The Candice Malcolm Show - May 24, 2022


WEF experts and elites want even more control


Episode Stats

Length

30 minutes

Words per Minute

194.05042

Word Count

5,823

Sentence Count

319

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Global elites are hobnobbing in Davos, Switzerland this week as part of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.
00:00:05.980 But criticizing these elites, standing opposed to their global governance schemes, will get you called a conspiracy theorist according to these elites.
00:00:15.100 We're going to break it all down on the show today.
00:00:16.680 Plus, we'll be joined by True North's Andrew Lawton, who's on the ground reporting in Davos.
00:00:21.140 I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:30.000 Everyone, thank you so much for tuning into the program.
00:00:38.660 It's great to have you here.
00:00:39.700 I hope everyone had a wonderful Victoria Day long weekend.
00:00:43.260 Hope you got to spend lots and lots of time with your family, with your friends.
00:00:46.780 I got to spend some time with my family.
00:00:48.960 I love to unplug over these long weekends.
00:00:50.880 I basically just turn my phone and computer off and soak in as much time with my two little kids.
00:00:57.200 I have a one-year-old and a three-year-old, and it's just so much fun.
00:01:00.860 Having little kids around is the funnest thing.
00:01:03.000 My daughter, Georgia, who is 18 months, is starting to talk.
00:01:07.620 Her and her brother, like, they like to wrestle and play, and it's just really, really fun to be a part of that and to get to really immerse yourself with the kids.
00:01:16.920 And I like getting rid of all the technology, getting rid of all the devices to spend time with the family and the kids.
00:01:22.500 It's really what it's all about.
00:01:23.880 I want to talk today about the World Economic Forum, about what's going on in Davos, because we're living through this really interesting moment in time where we have this sort of expert class that tells us everything that is good for us, that we're ruled by these technocrats who truly believe that they know better how to live our lives than we do.
00:01:43.980 And they sit there and they issue heavy-handed edicts.
00:01:46.800 They push heavy-handed rules.
00:01:48.300 We've lived through some of the most heavy-handed authoritarian-like rules in my lifetime, where the government had exerted so much control over what we can do.
00:01:57.640 I'm talking about the COVID pandemic, the restrictions that we all lived through.
00:02:01.040 We haven't seen anything like that in the West before, maybe since wartime, since the Second World War, when there were Emergency Measures Acts issued.
00:02:11.080 And so what we're seeing, what we're experiencing is a backlash towards that.
00:02:15.660 People don't like that.
00:02:16.540 People don't like these technocratic experts telling us what to do because, lo and behold, the experts are often incorrect.
00:02:24.060 What a surprise, I know, this idea that experts can't actually run our lives better.
00:02:28.160 And so I see a growing pushback against this, and it's not really a left-right thing anymore.
00:02:32.980 It's more like more and more people just don't want these arrogant, progressive, mostly left-leaning elites telling us, designing our lives, telling us what's good for us, telling us that we're going to have to suffer, we're going to have to sacrifice for some greater good that we don't see, especially when the underlying assumptions that these elites are making are often wrong.
00:02:53.120 And so we're seeing lots and lots of pushback against this.
00:02:56.160 I think the trucker convoy, that was what it was all about.
00:02:58.500 But there's so many other instances in society.
00:03:00.740 You can look at Brexit.
00:03:01.600 You can look at Trump.
00:03:02.800 People don't like to be told what to do by a group of out-of-touch elites.
00:03:07.440 And nothing sort of exemplifies this attitude and this distinction between the elites and everyone else better than what goes on every year in Davos, Switzerland, a luxury ski resort in the Swiss Alps where the global elite gather.
00:03:21.700 And they have these conversations out loud.
00:03:24.400 They say the quiet part out loud.
00:03:26.080 They talk about how they want to reset the economy, how they want to redesign the way that we live our lives.
00:03:31.780 They want capitalism to be infused with their woke ideology.
00:03:35.380 They want us to sacrifice in terms of getting rid of fossil fuels.
00:03:38.460 They want to eliminate the kinds of jobs that they don't want.
00:03:40.880 They really talk out loud about this utopian vision that they have for the world where the experts are in charge and everyone else just does exactly what they say.
00:03:50.600 And so lo and behold, no surprise, people don't like that.
00:03:53.640 People don't like being told what to do by a group of out-of-touch experts and snobs.
00:03:58.720 And that is exactly what the World Economic Forum is all about.
00:04:01.640 So it's easy to understand why there is a lot of interest in what goes on at Davos.
