Juno News - July 04, 2024


Pro-Palestine protesters ERUPT in downtown Toronto

Mentioned
Harrison Faulkner Retired Paul Willis Colston Queen Harry Simon
Chrystia Freeland tight-lipped on what she did in Davos John A Macdonald gets memory-holed

Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

203.62

Word count

2,678

Sentence count

280

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

20

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

For the past two months, protesters have been camped outside the University of Toronto s main campus building, demanding that the university divest from their investments in Israeli companies. Today, the university is under an injunction that prevents them from removing the tents and flags that have been set up in front of the building for over two months. The protesters have now left, and police have been called in to clear them out, but what will they do next?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Why are we not starting for Palestinians? 0.95
00:00:02.200 Once proud school, now it's shameful.
00:00:05.260 My man is going to be returned for me, my baby.
00:00:09.740 Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.
00:00:17.520 Alright, well, it's Harrison Falcon reporting for True North.
00:00:20.460 We're at King's College Circle, where for the last two months,
00:00:23.740 there has been an encampment here, right in this park behind me,
00:00:27.120 full of tents and full of Palestinian flags.
00:00:29.600 The goal of the encampment here was to have the University of Toronto
00:00:33.020 divest from their investments in Israel, in Israeli companies.
00:00:38.300 Now, I want to just point out a few things, because what time is it now?
00:00:40.820 It's 5 o'clock in an hour.
00:00:42.640 That is when the deadline to clear out this circle is enforced.
00:00:46.740 That's when the Toronto police are going to come in and clear it out.
00:00:48.680 But look, there's basically nothing here already.
00:00:50.300 Everybody's left.
00:00:51.320 It's ironic, because you think if they were protesting a genocide,
00:00:54.680 if it was really such an important cause,
00:00:56.800 you might think they'd stand their ground a little bit
00:00:58.620 and actually hold the circle.
00:01:01.080 But they've obviously fled.
00:01:02.380 I also want to point this out to you as well.
00:01:04.580 We have here lists of documents.
00:01:06.280 These are obviously the court orders telling these protesters at the time,
00:01:09.740 protesting that the circle is up.
00:01:11.580 Here's one right here.
00:01:13.600 An Ontario Superior Court of Justice court order.
00:01:16.220 And over top, as you can see,
00:01:18.040 over on pen has been written,
00:01:19.320 there is no private property on Indigenous land.
00:01:22.140 Very interesting here.
00:01:24.300 It's funny, because you would think, again,
00:01:26.220 if this is Indigenous land,
00:01:27.560 why would a bunch of students,
00:01:29.780 the University of Toronto,
00:01:30.660 and maybe non-students who are clearly not Indigenous,
00:01:33.000 occupy land which they claim to be Indigenous?
00:01:35.340 I also want to point one more thing out to you.
00:01:36.800 We might be able to see them now.
00:01:38.020 We've got helicopters in the sky.
00:01:40.100 Just prior to recording,
00:01:41.640 there were Toronto police surveillance drones
00:01:43.940 taking footage of what was going on here.
00:01:46.420 It seems as though everybody who's been protesting
00:01:48.580 has now marched off either to Queen's Park or to someplace else.
00:01:51.840 We're going to try to find them, see what happens.
00:01:54.360 But we also want to make sure we're here at 6 o'clock
00:01:56.360 when this gets opened up.
00:01:58.440 If we don't get no justice,
00:02:00.560 then they don't get no peace.
00:02:02.360 If we don't get no justice,
00:02:04.640 then they don't get no peace.
00:02:06.380 My name is Major Retired Paul Willis.
00:02:08.000 I just finished 33 years Canadian Forces.
00:02:10.520 My uncle fought for the 48th Islanders against the Nazis,
00:02:13.240 and when I see Nazis in the streets of Canada,
00:02:15.800 it upsets me.
00:02:16.660 And that's why I'm here, just to...
