Off the Record - Trudeau gives MORE money to CBC

00:00:00.520 I feel like I'm outnumbered as a non-sports person.

00:00:03.760 Yes.

00:00:04.200 Well, when we get to that story in the show, Andrew, we'll just have you,

00:00:07.440 maybe we'll just have Sean kind of make it a two shot and you'll just slide

00:00:11.300 out of frame.

00:00:11.980 And then when it comes back to new, uh, I was outvoted.

00:00:14.960 This was supposed to be my show when we envisioned it.

00:00:17.040 And then I somehow got outvoted.

00:00:18.340 I, this became way too democratic for my liking.

00:00:20.860 No, again, you're not invited back.

00:00:22.740 It's the Gen Z sports.

00:00:23.900 Well, Andrew, there's some statistics in the story.

00:00:29.020 So maybe you'll be a good at that.

00:00:30.620 You can parse that out for us.

00:00:31.800 Oh, lovely.

00:00:32.680 You can go to me as like the sad, lonely stats guy in the corner.

00:00:36.000 Like, uh, you know, John King on CNN with his little, like, you know,

00:00:39.240 magic board or whatever.

00:00:40.460 All right.

00:00:41.120 All right.

00:00:42.120 Let's get this started.

00:00:51.420 Hello and welcome to off the record.

00:00:54.760 This is true North's Friday fun show.

00:00:57.420 We try to take a bit of a less serious look at the week that was, and we have a new face

00:01:03.880 on the show today.

00:01:05.320 We have, uh, my friend and colleague, Harrison Faulkner, host of ratioed and the Faulkner

00:01:10.280 show and joining us for the first time, Noah Jarvis, a true North journalist.

00:01:13.580 You also hear from time to time on daily brief that you don't see him there.

00:01:17.980 So, uh, you are seeing him in the flesh here.

00:01:20.200 Uh, Noah, welcome to off the record.

00:01:22.420 Good to have you on the board.

00:01:23.300 Well, it's a great pleasure to be here.

00:01:26.980 All right.

00:01:27.780 Well, there we go.

00:01:28.720 Uh, how are you guys weeks?

00:01:29.760 This was budget week.

00:01:30.860 I know very exciting, riveting stuff.

00:01:34.280 Well, it was about as much as I expected the budget to be.

00:01:37.740 And, uh, you know, like all I, all that I ended up hearing on Twitter and seeing on

00:01:42.200 Twitter were, you know, all this talk about the, uh, capital gains tax taxes rising.

00:01:47.720 And, uh, well, I don't know.

00:01:49.520 I'm not, not shocked at all to hear it.

00:01:51.600 One of our, or I can't remember what it was.

00:01:54.540 One of our colleagues, uh, who I won't, it wasn't one of the ones on the call.

00:01:57.760 So, I mean, we're a small enough team.

00:01:59.020 People could figure out was like, ah, the budget's boring.

00:02:01.140 No one cares about that.

00:02:01.900 I'm like, well, we're a news organization, so we have to care about it for the sake of,

00:02:05.060 uh, for the sake of one day.

00:02:07.000 But, uh, I think you're the young, well, you're certainly younger than me.

00:02:09.400 No, I like, I, I don't think budget was like the galvanizing issue among your circle

00:02:13.420 of friends probably, right?

00:02:14.980 No, my friend's circle from high school wasn't, you know, just, uh, grasping for the budget.

00:02:19.480 But I would say that, you know, at least in my circles, a lot, it got a lot more attention

00:02:23.100 than your, your average budget does.

00:02:24.760 And, uh, uh, people were just generally disappointed, you know, taxes going up, uh, more government

00:02:29.540 spending.

00:02:30.080 It's, uh, not a good look for the country.

00:02:32.560 Fair enough.

00:02:33.120 Well, the whole thing was 430 pages.

00:02:35.840 We are going to focus on one page only.

00:02:38.500 That's it.

00:02:38.960 What we're making, you care about one page here because it is a page that says the federal

00:02:44.760 government is going to give $42 million to CBC.

00:02:49.240 Now you may think, oh, well, 42 million, you know, CBC, they get 1.4 billion.

00:02:53.380 This sounds like an absolute steal.

00:02:54.980 We're, we're getting away.

00:02:56.240 No, no, no.

00:02:56.640 That's 42 million additional dollars, 42 million additional.

00:03:01.360 They're still getting their $1.4 billion subsidy.

00:03:04.140 They're still getting the rad revenue.

00:03:05.680 They're now getting an additional 42 million.

00:03:07.860 Now I'll read the why this is like a third of a page in the budget page, 236 under the

00:03:15.040 chapter of safer, healthier communities.

00:03:17.780 I don't know how this is contributing to a safer, healthier community, but nevertheless,

00:03:22.920 uh, investing in CBC is to give us, uh, Canadian, sure Canadians across the country, including

00:03:29.080 rural, remote, indigenous, and minority language communities have access to high quality, independent

00:03:35.080 journalism and entertainment.

00:03:36.760 Now, I think the real breaking news story here is that CBC is offering high quality

00:03:41.080 journalism and entertainment.

00:03:42.540 Is it not?

00:03:47.180 I guess, I guess not.

00:03:49.100 Hold on.

00:03:49.740 Yeah.

00:03:49.860 I'm trying to figure out.

00:03:50.940 I was setting one of you up for something there.

00:03:53.400 Yes.

00:03:53.820 No, I was waiting for Harrison to take a try.

00:03:55.660 I'm looking for CBC, you know, television shows.

00:03:58.760 Some of those really great shows, uh, that, that, you know, I, I think probably amount

00:04:04.080 to about $42 million.

