Off the Record - An unhinged Elizabeth May

00:00:00.000 You're dressing down today, Isaac.

00:00:02.100 Yeah, like, I mean, it's almost unbearable in my house heat-wise, so I thought that a

00:00:10.140 suit would be a bit too hot, even right now, without the fan on.

00:00:15.980 Even with the fan on, I'm barely surviving here.

00:00:19.620 And I think you're wearing the same thing you were last time, William, so I have no

00:00:22.380 comments about your apparel.

00:00:23.620 I think so.

00:00:24.360 I was going to say it was 35 degrees here in Calgary yesterday, but of course, we are

00:00:29.100 in the middle of Scampede, and the best weather for Scampede is hot and sunny.

00:00:32.620 That's what you want it to be for the whole 10 days, so I'm not complaining, because this

00:00:37.480 is a beautiful time to be in Scampede.

00:00:40.540 All right, let's get this thing on the road.

00:00:50.160 Hello and welcome, everyone, to another exciting, or at least I hope exciting, edition of Off

00:00:55.240 the Record.

00:00:55.880 This is our Friday kickback show.

00:00:57.860 We cycle through a rotating cast of the True North characters, and we chit-chat about

00:01:02.700 the stories we have covered through the week, some of the ones we didn't get to.

00:01:06.000 We try to find the lighter side in this turbulent, chaotic, and crazy world as much as we can.

00:01:11.560 As I've joked with a couple of people, the worse things are for the country, the better

00:01:14.420 they are for our shows.

00:01:16.060 And Off the Record is no exception.

00:01:18.160 I'm Andrew Lawton, with you for the next However Long This Takes, joined by True North

00:01:22.280 Chief Operations Officer.

00:01:24.200 Or is it Chief Operating Officer?

00:01:25.440 I don't know, I just call you COO usually, William McBeth, and our Alberta correspondent,

00:01:30.080 Isaac Lamoureux.

00:01:31.560 Good to have you both with us.

00:01:33.080 How's the Alberta summer treating you?

00:01:36.500 It's great here in Calgary.

00:01:37.740 As I said, Scampede season, everybody's happy.

00:01:40.520 It's hot.

00:01:41.120 It's sunny.

00:01:41.780 We have water again.

00:01:43.560 Everything's coming up, Calgary.

00:01:46.300 Yeah.

00:01:47.360 It's okay here, I guess.

00:01:48.520 Really hot.

00:01:49.180 I'm dying in my house.

00:01:50.580 And all my friends are at the Stampede.

00:01:52.020 I guess they don't have to work nine to five jobs, so they can just go whenever they'd

00:01:55.780 like.

00:01:56.220 But I'm obviously in my office working.

00:01:59.640 Yes, and don't you forget it.

00:02:02.260 You're also in Edmonton, so it's not like, it's not like we're the reason, it's not like

00:02:05.800 I'm keeping you from Stampede.

00:02:07.240 Geography is keeping you from Stampede.

00:02:09.280 Now, what we did do is force Isaac to turn off his fan before the show began, because it

00:02:13.900 was like coming through to the microphone.

00:02:15.800 So if he's like, just like melting into a puddle by the end of it, that will be why.

00:02:19.580 So this is the benefit of live to tape.

00:02:22.620 Anyway, I must say, despite how people may make an assumption based on my appearance,

00:02:27.900 I'm not a huge fast food person.

00:02:29.960 Certainly, I could not tell you the last time I was at a KFC, but KFC has been in the news

00:02:36.040 this week, Isaac.

00:02:37.120 What's going on?

00:02:38.660 Yeah, I actually can't tell you the last time I've been to KFC either, but I definitely don't

00:02:44.560 plan on going anytime soon, given the recent news, which is that Ontario KFC restaurants,

00:02:50.820 sorry, Ontario KFC restaurants are going halal friendly or Muslim friendly with halal chicken

00:02:57.860 and the removal of pork products from their menu.

00:03:01.120 So all of the restaurants in Ontario, except those in Thunder Bay and in Ottawa, have switched

00:03:06.860 to halal chicken and removed pork products like bacon from their menu, except for the

00:03:13.200 joint KFC and Taco Bell locations.

00:03:16.660 Do you still get your bacon if the KFC is sharing a roof with a Taco Bell?

00:03:20.820 That's right.

00:03:21.800 So if you really want your bacon, you're going to have to go to a shared location.

00:03:26.420 And when we were discussing this on Monday, when we weren't even sure if it were true

00:03:30.480 or not, I thought for sure that it would be the case that it was just one radical owner

00:03:36.760 at one KFC location.

00:03:38.480 But all across the province, I mean, this is very surprising for me, especially considering

00:03:42.940 I like to think that Western culture sees bacon as one of their favorite foods, whereas when

00:03:50.560 I was looking at the data, the Muslim population in Ontario is about five to six percent.

00:03:55.840 So you're really alienating a lot more people than you're catering to, I'd say.

00:04:00.080 What do you guys think?

00:04:01.000 Yeah, and also I would say everyone's focusing on the Ontario bit, but if you can put that

00:04:05.660 letter back up, this is a letter that KFC sent out to community leaders.

00:04:10.260 So I believe it was sent out to like the heads of various Muslim organizations and mosques

00:04:14.460 back in May.

00:04:15.900 It says this will be followed by the rest of Canada by year end.

00:04:20.900 So by the end of the year, they'll have taken this Ontario project and made it national.

00:04:25.340 So this is causing a bit of a moral panic of sorts on Twitter.

00:04:28.740 You've got some people that are saying, you know, boycott KFC.

00:04:31.120 I don't want to eat that halal chicken. 1.00

00:04:32.620 I actually am of the mindset that I don't really care.

00:04:35.200 I've had halal chicken.

00:04:36.480 One of my favorite go to things if I am out in the world is shawarma and shawarma restaurants

00:04:41.380 are almost all halal.

00:04:42.740 I do think that whenever a company makes a decision like this, you always have to wonder

00:04:47.740 why is it because they're looking at a decision that's being made for commercial reasons

00:04:53.000 or is it that they're doing something to try to pander?

00:04:56.100 And apparently, I didn't realize this until I was looking into this story.

00:04:59.980 Almost all the chicken chains in Canada are halal, like Mary Brown's is halal, Popeye's 1.00

00:05:05.340 is halal.

00:05:05.860 So KFC in that way is a bit of a laggard.

00:05:08.020 I'm more intrigued by the removal of bacon because it's one thing to add something to the

00:05:13.400 menu that doesn't really change anything for anyone else.

