The Candice Malcolm Show - December 06, 2021


Does ANYBODY still care about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms？

Topics
civil liberties limitations in place freedom of speech cancelling speech and free cancel culture first world problems
Hosted by
Candice Malcolm
Mentioned
Justin Trudeau Lindsay Shepard Jordan Peterson Douglas Murray George Orwell Edmund Burke Harley Sims
CBC’s “Being Black in Canada” series is straight out of an Orwell novel The hypocrisy of protecting critical infrastructure

Episode Stats


Length

30 minutes

Words per minute

180.68

Word count

5,534

Sentence count

322

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

8

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode of The Candice Malcolm Show, host Candice talks with journalist Harley Sims about the importance of writing and reporting about civil liberties in Canada, and why it's so important to fight for our constitutional rights and liberties.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.400 Canada used to be a country that cared about basic rights and freedoms.
00:00:05.220 In fact, every political party in Canada used to talk a good game about protecting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
00:00:10.960 and upholding our sacred liberties.
00:00:13.520 But then COVID happened and everything changed.
00:00:16.060 I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:23.220 Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning into the program.
00:00:26.040 I'm going to stop you right now and say that if you're watching this video on YouTube, please don't forget to like this video,
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00:00:53.660 It really helps us out with the ratings and with the discoverability of this podcast.
00:00:58.380 So today, I want to talk about civil liberties.
00:01:00.500 I want to talk about the importance specifically of writing and reporting about civil liberties
00:01:04.680 because it seems like a value that we used to all share in this country, something that we used to hold near and dear.
00:01:10.460 And increasingly with COVID, increasingly, I mean, it's been this way since the start of the pandemic.
00:01:15.140 What we see instead is every politician is more than willing to sacrifice liberties,
00:01:19.740 sacrifice freedoms of Canadians in exchange for security, for safety, and for public health.
00:01:25.460 And I think it's having a really damaging impact on our society.
00:01:28.420 So I want to bring in the newest True North employee, the newest journalist that we've hired at True North.
00:01:34.080 His name is Harley Sims.
00:01:35.560 He is a writer and a linguist living in the Fraser Canyon in British Columbia.
00:01:40.080 In fact, he lives right in the middle of some of the horrible flooding that we've seen recently.
00:01:44.840 So we can ask him a little bit about that.
00:01:46.780 But Harley's work ranges from law enforcement to literature.
00:01:50.720 He's very, very well read, very well educated.
00:01:53.160 He has a PhD in English from the University of Toronto.
00:01:56.520 And Harley decided to join the True North team to come on board as a journalist,
00:02:00.620 in part, to fight back against some of the government's heavy-handed measures,
00:02:05.240 their draconian measures, that do limit the freedoms of Canadians.
00:02:08.860 And so specifically, he's going to be helping us report and write on issues regarding civil liberties.
00:02:14.320 So, Harley, first of all, thank you for joining True North and thank you for joining the program today.
00:02:20.240 It's great to be part of the team, Candice. Thanks a lot.
00:02:23.320 Great. Well, so first, I mean, this is probably our audience's first time meeting you or hearing from you.
00:02:29.760 So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
00:02:32.360 Who are you and why did you decide to come join True North?
00:02:35.480 Oh, well, Candice, I grew up in British Columbia.
00:02:40.660 My dad is a heavy-duty mechanic, so I grew up around big equipment, pulled a lot of wrenches myself.
00:02:46.700 I grew up rural, really proud of it, playing hockey, hunting, snowmobiling, all that stuff.
00:02:52.440 I married my high school sweetheart, though, on the island, and she just had to get to Ottawa and see how things worked.
00:02:58.400 So I followed her out to Parliament. I went to university, and I just stayed there.
00:03:04.560 I remember one day my dad coming out of the pit, dumped 20 litres of black oil on himself.
00:03:10.080 He looked at me and he said, Harley, just stay in school. Stay in school.
00:03:13.380 So I kind of did, and I climbed out with a PhD in English at the end of it.