00:04:05.840 I can't think of better ways to serve as rural Canadian communities in the French Canadian

00:04:10.040 communities by, you know, more shows like 22 minutes, more shows like Schitt's Creek.

00:04:14.580 Actually, no, that show was actually like maybe one of their better ones.

00:04:17.640 Uh, all the ones that they did.

00:04:19.000 They had that show Lido TV, if you recall, talking tomatoes, the one that lectured, yeah,

00:04:24.280 it was the tomato that lectured you about colonialism and feminism, wasn't it?

00:04:27.600 I love that.

00:04:28.060 I love that one.

00:04:29.060 It's the only one I know.

00:04:30.280 Send that to the rural communities, send that to the farther, the far North and give them 1.00

00:04:35.120 some more talking tomatoes.

00:04:36.400 42 million dollars.

00:04:37.500 That's probably enough for another season or two, Andrew.

00:04:39.860 So yeah, well, yeah, you can get like a full, uh, Jaws style animatronic tomato now instead

00:04:44.820 of, uh, you know, some weird crappy CGI thing.

00:04:47.780 You can, you can go the full one.

00:04:49.140 We'll do like Avatar three.

00:04:50.380 We'll just be like a big, uh, CGI tomato that, uh, James Cameron will consult on, on CBC

00:04:56.680 for.

00:04:57.160 So, uh, it's absurd.

00:04:59.500 And again, like they try to say that they're going to be the ones that stand up for these forgotten

00:05:04.660 pockets of Canada, the North indigenous communities, people that speak French.

00:05:08.660 So it's not even like no other really focusing on that underserved market that they claim

00:05:14.100 they are.

00:05:15.460 No, they're not focused on the underserved market.

00:05:17.700 It seems like half the time you flip on CBC, they're talking about the American election

00:05:21.940 or Donald Trump or whatever, you know, he said on Twitter, Trump social or truth social,

00:05:26.780 actually, uh, you know, so they're not focused on, you know, real Canadian stories.

00:05:31.900 Uh, and when they are focused on Canadian stories, it's, uh, stuff that the top 10% Laurentian

00:05:37.380 elite, uh, would care about, you know, talking about the, why drag queen story hours, uh, need

00:05:43.220 more attention and, you know, why, uh, this, uh, particular LGBTQ, uh, black woman is facing 0.89

00:05:48.980 intersectional discrimination or whatever, and how we can combat that, you know, uh, radio

00:05:53.700 Canada at least has a bit more sense.

00:05:55.780 They've been, they did an investigation going into, uh, what, uh, what happens when, uh,

00:06:00.960 people go through the gender transition process, but, you know, English CBC, they have no sort

00:06:05.500 of, uh, backbone to really, uh, talk about those types of stories.

00:06:09.660 So when, uh, politicians talk about, you know, defunding the CBC and, you know, maybe keeping

00:06:14.160 around radio Canada, I think, well, that might be for the better.

00:06:18.120 Yeah.

00:06:18.540 I did this bit a few weeks ago and I'm going to repeat the same bit where, uh, we were talking

00:06:23.020 with CBC on this show and I just went to the CBC first person page, which is this, uh,

00:06:28.020 particular series CBC does where they have like a first person essay about something.

00:06:32.500 And these are always like the most absurd, like wokey, weird things.

00:06:37.300 Uh, this is, I'm doing it again.

00:06:38.680 Here are some of the recent examples.

00:06:40.640 Follow the crowds, avoid the clouds.

00:06:42.800 I chase eclipses to witness nature's awesome glory.

00:06:46.720 This is a story from a CBC radio host who apparently just loves following eclipses.

00:06:52.160 Uh, here's one from April 6th.

00:06:54.720 Ramadan leaves me feeling hungry, tired, and a bit giddy.

00:06:59.000 It also makes me a better person.

00:07:01.680 Okay.

00:07:02.360 Good for you.

00:07:03.160 These were AI generated, Andrew?

00:07:04.480 I think it would also be.

00:07:05.100 No, no, no, you know, this isn't AI.

00:07:06.460 This is, uh, it could be AI generated.

00:07:08.560 This is like, see, I should actually get ChatGBT to like give me a CBC first person article,

00:07:14.020 but no, these are from the first person website.

00:07:17.140 Uh, what's another good one here?

00:07:18.360 Or, I solo hiked from Mexico to Canada for my inner journey.

00:07:23.280 Instead, I found myself looking outward.

00:07:26.220 I don't even know what that means.

00:07:28.020 Uh, farming in extreme heat showed me climate change is real.

00:07:31.960 Changing my lifestyle is harder.

00:07:35.320 So, $42 million.

00:07:37.460 I don't know how many more of these that buys us, but probably too many.

00:07:41.100 Well, uh, just checked as well.

00:07:43.380 You remember, uh, the CBC executives got $14.9 million in bonuses paid out at last year.

00:07:49.720 So, if this is any indication, perhaps bonuses are going to go up for the CBC executives.

00:07:53.940 They've already recovered all that, uh, all that pay for their bonuses.

00:07:57.440 Now, I, I forgot to mention a few other shows here, which I think, you know, this, this, uh,

00:08:02.060 this money can go towards perhaps a new season for, uh, what's it called Murdoch Mysteries.

00:08:08.820 I've heard that Andrew loves that show.

00:08:11.120 Um, how about Baroness 1's sketch show?

00:08:14.800 Five seasons.

00:08:15.500 You can bring that one back.

00:08:16.680 It looks like it just, I just, recently, they did one, they did one really good one, though.

00:08:22.000 Do they?

00:08:22.840 They did.

00:08:23.360 I, I don't know if we can play it, but they did a really good sketch, a really good,

00:08:27.200 like, bit, uh, a couple of years back on land acknowledgements that I actually thought

00:08:30.740 was quite, was quite funny.

