I think I'm an optimist. If you're a pessimist, what would the point of fighting back? You would just retreat from every fight, or hide, or even surrender? Tonight, some thoughts on Canada's future, and if it's too late to fight back.
00:17:42.600The 2022 NCAA championships in swimming, women's swimming, saw this man win NCAA women's titles and exclude people like Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlon and so many women from their awards or from their rightful awards.
00:18:19.620And as you most of our viewers would know, Riley Gaines has gone on to being a highly recognized person across the United States, fighting very strongly for the female only sport.
00:18:31.660And finally, finally, this past week, University of Pennsylvania signed the agreement with the Department of Education that, yes, they had violated Title IX.
00:18:43.640Yes, they would apologize to their female athletes.
00:18:46.060They would post it on their website that their sports here for will be female only in the women's category.
00:18:53.660It's a great victory for women's sports.
00:18:57.120It's incredible that, I mean, really, other than, let's say, Harvard, this is as prestigious a place as it gets.
00:19:05.660They went to bat for this man, quote, Leah Thomas, so hard.
00:19:09.480But so for that, I mean, I'm not going to say it's a groveling, abject flip-flop, but actually, I sort of think it is.
00:19:17.960I mean, to apologize to the women, to strip the men of their fake awards and medals, and to basically, they basically apologized to women.
00:19:30.000I mean, it was as total as surrender as possible.
00:19:34.220Now, not a lot of Canadians know what the phrase Title IX means.
00:19:37.380And I'm not even sure if I have a total command of it.
00:19:39.360That's basically a legal promise in the United States that universities have to treat women's athletics on the same terms as men's athletics.
00:19:50.460It was really designed to let women enter sports and to say to universities, you can't just support the men.
00:19:57.520Now, that was in terms of having a woman's team in addition.
00:20:00.420Like, maybe it wasn't as lucrative, but really, if you're letting men beat up girls, you're violating Title IX.
00:20:13.880And even I, as a Canadian athlete, back in the 80s, was able to take advantage and have a full athletic scholarship to get my university degree out of the University of Maryland.
00:20:25.780It has helped so many women across the world and in the United States to obtain an education and to be able to compete at a higher level in collegiate athletics and then going on to higher, even higher performances.
00:20:38.260So Title IX has really, really made an impact in the last 50 years.
00:20:46.680And I even credit Title IX for the emergence of the soccer moms in the 80s and 90s, all the women who care so much about sports and putting their kids in sport.
00:20:56.700It's led to women starting their own businesses.
00:21:21.860I mean, I think Title IX, I think it's fair to say when it was made law some 50 years ago or so, you could call it feminist.
00:21:29.640I wouldn't say like radical feminist, but it was equality for both sexes.
00:21:35.160And like you say, it really unlocked a whole field of life for women.
00:21:40.860I mean, it made women's sports a career, a project, a hobby, a passion, an activity.
00:21:49.240Like it opened up a whole, and then to use, and then for these elite universities, especially in these elite organizations, to then turn around on women and inject men into them.
00:22:02.540It reminds me of how these elite universities who claim to be so progressive often screen out Asian candidates from admission because the Asian kids do really well, just statistically speaking, on entrance exams.
00:22:19.340So you have universities like Harvard or Columbia, they claim to be progressive on issues of race, actually discriminating against Asian Americans because they were smart.
00:22:31.500And you have these same progressive institutions actually discriminating against women.
00:22:36.420I just find it, the similarity I'm pointing to, Linda, is that these people claim to be the guardians of civil rights and the champions of minorities or women.
00:22:46.800And in fact, they were the undertakers who were destroying rights in both cases.
00:22:51.920I'm delighted to see the pendulum swing back in the United States, though.
00:22:55.960Give me a quick survey of the scene in the U.S.
00:22:58.980Given that Trump signed that executive order so early in his term, and that he's following through with the different departments, like the Department of Education, are there any holdouts in the United States?
00:23:09.580Are there any institutions or leagues or other things that are resisting a return to common sense?
00:23:19.800Every Democratic state is holding out.
00:23:23.020The Republican states protect kids in school, sports, and even in universities.
00:23:28.220And yet the Democratic states, run by obviously Democrat governors, are resisting this and are allowing boys and men to compete in women and girls sports in open defiance of the Trump executive order.
00:23:44.440And, by the way, in defiance of the law, which is Title IX.
00:23:47.680And just this week, on Monday, California rejected a letter from the Department of Education that is reprimanding California for allowing boys to compete against the girls.
00:24:33.500It really is a leading-edge issue for so many folks.
00:24:37.460But I think that ordinary people, I think it's got to be like 70% to 30% or 80% to 20% people who just, I mean, especially, I mean, there's different ways to talk about it.
00:24:54.500Like, there's different ways to communicate this stuff.
00:24:56.620And I think the Riley Gaines of the world have been very smart about how they've done it.
00:25:01.200But, you know, that image of Trump being surrounded by women and girls signing the executive order, I remember even J.K. Rowling commenting on it.
00:25:11.160Like, how did the Democrats fumble an issue that so many moms and daughters, I mean, it's not an, I mean, I just don't know how these Democrat politicians can dig their heels in when they're against the will of the people.
00:25:28.500And when they're against women and girls, I just think that's a strange political hill to die on.
00:28:20.720Well, I think at the national level, the entities controlling sport and funding sport, they seem to have intimidated the sports organizations into adopting this idea that people can compete in whatever category they feel like or they want.
00:28:36.240And that men can compete in women's sports and we should all just be quiet and be accepting.
00:28:41.040But at the ground level, again, most people disagree with that.
00:28:45.040And thank goodness in Alberta, at the provincial level, at least Alberta has Bill 29 that passed in December of 2024, this past Christmas, that Daniel Smith is just working hard to protect the female category.
00:29:01.340And anybody accepting funding from the Alberta government, whether that's a school or sports organization, has to ensure that in every sport, there must be at least one category that is female only.
00:29:14.760There can be other categories, but there has to be a category that's female only.
00:29:19.380And, you know, it's my observation that trans athletes are not looking to participate in the trans category.
00:29:26.620They're not interested in going into an all genders bathroom.
00:29:30.920Their whole point, and I don't know if it's a psychological thing or a political thing or a sexual thing, they want to play on the women's team.
00:29:38.280They want to go in the women's change room.
00:29:40.000They're not interested in a trans league.
00:29:42.780At least I've never met a trans person who is.
00:29:45.040I think, but I think Danielle Smith is right on that, even though the courts are trying to undermine her.
00:29:51.080Let me ask you a question, because sometimes, because Canada is one-tenth or one-ninth the size of the United States, and we're so integrated with the U.S., I remember when I was in grade eight, we had an international band tour.
00:30:06.040We just went across the border into Montana, and, you know, how many Canadians go on a school trip to the States?
00:30:16.280I think an enormous number, because so many of our cities are really close to the States.
00:30:20.840And how many Canadian sports leagues cross the border?
00:30:33.640Will the fact that so many U.S. sports leagues are coming back to gender sanity here, will that in some ways wash over Canadian sports?
00:30:45.480Because Canadian teams that allow a man to play on them will not be able to do so when they do their trip across the border into Montana or Washington State or Oregon or New York or Maine or whatever.
00:30:56.860Will American decisions have a knock-on effect in Canada?
00:31:05.760And in Trump's executive order, they literally, part of that executive order is to work with Homeland Security in barring any male entering the United States with the intent to compete against female athletes.
00:31:17.260So if there is a male on the Canadian team, that team is going to have to drop that player.
00:31:38.100You know, Trump has – he's got good antenna.
00:31:43.460And I really think that he has managed to get a whole swath of support from people who probably wouldn't normally consider themselves Republicans, let alone Trump Republicans.
00:35:10.760On my monologue, Paul Schofield commented,
00:35:13.020The American left had better be careful for what they wish for.
00:35:16.800As Ezra mentioned, their moment, rather than a George Floyd summer violence, they may get something more akin to General Sherman's march to the scene.
00:35:25.920Well, I tell you, it's very exciting to see how confident and bold the ICE team is.
00:35:32.480And they have to look very butch like that and be well armored like that because, I mean, partly, I suppose, because the people they're deporting sometimes are murderers or gang members.
00:35:42.300But because there are Antifa rioters on the streets, left-wing white people, who want to keep their demographic transformation project alive.
00:35:57.580On my interview with Fatima Gunning, why can't Canadians show the same national pride?
00:36:03.240This is something I think about a lot.
00:36:04.540I think one of the things that is motivating Ireland to push back against mass immigration is, first of all, it's happening so stunningly quickly.
00:36:12.720Second of all, it's a small country which has a small-town feeling.