The Candice Malcolm Show - August 12, 2021


The legacy media covers for Justin Trudeau (again)

Hosted by
Candice Malcolm
Mentioned
Justin Trudeau Peter Fitzpatrick Joe Biden
The left-wing lockdown authoritarians are unhinged The election could drastically change the media landscape in Canada

Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

196.66

Word count

2,403

Sentence count

138

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The borders are open, and it is a chaotic mess, but you won t hear about that in the legacy media. Today, I'm going to walk you through what actually happened at the border on the weekend, and why you won't hear about it in the mainstream media.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 The borders are open and it is a chaotic mess, but you won't hear about that in the legacy media.
00:00:04.720 I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:11.880 Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning in.
00:00:14.100 Now, if you get your news from True North, if you follow this program and you listen to it regularly,
00:00:18.680 you're probably not one of the people that's going to fall for a misleading headline
00:00:22.520 or a really sort of incorrect narrative being pushed out by the legacy media.
00:00:27.500 But sadly, too many Canadians still do get their news from the legacy media.
00:00:32.100 And so I think it's important when I see a series of headlines that are just wrong,
00:00:36.560 that it's still important to go through and really try to dissect it for the viewer,
00:00:42.020 especially when the conclusion that the legacy media is drawing is this sort of celebratory good news story
00:00:48.160 about Justin Trudeau and his government.
00:00:50.320 I'm talking about the news that happened over the weekend about the borders sort of finally opening up
00:00:55.420 after, what, 18 months of the land borders being mostly closed to tourism and visitors.
00:01:01.280 And the media was sort of celebrating that.
00:01:03.020 Well, I want to go back.
00:01:04.140 So two weeks ago when Trudeau first announced that this measure was happening,
00:01:07.420 it was met with two things that I think were very unanticipated and bad news for the prime minister.
00:01:13.720 So Trudeau announced that he was unilaterally doing this decision.
00:01:16.720 The first bad thing that happened was that U.S. President Joe Biden did not reciprocate that.
00:01:20.760 He wasn't ready. He said he wasn't going to do it.
00:01:23.500 So you have this weird situation where Canada is saying, yes, we're going to allow Americans to come in,
00:01:27.840 but Americans haven't yet created that reciprocity to say that Canadians are welcome back into the United States.
00:01:34.120 So that kind of soured Trudeau's announcement.
00:01:36.480 The second thing that happened was that the CBSA union, so CBSA is a Canadian border services agency,
00:01:42.480 and their union said that they were not happy, that their contracts hadn't been finalized yet,
00:01:47.700 went to the union for a vote, and they voted to strike.
00:01:51.640 So the worst possible timing for the prime minister, the worst possible timing to have your border services agents strike
00:01:57.740 right when you announce that the U.S. border is opening up again.
00:02:02.300 And so interestingly, what the mainstream media, legacy media stories focused on
00:02:07.560 was that an apparent deal was reached with these border agents.
00:02:11.180 And so this was all on Friday.
00:02:13.140 You see a report here in the Toronto Star and another one here in CTV saying,
00:02:17.540 CBSA employees agree to deal with government ending days on strike.
00:02:21.420 That was at CTV.
00:02:22.780 And Toronto Star headline here says,
00:02:24.540 deal with border agents ends traffic snarl up as Canada reopens to the U.S.
00:02:30.740 So again, if you were just going to get your news from the legacy media,
00:02:33.720 you would assume, okay, wow, they avoided a potentially terrible situation
00:02:38.120 where the border guards were on strike right when the borders were opening up.
00:02:43.820 Well, unfortunately, I don't actually think that these news agencies sent reporters to the border
00:02:49.380 to see what was actually happening.
00:02:51.080 I happened to be coming into Canada over the weekend.
00:02:53.680 And as I reported at TNC.news, it was pure chaos at the border.
00:02:58.680 It was the exact opposite of what these legacy news stories would have you believe.
00:03:02.680 So I'm going to walk you through my story at Pearson Airport.
00:03:06.600 I arrived with my family at about 5 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
00:03:10.840 And keep in mind, this was after we were told that the CBSA had reached a deal.
00:03:14.880 So we were told CBSA had announced that they were going to go on strike on Tuesday.
00:03:19.320 On Friday, after long negotiations, they reached an agreement.
00:03:23.460 During those long negotiations, CBSA, they can't actually strike.
00:03:26.880 What they can do is something called work to rule,
00:03:28.880 which is because they're essential workers, instead of just walking off the job,
00:03:33.280 they basically do their job as slowly as possible to make it as painful as possible
00:03:39.280 for whoever they're interacting with, which gives them bargaining power
00:03:42.800 with, you know, the person that's doing their contract.
00:03:45.820 In this case, the Treasury Board, so the federal government.
00:03:48.780 And we're talking about the CBSA union here.
00:03:51.640 So back to my story.
00:03:53.200 I land at 5 p.m. with my family.
00:03:55.700 And basically, we're told that we can't get off the plane.
00:03:58.140 Now, anyone who's traveled with little kids, I have two little kids,
00:04:01.440 anyone who's traveled with little kids knows that as soon as the airplane lands,
00:04:04.960 you're basically just, you can't wait to get off the plane.
00:04:07.140 You want to get off the plane.
00:04:08.020 The kids are, you know, the kids want to run around.
00:04:11.120 You want to let them just have some space after being kind of cramped up in a small airport seat.
00:04:16.280 You want to go get some water, maybe something to eat.
00:04:18.740 You just want to stretch your legs, right?
00:04:20.260 The last thing you want to do is to be forced to sit on a hot airplane longer than you have to.
00:04:24.500 Well, that's when the Air Canada pilot came on the PA system
00:04:27.420 and let us all know that because of this work-to-rule action with the CBSA,
00:04:33.200 there were very, very long delays.
00:04:35.420 And that at that point, they had closed the custom halls to new passengers.
00:04:39.220 So it was at capacity.
00:04:40.760 No one was allowed to get in.
00:04:42.200 We had to wait on the plane until more space opened up.
00:04:46.600 So that's our story.
00:04:48.020 We're sitting on the plane.
00:04:48.960 It ended up taking about two hours.
00:04:50.460 We were finally let off because we had small kids.
00:04:53.200 Other passengers were made to wait.
00:04:55.540 So we left the plane, went into the customs hall,
00:04:58.820 and it was, again, just pure chaos.
00:05:01.120 Lines everywhere.
00:05:02.220 As chaotic as I've ever seen it.
00:05:04.340 And I travel a lot and I've come into,
00:05:06.820 I've entered into Canada, you know, probably hundreds of times in my life.
00:05:10.380 This was as chaotic as I've ever seen it.
00:05:12.880 The line was snaking back and forth throughout the entire customs hall,
00:05:15.900 and it was packed and it was chaotic.
00:05:18.100 So after waiting about two hours on the plane,
00:05:20.820 we were then made to wait another probably about an hour.
00:05:23.880 And it was frustrating because typically when you go through customs,
00:05:28.080 most people go up to a computer, a machine.
00:05:31.020 You have your form filled out.
00:05:32.060 You put it in and you put in your information.
00:05:34.600 You get it back.
00:05:35.380 You either have an X on the back or you don't.
00:05:37.400 If you don't have an X on the back,
00:05:38.560 it's usually quite quickly to just go through a line.
00:05:41.240 And then if you do have an X, it's because there's some complication
00:05:43.380 with your file or some kind of a red flag.
00:05:46.040 And so then you have to go speak to a border guard.
00:05:48.320 On the weekend when I was there,
00:05:49.780 they were making every single person speak to a border guard.
00:05:52.660 And that's sort of the idea behind work to rule
00:05:55.080 is that it intentionally makes your visit longer and more unpleasant,
00:05:59.980 again, so that the union has more bargaining power.
00:06:03.800 It was interesting because the mainstream media,
00:06:05.860 the legacy media were telling us that the strike was over.
00:06:08.540 And yet, you know, my experience in being there,
00:06:10.980 talking to the Air Canada pilots and then actually going through customs
00:06:13.760 was the exact opposite, that the work to rule, it was still going on.
00:06:17.940 I've spoken to people that say that it is still going on.
00:06:20.920 So it is now Tuesday.
00:06:22.640 We're told it was done on Friday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday,
00:06:26.160 and now Tuesday, day five after it's supposedly finished
00:06:29.140 and is still very busy and very chaotic
00:06:31.680 at that international arrivals desk and customs hall
00:06:35.080 at Toronto Pearson Airport.
00:06:36.620 This doesn't just impact people from Toronto.
00:06:38.440 You know, if you're taking an international flight,
00:06:40.660 most places land in Toronto and then have connecting flights
00:06:43.560 going to the rest of the country.
00:06:45.160 So it really does impact all Canadians who were away and coming back 0.94
00:06:49.440 as well as people who were traveling, tourists, maybe new immigrants.
00:06:53.120 Now, interestingly, TNC wasn't the only news agency who reported on this.
00:06:57.280 The Toronto Sun had a similar report over the weekend
00:07:00.240 describing the same situation that we reported at TNC,
00:07:04.740 but attributing it to something totally different.
00:07:06.600 So I'll read from this Toronto Sun story.
00:07:08.460 It says, passengers left on planes,
00:07:10.760 sometimes for hours due to Pearson COVID capacity limits.
00:07:14.920 COVID capacity limits in Toronto's airport means long delays
00:07:17.800 before passengers are allowed to exit their aircraft.
00:07:20.660 I'll read from the body of the story here.
00:07:22.900 It says, international passengers are being left
00:07:25.960 to sit on hot airplanes for hours due to overcrowding
00:07:29.240 inside Canada's largest airport, the Sun has learned.
00:07:31.960 Sources tell the Sun that passengers from abroad
00:07:34.140 are being forced to languish on planes parked at gates,
00:07:37.300 sometimes reportedly for as long as two to three hours
00:07:40.200 due to capacity limits inside the Customs Hall
00:07:42.580 at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
00:07:45.200 The GTAA, which is the Greater Toronto Airport Authority,
00:07:48.800 so the GTAA's capacity metering program,
00:07:51.340 said Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick,
00:07:53.540 means passengers are deplaned in groups of 50 every five minutes
00:07:56.940 once an aircraft arrives at the gate.
00:07:59.160 So interestingly, the Sun paints the same story
00:08:02.380 as what we did at TNC and describes the same situation,
00:08:05.500 but rather than attributing it to the CBSA
00:08:08.120 and their Work to Rule initiative,
00:08:10.080 they are attributing it to the GTAA
00:08:12.800 and this metered COVID then.
00:08:14.600 I have no doubt in my mind it's a combination of both,
00:08:17.320 that the Work to Rule and the intentional slowness
00:08:19.860 by the union compounded with these weird COVID metering rules
00:08:23.920 just made it a complete mess.
00:08:25.900 Okay, so let's go and compare the coverage
00:08:27.920 between the TNC report and the Toronto Sun report
00:08:30.800 versus what more of the legacy media was saying.
00:08:33.380 So like I said, here's a story in the Toronto Star
00:08:36.320 that really emphasizes the fact that the deal was made
00:08:39.960 just in time for the border to open up.
00:08:42.700 They talk about how this was an 11th hour agreement
00:08:44.940 to avoid further strikes with the federal government
00:08:47.520 and that this was all done just in time
00:08:49.740 for the border to reopen on Monday.
00:08:52.300 They did mention some delays,
00:08:53.700 but those were all at the land borders.
00:08:55.300 No one mentioned any delays at the airport.
00:08:58.280 It goes on to say,
00:08:59.340 the Public Service Alliance of Canada
00:09:00.900 and the Customs and Immigration Union,
00:09:03.000 those are the unions that represent the CBSA,
00:09:05.480 had served strike notice to the federal government on Tuesday
00:09:08.100 and the tentative agreement was inked
00:09:10.120 after a final round of negotiation
