Juno News - October 01, 2025


Most youth believe Canada 'belongs' to Indigenous people


Episode Stats

Length

13 minutes

Words per Minute

162.19496

Word Count

2,138

Sentence Count

100

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

9


Summary

A new survey finds that a majority of youth in Canada believe that the country belongs to Indigenous people. Academic Frances Whittson and her team were surrounded, shouted down, and allegedly assaulted by a mob of Indigenous activists. Toronto s dancing mayor, Olivia Chow, has warned that the feds' failure to fund housing for asylum seekers on the taxpayer dime could lead to a 2% property tax hike for residents.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 A new survey finds that a majority of youth in Canada believe that the country belongs to Indigenous people.
00:00:11.460 Academic Frances Whittowson, a co-author of the Trunard published book, Grave Error, and her team were surrounded, shouted down, and allegedly assaulted by a mob of Indigenous activists.
00:00:22.400 Toronto's dancing mayor, Olivia Chow, has warned that the feds' failure to fund housing for asylum seekers on the taxpayer dime could lead to a 2% property tax hike for residents.
00:00:33.960 Hello Canada, it's Wednesday, October 1st, and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Isaac Lamoureux.
00:00:39.280 And I'm William Tam Tam.
00:00:40.340 We've got you covered with all the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
00:00:47.520 A growing share of young Canadians believe Canada belongs to Indigenous peoples, according to new polling that highlights a widening generational divide over national identity and historical interpretation.
00:01:01.880 The survey, conducted by Leger and first reported by the Canadian press, found that 58% of Canadians aged 18 to 24 agreed with the statement that, quote, Canada belongs to Indigenous peoples.
00:01:14.460 That figure stands in stark contrast to just 24% among those aged 65 and older.
00:01:20.940 Overall, among all ages, about 1 in 3 Canadians, so 34%, supported the statement, while a majority either disagreed or were unsure.
00:01:30.000 The results come as debates over land acknowledgements, Aboriginal title, and reconciliation continue to shape policy and public discourse across the country.
00:01:38.560 Political commentator Caroline Elliott reacted to the polling results on X, calling the youth sentiment the product of what she described as a long-running campaign in the education system.
00:01:48.840 Elliott wrote, quote,
00:01:50.000 This is the direct product of an education system that has been relentlessly driving this narrative unchallenged for well over a decade.
00:01:57.380 She warned that, quote,
00:01:58.660 More than double the number of younger Canadians than older Canadians think true ownership of our country is, or should be, based on ethnic lines.
00:02:05.900 And added, quote,
00:02:07.080 We won't fix our country until we fix education.
00:02:10.520 So, Waleed, with so many non-Indigenous people in the country and so many immigrants being welcomed into Canada,
00:02:16.400 what is the logical conclusion of this line of thinking so many Canadian youth hold?
00:02:20.600 Well, it takes you to the narrative of land back, Isaac, and this is what we're seeing happen in British Columbia when it comes to the cases where the government is handing off land,
00:02:29.700 in some cases privately owned, off to Indigenous tribes, without democratic consultation, without consultation in the community,
00:02:38.680 and without considering the full scope of effects it has on Canadians.
00:02:41.560 I really think the logical conclusion of this line of thinking, especially what is coming through our generation,
00:02:47.960 is a potential division of Canadians along ethnic lines.
00:02:53.540 I mean, look, the fact of the matter is, especially when you're considering the mass migration Canada has seen,
00:02:57.680 I've seen this so many times at some of these protests and events where people are, you know,
00:03:03.120 sticking up for the right of Canada having a controlled immigration system.
00:03:07.540 The counter-narrative being, well, you know, your white folks, your Anglo-Saxon Canadians, English Canadians,
00:03:13.900 European Canadians, what have you, are themselves immigrants.
00:03:17.400 And that's true, factually speaking, in terms of perhaps their descendants generations ago.
00:03:23.140 But generations and progress and contribution to a country is what exactly ties people to a country
