00:02:02.420But this is all going to be a day that will go down in the ages.
00:02:05.540You'll remember where you were when you learned that Marco Mendicino was out of cabinet.
00:02:11.840Not just him, also a few others, David Lamedi and Omar Al-Gabra, Mona Fortier,
00:02:17.040who one time was, if you can believe this, and if I can do it with a straight face,
00:02:22.380the Minister for Middle Class Prosperity, who never at any point during her tenure as Minister
00:02:29.240of Middle Class Prosperity thought it would be suitable to learn what the definition of middle
00:02:34.000class was. She gave that great answer where it was like, well, you know, people in the middle
00:02:40.160class know what it means and that's what matters. So she's gone, as is the Minister of Middle Class
00:02:46.640Prosperity. That was like a relic that we went and did away with two or three shuffles ago now.
00:02:51.740This has been Justin Trudeau's biggest shuffle yet.
00:02:56.540And the thing about this is that it is not really going to change all that.
00:03:02.060My colleague Phil has just reminded me that we got rid of middle class prosperity,
00:03:06.800but we got Minister of Citizens Services.
00:03:09.420So if you are a citizen in need of servicing, there's now a minister for you,
00:03:15.200whatever the Minister of Citizens Services is going to do.
00:03:18.460Shouldn't all government be like a ministry of citizen service?
00:03:21.840I guess that's the whole point here, but it's supposed to be anyway.
00:03:24.920But we are going to talk a little bit about the cabinet changes we saw today.
00:03:28.760But I want to focus on the bigger picture, which is that it's easy to look at the list of ministers and say,
00:03:33.780oh, well, you know, Bill Blair went to defense and this guy went to emergency preparedness
00:03:38.840and Anita Anand went from defense to treasury board and all of these things.
00:03:44.200But it's less easy to look at this and say that none of it really matters, that this is not actually an issue that will change anything materially about the function or lack of functionality in this government.
00:03:59.720Now, what was interesting here is that it wasn't just about the shuffling of the deck chairs on the Titanic, so to speak.
00:04:07.240There were some pretty key promotions, some rookies.
00:04:10.080It's now a backbencher, Arif Varani, that went up to be the Minister of Justice.
00:04:15.340And then you had some pretty senior people who have been Trudeau loyalists for their time in cabinet
00:04:19.920that are now finding themselves relegated to the backbenches.
00:04:23.520And some of those did the whole face-saving exercise yesterday of saying,
00:04:28.780oh, it's because I'm not running again.
00:04:33.060But some of them have not actually said whether they're running again.
00:04:36.080So Marco Mendicino, assuming he manages to find his way back to his office,
00:04:40.880which I think is a stroke of luck every day if he does,
00:04:45.360he hasn't actually done the whole I'm not running again thing.
00:04:48.180He just gave this statement this morning in which he talked about how grateful he was
00:04:53.120and how proud he was and how great Justin Trudeau is
00:04:55.580and how he did so much good stuff in cabinet.
00:04:58.300And oh, there we have the letter there. If you haven't read through it all and you can't see it and you can't read it, don't worry, neither can Marco. But the thing about it that I would point out is that it's like the guy was fired and he's somehow been head faked into writing this letter about just how great it was and how honored he was and all of that.
00:05:18.020when he was like the biggest embarrassment in the Trudeau cabinet
00:05:22.120who had to wear the Emergencies Act, the Firearms File,
00:05:25.880Paul Bernardo, the Nova Scotia shooting, all of these things.
00:05:33.880Like, I was convinced he was going to be the fall guy for the Emergencies Act.
00:05:37.200But unfortunately, Justin Trudeau managed to hoodwink the media
00:05:41.180and many Canadians into being A-OK with the Emergencies Act.
00:05:44.560So they didn't actually need a fall guy.
00:05:46.040But Marco Mendicino has finally left, as has David Lometti, the guy who, as I mentioned yesterday, believes that the mentally ill should be given the ability to kill themselves with the state's assistance.
00:06:00.720And to all of the departing cabinet ministers, we will once again give you the somber send-off we did on yesterday's show.
00:06:16.040Last time I added a repeat afterwards by singing along,
00:06:34.620and I believe our numbers tanked the longer I sang.