00:09:11.720 that lasted more than 36 hours into Friday morning.
00:09:15.300 It's worth noting that the tentative agreement
00:09:16.800 did not equal an actual agreement.
00:09:19.100 It was just an agreement in principle
00:09:21.000 and it has still yet to be ratified.
00:09:23.660 It says the agreement is a testament to the incredible hard work
00:09:27.000 and dedication of our bargaining team
00:09:28.960 who worked through the night to reach the deal.
00:09:31.400 So hooray, great news story.
00:09:33.040 The union got what it wanted
00:09:34.340 and the Trudeau government saved the day
00:09:36.760 by forwarding what could have been really disastrous.
00:09:40.120 You hear more of this over at the CTV report.
00:09:43.380 It says, after more than 36 hours of negotiation,
00:09:46.920 the unions representing border guards
00:09:48.340 and customs officers reached agreement on a deal
00:09:51.020 with the federal government late Friday,
00:09:52.640 ending an hours-old strike.
00:09:54.680 The new contract means an end to a work-to-rule strike action
00:09:58.280 that started Friday morning
00:09:59.480 in time to welcome fully vaccinated Americans
00:10:02.000 starting Monday morning.
00:10:03.820 Now, this wasn't even accurate.
00:10:05.080 I saw it with my own eyes on Saturday
00:10:07.260 that the CBSA was still doing their work-to-rule protocols.
00:10:10.220 They were still making it intentionally more difficult
00:10:12.400 for travelers coming in by going through
00:10:14.820 and dealing with each and every passenger
00:10:17.360 rather than the triage system that I described earlier.
00:10:20.320 So why is CTV telling Canadians
00:10:21.960 that the strike is over when the strike is still going on?
00:10:26.580 Interestingly, if you go further down into this story,
00:10:29.420 there's a whole section on the impact on travel.
00:10:32.240 Now, I won't read you the entire article here,
00:10:34.680 but there is an entire section called Impact on Travel,
00:10:37.340 and it doesn't actually talk about the impact on travel.
00:10:39.980 It just talks about what work-to-rule means,
00:10:43.140 the negotiations taking place between the unions,
00:10:45.620 how many people it affected,
00:10:47.400 and talking, again, from the perspective of the union
00:10:50.280 and the border agents,
00:10:52.140 not talking about travelers at all.
00:10:54.520 So all this is just to say, you know,
00:10:56.980 you have journalists, you have reporters
00:10:59.140 reporting on a situation
00:11:00.520 when clearly they haven't gone to the source.
00:11:03.700 They didn't bother to send reporters
00:11:05.920 down to the airport,
00:11:07.240 down to the international arrivals customs hall
00:11:09.540 to observe with their own eyes what was going on.
00:11:12.180 And so because of that,
00:11:13.280 what they were reporting was just not really accurate.
00:11:16.360 It wasn't really the case.
00:11:17.420 It was the parroting the talking points of the union
00:11:20.680 and using it as an opportunity
00:11:22.320 to congratulate Justin Trudeau,
00:11:24.380 pat him on the back for opening up the borders
00:11:26.360 and resolving this labor dispute
00:11:28.080 just in the nick of time
00:11:29.420 when the reality was the exact opposite.
00:11:32.600 Canada opened its borders back up.
00:11:33.960 We let people travel, we let people come in,
00:11:36.020 we opened the border with the U.S.
00:11:37.680 before this issue was really resolved.
00:11:39.600 And the chaos that's happening at Pearson Airport
00:11:41.700 that's still happening is a result of that.
00:11:44.440 But again, unfortunately,
00:11:45.320 you just can't trust the legacy media
00:11:46.820 to do the groundwork, to do the reporting,
00:11:48.920 to get the facts, and to tell you a straight story.
00:11:51.640 Instead, it's always delivered through some weird lens,
00:11:54.620 promoting the prime minister,
00:11:55.820 saying that he did a good job,
00:11:57.360 and telling you from the perspective of a trade union
00:12:00.940 while leaving out any of the damning information
00:12:03.120 that could make either the Trudeau government
00:12:04.760 or the union look bad.
00:12:06.760 You just can't trust the legacy media.
00:12:08.720 And that's the reality.
00:12:09.920 It's as simple as that.
00:12:10.840 I'm Candace Malcolm,
00:12:11.900 and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.