Juno News - The Year of the Hypocrite

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's most irreverent talk show. This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:12.980 Coming up, why 2020 is the year of the hypocrite, and Candace Malcolm joins for a look at the past year and the year ahead for True North.

00:00:22.640 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:26.100 Welcome, everyone, to the final episode of the Andrew Lawton Show for 2020.

00:00:33.780 I know most of us, and I certainly include myself in that category, are looking forward to once and for all turning the page on this year.

00:00:42.040 But regardless, I hope you have had as best a year as is possible, given the circumstances.

00:00:47.800 We know that certainly the political elites telling us not to live our lives are having a good time,

00:00:53.720 which is why I wanted to devote this show to doing a bit of a roundup of sorts to all of the people who have not been following their own guidance,

00:01:02.020 advice, and directives in the last year, all of which has, of course, come to a bit of a boiling point, even in the last few days,

00:01:09.780 as the rules for the and not for me crowd have decided to take their Christmas vacations while telling us that we have to carve the turkey on Zoom,

00:01:18.580 and you might as well not even have a turkey because it's just going to be you and someone else instead of anyone else in your family gathering together for Christmas.

00:01:27.660 Patient zero of this, I don't know exactly who it was, but I will say that the biggest story this week is Rod Phillips,

00:01:34.020 who was in St. Barts, which is the most exclusive, luxurious Caribbean destination,

00:01:39.720 one of the most expensive places to vacation in the world, and he was there not just for a few days,

00:01:45.860 not just for a little quick jaunt or maybe to get off a cruise ship because, well, you can't do that anymore,

00:01:51.660 but he was there for, it sounded like it was going to be at least a month.

00:01:55.840 He went down there in mid-December, was still there, and no one knew it until this past week

00:02:02.700 where Doug Ford has decided to tell him to get his backside home.

00:02:06.920 So he resigned, and you know what? I don't actually think it's all that unsurprising.

00:02:12.340 How do you come back from that? How do you have any credibility when you set out that the rules are only for other people, not for you?

00:02:19.760 They're for the little people. They're not for you. You're Rod Phillips. You can do what you want.

00:02:23.320 And that was the thing, and when he came back to Pearson Airport and he did a little impromptu press conference,

00:02:29.280 it sounded like he genuinely didn't know. Someone had asked him if he was going to resign,

00:02:33.260 and he's like, well, you know, it's up to Doug Ford, and you know, there's a lot of work to do.

00:02:39.080 And then not long later, he had, in fact, resigned.

00:02:42.360 So I think in this case, we can very much read between the lines and say he was fired.

00:02:46.340 So Doug Ford has taken it seriously.

00:02:48.560 Again, my approach to this is not to penalize people for going on vacations,

00:02:52.100 but to say to anyone, hey, listen, do what you want, live your life, do it safely, follow the rules,

00:02:57.380 but that's not what's happening. We're going more and more towards the other direction.

00:03:02.400 And Rod Phillips, I don't actually know all that well. I've met him once or twice.

00:03:07.020 I've always understood him to be an honorable and decent guy, but that's the whole point of this,

00:03:11.500 is that people like him who want to live their lives should not be telling other people in the province not to.

00:03:19.160 And this is the issue, and I want to stake right out of the gate here.

00:03:22.880 I am not anti-travel. I'm not one of these people saying, well, it's irresponsible, you know, how dare you go?

00:03:28.600 Because in fairness, even if you are completely concerned about what's happening with COVID-19 in Ontario and in Canada,

00:03:36.000 if you look at the numbers, a lot of these places, these vacation destinations are actually safer than Ontario.

00:03:42.160 I mean, if you're living your life in Ontario or in Quebec or somewhere else,

00:03:46.140 you're going to be around a lot more people than if you decide you're going to camp out on a beach for a month

00:03:51.360 in some nice sunny destination.

00:03:53.840 So in that sense, you know, I'm totally pro-travel.

00:03:57.620 My concern is with the hypocrisy, with telling people you should not be traveling

00:04:03.420 and then yourself getting on a plane, going down, and only coming back when you get caught.

00:04:09.520 And by the way, this was not the first time he did this.

00:04:12.540 He also, we learned this week, took a personal trip to Switzerland in August.

00:04:17.660 Again, I would love to go to Switzerland.

00:04:19.380 I've never been. Sounds great. Sounds fun. Hope he had a blast.

00:04:22.760 I don't care that he went to Switzerland. I don't care that he went to St. Bart's.

00:04:26.320 I care that he did it while serving in a government that would condemn me for doing the very same thing.

00:04:34.100 And this is why something like this is so egregious.

00:04:37.800 And by the way, Rod Phillips, when he delivered the Ontario budget, decided he was going to make 2021 the year of the Ontario staycation.

00:04:49.180 Yes, this is what he said.

00:04:50.600 Fewer small business owners have been harder hit than our tourism operators.

00:04:54.580 We expect that traveling within Ontario will be safe sooner than traveling beyond our borders.

00:04:59.840 So the Ontario government was putting $150 million towards making the year of the Ontario staycation 2021.

00:05:09.620 And Rod Phillips, I mean, in fairness to Rod, he would probably be saying,

00:05:13.220 Well, no, no, no. I said 2021. It's still 2020.

00:05:16.240 So maybe he was planning on coming back on the 31st anyway.

00:05:20.160 And, you know, these are like the people that say their diet starts tomorrow.

00:05:24.180 Because his view is that, yes, we need to make Ontario the year of the staycation, but not until I get back from St. Bart's.

00:05:31.140 I mean, you can't even write this script.

00:05:33.500 You can't even, well, maybe you can write this script because the Simpsons did.

00:05:37.380 And now for an emergency announcement from the mayor.