00:03:18.660 I always loved reading and writing.
00:03:20.120 I've lived in Ontario, lived in Nova Scotia.
00:03:25.840 I homeschooled my children for a while and worked as a writer, editor, freelancer from there.
00:03:32.420 I've also worked as a bouncer and worked in law enforcement out here in British Columbia.
00:03:39.500 And I guess like everybody at True North, I've just grown really concerned about what's happening
00:03:44.580 with our ability to, you know, just get together with people.
00:03:48.760 I mean, you don't even need to get fancy with what our constitutional rights are at this point.
00:03:52.960 All we have to do is just, you know, get in our cars and drive, and we can see what we aren't allowed to do,
00:03:57.520 where we aren't allowed to go anymore.
00:03:59.500 And anything from, you know, even churches, cadets, volunteer groups.
00:04:06.600 I'm worried that once the mortar has been removed from these institutions, they're never going to be rebuilt again.
00:04:12.440 So, it's just been very important for me to join you and to be able to speak about this,
00:04:20.860 even though, as we've said earlier, it's like drinking from a fire hose at this point.
00:04:25.280 You don't have to look very far at all to find violations of civil liberties.
00:04:29.180 It just seems to be a part of our everyday lives at this point.
00:04:32.320 It's so true, and it's so sad.
00:04:35.240 I mean, when you're talking about all those institutions and organizations that haven't been able to get together,
00:04:40.460 I mean, those are the things that really make up a core of a community and of a society.
00:04:45.320 I mean, they're what Edmund Burke called the little platoons.
00:04:47.960 And when you have these little platoons that are being prevented from getting together,
00:04:53.240 people prevented from entering in their own community and having the kinds of bonds and relationships
00:04:58.320 that you need, frankly, to survive an ordeal like the one that we're all going through.
00:05:03.340 I mean, it's almost like, I'm not a conspiracy theorist at all, and viewers know that,
00:05:07.820 but it's like, man, if you were to design a way to really upend society and destroy it from the inside,
00:05:14.700 it would be by using some of these measures that we've seen.
00:05:17.740 And often, they're well-intended.
00:05:19.800 I mean, I think that the politicians really do want to, you know, have a safe and free society.
00:05:26.020 It's just that they're much more willing to emphasize the safety over the health.
00:05:32.380 So, Harley, can you give us a few examples of some of the most heavy-handed things that you've seen,
00:05:38.200 either in your community out there, British Columbia or across the country?
00:05:43.380 Well, I've lived in big cities, and I've also lived in very small towns.
00:05:48.220 In a big city, I think we tend to keep to ourselves.
00:05:51.780 We tend to associate with going out of doors as being kind of, you know, being more aware of where we can't go.
00:06:02.380 We're surrounded by private institutions, government institutes.
00:06:04.780 We can't go here.
00:06:05.560 We can't go there.
00:06:06.800 We cost money to get in here, things like that.
00:06:09.380 I think we're more used to restricted freedoms in a city.
00:06:11.660 But when you live in a small community, you tend to know everybody.
00:06:16.000 You tend to know the people that run the businesses.
00:06:17.920 You tend to be part of organizations.
00:06:20.740 And just simply getting together with a volunteer group, depending on, you know, the ages of the people involved,
00:06:28.580 has been very difficult.
00:06:30.920 Or else it's been put on hold for a year, and then people are just starting to get back together.
00:06:37.860 Cadets, for example.
00:06:39.160 My daughter is in cadets.
00:06:40.700 They didn't meet for about a year, and they're just starting to meet again.
00:06:43.700 But, of course, there are limitations in place.
00:06:45.720 I feel exactly the same way you do.
00:06:48.980 I think there are good intentions.
00:06:50.820 I mean, the path to hell is paved with them, but let's just, you know, take them face value for now.
00:06:56.620 But you're right.
00:06:58.240 If there were a conspiracy, and if, indeed, government forces were seeking a way to undermine the everyday freedoms of the people,
00:07:08.540 then public safety has proven the skeleton key to that.
