The Candice Malcolm Show - March 03, 2023


Fake News Friday | The CBC buries coverage on interference


Episode Stats

Length

19 minutes

Words per Minute

165.41792

Word Count

3,216

Sentence Count

175

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

9


Summary

In honour of Fake News Friday, Andrew Lawton is joined by co-host Sue Ann Levy to talk about TikTok and China's interference in Canada's elections. Plus, the Canadian government bans TikTok, and the new privacy rules that come into effect on March 1st, 2020.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome, everyone, to another exciting edition, or at least I hope it lives up to the standard
00:00:14.680 of excitement we all strive for. We've got Sue Ann Levy on, so I don't think that will
00:00:18.880 be an issue. It is Fake News Friday, March 3rd, 2023. I am Andrew Lawton, and as mentioned
00:00:25.940 just a moment ago, joined, as always, by a trusty, loyal, hilarious co-host. We switched
00:00:33.260 between Harrison and Sue Ann. We're going to have them battle it out in a cage match to see who gets
00:00:37.940 to be the permanent co-host at some point, but Sue Ann, always a delight to have you here. Thanks
00:00:42.160 for doing this. Thank you, and I want to know, in honour of Fake News Friday, that I do not have
00:00:47.940 fake breasts, like the Halton shop teacher. Mine are real. I have to be very careful of how I
00:00:56.340 respond to that in this climate. I won't ask you to prove it or anything like that. I would never be
00:01:01.280 so gauche. We will take you at face value, as your self-identification indicates there,
00:01:06.460 and it is a show debunking fake news, so I know you wouldn't be a purveyor of fake news yourself.
00:01:12.800 This is the time in the week where we navigate through the tornadoes of trickery, the hurricanes,
00:01:17.920 of hoaxes, and make sense of it as only we can, and perhaps have a couple of laughs along the way.
00:01:24.540 The serious story this week, Sue Ann, has obviously been the unraveling and expanding
00:01:29.780 scope of China's interference in Canada's elections, but when there's a story that puts
00:01:35.960 the Liberal government on the hot seat, fake news is never far behind. CBC, at one point this week,
00:01:43.100 had all of its homepage about the federal government banning TikTok, not about China interfering
00:01:49.260 in Canadian elections, not about China donating to the Trudeau Foundation, but their emphasis was on
00:01:55.720 TikTok. Do you think this is just an accidental misarrangement on the homepage or something deeper?
00:02:01.920 Oh, come on. It's, of course, it's quite calculated, actually, I think, because, you know, it's like
00:02:09.560 deferring one's attention to the shiny object, and TikTok's to blame, not the Trudeau government,
00:02:18.260 of course, who's bailed out the legacy media. So, you know, if you can find, I guess, a scapegoat,
00:02:25.920 scapegoat, TikTok becomes the scapegoat. And it's just so funny the way they react, don't you think?
00:02:35.240 Yeah, it is. And I mean, even the federal government banning TikTok, which people have
00:02:39.980 called for for many months now, I think probably over a year, and they're doing it just now when
00:02:46.280 they happen to be in the midst of a firestorm about China. So it really is the epitome of this
00:02:51.960 big giant thing that everyone's going on. And let's just throw a couple of, you know, breadcrumbs
00:02:56.280 your way without dealing with the overarching problem here. And when the media then focuses
00:03:01.480 on this as being a big deal, it is the media really falling for the liberal government's
00:03:06.400 distraction. Yeah, they're so easily manipulated. It should be they should be embarrassed by it.
00:03:12.740 But I have a question for you. There's a certain global reporter who's known to be a TikTok star.
00:03:17.620 Does that mean she's been banned as well? Well, no one can read her on a or view her on a federal
00:03:24.260 government device. So this may actually increase the caliber of a parliamentarian's work if they
00:03:31.020 aren't getting their insights from TikTok in general. You never know. Yeah, or some TikTok stars who
00:03:37.260 pretend to be journalists. Now, now, you know what, there's a time and a place for that sort of stuff.
00:03:43.200 And I think it's great if you're talking about, you know, little primers on news, little commentary,
00:03:48.760 but I have yet to see hard hitting journalism take form on TikTok. I'm not saying it doesn't
00:03:53.320 exist, but I've never seen it. Yeah. And I think TikTok wasn't ever meant to be a hard hitting
00:03:59.680 journalism platform. It was meant to be, you know, a platform that you had fun with.
00:04:05.900 Uh, you know, uh, we've got enough, quite enough with Twitter and, and Facebook video, and we've
00:04:13.300 got so many social media platforms, but I thought TikTok was always just a fun thing that you, you
00:04:19.400 know, you did dog tricks on. Yeah. And if you looked at, uh, CBC on March 1st, this was the day that