00:05:15.640 Like you're not, you don't become a Muslim when you have halal chicken, but taking away something 1.00

00:05:19.980 the consumers wanted, that to me is a bit more, that to me, I find a bit more interesting

00:05:26.680 here.

00:05:27.020 What do you think, William?

00:05:28.200 Yeah, I was thinking about the bacon thing and I don't recall the last time I was at

00:05:33.700 a KFC and I'm not sure if anything they sell has bacon on it, but then I thought-

00:05:39.960 They said they were removing pork from the menu, so it must have been on the menu in some

00:05:43.040 form.

00:05:43.620 I guess so.

00:05:44.200 I mean, logically, yes, that would make sense.

00:05:46.560 I guess now I was thinking though, that if you think about big fast food chains like

00:05:50.140 McDonald's or Burger King or even Subway and I mean, Starbucks has breakfast sandwiches.

00:05:56.700 All of these places have bacon and it can't be that Muslim people don't go to any of those

00:06:03.660 fast food restaurants, right?

00:06:05.520 Like I can't imagine that that precludes people from going there and ordering, like if you're

00:06:11.160 at McDonald's, I don't know, the Filet-O-Fish, which probably has very little bacon on it

00:06:15.120 altogether.

00:06:15.580 So that led me to think this was more about virtue signaling than it was about specifically

00:06:22.840 addressing the religious dietary requirements of a segment of the Canadian population.

00:06:28.500 And virtue signaling, of course, is something that companies love to do without always thinking

00:06:32.920 through, well, it cuts both ways.

00:06:34.540 It signals good things, but then what other signal does it send maybe to the rest of Canada?

00:06:38.760 So something to think about.

00:06:39.780 Yeah, and when it comes to like kosher food and kosher restaurants, some Orthodox Jews 1.00

00:06:45.120 do have very strict requirements on the facilities and even on the plates, like they can't even

00:06:50.740 eat off of a plate that at one point had non-kosher meat or meat and dairy mixed or something

00:06:55.560 like that.

00:06:55.880 I'm not aware of Islam being so strict.

00:06:59.540 And again, that's just like Orthodox Jews. 1.00

00:07:01.620 So I don't even think there is a facility rule where if bacon was served on something else, they can't have even the

00:07:07.760 halal chicken on the menu.

00:07:08.860 I don't know about that.

00:07:09.900 But what was the reaction like to this that you saw, Isaac?

00:07:14.460 Yeah, well, firstly, I was actually looking at the stock price.

00:07:18.420 This is from Yum Food or Yum Brands, which is the parent company of KFC.

00:07:23.140 And I was like, oh, maybe because obviously Legacy Media has picked up this story now.

00:07:28.180 So I thought, OK, the story is getting around.

00:07:30.160 We'll see if their stock price has dropped.

00:07:31.960 And to my surprise, it hasn't really, although it did drop over the last month, but not in relation

00:07:36.060 to this news from what I can tell just based on the timeline there.

00:07:39.840 But of course, people on X are always more critical than any other public sphere.

00:07:45.020 So yeah, there was definitely some backlash on X, but it hasn't really reflected their stock price.

00:07:49.700 So I don't know that that's obviously what they're going to care about most as a company in regard

00:07:55.000 to public backlash.

00:07:56.480 So if their stock hasn't taken a hit, I don't think they're going to see a fault in their action

00:08:00.780 personally.

00:08:02.160 Yeah, and it's also like one of these things that seems very online.

00:08:06.260 Like the average consumer would have no idea going into a KFC on one day that, oh, this

00:08:12.280 chicken tastes halal versus the time before.

00:08:14.840 Now, I don't know.

00:08:15.420 I don't know if the restaurants are now like in some areas putting up big signs that say,

00:08:18.920 you know, now halal.

00:08:20.100 Like I don't know how much attention they're drawing to it.

00:08:22.160 What I found interesting and one of the reasons I found this to be suspect originally, because

00:08:26.960 what happened was this letter that we put up on the screen earlier, we're circulating

00:08:30.240 online.

00:08:30.900 The letter is dated May.

00:08:32.840 We're now July 11th.

00:08:34.340 So anytime you see something that you're like, okay, why now?

00:08:37.060 And I had wondered if it was photoshopped or if it was faked or something like that.

00:08:40.680 So the fact that it's taken this long means that KFC, it seemed like in May when they

00:08:45.320 made this change, was really just quietly announcing it to members of the Muslim community.

00:08:49.280 They weren't trying to draw a lot of attention to it.

00:08:52.020 And when we wrote the story, I don't even think KFC responded.

00:08:54.660 Did they?

00:08:57.160 No, from what I read in the story, it said that they didn't.

00:09:00.400 Yeah.

00:09:01.040 Yeah.

00:09:01.320 And so that I found quite interesting.

00:09:03.560 So again, like at the end of the day, who cares?

00:09:05.840 It's a company.

00:09:06.580 They can do what they want.

00:09:07.480 But I'm always just so skeptical of any corporate decisions now, that they're not rooted in anything

00:09:14.200 resembling what they're supposed to be.

00:09:16.400 And the great example I give about that is that I live not too far from General Dynamics

00:09:22.000 Land Systems, which in my city of London, Ontario, is known for exporting armored vehicles

00:09:27.560 to Saudi Arabia.

00:09:28.520 So it's amusing when you drive by and you see like the trans-friendly pride flag up in

00:09:34.820 front of the facility manufacturing Saudi tanks.

00:09:38.020 And you're like, well, why don't you just put one of those on every one to Saudi Arabia?

00:09:40.940 Why don't you just slap that on the vehicles there?

00:09:43.460 Oh, because you don't actually believe this when it's about your business that you're pandering

00:09:47.900 to.

00:09:48.980 Yeah.

00:09:49.560 And I had to laugh that if I guess if KFC really wanted to drive home the point, every

00:09:53.940 location would have a cutout of the Prophet Muhammad eating a chicken sandwich.

00:09:58.360 Or something, which I doubt is what they're going to do.

00:10:02.540 I don't think we're going to see that in KFC time soon.

00:10:05.020 But yeah, every time you see a company try to virtue signal or put out something that

00:10:10.100 seems to be more about style than substance, you have to wonder if, is there an ulterior

00:10:17.600 motive or is this simply a business decision as usual and everybody should go about their

00:10:23.180 lives?

00:10:23.600 I mean, personally, I'm waiting for Chick-fil-A to open up here again in Calgary and solves

00:10:28.180 all my problems.

00:10:29.260 So yeah, we have a Chick-fil-A in London now.

