Juno News - Provinces are still running COVID snitch lines

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's most irreverent talk show. This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:12.680 Coming up, vaccine mandates and the erosion of community, political theatre, and Canada's entanglement with China. 0.67

00:00:21.000 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:24.000 Hello and welcome to Canada's most irreverent talk show, Tuesday, October 12th, 2021.

00:00:33.720 Great to have you aboard the program here as you work off whatever that turkey hangover you have from Thanksgiving weekend is probably doing to you.

00:00:43.080 I am not a huge turkey fan. This is my confession that I realize sets me apart from pretty much everyone else.

00:00:48.860 After all, I'm a reverend. I can take the anti-turkey position. I'm not a anti-turkey.

00:00:53.520 I don't hate it. I just have never been able to love it.

00:00:56.660 So now that you know that about me, we can carry on with the real business of the day here,

00:01:00.340 which is the increasing encroachment of the enforcement state on your civil liberties.

00:01:06.820 I know we're coming back from Thanksgiving with a bang here.

00:01:10.040 Last week, I spoke at great length about Justin Trudeau's vaccine mandate for travelers by air or rail,

00:01:16.360 also for federal employees.

00:01:18.380 And we did a deep dive into it with a great panel of guests from Aaron Woodrick to John Carpe to Anthony Fury.

00:01:26.720 Today, I want to focus on a different aspect of it.

00:01:29.380 I also have some China stuff to get to very shortly.

00:01:32.140 But I was noticing a lot of provincial governments have really leaned into allowing people to report non-compliance with COVID measures.

00:01:41.920 Now, this is not an exhaustive search by any stretch, but you look at a number of the provincial governments' websites here.

00:01:49.540 They have pages where you can go and snitch on someone for not sufficiently upholding whatever those provinces' public health orders are.

00:01:58.620 Manitoba has its online COVID tip line.

00:02:02.040 You can report anyone who violates gathering restrictions, any business that's not supposed to be open, and so on.

00:02:08.060 You've got Saskatchewan as well, a website here that's dedicated to reporting non-compliance.

00:02:14.680 Now, in the Saskatchewan case, there's a little checkbox here.

00:02:18.800 You can report someone for not wearing a mask.

00:02:22.240 You can check off face covering and mask, individual, and put down the person's information, their name, their address, their phone number.

00:02:29.960 And you can report an individual person that you see in public that's not wearing a mask.

00:02:35.000 Now, while the government says they won't allow you to submit an anonymous complaint, the name of the complaint,

00:02:41.580 that's a your name, if you file one of these, will not be shared with the person.

00:02:45.140 So it is effectively anonymous.

00:02:47.380 That person doesn't have the right to face their accuser, which is supposed to be a hallmark of the justice system.

00:02:53.340 And the list goes on.

00:02:54.540 The PEI has something very similar, and I know earlier on in the pandemic, we saw this in Ontario, Quebec, elsewhere,

00:03:00.920 where they would set up these snitch lines, and you could report, oh, there's a kid playing on that playground.

00:03:05.940 Let's send the bylaw officers in. 0.99

00:03:07.820 But this is still going on, even as this supposed grand reopening is taking place.

00:03:12.720 Now, this one, when I was doing my, again, very non-scientific survey of various provinces that have these,

00:03:20.200 and by the way, I was looking at how easy is the province making it,

00:03:23.660 because any time you see the law being violated, you can call police, you can call bylaw,

00:03:28.420 you can call public health, whatever the case is.

00:03:30.980 I was looking at how many of them have really leaned into wanting to have these dedicated portals

00:03:35.800 where you can just file a bunch of complaints at will because that's what they want.

00:03:40.260 And that was why I was looking this up, not because I was complaining on my neighbors

00:03:44.660 for, you know, having unsanctioned Thanksgiving gatherings or anything like that.

00:03:48.440 Yeah, I hate turkey so much, I was just filing complaints to try to disband all of the turkey dinners over the past weekend.

00:03:55.920 This one I found, I want to say funny, but it was actually fairly shameful.

00:04:00.480 This is the Newfoundland government's website, which has the frequently asked questions page.

00:04:07.380 And one of the frequent, now again, the question doesn't need to be asked frequently for them to put it on there.

00:04:14.280 They can put whatever questions they want on this FAQ page.

00:04:17.480 But I have to assume at least a couple of people asked this, which just brings me great shame for this country.

00:04:25.420 Newfoundland FAQs on COVID.

00:04:27.860 I am aware of someone who is not practicing proper physical distancing.

00:04:32.320 Can I report them?

00:04:33.880 So, so at some point, someone in Newfoundland has asked the government, someone was standing less than six feet away from someone else.

00:04:41.640 Can I report them?

00:04:42.820 I'm itching to complain.

00:04:44.360 Manitoba, Saskatchewan, they've all got this portal.

00:04:46.780 I'm ready to report my fellow Newfoundlander for not standing six feet away from someone.

00:04:51.280 And to its credit, the Newfoundland government says at this time, it's recommended, but not required.

00:04:58.140 So failure to comply with physical distancing advice is not a reportable or punishable offense.

00:05:03.620 But you have people that want to go above and beyond and start ratting out their neighbors, their friends, their fellow citizens of this country, of their province for not social distancing.

00:05:13.880 And the government has to say, whoa, whoa, we're not going that far.

00:05:16.940 No, we're recommending it, but you can't report them.

00:05:20.700 And that the snitch line will not extend to people who aren't social distancing.

00:05:25.180 And I said on Twitter yesterday when I was seeing all of these, I was in a very thankful mood.

00:05:30.340 So I started looking up all of these reasons to get angry, I guess.

00:05:33.700 And I pointed out that, you know, we're now in the online snitch portal phase of we're all in this together.

00:05:39.700 So there are various phases.

00:05:41.020 You go from two weeks to flatten the curve, we're all in this together, and then snitch line to report your neighbors.

00:05:47.000 It was a very rapid turn of events.

00:05:48.560 If you blinked, you might have missed it.

00:05:49.760 But that's where we are today.

00:05:51.620 And again, this is so embarrassing.

00:05:54.580 So embarrassing.

00:05:55.740 And there's an existential aspect of this, too.

00:05:58.380 And this is why I delved into the civil liberties discussion last week.

00:06:02.040 Because people have so willingly adopted this.

00:06:05.320 They've so willingly embraced this.

00:06:07.040 Where is the sense of community?

00:06:08.360 And when I've talked about civil liberties and personal freedom and personal choice in the context of vaccination, this is one of the common retorts.

00:06:16.680 People have said, well, you know, it's a civic duty to get vaccinated.

00:06:19.500 It's a community duty.

00:06:20.920 It's a community responsibility.

00:06:22.920 You should be looking out for your fellow countrymen.

00:06:25.120 And you know what?

00:06:25.780 That's a fair argument.

00:06:26.620 There are a lot of things that are communitarian in nature.

00:06:30.180 Not communist.

00:06:31.280 People choosing to do something because they like being part of a society.

00:06:35.540 But that doesn't work when it's government forcing it.

00:06:40.860 That doesn't work when it's government generating that. 0.95

00:06:44.500 Government driving this.

00:06:45.740 And when your individual punishment for not choosing, quote unquote, choosing to be a part of this community is something that the state itself dispenses.

00:06:55.920 And that punishment is something the state itself meets out.

00:06:58.960 And that's exactly where we are right now.

00:07:01.200 So looking at all of these measures, the online snitch thing, these are not dangerous to me because the government is inviting people to snitch.

00:07:09.880 It's dangerous to me because people in Canadian society welcome that.

00:07:14.440 People in Canadian society want that.

00:07:16.760 Like that silly Newfoundland example. 0.58

00:07:18.780 People are over-reporting.

00:07:20.860 People are reporting things that the government is even taking complaints on.

00:07:24.460 And that's the direction that we as Canadians have decided to go.

00:07:29.260 Not me, not you, but our neighbours.

00:07:32.380 That's the direction that as a country, as a so-called society, we've decided to go.

00:07:38.740 And one of the dangerous, dangerous things we've seen is that we did not put up a fight at all.

00:07:50.160 And before you take this out of context, if Press Progress is listening in, I'm not talking about armed rebellion here.

00:07:55.720 I'm talking about taking a stand.

00:07:57.540 I'm talking about taking a stand in democratic means.

00:08:00.060 I'm talking about more protests.

00:08:01.940 I'm talking about all of these things that people can do to register their discontent.

00:08:06.760 No, the media turned on protesters.

00:08:09.220 Civil society turned on protesters and said, oh, no, no, no, you're covidiots.

00:08:13.080 You're a bunch of yahoos. 1.00

00:08:14.320 No.

00:08:14.680 And again, these are people who were standing up and seeing months and months ago, seeing very soon into this,

00:08:21.220 very soon into this, that there was something happening here that wasn't just about that top line stated objective.

00:08:28.860 And the moving goalposts here, as I've said, moving so fast, the goalposts are getting speed limits.

00:08:33.500 The goalposts have more mobility rights than any Canadians do right about now, because the goalposts are the only things that can just move around at will.

00:08:41.000 What's happening is these goalposts have moved from just two weeks to flatten the curve, bend the curve, plank the curve,

00:08:48.020 to then, well, you know, if we get 70 percent vaccinated to 80 to 90.

00:08:52.380 And now at a certain point, it's nothing short of full vaccination will be the target.

00:08:56.880 Now, let's talk about society and community here, because, you know me, I occupy a space that is a bit of a rarer one right now,

00:09:05.600 in that I am completely comfortable with the vaccine.

00:09:08.360 I got the vaccine and I support everyone's choice to decide for themselves whether they get it or not.

00:09:14.460 I was reading about an area in eastern Ontario that I think deserves to be noted here.

00:09:20.660 And that is Leeds-Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit in eastern Ontario, very rural, a lot of small towns.

00:09:27.200 That's the area in which Brockville, Ontario, if that means anything to you, is situated.

00:09:32.260 Leeds-Grenville has the highest vaccination rate in Ontario.

00:09:37.660 They have the highest vaccine rate in Ontario.

00:09:39.760 About 92 percent of the people in this public health region who are eligible to be vaccinated are vaccinated with two doses.

00:09:46.720 And they've got 97 percent who are vaccinated with one dose.

00:09:51.160 Now, this is near perfect.

00:09:53.540 I would say 97 percent is higher than you're going to get in most places.

00:09:57.460 But they've got almost everyone in the area has at least one dose.

00:10:01.940 And they've got over 90 percent.

00:10:03.800 They've got 92 percent that have received two doses.

00:10:06.300 So and they're still seeing it increase.

00:10:08.060 They're still seeing an uptick in this.

00:10:10.220 But this is about as good as it gets for vaccination in a society

00:10:14.040 where you're always going to have some people who are holdouts for religious reasons,

00:10:17.340 for medical reasons, and so on.

00:10:20.220 Now, if you look in the Toronto started a great story about this at how they've done it,

00:10:24.620 they've done it by leaning into the community.

00:10:27.040 They got the local pharmacists.

00:10:29.180 They got business owners, local doctors to all work together

00:10:32.200 and tell people about the vaccination programs and tell them all they could go and get their job.

00:10:36.960 They could do this.

00:10:37.840 And this was all done.

00:10:39.200 And if you look at the timeline of it, the vast majority of this vaccination in Leeds-Grenville area

00:10:45.400 was before Ontario's vaccine mandate.

00:10:49.400 So all of this success, which has aligned with what the government stated objective is,

00:10:55.220 and the government stated objective is get as many people vaccinated as possible.

00:10:58.840 Whether you agree with that objective or not, I'm just talking about how it is.

00:11:02.660 All of this happened without coercion.

00:11:05.720 This happened without a vaccine mandate.

00:11:07.840 This happened without forcing people.

00:11:09.640 This happened because people want to, and people in the community were chatting about,

00:11:13.420 and they got this, and they rolled this out without forcing people,

00:11:17.780 without threatening people with their jobs, their livelihoods, their travel rights, their mobility rights.

00:11:22.820 They all did this because they wanted to, because their friends were doing it.

00:11:26.420 Sure, maybe there was some peer pressure, but you can't...

00:11:28.760 There's no constitutional right against your friends wanting you to do something.

00:11:31.960 If you say no, you can.

00:11:33.960 These people have chosen to say yes to it.

00:11:36.380 Now, I look at this, and I see this as a success.

00:11:40.720 Because what people have done is made a choice for themselves without the coercion.

00:11:46.320 And I'm talking about the legal coercion here that we're seeing now.

00:11:49.800 As the Ontario government, as the Alberta government, as the federal government, as Quebec, Manitoba,

00:11:56.060 as all of these governments push towards trying to penalize the holdouts 0.89

00:12:00.200 by taking away their right to go to a restaurant, taking away their right to travel,

00:12:05.140 taking away all of these rights and freedoms, as though this is within the purview of government.

00:12:09.620 And all of the...

00:12:11.780 I mean, the best thing you can hope for in these cases is that people say,

00:12:16.240 well, yes, you know, society's been closed off to me, so I guess I'm going to get vaccinated.

00:12:20.600 And as we talked about last week on that panel, government will say, well, that's a win.

00:12:24.380 And I think it was Anthony Fury who pointed out,

00:12:26.600 you can't be surprised when you force people to do something if people do it.

00:12:30.980 That doesn't mean it's a victory.

00:12:32.280 That doesn't mean you should be happy with it.

00:12:33.980 But this Leeds-Grenville case, and again, we're talking about one health unit in one province in the country,

00:12:40.160 but it's an interesting one because this is an area that did it the right way.

00:12:46.000 They did it the right way without coercion.

00:12:49.420 And now the rest of governments, they've already abandoned this.

00:12:52.140 They've already abandoned their goodwill.

00:12:53.580 There is no more community.

00:12:54.820 There is no more society.

00:12:56.120 There is no more looking out for your neighbor.

00:12:58.000 The government has decided it is going to monopolize your right to make these choices for yourself.

00:13:04.400 And in doing so, they've probably encouraged a lot more people

00:13:07.700 that would have been reachable through the Leeds-Grenville model

00:13:10.980 to just say, you know what?

00:13:13.320 Screw you.

00:13:13.860 I'm not playing ball.

00:13:15.440 Sure, if I were doing this for my friends and for my neighbors, I might have.

00:13:18.740 But now that government's making it, you trigger that libertarian impulse that exists in some people.

00:13:23.760 Now, not nearly enough people.

00:13:25.860 I wish the libertarian impulse were a lot stronger than it actually seems to be in Canada.

00:13:30.820 But it does trigger that.

00:13:32.240 And I think that's certainly the problem in Alberta. 0.61

00:13:33.980 They had that immediate uptick as soon as they announced the vaccine passport in vaccination.

00:13:39.280 But I think for the most part, a lot of the people that were choosing not to get vaccinated

00:13:44.120 are just going to say, I guess I'm just not going to restaurants now.

00:13:47.680 I guess I'm just not going out.

00:13:49.900 And that's a decision that a lot of people will make.

00:13:52.060 Because once they start to feel like it's us against them, government against the individual,

00:13:57.300 which it has been for quite some time, once people start to realize that their interest

00:14:03.040 in doing anything for the government is just obliterated.

00:14:07.320 It's gone.

00:14:08.120 And this is going to be the problem that we see unfold when booster shots become the norm.

00:14:14.760 They're already starting to be.

00:14:16.340 Alberta, for example, has now made it possible that anyone 75 and up or anyone indigenous can

00:14:21.560 get a third shot.

00:14:22.540 Now, what they haven't done is said that you must get a third shot if you're in that group

00:14:27.400 to be considered fully vaccinated.

00:14:29.020 So you can still go to a restaurant if you have your two shots.

00:14:31.800 But at a certain point, the Israel approach will kick in and we'll be telling people that 0.92

00:14:37.340 they are not considered fully vaccinated by the state unless they get their boosters.

00:14:42.040 And I'm sorry, but a lot of the people that did their part with shots one and shot two,

00:14:46.660 or shot one and shot two, I don't think are going to go down the road of getting the booster

00:14:51.380 just to be able to tell the government they're fully vaccinated.

00:14:55.120 Because that bill of goods of once everyone gets vaccinated, you can go back to normal.

00:14:58.720 has already been reneged upon.

00:15:01.200 It's already gone.

00:15:03.300 I mean, this is the whole thing, even if, and I do not support the vaccine mandate for

00:15:07.780 air travel, but even if you do.

00:15:10.780 So the whole point is that you deserve, this is the government's narrative here, that you

00:15:14.800 deserve to know that everyone around you is vaccinated.

00:15:17.120 You deserve to feel safe.

00:15:18.480 You deserve to have some rumspringa as though you're vaccinated.

00:15:22.000 You can get back to normal.

00:15:22.960 You can get on a plane and only be around vaccinated people.

00:15:25.680 Notice how they didn't take away the mask mandate.

00:15:27.640 You still have to wear a mask.

00:15:29.420 If you're flying from, I don't know, Vancouver to Australia, which is like, what, 16 hours

00:15:33.260 or 18 hours, you still have to wear your mask the entire time.

00:15:37.340 You're around fully vaccinated people, but the government's still saying, ah, yeah, you

00:15:41.640 got to keep your mask on.

00:15:43.240 So it's just stacking different measures on.

00:15:46.120 It's stacking different layers.

00:15:47.400 And the defense that you get to this criticism is, oh, well, you know, yes, but there's no

00:15:51.820 silver bullet and we just have to keep adding to it.

