Fake News Friday ｜ Another controversy, more claims of “racist attacks”
Episode Stats
Summary
In this week's Fake News Friday, we have a story about a giant Christmas tree being removed from a downtown square in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and then the media tries to make you think that it's racist. We also have an update on the disappearance of Black Friday.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome to you all. It is Friday, November 25th, 2022, which means it is another
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instance of fake news Friday. The fakest news of it all would be if we did it on like
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Tuesday or something, but it is the way we cap off your week, swim through the blizzard of lies
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that comes at your way from politicians and the media alike. And I am very delighted to have a
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return performance or appearance. Maybe it's not about a performance, but a return appearance by
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my colleague, Sue Ann Levy. Sue Ann, good to talk to you. How was the last week for you?
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It was great. Now, you have to know as well, Andrew, that it's Black Friday. Are we still
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allowed to say that? No, no, that's gone. That's too offensive. It's a color neutral Friday.
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Yeah, we have to come up with, there are many sales today on Friday or something.
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It's commercial capitalist imperial complex Friday. Friday, yes.
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Yeah. Even Friday might be gone. You know, it's the, what's the Friday? It's the Roman
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God Friday. So he probably did something that we've got to cancel him for.
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Yes. Well, I, you know, as soon as I said it's Black Friday earlier, I thought, oh my God,
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can I still say that? You are the uncancellable one in my view, Sue Ann. Let's get right to it.
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This actually segues into this very bizarre story about something we actually reported on at True
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North. Our colleague, Rachel Emanuel reported on Edmonton's move of its Christmas tree or removal
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of its Christmas tree from this big square, Churchill Square downtown. I mean, there's something else they
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probably need to name, Churchill Square, but nevertheless, they did this. True North reported
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on it. A lot of people were very frustrated. They said, listen, it's tradition. This is what
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Christmas season is. It's not about imposing Christianity on people. Lots of non-Christians
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are absolutely fine with it. And then there was a follow-up story to this that the Canadian press did.
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Racist response is what they said it elicited. Changes to holiday festival prompts racist response,
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Edmonton officials say. And they say that the reaction to this, the backlash to this has turned
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racist. They say the Edmonton Downtown Business Association had announced the plans, but the public
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reaction has been focused on the fact that there won't be a giant Christmas tree. And then they say
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that there has been racism directed at Amarjeet Sohi, the former Liberal Cabinet Minister, now the mayor of
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Edmonton. And if you read the story as I did three times, there is not a single instance of racism
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mentioned there. Nothing's quoted. Nothing's alluded to. I am not saying that no one said something
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offensive to Mayor Sohi. It's certainly possible, but this is a story constructed around a response that
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they're not even telling you about. Like imagine if I had said like there was a big car accident on
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Bloor Street and didn't tell you anything about the car accident. I'm like, well, why did I read
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this then? It is unbelievable because I think the R word, as I'm going to call it, has become the
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excuse for everything, for every action. And you know, the issue is that people were upset that they
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got rid of a Christmas tree. Like they're trying to cancel everything. Now I'm Jewish. I happen to
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like Christmas trees. I like giant Christmas trees. The sparklier, the better. So I would never ever take a
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Christmas tree away from anybody. I don't know in what world these people think they're living in. But you
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know, the criticism was probably justified. But of course, if you dare criticize now you are an R, an R for
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racist. And it's just unbelievable. And the fact that they didn't mention what was racist means
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there's no substance to it. But you know, you, I don't know about you, but I get called racist all
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the time. I mean, why do you call me racist? Because I dare speak out about ridiculous policies and
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decisions? Yeah. And I mean, it's bizarre. And I don't deny that racism exists. And I don't deny that
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people do send racial epithets in the direction of politicians who are ethnic minorities as Mayor Sohi
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is. And I think that's inexcusable. I think it should be condemned. But I oftentimes think that
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people use that term racist to completely avoid dealing with any legitimate criticism. So right here
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you have something that has clearly unnerved a lot of Edmontonians and people around the country,
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which is the feeling that they're taking the Christmas out of what's supposed to be a Christmas
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event. That's the frustration. That is not racial. If one or two people said something racist as they
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were lashing out about that, that's wrong. But you don't get to sidestep accountability over that
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by only focusing on the nut jobs. And that's exactly what they do. They try to cancel any sort of
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conversation or debate or intelligent, you know, discussion by just trying to cancel you. And,
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you know, that's their favorite tactic now. And I think people are waking up. I certainly don't
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take it. You know that I'm uncancellable, cancelable, cancelable. That's a hard word to say,
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is it not? No, I can't be canceled. But, you know, I just say like, you know, it's so yesterday.
