Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Drug addicts need hope and help, not paraphernalia and poisons

00:00:00.000 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is doing her best to prevent Calgary and Edmonton from turning into

00:00:19.760 East Hastings satellite colonies. Then Arthur C. Green of the Western Standard joins me to

00:00:24.720 discuss his work documenting the social decay in downtown Edmonton. It's February 15th, 2023.

00:00:31.660 Rebel News' 8th birthday. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:39.900 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:00:43.280 It's bad, real bad, in the neighbourhood of East Hastings, Vancouver. It's quite

00:00:56.460 accurately been described as hell on earth.

00:01:00.060 In BC and if you become Prime Minister.

00:01:02.160 Yes. By the way, I'm going to add just on that. Decriminalization has been in place in BC now since about 2017. In reality. The results are in. The debate is over. It has been a disaster. An absolute, abject failure. You not only need to take a walk down the streets of East Vancouver, where addicts lay face first on the pavement, where people are living permanently in tents and encampments, but you just need to look at the data.

00:01:32.100 A 300% increase in drug overdose deaths in British Columbia since Trudeau took office eight years ago. The Trudeau NDP approach is on open display in Vancouver. It is a complete disaster. It is hell on earth.

00:01:50.980 We're going to reverse that policy and we're going to reverse and we're going to replace it with recovery and treatment. That's what works. And again, the debate is over on that as well. In Alberta, they doubled the number of treatment beds from 4,000 to 8,000 and they've cut in half the number of overdoses. We need to save our brothers, our sisters, our neighbours, our friends from the scourge of drug addiction. And a quality of government will make sure there is treatment and recovery to do that.

00:02:14.980 East Hastings Vancouver is a disease riddled third world slum inside one of the most expensive beautiful cities in the Western world. It's a place where misery, suffering, addiction, desperation and remorse are all shoehorned out of the view of fancy people in some sort of open air prison where the bars that can find you are opioids. And no one, no one should live like this. These people are human beings, the least of our brothers.

00:02:41.980 But of course, the comments of Pierre Polyev about East Hastings being hell on earth offended the mayor of Vancouver, Ken Sim. I mean, of course it did. What progressive wants to admit to themselves that the very same failed policies they have supported for decades and now continue to implement are the same ones causing such human suffering?

00:03:03.740 Who wants to preside over human misery? And not just misery of the addicts, but also of their families who suffer along with them in a thousand different ways.

00:03:16.720 And I'm not exaggerating when I say government policies of turning a blind eye to drug addiction and enabling drug addiction through handing out drugs and paraphernalia and offering a safe place to poison oneself with illegal drugs are an abject failure.

00:03:32.060 The data supports it. Look at this analysis done three years ago. So let's just assume that it's worse because we've put the pandemic on top of this.

00:03:41.180 Public health officials and progressive leaders often cite Vancouver, Canada as the gold standard of harm reduction over the past 30 years.

00:03:51.200 Vancouver has implemented the full range of harm reduction strategies.

00:03:55.580 The centerpiece of the city's current efforts is the Insight Safe Injection Facility on East Hastings Street, which has drawn the attention of academics and media from around the world.

00:04:05.940 Advocates argue that such facilities can prevent fatal overdoses, reduce rates of infection, connect addicts with social services, and mitigate street disorder with few negative consequences.

00:04:19.900 What's happening in Vancouver can hardly be categorized as a success, however.

00:04:24.300 Though harm reduction has brought some benefits, such as reducing the transmission of HIV, it has also compounded the problems of addiction, homelessness, and public disorder.

00:04:35.360 Vancouver's concentration of services in its own opioid district, the downtown east side, has created a veritable death trap for addicts around British Columbia who travel there to obtain drugs, overdose, and then perish in the streets.

00:04:54.320 If you build it, they will come, I guess.

00:04:56.940 On the surface, Vancouver is an unlikely location for an opioid epidemic.

00:05:01.500 In popular imagination, the crisis is taking place in impoverished inner-city slums or forgotten rural communities.

00:05:09.340 According to the influential deaths of despair hypothesis, the opioid crisis is most pronounced in communities exposed to prolonged economic distress, leading to a decline in life expectancy for middle-aged men.

00:05:23.440 But Vancouver is neither West Baltimore nor West Virginia.

00:05:27.040 It is one of the world's most prosperous and progressive cities, with a booming economy, liberal leadership, and universal health care.

00:05:36.500 And yet, despite this affluence, the city faces one of the worst drug problems on record.

00:05:42.520 Since 2008, overdose deaths in British Columbia are up 151%, with Vancouver's numbers driving much of the increase.

00:05:52.940 According to CTV News, Vancouver's paramedics and dispatchers are feeling fatigued and burnt out by the pace of the opioid overdoses, and some are experiencing occupational stress injuries, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

00:06:09.860 Bear with me, friends. I'm almost done.

00:06:11.940 The downtown east side neighbourhood is ground zero for the troubles.

00:06:15.160 For the past century, the area has been Vancouver's skid row, home to a dense network of cheap hotels, bars, brothels, and increasingly homeless encampments and social services offices.

00:06:26.700 It's here, across 10 city blocks, that Vancouver has launched its experiment in harm reduction, opening Canada's first needle exchange in 1988, and North America's first safe injection facility in 2003.