00:02:18.600 And I'm also an alumni of this university,
00:02:21.800 and a student of Continuing Studies,
00:02:23.440 but I quit because of some of the hatred and venom
00:02:25.920 that the professors were spooing at Israel
00:02:28.060 and the Jews in general.
00:02:29.400 So it's unfortunate,
00:02:31.300 but maybe one day I'll be able to come back
00:02:33.120 and be at this once proud school.
00:02:35.640 Now it's shameful.
00:02:37.360 Well, as a former student
00:02:38.300 and as someone who was in the Continuing Studies program,
00:02:40.960 what have you made of how the university has handled this?
00:02:42.780 Because from my perspective,
00:02:44.140 two months of having the centerpiece of this university
00:02:47.680 occupied in tents,
00:02:49.180 it seems as though they were basically letting it go on.
00:02:51.480 It's been shameful how he handled it. 0.92
00:02:52.980 It was very cowardly, 0.98
00:02:54.440 and he's way past his prime. 0.96
00:02:55.820 He needs to resign.
00:02:56.620 This should have been shut down day one, hour one.
00:02:59.400 I'm also upset with the Toronto Police Services
00:03:01.340 because the deputy inspector,
00:03:03.940 and forgive me, I forget his name,
00:03:05.000 but he suggested that he couldn't clear the protesters
00:03:08.040 because U of T let them stay too long, 0.88
00:03:11.040 which is horse s**t, 0.96
00:03:12.220 and he's just passing the buck. 0.91
00:03:13.860 They should have had the courage to come in here
00:03:15.480 and clean them out without the injunction.
00:03:17.440 Elected members of Parliament
00:03:18.500 and people in important positions
00:03:20.340 like those in the Toronto Police Service
00:03:21.940 seem to be trying to appease this group of people.
00:03:25.520 We've seen some shocking messages from them.
00:03:27.400 It's really unbelievable,
00:03:28.760 but how does that make you feel as a former veteran?
00:03:30.220 Yeah, it's really painful,
00:03:32.500 and I feel for my veterans too,
00:03:34.100 and they hate this.
00:03:34.700 They can't speak out.
00:03:35.860 Excuse me, my fellow soldiers,
00:03:37.080 and they're still serving a lot of them.
00:03:38.120 They can't speak out.
00:03:39.020 I can.
00:03:39.600 There's no more muzzle on me,
00:03:41.900 and rightly so.
00:03:42.500 We don't speak out when we're in uniform.
00:03:43.820 Now I'm out of uniform.
00:03:45.360 And for the politicians,
00:03:47.040 they're pandering to votes.
00:03:48.140 They're pandering to a small amount of people,
00:03:49.900 and they think they're going to garner votes for this
00:03:51.660 when, to be honest,
00:03:53.000 I think the vast majority of Canadians,
00:03:55.280 be they Jewish, Christian, Muslim, whatever,
00:03:58.040 do not support this.
00:03:58.920 They've all come down to block the entrance,
00:04:01.700 to block the entrance of the university.
00:04:03.080 I want to show you this here.
00:04:04.220 They brought a large crowd out here.
00:04:05.380 As you can see, they've got unions.
00:04:07.840 They've got all these different flags.
00:04:10.300 They've got the Palestinian flags, naturally.
00:04:13.220 I wouldn't be surprised if we see some LGBTQ flags as well,
00:04:16.740 not as though,
00:04:17.200 not as like the Palestinians actually support them,
00:04:19.300 but it is important to show that
00:04:20.800 they might just try to block the entrance
00:04:23.100 and not let anyone actually in
00:04:24.980 to try to clear out the encampment.
00:04:26.920 A remarkable act of cowardice
00:04:28.740 to flee the place
00:04:30.160 where they had been standing for two months
00:04:31.660 when actually this is the day
00:04:33.300 the police are coming to clear them out.
00:04:34.800 Like I said,
00:04:35.400 if you're going to be protesting a genocide,
00:04:36.900 you might think that
00:04:37.560 standing your ground for a day
00:04:39.160 might be worth the cause,
00:04:40.700 but not for them.
00:04:41.360 It seems that they want the visual,
00:04:42.900 they want the big scene.
00:04:44.380 That's what they're going to get.
00:04:45.060 We are leaving the space,
00:04:46.260 we are leaving things called
00:04:47.300 Circle on front campus for now,
00:04:49.680 but we will continue our protest
00:04:51.740 and you can watch as we watch along the shore.
00:04:53.680 They're predicting that the police
00:05:04.500 was going to use this opportunity
00:05:05.680 to brutalize them 0.94
00:05:06.640 because of the injunction.
00:05:08.400 And you know the injunction said
00:05:09.600 there was no anti-Semitism,
00:05:11.360 there was no violence,
00:05:12.720 but it came down to property rights.
00:05:14.920 So it's private property.
00:05:16.420 And the police decided
00:05:17.460 they would enforce
00:05:18.520 private property rights,
00:05:21.620 which is weird.
00:05:22.340 You don't think the circle
00:05:24.100 is private property?
00:05:25.600 It is private property,
00:05:26.800 but the police,
00:05:27.940 the public police,
00:05:29.300 oh, I know that.
00:05:30.800 But the police are public
00:05:33.540 and why are they working
00:05:35.220 for a private institution?
00:05:37.540 You see what I'm saying?
00:05:38.160 It's our tax dollars.
00:05:40.100 Why are we,
00:05:40.740 why are they hired,
00:05:42.060 are we paying them
00:05:43.080 to move people out?
00:05:45.300 You see what I'm saying?
00:05:45.960 Do you want that?
00:05:47.200 Well, I would just say that
00:05:48.280 if there are a large number of people
00:05:49.580 on private property who, okay.
00:05:51.820 Oh, I know.
00:05:52.340 Whatever you say.
00:05:53.060 Just don't, just don't.
00:05:54.840 So you realize that
00:05:56.140 they think you're going to edit
00:05:58.100 everything I say.
00:05:59.060 Oh, no, no.
00:05:59.860 We just want to be able to talk to you.
00:06:00.760 No, but they really think
00:06:01.720 that you're going to twist the truth.
00:06:03.580 Well, let's smile for the camera here.
00:06:04.860 Hold on.
00:06:05.220 What do you think
00:06:06.020 has been accomplished
00:06:07.480 by occupying
00:06:08.680 King's College Circle
00:06:09.720 for two months?
00:06:10.600 Anything?
00:06:11.180 The more that people know
00:06:12.640 about the apartheid regime
00:06:14.260 and the brutality
00:06:15.760 of that apartheid regime.
00:06:18.040 I mean,
00:06:18.440 we stood up for South Africa.
00:06:19.840 Why are we not
00:06:21.040 studying for Colston yet?
00:06:22.220 This painful people
00:06:23.160 will now know your face
00:06:24.260 and they will twist
00:06:25.340 whatever you say
00:06:26.080 using editing.
00:06:26.840 They will not...
00:06:27.880 Oh, sorry, ma'am.
00:06:29.400 I just wanted to ask you
00:06:30.580 why you wanted to talk with us.
00:06:32.540 Well, that was very interesting.
00:06:33.440 So we just interviewed
00:06:34.060 a woman who answered our questions.
00:06:35.680 We wanted to just speak with her
00:06:36.600 about what brought her out here.
00:06:37.620 Not many people
00:06:38.520 want to speak to us,
00:06:39.680 but that woman in a black mask, 0.99
00:06:40.840 she was interrupting the woman 0.99
00:06:43.340 saying,
00:06:43.900 don't speak with us,
00:06:44.560 don't speak to True North.
00:06:45.480 And then we just wanted
00:06:46.040 to ask her what she had to say.
00:06:48.360 And as you saw there,
00:06:49.320 she slapped the camera,
00:06:50.760 tried to slap it out of my hand.
00:06:52.340 Very interesting behavior.
00:06:53.980 What brings you out here today?
00:06:55.180 I like to understand firsthand
00:06:56.640 what's going on
00:06:57.420 with my own eyes and ears
00:06:58.240 so I don't fall for
00:06:59.140 propaganda, fake news.
00:07:01.720 I love your True North.
00:07:03.840 I love your True North channel.
00:07:05.120 Oh, I appreciate that.
00:07:05.980 Appreciate you too.
00:07:06.940 What do you make
00:07:07.420 of what you've seen so far?
00:07:08.600 You wanted to observe?
00:07:09.420 You obviously were walking
00:07:10.780 here with the crowd.
00:07:12.140 What do you make of what you...
00:07:12.780 I'm not walking with the crowd,
00:07:13.540 I'm walking on the sidewalk.
00:07:14.380 On the sidewalk, right.
00:07:15.260 Yeah, of course.
00:07:16.020 How do you think
00:07:16.660 the encampment has gone
00:07:18.060 now that people have left,
00:07:19.620 packed up?
00:07:20.100 What do you think you've accomplished
00:07:21.000 or the people here
00:07:21.700 have accomplished?
00:07:23.920 Honestly, I don't think...
00:07:25.000 Yeah, I don't.
00:07:28.320 You can go speak to them.
00:07:30.180 You don't want to talk?
00:07:31.960 Hi, ma'am.
00:07:32.560 Can you explain your sign?
00:07:33.760 I don't like October 7th.
00:07:36.940 IDF was shooting
00:07:37.880 from helicopter.
00:07:39.420 At festival doors.
00:07:41.980 So what do you think
00:07:42.500 you guys accomplished
00:07:43.160 after two months?
00:07:44.800 We want free Palestine
00:07:46.560 and free university education.
00:07:48.980 Has it happened yet?
00:07:50.100 It's gonna happen.
00:07:51.300 We will not give up.
00:07:52.820 My name is Harry, right?
00:07:54.080 Harrison, that's right.
00:07:55.440 Nice to meet you.
00:07:56.100 What's your name?
00:07:57.460 I know.
00:07:58.140 He knows my name.
00:08:01.300 I feel famous.
00:08:02.200 What a success.
00:08:03.380 What about you, sir?
00:08:04.100 Would you like to answer
00:08:04.640 a few questions for us?
00:08:06.920 Free Palestine.
00:08:07.680 They won't speak to us.
00:08:09.320 They will...
00:08:09.920 Hi there, ma'am.
00:08:10.600 How are you?
00:08:11.420 How are you?
00:08:12.300 What brings you out
00:08:13.060 to the protest today?
00:08:14.640 I'm here in this house, ma'am.
00:08:16.600 And how do you...
00:08:17.140 Do you think the protest
00:08:17.800 has been successful?
00:08:18.660 Very successful.
00:08:19.860 If there was no protest,
00:08:21.140 they would have not been here.
00:08:22.420 Have the university...
00:08:23.300 given in to any of your demands?
00:08:27.980 No, I'm just asking questions.
00:08:30.880 Just wanted to...
00:08:31.820 Oh, God.
00:08:33.920 Oh, yeah.
00:08:34.440 I'm just wondering
00:08:34.960 how people think the protest
00:08:35.900 has gone so far
00:08:36.720 if they think he's been successful.
00:08:37.900 Don't touch it.
00:08:38.360 Don't touch it.
00:08:39.080 You go around.
00:08:39.800 You go around.
00:08:40.320 You go around.
00:08:40.920 You go around.
00:08:41.520 You go around.
00:08:41.540 You go around.
00:08:42.120 You go around.
00:08:43.320 You go around.
00:08:43.980 You go around.
00:08:45.000 I'm a reporter.
00:08:49.480 I'm here to ask people
00:08:50.280 how they're going to think
00:08:51.020 so they're going to think
00:08:51.660 so they're going to go around.
00:08:55.880 You put the shortest guy
00:08:56.920 on the camera down.
00:08:57.980 Who is that?
00:08:59.040 Like a bigger person.
00:09:01.360 You look like anything.
00:09:03.640 Oh, here we go.
00:09:05.620 Oh, you see?
00:09:06.340 Hey, it's in the rain
00:09:08.420 in a minute.
00:09:09.040 It's okay.
00:09:09.700 It's okay.
00:09:10.440 We're live.
00:09:11.440 No need to be strapped.
00:09:12.520 No need to be strapped.
00:09:13.380 Don't touch me.
00:09:14.080 No need to be strapped.
00:09:15.220 Hey, let them guys rest me.
00:09:18.700 Hey, you guys, don't worry.
00:09:20.120 Don't worry.
00:09:20.620 Who's your head?
00:09:20.920 Who's your head? 1.00
00:09:21.420 It's all the white supremacist. 1.00
00:09:23.120 It's all the white supremacist. 0.99
00:09:23.700 You're okay. 0.96
00:09:24.500 Record.
00:09:25.000 Record.
00:09:25.300 Turn it on.
00:09:25.840 I am recording. 0.94
00:09:26.380 It's all the white supremacist. 0.96
00:09:28.580 Hold on. 0.99
00:09:29.100 Hold on.
00:09:30.100 Let's go.
00:09:30.800 Let's go.
00:09:31.100 Let's go.
00:09:31.300 Let's go.
00:09:31.800 Let's go.
00:09:32.800 Let's go.
00:09:33.300 Let's go. 1.00
00:09:33.800 I don't give a f**k if you're a man. 0.99
00:09:36.500 Don't worry about it. 0.99
00:09:37.500 My son is obviously going to be the thing.
00:09:39.200 My man is going to be returned to me one day.
00:09:41.500 And what land is that?
00:09:42.400 Is that Palestine?
00:09:42.900 Yes, it is.
00:09:43.900 Are you going to go there yourself? 0.99
00:09:44.900 I don't give a f**k what you think. 0.99
00:09:46.900 I'm here for my reasons. 0.98
00:09:47.900 Well, it's 6.20pm and 6 o'clock was the deadline given by the Toronto Police and the University
00:09:52.900 to the protesters behind me in this encampment to clear out before they would be forcefully cleared out.
00:09:58.900 They abandoned the park at around 4 o'clock it appears.
