Juno News - Smith threatens lawsuit against CBC

00:00:00.000 hey everyone welcome back to the alberta roundup i'm your host rachel emanuel i hope that you guys

00:00:16.260 are having a great week so far apologies for my exceptionally bland background this weekend

00:00:21.420 i traveled up to bonnieville for an event so i'm at the mercy of my hotel room and there's not a

00:00:26.440 lot to work with okay let's take a look at what we're going to be talking about today on the alberta

00:00:30.620 roundup alberta premier daniel smith's office has hinted at a possible defamation suit against cbc news

00:00:36.100 the alberta independence party has turfed former leader and controversial pastor art polowski

00:00:41.680 and there's some new discussion on whether there will be electronic tabulators in the upcoming

00:00:47.240 provincial vote all that and more happening now on the alberta roundup okay guys let's take a look at

00:00:52.580 our first story here we're going to be spending a bit of time on this but this is not the first

00:00:57.120 time this story has made it into the headlines alberta premier daniel smith's office has hinted

00:01:01.660 at a possible defamation suit against cbc news following repeated stories about contact that

00:01:07.080 her offices had with justice officials regarding cases stemming from covet 19 and the coots border

00:01:12.920 blockade you guys probably remember the first of these cases broke back in january at the time

00:01:18.260 cbc news relied on anonymous sources to report that daniel smith's office had been in contact

00:01:23.060 with crown prosecutors regarding covet 19 and challenging their assessment of those cases

00:01:28.860 the premier's office denied those allegations and called the story defamatory a couple weeks later

00:01:35.280 there was another story this time that the premier's office had been inappropriately pressuring

00:01:39.420 her justice minister and her deputy about these covet 19 cases the premier said no that is not the case

00:01:45.860 and she said that she's been honest with the public that she has been in contact with her justice

00:01:50.840 minister to see if there's a reasonable likelihood of conviction regarding covet 19 cases you guys know

00:01:57.540 by now that danielle smith was no fan of restrictions stemming from the covet 19 pandemic and immediately

00:02:03.360 after winning the premiership she said she wanted to pardon those charged for breaching covet 19 restrictions

00:02:09.320 only a couple months later she backtracked on that promise saying she had learned that she didn't have

00:02:14.800 the same power that governors in the u.s had and that she was not able to grant clemency but legacy 1.00

00:02:20.340 media outlets have been following the story closely and it's once again back in the headlines this time

00:02:25.800 following a leaked call between alberta premier danielle smith alberta prosperity project leader dennis

00:02:32.240 maudry and controversial street pastor art palowski and the former leader of the independence party of

00:02:38.480 alberta on the call smith said she's been in weekly contact with quote prosecutors

00:02:43.460 regarding cases stemming from covet 19 and with palowski's criminal case

00:02:48.140 he has several cases stemming from his involvement with the coots border blockade where he went to

00:02:52.940 speak cbc's report argues that the phone call reveals that smith's conversations quote

00:02:57.840 with top alberta justice officials about pandemic related prosecutions were more frequent and specific

00:03:04.120 than she has admitted publicly now danielle smith's office was obviously given a heads up about the

00:03:09.760 cbc story and likely pressed for comment so she actually released a preemptive statement before

00:03:14.940 the cbc news story was even published in her statement smith said that neither herself nor anyone

00:03:19.940 in her office has been in contact with the alberta crown prosecution service and she said she's been

00:03:24.900 honest with the public that she's asked justice officials to help those charged with quote non-violent

00:03:30.140 non-firearms covid related charges in her statement the premier continued allegations to the contrary

00:03:36.260 are defamatory and will be dealt with accordingly now cbc had this leaked phone call weeks ahead of

00:03:42.280 everyone else but after art palowski was turned from the alberta independence party this week

00:03:46.740 a version of the phone call made its way to the alberta ndp who hosted a press conference on wednesday

00:03:52.900 and played the entire recording for the public on the call arthur palowski tells the premier he's facing

00:03:58.260 10 years in prison for his charges regarding the coots border blockade and he appears to blame the premier

00:04:04.740 for not following through on her earlier promises of clemency palowski faces charges of mischief for

00:04:10.440 allegedly inciting protesters to continue blocking the international border crossing in coots alberta

00:04:16.700 in 2022 he is also charged under the alberta infrastructure defense act with willfully damaging

