Government Censorship
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Summary
Bill C-11 has been reintroduced by the Liberal government, which could mean even more censorship on the internet. In this episode, Conservative MP for Edmonton, Alberta, Zeina Abutayev and Shadow Critic for Foreign Affairs, Zakiya Manning, join me to discuss the issue and how we can fight it.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your
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host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Corps at the Lake Sprock,
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welcoming you back with new content every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Please like,
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comment, subscribe, share this program. Together we can push back against the ever-moving liberal
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agenda. And as always, if you can't watch or listen to the entire program right this second,
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you can download it, listen to it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify,
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you name it, it is out there. Another great show for you today, something that I think a lot of
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people are concerned about, especially those that get their content from the internet. We're talking
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about internet censorship, what the Liberals are doing yet again. You remember in the last
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parliament, you probably heard of Bill C-10. Well, it's back. And here to talk about that is
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Ziad Abutayev, Member of Parliament for Edmonton. Manning is also the Deputy Shadow Critic for
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Foreign Affairs. Thank you so much for coming back on the show. Thank you, Jamie, for having me
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this afternoon. All right, my goodness, scary times ahead. Not only is this government trying to
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control how you live your life, they're also controlling what you can see and hear on the
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internet. Absolutely incredible. Yes, it is. And we thought that C-10 that died on the floor of
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the Senate because of, you know, it was left there because of the election. We thought that was over
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and done with. Now the Liberals are bringing the C-11 back. It's nothing but, you know, extra control
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over free speech, over internet content, over YouTube users and creators. You know, whether
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you're a musician or you're a storyteller or whatever you want to create on YouTube, they want
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to control that. They want to have a piece of that. So there's extra censoring and more of a control on
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the free speech. Absolutely. We've seen this in countries in other parts of the world. And I think
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myself, I look at that and go, wow, that can never happen here, but it's happening. And I think the
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crux of the matter is, well, we should have free speech and you should have the ability to say what's
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on your mind. It also gives the other side the ability to be free from that speech, right? You
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disagree, you move on, maybe you counter whatever. But at the end of the day, encouraging the free
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conversation is what grows the society. And at the end of the day, you also have somebody that has to
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make that decision as to what is offensive. And at that point, it usually becomes someone friendly
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with the government who then criticizes or blocks any criticism of that government.
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Yeah. All the governments still living in the world where they legislate broadcasting, okay,
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since 1928, you know, when the Department of Fishery and Marine, that first time that they
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regulate broadcasting. So they're still mixing now or either trying to ignore the fact or they're
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trying to purposely do it by trying to say, okay, we are regulating broadcasting. Internet is not a
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broadcasting. It's white casting. And that's why when you try to control that, you're telling a lot of
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people, I control what you watch and I control what you share. And how can you do it? I mean,
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internet is such a wide thing. It's not just regulated to a geographic location. It's just
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anywhere up in the air, anywhere in the world, in any spot and beyond. So they want to control that.
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I don't know how they're going to do that. But just having the idea of trying to censor free speech
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and control what people watch and what people share is scary. And Canadian, I'm sure they will
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be worried and they will be watching what's going to happen to this bit and how we're going to fight
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it. Because such thing is, again, is a control of free speech. Just something not within, you know,
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that's against our chart of right and freedom and also against the way we live our life in Canada.
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Well, if you think about it, looking at how the market grows, right? You have the, I'll take the
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taxi industry, for example. You have the traditional kind of medallion licensed taxi, but you also have
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other platforms like Uber and Lyft. And they're popular because they offer something different. And
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there is a choice. And people can make that choice. And we're seeing in the broadcast industry, and this
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podcast is probably an example, where you are able to get content not offered by the current services.
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100%. And that gives people the choice of what information or content they want to see or listen
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to. And I think that's a good thing because it invites more voices into the conversation.
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There's about 100,000 Canadians that they do share or they do create different videos, especially on
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YouTube, a day, okay, in general. And then there's 720 hours every day of YouTube broadcasting get created
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on the internet. Imagine how you're going to control 720 hours, okay, on a daily basis of content. And
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the 100,000 Canadians, as I said, whether musicians, whether they storytellers, whether they broadcast
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certain things, or they create certain videos, or certain education material, could be anything.
