00:00:00.000I want to talk first just this whole thing.
00:00:02.740You know, you said that you kind of ended up reluctantly having to talk about politics.
00:00:06.060You started wanting to talk about competitive hockey and sports.
00:00:09.000And then you kind of pulled into the political world.
00:00:11.640I mean, you interviewed some of the real lightning rods that were raising the alarm bell with concerns about our entire approach to COVID.
00:00:19.860And then last Friday, we saw the Alberta government release its COVID report.
00:00:24.120So this is kind of one of those rare instances where the government that was in power, Premier Jason Kenney, got ousted, replaced by Danielle Smith.
00:00:32.540And she said, OK, let's let's open up the books and let's figure out what happened.
00:00:36.200True outsider, because I don't think like in any other province, liberal or conservative, they would allow this sort of like forensic accounting.
00:00:42.980Like, let's look back and really discuss what went wrong and what happened.
00:00:46.900So to me, there's value in this report for all Canadians and for everyone in the world, because so many governments went down the same disastrous path of like lock it all down, shut down the schools.
00:00:58.880I mean, you're a parent of young kids.
00:01:12.160I think radicalized a lot of people to just say, like, I don't trust you.
00:01:15.340I don't want you in charge of anything to do with my life.
00:01:18.080Like, maybe a lot more vocal about it anyway.
00:01:20.500So I saw you commenting on this Alberta COVID report.
00:01:24.540Really interesting things, things that you don't really hear from government urging, halting vaccines for youth and low risk individuals, talking really about lack of data behind a lot of these protocols that were brought in.
00:01:38.620Why don't you sort of tell us about your thoughts on this report?
00:01:41.740Well, one of the things I'm originally from a small town in Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan and Alberta are very similar.
00:02:33.740There's a few things written in here that were in the report and then some of my comments.
00:02:36.640And I said, the flow of information is hardly a flow when the author points out there's a reluctance of key stakeholders to acknowledge and engage with our mandate and that there appears to be a fundamental lack of transparency and willingness to reveal information and discuss decisions and actions taken by AHS during the pandemic.
00:02:52.520HLS, sorry, is Alberta Health Services.
00:02:55.140So, right, a lot of what happened here, we've already had court cases tell us it was the politicians making decisions, that they didn't have the data and on and on and on.
00:03:04.320I'm irritated with this report because the report is supposed to be all the data.
00:03:52.120I urge any Canadian to go give it a read, especially if you're like, I'm easy talking about vaccines.
00:03:58.440And if you don't know what I'm talking about, this would be eye-opening.
00:04:01.580For me, talking about it for four years, I want to, and I think a lot of Albertans want, a little more teeth in holding our government accountable.
00:04:09.180And so, um, it getting released at three o'clock on a Friday in the middle of, uh, you know, problems with the border.
00:04:22.080We see what you're doing and I don't like it.
00:04:24.080And so it's what I love about Albertans.
00:04:26.060We're not happy with the report just coming out.
00:04:28.620We want, we want to see things like Trump is doing.
00:04:31.840We want to see these action items, um, be laid out.
00:04:34.900And there are some really cool things, um, that Dr. Gary Davidson and the group that, that built it, uh, kind of say you, you should look into getting rid of this vaccine for, for kids and youth.
00:04:46.600And a whole bunch of, uh, you know, um, items that the government of Alberta can chew on.
00:04:52.680And I really hope they're contemplating them.
00:04:55.000I really hope they're going to take, uh, uh, some of the information that's been built by Gary Davidson, Dr. Gary Davidson and his team and, and use them.
00:05:03.940Um, but sitting here in media, after everything we've said about every other part of government, I'm like, well, I think it was Andrew Lawton once upon a time and, uh, others, I should say.
00:05:14.020That told me, you know, you got great politicians, you got bad politicians, create the, the atmosphere, create the, the, the conditions for bad politicians to do the right thing.
00:05:24.620I don't think Daniel Smith's a bad politician by any stretch of the imagination, but I certainly do want to create the conditions that, uh, they have to move on some of these action items.
00:05:32.440And we've seen how mainstream media has demonized it.
00:05:35.760Like, I mean, have you seen the, the picture?
00:05:37.680I think it's out of the Globe and Mail of, you know, her talking to these ugly looking doctors.
00:05:41.860Meanwhile, all the associations are against her.
00:05:51.300And, um, so yeah, I, I mean, it's always good though, for myself to hear an outside perspective of like, wow, I wish our province would do this.
00:05:59.020Um, but here in Alberta, we're an unruly bunch and we want more.
00:06:02.760Well, I, I think first of all, Danielle Smith deserves to be applauded for even doing this report.
00:06:07.560Um, I'll just read through a little bit about what the report said.
00:06:10.560So it was commissioned by Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith in 2022, mandate to explore the province's response to COVID-19.
00:06:16.580The task force included prominent medical professionals, as you were discussing, including Drs. Gary Davidson, who's on your show, uh, Jay Bhattacharya, who's a prominent Stanford doctor who just got appointed, um, to, to, uh, the Trump administration.
00:06:28.720And Biriam, uh, bridal, the final report, um, recommended that the provincial government stopped providing vaccines for healthy children and teenagers report revealed evidence to suggest that it was not effective.
00:06:40.740Um, the, uh, report also alleged that Alberta health services removed a dashboard after it showed higher hospitalization rates among the vaccinated than the unvaccinated.
00:06:51.100Um, and it also said that there was a lack of reliable data providing that COVID-19 vaccines protect children from severe cases, a task force that published the research said COVID-19 vaccines were not designed to stop transmission.