In this episode, Cory talks with Jerry Amernick, an author and journalist, about the history of Canadian truth tellers, and the growing movement for Alberta to become independent from the Federation of Canada, and what that means for the rest of the country.
00:01:09.160By the way, lots of other stuff to cover besides clock changes,
00:01:11.620all sorts of stuff in the news from Canada's wartime stance
00:01:15.860to CBC personalities turning and ripping back on the CBC.
00:01:21.500And, well, I don't know where else to go with everything else.
00:01:24.280My 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?
00:01:51.280So let's talk about independence movements getting rolling and some of the hazards going on.
00:01:57.320So as this independence movement continues to grow and organize across Western Canada,
00:02:00.980the most irresponsible and unprincipled thing opponents of the movement could possibly do
00:02:05.400is block the legal mechanism of separation provided by the Clarity Act.
00:02:09.280Yeah, that's exactly what they're trying to do.
00:02:11.620I mean, never while Quebec prepared to hold independence referenda,
00:02:14.680where Quebecers told they weren't allowed to have the vote,
00:02:17.240there are many opponents to Quebec's independence movement, of course,
00:02:19.520but none of any prominence dared to tell them they didn't even have the right to hold a referendum.
00:02:24.560In the case of Alberta, though, opponents to independence are telling Albertans,
00:02:27.160you aren't allowed to leave. In fact, you aren't even allowed to hold the question.
00:02:31.020Is it any wonder the analogy of an abused spouse is often used when describing Alberta's
00:02:35.800relationship with the Federation? You're not allowed to leave.
00:02:39.600Let's get right to the point. The secession of a province from the Federation in Canada
00:02:43.960is perfectly legal. The Clarity Act lays out the pathway to get there. People can certainly
00:02:48.540question whether or not Alberta be able to pass all the hurdles provided within the act and it's
00:02:52.860going to be a tough job to make it through all those hoops and requirements. To say a province
00:02:56.460hasn't the right to pursue the steps laid out in the act though is an outright lie and it only
00:03:00.920heightens division and anger. Alberta NDP leader Nahed Nenshi has partnered with Indigenous chiefs
00:03:06.360in Alberta to oppose the process of independence. His party has been slipping in the polls and he
00:03:10.580needs to latch on to something to try and gain relevance and those chiefs are seeking a court
00:03:14.880injunction to block the democratic exercise of gathering signatures to hold a democratic
00:03:19.900referendum on independence. To block that provincial right would be a clear violation
00:03:23.700of the Clarity Act. We should be confident that a judge will realize that and toss out the
00:03:28.100application from the chiefs, but we've seen enough terrible rulings from judges already to know we
00:03:32.120can't rely on common sense from the bench. It's interesting how opponents to independence decry
00:03:36.000the movement being as one supported by a tiny minority, yet they're terrified at the prospect
00:03:40.400of putting it to a general vote. I mean, wouldn't they want to put this to bed in a referendum so
00:03:44.140we can stop talking about it? Look, polling is all over, but it indicates we're looking at around
00:03:48.16030% of the province is dedicated to pursuing Alberta's independence. That's a long way from
00:03:52.000a referendum win, but momentum is on the side of the independence movement, and a lot can change
00:03:56.100over eight months. When one in three Albertans have given up in the Federation, Federalists
00:04:00.900should be better served to listen to their grievances rather than trying to steal the
00:04:03.700democratic means of expression from them. To cork the bottle and ban independence referendums
00:04:08.180would be corking the bottle not just in Alberta, but in Quebec. And while the vast majority of
00:04:12.280independent supporters would never participate in or condone extreme acts. When we're looking
00:04:16.180at millions of people supporting this, it's not inconceivable that an unhinged soul or two
00:04:20.300might be inspired to do something dangerous. Those who might not remember, between 1963 and 1970,
00:04:26.200the FLQ conducted nearly 200 bombings. It had multiple kidnappings responsible for the deaths
00:04:31.080of six to nine people. During those years, there was no framework or mechanism for Quebec to become
00:04:35.760independent, and it created dangerous extremists. Much of what ended the terrorism being committed
00:04:40.600Quebec was the presentation of a democratic outlet for their independence movement. In 1968,
00:14:37.420this was a attempted terrorist act that thankfully failed and nobody was hurt but for you guys to
00:14:44.940bend over backwards so hard oh yeah the other part they forgot to mention they yelled allahu
00:14:49.020akbar as they threw the bombs that's something they certainly don't want to talk about either
00:14:53.980but we should talk about these things because there's a problem all right so that's one form
00:14:58.940of contemporary revisionism but let's talk about the problem of historical revisionism
00:15:03.260With our guest, I've been looking forward to Jerry Maranek, who is a novelist and journalist,
00:15:09.200and he put a great article together in C2C on Canada's real truth tellers and people pushing
00:15:15.420back against some of the revisionism that's going on out there and really undercutting,
00:15:19.080in my view, the national unity and national pride. So let's bring Jerry in and have a conversation.