00:08:31.960 But, again, like, even a blind pig finds a truffle once in a while.

00:08:35.320 A broken clock is right twice a day.

00:08:36.720 So, it doesn't undermine the core thesis there.

00:08:40.740 I, yeah, I, I try to remember the last one I watched.

00:08:43.060 Again, like, Schitt's Creek is good, but I'm also convinced that Schitt's Creek would

00:08:47.360 have been produced and funded by a private, uh, media company if CBC weren't there.

00:08:52.940 And how many, like, bad ones do you have to suffer to get that?

00:08:56.580 How about Anne Within Heat? 0.89

00:08:58.860 How about which?

00:09:00.180 Anne Within Heat. 0.58

00:09:01.140 Oh, that's, like, the weird Anne of it.

00:09:04.380 Didn't they cancel that one?

00:09:06.200 I think so.

00:09:06.900 Well, they had, they had three seasons, it looks like, starting in 2017.

00:09:10.020 So, again, you know, you can bring it back.

00:09:12.620 Yeah.

00:09:13.300 I, I went to elementary school with the star of Heartland.

00:09:15.720 I mean, so I was happy for her, but, uh, it would probably pain me to know how much,

00:09:19.500 uh, in, you know, and it's, but by the way, it's on both ends.

00:09:21.780 Because CBC gets funding for this, but all of these, like, Canadian productions are also

00:09:26.060 getting, like, huge, uh, tax credits from the government anyway.

00:09:29.240 So, we're, we're getting hosed left, right, and center.

00:09:31.040 And this is just the entertainment stuff.

00:09:32.860 We also have the, the money-losing news division.

00:09:35.060 So, I, I know I, I, I'm using you as, like, the token youngin here, Noah.

00:09:38.720 But, again, like, is CBC at all culturally relevant to anyone in your life?

00:09:44.440 No, the litany of shows you guys just listed off, they're pretty much all foreign to me.

00:09:48.060 And I would assume that, uh, they're even less familiar to my friend group.

00:09:52.080 And I just say, like, you know, people at my age, you know, they're on TikTok, you know,

00:09:55.960 they get their, you know, long-form video content from YouTube, you know,

00:09:59.420 they're less, uh, watching, you know, traditional TV shows and, uh, that sort of deal.

00:10:03.800 So, the CBC has, is just becoming a more and more obsolete institution, uh, as, you know,

00:10:08.220 time goes on, uh, and it's especially, you know, obsolete for my generation who, you know,

00:10:13.880 isn't particularly engaged in politics, you know, they're not necessarily reading the

00:10:17.020 news like you and I. Um, but, you know, if they do choose to read the news, it's on

00:10:21.740 Six Buzz or, you know, some of these, uh, social media accounts, not, uh, necessarily

00:10:25.920 the CBC. So, you know, the CBC's audience is getting older and older, and perhaps that

00:10:30.640 means, uh, political will to get rid of the institution will get, uh, better as, uh, time

00:10:35.080 goes on.

00:10:36.000 Come on, no one's, no one's watching Family Feud Canada?

00:10:39.100 Canada? Or they're just going to use the, uh, the $42 million to get, like, Peter Mansbridge

00:10:44.120 TikToks or something, which is, uh, just what, just what Canada needs. Uh, oh, man. Okay.

00:10:49.540 You know, if the CBC, they wanted to, no, I was going to say, if the CBC, they wanted to,

00:10:54.260 uh, you know, produce a show that Canadians would watch, they should make, you know, a spinoff

00:10:58.600 of Breaking Bad, but instead of Albuquerque, it's in Vancouver, you know, it's kind of like

00:11:02.680 what's going on right now. It's, uh, you can even say it was based on a true story.

00:11:05.940 If they made a spinoff, it would involve some, you know, paraplegic, and I would take all 1.00

00:11:11.520 the different diversity boxes. You're like, Breaking Bad, but it would be like, uh, some 0.95

00:11:16.220 sort of, uh, blind, uh, diverse, uh, paraplegic involved in the, in the drug trade, I think.

00:11:23.600 Yeah, just be like, I believe that's actually a documentary in Vancouver. It's not even a

00:11:27.820 fictional programming. Uh, all right. Uh, there's no natural segue from that to our, our next

00:11:34.760 topic. This was one, uh, well, we talked about it earlier on, uh, my show this week,

00:11:38.780 uh, but you, you flagged it here, Noah, and it seemed to be actually getting some steam

00:11:42.040 online, this business with Rito all last week.

00:11:45.400 Yeah. So, uh, basically what happened was, uh, the governor general, she hosted a big ball.

00:11:50.260 I call it the online harms ball, uh, where she basically invited a ball. It was this, it

00:11:55.380 was a symposium. It was a symposium. Makes it sound nicer. Uh, but basically they invited

00:12:00.920 a bunch of pro, uh, you know, censorship, pro online harms, legislation people, uh, to

00:12:05.660 the governor general's mansion. Uh, you know, the justification for this is that the governor

00:12:10.660 general can promote, uh, certain causes that, uh, he or she wants to promote, but, uh, this

00:12:15.320 is a partisan issue. Uh, it is very contentious legislation that was just, uh, tabled by a very

00:12:20.420 unpopular Trudeau government. And, uh, I believe polls would also show that this, uh, legislation

00:12:25.320 is quite, uh, divisive, uh, amongst the Canadian people. So she invited, uh, a governor or not

00:12:30.660 the governor general, the attorney general, uh, Arif Verrani to the mansion. She invited

00:12:34.700 the likes of Billy Capital Mirth, uh, the notorious Ottawa, uh, school board trustee. She also invited,

00:12:40.720 uh, Rachel Gilmore, the greatest, the best and brightest in Canadian journalism. Uh, and

00:12:46.020 she invited a bunch of other just pro censorship, pro online harms, uh, people to this, uh, to the 0.65

00:12:51.420 governor general's mansion, which compromises the integrity, uh, of the governor general's

00:12:56.360 office and the impartiality, uh, that that office is supposed to hold, uh, hold. I didn't

00:13:00.540 know that this was the 1840s where the governor general is, you know, actively involved in

00:13:04.700 politics and, you know, the day-to-day workings of a Canadian society. But it seems like we

00:13:09.220 are regressing quite a bit under the Trudeau government. Uh, how'd you guys feel about this

00:13:13.260 story?

