Western Standard - Blocking independence referendums could have terrible consequences

00:00:00.000 Good day.

00:00:29.780 welcome to the cory morgan show as we make our way through spring it's starting to stay that's 0.98

00:00:34.900 what i hate those clock changes they annoy the crap out of me i think they're stupid in principle 0.92

00:00:38.500 in general but i gotta admit it's nice when you finish supper and it's still light outside it 0.94

00:00:43.060 kind of shows me that we're getting out of the bloody winter darkness all the same that discussion

00:00:47.780 is still going on bc's stabilizing there and i know some people oh it's a big hill to die on we

00:00:52.100 gotta go this way or go that way i don't care either way just pick one and stay with it i'm

00:00:57.460 I'm lazy. I don't want to change my clock twice a year.

00:00:59.760 It's a pain in the butt. 0.79

00:01:00.840 Well, actually, I don't even have to change it. 0.98

00:01:01.920 I mean, your phone and everything does it all automatically for you and everything.

00:01:04.540 But I don't want to change my sleeping patterns twice a year.

00:01:07.760 Leave me alone.

00:01:09.160 By the way, lots of other stuff to cover besides clock changes,

00:01:11.620 all sorts of stuff in the news from Canada's wartime stance

00:01:15.860 to CBC personalities turning and ripping back on the CBC.

00:01:21.500 And, well, I don't know where else to go with everything else.

00:01:24.280 My guest is going to be a fellow named Jerry Amernick. He's an author and journalist and he's written things talking about Canada's real truth tellers, pushing back and fighting against historical revisionism because that is happening. They're erasing our history or trying to and ruining Canadian, well, just ruining the people who built the nation for where it is. Is it any wonder that an independence movement is getting rolling?

00:01:51.280 So let's talk about independence movements getting rolling and some of the hazards going on.

00:01:57.320 So as this independence movement continues to grow and organize across Western Canada,

00:02:00.980 the most irresponsible and unprincipled thing opponents of the movement could possibly do

00:02:05.400 is block the legal mechanism of separation provided by the Clarity Act.

00:02:09.280 Yeah, that's exactly what they're trying to do.

00:02:11.620 I mean, never while Quebec prepared to hold independence referenda,

00:02:14.680 where Quebecers told they weren't allowed to have the vote,

00:02:17.240 there are many opponents to Quebec's independence movement, of course,

00:02:19.520 but none of any prominence dared to tell them they didn't even have the right to hold a referendum.

00:02:24.560 In the case of Alberta, though, opponents to independence are telling Albertans,

00:02:27.160 you aren't allowed to leave. In fact, you aren't even allowed to hold the question.

00:02:31.020 Is it any wonder the analogy of an abused spouse is often used when describing Alberta's

00:02:35.800 relationship with the Federation? You're not allowed to leave.

00:02:39.600 Let's get right to the point. The secession of a province from the Federation in Canada

00:02:43.960 is perfectly legal. The Clarity Act lays out the pathway to get there. People can certainly

00:02:48.540 question whether or not Alberta be able to pass all the hurdles provided within the act and it's

00:02:52.860 going to be a tough job to make it through all those hoops and requirements. To say a province

00:02:56.460 hasn't the right to pursue the steps laid out in the act though is an outright lie and it only

00:03:00.920 heightens division and anger. Alberta NDP leader Nahed Nenshi has partnered with Indigenous chiefs

00:03:06.360 in Alberta to oppose the process of independence. His party has been slipping in the polls and he

00:03:10.580 needs to latch on to something to try and gain relevance and those chiefs are seeking a court

00:03:14.880 injunction to block the democratic exercise of gathering signatures to hold a democratic

00:03:19.900 referendum on independence. To block that provincial right would be a clear violation

00:03:23.700 of the Clarity Act. We should be confident that a judge will realize that and toss out the

00:03:28.100 application from the chiefs, but we've seen enough terrible rulings from judges already to know we

00:03:32.120 can't rely on common sense from the bench. It's interesting how opponents to independence decry

00:03:36.000 the movement being as one supported by a tiny minority, yet they're terrified at the prospect

00:03:40.400 of putting it to a general vote. I mean, wouldn't they want to put this to bed in a referendum so

00:03:44.140 we can stop talking about it? Look, polling is all over, but it indicates we're looking at around

00:03:48.160 30% of the province is dedicated to pursuing Alberta's independence. That's a long way from

00:03:52.000 a referendum win, but momentum is on the side of the independence movement, and a lot can change

00:03:56.100 over eight months. When one in three Albertans have given up in the Federation, Federalists

00:04:00.900 should be better served to listen to their grievances rather than trying to steal the

00:04:03.700 democratic means of expression from them. To cork the bottle and ban independence referendums

00:04:08.180 would be corking the bottle not just in Alberta, but in Quebec. And while the vast majority of

00:04:12.280 independent supporters would never participate in or condone extreme acts. When we're looking

00:04:16.180 at millions of people supporting this, it's not inconceivable that an unhinged soul or two

00:04:20.300 might be inspired to do something dangerous. Those who might not remember, between 1963 and 1970,

00:04:26.200 the FLQ conducted nearly 200 bombings. It had multiple kidnappings responsible for the deaths

00:04:31.080 of six to nine people. During those years, there was no framework or mechanism for Quebec to become

00:04:35.760 independent, and it created dangerous extremists. Much of what ended the terrorism being committed

00:04:40.600 Quebec was the presentation of a democratic outlet for their independence movement. In 1968,

00:04:46.200 the Parti Quebecois was formed, René Lévesque was leading and started the process of turning

00:04:49.640 the independence movement there into a political one rather than a revolutionary violent one.

