Juno News - May 25, 2022


What's really going on at the WEF？


Episode Stats

Length

8 minutes

Words per Minute

227.78384

Word Count

2,019

Sentence Count

108


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Well, this seems like a good point in the program to bring in Andrew Lawton, True North's Andrew
00:00:04.720 Lawton, who's reporting from the ground in Davos, Switzerland. Andrew, it's great to have you.
00:00:08.960 Hey, it's good to be with you.
00:00:10.600 So I wouldn't even know half the half of what was going on at Davos if it wasn't for your
00:00:15.360 reporting. The legacy media seems to have no interest in what's being said and the themes
00:00:20.580 and what's going on there. So first question for you, Andrew, why did you decide to go to Davos?
00:00:25.120 And why do you think it's so important to report on this kind of stuff?
00:00:27.320 Well, I think there are two things. I mean, one is that we try to give the people what
00:00:30.600 they want. And I know our audience has been talking a lot about this, asking a lot about
00:00:34.080 the questions they have about the WAF and specifically its context on Canadians. And I know there are
00:00:39.560 a lot of things that are territorial about this organization because it is mysterious
00:00:44.180 and that mystery and secrecy breed that sort of stuff. But I think there's an overcorrection
00:00:49.100 from a lot of people who want to avoid looking at it at all, who say, oh, it's all conspiracy.
00:00:53.740 You can't do anything. So really what I wanted to do is come here and do what we do best at
00:00:58.060 True North, which is talk about the facts, talk about the side of the story the mainstream media
00:01:01.680 is not representing, and explain without delving into the fringe stuff that really isn't, I think,
00:01:07.020 the bulk of most people's criticisms with the WAF. Talk about what the organization is,
00:01:11.020 what it stands for. And a lot of that is just using its own language and showing what it is that
00:01:16.620 they want. I mean, there is no secrecy about the agenda. They're really using, I think, a very vocal
00:01:21.420 and clear language about what it is they want to do. So just a question, because I remember you had
00:01:25.980 some issues where they didn't want to let you in. They didn't want to allow you to cover this as a
00:01:29.740 journalist. You couldn't get the right credentials. But it seems like you have been able to get in
00:01:33.160 and report on that. So can you give us a bit of an update of, you know, your ability to access this
00:01:38.600 and report as a journalist there on the ground? Yeah. So officially, I have no status. Officially,
00:01:43.840 I can't go into any of the secure areas. They have this really weird caste system with badges where
00:01:49.300 your status depends on the color of badge you have. And I'm completely bad. So I've got no status
00:01:53.960 here, which means I can't go inside. But there are two things that I think are working in my favor
00:01:58.280 here. The first is that a lot of their programming is actually public. A lot of their sessions are
00:02:02.380 public, and you can access them and watch them online. Anyone can. We have some people back in
00:02:07.840 Canada as well that are going through and looking for really important details. But the other part is
00:02:12.040 that this is really an elite village. I mean, one of the pro-climate justice protesters I spoke to a
00:02:17.480 couple of days ago characterized it pretty well as a corporate Disneyland. And they're not used to
00:02:21.840 anyone in this safe space that isn't invited. So a lot of these really important people are just
00:02:26.480 walking around, going into the shops, going into the restaurants. And I've been able to speak to UN
00:02:30.660 officials. A few moments ago, I spoke to former Bank of Canada, Governor Mark Carney. He didn't want
00:02:34.940 to answer any questions, but he was there. So it's really a combination of the two, what they're saying
00:02:39.320 publicly and then privately, when you see them walking around, just to ask them about what it is
00:02:44.180 they want to do and if they're okay with the consequences of that.
00:02:47.820 Andrew, you wrote a piece called The Strange Phoniness of Davos. Well, one of my impressions
00:02:52.840 of the whole World Economic Forum is that the things that they think are the priorities are so
00:02:57.700 distant from the everyday concerns of Canadians. I know you were at the Trucker Convoy. You report
00:03:02.660 on a lot of the kind of cost of living issues that Canadians face. Can you sort of contrast or talk
00:03:09.460 about whether you think that the main areas of focus at a conference like this are aligned with
00:03:15.420 and similar to the day-to-day concerns of Canadians?
00:03:18.960 No, it's the opposite. And that's been one of the most stark things to see. And I've been trying
00:03:23.080 to figure out how to write about it. So let me workshop some material with you and your audience
00:03:27.440 here is that there's just this profound disconnect between the people that deal with the consequences
00:03:31.900 of the policies discussed here and those discussing the policies. And one significant example of this,
00:03:36.920 there was a panel yesterday featuring a Norwegian banker whose name I can't recall right now. And
00:03:42.320 she was talking about how all of these changes to green energy and the small and medium-sized
00:03:47.200 business industry are going to cause pain. Those are her words. And she said, we have to accept that
00:03:51.640 it causes pain and we have to talk about that. But she said, it's all worth it. And we have to just
00:03:55.640 tell people that it's worth it. Well, if you're a small business owner that can't afford the gas bill
00:03:59.440 or the electricity bill for your business, or you're a trucker who can't afford to put fuel in your
00:04:04.120 truck right now, you're not really going to be all that heart warmed by some Norwegian banker in the
00:04:09.860 Swiss mountains saying that, ah, yeah, but short-term pain, but it's better in the long run. It's not
00:04:14.960 better for the people. It may be better for the country. It may be better for the climate. And both