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I mean, this is being used and it's so tiresome to hear now. Yeah. And the thing too is, I mean,
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there's always been this push and pull, especially like my backgrounds in talk radio and like every
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year in talk radio, there was always the war on Christmas story. And it got so tiresome after a
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while because people would say, oh, come on, there is no war on Christmas. Everyone's allowed to say
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Merry Christmas. And, you know, I'd say for most of the time, that's generally been true. I mean,
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any war on Christmas has not been waged by Sikhs or Jews or Muslims. It's been waged by white liberals.
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Yeah. Who feel very guilty about what? I'm not sure, but I mean, they're the ones who are leading
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the charge on so many things. But as I said, I happen to like big shiny Christmas trees. You
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can't help but get into a Christmas spirit. And I mean, frankly, these people are scrooges
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for even thinking that they should refashion Christmas. People like the old traditions. And
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one other thing I was thinking of as we were talking, we've been through three years of,
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you know, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, border closures. I mean, let people have a little fun.
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Stop taking the fun out of a traditional holiday. Yeah. I mean, that's a more constructive
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solution. My idea was you would need to be the champion of this because I have Gentile privilege here,
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but we could just rename it the Edmonton Hanukkah bush. And then if anyone tries to take it away,
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you could call them an anti-Semite. Exactly. Yes. I like Hanukkah bushes and I've often thought of
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getting one myself, but. All right. Problem solved. So it's no longer a Christmas tree. It's a Hanukkah
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bush, which means Edmonton. You can put it back and be sufficiently diverse and woke. The only thing,
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Andrew, is I will warn you that we have to light candles. So you don't want to be lighting those
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candles near the Hanukkah bush. Yeah. Well, diversity sometimes needs a fire marshal. That's
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oftentimes the sad reality of it. So we are lit aflame with the holiday spirit in more ways than
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one. This is a weird story. And I feel bad because, you know, I never like beating up on individual
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people. And certainly on this show, we try not to. But I will say that Rachel Gilmore's content
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oftentimes does make it a fake news Friday, just because the beat that she covers is one that I think
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is oftentimes very prone to this. Shopify, a Canadian company, says a store selling products
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alleging grooming of kids doesn't violate rules. Now, the background on this is that there is this
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online account called Libs of TikTok, which oftentimes focuses a lot on just exposing teachers and stuff
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like that that they feel are overly woke. They sell merchandise on Shopify, which is a platform that
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basically any online retailer can use. And some of these are shirts that have lines like stop grooming
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our kids on them, which now some LGBTQ activists have said is offensive, is anti-trans, is, you know,
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trying to stoke this idea that people in the gay community are pedophiles. And I mean, my position on
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this has nothing to do with the substance of what's on the shirt, what's on the hat, what's on the coffee
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mug or anything like that. It's that Shopify is at the very minimum. I mean, I would say it's a
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software. It's a service that people use to facilitate online transactions. You're not buying
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it from the Shopify emporium. You're not walking into a Shopify like you would walk into a Walmart.
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It is an online platform. And it's this idea that activists believe companies have to be as woke as
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they are or take the political positions that they do. And, and I'm just, I'm so tired of it. I mean,
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whatever happened to the ideas that corporations could exist without having a political identity?
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Well, I think activists won't be happy until they wokeify, you should pardon the pun,
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every corporation. And I respect corporations, whether it's Shopify or whatever, who stand up to
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the woke mob, you know, uh, we've seen, I think we discussed it, uh, the TD bank giving money,
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uh, for trans, you know, gender, um, transgender. Yeah. For like child gender affirmation surgeries.