00:04:54.120 Quebecers aren't violent by nature and they embraced being able to form independence parties

00:04:57.960 and hold referendum on the issue. Even when losing the referendum, the FLQ didn't reappear because

00:05:03.080 people knew there was still a path to independence and they accepted that the province wasn't ready

00:05:07.880 for it. With one in three people in Alberta currently supporting Alberta independence,

00:05:11.840 one in Fort Quebec, it's no insignificant number of people who are so dejected with the federation

00:05:16.200 they want to leave it. Banning the possibility of holding a referendum won't reduce independence

00:05:20.300 support, even if it makes federalists feel a little better about themselves. So right from

00:05:24.320 the Clarity Act itself, whereas the government of any province of Canada is entitled to consult

00:05:28.860 its population by referendum on any issue, and is entitled to formulate the wording of its

00:05:34.360 referendum question that's right out of the clarity act guys are opponents of independence

00:05:38.460 prepared to repeal that act there's only going to be one way to resolve the budding independent

00:05:42.320 movements in multiple provinces across the country now hold referendums get the question settled

00:05:47.580 peacefully and democratically fight against the concept guys not the means or things could

00:05:53.260 go badly for everybody all right well that's what's got me starting randolph today and i'm

00:05:58.480 into the news editor dave nelly what else is going on i'm outraged cory outrage i tell you

00:06:02.100 What did I do to piss you off this time?

00:06:03.200 No, not you.

00:06:04.220 Oh, okay.

00:06:05.360 As you know, I'm British, and the powers that be in England have decided they're going to take Winston Churchill off the five-pound note.

00:06:12.680 Yeah, that floored me when you said that in that meeting earlier today.

00:06:14.980 I mean, this is one of the greatest Britons ever, wartime hero.

00:06:19.580 We'd all be speaking German if it wasn't for him, and they decided to erase history and take him off. 1.00

00:06:26.000 And you know what they're putting on?

00:06:27.980 A hedgehog.

00:06:28.800 A hedgehog.

00:06:29.760 A hedgehog.

00:06:30.520 And the world's most famous hedgehog isn't even from England.

00:06:33.240 No.

00:06:34.260 I mean, I don't get it.

00:06:37.300 And it's not just England.

00:06:38.780 It's Canada, too.

00:06:40.180 The erasure of our history.

00:06:41.860 Well, it ties in, actually, with the guests I'll be having on later,

00:06:44.620 where they're going after Sir John A. Macdonald and Dundas

00:06:46.920 and just pretty much every other figure.

00:06:48.740 They're wiping it out.

00:06:50.060 It is nuts.

00:06:51.320 No.

00:06:51.480 I mean, Churchill and England, they're just...

00:06:53.720 They're one and the same.

00:06:56.200 Aside from the royal family, if you asked anybody around the world

00:06:58.680 to name a historical famous, you know, Englishman,

00:07:01.720 it would be Winston Churchill.

00:07:03.560 Not a hedgehog.

00:07:05.260 No.

00:07:06.080 No.

00:07:06.780 All right.

00:07:07.500 I'm outraged.

00:07:08.320 I'm going to write to the king.

00:07:09.400 Oh, well, I'm sure he's all ears.

00:07:11.960 I'm sure he is.

00:07:13.640 Lots going on in the news today, Corey, as you hinted.

00:07:16.220 We've got, you were saying earlier you didn't see it,

00:07:19.900 but the testimony yesterday by former CBC host Travis Donraj

00:07:25.760 was was unbelievable uh just carved everybody toxic personality uh made david cochran and rosie 0.99

00:07:33.280 barton look like idiots uh david cochran called uh tamara leach trailer trash and all that sort 0.98

00:07:41.200 of stuff and he said there's this there's this list of 45 people that are banned from being 0.99

00:07:47.840 interviewed on the cbc and they're mainly like prominent conservatives right so for cbc to say

00:07:53.680 that they're fair and balanced is is is a lie because they're not well it's kind of exposing

00:07:58.480 what we all knew all the time right this is just shining the light on it you know everybody kind

00:08:03.120 of knew yeah now it's out in the public and uh uh they were refusing to release the list publicly

00:08:10.720 well of course they are are they denying there is a list i don't think they're denying there is

00:08:14.400 a and travis said he would give it to the uh uh the mp committee so it'll eventually come

00:08:20.000 it'll be coming out yes i bet you're on it i hope so that would be an honor uh your favorite story

00:08:26.080 is back in the news the kamloops uh 215 children burial hoax uh alberta senator scott tannis came

00:08:34.560 out and said that canadians need solid proof we need to know definitively whether their bodies

00:08:40.800 there and he's basically saying get digging and uh you know he says how can you how can you fight

00:08:48.560 residential school denialism when you're saying all this stuff but there's no proof out there

00:08:53.120 so i think in my last column i talked about that you know i'm there are a lot of horrible things

00:08:58.760 that i'm sure happened but now everybody's gonna be looking at well is that more bs like the kam 0.98

00:09:02.820 loops hoax or is this real i mean until you seek the truth in one people are gonna have trouble

00:09:06.920 believing the other exactly so there's been uh some controversy down in ottawa last week or so

00:09:12.140 Well, and the parliamentary budget officer, it used to be a guy called Jason Jakes,

00:09:17.560 and the Liberals let his term expire, I think, obviously because he had criticized them heavily

00:09:24.720 and said their budgeting was unsustainable.

00:09:28.360 So they appointed another woman to take over, but a Commons committee yesterday voted 5-4 to demand Jakes' return.

00:09:37.460 so liberals obviously voted against it but the uh the opposition held the uh the majority on

00:09:43.140 that committee so we'll see if the government listens to them i kind of doubt it uh we've got

00:09:47.920 a good video on a child's birthday party in a new westminster trampoline park uh the family

00:09:54.060 brought in the cake from the outside and the business doesn't allow outside cakes and it

00:10:00.100 degenerated into a staff member throwing a cake the cake on the floor and people getting punched

00:10:06.520 in the face and rcmp being called and i'm sure somewhere over in the corner was a kid crying

00:10:12.440 well it's a birthday every child and you know this is the sort of thing keeps therapists in

00:10:18.200 business exactly exactly that's why chuck e cheese kind of went out of business i think

00:10:23.400 and uh big energy news in the states you know we can't even build a pipeline uh trump has announced

00:10:29.640 a $300 billion refinery to be built in Texas, paid for by an Indian oil company. So they're

00:10:39.080 going to be expanding hugely while we can't even get our exports to Tidewater.

00:10:44.120 Well, you know, I looked at that. I could see that. I mean, that's the first I saw that was in

00:10:47.960 the Western Standard today. But Keystone, I could see the demand really coming back for Keystone.

00:10:55.000 They're going to need a lot of feedstock. I know people are saying, oh, that'll be Venezuela feeding

00:10:58.120 that. Well, that's a little ways to go. I mean, Keystone's mostly built. That thing just needs

00:11:01.400 to be finished up. We can't get one to the West Coast. Might as well send it down to Texas then.

00:11:05.560 Exactly. I agree. We agree on something finally.

00:11:09.960 That and yeah, I won't go into those details on hedgehogs.

00:11:12.840 No.

00:11:13.240 All right. Well, I'll let you back to the newsroom. We'll see you at the

00:11:17.400 pipeline in a little while.

00:11:18.440 Pipeline tonight, yeah.

00:11:19.160 We're getting some more issues right on. Well, thanks, Dave.

00:11:21.000 Thank you.

00:11:21.400 See you in a while.

00:11:21.960 so yeah it's lots on the go from hedgehogs to pipelines to war to cbc committees and the reason

00:11:29.780 we can do all that guys so we're gonna nag is we're gonna rattle the cup and look for 0.99

00:11:33.360 subscribers but it's because of you guys ten dollars a month hundred dollars for a year

00:11:38.400 not a bad price at all to get your news that keeps all this stuff going on here

00:11:42.700 if you haven't subscribed yet guys check it out westernstandard.news slash subscription

00:11:49.720 Take one out.

00:11:51.000 It's well worth it.

00:11:52.000 Invest in your own news copy.

00:11:54.900 Let's see some of the comments.

00:11:56.980 Chris McLaughlin saying,

00:11:58.160 so the democracy of the man need to heed the greed of a few First Nations chiefs.

00:12:01.320 Yeah, I'll go on about Nenshi and this little thing there in a little bit.

00:12:05.700 Another person saying,

00:12:06.860 the bardic entropy saying these are meant for a nonviolent way of leaving.

00:12:09.960 People really don't know or understand the history of mankind.

00:12:12.180 There are only so many ways to separate.

00:12:13.600 That's it.

00:12:14.180 And Canada is very unique.

00:12:18.100 Very few countries in the world do have an ability built in where we can separate, you know, with a democratic referendum.

00:12:26.080 That's why so many independence movements, unfortunately, do turn to violence, do turn to street riots, do turn to ugliness.

00:12:34.560 And we've got the means.

00:12:36.020 But here we've got people saying we shouldn't even allow Alberta to discuss it.

00:12:41.940 That's problematic.

00:12:43.780 So let's see.

00:12:44.600 Towards the end of the show, by the way, if you get it, we're trying different things.

00:12:47.200 I did manage to get a fellow to call in.

00:12:48.780 If you're looking to call in and talk about things,

00:12:50.960 the number will be down on the bottom of the screen there.

00:12:53.000 You can call in 866-479-9378,

00:12:56.720 and we can chatter about some of the other issues going on throughout the show.

00:13:00.400 I like that live ability to go back and forth.

00:13:02.280 So it's not just my voice going all the time,

00:13:04.320 or the guests who will be on in a little while.

00:13:07.680 I want to talk a bit about media, though.

00:13:09.080 This is for those who didn't see it.

00:13:11.160 So over the weekend, there was some demonstrations in New York

00:13:15.420 outside of Mayor Mamdami's house

00:13:21.340 with some guys, I guess some pretty radical right-wing types, whatever.

00:13:25.900 But there were counter-protesters.

00:13:28.260 And from those counter-protesters,

00:13:30.240 two young guys suddenly came in and threw bombs into the works

00:13:33.260 and ran for it.

00:13:34.180 Very, very dangerous.

00:13:35.180 It was determined by the police.

00:13:36.420 These were real bombs.

00:13:37.420 Had they detonated, which they thankfully didn't,

00:13:41.440 they could have and probably would have killed and maimed a number of people.

00:13:44.720 very dangerous, very frightening, very problematic. So how though does the media respond to this?

00:13:53.500 Here's a CNN headline. This is just, I really had to double check. This was true. This is one of the

00:13:58.040 few areas where CNN actually deleted it though. So they realized how far they'd gone. This is what

00:14:02.340 it says by its text. Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City on Saturday morning

00:14:07.380 for what could have been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather.

00:14:11.580 But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change

00:14:14.300 as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs

00:14:16.780 during an anti-Muslim protest outside of Mayor Zorham M. Dami's house.

00:14:21.200 What?

00:14:22.060 Yeah, they made it sound like, oh, well, there were just a couple of young fellas 1.00

00:14:24.540 out for a picnic in Central Park coming in from Pennsylvania,

00:14:27.120 and I don't know, they tripped upon a couple of homemade bombs

00:14:29.740 and just out of the blue decided to throw it into a crowd.

00:14:32.340 Where on earth do you guys come from with this?

00:14:36.320 This is insane. 0.83

00:14:37.420 this was a attempted terrorist act that thankfully failed and nobody was hurt but for you guys to

00:14:44.940 bend over backwards so hard oh yeah the other part they forgot to mention they yelled allahu

00:14:49.020 akbar as they threw the bombs that's something they certainly don't want to talk about either

00:14:53.980 but we should talk about these things because there's a problem all right so that's one form

00:14:58.940 of contemporary revisionism but let's talk about the problem of historical revisionism

00:15:03.260 With our guest, I've been looking forward to Jerry Maranek, who is a novelist and journalist,

00:15:09.200 and he put a great article together in C2C on Canada's real truth tellers and people pushing

00:15:15.420 back against some of the revisionism that's going on out there and really undercutting,

00:15:19.080 in my view, the national unity and national pride. So let's bring Jerry in and have a conversation.

00:15:25.620 Oh, looks like he popped out of the lobby there. Okay, well, he's having a little technical issue.

