Rebel News Podcast - DAVID MENZIES ｜ Young professionals are at their 'breaking point' — but what's the root of the problem？

00:00:00.000 Tonight, a new study suggests that many young Canadian professionals are at a mental health

00:00:22.240 breaking point. I have some thoughts on what the root causes might be. It's Friday, June 2nd,

00:00:31.720 2023. I'm David Menzies, and this is The Ezra Levent Show.

00:00:39.500 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:00:42.880 According to a new study, many young Canadian professionals are at a mental health breaking 0.97

00:00:57.280 point. But the question arises, why is that? What are the true root causes? By way of background,

00:01:05.960 it was a few days ago I came across a CTV report regarding mental health in the workplace. And,

00:01:12.020 you know, I wasn't all that surprised CTV was reporting on this, given that CTV's corporate

00:01:16.980 parent is Bell Media. Every February, Bell launches a virtue signaling initiative called Let's Talk,

00:01:24.540 described as, quote, an effort to raise awareness and combat stigma surrounding mental illness in

00:01:31.180 Canada, end quote. Yeah, just as CIBC has hitched its social marketing wagon to fighting breast cancer,

00:01:38.760 Bell is very bullish on mental health. Except that I just don't buy what Bell is selling. I mean,

00:01:46.760 is this telecom titan truly concerned about mental health issues? If so, why did Bell mentally torture

00:01:55.080 its employees during the COVID years by forcing them to get vaxxed? Yeah, even those employees working

00:02:01.900 remotely from home who never came into contact with clients. Gee, maybe Ma Bell believes COVID-19 is

00:02:09.800 transmissible via the telephone. But seriously, Bell caused so many employees to experience all kinds of

00:02:18.200 mental anguish. Get the jab or lose your job. And by the way, there'd be no let's talk regarding that

00:02:26.580 draconian demand. Shameful. Anyway, CTV, aka Bell's television puppet, goes on to chronicle the

00:02:34.880 following, quote, a recent report published by the Boston Consulting Group found that 5 million young

00:02:41.540 professionals in Canada are in need of mental health support, advising businesses and organizations

00:02:48.260 to invest more into employee well-being. There's still a lot of stigma in discussing mental health.

00:02:56.400 Young people especially are feeling discouraged from presenting the issues that they're facing right

00:03:03.140 now. Geneve Benin, co-author of the report and managing director and partner at BOG, told ctvnews.ca,

00:03:12.780 organizations do care greatly about the health and well-being of their employees. And I think this is

00:03:19.240 now a very open topic for many organizations. But organizations are very slow to recognize the extent

00:03:26.480 of the crisis, so they don't necessarily have an overarching strategy. The study found 25% of all

00:03:36.380 Canadians reported having symptoms of a mental health disorder in 2021, while 50% said they need mental

00:03:45.040 health support and 35% report being burnt out. As for the future of the workforce and the livelihood of

00:03:54.780 18 to 24-year-olds, 40% of the demographic is reportedly at a breaking point for their mental health.

00:04:05.560 End quote. Now, don't get me wrong, mental illness, be it in the workplace or in general,

00:04:11.360 is a very serious issue. I'd wager just about every person viewing this monologue right now knows of

00:04:17.700 someone, either in their professional or personal circles, that is experiencing mental health issues.

00:04:25.180 And even to this day, there is indeed a stigma surrounding mental illness that is absent if someone were to

00:04:32.900 suffer from, say, heart disease or cancer. And yet, the idea that 40%, 40% of 18 to 24-year-old

00:04:43.780 persons are at their so-called breaking point vis-a-vis mental health, is this really the case?