00:06:36.840So this time I'll just let you hear the original version there.
00:06:41.260I want to give a little bit of an honest take on this.
00:06:44.360So I'll let you hear in Trudeau's own words how he rationalizes why he fired the people he fired.
00:06:52.560And again, it's odd he doesn't even mention their names.
00:06:59.060Can you explain your decision to fire Marco Mendicino, Morna Forche, and David Lamedi and remove them entirely from your cabinet?
00:07:05.640I want to thank everyone who has served this country and this cabinet so well over the past number of years.
00:07:14.360This is a moment where putting forward the strongest possible team with fresh energy and a range of skills that are going to be able to continue the really important work of showing Canadians the positive and ambitious vision for the future that we're so committed to and that I know Canadians need and deserve.
00:07:37.560I'm really excited about the work we're doing, and quite frankly, we have a huge team in caucus and across the country working really hard to deliver for Canadians in all sorts of great ways.
00:07:55.020So the question was, why did you get rid of these three people?
00:07:59.500The answer is a drink, water, juice, bottle, box, drink.
00:08:03.960Oh, no, sorry, that was a different answer.
00:08:05.280I sometimes get the meandering answers mixed up.
00:08:08.780The answer is that, well, we have a great team and we're going to put the good team forward.
00:08:13.400And this is the strongest possible team, by which he means to say that all of the folks he got rid of,
00:08:18.580he believes were weak and were not part of the strong team that he believes he needs heading in to the next election,
00:08:25.020which he, it sounds like from earlier in those remarks, is convinced will not be until 2025.
00:08:30.380so Trudeau is basically saying that he thinks he has enough to go on to stick around for the next
00:08:38.640two years and Jagmeet Singh once again today is tweeting about all the failures of the liberals
00:08:43.780and conservatives and it's like it's my favorite running gag in Canadian politics when Jagmeet
00:08:49.340Singh is all indignant and says oh man how dare the liberals do this it's like yeah if only there
00:08:54.820were someone who had literally with the snap of his fingers and an email to his caucus the ability
00:09:01.020to change that Jagmeet Singh is actually a guy who could topple the government I mean some people say
00:09:06.840oh I should write a letter to the governor general or oh we should call an election and maybe Canadians
00:09:11.900will oust him like Jagmeet Singh could actually single-handedly take down the liberal government
00:09:17.800at least single-handedly insofar as his ability to lead his party which I think he probably could do
00:09:23.600And he just doesn't know that or refuses to accept it because he knows that he has his last kick of the can in the next election and then he will be done.
00:09:35.720So what do we have as far as highlights go in this new cabinet?
00:09:39.760Well, we have the new fisheries minister, Diane Laboutier, who has decided to welcome
00:09:45.840in the job with a brilliant and incisive analysis, a brilliant and incisive analysis of the role
00:11:48.140I mean, you look at Pablo Rodriguez, the guy who I was talking about this yesterday,
00:11:52.360has just done such a bang-up job on the heritage file
00:11:55.680that now he's decided he wants to serve in the transport file.
00:12:00.440So Pablo Rodriguez is going to be taking over as Minister of Transport.
00:12:04.540I can only fear that the next time you take an Air Canada flight from, I don't know, wherever, Toronto to Hong Kong or something, the only options on the in-flight entertainment menu will be diverse and or Canadian content.
00:12:18.820So you'll have to watch like Bon Cop, Bad Cop in English and French two or three times before you get to your destination because that's going to be the only option you have with the Pablo Rodriguez approach, the heritage turned transportation approach to government.
00:12:34.540And then you look at the people who are staying still.
00:12:36.840People like Stephen Gilbeau remains as environment minister.
00:12:40.540People like Wilkinson adds environment to natural resources.
00:12:44.680But basically there's some continuity there.
00:12:46.640Patti Hajdu, who did, again, just such a phenomenal job as the health minister
00:12:51.720who said border closures were racist before closing the borders.
00:12:55.940She is remaining in Indigenous services.
00:16:09.220He makes all the calls at the end of the day.
00:16:11.240He's the one who picks all of the cabinet, handpicks them.
00:16:14.300So unless the prime minister is actually being changed,
00:16:17.600it's really hard to make the case that you've got a completely new government.