00:10:32.360 And the problem is it's like clean on the other end of town.

00:10:34.660 So I've never actually been to it, although there was a time I would have killed for it.

00:10:37.900 And I don't know if Chick-fil-A is halal.

00:10:39.460 I don't think so.

00:10:41.360 I couldn't tell you.

00:10:42.360 Don't know.

00:10:43.400 Probably I'm not going to do the homework on it either, if I'm honest.

00:10:46.020 So one thing I will say, when you mentioned earlier, William, other restaurants that have

00:10:50.440 bacon and pork, the thing that's interesting, I've actually been to the Middle East.

00:10:54.680 I've been to, well, Egypt is not Middle East, but it's a Muslim country.

00:10:57.500 And I've been to the United Arab Emirates.

00:10:58.940 And you don't realize how important pork is until you go to a breakfast buffet in a Muslim 1.00

00:11:06.060 country and you realize that pork sausages are better than any other sausages and pork

00:11:12.020 bacon is better than any other bacon.

00:11:13.900 Like they all have the alternatives, but they really, really pale in comparison to the real

00:11:18.960 thing.

00:11:19.460 Well, and let's be clear.

00:11:20.840 It's not bacon if it's not made from pork.

00:11:23.360 No matter what the soy lobby tells you, soy bacon is not bacon.

00:11:27.320 Or turkey bacon, beef bacon.

00:11:29.120 I mean, turkey bacon, which is better than soy bacon, is still not actual bacon.

00:11:33.320 It's a poor imitation at best.

00:11:36.680 Yeah.

00:11:37.160 If you gave me a turkey bacon, let's say, and said it was sausage or something, I'd be less

00:11:41.860 disappointed because once you hear the word bacon, you know, you think of what bacon is,

00:11:45.740 the taste, the smell, everything that makes it so wonderful.

00:11:48.080 And then you taste turkey bacon, for example, and it's like, oh, you're just going to be disappointed

00:11:52.820 because it's not comparable in any way.

00:11:55.800 All right.

00:11:56.480 Well, we can all agree on the importance of bacon.

00:11:59.480 Anyway, let's move to the next topic, which I've very much forgotten.

00:12:03.560 So excuse me while I desperately try to find where we are in our rundown here.

00:12:07.220 Oh, I'm not even doing it.

00:12:08.220 It's you.

00:12:09.220 William, speaking of the Middle East, what has Canada been exporting there?

00:12:12.840 Yeah.

00:12:13.200 Well, you know, if you watch international news, you usually see the prime minister embarrassing

00:12:18.320 Canada on the international stage.

00:12:20.240 He's, I believe, down in the United States right now at a NATO summit pledging that Canada

00:12:26.380 will finally meet its 2% GDP goal, although he's providing precious few details on how that

00:12:32.860 will achieve.

00:12:33.440 But one area where apparently Canada is just thundering forward and leading the way is in

00:12:40.720 intersectional feminism. 1.00

00:12:42.140 According to our representative in Lebanon, she attended a conference and she was proud

00:12:48.380 to say that good news, people of Lebanon, Canada's intersectional feminist approach to foreign

00:12:56.580 policy is going great.

00:12:58.520 Now, let's roll the clip before we unpack this further.

00:13:02.900 Yep.

00:13:04.600 As for Canada, it has been implementing a feminist foreign policy since 2016. 1.00

00:13:10.320 Canada's feminist foreign policy seeks to be inclusive, intersectional, transformative, and 0.51

00:13:16.000 grounded in human rights.

00:13:18.080 It takes into account the diverse experiences of women, men, and non-binary people facing multiple

00:13:25.060 and intersecting forms of discrimination and exclusion, like income, race, religion, sexual

00:13:32.380 orientation, gender expression, language, ability, and age.

00:13:37.620 This allows us to be more responsive to systemic inequalities, specific needs and circumstances,

00:13:43.740 and to avoid unintentional harm.

00:13:46.500 Our feminist foreign policy is also cross-cutting. 1.00

00:13:48.980 It applies across all of our international efforts, including diplomacy, trade, security, development,

00:13:56.740 and consular services.

00:14:01.140 That was Sylvie Michaud, who is a diplomat at the Embassy for Canada in Lebanon, speaking in

00:14:09.340 Beirut at the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship.

00:14:15.380 Okay.

00:14:18.980 I'm a little bit, just, our colleague Cosman Georgia wrote about this, and he's noted that

00:14:25.740 perhaps the intersectional feminist foreign policy has not necessarily been well-received

00:14:31.040 in Lebanon, which has a child marriage and basically takes a very anti-woman view on anything

00:14:39.540 to do with family law.

00:14:41.800 So it's not really working, is it, Isaac?

00:14:44.160 Yeah, no, what came to mind actually was I saw a clip earlier of Trudeau speaking at the

00:14:50.140 NATO summit where they questioned him on the GDP spending, and he said Canada was punching

00:14:54.860 above its weight class, which obviously isn't true in regard to defense spending.

00:14:58.920 We have no plan to get to 2% of our GDP requirement as required by NATO allies.

00:15:04.820 But where Canada might be punching above its weight class actually is foreign investments

00:15:10.580 in anything to do with gender diversity, any DEI terms that come to mind, like intersectional

00:15:18.520 feminism. 1.00

00:15:20.360 So, I mean, I don't know, I kind of laughed even watching this, I was like, I don't really

00:15:26.920 even understand what's happening here.

00:15:29.160 And so it's like the flags on the GDLS vehicles, you know, you can send them there, but probably

00:15:35.500 not.

00:15:36.260 William, you worked for the Harper government previously, and that was a time when Canadian

00:15:40.760 foreign policy looked vastly different than it does now.

00:15:44.060 I mean, would you ever have imagined there that even under a liberal government, this

00:15:47.140 would be the way that we're portraying ourselves abroad?

00:15:50.860 Yeah, I mean, you know, this isn't to say, by the way, that advancing equality and human

00:15:56.740 rights for women isn't important. 1.00

00:15:58.720 It absolutely is the important thing.

00:16:01.180 The problem is the woke speech that so many of our diplomats now seem to employ at the behest

00:16:08.380 of our current government does tend to make countries like, say, example, Lebanon,

00:16:13.520 who is possibly going to go to war with Israel at some point in the near future, possibly it

00:16:20.200 seems out of step with the everyday concerns of people who are living in that country, that

00:16:25.980 maybe focusing on intersectional feminism is a luxury compared to, say, fundamental human 1.00

00:16:33.200 rights, the abolishment of religious courts, which tend to persecute minorities, women, and

00:16:39.040 people of different sexual orientations, or the fact that large swaths of the country

00:16:42.960 still don't have the infrastructure and quality of life that you would expect.

