Fake News Friday ｜ Protesters battle over drag shows for kids
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Summary
A new battle is brewing in the streets of Ottawa, Canada, over a controversial drag storytime event that targeted children. When did that become appropriate? And why does it matter if it's aimed at children or adults?
Transcript
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Hello everyone and welcome to Fake News Friday. It is Friday, February 10th, 2023. I am Andrew
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Lawton joined by the lovely and wonderful Sue Ann Levy. Nothing fake news about those adjectives
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and many more. And this is the moment of the week where we look back at the week that was
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we swim through the flurry of falsehoods, the fabrications and fictions and try to make sense
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of it all and perhaps even have a laugh or two in the process. And as always, and you can certainly
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attest to this through your career of watching all of the people that are supposed to be the
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watchers of truth themselves, they give us no shortage of material. That is for darn sure and
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more and more lately. Yeah, very much the case. And one of them we needn't look further than the
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nation's capital just a year since the Freedom Convoy. And there is a new battle brewing on
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the streets of Ottawa. This one a little bit more colorful and a little bit less in the way of
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honking. A battle of protests, dueling protests about drag storytime events, specifically one at
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Ottawa's National Arts Centre. Now I wasn't there, but on Wednesday night there was a protest against
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the drag storytime event at the NAC in Ottawa. Also a group of counter protesters. The media was
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very clear and very quick to point out that there seemed to be more in the pro-drag storytime
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protests than in the anti-drag storytime protests. I mean, all told, we're still talking about no more
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than maybe 200, 250 people here with a dozen police officers there to keep the peace. The sense about
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this though seems to be that those protesting these events are in the wrong. And I'm curious
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about your thoughts on this. They're absolutely not in the wrong. Number one, I mean, it just
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upsets me so much to think there's so much wrong with this. First of all, they're entitled to have
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their opinions and they're entitled to free speech. And, you know, you know, and I've made no bones about
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the fact that I'm gay and I'm openly gay and married to a woman. And, uh, I still believe that
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these drag queens story hours for young kids are inappropriate. A lot of these drag queens, um, do some
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very, very pornographic and suggestive things. And I think the parents who take these kids to these drag
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queen shows, maybe I'm old fashioned, but I don't think so. I think it's just totally inappropriate
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and there's a, you know, verging on obscenity and being obscene, I should say.
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Yeah. And listen, I mean, drag queens and drag shows have been around for years and it's only
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been in the last two years in my view that anyone has ever cared about them. I mean, I I've never heard
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from a single Bible thumping evangelical type. And I say that as a conservative Christian myself
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who has cared about these things at all until it became directed at children. And I think that's
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the key distinction here. And that's why people are, and by the way, a lot of people that have no
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issues with, uh, the LGBT community, but don't necessarily like the targeting of some very suggestive
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shows to children. Like that's the only variable that makes people care about it.
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When did that become appropriate, Andrew? I think it's totally inappropriate. No, I've never,
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my wife and I were not fortunate enough to have any children, but I wouldn't have allowed my children
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to go to something like that. Let children be children. They should be playing with, well,
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shall I say anatomically correct dolls? I don't know. Is that out these days? Trucks, whatever.
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Yeah. All gender neutral trucks and dolls. And, you know, I used to do hopscotch. I used to play
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jacks, like let kids be kids. Why are you? And these drag queens, I mean, I think they're funny and
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I enjoy a good drag show, but they're really over the top and they are suggestive. And I think kids of
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five, six, seven years old, that's too much for them. It's far too sophisticated.
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There was a piece in Global by Rachel Gilmore that says these events are facing, quote,
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a crisis of hate, unquote. Now she's not using her own words. She's using those of an advocate for
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these shows that she quoted. But again, people protesting drag story time for children. I don't
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see how that's creating a crisis of hate or any crisis whatsoever.
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I think the opposite. I think that we've become tremendously intolerant. I mean, tremendously
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tolerant. That's too tolerant of this kind of thing. And people are afraid to speak up because
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precisely of what she said, that you're transphobic, you're homophobic, you're all the phobics you can
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find. And, you know, they, again, I'm going to repeat, I think it's inappropriate to expose young
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kids to this. And I think parents who bring these kids, bring their children to these story hours
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are, you know, I think it's wrong. I think it borders on abuse. And that's speaking from someone who is
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gay and, you know, lived in the closet for many, many years. But I mean, when did it become acceptable?
