Juno News - April 27, 2022


Standing up against the corporate media’s social justice agenda (Ft. Jamil Jivani)


Episode Stats

Length

37 minutes

Words per Minute

178.4515

Word Count

6,661

Sentence Count

293

Hate Speech Sentences

12


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 The corporate legacy media fires yet another journalist who refuses to comply with the
00:00:05.480 woke left-wing ideology. I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.
00:00:20.820 Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning into the show. So it seems like an all too familiar
00:00:25.260 story. The legacy media fires a bright and up-and-coming journalist for the crime of not
00:00:31.120 being woke enough. If you refuse to go along with the corporate media's social justice agenda,
00:00:36.160 if you fail to comply with the left's rigid, regressive, anti-scientific dogma, you very much
00:00:42.060 run the risk of losing your job. Now this is true in all sorts of sectors. I've heard of friends who
00:00:46.880 work at big banks who are required to put their preferred pronouns in their bio. Yes, you have to
00:00:52.480 tell the public whether you are a he or a she, as if they wouldn't be able to tell from your name
00:00:57.320 and your photo. And here at True North, we've reported about how government workers are now
00:01:01.460 often forced to attend so-called anti-racist training, which is usually just filled with
00:01:06.200 racist nonsense about white people being universally oppressive and irredeemably bad. The woke mind
00:01:12.620 virus, as Elon Musk aptly calls it, has infected just what every company in corporate Canada,
00:01:17.700 but it seems to be the media that is hardest hit. There are anti-conservative purges happening in
00:01:23.660 editorial sections and managerial rooms across the country. Among the legacy media, I found that this
00:01:29.620 is particularly true in the world of talk radio. So talk radio used to be a medium that was dominated
00:01:34.840 by conservative voices and conservative ideas, but that has dramatically changed in the past decade.
00:01:40.240 We used to hear passionate and heated criticisms of never-ending leftist dogma. Well, today's the
00:01:45.640 opposite. We hear cheerleading of woke dogma. We used to hear voices ranting against things like
00:01:50.360 political correctness and government overreach, rants against progressive forces undermining family,
00:01:55.780 tradition, and the values of our society. Well, today, talk radio, again, champions all those things.
00:02:00.980 It sounds completely different. It's soft. It's effeminate. It's progressive. It's unapologetically woke.
00:02:07.220 The most trusted conservative voices in the talk radio world are long gone. Voices like David Rutherford
00:02:12.440 and Andrew Lawton. They have been pushed off the airways. The ones that still remain like
00:02:17.100 long-standing conservative voice Charles Adler. I once worked for him. Well, he's done a complete
00:02:22.800 180. Adler used to be the voice of Canadian common sense. That was his tagline. That was what he based
00:02:28.220 his show around. Well, now it's the opposite. He's abandoned common sense and he's become a pro-Trudeau
00:02:33.580 leftist voice cheerleading the liberal agenda at every possibility. It's unbearable to listen to. He
00:02:39.120 routinely thanks the government and he calls conservatives the enemy. That's someone who used to be
00:02:44.040 a strong conservative voice. Well, I guess he did what he needed to do in order to keep his voice on the
00:02:49.520 air. Well, today, I'm pleased to be joined by a conservative who did the exact opposite, a conservative who
00:02:54.880 refused to bend the knee. He refused to parrot the left's deranged woke ideology and he refused to be
00:03:00.460 muzzled by the corporate legacy media. I'm talking about Jamil Javani. So, Jamil, welcome to the program.
00:03:06.880 Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me, Candice.
00:03:10.560 So, for those who are not familiar with Jamil, this is the first time he's come on the program.
00:03:14.640 He's a former radio host and he is now a senior fellow for diversity and empowerment, I like that
00:03:19.880 title, at the McDonnell-Laurie Institute. He also sits on the Premier's Council on Equality and
00:03:24.740 Opportunity and is an advocate for community opportunities in the Ford government. Jamil used
00:03:29.940 to be the host of Tonight with Jamil Javani on News Talk 1010 here in Toronto, but he was recently
00:03:34.160 fired by Bell Media and iHeartRadio for refusing to parrot left-wing talking points. Jamil is a
00:03:40.720 graduate of Yale Law School, one of the best and most selective law schools in the world, and he's
00:03:44.640 the author of the book, Why Young Men? Rage, Race and the Crisis of Identity. So, Jamil, it's such an
00:03:50.560 honor to have you on the show. I know you and I talk, but this is the first time you've come on the
00:03:54.480 Candice Malcolm Show. So, welcome and let's talk a little bit about your background. So, what got you
00:04:00.400 interested in the world of media? I know you went to law school, you're a lawyer by training. Why did
00:04:06.240 you choose to go into media and not into law? Yeah, well, it's great to be with you Candice and,
00:04:12.000 you know, I've been a listener to the show for a while, so it's cool to be on with you. You know,
00:04:17.360 basically my interest in media came from doing advocacy work and activism on behalf of the
00:04:23.360 communities that I serve and that I have lived in. And, you know, I did about, you know, routinely
00:04:29.200 doing interviews and, you know, writing op-eds eventually turned into some relationships in
00:04:35.280 the media. And I think a tipping point for me was the summer of 2020. In particular, you know,
00:04:41.840 the Black Lives Matter protests, some of which turned into riots in the United States, were happening.
