Juno News - February 10, 2023


Protesters battle over drag shows for kids


Episode Stats

Length

22 minutes

Words per Minute

171.08478

Word Count

3,782

Sentence Count

257

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello everyone and welcome to Fake News Friday. It is Friday, February 10th, 2023. I am Andrew
00:00:17.240 Lawton joined by the lovely and wonderful Sue Ann Levy. Nothing fake news about those adjectives
00:00:23.440 and many more. And this is the moment of the week where we look back at the week that was
00:00:28.440 we swim through the flurry of falsehoods, the fabrications and fictions and try to make sense
00:00:34.160 of it all and perhaps even have a laugh or two in the process. And as always, and you can certainly
00:00:40.780 attest to this through your career of watching all of the people that are supposed to be the
00:00:45.420 watchers of truth themselves, they give us no shortage of material. That is for darn sure and
00:00:51.580 more and more lately. Yeah, very much the case. And one of them we needn't look further than the
00:00:57.660 nation's capital just a year since the Freedom Convoy. And there is a new battle brewing on the
00:01:03.580 streets of Ottawa. This one a little bit more colorful and a little bit less in the way of
00:01:07.900 honking. A battle of protests, dueling protests about drag storytime events, specifically one at
00:01:15.500 Ottawa's National Arts Centre. Now I wasn't there, but on Wednesday night there was a protest against
00:01:21.340 the drag storytime event at the NAC in Ottawa, also a group of counter protesters. The media was very
00:01:29.380 clear and very quick to point out that there seemed to be more in the pro-drag storytime protest than in
00:01:35.440 the anti-drag storytime protest. I mean, all told, we're still talking about no more than maybe 200,
00:01:42.060 250 people here with a dozen police officers there to keep the peace. The sense about this though seems to
00:01:49.380 be that those protesting these events are in the wrong. And I'm curious about your thoughts on this.
00:01:56.700 They're absolutely not in the wrong. Number one, I mean, it just upsets me so much to think there's so
00:02:03.100 much wrong with this. First of all, they're entitled to have their opinions and they're entitled to free
00:02:08.540 speech. And, you know, you know, and I've made no bones about the fact that I'm gay and I'm openly gay
00:02:15.640 and married to a woman. And, uh, I still believe that these drag queens story hours for young kids
00:02:24.100 are inappropriate. A lot of these drag queens, um, do some very, very pornographic and suggestive
00:02:31.700 things. And I think the parents who take these kids to these drag queen shows, maybe I'm old fashioned,
00:02:38.380 but I don't think so. I think it's just totally inappropriate. And there's a, you know, verging on
00:02:44.560 obscenity and being obscene, I should say. Yeah. And listen, I mean, drag queens and drag shows have
00:02:53.200 been around for years and it's only been in the last two years, in my view, that anyone has ever
00:02:59.060 cared about them. I mean, I I've never heard from a single Bible thumping evangelical type. And I say
00:03:04.420 that as a conservative Christian myself who has cared about these things at all until it became
00:03:10.140 directed at children. And I think that's the key distinction here. And that's why people are,
00:03:15.640 and by the way, a lot of people that have no issues with the LGBT community, but don't necessarily like
00:03:21.580 the targeting of some very suggestive shows to children. Like that's the only variable that makes
00:03:27.140 people care about it. When did that become appropriate, Andrew? I think it's totally inappropriate.
00:03:32.880 Now I've never, my wife and I were not fortunate enough to have any children, but I wouldn't have
00:03:38.020 allowed my children to go to something like that. Let children be children. They should be playing with,
00:03:43.940 well, I, shall I say anatomically correct dolls? I don't know. Is that out these days? Trucks,
00:03:50.640 whatever. It's all gender neutral. Yeah. All gender neutral trucks and dolls. And, you know,
00:03:57.180 I used to do hopscotch. I used to play jacks, like let kids be kids. Why are you? And these
00:04:02.840 drag queens, I mean, I think they're funny and I enjoy a good drag show, but they're really over
00:04:08.860 the top and they are suggestive. And I think kids of five, six, seven years old, that's too much for
00:04:17.160 them. It's far too sophisticated. There was a piece in Global by Rachel Gilmore that says these
00:04:23.920 events are facing, quote, a crisis of hate, unquote. Now she's not using her own words. She's using those
00:04:31.720 of an advocate for these shows that she quoted. But again, people protesting, drag story time for
00:04:37.920 children. I don't see how that's creating a crisis of hate or any crisis whatsoever.
00:04:42.920 I think the opposite. I think that we've become tremendously intolerant. I mean, tremendously
00:04:49.240 tolerant. That's their, uh, tolerant of this kind of thing. And people are afraid to speak up because
00:04:56.460 precisely of what she said, that you're transphobic, you're homophobic, you're all the phobics you can
00:05:03.460 find. And, you know, they, again, I'm going to repeat, I think it's inappropriate to expose young kids to
00:05:10.620 this. And I think parents who bring these kids, bring their children to these story hours, um, are, you
00:05:17.920 know, I think it's wrong. I think it borders on abuse. And, uh, that's speaking from someone who
00:05:24.400 is gay and, you know, lived in the closet for many, many years. But I mean, when did it become
00:05:31.160 acceptable? And when did it become, um, you know, that people are hateful for saying this is wrong.
00:05:39.580 This is just a hundred percent wrong.
00:05:42.080 Yeah. And in that article in global, uh, Rachel Gilmore quotes Faye Johnstone, who's the executive
00:05:47.720 director of a group that is a consulting firm that advocates for progressive policies on violence
00:05:55.320 prevention, mental health, and social inclusion. So a lot there. And what Faye Johnstone says is I am
00:06:01.360 deeply concerned that one of these days I'll wake up and there will be a headline about a shooting or
00:06:06.520 about physical assault or sexual violence against, uh, 2SLGBTQ people in the name of addressing,
00:06:13.260 quote, grooming, unquote. So what, uh, this person is doing is linking those protesting drag story time
00:06:20.960 events with those that use the term groomer, with those that commit acts of violence. We're talking
00:06:26.400 about three degrees of separation here that are, I think, very offensively, uh, trying to imply that
00:06:32.220 there is a tendency towards violence of people saying what you've just said there.
00:06:37.760 Faye Johnstone is, uh, bought and paid for a shell of the Trudeau government. He's given her,
00:06:43.840 the Trudeau government has given her consultancy a tremendous amount of money to, I guess,
00:06:51.700 consult on this precise kind of thing. So Faye Johnstone has a very distinct agenda. We've crossed
00:06:57.880 swords on Twitter. And I think eventually she blocked me because I'm allegedly a TERF. You know,
00:07:05.060 you can't, you can't actually criticize people for being outrageously, uh, trans, like going over the
00:07:12.680 top without being accused of being transphobic. So Faye Johnstone has a vested interest. And I don't
00:07:20.560 think Rachel Gilmore, I don't think should be quoting her, but they're given a platform. That's the
00:07:26.420 unfortunate thing. As you and I have both known through my career, these outrageous, radical
00:07:32.720 activists are always given a platform and that becomes the standard for bad or good behavior.
00:07:40.120 Yeah, very much so. And it's not connected to the drag story hour story, but I think it's part of the
00:07:45.380 general media climate about this. Uh, this student who's been suspended for saying there are only two
00:07:52.060 genders, which, uh, you normally would be an opinion that at the very least we could have
00:07:56.580 within the bounds of acceptable debate, even if someone disagrees with that. But Josh Alexander
00:08:01.320 says this in a Catholic school context, he suspended and now is trespassing. When he tries to go to his
00:08:08.440 school, he was arrested. Yeah, it's crazy. He stood up for some young ladies who felt very uncomfortable
00:08:14.940 about going into a gender neutral washroom because trans identified, uh, young men were coming in and
00:08:22.920 changing. And I don't blame them for feeling uncomfortable. Again, it's wrong. And he's,
00:08:29.540 and it's a Catholic school. What happened to Catholic values, Andrew? And he has been, you know,
00:08:35.260 tarred and feathered for, you know, doing and saying what is probably on most of our minds,
00:08:41.860 those who don't speak up the, uh, silent majority. So, I mean, this is the craziness that has come of
00:08:49.420 this world. And let, let me just add that Faye Johnson is a biological male. Let her come after
00:08:55.160 me and tell me that, that I'm wrong, but she is a biological male. She identifies as a female,
00:09:00.380 dresses as a female, but she's still a biological male married to another biological male. So there you
00:09:06.760 have it. Well, again, you know, normally saying things that are true should not be, uh, subject to
00:09:13.020 all of these efforts at cancellation, but we are in the post-truth era, uh, as, uh, you and many of
00:09:18.620 our audience well know here. Uh, are you a figure skating fan by chance? I love the figure skating. I
00:09:24.960 think it takes a lot of diligence and commitment to do it well. So yes, I do like figure skating.
00:09:30.820 My, my grandmother used to be a giant figure skating fan. So I, I've always had a bit of a
00:09:36.200 soft spot for it. Uh, and if you are a figure skater with the wrong opinions, you are no longer
00:09:42.100 allowed to be, uh, Canada's sweetheart on ice, such as the fate that has befallen, uh, Jamie Saleh,
00:09:48.420 the former Olympic gold medalist who initially, if you know, uh, sporting history actually had her,
00:09:53.860 uh, gold medal robbed of her because of a very corrupt Olympic judges. Uh, but Jamie Saleh has
00:10:00.160 become in the last couple of years, a COVID skeptic. She has been critical of the vaccine.
00:10:05.880 She's been opposing vaccine mandates. I don't, I've never met her. I've never interviewed her. I,
00:10:11.060 I don't even know if I follow her on Twitter, quite frankly, but I see her from time to time
00:10:15.420 and think that people should be able to say what they want without issue here. Uh, she was someone
00:10:20.780 who had a tremendously successful career. She was literally, uh, called Canada's sweetheart on ice,
00:10:26.100 but now that she has dipped her skate into wrong think, she is getting the full takeout hit piece
00:10:32.880 from the Toronto star and CBC. She's getting an icy reception, you should say. Uh, very, very good.
00:10:40.100 Correct. Oh my God. The pun for fake news Friday. Uh, you know, it's skating on thin ice. Yes. Well,
00:10:47.120 she's skating on thin ice. Yeah. Well, she's fallen through the ice now. Anyway, carry on.
00:10:51.480 Well, it's so typical though, the media that, you know, if you don't follow the party line,
00:10:57.480 the Trudeau party line, um, the health party line, the, you know, the, the flu party line,
00:11:07.420 well, gee, then you're, you know, a terrible person. Um, I want to bring up something because,
00:11:14.260 you know, I was looking at what she had said and what she'd done. Fact of the matter is that there are
00:11:20.900 many people who've died suddenly of clots of, um, you know, young people who have died mysteriously
00:11:28.880 that's been buried under the rug. I'm sorry, but you know, some people have to speak up and those
00:11:35.200 who did during COVID were, you know, quickly shut, you know, shut down, but she may be over the top,
00:11:42.420 but the point is that I'm not sure that vaccine was, those vaccines were entirely safe. And she has
00:11:49.160 a point. And I think that there are people who have died of blood clots probably as a result of
00:11:54.660 vaccine. I've been very open about the fact that I had some bad side effects to the vaccine. Having
00:12:00.520 said that my father died a month before the vaccine came out and probably would have been saved by it.
00:12:07.080 But, you know, it's clearly wasn't for everybody and it shouldn't have been mandated. And it was
00:12:13.300 terrible what, you know, people were put through.
00:12:15.400 Well, I think the most important point of this is that we should be allowed to in a free society
00:12:20.660 have this conversation and ask whatever questions come up. And I mean, the fact is in Alberta,
00:12:26.360 I think it was in July or June, the numbers came out and found that the greatest cause of death in
00:12:33.500 Alberta is unknown. The leading cause of death is cause unknown. So normally if you have some
00:12:38.800 statistical anomaly like that, there would be a desire to look and say, hmm, what's causing all of
00:12:44.420 these deaths? And, you know, like I said, I can't endorse anything that Jamie Saleh has said without
00:12:49.560 looking at specifics, but I don't think you should have to. And I don't like this idea that just to
00:12:55.240 use the language of the Toronto Star here, the Olympian is championing something darker. And when
00:13:01.700 they talk about all of the examples of this, one of them is that the mainstream media lies to you.
00:13:07.340 One of them is that COVID was a hoax, but with the piece of supporting evidence they used for Jamie
00:13:14.120 Saleh's purported evidence that COVID is a hoax is actually no such thing. It's just a quote that she
00:13:21.200 has retweeted from someone who tweeted a screenshot. Like there's nothing there in what the Toronto Star
00:13:28.100 is saying. And I'm tired of this idea of maligning people's entire existence and accomplishments
00:13:33.320 because they dare not to think what the media says they're supposed to think.
00:13:37.760 Oh, just don't forget that this is the Toronto Star that had on the front page that huge, huge,
00:13:43.180 yeah, and huge type saying that people who didn't get the vaccine deserve to, I think, even die,
00:13:50.580 if I recall correctly. Yeah, denied health care treatment, alienation. Yeah, no, it was a horrible,
00:13:55.940 horrible claim. Yeah, so I'm sorry. But, you know, people are entitled to question. And, you know,
00:14:04.380 those who died of blood clots, purpose unknown, cause unknown, cannot question anymore. So it's left
00:14:11.600 to some of us to question and to wonder whether the vaccine was good for everybody.
00:14:17.320 Yeah. And CBC wrote about this article in the Toronto Star. It was an opinion piece by Shireen
00:14:25.020 Ahmed, who writes that she was devastated to find out that Bobby Orr, a hockey player she likes,
00:14:30.660 supported Donald Trump. And, you know, she's now devastated to learn that Jamie Saleh, a figure
00:14:35.300 skater she likes, believes all this stuff about COVID. And it's like, who cares? If I like someone
00:14:40.320 for their music, I actually don't really care about what they think about Cambodian rice tariffs to
00:14:46.580 decide whether I like their music or not. So it's this idea that we have to politicize everything
00:14:51.960 that I think is causing a breakdown in society here. Absolutely. Except for Roger Waters, who's
00:14:58.260 very anti-Semitic. So I... Yeah, but I mean, but again, I think you're right about that. Like,
00:15:03.880 everyone has to draw their own red line. No one's forcing anyone to write any others. But again,
00:15:08.400 Roger Waters says what he says. People are going to agree with him or disagree with him. It's like,
00:15:13.260 I don't feel the need to let him occupy any of my mind. Exactly. And, you know, that they feel
00:15:19.860 bitterly resentful. Like, take a chill pill, you people who've written this sort of stuff. People,
00:15:25.880 again, people are entitled to their opinions, whether they skated on thin ice, have gone through
00:15:31.240 the ice, or, you know, played the brilliant hockey. And by the way, Bobby Orr is no longer with us. So
00:15:38.960 is he not? Is it Bobby Hall or Bobby Orr? I don't think either is still with us, actually. Let me
00:15:45.340 just check. Bobby Hall just passed away. Bobby Orr. I worry I'm killing off someone here. No,
00:15:51.860 Bobby Orr is still a lot. We've just killed off Bobby Orr. No, Bobby Orr is still with us. And he
00:15:56.560 is 74 years young. Oh, I missed... You know, I thought it was Bobby Hall. So I... Yeah. Apologies.
00:16:02.240 Apologies. We're supposed to be debunking the fake news, Sue Ann. We can't go peddling it. Bobby Orr,
00:16:07.980 if you're listening, we know you're alive. We know you're well. We wish you very well.
00:16:12.660 Yeah. My apologies. No, it's okay. Gordon Lightfoot once, a few years ago, was subject to,
00:16:19.360 like, a Twitter death rumor. And he did an interview, and he said it was okay because his songs hadn't been
00:16:24.880 played so much in years as to when everyone thought he had died. So I think it's all good.
00:16:29.180 Um, we've talked about, uh, the claim that people are peddling conspiracy theories. As we know,
00:16:35.620 yesterday's conspiracy theory is today's government press release. Uh, take no further look than
00:16:41.280 Ontario's Public Health Office, where they've come out with the determination that, hmm, maybe masks
00:16:47.060 don't actually work as much as people think, or used to think. A Public Health Ontario document says
00:16:53.620 masking wouldn't have eased the respiratory virus surge in the fall. Perhaps it's because
00:16:59.380 masking is nowhere near as ascendant as the mandate lovers claim.
00:17:04.800 Gee, go tell Nealey Kaplan, that doctor is also a trustee on the Ottawa School Board. Go tell her that,
00:17:11.720 because she still feels that she has to wear her mask, even on, uh, you know, on, online,
00:17:17.200 on interviews. But yeah, I, I could have told you that, um, I abandoned the mask,
00:17:23.620 ages ago. And, uh, I've had COVID, uh, with and without masks. So, hey, it's a toss up whether the,
00:17:34.420 the mask, I don't think the mask helped much, unless you got an N95, which most people didn't have,
