Trudeau gives $900 million to his friends and is forced to take it back
Episode Stats
Words per minute
192.50414
Harmful content
Hate speech
16
sentences flagged
Summary
Candice and Andrew talk about Canada Day, WE, and a new scandal involving the Trudeau family and a controversial charity. Plus, a special bonus episode featuring a live version of the True North Update with special guest Andrew Lawton.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hi, and welcome to a special live edition of the True North Update.
00:00:09.460
I'm your host, Candice Malcolm, joined by my friend and my co-host, Andrew Lawton.
00:00:18.980
Well, it's sort of an interesting Canada Day, Dominion Day celebration midweek.
00:00:22.580
So it felt like Saturday all day, and then all of a sudden we were like thrown back to
00:00:27.220
So it's been kind of a fun week, but I love Dominion Day.
00:00:30.800
It's my favorite holiday, so it's always fun to sort of revel in Canadiana and spout off
00:00:36.040
some history and debate some crazy leftists who hate the country.
00:00:43.240
I logged onto my phone on Canada Day, and it was just like every mainstream media article
00:00:47.300
imaginable was just about how Canada Day is problematic.
00:00:50.560
Yeah, I love the trigger warning on the Canada flag.
00:00:54.080
Especially because the Canadian flag is like a new, it's not a symbolic gesture of a past.
00:01:01.560
It's not something that we had with us, you know, throughout history.
00:01:05.580
So it's just sort of really bizarre that anything associated with patriotism or pride in our
00:01:12.180
country or anything like that is seen as, like you said, problematic.
00:01:20.020
Well, let's get to the latest, because this is just a bizarre scandal.
00:01:27.140
And, you know, I'll just say one last thing about Canada Day.
00:01:30.320
I think that we should all feel free to criticize our country.
00:01:33.100
I think that's part of what makes Canada great.
00:01:34.780
I'm one of the most critical people, particularly of this government.
00:01:38.380
But there's a difference between, you know, criticizing your government or criticizing things
00:01:43.280
that the government has done versus criticizing the country as a whole.
00:01:46.640
So this is an example of where we should feel completely free to be as critical as we want
00:01:52.320
of Canada when it comes to criticizing our politicians, in this case, Justin Trudeau.
00:01:59.560
And, Andrew, I hope you can help walk us through it, because there's a lot of moving parts here.
00:02:03.420
So there is an organization called WE, which is a charity.
00:02:07.280
And the Trudeau government gave a $900 million sole source contract to this organization.
00:02:13.220
The organization has some pretty deep ties to Justin Trudeau himself, to the Trudeau family.
00:02:24.420
So, you know, no one competed for this contract.
00:02:28.940
And then, you know, once we learned all the connections that they have with the Trudeau government,
00:02:35.540
And the government is no longer giving this $900 million contract.
00:02:40.800
We have a quick clip of Justin Trudeau just sort of saying nothing, as Trudeau typically
00:02:44.980
tends to do, explaining why this group is no longer getting the money.
00:02:51.900
Obviously, the way this situation has unfolded has been unfortunate.
00:02:56.420
We will continue to work hard to make sure that young people get the opportunities to serve
00:03:01.860
But it will no longer be with the organization.
00:03:04.380
So, Andrew, can you help us unpack this crazy news story?
00:03:08.660
What is this organization and what is going on with this $900 million grant?
00:03:13.620
To be honest, I don't know how much I can unpack it because it seemed bizarre from the get-go,
00:03:18.960
not just because of the questions you raised, I think, very effectively about Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau's
00:03:24.960
connections to WE and Justin Trudeau's connections to WE, which makes it concerning enough.
00:03:30.660
But also the fact that we needed a program in the first place to basically pay people
00:03:38.460
I mean, for starters, that defeats the purpose of volunteerism.
00:03:41.200
Secondly, if the government is going to make a priority of nearly a billion dollars to do
00:03:50.900
This is not a government that has ever shown an interest in the free of service.
00:03:56.120
But if you are going to go through that process, why not put it out to an open bid?
00:04:00.760
Why not say quite publicly, yes, this is work that we're trying to do here?
00:04:06.880
A lot of people would know it under its previous name, Free the Children, which was the big,
00:04:12.880
really, I think, widespread campaign across schools all over Canada of a certain age.
00:04:20.420
I think anyone under probably 35, 36 probably had this in school, these videos and the glory
00:04:26.880
that is the Kielberger brothers and their activism and efforts and all that.
00:04:30.740
But it sounds like there's been a huge morphing over the years, just as the organization changed
00:04:38.280
It's not just about overseas development now, but it's also about domestic volunteerism.
00:04:51.820
You can look at their charitable filings and find that they have, you know, millions and
00:04:56.080
millions of dollars just in payroll expenses alone, a huge staff of, I think, just shy
00:05:02.140
And I'm like, why do they need a government handout to deliver a program that Canadians have
00:05:09.380
Doesn't Canada already have a Canada Summer Jobs program?
00:05:12.040
Isn't that sort of the same idea behind, you know, having students and young people being
00:05:17.700
able to sort of volunteer through the government?
00:05:21.400
And the more we dig into this charity, the weirder it is.
00:05:25.500
There was a news story today about how the program offered 450 volunteer placements for
00:05:35.360
So there were 450 student volunteer placements within WE Charity.
00:05:39.460
And then there's this whole angle to it, which is that the charity itself claimed that the
00:05:50.040
prime minister's office contacted them directly about the $900 million grant program.
00:05:56.000
So a recorded conference call on June 12th revealed that the group's co-founder, Mark
00:06:03.240
Kielberger, told participants that the PMO had reached out to them a day after the grant
00:06:13.100
So the National Post reported that he had said that.
00:06:20.640
And the prime minister's office is saying, no, we didn't reach out to him.
00:06:23.820
It was actually bureaucrats, civil servants from the Department of Employment and Social
00:06:32.500
So there's a little bit of he said, she said going on here.
00:06:36.600
And I think overall, though, it's just a pretty embarrassing news story for the prime minister.
00:06:43.000
And I would also add to that, that this morning, the National Post asked Justin Trudeau if
00:06:47.960
he or anyone from the PMO reached out to Mark Kielberger.
00:06:52.460
And Trudeau's answer was kind of incomprehensible.
00:06:54.980
He said, quote, we knew from the beginning that because of work that has been ongoing between
00:06:59.780
this government and we, that this was a decision that needed to be made by our professional
00:07:05.380
They made the decision in a transparent and open way and in a rigorous way to ensure that
00:07:09.740
we had the right partnerships to move forward on this opportunity for young people.
00:07:17.360
But he doesn't actually address the question of whether the PMO was involved in the PMO reach
00:07:22.540
He just claimed in a very vague way that the public service understood that this decision
00:07:28.980
But it doesn't really get to the root of whether the PMO was involved, whether Trudeau personally
00:07:35.240
And that only confuses and muddles even further this flip flop from Kielberger himself.
00:07:43.420
When Justin Trudeau speaks, it's always hard to make out what exactly he means.
00:07:47.500
But when he gives a muddle response like that, you really have to feel like he's
0.95
00:07:52.960
Trudeau also said that this charity, which obviously has close ties to him and his family,
00:07:58.260
was the only organization capable of carrying out the purpose of this grant, which was to
00:08:05.520
Well, I mean, it's just sort of bizarre that this charity would be supposedly the only ones
00:08:14.440
When just a couple of months ago, there was a news report that came out that said that
00:08:18.820
we, charity, saw resignations and departures from senior ranks right before landing this
00:08:25.540
There was a flurry of changes to the senior staff two months before the federal government
00:08:31.100
announced that they were going to be administering this multimillion dollar grant.
00:08:36.120
So how is it that an organization that can't even keep its own employees is supposedly the
00:08:43.720
This is, again, just a pretty embarrassing bad news story for Justin Trudeau.
00:08:48.920
And you can sort of tell, by the way, that he doesn't provide clear answers to your point
00:08:53.360
and to that clip that we showed a moment ago that he's just sort of hoping this story
00:08:58.160
And the idea of sole source contracts, they have a place, in some cases, the expediency
00:09:03.020
you can get from one of these outpaces the idea of an open and transparent bidding process
00:09:10.900
But this should only be when the relationship between the people in the prime minister's
00:09:19.040
office or the government making the decision and the organization benefiting from this is
00:09:24.320
I mean, a sole source contract, which should be rare in the first place, should not even
00:09:28.200
be considered when there's a personal relationship between Justin Trudeau and the organization.
00:09:34.000
This would be to the Aga Khan Foundation, as far as I'm concerned.
00:09:37.000
And we know how that ended up when Justin Trudeau cozied up with the Aga Khan, even in a quote
0.62
00:09:41.760
unquote personal capacity a couple of years ago.
00:09:46.280
Like, what did they think was going to be the response by the public and the media when
00:09:50.780
Didn't anyone flag it as like, hey, this is a charity known as being close to Justin Trudeau.
00:09:56.760
Maybe we should think twice about the optics of giving them nearly a billion dollars of
00:10:01.840
I mean, it sort of feels like Justin Trudeau is treating the federal government like it's
00:10:09.240
But, you know, I'm glad that he has at least reversed this and the charity has given back
00:10:15.640
Well, Andrew, it's Friday and on Fridays we do our live show, but we also like to interact
00:10:22.120
So if you're watching on Facebook, feel free to leave us a question in the comment section.
00:10:27.860
Andrew and I will do our best to get to your questions.
00:10:30.060
You can ask us anything that you want about the Canadian government, about Canada Day, about
00:10:37.880
Andrew and I will do our best to provide a coherent answer.
00:10:43.260
Feel free to message us on in the comment section there.
00:10:47.460
And if not, if you don't want to ask a question, just let us know where you're watching from
00:10:50.840
and maybe how you celebrated the national holiday, Dominion Day.