00:04:47.840 There was a church, a very famous and one of the oldest churches in Washington, DC,
00:04:52.720 that was burned down. You might remember, it's the famous church where Donald Trump took a picture
00:04:57.200 with an upside down Bible. And when that church was burned down, it just was very troubling to me
00:05:05.280 to see how everyone was pretending that this was somehow the will of Black people,
00:05:11.200 that Black people wanted churches burned down, that we wanted riots, that we wanted police officers being
00:05:17.760 attacked. I just, that is not the experience I've had as a Black person, both living in the United
00:05:24.080 States and in Canada. And it's also not what anyone who I worship with at church or who I see in
00:05:30.400 community centers, what anyone wants, regardless of their racial background. So it was very frustrating
00:05:36.640 for me to see that. And that's what made me kind of say, okay, maybe I need to spend a bit more time in
00:05:42.240 the media space, because there's got to be somebody to speak against this stuff. And to show that,
00:05:47.680 you know, the average working middle class Black family has the same political priorities as the
00:05:54.240 average working middle class family of any other race, white, Asian, Hispanic, whatever. And this
00:06:01.120 idea that the media is consistently sort of manipulating certain communities to be, in my view,
00:06:07.440 Trojan horses for a left wing agenda. I just think that needed to be, you know, rebutted.
00:06:14.560 And that's where the radio show came in, where I sort of said, okay, I'm interested in doing more
00:06:19.120 media now. And I had a radio show pitched to me and I said, okay, I mean, it's different than anything
00:06:23.760 I've done before. But at that point, I felt like my voice and frankly, the voice of the guests that I
00:06:29.200 wanted to bring on was necessary.
00:06:30.800 Amy Quinton It's so interesting. I want to go back to
00:06:33.520 that summer of 2020 episode, because it was such an interesting sort of turning point in retrospect,
00:06:39.840 right? You had COVID in full-fledged. Everyone was ordered to stay at home. It was a new, a new
00:06:44.880 edict that we're all sort of getting used to. We were told two weeks to flatten the curve. And then,
00:06:48.720 as we know, that turned into many, many months of lockdowns. And in the midst of all that, there was
00:06:53.040 this huge traumatic event that was captured on film, and it sort of captured the imagination of the entire
00:06:59.520 world. Talking about the death of George Floyd, the murder at the hands of a police officer in
00:07:05.840 Minnesota. And that kind of really powerful story exploded into just uncontrollable riots
00:07:17.040 all over the country. It seemed to me the media was really kind of cheering that on. They wanted to
00:07:21.600 undermine Donald Trump's authority. They knew that the election was coming up and they wanted to
00:07:25.600 paint the picture of a lack of stability and complete chaos under Donald Trump's watch.
00:07:31.680 I'm wondering from your perspective, how did things get so out of hand? And you said that the
00:07:38.000 demands of people and the actions of the rioters and the protesters, there's peaceful protesters mixed
00:07:43.760 in with the sort of chaotic rioters, was not the will of these sort of typical middle-class black family
00:07:49.760 community or black people. So how did that get so separated? And like, what do you think of the fact
00:07:57.200 that this issue of policing and police brutality aimed towards the black community sort of got so
00:08:04.560 separated from the best interests in protecting and ensuring stability and lawfulness in black communities?
00:08:12.320 Well, the unfortunate reality is that a lot of us who may be considered, you know, symbols of diversity,
00:08:21.760 whether it's black people, indigenous people, women, the LGBT community, often we get used by elite
00:08:29.680 liberals who have their own political agenda, whatever it may be at the given time, whether it's an attempt
00:08:36.160 to draw up voters, or whether it's an attempt to push forward a new policy framework, or increase corporate
00:08:43.600 power in a certain industry, a certain aspect of our lives, like big tech, for example, we get used.
00:08:51.600 And it's unfortunate because a lot of us do believe, and you know, it's, I don't say this dismissively,
00:08:58.240 a lot of us do believe that these liberal elites are the only way for our communities to have a voice.
00:09:04.560 And so we're all too willing to accept being manipulated and being used by them.
00:09:09.680 And I think that's what happened in the summer of 2020, which is, you know, the Democrats wanted to
00:09:16.000 get black voters in particular, but I think all sorts of voters angry, the Republicans angry at
00:09:23.600 Donald Trump so that they could count on their support in the 2020 election. And I also think that
00:09:29.760 a lot of corporations who benefited frankly, from pandemic policy, because they were big businesses
00:09:37.120 and small businesses, their competitors are being put out. And so embracing race politics became a way to
00:09:45.120 brand themselves as compassionate and thoughtful and caring, at a time where masses of people were
00:09:52.080 being locked down and big business profits were skyrocketing. So I really don't believe there's a
00:09:58.880 lot of heart for disadvantaged people of any race among these liberal elites. I think a lot of it is using
00:10:06.880 us as pawns. And I think the clearest example of that, as you mentioned, Candace, would be the way
00:10:12.560 policing has been dealt with in the last two years. The reason why what happened with George Floyd is so tragic,
00:10:19.760 in addition to him losing his life and his family having to mourn him, is that police are necessary
00:10:26.560 in all of our communities, but especially where children are exposed to crime. No parent wants
00:10:33.760 their son or daughter walking home from school and having to worry about a stray bullet hitting them.
00:10:39.280 So in those sorts of situations, police violence is doubly tragic, one because of the violence itself,
00:10:47.360 and two because it undermines a really important role for government services to have in creating
00:10:54.480 an even playing field for people who are living in an environment where crime may be a greater influence
00:11:00.880 over their public safety than in other places. And what we saw liberal elites do is instead of leaning
00:11:06.800 into that complexity and saying, okay, how do we try to solve this problem, so we can have safe streets,
00:11:12.240 but also make sure that police powers are used in safe and restrained ways. They decided to just
00:11:19.440 to make police the enemy. And we've seen homicide rates in many areas in the United States increase
00:11:25.840 dramatically since then, because liberal elites have created narratives and fan flames of division
00:11:31.920 between police officers and the communities that they serve. So if liberal elites have a heart for our
00:11:37.520 communities, if their genuine interest is in the betterment of black people, indigenous people,
00:11:42.320 women, LGBT, whatever minority group that are, or in the case of women, majority group that they're
00:11:47.520 claiming to have a concern for, I just think that outcomes would be different and policy choices would
00:11:53.840 be different. And I think that exposes, I think the real intention behind a lot of this so-called activism.
00:11:59.840 Well, it seems like there's so many contradictions, Jamil, in the left world, left-wing
00:12:05.040 worldview and ideology, because I'll just give you another example. You know, the left has also
00:12:09.920 been sort of championing this idea of aboriginal reconciliation and, you know, doing the similar
00:12:15.760 kind of routine where they look the other way when statues are torn down and churches are burned down
00:12:20.400 in Canada. And so they really pretend to take an interest in, you know, improving the lives of
00:12:26.480 First Nations people, while at the same time, they kill and cancel pipelines and projects that could
00:12:33.840 give jobs and give meaningful work to people in Northern communities. So while at the same time
00:12:39.040 as sort of pretending to champion the cause, the policies that they enact harm the potential of
00:12:46.880 working and having meaningful, you know, work in your life that enables you so much more growth,
00:12:52.320 I see the same kind of thing with Black Lives Matter. It's like, you know, the people on the left,
00:12:57.680 the spokespeople, the media, they pretend to champion Black causes, they put a Black square
00:13:03.440 on their Instagram. But then they also call for defunding the police. I know in Toronto, there was
00:13:08.800 a big issue that Toronto started a big expose on the issue of carding. And the idea that Black people
00:13:15.200 were disproportionately stopped by police, asked for their ID. And the idea was sort of the proactive
00:13:20.080 policing that they would go into neighborhoods that had higher crime, and just sort of keep the peace to
00:13:25.520 prevent crime from coming down the road. After the Toronto Star investigation, they stopped that
00:13:30.880 practice and looked into it. And maybe there was some disproportionate racial profiling going on.
00:13:35.200 But it's it's undeniable that the crime rate in Toronto raised went up after that. And we had more
00:13:39.840 murders in Toronto than in New York City, I think in 2018 or 2019. So it seems like a lot of the policies
00:13:46.240 that the left advocate for are actually worse off. I'm wondering if you can comment on that.
00:13:50.640 Well, yeah, so the police carding or street checks, it's called in some parts of Canada.
00:14:00.640 One of the reasons why it's a problem is that it allows for too much discretion on the part of police
00:14:06.400 officers to determine who is suspicious, who should be stopped, who should be questioned. And I think,
00:14:12.640 you know, as a conservative, I have a sensitivity to that. Because I think it can enable government
00:14:18.160 overreach into people's lives. But also as a black man, I have a sensitivity to it, because I experienced
00:14:23.440 those sorts of policies. And what it's like when a police officer just arbitrarily decides to treat
00:14:29.680 you like you've done something wrong when you haven't. So I understand the concern. And I don't
00:14:34.400 think it's it would be wise to dismiss why people get concerned about these sorts of policies. But to your
00:14:40.640 point about the Toronto Star, for example, what it exposes that when a problem is raised,
00:14:48.400 are people who sort of have a more nuanced balanced in my, from my perspective, more sophisticated
00:14:56.000 approach to trying to develop a solution, actually prepared to compete with the left wing narrative
00:15:02.160 that is going to sound the alarm and remove any kind of nuance in the discussion at all. And frankly,
00:15:08.080 misrepresent a lot of these communities, including many black families, as though we are anti police,
00:15:14.160 or we hate the police or don't understand how critical the police are, for us to have any sort
00:15:19.280 of equality of opportunity in this society. So, in my view, what the Toronto Star success is in shaping
00:15:28.160 perceptions of police officers in this part of the country, is a sign that we don't have people sort of
00:15:34.320 on the other side of the debate, well prepared to actually push back on the Toronto Star's efforts.
00:15:40.880 I can give you a very clear example of that. We had, in my view, one of the most talented judges in
00:15:46.640 Canada, Justice Michael Tullock, write a report in 2018 about police reform in Ontario. And a lot of his
00:15:54.400 recommendations are applicable in other provinces as well. And in that report, not once does a single
00:16:00.960 black community organization that he interviewed, not once does a single black mother or father that
00:16:07.280 he spoke with or indigenous mother or father in that report say the solution to any single problem
00:16:13.440 is defunding police officers. All of their concerns could probably summarize as mostly around training,
00:16:20.000 building better relationships, police and communities. That is what a black judge and all the
00:16:26.400 black and indigenous community groups he interviewed, that was their perspective.
00:16:30.960 Now, you would think that conservatives in power, whether it's the provincial government here in
00:16:35.760 Ontario, for example, might see that as an opportunity and say, okay, so these are actually
00:16:40.640 really reasonable, practical ways of addressing people's concerns about policing. We should get behind
00:16:46.400 that. It actually doesn't harm anyone. It doesn't take responsibilities or resources away from police
00:16:52.960 officers. In fact, it might lead to more resources for police officers. And yet conservatives sat on
00:16:58.640 that report for two years and did nothing. And then when the George Floyd thing happens, the left is
00:17:05.120 ready to push their agenda. And we had nothing to say in response, because our work, the work that was
00:17:11.200 done on behalf of the working middle class families that we should be thinking about and prioritizing
00:17:16.640 was just sitting on a shelf somewhere. So in my view, it's one, you know, we can certainly be
00:17:21.920 frustrated with the Toronto Star's alarmism or other examples of the left being really successful in
00:17:28.480 changing a conversation for the worse. But there's also tons of examples of conservatives just not
00:17:33.280 being ready to fight back and not being in a position to advance our own worldview. And we can't
00:17:38.640 blame anyone for that but ourselves. You're so true. You're so right. It's so true that conservatives
00:17:43.520 are constantly on the defense. And even when we have opportunities, like I would say that COVID presented
00:17:47.920 a golden opportunity for conservative governments to look at reforming our health care system,
00:17:52.160 something that conservatives have long complained about the rigid government monopoly of health care.
00:17:57.120 Well, here we have this opportunity where health care system is failing and a lot of Canadians are
00:18:01.840 noticing that. And rather than conservatives being proactive and trying to push forth their own agenda,
00:18:06.480 they're still sort of playing defense on the latest cultural issues with liberals. It's so,
00:18:12.480 so unfortunate, Jamil. I want to go back to the whole situation with you at Newstalk 1010 and what
00:18:18.640 happened there. So you said that you got approached and someone pitched a radio show to you in the midst
00:18:24.400 of this social situation that we were just commenting on. So tell us about your career with the radio
00:18:32.480 station, what your show was about, and how long you lasted on the air.
00:18:36.720 Yeah, so I was on the air for about a year and a half from summer 2020 until the end of 2021.
00:18:45.600 The person who was sort of directly above me in the very large bureaucracy that is Bell Media,
00:18:52.560 he was great. He understood that I was not a sort of token liberal, that I was a black man with largely
00:19:00.320 conservative views on many issues, that I was not going to be a champion for Black Lives Matter,
00:19:05.680 that I had my own opinions, that I was going to bring on black folks as guests who are not going
00:19:11.200 to be parrots for the liberal status quo. He knew all of that and he embraced it and he was a great boss.
00:19:17.200 But every single manager and executive above him was just like obsessed with trying to force some sort
00:19:26.800 of conformity on myself and on others on the air. And that was where a lot of the problems existed,
00:19:33.120 where it just felt like every day was an exhausting battle. You know, I knew anything I said was going
00:19:40.800 to be misinterpreted and I would be get some kind of weird email saying, real, you know, we heard
00:19:47.680 someone's upset about this. And I just, I just, it was like wearing me down over time. That year and a
00:19:53.440 half was brutal in terms of just not, I couldn't feel like I could just do my job and then go home. It was
00:19:59.520 like, I do my job and then I count down when someone's going to complain about what I've said.
00:20:03.840 Now let's keep in mind, what they're complaining about my opinions are held by the majority of
00:20:09.600 people in this country. I do not have fringe views on any topic. My views on the air and my political
00:20:17.360 opinions are informed by the reality that I grew up in an immigrant, mostly immigrant community.
00:20:23.840 I've worked, lived and worked in middle-class communities all across Canada and the United
00:20:28.560 States. I'm very aware of the challenges people face. And I want to raise a political conversation
00:20:36.560 that I think actually responds to the concerns of the average mom and dad in this country.
00:20:42.320 So they're upset with me because I am not taking these ivory tower liberal positions,
00:20:48.560 whether it's on things like identity, race, and gender, whether it's on class issues like unionization,
00:20:55.600 whether it's on the power of the state to punish people who come from communities that I think have
00:21:03.040 historical reasons for being hesitant to get vaccinated and trying to encourage some sort of
00:21:08.640 sympathy and empathy for those families. Like it was just so weird to live in reality
00:21:15.200 where most people either if they, even if they disagreed with me, the average person I interact
00:21:19.920 with at least can see the reasonableness and all the positions that I take. And yet in bell media,
00:21:26.720 these people who want to sell you the internet and cell phones who in theory should be responsive to,
00:21:33.520 you know, what the masses of people think and believe in their priorities and their concerns and
00:21:38.640 their debates wants to push absolute conformity on a lot of these issues on the air. And that's
00:21:45.120 that boiled over, uh, in Canada day last year, uh, where the day before Canada day on June 30th,
00:21:52.000 they wanted us to play a bunch of clips of people complaining about how racist Canada is.
00:21:57.040 They wanted us to go on the air and basically decry the country as racist. And I was just like,
00:22:02.400 this is not reality. Like I grew up in Brampton in a neighborhood that is mostly black and Sikh.
00:22:09.840 I never once heard people bad mouth the country. They may have issues with, uh, discrimination in
00:22:16.160 some cases or feeling like they're not getting an equal opportunity. Sure. But I've never once heard
00:22:21.760 people say, I wish I never came to Canada or I wish I could leave this country or wow, how terrible,
00:22:27.360 never once, never. And so the fact that they were trying to take their one black radio host and turn him
00:22:34.080 into a whiny white, uh, graduate student, I just was, I just refused to do that. And, uh, you know,
00:22:43.680 these white liberal executives, I think took, uh, offense to the fact that I was unwilling to do
00:22:50.560 what they asked. And I was very, as you could probably tell them hearing me out, very passionate
00:22:54.800 about opposing their pressure. And, you know, unfortunately it's an industry as you know,
00:23:00.960 well, uh, Candace full of people who are willing to bend the knee on everything, even when they
00:23:05.280 disagree privately, the media world in this country is like a giant country club where people are afraid
00:23:11.920 of offending their overseers because they may get kicked out. And because of my background as a lawyer,
00:23:18.400 because I work in policy and activism, I don't need the media. And so I was not willing to let
00:23:24.880 these people manipulate me into thinking I'll have no career unless I do what they say. It's
00:23:29.760 just not a position I was willing to accept. And I think that more than anything is what led to them
00:23:34.400 terminating me was they realized, you know, they've got someone who might set a bad precedent. If other
00:23:40.640 people in the industry look at me and say, Oh, you can have a career while like saying what you believe
00:23:45.760 and standing up for yourself, we can't have that. So they tried to make an example out of me. And I
00:23:50.480 think they thought they could, you know, uh, incentivize me with money or with additional job
00:23:56.160 opportunities to prevent me from telling the truth of what happened. But I was, I'm not willing to sign
00:24:02.160 an NDA. I'm not willing to take their, their bribes. I'm going to tell the truth. And, uh, you know,
00:24:08.080 I know they're upset about that, but that's what happens when you, uh, treat people this way. You
00:24:12.640 know, they try to dehumanize conservatives. Well, we're going to force them to recognize
00:24:16.800 our humanity. It's, it's so there, there's so much irony in, in that story, Jamil, because they hired
00:24:22.960 you, uh, to comment on a very public social situation that was going on with George Floyd
00:24:27.920 and black lives matter. And then they wouldn't let you have your own voice. They wouldn't let you say
00:24:32.800 what you wanted to say. They tried to pressure you. So you had white liberals pressuring a young
00:24:37.440 black radio host to, to, to, to repeat a certain type of, of ideas. And it's like, do they not
00:24:44.080 realize how sort of out of touch and, uh, propagandistic they are? It's really, it's really
00:24:51.040 wild. I wonder, I know that you, uh, you, you said you started in radio in 2020. So you, you might not
00:24:57.040 have known what the industry was like sort of back in the day, but when I, when I was growing up, I
00:25:01.120 remember my dad would always listen to the news talk, uh, radio station in Vancouver. And it was,
00:25:05.600 it was right wing. That was, that was what talk radio used to be. It was, uh, you know, people
00:25:10.800 talking about how they wanted government, smaller government, and basically to be left alone by
00:25:16.080 government. And that was sort of the theme that, that I would constantly hear. When do you think
00:25:19.680 that started to shift and when did this sort of, you know, woke, uh, dogma and, and, and the necessity
00:25:26.880 that everyone had the exact same opinion, uh, when do you think that started to take over and, and what was
00:25:31.360 causing that? Well, one of the, one of the, a couple of things are happening here. So one
00:25:36.960 of the big issues is that, uh, too much, too many media outlets in this country are owned by a very
00:25:43.600 small number of people. So bell media owns CTV news. They own a bunch of radio stations across the
00:25:50.640 country. They own TSN. They own a lot of media outlets. So even though, you know, the average consumer
00:25:56.960 may see these different brands at the end of the day, they're controlled by the same people.
00:26:01.360 And what that means for us as Canadians and it living in a democracy is that a small board of
00:26:07.600 directors, a small C-suite set of executives get to decide what is politically acceptable on these
00:26:15.520 outlets and what isn't. So the centralization of corporate power over the media is a big part of
00:26:22.000 what's gone wrong here, because what you have in the case of bell is the same company deciding what
00:26:28.080 is politically correct on the radio or on television is also a very risk averse company trying to sell
00:26:35.040 you the internet and cable services and cell phones. So they're taking a mindset of selling you products
00:26:44.400 and applying that same corporate philosophy to the media, which I think the average Canadian would say,
00:26:51.360 we'd love it if our media were independent enough to actually criticize big corporations.
00:26:57.200 What if bell media is doing something that's harming the country? Like, for example, bell media as a
00:27:02.880 corporation takes positions on political issues like, for instance, systemic racism. And then now
00:27:11.360 it spreads that philosophy and how they want to talk about racism and race on all these media platforms.
00:27:18.880 That seems like something journalists should be talking about. Do we want corporations promoting
00:27:23.520 their political philosophy from the top of a board of directors all the way on down through its media
00:27:28.720 platforms? We don't talk about that. The other issue that comes from a bell media's concentration of power
00:27:35.680 is we know that Canadians are charged more than almost any other country in the world, very high rates
00:27:41.120 for cell phone services and for internet services. Bell media just raised its prices a few months ago.
00:27:48.480 That seems like something Canadians might want the media to report on. Should we be concerned? Should
00:27:53.200 journalists be talking about why is it that Canadians have to overpay for these things? Why is it that it's
00:27:58.720 becoming increasingly difficult for the average family, especially during a time like this, where
00:28:03.680 everything's becoming more expensive? Why is it that we shouldn't be making these things more affordable,
00:28:08.160 especially by the way, when the government's going to force your kids to stay home and take classes
00:28:14.320 online? Why is it now that Bell gets to raise the price of the internet while more parents actually
00:28:20.880 need the internet to give their kid a fair education? These are all questions that you would want a fair and
00:28:27.280 independent media to be exploring. And yet you see very little coverage on these issues. So I think that's
00:28:33.040 one big problem is the corporatization and the centralization of corporate power in our media.
00:28:39.520 Another issue, though, I would say that that comes out of this is a generation shift. And this is
00:28:45.840 something that I think is really important for people to understand. There is an older approach to
00:28:51.840 conservative politics that I think is still welcome on a lot of these platforms. And what I mean by that is, if you come out on the
00:28:59.520 radio or on TV and say, we should be cutting taxes, and I'm really mad at Justin Trudeau, because he's not
00:29:06.640 cutting taxes, that kind of conservatism is still embraced. Because frankly, a lot of these liberal
00:29:12.240 executives, they also want their taxes cut, they talk a big game, but they want to save money too. But what
00:29:17.840 the kind of conservative politics that I would say is of our generation, Candace, where you're seeing, you know,
00:29:23.520 millennials, Gen Xers, Gen Zers talking about things like race and gender, and being, you know, and having a
00:29:31.280 clear view that is different from liberal orthodoxy, or talking about inequality, and what we do about the
00:29:38.080 fact that, you know, very small number of people got very rich during the pandemic, that big tech power is
00:29:46.080 growing and accumulating at an unprecedented rate. These are the kinds of issues that I think younger
00:29:51.520 conservatives are more inclined to talk about. These are the kinds of things I talked about on my show.
00:29:56.320 And they have a very strong problem with that. So they would love it if they could trot out,
00:30:02.480 you know, elderly people to repeat talking points from the 1980s, because then they can caricature
00:30:09.440 conservatives, they can say, Oh, these people are out of touch, they don't know what's going on in the
00:30:13.520 world right now. That's the kind of conservative they would like. And frankly, you can see even some
00:30:19.120 politicians that that mirror that approach to politics, get a lot of support from the Bay Street
00:30:24.560 type of crowd. But if you are bringing a different perspective, one that might actually challenge
00:30:30.080 these folks, it's Yeah, it's gonna be a tough battle. And I think that's, that's a big part of
00:30:34.960 what's changed in the media landscape. Well, it's so true, because there's always a certain brand of
00:30:40.080 conservative that wants strange new respect from the media. And I see it sadly, too often with conservative
00:30:45.600 politicians, well, they'll, they'll present themselves as being socially liberal, but fiscally
00:30:51.200 conservative, as if that's the sort of acceptable combination in the media, where you're completely
00:30:57.360 right, the the cultural battles of our of our time are really the defining issues. And and that's,
00:31:03.120 those are the ones that certainly the media and too many conservative politicians shy away from not
00:31:08.000 talking about social issues, I'm talking about cultural issues. And I actually feel Jamil that there's
00:31:12.640 a bit of a turning point, like the left has had a dominance for the last I don't know, 20, 30, 40,
00:31:20.000 50 years when it comes to social progress, right, that the left has pushed its ideas through academia,
00:31:25.920 through the media, through corporations, a big business, every everywhere you look, the left is
00:31:31.680 is gaining ground. But I think I think they've gone too far. And there's a couple of big examples,
00:31:37.280 you see Ron DeSantis, the governor down in Florida, really pushing back against Disney. And it looks
00:31:42.400 like, you know, having having a victory in terms of, you know, pushing through legislation that
00:31:47.840 protects parents from their children being indoctrinated with the gender ideology in school,
00:31:53.280 you know, Disney pushing back, and then Disney losing their special status that gives them special
00:31:58.160 tax and, you know, exemptions from regulations. So on the one hand, that that cultural battle is being
00:32:04.400 fought out, and I think won by conservatives. And on the other hand, you have Elon Musk successfully,
00:32:09.600 it looks like buying Twitter and saying, I'm going to recreate Twitter to be what it was supposed to be,
00:32:13.920 a free speech platform. So I'm wondering if you can comment on these on these sort of victories that
00:32:19.200 conservatives have been having, whether you think that there is a shift and a turning point, whether
00:32:23.280 you would categorize these as victories, or if it's too soon to tell, what are your thoughts?
00:32:29.120 Well, I think you're right that there is a pushback mounting. It's becoming more commonplace to see
00:32:34.960 people, you know, acknowledge like this has gone too far, this, this woke political movement,
00:32:40.880 however you want to label it, I think it's becoming increasingly common for people to feel more
00:32:45.920 comfortable saying what they probably believed two years ago, but didn't know how to say without
00:32:50.880 potentially risking their jobs, their reputations. So that is a good measure, I believe, of pushback
00:32:57.120 growing is just seeing it be more commonplace for people to express dissent from this very well-funded,
00:33:05.120 well-financed political movement. Where I'm a little bit concerned is with, you know,
00:33:11.200 with someone like Ron DeSantis, I think he's on the right track in terms of establishing some
00:33:17.760 safeguards for how power is used in our society. I don't see the Elon Musk thing really being an
00:33:25.600 example of that, like it's really just switching from one center of power to another, maybe he'll use it
00:33:31.440 in a way that's more pro-free speech. But even Jap Dorsey's comment on this is that he doesn't really
00:33:37.760 believe that Twitter should be a company, a private company anymore. He said that and he said if it's
00:33:43.280 going to be a private company, he's glad Elon Musk is in charge, but he doesn't believe that it should
00:33:48.480 be a private company. And I tend to agree with that. And I think Ron DeSantis' views are in line with that,
00:33:54.960 too. Now, I don't know if that means it should be considered a public utility. Some of these
00:34:01.120 big tech firms, you know, I'm not super confident that's the solution either. But broadly speaking,
00:34:06.960 I do think that we need some sort of regulations in place. And this is what Ron DeSantis has done well,
00:34:12.160 just to make sure that power accumulating in the private sector is going to have some checks and
00:34:17.840 balances the same way conservatives rightfully want power in the public sector to have checks and
00:34:23.680 balances. So from my view, that should be the ultimate goal. And any change that happens that
00:34:29.680 doesn't increase accountability on powerful institutions probably could be a good first
00:34:35.120 step, but probably is not where we should be hanging our hats, I think.
00:34:38.800 Well, it's interesting because we talk a lot about how corporations, especially big tech,
00:34:42.960 they are more powerful in countries. And we see examples of that time and time again,
00:34:46.160 but they're not governed by anything remotely like a constitution. So there's no, you know,
00:34:51.040 transparency or public disclosure in terms of how the algorithm works. You have no idea
00:34:55.280 why you're not getting the same kind of reach as you might have before. It's completely secretive.
00:35:00.960 And then when it comes to protecting free speech and freedom of association and, you know, the right to
00:35:08.880 have a platform, essentially the right to speak in the public, you know, they'll just erase your
00:35:14.080 account and disappear you without any kind of, again, transparency or due process. So it seems
00:35:19.040 like it is a bigger challenge than just who's at the helm. However, I think I can't help but feeling
00:35:25.760 like that we're reaching this cultural turning point where the left has just pushed us too far
00:35:31.360 in so many ways. And it's been adopted by all of the sort of elite, fancy people that hold the same
00:35:36.080 opinion that we're starting to see a bit of a pushback. Maybe that's too optimistic on my behalf,
00:35:43.200 but it's starting to feel like maybe there's a cultural turning point happening. I'll give you
00:35:48.160 the last word to give your thoughts on that. I certainly hope you're right, Candace, that there's
00:35:54.640 a cultural turning point. And I think you've given some great examples of where we have reason to be
00:35:59.520 optimistic. The only thing I would say is that this is a consistent sort of up and down, ebb and flow.
00:36:07.200 And really what conservatives need to do, in my view, especially in Canada, is build institutions,
00:36:13.600 whether it's media organizations and policy organizations like True North, whether it's think
00:36:19.360 tanks or even businesses, whatever realm of society you're in, having institutions that are going to be,
00:36:26.480 you know, steadfast in adhering to conservative principles and making sure that the ebb and flow
00:36:33.440 doesn't leave conservatives without a place to have our voices heard, to make our concerns known
00:36:39.520 to the public, and most importantly, to develop solutions on how we might make the world a better
00:36:44.240 place. Ivan, we need those institutions, and I don't think we should outsource that to Elon Musk.
00:36:50.160 So my hope is that we all just keep, you know, fighting the good fight and building the kind of
00:36:54.640 institutions that can do right by, you know, the working middle class in this country.
00:36:59.760 Oh, that's such a good point. All right, Jamil, thank you so much for joining the show. It's
00:37:03.040 really been great to have you on. I look forward to having you on again. Thank you so much for
00:37:07.040 joining us. That's Jamil Javani. I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.