Juno News - Trump's intent to declare Antifa a global terror group could impact Canada

00:00:00.000 an ontario elementary school union is offering art workshops but white members of the union are not

00:00:10.720 allowed to participate elections alberta has approved a citizen petition which could end the

00:00:15.440 provinces decades old funding follows the child and school choice u.s president donald trump has

00:00:22.640 indicated that he will declare antifa which is now designated as a domestic terror organization as an

00:00:28.320 international terror organization hello canada it's tuesday october 14th and this is the true north

00:00:33.920 daily brief i'm isaac lamaru and i'm wally tam tam we've got you covered with all the news you need

00:00:39.040 to know let's discuss the top straight of the day and the true north exclusives you won't hear anywhere

00:00:43.760 else a teachers union leadership conference is offering workshops on how art can be used as quote

00:00:51.360 a tool of resistance identity and joy and only quote racialized members of the union are allowed to

00:00:57.280 partake the elementary teachers federation of ontario says it will help participants quote

00:01:02.000 build networks within the education system and labor movement but the invitation makes it clear

00:01:07.200 that the conference is quote for racialized members the term racialized is often used to exclude

00:01:12.640 individuals of european heritage including jewish teachers from participating in professional training

00:01:17.600 opportunities despite paying the same union dues the union describes these events as professional

00:01:23.200 learning which can qualify for paid release time at official credit for teacher development this

00:01:28.480 isn't the first time the elementary teachers federation of ontario has singled out groups by race

00:01:33.280 earlier reporting by true north revealed exclusive recordings of another union conference that

00:01:38.160 told educators to quote decolonize their minds and reject white dominant culture other workshops

00:01:44.080 promoted the idea that words like family and objectivity are examples of quote whiteness in education

00:01:50.720 these events all run or endorsed by the elementary teachers federation of ontario and its local

00:01:55.600 affiliates are framed as equity and anti-racism work yet their content and structure often divide

00:02:01.600 people by skin color or ancestry an executive of a local etfo chapter told true north that rights

00:02:07.840 exclusive to racialized members are enshrined in the union's constitution the executive member said that

00:02:13.520 quote making an art workshop about activism instead of curriculum highlights the ideological capture of our

00:02:20.000 unions where social justice takes precedence over actual teachings so we'll lead where is the

00:02:25.280 supposedly conservative ontario ministry of education in all of this do they not reject this kind of

00:02:31.200 discrimination well as like if you're referring to doug ford's progressive conservative government then no

00:02:36.560 i mean over the last four years their ministry have spent over 2.5 million dollars of ontario tax dollars

00:02:44.080 that is on marxist programs and critical race theory and the education system again looking at doug ford

00:02:50.480 himself just last week a young student journalist walked up to him and asked him a few questions

00:02:56.160 including how many genders there were and he couldn't even answer the question he just told him straight

00:03:01.200 up i'm for the people i don't get into that stuff that's what you need to hear to know where doug ford stands

00:03:07.280 on the issues frankly doesn't surprise me and uh it seems to me that his party is not one of a

00:03:14.480 conservative nature from a social standpoint elections alberta has approved a citizen initiative

00:03:23.280 petition calling for the province to end public funding for accredited independent schools that

00:03:28.880 could upend alberta's decades old funding follows a child education model the initiative asks should the

00:03:35.520 government of alberta and its current practice of allocating public funds to accredited independent

00:03:40.320 private schools organizers must collect 177 731 signatures which would be 10 of the votes cast

00:03:47.360 in the last provincial election education minister dimitrios nicolades told true north that the

00:03:53.200 government respects the process but remains committed to protecting school choice nicolades said

00:03:58.720 quote the citizen initiative act is the purest form of democracy we have he added that the alberta

00:04:04.720 school choice model quote allows parents to select the type of education that best meets their child's

00:04:10.880 unique needs and learning style and will help them reach their full potential he also said quote

00:04:16.480 withdrawing funding from independent schools would seriously jeopardize educational options for thousands

00:04:21.200 of children with disabilities we should aim to help all our buttons and not put one set of students

00:04:26.160 as more deserving than others in the province system in place in some form since in the 1970s allows up to

00:04:33.360 70 percent of per student operational funding to follow children to independent schools similar models

00:04:39.680 exist in british columbia skatchewan manitoba and quebec isaac i know you're out in alberta what are

00:04:46.240 experts saying about this and what arguments are there for school choice yeah we'll lead so advocates

00:04:53.360 for educational freedom in alberta say that the province's funding follows the child model ensures that