00:16:22.060Yeah, and you're right when you talk about the longevity of a government.
00:16:25.400I mean, Stephen Harper ran into this when he was running in 2015.
00:16:28.440When you've been there for, at that time, nine years,
00:16:31.660you don't really have much of an excuse for not having done something.
00:16:36.140I mean, theoretically, you may be responding to a new challenge that's popped up.
00:16:39.700And Harper had the refugee crisis, national security, stuff like that.
00:16:43.860But it's a lot easier to be in opposition when you can look at the government and say they're doing this wrong, this wrong, this wrong, this wrong.
00:16:49.600When you're a guy like now Justin Trudeau, who's been there for eight years, potentially 10 years by the time the next election rolls around,
00:16:57.960it's very difficult for him to convincingly tell people he's going to do something when he's had at that point a decade in which he could have and should have done whatever that thing is.
00:17:07.020Sure. And look, part of politics is just gravity, right?
00:17:22.240And so governments, they see cabinet shuffles as a way to try and, again, I say superficially
00:17:27.540because, frankly, I don't think they matter very much.
00:17:30.160I mean, I was remarking to someone that, can anybody point to me, historically, a cabinet
00:17:34.920shuffle that really changed the game, that had a, you know, a government that was tired
00:17:38.480and unpopular and they shovel to some ministers and suddenly their fortunes reverse. I mean,
00:17:42.540it just doesn't happen. And part of that is because, you know, folks like you and me and
00:17:46.700folks tuning in, we're the weirdos. We pay a lot of attention to politics. A lot of Canadians don't.
00:17:51.540They got busy lives. They could not name, pick out any of these people out of a police lineup,
00:17:56.100maybe Chrystia Freeland. But the vast majority of these people, they just don't know who they are.
00:18:01.320And so I don't think it really helps Justin Trudeau's fortunes when he changes them.
00:18:05.540Yeah, and I would say generally are probably better off not needing to know, because the more you learn about politics, the less sane and less convivial you are in my experience on these things.
00:18:16.620So I'll ask then about it in a bit of a different approach, because, you know, we may see at some point in the next couple of weeks mandate letters for these ministers, but are we expecting anything resembling a change in policy to go along with this?
00:18:30.000Because if we are just, you know, changing around the faces, but you're actually making no change to your overall agenda, it's really not that convincing a fresh face, as you had put it earlier.
00:18:40.560Yeah, I mean, I think what's more important is going to be mandate letters, because that signals what the prime minister wants.
00:18:46.700And at the end of the day, especially under this prime minister, and I would argue under Stephen Harper as well, you know, ministers are only going to be as effective as their boss lets them be.
00:18:54.840And so, you know, it doesn't really matter how great you are.
00:18:57.700If Justin Trudeau puts you in a box and says you can only do these two things, you know, you're kind of limited in what you're able to do.
00:19:04.160One thing I thought was interesting was the assignment of Sean Fraser to housing.
00:19:08.740So this is everybody knows housing is a very important file.
00:19:12.340I think it is the main going to be the main issue in the next election, if it isn't already.
00:19:17.960I think the Liberals are tuning into this late in the game.
00:19:19.940I think they realize that if they don't take some major action on this, Pierre Paulyab is going to eat their lunch on housing.
00:19:26.540So, you know, John Fraser's, you know, by all accounts, been a pretty strong performer in cabinet.
00:19:32.620So I think that giving him this portfolio is a sign that they're probably taking it more seriously.
00:19:38.760Yeah. And I think that's actually an important point as well that should factor into people's analysis on this is, you know,
00:19:45.040who the stronger communicators are when you're putting them on a certain file.
00:19:49.580And I mean, I was making a few cracks at Pablo Rodriguez's expense, but this is not a guy who I'd say has been a particularly good messenger on Bill C-11 and Bill C-18.
00:20:00.680He has failed to understand, either by obstinance or just by not being particularly transparent, he's failed to understand what his bill does.
00:20:08.700He's flip-flopped on what it will do and all these internet regulations.