00:15:25.620Oh, looks like he popped out of the lobby there. Okay, well, he's having a little technical issue.
00:15:30.360he'll be in shortly. So I'll give a little more background on him though. You might remember a
00:15:35.300guest I had a while ago, last year at some point, his name is Patrice Dutille. He wrote a book on
00:15:43.360Sir John A. Macdonald and just breaking down the apocalyptic year of 1885. It was just one year
00:15:48.400of Sir John A. Macdonald's period and a very historical one. But just giving a good historical
00:15:55.360account and apparently that is controversial. So let's try again, bring Jerry in and see if he can
00:15:59.880speak a little more. Here, we've got you. Thank you. Hi, Corey. Hi, how are you today? Good,
00:16:06.040thank you. As I was saying, I really appreciated your article in C2C and listing out and just
00:16:13.120seeing that we have actually a number of people, as you call them, the real truth tellers.
00:16:18.940There's people effectively pushing back and fighting back against this trend of historical
00:16:24.180revisionism in Canada? Yeah, well, it's been a plague, I think, certainly in the last number
00:16:31.340of years. It's been actually going on for quite a while, but I think it went into overdrive in the
00:16:35.520last number of years. And I mean, I'm a novelist. I write historical novels, and I'm also a journalist.
00:16:42.700I write nonfiction books as well. And everything I write always has a lot to do with history. I'm
00:16:48.060kind of a history junkie. And I was getting quite upset with the canceling of major historical
00:16:52.960figures in Canada. And my agent, my literary agent suggested, I guess about three years ago,
00:16:59.120I write a book about history, and it kind of sat on the back burner. And then eventually I wrote it.
00:17:03.480And it came out recently, it's called Sleepwoking. And it's basically about historical revisionism
00:17:09.900in Canada, and all the fallout that's been associated with it. And I get into all kinds
00:17:16.960of things. If you've been into the book, the middle part of the book, that was the real me
00:17:21.600of it as I get into historical figures who have been canceled and vilified, starting with Johnny
00:17:27.020MacDonald. In the Toronto area, I get into Henry Dundas, Everton Ryerson, who had a university
00:17:33.420named after him. He's been scandalized. I talk about Edward Cornwallis, the founder of Halifax
00:17:39.280and Nova Scotia. He got canceled and Judge Matthew Begbie in British Columbia, who was
00:17:45.080largely responsible for bringing B.C. into confederation. These are all major historical
00:17:50.400figures who have been cancelled. And that's what the book is about. And the article that you cite
00:17:55.480there about the real truth tellers are people I have encountered who are trying to set the record
00:18:01.120straight on all these figures. Yeah, and I noticed one of the first ones was Patrice Dutille, who I
00:18:07.020had on my show last year when he released his book on Sir John A. Macdonald. And it was fantastic
00:18:11.800because he wasn't trying to canonize Sir John A. Macdonald. He documented him as an imperfect
00:18:17.860person but also didn't try to turn him into a monster as revisionists do you know they as if
00:18:24.540he was some sort of person who who thrived on oppressing indigenous people or tried to starve
00:18:29.460them he wrote the the real truth at least of how sir johnny mcdonald was with that historical lens
00:18:34.340on it and we really need more of that sort of thing but we won't see the cbc and others
00:18:38.900promoting uh mr detail's book instead they're they're more focused on canceling that sort of
00:18:44.000effort. Well, it's, but you know, it's not just the CBC. I always see mainstream media in general
00:18:50.020has been guilty and complicit in going along with revisionist history for a number of historical
00:18:55.680figures. So, you know, I blame the media. I think they've been largely irresponsible. They pick up
00:19:02.200pick up on something and say it's true when in fact it isn't. And it goes and it's said over
00:19:08.160and over and over again. But, you know, the media by and large has not done its due diligence. So
00:19:13.560I'm not impressed with the efforts. And it goes beyond the CBC. Major TV networks have scandalized
00:19:20.260these characters I've written about, and they haven't done their homework. My book is about
00:19:25.160facts. I go into the historical record of all these people, and I look at facts, as Patrice
00:19:31.240did in his book. And he incidentally is one of the speakers who spoke at my book launch. So
00:19:37.140that's what it's about. We have facts on one side, and we have those who are perpetuating
00:19:43.180and ideology on the other side. Yeah, and I liked your title, Sleepwoking, and the cover of your
00:19:48.620book is great. It just shows a couple of stickman figures walking across kind of blindly, not
00:19:53.560paying attention. It brings that woke aspect, which is more of a modern term. But part of an
00:19:58.560issue I think we have happening all over the place is people are trying to measure historical figures
00:20:05.840under the modern lens of what's considered ethically responsible or acceptable today,
00:20:10.720and it's it's really an irresponsible way to look at that i mean you know things were completely
00:20:14.920different a couple hundred years ago well absolutely i mean that that concept that
00:20:19.800phenomenon is called presentism where you look at the past through the lens of the present and
00:20:25.060and the first part of my book i i get into that subject in a big way you can't do that
00:20:29.240you can't look at 100 years ago through the lens of today never mind 200 300 400 years ago it's a
00:20:35.680different world, different values, and different standards. So I talk about that and use some
00:20:41.340analogies to make that point. But even aside from that, with the revisionists, I mean, they are
00:20:47.720falsifying the historical record of all these people, telling falsehoods about them and about
00:20:53.640our history. And that's where my book really gets into the meat grinder, trying to set the record
00:20:59.540straight about these people, as does the article that was in C2C. These are the people that are
00:21:05.080trying to set the record straight yeah well and and it's causing very real damage to us socially
00:21:12.200culturally we see protests where the you know the founder of the country sir johnny mcdonald was
00:21:17.700torn down the the statue of and uh yeah the the fear it's put into politicians because uh even
00:21:25.660in ontario it took years before they had the courage to take a box that they'd built around
00:21:30.220the statue down. They were afraid of protests. I mean, when our premiers won't even stand up for
00:21:36.720things, then we're in some deep trouble. Well, I mean, I said the media is complicit. I mean,
00:21:42.800government officials virtually at all levels are also complicit because they lack the guts to do
00:21:47.880anything about it. And this is true with all these figures I've cited, you know. And by the way,
00:21:55.360you know, in doing my book, I reached a few conclusions. One of them is that young people
00:21:59.260don't know history in this country, and I don't blame them. I really blame the schools for not
00:22:04.220teaching history. Another conclusion is that much of what is said to be indigenous history
00:22:10.580is, in fact, revisionist history. There's two more I want to mention to you. The third one is
00:22:18.520that the alternative or woke version of history is all based on misinformation and comes with an
00:22:26.200ideology, and an agenda. And the agenda basically is to undermine the country and all that it stands
00:22:31.660for. And the last one, which might be the most surprising, the biggest perpetrator, the biggest
00:22:36.720advocate of revisionist history in Canada is our own federal government. And unfortunately, that
00:22:43.440isn't terribly surprising, at least considering the last administration. Perhaps Mr. Carney won't
00:22:47.760be as obsessed with, I guess, you know, that woke vision of a future we'll see as time unfolds.
00:22:53.400But 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.
00:23:10.920There was bad aspects and good aspects, but there seems to be a sugarcoating put onto a lot of indigenous history.
00:29:15.760I mean, you know, it's another area if people are wondering why you've got things like independence
00:29:19.440movements springing up across the country or people burning Canadian flags with impunity
00:29:23.840at other protests and things. Well, when you've undone your sense of identity and history and
00:29:28.640shared, you know, historical experience, well, then there's not that point of pride to keep
00:29:33.040people unified. I mean, it has farther consequences farther down the line.
00:29:37.840Well, absolutely. I mean, you look no further than our first Prime Minister,
00:29:41.360johnny mcdonald i really did a deep dive into mcdonald and the chapter is called the trashing
00:29:46.480of johnny mcdonald and and i learned a lot about mcdonald i read countless books including richard
00:29:51.840gwinn who wrote this uh incredible two-volume biography of mcdonald and he spent seven years
00:29:58.480of his life studying him and he puts him up there with the you know the likes of abraham lincoln as
00:30:03.920leading statesman from that century so that's not the story young people are getting about mcdonald
00:30:08.960today. And, you know, I'm one of the, you know, people like truth tellers, if you want to call
00:30:14.260them that, trying to set the record straight. But, you know, it's mob rule. The mob tears down
00:30:20.140statues, vandalizes statues. They lean on politicians, municipal politicians who also
00:30:28.240don't know their history and they impact public policy. And that's a terrible thing. And that's
00:30:35.320what's been going on right across the country. Great. Well, I really appreciate the work you've
00:30:40.220done, you know, speaking to the people and putting it together and coming to talk to us today.
00:30:44.900Before I let you go one more time, where can people find that book, Sleepwoking, and keep up
00:30:49.500with your other writings, columns, and such? Yeah, well, the book is available on Amazon,
00:30:54.540and it's doing quite well. I'm also getting a lot of interest from Western Canada lately,
00:30:59.160I find, as well, which is fine, because I know out in BC, especially, there's a lot of angst
00:31:05.180going on these days. And a lot of that also, frankly, I think could be rooted in historical
00:31:10.740revisionism as well. So you can get it on Amazon. Amazon.ca is the best place to get the book. Or
00:31:17.740you can go to my own website, which is jerryamernick.com. Great. And do you write on C2C
00:31:23.400and some other publications now and then? I write for a lot of publications, though,
00:31:28.800Corey, that was my first piece for C2C. It was suggested by some colleagues that I should write
00:31:33.460for them. And we got together and they said, do a story on the real truth teller. So I probably
00:31:39.120will be doing something else for them shortly. Great. Well, I'd like to see you. They give a
00:31:43.580nice, you know, for long form type of presentations rather than a short. Yes. All right. Well,
00:31:51.180thank you again for coming on. And I hope the book continues to sell. And I really appreciate
00:31:56.260your work and your efforts, sir. Well, Corey, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.