00:05:40.080 People of Springfield, because of the epidemic, I have canceled my vacation to the Bahamas.

00:05:45.100 I shall not leave the city.

00:05:47.820 Hey, you, get that steel drum out of the mayor's office. 1.00

00:05:52.460 Sorry.

00:05:53.100 Ah, yes, I believe there is a Simpsons clip for absolutely everything.

00:05:57.720 And always very prescient, I find.

00:06:00.020 But here's the problem.

00:06:01.280 Well, many problems, actually.

00:06:03.020 Rod Phillips said that he deeply regrets traveling over the holidays.

00:06:06.800 It was a mistake and he apologizes.

00:06:08.940 It was personally paid for.

00:06:10.940 And he's making arrangements to return home.

00:06:13.320 This is not a statement that indicates actual regret.

00:06:17.760 And what's going to happen when he gets home will be very interesting because I'm not expecting

00:06:21.600 him to do like a mea culpa on this in forms of an interview.

00:06:26.000 I think what's going to happen is he's going to come back.

00:06:27.960 He's going to get spanked by Doug Ford. 1.00

00:06:29.880 And then that's that.

00:06:31.420 And everyone's going to move on in the next couple of weeks.

00:06:33.880 And Doug Ford has already promised a tough conversation of sorts.

00:06:37.700 I think that what makes it look a lot worse is all of the stuff he did to kind of avoid

00:06:45.060 acknowledging that he was away.

00:06:48.180 So he had done many photo ops and he was posting them all on Twitter with this business and that

00:06:53.620 business.

00:06:54.140 He did his little Christmas video by the fireside.

00:06:56.780 And while he was down there, he did a Zoom call, a public Zoom call with worship leaders in which

00:07:03.200 it really, really, really sounds like you can hear Caribbean waves crashing onto the shore

00:07:10.240 in the background.

00:07:11.580 As much as I don't like sharing Liberal Party propaganda, the Liberal Party just happened to

00:07:16.540 be the one to uncover this and tweet it out.

00:07:18.900 But take a listen because I hear waves.

00:07:20.640 They needed some technical support in terms of being able to make their digital piece work.

00:07:27.480 And it was great to see them great to see them work so close together.

00:07:30.780 But it's just an example.

00:07:32.480 Who would have thought there was a more embarrassing water background to a Zoom call than a toilet

00:07:38.300 flushing?

00:07:39.020 But for Rod Phillips, there is.

00:07:41.100 And that is the waves crashing onto the Caribbean shores of Ajax, where he was supposed to be

00:07:48.500 because he told everyone else that they had to stay home and even had tweeted about the

00:07:53.120 importance of just having a Zoom turkey get together for Christmas or something like that.

00:07:58.100 And just all.

00:07:58.860 I mean, again, I can go on and on and on.

00:08:00.860 And I have.

00:08:01.540 And frankly, we all should.

00:08:03.700 But the problem is, is that Rod Phillips is not unique here.

00:08:08.380 Political leaders have been doing this since the very beginning of the pandemic.

00:08:12.280 And there are varying degrees of transgressions.

00:08:15.180 You know, you go back to Ontario Premier Doug Ford telling everyone not to gather for Easter

00:08:20.540 and then deciding to go up and check the plumbing of his cottage in Muskoka or something like that.

00:08:26.000 And there was, I think it was Easter or Mother's Day or something.

00:08:29.220 Again, one of these holidays that we were all told to forego that Doug Ford had his family

00:08:33.740 get together on despite telling people not to have such get togethers.

00:08:37.940 And you just know when the Rod Phillips story was unfolding that there were a whole bunch

00:08:43.240 of other political leaders of all parties that were canvassing their caucuses desperately

00:08:48.300 trying to, like, hope that no one else was in the Caribbean, that no one else had done this.

00:08:52.940 And that was why there was a flurry, a small flurry of acknowledgements from people that

00:08:58.060 took place on December 30th, the day the story was breaking up.

00:09:01.780 So, yes, I went to this place on this day.

00:09:04.240 And one of them was a Saskatchewan cabinet minister who has decided to do what I think is brilliant

00:09:11.500 because he's pitched his trip to his California beach house as an essential trip.

00:09:16.980 Joe Hargrave, who is the highways minister, is saying in a statement that he is in Palm Springs

00:09:22.880 to finish selling personal property and to move things back to Saskatchewan.

00:09:28.460 So, he had said that he told Premier Scott Moe of his plans and said that it was an essential business.

00:09:34.720 Scott Moe said, oh, well, you know, if he says it's essential, then who am I to judge?

00:09:38.560 But he's going down there and he says it was important.

00:09:41.420 It was important to do it.

00:09:42.520 He's selling some things.

00:09:43.760 So, this is what you do.

00:09:45.020 You can basically just have a yard sale at your beach house and then you can declare it

00:09:49.560 an essential business.

00:09:50.740 And to be fair, he may be doing important things.

00:09:53.180 He may be doing things that matter.

00:09:55.180 But it's the optics of this.

00:09:56.840 It is the optics of it.

00:09:59.260 And if you want to travel, great.

00:10:01.100 Don't be part of governments that are telling people not to.

00:10:04.840 I mean, the Ontario government, as one notable example here,

00:10:08.900 has been literally telling people to stay home.

00:10:11.880 Someone on Twitter put together what I thought was a very useful montage

00:10:14.960 of even just from the last couple of weeks.

00:10:17.560 Please, please continue to follow those rules.

00:10:20.220 We want people to stay in place, stay in your own homes as much as possible.

00:10:24.480 It's sort of the stay home time.

00:10:27.820 I strongly encourage everyone to stay home and continue to follow public health measures.

00:10:32.820 During the holidays, hunker down to stay home.

