The Candice Malcolm Show - Fake News Friday ｜ Protesters battle over drag shows for kids

00:00:00.000 Hello everyone and welcome to Fake News Friday. It is Friday, February 10th, 2023. I am Andrew

00:00:17.280 Lawton joined by the lovely and wonderful Sue Ann Levy. Nothing fake news about those adjectives

00:00:23.480 and many more. And this is the moment of the week where we look back at the week that was

00:00:28.480 we swim through the flurry of falsehoods, the fabrications and fictions and try to make sense

00:00:34.200 of it all and perhaps even have a laugh or two in the process. And as always, and you can certainly

00:00:40.820 attest to this through your career of watching all of the people that are supposed to be the

00:00:45.460 watchers of truth themselves, they give us no shortage of material. That is for darn sure and

00:00:51.620 more and more lately. Yeah, very much the case. And one of them we needn't look further than the 0.63

00:00:57.700 nation's capital just a year since the Freedom Convoy. And there is a new battle brewing on

00:01:03.480 the streets of Ottawa. This one a little bit more colorful and a little bit less in the way of

00:01:07.940 honking. A battle of protests, dueling protests about drag storytime events, specifically one at

00:01:15.540 Ottawa's National Arts Centre. Now I wasn't there, but on Wednesday night there was a protest against

00:01:21.380 the drag storytime event at the NAC in Ottawa. Also a group of counter protesters. The media was

00:01:29.100 very clear and very quick to point out that there seemed to be more in the pro-drag storytime

00:01:34.540 protests than in the anti-drag storytime protests. I mean, all told, we're still talking about no more

00:01:40.500 than maybe 200, 250 people here with a dozen police officers there to keep the peace. The sense about

00:01:48.300 this though seems to be that those protesting these events are in the wrong. And I'm curious

00:01:54.520 about your thoughts on this. They're absolutely not in the wrong. Number one, I mean, it just

00:02:00.300 upsets me so much to think there's so much wrong with this. First of all, they're entitled to have

00:02:06.360 their opinions and they're entitled to free speech. And, you know, you know, and I've made no bones about

00:02:13.000 the fact that I'm gay and I'm openly gay and married to a woman. And, uh, I still believe that

00:02:21.320 these drag queens story hours for young kids are inappropriate. A lot of these drag queens, um, do some 1.00

00:02:28.620 very, very pornographic and suggestive things. And I think the parents who take these kids to these drag 1.00

00:02:35.880 queen shows, maybe I'm old fashioned, but I don't think so. I think it's just totally inappropriate

00:02:41.700 and there's a, you know, verging on obscenity and being obscene, I should say.

00:02:49.580 Yeah. And listen, I mean, drag queens and drag shows have been around for years and it's only

00:02:55.480 been in the last two years in my view that anyone has ever cared about them. I mean, I I've never heard

00:03:01.080 from a single Bible thumping evangelical type. And I say that as a conservative Christian myself 0.64

00:03:06.240 who has cared about these things at all until it became directed at children. And I think that's

00:03:12.740 the key distinction here. And that's why people are, and by the way, a lot of people that have no

00:03:17.340 issues with, uh, the LGBT community, but don't necessarily like the targeting of some very suggestive

00:03:24.020 shows to children. Like that's the only variable that makes people care about it.

00:03:28.340 When did that become appropriate, Andrew? I think it's totally inappropriate. No, I've never,

00:03:34.200 my wife and I were not fortunate enough to have any children, but I wouldn't have allowed my children

00:03:38.960 to go to something like that. Let children be children. They should be playing with, well,

00:03:44.300 shall I say anatomically correct dolls? I don't know. Is that out these days? Trucks, whatever.

00:03:51.580 It's all gender neutral.

00:03:52.580 Yeah. All gender neutral trucks and dolls. And, you know, I used to do hopscotch. I used to play

00:03:59.220 jacks, like let kids be kids. Why are you? And these drag queens, I mean, I think they're funny and 1.00

00:04:06.080 I enjoy a good drag show, but they're really over the top and they are suggestive. And I think kids of

00:04:13.900 five, six, seven years old, that's too much for them. It's far too sophisticated.

00:04:19.900 There was a piece in Global by Rachel Gilmore that says these events are facing, quote,

00:04:26.120 a crisis of hate, unquote. Now she's not using her own words. She's using those of an advocate for

00:04:33.180 these shows that she quoted. But again, people protesting drag story time for children. I don't

00:04:39.240 see how that's creating a crisis of hate or any crisis whatsoever.