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And when did it become, you know, that people are hateful for saying this is wrong? This is just
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Yeah. And in that article in Global, Rachel Gilmore quotes Faye Johnstone, who's the executive director
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of a group that is a consulting firm that advocates for progressive policies on violence prevention,
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mental health and social inclusion. So a lot there. And what Faye Johnstone says is,
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I am deeply concerned that one of these days I'll wake up and there will be a headline about a
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shooting or about physical assault or sexual violence against 2SLGBTQ people in the name of
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addressing, quote, grooming, unquote. So what this person is doing is linking those protesting drag
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story time events with those that use the term groomer, with those that commit acts of violence.
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We're talking about three degrees of separation here that are, I think, very offensively
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trying to imply that there is a tendency towards violence of people saying what you've just said
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Faye Johnstone is bought and paid for a shell of the Trudeau government. He's given her,
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the Trudeau government has given her consultancy a tremendous amount of money to,
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I guess, consult on this precise kind of thing. So Faye Johnstone has a very distinct
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agenda. We've crossed swords on Twitter. And I think eventually she blocked me because I'm
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allegedly a TERF. You know, you can't, you can't actually criticize people for being outrageously
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trans, like going over the top without being accused of being transphobic. So Faye Johnstone has
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a vested interest. And I don't think Rachel Gilmore, I don't think should be quoting her,
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but they're given a platform. That's the unfortunate thing. As you and I have both known
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through my career, these outrageous radical activists are always given a platform. And that
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Yeah, very much so. And it's not connected to the drag story hour story, but I think it's part of
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the general media climate about this. This student who's been suspended for saying there are only
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two genders, which normally would be an opinion that at the very least we could have within the
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bounds of acceptable debate, even if someone disagrees with that. But Josh Alexander says this
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in a Catholic school context. He's suspended and now is trespassing when he tries to go to his school.
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He was arrested. Yeah, it's crazy. He stood up for some young ladies who felt very uncomfortable
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about going into a gender neutral washroom because trans identified young men were coming in and
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changing. And I don't blame them for feeling uncomfortable. Again, it's wrong. And he's,
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and it's a Catholic school. What happened to Catholic values, Andrew? And he has been, you know,
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tarred and feathered for, you know, doing and saying what is probably on most of our minds,
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those who don't speak up the silent majority. So, I mean, this is the craziness that has come
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of this world. And let, let me just add that Faye Johnson is a biological male. Let her come after me
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and tell me that, that I'm wrong, but she is a biological male. She identifies as a female,
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dresses as a female, but she's still a biological male married to another biological male. So there
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you have it. Well, again, you know, normally saying things that are true should not be subject to all
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of these efforts at cancellation, but we are in the post-truth era, as you and many of our audience
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well know here. Are you a figure skating fan by chance? I love the figure skating. I think it takes
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a lot of diligence and commitment to do it well. So yes, I do like figure skating.
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My, my grandmother used to be a giant figure skating fan. So I, I've always had a bit of a
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soft spot for it. Uh, and if you are a figure skater with the wrong opinions, you are no longer allowed
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to be, uh, Canada's sweetheart on ice, such as the fate that has befallen, uh, Jamie Saleh, the former
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Olympic gold medalist who initially, if you know, uh, sporting history actually had her, uh, gold medal robbed
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of her because of a very corrupt Olympic judges. Uh, but Jamie Saleh has become in the last couple
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of years, a COVID skeptic. She has been critical of the vaccine. She's been opposing vaccine mandates.
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I don't, I've never met her. I've never interviewed her. I don't even know if I follow her on Twitter,
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quite frankly, but I see her from time to time and think that people should be able to say what
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they want without issue here. Uh, she was someone who had a tremendously successful career. She was
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literally, uh, called Canada's sweetheart on ice. But now that she has dipped her skate into wrong
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think, she is getting the full takeout hit piece from the Toronto star and CBC. She's getting an icy
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reception. You should say. Uh, very, very good. Correct. Oh my God. The pun for fake news Friday.
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Uh, you know, it's skating on thin ice. Yes. Well, she's skating on thin ice. Yeah. Well,
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she's fallen through the ice now. Anyway, carry on. Well, it's so typical though, the media that,
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you know, if you don't follow the party line, the Trudeau party line, um, the health party line,
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the, you know, the, the flu party line, well, gee, then you're, you know, a terrible person. Um,
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I want to bring up something because, you know, I was looking at what she had said and what she'd done.
