Juno News - September 04, 2025


Why is the government criminally investigating a journalist in Canada？


Episode Stats

Length

18 minutes

Words per Minute

150.02486

Word Count

2,716

Sentence Count

9

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 conservative leader pierre polyev has revealed his party's fall agenda and it includes fighting
00:00:10.420 to abolish the temporary foreign worker program conservative mp and former true north journalist
00:00:16.520 andrew lawton has defended juno news co-founder keen bexty for his election reporting saying
00:00:22.440 quote journalism is not a crime a durham region police union called out liberal justice minister
00:00:28.260 sean fraser saying crime stats tell a different story than his flippant remarks on self-defense
00:00:35.080 hello candidates thursday september 4th and this is the true north daily brief i'm cosmin gerja and
00:00:41.640 i'm jeff mate we've got you covered with all the news you need to know let's discuss the top stories
00:00:47.300 of the day and the true north exclusives you won't hear anywhere else conservative leader pierre polyev
00:00:56.380 has revealed his party's fall parliamentary agenda focusing on affordability crime border security and
00:01:03.820 abolishing the temporary foreign worker program polyev along with his immigration critic michelle
00:01:09.820 rempel garner announced their plan to fight high wages and mass youth unemployment which they say
00:01:15.980 is made worse by the liberals tfw program and let's be honest young people today form what i call a
00:01:23.580 generation screwed let's look at the situation for this generation is the first generation that cannot
00:01:30.620 afford a home in canadian history and now the double gut punch they have the highest of the worst
00:01:38.460 employment numbers of any group of young people since the since the late 1990s so you can't get a job
00:01:46.380 and even if you did have a job you can never buy a home after 10 years of liberal government according
00:01:52.300 to statistics canada's unemployment rate data for july 2025 youth employment fell by 34 000 jobs
00:02:01.340 a 0.7 decline bringing the rate to 53.6 excluding the covet 19 pandemic years of 2020 to 2021 july had the
00:02:13.260 lowest youth employment rate since november 1998 the report said quote of the 1.6 million people who were
00:02:21.820 unemployed in july 23.8 percent were in long-term unemployment meaning they had been continuously
00:02:29.420 searching for work for 27 weeks or more polyev added quote the system gets worse and worse and worse
00:02:37.740 the time has come for decisive action we have major problems in our job market the unemployment rate for
00:02:44.780 those age 15 to 24 is now 14.6 percent the employment rate the share of young people who are employed is at
00:02:54.380 its lowest level in over a quarter century outside of the pandemic polyev said carney has quote kept
00:03:01.100 all of justin trudeau's immigration numbers despite the liberal pivot to reverse its mass immigration
00:03:07.580 intake in the first four months of 2025 for example liberals welcomed 807 000 newcomers to canada including
00:03:16.300 both permanent and non-permanent streams and counting visa extensions during a press conference in toronto on
00:03:23.740 wednesday prime minister mark carney shut down the idea that his government would scrap the temporary
00:03:29.180 foreign worker program in its entirety that program uh has a role uh it has to be focused in terms its
00:03:36.700 role um and it's part of what we're reviewing as part of what we will be discussing how well the temporary
00:03:41.980 foreign worker program is working and how our overall immigration system is working we've been absolutely
00:03:47.660 clear as a government uh that we want and we're putting in place policies so that the overall level
00:03:53.580 of immigration as proportion of the population will decline from around seven percent today to around
00:03:59.420 five percent uh several years from now now the biggest contributor to immigration is not temporary
00:04:05.180 foreign workers it's a variety of other factors so just from my observations the temporary foreign worker
00:04:11.340 program i've honestly never seen a government program so quickly get so much public blowback as more
00:04:19.820 information uh comes out about it i think for a while the public was not aware of things like the labor
00:04:26.300 market impact assessment uh some of the other issues that happen with the temporary foreign worker program
00:04:34.300 but also its effect on unemployment particularly the reliance of traditionally first
00:04:41.100 job employers like tim hortons gas stations on these programs and how that's affecting canada's youth
00:04:49.660 now this policy proposal by poliev and the conservatives i is a step in the right direction and it's
00:04:58.220 definitely i would say a change up for them because they have to me at least been quite reserved on
00:05:06.780 immigration for quite some time uh until now i guess the public attitude is shifting quite dramatically
00:05:14.140 and there was a lot said in this press conference but what are some of the more shocking parts that
00:05:20.300 came out of this entire conversation around temporary foreign workers yeah cosmon well one shocking revelation
00:05:27.580 was poliev's bold proposal to abolish the entire temporary foreign worker program a move that contrasts with the
00:05:33.820 party's historical support for business friendly policies signaling a dramatic shift towards
00:05:38.940 prioritizing domestic youth employment amid a 14.6 unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24.
