Reintroduce mandatory minimum sentences
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Summary
In this special Wednesday edition of The Brock Prince, host Jamie Schmael is joined by Larry Brock, the Critic for Justice and MP for Brantford-Brant South-Six Nations, to talk about the Trudeau government's $78B budget, the Supreme Court's ruling against mandatory minimums for child predators, and more.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome to a special Wednesday edition of The Brock Prince. I'm your host,
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Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton-Cortha Lakes, with new content for you,
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usually every single Tuesday at 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time, because yesterday was Remembrance Day,
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we're doing it on Wednesday. So thank you to all that served, whether at home or abroad,
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in peacetime or conflict. Thank you very much for your service, and lest we forget,
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to those who have fallen in the service of their country. On today's show, we're talking about
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the budget, $78 billion in the whole this fiscal year, my goodness. Also, the Supreme Court says
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no mandatory minimums for child predators. To talk about this and so much more, we bring on
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a little hint from the beginning, Larry Brock, the Member of Parliament for Brantford, Brant South,
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Six Nations, also the Critic for Justice. Thanks for coming back on once again.
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Thank you, Jamie. Always a pleasure to be back on The Blueprint.
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You are the most requested person, the brockinator. They say, bring on the brockinator.
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All right. So crazy week in Parliament last week. My goodness, what a week. So $78 billion in the
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whole, says the Finance Minister. The Liberals are pretty proud of this number. So right now,
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everything we collect, the government collects on GST, goes to pay interest on our debt. Every
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single cent. And we're actually spending more on servicing that debt than we are transfers to the
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provinces for health care. Make that make sense. I can't. It's absolutely shameful. They've doubled
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up the projection of last year's fall economic update. We thought Justin Trudeau was bad in terms
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of his spending appetite. But this is just a recipe for disaster. Nowhere did I read any aspect of how
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they're going to make immediate changes to the lives of Canadians to make it more affordable for
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them. There is nothing there. Pie in the Sky promises that somehow, somewhere down the road,
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all of these changes that they're making and putting in all these billions of dollars is going to net
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result some great economic opportunities for Canadians. Job opportunities, investment opportunities.
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Again, it's all speculation. Canadians want relief now. This budget doesn't deliver.
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We'll do a deeper dive into the budget next week. I believe we have Philip Lawrence coming on,
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who's been analyzing the budget. Give us a bit more nuanced conversations in regards to where money
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will be wasted, which there is so much. $78 billion. It still boggles my mind. $78 billion.
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But one thing I wanted to talk to you about, I mentioned the firearms because I know you are
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dog on a bone when it comes to that issue and protecting those legal licensed firearms owners
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who are following the law. But the other thing I want to talk to you about is something that
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kind of bubbled a little about a week or so ago was the Supreme Court decision saying that
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mandatory minimums do not apply when it comes to child predators.
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Like, third time for today. Make it make sense, Larry Brock.
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I guess the only thing that can be made sense, this was a 5-4 split.
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Setting aside the majority opinion, which I thought was completely illogical, they relied upon
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an unrealistic, unreasonable hypothetical to make the point that a broad-based mandatory
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minimum penalty for possession and accessing child pornography could leave vulnerable people,
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depending on a scenario, subjected to cruel and unusual punishment under Section 12.
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That was the majority's opinion. And in their hypothetical, they talked about an 18-year-old
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and a 17-year-old, where the 18-year-old somehow acquires an image of a 17-year-old naked female
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whose boyfriend had sent that picture to the 18-year-old.
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Now, technically, I suppose that person could be charged with possession of child pornography.
