00:00:00.000Hi, everyone, and welcome to a special live edition of Fake News Friday here on the Candice
00:00:10.480Malcolm Show. I'm your host, Candice Malcolm. And as you know, we love Fridays here at True
00:00:15.280North and here at the Candice Malcolm Show because it gives us an opportunity to look back,
00:00:19.000reflect on the media and how dishonest they are, how they spin, how they manipulate the truth,
00:00:23.460how they try to manipulate you. Fortunately, you're too smart for that. You don't fall for
00:00:28.240their tricks, but so many people do. And we'd like to go through in some detail of the dishonesty
00:00:33.360in the legacy media. So joining me today is my producer here on the Candice Malcolm show and
00:00:37.940journalist here at True North, Harrison Faulkner. Harrison, thanks for joining us today.
00:00:43.060Yeah, glad to be on Candice and glad to do a live FNF. It's something I think that we should
00:00:48.960try and look to do more. Exactly. Yeah, we did a live show on Wednesday and it was really fun.
00:00:53.980And so we thought we would try it again here on Friday.
00:00:56.820So one of the things that's become a theme in Canadian media is that all of these Canadian symbols that they used to relish in,
00:01:04.160they used to rally around, they used to promote, have now suddenly become passe and unacceptable,
00:01:09.780whether it be the name, the word freedom itself, apparently, we're told is hateful and represents extremism or something like that.
00:01:19.580And the Canadian flag. We've seen more and more people in the legacy media telling us on Twitter and through news stories, fake news stories, that the Canadian flag does not represent anything good anymore. It now represents sort of the worst of the worst. And it's just so interesting and almost ironic, Harrison, that exact time as they're throwing out the Canadian flag, saying it represents something beyond the pale and reprehensible, we see them rallying around the Ukraine flag, which I get it.
00:01:44.600we're in a conflict. There's a global conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The world is getting
00:01:49.300sucked into it. And generally speaking, you know, Ukraine is a side that was attack provoked. And0.95
00:01:55.820therefore, that's, you know, that's the side that we're on, apparently. And, you know, total
00:02:01.780unwillingness to look critically at Ukraine, to look at the fact that this is a young country,
00:02:05.900it is a deeply corrupt country, a country without the same kinds of institutions and connection to
00:02:12.260freedom, liberalism and democracy like we have in Canada. So it's just bizarre that all of these
00:02:17.040sort of pristine liberals, media people who think of themselves as elite, they have no time for
00:02:23.700Canada and all the time in the world for a country like Ukraine. And of course, we see the complete
00:02:27.900whitewashing of Nazis, the infestation of the Nazi ideology and neo-Nazis in Ukraine is becoming
00:02:35.180a serious problem. So we're going to talk about all that today, Harrison. Let's start with the
00:02:39.920with a Canadian flag thing because we definitely saw this during the freedom convoy where you know
00:02:44.780legacy media journalists were just triggered by the flag the whole the very sight of the flag
00:02:49.400is something that that upsets these journalists if you fly one from your flag uh if you fly one
00:02:55.260from your truck or your vehicle uh be careful you're gonna you know make some liberals cry out
00:02:59.060there apparently but uh we have uh Linda Steele who is a radio personality down in Vancouver over
00:03:04.300at cknw980 and she wrote this on twitter harrison she writes it makes me sad that now when i see
00:03:11.340someone flying a canadian flag from their vehicle i immediately feel uncomfortable sad face um so
00:03:18.620i i i don't really know what you know why what what led her to to tweet this i guess she might
00:03:24.060have been driving down the street and seeing a canadian flag made her feel uncomfortable
00:03:29.340So as we know, the Freedom Rally, the Freedom Convoy, had a huge uprising of national unity
00:03:55.620Sydney Crosby scored the game-win goal.
00:03:57.080was biggest moment in sports at the time. And Vancouver erupted into this huge patriotic showing
00:04:02.720of just like, like love for country. It was a really incredible, amazing experience just to
00:04:08.120be part of it. And I remember there was some talk afterwards about how Canada had, you know,
00:04:12.540we're becoming a country of our own, and we were embracing our own type of patriotism separate from
00:04:17.300American patriotism, separate from British, we were just coming into our own kind of thing.
