Juno News - June 27, 2022


MPs need ＂panic buttons＂ for mean tweets


Episode Stats

Length

2 minutes

Words per Minute

186.80812

Word Count

540

Sentence Count

19


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Why don't you tell us about these panic buttons for MPs here?
00:00:04.280 So we got news, I think it was, yeah, it was a couple days ago.
00:00:08.580 And the, what is it, the National Observer or Canadian Press, it might have been,
00:00:13.360 they wrote a story about how MPs are now receiving panic buttons,
00:00:17.760 which they're allowed to, they're supposed to hold on to and they can press
00:00:21.600 if they feel they're in danger.
00:00:23.540 Now, this is supposedly because, Candace, they're receiving mean tweets
00:00:27.360 and death threats online from anonymous users or things like that.
00:00:32.760 And, of course, this is coming from Marco Mendicino, a Canadian who I think most people
00:00:37.920 quite detest at the moment because he's been caught lying and he's been used
00:00:42.600 by Justin Trudeau to push the emergencies order and the Emergencies Act.
00:00:46.860 And so now because he's receiving lots of mean tweets and lots of comments on social media,
00:00:51.560 he has ordered a bunch of panic buttons for MPs to hold on to when they go outside.
00:00:57.360 I mean, I can't really think of anything more emasculating for a politician
00:01:02.580 who's supposed to represent the people holding a panic button whenever a constituent
00:01:07.120 might come up to them and air some grievances, Candace.
00:01:09.100 It's really, really embarrassing stuff.
00:01:11.960 And, you know, I put this out on Twitter because when I read this story,
00:01:16.260 the first thing I thought about was the fact that the honour in being a politician,
00:01:20.160 the honour in representing Canadians has completely gone.
00:01:23.540 There used to be this idea that if you were called a liar or if someone did something
00:01:28.700 dishonourable as a politician, not only would you take serious issue with it,
00:01:32.660 not only would that person be expected to resign, but as I mentioned here, in 1849,
00:01:38.120 John A. MacDonald challenged an opposition politician to a duel.
00:01:42.280 So they put their life on the line to defend their honour and to defend basically the institution
00:01:48.220 of the House of Commons.
00:01:49.820 Where has that honour gone?
00:01:50.920 Imagine being a politician now holding a panic button in the same house where politicians used
00:01:58.280 to have real honour.
00:02:00.040 They used to actually take the job seriously and they used to put their life on the line
00:02:04.180 because they believed in what they were doing.
00:02:05.760 I think this is just a symptom, Candace, of how far our politics has fallen.
00:02:10.340 And I followed that tweet up with this, you know, what year was it, 2012, 2011 or wherever,
00:02:17.360 when a terrorist stormed the House of Commons armed with a gun after killing a soldier in
00:02:24.600 broad daylight.
00:02:26.700 You didn't, and MPs had to basically shelter in place in the House of Commons because a
00:02:30.580 terrorist was on the loose inside the House of Commons.
00:02:33.260 There was not a single MP who had the, who had really the audacity to call for a panic
00:02:38.440 button, they just got on with the job, they did the job that Canadians asked them to do,
00:02:42.580 and they weren't crying and whining about mean tweets.
00:02:45.300 We've fallen so far, I can't imagine being a liberal MP and holding one of these lame
00:02:50.480 panic buttons.
00:02:51.240 Like I said on Twitter, I can't imagine being such a loser.