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Yeah. I mean, you know what, you're a bank stop. You're in, you're in the business of giving money,
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taking money, uh, you know, hiding money when, or, or canceling you as I had the experience with the TD
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bank, um, because the check went through, was not supposed to, but I mean, the point is that you're
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in the financial business. You're not in the business of, uh, funding gender surgeries. So I'm,
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I think I really respect a corporation that can stand up to the activists. And some of the
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activists speaking out, frankly, um, are ones who did a very good job of, uh, ensuring that gays had
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rights, allowed me to have the right to marry my wife, but now they're seeking a cause because
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gays and lesbians have rights. We're like normal people. Now they are in search of a cause. So
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trans, transgendered ideology has become their focus and that, you know, as would everything,
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they've gone grossly overboard. So they're in search of a mission and you know what, uh, it's,
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it's, you know, the pendulum has swung so far. It's, it's making me crazy.
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Yeah. And it's the idea of de-platforming that is really irking me here. There's a line that's given
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by one of the activists here, Helen Kennedy, who's the head of, uh, a gal. And what Helen Kennedy says
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is, can you imagine what it feels like to pass somebody on the street in your neighborhood that
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you like to think you're safe in with a t-shirt that says, or a hat that says, stop grooming our
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kids. So I look, that has nothing to do with Shopify in my view. And, uh, for, I mean, for starters,
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someone wearing that shirt or not wearing that shirt has nothing to do with, uh, whether they are
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safe or unsafe to be around. And if they believe the things on the shirt, I mean, whether they're wearing
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it or not shouldn't really matter. But I think more crucially to that is that, uh, Ms. Kennedy is
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saying that it is Shopify's responsibility to deal with what people wear instead of the
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responsibility of people in education that may want to, uh, you know, teach a certain perspective
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or individuals in the activist community that may want to have some sort of a campaign. And I guess
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I'm just, I'm so fed up with this idea that people want to export their biases to every institution
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that they interact with. Exactly. And, and, you know, I was referring to Ms. Kennedy and, and a gal
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because they're the ones who have been involved with transgender workshops, transphobia, one-on-one
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transgender one-on-one that I've written about in the past that are coming into elementary schools. So here
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they are in search of a cause and, you know, uh, this, this doesn't surprise me the comments because,
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um, they want to, uh, I guess, reposition the world. They want to have the final say on everything
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and, you know, just leave us alone. Let us wear what we want to wear. Let us wear mega hats if we want
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to wear them. Not that I would, but, um, you know, uh, everybody, this is part of a democracy,
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right? And the people who are wearing them are the ones who are responsible for wearing them. Like,
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I mean, my wife and I have seen people go down the street, uh, a woman saying I'm with, he's just got
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an arrow, a shirt and says, I'm with the idiot. And then the husband says, I'm the idiot. And we often
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say, okay, that's funny. But like, who would walk down the street wearing shirts like that? People,
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you know, it speaks to the people who buy the shirts, not the people who are selling the shirts
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or the platform that's selling the shirts. Yeah. That's the thing. I mean, Shopify is not even
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selling it. You're right. And I guess here's my perspective too, is that, you know, you may look
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at, not you personally, but someone may look at the stop grooming our kids shirt and say, wow,
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that that's really offensive. And you know, there's an argument for that. Absolutely. But
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the problem is that a lot of these activists would draw the line at a much, much, much lower level.
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Like I would suspect without knowing that if Shopify were to sell a shirt that said
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biological sex is immutable, they would say that's offensive and should be taken down too. If they
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were to sell a Trump hat, they would say that was offensive and should be taken down too. So
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it's knowing that the activists are never actually as restrained as it sounds like here. And they would,
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if they had their way censor a lot more. Yes. That's what I meant by, they want to rule the
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world. You know, they want to rule speech, which is not necessarily free anymore. And, you know,
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I take great exception to comments like that. Like I said, it's the responsibility of people who,
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who are wearing the shirts. Now I happen to order a hoodie that I haven't worn yet. Cause it's,
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it's, it's, uh, it's, it, it's still sitting in the drawer, but I ordered a hoodie that says,
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uh, I tested positive for critical thinking, support independent media.
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Okay. So, and so when I walk around, are people going to take offense to that?