00:16:48.440 So, you know, when we show up in these places and preach about woke nonsense, it diminishes

00:16:56.000 Canada's standing in the world.

00:16:57.820 And certainly, say what you will, about Prime Minister Harper, he was taken far more seriously

00:17:03.540 and treated with far more respect than the current incumbent is right now.

00:17:08.340 I think there's something to the idea of leading by example rather than preaching.

00:17:14.140 And, you know, one of the things that the Stephen Harper government did was ensure there

00:17:18.660 was a path for gay people who were being persecuted in their home countries.

00:17:23.320 This was something they've done and the liberals have continued.

00:17:25.580 And showing that you respect gay rights, that projects a positive image to the world.

00:17:30.160 The problem when you go into countries that have vastly different worldviews and you start

00:17:34.420 telling them how they're supposed to do things, it just doesn't work.

00:17:38.640 And I mean, Saudi Arabia is an interesting example of it.

00:17:40.880 I saw this week there's a Nike ad that has been made that's in Saudi Arabia that is all

00:17:46.720 about basically women's empowerment. 0.89

00:17:48.820 It shows, you know, younger females that aren't wearing hijabs, that are doing sports, that 0.98

00:17:52.800 are swimming, running around, playing.

00:17:54.720 And again, the idea that an ad like that in Saudi Arabia, which again, a country that I will 1.00

00:17:58.960 not say is at all a bastion of liberalism for women's rights or any other minority rights,

00:18:04.140 but that that ad could be made there would have been unheard of.

00:18:07.360 But you don't get there by finger wagging.

00:18:09.980 And that's, I think, what the Canadian government is doing on a lot of these things.

00:18:14.300 Yeah, that's another thing that came to mind here was, I mean, why would Lebanon listen to 1.00

00:18:19.700 what we have to say?

00:18:20.540 Why would they care?

00:18:21.660 You know, we can tell them, oh, you have to do this.

00:18:23.140 You have to do that.

00:18:23.660 But as you alluded to, William, if Trudeau and Canada as a whole don't really have international

00:18:29.440 respect, they're not going to listen to us.

00:18:31.840 That's that's something people always brought up about former President Donald Trump was

00:18:35.260 like he said things, sure, but he he also commanded leaders his respect.

00:18:41.140 So I don't know.

00:18:42.060 And another thing that I wanted to mention was.

00:18:45.700 Call me a nationalist, I guess, but I just think of all the issues happening here in Canada

00:18:50.420 and maybe maybe I don't agree with investing hundreds of millions and billions of dollars

00:18:57.860 abroad when we have so many problems to fix in our own country.

00:19:02.500 Well, I know you're right about that.

00:19:03.940 I mean, the entire foreign aid discussion is one that I think desperately needs a reset,

00:19:08.500 because I've seen little to no evidence that the Canadian approach to foreign aid even works

00:19:13.880 and is yielding dividends.

00:19:16.360 I mean, the problem is that the countries that need the help the most are countries that typically

00:19:19.980 have rampant corruption and money ends up just in the pockets of dictators far more than

00:19:24.980 it helps any people.

00:19:27.300 Yeah, no, it's a sad reality that so much of foreign aid, well intentioned foreign aid is

00:19:32.760 simply going to make thugs and criminals wealthy in these countries that desperately need help.

00:19:38.240 But it requires, I think, some really new thinking and using the new technology that we have available

00:19:44.280 to us.

00:19:44.660 You know, there are examples of where governments are bypassing NGOs and governments entirely

00:19:50.000 and simply loading money onto the cell phones of individual people living in very desperate

00:19:56.560 circumstances because it's the only way that they can get around the pickpocketing that happens

00:20:01.600 for so many foreign aid budgets.

00:20:03.660 But you're absolutely right.

00:20:04.560 And of course, foreign aid comes at a cost.

00:20:06.440 You know, money we spend on foreign aid is money we can't spend on Canadian health care,

00:20:12.180 is money we can't spend on our armed forces, is money we can't spend on any other of the

00:20:16.080 thousand priorities that exist.

00:20:18.120 So, you know, when you see Canadian diplomats traveling the world and talking about things

00:20:24.920 like intersectional feminism, it does make you wonder, really, how much bang for our bucks 1.00

00:20:30.220 we're getting on this dog and pony show that we call foreign affairs.

00:20:33.940 What we really need when it comes to projecting an image of Canada to the world is the austere

00:20:40.760 reverence of Elizabeth May.

00:20:43.880 Roll it.

00:20:44.540 I've got another grandbaby coming at the end of October and I feel very, very committed

00:20:51.320 as I think everybody my age should.

00:20:55.840 Baby boomers have f***ed this planet and we can't walk away and leave it for our kids to 1.00

00:21:01.560 fix it. 0.99

00:21:02.020 And I'm sorry I just used the F word out loud, but I think kids understand what I'm saying.

00:21:06.280 I'm a very, I'm a 70 year old, angry, cranky version of Glitta Thunberg.

00:21:11.280 And am I ready?

00:21:12.380 You bet.

00:21:13.980 I feel like you could Photoshop in like a giant overflowing wine glass there in the shot

00:21:18.900 and it would just, it would be probably even more believable.

00:21:22.200 Now, this is a woman who in the past, I would remind you all, has kind of become the civility

00:21:29.420 tone checker in the House of Commons.

00:21:32.440 This was her taking aim at Michelle Rempel Garner back when she was just Michelle Rempel for

00:21:37.520 using a different F word in the parliamentary precinct.

00:21:42.060 Why does this government treat Alberta like a fart in the room that nobody wants to talk

00:21:47.500 about or acknowledge?

00:21:49.140 That is where my constituents have been at with this government for over a year.

00:21:53.480 The Honorable Member for Saanich Gulf Islands.

00:21:56.620 I interrupt my friend in her speech, but I heard her say a word that I know is distinctly

00:22:03.140 unparliamentary and I think she may want to withdraw it.

00:22:06.640 The word was F-A-R-T.

00:22:09.280 Are we, are you serious, Mr. Speaker?

00:22:11.080 Like, is my colleague actually serious?

00:22:12.920 I just gave an impassioned speech about supporting Alberta jobs.

00:22:16.840 And that's what the leader of a political party stands up and has to say.

00:22:20.620 No, I don't withdraw it.

00:22:22.780 Decorum is important and respect is important to this place.