00:04:52.900 Here's the crux of the matter. I'm not sure if all of that 40% of that demographic are truly suffering 1.00

00:05:00.960 from mental illness issues. Let me cut to the chase. Could it be that a sizable percentage

00:05:07.920 of that percent are in crisis due to what I call work derangement syndrome? I mean, that 40% number,

00:05:18.260 it's truly staggering. And based on anecdotal evidence, and based on conversations I've had in

00:05:25.020 speaking to human resources personnel, younger folk these days seem more prone to complain or even quit

00:05:32.760 or even simply not show up to the office simply when faced with the rigors of hard work or burning

00:05:40.560 the midnight oil to meet a deadline. Now, I can just hear the outrage from the rank-and-file members

00:05:47.340 of Gen Z and, of course, the magnificent millennials. I get the feeling right now they're comparing yours

00:05:54.680 truly to the grumpy old man character brilliantly rendered by Dana Carvey, you know, back when

00:06:01.720 Saturday Night Live was actually funny. In my day, we didn't have these fancy seat belts that would

00:06:09.060 restrain you if your car crashed. In my day, if you stopped suddenly, you knew exactly where you were going,

00:06:16.080 straight through the windshield. That was it. End of story. Pull the curtain. Close the shutters.

00:06:23.480 Good night. You were dead and you liked it. Now, by way of clarification, I am by no means 0.98

00:06:28.680 painting everyone comprising these younger generations with the same brush. There are young

00:06:34.420 people that are super hard workers and there are indeed superb young entrepreneurs with very healthy

00:06:42.300 bank accounts indeed. But the numbers when it comes to mental health issues in the workplace,

00:06:49.620 they just don't add up to me. The Toronto-based Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, aka CAMH,

00:06:56.400 notes that in general, one in five Canadians experience a mental illness. In other words,

00:07:02.580 20%. However, CAMH does note that young people aged 15 to 24 are more likely to experience mental illness

00:07:11.940 and or substance use disorders than any other age group. Indeed, 39% of Ontario high school students

00:07:20.060 indicate a moderate to serious level of psychological distress, i.e. symptoms of anxiety and depression.

00:07:28.180 A further 17% indicate a serious level of psychological distress. Now, again, defaulting to grumpy old man

00:07:37.920 mode, back when I was in high school in the late 70s and early 80s, I don't recall experiencing

00:07:43.980 psychological distress, nor did I observe this with the rest of the student body. And believe me,

00:07:50.960 folks, I was never part of the cool kids club at school. So what's going on here now? I mean,

00:07:58.560 when I went to high school, there seemed to be more pressure to succeed than what exists today.

00:08:06.380 You could actually fail a subject. You could actually be mandated to go to summer school.

00:08:11.500 Now, talk about psychological distress. These days, of course, nobody fails, even if little Johnny or

00:08:20.000 Janie can't spell cat, even if you spot them the C and the T, they're going to pass. And I do not

00:08:27.280 exaggerate when it comes to the laissez-faire, anything goes attitude that exists in schools

00:08:33.080 these days. Case in point, do you remember that outrageous case of an Edmonton school teacher,

00:08:39.980 Lyndon Dorval, going back a decade ago? In 2012, Mr. Dorval was actually fired by the Edmonton

00:08:47.840 school district. And what crime did this teacher commit? Was he inappropriate on social media or did

00:08:56.320 he do something offside with any of his students? Oh, no. The precise opposite is true. For this

00:09:03.140 veteran teacher was simply doing his job. Here's the skinny. Some students in Dorval's high school class

00:09:11.200 simply declined to hand in their homework. Others didn't show up to take tests. So Dorval did exactly

00:09:19.280 what you'd expect any educator to do. He gave those students a zero mark. Oh, but wait a minute. Not so

00:09:28.240 fast. The school board deemed that Dorval was acting in an inappropriate fashion. The Edmonton school

00:09:35.300 district evidently has or had a no zero grade policy, even if there's nothing to grade. And when Dorval

00:09:44.340 refused to bend the knee to the board, he was first suspended. And then four months later, he was

00:09:51.220 terminated outright from his position at Ross Shepherd High School. Yeah, evidently, the school board thought it

00:10:00.020 was cruel and unusual punishment for students not to be rewarded for work that wasn't being done. In

00:10:08.240 their eyes, Dorval was a barbarian that had to be banished. Unbelievable. Then again, folks, perhaps the 0.99

00:10:15.000 Edmonton school district was simply ahead of the curve when it came to wokeness. While determining a mark

00:10:22.360 for, say, written English essays is wholly subjective, these days there are teachers in the math and sciences

00:10:30.200 department that have also gone woke. In other words, two plus two equals four. That's a very good answer.