00:04:43.820 I think the opposite. I think that we've become tremendously intolerant. I mean, tremendously

00:04:49.280 tolerant. That's too tolerant of this kind of thing. And people are afraid to speak up because

00:04:56.500 precisely of what she said, that you're transphobic, you're homophobic, you're all the phobics you can 0.99

00:05:03.500 find. And, you know, they, again, I'm going to repeat, I think it's inappropriate to expose young 0.99

00:05:10.200 kids to this. And I think parents who bring these kids, bring their children to these story hours

00:05:15.740 are, you know, I think it's wrong. I think it borders on abuse. And that's speaking from someone who is

00:05:24.640 gay and, you know, lived in the closet for many, many years. But I mean, when did it become acceptable? 0.99

00:05:32.080 And when did it become, you know, that people are hateful for saying this is wrong? This is just

00:05:40.740 100% wrong.

00:05:42.180 Yeah. And in that article in Global, Rachel Gilmore quotes Faye Johnstone, who's the executive director

00:05:48.240 of a group that is a consulting firm that advocates for progressive policies on violence prevention,

00:05:56.200 mental health and social inclusion. So a lot there. And what Faye Johnstone says is,

00:06:01.040 I am deeply concerned that one of these days I'll wake up and there will be a headline about a

00:06:05.960 shooting or about physical assault or sexual violence against 2SLGBTQ people in the name of 0.59

00:06:12.820 addressing, quote, grooming, unquote. So what this person is doing is linking those protesting drag

00:06:20.240 story time events with those that use the term groomer, with those that commit acts of violence.

00:06:25.940 We're talking about three degrees of separation here that are, I think, very offensively

00:06:30.480 trying to imply that there is a tendency towards violence of people saying what you've just said

00:06:36.780 there.

00:06:37.940 Faye Johnstone is bought and paid for a shell of the Trudeau government. He's given her,

00:06:43.880 the Trudeau government has given her consultancy a tremendous amount of money to,

00:06:50.520 I guess, consult on this precise kind of thing. So Faye Johnstone has a very distinct

00:06:56.380 agenda. We've crossed swords on Twitter. And I think eventually she blocked me because I'm

00:07:03.240 allegedly a TERF. You know, you can't, you can't actually criticize people for being outrageously

00:07:09.440 trans, like going over the top without being accused of being transphobic. So Faye Johnstone has

00:07:18.620 a vested interest. And I don't think Rachel Gilmore, I don't think should be quoting her,

00:07:24.360 but they're given a platform. That's the unfortunate thing. As you and I have both known

00:07:29.420 through my career, these outrageous radical activists are always given a platform. And that

00:07:35.760 becomes the standard for bad or good behavior.

00:07:40.160 Yeah, very much so. And it's not connected to the drag story hour story, but I think it's part of

00:07:45.260 the general media climate about this. This student who's been suspended for saying there are only

00:07:51.620 two genders, which normally would be an opinion that at the very least we could have within the 0.99

00:07:57.020 bounds of acceptable debate, even if someone disagrees with that. But Josh Alexander says this

00:08:02.120 in a Catholic school context. He's suspended and now is trespassing when he tries to go to his school.

00:08:08.700 He was arrested. Yeah, it's crazy. He stood up for some young ladies who felt very uncomfortable

00:08:14.980 about going into a gender neutral washroom because trans identified young men were coming in and

00:08:22.960 changing. And I don't blame them for feeling uncomfortable. Again, it's wrong. And he's,

00:08:29.580 and it's a Catholic school. What happened to Catholic values, Andrew? And he has been, you know,

00:08:35.240 tarred and feathered for, you know, doing and saying what is probably on most of our minds,

00:08:42.040 those who don't speak up the silent majority. So, I mean, this is the craziness that has come

00:08:49.220 of this world. And let, let me just add that Faye Johnson is a biological male. Let her come after me 0.98

00:08:55.420 and tell me that, that I'm wrong, but she is a biological male. She identifies as a female,

00:09:00.280 dresses as a female, but she's still a biological male married to another biological male. So there 0.99

00:09:06.640 you have it. Well, again, you know, normally saying things that are true should not be subject to all

00:09:13.400 of these efforts at cancellation, but we are in the post-truth era, as you and many of our audience

00:09:19.340 well know here. Are you a figure skating fan by chance? I love the figure skating. I think it takes

00:09:25.460 a lot of diligence and commitment to do it well. So yes, I do like figure skating.

