Trudeau gives $900 million to his friends and is forced to take it back
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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
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Hi, and welcome to a special live edition of the True North Update.
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I'm your host, Candice Malcolm, joined by my friend and my co-host, Andrew Lawton.
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Well, it's sort of an interesting Canada Day, Dominion Day celebration midweek.
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So it felt like Saturday all day, and then all of a sudden we were like thrown back to
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So it's been kind of a fun week, but I love Dominion Day.
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It's my favorite holiday, so it's always fun to sort of revel in Canadiana and spout off
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some history and debate some crazy leftists who hate the country.
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I logged onto my phone on Canada Day, and it was just like every mainstream media article
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imaginable was just about how Canada Day is problematic.
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Yeah, I love the trigger warning on the Canada flag.
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Especially because the Canadian flag is like a new, it's not a symbolic gesture of a past.
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It's not something that we had with us, you know, throughout history.
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So it's just sort of really bizarre that anything associated with patriotism or pride in our
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country or anything like that is seen as, like you said, problematic.
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Well, let's get to the latest, because this is just a bizarre scandal.
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And, you know, I'll just say one last thing about Canada Day.
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I think that we should all feel free to criticize our country.
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I think that's part of what makes Canada great.
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I'm one of the most critical people, particularly of this government.
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But there's a difference between, you know, criticizing your government or criticizing things
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that the government has done versus criticizing the country as a whole.
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So this is an example of where we should feel completely free to be as critical as we want
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of Canada when it comes to criticizing our politicians, in this case, Justin Trudeau.
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And, Andrew, I hope you can help walk us through it, because there's a lot of moving parts here.
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So there is an organization called WE, which is a charity.
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And the Trudeau government gave a $900 million sole source contract to this organization.
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The organization has some pretty deep ties to Justin Trudeau himself, to the Trudeau family.
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So, you know, no one competed for this contract.
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And then, you know, once we learned all the connections that they have with the Trudeau government,
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And the government is no longer giving this $900 million contract.
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We have a quick clip of Justin Trudeau just sort of saying nothing, as Trudeau typically
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tends to do, explaining why this group is no longer getting the money.
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Obviously, the way this situation has unfolded has been unfortunate.
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We will continue to work hard to make sure that young people get the opportunities to serve
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But it will no longer be with the organization.
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So, Andrew, can you help us unpack this crazy news story?
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What is this organization and what is going on with this $900 million grant?
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To be honest, I don't know how much I can unpack it because it seemed bizarre from the get-go,
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not just because of the questions you raised, I think, very effectively about Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau's
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connections to WE and Justin Trudeau's connections to WE, which makes it concerning enough.
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But also the fact that we needed a program in the first place to basically pay people
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I mean, for starters, that defeats the purpose of volunteerism.
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Secondly, if the government is going to make a priority of nearly a billion dollars to do
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This is not a government that has ever shown an interest in the free of service.
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But if you are going to go through that process, why not put it out to an open bid?
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Why not say quite publicly, yes, this is work that we're trying to do here?
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A lot of people would know it under its previous name, Free the Children, which was the big,
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really, I think, widespread campaign across schools all over Canada of a certain age.
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I think anyone under probably 35, 36 probably had this in school, these videos and the glory
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that is the Kielberger brothers and their activism and efforts and all that.
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But it sounds like there's been a huge morphing over the years, just as the organization changed
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It's not just about overseas development now, but it's also about domestic volunteerism.
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You can look at their charitable filings and find that they have, you know, millions and
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millions of dollars just in payroll expenses alone, a huge staff of, I think, just shy
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And I'm like, why do they need a government handout to deliver a program that Canadians have
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Doesn't Canada already have a Canada Summer Jobs program?
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Isn't that sort of the same idea behind, you know, having students and young people being
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able to sort of volunteer through the government?
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And the more we dig into this charity, the weirder it is.
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There was a news story today about how the program offered 450 volunteer placements for
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So there were 450 student volunteer placements within WE Charity.
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And then there's this whole angle to it, which is that the charity itself claimed that the
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prime minister's office contacted them directly about the $900 million grant program.
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So a recorded conference call on June 12th revealed that the group's co-founder, Mark
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Kielberger, told participants that the PMO had reached out to them a day after the grant
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So the National Post reported that he had said that.
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And the prime minister's office is saying, no, we didn't reach out to him.
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It was actually bureaucrats, civil servants from the Department of Employment and Social
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So there's a little bit of he said, she said going on here.
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And I think overall, though, it's just a pretty embarrassing news story for the prime minister.
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And I would also add to that, that this morning, the National Post asked Justin Trudeau if
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he or anyone from the PMO reached out to Mark Kielberger.
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And Trudeau's answer was kind of incomprehensible.
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He said, quote, we knew from the beginning that because of work that has been ongoing between
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this government and we, that this was a decision that needed to be made by our professional
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They made the decision in a transparent and open way and in a rigorous way to ensure that
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we had the right partnerships to move forward on this opportunity for young people.
