Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Alberta moves to curb non-terminal euthanasia as debate shifts from pain to purpose

00:00:00.000 Alberta is pumping the brakes on the expansion of medical assistance in dying and today I'm

00:00:05.200 talking to one of the activists who helped get that done. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching

00:00:10.580 the gun show. A couple of years ago, I made a documentary called MADE, as in medical assistance

00:00:34.380 in dying the dark side of Canadian compassion and one of the things that I learned along the way

00:00:41.400 making that documentary was that people are choosing to euthanize themselves not out of

00:00:51.580 a sense of pain or that their deaths are right around the corner but because they have lost a

00:01:03.980 sense of usefulness in society. And I learned that from today's guest, Amanda Aktman. She is an

00:01:16.900 activist who is working behind the scenes and in front of the camera to tell the stories of

00:01:25.080 people who have been offered medical assistance in dying instead of help. But she's also a person

00:01:32.380 who is telling us what we can do as a society, as members of our community,

00:01:38.060 to make sure that people don't lose hope, don't lose that sense of purpose that is driving them

00:01:46.620 into despair. We have the ability to help people who are struggling with pain and illness and

00:01:56.040 depression from feeling like a burden to their families and to society. And so I wanted to have

00:02:05.940 Amanda on the show in light of Alberta, the province of Alberta, pumping the brakes on the

00:02:12.360 expansion of medical assistance in dying to tell us some of the stories that she's heard from people

00:02:19.740 who have been offered MAID and also what we can do to make sure that this is not something that

00:02:27.200 people are choosing in their darkest hours. Here's the interview we recorded earlier today. Take a

00:02:33.860 listen. So joining me now is Amanda Achtman. Amanda is one of the people featured in our

00:02:47.540 documentary made the dark side of Canadian compassion. And she's the person who taught me

00:02:52.440 that imminent death and suffering is really not the reason that people choose to euthanize

00:03:00.300 themselves at the hands of the state. But Amanda, I wanted to have you introduce yourself and your

00:03:07.340 role in your activism in this country to prevent people from making the irreversible choice

00:03:17.460 of choosing medical assistance in dying. Thanks so much. Well, I am the founder of a cultural

00:03:24.560 initiative called Dying to Meet You, through which I work to humanize our cultural conversations

00:03:29.840 around suffering, death, meaning, and hope. And I also serve as the ethics director for Canadian

00:03:36.400 Physicians for Life, an association of life-affirming medical professionals committed to

00:03:42.140 the Hippocratic tradition of do no harm. And you're right to point out what you mentioned

00:03:49.000 at the beginning, because euthanasia represents not so much a medical crisis in this country,

00:03:55.060 though it is very, very much tied to a whole host of medical crises. But from those requesting it,

00:04:02.060 it really is an existential crisis. It's a crisis of meaning. It's a crisis of self-worth in the

00:04:08.380 face of certain losses and grief. And so I look forward to discussing the real underlying reasons

00:04:16.700 why Canadians are requesting euthanasia, because I insist that it really comes down to disappointments,

00:04:22.800 sometimes disappointments with the healthcare system, but very often disappointments in life

00:04:27.440 in general. Now, I think you probably wouldn't toot your own horn, but I know that your

00:04:38.080 advocacy, especially, um, with the doctors that you work with was instrumental in getting the

00:04:45.420 province of Alberta to pump the brakes on the expansion of track to made. And just before we

00:04:51.360 get into that, um, and what Alberta is doing, tell us what track to made really is because, um,

00:05:00.100 it, it already is very vague and worrisome. And we're seeing people choose euthanasia under that

00:05:06.980 track for things that are completely treatable and transient. Yeah, labeling path to deaths as

00:05:18.360 tracks is already very sinister and very sad, in my view. And in 2016, Canada legalized euthanasia

00:05:25.800 nationwide. And fewer than five years later, the government was already talking about expanding it.

00:05:31.300 And the reason is because once legalized, euthanasia cannot remain limited, but will always be expanded on the grounds of equality.