00:13:14.980 Go ahead. We have to be very careful when we're talking about these, uh, these journalists and

00:13:19.620 these activists who are at the, uh, at this governor general's event, we know they're very

00:13:23.940 sensitive. So any mention of their names whatsoever might trigger a, uh, some sort of, uh, awful

00:13:30.280 response and they might get very scared. I mean, I'm not really that surprised to see it. I think

00:13:35.620 that everybody knows the liberals seem to not have as much respect for these institutions, um, that you

00:13:43.140 would see perhaps in the previous conservative government and view it more as some sort of vessel

00:13:47.900 for, you know, vessel to advance their political interests. So to see, uh, the governor general,

00:13:52.600 Mary Simon, get involved in essentially promoting a piece of legislation, which, uh, is, is roundly 0.88

00:13:58.480 thought of in this country as being a dangerous piece of legislation. In fact, the people who are

00:14:02.960 now supposed to, uh, you know, execute the legislation to think of a, you know, not, not to

00:14:08.640 have the best word for it, but that's really what it is. Uh, the human rights tribunal, I've spoken

00:14:12.960 to a member, a former, uh, commissioner of the human rights tribunal who said that this,

00:14:17.800 this legislation was dangerous. Um, so again, I'm not that surprised to see, uh, Mary Simon

00:14:22.840 get involved in this way, but I would appreciate it if the, the federal government took the role

00:14:28.480 of the government general more serious and put someone in there who respected the institution

00:14:33.080 as much as it deserves to be respected. Yeah. I think you're by far like the most, uh, you've

00:14:39.180 got like the hair trigger sensitivity to attacks on the monarchy Harrison. I think as far as

00:14:43.000 our team is concerned, you're like the, the most, uh, stalwart defender of it. I'm kind

00:14:47.740 of of the mind that like, it was better when Britain sent us a governor general, because

00:14:52.360 at least they were the crown's representative in Canada truly, instead of this like Canadian

00:14:57.660 who's been picked for all of these political reasons and really isn't interested in holding

00:15:03.760 the responsibility. I mean, you look at Mary Simon, uh, she is, uh, clearly taking a political

00:15:10.180 role when she's wading into this. Her predecessor had zero interest in, in all of the responsibilities

00:15:15.720 of the governor general, Julie Payette. And you go before that, David Johnston. I mean, here's a guy,

00:15:20.260 he had a relatively uncontroversial team as governor general, but just completely became a partisan

00:15:26.400 political sellout afterwards. So we've not exactly had a good run lately in this role. So I'm not all

00:15:33.100 that surprised, but, but it actually, it undermines the institution itself. Right. I'm of the belief

00:15:38.980 that they should just put a member of the Royal family into the position and call it a day.

00:15:43.160 No, we'd get Megan Markle then. Yeah. No, no. That would be our punishment. 0.72

00:15:47.360 No, I'm thinking, I'm thinking the Duke of Edinburgh. I think Prince Edward would do a great

00:15:50.980 job as governor general. And, uh, I think if, you know, give it a shot, Pierre, if you get the job,

00:15:56.240 give it a shot. Trust me. I think it might be good. Well, I think you bring up a good point,

00:16:01.420 Harrison, where like the current system we have right now is like this weird halfway house between

00:16:05.300 the old system where the British would appoint our governor general and, you know, other democracies

00:16:10.500 where, you know, they have a figurehead president that is elected, uh, but they don't do anything.

00:16:14.560 You know, it's really just the prime minister, uh, that, you know, is the head of government. So

00:16:18.620 I think that, yeah, there could be, you know, some, something to glean from this story that,

00:16:23.520 uh, perhaps we just have this weird role for the governor general, uh, and it should,

00:16:27.620 and it ought to be reformed. But, uh, it seems like Mary Simon, our current governor

00:16:31.120 general, uh, likes to, you know, spend lavishly and, you know, get involved in political affairs.

00:16:36.000 And she doesn't particularly take the job seriously. It really calls into question the

00:16:40.380 type of people that the Trudeau government is appointing to be governor generals. Uh,

00:16:44.400 we had Julie Payette who, uh, had to resign in shame because, uh, she was, you know, harassing 0.98

00:16:49.520 her staff and, uh, overspending. And it seems like, uh, we got someone who, uh, wants to get

00:16:54.160 involved in political affairs and eat caviar on the, uh, jet, uh, Canadian jet or whatever.

00:16:59.700 Oh, I forgot about that story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like let, you know, we can, there are

00:17:04.900 jokes that we can make about it, but also the role is very serious because we could get it.

