Juno News - What are the Liberals hiding？

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:05.520 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:12.420 Hello everyone and welcome to you all.

00:00:15.120 Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show here on True North.

00:00:17.960 Wednesday, May 24th, just after 2 o'clock Mountain Time, 4 o'clock Eastern, 1 o'clock Pacific,

00:00:24.520 sometime in Saskatchewan that I always forget because of the daylight savings.

00:00:27.320 I think Saskatchewan's two hours behind, but part of the year it's one hour behind.

00:00:32.360 Part of the year it's eight hours ahead.

00:00:33.800 It's all so difficult.

00:00:35.220 It's like Arizona, which is why I am completely in favor of doing away with daylight saving,

00:00:40.980 as has been proposed in Ontario, but they're only going to do it when New York goes along with it.

00:00:45.620 So if any of the New York listeners are among us, do lobby your government to switch permanently to daylight savings time

00:00:51.960 so we can all go to a universalized time.

00:00:54.640 yesterday was dandy lions today is daylight saving who knows what we're going to introduce

00:00:59.480 the show with tomorrow i want to delve a little bit further into the china scandal and david

00:01:06.160 johnson's report which conveniently exonerates justin trudeau and does exactly what justin

00:01:11.840 trudeau needs it to do we'll talk about that later on and i also want to get some reaction

00:01:16.680 from people in this country who have been targeted by china to get what they think of this

00:01:23.640 approach that seems to have been put forward by david johnson that oh the government did

00:01:27.700 nothing wrong so uh today i am very excited to have memet totion who is the executive director

00:01:33.900 of the uyghur rights advocacy project that'll be coming up just in about 15 minutes or so

00:01:39.880 and also coming up very shortly brandon leslie who is the conservative candidate

00:01:44.480 in portage lisker which is the riding in which maxine bernier is running for the people's party

00:01:50.320 of Canada. So we will talk about that with Brandon, that race, in just a couple of moments. He's

00:01:56.700 supposed to be dialing in actually in just about a minute and a half here. So I've got a bit more

00:02:01.040 time to delve into the China story right now. And I want to just begin by talking about Justin

00:02:08.000 Trudeau doing a victory lap on this. Here's a clip of Justin Trudeau denouncing the denouncers,

00:02:14.920 denouncing the opposition members for criticizing David Johnston's report.

00:02:20.180 Take a look.

00:02:21.380 Sticking on foreign interference, 1.00

00:02:23.160 given that the opposition leaders seem to have rejected David Johnston's report

00:02:27.220 and are now questioning his integrity,

00:02:30.400 would you look to have someone else oversee the public hearings aspect of this?

00:02:37.700 First of all, they're not questioning his report.

00:02:42.220 They're only questioning his integrity.

00:02:44.920 I'd suggest that opposition leaders and indeed Canadians take a look at his report and understand the work that he's done in this.

00:02:54.080 This is an eminent Canadian who has served in many capacities over decades, was appointed governor general by Stephen Harper, and has done extraordinary work on an extremely serious issue.

00:03:11.000 oh he said eminent canadian so if you're doing the uh david johnston drinking game eminent

00:03:17.460 canadians you take a shot i shot a caffeine in my case not like the dandelion water i was

00:03:23.900 uh mocked for not drinking yesterday i didn't want to go full all in on the dandelion bit but

00:03:29.040 uh eminent canadian he's an eminent canadian how dare you criticize his eminence and it's funny

00:03:35.540 when justin trudeau comes up there and says oh they're not criticizing his report they're

00:03:40.520 criticizing his integrity. Every Canadian is like, yes, like, yes, that's exactly what we're doing.

00:03:46.440 We're criticizing the guy's integrity. The guy who says he feels at home in China, the guy who

00:03:52.020 parades around with Xi Jinping, the guy who, I don't know if we still have this picture from

00:03:57.140 yesterday, who like just buddies around with Justin Trudeau wearing this nice little hat,

00:04:03.000 celebrating whatever it is they're celebrating. You got Justin Trudeau holding hands with

00:04:07.620 Melanie Jolie it all looks like they're about to do a giant dance and that is of course the

00:04:13.120 close personal friendship that David Johnson says does not exist between him and Justin Trudeau

00:04:20.580 in action there and all of that is to say that absolutely people are criticizing his integrity

00:04:26.140 his integrity in accepting this post his integrity in how he did the report his integrity in

00:04:31.880 interviewing a conservative leader a former conservative leader well the report was already

00:04:36.560 off with the translators and we're supposed to accept that oh we bow before his eminence we bow

00:04:42.880 before his eminence and how who are we to criticize him so if you missed my comments on this yesterday

00:04:49.940 I'm not going to rehash all of it but I am going to repeat the fundamental summary in my view of

00:04:56.260 David Johnson's report which is that you all don't know what I know and I'm not going to let you see

00:05:03.400 it. That's essentially his position. His position is the same as Justin Trudeau's position. Again,

00:05:09.500 odd how that works out, where we are all the plebs that don't get to see the secret documents. And if

00:05:14.620 we could see the secret documents, we would definitely just trust Justin Trudeau and trust

