Trudeau’s Wokest Week (Ft. Andrew Lawton)
Episode Stats
Words per minute
191.58862
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
sentences flagged
Hate speech
5
sentences flagged
Summary
Justin Trudeau has introduced a temporary ban on handguns in Canada. It s the latest in a week of radical, extreme, left-wing policies from gun bans to hard-drug legalization. To help us make sense of it all, True North senior journalist Andrew Lawton joins The Candice Malcolm Show to break it all down.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unleashes a torrent of radical, extreme, woke, far-left policies this week.
00:00:07.440
It's been the wokest week in Canadian history, from gun bans to hard drug legalization to refusing to admit that the pandemic is over.
00:00:14.920
I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:34.020
It's like every woke idea in Justin Trudeau's head is coming out in the form of public policy.
00:00:39.260
It's really wild just to keep up with all of the things that are going on.
00:00:42.160
And so to help us make sense of the world and to break down some of the more extreme policies that we are seeing is True North senior journalist Andrew Lawton.
00:00:51.580
Andrew, welcome to the program. Thanks for joining us.
00:00:55.540
It's not pouring—well, I mean, it is still pouring rain where I am, but I'm not in the rain like last time I was on your show.
00:01:04.020
Well, we are—honestly, I couldn't believe the callousness of Justin Trudeau in introducing a gun ban like this just a week after the horrific news event down in Uvalde, Texas.
00:01:16.460
It seemed like the most sort of callous, calculated, just opportunistic, kind of icky thing I've seen in politics in a long time.
00:01:25.520
And, you know, maybe it's good policy, good politics, because a lot of Canadians don't like guns.
00:01:30.500
We don't have the same sort of gun culture, certainly, that they have in Texas.
00:01:33.780
But it just seemed so opportunistic, and I'm surprised that more journalists aren't sort of calling him out on it.
00:01:42.620
He produced a fantastic documentary, Assaulted Justin Trudeau's War on Gun Owners.
00:01:47.100
So you're sort of our resident gun nut around here, Andrew, and I'm hoping that you can help us understand what exactly Justin Trudeau announced.
00:01:58.600
So what is different, and what is your reaction to it?
00:02:02.620
So what they're doing is actually saying that no more handguns, once this legislation passes, will be able to be purchased.
00:02:12.600
And this is a bit of a contrast, a significant contrast, from the big gun ban they did that kind of triggered Assaulted two years ago, which actually overnight froze these things.
00:02:22.280
So there's quite a different change in tactics here.
00:02:25.880
But I think the point that you introduced a moment ago is the key one.
00:02:31.580
There is no Canadian gun ownership problem that stems from law-abiding gun owners.
00:02:36.560
There's an American problem that Justin Trudeau wanted to piggyback onto.
00:02:39.980
Well, and it just seemed like such an, again, unbelievably callous.
00:02:46.180
I'm surprised that the media hasn't sort of jumped on it.
00:02:51.840
But okay, so in the U.S., the concern is that young people, people who are mentally unstable, aren't being properly screened, and they're able to go and buy machine guns or whatever you call them,
00:03:05.800
assault white rifles or just heavy-duty rifles, and that's a problem for many in the U.S.
00:03:13.180
Canada, we don't have the problem with mass shooting.
00:03:15.880
If anything, there is a problem, though, with handguns, with crime, mostly in urban centers in places like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal.
00:03:24.160
So I'm wondering, Andrew, do you think that this gun freeze or gun ban, temporary ban, will help address that issue at all?
00:03:31.740
No, it'll do the opposite, because when you look at the problems, I mean, the two big centers for this, Toronto and Surrey in British Columbia,
00:03:40.160
the problems are inner-city gang-related problems.
00:03:43.500
They are guns that are overwhelmingly illegally smuggled in from the U.S., so there is a connection in that sense to the American gun ownership system,
00:03:51.660
but they're not coming from the lawful market in Canada.