00:09:31.340 My, my grandmother used to be a giant figure skating fan. So I, I've always had a bit of a

00:09:36.240 soft spot for it. Uh, and if you are a figure skater with the wrong opinions, you are no longer allowed

00:09:42.420 to be, uh, Canada's sweetheart on ice, such as the fate that has befallen, uh, Jamie Saleh, the former

00:09:49.020 Olympic gold medalist who initially, if you know, uh, sporting history actually had her, uh, gold medal robbed

00:09:55.040 of her because of a very corrupt Olympic judges. Uh, but Jamie Saleh has become in the last couple

00:10:01.400 of years, a COVID skeptic. She has been critical of the vaccine. She's been opposing vaccine mandates.

00:10:08.120 I don't, I've never met her. I've never interviewed her. I don't even know if I follow her on Twitter,

00:10:12.700 quite frankly, but I see her from time to time and think that people should be able to say what

00:10:17.300 they want without issue here. Uh, she was someone who had a tremendously successful career. She was

00:10:23.420 literally, uh, called Canada's sweetheart on ice. But now that she has dipped her skate into wrong

00:10:30.020 think, she is getting the full takeout hit piece from the Toronto star and CBC. She's getting an icy

00:10:37.120 reception. You should say. Uh, very, very good. Correct. Oh my God. The pun for fake news Friday.

00:10:43.660 Uh, you know, it's skating on thin ice. Yes. Well, she's skating on thin ice. Yeah. Well,

00:10:49.120 she's fallen through the ice now. Anyway, carry on. Well, it's so typical though, the media that,

00:10:55.020 you know, if you don't follow the party line, the Trudeau party line, um, the health party line, 0.96

00:11:02.400 the, you know, the, the flu party line, well, gee, then you're, you know, a terrible person. Um, 0.94

00:11:11.960 I want to bring up something because, you know, I was looking at what she had said and what she'd done.

00:11:19.120 Fact of the matter is that there are many people who've died suddenly of clots of, um, you know,

00:11:25.520 young people who have died mysteriously. That's been buried under the rug. I'm sorry, but, you know,

00:11:32.840 some people have to speak up and those who did during COVID were, you know, quickly shut, you know,

00:11:39.120 shut down, but she may be over the top. But the point is that I'm not sure that vaccine was,

00:11:46.020 those vaccines were entirely safe. And she has a point. And I think that there are people who

00:11:51.260 have died of blood clots probably as a result of vaccine. I've been very open about the fact that I

00:11:57.080 had some bad side effects to the vaccine. Having said that my father died a month before the vaccine

00:12:04.060 came out and probably would have been saved by it. But, you know, it's clearly wasn't for everybody

00:12:10.680 and it shouldn't have been mandated. And it was terrible what, you know, people were put through.

00:12:16.240 Well, I think the most important point of this is that we should be allowed to, in a free society,

00:12:20.900 have this conversation and ask whatever questions come up. And I mean, the fact is in Alberta,

00:12:26.640 I think it was in July or June, the numbers came out and found that the greatest cause of death in

00:12:33.540 Alberta is unknown. The leading cause of death is cause unknown. So normally, if you have some

00:12:38.840 statistical anomaly like that, there would be a desire to look and say, hmm, what's causing all

00:12:44.320 of these deaths? And, you know, I, like I said, I can't endorse anything that Jamie Saleh has said

00:12:49.400 without looking at specifics, but I don't think you should have to. And I don't like this idea that

00:12:54.860 just to use the language of the Toronto Star here, the Olympian is championing something darker.

00:13:01.520 And when they talk about all of the examples of this, one of them is that the mainstream media lies

00:13:06.960 to you. One of them is that COVID was a hoax, but with the, the piece of supporting evidence they

00:13:13.420 used for Jamie Saleh's purported evidence that COVID is a hoax is actually no such thing. It's just a,

00:13:19.220 a quote that she has retweeted from someone who tweeted a screenshot. Like there's nothing there

00:13:26.480 in, in what the Toronto Star is saying. And I'm tired of this idea of maligning people's entire

00:13:31.840 existence and accomplishments because they dare not to think what the media says they're supposed to

00:13:36.840 think. Oh, just don't forget that this is the Toronto Star that had on the front page, that

00:13:41.640 huge, huge, uh, and huge type saying that people who didn't get the vaccine deserve to,

00:13:49.100 I think even die. If I recall correctly. Yeah. Denied healthcare treatment, alienation. Yeah. No, 0.92

00:13:55.380 it was a horrible, horrible claim. Yeah. So I'm sorry, but you know, people are entitled to question

00:14:02.380 and, uh, you know, those who died of blood clots, purpose unknown cause unknown cannot question

00:14:10.220 anymore. So it's left to some of us to question and to wonder whether the vaccine was good for

00:14:16.780 everybody. Yeah. And, and CBC wrote about this, uh, article in the Toronto Star, uh, it was an opinion

00:14:24.120 piece by Shireen Ahmed who writes that she was devastated to find out that Bobby Orr, a hockey player,

00:14:30.220 she likes supported Donald Trump. And, you know, she's now devastated to learn that Jamie Saleh,

00:14:35.060 a figure skater she likes, believes all this stuff about COVID. And it's like, who cares? If I like

00:14:39.980 someone for their music, I actually don't really care about what they think about Cambodian rice

00:14:45.860 tariffs to, to decide whether I like their music or not. So it's this idea that we have to politicize

00:14:51.480 everything that I think is causing a breakdown in society here. Absolutely. Except for Roger Waters,

00:14:57.820 who's virulently anti-Semitic. So I, yeah, but, but, I mean, but again, I think you're, you're right 1.00

00:15:03.220 about that. Like everyone has to draw their own red line. No one's forcing anyone to write any others,

00:15:07.560 but, but again, Roger Waters says what he says. People are going to agree with him or disagree with

00:15:12.380 him. It's like, I, I don't feel the need to let him occupy any of my mind. Exactly. And you know,

00:15:19.300 that they feel bitterly resentful, like take a chill pill, you people who've written this sort of stuff.

00:15:25.000 People, again, people are entitled to their opinions, whether they skated on thin ice,

00:15:30.680 have gone through the ice or, you know, played the brilliant hockey. And by the way,

00:15:37.280 Bobby Orr is no longer with us. So is he not? Is it Bobby Hall or Bobby Orr?

00:15:43.100 I don't think either is still with us. Actually. Let me just check. Uh, Bobby Hall just passed away.

00:15:48.120 Bobby Orr. I, I, I worry I'm killing off someone here. I know Bobby Orr is still a lot. We've just

00:15:53.160 killed off Bobby Orr. Uh, no, Bobby Orr is still with us and he is 74 years young.

00:15:58.700 Oh, I missed, I, you know, I thought it was Bobby Hall. So I, yeah. Apologies.

00:16:03.760 We're, we're supposed to be debunking the fake news, Sue Ann. We can't go peddling it. Bobby Orr,

00:16:08.020 if you're listening, we know you're alive. We know you're well. We wish you very well.

00:16:12.700 Yeah. My apologies.

00:16:15.340 No, it's okay. I, Gordon Lightfoot once,

00:16:17.540 a few years ago was subject to like a Twitter death rumor and he did an interview and he said

00:16:23.180 it was okay because his songs hadn't been played so much in years as to when everyone thought he

00:16:27.420 had died. So I think it's all good. Um, we, we've talked about, uh, the claim that people are peddling

00:16:34.140 conspiracy theories. As we know, yesterday's conspiracy theory is today's government press

00:16:38.900 release. Uh, take no further look than Ontario's public health office where they've come out with

00:16:44.620 the determination that maybe masks don't actually work as much as people think or used to think.

00:16:51.120 A public health Ontario document says masking wouldn't have eased the respiratory virus surge

00:16:56.960 in the fall. Perhaps it's because masking is nowhere near as ascendant as the mandate lovers claim.

00:17:04.840 Gee, go tell Nealey Kaplan, that doctor is also a trustee on the Ottawa school board. Go tell her that

00:17:11.220 because she still feels that she has to wear a mask even on, uh, you know, on, online on interviews,

00:17:18.420 but yeah, I, I could have told you that. Um, I abandoned the mask ages ago and I've had COVID, uh,

00:17:29.480 with and without masks. So, Hey, it's a toss up whether the, the map, I don't think the mask helped much

00:17:36.840 unless you got an N95, which most people didn't have, but those cloth masks just gave you, uh,

00:17:46.500 I guess a feeling of security. And by the way, Andrew, what's with the people who are still wearing

00:17:50.700 masks? Well, yeah, that's the thing is that if someone was wearing the really heavy duty high-end

00:17:57.400 mask and they were doing it really diligently, then fine. I mean, I was on a plane with someone,

00:18:02.920 uh, not that long ago who I, I won't name, but there's someone who's well-known in the COVID world

00:18:08.120 and they were wearing an N95 mask, but they take it off to eat their food. They take it off to drink.

00:18:13.200 They, you know, were chatting with me face-to-face airplane seat away from each other. So I don't

00:18:17.840 know if the mask on the plane was doing really anything at that point. Uh, and other people as

00:18:23.100 well. You're right. They wear these like ratty cloth masks that they got in March, 2020, and have

00:18:27.600 never washed. And they're thinking, Oh, you know, I'm doing this to save lives. Why aren't you?

00:18:31.840 Oh, I know they've been so indoctrinated. I mean, I saw people go in, go up to a brunch

00:18:37.860 wearing the mask and then taking it off to look at the food. God almighty breathing all

00:18:43.120 over the food as they took Matt, lowered the mask. I mean, it makes no sense. It's just

00:18:48.080 like a, a security blanket, like your little, you know, you had, you slept with a little dolly

00:18:53.360 when you were young. It's like that. It makes no sense to me anymore. And, and, you know,

00:18:59.000 I I've said this before that COVID has created these people who are so, you know, insecure

00:19:04.920 and somewhat narcissistic and obsessive compulsive. And that's the sad part is that, you know, people

00:19:12.080 cling onto this stuff as if it's going to protect them. I mean, I had COVID in November. It wasn't

00:19:17.620 so bad. Uh, I was okay in a week and you know, that's what the vaccines were for.

00:19:23.800 Yeah. And, and I should say specifically here that they're saying that mask mandates were not

00:19:29.120 going to offer any more protection than just telling people, Hey, wear a mask if you want to.

00:19:34.480 I mean, with the university of Western Ontario, just last week dropped its mask mandate. Meanwhile,

00:19:40.340 down the 401, uh, Laurier or Waterloo is still continuing this thing, uh, as we talked about a

00:19:46.080 little bit on last week's show. But the whole point is all of this stuff is happening. Well, cases are

00:19:51.520 still going up and down the way they always have here. And it's been particularly noteworthy. Like

00:19:55.960 there was this story not that long ago in a global, I think it was October where an ex science

00:20:01.660 table advisor was saying we need to reinstate mask mandates. Well, even public health Ontario now is

00:20:06.860 saying there's no evidence to support that as getting us through the winter with less respiratory

00:20:11.740 virus. What did we do before COVID? Did we wear masks when, you know, there was a risk of flu

00:20:17.940 or pneumonia or bronchitis, the usual, you know, winter issues. No, if you're sticks as if you're

00:20:25.700 sick, stay home. Yeah. And you know, it's funny when I go shopping, I see people still wearing masks,

00:20:32.600 but they'll take a heart. They'll take a cart and not clean. Like they used to clean the tops of the

00:20:39.880 cart, which I always do. It will touch that and then probably touch their face and their eyes.

00:20:44.520 So you're getting as many germs off of that, you know, that cart that you're pushing around. So it

00:20:51.240 makes no sense. People just, you know, are like robots. They just, you know, think this is going

00:20:57.220 to help them and it's not. Yeah. It's funny you mentioned that. So I literally just found this

00:21:02.880 moments before the show went on. It was like under my desk in the corner. And this may be like the

00:21:08.440 first mask I got in 2020. Why I had it in my home office, I had no idea, but maybe it fell out of my

00:21:13.500 laptop bag or something. But I can, I, I, if I were, if I were a butcher guy, I would just like

00:21:18.500 rip it up on air, but I don't want the mask to foil me. So I'll just do like the, the dramatic

00:21:22.720 crumple and, uh, and throw, as we say, uh, good riddance to masks and mask mandates. Uh, that does

00:21:29.180 it for us for today. My thanks to all of you for tuning in to Sue Ann for your, uh, tremendous grace

00:21:35.360 and wit as always. Uh, thank you and everyone have a wonderful weekend. Yes. Thank you. And apologies to Bob

00:21:41.820 your work.

The Candice Malcolm Show - February 10, 2023

Fake News Friday ｜ Protesters battle over drag shows for kids

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