00:10:36.540 And no, I know I'm beating up on the conservative parties here,

00:10:40.020 the Saskatchewan party and the Ontario PC party.

00:10:43.160 But political hypocrisy is not limited to one party.

00:10:46.880 An MNA from Quebec, Pierre Arcand, was in Barbados.

00:10:51.800 And he's now been recalled by his party leader.

00:10:55.520 Of course, we remember when Patti Hajdu, who has been the chief health spokesperson,

00:11:01.280 with the exception of perhaps Dr. Theresa Tam in Canada,

00:11:04.680 and she was hanging out in the Pearson Airport lounge without a mask.

00:11:08.240 Now, interestingly enough, I haven't, I wasn't going to tell this story

00:11:12.080 because I tend to believe that people deserve a bit of privacy,

00:11:14.940 but I'm not actually telling it for bad reasons.

00:11:17.160 Because I was in Toronto at the airport a couple of weeks ago,

00:11:21.720 and I had a whole bunch of points.

00:11:24.280 So I was able to upgrade and use the lounge.

00:11:26.860 And what was interesting about it is that Patti Hajdu was legitimately in the lounge. 0.76

00:11:31.720 I was sitting down, enjoying my coffee.

00:11:34.160 I heard a woman walk in and she was talking on her phone and she sat down. 0.94

00:11:37.880 Actually, at the closest table to me.

00:11:39.660 But in social distancing, that was, you know, like three and a half kilometers away or something.

00:11:43.480 But no, I heard her and I was like, oh, I recognize that voice.

00:11:46.200 Then I looked up and I'm like, I think that's Patti Hajdu.

00:11:49.840 And I was just about to leave.

00:11:51.300 I only had like a couple of moments before I had to catch my flight.

00:11:55.600 And I was like, that's Patti Hajdu.

00:11:57.360 And I'm like, you better believe that she kept her mask on for the entire time that I saw her there.

00:12:03.700 And I don't know if she has any idea who I am.

00:12:05.500 But the whole point is that after she was busted in the lounge for no mask, I'm sure she's being very cautious now.

00:12:12.520 Andrew Scheer, I mean, he was busted at Pearson Airport with no mask on when he was talking to people.

00:12:18.120 Now, this was earlier on in the pandemic.

00:12:20.360 But the thing was, the level of attention that the media has given conservatives compared to anyone on the left is very notable.

00:12:28.860 And I would say that the reason we should be doing it the other way around, if we're going to be imbalanced about it,

00:12:34.480 is because the liberals are the ones that tend to be the biggest nannies about this. 0.54

00:12:38.920 Or, I mean, some of the conservatives aren't doing much better now, a la Ontario.

00:12:44.240 But that was the whole thing.

00:12:45.920 So when Randy Hillier, who's an Ontario MPP that we've talked to on this show,

00:12:49.700 tweeted a picture of a gathering that he had on Christmas or Boxing Day that OPP are, by the way, now investigating.

00:12:57.660 This is what police are doing right now.

00:13:00.800 OPP are investigating Randy Hillier's Christmas.

00:13:03.540 So when Randy Hillier posts that, I'm like, you know what?

00:13:05.700 Power to him because he is an anti-lockdown advocate.

00:13:08.420 He's not being a hypocrite.

00:13:09.660 He is being actually a practitioner of what he preaches because he's not telling everyone else that they shouldn't be doing that.

00:13:17.340 Much like the mayor of Vancouver, Kennedy Stewart, who as well was sitting at a West End patio with seven other people,

00:13:24.740 this was earlier in the summer, two more than the per table limit for BC restaurants.

00:13:30.080 Now you may be saying, well, Andrew, I thought you were a freedom-loving guy.

00:13:32.660 Why do you care how many people are at a restaurant table in Vancouver?

00:13:36.240 I don't.

00:13:37.260 But these people do.

00:13:39.320 And that is the point.

00:13:40.840 These people do.

00:13:42.040 They're the ones that care about it.

00:13:43.260 They're the ones telling us to care about it.

00:13:45.040 But they're also the ones that don't feel the rules apply to them.

00:13:49.060 Remember when Lori Lightfoot, I'm going to go outside of Canada for a moment,

00:13:52.480 the mayor of Chicago decided she should be able to get a haircut, but no one else should?

00:13:57.640 And her explanation, well, she has to, you know, get up there and give press conferences. 1.00

00:14:01.600 So, you know, that's why it's important for her to get a haircut. 1.00

00:14:04.780 She needs to look her best.

00:14:05.840 The rest of us, schlubs, you know what?

00:14:07.680 We need to live without.

00:14:08.500 So, this sort of stuff is going to continue because there is no real accountability.

00:14:16.380 And it shows that there are political leaders who are insulated from the consequences of

00:14:23.080 their decisions that the rest of us must abide by.

00:14:26.500 Insulated to such an extent that they don't want to live by them.

00:14:30.860 They don't have to live by them.

00:14:32.360 And part of this is about wealth.

00:14:35.360 Part of it is about wealth.

00:14:36.900 If you have money, it's a lot easier for you to sort of fly above, literally and figuratively,

00:14:42.520 what the rest of the world is going through.

00:14:44.500 Again, if you don't want to deal with the Ontario lockdown, you can just, you know,

00:14:48.500 pick up and fly to St. Bart's for Christmas.

00:14:51.760 If you don't want to live with the restrictions on any other number of businesses,

00:14:56.420 you could probably find a way to pay to get it done.

00:14:59.380 But that's the whole point of this, is that if politicians are not themselves able to live

00:15:05.900 in the provinces or country that they are setting out for the rest of us to live in,

00:15:10.360 what does that say about those rules?

00:15:12.860 What does it say about those rules?

00:15:14.580 If they can't even tolerate it or don't want to, or at the very least are making these rules

00:15:19.940 knowing that, oh, well, you know, it's not going to bother me anyway because I'm going

00:15:23.400 to be heading on.

