Juno News - Rules For Thee, Not For Me

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:06.740 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:13.100 Coming up, the nanny state says you're no longer allowed to talk to your neighbours,

00:00:17.420 Justin Trudeau exposes his hypocrisy, and business owners are left in the lurch.

00:00:24.120 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:30.820 They're on to us.

00:00:32.400 I know the last couple of weeks I've been talking about this growing divide

00:00:35.700 between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law,

00:00:38.580 and now the law enforcement community has caught up with us.

00:00:41.660 They're going after, according to Ottawa, loopholes.

00:00:45.560 They don't want people to exploit the physical distancing loopholes

00:00:49.760 that are pretty much what most people would call sensible behaviour.

00:00:55.380 This is a story in the Ottawa Citizen that's going viral for all the wrong reasons.

00:01:00.580 An Ottawa health official, the Associate Medical Officer of Health,

00:01:04.140 has a message for you.

00:01:06.340 If you have been enjoying a beer on your driveway with a friend

00:01:09.140 or exchanging pleasantries with a neighbour over the garden fence, stop it.

00:01:13.980 Now, this is the Ottawa Citizen's paraphrase of a message from Dr. Brent Maloney.

00:01:20.500 He says,

00:01:21.080 You know, he's actually right.

00:01:35.300 You know, I was having a conversation with my wife on the couch the other day.

00:01:38.760 We were sitting a couple of metres apart, and before you knew it,

00:01:41.500 we had a whole go-go party in.

00:01:43.120 We had 50 people over.

00:01:44.520 We had the barbecue firing up.

00:01:46.280 We had pina coladas being made.

00:01:47.800 The blender was whirring.

00:01:49.100 All because we started off just the two of us talking.

00:01:52.380 You know, that is actually a gateway drug to the bigger things,

00:01:56.260 like giant block parties, like giant beachside orgies, whatever you want.

00:02:00.920 A conversation over the fence with your neighbour.

00:02:04.120 Like, what was it, Wilson in Home Improvement?

00:02:06.540 I know Wilson was the volleyball in Castaway.

00:02:08.680 I don't know if Wilson was the guy on the other side of the fence.

00:02:11.560 That's no more.

00:02:12.240 That's a loophole.

00:02:12.940 You can't do it.

00:02:14.480 This is laughable and insane,

00:02:17.100 and I think that people are justifiably mocking it here.

00:02:21.080 Police and law enforcement need to go after those who are breaking the law

00:02:26.920 in a way that is causing there to be a risk to someone else.

00:02:30.920 If there is a block party, great, go after it.

00:02:33.340 If people are having a mass congregation event, great, go after it.

00:02:37.660 But if you've got a couple of people that are talking over the fence, who cares?

00:02:41.780 You know what?

00:02:42.300 If a bylaw officer goes in there, he has got a joylessness problem,

00:02:46.640 or she has got a joylessness problem,

00:02:48.940 that is worse than I think anything coronavirus is going to do in that situation.

00:02:54.740 You know, I feel like every episode of the show now

00:02:57.100 is just going to be talking about something that we've learned is now illegal.

00:03:00.560 Last time, it was rollerblading in Oakville.

00:03:03.460 A week ago, it was sitting on the empty beach.

00:03:05.880 It was playing in a park with your four-year-old son a week before that or a day before that.

00:03:10.520 And now it is talking over the fence in Ottawa.

00:03:13.600 Now, Ottawa has been, it sounds like, the epicenter, not of the virus,

00:03:17.780 but the epicenter of the nanny state nonsense

00:03:20.440 that is the government overreaction to the virus at the expense of civil liberties.

00:03:26.200 For whatever reason, Ottawa has just taken this with gusto.

00:03:30.780 And now they're actually going after people who decide they want to sit on their driveway

00:03:36.760 and yell at their neighbor who's also sitting on their driveway

00:03:40.000 because, oh, that's a loophole and you can't do that.

00:03:43.400 Give me a break.

00:03:44.280 So on the weekend, my wife and I had driven somewhere for essential business.

00:03:49.560 We went somewhere for essential reasons, I promise.

00:03:51.680 And on the way back, we wanted to pick up a jigsaw puzzle from my parents. 0.63

00:03:56.980 Now, I know this sounds like a horrendously ridiculous existence that we have.

00:04:01.460 This is what lockdown has done to us.

00:04:03.400 And the reason is because you can't get an Amazon puzzle anymore.

00:04:06.500 You can't get a puzzle from Toys R Us.

00:04:08.720 In all honesty, if you haven't tried, try.

00:04:11.380 You cannot get a jigsaw puzzle from any online retailer.

00:04:16.240 Now, my parents, over the years, I have gifted them a number of jigsaw puzzles.

00:04:19.860 So I knew they had an inventory.

00:04:21.720 We were going to be passing by their house anyway.

00:04:23.520 I said, okay, can we do like a dead drop on their driveway for the jigsaw puzzle?

00:04:29.480 And, you know, they basically put it there and we can go up and sanitize it and spray it away

00:04:34.440 and, you know, look around and then it'll be under the park bench or something.

00:04:38.040 You know, like this is what we had to do.

00:04:39.500 The dead drop for the jigsaw puzzle.

00:04:41.780 And as it so happened, they brought the puzzle out and, you know, we did the whole thing.

00:04:45.500 Cleaned it off and all that.

00:04:46.560 And the thing that I found fascinating is that I ended up having a conversation with

00:04:51.680 a couple of people that I haven't seen in quite a while from opposite ends of the driveway.

00:04:56.900 Now, was this a loophole?

00:04:58.680 Sure.

00:04:59.340 But at the same time, no one was harmed.

00:05:02.300 No one was threatened.

00:05:03.540 No Lawtons were killed in the making of this conversation.

00:05:06.800 So the fact that this would be a target for the Ottawa Bylaw Office or the Ottawa Public

00:05:14.380 Health Office or any municipality's police department is actually quite an offensive concept.

00:05:20.100 Because when you start policing ordinary everyday activities that people are doing with the

00:05:26.920 accommodations for coronavirus and COVID-19, you're going far beyond the point at which

00:05:32.960 people should be or can be comfortable with this.

00:05:36.080 So in the Ottawa case, the advice itself is the same.

00:05:39.500 Stay home, only make essential trips, associate only with people in your household.

00:05:43.960 Well, associating with is a tricky term because, yeah, if you are talking to someone over the

00:05:50.400 backyard fence, you're talking to someone in the next driveway over, I don't think if you

00:05:54.840 are being cautious and careful, anyone, certainly not a government bureaucrat, has a right to tell

00:06:00.240 you no, and this is not on my part about minimizing COVID-19, not at all.

00:06:05.400 In fact, I've been taking this very seriously.