00:04:58.800 parents not government bureaucracies decide which schools best meet their children's needs and i did

00:05:05.520 a series of really good interviews uh when i was writing this article for example one of those

00:05:10.640 interviews was with page mcpherson who is the associate director of education policy at the

00:05:14.800 fraser institute and like you briefly mentioned she explained that five out of ten provinces in the

00:05:19.440 country have a system where some portion of parents's tax dollars follow their child to the school of

00:05:25.360 their choice including independent schools so alberta is not unique in this regard but she did say

00:05:32.560 that this approach enables children and families to find the school that is the right fit for them

00:05:37.200 she said quote wealthy families will always have school choice policies like this enable families

00:05:43.120 from a wider cross-section of the income spectrum to access independent schools and find the right school

00:05:48.640 for their child she added that it was highly ironic that the proposal to cut funding is advancing

00:05:55.200 amid an ongoing teacher strike in alberta which is driven by complaints about classroom complexity

00:06:00.800 she said quote when the issue is that you have complex classrooms a wide swath of needs in a

00:06:06.160 classroom then the solution cannot be mandating that more students attend one-size-fits-all

00:06:11.120 government public schools doing anything at this time to reduce the diversity in the education

00:06:16.160 system in alberta is cruel irony for those children who are currently only able to access independent

00:06:22.560 schools because of the system of school choice that alberta currently has she also noted that

00:06:27.920 independent schools on average tend to outperform government public schools in alberta and that

00:06:32.800 they empower communities to create their own schools their own community solutions to education and that

00:06:38.160 it is a more responsive and democratic system then i also interviewed john jagersma he's the executive

00:06:44.320 director of the association of independent schools and colleges in alberta and he said this initiative if it

00:06:50.480 went forward would be absolutely devastating for his sector he said quote i don't think i'm being

00:06:54.960 dramatic if i said it would be catastrophic he explained that in over 80 of his schools the average household

00:07:01.120 income of parents who send their kids to an independent school is at or below the provincial average

00:07:07.120 and he added that many of his fastest growing schools are actually from students uh of new canadian families

00:07:12.800 but he said of course without provincial funding uh that these families would be forced back into the public

00:07:17.440 school systems where their children have not succeeded for one reason or another and he added

00:07:21.920 that uh forcing these kids back to public schools would cost taxpayers around 300 million dollars he

00:07:27.840 said quote i don't want to say we're a rounding error because that's dramatic but we are not the problem

00:07:32.480 like we're not the cause of the problem taking the funding away from us would solve nothing it would

00:07:36.800 be punitive unproductive he explained uh in regard to the petition question that some might look at it and

00:07:42.800 think we get more funding for our schools but that's just not how it would work he explained that

00:07:47.360 his schools have grown faster than the public system in recent years and uh refuted arguments

00:07:52.000 that independent schools have received more funding he he said look it's very simple private

00:07:56.160 schools get 70 of the funding allocated to public school students so any discrepancy there is linked

00:08:01.600 to independent school growth outpacing public school growth he said quote the two biggest misconceptions

00:08:08.240 one would be those schools are for profit and the other would be those are for the rich both of

00:08:12.480 those are not accurate and he also explained that the petition takes a month to apply for adding

00:08:18.720 that its proponent alicia taylor is a calgary district representative on the alberta teachers

00:08:24.080 association governing council so he said quote i can't help but feel like this is a bit more of an

00:08:30.800 orchestrated attack on independent schools than it is a gut reaction to frustration

00:08:38.160 president donald trump has declared his intention to designate antifa as a foreign

00:08:42.320 terrorist organization a move announced during a roundtable discussion on the organized far left

00:08:47.040 extremist movement the move could have implications for canada and antifa cells operating within the

00:08:52.400 country trump hosted a live streamed roundtable with cabinet members and journalists andy no

00:08:57.680 nick sordor and brandy cruce all of whom have extensively covered the antifa movement

00:09:03.680 last month trump designated antifa a domestic terrorist organization but public safety canada did not

00:09:09.520 indicate it would follow suit during the meeting no who had who has been harassed and assaulted by

00:09:16.080 antifa on multiple occasions asked trump to designate the group as a foreign terrorist organization

00:09:20.960 due to its international nature thank you so much for acknowledging antifa and and for directing your

00:09:27.440 administration to treat them as domestic terrorists it's going to be really challenging because what they

00:09:34.080 how they organize is that they are decentralized autonomous and they operate on deception and we're

00:09:41.680 still to to this day told that they don't exist that it's a figment of our imagination

00:09:46.880 i think the doj could look at federal conspiracy charges the state of california in san diego county