00:05:18.620 the government on this. But we can't. And I'd say, okay, well, perhaps show us some of the documents,

00:05:23.400 maybe not all of them, show us some of the documents. And he says, oh, no, no, no, we can't

00:05:27.160 have any of that. So David Johnston is insisting upon a second phase of his study. And in that

00:05:33.700 second phase, he's going to be the grand poobah once again. And it's exactly what Justin Trudeau

00:05:39.400 was asked about there. Maybe there's another guy that could do the second phase who isn't going to

00:05:44.240 be mired in these criticisms. And Justin Trudeau says, no, you're not criticizing his work. Read

00:05:50.300 the work for yourself. Well, I did read the work for myself. I did read the report and it was in

00:05:56.080 reading that report, irrespective of all of the integrity related issues I've just mentioned,

00:06:01.460 that I found it to be an absolute sham of a report. The report at several points starts doing

00:06:07.340 the government spin for the government. He starts actually giving the defensive lines that you would

00:06:13.640 expect a communication staffer to give to Justin Trudeau, but he's actually baked it right in the

00:06:18.660 report. And more importantly, the report shows that David Johnson didn't approach certain contentious

00:06:24.820 things with nearly the level of curiosity you'd think a special rapporteur I mean I understand

00:06:30.620 just a regular old rapporteur not wanting to go down into the weeds but he's a special rapporteur

00:06:35.560 you think the special rapporteur is going to want to go down and get uh get answers on some things

00:06:40.780 I guess he's not the really ultra special rapporteur that's the one we uh really needed here

00:06:45.340 but uh like for example when he says oh yeah Handong definitely talked about China with the

00:06:50.040 PRC officials but he didn't advise them to keep them detained and then you're looking at that

00:06:54.380 saying, well, hang on, why do we just now skip to another issue?

00:06:57.060 Why not delve into why was this guy talking to Chinese officials

00:07:01.880 about a very hot-button geopolitical issue?

00:07:05.160 So now Handong is incidentally claiming vindication on this.

00:07:08.700 The Liberal candidate who was definitely given a bit of a nudge

00:07:12.740 into the seat by the Chinese Politburo

00:07:16.020 has now said that he's been vindicated

00:07:18.140 and he wants to come back into the Liberal caucus.

00:07:22.880 And you know what?

00:07:23.600 in a world in which the government is claiming it did nothing wrong and has nothing to hide,

00:07:29.900 I have no doubt that he will be back in there.

00:07:32.940 I have no doubt that the Liberals will welcome back Handong with open arms. 1.00

00:07:37.300 You know, I bet even Doug Ford will welcome Vincent Kuh in Ontario back with open arms

00:07:41.460 because the whole government has now been given a license to say,

00:07:44.900 you know what, nothing really happened.

00:07:46.860 It was all just fine.

00:07:49.220 And, you know, the NDP deserve a bit of a question here.

00:07:53.600 because the NDP have for the last, I mean, since the 2021 election, the NDP have been putting

00:08:00.300 forward the position that the liberals are terrible and the liberals and the conservatives

00:08:04.640 are no different. And they're all just conspiring to keep the little guy down and back the

00:08:09.180 corporations. But, oh, well, the liberals, we know we don't want to pull our support for them.

00:08:13.500 They're also going to be the guys we back and keep in office here. So all of this is to say

00:08:20.440 right now, the liberal government, the liberal government is getting a complete

00:08:27.100 vote of confidence from the NDP. Well, the NDP claims that everything the liberals do

00:08:32.740 is terrible. So Jagmeet Singh is again, the only guy that can go into a negotiating room with

00:08:37.560 Justin Trudeau and somehow come out with nothing. Like we're talking, I don't think Justin Trudeau

00:08:42.540 is the diplomatic heavyweight here, but Jagmeet Singh can go in, can come out with nothing and

00:08:48.380 then celebrate it as though he achieved some grand victory so all of this is i think right now where

00:08:55.540 we're at that the ndp they did this just painful painful interview on cbc with jagmeet singh which

00:09:01.640 is where i watch it so you don't have to in which uh singh is saying that he's not prepared to pull

00:09:07.300 his support for the supply and confidence agreement but there needs to be a public inquiry and and

00:09:11.440 david cochran kept asking well you know what what tools are you going to use to get this inquiry

00:09:17.300 And Singh goes, well, you know, we've got many tools.

00:09:19.480 We were looking at all our tools.

00:09:21.180 And Cochran, to his credit, tries to be like, well, just give us a tool.

00:09:24.720 And Singh just won't do it because he knows that there are no tools.

00:09:27.900 Well, there are many tools, but that's a different story.

00:09:30.360 But Singh won't use any of the tools in the toolbox because he has the one Trump card that he could play.

00:09:37.740 The one Trump card that he could play and he isn't going to do it,

00:09:41.700 which is the card that would pull the NDP support of the Liberals.

00:09:45.520 So we'll talk about this a little bit later on when we have Mehmet Toti with us from the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project.

00:09:52.280 But I want to do a bit of a follow-up to a discussion we started off last week about the Portage-Lisker by-election,

00:09:58.700 one of the safest Conservative seats historically, and it is now up for grabs because Candace Bergen,

00:10:05.760 the former interim leader of the Conservatives, has stepped back from politics.