00:06:07.860 I've been doing my due diligence as a citizen, as a law-abiding citizen, and as someone who

00:06:12.860 takes public health very seriously.

00:06:15.520 But you can't surrender civil liberties for public health when it's not even like the act

00:06:22.360 that the government is trying to crack down on will have an impact at all on public health.

00:06:28.320 Now, there have been a couple of examples of this that, like I said, I'll probably mention

00:06:32.500 each episode because I want to remind people how close we are to losing a lot of these things

00:06:38.300 that we've all taken for granted.

00:06:39.720 There was a tweet from Raleigh police in North Carolina that, again, I don't even think the

00:06:46.000 police were in the wrong, but it does come across as just having that eeriness and ickiness

00:06:52.700 because in Raleigh, North Carolina, there were a bunch of people protesting the government's

00:06:58.060 lockdown order.

00:06:59.040 And of course, because they're protesting the lockdown order, they are not themselves locked

00:07:03.400 down.

00:07:04.100 And police posted a picture.

00:07:06.020 They said the protesters are in violation of the governor's executive order.

00:07:09.720 And have been asked to leave.

00:07:11.900 Someone asks what part of the governor's order was violated here.

00:07:15.840 And a little bit cheekily, Raleigh police says protesting is a non-essential activity.

00:07:21.240 So it's very circular.

00:07:22.680 It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

00:07:24.440 If you protest the fact that you're not allowed to do non-essential things, that protest gets

00:07:29.420 deemed a non-essential activity.

00:07:31.320 And then, boom, no protest.

00:07:33.140 I mean, why doesn't government do this more often?

00:07:35.000 Anytime you do something that says the government is wrong, you're deemed a non-essential

00:07:39.680 activity.

00:07:41.200 And of course, as I mentioned before, Americans are a lot more prone to standing up against

00:07:47.540 this stuff.

00:07:48.060 Because Americans would hear this and say, ah, but the First Amendment, and they'd probably

00:07:52.340 yell it and say it a lot less kindly.

00:07:55.020 I have a friend of mine who's a blogger, Kathy Shadle.

00:07:58.060 And she had said anyone who thinks that people won't go along with this long term has never

00:08:03.380 been to an airport in the last 20 years.

00:08:06.260 And see, that actually differs from my thesis.

00:08:08.740 Because my thesis was that people won't really buy into all of this.

00:08:12.660 And people will get very tired of it.

00:08:14.880 And her thing is that everyone just goes along with it like they have with all of the ridiculous

00:08:19.720 airport security, quote unquote, enhancements post 9-11.

00:08:24.160 So we'll see who's right and who's wrong.

00:08:26.560 I hope that we don't have to do this long enough that any one of us has to be right or

00:08:30.540 wrong about this.

00:08:32.320 But this is what's happening here.

00:08:34.880 And the most chilling police tweet of the week is not the Raleigh, North Carolina police,

00:08:40.300 but the central community team from Central Bedfordshire in England.

00:08:45.040 Now, the central Bedfordshire people have said, if you think that by going for a picnic in

00:08:51.480 a rural location, no one will find you, don't be surprised if an officer appears from the

00:08:58.740 shadows.

00:08:59.460 We are covering the whole country.

00:09:02.280 Now, the picture accompanying that tweet, two officers in shadow telling people just because

00:09:07.840 you go for a picnic in a rural location doesn't mean we won't find you.

00:09:11.580 Don't be surprised.

00:09:12.560 We'll sneak up on you.

00:09:13.440 We'll be there.

00:09:14.340 You'll be doing a picnic alone.

00:09:16.260 You won't be near anyone.

00:09:17.600 You won't be breaking the rules.

00:09:19.320 You won't be harming anyone or yourself.

00:09:21.780 And we're going to sneak up on you from the bushes and tell you, ha, you're busted now.

00:09:27.940 And again, who is more harmed?

00:09:30.800 The person minding their own business, having a picnic out in the middle of nowhere, or the

00:09:35.900 person who is approached in the middle of nowhere by two police, all of a sudden doubling

00:09:40.400 the number of people that are in this confined space, all in the name of enforcing physical

00:09:45.480 distance.

00:09:45.960 And to enforce physical distance, we're going to have law enforcement close in on you because

00:09:50.260 this is exactly where we are in society right now.

00:09:53.420 And I said last week that there were really huge imbalances in the way the UK police, which

00:10:01.260 have turned a blind eye in the past to just absolutely heinous crimes, decide they're going

00:10:05.840 to go all in on enforcing COVID-19.

00:10:08.260 There are a lot of people that it seems like absolutely love the world we're in now.

00:10:15.200 The people that absolutely seem to love this idea that they have purpose in their lives

00:10:19.600 because they can now go and tell people, oh, you can't have a picnic.

00:10:22.640 You can't talk to your neighbor.

00:10:23.680 You can't go ride a bike.

00:10:24.760 You can't go fishing.

00:10:25.660 You can't do all of these things.

00:10:27.600 And there are entire industries, entire industries that I think are basing themselves off of this

00:10:34.920 now.

00:10:35.240 The bylaw enforcement industry, for example, which is, I think, probably one of the only

00:10:39.300 industries that's doing better off in the midst of the economic turndown right now than

00:10:43.780 anything else is the bylaw enforcement, law enforcement.

00:10:47.740 I mean, you get a lot of these bylaw enforcement officers that I'm pretty sure think they're like

00:10:51.400 the modern day Rambos.

00:10:53.060 I mean, it's not even like I'm going to give them credit for being on the front lines like

00:10:56.460 I will police or paramedics or hospital workers.

00:10:59.980 It's like bylaw enforcement officers, I feel like we could have so far from the front lines

00:11:04.480 there in Switzerland during this battle, and the country would be better off, not worse

00:11:09.400 off.

00:11:09.760 But I also kind of think that year round about bylaw enforcement, so I'm a bad person to

00:11:14.900 talk to about that.

00:11:16.640 However, we have this story in Blacklock's reporter that is talking about the fact that

00:11:22.660 under the new legislation passed by the federal government, anyone who crosses the border illegally

00:11:28.200 or unlawfully for non-essential cross-border travel.

00:11:31.780 So it doesn't mean you've crossed illegally because you're an illegal immigrant.

00:11:34.980 It means if you cross because you want to visit grandma rather than delivering a load 0.59

00:11:39.900 of papayas or something to the local grocery store, they're going to ticket children $100.

00:11:45.640 So the new regulations passed by cabinet are that non-essential border travelers who are

00:11:51.840 apparently able to cross the border will be fined $1,000 for illegal entry into Canada,

00:11:57.720 $750 for failure to comply with an order, $275 for providing a false or misleading statement,

00:12:05.320 and $100 for any minors.

