Juno News - August 11, 2021


The legacy media covers for Justin Trudeau (again)

Topics
work to rule at customs
Mentioned
Justin Trudeau Peter Fitzpatrick Joe Biden
Why aren't the Conservatives ready for an election？ Journalists are misleading Canadians about vaccine hesitancy

Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

197.0

Word count

2,407

Sentence count

136


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The borders are open, and it is a chaotic mess, but you won t hear about that in the legacy media. In this episode, Candice walks you through her first hand account of the chaos at the border.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 The borders are open and it is a chaotic mess, but you won't hear about that in the legacy media.
00:00:04.660 I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:11.820 Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning in.
00:00:14.060 Now, if you get your news from True North, if you follow this program and you listen to it regularly,
00:00:18.640 you're probably not one of the people that's going to fall for a misleading headline
00:00:22.480 or a really sort of incorrect narrative being pushed out by the legacy media.
00:00:27.460 But sadly, too many Canadians still do get their news from the legacy media.
00:00:32.060 And so I think it's important when I see a series of headlines that are just wrong,
00:00:36.520 that it's still important to go through and really try to dissect it for the viewer,
00:00:41.980 especially when the conclusion that the legacy media is drawing is this sort of celebratory good news story
00:00:48.120 about Justin Trudeau and his government.
00:00:50.280 I'm talking about the news that happened over the weekend about the borders sort of finally opening up
00:00:55.380 after, what, 18 months of the land borders being mostly closed to tourism and visitors.
00:01:01.180 And the media was sort of celebrating that.
00:01:02.980 Well, I want to go back.
00:01:04.100 So two weeks ago when Trudeau first announced that this measure was happening,
00:01:07.380 it was met with two things that I think were very unanticipated and bad news for the prime minister.
00:01:13.680 So Trudeau announced that he was unilaterally doing this decision.
00:01:16.600 The first bad thing that happened was that U.S. President Joe Biden did not reciprocate that.
00:01:20.720 He wasn't ready.
00:01:22.100 He said he wasn't going to do it.
00:01:23.460 So you have this weird situation where Canada is saying, yes, we're going to allow Americans to come in.
00:01:27.780 But Americans haven't yet created that reciprocity to say that Canadians are welcome back into the United States.
00:01:33.980 So that kind of soured Trudeau's announcement.
00:01:36.440 The second thing that happened was that the CBSA union, so CBSA is a Canadian border services agency,
00:01:42.440 and their union said that they were not happy, that their contracts hadn't been finalized yet,
00:01:47.660 went to the union for a vote, and they voted to strike.
00:01:51.600 So the worst possible timing for the prime minister, the worst possible timing to have your border services agents strike
00:01:57.700 right when you announce that the U.S. border is opening up again.
00:02:02.280 And so interestingly, what the mainstream media, legacy media stories focused on
00:02:07.520 was that an apparent deal was reached with these border agents.
00:02:11.140 And so this was all on Friday.
00:02:13.100 You see a report here in the Toronto Star and another one here in CTV saying,
00:02:17.500 CBSA employees agree to deal with government ending days on strike.
00:02:21.380 That was at CTV.
00:02:22.780 And Toronto Star headline here says,
00:02:24.500 deal with border agents ends traffic snarl up as Canada reopens to the U.S.
00:02:30.700 So again, if you were just going to get your news from the legacy media,
00:02:33.680 you would assume, okay, wow, they avoided a potentially terrible situation
00:02:38.080 where the border guards were on strike right when the borders were opening up.
00:02:43.780 Well, unfortunately, I don't actually think that these news agencies sent reporters to the border
00:02:49.340 to see what was actually happening.
00:02:51.040 I happened to be coming into Canada over the weekend.
00:02:53.640 And as I reported at TNC.news, it was pure chaos at the border.
00:02:58.640 It was the exact opposite of what these legacy news stories would have you believe.