00:10:55.220
Well, Andrew, it looks like Justin Trudeau is finally getting tough on China after weeks
00:10:59.860
and weeks of just really, really sort of pacifist appeasement language.
00:11:04.780
Everything from his health minister, Patty Hajduk, saying that there's no reason not to trust
00:11:09.560
China on their data for coronavirus, even while China was changing its own data.
00:11:14.300
China didn't even trust its own data, but the Canadian government trusted it.
00:11:17.560
And then, you know, we had multiple instances where the foreign minister refused to even
00:11:23.460
mention Taiwan by name and Trudeau giving these sort of weird equivocal statements, not really
00:11:30.860
Well, it sounds like the Canadian government is finally getting tough with China.
00:11:34.360
So they announced this week that they have restricted dealings with Hong Kong over the
00:11:38.900
new controversial Chinese security law that has been implemented.
00:11:42.980
So we finally see a little bit of a tough statement.
00:11:46.760
And Canada is sort of following in the footsteps of what the United States has done.
00:11:50.420
So it is suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong as part of the response.
00:11:56.100
In the statement, Francois-Philippe Champagne, who's Canada's foreign affairs minister,
00:12:00.520
says that Canada will also treat sensitive goods being exported to China if they're being
00:12:06.980
So Canada, the U.S. used to have a bunch of special relationship trade deals and tax treaties
00:12:15.080
Hong Kong is a separate political entity from China.
00:12:17.800
But as China continues to encroach onto Hong Kong and really undermine its standing as a free
00:12:24.820
economy and a free society, Canada is starting to treat Hong Kong war and war like China, which
00:12:30.300
This is something that the international community must assert pressure onto China to stop them
00:12:35.820
from really their just blatant attempt to, again, just end, basically end and take away
00:12:43.540
a society that has flourished and been able to be free and prosperous.
00:12:47.360
So sad, definitely sad what's going on in Hong Kong.
00:12:49.960
But it's good to see finally a little bit of courage from Trudeau.
00:12:56.040
Yeah, you know, Justin Trudeau often likes to speak about standing up for human rights
00:13:02.260
That's something we've heard more times than we can probably count in the last few years.
00:13:06.360
And you can't say that with any definitive credibility if you're not standing up for
00:13:12.320
Taiwan and Hong Kong, which exist as really the most significant backstops against the
00:13:17.860
tyranny of China and Chinese government overreach.
00:13:20.680
And you mentioned pacifism earlier as kind of a guiding force.
00:13:24.780
And I'd say there's at least a moral clarity to pacifism, whereas, you know, the true and
00:13:29.380
unbridled appeasement that we were seeing from Justin Trudeau did not come from any particular
00:13:33.980
ideological position or philosophical position.
00:13:39.380
It was not wanting to tough talk, not wanting or not knowing how to do the tough talk, not wanting
00:13:52.320
But I'd say we probably went back a few steps because it proved that we are a country that
00:13:58.600
And I mean, yes, standing up for the rule of law and letting the trial of Meng Wanzhou
00:14:04.020
But it's not like as many of Justin Trudeau's defenders like to say that there was this elaborate
00:14:09.620
game of 3D or 4D chess going on and it had to do with PPE and it had to do with the two
00:14:14.940
Michaels and it had to do with all of these other things.
00:14:17.600
No, Canada has gone absolutely nothing from China, which if we did might make the whole
00:14:24.260
appeasement approach seem justifiable if it was a strategy.
00:14:29.680
So I think we should commend Justin Trudeau for doing the right thing, talking tough, following
00:14:36.540
But there is still a question of why now and what changed.
00:14:40.580
Justin Trudeau playing 3D or 4D chess is pretty funny.
00:14:43.640
And even the idea of him doing something for moral or philosophical or ideological grounds,
00:14:49.060
I don't really think that Justin Trudeau has a lot of those.
00:14:51.960
But you're absolutely right that it wasn't pacifism because that would be coming from
00:14:58.940
But this was really just a government showing its inability really to tango with a big superpower
00:15:06.840
And you're right, I mean, Canada and China's diplomatic relations are like basically non-existent
00:15:14.880
There's basically no communication, official communication between Canada and China.
00:15:19.220
So you look back at months and months, if not years, of just weird Canadian statements,
00:15:27.780
And you have to wonder, like, what was it all for?
00:15:31.860
At least you could say with the Harper government, at times they were very undiplomatic because,
00:15:40.460
And sometimes that led to frayed relations with countries.
00:15:43.420
But they did it because of what they believed that Canada's role should be on the world stage,
00:15:48.480
which is to sort of be an exemplar and someone who pushes freedom and the rule of law.
00:15:55.640
But then he also, you know, doesn't really have good relationships with these corrupt
00:16:00.300
communist nations that you could argue that his father, Pierre, did.
00:16:03.640
So Trudeau is sort of the worst of both worlds when it comes to national policy.
00:16:07.520
But we can unpack a little bit what this new national security law is and how it's going
00:16:15.880
Because there's been a number of protests over the years, over recent years in Hong Kong.
00:16:21.200
You recall a couple of years ago, there was something called the Umbrella Revolution,
00:16:24.400
where protesters, up to a million protesters, blocked a main freeway in Hong Kong.
00:16:30.460
They used umbrellas to sort of block themselves from pepper spray and police, you know, shooting
00:16:36.520
rubber bullets, but also to protect their identities because there's such a fear in Hong Kong that
00:16:41.480
the Chinese government is going to come after people.
00:16:44.260
At that point, they were just protesting China's involvement in local elections.
00:16:49.380
China wanted to be able to sort of vet candidates before they could be listed as a candidate.
00:16:54.400
In the local elections in Hong Kong, that was sort of the start of it.
00:16:59.120
Then there was sort of, you know, every year there's new encroachments by the Chinese government
0.78
00:17:05.120
And this one, the national security law, is basically saying that China's going to have
00:17:09.460
a full-time presence in Hong Kong to sort of supposedly keep the peace.
00:17:13.880
But obviously, Hong Kong residents worry that this is going to mean that, you know, they don't
00:17:20.100
Essentially, that the Chinese government is moving in and imposing all of their draconian
0.99
00:17:31.500
I want to also mention this, this story, Andrew.
00:17:33.700
The U.S. Senate passed a bill to sanction Chinese officials over Hong Kong.
00:17:38.320
And this was something that had unanimous approval in the Senate.
00:17:42.560
I didn't even think that those words were possible in the U.S.
00:17:45.180
You know, all we ever hear is gridlock and how Democrats and Republicans might as well
00:17:48.700
be from two different countries because they don't agree on anything.
00:17:51.320
Well, remarkably, when it comes to standing up for Hong Kong's freedom and autonomy, that
00:17:56.500
is something that unites the left and the right in the United States.
00:18:00.640
Well, let's hope that that can be something that we can rally upon and there could be unity
00:18:09.420
I mean, any time, especially in the era of Trump, if you can get Democrats and Republicans
00:18:13.940
in the U.S. Senate to come together, it means that, you know, either A, the world is ending
00:18:18.420
or, in fact, there's just something that is just so ironclad as the right thing that
00:18:22.940
there's no political maneuvering needed because it's just clear.
00:18:26.300
And I think that tough talk on China, tough action on China is definitely an example of
00:18:31.760
And when you mention the international aspect here, I've got to bring up this question
00:18:38.120
He says, are the liberals getting tougher on China only because they're sore from losing
00:18:47.420
You know, it seemed like the U.N. Security Council seat, Ray, was such a primary focus
00:18:54.440
Like, literally for the last five years, everything Justin Trudeau does, in my opinion, on the
00:18:58.800
world stage has been with his eyes set on winning that illustrious United Nations seat.
00:19:05.040
He cares about the United Nations probably more than Canada.
00:19:06.980
And so now that it's lost, it's like, OK, well, I guess we don't have to suck up to
00:19:15.820
Maybe now that that seat is no longer a possibility, we'll start to see some more courage from the
00:19:24.640
And I do think that there has been for years a greater interest from Trudeau in speaking
00:19:30.560
out against the U.S. than about China at any given point.
00:19:34.020
I mean, I think we've heard actually more criticism of Trudeau towards Donald Trump and Trump
00:19:38.820
policies than of China up until the last couple of weeks.
00:19:41.580
And I guess in that sense, I mean, the U.S. is very low hanging fruit because they're getting,
00:19:46.600
you know, picked on, for lack of a term, by a lot of countries all around the world.
00:19:51.040
And the international community loves just treating the U.S. as a punching bag, whereas
00:19:55.140
China is this unspoken behemoth in the room.
0.97
00:20:02.580
I mean, my hope from the Trudeau perspective is that it will last and it won't just be this
00:20:06.880
little blip, this little, you know, temporary confidence.
00:20:11.200
I hope it's something that really starts to become a fixture in Canadian foreign policy,
00:20:18.820
And, you know, just a small note to anyone who tries to draw any kind of equivalency between
00:20:25.520
Just keep in mind, China has one million religious minorities interned in camps, in concentration
00:20:31.980
camps in China right now that barely hear anything about it.
00:20:36.880
At the same time, you know, what's the worst thing you can say about Trump?
00:20:40.220
You know, sometimes he issues clunky executive orders that aren't very thoroughly thought through.
00:20:44.940
But at the end of the day, you know, there are millions and millions of people trying to
00:20:48.680
get into the United States because they want to live in free America at the same time as
00:20:54.040
people are being held in the absolute most brutal conditions imaginable today in 2020.
00:21:00.420
You know, we think of concentration camps as a horrible stain on the 20th century.
00:21:05.320
And yet they're happening again, and there's not a lot of people speaking out about them
00:21:10.080
just because it's a lot easier, like you said, it's slow-hanging fruit to mock Donald Trump.
00:21:15.000
There's truly evil governments and regimes out there.
00:21:21.180
Well, Andrew, just to change gears a little bit, seems like public officials in Canada
00:21:27.580
So after about a month of, you know, a bunch of officials just saying, hey, everybody can
00:21:32.680
protest, but just, you know, make sure you're protesting the right causes, we're back to
00:21:37.680
lectures and shaming from city officials and also from Canadians who don't like people exercising
00:21:45.480
So the Toronto City Council has voted to make masks mandatory indoors.
00:21:51.820
That's interesting because, you know, I feel like there's still no consensus on masks.
00:21:58.240
And again, I mentioned this on last week's show, but I mean, I don't know how this is
00:22:03.700
You know, I tried to get my one and a half year old son to wear a mask because we went
00:22:10.680
You can't get kids to wear these masks, especially when it's so hot outside.
00:22:13.580
So, you know, when you're going in and out of stores or whatever, I can't imagine how this
00:22:21.280
And I don't really think that there's a good consensus.
00:22:23.440
I think if you want to wear a mask, you should for your own protection.
00:22:26.200
But trying to enforce that on other people, you know, some people have difficulty breathing.
00:22:32.200
You know, they need to be able to have fresh air.
00:22:34.640
So the idea that you would enforce this is just really bizarre.
00:22:38.800
This story just makes me laugh because it's so absurd.
00:22:42.280
So there was a popular Ontario beach that has been partially closed after what officials
00:22:48.320
say on Canada Day displayed, this is a quote, human behavior at its worst, Andrew.
00:22:55.980
So human behavior as where you kind of think about all the horrible, horrible things that
00:23:01.500
happen in the world and that have happened throughout history.
00:23:04.120
And here we have supposed human behavior as worse.
00:23:09.880
Oh, they failed to comply with these ridiculous bylaws.
00:23:15.640
That was the rampant debauchery, not complying with municipal ordinances.
00:23:19.880
Yeah, I tried to look and see, you know, what were they doing?
00:23:22.480
You know, what kind of horrible things were these Canadians doing on Canada Day at the beach?
0.99
00:23:27.380
Well, apparently they were just in large crowds.
00:23:34.600
People celebrating Canada Day, you know, holding Black Lives Matter signs on the beach.
00:23:38.640
And that means that there would have been no risk whatsoever.
00:23:51.960
Yeah, it's funny, though, because it's the moving goalposts typically move in one direction.
00:23:57.280
In the last couple of weeks, they're moving in different directions by the day.
00:24:03.740
And this is just a reminder that all of these people are total hypocrites, because in
00:24:07.860
the past few weeks, and we'll just go through a couple of them, the Calgary police chief
00:24:11.960
and the mayor, Mayor Nahid Nenshi, said that they were proud of the way that Calgarians
00:24:17.940
came together to protest for the Black Lives Matter protests.
00:24:21.180
He says that he doesn't have all the answers, but he continues to fight for human rights and
00:24:30.520
Thank you for standing up positively to the rights of yourself and each other.
00:24:35.720
This is a real chance for Canadians to acknowledge the very real racism, personal and systemic,
00:24:42.800
So, again, as long as you're protesting a righteous cause, you can be outside all you
00:24:48.540
John Tory here in Toronto basically said the same thing.
00:24:51.380
He said the series of peaceful protests in the city has motivated him and other officials
00:24:56.900
to work harder to eliminate systemic racism in Toronto.
00:24:59.740
This is John Tory, Mayor of Toronto, saying, we know that anti-Black racism and racism on
00:25:04.900
a number of fronts is still a significant issue here.
00:25:07.700
As far as we've come, this message has been heard loud and clear.
00:25:12.100
So there were thousands of people gathered in downtown Toronto in really close proximity.
00:25:23.420
But, you know, when those same Canadians, or maybe there are different Canadians, I don't
00:25:26.880
know, but when they went to the beach, that was human behaviour at its worst.
00:25:30.780
The Nenshi one is particularly hypocritical because this week the city of Calgary was prepared
00:25:38.260
The city's official Twitter account said they were going to make sure that anything over 200
00:25:44.740
But thousands of people is fine as long as they have the right moral cause.
00:25:48.020
Well, that's the lesson that we've learned that, you know, if it weren't for double
00:25:53.440
standards, Canadian officials would have no standards at all.
00:25:57.620
Yeah, a lot of these people, they need two masks to cover both their faces at the same
00:26:06.720
He says, with everyone that walked across the border, how will Canada deal with the job
1.00
00:26:10.900
When the economy does come back and the companies use those under-the-table workers, how will
1.00
00:26:27.560
So, you know, for the thousands of people that come to the country, not very good.
1.00
00:26:35.340
Well, my approach on the employment front here has been the temporary foreign worker
00:26:40.220
program, which we've talked about, which I think, by and large, is a program that has
00:26:43.980
value in Canada, that clearly, I mean, there are a lot of jobs that people can't fill with
00:26:49.880
But in the last few months, that's very much a different priority, I think, because we
00:26:55.100
have 8 million Canadians at one point that had applied for CERB.
00:26:58.860
So you had millions of Canadians that were out of work, yet still, TFWs were coming in to
00:27:03.700
do a lot of labor, whereas I was thinking, OK, you know, I get year-round that maybe you
00:27:08.280
can't find the laborers here, but are we not able to find, in the economic circumstances
00:27:13.620
we're dealing with now, jobs that we can give to Canadians who are out of work?
00:27:17.520
And the problem right now that we're facing is that a lot of Canadians don't want to go
00:27:21.960
The programs from the government have been structured in such a way that it doesn't
00:27:26.040
actually, in some cases, make financial sense to return to work.
00:27:30.180
You can make as much money, or in some cases, more by staying home and doing nothing without
00:27:37.260
So I know that doesn't address illegal immigration specifically, but will we need to have an economic
00:27:42.140
climate in Canada where there are jobs for Canadians, and more importantly, a cultural
00:27:46.480
atmosphere where people are not choosing not to work because that's just as easy a path
00:27:53.020
Yeah, I mean, you're right about the CERB because CERB is federally handed out, and it doesn't
00:27:59.040
even really matter what income you were making before.
00:28:03.380
In some cases, you could even be receiving provincial welfare and still be getting CERB.
00:28:08.340
So you're right about making more money than you'd make out there.
00:28:12.940
I think that the temporary foreign worker program goes against the core spirit of Canada's
00:28:19.460
Canada's successful in its immigration program because it's so welcoming.
00:28:23.520
So having a program where we bring people into our country, but we don't extend a path
0.99
00:28:28.660
So we say, you know, you can come here, you know, you can work for cheap labor, and then
00:28:36.440
One of my biggest critiques in the U.S. is that they have people who come to the U.S.
1.00
00:28:49.640
So you have people who spend 20, 30 years of their life working in the American economy,
00:28:54.720
They're there because they love America, and yet they can't become citizens.
00:28:59.900
I don't think Canada should have those kind of programs.
00:29:02.160
And the fact that we do have this temporary foreign worker program, I just don't think
00:29:09.820
I prefer to see programs where we have pathways to citizenship.
00:29:13.540
I think that those programs should be smaller as well because we can't even integrate the
00:29:19.240
But maybe that's a conversation for a different day.
00:29:22.780
But I definitely think that bringing people in at this point when there's so many unemployed
00:29:37.360
So we're learning more about this story, but there's still not a lot of information out
00:29:42.080
A member of the Canadian Armed Forces, a ranger from Manitoba, was arrested after roaming
00:29:47.660
the grounds of Trudeau's residence with three weapons.
00:29:51.580
So what do we know about this story so far, Andrew?
00:29:57.540
I mean, we only just got confirmation of the suspect who's been arrested and charged this
00:30:03.600
And he's been identified, as you mentioned, Candace, as a Canadian Forces ranger.
00:30:08.720
And what happened was we saw the photos of this.
00:30:11.740
The gate, the pedestrian gate of Rideau Hall was rammed with a pickup truck.
00:30:17.100
Someone was wandering around for several minutes before being arrested.
00:30:21.120
No one was injured, facing multiple charges now.
00:30:24.300
But police have not, as far as I've seen anyway, released exactly which charges.
00:30:28.900
My concern with this is that we just don't know.
00:30:32.900
I mean, a lot of the media was focused on the fact that, you know, Justin Trudeau's
00:30:36.360
family is living at Rideau Cottage, which is on Rideau Hall.
00:30:39.080
It's also the official residence of Governor General Julie Payette.
00:30:43.120
Now, as it so happens, neither Payette nor Trudeau was at their official main residences
00:30:50.720
So perhaps Trudeau and his family were at Harrington Lake.
00:30:54.780
But, you know, there's never, in my view, an excuse for anything like this.
00:31:00.460
And I find it to be very upsetting when we have situations like this that happen in Canada.
00:31:05.320
You know, this had a different outcome, of course, than what happened on Parliament Hill
00:31:11.980
But all of these situations should give us pause to question and evaluate, OK, what security
00:31:17.200
mechanisms didn't work that allowed this person to just wander around on these grounds
00:31:24.060
I think Justin Trudeau is a pretty horrible prime minister.
00:31:27.400
But the fact that something like this would happen to the prime minister of Canada is completely
00:31:33.620
You know, my thoughts and prayers are with the Trudeau family.
00:31:38.700
But the security concerns you're raising are absolutely correct.
00:31:43.640
This individual was able to ram through the gates at Rideau Hall.
00:31:47.380
And then he was on the loose on the ground for 13 minutes carrying a gun before he was
00:31:55.680
Can you imagine, Andrew, if this happened at the White House, if an armed individual
00:32:04.440
I mean, I hate to say it, but he would have been shot on the spot.
00:32:08.160
Well, not even not even in in in the United States, but even at the U.S.
00:32:12.220
embassy just down the road in Ottawa, you couldn't get away with this and have 13 minutes of life
00:32:20.420
So I think that hopefully this will give the RCMP an opportunity to reflect upon its security
00:32:26.480
procedures and really work on that, because, look, I like the fact that Canada is a pretty
00:32:33.500
Sometimes, you know, when I lived in Ottawa, it was when Harper was prime minister.
00:32:37.280
And sometimes you'd see him walking around on the streets.
00:32:39.260
And that was kind of cool that he didn't have this huge, big entourage and that the way
00:32:43.720
that you see in a lot of these other countries where, you know, I've been to New York City
00:32:48.500
during the week where the General Assembly meets and you have these ridiculous caravans
00:32:54.880
with like 40 black SUVs for like some low level diplomat.
00:33:00.100
Like the deputy undersecretary to the assistant attorney.
00:33:04.180
And I like that Canada has a more open attitude, but it is completely unacceptable that someone
00:33:09.080
would have the ability to get onto the grounds where the prime minister and his family live
00:33:20.900
You know, when we first created the True North update, we always wanted to end the show on a
00:33:25.980
And sometimes it was hard to find because we were just talking about coronavirus and the
00:33:29.400
lockdown and the misery and all the horrible things that were happening.
00:33:32.180
You would have to spend a bunch of time just trying to find one good news story.
00:33:35.760
Well, this is great because we've got quite a few good news stories.
00:33:40.240
So the first one is about our friend Don Cherry, the Canadian icon.
00:33:45.180
He announced that he will be selling his suits.
00:33:49.120
You know, Don Cherry, one of the things that he's so known for is his very flamboyant, very
00:33:54.120
colorful suits that he would have created for his appearances on Hockey Night in Canada.
00:33:59.900
So those iconic suits are getting auctioned off.
00:34:02.980
It's going to a good cause to fund animal rescue initiatives.
00:34:06.400
We all know that Don Cherry is a huge animal lover and a pet lover.
00:34:11.320
So it's great to see him working for a good cause.
00:34:16.220
Why don't you, why don't you put a bid in and get one of those colorful shirts so you
00:34:22.240
I'm looking at some of them now and the bidding starts at $2,500.
00:34:28.560
Well, I mean, I think it would be just a great conversation piece if you were, if you're
00:34:33.460
going to a party or something like that, you could.
00:34:35.600
I don't know if he's my size, but maybe I can buy two of them and sew them together and
00:34:39.880
We actually had a question from Rob earlier in the show.
00:34:44.280
And he says, when are, when is Don Cherry going to be on the show?
00:34:47.160
Uh, we might have to have him on as a guest co-host at some point.
00:34:49.600
That would be a, that would be really fun, Andrew.
00:34:54.360
How will you know it's Don Cherry if he's not wearing, if he's not wearing these.
00:34:58.320
He'll just be wearing like an old off the rack suit from Morris.
00:35:01.580
But, uh, in all seriousness, I know we, we did a petition and we were, you know, we had
00:35:06.560
Don Cherry's back when he was unfairly, uh, removed from hockey night in Canada.
00:35:10.340
We were definitely in, in communication with him.
00:35:12.380
So I think this is something that we should definitely, definitely do and have, uh, have
00:35:18.660
Well, the next good news story, Andrew, if you can walk us through this, it seems like
00:35:22.060
the Seattle police have finally come to their senses and they have decided to get rid of
00:35:27.600
Chop or Chaz or whatever they're, you know, the fledgling independent nation of, uh, protesters,
0.87
00:35:33.740
of Antigua protesters in Seattle is finally coming to an end.
00:35:37.540
I mean, I think what jumped out at me is that if you have a coup d'etat in Seattle, it sounds
00:35:41.940
like the name of some upstart hipster hair salon, you know, Chaz and Chop and all of these
00:35:46.500
places, but, uh, this, I don't even know if it's completely good news or just the long
00:35:52.180
Uh, but either way, it sounds like the reign of the Seattle, uh, demilitarized anti-police
00:35:58.340
zone, uh, warlord has come to an end, uh, after a number of cases of people being very seriously
00:36:05.720
injured, businesses being shut down and police not responding.
00:36:08.420
It sounds like this, uh, you know, little 16 blocks has, has had the rule of law and,
00:36:13.520
uh, the, uh, basically, I mean, just basic fundamental, uh, order restored to it.
00:36:18.840
Well, congratulations to the people of Seattle.
00:36:20.840
You know, it goes to our point that we were talking about earlier that you can protest as
00:36:24.280
long as you're, you can be out in public and you won't get criticized as long as you're
00:36:29.060
Well, apparently if you're, if you're like a far left deranged protester, you can get away
00:36:33.320
with a heck of a lot because, you know, I can't believe that it lasted, uh, almost a
00:36:39.260
They were able to maintain this, this occupied territory.
00:36:46.160
There were nightly reports of everything from assault to rape to, you know, theft, everything.
00:36:52.200
And it was totally wild that the, that the, uh, officials out there in Seattle just sort
00:36:57.800
of treated these left-wing protesters with kid gloves.
00:37:00.520
But, uh, you know, again, once again, Andrew, it's the theme of the show.
00:37:04.280
If there, if it wasn't for a double standards, these officials would have no standards at
00:37:10.780
So I'll, I'll let you, uh, I'll let you walk us through it.
00:37:14.740
I don't even know if it's a story so much as just an image.
00:37:22.800
Hey friends, I want to wish you all a happy Calgary Stampede.
00:37:26.540
I know that it's really tough not being able to come together and celebrate and
00:37:30.440
Calgary Stampede is such a big part of the summer, such a big part of Calgary and, and,
00:37:34.960
and Alberta and all of Western Canada and Canada in general.
00:37:38.420
It's a incredible celebration, a celebration of history and the culture of Western Canada.
00:37:46.780
And I look forward to being there with you in person next year, but we'll keep the spirits
00:38:01.920
So it's just this lamentation that I think a lot of people have, uh, myself included,
00:38:06.240
because I've never actually been to the Stampede.
00:38:07.700
I keep wanting to go and I've never made it out that this thing has to have been moved online.
00:38:11.840
Uh, secondly, there is like the politicians that you get every year of all party stripes
00:38:16.060
that pretend to, you know, have any sort of rural root connection.
00:38:19.620
Uh, and, uh, in this particular case, uh, the, the real giveaway, the Jagmeet Singh does
00:38:27.260
Those are, uh, all the Albertans I know have probably just like almost had aneurysm seeing
00:38:31.640
that, uh, pant legs tucked into the boot, uh, which for a gentleman is not the way you
00:38:38.280
It's, it's, uh, you know, even worse I'd say than when we see people who put their cowboy
00:38:42.920
And I say, this is someone who, who grew up in a city, uh, you know, Candace, uh, is
00:38:47.700
this like, uh, points for trying situation or just a go home and don't even bother situation?
00:38:53.240
Well, Singh is known as a guy with like a Rolex collection, right?
00:38:58.740
He's a, he's a sophisticated urban elite who wears bespoke suits and, and has, you know,
00:39:05.480
So, uh, I, I guess nice try, but I think that that image is going to be burned into the eyeballs
00:39:11.820
of, of many, a Calgarian who, who is going to, you know, never, never find, uh, anything
00:39:17.860
that Jagmeet Singh says to be authentic after seeing that.
00:39:20.820
And, you know, Andrew, it reminds me, I'm pretty sure, correct me if I'm wrong, pretty
00:39:23.940
sure the first time I ever met you, you were wearing a cowboy hat.
00:39:27.220
I think it was at the Manning conference like a decade ago.
00:39:30.100
And I, and I think you used to sport the cowboy hat back in those days.
00:39:36.100
The city boy from Ontario, uh, knows, knows how to wear the cowboy outfit, but, uh, Jagmeet
1.00
00:39:43.700
Well, uh, last story, this is just sort of a shout out because this is a special week.
00:39:47.740
It was Canada day or dominion day as I like to call it.
00:39:50.540
You know, it was known as dominion day for the first 120 years.
00:39:55.140
Uh, Pierre Trudeau, Justin Trudeau's father changed that in 1982 because he wanted, I think
00:40:01.680
in an attempt to sort of, uh, bury away Canada's traditions and the symbolism of old Canada
00:40:09.380
So I, I like to call it dominion day that fell on Wednesday.
00:40:14.880
I think this is a great moment, you know, in, in all the craziness that's been going on
00:40:18.960
in the world, both with the coronavirus and then these black lives matter protests where
0.85
00:40:23.540
really you have people trying to attack the fabric of our free society, the very foundation.
00:40:29.240
It's good to just take a pause and, and, and remember that we actually live in these great
00:40:34.580
bastions of freedom and the rule of law and democracy.
00:40:37.900
And even though things aren't always perfect, and like I said, there's always things to
00:40:41.880
criticize when it comes to our governments and try to improve, uh, we, we should take
00:40:45.580
a step back and just remember how, how grateful and lucky we are, show some gratitude, uh, to
00:40:51.200
the fact that we live in these remarkable countries.
00:40:53.040
I think Canada is the best country to live in, in the world.
00:40:55.680
Well, I think America is probably the greatest force for good, at least in the last century.
00:41:00.920
Um, perhaps one of the greatest forces for good in the world, in all of human history,
00:41:05.020
one of the top, one of the few, um, great, great countries, uh, in, in, in, in, in world
00:41:11.440
So I think, I think it's great, uh, to criticize, but also we should show some gratitude and
00:41:15.660
celebrate, uh, the fact that we, uh, you know, live in Canada, which is a great country.
00:41:19.720
We're, we're blessed to be neighbors and friends and allies with America who has been this amazing
00:41:24.780
beacon of, of freedom and liberty, uh, and, and opportunity and equality and justice and
00:41:30.160
So, so let's just, let's just keep things in perspective, everybody, and show a little
00:41:34.420
Well, Andrew, thanks for, uh, joining me and co-hosting this show.
00:41:38.220
Uh, it's been fun and we will be back again next week.