True Patriot Love - June 23, 2026


[Sneak Peek] Protest Parks & Productivity： A New Idea for Canada？


Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

169.71

Word count

1,729

Sentence count

61

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode of TPLT Media s new show, Mike and Paul discuss the concept of protest parks and how they can be used as public protest spaces. They talk about the history of the protest parks around the world, how they came about, and why they should be used in Canada.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Okay, well you'll find them in Victoria Park in Hong Kong. You'll find them in Singapore. You'll
00:00:05.440 find one in the UK and in the Netherlands. What we're talking about today might get the bristles
00:00:11.840 up on the back of your neck or you might be cheering, but there's rarely a mid-ground on
00:00:16.580 this one. We're talking about protest parks today on TPL Media. All right, let's get into this.
00:00:26.340 joining me to talk about protest parks paul micucci thanks so much for taking the time on
00:00:30.820 this one paul yeah protest parks mike and i'm gonna add one another one yeah marathon miles
00:00:36.660 okay or kilometers as we say in canada but i really wanted to add that because i do want to
00:00:41.320 talk about that too because it really does fall in the same category in my mind now might not be
00:00:47.120 to others okay but i want to talk about it yeah before we start the show and to kick off the show
00:00:52.380 i really want to remind people something because i'm going to bring it up a number of times
00:00:55.500 The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is the it's the intergovernmental body that takes a look at all developed countries in the world.
00:01:06.420 Right.
00:01:07.020 So they've issued a warning that Canada is going to fall out of the productivity ranking.
00:01:15.980 So basically, it's going to be out of the 38.
00:01:19.180 It's going to be number 39 in productivity in the world over the next three decades.
00:01:24.580 wow so that's what it's saying it's issued the warning i say it on a number of shows
00:01:30.500 so it's a startling fact actually that we got there i mean it is a fact if you think about
00:01:35.940 how how we ended up there even at 38 from where we were even just a few years ago
00:01:44.080 uh and now here we are uh continuing to fall no that productivity i think dovetails nicely with
00:01:50.640 what we're talking about it does you and i had a discussion one day now i have to tell you uh
00:01:55.640 listen buddy i've taken credit for this a few times but as you reminded me this morning and
00:01:59.660 it's true yes we get talking about traffic and the congestion in major cities uh that is
00:02:05.600 associated and and frankly the inconvenience in some case violence and uh the continued ongoing
00:02:12.800 protests that go on in toronto congesting our lives and uh i don't know how it came up but at
00:02:19.660 one point you said why don't we just have a place where we could do this where the protests can take
00:02:24.240 like we'll create and we started to talk about creating protest park i like to call it democracy
00:02:30.560 park okay democracy park okay we'll call it democracy park we can call it whatever you want
00:02:35.020 but you know we went through months uh throughout the winter where people were uh down at city hall
00:02:41.560 they were on all the roads in the downtown core of toronto they were out west they were protesting
00:02:47.280 everything that was going on in the world from other countries that have nothing to do with
00:02:52.120 well very little to do with canada quite frankly other than the people who are from that country 1.00
00:02:57.260 live here and we we at some point and we still do think it's fine to block off major roads arteries 0.99
00:03:05.160 highways for an issue that is non-related to uh canadian challenge let's talk it and so it's it's
00:03:15.320 Consistent. You're right. I mean, and let me frame that. We live in a country where everybody from around the world is welcome. We have a very diverse nation of people. We look out for one another.
00:03:27.520 The reason that we are this way is that we have this view of the world.
00:03:31.920 Canada is rarely involved in anything that is, you know, strike intensive or offensive to another nation.
00:03:40.660 This is really not the place we necessarily need to be shouting at the top of our lungs on behalf of somebody else's problem.
00:03:50.200 Right. No, no. And a lot of people would say, quite frankly, it's my right.
00:03:56.100 Absolutely.
00:03:56.980 Which, you know, and then I went to, I said,
00:03:59.020 the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
00:04:01.680 So I went to it.
00:04:02.460 And there's several cases on this.
00:04:04.060 So this has actually been something that we've looked at in Canada
00:04:07.080 for, you know, 50, 100 years.
00:04:10.200 We've been through different cases on this.
00:04:12.660 And, you know, it's interesting.
00:04:14.260 The Supreme Court basically ruled that you could park your car
00:04:19.960 in the middle of the road as a protest.
00:04:24.780 How's that helpful?
00:04:25.740 right but then they overturned that in the years later and for remember when they actually it was
00:04:35.360 in toronto there was a group living in the park and it was downtown and it was in james square
00:04:41.440 and they called it the eviction of occupancy toronto i don't know if you remember this
