In this episode of the Andrew Lawton webcast, we talk about the UN Global Migration Pact and why it's a bad deal for Canada. We also talk about why the media should be paying attention to the fact that the deal is non-binding.
00:00:00.000Hey, everyone. This is Andrew Lawton, fellow with the True North Initiative, here for another live webcast on behalf of the frontline battlers, if we can make up a verb or a noun there, in the fright for freedom and the fright really for responsible government, especially when it comes to immigration, the True North Initiative.
00:00:19.380So thanks very much, everyone, for tuning in wherever you are right now. Hope it's a great afternoon. Or I guess if you're in Atlantic Canada, you're already in the evening. Then again, it gets dark at like, you know, 1.30 in the afternoon, how it feels like. So perhaps we are looking at, in actuality, evening anywhere you are in Canada. But regardless, good to have you with us. Thanks very much for tuning in today.
00:00:39.320I want to start off and really spend some time on this edition of the, I don't know if we say the program or not, but this edition of the Andrew Lawton webcast. We're talking about the UN Global Migration Pact. And there are two big reasons for this. Number one, it's going to be in just a few days in Marrakech, Morocco, that government and world leaders around the country are set to sign this, including Justin Trudeau on behalf of Canada.
00:01:07.280And also, there are elements of this that I find the media has not actually understood, and does not understand, and will not understand. And the one big one that I'm going to get to in a couple of moments here is this idea of a non-binding resolution.
00:01:27.880And, you know, this has actually been something that's troubled me for a while with other documents and pieces of legislation and PACs and motions and all of that. But it's really one that I feel this time needs to be exposed for what it is.
00:01:40.880And let me say right out front, non-binding is a lie. Non-binding is a lie. When a government tells you or a party tells you or an advocate tells you that something is non-binding, what the left is actually saying when they tell you something is non-binding is that they want the political cover to champion something that would otherwise be seen as Orwellian or disastrous.
00:02:05.620And they know that the things that are in the global migration pact would not fly if ever the government were to sign something that it said was a binding document, a binding legislation.
00:02:18.360So when the liberals say it's non-binding, it's a lie. When Justin Trudeau and Ahmed Hassen specifically say it's non-binding, it's a lie. When the United Nations says it's non-binding, it's a lie.
00:02:30.660When all of the liberal intelligentsia and media party types in Canada and around the world say, oh, but it's non-binding, it is a lie.
00:02:39.100And let me explain why, for three reasons. First off, the document itself, technically signing it, does not supersede Canadian law.
00:02:50.000So when they sign that, it doesn't mean that instantly Canada's immigration becomes something that is governed by the UN.
00:02:56.960But it does provide a long-term problem for any Canadian because these sorts of non-binding pacts, and I'm going to be saying non-binding a lot this show, just so you know.
00:03:08.760But these non-binding pacts actually are used so that the government can then justify other pieces of legislation under the guise of, oh, but we have an international obligation.
00:03:20.860And just to give you the primer on this, I don't want to rehash the entirety of the Global Migration Pack.
00:03:28.200Candice Malcolm had a great video a couple of days ago, or it might have been yesterday.
00:03:32.240She did a Facebook Live about this last week that was great.
00:03:35.840And actually, Western University Professor Salim Mansour, who I know very well, he actually released, I think it was like a 15-minute video about it today that you can find on YouTube.
00:03:45.820I think it was posted by Just Right Media, and he, looking at it from a very big international politics and historic perspective, explains exactly step-by-step why this is so bad.
00:03:57.120But we've got two main components here.
00:03:59.680Number one, the idea that migration is somehow a human right and that countries need to recognize the human right of migration above their own obligation for border security or sovereignty.
00:04:12.120And the other side of it that I think a lot of people have rightfully picked up on is this idea of your governments around the world having to somehow promote a specific type of media coverage.
00:04:28.160And I'm going to read the exact wording of this.
00:04:31.000And it's resolution, or it's on the compact, it's section 17.
00:04:39.220So number one of this, under objectives for safe, orderly, and regular migration, has eliminate all forms of discrimination and promote evidence-based public discourse to shape perceptions of migration.
00:04:54.100So this is the exact wording they use.
00:04:56.640It is the obligation of countries that sign this to shape perceptions on migration.
00:05:03.060So literally in the text of this, in the very raw text, they've put in propagandizing.
00:05:10.520So a country that becomes a part of this has to, in keeping with the principles of this, shape perceptions, which is just so dangerous.
00:05:22.800But the other aspect here, just to extrapolate on that, from section 17 of this, it goes A, B, C, D, E.