00:07:12.220 It has given them a way to get around everything and say, okay, these things are not safe anymore,
00:07:17.560 and it's all about keeping you safe.
00:07:19.880 But simply going to church has been impossible up until very recently.
00:07:24.100 And even then, mass gatherings of 50 people or more, we need a COVID proof of vaccination to get in.
00:07:32.240 Things, I mean, not even political rallies.
00:07:34.700 Going to a restaurant, for example.
00:07:36.300 And Lindsay Shepard did a report from Hope British Columbia with Raleigh's Restaurant,
00:07:42.320 which was a restaurant that had not been checking people's vaccination status before they let people in.
00:07:48.060 And that was recently shut down by public health because of a court order.
00:07:51.900 These are things that in a small community really, really matter.
00:07:56.280 The restaurant employed 40 people, for example.
00:07:58.480 And so, again, all I have to do is get in my vehicle.
00:08:01.480 I can drive around.
00:08:02.260 I can see places that have been shut down for a long time or have capacity limits
00:08:06.300 or only let two people in at a time because the owners aren't comfortable.
00:08:11.040 People are scared.
00:08:12.460 People are also concerned.
00:08:13.700 They want to be doing the right thing.
00:08:16.100 But I'm concerned about where it's all going, like everybody.
00:08:21.780 I mean, I believe in us.
00:08:23.300 I believe in Canadians.
00:08:24.340 I believe in people and common sense.
00:08:25.940 And we need to be courageous that we might have things under control or we need to accept risk.
00:08:31.660 And I'm worried that this constant alarmism is causing people to think that no risk is worth it,
00:08:37.380 that we can't risk a single life, even if it takes away the rights of hundreds of thousands of people.
00:08:44.760 Well, I couldn't have said it any better myself, Harley.
00:08:47.320 I think that that mindset that one death is too many, I mean, that's just counter to life.
00:08:52.740 Sadly, bad things happen sometimes, and that's part of life.
00:08:56.060 That's part of the risk calculation of getting out of bed every day and going out of your front door,
00:09:00.760 getting into a car, for goodness sake.
00:09:03.240 There's so many things that are a bigger risk than COVID,
00:09:07.360 and yet we've allowed COVID to sort of become this all-powerful force.
00:09:11.720 I will just push back on one point you made.
00:09:13.780 I've lived in small towns and big cities too, and when the pandemic first broke out,
00:09:18.480 I mean, my family and I, we live pretty close to downtown Toronto,
00:09:22.060 and we used to get together with, there's a group of moms, 0.96
00:09:25.840 so it was like a mom and tot group in the local church basement.
00:09:29.080 And as soon as COVID hit, they shut it down.
00:09:32.440 And we all stayed in touch through a WhatsApp group.
00:09:35.740 And I just got a message the other day saying that starting in January 2022,
00:09:39.880 we're going to be allowed to have this mom and tot group again in the local church basement.
00:09:45.080 So those kind of groups do exist in big cities,
00:09:48.880 although I do agree that they're not as common as they would be in the smaller towns.
00:09:54.760 Let's talk a little bit about how, not the government, not the restrictions from the top down,
00:10:00.380 but how our society has changed because of COVID.
00:10:03.240 Because one of the things I noticed is, you know,
00:10:06.640 a place like Canada that used to kind of be neighborly and friendly,
00:10:10.400 and you got this idea that people, everyone's polite,
00:10:13.440 and that we're all kind of in it together.
00:10:15.080 And then I feel like COVID has brought the worst out in us,
00:10:18.360 like seeing some of the comment sections and the way people talk about the unvaccinated
00:10:22.160 and the way that the unvaccinated talk about the vaccinated and the way that,
00:10:25.860 I mean, there's so many examples of people calling the police on their neighbors
00:10:30.220 for having too many cars in the driveway and supposed to party.
00:10:34.540 There's been so many issues I've seen, Harley,
00:10:37.120 that kind of challenged my idea of Canadians, of the spirit of Canadians.
