The Candice Malcolm Show - January 10, 2022


Is Justin Trudeau losing his grip on reality?


Episode Stats

Length

32 minutes

Words per Minute

181.8191

Word Count

5,937

Sentence Count

317

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

8


Summary

Candice Malan talks to longtime journalist and columnist Laurie Goldstein about why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is so angry at the unvaccinated, and why he thinks they should get vaccinated. She also talks about the growing number of Canadians who don t want to get their children vaccinated.


Transcript

00:00:00.040 Justin Trudeau insists on vilifying Canadians who don't agree with him.
00:00:04.100 I'm Candace Malcolm and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.
00:00:10.100 Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning into the podcast.
00:00:13.060 This is becoming a theme here on The Candace Malcolm Show,
00:00:15.560 is that Justin Trudeau sees the world in a very black and white way.
00:00:19.140 According to Trudeau and according to his rhetoric,
00:00:21.380 which really he's heated up as of late,
00:00:23.220 we heard it throughout the election campaign
00:00:25.160 and now that we're back in lockdown,
00:00:26.920 Trudeau is sort of lashing out again
00:00:28.740 and his rhetoric is very angry
00:00:30.620 and according to him, everything that's wrong in the world,
00:00:33.700 all the ills of society and the entire reason why we're in lockdown,
00:00:36.620 not just lockdown, the reason why we have cues in our healthcare system,
00:00:39.460 the reason why people aren't getting proper care
00:00:41.340 when it comes to other illnesses like cancer,
00:00:43.440 it's all simply because of the unvaccinated.
00:00:46.140 If only those people would change their minds,
00:00:48.560 come around to his point of view, get vaccinated,
00:00:50.780 this whole thing would be behind us.
00:00:52.640 Well, that's a bit simplistic thinking
00:00:54.120 and to get into it a little bit more,
00:00:56.220 I am joined by a longtime journalist
00:00:58.520 and columnist with the Toronto Sun.
00:01:00.320 I'm talking about Laurie Goldstein.
00:01:02.100 Laurie Goldstein began his career with the Sun back in 1978,
00:01:05.780 starting out as a general assignment reporter.
00:01:08.020 He's covered politics at City Hall in Toronto,
00:01:10.760 as well as Crean's Park,
00:01:11.780 where he was the Toronto Sun's columnist
00:01:13.540 and burial chief from 1985 to 1990.
00:01:16.480 Laurie has held a variety of positions at the Sun,
00:01:18.360 including city editor, associate editor,
00:01:20.880 and comment editor.
00:01:21.660 Laurie Goldstein, welcome to the program.
00:01:23.280 Thank you so much for joining us.
00:01:24.820 Thank you for having me, Candice.
00:01:26.880 Well, you've seen it all
00:01:28.460 and you've been covering politics for a very long time.
00:01:31.080 So I want to ask you your opinion on the prime minister,
00:01:35.480 on his approach, his communication approach,
00:01:38.220 as well as his handling in general of the pandemic.
00:01:42.060 And why do you think we're seeing him get so angry
00:01:44.720 and lash out so much at the unvaccinated here in Canada?
00:01:48.420 Well, I think it's political and it's unfortunate.
00:01:51.980 The Trudeau government has polls,
00:01:54.020 both internally and externally,
00:01:55.200 that shows that a lot of Canadians
00:01:58.140 are angry at the unvaccinated.
00:02:00.440 And so he's playing to that.
00:02:02.820 To me, that's not what a leader is supposed to do.
00:02:05.040 A leader in a time of crisis
00:02:06.240 is supposed to bring people together.
00:02:07.980 But it's beyond that.
00:02:10.920 Sometimes he makes a distinction
00:02:12.580 between people who are genuinely vaccine hesitant
00:02:15.560 and people who have medical exemptions
00:02:19.700 and children who can't be vaccinated,
00:02:22.620 very young children.
00:02:23.940 Sometimes he doesn't.
00:02:25.420 Sometimes, as you said,
00:02:26.700 it's just this tsunami of anger
00:02:29.420 directed at the unvaccinated.
00:02:32.140 And to me, that's wrong.
00:02:34.180 It's wrong in the facts.
00:02:36.120 And it's not what we need as a country.
00:02:40.080 Abacus Data, who's a pollster,
00:02:41.920 who's hardly critical of the liberals,
00:02:44.600 did some very interesting polling over the summer.
00:02:48.180 And it found that the people
00:02:50.760 who don't want to be vaccinated
00:02:52.260 are into two groups.
00:02:53.840 One of them are what we call the vaccine hesitant.
00:02:56.780 That may be a bad term.
00:02:58.060 Maybe call it vaccine skeptics.
00:03:00.360 And the other is people
00:03:01.520 who are what we would call anti-vaxxers.
00:03:03.660 They will never get vaccinated.
00:03:05.660 But half of that group,
00:03:07.100 millions of Canadians,
00:03:08.640 are people who are genuinely concerned
00:03:11.600 about their health
00:03:13.440 when it comes to the vaccines.
00:03:16.860 Abacus Data found they are not ideologues.
00:03:19.540 They vote along the same lines as in elections,
00:03:23.480 as they stand on this issue.
00:03:27.080 They're just genuinely skeptical
00:03:28.800 of government in general,
00:03:30.580 more so than, I guess, the average person.
00:03:32.960 And they have legitimate concerns.
00:03:35.920 And they're the group we can reach.
00:03:38.180 They're the group.
00:03:38.940 So in other words,
00:03:39.420 we can probably cut by half
00:03:40.880 the 4 million Canadians
00:03:42.620 who aren't getting vaccinated
00:03:43.720 if we keep sending the right messages to them.
00:03:46.800 When I wrote that column,
00:03:48.400 people thought that it would be,
00:03:49.860 I would get a negative reaction.
00:03:51.160 I got an enormously positive reaction.
00:03:53.260 And I had heartbreaking emails
00:03:55.900 from people who were denied access
00:03:59.220 to their family over Christmas,
00:04:00.800 even though they agreed to be tested.
00:04:04.680 And when you look at their concerns,
00:04:07.640 these were not crazy people.
00:04:09.600 They were people who had watched
00:04:11.180 what the government told them.
00:04:12.900 And a lot of it didn't jibe
00:04:15.060 with what they were seeing
00:04:16.600 and what happened.
00:04:17.820 Now, the other part of my column
00:04:19.340 was to say that Prime Minister Trudeau
00:04:22.420 and Ontario Premier Doug Ford
00:04:24.880 have contributed to this vaccine hesitancy.
00:04:27.800 How have they contributed to it?
00:04:29.600 OK.
00:04:30.520 Well, a lot of information
00:04:32.300 has now come out.
00:04:33.500 For example,
00:04:34.200 one of the original things
00:04:35.460 that caused an uproar,
00:04:36.940 the Public Health Agency of Canada
00:04:38.260 saying it would be worse
00:04:39.700 to wear a mask,
00:04:42.220 less safe than wearing vaccines.
00:04:44.620 And then it did a complete about face.
00:04:47.940 Now we know
00:04:48.740 that when the Public Health Agency of Canada
00:04:50.860 was telling us not to wear vaccines,
00:04:53.760 there was a-
00:04:54.140 Wear masks, I think you mean.
00:04:55.240 Wear masks, I'm sorry, wear masks.
00:04:56.980 There was a critical shortage
00:04:58.320 of masks and personal protection equipment
00:05:00.940 in the country
00:05:02.140 because the Public Health Agency of Canada
00:05:05.400 had ignored warnings
00:05:06.780 for more than a decade
00:05:07.980 to make sure we had secure stockpiles
00:05:10.420 of masks, ventilators, all those things.
00:05:12.880 And the provincial governments
00:05:14.860 had failed as well.
00:05:16.640 So in other words,
00:05:17.940 that wasn't a thing based on science.
00:05:20.720 It was that there was a shortage
00:05:22.000 and they needed to preserve
00:05:23.800 the masks for people
00:05:26.880 who were healthcare workers.
00:05:27.760 Now, if they told people the truth,
00:05:29.860 then people would have understood that.
00:05:31.300 OK, you screwed up,
00:05:32.800 but we got to deal with this,
00:05:33.800 so let's deal with it now.
00:05:37.120 The, well,
00:05:38.440 the efficacy versus the efficiency
00:05:40.660 of vaccines.
00:05:41.620 Remember when we were all told
00:05:43.000 at the start
00:05:43.480 that it was,
00:05:44.580 they were not,
00:05:45.260 their efficacy rate was 90%.
00:05:47.040 Efficacy doesn't mean efficiency.
00:05:50.120 Efficacy is what happens
00:05:51.360 when you have ideal conditions
00:05:52.620 with a test group
00:05:53.600 and a placebo group
00:05:54.980 and you're making sure
00:05:56.040 that all of them
00:05:56.580 are following the instructions
00:05:57.660 and yada, yada, yada.
00:05:59.680 Efficiency is what happens
00:06:00.700 in the real world.
00:06:01.720 And what we see now
00:06:02.860 is that efficiency
00:06:03.780 is very different
00:06:04.960 from efficacy.
00:06:06.660 And I want to be clear.
00:06:07.580 I've taken my vaccines.
00:06:08.920 I've taken the booster shot.
00:06:10.580 I think people should.
00:06:11.980 But as you're discussing
00:06:13.640 on this show,
00:06:15.100 it's what our leadership
00:06:16.540 has been doing to us.
00:06:18.000 Remember when they said to us,
00:06:20.460 closing the borders
00:06:21.200 won't do any good.
00:06:22.840 The vaccine doesn't respect borders.
00:06:28.020 Quarantines,
00:06:28.740 bringing in people
00:06:29.420 from planes coming in,
00:06:30.940 that's really not going to help
00:06:32.080 because it's already here.
00:06:32.920 We now know
00:06:34.960 that when they were saying that
00:06:36.520 from documents
00:06:37.200 that have since been released,
00:06:38.800 that when the government
00:06:39.460 was saying that,
00:06:40.300 it was being advised
00:06:41.180 by its own experts,
00:06:43.760 you don't have the capacity
00:06:44.980 to do quarantines
00:06:46.800 at the airport.
00:06:48.880 You don't have the capacity
00:06:50.020 to check everyone out.
00:06:52.100 So again,
00:06:53.800 that's not,
00:06:54.500 they weren't honest
00:06:55.220 and truthful with us.
00:06:56.940 Just tell us that,
00:06:58.300 look, we have the largest
00:06:59.160 unguarded border in the world.
00:07:02.440 We have people coming in
00:07:03.440 from all over the world.
00:07:04.820 We don't have the capacity,
00:07:06.120 but they didn't.
00:07:07.040 They argued it was bad to do.
00:07:09.360 And now we know
00:07:10.080 that countries that did it,
00:07:11.860 admittedly,
00:07:12.360 many of them islands
00:07:13.220 like Taiwan,
00:07:14.740 which did better
00:07:15.420 than anybody in the world,
00:07:16.980 did this from the day
00:07:18.460 they knew
00:07:19.220 that the Chinese government
00:07:20.980 was talking about
00:07:22.040 a SARS-like virus.
00:07:23.400 That was December 30th, 2020.
00:07:26.760 And they moved right away
00:07:28.600 and they had better data
00:07:29.640 than we did
00:07:30.100 and all those things.
00:07:31.000 But what I'm saying
00:07:31.880 is that these things
00:07:32.780 contribute to vaccine hesitancy.
00:07:35.880 You remember
00:07:36.360 when the prime minister
00:07:37.380 and many others,
00:07:39.200 Premier Ford
00:07:39.960 and many politicians said,
00:07:41.580 the best vaccine
00:07:42.880 is the first vaccine
00:07:44.020 you can get.
00:07:45.560 And then the National Action Committee
00:07:46.880 on Immunization,
00:07:49.540 Advisory Committee,
00:07:50.920 went,
00:07:51.280 well, no,
00:07:51.760 actually Pfizer
00:07:52.860 and Moderna
00:07:53.480 are better than AZ
00:07:54.680 because AZ
00:07:55.580 might clot your blood.
00:07:57.360 And then the chairman
00:07:58.080 of NACI
00:07:58.600 goes on national television
00:07:59.980 and says that
00:08:00.980 if her sister died
00:08:02.280 from a blood clot
00:08:03.560 from AZ,
00:08:04.580 she could never
00:08:05.280 live with herself.
00:08:07.800 But that if,
00:08:08.180 but that if,
00:08:09.360 but if the COVID
00:08:10.740 was really rampant
00:08:11.720 in your community,
00:08:12.400 then you should take AZ.
00:08:14.620 So as many people observed,
00:08:16.360 so now they're telling us
00:08:17.440 to take the bad one
00:08:18.620 in the places
00:08:20.180 where the vaccines
00:08:21.860 are most needed.
00:08:22.720 I took AstraZeneca
00:08:25.320 and I went through hoops
00:08:27.360 to get my second dose
00:08:28.780 of AstraZeneca
00:08:29.520 when the government
00:08:30.220 was telling us,
00:08:31.240 no,
00:08:31.420 we're stopping those
00:08:32.380 for first
00:08:32.860 and we're stopping
00:08:34.420 them for second.
00:08:35.620 And I'm like,
00:08:35.960 what are you doing?
00:08:37.120 I've read the stuff
00:08:38.560 on the risk.
00:08:40.800 It's the one I took first.
00:08:42.460 I did it because
00:08:43.260 I was a good citizen.
00:08:44.640 I listened to you
00:08:45.600 when you said,
00:08:46.540 you know,
00:08:47.140 we were the early ones,
00:08:48.240 right?
00:08:48.320 We were the early guinea pigs.
00:08:49.300 We got the first vaccines,
00:08:50.600 right?
00:08:51.360 Now you're changing the rules.
00:08:53.120 You're telling me
00:08:53.780 I made a mistake.
00:08:55.540 You're trying to deny me
00:08:57.060 access to the one.
00:08:58.580 Now you tell me
00:08:59.040 to take another one.
00:09:00.040 No,
00:09:00.480 that wasn't the deal.
00:09:02.680 And having said that,
00:09:03.760 I've since been boosted
00:09:04.800 with Pfizer
00:09:05.740 because now I think
00:09:06.380 there's been a lot more data
00:09:07.280 and I'm more comfortable.
00:09:08.760 But to not think
00:09:09.980 that decisions like that
00:09:11.500 by all governments
00:09:12.460 in Canada
00:09:13.020 didn't contribute
00:09:14.060 to people
00:09:14.580 who were already hesitant
00:09:15.620 for their own reasons,
00:09:17.080 who may have had
00:09:17.920 bad reactions
00:09:19.060 to flu vaccines,
00:09:19.940 to sort of dismiss
00:09:22.120 those people
00:09:23.100 as the people
00:09:24.200 that are now
00:09:24.920 forcing people
00:09:25.740 not to have cancer surgeries.
00:09:29.020 It's,
00:09:30.140 I don't want to overstate it,
00:09:32.120 but to me,
00:09:32.800 politically,
00:09:33.440 that is evil.
00:09:35.280 This is a much more
00:09:36.300 complicated issue
00:09:37.180 than that.
00:09:37.960 There are people,
00:09:38.860 I agree,
00:09:39.620 the ones who go
00:09:40.380 and protest outside hospitals,
00:09:42.160 you know,
00:09:43.100 and stop political meetings
00:09:45.320 and throw rocks
00:09:46.800 at the prime minister
00:09:47.440 or pebbles.
00:09:48.440 That's insane.
00:09:49.260 And we all agree
00:09:50.400 with that.
00:09:51.620 But this is a nuanced problem.
00:09:55.120 And to me,
00:09:56.420 the reason Trudeau's doing it
00:09:58.040 is he's very smart politically.
00:10:00.500 He knows that
00:10:01.580 if this thing gets worse
00:10:02.900 and worse and worse,
00:10:04.360 people are going to look
00:10:05.720 for scapegoats
00:10:07.680 and the scapegoat
00:10:08.420 will be him
00:10:09.040 and the premiers.
00:10:10.400 So very early on,
00:10:11.700 he's establishing this idea
00:10:13.120 that all of the problems
00:10:14.880 we've had,
00:10:15.560 all of the failures,
00:10:16.600 all of the misinformation,
00:10:18.740 all of the fact
00:10:19.660 that we were late
00:10:20.280 in getting vaccines
00:10:21.120 because the Trudeau government
00:10:22.400 was,
00:10:23.380 for reasons no one understands,
00:10:25.320 thinking that it would be
00:10:26.260 a good idea
00:10:26.760 to have a Chinese company
00:10:28.040 do our vaccines.
00:10:29.200 At the same time,
00:10:29.900 they were holding
00:10:30.800 Canadians hostage.
00:10:32.020 They were committing genocide
00:10:33.080 with the Uyghurs.
00:10:33.880 They were threatening Taiwan.
00:10:38.320 All that stuff.
00:10:40.040 And his government
00:10:40.840 was negotiating with,
00:10:43.580 and it wasn't,
00:10:44.120 to fairness,
00:10:44.600 it wasn't the company
00:10:45.420 that screwed it up.
00:10:47.980 It was the Chinese government.
00:10:50.560 And they knew
00:10:52.200 that had happened
00:10:52.880 for months and months,
00:10:53.620 but they didn't say anything.
00:10:54.980 Then they announced it.
00:10:56.400 And then they said,
00:10:57.360 and then,
00:10:57.840 so people made
00:10:58.660 the logical conclusion.
00:10:59.480 Well, you were late
00:11:00.200 to the party getting vaccines
00:11:01.700 because you idiotically thought
00:11:03.340 this was a good idea.
00:11:05.540 All those things
00:11:06.660 are why we are here today.
00:11:08.400 And there have been failures
00:11:09.240 in the provinces,
00:11:10.020 no doubt.
00:11:10.720 You know,
00:11:11.380 they didn't take this seriously.
00:11:12.720 At the beginning
00:11:13.720 of the rollout,
00:11:14.260 they weren't prepared
00:11:14.920 when they finally started
00:11:15.880 getting the vaccines.
00:11:17.240 They did a bad job
00:11:18.320 of getting them out.
00:11:19.740 So the point is that
00:11:20.820 all these are the reasons
00:11:21.920 we're here today.
00:11:23.240 And this is happening
00:11:24.380 in every country.
00:11:25.800 It's not because
00:11:26.600 unvaccinated people
00:11:27.820 in Canada
00:11:28.440 are uniquely evil.
00:11:30.440 This is happening
00:11:31.120 all over the world.
00:11:32.280 This is what they,
00:11:33.100 you know,
00:11:33.220 they call a wicked problem.
00:11:35.340 And so this is not a time,
00:11:36.780 in my view,
00:11:37.760 that you divide Canadians.
00:11:39.800 You try to reach out
00:11:41.480 to them as much as you can
00:11:42.720 to try to bring people
00:11:44.180 together as much as you can.
00:11:46.420 That's what great leaders do.
00:11:48.360 That's what John F. Kennedy did.
00:11:51.680 That's what in Ontario,
00:11:53.140 I would say,
00:11:53.640 Bill Davis tried to do.
00:11:55.800 He didn't segment off the,
00:11:57.560 and one of the chief
00:11:59.480 liberal strategists
00:12:00.500 during the federal election
00:12:01.420 after it,
00:12:02.860 boasted about the fact
00:12:03.960 that they had successfully
00:12:05.040 hived off slices
00:12:06.500 of the Canadian population
00:12:08.660 so they could win an election
00:12:10.580 with the lowest level
00:12:11.800 of popular support
00:12:12.740 in Canadian history
00:12:13.920 and that that was a good thing.
00:12:15.920 That slicing off
00:12:17.080 those little things
00:12:17.960 and appealing to this group
00:12:19.180 and making this group
00:12:20.300 hate this group,
00:12:21.120 that's how we won.
00:12:22.580 Well,
00:12:23.340 he's doing the same thing now.
00:12:25.900 Well,
00:12:26.000 it's like the balkanization
00:12:26.900 of our country.
00:12:27.920 It's not going to last
00:12:28.520 if you continue to just
00:12:29.360 openly pit people
00:12:30.400 against people
00:12:31.220 and pit them
00:12:32.240 against each other.
00:12:32.880 Lauren,
00:12:33.040 I think you did a great job
00:12:33.900 of explaining all the many reasons
00:12:35.700 why one might be skeptical
00:12:37.580 or hesitant
00:12:38.260 or at least say like,
00:12:39.540 hey,
00:12:39.620 let's wait and see.
00:12:40.440 You know,
00:12:40.900 I think it'd be perfectly reasonable
00:12:42.720 to say,
00:12:43.480 let's just wait and see
00:12:44.460 how this vaccine rollout goes
00:12:45.900 for the exact reasons
00:12:46.720 you laid out.
00:12:47.480 You know,
00:12:47.600 my husband and I
00:12:48.320 were keen to get vaccinated
00:12:49.500 because we just wanted
00:12:50.320 to go back to normal.
00:12:51.620 We were down in Florida
00:12:52.320 and our plan was to get
00:12:53.280 the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
00:12:55.540 We wanted to be one and done
00:12:56.620 and we literally,
00:12:58.380 we had our appointment scheduled.
00:13:00.820 We were in Florida
00:13:01.520 when Florida Governor
00:13:03.560 Ron DeSantos
00:13:04.440 and the U.S. CDC
00:13:05.600 banned Johnson & Johnson
00:13:07.680 so they were pulling it
00:13:08.440 because of concerns
00:13:09.720 about adverse reactions
00:13:11.780 and so,
00:13:12.660 you know,
00:13:12.860 those are the kind of things
00:13:14.140 that would make you
00:13:14.700 sort of pause saying,
00:13:16.280 you know,
00:13:16.440 I'm glad I didn't get it
00:13:17.160 because now they're saying
00:13:18.100 it's not safe
00:13:18.660 even though,
00:13:19.480 you know,
00:13:19.900 six hours ago
00:13:20.700 they were insisting
00:13:21.680 that it was safe
00:13:22.320 and then there's another layer
00:13:23.680 on top of that
00:13:24.380 that you didn't mention
00:13:25.400 but this is the social media
00:13:26.740 censorship that we have seen
00:13:28.160 which just,
00:13:29.220 in my view,
00:13:29.780 further fuels
00:13:31.320 the hesitancy
00:13:32.620 and the skepticism
00:13:33.360 if you sow
00:13:35.200 any kind of doubt
00:13:36.160 about the safety of vaccines,
00:13:37.660 if you ask questions,
00:13:38.620 if you raise
00:13:39.620 valid medical concerns,
00:13:40.760 if you look at the way
00:13:42.020 that the trials were run
00:13:45.180 and you ask scientifically
00:13:46.580 legitimate questions
00:13:47.540 about that,
00:13:48.500 you get kicked off of Twitter,
00:13:49.720 you get banned from YouTube,
00:13:50.700 you get your page
00:13:52.880 removed from Facebook
00:13:53.660 and so,
00:13:54.460 you know,
00:13:54.720 the fact that we have
00:13:55.400 all of these sort of forces
00:13:56.620 conspiring to silence
00:13:58.780 one side of the conversation
00:13:59.980 and then we have people
00:14:01.400 like Justin Trudeau
00:14:02.440 demonizing them,
00:14:03.820 I think we're in a tough place
00:14:06.580 as a country,
00:14:07.560 as a society right now,
00:14:09.020 Laurie,
00:14:09.380 I mean,
00:14:09.820 the people that I talk to
00:14:11.060 who are vaccine hesitant
00:14:13.040 and don't want to take this drug
00:14:15.020 or worry that their kids
00:14:16.140 are going to be forced to,
00:14:16.940 they're upset about schools
00:14:17.860 getting canceled once again,
00:14:19.020 I mean,
00:14:19.840 they have legitimate feelings,
00:14:21.360 I think,
00:14:21.980 of feeling bullied
00:14:23.400 and persecuted
00:14:24.240 and singled out
00:14:25.260 and I know a lot of Canadians
00:14:26.820 in that situation
00:14:27.700 are talking about up
00:14:28.560 and leaving the country
00:14:29.400 because they just don't feel
00:14:31.080 safe and comfortable,
00:14:32.200 I mean,
00:14:32.660 what a sort of sad reflection
00:14:34.380 on our country,
00:14:35.840 what do you think
00:14:36.620 the way out of this,
00:14:37.940 how can we sort of heal these,
00:14:40.180 mend these wounds
00:14:41.400 and move forward
00:14:42.400 post-COVID
00:14:43.400 if that ever does happen,
00:14:45.080 but what do you think
00:14:46.080 should be done here?
00:14:46.760 I don't think a politician
00:14:48.640 has given their record
00:14:49.440 can do anything.
00:14:51.620 It has to be,
00:14:53.140 it has to be our civility
00:14:54.600 towards one another.
00:14:55.680 It has to be
00:14:56.640 that we all live together
00:14:57.880 in a social contract.
00:14:59.880 It has to be that,
00:15:01.400 and look,
00:15:01.940 you know,
00:15:02.420 let's be honest,
00:15:03.360 I mean,
00:15:04.320 I'm as much,
00:15:04.820 I was much a part of this
00:15:05.780 as anybody.
00:15:06.540 I think I mentioned
00:15:07.260 that one of the,
00:15:07.920 I think the great failures
00:15:08.860 of our industry
00:15:10.420 was at the beginning
00:15:11.360 not to explain
00:15:12.520 that 90% efficacy
00:15:13.940 didn't mean 90% efficiency.
00:15:17.020 It didn't mean
00:15:17.760 nine out of 10 people
00:15:18.580 weren't going to get it.
00:15:19.940 It meant,
00:15:20.400 it meant in ideal conditions,
00:15:22.100 that's about as good
00:15:23.960 as it can get.
00:15:25.200 And then,
00:15:25.480 of course,
00:15:25.780 there were the game changers.
00:15:27.100 The fact that
00:15:28.220 we learned that
00:15:29.400 even if you've been vaccinated,
00:15:31.440 you can transmit it
00:15:32.480 to other people.
00:15:34.060 Although,
00:15:34.740 that these are not vaccines
00:15:36.200 like measles vaccines,
00:15:37.740 where if you're vaccinated,
00:15:39.200 you can go in a room
00:15:39.980 full of people
00:15:40.940 who will have measles,
00:15:42.160 and you're all likelihood
00:15:43.480 not going to get it.
00:15:44.640 That doesn't mean
00:15:45.080 the vaccines were bad.
00:15:47.620 I mean,
00:15:48.120 you know,
00:15:48.740 obviously there was a goal
00:15:50.400 to this is going to kill
00:15:51.200 a lot of people.
00:15:51.840 We've got to make them
00:15:52.440 so that it will make people
00:15:53.700 less sick.
00:15:54.320 And they certainly,
00:15:55.080 I agree to that.
00:15:57.160 But,
00:15:57.180 but,
00:15:57.460 but my concern is always
00:15:59.880 that you can make,
00:16:01.040 you can make societal changes
00:16:03.420 that damage us
00:16:04.440 for decades to come
00:16:05.600 in the space of
00:16:07.020 a few months.
00:16:08.480 You can establish
00:16:09.660 a level of distrust
00:16:10.980 that Canadians
00:16:12.460 might have
00:16:13.320 of their government
00:16:14.000 and more important
00:16:15.360 that they might have
00:16:15.960 of each other
00:16:16.500 that will,
00:16:17.780 will supersede
00:16:18.860 the pandemic
00:16:19.520 because we'll get over
00:16:20.360 this pandemic,
00:16:21.160 all pandemics end.
00:16:23.340 It's similar to what
00:16:24.120 I always say to people
00:16:25.100 when years ago
00:16:26.140 there was a teacher strike
00:16:27.120 and the son was,
00:16:29.620 that a paper I worked for
00:16:30.380 was against the strike.
00:16:31.580 And I had all kinds
00:16:32.500 of teachers phoning me
00:16:33.380 and saying,
00:16:33.700 I don't want to strike.
00:16:34.540 I don't want to go out.
00:16:35.300 This is ridiculous.
00:16:36.100 What do I do?
00:16:37.180 And I told them,
00:16:38.080 go out.
00:16:38.380 And they said,
00:16:39.860 but your paper is saying,
00:16:41.060 you know,
00:16:41.700 that there shouldn't
00:16:42.380 be a strike.
00:16:43.240 I said, yes,
00:16:44.380 but if you don't go out,
00:16:46.600 your life will be hell.
00:16:48.440 When after the,
00:16:49.680 this will be resolved
00:16:50.500 in two weeks
00:16:51.320 and in a month,
00:16:52.280 if you don't go out
00:16:53.440 with them,
00:16:54.360 and sadly,
00:16:55.580 some people,
00:16:56.240 I know that happened to,
00:16:57.400 they were ostracized.
00:16:58.600 So,
00:16:58.920 so that's the concern
00:16:59.920 for me beyond
00:17:00.820 what's happening right now,
00:17:02.320 the churn
00:17:02.780 and the yelling
00:17:03.360 and this and the that.
00:17:05.200 It's that we may,
00:17:07.060 I think Canadians
00:17:08.120 have always been good
00:17:09.200 at acting with each other.
00:17:11.200 When Quebec gets hit
00:17:12.220 by the ice storm,
00:17:13.240 I don't think the vast majority
00:17:14.460 of Canadians objected
00:17:15.560 to sending in help
00:17:16.980 when there was flooding
00:17:17.920 in BC.
00:17:18.860 I don't think the vast majority
00:17:20.100 of Canadians,
00:17:21.000 you know,
00:17:21.180 we didn't have that,
00:17:22.500 what they call in the states,
00:17:23.720 I guess,
00:17:23.980 the blue state,
00:17:25.020 red state division.
00:17:26.900 But under the liberals,
00:17:28.780 I think we're starting
00:17:29.940 to have a sort of
00:17:31.480 Western Canada,
00:17:32.740 Eastern Canada thing
00:17:34.940 that's always been there.
00:17:36.060 But I think,
00:17:36.580 I think it's now getting
00:17:37.480 to an very unfortunate level.
00:17:40.320 And,
00:17:40.840 you know,
00:17:41.740 when you look at our country,
00:17:43.100 we're in,
00:17:43.740 we're in an unlikely country.
00:17:46.120 We,
00:17:46.620 you know,
00:17:46.820 we have the second largest
00:17:47.960 man last in the world,
00:17:49.400 a very small population,
00:17:51.300 mostly right around the border.
00:17:52.840 And so it's important
00:17:54.160 that our,
00:17:54.700 our interprovincial
00:17:56.480 and national ties
00:17:58.000 stay strong.
00:17:59.660 And so that to me
00:18:01.020 is the danger
00:18:01.640 of the kind of rhetoric
00:18:02.680 that the prime minister
00:18:05.340 is using.
00:18:06.080 He's done it,
00:18:06.600 by the way.
00:18:07.020 This isn't the first time.
00:18:08.400 He did it in August
00:18:09.240 during the election
00:18:10.160 and he blamed
00:18:11.720 Aaron O'Toole
00:18:12.840 for these demonstrations
00:18:14.440 that were disrupting
00:18:15.360 his thing.
00:18:16.500 Aaron O'Toole
00:18:16.940 had in fact said
00:18:18.000 as soon as they happened,
00:18:19.260 that's wrong,
00:18:19.960 stop doing it.
00:18:20.880 You have no place
00:18:21.480 in the Conservative Party
00:18:22.320 if you're trying to shut down
00:18:23.560 the prime minister
00:18:24.400 of Canada speaking.
00:18:25.680 And yet Trudeau
00:18:26.180 still blamed him
00:18:27.120 because of,
00:18:27.960 because they knew
00:18:28.780 that that was
00:18:29.320 a popular thing to do,
00:18:30.880 to find a villain.
00:18:32.100 You know what it is.
00:18:33.160 When things are scary,
00:18:34.320 you want a scapegoat,
00:18:35.740 right?
00:18:36.180 So it's the unvaccinated.
00:18:37.860 The problem is,
00:18:38.780 and I'm not making
00:18:39.420 a direct comparison,
00:18:40.640 but we've seen in history
00:18:42.000 what can happen
00:18:42.780 when a particular segment
00:18:44.240 of the population
00:18:45.060 is blamed for everything,
00:18:47.600 is blamed for,
00:18:49.000 is blamed for willfully
00:18:52.000 not doing something
00:18:53.020 that they could do,
00:18:54.040 that the solution
00:18:54.860 is just if these people
00:18:56.260 don't do this anymore.
00:18:58.120 We've seen what can happen.
00:18:59.180 And it's,
00:19:01.500 it's a scary prospect.
00:19:04.580 Well, absolutely.
00:19:05.360 And I would put,
00:19:06.520 I mean,
00:19:06.680 I completely agree
00:19:07.800 with the criticism
00:19:09.460 you have about Trudeau
00:19:10.500 and how he's made
00:19:11.640 the country more divided.
00:19:12.700 I mean,
00:19:13.100 after his victory
00:19:14.400 in 2019,
00:19:15.020 we saw the rise
00:19:15.980 of both the bloc
00:19:17.080 Quebecois gaining back
00:19:18.500 a lot of the ground
00:19:19.280 that they had lost
00:19:19.840 in previous elections,
00:19:20.800 as well as a new
00:19:21.860 sort of Wexit movement
00:19:22.820 of people in Alberta
00:19:24.320 and Western Canada
00:19:24.940 who just sort of fed up
00:19:25.780 with his anti-energy policies.
00:19:28.700 But, you know,
00:19:30.020 part of the problem
00:19:30.900 is Trudeau
00:19:31.660 and part of the problem,
00:19:32.880 in my mind,
00:19:33.360 is the media
00:19:33.800 and the way they cover it.
00:19:34.560 And I know you commented
00:19:35.780 on this sort of
00:19:36.840 high-profile exit
00:19:38.680 from the CBC,
00:19:39.640 a journalist named
00:19:40.580 Tara Henley
00:19:41.420 who wrote a lengthy blog
00:19:43.440 really laying out
00:19:44.640 some of the real problems
00:19:46.000 over at the state broadcaster.
00:19:47.920 And one of the things
00:19:48.940 that she mentioned
00:19:49.420 was the sort of
00:19:50.360 new attitude
00:19:50.980 where journalists
00:19:52.300 don't question the narrative
00:19:53.720 or don't question
00:19:54.540 the direction
00:19:56.160 and policies
00:19:56.940 of the government
00:19:58.080 or big corporations
00:19:59.120 and instead
00:20:00.040 they sort of focus
00:20:00.760 their ire on people
00:20:01.900 that they disagree with
00:20:03.520 or people who have
00:20:04.280 unpopular,
00:20:05.000 unfashionable views.
00:20:06.980 So I want to make you
00:20:08.100 comment a little bit
00:20:09.020 on sort of the CBC
00:20:10.440 and how the sort of
00:20:13.620 culture over there
00:20:14.680 has an impact
00:20:15.960 on all Canadians
00:20:17.000 and certainly our political
00:20:17.920 culture in this country.
00:20:19.640 Yeah, I don't think
00:20:20.820 she said anything
00:20:21.360 that surprised a lot of people
00:20:22.700 in terms of the criticism
00:20:23.700 and a lot of people
00:20:24.380 feel that way
00:20:25.540 about the CBC.
00:20:27.420 She also did reference items
00:20:28.700 that had to do
00:20:29.220 with the pandemic
00:20:29.920 in terms of how
00:20:30.760 they've reported it.
00:20:34.440 Look,
00:20:35.100 every media organization
00:20:36.300 has a culture.
00:20:37.840 The CBC does.
00:20:39.200 The Toronto Sun does.
00:20:40.740 The difference is,
00:20:41.620 of course,
00:20:41.960 that you don't have
00:20:42.580 to buy the Sun.
00:20:43.440 You have to buy the CBC.
00:20:46.460 And I think she was,
00:20:49.800 and this was a person
00:20:50.760 who had been there
00:20:51.320 as a producer
00:20:52.100 of TV and radio shows
00:20:53.100 and an occasional columnist
00:20:54.200 who went,
00:20:54.980 there is this group thing
00:20:56.100 that says that there
00:20:57.300 are certain correct
00:20:58.260 positions on issues
00:20:59.620 and that other positions
00:21:01.420 are invalid.
00:21:04.200 Personally,
00:21:04.780 when I wrote about
00:21:05.560 what she said,
00:21:06.440 I said that
00:21:07.140 I've thought that
00:21:08.160 for years.
00:21:08.660 I think that if you look