00:04:07.140 There's a lot of anger about what goes on at Davos.
00:04:09.720 And it's not just coming from the conventional political right.
00:04:12.320 I know that a lot of the ink spilled in the Canadian legacy media talking about how there's these conspiracies on the right.
00:04:19.100 The reality is that people on the left also oppose a group of billionaires flying in their private jets,
00:04:24.060 heading to, again, a luxury ski resort in the Swiss Alps to kind of rub elbows with politicians and government officials and the head of NGOs.
00:04:34.080 Like this whole gathering upsets a lot of people, not just on the political right, but on the political left as well.
00:04:40.180 Our own Andrew Lawton, who's on the ground there, has been reporting how most of the protesters that go in and try to destabilize it,
00:04:46.920 you know, they're climate environmentalists or they're vegan activists.
00:04:49.660 They're people who you would traditionally think of on the political right.
00:04:52.420 Obviously, there's a lot of frustration and skepticism from the political right as well.
00:04:59.340 And yet what we see from the media, almost in lockstep, is a kind of weird defense of these global elites.
00:05:06.280 You have media across the board in Canada basically saying it's not OK to criticize these global elites.
00:05:13.180 And if you do, you will be called a conspiracy theorist.
00:05:16.200 This is a perfect example, I think, of why Ezra Levant over at The Rebel,
00:05:20.740 he coined the term the media party to describe the media, the journalists in Canada,
00:05:25.960 because they all take the same position.
00:05:27.660 It's like a party where they all kind of agree on the party lines and then they repeat the same talking points about it.
00:05:33.580 It doesn't matter what publication they write for.
00:05:35.360 It doesn't matter whether they're journalists, reporters, political pundits.
00:05:39.280 It doesn't matter really if they're conservative or liberal.
00:05:41.300 They all have the same opinion when it comes to Davos.
00:05:44.660 We're going to go through some of that on the show today.
00:05:47.480 So first, I want to talk about the so-called conspiracy theory and what it is all about.
00:05:52.720 So when you see all these members of the media party sort of shaking in anger and consternation,
00:05:59.160 saying, you know, these awful right-wingers and their conspiracy theorists about the World Economic Forum,
00:06:04.720 what are they talking about?
00:06:05.920 Well, basically, the conspiracy theory is that the World Economic Forum has penetrated Canada's cabinet,
00:06:11.700 that this group of elites basically controls Justin Trudeau and his cabinet.
00:06:16.580 There's also a conspiracy around Klaus Schaub, who is the head of the World Economic Forum.
00:06:21.540 He started this thing 51 years ago.
00:06:23.220 He's an academic from Switzerland.
00:06:26.020 And the idea is that basically this guy has total control.
00:06:30.980 He controls governments.
00:06:32.580 He planned the pandemic.
00:06:34.040 That the whole idea behind the pandemic was a great reset in order to just collapse the global economy
00:06:41.220 and restart to build it in some other way.
00:06:44.720 Obviously, that's not true.
00:06:45.460 This guy isn't all that powerful.
00:06:47.160 But, you know, the reason why people believe this and the reason why people think this
00:06:50.980 is because that's literally what he says.
00:06:53.720 That's literally what he says.
00:06:55.460 So here is Klaus Schaub, head of the World Economic Forum,
00:06:59.160 explaining how he has penetrated governments with its young global leaders program,
00:07:04.740 including Justin Trudeau.
00:07:05.780 Let's see that clip.
00:07:06.500 And I have to say, when I mention our names like Mrs. Merkel, even Vladimir Putin and so on,
00:07:16.760 they all have been young global leaders of the World Economic Forum.
00:07:20.300 But what we are very proud of now is the young generation, like Prime Minister Trudeau,
00:07:29.100 President of Argentina and so on, that we penetrate the cabinets.
00:07:36.040 So yesterday, I was at a reception for Prime Minister Trudeau,
00:07:42.060 and I know that half of this cabinet, or even more half of this cabinet,
00:07:52.100 are actually young global leaders of the World Economic Forum.
00:07:56.780 So, gee, I wonder why some people online think that this guy has penetrated Trudeau's cabinet.
00:08:03.060 Well, maybe because he says that he has.
00:08:05.400 Likewise, you know, the whole idea of the Great Reset is supposedly a conspiracy theory,
00:08:10.660 and yet Klaus Schwab's own book is called COVID-19, The Great Reset.
00:08:15.680 So, you know, it's not like these conspiracies are coming from thin air.
00:08:20.260 There's actual reasons behind why they're there.
