The Candice Malcolm Show - Fake News Friday ｜ Another controversy, more claims of “racist attacks”

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to you all. It is Friday, November 25th, 2022, which means it is another

00:00:17.540 instance of fake news Friday. The fakest news of it all would be if we did it on like

00:00:23.100 Tuesday or something, but it is the way we cap off your week, swim through the blizzard of lies

00:00:27.960 that comes at your way from politicians and the media alike. And I am very delighted to have a

00:00:34.300 return performance or appearance. Maybe it's not about a performance, but a return appearance by

00:00:39.180 my colleague, Sue Ann Levy. Sue Ann, good to talk to you. How was the last week for you?

00:00:44.600 It was great. Now, you have to know as well, Andrew, that it's Black Friday. Are we still

00:00:49.400 allowed to say that? No, no, that's gone. That's too offensive. It's a color neutral Friday.

00:00:55.740 Yeah, we have to come up with, there are many sales today on Friday or something.

00:01:02.940 It's commercial capitalist imperial complex Friday. Friday, yes.

00:01:08.540 Yeah. Even Friday might be gone. You know, it's the, what's the Friday? It's the Roman 1.00

00:01:12.980 God Friday. So he probably did something that we've got to cancel him for.

00:01:17.900 Yes. Well, I, you know, as soon as I said it's Black Friday earlier, I thought, oh my God,

00:01:23.580 can I still say that? You are the uncancellable one in my view, Sue Ann. Let's get right to it.

00:01:30.680 This actually segues into this very bizarre story about something we actually reported on at True

00:01:37.100 North. Our colleague, Rachel Emanuel reported on Edmonton's move of its Christmas tree or removal

00:01:43.720 of its Christmas tree from this big square, Churchill Square downtown. I mean, there's something else they

00:01:48.780 probably need to name, Churchill Square, but nevertheless, they did this. True North reported

00:01:54.060 on it. A lot of people were very frustrated. They said, listen, it's tradition. This is what

00:01:58.720 Christmas season is. It's not about imposing Christianity on people. Lots of non-Christians 1.00

00:02:04.340 are absolutely fine with it. And then there was a follow-up story to this that the Canadian press did.

00:02:11.240 Racist response is what they said it elicited. Changes to holiday festival prompts racist response,

00:02:18.900 Edmonton officials say. And they say that the reaction to this, the backlash to this has turned

00:02:23.620 racist. They say the Edmonton Downtown Business Association had announced the plans, but the public

00:02:28.980 reaction has been focused on the fact that there won't be a giant Christmas tree. And then they say

00:02:34.020 that there has been racism directed at Amarjeet Sohi, the former Liberal Cabinet Minister, now the mayor of

00:02:40.020 Edmonton. And if you read the story as I did three times, there is not a single instance of racism

00:02:46.980 mentioned there. Nothing's quoted. Nothing's alluded to. I am not saying that no one said something

00:02:53.620 offensive to Mayor Sohi. It's certainly possible, but this is a story constructed around a response that

00:02:59.920 they're not even telling you about. Like imagine if I had said like there was a big car accident on

00:03:05.680 Bloor Street and didn't tell you anything about the car accident. I'm like, well, why did I read

00:03:09.880 this then? It is unbelievable because I think the R word, as I'm going to call it, has become the

00:03:18.760 excuse for everything, for every action. And you know, the issue is that people were upset that they

00:03:27.540 got rid of a Christmas tree. Like they're trying to cancel everything. Now I'm Jewish. I happen to

00:03:32.960 like Christmas trees. I like giant Christmas trees. The sparklier, the better. So I would never ever take a

00:03:41.200 Christmas tree away from anybody. I don't know in what world these people think they're living in. But you

00:03:48.740 know, the criticism was probably justified. But of course, if you dare criticize now you are an R, an R for

00:03:57.720 racist. And it's just unbelievable. And the fact that they didn't mention what was racist means

00:04:04.780 there's no substance to it. But you know, you, I don't know about you, but I get called racist all

00:04:10.080 the time. I mean, why do you call me racist? Because I dare speak out about ridiculous policies and

00:04:17.560 decisions? Yeah. And I mean, it's bizarre. And I don't deny that racism exists. And I don't deny that 0.78

