Juno News - Shipbuilders slam BC Ferries China contract

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 0.72

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 0.99

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 0.82

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

00:13:40.180 new episodes every weekday by subscribing to the daily brief on itunes and spotify also while you're at

00:13:46.820 it make sure to hit us with a five-star rating and please leave a review

Juno News - September 26, 2025

Shipbuilders slam BC Ferries China contract

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