00:22:26.320 I remind those who are now heckling me that you are breaking the rules of this place when

00:22:30.520 you do so.

00:22:32.720 Okay, just, just again, let's go back to the other Elizabeth May clip, Elizabeth May this

00:22:36.760 week.

00:22:37.040 I, I just want to get that sense of decorum.

00:22:39.440 Baby boomers have f***ed this planet and we can't walk away and leave it for our kids to 1.00

00:22:45.340 fix it. 0.98

00:22:46.840 I, I'm not one of these profanity pearl clutchers.

00:22:50.580 I, I keep profanity out of my show and we generally keep it out of True North.

00:22:54.640 If you want to get Elizabeth May uncensored, you can, you know, do that on Twitter.

00:22:58.400 Um, so I, again, I'm not, so I don't really care, but it's a little rich for her to, you

00:23:02.020 know, take aim at Michelle Rempel using a four letter F word for flatulence while dropping 0.99

00:23:07.060 the mother of all F-bombs, uh, herself. 0.83

00:23:10.520 Again, I, am I, am I reading, am I paying too much attention to Elizabeth May, Isaac?

00:23:14.380 This is, I'm totally prepared to accept that.

00:23:16.360 Uh, I don't think so.

00:23:18.920 And look, a lot of the chatter online, let's say has, has, has, uh, alleged, I guess that

00:23:26.580 she was drunk or whatever.

00:23:27.560 And I don't want, I don't want to speak to that because I don't know whether she was or

00:23:30.660 not, but I am slightly, I will say concerned about Elizabeth May.

00:23:34.940 Like, is she okay on numerous occasions.

00:23:37.100 Now we've seen very odd things most recently from when she had a completely different interpretation

00:23:43.620 of the, uh, NSOP report than Jagmeet Singh did.

00:23:47.320 Cause of course he said, he said there were treacherous MPs and she said, oh no, there's

00:23:50.580 no, there's no treacherous MPs.

00:23:52.460 Uh, the media blew it out of proportion, which are two very, very, very different things to

00:23:55.800 say about our report.

00:23:56.580 Very different.

00:23:57.740 So I, I'm, I'm, I'm very concerned, uh, about Elizabeth May.

00:24:02.140 Uh, also her co-leader, uh, or whatever, Jonathan Pedneau just resigned.

00:24:07.820 And he said it was family issues, but of course there could be something deeper to that story

00:24:12.260 as well.

00:24:12.760 I'm not, I'm not really sure.

00:24:14.780 I don't know.

00:24:15.540 And Elizabeth May is kind of all over the place. 1.00

00:24:17.300 She also, uh, just said that it was quote obvious that it was time for Justin Trudeau

00:24:21.500 to step down, which I, I wouldn't say I disagree with, but I mean, she's really putting herself

00:24:25.560 out there more than we may have been used to in the past.

00:24:28.900 She's basically made herself out to be the permanent leader of the green party.

00:24:32.620 There was that brief break from her with Anna May Paul, who was probably one of the

00:24:35.840 more credible, sensible people that party has.

00:24:39.540 And now we're like right back into Elizabeth May being just the, the permanent, the permanent

00:24:44.420 party leader for the greens.

00:24:47.080 Yeah.

00:24:47.560 You know, I mean, I, maybe I have a soft spot.

00:24:49.560 I enjoy an Elizabeth May press conference because they're rarely dull.

00:24:52.820 You never quite know what you're going to get.

00:24:54.680 And she opens her mouth and starts sharing her things.

00:24:58.300 And on this, where was it she did?

00:24:59.700 Like she played the welcome back Cotter theme song and Lisa Raid had to pull her off stage. 1.00

00:25:04.360 Was that the parliamentary press gallery dinner?

00:25:06.680 I, yeah, I think it was.

00:25:07.800 You're talking about Omar Cotter and called him like that.

00:25:10.540 It was weird.

00:25:11.280 Yeah.

00:25:11.640 You know, in, um, in classical times, we would refer to politicians who, uh, maybe had a glass

00:25:17.280 or too much to drink as tired and emotional, looking tired and emotional.

00:25:21.640 But, uh, just on the whole, um, use of foul language, perhaps Elizabeth May was more upset 1.00

00:25:27.520 about the word fart, because of course that involves the release of greenhouse gas emissions,

00:25:33.440 which we know she's quite passionate about.

00:25:35.640 So maybe that's what drove her to the double standard.

00:25:40.020 As soon as you started that sentence, I'm like, is he going, is he, yeah, he's going there.

00:25:45.520 She's offended by methane, not, uh, not profanity.

00:25:48.720 Uh, it's a, you know, it's a big part of the greenhouse gas cocktail.

00:25:53.680 But I think methane contributes more to parliamentary decorum than anything Elizabeth, that's come

00:25:59.500 out of Elizabeth May's mouth.

00:26:01.760 Uh, quite possibly, but I'd say, you know, at least she isn't dull. 0.71

00:26:05.660 At least we are getting just another boring talking point filled speech.

00:26:10.020 Oh, so I just looked it up.

00:26:11.180 The, the Elizabeth May, uh, thing on Omar Cotter, it was 2015.

00:26:14.540 It was during the parliamentary press gallery dinner and she used the F word there too.

00:26:18.880 She said, Omar Cotter had more class than the whole effing cabinet.

00:26:21.940 So it really, and so, and this was before she tone policed Michelle Rempel, uh, now Michelle

00:26:27.580 Rempel-Garner.

00:26:28.380 So my goodness.

00:26:29.480 Okay.

00:26:30.040 Oh, Elizabeth May, there we go.

00:26:31.620 Uh, we'll move on to our next topic today.

00:26:35.300 Uh, I keep, I keep going away from the screen that has the topics on it.

00:26:38.280 Oh, this one is also yours, William.

00:26:39.780 This is, uh, speaking of emissions, uh, some, uh, one of our favorite things to talk about

00:26:44.240 here, climate hypocrisy.

00:26:46.160 Yeah.

00:26:46.800 And, uh, and how to get yourself a government travel agent, because I can tell you, I'm pretty

00:26:52.080 jealous about where some of these people get to jet off with in this case are, um, and believe

00:26:57.600 it or not, we have one, our climate change ambassador who's been on the job for just about

00:27:02.560 two years, spending a quarter of a million dollars on travel expenses, which in, you got

00:27:09.740 to admit in two years, that's an, um, pretty impressive level of spending.

00:27:13.520 You have to, I think you really have to quite work at spending that much money in such a

00:27:17.320 short period of time.