00:15:25.160 I'm just going to be heading on.

00:15:26.260 When I'm on a Zoom call with worship leaders who, by the way, are not even allowed to gather

00:15:30.760 and I can hear waves crashing in the background, what better message is there for I don't really

00:15:36.560 care about what you're going through?

00:15:39.460 And I don't know what the answer is because the system itself has a corrupting power to

00:15:45.340 it.

00:15:45.540 Good people go into politics and they get very much consumed by this.

00:15:49.640 And I'm honestly saying when I ran in 2018, I could have been an MPP in the Ontario government

00:15:56.740 right now.

00:15:57.200 And I'm so glad I didn't.

00:15:58.440 I'm so glad I did not have to be a lawmaker during this period because I don't suspect it

00:16:03.800 would end well because I couldn't in good conscience shut down people.

00:16:08.020 I could not in good conscience shut down people whose livelihoods depend on their businesses

00:16:13.420 being open and whose personal happiness, whose personal mental health depends on being able

00:16:18.720 to go about their lives and live their lives.

00:16:20.760 So if someone wants to travel, have at it.

00:16:24.000 What I would hope people take away from this episode is that, hey, if the finance minister,

00:16:30.020 if the highways minister in Saskatchewan, if Quebec MNAs, if MPs are all finding that there's

00:16:36.440 a safe and enjoyable way to live your life that involves travel, that involves, you know,

00:16:40.500 maybe not always being masked in public, that involves having a few people on a patio, if

00:16:44.860 that's what they believe, then great.

00:16:46.440 Let's just eliminate all the restrictions.

00:16:50.020 So I'm going to propose a new law.

00:16:52.340 Now, I'm not legally wording this right now.

00:16:54.900 So someone else can do the legal drafting of it.

00:16:57.380 If you are good at drafting legislation and you enjoy doing it in your spare time and you

00:17:01.720 want to help over the holidays, this is an idea that I would love you to do.

00:17:05.380 This is something that every province can and should embrace, and I would say should be

00:17:09.140 embraced at the national level as well.

00:17:11.600 Any rule or public health restriction pertaining to COVID-19 that a member of a government that's

00:17:19.000 enacted the restriction breaks is automatically stricken.

00:17:23.240 That's the rule.

00:17:24.180 That is the proposed law that we need going into 2020.

00:17:27.680 In other words, if a member of your government put a rule forward and doesn't follow the rule,

00:17:32.080 the rule is automatically nullified.

00:17:34.540 Maybe it's not the way that we normally pass legislation.

00:17:37.480 But at this point, I think it's the best way to do it.

00:17:40.080 Instead of the punitive snitch culture where everyone's trying to figure out who's in the

00:17:43.940 Bahamas and who's in Barbados and who's in St. Barts, let's just say any rule that they

00:17:48.040 don't think is worth following in their own lives, the rest of us don't have to follow

00:17:51.640 in our own lives.

00:17:52.540 And you know what?

00:17:53.300 It's going to be a heck of a lot happier a 2021 if this is the way we go forward.

00:17:58.800 On that note, we'll be back in a couple of moments for a look at what the year ahead

00:18:02.680 may bring with True North founder Candace Malcolm.

00:18:05.440 Stay tuned.

00:18:07.100 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:18:12.540 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:18:15.180 Everyone has turned 2020, I think, very deservedly into a punchline.

00:18:19.280 It's been a very bad year in a lot of ways.

00:18:21.760 But for people in media, the silver lining has been there's been no shortage of things

00:18:26.140 to talk about.

00:18:26.880 So for True North, it's been certainly a busy year.

00:18:29.600 And I'd say a challenging year like it has been for everyone.

00:18:32.460 But there's also been a lot that we have done.

00:18:34.580 So I wanted to take this opportunity as we are nearing the end of the year here in the

00:18:38.740 next day or so to chat with my friend and colleague, Candace Malcolm, who I will say,

00:18:43.780 despite all of the love and adoration I get from my viewers here, the one question I always

00:18:49.020 get is, you're great, your show's great, but where's Candace been? 0.83

00:18:51.600 So Candace, thanks for coming.

00:18:53.180 Where have you been?

00:18:54.120 Well, first, Andrew, thank you so much.

00:18:56.060 Merry Christmas.

00:18:56.540 I hope you had a wonderful holiday and same to all of your viewers.

00:19:01.360 Yeah.

00:19:01.640 So I've been sort of under the radar for the last few weeks.

00:19:04.700 I had a baby in November.

00:19:06.880 And so I've been taking the time to, you know, spend time with my family and focus on

00:19:12.200 the newborn and the family.

00:19:14.260 So I've been away a little, but luckily we did a whole bunch of sort of pre-recorded

00:19:18.780 content.

00:19:19.300 So we released a documentary.

00:19:21.180 We had the speaker series.

00:19:22.400 We were doing a lot and hopefully I'll be back, you know, in no time at all in the new

00:19:28.280 year to produce new content.

00:19:30.820 Well, I know everyone is very happy for you.

00:19:33.560 I know certainly everyone on the True North team, myself included, is very much.

00:19:37.760 But let's talk about how this year has been, because I remember at the very beginning of

00:19:42.220 the pandemic when no one knew what was going on.

00:19:45.180 We were seeing these terrible stories coming out of China and then Iran and then Italy.

00:19:49.900 And you and I, I think with the whole team really said, OK, we need to be on the front

00:19:54.760 lines of this.

00:19:55.500 We know the mainstream media often gets things wrong.

00:19:58.000 And we did.

00:19:58.940 I remember the daily True North update shows.

00:20:01.340 We were watching Justin Trudeau's daily press conferences.

00:20:04.260 So our viewers didn't have to and talking about what was happening.

00:20:08.060 And, you know, it was interesting when we first started doing that.

00:20:11.640 I don't think you or I had any idea.

00:20:13.860 I certainly didn't have any idea that that would still be the story of the day 10 months

00:20:18.980 later.

00:20:19.720 Oh, absolutely not.

00:20:20.700 I mean, it was sort of one of those bizarre things where the narrative was constantly shifting,

00:20:25.700 constantly changing.

00:20:26.580 I remember at the very beginning of the pandemic when it was sort of more conservatives that

00:20:30.740 were arguing in favor of wearing face masks.

00:20:33.660 And so that was so that we wouldn't have to shut down the entire economy.

00:20:36.760 The idea was like, you know, if we just take a few precautions like social distancing and

00:20:41.480 not wearing face masks, then we can keep the economy open and keep going.

00:20:45.400 And now, you know, because of the sort of changing message and the much more, I would

00:20:49.780 say, draconian tone behind some of these demands, you know, you see more and more conservatives

00:20:55.700 opposing things like like wearing face masks.

00:20:58.500 But we've come a very long way, Andrew.

00:21:00.640 And looking back at those early days, you know, it was it was really frightening, really

00:21:05.540 concerning watching the government sort of just go back and forth, contradicting itself,

00:21:11.240 flip flopping, you know, changing its mind.

00:21:14.360 It was sort of like a bizarro world.

00:21:16.720 The idea which we lived through again during the U.S.

00:21:20.240 federal election where you had a liberal like Joe Biden saying that he would have done better

00:21:26.520 than Trump did in shutting down the economy faster.

00:21:30.520 Well, you know, doesn't take too much of a memory to look back and think, hey, it was

00:21:35.480 January when Trump shut flights down from China.

00:21:38.440 Trudeau refused to do that.

00:21:40.520 And, you know, it wasn't until three months later that Canada took any measures to lock

00:21:44.600 down travel.

00:21:45.380 So, you know, we've had we've had a crazy year in terms of the government messaging and

00:21:50.040 the things that we've been told, the back and forth.

00:21:52.340 I think I think trust in institutions like the government and like the media is at an

00:21:57.280 all time low just from just from my, you know, perception.

00:22:01.620 I don't know if there's any polling that backs that up, Andrew.

00:22:04.220 But I think that really this idea that we need to trust experts when those experts are 0.71

00:22:09.780 just constantly changing their mind is ridiculous.

00:22:13.100 And I think that in that it has created an opportunity for independent journalists like

00:22:18.120 you and I at True North, because, you know, we're not so obsessed with with parroting the

00:22:23.820 talking points and and enforcing this idea that that every expert must be correct and

00:22:28.720 we must, you know, turn off our minds and just listen to whatever the edict is of the

00:22:33.520 day.

00:22:33.880 We'll know, you know, there still needs to be scrutiny.

00:22:36.720 There still needs to be questioning just because someone's an expert doesn't necessarily

00:22:39.860 mean that they know any better when it comes to, you know, a mysterious virus from

00:22:44.720 China.

00:22:45.540 And I think a lot of people are just completely fed up and sick of these of these orders

00:22:51.280 that we're getting without necessarily the evidence and the data backing it up.

00:22:58.340 There's a clip from the original Borat movie that I just remembered, and I haven't thought

00:23:03.460 of that movie since it came out, you know, 10 or 12 or however many years ago when Borat

00:23:08.120 is at the United Nations and he's just completely making a fool of himself doing things that

00:23:12.920 make no sense and they keep cutting to the expert panel on TV where people who pretend

00:23:18.380 to know exactly what he's doing talk about, oh, well, why he's doing this is because this

00:23:22.880 and why he's doing this.

00:23:23.840 And there's been a lot of that in the pandemic where we are all in unprecedented territory.

00:23:28.300 No one knew what we were dealing with.

00:23:30.520 No one knew the implications of it.

00:23:32.000 But you take people that are paid to have an opinion.

00:23:34.620 They're paid to say things.

00:23:35.740 And I say this knowing full well what I do for a living, but I don't pretend to have the

00:23:39.600 answers if I don't.

00:23:40.700 And that's the problem that we have.

00:23:42.420 And this was something that True North started looking at long before COVID came along, which

00:23:48.140 was the sort of expert industrial complex.

00:23:51.140 But this year, I really think that the circumstances have established why it's so dangerous to really

00:23:56.640 cede everything to rule by experts.

00:23:59.640 Absolutely, Andrew.

00:24:00.800 And there's just some questions that beg being asked.

00:24:03.760 I mean, when the virus first came out, you know, the epicenter was a basically unknown

00:24:10.000 large city, large industrial city in China called Wuhan.

00:24:13.760 No one had really ever heard of Wuhan before.

00:24:16.060 It was hardly ever mentioned in the media.

00:24:19.040 One of the interesting things about Wuhan is it is the home to China's biological warfare 1.00

00:24:24.420 labs.

00:24:25.220 And I remember raising that question just sort of, you know, kind of almost not casually,

00:24:30.460 but just without having a lot of evidence connecting it, but just saying, hey, look, this

00:24:35.620 is the center of China's biological labs.

00:24:40.280 Why isn't that being dug into?

00:24:42.000 Why isn't that being questioned?

00:24:42.760 And merely just for raising that question and making that observation, I started getting,

00:24:48.180 you know, hit pieces written about me and people calling me a conspiracy theory, a theorist

00:24:53.560 and sort of having this backlash against me just for just for asking the question.

00:24:57.840 And, you know, last time I checked, the role of a journalist is to ask questions, sometimes

00:25:02.180 uncomfortable questions.

00:25:03.180 And sometimes the questions that you ask don't lead anywhere.