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You should walk, walk just back and forth in front of the CBC headquarters on front street.
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Exactly. Oh, that's too fun. That's, that should be your, your uniform for a fake news Friday moving
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forward. Yes, I should. I'll wear it next time. Sounds good. Uh, this is a, a fun one. So
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Wyatt Sharp is a name that some of you may or may not know. He's, I believe he's 13 years old now.
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He's been doing like online interviews and stuff for the last, I mean, certainly the last year,
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maybe even a couple of years. Cause I think he interviewed Doug Ford relatively early on in the
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pandemic and he's gotten remarkable access. He's gotten an interview with Doug Ford. He's
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interviewed Justin Trudeau. He's interviewed most party leaders. He had a former U S ambassador to
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the UN John Bolton on last week. Like the kid, the kid does well because it's kind of a cute novelty
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thing to do. He's a 13 year old. He asked generally fairly friendly questions. It's, it's a fun
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opportunity for someone to go on and he gets, you know, a decent enough following, but there's,
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there's been a pivot in the last little while where some journalists aren't treating
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and it's just this sort of cute little thing, but are treating him as a, as a journalist,
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as a, as a bona fide journalist, which I say, okay, fine. Let's play by the rules that journalists
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play by. He's been trying to get an interview with education minister, Steven Lecce and apparently
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has been unable to get an interview with minister Steven Lecce for the last year. Now, okay, that's
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unfortunate. I have been trying to get an interview with Justin Trudeau for six years
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and have had no luck. And there's never been a news story about that. CTV ran this 13 year old
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Ontario journalist says Lecce is ignoring his interview requests. And that is exactly the
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story. It's that he's interviewed all these people, but he has not gotten an interview with
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Steven Lecce in a year. And then, uh, he tweeted about it and somehow the news picked this up, like
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setting aside the fact that he's 13. Sue Ann, you've been a journalist for many, many years. I'm sure
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there are politicians who have dodged you for more than a year. Has there ever been a news story in
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CTV about it? No. In fact, uh, they never covered the fact that, uh, I got taken out of a indigenous
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meeting by four armed cops. They didn't cover the fact that I had to chase many school board directors
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out of buildings to get a comment from them, uh, or that doors were slammed in my face,
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but you know, it's, it speaks to their agenda. When I saw that, I thought, of course, any chance
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to dump on the conservative government of Ontario and they have, let's be honest here. There are many
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reasons we could criticize them, but not granting an interview to a 13 year old is not one, but it's
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all part of their agenda, their bias. Steven Lecce is the devil. He's, you know, put teachers in this
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uncomfortable position. Uh, he's not negotiating nicely with the CUPE workers. My goodness. So,
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you know, it was, it was all, you know, it was just so in, in a way kind of sleazy that,
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that they would cover this just as a backhanded way of, you know, criticizing him.
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Yeah. Like it was a weird, it was just a weird thing all around. And, and so now I will say
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Lecce's office didn't do itself any favors. So Wyatt tweeted about this initially and said,
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you know, haven't been able to get it. And apparently an email, he got an email from, uh,
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one of his spokespeople for Steven Lecce who said, I don't appreciate you tweeting that we aren't
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responding to you other than a broad media availability. The minister was not doing
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any one-on-one interviews. So, so then that further inflames it because now the ministry
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has responded to say, we don't like that you're tweeting about this. Like again, you know, I think
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that ministers are oftentimes far too protected from talking to real people, but my goodness,
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if we wrote a story, anytime a politician dodged the media, we would not be writing anything else.