00:27:18.120 But of course, what so infuriates ordinary Canadians like us, you know, what, what it was

00:27:23.860 just a few weeks ago where Mark, um, Holland chastised anybody who was thinking of taking

00:27:29.160 a summer road trip as being a climate killer.

00:27:32.420 That's going to let the planet burn. 0.99

00:27:34.400 And then meanwhile, you've got the ambassador for climate change, crisscrossing the country

00:27:40.100 on flights and staying in these very expensive hotels and achieving no one knows exactly what

00:27:46.620 certainly not a reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions.

00:27:49.440 I would imagine hers are vastly higher than the average Canadian.

00:27:53.660 So, uh, yeah, just another example of climate hypocrisy, uh, a government that says, do as I

00:28:00.420 say, not as I do.

00:28:03.140 Yeah.

00:28:03.620 And I remember John Kerry was the one criticised in the U S cause he's their climate envoy and

00:28:08.720 he was taking private jets and he was asked about this at one point and he very glibly

00:28:12.360 said, well, he's too busy.

00:28:13.920 He can't always fly commercial.

00:28:15.120 And I had actually asked John Kerry about that when I saw him in Davos, where he is a bit

00:28:20.660 of a mainstay.

00:28:21.500 And it's the same sort of glibness you get from these people because they believe that

00:28:25.340 they're more important than you.

00:28:27.460 So they need to fly around the world because they have a really, really important job to

00:28:31.880 do.

00:28:32.000 The rest of us, plebs, no, no, no, we don't get to. 0.99

00:28:35.000 Yeah. 0.64

00:28:35.400 This is a nice, uh, transition, I suppose, considering we just went from seeing the hypocrisy of Elizabeth

00:28:40.860 May now to the hypocrisy of these high flying elites, let's call them.

00:28:45.460 And we've seen this with many Canadian ministers like Guibo, Trudeau, criticizing, uh, normal

00:28:52.280 Canadians for, I mean, simply trying to live their everyday life as they fly their private 0.51

00:28:57.980 jets around the country, uh, on a daily basis, what it seems like.

00:29:01.880 So I don't know what it would take for this hypocrisy to end, but you know, it's, it just,

00:29:07.040 it's interesting to me whenever these ministers, uh, let's say propose, uh, some sort of guideline

00:29:14.680 for, I don't know, carbon emissions, let's say, uh, uh, a carbon footprint, a personal

00:29:20.600 carbon footprint, let's say it's like, well, well, could you live within that?

00:29:23.640 I, I highly doubt that the answer would be yes.

00:29:25.740 Yeah.

00:29:28.140 And I, I kind of take the view, I mean, France, for example, uh, within the last year, I think

00:29:33.240 it was banned domestic air travel and, you know, it seemed ridiculous on the surface.

00:29:37.880 And then you think, okay, well, at least in France, you have a way to get around quite

00:29:41.220 easily.

00:29:41.520 They've got a rail system that's quite good, but a lot of the eco radicals would not

00:29:46.200 hesitate to push something like that in Canada as well.

00:29:49.400 And, you know, David Suzuki famously would fly all around the world, uh, with a huge carbon

00:29:53.900 footprint, I think always in business class telling Canadians that, oh, no one should

00:29:58.120 be able to, you know, politicians who don't act on climate change should be put in jail.

00:30:02.220 It's okay.

00:30:02.760 Well, why are you so different than them?

00:30:04.040 Your carbon footprint is better, uh, is, is higher than the average Canadian that you're

00:30:09.120 trying to force to pay this insane carbon tax.

00:30:12.200 Yeah, I absolutely think it's the hypocrisy that's, that turns so many Canadians off the

00:30:17.200 whole, uh, preachiness of government.

00:30:19.420 You know, we talked about how preachy this government's been in foreign affairs and, and on other

00:30:23.420 things, but that's one of the things the government likes to do most is to preach.

00:30:26.360 It likes to say, you know, you, dear Canadian are not living up to our, our vast and high 0.98

00:30:33.840 standards.

00:30:34.720 And the problem is you.

00:30:36.080 It's not how any of us are living our lives.

00:30:38.280 And now correct me if I'm wrong.

00:30:39.860 I did read the article, but, uh, I want to make sure I get this right.

00:30:43.520 Did it say she took a flight from Ottawa to Toronto and it cost $10,000?

00:30:49.160 Is that, uh, is that somewhere in there?

00:30:51.060 Now I apologize if I read that part wrong, but, uh, part of me wonders what part of the

00:30:56.920 world could you even fly to that's going to cost $10,000?

00:31:00.520 Like you can get from Toronto to Sydney, Australia, which I would argue is pretty well the most,

00:31:06.400 the furthest, uh, uh, you could go, uh, from Canada.

00:31:09.940 And, uh, I, I think that even wouldn't cost you.

00:31:12.920 No, I think it was the, the conference attendance, uh, cost that I think.

00:31:16.120 Oh, yeah, the whole trip.

00:31:18.340 Yeah.

00:31:18.620 But I think she was putting on a little thing still, still quite insane.

00:31:21.500 And by the way, why didn't she take the train from Ottawa to Toronto?

00:31:23.900 That's one where you have a lower carbon alternative.

00:31:26.200 And, you know, why doesn't she look for some cheaper options when staying in hotels or when 0.97

00:31:30.800 taking flights?

00:31:31.460 You know, oftentimes if I, you know, as a true North employees can attest when they submit

00:31:36.480 proposals for travel, my first reaction is often to see if there's a cheaper way of being

00:31:41.560 able to do the trip.

00:31:42.580 Can we send you in a day before?

00:31:44.860 Can we put you in a nearby town as opposed to right next to where the event is happening?

00:31:50.480 That's in a different country.

00:31:52.440 That is dangerous for, uh, for having a deal with, uh, my cost.

00:31:55.940 But I was, again, I was being far more cost efficient than Mark Carney and our climate ambassador

00:32:00.240 are when they go to Davos.

00:32:01.920 But it's almost like they purposely choose the most expensive option whenever they travel.

00:32:06.880 And that really grates on Canadians who are having to be so careful with how they spend

00:32:12.340 their money these days.

00:32:13.320 You know, I don't think a lot of people object to the fact that sometimes our politicians and

00:32:17.540 government people are going to have to travel for their work.

00:32:20.160 You know, we're not going to ask Justin Trudeau to zoom in to the NATO meeting.

00:32:24.420 We think maybe there's value in him being there.

00:32:26.320 But do we absolutely have to choose the single most expensive way of getting politicians from

00:32:30.420 point A to point B, having them stay in the nicest hotels?