00:03:02.640 So I'm going to walk you through my story at Pearson Airport.
00:03:06.560 I arrived with my family at about 5 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
00:03:10.800 And keep in mind, this was after we were told that the CBSA had reached a deal.
00:03:14.840 So we were told CBSA had announced that they were going to go on strike on Tuesday.
00:03:19.100 On Friday, after long negotiations, they reached an agreement.
00:03:23.480 During those long negotiations, CBSA, they can't actually strike.
00:03:26.840 What they can do is something called work to rule,
00:03:28.840 which is because they're essential workers, instead of just walking off the job,
00:03:33.240 they basically do their job as slowly as possible to make it as painful as possible
00:03:39.240 for whoever they're interacting with, which gives them bargaining power
00:03:42.760 with, you know, the person that's doing their contract.
00:03:45.760 In this case, the Treasury Board, so the federal government.
00:03:48.740 And we're talking about the CBSA union here.
00:03:51.600 So back to my story.
00:03:53.160 I land at 5 p.m. with my family.
00:03:55.640 And basically, we're told that we can't get off the plane.
00:03:58.100 Now, anyone who's traveled with little kids, I have two little kids,
00:04:01.400 anyone who's traveled with little kids knows that as soon as the airplane lands,
00:04:04.920 you're basically just, you can't wait to get off the plane.
00:04:07.100 You want to get off the plane.
00:04:07.980 The kids are, you know, the kids want to run around.
00:04:11.080 You want to let them just have some space after being kind of cramped up in a small airport seat.
00:04:16.260 You want to go get some water, maybe something to eat.
00:04:18.700 You just want to stretch your legs, right?
00:04:20.220 The last thing you want to do is to be forced to sit on a hot airplane longer than you have to.
00:04:24.460 Well, that's when the Air Canada pilot came on the PA system
00:04:27.380 and let us all know that because of this work-to-rule action with the CBSA,
00:04:32.960 there were very, very long delays.
00:04:35.360 And that at that point, they had closed the custom halls to new passengers.
00:04:39.180 So it was at capacity.
00:04:40.720 No one was allowed to get in.
00:04:42.160 We had to wait on the plane until more space opened up.
00:04:46.560 So that's our story.
00:04:47.980 We're sitting on the plane.
00:04:48.920 It ended up taking about two hours.
00:04:50.420 We were finally let off because we had small kids.
00:04:53.160 Other passengers were made to wait.
00:04:55.500 So we left the plane, went into the customs hall,
00:04:58.740 and it was, again, just pure chaos.
00:05:01.080 Lines everywhere.
00:05:02.180 As chaotic as I've ever seen it.
00:05:04.300 And I travel a lot and I've come into,
00:05:06.780 I've entered into Canada, you know, probably hundreds of times in my life.
00:05:10.340 This was as chaotic as I've ever seen it.
00:05:12.940 The line was snaking back and forth throughout the entire customs hall
00:05:15.720 and it was packed and it was chaotic.
00:05:18.060 So after waiting about two hours on the plane,
00:05:20.780 we were then made to wait another probably about an hour.
00:05:23.740 And it was frustrating because typically when you go through customs,
00:05:28.040 most people will go up to a computer, a machine.
00:05:30.820 You have your form filled out.
00:05:32.020 You put it in and you put in your information.
00:05:34.560 You get it back.
00:05:35.360 You either have an X on the back or you don't.
00:05:37.380 If you don't have an X on the back,
00:05:38.540 it's usually quite quickly to just go through a line.
00:05:41.280 And then if you do have an X,
00:05:42.180 it's because there's some complication with your file
00:05:44.520 or some kind of a red flag.
00:05:46.000 And so then you have to go speak to a border guard.
00:05:48.420 On the weekend when I was there,
00:05:49.860 they were making every single person speak to a border guard.
00:05:52.720 And that's sort of the idea behind work to rule
00:05:55.040 is that it intentionally makes your visit longer and more unpleasant,
00:06:00.160 again, so that the union has more bargaining power.
00:06:03.740 It was interesting because the mainstream media,
00:06:05.820 the legacy media were telling us that the strike was over.
00:06:08.460 And yet, you know, my experience in being there,