00:12:07.540 Now, I'm assuming they give that bill to the parents.

00:12:10.920 Dr. Howard New, who is the deputy chief public health officer, says that those who arrive

00:12:16.400 in Canada must have an adequate plan.

00:12:19.360 And these rules, by the way, are also impacting those who break the Quarantine Act when they

00:12:25.880 come in, although that actually could have a much steeper fine.

00:12:30.300 If you come in and you break the quarantine orders, you could be fined.

00:12:34.600 I think it was up to a million dollars in some terms, although it doesn't look like they've

00:12:38.960 invoked that part of it right now.

00:12:41.520 But they have changed and amended the Quarantine Act.

00:12:44.680 And again, it still is very lacking in enforcement.

00:12:48.040 You get people that come into the country, and yes, the government says you must quarantine 1.00

00:12:52.480 yourself for 14 days, but they have no follow-up mechanism.

00:12:56.580 They have no enforcement potential.

00:12:58.860 You know, and the fact that there are people that are talking about these sorts of snitch

00:13:02.480 lines and stuff, I think is dangerous.

00:13:05.360 But I also think that if you're going to have a rule, you have to enforce it when there is

00:13:10.340 a public safety risk only.

00:13:13.540 And that's the line here, because on some areas, I'm like, yeah, enforce the law.

00:13:17.400 Enforce the law as much as you can.

00:13:20.260 Enforce it because it's a public safety issue.

00:13:23.180 Then there are other laws that I'm like, why on earth are we enforcing these ones and

00:13:26.940 not the other ones?

00:13:28.480 You know, you look at before the government decided it was going to turn away illegal border

00:13:32.340 crossers. 0.65

00:13:33.300 My thought would be, why are we enforcing all of these ridiculous ordinances like skateboarding

00:13:38.580 parks that are closed that someone skateboards on?

00:13:41.260 But for a time, anyone could just waltz into Canada via Roxton Road and the government would

00:13:46.660 still say, oh, welcome to Canada.

00:13:48.100 We'll put you on the waiting list.

00:13:49.200 We'll set you up at an apartment.

00:13:50.560 Welcome.

00:13:51.180 This is your new home now for the next couple of years before we forget that we were supposed

00:13:55.140 to deport you.

00:13:55.920 So that's where the imbalance is here.

00:13:59.620 It's that the laws that are being enforced, the things that the government is caring about,

00:14:03.720 it seems like are a lot less significant than the things they aren't caring about.

00:14:08.340 And this misguided priority set is permeating through every single level, I think, of this

00:14:15.800 process.

00:14:16.960 And I have to talk about Easter weekend here because this is something everyone's been asking

00:14:22.080 me about.

00:14:22.500 And I didn't talk about it on my show on Monday because I hadn't yet heard Justin Trudeau's

00:14:26.900 response.

00:14:27.420 And I wanted to wait a couple of days to hear what he was going to say and then delve into

00:14:32.780 it and talk about all the other stuff here.

00:14:35.420 And it's that Justin Trudeau decided he would break what he had been telling all Canadians

00:14:40.860 to do for weeks by having Easter with his family in Harrington Lake.

00:14:45.380 Now, you all saw that Instagram post from Sophie Gregoire Trudeau.

00:14:48.820 Sophie, Justin, the three kids all hamming it up and having a little outdoor Easter celebration

00:14:54.440 at Harrington Lake, which is the Prime Minister's country residence, which is 30 minutes from

00:15:00.560 actually, I don't even think it's 30 minutes, it's 30 kilometers from where the Prime Minister

00:15:05.880 officially lives.

00:15:06.920 And I think we need to have a longer term discussion after this about official residences.

00:15:11.100 And perhaps if the Prime Minister needs two residences, they don't need to be so close

00:15:16.520 that it could just be benefited by one.

00:15:19.420 But again, longstanding grief, nothing to do with coronavirus.

00:15:23.300 So for whatever reason, three weeks ago, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, after getting cleared of

00:15:28.160 coronavirus, had moved with the Trudeau children to Harrington Lake.

00:15:34.640 Trudeau made that decision.

00:15:36.000 I have no idea why.

00:15:37.240 I don't particularly care why.

00:15:38.760 But the arrangement, as we understand it, for the last few weeks was that Trudeau is

00:15:43.480 at Rideau Cottage and Harrington Lake is occupied by the rest of the family.

00:15:49.580 And there was that weird sort of, you know, Justin Trudeau was in quarantine, but he was

00:15:54.540 still, after the 14 days was up, decided he would stay for 40 days and 40 nights or something,

00:15:59.700 whatever it was.

00:16:00.720 And then on Friday, I think it was, he was asked, oh, what are you going to do for Easter?

00:16:05.900 Which was, you know, a really hard hitting question from the mainstream media, as always.

00:16:10.200 And he said, oh, I'm hoping to see my family.

00:16:12.960 Now, this was just one hour, I think, before Howard New had said, who's the deputy public

00:16:19.980 health advisor to Canada, had said, you know what, you're going to have to have that big

00:16:24.420 family dinner on Skype and you're going to have to have virtual Easter dinners and all

00:16:27.740 of that.

00:16:28.620 And Trudeau just said, I'm going to see my family.

00:16:30.940 Now, there were a lot of people that kind of defended him, that were really parsing that

00:16:35.380 and saying, oh, he means FaceTiming them or something like that.

00:16:38.440 And I didn't really think anything of it because I don't really care what most people do on Easter

00:16:42.920 weekend.

00:16:44.140 And then the picture comes and it's like, well, hang on.

00:16:47.380 So right now, non-essential travel is banned in general.

00:16:52.280 Quebec has secured its border so that you can't actually do non-essential travel from Ontario

00:16:57.040 to Quebec.

00:16:57.720 You have to get stopped and questioned and you have to answer what it is that you're planning

00:17:02.040 undoing in Quebec.

00:17:03.700 And then you have the fact that Trudeau and his family, by their own admission, are living

00:17:10.140 at two separate addresses right now.

00:17:13.100 And again, why they made that decision, I don't know or care about.

00:17:16.640 But they decided and they were going to live at the two separate addresses.

00:17:21.480 So then Trudeau decides he's going to go to Harrington Lake, cross a provincial boundary.

00:17:27.260 My colleague Candace Malcolm did a video talking about all of the specific rules that Trudeau

00:17:32.480 did break.

00:17:33.520 And I want to make it very clear here that I don't care were it not for how clear he was

00:17:39.920 that this is not allowed for other people.

00:17:42.220 And it was interesting how much pushback there was when people on Twitter were raising these

00:17:47.820 questions.

00:17:48.560 And then the mainstream media started to ask it.

00:17:51.220 And all of a sudden, now it's fine.

