Juno News - January 26, 2023
MEP Christine Anderson is coming to Canada to meet freedom protesters
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Summary
Coming up, an in depth conversation about freedom, about the intersection of European and Canadian politics, and lots more, with Christine Anderson, the member of the European Parliament from Germany. The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now on the True North Network.
Transcript
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This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.
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Coming up, an in-depth conversation about freedom,
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about the intersection of European and Canadian politics.
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Believe it or not, there is one, and lots more,
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with Christine Anderson, the member of the European Parliament from Germany.
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Hello and welcome to you all, Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show here.
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It's not often that we cast a wide net and talk about European politics exclusively on this show,
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and I am going to try to steer clear of that on this,
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although I think what's fascinating is that in this global era,
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the freedom movement is one that really transcends national borders.
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We saw people from the United States, from Canada, the United Kingdom, Austria,
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Germany, Australia, and many other places all link up during the COVID era
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because they realized that what united them as people pushing back against government overreach
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was ultimately a stronger bond than what might have divided them
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as far as space and time and geography and all of that fun stuff.
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there were some very standout examples of people standing athwart history
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and yelling stop of people pushing back against this,
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One of them was the member of the European Parliament, Christine Anderson,
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who hails from Germany, but obviously she works for the European Parliament,
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and she is part of a small but mighty and small but vocal group in the European Parliament
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that is standing up so unequivocally for freedom.
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And Canada caught Ms. Anderson's eye a little over a year ago
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and then when the federal government had its massive crackdown on that convoy.
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This message today goes out to all the Canadians,
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I applaud your bravery and your determination to stand up
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You have given hope to so many people in the world.
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You have shown the world that this small fringe minority
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with an ever-increasing governmental overreach.
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That was certainly what put Christine Anderson
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and she wasn't finished there when Justin Trudeau
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and actually sat down in the European Parliament in Brussels.
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Christine Anderson had some harsh words for him then as well.
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It would have been more appropriate for Mr. Trudeau,
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Prime Minister of Canada, to address this House.
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According to Article 144, an article which was specifically designed
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to debate violations of human rights, democracy and the rule of law,
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Then again, a Prime Minister who openly admires
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by persecuting and criminalizing his own citizens as terrorists,
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just because they dared to stand up to his perverted concept of democracy,
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should not be allowed to speak in this House at all.
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Mr. Trudeau, you are a disgrace for any democracy.
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As you can see, a woman who doesn't shy away from saying what she thinks.
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We need a few people with those instincts in politics in Canada as well.
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But Christine Anderson is going to be coming herself to Canada
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in just under one month, February 18th to 25th.
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She is going to be touring Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.
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You can get all the details of this tour at www.cadtour.com.
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Now that's what would Christine Anderson do?
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She's going to be going to Alberta at the Calgary Petroleum Club,
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She's going to be speaking at the Canada Christian College in Whitby
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And then off to Quebec for a send-off cocktail dinner
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Although the convoy did have dessert and dancing.
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And I don't know about cocktails, but maybe they should have had that.
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In any event, it is my great pleasure to welcome
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I know you've got a full plate of things you need to deal with there.
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And actually, if I can be frank, why do you care about Canada?
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Well, you know, first of all, I just want to meet the most bravest people in the world.
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What I consider the most brave people in the world in the past three years, at least.
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And it was just, you know, Canada, I mean, Trudeau really did overplay his hand there
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with the, you know, violations on fundamental rights, democracy, and the rule of law.
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And I was like, I mean, Canada, you know, once free country, how is it possible?
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And how quickly did that all, you know, come about?
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And it was like, something is going seriously wrong here.
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So, yeah, I took a particular interest in that.
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And then plus, you had, I mean, you had the freedom convoy over there.
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And, you know, just think about what, what started this.
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I mean, what, you know, what happened from there?
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It was really the trucks went rolling and they did not only roll in Canada.
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You know, it was a symbol of hope, a symbol of freedom, and that traveled throughout the world.
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And I really just want to meet the people that made this all happen.
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And they came to realize something is not right here.
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And what my government is telling me, it may not all be true.
