Juno News - Mandatory vaccination is an obliteration of rights

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:06.660 This is The Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:12.740 Coming up, a nationwide vaccine mandate and a war on rights and freedoms in Austria, 0.57

00:00:18.020 plus a defensive carbon dioxide.

00:00:21.920 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:25.500 Hello and welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:32.160 This is The Andrew Lawton Show here on True North, Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021.

00:00:38.300 We are going to be talking a little later on in the show about some positive developments

00:00:43.260 in the world of science and tech that are achieving what the government says are its environmental

00:00:48.560 objectives without government subsidies and without carbon taxes.

00:00:52.000 A little bit of a good news story about the power of industry and entrepreneurialism.

00:00:57.780 But I'm going to warn you up front that this first part of the show here is not at all sunshine and roses.

00:01:04.160 You may remember I shared a couple of weeks back that I was in at the beginning of the month Austria

00:01:09.220 with my wife.

00:01:10.580 We had a little vacation there.

00:01:12.020 I had never been.

00:01:12.840 We spent a couple of days in Vienna and I was just enjoying it.

00:01:16.900 And at one point I remarked as we were sitting down and eating Wienerschnitzel and I was drinking

00:01:22.700 an Einspanner, which is an Austrian type of coffee, which is really just espresso with

00:01:27.680 whipped cream.

00:01:28.320 No reason I'm telling you that except I would like to be having an Einspanner right now.

00:01:32.840 And at the end of it, I was just remarking to my wife on how incredibly normal it felt

00:01:38.360 in Austria.

00:01:39.460 It didn't feel the way it does.

00:01:41.380 And in lockdown, Ontario, people felt very laid back and relaxed.

00:01:45.960 When you were going to a restaurant, yes, they asked for documentation, but it wasn't

00:01:49.800 just a vaccine passport.

00:01:51.200 You could also say that you had natural immunity or you could also provide a negative test.

00:01:56.300 So at least you had some options.

00:01:59.680 And then you fast forward a couple of weeks and Austria is no longer the bastion of normalcy.

00:02:05.760 Austria is the most lockdown region in the world with the most restrictive vaccine mandate

00:02:11.660 in the world.

00:02:13.140 And well, except for Turkmenistan. 0.77

00:02:14.580 But if that's your model country for public policy, I'm not sure we have all that much

00:02:19.300 in common.

00:02:20.820 Austria was seeing case counts on the rise.

00:02:23.580 So at first they said, we're going to plunge the unvaccinated into a lockdown.

00:02:27.440 We're going to make it so the only way you can leave your house and do anything is if

00:02:30.600 you're vaccinated.

00:02:31.740 Well, after that, cases still continue to rise.

00:02:35.220 It didn't at all put a dent in what Austria was seeing as its case trajectory here.

00:02:40.320 So then they decided to plunge the country into a nationwide lockdown and also announce mandatory

00:02:48.120 vaccinations starting in February.

00:02:50.800 So that means that within the next three months, it will be required if you're in Austria to

00:02:57.640 have a COVID-19 vaccination, whether or not you have acquired immunity, whether or not you're

00:03:03.820 prepared to test negative, whether or not it sounds like you may have a conscientious or

00:03:08.780 religious objection.

00:03:09.580 They are making vaccination mandatory.

00:03:13.580 Now, I want to make a very abundantly clear point here.

00:03:17.120 This is not mandatory to work in an office, mandatory to board a plane, mandatory to go out to

00:03:24.520 eat at a restaurant.

00:03:25.480 All of these things that we're told are actually voluntary when they're not voluntary.

00:03:30.680 No, we're talking about mandatory, mandatory.

00:03:33.080 To exist, to live as a citizen of Austria, you will have to be vaccinated.

00:03:40.240 And they haven't released the fine print of this yet.

00:03:43.120 Believe me, I was looking into it.

00:03:44.920 There was one report in the Guardian that said it was likely going to be an administrative fine,

00:03:49.680 which if you don't pay, will be converted to a jail sentence.

00:03:54.380 So in Austria, it may well be that come February, you are forced to either get the jab or end up in

00:04:03.260 jail in a Western developed country.

00:04:08.640 Like I said, Turkmenistan also has mandatory vaccination, but let's just focus on Austria here.

00:04:14.240 And Germany, incidentally, is not taking anything off the table.

00:04:17.940 That was what the German health minister said.

00:04:19.520 They're not going to take anything off the table, which, I mean, what could possibly go wrong

00:04:23.460 when German leaders refuse to take options off the table, right?

00:04:26.740 But the reality of this is that you as an Austrian citizen have had your rights taken away.

00:04:33.660 They simply do not exist.

00:04:36.140 And I mentioned, because I wrote a column about this in my newsletter the other day,

00:04:39.940 I said, you know, is Austria just going to penalize people or are they actually going to go door to door

00:04:44.620 with needles and forcing needles into the arms of people that don't want them?

00:04:49.380 And the reason I asked that question is because I said, once you've crossed that threshold,

00:04:55.920 as Austria has, to say that your citizens do not have rights, to say that your citizens' bodily

00:05:01.600 autonomy is actually non-existent and it belongs to the state.