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But he doesn't actually address the question of whether the PMO was involved in the PMO reach
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He just claimed in a very vague way that the public service understood that this decision
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But it doesn't really get to the root of whether the PMO was involved, whether Trudeau personally
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And that only confuses and muddles even further this flip flop from Kielberger himself.
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When Justin Trudeau speaks, it's always hard to make out what exactly he means.
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But when he gives a muddle response like that, you really have to feel like he's
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Trudeau also said that this charity, which obviously has close ties to him and his family,
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was the only organization capable of carrying out the purpose of this grant, which was to
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Well, I mean, it's just sort of bizarre that this charity would be supposedly the only ones
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When just a couple of months ago, there was a news report that came out that said that
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we, charity, saw resignations and departures from senior ranks right before landing this
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There was a flurry of changes to the senior staff two months before the federal government
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announced that they were going to be administering this multimillion dollar grant.
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So how is it that an organization that can't even keep its own employees is supposedly the
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This is, again, just a pretty embarrassing bad news story for Justin Trudeau.
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And you can sort of tell, by the way, that he doesn't provide clear answers to your point
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and to that clip that we showed a moment ago that he's just sort of hoping this story
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And the idea of sole source contracts, they have a place, in some cases, the expediency
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you can get from one of these outpaces the idea of an open and transparent bidding process
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But this should only be when the relationship between the people in the prime minister's
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office or the government making the decision and the organization benefiting from this is
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I mean, a sole source contract, which should be rare in the first place, should not even
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be considered when there's a personal relationship between Justin Trudeau and the organization.
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This would be to the Aga Khan Foundation, as far as I'm concerned.
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And we know how that ended up when Justin Trudeau cozied up with the Aga Khan, even in a quote
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unquote personal capacity a couple of years ago.
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Like, what did they think was going to be the response by the public and the media when
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Didn't anyone flag it as like, hey, this is a charity known as being close to Justin Trudeau.
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Maybe we should think twice about the optics of giving them nearly a billion dollars of
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I mean, it sort of feels like Justin Trudeau is treating the federal government like it's
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But, you know, I'm glad that he has at least reversed this and the charity has given back
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Well, Andrew, it's Friday and on Fridays we do our live show, but we also like to interact
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So if you're watching on Facebook, feel free to leave us a question in the comment section.
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Andrew and I will do our best to get to your questions.
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You can ask us anything that you want about the Canadian government, about Canada Day, about
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Andrew and I will do our best to provide a coherent answer.
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Feel free to message us on in the comment section there.
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And if not, if you don't want to ask a question, just let us know where you're watching from
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and maybe how you celebrated the national holiday, Dominion Day.
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Well, Andrew, it looks like Justin Trudeau is finally getting tough on China after weeks
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and weeks of just really, really sort of pacifist appeasement language.
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Everything from his health minister, Patty Hajduk, saying that there's no reason not to trust
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China on their data for coronavirus, even while China was changing its own data.
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China didn't even trust its own data, but the Canadian government trusted it.
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And then, you know, we had multiple instances where the foreign minister refused to even
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mention Taiwan by name and Trudeau giving these sort of weird equivocal statements, not really
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Well, it sounds like the Canadian government is finally getting tough with China.
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So they announced this week that they have restricted dealings with Hong Kong over the
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new controversial Chinese security law that has been implemented.
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So we finally see a little bit of a tough statement.
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And Canada is sort of following in the footsteps of what the United States has done.
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So it is suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong as part of the response.
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In the statement, Francois-Philippe Champagne, who's Canada's foreign affairs minister,
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says that Canada will also treat sensitive goods being exported to China if they're being
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So Canada, the U.S. used to have a bunch of special relationship trade deals and tax treaties
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Hong Kong is a separate political entity from China.
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But as China continues to encroach onto Hong Kong and really undermine its standing as a free
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economy and a free society, Canada is starting to treat Hong Kong war and war like China, which
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This is something that the international community must assert pressure onto China to stop them
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from really their just blatant attempt to, again, just end, basically end and take away
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a society that has flourished and been able to be free and prosperous.
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So sad, definitely sad what's going on in Hong Kong.
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But it's good to see finally a little bit of courage from Trudeau.
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Yeah, you know, Justin Trudeau often likes to speak about standing up for human rights
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That's something we've heard more times than we can probably count in the last few years.
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And you can't say that with any definitive credibility if you're not standing up for
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Taiwan and Hong Kong, which exist as really the most significant backstops against the
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tyranny of China and Chinese government overreach.
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And you mentioned pacifism earlier as kind of a guiding force.
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And I'd say there's at least a moral clarity to pacifism, whereas, you know, the true and
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unbridled appeasement that we were seeing from Justin Trudeau did not come from any particular
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ideological position or philosophical position.
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It was not wanting to tough talk, not wanting or not knowing how to do the tough talk, not wanting
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But I'd say we probably went back a few steps because it proved that we are a country that
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And I mean, yes, standing up for the rule of law and letting the trial of Meng Wanzhou
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But it's not like as many of Justin Trudeau's defenders like to say that there was this elaborate
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game of 3D or 4D chess going on and it had to do with PPE and it had to do with the two
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Michaels and it had to do with all of these other things.
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No, Canada has gone absolutely nothing from China, which if we did might make the whole
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appeasement approach seem justifiable if it was a strategy.
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So I think we should commend Justin Trudeau for doing the right thing, talking tough, following
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But there is still a question of why now and what changed.
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Justin Trudeau playing 3D or 4D chess is pretty funny.
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And even the idea of him doing something for moral or philosophical or ideological grounds,
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I don't really think that Justin Trudeau has a lot of those.
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But you're absolutely right that it wasn't pacifism because that would be coming from
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But this was really just a government showing its inability really to tango with a big superpower
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And you're right, I mean, Canada and China's diplomatic relations are like basically non-existent
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There's basically no communication, official communication between Canada and China.
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So you look back at months and months, if not years, of just weird Canadian statements,
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And you have to wonder, like, what was it all for?
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At least you could say with the Harper government, at times they were very undiplomatic because,
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And sometimes that led to frayed relations with countries.
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But they did it because of what they believed that Canada's role should be on the world stage,
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which is to sort of be an exemplar and someone who pushes freedom and the rule of law.
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But then he also, you know, doesn't really have good relationships with these corrupt
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communist nations that you could argue that his father, Pierre, did.
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So Trudeau is sort of the worst of both worlds when it comes to national policy.
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But we can unpack a little bit what this new national security law is and how it's going
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Because there's been a number of protests over the years, over recent years in Hong Kong.
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You recall a couple of years ago, there was something called the Umbrella Revolution,
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where protesters, up to a million protesters, blocked a main freeway in Hong Kong.
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They used umbrellas to sort of block themselves from pepper spray and police, you know, shooting
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rubber bullets, but also to protect their identities because there's such a fear in Hong Kong that
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the Chinese government is going to come after people.
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At that point, they were just protesting China's involvement in local elections.
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China wanted to be able to sort of vet candidates before they could be listed as a candidate.
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In the local elections in Hong Kong, that was sort of the start of it.
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Then there was sort of, you know, every year there's new encroachments by the Chinese government
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And this one, the national security law, is basically saying that China's going to have
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a full-time presence in Hong Kong to sort of supposedly keep the peace.
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But obviously, Hong Kong residents worry that this is going to mean that, you know, they don't
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Essentially, that the Chinese government is moving in and imposing all of their draconian
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I want to also mention this, this story, Andrew.
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The U.S. Senate passed a bill to sanction Chinese officials over Hong Kong.
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And this was something that had unanimous approval in the Senate.
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I didn't even think that those words were possible in the U.S.
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You know, all we ever hear is gridlock and how Democrats and Republicans might as well
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be from two different countries because they don't agree on anything.
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Well, remarkably, when it comes to standing up for Hong Kong's freedom and autonomy, that
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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
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in the U.S. Senate to come together, it means that, you know, either A, the world is ending
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or, in fact, there's just something that is just so ironclad as the right thing that
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there's no political maneuvering needed because it's just clear.
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And I think that tough talk on China, tough action on China is definitely an example of
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And when you mention the international aspect here, I've got to bring up this question
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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
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Like, literally for the last five years, everything Justin Trudeau does, in my opinion, on the
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world stage has been with his eyes set on winning that illustrious United Nations seat.
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He cares about the United Nations probably more than Canada.
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And so now that it's lost, it's like, OK, well, I guess we don't have to suck up to
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Maybe now that that seat is no longer a possibility, we'll start to see some more courage from the
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And I do think that there has been for years a greater interest from Trudeau in speaking
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out against the U.S. than about China at any given point.
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I mean, I think we've heard actually more criticism of Trudeau towards Donald Trump and Trump
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policies than of China up until the last couple of weeks.
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And I guess in that sense, I mean, the U.S. is very low hanging fruit because they're getting,
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you know, picked on, for lack of a term, by a lot of countries all around the world.
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And the international community loves just treating the U.S. as a punching bag, whereas
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I mean, my hope from the Trudeau perspective is that it will last and it won't just be this
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little blip, this little, you know, temporary confidence.
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I hope it's something that really starts to become a fixture in Canadian foreign policy,
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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.
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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.
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But at the end of the day, you know, there are millions and millions of people trying to
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get into the United States because they want to live in free America at the same time as
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people are being held in the absolute most brutal conditions imaginable today in 2020.
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You know, we think of concentration camps as a horrible stain on the 20th century.
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And yet they're happening again, and there's not a lot of people speaking out about them
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just because it's a lot easier, like you said, it's slow-hanging fruit to mock Donald Trump.
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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.
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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?
00:23:27.380
Well, apparently they were just in large crowds.
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People celebrating Canada Day, you know, holding Black Lives Matter signs on the beach.
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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
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Thank you for standing up positively to the rights of yourself and each other.
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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.
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He said the series of peaceful protests in the city has motivated him and other officials
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to work harder to eliminate systemic racism in Toronto.
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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.
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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
00:26:10.900
When the economy does come back and the companies use those under-the-table workers, how will
00:26:27.560
So, you know, for the thousands of people that come to the country, not very good.
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
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.
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,
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
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
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.