Juno News - What do Canadians think of Canada？

00:00:00.000 hey everyone welcome back to the show it's great to have you here again and a belated happy canada

00:00:24.640 day to everybody i hope you all had a wonderful long weekend celebrating it with friends and

00:00:29.600 family for those of you who've been watching the show you'll find that today's is a little bit

00:00:34.400 different rather than interviewing a single guest on a specific topic today i'm going to share with

00:00:41.600 you a few interviews i recorded over the long weekend speaking to regular canadians where i

00:00:48.640 asked them what canada day means to them where do they see this country today do they feel that this

00:00:55.040 country is more divided today than ever before uh what do they think of canada's future are they

00:01:00.480 optimistic or pessimistic about canada's future and finally their take on the freedom convoy protest

00:01:06.880 that brought the nation's capital this past winter despite the trudeau government uh shifting the

00:01:13.280 official celebrations to le breton flats many people showed up to celebrate the country and some came

00:01:19.360 here to protest peacefully as you'll see the people that i spoke to are of different backgrounds ages

00:01:25.440 and ethnicities but what united everybody and this is very important was a love of canada and a desire

00:01:32.400 that somehow as a country we move forward and heal our recent divisions meet kim and her daughter of 0.97

00:01:38.720 victoria from ottawa they're troubled by the rifts in canadian society and they're very clear where the

00:01:44.640 blame lies uh they blame the divisive policies of the justin trudeau government do take a listen

00:01:50.960 hi i'm kim i'm in ottawa canada i'm victoria and i'm in ottawa canada as well and we came downtown to

00:01:57.120 celebrate canada day this year we haven't been coming for the past few years because of the pandemic

00:02:02.480 and all the other stuff that's happened and we we're actually worried about canada it's become very

00:02:10.240 divided and canada used to see it as more of a nation and now it's divided into so many different

00:02:17.920 beliefs and of course it's okay but it's sad to see how downhill it's gone yeah um so what do you um

00:02:26.240 why do you think it's divided like what's going on here i think it's true though and i'm sorry i just

00:02:33.600 have issues with him i feel like he's let our country down so much and i mean even this child here

00:02:39.840 she used to do the me to we all the time and then we found out it was a scandal again trudeau and we 1.00

00:02:45.760 just lost all faith in him and we think he's a liar and that she and he only cares about himself

00:02:52.160 next up is ryan from ottawa as you'll see he's sympathetic to the goals of the freedom convoy

00:02:58.960 to increase freedoms but he wasn't exactly thrilled by their methods it's worth acknowledging that there

00:03:04.960 might be quite a number of people like ryan out there who agree with the convoy's message but had

00:03:10.160 some issues uh at the way the message was delivered uh this is what he had to say hi my name is ryan

00:03:16.880 i'm from ottawa canada and canada happy canada day and canada day for me means inclusivity freedom

00:03:24.480 and just being yourself with um all the different cultures that we have here in canada

00:03:28.720 uh do you think uh canada today is uh moving away from those ideals of freedom and uh um i don't

00:03:38.720 think so no i think our country is definitely going through a little bit of a rocky patch i think every

00:03:44.160 country especially during covet but i think we still have a united front where do you see canada going

00:03:49.360 forward oh um hopefully um we keep the inclusivity that we have we keep all the cultures that we have

00:03:57.200 we keep inviting and we're a welcoming country and hopefully we keep going down that same path

00:04:02.240 what do you think of the protesters who are here protesting uh they're they're protesting for

00:04:07.760 freedom there's they they say they're standing up for freedom and individual liberties they've been

00:04:13.120 um denigrated by people by their critics where where do you where do you stand on that i think the

00:04:20.720 the message was good but the execution i think could have been a little bit better i think it got a

00:04:25.280 little bit out of hand here in ottawa okay um but i think the message of what what they're trying to

00:04:30.560 achieve is good yeah but i think their execution was a little bit more so they they shouldn't have

00:04:36.160 been here as long as they were yeah and i think they shouldn't have been as rowdy i think they

00:04:40.160 should have been a little bit more respectful of the people who live here okay in centerville okay

00:04:44.880 meet odelia who came to canada to escape persecution in guatemala she's dismayed at the recent 0.99

00:04:51.120 crackdown on freedoms by the trudeau government to the point that she's actually afraid of being

00:04:56.320 seen carrying the national flag uh this is what odelia had to say take a listen i came with my

00:05:02.080 brother back in 1985 refugees from guatemala um my uh my my name is um odelia and um beautiful country

00:05:15.040 we felt very welcoming uh we came because of persecution back then they were persecuting my

00:05:20.320 brother just because he was defending someone that was being attacked by soldiers and he didn't know

00:05:26.320 they were soldiers of duty and he was 16 and they persecuted him for two years and you know we

00:05:32.720 ended up here through a priest we ended up in canada and we saw the big big huge difference that we can

00:05:38.320 everybody can be anything that they can they want you know um we are from different races different

00:05:46.640 cultures different beliefs and everybody got along all of the sudden these past three years have been

00:05:51.680 very difficult i tell you something today today um since a week ago i have flags in my car at the back

00:05:59.280 i have two um when we came this morning here after mass my husband removed them i didn't like that

00:06:06.080 i told him why are you removing them he said because you know we have here of people that the police

00:06:11.680 stopped them and asked them why so it's canada day i love canada yeah i have flags in my home

00:06:17.520 i have five flags around my house so i want to go see so this is seriously so you're afraid of uh

00:06:23.440 displaying the flag yeah because of what people might say yeah the fear for the police

00:06:28.480 for to come here okay yeah because a lot of police around yeah so you see we didn't fit that

00:06:33.440 so what do you think has changed in the last two years since you've been in the country how long

00:06:37.920 have you been in the country 36 years 36 years yeah and what do you think has changed like what uh

00:06:43.280 what you know what i never saw people attacking police attacking people that were protesting i

00:06:49.280 didn't see that i haven't been in big you know protesting in toronto anywhere i i was told that

00:06:54.640 toronto was really bad three years ago you know but i was here praying praying with my one of my

00:07:00.080 curls in the back as far as i could go was was uh albert albert and metcalf the day that they were

00:07:06.720 they were uh removing the trucks and everything and we could hear you know we were praying as it was

00:07:12.160 freezing that that late afternoon and we could hear you know the screaming of people they were

00:07:18.400 they put paper spraying the eyes of people even attacked uh even attacked reporters that's another

00:07:24.720 thing reporters you know in mexico and other places are killed reporters have been killed a lot of

00:07:30.080 reporters just because they go and you know when was that that the media was attacked before that

00:07:35.600 didn't happen that's another big change because for example people from the red world news they are

00:07:40.560 being attacked and they were told oh you you don't you know we are not giving you the license because

00:07:44.560 they don't we don't recognize you why you see so those freedoms i don't like that i we were even

00:07:50.560 thinking to you know we close our minds to to move away and then where would you go if you if you were

00:07:57.440 to make that decision to the states where we're thinking okay you know texas of florida where we can be

00:08:02.400 ourselves you know where we can you think you think you think uh the u.s is more free than canada

00:08:08.400 and in in some ways no no no all over the states some states like texas and florida however then you

00:08:16.640 know we are believers we believe in god so we thought you know what we're not going anywhere right

00:08:21.600 this is our home this is our home my brother the same thing my brother lives just two blocks away

00:08:26.400 and he also witnessed much more than us because he lives here he lives downtown and he saw a lot of

00:08:33.360 police attacking before they removed the truckers the police were just you know you think that someone

00:08:38.160 was holding a sign or was holding a little flag but was here you know um you know so so my brother you

00:08:45.520 know what my brother told me he couldn't sleep and he said uh he said odelia i am relieving

00:08:52.240 the persecution i have there you know he was very upset he lived just few blocks away so yeah and

00:08:58.720 wasn't the only person other people i talked to from the community too they said what is this people

00:09:03.680 from the community we are moving some people not from the community have already moved to mexico

00:09:09.040 and other places in the states i am not going anywhere this is my home so you're going to stay here

00:09:13.760 and fight for no fight i'm not gonna have my my fight to my the way i fight is by praying okay i

00:09:20.400 pray with my family yeah no what i mean is you're here for the good fight as in yes yeah you know and

00:09:26.240 i pray for uh mr trudeau yeah and i pray for his for his cabinet and i pray for all the members of

00:09:32.320 the parliament you know for the conversion all of them and gene watson and christian freeland all of

00:09:37.680 them and dog four yeah yeah i pray for all the conversion because really you know this is not

00:09:42.400 the country i came 36 years ago okay i mean why it should be why was he afraid or why he removed my

00:09:48.080 flags from the car now that we just came we just came for you know to see brian because we hear that

00:09:52.640 he was attacked yesterday too he's not doing anything as you can see how does it make you feel to see

00:09:58.000 everything fenced off remind me of where i was born okay yeah and you know another thing where we

00:10:04.640 where we are where i was born i was born in Guatemala when you saw cars with the tinted windows

00:10:12.000 you knew there were those those for the police the police that killed the police that captured the

00:10:17.680 kids we have many our friends from high school and college they were taken and we never saw their faces

00:10:24.800 again yeah many that was a persecution in Guatemala 70s 80s you know that's when we left Guatemala okay

00:10:31.520 and we we came here thinking that it was yeah it was freedom but now look there is no there is no

00:10:36.640 respect why should i be afraid of walking listen i we come to pray the rosary on saturdays with a group

00:10:42.560 of church and um and many many people from the church not from my community from you know english

00:10:49.840 they don't want to come because the people from the people also we are at the back and they are you know

00:10:56.080 people like brian like you know supporters they are there and they don't want to they don't want

00:11:00.960 to be seen close to the group because they are going people are going to police are going to think

00:11:05.360 that they are there's associated with the group you know they don't want to come they're afraid

00:11:11.600 i didn't see this before and i said to myself you know what we are going to go and pray we are here

00:11:17.280 and we come and pray and we are very few okay you know so this fear wasn't here before i don't like this

00:11:23.680 okay yeah next up is robert robert is a resident of ottawa he lives in center town remember that

00:11:31.760 during the protests we were told by large sections of the mainstream media that residents of center

00:11:38.400 town that everybody there was up in arms over the freedom convoy because their lives had been disrupted

00:11:45.840 robert has a very very different take on what he witnessed during the protests as a resident of

00:11:51.600 center town he believes the mainstream media completely misrepresented what happened here

00:11:57.600 as a resident of center town and he was a local resident he was not part of the protests and this

00:12:03.360 is what he had to say my name is robert i live here in ottawa in center town here in ottawa and what does

00:12:11.120 canada day mean to me well it's a it's a day of celebration of course for all canadians from all walks of life

00:12:17.680 and to me canada day also represents democratic the idea of democracy i think we're a very lucky country

00:12:33.040 throughout the world still despite all the issues that we may or may not have i feel that canada is

00:12:41.360 not necessarily going the right way uh it is divided the pandemic certainly um made it more so than ever

00:12:50.960 before i feel that there's a lot of people leading on the left some on the extreme right uh today's

00:12:58.960 government is not helping matters um i feel that uh when it comes to to the pandemic response and and the

00:13:09.040 lockdowns and and uh all the constraints of of the pandemic uh that uh that uh they almost forced a

00:13:20.000 lot of people to do what they didn't necessarily want to do which was uh forceful vaccinations just to

00:13:26.880 continue to be free uh i'm glad that it's almost coming to an end quite frankly

00:13:32.640 um and i hope that for the future things will get better and people will be understanding of each

00:13:39.040 other so you're you're a resident of center town yes and uh and i live in the market so you were here

00:13:47.200 when the convoy uh descended upon the capital and uh um i know many center town residents were um you know

00:13:55.040 affected they felt that their lives had been disrupted because of the trucks and the honking

00:13:59.680 uh what was your personal experience well um we we we live at line and laurier so so the trucks we

00:14:08.240 didn't hear a lot of honking so it didn't really affect us so much you know and then after that there

00:14:14.800 was the bylaw they had to stop the honking so i can i can sympathize to those especially on 10th street

00:14:22.320 in a more the residential area where you know they would have suffered the the excess and uh honking

00:14:29.920 at the beginning anyway that first weekend for sure i'm sorry that first weekend for sure yeah for

00:14:34.800 sure i heard it on the market as well however i also feel that um it was not properly represented

00:14:43.520 certainly not at mainstream media yeah um we we walked uh up and down every day almost every day we

00:14:49.920 were there so so some you know there were some good things that happened there too the city was

00:14:54.480 never cleaner uh most of the people that we met were peaceful uh protesters that were here for their

00:15:02.400 cause uh i think they did a lot of good you know they had free food everywhere for anybody uh you know

00:15:10.400 i saw homeless people i saw um i saw what appeared to be a lot of um minority people come and enjoy that

00:15:20.560 you know there was what i call the market where they're giving away winter clothing books or whatever

00:15:26.560 it is so so i think a lot of good came out of it uh that didn't get reported so certainly certainly you

00:15:33.760 know that that's another thing yeah so this is your this is from your perspective as someone who is not

00:15:39.200 part of the protest movement but you're a resident of center town right and and this is what you you felt

00:15:45.200 that you know they were not represented well fairly to be more precise um uh and uh you know they were

00:15:52.560 portrayed as white supremacists racists um mercenaries even and maybe you know when i i guess you know

00:16:01.840 there's a fringe element that will latch on to all this but for the for the most part like i said we were

00:16:08.160 here almost every day every night uh you know in minus 20 weather and and uh so the mass majority of

00:16:16.000 the actual truckers and the actual freedom convoy i thought you know was respectful for the most part

00:16:23.680 so i think it was just a fringe element that latched on to it yeah and and i i don't think uh i don't

00:16:28.960 think it got a fair shake whatsoever okay okay that's my opinion on that okay yeah and where do you see

00:16:34.800 canada going because uh a lot of people tell me that they feel that it's they feel the divisions

00:16:40.080 are really starting to uh you know have an impact and that they've never seen this country this way

00:16:46.880 and it's changed quite a bit uh i think right now i mean i i look at a lot of the issues especially with

00:16:53.520 the current government now now you you have you know what's come out with uh over social shootings and

00:17:00.080 you know you know i think it's getting highly politicized quite frankly and and i don't think

00:17:07.120 you know i i think that governments in general you know they work to get re-elected and i think they're

00:17:13.520 they're getting further further away from actually representing the best interests of the average

00:17:19.920 citizen that's what i feel so yeah i think you know as soon as uh you know especially in a minority

00:17:26.720 government uh well now with the ending problem i mean the minority government all you know

00:17:31.840 you just throw everything at everybody you know and and then we have the national debt uh inflation

00:17:40.080 affordability and and you know nobody for example you know one of the main solutions seems to be the

00:17:47.600 ten dollar daycare okay what about those that don't have children what about the seniors uh you know

00:17:52.640 what about the elderly you know how does that impact those those people you know so so i i think

00:17:58.560 that uh there needs to be uh some kind of a redress yeah rethink about uh you know how governments

00:18:05.920 function and hopefully people you know start following it more and because i i find a lot of

00:18:12.320 people you know might not be as informed as perhaps it should be next up are kalina and her friend

00:18:19.680 from toronto um they're both disturbed at the direction canada is heading uh and found the

00:18:25.280 freedom protests from this past winter to be entirely peaceful and they feel that it reinvigorated

00:18:31.760 the spirit of freedom in canada hi i'm kalina from toronto and i'm so excited to be here in ottawa

00:18:38.560 our nation's capital i'm a proud canadian citizen i really believe in in what the ideals of this country

00:18:45.520 were founded for and i'm so grateful that this country uh gave a place for my grandparents to come

00:18:52.240 they fled war poverty uh oppression in ukraine and they came to this country and and they worked so

00:18:59.040 hard and and my parents had a prosperous life here they taught us all the things that canada meant and

00:19:05.600 that's freedom and so that's so important now here in 2022 i really believe now it's time for canadians

00:19:13.280 who believe in believe in the canada that we were told existed to really fight for that and that's uh

00:19:19.520 that's really how i feel about that so i'm here to celebrate and i think we're all canadians whether

00:19:25.200 you're on this wing or that wing or this ideology or whatever the thing is is that we are all united

00:19:32.240 under this symbol so what does the flag mean to you it's the symbol of canada really yeah

00:19:43.600 for some it's become for some it's become a symbol of oppression symbol of hate even uh some some would

00:19:50.160 argue that the flag has been hijacked by the freedom convoy protesters and we must take the flag back from

00:19:57.200 them those people are forgetting that we are one people and we need to start treating each other

00:20:02.240 with respect and dignity yeah you know when our politicians can't answer a direct question okay

00:20:08.240 instead say other things like they need to be out of here you know they're not that logic has

00:20:13.760 disconnected yeah and uh so that's why you know that's one of the reasons i'm here okay to to you know

00:20:20.480 show my fantasy yeah yeah were you come together as a people we make a change yeah did you were you um

00:20:34.320 uh supporters of the convoy or did you were you kind of on the fence or you were agnostic about the

00:20:40.960 whole thing and then did that whole event change your mind uh it didn't it didn't change my mind yeah

00:20:47.280 it definitely gave us um like we were already believing that okay okay okay and uh and you

00:20:54.800 know i don't i don't want yeah these people don't get to dictate what i put in my body okay i don't

00:21:01.600 eat meat yeah i don't drink milk yeah these are all things i don't do yeah yeah anything else did they

00:21:07.520 tell me just because they tell me yeah do you do you find that uh we're more divided now than than ever

00:21:14.400 before yeah ever before yeah ever in my whole lifetime yeah yeah okay well okay well i i that's

00:21:22.320 great yeah i did want to say yeah my impression of like the what happened in the convoy just gave such

00:21:28.160 a swell of positive uh energy i felt like it just invigorated a lot of us who have been just working and

00:21:36.880 trying to just live the awakened lifestyle and um it was just great to see how so how peaceful the

00:21:43.360 movement was so peaceful it was a community that popped up everybody wanted something to eat got

00:21:49.120 it whatever you needed was provided the energy here was the right way never felt that anywhere

00:21:57.520 well i hope you enjoyed these conversations and again despite their different points of view what

00:22:03.600 seemed to unite everybody across the board everyone i spoke to was their love of canada and their hope

00:22:09.760 that things would get better moving forward thank you for watching and see you next time

Juno News - July 05, 2022

What do Canadians think of Canada？

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