00:10:38.160 But it's not the only answer. Maybe the sum of two plus two is five. Hey, that's okay. Or how about 13?

00:10:45.020 Hey, 100 is a nice round number, isn't it? Yeah. Maybe two plus two equals 100. Because to be rigid in

00:10:53.640 mathematical equations, well, that's an example of colonialism or imperialism or white supremacy

00:11:01.020 or something. And from the classroom to the sporting fields, nobody in amateur sports loses anymore. In fact,

00:11:08.660 there are some soccer leagues for kids in which scores aren't even being kept. And if a team goes

00:11:15.720 0 for 25 during the course of the regular season, no worries. At the end of the season, every player

00:11:22.420 shall be rewarded with a participation trophy. These academic and sporting policies are truly systemic

00:11:30.740 problems. Today, there is an overriding policy of no harm, no foul. Don't hand in an assignment. Hey,

00:11:38.140 no worries. You'll get a passing grade. Can't even get a shot on goal. That's okay. You're an MVP,

00:11:45.200 kid. So could it be that we have raised a generation or three in which work, especially hard work,

00:11:54.200 causes an adverse reaction? Is this really what is being interpreted as so-called mental health

00:12:02.480 breakdowns? Look, when young people enter the real world, especially in the private sector, 0.99

00:12:08.540 an employer justifiably expects performance. If you don't perform, if you miss deadlines, if you sleep

00:12:17.400 in, if you don't get the work done, you don't get a passing grade or a trophy. You get reprimanded or

00:12:24.460 perhaps even fired. For a young person who has been mollycoddled all their life, be it via the school

00:12:31.820 system or helicopter parenting, the demands of the workplace must come across as something of a toxic

00:12:39.200 shock to his or her system. Indeed, there was a very prolific and public firing, and I would say

00:12:46.600 justified firing just a couple of weeks ago in the world of pro sports. I speak of the now ex-general

00:12:53.320 manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Kyle Dubas. Dubas was born in 1985, by the way, making him a

00:13:00.680 millennial. Yeah, I know, I'm guilty of millennial bashing, I guess, folks, but too many of them just make 0.97

00:13:07.240 it so darn easy, truth be told. Now, coaches and general managers in pro sports, they get fired all the

00:13:13.940 time. But when Leafs president, Brendan Shanahan, terminated Dubas, this was a one-of-a-kind tale,

00:13:21.800 I think, in the history of pro sports. As the story goes, on Sunday, May 14th, Shanahan and Dubas had

00:13:28.820 hammered out a framework for a deal that would provide a contract extension to the Leafs' GM.

00:13:36.300 I'm not sure why, under Dubas, the Leafs only won a single playoff round these last several years.

00:13:43.660 Anyway, according to the aptly named Yahoo Sports, during the team's end-of-year media availability

00:13:51.400 the very next day on Monday, Dubas told reporters that he would either return as Maple Leafs' GM or

00:13:59.600 he would take the year off, you know, to reflect, citing the toll the season took on his family.

00:14:07.520 Off? Take the year off? Jeez, that reminds me of one of my favorite automotive ads of all time,

00:14:16.000 namely the advertising spot for the Cadillac ELR. Check it out.

00:14:21.160 Why do we work so hard? For what? For this? For stuff? Other countries, they work, they stroll 0.56

00:14:29.320 home, they stop by the cafe, they take August off. Off. Why aren't you like that? Why aren't we like

00:14:36.240 that? Because we're crazy-driven, hard-working believers, that's why. Those other countries

00:14:41.360 think we're nuts. Whatever. Were the Wright Brothers insane? Bill Gates, Les Paul, Ali. Were we nuts 0.99

00:14:46.960 when we pointed to the moon? That's right. We went up there, you know what we got? Bored. So we left.