00:21:09.820 at the mindset
00:21:11.320 of the CBC,
00:21:12.660 it is much closer
00:21:14.400 to the views
00:21:15.160 of Justin Trudeau
00:21:16.040 and the Liberals
00:21:16.640 than it is
00:21:17.700 Aaron O'Toole
00:21:18.700 or whoever
00:21:19.160 the conservative
00:21:19.680 leader happens
00:21:20.220 to be
00:21:20.560 and the conservative
00:21:22.840 party,
00:21:23.260 if you look
00:21:23.540 at issues
00:21:23.800 like freedom,
00:21:24.880 if you look
00:21:25.200 at issues
00:21:25.600 like climate change,
00:21:27.120 if you look
00:21:27.580 at hate crime,
00:21:29.720 law and order,
00:21:31.140 and I think
00:21:33.920 that is something
00:21:35.740 that we should
00:21:36.560 be worried about.
00:21:37.860 Now,
00:21:38.740 the Toronto Sun
00:21:39.360 has a conservative view,
00:21:41.240 but we don't go out
00:21:42.600 and do research
00:21:43.780 to tell Canadians
00:21:45.100 not to use words
00:21:46.360 like lame
00:21:47.820 and grandfathering in.
00:21:51.360 What was the CBC
00:21:53.300 thinking of?
00:21:54.480 We don't do a poll
00:21:56.000 that specifically
00:21:57.200 talks about,
00:21:58.660 you know,
00:21:59.180 less than half,
00:22:00.580 almost half,
00:22:01.180 but less than half
00:22:01.740 of Canadians
00:22:02.240 would be comfortable
00:22:02.980 moving to Alberta.
00:22:04.980 What was that about?
00:22:06.800 They didn't ask
00:22:07.460 any other,
00:22:08.420 they didn't ask people
00:22:09.140 living anywhere else,
00:22:10.040 well,
00:22:10.480 where would they be?
00:22:12.340 And I remember,
00:22:13.300 like,
00:22:13.820 I remember tweeting
00:22:14.380 on it and going,
00:22:15.500 okay,
00:22:16.360 but what about,
00:22:17.580 most people like
00:22:18.260 where they live?
00:22:19.120 That's the simple truth.
00:22:21.420 So there was
00:22:22.220 such a blowback
00:22:23.080 that the pollster
00:22:24.120 who did the first one
00:22:25.140 for them
00:22:25.580 went back
00:22:26.400 and asked the question
00:22:27.440 properly
00:22:28.040 all across the country.
00:22:29.620 And what happened?
00:22:31.380 Turns out that Alberta
00:22:32.520 was the,
00:22:33.820 in the top third
00:22:34.660 of places
00:22:35.200 that people would
00:22:35.920 be comfortable living
00:22:36.940 in Canada.
00:22:38.320 It was the exact
00:22:39.440 same level
00:22:40.100 as for Ontario.
00:22:41.940 And it was twice
00:22:43.280 as popular
00:22:43.860 as Quebec.
00:22:45.240 Now,
00:22:45.740 obviously,
00:22:46.340 Quebec has to do
00:22:47.120 with the language.
00:22:47.920 I'm not,
00:22:48.180 not trashing
00:22:49.140 the people of Quebec.
00:22:50.720 But,
00:22:50.900 but what would
00:22:51.820 cause you originally
00:22:52.920 when you're
00:22:53.800 in the story meeting
00:22:54.700 and you're talking
00:22:55.820 about,
00:22:56.320 let's do a poll
00:22:56.980 about where Canadians
00:22:57.960 would be,
00:22:59.060 that you would only
00:22:59.720 talk about Alberta
00:23:00.580 and that you would
00:23:01.620 organize the poll
00:23:02.620 only about Alberta
00:23:03.860 and then nobody
00:23:04.900 when they got the story
00:23:06.000 wouldn't have gone,
00:23:07.100 I mean,
00:23:07.360 I'm an editor,
00:23:08.360 you would have to be
00:23:09.160 a doofus
00:23:09.900 getting that information
00:23:10.900 not to go,
00:23:11.940 whoa,
00:23:12.040 wait a minute,
00:23:12.580 wait a minute,
00:23:13.340 we're going to say
00:23:14.020 less than half
00:23:14.680 of Canadians
00:23:15.160 are comfortable
00:23:15.660 living in Alberta?
00:23:16.880 What about
00:23:17.300 everywhere else?
00:23:18.500 And then when
00:23:18.920 they did the story,
00:23:20.920 rather than talking
00:23:22.780 about the key factors,
00:23:24.800 yeah,
00:23:24.940 well,
00:23:25.040 we said less than half,
00:23:26.100 well,
00:23:26.180 actually,
00:23:26.500 they're in the top third
00:23:27.300 and it's the same
00:23:28.240 as Ontario
00:23:28.840 and,
00:23:29.580 you know,
00:23:30.740 yada,
00:23:31.180 yada,
00:23:31.380 yada,
00:23:31.720 rather than doing
00:23:32.560 that truthfully
00:23:33.880 to sort of refute
00:23:35.900 what the first poll
00:23:36.980 had said,
00:23:38.220 they led off
00:23:38.940 that the most popular
00:23:40.040 places to live in
00:23:40.980 or to be comfortable
00:23:42.040 in were BC
00:23:42.940 and Atlantic Canada.
00:23:44.560 What's that got to do?
00:23:47.260 That's not the issue.
00:23:48.560 The issue is you did a poll
00:23:49.660 because you were trying
00:23:50.540 to smear Alberta.
00:23:52.180 So other media,
00:23:53.640 I think,
00:23:54.420 like,
00:23:54.660 and their complaints,
00:23:55.380 people complain about it all,
00:23:56.080 and they complain about the sun,
00:23:57.520 you know,
00:23:57.780 so I'm not,
00:23:58.460 I'm not trying to,
00:23:59.180 but it's,
00:23:59.940 it's,
00:24:00.540 and I did,
00:24:01.420 one of my first jobs
00:24:02.800 in media
00:24:03.360 was as a gopher
00:24:04.120 at CBC National Radio
00:24:06.700 when I was very young
00:24:07.480 and I've written that,
00:24:10.020 well,
00:24:10.120 it was the cast,
00:24:10.660 British cast system there.
00:24:12.040 My job,
00:24:12.760 I was lowest,
00:24:13.440 you know,
00:24:13.740 lowest,
00:24:14.160 last hired,
00:24:14.960 lowest down.
00:24:15.740 So my job was to smile
00:24:17.600 when people were having
00:24:18.540 a bad day
00:24:18.960 and they yelled at me,
00:24:19.840 but they,
00:24:21.300 they were serious journalists.
00:24:23.240 I mean,
00:24:23.800 when I dealt with those folks
00:24:25.540 in a very low level
00:24:26.820 and when,
00:24:27.700 when they allowed me
00:24:28.660 to start writing brief items,
00:24:30.180 they taught me
00:24:30.920 how to do things,
00:24:31.720 how to write it coherently,
00:24:32.840 how to write it accurately,
00:24:34.460 so,
00:24:35.020 you know,
00:24:35.740 back then to me,
00:24:36.600 it was a very different culture.
00:24:38.700 It,
00:24:39.080 whatever the fights
00:24:39.820 within the CBC were,
00:24:41.240 they were about
00:24:41.820 putting out the news accurately,
00:24:44.560 you know,
00:24:44.760 and they had icons
00:24:45.680 who did that.
00:24:47.000 I don't think it's the same anymore
00:24:48.160 and,
00:24:49.180 and it's the particular problem.
00:24:50.960 If they were privately run,
00:24:52.760 live long and prosper.
00:24:53.900 If you think that's where
00:24:54.880 your market is,
00:24:55.960 you know,
00:24:56.420 fill your boots,
00:24:57.320 but you're the national broadcaster.
00:25:00.100 You know,
00:25:00.680 you're supposed to,
00:25:01.420 you tell us that your mandate
00:25:02.500 is to look at,
00:25:03.500 you know,
00:25:03.960 things nationally.
00:25:04.540 When I asked the CBC,
00:25:07.040 well,
00:25:07.220 what about Tara Henley's things?
00:25:10.140 They said,
00:25:11.100 we disagree with her perspective.
00:25:13.220 We make every effort
00:25:14.220 to cover the diversity of views
00:25:16.060 in,
00:25:16.720 in Canada.
00:25:17.740 And that's not just our,
00:25:19.640 how did they word it?
00:25:21.180 It's not just what we do.
00:25:22.560 It's our responsibility.
00:25:23.680 I,
00:25:24.940 you know,
00:25:26.720 okay.
00:25:27.940 And,
00:25:28.320 and the person who said it to me,
00:25:29.440 I smart person
00:25:30.940 and,
00:25:31.260 and,
00:25:31.400 and I thank them for their,
00:25:32.820 their input.
00:25:34.440 But,
00:25:34.980 but I'm not sure that that's how
00:25:36.620 many Canadians would think
00:25:37.920 the CBC behaves today.
00:25:40.560 it's,
00:25:40.800 it's so interesting,
00:25:41.960 Laurie,
00:25:42.140 because it's sort of like
00:25:42.920 the worst of the worst
00:25:44.100 of the sort of the fringe,
00:25:45.040 far left ideology,
00:25:46.180 the dogma,
00:25:47.120 the way that they look into
00:25:48.900 and pull out race
00:25:50.000 as a center of every aspect
00:25:51.500 of every story.
00:25:52.300 Like that,
00:25:52.700 like a story can't be about,
00:25:53.960 you know,
00:25:54.740 a community,
00:25:56.040 or it can't be about a family.
00:25:57.080 It has to,
00:25:57.860 they have to focus on the issue of race,
00:25:59.920 which is often so divisive.
00:26:01.520 It's like,
00:26:02.280 it's like people sitting around,
00:26:03.860 you mentioned earlier in the interview
00:26:05.020 that Canada doesn't have the same
00:26:06.540 sort of red state,
00:26:07.720 blue state divide,
00:26:08.800 where we're,
00:26:09.140 we're sort of coming apart as a country.
00:26:11.240 We're pretty,
00:26:12.120 you know,
00:26:12.620 united in some ways.
00:26:14.300 And,
00:26:14.420 and yet here's CBC sitting around a table,
00:26:15.940 scheming about how can we bring in
00:26:18.920 this sort of divisive American woke culture
00:26:22.120 and,
00:26:22.540 and bring it up to Canada
00:26:23.740 to try to further divide a country.
00:26:25.160 Oh,
00:26:25.240 I have an idea.
00:26:26.040 Let's,
00:26:26.520 let's,
00:26:26.720 let's look into and try to tell a story
00:26:28.880 about how nobody likes Alberta
00:26:30.360 and nobody wants to move there.
00:26:31.580 It's like,
00:26:32.240 it's like they're designing news
00:26:33.620 to try to divide the country.
00:26:35.480 Well,
00:26:35.500 Henley said in her experience
00:26:37.900 as since I think it was 2013
00:26:39.660 before she resigned
00:26:40.820 as a producer
00:26:42.420 and,
00:26:42.840 and of TV and radio
00:26:44.440 and an occasional columnist
00:26:46.260 that she was aware
00:26:48.400 that in booking guests,
00:26:50.400 people had to basically fill out
00:26:53.200 the background of these people.
00:26:55.220 Who are you booking?
00:26:56.540 And the reason was
00:26:57.880 they wanted more
00:26:58.880 of certain types of people
00:27:00.220 and less of other types of people.
00:27:02.660 Now,
00:27:03.380 I agree that there is legitimate concern
00:27:06.900 that you want,
00:27:08.240 you want your commentary
00:27:11.480 to reflect the country,
00:27:13.200 right?
00:27:14.020 And so,
00:27:14.760 I'll give you an example.
00:27:16.960 If there's an issue about economy
00:27:18.400 and there's an Asian
00:27:19.940 or a black
00:27:20.540 or a Filipino
00:27:21.280 column,
00:27:22.020 you know,
00:27:22.500 economist who's,
00:27:23.420 who's expert on this,
00:27:24.560 well,
00:27:24.660 then of course you go and get them.
00:27:26.540 Of course,
00:27:27.260 you know,
00:27:27.460 like in other words,
00:27:28.320 you're not putting that person on
00:27:29.480 because of their color.
00:27:31.180 You're putting them on
00:27:32.260 because of their expertise.
00:27:34.440 And what may well have happened
00:27:35.920 in the past
00:27:36.620 is that,
00:27:37.440 is that people more
00:27:38.180 stories weren't put on
00:27:39.180 simply because
00:27:40.120 our audience won't like that.
00:27:41.680 You know,
00:27:41.960 that was wrong
00:27:43.620 and that needed to be corrected.
00:27:45.720 But when you're,
00:27:46.760 when you're sitting on your staff
00:27:48.720 so much
00:27:49.580 that they are filling out forms,
00:27:51.760 well,
00:27:52.040 okay,
00:27:52.300 this person was this
00:27:53.540 and this person was this
00:27:55.160 and I got,
00:27:55.880 I know I got to make more people
00:27:57.000 from this group
00:27:57.800 rather than that group.
00:27:59.420 And nobody
00:28:00.280 in the organization goes,
00:28:02.480 what is going on?
00:28:04.820 This,
00:28:04.980 this is creepy.
00:28:05.840 This feels wrong.
00:28:06.560 Like we're putting race
00:28:07.440 above everything else.
00:28:08.520 And I,
00:28:09.280 I know there's a whole section
00:28:10.520 on CBC's website
00:28:11.840 called Being Black in Canada.
00:28:13.340 And I,
00:28:13.880 I get the kind of concept
00:28:15.820 is like,
00:28:16.300 hey,
00:28:16.380 let's tell more stories
00:28:17.520 from people of diverse background.
00:28:18.860 But,
00:28:19.420 but when you have a whole
00:28:20.340 dedicated section
00:28:21.240 on your website
00:28:21.900 and I read it
00:28:22.900 and it's like,
00:28:23.320 they're really kind of
00:28:24.460 scraping the bottom of the barrel
00:28:25.680 just to come up with stories.
00:28:26.780 And like,
00:28:27.080 it's like sitting around,
00:28:28.600 how can we tell
00:28:29.660 a different story
00:28:30.280 of racism in Canada?
00:28:30.960 How can we retell the story
00:28:32.560 that we think Canada
00:28:33.540 is this horrible racist,
00:28:34.600 irredeemably racist country?
00:28:35.840 And just different iterations
00:28:37.620 of the same thing
00:28:38.240 over and over again.
00:28:38.980 And it's like,
00:28:39.880 they're pumping it out.
00:28:40.700 It's like propaganda,
00:28:41.520 Laurie.
00:28:41.960 It's,
00:28:42.120 it's to me,
00:28:43.380 just so wrong
00:28:44.260 that we're paying for it again.
00:28:46.600 I'll give you an example.
00:28:47.620 I did a story
00:28:48.400 about a huge,
00:28:49.980 it's,
00:28:50.560 I guess the primary award
00:28:51.780 that,
00:28:52.800 you know,
00:28:53.640 honoring black citizens.
00:28:55.140 And it's called
00:28:56.780 the Harry Jerome Awards.
00:28:58.500 And I've covered,
00:29:00.180 I'm astounded
00:29:01.120 by the,
00:29:01.920 by the quality
00:29:02.940 of these winners.
00:29:04.780 They would be winners
00:29:05.880 anywhere.
