Juno News - April 01, 2020


The Tyranny of ‘Experts’


Episode Stats

Length

40 minutes

Words per Minute

176.84189

Word Count

7,116

Sentence Count

309

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

17


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's most irreverent talk show.
00:00:06.760 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.
00:00:12.500 Coming up, the captainless ship that is Canada throughout the coronavirus pandemic,
00:00:17.280 whether masks help you in fighting the virus,
00:00:19.780 and why a drug dealer apparently violated the coronavirus shutdown.
00:00:25.740 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.
00:00:30.000 Welcome, everyone, to the Andrew Lawton Show here on April 1st,
00:00:37.120 but this is not an April Fool's Day show.
00:00:39.600 Nothing that I'm about to say is a joke that is distinct from the jokes
00:00:43.700 that I would usually tell throughout the course of a show.
00:00:46.200 This is all real. I'm not trying to pull one over on you,
00:00:49.320 and I know that may be very difficult.
00:00:51.000 There is a prankster heart in me at some points,
00:00:53.940 and I know this is just a different time and place in the world
00:00:57.660 than perhaps we would normally have for pranks.
00:01:00.780 In fact, Google, which has always done an April Fool's prank or numerous April Fool's pranks,
00:01:06.900 has basically put the clamp down on no employees were allowed this year to do an April Fool's prank.
00:01:12.520 So as of this point, Wednesday morning, I have not actually seen any April Fool's pranks,
00:01:17.860 except for a friend of mine who woke up and found that his kids had done the old classic
00:01:22.240 of putting chocolate in the toilet or on the toilet seat or something like that,
00:01:26.400 which, come to think of it, I don't think I ever did as a child,
00:01:30.240 but if you are as a child going to waste a perfectly good chocolate bar
00:01:34.720 for the purposes of comedic fodder or a prank,
00:01:38.860 you are a very strong-willed child, stronger than I was,
00:01:42.240 because if I had access to an expendable chocolate bar, rest assured,
00:01:45.240 I wouldn't have been putting it down the toilet.
00:01:47.240 I mean, maybe they plan to eat it afterwards. Kids are, you know.
00:01:49.800 But in any case, I appreciate very much you tuning into Canada's
00:01:54.080 most irreverent talk show here on True North.
00:01:56.840 And I will put in a bit of a plug, just because things are moving at rapid speed here.
00:02:00.940 If you want to get the show before anyone else does,
00:02:03.760 you can subscribe to the podcast by heading to andrewlaughtonshow.com.
00:02:08.340 And if you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, the Google Play Store, Spotify,
00:02:12.760 all of these other platforms, you'll find the links there.
00:02:15.140 And if there's a podcast service you don't see there
00:02:18.480 that you like using for your own podcasting subscriptions,
00:02:21.480 please let me know and we will get it listed.
00:02:24.600 We are a customer service oriented here,
00:02:26.660 which was more than we can say for the federal government,
00:02:29.620 who right now, it doesn't even seem like anyone is in charge of the federal government.
00:02:36.760 So Justin Trudeau, as you know, is doing this daily coronavirus briefing
00:02:40.680 where he's getting out at 11.15 Eastern time every day.
00:02:44.520 He's speaking for a bit.
00:02:45.720 He's taking questions from the chosen reporters that are permitted to ask questions.
00:02:50.200 And I think that on the whole, it's good for him to be visible.
00:02:54.760 And I've said this, people have been criticizing me.
00:02:56.560 They say I'm being too generous to him.
00:02:58.700 Well, no, it's that in the course of a crisis, I think we need to have a leader.
00:03:04.360 Now, this is the guy we have.
00:03:06.020 It's not the guy I wanted.
00:03:07.460 It's not the guy most people want.
00:03:09.040 But I want the leadership of Canada to succeed.
00:03:13.620 And the problem here is that we're seeing a lot of mixed messaging.
00:03:18.220 And my big concern now is that there's absolutely no one that seems to be steering the ship here.
00:03:24.460 And I want to open with a clip of Justin Trudeau talking on Tuesday.
00:03:29.520 So this was March 31st, and he was doing his daily briefing.
00:03:33.620 And there was a question from a reporter asking the prime minister to walk people through his decision-making process at the cabinet table.
00:03:41.940 And this was specifically in regard to personal protective equipment, medical gear, stuff that the federal government has access to that needs to be allocated.
00:03:51.760 But there was something very concerning in the answer that I want you to hear.
00:03:56.140 Let's roll that.
00:03:57.060 Good morning, Prime Minister.
00:03:59.220 You talked about shipments coming in the coming days and the fact that more will be needed, obviously.
00:04:06.100 So I think what I'd like you to do is can you walk us through your decision-making process around the cabinet table?
00:04:12.500 How you decide how these scarce medical resources will be allocated in the coming, in the near future?
00:04:20.160 How precisely in detail do you decide what goes where?
00:04:24.100 Thank you, Mike, for your question.
00:04:25.480 It's a very good one.
00:04:26.480 And I can tell you that we don't decide around the cabinet table.
00:04:30.500 It is not politicians who decide how resources are allocated.
00:04:35.200 We rely on experts, on medical officials, on coordination between medical officials in all different provinces to make the determination on where things are most needed.
00:04:51.020 And we follow the direct advice of medical experts in terms of how to ensure that everyone everywhere has the equipment they need.
00:05:00.520 Let's go back and hear that relevant three seconds of this.
00:05:04.240 We don't decide around the cabinet table.
00:05:07.160 It is not politicians who decide how resources are allocated.
00:05:12.100 We don't make decisions.
00:05:14.260 Politicians aren't the ones making the decisions.
00:05:16.540 Well, you know, that may be a line that sounds good.
00:05:19.200 It may be a line that tests well and polls well.
00:05:21.940 But the fact of the matter is, whatever jokes people may tell about politicians,
00:05:26.160 politicians are the ones elected to make decisions.
00:05:29.700 They're the ones elected to steer the ship, to run the show, to see Canada through that crisis.
00:05:35.900 So it's not a selling point when the prime minister of Canada, who, whether you voted for him or not, is your prime minister too,
00:05:44.340 for him to say, oh, we're not making decisions.
00:05:46.800 We're just deferring to experts.
00:05:48.840 Because the thing is, you can't vote out those experts.
00:05:53.100 You don't even know who a lot of those experts are.
00:05:55.860 He's deferring to faceless bureaucrats in a back room and trying to absolve himself and his government of any responsibility for anything that's happened up until this point.
00:06:07.000 And if the you-know-what hits the fan, he'll say, well, we were just following the experts.
00:06:12.360 We were just listening to the experts.
00:06:15.160 And by the way, if you want to look at the batting average of experts, just look at the serialization of news coverage going back to January when, oh, this is no big deal.
00:06:23.620 Experts say this is going to pass.
00:06:25.100 And then February where experts say this.
00:06:27.300 And then March when experts say this.
00:06:29.080 And now we're in April and experts are going to be saying something completely different.
00:06:32.980 Now, this is not to say that we expect everyone to get it right.
00:06:37.340 But you need to have someone that is taking control, someone that is being a leader, and someone that is prepared to take accountability over that leadership.
00:06:46.380 Because this is not the first time Justin Trudeau has used this line of thinking when he's talking about this crisis.
00:06:53.340 Remember a couple of weeks ago, which may have felt like a couple of years ago,
00:06:57.320 when the travel ban went into place after the liberals had been saying for days and for, you know, the week or two prior that, oh, travel bans don't work, border closures don't work.