00:04:22.140And I think that the Freedom Rally did something similar. It was this moment of patriotic
00:04:26.600uprising where canadians spontaneously went out uh to truck stops to overpasses to the freeways
00:04:33.480to cheer on these brave uh courageous truckers who were taking a stand for all of us for freedom it
00:04:39.240was an incredible patriotic moment i know you were down in ottawa during the rallies and i think you
00:04:44.920had had a similar experience of the patriotism and the love of country and and and the symbolism of
00:04:50.280the flag back to its original purpose which was representing freedom or the freedom that we had
00:04:55.320the freedom that we fought for you know we fought in several wars as a nation to defend freedom not
00:05:00.520just here but abroad and and so to me that's all so positive and it's so strange that some people
00:05:05.720out there uh journalists in our profession are triggered by the very side of it what uh what's
00:05:11.000your take and and and maybe tell us a little bit about what it was like in ottawa and and and how
00:05:15.480you saw the flag in relation to the freedom convoy yeah well it's funny that you bring up the 2010
00:05:21.400winter olympics as an example because that's when i was in ottawa that's what i kept thinking about
00:05:25.720the fact that you know there was so much patriotism and so much pride in being a canadian uh the only
00:05:32.040time the only thing i could compare it to was what it was like during the olympics in 2010
00:05:36.360um and i actually think that this was even bigger than that because there was there was the whole
00:05:42.040there was basically the domestic scale of it which traveled across the country we saw people lining
00:05:48.200up over lining overpasses waving canadian flags but also the canadian flag made its way across
00:05:54.440the world as a symbol for freedom kind of it restored what it was all about um around the
00:06:00.040world and so yeah in ottawa um as many people have described it it was like canada day but
00:06:07.240every day for three and a half weeks or for however long they were there for two and a
00:06:11.880half weeks it was it was really incredible to see and um it's it's it's kind of crazy that
00:06:17.480we're at the point where journalists are now triggered at the sight of the canadian flag
00:06:22.280um it makes you wonder where do where do these people go from here right because uh there isn't
00:06:28.440a freer country or there well they're one could make the point but canada is one of the freest
00:06:33.640countries uh in the world that flag has always represented that and always represented the
00:06:39.320canadian way of life that so many around the world seek um and and fight tooth and nail to
00:06:44.600to get to canada and so it's really it's it's kind of like the height of of um you know taking
00:06:51.320the country for granted you you take our freedoms for granted so much so that even the sight of our
00:06:56.280flag triggers you it's uh it's it's really kind of nuts it's yes it's fundamentally a lack of
00:07:02.120gratitude and a lack of awareness i mean maybe some of these people on the left have some kind
00:07:06.440of a utopian idea of of a freer country or an even better uh country the reality is that you're right
00:07:12.600Canada is built on all of these institutions and this history that we need to preserve,
00:07:17.800not take for granted and not dismiss just because it isn't trendy. Well, Linda Steele over at CKNW
00:07:24.920wasn't the only one triggered by the flag. Here we had a response from a person called Min Dariwal,
00:07:30.360who is a CBC Edmonton employee. And she says this, she says, you're not alone, Linda. I saw two big
00:07:37.100flags on the back of a pickup whipping down the white mud the other day. And it made me instantly
00:07:42.500think of how much disrespect and negativity has been associated with it lately. That'll change.
00:07:47.940It has to. We've come too far. And so, again, the way that these people see the convoy, the way that
00:07:55.840they see the uprising of people saying to government enough is enough. You've destroyed
00:08:01.120our country through your overzealous government COVID policies. It's been a disaster. We need to
00:08:06.580end that now. We need to move on. And, you know, because it was a group of trekkers, it was a group
00:08:12.140of working class people who don't typically engage in politics and policy, these sort0.96
00:08:17.640of like snobby, middle class, comfortable, elite thinking, you know, Laurentian elite0.76
00:08:25.460wannabes who live in places like Edmonton and Vancouver, looking down their nose and
00:08:30.820just the sort of, you know, it's dripping in classism and vitriol towards people that
00:08:36.680that they don't, you know, their disrespected negativity associated with it. It's like these
00:08:42.640people are so out of touch, Harrison, and they don't even recognize it. No, absolutely. And I
00:08:48.120think it was at the very beginning of this or right when in our live show, when Trudeau enacted
00:08:54.220the Emergencies Act, and you and Andrew and our editor Harley run a live program. I remember Harley
00:09:00.280made a point about how the divide is so obvious now that the same the same words that are said
00:09:06.840are the same symbols that are shown by uh by different people mean totally different things
00:09:11.960so when when these people when these journalists and like you said these sort of elites and
00:09:17.160laurentian elite wannabes when they fly the canadian flag it means something different than
00:09:22.280when a working class canadian flies the canadian flag and that is i think that's clearly becoming
00:09:29.640uh that these people have such a different vision or view of this country and like you said they're
00:09:35.640just very very far removed well i want to i want to move on to this this segment here and we missed
00:09:41.800this because it was it's a few weeks old but we had to cover it on this program because it's just
00:09:45.800so it's so insane um city news ran a segment uh basically calling into question the canadian flag
00:09:54.600itself, saying that the Canadian flag, just exactly like Linda Steele wrote, the Canadian
00:09:58.920flag must represent something horrible and evil now that it was being flown at the trucker convoy.
