Juno News - September 26, 2025


Shipbuilders slam BC Ferries China contract


Episode Stats

Length

13 minutes

Words per Minute

145.42966

Word Count

2,019

Sentence Count

3

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 academic and author gad sad told a house of common science committee that dei hiring in science has
00:00:11.880 no effect on the researchers capacity to make new discoveries several industry leaders in
00:00:18.120 canada are piling on to the ongoing criticism of public funds granted to a chinese shipyard
00:00:23.580 to build ferries in british columbia heritage minister stephen gilbeau pledged to investigate
00:00:30.020 a montreal magazine that receives public funds after it published a hit piece on u.s conservative
00:00:36.740 activist charlie kirk just a day after his assassination hello canada it's friday september
00:00:43.800 26th this is the true north daily brief i'm cosmon georgia and i'm wally tam tam we've got you covered
00:00:50.620 with all the news you need to know let's discuss the top stories of the day and the true north
00:00:56.160 exclusives you won't hear anywhere else diversity quotas are a quote a front to research excellence
00:01:05.800 author and academic gad sad told a house of common science committee on wednesday clashing with a
00:01:12.540 liberal mp over the impact of identity-based hiring and funding on canadian science at the september
00:01:20.100 24th hearing of the standing committee on science and research liberal mp talib noor muhammad
00:01:26.640 assad for specific examples of how diversity equity and inclusion rules had lowered research quality
00:01:34.760 you know listening to you today i guess one of the questions that came to mind that i'd love if you
00:01:39.220 could share with us is any empirical studies that you can cite that show that diversity initiatives
00:01:44.640 actually harm the quality or objectivity of scientific research thank you for your kind words
00:01:50.300 it's uh it's lovely to hear that people in the committee are reading my work so thank you for that
00:01:54.920 uh i mean i can certainly try to come i don't have the the citations in front of me but there is no
00:02:02.400 conceivable reason why diversity along my sexual orientation or my skin color or whether i'm two-spirit
00:02:11.940 or non-binary is going to improve our capacity to map the human genome or better understand the
00:02:19.600 distribution of prime numbers science liberates us from the shackles of our personal identities
00:02:25.660 it's an it's a it's an epistemological tool that democratizes our capacity to seek science so
00:02:34.480 so of by by definition science should be free of all that stuff uh but if you want references i can
00:02:42.540 certainly try to whip some up for you i i would love some the mp acknowledged the importance of
00:02:47.480 meritocracy but argued that historical inequality makes it quote much harder to measure merit in
00:02:53.900 systems where access to education the funding and networks has historically been unequal
00:03:00.040 saad countered that barriers to entry should be removed but not replaced with quotas wherever we
00:03:07.400 see that there are truly systemic barriers to entry for any group then we need to eradicate those but
00:03:14.020 that doesn't come from saying that only uh queer people who are non-binary get to be a professor of
00:03:23.500 artificial intelligence at the university of waterloo i mean imagine how insane that makes us look
00:03:29.560 globally saad called the growth of identity-based research funding quote grotesque and warned that
00:03:37.820 public trust in academia is eroding when parasitic ideas replace merit so we'll lead this was quite
00:03:45.240 the heated exchange here during this committee meeting what other arguments were presented
00:03:51.380 at the committee against dei hiring and acceptance standards well got said wasn't alone in this committee
00:03:59.020 as a witness his criticism his testimony mirrored comments supported by other witnesses including
00:04:05.220 canadian professor of politics at the university of buckingham eric kaufman who said dei metrics quote
00:04:11.720 create the conditions for delegitimized research funding and researcher robert thomas who cautioned
00:04:18.780 that the government policy goals of dei are quote displacing focus on the individual's work itself
00:04:25.660 so between those two views there's additionally the concern around the conditions of funding could
00:04:32.520 create a situation where that funding could show up given public backlash and given a questioning of
00:04:40.380 legitimacy of that project itself a lot of research in canada is funded by taxpayer dollars to our
00:04:46.460 universities that could definitely create a much more uh let's say delegitimized research industry and
00:04:53.760 eventually cause a showing up of funds and innovation and on the side of researcher robert thomas
00:05:00.400 of course the focus instead of the actual work and product of research would be the identity
00:05:05.360 of who is doing that research so a health report would be more emphasized on the race of the researcher
00:05:11.520 or reporter on the academic rather than the actual product evidence-based quality of that report or of that
00:05:19.540 academic unit bc fairies is facing a wave of criticism from industry leaders after awarding a contract
00:05:30.260 to a chinese shipyard with many arguing the decision highlights a lack of political will rather than a
00:05:36.260 shortage of domestic privacy public outrage has been expressed since the news first emerged regarding bc
00:05:42.100 fairies's selection of the prc backed china merchants industry way high shipyards matters were made worse
00:05:50.020 when it came to light that the financing to construct the four new vessels would come from taxpayers in the
00:05:55.540 form of a one billion dollar low interest loan from the canada infrastructure bank leaders in the steel and
00:06:02.420 shipbuilding industry testified during a standing committee on transport infrastructure and communities
00:06:07.780 meeting on thursday calling the contract quote highly offensive frustrating and with no regard for the
00:06:16.260 long-term benefits united steelworkers national director for united steelworkers marty warren said quote
00:06:24.660 our shipyards were set up to fail even before they had a chance conservative mp les lewis highlighted how
00:06:32.100 many union members pay taxes that go to the cib's billion dollar fund asking warren about its effect on
00:06:39.940 the industry warren said quote when we just race to the bottom for the cheapest labor we really do lose
00:06:46.020 the taxpayers base a lot of these jobs are good jobs raise a family perhaps on a home retire and dignity
00:06:54.020 when that work is not provided to canadians we lose the tax base for hospitals education and infrastructure
00:07:01.540 the chinese now cover 65 of maritime production compared to only five percent ten years ago how
00:07:08.420 do you react to that to see that we're a bit of an accomplice in the fact that china is taking over
00:07:15.220 nearly the entire global market for ship production warren called for a quote clear and forcible by canada
00:07:23.140 by clean policy so causing a question for you here primarily smart connie has been talking about federal
00:07:29.460 procurement having a quote by canada strategy going forward are the liberals likely to do anything to
00:07:35.620 ensure provinces are taking the same approach such as bc yeah honestly it sounds like more talk than
00:07:41.780 action from carney and we've heard him play this song and dance consistently about by canadian we're
00:07:48.260 going to increase interprovincial trade etc when it's politically convenient and then ottawa turns around
00:07:55.860 and signs off on funding for this billion dollar deal that ships canadian tax money and jobs overseas to china
00:08:06.580 and that's the irony here because when the us hits us with tariffs the liberals wave that flag and say
00:08:14.660 oh we're supporting canadian workers canadian products but when it's china suddenly ottawa's fine with
00:08:21.700 handing over a billion dollar loan and letting a state-owned shipyard take the work so clearly a double
00:08:29.940 standard that doesn't just look weak it actively undermines canadian jobs the apprenticeships we could
00:08:37.780 have had and potentially even our national security considering a lot of the concerns around chinese
00:08:45.700 technology espionage corporate espionage etc and that's why canadians are so frustrated the provinces
00:08:55.300 some of them have already shown that they're willing to approach by canada policies now bc said they were
00:09:03.220 going to buy canadian they're going to exclude the united states from you know purchasing agreements
00:09:10.020 contracts for the government but here they are also leading the charge on this bc ferries contract so
00:09:18.660 there's totally another about face happening at the provincial level because when push came to shove
00:09:25.860 with washington they present one image but when it's convenient and potentially even profitable for
00:09:33.460 them with china it's totally the other picture heritage minister steven guilbeau said he would look into
00:09:43.220 the montreal magazine cult montreal after it printed a column titled quote to hell with charlie kirk the day
00:09:51.940 after the u.s conservative activist was assassinated on a public stage while testifying at the commons canadian
00:09:59.700 heritage committee on september 24th conservative mp rachel thomas pressed guilbeau on why federal funds
00:10:07.140 flowed to the publication through the canada periodical fund thomas cited a september 11th column that
00:10:14.500 mocked kirk's death and ended with quote you reap what you sow rachel question if taxpayer dollars should
00:10:22.340 subsidize such content guilbeau speaking in french replied that his department was not aware of the article
00:10:28.900 and said he would quote quickly look into this with the department and see what in fact was printed
00:10:34.820 and convey this to all the members of the committee he added that quote spreading hate has no place in
00:10:41.060 the public discourse in canada and promised quote if the organization does not deserve to continue
00:10:47.380 receiving government funding the funding will be withdrawn public records show cult montreal has received
00:10:54.020 multiple grants from canadian heritage under the canada periodical fund including forty six thousand
00:11:00.580 seven hundred nineteen dollars in 2020 and smaller amounts in subsequent years if you were to just
00:11:06.980 look through the variety of funds and mechanisms that the federal government uses to distribute taxpayer
00:11:14.100 money you'd realize there's a lot of institutions in this country that receive public funds but publish very
00:11:21.300 biased work or produce very biased research is the government here likely to actually take action
00:11:29.460 by withdrawing funds to cult montreal or is stephen gilbo just saying that because he has to will lead
00:11:37.060 i think he's saying it because he asked in the committee under that kind of pressure given the disgusting
00:11:41.860 um column done by the cult montreal i think that frankly the action needed would be a very large very
00:11:48.580 significant series of actions because like you said there are many institutions in canada that receive
00:11:53.540 public funds that are publishing very biased work normally biased towards the uh leftist sphere i can give
00:12:00.420 you an example we covered at true north earlier this week uh the liberals were were silent on funding for
00:12:06.820 the anti-hate network um which was actually linked to the antifa group uh in court actually court ruling um
00:12:16.820 um actually suggested that it has insisted antifa antifa of course is uh under much scrutiny south of
00:12:23.940 the border given the fact that they are being uh possibly designated as a terrorist group in the united
00:12:30.340 states as well as that there has always been some violent uh events and violent engagements they've had
00:12:37.060 at protests across north america including in canada as recently as a week and a half ago at christy pits
00:12:43.620 in toronto so um i think absolutely there's going to be a load of organizations that should
00:12:49.940 receive the public scrutiny but whether or not the minister of heritage stephen gobo who is probably
00:12:54.820 that one of the most leftist leaning individuals in the liberal government today would take action
00:12:59.860 i think it's a little bit far beyond uh taking action uh of course montreal like you said not only
00:13:06.180 received 47 000 in 2020 but received subsequent additional grants uh other media organizations
00:13:12.900 receive similar amounts uh larger amounts when it comes to other forms of financial support through
00:13:19.220 covid we saw with the wage subsidy so i i definitely don't think uh actual funds are
00:13:24.500 going to have actual action will happen overall um and i would be very surprised if any funds were actually
00:13:31.140 withdrawn uh from called montreal that's it for today folks thanks for tuning in you can stay on top of
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