00:04:45.700 remember that yeah they went in and evicted them saying yeah you can protest but you can't take
00:04:53.220 possession of private property in order to protest so that's the fine line here that we're talking
00:04:58.800 about so yes you can protest and it's everyone's right to impede public space in which to do it
00:05:05.600 well that's a yeah that's a fine line so in this case they went and set up shelters homes you know
00:05:10.660 they they were homeless they went and actually set up places to live and they said that this is
00:05:14.900 a protest it's not a it's not any i recall that was the that's right that was and i think the
00:05:20.120 ruling said okay then you have to leave at the end of every day right protest cannot you know
00:05:25.520 extend itself that lengthy period of time right so back up to parking your car on the road so now
00:05:31.620 you go out and you actually park your car in the road or you start to walk down the road you stop
00:05:36.520 traffic everything else have you taken possession of that road it's a good question so that's the
00:05:43.340 this is the fine line that's sitting out there to be unruled upon right now yeah that is a blurry
00:05:48.240 area it is a very blurry area and we haven't challenged it quite frankly and i think we need
00:05:53.320 to do now going forward um the there have been several times through g20s g7s when uh politicians
00:06:03.080 and national world leaders have come to canada and we've created protest parks right now to to
00:06:11.340 make sure that security was in place for those nationals visiting right so the the crazy part
00:06:18.400 about this is when we did actually set them up and we did actually search people's bags and
00:06:23.460 things to make sure they could get into protest park the courts came back and said it was an
00:06:28.540 unlawful search okay so there's still issues that we have to we from our charter of rights and
00:06:35.280 freedom still have many outstanding issues that we need to address here so you know starting the
00:06:40.400 show I wanted to make sure that I addressed that because I didn't want people yelling at their
00:06:44.960 you know uh device saying you know this guy doesn't know what he's talking I get it like I
00:06:49.200 get that um this still has to be resolved and we're not talking about taking away people's
00:06:54.780 freedoms so I want to make sure we're we're totally crystal clear on that Mike we're talking
00:07:01.000 about setting up areas for people to go safely to uh clearly outline their opinion to protest
00:07:11.240 whatever they want to say uh similar to i think you brought up at the onto said hyde park yeah
00:07:17.960 have your you know what you can you you you can come to that park you can uh say what you want
00:07:25.240 to say you can bring as many people has been an influencer in uk politics since they started it
00:07:35.480 right now no it also has clout right it has clout it has restrooms it has policing it has security
00:07:45.560 it has surveillance it's it's a safe zone to basically protest and to state your opinion i
00:07:51.640 I mean, if you're a protester, you want to be in a safe environment anyway, I would assume.
00:07:55.340 We all do.
00:07:56.040 Sure.
00:07:56.420 Of course.
00:07:56.840 If you're not a protester, you don't want to be impeded by the protest.
00:07:59.500 I think this is, I mean, this stems from some very basic human consideration.
00:08:07.440 Right.
00:08:07.600 Yes.
00:08:07.900 Okay.
00:08:08.240 I'm happy to hear about your concerns.
00:08:10.700 Yes.
00:08:11.420 Or I prefer not to hear about your concerns.
00:08:14.820 I have my own.
00:08:15.820 Right.
00:08:16.060 But a protest just launches it onto you while you're trying to get to work
00:08:22.460 or trying to pick the kids up or trying to get a doctor's appointment in the day
00:08:26.280 in a city that's already very congested.
00:08:29.260 Protests tend to exacerbate that horribly.
00:08:33.940 Right.
00:08:34.540 Well, listen, if we were a top-performing, productive nation,
00:08:40.460 I may be thinking about this a little different.
00:08:42.980 I guess, yeah.
00:08:43.580 And we had protests every day going down the middle of the city,
00:08:46.580 but still we were logistically moving goods, shipping, producing,
00:08:51.200 and we were at the top of our game.
00:08:53.500 I'd say have on it, right?
00:08:55.660 You can protest the way.
00:08:57.640 Where my opinion on this, and being a business owner,
00:09:00.920 I'm starting to sympathize on a number of levels
00:09:04.440 with the people in the downtown core,
00:09:06.840 with us actually who are on the outskirts of Toronto,
00:09:10.060 who are now spending two and three hours trying to get somewhere
00:09:14.180 because someone's decided to hold a game, hold a marathon, hold a protest,
00:09:20.140 and now we are totally impeded from getting anywhere in the city.
00:09:23.460 And that business owner who's mortgaged their life,
00:09:27.340 secured every asset they have to get in business,
00:09:30.140 is now out of business for a weekend, a week, or a month.
00:09:33.480 And to me, it's intolerable, and quite frankly, it's unacceptable at this point.
00:09:39.280 Right now, we have the World Cup here in Toronto.
00:09:42.240 Vancouver has it.
00:09:43.140 I just came from there.
00:09:44.740 Just the construction and setup in Vancouver for the World Cup
00:09:48.160 has created such a congestion in Vancouver
00:09:51.560 and such a detour scenario.
00:09:54.420 In Toronto, there's a whole core area closed that is mainly...
00:10:09.280 You