00:06:42.940 Rather than try to disperse the downtown east side's social pathologies throughout the region,

00:06:51.060 policymakers have decided to concentrate new subsidized housing construction, welfare services, and drug programs in the neighbourhood.

00:06:58.720 Total social spending in the downtown east side now amounts to more than $1 million per day.

00:07:05.760 Despite these intensive efforts, the city has failed meaningfully to reduce rates of addiction, homelessness, and criminality in the neighbourhood,

00:07:14.780 which remains the epicentre for all overdose deaths in the region.

00:07:20.040 In 2017, the city of Vancouver logged 8,000 overdose calls, with the downtown east side responsible for 5,000 of the total.

00:07:30.660 Again, 10 city blocks, even with a population of only a few thousand residents.

00:07:37.260 The DTES, as it's called, the downtown east side of Vancouver, was turned into an open-air social experiment three decades ago,

00:07:46.180 where the mad scientists who didn't have to live with the results of their human trials experimented on the most vulnerable amongst us.

00:07:52.620 All this, instead of getting the help they needed to be clean and productive through treatment, deterrence, and mental health supports.

00:08:00.880 We have nearly two generations of data here to know government enabling of drug addiction does not work.

00:08:08.420 But it gets worse, because BC is now legalizing hard drugs.

00:08:11.880 Just enabling people into their graves, either slowly, in prolonged suffering, or quickly, through an expedited overdose.

00:08:20.300 And they're calling it compassion and understanding.

00:08:24.100 Alberta has also been hammered by the opioid crisis, as so many places have been.

00:08:28.740 It was made worse, of course, as it has been, I think, across the world by the societal trauma of the pandemic lockdowns.

00:08:35.860 But Alberta is doing something very different, and I will give credit where it's due.

00:08:40.640 The move away from the NDP liberal policy of government enabling and safe injection sites and safe supply began under the previous conservative premier, Jason Kenney.

00:08:52.560 Kenney opened up treatment beds and swatted down the insane NDP idea that the things addicts really need to get better are more drugs,

00:09:01.580 a warm place to do those drugs, and have it all provided by the state.

00:09:05.500 A new premier, Daniel Smith, to her credit, is not just carrying on in the same vein as Kenney, but going even further.

00:09:12.540 And I love to see it.

00:09:14.840 She's going full speed ahead. 0.98

00:09:16.320 Everything I'm going to show you, or at least the next two things I'm about to show you,

00:09:19.780 is from the first half of this week, and it is Wednesday morning.

00:09:24.920 As I'm writing this monologue that I'm speaking right now,

00:09:27.500 the provincial government is making an announcement in Calgary for more detox and pre-treatment addiction beds,

00:09:34.140 on top of the 4,000 beds previously announced that the government is exceeding pace on achieving.

00:09:42.140 Yesterday, the provincial government, so February 14th, Valentine's Day, announced a pilot project

00:09:47.260 in partnership with the Calgary City Police to deploy Alberta sheriffs to assist the Calgary Police

00:09:53.200 in keeping the transit system safe from drug addicts and drug dealers.

00:09:58.300 It's a three-month pilot project to see if it's effective.

00:10:01.960 Alberta's Public Safety Ministry is deploying an additional 12 sheriffs,

00:10:05.700 and their job is to address social disorder in downtown Calgary.

00:10:10.700 And two weeks ago, Public Safety Alberta announced a similar 15-week pilot project

00:10:16.700 with the Edmonton City Police, again, deploying a dozen sheriffs to help get a handle

00:10:22.320 on whatever is happening in the downtown core of the capital city.

00:10:26.660 Daniel Smith has even inspired the progressive mayors to walk back some of their own enabling behaviors,

00:10:32.480 especially in Edmonton.

00:10:34.800 Look at this.

00:10:35.400 In an attempt to reduce open drug use in public places,

00:10:40.040 harm reduction contractors are no longer giving syringes and pipes to people in pedways or near transit centers,

00:10:48.820 a change attracting mixed reaction.

00:10:51.920 The, quote, clarified approach took effect February 1st because of safety concerns,

00:10:57.460 a city official in charge of the program said in a statement to CTV News Edmonton.

00:11:02.800 We anticipate this clarification will prevent negative interactions

00:11:06.880 between those working in transit spaces and those turning to transit spaces to consume drugs,

00:11:13.320 said Bus Operations Director Ryan Birch.

00:11:17.140 Did you know that the City of Edmonton had been hiring contractors to give out crack pipes in ETS bus shelters?

00:11:25.600 What in God's name is wrong with these people?

00:11:27.760 In every person that gets clean, I see a child who gets her dad back,

00:11:34.480 a mom who doesn't have to worry about her son dying before her,

00:11:38.600 a neighbor who doesn't have to worry about their car being stolen,

00:11:41.780 a family that can finally take their kids to the park without having to worry about stepping on needles,

00:11:47.140 and shame, shame on those people who call it a kindness to foist that misery on so many innocents.

00:11:53.620 Stay with me.

00:11:54.960 Up after the break, we've got Arthur C. Green from the Western Standard.

00:11:58.760 He's a bit of a new Edmontonian, and if you follow him on Twitter,

00:12:01.960 you'll see how progressive policies have failed the vulnerable in Edmonton.