00:05:30.000But we want to strengthen the global evidence base of international migration by improving and investing in the collection, analogists, dissemination of accurate, reliable, comparative data, yada, yada, yada, well-informed public recourse and discourse.
00:05:45.500But they specifically talk about the media side of this, and that is that governments should not only survey and use the census and do all of this stuff to learn more about migration, they should use migration profiles, they should cooperate with relevant stakeholders.
00:06:04.200So really a lot of data collection here, but they also have to then take aim at media coverage.
00:06:11.840And this is something that I don't think people realize what they're setting themselves up for, because the government is now compelled to promote independent, objective, and quality reporting of media outlets, including internet-based information, including by,
00:06:29.460this is an exact quote, by the way, sensitizing and educating media professionals on migration-related issues and terminology, investing in ethical reporting standards and advertising, advertising as well,
00:06:44.420and stopping allocation of public funding or material support to media outlets that systematically promote intolerance, xenophobia, racism, and other forms of discrimination towards migrants in full respect for the freedom of the media.
00:06:59.980So what this is actually calling on government to do now is sensitize and educate and shape the way that Canadians talk about immigration, and the way that Canadians talk about migration, and the way that Canadians talk about the UN Global Compact itself.
00:07:20.200They've actually built into this a mechanism that effectively protects it from being criticized.
00:07:26.100And this is actually something, and we put a poll up here, do you think Canada should sign the Global Migration Pact?
00:07:33.100So weigh in now, you can vote yes or vote no if you're watching this live.
00:07:36.980And I think that this is something that people need to see, because the government has tried to characterize anyone who opposes this as being racist.
00:07:46.920Justin Trudeau came at Andrew Scheer just yesterday and said, oh, it's a rebel media talking point, which is the liberals' way of basically casting aside and saying, you don't matter, you don't represent this.
00:07:57.640And this idea that we're seeing in a lot of European publications that anyone who criticizes this is actually just a racist xenophobe and a bigot and whatever the case may be.
00:08:08.560And they have this mechanism that they've now built into this where you are not allowed to, as a government, be a part of this unless you're committing, because it's in the text of this migration pact, you are committing to saying, we are going to, as a government, take hold of the media industry and not only educate and sensitize and shape, but also invest, which means spend.
00:08:33.820Governments don't invest, they spend, invest in only the resources and outlets and publications that are giving UN-approved coverage of migrants.
00:08:46.620And this pact, by the way, does not differentiate, and this is so key here, between legal and illegal immigration.
00:08:53.520It doesn't differentiate between legal and illegal immigration.
00:08:56.820So what's happening here is theoretically, True North Initiative, and I don't want to give the statist any ideas here,
00:09:03.500but True North Initiative could run a story, as we do often, about illegal immigration.
00:09:09.340And the UN could determine that that is a violation of this little section, that the government is responsible for sensitizing us, because we are speaking in a way that they deem to be discriminatory towards migrants.
00:09:24.180So it's exactly like the M-103 motion, the anti-Islamophobia motion, where they're taking aim at something without actually defining what it is.
00:09:35.160So they don't define what opposition to migrants is.
00:09:40.500Could it be criticizing illegal immigration?
00:09:42.520Could it be saying, you know what, we think we have to cap immigration numbers here.
00:09:46.500These are completely reasonable things for people to say in a free society.
00:09:52.280These are completely reasonable things.
00:09:54.980But why are we actually not allowing an open discourse and discussion here?
00:10:02.260And what I find so fascinating about this is that the bill, if you can even call it that, actually determines that it's supportive of free speech.
00:10:13.960That's what the thing says. It has a commitment to open and free inquiry, as is imperative in a free society.
00:10:20.180But there's no way that that squares up with these other lines that actually don't make sense, that are fundamentally at odds with free and open discussion.
00:10:30.380Anyone in Canada, anyone in any Western country should be allowed to have whatever discussion they want about immigration, about migration.
00:10:37.900If you want to get up there and say Canada should close its borders and not allow anyone in, I don't agree with you, but you have a right to have that discussion.
00:10:46.820But this would call that discriminatory, discriminatory towards migrants, and that is inherently wrong.
00:11:16.500And I don't think the timing is inherently coincidental here.
00:11:20.360You've got a government that sets up this supposedly independent panel that will offer $600 million or $595 million specifically to select media outlets.
00:11:32.160And they announced this, and just a week and a half later, I want you to understand this, $600 million almost to select media outlets.
00:11:40.280And then a week and a half later, the government is going to be signing a pact that calls on government to invest only in outlets that offer an approved narrative about immigration.
00:11:54.280So we should expect at this point for one of the qualities required for a media outlet to get public funding to be a certain manner of describing immigrants and immigration and migration.