00:05:05.380 Once you've crossed that threshold and you've leapt over that hurdle, the only thing that matters

00:05:11.680 is, well, how are you going to enforce it?

00:05:15.140 And that's a question of degrees because they've already done the hard part, which is say that

00:05:19.900 we do not believe our citizens have rights.

00:05:23.500 And if you look at something that the Austrian chancellor had said, Alexander Schallenberg,

00:05:29.180 he had said that he lamented how long it had taken for him to have the political capital

00:05:34.940 to do this, basically.

00:05:36.060 He said, quote,

00:05:36.660 For a long time, the consensus in this country was that we didn't want mandatory vaccination.

00:05:41.740 For a long time, perhaps too long.

00:05:45.420 And as I said in my newsletter, this is not just a get the jab or else policy because there

00:05:50.540 is no or else option.

00:05:53.040 So what you see here are European countries that are very much ramping up their efforts

00:05:58.840 here.

00:05:59.100 The World Health Organization, Director Hans Kluge on the weekend said that countries need

00:06:04.120 to do more mask mandates, more vaccine passports, because otherwise there are going to be half 0.99

00:06:08.840 a million dead Europeans or half a million more dead Europeans from COVID by the spring.

00:06:15.360 This is this is what they're saying, that countries need to double down on all of the

00:06:20.240 policies that they've had in place for much of the last two years that have led us to this

00:06:24.540 point.

00:06:24.880 But oh, they didn't work then.

00:06:25.860 But they're definitely going to work this time.

00:06:27.520 They're really going to do it this time.

00:06:29.580 So they're calling for a crackdown.

00:06:32.100 And undeniably, citizens are not having any of it.

00:06:35.060 You look over the weekend alone, protests in Vienna, in Rome, actually not even just

00:06:40.680 in the cities, all over these countries, in Austria, in Italy, in the Czech Republic,

00:06:45.280 in the Netherlands.

00:06:46.480 In the Netherlands, police opened fire on protesters.

00:06:51.040 Police actually fired in because the crowd had descended into rioting.

00:06:55.180 And again, I deplore rioting.

00:06:56.920 I deplore political violence.

00:06:58.700 I think it's morally wrong.

00:06:59.980 I also think it is counterproductive because it never makes the point you want it to make.

00:07:05.320 It turns people against you.

00:07:07.020 But I also am very aware that these things are not all that surprising now when people

00:07:12.340 feel pushed to the brink, as they do in these countries.

00:07:17.020 I mean, you just take a look at Austria just for one moment here.

00:07:20.380 And Austria is a country that has a deep history with autocratic governments.

00:07:24.860 So the fact that it's going down this road does not escape anyone who even has a passing

00:07:30.120 understanding of history and the historic implications of things like this.

00:07:34.960 But in Austria, if you are a citizen that doesn't want to get vaccinated for whatever

00:07:39.180 reason, your rights, like I said a moment ago, do not exist anymore.

00:07:44.440 Your rights as an individual do not exist.

00:07:47.080 So when the government is doing this, what choice do you have left?

00:07:50.560 Surely there's an argument for self-defense when you're talking about forcible vaccination.

00:07:56.460 And again, not just vaccination policies that close off parts of society to you, which I

00:08:01.800 think are wrong, but they give the illusion of choice.

00:08:04.920 But no, a policy that actually takes away your choice.

00:08:09.320 Mandatory vaccination.

00:08:12.000 And the reason I'm so passionate about this, firstly, because I had a lovely time in Austria

00:08:17.480 and it's shameful to see a country that is so beautiful, that has such history, that has

00:08:22.400 so much to offer, go down this road from which there really is no return.

00:08:26.860 But also because, as we've seen throughout the pandemic, if it can happen in one place,

00:08:31.440 it can happen elsewhere.

00:08:33.540 And I know Austria is a bit unique in that it's got a lower vaccination rate than other

00:08:38.480 countries, certainly including Canada.

00:08:40.820 So that's what is setting it apart, a lot of the proponents of this policy are saying.

00:08:45.800 But the one thing that we know is that people are going to be de-vaccinated at a certain

00:08:51.820 point.

00:08:52.160 The fully vaccinated people are going to be told at some point, and I don't know when

00:08:56.300 it is, that their two doses aren't enough and they've got to add a third dose on there

00:09:00.180 or a fourth dose with whichever wave we're in.

00:09:02.780 And that was the other comment made by the Austrian chancellor.

00:09:05.920 He said, we've got to protect against a fifth, sixth and seventh wave. 0.89

00:09:09.980 So they're already thinking, you know, seven waves to flatten the curve or whatever the case

00:09:13.720 may be now.

00:09:14.320 So at a certain point in Canada, the vaccination rate will go down with one of two things taking

00:09:19.920 place.

00:09:20.540 One, the number of vaccinations needed to be considered fully vaccinated will increase.

00:09:27.800 Number two, the eligibility will increase.

00:09:32.320 And that's what's happening this week.

00:09:33.780 Now that children age five to 11 can get vaccinated, the denominator in those vaccine statistics has

00:09:42.300 gotten larger.

00:09:43.160 The denominator, so now with more people eligible, the vaccination rate in Canada will understandably

00:09:50.060 drop down because it's a smaller percentage of the eligible population that has been vaccinated.

00:09:56.860 And if you don't think there are going to be a lot of people that are pro-vaccine themselves

00:10:00.720 that do their part, that draw a line when it comes to their children, you are sorely mistaken.

00:10:05.640 And just anecdotally, the number of stories I'm hearing from people who have said, yeah, I got it.

00:10:11.860 I had to for work or I was fine with it or for travel, whatever.

00:10:15.080 But for kids, it's no, my children are simply full stop not getting vaccinated.

00:10:20.960 And there's, I can't quantify it.

00:10:23.040 It's just anecdotal.

00:10:24.060 But I know it exists and I know this is going to be something that we're hearing a lot of.

00:10:30.100 And if schools start mandating vaccination for five, six, seven-year-olds, there is going to be

00:10:35.860 rioting outside public schools all across Ontario, all across Canada.

00:10:41.300 And it's also going to bring up other questions about consent.

00:10:44.440 I want to read from the Niagara region health website.

00:10:48.240 Now, this is not a page about COVID-19 specifically.

00:10:52.280 This is a page about school vaccination.

00:10:54.860 And there are some vaccinations that are available to students like for HPV or for,

00:11:00.420 I think there's another one, the hepatitis vaccines that you get in grade seven or eight,

00:11:05.500 whatever it is.

00:11:06.360 So this is in general.

00:11:08.020 However, I think it's important to know the Niagara region's interpretation of the law.

00:11:13.320 They say on this page here, age of vaccination consent, under the Health Care Consent Act,

00:11:19.780 be advised that there is no minimum age to provide consent.

00:11:24.400 This means that your child can consent to be vaccinated without parental consent.

00:11:29.900 And they put without in bold to really drive home the points to parents that your children

00:11:34.040 can be vaccinated if they consent.

00:11:37.200 Now, one of the hallmarks of consent is informed consent.

00:11:41.720 And this is something that the act does specify, that you need to be able to make informed consent.

00:11:47.140 And there may not be an age, but how many five-year-olds are going to be capable of making informed consent

00:11:52.920 on something like this?

00:11:54.740 So you already have health officials that are laying the groundwork to say that they are going

00:11:59.600 to be vaccinating children without parental consent.

00:12:03.240 They think they have a legal mandate to do it.

00:12:06.720 You're going to get kids that are on a bandwagon of fact, kids that don't understand the scope of it,

00:12:10.980 kids who may not even know if they have some reason medically that they can't get a vaccination.

00:12:16.260 In this case, you'd hope that the parents would make that abundantly clear to the kid and the school.

00:12:21.040 But there are going to be throughout schools across Ontario, across Alberta, across BC, across the country,

00:12:29.320 students getting vaccinated without parental consent, potentially without parental knowledge,

00:12:35.560 and potentially with the perception of parental consent.

00:12:40.640 This is going to be a big thing.

00:12:41.920 I've already heard stories about cases where if you can't reach a parent,

00:12:46.440 it's kind of just presumed that they would have consented because, you know, after all,

00:12:49.880 what sort of Neanderthal or troglodyte wouldn't want their kid vaccinated?

00:12:53.200 Surely everyone wants this, right?

00:12:56.360 So this is going to be the next frontier on this.

00:12:59.040 Again, piece by piece, things that should be matters of individual choice are no longer treated that way.

00:13:07.700 And forget about whether there's going to be a malicious vaccination of people who haven't truly consented.

00:13:14.020 Even just the accidental vaccination risk, I think, is quite significant.

00:13:18.480 People that are trying to do the right thing that just assume that there's parental consent

00:13:22.360 or a kid doesn't know, something like that.

00:13:24.880 I mean, the whole point is that when you start putting schools in charge of things like this,

00:13:29.940 you're losing the ability for parents to do it.

00:13:32.360 I would say the parent needs to actually be standing right beside their child in order to consent

00:13:36.960 or have a form where it's abundantly clear what they wanted and what they sought.

00:13:41.400 But if the school is now saying that kids can consent without their parents,

00:13:46.060 then all of a sudden, what are we doing?

00:13:48.440 Are we making the five-year-olds sign the documents?

00:13:50.440 Or are we making the five-year-olds actually read about the side effects,

00:13:54.440 the benefits, the pros and cons, all of that?

00:13:57.900 So these are going to be the new frontiers, as I said, of this.

00:14:01.680 And a lot of parents will not want anything to do with it.

00:14:05.220 But if they start extending the vaccine passport to children,

00:14:09.660 if your kids want to go to a play place, if your kids want to join a sports team,

00:14:13.420 if your kids want to take piano lessons,

00:14:15.520 oh, well, your five-year-old's got to be vaccinated,

00:14:17.900 your six-year-old's got to be vaccinated.

00:14:19.940 And it won't end here.

00:14:21.760 Pfizer is running, and I think they've been running since February or March of this year,

00:14:25.720 maybe even longer, trials on children as young as six months old, on infants.

00:14:30.420 So making the COVID vaccine basically part of your measles, mumps, rubella, infant vaccination.

00:14:37.280 So that's what they're trying to do here.

00:14:40.100 And I should specify, and again, it's a necessary disclaimer,

00:14:43.720 I have no issue, no issue with people getting vaccinated.

00:14:47.720 I'm fully vaccinated.

00:14:49.000 I own that decision.

00:14:50.580 I'm happy with it.

00:14:51.420 But I think people can make whatever decision is right for them.

00:14:54.940 But in order to make a decision that's right for you,

00:14:58.000 you first off have to have the legal right to make it,

00:15:01.500 which takes the Austrian approach off the table.

00:15:04.360 But you also have to know what decision you're making.

00:15:07.960 And when you have health officials that are already trying to lay the groundwork

00:15:11.260 for vaccination without parental consent of children potentially as young as five years old,

00:15:17.020 which is where the COVID vaccine is approved,

00:15:20.100 you don't truly have informed consent.

00:15:22.800 And more importantly, you have a system that is going to pit parents against the schools

00:15:28.440 in which their children are students.

00:15:30.600 You know, speaking of the German health minister,

00:15:33.060 I want to read this line from Jens Spahn.

00:15:36.800 That is my German at work there.

00:15:39.040 Not particularly great.

00:15:40.100 I apologize.

00:15:41.260 But the German health minister has said,

00:15:42.960 by the end of the winter, citizens will be vaccinated, cured, or dead from COVID.

00:15:48.900 This is something that, you know, is trying to put the fear into people.

00:15:52.900 But it also suggests that the German government does not believe there's an additional category there

00:15:57.800 of being unvaccinated by choice.

00:16:00.700 Now, a lot of them, again, like Austria, 1.00

00:16:02.940 Austria doesn't really care now about natural immunity,

00:16:05.560 despite a wealth of research that says natural immunity can be very powerful,

00:16:09.940 in some cases more than some of the vaccines.

00:16:13.760 But he's saying, no, you got three options.

00:16:15.560 You can be vaccinated, you can be cured, or you can be dead.

00:16:19.540 And I don't think it's going to be all that surprising

00:16:21.920 if Germany goes down the road that Austria has gone down.

00:16:25.260 And Germany is a country of, what, 80, 80 some odd million now.

00:16:28.580 So when you have countries that large,

00:16:30.980 Western countries that are mandating vaccination,

00:16:34.260 it's going to justify other countries following suit.

00:16:38.340 And do not think for a moment that it could not happen in Canada,

00:16:41.960 because it absolutely could.

00:16:43.760 And we've absolutely learned throughout this entire process

00:16:46.900 that countries tend to be taking their cues from each other

00:16:49.820 and not always in a good way.

00:16:51.060 You look at Austria, which plunged citizens into one of the largest lockdowns

00:16:55.480 we've seen anywhere in the world.

00:16:56.880 Even still, they've talked about not restoring some of these travel rights

00:17:00.180 until well into 2023.

00:17:03.340 And to look at these people protesting in the streets in all these European cities,

00:17:07.460 I honestly say power to you.

00:17:09.300 And again, despite the severity of this, despite the attacks on liberty,

00:17:13.200 I do not believe violent protests are the way to achieve things,

00:17:16.560 but certainly protest and be heard.

00:17:19.420 I think it was in Vienna on Saturday,

00:17:21.380 tens of thousands of people were out in the streets saying to the government,

00:17:24.760 we are not going to take this.

00:17:26.520 Now, I don't know what the government does

00:17:28.320 if by February people simply are not taking the jab.

00:17:32.060 I mean, do they have enough jails in Austria

00:17:34.560 to put all of the unvaccinated behind bars? 1.00

00:17:37.580 I would venture a guess to say they don't.

00:17:40.260 But is it a bluff?

00:17:41.920 Probably not, because they're clearly trying to escalate things.

00:17:44.840 If they're just trying to scare people,

00:17:46.080 but they don't intend to follow through.

00:17:47.560 Well, I still don't think it's right,

00:17:49.360 but we'll find out soon enough, I suppose.

00:17:51.460 But the reality is,

00:17:52.580 do not look at these things that happen in other countries

00:17:54.940 as though they're in a silo.

00:17:56.540 Don't look at it like it's on a television screen in a movie,

00:17:59.200 because this is very much real life.

00:18:01.260 And if you do not stand up for your rights, no one else will.

00:18:05.580 We've got to take a break here.

00:18:07.280 When we come back, talking about the glories of carbon

00:18:09.780 with Colin Craig.

00:18:11.320 That's here on The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:18:13.080 Stay tuned.

00:18:15.020 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:18:18.960 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:18:21.400 You may remember a couple of weeks ago,

00:18:23.520 we did a panel on this very show

00:18:25.680 talking about the federal government's so-called just transition.

00:18:29.220 And we decided to tell the other side of the story

00:18:31.660 and shine a light on the work

00:18:33.220 that the oil and gas sector is doing

00:18:36.000 to achieve what the government says

00:18:38.260 are its stated objectives,

00:18:39.480 at reducing the almighty emission tally

00:18:41.800 that is one of the things that Canada

00:18:44.160 has committed us to doing as a country

00:18:46.140 with the Paris Agreement

00:18:47.620 and now with the Glasgow Agreement.

00:18:49.260 And I've had some great feedback

00:18:50.520 from listeners and viewers of that panel

00:18:52.400 amazed that all of these evil, scary oil and gas companies

00:18:56.640 were doing all these things

00:18:57.680 that you just never hear about in the mainstream media.

00:19:00.960 Well, it isn't just the oil and gas sector.

00:19:03.180 Industry itself is taking one thing that we're told

00:19:06.100 is that the bad guy of industry, carbon dioxide,

00:19:09.500 and turning it into lots of really cool things.

00:19:12.180 One in particular that I think we all can enjoy

00:19:14.360 perhaps at the end of the week.

00:19:15.980 But I want to talk about this with Colin Craig

00:19:17.800 from secondstreet.org,

00:19:19.120 which has published this great report,

00:19:21.160 25 Innovative Carbon Tech Examples.

00:19:24.420 Colin, it's good to talk to you.

00:19:25.420 Thanks for coming on today.

00:19:26.920 Well, thanks for having me, Andrew.

00:19:28.880 So let's start with the first question here.

00:19:30.760 Why did you decide to do the dive into this

00:19:32.840 and start pulling out all these examples?

00:19:35.020 Some of which I will say,

00:19:36.460 and we'll get into this very shortly,

00:19:37.980 are on the more obscure side, one might say.

00:19:40.560 Well, you know, I kept hearing anecdotally

00:19:42.880 about these really cool things

00:19:44.320 that entrepreneurs were creating with carbon dioxide

00:19:47.380 instead of letting it release up into the atmosphere.

00:19:50.180 And then I thought, you know,

00:19:51.300 let's see if we can do a report on this,

00:19:53.400 see how much is out there.

00:19:55.280 And as you alluded to,

00:19:56.640 our report's called 25 Examples.

00:19:58.480 We found lots of really cool things

00:20:00.420 that entrepreneurs are doing.

00:20:01.860 And we did this also because so much of the discussion

00:20:04.400 about climate change in Canada,

00:20:06.240 it's doom and gloom.

00:20:07.740 It's pessimistic.

00:20:08.820 I don't think that's how leaders

00:20:09.980 should be approaching a problem.

00:20:11.240 I think they need to approach things with optimism

00:20:13.740 and spread the good news stories that are out there

00:20:16.600 so that we can inspire more people

00:20:18.040 to be looking at this kind of research and work.

00:20:21.140 Yeah, and just to set the stage here

00:20:23.180 with the political agenda,

00:20:24.620 we originally had commitments that Canada made

00:20:26.760 under the Paris Agreement

00:20:27.740 to reduce our CO2 emissions by about 30%.

00:20:31.500 Justin Trudeau kind of on the back of a napkin

00:20:34.120 changed that about a year ago to say 40 to 45%.

00:20:37.480 Reducing emissions is something that can be achieved

00:20:40.820 in a couple of different ways.

00:20:41.920 You can actually stop producing

00:20:43.840 or conceivably, you could take what you are producing

00:20:47.160 and take it out of the atmosphere

00:20:48.640 and apply it to other things.

00:20:50.680 And these 25 items on your list,

00:20:52.800 they fall into that latter category, do they not?

00:20:55.480 Yeah, certainly most of them do.

00:20:57.900 It's taking CO2, like you say,

00:20:59.940 instead of letting it go into the atmosphere,

00:21:02.680 you make something with it.

00:21:03.900 So one of the examples that I love

00:21:06.180 is from a company in New York,

00:21:07.920 it's called Air Company.

00:21:08.800 I'll just put it right here for a moment

00:21:10.140 so you can see it.

00:21:10.780 So it's vodka.

00:21:12.700 And what they've done is they found a way

00:21:15.420 to make vodka using two ingredients,

00:21:18.400 carbon dioxide and water.

00:21:20.920 And that's it.

00:21:21.700 It's really amazing how they've done this.

00:21:23.860 And if you think about the formula for ethanol,

00:21:25.940 which is the main ingredient in vodka,

00:21:28.020 it's made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms.

00:21:31.600 And you can find those three atoms in H2O and CO2.

00:21:36.240 So they found a way to take those two ingredients,

00:21:40.440 so to speak, and make vodka out of it.

00:21:42.840 But there's certainly lots of other really interesting things

00:21:45.440 that entrepreneurs are doing,

00:21:46.860 not just outside of Canada,

00:21:49.200 certainly in Canada's borders,

00:21:50.500 including a lot in Calgary.

00:21:51.700 Just to go back to the vodka for a moment here,

00:21:55.200 we may not get off the vodka,

00:21:56.500 but just for a moment at least.

00:21:58.080 I mean, we could, if we nationalize this,

00:22:00.080 we could probably achieve the 45% reduction in CO2 right there.

00:22:04.760 I could probably account for about 15% of that some days.

00:22:07.620 We just have to replace everyone's drinks at the dinner table with vodka,

00:22:11.180 and then we'll be fine.

00:22:12.520 Forget about Tim Hortons.

00:22:13.580 Our new national drink is air vodka,

00:22:15.920 the CO2 capturing vodka.

00:22:17.580 Okay, is that the only edible one on the list?

00:22:21.280 No, actually, there's another really cool one that,

00:22:24.280 it's a company in Ontario, actually.

00:22:25.920 It's called Pond Technologies.

00:22:28.000 And what they've done, it's fascinating.

00:22:29.860 I love it.

00:22:30.300 What they're doing is they're taking the exhaust

00:22:33.420 that would come out of, say, like a smokestack,

00:22:35.680 and they are channeling that CO2 that's coming out.

00:22:39.160 They use some pipes.

00:22:40.200 They put it into a tank.

00:22:41.940 The tank is full of algae.

00:22:44.060 And the algae eat the CO2.

00:22:45.960 For lack of a better word,

00:22:47.140 I'm not a chemist,

00:22:47.900 but they basically consume it.

00:22:49.260 They're able to grow.

00:22:50.560 And then eventually what that company does

00:22:52.340 is it processes the algae,

00:22:54.460 and then they can turn it into all kinds of different products.

00:22:57.520 They're trying to turn it into biofuels,

00:22:59.480 bioplastics, nutraceuticals,

00:23:02.620 and then including one ingredient,

00:23:04.940 phycocyanin, I believe is how you pronounce it.

00:23:07.980 And it's basically blue food coloring.

00:23:10.820 So that blue food coloring is used in things like M&Ms.

00:23:14.000 So that's another great example.

00:23:15.800 I guess we'll have vodka to drink,

00:23:17.840 we'll have blue M&Ms for dinner,

00:23:19.820 and then we're going to solve climate change.

00:23:22.780 You know, it's funny,

00:23:23.820 because obviously these are just a couple of novel examples here.

00:23:27.720 And I don't think we'll go through the whole list at 25.

00:23:30.140 We'll post a link to it here.

00:23:31.700 But there are some that are pretty critical items.

00:23:34.100 You've got batteries that are in here.

00:23:36.300 You've got bioplastics as well.

00:23:38.820 I mean, we always hear about how packaging is supposed to be the great nemesis

00:23:42.540 of environmental concerns.

00:23:44.940 Well, here's a way to kill two birds with one stone right there.

00:23:47.320 Start using CO2 in the production of packaging.

00:23:50.940 Yeah.

00:23:51.240 And one I love is it's a company in Calgary.

00:23:54.380 They're starting to make carbon nanofibers with CO2.

00:23:59.500 And as the name suggests, it has carbon in it.

00:24:01.920 You obviously can get carbon from CO2.

00:24:03.820 And we already use as a society carbon nanofibers.

00:24:08.400 You'll find them in all kinds of different products.

00:24:10.280 So if you pick up a lightweight badminton racket,

00:24:12.400 you'll probably see sometimes that on the racket,

00:24:15.920 it'll say that it's made with carbon graphite or carbon fiber or whatever.

00:24:21.220 Bicycle frames, those are lightweight.

00:24:23.560 So we're already using them.

00:24:24.820 The difference now is that this company is able to make that material

00:24:27.720 using captured CO2, again, instead of letting it go into the atmosphere.

00:24:31.900 So there are so many amazing things that entrepreneurs are doing

00:24:35.440 with capturing CO2.

00:24:37.760 I think we need to talk about it more.

00:24:39.340 You know, I hear these stories about kids in schools that are growing.

00:24:43.360 They're having anxiety problems and other mental health issues

00:24:47.160 because of climate change.

00:24:48.240 And I think, my goodness, like, tell them the good news stories.

00:24:51.080 Like, you know, that's not leadership to just scare all these kids.

00:24:54.740 Give them some hope.

00:24:55.680 Why don't we try and encourage them to be the next generation of engineers

00:24:58.620 that can start to find other cool ways of using CO2?

00:25:03.220 Yeah, and the one that jumped out at me, too, again,

00:25:05.480 just on an amusing note, is yoga mats.

00:25:07.920 And the people that are using those yoga mats, I think, demographically,

00:25:11.740 are the most likely to think that CO2 is, again,

00:25:15.000 this thing that we need to just completely purge and eradicate.

00:25:17.740 Great, another way to kill two birds with one stone.

00:25:20.720 Yeah, it's pretty cool.

00:25:22.660 We actually met with a company recently that was making some of the material

00:25:25.780 for those yoga mats.

00:25:26.980 And in that case, you know, the whole yoga mat material is not from carbon dioxide,

00:25:31.320 but it's part of it.

00:25:32.800 It's an ingredient that they're able to use for that.

00:25:35.940 And like you say, there's often ways that you can kill two birds with one stone

00:25:39.560 with what these entrepreneurs are doing.

00:25:42.200 There's a great Calgary store here, a company called Clean O2,

00:25:45.540 where they are able to take – it was – I believe it was created by someone

00:25:50.860 in the sort of plumbing and heating and ventilation sector.

00:25:53.840 They thought, well, why are we letting all this CO2 go into the atmosphere?

00:25:57.380 Let's capture it.

00:25:58.400 And they found a way to capture it and create a product that's used for soap.

00:26:02.400 So you can use soap that's made from CO2.

00:26:06.400 And the thing I like about this is that you have politicians often using the word

00:26:11.020 pollution, and they're really trying to demonize the word carbon dioxide and carbon.

00:26:16.080 And it's – you know, entrepreneurs are kind of looking at it a little bit more

00:26:19.300 level-headed, and they're saying, well, wait a second.

00:26:21.780 Carbon's a material that's in everything – or not everything, but a lot of different

00:26:24.880 things, including humans.

00:26:27.140 And it's just a resource that we can make stuff with.

00:26:30.440 So I think entrepreneurs are the ones who are really taking the leadership role in the

00:26:34.500 issue of climate change and reducing emissions, rather than politicians that so often are flying

00:26:39.340 off the handle.

00:26:40.160 They're using, you know, inflammatory language in that.

00:26:43.760 So, you know, in our policy brief, we talk about all kinds of different things, including,

00:26:48.460 you know, as you talked about at the beginning of your show, just people in the oil and gas

00:26:51.880 industry being really supportive of the sector.

00:26:54.720 The – you know, I mentioned Air Company, the New York company that made the vodka.

00:26:59.320 Well, they were a finalist in an X Prize that was co-sponsored by the Canadian Oil Sands

00:27:05.440 Innovation Alliance.

00:27:06.980 So you're seeing lots of examples like that where industry is supporting these entrepreneurs,

00:27:11.860 and they're helping these companies out.

00:27:13.440 They want to do what they think is best for the environment.

00:27:16.560 The Canadian Gas Association, they've been heavily supportive of efforts by industry to

00:27:21.980 try to reduce emissions in up-and-coming startups and that.

00:27:25.820 So, you know, it's really on this issue, I think the leadership that we need to see is

00:27:31.280 happening by the private sector.

00:27:33.040 It's happening by entrepreneurs.

00:27:35.760 And it's how we've addressed past environmental challenges, if you look throughout history.

00:27:39.540 It's not by politicians pounding their fists.

00:27:41.780 It's by entrepreneurs finding a way to address the issue at hand.

00:27:46.180 Yeah, and that panel that I did a couple of weeks ago, we had a couple of entrepreneurs

00:27:50.660 that have been doing a lot in this space.

00:27:52.500 And one of the things that was most interesting to me about this is that they're getting

00:27:56.940 virtually no government support.

00:27:58.940 Now, I should say, as true entrepreneurs, they aren't looking for government support.

00:28:02.540 But if the government is saying that this is the top priority, it would be great to look

00:28:06.520 at, instead of reinventing the wheel, organizations and entrepreneurs and investors that are already

00:28:11.800 doing things that are working towards that stated objective.

00:28:15.320 And the point that I think a lot of listeners took away from that, and certainly I did as

00:28:19.720 the moderator, was that the government isn't really looking for true solutions to this.

00:28:24.300 They're looking for basically justification to declare a war on this oil and gas sector.

00:28:29.380 And I'm wondering if in the conversations you've had with entrepreneurs and startups that

00:28:33.720 are on this list, if that's true, their story as well, where they're kind of doing this alone

00:28:37.240 in spite of government or certainly without government.

00:28:41.660 Yeah, you know, I think there has been some cases where they have received support from

00:28:45.640 government.

00:28:46.060 A lot of entrepreneurs, like you say, they're, I think, naturally have a mindset where they

00:28:50.120 don't need, they're not looking around for government handouts.

00:28:53.480 I actually think there is a role for government to support industry with this.

00:28:59.000 And I think there's a few things that government can do that I think a lot of people across

00:29:03.720 the political spectrum would support.

00:29:05.360 Myself, I don't think we need as much government in our lives as we have, but I think there's

00:29:09.040 a role for government here.

00:29:10.140 It could be something as simple as, you know, you often see the federal government spending

00:29:14.080 millions of dollars each year on research grants in the post-secondary sector.

00:29:18.760 When you go through that list, there's a lot of really crazy stuff.

00:29:21.820 It's not a priority.

00:29:23.700 What they could do is say, okay, if we're going to spend this money on research grants in the

00:29:27.480 post-secondary sector, well, then put it towards the carbon capture issue because you keep telling

00:29:32.700 us that it's a crisis.

00:29:33.780 Well, if it's a crisis, that's where you should be diverting your resources. 0.66

00:29:37.660 And we talked about a couple of the silly examples in our report.

00:29:40.320 I think if your listeners and viewers go through it, they'd agree that it's the things that

00:29:44.300 Ottawa spends money on in that sector.

00:29:46.080 It's not necessarily a priority.

00:29:48.520 So that's one way Ottawa could support the sector without spending more money.

00:29:51.960 Just take the existing money and redirect it towards this issue.

00:29:55.320 It could even be something as simple as drawing attention to it.

00:29:59.120 I mean, our politicians have huge social media followings.

00:30:02.180 Talk about it.

00:30:02.720 Talk about the companies in your city, your town, your constituency, whatever, that are

00:30:06.980 doing these things so that they get more publicity and attention.

00:30:09.880 And from that, these companies might even be able to get some venture capital raise from

00:30:14.320 the private sector.

00:30:15.200 So I think there are things...

00:30:16.120 Yeah, don't just demonize the entire space, which is, I think, what's happening now.

00:30:19.880 Yeah, exactly.

00:30:21.100 So, you know, I think there's a role for government to help out.

00:30:23.800 It doesn't always have to be the one they're cutting a big check.

00:30:26.600 But, you know, there's things that can be done there.

00:30:30.760 And another idea in the report that I thought as well was something that would certainly conform

00:30:34.740 with my goals for government, keeping it small and pro-industry.

00:30:38.640 And that was just offering tax credits for companies that are doing things in the carbon

00:30:43.360 capture space.

00:30:44.240 And this is logical.

00:30:45.340 If we're going to be penalizing through a carbon tax large emitters, why would we not

00:30:49.540 incentivize to companies that are doing things to actually have a net negative impact on emissions?

00:30:55.640 Not just net zero, but net negative, which is what these companies are doing.

00:30:58.820 Yeah, and that's certainly one thing that can be done.

00:31:02.120 Ottawa's looking at bringing in a credit.

00:31:04.300 They're kind of at a consultation stage.

00:31:06.980 They have said that they're going to be bringing this in.

00:31:11.040 I forget the amount.

00:31:12.420 It's somewhere around 30 megatons is what they're talking about, supporting.

00:31:18.020 Well, the amount that Canada emits each year in carbon dioxide, it's over 700 megatons.

00:31:25.460 So they're saying, well, we're going to do this.

00:31:27.420 This is the size of the problem.

00:31:29.200 Well, then make that tax credit much more available to a larger swath so that you can

00:31:34.760 actually start to address that issue in a more meaningful way rather than just sort

00:31:40.040 of this token little thing.

00:31:41.320 So we'll have to wait and see what kind of details Ottawa brings forward with that plan.

00:31:45.320 But I think there's enormous potential in this sector.

00:31:49.060 Entrepreneurs are pretty amazing at addressing this, as we've seen.

00:31:52.220 And we've talked about vodka and badminton rackets.

00:31:54.340 Another great one is diamonds.

00:31:55.640 You know, there's a company in New York that's making diamonds from CO2.

00:31:58.780 So there's all kinds of wild and amazing things that entrepreneurs are doing.

00:32:03.160 And I think governments shouldn't underestimate what they can do.

00:32:07.420 The report over at secondstreet.org, 25 innovative carbon tech examples.

00:32:12.440 The co-author, president of secondstreet.org, Colin Craig, joins me.

00:32:16.460 Colin, always a pleasure to talk to you.

00:32:17.920 I can't toast your work with a glass of air vodka yet.

00:32:21.840 I'll have to order mine.

00:32:22.660 But I do appreciate you putting this together and coming on today.

00:32:25.880 Yeah, thanks a lot, Andrew.

00:32:26.800 Appreciate your time and helping to spread the word about what's happening.

00:32:30.940 That's great.

00:32:31.340 I want to try that vodka.

00:32:33.120 So I am going to reach out to the company.

00:32:35.380 I'm going to try to get one.

00:32:36.480 And I'm going to try to get them on the show.

00:32:37.680 Because like I said, this is, I think, a great example of what we should be doing more of.

00:32:41.660 You're going to get more flies with honey than vinegar.

00:32:44.240 I hate resorting to cliches and proverbs and all of those sorts of things.

00:32:47.940 But that's the truth.

00:32:49.000 And we know that the punitive carbon tax only makes Canada uncompetitive.

00:32:53.360 Whereas if you incentivize people that are doing the things that the government claims are its primary goals,

00:32:59.300 if you're being honest about it, which I realize is a big, big if.

00:33:02.920 If you're being honest about it, these are the sorts of companies you should be welcoming in the landscape of this country

00:33:10.200 and also other countries as well, as we heard.

00:33:12.660 And it's not always Canadian companies that are doing these things,

00:33:15.200 but certainly a lot of Canadian companies and in particular a lot of Alberta companies on that list

00:33:20.420 as examples of the 25 carbon tech innovators.

00:33:23.920 So that does it for us for today.

00:33:25.880 Got to wrap things up here.

00:33:26.800 My thanks to Colin Craig for coming on the show and all of you for tuning in.

00:33:30.260 We'll be back in just a couple of days time with more of Canada's most irreverent talk show here on True North.

00:33:35.800 This is the Andrew Lawton Show.

00:33:37.060 Thank you.

00:33:37.460 God bless and good day.

00:33:39.100 Thanks for listening to the Andrew Lawton Show.

00:33:41.260 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - November 23, 2021

Mandatory vaccination is an obliteration of rights

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