00:10:42.200 What do you think it is about COVID and the threat of this sort of mysterious disease
00:10:49.300 that has caused so many people to sort of, you know,
00:10:52.640 family members pit against each other over their belief about vaccines?
00:10:57.380 Why do you think this has happened?
00:10:58.700 Is this anything that you thought was possible in Canada?
00:11:01.060 It's a really good question.
00:11:04.700 I think in some ways it's an exhaust valve for political correctness
00:11:09.600 in the sense that we've been told for so long
00:11:12.360 to not say certain things, to not discriminate, to be a certain way.
00:11:20.760 We've been policing ourselves for a really long time.
00:11:23.780 And now with the unvaccinated is a group that we can legitimately hate. 1.00
00:11:33.700 It's a group that the government has come out explicitly
00:11:37.120 and said is people to be condemned.
00:11:39.440 And there's nowhere that's saying this is not appropriate.
00:11:46.060 This is a form of discrimination.
00:11:47.960 This is an unprotected group, social legally speaking.
00:11:53.400 Because, I mean, and I say social legally because the people are doing it
00:11:58.100 and legally I don't think there's a will to keep it from happening
00:12:01.460 because right now there's so much going on with vaccine mandates
00:12:04.860 that have yet to be stopped.
00:12:07.520 They've been challenged.
00:12:08.200 And whenever someone is bucking the trend or trying to, say, circumvent it
00:12:16.920 like the restaurant in British Columbia, there are whistleblowers everywhere
00:12:21.800 calling in your neighbours.
00:12:23.180 And, of course, when we talk about calling your neighbours,
00:12:25.540 people have resorted to the example of neighbours ratting each other out
00:12:30.780 in Nazi Germany.
00:12:31.480 And that has been always a convenient leaping point for the left as well.
00:12:35.340 But in this case, like I said, I'm worried that we've been somehow told to be so polite
00:12:44.880 and so, how can I put it, watch our language, be careful who we speak out against to the point
00:12:55.140 that now that we have a scapegoat, it's open season.
00:12:58.740 That's my worry.
00:13:00.000 That's my worry.
00:13:00.660 Because it's the only way to explain how it has become so vehement and so vitriolic.
00:13:05.920 Because I've heard the same thing, too.
00:13:07.960 It has become this narrative, no longer where the virus came from, for example,
00:13:13.480 or whether the government's policies or measures have been successful.
00:13:17.440 Everything is now blamed on this one group of people.
00:13:21.000 And are there ways you can counter that?
00:13:22.480 Like, who do you blame when, say, 100% of the population is vaccinated?
00:13:26.160 But at the point, at this point in Canada, that is the group.
00:13:30.040 And, I mean, if one group can be isolated like that, then other groups can be isolated.
00:13:36.700 And I think it falls back into the, unfortunately, the leftist narrative
00:13:40.260 that we're actually fundamentally very bad people that need to be kept in line.
00:13:43.820 So I don't like to see it at all.
00:13:45.700 Yeah, I mean, so what you say totally reminds me of, you know, the Liberals.
00:13:51.580 The Liberals used to openly condemn the Conservatives.
00:13:55.600 And Trudeau used to do a pretty good job of, you know,
00:13:58.700 directing his anger at Conservative politicians
00:14:01.520 and not sort of small-c Conservative Canadians.
00:14:04.700 But in the last election, we saw that anger be directed at entire groups of people.
00:14:10.500 Like you said, the unvaccinated, sort of scapegoated.
00:14:12.980 And the way that Trudeau spoke down about them, you know, these are Canadian citizens
00:14:17.640 who have just as much of a right to their beliefs as any other Canadian.
00:14:22.500 And to see that shift was pretty alarming.
00:14:25.480 But to your point, you know, the Liberals used to be the one that would speak out against the Conservatives,
00:14:30.400 accusing them of fear-mongering about immigration and refugees,
00:14:36.700 about condemning a Conservatives.