00:07:08.700 And Trudeau said very clearly, well, you know, we were just following the experts.
00:07:13.480 And the experts have said this is something we need to do now.
00:07:16.680 So even then he was saying that he's not the one taking leadership.
00:07:21.580 He's not the one making decisions.
00:07:23.440 He's deferring to experts.
00:07:25.440 And again, I don't want to denigrate experts because there are smart people that are not partisans that work in government,
00:07:32.800 whether it's federal, provincial, municipal, other countries.
00:07:36.240 It's not about that.
00:07:37.580 It's that politicians are elected to lead, which means listening to the experts.
00:07:42.360 It means taking counsel from experts.
00:07:44.380 It means taking counsel from a broad range of people and ensuring that things you don't know you are brought up to speed on.
00:07:50.900 But the experts are not the ones running the show here.
00:07:55.500 And right now, I don't think anyone's steering this ship.
00:07:59.060 And the reason it's so concerning when Trudeau is deferring to these people, again, unnamed, they're faceless,
00:08:07.600 is because we're not exactly getting clear direction from some of these experts.
00:08:12.860 And I want to focus on Dr. Theresa Tam, who's become an overnight celebrity.
00:08:18.020 This is not a woman Canadians knew a couple of weeks ago, and now she's getting as much FaceTime on TV as Justin Trudeau is.
00:08:24.920 And Dr. Theresa Tam, who, again, is one of these experts.
00:08:28.640 She's not a politician.
00:08:29.880 She has a role in shaping public policy to some extent.
00:08:33.300 But her role is public health and telling the government, yes, this is from a public health perspective what we think should happen.
00:08:40.460 It's important to know the public health has never, ever, ever been intended to trump the lawful authority of lawmakers, of politicians,
00:08:51.600 because oftentimes public health agencies, especially at the local level, are unconcerned with economics.
00:08:58.740 They're unconcerned with fiscal policy.
00:09:01.500 They're unconcerned with constitutional issues.
00:09:04.040 And there's a reason that we don't allow public health officials to make decisions on their own in a vacuum.
00:09:10.500 And that's because a lot of the time, they don't care about the things that politicians and leaders and governments have to care about.
00:09:18.940 And that's not a slight at Dr. Tam.
00:09:20.960 There are certainly a couple of local health unit medical officers of health that I could point to in various communities across Canada.
00:09:28.180 And we've seen politicians or sorry, we've seen public health doctors weigh in on gun control in the past, on universal basic income, on other things like that.
00:09:37.880 So there's a reason that we don't give these people carte blanche the way that Justin Trudeau is doing.
00:09:43.560 But sometimes things happen that reinforce the idea that maybe, just maybe, we're not even getting purely health-driven advice
00:09:55.340 and purely health-driven responsiveness from these people.
00:10:01.400 And I want to talk about masks, which in the last few days have become really the great frontier of political policy and health debate,
00:10:09.620 not just in Canada, but around the world and specifically in the U.S.
00:10:13.860 And we talked about masks a bit on Monday, but masks are now a huge problem, not just because of supply issues and shortages that we're seeing
00:10:23.680 and the inability for hospitals to get them in and the volume that they need,
00:10:27.820 but we're seeing very divided lines on whether it's appropriate for someone like me,
00:10:34.860 who's not a healthcare worker, to wear a mask if I just go out to the grocery store.
00:10:39.100 And for the longest time, and you can see a bunch of news stories about this,
00:10:44.820 public health in Canada and Ontario and other provinces in Canada are saying,
00:10:50.240 we do not recommend masks for people that aren't healthcare workers or for people who don't have coronavirus.
00:10:56.480 They're saying that the virus is something that the mask will keep in, but it won't keep it out.
00:11:01.300 This has been the advice they've been giving.
00:11:03.620 Now, there's something that doesn't quite sit right with that in a lot of people,
00:11:08.040 but you know what, being good law-abiding Canadians, everyone just goes along with it.
00:11:12.380 Well, now you have the CDC re-evaluating its position on this,
00:11:17.500 and the CDC is actually considering making a recommendation that people should wear masks in the public.
00:11:24.560 Health experts are revisiting, there's that word again, experts, revisiting the question.
00:11:28.820 The CDC is considering, so they haven't changed it yet, but considering that it may help prevention
00:11:37.300 and making that recommendation that if you go out, you should wear a mask.
00:11:40.600 Now, it's not to say that this issue won't have supply-related spinoff effects that are negative,
00:11:47.900 because if the CDC says, oh, you've got to get a mask to go out in public, or you should have a mask,
00:11:52.460 everyone's going to buy them up, and suppliers are going to have trouble diverting them
00:11:56.200 solely to the front lines where they're needed more than they're needed for someone like me
00:12:01.160 that is going to the grocery store once a week.
00:12:04.280 But if it is a supply issue and not a health issue, own up to that.
00:12:09.220 I want to play a clip of Dr. Teresa Tam, who seems unable to give a clear answer
00:12:14.400 when asked the question in a very straightforward way.
00:12:18.940 Here's what happened.
00:12:19.840 And this is from Monday, after I had recorded the show, but I thought it was worthwhile sharing today.
00:12:24.700 There's two separate reasons.
00:12:26.880 I think for sure, absolutely, we want to protect our frontline healthcare workers,
00:12:32.280 and prioritizing supply in that setting is critically important,
00:12:37.360 and we're looking at all sorts of different avenues to procure.
00:12:41.820 For the public, I think the current scientific evidence,
00:12:47.900 we are continuing to evaluate.
00:12:50.040 Of course, we can be flexible if we find any new evidence.
00:12:54.800 But I think the scientific evidence is that if you are sick,
00:12:58.560 then put on a mask to prevent those droplets from flying in any space
00:13:02.780 as you're perhaps going to a clinic or having to move yourself
00:13:06.620 around the community for essential needs.
00:13:11.300 Putting a mask on an asymptomatic person is not beneficial, obviously, if you're not infected.
00:13:18.340 If you have close contact of a case, and under certain circumstances,
00:13:24.260 especially you'll also be in self-isolation, by the way,
00:13:27.440 if you're close contact of a case, and you also need to move for any essential reason.
00:13:33.420 That's perhaps another situation.
00:13:37.580 What we worry about is actually the potential negative aspects of wearing masks,
00:13:43.740 where people are not protecting their eyes or other aspects of where the virus could enter your body,
00:13:51.740 and that gives you a full sense of confidence, but also it increases the touching of your face,
00:13:58.360 if you think about it.
00:13:59.720 If you've got a mask around your face, sometimes you can't help it
00:14:02.920 because you're just touching parts of your face.
00:14:05.380 The other thing is the outside of the mask could be contaminated as well.
00:14:08.880 So the key is hand washing, absolutely for sure.
00:14:11.780 I very generously called that a verbal pretzel,
00:14:14.880 which someone said on Twitter they hope catches on.
00:14:16.800 I kind of like that.
00:14:17.380 I don't know if anyone else has used that before, but certainly I like it.
00:14:20.120 So what it sounds like she's trying to do is just avoid saying,
00:14:24.760 yes, a mask could help.
00:14:27.500 And Michelle Rempel had tweeted about this.
00:14:29.080 She said, listen, if it's all about flattening the curve
00:14:31.040 and lowering what they call the R-naught,
00:14:33.380 which is the number of people that someone with coronavirus will infect with the coronavirus,
00:14:38.100 if the goal is just to lower that as much as possible,
00:14:41.280 why wouldn't we be doing anything, even if it just gives us a marginal improvement,
00:14:46.700 especially if the cost is minimal?