00:03:29.780 and what makes them part of that country, in my personal view.
00:03:32.560 So I would say the logical conclusion is one where, let's say, that narrative is embraced more in our generation,
00:03:39.260 well, then you'd have a future where the run-of-the-mill migrant will just, you know,
00:03:44.440 pull up to Canada and tell people that, oh, I have a right to be here because, you know,
00:03:47.560 you're also an immigrant yourself.
00:03:49.040 And pretty much everyone except from, you know, a shrinking Indigenous population
00:03:53.680 has essentially free will to hop onto the land while, you know, essentially putting everyone on a similar base,
00:04:02.100 a similar boat, everyone just simply being described as an immigrant,
00:04:06.220 not such thing as a Native Canadian or a Native-born Canadian.
00:04:09.840 Instead, just Indigenous versus immigrant and immigrants running wild.
00:04:14.860 I don't think it's a narrative that really supports social development.
00:04:18.140 I don't think it's a narrative that respects even the history of Indigenous people.
00:04:22.180 Frankly, it's a narrative to conveniently excuse the mass migration regime
00:04:27.260 this country has been forced to tolerate for far too long.
00:04:33.520 Chaos erupted at the University of Winnipeg last week
00:04:36.160 when a crowd of protesters swarmed academic Frances Whittowson
00:04:40.480 during her, quote, Spectrum Street epistemology session,
00:04:44.680 banging drums, shouting her down, and allegedly assaulting members of her team.
00:04:49.580 One man filming the event was punched, a woman was spat on,
00:04:53.280 and equipment was doused with water in a scene.
00:04:56.760 Whittowson later described as a, quote,
00:04:59.000 complete breakdown of civilization.
00:05:02.240 The exercise adapted from philosopher Peter Boghossian's Socratic Dialogue method
00:05:07.160 asks participants to stand along a spectrum
00:05:10.360 from strongly agree to strongly disagree
00:05:12.900 in response to prompts designed to spark conversation.
00:05:16.820 On a live stream before the events,
00:05:19.020 Whittowson said, quote,
00:05:20.400 I'm not afraid,
00:05:21.620 anticipating hostility,
00:05:23.040 but insisting the conversations were important.
00:05:25.300 Whittowson was able to carry out
00:05:26.680 her Spectrum Street epistemology exercise
00:05:29.080 at the University of Manitoba on September 25th
00:05:31.780 with limited opposition.
00:05:33.060 But a day later at the University of Winnipeg,
00:05:35.040 the situation escalated into open confrontation.
00:05:38.020 Afterwards,
00:05:38.380 a woman appears to have poured water over their equipment
00:05:41.480 and spat on a supporter
00:05:42.760 while a man was punched in the face.
00:05:44.920 One clip shows someone filming laying on the ground
00:05:47.380 while being surrounded by activists,
00:05:49.300 berating them,
00:05:50.160 and shoving phones in their face.
00:05:51.700 One activist tells the person on the ground,
00:05:53.880 quote,
00:05:54.460 you belong underground.
00:05:55.360 That man identified as academic Daniel Page.
00:06:14.340 He said he attended to document the event,
00:06:17.500 not to take a position.
00:06:18.900 He told viewers, quote,
00:06:20.200 I'm here to make sure we're in an academic institution
00:06:22.720 upholding academic freedom.
00:06:23.900 According to Whittowson,
00:06:25.280 police were called but did not arrive.
00:06:27.400 In a live stream,
00:06:28.240 she later compared the chaos to dealing with,
00:06:30.060 quote,
00:06:30.200 toddlers who are very badly behaved,
00:06:32.320 saying she chose to stand still and not yield.
00:06:35.380 She said, quote,
00:06:36.360 it was terrible.
00:06:37.440 It was really terrible.
00:06:38.660 We witnessed a breakdown of civilization.
00:06:41.360 So Isaac,
00:06:42.080 U.S. conservative activist Charlie Kirk
00:06:44.120 was assassinated three weeks ago today.
00:06:46.240 Many think political violence is just an American issue.
00:06:49.320 Does this incident so that Canadians
00:06:50.720 are also willing to commit political violence
00:06:52.380 against those who would disagree with them?
00:06:54.440 Yeah, Waleed.
00:06:54.820 Well, if I were to go through every instance
00:06:56.220 of political violence happening on campuses alone,
00:06:58.480 let's say in Canada,
00:06:59.800 I mean, it's almost an endless list.
00:07:02.060 It would take forever to even list all of the events.
00:07:05.300 But clearly,
00:07:05.840 when we look at incidents like this on campuses,
00:07:08.360 it's clear that political violence
