Juno News - Our country deserves better than this…

00:00:00.060 If fines are not going to deter people, if public shaming is not going to deter people, 0.83

00:00:06.020 I genuinely don't know what is going to stop people from treating our country like trash. 0.93

00:00:15.020 If you haven't noticed, Canada is on fire. BC has declared a state of emergency, 0.91

00:00:19.340 but here's what I really can't get past. We're one of the biggest countries on the planet,

00:00:23.080 and we've got more force than almost anyone. And we still don't fight it like it actually

00:00:26.860 matters every summer it pretends to catch us off guard everyone's like oh my god these fires but

00:00:32.060 it hasn't been a surprise for years these fires have been going on on and on and on and on so

00:00:36.140 why are we okay at being mediocre at it and then you look at the ground level and it's the same

00:00:40.220 sickness just smaller people are walking off with plants in the city to put in and sell on facebook

00:00:45.020 marketplace people are dumping their trash right in the middle of parks and green spaces it's like

00:00:49.580 the place belongs to no one so that's what struck me the most about this week is like nobody is

00:00:54.540 seemingly taking care of this country, not the people running it and not enough people living in

00:00:59.580 it. So I want you to watch this video. We need to stop spending money billions of dollars on

00:01:17.500 international aid and focus on investing in the firefighting and wildfire services the response

00:01:22.860 teams that protect our families and communities this is insane today we only spend 800 to 1.4

00:01:28.920 billion dollars every year okay 500 million of additional damage is caused by all these wildfires

00:01:34.600 we have only just announced our first ever national fleet in 2026 it's the least fleet

00:01:39.660 of like four air tankers and five heavy helicopters all we've done the government has only committed

00:01:44.980 316.7 million dollars over five years this is not nearly enough how is it possible that we only

00:01:52.280 spend $316 million over five years in Canada to protect our families and children and our

00:01:57.280 communities, but we can spend $5 billion for Ukraine in 2025. Or we can spend $2.4 billion

00:02:03.620 on refugee costs. Or how about $6.7 billion on everything else? Everybody else's problems. We

00:02:12.200 spend our tax dollars, our money when we need it here in this country. Now imagine if Mark Carney

00:02:18.000 decided to use his brain while he's in vacation in Italy right now he might say you know what we

00:02:23.080 probably need a fully national invested firefighting response and wildfire response unit what could

00:02:29.060 that look like five billion dollars what would it mean we'd get 25 Canadian owned actual water

00:02:35.340 bombers we'd have five-year operations runway we'd actually have all of the things that we need to

00:02:40.480 have to protect our communities to protect Canadians to protect the taxpayers these are the taxpayers

00:02:46.700 that are paying all of this money, but they can't have the protection within their own communities.

00:02:52.120 There should be no excuse. We are a first world country. We walk around internationally

00:02:56.780 saying to everybody we are the best, but we don't have a fire response service for wildfires that

00:03:03.140 is the best in the world. It's actually, it's honestly, it's such a failure of our government

00:03:07.840 and our leaders. Use our tax dollars to protect the taxpayers against natural disasters. And I'm

00:03:13.880 not saying, by the way, for example, the fire in Summerland, OK, and what's happening in the

00:03:18.520 Okanagan could be prevented by these investments. What I'm saying is, is that we should be investing

00:03:25.180 and have a world class firefighting and wildfire response unit. We deserve that. We pay so much

00:03:32.720 money in taxes. Our government spends so much money on international aid. Why is it that nationally

00:03:38.120 we only spent 316-ish million dollars over five years for leased equipment. We should be a leader

00:03:44.220 in this, okay? And what I hope that will happen is, is in the event that these fires can actually

00:03:50.300 be dampened enough with even more resourcing. I'm not talking about incrementally more resourcing.

00:03:55.860 I'm talking about 5X-ing the amount of resourcing that we put into this because it matters.

00:04:01.720 20,000 people were displaced. Homes are burned. People have died. We need to do better.

00:04:07.420 And really, what Canadians are asking for is take care of us first.

00:04:12.960 Look at the amount of international aid that we're spending, as an example.

00:04:16.760 Look at all the other government waste that we have.

00:04:19.120 Why don't we prioritize the things that protects our families and children?