00:10:03.340So we're going to move to this clip. But before that, I want to just read the tweet that City
00:10:08.260News prefaced that they used to write this video. And the tweet says, is the Canadian flag being
00:10:15.520sullied by the truck convoy? Images of the flag have been associated with the demonstrators,
00:10:20.340And many people are now weary to fly the flag in support of Team Canada at the Olympics in case they are mistaken as convoy supporters.
00:10:27.880So God forbid they're mistaken as people who just want their freedoms back.
00:10:32.080Well, there is some validity to that, Harrison, because you wouldn't want to be mistaken if it meant that Chrystia Freeland was going to seize your bank account.
00:10:39.080So that's the only thing. I would be careful flying the flag, too, if I thought that Chrystia Freeland was out there willing to steal all your money, basically.
00:10:46.240Oh, yeah. So let's throw to this clip so we can just watch this absolutely absurd legacy media piece.1.00
00:10:56.400It's such a shame that people now have to think carefully about whether or not they want to be carrying with pride the Canadian flag.
00:11:05.600It's one of the saddest outcomes, I think, of this protest.
00:11:09.180As people cloak themselves in Canadian flags, put them on their pickup trucks, or just carry them upside down throughout demonstrations, the question's being asked, is the meaning behind the flag starting to change?
00:11:21.660Seeing the Canadian flag so closely aligned with these protesters, wearing it, flying it, showing it off on their vehicles and so forth, is starting to have an impact on the image of Canada and on the image of that flag, which for so many decades has been a flag that represents freedom and pluralism and progressiveness.
00:11:51.660there's so much to get into yeah it's not the elites that they have sitting there
00:11:56.300like again looking down their nose and saying that the canadian flag used to represent freedom
00:12:02.780it's like what do you what do you think that what do you think the current protests are about like
00:12:06.940it's so bizarre that you know the whole idea is this is a freedom convoy these are people who
00:12:11.660want their lives back after the government has made a terrible mess of our society not just in
00:12:15.660terms of its covid response but in every element of our society you can look at education you can
00:12:21.420can look at our civil society you could look at businesses small businesses you can look at
00:12:25.360the mental health crisis there's so many issues that have come out of the government's absolutely
00:12:30.980colossal handling of covid and all these people want harrison is their freedom and now you have
00:12:38.420these stuffy elites saying but the flag used to represent freedom and now it represents
00:12:42.280a different kind of freedom that we don't like and then i like how he just kind of adds in
00:12:45.820the canadian flag is also always represented pluralism and progressivism it's like i guess
00:12:50.540it's one of those things you can read into it whatever you want like you know oh you know to
00:12:54.780me the canadian flag has always represented tradition and family like you can you can you
00:12:59.900can read anything into it but really how is that news you know this is this is just a sad state of
00:13:06.060of affairs in canadian news no i mean there's so much there this this piece they interview this
00:13:11.660guy clive veroni who's basically a no-name i've never heard of this guy apparently i guess he's
00:13:16.940some sort of expert on the flag but they couldn't find one person to uh to defend the Canadian flag
00:13:23.760or to basically say well no I actually do think that the Canadian flag still represents what it
00:13:28.180represents to everyone in the world and so you know there's there's a lot there's a lot there
00:13:31.740but one thing I one thing I found interesting about being in Ottawa and talking to the protesters
00:13:37.880who had who had you know traveled with the convoy across the country was that they said that seeing
00:13:44.600the flag at these events and this the event itself gave them new hope in canada it actually restored
00:13:51.400their faith in their own country and gave them a gave them a sort of a new sense of patriotism
00:13:56.760and another thing too is that the trucker convoy inspired protests all over the world for freedom
00:14:03.000the whole idea of these protests that we see in france and in australia um and in other countries
00:14:08.680in europe uh is all about wanting wanting to have people get their freedoms back and what greater
00:14:15.400what greater symbol uh to do that and you know than the canadian flag to have to see that being
00:14:21.480flown at all these protests around the world i mean to me that's that's an incredible thing to
00:14:26.120see that's a that's the kind of thing that makes me makes me love the flag the fact that it is a
00:14:30.840symbol for freedom around the world yeah it is and to me if i was abroad it happens you know when if
00:14:36.680you're flying if you're traveling around somewhere else and you see a canadian flag to me i i get