00:14:39.780 Remember, they characterized a Conservative pledge in 2011 for a hotline
00:14:45.380 that people could call to report cultural violence, violence against women.
00:14:50.320 And the Liberals characterized that as a snitch line.
00:14:53.000 And so all of these kind of things that the Liberals used to speak out against,
00:14:55.960 they're now doing themselves.
00:14:59.060 You know, Conservatives used to care a lot about freedom.
00:15:01.060 We used to hear Conservatives always talk about being the party of freedom, free markets,
00:15:06.600 religious freedom, freedom of speech.
00:15:08.720 And even the NDP used to be the sort of party of civil liberties and left libertarians.
00:15:13.900 And now we don't really hear any of the parties talking about freedom.
00:15:17.420 We don't really hear that at all.
00:15:19.640 So, Harley, what do you think we can do, you know, as journalists, as reporters, as writers,
00:15:24.540 as Canadians, to try to shift the focus back towards protecting our freedoms,
00:15:31.680 being vigilant about it?
00:15:32.640 Because, you know, it's a slippery slope.
00:15:34.720 And I think we take it for granted that we live in this wonderful, free, peaceful society.
00:15:40.660 And it's not a given that it's going to be this way 50 years from now.
00:15:44.040 And I worry about, you know, the direction we're going.
00:15:47.320 So what's your take on all of this?
00:15:49.840 Well, I believe outlets like True North are essential because they're the, I mean, they're
00:15:57.120 almost like on the rebellion side of it at this point, because the narrative has been
00:16:01.420 so concerted, the mainstream narrative, that we're essentially being cancelled for speaking
00:16:08.160 out.
00:16:08.380 But outlets that can hold on and keep pushing the truth will become increasingly attractive
00:16:14.000 to people that just start to think.
00:16:15.520 And I do believe they will start to think, why am I, why am I hearing the same message
00:16:20.040 over and over and over again?
00:16:21.740 Why am I not allowed to question what I'm hearing?
00:16:24.160 Why is it the moment somebody has a question, they are told to be quiet, they are kicked out,
00:16:29.240 they are fired.
00:16:30.260 Like, this isn't right.
00:16:32.100 And I do believe in people.
00:16:33.440 I believe in everyday people.
00:16:34.680 I don't believe in, you know, political classes, things like that, because, you know, they
00:16:39.220 become saturated with the interests of their own group.
00:16:42.560 I believe in everyday people, voters, electorate workers, things like that.
00:16:46.960 And they're the ones I think that will start to wake up if, and I believe there already
00:16:52.260 are awake.
00:16:52.800 I don't mean to say it that way.
00:16:54.960 I believe when you talk to people, a lot of people realize this is wrong.
00:16:58.640 I think it's just a matter of telling them their voice matters.
00:17:01.400 I think it's sad that we're in a situation where we do need to reassure people in Canada
00:17:05.060 their voice matters, because it is a Western democracy.
00:17:07.660 I don't know where we got to the point that we didn't think our voice mattered enough,
00:17:12.840 that we couldn't challenge our political overlords.
00:17:17.020 But I just think just bring up more stories about how this is affecting everyday people,
00:17:23.020 bring to light the gravity and consequences of some of these policies, where they're headed,
00:17:29.360 where they could go from now.
00:17:30.400 Because, you know, freedoms aren't lost in one fell swoop.
00:17:35.720 You know, like it starts with a knock on the door and somebody saying, we're here to help.
00:17:40.040 And then gradually it goes from there and it becomes something much more insidious.
00:17:44.420 So I think it just believe in people, be honest, don't shut people down when they say things
00:17:51.960 that, you know, aren't fashionable.
00:17:54.460 It's all about, again, a fundamental right, which is freedom of speech.
00:17:58.020 And that's been constantly under assault.
00:18:01.000 And, you know, I don't know what level of the dungeon it's in right now,
00:18:05.480 but freedom of speech hasn't seen the light of day for a while now.
00:18:10.860 Well, really closely connected to freedom of speech is freedom of the press, freedom to report.