00:10:01.900 And ever since then they were marching around King's College Circle.
00:10:04.900 And then, right when we arrived, they started marching down the street and across and up St. George.
00:10:12.900 Something incredible happened when we were asking these protesters questions.
00:10:16.900 And the question we asked them was quite simple.
00:10:18.900 How did they feel the protest over the past two months has gone?
00:10:22.900 Do they think it was successful?
00:10:23.900 Are they pleased with what they've achieved so far?
00:10:26.900 Have they achieved anything?
00:10:27.900 Those are the questions we wanted to ask because we weren't here to provoke them.
00:10:30.900 It seemed as though the protesters had a different idea in mind because after asking a few people some questions,
00:10:35.900 it became quite obvious to us that many of these protesters knew who we were and they weren't actually going to let us speak to anyone.
00:10:42.900 Even those that actually wanted to speak to us.
00:10:44.900 As we were covering the march along St. George, we got up to the front and I asked a woman who was carrying a sign about Israel.
00:10:51.900 I just asked her, what does her sign mean?
00:10:53.900 And then I asked her the same questions.
00:10:55.900 How does she feel this protest has gone so far?
00:10:58.900 And as we moved over to the sidewalk, someone approached us and he knew my name, believe it or not.
00:11:03.900 And I asked him what his name was.
00:11:04.900 Of course, he didn't speak to me.
00:11:05.900 And from that point on, a crowd around us encircled Sam, my cameraman, and I.
00:11:11.900 And we were then assaulted by a man with a black umbrella who was spearing both of us in our backs and over our heads to try to get us to stop doing journalism.
00:11:21.900 You would think that for a group as large as that and as militant and aggressive as that, there would be more police watching what's been going on.
00:11:30.900 But remarkably, there wasn't that many police officers.
00:11:33.900 Protesters also circled the Rebel News truck that had been going around Toronto that you likely know about.
00:11:38.900 They caused quite a scene and they circled that truck and tried to swarm it essentially.
00:11:43.900 Again, no police action to prevent that from happening.
00:11:45.900 Speaking of police action, we haven't seen any police action in the park behind me.
00:11:49.900 As you can see, it's empty.
00:11:50.900 It was empty when we arrived here actually.
00:11:52.900 And there's been nothing that has actually gone on to take down these blue fences.
00:11:55.900 Almost every university encampment has come down already.
00:11:58.900 It feels as though this University of Toronto encampment was the last one standing.
00:12:02.900 And the university allowed it to go on for two months.
00:12:05.900 It is private property. Let's just get that right off the top.
00:12:08.900 And furthermore, you would think that a university would want to allow the centerpiece, their park in the middle of the university, to be accessible for all students.
00:12:16.900 Not to have the gate, which is right behind me, that they've had for the past two months dictating who can and cannot come in.
00:12:22.900 When we came here two months ago on May 6th, they had that gate there deciding who couldn't enter this protest.
00:12:30.900 They even denied Jewish students access and had ridiculous messages on the chalk like go back to Europe and other messages like that.
00:12:37.900 It remains to be seen what is going to happen to this protest.
00:12:40.900 We were told by one of the organizers in their mass press conference earlier that they were giving up the King's College Circle.
00:12:45.900 They were giving up the encampment, but their protest won't stop.
00:12:48.900 So they're going to keep going on this protest.
00:12:50.900 They're going to keep marching around Toronto.
00:12:52.900 But for now, the tents are down and it looks like they will stay down.
00:12:56.900 Signing off from the University of Toronto, Harrison Falk.
00:12:59.900 Let's see you in vor.
00:13:03.900 Let's all share your Simon�.
00:13:04.900 Let's see you in front.
00:13:05.900 The 별 that is