Juno News - June 30, 2020


Trigger Warning for the Canadian Flag


Episode Stats

Length

40 minutes

Words per Minute

180.08473

Word Count

7,269

Sentence Count

397

Misogynist Sentences

33

Hate Speech Sentences

18


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.
00:00:06.740 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.
00:00:12.500 Coming up, the media thinks the Canada flag is controversial,
00:00:16.780 why diversity becomes tokenism, and the importance of self-defense.
00:00:23.260 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.
00:00:30.000 Hello everyone, welcome to another edition of Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.
00:00:34.620 You're tuned in to the Andrew Lawton Show here on True North.
00:00:38.280 We are going to have a little bit of a mini Canada Day show on Canada Day itself,
00:00:43.300 but this will be the pre-Canada Day edition of the program,
00:00:46.100 the penultimate show before we once again celebrate Canada's birthday.
00:00:50.700 And along that vein, I've got to talk about this just abysmal story in the Chronicle Herald.
00:00:57.320 It's not even really a story, it's like a blurb heard around the world,
00:01:01.200 where the Chronicle Herald, which is the newspaper record in Halifax,
00:01:06.220 decided to give people a trigger warning that a Canadian flag was going to be appearing in the paper.
00:01:13.560 This is something that, again, in the lead-up to Canada Day,
00:01:16.800 the Chronicle Herald had a little Canada flag that people could cut out and tape on their windows.
00:01:21.940 I don't know why you need to do that in 2020, but at the same time, people do.
00:01:26.200 I've driven around and seen these in the past.
00:01:29.180 And what the paper says on the front page of the Saturday, June 27th edition,
00:01:34.080 To our readers, inside today's edition, on page A9,
00:01:38.840 you'll find a Canadian flag to clip and post to help celebrate July 1st.
00:01:43.920 We understand the flag doesn't mean the same thing to everyone.
00:01:47.720 However, we hope our readers recognize their ability to play a role
00:01:51.500 in shaping Canada's future is a freedom worth acknowledging.
00:01:56.080 So what they've said here is that they effectively need to apologize to people
00:02:02.380 for putting a Canada flag in the paper before Canada Day
00:02:05.500 because the Canada flag doesn't mean the same thing to everybody.
00:02:09.400 Now, this is what happens when publishers try to be woke
00:02:12.440 and try to be hip to all of the social justice trends,
00:02:16.020 especially in the last few weeks.
00:02:17.500 They start bending over backwards to apologize for things
00:02:20.840 that no one sensible is even offended by.
00:02:24.240 And incidentally, I have not seen, I'm not saying it doesn't exist,
00:02:28.140 but I've not seen any or many people, actually, I don't think I've seen any,
00:02:31.780 respond to the Chronicle Herald's blurb by saying,
00:02:35.920 you know, I really appreciate this.
00:02:37.440 The Canadian flag is troubling to me.
00:02:39.240 Thank you.
00:02:39.960 The only response is mockery from people that say,
00:02:43.680 you know, what the heck is going on?
00:02:44.880 Now, I'm not a huge fan of the Canadian flag anyway,
00:02:49.580 except insofar as, yes, I support that it is the flag.
00:02:52.540 Like, as far as the design itself, I was a fan of the old red ensign.
00:02:56.160 I know we had several ensigns, but I liked the most recent one.
00:02:59.360 And I would have been just as happy if we had that now.
00:03:02.080 But in the absence of that, the Canadian flag is our national flag.
00:03:06.220 And the Canadian flag is therefore a symbol of national pride.
00:03:10.360 And to have the Canadian flag is a necessity
00:03:13.580 if you are going to celebrate your country
00:03:16.560 in the same way that you can't start changing national anthems
00:03:19.300 because you don't like the country.
00:03:20.480 So the people that don't like the Canadian flag
00:03:22.980 actually just don't like Canada.
00:03:26.280 And that's an important distinction
00:03:27.720 because I've talked to people like this before.
00:03:30.040 It's the people that have this just visceral hatred for this country
00:03:33.940 because they think it's the byproduct of colonization
00:03:36.400 and it's systemic racism and there's nothing good.
00:03:39.620 And people that honestly do not see that a country can grow,
00:03:44.380 can evolve, can develop.
00:03:45.820 They think that Canada is just this horrible place.
00:03:48.420 And the vast majority of these people are just so out there, so radical.
00:03:54.960 They don't deserve to be given any sort of special treatment
00:03:59.280 by way of a trigger warning of the Canadian flag.
00:04:02.860 These people are not the norm.
00:04:04.360 It's like what I've said in the past many times,
00:04:06.740 Twitter is not real life.
00:04:08.540 But now you have newspapers
00:04:10.120 that are basically editorializing themselves
00:04:14.120 into apologizing for the Canadian flag.
00:04:17.740 And this is now, when it's on the front page of the paper,
00:04:20.540 a statement that says,
00:04:21.660 you know what, we think Canada is a bit controversial to people.
00:04:25.740 And it almost voids the fact that they're putting the Canada flag
00:04:29.360 in the paper in the first place
00:04:31.620 because they are now apologizing for doing it.
00:04:34.380 It kind of undercuts what I hoped would have been the point
00:04:37.320 that they were embracing,
00:04:39.120 which was that, yes, this is a unifying symbol.
00:04:41.700 It's unifying to have the national flag
00:04:43.680 because everyone in Canada is a Canadian.
00:04:45.840 This is a flag that should bond us, not divide us.
00:04:50.160 But it's not your responsibility
00:04:52.260 as someone who is proud of your country
00:04:54.080 to apologize for other people who don't like your country.
00:04:57.160 For even people who are in the country,
00:04:58.880 who were born here,
00:04:59.660 who have lived here their whole lives.
00:05:02.120 A lot of these just, you know,
00:05:03.920 SJW activist types are never going to like Canada.
00:05:07.220 They're never going to be happy with the flag.
00:05:09.720 They're never going to be happy with the country
00:05:11.120 because they just do not see Canada
00:05:13.720 as anything other than the worst caricature
00:05:16.920 it could possibly be.
00:05:18.700 And we're seeing this idea unfold
00:05:21.060 as systemic racism becomes the term
00:05:23.480 that everyone has to use.
00:05:25.720 Everyone has to call something systemically racist.
00:05:28.180 Everyone has to accept that Canada is systemically racist.
00:05:31.880 And if you don't, then you're therefore racist.
00:05:34.440 And this is something that we saw last week,
00:05:36.360 and I won't spend too much time on it,
00:05:37.820 but I spoke about it on True North Update with Candace Malcolm,
00:05:40.860 a show that you should all check out every Friday.
00:05:43.420 But if you missed it, I'll share it here as well.
00:05:45.760 Brenda Luckey, who is the RCMP commissioner,
00:05:48.860 had at one point said,
00:05:50.320 ah, you know, she doesn't think the RCMP is systemically racist.
00:05:53.240 And then she must have gotten the memo from above
00:05:55.080 that said, no, you can't say that.