00:03:54.740
So if you try to do what Justin Trudeau is doing, in his own words, which is close off the legal handgun market in Canada,
00:04:01.080
it actually does nothing to deal with the firearms that are at the root of this gun crime.
00:04:07.120
And to be fair, there is stuff in this bill that goes after smuggling.
00:04:10.140
There is stuff in this bill that goes after the border and stiffer penalties.
00:04:13.460
I'd say not nearly enough, and I'd say that the thing that he's really focusing on here,
00:04:18.020
going after the law-abiding, is entirely disconnected from where we do have an issue with guns in Canada.
00:04:24.140
And it's not from lawful licensed ownership, which has an insane amount of hurdles to go through.
00:04:29.940
And just, I mean, the government admitted this, too.
00:04:32.320
There was a story in Reuters where a reporter had asked a government official,
00:04:36.600
do you think there's going to be this run on handguns because of this?
00:04:39.980
And the official said, no, no, no, because they're so regulated and hard to get.
00:04:51.580
I mean, it's a group that's overwhelmingly conservative.
00:04:55.900
I think handgun owners in Canada are about, you know, 700,000 in number.
00:04:59.640
So it's an easy group to score political points off the backs of because people that don't
00:05:04.600
understand guns, that don't understand gun owners, that don't think you need to have that
00:05:08.940
or that are confused about what the laws are, will say, oh, yeah, yeah, no one needs a handgun.
00:05:18.620
I want to play a clip for you because Justin Trudeau was asked about this question.
00:05:24.220
He was asked whether or not or why his gun ban seems to target lawful, law-abiding gun
00:05:35.040
What would your message be to firearms groups that are saying, you know, this handgun ban
00:05:42.160
And, you know, it's similar criticism to other gun legislation saying it's not going to target
00:05:47.560
I think people need to be careful about misinformation and disinformation in this.
00:05:51.520
We've explicitly and specifically not targeted law-abiding firearms owners because those who
00:05:58.520
currently own and operate handguns safely and store them safely are not at all targeted
00:06:05.360
We're simply saying that we are freezing the market and in the future it will not be possible
00:06:10.540
to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns in Canada.
00:06:15.960
Canadians need to see safer communities and this is a comprehensive multi-step path towards
00:06:23.480
Yeah, I don't know how he's justifying saying that because it only targets the law-abiding.
00:06:28.940
Again, it doesn't target people that have no respect or regard for the licensing system,
00:06:33.520
people that haven't gone through the background checks and the regular compliance measures and
00:06:41.600
But again, he's preying on misinformation here and on people that don't actually understand
00:06:45.900
how hard it is to get one of these things in Canada.
00:06:49.420
Well, it's interesting because if I was a reporter there, I would have asked a follow-up.
00:06:54.660
Because we're talking about like, I don't understand.
00:06:57.840
And then also that little dig that he does at the beginning and this has become like a
00:07:02.720
It's like anytime he gets a question that has some kind of criticism built in, he goes
00:07:10.040
I've heard him do this multiple times to journalists, not just independent journalists, but legacy media
00:07:15.260
journalists, where he sort of accuses them of misinformation and disinformation.
00:07:19.740
And I know it's a little off topic because we're talking about guns, but I have to get
00:07:23.420
What do you think of the prime minister kind of slipping that in and then not even providing
00:07:28.340
Like, I really genuinely, honestly don't understand what he's talking about when he says it's
00:07:32.740
misinformation, disinformation to say that this bill only targets law-owning.
00:07:39.460
Well, it's his go-to because he doesn't think there is any legitimate criticism of him.
00:07:44.380
So if someone is criticizing him or criticizing a policy of his, he assumed they must be misinformed.
00:07:52.140
It's wild though, especially given, you know, the broader environment that we live in right
00:07:57.000
now where we're told that the biggest threat to national security is online radicalization
00:08:03.680
There's, what, three different bills that the liberals have cooking up that targets news
00:08:12.440
And again, they go back to this misinformation, disinformation.
00:08:15.480
You have national security specialists using these buzzwords.
00:08:19.660
Andrew, I mean, why doesn't anyone call the prime minister on this?
00:08:23.620
Why don't journalists push back when they hear him just say this kind of blathering nonsense?
00:08:28.700
I think a part of it is that they don't feel they're ever going to be the target of the
00:08:35.080
They don't feel that the regulation of media is a bad thing.
00:08:38.280
In fact, it protects them because it prevents their competition there.
00:08:41.400
And I think there's a lot of short-sightedness that's really at the root of this where they
00:08:45.660
don't understand why, or I shouldn't even say that maybe they understand and they just
00:08:50.880
don't care about the broader implications of this policy, about a world in which all media
00:08:57.860
Because as we know, and as True North has been talking about relentlessly, that is the
00:09:02.200
only sort of media environment for those traditional legacy media types, which is the government
00:09:07.360
channel, government funded, and now government approved.
00:09:11.120
Well, I mean, you saw Trudeau just sort of throw that out at what I presume is a legacy
00:09:17.660
There's just so many levels of absurdity when Justin Trudeau talks.
00:09:22.500
Well, that's not the only sort of big, shocking news story of the week, Andrew.
00:09:26.840
I want to ask you a bit about, on Monday, there was a House of Commons vote on whether
00:09:31.900
or not Canada would be ready to lift the remaining COVID restrictions.
00:09:35.420
So many other places around the world have already done away with them.
00:09:38.840
They've sort of learned to live with COVID and everybody's moved on.
00:09:45.040
The Liberals and the NDP joined together to vote against this motion.
00:09:55.620
So there was just one Liberal MP and one independent MP along with the Conservatives that voted for
00:10:03.700
Why is Canada dragging its heels when it comes to just moving on and learning to live with
00:10:09.720
I don't know if I can answer the why, except for to spite people, to spite the unvaccinated.
1.00
00:10:15.980
I mean, that seems to be the big thing that Justin Trudeau wants to do.
00:10:19.160
But let me tell you, it is literally just Canada.
00:10:22.040
When I flew to Zurich to cover the World Economic Forum conference last week, the second people
1.00
00:10:28.160
got off the plane, you could tell who the Europeans were because they all like ripped
1.00
00:10:31.360
off their masks because they can walk around maskless in airports.
00:10:36.940
You know, everyone's walking around, no vaccine passport in Switzerland, no masks, none of that.
00:10:43.880
And then the second you get on the Air Canada plane, because they're regulated by the government,
00:10:49.940
And at one point, I was sort of reminded that I was coming home when I saw a flight attendant
00:10:54.360
wake up a guy who was sleeping because his mask had like slipped, you know, half a millimeter
00:11:03.520
If you look at Justin Trudeau and his cabinet ministers, they're selectively wearing masks depending
00:11:08.800
on which meeting they're in and which thing they're in.
00:11:11.420
And it's like it's you could tell that they don't believe it anymore.
00:11:15.300
They aren't buying into it, but we all have to.
00:11:18.340
And the vaccine mandate for internal travel is insane.
00:11:21.600
There's a big legal challenge afoot right now against this.
00:11:26.820
I think the convoy embarrassed Justin Trudeau significantly.
00:11:30.340
And I don't think he wants to relent on anything that the people in that convoy wanted.
00:11:34.880
And maybe I'm drawing too many conclusions there, but I think spite towards this people
00:11:40.260
that Justin Trudeau holds in contempt, which he feels are the only people asking for changes
00:11:49.520
I mean, just this week, the WestJet CEO is on a plane in Europe and he tweeted out how
00:11:54.120
kind of almost giddily that, oh, yeah, mask free in Europe.
00:11:57.740
And he didn't take aim at the government, but you could tell implicitly he was saying,
00:12:04.620
What is it that the science says here that it doesn't say in Canada or vice versa?
00:12:09.100
And WestJet's CEO also came out this week and said, we've got to get rid of the mandates.
00:12:16.840
I think the tourism implications of that may be a point of evidence in favor of dropping
00:12:23.240
If there was ever justification for them, there isn't now.
00:12:28.200
I think you're totally right about spite because we saw this non-binding motion put forth by the
00:12:35.360
And then the next day, Trudeau announced that they were extending their restrictions, which,
00:12:41.580
It's telling people who are vaccinated that they can't, sorry, people who are not vaccinated
00:12:46.800
People who are unvaccinated, they can't leave Canada.
1.00
00:12:51.360
I anecdotally as well, I've flown around a little bit and I noticed that every flight
00:12:56.340
I get on, the pilot comes on and sort of reluctantly apologizes and says, we know, we know this
00:13:07.260
And you could just tell that everyone is sick of it.
00:13:10.120
I was flying from Ottawa to Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago.
00:13:14.120
And as soon as we went over U.S. airspace, the pilot announced that you could take your
00:13:19.320
And, you know, the pilot was excited to announce this, like, don't worry, you don't have to
00:13:24.420
I instantly took my mask off and then I looked around after what nobody else did, because
00:13:28.400
I realized it was all bureaucrats on the plane, either American or Canadian.
00:13:35.900
I'm glad you survived that flight, to be honest.
00:13:40.180
But you better believe I wouldn't be complaining, because, I mean, flights I've been on, they've
00:13:44.740
kind of claimed, you know, Transport Canada jurisdiction over the entire flight, even if
00:13:52.860
But these measures everywhere else, I find, are decreasing in compliance.
00:13:57.120
Like, if you go around, even in some medical clinics right now in Ontario, masks are required,
00:14:03.880
The airline industry, the aviation sector is like the one thing that the federal government
00:14:09.240
They can't control your neighborhood corner store.
00:14:13.480
They can't control all of these other spaces, but they can control air and rail travel.
00:14:18.600
And I think there is something to, I just want to make these people suffer, and I want
00:14:26.720
And to speak to the science, our friend Senator Denise Batter, she was in the Senate the other
00:14:31.900
day, and she made an incredibly good point that really, you know, for all the times that
00:14:36.820
we hear from Justin Trudeau that this is based on science and we always have to follow the
00:14:43.580
Denise makes a great point about how there's nothing really scientific about this measure.
00:14:48.080
I'm going to play that clip for you, Andrew, and I'll get your reaction to it.
00:14:50.780
Senator Gold, according to a recent article, a UK public health agency report published this
00:14:57.300
month showed that after a second dose of Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccine, effectiveness fell
00:15:03.020
from 65 to 70 percent to as low as 15 percent by 25 weeks afterwards.
00:15:09.320
Most people in Canada received their second dose a year ago.
00:15:12.260
Yeah, and she's very right about that, and I would also add that even booster doses, which
00:15:17.160
were heralded as like the next frontier in this, have been abysmal at protecting people
00:15:23.000
against the latest variant, the Omicron variant.
00:15:25.960
I mean, the booster efficacy is pretty much non-existent, which is why people like me that
00:15:30.640
went, you know, for the first two years or I guess year and nine months of the pandemic
00:15:35.040
without really knowing that many people who had COVID, it quickly over the winter and even
00:15:40.520
in the last couple of months has become like everyone knows someone or multiple people
00:15:44.580
that have gotten it, and they're all fine, generally speaking.
00:15:47.520
I don't know anyone that's had any serious ailment from COVID in the last few months, but there
00:15:58.400
Vaccination hit its saturation point where no matter how many mandates and restrictions
00:16:03.100
there were, as many people got vaccinated as we're going to, at that point, you have to
00:16:07.400
just move on and say the people that thought the vaccines were affording them
00:16:14.540
Okay, we decided it was safe enough to open restaurants.
00:16:18.760
Why can people not get on a plane in their own country?
00:16:22.600
It's part of the thing, I think, Andrew, and I'll let you react to this, is that if they
00:16:27.820
loosen the rules now, they're kind of admitting that they were wrong.
00:16:31.340
I mean, from Denise Batter's point, after 25 weeks, so we're talking half a year, for me,
00:16:35.960
I got my second dose, what, over a year ago in May, so a little over a year ago.
00:16:42.400
That means for the last 30 weeks or so, I have had less than 15% protection.
00:16:48.380
I feel like the Trudeau government is just doubling down because admitting that these
00:16:53.140
policies don't work sort of undermines the case that they've been trying to make for the
00:17:00.700
It undermines it, and the thing is, by not releasing these things sooner, they've made
00:17:06.580
it more difficult because now there's never going to be that magic moment where, okay,
00:17:13.400
There have been points in the past where you could really draw a line and say, okay, case
00:17:27.520
We don't have all of these things tripping public health alarm bells that were there
00:17:32.440
or people said were there some months ago and certainly a year ago.
00:17:36.620
So there isn't any moment now where the government has even said, we will do it when this happens.
00:17:42.380
We will lift the restrictions because there is no metric now.
00:17:45.340
When they're making things up as they go and not regarding science as being the basis of
00:17:50.660
policy here, there's no metric that can even justify it.
00:17:54.020
So ultimately, whenever it happens, it's going to be just on the whim of Justin Trudeau.
00:18:01.180
And speaking of this, I don't know that you and I necessarily see eye to eye when it comes
00:18:06.840
But I can't understand why a prime minister would sort of unilaterally announce that one
00:18:13.040
province out of 10, they're now legalizing drugs or decriminalizing hard drugs.
00:18:19.960
We're talking about opioids, cocaine, ecstasy, MDMA.
00:18:22.900
Like, so, so, so, you know, as of January 31st, 2023, Canadians over the age of 18 will
00:18:30.760
be legally able to possess 2.5 grams of these hard drugs.
00:18:34.360
And we're told that the purpose of this is to combat the rise in drug overdoses and this
00:18:40.600
sort of epidemic of opioid addiction and drug overdoses.
00:18:45.580
Do you think decriminalization is the best way to help people who are addicted to drugs?
00:18:50.140
Well, I think that you're asking a question there that I would say no to, but that doesn't
00:19:02.740
And when you're talking about people that are doing things to themselves, however unhealthy
00:19:06.180
or risky they are, I think that they need to be able to make these decisions for themselves.
00:19:10.940
But I say that recognizing addiction is a disease.
00:19:13.920
And despite the challenges that you see from drug addicts in a lot of communities, especially
00:19:21.660
I think when people who are using drugs are breaking other laws, those other laws need
00:19:27.600
And I think that's what a lot of the activists don't really want to talk about, because I
00:19:32.040
do know that families are very much affected by this.
00:19:36.600
I see it in my city of London as well, which is rapidly, I don't know if it's reaching
00:19:41.220
BC level numbers, but it's certainly rapidly rising in drug use.
00:19:46.160
But I think there's another side of this, though, which is you look at the status quo,
00:19:56.600
A lot of the times in BC and elsewhere, police are only going after those who have volumes
00:20:03.660
So there's been effectively a decriminalization policy.
00:20:07.280
But even if that's the case, I'd look and I'd say that criminal prohibition has not stopped
00:20:11.520
all of these problems that we see in communities across the country, across North America.
00:20:17.440
So if there is some way that we could just take that criminal aspect out of the equation
00:20:23.260
and make treatment available and more widespread, I think that would be desirable.
00:20:28.440
And I realize there are a lot of ifs there, but I don't think that anyone can say that
00:20:32.560
the situation we have today is a resounding success for the prohibition model.
00:20:37.220
Well, I would take just the opposite position because I grew up in Vancouver.
00:20:40.840
And even in the 90s and the 2000s, drug use is rampant, right?
00:20:51.060
And that was under a regime that, like you said, they look the other way.
00:20:57.100
And so this whole idea that, to me, this signals from the Trudeau government, like we're just
00:21:03.160
kind of throwing our hands up and we're not going to have a policing element at all.
00:21:08.020
And I think the reality is that living in a city like that, living in Vancouver where drugs
00:21:15.220
And when I say drugs, I mean, mostly marijuana, people smoke pot, or they take other kinds
00:21:22.740
But then a lot of people do move into the heavier stuff, Andrew.
00:21:25.920
And it's not like it's a personal internalized use, right?
00:21:30.820
When you're using drugs, there's externalities.
00:21:33.760
Go take a look at the Lower East Side of Vancouver and see sort of the, what I think is, I mean,
00:21:42.040
I mean, there's just people with no dignity whatsoever.
00:21:50.340
You know, people are just indulging in the most sort of self-destructive behavior possible.
00:21:56.020
And now we have, we already have a situation where there's safe injection sites and where
00:21:59.560
there's government enabling this kind of thing where you can get your drugs tested to make
00:22:02.980
sure that they're not poisoned or what have you.
00:22:06.680
And now you have the Trudeau government signaling like, hey, we're going to take more steps to
00:22:11.500
enable this sort of incredibly destructive behavior.
00:22:18.640
The city is all over Canada, as you mentioned, even in Little London, Ontario.
00:22:22.260
But certainly Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, any big city, Edmonton even.
00:22:29.440
I just can't understand how taking a step towards allowing more people to use this, to enter into
00:22:36.500
this type of lifestyle, like how that's going to help minimize drug addictions and minimize
00:22:46.080
Well, I think you have to look at the motivation.
00:22:48.920
And the question is, are we trying to and is this trying to normalize and endorse drug use?
00:22:55.280
Or is it trying to reframe the way that we try to get people off of drugs?
00:23:00.100
And I'll be the first to admit, I know there are activists out there that are completely OK with the
00:23:05.580
normalization of after people that say, yes, it's a legitimate life choice, not just it's your choice
00:23:10.280
to make, but it's a legitimate thing that we shouldn't get in the way of.
00:23:13.340
And I have significant issues with so-called safe supply programs that try to say that,
00:23:18.360
you know, we should be able to offer people a quote unquote safe version of the street
00:23:23.740
drug they're using because this isn't working either.
00:23:26.100
And I think that does go down the road of normalizing.
00:23:29.220
But if we are trying to get people off of drugs and we're trying to get people into the pipeline
00:23:33.560
and we have treatment available to them, the rationale that I do think has some merit is that people
00:23:38.700
shouldn't be afraid of getting arrested if they want to seek that.
00:23:42.620
Now, I would be completely OK with some stopgap, a measure that said you have to go through
00:23:49.380
treatment or you have to face charges for whatever the offense is.
00:23:57.060
What I don't like is and you and I probably agree on this, is this idea that criminal law
00:24:04.440
This thing that's supposed to be national now changes depending on where in the country you
00:24:08.580
are, which is not supposed to be how criminal law is.
00:24:10.800
Well, I don't mind the idea that if you if you're found with heroin or drugs, heroin or
00:24:16.540
cocaine or something, you have the choice of going into treatment or face charges.
00:24:20.360
But but it seems like this is obsession with what they call small amounts that that there's
00:24:26.180
If you if you're caught with heroin and you say, oh, it's just for me, then it's like,
00:24:32.080
But if you're not breaking any other law, what's the problem with that?
00:24:37.820
Well, it's it's like the question is, Andrew, like what kind of society do you want?
00:24:41.480
What kind of like world you want to live in where we as a society and our laws and our
00:24:45.640
political leaders say, you know, yeah, there's no meaning to life.
00:24:51.180
You can go ahead and completely desecrate yourself and you can you can take heroin until
00:24:57.600
And this is just that's just another lifestyle choice.
00:25:02.860
And I think that when you get down that path where you're saying to people, go ahead, you
00:25:07.320
know, you do your heroin and just keep to yourself.
00:25:09.460
It's like, again, go spend some time in the lower east side of Vancouver.
00:25:15.140
It is a disgusting hell hole of a place to watch people, the lack of dignity, watching
00:25:22.680
people defecate on the streets, watching people sleeping, watching people chewing off their
00:25:27.560
fingernails, watching people struggling through the addiction, the horrible addictions that
00:25:33.540
And then, of course, you know, when they when they run out of drugs and they want their next
00:25:44.920
And again, go to go to Lurie's side of Vancouver, go to the Tenderloin district of San Francisco
00:25:59.580
It's like at some point you have to ask what kind of community do you want to live in?
00:26:03.840
What kind of place do you want your kids growing up in?
1.00
00:26:07.060
And it's not something that I would advocate for anybody.
00:26:09.920
I mean, I feel sorry for I feel sympathy for people who are down that lifestyle.
00:26:13.520
But I think that the reason that they go down that path is because they have no other option.
00:26:20.300
And I think that there's a lot better ways to actually help those people and stop them
00:26:24.740
from using drugs than to say, OK, well, it's just for your personal use.
00:26:29.720
That that would be my that that's that's where I stand.
00:26:32.960
Yeah. And again, I don't think this is a legitimate life choice.
00:26:36.280
The question is, do I trust government to be the arbiter of what your life should look
00:26:40.980
like? And the answer is a resounding no, because I don't think and I know it's a bit of a
00:26:45.100
straw man, but I don't think we want a world where the government is the one that decides
00:26:48.980
the appropriate level of risk for for other activities people partake in, whatever they
00:26:57.460
And interestingly enough, you mentioned San Francisco, I had heard about all of that
00:27:03.800
I just didn't know how true it was, like literally my first time and my only time in
00:27:08.680
San Francisco, like I walk out the door of my hotel, which is very nice hotel.
00:27:16.780
I just don't think that criminalization is the path to do it.
00:27:23.300
You have a lot of advocacy groups that are working on this that I think should and
00:27:27.180
could be doing a lot more on this to get people off of drugs.
00:27:31.380
I just don't think the prohibition model has worked.
00:27:33.340
And I think that what we have now is a reflection of that.
00:27:36.260
I mean, I think that that could be the case when you look at something like marijuana and
00:27:41.260
you could say, OK, if someone's using marijuana, the only person that they're really impacting
00:27:46.180
But when you're talking about these other drugs, I mean, it's so clear that there's externalities
00:27:51.000
You know, if these people could take drugs and just be in like a complete, you know,
00:27:55.660
sorry, they could be in a room with like, like padded walls or something like that, then
00:28:02.440
But the reality is that they do them out on the street and there's all kinds of runoffs.
00:28:06.960
And to me, again, this is like peak woke Trudeau pushing the most sort of whatever the trendiest
00:28:17.420
And I think I think it's just completely the wrong the wrong choice.
00:28:21.300
Andrew, I want to ask you one more one more question.
00:28:23.140
Maybe we can end on a on a note that we actually agree on.
00:28:26.340
Another thing that happened this week is that the liberals push for the end of debate on the
00:28:31.100
Online News Act, this is Bill C-18, which would determine who is a qualified journalist and
00:28:39.460
So I'm wondering what's your take on the liberals doing this this week as well?
00:28:46.000
Maybe we'll have to wait for a little while to figure out if I'm on the approved list.
00:28:48.880
Generally speaking, this government's record would suggest no.
00:28:52.500
You know, it's funny because the great the main criticism about C-18 is that it's government
00:28:56.900
control over the Internet and government control over speech.
00:29:00.440
And there's a particular poetry in government shortening, debating, cutting short debate
00:29:05.640
on a bill whose primary criticism is closing off the marketplace of ideas.
00:29:10.320
So all I have to say is, you know, at least they haven't lost their sense of humor.
00:29:18.260
It's always great to hear your perspectives, opinions, and thanks for all the great reporting
00:29:26.560
I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.