00:15:30.360 he'll be in shortly. So I'll give a little more background on him though. You might remember a

00:15:35.300 guest I had a while ago, last year at some point, his name is Patrice Dutille. He wrote a book on

00:15:43.360 Sir John A. Macdonald and just breaking down the apocalyptic year of 1885. It was just one year

00:15:48.400 of Sir John A. Macdonald's period and a very historical one. But just giving a good historical

00:15:55.360 account and apparently that is controversial. So let's try again, bring Jerry in and see if he can

00:15:59.880 speak a little more. Here, we've got you. Thank you. Hi, Corey. Hi, how are you today? Good,

00:16:06.040 thank you. As I was saying, I really appreciated your article in C2C and listing out and just

00:16:13.120 seeing that we have actually a number of people, as you call them, the real truth tellers.

00:16:18.940 There's people effectively pushing back and fighting back against this trend of historical

00:16:24.180 revisionism in Canada? Yeah, well, it's been a plague, I think, certainly in the last number 0.99

00:16:31.340 of years. It's been actually going on for quite a while, but I think it went into overdrive in the

00:16:35.520 last number of years. And I mean, I'm a novelist. I write historical novels, and I'm also a journalist.

00:16:42.700 I write nonfiction books as well. And everything I write always has a lot to do with history. I'm

00:16:48.060 kind of a history junkie. And I was getting quite upset with the canceling of major historical

00:16:52.960 figures in Canada. And my agent, my literary agent suggested, I guess about three years ago,

00:16:59.120 I write a book about history, and it kind of sat on the back burner. And then eventually I wrote it.

00:17:03.480 And it came out recently, it's called Sleepwoking. And it's basically about historical revisionism

00:17:09.900 in Canada, and all the fallout that's been associated with it. And I get into all kinds

00:17:16.960 of things. If you've been into the book, the middle part of the book, that was the real me

00:17:21.600 of it as I get into historical figures who have been canceled and vilified, starting with Johnny

00:17:27.020 MacDonald. In the Toronto area, I get into Henry Dundas, Everton Ryerson, who had a university

00:17:33.420 named after him. He's been scandalized. I talk about Edward Cornwallis, the founder of Halifax

00:17:39.280 and Nova Scotia. He got canceled and Judge Matthew Begbie in British Columbia, who was

00:17:45.080 largely responsible for bringing B.C. into confederation. These are all major historical

00:17:50.400 figures who have been cancelled. And that's what the book is about. And the article that you cite

00:17:55.480 there about the real truth tellers are people I have encountered who are trying to set the record

00:18:01.120 straight on all these figures. Yeah, and I noticed one of the first ones was Patrice Dutille, who I

00:18:07.020 had on my show last year when he released his book on Sir John A. Macdonald. And it was fantastic

00:18:11.800 because he wasn't trying to canonize Sir John A. Macdonald. He documented him as an imperfect

00:18:17.860 person but also didn't try to turn him into a monster as revisionists do you know they as if

00:18:24.540 he was some sort of person who who thrived on oppressing indigenous people or tried to starve 0.57

00:18:29.460 them he wrote the the real truth at least of how sir johnny mcdonald was with that historical lens

00:18:34.340 on it and we really need more of that sort of thing but we won't see the cbc and others

00:18:38.900 promoting uh mr detail's book instead they're they're more focused on canceling that sort of

00:18:44.000 effort. Well, it's, but you know, it's not just the CBC. I always see mainstream media in general

00:18:50.020 has been guilty and complicit in going along with revisionist history for a number of historical

00:18:55.680 figures. So, you know, I blame the media. I think they've been largely irresponsible. They pick up

00:19:02.200 pick up on something and say it's true when in fact it isn't. And it goes and it's said over

00:19:08.160 and over and over again. But, you know, the media by and large has not done its due diligence. So

00:19:13.560 I'm not impressed with the efforts. And it goes beyond the CBC. Major TV networks have scandalized

00:19:20.260 these characters I've written about, and they haven't done their homework. My book is about

00:19:25.160 facts. I go into the historical record of all these people, and I look at facts, as Patrice

00:19:31.240 did in his book. And he incidentally is one of the speakers who spoke at my book launch. So

00:19:37.140 that's what it's about. We have facts on one side, and we have those who are perpetuating

00:19:43.180 and ideology on the other side. Yeah, and I liked your title, Sleepwoking, and the cover of your

00:19:48.620 book is great. It just shows a couple of stickman figures walking across kind of blindly, not

00:19:53.560 paying attention. It brings that woke aspect, which is more of a modern term. But part of an

00:19:58.560 issue I think we have happening all over the place is people are trying to measure historical figures

00:20:05.840 under the modern lens of what's considered ethically responsible or acceptable today,

00:20:10.720 and it's it's really an irresponsible way to look at that i mean you know things were completely

00:20:14.920 different a couple hundred years ago well absolutely i mean that that concept that

00:20:19.800 phenomenon is called presentism where you look at the past through the lens of the present and

00:20:25.060 and the first part of my book i i get into that subject in a big way you can't do that

00:20:29.240 you can't look at 100 years ago through the lens of today never mind 200 300 400 years ago it's a

00:20:35.680 different world, different values, and different standards. So I talk about that and use some

00:20:41.340 analogies to make that point. But even aside from that, with the revisionists, I mean, they are

00:20:47.720 falsifying the historical record of all these people, telling falsehoods about them and about

00:20:53.640 our history. And that's where my book really gets into the meat grinder, trying to set the record

00:20:59.540 straight about these people, as does the article that was in C2C. These are the people that are

00:21:05.080 trying to set the record straight yeah well and and it's causing very real damage to us socially

00:21:12.200 culturally we see protests where the you know the founder of the country sir johnny mcdonald was

00:21:17.700 torn down the the statue of and uh yeah the the fear it's put into politicians because uh even

00:21:25.660 in ontario it took years before they had the courage to take a box that they'd built around

00:21:30.220 the statue down. They were afraid of protests. I mean, when our premiers won't even stand up for

00:21:36.720 things, then we're in some deep trouble. Well, I mean, I said the media is complicit. I mean,

00:21:42.800 government officials virtually at all levels are also complicit because they lack the guts to do

00:21:47.880 anything about it. And this is true with all these figures I've cited, you know. And by the way,

00:21:55.360 you know, in doing my book, I reached a few conclusions. One of them is that young people 0.75

00:21:59.260 don't know history in this country, and I don't blame them. I really blame the schools for not

00:22:04.220 teaching history. Another conclusion is that much of what is said to be indigenous history

00:22:10.580 is, in fact, revisionist history. There's two more I want to mention to you. The third one is

00:22:18.520 that the alternative or woke version of history is all based on misinformation and comes with an

00:22:26.200 ideology, and an agenda. And the agenda basically is to undermine the country and all that it stands

00:22:31.660 for. And the last one, which might be the most surprising, the biggest perpetrator, the biggest

00:22:36.720 advocate of revisionist history in Canada is our own federal government. And unfortunately, that

00:22:43.440 isn't terribly surprising, at least considering the last administration. Perhaps Mr. Carney won't

00:22:47.760 be as obsessed with, I guess, you know, that woke vision of a future we'll see as time unfolds.