00:04:18.840 of those, I think are big ifs, but it's not better for the people. And they don't seem to care.
00:04:23.040 And it's amazing how little they seem to care about the fact that they don't care.
00:04:28.780 So one of the things, as you probably saw, Pierre Polyev came out with a video saying,
00:04:33.680 you know, if I'm a prime minister, I'm not going to allow any government officials and any cabinet
00:04:37.360 ministers to go to this thing. And the reaction has been wild. Like everyone in lockstep has come
00:04:43.080 out to condemn this comment. I'm wondering if you, like, what is your feeling? Do you think that
00:04:48.980 Pierre is sort of giving oxygen to conspiracy theorists? Or do you think that that is a
00:04:53.480 legitimate and wise policy choice? One of the things that I find interesting, I've read a little
00:04:58.820 bit of the criticism of Pierre Polyev saying that. And what I find fascinating is that the people that
00:05:03.480 try to dismiss conspiracy theories say they don't do anything. It's nothing. It's just a bunch of
00:05:07.940 people that get together and talk. They're not actually doing anything. So if that's the case, why do
00:05:12.980 we want to be involved either? I mean, there's an excuse to not want to be involved because you think
00:05:17.380 they're doing a bunch of terrible things. But if you think they're doing nothing, and it is just
00:05:20.960 this global corporate Disneyland get together, then I think there's a similar question of why do
00:05:25.280 we want to embolden that? I think for Canada to come here, all of the climate and energy discussions
00:05:30.460 they're having have basically been policies that would amount to signing a death warrant on the oil
00:05:35.360 and gas sector, which in Canada is of the utmost importance. So I think any Canadian government
00:05:39.580 should be looking long and hard at their economic needs in Canada. What we need as a country and what
00:05:44.760 they're talking about here and saying there's just not a compatibility here.
00:05:48.260 Well, Andrew, it looks like you're getting rained on. So I really appreciate you sticking it out
00:05:52.100 there for this interview. I'll just ask you one final question. You know, I agree with you that
00:05:58.060 the criticism of Pierre, it feels like straw man. It's like rather than actually getting to the root
00:06:02.860 of, hey, this is why people don't like Davos. This is why people don't like the World Economic Forum
00:06:07.020 and what they're talking about. They just say, oh, the stupid conspiracy theorists and how dare Pierre
00:06:11.380 give them oxygen or even acknowledge them. But it's a fact that the Trudeau government gets inspired
00:06:16.500 by these kind of radical leftist ideas that get shopped around at these kind of conferences.
00:06:21.280 We've seen that with climate policies, with punishing oil and gas, recently with online harms
00:06:25.800 or censorship. I'm wondering if you, being on the ground there, what is the main theme of the
00:06:32.460 conference this year? What are people talking about? And what should Canadians be concerned about
00:06:35.920 on the horizon? What's the next thing that Trudeau is going to get inspired by?
00:06:39.220 Well, the official theme has been rebuilding trust, which I think is an evergreen theme.
00:06:44.260 But if you look at the panels that they're having, it's all about climate, the environment.
00:06:48.100 A lot of people are walking around with these UN Sustainable Development Goal pins,
00:06:51.780 but they're not UN employees. They're executives at Microsoft and Google that are all just walking
00:06:56.780 around with these UN pins. So I think that the climate change stuff is the biggest stuff for
00:07:01.700 Canadians, but certainly free speech as well. I mean, there was a clip I posted yesterday that went
00:07:05.700 viral of Australia's e-safety commissioner talking about how we need to recalibrate things like
00:07:10.820 freedom of speech. So we know that this is some stuff that's very much on the radar for Justin
00:07:15.300 Trudeau. I don't believe that Klaus Schwab is running the show in Canada, but I believe that
00:07:19.140 the World Economic Forum is putting out a series of policies that people like Justin Trudeau really
00:07:23.800 want to lap up. And I think that's why, to go back to your original question of why are we here,
00:07:27.820 Canadians need to be paying attention to this.
00:07:30.160 Well, absolutely. And again, Andrew, if it wasn't for the reporting that you're doing,
00:07:33.200 we just wouldn't even be aware of any of this. We wouldn't have the details. And so we really,
00:07:38.620 really appreciate you going and doing what most legacy media journalists in Canada refuse to do,
00:07:43.260 which is simply go observe, gather information, and you're doing great journalism out there.
00:07:47.940 We appreciate that. Sorry we're making you stand out in the rain, but we appreciate you.
00:07:50.980 It's all worth it for the story.
00:07:53.240 Excellent. Well, thank you so much, Andrew, for reporting on the ground. That is Andrew Lawton on the ground
00:07:58.320 in Davos, Switzerland, doing excellent journalism, doing the kind of work that the legacy media
00:08:02.040 refuses to do. If you want to help True North out, if you want to help us allow our journalists to go
00:08:07.560 to these kind of events, it costs a lot of money to send a reporter over there. We don't have the
00:08:11.880 deep pockets. We don't have subsidies and grants and funding from the Trudeau government like most
00:08:16.720 other legacy media outlets. So if you want to help support the work we do, head on over to
00:08:21.340 tnc.news slash donate, and you can help fund that trip to Switzerland for Andrew Lawton doing great
00:08:29.320 reporting on the ground. It's so important to shine a light on what is going on there, not to give
00:08:33.680 oxygen again to the conspiracy theorists, but just to show the problem with the mindset of the people
00:08:39.380 and the radical left-wing policies that are being cooked up in these back rooms and on the stage
00:08:46.240 at Davos, Switzerland. Well, thank you so much for tuning in. I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The
00:08:51.200 Candice Malcolm Show.