00:18:16.480 And one of the sort of other troubling trends in our society, Harley, is the sort of growing reach of government
00:18:23.500 within media companies and journalism in Canada.
00:18:26.120 There's very few federal national reporters anymore that aren't somehow either funded or subsidized by the Trudeau government.
00:18:34.020 And that has a real perverse effect on the issues that matter to the journalists, the way they report.
00:18:40.280 And I think that is part of the problem as well.
00:18:42.140 You sent me an amusing, it's sort of amusing, sort of terrifying and sad article from the CBC.
00:18:50.680 I want to talk a little bit about it now.
00:18:53.140 It's the headline here is words and phrases you may want to think twice about using.
00:18:59.520 Historical cultural context important for phrases like grandfathered in and spirit animal.
00:19:04.580 And then basically the whole article is, you know, we're hearing from experts, we're hearing from woke experts
00:19:10.740 telling us that our language is racist, sexist, or ableist, and that we should just scrub these words out of our vocabulary.
00:19:20.900 To me, whenever journalists or government officials stand over us and tell us that we must not use words anymore,
00:19:27.980 or, you know, you talked about how snitch lines felt a little bit like Nazi Germany, you know, erasing words from the dictionary.
00:19:35.700 It feels very Orwellian, very much like a totalitarian North Korea. 0.57
00:19:41.600 What were your thoughts when you first saw this article, Harley?
00:19:46.820 Well, Cosmin just wrote a piece on it for True North.
00:19:50.260 I urge people to go check it out.
00:19:51.820 My first reaction is to laugh.
00:19:54.720 I don't want to give them too much power here. 0.89
00:19:58.080 It's ridiculous when you start singling out phrases like, you know, sold down the river as being like deeply racist,
00:20:05.220 and we must avoid doing them, and also implying that somehow certain people have antennas that pick up the meanings of these.
00:20:12.200 I mean, I'm a scholar of language.
00:20:15.100 I love etymologies.
00:20:16.280 I love languages.
00:20:16.980 You can dig down into the very molecules of words, and they meant different things at different times.
00:20:24.100 And you can explore them as a labyrinth.
00:20:29.160 Sure, you can find things that you could interpret as insulting in some capacity,
00:20:33.800 but most people, when they say a word, it just means a thing straightforward.
00:20:37.940 They're just trying to get a point across.
00:20:40.680 Their thoughts and their words are the same thing, and it's their intention that matters.
00:20:44.300 You can tell when you're talking to someone whether that person hates you or not.
00:20:48.280 At least you should be able to.
00:20:49.440 Some people have mastered the ability to do it, but, and it's that intention that matters, not the word they're using.
00:20:59.380 George Orwell actually wrote a very important essay called Politics in the English Language,
00:21:03.620 where he said, you can say extremely cruel and politically incorrect things using very acceptable language.
00:21:11.460 And you can also do the opposite.
00:21:13.160 You can use a very inappropriate language to express something that's politically incorrect.
00:21:18.700 One example that I've used came from the inner city where, and excuse me, somebody said,
00:21:25.460 hoses people too, hoses deserve the vote. 1.00
00:21:27.700 You know, that is a politically correct mentality expressed politically in correct language.
00:21:34.480 But I go back to 2017 also where Justin Trudeau, if you remember, used the word people kind.
00:21:41.080 When someone in a town hall used the word mankind.
00:21:47.260 And I think he thought he was being funny.
00:21:50.300 But, you know, with, with, with the liberals now, you never know.
00:21:55.080 And the idea that somehow man is inherently sexist.
00:21:58.320 And we must say people at all times.
00:22:01.160 And the word man originally meant human and mankind refers to all humankind.
00:22:06.140 And it becomes an academic exercise, literally.
00:22:09.300 When we start getting into all the different meanings of words and where they come from.
00:22:12.800 And that's why it's neat to pick up a book of etymology and the origins of phrases.
00:22:18.220 Because it's just, you know, it's just a jaunt into, into the past.
00:22:22.500 These are things we have to, we have to come to learn.
