The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - Danielle Smith traps NDP on ＂book ban＂ issue - Nenshi flails around!

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, Wyatt Claypool here. 0.99

00:00:02.900 Truly Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is blessed by having some of the dumbest political opponents in Canadian politics. 0.60

00:00:11.520 The Alberta NDP, led by Naheed Nenshi, for some reason are trying to score points on the supposed book banning issue, 0.95

00:00:21.060 but it's just turned into them arguing in favor of sexually inappropriate materials in school libraries.

00:00:28.100 They tried to woke scold her on something that 90% of Albertans, if they actually know the books that are being banned,

00:00:36.540 would not actually have a problem with it, and these books aren't even being banned, really.

00:00:41.720 They're being banned in school libraries.

00:00:44.680 You can still go out there if you're crazy and buy these things.

00:00:48.020 You just can't show them to elementary, middle school, or high school kids, depending on what the content is

00:00:54.120 and whether it's appropriate for certain age groups and not for others,

00:00:58.200 or it's just completely inappropriate and it shouldn't be shown in the case of a book like Genderqueer.

00:01:04.380 So I want to take you guys through some of the new news about this issue,

00:01:08.600 because as you know, last week, Danielle Smith pulled back a bit on the book ban. 0.56

00:01:14.240 Really, it's just restricting inappropriate material from school libraries.

00:01:17.620 But they came out just this morning with the revised version of it that actually specifically targets

00:01:24.880 the inappropriate materials in ways that the Edmonton Board of Education cannot misinterpret.

00:01:30.780 Because, of course, last week, the Edmonton Board of Education pretended like the ban was for things like

00:01:38.100 The Great Gatsby and The Handmaid's Tale.

00:01:41.200 High school students can't read The Handmaid's Tale anymore.

00:01:43.420 I guess we're also going to have to get rid of the Bible and to kill a mockingbird. 0.99

00:01:47.700 But obviously, those would have not been actually caught up in any book ban.

00:01:52.580 They were banning sexually explicit materials, especially ones that were visual-based.

00:01:59.860 But everyone wanted to be obtuse and make a big deal about this and try and embarrass the premier

00:02:04.560 by basically maliciously complying with the orders from Education Minister Demetrius Nicolaitis

00:02:12.100 and just banning a bunch of popular books and acting like this is the actual intention of the ban.

00:02:17.300 Now, they can't pretend, but for some reason, the Alberta NDP is still trying to naysay the ban.

00:02:24.260 So, before I get into it, I just want to remind you guys, if you like the show,

00:02:27.780 make sure to leave a like on this video, subscribe if you are not yet a subscriber,

00:02:32.220 and leave a comment on what you think about this whole situation.

00:02:35.720 And, of course, because I am currently covering an Alberta issue,

00:02:39.420 I just want to shout out some municipal candidates.

00:02:42.080 If you live in Alberta, especially in the major cities,

00:02:45.340 you'll be able to check out my website later.

00:02:47.400 I'll have a whole list for Calgary of school board trustees and councillors to vote for.

00:02:52.980 But make sure if you're in Calgary, the best person you can vote for,

00:02:56.560 if you want a conservative that can win, is Sonia Sharp.

00:02:59.920 In Edmonton, your best bet would be Raheem Jaffer.

00:03:02.920 In somewhere like Medicine Hat, I would say Drew Barnes is fantastic.

00:03:06.860 And I will be filling in the gaps in some places like Airdrie and Red Deer as time goes on.

00:03:13.620 But here is the headline from the CBC article by Janet French here.

00:03:18.320 And it says,

00:03:19.280 New Alberta School Books Order Bans Explicit Images of Sexual Acts.

00:03:24.580 And it says in the subhead,

00:03:25.980 changes come after school board listed more than 200 books to remove from libraries.

00:03:30.840 And that is a key point.

00:03:32.720 It was not plural school boards.

00:03:35.540 It was just the one at Edmonton.

00:03:37.820 Isn't it kind of interesting?

00:03:39.140 The most woke one was the one who pretended that this was some sort of Christian nationalist book ban,

00:03:45.700 where if it doesn't comply with the 1930s Hays Code of Films,

00:03:50.180 then it cannot be in schools.

00:03:51.900 Obviously, that wasn't what was going on.

00:03:54.140 Again, this is what you call malicious compliance.

00:03:57.360 The book ban is slightly vague in some areas.

00:04:00.360 And so even though people obviously know the intention is to get rid of books like Genderqueer, 0.65

00:04:05.580 they're going to get rid of books like The Handmaid's Tale and then get Margaret Atwood to attack the premier. 1.00

00:04:11.100 But this article says Alberta's revised rules on books and schools will prohibit works containing explicit images of sexual acts,

00:04:20.260 but not written descriptions of the same, according to a new ministerial order published Monday.

00:04:25.380 And obviously, there can be written depictions of stuff if it is a book meant for older kids in high school.

00:04:33.200 And it is obviously literary, like it's, you know, it's necessary for the story for what happens.

00:04:40.340 But you wouldn't have that in an elementary library, which is probably also in the school order,

00:04:45.240 that you do not have those books with written descriptions available to very young children.

00:04:50.960 But if you're in, you know, grade 12, you can have stuff like that.

00:04:54.920 But yeah, this is obviously completely uncontroversial.

00:04:58.320 It goes on to say the ministerial order issued in July asked school employees to remove library materials that depicted sexual acts,

00:05:05.920 including a written passage.

00:05:07.740 That prompted Edmonton board schools to assemble a list of 226 books to remove from shelves and classrooms,

00:05:14.180 including well-known works such as The Handmaid's Tale, The Colored Purple,

00:05:17.380 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Godfather, and Jaws. 0.99

00:05:21.980 And so obviously, this is to make her look foolish, 0.92

00:05:24.760 when specifically, they had also included written passages before,

00:05:28.880 because you don't want some of those books listed going to a child in grade 5.

00:05:34.980 But now I want to cut over to the NDP,

00:05:38.540 who haven't clued into the fact that they should probably shut up about this issue now, 1.00

00:05:42.960 because they are going to look really stupid arguing about this. 0.99

00:05:46.420 Here is Nahid Nenshi, the leader of the NDP, 0.99

00:05:50.460 trying to still naysay the premier on something that upwards of 80% of Albertans,

00:05:56.220 if they knew what the order does, would absolutely support it.

00:05:59.960 So she was going to fix the book ban in two hours,

00:06:02.300 and it's been, I think, four days now,

00:06:04.380 and certainly it'll be longer than that.

00:06:06.360 And I can tell you exactly what's going on,

00:06:08.880 which is the province made an ideological commitment

00:06:11.980 in the hopes that it would help them in the Edmonton-Ellersley by-election.

00:06:15.480 And now they're trying to figure out how to actually implement that commitment.

00:06:19.440 The ministerial order...

00:06:20.660 But the thing is, he has to answer,

00:06:23.060 is the commitment wrong?

00:06:24.740 Is it bad?

00:06:25.840 That's the thing that's so weaselly here.

00:06:27.420 He's acting like, oh, she's playing politics.

00:06:30.180 Well, is it something people want or not?

00:06:32.800 Because now you, having addressed the book ban,

00:06:36.780 quote-unquote book ban,

00:06:37.720 it's like saying there's an alcohol ban because you can only drink if you're 18.

00:06:40.740 But now that he's addressed the issue,

00:06:43.500 he has to come out and state whether or not he supports it.

00:06:47.640 That's kind of necessary here.

00:06:49.880 You can't just say, ah, it's politics.

00:06:51.920 Okay, do you want genderqueer in schools? 1.00

00:06:54.040 Can you or any of the fools behind you 0.99

00:06:56.920 tell me if this is something that's in line with your values? 1.00

00:07:00.540 It was terrible.

00:07:02.180 And anyone who read that order in July knew exactly what was going to happen,

00:07:06.560 which is books like The Handmaid's Tale would get banned.

00:07:08.880 No, that's obviously not what was going to happen

00:07:12.260 unless you were reading into the mind of a school board activist

00:07:15.680 who wants to make the premier look bad.

00:07:17.440 How is it that the Northern Board of Education,

00:07:20.720 Central, ones around places like Lethbridge, Fort McMurray, Calgary,

00:07:25.840 how did they all seem to understand the order

00:07:28.660 and they didn't go wild banning books that it clearly did not mean?

00:07:32.040 It was only the most woke NDP school board that decided to do this. 0.93

00:07:36.440 And he's just playing dumb about it, that acting like, 0.72

00:07:39.980 oh, it's just because there's sloppy policy work that this happened. 0.93

00:07:42.560 It has nothing to do with the fact that we obviously wanted this to happen,

00:07:46.440 that we wanted all these books to get banned in order to make her look bad.

00:07:50.400 When that happened, and also the premier's favorite book

00:07:53.160 on right-wing ideology got banned,

00:07:55.400 she woke up and said, that's not what I meant.

00:07:58.140 Well, premier, it is what you wrote.

00:07:59.920 No, it wasn't.

00:08:02.000 Like, the whole point was that the nuance of the order

00:08:04.980 was that it couldn't include written passages for certain ages of children.

00:08:09.740 Could there have been some vague wording in there

00:08:11.820 that allowed someone dishonest to say,

00:08:14.160 oh, they're just banning them entirely?

00:08:16.620 Maybe, but the thing is that I think government

00:08:19.140 shouldn't be able to operate on a certain level of common sense. 0.66

00:08:22.200 Now she's intimating that actually it's just about gay comic books.

00:08:25.940 It's just about images, probably LGBT images, 1.00

00:08:30.080 that she doesn't want elementary school students to see.

00:08:32.520 Nobody disagrees with that.

00:08:35.280 What's funny is even in that little moment right there,

00:08:38.000 he's trying to make it seem like,

00:08:39.680 oh, she just doesn't like the gays or something like that. 0.99

00:08:42.640 She just doesn't want LGBT material. 0.96

00:08:44.980 It's just gay comic books.

00:08:46.220 And then even in his own mind, he's like,

00:08:48.200 which nobody disagrees with.

00:08:49.960 I'm like, well, are you attacking her on that

00:08:52.060 or are you agreeing with her?

00:08:53.840 Because you're right,

00:08:55.060 and I'm going to get to somebody

00:08:56.300 who tried to attack Smith yesterday in a comic

00:08:59.580 and it just completely backfired.

00:09:02.360 But what is he talking about when it comes to,

00:09:07.220 like, I don't know if he's trying to attack or agree

00:09:09.540 and say this is a waste of time or not.

00:09:11.480 Is it a waste of time?

00:09:13.120 Or are you agreeing that nobody wants these on the shelves?

00:09:15.320 Because they're on the shelves.

00:09:17.080 John Hilton O'Brien at Parents First and,

00:09:21.680 I think it's Parents for Choice in Education.

00:09:24.500 That's the group.

00:09:25.420 They went into the libraries to verify they are there.

00:09:28.160 Those books were there.

00:09:29.520 So does Nenshi think it's a waste of time getting rid of them

00:09:31.940 or he agrees that they shouldn't be there?

00:09:33.520 When they finally released the list of schools that had these materials,

00:09:37.600 none of them were elementary schools.

00:09:39.480 So one of two things is happening.

00:09:41.260 Oh, I'm sorry.

00:09:42.700 So you can have porn as long as it's a high school. 0.96

00:09:46.920 Oh, it's just porn in a high school. 0.96

00:09:48.380 Who cares? 0.90

00:09:49.660 Who cares?

00:09:51.040 Maybe it's wrong to have that anywhere because it's gross.

00:09:55.800 No public institution should carry those books.

00:09:58.180 A public library shouldn't carry those books.

00:10:00.400 You can order it online if you're weird, but nobody should have access to that book.

00:10:05.440 So he thinks it's okay if you're 15 and you get a copy of Genderqueer

00:10:09.500 that is just literally just written like visual sexual material.

00:10:14.500 There's nothing educational about it.

00:10:16.280 It's just even the person who wrote it even said it's only for adults.

00:10:21.560 Behind the scenes right now, either they're going to get rid of all those restrictions

00:10:25.040 and just say, listen, we don't want explicit comic books in elementary schools,

00:10:29.980 or they're going to try and circle it and keep the restrictions in place

00:10:34.260 and put in an exemption for literary classics or works of literary merit.

00:10:38.960 That's what the U.S. right has tried to do.

00:10:41.460 It has failed every time.

00:10:43.680 What is he talking about failed every time?

00:10:45.000 It's actually been a wildly popular policy in places like Florida.

00:10:47.900 So if I were giving advice to the premier who's going to make her bureaucrats work 1.00

00:10:51.860 all weekend to try and resolve this situation, I would just say, tell them to back down

00:10:57.140 and write a one-sentence ministerial order that says school boards should strive to ensure

00:11:02.860 that all materials in every school are age-appropriate, period.

00:11:06.160 And then, how about this?

00:11:09.160 Fund schools.

00:11:10.580 Make a deal with the teachers.

00:11:12.260 Reduce class sizes.

00:11:13.960 He can say this, but when the NDP were in government,

00:11:17.120 they didn't fund schools wildly more than any previous government did. 0.96

00:11:21.500 So unless he's going to condemn Rachel Notley too, this is just hypocritical.

00:11:26.560 Plus, at the same time, right now, Alberta, while having the youngest population of any province

00:11:34.060 and has the largest classroom sizes, and it's not even exactly because of underfunding.

00:11:38.800 It's because of bureaucratic bloat.

00:11:40.340 If you get rid of the extra vice principals at every school and the extra counselors that

00:11:45.440 you don't need and you just put teachers back in the classroom and you had more teaching

00:11:48.880 assistants, you could solve this problem.

00:11:51.300 It's not a funding issue.

00:11:52.380 It's a funding allocation issue.

00:11:55.040 They'll say, oh, the actual per capita spending is the lowest in Canada.

00:11:59.600 Okay, well, the educational achievement rates are also the highest.

00:12:02.780 So what's your point?

00:12:03.580 The thing is, certain costs are actually fixed over time.

00:12:07.180 When you have an education system, the more people that you add to the system,

00:12:11.720 every time you add a new student to the system doesn't mean another $13,000 needs to be spent.

00:12:16.680 At some point, certain things that you've paid for, you have already paid for.

00:12:20.700 You've already paid for all the testing materials and the rights to certain online programming

00:12:25.660 for the entire system.

00:12:27.340 And so it doesn't matter if you add another kid.

00:12:29.220 You don't have to go back to that vendor and say, here's another $75 so that we can use

00:12:33.820 that testing material.

00:12:34.680 You just get the testing material for the general size of your school system.

00:12:40.560 And so, again, it has nothing to do with the fact that we spend a couple thousand dollars

00:12:44.720 less than the average system in Canada.

00:12:47.380 The problem is, is just that the money allocation could be better.

00:12:50.500 It has nothing to do with the amount of dollar signs behind the program.

00:12:54.580 It has to do with how well functioning it is.

00:12:56.580 And currently, Alberta still has the best functioning system, which is a testament to the fact that

00:13:01.820 money does not buy you quality.

00:13:03.560 But anyways, so I want to move on now quickly to this comic because it got absolutely roasted

00:13:10.600 yesterday, trying to attack the premier.

00:13:14.420 This is from Theo Mudakis from the Toronto Star, trying to attack Danielle Smith because

00:13:20.840 she doesn't want comics like Archie available in the schools with her saying, we must protect

00:13:27.240 children from this.

00:13:28.700 And I can't show you the way people parody this, but in general, if you don't want somebody

00:13:36.180 to edit the comic or picture you put out, never have the person in the picture or the

00:13:42.840 person depicted in the drawing holding something that you can easily edit.

00:13:47.160 Because now what people are doing is taking the comic that cartoon Danielle Smith is holding

00:13:53.600 and putting in place actual images from the sexually explicit materials. 0.99

00:13:59.460 Again, this is such a stupid hill for Nihide Nenshi and the NDP to die on. 0.99

00:14:04.840 Like, really? 1.00

00:14:05.600 You want to fight her on whether or not porn should be in high schools? 1.00

00:14:09.780 Well, they're high school students, so that makes it okay.

00:14:12.500 And we have the education critic for the Alberta NDP here, Lori Sidgerton, saying,

00:14:20.000 we need to start funding public education.

00:14:24.460 Okay, I guess apparently we don't fund it, even though we have the best performing system.

00:14:29.440 Amanda Chapman, Alberta's new Democratic shadow minister of education, or I guess this is Amanda

00:14:34.740 Chapman, it's not Lori Sidgerton's who's putting this out.

00:14:37.140 Who is she? 0.99

00:14:38.520 Critic for senior issues.

00:14:40.180 There you go.

00:14:41.440 And Amanda Chapman, Alberta's new Democratic shadow minister for education, issued the

00:14:46.040 following statement in response to the UCP government's revised book ban.

00:14:50.240 Quote, the UCP government refuses to admit they've made a mistake.

00:14:54.240 Instead, they are doubling down on their book ban.

00:14:57.440 Okay, well, your leader has agreed with aspects of it, so what's your point?

00:15:02.480 Quote, these changes include increased cushion for parents, schools, and teachers when the

00:15:07.480 issue of age-appropriate books was already being dealt with.

00:15:10.500 Nothing today addresses the additional burden placed on teachers and school staff to catalog

00:15:15.020 books that contravene the UCP government's gaslighting ministerial order instead of

00:15:19.780 ensuring everyone understands only age-appropriate books are in schools.

00:15:24.320 Now the government is putting parents against schools just because somebody doesn't like

00:15:28.320 a book.

00:15:29.340 Okay, somebody doesn't like a book.

00:15:31.840 Name the books.

00:15:33.460 Defend those books.

00:15:35.080 Nobody's saying that we should pause school for a week and then run through the libraries

00:15:39.280 trying to find anything we don't like.

00:15:41.040 If it comes up and it's obviously age-appropriate, it's obviously just flat-out inappropriate for

00:15:46.840 anybody to be reading, let's just have an agreement that we should probably get rid of it.

00:15:51.200 That's all people are looking for.

00:15:52.800 Nobody's going to come rip Harry Potter off the shelves.

00:15:55.340 Nobody's going to rip The Handmaid's Tale off of high school bookshelves.

00:15:58.460 We just don't want, you know, explicit images being in any school.

00:16:03.940 It's so weird.

00:16:05.140 Like, I keep going back to it.

00:16:06.480 It's so weird Nahid Nenshi thinks that the ticket for him on this issue is just saying,

00:16:11.740 ah, she thinks, oh, these are already banned in elementary schools.

00:16:15.440 Okay, does he want to see polling on a Canadian parents, Alberta parents think it's good depending

00:16:21.140 on the age?

00:16:22.340 Just legitimately, just sexual acts depicted in a book are just perfectly cool for kids.

00:16:28.440 As long as you're 14 years old, as long as you're 13, what's the age cutoff for him?

00:16:33.620 I'd like to know, because I feel like that will answer more questions about Nenshi than

00:16:38.940 it does about what age-appropriate books in schools look like or not.

00:16:43.740 That seems rather odd, that he has a very hard and fast rule on who should be looking at sexual

00:16:50.540 activity and who shouldn't be looking at it in terms of young minor children.

00:16:54.860 Anyways, so that should be it for this video, guys.

00:16:59.520 I hope the NDP keeps tripling down on their opposition to what is a very popular issue for

00:17:06.080 the UCP, and it's because they're running on nothing.

00:17:09.000 The NDP is so broken at this point, they believe that it's also going to help them to oppose

00:17:14.380 coal mining in the Rockies.

00:17:16.340 Yeah, let's just take away more working-class people's jobs. 1.00

00:17:19.780 I actually opposed when we phased out coal power in Alberta, and I even criticized both

00:17:25.300 Kenny and Smith for kind of carrying through with the ban.

00:17:28.780 The NDP put it in place, but I'm like, it doesn't matter if the ban has already almost

00:17:32.700 taken full effect, reverse it.

00:17:34.880 It was wrong to do in the first place.

00:17:36.580 But now the NDP, again, is doubling down on something unpopular because getting rid of

00:17:40.920 coal power has caused there to be near energy shortages in Alberta when it's super hot outside

00:17:46.340 or when it's super cold, in favor of windmills and solar panels that barely work when also

00:17:51.900 we are experiencing extreme temperatures.

00:17:54.940 And now they want to say just, oh yeah, no mining at all.

00:17:57.340 No mining at all.

00:17:58.320 Maybe they're trying to capture the 1% of greeny voters who think that we should not extract 1.00

00:18:04.200 a single resource from the ground ever because it might upset a penguin somewhere or whatever.

00:18:09.520 Anyways, but with that being said, guys, just wanted to remind you again, especially if

00:18:14.400 you live in the city of Calgary, get a lawn sign for Sonia Sharp.

00:18:18.080 We want to make sure to litter the entire city with these things.

00:18:21.240 I'm getting a lawn sign.

00:18:22.260 I'm also getting one for my local council candidate that I like in Ward 6, Joanne Burse.

00:18:28.080 There's this guy, John Pantazopoulos, running in Ward 6, who I see a lot of people have signs

00:18:32.300 up for.

00:18:33.340 I've heard that his campaign is being run by an Alberta NDP manager.

00:18:38.720 And everything I read about the guy just strikes me as generic stuff that a lot of bad council

00:18:42.880 candidates say to make them sound somewhat fiscally responsible or whatever.

00:18:47.120 Joanne Burse is really good for Ward 6.

00:18:48.840 If you live here, get a sign for her too.

00:18:50.760 But I'm making sure to put up signs for the candidates I like.

00:18:53.200 I think it's a good practice to be able to signal what you think is the right way for

00:18:57.980 right direction for the city to vote for.

00:19:00.060 But I'll have a link down in the comments below, both for Sonia Sharp and Joanne Burse for

00:19:05.060 Ward 6.

00:19:05.660 But again, Raheem Jaffer is probably the best candidate for mayor in Edmonton.

00:19:10.320 Easily the best candidate in Medicine Hat is Drew Barnes. 0.97

00:19:15.740 And it's not because everyone else sucks.

00:19:17.180 It's because Drew Barnes is a fantastic candidate on top of being the best out of the bunch.

00:19:23.080 Anyways, so with that being said, see you guys all later.

00:19:27.420 We'll be right back.

The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - September 09, 2025

Danielle Smith traps NDP on ＂book ban＂ issue - Nenshi flails around!

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