00:14:53.320 Got a car up there, left the keys in it. Do you know why? Because we're the only ones going back up there,

00:14:58.080 that's why. But I digress. It's pretty simple. You work hard, you create your own luck, and you've

00:15:06.620 got to believe anything is possible. As for all the stuff, that's the upside of only taking two weeks

00:15:13.840 off in August. Les Brown. You know, General Motors would never run an ad like that today,

00:15:24.360 not during the Biden administration, at least. What you just watched was just way too much

00:15:31.040 American exceptionalism, which has now been reimagined as white privilege or white supremacy

00:15:38.360 or something like that. But anyway, taking a year off, well, you know, why not, Kyle? I mean,

00:15:45.000 it's only been 56 years since the Leafs hoisted Lord Stanley's shaving mug. I guess another year or so

00:15:52.900 won't make a difference in the long run. And what was the deal in terms of Dubas referencing his family?

00:16:01.000 How did managing the Maple Leafs affect Mrs. Dubas and their two young children? And really,

00:16:08.640 you'd think Dubas was flying bomber missions over enemy territory during a time of war, but Dubas had

00:16:16.360 a dream job, wouldn't you say? He was in the cushy front office being paid some $4 million a year,

00:16:23.240 not to score goals or save goals, but rather to sit on his ricotta cheese candy ass and work the phones. 0.83

00:16:31.000 Where's the stress for the Dubas family in that? So it was that as team president Shanahan mauled over 0.98

00:16:40.720 the statements made by Dubas during that disastrous Monday morning press conference, well, Shanahan

00:16:47.700 justifiably came to the conclusion that Dubas was not exactly, you know, all in in terms of being the

00:16:55.500 Leafs GM moving forward. So when a press conference was held on Friday, May 19th at the Leafs practice

00:17:02.900 facility, it was supposed to be all about giving Dubas a raise and a contract extension, but instead

00:17:11.440 it turned out that Dubas was fired. It was shocking. And yet who could blame Shanahan for this? Dubas,

00:17:19.780 the so-called boy wonder of NHL GMs, could only whine about his inability to seal the deal. You know,

00:17:29.100 Toronto winning the cup. Would you believe two playoff series in a row? Yikes! In the final analysis,

00:17:37.620 Dubas was someone who made millions at a desk job in which over the course of five years, all he

00:17:45.380 accomplished was over-promising and underachieving. Yet he felt he was entitled to a raise and a

00:17:54.580 contract extension. Assuming that is that his family was okay with him staying on the job, that they

00:18:01.520 could all cope with the stress. Are you kidding me? Some boy wonder. You know, folks, I have a sporting

00:18:10.240 bet with a friend and it's this. What is going to happen first? The Toronto Maple Leafs shall win the

00:18:16.480 Stanley Cup or I'm going to die. Let me tell you, sports fans, the smart money is on the Grim Reaper

00:18:23.880 here. Anyway, at the end of the day, here's the deal. Are younger people to blame for their inability

00:18:32.620 to cope with the rigors of employment? Or maybe the blame goes to those social engineers of

00:18:39.940 yesterdecade, you know, the geniuses who decided that be it academia or in the sporting world,

00:18:47.760 one can never lose and everyone is a champion. Isn't that just setting up people for failure down

00:18:55.360 the road when it comes to the workplace? So just maybe participation trophies should be replaced by

00:19:02.340 gold, silver and bronze participation medals. Perhaps the policy of not handing in an assignment

00:19:10.140 or taking a test means the student receives a well-earned zero grade as opposed to a passing mark

00:19:17.360 is deemed to be a good thing. Maybe so-called woke math teachers need to actually, you know,

00:19:25.960 follow the science, subscribing to the fact that two plus two equals four, and that it always

00:19:32.220 has and that it always will colonialism be damned. Indeed, instead of turning a blind eye to abysmal

00:19:41.460 performance or ignoring it altogether, we need to instill in youth that there is no shame in honest

00:19:49.780 failure, but only based upon the proviso that you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all

00:19:58.320 over again. The idea being that you try harder with the ultimate goal of succeeding rather than failing

00:20:06.380 or simply not caring. Otherwise, is it really any wonder that a growing number of young people

00:20:14.480 are experiencing what they perceive to be mental illness in the workplace? They are simply being asked

00:20:22.820 to perform hard work in a competitive environment. Sadly for too many, this is an alien concept.

00:20:42.640 Hey folks, I'm old enough to remember when Peter Ustinov described the city of Toronto as a kind of New

00:20:49.840 York operated by the Swiss. Alas, Mr. Ustinov uttered that quote in 1987, and some 36 years later, well,

00:21:00.480 Toronto has kind of devolved into a kind of New York as operated by gangbangers, thugs, and other

00:21:08.000 ne'er-do-wells. The city is dirtier, graffiti is everywhere, the streets are paralyzed by gridlock,

00:21:15.620 and riding the subway can be fraught with danger. And get this, literally across the street from

00:21:22.600 Yonge Dundas Square, Toronto's version of Times Square, the city operates a so-called safe injection site

00:21:31.020 where everything from needles to crack pipes are distributed to attics, and even, as the case may be,

00:21:39.020 miners. And with more on this sad, sad situation is Harrison Faulkner with True North. Hey, how are you

00:21:47.760 doing there, Harrison? Good. Well, I recovered from my trip downtown. That was yesterday. I made it out

00:21:53.700 of there safely. But it was interesting, David, they didn't want any journalists there to uncover

00:21:59.440 what is actually taking place. They're very proud of their decisions to give away free crack pipes, but

00:22:03.760 don't seem nearly as proud to show the rest of us. Well, you know what? I'm not surprised by that

00:22:09.860 one bit. Back in 2020, when Nathan Phillips Square was occupied, basically, by hobos and grifters, 0.91

00:22:20.600 Mayor Tory allowed that to go on for three weeks, 11 sections of the Trespass Act being broken. And yet,

00:22:28.640 when we went down, and other journalists went down to cover it, we were being trespassed by city

00:22:34.620 security. They even called the police on us and said, vamoose or what? I mean, the pandering to the

00:22:42.340 lunatic fringe in this city is out of control. But, you know, before we get into the nitty-gritty of your

00:22:47.420 report, Harrison, I just want to right now throw to a clip of what you witnessed firsthand, right,

00:22:55.300 a stone's throw away from Young and Dundas. Here, check it out, folks.

00:22:59.280 All right, so we're here at Young and Dundas, the heartbeat of Toronto, as some people call it,

00:23:03.560 as some people say. It's where the city comes to life. But actually, if you go one block across,

00:23:10.240 well, it looks a lot like the opposite of life. It looks a lot more like death. Behind me in that

00:23:15.540 building, allegedly, I'll be allowed to receive my free crack pipe, my free crystal meth pipe,

00:23:22.020 drug kits and whatever. That's what they're giving away to the city for free. So we're

00:23:26.780 going to head on inside and see what it's like. I'll try and take you with me. I'll be as discreet

00:23:31.320 as possible. Hi. I'm here to collect my free drug pipe, my crack pipe. Can I get that here?

00:23:47.180 You can get that on the other side. The works? This is a clinic. Okay, where's the works? Over there.

00:23:53.080 This door right here? Yeah. Oh, thank you very much.

00:23:55.380 I'm here to collect my free crack pipe, crystal meth pipe. Okay, well, you're recording.

00:24:13.480 Yeah. Chance seems like that's not the case, so I do have to advise you. That's against the

00:24:17.860 wall. Oh, okay. I won't record. Okay, dude, you gotta leave. Why? I can't. I can't. You gotta leave.