00:22:26.680 Not things that we somehow know by speaking a language.
00:22:29.660 But to get back to your point about it being, you know, insidious.
00:22:34.880 It's, cancelling speech and making certain ideas inappropriate for public discourse has always been the goal of the opponents of free speech.
00:22:49.400 And that's not to deny that hurtful terms don't exist.
00:22:52.540 But we know what they are.
00:22:53.860 We don't need to be tapped on the shoulders and told, actually, that's a bad word.
00:22:57.600 We know what the bad words are.
00:22:58.840 We're grownups.
00:22:59.420 We speak English.
00:23:00.100 But when people come along and they say, no, no, no, it's not just about whole categories of thought or arguments that are wrong.
00:23:09.280 They try to tell you the very elements of language are wrong.
00:23:16.180 They are trying to take away the very fibers of the carpet you're standing on.
00:23:21.160 And think how hard it would be to formulate an argument, even, even to organize your own thoughts.
00:23:28.140 When you are worried that every word you use might contain something either offensive or that will turn you into a deplorable in the eyes of the respectable classes.
00:23:41.120 And I think that is probably the most evil side of this.
00:23:45.260 That said, I think it's funny. 0.96
00:23:46.680 I think it's a silly article. 0.78
00:23:48.940 It's fun to laugh at. 0.91
00:23:49.860 But taken to extremes, it is trying to rip our tongues out.
00:23:54.360 It's trying to rob us of a fundamental tool of civilization, which is the ability to make our thoughts known to others and to communicate them.
00:24:05.240 That was just so well articulated, Harley.
00:24:07.200 I really appreciate that.
00:24:08.900 It reminds me, there's a part in Douglas Murray's book, The Madness of Crowds, where he talked about cancel culture.
00:24:14.240 And part of the problem is that the rules are constantly changing.
00:24:16.800 So you may say something or do something that's perfectly appropriate today in 2021, but the rules that the left is creating the mob is constantly evolving.
00:24:27.220 And so something that you say that's fine and politically correct today may not be politically correct tomorrow.
00:24:32.560 And the impact that that has on society and your ability to, like you say, think clearly, speak clearly.
00:24:37.680 I mean, I'll just pull out a couple of silly examples from the CBC article because it's so absurd.
00:24:43.620 I think your point is completely correct, that they're trying to push fear and instill fear into people that no matter what they do, they're not going to be like there's hidden meanings in our words, even if we don't have those intentions.
00:24:56.680 And the effect is chilling speech.
00:24:59.440 Like one of the examples is not to use the term spooky around Halloween, that spooky is used around Halloween to describe something that's frightening or strange or scary like a ghost.
00:25:09.800 However, there's this obscure reference that during World War Two, it was used as a racial slur against black soldiers.
00:25:17.240 So because even though the purpose of the word is different, it's not even the same word, right?
00:25:23.180 But you shouldn't even use that word spooky at Halloween because it could be perceived by some hypersensitive small group as being racist.
00:25:30.280 Another one that we've heard a lot of, I don't know if this was in the article or not, it probably was, but the idea that you shouldn't use the term master bedroom to describe the master, the biggest room in the house.
00:25:43.100 And the interesting thing is that the use of that word master bathroom, it came into effect.
00:25:48.960 I read about this when I first heard people trying to say, don't use that word.
00:25:52.380 And it didn't have anything to do with slavery.
00:25:54.620 It didn't have anything to do with the Jim Crow South or whatever.
00:25:58.500 The term master bedroom was created by the real estate industry after the Second World War when there was the boom.
00:26:03.740 And it was designed to make people feel like they are the master of their own domain and the master of their own home.
00:26:08.820 So it doesn't even, both these words, it doesn't even have the root of, you know, anything to do with being racist.
