Juno News - Smith calls out the CBC

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel. I hope that you

00:00:13.940 guys had a great week so far. We're going to style the show a little differently today because

00:00:17.620 I want to spend a lot of time talking about one story. But before we get into that, here's today's

00:00:22.720 topics. Daniel Smith has called the CBC's reporting defamatory and asked them to retract it and

00:00:28.480 apologize. We're also going to be taking a look at the Premier's proposal for a Sustainable Jobs Act

00:00:34.140 to replace Trudeau's just transition proposal. The Alberta government has a plan to increase

00:00:40.300 rural health care physicians. And I have an exciting announcement about the Freedom Convoy.

00:00:46.560 All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup. Okay guys, let's start with the biggest

00:00:52.060 story in Alberta this week. I'm sure you guys have already seen some of this online. I want to dive

00:00:56.160 into the details with you here now. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is calling a CBC News article

00:01:01.940 which alleged that staff in her office emailed Crown prosecutors challenging their assessment of

00:01:07.580 the Coutts border blockade cases defamatory. And she's asked CBC to retract the story and issue an

00:01:14.020 apology. We talked about the story a little bit last week in which CBC News relied on anonymous sources

00:01:19.780 to make their claims. After publishing the story, CBC issued an update saying the reporters who had

00:01:25.940 written the story had not seen the emails in question. In response to the story last week, Smith said she

00:01:31.560 had no knowledge of such emails, but had the Civil Service undergo a review of emails received and sent to

00:01:37.080 Crown prosecutors anyways. On Monday, that review found no evidence of emails sent between Alberta Premier

00:01:43.140 Daniel Smith's office and Crown prosecutors. CBC reported that staff in Smith's office sent those

00:01:49.320 emails in the fall. Again, they did not name their sources out of fear that those sources could lose

00:01:54.060 their jobs. In a statement released this week, Smith called the allegations, quote, baseless. She said,

00:01:59.840 quote, the Premier calls on the CBC to retract its outrageous story. And further, that the CBC and the

00:02:06.600 official opposition apologized to the Premier, Premier's office staff, Alberta Crown prosecutors,

00:02:12.960 and those in the Alberta Public Service for the damage caused to their reputations

00:02:16.800 and that of Alberta's justice system. In an email to me earlier this week, CBC head of public affairs,

00:02:23.260 Chuck Thompson, said the CBC stands by its reporting and as such have no intention of retracting it.

00:02:29.180 He said, quote, as is our practice, we gave the Premier and her office an opportunity to react

00:02:34.660 and we included that response prominently in the story, including the sub-headline. The CBC also

00:02:40.380 doubled down on its reporting, with another story also released on Wednesday, the same day the Premier

00:02:45.340 issued that very strong statement. In its second story, which also relied on anonymous sources,

00:02:51.520 the CBC said Smith had been pressuring Tyler Shandro, Alberta's Attorney General, to drop COVID-19

00:02:57.760 related cases. Smith has said publicly a couple times that she's asked Shandro to consider on a regular

00:03:03.080 basis, whether it's in the public interest to pursue charges related to COVID-19. But she said that

00:03:08.940 communication has always been appropriate and made through the proper channels. Sources allege that those

00:03:14.820 conversations went beyond consideration and veered into pressure about dropping COVID-19 related charges.

00:03:21.620 One source told the CBC, quote, they're constantly pushing. I would interpret that as pressure.

00:03:26.560 Shandro's office denies that Smith issued direction on COVID-19 related cases. And as I mentioned, the Premier

00:03:33.580 also denied the allegations. She said, quote, the CBC's allegations and insinuations to the contrary are,

00:03:40.760 once again, baseless. Okay guys, so I don't normally do this, but I'm going to give a little analysis on what I

00:03:46.460 think about the story, mostly because it is my industry. So for starters, I don't think there's anything wrong

00:03:51.440 with relying on anonymous sources in stories, but I think that the story is unique. Because after the

00:03:56.800 first story was written, the civil service, crown prosecutors, and Daniel Smith's office said it

00:04:01.120 wasn't true. In this specific story, because there are so many parties coming out and denying the

00:04:06.200 allegations made in the story, I think there is a burden of proof on the CBC to provide more evidence

00:04:10.980 to its claims. And nowhere in the story do they say how many sources did they speak with. Is it one? Is it

00:04:16.720 four? CBC then did not retract its story after the review came out saying no such emails were found.

00:04:22.340 And instead, as I mentioned, they doubled down and wrote another story. Now I found this a bit

00:04:27.280 incredulous because there are already so many doubts in the first story that they publish, and it seemed

00:04:31.380 to be lacking hard evidence. This is where you can run into issues using anonymous sources. And again,

00:04:37.040 this is where CBC needs to show their homework and say that they've seen more evidence than just talking

00:04:41.200 to people, because people lie. Especially when someone is an anonymous source of the story,

00:04:45.380 they're being entirely protected. It's also worth noting that even within the government,

00:04:49.220 Daniel Smith has enemies. Even within her own party. You guys are very familiar with the fact

00:04:54.080 that the United Conservative Party only merged a couple of years ago from the Wild Rose and the

00:04:58.420 Progressive Conservatives. Of course, Daniel Smith comes from the Wild Rose side of that party,

00:05:03.240 but the Progressive Conservatives held the balance of power within the United Conservative Party

00:05:07.240 and within the Alberta government for years prior. So even within the UCP, there's factions that are

00:05:12.480 vying for power, and I think that needs to be taken under consideration when you're talking to

00:05:16.160 anonymous sources that there are going to be people who have an agenda. I would just close by saying

00:05:21.260 that if any evidence is found to support the CBC's stories, either of them, it's going to be a big

00:05:25.780 problem for the Smith government, especially headed into an election. She has really staked her

00:05:30.100 reputation on saying the allegations are untrue at this point, even going so far as to call the CBC's

00:05:34.800 reporting defamatory. Okay guys, moving into our next topic. Alberta is no longer projecting a shortage of

00:05:40.940 healthcare aids, and its projected shortage of nurses is halved. That follows investments into

00:05:46.780 post-secondary education to open more spaces for people hoping to study in those industries.

00:05:51.820 Speaking from Calgary this week, Advanced Education Minister Demetrius Nicolaitis said more needs to be

00:05:56.500 done to encourage healthcare workers in rural areas. He announced a $1 million project to explore

00:06:02.040 the development of two regional healthcare facilities in Lethbridge and Grand Prairie.

00:06:06.160 Our two established medical schools at the U of A and the U of C will lead the planning effort

00:06:11.640 to explore a new model that will ultimately increase training of rural physicians. This includes

00:06:21.080 exploring the feasibility of delivering training through the regional health centres in Lethbridge

00:06:27.140 and Grand Prairie as I noted. This plan would also propose and detail hands-on learning opportunities

00:06:35.620 to be delivered and made available in these regional training hubs. We know that these types of

00:06:42.180 opportunities lead to greater recruitment and retention of healthcare workers. Research shows very clearly

00:06:51.220 that when students train closer to home, they are more likely to stay in that region throughout their

00:06:59.820 entire careers. Danielle Smith is proposing a sustainable jobs alternative to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's

00:07:06.160 Just Transition proposal, which she said would face irrepressible opposition from Alberta.

00:07:11.840 The federal government has yet to table its Just Transition legislation, but it said it will be a

00:07:16.120 priority for them this spring. In an open letter, Smith said Alberta has reached a crossroads

00:07:21.220 in its relationship with the federal government. She wrote, quote,

00:07:24.440 We can continue with the endless court challenges, legislation to protect jurisdictional rights,

00:07:29.240 and inflammatory media coverage over our disagreements. Or, as is my strong preference,

00:07:34.280 Alberta and Ottawa can work in partnership on a plan that will signal to all Canadians and investors

00:07:39.160 from around the world that our governments have cooperatively designed a series of incentives and initiatives.

00:07:45.140 In the past, the Premier has said Just Transition is social justice terminology that's meant to

00:07:50.300 phase out the coal industry. When Trudeau uses that terminology, she says he's appealing to an

00:07:54.900 extreme base. So, in her letter, she also implored the Prime Minister to drop the name Just Transition

00:08:00.460 and to call it the Sustainable Jobs Act instead. She wrote, quote,

00:08:04.280 All provisions of any forthcoming legislation will be designed to incentivize investment and job growth

00:08:09.800 in both the conventional energy sector as well as in emerging industries. Demonstrate that no provision

00:08:15.920 of the Act will be designed to phase out or reduce Alberta's conventional oil and natural gas sector and

00:08:20.980 workforce. The federal government has yet to respond to Smith's letter.

00:08:26.140 Okay, guys, and now I'm going to take a couple minutes to answer some of your comments from last week.

00:08:29.740 The question of the day last week was what did you think about Alberta Premier Daniel Smith's response

00:08:34.280 to the unvaccinated woman in Alberta who's been denied an organ transplant? She's now asking the

00:08:39.640 Supreme Court to hear her case. So, I played Daniel Smith's comments on the issue for you last week

00:08:44.100 and I'm going to take a look at some of your comments now. User Aslan is on the move, fantastic

00:08:47.860 name by the way, said, I'm not sure Daniel answered the question about the woman's removal from the

00:08:52.040 transplant list. I think it is unconscionable that medical people would remove her just because she 0.99

00:08:57.640 didn't want to participate in a gigantic trial of drug. No one knew what adverse reactions there

00:09:03.160 would be. Karen Icon wrote, Danielle must soft pedal controversial issues until she is elected. 1.00

00:09:09.800 Patience, everyone. And Nancy Chivers wrote, I think we ought to push on this woman's behalf.

00:09:15.180 We don't know her, but she matters. Okay, guys, and finally, I want to announce a big project that

00:09:19.780 I've been working on for most of last year, actually. My brother and I have been working on a

00:09:23.700 documentary about the Freedom Convoy. I was living in Ottawa at the time that it

00:09:27.500 happened and I had so much footage that I wanted to use in a productive way. So that is going to

00:09:31.920 be released on February 16th. We're very excited about it and I'm going to play the trailer for you

00:09:35.840 now. It became pretty clear these folks were not going to leave in a day or two. I think that people

00:09:44.140 were being told to be a lot more worried than the situation warranted. In fact, it was excessively

00:09:49.960 intimidating. People were coming out and supporting this because they knew they had to. And the potential

00:10:05.300 for destruction was huge.

00:10:10.760 So our original plan was to stay until all mandates were lifted.

00:10:17.920 The folks who lived in the downtown core were terrorists.

00:10:21.100 It was clear there was no justification.

00:10:40.320 Well, they really misjudged the moment.

00:10:43.580 I think that's going to be a big problem for the government.

00:10:45.240 It's clear that Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergency Act as a political tool.

00:10:58.540 If you're interested in hearing more about our documentary or supporting it,

00:11:01.520 you can find more information at freedomoccupation.ca.

00:11:04.600 Okay, guys, that's all I have for you today. Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:11:07.920 Have a great week and God bless.

00:11:15.240 God bless.

00:11:23.660 God bless.

00:11:24.500 Jesus friars. 0.87

00:11:28.540 Thank you so much for listening in.

00:11:32.260 Yeah.

00:11:32.600 God bless.

00:11:34.300 God bless.

00:11:34.780 God bless.

00:11:36.560 God bless.

00:11:37.720 God bless.

00:11:39.540 God bless.

00:11:42.280 God bless.

00:11:43.800 God bless.

Juno News - January 28, 2023

Smith calls out the CBC

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