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 .

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