Juno News - Vancouver apologizes to LGBT activists for Harry Potter attraction

00:00:00.000 Prime Minister Mark Carney said he wants to quote salute President Donald Trump for his

00:00:09.600 role in brokering a peace deal between Hamas and Israel. Vancouver city officials are apologizing

00:00:16.000 after facing backlash from trans activists for approving a Harry Potter themed attraction at

00:00:22.560 the city's Stanley Park. Ontario's education minister is condemning a Toronto high school

00:00:28.020 after it replaced Oh Canada with an Arabic version of the anthem on the second anniversary of the

00:00:34.600 October 7th terror attack. Hello Canada it's Friday October 10th and this is the True North

00:00:40.380 Daily Brief. I'm Cosmin Georgia. And I'm Clayton DeMille. We've got you covered with all the news

00:00:45.980 you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't

00:00:51.460 hear anywhere else. Prime Minister Mark Carney lauded US President Donald Trump's decisive

00:00:59.940 leadership in brokering a historic peace agreement between Israel and Hamas, hailing it as a pivotal

00:01:07.860 breakthrough after years of conflict in Gaza. It is a day for optimism. I want to salute of course

00:01:15.960 President Trump whose decisive leadership has made this possible. Mr. Kushner, Mr. Witkoff, the Qataris, 0.71

00:01:22.540 the Egyptians, Turkey, who've been essential to getting to this moment. The next 48 hours are crucial.

00:01:31.680 We urge the parties, particularly Hamas, to follow through, release all the hostages and 0.99

00:01:36.860 including the deceased hostages. The President and I discussed in the White House how Canada

00:01:45.500 can support this process. We are supporting with humanitarian aid. There's other mechanisms that

00:01:51.120 we can do to support it. And I urge, as I say, I urge all parties. We're encouraged. We're encouraged,

00:01:59.500 but it's the first phase and there's more to come. Thank you.

00:02:01.940 His comments followed a statement from Trump on Wednesday confirming that Israel and Hamas had both

00:02:08.120 quote, signed off on the first phase of a US brokered peace plan. The agreement Trump said will see all

00:02:14.680 hostages released and Israeli forces withdraw to quote, an agreed upon line as part of the first steps

00:02:21.740 towards a strong, durable and everlasting peace. Trump said quote, this is a great day for the Arab and

00:02:29.000 Muslim world, Israel, all surrounding nations and the United States of America. Blessed are the peacemakers.

00:02:36.540 Carney's written statement Wednesday congratulated Trump for his quote, essential leadership and thanked Qatar,

00:02:43.580 Egypt and Turkey for their mediation efforts. He said quote, after years of intense suffering, peace finally feels

00:02:50.740 attainable. Canada calls on all parties to swiftly implement all agreed terms and to work towards a just and

00:02:58.320 lasting peace. Conservative leader Pierre Polyev also commended the US broker deal, calling it a

00:03:04.360 quote, monumental achievement towards generational peace. Polyev said in a statement Wednesday quote,

00:03:11.480 congratulations to President Trump on negotiating a peaceful end to the Israel-Hamas war. We look 0.56

00:03:18.140 forward to and pray for the return of all hostages and the end of this bloodshed so all can thrive in a

00:03:24.240 lasting peace. Clayton, one of the questions that comes to mind for me is how much has Carney and the

00:03:30.520 Canadian government actually contributed to this? Canada has a long standing reputation as being

00:03:37.040 a middle power, this negotiating country that can achieve disputes. I mean, that's how we made our name

00:03:45.340 historically. And now the liberal government is pledging to support this peace process established by

00:03:52.600 Trump, including with humanitarian aid. But what has Carney done in the lead up to this? How has his

00:04:00.580 government supported the peace deal and negotiations? Well, Cosmin, it's unlikely this deal would have been

00:04:09.600 made without President Trump. Carney, the UK, Australia and France all said they would grant Palestinian 0.74

00:04:16.420 statehood. And Carney initially stated stipulations that Hamas wouldn't be involved in governance and that

00:04:23.720 they would return the hostages along with other stipulations. But the countries, including Canada,

00:04:30.560 decided to officially recognize a Palestinian state while Hamas was still in power. There was no

00:04:37.420 incentives for Hamas to actually relinquish power. And Hamas even claimed a victory that the state 0.58

00:04:42.640 recognition was the, quote, fruits of their deadly terrorist attack on Israel on October 7. Many critics

00:04:50.920 at the time, including conservatives and the Israeli president, Benjamin Netanyahu, criticized the move,

00:04:57.940 saying it was just rewarding terrorists and giving legitimacy to the terror attacks, which killed over