00:04:23.200 And this is what I've been an advocate for, whether it comes to crime,

00:04:26.680 whether it comes to community safety, whether it comes safety from natural disasters,

00:04:30.840 is that we can do better, and we should be doing much better,

00:04:34.240 And we should be holding our politicians accountable to demanding that they do much

00:04:38.380 better because it's in the interest of all Canadians. And it actually, it's not just

00:04:42.560 impacting the people in the Okanagan. Okay. And these wildfires are happening across the country.

00:04:48.100 It's impacting the economy. It's impacting trade relations with the United States, which I know

00:04:52.320 is already a, you know, a topic that we're still going through and dealing with them,

00:04:56.360 but it's just not good. Okay. We can do better. It's unacceptable to me. And I think as a country

00:05:03.220 and as a people, we have to start really telling our MPs

00:05:07.880 that we have to start protecting Canadians first

00:05:10.840 and investing in Canadians first.

00:05:12.620 I'll continue to use this analogy, guys,

00:05:14.440 because everyone knows it.

00:05:15.840 When you get onto a plane and there's an emergency,

00:05:18.540 the oxygen mask comes down.

00:05:20.000 What do they tell you?

00:05:21.240 They tell you, put on the oxygen mask on yourself first

00:05:24.880 because you have to save yourself first.

00:05:27.120 If you save yourself first,

00:05:28.540 then you can do the amazing work of saving other people.

00:05:31.540 You can go and figure out how to do those things internationally, right?

00:05:35.340 And as Canadians, we want to do that.

00:05:37.060 We're good people.

00:05:38.040 We want to help people.

00:05:39.880 But we can't do that unless we help ourselves first.

00:05:44.180 My God, my prayers and my hearts and prayers go to all the people that are impacted by

00:05:48.300 these wildfires that have lost their homes, their businesses have been impacted, family

00:05:53.680 members have passed away.

00:05:55.360 All Canadians are praying for you.

00:05:56.900 And I hope to God that we can continue to do better.

00:05:59.020 And I hope to God that you get safety and the reprieve that you need coming up.

00:06:02.920 We talk about this lack of, you know, it is accountability really at the end of the day

00:06:08.000 to the taxpayers of Canada.

00:06:10.460 And unfortunately, this is percolating into the fact that people are feeling more and

00:06:16.100 more squeezed from this economy and they are resorting to crime to try to survive, to try

00:06:21.240 to put food on the table in any way that they can.

00:06:23.780 So I want you to watch this video.

00:06:25.260 This is something that we've seen become a common phenomenon across this country, unfortunately.

00:06:55.260 shouldn't mean you should be stealing the cities. Look, look, it's that kind of little

00:06:59.520 Caliloo don't grow like that. You guys are disgusting. The city beautified us. The city 1.00

00:07:06.280 put workers out there to beautify the city and you guys be stealing the right. I'm going

00:07:12.020 to put you on blast. I'm going to put you on blast. Yeah, yeah, I will. You're causing

00:07:17.420 a disturbance. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Where do I start with this? I think anybody in Canada,

00:07:24.160 if you've lived here for long enough, you've probably paid over a million dollars in taxes.

00:07:27.500 So I don't know how much that is to brag about, but no justification can be made for stealing.

00:07:33.340 We teach our children stealing is bad all the time. I don't go to my daughter and say,

00:07:37.580 hey, stealing is acceptable if these things have happened. No, stealing is bad. We should

00:07:43.120 not condone stealing. And to steal city plants, and this is a phenomenon I covered in a story in

00:07:47.660 Ajax, Ontario. It was crazy. People were stealing plants, people's plants in front of their homes.

00:07:52.980 And these were city plants in this example, but people are stealing these plants because I don't know if you guys have went plant shopping, but plants are expensive. Flowers are expensive. And what they're doing is they're stealing it and they're selling it on Facebook marketplace. Okay. And look, I'm going to say this. It's bad to steal. And I don't condone that these people are stealing. And I think we should hold them accountable.

00:08:13.060 At the same time, you cannot also discredit the fact that they have been set up to fail and this government has failed Canadians and put a percentage of Canadians to feel like they're in such an impossible situation that they need to resort to crime, whether that's home invasions to steal cars, whether that's shaking down junkies, whether that's stealing plants, whatever it is, it's unfortunate that a small percentage of those people will resort to crime as their justification is the only way to make it.

00:08:42.600 is the only way to put food on the table.