00:04:24.060 or destroying essential infrastructure and he has a lengthy trail of charges stemming from the

00:04:29.460 covid 19 pandemic his recording with the premier came in january just weeks ahead of his february

00:04:36.120 court hearing in lethbridge smith explains to palowski in the recording quote once the process

00:04:41.580 is underway i can ask our prosecutors is there a reasonable likelihood of conviction and is it in

00:04:47.260 the public interest and i assure you i've asked them almost weekly ever since i got started here that

00:04:52.540 is consistent with what the premier has told the public she's been saying to justice officials behind

00:04:57.160 closed doors the premier also tells palowski multiple times that she is unable to intervene

00:05:02.540 in the legal matter rob anderson is the executive director of the premier's office and he has also

00:05:07.060 referenced multiple times on the call as a person who has been charged with speaking with justice

00:05:11.780 officials about these cases he also took to twitter to describe the cbc's reporting as defamatory

00:05:17.380 he wrote quote these ntp hacks are a disgrace to journalism how many more defamation lawsuits will be

00:05:23.980 settled using taxpayer dollars cbc head of public affairs chuck thompson told me earlier this week

00:05:30.440 the outlet has not been served legal notice as of yet he also said quote given we have been the lead

00:05:35.840 news service on this story it's not surprising cbc is garnering a lot of attention so my question of

00:05:41.740 the week this week is i want to hear from you guys the electorate is this story something that will be

00:05:45.860 influencing your ballot this may please comment in the video below and let me know if you think this

00:05:50.960 story is something that is resonating with voters okay guys moving into our next story here i know

00:05:55.780 that you guys are going to have a lot of thoughts about this one as well ontario reported the largest

00:06:00.620 share of residents ditching their home for alberta in 2022 you guys know these stories make me laugh

00:06:06.000 because i am one of those people that moved from ontario to alberta last year of last year's top 10

00:06:11.660 provincial migration patterns ontario found itself on the list six times each time as residents ditched

00:06:18.700 their home province for another a net of almost 23 000 ontarians moved to alberta last year marking

00:06:25.200 the highest provincial migration patterns of the year alberta was followed distantly by nova scotia

00:06:30.460 with just over 10 000 ontarians leaving for that province bc residents are also moving to alberta

00:06:37.240 following that about 9 000 ontarians moved to bc while a couple thousand manitoban and saskatchewan

00:06:43.000 residents also left for alberta this story comes shortly after the alberta government launched its

00:06:47.880 second iteration of the alberta is calling campaign which you guys know we talked about

00:06:52.480 already ontario premier doug ford said he's not a fan of probably because so many young people are

00:06:57.240 leaving his province okay guys moving into the controversy of the week the independence party

00:07:02.140 of alberta says it divided ways with controversial street pastor art pulowski because of his quote

00:07:07.560 divisive rhetoric and that the party wants nothing to do with a leaked phone recording between him

00:07:13.400 and premier smith pulowski was elected to head up the fledgling party in september but lasted just

00:07:18.480 seven months before the provincial board voted to remove him earlier this week party president dan

00:07:23.800 duggan said the party board knew that pulowski was controversial but wanted to give him a chance

00:07:28.980 because he's such a successful freedom fighter but he said that after just a couple short months

00:07:33.840 his rhetoric turned divisive and condescending he told true north quote i'm talking about pulowski

00:07:39.320 accusing alberta health services of intentionally killing people or the covid 19 vaccine being a

00:07:45.080 weapon he added quote i don't believe that the independence party of alberta was any more a good

00:07:50.080 fit for pastor art than art was for the independence party of alberta he needs a platform to be able to

00:07:55.560 share his passion and his message unfettered without any kind of structure that he himself has not

00:08:00.740 created he said that he had many conversations with pulowski about changing his tone but the pastor said he

00:08:06.680 refused to be quote stifled eventually duggan said the party decided to respond with more punitive

00:08:12.300 measures so on tuesday night the provincial board gathered and passed a motion to remove pulowski as

00:08:18.780 leader pulowski was not informed that the vote was happening until it had passed in a statement posted

00:08:23.900 to facebook pulowski said the board voted to remove him on his 50th birthday with the charges headed up by

00:08:29.560 a quote transgender secretary spearheading this attack he said the removal followed the board