00:14:41.000really excited i get really happy i guess i guess that doesn't happen to everyone here is david
00:14:45.320coletto who is a liberal pollster and he this was during this we had to go back a couple weeks to
00:14:50.040find this this was uh during the height of the protest in ottawa and david coletto writes this
00:14:54.840he says i'm in california for a few weeks and on the drive into town there was a group cheering
00:14:59.800the freedom convoy on an overpass and a few canadian flags waving okay again if i'd seen
00:15:04.440this i would have been thrilled i've been like wow our flag is making our way making its way around
00:15:08.280the world uh not not david coletto note to everybody watching that david coletto has a
00:15:13.960ukraine flag in his bio and right there he's saying uh he's saying no to canada that's not
00:15:19.320good he says not thrilled at all that our flag has become a symbol of this meanwhile he's got
00:15:24.280the ukraine flag right right center so you couldn't have a better uh contrast there out with the old
00:15:29.880in with the new uh canadian flags cannot be used to represent freedom folks uh but the ukraine we're
00:15:35.240all about the ukraine flag put that in your bio and everybody stand together uh again to me harrison
00:15:41.320this is kind of an interesting again maybe the class divide it's like there's kind of two
00:15:44.680canadas right there's like the people who go out and work for a living people who work with their
00:15:48.120hands people who work with the elements canada has always been a country whose economy is based
00:15:52.440on resource extraction so the people who work in the resource industry broadly speaking the people
00:15:57.000who keep the country running right and then you juxtapose that with the sort of laurentian class
00:16:02.440of people who who you know they live in the downtown cities not even necessarily along the
00:16:07.560st lawrence seaboard which is where the uh name came from laurentian it used to sort of represent
00:16:12.360the sort of toronto ottawa montreal corridor but i think i think there's little laurentian elite
00:16:17.400cities around universities in canada and these people just have a totally different impression
00:16:21.400of canada like to them canada is multicultural it's progressive it's liberal it's you know the
00:16:27.400the exactly what trudeau represents and to them seeing the other side of canada front and center
00:16:32.920and representing their country on a world stage you know it was no longer the justin trudeau the
00:16:38.200the prim and proper uh french-speaking uh you know sophisticated metropolitan man representing
00:16:44.120canada it was these sort of rugged blue-collar truckers who were out doing interviews and and
00:16:49.800being the face of canada and i think that that really really triggered and shocked uh the
00:16:55.800sensibilities of many and it was it's just really interesting to see because to me you know i was
00:17:00.040cheering on the the uh uprising for freedom and so many people were clearly uh dismayed about that
00:17:06.760and and you know even seeing seeing the flag abroad uh triggered them but i i wanna i wanna
00:17:13.000you know we we talked about the canadian flag here so i want to talk about ukraine because it's such
00:19:25.120And as much as people in the media can deny it and say it's fringe and it's nothing and
00:19:28.720it's being overblown and that's Putin propaganda, we keep seeing it.
00:19:32.260and so uh earlier this week we had international women's day and we saw nato post a
00:19:41.220tweet in in response to international women's day it says this all women and girls must live
00:19:47.460free and equal this international women's day we think of the remarkable women of ukraine their
00:19:51.860strength bravery and resilience are symbolic of a nation okay great message there and we've got
00:19:56.820four images here. But uh-oh, uh-oh, let's take a look at that top left image, the Ukrainian
00:20:03.200female soldier here. Well, what happens when you zoom in? You see that there is a neo-Nazi
00:20:09.860label logo on her uniform. That is a neo-Nazi black sun symbol that represents a Nazi battalion
00:20:17.840within the Ukrainian military. Oops, better delete that tweet, NATO. Maybe you should have had
00:20:23.520someone looking at these images a little more closely. So Harrison, you've done a little bit
00:20:28.120of research on this symbol, the Black Sun. What does it mean? Yeah, well, just in our preparation
00:20:33.440for the show, I wanted to make sure I did a quick little Wikipedia search about what this is
00:20:38.600to get a good understanding of it. And just reading from the Wikipedia page here, it's a
00:20:43.380Nazi symbol that has been employed in a post-Nazi Germany context by neo-Nazis and also in some
00:20:49.780strains of satanism which is nice uh like it's it's the kind of it's the kind of symbolism uh
00:20:56.260that you know you could you could basically in that nato photo you could you could kind of excuse
00:21:01.620someone for not doing that zoom in to not look exactly there like to look exactly for it um but
00:21:08.580the problem is candace is that that photo is not the only time we've seen that uh that black sun
00:21:15.300image come up um i believe we've seen it in other photos as well i think there was a ctv tweet if
00:21:22.900i'm correct there's a ctv uh tweet where they also showed this black sun image on two female
00:21:29.460soldiers and it so much so it got so much attention that ctv news had to put up a correction tweet
00:21:36.100um which basically apologized for airing this this segment or this image with this
00:21:41.540with this image on it so that the tweet reads ctv news vancouver aired a story tuesday that
00:21:47.460included an image of two female ukrainian soldiers who are wearing an offensive symbol on their
00:21:51.940uniforms they they go with offensive symbol candace instead of neo-nazi uh symbol uh and
00:21:57.620it says which was regrettably not recognized before being broadcast the image has been removed
00:22:02.340from our coverage so so there you go candace i mean at least they're owning up to it but
00:22:06.180i would say that's a little a little light on um on the on the apology first well and you hit the
00:22:12.980nail on the head there when you said an offensive symbol right that's a euphemism they're trying to
00:22:17.460make you think that oh oh there was an offensive symbol like maybe it was a profanity or maybe it0.55
00:22:22.580was it was a swear word or something like that no a nazi symbol it was a nazi symbol why wouldn't
00:22:28.020you just straight out say it because no one wants to say anything bad about ukraine right now no one
00:22:32.260wants to throw off Chrysia Freeland's message that this is an all-in-out civilizational,
00:22:38.080existential war between freedom and tyranny. And we all have to side with freedom, which has been
00:22:42.740assigned to the Ukrainian team. And therefore, you cannot question it. Well, it gets even worse
00:22:48.180because it wasn't just NATO. It wasn't just CTV. We had a former Trudeau-era cabinet minister,
00:22:55.380former environment minister under the Justin Trudeau government, Catherine McKenna,
00:22:59.700who also shared a picture also celebrating two female soldiers also wearing neo-Nazi symbols.
00:23:06.460So Catherine McKenna posted this on Twitter. She said that this International Women's Day,
00:23:12.640standing with the brave women across Ukraine, defending their freedoms, their rights and their
00:23:17.700country. Look, I agree with this message. I think it's a nice message. I think that there are a lot
00:23:21.920of tremendously brave women out there in Ukraine, tremendously brave men as well, many more
00:23:27.280tremendously brave men defending their freedoms defending their country defending their rights
00:23:31.720that's all good but again Catherine McKenna doesn't know what she's talking about because
00:23:36.540right there top right corner you can see the female soldiers the black vest right there you
00:23:42.960can see that Nazi sun and once you see it once you know that that that's what they use and that's0.66
00:23:47.820how they recognize that's how they identify themselves you can't unsee that and you know I0.66
00:23:52.880know that Catherine McKenna doesn't have the geopolitical insight and the knowledge like
00:23:59.040Chrystia Freeland, our deputy prime minister does. Remember, it was last week that our deputy
00:24:05.000prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, was posing with a bandera scarf, the scarf that represents
00:24:10.100a Nazi from Second World War, someone who had his hand in overseeing the murder of 100,000 plus
00:24:17.280Poles and Jews. And there she was, you know, someone who knows Ukraine inside and out, who's
00:24:23.600lived many years in both Kiev and Moscow. Christine Freeland cannot be forgiven for making that
00:24:29.420mistake. She knew exactly what she was holding, what she was doing. Catherine McKenna, on the
00:24:33.100other hand, I don't think that she really has that knowledge. So she unfortunately left that tweet up
00:24:37.380for several days. I know that Ezra Levant, the rebel, was heckling her about that, saying like,
00:24:42.560why haven't you deleted this? Don't you have anyone to tell you this kind of thing? But here's
00:24:46.820the beauty of being a liberal, Harrison. You can show Nazi symbols. You can wave Nazi flags. You
00:24:53.740can have that affiliation front and center. No one's going to hold you account aside from the
00:24:58.360independent media. The legacy media doesn't bat an eye. They roll their eyes. They ignore it. In
00:25:03.040fact, they do even worse. They jump into the political fray and they begin defending the
00:25:07.800liberals against the accusations that they shouldn't be waving Nazi flags. There's so many
00:25:12.020layers of hypocritical thinking and behavior, because it's like, hello, you smear the truckers
00:25:19.820for one guy waving a swastika. You said that they all were waving swastikas. Meanwhile, we have
00:25:24.700multiple times now where liberals have posted pictures of Ukrainians with Nazi symbolism. And
00:25:30.200the media is not only not holding into account, they're defending them and saying that people who
00:25:34.820are brazing it are Russian shills and propagandists, as we've seen in the past.