00:12:06.960 Well, mayors in Canada's major cities seem to be worried about the feelings of drag queen performers in their cities, 0.65

00:12:26.440 as Calgary's mayor, Jody Gondik, is threatening to use anti-harassment laws against peaceful protesters in her city.

00:12:36.220 Calgary and other major cities in this country are descending into social decay,

00:12:41.000 and one independent journalist who has been doing incredible work documenting just how bad it is in Edmonton is Arthur C. Green.

00:12:51.380 He works for the Western Standard, and this is the first time we're talking to him officially here at Rebel News,

00:12:57.760 and I'm so excited to have him join us.

00:12:59.900 Art, tell me, what made this your focus?

00:13:05.260 Because you're really the only person talking about this, at least in media,

00:13:11.300 and you're an independent journalist, so you get a little bit more freedom,

00:13:14.840 but how did this end up on your radar?

00:13:16.640 Art, first of all, I don't really tell a whole lot about my personal life.

00:13:24.920 Sure.

00:13:25.640 But I have a mother-in-law who is addicted to drugs and who lives homeless,

00:13:33.280 and I've been trying for two years to get her help.

00:13:38.020 She's lived with me and my girlfriend several times,

00:13:41.520 and, you know, we've instilled rules in our household, you know, no getting high and no bringing drugs into our house,

00:13:48.220 and she wasn't able to abide by those rules.

00:13:52.600 So I've been trying to get her help for about two years,

00:13:56.260 and, you know, I was riding the LRT one day, and I'm a very observant person,

00:14:01.800 and this was about three months ago, and I just thought to myself, I was like, you know,

00:14:08.600 as a journalist and having to deal with this situation myself,

00:14:12.740 if I couldn't get my mother-in-law help, how would I get anybody else help that is also dealing with a drug addiction?

00:14:21.380 And so I started riding the LRT.

00:14:23.500 I did have one resident, and I won't say her name because she doesn't want me to name her,

00:14:29.800 but she reached out to me, and she works in downtown Edmonton,

00:14:33.880 and she has two autistic children, and, you know, she rides the LRT.

00:14:39.920 She's a hard-working Albertan, and she rides the LRT to downtown, 0.99

00:14:43.620 and, you know, she told me a story about how she kisses her children goodbye in the mornings,

00:14:48.640 not knowing if she's going to return that evening,

00:14:52.500 and it's because of the dangers that she faces on the LRT system.

00:14:58.240 So having been all over the world, I've been through 27 countries,

00:15:02.700 and I've been to some pretty scary places.

00:15:04.500 I've lived in Belfast and some other places, so I'm quite fearless.

00:15:10.040 I decided that, you know, I'm going to take a stand,

00:15:13.060 and I don't believe in safe supply, Sheila,

00:15:16.860 because, you know, at AA meetings, we don't give out alcohol shots at AA meetings,

00:15:22.840 so why are we giving out safe supply of drugs to drug addicts?

00:15:28.520 And I just want to enforce a note, you know,

00:15:32.400 there is no safe supply of meth, heroin, and cocaine.

00:15:36.800 No matter what the government says, you know,

00:15:39.620 there is no safe supply of these hard drugs,

00:15:41.700 and I truly believe that safe supply and handing out needles, you know,

00:15:47.200 and again, Edmonton made a decision yesterday.

00:15:50.520 I was reading that they're going to stop handing out needles here now in the LRT system,

00:15:56.180 which is a first step.

00:15:58.040 But, you know, we don't give drugs to drug addicts, is the thing, you know,

00:16:04.260 because, like, how is that helping them?

00:16:07.000 And I know that what my mother-in-law, and again, I'm trying not to ramble here, Sheila,

00:16:11.940 but again, like, you know, people have really,

00:16:15.680 I've experienced a lot of hate in the last three months,

00:16:19.100 and I'm going to call them out.

00:16:21.080 It's from the woke left and liberals and NDP supporters.

00:16:24.360 They don't like what I'm doing.

00:16:25.760 You know, they say I'm not preserving people's dignity.

00:16:28.900 But, like, on their photo, Sheila, and you know, because you're a journalist,

00:16:31.460 if you're in a public place, I'm allowed to take your picture and publish it.

00:16:37.240 And, you know, people say, you know, you need to preserve these people's dignity.

00:16:43.280 And, you know, I preserve people's dignity.

00:16:49.560 I watched a man, you know, use the bathroom a couple months ago on Jasper Avenue

00:16:54.800 when it was minus 40.

00:16:55.920 And, you know, it was frozen to him as he was trying to wipe himself.

00:17:00.540 And, you know, his dignity is already gone.

00:17:03.400 And I once lived homeless myself, and I won't tell my own story.

00:17:07.740 But, you know, when you're down, you never think you're going to be up again.

00:17:11.000 And when you're up, you never think you're going to be down.

00:17:12.960 So don't judge the person that's on the corner, you know,

00:17:16.300 addicted to drugs and homeless, because it could be you.

00:17:19.400 And it can happen to anyone.

00:17:21.040 Addiction touches all families.

00:17:22.500 And, of course, it's touched mine.

00:17:26.140 And, you know, my girlfriend, her family has been torn apart by drugs.