00:10:09.640 The Conservative candidate Brandon Leslie joins us now.

00:10:13.220 Brandon, good to talk to you. Thanks for coming on today.

00:10:16.120 Awesome. Well, thanks for having me here, Andrew. Pleasure to be here.

00:10:18.780 So let's just, because it is a timely issue and we were talking about the China file here,

00:10:23.580 is this one that actually people talk about at the doors or is this this bubble issue where

00:10:29.220 politicos and media types care about it, but it doesn't necessarily come top of mind for

00:10:34.260 the average person in Portage Lisker? You'd be surprised perhaps. It actually,

00:10:38.980 election integrity, I think starting for the last couple of years, you know, these rumours

00:10:43.100 that have kind of emerged and now we're seeing real hard evidence emerge it election interference

00:10:47.820 and the ability to have free and fair elections in a democratic nation like canada actually has

00:10:53.200 been a big issue at the doors people are very upset and i i was door knocking yesterday and i

00:10:58.040 hadn't heard uh the outcome of david johnson's uh decision until i was informed at the door by

00:11:03.940 somebody telling me how ridiculous they thought it was that uh you know the hand-picked uh

00:11:09.360 The individual by the prime minister had come to this conclusion that there was no need for a public inquiry and that they were going to do some sort of further investigation.

00:11:17.960 And that individual that informed me found it rather appalling.

00:11:20.540 So, yeah, short answer to your long answer, your short question.

00:11:23.080 It is coming up at the door.

00:11:24.140 The integrity of our elections matters to folks in Portis-Lizcar and I think right across the nation.

00:11:29.340 Why is it you decided to step up now and run?

00:11:33.400 I would say largely because I'm fed up.

00:11:35.480 And that has been something that has been echoed at the doorsteps for the last number of months, obviously starting with the nomination campaign, working with Conservative Party members to become the candidate.

00:11:46.040 And through the past nine days of this actual election campaign, I think people feel that obviously life has become extremely unaffordable to them.

00:11:54.720 I think that there is this constant attack on our rural way of life, whether it be the Liberals' gun grab, whether it be the carbon tax or now the secondary carbon tax, whether it be the attacks on our farmers and the cap of emissions on fertilizer.

00:12:09.560 It seems as though our rural way of life is constantly under attack.

00:12:13.000 And I want to stand up.

00:12:14.540 I want to be part of a government that is going to fight for the little people, that is going to fight to give people back control of their lives and fight to return the prosperity that Canada can offer, the promise of Canada. 0.98

00:12:25.700 One thing that I do have to bring up, because obviously you're running in one of the most conservative ridings in the country, which meant it was also subject of a bit of a subplot last time because it was the strongest People's Party of Canada support at about, I think, just over 20% or 20.1% in the last election.

00:12:44.540 So let me ask you about that context, because I don't believe politicians, even ones in quote-unquote safe seats, should ever go into elections thinking they have it in the bag here.

00:12:53.220 And in your case, you may find that you're deflecting against a different type of opposition than you might have in a different riding.

00:13:00.700 So is there an active strategy on your part to go after PPC voters?

00:13:06.340 My active strategy is to go after voters.

00:13:08.840 We have knocked on a lot of thousands of doors already.

00:13:12.000 My plan is to talk to as many voters as I can.

00:13:14.340 I have a team of volunteers that I left in my hometown here in Portage knocking on doors today.

00:13:19.900 So the plan is to engage with as many voters and hear their issues.

00:13:23.220 In terms of the last election, people were mad.

00:13:25.840 People were upset with the mandates and the lockdowns that were imposed,

00:13:29.120 particularly the egregious lockdowns that Manitobans faced.

00:13:33.160 There's been a turning point, and it certainly started with the leadership of Pierre Polyev.

00:13:37.320 Prior to his time as leader and throughout his time as leader,

00:13:39.780 he has been very clear on his views about mandates and lockdowns and throughout our my nomination

00:13:46.000 process i've made my views very clear so you know there might have been a high water point in the

00:13:50.800 last election but in talking with people they are ready for a a real party that can be ready to

00:13:55.980 govern and i'm looking forward to join pierre's polio's team in ottawa and take this fight to the

00:14:00.540 liberals because that's really where we need to have it you know i know obviously that you know

00:14:04.240 when people ask how many votes do you need to win the answer is one more than the other guy like

00:14:08.160 There's not a magic number, and you can't have 100%, and generally speaking, we don't want a system in which people get every voter.