00:06:11.080 talking to the Air Canada pilots
00:06:12.400 and then actually going through customs
00:06:13.720 was the exact opposite,
00:06:15.360 that the work to rule, it was still going on.
00:06:17.900 I've spoken to people that say that it is still going on.
00:06:20.880 So it is now Tuesday.
00:06:22.600 We're told it was done on Friday,
00:06:24.320 Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday,
00:06:26.120 and now Tuesday, day five,
00:06:27.840 after it's supposedly finished.
00:06:29.100 And it is still very busy and very chaotic
00:06:31.640 at that international arrivals desk
00:06:34.240 and customs hall at Toronto Pearson Airport.
00:06:36.580 This doesn't just impact people from Toronto.
00:06:38.820 You know, if you're taking an international flight,
00:06:40.400 most places land in Toronto and then have connecting flights
00:06:43.520 going to the rest of the country.
00:06:45.120 So it really does impact all Canadians who were away
00:06:48.180 and coming back,
00:06:49.440 as well as people who were traveling,
00:06:51.140 tourists, maybe new immigrants.
00:06:53.040 Now, interestingly,
00:06:53.880 TNC wasn't the only news agency who reported on this.
00:06:57.220 The Toronto Sun had a similar report over the weekend
00:07:00.200 describing the same situation that we reported at TNC,
00:07:04.640 but attributing it to something totally different.
00:07:06.560 So I'll read from this Toronto Sun story.
00:07:08.420 It says,
00:07:09.160 Passengers left on planes,
00:07:10.720 sometimes for hours due to Pearson COVID capacity limits.
00:07:14.860 COVID capacity limits in Toronto's airport
00:07:16.620 means long delays before passengers
00:07:18.520 are allowed to exit their aircraft.
00:07:20.640 I'll read from the body of the story here.
00:07:22.860 It says,
00:07:24.060 International passengers are being left
00:07:25.920 to sit on hot airplanes for hours
00:07:28.180 due to overcrowding inside Canada's largest airport,
00:07:30.760 the Sun has learned.
00:07:31.920 Sources tell the Sun that passengers from abroad
00:07:34.100 are being forced to languish on planes parked at gates,
00:07:37.280 sometimes reportedly for as long as two to three hours
00:07:40.160 due to capacity limits inside the Customs Hall
00:07:42.540 at Toronto Pearson International Airport,
00:07:45.180 the GTAA,
00:07:46.260 which is the Greater Toronto Airport Authority.
00:07:48.780 So the GTAA's capacity metering program,
00:07:51.300 said Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick,
00:07:53.500 means passengers are deplaned in groups of 50 every five minutes
00:07:56.900 once an aircraft arrives at the gate.
00:07:59.540 So interestingly,
00:08:00.520 the Sun paints the same story
00:08:02.340 as what we did at TNC
00:08:03.660 and describes the same situation.
00:08:05.440 But rather than attributing it to the CBSA
00:08:08.080 and their work to rule initiative,
00:08:09.780 they are attributing it to the GTAA
00:08:12.740 and this metered COVID then.
00:08:14.540 I have no doubt in my mind
00:08:15.560 that it's a combination of both,
00:08:17.280 that the work to rule
00:08:18.180 and the intentional slowness by the union
00:08:20.560 compounded with these weird COVID metering rules
00:08:23.880 just made it a complete mess.
00:08:26.140 Okay, so let's go and compare the coverage
00:08:27.880 between the TNC report
00:08:29.420 and the Toronto Sun report
00:08:30.740 versus what more of the legacy media was saying.
00:08:33.320 So like I said,
00:08:33.900 here's a story in the Toronto Star
00:08:36.280 that really emphasizes the fact
00:08:38.340 that the deal was made just in time
00:08:40.680 for the border to open up.
00:08:42.660 They talk about how this was an 11th hour agreement
00:08:44.900 to avoid further strikes with the federal government
00:08:47.480 and that this was all done just in time
00:08:49.700 for the border to reopen on Monday.
00:08:52.380 They did mention some delays,
00:08:53.660 but those were all at the land borders.
00:08:55.640 No one mentioned any delays at the airport.
00:08:57.680 It goes on to say,
00:08:59.300 the Public Service Alliance of Canada
00:09:00.860 and the Customs and Immigration Union,
00:09:02.960 those are the unions that represent the CBSA,
00:09:05.440 had served strike notice
00:09:06.700 to the federal government on Tuesday
00:09:08.060 and the tentative agreement was inked
00:09:10.080 after a final round of negotiation
00:09:11.680 that lasted more than 36 hours into Friday morning.
00:09:15.260 It's worth noting that the tentative agreement
00:09:16.760 did not equal an actual agreement.
00:09:19.060 It was just an agreement in principle
00:09:20.960 and it has still yet to be ratified.
00:09:24.020 It says the agreement is a testament
00:09:25.360 to the incredible hard work and dedication
00:09:27.740 of our bargaining team
00:09:28.920 who worked through the night to reach the deal.
00:09:31.360 So hooray, great news story.
00:09:33.000 The union got what it wanted
00:09:34.280 and the Trudeau government saved the day
00:09:36.720 by forwarding what could have been really disastrous.
00:09:40.060 You hear more of this over at the CTV report.
00:09:43.500 It says,
00:09:43.940 After more than 36 hours of negotiation,
00:09:46.860 the unions representing border guards
00:09:48.300 and customs officers reached agreement
00:09:50.100 on a deal with the federal government late Friday,
00:09:52.600 ending an hours old strike.
00:09:54.580 The new contract means an end
00:09:56.080 to a work-to-rule strike action
00:09:58.240 that started Friday morning
00:09:59.440 in time to welcome fully vaccinated Americans
00:10:01.960 starting Monday morning.
00:10:03.780 Now this wasn't even accurate.
00:10:05.040 I saw it with my own eyes on Saturday
00:10:07.220 that the CBSA was still doing their work-to-rule protocols.
00:10:10.280 They were still making it intentionally more difficult
00:10:12.360 for travelers coming in by going through
00:10:14.780 and dealing with each and every passenger
00:10:17.320 rather than the triage system that I described earlier.
00:10:20.280 So why is CTV telling Canadians
00:10:21.920 that the strike is over
00:10:23.860 when the strike is still going on?
00:10:26.540 Interestingly, if you go further down into this story,
00:10:29.400 there's a whole section on the impact on travel.
00:10:32.200 Now, I won't read you the entire article here,
00:10:34.640 but there is an entire section called impact on travel
00:10:37.340 and it doesn't actually talk about the impact on travel.
00:10:39.840 It just talks about what work-to-rule means,
00:10:43.100 the negotiations taking place between the unions,
00:10:45.580 how many people it affected,
00:10:47.380 and talking, again, from the perspective of the union
00:10:50.240 and the border agents,
00:10:52.100 not talking about travelers at all.
00:10:54.480 So all this is just to say,
00:10:56.640 you know, you have journalists,
00:10:58.320 you have reporters reporting on a situation
00:11:00.480 when clearly they haven't gone to the source.
00:11:03.640 They didn't bother to send reporters
00:11:05.880 down to the airport,
00:11:07.000 down to the international arrivals customs hall
00:11:09.500 to observe with their own eyes what was going on.
00:11:12.140 And so because of that,
00:11:13.240 what they were reporting was just not really accurate.
00:11:16.320 It wasn't really the case.
00:11:17.380 It was the parroting the talking points of the union
00:11:20.640 and using it as an opportunity
00:11:22.280 to congratulate Justin Trudeau,
00:11:24.320 pat him on the back for opening up the borders
00:11:26.320 and resolving this labor dispute
00:11:28.040 just in the nick of time
00:11:29.380 when the reality was the exact opposite.
00:11:32.580 Canada opened its borders back up.
00:11:33.920 We let people travel, we let people come in,
00:11:35.980 we opened the border with the U.S.
00:11:37.640 before this issue was really resolved.
00:11:39.560 And the chaos that's happening at Pearson Airport
00:11:41.660 that's still happening is a result of that.
00:11:44.400 But again, unfortunately,
00:11:45.280 you just can't trust the legacy media
00:11:46.760 to do the groundwork, to do the reporting,
00:11:48.880 to get the facts, and to tell you a straight story.
00:11:51.600 Instead, it's always delivered through some weird lens,
00:11:54.580 promoting the prime minister,
00:11:55.780 saying that he did a good job,
00:11:57.340 and telling you from the perspective of a trade union
00:12:00.880 while leaving out any of the damning information
00:12:03.060 that could make either the Trudeau government
00:12:04.720 or the union look bad.
00:12:06.720 You just can't trust the legacy media.
00:12:08.680 And that's the reality.
00:12:09.880 It's as simple as that.
00:12:11.000 I'm Candace Malcolm,
00:12:11.820 and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.