00:05:05.320 1,200 Jews and led to the kidnapping of over 250 hostages, 50 of which are estimated to still be in

00:05:15.300 captivity. So without Trump, there likely wouldn't have been a peace deal or a ceasefire that led to

00:05:22.300 Hamas's surrender. While all those Commonwealth and European countries would have opted to instead give 0.55

00:05:29.620 terrorist credibility. But another possible way of looking at it could be without these Western countries

00:05:35.880 granting statehood to Palestine without getting anything in return, maybe Trump wouldn't have been

00:05:42.020 able to push for this so soon. The alternative of terrorists controlling the region and having global 0.88

00:05:48.600 recognition could have pressured the U.S. and Israel to do something and fast. I just want to say there's a lot of

00:05:55.760 emphasis on Hamas being out. But the Palestinian Authority, which are expected to hold elections once they become

00:06:02.700 a state, are funders of terrorism. Mahmoud Abbas is a Holocaust denier, and the Palestinian Authority has 0.89

00:06:11.900 terrorism funds that promise to pay the families of so-called martyrs who die or get arrested after committing

00:06:18.780 terrorist attacks on Jews. So with them still in the picture, it's still very much a

00:06:25.520 pro-terror government involved in the region, regardless if it has state recognition.

00:06:35.240 Ontario's education minister has condemned a Toronto high school for broadcasting O Canada in Arabic on the

00:06:42.200 second anniversary of the October 7th Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, warning that disciplinary action

00:06:48.440 could follow. The broadcast at Earl Hague Secondary School, confirmed earlier this week by a staff member who spoke to True

00:06:56.780 North, has now drawn sharp criticism from Education Minister Paul Calandra, who said he will act if school boards,

00:07:05.080 quote, choose not to respect our national symbols and federal legislation. Calandra's statement said, quote, it is hard to

00:07:14.060 believe that no one recognized the significance of this day. School boards should be focused on creating safe learning

00:07:21.240 environments for all students, never at the expense of one community over another. The minister cited the National Anthem Act,

00:07:29.280 which stipulates that the official lyrics of O Canada are available in both English and French. He said, quote, if school boards choose not to

00:07:37.780 respect our national symbols and federal legislation, then I will take action. A source at Earl Hague told True North that the

00:07:46.060 Arabic version came from a CD containing multiple recordings of O Canada in several languages, including English, French, Métis, Farsi, and Arabic, and was selected by students that morning.

00:07:59.500 The principal reportedly apologized to Jewish students and staff later that day, calling the decision, quote, an oversight. The Toronto District

00:08:09.900 School Board has since confirmed that it has instructed all schools to play O Canada, only in English, French, or instrumental versions. So, Cosmin, we have a lot of

00:08:20.480 people are extremely upset about this, and there was a number of different events held across Canada, particularly in

00:08:29.240 Ontario in Ontario in the GTA, that were honoring martyrs or, you know, doing otherwise inappropriate

00:08:38.120 homages to Palestinians or Muslims during a time when people are supposed to be remembering the people killed on October 7th in Israel. What are the underlying

00:08:54.760 ideologies at play here that have allowed Canadian schools to replace the anthem with other languages that are foreign to Canada?

00:09:03.640 Yeah, Clayton, I think what you're seeing here isn't just a one-off mistake. It's the result of years of this type of thinking creeping into the education system, into politics, and getting

00:09:17.160 youth to be indoctrinated in this program. And schools themselves have been taught to prioritize

00:09:26.600 inclusion, DEI principles, and representation over shared national identity. Back in the day, you used to learn about Canada's rich history,

00:09:39.080 history, all the people that composed Canada and created it, its origins, and we were told to cherish our national anthem and symbols, but that's not the case anymore.

00:09:51.560 So instead of seeing O Canada as something that unites everybody from coast to coast, no matter where you come from in this country, educators themselves who go through training and universities and teachers'

00:10:06.360 colleges now see it as something to decolonize or reinterpret because this thinking has permeated

00:10:15.720 post-secondary education and now it's seeping into elementary schools, high schools, you name it.

00:10:23.880 And that mindset comes from this progressive-rooted push to view everything through this lens of diversity,

00:10:32.520 politics, politics, identity, rather than civic and national unity. Canada is a historical thing with shared

00:10:41.640 languages, with a shared identity, and they're trying to tear that down. In a sense, it's also an extension of

00:10:49.960 this idea of multiculturalism that was established by Pierre Elliott Trudeau. It was Pierre Elliott Trudeau who

00:10:58.280 passed laws hearkening Canada as a multicultural place, but this has been taken to an extreme.

