This week's most biased news!
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Summary
A bunch of billboards with a picture of the People's Party candidate Max St. Bernier were put up across the country with a simple message: "Say No to Mass Immigration." There was a lot of outrage and talk about how the message was racist and anti-Canadian. After a backlash, the billboards were taken down and a new message was put in their place.
Transcript
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Hi everyone, welcome to another segment of This Week in Fake News. I'm your host Candice Malcolm,
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founder of True North and a columnist over at Post Media with the Toronto Sun.
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There are a couple stories that I want to break down for you this week, and they're going to be
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hitting on some of the similar topics we've been talking about for the past few weeks. So let's
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just jump right into it. The first story that everyone's been talking about this week are these
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billboards. As you probably know, as you've heard, a bunch of billboards were put up across the country
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with a picture of Max St. Bernier, the leader of the People's Party of Canada, and the billboards
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had a pretty simple message. They just simply said, say no to mass immigration, with a picture of Max
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St. Bernier, big word that said vote, and then the People's Party logo. We've learned that these
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billboards did not go out under the People's Party. It was a third-party supporting group that put them
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out. The group is called True North Strong and Free Advertising. It has no connection whatsoever with
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this organization, with True North. Just obviously a very common name given that the words right there
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are in our national anthem. Anyway, there was a huge uproar over these billboards. People were
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outraged. There was a series of just ridiculous, ridiculous headlines. The Toronto Star headline said
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it was a deceptive billboard. The Calgary Herald headline said that it was hurtful. And probably the
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silliest headline that I saw was right in those Sun papers in the Edmonton Sun. An activist said that
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these billboards were very racist, very racist to say no to mass immigration, according to these
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politically correct Canadians. So after a whole bunch of complaints and people, you know, the mob,
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the mob mentality that we see so often, complaining the organization that owns the billboards,
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Patterson, they decided to take those billboards down. So billboards are gone. Apparently we cannot
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have a conversation about immigration levels in this country. And it's interesting because most
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of the political parties all sort of agree that we should continue to ever increase the number of
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immigrants that come to Canada. Maxime Bernier and the People's Party take just a very slightly
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different view, which is that we should cap it at about 250,000 new permanent residents a year,
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which I'd like to point out is the number of newcomers that we welcomed in 2015. So it's not like
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we're going back to like historic levels. It's not like we're going back to like the 90s or earlier
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and trying to kind of even out. No, we're just going back like three years to the beginning of
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Justin Trudeau's tenure as prime minister. And somehow that is just beyond the pale, say no to
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mass immigration. So as you would expect, the mainstream media found a whole bunch of leftist
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activists to dissect this message and accuse Maxime Bernier of saying something that he's not saying.
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This is their favorite thing that they do. They will accuse a politician of only on the right,
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accuse a politician on the right of so-called dog whistle politics. So that's when you blame a
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politician for saying something that they didn't actually say. I get accused of this all the time
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by the sort of deranged regressive left. They can't point to anything controversial that I've
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actually said or that Maxime Bernier said. But then they accuse us of saying things that we haven't
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said. And so they call this dog whistle politics. So you have to sort of read between the lines
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and invent a new message from not the message that's actually put out there. So apparently
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say no to mass immigration is dog whistle politics. And there's an embedded message that really just
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says we hate everybody or we don't want any immigrants or we want to deport people or something
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like that, which is clearly not what Maxime Bernier is saying. In fact, he constantly, consistently
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has a message that Canada needs to lower its immigration levels to just what we had three years
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ago, focus more on integration, that is making sure that the newcomers to Canada, you know, are involved
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in the community, get a job, that they learn to speak English or French and that they develop a Canadian
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identity and join the Canadian family, which I think every Canadian on the left or the right would agree
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with that, I hope, and that we should focus on the economic needs of the country. And so this is obviously
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in contrast to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has taken the opposite approach. He has lowered the
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relative level of economic immigrants and increased the number of family reunification people, the
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number of elderly parents and grandparents coming to Canada, and the number of refugees and asylum
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seekers. So, you know, Bernier's position is just different. It's a policy position. And it's a
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legitimate debate that we should be able to have in this country. But heaven no, the leftist
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establishment does not want us to have this conversation. So here is an article on the CBC.
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And it actually has a pretty decent headline. It says removing anti-immigration billboard is
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censorship, says columnists. And so they quoted a Quebec based writer, Lise Reverie, who is with the
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Montreal Gazette, who said that this is just pure censorship, that we shouldn't be taking down
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a billboard, just because we don't necessarily agree with the message in it. And again, the message
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is just super mundane. You know, it didn't say no, no immigrants or send people back or, you know,
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anything like that. It just said no to mass immigration, a pretty simple message that I imagine
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most Canadians would agree with. In fact, polling shows that only 6% of Canadians want more immigration.
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And that's what Trudeau has done. So Trudeau's doing what only 6% of Canadians want. Bernie is talking
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about what the rest of us want. And somehow, you know, it is beyond the pale. So here, the CBC has
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found a person to, again, say that basically having free speech is wrong. So this person says,
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Journalist and Human Rights Advocate, Amira Al-Gabari, said to claim the issue was about free
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speech is absolutely wrong. Quote, free speech is not a ticket to demonize and marginalize,
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says this person who serves on the board of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. She called the billboard
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an example of dog whistle politics to get attention of voters who hold anti-immigrant views. Mr.
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Bernier can claim that this is him wanting to have a debate. But what it actually is, it's him
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signaling to those people who, again, are holding these views that if that this is what's going on,
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that he's going to be the one to, quote, unquote, save Canada. So somehow this woman claims to know
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what Bernier is saying and what's in his mind when he hasn't actually said those things and we don't
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know that that's what's in his mind at all. So she's saying that somehow she understands Bernier
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better than he understands himself. And that this is really just about finding those racist Canadians
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and getting them to vote for the People's Party. And then we found another person that the CBC quotes,
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no mass immigration in Canada says an expert. And as I've talked about before, this is the media's
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favorite thing to do is to go find an expert. And that expert, that quote, unquote, expert believes
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exactly what they believe. They hold the like classic paint by number left wing view on an issue. And then
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the unbiased journalist, instead of having to insert their own opinion, they just insert their own
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opinion. And then they say, says an expert. And so then that's how we get this bias in the news. So
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this expert says that there is no mass immigration in Canada. So here we go, contrary to the wording
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scrawled on the billboard, there is no mass immigration to Canada, points out immigration expert
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Usha George. Canada is one of the few countries in the world which has a very organized immigration
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system. Says this person who is the director of the Centre for Immigration and Resettlement at
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Ryerson University. The government operates a point system, she explained, which prioritizes immigrants
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who contribute to the economy. Yes, but as we pointed out last week, only about 20%, 20, 25, 26%
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of people who come to Canada as permanent residents are coming as economic immigrants. The rest are all
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family members or extended family members or refugees or asylum seekers. And again, when we're talking
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about permanent residents coming to Canada, that's again, only a small portion of the number of the
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total people that come to Canada because we have a temporary foreign worker program, we have a large
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student visa program, we have people who come as long-term visitors, and then we also have those
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asylum seekers. And none of those are included in the government's official count. So when you look at the
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broader number of people who are coming to Canada on a more permanent basis, it's closer to a million
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people a year. It's closer to a million people. So keep that in mind. And only a very, very small
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portion of those people come for jobs. Okay, but this person who is somehow a total expert from
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left-wing Ryerson University says, no, no, that's not the case. She says that, you know, that we prioritize
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immigrants for the economy. It's only partly true. Our family immigration is much smaller, and
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our refugee immigration is even smaller than that. It's true that the economic class of
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immigration is the largest, but only a portion of that is actually the people who hold the
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visa and the rest of them are their family. And then there's a separate family immigration
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class and a separate refugee, which Trudeau has increased both of those levels. So it's
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true that they're smaller, but the ratio is changing. And again, it's only a small portion
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of the people that are in that economic class. Okay. Last, here we go, we'll keep reading
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from the CBC article. Last October, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hassan announced a multi-year
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plan to increase the immigration target to 350 per year by 2021, a figure that's close to
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1% of the country's population. So that is the highest level that we've had in any point
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in recent history. And the Trudeau government admits that it's the most ambitious immigration
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plan that we've seen recently. And again, that's only the number of people who are coming permanently.
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It doesn't include the temporary foreign workers. It doesn't include the asylum seekers. It doesn't
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include the student visas or the long-term visitors. So it's just really like a portion of the people
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that are coming to Canada. And then they show a couple of different polls that show that Canadians
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are kind of souring on immigration, that we used to really be open to immigration. And every year,
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basically, since Trudeau's been in power, the number's gone down lower and lower of the people
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who accept immigration. And then here we go. So it comes from the fact that more and more of the
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immigrants who come to this country these days are from countries that are non-European.
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So there we have it. It's really just because Canadians are just so intolerant and racist. That's really
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the crux of it, according to this so-called expert. The sentiment comes from a lack of understanding
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about how immigrants contribute to the system and about negative propaganda about immigrants.
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The diversity of the immigrants coming in also incites fear among right-wing groups and really
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conservative kinds of individuals who feel like Canada is changing. So that's really what the CBC
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wants to say. If you oppose immigration of any kind, if you even want to have a conversation about
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Canada's immigration system, or if you just have the very subtle position that you want to go back
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to the numbers that we had three years ago, really it's because you're racist. It's because you hate
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people who are not European, and that's the bottom line. So that's really what this story is about.
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They just kind of slid it in there. Instead of, again, saying it's their own opinion, they just found
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some expert to say exactly what they think. And that basically is that all these Canadians who don't want
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large numbers of immigrants who feel unhappy about the integration program, don't feel like
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newcomers are really joining the Canadian family like they used to, or that people aren't learning
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English as much as they used to. If you have any of those feelings, it's really just because you hate
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everyone and you're a racist. So way to go, CBC. That's pretty much exactly what we can expect from
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them. There's a story in the Toronto Star that pretty much echoes the same thing the CBC story says.
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Immigration in Nova Scotia, not a yes or no question. Experts say. Again, these experts.
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It's such a lazy trick for journalists to find someone who agrees with them, put their super
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biased opinion in, and write it up as straight news, and just say, you know, it's an expert.
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And so this whole article is pretty similar to the last one. It's just basically about how Bernie's
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wrong, and really the main point of our immigration system is to boost the economy, and then it talks
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about how Canada doesn't really have mass, we don't really have mass immigration, and that this issue
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just conflates the topics, and it's really an American issue. It has nothing to do with Canada.
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I mean, I don't know how you can study immigration and look at the issue, and just ignore the fact
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that Canada has a record number of people illegally walking across the border and making asylum
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claims, that asylum claims are about four times higher under Trudeau than they were under Harper,
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and somehow just like look at that and just say, no, no, we don't have a problem. Mass immigration
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doesn't describe the Canadian context, is what this other expert says here, and just pretend that,
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you know, this is a problem in the US, and Europe has nothing to do with Canada, so people who are
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talking about it are just wrong, and they're far right. I mean, that's basically the view of the
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people in the mainstream media in Canada, the elites in this country, and pretty easy for them to write
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that into the news, and just pretend that they are straight reporters, just saying it like they see
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it. Okay, let's move on here. I want to just quickly touch on this other topic, because I talked about
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it a couple weeks ago as well, and I just find it amusing, so everyone knows that the liberals dug up
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this old video of Andrew Scheer, a 15-year-old video of him making a case against a same-sex marriage
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bill that was being debated in the House of Commons, and so, you know, the whole, there was a whole uproar
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over it, and everyone was talking about how, you know, intolerant it was of him. Comically, Ralph
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Goodale, the Liberal MP, who also voted against the bill in 1999, was the one that was pushing the fact
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that Andrew Scheer has these outdated views. Anyway, there is a CBC article today, and it says that Scheer
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doesn't belong at Ottawa Pride, LGBTQ author and journalist says. So, if you remember the whole
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hoopla over this controversy, everyone was calling on Scheer to go and attend a Pride parade. They
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were saying, you know, he needs to apologize for his past views, and he can really show that he's a
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changed person or whatever by going and marching in these, like, far left-wing Pride parades, which,
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again, it's not really about, the Pride parades are not really about supporting gay people. Like,
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most people in Canada support gay rights, and most of us have friends that are gay or know people
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that are gay, and we don't hold anti-gay positions or bigoted positions. We just might not want to go
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to a Pride parade because it really represents this sort of, like, left-wing culture where they're
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promoting all kinds of just far-left issues, and as we've seen recently, they don't allow people
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who have any slightly different views. Like, they banned the Toronto police from marching in the Pride
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parade. The Vancouver Pride banned UBC and the Vancouver Public Library from marching in the
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parade. So it's just sort of this, like, leftist authoritarian cult that happens every year, and
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somehow all the politicians in the country are expected to go and march in this. Well, you know,
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that's not, not all Canadians are interested in that, and you don't all have to have the same
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view and the same priority. So after all that, all that urging to have Andrew Scheer march in the
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Pride parade, one of the leaders of the community basically said that Andrew Scheer is not welcome
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at the Pride parade. So after all of that, he wouldn't be welcome there anyway, which you could
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kind of picture. You could kind of picture Scheer showing up at a Pride parade and, like, getting
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booed and him not being welcomed anyway, because it's not like the Pride parade itself is this, you know,
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bastion of, like, openness and liberalism. No, they're very closed as well, and they also have their
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hatreds and their, you know, bigoted views towards people. Case in point, they don't allow police to
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march in these Pride parades often. They, the Pride parade in Chicago banned Israeli people from going.
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Someone had an Israeli Pride parade, Pride flag, and they got kicked out of the parade. So not exactly
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the most welcoming, open-minded people, and I think this article pretty much sums that up. So I'm going
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to leave it at that. Those were my two most glaring, those were the two most glaring, biased stories of the
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week. Thanks so much for watching. If you see something in the news and you think it's biased, just send it on over and
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I'll take a look and try to dissect it next week. Thanks so much for watching. If you like this video, don't forget to
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