Juno News - February 20, 2019


Mainstream media says Alberta convoy is ＂white nationalist＂


Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

184.33101

Word count

1,087

Sentence count

65

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In the wake of the United We Roll convoy's protest in Ottawa, the mainstream media has been quick to portray the protesters as a bunch of racist hillbilly hillbillies. But there's a lot more to it than that.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hundreds of truck drivers, allies, and average ordinary Canadians descended on Ottawa this week to call on the government to do a better job at representing them.
00:00:10.240 But what does the state broadcaster see? Just a group of angry Albertans.
00:00:15.300 Yes, that was the tweet that CBC News put out accompanying a story that had a very similar narrative to it.
00:00:21.140 That this convoy that started in Red Deer, Alberta, and made its way all the way to the state's capital this week was really just a group of angry, disgruntled Westerners.
00:00:31.120 Which has been pointed out by a number of people to really be a CBC slur.
00:00:35.960 The fact is this may have started in Alberta, but this has been a nationally unifying event.
00:00:40.600 As we saw from footage of people flashing their high beams and honking their horns as these trucks made their way through their towns and provinces on its way to Ottawa over a four-day trek.
00:00:51.780 But in spite of this, people that want opposition to a carbon tax enshrined in law, people that want a pipeline built, people that want better government on issues ranging from taxes and government spending to immigration.
00:01:03.960 CBC looks at them and sees nothing more than a group of racist hillbillies.
00:01:08.800 It's much like that sketch CBC did about the Yellow Vest protest on the alleged comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, depicting them as just a bunch of redneck racists.
00:01:18.540 Except we're not talking about sketch comedy here.
00:01:20.560 We're talking about average Canadians.
00:01:22.800 The kind that are the most impacted by decisions or indecision from the federal government.
00:01:28.360 The kind that have to bankroll CBC but are clearly looked down upon by the state broadcaster more than they're represented by it.
00:01:36.140 You've seen the CBC tweet about the angry Albertans.
00:01:38.980 The story it's promoting isn't much better.
00:01:41.560 It accuses the convoy of being a magnet for extremist anti-immigrant elements.
00:01:46.760 Except the interesting thing is that nowhere in the CBC story does it reveal what these anti-immigrant extremist elements are.
00:01:54.560 It quotes a number of the organizers of the event who are very clear in saying they condemn racism.
00:01:59.520 It quotes some expert on racism to say that racism is bad and whatnot.
00:02:03.560 But the story doesn't actually acknowledge what it says it's about.
00:02:08.220 Which is that there's apparently this anti-immigrant and very racist sentiment that exists in the United We Roll convoy.
00:02:14.200 And some of the peripheral protests that have cropped up around it.
00:02:17.880 The same thing happened in another CBC story about Yellow Vest protests that were taking place in Red Deer.
00:02:23.420 Now the Yellow Vest movement is different from the United We Roll convoy.
00:02:27.640 But there is a lot of overlap because there are a lot of people that have very similar objectives that are grassroots members or at least supporters of both organizations.
00:02:37.420 And the CBC story about these organic protests had less to do with the actual protests themselves.
00:02:43.100 And more to do with this mythical idea that immigrants or refugees might be offended by it because the protests were taking place about a block away from a newcomer resettlement center in Red Deer.
00:02:57.360 Except the story, when you read the text, wasn't actually about the Yellow Vest protesters.
00:03:01.800 It was maligning.
00:03:02.820 It was actually focusing on a group called Soldiers of Odin.
00:03:06.300 Which is a group that has some very concerning views on immigration.
00:03:09.440 And it's a group that's not represented by these mainstream protest groups.
00:03:14.060 And is actually outright condemned by them.
00:03:17.060 But CBC decides to make them the focal point of a large-scale grassroots movement across the country.
00:03:23.280 And of course it's not just CBC.
00:03:25.860 Columnist Tabitha Salvi took aim at the fact that this event has role in the title.
00:03:30.360 Which is probably the weirdest nit to pick on something like this.
00:03:33.660 But she says it mythologizes what, in her view, is just a garden-variety white nationalist event.
00:03:40.440 That perspective that this was a white nationalist event was co-signed by Jonathan Goldsby of Canada Land.
00:03:46.260 Oh, well, it must be true then.
00:03:48.020 Not.
00:03:49.360 You know, I can't speak for every single person that attends these events.
00:03:53.240 The fact remains that grassroots movements are, by their nature, grassroots.
00:03:57.480 Which means anyone can be a part of them.
00:03:59.060 Anyone can show up.
00:04:00.120 It's the goal of the official voices of any movement to condemn the voices that are doing more damage.
00:04:06.460 And the voices that don't speak for the overarching aims.
00:04:09.320 And when it comes to the Yellow Vest protesters and when it comes to United We Roll, we're seeing that. 0.63
00:04:14.560 These groups are focusing on the overarching, unifying message that we need to resist what Justin Trudeau is doing to Canada.
00:04:21.920 On energy policy.
00:04:23.300 On immigration.
00:04:24.300 On taxes.
00:04:24.940 And this is why the event saw so much mainstream support from Maxime Bernier and Andrew Scheer, from a number of conservative members of parliament, and from people in the media who are of a conservative bent.
00:04:36.580 There are a few of us out there that looked at this event and saw a message that was positive.
00:04:42.100 So what the media will do, though, the mainstream media, is find the one person expressing a radical view and say that they represent the whole.
00:04:50.100 Now, the worst part about this is that these are the same people that stand up and say that we can't do that with radical Islam, for example.
00:04:58.500 We can't let one radical Islamist speak for the entire Muslim faith. 0.65
00:05:03.080 And I agree wholeheartedly.
00:05:04.360 But why, then, are they taking people that have radical views or people that are inarticulate and trying to make them the poster boys and poster girls for a movement that overwhelmingly is made up of the average, ordinary people that need to be at the center of representation in Canada's government?
00:05:22.820 It's true that CBC just doesn't get it.
00:05:26.080 But unfortunately, we still have to pay for it.
00:05:28.440 It's never been more important to have a voice in the media that is standing up for the issues you care about and, more importantly, for the people like you.
00:05:36.900 I'm proud to be doing that at True North, but I can't do it alone.
00:05:40.380 There's a link in the description box where you can join the Heritage Club or the Patriot Club with a monthly contribution to let us keep doing this work that the state broadcaster and a lot of their colleagues are not doing.
00:05:51.880 For True North, I'm Andrew Lutton.