00:08:44.840 And this, again, is a systematic,

00:08:47.140 it's not like I can point to one thing. 1.00

00:08:48.920 Canadians, you can't point to one thing 0.60

00:08:50.380 that is causing this.

00:08:51.560 It is a combination of failures

00:08:53.420 across this government

00:08:54.400 in the last 10 years

00:08:55.420 of this liberal government

00:08:57.220 that's been supported by the NDP. 1.00

00:08:59.700 Immigration, blown up.

00:09:01.540 And when I say immigration is blown up 1.00

00:09:02.780 to the point where we're bringing in millions of people 0.98

00:09:04.720 and we can't support them.

00:09:06.380 There's no economy to support them, okay?

00:09:09.040 No jobs.

00:09:10.320 We are one of the worst performing economies.

00:09:12.140 We just ticked into a recession in the last quarter, a technical recession we got out of it.

00:09:16.820 How can we give these people jobs where they can live in a country that has such high cost of living?

00:09:22.520 Look at the cost of housing.

00:09:24.000 Look how detached it is from reality.

00:09:26.300 Look at business investment.

00:09:27.440 Businesses are fleeing Canada.

00:09:29.580 They're not investing in Canada.

00:09:31.640 It's honestly, you see what's happening across every one of our institutions, and it's no wonder.

00:09:36.840 You cannot be surprised when people go and resort to crime for whatever way they try to justify it.

00:09:43.940 And this is why I seriously think we have to hold our politicians accountable.

00:09:48.800 It starts from the very top and it trickles all the way down.

00:09:51.820 And quite frankly, I think a lot of these criminals that are stealing are frankly learning from the politicians themselves, unfortunately.

00:09:59.400 and talking about setting an example from the top another story out of calgary of people

00:10:05.980 treating our country like trash and i mean that i want you to watch this video everybody in this

00:10:12.800 country needs to be up in arms of all of this trash people are dumping in our green spaces 0.99

00:10:18.180 watch this this is unacceptable great presence i wish you could smell it is disgusting is there 0.97

00:10:25.780 no shame the whole area here as i walk and you can prevalently smell the spices so i don't know

00:10:33.780 if that's a lot of people use curry for cooking um so i'm not sure i'm gonna try to get in on some

00:10:39.640 of the food that was left over maybe you guys can help me identify look at this um cultural thing

00:10:45.380 of where it came from i can't even believe this honestly i i want to hope it's ai i want to hope

00:10:52.240 this is just what i found and i need to share it so if you do go to a big party

00:10:58.860 you know it's important it's important to clean up and you just don't take it

00:11:04.560 and you throw it on the side of the road this is insane this is incredible this is i can't even

00:11:10.500 believe this oh and we are directly under the flight path for calgary international if fines

00:11:16.180 are not going to deter people if public shaming is not going to deter people i genuinely don't

00:11:22.680 know what is going to stop people from treating our country like trash at this point i'm recommending

00:11:28.700 we've seen so many of these stories people are just dumping their trash everywhere side of

00:11:34.940 highways in our green spaces in our farms motor oil being trashed in our farms it is unacceptable

00:11:42.020 Let me be very clear here.

00:11:43.440 If you're a born Canadian, you understand the beauty of this country.

00:11:46.420 We all have a responsibility to keep this country clean and beautiful, not just for

00:11:50.500 ourselves and our families today, but for our children. 1.00

00:11:52.980 And if you come to this country from another country, okay, most likely you came because

00:11:58.420 of the beauty.

00:11:59.640 One of the reasons, the beauty, the cleanliness of this country, you have the responsibility

00:12:03.700 to keep it that beautiful.

00:12:05.360 You have the responsibility to keep it clean like the rest of us.

00:12:08.520 You do not bring your old habits of dumping trash everywhere, okay, in our green spaces.

00:12:14.680 This is unacceptable.

00:12:16.000 We have dump sites.

00:12:17.460 You can also find out when they pick up your big furniture and everything every two weeks

00:12:21.220 or whatever in your community to get rid of the stuff.

00:12:23.900 You can find a way to properly dispose of your things, okay?

00:12:28.180 But clearly, even with this education, and we need to do more on this education.

00:12:32.580 Again, it is a failure, I believe, of a whole bunch of different issues that have led to

00:12:36.360 this point.

00:12:36.740 but it is a national crisis now. I am asking every Canadian, we all now need to play a part

00:12:43.320 in doing our part to hold people accountable. If you see anybody dumping things, okay, dumping

00:12:49.820 their garbage, you're going to whip out your phone. You're going to record them so that we

00:12:53.000 can publicly shame them. You're going to call the police as well. And you're going to tell them to

00:12:56.720 stop. You're going to tell them, go take it to a proper dump. Okay. Now, of course I want you to 0.96

00:13:01.700 be safe. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, don't do it, but I know I'm going to be doing

00:13:05.440 this. I feel like we all have a responsibility to protect our country and our nature and our

00:13:10.100 parks and our green spaces. We have to, or our country will start resembling a third world 0.90

00:13:15.860 country. And that's not where I want to live. I love Canada for Canada. I want it to keep being 0.99

00:13:21.680 Canada. And that means, if that means that all of us have to play a bigger role in making sure that

00:13:26.620 we hold people responsible and accountable, then so be it. But I'm also calling on the government.

00:13:31.020 Clearly the fines are not enough. Clearly the online social media public shaming is not enough.

00:13:35.440 I am calling for the fines to be quadrupled if necessary.

00:13:39.200 The fines are up to $10,000 today for this.

00:13:41.800 I am suggesting they start at a minimum of $10,000 going up to $40,000 or $50,000.

00:13:47.860 I am also recommending that they be forced to do community service to not only clean

00:13:52.980 up the mess that they made, but also for a certain period of time, clean up within their

00:13:57.380 community.

00:13:58.200 And finally, I think we need to publicly shame them, even from the government, that it is

00:14:02.220 unacceptable.

00:14:02.840 You must work to keep our country clean, our home clean.

00:14:08.320 It is part of Canadian values.

00:14:10.240 It is part of this country.

00:14:11.320 And it is illegal to dump your garbage in our green spaces.

00:14:16.200 It is illegal.

00:14:17.460 And clearly, people don't care about that.

00:14:19.880 Clearly, the fines are not enough to deter them.

00:14:22.140 Clearly, enforcement is not there.

00:14:23.720 So something needs to be done.

00:14:25.280 And it needs to be done soon.

00:14:27.420 It needs to be done now.

00:14:30.020 Unacceptable.

00:14:31.000 Just unacceptable.

00:14:32.280 I hope you guys enjoyed this week of recaps.

00:14:34.540 Again, I think this episode more than any

00:14:36.800 is a call to action for all Canadians.

00:14:38.680 We all have to play our part in coming together

00:14:41.080 and protecting our country, keeping our country clean,

00:14:44.160 keeping our country sane and keeping our country whole

00:14:46.180 as a community, as Canadians.

00:14:48.340 I know we can do that.

00:14:49.640 I have honestly every power and every belief.

00:14:51.860 There are so many.

00:14:52.660 For all of the stuff that we cover, by the way,

00:14:54.400 in terms of like what's going wrong,

00:14:56.140 there are millions, tens of millions of Canadians

00:14:58.620 that are like-minded like you and me

00:15:01.000 that know the things that we need to do

00:15:02.920 to get back on track.

00:15:03.900 And this is a call to action

00:15:04.800 for everyone to go do that.

00:15:06.300 And the only way that we can also do that

00:15:07.960 is when we spread this awareness.

00:15:09.520 It all starts with these conversations

00:15:10.660 and these stories.

00:15:11.400 So I wanna say,

00:15:12.540 make sure if you haven't subscribed,

00:15:14.060 it would do me a big favor.

00:15:15.660 If you just hit the subscribe button,

00:15:17.260 hit like, comment and engage on this

00:15:19.080 and also support my partner, Juno News,

00:15:21.120 who's the largest independent media organization

00:15:22.860 in this country.

00:15:23.960 They allow me to share my stories with you,

00:15:26.880 uncensored, unfiltered.

00:15:28.980 They don't even review it.

00:15:30.000 Okay. Yeah. They do a little review for the video edit because they trust and believe in their

00:15:34.260 mission of sharing all perspectives of all Canadians. Okay. Across the political spectrum,

00:15:39.740 because that is the foundation of democracy. If we can't have open, honest debate with each other,

00:15:44.240 how do we have a democracy? We don't have one. So just want to say thank you all again for an

00:15:48.440 amazing week. I will see you all next week.

Juno News - August 15, 2026

Our country deserves better than this…

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