00:04:28.660 all of this was going on. So two days ago, uh, here were the stories and I'm just going to rapid fire
00:04:33.960 them. What does TikTok know about you? What should you know about it? TikTok sets new default time
00:04:39.980 limits for minors. Uh, Jagmeet Singh will deactivate TikTok account in response to security privacy
00:04:45.740 concerns. I noticed they didn't do a story about Melissa Lansman, the deputy conservative leader,
00:04:51.080 deactivating hers overnight. Uh, Canada is jumping on a bandwagon with TikTok ban. Tech expert says
00:04:57.160 federal government banning social media platform TikTok from government phones. Is TikTok bad? Here's why
00:05:03.020 many Western countries are taking a closer look. Attempted interference in 2021 election did not
00:05:09.220 compromise the result report. So you scroll way, way, way, way down. You get past the eight
00:05:14.560 stories about TikTok, and then you find, uh, the first story about China's interference is actually
00:05:19.340 that, well, there really wasn't any interference. It does seem like CBC is doing a bit of pass blocking
00:05:24.340 here for the liberals. Well, why is the, why are the liberals banning TikTok then? What, what,
00:05:30.160 what is this big exercise all about? Uh, but, you know, you've seen it repeatedly that they will,
00:05:37.460 uh, you know, deflect and reinvent stories, reinvent the narrative, push people to the shiny object that
00:05:45.920 has very little to do with the, um, the subject at hand. And I mean, this is a huge story, China's
00:05:53.800 interference in the election. Um, but they continually give, uh, Justin Trudeau a free pass
00:06:01.680 on every little thing. So why should this be a surprise to any of us?
00:06:07.040 Yeah, fair enough. And, you know, CBC for this show anyway, tends to be the gift that keeps on
00:06:12.900 giving. Uh, this one was fascinating. Uh, many of you who are on active on social media and you follow,
00:06:19.140 uh, footage of the convoy and other big events in the Canadian political sphere. You may know,
00:06:24.460 uh, Mocha Bezergin, and I apologize to Mocha for likely butchering his last name, but, uh,
00:06:30.540 Mocha used to be at Rebel News. Now he works independently. He's a great photographer and
00:06:35.560 videographer. He he's everywhere and including Roxham Road where he's done tremendous footage. So
00:06:41.460 at some point he went to Roxham Road and was filming and a Canadian press photographer
00:06:48.140 got a picture of him walking around. Now CBC then shows this story in an article about Roxham Road.
00:06:58.780 The headline of the article, Man Dies After Encountering Patrol Agents at Canada-US Border. And
00:07:05.240 there's a picture of our friend Mocha, uh, next to a big sign that says, uh, Arrete Stop. Uh, now Mocha
00:07:12.260 is not actually dead. Uh, and if you look at the caption of the photo, it gets even more concerning
00:07:19.380 because they offer a biographical description of him as being a migrant waiting for transport. So,
00:07:26.380 uh, they, they've not only killed off Mocha, but they've also taken away his Canadian citizenship of
00:07:32.040 21 years and made him an illegal. Uh, and you know, again, is it sinister? No,
00:07:37.740 it's sure as heck is lazy though. Lazy reporting. And, you know, the whole issue with rock Roxham
00:07:45.020 Road, which I covered while I was at the Toronto sun before I came to true North has been a huge,
00:07:51.340 um, issue that has filtered into our cities and it's impacted on the city of Toronto, where I make my
00:07:59.040 home. Um, refugees are filling up shelters. Nobody or hardly anybody in the legacy media covers this sort
00:08:06.560 of stuff, but they get into these sideshows that are absolutely ridiculous. It's rather frustrating
00:08:12.320 to see this kind of lazy, uh, inaccurate reporting when in fact, uh, Roxham Road should be dissected,
00:08:21.020 uh, as to the impact on Canada's cities. As I said, in particular Toronto, I think what's happened is
00:08:29.600 Quebec has diverted a lot of the refugees who are crossing the border illegally and being allowed to
00:08:35.560 cross the border illegally. I don't understand it at all now to Ontario and it's Ontario's problem now.
00:08:42.880 Yeah. And I mean, obviously the, this nonsense about the photo is, is a bit of a sidebar to the
00:08:47.920 overarching issue and the media I think has done a tremendous disservice by buying into the government's
00:08:53.840 language of this being irregular migration instead of illegal migration. They refuse to call illegal
00:08:59.840 immigration, illegal immigration, which is part of the problem here because this is about narratives and
00:09:05.260 you've got the federal government saying on one hand, you know, oh yes, we're taking this seriously,
00:09:09.280 but it's complicated. And yeah, it's not just as easy as going there and turning people away,
00:09:13.580 but that's exactly what they did during COVID, at least in the earlier part of the pandemic. And now