00:08:22.540 Now, you don't have to believe the meat of the conspiracy to be skeptical of the underlying
00:08:26.440 assumptions around it, namely that, yes, a group of very influential, high-profile,
00:08:32.040 powerful people gather every year.
00:08:34.480 They go skiing in this beautiful ski resort.
00:08:37.060 Usually the event takes place in January, but this year they were all so paranoid and so worried
00:08:41.740 about COVID, they pushed it back to now, to May.
00:08:44.840 So they didn't get to go on their usual ski trip in the Swiss Alps.
00:08:47.400 I guess that'll have to wait till next year.
00:08:48.840 But they did get to gather in this beautiful Swiss town.
00:08:53.060 And so you have this really bizarre situation where you have a bunch of
00:08:56.180 Canadian journalists basically defending global elites against accusations from Canadians that
00:09:02.340 these people are doing something nefarious so that they're somehow wrong, which, again,
00:09:06.480 kind of doubles down on the reason why so many Canadians are skeptical of elites and of
00:09:11.900 institutions.
00:09:12.500 It's like, here we have a group of Canadians, a large and growing group of Canadians who have
00:09:17.060 lost trust in their government.
00:09:19.240 They've lost faith in the media.
00:09:21.180 They've lost faith in many of the governing institutions of our country.
00:09:25.420 And part of their anger and frustration is towards this sort of global elite class of
00:09:31.000 people who make decisions for them.
00:09:33.260 And when you have an instance of people expressing their frustration at these global elites, you
00:09:38.460 have the media.
00:09:39.460 One of the institutions that is failing, that Canadians have lost trust in, their knee-jerk reaction
00:09:44.400 is to defend the global elite against accusations from the people.
00:09:48.440 Once again, I made this point several times on social media and on the show, that journalists
00:09:52.980 used to hold the powerful accountable in service of the public.
00:09:57.260 So they would hold government accountable.
00:09:59.020 They would hold powerful people, hold billionaires, hold corporations accountable in service of
00:10:03.800 the public.
00:10:04.660 Now, what we see more and more, and this is another example of it, we see journalists holding
00:10:09.560 the public accountable in service of the elites, in service of the government.
00:10:13.800 And so here we have Clark Campbell over in the Globe and Mail saying that the World Economic
00:10:17.940 Forum conspiracy theory is in the conservative leadership race, and it's in Canada's main
00:10:23.040 streets.
00:10:23.760 He does pick up on this trend.
00:10:25.160 He writes that as a development in Canadian politics, it could be a lot more important
00:10:29.820 than a leadership race.
00:10:31.020 A sizable group of Canadians have lost trust in, well, almost anyone.
00:10:34.920 Okay, it's not just in the Globe and Mail that they are accusing Canadians of being conspiracy
00:10:39.320 theorists.
00:10:39.840 Our friends over at the Toronto Sun have likewise jumped in.
00:10:43.660 Here's Brian Lilly writing an op-ed last night.
00:10:46.700 Polyev shills conspiracy theories to sell memberships.
00:10:50.060 His whole point here is that, well, members of the Harper government attended the World Economic
00:10:54.300 Forum a decade ago, and therefore, how could Pierre Polyev criticize it?
00:10:59.240 What we see here is basically a bunch of straw man arguments saying that Canadians who criticize
00:11:04.620 the World Economic Forum are lying or they're wrong or they're mistaken, failing to
00:11:09.620 to actually try to understand what the criticisms are that are deeper.
00:11:13.720 So Brian Lilly writes this.
00:11:16.060 Schwab's call to have a great reset in the economy as part of the recovery from COVID-19
00:11:20.620 has been the focus of those who see the World Economic Forum as an organization with too
00:11:24.920 much power.
00:11:26.160 There are regular claims the World Economic Forum controls governments, including Justin
00:11:29.860 Trudeau's cabinet, and fixes the elections.
00:11:32.620 Then Brian Lilly writes, none of this is true, but it's shared widely online.
00:11:36.040 And it's the people who buy into these conspiracy theories that Polyev is trying to attract in
00:11:40.640 his bid to win the leadership of the Conservative Party.
00:11:44.180 Hmm, I wonder why people believe that the World Economic Forum controls governments, perhaps
00:11:48.900 because all of these government leaders go and gather in Davos every year.
00:11:53.140 When it comes to Justin Trudeau's cabinet, his own finance minister sits on the board of
00:11:57.920 the World Economic Forum.
00:11:59.020 Forget about everything else.
00:12:00.100 How is that not a conflict of interest?