00:17:09.400 We can find ourselves in a situation where an election results in a very close, uh, in a very

00:17:14.660 close, uh, you know, makeup of parliament and a minority government situation will perhaps

00:17:20.860 result in, in the governor general having a major decision on their hands. Uh, we've seen

00:17:25.220 this happen before in our country and it's not like it can't happen again. It's an, it's a

00:17:28.520 serious role and you really want to have someone who is guaranteed to be impartial. I think we've

00:17:33.360 kind of gone further away from that. David Johnson has shown himself, uh, in his post governor

00:17:37.900 general life to not be that, not be that case and not be that way in the ski buddy of Trudeau's

00:17:43.120 and is a part of the Trudeau foundation. But I don't think many people thought of David

00:17:46.800 Johnston as a, as a particularly partisan governor general when he was in the role. And I think that's

00:17:51.520 important to remember. We, you want to have faith in this institution because there are times

00:17:56.340 when it can become very consequential and the governor general can decide whether or not to,

00:18:01.720 uh, dissolve parliament can decide whether or not to force an election. Uh, there, there are times

00:18:07.440 when this becomes really important. And so I think it's time that this institution is taken more

00:18:11.200 seriously. Yeah, I would agree. I would agree. Go, sorry. Go ahead, Noah. No, I was going to say

00:18:17.580 you're right because when you have an incompetent, a competent governor general, things could go awry.

00:18:21.560 If you guys recall, I don't know if you're, uh, still alive in the 1920s, Andrew, but, uh, you

00:18:27.180 know, back then, uh, there's this thing called the King. When did I become the old one? I remember

00:18:31.180 when I was always the young one, by the way. And then there was a flip that switched that flipped

00:18:35.240 and I became the old one, but no, assume that I wasn't Noah. Well, uh, but back in the 1920s,

00:18:42.200 uh, there was an affair where the prime minister, William Lyon, Mackenzie King, uh, he asked the

00:18:46.980 governor general to, uh, dissolve parliament and to call for an election. Uh, however, the governor

00:18:51.960 general, he, uh, did not, uh, he appointed, uh, the opposition leader who was, uh, I believe, uh,

00:18:57.720 it was a conservative. Um, and then, uh, he basically could not manage parliament. Uh, the,

00:19:03.620 the government, um, was dissolved and an election was called William Lyon, William Lyon, Mackenzie

00:19:08.880 King won a majority. So you can see like the sort of political crisis that can happen where

00:19:12.960 you have a poor governor general. And also, uh, maybe this would happen, this happened in your

00:19:17.440 lifetime, Andrew, but in 2008, uh, when prime minister Harper asked the governor general to

00:19:23.120 dissolve parliament, call for an election, uh, it took her hours just to even take the meeting,

00:19:27.520 uh, with Harper. She left Harper out in the hallway for hours on end, uh, consulting with her advisors,

00:19:32.520 trying to perhaps maybe even undermine the prime minister. Um, so it, you know, it really is

00:19:37.800 important that job. And, uh, it is something that our current governor general, Mary Simon doesn't

00:19:42.280 take too seriously. All right, quick, Noah, since you brought it up, you have to give me the

00:19:45.880 governor general's name in the William Lyon, Mackenzie King debacle. Uh, it was Lord Bing or

00:19:53.040 something. I don't know. Yes, there you go. The King Bing affair. You win the, uh, Canadian history

00:19:57.700 quiz today. The prize is, uh, well, it's nothing, but well done. Uh, all right. Uh, Harrison, what do

00:20:03.620 you have? All right. Well, now that we got that history lesson out of the way, let's jump back to,

00:20:07.860 uh, current times here, folks. Well, this is very interesting and hardly surprising. I'm afraid

00:20:12.980 to say it turns out that in the military, uh, just a few weeks ago, actually a, uh, the first

00:20:19.840 transgender chaplain was being celebrated and honored by the Canadian military during transgender day of

00:20:26.380 visibility. Uh, what is this guy's name here? Beatrice Gale. Just a few weeks ago, she was all,

00:20:33.540 she, she was all over Twitter celebrated as this great, you know, uh, you know, visionary figure in

00:20:40.580 the military. Well, look at this story we've just published as an exclusive in true North.

00:20:45.560 This person has just been suspended over an alleged sexual groping comment.

00:20:51.800 Here are some of the details from the DND. This incident stems from an inappropriate comment to

00:20:58.480 request to another individual. Either member was in a position with pretty or the other. 0.87

00:21:03.540 Gale received a relatively minor service infraction on April 3rd. Uh, Gale was also found to have

00:21:09.260 violated the Queen's regulations and orders, which govern military conduct and affairs.

00:21:13.680 The reason the story is interesting, however, is because there seems to be two standards in the

00:21:17.800 military when it comes to these incidents. As you all will well be aware, the military has gone through

00:21:23.220 several high profile sexual misconduct allegation stories involving some very senior

00:21:29.100 officers in the military, all the way up to the role of, uh, chief of the defense staff. Uh, there was

00:21:35.240 one, uh, uh, uh, first of all, Trunorth reached out to Gale for comment, didn't get a response.

00:21:40.920 And when Trunorth reached out to a military lawyer who represents other, uh, members who have been in,

00:21:46.700 who are being accused of, uh, of all number of things, uh, this lawyer pointed out this double

00:21:53.740 standard here. He says, if a male officer behaved in a similar manner toward the subordinate female,

00:21:59.480 the situation will be dealt with differently. And the offender's name will be leaked to the press.

00:22:03.340 Unfortunately, there's a lack of equality in how the Canadian armed forces handle such allegations.

00:22:08.720 What do you guys think of this story? I just find it to be one of those,

00:22:11.920 one of those classic Canadian armed forces, 2024 stories.

00:22:16.040 Yeah. So I think there are a couple of problems here. I mean, look, anyone is, anyone is, has it

00:22:24.100 in them to commit an act of wrong in the military, transgender or otherwise they have disciplinary 0.93

00:22:29.660 systems in place to deal with those. I think the fact that this person was a chaplain makes it

00:22:35.220 particularly more egregious because a chaplain is someone who's there to deal with people in terms

00:22:40.260 of their spiritual health and wellness and wellbeing. I mean, it puts them, uh, look, working with people

00:22:45.700 who are in a very vulnerable place. I think the problem you have here is when the military bends

00:22:51.320 over backwards to look woke and progressive. And you know that that tends to come at a cost. I mean,

00:22:58.580 Noah, you and I have talked about this in other contexts where DEI policies are advanced and everyone

00:23:04.020 says it's not anti-merit, but a lot of the times it is because people prioritize this one thing over

00:23:10.040 the other. So when you have the military saying, oh, this is our, our hero of, of inclusivity or hero of

00:23:15.520 this, then they turn around and okay, well, this is a person who is, uh, by the military's own

00:23:19.800 processes, uh, committing, uh, an infraction of service, which again, from, uh, Cosman's reporting,

00:23:25.020 it, it, uh, sounds like it was a request to grope side. I mean, look, maybe great that they're

00:23:31.260 requesting instead of just doing, but like at the end of the day, there's a, an inappropriateness

00:23:35.540 here from a chaplain. And again, how does this still get treated as though someone is being this

00:23:43.480 icon of inclusivity? And you see this in the U S there's that Admiral Levine that is trotted out

00:23:49.040 there. And I think that the military has to start focusing on being a good, respectable military and

00:23:54.580 not being the most inclusive, diverse, uh, woke armed forces in the world. And, you know, it really

00:23:59.900 undermines the cohesiveness of the military. I mean, the military has already been going, uh, through

00:24:04.940 some problems when it comes to military cohesion. Um, we have, you know, uh, people or we have the,

00:24:11.060 the military, the government imposing, uh, the military to put, you know, tampons in the mail

00:24:16.240 bathroom. Uh, we have, you know, drag queen, uh, story hour or, or drag queen shows happening on

00:24:21.700 military bases and just, you know, poor recruitment numbers. Uh, you know, it just all points to, uh,

00:24:27.440 you know, discohesion, uh, within the military. And, uh, this sorts of sort of thing doesn't help.

00:24:32.500 There's a couple more important details about this story that I want to address because

00:24:36.020 it goes, it kind of goes more into detail of this double standard here when it comes to

00:24:41.240 prosecuting these cases. So, uh, Cosman tried to get some more details here from the, uh,

00:24:46.600 from the Canadian armed forces. And basically this is, this is how it, this is how it went.

00:24:52.020 The liberals introduced a bill to strip the military of its ability to investigate and prosecute

00:24:57.380 sexual offenses within the military. That means it has to go to a, an actual court outside of the

00:25:02.380 military court. This allegation, however, is being prosecuted inside the military.

00:25:07.360 The CAF has decided to withhold the records of Gale's summary hearing, citing privacy grounds.

00:25:13.280 However, according to military rules, a summary hearing is to be held in public,

00:25:17.460 except if the conducting officer believes information affecting a person's privacy or security

00:25:22.080 interest, or if that interest outweighs the public's interest in the information would be

00:25:26.020 disclosed. So you see, right? There are, there, there's two things happening,

00:25:30.420 which are not happening. They're not releasing the public, uh, some hearing of what happened to

00:25:36.060 this, this individual and what this individual allegedly did. And they're prosecuting it within

00:25:40.880 the military. I think, I think the point should be made that this would not be the case had it been

00:25:45.520 anybody else. Had it been a member who basically fits into the rank and file troops, they would not

00:25:51.920 be given the same treatment. I just find it ironic that a week before this story comes out, or maybe a few

00:25:57.680 weeks before the story comes out, they were trotting out this transgender chaplain as a symbol of what

00:26:03.360 the military can be and how great the military is. Yeah, no, very, very, uh, good point on that.

00:26:10.180 Uh, you guys sent me something about, uh, a basketball, which I had trouble following, so I just didn't

00:26:15.640 bother with it, but whoever wants to talk about that, go ahead. So here we go. This is the part where,

00:26:20.500 uh, where the, the gen, uh, the gen Zed take or begins, I guess, on the sports commentary.

00:26:26.120 Now, here's the thing about this story, right? Sports gambling is in the news. Everybody sees it.

00:26:30.500 They see way too many ads for it. And this is always going to, this is always bound to happen.

00:26:34.320 There was always going to be an athlete that was going to get caught up in this mess. And it just

00:26:38.160 so happened to be a relatively unknown Toronto Raptors player to be the first big name, I think,

00:26:43.140 to fall, uh, under what I think is going to be several eventually. Now this guy, John Tate Porter,

00:26:48.980 you probably don't know about him because not many people did know about this guy. He was basically

00:26:53.480 unknown. Now he was on, um, these, these, this information is important. This guy was on about

00:26:58.500 420, $440,000 a year. That's a lot, of course, but compared to basketball standards, that's at the

00:27:05.860 bottom of the league, essentially. This guy has just been banned for life from the NBA for essentially

00:27:13.040 betting against himself involved in some sort of group where other people were also involved in

00:27:18.820 betting against himself and producing those kinds of performances on the court, essentially facing

00:27:24.720 his own performances to make sure people, people could cash out in the millions. So for my research

00:27:29.980 here, Noah, basically what happened was one of these sports books noticed that the biggest winner on two

00:27:36.840 separate occasions was the Dante Porter under figures. People were betting under this guy's,

00:27:42.980 you know, rebounds points. People were betting underneath what, what the, um, what was going

00:27:47.420 to be expected. And then they were the biggest winners of the night. Millions of dollars on this

00:27:51.920 one random player that nobody heard of. People were, were cashing out big time on this. I mean,

00:27:56.700 clearly that's a red flag. Why, how did they think they could get away with this nonsense?