00:09:18.240 they've just gone back to this being a, an open, I don't even think a revolving door because no one's
00:09:22.640 going the other way. It's just a one way red carpet. Exactly. You hit the nail on the head.
00:09:28.020 They were able to stem the tide of illegal immigrants. And I will say illegal, I'll call
00:09:32.740 it what it is during COVID. They put a stop to it and now it started up again. And now these people
00:09:39.400 are crossing the border quite freely. And believe me, they have heard, because as I said, I followed
00:09:44.460 it quite closely in Toronto. They hear in, you know, countries like Nigeria and other countries in,
00:09:53.600 in Africa, for example, that there is an open border. So they come to the States. I mean, there, I did
00:10:00.180 stories about them taking a bus to within, you know, a mile of the border and then walking over with
00:10:06.400 their designer suitcases. Well, there's, there's one, there's been a couple of photos, but one in
00:10:12.080 particular that stands out in my mind, which if we can get the rights to it, we'll put it up in the show
00:10:16.480 here, but you can find it online yourself. It's a police officer actually carrying someone's bag for
00:10:21.800 them as they cross illegally into Canada. They're greeted by a Mountie who becomes Canada's official
00:10:28.100 baggage porter. And see, you can't, you know, our, our country has become absolutely absurd. And yes,
00:10:37.280 I, I actually saw plenty of, hang on. I don't want to interrupt Sue Ann, but I've just got the line,
00:10:41.820 the Mounties, we always get your handbag. We always get your handbag and your luggage,
00:10:46.680 your designer luggage. So I've also seen pictures of them just walking in there.
00:10:51.360 You know, their late model running shoes, the, you know, the Nikes and stuff with the, um,
00:10:58.840 the hard, uh, luggage and wheeling it across. And, you know, I'd laugh, I'd, I'd laugh if I didn't
00:11:07.960 want to cry about it. Yeah. It's, you know, the old, it's the true, you know, refugee story of I showed
00:11:13.360 up with only the clothes on my back and a Louis Vuitton suitcase and, uh, the latest designer treads
00:11:18.560 as I sought asylum in Canada from the United States.
00:11:23.100 And, you know, uh, think about the impact that has on the cities, various cities, uh, social
00:11:30.960 services system. They have shelter, they have to have, uh, they have, you know, uh, resources,
00:11:38.760 other resources, they get free, uh, healthcare and, um, you know, this, it's, it's a crazy,
00:11:47.720 crazy thing. And it's, uh, they, I dare say are taking total advantage because they know
00:11:54.860 that Canada's open borders are, you know, there. And I think it initially started really, Andrew,
00:12:02.940 a couple of years ago when, uh, Trudeau and our late great mayor in Toronto, John Tory
00:12:09.600 wanted to get back at Donald Trump, wanted to show that they weren't like Donald Trump,
00:12:13.460 you know, when he clamped down on illegal migrants. And so of course that opened the floodgates
00:12:19.280 and here we are. Yeah. And you get all of the, I know we're getting a little off topic here,
00:12:23.540 but I know you've seen this, uh, oftentimes you get all these cities and states in the United
00:12:28.440 States that claim they want to be sanctuaries for illegal immigrants. And they all happen to
00:12:32.960 be conspicuously miles and miles and miles away from the borders where illegal immigrants are going
00:12:38.120 across places like, you know, Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts or Northern California. And then
00:12:43.080 when governors in these border States have called the bluff and just ship migrants up to Martha's
00:12:47.760 Vineyard, they all get very offended by these illegal migrants just showing up in their towns.
00:12:53.000 Oh my. Yes. Well, it, you know, it did start a few years ago, also in Toronto,
00:12:58.040 where hotels were taken over and the house ref refugees. So there is a fallout and, you know,
00:13:05.420 nobody thinks about that, but getting back to what we were talking about. So these are the stories
00:13:09.980 that should be told, but they're not being told. Their poor Mocha is declared dead. And, uh, he's also
00:13:17.140 a dead immigrant, illegal or irregular. I guess he could be a regular or illegal, depending on who's
00:13:23.300 talking about it. The moral of the story, Mocha alive and well, and still in good standing unless
00:13:29.620 Justin Trudeau has tried to revoke his citizenship, but I don't think that's happened just yet.
00:13:33.780 Uh, so CBC and CP have gotten it wrong there. Uh, let's talk about this one, which I want to be a bit
00:13:40.640 delicate with, because I think that, uh, what's happened here is Scott Adams, who is the cartoonist
00:13:47.400 behind the long running Dilbert series, made some comments that I personally believe are
00:13:53.560 indefensible and, and whatever his intent was, whether he was trying to be edgy, whether he was
00:13:58.320 trying to be sloppy with the point he was making, I don't know, but I look at this and I hear this and