00:05:45.340 the announcement of tying border security to affordability and crime reduction stunned observers
00:05:49.980 as it frames immigration control as a core economic and safety issue a departure from the party's
00:05:55.180 previous focus on fiscal conservatism potentially alienating some business allies michelle rempel garner's
00:06:01.420 emphasis on fighting high wages as a problem rather than a benefit caught attention suggesting a
00:06:06.300 controversial stance that could imply supporting lower labor costs over worker prosperity diverging
00:06:12.300 from typical conservative pro-worker rhetoric the claim that carney maintained trudeau's high immigration
00:06:17.340 numbers which was something like 817 000 newcomers in early 2025 despite a supposed pivot drew gasps as it
00:06:25.340 challenges the liberal narrative of moderation putting poliev's party in direct opposition to both current and
00:06:31.260 past government strategies
00:06:36.860 a criminal investigation into juno news co-founder keen bexty for election reporting is being slammed by
00:06:43.100 conservative mp and former true north journalist andrew lawton as quote ridiculous the commissioner of
00:06:49.020 canada elections has launched a criminal investigation against bexty and juno news following bexty's reporting on
00:06:55.100 allegations about the liberal candidate for calgary confederation thomas keeper the commissioner noted
00:07:00.220 that the alleged crime related to journalism was a breach of the controversial section 91 of the
00:07:05.420 canada elections act which prohibits knowingly reporting false criminal accusations about a candidate
00:07:11.180 with the intention of swaying the election results juno news has strongly denied these allegations and stands
00:07:17.180 by its reporting if convicted under section 91 of the canada elections act bexty could face a maximum of
00:07:23.740 fifty thousand dollars in fines and five years in prison the reports in question sourced first-hand
00:07:29.820 accounts and allegations against keeper and multiple attempts were made to reach the liberal party and
00:07:35.100 keeper to provide them with an opportunity to respond the liberals dropped keeper as a candidate
00:07:40.140 following the reports and replaced him with another candidate lawton a former independent journalist
00:07:45.260 and host of the andrew lawton show defended juno's reporting and independent journalism on x on wednesday
00:07:51.260 lawton said quote contrary to the liberals best efforts independent journalism is not a crime it's
00:07:57.420 ridiculous that a prosecutorial body is pursuing juno news over a story that was sourced and corroborated
00:08:02.940 and was taken seriously enough by the liberals to turf the candidate it was about so cosmon what is section
00:08:08.540 91 of the elections act and why is it so controversial well i'm not a lawyer and you you pretty much summed
00:08:14.460 it up it's a section that essentially prohibits publishing or reporting things during an election period uh
00:08:24.460 that are considered to be false statements and now the law says that you have to be found to have knowingly
00:08:33.260 made a false statement uh which is kind of hard to in like it it leaves room for interpretation
00:08:40.220 um reporters don't just base stories on thin air right if you look at the story it's completely grounded
00:08:49.420 in testimonies and allegations made by specific people who knew this individual and there was
00:08:58.300 a post put out by christine van gein from the canadian constitution foundation and she's a lawyer who
00:09:05.420 actually her group uh partook in challenging certain aspects of this law and successfully changed some
00:09:13.580 of it but she laid out quite a few uh reasonable things in her post because essentially the law now
00:09:22.460 only applies if the publisher knows the statements are false and i don't think just from reading it
00:09:29.660 looking at the report when it was originally published and when i i read it recently juno's
00:09:35.740 reporting doesn't fit that at all and i'm not even sure how the government thinks that this is applicable
00:09:43.340 this particular law is applicable to this case and that raises other questions about if they know
00:09:49.740 that it's not really applicable but they do it anyway now i'm not alleging anything but it it's
00:09:54.700 definitely interesting how they selectively use these laws to target uh reporting and journalism on
00:10:01.820 candidates from the liberal party additionally the entire news article as i mentioned earlier used
00:10:09.020 first-hand interviews it corroborated accounts anonymized sources offered the candidate and other
00:10:15.980 individuals a chance to respond even in person it wasn't just an email it was to the extent of trying to
00:10:22.780 track them down in person in the flesh and additionally there was public interest in this story this is
00:10:29.100 a candidate who is a public figure a professional in their field and running for one of the largest
00:10:35.260 parties in this country and throughout the report there was clear labeling uh where something was an
00:10:41.660 allegation it was framed as an allegation and essentially not stated as the truth be-all and end-all
00:10:50.060 truth it was an allegation made by an acquaintance or you know co-worker etc as reports are to do especially
00:10:57.580 during election periods when candidates are in the limelight so i think one of the these are some of the
00:11:04.780 points that she made i'm just paraphrasing here reading through her response but one of the fundamental
00:11:11.180 things that this type of government intervention in journalism and it's not the first time they've done
00:11:17.900 this they've tried to use election laws to go after reporters in the past and what it does is it creates
00:11:25.340 this chilling effect where investigation itself you know becomes too risky and reporting things that might
00:11:34.460 be you know alleged about individuals and might actually be common knowledge about certain individuals who are
00:11:42.300 politicians etc but haven't been reported by the media for one reason or another could deter future
00:11:49.260 reporting in instances where it's of public interest and it honestly borders on the weaponization of the law
00:11:59.340 and i'm not so sure that this law is being misused as some people might have alleged i think it's being used
00:12:07.100 for what it's actually for and that is to suppress these kinds of criticisms of political figures when
00:12:13.900 it's convenient for the establishment and that raises the question of like do we really need a law
00:12:20.540 like this in the elections act or are there other ways to handle this of course there's always civil
00:12:27.340 suits that can be pursued when something when somebody feels wronged so the idea that we can criminalize
00:12:34.620 journalism and reporting it is far-fetched and i i don't think that a lot of people in the general
00:12:40.700 public are aware that that's even a thing in canada hey kian bexty here do you know someone maybe it's
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00:13:59.740 liberal justice minister sean fraser claims canada quote isn't the wild west but durham regional police
00:14:06.460 association says the country's current crime wave tells a different story fraser criticized conservative
00:14:13.100 leader peer polyev's proposal to enhance canadian self-defense rights when dealing with a home
00:14:18.940 intruder during a press conference in brampton last week polyev advocated for a quote stand on guard
00:14:25.500 principle to be added to the criminal code he said the amendment would clarify and reinforce canadians
00:14:31.660 right to self-defense during a home invasion polyev said if the liberals won't introduce the bill on
00:14:37.260 their own the conservatives will introduce the proposed amendments in a private member's bill
00:14:42.140 fraser wrote in response to polyev's proposal in a post to x on monday saying quote canadians already
00:14:49.180 have the right to defend themselves under a law harper brought in with polyev support now he's chasing a
00:14:55.660 photo op by attacking police for doing their jobs i trust police to lay charges and judges to consider
00:15:02.300 evidence over pierre playing cops and robbers however the durham regional police association responded to
00:15:09.660 fraser saying that while quote vigilantism is not the answer canada does actually resemble the wild west
00:15:17.020 the drp continued writing in the post on x quote when bullets are flying in open spaces at all different
00:15:24.220 directions having the potential to strike completely innocent individual or an eight-year-old is struck by
00:15:29.740 a stray bullet from a shootout while asleep in their bed or a youth murdered in an open and full public
00:15:35.980 food court washroom it actually does resemble the quote wild west the union continued saying
00:15:42.700 you say canadians need real solutions that make us safer not slogans that inspire fear and chaos
00:15:48.780 the fact is your government has been in place for a decade and offered no concrete solutions or actions
00:15:55.340 to fix the problems that are ever increasing well home invasions have become a huge thing in the news
00:16:01.420 and it's very terrifying i think it hits close to home for many people because when you go to your
00:16:09.020 house you're with your family you assume you're safe that's the safest space for children most of the
00:16:15.500 time the safest place you could be you could relax and unwind and be around the people you love and to
00:16:21.180 think that it's becoming more common uh and it's possible that somebody could invade your home to steal
00:16:29.580 your belongings or worse i think it really terrifies people and for good reason especially
00:16:36.940 when we have a situation where it's on the uptick and the home invasions are becoming more brazen
00:16:44.460 more violent even so what are some of the things jeff that have been going on some of the major
00:16:52.940 stories since sean fraser's flippant dismissal of self-defense yeah cosmon since the durham regional
00:17:01.260 police's wild west comments in late august a series of alarming incidents have unfolded including a
00:17:07.180 drive-by shooting in scarborough on august 28th that injured two bystanders on august 29th a home invasion
00:17:13.340 in london ontario turned deadly when a resident was killed after confronting intruders adding to the
00:17:18.220 debate over self-defense rights amid the crime wave reports emerged on august 30th of a gang-related
00:17:24.140 stabbing in a vancouver park leaving three hospitalized which further fuels concerns about
00:17:29.020 public safety that the police association tied to the government in action additionally on august 31st
00:17:34.460 a carjacking in winnipeg escalated into a high-speed chase ending with the suspect firing at police
00:17:40.860 underscoring the chaotic conditions the durham police described in their critique of the liberal government's
00:17:45.340 approach that's it for today folks thanks for tuning in you can stay on top of new episodes
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