00:14:48.860 This doesn't cost more than, you know, a couple of bucks to get a mask on.
00:14:52.380 It doesn't cost government resources.
00:14:54.880 It doesn't cost that much to do.
00:14:56.920 It's just a matter of having the supply there, putting a mask on,
00:15:00.120 and that could help someone which could help many more people.
00:15:03.880 And I think that's a valid question.
00:15:05.500 And it sounds like what Dr. Tam is saying here is that
00:15:09.280 they're concerned about the supply issue
00:15:11.720 if 36 million Canadians decide to go out and buy masks,
00:15:15.500 buy multiple masks, because they aren't,
00:15:17.740 I think you can get a bit more than one use out of them,
00:15:20.200 but certainly they aren't meant to be just reusable over and over again.
00:15:24.000 And her arguments about, you know,
00:15:26.400 how a mask could have virus on the outside, I think is valid.
00:15:29.740 But if it has virus on the outside,
00:15:33.120 that means that were you not wearing the mask,
00:15:35.900 that would have been on your face, in your mouth, in your nose.
00:15:38.900 So she makes the point
00:15:41.280 that a lot of people who are proponents of wearing masks
00:15:45.640 have been trying to make,
00:15:47.180 which is that, yeah, this mask will help you just a little bit.
00:15:50.680 It doesn't mean that it's going to, you know,
00:15:52.800 give you a false sense of,
00:15:54.480 or shouldn't give you a false sense of security,
00:15:56.240 but it will give you more security
00:15:58.720 than just walking around bare-faced
00:16:01.380 if you incorporate all of those other things
00:16:04.200 like hand-washing, not fidgeting with the mask,
00:16:07.040 not touching your face excessively, all of that.
00:16:09.280 It's not meant to be a cure-all, it's not a panacea,
00:16:11.760 but it is something that could help.
00:16:13.860 And it seems like she's unable to give a clear answer
00:16:16.740 because she knows it would help.
00:16:18.760 She knows it would.
00:16:21.020 So when Justin Trudeau says,
00:16:22.800 we're listening to the experts
00:16:24.660 and doing whatever they say,
00:16:26.480 those experts include Dr. Tam,
00:16:28.780 who I have respect for.
00:16:30.980 I have respect for this woman.
00:16:32.540 She's very smart.
00:16:33.680 I think she's been a very steady hand.
00:16:35.400 She's communicated things generally very clearly,
00:16:38.480 but let's also be realistic
00:16:40.960 in looking that she's not always been the most accurate
00:16:44.320 in her predictions throughout the course of this,
00:16:47.160 since January.
00:16:48.000 I mean, if you look at some of the responsiveness
00:16:51.260 that she has given going back to,
00:16:54.960 I forget the first date of it,
00:16:56.460 but going back to, I think it was early January,
00:16:58.780 or late January,
00:16:59.520 she says that the virus can cross borders.
00:17:03.220 You need to do a multi-layer response.
00:17:05.260 The focus needs to be on China.
00:17:06.900 Then a few days later,
00:17:09.120 she's reminding people that travel restrictions
00:17:11.740 are inappropriate.
00:17:12.940 And then a little while after that,
00:17:14.700 she's saying we need to shut down the borders,
00:17:16.680 restrict travel, quarantine people,
00:17:18.540 and now she's wavering on masks.
00:17:21.480 So we need to look at the trajectory of this virus
00:17:24.680 and say that it hasn't been in alignment
00:17:26.540 with the trajectory that the experts predicted
00:17:29.600 it would take back in January
00:17:31.840 when this started to expand outside of China.
00:17:35.160 And we started to see spread in places outside of China,
00:17:38.560 including in Canada.
00:17:41.240 So you look at other countries
00:17:43.180 that have handled this virus incredibly well,
00:17:45.720 like South Korea, Singapore, Japan.
00:17:48.420 I think Taiwan is in this boat as well
00:17:50.380 as far as the masks, but I'm not sure.
00:17:52.320 But certainly South Korea, Singapore, and Japan,
00:17:54.760 they advised everyone to use masks.
00:17:57.600 Singapore and Japan actually distributed masks
00:18:00.140 to residents.
00:18:01.200 And you look at their numbers,
00:18:02.560 and it's not that the masks are solely responsible
00:18:05.380 for the relatively strong showing,
00:18:07.960 but they are a part of a strategy that worked.
00:18:11.020 And I think that we should be looking at other countries
00:18:13.020 that have managed to kick this
00:18:15.040 better than it seems like Canada is.
00:18:18.980 And the other aspect of what Dr. Tam said about masks
00:18:22.240 that I think is a bit concerning here
00:18:24.520 is that if you're not wearing,
00:18:26.120 if you don't have symptoms,
00:18:27.120 you shouldn't be wearing it
00:18:28.300 because now we're learning a bit more
00:18:30.320 about asymptomatic transmission
00:18:31.860 and asymptomatic infection.
00:18:33.960 And another statement from the CDC director
00:18:37.540 that I think really shakes up a lot of the issues
00:18:40.760 or the things that we think we know about COVID-19,
00:18:44.780 the CDC director said,
00:18:46.240 according to a New York Times article,
00:18:48.340 that as many as 25% of people infected
00:18:51.200 with the coronavirus may not show symptoms.
00:18:55.020 So this means that people that are thinking
00:18:58.180 they're fine, that don't feel sick,
00:18:59.640 they don't have a cold,
00:19:00.400 they don't have a fever,
00:19:01.220 they don't have a cough,
00:19:01.940 are in fact potentially carrying COVID-19,
00:19:06.140 they're walking around,
00:19:07.420 they're infecting other people.
00:19:09.380 So to say that if you don't have symptoms,
00:19:12.440 you don't need to wear a mask
00:19:14.940 is not even keeping with what the latest research
00:19:18.240 is saying about who can be transmitting this
00:19:22.160 and who is transmitting this
00:19:23.700 and who is actually infected.
00:19:25.420 Now, it's important to note
00:19:26.640 that this is just one study
00:19:28.180 and we're seeing the rapid expansion
00:19:30.660 of the field of research on this
00:19:32.380 and in some cases, very contradictory findings.
00:19:35.380 So it could be that this is reversed in a few days
00:19:38.140 or reversed in a week,
00:19:39.260 but generally speaking,
00:19:40.700 if the CDC says something,
00:19:42.320 it's worth listening to
00:19:43.480 because even Canadian public health agencies
00:19:45.900 are oftentimes deferring to what the CDC is saying.
00:19:49.460 So as far as, you know,
00:19:50.460 like lining up and saying,
00:19:51.560 what are the experts saying?
00:19:52.760 CDC's experts seem to be better
00:19:54.580 than a lot of the other experts
00:19:55.920 that governments call on.
00:19:58.500 So this is not me saying
00:20:00.620 that everyone needs to get on a mask.
00:20:02.020 I'm still going out to the grocery store mask-free
00:20:04.380 and I'm fine with that.
00:20:06.060 I feel comfortable with that.
00:20:07.240 But I don't think we should be denigrating those
00:20:09.840 who do feel like that added comfort is important.
00:20:12.960 And if someone is out walking around in the world
00:20:15.200 and they feel like,
00:20:16.780 hey, you know what?
00:20:17.420 Maybe if this gives me even like a 3% better chance
00:20:20.480 at not getting COVID-19,
00:20:22.000 it seems like a gamble worth taking
00:20:24.240 when the cost of it
00:20:25.640 is just a little bit of an itchy face
00:20:27.180 and, you know,
00:20:27.780 the couple of dollars
00:20:28.520 that I have to spend on the mask.