00:14:03.640 I don't like it. You know, nearly half of all blacks, uh, are not okay with white people, according to
00:14:09.520 this poll, not according to me, according to this poll, uh, that's a hate group. That's a hate group.
00:14:17.080 And I don't want to have anything to do with them. And I would say, you know, based on the current way
00:14:23.000 things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black
00:14:28.780 people. Just get the fuck away. Wherever you have to go, just get away. Because there's no fixing this.
00:14:38.060 This can't be fixed. So he's saying white people should stay away from black people. Don't bother
00:14:44.020 doing anything because they're going to hate you anyway. It's a generalization. I've seen, you know,
00:14:49.100 Samuel say, who I find to be very reasonable, uh, racial commentator in Canada has said, this is
00:14:55.320 full stop racist. And he doesn't use that word lightly. However, Scott Adams, the guy on the internet
00:15:02.780 is different in my view than Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert in the sense that I believe
00:15:08.660 most artists should probably be viewed separately from their work. But we've now seen in response to
00:15:14.340 this, this wave of cancellation, which has been kind of furthered in Canada as well with the Globe
00:15:19.660 and Mail saying, yeah, they're not going to carry Dilbert anymore. They put a statement out that said
00:15:24.340 they respect and encourage free speech, but his views do not align with our editorial or business
00:15:29.300 values as an organization. What do you make of this, Sue Ann? Number one, whatever happened to
00:15:34.760 second chances? So he, you know, he made a mistake and he could apologize and let's move on. Um, you know,
00:15:42.980 it wasn't a very, it was an indelicate way of saying probably what a lot of people are, are thinking in a
00:15:49.580 different way that, um, you know, black activism has, uh, got in some ways out of control because
00:15:57.760 we have critical race theory being taught where some people are oppressed. The whites, uh, are
00:16:03.740 oppressors, white people are oppressors. There's white supremacy being thrown out there. And I think a lot
00:16:08.600 of people have gotten frustrated with the landscape that we're in, you know, involved in now. So,
00:16:16.000 you know, I'm sure that, well, I can't get into his head. Let's put it that way. But I would say
00:16:22.460 that it's probably in, in the midst of an environment where people are upset with, you know,
00:16:28.700 this stuff being rammed down their throats. And I think that his, if, if we are to take that
00:16:34.920 interpretation, I think he made a fatal error in not distinguishing black people in general, because
00:16:41.480 he did speak in generalizations from the activists that I think are very concerning. It would be no
00:16:46.440 different than lumping in, you know, people who are gay and lesbian with, you know, the really radical
00:16:52.240 trans activists that don't support free speech or with lumping in all Muslims with, uh, radical Islamist
00:16:58.640 Muslims, just to give a few examples here. So I think absolutely people should be able to engage and debate
00:17:04.100 the point. And, and I, I get so bothered that the only step people are prepared to take is to go immediately
00:17:11.360 to cancellation.
00:17:12.980 Right. Or to call whomever who makes a comment. And this was a very sloppy comment. Uh, they're racist.
00:17:20.380 They're, uh, you know, Islamophobic, whatever it may be, they throw out all the, the terms that they think will
00:17:26.920 silence people. Um, they're so quick to judge. And this is in a society that we're talking about,
00:17:33.560 supposed to be tolerant, supposed to be, uh, they're supposed to be free speech, but it's only
00:17:38.580 free speech is determined by those, uh, I guess the woke culture or the activists who decide what
00:17:47.340 is permissible and what isn't a simple apology and let's carry on. And I'm not going to, you know,
00:17:54.140 he has a great cartoon, as you said, and, uh, you know, to, to just cancel him entirely seems like
00:18:01.280 just undue punishment, but, you know, there is a crazy double standard in this world right now.
00:18:07.680 And, uh, you know, you have to be so careful what you say. If an activist comes out, as I've been
00:18:13.580 targeted by many, uh, say trans activists, for example, calling me all kinds of names, saying,
00:18:19.920 making assumptions on very publicly, but that's okay. Uh, because I'm on the wrong side of the
00:18:26.520 equation. So all I'm saying is that, uh, it's, it's a crazy double standard. Uh, those of us like
00:18:33.820 you, like me are not allowed to say certain things without being targeted. Others can get away with it.
00:18:42.100 Very well said Sue Ann Levy. This is Fake News Friday. I'm Andrew Lawton. We will talk to you
00:18:47.740 all next week here on True North. Thank you so much.
00:18:56.520 True North. Thank you.