00:24:22.860 Like I said, you gotta leave. Wow, that is shocking footage. You'd think it was being run

00:24:30.960 by drug dealers, but they're City of Toronto employers. Here's the thing, Harrison. How did

00:24:37.340 we get here in the first place? Well, all of this is being marketed under the City of Toronto's

00:24:45.120 safe supply and harm reduction strategy. I guess this is their strategy, David, to try and solve

00:24:51.960 addiction crisis. Solve the addiction crisis by giving addicts everything they could possibly want

00:24:57.360 to perpetuate their addiction. I mean, there's no real sense at all that I got that this has anything

00:25:03.760 to do with treating addiction. It's the opposite, of course. It is perpetuating addiction. I have no

00:25:11.080 idea how we got here, but this seems to be the same exact thing that's taking place in Vancouver

00:25:15.880 and in other smaller cities in Ontario. It's just mayhem out there. It's just wild. And this is now

00:25:22.680 their strategy to actually solve the problem. Or maybe they don't have any interest in solving the

00:25:27.480 problem. That's how it looks like. That's what it looks like to me, at least. Yeah, Harrison, they call

00:25:31.820 it harm reduction. But as you noted in your report, it's more like perpetuating addiction. And for that

00:25:38.800 matter, misery, these are people in horrible circumstances. And the idea that we would aid

00:25:45.540 and abet this kind of addiction. And you know, what I found amazing, we've heard reports of minors

00:25:52.520 walking in to get this paraphernalia. You know, if you ran a convenience store, Harrison, and you sold

00:25:58.600 cigarettes to somebody under 18, you're going to get in big trouble if it's found out. And I'm just

00:26:06.260 wondering, how far do we take this perverted philosophy? There are people addicted to alcohol,

00:26:13.080 they're called alcoholics. What if somebody had lost their license? They have to, they can't drive

00:26:18.340 anymore, can't get to the LCBO. In the city of Toronto's eyes, maybe we should drive out there

00:26:25.060 with bottles of bourbon to aid and abet that addiction. I know it sounds preposterous, but look

00:26:32.740 what's happening right in the city center. Well, exactly. If you take this concept, this harm

00:26:38.860 reduction concept for any other addiction that we obviously are trying to solve in our society,

00:26:44.400 well, then we're, we're, we're already in lunacy. We're already in, in like lunacy territory here,

00:26:50.680 David, but we're not going to give away drugs, drinks for free to alcoholics. We're not going to

00:26:56.400 allow children to walk into the LCBO and walk out with free booze. But at this site, at this

00:27:02.440 Yonge and Dundas site, on one side, they're giving out the drug starter kit, everything you could

00:27:07.420 possibly want to get started on hard drugs. And then on the other side, just the door beside it,

00:27:14.080 well, that's where you can get your hydromorphone, which is a more potent heroin alternative. Now we

00:27:19.320 already see, we've seen the reports, we've all seen all, all the news and the data, this hydromorphone

00:27:24.680 that the government is providing to addicts, which is paid for by us, David, it's being

00:27:29.420 flipped on the street for fentanyl because addicts aren't getting the kind of rush they

00:27:33.960 want from hydromorphone, but it's even stronger than heroin. So, I mean, I don't even know where

00:27:38.440 this goes. If we're going to keep going in this territory now, Alberta is trying to actually 0.99

00:27:43.320 give treatment, but there's no indication that that's what we're trying to do here in Ontario.

00:27:47.420 It's just crazy. You know, I'm glad you brought up Alberta. I was fortunate enough back in

00:27:53.780 March, Harrison, to be at a function where Premier Daniel Smith was being given an award. And she

00:28:01.160 spoke about this, that unlike the province next door, British Columbia, which is all about aiding

00:28:07.220 and abetting addicts, different kettle of fish in the Wildrose province, namely, please tell these

00:28:15.200 addicts, listen, we can either do it this way, you can be arrested and we bring you off to jail,

00:28:20.520 which I'm sure you don't want, or you can voluntarily enroll into a program. They have

00:28:26.820 these dormitories set up. It's actually quite fascinating the way Premier Smith described it,

00:28:31.640 Harrison. These people are told the very basics, because you have to start from a clean slate,

00:28:37.740 you know, how to budget for groceries, how to shop, how to cook meals, and you're in a dormitory

00:28:43.840 setting. And they are getting results. And by results, I mean, the aiding and abetting of

00:28:51.520 addiction, that's over with. These people are getting clean and sober. Who doesn't want that

00:28:58.540 as a model to help these people who are addicted to these vile things you just described?

00:29:05.140 The worst part about it, David, is that the city of Toronto has the gall to describe this as

00:29:11.220 compassion. What they're doing is compassion. I'm sorry, but when I went down there, the people

00:29:17.300 that I spoke to, and I actually off camera, spoke to some of the addicts. And that's actually how I

00:29:23.100 managed to get the bag of goodies, as I call it, from the Toronto Public Health. They didn't allow a

00:29:28.060 journalist to get it, but I managed to have an addict go in there for me so I could show the city

00:29:32.460 what they're giving away for free with our money. Now, they call this compassion, but I can tell you

00:29:37.600 it's not compassionate. These people are dying. They're rotting away. And the city has no intention

00:29:42.220 of actually trying to get them to be fixed. When I was speaking to one of these men, he was devastated.

00:29:48.660 He could barely even speak to me, but I did make out that I asked him, are you getting any sort of

00:29:54.220 treatment at all for this? And he basically said to me, no, not at all. Everyone around me is just

00:29:59.660 basically in the same position. He didn't say this, but the reality is these guys are just spinning

00:30:04.500 their wheels and they're moving in the wrong direction. They're moving towards death.

00:30:08.280 They're not moving towards recovery. And the city doesn't seem to care while telling all of us

00:30:12.860 it's the so-called compassionate approach. Insane. Absolutely, Harrison. I was reading some of the

00:30:18.780 comments on your YouTube feed, and here is one that really broke my heart. I lost a member of my family

00:30:26.360 to these kinds of drugs. This is wrong. Shame. So where's the compassion in greasing the rails

00:30:35.580 for someone to meet a premature ending to their life? That's the opposite of compassion,

00:30:42.920 wouldn't you say, Harrison? It completely is the opposite of compassion. The only way that I can try

00:30:48.680 and think of the city doing this is that someone is making a lot of money off of this, David. That's

00:30:55.040 the only reason why I could possibly think that some sane people would come up with a policy like

00:30:59.800 this. There's no way that you could go down to where I was yesterday and come up with the idea

00:31:07.360 that this is compassion. It's not. But I have a question, and I put this out on Twitter, and I'm

00:31:12.360 trying to figure this out myself. Who is manufacturing the crack pipes that the city is buying with our

00:31:18.020 money and giving away for free? Who is manufacturing all these needles? You can get five needles a bag.

00:31:23.240 You can get a crack pipe. You can get a crystal meth starter kit. Someone is getting rich off the

00:31:27.560 backs of these poor victims. The addicts are the victims here. The city, the government,

00:31:33.660 the federal government that's pushing this, they are the ones that are responsible for this.

00:31:38.120 And someone is making off like a bandit. And Harrison, do we have a dollar figure on how much

00:31:45.440 taxpayer dollars are going into funding these programs in the city of Toronto, at least?

00:31:51.220 I wish I had the number. I don't, David. But I have to imagine that it's got to be immense.

00:31:56.540 It's got to be immense because all you got to do is walk around the city. You can see needles

00:32:01.280 everywhere. You can see homeless addicts everywhere. It's only getting worse. So clearly,

00:32:07.000 there's a lot of money being spent on this. And no money, as I can see, is really being spent on

00:32:12.160 treatment. Harrison, we're getting near the end of this interview. But before I leave you,

00:32:19.220 I think here's the elephant in the room when it comes to a final question. We are in the midst of

00:32:26.160 a municipal by-election for mayor of Toronto, thanks to John Tory resigning in disgrace last

00:32:32.320 February. Here's the thing. If you believe the polls, Harrison, Olivia Chow is the prohibitive

00:32:38.860 favorite. She's got the backing of several unions. I guess she has name recognition. I find it hard to

00:32:47.140 believe someone can get a critical mass of votes giving her hard left policies. But what I'm getting

00:32:55.920 at, Harrison, if she does become mayor, I fear that this beloved city of my birth, we are going to be

00:33:04.100 on the fast track to Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, Seattle. What we're seeing now is just the tip of the

00:33:13.760 iceberg under what the city would look like with Olivia Chow as the mayor. Your final thoughts, my friend.

00:33:22.660 You're exactly right. Olivia Chow thinks that we haven't done enough of this. Olivia Chow's idea is that we 1.00

00:33:29.680 just we haven't we haven't we haven't really fully seen how great harm reduction and safe supply is. Just wait

00:33:35.520 until I'm in charge and we're going to really ratchet it up. So if it's going to get any worse than this, David,

00:33:40.000 well, we're really in for a very scary ride. I can't believe it. I can't even imagine she's that

00:33:46.540 high in the polls. It's shocking to me. But that's the truth. If she wins, this is going to get way

00:33:51.640 worse. And San Francisco, we're going to become the new San Francisco. Other cities are going to say

00:33:55.880 we don't want to become Toronto. That's what we're looking at here. We're going to be the standard bearer

00:34:00.140 for the failures of this wild urban decay that these people want to try and bring on to us.

00:34:05.820 It's unbelievable, Harrison, how fast things can change from a kind of New York run by the Swiss 1.00

00:34:12.880 to this and to what awaits if Olivia Chow becomes mayor. I'm already thinking my exit strategy.

00:34:21.180 Costa Rica looks pretty good. I heard that. It sure does. It sure does. A little warmer too.

00:34:26.540 We'll see what happens at the end of the month on Election Day. Harrison, thank you so much for

00:34:32.360 this report. It was excellent. And you stay safe out there, young man. Thank you very much.

00:34:47.600 Well, hey, folks, a lot of feedback from last night's show, guest hosted by my beloved colleague,

00:34:54.100 Sheila Gunn-Reed. Sheila touched upon the fact that the so-called Canadian Anti-Hate Network,

00:35:00.940 well, they're having a hissy fit because police aren't taking their complaints seriously. Oh,

00:35:08.220 poor babies. And of course, Sheila weighed in on why the heck is Rachel Notley still sticking around 1.00

00:35:15.320 given the disastrous results for the NDP on Monday? In any event, you had plenty to say

00:35:23.360 You know, I totally agree with you, my friend. They do not oppose hatred. They actually create

00:35:40.200 hatred. They're all about division, not unification. I mean, there is no truth in advertising to their

00:35:48.100 name, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. Put another way, they kind of remind me of Antifa. You know how

00:35:54.400 that's a contraction of anti-fascist Antifa? Yet Antifa embraces everything that makes fascism,

00:36:03.420 fascism, violence, vandalism, you name it. It's the same deal with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

00:36:10.500 They need to just take out the word anti from their name. Now talk about truth in advertising.

00:36:19.100 And when it comes to Rachel Notley, leader of the Alberta NDP, Bristolian writes,

00:36:26.260 hopefully she will stay on and her Marxist halfwits get reduced to a handful of seats 1.00

00:36:32.680 in Edmonton. Yeah, you know, I mean, lover or loather, here's the thing I don't get about Rachel

00:36:40.680 Notley hanging around. If she couldn't win on Monday, what makes her think she could possibly win

00:36:49.280 four years down the road? Bizarre. Kudray Serpay writes, she's so old, there needs to be an age cap

00:36:57.300 on politicians, mostly so people who are as old as the USA president don't become leaders. It's just

00:37:04.800 sad to see. You know, I'm afraid I can't agree with you on this one. That would make me an ageist.

00:37:11.620 I think it's all about the individual. Look at great leaders from the past, Ronald Reagan,

00:37:18.040 Margaret Thatcher. They weren't spring chickens, and yet they were some of the best leaders of the

00:37:24.600 entire 20th century. Now, I'm not saying that applies to Rachel Notley. Don't get me wrong,

00:37:31.940 but the idea of having an age cap, I'm sorry, even in this day and age of Joe Biden, can't support that.

00:37:39.560 Well, there you go, folks. Thank you so much for tuning in for yet another edition of the Ezreal

00:37:44.120 event show. I believe the big boss man is back on Monday. So have yourselves a great weekend. And hey,

00:37:50.640 as always, stay safe and stay sane.

Rebel News Podcast - June 03, 2023

DAVID MENZIES ｜ Young professionals are at their 'breaking point' — but what's the root of the problem？

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