00:05:40.380 That's because if it's seen as a reasonable and compassionate means to address suffering by killing the one who suffers,

00:05:47.560 then why wouldn't this means, why wouldn't this approach be expanded more and more on the grounds of equality?

00:05:54.940 So that's exactly what happened, because the rationale was there are people who suffer more throughout life,

00:06:01.300 maybe with a chronic illness or a disability or a neurological condition and so those became the

00:06:07.540 criteria for the expansion so-called track two made and that was legalized in 2021 at the same

00:06:15.380 time euthanasia was expanded on the basis of mental illness as a sole underlying condition

00:06:21.140 for this very reason of equality the senate thought that bill c-7 didn't go far enough

00:06:26.260 by expanding euthanasia to persons with disabilities, and insisted that it be amended to also include an expansion on the basis of mental illness as a sole condition.

00:06:36.500 That law passed in March, on March 17th, 2021, with a sunset clause that simply delayed the implementation of the mental illness as a sole condition.

00:06:47.900 First of all, for two years, and then by another year, and then until 2027.

00:06:52.940 but it's very important for viewers to know that Canada already legalized euthanasia on the basis

00:06:59.480 of mental illness alone. It simply hasn't taken effect yet. And unless there's an active

00:07:05.040 legislation to change it, this becomes a risk on March 17th, 2027, that people could actually

00:07:12.420 be euthanized in our country whose sole medical diagnosis is a mental illness.

00:07:18.560 Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Witnesses, for being here. 0.88

00:07:22.600 I'll start with you, Dr. Gupta.

00:07:24.040 You were clear in your comments that you don't think it's reasonable to deny people with only a mental illness access to MAID if it's permitted for people with a physical condition.

00:07:34.340 Do you believe that all mental health diagnoses could lead to someone being eligible for MAID?

00:07:43.280 Thanks so much for the question.

00:07:44.760 Mr. Chair, it's an excellent question, and I think the Canadian legislation is quite clear.

00:07:51.460 If I may reclaim my time, it was a yes or no question, Doctor.

00:07:55.380 I would allow her briefly, Dr. Gupta, to finish your response.

00:07:59.900 The legislation is clear that it's trying to capture people in certain kinds of clinical circumstances

00:08:05.500 rather than point to specific diagnoses.

00:08:08.400 So I would say that what's important is the circumstances of the person, not the medical category, we classify them with.

00:08:16.580 But just for clarity, do you believe that there are certain diagnoses that could never rise to that level of being grievous and irremediable and justify medical assistance in dying as far as diagnostic mental illnesses are concerned?

00:08:30.640 Well, there are, excuse me, Mr. Chair, there are certainly diagnoses that, by definition, are intended to be time-limited or reactive to certain kinds of circumstances, and I think we can safely assume that those would not meet the legislated criteria as they are currently written.

00:08:48.420 Do you believe in eating disorder? Could qualify someone for MAID?

00:08:52.020 Again, I think the legislation is clear that it really depends on the circumstances of the person.

00:08:57.500 So, it could?

00:08:59.080 Potentially.

00:08:59.520 And depression as well, major depressive disorder?

00:09:02.440 Again, it depends on the clinical circumstances of the person.

00:09:05.260 Is there a consensus among psychiatrists on how many treatments one needs to try

00:09:10.620 or for how long one needs to seek treatment for it to be classed as treatment resistant?

00:09:16.280 The use of the term treatment resistance in the clinical research literature

00:09:22.120 is meant to capture different populations depending on the goal of the study being undertaken.

00:09:28.120 So there are a range of different definitions. But of course, as we know, treatment resistant is not the term that's used in the legislation. It is a different term that describes a different set of circumstances than what researchers are interested in when they want to identify a population they consider treatment resistant.

00:09:47.100 One of the things that Alberta has done is to regulate euthanasia providers. I had no idea that it was the Wild West out there. I did know that it's a very small subset of doctors doing the majority of euthanization in this country.

00:10:05.400 But I had no idea that you could just sort of dub yourself a maid provider and then get at her. It's frightening because it seems that there are really no breaks to this system.

00:10:19.660 euthanasia directly ending the lives of patients is not what people go to school for years and

00:10:26.360 years to learn how to do it is very devastating that there was actually a euthanasia doctor

00:10:32.300 in the media who said i find myself using the stethoscope to check that the heart has stopped

00:10:39.140 rather than that it is beating what is going on with the medical profession when there's a complete

00:10:45.020 inversion of the entire vocation of being a doctor, being to accompany patients in moments

00:10:52.640 of vulnerability and distress. And so you're right to point out that most doctors want nothing to do

00:11:00.340 with this. And yet we're seeing increasingly, even within the medical association with which

00:11:05.600 I'm involved, that medical students, residents, early practice physicians are facing it like

00:11:11.500 they've never faced it before. It's causing very complex ethical dilemmas for people who are

00:11:18.440 looking to begin entering the healing profession and who want nothing to do with directly ending

00:11:24.740 patients' lives. Now, before we talk about your work with dying to meet you, are there

00:11:33.140 professional pressures being put on these doctors who, for example, with Physicians for Life or

00:11:41.480 just any doctor out there who enters the profession of medicine to treat people to

00:11:49.240 heal them as opposed to kill them are they facing profession or professional pressures from their

00:11:55.400 professional organizations or even their peers yes and we are losing doctors who are moving to

00:12:00.960 the states because they don't want to practice in this climate i even know uh physicians who

00:12:06.180 have moved between provinces in order to find a province that has better conscience protections

00:12:11.240 for physicians. And so doctors are actually voting with their feet and choosing where to

00:12:16.620 live and practice based on the euthanasia policies there. So that's very important to note. And yes,

00:12:24.160 there's a lot of pressure from the College of Physicians to basically make referrals for

00:12:32.440 euthanasia, even if against a person's medical judgment, a person should not be recommended

00:12:37.900 to die. And who could refer their patient for death? Really, if a patient, if a physician is

00:12:44.680 really looking out for their patient's good, they will never make a suggestion that they would be

00:12:48.540 better off dead. Now, I want to talk about your work with dying to meet you because through your

00:12:56.100 work, we're seeing the stories of people who have been offered euthanasia when they go to the

00:13:03.980 hospital for routine treatment or to receive treatment for something that is completely

00:13:09.720 treatable. And in so many cases, they went, they go on to live fruitful lives post-treatment.

00:13:19.720 And, you know, it frightens me because if that person were in a moment of vulnerable,

00:13:26.560 vulnerable bill oh my goodness sheila if that person were in a moment of vulnerableness

00:13:33.260 what what sort of irreversible choice could have been made um and you know at the end of the day

00:13:43.060 and through my work on our documentary the stories of the families left behind

00:13:49.940 the helplessness of the families left behind and the grief um and the trauma of what happened

00:13:57.260 i just think it's a cascade of events um but you show us the other side of that that there is hope

00:14:04.680 there is healing and uh there's i i think to a large extent happiness on the other side

00:14:11.220 yeah i was recently on vancouver island and that really is uh the euthanasia capital

00:14:17.920 very high rates of euthanasia there everyone seems to know someone who has died by euthanasia

00:14:25.760 and so while I was there I met a woman who after one of my talks shared that she was offered

00:14:32.020 made practically upon arrival to the hospital this was shocking to hear she had gone in she

00:14:38.920 had been in excruciating pain her daughter called an ambulance and basically she says this young

00:14:44.340 doctor came over and said we would like to offer you made and she said I didn't even know what was

00:14:50.480 wrong with me at the time and she took a month to recuperate from this back pain that she had

00:14:57.540 and then she went on to go to Mexico Cuba and Guatemala shortly after all of that and so

00:15:04.820 she shared this with me just one-to-one after a talk and I said would you be willing to say that

00:15:11.160 on camera and she said yeah I don't see why not and so I recorded a short clip I posted it on X

00:15:18.580 and it quickly amassed more than 300,000 views and finally some media started to pay attention

00:15:26.060 it was picked up by the New York Post, People, Daily Mail, several other outlets in Canada

00:15:32.940 and City News Vancouver and then interestingly City News Vancouver received word from another

00:15:39.700 family who came forward because of Miriam's story and said, even though this happened to our family

00:15:45.600 a while ago, and we had never thought to bring it to the media, Miriam's decision to go to the media

00:15:51.300 made us come forward as well. And that's why I say that there's going to be a bit of a Me Too

00:15:56.140 moment with Made in Canada, where seniors start to become emboldened. And rather than the

00:16:02.320 embarrassment at having been mistreated, they become courageous ambassadors for life, telling

00:16:08.860 us about coming out on the other side full of life and hope and resilience you know and

00:16:14.980 I know that a lot of of the advocacy done around this issue is frequently done by the families

00:16:24.720 closest to the seniors and so for me this is just uh an just another reason why frankly we

00:16:34.940 shouldn't warehouse our old people and we should stay as close to our loved ones as they enter

00:16:41.780 their golden years as possible we have to act as advocates for them as they try to navigate the

00:16:47.480 medical system because you know when when our our seniors our elderly our vulnerable are in the

00:16:56.980 medical system alone, uh, there can be a moment of weakness where you feel like a burden on society

00:17:05.580 and that becomes a bit of an earworm that can lead to catastrophic results.

00:17:12.220 Yeah. And in a position of vulnerability, especially you expect that the doctor is on

00:17:15.940 your side and that, and that whatever they suggest would be for your good. And so when

00:17:20.760 something is suggested and it actually is for your death, it's so shattering. It really breaks

00:17:25.680 that doctor-patient trusting relationship. And I think that these offers, these unsolicited

00:17:32.080 offers of euthanasia are really, really detrimental to the self-esteem of seniors and also to the

00:17:40.340 confidence of families in our healthcare system. And you're right, there are so many family members

00:17:46.000 who are speaking out. And I think this is important, especially for those who, I think,

00:17:53.140 well i'll just say that we have a tendency of addressing the euthanasia topic as it pertains

00:17:59.660 to individuals individuals choices and it's really important that we attend to the social reality

00:18:07.660 and the way that this choice reverberates throughout all of society because it's not

00:18:14.080 a victimless choice the way that people are left behind the complex grief the intergenerational

00:18:20.380 trauma. So I've heard from many people, adult children, adult grandchildren, two of my latest

00:18:26.440 short films feature the adult grandchildren speaking out. And similarly, there was a

00:18:31.600 hesitancy, there was a resistance. And this is why we don't hear a lot of stories from the adult

00:18:36.740 children and adult grandchildren is because, sadly, devastatingly, family members are met

00:18:42.480 with the accusation of selfishness for wanting their loved one to be with them as long as

00:18:48.200 possible until their last natural breath they're accused of selfishness for not wanting a doctor

00:18:55.000 to give them a lethal injection and and an overdose of medications that will end their life

00:19:01.400 it's the complete inversion because euthanasia is what's the opposite of love and it's the loving

00:19:09.180 response to mount resistance to this particular form of suicidal ideation and to this particular

00:19:16.060 form of abandonment and so we have to resist this and I think more as more and more family members

00:19:22.220 come forward and say we are not made for this this is not natural this is not healthy this is not

00:19:30.160 good for us I don't think it's going to last as well so I think it's very important that seniors

00:19:36.000 think about their legacy because I don't think this is going to last very long and if you go

00:19:42.200 through with this unfortunately I think you will be part of an anomaly historically speaking and

00:19:49.420 your family will know that you at this particular moment fell for something that was sold as a good

00:19:58.740 but that was recognized not long after to be gravely evil and dehumanizing. Yeah you know

00:20:05.980 the families left behind when you speak to them it's almost like you're speaking to the survivors

00:20:13.020 of a violent crime that happened to them they're just they have this grief and trauma and sense of

00:20:19.480 helplessness that uh that in another circumstance they would be met with compassion but instead

00:20:29.460 they're met with accusations of selfishness or lack of understanding or lack of care it's the

00:20:37.500 most bizarre inversion that these people have to be traumatized not once by the act but the second

00:20:44.780 time by the system that perpetrates it and and then to some extent uh depending on where you

00:20:51.900 consume your media, the media that sort of celebrates the act of euthanasia. I want to

00:20:59.860 ask you about the best thing that we can do as a society to make this an unthinkable choice

00:21:15.240 for our elderly and our suffering and our sad

00:21:19.140 because there are things that we can do

00:21:22.020 while things are being sorted out in the political realm

00:21:27.140 because while this may be legal,

00:21:30.720 I would like for it to become unthinkable.

00:21:33.100 And I know you have some things that we can do

00:21:36.640 in our communities to make people understand

00:21:44.160 that this is an unconscionable choice and will leave a hole in the world if they choose it.

00:21:51.700 Yes, I'm glad you want to go there because that really is the heart of the matter. How

00:21:56.040 do we persuade people that the world is better with them in it? It's really a form of suicide

00:22:01.720 prevention that's called for in our euthanasia society. And I think the first step is looking

00:22:07.580 at the kinds of suffering that people who are actually going for euthanasia say are driving

00:22:14.960 their request, because that takes seriously their motivations and the cry of their hearts.

00:22:21.300 And so one good thing that our government does is release a 95-page usually report of

00:22:28.720 data around euthanasia.

00:22:30.900 It's called the MAID Annual Report.

00:22:33.060 and the last one bears similar data to all the previous years and the last one for which we have

00:22:41.160 data is 2024 and there's a chart in there that says the main kinds of suffering leading people

00:22:47.460 to request euthanasia and the number one kind of suffering by people's own admission driving

00:22:53.740 their request is an inability to engage in meaningful life activities inability to engage

00:23:00.660 in meaningful life activities. So the first question is, how do we make sure that there

00:23:05.040 are meaningful activities in our lives that can withstand the loss, the circumstances,

00:23:11.380 and the conditions in which we are bound to find ourselves as we age, as we develop certain

00:23:18.140 illnesses, as we suffer certain losses? That's really the heart, is the search for meaning.

00:23:26.060 now the next reason why people say they're they're motivated for euthanasia is an inability to do the

00:23:33.140 daily activities of personal care and daily living and so this too requires some work ahead of time

00:23:40.360 and this is where people with disabilities have a lot of I think insight and contributions to make

00:23:46.560 because unfortunately sometimes when you go through life with a lot of health and independence

00:23:50.780 and wealth you think if this or that happens to me then I wouldn't want to live anymore

00:23:55.600 but what that attitude does is it actually dehumanizes and devalues everyone who might

00:24:01.640 be in that situation already or throughout their lives of having less than you of having certain

00:24:08.300 disabilities and most people with disabilities will say I love my life and this is the only life

00:24:16.560 I know and so if you just kind of live your way into the next step you'll find you're capable of

00:24:22.000 bearing much more than you thought possible. There's a lot of projection. And so it's addressing

00:24:27.040 those feelings of projection and also preparing ourselves to receive the love and care of others

00:24:32.880 after probably years of giving and being generous and providing for others. Somehow we have to work

00:24:39.180 our way into being able to lovingly receive that attention. Then the next kinds of suffering by

00:24:46.180 people's own admission are a loss of independence and a loss of dignity. So again, very interesting.

00:24:52.360 These are very first world problems in terms of driving the euthanasia crisis. And again,

00:24:57.860 this is from the government data of those specifically going for euthanasia. These are

00:25:03.280 the reasons they're giving. And then there's existential distress and a kind of general fear.

00:25:07.620 But only after all of those reasons I've just been discussing, does pain slash the fear of pain

00:25:14.780 even enter in and so we do know that there are gaps in palliative care and that not everyone

00:25:21.100 has adequate access to proper medical care and timely medical care that's first and foremost

00:25:26.840 that's the basic we must make sure that we're providing adequate health care palliative care

00:25:35.660 to people but again the driver of euthanasia is not so much that as it is all of the adjacent

00:25:44.020 existential psychological social factors i know that people are asking for euthanasia because

00:25:50.480 they are bereaved i read the obituaries of people who are opting for made and it's there's basically

00:25:57.000 a genre of uh euthanasia obituaries of of uh bereaved spouses and nobody's talking about this

00:26:07.040 we have to take seriously the loneliness the alienation the abandonment because this is a

00:26:13.840 social crisis more than a medical one. Amanda, how do people find the very important work that

00:26:22.820 you're doing to address those issues of loneliness, isolation, and abandonment?

00:26:30.660 You can go to dyingtomeatyou.com and see the short films I've released. There are going to

00:26:35.900 be more resources coming soon. I was recently hearing from someone who said, oh, this person

00:26:40.840 is planning on dying by maid? Do you have talking points? And my heart just kind of sank because

00:26:47.500 it's very inadequate. You can't just do a one pager or cue cards to save lives. It takes

00:26:54.480 the engagement. And so I gave her a call and I said, why does this person want to die? And she

00:27:00.240 said, well, she's terrified of being a burden to her adult sons. And I said, well, please tell her

00:27:06.660 that nothing would burden her sons more than her suicide and that she is a gift for them as long

00:27:13.220 as she lives but you can't script all of this ahead of time it takes coming alongside and so

00:27:19.000 that's why I travel all across Canada all the time engaging people every day in the uniqueness of

00:27:25.200 their circumstances and I hope that the videos the podcasts the short films give a bit of a flavor of

00:27:31.180 those discussions I do a lot of workshops all across the country so we can engage these themes

00:27:36.240 of meaning dignity dependence together in community through actual workshop exercises

00:27:42.840 and if people are looking to learn more about life-affirming health care in Canada you can

00:27:48.740 check out physiciansforlife.ca join the email list there get a weekly digest of

00:27:54.140 about of news from a life-affirming health care perspective about the latest developments

00:28:00.200 legislatively and within the professional domain concerning this. So stay engaged in the issue,

00:28:07.280 have conversations every day about these topics, because what I find without exception is that

00:28:14.260 people want to talk about suffering, death, meaning, and hope. And you can be the occasion

00:28:19.780 to create that opening. It might seem uncomfortable or awkward at first, but you'll see that it

00:28:24.680 becomes a basis for intimacy, communion, and depth that you would not have wanted to miss.

00:28:31.040 Amanda, thank you so much for the work that you do to help the vulnerable, help their families navigate these challenges in our bizarre, death-focused society.

00:28:46.440 I've seen the work that you do firsthand.

00:28:49.080 I've seen you take phone calls.

00:28:51.680 And it's just admirable, your drive to change lives and to save lives.

00:28:57.400 So thank you so much, Amanda, for the work that you do on behalf of Canadians.

00:29:01.640 But I think for the world writ large.

00:29:04.660 So thanks, Amanda.

00:29:05.900 Thanks for all you do, too.

00:29:07.040 And it was great to be a part of the documentary project with you, too.

00:29:10.020 Thank you.

00:29:17.780 As always, the last portion of the show goes to you, our viewers at home.

00:29:21.140 I want to know what you think about the work that we do here at Rebel News, because, well,

00:29:25.060 without you, there's no Rebel News.

00:29:26.280 we don't take any money from the government so i better care what you people think about the work

00:29:31.000 that we do over here one of the ways you can send me viewer feedback is to send me an email

00:29:35.740 sheila at rebelnews.com put gun show letters in the subject line so i know why you're emailing me

00:29:41.080 and let me know what you think about my interview with amanda but there are also other ways that you

00:29:47.180 can engage with us and perhaps see your viewer comment read on air leave a comment in the

00:29:53.420 comment section where you find free clips of the show that does a couple of things for us it well

00:29:59.160 obviously provides your feedback but it also means that our content is engaged with and if it's

00:30:04.880 engaged with then it ends up served up to more people in the algorithms either on rumble or on

00:30:12.440 youtube so do that for me too if you're so inclined now today's viewer feedback comes to me

00:30:19.600 by way of my interview that I did when I was hosting for Ezra last week on the Ezra Levant

00:30:24.720 show with Alberta's education minister, Demetrios Nikolaides. Now, he had introduced and passed now

00:30:34.400 some days later, Bill 25. Bill 25 is political neutrality in the classroom, which means that

00:30:41.040 activist teachers cannot drag their politics into the classroom and then stuff them down the

00:30:46.040 throats of your kids so that you have to constantly deprogram your kids once they get 1.00

00:30:51.300 home. Although it is a good idea to just needle them about what they learned in a day. So that

00:30:57.340 all that political neutrality law also banned pride flags, which is a delight for someone like

00:31:06.500 me and people who just want kids to go to school and learn. So I thought I would go get your viewer

00:31:12.760 feedback from that. So user LQ4CC8Z1T says, this is definitely an issue in my kids' elementary

00:31:23.760 class. Field trips and class guests are also a regular point of contention. There is anything

00:31:29.560 but balance, presenting multiple points of view or critical thinking, even though they regularly

00:31:34.360 assert they teach this. I know the government lets the school system perform hiring, but these

00:31:39.520 hires most definitely come with undesired ideology ingrained. Maybe we should just

00:31:44.880 outright ban hiring from BC. That's so funny. Well, you know, the good news is there will

00:31:55.120 be an ability for you to complain if this doesn't stop in the classroom.

00:32:02.440 Arie Four writes, how to think, not what to think. Bravo. That's a direct quote from the

00:32:08.680 minister who said, you know, this is what we want to occur in the classroom. We want kids to learn

00:32:13.140 how to engage with a range of ideas instead of just the ideas that the teacher thinks are the

00:32:18.780 only acceptable ones in society. And three, um, for you says school is for learning, not

00:32:28.180 indoctrination. So glad this is happening. Way too many teachers think their beliefs are the only

00:32:32.220 believes yeah rock duik 615 it seems like every day i find another reason to be proud of alberta

00:32:42.000 that pride only increases when we become the republic of alberta and get free of carny and

00:32:47.660 carny field a play on brookfield there uh patty cramps home 1169 as far as having to protect this 1.00

00:32:56.100 law perhaps a huge house cleaning is required this multi-letter ideology has been slid into

00:33:01.080 the system over many years we never really saw it coming until it seemed to hit us between the

00:33:06.060 eyes every single teacher that wants to keep pushing this lie upon children needs to be fired

00:33:09.800 period sometimes flipping over the card table is the only way isn't that what jesus did

00:33:14.920 flipping the tables um yeah i think a lot of people didn't realize how this sort of ideology

00:33:25.180 ideological infestation in the classroom crept in until it was just fully rooted and now we have

00:33:33.840 to pull those weeds out by the roots last one ali costova 2255 says this is not a free speech

00:33:42.480 issue teachers your your employees and are bound to a code if i was a salesperson caught selling

00:33:48.600 the virtues of the competition, I'd be fired. Your union is neither elected nor representative

00:33:54.900 of the voters. Quit pretending otherwise. It's getting so tiresome. Let's fund the students,

00:33:59.460 not the institution. Competition will break these crazy ideologues. You know, Alberta has 0.82

00:34:04.740 the most diverse school system in the entire country. And you know who hates it the most? 1.00

00:34:09.340 The teachers union. Isn't that funny? You know, where you have the ability, despite your

00:34:15.240 socioeconomic background to choose private school charter school religious school or secular school

00:34:21.060 in this province but the teachers union really hate it because uh every kid is supposed to

00:34:28.720 just struggle their way through the cookie cutter system where the unionized teachers can do whatever

00:34:33.840 they want well not anymore well everybody that's the show for today thank you so much for tuning

00:34:39.400 in i'll see everybody back here in the same time in the same place next week and as always

00:34:43.000 don't let the government and also the teachers tell you that you've had too much to think.

Rebel News Podcast - April 08, 2026

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Alberta moves to curb non-terminal euthanasia as debate shifts from pain to purpose

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript