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

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 0.95

00:01:06.200 racist nonsense about white people being universally oppressive and irredeemably bad. The woke mind 0.96

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, 0.80

00:05:11.200 that Black people wanted churches burned down, that we wanted riots, that we wanted police officers being 0.97

00:05:17.760 attacked. I just, that is not the experience I've had as a Black person, both living in the United 0.86

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 0.99

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 1.00

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 1.00

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 1.00

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 1.00

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 0.98

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. 0.90

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, 0.95

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 0.99

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 1.00

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 0.51

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.

Juno News - April 27, 2022

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

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