00:20:12.520and the fact that he's out of that file when the internet regulation file is still alive and well
00:20:17.340in Canada I feel is actually quite noteworthy. Yeah look communications are obviously important
00:20:22.660to every government very important to this government in many cases I would argue that
00:20:26.100from this government's point of view the communications are the deliverable you know
00:20:29.660actually following through and delivering what you promise doesn't matter it's the press
00:20:33.300conference and the messaging that they value most because that's where they get their political
00:20:37.340bang for the buck. And for, you know, Pablo Rodriguez, I mean, to be fair, there's only so
00:20:42.940much lipstick you can put on a pig. And Bill C-18 is a pretty big pig. And I don't know that there's
00:20:48.780any way to message that bill well, because it's a terrible bill that is doing a lot of damage
00:20:53.680to Canadian media. So yes, I think there are other files on things like housing where, you know,
00:20:59.020the Liberals are doing certain things. I don't think they're doing anywhere near enough on
00:21:03.220housing, but there are a few things they're doing that. If they had better comms, they could probably
00:21:06.820get a little bit more credit for. Now you had pointed something out on Twitter earlier, which
00:21:10.820I found quite funny. It was, I don't know which TV network it was, but you were watching and they
00:21:15.720had this like bold observation about the new cabinet that they might, you know, focus on the
00:21:20.340economy now. Yeah. They said, you know, new, new cabinet to focus on economy. And I thought, well,
00:21:25.100what have they been doing for the last eight years? That's like a John Madden style, you know,
00:21:29.380political commentary there. I'm like, oh yeah, when the quarterback goes, that'll be a touchdown.
00:21:33.460yeah yeah it's it's a little bit it just makes you think you know you've been there a long time
00:21:38.180you would have thought they'd come around to the importance of the economy a little bit sooner than
00:21:42.040today yeah so let's just be a little bit more forward looking here and I know that neither of
00:21:47.840us has the the crystal ball but we've seen the poll numbers I mean Justin Trudeau can stand up
00:21:53.360there and talk about how everything is sunshine and roses Christopher Ealing can go out and talk
00:21:57.780about oh actually inflation is doing really well right now but Canadians are clearly not buying it
00:22:03.000at least not at this moment in time in the snapshot and sample that was captured by the
00:22:08.300latest polls. I mean, what would the turnaround be? If you were advising Trudeau, I mean, I might
00:22:12.540not have you on as much, but if you were, what would the message be on how to steer that ship
00:22:17.860in a better direction? Boy, it's tough. It would require a dramatic break from the past, right? And
00:22:23.440this government has shown no capacity to do that. I mean, Justin Trudeau has been a prime minister
00:22:28.100who likes to spend in the bad times and spend in the good times and then spend some more for good
00:22:32.140measure. That's one problem. I mean, there's just a colossal lot of money that's been going out the
00:22:36.640door. For what? I mean, spending is up something in the range of 30%. I don't think most Canadians
00:22:42.160believe they're getting 30% government services or have a 30% quicker commute or 30% better
00:22:47.780healthcare or any of these things. So I think there needs to be a big U-turn there. I think,
00:22:52.980you know, the interesting thing to me was by even having this shovel, it signals to me that
00:22:57.460Justin Trudeau is definitely running in the next election, right? There's been a lot of talk about
00:23:00.860whether or not he's going to take a walk in the snow or I guess a walk in the sand because it's
00:23:04.080summertime. I think the fact he had this shuffle suggests he's not going anywhere because why have
00:23:08.820this shuffle now? Why try and reset and retool now? If he was even thinking remotely of leaving,
00:23:14.820you know, he would have just let the cabinet sit as it is. So the fact he's done this tells me
00:23:19.060he's going to be prime minister when the next election is called and it's going to be him
00:23:23.160versus Pierre Polyev. Yeah, and I think you're right about that. And I think that it's not
00:23:28.920necessarily wise to go in and try to assess what Justin Trudeau's mindset is on a particular issue.
00:23:37.280But I do feel that putting Anita Anand, who is by all accounts actually quite a capable defense
00:23:41.920minister in Treasury Board, which is certainly an important role to the functioning of government,
00:23:46.980but is a much less public facing role, has been a bit interesting because she was one that has been
00:23:53.200wildly rumored to be a potential leadership contender and not really tarnished in the way
00:23:58.820that Chrystia Freeland are and some other folks are by the Trudeau brand.