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Fact of the matter is that there are many people who've died suddenly of clots of, um, you know,
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young people who have died mysteriously. That's been buried under the rug. I'm sorry, but, you know,
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some people have to speak up and those who did during COVID were, you know, quickly shut, you know,
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shut down, but she may be over the top. But the point is that I'm not sure that vaccine was,
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those vaccines were entirely safe. And she has a point. And I think that there are people who
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have died of blood clots probably as a result of vaccine. I've been very open about the fact that I
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had some bad side effects to the vaccine. Having said that my father died a month before the vaccine
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came out and probably would have been saved by it. But, you know, it's clearly wasn't for everybody
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and it shouldn't have been mandated. And it was terrible what, you know, people were put through.
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Well, I think the most important point of this is that we should be allowed to, in a free society,
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have this conversation and ask whatever questions come up. And I mean, the fact is in Alberta,
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I think it was in July or June, the numbers came out and found that the greatest cause of death in
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Alberta is unknown. The leading cause of death is cause unknown. So normally, if you have some
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statistical anomaly like that, there would be a desire to look and say, hmm, what's causing all
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of these deaths? And, you know, I, like I said, I can't endorse anything that Jamie Saleh has said
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without looking at specifics, but I don't think you should have to. And I don't like this idea that
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just to use the language of the Toronto Star here, the Olympian is championing something darker.
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And when they talk about all of the examples of this, one of them is that the mainstream media lies
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to you. One of them is that COVID was a hoax, but with the, the piece of supporting evidence they
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used for Jamie Saleh's purported evidence that COVID is a hoax is actually no such thing. It's just a,
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a quote that she has retweeted from someone who tweeted a screenshot. Like there's nothing there
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in, in what the Toronto Star is saying. And I'm tired of this idea of maligning people's entire
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existence and accomplishments because they dare not to think what the media says they're supposed to
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think. Oh, just don't forget that this is the Toronto Star that had on the front page, that
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huge, huge, uh, and huge type saying that people who didn't get the vaccine deserve to,
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I think even die. If I recall correctly. Yeah. Denied healthcare treatment, alienation. Yeah. No,
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it was a horrible, horrible claim. Yeah. So I'm sorry, but you know, people are entitled to question
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and, uh, you know, those who died of blood clots, purpose unknown cause unknown cannot question
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anymore. So it's left to some of us to question and to wonder whether the vaccine was good for
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everybody. Yeah. And, and CBC wrote about this, uh, article in the Toronto Star, uh, it was an opinion
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piece by Shireen Ahmed who writes that she was devastated to find out that Bobby Orr, a hockey player,
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she likes supported Donald Trump. And, you know, she's now devastated to learn that Jamie Saleh,
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a figure skater she likes, believes all this stuff about COVID. And it's like, who cares? If I like
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someone for their music, I actually don't really care about what they think about Cambodian rice
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tariffs to, to decide whether I like their music or not. So it's this idea that we have to politicize
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everything that I think is causing a breakdown in society here. Absolutely. Except for Roger Waters,
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who's virulently anti-Semitic. So I, yeah, but, but, I mean, but again, I think you're, you're right
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about that. Like everyone has to draw their own red line. No one's forcing anyone to write any others,
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but, but again, Roger Waters says what he says. People are going to agree with him or disagree with
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him. It's like, I, I don't feel the need to let him occupy any of my mind. Exactly. And you know,
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that they feel bitterly resentful, like take a chill pill, you people who've written this sort of stuff.
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People, again, people are entitled to their opinions, whether they skated on thin ice,
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have gone through the ice or, you know, played the brilliant hockey. And by the way,
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Bobby Orr is no longer with us. So is he not? Is it Bobby Hall or Bobby Orr?
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I don't think either is still with us. Actually. Let me just check. Uh, Bobby Hall just passed away.
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Bobby Orr. I, I, I worry I'm killing off someone here. I know Bobby Orr is still a lot. We've just
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killed off Bobby Orr. Uh, no, Bobby Orr is still with us and he is 74 years young.
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Oh, I missed, I, you know, I thought it was Bobby Hall. So I, yeah. Apologies.
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We're, we're supposed to be debunking the fake news, Sue Ann. We can't go peddling it. Bobby Orr,
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if you're listening, we know you're alive. We know you're well. We wish you very well.
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a few years ago was subject to like a Twitter death rumor and he did an interview and he said
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it was okay because his songs hadn't been played so much in years as to when everyone thought he
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had died. So I think it's all good. Um, we, we've talked about, uh, the claim that people are peddling
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conspiracy theories. As we know, yesterday's conspiracy theory is today's government press
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release. Uh, take no further look than Ontario's public health office where they've come out with
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the determination that maybe masks don't actually work as much as people think or used to think.
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A public health Ontario document says masking wouldn't have eased the respiratory virus surge
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in the fall. Perhaps it's because masking is nowhere near as ascendant as the mandate lovers claim.
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Gee, go tell Nealey Kaplan, that doctor is also a trustee on the Ottawa school board. Go tell her that
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because she still feels that she has to wear a mask even on, uh, you know, on, online on interviews,
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but yeah, I, I could have told you that. Um, I abandoned the mask ages ago and I've had COVID, uh,
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with and without masks. So, Hey, it's a toss up whether the, the map, I don't think the mask helped much
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unless you got an N95, which most people didn't have, but those cloth masks just gave you, uh,
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I guess a feeling of security. And by the way, Andrew, what's with the people who are still wearing
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masks? Well, yeah, that's the thing is that if someone was wearing the really heavy duty high-end
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mask and they were doing it really diligently, then fine. I mean, I was on a plane with someone,
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uh, not that long ago who I, I won't name, but there's someone who's well-known in the COVID world
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and they were wearing an N95 mask, but they take it off to eat their food. They take it off to drink.
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They, you know, were chatting with me face-to-face airplane seat away from each other. So I don't
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know if the mask on the plane was doing really anything at that point. Uh, and other people as
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well. You're right. They wear these like ratty cloth masks that they got in March, 2020, and have
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never washed. And they're thinking, Oh, you know, I'm doing this to save lives. Why aren't you?
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Oh, I know they've been so indoctrinated. I mean, I saw people go in, go up to a brunch
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wearing the mask and then taking it off to look at the food. God almighty breathing all
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over the food as they took Matt, lowered the mask. I mean, it makes no sense. It's just
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like a, a security blanket, like your little, you know, you had, you slept with a little dolly
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when you were young. It's like that. It makes no sense to me anymore. And, and, you know,
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I I've said this before that COVID has created these people who are so, you know, insecure
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and somewhat narcissistic and obsessive compulsive. And that's the sad part is that, you know, people
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cling onto this stuff as if it's going to protect them. I mean, I had COVID in November. It wasn't
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so bad. Uh, I was okay in a week and you know, that's what the vaccines were for.
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Yeah. And, and I should say specifically here that they're saying that mask mandates were not
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going to offer any more protection than just telling people, Hey, wear a mask if you want to.
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I mean, with the university of Western Ontario, just last week dropped its mask mandate. Meanwhile,
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down the 401, uh, Laurier or Waterloo is still continuing this thing, uh, as we talked about a
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little bit on last week's show. But the whole point is all of this stuff is happening. Well, cases are
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still going up and down the way they always have here. And it's been particularly noteworthy. Like
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there was this story not that long ago in a global, I think it was October where an ex science
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table advisor was saying we need to reinstate mask mandates. Well, even public health Ontario now is
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saying there's no evidence to support that as getting us through the winter with less respiratory
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virus. What did we do before COVID? Did we wear masks when, you know, there was a risk of flu
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or pneumonia or bronchitis, the usual, you know, winter issues. No, if you're sticks as if you're
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sick, stay home. Yeah. And you know, it's funny when I go shopping, I see people still wearing masks,
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but they'll take a heart. They'll take a cart and not clean. Like they used to clean the tops of the
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cart, which I always do. It will touch that and then probably touch their face and their eyes.
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So you're getting as many germs off of that, you know, that cart that you're pushing around. So it
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makes no sense. People just, you know, are like robots. They just, you know, think this is going
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to help them and it's not. Yeah. It's funny you mentioned that. So I literally just found this
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moments before the show went on. It was like under my desk in the corner. And this may be like the
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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
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laptop bag or something. But I can, I, I, if I were, if I were a butcher guy, I would just like
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rip it up on air, but I don't want the mask to foil me. So I'll just do like the, the dramatic
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crumple and, uh, and throw, as we say, uh, good riddance to masks and mask mandates. Uh, that does
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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