00:20:30.460 This doesn't seem unreasonable.
00:20:32.640 And I'm expecting
00:20:33.680 the Canadian health answer to change
00:20:35.580 because apparently for the Canadian government,
00:20:37.740 public health recommendations
00:20:38.860 are changing every three days
00:20:40.480 and no one's supposed to question why.
00:20:43.440 And Trudeau,
00:20:44.480 because he has absolved himself
00:20:46.540 of the decision-making responsibility,
00:20:49.100 he's abrogated his duty,
00:20:50.820 he's just able to say,
00:20:51.960 oh, no, well, the health advice changed.
00:20:54.360 I'm not a doctor.
00:20:55.460 They're doctors.
00:20:56.300 They said to do this
00:20:57.380 and I'm going to do this.
00:20:59.200 And I think the most powerful position
00:21:01.140 in the world right now
00:21:02.380 would be to be
00:21:03.480 Justin Trudeau's personal physician
00:21:05.260 because it sounds like
00:21:06.920 you could get Justin Trudeau
00:21:08.220 just to like run out
00:21:09.780 on Torito Street wearing no pants
00:21:11.840 if you convinced him
00:21:13.220 that it was in his medical interest
00:21:14.640 to do so
00:21:15.340 because after all,
00:21:16.440 he's just not challenging
00:21:17.740 anything that he's told.
00:21:19.640 He's not challenging
00:21:20.600 any of the medical advice,
00:21:22.080 scientific advice,
00:21:23.380 policy advice
00:21:24.660 coming from doctors and scientists.
00:21:26.760 He's just,
00:21:27.080 oh, well, you said it
00:21:28.060 and I do it.
00:21:28.440 So he's not a prime minister right now.
00:21:30.420 He is a jukebox.
00:21:32.200 Justin Trudeau is the jukebox prime minister.
00:21:34.600 You put a quarter in,
00:21:35.660 you get a song.
00:21:36.440 You put a quarter in,
00:21:37.260 you get a song.
00:21:37.900 That's it.
00:21:38.980 There's no questioning it.
00:21:40.340 There's no response.
00:21:41.500 There's no,
00:21:41.820 hmm, I don't want to play that song.
00:21:43.320 There's no,
00:21:43.880 hmm, are you sure you want to listen
00:21:45.060 to Mamma Mia 17 times in a row?
00:21:47.060 To which the answer is always yes,
00:21:48.420 by the way.
00:21:49.020 He's just responding
00:21:50.580 with whatever he's asked to do
00:21:53.000 and told to do.
00:21:54.860 Now, yeah,
00:21:55.460 he's the loyal foot soldier
00:21:56.800 of the bureaucracy right now,
00:21:58.320 but for a country
00:21:59.320 that needs leadership,
00:22:00.760 deserves leadership
00:22:01.720 and a public health crisis
00:22:03.380 that warrants leadership,
00:22:05.180 this is not what we voted for.
00:22:08.660 This is not what we voted for.
00:22:10.120 So for Justin Trudeau to say,
00:22:12.460 we just listen to the experts,
00:22:14.040 whatever they say,
00:22:15.160 we do.
00:22:16.480 He is not giving Canadians confidence.
00:22:19.580 If anything,
00:22:20.380 he's showing that,
00:22:21.320 well, he's in isolation.
00:22:22.620 He's just on some Netflix binge.
00:22:24.580 He's watching Tiger King.
00:22:26.180 Maybe he's waiting
00:22:26.860 for the new money heist season
00:22:28.160 to come out in a couple of days,
00:22:29.520 but he's just emerging
00:22:30.820 like the groundhog
00:22:32.200 every day for his 11.15 a.m.
00:22:34.440 Do I see my shadow briefing?
00:22:36.540 And then going back in,
00:22:37.980 well, all of these other people
00:22:39.100 you've never heard of
00:22:40.080 are making decisions
00:22:41.340 that impact your health,
00:22:42.980 that impact your life,
00:22:44.040 your pocketbook,
00:22:45.320 your work,
00:22:45.980 and your rights.
00:22:47.980 And we're just supposed
00:22:48.960 to be grateful
00:22:49.680 because, oh,
00:22:50.380 well, he's listening
00:22:51.220 to the experts.
00:22:53.020 We've got to take a break.
00:22:54.120 When we come back,
00:22:54.780 more of The Andrew Lawton Show
00:22:56.200 here on True North.
00:22:59.420 You're tuned in
00:23:00.560 to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:23:06.440 You know,
00:23:07.080 just as they say
00:23:07.680 politics makes
00:23:08.480 for strange bedfellows,
00:23:09.900 coronavirus makes
00:23:10.780 for some strange stories.
00:23:12.320 This one I just
00:23:13.940 absolutely adore.
00:23:15.420 It comes courtesy
00:23:16.680 of Adrian Humphreys
00:23:17.780 in the National Post
00:23:19.420 from Hamilton, Ontario.
00:23:21.480 Hamilton police arrest
00:23:22.940 an alleged drug dealer
00:23:24.420 for violating shutdown
00:23:25.720 of non-essential business.
00:23:27.880 Is that just not like
00:23:28.600 the headline of the year
00:23:29.520 right there?
00:23:30.520 The response of this story
00:23:32.600 comes from a 29-year-old man
00:23:35.000 who was charged
00:23:35.640 with drug trafficking
00:23:36.600 and proceeds of crime charges,
00:23:38.200 but while Hamilton police
00:23:40.000 were busting him
00:23:41.020 for allegedly dealing drugs
00:23:43.320 in the Hamilton region
00:23:45.380 near McMaster University,
00:23:46.600 they also slapped down
00:23:48.540 a fine for violating
00:23:49.800 the provincial shutdown
00:23:51.140 of non-essential business.
00:23:52.500 So if he were illegally
00:23:54.100 selling masks,
00:23:55.760 he would be fine.
00:23:56.720 If he were illegally
00:23:57.960 selling pharmaceuticals
00:23:59.820 because pharmacies are allowed,
00:24:01.740 he would have been fine.
00:24:02.740 But for selling drugs,
00:24:04.360 he's unfortunately been charged
00:24:06.020 with non-essential business,
00:24:08.520 which is actually funny
00:24:09.440 because the government
00:24:10.520 has carved out an exemption
00:24:12.420 in the mandatory shutdown,
00:24:14.480 which is in effect in Ontario
00:24:15.680 and I think pretty much
00:24:16.760 all other provinces.
00:24:18.120 But they've carved out
00:24:18.960 an exemption for liquor stores,
00:24:21.080 beer stores,
00:24:22.160 and cannabis stores.
00:24:23.700 And the rationale being
00:24:24.920 that anyone who's addicted
00:24:26.160 to something,
00:24:27.220 it would be dangerous
00:24:28.100 for them to be off cold turkey.
00:24:29.740 So that steady supply
00:24:31.020 is important.
00:24:32.120 So he actually, I think,
00:24:33.600 has an argument
00:24:34.260 in defense.
00:24:34.820 I mean, he still has to admit
00:24:35.680 to the drug trafficking stuff,
00:24:37.040 but he has an argument that,
00:24:38.340 oh, well, actually,
00:24:39.060 I thought that serving addicts
00:24:40.740 was an essential business.
00:24:42.120 So if he can say
00:24:43.140 that all of his people
00:24:43.940 would have been in jeopardy
00:24:45.140 if they didn't keep
00:24:45.760 buying from him,
00:24:46.720 he might actually have
00:24:47.940 a solid defense here.
00:24:49.420 But in any case,
00:24:50.580 that was probably like
00:24:51.460 my favorite coronavirus headline.
00:24:54.140 I think it is actually.
00:24:55.480 Of all the ones that I've read,
00:24:56.520 probably my favorite
00:24:57.300 coronavirus headline.
00:24:58.760 So that is completely fine
00:25:01.200 that police are still,
00:25:03.300 as they go after drug dealers,
00:25:04.920 ensuring that they're keeping
00:25:05.940 the emergency orders
00:25:07.040 at hand there.
00:25:09.100 You know, the other aspect
00:25:10.700 of this that's interesting,
00:25:12.220 and if you watch
00:25:12.860 True North Update,
00:25:13.860 Candace and I on Tuesday
00:25:14.980 this week had a bit
00:25:16.160 of a back and forth on this,
00:25:17.800 whether suspending jail
00:25:19.920 and prison sentences
00:25:21.080 is a good idea
00:25:22.060 when COVID-19 outbreaks
00:25:24.240 are feared in prisons
00:25:25.900 and jails.
00:25:26.740 And in Ontario,
00:25:27.800 a couple of weeks ago,
00:25:28.880 the government moved
00:25:29.900 to make it so that anyone
00:25:31.620 who serves the sentence
00:25:32.580 on weekends
00:25:33.240 can serve it from home.
00:25:35.160 They further allowed release
00:25:37.000 of early release
00:25:38.240 of non-violent offenders,
00:25:39.860 people that were nearing
00:25:40.600 the end of their sentence anyway,
00:25:42.280 especially because jails
00:25:43.520 are overcrowded in Ontario.
00:25:45.400 And now prisons in Canada,
00:25:47.520 which are a different animal
00:25:48.960 because they have
00:25:49.780 a lot of violent offenders,
00:25:50.840 are seeing COVID-19 outbreaks
00:25:53.780 as well.
00:25:54.780 And the big problem with this
00:25:57.060 is that we are looking at
00:25:59.380 a country that still has,
00:26:01.680 I think, a very firm grasp
00:26:03.160 on the importance
00:26:04.560 of making people pay
00:26:05.800 for their crimes.
00:26:06.600 I think people still want that.
00:26:08.520 But at the same time,
00:26:10.900 you also have to look at
00:26:12.120 public health.
00:26:13.300 And I'm not a big believer
00:26:15.000 in having to stack up rights
00:26:16.560 against each other.
00:26:17.520 I think that true rights
00:26:18.740 are not in conflict
00:26:19.700 with one another.
00:26:20.760 Where it gets murkier
00:26:21.840 is when we invent rights
00:26:23.140 or when we do something
00:26:24.200 that's not strictly
00:26:25.020 a rights issue.
00:26:26.900 So right now,
00:26:28.020 the government is,
00:26:29.200 Public Safety Minister
00:26:30.180 Bill Blair says,
00:26:31.360 asking the Federal Prison Service
00:26:33.460 and the Parole Board
00:26:34.360 to look at early release
00:26:35.640 for some offenders
00:26:37.080 to prevent the spread
00:26:38.200 of COVID-19 in prisons.
00:26:40.440 So the government
00:26:41.120 is trying to basically see
00:26:43.460 if there's anyone
00:26:44.060 they can get rid of
00:26:45.180 just to ease the burden
00:26:46.820 in the prison system.
00:26:49.000 And this is not talking
00:26:50.380 about letting Paul Bernardo out
00:26:52.120 because, you know what,
00:26:53.300 he might get COVID-19.
00:26:54.360 It's talking about people
00:26:55.380 that, you know,
00:26:56.200 maybe they only have
00:26:57.080 two, three, four months left,
00:26:58.460 but they're people
00:26:59.200 that were designated
00:27:00.580 for release in the first place.
00:27:03.500 And I think that
00:27:04.740 as a matter of practicality,
00:27:07.060 there is nothing wrong with this.
00:27:08.840 It really sucks
00:27:09.960 if you're a guy
00:27:10.580 that served a 10-year sentence
00:27:12.240 that ended three months ago
00:27:13.720 versus you're a guy
00:27:15.040 that's serving a, you know,
00:27:16.340 a 10-year sentence now
00:27:17.560 and, you know,
00:27:18.880 he had to serve the full thing
00:27:20.320 and you didn't.
00:27:21.280 If you're a Christian,
00:27:22.020 it's like the laborers
00:27:22.920 in the vineyard parable, though.
00:27:24.300 You know, just not everyone
00:27:26.140 gets an equal outcome,
00:27:27.120 but you can't really complain
00:27:28.240 as long as what you had
00:27:29.340 was what you were sold.
00:27:30.760 But at the same time,
00:27:31.900 I'm looking at this
00:27:33.020 and I'm also very much aware
00:27:36.060 that there are cases
00:27:37.480 where people who are
00:27:38.620 violent offenders
00:27:39.560 are released
00:27:40.760 because they've served
00:27:41.940 their sentence
00:27:42.560 and the government
00:27:43.680 still has no mechanism
00:27:44.740 to keep them behind bars.
00:27:46.040 And I fear that this system,
00:27:48.800 if it results in something,
00:27:51.300 this system is going to do
00:27:53.180 more of that
00:27:54.080 in that it will send out people
00:27:55.700 that are violent offenders,
00:27:58.000 that are at a high risk
00:27:58.860 to re-offend,
00:27:59.700 but have still served
00:28:00.840 their sentence.
00:28:01.920 And this is a sentencing problem.
00:28:03.840 It's a court's problem,
00:28:04.860 but it's a court's problem
00:28:06.500 that the government
00:28:07.180 may now invite more violence
00:28:09.900 from and more risk from here.
00:28:11.480 So I'm very hopeful
00:28:13.400 that it won't go down that road,
00:28:15.260 but I'm very aware
00:28:16.780 of the possibility
00:28:17.600 that it will
00:28:18.480 because you see all the time.
00:28:20.400 And, you know,
00:28:20.880 I used to get local police releases
00:28:22.460 in my city
00:28:23.100 and you'd get not so infrequently
00:28:25.320 a press release
00:28:26.180 from the police
00:28:26.640 that said,
00:28:27.020 hey, just warning people
00:28:28.040 that a violent offender
00:28:30.080 has just been released
00:28:30.960 into the community.
00:28:31.640 And you're like,
00:28:32.180 wait, what?
00:28:32.920 And this was happening
00:28:33.920 not infrequently
00:28:35.100 in communities across the country
00:28:36.980 because if someone
00:28:38.280 is sentenced to 10 years
00:28:39.360 and they're at a high risk
00:28:40.600 to re-offend
00:28:41.180 and they've served no remorse,
00:28:42.600 even if they're not paroled
00:28:43.840 and they don't get out
00:28:44.700 on good behavior,
00:28:45.820 that 10 years will still elapse.
00:28:48.540 And some people reform,
00:28:50.040 some people are ready
00:28:51.020 to go out
00:28:51.480 and rebuild their life,
00:28:52.380 others aren't.
00:28:53.420 So when the federal prison system
00:28:55.700 is talking about
00:28:56.420 early release for COVID-19,
00:28:58.800 yes, in principle,
00:28:59.980 I think it's a good idea
00:29:01.240 if you have a very specific
00:29:03.620 type of candidate,
00:29:05.180 but we're looking
00:29:06.160 at the prison system
00:29:07.140 where everyone who's there
00:29:08.200 has been sentenced
00:29:08.760 to more than two years.
00:29:09.760 You have a lot
00:29:10.660 of violent offenders.
00:29:11.460 You have a lot
00:29:12.120 of organized crime connections.
00:29:13.680 You have a lot
00:29:14.440 of these issues
00:29:14.980 that are not exactly
00:29:15.880 recipes for,
00:29:17.360 all right,
00:29:17.920 well, you know,
00:29:18.400 we'll just let you out
00:29:19.220 and hope for the best.
00:29:20.620 So that's my big concern there.
00:29:22.600 And who knows,
00:29:23.240 maybe the Hamilton drug dealer
00:29:25.040 will get out on good behavior.
00:29:27.860 Maybe he won't even
00:29:28.420 get to go to jail
00:29:29.140 because they're putting
00:29:30.520 a bit of a barrier in place
00:29:32.480 so that they don't increase
00:29:33.820 the prison population.
00:29:35.900 In any case,
00:29:37.080 you know,
00:29:37.340 I'm looking at some
00:29:38.380 of the emails
00:29:39.400 that I've gotten
00:29:40.000 and I spoke on Monday's show
00:29:42.180 about my own paranoia
00:29:44.200 and I try to bare my soul
00:29:45.900 for you
00:29:46.380 and tell you
00:29:46.820 what I'm going through
00:29:47.540 and then I get a bunch of,
00:29:48.920 a bunch of very critical response.
00:29:51.460 Let me tell you,
00:29:53.000 for the record,
00:29:54.320 when I say I dove
00:29:55.520 into the bushes
00:29:56.240 to avoid someone
00:29:57.920 that was walking towards me,
00:29:59.400 I don't mean I dove.
00:30:00.600 I mean I jumped
00:30:01.780 into the bushes,
00:30:03.120 which maybe isn't
00:30:04.020 even all that better.
00:30:04.720 But I did share that
00:30:07.720 because again,
00:30:08.420 the point that I'm trying
00:30:09.180 to make here
00:30:09.700 is that if everyone
00:30:10.700 is supposed to play
00:30:11.700 by the same rules
00:30:12.740 and everyone is supposed
00:30:13.960 to adhere to this same
00:30:15.300 social expectation,
00:30:18.220 the reason I take it seriously
00:30:20.040 is not because I'm worried
00:30:22.160 about getting sick
00:30:22.820 but because I don't want
00:30:23.600 to get other people sick.
00:30:24.760 But more importantly,
00:30:26.060 I think that right now,
00:30:27.700 everyone abiding by
00:30:29.340 these requests
00:30:30.540 from the government,
00:30:31.520 which is just an icky expression,
00:30:33.060 I know,
00:30:33.360 but everyone abiding
00:30:34.600 by these requests
00:30:35.420 from the government
00:30:36.100 is the best defense
00:30:37.720 against government
00:30:38.560 making them no longer requests.
00:30:40.880 And that's the importance here.
00:30:42.600 If everyone starts saying,
00:30:44.280 ah, you know what,
00:30:44.920 I'm going to go
00:30:45.380 and travel anyway
00:30:46.240 and I'm not going to do
00:30:47.200 the 14-day isolation,
00:30:49.240 which is what happened,
00:30:50.140 government responds
00:30:50.980 by saying,
00:30:51.720 okay,
00:30:52.340 your 14-day isolation
00:30:53.700 is now a mandatory
00:30:54.840 14-day quarantine.
00:30:56.500 If government says,
00:30:57.560 hey,
00:30:57.740 we're asking
00:30:58.660 non-essential businesses
00:30:59.660 to close
00:31:00.260 and a bunch of businesses
00:31:01.460 say,
00:31:01.860 ah,
00:31:02.080 it's fine,
00:31:02.840 we're just,
00:31:03.560 we just want the business,
00:31:04.540 then what happens?
00:31:06.520 Government says,
00:31:07.240 all right,
00:31:07.540 I hereby order
00:31:08.360 non-essential business
00:31:09.660 to close.
00:31:10.760 When government says,
00:31:11.980 hey,
00:31:12.300 listen,
00:31:12.640 don't go to kids' playgrounds,
00:31:14.020 don't have your kids
00:31:15.100 having these outdoor playdates
00:31:16.380 and everyone says,
00:31:16.940 ah,
00:31:17.180 I'm going to do it anyway,
00:31:18.260 what does government do?
00:31:19.300 They shut down playgrounds,
00:31:20.680 they shut down parks.
00:31:22.220 So the reason
00:31:23.200 that I think
00:31:23.820 individuals
00:31:24.520 should voluntarily
00:31:26.060 go along
00:31:27.360 with things
00:31:28.040 that are not
00:31:28.800 hard to go along with
00:31:30.420 is so that you
00:31:32.120 don't force
00:31:32.900 the government's hand
00:31:33.880 to making these things
00:31:35.540 permanent
00:31:36.240 and making them
00:31:37.620 so that you can
00:31:38.500 actually get slapped
00:31:39.580 with a big fine
00:31:40.360 like the Hamilton
00:31:41.280 drug dealer did.
00:31:42.100 Maybe he's not
00:31:42.840 the great example
00:31:43.540 that I want to hold up.
00:31:44.880 But that's why
00:31:45.760 you have to do this
00:31:47.040 or should do it
00:31:48.240 because if you
00:31:49.140 don't take it seriously,
00:31:50.120 the government is going
00:31:50.840 to make you take it seriously
00:31:52.000 and that's a lot worse
00:31:53.500 than just making sure
00:31:54.420 you leave a six-foot berth
00:31:56.080 when you're walking
00:31:56.700 down the street.
00:31:57.320 I got an email
00:31:58.220 from Terry though
00:31:58.980 that I found was funny
00:32:00.060 and I had to share it
00:32:01.100 with you.
00:32:02.060 Terry was talking
00:32:04.420 about another story
00:32:05.140 I told which was
00:32:05.840 when a guy in a
00:32:06.680 takeout restaurant
00:32:07.400 put his hand on my shoulder
00:32:08.460 and after I had been
00:32:09.680 so conscientious
00:32:10.860 about social distancing
00:32:11.920 I got kind of paranoid.
00:32:13.820 He said,
00:32:14.320 you think you actually
00:32:15.220 really believe
00:32:15.920 that a guy placing
00:32:16.640 his hand on your shoulder
00:32:17.560 is an OMG moment?
00:32:18.900 Not helpful, Andrew.
00:32:19.860 Not helpful.
00:32:20.740 I had a fool
00:32:21.360 jump off the effing sidewalk
00:32:22.800 as he approached me
00:32:23.660 the other day.
00:32:24.540 I laughed at him.
00:32:25.700 Well played, Terry.
00:32:26.600 Well played.
00:32:27.320 That was me.
00:32:28.000 And if I do walk
00:32:29.060 towards you, Terry
00:32:29.740 and I jump out
00:32:30.300 of the bushes
00:32:30.660 do say a hello
00:32:31.480 but do it from
00:32:32.620 six feet away
00:32:33.680 if you don't mind.
00:32:34.660 We have to take
00:32:35.640 another quick break here.
00:32:36.900 When we come back
00:32:37.500 we'll close things out
00:32:38.420 on today's episode
00:32:39.520 of The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:32:40.940 Stay tuned.
00:32:42.900 You're tuned in
00:32:44.000 to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:32:47.660 Welcome back
00:32:48.420 as we focused on
00:32:49.420 in the earlier part
00:32:50.560 of the show
00:32:50.860 the big picture
00:32:51.600 of coronavirus.
00:32:52.720 We'll look at
00:32:53.080 some little odds
00:32:53.720 and ends
00:32:54.200 of the fight
00:32:55.200 against this pandemic now
00:32:56.540 and in particular
00:32:57.640 this one is for
00:32:58.680 all of my Turkmenistan
00:32:59.840 listeners.
00:33:00.600 I don't know if I have
00:33:01.420 any Turkmenistan listeners.
00:33:03.220 I probably have more
00:33:04.340 Turkmenistan listeners
00:33:05.460 than Quebec listeners
00:33:06.460 and I've also said
00:33:07.260 Turkmenistan more
00:33:08.180 in the last 30 seconds
00:33:09.580 than I have
00:33:10.200 in my entire life.
00:33:11.980 But nevertheless
00:33:12.540 Turkmenistan has banned
00:33:14.260 the use of the word
00:33:15.560 coronavirus
00:33:16.180 so don't play this show
00:33:17.560 out loud
00:33:17.940 if you are in Turkmenistan.
00:33:19.880 I gotta stop
00:33:20.360 saying Turkmenistan
00:33:21.120 but actually
00:33:22.220 I'm really looking forward
00:33:23.160 to saying the name
00:33:24.660 of the head of state
00:33:25.780 of Turkmenistan
00:33:26.400 in a moment
00:33:27.040 which I'm gonna put up
00:33:28.240 on the screen
00:33:28.720 because I can't
00:33:29.760 actually say it.
00:33:31.320 But Turkmenistan claims
00:33:32.800 it has no coronavirus cases
00:33:34.840 but if you utter the word
00:33:37.140 while waiting for the bus
00:33:38.600 in say Ashgabat
00:33:40.800 you may be arrested.
00:33:43.160 The Turkmenistan government
00:33:44.840 or the Turkmen government
00:33:46.020 has banned the word.
00:33:47.600 Apparently they are
00:33:49.620 a notoriously secretive
00:33:51.020 and restrictive country
00:33:52.080 which I didn't know
00:33:52.860 and the head of government
00:33:55.040 there, the president
00:33:56.020 who is a
00:33:56.760 as described by NPR
00:33:58.400 flamboyant
00:33:59.820 dentist rapper
00:34:00.920 strong man
00:34:01.840 named
00:34:03.300 Gurbangooli
00:34:04.480 Bertie Mukamedov
00:34:06.260 which is actually
00:34:07.080 the sound of
00:34:08.340 when you're
00:34:09.080 gargling your toothpaste
00:34:10.320 before you spit it out.
00:34:12.280 Gurbangooli
00:34:12.920 Bertie Mukamedov
00:34:14.080 which you can never say
00:34:15.700 so it's not like Beetlejuice
00:34:17.200 because you can never
00:34:17.840 actually say it
00:34:18.480 three times in a row
00:34:19.340 without changing it
00:34:20.720 but Gurbangooli
00:34:21.920 Bertie Mukamedov
00:34:22.780 said that
00:34:23.640 no I'm not having a stroke
00:34:25.560 that's his name
00:34:26.120 said that
00:34:27.160 apparently you shouldn't
00:34:29.320 be talking about it
00:34:30.240 plainclothes officers
00:34:31.180 are even arresting people
00:34:32.340 who wear face masks
00:34:33.640 or discuss the pandemic
00:34:35.520 because they're trying
00:34:36.360 to do the whole
00:34:36.980 everything is fine thing
00:34:38.100 which works for North Korea
00:34:39.560 which apparently
00:34:40.440 has no cases as well.
00:34:41.780 It's easy to get your
00:34:42.620 cases down to zero
00:34:43.760 when you just execute
00:34:44.680 anyone who coughs in public
00:34:45.940 so that's what's
00:34:47.140 happening here
00:34:47.660 but it's hard to believe
00:34:49.360 especially because
00:34:50.180 Turkmenistan is
00:34:51.400 immediately to the
00:34:52.080 north of Iran
00:34:52.820 which was at a time
00:34:54.600 the epicenter
00:34:55.840 of the virus
00:34:56.740 so I don't think
00:34:58.180 that Gerbil
00:34:58.920 necessarily wants
00:35:01.720 to accept the reality
00:35:02.720 that he's probably
00:35:03.760 not as good
00:35:04.400 at keeping it
00:35:04.980 out of his borders
00:35:05.820 as he thinks
00:35:07.100 and also
00:35:08.400 let's look at
00:35:09.460 the thing that
00:35:10.060 everyone's been
00:35:10.600 talking about
00:35:11.160 I don't know
00:35:11.500 if you are
00:35:12.140 working at home
00:35:13.360 or if you have
00:35:14.320 a spouse
00:35:14.740 who's working
00:35:15.260 at home as well
00:35:16.020 certainly in our home
00:35:17.700 I'm working
00:35:18.280 from a home studio here
00:35:19.380 my wife is working
00:35:20.280 from our new
00:35:21.380 home office headquarters
00:35:22.460 as well
00:35:23.000 marriage is still
00:35:24.040 going strong
00:35:24.740 which is more
00:35:25.500 than can be said
00:35:26.220 for China
00:35:26.820 when everyone
00:35:28.200 has emerged
00:35:28.720 from quarantine
00:35:29.340 to find that
00:35:30.400 divorce lawyers
00:35:31.180 are all of a sudden
00:35:32.200 the hottest commodities
00:35:33.040 in China
00:35:34.240 according to a story
00:35:36.160 in Bloomberg
00:35:37.040 Business Week
00:35:38.160 everyone has been
00:35:39.380 coming out of quarantine
00:35:40.220 and the first thing
00:35:41.600 they've done
00:35:42.340 is had to go
00:35:43.220 find divorce lawyers
00:35:44.220 because they've realized
00:35:45.840 that you know what
00:35:46.600 when you have
00:35:47.240 the pressure cooker
00:35:48.420 that is
00:35:48.940 or to use the modern term
00:35:50.300 the instant pot
00:35:51.160 that is home quarantine
00:35:52.500 with your loved one
00:35:53.780 sometimes you realize
00:35:54.660 they might not be
00:35:55.420 a loved one
00:35:56.200 now on a sadder note
00:35:58.240 incidents of domestic
00:35:59.440 violence multiplied
00:36:00.660 I've heard
00:36:01.640 a friend of mine
00:36:02.760 who runs
00:36:03.320 an abused women's center
00:36:04.660 here has just said
00:36:05.660 that's like the
00:36:06.160 heartbreaking part of this
00:36:07.220 when people
00:36:07.720 are forced to share
00:36:09.160 a roof with someone
00:36:10.080 who is a danger
00:36:11.660 to them
00:36:12.080 or a threat
00:36:12.720 to them
00:36:13.120 but the aspect
00:36:15.520 that people
00:36:15.920 weren't surprised
00:36:16.600 by that everyone
00:36:17.140 joked about
00:36:17.720 that now seems
00:36:18.420 to be at least
00:36:19.000 in China
00:36:19.400 materializing
00:36:20.280 is marital breakdown
00:36:22.020 so you look at
00:36:23.660 how the smallest
00:36:25.500 things they say
00:36:26.480 trivial matters
00:36:27.280 in life led
00:36:27.940 to the escalation
00:36:28.760 of conflicts
00:36:29.440 and poor communication
00:36:30.860 has caused
00:36:31.680 everyone to be
00:36:32.480 disappointed in marriage
00:36:33.500 and make the decision
00:36:34.720 to divorce
00:36:35.220 that's from
00:36:35.900 the Milu
00:36:38.820 city registration
00:36:40.260 center director
00:36:41.200 Yi Zhao Yan
00:36:42.160 and that's unfortunate
00:36:43.740 but the Shanghai
00:36:44.420 divorce lawyer
00:36:45.020 Steve Lee
00:36:45.560 has said
00:36:46.080 that a 25%
00:36:46.980 increase is good
00:36:47.700 for him
00:36:48.060 so some industries
00:36:49.900 are apparently
00:36:50.860 coronavirus proof
00:36:51.980 and this is one
00:36:53.260 of them
00:36:53.480 now we talked
00:36:55.360 on Monday's show
00:36:56.400 about the foreign
00:36:57.880 minister in Canada
00:36:58.760 Francois-Philippe
00:36:59.600 Champagne
00:37:00.100 basically lauding
00:37:01.700 China for its
00:37:02.480 generosity
00:37:03.060 and in this week
00:37:04.920 still more
00:37:06.320 countries are
00:37:07.560 finding that
00:37:08.300 their gear
00:37:09.240 from China
00:37:09.800 is defective
00:37:10.680 Justin Trudeau
00:37:11.340 so far has
00:37:12.000 not acknowledged
00:37:12.760 there as being
00:37:13.880 any downside
00:37:14.720 to the equipment
00:37:16.160 that we've received
00:37:16.860 from China
00:37:17.400 I don't know
00:37:18.320 if he will admit it
00:37:19.100 he's just saying
00:37:19.780 that Canada
00:37:20.300 is testing it
00:37:21.100 and inspecting it
00:37:21.960 and hoping for the
00:37:22.660 best and all
00:37:23.660 that stuff
00:37:24.140 but the title
00:37:25.800 of last episode
00:37:27.320 was China
00:37:28.380 lied people
00:37:29.060 died
00:37:29.420 and I do not
00:37:30.580 want you to
00:37:31.140 forget those
00:37:32.080 four words
00:37:32.860 they're not my
00:37:33.440 words other people
00:37:34.280 have said them
00:37:34.900 but China
00:37:35.880 deserves to pay
00:37:37.120 China needs to pay
00:37:38.400 and the response
00:37:39.880 from Western
00:37:40.520 leadership needs
00:37:41.480 to be that
00:37:42.340 they will make
00:37:42.960 China pay
00:37:43.640 and so far
00:37:44.840 that isn't
00:37:45.240 happening yet
00:37:46.020 maybe it will
00:37:47.060 when the dust
00:37:47.620 settles
00:37:48.000 but that will
00:37:48.600 be the next
00:37:49.120 battleground
00:37:49.740 once we get
00:37:50.340 past the public
00:37:51.040 health crisis
00:37:51.720 is are you
00:37:52.820 going to hold
00:37:53.520 China to account
00:37:54.520 are you going
00:37:55.460 to hold China
00:37:56.100 responsible
00:37:56.680 and are you
00:37:57.680 going to demand
00:37:58.620 accountability
00:37:59.500 reparations
00:38:00.640 punitive measures
00:38:01.640 whatever the case
00:38:02.760 may be
00:38:03.160 and to be honest
00:38:04.240 I'm not optimistic
00:38:05.100 Justin Trudeau
00:38:05.860 will
00:38:06.160 I've been trying
00:38:07.920 to get into
00:38:09.200 the Trudeau
00:38:09.900 press conferences
00:38:10.660 every day
00:38:11.220 and they do
00:38:12.400 them by teleconference
00:38:13.360 if you're not
00:38:13.820 in Ottawa
00:38:14.260 and you know
00:38:15.300 I hear the same
00:38:15.840 reporters asking
00:38:16.620 questions every day
00:38:17.500 and they're not
00:38:17.940 picking my question
00:38:18.840 from the teleconference
00:38:19.780 line
00:38:20.080 so I'm pretty sure
00:38:21.140 that Trudeau
00:38:21.680 is still
00:38:22.260 like he was
00:38:23.360 during the last
00:38:24.000 federal election
00:38:24.740 banning True North
00:38:25.740 from covering him
00:38:26.940 but the thing
00:38:27.880 about it
00:38:28.440 is that I would
00:38:29.440 love to hear
00:38:30.120 someone else
00:38:30.900 if you're a
00:38:31.320 mainstream media
00:38:31.960 reporter
00:38:32.360 and you have
00:38:32.800 access
00:38:33.200 I would love
00:38:33.980 to hear
00:38:34.160 someone ask
00:38:34.660 Trudeau
00:38:34.980 the question
00:38:35.540 do you
00:38:36.400 trust
00:38:36.840 China's
00:38:37.520 numbers
00:38:38.000 that's it
00:38:39.640 do you
00:38:39.980 trust
00:38:40.240 China's
00:38:40.620 numbers
00:38:40.900 because if
00:38:41.620 he says
00:38:41.960 no
00:38:42.300 then the
00:38:42.600 question
00:38:42.880 is
00:38:43.040 what
00:38:43.180 are you
00:38:43.320 doing
00:38:43.600 about it
00:38:44.100 and if
00:38:44.660 he says
00:38:44.960 yes
00:38:45.340 then it
00:38:45.740 gives us
00:38:46.100 everything
00:38:46.360 we need
00:38:46.760 to know
00:38:47.100 about
00:38:47.760 Canada's
00:38:48.360 approach
00:38:48.720 to China
00:38:49.280 that despite
00:38:49.860 everything
00:38:50.340 that China
00:38:50.780 has done
00:38:51.240 despite China
00:38:52.180 having the
00:38:52.640 two Michaels
00:38:53.200 despite China's
00:38:54.100 export of
00:38:54.680 shoddy equipment
00:38:55.420 despite China's
00:38:56.760 attempt to
00:38:57.340 infiltrate the
00:38:58.080 Canadian
00:38:58.400 government
00:38:58.920 despite China's
00:39:00.180 espionage
00:39:00.880 efforts
00:39:01.280 China's
00:39:01.840 poor human
00:39:02.980 rights record
00:39:03.660 despite all of
00:39:04.680 that you're
00:39:05.060 prepared to
00:39:05.560 give them
00:39:05.920 the benefit
00:39:06.380 of the doubt
00:39:06.860 so that's the
00:39:07.860 question that I
00:39:08.400 would love to
00:39:08.900 hear Justin
00:39:09.460 Trudeau answer
00:39:10.180 and it won't
00:39:11.580 be me who
00:39:12.240 asks it because
00:39:12.880 I can't but
00:39:13.420 I'll keep
00:39:13.700 trying and I
00:39:14.840 think that you
00:39:15.280 should ask your
00:39:15.860 local members of
00:39:16.640 parliament
00:39:16.940 whatever their
00:39:17.480 party is
00:39:18.020 that very
00:39:18.700 question do you
00:39:19.400 trust China's
00:39:20.080 numbers and let
00:39:20.620 me know if you
00:39:21.060 get a response
00:39:21.640 we've got to
00:39:22.580 wrap things up
00:39:23.220 for today
00:39:23.880 we'll be back
00:39:24.400 next week with
00:39:25.300 more of Canada's
00:39:26.340 most irreverent
00:39:27.220 talk show and
00:39:28.180 every weekday
00:39:28.800 Candace Malcolm
00:39:29.420 and I doing
00:39:30.080 true north update
00:39:30.920 throughout this
00:39:31.400 coronavirus pandemic
00:39:32.620 we will talk to
00:39:33.920 you next time
00:39:34.420 thank you God
00:39:35.040 bless and good
00:39:35.900 day Canada
00:39:36.440 thanks for
00:39:37.460 listening to the
00:39:38.060 Andrew Lawton
00:39:38.660 show support the
00:39:39.700 program by donating
00:39:40.580 to true north at
00:39:41.500 www.tnc.news
00:39:44.380 We'll be right back.