00:11:05.160 It's no longer just French, English, indigenous identities. This has been taken to the extreme 1.00

00:11:12.680 by people with political agendas, and additionally by groups that are vying

00:11:19.960 to assert their own beliefs on everybody else.

00:11:24.360 So it goes beyond language. It's about what the symbolism means when national symbols get treated

00:11:31.080 like optional cultural props that can be used in whatever way, interpreted or even torn down.

00:11:38.920 It shows how far we've actually drifted from teaching kids to be proud of being Canadian.

00:11:45.400 A Harry Potter-themed holiday attraction in Vancouver's Stanley Park approved by the Vancouver Park Board

00:11:55.720 has stirred controversy and prompted an apology from city officials due to backlash from the city's

00:12:02.200 quote, transgender and gender diverse communities. The Vancouver Park Board apologized after approving the

00:12:09.480 Harry Potter a forbidden forest experience following strong backlash from members of the city's so-called

00:12:15.640 transgender and gender diverse communities. Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to apologize

00:12:21.800 and to strengthen consultations with the city's LGBT advisory committee for future events that could carry

00:12:29.560 quote, equity or human rights implications. The immersive event created by Werner Brothers Discovery Global

00:12:37.160 themed entertainment allows visitors to walk through a light-filled quote, forbidden forest inspired by the

00:12:43.480 Harry Potter series. Tickets start at about $50 for children and climb to more than $80 for adults.

00:12:51.240 The criticism stems from the event's association with author,

00:12:55.080 J.K. Rowling, who has faced years of backlash for remarks about transgender policies and sex-specific

00:13:02.600 spaces for women. Members of the Park's board have promoted such an event quote,

00:13:08.040 will never happen again, with some news articles on the event suggesting the attraction goes against the

00:13:14.120 city of Vancouver's 2016 transgender gender diverse two-spirit action plan. It's insane that this is even a 1.00

00:13:22.760 discussion or something you have to apologize over. But honestly, having lived near Vancouver and visiting there

00:13:29.880 quite frequently, I'm not surprised that this is coming out of that city. What are some critics saying of this

00:13:36.520 apology and how the park board chose to handle this? Why did they even have to make a statement?

00:13:43.720 So, I guess the only way to answer the second part of that is because they're ideologically driven.

00:13:49.320 But in terms of what the critics are saying about this, Amy Hamm, a former BC nurse who has faced a

00:13:57.960 three-year regulatory battle over her public comments supporting J.K. Rowling and who True North has,

00:14:04.680 of course, reported on, called the park board insane and mocked the board for their public denouncement

00:14:12.440 and how they were, quote, sharing tears and felt that they needed to rebuild public trust for such a benign

00:14:20.040 action. Megan Murphy, a social media influencer, similarly mocked the board questioning what they

00:14:27.320 thought they were apologizing for. She said the park board had a, quote, pathetic, gross, and shameful

00:14:34.280 response, noting J.K. Rowling's extensive history of advocating for women's rights and sex-specific

00:14:43.000 spaces. Other commentators, such as Andy Lee on Acts, said the city had its priorities all wrong

00:14:50.600 while people are overdosing on mass and the streets are generally unsafe due to flagrant drug use.

00:14:58.680 She also noted how the Harry Potter exhibit, which was meant for kids, boasts that it planted over 65,000

00:15:06.200 trees from the exhibit. And this exhibit, I'd be interested for someone to point out one thing that's

00:15:13.560 transphobic about it. The Harry Potter franchise has nothing in itself that even resembles what activists

00:15:20.840 are calling transphobia. It's obviously just a crusade against the author, J.K. Rowling,

00:15:27.400 for not agreeing with everything the mob wants her to capitulate to on X. And, you know, how exactly is

00:15:34.920 this exhibit meant for kids harming trans activists, who are all likely adults? If you don't like it,

00:15:42.280 you could just not bring your kids there, if many of these activists complaining even have kids. And

00:15:48.040 just as a side tangent, it was interesting to see that one of the franchise's flagship projects,

00:15:53.240 Hogwarts Legacy, a video game, even put a transgender character in the game. And it was voiced by a

00:15:59.240 person who identifies as a trans woman, and still activists weren't happy with it. And many of the

00:16:04.760 trans rights activists even complained that the voice actor of the trans character sounded like a man,

00:16:10.120 but it was a trans identifying person. Many such activists will only be happy once the Harry Potter 0.91

00:16:17.000 franchise is completely irrelevant and wiped out or never enjoyed by anyone again.

00:16:23.400 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by

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Juno News - October 10, 2025

Vancouver apologizes to LGBT activists for Harry Potter attraction

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