00:24:02.980So the fact that she's now being taken out of this file,
00:24:05.520I actually think is quite interesting.
00:24:08.000Yeah, one other observation I had of all the new faces that we see in cabinet,
00:24:12.600they're all relatively low profile folks, right?
00:24:15.180These are not the sort of high profile partisan attack dogs
00:24:21.240but people can probably guess the MPs that we're talking about.
00:24:23.960I was actually pleasantly surprised to see
00:24:26.000that those folks were not the ones who were promoted, right?
00:24:28.420Because there are some people who think that, you know, being a sort of partisan clown on Twitter all day is sort of, you know, doing a solid for the team.
00:24:36.780And that gets rewarded by putting these people in cabinet.
00:24:39.460But I think that would be a really perverse incentive.
00:24:41.300So I'm happy to see that for the new people they put in, these are relatively low-key MPs.
00:24:46.680They're not in there because they're like a big name or that they've been sort of lighting the world for you or ticking people off or sort of provoking anger for their opponents.
00:24:55.120So, you know, we'll see if these are folks that are just quietly competent and, you know, agree or disagree with his government.
00:25:01.460Whoever's in charge on a given day, it's better that they be competent than not know what they're doing.
00:25:06.800Yeah, fair enough. You're saying you didn't want Attorney General Mark Gerritsen then, I take that.
00:25:10.960I'm not going to name any names, Andrew. You may think that.
00:25:13.240All right. Well, you're far more diplomatic than I am.
00:25:15.740Aaron Woodrick from the Macdonald-Laurie Institute. Always a pleasure, Aaron. Thanks for coming on today.
00:25:20.860Yeah, I will say I did like a little joking thing yesterday where when we learned that what's his name or what's her name, Anita Anand was being shuffled out of defense.
00:25:30.400I like just plucked three random names and I said, you know, pick your next defense minister, Canada.
00:25:35.120And the options I gave were Patty Hajdu, Mark Gerritsen and Jennifer O'Connell.
00:25:40.980And some people didn't know I was joking. That was the terrifying part.
00:25:43.960I mean, like one of those three would easily be doing a speech in which you'd be like,
00:25:48.320we need to talk less about Ukraine and more about We-crane.
00:25:52.800I've made that up, but that's like the type of thing that the people kind government would probably give us.
00:25:58.600We're going to talk a little bit about this in the closing moments of the show.
00:26:03.100And I suspect next week we'll have a bit more in the sense of where things are going.
00:26:07.720But I want to talk about the story that really piqued my interest at CBC, which I should
00:26:31.120This was a story that was like framed as though it was alerting us to the existence
00:26:37.380of some far-right radical Christian cultist conspiracy of some kind.
00:26:43.680Breakaway believers warn PC party of dominionist religious movement.
00:26:49.400Now, I'm, you know, a religious person myself.
00:26:51.840I understand trends in the religious world and trends in the political world.
00:26:55.860And they were using terms in this that I've really not been familiar with,
00:27:00.020like Dominionist, and the other one that they acronymize as NAR.
00:27:05.600I think it's like the, now I forget what it is, what it stands for,
00:27:09.020but it's like Apostolic, there we go, the New Apostolic Reformation,
00:27:12.540which is kind of used more as a smear than anything else.
00:27:15.500But they talk about this group of folks that have been assembling,
00:27:18.480that are generally people of faith, that have been mobilizing on a number of issues,
00:27:22.100particularly in New Brunswick, where right now people of faith,
00:27:25.880And I would point out people who are not at all connected to any religion organized or otherwise have been speaking up in support of parents' rights and in support of the New Brunswick government's defense of parental rights in school.
00:27:39.640And there was a photo that I thought was quite lovely from the Canadian Prophetic Council,
00:27:45.640which is one of the groups that has attracted the ire of CBC,
00:27:49.040reenacting in front of the Lieutenant Governor's residence in Charlottetown,
00:27:54.380this famous photo that you may recall from 1864 in the lead up to Confederation.
00:28:00.540And Justin Trudeau should be very happy because unlike the original, we've got gender balance in this.