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It meets the definition in the code. And that was the hypothetical that the majority of this highest
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court said it would be inappropriate for that individual to receive a one-year mandatory minimum
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penalty in jail. That may or may not be correct. But what the court seems to forget is the high
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degree of discretion that police services have and the discretion that Crown attorneys have before the
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case even gets to court. So in that crazy, illogical, unreasonable scenario, it would be probably very
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unlikely that the police would even charge a possession of child pornography. There may be other avenues
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that they could pursue under the criminal code. But it also, even if they did proceed the police and it got to
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the hands of a Crown attorney, such as my former self, you know, I would not take a look at the most serious
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aspect of how to proceed under the criminal code and say, I'm going to proceed by indictment because I think
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that 18-year-old should deserve one year in jail. We've got tools to minimize the impact that penalties
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have in the code, completely forgotten by the Supreme Court of Canada. The minority offered a beautiful
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dissenting opinion that talked about and criticized the unrealistic and unreasonable hypothetical that the
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majority of the court did. Again, also reiterating that mandatory minimum penalties do not automatically
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violate Section 12 of the Charter. And I know this Liberal government loves talking about the
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dangerousness of mandatory minimum penalties. They need to be aware of the language coming from that court.
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Absolutely. Let's queue up cut one where our leader Pierre Polyev mentions exactly what you had just
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Some of the reasoning from the justices was that they could see a scenario where two 18-year-olds
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exchange images and then have a mandatory minimum imposed on them. I don't know what you make of
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that reasoning. I think the Supreme Court needs to get away from these imaginary scenarios. The scenario
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before them was two men in possession over a long period of time of hundreds of images and videos that
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were made by torturing innocent children. And with that those facts in front of them, their conclusion
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actually should have been that the sentence should have been met much more than the one year and nine months that the two
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dirtbag offenders received. They should go away for a very long time. Frankly, if I had my way as a father, I would lock
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them up and throw away the key. As a father, I agree 100%.
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I prosecuted child exploitation law for a significant period of time. I have no sympathy for these dirtbags.
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I call them pedophiles. It's absolutely deplorable anyone who has an interest and acquires and builds
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on a collection of this filth. It is absolutely reprehensible as a society that we do not come down
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as hard as we can on these pedophiles. Let's cut two because this is you in the house and I think it
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is pretty eye-opening when you look at the government's response because they will say,
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yeah, we agree with what we're saying, which is this is a horrible decision by the Supreme Court,
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but they never follow it up with any action. It's basically to imply, well, like anything they do
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that keeps going wrong, what are we going to do about it? We'll get to it. Yeah, maybe we'll find
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someone who's in charge to fix this, right? So play cut two. Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the Supreme
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Court struck down mandatory jail time for predators convicted of possessing child sexual abuse material.
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That decision is disgusting. These offenders weren't caught with a few files. They had hundreds
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of images and videos of children as young as three being tortured and abused. Yet instead of standing up
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for victims, this Liberal government stays silent. Why is this Prime Minister more interested in protecting
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pedophiles than protecting Canada's children from monsters? Child abusers should face the
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toughest penalties under Canadian law. Should face the toughest penalties under Canadian law.
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Why does it take yet another example of a very serious, heinous crime for this government to say,
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yeah, these individuals deserve the strictest and harshest punishment and then do nothing about it?
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That's the thing, right? They have been in power for 10 years. There has been no increase in the
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penalty when it comes to child exploitation laws in the criminal code. If anything, they are doing their
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best to limit its impact, to criticize the use of the notwithstanding clause, to be completely silent.
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The fact that our Prime Minister was more interested in displaying photo ops of his Asian trip from last
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Friday when that decision was, Friday, October the 31st, when that decision was released all weekend long,
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all the following week. And it wasn't until a couple, three, four days ago, that we actually heard from
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our Justice Minister, who actually finally put something out to comment on whether or not he would use the
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notwithstanding clause. Apart from that, it was crickets. That is reprehensible. When you had our leader, you had
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myself, you had other colleagues speaking out against this outrageous decision. And it spread like wildfire across the country,
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because we had premiers as well calling this out for what it was, including the Justice Minister
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in Sean Fraser's home province of Nova Scotia. So why does it take such a public outlash of disappointment
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and concern and outrage before this government acknowledges that there is a problem that needs to be addressed?
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Same thing can be said for bail. Yep. You know, we've been arguing about this for four and a half years.
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And told we were, you know, we were crazy. We were crazy. It was in our minds. Yeah, everything's fine.
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It's not the wild west out there, right? Exactly. Okay, it's crazy, illogical, liberal reasoning.
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Yeah, it's almost like, I said it before, like, we bring up an issue because we're hearing it from our
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constituents, and the liberal reaction is, no, it's not happening. You guys are off your rockers, right?
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It's not happening. Then it gets to the point where it keeps happening, and more and more people
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are cluing into, wait a second, this doesn't seem right. So the liberal response is, oh, okay,
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well, maybe it's happening a little, but nothing to be concerned about. And then when it really heats
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up, like the people being executed in the streets in York Region, just north of Toronto, they're like,
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okay, it's happening, but don't talk about it. Yeah. Right? This is their usual game plan, all the time.
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They never want to be proactive. They are completely reactive to fires and crises across
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this country. That is not how a federal government should be operating. They should be, you know, moving,
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I know government, you know, the old joke is, you know, government doesn't move very fast at all. And
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in many cases, it's actually quite true. But they should be pushing their department to be reacting to
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what is actually happening on the ground. And that is concern from constituents, whether they re-bail.
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But in this case, Prime Minister Carney never issued mandate letters. No, that's true too.
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To the Public Safety Minister and the Justice Minister. So they're literally flying by the seat of their
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pants, reacting to crises that we amplify, that Canadians amplify, that stakeholders amplify across this country.
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This, a classic example, this outrageous decision from the Supreme Court of Canada calls for decisive
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leadership from the government. And that means re-establishing, sending out the clearest message
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of all, that Parliament is supreme. I was just about to go there. Absolutely supreme.
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That's why the notwithstanding clause is there. That's why the notwithstanding clause is there.
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To every single court in this country, including the Supreme Court of Canada. We don't need activism.
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We need them to follow the laws that you and I pass. Because if we have a bunch of unelected judges
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making these kinds of decisions, what do they need Parliament for, right? Precisely.
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This is why Parliament, the law-making body in this country, has to have the final say because we are
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then representative of the people and the will of the people. We are. And the people are outraged at this decision.
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And the fact that we have our Justice Minister, probably the most important portfolio in all of government,
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completely misconstruing the tests under the Supreme Court of Canada's use of the notwithstanding clause.
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He actually came out numerous times saying he wasn't prepared to override the Charter with the use of the
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notwithstanding clause. He completely forgets that section 33 is part of the Charter. He's not overriding anything.
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He's using a tool in the tool chest. Precisely, which he refuses to do.
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Yes, because I think based on C5, the piece of legislation that passed a number of years ago that
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reduced sentences for a whole whack of pretty serious crimes, including urging house arrest at some point,
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which, you know, the drug dealers getting house arrest for selling drugs in their home,
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and then they get to, you know, sell more drugs. But I think this goes along the lines which they want,
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right? They seem to want to go light on criminals, but go heavy on those who follow the law in the
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terms of law-abiding firearms owners, among many others. In addition to putting on limitations to
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freedom of expression. Yes. Censorship laws that we have to deal with in this country. Absolutely.
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That's the flavor of pretty much of the day. And it's a priority that we've seen in numerous bills.
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So they fund- They'll take every opportunity to restrict our constitutional rights.
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Oh, absolutely. While funding the media outlets of their choice. Right.
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Right? CBC, what are they up to? $1.2 billion, something like that. Then, of course,
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you have the $400 million to the parliamentary precinct. And then the budget gave them another $150
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million. Because they were so short. Because they want Canada to be part of Eurovision,
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whatever that means. I'm not even sure what that means. But obviously, it's a pet project because
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Carney's obviously not just a Canadian, he's a European as well. Well, I'm assuming there's friends
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that need to, you know, get their fill too. But unbelievable. Yeah. Pretty much out of time,
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the guests get the last word. As you know, because you've been on here this show a million times,
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the floor is yours. Let's restore sanity in this country. Let's put these dirtbag pedophiles away,
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as our leader said, for as long as we can. Throw away the key because that's what Canadians want.
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These are sick individuals that need to rot in jail. And it's also important that we continue to
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to impress and establish as loudly as we can that Parliament is supreme, not the courts.
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Larry Brock, I love it when you come on the show. Thank you much.
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The Member of Parliament for Brantford, Brant South, Six Nations, also the Shadow Minister,
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Always appreciate when the Brockinator comes on the show. Appreciate your time as well on this special
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Wednesday edition. Don't forget, new content for you next Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern time.
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