00:08:35.780 consistently demanding he stopped speaking about god drag queen shows and abortion he wrote quote

00:08:41.820 a handful of directors decided to remove the leader that you elected and override your democratic voice

00:08:47.660 a sensorial top-down controlling corrupted lying and tyrannical organization

00:08:52.300 later on he added in conclusion i truly believe that this party has been infiltrated for a simple reason

00:08:58.380 we grew too big too fast and we had become a real tangible threat to the corrupted establishment

00:09:04.160 douggan said the decision to turf pulowski has been met with mixed results from party members

00:09:08.600 with some expressing their disappointment while others thanking the board for having the courage

00:09:13.680 to speak up moving into what we're watching in the weeks to come the alberta lawyer representing

00:09:18.220 albertans concern that electronic tabulators could be used in the upcoming provincial vote

00:09:22.340 says they are trying to ensure election integrity on monday alberta litigator layton gray of

00:09:28.420 graywalk spencer llp sent a letter to elections alberta saying he represents the many albertans who

00:09:34.120 don't want electronic tabulators used in the upcoming provincial vote gray said the intention

00:09:38.260 of the letter is to ensure that elections alberta hand counts the ballots and that it keeps all

00:09:43.700 ballots for three months following the provincial vote as stipulated under the alberta election act

00:09:48.020 he told true north quote so that's really the impetus for it it's just an expression of public

00:09:52.800 concern we want to make sure because this is really important and we're concerned that the result

00:09:57.740 that comes out of it is accurate and correct and done according to law in the letter he argues that

00:10:02.860 the alberta election act clearly intends for the hand counting of ballots the letter says quote any

00:10:07.440 directive to extend electronic voting machines to the entire alberta 2023 election would necessarily

00:10:13.400 impugn the integrity and reliability of its outcome gray said he hasn't yet received a response

00:10:18.760 from elections alberta and neither did i until just before i went to film this podcast i got an email

00:10:23.740 back from them and elections alberta confirmed that they plan to use tabulator for the advanced vote

00:10:28.480 only elections alberta said quote tabulators are an essential part of how we deliver vote anywhere

00:10:34.380 and without them we would need to sort hundreds of thousands ballots into electoral divisions before

00:10:39.740 counting bringing tabulators to the voting place increases awareness for electors of the technology

00:10:44.940 that is being used in 2019 all of the vote anywhere ballots were counted by tabulator but it was done

00:10:51.020 at a centralized location and delayed the full unofficial results by several days as i mentioned i only just

00:10:57.400 received the news that they had planned to use electronic tabulators in the upcoming provincial vote

00:11:01.760 for the advanced vote so i'm sure that i will have more to say on this next week as many of you have

00:11:07.280 expressed concern to me about the possibility of electronic tabulators being used at all okay guys and

00:11:13.480 before i move into my weekly comment roundup i want to issue a very quick correction last week i

00:11:17.840 accidentally said that finance minister travis taves came second last in the ucp leadership contest that is

00:11:23.300 of course not correct he came in second place out of a field of very competitive candidates so thank

00:11:28.740 you to one of my users who flagged that for me i'm sure most of you guys picked up on that mistake

00:11:33.360 right away but i just wanted to make sure that i corrected the record on that and my apologies

00:11:37.540 to mr tapes okay guys let's move into our weekly comment roundup now last week you guys commented about

00:11:44.060 the neps proposal to offer somali curriculum if elected government and you guys had a lot to say about

00:11:50.100 it user fred nicholson said last time i checked we live in alberta not somalia speaking the truth

00:11:55.680 2019 wrote we only have two official languages in this country teach newcomers that parents and

00:12:02.040 families can teach their language and culture and strategic media wrote every nationality in canada

00:12:08.020 has their own community they can learn their culture whatever is needed in there we have more

00:12:12.920 important issues to resolve than the ndp's wish list so there you have it my users are speaking truth

00:12:18.160 to the ndp who we can only hope listen to every episode of the alberta roundup okay guys that's

00:12:23.660 all i have for you today thank you so much for tuning in as always if you're able please consider

00:12:27.920 supporting independent media you can do that over at donate.tnc.news thank you so much have a great

00:12:33.620 weekend and god bless

00:12:48.160 yeah

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Juno News - April 03, 2023

Smith threatens lawsuit against CBC

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