00:04:23.900 people do send racial epithets in the direction of politicians who are ethnic minorities as Mayor Sohi

00:04:30.140 is. And I think that's inexcusable. I think it should be condemned. But I oftentimes think that

00:04:34.700 people use that term racist to completely avoid dealing with any legitimate criticism. So right here

00:04:42.200 you have something that has clearly unnerved a lot of Edmontonians and people around the country,

00:04:46.740 which is the feeling that they're taking the Christmas out of what's supposed to be a Christmas

00:04:50.920 event. That's the frustration. That is not racial. If one or two people said something racist as they

00:04:57.100 were lashing out about that, that's wrong. But you don't get to sidestep accountability over that

00:05:02.600 by only focusing on the nut jobs. And that's exactly what they do. They try to cancel any sort of 0.92

00:05:08.420 conversation or debate or intelligent, you know, discussion by just trying to cancel you. And,

00:05:17.960 you know, that's their favorite tactic now. And I think people are waking up. I certainly don't

00:05:25.080 take it. You know that I'm uncancellable, cancelable, cancelable. That's a hard word to say,

00:05:29.860 is it not? No, I can't be canceled. But, you know, I just say like, you know, it's so yesterday.

00:05:37.920 I mean, this is being used and it's so tiresome to hear now. Yeah. And the thing too is, I mean,

00:05:43.400 there's always been this push and pull, especially like my backgrounds in talk radio and like every

00:05:48.000 year in talk radio, there was always the war on Christmas story. And it got so tiresome after a

00:05:52.560 while because people would say, oh, come on, there is no war on Christmas. Everyone's allowed to say

00:05:57.200 Merry Christmas. And, you know, I'd say for most of the time, that's generally been true. I mean,

00:06:01.700 any war on Christmas has not been waged by Sikhs or Jews or Muslims. It's been waged by white liberals. 0.89

00:06:07.980 Yeah. Who feel very guilty about what? I'm not sure, but I mean, they're the ones who are leading

00:06:14.240 the charge on so many things. But as I said, I happen to like big shiny Christmas trees. You

00:06:20.880 can't help but get into a Christmas spirit. And I mean, frankly, these people are scrooges

00:06:26.300 for even thinking that they should refashion Christmas. People like the old traditions. And

00:06:33.560 one other thing I was thinking of as we were talking, we've been through three years of,

00:06:38.960 you know, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, border closures. I mean, let people have a little fun.

00:06:46.260 Stop taking the fun out of a traditional holiday. Yeah. I mean, that's a more constructive

00:06:53.020 solution. My idea was you would need to be the champion of this because I have Gentile privilege here,

00:06:59.740 but we could just rename it the Edmonton Hanukkah bush. And then if anyone tries to take it away,

00:07:04.240 you could call them an anti-Semite. Exactly. Yes. I like Hanukkah bushes and I've often thought of

00:07:11.580 getting one myself, but. All right. Problem solved. So it's no longer a Christmas tree. It's a Hanukkah

00:07:17.200 bush, which means Edmonton. You can put it back and be sufficiently diverse and woke. The only thing, 0.97

00:07:23.400 Andrew, is I will warn you that we have to light candles. So you don't want to be lighting those

00:07:27.400 candles near the Hanukkah bush. Yeah. Well, diversity sometimes needs a fire marshal. That's

00:07:33.660 oftentimes the sad reality of it. So we are lit aflame with the holiday spirit in more ways than

00:07:40.380 one. This is a weird story. And I feel bad because, you know, I never like beating up on individual

00:07:46.700 people. And certainly on this show, we try not to. But I will say that Rachel Gilmore's content

00:07:51.800 oftentimes does make it a fake news Friday, just because the beat that she covers is one that I think

00:07:57.380 is oftentimes very prone to this. Shopify, a Canadian company, says a store selling products

00:08:04.820 alleging grooming of kids doesn't violate rules. Now, the background on this is that there is this

00:08:12.540 online account called Libs of TikTok, which oftentimes focuses a lot on just exposing teachers and stuff

00:08:20.020 like that that they feel are overly woke. They sell merchandise on Shopify, which is a platform that

00:08:27.020 basically any online retailer can use. And some of these are shirts that have lines like stop grooming

00:08:33.540 our kids on them, which now some LGBTQ activists have said is offensive, is anti-trans, is, you know, 0.91

00:08:40.640 trying to stoke this idea that people in the gay community are pedophiles. And I mean, my position on

00:08:47.360 this has nothing to do with the substance of what's on the shirt, what's on the hat, what's on the coffee

00:08:52.700 mug or anything like that. It's that Shopify is at the very minimum. I mean, I would say it's a

00:08:58.260 software. It's a service that people use to facilitate online transactions. You're not buying

00:09:04.660 it from the Shopify emporium. You're not walking into a Shopify like you would walk into a Walmart.