00:15:53.780 Well, how much more are we going to add?

00:15:55.960 How much more are we going to add?

00:15:57.220 And you notice the government isn't forcing airlines to put spacing between seats again.

00:16:03.020 They're not forcing the airlines to reduce capacity.

00:16:06.840 They're just throwing on all these other layers like the mask and now like the vaccine

00:16:10.920 mandate and so on and so forth.

00:16:12.620 And this is what's happening in society as well.

00:16:15.220 Again, you look at Alberta, Ontario, all of these places that have put vaccine passports 0.97

00:16:19.800 are still requiring people to wear masks.

00:16:23.040 The exception is restaurants where you've never had to wear a mask when you're eating.

00:16:26.460 And again, I don't want to give them ideas, but I wouldn't be surprised if in some of these

00:16:30.140 provincial governments, they were recommending masking between bites and masking between sips

00:16:34.660 and all that jazz.

00:16:36.420 But that's exactly where we're headed here.

00:16:38.800 So the erosion of individual choice has eroded the very sense of community and civic duty

00:16:47.620 that so many of these people are telling us we need.

00:16:52.660 But that's gone when all of a sudden government is taking away.

00:16:55.980 It's no different than how charitable contributions go down the more taxes go up.

00:17:01.640 And we've seen this, CARDIS, which is a great agency in Canada, has done some phenomenal

00:17:05.240 research in this, when government expands the welfare state, people have less money to give

00:17:10.940 to charity, but also less interest because the government has created this framework wherein

00:17:15.380 everyone thinks, well, yeah, the government's covering it.

00:17:17.540 The government's looking after my neighbor, so I don't have to.

00:17:20.940 And people turn inward.

00:17:22.640 And that's precisely what's happening here.

00:17:24.240 When government takes your individual choice away and subordinates you for the virtues of public

00:17:29.820 health in this very abstract sense, your interest and eagerness and willingness and being a good

00:17:36.480 neighbor, being a model citizen, doing all of these communitarian things, upholding this ideal of

00:17:41.760 being in a society, all of that's gone.

00:17:43.680 Why would you?

00:17:44.260 It becomes everyone for themselves.

00:17:46.240 So government works against what it claims is its stated objective.

00:17:49.920 But again, the stated objective is rarely what's actually afoot.

00:17:54.600 And we know this.

00:17:55.560 It has been and continues to be control over public health.

00:17:59.300 And this is not, I should say, a distinctly Canadian problem here.

00:18:03.760 Take a look at Italy just as one example.

00:18:06.280 Last weekend and in Europe, oddly enough, Europe is not what most people think of as like

00:18:10.560 the modern libertarian utopia, the free society where everyone is free to pursue their individual

00:18:16.620 desires and goals and all of that.

00:18:18.640 But in Europe, a lot of people have reached that breaking point, which is why the vaccine

00:18:23.120 passes in France and Italy have been met with such pushback.

00:18:27.420 Now, in some cases, this is because European nations have pushed people so far that they

00:18:32.480 do want to just take a stand.

00:18:34.240 Italy is an interesting example of those moving goalposts about which I was warning just a

00:18:38.700 moment ago.

00:18:39.500 They had 10,000 protesters get together in Rome last week, including a lot of, I mean, very

00:18:45.920 violent protests.

00:18:47.360 They were breaking windows and equipment, which I absolutely do not support at all.

00:18:51.220 But the interesting thing here is that Italy has gone very aggressive.

00:18:57.200 It's being held up now as the most stringent regulations as far as COVID is concerned.

00:19:03.020 They're ramping up their vaccine passport or their so-called green pass rules because you

00:19:08.260 need a green pass, a proof of vaccination paperwork or a negative test in all places of work, private

00:19:17.640 and public.

00:19:18.360 So it's basically as far as the state can go to make vaccines mandatory, you need to be

00:19:24.920 vaccinated to have a job is basically it.

00:19:27.680 Unless you work from home 100%, but as we've seen in Canada, that isn't exactly a given.

00:19:32.460 If you want to go to work anywhere, you have to be vaccinated.

00:19:36.980 And if you are found in the workplace without this, you face a fine of $2,100 Canadian.

00:19:42.560 And if you are an employer who doesn't check the passes, it's $1,400.

00:19:46.020 So they've actually put the onus on the employee.

00:19:48.720 You get fined more than your employer here.

00:19:51.140 And they started with this pass for travel in June.

00:19:54.300 They've extended it to restaurants, theaters, all of that.

00:19:56.900 And then they made it a little bit more for public transit in September.

00:20:00.720 And now to have a job, to have a job in a workplace, you need to be vaccinated. 0.95

00:20:06.660 So your right to earn a living in Italy basically does not exist, which is so very shameful.

00:20:14.320 And again, when you do this, you flip the alternative of what Texas Governor Abbott put forward,

00:20:20.700 which is a ban on vaccine mandates, a ban on private businesses requiring or checking

00:20:26.400 for proof of vaccination.

00:20:28.120 Now, you may be surprised to know I'm against that.

00:20:30.360 I'm against that.

00:20:31.140 But as I've said, I take a libertarian position on this.

00:20:33.540 I think individuals who only want to be around vaccinated people should be able to do that.

00:20:38.240 If some local diner says we want only the vax to come here, they should have that right. 1.00

00:20:43.140 And customers should have the right to go elsewhere.

00:20:45.820 Individual choice goes both ways.

00:20:48.180 And government has eroded it.

00:20:49.920 However, and this is the caveat, this is the asterisk, policies like this are the inevitable outcome

00:20:56.960 of policies like what are being put forward in Canada, in Italy, in France, in Australia.

00:21:03.020 Policies like these are the natural response to that.

00:21:05.780 Because if it becomes, all right, government's the only one to make the choice,

00:21:09.500 do we err on the side of locking down and segregating society?

00:21:13.120 Or do we err on the side of saying it's none of anyone's business?

00:21:16.420 And this dichotomy, I think, is in and of itself a false one.

00:21:20.860 But it's the one that we're stuck with.

00:21:23.000 And just before I take a break here, I have to talk about language and the importance of language.

00:21:27.940 Because oftentimes, I might latch on to an individual word or phrase in an announcement

00:21:33.600 or in a news story.

00:21:35.380 And some people say, oh, you know, you're just being a nitpicker.

00:21:38.420 You're doing all this stuff.

00:21:39.560 It's semantics.

00:21:40.700 Wording is very important.

00:21:42.380 And I want to give you a very big example of why.

00:21:45.140 Now, Merriam-Webster is not, in my view, like a real dictionary.

00:21:49.360 It's not the best one.

00:21:50.240 I'm a bit of a snob for language.

00:21:52.080 It's not like the Oxford English Dictionary or something.

00:21:54.460 But nonetheless, Merriam-Webster enjoys a lot of popular appeal.

00:21:57.720 And they try to maintain their relevance as dictionary publishers

00:22:01.720 by re-evaluating and revising words,

00:22:05.600 including words that become en vogue in popular context.

00:22:09.380 Not like Urban Dictionary, but it might as well be.

00:22:12.580 And here's an interesting one.

00:22:13.920 Merriam-Webster has revised its definition of anti-vaxxer,

00:22:17.920 which in and of itself is a neologism that I don't think should be in a dictionary,

00:22:22.740 but I digress.

00:22:23.680 They've revised their definition of anti-vaxxer

00:22:26.260 as a person who opposes the use of vaccines

00:22:30.100 or regulations mandating vaccination.

00:22:34.120 So if you're opposed to vaccines, you're an anti-vaxxer.

00:22:37.620 Okay, I can agree with that.

00:22:39.120 We can all get on board with that.

00:22:40.820 Or you oppose regulations mandating vaccination.

00:22:45.020 So to use myself as an example here,

00:22:46.900 I am fully vaccinated,

00:22:48.460 but to Merriam-Webster,

00:22:49.800 I'm an anti-vaxxer because I support individual choice.

00:22:54.060 So if you stand up for liberty now,

00:22:57.480 the dictionary definition is that you are an anti-vaxxer.

00:23:01.820 And this is now the basis of how a lot of people in media,

00:23:05.600 how a lot of people in government refer to those of us who believe in individual liberty,

00:23:10.220 those of us who believe in personal choice about what you put into your body.

00:23:13.500 Nope, you're just an anti-vaxxer now.

00:23:16.120 Vaccinated or not, pro-vaccine or not,

00:23:18.300 you are an anti-vaxxer.

00:23:19.500 So you can now be in Canada, in the US, in Europe,

00:23:22.480 you can be a fully vaccinated anti-vaxxer.

00:23:25.280 So bet you didn't think that was possible in 2021.

00:23:28.540 We've got to take a quick break.

00:23:30.220 When we come back, we'll have more of The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:23:32.680 Stay tuned.

00:23:34.800 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:23:41.160 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:23:43.160 So before I got into China,

00:23:44.600 let's talk about something that we can all agree is terrible,

00:23:47.860 which is phony, contrived political theater.

00:23:51.160 For this, we have to go south of the border,

00:23:53.240 where Vice President Kamala Harris was extolling the virtues of NASA and space

00:23:58.840 in a video where she was talking to a group of just ordinary,

00:24:02.480 average American schoolchildren.

00:24:05.060 And it seemed a little bit cringeworthy.

00:24:08.060 Why don't you take a look?

00:24:09.080 One of the things I'm most excited about,

00:24:10.840 but the other,

00:24:12.800 you guys are going to see,

00:24:14.660 you're going to literally see the craters on the moon with your own eyes.

00:24:20.220 With your own eyes.

00:24:21.960 I'm telling you,

00:24:22.940 it is going to be unbelievable.

00:24:25.420 Okay, you may think the kids are being a little bit awkward.

00:24:27.960 Maybe it's because there are cameras,

00:24:29.580 or maybe because they're talking to the Vice President of the United States,

00:24:32.320 which is a big deal,

00:24:33.660 especially if you're a kid.

00:24:34.660 Or maybe it's because the whole thing was part of a scripted entertainment program.

00:24:41.220 Yeah, they were not real, ordinary, average American schoolchildren.

00:24:45.400 They were child actors.

00:24:46.780 They were casted.

00:24:48.040 They auditioned.

00:24:49.560 They presumably were following some sort of a script.

00:24:52.380 I haven't seen the script.

00:24:53.900 And Kamala Harris is there just doing her whole,

00:24:56.040 hey, how do you do, fellow kids routine.

00:24:58.560 And again, this is something that I would hope she knew about.

00:25:01.520 I was hoping she'd briefed on that,

00:25:02.920 hey, it doesn't matter what you tell the kids.

00:25:04.400 They're all actors.

00:25:05.160 So they'll all laugh at your jokes

00:25:06.740 and pretend to be excited at the right moments.

00:25:09.160 And this is like the,

00:25:10.940 this is the stock photo thing that politicians do.

00:25:14.340 But on steroids,

00:25:15.540 you actually just bring in actors to give you the desired response.

00:25:19.180 I remember a few years ago in the Ontario election,

00:25:21.840 it was actually the election in which I ran as a candidate.

00:25:24.340 There was a story where some local candidate was told to get supporters

00:25:27.620 to cheer for Doug Ford's bus as he arrived.

00:25:30.260 I think it was for a debate.

00:25:31.520 And I guess the candidate didn't know if they could get enough as supporters.

00:25:35.140 So they just hired a bunch of actors to do it.

00:25:37.260 And there were all these actors just,

00:25:38.560 you know, cheering for the Ontario PC campaign.

00:25:40.820 And I was running.

00:25:41.700 And I remember we got like the talking points on that

00:25:43.880 because anytime there was like a crisis,

00:25:46.320 they were giving candidates,

00:25:47.880 you know, what to say in case something had,

00:25:50.740 in case someone asked about it.

00:25:51.720 I don't think anyone asked me about it.

00:25:52.940 So I don't remember what the talking points were,

00:25:54.820 but I'm assuming the line was something along the lines of,

00:25:57.420 oh, the party had no idea.

00:25:58.580 And they've asked the candidate never to do it again or something like that.

00:26:03.200 But oh boy.

00:26:04.420 Yeah.

00:26:04.940 Hiring actors never going to work out well for you in politics.

00:26:08.460 Then again, I don't think that the people who aren't actors in politics are doing a better job.

00:26:13.520 Let's turn to China for a moment.

00:26:15.640 We've just had a tremendous diplomatic victory,

00:26:18.640 the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

00:26:22.180 And now it's as though all is forgiven.

00:26:24.980 Canada's ambassador to China, Dominic Barton,

00:26:27.840 is telling Canadian business to start investing more in China.

00:26:31.940 China's the future. 0.95

00:26:32.920 Let's do more business with China. 0.82

00:26:34.540 Send more money over to Beijing.

00:26:37.580 Now, Dominic Barton, by all accounts,

00:26:39.580 was instrumental in securing the release of Kovrig and Spavor.

00:26:44.020 He's done tremendous diplomatic work.

00:26:46.760 He understands who he's dealing with.

00:26:48.960 And now all of a sudden he's telling business they have to start doing more to China.

00:26:53.620 A full-throated call, it's been referred to.

00:26:56.380 And here's the thing.

00:26:57.500 This is not something that we should take lightly.

00:27:01.300 We should be doing more to separate ourselves from the Chinese economy. 1.00

00:27:05.820 One of the big problems right now is that we are so reliant on it.

00:27:08.660 The reason China's the future is because so many businesses and governments

00:27:12.500 have decided to allow their rise in such a robust and significant way,

00:27:17.860 which China is very much aware of.

00:27:21.040 Now, this was said in recorded remarks for the Canada-China Business Council.

00:27:25.160 He says,

00:27:25.560 Now, this is perhaps why the Canadian government is giving businesses advice and guidance

00:27:39.560 on how to work within China's social credit system.

00:27:42.680 Because if you want to, as a foreign business, do business in China and with China,

00:27:46.960 you've got to play by China's rules, 0.94

00:27:49.380 which means you've got to erode all of these things that Canadian consumers tend to care about,

00:27:54.140 like, oh, I don't know, individualism and perhaps freedom from surveillance,

00:27:57.940 just to name a couple of ideas here.

00:28:00.080 But what Barton says is that it's critical Canadian firms seize opportunities where they exist

00:28:06.100 and take advantage of the continuing economic rise of Asia and China.

00:28:11.480 Now, he did, of course, acknowledge the arbitrary detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor,

00:28:17.380 but to just say all is forgiven,

00:28:19.160 at a time when we should be looking at how we can pull back from our entanglement with China,

00:28:25.380 we now have Canada's ambassadors saying all is forgiven.

00:28:28.220 And I don't want to read between the lines here and see something that isn't there.

00:28:32.300 But I have to wonder if this approach and this attitude is why he was able to get results from China,

00:28:38.020 because China was looking at Dominic Barton and saying,

00:28:40.460 OK, here's a guy that seems to think we can do more business with the West

00:28:44.160 and the West should do more business with us.

00:28:46.040 And they thought he was a willing dance partner on strengthening those economic ties.

00:28:51.320 And again, I'm not saying that was at all connected to it,

00:28:53.780 but I am saying that would be a good explanation for why he was able to have such access

00:28:58.320 and have good dialogue with the Chinese Politburo, with the Chinese Communist Party,

00:29:03.280 because we're not even a couple of weeks past the arrival of the two Michaels.

00:29:06.880 And all of a sudden we've got our ambassador in China, not China's ambassador,

00:29:11.260 Canada's ambassador to China saying we should do more to send more money over there.

00:29:15.580 There's a reason that China has a trade surplus with pretty much every other country in the world

00:29:22.440 and pretty much every country in the world has a trade deficit with China

00:29:26.060 because China is in the process and China succeeds in sucking in foreign capital

00:29:32.180 and sending out cheap goods.

00:29:34.340 And they can do this because they have a government controlled economy.

00:29:38.060 And this is where, despite me being a big fan of free trade,

00:29:42.700 you have to question that a little bit because free trade only works when the trade is free on both sides.

00:29:49.760 We're talking about a command economy here.

00:29:51.800 We're talking about a centralized economy in China.

00:29:54.180 And you're talking about government subsidizing enterprise in a way

00:29:57.700 that is always going to lead to imbalance.

00:30:00.360 Now, does this mean that individual businesses shouldn't have the right to pursue trade with China?

00:30:05.320 Absolutely not.

00:30:06.560 Like with anything, we have to look at it very carefully,

00:30:09.040 especially when we're talking about Huawei and Canadian infrastructure

00:30:12.500 or, you know, Chinese control and manufacturing of security for our embassies,

00:30:17.660 which was a story that came up, I think it was about six months ago or so.

00:30:21.460 But the fundamental reality of this is for government to be encouraging it right now of all times,

00:30:26.720 you've got to step back and be like, what on earth are we getting out of this?

00:30:30.260 What is the goal here?

00:30:32.240 It's one thing to say China is the future. 0.97

00:30:34.720 It's another thing to actively promote the same sort of conduct that makes it so China is the future. 0.98

00:30:41.960 In any case, we've got to end things there.

00:30:44.320 We'll be back in just a couple days' time with more of Canada's most irreverent talk show.

00:30:48.560 You're tuned in to True North's The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:30:50.980 We'll talk to you soon.

00:30:51.940 Thank you.

00:30:52.420 God bless and good day.

00:30:53.380 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:30:56.220 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

00:31:02.240 We'll be right back.

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Juno News - October 12, 2021

Provinces are still running COVID snitch lines

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