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I know that you obviously lived in the United States.
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And obviously you've picked up a bit of the political culture there.
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But was Canada on your radar in any meaningful way before the convoy happened?
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I mean, you know, but I didn't have any particular interest in Canada.
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But like I said, the freedom truckers, they really struck a nerve with me.
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And yeah, and now I just have to come, whether you like it or not.
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Well, it's funny you say that, because a lot of people I think will like it and I think should come.
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And I know tickets are already going for your events.
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But there are going to be a lot of people that are trying to look at people like you in Europe and with European parties.
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And they use these scary words like far-right, populist, extremist.
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And in Europe, do you have the same problem with those terms just being applied by the media and by people on the political left to try to discredit you?
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You know, they can try, but they are not successful.
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I mean, you know, they can label me with whatever they want, but no one gets to define me.
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They may try, you know, but I'm not going to go for this.
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So whatever label they want to slap on me, let them, you know, I can't deal with that.
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One story I found interesting when I learned a little bit about your political party, Alternative for Germany,
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is that it was, as I understand it, at one point targeted by German intelligence and investigated as being this extremist group.
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And that struck me as very similar to what Justin Trudeau does to his political critics,
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what he did throughout the convoy, where he takes this apparatus of the state and uses it for political purposes
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more than what these things are supposed to be used for.
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I mean, yeah, we've been seeing that in Germany.
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I mean, we do have the state, you know, secret intelligence service, if you want to call it,
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And the primary, or what they should do, is to actually protect the constitution.
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And they should be on the lookout for any groups, you know, that want to undermine the constitution,
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overthrow the government, you know, with violent means.
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But it's been abused to pretty much suppress the opposition.
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And that's just a no-go in, you know, in a democracy.
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And, you know, they're coming up with all kinds of accusations.
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And the latest group they arrested, I'm not kidding here, was a bunch of elderlies, you know,
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And it was like, I think like eight or nine of them.
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And they passed around this picture of this old lady holding, you know, some bag or whatever.
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And she is now being paraded around as this terrorist trying to overthrow the government.
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These 80-year-olds were a threat to the national security of Germany somehow.
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And they were, they were being accused of having tried to kidnap our secretary of health.
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I mean, him of all people, who would want to kidnap this lunatic, you know, seriously.
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Yeah, but it's like a lot of people, they still fall for this.
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And they don't even realize how ridiculous that even sounds, you know.
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I mean, eight, nine, 80-year-olds, yeah, really.
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So, but, you know, when I found out that they were, you know, observing us, I just said,
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well, you know, tell you the truth, if I have to leave the house at night to, you know,
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walk around the block or whatever, you know, get something, I feel much safer now.
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Yeah, you've got free personal protection from the government.
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That's a good way to put a positive spin on it.
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But let me ask you about where Europe is in your view compared to North America.
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Because I know that for Canadian conservatives and certainly American conservatives, they have
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historically looked at Europe as being the place where freedom is just no longer within reach.
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And a lot of this, you can trace back to the way European governments have just completely opened their borders to unfettered migration.
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When the COVID was happening, we saw some very extreme measures around the world, though, in Australia and Canada,
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and even the United States, which still right now has a vaccine mandate.
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So what's your perspective as a European representative in the European Parliament, rather,
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to where Europe is compared to North America for freedom?
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They've been on this for so long now, and what we are seeing is they are redefining certain concepts.
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They're now privileges, you know, that the government can grant you or can withhold, depending upon your behavior or whatever.
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And that is such a perversion of, you know, these concepts.
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Then you take human rights, for example, you know.
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Now it is a human right to have an abortion, you know.
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And it will call out on any country that they presume to be in violation of that fundamental right.
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For instance, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
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All of these poor women and there have been, you know, whatever.
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And, but they fail to see when there are actual violations of fundamental rights,
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as happened in Canada, as happened in the United States or here, you know,
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where people were locked in their homes because they were asymptomatic, might have been asymptomatic,
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I mean, they fail to see that these are the actual violations of fundamental rights.
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You may have heard of, or I'm pretty sure you have, Jordan B. Peterson.