00:07:09.920 is not something that stops at the U.S. border.
00:07:12.960 And we have seen multiple Canadian cases
00:07:14.860 where left-leaning activists
00:07:16.500 have either excused or directly engaged in violence.
00:07:20.320 For example, in Calgary,
00:07:21.760 Black Lives Matter organizer Taylor McNally
00:07:24.020 faced a string of criminal charges since 2020
00:07:27.120 and was actually convicted in 2023
00:07:29.340 for assaulting an off-duty police officer
00:07:31.500 during a high school protest
00:07:32.840 where she also confronted a student
00:07:34.940 over gender identity policies.
00:07:37.060 She was later charged with other offenses,
00:07:39.180 including assault and unlawful confinement
00:07:40.940 linked to the same demonstration.
00:07:43.180 And True North has highlighted
00:07:44.140 various Canadian academics and activists
00:07:46.880 in the way they've responded
00:07:48.100 to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
00:07:50.360 Instead of condemning it,
00:07:51.580 some have mocked it
00:07:52.740 or even celebrated his killing online.
00:07:54.840 For example,
00:07:55.500 a University of Toronto professor wrote,
00:07:57.720 quote,
00:07:58.180 shooting is honestly too good
00:07:59.880 for so many of you fascist expletives.
00:08:02.580 And to give you a hint,
00:08:03.580 that's often the expletive
00:08:05.560 that people deem the worst in the world.
00:08:07.520 But anyways,
00:08:08.040 that shows a willingness to excuse extreme violence
00:08:10.560 when it targets political opponents.
00:08:12.400 That professor, Ruth Marshall,
00:08:14.040 was far from a lone incident.
00:08:15.440 For example,
00:08:15.840 we saw recently Florence Ashley,
00:08:17.840 a law professor at the U of A
00:08:19.200 and a transgender advocate,
00:08:20.860 was similarly temporarily suspended
00:08:22.580 after he compared Kirk to a Nazi.
00:08:24.880 However,
00:08:25.420 he was just recently reinstated.
00:08:27.660 True North has also documented at length
00:08:30.140 similar behavior
00:08:31.060 at pro-Palestinian encampments
00:08:32.920 across Canadian universities
00:08:34.700 at McGill, Toronto, and Ottawa.
00:08:37.040 Demonstrators have openly called for
00:08:38.920 intifada,
00:08:40.020 an armed uprising,
00:08:40.900 and displayed banners
00:08:41.680 celebrating resistance
00:08:43.080 and even celebrating massacring Israelis.
00:08:45.920 In Montreal,
00:08:46.740 an encampment escalated
00:08:47.840 to vandalism of statues
00:08:49.540 and open clashes with police
00:08:51.380 when officers dismantled the site.
00:08:53.080 And we've seen similar happenings
00:08:54.840 at other cities amid these encampments.
00:08:57.280 But even Canada's intelligence services
00:08:59.300 have been criticized
00:09:00.500 for downplaying these threats.
00:09:02.940 True North, for example,
00:09:03.860 reported that CSIS's annual report
00:09:05.980 zeroed in on right-wing extremism
00:09:08.460 while overlooking the violence
00:09:10.260 and intimidation carried out
00:09:11.920 by left-wing activists
00:09:13.140 in recent years.
00:09:14.180 So all of this underscores
00:09:15.300 that political violence
00:09:16.340 is not uniquely an American problem.
00:09:19.020 From campuses to city streets,
00:09:20.660 Canada has witnessed episodes
00:09:22.100 where activists cross the line
00:09:23.800 from protest into physical intimidation
00:09:26.040 and even assault,
00:09:27.100 often excused by sympathetic voices.
00:09:29.960 And it, of course,
00:09:30.860 raises the question
00:09:31.740 as to whether authorities
00:09:33.180 and institutions
00:09:33.900 are willing to treat these acts
00:09:35.460 with the seriousness they deserve.
00:09:36.940 But for me, the recurring theme
00:09:38.760 is perhaps that institutions
00:09:40.380 seemingly try to focus
00:09:41.680 on the almost non-existent violence
00:09:44.060 on the right side
00:09:44.820 of the political spectrum
00:09:45.780 while turning a blind eye
00:09:47.260 to the extremism
00:09:48.720 and extreme violence
00:09:50.260 that is recurring on the left.
00:09:54.340 Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow
00:09:56.040 says the federal government's
00:09:57.340 failure to provide sufficient funding
00:09:59.320 for housing asylum seekers
00:10:00.840 could force the city
00:10:02.140 to impose the equivalent
00:10:03.260 of a 2% property tax hike.
00:10:05.840 Chow made the remarks
00:10:06.560 during a press conference on Monday
00:10:08.000 warning that Ottawa's shortfall
00:10:09.620 in delivering funding