00:17:52.840 And now it's commendable to ask these questions.

00:17:55.680 But you had stories in Global, the National Post, etc.

00:17:59.980 And I want to read the one from Global here, which I think is interesting.

00:18:04.320 Trudeau under fire for Easter trip, despite urging Canadians to, quote, sacrifice plans.

00:18:10.480 And they mention, I think, this very important line that Trudeau gave on the weekend before

00:18:17.140 his Easter dinner with the family.

00:18:19.720 You'll have to stay home.

00:18:21.800 You'll have to Skype that big family dinner.

00:18:24.100 And the Easter egg hunt, well, it'll have to happen around the house instead of around

00:18:29.500 the neighborhood.

00:18:29.980 So he says, stay home and Skype the family dinner.

00:18:33.680 And then he decides to just get in the car and head on across the Ottawa River not long

00:18:38.600 after.

00:18:39.400 But where I find it interesting is that when asked about it, he just said, we continue to

00:18:45.020 follow all the instructions from public health authorities.

00:18:47.620 The follow-up question was asked by the journalist in French.

00:18:50.760 Did somebody tell you this was OK?

00:18:52.200 And he says, yep, you know, my family's been living there for three weeks and this is where

00:18:56.340 my wife and children live.

00:18:57.600 So he doesn't actually say how what he did squares with the public advice, the public health

00:19:03.760 advice that he's been parroting and that his public health team has been parroting.

00:19:09.160 And this is, I think, the best part.

00:19:10.920 And this is why I wanted to cite that global story at the bottom of it.

00:19:14.160 Speaking on background, a government official said the prime minister should be considered

00:19:18.840 an essential worker and therefore allowed to cross the border into Quebec.

00:19:23.840 Now, I will not comment on whether Justin Trudeau is deemed an essential worker.

00:19:28.680 I think most of the time it might be a very difficult sell to make that case.

00:19:32.320 I guess I did comment on it.

00:19:33.540 All right.

00:19:33.840 Well, anyway, but even if he is an essential worker, which if you can say that with a straight

00:19:39.080 face, then good on you.

00:19:40.800 He should be allowed to cross the border into Quebec.

00:19:43.500 And the other line, the official also suggested the travel should be viewed as the prime minister

00:19:48.700 traveling between his work location and a new primary residence for his family.

00:19:54.520 Now, these words do not appear anywhere else.

00:19:57.400 They are made up for the purposes of justifying what Trudeau has done.

00:20:02.160 Traveling between his work location and a new primary residence for his family.

00:20:06.500 Well, his new family primary residence is different than his primary residence, which is different

00:20:12.660 than where he works because he works at the one primary residence.

00:20:16.540 So the government has been specifically telling people not to go to their cottage.

00:20:21.700 Harrington Lake is best described as the Justin Trudeau cottage, as the prime minister of Canada's

00:20:27.400 cottage.

00:20:28.720 And now the big line is, I don't know, he's just traveling from one residence to the other.

00:20:33.780 So again, the rules for me are different than the rules for thee.

00:20:37.900 That's the big theme here.

00:20:39.680 And I can't stress enough that I wouldn't care if we were not having Canadians being told,

00:20:46.280 don't talk to your neighbor who's in the driveway over, don't rollerblade at the empty park,

00:20:51.460 don't go to the cottage.

00:20:52.520 If we were being told, if we were not being told all of these things, I wouldn't care.

00:20:57.500 But it's that there is a double standard.

00:21:00.740 And Justin Trudeau has made a priority about being the model of good behavior.

00:21:05.220 And that was why he stayed in his 14-day quarantine for the better part of, I think, 27 years or

00:21:10.740 something.

00:21:11.240 It just never ended.

00:21:12.400 It kept going.

00:21:13.020 The reason he did that was because he was saying, listen, I'm following all the rules.

00:21:17.180 I'm following all the health advice.

00:21:19.500 And then the second it's no longer convenient to do so, he's zoomed across a provincial border.

00:21:24.980 And then he's back in time for the next press conference from Rideau Cottage.

00:21:29.380 And that is the very definition of hypocrisy.

00:21:33.440 And by the way, I don't think it is all that similar to what happened with Andrew Scheer,

00:21:38.680 which, well, the timing was terrible.

00:21:40.540 And I realized that I think the two were different cases because Andrew Scheer, who has had to

00:21:47.460 conduct matters of being the official opposition leader, so much so that the government arranged

00:21:53.640 for a government jet to bring Andrew Scheer to Ottawa for the first parliamentary session,

00:21:58.800 and then I think for the second as well, Andrew Scheer has done this thing that he's had to

00:22:05.680 do because it's important to have opposition leaders as part of the process.

00:22:09.860 He lives in Regina.

00:22:10.840 You can't get from Regina to Ottawa by car without just a miserable, miserable drive that

00:22:16.080 I don't think anyone wants to do.

00:22:17.740 So the Trudeau government, the prime minister's office, offers a government jet.

00:22:23.040 It's picking up Elizabeth May.

00:22:24.460 It's picking up Carla Qualtrough.

00:22:26.260 It's picking up Andrew Scheer.

00:22:27.800 There's room on the plane.

00:22:29.360 Andrew Scheer decides, OK, we're going to move the family to Ottawa and stay there so I

00:22:33.640 don't have to do this back and forth.

00:22:35.740 There's room on the plane for the family.

00:22:37.340 They ask the prime minister's office.

00:22:38.820 They say, yeah, that's fine.

00:22:39.780 Bring your family.

00:22:41.000 They ask Elizabeth May.

00:22:42.660 Elizabeth May says, yeah, that's fine.

00:22:44.200 They ask Carla Qualtrough.

00:22:45.680 She says, yeah, that's fine.

00:22:46.760 And no one has any issues.

00:22:48.620 They all get on the mask.

00:22:49.740 They use their hand sanitizer.

00:22:51.220 They use all the things they're supposed to do.

00:22:53.100 They land.

00:22:54.260 Everything's fine.

00:22:55.220 Scheer's back in Ottawa.

00:22:56.380 May's back in Ottawa.

00:22:57.660 Qualtrough's back in Ottawa.

00:22:59.060 And then Elizabeth May just decides she's going to just go. 1.00

00:23:02.480 And if I can use the term, just start bitching to CBC about, oh, my goodness, Andrew Scheer.

00:23:09.160 And, you know, we didn't like this.

00:23:10.220 And we were all stacked on top of each other.

00:23:11.880 We weren't socially distanced. 0.99

00:23:13.140 And just shut up. 1.00

00:23:14.320 I mean, for crying out loud, if you had a problem with it, you were literally asked, you could have said no. 0.98

00:23:20.280 She made this big show about, oh, the generosity.

00:23:23.200 She said she was overcome by generosity at the time.