00:28:04.680We've got women represented, unlike those old sexist, misogynist, white supremacist, homophobe, neo-Nazi fathers of confederation that Canada had.
00:28:13.560These ones are gender balanced and ethnically diverse.
00:28:17.040Do you think that would make Justin Trudeau and CBC happy?
00:29:29.640give out chicken noodle soup and hot chocolate
00:29:31.500to the poor and drug addicted on the corner of Main and Hastings there. And it was during that
00:29:38.140time, this was like mid 2000s that we just got this desire. Like I was not a political kid at
00:29:45.240all. My dad played NHL. I thought the senators were a hockey team, you know, so politically
00:29:50.280illiterate. But we just got this burden to begin to speak to our leaders about issues we cared
00:29:55.860about and so i took this little band we rented a minivan we went across canada and you know we
00:30:01.700were covered in lots of media at that time the winnipeg press i think covered us and uh there
00:30:07.140were different periodicals and and we just booked meetings with members of parliament and senators
00:30:11.460and just talked to them about things that we cared about and there was a wide range of things that we
00:30:15.380would chat about we talked about human trafficking we would talk about freedom of speech you know a
00:30:19.860lot of the things that we're still talking about today you know in different capacities and that
00:30:24.820began uh this basically almost a decade-long journey where we just started bringing teams to
00:30:29.700parliament uh usually a couple times a year had over 1500 sit-down meetings with members of
00:30:34.900parliament and senators i met with justin trudeau in his office uh when he was very first elected
00:30:41.060and you know what he said to me right out of the gate sandra he said let's talk about my christian
00:30:45.940faith that was that was his opening line you know yeah let's let's talk about it i would actually
00:30:51.060accept that offer from him now if he made it and so i have to admit though we haven't been super
00:30:56.100active the last couple years because those young people became older people and we have babies now
00:31:01.140and jobs and you know we've gotten a lot busier but we still have an email list and we still push
00:31:06.100stuff out you know when we feel people in our network need to know about something and be given
00:31:11.700opportunity to take action i'm all about civic engagement i'm all about you know if you care
00:31:16.740about something get involved you know that's why we worked with joy smith on our human trafficking
00:31:21.860uh bills and that's why i do my tv show you know because i think there's a lot of stuff i care about
00:31:26.020and so you know that's basically the heart of it in terms of the canadian prophetic council
00:31:31.620honestly it's pretty benign as well it's just a group of leaders from across canada
00:31:36.020uh some pastors people that lead different kinds of ministries that usually about once a year we
00:31:41.380kind of got shut down during kobe usually about once a year we'll just come together and we'll
00:31:44.820just pray together and share hearts together about what we're feeling about the state of our nation
00:31:50.340and what we can do to be positive contributors so it's really as simple as that yeah and it's funny
00:31:56.020and i and i don't mean this to besmirch any of the work that you're doing because i i think it's
00:31:59.620wonderful but this doesn't come up on any of the discussions that i have as you know being these
00:32:04.900like really top really hyperactive and hyper influential political groups because by your own
00:32:10.900own definition, that's not really what you've strived to be. But the way CBC talks about it,
00:32:15.140it's that, you know, it's you and a few evil, scary Christians just like pulling the strings
00:32:18.700on the political system from behind the scenes. And I mean, it's like if you guys were running
00:32:23.980the show, we wouldn't be in the problems we're in right now as a country.
00:32:28.280Well, who knows, you know? But, you know, yeah, you're absolutely right. And like I said a few
00:32:35.100moments ago, I'm just all about civic engagement. So when I see something that's happening, and
00:32:39.600here. I live in New Brunswick. We actually moved here. We were part of the COVID exodus out of
00:32:43.700Ontario. New Brunswick has had a real surge of people actually from Ontario and other parts of
00:32:49.240the nation. And so we're here just raising our family. We moved here for community. And then
00:32:55.380Premier Higgs, he sticks his neck out on this amendment to 713 saying, hey, we want to ensure
00:33:03.040that things aren't being hidden from parents in terms of what's happening with their kids at
00:33:07.420school in terms of their sexual health journey, right? And so, you know, I was talking.
00:33:16.060Uh-oh, we lost Fetine. See, this is what happens when you, you know, get Bill C-11 is that anytime
00:33:21.780something like this comes up, people all get suspicious that Justin Trudeau might be mucking
00:33:25.180around in the engine room. We'll get Fetine back on the show in just a moment here. But I want to
00:33:31.320just go back to the CBC article for a moment here. And the reason I want to is because
00:33:35.940the framing of this is that they talk to three people that used to be Christians that now are
00:33:43.500no longer Christians, that really just take out their grievances on religion itself and their
00:33:48.940grievances on Christianity itself and Christian values and Christian communities. And then they
00:33:54.720use that as sort of their wedge to criticize the stuff that this group is doing. I mean,
00:34:00.060The one woman in particular here, again, a former Christian who says that now all of the things that these folks are doing are, quote, making a really unsafe place for a lot of marginalized groups, especially queer people, especially trans people.
00:34:15.380I think we have Fetine back with us, and we're sorry about that brief interruption, but we have her back on the line now.
00:34:22.280Fetine, that's one of the big concerns I have here, is that CBC is doing this thing that we often see from the media,
00:34:27.940where they take former Christians, people that have had whatever their grievances are with the church,
00:34:33.680and they use them as sort of authorities on what the church represents,
00:34:36.960when a lot of the time, I mean, as we know, these stories come from a place of pain and any number of other issues
00:34:42.460that really have nothing to do with the subject matter.
00:34:45.380yeah and I you know my heart goes out to to anyone that's been hurt by anyone you know and
00:34:53.860just to say that I'm not exactly sure uh what's happened with each of the individuals that were
00:34:59.220interviewed uh one of the individuals uh did go to the same church that I went to I'm not exactly
00:35:04.520sure all the stuff that might have happened there I wasn't directly involved um I did you know try
00:35:11.120a love on her in different ways that i could but we were just really faint acquaintances really
00:35:16.800like i would see her on a sunday or whatever but i i you know i i think we should all uh do whatever
00:35:22.000we can to make peace right like the bible does say that blessed are the peacemakers um and so
00:35:28.400i encourage people to pursue those that have been broken and and hurt in whatever way they have but
00:35:33.760but that's not what we're talking about here like what we're talking about here with the current
00:35:38.400situation is in new brunswick is that parents have a concern it's a legitimate concern our
00:35:44.000parents actually have an appreciation a legitimate appreciation and that's an appreciation for what
00:35:49.360premier higgs is doing and they're seeing him getting beat up in the media cabinet ministers
00:35:54.240falling off the shake-up call for the leadership review and so you know parents organize you know
00:35:59.920to support something that they appreciate in government this has nothing to do with religion
00:36:06.000other than the fact that there might be a few of us that we happen to be Christian, you know,
00:36:10.800in the mix. But we actually after we kind of felt the sense that CDC was starting to go this way and
00:36:15.600others, we actually put a survey question on the petition and said, Hey, just let us know what
00:36:20.960background you're from. You know, are you Jewish? Are you Muslim? Are you Christian? Are you from a
00:36:25.040secular background? And, and I can verify now that there really is a cross section of support.
00:36:31.200And so obviously, you know, it's disappointing to see the conversation kind of drug into the mud of what might even cross the line of religious discrimination, like coming at me for my faith.
00:36:42.380You know, it's like, man, this is nothing.
00:36:44.060What happened with these people really has nothing to do with me, though my heart goes out to them.
00:36:48.780You know, but let's keep focus here because and I think if I could just say this, Andrew, like I long for a day.
00:36:55.460I don't know about you, but I long for a day where we can just raise the water level of civil discourse in the media, where we can actually talk about the issues that Canadians care about.
00:37:09.060You know, I heard somebody say once that if I can label you, I don't have to listen to you.
00:37:14.340And, you know, we've seen that time and time again.
00:37:16.920You know, we've seen that with, you know, I hate to say it, Justin Trudeau, you know, calling people that disagreed with his management of COVID-19 racist, misogynistic.
00:37:24.460misogynistic you know a little Métis woman you get like how can you call a Métis woman you know
00:37:29.700but if I can label you I don't have to listen to you right and that's like I just want to say as
00:37:34.700media people let's take it higher like let's just stop with the labeling and and go a little bit
00:37:40.160deeper with the listening and I think that's what was really disappointing about this but hey
00:37:44.020I'm keeping my eye on the goal we're going to continue to encourage people to be a voice sign
00:37:48.640the petition and support Premier Higgs in what yeah no you're quite right about that Fetine I
00:37:53.840mean it was confusing because the article was conflating two organizations two movements I mean
00:37:58.780obviously they they share a common participant in you and and by extension really trying to muddle
00:38:03.560the discussion around an issue that has been tremendously unifying I mean the number of
00:38:07.860Canadians uh that as you note not from religious backgrounds and even if they are religious not
00:38:12.600necessarily from evangelical Christian backgrounds that are supporting what Blaine Higgs is doing
00:38:18.120that are supporting in general, this cause of parental rights is massive. The governments that
00:38:23.920oppose this are in minorities. And certainly the media's narrative on this is in the minority.
00:38:30.060Yeah. Yeah. And I would just go back to, let's just do more, more listening. And there is an
00:38:35.060overwhelming, this was actually one of the reasons that I felt to get involved in this. Because I
00:38:38.320thought, man, if Blaine Higgs, excuse me, Premier Higgs falls on this mountain, so to speak,
00:38:44.100this political mountain, it really will be an injustice to democracy because I really believe
00:38:49.880authentically he is representing the majority of parents. I had one parent say, and I think it was
00:38:55.880Chris Austin that actually said this in the legislative assembly, that parents, they need
00:39:00.860to sign off on if their kids go on a field trip, if their kids go up the road to the zoo, and to
00:39:07.860exclude parents from any part of their child's health and wellness journey at school, it just
00:39:14.640feels so counterintuitive for so many. And so I, you know, I just think we need to stay focused
00:39:20.740there. And, you know, it's unfortunate that some, you know, some people want to take it off of that,
00:39:25.520but I'm committed to keeping my focus here, Andrew. Well, I certainly wanted your voice to
00:39:30.160be out there to correct the record. You're doing a tremendous work on air and off. Fetine Grzeski
00:39:35.180is the host of Fatin TV, the founder of For My Canada. And it's been my pleasure to be on your
00:39:41.380show. And I'm glad to repay the favor. Thanks so much, Fatin. Thanks for your time, Andrew.
00:39:47.280All right, all the best to you. And I think we have to have a bigger discussion in this country
00:39:51.400about the relationship between faith and politics and faith groups and politics. But also this other
00:39:58.260group that often gets left out, which is people that are motivated by values and motivated by
00:40:04.640what we might call religious principles or religious tenets, but don't identify as religious.
00:40:10.240Now, if you're talking about proselytizing, great.
00:40:12.900Yes, if you want to go after those people, do it.
00:40:14.960But if you're talking about building community, there are a lot of people that you would talk
00:40:18.280to on the street that would agree with a lot of what I would as a Christian say are Christian
00:40:23.900values, but they've reached that conclusion not because of faith necessarily or not knowingly
00:40:31.460And this is why it's always so bizarre when the media tries to say, oh, this is just, you know, the religious right that cares about parental rights, whereas, well, actually, parents care about parental rights.
00:40:43.140And parents who are not Christians, who are not Muslims, not Jews, not Sikhs, not Hindus care about this.
00:40:49.480And parents who are those things often care about this.
00:40:53.260But when you looked at those numbers that our friends at Second Street put out a few months ago, it was the majority of Canadians across religious identification, across political identification that supported the idea of what Blaine Higgs is doing in New Brunswick, which is to say that parental consent is required for a child to change their gender, which is, I think, a pretty commonplace, uncontroversial thing to say that's been cast as like this horrendous assault on marginalized people.
00:41:23.260groups, which is just absolutely baffling. So that does it for us for today. We'll be back
00:41:27.480on Friday with another edition of Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show. We'll be delving into
00:41:32.060C-18 and internet regulations in a bit more of a comprehensive and perhaps educational way if
00:41:40.080you've not been following it really closely. But even if you have, hopefully you'll take something
00:41:43.900out of it and then lots more True North content in the days and weeks and hopefully years to come
00:41:49.200as well. So that does it for me. Thank you. God bless and good day to you all.
00:41:53.260Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:41:57.320Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.