00:09:10.020 It is an online platform. And it's this idea that activists believe companies have to be as woke as

00:09:17.840 they are or take the political positions that they do. And, and I'm just, I'm so tired of it. I mean,

00:09:23.340 whatever happened to the ideas that corporations could exist without having a political identity?

00:09:29.220 Well, I think activists won't be happy until they wokeify, you should pardon the pun,

00:09:34.720 every corporation. And I respect corporations, whether it's Shopify or whatever, who stand up to

00:09:41.300 the woke mob, you know, uh, we've seen, I think we discussed it, uh, the TD bank giving money,

00:09:47.760 uh, for trans, you know, gender, um, transgender. Yeah. For like child gender affirmation surgeries.

00:09:56.800 Yeah. I mean, you know what, you're a bank stop. You're in, you're in the business of giving money,

00:10:03.480 taking money, uh, you know, hiding money when, or, or canceling you as I had the experience with the TD

00:10:13.680 bank, um, because the check went through, was not supposed to, but I mean, the point is that you're

00:10:20.160 in the financial business. You're not in the business of, uh, funding gender surgeries. So I'm,

00:10:26.520 I think I really respect a corporation that can stand up to the activists. And some of the

00:10:33.440 activists speaking out, frankly, um, are ones who did a very good job of, uh, ensuring that gays had

00:10:43.180 rights, allowed me to have the right to marry my wife, but now they're seeking a cause because

00:10:50.080 gays and lesbians have rights. We're like normal people. Now they are in search of a cause. So 1.00

00:10:56.160 trans, transgendered ideology has become their focus and that, you know, as would everything,

00:11:03.100 they've gone grossly overboard. So they're in search of a mission and you know what, uh, it's,

00:11:10.620 it's, you know, the pendulum has swung so far. It's, it's making me crazy.

00:11:16.060 Yeah. And it's the idea of de-platforming that is really irking me here. There's a line that's given

00:11:22.660 by one of the activists here, Helen Kennedy, who's the head of, uh, a gal. And what Helen Kennedy says

00:11:29.100 is, can you imagine what it feels like to pass somebody on the street in your neighborhood that

00:11:33.380 you like to think you're safe in with a t-shirt that says, or a hat that says, stop grooming our

00:11:38.420 kids. So I look, that has nothing to do with Shopify in my view. And, uh, for, I mean, for starters,

00:11:45.140 someone wearing that shirt or not wearing that shirt has nothing to do with, uh, whether they are

00:11:49.740 safe or unsafe to be around. And if they believe the things on the shirt, I mean, whether they're wearing

00:11:54.700 it or not shouldn't really matter. But I think more crucially to that is that, uh, Ms. Kennedy is

00:12:00.540 saying that it is Shopify's responsibility to deal with what people wear instead of the

00:12:08.880 responsibility of people in education that may want to, uh, you know, teach a certain perspective

00:12:14.480 or individuals in the activist community that may want to have some sort of a campaign. And I guess

00:12:20.000 I'm just, I'm so fed up with this idea that people want to export their biases to every institution

00:12:27.300 that they interact with. Exactly. And, and, you know, I was referring to Ms. Kennedy and, and a gal

00:12:33.880 because they're the ones who have been involved with transgender workshops, transphobia, one-on-one

00:12:41.740 transgender one-on-one that I've written about in the past that are coming into elementary schools. So here

00:12:47.440 they are in search of a cause and, you know, uh, this, this doesn't surprise me the comments because,

00:12:55.220 um, they want to, uh, I guess, reposition the world. They want to have the final say on everything

00:13:06.980 and, you know, just leave us alone. Let us wear what we want to wear. Let us wear mega hats if we want