00:25:05.720 And sometimes they do.

00:25:07.240 But but but the idea that you that you shouldn't be able to ask certain questions, it just just

00:25:11.320 seems so out of line to me.

00:25:12.680 And I think that that, again, really has been center in this entire covid pandemic, all the

00:25:19.720 government lockdowns is that, you know, we're not really supposed to question the orders that

00:25:24.300 are coming down.

00:25:24.980 And yet, Andrew, as you know, that sometimes it just make such little sense.

00:25:29.460 And when you have so much on the line, you know, a small business owner, a restaurant

00:25:33.340 owner, anybody who earns their living by going out into the world and governments taking

00:25:39.300 that livelihood away from them, it's incredibly serious and, you know, it deserves pushback

00:25:44.680 and scrutiny.

00:25:45.320 I think to me, one of the most disappointing things that's happened this year and, you

00:25:50.540 know, Justin Trudeau has been awful.

00:25:52.020 But but we expect that at this point.

00:25:54.080 I've been really disappointed in Doug Ford and the sort of hysterical tone that has been

00:25:59.380 taken.

00:26:00.080 I mean, you know, the biggest story right now, and I know you've been talking about it on

00:26:03.760 your show is with the minister Rod Phillips being down in St.

00:26:07.980 Bart's and, you know, the reaction to that from from Doug Ford himself has been so over

00:26:13.540 the top.

00:26:14.120 I mean, yes, obviously, it's a contradiction when a politician is traveling after telling

00:26:18.700 you and I not to travel.

00:26:21.000 But but if the government was really serious about a rule that we're not allowed to travel,

00:26:25.160 why haven't they shut down the airports?

00:26:26.900 Why are there still flights going in and out of Pearson, Toronto daily?

00:26:30.980 I mean, I'm down in the Bahamas right now.

00:26:32.980 I've been down here for for some time and I know there's daily flights that are that

00:26:36.980 are coming in and out.

00:26:37.900 So if the government truly does believe it's it's it's beyond the pale and terrible to

00:26:42.860 to get on an airplane and travel, why haven't they shut down the flights?

00:26:46.820 Why haven't they shut down the airports?

00:26:47.920 It doesn't make any sense.

00:26:49.240 So, you know, we're in a situation where you're allowed to travel.

00:26:52.200 It's not against the law.

00:26:53.400 There are fights going in and out.

00:26:54.840 And yet somehow when you do it, it's it's it's this horrible offense.

00:27:00.380 I don't understand.

00:27:01.740 Yeah. And this was the point I raised earlier in the show, which is that I'm very much pro

00:27:06.800 travel, but I'm anti hypocrisy.

00:27:09.160 And when you have the government on one hand saying, don't go anywhere, make it the year

00:27:13.460 of the Ontario staycation.

00:27:14.900 And then on the other hand, you know, buggering off to St.

00:27:17.940 Bart's and then not wanting to disclose where he was or when he was coming back and and that

00:27:22.660 sort of stuff.

00:27:23.300 I'm, you know, very much in team.

00:27:24.840 Let's try to live our lives.

00:27:26.020 And, you know, the reality is the politicians who keep talking about how dangerous things

00:27:30.500 are in Canada right now.

00:27:32.820 They shouldn't blame people that are going to vacation destinations that in many cases

00:27:36.920 have fewer cases than exist in Ontario.

00:27:39.700 So, I mean, that's the other irony of this is that if someone is not breaking the law,

00:27:44.040 they've made a decision, they're comfortable with the risk, which always exists when you

00:27:47.820 travel, then I would say have at it.

00:27:49.700 But this year, you are bang on that we are not supposed to ask the questions this year,

00:27:54.720 whether it was Patty Hajdu telling people that they were feeding conspiracies, if they

00:27:59.120 asked about China's numbers, people calling you a conspiracy theorist for talking about

00:28:03.560 or asking about rather the biology lab and even with politicians conduct.

00:28:08.200 I mean, this idea that politicians have put forward is that we're all supposed to be

00:28:12.060 a united front, which sure may well be true, but that doesn't mean that you have to

00:28:16.820 accept without scrutiny and without skepticism guidance from people that have demonstrably

00:28:22.800 been getting it wrong.

00:28:24.140 Well, and Patty Hajdu is another example of someone who also was traveling all over the 0.97

00:28:28.100 country north, broke the story of how many places.

00:28:30.100 And the media outrage, nowhere nearly as strong as it was on her.

00:28:32.700 Right.

00:28:32.980 And same with when she was caught in an airport not wearing a mask.

00:28:35.980 Well, supposedly there was a bag somewhere that was full of food, and so she was exempt from

00:28:40.140 that role.

00:28:40.680 But, you know, when it was happening to Andrew Scheer, there was no such exemption.

00:28:44.840 And look, yeah, for my case, you know, one of the reasons that we decided to come down

00:28:50.300 to the Bahamas was to get away from Ontario and the crazy governance up there, the hospitals

00:28:56.060 that are full, the mismanagement.

00:28:58.160 You know, like I said, I had a baby and my experiences going to the doctor's offices and

00:29:03.140 the hospitals in Toronto were pretty outrageous, just given how slow everything was, how much

00:29:08.680 they made you wait, how long everything took, you know, how kind of quickly they'd rush you

00:29:13.660 in and out of services, you know, the whole idea behind having a universal health care

00:29:18.860 system is so that supposedly everyone gets good care, but it really felt like they were

00:29:22.680 skimping out and not giving the care that I that I needed and that I demand.

00:29:28.500 And, you know, one of the other things is that being locked down in a cold climate isn't

00:29:33.740 isn't very fun, especially with little kids.

00:29:35.360 So I think it's a great idea to go somewhere where you can be outside, where you can get

00:29:40.480 fresh air, you can get vitamin D.