00:25:39.720Yeah. And also, there's such a hesitancy from conservatives and from people on the right to go and make their voices heard on these opportunities. It's not all about politics, but everyone knows that if a conservative were to post a picture like that, the media and the left and liberals, everybody, would be ganging up on them.0.66
00:26:00.860But it seems that there's so much hesitation to call attention to this and to basically try and basically put up an even fight when the liberals do it.
00:26:13.080And they know that they get away with it and they exploit it.
00:26:15.580Now, one thing I want to say, I mean, the NATO tweet, like I said, there is room.
00:26:21.240You could basically say that someone didn't see that.
00:26:23.800We could even pull up the original NATO tweet there.
00:26:26.320So if you look at it there, there's no way you would see that black sun symbol.
00:26:30.320but if you go to the, if you go to the Catherine McKenna tweet, it's, it's very obvious. Like you
00:26:36.040would have to, you would have to really be trying not to notice that it's, it's white on a black
00:26:41.720vest. So it's very clear what that is. You would have to be, you'd have to be really trying not to
00:26:48.120notice it to be sort of, I don't know, playing the, playing the ignorance card there. So yeah,
00:26:54.360I'm not sure what was going on with McKenna there, but I mean, she wasn't the only person
00:26:57.840to share that photo, right? That was that was shared by a lot of people. Yeah, it's front and
00:27:02.080center. It's one of those things that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And there's a broader
00:27:05.000issue here, Harrison, that is at play, which is that the media have absolutely no interest in
00:27:10.440looking into this, right? You know, two weeks ago, a month ago, everyone was really, really
00:27:14.880concerned that there was some kind of a Nazi infiltration into the trucker convoy. It was
00:27:20.380never proven. It was never substantiated. It was based on nothing. It was based on one provocateur
00:27:25.720showing up at the rally for 10 minutes and then leaving so so so there was no real basis for that
00:27:31.580but the media fixated on it they were obsessed with it justin trudeau talked about it over and
00:27:36.220over again to the his to the point of parody where he accused a jewish mp a conservative mp of jewish
00:27:42.920heritage of jewish ethnicity of standing with those who wave swastikas so so when it came to
00:27:48.020the sight of a swastika in canada it was so horrendous to us uh that the media obsessed
00:27:53.240over it. Okay, I didn't appreciate that. I didn't agree with that. But that was the standard that
00:27:58.100they created. Now, here we have Ukraine, a new country, a country that has a lot of civil
00:28:04.960instability, a lot of infighting and tribal sort of hatreds that are coming up. There seems to be
00:28:11.160a pretty clear issue when it comes to this Azov battalion and the neo-Nazi forces at play. But
00:28:18.280media has lost any interest in talking about it as recently harrison as november 2021 interestingly
00:28:25.560the media were interested in it they they they had it had a fascination with it in fact there
00:28:30.280were many many stories from that time from just five six months ago of the canadian media looking
00:28:37.400into this idea that there were neo-nazi linked um units in the in the ukrainian military and that
00:28:44.680canadian officials met with them canadian officials were linked to them canadian officials
00:28:49.000were training them and so here here is one story from the ottawa citizen it says canadian
00:28:54.520officials who met with ukrainian unit linked to neo-nazis feared exposure by news media according
00:28:59.800to documents a year before the meeting canada's joint force uh joint task force ukraine produced
00:29:05.080a briefing on the as of battalion you can see even in this in this uh news story you can see
00:29:10.120the swastika on the on the guy's helmet i mean this was a major problem and the fact that the
00:29:14.520canadians were somehow involved with this was something that the media had interested they
00:29:18.600were investigating it they were looking into it but then suddenly as soon as this conflict erupted
00:29:24.360and as soon as we had captured or we had christia freeland shown with that uh bandera flag it was
00:29:30.200like the media and i and i can just say from personal experience i posted that story i think
00:29:34.600we were one of the first of the first ones to report on it harrison and i was getting so many
00:29:39.480so much heckling from our colleagues in legacy media on, you know, wouldn't you defend Chrystia
00:29:46.140Freeland? This is obviously, she's obviously not a Nazi, blah, blah, blah, blah. But it was just
00:29:50.700so interesting to see why are you defending a politician against a journalist? Like, isn't a
00:29:56.280job of a journalist to expose politicians and hold them accountable? Why are you trying to hold me
00:30:00.160accountable? And then again, like, when it comes to any of these stories, they just, they were
00:30:04.860interested in it five months ago. And now it's not convenient to the Trudeau government's
00:30:08.560narrative. So you just don't cover it anymore. Yeah. It's unfortunate because we're not taking
00:30:14.180a side at True North. What we're trying to do is just basically tell what's happening from an
00:30:20.340unbiased perspective on this issue to basically say that, yes, the deputy prime minister was
00:30:25.500holding a scarf that has neo-Nazi connections. That is clear. And that's what we are doing.