00:29:07.300 And,
00:29:07.860 you know,
00:29:08.260 like,
00:29:08.960 how often do we hear
00:29:09.580 about that?
00:29:10.140 How often do we hear
00:29:10.780 about actually,
00:29:11.540 no,
00:29:11.680 this community
00:29:12.180 is integrating
00:29:12.880 really well.
00:29:13.520 And here's things
00:29:14.280 they're,
00:29:14.640 they're,
00:29:15.140 they're doing
00:29:15.580 with other communities.
00:29:16.640 And here's Arab groups
00:29:17.760 and Jewish groups
00:29:18.400 working together,
00:29:19.120 you know,
00:29:20.240 to try and achieve things
00:29:21.220 or,
00:29:21.800 or working together
00:29:22.820 on,
00:29:23.320 on,
00:29:23.660 on charitable endeavors.
00:29:24.780 I worked for 20,
00:29:26.420 more than two decades
00:29:27.720 with a,
00:29:28.220 a black charity
00:29:29.520 that,
00:29:29.780 that was founded
00:29:30.320 by Jamaican Canadians
00:29:31.440 who gave,
00:29:33.200 who were able to gather
00:29:34.460 millions of dollars
00:29:35.540 in donations
00:29:36.120 in food,
00:29:37.700 in,
00:29:37.900 in,
00:29:38.500 in hospital supplies.
00:29:39.900 They sent them to Canada.
00:29:40.940 They sent them around
00:29:41.660 the world.
00:29:43.000 And,
00:29:43.520 and,
00:29:43.920 you know,
00:29:44.880 and just,
00:29:45.960 just,
00:29:46.280 they were everyday people.
00:29:48.540 And,
00:29:48.660 and like,
00:29:49.360 but of course,
00:29:49.820 when you do that story,
00:29:50.580 oh,
00:29:50.640 that's a happy story.
00:29:51.420 You do it once a year
00:29:52.060 and away we go.
00:29:52.660 Um,
00:29:53.860 uh,
00:29:54.640 like,
00:29:54.840 are we really
00:29:55.500 the most racist
00:29:56.760 country in the world?
00:29:58.280 Are we really
00:29:59.360 the equivalent
00:29:59.940 of apartheid South Africa?
00:30:01.960 Um,
00:30:02.580 uh,
00:30:03.180 I don't think rational
00:30:04.180 people believe that.
00:30:06.000 Um,
00:30:06.580 but,
00:30:07.220 but also what I noticed
00:30:08.460 when I,
00:30:09.220 when I broach
00:30:10.640 subjects like this,
00:30:11.600 people say to me,
00:30:12.740 I'm so glad you're saying it
00:30:13.700 because I'm afraid to say it.
00:30:14.900 And that's the insidious thing.
00:30:16.760 People are afraid
00:30:17.600 to say things
00:30:19.120 that are,
00:30:19.700 are,
00:30:20.220 you know,
00:30:21.300 they went after
00:30:22.120 Rex Murphy
00:30:22.760 because he said
00:30:23.360 Canada wasn't
00:30:24.020 a racist country.
00:30:25.860 Like,
00:30:26.400 like,
00:30:26.940 like,
00:30:28.140 okay,
00:30:28.640 you can,
00:30:28.980 you can disagree.
00:30:29.780 You can say,
00:30:30.340 well,
00:30:30.420 look,
00:30:30.600 that,
00:30:30.900 that minimizes
00:30:31.680 the problem.
00:30:32.760 You know,
00:30:33.100 understandable.
00:30:34.400 Or Wendy Mesley,
00:30:36.500 basically her career
00:30:37.800 destroyed
00:30:38.500 because in two story
00:30:40.340 meetings,
00:30:40.740 she used the N word
00:30:42.440 and she said the full
00:30:43.500 word because she was
00:30:45.220 angry about racism.
00:30:47.620 Now,
00:30:48.780 and,
00:30:49.040 and you're saying
00:30:50.040 the context doesn't
00:30:51.780 matter anymore.
00:30:53.080 Like,
00:30:53.540 okay,
00:30:53.720 maybe it was insensitive
00:30:54.660 and maybe,
00:30:55.580 you know,
00:30:55.900 if somebody objected,
00:30:57.060 she could apologize
00:30:57.820 and not do,
00:30:58.600 but really,
00:30:59.640 you crater a 40 year career.
00:31:02.200 Whatever you think of,
00:31:03.060 of,
00:31:03.480 of,
00:31:03.560 you know,
00:31:04.400 Wendy Mesley
00:31:04.920 and her work in the CBC,
00:31:06.120 she was a loyal soldier
00:31:07.320 to them.
00:31:08.000 And you crater her
00:31:09.280 based on that,
00:31:10.660 that you can't use
00:31:11.680 when you're angry
00:31:12.300 about racism,
00:31:13.140 the N word
00:31:13.600 in a story meeting,
00:31:14.500 right?
00:31:15.680 But don't say lame
00:31:16.860 and don't say
00:31:17.600 grandfathering in.
00:31:19.080 What is wrong
00:31:20.000 with you people?
00:31:21.180 What is wrong
00:31:21.720 with your management?
00:31:23.480 Well,
00:31:24.000 there's just,
00:31:24.620 there's just so much,
00:31:26.040 there is so much
00:31:26.680 wrong with it.
00:31:27.380 And,
00:31:27.400 and right,
00:31:28.340 like the,
00:31:28.680 the idea with
00:31:29.980 Rex Murphy
00:31:30.660 is column,
00:31:32.500 it wasn't just saying
00:31:33.440 Canada's not a racist country.
00:31:34.320 It says that we're not
00:31:34.920 a country defined
00:31:35.740 by racism.
00:31:36.460 When you think of Canada,
00:31:37.340 you don't,
00:31:37.580 of course there's racist people.
00:31:38.940 There's racist people
00:31:39.620 all over the planet
00:31:40.700 of every color.
00:31:42.060 And you use racist country
00:31:43.140 when you're saying
00:31:43.720 a specific thing.
00:31:45.020 Yeah,
00:31:45.140 when you say Canada.
00:31:45.720 it's like you're,
00:31:46.040 you're defined by it.
00:31:47.420 Yeah,
00:31:47.620 exactly.
00:31:48.880 But,
00:31:49.220 but I mean,
00:31:49.680 it's the same thing.
00:31:50.500 I mean,
00:31:50.600 we could go on forever
00:31:51.440 about this,
00:31:52.120 but the Ontario Divisional Court
00:31:54.440 just ruled that you can't
00:31:55.840 ask math teachers
00:31:56.860 to pass a basic
00:31:57.880 grade nine math exam
00:31:58.920 because it's racist.
00:31:59.720 Not because the law
00:32:01.040 itself is racist
00:32:01.860 or the intent
00:32:02.500 of the law is racist,
00:32:03.320 but because the impact
00:32:05.240 is,
00:32:06.000 has,
00:32:06.360 is racially
00:32:07.240 divided
00:32:08.900 or whatever.
00:32:09.640 So it's like every,
00:32:10.560 they,
00:32:10.780 they,
00:32:11.020 they find racism
00:32:11.940 in,
00:32:12.680 in just every mundane thing.
00:32:14.100 And I think it's,
00:32:14.800 it's really having a bad
00:32:16.520 impact on our society.
00:32:17.500 It's really tearing us apart
00:32:18.400 at a time when our prime
00:32:19.880 minister is also doing
00:32:20.860 everything he can to
00:32:21.740 vilify people that he
00:32:23.120 disagrees with.
00:32:23.860 So Laurie,
00:32:25.120 I mean,
00:32:25.420 it's,
00:32:25.600 it's,
00:32:25.840 it's a tough time in Canada
00:32:26.940 right now,
00:32:27.300 but we really appreciate you
00:32:28.300 coming on the show
00:32:28.920 and helping us make sense of it.
00:32:30.900 Thank you so much for joining us.
00:32:32.280 Thank you for your time.
00:32:33.580 Thank you for having me.
00:32:35.540 All right.
00:32:36.000 Thank you so much for tuning in.
00:32:37.220 I'm Candice Malcolm
00:32:37.800 and this is the Candice Malcolm Show.