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You know, they're now threatening him that he has to undergo re-education, you know,
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I mean, on what planet would that be considered something you would do in a democracy?
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So the real problem actually is, and you mentioned that, it did not only go on here in Europe
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It was in, in Australia, and you see, I mean, in every single Western democracy,
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They were basically in, in lockstep as we, and literally down to the same words,
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build back better vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, you know, safe and, and effective and all of
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And that is actually the most scary thing about this all, because like I always say,
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if it was two or three countries going broke, you know, and, and, you know, kind of like
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violating on fun and fundamental rights, uh, you could hope that one of the other democratic
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countries will step in eventually and put a stop to it.
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But if it's all of them, who in the heck is going to bail us out?
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And that is actually the conclusion from that has to be, there is only the people left.
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And, and I, I think, you know, Canada is a tremendous example of that.
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And, and unlike your country, we don't have in, in living memory, a time when there was
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such a thing as an East Germany for, or a Soviet union that was directly, uh, in affecting
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And, and I think that's often been to our detriment that we don't have that in our history
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But you do raise an important point that when government pushes too far, they can awaken
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I look at what happened in, in Austria when Austria was planning one of the most evil
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totalitarian policies of the COVID era, which was mandatory vaccination, a fine of, I think
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it was something like 6,000 euros or around that if someone didn't get vaccinated.
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And Germany was considering something like that too, were they not?
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And, you know, just talking about it and just threatening to come up with a vaccine mandate
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actually made people, because they figured if it's going to come anyway, then I might as
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And that, then I'll be allowed to go to a restaurant again, you know?
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They don't even have to pass the law to get the effect.
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And, um, they, they didn't even try to hide it.
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I mean, our secretary of health, he just came right out and he said, well, you know, if
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we, if we have a mandatory, uh, vaccine, then, uh, people are going to get, get vaccinated.
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We want them to get vaccinated and we need to put pressure on them, you know?
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And it was talk of, um, they wouldn't be allowed to go to work anymore.
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It was talk of if they were hospitalized, they get no treatment or they have to pay for the
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You know, I mean, I am German and, uh, we have, you know, 12, very, very dark years
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And we remember it every year on a particular day, by the way, tomorrow, once again, we
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will, you know, uh, remember the end of the Holocaust.
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So, um, but, uh, people fail to recognize the mechanisms that were put in place back then
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And they're looking at it right now and they do not see it because now it's the good guys
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When you talk about everyone in the world being in lockstep, that is, I think a very
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And I mentioned to you just before we started recording and my listeners and viewers are
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aware I was in Davos last week covering the world economic forum.
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And the challenge of events like that is that all of a sudden the world leaders that show
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up are not representing their own countries anymore.
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They're all representing this little club of global elites in the Swiss village of Davos
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And I think the European union is a big part problem here because you have countries that
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are a member of this body that tries to have a, its own pseudo national European identity
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and which you cannot really have unless you give up a, at least a part of your German identity
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or your French identity or your Italian identity.
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And I think every country in the world should be protecting its sovereignty far more than they
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And, you know, we're not only talking about national identity.
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We're not only talking about cultural identity.
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You know, your sexual biological identity that goes down to the very core of who you are as
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And, uh, I always wonder, you know, if I can be anything at any time, you know, a woman today,
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a man tomorrow, maybe something completely different on the next day or whatever.
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And you can, I mean, what are you going to be in the end?
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And, uh, if people don't start realizing it pretty soon, uh, we may not have a chance to
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I see this as being very tied into digital ID and central bank, digital currencies, again,
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two policies that the European union is, is going full steam ahead towards.
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And what people who are apathetic about these things are supportive of these things don't
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realize, or maybe some of them do and are very enthusiastic about it is that when your
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identity is the property of the state, or it's something that you can't physically hold
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in your hand and control in your hand, it is the state's power.
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And anyone who looked at the freezing of truckers, bank accounts in Canada should have no interest
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and no time and no patience for anything digital that is controlled by someone other than themselves.
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But so many Europeans are going along with this.
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And I'm wondering if you think the reason is that they're too trusting in government or
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that they just don't even think about the long-term implications of these things.
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If you, when, once you look at the countries in the Eastern European countries, it's not
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been that long ago that they had to live under a totalitarian Soviet rule, they remember, and
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It, you know, the point is not what's in the paper.
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The interesting stuff is what's not in the paper and you have to read between the lines.
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So they see it, they feel it, because it feels exactly the same as what they had overcome 30 years ago.
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So, but we, as we have been born and raised in Western democracies, we are spoiled brats.
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And the totalitarian regimes of the past, they were rather blunt about it.
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You know, they just started rounding up people and, you know, locking them up or whatever.
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You can go into a woman's restroom or locker.
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You know, if you feel like a woman, you can go in there, you know, all of these things.
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So this complete shift of what we once thought were our, that the concepts of what democracy was built on is now being deconstructed completely.
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And the people, I can't stress this enough, people need to start realizing and they need to revisit what democracy is all about.
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That's an incredibly important point you raise about the redefining of terms.
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I've followed a number of cases over the years that have gone towards the European Court of Human Rights, which in and of itself is, I think, an offensive existence.
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But the European Court of Human Rights has a very malleable view of what freedom of speech is.
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And they try to balance this against other harms.
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And you could make a comment about radical Islam that has happened in a case not that long ago that the European Court of Human Rights says, well, your free speech doesn't really apply there.
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And this is something people should be terrified of because they are giving up the power.
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And that actually concerns me the most because Northern America, the United States and Canada, I mean, I can only really speak about the United States.
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They had a very strong concept of freedom of speech.
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I mean, that was the most fundamental rights you could even imagine.
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And the U.S. courts, they generate a freedom of speech.
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But now even, well, you know, you might be hurting people and, you know, this, that and the other.
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And I had it happen here in the FAM Committee, that is the Committee on the Equality between Men and Women.
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And so I was, a colleague of mine, she urged the chair of the committee to launch an investigation into me because I might have, might have violated, oh, what was the term she used?
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I might have, I might have committed the crime of hate speech.
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And what was it, what was it you said that was so hateful?
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So she, I launched an investigation, I could have committed a hate crime.
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I said, just to be clear, there's only two sexes, men and women.
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I just kind of laughed at her and said, yeah, sure, whatever.
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I mean, this is a biological fact, you know?
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But, yeah, that's the clown world we live in right now.
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And that book was not supposed to be a blueprint.
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And now it's being banned in school, by the way.
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Yeah, and the books that they're trying to ban are always the ones that I think independent thinkers should be flocking to and reading because there's something they don't want you to see there.
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Now, I know, Christine, you're speaking across Canada.
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I've mentioned the dates at the beginning, and I'll mention them again at the end.
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But are you also, as a representative, a foreign representative, going to be meeting with any politicians here or hoping to meet with any politicians here?
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I mean, you guys do have a couple of politicians I would actually like to meet.
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But the main focus is really on meeting the people and, you know, yeah, just getting to know, like I said, some of the most brave, brave people, the bravest people in the world.
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And the last question I'll ask you then, when you think about the message that you'll be bringing to Canada and perhaps elsewhere when you speak, are you an optimist or are you hopeful?
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If I wasn't hopeful, I mean, you know, I wouldn't be doing any of this because then, you know, I would just, I don't know.
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You kind of have to be because otherwise you could not do what I do.
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And the freedom truckers, they have to be optimistic, too, because they would have never been able to pull this off, you know, had they not had some hope.
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And had they not had the reassurance that it will, in the end, all turn out for the better.
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We certainly look forward to your visit, Christine Anderson, member of the European Parliament.
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A little bit of a significant date as we talk about the end of the Freedom Convoy and the one-year anniversary of it.
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She's going to start in Alberta, then make her way to Ontario, and then a final send-off in Quebec.
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And I'll certainly try to make it out to at least one of them.
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So thanks again to Christine and to all of you for tuning in to The Andrew Lawton Show today.
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But there's a Fake News Friday in the meantime that you can see on Friday, I guess.
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Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
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Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.