00:22:53.400 But something else you brought up, which is, I'm curious about, I mean, a lot of the revisionism we see is taking historical figures and villainizing them, but there is also a trend of taking, as you said, like, say, indigenous history and romanticizing a lot of what happened and trying to, I mean, again, they were human beings.

00:23:10.920 There was bad aspects and good aspects, but there seems to be a sugarcoating put onto a lot of indigenous history.

00:23:17.500 Well, I mean, and that's for sure.

00:23:18.960 I mean, I'll just give you one example.

00:23:20.720 out in Nova Scotia, Edward Cornwallis was the founder of Halifax, and his statue in

00:23:25.120 Halifax was removed, the park with his name was changed, the streets with his name, his

00:23:30.400 name is Mud, and he was accused by an indigenous elder of a genocide against the Mi'kmaq back

00:23:37.520 in the 1700s and calling for the scalps of their men, women, and children.

00:23:42.060 Well, that really is bending the true historical record.

00:23:45.580 So if you go into the actual history, you'll see the story is rather different.

00:23:50.380 So, I mean, the indigenous elder who inspired all this wound up getting the Order of Canada while Cornwallis got canceled.

00:23:56.720 So, yes, there's a lot of this romanticizing.

00:23:59.820 And I don't think there's anything wrong with mythology, by the way.

00:24:02.740 I think that's great.

00:24:03.700 I think it's crucial to a country's culture and history.

00:24:07.380 But when you start telling historical falsehoods, that's where I think we should draw the line.

00:24:14.080 And there is a lot of that going on, frankly, in the indigenous community.

00:24:18.220 And I'm not saying all of it, of course, but a lot of it is not true facts about our history.

00:24:26.740 No, or at least have the caveat with Indigenous history, it tends to be an oral history which

00:24:31.180 has limitations and can have accuracies, but it leaves a lot of room to read in, I guess,

00:24:36.820 and people put it beyond question or reproach when it comes to that somehow, unfortunately.

00:24:42.440 This has also led to, I mean, other educational opportunities. You talk about our educational

00:24:45.820 institutions, our politicians, our media, but our landmarks, our places. And in Calgary, for example,

00:24:52.540 I mean, Fort Calgary, which has been there, I don't know how long, I mean, since the founding

00:24:57.100 of Calgary, but as a historical site, I think since the 60s or 70s, got renamed just quietly

00:25:02.300 the other year to the confluence, which means nothing. And it erases what that was. It was a

00:25:09.980 fort in a hostile area in the West in the past. And now it's got this benign, strange confluence

00:25:15.320 name and they're working hard to actually erase everything that that fort stood for that's that's

00:25:19.720 not good no well i mean you're you're you're telling falsehoods about the history and and

00:25:25.880 and it's a knee-jerk uh kickback reaction by by politicians who who don't do their homework and

00:25:33.480 and it's happened where i live in toronto as well where the the the biggest the main square

00:25:38.440 in canada's biggest city is now called sankofa square which comes from ghana which was a major

00:25:44.600 slave-trading nation in West Africa. It was called Young Dundas Square. Henry Dundas was a Scottish

00:25:51.240 parliamentarian and an abolitionist. He's been vilified and canceled. They kicked out an

00:25:56.600 abolitionist and brought in a name that's tied to a slave-trading nation. So it's totally ridiculous, 0.97

00:26:02.520 and this is the kind of thing that's gone on. Well, it's interesting you listed Jennifer Dundas,

00:26:07.560 who is a distant, you know, descendant of Dundas, and she's one of those speaking up,

00:26:13.680 at least, and pushing back. Are there a number of families, I guess, who are, you know, a little

00:26:19.220 finally getting upset and pushing back on their ancestors being sort of smeared as they have been?

00:26:25.320 Well, Jennifer is one of the people I interviewed for my book, and yeah, she's been certainly been

00:26:30.080 involved in this, and she's, by the way, is a former CBC News anchor in Winnipeg, so she was

00:26:35.540 a journalist who went to Ryerson School to study journalism. Now the school is not called that

00:26:41.560 anymore. And the square doesn't have the name Dundas. So she said like her own personal history

00:26:47.360 has been erased by these revisionists. Jennifer is the only one I know trying to clear a family 0.89

00:26:54.600 name in that sense. But I mean, other people you mentioned like Patrice, who's a highly respected

00:27:00.060 professor and historian. Lynn MacDonald was a member of Parliament in Ontario,

00:27:06.640 a leading advocate for many causes, trying to correct the record on Henry Dundas and Ryerson,

00:27:13.180 and also Johnny MacDonald, and a number of other people I've talked to. Some of them are historians,

00:27:18.460 academics, journalists. They come from a variety of different backgrounds, as cited in that article

00:27:24.100 in the C2C Journal. But like I say, they are the real truth tellers. And it's unfortunate

00:27:29.560 that they have an uphill route to go through to try to set the record straight because the public

00:27:37.860 is scratching their heads and they buy into these false narratives. And it's been a national

00:27:44.440 dilemma from coast to coast. So I'm glad these truth tellers and yourself are coming forward

00:27:50.000 and putting it there, but we kind of got to get to the root. Before I let you go,

00:27:53.100 like we're getting onto the solution-based part of it. Should we be trying to get a better,

00:27:58.380 you know, and that always becomes controversial, a curriculum into our public schools,

00:28:02.600 some basis, just so that there's some fact-based history grounding our next upcoming generation.