00:26:15.240 However, they're sort of superficially imposing that onto any word that sounds like it might sound like a word that might have a bad meaning. 0.99
00:26:22.600 And, you know, this erasing of our language, to me, it's, I agree, it's funny in this article, so stupid. 0.95
00:26:29.840 But at the same time, I know what they're doing. 0.81
00:26:32.400 And as we've seen from recent history, like, like they're, the woke push towards, you know, changing our language, it's, it's having an impact, it's successful.
00:26:42.140 How many people do you see nowadays that put their pronouns in their profile or in their bio?
00:26:47.980 You know, a couple of years ago when Jordan Peterson first started talking about this issue, it was like, it was like, this is a very strange academic university battle.
00:26:55.100 And now it's like, all around us. And it's like, you know, when they come up with these ideas, and start pushing it, they just seem to have a lot of success of steamrolling people, hardly so well.
00:27:06.180 All that's just to say, I agree with what you're saying. And I thank you for, for bringing this to my attention. What do you think about all that?
00:27:15.400 Well, I mean, the first thing that came to mind when I looked at the article was that the word lady refer, etymologically refers to the kneading of dough.
00:27:24.320 The lady part refers to like a loaf of bread, it's like lofty, and it became lady over time. So is that insulting? Does that imply all women belong in the kitchen?
00:27:33.480 You could make that argument, I could have written an article like this completely satirically, which is why it's, it was funny.
00:27:39.580 But then again, most people who read it, probably don't have that ability. They just look at and they would laugh, or they'd be scared. But again, there are stupid examples, I read stupid examples in there saying, for example, first world problems, we use it, we use the phrase first world problems, but it's in a way of recognizing how spoiled we actually are.
00:27:59.400 And they, the article will say, oh, it's actually insulting to, you know, less developed countries. Well, no, it's not. It's making fun of us. I remember talking to a co worker when he was asking how things are going in town with the recovery. And I said, oh, our Wi Fi isn't up yet. 0.99
00:28:14.320 But if that's the worst of it, then I guess we're doing pretty well. He said, yeah, first world problems, you know, so saying, you know, saying we're going to cancel terms like that, along with terms we all recognize to be bad, it's just it's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
00:28:29.680 And I think it gets us back to laughing at it again. Even though, as you said, some of this stuff makes too much headway, because I don't think we know quite how to challenge it yet, unless we use words in a, in a, in a more kind of blunt fashion. And, you know, that doesn't work either.
00:28:47.720 We're trying to, for example, reappropriate terms that have been deemed politically incorrect in the past. And if I could make one more, one more analogy about it, certain things that we're constantly replacing the words for because they become unacceptable.
00:29:06.160 A new, a new word comes out every few years, for example, that we're supposed to use. And some of us don't understand why they're like, what, what's wrong with the other word? Oh, well, it's, it's racist or insensitive.
00:29:17.260 And I would argue, well, then it's not the word. In that case, the word is almost a bandage. And it's the wound beneath that is, that is becoming infected, and it's infecting the bandage. So maybe it's this constant preoccupation with, with the thing it referring to as being bad and not the word.
00:29:33.920 But again, a lot of us don't, don't, didn't have a problem with the concepts to begin with. So it's, it's a slippery slope, I agree. And learning to keep, keep abreast of these things is like being bilingual. It's like speaking a socially acceptable language and then speaking a private language.
00:29:49.200 But in this case, I think it's, the examples are careless and silly enough that I think we can all laugh at them. So I recommend people just check out the article and, you know, check out the, the list of words because they're, they're pretty funny.
00:30:01.560 It's, it's, it's certainly a silly, and I'm glad that True North covered it. So if you don't want to, if you don't want to go to the CBC website, you don't want to patronize that and you can just check it out through our website, tnc.news.
00:30:14.340 Well, Harley, we're just so thrilled to have you on board. You're, you're obviously just a very well-rounded, well-read, intelligent person. You're going to bring a lot to True North. So we're, we're very lucky to have you and look forward to, I look forward to all the things, all the great things hopefully that you're going to do for us.
00:30:27.940 Again, really happy to be here, Candice, and looking forward to talking to you anytime.
00:30:33.460 Excellent. All right. Thank you so much. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.