Juno News - August 12, 2026


Why this Canadian athlete is standing with Sophie Cunningham

Mentioned
Sophie Cunningham Linda Blade Berna
Why is Mark Carney in Italy right now？ Canada ramps up deportations of illegal immigrants

Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

180.27

Word count

2,581

Sentence count

27

Harmful content

Misogyny

13

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 our guest today is april hutchinson former powerlifting champion in canada and activist
00:00:10 for women only sports welcome april hey mark nice to see you again nice to see you as well
00:00:17 let's talk a little bit about the ongoing campaign to have women only spaces women only sports it has
00:00:23 now entered the realm of professional basketball in the united states with on the women's side 0.99
00:00:29 And we've seen some of the struggles that Sophie Cunningham, she's one of the stars of the WNBA,
00:00:35 and she has come out very much in favor of what you believe, which is that when it comes to sports
00:00:41 and women, men don't belong for obvious reasons, physical reasons, genetic reasons. It just doesn't
00:00:50 work. And Sophie Cunningham is coming to Canada soon, on the 18th of August, I believe, and
00:00:57 You'll be involved somehow with an event that shows your support for her.
00:01:03 Is that correct?
00:01:05 Yes, that's correct.
00:01:06 So, yeah, on August 18th, Indiana Fever will be at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
00:01:13 They'll be competing against Toronto Tempo, which is a great team.
00:01:17 So I'll be there about 5.30 p.m.
00:01:20 So a pregame rally will be taking place at Jurassic Park,
00:01:24 which is kind of like a meeting place in front of the uh the main entrance there where people can
00:01:29 gather and kind of you know it's not going to be a protest it's basically just going to be a
00:01:33 friendly rally with like you know posters wearing our xxxy athletic t-shirts just to show our love
00:01:40 and support for sophie it's not going to be like anti-toronto tempo we're not against toronto we're
00:01:46 not there to say oh we hope you beat toronto because you know i'm sure a lot of the players
00:01:51 on toronto are there actually they love sophie too they play like support sophie they're probably
00:01:56 like hey we we don't want men in our league too right so it's just to show our love and support
00:02:00 for sophie because you know we've seen some backlash right people are there you know there's
00:02:05 a lot of athletes like look at megan rapinoe that's saying that you know why not welcome
00:02:10 trans athletes why not welcome you know um women identifying or men identifying as females in the
00:02:16 uh WNBA so it's just going to be a peaceful protest I think that Rebel News might be there
00:02:22 with their billboard trucks circling around the venue saying like keep men out of women's sports
00:02:27 um so yeah it's going to be a great time and uh if anyone can come out and support and bring a sign
00:02:34 then please come on the 18th to support Sophie and uh just support females and keeping men out
00:02:40 women's sports are you expecting that maybe some anti-sophie people will be there as well people
00:02:47 who are going to say no trans people belong in the wnba just as they belong in all women's sports
00:02:56 i mean could things become become tense well you know it is canada so um i mean you've seen it in
00:03:05 the states it happened in the states too right we had there was activists there you know there's
00:03:10 always antifa that show up just to cause trouble um but i you know i've done a bunch of speeches
00:03:18 across canada i've never personally had any activists show up and to give me a hard time
00:03:24 um there's always those keyboard warriors that say they're going to show up and they never do
00:03:30 You know, there's going to be a lot of Toronto police around the area as well.
00:03:34 But I don't see, you know, it's a common sense issue.
00:03:38 Like 88%, if not more, of Canadians voted to keep men out of women's sports.
00:03:43 It is a common issue.
00:03:45 It's just a matter of, it's like women are the ones on the teams that are actually the ones that are just not saying no to it. 0.95
00:03:52 They're the ones that are not boycotting the sports.
00:03:54 Like, we've talked about this many times, right, where it's like, why am I the only one?
00:04:00 female canadian athlete that's actually used her voice and spoke up and said no to men like i've
00:04:05 actually you know spoken to you know athletes in my even like in pickleball where like i knew there
00:04:12 was a trans athlete playing like next week in a tournament and i said well would you play against
00:04:18 them they're like well i don't really care i want to beat a boy i'm like well no like i would take 1.00
00:04:22 a knee and say no like i'm not competing against you today it still goes on where women don't use 0.89
00:04:27 use their voice but I mean there might be activists there might be people just trying to be there to 0.60
00:04:32 cause trouble but I think it'll be a pretty much a peaceful a peaceful protest it's a it's a rally
00:04:38 it's not even a protest so right well they made an example out of you and that's probably why 1.00
00:04:43 other women have not jumped onto your bandwagon and made that case I mean you were banned for 0.99
00:04:50 what two years I was banned for two years and I was just talking to Linda Blade the head of
00:04:57 athletics for alberta i was talking to her earlier today and i said you know if i did have money and
00:05:03 it's still like in the works it's still in the talks um that you know if i did have money it's
00:05:09 not out of the question for me to sue them i'm still thinking about suing the canadian power
00:05:15 lifting union and i might even sue the museum that kicked my exhibit out it's it's not it has
00:05:21 not been it hasn't exited my brain so what they did was completely wrong especially since i made
00:05:27 a statement in my own free time you know stating that men don't belong in sports so you know that's
00:05:34 that will happen someday i will take them to court well they cost you your career you were going
00:05:41 gangbusters you were doing really really well and then you said that and they jumped on you 0.91
00:05:48 with both feet and so that was obviously a message sent to all women saying you better shut up about 0.93
00:05:55 this issue or we'll treat you just as badly as we treated April I mean that's probably the reason 1.00
00:06:02 why they did it they knew why they knew about it and I think they should face consequences for what
00:06:07 they've done and my other question would be around Sophie Cunningham if you had any contact with her
00:06:14 does she know what you're planning so i did talk to jennifer from xxxy athletics and she's the one
00:06:22 that kind of um and also amy susa um she's also a huge activist she lives in the states but um
00:06:30 they're the ones that kind of proposed this idea about setting up the rally in canada
00:06:35 um they basically um said that for me to contact riley gains who's a good friend of mine and said
00:06:41 hey let sophie know what section you're sitting in um at the at the game and so that we could
00:06:47 actually meet her after the game and get a photo and then basically what you know we're tagging
00:06:52 her and everything we actually made a good video for her to show her that we love her and support
00:06:56 her so yeah high hopes that we're basically going to meet her after the game and uh talk to her
00:07:01 because we got pretty good tickets to the game too so um yeah so pretty confident that we will
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00:08:18 I mean, look what's happened to her. I mean, she got clotheslined in a game. 0.97
00:08:22 That's seen by tens of millions of people, the highlight, where she was going in on the basket.
00:08:29 it you saw it she was you know looked like she was going to score and then an opponent uh basically
00:08:36 wrapped her arm right around her face and it was basically an assault and you can't help but think 0.97
00:08:43 that part of that is around the whole issue the strong stand that sophie cunningham has taken
00:08:48 what do you think oh yeah i'm actually going to be talking about that later on today
00:08:55 oh and then and then they said it was white privilege and all that yeah so that's that's
00:09:00 crazy i know yeah the right there's no consequences to actions anymore um yeah oh no for sure she's
00:09:08 gonna be targeted i mean even when i started speaking out like about my like in my federation
00:09:15 like i had trans activists go after my job like they just target and target and target you
00:09:21 and try to take you down this is how the you know in the states you call them democrats right this 0.65
00:09:28 is how they think this is how they will go after you and this is the the sickness of the mind of
00:09:35 being able to try to take you down and like that's like any you know but if that happened
00:09:40 did the roles were reversed in that that game like that's how you know we know what how things
00:09:45 would have played out right so it's just yeah she definitely has a target on her back right but
00:09:52 it's you know when that happened you know when she was doing the famous point 0.86
00:09:58 she you can't go anywhere without seeing sophie memes and support and love and that's what
00:10:03 happened to me that people don't understand even though i got suspended for two years and this is
00:10:08 what you and i have been working on you know being on your show is that people have to remember i
00:10:14 spoke up i got worldwide recognition i got you know and i thought about it before i spoke up
00:10:20 i'm like oh you know there's going to be some consequences but i felt better speaking up that
00:10:25 was the best thing i ever did and the women of canada you have to understand that like it's
00:10:31 about integrity it's about having sports for your little girls down the road because it's going to
00:10:36 be a male-dominated sport if you don't speak up and like i got sponsors i'm now an xxxy athlete
00:10:43 i've had i have other brands that i'm an ambassador to i got worldwide recognition i was on fox news
00:10:50 i was on tucker carlson like i get i get people recognize me down the street and go hey you're
00:10:54 april thanks so much for standing up for my little girls like you're a hero you're literally
00:10:59 considered a hero and so is sophie cunningham and you know what if i died tomorrow i'm leaving
00:11:06 a legacy behind i might not have daughters myself but i have little nieces but i'm remembered
00:11:12 as a canadian hero and people say that to me because i spoke up to make a difference in this
00:11:17 world so i hope the women out there can do the same thing even if you don't have daughters
00:11:22 be a change in this world for the pot you know for the positive and you know keep men out of
00:11:28 women's sports it's just that simple we don't you know men don't we don't need more men's sports
00:11:33 yeah i mean it's insane what has happened and why people normalized this type of behavior
00:11:42 including parents by the way i mean you go to high schools and you still see men boys you know
00:11:49 involved in sports in which women end up uh getting injured in some cases like basketball
00:11:56 to the or a volleyball to the face i mean they play rugby rugby it's astonishing what these
00:12:04 schools allow allow people to do i mean if i was a parent well i i am a parent if my daughter
00:12:12 was involved in sports these days i would take her out because i said no i don't want you competing
00:12:17 with somebody who could potentially hurt you it's absolutely ridiculous no exactly yeah it's not
00:12:24 just the fairness aspect it's the safety and there's there's just numerous numerous um you 0.86
00:12:30 know there was that wrestler that got sexually assaulted you know there's like there's tons of
00:12:35 of cases so you know who could forget the face of that italian boxer who was totally punched in
00:12:43 punched out by uh that trans uh athlete from algeria just uh astonishing anyway uh remind
00:12:52 us again about this event how do people support it where do people go uh can you fill us in on
00:12:58 those details yeah so um it's going to be on august 18th and again it's outside the scotia
00:13:05 bank arena in toronto so the location is called jurassic park but really all you have to do if
00:13:11 you're taking the train into toronto it's right outside the train station at union station it's
00:13:16 right at the main entrance you can't miss it you know you won't be able to miss me we'll be wearing
00:13:21 our x x x y t-shirts we're gonna have banners um you could also send me a message on my instagram
00:13:28 look for april hutchinson on instagram uh there's my website www.april hutchinson.com
00:13:34 find me on twitter find me on facebook instagram shoot me a message and i can give you details how
00:13:40 to get there but it's 5 30 p.m outside scotia bank arena indiana fever versus toronto tempo
00:13:48 come on out and show your love for sophie um it's gonna be a great game and just let's keep
00:13:53 men out of women's sports it's that simple april hutchinson thank you so much for what you do
00:13:58 appreciate it thank you mark always a pleasure seeing you i love you guys we'll see you if you
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