00:13:13.560 to wear them. Not that I would, but, um, you know, uh, everybody, this is part of a democracy,

00:13:20.080 right? And the people who are wearing them are the ones who are responsible for wearing them. Like,

00:13:26.160 I mean, my wife and I have seen people go down the street, uh, a woman saying I'm with, he's just got 1.00

00:13:32.000 an arrow, a shirt and says, I'm with the idiot. And then the husband says, I'm the idiot. And we often 1.00

00:13:38.220 say, okay, that's funny. But like, who would walk down the street wearing shirts like that? People,

00:13:43.580 you know, it speaks to the people who buy the shirts, not the people who are selling the shirts

00:13:49.400 or the platform that's selling the shirts. Yeah. That's the thing. I mean, Shopify is not even

00:13:53.300 selling it. You're right. And I guess here's my perspective too, is that, you know, you may look

00:13:58.080 at, not you personally, but someone may look at the stop grooming our kids shirt and say, wow,

00:14:02.740 that that's really offensive. And you know, there's an argument for that. Absolutely. But

00:14:06.180 the problem is that a lot of these activists would draw the line at a much, much, much lower level.

00:14:13.160 Like I would suspect without knowing that if Shopify were to sell a shirt that said

00:14:17.960 biological sex is immutable, they would say that's offensive and should be taken down too. If they

00:14:23.880 were to sell a Trump hat, they would say that was offensive and should be taken down too. So

00:14:28.100 it's knowing that the activists are never actually as restrained as it sounds like here. And they would,

00:14:33.100 if they had their way censor a lot more. Yes. That's what I meant by, they want to rule the

00:14:37.200 world. You know, they want to rule speech, which is not necessarily free anymore. And, you know,

00:14:43.640 I take great exception to comments like that. Like I said, it's the responsibility of people who,

00:14:49.440 who are wearing the shirts. Now I happen to order a hoodie that I haven't worn yet. Cause it's,

00:14:55.100 it's, it's, uh, it's, it, it's still sitting in the drawer, but I ordered a hoodie that says,

00:15:02.400 uh, I tested positive for critical thinking, support independent media.

00:15:08.180 Okay. So, and so when I walk around, are people going to take offense to that?

00:15:14.200 You should walk, walk just back and forth in front of the CBC headquarters on front street.

00:15:18.300 Exactly. Oh, that's too fun. That's, that should be your, your uniform for a fake news Friday moving

00:15:24.080 forward. Yes, I should. I'll wear it next time. Sounds good. Uh, this is a, a fun one. So

00:15:30.040 Wyatt Sharp is a name that some of you may or may not know. He's, I believe he's 13 years old now.

00:15:36.840 He's been doing like online interviews and stuff for the last, I mean, certainly the last year,

00:15:42.500 maybe even a couple of years. Cause I think he interviewed Doug Ford relatively early on in the

00:15:47.120 pandemic and he's gotten remarkable access. He's gotten an interview with Doug Ford. He's

00:15:53.060 interviewed Justin Trudeau. He's interviewed most party leaders. He had a former U S ambassador to

00:15:58.320 the UN John Bolton on last week. Like the kid, the kid does well because it's kind of a cute novelty

00:16:03.120 thing to do. He's a 13 year old. He asked generally fairly friendly questions. It's, it's a fun

00:16:08.700 opportunity for someone to go on and he gets, you know, a decent enough following, but there's,

00:16:13.680 there's been a pivot in the last little while where some journalists aren't treating

00:16:17.100 and it's just this sort of cute little thing, but are treating him as a, as a journalist,

00:16:22.260 as a, as a bona fide journalist, which I say, okay, fine. Let's play by the rules that journalists

00:16:27.460 play by. He's been trying to get an interview with education minister, Steven Lecce and apparently

00:16:33.980 has been unable to get an interview with minister Steven Lecce for the last year. Now, okay, that's

00:16:38.620 unfortunate. I have been trying to get an interview with Justin Trudeau for six years

00:16:42.140 and have had no luck. And there's never been a news story about that. CTV ran this 13 year old

00:16:48.760 Ontario journalist says Lecce is ignoring his interview requests. And that is exactly the

00:16:54.180 story. It's that he's interviewed all these people, but he has not gotten an interview with

