Juno News - February 27, 2020


The illegal blockade protesters legitimately think their actions are justified


Episode Stats

Length

6 minutes

Words per Minute

194.04613

Word Count

1,245

Sentence Count

10

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary

In this episode, I talk to two of Canada s leading environmental activists and Mohawk warriors behind the anti-oil sands blockades and the protests that have been taking place across the country since the beginning of the week. We talk about the ideology behind the protests, and the people who are on both sides of the issue.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 One thing that I've really learned these past few days as we've watched these
00:00:08.440 blockades, protests, and general hashtag shutdown Canada activity try and bring
00:00:14.040 our economy to a halt is that one should never underestimate the power of strong
00:00:19.020 ideology. What do I mean by that? Well I've spoken to two of the leading
00:00:23.600 activists who are behind sort of two different, although not mutually
00:00:27.440 exclusive sides of all these protests. I spoke to one of the leading climate
00:00:31.120 justice activists in the country and I spoke to one of the big Mohawk warriors
00:00:34.640 in the country behind those Belleville blockades we saw and I thought there was
00:00:38.960 an interesting component to both of those conversations. The climate justice
00:00:42.980 activist was someone from Toronto 350. Now 350 is this much larger organization
00:00:48.920 that an American environmental activist put together a number of years ago and
00:00:53.060 these are these are pretty close to being the most alarmist out there. I don't
00:00:56.480 think they're as bonkers as the Extinction Rebellion people but they're
00:00:59.780 really up there in terms of their belief that we're gonna have imminent
00:01:03.020 destruction of basically the world as we know it in our lives if we do not do very
00:01:07.520 extreme aggressive action immediately. Shut down the oil sands entirely, all that
00:01:12.560 kind of stuff, force everyone into electric cars, windmills, all that jazz. They very
00:01:16.820 passionately believe it but I must say the gentleman I spoke to, he's really cool as a
00:01:22.100 cucumber and he was very serious and committed and calm about it and I think
00:01:27.560 one of the reasons why he was not shaken by anything that was happening because we
00:01:31.880 spoke at the time that there were arrests happening all across the country and and
00:01:35.720 lots of drama is that they're true believers. These are people who have sat down and
00:01:40.880 they really seriously believe that things are as dire as they are and that
00:01:44.600 their actions are entirely justified. Same for the Mohawk warrior gentleman I spoke to,
00:01:49.400 Andrew Brandt is his name and he was basically saying look we have a problem
00:01:53.420 here where First Nations people do not need to answer to crown laws and this is
00:01:58.180 all colonial settler stuff and so forth therefore yes we're fully within our
00:02:01.940 right to blockade this that and the other and he lays it out in a methodical
00:02:05.780 case I completely disagree with all of his all of the groundwork and that all of
00:02:09.740 the first principles he's using to come to those conclusions I think he's wrong and
00:02:13.420 many First Nations if not the majority of them disagree with him as well that does
00:02:17.640 not represent the views of First Nations but again very interesting to see
00:02:21.840 someone who's a true believer in all of that and then the problem is on the flip
00:02:26.040 side the people who don't support these blockades who do not want their
00:02:30.100 commutes to be halted as they have been in Toronto people trying to get out of
00:02:33.760 downtown found they couldn't because activists were blocking go transit lines
00:02:37.800 and via rail blockade lines these are just regular decent probably
00:02:42.060 nonpartisan good-natured middle-class Canadians who are just saying yeah you
00:02:46.800 know I care about the environment I mean let's recycle and let's you know make
00:02:50.640 sure we're not polluting excessively and whatnot have some regulations and
00:02:54.360 restrictions but yes let's grow the economy and okay let's go have the old
00:02:58.380 sands happen I mean it matters for Alberta we care for our Albertan friends and
00:03:02.400 neighbors let's do all that jazz let's try and sort of find some compromise and
00:03:06.120 that is not an ideological position those are just regular folks out there who are
00:03:11.040 living their lives and are taking the moderate position in all of this now the
00:03:15.360 center I think is there I think that is still the center and it's kind of
00:03:18.720 heartening to see so many Canadians and so many First Nations people reject all of
00:03:24.420 this stuff but I think the reason why we are going to see continued blockades and
00:03:30.280 why these people have really had momentum on their side these activists is
00:03:34.680 because they've got the zeal they've got the passion they've got the true
00:03:38.440 ideological belief because regular folks just going home on their commutes who
00:03:44.200 have the very moderate and reasonable view of all it's you know be nice to the
00:03:47.500 environment while also grow our economy they're not out there protesting picketing
00:03:51.700 they're not they don't have finances underwriting their views from big American
00:03:56.260 organizations and so forth they're not the ones hammering on Justin Trudeau's door
00:04:00.120 badgering all these different people get on board with our agenda they're not the
00:04:04.200 ones with the ask that's the problem middle-class stability which is which
00:04:08.340 is what our country is all about that is not a demand that is kind of a natural
00:04:13.620 resting place for so many people and they cherish that but they don't do it in
00:04:17.680 this sort of very evangelical sense which is why I'm really worried unless we
00:04:23.460 kind of beat back some of this strong ideological zeal they're gonna continue to
00:04:30.000 advance on all of this they're gonna continue to feel that they have the
00:04:34.440 carte blanche to do what they want it's not enough to shut down the protests as
00:04:37.860 they emerge and of course that's what should happen if someone's blockading a
00:04:40.680 rail line you shut it down right away police move in immediately which they did
00:04:44.540 in Toronto the other day when those rail lines were blockaded kudos to them too
00:04:49.240 bad the OPP didn't do that in Belleville and too bad that didn't happen in other
00:04:53.240 places in British Columbia and Montreal more recently but that is just the
00:04:57.660 specifics the sort of day-to-day tactics the overall strategy is we have to push
00:05:02.820 back against the narrative and we're seeing that more and more from some
00:05:06.920 corners even the people who author those intergovernmental panel on climate
00:05:10.860 change reports that do say we have a problem on our hands they're coming out
00:05:14.000 and they're saying Greta Thunberg AOC sorry but you're kind of
00:05:19.200 overshooting right now and we wish you just kind of calm down and step back a
00:05:23.100 little bit the rest of us need to do that now conservatives need to do that
00:05:27.600 more the conservative leadership race needs to push back against this really
00:05:31.540 alarmist agenda that's happening from a lot of climate activists because their
00:05:35.460 ideological zeal that's one that's taken up a lot of space getting a lot of the
00:05:39.780 airtime and sort of giving a free pass to a lot of the antics they're doing
00:05:43.380 that's why it seems they have the wind at their sails even though there aren't
00:05:47.460 really that many of them but it's why when Greta Thunberg comes here to do her
00:05:52.360 events in downtown Toronto and elsewhere you get tens of thousands of people
00:05:55.920 showing up behind them they go aren't these just decent moderate people what
00:05:59.460 are they doing beside this fire and brimstone roadshow that is just not not
00:06:04.080 a balanced event to be attending so it's time to push back not just when it comes
00:06:10.260 to police shutting down barricades but to push back on the underlying philosophy of
00:06:15.000 all this to push in the other direction tell everyone let's calm down and let's
00:06:18.960 cool our jets and talk a bit more reasonably about all of this