00:23:26.200 And so much so that it had an expiration date on it.

00:23:29.440 She couldn't maintain that level of generosity a second longer than the flight, apparently.

00:23:34.340 And then she starts complaining.

00:23:36.200 And then the CBC story runs this thing about Andrew Scheer and the Challenger Jet.

00:23:40.420 He's fielding eight questions from reporters at his press conference on Tuesday morning, whereas Trudeau's little Easter getaway on Tuesday gets him one question and one follow-up from just one reporter.

00:23:52.600 Now, if I had my druthers, I'd say we talk about neither.

00:23:56.960 I'd say we talk about neither because you have people that are business owners that are suffering.

00:24:01.820 You have people that are in families that can't afford to pay their bills.

00:24:05.700 You have people that have no idea whether they will have a job or what their life will look like in two weeks, let alone in two months, let alone in a year.

00:24:13.880 So I don't actually care that much about where the Prime Minister spends his Easter or about whether Andrew Scheer decides to live in Regina or in Ottawa for the duration of this crisis.

00:24:25.980 But if you are going to go down that road of caring about these things, you're going to choose to make these the hills to die on, my goodness, media, can you be a bit more bloody consistent? 0.53

00:24:37.940 You disgusting hacks who just will take two situations that have that common thread and completely turn a blind eye to what Justin Trudeau does. 0.76

00:24:48.480 But, oh, when Andrew Scheer does it, he's a conservative. 0.98

00:24:50.700 So we're going to be rate and badger and go and keep hammering and keep hammering and keep hammering to such a point that you don't even know what you're even talking about anymore.

00:24:59.800 But, oh, he's the bad guy and Justin Trudeau is the good guy.

00:25:04.420 You know, I talk a lot about media bias because it's there for a reason.

00:25:07.940 And that discussion is an important one.

00:25:10.440 But for the most part, I actually have a lot of respect for the people that I've encountered in my career working in media.

00:25:16.000 There are a few people that really stand out as being exceptionally bad.

00:25:20.460 And there are a few people that I have no opinion on.

00:25:23.180 But it was just such an embarrassing display when I saw.

00:25:27.160 And by the way, I was at that or by electronic means.

00:25:31.160 I was on the phone for that press conference and I was hearing this and I didn't see it in real time. 0.59

00:25:36.080 And I didn't see that Andrew Scheer had actually shaken his head at one point because the question was just so ridiculous.

00:25:41.920 And she asked, listen, why are the rules there for other people and not for you?

00:25:46.260 No one asked Trudeau that.

00:25:47.480 Even the one question that Trudeau did field, I think it was from Le Devoir, was a question that was a lot more online with, you know, just tell us about why you did it.

00:25:57.360 Tell us what you were thinking.

00:25:58.480 Whereas with Scheer, it was why did you do this?

00:26:00.260 How dare you do this?

00:26:01.140 Who like and look, politicians need to be held to account at all parties.

00:26:06.040 And if you think this is a partisan thing, just look at stuff I've said about Andrew Scheer in the past.

00:26:11.800 I have not held back when the Conservatives and when Andrew Scheer have warranted criticism.

00:26:16.700 This is not one of these situations.

00:26:19.620 And my goodness, if we are going to choose to fight to the death on these things,

00:26:25.400 we're going to see a lot more cases like the Ottawa health officials saying,

00:26:30.700 don't talk to your neighbors in the driveway.

00:26:32.760 We'll become the Stepford country, before you know it, where everyone just has this robotic, automatronic means of going through life.

00:26:40.760 And nothing will ever get accomplished.

00:26:42.880 And I don't even think the public health crisis will be cleared because no one will be on that track.

00:26:48.060 We'll just be thinking of enforcement and enforcement only.

00:26:52.240 And we will all suffer as Canadians.

00:26:54.860 And you look at, in Scotland, by the way, the chief medical officer resigned after what was heralded as being conflicting in messages.

00:27:04.020 She was telling everyone to stay put.

00:27:06.340 This is Dr. Catherine Calderwood.

00:27:09.280 And then she ended up resigning because she had been traveling to her second home on weekends.

00:27:15.040 So she actually resigned.

00:27:17.440 And this was something that, again, I want to stress, I'm not choosing to make the Trudeau thing the big fight.

00:27:22.740 But Corey Morgan had said on Twitter, this person lost her job for doing exactly what Justin Trudeau did last weekend.

00:27:29.320 He says, I guess Scotland has a lower tolerance of gross hypocrisy than Canada does.

00:27:34.980 So she apologizes profusely because she's been telling everyone to stay put.

00:27:39.420 And then on weekends saying, oh, I'm going to go to my cottage.

00:27:41.680 I'm going to go to my other house.

00:27:43.040 So, yeah, politicians need to be leaders.

00:27:46.320 They need to be role models.

00:27:47.600 I get it.

00:27:48.520 But at the same time, do we really want to adopt a snitch culture and make that the cornerstone of this country? 0.99

00:27:56.140 We certainly don't because it won't look good.

00:27:59.500 Back in a moment with more of The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:28:01.980 Stay tuned.

00:28:05.420 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:28:08.140 Speaking of the things that matter, National Post, is it okay to get hairy in COVID-19 lockdown?

00:28:18.920 This is a letter from, well, not from someone who's mentioning their name.

00:28:24.160 The name is just hairy and just don't care.

00:28:26.780 The question is, I noticed that guys everywhere are letting their facial hair grow.

00:28:30.100 I get it.

00:28:30.580 Why would you take the time to shave every day when you aren't going anywhere?

00:28:34.900 As a woman, I have to admit, I have also let things slide in the personal upkeep area.

00:28:40.020 Let's just say that the lady down at the waxing place, you know, the one with the window sign that says, 0.95

00:28:44.980 stop shaving your beaver, is going to have her work cut out for her when all of this COVID-19 stuff settles. 1.00

00:28:50.760 The advice is that time spent at home during self-isolation is no exception to the rule that we sometimes feel bored and uninspired.

00:28:59.880 The writer of the response says,

00:29:02.200 you seem like you are pretty laid back about the whole thing.

00:29:04.700 Sporting a jungle is no small thing.

00:29:06.920 But at the same time, if you get in shape and then quit, over time, your muscles will get weaker, as will your body.

00:29:12.700 So you apparently are supposed to keep up your personal hygiene.

00:29:16.620 So the National Post says it is not okay to get Harry in lockdown or something like that.

00:29:21.700 I lost track when the story just kept going on.

00:29:24.360 And it actually went on longer than Justin Trudeau's lockdown did.

00:29:27.700 The, this is apparently what people are caring about now.

00:29:32.180 So it's funny because on one hand, I was saying we need to care about more important things.

00:29:35.600 And then the next tab that I open on my computer is about personal grooming.

00:29:40.120 I'm actually in a very beneficial position right now because I have to wear a nice shirt when I go on camera.

00:29:48.720 And like I said last week, I mean, you never know if I'm wearing like track pants or pajama pants underneath.

00:29:52.840 But from like the, from like the, the stomach up, I look very presentable.

00:29:57.120 So that forces me to not go around as completely slovenly as some other people might be.

00:30:02.860 It's not because I'm naturally a put together person, I assure you.

00:30:05.960 It's just because if I just sit down here with some like hooded sweatshirt having not shaved in a week,

00:30:10.780 you'll think, wow, why is that homeless guy doing a show and why should we listen to him?

00:30:14.720 So in any case, let's talk a little bit about the global aspect of COVID-19.

00:30:21.840 Because even still, China is not trustworthy. 0.96

00:30:25.460 China lied, people died. 0.98

00:30:26.900 If you remember nothing else from the show, remember those four words.

00:30:30.540 And there is a letter from parliamentarians from all over the world, from the UK, from Australia, from Estonia,

00:30:38.720 calling on China to be held accountable.

00:30:42.580 And this is something that in the letter they call China's Chernobyl moment.

00:30:47.300 A hundred politicians and policy experts have signed, including former Canadian Attorney General Erwin Kotler,

00:30:53.840 who is a very, I mean, he's a liberal.

00:30:55.500 I disagree with him on a lot, but I agree with him on a great deal as well.

00:30:59.600 He's from a vintage of liberal that just doesn't exist anymore.

00:31:04.320 But the problem is not a single current Canadian legislator has signed this letter.

00:31:10.020 Not one.

00:31:11.320 The letter is important.

00:31:12.440 China's Chernobyl moment is a self-inflicted wound. 0.93

00:31:15.600 The Chinese Communist Party silenced Chinese doctors who wanted to warn other health professionals

00:31:20.740 during the early stage of the outbreak, it says.

00:31:23.420 It criticizes the World Health Organization.

00:31:25.840 It criticizes the capitulation of Chinese pressure to downplay.

00:31:31.440 It does all of this stuff.

00:31:34.040 It does all of it.

00:31:35.260 And you know what?

00:31:36.080 Not a single Canadian MP would put their name to this.

00:31:39.280 Now, there are a number that I know probably would endorse the spirit of it.

00:31:43.480 But the fact that no one from the liberal government, no one from the Trudeau government is prepared

00:31:48.980 to accept this is a big problem.

00:31:52.180 I mean, we talked for a couple of shows about Patti Hajdu, Politburo Patti's capitulation of

00:31:57.600 the Chinese by saying there's no indication the numbers can't be trusted.

00:32:01.880 Other countries as well.

00:32:02.980 I mean, the World Health Organization is right now merely an extension of China.

00:32:08.620 The WHO has completely adopted the Chinese talking points and itself was early on saying,

00:32:15.780 ah, there's no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

00:32:17.940 There's no real risk.

00:32:19.340 This is contained and this is downplayed.

00:32:21.180 So at a time when the WHO could have and should have been looking to other countries and saying,

00:32:26.620 hey, just so you know, guys, gird your loins because this thing's coming out of China and

00:32:30.880 you won't be able to stop it easily.

00:32:32.800 Instead, the WHO was doing what China was trying to do, which is telling people, ah,

00:32:37.680 you don't need to worry.

00:32:38.520 It's all okay.

00:32:39.400 Everything's fine.

00:32:40.220 We're managing it.

00:32:41.100 It's just, it's barely an inconvenience.

00:32:43.000 It's just a little contained sort of thing there.

00:32:45.120 Easy to maintain.

00:32:47.020 And what happens?

00:32:48.680 What happens?

00:32:49.200 Well, you look around you.

00:32:50.220 This is what happens.

00:32:51.440 The world since then is what happens.

00:32:53.900 And I know that everyone in the U.S. right now is losing their mind, everyone on the

00:32:57.900 left actually around the world, that Donald Trump is pulling funding from the WHO, halting

00:33:03.320 U.S. funding.

00:33:04.440 Let's talk about this because I think Canada would be completely justified in following

00:33:08.500 suit.

00:33:09.360 I think that people have a very distorted view of what the World Health Organization does.

00:33:14.880 It is not a public health agency in the sense that it's not actually doing anything

00:33:21.100 to promote or foster public health.

00:33:23.900 The World Health Organization is an aggregator of data at best, but it's not even particularly

00:33:30.520 good data.

00:33:31.480 I mean, it seems like its greatest contribution to the COVID-19 effort is a spreadsheet that

00:33:36.760 they just populate with numbers that other countries send in.

00:33:39.560 So when, you know, Xi Jinping says, oh, you know, China has, you know, 200 deaths and that's

00:33:45.020 it.

00:33:45.180 Everything's fine.

00:33:45.920 WHO just goes, OK, we've got 200 deaths.

00:33:48.420 All right.

00:33:48.900 And then when Iran says, oh, yeah, you know, we've just got, you know, a couple here and 0.70

00:33:52.360 there.

00:33:52.660 They're OK.

00:33:53.120 Iran, just a couple.

00:33:54.060 But like, that's all they do.

00:33:55.900 So when you have a case like Ebola, when you have viruses or infections or bacterial issues

00:34:03.420 that are in parts of the world that don't have the response in a box like Western governments

00:34:10.720 do.

00:34:11.280 Yeah, the WHO has been, I think, important.

00:34:14.100 I mean, the WHO did very well with Ebola.

00:34:16.080 But when you have countries like the US, UK, Australia, Canada, the European Union is not

00:34:24.280 a country, but you know what I mean.

00:34:25.480 When they're impacted by this, they have public health apparatus that do as much as the World

00:34:32.660 Health Organization could do and more.

00:34:35.480 And they're able to manage these things because right now the World Health Organization is not

00:34:39.540 leading a global effort.

00:34:40.720 I mean, they're sitting on the sidelines and just telling people what China tells them

00:34:44.960 to say.

00:34:46.060 And this is like, I mean, there's no credibility whatsoever.

00:34:49.760 And this is one of the reasons that I think Dr. Teresa Tam warrants some skepticism from

00:34:54.960 Canadians, because more than other public health officials, she is herself linked to the WHO.

00:35:01.660 She's got a number of WHO positions. 0.88

00:35:04.160 She's worked on a number of WHO products and projects, rather.

00:35:07.760 And I think that her link to the WHO is something that itself might color the stuff she said that

00:35:16.240 just ended up being wrong going back to January, using WHO, and by extension, using Chinese talking

00:35:23.400 points.

00:35:24.160 And it was actually good to see Jason Kenney, the Premier of Alberta, criticize her for this

00:35:30.660 when answering a question from Vashie Capellos on CBC about why Alberta wants to circumvent

00:35:37.580 Health Canada approvals.

00:35:39.680 And I don't blame it.

00:35:40.500 I mean, Health Canada has been behind the curve for the entirety of this crisis.

00:35:44.400 They're still behind the curve.

00:35:45.760 You've got vaccines, tests, and drugs that other countries have tested and allowed and

00:35:50.980 approved that Canada still hasn't.

00:35:53.300 Because Canada's like, oh, we've got a rigorous process and all of this stuff.

00:35:56.240 And Jason Kenney said, listen, if a country that we trust or a jurisdiction we trust, like

00:36:01.480 the FDA, the Australian Health Agency, the European Union Health Agency, if they've gone

00:36:06.380 through the due diligence here and approved these things, why should we not?

00:36:10.220 So what he says is Alberta is going to completely allow these things from what he calls peer countries.

00:36:17.660 But I'm glad that he took aim at PHAC, at the Public Health Agency of Canada, when pushed

00:36:24.140 back on by this.

00:36:25.240 Take a look at this exchange.

00:36:26.560 And you tweeted yesterday that you're directing health officials to use or to consider using

00:36:33.320 testing methods that are approved by regulators in other countries, not specifically by Health

00:36:39.480 Canada.

00:36:40.020 Does that mean that you don't trust Health Canada?

00:36:42.980 No, of course, I trust them as their credibility as a agency in terms of their approvals.

00:36:53.300 But we're not going to wait for Health Canada to play catch up with, for example, the European 0.99

00:36:59.100 Union's drug regulator or the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.

00:37:04.660 The direction I've given our officials is that if we see a highly credible regulator of medications

00:37:13.240 in a peer jurisdiction like the European Union, Australia or the United States, that has approved

00:37:19.980 a test or a vaccine or medication, we should pursue that.

00:37:26.620 We should not wait for Health Canada to catch up.

00:37:29.380 So we're not going to allow, you know, I think one of the critical learnings about response

00:37:36.020 to pandemic is you do not allow bureaucracy to get in the way of speed of response.

00:37:43.220 And that's one of the reasons that Alberta is participating, for example, in trials for

00:37:48.940 hydroxychloroquine, which is a potential medical treatment.

00:37:53.300 But with respect, Premier, it's not exactly just about bureaucracy, right?

00:37:57.400 Health Canada performs a function in which they vet these tests.

00:38:02.000 And Dr. Tam today, in response to your tweet, said that they do have significant concerns about

00:38:06.600 the quality of some of those tests.

00:38:08.580 So if you instead defer to speed and you end up with tests that aren't accurate, that

00:38:12.800 becomes a health risk in and of itself, does it not?

00:38:17.040 Is Dr. Tam suggesting that the European Union's regulator of medications or the Food and Drug

00:38:24.880 Administration approve things that are dangerous for public use?

00:38:30.500 You know, this is the same Dr. Tam who is telling us that we shouldn't close our borders

00:38:35.220 to countries with high levels of infection and who, in January, was repeating talking

00:38:41.760 points out of the PRC about no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

00:38:47.080 Yeah, I mean, he's not wrong.

00:38:48.620 There were Chinese talking points that were being parroted by Canadian officials.

00:38:53.260 Now, it's not to say that they're Chinese operatives, but either way, they were either uncritical 0.76

00:38:59.300 of China, which makes them bad at their jobs, or they just didn't think it was worthwhile

00:39:04.240 to criticize China, in which case they're still not particularly good at their jobs.

00:39:08.580 No matter what the reason was, the result is the same, which is data that can't be trusted

00:39:14.000 coming from the people who are telling us, just trust us, because they know best.

00:39:18.480 And the people that Justin Trudeau has effectively given a blank slate to and a blank check to,

00:39:23.960 to put whatever policy measures they want to in place in Canada.

00:39:27.600 And when what they're saying is indistinguishable from what China's saying, yeah, I think it's 0.63

00:39:33.460 time for Canadians to look abroad.

00:39:35.680 So good on Donald Trump for pulling WHO funding.

00:39:39.280 It'll be interesting to see if a similar push comes from the conservatives or even conservative

00:39:44.200 leadership candidates, who I know are not supposed to be campaigning, but are anyway.

00:39:47.800 Because right now, the US has to pay for every country's share of the UN, of NATO, of WHO,

00:39:56.080 of all of these international bodies.

00:39:57.700 And the US gets very little out of it.

00:39:59.880 I mean, the US just gets completely crapped on by the UN, but most of its budget is coming

00:40:04.820 from the US and its entire domicile is at the US.

00:40:08.760 And the WHO is headquartered abroad, but it's the same sort of thing.

00:40:12.480 Why should the United States have to bankroll this thing that is not doing anything?

00:40:18.020 And by the way, hasn't really contributed much of a net positive in the coronavirus combat

00:40:23.580 effort.

00:40:24.860 And that, I think, is where we need to have a real discussion about this moving forward.

00:40:29.340 Now, I said last week, maybe it doesn't need to be done right now.

00:40:33.120 Maybe you can just review the WHO relationship after the crisis.

00:40:37.380 But now that we hear, OK, this crisis is going to go on, you know, up to two years, there

00:40:42.600 might not be an after.

00:40:43.820 So if the problem is there now and they need an about face, this may be the thing that triggers

00:40:48.760 it.

00:40:49.340 Although, of course, all of the so-called experts in the US are now saying, oh, no, no, no,

00:40:53.260 but you can't do it.

00:40:54.040 We can't do it.

00:40:54.640 I think that no one can force a country to hand a check over to an international body that

00:40:59.520 ultimately has no jurisdiction.

00:41:01.720 So take that for what it's worth.

00:41:04.000 We've got to take a break.

00:41:05.160 When we come back, a final wrap up of The Andrew Lawton Show here on True North.

00:41:08.920 Stay tuned.

00:41:12.000 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:41:18.760 I'm ending on a bit of a boring subject here, but I do think it's an important one.

00:41:22.820 So please bear with me.

00:41:24.240 And that is the lack of coverage of the government's relief measures for people impacted by COVID-19.

00:41:32.340 And I'm speaking specifically of employers and business owners and entrepreneurs here,

00:41:37.400 because right now the government has made $2,000 a month available to people who are out

00:41:43.920 of work or people who have no income because of COVID-19, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

00:41:50.200 And by all accounts, very easy to apply for.

00:41:52.840 You just go on.

00:41:53.720 And a few days later, $2,000 appears in your bank account or you get a check, whichever you

00:41:58.520 have signed up on for Canada Revenue Agency.

00:42:01.740 But when you look through all of the things for employers, it's a lot different and there

00:42:07.720 are huge gaps in it.

00:42:09.680 So the big employer measures are deferral of tax payments and deferral of GST, HST remittance,

00:42:15.400 which is fine.

00:42:16.480 But as far as the cash payments that deal with loss of revenue, there's the wage subsidy,

00:42:21.720 which will cover up to 75% of employee wages for a term of time.

00:42:26.720 I think it's three months.

00:42:27.860 There is the Canada Emergency Business Account, SEBA, which is a government guaranteed loan

00:42:34.000 from your bank of up to $40,000, interest-free and $30,000 is all you have to pay back.

00:42:40.540 And then there are some other measures as well that are available, like loans through BDC

00:42:46.380 and some other things.

00:42:47.680 But for the most part, these are the primary programs.

00:42:52.000 Now, if you are self-employed and you have some income, you are ineligible.

00:42:59.120 You are completely ineligible.

00:43:01.060 The government has tried to make it now so that if you work less than 10 hours a week,

00:43:05.240 you can still apply for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

00:43:08.920 But for the most part, if you're self-employed and you lose, let's say, 80% of your livelihood,

00:43:14.400 it is more advantageous for you to stop working entirely and claim the $2,000 than it is for

00:43:21.120 you to keep working and thus be ineligible for it.

00:43:24.020 And I thought, because I'm self-employed and I know I do a lot of stuff for True North and

00:43:27.760 this is not really relevant to most of you throughout the year, but I'm telling you just

00:43:32.880 because it's relevant to the story I'm telling right now.

00:43:35.800 On paper, I am self-employed and I am a contractor and that is the way I set it up because I do other

00:43:40.840 things as well.

00:43:41.480 I have a very exciting life.

00:43:43.080 I really don't.

00:43:44.080 But anyway, I'm self-employed and I'm actually okay.

00:43:47.920 So I'm not saying this because I'm trying to say that I'm in a rough spot because I'm not,

00:43:52.740 but I know people who are.

00:43:54.500 And I have a lot of friends of mine who are employers that have had to shut down and have

00:43:59.360 no real mechanism of support available.

00:44:02.420 And someone I did talk about on a previous episode that I know who owns a restaurant and

00:44:07.640 they have to shut down.

00:44:10.080 They aren't paying their employees, so the wage subsidy doesn't really do anything for

00:44:13.540 them.

00:44:14.000 They can benefit from the loan, but it doesn't really deal with the revenue side of things.

00:44:18.920 If you are a sole proprietor, you're not someone who has a corporation, you're a sole proprietor,

00:44:24.800 you can't benefit from that emergency loan at all.

00:44:29.140 The only thing you could get if you're a sole proprietor is that $2,000 a month.

00:44:34.400 But if you're a sole proprietor who's still doing a bit of work, you are completely excluded

00:44:38.900 from the personal support measures and you are completely excluded from the business support

00:44:44.260 measures, meaning you are left in between.

00:44:47.180 And I found a stat on this that was interesting, which is that the vast majority of independent

00:44:53.340 of small businesses have between one and four employees.

00:44:56.160 So for you to have access to that government backed loan, you have, and I think this is

00:45:03.180 fascinating, you have to have payroll between $50,000 and a million dollars.

00:45:07.640 A lot of small businesses, certainly sole proprietorships, don't have that.

00:45:12.480 And if you're a sole proprietor who pays yourself, but you take it as business revenue rather than

00:45:18.220 payroll, which is how most people do it, you're excluded from this.

00:45:21.580 Now, for a lot of people listening or watching, I know this may sound Greek to you, and I don't

00:45:25.960 expect you to become experts in this stuff.

00:45:28.260 I'm certainly not an expert in it.

00:45:29.600 I'm just someone who's tried to navigate this system and figure out what's available for

00:45:34.280 who and how easy it is to access.

00:45:36.600 But the reason I share this with you is to say that there are huge swaths of the population

00:45:41.360 that are ineligible for the government support or for whom the government support is not

00:45:46.740 all that adequate.

00:45:48.120 And it would be so easy for the government to expand eligibility.

00:45:53.640 And the more that I see this all, the more strengthened I am in my resolve, that it would

00:45:58.020 be better for the government to just say, you know what, everyone who wants it gets the Canada

00:46:03.080 Emergency Response Benefit.

00:46:04.860 And if your income for 2020 is over a certain amount, and I don't know what you make that

00:46:09.300 amount, we'll take it back from you at tax time.

00:46:12.360 That would solve pretty much all of the problems.

00:46:15.460 Well, no, let me clarify.

00:46:16.500 It wouldn't solve all the problems.

00:46:17.420 It would solve the eligibility problems with the current programs.

00:46:21.240 It wouldn't solve cash flow issues for businesses.

00:46:23.860 It wouldn't solve that.

00:46:25.120 But it would at least make it so there aren't people that are completely excluded from all

00:46:29.540 programs, which is the issue now.

00:46:32.160 And this goes beyond partisanship.

00:46:34.500 This is something that I would criticize because it's not a liberal or conservative issue.

00:46:38.620 It's something that just if the government is going to commit to this path, do it a lot

00:46:42.420 better.

00:46:42.700 And this is why I've been really holding up the importance of the official opposition

00:46:47.460 in this, because the official opposition is the only real way to tell the government,

00:46:52.180 hey, we think you should do this and then put it in legislation.

00:46:55.480 Look, I'm not able to ask questions of Justin Trudeau at those press conferences.

00:46:58.860 I'm still banned from covering the Justin Trudeau government.

00:47:02.540 And that's something I have to live with right now.

00:47:04.740 But I would love to see these ideas put forward.

00:47:07.320 So if you have an MP, especially a liberal MP, talk to them about this.

00:47:11.220 Talk to them about this.

00:47:11.980 Say, listen, there are people I know of who are excluded from all of these programs.

00:47:16.280 Ask them about sole proprietors.

00:47:18.180 Ask them about employers in businesses that don't have any cash flow right now.

00:47:22.180 So wage subsidy is not the issue.

00:47:23.880 Ask them about these people, because there needs to be some pressure on the government

00:47:27.820 to expand the criteria so that those who most need the supports that are being offered right

00:47:35.060 now are able to access it.

00:47:36.820 So that's my little TED talk that I'll end with today.

00:47:39.100 My thanks to all of you for tuning into the show, writing in.

00:47:41.920 We might do a reader email or listener email episode in the future, because I've gotten

00:47:46.400 some great thoughts and some very heartwarming thoughts from people.

00:47:49.360 But that'll have to wait.

00:47:50.400 In the meantime, thank you.

00:47:51.380 God bless.

00:47:52.000 And good day, Canada.

00:47:53.460 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:47:55.560 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - April 16, 2020

Rules For Thee, Not For Me

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