00:32:33.080 Uh, I think that's what really bugs Canadians when they see their hard earned tax dollars

00:32:37.500 being just squandered on luxury for politicians and the elite.

00:32:42.900 There was one time, I think it was in Washington DC, actually, where I was booking a hotel room

00:32:47.400 and it was, you could choose the rate and it was, you know, the AAA member, CAA member rate,

00:32:54.340 the regular rate, whatever.

00:32:55.900 And I recall, I looked at the government rate and just cause I was going through them and

00:33:00.700 it was higher than the regular rate.

00:33:02.200 Now it might've just been a fluke, but it might not have been because, you know, you

00:33:05.960 have cities where they know that governments are going to come in that don't care about

00:33:10.460 the price of things and they'll just get mad, mad cash from governments.

00:33:15.200 And I think travel is no different there.

00:33:17.260 These people are not price shopping and why would they?

00:33:20.060 And so there was the climate hypocrisy angle and there's also just the government waste angle

00:33:24.000 of this.

00:33:25.180 Um, this is a one that is related.

00:33:27.320 We don't trust government.

00:33:28.100 We also don't trust media, but you have government and media getting into bed together.

00:33:32.320 And what's the answer?

00:33:33.640 What comes out of that, Isaac?

00:33:35.640 Yeah.

00:33:36.200 So this comes from a new poll, which was conducted by public square research, and they were trying

00:33:41.660 to gauge the public's trust in different types of Canadian news media.

00:33:46.400 And then also the views on, um, media that received government subsidies.

00:33:52.060 So how, how do Canadians feel about government funded media versus obviously media like true

00:33:57.120 north that receives no government funding.

00:33:59.060 And interestingly, yes, 70% of Canadians were not supportive of government subsidies for

00:34:04.740 the salaries of private news organizations.

00:34:07.440 So private news organization would be like the global mail, Toronto star, Toronto sun, national

00:34:11.520 post, those kinds of things.

00:34:12.400 Well, yeah, only 4% of Canadians said they were very supportive of this while it was 26%

00:34:18.000 that were somewhat supportive leaving.

00:34:20.200 Yes.

00:34:20.440 Seven in 10 Canadians, either not very supportive or not supportive at all.

00:34:24.740 Well, it's just insane that no one sees this because, you know, we trust journalists to hold

00:34:30.280 government to account.

00:34:31.380 So if government is the lifeline for journalists and government is the lifeline for journalism,

00:34:36.280 how are you at all going to expect it to be doing what you needed to do?

00:34:40.420 So, yeah, I mean, the trust issues in media are outweighing just this aspect of it, but

00:34:46.940 it certainly is going to, is only going to exacerbate the problem.

00:34:49.700 And William, I mean, it's just fundamental.

00:34:51.900 And some journalists have criticized it because they see this, but many have just demanded more

00:34:56.120 and more money from the government.

00:34:58.160 Yeah.

00:34:58.440 I mean, every journalist swears up and down that the fact that some or even most of their

00:35:03.900 salary that is being paid for by the government has no impact on how they choose to, uh, to

00:35:10.380 report on things.

00:35:11.320 But the fact is, is that taken as a whole, if you look at the legacy media, they often

00:35:17.820 obsess about the, the pet issues of this current government.

00:35:22.520 You know, how many stories in a typical edition of the Globe and Mail talk about climate change

00:35:27.840 or talk about, you know, some example of, uh, of, uh, of, uh, uh, someone who's dealing

00:35:34.060 with a gender issue and, and isn't it terrible that they couldn't transition at three and a

00:35:39.560 half years old?

00:35:40.460 And, you know, that's just the worst.

00:35:42.480 And if you, and these are not issues that Canadians want to endlessly read about.

00:35:47.280 What are Canadians concerned about?

00:35:48.840 They're concerned about housing costs.

00:35:50.200 They're concerned about grocery prices.

00:35:52.140 They're concerned about, you know, the fact that, uh, they can't pay their bills every

00:35:56.700 month.

00:35:57.100 Those are things that are really of concern.

00:35:59.660 And yet legacy media doesn't pay them nearly as much attention as they should.

00:36:02.780 I would say one of the reasons why True North has been so successful is we've actually looked

00:36:08.200 at what ordinary Canadians from one end of the country to the other are concerned about.

00:36:13.100 And we tried to make that the central focus of our news and reporting.

00:36:17.200 And as a result, I think Canadians in increasing numbers are tuning into us as they tune out

00:36:24.920 from the legacy media.

00:36:26.560 So if that trend continues, I think you are going to see the legacy media either becoming,

00:36:32.140 you know, solely dependent on government funding to stay in power, or we will simply see the

00:36:37.680 end of Canada's legacy media as a whole.

00:36:40.720 So yeah, yeah.

00:36:42.560 Oh, go ahead, Isaac.

00:36:43.640 Yeah.

00:36:43.820 Just something interesting.

00:36:44.800 The, the, the study brought up, which was that it said that most Canadians were completely

00:36:49.220 unaware on how much funding these legacy media journalists were receiving.

00:36:54.080 They estimated that there was up to 50% subsidy on those journalists salaries of up to 85,000

00:36:59.440 a year.

00:37:00.120 And then just speaking quickly on, on trust and legacy media, they, they cited a 2023 study

00:37:05.380 in this research that showed that the decline in legacy media was 50 or sorry, the trust

00:37:10.480 of legacy media was 55% in 2016, declining to 40% in 2023, which Trudeau was speaking on

00:37:17.800 an Alberta talk show in February, where he said that quote, conspiracy theorists and social

00:37:23.420 media drivers were the ones undermining mainstream media to prevent people from essentially believing

00:37:29.900 a common truth, which is why the legacy media was failing.

00:37:32.440 However, the recent polling showed that only 12%, 12% of Canadians felt that they were getting

00:37:40.160 the truth from mainstream news.

00:37:41.500 I mean, what a low number.

00:37:42.980 And then, uh, another 20% said that they believed news coverage in Canada was fair and transparent.

00:37:50.340 Yeah.

00:37:50.920 And you know, the one thing that I've talked about this on my own show, anytime the institutions

00:37:55.160 talk about trust and the trust deficit, they always point the blame at everyone else.

00:37:59.820 It's when we don't trust the media.

00:38:00.960 Oh, it's because of disinformation and we don't trust the government.

00:38:03.540 Oh, it's because of the far right. 1.00

00:38:04.800 It's like, no, it's because you are morons a lot of the time. 1.00

00:38:09.240 Absolutely. 1.00

00:38:09.940 Or you covered something with such a biased slant or ignored such an incredible part of

00:38:16.160 it that, you know, reasonable people watching it simply say that is a lousy, lousy job you've

00:38:23.640 done.

00:38:23.880 Um, and if you're lying to us about this, what else are you, are you lying to us?

00:38:29.940 Yeah.

00:38:30.340 And I've always been, I guess, prideful in the work that True North puts out because

00:38:34.980 obviously I'm very skeptical when I, when I read anything legacy media, okay, what in

00:38:40.040 here is actually true because I often find faults in their work, whether that's intentional

00:38:43.820 or not.

00:38:44.340 But even in, in other independent medias, when I'm reading their stories, I often find

00:38:48.040 errors.

00:38:49.420 So I like to think that, that we, we produce, uh, uh, uh, stories that generally contain

00:38:56.540 very little, uh, errors, uh, in comparison to, to, to the rest of the industry.

00:39:01.020 So yeah, I just wanted to say that.

00:39:03.120 Well, no, you're right.

00:39:04.440 And one point, and I mean, I'm the managing editor of True North, so I I've insisted on

00:39:08.680 this, but I think a lot of our team does it anyway, is primary sources.

00:39:12.780 Like don't just report on someone else's report on a report, find the report itself, find the

00:39:17.560 documents yourself.

00:39:18.540 And I know Isaac, you've had me tell it.

00:39:20.140 I mean, I actually, Isaac is really good at that because Isaac loves reading the report

00:39:23.100 and then you'll end up with like, oh, sorry, I am late because I have to write, you

00:39:26.580 know, read this 179 pages to do.

00:39:29.120 And I was like, well, I technically asked you to, so I can't really complain, but, uh,

00:39:32.200 but it's so key because oftentimes, especially with academic studies, like I used to do this

00:39:35.600 all the time on my old radio show, you'd get like a news story about an academic study that

00:39:39.280 would have this fantastic headline.

00:39:40.640 You're like, wow, that's great.

00:39:41.620 And then you're just like looking at the study and you're like, but it doesn't, doesn't

00:39:45.640 say that at all.

00:39:46.980 And it's, so you've got like a journalist that either is putting sensationalism first or

00:39:51.220 a journalist that doesn't understand what they're writing about, but give your primary

00:39:54.840 source.

00:39:55.200 And the one thing also that we're good at in True North is linking to the primary source.

00:39:58.560 Like we don't want to be information gatekeepers.

00:40:01.160 We want you to have access to the same thing we did.

00:40:03.880 A lot of media will reference something, but not actually direct you to the original.

00:40:09.200 They'll say, oh, in these documents we've obtained, but they don't show the documents.

00:40:12.520 Whereas we embed them because yeah, we want you to check our work that keeps us accountable.

00:40:16.580 So my favorite example on this is there's a claim that is recited ad nauseum by legacy

00:40:23.240 media.

00:40:23.560 And it's that there are 300 far right hate groups or white nationalist groups active in

00:40:29.700 Canada.

00:40:30.280 And they just state that as a fact.

00:40:32.380 Now, when we've dug into that, we know that it comes from a single professor at one university

00:40:38.140 who's done a quote-unquote.

00:40:39.880 Not even a particularly top-tier university.

00:40:42.420 It's like the Ontario Tech University.

00:40:44.260 And it's not a slight against them, but it's not Harvard or something.

00:40:47.780 I would, well, I'm not convinced that Harvard is wrong.

00:40:50.320 Fair enough.

00:40:51.500 It once was.

00:40:52.500 But it comes from this one person.

00:40:54.000 And this person, despite multiple requests, has never released their work.

00:40:57.420 They have never released the list.

00:40:59.140 They have never released the methodology on how this list was put together.

00:41:02.040 When we pushed on it, the university turned down our ATIPs, turned down our requests.

00:41:07.620 And yet, if you read any news story that the legacy media publishes about quote-unquote

00:41:13.460 hate groups, you will see that 300 hate group number quoted as if it is a stone-cold fact.

00:41:20.120 And the truth is, it's not.

00:41:21.820 As near as we can tell, it's something that one professor may or may not have just made

00:41:25.840 up one day because she absolutely refuses to publish anything about it that supports it.

00:41:31.160 Far from even putting out a list of them.

00:41:33.620 Oh, yeah.

00:41:33.900 For all we know, it's, you know, she was going by Facebook groups or something.

00:41:37.700 You know, there's a Facebook group that posted something she didn't like.

00:41:39.780 So, oh, let's put it up on the list of 300 anyway.

00:41:42.600 So, Barbara Perry, it's not too late to show your work.

00:41:45.360 We'll take it.

00:41:46.020 We'll take it.

00:41:46.560 We'll publish it in full.

00:41:47.720 You should be happy as a researcher drawing more attention to your work, unless that is

00:41:52.240 you don't stand behind it.

00:41:53.300 But anyway, that does it for us for today.

00:41:56.240 My thanks to Isaac Lamoureux and William Macbeth for coming on the show.

00:41:59.480 As always, and all of you for tuning in, we'll talk to you next week.

00:42:02.340 But have a great weekend, everyone.

00:42:11.420 And Cosman's been fighting over that Barbara Perry list for like two years now or something,

00:42:15.980 isn't it?

00:42:16.700 Yeah.

00:42:17.060 I think it's a personal sort of campaign for him now.

00:42:20.440 It should be.

00:42:21.040 Yeah.

00:42:21.180 It's like before the Ontario Privacy Commissioner now.

00:42:23.760 So, yeah.

00:42:24.580 When Cosman A-tipped it, the university came back and basically said, oh, it's research

00:42:29.620 in progress.

00:42:30.860 Therefore, we can't release it.

00:42:32.740 Except it's been research in progress for years and years.

00:42:36.700 And she's still releasing the claim, which suggests that that part's not in progress.

00:42:40.160 Absolutely.

00:42:40.880 She's still making this claim without a shred of evidence.

00:42:45.100 And as a result, you know, I think if you read any of those legacy media stories, they

00:42:50.300 provide none of that context.

00:42:51.440 None of them are saying, oh, and by the way, this is just this one person's thing from a

00:42:56.280 report she won't produce from a list she didn't cite, how she compiled.

00:43:00.000 Oh, and we can't see the list.

00:43:01.520 Like, you know, it's just infuriating for those of us who actually like to click on those

00:43:06.420 links and resource documents to try and figure out what the real story is.

Off the Record - July 12, 2024

An unhinged Elizabeth May

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