00:05:56.380 You have to say it's systemically racist.
00:05:58.360 And she was a good foot soldier.
00:05:59.840 She said, okay, I'm going to commit to the line.
00:06:01.900 I'm going to say, yes, the RCMP is systemically racist.
00:06:04.920 So what happened is Brenda Luckey was testifying
00:06:08.080 before the House of Commons.
00:06:10.120 She was speaking with one member of parliament,
00:06:13.580 who's actually a liberal, who asked her.
00:06:15.500 And she said that, yes, she's found a couple of examples
00:06:18.340 where the RCMP is systemically racist.
00:06:21.020 So then he asked the logical follow-up question,
00:06:24.740 name one.
00:06:25.840 And well, this is what happened.
00:06:27.440 I was also confused by your definition of systemic racism.
00:06:32.600 When this question was asked of you at the beginning of June,
00:06:39.220 I sincerely believe that people can change
00:06:44.540 and we have to give them the opportunity to evolve,
00:06:49.840 to change.
00:06:50.820 So congratulations.
00:06:52.560 But to come back to Mrs. Michaud's question,
00:06:56.200 I'd like to once again get your definition of systemic racism
00:07:01.440 because you said and you've introduced a notion of length.
00:07:08.960 You talked about the history of the RCMP
00:07:12.120 and you recognize that there was systemic racism.
00:07:15.840 Do you believe that there is systemic racism today in the RCMP?
00:07:22.160 Thank you for your question.
00:07:23.860 And first, thank you for your appreciation for our members
00:07:26.640 because it means a lot.
00:07:28.920 They're working hard each day in the communities that they serve in.
00:07:33.060 Yes, there's absolutely systemic racism.
00:07:35.740 I can give you a couple of examples that we've found over the years.
00:07:40.620 For example, we have a physical abilities requirement evaluation.
00:07:45.240 It's an obstacle course.
00:07:46.240 In there, there's a six-foot mat that you have to do a broad jump.
00:07:51.720 And when we put the lens on it and reviewed that physical requirements test,
00:07:58.000 evidence told us that the average person can broad jump their height.
00:08:03.180 So, of course, how many six-foot people do we hire?
00:08:06.980 And there are people in all different cultures that may not be six feet,
00:08:11.560 including there's not a lot of women that are six feet tall
00:08:15.620 that would not be able to get through that type of test.
00:08:20.660 So that would be systemic discrimination,
00:08:22.440 but I'm trying to think of systemic racism.
00:08:27.520 We have some questions, for example, in our aptitude test.
00:08:33.220 And you know what?
00:08:33.720 I might refer Gail because that is Gail's specialty in the HR world
00:08:39.500 because a lot of it has been brought out in our recruiting process.
00:08:44.300 So I'll ask Gail if she can...
00:08:48.020 I mean...
00:08:49.380 There's a part of me that finds this to be hilarious, clearly,
00:08:56.000 because she's trying to go through the motions.
00:08:58.480 She's trying to be woke.
00:08:59.520 She's trying to do the right thing by saying,
00:09:01.280 yes, the RCMP is systemically racist, and yes, Canada is.
00:09:04.540 But she can't actually commit to that fully because she doesn't believe it.
00:09:09.800 She doesn't actually have the evidence.
00:09:11.860 Now, you could say that the RCMP is systemically racist
00:09:15.640 and that the RCMP commissioner doesn't know it,
00:09:18.880 but then she shouldn't be saying it.
00:09:20.800 She shouldn't be saying it so freely
00:09:22.140 that she's presiding over a racist institution and a racist organization.
00:09:27.060 She's saying this because she has to,
00:09:29.100 and when she is pressed to come up with a reason why,
00:09:32.680 she has to bucket to poor Gail in human resources.
00:09:36.520 And I don't know what...
00:09:37.940 I mean, Gail didn't really give an answer all that much either,
00:09:40.340 but Brenda Luckey is the commissioner.
00:09:42.660 So she says, yeah, yeah, we've got examples galore.
00:09:45.360 And then what's the best thing she can come up with
00:09:47.700 that some people are taller than others?
00:09:49.800 Which, again, as Mr. Fergus said, the MP,
00:09:53.180 yes, you can make a case that that's discrimination,
00:09:55.600 but how is that racial discrimination?
00:09:57.580 And by the way, I would say that
00:10:00.800 if you are talking about police testing,
00:10:03.540 police physical testing,
00:10:04.680 this is the worst case to make about discrimination
00:10:08.940 because the physicalities and the physical requirements of the job
00:10:13.000 are not things that should change
00:10:15.340 depending on the identity of whomever is going through the police thing.
00:10:18.960 But anyway, if I don't know the answer to any question,
00:10:21.120 I'm just going to send it over to Gail in HR.
00:10:22.960 That's going to be my approach for the rest of the show
00:10:24.700 and perhaps even the rest of the year.
00:10:26.700 Who knows?
00:10:27.120 But this is what's happening now.
00:10:28.740 You've got companies,
00:10:30.040 you've got government agencies,
00:10:31.360 institutions that are just trying to survive.
00:10:35.000 They're just trying to get through the day
00:10:38.000 without being called racist,
00:10:39.540 without being canceled.
00:10:41.060 And the buzzword now,
00:10:42.340 you have to say that whatever you are doing,
00:10:45.520 whatever you are running,
00:10:46.820 whatever you are looking over,
00:10:48.100 overseeing is systemically racist.
00:10:50.340 And if you don't, you're a racist.
00:10:51.540 And this has become the litmus test here
00:10:55.320 that we talked about last week in the context of CBC,
00:10:58.720 acknowledging that they're now a racist institution.
00:11:01.560 The RCMP has to as well.
00:11:03.160 Justin Trudeau says Canada has systemic racism,
00:11:06.100 which is particularly bad when he is the guy responsible
00:11:08.820 for running the system itself.
00:11:11.200 And on it goes, on it goes.
00:11:13.620 And look, the point that I raise here is if you believe it, great.
00:11:16.180 If you actually believe this, go forth and have at it.
00:11:20.160 Have whatever discussions, debates, dialogues you want.
00:11:22.720 If you don't believe it, don't go along with it.
00:11:25.260 But I understand why people do.
00:11:27.220 Look at what happened a couple of weeks ago
00:11:29.180 when Rex Murphy, the longtime National Post columnist,
00:11:32.620 CBC personality, all of this,
00:11:34.640 had said in a column a pretty sensible point
00:11:37.360 that he did not think that there was systemic racism
00:11:40.860 rampant in Canada.
00:11:42.140 He concedes there's individual racism,
00:11:44.340 that racist ideas exist, that there's racial history,
00:11:47.220 but that he doesn't think Canada is, by and large,
00:11:50.240 when you remove everything else, a racist country.
00:11:53.260 And this started a coup, basically.
00:11:56.180 In the National Post newsroom,
00:11:58.440 you had reporters openly condemning him.
00:12:01.460 And what happened here is Rex Murphy
00:12:03.920 then ended up getting a trigger warning of sorts,
00:12:06.420 an apology on his post, on his column by the editors.
00:12:11.760 An editor's note saying that it didn't meet their standards
00:12:14.020 and yada, yada, yada.
00:12:15.400 There was like some town hall
00:12:16.920 with a senior editor of National Post.
00:12:19.260 Well, everyone just said, you know,
00:12:20.600 how dare you publish this?
00:12:21.960 And there was not only the death of ideas,
00:12:25.600 the death of being able to debate and discuss things
00:12:28.520 inherent in this,
00:12:29.720 but also there was something very dangerous
00:12:33.220 in that this becomes the position
00:12:35.380 that now everyone must have.
00:12:37.140 This has become one of these issues
00:12:38.620 where if you don't have the right position,
00:12:40.860 you don't get to be a part of society.
00:12:43.340 And this happened last week with Conrad Black as well.
00:12:47.220 Conrad's a great guy.
00:12:48.300 I've met him a number of times
00:12:49.220 and I've interviewed him in the past.
00:12:51.060 I should actually get him back on this show.
00:12:52.740 He has a weekly spot every Friday,
00:12:55.380 or had, as you'll learn in a moment,
00:12:57.320 on Toronto's Global News Radio,
00:12:59.740 640 Toronto, on the John Oakley Show.
00:13:02.360 And Conrad Black has been on that show every week
00:13:05.260 for however many times.
00:13:06.680 Two weeks ago, he was doing his appearance
00:13:09.820 and as he reports in the National Post,
00:13:13.020 ironically enough,
00:13:14.160 he said that Canada was not systemically racist.
00:13:17.280 He says there are instances of racial discrimination,
00:13:20.080 but that the overwhelming majority of Canadians
00:13:22.020 are unprejudiced and equitable towards minorities.
00:13:25.280 Now, as Conrad Black writes,
00:13:26.960 a cabal apparently arose within chorus
00:13:29.760 among the more belligerent adherents
00:13:31.500 to the systemically racist view of Canada.
00:13:34.260 And after a week of intense maneuver
00:13:35.880 that I was unaware of,
00:13:37.280 John Oakley called an hour before airtime
00:13:40.200 and said he had been non-negotiably told
00:13:42.420 to tell me that my radio visits with him
00:13:44.620 were canceled permanently.
00:13:47.060 I received churlish tweets from Charles Adler,
00:13:49.640 apparently still on air in Vancouver,
00:13:51.740 apparently one of the ringleaders
00:13:53.660 of the Putsch against me.
00:13:55.360 I will miss speaking with John,
00:13:57.340 but my voice is not exactly stalled.
00:13:59.040 I have two weekly national radio slots in the US
00:14:01.340 and four columns, yada, yada, yada.
00:14:03.080 I'm sure chorus listeners will get on all right without me,
00:14:05.900 but this is indicative of how absurd and nonsensical
00:14:09.080 the public discussion on these issues has become.
00:14:11.820 That to declare that Canada is not a racist country
00:14:14.460 is itself judged to be a racist comment.
00:14:18.740 And I thought Conrad Black was very eloquent there
00:14:21.500 as he so often is.
00:14:22.820 And I think there's a lot of truth in this idea right now
00:14:25.680 that if you take an issue
00:14:27.200 that Canada is not a systemically racist country,
00:14:29.540 you're just part of it.
00:14:30.380 I mean, it's like a conspiracy theory.
00:14:31.780 If you say the conspiracies not exist,
00:14:33.440 you're not existing,
00:14:35.320 you are now a part of the conspiracy theory.
00:14:38.860 And the thing with Conrad Black,
00:14:40.340 when I tweeted a defense of him,
00:14:42.380 I had a couple of people,
00:14:43.660 including a global news reporter,
00:14:45.500 say, well, you know, Conrad Black,
00:14:47.120 you know, is a privileged white man.
00:14:48.580 He can't say that there's no systemic racism.
00:14:51.160 To which I say all of that is irrelevant
00:14:53.000 when we're talking about open inquiry and dialogue.
00:14:56.000 Because in a civilized society
00:14:58.320 that respects free speech,
00:15:00.080 Conrad Black can be rebutted for saying that.
00:15:02.680 Someone can say, well, actually,
00:15:03.840 you from your position haven't experienced it.
00:15:05.880 I have.
00:15:06.700 Here's how I know what I know.
00:15:08.280 And then that's the dialogue.
00:15:09.660 And that used to be what talk radio was.
00:15:12.280 I worked in talk radio for several years.
00:15:14.580 I worked at Chorus.
00:15:15.540 I've guest hosted on 640.
00:15:17.260 That is what a good talk radio conversation is.
00:15:20.920 Someone says one thing.
00:15:22.500 Someone says another.
00:15:23.700 The listeners can decide for themselves.
00:15:25.580 And you don't even need to have both sides represented.
00:15:28.120 I think you need to have whatever side
00:15:29.760 the host thinks needs to be heard.
00:15:31.920 And in a culture where everyone is putting forward
00:15:34.900 the Canada is systemically racist narrative,
00:15:37.820 Conrad Black was actually the one
00:15:39.460 giving the opposing side of this.
00:15:42.140 But now he gets kicked off of a weekly radio segment,
00:15:45.600 which again is the right of 640.
00:15:47.940 It's the right of the station to do that.
00:15:49.940 But that doesn't mean it is the right decision to make.
00:15:53.700 And this is a dangerous, dangerous trend
00:15:57.620 where the whole point of having these dialogues
00:16:00.660 is that everyone can come together and say,
00:16:02.820 I think this, I think this,
00:16:04.020 and maybe meet in the middle,
00:16:05.440 maybe agree to disagree.
00:16:06.780 But now if you don't go along with the idea
00:16:09.500 that Canada is racist,
00:16:11.640 you yourselves are racist.
00:16:13.140 And that only proves that Canada is racist.
00:16:15.520 And we're seeing this in every culture imaginable
00:16:18.220 in every discussion.
00:16:19.060 So the whole point of this is that
00:16:22.540 now newspapers are apologizing
00:16:25.140 for publishing Canadian flags
00:16:27.180 because they think that these flags
00:16:29.820 are therefore symbols of this very thing
00:16:33.200 that everyone is so terrified to say doesn't exist.
00:16:36.000 And again, you can say that you don't think
00:16:38.160 Rex Murphy as a privileged white guy
00:16:40.020 should talk about racism.
00:16:41.480 You can say you don't think Conrad Black should.
00:16:43.340 You can say all of these things,
00:16:44.560 but that does not negate
00:16:47.300 the dangerous thought crime mentality
00:16:50.120 that's being completely furthered
00:16:52.380 in media, in academia,
00:16:55.260 just in civil society at large here.
00:16:57.640 And it's not going to end well.
00:16:59.660 In fact, we're seeing it.
00:17:01.060 I don't even know if it's going to end right now.
00:17:03.220 I do not know if it's going to end at this point
00:17:05.300 when anything and everything is racist,
00:17:08.260 when if you say the wrong thing, you're gone.
00:17:10.840 Take a look, by the way,
00:17:12.040 at this story out of the UK
00:17:13.680 where Graham Linehan, who's a comedy writer,
00:17:17.040 has been permanently banned from Twitter
00:17:19.700 and his crime was saying men aren't women.
00:17:24.040 That was what he did.
00:17:24.840 On Twitter, he said men aren't women.
00:17:26.980 He was referring to the trans issue.
00:17:29.500 Twitter has closed Linehan's comment.
00:17:31.860 And this is a guy who's a fairly well-respected writer
00:17:35.240 in the entertainment world in,
00:17:37.760 well, if he's Irish, not the UK,
00:17:39.500 but you know what I mean.
00:17:40.080 But what happened is he had said it in a response
00:17:43.480 to a tweet from the Women's Institute
00:17:46.060 wishing their transgender members a happy pride.
00:17:48.600 And he was a bit of a troll.
00:17:49.920 He said men aren't women, though.
00:17:52.240 And then a whole bunch of people started piling on
00:17:55.140 like they did with J.K. Rowling.
00:17:57.520 And before you know it,
00:17:58.600 Twitter has put it down there
00:18:00.700 and used their hate speech provisions
00:18:03.060 because on Twitter,
00:18:04.520 if you so much use the wrong pronouns
00:18:06.940 for someone, your account can be permanently banned.
00:18:09.900 I know my colleague, Lindsay Shepard,
00:18:11.540 has had her account taken offline
00:18:13.020 for scrapping with a transgender activist in the past.
00:18:16.640 And this is what's happening.
00:18:17.720 And this is why people are fleeing Twitter
00:18:20.320 at this point in large numbers.
00:18:22.920 There's this new website that's popped up
00:18:25.280 called Parler, which at first
00:18:27.360 I was like thinking it was all French.
00:18:28.720 And I was like, oh, Parler.
00:18:29.680 No, it's Parler, like a room.
00:18:31.560 And it started by conservatives.
00:18:33.520 It's a free speech platform.
00:18:35.340 That's the basis of it.
00:18:36.280 They say it's unbiased.
00:18:37.340 There's no algorithm to it
00:18:39.300 that's deciding who gets seen and who doesn't.
00:18:41.920 Now, I will say,
00:18:42.980 I signed up for Parler last week
00:18:44.780 just to check it out.
00:18:45.780 So if you want to follow me over there,
00:18:47.480 at Andrew Lawton is my username.
00:18:49.700 I don't know how long I'm going to be on there.
00:18:51.520 I've seen some concerning things
00:18:53.840 that have popped up with like user security
00:18:55.860 and also with aspects of the experience,
00:18:59.820 like the litigation aspects.
00:19:01.600 There are some stuff.
00:19:02.520 And I might do a deeper dive into it later on.
00:19:04.760 So I'm not endorsing Parler,
00:19:06.600 but I am saying that it's unsurprising
00:19:08.400 that everyone's fleeing right now.
00:19:10.580 And it actually proves the point
00:19:12.220 that I made a couple of weeks ago
00:19:13.760 when I talked about big tech censorship.
00:19:16.360 And I said, the answer to this
00:19:17.660 is for someone else to start a Twitter,
00:19:20.100 for someone else to start a Facebook.
00:19:21.660 And everyone said, oh, no, no, no.
00:19:23.840 But these companies have a monopoly
00:19:25.440 or an oligopoly.
00:19:27.300 And what Parler's doing has proved
00:19:29.660 that that is not in fact the case,
00:19:31.680 that if you get some venture capital behind you,
00:19:34.660 you can do it.
00:19:35.560 And right now it's overwhelmingly
00:19:37.140 a conservative platform.
00:19:38.720 That's their target audience.
00:19:40.400 So my concern would always be
00:19:42.020 you don't want it to become
00:19:43.220 an echo chamber of sorts.
00:19:45.140 But I also think if conservatives
00:19:46.580 are tired of getting shadow banned,
00:19:48.160 trying to get their,
00:19:48.900 tired of getting their accounts canceled
00:19:50.340 for saying men are women
00:19:52.440 or men aren't women or whatever,
00:19:54.260 or who knows,
00:19:55.140 maybe they'll start banning accounts
00:19:56.360 for people who say
00:19:57.640 that systemic racism isn't a thing.
00:19:59.840 I don't blame people
00:20:01.140 for wanting to find an alternative
00:20:02.720 where their social media platform
00:20:04.960 that they use,
00:20:05.680 even if they're not paying for it,
00:20:07.440 is actually a platform
00:20:09.220 that they don't feel
00:20:10.260 is going to censor them
00:20:11.500 or shut them down.
00:20:13.420 So that's where this thing is headed.
00:20:16.000 And it's not going to be pretty right now.
00:20:17.660 It's not pretty.
00:20:18.480 Everyone is facing the mob.
00:20:21.540 Everyone is facing mob justice.
00:20:23.620 And quite frankly,
00:20:25.280 this is not going to change
00:20:27.940 unless people start pushing back against it.
00:20:31.360 And there was at Wilfrid Laurier University
00:20:34.180 a case of this happening.
00:20:36.220 And I'm going to talk about it
00:20:37.560 in a bit more depth on Wednesday's show
00:20:40.800 because I'm actually going to be speaking
00:20:42.020 with David Haskell,
00:20:43.180 who is one of the two professors behind this.
00:20:45.500 But I'll give you a glimpse of it now
00:20:47.160 because it has happened
00:20:48.260 in the last couple of days.
00:20:50.920 There was a letter
00:20:52.700 that was put forward
00:20:53.740 by two Laurier University professors
00:20:55.800 who love free speech,
00:20:56.900 great gentlemen,
00:20:58.000 David Haskell and William McNally.
00:21:00.260 And they were pushing back
00:21:01.860 against the president of Laurier,
00:21:04.320 Deborah McClatchy,
00:21:05.600 who, speaking of Lindsay Shepard,
00:21:06.940 was the one that presided
00:21:08.260 over Lindsay Shepard's
00:21:10.120 just horrific treatment
00:21:11.420 at the hands of her school's
00:21:12.960 diversity office.
00:21:13.900 And McClatchy has said
00:21:16.100 that Laurier is,
00:21:17.440 like anything else,
00:21:18.400 systemically racist.
00:21:19.600 And they've pushed back against that
00:21:22.180 and wrote a letter,
00:21:23.740 a very brave letter,
00:21:24.700 that are saying,
00:21:25.240 listen, we're social scientists.
00:21:27.400 We are employed at Laurier
00:21:28.580 to research and teach.
00:21:29.700 We're here to think independently.
00:21:31.400 And we are not experts
00:21:33.820 in race relations.
00:21:35.040 However, we noticed
00:21:36.480 that your message
00:21:37.240 employed a concept
00:21:38.620 from critical race theory
00:21:39.840 called systemic racism.
00:21:41.160 This concerns us
00:21:42.560 for a number of reasons,
00:21:43.820 particularly the impact
00:21:45.220 it will have
00:21:46.140 on academic freedom
00:21:47.220 at Wilfrid Laurier University.
00:21:49.840 And they go for,
00:21:51.240 the biggest thing here
00:21:52.320 is that they say that
00:21:53.360 Laurier has systemic racism issues,
00:21:55.700 but they don't define racism.
00:21:58.000 And they do this
00:21:59.220 while suggesting an action plan
00:22:00.840 on something they haven't defined.
00:22:03.120 And we may all say that,
00:22:04.360 oh, well, we know what racism is.
00:22:06.020 But when you start talking
00:22:07.420 about systemic racism,
00:22:08.700 which is supposed to be racism
00:22:10.260 so bad that even
00:22:11.720 if no one is racist,
00:22:12.840 the system itself
00:22:13.840 will continue to be.
00:22:15.180 If you're going to put
00:22:16.420 a charge like that forward,
00:22:18.320 you better have
00:22:19.260 a solid definition.
00:22:21.060 Otherwise,
00:22:21.700 it's just like Islamophobia.
00:22:23.740 It's just like
00:22:24.520 all of these terms
00:22:25.540 that are used
00:22:26.480 that sound a certain way
00:22:27.980 that are used to justify
00:22:29.700 oftentimes things
00:22:31.160 that criticize free speech,
00:22:32.960 things that curb rights,
00:22:34.300 things that are used
00:22:35.180 to malign people
00:22:36.120 without really having
00:22:37.700 a solid foundation
00:22:39.000 for what is at stake.
00:22:40.800 So good for these professors
00:22:42.060 for pushing back
00:22:42.960 and doing it in a public way.
00:22:44.200 We'll talk about it
00:22:45.340 a bit more on Wednesday,
00:22:46.560 but I wanted to tell you
00:22:47.500 I had seen it
00:22:48.140 and that we are going
00:22:49.000 to focus on it a bit more
00:22:50.420 when we come back
00:22:51.660 in just a couple of moments
00:22:53.000 more of The Andrew Lawton Show
00:22:54.340 here on True North.
00:22:59.340 You're tuned in
00:23:00.460 to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:23:02.000 We are back.
00:23:07.340 This is The Andrew Lawton Show
00:23:08.500 here on True North
00:23:09.620 and we are living
00:23:10.280 in crazy times.
00:23:11.760 I would say that we never
00:23:12.840 want to do anything
00:23:13.540 so drastic
00:23:14.380 that we will never be able
00:23:15.700 to reclaim what was lost.
00:23:17.960 You know,
00:23:18.300 tear down all the statues
00:23:19.280 you want,
00:23:19.820 but do not do this.
00:23:22.460 Activists are wanting
00:23:23.380 to get the national anthem
00:23:24.540 changed to John Lennon's Imagine.
00:23:27.660 Yes, this is a story
00:23:28.800 in the New York Post.
00:23:29.700 A historian, Daniel Walker,
00:23:32.280 author Kevin Powell
00:23:33.280 and others are calling
00:23:34.400 to, quote,
00:23:35.200 rethink the Star-Spangled Banner
00:23:37.480 as the national anthem
00:23:38.500 because this is about
00:23:39.580 the deep-seated legacy
00:23:41.180 of slavery and white supremacy
00:23:42.640 in America.
00:23:44.180 So the song,
00:23:45.560 which was originally
00:23:46.360 a poem written in 1814
00:23:48.200 by Francis Scott Key,
00:23:49.660 who himself was a slave owner,
00:23:51.640 was later set to music
00:23:52.860 and became the country's
00:23:53.880 national anthem in 1931.
00:23:56.280 And ultimately,
00:23:57.440 they left out the third verse,
00:23:58.580 which mentions a slave.
00:24:00.160 So yes,
00:24:00.560 there is a history there.
00:24:02.240 However,
00:24:02.920 because they're arguing
00:24:04.040 the song is,
00:24:05.160 quote,
00:24:05.260 problematic,
00:24:06.600 unquote,
00:24:07.560 I'm tending to just
00:24:09.120 count it out
00:24:10.340 like everything else
00:24:11.240 that we're told
00:24:11.720 is problematic,
00:24:12.720 like L'Oreal's
00:24:14.100 skin whitening cream,
00:24:15.100 which is now going
00:24:16.020 the way of the Dodo Bird,
00:24:17.160 or all of these other things
00:24:18.920 like Aunt Jemima
00:24:19.880 and Uncle Ben
00:24:20.680 and Eskimo pies
00:24:21.600 and these things.
00:24:22.280 So they're all problematic.
00:24:24.100 That's the word
00:24:25.100 that they use.
00:24:26.100 So they're trying to get it up
00:24:27.080 and they were trying
00:24:28.180 to figure out
00:24:28.700 what to replace it with.
00:24:29.760 So Powell argues,
00:24:30.760 why not replace it
00:24:31.680 with Imagine?
00:24:32.760 Because it's,
00:24:33.680 quote,
00:24:33.760 the most beautiful,
00:24:34.940 unifying,
00:24:35.700 all people,
00:24:36.520 all backgrounds together
00:24:37.660 kind of song
00:24:38.500 you could have,
00:24:39.800 unquote.
00:24:41.180 And they point to the fact
00:24:42.260 in the story
00:24:42.800 that a soccer club
00:24:44.240 in Kansas
00:24:44.720 has already done away
00:24:45.660 with a Star Spangled Banner
00:24:47.220 and replaced it with
00:24:48.680 This Land Is Your Land.
00:24:50.720 That's now
00:24:51.320 the national anthem.
00:24:53.700 Why not go
00:24:54.520 Party in the USA
00:24:56.640 by Miley Cyrus,
00:24:57.760 someone else suggested.
00:24:58.780 Look,
00:24:59.180 if you're going to be
00:24:59.720 getting rid of everything,
00:25:01.460 then why not?
00:25:02.160 I mean,
00:25:02.320 Lady Antebellum
00:25:03.100 is now Lady A.
00:25:04.500 Dixie Chicks
00:25:05.140 is now The Chicks.
00:25:06.280 Now that'll be changed
00:25:07.360 because it's sexist later on
00:25:08.760 or it's cis heteronormative
00:25:10.840 or something like that.
00:25:12.120 But you've got
00:25:13.740 Splash Mountain
00:25:14.740 being changed
00:25:15.460 because Splash Mountain
00:25:16.440 at Disney
00:25:16.960 was originally
00:25:17.960 something that had
00:25:19.520 themes from
00:25:20.120 Song of the South.
00:25:21.160 So if nothing
00:25:21.900 has survived,
00:25:22.840 I mean,
00:25:23.080 this is where
00:25:23.600 we were talking
00:25:24.260 earlier on
00:25:25.020 in the program,
00:25:26.180 I think a couple
00:25:26.640 of weeks ago
00:25:27.220 about how nothing
00:25:28.220 is going to be left.
00:25:29.460 They're creating
00:25:29.960 these voids,
00:25:31.040 creating these holds,
00:25:32.040 creating these
00:25:32.660 empty foundations
00:25:33.620 that statues
00:25:34.940 once stood on
00:25:35.720 but are creating
00:25:36.800 nothing in it.
00:25:38.700 Now,
00:25:38.920 I don't think
00:25:39.360 this is a serious
00:25:40.120 suggestion
00:25:40.700 but the fact
00:25:41.740 that the people
00:25:42.340 that are making
00:25:42.960 suggestions like these
00:25:44.020 are taken seriously
00:25:45.260 is itself part
00:25:46.860 of the issue here.
00:25:48.180 And let's be real,
00:25:49.240 Imagine is unifying
00:25:50.400 only in that it tends
00:25:51.460 to unify everyone
00:25:52.500 together and hating it.
00:25:53.560 I mean,
00:25:53.720 you could say
00:25:54.060 Nickelback is unifying
00:25:55.700 in the same way
00:25:56.440 because everyone
00:25:57.080 just hates it
00:25:57.880 together as one.
00:25:59.260 But Imagine also
00:26:00.240 is a British song
00:26:01.740 so the idea
00:26:02.240 of taking a British song
00:26:03.320 and making that
00:26:03.900 your national anthem
00:26:04.800 is flawed
00:26:05.920 and it's just
00:26:06.480 a terribly obnoxious song.
00:26:08.360 I mean,
00:26:08.520 why not We Are The World?
00:26:09.680 Why not abolish
00:26:10.520 national anthems?
00:26:11.440 So why not abolish
00:26:12.200 countries?
00:26:12.680 Because this country
00:26:13.420 is racist,
00:26:14.020 that country is racist,
00:26:15.320 this flag is problematic,
00:26:16.840 that flag is.
00:26:17.900 This is what people
00:26:18.800 are headed towards
00:26:19.580 because no one
00:26:20.740 can withstand
00:26:21.400 the scrutiny of 2020
00:26:23.040 that the activists
00:26:23.980 are putting on.
00:26:25.140 Certainly no one
00:26:25.880 from 1776
00:26:27.040 or in Canada's case
00:26:28.300 1867,
00:26:29.600 no one can withstand
00:26:30.920 this scrutiny.
00:26:32.100 So we're heading towards
00:26:33.400 having to just cancel
00:26:34.520 an entire country
00:26:35.500 because,
00:26:35.960 oh well,
00:26:36.560 the country had
00:26:37.380 a problematic past,
00:26:38.740 ergo it doesn't get
00:26:39.820 to be a country anymore.
00:26:41.000 That's going to be
00:26:41.680 where things headed.
00:26:43.840 So I'm fascinated
00:26:45.880 that all of these people
00:26:47.720 that would have been seen
00:26:48.560 as radical and fringe
00:26:49.820 a few years ago today
00:26:50.880 are not just seen
00:26:52.080 as mainstream,
00:26:53.260 but mainstream voices
00:26:54.800 are completely capitulating
00:26:57.080 and bending the knee.
00:26:58.400 And in some cases
00:26:59.420 when it comes to corporations,
00:27:01.200 this is just done
00:27:02.240 out of fear.
00:27:03.460 Like this story
00:27:04.220 I mentioned with L'Oreal,
00:27:05.540 they're removing words
00:27:06.460 like whitening and fair
00:27:08.180 from its products.
00:27:09.320 And the rationale
00:27:10.060 is that they don't want
00:27:11.660 to put forward
00:27:12.240 this idea that
00:27:13.080 to be white is better
00:27:14.300 or to be fair is better.
00:27:17.020 So when they say
00:27:17.900 skin whitening
00:27:18.680 or skin lightening
00:27:20.280 or all of these things,
00:27:21.580 what they're actually doing
00:27:22.680 is contributing
00:27:23.720 to systemic racism
00:27:25.080 or something like that.
00:27:26.660 But again,
00:27:27.320 you know,
00:27:27.540 the name is not the issue.
00:27:28.980 If the issue is the effect,
00:27:30.480 then get rid of the products
00:27:31.460 themselves.
00:27:33.200 If the issue is
00:27:34.560 that we don't want
00:27:35.500 to put forward this idea
00:27:36.480 that to look whiter
00:27:37.820 is a bit better,
00:27:38.600 to have your skin whitened
00:27:39.780 is better,
00:27:40.520 then why not get rid
00:27:41.360 of the products?
00:27:42.240 But it's completely
00:27:43.420 half-assed as it always is
00:27:44.940 because you've got companies
00:27:45.960 that they want to do
00:27:47.160 the bare minimum
00:27:48.020 to say that they're doing it,
00:27:49.840 to say that they're woke.
00:27:51.880 And by the way,
00:27:52.680 on the weekend,
00:27:53.500 I had to do
00:27:54.340 what no one should have to do,
00:27:55.460 which is explain
00:27:56.040 to my parents
00:27:56.660 what woke means.
00:27:58.000 Because like,
00:27:58.800 as I'm doing it,
00:27:59.700 I'm like,
00:28:00.280 because they hear this word
00:28:01.080 and they're like,
00:28:01.800 you know,
00:28:02.100 what is this thing?
00:28:02.820 And again,
00:28:03.280 it's a reminder
00:28:03.880 that Twitter isn't real life.
00:28:05.760 But I'm trying
00:28:06.820 to like explain this thing.
00:28:08.060 And as I do it,
00:28:09.120 it just reminds me
00:28:10.540 of how just ridiculous
00:28:11.800 it is.
00:28:12.600 And I'm having to like
00:28:13.740 seriously explain this thing
00:28:15.520 that actually is not
00:28:16.540 a serious thing
00:28:17.400 and actually doesn't make
00:28:18.940 much sense on its own.
00:28:20.040 But I think I got through it.
00:28:20.960 I think they know
00:28:21.480 what woke means.
00:28:23.440 Now,
00:28:23.800 I'll tell you
00:28:24.380 who else is woke.
00:28:25.500 The Ontario Liberal Party
00:28:27.060 is going woke right now.
00:28:28.980 They are changing the rules
00:28:30.700 and lowering
00:28:31.400 the nomination fees
00:28:32.920 to ensure
00:28:33.560 more female candidates.
00:28:35.060 This is according to
00:28:36.260 a Globe and Mail article
00:28:37.740 from Laura Stone.
00:28:39.500 In the 2022 election,
00:28:40.960 Ontario's Liberal Party,
00:28:42.400 which was the governing party
00:28:43.700 for about 15 years,
00:28:45.780 is going to look
00:28:47.000 to get more
00:28:47.840 female candidates running.
00:28:49.640 They're going to run
00:28:50.160 an aggressive search campaign
00:28:51.580 and if necessary,
00:28:53.680 restrict it
00:28:54.360 so only women can run
00:28:56.120 in certain nominations.
00:28:58.680 And this was something
00:28:59.540 that the new party leader,
00:29:01.220 Stephen Del Duca,
00:29:01.960 had promised.
00:29:03.020 If you're a woman,
00:29:04.260 you will get
00:29:05.360 a lower registration fee
00:29:07.380 and you will also,
00:29:09.540 if you're under 30,
00:29:10.540 get a lower registration fee.
00:29:12.900 And what's happened here,
00:29:14.240 this is just so ridiculous,
00:29:16.780 that they are going to
00:29:18.320 have females
00:29:20.220 have to pay 50%
00:29:21.860 of what males pay.
00:29:22.780 So if you want to be
00:29:23.460 a candidate,
00:29:24.340 you have to pay
00:29:24.920 a $2,500 filing fee.
00:29:27.280 When I ran for
00:29:28.240 the Progressive Conservatives
00:29:29.480 in Ontario,
00:29:30.000 I don't remember
00:29:30.560 the exact amount,
00:29:31.420 but it was something like that.
00:29:32.880 You've got to pay that fee.
00:29:35.120 And it's basically
00:29:36.080 going towards
00:29:36.860 background check,
00:29:37.760 a bit of an insurance policy
00:29:38.940 to make sure
00:29:39.540 you're committed to it.
00:29:41.140 Women will have to pay
00:29:42.320 $1,250.
00:29:44.020 Candidates under the age of 30
00:29:45.500 will only have to pay $500.
00:29:47.620 If you're a woman
00:29:48.260 under the age of 30,
00:29:49.100 I don't know if you pay
00:29:49.780 $250 or $5.
00:29:51.040 I don't know.
00:29:52.200 They're also going to create
00:29:53.640 a candidate search team
00:29:54.940 led by three women
00:29:56.040 to encourage more women
00:29:57.280 to run.
00:29:58.260 That,
00:29:58.780 I don't find it
00:29:59.540 as a bad idea.
00:30:00.440 If you're wanting to get
00:30:01.360 more diversity
00:30:02.120 in your candidates,
00:30:02.920 you want to give them
00:30:03.920 the opportunity.
00:30:05.140 I think recruiting
00:30:06.180 and saying,
00:30:07.140 hey,
00:30:07.300 just so you know,
00:30:07.800 have you considered?
00:30:08.900 That's fine.
00:30:09.800 But the part that I don't like
00:30:11.480 is that there is going
00:30:12.320 to be a plan in place
00:30:13.460 that the leader
00:30:14.480 can notify
00:30:15.440 a riding association
00:30:17.040 that they have to draft
00:30:18.780 a plan,
00:30:19.460 quote,
00:30:19.780 that includes
00:30:20.720 only female
00:30:22.240 nomination candidates,
00:30:24.000 unquote.
00:30:25.360 So,
00:30:25.960 if you are
00:30:27.260 a riding association
00:30:29.340 and let's say
00:30:29.920 you've got,
00:30:30.500 you know,
00:30:30.740 a couple of males
00:30:31.400 that are qualified
00:30:32.140 that are wanting to run
00:30:33.780 and a woman who's qualified
00:30:34.920 who's wanting to run,
00:30:36.020 the party may say,
00:30:36.900 you know what,
00:30:37.560 in the riding of Toronto Danforth
00:30:39.560 we need a woman
00:30:40.200 so only women
00:30:41.940 can be in this nomination race
00:30:43.460 and the two guys
00:30:44.320 are like,
00:30:45.840 okay.
00:30:48.120 And again,
00:30:48.720 if they're woke,
00:30:49.260 they can't complain about it.
00:30:50.220 They have to just start
00:30:51.000 knocking on doors
00:30:51.640 for the females.
00:30:52.780 And again,
00:30:53.320 this is a huge problem
00:30:54.920 right now
00:30:55.380 because oftentimes
00:30:56.260 we hear,
00:30:57.020 and there are reports
00:30:57.720 that come out every year
00:30:58.700 and every election cycle
00:30:59.840 about a lack
00:31:01.580 of representation
00:31:02.240 of women in politics.
00:31:04.720 And if you look
00:31:05.280 at the House of Commons makeup,
00:31:06.440 I forget the exact number,
00:31:07.880 but women are a minority
00:31:08.880 in the House of Commons
00:31:10.340 and they are
00:31:11.160 in most provincial legislatures.
00:31:13.060 But the problem
00:31:14.080 with all of these remedies
00:31:15.820 to correct it
00:31:16.740 is that they fail
00:31:17.560 to understand
00:31:18.280 why that is the case.
00:31:20.080 It's not that women
00:31:21.060 don't run
00:31:22.260 and women can't win.
00:31:24.260 It's that fewer women run.
00:31:26.320 And when women
00:31:28.040 are running,
00:31:28.880 a lot of the times
00:31:29.740 they are a minority
00:31:31.540 of overall candidates.
00:31:32.840 And it's not because
00:31:33.840 people are in nominations
00:31:35.820 voting for the man
00:31:36.720 over the woman.
00:31:37.580 It's because a lot of women
00:31:38.780 aren't putting their names
00:31:39.720 forward for it.
00:31:40.600 Same as when you look
00:31:41.640 at representation
00:31:42.620 as panelists
00:31:43.520 on TV and radio.
00:31:44.680 Steve Pakin did something
00:31:45.680 about this
00:31:46.200 a few years back
00:31:47.540 and he had said
00:31:48.280 that the agenda,
00:31:49.520 his show,
00:31:50.180 was having trouble
00:31:51.180 getting 50% women
00:31:52.680 on the show.
00:31:54.360 And that was the goal,
00:31:55.380 50% women.
00:31:56.960 And they reported
00:31:57.680 that women would be
00:31:58.600 more likely to say,
00:32:00.220 ah, you know,
00:32:00.680 I'm busy
00:32:01.680 or I have to look
00:32:02.760 at childcare needs
00:32:03.700 or I'm not the best
00:32:04.420 person for this.
00:32:05.480 And women were declining
00:32:06.640 and they were trying
00:32:07.360 to figure out
00:32:07.800 how do we empower
00:32:08.520 and encourage more people
00:32:09.660 to do it.
00:32:10.600 But you can't drag people
00:32:12.380 into something
00:32:13.020 that they don't want to.
00:32:14.640 You can't drag people in.
00:32:15.920 So if women are not
00:32:17.520 choosing this
00:32:18.520 for whatever reason,
00:32:20.080 there may be
00:32:20.960 some cultural factors there.
00:32:22.680 Maybe it's a fear
00:32:23.400 of sexism.
00:32:24.540 Maybe it's
00:32:25.160 that they're in a child,
00:32:26.540 maybe it's that
00:32:27.080 they're the primary
00:32:27.720 childcare provider
00:32:29.000 in their home
00:32:29.580 and that is in and of itself
00:32:31.120 something that's coming
00:32:31.940 from a place of sexism
00:32:34.160 if you want to go
00:32:34.660 down that road.
00:32:35.880 But if they're not doing it,
00:32:37.700 you can't force them to
00:32:38.960 and you certainly
00:32:39.560 shouldn't take away
00:32:40.540 all of the male competition
00:32:42.100 to manipulate
00:32:42.860 a path forward
00:32:44.000 for women.
00:32:44.760 And that's where
00:32:45.560 this has gone now.
00:32:46.600 So now that tokenism
00:32:48.800 has become just
00:32:49.720 something that they
00:32:50.840 take pride in,
00:32:52.420 this goes far beyond
00:32:53.540 what the federal liberals
00:32:54.600 did even when Justin Trudeau
00:32:56.480 was elected,
00:32:57.060 which is to do
00:32:57.540 the gender parity cabinet.
00:32:59.700 This is now saying
00:33:00.620 that we're going
00:33:01.540 to completely take people
00:33:02.980 out of the running
00:33:03.800 in certain constituencies
00:33:05.200 because we need
00:33:06.660 to meet this benchmark
00:33:08.080 that we've set
00:33:08.880 arbitrarily or not
00:33:10.220 to have more women candidates.
00:33:13.280 And the thing is
00:33:14.440 is that they can do this
00:33:15.500 in a way that makes
00:33:16.180 them look hip
00:33:16.800 and makes them look woke
00:33:17.800 and makes them look like
00:33:18.980 they are progressive.
00:33:20.800 But all they're doing
00:33:21.860 is now making women tokens
00:33:24.420 in the same way
00:33:25.340 that CBC,
00:33:26.540 whose policy by 2021
00:33:28.220 is to have minority candidates
00:33:30.380 promoted at double
00:33:31.860 the rate they are now.
00:33:32.980 It turns people into tokens
00:33:35.260 and it takes away
00:33:36.760 worthiness, qualifications,
00:33:38.600 merit,
00:33:38.920 all of these things
00:33:39.700 that a great many women possess.
00:33:41.940 And let's look at
00:33:42.920 the Ontario liberals,
00:33:44.040 for example.
00:33:44.680 Kathleen Wynne,
00:33:45.740 who was,
00:33:46.060 by a lot of standards,
00:33:47.880 a very unpopular premier
00:33:49.140 by the time she left office,
00:33:50.640 was still a female lesbian premier
00:33:54.360 of the largest province in Canada.
00:33:56.680 Whether you like her or not,
00:33:58.720 that is a trailblazing line item
00:34:01.780 in her biography
00:34:03.240 that she did that.
00:34:04.520 She overcame sexism.
00:34:05.800 She overcame homophobia.
00:34:07.360 She ran her party.
00:34:08.820 She ran an election and won.
00:34:10.960 And then eventually
00:34:11.600 she lost in 2018.
00:34:12.920 But does the party
00:34:14.300 that had a female premier
00:34:17.380 need to bend over backwards
00:34:19.720 to prove that it's doing more
00:34:21.640 to recruit and retain women?
00:34:23.620 I mean, if they want to,
00:34:24.600 fine, that's their choice.
00:34:26.700 But they already have proven
00:34:28.540 that, yes,
00:34:29.100 women can,
00:34:29.860 without these measures,
00:34:30.940 rise to the top of the party
00:34:32.160 and win.
00:34:33.320 The deputy premier,
00:34:34.500 by the way,
00:34:35.160 Deb Matthews,
00:34:35.920 a woman.
00:34:36.740 Now, I've got my own grievances
00:34:38.920 with Deb Matthews
00:34:39.760 that have nothing to do
00:34:40.560 with her sex.
00:34:41.640 We've got a bit of a history.
00:34:43.100 I can overlook that right now
00:34:44.400 and say, yep,
00:34:44.980 she was a successful female,
00:34:47.500 rose up through the ranks,
00:34:48.440 was health minister,
00:34:49.180 was deputy premier.
00:34:50.360 None of that came about
00:34:51.640 through having these little tokens
00:34:53.200 that, oh, well,
00:34:53.820 women can't pay the full fee.
00:34:55.600 And, oh, well,
00:34:56.240 women can't run against males
00:34:57.440 in nomination.
00:34:58.200 I mean,
00:34:58.520 how patronizing is that
00:35:00.580 to women?
00:35:02.620 It's massively so.
00:35:03.780 And this is now
00:35:04.920 what's passing for progress
00:35:06.820 in Canadian politics
00:35:08.340 or certainly
00:35:08.900 in Ontario politics.
00:35:10.580 We've got to take a break
00:35:11.600 when we come back,
00:35:12.280 closing things out here
00:35:13.520 on The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:35:14.680 Stay tuned.
00:35:16.840 You're tuned in
00:35:18.020 to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:35:26.560 Welcome back
00:35:27.400 to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:35:28.900 I want to talk
00:35:29.840 just before we wrap
00:35:30.880 things up today
00:35:31.520 about what I think
00:35:32.180 is one of the most
00:35:32.860 irresponsibly reported stories
00:35:34.820 I've seen
00:35:35.460 throughout the wake
00:35:36.640 of all of the
00:35:37.540 Black Lives Matter protests,
00:35:39.140 riots, demonstrations,
00:35:40.520 and all of this.
00:35:41.440 And it involves
00:35:42.240 a couple in St. Louis
00:35:43.860 who did what
00:35:45.260 many Americans do
00:35:46.360 when they feel
00:35:47.440 their home might be threatened.
00:35:48.580 They pull out their,
00:35:49.260 by all accounts,
00:35:50.020 legally owned firearms.
00:35:51.600 And what do you know?
00:35:52.480 It worked.
00:35:53.160 People kept walking.
00:35:54.720 Now, this is how
00:35:55.740 the story is reported.
00:35:58.160 St. Louis couple
00:35:59.080 point guns
00:36:00.080 at peaceful crowd
00:36:01.300 of protesters
00:36:01.980 calling for mayor
00:36:02.920 to resign.
00:36:03.860 That's in the
00:36:04.300 Washington Post.
00:36:05.260 In CBS News,
00:36:06.740 St. Louis white couple
00:36:08.540 aims guns
00:36:09.320 at St. Louis protesters.
00:36:11.260 And if you look
00:36:11.760 everywhere on Twitter,
00:36:12.680 people are taking aim
00:36:13.600 at this angry white couple
00:36:15.580 violently threatening
00:36:16.640 people that are
00:36:17.340 protesting peacefully.
00:36:18.760 What actually happened here
00:36:20.460 is the guy pulled out
00:36:21.740 a semi-automatic rifle.
00:36:24.260 The woman pulled out
00:36:25.220 a handgun.
00:36:26.120 What had happened
00:36:26.920 is they were
00:36:27.840 minding their own business
00:36:29.360 on their street
00:36:30.360 in a gated community
00:36:31.720 that the protesters
00:36:33.180 had already stormed.
00:36:35.220 The protesters
00:36:35.980 were heading towards
00:36:37.180 the mayor's home
00:36:38.800 because they were going
00:36:40.020 to demand her resignation.
00:36:41.720 It's not peaceful
00:36:42.700 when you are already
00:36:44.220 breaking down
00:36:45.400 a barrier
00:36:46.180 to,
00:36:46.920 not a metaphysical barrier
00:36:48.000 or a literal barrier
00:36:48.880 to get into a gated community
00:36:50.220 and you're on
00:36:51.420 a private driveway,
00:36:53.300 not a public road
00:36:54.340 as some of these videos
00:36:55.400 make it out to be.
00:36:57.300 And what happens
00:36:58.140 is these people are thinking
00:36:59.360 oh my goodness
00:37:00.020 this is our home
00:37:00.800 for all we know
00:37:01.540 they're coming here
00:37:02.260 who knows
00:37:02.760 we're going to stand out
00:37:04.220 and tell them
00:37:04.680 that we're not going
00:37:05.260 to have any of this
00:37:06.040 and you know what
00:37:06.820 it worked.
00:37:08.240 No one got hurt
00:37:09.100 they didn't get fired
00:37:10.000 and you better believe
00:37:11.220 the protesters
00:37:11.920 kept their distance
00:37:12.820 from those two people.
00:37:14.340 Now whether the woman
00:37:15.460 might have had a better
00:37:16.620 trigger discipline or not
00:37:18.060 than she did
00:37:18.820 is one question.
00:37:20.540 The guy it seemed like
00:37:21.540 he was fine
00:37:22.100 standing at the ready
00:37:23.020 without pointing his gun
00:37:24.540 at anyone
00:37:25.300 without putting people
00:37:26.480 in harm's way.
00:37:27.220 the protesters
00:37:28.380 you don't know
00:37:28.920 if they're armed or not.
00:37:30.140 I mean everyone's saying
00:37:30.800 that oh there was
00:37:32.020 the one story here
00:37:32.920 from the Washington Post
00:37:34.240 that I mentioned
00:37:34.820 that says
00:37:36.100 the protesters
00:37:37.160 were armed
00:37:38.160 only with posters
00:37:39.520 and chants.
00:37:41.440 Well
00:37:41.720 first off
00:37:42.900 you don't know that
00:37:43.840 when you hear
00:37:44.380 a loud mob
00:37:45.520 of people
00:37:46.100 that are on your street
00:37:47.420 when they aren't
00:37:47.940 supposed to be there
00:37:48.760 you have no idea
00:37:50.360 what you're dealing with.
00:37:51.860 You have no idea
00:37:52.640 what's going to be happening.
00:37:53.720 You have no idea.
00:37:54.740 All you know
00:37:55.340 is that you've seen videos
00:37:56.300 in the last few weeks
00:37:57.220 of this place burning
00:37:58.160 that place burning
00:37:59.020 this place being torched
00:38:00.180 this guy being killed
00:38:01.560 and I understand anyone
00:38:03.580 wanting to be
00:38:04.640 a bit protective
00:38:05.840 of their home
00:38:06.780 and of their family
00:38:07.640 so good for them
00:38:08.700 for standing up
00:38:09.460 for themselves
00:38:09.940 good for Missouri
00:38:11.340 for having the right
00:38:12.520 for people to do that
00:38:13.720 and shame in all the media
00:38:15.180 that wants to vilify
00:38:16.280 someone standing guard
00:38:17.920 over their home
00:38:18.980 because yes
00:38:20.220 peaceful protest
00:38:21.120 is a right
00:38:22.180 but the fact
00:38:23.240 that so many
00:38:23.820 of these so-called
00:38:24.560 peaceful protests
00:38:25.420 have been violent
00:38:26.260 tells us
00:38:27.400 that you never know
00:38:28.480 you never know
00:38:29.300 it's Schrodinger's protest
00:38:30.320 you don't know
00:38:30.840 if it's going to be
00:38:31.360 peaceful or violent
00:38:32.920 so you have to assume
00:38:33.900 it's going to be
00:38:34.440 either and both
00:38:35.540 until you know otherwise
00:38:37.220 and you know what
00:38:38.060 in a society
00:38:39.380 where people have
00:38:40.280 to protect themselves
00:38:41.440 because police
00:38:42.240 aren't going to do
00:38:42.800 the protecting
00:38:43.500 and they can't
00:38:44.560 in that quick turnaround time
00:38:46.240 of course
00:38:47.360 I stand by someone
00:38:49.060 who says
00:38:49.540 you know what
00:38:49.900 I'm going to stand guard
00:38:50.740 outside my home
00:38:51.480 they didn't fire a shot
00:38:52.940 and they didn't need to
00:38:54.020 being there
00:38:55.080 was enough
00:38:56.060 and when I say
00:38:57.680 police won't protect you
00:38:58.860 I'm not talking about
00:38:59.960 you know
00:39:00.520 I'm not making a slight
00:39:02.160 at police officers
00:39:02.920 by the way
00:39:03.360 I'm saying there are
00:39:03.960 some parts of the US
00:39:04.800 right now
00:39:05.300 like in Seattle's
00:39:06.980 Chaz
00:39:07.400 where police have said
00:39:08.400 we're walking back
00:39:09.820 we're not going to
00:39:10.700 govern this area
00:39:11.520 you've got
00:39:12.460 in other cases
00:39:13.260 just simply
00:39:13.840 a matter of timing
00:39:14.900 police can't get to you
00:39:16.080 before the damage is done
00:39:17.760 so they did
00:39:18.880 what any good citizen
00:39:20.320 would do
00:39:20.860 they didn't harm anyone
00:39:22.220 they didn't threaten anyone
00:39:23.220 but they said
00:39:23.780 if you make a move on us
00:39:25.060 we are going to defend ourselves
00:39:27.400 and the media hates that
00:39:29.080 the media hates that
00:39:30.200 because now these protesters
00:39:31.440 who were storming
00:39:32.940 a closed street
00:39:34.520 to harass someone
00:39:36.280 at their home
00:39:37.160 are just
00:39:37.560 oh they were just chanting
00:39:38.580 they were just singing
00:39:39.440 I mean
00:39:39.700 who cares
00:39:40.660 they weren't doing anything wrong
00:39:42.140 well the fact that
00:39:43.360 you never know
00:39:44.140 if that is going to change
00:39:45.820 in the last few weeks
00:39:47.120 is I think
00:39:47.540 why people should
00:39:48.420 have a right
00:39:49.180 to defend themselves
00:39:50.080 and do
00:39:50.660 and I'm glad
00:39:51.140 that no shots were fired
00:39:52.060 I'm glad that no shots
00:39:53.140 needed to be fired
00:39:54.060 I don't like
00:39:55.140 that it has to come to this
00:39:56.500 but I don't blame
00:39:57.600 the people
00:39:58.040 who have seen
00:39:58.680 the carnage
00:39:59.400 and have seen
00:39:59.860 the wreckage
00:40:00.480 on TV news
00:40:02.020 for saying
00:40:03.140 I don't want
00:40:03.920 our house
00:40:04.340 to be one of those
00:40:05.420 we've got to wrap things up
00:40:06.940 my thanks to all of you
00:40:08.160 for tuning in
00:40:08.980 the show today
00:40:09.520 we'll be back
00:40:10.740 in just a couple of days time
00:40:12.040 thanks
00:40:12.600 God bless
00:40:13.220 and good day Canada
00:40:14.020 thanks for listening
00:40:15.200 to the Andrew Lawton Show
00:40:16.400 support the program
00:40:17.460 by donating to True North
00:40:18.680 at www.tnc.news