00:09:53.120 last year broke up an antifa cell in san diego and i think maybe perhaps the state department should

00:09:59.040 designate antifa its international arm as a foreign terrorist organization fto so thank you so much for

00:10:05.920 this invitation mr president in response to a reporter trump decided to designate antifa as a foreign

00:10:10.960 terrorist organization citing its international reach and adherence trump asked conservative media

00:10:15.920 personality jack posabiak if he would like to see it done before deciding posabiak replied yes mr

00:10:22.240 president they have foreign links all across western europe middle east i was i had the honor of asking you

00:10:28.080 originally if you would designate uh antifa a terror organization and i stand here before you today

00:10:33.760 and i'm echoing what uh andy said over here are you going to work with your administration as the

00:10:38.560 secretary of states here are you going to work with your administration to designate it a foreign

00:10:42.880 terror organization you mean uh it a terror antifa antifa a foreign terror organization well has that been

00:10:49.760 done pretty close right would you like to see it done yes mr president you think it would help they

00:10:54.560 they have foreign links all across western europe i think it's the kind of thing i'd like to do if

00:10:58.160 you'd like does everybody agree if you agree i agree let's get it done okay let's get it done

00:11:03.440 marco we'll we'll take care of it mr president that's international you mean international sounds

00:11:08.800 good to me steve are you okay with it yes it's true there are extensive foreign ties and i think that

00:11:16.480 would be a very valid step to it i think so too yes good i think it's a good point so waleed what

00:11:22.560 are the implications for canada if trump designates antifa a foreign terrorist organization well isaac i

00:11:29.440 would almost imagine that that would be very hard to see happen but if he does follow through on that

00:11:35.920 i guess i would put much more pressure on canada to react frankly we have this report coming out

00:11:42.640 talking about how potentially the department of defense have members that are linked to antifa now i

00:11:49.840 don't have the full story or the details i can't confirm nor make any claims but i do understand

00:11:55.120 that antifa has a much more unchecked presence in canada than perhaps in the us where there is

00:12:01.360 a beginning of a resistance um at this platform at the white house included multiple conservative

00:12:08.320 journalists and commentators including my own personal friend nick fisher who has reported on the

00:12:13.280 ground throughout many american cities how antifa and other groups work to organize mayhem and chaos

00:12:19.280 at protests often involving violence with civilians and police now these instances are also happened

00:12:28.080 recently at christy pitts for example in toronto during a anti-mass migration protest of course antifa

00:12:36.320 and other groups were involved in the violence that led up to the chaotic scenes earlier this fall i would

00:12:43.600 imagine that if the international component becomes much more pronounced than other countries wishing

00:12:51.040 for goodwill with the us in trade negotiations as well as security cooperation would have to follow

00:12:57.040 through on their own domestic measures to take on antifa in this case in canada perhaps trade talks

00:13:03.760 about the golden dome and other important diplomatic strategic negotiations will have something to win

00:13:13.280 if this is something that the government in canada could follow through on now i don't see much of

00:13:18.000 an appetite for the liberals and i don't see if there's enough an appetite on this on the american

00:13:23.840 side frankly either simply because this issue is not as talked about as many other issues of course

00:13:30.560 it simply would have great consequences to relations in western europe and around the world

00:13:36.320 um i think that antifa is all over the place uh but there are different appetites in terms of dealing

00:13:44.320 with these kinds of groups in different countries based on the way they police and the way they govern

00:13:49.680 anti-terrorism laws exactly how strict and how drastic that designation would have to be taken

00:13:56.240 in other countries where that designation simply doesn't apply i would argue that in canada we have a very different

00:14:02.320 principled uh terrorist list for example the proud boys remains a designated terrorist group here in

00:14:08.560 canada where in the us it is not now without pressure canada to then exercise some sort of diplomatic

00:14:16.000 pressure on the us in order to crack down that group i don't say that so my guess would be that antifa

00:14:22.880 will remain a domestic priority of the u.s president donald trump in order to uh please his conservative

00:14:30.720 base that are concerned about the violence that antifa has been unleashing against conservatives

00:14:35.920 primarily so i don't think it will cross the border anytime soon but of course in these days you never

00:14:42.480 know because we are at the helm of very important negotiations and diplomatic um events coming up

00:14:52.480 that's it for today folks thanks for tuning in you can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by

00:14:57.280 subscribing to the daily brief on itunes and spotify also while you're at it make sure to hit us with

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Juno News - October 14, 2025

Trump's intent to declare Antifa a global terror group could impact Canada

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