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Exactly. And you know what? They gave it, they gave it far more, uh, clarity or they gave it far
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more, um, than it needed to, to have by responding. I mean, they, they, they actually treated him like
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he was a journalist. So in many ways, they are the authors of their own misery. Uh, Steven Lecce's
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office I'm talking about, they should have just ignored it. I mean, he's 13 years old and he's
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he's, I admire his moxie, but come on. Yeah. I mean, he has a vested interest in education more
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than any other ministry. I mean, he he's of school age, but, uh, and again, it's, it's tremendous what
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he's done. I'm a big supporter of independent media, but, uh, part of the experience, if you
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want to be a journalist is having to deal with that rejection. And I think the media was a little too
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much in enabling mode on that story. And you're right. I think it was all really just to, uh, pursue
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that agenda towards the, uh, towards or against the conservative government. Uh, we we've got to
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wrap things up here in just a moment, but we're colleagues who, and so we'll end on a bit of a
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lighter note, uh, because we work remotely, we don't have the benefit of getting together for
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after work drinks. I mean, I guess we do, but we're just all drinking alone in our respective
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homes generally. Um, but there was a Globe and Mail piece that after work drinks are not
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inclusive enough. The act of gathering at a bar to consume alcohol is seen as a way for employees
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and their bosses to bond, to chat, to get to know one, each other, but for women and other
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marginalized groups, this common social practice is not always inclusive. And they quote a Calgary
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based millennial in the public sector, Tala Abu Hayyana. Uh, and she is a Muslim woman. So she says
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the social pressure to conform has been troublesome to her because she like other observant Muslims
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do not drink. So therefore she is not included in after work drinks. Uh, I don't know about she's
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not included. She's chosen not to, to participate. I would say, I mean, talk about twisting things
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around. Look, I'm not a big drinker, but I often went out just to, you know, connect and to be social.
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And that is what people do. I mean, I think some of the suggestions that she made that they should
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go bowling together or have picnics together, um, in her op-ed. I mean, that's crazy. Uh, you could go
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on a retreat together, I suppose, but I mean, that's what people do to wind down after a day. It's an age
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old tradition. I'm not a big drinker. We used to, you know, have these sort of events when I was at
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post-media, but I would sometimes go just like I said, to connect. Um, so, I mean, I think there are
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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,
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you know, she's trying to create a bloigus, you know, you know, they're, they're, they're
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complaining about nothing. Absolutely nothing. Yeah. And I mean, even like, like, let's go through
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some of the alternatives. Well, potlucks are not good to people with dietary needs or people with
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food allergies or people with, uh, religious restrictions, bowling and outdoor sports. They're
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not inclusive of people with physical disabilities. Comedy shows, if they're good, might not be inclusive
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of, of anybody, uh, escape rooms. They are tremendously, tremendously offensive to people
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with claustrophobia. Uh, so how dare you try to marginalize your coworkers with claustrophobia? Like
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not everything is going to be of interest to everyone. That's not the point of this. It's that
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like you can go to a bar and not drink. And I have done that many, many times. I'm sure the servers love
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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
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early morning and you know, you, you grab a coffee or you grab a soft drink or something like, or
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whatever. Yeah. Like who cares? I know. Like I said, abrogus, stop making trouble where it doesn't
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exist. You know, that's what my grandmother would say. Don't make abrogus. Yeah. I'm going to, I,
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I only know like seven Yiddish words, but I think I can add it to eight now. So I'm going to look that
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up to, to, to make sure I I'm saying it right. I, I, two of them, I know from the opening credits to
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Laverne and Shirley though, Schlemiel and Schlemazel. I don't know what they mean,
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but I know Schlemiel and Schlemazel. Well, the, you know, I think this would fit into that category,
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Schlemiel and Schlemazel. Schlemiel, Schlemazel and, uh, Bloigel. Is that it?
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Bloigus. Bloigus. Bloigus. Bloigus means making something out of nothing. Okay. Well that,
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that is that we should rename, we should do a Fake News Friday Yiddish edition, because I think that's
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often what the, uh, what the media is, is doing here. Uh, I'll leave you all with one final thought
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here from Chloe C, a third generation Chinese Canadian, uh, dedicated to dismantling the kind
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of unequal systems upheld by after work drinks culture. So if you invite your employees out to
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after work drinks, you are contributing to, uh, unequal systems in need of dismantling. So,
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uh, take from that what you will. Uh, Sue Ann Levy, you can catch her fantastic reporting at
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tnc.news. I am Andrew Lawton. You can listen to my less fantastic, but still adequate show,
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the Andrew Lawton show at tnc.news as well. Sue Ann, have a wonderful weekend.
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You too, my dear. Yeah, no, no making a Bloigus on your weekend. Uh, everyone have a good one. We'll see you later.