.620 that benefits everyone.

00:28:12.880 It has to specifically target

00:28:14.700 a racialized Canadian group

00:28:17.040 according to this story

00:28:18.840 and I'm looking at this

00:28:20.160 and the budget does say

00:28:21.840 there's $11 million

00:28:22.780 to expand

00:28:23.880 the Canadian Race Relations Foundation,

00:28:26.360 $200 million

00:28:27.020 to establish

00:28:28.100 a Black-led 1.00

00:28:29.280 philanthropic endowment fund

00:28:31.240 to combat anti-Black racism

00:28:33.640 and improve social

00:28:35.300 and economic outcomes

00:28:36.320 in Black communities.

00:28:38.280 Now I'd be interested

00:28:38.940 in seeing how this

00:28:39.760 $200 million

00:28:40.620 is going to be spent

00:28:41.580 especially when there's

00:28:42.400 another $100 million

00:28:43.220 on top of that

00:28:44.100 to support Black-led

00:28:45.860 non-profit organizations

00:28:47.260 but this is much like

00:28:48.740 the Canadian Mortgage

00:28:49.920 and Housing Council

00:28:51.040 or committee's view

00:28:52.620 on having to bolster

00:28:54.160 Black homeownership.

00:28:55.680 You know, ideally

00:28:56.340 things could support

00:28:58.180 all Canadians

00:28:59.180 and if there are gaps

00:29:00.520 and shortcomings

00:29:01.120 identify that, yes

00:29:02.440 but why do we have

00:29:03.800 to have budgets

00:29:04.460 that segment

00:29:05.340 and segregate

00:29:06.380 the population

00:29:07.160 into ethnic groups

00:29:08.520 when we know

00:29:09.840 when we know

00:29:09.860 that a lot of the metrics

00:29:11.120 of poverty,

00:29:12.060 of privilege,

00:29:12.640 of all of these things

00:29:13.400 are a lot more complex

00:29:14.720 than being just along

00:29:15.880 racial lines.

00:29:17.400 And moreover,

00:29:18.280 I would say that

00:29:19.020 the COVID-19 pandemic

00:29:20.280 has actually been

00:29:21.120 a great equalizer

00:29:22.220 of a lot of things

00:29:23.380 because it's targeting

00:29:24.460 racialized Canadians,

00:29:26.280 it's targeting

00:29:26.740 white Canadians,

00:29:27.660 it's targeting men,

00:29:28.520 it's targeting women

00:29:29.260 and it's not to say

00:29:30.700 that it hasn't had

00:29:31.620 a class-based distinction

00:29:34.040 in that some of the

00:29:35.040 wealthy people

00:29:35.620 who can work from home

00:29:36.560 have fared better

00:29:37.360 than a lot of middle class

00:29:38.900 or lower income people

00:29:40.040 but the reality is

00:29:41.400 that a budget

00:29:42.000 in the midst of a pandemic

00:29:43.560 you'd think

00:29:44.120 would not be focused

00:29:45.260 on the social justice

00:29:46.740 warrior ideas

00:29:47.680 that have been ubiquitous

00:29:49.100 throughout so much

00:29:50.080 of the Trudeau government's

00:29:51.360 other initiatives.

00:29:52.960 I mean,

00:29:53.300 this is a government

00:29:53.980 that put gender equality 0.90

00:29:55.720 front and center

00:29:56.380 when trying to renegotiate

00:29:57.520 NAFTA with Donald Trump.

00:29:59.120 So I can't say

00:29:59.940 I'm completely

00:30:00.940 and utterly surprised

00:30:02.040 but I still have to

00:30:03.500 shake my head

00:30:04.260 that now a budget

00:30:05.760 with billions and billions

00:30:07.480 of dollars in deficits

00:30:08.600 that are saddling Canadians 1.00

00:30:10.320 of all races,

00:30:11.660 of all ages

00:30:12.420 for generations to come

00:30:13.600 with more debt

00:30:14.220 and the big question is

00:30:15.580 well,

00:30:15.960 you know what,

00:30:16.380 we have to do more

00:30:17.260 in the budget

00:30:17.720 to address racial inequity.

00:30:20.620 We've got to wrap things up here.

00:30:22.120 My thanks to all of you

00:30:23.540 for tuning in to the show.

00:30:25.020 We'll be back

00:30:25.780 in just a couple of days' time

00:30:27.620 with more of Canada's

00:30:28.620 Most Irreverent Talk show.

00:30:30.120 The Andrew Lawton Show

00:30:30.960 here on True North

00:30:31.960 Thank you,

00:30:32.600 God bless,

00:30:33.160 and good day to you all.

00:30:34.220 Thanks for listening

00:30:34.860 to the Andrew Lawton Show.

00:30:36.300 Support the program

00:30:37.120 by donating to True North

00:30:38.340 at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - April 26, 2021

Lockdown Theatre

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