00:16:58.380 Steven Lecce in a year. And then, uh, he tweeted about it and somehow the news picked this up, like

00:17:04.500 setting aside the fact that he's 13. Sue Ann, you've been a journalist for many, many years. I'm sure

00:17:11.420 there are politicians who have dodged you for more than a year. Has there ever been a news story in

00:17:15.940 CTV about it? No. In fact, uh, they never covered the fact that, uh, I got taken out of a indigenous

00:17:23.840 meeting by four armed cops. They didn't cover the fact that I had to chase many school board directors

00:17:29.700 out of buildings to get a comment from them, uh, or that doors were slammed in my face,

00:17:35.500 but you know, it's, it speaks to their agenda. When I saw that, I thought, of course, any chance

00:17:43.060 to dump on the conservative government of Ontario and they have, let's be honest here. There are many

00:17:49.460 reasons we could criticize them, but not granting an interview to a 13 year old is not one, but it's

00:17:55.380 all part of their agenda, their bias. Steven Lecce is the devil. He's, you know, put teachers in this 0.97

00:18:02.580 uncomfortable position. Uh, he's not negotiating nicely with the CUPE workers. My goodness. So,

00:18:09.620 you know, it was, it was all, you know, it was just so in, in a way kind of sleazy that,

00:18:19.140 that they would cover this just as a backhanded way of, you know, criticizing him.

00:18:26.300 Yeah. Like it was a weird, it was just a weird thing all around. And, and so now I will say

00:18:32.160 Lecce's office didn't do itself any favors. So Wyatt tweeted about this initially and said,

00:18:37.000 you know, haven't been able to get it. And apparently an email, he got an email from, uh,

00:18:40.960 one of his spokespeople for Steven Lecce who said, I don't appreciate you tweeting that we aren't

00:18:46.000 responding to you other than a broad media availability. The minister was not doing

00:18:50.020 any one-on-one interviews. So, so then that further inflames it because now the ministry

00:18:54.100 has responded to say, we don't like that you're tweeting about this. Like again, you know, I think

00:18:58.560 that ministers are oftentimes far too protected from talking to real people, but my goodness,

00:19:04.560 if we wrote a story, anytime a politician dodged the media, we would not be writing anything else.

00:19:09.180 Exactly. And you know what? They gave it, they gave it far more, uh, clarity or they gave it far

00:19:18.220 more, um, than it needed to, to have by responding. I mean, they, they, they actually treated him like

00:19:27.920 he was a journalist. So in many ways, they are the authors of their own misery. Uh, Steven Lecce's

00:19:33.160 office I'm talking about, they should have just ignored it. I mean, he's 13 years old and he's

00:19:39.160 he's, I admire his moxie, but come on. Yeah. I mean, he has a vested interest in education more 1.00

00:19:46.980 than any other ministry. I mean, he he's of school age, but, uh, and again, it's, it's tremendous what

00:19:51.600 he's done. I'm a big supporter of independent media, but, uh, part of the experience, if you

00:19:56.140 want to be a journalist is having to deal with that rejection. And I think the media was a little too

00:20:01.760 much in enabling mode on that story. And you're right. I think it was all really just to, uh, pursue

00:20:06.780 that agenda towards the, uh, towards or against the conservative government. Uh, we we've got to

00:20:12.940 wrap things up here in just a moment, but we're colleagues who, and so we'll end on a bit of a

00:20:16.700 lighter note, uh, because we work remotely, we don't have the benefit of getting together for

00:20:21.940 after work drinks. I mean, I guess we do, but we're just all drinking alone in our respective

00:20:25.900 homes generally. Um, but there was a Globe and Mail piece that after work drinks are not

00:20:31.980 inclusive enough. The act of gathering at a bar to consume alcohol is seen as a way for employees

00:20:38.180 and their bosses to bond, to chat, to get to know one, each other, but for women and other 0.97

00:20:42.500 marginalized groups, this common social practice is not always inclusive. And they quote a Calgary

00:20:48.900 based millennial in the public sector, Tala Abu Hayyana. Uh, and she is a Muslim woman. So she says 0.99

00:20:55.480 the social pressure to conform has been troublesome to her because she like other observant Muslims 1.00

00:21:01.780 do not drink. So therefore she is not included in after work drinks. Uh, I don't know about she's

00:21:08.680 not included. She's chosen not to, to participate. I would say, I mean, talk about twisting things

00:21:14.920 around. Look, I'm not a big drinker, but I often went out just to, you know, connect and to be social.

00:21:23.520 And that is what people do. I mean, I think some of the suggestions that she made that they should

00:21:30.380 go bowling together or have picnics together, um, in her op-ed. I mean, that's crazy. Uh, you could go

00:21:40.080 on a retreat together, I suppose, but I mean, that's what people do to wind down after a day. It's an age

00:21:46.660 old tradition. I'm not a big drinker. We used to, you know, have these sort of events when I was at

00:21:53.380 post-media, but I would sometimes go just like I said, to connect. Um, so, I mean, I think there are

00:22:02.240 a lot of people in this world right now who are in search of some sort of, we say in Yiddish and you

00:22:08.200 wanted some, it's called a bloigus. They're looking for a bloigus. They're looking for trouble. And,

00:22:14.960 you know, she's trying to create a bloigus, you know, you know, they're, they're, they're

00:22:23.560 complaining about nothing. Absolutely nothing. Yeah. And I mean, even like, like, let's go through

00:22:29.860 some of the alternatives. Well, potlucks are not good to people with dietary needs or people with

00:22:34.240 food allergies or people with, uh, religious restrictions, bowling and outdoor sports. They're

00:22:39.280 not inclusive of people with physical disabilities. Comedy shows, if they're good, might not be inclusive

00:22:44.260 of, of anybody, uh, escape rooms. They are tremendously, tremendously offensive to people

00:22:49.840 with claustrophobia. Uh, so how dare you try to marginalize your coworkers with claustrophobia? Like

00:22:55.880 not everything is going to be of interest to everyone. That's not the point of this. It's that

00:23:01.500 like you can go to a bar and not drink. And I have done that many, many times. I'm sure the servers love

00:23:06.760 me, but you know, I'll go there, uh, if I'm with people and maybe I'm driving or maybe I just have an

00:23:11.160 early morning and you know, you, you grab a coffee or you grab a soft drink or something like, or

00:23:15.460 whatever. Yeah. Like who cares? I know. Like I said, abrogus, stop making trouble where it doesn't

00:23:22.960 exist. You know, that's what my grandmother would say. Don't make abrogus. Yeah. I'm going to, I,

00:23:30.200 I only know like seven Yiddish words, but I think I can add it to eight now. So I'm going to look that

00:23:34.780 up to, to, to make sure I I'm saying it right. I, I, two of them, I know from the opening credits to

00:23:39.540 Laverne and Shirley though, Schlemiel and Schlemazel. I don't know what they mean,

00:23:42.500 but I know Schlemiel and Schlemazel. Well, the, you know, I think this would fit into that category,

00:23:48.280 Schlemiel and Schlemazel. Schlemiel, Schlemazel and, uh, Bloigel. Is that it?

00:23:52.900 Bloigus. Bloigus. Bloigus. Bloigus means making something out of nothing. Okay. Well that,

00:23:59.240 that is that we should rename, we should do a Fake News Friday Yiddish edition, because I think that's 0.96

00:24:03.220 often what the, uh, what the media is, is doing here. Uh, I'll leave you all with one final thought

00:24:08.640 here from Chloe C, a third generation Chinese Canadian, uh, dedicated to dismantling the kind 1.00

00:24:14.720 of unequal systems upheld by after work drinks culture. So if you invite your employees out to

00:24:20.700 after work drinks, you are contributing to, uh, unequal systems in need of dismantling. So,

00:24:25.460 uh, take from that what you will. Uh, Sue Ann Levy, you can catch her fantastic reporting at

00:24:30.420 tnc.news. I am Andrew Lawton. You can listen to my less fantastic, but still adequate show,

00:24:35.640 the Andrew Lawton show at tnc.news as well. Sue Ann, have a wonderful weekend.

00:24:41.100 You too, my dear. Yeah, no, no making a Bloigus on your weekend. Uh, everyone have a good one. We'll see you later. 0.99

00:24:47.780 Bye.

00:24:47.900 Bye.

The Candice Malcolm Show - November 25, 2022

Fake News Friday ｜ Another controversy, more claims of “racist attacks”

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