00:29:42.440 And then as far as as the whole government approach, I just think it's truly outrageous,

00:29:48.820 the idea that we're supposed to just say yes to everything and go along without question,

00:29:55.100 especially, Andrew, when there's such a strong ideological component behind it.

00:30:00.140 And I'm talking about Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland and the whole green reset bragging about

00:30:06.140 the idea that this is an opportunity to somehow, you know, change our economy and move away from

00:30:13.140 the driving forces of our economy, which are our energy and fossil fuel.

00:30:17.880 There is an ideological component.

00:30:19.900 They're trying to do whatever they said, a great reset to produce some kind of a green 0.95

00:30:26.300 utopian economy, which is totally ridiculous and unfeasible as anyone who's looked into some

00:30:33.180 of the technologies that they're talking about knows.

00:30:36.120 And we focused on that very thoroughly in the Green Hypocrisy documentary series, Andrew.

00:30:40.740 But, you know, of course, Canadians should question and of course, Canadians should push 0.68

00:30:44.680 back against the rhetoric and against often really, really contradictory, hypocritical

00:30:51.480 positions that the government has been forcing upon us.

00:30:55.660 Yeah, and I do think the Green Hypocrisy documentary is great for two reasons. 0.92

00:31:01.500 Well, for many reasons, but two chiefly right now.

00:31:04.180 One of them is that it was putting a lot of these issues into a greater perspective in

00:31:09.340 a way that I even think an environmentalist would appreciate.

00:31:12.320 If you're someone that cares about the environment, you care about climate, you might not agree with

00:31:16.500 everything that was in that series, but you would very much agree that what government's

00:31:20.000 doing isn't really dealing with the problems they say they're dealing with.

00:31:23.300 And the other part is that for us, this year had its challenges.

00:31:27.320 I know True North had a lot of projects that we wanted to do.

00:31:29.800 I personally did that we just couldn't do this year because of the pandemic and travel

00:31:34.340 restrictions and other things.

00:31:35.520 So it was really great for us to be able to produce a big, significant project like that

00:31:40.660 that really resonated with people.

00:31:42.580 Yeah, well, thank you, Andrew.

00:31:43.580 I know we did have other plans and they included, you know, we were supposed to do an entire

00:31:49.020 across Canada tour.

00:31:50.360 You and I were going to be traveling.

00:31:51.540 We had Douglas Murray, the British author and thinker.

00:31:55.080 He had already had his flights booked and we had this whole thing planned.

00:31:58.320 And of course, we had to postpone that, potentially cancel that because of COVID and the restrictions

00:32:04.360 and the uncertainty of it all.

00:32:06.180 But I think that we still had a very strong year.

00:32:09.020 I think that to me that the big things that stuck out were, you know, the launching of the

00:32:14.600 Independent Press Gallery, which you were a large part of, our inaugural event, which was

00:32:18.880 supposed to be a debate among all the conservative candidates.

00:32:21.320 And, you know, we sort of dealt with the circumstances.

00:32:24.240 You were on the ground last minute and turn that into really a wonderful fireside chat event.

00:32:30.480 And that was really the highlight of the year, Andrew.

00:32:32.860 And I give you all the kudos in the world for that.

00:32:35.360 But we did a lot of other things.

00:32:36.800 I think that the speaker series was really fun.

00:32:39.360 I did a lot of really, really compelling interviews.

00:32:42.880 I sat down with Rex Murphy, Pierre Polyev, you know, Conrad Black, Barbara Kay, Dave Rubin.

00:32:50.040 There was a lot of really big names.

00:32:51.600 Douglas Murray.

00:32:52.940 I thought that was great.

00:32:54.060 Maxine Bernier as well.

00:32:55.260 We did a good interview.

00:32:56.560 And then the Green Hypocrisy. 0.94

00:32:57.860 And I think that it shows, you know, how we were able to sort of pivot, how we were able

00:33:03.220 to, you know, change what we were focused on, because the idea of doing live events wasn't

00:33:09.140 possible.

00:33:09.540 So we started doing a lot more interviews, a lot more Zoom events, you know, testing out

00:33:15.140 the different technologies.

00:33:16.260 And I think we found some successes that we're going to carry on into the new year.

00:33:20.560 Yeah, very much so.

00:33:21.680 And I appreciate the kind words about the fireside chat.

00:33:24.120 I don't know if I would, like, relive that day again, but it was still, in the end, one

00:33:27.960 that we can be very happy and very proud of.

00:33:30.120 And even in general, the conservative leadership race, I think, is a point of pride, because

00:33:34.380 so often these things are covered through the mainstream media's lens, and really in mainstream

00:33:40.840 media terms and context.

00:33:43.140 And for us to actually provide a conservative, small-c conservative approach to the issues

00:33:48.940 at stake in the leadership was something that was just completely absent from that race.

00:33:52.720 And I mean, you and I have joked about it in the past, that live stream that we did of

00:33:56.940 the results show that was supposed to be, I think it was, you know, supposed to be like

00:34:00.360 45 minutes and ended up being over eight hours.

00:34:02.640 Again, another day that I wouldn't relive, but we can still be proud of.

00:34:06.020 So there was a lot of room for the perspective that we bring and the analysis that we bring.

00:34:11.920 What do you want to do with that in 2021?

00:34:14.140 Well, I think that we're going to build off the successes that we've had.

00:34:17.800 You know, you give a great example with the leadership race.

00:34:20.060 I think a lot of Canadians just discovered True North and realized, wow, I don't have

00:34:24.380 to watch, you know, the party that I vote for, the party that I care about, through the lens

00:34:29.340 of the CBC, where they demonize everything and they make it seem controversial just to

00:34:33.380 hold very basic conservative values or Christian values or family values.

00:34:38.160 So we provided that alternative.

00:34:41.260 And again, just growing off of that, I know we have a lot more sort of hard-hitting interviews,

00:34:46.280 other documentary series we're looking to expand.

00:34:49.740 We've still got our investigative journalism team.

00:34:53.560 We're digging out new stories, putting pressure on politicians in Ottawa in ways that the

00:34:59.420 mainstream media just doesn't.

00:35:00.820 The Parliamentary Press Gallery, we're sort of challenging them.

00:35:03.640 I mean, the idea that they have complete reign over Ottawa and that no one else has any right

00:35:10.060 to ask questions.

00:35:10.720 We're challenging that, not just through True North, but also through the Independent Press

00:35:14.520 Gallery, the idea that journalists can get accredited without being part of that establishment

00:35:19.540 media, that sort of dying breed of big corporations running these media companies.

00:35:27.220 I think we saw a bit of a preview, Andrew, of what's possible during the U.S. election, where

00:35:32.320 big, high-paid journalists on CNN didn't have the influence that they used to.

00:35:40.520 You saw the rise of a lot of independent journalists, a lot of independent outlets outshining the

00:35:46.360 mainstream media.

00:35:47.100 More people get their news from Joe Rogan and his podcast on Spotify or Ben Shapiro and his

00:35:53.840 Daily Wire show on YouTube than do watch the mainstream media.

00:35:59.200 And I think that that same thing is possible in Canada, and we're carving the path towards

00:36:04.600 that.

00:36:04.820 So I think we've got a lot of really exciting projects and ideas and a lot of momentum that

00:36:10.920 we're going to carry on into 2021.

00:36:13.420 Yeah, very much so.

00:36:14.420 And a lot of the things that I wanted to do in 2020, I haven't forgotten about.

00:36:17.480 We just had to move them back.

00:36:19.140 So maybe I'll have twice as much on my plate this year.

00:36:21.780 Who knows?

00:36:22.200 But you know what?

00:36:22.700 It's all fun stuff, and I love doing it.

00:36:24.560 And I'm so grateful still that you founded True North and continue to see this organization

00:36:28.960 through all of the different turns and pitfalls and highs and lows of 2020 and beyond.

00:36:35.040 So Candice, thank you very much.

00:36:36.540 Congratulations again on the lovely new baby.

00:36:39.680 And thank you for coming on and giving us an update on what's happening for you and for

00:36:43.760 the organization.

00:36:44.820 Well, thank you so much.

00:36:45.980 You know, I think family is just so important, and I'm enjoying every moment of staying home

00:36:51.100 with my baby and focusing on that right now.

00:36:54.540 But I haven't forgotten about True North, Andrew.

00:36:56.760 And, you know, I just want to quickly say to the viewers, you know, it was a really

00:37:02.340 uncertain year.

00:37:03.540 There was really a lot of people losing their job, losing their livelihood, and we didn't 0.99

00:37:07.680 really know what was going to happen with True North.

00:37:09.580 We paused all of our donation attempts.

00:37:11.920 We stopped fundraising because we just didn't feel right asking people for money.

00:37:16.120 We instead encouraged everyone to donate to their local food bank.

00:37:19.040 We even created a map for Canadians to find their closest food bank so that they could go

00:37:24.340 and volunteer and donate and help.

00:37:26.760 And I was just sort of floored.

00:37:29.140 You know, once the economy sort of started to open back up again in the summer, we started

00:37:33.680 doing our donation pitches again.

00:37:35.820 And I was just floored by the support and generosity of our viewers, of our fans out there, because,

00:37:43.060 you know, really, they're the ones that keep us going, Andrew.

00:37:45.260 And it was like they appreciated what we were doing more than ever.

00:37:48.180 And we actually saw increases in the amount of money that we were making, which helped

00:37:53.000 us, you know, hire new journalists and do new projects.

00:37:55.100 So I really just want to say thank you so much to everyone watching, everyone who supports

00:38:01.780 our work and helps keep independent journalists and journalism alive in Canada.

00:38:06.940 It's so needed.

00:38:07.720 It's so important.

00:38:09.040 And again, we've got a lot more in store for the new year.

00:38:12.700 And Andrew, I know, you know, when I'm away, you're doing a lot more.

00:38:15.880 You're covering a lot of the editing and overseeing the team and the work and everything.

00:38:20.800 So thank you so much for the work that you do.

00:38:23.300 You're really, really a core part of sure if we would never have the success that we

00:38:26.860 did without all your work.

00:38:28.480 So thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for that.

00:38:32.000 Well, thank you.

00:38:32.920 And I certainly echo that gratitude to the viewers.

00:38:35.520 Thanks very much, Candice, and happy new year to you and the family.

00:38:38.120 Thank you.

00:38:38.680 Thank you.

00:38:40.000 And happy new year to all of you as well.

00:38:42.160 The show, as I mentioned earlier, actually started in January of 2020, the show on this

00:38:47.440 platform.

00:38:47.940 What a year to start something, right?

00:38:49.120 But truly, to have made it through a year wouldn't be possible without your support

00:38:53.660 financial and your support by sharing it and even just the messages of encouragement and

00:38:58.120 even the hate mail you all send me.

00:38:59.360 It's all part of the same package, I guess.

00:39:01.400 But I do really appreciate the support.

00:39:03.020 And I know Candice and the whole team do as well.

00:39:05.100 So with that, my thanks to all of you for tuning in today and over the past 12 months.

00:39:09.480 We'll talk to you soon.

00:39:10.720 Thank you.

00:39:11.240 God bless.

00:39:11.880 And happy new year, Canada.

00:39:13.500 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:39:15.400 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - December 31, 2020

The Year of the Hypocrite

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript