Juno News - November 19, 2019The Candice Malcolm Show： Justin's journalists find a new target — Jason Kenney
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Summary
A federal judge s written decision emphasizes True North's huge victory for press freedom. Justin s journalists take a break from attacking Andrew Scheer so they can go after Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. The mainstream media pretend that Kim Campbell is still somehow relevant even though she isn t. Iran and Hong Kong are in protests and on fire, and Canadian leaders are missing in action.
Transcript
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A federal judge's written decision emphasizes True North's huge victory for press freedom.
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Justin's journalists take a break from attacking Andrew Scheer so they can go after Alberta Premier
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Jason Kenney. The mainstream media pretend that Kim Campbell is still somehow relevant.
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She isn't. And Iran and Hong Kong are in protests and on fire, and Canadian leaders
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are missing in action. I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.
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All right. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the podcast. A bunch of stuff I want to get through,
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so let's jump right into it. So a federal judge finally issued his written decision
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on the True North court case. So everyone who was paying attention and following along during the
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election, you will recall that True North had its journalist, Andrew Lawton, banned from covering
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much of the election campaign. First, he was banned from being on Justin Trudeau's press bus. He wasn't
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allowed to join the campaign. And then when True North filed an application through the government
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government to cover the leaders' debates, there was two leaders' debates, one in French,
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one in English. We followed all the rules, all the protocol, applied to be part of it.
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We were arbitrarily denied. And so we went to court. We issued an emergency injunction the day of the
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debate to ask a federal judge to look at the decision to ban True North to find out why we're
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banned and whether or not it was legal. Well, the judge ruled in favor of True North. Thanks so much to
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all of the support from True North Nation. We were able to crowdfund this last-minute lawsuit
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and we were victorious. Well, the written decision finally came out last week. And again, it was just,
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it emphasizes the huge victory for press freedom in Canada. Justice Zinn, he overturned the ban,
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allowed True North to attend. And it was really vindicating to True North as well as to the idea
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of press freedom, that the government doesn't arbitrarily get to decide who is and who isn't a
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journalist based on who they like. And the fact that it was True North and The Rebel, two conservative
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outlets that are very critical of Justin Trudeau, that raised the alarm bell. And I'm just so happy
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I find that decisions are lacking in discernible rationality and logic and thus are neither justified
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nor intelligible, wrote Justice Zinn. And he also says, absent any explanation as to the meaning to
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be given to the term advocacy. And given that the commission accredited some organizations that have
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engaged in advocacy, I am at a loss to understand why the commission reached the decision it did
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with respect to the applicants. So if you'll recall, when Andrew Lawton received the rejection letter
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from the debates commission, the reason stated was that True North engages in advocacy. That's not
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true. First of all, we're a journalism outlet. We are a charity that publishes a media site. So that's
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what TNC is. We're part of a charity. We don't do advocacy as part of that charity. And then also
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regardless, even if we did do advocacy, a lot of other media outlets in Canada do advocacy. A lot of
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other media outlets that were accredited to attend that debate, such as the Toronto Star, were also
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accredited. So Justice Zinn echoed what our argument was in the first place, which is that it's really
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arbitrary to ban these two organizations, ourselves and The Rebel, based on this criteria, as well as the
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fact that the criteria wasn't posted anywhere. So no one knew what it was that they were looking for
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beforehand. So this is really helpful. As our followers might know, the Trudeau government has
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also filed an appeal notice. So they might end up appealing this decision that was made. We're going
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to wait and find out what happens with that. Now, I just wanted to point out that there was a news
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story over at Black Locks Reporter, which is an investigative news site run by a couple of ex-journalists
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in Ottawa. And they spoke to a parliamentary press gallery official who contradicted a sworn affidavit
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that was submitted in the same court case. Pretty remarkable. The debates commission claimed that
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they consulted with the parliamentary press gallery on their decision to ban True North. Well, Black Locks
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found a contradiction in that. So it turns out that they didn't actually consult with the debates
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commission, that they hadn't actually had any meetings since June. So much for the idea that
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they were consulted on the decision in October to ban True North when they hadn't even had a meeting
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since June. So great reporting over there at Black Locks. Okay, let's move on. We know that the
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mainstream media, we know that Justin's journalists are always going to pick on conservatives. And we've
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seen it nonstop. They're going after Andrew Scheer on everything from his most personal religious
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beliefs to his positions on anything from spending to controlling the debt to foreign aid. You name it,
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they attack Andrew Scheer over it. Well, things are changing a little bit. And the mainstream media
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has a new target. And that is on Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. So Jason Kenney gave a pretty remarkable
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speech at the Manning conference a couple of weeks ago where he talked about his plan really to bring
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Alberta a more fair deal to fight back against Ottawa. And essentially what he laid out was this idea
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that Quebec gets all these special arrangements from the federal government. And Alberta doesn't. And so what
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he's kind of laying out his plan is to have more and more control run provincially by Alberta. And
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you know, this is the great thing about Canadian Federation is that we're incredibly decentralized
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country. And so yes, it's a huge regionally diverse country where the things that are good for folks in
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British Columbia might be very, very different than what's important for people in Quebec. And because
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of that, you know, we have these very strong provincial governments and a weaker federal government.
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That's how it should be. That's what makes Canada so strong. And so Jason Kenney is really just laying
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out the case. Given the recent federal election outcome, how there's absolutely no representation
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for the Liberals in either Saskatchewan or Alberta, and the really rough ride and the unfair deal that
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those provinces get in Confederation, it's only fair that, you know, the Premier of Alberta will speak
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up for the needs of the people of Alberta. And everyone knows that there's a huge movement towards
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sort of separation. And so Kenney's kind of trying to manage this all and addressing it all. I loved
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his speech that he gave. I just also like the idea that he gave a speech that he got up in front of
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the stage and really laid out his plan, laid out his vision, laid out his policies. He didn't just kind
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of, you know, backhandedly introduce these policies. He laid out his vision, which is incredibly helpful,
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especially for conservatives who are going up against a very biased media. Well, as would be expected,
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the mainstream media attacked Kenney in every way. We just saw editorials and articles across the
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mainstream media complaining about Kenney, saying that he's choking the flames of separatism.
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Here's the editorial over at the Globe and Mail. Jason Kenney is feeding the Wexit flame. He may not
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be able to control the fire, where they actually accuse him of basically being like the leader of
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the bloc party. We've got something over at the CBC. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney might be bilingual,
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but he needs to learn a new language. That's from Graham Tonson over there. You just kind of expect
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this reaction. You know, National Post did a pretty good job. They came up with these four charts that
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showed really the situation in Alberta and why people in Alberta are so frustrated, how Alberta
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pays Quebec's bills, four charts that shows how Alberta picks up the tab. We can go through these
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real quick here. Basically what they're just showing is how much of the equalization program is paid for.
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So when you see Quebec balancing its budget and Alberta having record debt, you need to keep
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it in the context. Look at how much Alberta spends in equalization. Look at how much Quebec receives,
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right? So it's not entirely a level playing field. And given the economic hardships that
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Alberta is going through right now, it's absolutely mind boggling that they're still contributing to this
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formula and that Quebec is still receiving. So I think people in Alberta have a very legitimate concern.
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There's a lot of reasons why they're upset right now. Canada has to do better. And instead of having
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all of these voices from Quebec and Ontario just continuing to pile on Alberta, pile on Kenny,
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throw all these accusations at him that are totally unfounded, it would be better off if the rest of
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the country just for once actually listened to Alberta and took a look at some of their concerns.
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And on a similar vein here, we have former Prime Minister Kim Campbell giving her opinion. You know,
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this is the problem. Kim Campbell is irrelevant. Kim Campbell speaks for nobody. She speaks for
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herself and that is it. But for some reason, the mainstream media pretend that she's somehow
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a conservative spokesperson or a great leader among conservatives. Well, let's just have a quick history
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reminder. Kim Campbell got absolutely decimated when she was Prime Minister. She was only Prime Minister
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for a few months and then she's not been in the federal scene for a couple of decades. So she's not a relevant
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person and she's pretty unhinged these days. If you follow her Twitter account, she has a sort of
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irrational hatred of Donald Trump. She feels the need to chime in and criticize him at every given
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opportunity. She takes low blows. She's just kind of contributing to the nastiness in politics,
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bringing it into Canada. But whenever the mainstream media needs a useful conservative,
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a useful idiot on the conservatives, they always go to Kim Campbell. Here's the thing. The media love
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conservatives so long as those conservatives are bashing other conservatives. So if you ever want
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to be a conservative that's like, you know, famous in the media or invited on all these shows, all you
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have to do is just absolutely go against what conservatives believe in and take swipes at them. And so
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we see Kim Campbell doing her usual schtick. Here's what she says about the Wexit movement,
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the Western separatism movement. Well, we're dealing with Wexit now. What's your opinion on that?
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Well, it's just nuts. I'm sorry. It's nuts. Why? Well, first of all,
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it's a dead end. What? You know, so Alberta is going to separate. So that's going to make it
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easier for them to get access to tidewater. You know, I mean, I'm sorry. Like again,
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she's just sort of like looking down her nose, mocking Albertans without really taking into
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account the considerations of what's driving this movement. Again, there are legitimate
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concerns or legitimate grievances. We shouldn't just dismiss them. You know, I think that maybe
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Alberta would have an easier time getting its oil and its resources to market if it was an independent
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country because then it would have recourses to fight against the provinces if they tried to block
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them. They could go to the WTO. They could go to international courts and demand that their products
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get to market the same way that landlocked countries all over the world in Europe, in South America,
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they do it too. So, you know, this idea that it's just a complete nonsensical idea, it shows that
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you're not really giving consideration to the arguments being made by those people. That's not helpful.
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Having Kim Campbell on pretending she's a conservative is also not helpful. Okay, finally,
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there is a huge civil rights movement happening in Iran right now. Dissidents are on the street.
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They have gathered. These are the biggest protests we've seen in years. And in some ways,
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it's really exciting to see these citizen journalists and these dissidents standing up for themselves
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towards an oppressive government, an Islamist regime that really, really just doesn't care about
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the people. So in some ways, it's really inspiring to see this. In other ways, it's just kind of sad
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and disappointing, especially watching the Canadian government and their response. The Trudeau government
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doesn't really know what to make of it. They haven't really said much. And I think what's even more
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disappointing is the fact that conservative leaders, including Andrew Scheer, have barely even
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acknowledged that these protests are happening, that they're bigger than ever. I think that a lot of
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Canadians used to look to conservatives to be the sort of principled voice on foreign policy,
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to stand up for dissidents, for people fighting for democracy, fighting for freedom all over the
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world. That is a position that should be filled by conservatives in this country. And so to see
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Andrew Scheer kind of remaining completely silent, it's a lot like the Hong Kong protests as well,
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which are still going on, still going strong in Hong Kong. Conservatives should be standing up for
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freedom and democracy all over the world. Canada should too. The Canadian government should do better
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and the conservatives should do better. So let's keep the people in Iran in our hearts and in our
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minds and hope that they do get the freedom that they deserve. And let's continue to call on
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conservatives and all Canadian leaders to do a better job standing up for freedom around the world.
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All right, I'm going to leave it at that. Thanks so much guys for tuning in this week. We will be
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back on Thursday with another podcast. Bye-bye.