00:30:32.320So the idea that you are on the side of Russia, if you are criticizing government leaders,
00:30:38.560for bad for for bad mistakes mistakes that they even admit to because freeland deleted that tweet
00:30:45.640so if it wasn't a problem like the legacy media are trying to paint it as and she wouldn't she
00:30:50.120would have no reason to delete that mckenna would have no reason to delete her tweet the idea that
00:30:54.520you are a russian uh propagandist if you criticize the canadian government is a slippery slope that
00:31:01.080people aren't really seem seeming to pay that much attention to the fact that anybody who's
00:31:06.440critical of the government is some sort of foreign agent that's a that's a bad state for uh for our
00:31:12.060media to be in absolutely i want to i want to address something uh someone mentioned in the
00:31:16.500comments here they said please stop calling ukrainian people nazis studied the history
00:31:19.860before speaking nazi ukraine became home to thousands of thousands of jews uh during the
00:31:25.960second war so calling about nazis is untrue of course i completely agree with that i don't think
00:31:30.160that the ukrainians are nazis by any means by any extent i think that there is a small group
00:31:35.620of people who have infiltrated. And there's clearly a problem. There is clearly a group of
00:31:41.120people in that country, not all of them. I don't even think it's a significant percentage. It's a
00:31:45.860small group. However, they're part of the military. They have their own battalion. It's called the
00:31:51.440Azov Battalion. So the fact that there is something of appeal amongst this ideology,
00:31:58.780this far right group is a concern. And just to compare it back to Canada, right? I don't think
00:32:05.380that canada has a real nazi problem i don't think that there's a real nazi presence in this country
00:32:09.340i think it's really really exaggerated i think that there's a very if there if there are real
00:32:13.640nazis in canada i've never met one i've never seen one they're not active they don't go they're not
00:32:18.500involved in the political system in any way shape or form there's no home for them anywhere um
00:32:23.240despite that fact the media are constantly trying to invent this idea that there's a
00:32:27.940fringe far right in canada and it's infiltrating the conservative party and conservative movement
00:32:31.880That is a lie. Whereas when it comes to Ukraine, I don't know. I don't know the extent of this issue. I don't know the extent of the of the influence that they have.
00:32:41.960I will just say from the reports that I've read and my analysis looking at the situation, it seems like that is a more of a real accusation, a more of a real problem or something there, there where that isn't the case in Canada.
00:32:53.420So that's my only point here. And I by no means believe, and I didn't say that Ukrainians are Nazis. That's absolutely false. Many most fought against Nazis during the Second World War. And that's history as well.
00:33:10.800So thanks for the question. And as part of the fun, Harrison, of doing these shows live is you can you can react and talk about these people.
00:33:19.720But, you know, there were several of these types of stories that were definitely of interest on the political left.
00:33:25.440People pointing out the fact that Canada was through our military was connected to right wing extremists.
00:33:32.480We were funding them and the government was was well aware of that.
00:33:36.260So I don't expect the media to hold Justin Trudeau to his account.
00:33:39.680I don't expect them to have the same standards as they hold to the conservatives and the opposition and the truckers.
00:33:45.840But the hypocrisy is just blaring on this one, Harrison.
00:33:58.160What we're just saying is that there is a public interest angle in Canada's engagement with Ukraine.
00:34:04.460And what is being posted to social media, that is what our job is.
00:34:08.340So that's all we're doing. And I think it's, I think it's, I think when the prime minister accuses conservative MPs of standing with swastikas, then, and then turns a complete blind eye to what's happening in Ukraine with plenty of evidence to document, to document what's going on.
00:34:27.180And that's then where journalists like us at True North have to step in and to call it like we see it and basically do our job as journalists.
00:34:36.880So, yeah, I think it's important to clarify that, of course, we're not saying that about all Ukrainians.
00:34:42.140But you're exactly right. We have to do a job that some people may not find comfortable.
00:34:47.260That's often what happens in journalism. It's not comfortable to talk about.