00:17:42.360 but those cloth masks just gave you, uh, I guess, a feeling of security. And by the way,
00:17:48.700 Andrew, what's with the people who are still wearing masks?
00:17:52.820 Well, yeah, that's the thing is that if someone was wearing the really heavy duty, high-end mask,
00:17:57.840 and they were doing it really diligently, then fine. I mean, I was on a plane with someone,
00:18:02.860 uh, not that long ago who I, I won't name, but there's someone who's well-known in the COVID world,
00:18:08.060 and they were wearing an N95 mask, but they take it off to eat their food. They take it off to drink.
00:18:13.160 They, you know, were chatting with me face-to-face, airplane seat away from each other. So, I don't
00:18:17.800 know if the mask on the plane was doing really anything at that point. Uh, and other people as
00:18:23.060 well, you're right, that wear these, like, ratty cloth masks that they got in March 2020 and have
00:18:27.560 never washed. And they're thinking, oh, you know, I'm doing this to save lives. Why aren't you?
00:18:32.520 Oh, I know. They've been so indoctrinated. I mean, I saw people go in, go up to a brunch,
00:18:37.800 wearing the mask, and then taking it off to look at the food. God Almighty, breathing all over the
00:18:43.400 food as they took Matt, lowered the mask. I mean, it makes no sense. It's just like a,
00:18:48.920 a security blanket. Like your little, you know, you had, you slept with a little dolly when you were
00:18:53.800 young. It's like that. It makes no sense to me anymore. And, and, you know, I, I've said this
00:18:59.880 before that COVID has created these people who are so, you know, insecure and somewhat narcissistic
00:19:07.440 and obsessive compulsive. And that's the sad part is that, you know, people cling on to this stuff as
00:19:13.480 if it's going to protect them. I mean, I had COVID in November. It wasn't so bad. Uh, I was okay in a
00:19:20.160 week and, you know, that's what the vaccines were for. Yeah. And, and I should say specifically here,
00:19:26.360 they're, they're saying that mask mandates were not going to offer any more protection than just
00:19:32.060 telling people, Hey, wear a mask if you want to. I mean, with the university of Western Ontario,
00:19:36.320 just last week dropped its mask mandate. Meanwhile, down the 401, uh, Laurier or Waterloo is still
00:19:43.700 continuing this thing, uh, as we talked about a little bit on last week's show. But the whole point
00:19:48.720 is all of this stuff is happening. Well, cases are still going up and down the way they always have
00:19:53.620 here. And it's been particularly noteworthy. Like there was this story not that long ago in, uh,
00:19:58.740 global, I think it was October where an ex science table advisor was saying we need to reinstate mask
00:20:04.340 mandates. Well, even public health Ontario now is saying there's no evidence to support that
00:20:08.920 as getting us through the winter with less respiratory virus. What did we do before COVID?
00:20:14.700 Did we wear masks when, you know, there was a risk of flu or pneumonia or bronchitis, the usual,
00:20:21.400 you know, winter issues? No, if you're sticks, if you're sick, stay home.
00:20:27.140 Yeah. And you know, it's funny when I go shopping, I see people still wearing masks,
00:20:32.560 but they'll take a cart. They'll take a cart and not clean. Like they used to clean the tops of the
00:20:39.840 cart, which I always do. It will touch that and then probably touch their face and their eyes.
00:20:44.480 So you're getting as many germs off of that, you know, that cart that you're pushing around. So
00:20:50.760 it makes no sense. People just, you know, are like robots. They just, you know, think this is
00:20:57.060 going to help them and it's not. Yeah. It's funny you mentioned that. So I literally just found this,
00:21:02.840 uh, moments before the show went on, it was like under my desk in the corner. And this may be like
00:21:08.280 the first mask I got in 2020 who, why I had it in my home office. I had no idea, but maybe it fell out of
00:21:13.220 my laptop bag or something. But I can, I, I, if I were, if I were a butcher guy, I would just like
00:21:18.460 rip it up on air, but I don't want the mask to foil me. So I'll just do like the, the dramatic
00:21:22.680 crumple and, uh, and throw, as we say, uh, good riddance to masks and mask mandates. Uh, that does
00:21:29.140 it for us for today. My thanks to all of you for tuning in to Sue Ann for your, uh, tremendous grace
00:21:35.320 and wit as always. Uh, thank you and everyone have a wonderful weekend. Yes. Thank you. And apologies to Bob
00:21:41.780 your.
00:21:56.120 Yeah.