00:28:08.420 I mean, we want to educate the contemporary generation, but my biggest fear is the ones

00:28:11.920 that are coming up with this, well, basically incorrect view of history right now.

00:28:17.280 Well, I think there's definitely an ideology that persists in our schools, certainly in our

00:28:21.580 post-secondary institutions right across Canada. Some of them are really far at extreme. But it's

00:28:28.980 not, like I say, the history that's taught, and it's not taught very much of any, is often deeply

00:28:34.720 rooted in ideology, not history. So, you know, history isn't something that you're supposed to

00:28:40.240 necessarily like. History is supposed to be facts that took place, and hopefully we can learn from

00:28:45.880 it. That's where I come from. That's where Patrice comes from, Jennifer Dundas, and others like that.

00:28:50.700 So it's not attached to ideology, it's attached to facts.

00:28:53.980 And if we're looking at historical figures, we should be learning historical facts.

00:28:59.340 And like I say, the schools are largely remiss.

00:29:02.460 I think they're out to lunch when it comes to history.

00:29:04.340 And I used to teach community colleges, courses, even university students, and young people do not know history. 0.96

00:29:12.220 And it's a real shame.

00:29:14.740 It certainly is.

00:29:15.760 I mean, you know, it's another area if people are wondering why you've got things like independence

00:29:19.440 movements springing up across the country or people burning Canadian flags with impunity

00:29:23.840 at other protests and things. Well, when you've undone your sense of identity and history and

00:29:28.640 shared, you know, historical experience, well, then there's not that point of pride to keep

00:29:33.040 people unified. I mean, it has farther consequences farther down the line.

00:29:37.840 Well, absolutely. I mean, you look no further than our first Prime Minister,

00:29:41.360 johnny mcdonald i really did a deep dive into mcdonald and the chapter is called the trashing

00:29:46.480 of johnny mcdonald and and i learned a lot about mcdonald i read countless books including richard

00:29:51.840 gwinn who wrote this uh incredible two-volume biography of mcdonald and he spent seven years

00:29:58.480 of his life studying him and he puts him up there with the you know the likes of abraham lincoln as

00:30:03.920 leading statesman from that century so that's not the story young people are getting about mcdonald

00:30:08.960 today. And, you know, I'm one of the, you know, people like truth tellers, if you want to call

00:30:14.260 them that, trying to set the record straight. But, you know, it's mob rule. The mob tears down

00:30:20.140 statues, vandalizes statues. They lean on politicians, municipal politicians who also

00:30:28.240 don't know their history and they impact public policy. And that's a terrible thing. And that's

00:30:35.320 what's been going on right across the country. Great. Well, I really appreciate the work you've

00:30:40.220 done, you know, speaking to the people and putting it together and coming to talk to us today.

00:30:44.900 Before I let you go one more time, where can people find that book, Sleepwoking, and keep up

00:30:49.500 with your other writings, columns, and such? Yeah, well, the book is available on Amazon,

00:30:54.540 and it's doing quite well. I'm also getting a lot of interest from Western Canada lately,

00:30:59.160 I find, as well, which is fine, because I know out in BC, especially, there's a lot of angst

00:31:05.180 going on these days. And a lot of that also, frankly, I think could be rooted in historical

00:31:10.740 revisionism as well. So you can get it on Amazon. Amazon.ca is the best place to get the book. Or

00:31:17.740 you can go to my own website, which is jerryamernick.com. Great. And do you write on C2C

00:31:23.400 and some other publications now and then? I write for a lot of publications, though,

00:31:28.800 Corey, that was my first piece for C2C. It was suggested by some colleagues that I should write

00:31:33.460 for them. And we got together and they said, do a story on the real truth teller. So I probably

00:31:39.120 will be doing something else for them shortly. Great. Well, I'd like to see you. They give a

00:31:43.580 nice, you know, for long form type of presentations rather than a short. Yes. All right. Well,

00:31:51.180 thank you again for coming on. And I hope the book continues to sell. And I really appreciate

00:31:56.260 your work and your efforts, sir. Well, Corey, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

00:32:01.400 Great. Thanks. So one more time, folks, that is Jerry Amarnick. And yes, you can find his book

00:32:05.860 on Amazon and search him out and see his other works. I mean, it is so important. It can't be

00:32:11.580 understated. And this is one of the more subtle ways we're getting in trouble. That's where I

00:32:15.600 kind of turned it back, the discussion a little bit, and just pointing out that this can lead to

00:32:19.780 real world problems, not just, I guess, you know, decrying or being sad that our people aren't being

00:32:28.140 well enough educated. This comes with consequences. This comes with social division. This comes with

00:32:35.020 battles happening between different cultures and groups that perhaps are based on historical

00:32:40.520 mistruths. And it's irresponsible to keep basing history on ideology. I mean, history, you know,

00:32:50.600 among, if you want to look at things, you know, it's a difficult one. It's not as hard as science

00:32:55.860 as math where your numbers are either this or that but the bottom line is it should be based

00:33:00.980 on fact and there's just no getting around that you find as many sources of that fact as you can

00:33:04.740 you put them together whether you like the conclusion or you don't like the conclusion

00:33:08.180 and you public it publish it but right now it seems to be people yes they're looking for what

00:33:13.380 they they want to see and they're molding the message of the historical message to fit their

00:33:17.460 ideology and it's dangerous and it's wrong it's wrong for people you know it's a disservice to

00:33:23.300 those historic figures who did put so much in to building this nation sir johnny mcdonald

00:33:29.540 was an incredible man as i you know was talking about uh detail you know patrice wrote that book

00:33:35.620 that was just on one year and it really was a fascinating book on what he went through

00:33:40.020 in that period and this is a man whose career and in making history span decades yet we're tearing

00:33:46.980 his statues down. We're renaming schools and streets and acting as if this man who built

00:33:54.240 this country, which really is, as much as I complain about a lot of things politically,

00:33:58.400 it's still a bastion of freedom and prosperity like most of the world doesn't get to enjoy.

00:34:03.080 And the reason for that were people like McDonald back in those days, even if they held views that

00:34:08.740 you don't necessarily agreed with at that time. It doesn't overwrite the good they did. You can't

00:34:13.860 compare that and it's funny they get selective with it if it's a left right thing you want to

00:34:18.580 play with uh look at some of the uh prairie socialists and their embracing of the eugenics

00:34:23.860 policy uh 50 60 70 years ago it wasn't uh very nice either but they did accomplish other things

00:34:31.700 uh the famous five in alberta they've been digging in and finding quotes from some of them you know

00:34:36.900 women's rights advocates who really again turned the page for canadian women in history but now

00:34:42.420 it turns out that, yes, they held some racial views, which were, well, kind of held by a lot

00:34:47.700 of their contemporaries at the time. And we're seeing that canceled in Calgary. There was five

00:34:52.200 statues that were held or kept downtown, beautiful statues. They took them down as they renovated a

00:34:58.160 park and said, oh, well, we'll deal with them later. And they've been sitting in storage ever

00:35:01.020 since. Don't worry, guys, those statues are never coming back. They're being erased because a couple

00:35:06.720 of them, Nellie McClung or whatnot, I'm not sure even which ones it did, said a couple of untoward 0.76

00:35:11.320 things 100 years ago. Not good, guys. Not good at all. But well, I mean, like anything else,

00:35:18.640 we want to try and battle misinformation with fact. But it's hard. It's hard. Short-form

00:35:25.600 torqued rhetoric tends to stick into people a lot more effectively than long-form history. In fact,

00:35:35.840 we're in the TikTok generation. If I can't get somebody's attention in a 30-second video,

00:35:40.400 I can't get their attention. That's worrisome. It really is. Hopefully though, I mean, I think

00:35:45.520 new technology is fantastic. New ways of reaching people and engaging people. Maybe it's starting in

00:35:50.340 the most shallow way with TikTok dance videos and cat videos, but can be converted into something

00:35:58.360 more productive a little later and make it better. I don't know. It's either way, check that out.

00:36:05.840 um and uh let's see what else is going to be happening uh mcclung yes there's another one

00:36:11.760 uh well that was mentioned yeah and then mcclung got the right for women to vote and yeah she's 0.99

00:36:15.680 getting canceled tommy douglas yes greatest canadian and uh he was as as uh mo c9m a

00:36:22.420 commenter pointed out was a supporter of forced sterilization and eugenics does that mean douglas

00:36:28.040 everything else he did was wrong because he was a eugenics supporter 0.68

00:36:31.220 no was the eugenics view wrong yes hey look at that you can actually recognize the good 0.59

00:36:39.880 contributions while recognizing the bad sir johnny mcdonald was a notorious drunk but it doesn't 0.89

00:36:45.440 mean he was a fool but uh either way i mean you know as a you spoke about recent uh politics 0.58

00:36:54.400 leading into this justin trudeau was one of the worst politicians worst prime ministers in canadian 0.99

00:36:58.900 history by far no politician has ever managed to undercut canadian pride and identity more than

00:37:06.800 justin trudeau did i mean when he started out with his fluffy vacuous and that was the problem

00:37:12.600 canada voted for hair not for brains and they kept him in for 10 years and it showed

00:37:18.300 so you wouldn't hear justin talking about history he'd never read a history book in his life he read

00:37:22.280 comic books and he talked about this post-national state what a beautiful country where we aren't

00:37:27.800 You know, we aren't Canadian, we're everything else. And what do you think is happening? We have ethnic, we have ethnic clashes in the streets, we have protests. And yes, we have independence movements springing up across this country. And yeah, I was an independent supporter prior to Justin Trudeau. And he made my work a heck of a lot easier for me, I tell you.

00:37:45.740 When we've got this country where everybody's expected to look at their feet and be ashamed of themselves and not show pride in anything, it's not so hard to pull them away and say, well, why don't we vote to form another one, is it?

00:37:58.280 These self-loathing revisionists, I met one that's just stuck in my head.

00:38:03.740 It was the most bizarre thing.

00:38:05.100 So I was at Medicine Hat College a couple of weeks ago.

00:38:07.020 I was a speaker there with the Rebel Independence Tour, a beautiful theater they had.

00:38:11.060 They got all sorts of pressure to cancel us.

00:38:13.460 They wouldn't do it, but they did allow for protesters to be there as well.

00:38:17.040 They just kept everybody peaceful and separate.

00:38:18.560 I can't say enough good things about the college doing exactly what a learning institution should do,

00:38:24.080 which is host both sides of a debate and just allow them to express themselves without stopping each other.

00:38:30.100 And there was an older woman who showed up early and was chatting with us while we were setting up. 0.98

00:38:36.520 And she just looked like anybody's stereotypical picture of a grandma.

00:38:40.500 you know she's short and elderly and very polite and friendly and smiling and everything and then

00:38:46.660 but she's going yeah so i've been in canada my whole life and and i'm a colonialist and i know

00:38:51.540 that and she just with this smile and this weird beatific look on her when declaring yourself as a

00:38:58.020 colonialist and whatever she was 80 years old it was just bizarre it was like having a nice little

00:39:04.260 little old granny, but then suddenly, you know, here have some arsenic laden tea. Like you are in 0.84

00:39:10.120 a nice benign looking package, yet you're spouting poison. Poison. So you've spent whatever she had

00:39:19.400 80 years in this country, born here, contributing, doing whatever she did, and still calls herself a 0.99

00:39:25.140 colonialist piss off you know this this settler colonialist crap this double standard and and 0.99

00:39:34.760 there's left problems there's right problems but I tell you the bulk of this self-loathing crap 1.00

00:39:38.680 comes from the left where the only people the only ones who apparently have any authority 0.98

00:39:46.940 are purebred indigenous Canadians. Really? You know, that is so grossly racially intolerant 1.00

00:39:56.160 and they don't see it. They, you know, as a commenter there says, Corey, they're psychopaths. 1.00

00:40:00.700 Yes, they are. That's what I mean. That's what creeped me out. Here's friendly little grandma 0.99

00:40:04.480 and that little spouting realized this woman's crazy and dangerously. So no, no, she's not going 1.00

00:40:08.740 to pull a knife and stab me or shoot me, but she is dangerously crazy. And she's a symptom of a 1.00

00:40:13.960 whole lot more of them. So think of that, though, that that myopic attitude that everybody who

00:40:23.760 wasn't, not just anybody born here anymore, but going farther back, you know, is an intruder,

00:40:30.780 a settler, a colonialist. Think of anti, yet at the same time, they blame other people for being

00:40:36.220 xenophobic and intolerant and everything else if they question the amount of immigration coming in

00:40:39.800 currently. Well, you're just saying the same, you're condemning one and practicing the same

00:40:46.920 thing on another spot. And I know some others, somebody mentioned, yes, you know, First Nations

00:40:52.500 came across the Bering Sea and at one point came from somewhere else too. Like it just never stops

00:40:56.880 and it's counterproductive, but this idiocy and I refuse to do that. We and them, we owe them, 1.00

00:41:04.760 We did bad things. We put them on reserves. We created the residential schools. I didn't do a 1.00

00:41:11.900 damn thing. And I'm not sorry for any of it. So don't try to make me feel guilty for it. I won't.

00:41:17.140 I can't. I didn't do it. There's a little quote I saw on the internet one time that was brilliant.

00:41:22.920 It was a couple of people debating and I can't remember the exact context, but it was a white

00:41:26.180 person and a black person and it was the American context. But somebody's saying along the lines of,

00:41:30.400 I never owned a slave and you never picked cotton. 1.00

00:41:33.860 So let's start the conversation from there.

00:41:37.000 You know, because there are people in the loony left down the state saying there should be reparations paid for slavery.

00:41:41.660 Look, slavery ended, what, 170 years ago now?

00:41:47.020 Who are you going to pay reparations for?

00:41:50.360 Sure, it caused damage.

00:41:51.800 Sure, it still is the root of some of the racial divide that's happening to this day and the way things are populated in the United States.

00:41:59.800 but you can't demand reparation from somebody's descendant for what somebody else's descendant

00:42:06.220 may or may not have been assaulted by, but people are actually demanding that. And they're saying

00:42:10.600 you should be ashamed of yourself. There's a weird, gross, extreme leftist demonstration I saw 0.86

00:42:15.720 at one point where there was a black guy standing and this white woke nut bar on his knee licking 0.99

00:42:23.860 the boot of the black guy, just saying, I have to feel it so I can be able to understand what 0.99

00:42:28.740 happened 150 years ago. You guys are insane. This isn't helping anybody. This isn't unifying 1.00

00:42:35.080 anybody. This isn't making us all better off or stronger. This is dividing the cultures. This is 0.60

00:42:40.620 making it worse. This is taking the scab off of a wound, a wound that's healing slowly enough as it

00:42:46.480 is and just constantly reopening it. And who's getting better? Has racism ended? No. We're seeing

00:42:54.980 more division, more fights, more extremism because we're refusing to get together. Another one saying

00:43:03.840 from the communist playbook, Mystery Chief saying struggle sessions. Yeah, it's absurdity, but it's

00:43:09.940 brainwashing and it's problematic. Here's another beauty example. Let's just talk about things gone

00:43:14.980 out of control where I'll be called intolerant for pointing it out, but I don't care. So you

00:43:20.040 might have seen that news story, Toronto police officer Farhan Ali, he praised October 7th, 0.78

00:43:24.700 you know, where they're raping and murdering women and children in Israel. People keep 1.00

00:43:28.960 overlooking that. The left is just celebrating that orgy of murder and rape that happened 0.99

00:43:33.140 October 7th. I really wish every one of them, I really wish someone could have been dragged 0.97

00:43:37.560 over there where I was to see the bloodstains, to see the blown up houses and watch that

00:43:42.120 god-awful unfiltered video of what those monsters did. Either way, this guy praised it. That's

00:43:48.600 how extreme this guy is and he you know what he got in reward for praising that he was the Toronto

00:43:54.000 policeman uh person charged with you know uh communicating with the Islamic community out

00:44:01.480 there yeah you wonder why they took no issue with hate protests targeting Jewish neighborhoods

00:44:07.740 households people's homes with extremists well because this is the guy with the police with it 0.99

00:44:12.940 and guess what as with so many adherents of Islam and there's a lot of them he's a rapist 0.96

00:44:18.520 he's been arrested and charged actually three counts of it yeah real winner isn't he 0.99

00:44:25.760 and guess what grooming gangs rape gangs prostitution gangs i'll say what we're not 0.89

00:44:33.380 allowed to say oh look at the headlines read the names they're all islamic not saying every 0.85

00:44:38.960 islamic person's participating in those no i am not but there's a real problem with that ideology 0.67

00:44:46.560 And we've got to be allowed to say it if we're going to solve it.

00:44:49.220 So, yeah, I'll say the quiet part out loud because this is the sort of thing you end up with. 0.98

00:44:55.100 You take a man who celebrated murder and rape, and lo and behold, it turns out he's a rapist. 0.92

00:45:01.280 Who would have seen that coming?

00:45:03.020 How blinded by wokeness does the Toronto Police Force have to be to have taken a man like him

00:45:08.540 and put him into a position of authority for that many years?

00:45:10.820 and gee he went and did what you would have thought he'd do a person who celebrates rape

00:45:17.200 committed rape oh didn't see that coming maybe we should get a few more of the people who've

00:45:23.580 been celebrating celebrating violence and terrorism out of positions of authority wouldn't 0.85

00:45:27.320 that be a crazy thing to try just maybe we should give it a crack all right that's enough pissing

00:45:33.220 and moaning out of me guys thank you very much for joining in today be sure to tune into the

00:45:37.280 pipeline tonight. Marty's show's on tomorrow. Nigel was doing an interview.

00:45:41.780 Subscribe to those Western Standard channels. There's all sorts of content coming up there

00:45:45.500 all the time. John is doing a fantastic job in production so that we get

00:45:49.560 all that content as it's coming and get it out to you. And of course, subscribe

00:45:53.460 to the Western Standard itself. Thank you very much. We will see you next week at this time.

00:46:07.280 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - March 11, 2026

Blocking independence referendums could have terrible consequences

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