00:14:14.580 But even so, when you have 20% of voters in a riding that were probably, at least for the most part, historically conservative voters say,

00:14:25.400 I don't believe that the Conservative Party of Canada is an effective champion of the things that matter to me,

00:14:31.660 does that not necessitate some introspection on your part as a Conservative member,

00:14:35.760 despite the leadership change that hey there's a part of our party that has been failing people

00:14:40.160 sure but i think you hit the nail on the head here and we are not taking anything for granted like

00:14:45.100 let's be frank here andrew i'm the new guy candace was the mp was a very good mp in this riding for

00:14:50.140 for many years and so stepping into this with a new face a name on a sign isn't enough to just

00:14:56.060 sway voters so that's why we're working so hard me personally and the dozens of volunteers we have

00:15:00.300 going across towns across this riding for the last eight days and continuing over the next

00:15:04.360 28 and beyond that to make sure that they know that we are taking this riding serious and again

00:15:10.340 I think it does start with the leadership to push back a little bit Pierre has has shifted our

00:15:14.580 our conservative party to a point which I think people are very excited once again to be part of

00:15:19.140 our movement he has unified our party he has brought people back into the fold by his strong

00:15:23.360 positions whether it be on mandates and lockdowns but a whole host of other issues that are at the

00:15:27.340 core priorities of people across this riding so overwhelming support thus far I'm very proud of

00:15:33.680 campaign we're running so far and and as i say we aren't taking anything for granted we are going

00:15:37.520 to go out there and work hard to earn every vote on june 19th so let's talk about 2021 for a moment

00:15:44.160 and i i take you know i take what you say you weren't the candidate then so i don't think you

00:15:48.080 have to be held accountable for for what the party did but there were a lot of voters that saw okay

00:15:52.720 we elected a leader that says no to a carbon tax and then all of a sudden we're running on something

00:15:57.840 that very much resembles a carbon tax you know other things in the platform uh like you know

00:16:02.720 repealing liberal gun bans were were walked back or softened so for you as a conservative candidate

00:16:09.120 can you make a commitment now that you won't stand for that that if the platform put forward in the

00:16:12.960 election is not the one that peer poly has been talking about now and was talking about in his

00:16:17.120 leadership that you're going to speak out against it absolutely and you know what people have

00:16:21.760 challenged me with that on the doorsteps and i proudly say you know when elected to join this

00:16:26.560 caucus i've looked thousands of people in the eye already and told them for example that we are going

00:16:31.040 to axe the carbon tax and i will happily say that loudly and proudly inside our own caucus to make

00:16:35.600 sure that it's known that when i tell somebody i mean it and our party needs to mean it too we can't

00:16:41.040 just be liberal light we need to be true conservatives to ourselves and to everybody

00:16:45.060 across this country and i think again it does go back to the leadership leadership change that

00:16:48.860 happened uh last year with pierre taking the helm i think we are we are earnest to ourselves and the

00:16:54.720 fact that we are real conservatives we are consistent in our views and i'm very proud to

00:16:58.400 be joining his team. And I think Canadians across the country, at least here at Portage

00:17:02.040 Lisgar, are seeing that shift happening in real time.

00:17:05.080 I did have Maxime Bernier, your opponent in this race, on the show last week, and he had

00:17:09.480 unveiled his policy on abortion at the time. And he had said, you know, he wants to end

00:17:14.860 third trimester abortions. And, you know, there was a bit of a back and forth as to

00:17:19.340 how he identifies as pro-life or pro-choice. But in the interest of fairness, I know it

00:17:23.000 actually, probably in your riding more than many others in Canada, it doesn't matter to

00:17:26.780 voters there are a lot of conscience voters there where do you stand on this are you pro-life or

00:17:30.960 are you pro-choice yeah it's easy for me i'm 100 pro-life uh it's a lot easier answer that way and

00:17:36.880 and you're right there is uh this is an important issue to a lot of voters and it's on both sides

00:17:41.320 of life it's it's uh the abortion issue but it's also the medical assistance and dying issue which

00:17:46.580 has been raised to me a number of times of late obviously the liberals proposed expansion to

00:17:51.960 children and those suffering with mental illness uh is is deeply concerning and conservative mps

00:17:57.640 uh when the liberals first brought this in rightfully stood up and maintained the argument

00:18:02.200 that we needed tight guard rails on medical insistence and dying opportunities and to avoid

00:18:07.000 this slippery slope that we've seen in other countries so you know with that issue being front

00:18:10.920 and center in the minds of many people right now i'm happy to tell them exactly how i feel that we

00:18:15.480 need to make sure that we limit this proposed expansion uh by the liberals uh to those to

00:18:20.600 youths and those facing uh mental health issues so to me it's fairly easy and i was i'm not sure why

00:18:25.480 my opponent couldn't be a little bit more clear after making such an announcement but

00:18:28.920 i think the reality is you know he's an opportunist from another country he's at the point where he's

00:18:33.480 desperate he's willing to say and do anything at this point to try to get votes based on what he

00:18:38.280 thinks people want him to say quebec you're referring to as another country here sorry another

00:18:43.480 province my apologies well that that that claim might actually get you votes in rural manitoba

00:18:48.920 i'm not sure but but but i mean here's the criticism though is that you have a party leader

00:18:53.960 who does not identify as pro-life and despite his commitment to conscience votes has said

00:18:58.120 unequivocally including on my show that he does not anticipate any uh legislation on abortion

00:19:02.920 passing so if you're a pro-life voter is the ppc not offering you more because they actually have

00:19:08.360 a concrete plan on abortion whereas you're leaning on your values here and you know in a party that

00:19:13.720 doesn't want to legislate on this issue yeah as i said i get asked this all the time and i think

00:19:18.600 what i say what i say to folks in the riding is just like candace bergen did i will always vote

00:19:23.000 with the will of my constituents which is very clearly uh on the pro-life side of things i think

00:19:28.600 you know i wouldn't trust an opportunist from quebec from our country but from a different 1.00

00:19:32.520 province that's coming in here and just trying to get votes by by stating that he's going to do

00:19:36.680 something he is right in saying that single-handedly he's not going to be able to do this now he's

00:19:40.440 starting the conversation that is one thing but that's not what he's trying to do here he is

00:19:43.880 trying to get votes from folks that know that he can't actually represent any of their issues

00:19:49.320 people here what i've been talking to on the doorstep are worried about their businesses

00:19:54.120 in their communities having water access having natural gas access so we can have economic

00:19:58.520 prosperity for our manufacturing industries for our wet agricultural value-added processing

00:20:03.320 industries they're mad about the carbon tax about the gun grab and he's trying to come in and try to

00:20:07.960 to harvest votes based on on what he thinks uh he thinks folks care about he's he's transitioned

00:20:13.460 overnight into a social conservative and i think people are going to see through that

00:20:16.720 if you are successful in getting elected you're going to have a bit of runway maybe a year maybe

00:20:22.760 two years of being in opposition before there is another election what is your target for that what

00:20:29.800 is your goal for that that you'd want to have achieved before you're going back to voters

00:20:33.300 in 2025 if the NDP doesn't manage to find a spine, and you're saying, okay, re-elect me?

00:20:41.240 Yeah, no, that's a good question, Andrew. I think the first thing that is part of the team,

00:20:45.260 right, you know, holding this Liberal government to account is a team effort, and what I really

00:20:50.140 want to focus on here, and we're in agricultural-based riding, and we have a lot of opportunities

00:20:54.640 to increase our agricultural output from a farm perspective, but from a value-added perspective,

00:20:58.940 and that's going to be one of my core priorities to make sure that we are able to bring in

00:21:02.280 the economic drivers, which are often federal investments to make sure that we have the

00:21:06.620 infrastructure to bring in businesses, to expand our businesses, ensure we have economic growth

00:21:11.040 here in our riding. You know, we've seen tremendous growth across a number of communities,

00:21:15.380 but I'm a firm believer in the need to keep our rural communities thriving. I'm so proud of our

00:21:20.800 rural communities and our rural values, and economic growth is the key to all of that. Of

00:21:25.900 course, we need investments in community, you know, infrastructure to make sure that there's

00:21:31.660 an attractive place to live but i really want to see our rural communities across this riding

00:21:35.580 thrive and i think it starts with working with the government of the day of course it'll be much

00:21:39.240 easier when we form the next conservative majority government but to make sure that the priorities of

00:21:44.100 the residents of portage lisgar are understood by this government and the next government once we

00:21:48.240 take power brandon leslie conservative candidate in portage lisgar thanks so much for coming on

00:21:54.000 today good to talk to you my pleasure and we'll talk to you again all right thank you for that

00:21:58.500 Although I know I'm going to get like, we don't, I don't know how many listeners we have in Quebec, but I'm sure that like there are one or two of them that are going to email and I don't know if they're going to be like, you know, yes, he's recognizing Quebec sovereignty or if they're going to be the Federalist types, but he did walk that back and say he meant province.

00:22:12.900 So don't send me your angry emails about that.

00:22:15.300 I get enough of them on the whole dandelion thing.

00:22:17.280 But let's turn our attention to, you may have heard, if you hear this show frequently, occasionally I delve into this one little pet project of mine, not really a project because that implies I'm doing something about it, but a pet interest of mine, which is that I have this visceral and irrational contempt for bylaws and for my law enforcement officers.

00:22:40.960 And I don't know if it's like a traumatization that I hold because one time, as I was talking

00:22:46.280 about with Stella Ambler a little while back, I was like, I had been rearranging cars in

00:22:50.940 a driveway and the car was parked the wrong way on the road for just a moment.

00:22:54.420 And I got a ticket for, I don't know, like $150 or something like that.

00:22:58.460 Maybe I'm traumatized by that.

00:23:00.220 Maybe it's because when I was running for office myself in 2018, London, Ontario had

00:23:05.180 a sign bylaw and the bylaw officers would always be like just pulling our signs out

00:23:09.700 of the ground because it was, you know, two inches too close to another sign or something 0.99

00:23:13.520 stupid like that. So I don't like bylaw enforcement and I don't wish ill on the individual people, 0.97

00:23:18.960 but I wish the whole department could just get, generally speaking, slashed. This is a lengthy

00:23:24.760 wind up to a story that I am happy to put in my disband bylaw enforcement divisions file,

00:23:31.760 which is not a physical, maybe I should actually get a physical file on it. This is actually not

00:23:36.360 far from where I live in. This is in Tilsonburg, Ontario, which what is it? Is it Stomping Tom

00:23:42.620 Connor that did the Tilsonburg song? My back still hurts when I hear that word, Tilsonburg.

00:23:48.240 I think something like that. If you're a Stomping Tom Connor fan, you can correct my lyrics. I

00:23:51.500 am notoriously bad at pretty much song lyrics, but I know it was about Tilsonburg if I'm

00:23:56.220 remembering it correctly. Anyway, Tilsonburg, Ontario has a bylaw enforcement officer has

00:24:02.940 told residents to remove a basketball net from the end of their driveway. And I don't know if we have

00:24:09.960 a photo of this to put up from the story, but there's a driveway in Tilsonburg. It's a nice

00:24:16.480 little suburban neighborhood there in this town in southwestern Ontario. And all the kids you can

00:24:22.300 see in a photo here are playing and the basketball net is between the sidewalk and the curb. So it's

00:24:30.040 in that section where you know bylaw claims jurisdiction, even though they're not the ones

00:24:34.260 cutting your lawn. But the basketball net is there so the kids in the street can play with their

00:24:38.000 basketball because the driveway doesn't look all that long. And you say, oh, well, that's great.

00:24:41.620 You know, no one's being harmed by it. Oh, well, bylaw doesn't want any of that. So Shannon Steen,

00:24:47.720 a 42-year-old mom, has had bylaw ring her doorbell to suddenly take issue with this basketball net, 1.00

00:24:55.340 which has been there for a year and a half the basketball net was there for a year and a half

00:25:01.380 and that is i think an absolutely uh insane thing to just wake up one day and say oh you know what

00:25:07.800 we don't like that so there's a little uh kind little note here on a business card could you

00:25:11.820 please remove basketball net off road allowance and then they knocked on the door and have asked

00:25:18.100 her to remove it so i don't know if she is going to fight this i don't know if she's going to take

00:25:21.900 the basketball net fiasco all the way up to the Supreme Court. But Shannon Steen, I am on your

00:25:27.320 side and I say play on to you. But that does not and should not constitute legal advice by any

00:25:33.900 stretch of the imagination. But this is the thing. When you look at most of the things you can't do

00:25:39.900 in a city, it's always the bylaws that are responsible. Like if I want to go and get a pet

00:25:44.320 cheetah, which I think my wife would probably love and I would enjoy it. It's not the government of

00:25:50.060 Ontario that says you can't have the cheetah. It's not the government of Canada that says you

00:25:53.320 can't have the cheetah. It's the stupid municipal bylaws that say like, you can only have a dog, 1.00

00:25:59.060 a cat, a rabbit, a turtle, and all the fun animals are banned. So that is exactly the problem that 1.00

00:26:05.940 we're dealing with. So if you want to join my crusade against bylaw, we should start up a

00:26:09.980 website on something like that. Let's see what else is going on here. This is, I think, a bit

00:26:15.040 of an interesting dynamic here. And to go back to the China files, one thing that I would bring up

00:26:22.080 here that has been tremendously significant in the last little while is how little accountability

00:26:26.840 there seems to be whenever something goes wrong in society. And I think we right now have

00:26:33.340 collectively a sense of low expectations where we just are so used to thinking that things are

00:26:39.880 broken, so used to thinking that the world just doesn't work, that when things don't work, it

00:26:44.440 just reaffirms our thesis. And when things do work, we're celebrating it, but it doesn't become

00:26:48.540 the new normal. So a lot of Canadians who have, for the last several years, seen Justin Trudeau

00:26:53.780 break ethics laws multiple times, the SNC-Lavalin scandal, all of that. What else do we have? The

00:27:01.020 AgaCon private vacation. They're like, okay, this is just par for the course. This is just how life

00:27:08.840 is. There is no accountability. There is no remedy for wrongdoing. We're all just supposed to shrug

00:27:14.080 our shoulders and move on. So when you look at what's happening with China, and the conservatives

00:27:19.640 are calling right now for this public inquiry, and I spoke about this with Pierre Polyev not that

00:27:24.140 long ago when I was sitting down with him at some point, I said, like, is this public inquiry even

00:27:28.780 going to be this ascendant aspirational thing that will deliver accountability? And his answer was

00:27:34.800 kind of, well, we know that the alternative is not. And that's a fair enough point. I mean,

00:27:40.380 I've been one of these people who has since the beginning been skeptical that a public inquiry is

00:27:44.960 going to do anything because the problem right now is that you have a government that holds in its

00:27:50.500 mind a blind spot on China, a government that isn't interested in China, a government that

00:27:56.200 isn't interested in really getting to the bottom of Chinese interference in Canadian elections,

00:28:01.820 in the Chinese influence in all of these institutions in Canada. Remember, it isn't 1.00

00:28:06.840 just about elections. It's an influence that we see in academia. The amount of money that the

00:28:12.700 Chinese regime, through its many tentacles and organs, funnels into research institutions, 0.99

00:28:19.360 universities, all of these offices and bureaus, these cross-cultural partnerships,

00:28:23.980 it's astronomical. I think we're probably talking around the world billions of dollars.

00:28:28.460 You look at the Belt and Road Initiative, which I've talked about on the show in the past. It's

00:28:33.600 China essentially colonizing the developing world by building airports and shipping terminals and

00:28:41.140 ports so that it becomes the center of this new global trading hub. And by the way, this is

00:28:47.000 stretching now into the Caribbean. It's stretching into Eastern Europe. It's stretching in some ways

00:28:52.100 into Western Europe. And most people just don't care. Most people do not care. And part of it is

00:28:58.660 because most people don't have the capacity to care they have real problems in their life there

00:29:03.640 I just saw I think it was yesterday that in Canada we have the highest household debt level

00:29:10.040 in the G7 the highest household debt level in the G7 so that means that when a global economic

00:29:16.760 crisis comes Canadians are probably going to be screwed relative to people in other countries

00:29:21.480 even more more so than people in Germany more so than people in Italy in Japan in the UK and that

00:29:27.640 is something that we will have to, as a country, contend with. So if you are wondering whether

00:29:34.740 you'll be able to afford your mortgage payment, I get not knowing why Chinese influence in whatever

00:29:41.020 institution matters. I get that. But it does matter. And the economic stuff is very much

00:29:47.380 connected to China as well, because China is the one cashing the checks while we all reorient our

00:29:52.340 world around these very grandiose virtue signally propositions and to bring it into context here for

00:29:59.420 people who are part of the Chinese diaspora for people who have families in China these things

00:30:04.720 are very real to them they're very personal when we hear about Chinese interference it isn't just

00:30:10.640 taking place in this abstract way where you know a bunch of faceless people just happen to like the

00:30:16.800 liberals better. A lot of the times there is intimidation, intimidation taking place

00:30:23.120 to harass individual people. We heard it with Michael Chong's family overseas. And one story

00:30:29.920 that is particularly important is that of a gentleman who joins us now on the show. His

00:30:36.240 name is Mehmet Todi. He's the executive director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project. And he's

00:30:42.820 had people uh that have been chinese police agents call him up and directly intimidate him

00:30:48.760 it's good to talk to you thank you for coming on today thank you and joe uh good to have you

00:30:55.480 good to be on your show explain to me first off what does these phone calls are like when you've

00:31:02.100 gotten a call about your family what is it that's being told to you and who is it that's telling you

00:31:07.440 It is many things, just particularly it is part of the Chinese transnational repression,

00:31:14.440 targeting Uyghur activists, not only in third world countries, at the same time reaching

00:31:20.980 out to Canada, the person like me, living in free society, and threatening me by hostage

00:31:28.880 taking of my family members to stop my just normal activities speaking up.

00:31:35.540 That's what it is.

00:31:36.540 And part of your activities are as a Uyghur activist calling out these abuses, you're

00:31:42.100 criticizing these abuses, and they respond by more of the abuse, by more of what it is

00:31:47.380 that you're criticizing.

00:31:48.380 Just imagine in my life I did two things.

00:31:52.200 One is I can hold a pen, I can write, and another is just to speak up.

00:31:58.720 So, two things I did in my life, and since 1991, I am totally isolated from my family

00:32:06.400 members.

00:32:07.400 And the Chinese government did not allow any of my family members just to come and visit

00:32:12.280 me since 32 years.

00:32:15.600 And when I initiated a campaign in Canada for a particular issue, for instance, in 2006,

00:32:24.480 When the Canadian citizen of Uyghur origin, Mr. Hussein Jalil, was abducted in Uzbekistan

00:32:30.420 by the Chinese government and shipped out to China in a sentence for life, I advocated 1.00

00:32:36.360 for his early release.

00:32:37.780 At that time, the Chinese government took hostage of my mother to stop me from my activities.

00:32:45.040 And then, just as recent as January 16th, the Chinese state police called me again,

00:32:52.380 This time, they were telling me that they killed my mother and they killed my two sisters.

00:32:59.480 And I asked about my brothers.

00:33:01.200 I have three brothers there, and I was told that my three brothers are disappeared.

00:33:06.940 I asked about their children, and there's no any news about their children.

00:33:12.880 And they took hostage of my mother's brother, my uncle, in a hospital bed.

00:33:20.220 And threatened me to stop to pass the motion, M62, for the resettlement of 10,000 Uyghur 0.99

00:33:27.460 refugees here in Canada who escaped from Chinese genocide.

00:33:32.360 And the threat level just came to our soil in Canada, and because we closed our eyes

00:33:39.840 since decades with the false expectation of engagement and a favorable trade relationship

00:33:48.840 and others. And China expanded its influence with huge machinery and mobilized huge human

00:33:57.640 and financial resources, penetrated in our societies, not only in our societies,

00:34:04.440 they penetrated in three levels of governments, including federal, provincial, and municipal

00:34:11.000 governments. At the same time now, we are talking about the meddling of our democratic elections.

00:34:17.560 And so this is a serious matter. And when this kind of serious issue is taking place,

00:34:25.560 we are still debating whether to have a public inquiry or not. The answer should be clear.

00:34:32.440 And the prime minister's appointment of that special rapporteur

00:34:37.160 is the sign that prime minister's incompetence, if you're a prime minister, you should know what

00:34:43.400 to do what kind of action you should take in the face of this threat you don't i don't ask advice

00:34:50.600 from any other people to to manage my office matters i know what to do and for that reason

00:34:59.480 this uh the rejection of public inquiry is the vindication of the government's inaction at the

00:35:05.640 same time put the blame on ceasers for miscommunication and the prime minister is going

00:35:11.640 to win some time to cool down this matter but we are determined we are going to put utmost pressure

00:35:18.120 on the parliamentarians and we are going to speak up more loudly to have the public inquiry to get

00:35:24.760 the bottom of this mess and figure out what is working what is not and what kind of measures

00:35:30.600 government has undertaken or is going to undertake whether these measures are adequate to offer a

00:35:36.920 protection for us and to safeguard our democratic institutions. One of the things that strikes me

00:35:43.400 in what you've just said, Mehmet, is that when we learned from the thesis reports about what

00:35:49.460 the government was being told and what we frankly know they were largely ignoring,

00:35:54.640 the one thing that strikes me as really concerning there is that you've just described how people in

00:35:59.860 the Chinese diaspora in Canada have known about this for years, for decades. This is not new.

00:36:06.100 Yet for the government, they've treated it all as if it is new

00:36:09.520 They've treated it all as though when the Globe and Mail asked them three months ago

00:36:12.760 It was like the first time this was ever brought up to them

00:36:15.720 Yeah, and this issue has been updated with various levels of government since decades

00:36:23.560 We shared our personal stories

00:36:26.120 And we shared a real threat that we received daily pieces from the Chinese government 0.97

00:36:31.400 and not only me, and many diaspora community members and human rights defenders,

00:36:37.880 these shared with the real actionable recommendation to the government.

00:36:42.980 And so far, just imagine we don't have any place to go if we face this kind of threat.

00:36:50.040 There is no any mechanism in Canada, legal or administrative, to address this issue.

00:36:55.800 And the parliament did not introduce a single piece of legislation.

00:36:59.520 We are still debating whether to have the foreign agent registry.

00:37:05.900 Because we didn't get the bottom of this mess through public inquiry, we don't know

00:37:10.920 what kind of measures we need to include or formalize a new piece of legislation in parliament.

00:37:19.640 For that reason, public inquiry is the key.

00:37:22.640 We have to identify if there is a loophole in our system, if there is any shortcomings

00:37:28.680 in our institutions we have to identify those problems and we have to incorporate the measures

00:37:35.240 to address those problems in order to introduce a stronger legislation as our allies did already

00:37:42.840 just one more question if i may Mehmet because i obviously the stories that you've shared about

00:37:47.080 what you've encountered when police have been calling you up from uh from uh your your home

00:37:52.440 country is is terrible and i'm wondering if you have any thoughts on the chinese police stations

00:37:57.400 that have opened up in Canada and other countries and around around the world where as an outsider

00:38:02.440 looking in it looks like they're trying to basically extend that intimidation and extend

00:38:08.200 that coercion where all of a sudden when you get a phone call it's not a long distance call it's a

00:38:12.660 local call. Yeah just imagine and it means if I receive a phone call from Chinese state police

00:38:21.920 in China, it means that there are people in Canada who are closely watching my

00:38:27.420 schedule and they know what is going on in Canada, what we are doing in Canada,

00:38:32.300 when and what, and they share that information with the Chinese side daily

00:38:37.640 basis and the Chinese government knows our vulnerability, our loved ones, and so

00:38:42.860 they acted in a coordinated way. And so Chinese police stations in Canada is the

00:38:48.500 extended arms and the legs of the Chinese government. And for that reason, we should 0.97

00:38:53.860 take that threat seriously. Mehmet Toti joins us now. He is the Executive Director of the Uyghur

00:39:01.220 Rights Advocacy Project. Thank you so much for taking a stand when so many people want you to

00:39:06.100 be silent. It's really appreciated, sir. You're welcome, Andrew. Thank you. All right. Thank you

00:39:10.340 very much, Mehmet. That does it for us for today. Do let me know what you think about that, though,

00:39:15.380 and we will certainly revisit this next week.

00:39:17.700 I am off to Alberta tomorrow

00:39:20.120 because we are going to be there

00:39:21.440 covering the homestretch of the Alberta election

00:39:23.620 and then election night on Monday.

00:39:26.080 Stay tuned to True North for details

00:39:28.180 on what those plans are going to be.

00:39:30.520 That is my way of saying I still don't know all of the plans

00:39:33.400 and I couldn't even tell you the start time,

00:39:35.440 but we will be doing a live results show for you

00:39:38.260 and I hope you tune into that on Monday.

00:39:40.260 So on Friday, we got a bit of a special edition

00:39:42.260 of the program for you

00:39:43.320 that I think you'll very much enjoy

00:39:45.660 that fits outside of the news of the day narrative

00:39:48.160 and straight to the bigger picture.

00:39:49.920 So that's all we have to look forward to

00:39:51.840 in the coming days.

00:39:52.840 My thanks to all of you for tuning in today.

00:39:55.160 We will talk to you soon.

00:39:56.140 Thank you, God bless, and good day to you all.

00:39:58.960 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:40:01.500 Support the program by donating to True North

00:40:03.560 at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - May 24, 2023

What are the Liberals hiding？

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