00:12:07.940And by the way, this pact is something that's being framed by its supporters in such a way that if you oppose it, you are anti-immigrant.
00:12:18.380This actually is a disaster for lawful, law-abiding immigrants, because this all of a sudden puts them in the same boat as illegal immigrants, first off.
00:12:29.060And secondly, what this actually will do is cause a lot of backlash towards immigrants, because most Canadians or Westerners will see the repercussions of government policies about this.
00:12:44.200Which brings us to the question of it being non-binding.
00:12:47.360And by the way, there's been a lot of backlash to it.
00:12:49.840It started off where there were just a couple of opponents, Israel and the U.S.
00:12:55.520It's questionable whether Belgium will sign on.
00:12:57.880I know that the Belgian Prime Minister said he was going to, but now there's some backlash in his own government.
00:13:03.900You've got, I heard whispers of some other countries that might be flipping, but you've got some major global stakeholders here and allies of Canada that are saying we're not having any of this.
00:13:16.280And this was something that very realistically could have just happened without anyone paying attention to it.
00:13:25.540And I'm just catching up on the comments here to read any thoughts that you have on this.
00:13:30.040But I want to talk about this non-binding element here.
00:13:34.180Because one of the biggest things that supporters of this are saying is that, oh, it's non-binding, so everyone's got to just get in line.
00:13:40.400And I started off by saying unequivocally that non-binding in general terms is a lie.
00:13:47.960And the reason it's a lie is because you don't sign something that you don't believe in.
00:13:53.700And even if there isn't a legal mechanism for a U.N. operative to come into Canada and say, okay, guys, it's time for you to start changing your policies, it is, in effect, a government binding itself to a particular outcome.
00:14:08.380And I'll give you three examples of that.
00:14:14.220Some of it was binding, but much of what was in the Paris Climate Change Accords was deemed non-binding.
00:14:20.240But that hasn't stopped Justin Trudeau using the Paris Accords as justification to push a national and nationally imposed carbon tax on Canadians and on the provinces.
00:14:31.660So all of a sudden, we've got a non-binding pact that is something that will bind and is binding Canadians.
00:14:39.400You've got M103, which was a non-binding motion to condemn Islamophobia.
00:14:49.020It's just government saying we care about this.
00:14:50.940But what was in this non-binding motion that the government of Canada will study to enact a whole-of-government approach, a whole-of-government approach to ending Islamophobia.
00:15:04.060And what happens after M103 was passed?
00:15:06.460Hearing after hearing after hearing, discussing Islamophobia.
00:15:10.060So that non-binding motion actually bound the government to explore this process.
00:15:16.340And I still don't think we're done with what will happen to M103 or under the guise of M103.
00:15:23.360And even if you look at some of these UN General Assembly motions as of late, a resolution in the General Assembly is technically non-binding.
00:15:41.360And it's non-binding, but it has very real global consequences because the countries that sign on to these non-binding resolutions are saying, this is how we're going to bind ourselves.
00:15:54.780And we are seeing a critical juncture right now where we are being, as a society, subjected to the bondage at the hands of non-binding resolutions and non-binding motions, which is why we need to start saying it's BS when a lawmaker tells us that something is non-binding.
00:16:14.220Because if you do not support being bound by this, why are you signing on in the first place?
00:16:19.840Why is Ahmed Hassan flying to Marrakesh, Morocco, to sign this as, oh, it's just a non-binding symbolic thing?
00:16:27.480If it was that useless, if it were that useless, they wouldn't be doing it because it wouldn't make a difference.
00:16:34.700They're supporting these things because they actually value them and because they want them.
00:16:40.100And what's going to happen next year, we're going to be in Canada in the election, having a discussion about immigration.
00:16:46.080Suppose Justin Trudeau wins the next election, which may or may not happen.
00:16:50.480I think it's a coin toss at this point.
00:16:52.480But suppose Justin Trudeau wins the election and critics of his are saying, oh, no, you can't radically increase immigration numbers.
00:17:01.720He says, ah, we've got an international obligation.
00:17:04.960And what Justin Trudeau is going to do is start using this pact in the same way that a NATO obligation or a Paris Accord or a foreign aid commitment is used right now, where he's going to say, oh, but we made a commitment and Canada believes in its word and Canada's word is good.
00:17:23.260And Justin Trudeau is going to justify every ham-fisted immigration policy he wants to champion because, oh, well, that's what we said we'd do.
00:17:35.360And that idea of it being non-binding will have been lost by the time we actually get to the real consequences of what's being championed here.
00:17:44.000So we don't just have something that will be a precursor to an open border.
00:17:47.940But remember, the European Union didn't start with a single stroke of the pen.
00:17:52.960The European Union, which has now been the subject of a mass and future withdrawal of the EU, from the EU, by the UK, this did not happen overnight.
00:18:03.620It started with a resolution to do this and a pact to do this and an agreement to do this.
00:18:09.560And eventually the EU became a government.
00:18:15.540It was a gradual and very incremental approach to becoming a supranational regime.
00:18:24.660And that's something that I fear is going to happen now.
00:18:27.640Not a global union in the sense that the EU is for Europe, but certainly global agreements where there is going to be a legitimate push for open migration,
00:18:36.780not just from Lithuania to Latvia, but for a lot of people to imagine this idea of Canada to Pakistan or India to the United States.
00:18:49.640And these sorts of things are not that far off if you think of what the agenda of those pushing these motions at the United Nations actually is.
00:19:01.660They believe migration to be a human right.
00:19:04.020They don't believe in a distinction between legal and illegal migration, legal and illegal immigration.
00:19:09.840And they don't differentiate between a refugee and an asylum seeker and someone who just walks across the border from, you know, the U.S. to Canada because they're about to be deported and says,
00:19:20.980ah, you know, I want to live here instead.
00:19:22.280The only distinction they recognize is that, oh, well, the way you treat them legally has to change.
00:19:28.720But that core human right, that core value, that core requirement to allow their migration does not change.
00:19:37.080And Dekerman or Deckerman, I don't know the pronunciation, says on Facebook here, this has been known for months and months.
00:19:42.600Why did the PCs wait until the week before the signing to bring this up and make Canadians aware of it?
00:20:14.440And then it's only when a few fringe voices, people like us at the True North Initiative, for example, start talking about this, that the mainstream media starts to pay attention and then politicians have to respond.
00:20:27.820And I think there are a lot of politicians around the world that either hoped no one would notice or themselves weren't paying attention.
00:20:35.540And you look at Australia as a big example and what may happen in Belgium.
00:20:39.600I don't think the Australian government was going to oppose this.
00:20:42.620I think it was completely fine to just hope no one noticed until it became so politically untenable, so politically untenable to support it that the government had to say no.
00:20:56.840And that Justin Trudeau is becoming one of the chief holdouts of this is simply embarrassing.
00:21:04.220It's simply embarrassing that Justin Trudeau would commit Canada to this but actually lie about it.
00:21:12.620And that's the thing, commit Canada to it but lie and say it's noncommittal.
00:21:16.880You know, there's a very significant question that emerges when people do that, and that's as follows.
00:21:21.640How can something be so essential, so critical, so important for Canada to be a part of, but also symbolic, no big deal, non-binding?
00:21:38.400And our prime minister, our government, on all of these things tries to pick both.
00:21:43.380He tells the people that want it that this is critical and Canada's leading the charge and Canada's back.
00:21:48.360And then he tells the people that are critics, after he's done telling them they're racist, that, oh, well, you know, it's just, it's, come on, it's nothing.
00:21:57.320And he's a lot more outraged about the conservatives trying to oppose this than he is about the UN trying to needle its way into a global approach to immigration that may not directly threaten sovereignty but indirectly and in the long run threaten sovereignty.
00:22:16.040Because, remember, if you've got a bunch of countries around the world that are agreeing to do something, that's irrelevant.
00:22:22.820They are voluntarily surrendering their sovereignty in the same way that countries in the EU voluntarily surrendered their sovereignty.
00:22:31.300The fact that they did it voluntarily doesn't mean sovereignty isn't threatening.
00:22:35.560Especially because these things become far more problematic, to use the left-wing word, in the long run, you never understand the full implications of this until it's often too late.
00:22:49.320And to go back to the question from Diekerman here, I think that, yes, it would have been great if the conservatives were opposing this months ago.
00:22:56.180And if we had had enough time to actually rally up the troops, so to speak, and get there to be enough public pressure from Canadians that Justin Trudeau might not have been as set in his ways on this, as we're seeing in other countries.
00:23:09.940But even then, I'll take the discussion now rather than never.
00:23:15.620If we couldn't get it earlier, that sucks, but at least we're talking about it now.
00:23:20.300So whenever someone tells you that non-binding is somehow justification for doing something, I want you to ask them a very simple question.
00:23:31.180If it's not binding, what's the point of doing it?
00:23:47.000At least it's not what we've elected anyone to do.
00:23:49.340And this media stuff is terrible because we've now had, in the last two weeks, three significant stories that threaten media independence.
00:23:57.660We've got Unifor, which represents 12,000 journalists and media workers saying it is the opposition to Andrew Scheer.
00:24:04.360You've got Justin Trudeau offering $600 million to journalists that are going to be approved by a select panel.
00:24:11.400And then you've got Canada signing a pact.
00:24:14.120Signing a pact that calls on government to invest only in the media outlets that are giving a UN-friendly view of migration.
00:24:28.420And I want to, if you're just tuning in, read that line for you again here.
00:24:31.880Promote independent, objective, and quality reporting of media outlets, including internet-based information.
00:24:38.320So that's, you know, Twitter and Facebook, whatnot.
00:24:40.100Including by sensitizing and educating media professionals on migration-related issues and terminology, investing in ethical reporting standards and advertising, and stopping allocation of public funding or material support to media outlets that systematically promote intolerance, xenophobia, racism, and other forms of discrimination towards migrants.
00:25:02.480In full respect for the media, in full respect for the media, I love that part.
00:25:07.040So they say, okay, we're going to do all this to control the media narrative, but we're going to do it in full respect for the media and media freedom.
00:25:17.400So they're all saying that, you know, we believe inherently in media freedom and we're going to get the government to, you know, threaten and, you know, coerce everyone because that's what media freedom really is.
00:25:32.380And I want to believe that Canadians, by and large, see through it.
00:25:37.200I want to see a little bit of hope here.
00:25:41.580But I do have a significant, I have a significant reservation about any of these sorts of things and about Canada's relationship in the UN as a whole.
00:25:55.280I mean, the UN has been drifting more and more towards this idea of becoming a supranational government, of becoming like the EU for the world.
00:26:05.960And no country has really been prepared to take aim at it.
00:26:11.100And this migration pact is key because we're not talking about, you know, we all, you know, commit to like, you know, when men and women are equal and we commit to ending gender violence and we commit to, you know, ending female genital mutilation.
00:26:24.380Which even then, I don't think you get as many countries to agree to ending female genital mutilation as you could to ending border sovereignty, which is insane.
00:26:32.020But you've got all of these different factors at play.
00:26:40.520And Justin Trudeau, I think, is actually the first UN prime minister in Canada in the last, certainly in the last generation.
00:26:47.960The first prime minister that truly seems to stand up and support every single thing that the UN intelligentsia are doing.
00:26:58.320And I'm not aware of any time where he's actually said no, where he has put his standing in the international community below what is and should be his primary obligation as being to Canadians.
00:27:14.460And that type of attitude is one that does threaten sovereignty because you've got a prime minister that is less concerned with sovereignty than he is with hobnobbing with internationals.
00:27:29.320And the election in October is going to be a critical one because Canadians need to stand up for this idea that our prime minister shouldn't be inking these things when they don't really have a mandate to do so.
00:27:43.600Where was this in 2015 when he was running?
00:27:45.900You know, I'm not a believer in a referendum on everything, but I do think that out of, you know, a respect for the voters and the citizens that government leaders should, generally speaking, stick to the things they campaigned on.
00:27:59.420Where was Justin Trudeau saying, you know, he believes in open borders?
00:28:02.480Where was Justin Trudeau saying he believes in all of these different things, like controlling the media in a way when you're going to put money towards the media that it can only go to those who offer respectful dialogue about immigration?
00:28:16.780And you've got Gerald Butts, who's Justin Trudeau's principal advisor, all the time calling out people on Twitter that he says are being racist or offensive or xenophobic.
00:28:26.860And now these people are actually responsible for determining which media outlets in Canada get money.
00:28:33.280And they've signed an agreement with the United Nations.
00:28:37.080They've signed an agreement to say unequivocally that we will only give material support and public funding to people that are not discriminatory against migrants without defining what that is going to look like.
00:28:50.920So the reason they call it non-binding is because no Canadian, no smart Canadian, would ever in a million years accept this agreement being signed if it was characterized as binding.
00:29:05.820This is too totalitarian for us to accept it in binding form.
00:29:11.000So they say it's non-binding so that somehow we feel better about it.
00:29:13.640But the reason it's being signed is because Justin Trudeau wants Canadians to be bound to its terms.
00:29:29.440Now, the specific policies, I mean, the specific made-in-Canada approach to this and how it actually manifests itself might.
00:29:36.120But the core fundamental value that Justin Trudeau is prepared to sign away our own immigration system, which hypocritically he defends whenever he's attacked for insecure borders.
00:29:46.980He says, oh, our immigration system is robust and rigorous and vetting and all of that.
00:29:51.580That he would sign that away to the UN is the hypocrisy here.
00:29:56.700For the True North Initiative, I'm Andrew Lutton.
00:29:58.860For the True North Initiative, I'm Andrew Lutton.