00:32:01.400Great. Thanks. So one more time, folks, that is Jerry Amarnick. And yes, you can find his book
00:32:05.860on Amazon and search him out and see his other works. I mean, it is so important. It can't be
00:32:11.580understated. And this is one of the more subtle ways we're getting in trouble. That's where I
00:32:15.600kind of turned it back, the discussion a little bit, and just pointing out that this can lead to
00:32:19.780real world problems, not just, I guess, you know, decrying or being sad that our people aren't being
00:32:28.140well enough educated. This comes with consequences. This comes with social division. This comes with
00:32:35.020battles happening between different cultures and groups that perhaps are based on historical
00:32:40.520mistruths. And it's irresponsible to keep basing history on ideology. I mean, history, you know,
00:32:50.600among, if you want to look at things, you know, it's a difficult one. It's not as hard as science
00:32:55.860as math where your numbers are either this or that but the bottom line is it should be based
00:33:00.980on fact and there's just no getting around that you find as many sources of that fact as you can
00:33:04.740you put them together whether you like the conclusion or you don't like the conclusion
00:33:08.180and you public it publish it but right now it seems to be people yes they're looking for what
00:33:13.380they they want to see and they're molding the message of the historical message to fit their
00:33:17.460ideology and it's dangerous and it's wrong it's wrong for people you know it's a disservice to
00:33:23.300those historic figures who did put so much in to building this nation sir johnny mcdonald
00:33:29.540was an incredible man as i you know was talking about uh detail you know patrice wrote that book
00:33:35.620that was just on one year and it really was a fascinating book on what he went through
00:33:40.020in that period and this is a man whose career and in making history span decades yet we're tearing
00:33:46.980his statues down. We're renaming schools and streets and acting as if this man who built
00:33:54.240this country, which really is, as much as I complain about a lot of things politically,
00:33:58.400it's still a bastion of freedom and prosperity like most of the world doesn't get to enjoy.
00:34:03.080And the reason for that were people like McDonald back in those days, even if they held views that
00:34:08.740you don't necessarily agreed with at that time. It doesn't overwrite the good they did. You can't
00:34:13.860compare that and it's funny they get selective with it if it's a left right thing you want to
00:34:18.580play with uh look at some of the uh prairie socialists and their embracing of the eugenics
00:34:23.860policy uh 50 60 70 years ago it wasn't uh very nice either but they did accomplish other things
00:34:31.700uh the famous five in alberta they've been digging in and finding quotes from some of them you know
00:34:36.900women's rights advocates who really again turned the page for canadian women in history but now
00:34:42.420it turns out that, yes, they held some racial views, which were, well, kind of held by a lot
00:34:47.700of their contemporaries at the time. And we're seeing that canceled in Calgary. There was five
00:34:52.200statues that were held or kept downtown, beautiful statues. They took them down as they renovated a
00:34:58.160park and said, oh, well, we'll deal with them later. And they've been sitting in storage ever
00:35:01.020since. Don't worry, guys, those statues are never coming back. They're being erased because a couple
00:35:06.720of them, Nellie McClung or whatnot, I'm not sure even which ones it did, said a couple of untoward
00:35:11.320things 100 years ago. Not good, guys. Not good at all. But well, I mean, like anything else,
00:35:18.640we want to try and battle misinformation with fact. But it's hard. It's hard. Short-form
00:35:25.600torqued rhetoric tends to stick into people a lot more effectively than long-form history. In fact,
00:35:35.840we're in the TikTok generation. If I can't get somebody's attention in a 30-second video,
00:35:40.400I can't get their attention. That's worrisome. It really is. Hopefully though, I mean, I think
00:35:45.520new technology is fantastic. New ways of reaching people and engaging people. Maybe it's starting in
00:35:50.340the most shallow way with TikTok dance videos and cat videos, but can be converted into something
00:35:58.360more productive a little later and make it better. I don't know. It's either way, check that out.
00:36:05.840um and uh let's see what else is going to be happening uh mcclung yes there's another one
00:36:11.760uh well that was mentioned yeah and then mcclung got the right for women to vote and yeah she's
00:36:15.680getting canceled tommy douglas yes greatest canadian and uh he was as as uh mo c9m a
00:36:22.420commenter pointed out was a supporter of forced sterilization and eugenics does that mean douglas
00:36:28.040everything else he did was wrong because he was a eugenics supporter
00:36:31.220no was the eugenics view wrong yes hey look at that you can actually recognize the good
00:36:39.880contributions while recognizing the bad sir johnny mcdonald was a notorious drunk but it doesn't
00:36:45.440mean he was a fool but uh either way i mean you know as a you spoke about recent uh politics
00:36:54.400leading into this justin trudeau was one of the worst politicians worst prime ministers in canadian
00:36:58.900history by far no politician has ever managed to undercut canadian pride and identity more than
00:37:06.800justin trudeau did i mean when he started out with his fluffy vacuous and that was the problem
00:37:12.600canada voted for hair not for brains and they kept him in for 10 years and it showed
00:37:18.300so you wouldn't hear justin talking about history he'd never read a history book in his life he read
00:37:22.280comic books and he talked about this post-national state what a beautiful country where we aren't
00:37:27.800You 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.
00:37:45.740When 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?
00:37:58.280These self-loathing revisionists, I met one that's just stuck in my head.
00:41:51.800Sure, 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.
00:41:59.800but you can't demand reparation from somebody's descendant for what somebody else's descendant
00:42:06.220may or may not have been assaulted by, but people are actually demanding that. And they're saying
00:42:10.600you should be ashamed of yourself. There's a weird, gross, extreme leftist demonstration I saw
00:42:15.720at one point where there was a black guy standing and this white woke nut bar on his knee licking
00:42:23.860the boot of the black guy, just saying, I have to feel it so I can be able to understand what
00:42:28.740happened 150 years ago. You guys are insane. This isn't helping anybody. This isn't unifying
00:42:35.080anybody. This isn't making us all better off or stronger. This is dividing the cultures. This is
00:42:40.620making it worse. This is taking the scab off of a wound, a wound that's healing slowly enough as it
00:42:46.480is and just constantly reopening it. And who's getting better? Has racism ended? No. We're seeing
00:42:54.980more division, more fights, more extremism because we're refusing to get together. Another one saying
00:43:03.840from the communist playbook, Mystery Chief saying struggle sessions. Yeah, it's absurdity, but it's
00:43:09.940brainwashing and it's problematic. Here's another beauty example. Let's just talk about things gone
00:43:14.980out of control where I'll be called intolerant for pointing it out, but I don't care. So you
00:43:20.040might have seen that news story, Toronto police officer Farhan Ali, he praised October 7th,
00:43:24.700you know, where they're raping and murdering women and children in Israel. People keep
00:43:28.960overlooking that. The left is just celebrating that orgy of murder and rape that happened
00:43:33.140October 7th. I really wish every one of them, I really wish someone could have been dragged
00:43:37.560over there where I was to see the bloodstains, to see the blown up houses and watch that
00:43:42.120god-awful unfiltered video of what those monsters did. Either way, this guy praised it. That's
00:43:48.600how extreme this guy is and he you know what he got in reward for praising that he was the Toronto
00:43:54.000policeman uh person charged with you know uh communicating with the Islamic community out
00:44:01.480there yeah you wonder why they took no issue with hate protests targeting Jewish neighborhoods
00:44:07.740households people's homes with extremists well because this is the guy with the police with it
00:44:12.940and guess what as with so many adherents of Islam and there's a lot of them he's a rapist
00:44:18.520he's been arrested and charged actually three counts of it yeah real winner isn't he
00:44:25.760and guess what grooming gangs rape gangs prostitution gangs i'll say what we're not
00:44:33.380allowed to say oh look at the headlines read the names they're all islamic not saying every
00:44:38.960islamic person's participating in those no i am not but there's a real problem with that ideology
00:44:46.560And we've got to be allowed to say it if we're going to solve it.
00:44:49.220So, yeah, I'll say the quiet part out loud because this is the sort of thing you end up with.
00:44:55.100You take a man who celebrated murder and rape, and lo and behold, it turns out he's a rapist.