00:12:01.640 How is it not a conflict of interest for a cabinet minister, the minister of finance,
00:12:06.980 to also sit on the board of this global governance organization?
00:12:10.420 Our friend Rupa Subramania over in the National Post raised these questions, and I think it's
00:12:15.020 perfectly legitimate and perfectly reasonable that we question and doubt this.
00:12:19.900 So Subramania's piece here says, Chrystia Freeland's side gig with the World Economic Forum
00:12:24.340 is endangering Canadian democracy.
00:12:26.880 Freeland notes an invitation to Davos marks an aspiring plutocrat's arrival on the international
00:12:32.320 scene.
00:12:32.900 That was a quote from Chrystia Freeland back when she used to be critical of the World
00:12:36.560 Economic Forum.
00:12:37.880 The global elite don't especially enjoy the glare of publicity on their privileged lifestyles,
00:12:42.680 so much so that Freeland wrote in a 2015 opinion piece in The Guardian that after my book
00:12:48.240 Plutocrats was published in 2012, I was even disinvited to a Davos dinner party.
00:12:53.840 The doors of Davos were closing for Freeland.
00:12:56.540 They swung back open with her entry into politics in 2013.
00:13:00.800 And so now we know that Freeland is sitting on the board.
00:13:05.200 She's currently the only government minister to be sitting on a board.
00:13:09.640 So again, makes you wonder, why is that a conflict of interest?
00:13:13.180 Why is Chrystia Freeland allowed to sit on a board that is espousing incredibly left-wing
00:13:18.560 views, right?
00:13:19.060 This is the heart of the matter, that the experts and the elites at Davos express views that
00:13:24.520 are not widely shared by Canadians.
00:13:28.020 They're pretty extreme.
00:13:29.180 They're pretty out there.
00:13:30.320 Okay, but here's the real issue with Davos.
00:13:33.260 It's not so much that it controls the Trudeau government.
00:13:35.700 I don't think that Klaus Schwab picks up the phone and tells Justin Trudeau what to do.
00:13:39.740 The problem is that Justin Trudeau and the liberals, and by that I mean broadly liberals in
00:13:45.360 politics and media, including most of the media party here, is that they like global
00:13:50.240 institutions.
00:13:51.000 They favor globalism.
00:13:52.780 They like the United Nations.
00:13:54.060 They're aspirational.
00:13:55.140 They like the idea of working together.
00:13:57.160 And they truly believe in the power of these institutions.
00:14:00.480 And that is counter to the growing sentiment in society who feel like these global institutions
00:14:05.100 don't work.
00:14:05.860 And they're not working in Canada's best interest.
00:14:08.640 They're not working in the best interest of Canadians.
00:14:10.980 In fact, they sort of undermine our sovereignty.
00:14:12.940 And so it's not so much that Trudeau is controlled by them, but it's that Trudeau is inspired by
00:14:17.780 them.
00:14:18.120 Trudeau and his liberal cabinet ministers love going to these kind of global events.
00:14:21.940 They love virtue signaling.
00:14:23.400 They love being at the forefront.
00:14:24.860 They love the glowing profiles that they get from like-minded journalists who also go to
00:14:29.500 these events.
00:14:30.320 So time and time again, they leave Davos and they come back and basically adopt exactly
00:14:35.340 what was being talked about.
00:14:36.540 So we have a bunch of examples.
00:14:37.740 In June 2021, addressing climate change through carbon taxes, and they use Canada as an example
00:14:43.680 of successful carbon taxes.
00:14:46.020 Likewise, this idea of the Global Future Council on Energy Transition.
00:14:50.600 There was a piece from 2021, Why We Need a Global Framework to Regulate Online Harm.
00:14:55.860 That was talked about at the World Economic Forum, and it was adopted by Canadians.
00:15:00.020 We've seen this also in regards to the United Nations.
00:15:02.700 There was a huge uprising, mostly on the political right, a couple of years ago when the United
00:15:06.860 Nations introduced a global compact on migration that basically gave migrants the exact same
00:15:12.000 rights as refugees and said that anyone has the right to travel to any country and try to
00:15:16.440 get citizenship.
00:15:17.600 And the media was very, you know, the media party were very upset and they were saying,
00:15:21.680 you know, this isn't law.
00:15:23.080 This isn't ratified.
00:15:24.020 This is just basically an aspirational international declaration.
00:15:28.140 So why are conservatives getting worked up about it?
00:15:30.340 Well, the idea is because Trudeau comes home and drafts his legislation based on the nonsense
00:15:36.080 and the gobbledgoop that is being cooked up in these international forums.
00:15:39.600 Again, we see it time and time again, which is why I'm personally very skeptical of the
00:15:43.660 World Economic Forum.
00:15:44.500 And I think that the criticism of the World Economic Forum is not a conspiracy theory.
00:15:48.920 Sure, there are some conspiracy theories and those should be debunked.
00:15:51.400 It's not true that these people actually control the levers of power, but they inspire governments
00:15:56.940 like the Trudeau government to do all kinds of awful policies that are terrible for the
00:16:01.420 people of Canada.
00:16:02.980 And so that's why I'm happy to see Pierre Polyev come out pretty forcefully over the weekend
00:16:07.420 and say that he will ban cabinet ministers and top officials from being involved in the
00:16:12.460 World Economic Forum.
00:16:13.360 And sure, this is symbolic.
00:16:14.780 It's not going to completely stop the problem of global elites trying to ram their expert opinions
00:16:19.380 down our throats.
00:16:20.180 But it's a good first step and it's a good measure of where Pierre stands in the issue
00:16:25.440 of sort of global institutions and global governance on one side and state sovereignty
00:16:30.160 and the supremacy of the nation state on the other side.
00:16:33.620 And it's good to see Pierre come out on the side of Canada.
00:16:36.920 And so this is a video that Pierre released over the weekend where he basically lays it all
00:16:41.020 out and he lets it be known where he stands on the World Economic Forum.
00:16:45.480 And let me just tell you, this created quite the stir online.
00:16:48.240 We'll go through some reaction.
00:16:49.120 And so here is that clip of Pierre letting us know where he stands on the World Economic
00:16:54.240 Forum.
00:16:54.680 And that is why I've made it clear that my ministers and my government will be banned
00:16:59.420 from participating in the World Economic Forum when I'm in government.
00:17:06.940 Work for Canada.
00:17:12.260 Work for Canada.
00:17:13.040 If you want to go to Davos to that conference, make it a one-way ticket.
00:17:17.080 But you can't be part of our government and working for a policy agenda that is against
00:17:22.960 the interests of our people.
00:17:24.700 What he says are exactly right is exactly at the heart of people's concerns with the World
00:17:28.840 Economic Forum.
00:17:29.600 You can't be part of our government and working for a policy agenda that opposes Canadians'
00:17:35.320 best interests.
00:17:36.180 And I couldn't have said it any better myself.
00:17:38.680 Good for Pierre, again, for putting that out.
00:17:40.740 Pretty remarkable.
00:17:41.480 The reaction to that tweet.
00:17:42.860 Every fancy person in politics and the media came out in lockstep to denounce Pierre Poliev
00:17:48.680 and to basically just try to dunk on him, try to say that he's lying or that he's promoting
00:17:54.060 conspiracy theories or saying, well, wait a minute.
00:17:56.820 Stephen Harper attended the World Economic Forum 10 years ago, right?
00:18:00.360 It's like, well, guess what?
00:18:01.680 This whole realignment about the global elites and experts telling us what to do, that wasn't
00:18:07.920 as much of a concern back 10 years ago when Stephen Harper was prime minister.
00:18:11.880 And also, we knew where Harper stood.
00:18:13.620 It was very clear that Stephen Harper preferred that Stephen Harper didn't like these global institutions.
00:18:19.180 Every time he went to the United Nations, he would tell us all of the problems that he
00:18:22.740 had with the UN.
00:18:24.000 And so it's so weird to see journalists like here we have Evan Solomon from CTV or Mercedes
00:18:29.160 Stevenson from Global trying to punch down Pierre as if they're his opposition, as if
00:18:33.340 it's their job to counter his position.
00:18:36.940 You know, the media, they're supposed to be reporting things.
00:18:39.820 Instead, they're jumping into the arena and acting like political players, trying to dunk
00:18:44.660 on the potential conservative leader.
00:18:47.840 And of course, in doing all this, these journalists reveal themselves to be clearly
00:18:52.260 obviously part of the same global elite mindset that gathers in Davos.
00:18:57.040 I'm sure they wish that they were all in Davos as well, like Chrystia Freeland, who managed
00:19:02.240 to go from journalist to cabinet minister in Canada to board member of the World Economic
00:19:07.420 Forum.
00:19:07.740 I'm sure all these journalists aspire to that.
00:19:10.180 And that's their aspired career path.
00:19:12.560 But I want to point out what Robin Urbach of the Globe and Mail said.
00:19:15.480 She quote tweeted Pierre and says, I will make Canada the freest country on earth by banning
00:19:19.920 certain people from participating in something the internet told me was bad.
00:19:24.160 It's kind of funny that a journalist would try to measure freedom.
00:19:27.340 Like usually when you measure freedom, you think of the freedom of the everyday person,
00:19:31.540 the ability for them to have a good life, to be able to afford a house, a car, the cost
00:19:36.400 of living, free to pick their own career, free to live their life in the way that you
00:19:40.480 want.
00:19:40.840 Typically, when you're measuring the freedom of a society, you're not measuring in terms
00:19:46.080 of what government officials and cabinet ministers, what extracurriculars they're allowed to be
00:19:51.360 involved with.
00:19:51.820 It's just sort of weird that a journalist would instinctively think of freedom in terms
00:19:56.700 of the freedom of a cabinet minister to go to some fancy conference, as opposed to the
00:20:01.940 freedom of everyday people to be able to live their life and pursue their own interests.
00:20:07.060 Just really, again, shows you the mindset of journalists that they're interested in defending
00:20:12.760 the elite.
00:20:13.380 They're not interested in defending Canadians.
00:20:15.080 They're not interested in holding elites accountable in service of Canadians.
00:20:19.660 They're interested in the exact opposite of that, holding Canadians accountable in service
00:20:23.700 of global elites.
00:20:25.580 Well, this seems like a good point in the program to bring in Andrew Lawton, True Norris
00:20:29.820 Andrew Lawton, who's reporting from the ground in Davos, Switzerland.
00:20:32.620 Andrew, it's great to have you.
00:20:34.460 Hey, it's good to be with you.
00:20:35.960 So I wouldn't even know half the half of what was going on at Davos if it wasn't for your
00:20:40.700 reporting.
00:20:41.200 The legacy media seems to have no interest in what's being said and the themes and what's
00:20:46.280 going on there.
00:20:47.340 So first question for you, Andrew, why did you decide to go to Davos and why do you think
00:20:50.860 it's so important to report on this kind of stuff?
00:20:53.420 Well, I think there are two things.
00:20:54.620 I mean, one is that we try to give the people what they want.
00:20:56.480 And I know our audience has been talking a lot about this, asking a lot about the questions
00:21:00.100 they have about the WAF.
00:21:01.940 And specifically, it's context on Canadians.
00:21:04.380 And I know there are a lot of things that that are territorial about this organization
00:21:08.640 because it is mysterious and that mystery and secrecy breed that sort of stuff.
00:21:12.540 But I think there's an overcorrection from a lot of people who want to avoid looking at
00:21:17.060 it at all, who say, oh, it's all conspiracy.
00:21:19.400 You can't do anything.
00:21:20.520 So really, what I want to do is come here and do what we do best at True North, which
00:21:24.100 is talk about the facts, talk about the side of the story the mainstream media is not
00:21:27.460 representing and explain without delving into the fringe stuff that really isn't, I think,
00:21:32.540 the bulk of most people's criticisms with the WAF.
00:21:34.700 Talk about what the organization is, what it stands for.
00:21:37.620 And a lot of that is just using its own language and showing what it is that they want.
00:21:42.640 I mean, there is no secrecy about the agenda.
00:21:44.700 They're really using, I think, a very vocal and clear language about what it is they want
00:21:48.520 to do.
00:21:49.560 So just a question, because I remember you had some issues where they didn't want to let
00:21:52.760 you in.
00:21:53.120 They didn't want to allow you to cover this as a journalist.
00:21:55.580 You couldn't get the right credentials.
00:21:56.740 But it seems like you have been able to get in and report on that.
00:21:59.620 So can you give us a bit of an update of your ability to access this and report as a journalist
00:22:05.340 there on the ground?
00:22:06.880 Yeah.
00:22:07.120 So officially, I have no status.
00:22:09.080 Officially, I can't go into any of the secure areas.
00:22:11.200 They have this really weird caste system with badges where your status depends on the color
00:22:16.620 of badge you have.
00:22:17.420 And I'm completely bad.
00:22:18.360 So I've got no status here, which means I can't go inside.
00:22:21.520 But there are two things that I think are working in my favor here.
00:22:24.040 The first is that a lot of their programming is actually public.
00:22:26.980 A lot of their sessions are public.
00:22:28.640 And you can access them and watch them online.
00:22:30.820 Anyone can.
00:22:31.840 We have some people back in Canada as well that are going through and looking for really
00:22:35.600 important details.
00:22:36.720 But the other part is that this is really an elite village.
00:22:39.700 I mean, one of the pro-climate justice protesters I spoke to a couple of days ago characterized it
00:22:44.420 pretty well as a corporate Disneyland.
00:22:46.120 And they're not used to anyone in this safe space that isn't invited.
00:22:49.940 So a lot of these really important people are just walking around, going into the shops,
00:22:53.640 going into the restaurants.
00:22:54.920 And I've been able to speak to UN officials a few moments ago.
00:22:57.440 I spoke to former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney.
00:23:00.060 He didn't want to answer any questions, but he was there.
00:23:02.080 So it's really a combination of the two.
00:23:04.220 What they're saying publicly and then privately when you see them walking around just to ask
00:23:08.700 them about what it is they want to do and if they're okay with the consequences
00:23:12.120 of that.
00:23:13.300 Henry, you wrote a piece called The Strange Phoniness of Davos.
00:23:17.000 One of my impressions of the whole World Economic Forum is that the things that they think are
00:23:21.840 the priorities are so distant from the everyday concerns of Canadians.
00:23:26.220 I know you were at the Trucker Convoy.
00:23:27.680 You report on a lot of the kind of cost of living issues that Canadians face.
00:23:32.840 Can you sort of contrast or talk about whether you think that the main areas of focus at a
00:23:38.620 conference like this are aligned with and similar to the day-to-day concerns of Canadians?
00:23:44.560 No, it's the opposite.
00:23:45.980 And that's been one of the most stark things to see.
00:23:48.200 And I've been trying to figure out how to write about it.
00:23:49.740 So let me workshop some material with you and your audience here is that there's just
00:23:54.080 this profound disconnect between the people that deal with the consequences of the policies
00:23:58.580 discussed here and those discussing the policies.
00:24:00.720 And one significant example of this, there was a panel yesterday featuring a Norwegian banker
00:24:05.840 whose name I can't recall right now, and she was talking about how all of these changes
00:24:10.200 to green energy and the small and medium-sized business industry are going to cause pain.
00:24:15.420 Those are her words.
00:24:16.080 And she said, we have to accept that it causes pain, and we have to talk about that.
00:24:19.360 But she said, it's all worth it, and we have to just tell people that it's worth it.
00:24:22.480 Well, if you're a small business owner that can't afford the gas bill or the electricity
00:24:25.620 bill for your business, or you're a trucker who can't afford to put fuel in your truck
00:24:29.820 right now, you're not really going to be all that heart-warmed by some Norwegian banker
00:24:35.040 in the Swiss mountains saying that, ah, yeah, but it's short-term pain, but it's better in
00:24:39.420 the long run.
00:24:40.120 It's not better for the people.
00:24:41.380 It may be better for the country.
00:24:42.560 It may be better for the climate.
00:24:43.820 And both of those, I think, are big ifs.
00:24:45.840 But it's not better for the people, and they don't seem to care.
00:24:48.820 And it's amazing how little they seem to care about the fact that they don't care.
00:24:54.040 So one of the things, as you probably saw, Pierre Polyev came out with a video saying,
00:24:59.160 you know, if I'm the prime minister, I'm not going to allow any government officials
00:25:02.200 and any cabinet ministers to go to this thing.
00:25:04.580 And the reaction has been wild.
00:25:06.060 Like, everyone in lockstep has come out to condemn this comment.
00:25:10.900 I'm wondering if you, like, what is your feeling?
00:25:14.060 Do you think that Pierre is sort of giving oxygen to conspiracy theorists, or do you think
00:25:17.460 that that is a legitimate and wise policy choice?
00:25:22.100 One of the things that I find interesting, I've read a little bit of the criticism of Pierre
00:25:26.320 Polyev saying that.
00:25:27.300 And what I find fascinating is that the people that try to dismiss conspiracy theories say they
00:25:31.220 don't do anything, it's nothing, it's just a bunch of people that get together and talk,
00:25:34.680 they're not actually doing anything.
00:25:36.520 So if that's the case, why do we want to be involved either?
00:25:40.020 I mean, there's an excuse to not want to be involved because you think they're doing
00:25:43.340 a bunch of terrible things.
00:25:44.700 But if you think they're doing nothing, and it is just this global corporate Disneyland
00:25:47.980 get-together, then I think there's a similar question of why do we want to embolden that?
00:25:51.880 I think for Canada to come here, all of the climate and energy discussions they're having
00:25:56.600 have basically been policies that would amount to signing a death warrant on the oil and gas
00:26:01.200 sector, which in Canada is of the utmost importance.
00:26:03.600 So I think any Canadian government should be looking long and hard at their economic
00:26:07.560 needs in Canada, what we need as a country, and what they're talking about here and saying
00:26:11.240 there's just not a compatibility here.
00:26:13.360 Well, Andrew, it looks like you're getting rained on.
00:26:15.540 So I really appreciate you sticking it out there for this interview.
00:26:18.760 I'll just ask you one final question.
00:26:21.300 I agree with you that the criticism of Pierre, it feels like straw man.
00:26:26.200 It's like rather than actually getting to the root of, hey, this is why people don't
00:26:30.120 like Davos, this is why people don't like the World Economic Forum and what they're talking
00:26:33.180 about, they just say, oh, these stupid conspiracy theorists and how dare Pierre give them oxygen
00:26:37.840 or even acknowledge them.
00:26:39.640 But it's a fact that the Trudeau government gets inspired by these kind of radical leftist
00:26:43.460 ideas that get shopped around at these kind of conferences.
00:26:46.760 We've seen that with climate policies, with punishing oil and gas, recently with online
00:26:50.900 harms or censorship.
00:26:52.420 I'm wondering if you, being on the ground there, what is the main theme of the conference
00:26:58.220 this year?
00:26:58.580 What are people talking about?
00:26:59.820 And what should Canadians be concerned about on the horizon?
00:27:02.360 What's the next thing that Trudeau is going to get inspired by?
00:27:05.200 Well, the official theme has been rebuilding trust, which I think is an evergreen theme.
00:27:09.720 But if you look at the panels that they're having, it's all about climate, the environment.
00:27:13.580 A lot of people are walking around with these UN Sustainable Development Goal pins, but they're
00:27:17.620 not UN employees.
00:27:18.520 There are executives at Microsoft and Google that are all just walking around with these
00:27:22.940 UN pins.
00:27:23.820 So I think that the climate change stuff is the biggest stuff for Canadians, but certainly
00:27:28.100 free speech as well.
00:27:29.060 I mean, there was a clip I posted yesterday that went viral of Australia's e-safety
00:27:33.100 commissioner talking about how we need to recalibrate things like freedom of speech.
00:27:37.120 So we know that this is some stuff that's very much on the radar for Justin Trudeau.
00:27:41.380 I don't believe that Klaus Schwab is running the show in Canada, but I believe that the World
00:27:44.920 Economic Forum is putting out a series of policies that people like Justin Trudeau really want
00:27:49.480 to lap up.
00:27:50.080 And I think that's why, to go back to your original question of why are we here, Canadians
00:27:53.600 need to be paying attention to this.
00:27:55.660 Well, absolutely.
00:27:56.360 And again, Andrew, if it wasn't for the reporting that you're doing, we just wouldn't even be
00:27:59.700 aware of any of this.
00:28:00.760 We wouldn't have the details.
00:28:03.020 And so we really, really appreciate you going and doing what most legacy media journalists
00:28:07.600 in Canada just refuse to do, which is simply go observe, gather information, and you're
00:28:11.940 doing great journalism out there.
00:28:13.420 We appreciate it.
00:28:13.920 And sorry we're getting you, making you stand out in the rain, but we appreciate the interview.
00:28:16.520 It's all worth it for the story.
00:28:18.740 Excellent.
00:28:19.700 Well, thank you so much, Andrew, for reporting on the ground.
00:28:22.320 That is Andrew Lawton on the ground in Davos, Switzerland, doing excellent journalism, doing
00:28:25.900 the kind of work that the legacy media refuses to do.
00:28:28.660 If you want to help True North out, if you want to help us allow our journalists to go to
00:28:33.180 these kind of events, it costs a lot of money to send a reporter over there.
00:28:36.660 We don't have the deep pockets.
00:28:38.300 We don't have subsidies and grants and funding from the Trudeau government like most other
00:28:42.520 legacy media outlets.
00:28:43.920 So if you want to help support the work we do, head on over to tnc.news slash donate, and
00:28:50.020 you can help fund that trip to Switzerland for Andrew Lawton doing great reporting on the
00:28:55.340 ground.
00:28:55.540 It's so important to shine a light on what is going on there, not to give oxygen again to
00:28:59.980 the conspiracy theorists, but just to show the problem with the mindset of the people and
00:29:05.320 the radical left-wing policies that are being cooked up in these back rooms and on the stage
00:29:11.720 at Davos, Switzerland.
00:29:13.680 Well, thank you so much for tuning in.
00:29:15.400 I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:29:17.300 The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:29:28.860 The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:29:28.940 I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:29:30.480 Thank you.