00:28:00.520 You know, as a Raptors fan, the, the, this really strikes deep at my core. It's a shame that this

00:28:06.420 happened to, you know, one of our players. Uh, and it's not like this guy had been around for a very

00:28:11.420 long, but, uh, I think it's a, it's a good thing that the, you know, the NBA, they're cracking down

00:28:15.800 hard on this. They gave him a lifetime ban to sort of disinvent us and disincentivize other people

00:28:20.480 from doing this. But, um, yeah, like if this happened to like, you know, an all-star level player,

00:28:24.860 you know, this would be a really, uh, terrible thing for the league. Um, and it would just,

00:28:29.720 you know, put the, uh, the league in a, uh, sort of situation where, uh, they have to either,

00:28:34.600 you know, ban the guy and perhaps, you know, sacrifice profit, uh, or they would keep him

00:28:39.040 around and sacrifice their integrity. Uh, but you know, the fact that this happened to a player on

00:28:43.480 the Raptors is terrible. Uh, I don't know if you guys have been watching the Raptors, uh, this season

00:28:47.660 it's, it's over now, thank God. Uh, but the, you know, the Raptors, they brought in like a bunch of

00:28:52.560 random players that you've never heard of, uh, you know, this guy named Freeman Liberty. Uh,

00:28:57.260 that's his last name. It's a pretty redundant. I like it. I like him. That's the guy. Sounds

00:29:01.220 great. Yeah. Free Liberty. That's I can get behind that. I care about true North to gift

00:29:07.800 Andrew a Raptors, Freeman Liberty Jersey, and you can hang it up in the back. I'd have a bit of color

00:29:12.760 behind your shot there, Andrew. And his middle name is, uh, I don't know if I find a good middle

00:29:18.660 injustice, you know, free man, justice, Liberty or something. Yeah. But when you, when you drink

00:29:24.720 my, my one question on this, aren't these guys paid enough that the payoff of this is relatively

00:29:31.000 low that you make more money by being good than by, you know, being bad or am I just way off?

00:29:36.520 Here's what I found out about this. I didn't know about this, but this guy,

00:29:40.160 this guy was making like basically league minimum. And again, you're making $400,000. You're, you're,

00:29:45.560 you're, you're doing well. You shouldn't be involved in a major multimillion dollar gambling

00:29:49.020 scandal, but this guy's brother was guaranteed over a hundred million dollars. So maybe there's

00:29:54.980 a little bit of a jealousy. Maybe there's a little bit of a nothing to lose. Cause this

00:29:59.160 guy's on the league minimum. And you know, he probably only has three years left in the

00:30:03.220 NBA and his career. So somebody went to this guy probably and said, listen, we're going

00:30:08.620 to, we're going to find a way to make you super rich. We're going to give you a bunch

00:30:11.880 of money. You, if you throw your performances, you don't get like four rebounds in this game,

00:30:17.020 then, then we'll set you up. We'll set you up for life and no one will notice, but they're

00:30:22.040 so stupid. They need it. They need it twice. Obviously they were going to get caught. They 1.00

00:30:25.720 probably could have got away with it if they weren't so, if they weren't so greedy about 0.92

00:30:28.760 it all, but I don't know. It sounds ridiculous. So he didn't, he didn't get, uh, he didn't get 0.98

00:30:34.300 as many field goals as he was supposed to. No, no, no. Look, there are videos of it.

00:30:39.260 There's a video of this guy shooting the three pointer and like egging it off the backboard

00:30:44.320 and he's not happy at all. He's like gutted. He's disappointed about shooting. Yeah. It

00:30:48.200 went in and he was, he was mad. It was ridiculous. Like he obviously tried to miss by like throwing 0.97

00:30:53.500 it off the backboard, but it just like went back in. He was like, Oh no, you gotta be a 0.99

00:30:56.920 better actor. Now I hit that over. Yeah. All right. You guys have had your fun. You got

00:31:02.360 your sports story out of your system. Uh, I dropped something mysteriously that I hope

00:31:08.520 wasn't a breakable anyway. Uh, all right, let's go to this. This is a fun one to let

00:31:13.400 it. I mean, it's, it's a sad one, but it's a fun one. And as someone who had a, a grandmother

00:31:18.680 with a great sense of humor, who's now passed away. Sadly, I feel this lady has a bit of a

00:31:24.300 sense of humor as well. This one video went viral of a dying woman finding the silver lining 0.63

00:31:31.520 in her upcoming fate. Well, folks, the doctors told me that I'm on my way out, meaning I'm

00:31:44.480 dying. And you know what? I'm so damn happy that I'll finally get just and true out of my

00:31:53.740 life.

00:31:54.260 I don't even know that woman's name. Her granddaughter posted the video on Tik TOK.

00:32:01.980 The granddaughter's username is fury at the wall on Tik TOK. And then I, I, I don't use

00:32:08.140 Tik TOK on account of, you know, like the Chinese stuff, but I like the, the Chinese government's

00:32:12.680 oversight of it. But, uh, every now and then I'll see a video and I don't log in or anything.

00:32:16.700 Uh, but I, I went to this person's Tik TOK and they had posted another video from this woman 0.89

00:32:22.020 in which she also had some, uh, well, why don't I just, you know, let granny describe

00:32:27.280 it.

00:32:30.160 That's what Justin Trudeau does to me, how he affects me. He gives me the, the word starts

00:32:42.700 with S and ends with T. What would that be?

00:32:47.800 What? I don't know.

00:32:49.740 The shits. 1.00

00:32:50.500 He gives you the shits. 1.00

00:32:54.200 Cause he's full of shits. 1.00

00:32:56.760 Yeah. 1.00

00:32:57.920 Is he full of crap? 1.00

00:33:00.420 You should go to the hospital and have a, a gallon of shits proof stuff stuck up his butt. 1.00

00:33:12.040 Yeah. 1.00

00:33:12.840 And maybe it'll finally make sense.

00:33:16.840 By the way, really convincing censoring job there, Sean. I had no idea what word was being

00:33:25.440 uttered there at all. It's like, you take out like a fraction of a fraction of a fraction

00:33:29.680 of a syllable. But, uh, uh, anyway, we got to keep our, uh, clean tag on Apple podcast.

00:33:34.300 Uh, granny for prime minister, right? This is not the video you want to become, you want 0.97

00:33:39.300 to have when you're a prime minister. I'm afraid it's the kind of thing you really want to be

00:33:42.400 able to avoid having, you know, dying old ladies wishing that just being thanked. You are the

00:33:47.940 reason I'm not sad that I'm dying. Cause I won't have to deal with you anymore. That was her

00:33:52.600 message. Oh, just horrendous for, uh, uh, but also my, that at this one is with us and that she can 0.92

00:34:04.880 last Dustin Trudeau's time as prime minister. I want her to see a light before it, before she

00:34:11.680 leaves this, uh, leaves this earth, leaves this country. It would be a nice thing for her. I have

00:34:16.180 to imagine it may be a while, but maybe if a liberal, uh, senior liberal cabinet minister is

00:34:21.020 watching and is motivated by this to see, to, to give her one last look at the light of Canada

00:34:26.940 without Justin Trudeau before she passes, hopefully she's still with us and hopefully she can outlast

00:34:31.780 Trudeau. Yeah. What do you think? Do you buy granny's story there that Justin Trudeau gives her the

00:34:37.300 bleeps? Uh, yeah, I mean, I mean, she, he gives me the bleep, so, you know, I kind of, you know,

00:34:43.140 feel that her pain, uh, but you know, kudos to this lady, uh, that, you know, she's able to turn 1.00

00:34:49.640 lemon to lemonade because, uh, you know, she's, you know, on her deathbed, she could be all depressed 0.79

00:34:54.680 about it. Like, Oh, you know, I'll have these regrets or whatever. Uh, but you know, she's like,

00:34:58.000 you know, there's a positive to this. I don't have to deal with Justin Trudeau's bleeps anymore.

00:35:02.220 Right. So it's, uh, kudos to her, you know, she, she can demonstrate how to, you know, 0.82

00:35:08.300 be positive about life. You could take a good message out of this, you know, it doesn't have

00:35:11.380 to be, you know, all depressing all the time. Right. You're, you're a regular Tony Robbins

00:35:16.140 there, Noah, with your, uh, your insights on, on the world and the human spirit. I like it. It's all

00:35:21.300 positive. It's all, no worries. Hakuna Matata. Right. All right. Well, uh, if you are, if you are

00:35:29.260 listening, we stand with you, Harrison's hoping you can hold out until, uh, 2024, but you know

00:35:34.020 what? I, I good to have a sense of humor about the world. If you're not, uh, if you're not laughing,

00:35:38.040 you're crying. And there's been plenty of reason to do that as well. All right. Uh, that does it

00:35:41.700 for us for today. My thanks to Harrison and Noah for coming on and remember everything you've heard

00:35:47.180 is off the record.

00:35:48.520 Okay. I really want to try to get this grandma on my show. I don't know if it's possible. I'm

00:36:00.380 going to try it. Can you message people on Tik TOK? Do either of you guys know? I have no idea,

00:36:05.840 but I think, yeah, I don't know. I feel like Noah has a Tik TOK account, so we should ask,

00:36:12.540 we should like ask Noah to go and figure that out. You have Tik TOK? Oh gosh. Even though I'm the young

00:36:17.540 one, I, I, I stay away from Tik TOK for the same reasons as Andrew. And also like Tik TOK is 0.64

00:36:21.800 terrible for your health. It cooks your brain. It's, it's not good. You know, don't recommend

00:36:25.860 it whatsoever. Keep your kids off Tik TOK people. 1.00

00:36:28.140 She, so she just like posted like seven minutes ago, another video, uh, saying her grandma worked

00:36:35.020 in parliament when Pierre Trudeau was in office. Um, and there's like a, she has like a montage

00:36:40.340 of, uh, but still doesn't say the name of the person. Uh, was it a Robert Sanfield, uh, supporter?

00:36:47.540 Bob Sanfield. Oh, you're, you're, you're rocking the Canadian history, uh, today, Noah.

00:36:52.460 I'm a Canadian history, uh, uh, par excellence, you know?

00:36:58.440 I don't know. I think your, uh, your second official language needs a little work there.

00:37:03.160 Oh, Andrew, insult me.

00:37:05.800 My long deuxième n'est pas très très mal.

00:37:10.360 Okay, c'est d'accord.

00:37:11.640 Yeah, no, Noah Chrétien over there.

00:37:13.740 See you guys. I'm out of this French conversation.

00:37:15.660 See you guys.

00:37:27.660 Bye.

00:37:28.080 Bye.

00:37:28.880 Bye.

00:37:29.040 Bye.

00:37:29.820 Bye.

00:37:34.200 Bye.

00:37:34.500 Bye.

00:37:34.620 Bye.

00:37:35.940 Bye.

00:37:36.680 Bye.

00:37:37.580 Bye.

00:37:38.900 Bye.

00:37:40.120 Bye.

00:37:40.660 Bye.

00:37:41.500 Bye.

00:37:41.640 Bye.

00:37:42.600 Bye.

00:37:43.080 Bye.

Off the Record - April 19, 2024

Trudeau gives MORE money to CBC

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript