00:34:15.000Basically, I sort of connected all the residents of Thorold and of surrounding Niagara region,
00:34:22.620because they were concerned and active residents as well to, you know, get the message out about the big secret in Thorold0.56
00:34:33.120is that we're slowly being taken over by foreign selected people, not elected people.
00:34:40.800But on top of it, they're not even from Canada.
00:34:44.820And, you know, as we went through this, we had about six or seven ladies,
00:34:50.080and they would station themselves outside retail areas or in malls and so on they ran into you know0.98
00:34:58.000a few people that gave them a rough time not many but we did manage to get 250 signatures
00:35:04.720of uh in a statement of support for the council to opt out of icly by the hard work that these
00:35:12.720ladies did and they were just so surprised at how many people are awake and that's wonderful to see
00:35:21.480but but that said now that we've opened this crack and it's the first crack in Canada that0.59
00:35:27.480we can you know keep keep opening uh the the challenge is we've got to keep that civic
00:35:35.540engagement uh constant all the time so we're meeting next week and brainstorming how can we
00:35:44.020keep this initiative going and you know one thing that uh we've talked about and jim had had set
00:35:52.340set the groundwork for that in 2000 and whenever it was 2006 or whenever he started with his own
00:35:59.220environmental plan um which is very cost effective because you're not hiring
00:36:05.460outside consultants like municipalities are they just kind of think well we don't know how to do
00:36:11.860this so we better hire somebody i mean it's all taxpayers money that goes goes towards this stuff
00:36:17.780so you know maggie's put together a great draft plan for an environmental plan that you can
00:36:25.620implement locally so i mean the whole key is to get out there and get the the the people involved
00:36:33.780the biggest thing for we were i'm connected with two or three other freedom groups in the niagara
00:36:41.140region and for the three meetings that we were involved with in the council we you know filled
00:36:48.260the council chambers and the lobby outside and just when the counselors saw all the people there
00:36:54.900they figured they must know something we better be careful about what we sign into here you know
00:37:02.020and i think just having the presence of the people there was amazing and they were all you know you
00:37:08.340had the odd laugh the odd clapping that would come up from time to time but there wasn't any heckling
00:37:14.500or people being nasty or threatening or no conflict no anxiety or anything like that we were all
00:37:22.580respecting the council and that plays a big part in it too because you know as i'm sure you've
00:37:31.340you've had many people on your show as soon as somebody you know raises their voice or holds up
00:37:37.940who knows what it is the media will just eat you alive so you gotta stay calm you gotta stay cool
00:37:45.880And it was all part of it. But I mean, basically, we just put the pieces of this puzzle together. And, you know, there was just so many unanswered questions. The counselors really didn't have a choice because they couldn't in good conscience say, yes, this is what we need to do.
00:38:06.360when there were so many unanswered questions.
00:38:09.180When we had the two members of the PCP of the council,
00:38:13.940we had a lot of people there from our groups listening,
00:38:17.600and I believe there were something like 17 questions asked by Jim and Carmen,
00:38:23.520and it was all just spoken mirrors, all just spoken mirrors.
00:38:28.140What about the other members of council?
00:38:30.740How did they respond to this, Jim, Duncan?
00:38:33.560were they supportive or were they actually willing to sit and listen or were they just
00:38:39.660sniping at you because i know that in in other forums like this in different cities across the
00:38:44.720country regarding maybe uh you know the transing of kids in schools and whatnot some counselors
00:38:50.120will actually just turn their back as a sign of disrespect for the duration of a meeting did you
00:38:56.420see any sign of that at all well i can tell you how how it works in thought so we have counselors
00:39:04.740who always proclaim that they're going to support what staff recommendation are so in january 2017
00:39:14.260when it started january 17 2023 when it started staff recommended that we join pcp uh majority of
00:39:24.900counselors or was close to the tie were in favor of joining and i asked that it be
00:39:31.620put over to the budget deliberations and that because there could be financial implications
00:39:37.060at that time instead of joining full force we were able to get council to agree that would be
00:39:43.300a one-year term just let you know how it all went down and then that one year term we agreed on
00:39:49.140And the city staff never did join ICLEI, even though they told us in January 17th, joining it was simple.
00:39:56.060It's just going online, you could join.
00:39:58.000So when the year came up, I got a hold of the city clerk and said, OK, the year is up.
00:40:06.420And they said, well, Jim, we really didn't join yet.
00:40:10.440So that actually was a catalyst and give us the opportunity to get Maggie on board and Duncan on board.
00:40:16.500So now we had a platform to fight it, and we were able to get staff because on the May 28th meeting, council members, we were at a tie.
00:40:31.940It was 4-4, actually, and they broke it for us to go to June, and in June is when staff then changed their decision and said, we now recommend we don't join it.
00:40:45.140So then what happened then is the counselors who always said, well, I always support what staff recommends.
00:40:51.260I knew then we added one because now the members previously that said they didn't support it now did support staff.
00:41:00.880And we only had one dissenting member.
00:41:04.840And, you know, that's his decision or whatever, but we were able to be successful seven to one.
00:41:08.980So how it came to be was they kind of got themselves and condemned them when they said, well, we're going to support staff.
00:41:17.200So when staff reversed the decision, they had no alternative but to support staff.
00:41:22.580And I got to say this, if I could add one thing, and Maggie was a catalyst that night.
00:41:29.440Maggie had registered to speak or thought she had registered to speak.
00:41:33.140They only put in her deprecitation in writing.
00:41:38.900So I was able to get staff and be able to put up motion to the floor to able Maggie to speak.
00:41:44.800It was a 4-4 tie to show you how the meeting went.0.94
00:41:49.180The mayor broke the tie to allow her to speak.
00:41:51.720And then when it came to actually come to the floor for a vote, we won 7-1.
00:41:56.200Because Maggie was able to speak and they were going to deny her that opportunity.
00:42:00.080so how how do we have this is fantastic when in thorold ontario people might be saying you guys
00:42:07.700watching this right now might be saying well thorold ontario it's a city of 20 000 people i
00:42:12.140mean it's it's just one out of how many maggie 400 plus municipalities across the country
00:42:17.200how do we spread what happened in thorold to across the province and then across the country
00:42:26.080Well, I would absolutely tell everyone watching this to grab the articles that we put out about Thorold's win on the Substack and on the different Thorolds.
00:42:41.140We've posted anyone who has done an article about this.
00:42:47.220I would send that to your councillors.
00:42:49.200They need to see an example of a municipality opting out and the reasons that were given and the fact the staff recommended it so that they can start looking at that.
00:43:01.300I think that there's really good counselors all across this country and mayors, and if they only knew what was happening behind the scenes with these programs and how much time and energy is being invested into collecting our data and giving it away to an international organization and really, you know, forcing these reduction targets.
00:43:26.020I don't think people understand when a municipality sets a reduction target like net zero by 2050, they're essentially ensuring that any product or program, no matter what the cost is, that aligns with that reduction target that has been adopted will immediately be endorsed moving forward.
00:43:52.920things happen in a council in a certain way and this pcp program lays a foundation for that and
00:44:01.400then once they get all of our data and they give it to icly and then they start whining and dining
00:44:10.820and networking with them and bringing them to trade shows and showing them all these fancy
00:44:15.340green products on how to get to their reduction target and um no they got a lot of i mean they
00:44:21.160got a lot of money behind this obviously as you were pointing out earlier the the government of
00:44:25.160canada and and whatever the un is probably behind all of this and and so i mean that's a big hill
00:44:31.900to climb there are all kinds of people who message me daily every single day shadow i want to help
00:44:41.280how can i help to me this is the most important battle that we're facing so maggie thank you
00:44:49.400first of all for recognizing this and then taking it on uh duncan let me ask you how did the media
00:44:55.400respond to all of this in the world well there was just uh i think the next day and maggie put
00:45:03.720it up right away as soon as we saw it and it was a fairly well balanced uh report about the whole
00:45:11.760thing um you know still the idea that i think we all know climate change is a bunch of smoke and
00:45:21.860mirrors um the majority of people still don't realize that but well none of none of us likes
00:45:28.300pollution we don't want to see birds dying in an oil slick in the great lakes we don't want to see
00:45:32.880that stuff but at the same time when they sit there and they say the forest fires and the the
00:45:36.880wildfires are being caused by climate change and you know the ice is melting and all of that
00:45:41.700stuff i mean come on man i mean we know better than that you know the cow farts i mean like
00:45:46.620in new york the mayor there eric adams a couple of months ago said we're monitoring and this is
00:45:52.040where the information comes in maggie we're monitoring your food consumption so we can drop
00:45:56.920meat eating in new york city by 30 by 2030 what seriously like they're going that far
00:46:05.120that's absolutely crazy so i'm glad you guys have done this but again the pushback did the media go
00:46:12.480nuts did the activist groups go crazy on you guys at all nothing no we did it originally they did
00:46:19.360when when last year at this time when when jim and carmen and and ron devereau pushed back
00:46:26.600conspiracy theorists right but this time well i think they they did one more article earlier when
00:46:34.740i did that first delegation in the spring and uh they they did another bad one too but um the
00:46:44.460recent one was really good and they actually quoted us and they said why we we had concerns
00:46:50.360with it and and i think we're just getting better at how we're we're wording things too and i really
00:46:56.300tried to encourage the team um we don't need to use triggering words and language it won't help
00:47:03.220us win no leave that to me i'll do that yes that's my job and if i can say maggie when you
00:47:11.780made that presentation to the environmental and sustainability committee in thorold you know and
00:47:17.900then they said that you had made false accusation your data was uh wrong you know uh they basically
00:47:27.200said that publicly actually passed a motion but i just want to let it be known that after we were
00:47:32.200successful council the chair of that committee resigned so to me let it be that he resigned
00:47:38.520because their agenda was no longer being instrumental and he basically resigned the
00:47:45.660next day what's that so it wasn't a public municipality and that was fantastic like we
00:47:53.600went in we did a delegation it was mainly about climate change and my concerns with the pcp
00:47:59.200program and how it would affect their municipal plans and the fact that the the government and
00:48:05.580fcm waived liability is it like you have to go in there agreeing with them because you're talking
00:48:11.700about using non-inflammatory language maggie but at the same time i mean you can't go in there and
00:48:15.820say well you know what there's climate change going on but it's not as bad as you think it is
00:48:19.560i mean do you have to placate them that that way in order to get them to listen to you
00:48:23.360I think one thing that worked really well with Thorold is we had three Thorold residents do deputations, all from different points of view.
00:48:37.600We had two older ladies get up there and talk about, you know, their history.
00:48:43.120And one of them was a counselor and knew all the counselors.
00:48:46.360and she mentioned them by name and you could see the smiles and there was a real you know
00:48:52.680relationship of trust there then there was mina who got up there and you know just pulled
00:48:59.040everybody's heartstrings with how her family came over from yugoslavia and how you know neighbors0.64
00:49:05.720always help neighbors and we need to do that again and it was like playing on the emotions
00:49:11.920of the counselors. Then we had the facts with Maggie and Jim. And then we had Ron Devereaux.
00:49:20.820Now, this guy's 77 years old. He's still doing landscaping and ground maintenance every day.
00:49:29.620But he also has two post-secondary degrees on earth sciences. So he really knows what's going
00:49:36.660on up in the sky and on the ground. And he understands all that stuff. And for the last
00:49:41.620Three months, he's been pummeling at least one or two emails to the mayor, the staff, and the council in the city of Thorold explaining how the climate change thing doesn't hold water.
00:49:58.640And he put in little really well put together videos that he found online, you know, two, three minutes, nice and simple.
00:50:06.200But again, here was a guy that's been doing deputations in Thorough since 1996 about all different kinds of things.
00:50:14.680And, you know, those three people together with Maggie and Jim, we couldn't lose.
00:50:22.780So we need to recreate the perfect storm that you guys created there in Thorough to get this to happen.1.00
00:50:30.320We've got to bring the two old Yugoslavian ladies out.1.00
00:50:33.180We've got to tug at the heartstrings of the city council somehow.0.95
00:50:36.200Is this going to work, Maggie, do you think, in larger cities?
00:50:43.100I was going to say, you need to get someone like myself that understands, is open, and able to communicate with the public within the best need of the municipality.
00:50:58.380I'm a councilor that believes in the local agenda, not in the global agenda.
00:51:03.260And when I seen Maggie and what she was trying to do in Peterborough and Quarter Lakes and we connected, I knew I had met the person that could help us get to what we needed to do in Thorpe because they looked at me in Thorpe as the conspiracy theorist.
00:51:21.580Jim Hanley, you're the conspiracy theorist.
00:51:24.040I've had several integrity commissioner complaints against me over the last few years because of my conspiracy theorist attitudes.
00:51:33.260And eventually, it was able, through Duncan and Duncan's bed, and having local citizens come forward, Angela Braun, former city councilor, Minna, the lady from Yugoslavia, Ron Devereaux, I go back to Ron in 1996, I first ran for council in 1996, just to let you know, Shadow, I've been a councillor for 21 years in the city of Thoreau, and I'm involved in municipal politics in 1996.
00:52:01.460And together, collectively as a group, that's what we need to do.
00:52:05.640We need to get individuals like myself that are members of council
00:52:10.080understand that we can be our own environmental stewards
00:52:14.160and we don't need non-governmental organizations showing us how to move forward
00:52:20.000in regards to environmental sustainability.
00:52:23.520So you guys, I know that you're local Thorold Niagara region guys,
00:52:28.360but obviously you have connections to other councillors in other cities,
00:52:33.860and I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe,
00:52:37.320you might be able to connect us, Maggie, whoever,
00:52:41.520with some of these folks who believe, as we do,
00:52:43.880that, as Duncan says, this is just smoke and mirrors,1.00
00:57:09.420Start getting together once a month and decide what you're going to do that month to influence your local council and to form a relationship with them.
00:57:19.220maybe you're gonna look at the pcp website and see if you've signed up and then call your local staff
00:57:26.140and politely ask for the joining resolution let them know that they're signed up some of them
00:57:32.140don't know and you mentioned this before too on the show that joining resolution is everything
00:57:37.560as far as thorold goes you guys uh at least jim was saying you guys hadn't signed up yet you were
00:57:44.280looking at it you've done some um one-year trials but other municipalities maggie in this country
00:57:50.160have been members of this thing for 20 years or more so you've got to go back some to find that
00:57:54.300joining resolution right yeah and once they get to milestone five there's five milestones
00:57:59.920they get to milestone five and do you know what they do after they've got all of our data and
00:58:05.500they've gotten the council to endorse their reduction targets they go to disneyland they
00:58:11.420declare a climate emergency to galvanize public opinion and justify their expenditures and and
00:58:19.220it just keeps keeps coming the fear campaign just doesn't stop so what we're doing too is going in
00:58:25.840and presenting local environmental stewardship programs in most cases we're already doing enough
00:58:32.200for the environment if anything our local programs are underfunded and we're spending
00:58:37.300way too much on things that aren't necessary and um if we get these iklis out if we get the u.n
00:58:46.280out of local government if you know it's going to take some time because it took some time for
00:58:50.760them all to to get all of the 400 or so municipalities on board is that going to make
00:58:56.160things much different in this country in your opinion i could go through all three of you guys
00:59:02.060It will. I think it will, because if we succeed in doing that, that means that we've pulled together local activists and given them an actual strategy that works and that they can win with.
00:59:19.980right and and it gets the people engaged again canada has a political apathy problem look at
00:59:28.320the voter turnout that is the groundwork that needs to be addressed so when i started doing this
00:59:34.060um it was more for that gather 2030 how can we pull the community together oh look we got
00:59:40.200some really interesting people that are pretty smart that are looking at the city council