00:34:52.120But when the prime minister accuses Canadians and conservatives of standing with people who
00:34:56.820have swastikas, they should expect to get some sort of response when there is evidence and when
00:35:03.660there's something to be said about that. Yeah, no, and it's so true. And even just, you know,1.00
00:35:08.100there's a large Ukrainian diaspora in Canada. I think Canada is the largest Ukrainian population
00:35:12.500outside of Ukraine. So there's a lot of people who have their own connections, their own family
00:35:17.600history. And it's interesting. I have a lot of Ukrainian friends. I lived in Alberta for many
00:35:20.740years. And there's a lot of people, especially in northern Alberta, that are from Ukraine. And I've
00:35:24.760been trying to talk to as many of these friends as possible, especially people who still have family
00:35:28.660back in Ukraine. And one of the things I found that's really interesting, Harrison, is that
00:35:32.760there's no one way of thinking about Ukraine and their country. It really almost depends on what
00:35:39.000part of the country they're from, where their ancestors were, when they left and when they
00:35:43.560came to Canada, because Ukraine is a very diverse place, right? So if you're Ukrainian, but of Polish
00:35:49.480heritage, you might have a very, very negative idea of Bandera and the role that he played.0.52
00:35:55.320Whereas if you were someone that was Ukrainian from Kiev or something like that, wanting to0.98
00:36:00.380fight against the Soviets, you would be more for that. So it's interesting when we look at0.99
00:36:05.200figures like Bandera and look back at the Second World War, it's important to preface, and I always
00:36:10.020try to do this in my reports, that some people view him as a national hero. And there are statues
00:36:15.160And there are streets named after him. And I'm talking about Stefan Bandera, the Nazi leader who started one of these movements, one of these far right movements today.
00:36:24.480It's not all seen in the same light. And certainly, you know, I have Ukrainian friends that are Russian speaking, that come from Russian heritage.
00:36:31.600So it's definitely a complex place. And I think that our line of criticism mostly focuses back on Canada and of the just pure hypocrisy when it comes to the way that the media and politicians criticize some flags and not others.
00:36:47.720And of course, the great irony that we want to cover today was the fact that so many of these journalists are saying out with the Canadian flag and in with the Ukrainian flag.
00:36:55.900So I'll give the final word to you, Harrison.
00:36:57.460what we've seen here is a outlets like true north and other
00:37:06.980outlets that are best to to tell like it is and not be biased not by the government
00:37:14.420it's why it's so important because we've seen it time and time again that journalists in this
00:37:19.380country mainstream journalists are are taking a side and are sticking with that side and are
00:37:24.420excusing um what is newsworthy and so again i just think it's it this goes to show exactly how it looks
00:37:33.460like true north are are so important because you know these conversations and we can't just gloss
00:37:39.620over the fact so there's a level of nuance and there's there's context that without being part
00:37:46.020without being from ukraine without living there we just don't know what it's exactly like so
00:37:50.900you know journalists are doing their best um i think some could do a lot better than they are
00:37:55.780of course but that being said i think you know what we've discussed here is important stuff to
00:38:01.620talk about um and when christia freeland and katherine mckenna engage in these sorts of
00:38:05.460issues they should expect that canadian journalists are going to hold them to account
00:38:09.060and if conservatives in parliament aren't going to do that or if opposition people in parliament
00:38:13.860are journalists then i guess it'll end up having to be us right so that's kind of the way i view it
00:38:19.060yeah absolutely i think journalists could be doing a lot better and instead of blindly
00:38:24.480marching us towards a war that we really don't understand a lot of the basis behind and we
00:38:31.520really shouldn't be involved in at all uh journalists partially play the role uh bear
00:38:37.500the blame for for a lot of the misinformation so do so do our leaders by the way who are so happy
00:38:42.140and so quick to censor and to try to shut down what they call misinformation you know it's kind
00:38:48.720of terrifying to see the the united act against promoting russians like there was even something
00:38:56.020on facebook saying that they changed their policies allowing for people uh to basically
00:39:01.440incite violence against russians right now they usually have a policy that prevents that
00:39:05.580but they're pausing it and allowing people to temporarily incite violence which is terrifying
00:39:10.840because it's like you know we have these principles we have these norms we believe in liberty and if
00:39:15.840we allow ourselves to throw them out at a moment like this, we're not going to be able to easily
00:39:20.480get those back. Well, Harrison, thanks so much for joining us for a live edition here. It's been fun
00:39:24.640and we'll be back again next week. That's Harrison Faulkner, True North journalist and producer here
00:39:29.620at the Candice Malcolm Show. It's Fake News Friday. I'm Candice Malcolm and this is the Candice Malcolm Show.