00:10:10.540 is putting pressure
00:10:11.500 on municipal finances.
00:10:13.240 According to the mayor,
00:10:14.520 Toronto is still waiting
00:10:15.460 on roughly $250 million
00:10:17.240 in federal commitments
00:10:18.380 related to refugee housing
00:10:19.700 and social services.
00:10:21.180 Chow said, quote,
00:10:22.060 if we don't get the funding,
00:10:23.400 the pressure will land
00:10:24.200 on the property tax base
00:10:25.300 of average Torontonians.
00:10:27.000 The comments come amid
00:10:27.980 mounting concerns
00:10:28.820 from critics who say
00:10:29.700 Ottawa's immigration policies
00:10:30.960 have placed an unfair burden
00:10:32.480 on cities
00:10:33.160 without corresponding resources
00:10:35.080 to manage the fallout.
00:10:36.580 Conservative politicians
00:10:37.520 have repeatedly called
00:10:38.940 on the federal government
00:10:39.700 to reduce intake numbers
00:10:41.000 and provide direct compensation
00:10:42.480 to municipalities
00:10:43.380 that are absorbing
00:10:44.720 the costs of temporary housing,
00:10:46.440 shelter space,
00:10:47.280 and local services
00:10:48.300 for asylum seekers.
00:10:49.640 So, Walid,
00:10:50.620 obviously we're looking at Chow
00:10:51.780 talking about
00:10:52.340 a property tax increase here,
00:10:53.820 but how has she done
00:10:54.860 in terms of managing
00:10:55.900 Toronto's budget?
00:10:57.240 Well, I don't have
00:10:58.100 the economic pedigree
00:10:59.360 to give you a scorecard,
00:11:00.900 but I can tell you what,
00:11:01.660 her budget record
00:11:02.780 is about the same
00:11:03.880 as Pride Toronto's
00:11:05.060 budget record.
00:11:06.020 Shortfall after shortfall
00:11:07.340 after shortfall.
00:11:08.360 Now, we can remember
00:11:09.340 back to the summer,
00:11:10.320 Pride Toronto
00:11:11.000 had a funding shortfall,
00:11:12.560 which Olivia Chow
00:11:13.420 accounted for
00:11:14.140 using Torontonians' tax dollars
00:11:16.400 to the tune
00:11:17.360 of around $350,000
00:11:18.680 over the summer
00:11:19.500 to fund that event.
00:11:21.440 And they believe
00:11:22.000 the budget shortfall
00:11:23.000 she's looking at
00:11:24.080 from the winter
00:11:24.800 was somewhere around
00:11:25.860 back in February,
00:11:27.620 instead of Toronto approved
00:11:28.520 the 2025 budget,
00:11:30.060 which included
00:11:30.860 an operational budget
00:11:32.320 of $18.8 billion
00:11:33.940 and a capital plan
00:11:35.360 of $59.6 billion,
00:11:38.220 which was uniquely
00:11:38.880 supported by a 6.9%
00:11:40.920 property tax increase.
00:11:42.520 Now, speaking of property tax,
00:11:44.680 as you mentioned,
00:11:45.640 that is not including
00:11:46.480 the potential incoming
00:11:47.820 2% property tax increase
00:11:50.280 just to deal
00:11:52.000 with the massive amount
00:11:53.660 of asylum seekers
00:11:55.360 and the housing
00:11:56.380 that the city is providing them
00:11:57.720 as a result of
00:11:58.860 the federal government
00:11:59.540 pushing that financial burden
00:12:01.120 onto the cities
00:12:01.880 when they ended
00:12:02.780 the federal hotel support program
00:12:05.040 effectively,
00:12:06.400 shifting costs to provinces
00:12:07.720 and in many cases
00:12:09.060 the municipalities,
00:12:10.320 which is the case in Toronto.
00:12:12.120 So I would say
00:12:12.680 prior to this event,
00:12:14.500 you had already seen
00:12:15.380 some tax types,
00:12:16.600 significant ones,
00:12:17.420 come from Olivia Chow.
00:12:18.660 Now you're hearing
00:12:19.840 yesterday
00:12:20.680 about potential increase
00:12:22.220 of a 2%,
00:12:23.500 so that's somewhere
00:12:24.400 close to 8.9%
00:12:27.020 of property tax increases
00:12:28.660 that the city of Toronto
00:12:30.160 has to face
00:12:30.780 at a time
00:12:31.460 where already
00:12:32.100 the provincial
00:12:32.680 and federal deficit
00:12:34.180 and debt burden
00:12:35.560 is looking like
00:12:36.620 we're going to have
00:12:37.040 to see funding increases
00:12:38.160 from somewhere
00:12:38.760 and of course
00:12:39.680 the potential
00:12:40.320 for tax increases
00:12:42.420 always remains.
00:12:43.920 So I think
00:12:44.420 Olivia Chow
00:12:45.040 has done
00:12:45.960 a pretty poor job
00:12:47.420 in assisting
00:12:48.040 Torontonians
00:12:49.020 with overcoming
00:12:50.380 the federal
00:12:51.620 and provincial
00:12:52.760 stress
00:12:53.560 by adding additional
00:12:54.660 stress
00:12:55.020 at the municipal level.
00:12:59.060 That's it for today, folks.
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