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All that, this bill is trying to control. And again, you know, I'm not sure how this is possibly done. And
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the window to that is the government trying to show that this bill is just a change in the definition
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of broadcasting, ignoring the fact that, as I said, internet is not a broadcasting, okay? There's two
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two different things. And they're trying to get into that, trying to sell it or slip it to Canadians
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under the fact that, no, what we're doing, we're just changing the definition of broadcasting. And
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that's how dangerous is that mind that we're facing right now in the parliament, as a government,
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and how Canadians need to be watching what's going on to be able to probably reverse course and make
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sure that this bill does not pass. Always so innocent the liberals are, just doing it for our own
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good. That's where we keep being told. Let's bring in another Albertan into the conversation,
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Rachel Thomas. Thank you very much, Member of Parliament for Lethbridge. Always a pleasure
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having you on the program as well. You were a fierce critic of Bill C-10 way back when. And we talked
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about the opportunities that the internet has given to kind of people who just want to put content out.
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And people have the ability to determine what content they like, right? Like, this is a good thing.
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Yeah, well, I mean, as my colleague was saying here, you know, with the former Bill C-10, now Bill C-11,
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being debated on the House of Commons floor, you know, with this piece of legislation,
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basically the government is saying that they're just simply updating the Broadcasting Act. That's
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the line that they love to use. So innocent. So innocent. But what they're failing to tell
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Canadians is actually the Broadcasting Act was created in order to care for radio and television.
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That's where it was supposed to be applied. That's where it was applied. And the reason for that is
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because there's a limited number of radio stations. There's a limited number of TV channels.
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And in order to make sure that French and English both had access to those channels,
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they determined that they would regulate them. That a certain percentage would be put aside so
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that French media would be, you know, upheld in this country. Access would be given.
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To take the Broadcasting Act and apply it to the internet makes absolutely zero sense.
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The internet is infinite. It's this magical place where if you want a website, you can have a
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website. If you want to post on YouTube, you can post on YouTube. If you want a TikTok channel,
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you can start a TikTok channel. Like, it's incredible. Like, imagine the diverse voices that are
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that are there, that are represented there. In fact, you don't have to imagine. You can just go explore it
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And so we don't need big government to step in and regulate this platform. There's not these
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limitations placed on us anymore. Really, you know, no matter your ethnicity, no matter your
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race, no matter your religious background, no matter, you know, the language you speak,
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if you want access to an online platform, you've got it. And so it's amazing because it's drawing
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people from all sorts of backgrounds and ways of life and people who maybe wouldn't have other means
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to promote themselves or, you know, to be picked up by a traditional broadcaster.
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It gives them an opportunity to find a platform and to be able to curate an audience or pursue
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an audience, I should say, with curated content. And it's remarkable. It's absolutely remarkable.
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And digital first creators are doing an amazing job here in our country. We should be celebrating
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Absolutely. I often think about people who say, what is good music, right? Good music is whatever you
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want to listen to. And I think that applies to the internet as well. Good content. I don't know.
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Whatever it is you think is good content. I think that's the simplest way.
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90% of what Canadian creators of, whether Spotify or on YouTube, they go outside Canada.
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Remember that. And that also can be controlled now by this C11. I mean, imagine a Canadian creator,
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artist, wants to put something that 90% of the watchers or the people that they cannot see it,
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are outside Canada. Now, here's the problem. The government wants to regulate further the outcome,
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the money, the income, the revenue of this too. So they also want to have their hand on this too,
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regardless, you know, and they, again, I don't know technically how they're going to do that.
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But again, extra control over everything. And that's what we don't need.
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Yeah, we totally agree with you on that. I want to read a headline here for Rachel here.
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Headline National Post. It was April 5th, 2022. CRTC can regulate the internet and protect free speech,
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says the CRTC chairperson. That's amazing. So basically, in that article, the CRTC is saying,
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yes, we can be the ones that watch over the content and let the, you know, save the people from,
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you know, this harmful content that's out there.
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Yeah. Isn't it interesting if you actually read that article in full, and I would encourage,
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you know, audience members to do so, you'll see that, you know, interestingly enough,
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the CRTC commissioner is very good at parroting liberal talking points. So I wonder just how nonpartisan
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he'll be when it comes to judging whether or not content should, you know, be bumped up in the queue
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or be bumped down. And that is exactly what this bill will do. It will determine whether or not
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a person's content is put on page one when you do a Google search, or if it'll be on page 53.
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And ultimately, it will be the CRTC that determines that. Now, of course,
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they'll pass that responsibility down to Google or YouTube or TikTok. But they'll be the enforcers.
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They'll be the ones to determine those judgments that are made. You know, is it Canadian enough
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to stay or does it have to go? Does it make the cut? Does it not? You know, and I wouldn't put it
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past the CRTC to say, you know, does it promote, does it promote liberal values? Well, if you have a
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board that's appointed by liberals, usually with liberals, I think you can quickly come to a conclusion
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as to what content is going to be pushed down and what isn't. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that's a
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big part of it. And I think the other thing that needs to be highlighted as well is the fact that
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the liberals are really trying to promote this bill as something that is going to encourage
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diversity, right? Of course, the CRTC is going to be interested in putting diverse content out there.
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And so they're going to make sure that Canadians see all sorts of material that they wouldn't
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otherwise search for on their own. So we're going to spoon feed it to them. We're going to force
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it upon them. We're going to make sure that it ends up in front of the eyeballs of Canadians.
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Well, I think that's happening organically now, isn't it? But you can get content from all over
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the world. And it's censorship. It's censorship at its finest. It's going to be the opposite,
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because I don't know how they can distinguish between a user, another user or broadcaster,
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another broadcaster. Okay. Every Canadian is under the same threat when it comes to this.
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That's control of CRTC over their life. I mean, if internet is a democracy, a democratization
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of thoughts. Okay. There's this one will be the opposite, will be the undemocratic.
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Someone has to make that decision. Yeah, it's just this is the opposite. And if this is how they
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can go around this, I believe this is one of the chapters of so many. It's a long list of things.
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This is one of them to control more and more the life of Canadians. Absolutely.
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And let's not forget, this is one, as I said, one chapter of this whole plan. And it's so scary
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that if we cannot just keep handing out to the government control of our life from finance to
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banking, to everything we do, to everything we, every penny we spend, every service we get. Now,
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everything we say or we share or everything we create on internet, I think it's a slipper slope.
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And it's going to lead to more and more straining the life and constraining the life of Canadians.
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And that's something Canadians need to be able to know and understand right away.
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Absolutely. I, you know, look, there's, there's not, to my knowledge, there's not a single example
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in history where more government regulation, more government red tape, more government bureaucracy
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resulted in greater diversity, you know, greater inclusion, greater innovation, greater creativity,
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greater success of the arts, greater advancement of culture. Like when, when did that ever happen?
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That's right. It didn't, it didn't happen. And so again, yet another proof point that really this
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legislation is not about those things as the Liberals would claim, but actually it is about hindering
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Canadians ability and right to access information that they should want to access.
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I should say this though too, Jamie, like let's just, let's just call out the elephant in the room
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right now for two seconds. And that is this. So many people would come back and say, well,
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but there is some content that you shouldn't watch or that you shouldn't have access to. Yes,
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absolutely. That's why we have the criminal code to go after that material that is absolutely
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disgusting in nature and shouldn't exist online. But that's not what this legislation has to do with.
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So let's talk about the topic at hand, which ultimately C11 is about censorship. It's about
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controlling the content that Canadians do and do not have access to.
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Well, if the government was so good at regulating things and managing things,
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why don't we give them control of the music industry? What do you think would happen if
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the government had control? Seriously, they'd determine what length of the song, what key,
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you know, don't, don't get yourself. This is a step in the direction.
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Like think about it. And if we started the, the line at when the country was formed,
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we'd probably still be listening to chamber music for crying out loud. Like we would not have the
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evolution of music where we had the blues, hip hop, jazz, rock and roll, like all of that would
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never happen because you'd have some bureaucrat determining what music is, what good content is.
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And you would never have that evolution of music that we have now.
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That's the passion of liberal governments. Okay. They say something and they do the opposite.
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And it's just insinuation and what we call it, uh, we, we call it, uh, signaling, uh,
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virtue signaling of some kind, uh, where they, they, they probably think that Canadian can miss the point
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on what this bill all about. Uh, I tell you on, on a C10, which is the bill that was before this one,
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and this is just a return to C10. The amount of calls that I've received from university students
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was unheard of in Edmonton Manning. Okay. They all were worried about this, the C10 and, and they
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will be worried about the C11. Now the government trying to dress or window dress this differently,
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um, in a way that just to try to sell it. Um, and I hope that, uh, they won't get that support,
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the support of, of the NTP on this one, which is, I don't think, um, uh, I don't think that I'm,
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I'm dreaming too much. But, um, uh, something that to, uh, to really be very, very worried about,
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um, uh, an extra power grab by the government that we don't need and enough is enough. You know,
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that's why we have to, uh, we have to expose it, uh, to Canadian in, in all the powers we have.
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Well, I personally think there's too much involvement of the government in our media as it is.
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A billion dollars to the CBC, 600 million dollars to the parliamentary press gallery,
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and now potentially the regulation of the internet. This is too much, too much.
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Yeah, absolutely. And, and I think I'll just, you know, add another point here as well,
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because we're talking about diversity and you made a great example with music. Um,
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you know, let's, let's also point out the fact, if we may, because it's rather inconvenient for the
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liberals and certainly for the CRTC. And that is this, the CRTC is going to be the governing body that
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is responsible for protecting and enhancing diversity under this legislation. Um, let's look
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at the CRTC executive, shall we? It is composed primarily of white people. Where's your diversity?
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So this is the same body that is going to be responsible for policing diversity online. Well,
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I've seen their definition of diversity and quite frankly, it doesn't measure up. It's lacking.
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And so if that's what Canadians can expect more of, well, this is a massive failure.
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Yeah. At that point, it's pre-approved content, right? It's what the bureaucrats believe
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people should be seeing. And that, that's just a very dark and dangerous place. But, um, let's, uh,
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wrap up to, uh, final thoughts. As you both know, the, the guests have the final word,
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and then we got to get over to question period. So, uh, Ziad, why don't you go first? You get the last word.
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Well, final thought Canadians, uh, need, uh, to be, uh, to awake, to be awake, more awake to, to,
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to this, uh, dangerous, dangerous bill. Uh, it's a direct attack on, uh, free speech,
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and, um, the, uh, uh, the freedom of Canadian in general, because free speech is one of the,
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the main, uh, element in, in our charter. And, uh, we have to be able to fight this, uh, because,
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uh, again, this is another step to, uh, enter and, and interfere in the life of Canadians
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that, uh, we don't need. And it's a slippery slope that we need to watch. Rachel.
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Yeah. You know, as, as my friend Ziad said just, uh, just moments ago, you know, I, I think ultimately
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our goal as conservatives is to fight for freedom, to make sure that Canadians are able to act as
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independent people making decisions of their own accord. And the internet is this amazingly innovative
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place, and it is arguably the new public square. And so we need to do all that we can to keep it as
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a space where free speech can be engaged in. And free speech goes a couple of ways. Yes, it's the
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content that's put out there. We have the right to do that, but it is also the fact that that content
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has the right to be heard or seen or, you know, and so it, it, it's, it's all of that. And I think
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this bill is a, is a direct attack on that. And, and furthermore, you know, not only for the
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viewer, but also for the creators in this country, we have amazing artists, amazing, amazing artists
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who have gone out there, taken risks, invested capital and made a go of it. You know, many of
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them were rejected by traditional broadcasters and they said, well, okay. And they picked up their
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boots. That's right. They pulled up their boots and they went to a platform like YouTube or TikTok or
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Instagram and they got going on their own out of their own volition, their own hard work,
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their own ingenuity, their own creativity, their own entrepreneurial spirit. That's how they succeeded.
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And now the government wants to come along and punish them for their success because how dare they
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make a go of it without traditional broadcasters? Outside the, the people already making the decisions,
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right? And let's remember 90% of what they create, they, they sell outside Canada.
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Absolutely. It's amazing. Okay. So how can you control that 90% for people who's choosing
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outside Canada, right? To, to use it, to enjoy it, or to buy it? The government will build a wall and
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they will crush them. And that's, uh, that's the fence that, uh, I talked about six years ago that,
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the liberal and NDP wants to put around the country with two gates, one on the east coast,
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one on the west coast to close down Canada. This is one of those, those steps toward that. Yeah.
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Absolutely. In a free nation, the, the guns are pointed outwards and a socialist and communist
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country, they're pointed inwards, but I appreciate the time. Ziad Abuchayev, member of parliament for
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Edmonton Manning. Also Rachel Thomas, a good friend of the show as well, member of parliament for
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Lethbridge. We appreciate this conversation. It's very important, especially when we're talking about
00:20:46.160
liking, comment, share, subscribe to this program, because this is usually content you're not getting
00:20:51.760
from the mainstream media. We pretty much guarantee that. And with the censorship bill potentially coming down
00:20:57.040
the tracks, uh, we need to get conservative voices outside. So they, we do appreciate you doing that
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00:21:12.160
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