00:17:31.780 And, you know, I see the pain that it causes her.

00:17:35.940 And I just want to help other people and humanity here in Edmonton.

00:17:40.720 So that's a little bit about why I started this.

00:17:45.060 You know, I've got a real tough time taking lessons about preserving human dignity

00:17:49.160 from people whose progressive policies are damning Edmonton's homeless and drug addicted

00:17:54.660 to a slow, tumultuous death.

00:17:56.900 And it's not just the drug addict, as you point out.

00:17:59.480 And you're not alone in this.

00:18:00.720 I mean, drug addiction touches.

00:18:02.600 I think you'd be hard pressed to find a family that has escaped it.

00:18:07.340 But it's not just the addict that is suffering out on the street.

00:18:13.980 It's their family.

00:18:15.120 It's, you know, it's you here who, you know, you're trying to get your girlfriend's mom

00:18:20.920 some help.

00:18:21.720 And you've got progressives telling you that you don't care about the addicted.

00:18:27.240 Tell me, this has put you on the radar of some pretty scary characters.

00:18:31.120 And really, all you're doing is taking pictures and sharing pictures of the things you see

00:18:37.520 on your way to work.

00:18:38.840 What's, you know, like, tell us about the ramifications of just telling the truth for you.

00:18:46.300 Well, like I tell people, the absolute truth will be my legacy, Sheila.

00:18:52.020 You know, I always say to people, I work for the people, the Western standard just pays me.

00:18:56.500 And, you know, it's, my girlfriend is really scared.

00:19:02.400 She really worries about me.

00:19:04.500 But, you know, I'll die for this, for this stance that I've taken.

00:19:10.340 And, you know, I haven't really reported a whole lot on what I've experienced because

00:19:15.440 I don't want to be seen as a snowflake.

00:19:17.640 You know, we saw the Kiliman McGowan video where he gave me the finger and we posted it

00:19:22.680 online.

00:19:23.020 And, you know, people said, oh, you're a snowflake and, you know, you're, you know, you're making

00:19:30.500 a mountain out of a mohill, basically.

00:19:32.460 Right.

00:19:32.860 But if the mainstream media journalists get a mean tweet, they're going to convene a government

00:19:39.280 panel to examine the treatment of female journalists online.

00:19:43.300 But independent journalists and you, you can get, you know, shoved, assaulted, threatened

00:19:47.780 by well-connected people and nobody seems to care.

00:19:52.220 Well, and, you know, two months ago, some people in the LRT tried to set me on fire for

00:20:00.540 taking pictures.

00:20:02.820 So, you know, they sprayed me with a flammable liquid and tried to light me.

00:20:08.500 And just a little bit about myself, you know, I do have a rough and tough background being

00:20:14.920 a newfie and being all over the world.

00:20:17.060 And, you know, I've worked in some pretty scary places and the devil wouldn't frighten

00:20:20.960 me and I can fight.

00:20:22.060 I'm good at it now.

00:20:22.740 I didn't want to fight anyone, but I was willing to fight those people that day.

00:20:27.380 And, you know, I can handle myself and I can look after myself, but it worries me about

00:20:32.960 the seniors and, you know, other people, children who are riding the trains and who can't look

00:20:39.960 after themselves.

00:20:40.540 Uh, so I've been in some scary situations and, uh, I don't want to put a bigger target

00:20:45.300 on my head, but I've been told that gang members have a price on Arthur Green and Edmonton.

00:20:50.600 And, you know, I'm upsetting the balance because these drug dealers are preying on these vulnerable

00:20:56.420 people and, you know, they're preying on my mother-in-law and I don't, uh, I don't,

00:21:01.080 I don't take that lightly.

00:21:02.060 Um, it's personal for me and I'm not going to back down and, uh, yeah, so every, every

00:21:08.520 vulnerable person group that I follow, cause like I do, I observe and report, I'm an investigative

00:21:14.300 journalist.

00:21:14.700 So like I do watch people, uh, I won't say I stock people, but I do watch people and I

00:21:21.440 followed some groups around the city and, you know, the same individuals, um, muster

00:21:28.460 within these groups and I know they're the dealers and I can figure this out.

00:21:32.380 Uh, uh, having lived on a street myself again and having, uh, uh, a tremendous background

00:21:40.120 when it comes to, you know, being down and out, uh, there was no one ever down and out

00:21:45.720 as I was, uh, you know, I picked myself back up and now it's, it's, uh, I just can't stop

00:21:53.520 Sheila and I'm not going to stop.

00:21:55.780 Um, this is happening, you know, people can, you know, live in their glass houses.

00:22:00.640 They say, don't throw rocks at glass houses and people can live in their houses and, you

00:22:04.160 know, worry about their supper and what they're going to watch on TV that night.

00:22:07.740 When meanwhile in downtown Edmonton, uh, drug dealers are, uh, you know, preying on the

00:22:13.820 vulnerable and causing chaos.

00:22:15.980 And, you know, these dealers, they usually wear red hats.

00:22:19.800 Uh, I don't mind.

00:22:20.880 I'm not afraid. 0.96

00:22:21.940 I mean, if they come and kill me, Sheila, they come and kill me.

00:22:24.720 Um, that's, that's the point that I'm at now because there's no turning back now.

00:22:29.840 Sheila, you know, I've exposed something that's very serious.

00:22:33.120 It's been going on, uh, in Edmonton on toll for at least the last four or five years.

00:22:39.280 Um, nothing's been done.

00:22:41.520 And, you know, a lot of journalists have messaged me and people from independent podcasts that

00:22:46.500 tried, um, to bring light to this, but were scared off.

00:22:51.120 And, you know, I've been invited.

00:22:53.540 I've been talking to gang members, Sheila.

00:22:55.240 I wrote a story, um, a couple of months ago about a shooting here in downtown Edmonton.

00:23:00.680 A girl was shot by, by gang members.

00:23:04.320 And, and, you know, I didn't have the full story.

00:23:07.460 The police only told me so much, but the gang members actually reached out to me and was

00:23:11.880 like, Hey, this is the truth.

00:23:13.120 And this is what happened.

00:23:14.240 And, you know, they invited me to their penthouse.

00:23:17.540 Apparently there's a penthouse here in Edmonton that they have.

00:23:20.260 And, and, you know, my boss wasn't too happy at the Western standard or insurance is letting

00:23:26.320 me go.

00:23:27.080 Uh, I didn't go obviously, uh, didn't want to, you know, feels like a trap felt like a trap

00:23:34.240 to me as well. 0.88

00:23:34.960 Like I'm not that stupid, but, uh, you know, it's, it's very serious here in Edmonton. 0.96

00:23:40.740 Um, you know, there's, it's completely out of control. 0.92

00:23:45.420 And I was able to show that just like the other day, uh, someone messaged me on Twitter.

00:23:51.640 And again, it's not only me, Sheila, I have thousands of people who have, uh, also are

00:23:57.500 backing me.

00:23:58.180 You know, my, my Twitter inbox is full every two minutes.

00:24:01.400 It seems I can't keep up with notifications.

00:24:03.240 There's people emailing me and messaging me from every part of the city, you know, saying,

00:24:07.840 Hey, and they've been really helpful too, as well, because they've given me like tips on

00:24:12.980 things that are happening.

00:24:14.020 And, you know, there, so I can't take all the credit myself.

00:24:18.400 It was a, it was a real team effort to, uh, to show what's happening.

00:24:23.040 Now, I want to ask you if you've carefully looked at this, you've lived this.

00:24:28.180 A couple of different ways.

00:24:29.320 You continue to live it.

00:24:31.700 What can the city do tomorrow to make this better?

00:24:37.780 Uh, again, I, I, as a news reporter, I try to keep my opinion editing so I can remain

00:24:43.500 unbiased.

00:24:44.960 And, you know, this is the only real story that I've really stated my opinion on, Sheila,

00:24:50.540 since I started my career six years ago.

00:24:52.620 So, and, you know, my opinion for the city, what they need to do is, uh, first of all,

00:24:58.880 they need to sweep the LRT system.

00:25:01.460 Uh, so start in the South and head North, uh, remove.

00:25:05.240 I know the left and the liberals and the NDP are not going to be too happy about what I'm

00:25:10.220 going to say, but, you know, they're saying these people have nowhere to go, but, you know,

00:25:15.200 the Edmonton city council removed a loitering bylaw.

00:25:20.160 So they essentially created their own problem.

00:25:23.420 Uh, they basically turned the LRT system into a homeless shelter and a place where, you know,

00:25:28.900 vulnerable people can do drugs.

00:25:30.720 And then they were handing out needles in this, in the LRT.

00:25:34.260 So, you know, they didn't even have a reason to leave, Sheila.

00:25:37.680 And, you know, I've been speaking to some people here in the city that have been talking

00:25:42.760 about the Hope Mission, you know, the Hope Mission shows up outside of LRT stations to

00:25:47.600 hand out food and, and, and different things.

00:25:50.420 And what the city needs to do, what they need to do, Sheila, and this is the ultimate answer

00:25:57.000 for me and my girlfriend as well.

00:26:00.340 They need to stop enabling people to be able to do drugs.

00:26:04.260 So for us, um, our mother-in-law hasn't hit rock bottom yet and lost it. 0.99

00:26:10.220 Well, she's, she's about there, but, you know, we were giving her money and she would

00:26:14.400 call for different things, you know, she needed tampons or, or, or whatnot food, or, you know, 0.98

00:26:21.180 it was always a story, but really we know what that money was being used for.

00:26:26.620 And here in Edmonton, you know, the city really needs to stop enabling these people and enabling

00:26:33.740 them why I know they've stopped giving out the needles, but giving out the tools, the

00:26:38.360 deuteron had a way to solve an addiction.

00:26:43.700 Yeah.

00:26:44.200 Yeah.

00:26:45.180 You know, and, and shoehorning the problem for me, I see it as, um, you know, uh, it's

00:26:52.340 almost, and I hate to say systemic racism, but when you are using government, uh, policy

00:26:59.260 to shoehorn drug addicts into a minority neighborhood, like Edmonton's Chinatown, I I'm reliably informed 1.00

00:27:07.860 by the left that that might be considered systemic racism, that you don't want it in your fancy

00:27:12.580 neighborhood, the mayor's fancy neighborhood, but it's perfectly fine to dump it all in Chinatown. 1.00

00:27:17.180 Um, and I've been called racist myself, Sheila, and, you know, people on Twitter are quick

00:27:24.120 to judge me, um, you know, don't quote me on the exact number, but roughly 57% of homeless

00:27:32.700 people in Edmonton are indigenous.

00:27:34.680 And, you know, people were saying by the pictures that I was posting that I was racist and that

00:27:39.820 I was picking up on the indigenous.

00:27:41.980 Well, little did they know my mother-in-law is indigenous and my girlfriend is indigenous.

00:27:45.900 And, you know, I lived up north, Sheila, and I've been through 33 communities in the

00:27:51.300 Northwest Territories.

00:27:52.940 And I thought firsthand how the federal government destroyed a culture of people.

00:27:58.940 And, you know, I, I really started my crusade when I lived in Yellowknife.

00:28:04.440 I started a coats for the coal campaign and.

00:28:07.220 And, you know, people were like, why are you, why are you doing this?

00:28:11.820 And I was like, well, first of all, it's freezing out and mine is 60 and I don't want to have

00:28:17.680 to report these people's deaths.

00:28:19.560 So, you know, my only friends in Yellowknife, uh, were the homeless.

00:28:24.380 Um, and, you know, they were really kind to me and I really, and I really helped a lot

00:28:30.600 of people up there because, um, you know, in Yellowknife, the sobering center is right

00:28:35.840 across from the liquor store.

00:28:37.140 So I don't know how, I don't know how that makes any sense.

00:28:40.420 My first day in Yellowknife as a news reporter, someone killed someone at the sobering center

00:28:44.980 for a bicycle.

00:28:46.460 So it was completely out of control.

00:28:48.840 And when I moved into Yellowknife, uh, is basically, it's a, it's a smaller mirror image of Edmonton

00:28:57.420 of what's happening here because people were like, oh my God, why is there so much crime?

00:29:02.480 What is going on?

00:29:03.360 And I'm like, no, this has always been happening.

00:29:05.360 It's just, I'm reporting it now.

00:29:07.160 And CBC and the mainstream media in Yellowknife just turned a blind eye to this issue.

00:29:14.000 And, you know, basically in Yellowknife, when you commit, or in the Northwest Territories,

00:29:19.400 when you commit a crime, you're sent to Yellowknife to face your charges.

00:29:22.960 And I'll just tell one little quick story about a man from Tayoc, Dayok, uh, you know,

00:29:28.640 he, he lived on the street, um, an entire winter.

00:29:32.680 Um, basically he was charged with a misdemeanor crime in Tayoc, Dayok, sent to Yellowknife to

00:29:37.940 face his charges.

00:29:38.840 Then he was given restrictions.

00:29:40.160 So his restrictions was he had to abide by the peace.

00:29:42.840 Uh, he had to check in once a week and he wasn't allowed one kilometer outside of Yellowknife.

00:29:47.920 So he wasn't allowed to actually leave the city.

00:29:50.420 So once he faced his charges, um, he was given a court date and these restrictions and then

00:29:55.940 through back out on the street.

00:29:58.160 Um, you know, no one was there to help him.

00:30:01.260 I became really close with this man.

00:30:03.400 I actually spent, uh, three months without a paycheck compliments of Vista Radio in Yellowknife

00:30:08.920 and, uh, had to fish from the lake, uh, to eat, uh, to stay alive because I had no one

00:30:15.440 to help me.

00:30:16.380 And, you know, the homeless really helped me.

00:30:19.840 They were the only people that looked out for me.

00:30:21.820 And everyone in Yellowknife are basically the same way that people in Edmonton are, you

00:30:27.580 know, they live in their glass houses and, you know, they don't head downtown.

00:30:30.880 It was so bad in Yellowknife, like with the liquor store that they put another liquor store

00:30:36.460 uptown.

00:30:37.820 So they didn't have to see the indigenous downtown drinking on the side of the street and going 0.98

00:30:42.760 into the indigenous liquor stores, what they call it.

00:30:46.640 Uh, yes, totally terrible.

00:30:48.980 So eventually, uh, I, you know, I asked, I just asked questions.

00:30:54.340 I just talked to people.

00:30:55.320 Same thing I do here in Edmonton.

00:30:56.560 Like people say, oh, you haven't really interviewed anyone.

00:31:00.640 Well, not very many people want to be on camera when they're strung out on drugs.

00:31:05.020 But, you know, I have talked to people and I do talk to everyone that I encounter in Edmonton

00:31:09.960 and the man in Yellowknife, um, I actually went to court with him and because the media

00:31:15.680 got involved, uh, because I was in the courtroom while his case was being here, uh, being, being

00:31:22.640 looked at, they basically were like, oh yeah, we can change our restrictions.

00:31:26.180 Hold on, let us do it.

00:31:27.520 And they changed it.

00:31:28.660 And he was allowed to go back to his family and talk to Yachtyuk, who he hasn't spoken

00:31:32.600 to in 10 months because he didn't have a phone and there's, they didn't have a phone.

00:31:37.060 So there was no communication.

00:31:38.280 He got transferred to Yellowknife by the RCMP and his wife never heard from him again.

00:31:42.620 Now, God bless his heart.

00:31:44.340 He did die in a boating accident that summer.

00:31:46.640 But, uh, you know, I saw what he went through and, you know, he told me he committed crimes

00:31:54.200 in Yellowknife while he was on probation or his restrictions waiting his court day so he

00:31:59.980 could get a shower or so he could stay warm.

00:32:02.980 You know, he went 17 days without a shower and I'll try not to cry because it, uh, it really

00:32:09.880 hits me here, you know, humanity.

00:32:12.460 And it's amazing what another human being can do to another human.

00:32:17.500 Yeah.

00:32:17.940 Yeah.

00:32:18.460 And it, I guess that brings us full circle to, uh, these progressive cities enabling

00:32:23.440 Edmonton's homeless, who, as you rightly point out, are largely indigenous into a slow, horrible 1.00

00:32:29.640 death.

00:32:30.520 I mean, that's really, unless you get clean, you die of your addiction.

00:32:34.120 You either die soon or you die later, but you die of your addiction, Arthur, how do

00:32:39.200 people find the work that you're doing?

00:32:42.000 Um, if they have tips, how do they send them to you?

00:32:44.160 I think what you're doing is just so valuable and I think you're the right guy to do it.

00:32:48.600 Um, I usually just, you know, I give people my email address.

00:32:52.320 It's agreen at westernstandard.news.

00:32:54.660 I always, uh, I always take tips.

00:32:56.240 You can look me up on Twitter at artcgreen, uh, you know, and just give me a follow and send

00:33:02.100 me a message.

00:33:02.620 My phone goes out quite regularly.

00:33:05.180 Um, I just wanted to add one thing, Sheila, about safe supply and the, the mentality of

00:33:12.120 safe supply.

00:33:12.840 You know, the government is saying that we need safe supply, um, for drug addicts.

00:33:17.980 You know, we did see tainted drugs in BC and fentanyl overdoses and whatnot, but I just

00:33:24.860 want to let, you know, Canada know what vulnerable people and drug addicts think of safe supply.

00:33:32.980 So my mother-in-law, for example, I've been telling her how dangerous drugs are, you know,

00:33:38.040 and she wasn't taught growing up in the education system that drugs were bad.

00:33:42.960 You know, she didn't know that crack and meth was so addictive when she tried it.

00:33:46.480 And, you know, with safe supply, I've told her about the dangers of drug use and how her

00:33:53.200 organs are eventually going to shut down and she's going to die. 1.00

00:33:57.040 And, you know, she's like, well, it can't be that bad.

00:33:59.520 The government is decriminalizing it.

00:34:01.880 The government is legalizing it.

00:34:03.260 The government's giving it out with your tax dollars and my tax dollars.

00:34:07.040 And, you know, she thinks it's okay because the government is saying it's okay.

00:34:11.340 Yeah, yeah.

00:34:14.060 I mean, they look at it and they say, look, they put warning labels on cigarettes, but

00:34:18.580 it's okay because I can go get meth.

00:34:21.700 There's mixed messaging.

00:34:23.280 That's for sure.

00:34:24.440 Art, thanks so much for coming on the show.

00:34:27.280 Hopefully we'll have you back on again very, very soon.

00:34:29.820 Best of luck.

00:34:30.620 Please stay safe out there.

00:34:32.760 I'll try my best.

00:34:34.460 And thank you for having me.

00:34:36.080 I'm a huge fan.

00:34:37.300 And I was totally impressed when you reached out to me.

00:34:42.280 And, like, you know, Sheila, some people have said I've been doing this just to gain fame.

00:34:47.760 And, no, I've been doing this because I truly do care about people.

00:34:52.280 This is more than a job for me.

00:34:54.380 This is a life.

00:34:56.120 And, you know, I'm not going to back down.

00:34:58.420 And I will die for this cause because it's about humanity and it's about saving lives.

00:35:04.480 And if it takes my life to save others, then that's what I'm willing to do.

00:35:09.560 Well, Art, if anybody says a mean thing about you, they're going to have to come through me first.

00:35:13.860 Art, we'll have you back on again very, very soon.

00:35:16.160 And as I say, please stay safe.

00:35:17.560 Stay with us.

00:35:18.200 Your letters to Ezra read by me up after the break.

00:35:20.680 Well, we've come to the portion of the show where we, unlike the mainstream media, invite your viewer feedback.

00:35:42.560 On the stories that we're doing.

00:35:44.600 Now, some of you may know that we have sent a team of two journalists, our head of video, Efron Monsanto, and a journalist, Lincoln Jay, to East Palestine, Ohio, to follow the facts wherever they lead.

00:35:56.240 There was a train derailment last week.

00:36:00.360 And according to the official government narrative, they were unable to clean the chemicals in the rail cars up.

00:36:08.700 So they are conducting what they are calling a controlled burn.

00:36:12.620 Now, according to the EPA and the company involved, the controlled burn of these chemicals is not deleterious to public and animal health.

00:36:24.540 But the people from East Palestine are saying something much different.

00:36:29.620 Is this psychosomatic?

00:36:31.500 Is it a cover-up?

00:36:33.200 Is it something in between?

00:36:34.600 We don't know, but we have two brave journalists on the ground in East Palestine to bring you the news, whatever they see, as they see it.

00:36:42.020 If you want to support their trip down there and their independent journalism, which you won't see in the mainstream media in America or in Canada, you can go to OhioExplosion.com.

00:36:54.960 Now, we've got some letters here on that story.

00:36:57.900 Big Jake writes,

00:36:59.380 I'm a retired electrical and mechanical engineer who designed, then built, then maintained the equipment which built rail cars and engines.

00:37:07.080 This boils down to poor maintenance on the cars, which caused the wheels to come off.

00:37:10.420 Profit over safety is pretty common.

00:37:12.920 The spark seesaw coming out from under the car was caused due to friction, metal on metal, meaning no grease or mops packed with grease inside the hubs.

00:37:21.640 It's really common.

00:37:22.480 The decision to release the chemicals, then ignite it, was absolutely wrong.

00:37:26.940 There are multiple ways those chemicals could have been cleaned up.

00:37:30.340 Why neutralizers weren't used is beyond mean.

00:37:33.560 Every chemical has a neutralizer that makes it safer to handle in the instance there's a spill.

00:37:37.500 Burying it was the worst idea ever.

00:37:40.540 So who made that choice has to be held to account.

00:37:42.460 Now, I'm not an expert on chemicals, but I asked a similar question yesterday.

00:37:48.120 This happened in Ohio.

00:37:50.140 And Ohio probably has 100 fracking companies working.

00:37:54.460 That's the fracking heartland in the United States.

00:37:56.940 And being in Albertan, what I do know about fracking companies is they have spill mitigation programs in place before they even start a project.

00:38:06.980 They've got booms to maintain chemicals, to prevent chemicals from leaching into the groundwater. 0.78

00:38:12.780 They have protocols.

00:38:13.960 And I don't know why some of that private expertise was not relied upon here to deal with this in a better or different way.

00:38:23.000 Now, profits over safety, I think that's often the way a lot of companies work.

00:38:30.460 But where is the transportation czar Pete Buttigieg on this?

00:38:38.600 He was asleep at the switch or perhaps on paternity leave while the supply chains in the United States descended into chaos.

00:38:45.640 And he doesn't seem to be all that concerned about any of this either, talking about social justice instead of what some are saying could be the worst ecological disaster in the United States in a generation, maybe ever.

00:38:59.060 I don't know.

00:38:59.880 I guess time will tell.

00:39:02.280 Sherwood writes, when that train derailment happened in Quebec, the town already had plans drawn up three days prior for the rebuild.

00:39:10.420 I think you're talking about Lac Meg Antique, where oil that probably should have been in a pipeline was being transported in a rail car.

00:39:18.960 And the rail cars, I think, rolled away and caused an explosion in the town.

00:39:26.680 Now, I don't know if that is a conspiracy theory that the town already had plans drawn up three days prior to the explosion for the rebuild.

00:39:35.420 What I can tell you is even two years later, and I'm inclined not to believe that that is the case, because what I do know is two years later, they had to stop the mitigation efforts, the decontamination efforts, just to hold a memorial service at the same site.

00:39:53.800 So it doesn't seem like they had too much planned in advance to deal with that when they were still dealing with the fallout two years later so that they could have a small ceremony.

00:40:02.740 Kamido23 writes, thank you.

00:40:06.500 Amazing how an independent Canadian journalist sheds light on this while American mainstream media have completely ignored this.

00:40:13.760 Where are all the environmentalists in outrage?

00:40:16.120 Yeah, I asked that question, too.

00:40:17.380 They're usually protesting a completely inert pipeline somewhere instead of burning chemicals, because I think their guy, like this is the Biden administration and Pete Buttigieg, who checks a lot of identity boxes.

00:40:36.520 They're the ones in charge here, and I think the EPA as well.

00:40:40.640 So this is their team.

00:40:43.100 So they're going to completely ignore the failures of their team.

00:40:46.100 Like there is when it gets too hot or too cold, yeah.

00:40:50.320 Complete media blackout here in the States by the mainstream media, beyond nefarious, charges being brought up aren't enough, people still haven't went back to their homes, may never will.

00:40:59.160 Again, we don't really know the full extent of what's going on there.

00:41:02.160 We don't know what's exaggeration and what's real.

00:41:04.820 We know that animals are dying, but also as a farmer, I also know that, for example, chickens can get sick and die pretty darn fast, and a whole coop will die.

00:41:12.980 So we're just doing our best to follow the facts wherever they lead us, without exaggeration, without embellishment, because I don't think we need to.

00:41:24.040 I think this is probably pretty bad on its own, and the fact that the mainstream media isn't there is an indictment on them and job security for us.

00:41:34.300 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.

00:41:36.720 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:41:38.580 Thanks to everybody who works behind the scenes to put the show together.

00:41:42.620 David Menzies, I believe, is covering for Ezra tomorrow and then me again on Friday.

00:41:46.860 And as Ezra always says, keep fighting for freedom.

00:41:51.680 Oh, and happy birthday to us, by the way, and to you.

00:41:54.640 Thank you so much to all of you at home who have stood by us these past eight years and have cheered for us to keep living when our competitors and the government have done their best to euthanize us as quickly as possible.

00:42:08.260 We're still here, but so are you.

00:42:09.960 Thank you.

Rebel News Podcast - February 15, 2023

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Drug addicts need hope and help, not paraphernalia and poisons

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript