00:09:49.000And they protested outside and it ended up in fisticuffs, a mass brawl with California cops having to come in and make the peace.
00:10:00.500We've got a follow up on that story out of Innisfail earlier this week, Corey, where a Red Deer lawyer was charged with attacking a RCMP officer and uttering threats.
00:10:11.980This came after a Innisfail RCMP unit pulled over a truck with two women in it, and it ended up also being a mass brawl with the Red Deer lawyer allegedly, or has been charged with allegedly attacking the officer.
00:10:30.560The lawyer's brother, who's also a lawyer, put out a statement
00:10:34.360saying the entire blame was on the RCMP for overreacting
00:10:38.380and they were racist because the female lawyer was Indigenous.
00:10:44.180Well, now the National Police Federation has lambasted the two lawyers
00:10:49.760saying they should know better than to publicly try and shame a police officer.
00:10:54.140and there are ways to take their anger out going through the proper channels.
00:14:52.020And it'll have far more effect on bringing food to your table in an affordable way than any amount of interest rate hikes trying to fight inflation will.
00:15:00.260And one more thing before I get to my guest, get rid of supply management for crying out loud.
00:15:04.680That's one conservative thing that conservatives even don't have the courage to jump into, but they really have to.
00:15:09.380All right, I see Spencer on deck there, and I've been looking forward to talking to him.
00:15:12.500We haven't had him on for a while, and it's great to have him on.
00:15:15.640He's been writing a lot of stuff and covering some federal issues for us.
00:15:20.360So let's bring in Spencer Fernando and discuss things.
00:15:40.500So, I mean, I'm always reading your stories. And then just to remind everybody, it's spencerfernando.com. There's lots of them you're putting out all the time. But just one that caught my eye, it kind of coupled a bit with a column I did in a sense of what the, you know, the almost apologetic statement from the government on the RCMP's 150th anniversary.
00:15:58.960and you talking, pointing out how the lack of equipment for Canadian troops, it signifies a
00:16:03.680deeper decline for Canada as a nation. Like this is symbolizing much more than just the immediate
00:16:08.160problem that we're, that we're leaving our troops in the lurch. Yeah. You know, I mean, if you,
00:16:14.100you know, tell a whole generation of people that Canada's history is, you know, nothing but evil
00:16:18.360and colonialism and, you know, terrible mistreating people and, you know, all our values are bad and
00:16:22.880we should feel guilty and sad about everything, you know, then you're at the same time you're
00:16:27.880saying oh well you know sign up join the military and you know go overseas to you know defend our
00:16:31.980national interest well how can you really have national interest if you're if you take such a
00:16:36.020negative view of the nation and the history of the country and so i i do see those things as linked
00:16:41.140you know you have a government that manages i mean i think we just saw that they just asked for
00:16:44.980the authority to spend 20 billion extra dollars this year over what they'd already budgeted which
00:16:49.880itself was a massive increase over the previous year so they're they spend money on everything
00:16:55.660I mean, massive deficits, you know, the debt's gone up dramatically.
00:16:58.860The only place where it seems they don't spend much money is equipping our soldiers.
00:17:02.080I mean, they sent people over, I think it was to Latvia, and, you know, they're having to buy their own helmets.
00:17:07.120I mean, so, you know, it's, I'm sure we'll get to the moral aspect of, you know, sending people to harm's way without equipping them and how bad that is.
00:17:15.000But I do think we are seeing a deeper problem with just the fact that we've, you know, demonized our history.
00:17:19.380We've made people think Canada's, you know, based on bad values.
00:17:23.180you know western civilization is it's no better than any other civilization you know it's terrible
00:17:28.120it's got all these problems and so when you kind of depress a country like that and depress a whole
00:17:32.860generation about their past and their history then you know how do you expect people to to join the
00:17:37.700military and how do you expect to have a government that sees the value of the military or have
00:17:40.760citizens that see the value of the military because you know it's not just it's easy to
00:17:45.160blame the politicians but you know most canadians don't vote on whether the military is uh you know
00:17:49.540effective or not and most people don't seem to care that much so i think it's a serious problem
00:17:53.660especially in a world that's becoming a lot more dangerous well that's it i mean the military is
00:17:57.820a calling i mean it's not a route to easy money it's not a good time it's it's dangerous sometimes
00:18:03.920and difficult career path to take the people who join typically are feeling that they're going to
00:18:08.980do a service for the nation they love that's what would help them i guess overlook shortcomings
00:18:13.180they're getting back from the military such as perhaps not being as well equipped or or uh you
00:18:18.520know uh whatnot as they should be but if they're at the same time being told they should be ashamed
00:18:23.120of the nation and being under equipped this is a terrible formula for these people serving right
00:18:27.720now yeah and you know it's you know one of the ironies it was some of the soldiers uh the other
00:18:33.600nato troops that were over there i think from the netherlands had better equipment than the
00:18:38.120canadians and much of the equipment was actually canadian you know they've been buying canadian
00:18:41.240equipment for some time so we make good equipment we just don't buy it for our own soldiers and we
00:18:45.160don't equip them and so and then there's of course the aspect of you know justin trudeau postures is
00:18:49.860a you know big defender of nato and the rules-based international order he talks about all the time
00:18:54.220but you know it's it's just words if you don't back it up right so he says all the all the nice
00:18:59.160words about you know supporting nato and freedom and democracy and all that stuff but uh you send
00:19:04.120people overseas you know into the idea is that if there's a big war they're going to be involved in
00:19:08.880it that's the reason we're sending people over there is a deterrent but obviously they'd be on
00:19:12.140the front line if a massive war broke out so how can you justify sending them over there if you're
00:19:16.780not equipping them well right you're basically saying yeah well we just hope nothing bad happens
00:19:20.160because if it does you'll be under equipped and your chances of dying will go up so again you know
00:19:24.940i don't see how you know you know it's it's sad that canadians are not more outraged about this
00:19:29.660because we're sending people to harm's way without equipping them we're spending massive amounts of
00:19:33.660money every year but somehow not you know prioritizing our national defense so you know
00:19:37.840I see, you know, all these people who posture as, you know, they're supporters of NATO and
00:19:41.880oppose Russia. That's fine. But, you know, we live in the real world. And that means if you
00:19:46.600want to really oppose Russia and stand up for NATO, then you need to equip our military. We
00:19:50.320need to have a credible military force. We need to be able to, if necessary, fight and succeed
00:19:54.560in a major war. And so, you know, I think there's a lot of talk in this country about what our
00:19:58.300values are supposedly, but we undermine those values both by, of course, demonizing our history.
00:20:03.680And then we undermine those values by not living up to our military commitments or our commitments
00:20:07.480to our allies. So, you know, it's, I don't know why people would really take our country seriously
00:20:11.720at this point. And this has been going on actually for a long, long time. I remember
00:20:17.000during one of the Gulf Wars, for one, we had to take a gun out of surplus because they didn't
00:20:22.680actually have a gun for their boat to serve in the Gulf. And a bunch of our soldiers went overseas
00:20:27.720and they showed up in the desert and they had olive green uniforms. And of course they stood
00:20:32.600out like sore thumbs. They didn't have desert camouflage. There's different types. They're
00:20:36.260not in the jungle. So other soldiers lent them ponchos to cover their olive green uniforms. This
00:20:42.540was decades ago. And how humiliating that must have been for them, you know, when you're serving
00:20:46.760overseas in these other countries that they're lending you these things out of a sense of good
00:20:50.620will and to keep you safe, of course. But if this hasn't been solved after decades of underfunding
00:20:56.000the military, do you think we ever will turn it around? As you said, Canadians don't seem to get
00:21:00.080upset enough about this. Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm doing the best I can to try to wake more
00:21:04.680people up about it, but it's certainly a tough task. And, you know, one of the strange things
00:21:08.280about it is if you look at the country that Canada most resembles, you know, militarily in
00:21:13.380terms of our attitude towards the military and underfunding, ironically, it's Germany, right? I
00:21:17.300mean, Germany has the same thing. I mean, they promised recently they were going to boost their
00:21:20.360military funding and that turned out to be mostly hot air. They haven't really done that much,
00:21:23.920but it's a lot because Germany, you can understand why they'd be a little reticent to build up their
00:21:28.700military again, right? I mean, they've got a history where certainly the idea of saying,
00:21:32.280you know we're pretty ashamed of what we did in the past that makes a lot of sense for germany
00:21:36.140canada of course is fighting on the opposite side of that so we have a lot to be proud of
00:21:39.800militarily but we seem to have the same kind of almost ashamed attitude of all the military oh
00:21:44.280we don't want to really talk about it we don't want a big military don't want to be too strong
00:21:47.520it's too too scary and too mean and so you know i don't know if it will change it it's an attitude
00:21:53.520that obviously comes i think from you know very deep with a lot of canadians you know i see people
00:21:58.440say oh we don't need a military or america will protect us or you know who needs a big military
00:22:03.080today's day and age and again you know a big military is something that certainly looks like
00:22:07.080a waste of money most of the time but when you need it you know it better be there because you
00:22:10.680can't just build it up instantly right and so you know i i think all the people who who claim that
00:22:15.880they you know support nato and claim that canada you know should be a part of defending um you know
00:22:21.160our values against you know countries like russia against countries like china that's only credible
00:22:26.040if you support building up the military there's no magical you know way around that you know you
00:22:29.800have to have a strong military to be able to defend yourself and help your allies so you know
00:22:34.520i think maybe it's because canada hasn't had any you know internal military conflicts for a long
00:22:38.840time you know we didn't fight a major war of independence that's not how we became a nation
00:22:43.240so maybe people just don't appreciate it but you know i think it's it's something that we we don't
00:22:47.880want to overlook because it's you know you don't want to be in a situation where you're desperately
00:22:51.480trying to build up a military when your country's being attacked well it sounds like we need a
00:22:55.640a national discussion to find out, well, what do we want then as a military? What do we want to be
00:22:59.520as a role around the world? A peacekeeper or an emergency? Just that they're going to show up to
00:23:03.800help in emergencies? Or are they going to be a part of NATO? I mean, NATO means you should be
00:23:06.840pretty militarized because that's some pretty hot areas that you might need to defend yourself.
00:23:11.420I would think it doesn't have to be a large military, but we could at least equip them
00:23:15.200better. The current military is using, they're using sidearms from World War II. I remember a
00:23:20.480series of columns on the National Post. They've been spending decades naval gazing and talking
00:23:25.940about getting new sidearms. You could go to Cabela's with a couple million dollars and get
00:23:29.760them updated sidearms in a week if you really wanted to, and they still can't even manage to
00:23:34.380get this done. I mean, it seems almost, if it's that bad, that it's purposeful that maybe they're
00:23:40.060trying to starve this military out of existence. Yeah, there certainly does seem to be part of
00:23:44.880that attitude at play here. And as you say, it doesn't need to be a massive military. We're not
00:23:50.380a big country in terms of population but certainly we could have a very advanced air force you know
00:23:54.300we can be a leader in drone technology missile technology and then have a small but very well
00:23:58.220equipped you know military and you know even even in terms of cost i mean it's not really that
00:24:03.760expensive i mean nato's asking us to spend two percent of gdp on our military that's not really
00:24:08.380excessive i mean you look at a lot of other countries they're spending four or five six
00:24:11.340percent way more militaries even the u.s i mean everyone talks about the u.s supposedly being some
00:24:15.600big you know you know imperial military power they spend you know about average you know as
00:24:20.580the world goes on their military per capita or as a percentage of their their gdp they just have a
00:24:26.280huge gdp so it looks like big spending so we don't need to be you know it's not like we're going to
00:24:30.360be a super militarized country it's just it's just basically doing the bare minimum basically saying
00:24:34.760look we're going to have advanced equipment we're going to have good planes we're going to have a
00:24:37.540few good ships we're going to have soldiers who are well trained and well equipped and if we need
00:24:41.220help our allies then we can do so and so that's that really shouldn't be too much to ask i mean
00:24:46.420the flip side is you look at it from the american perspective by not funding our own military and
00:24:50.900then by saying oh america will protect us we're basically saying all americans will die to
00:24:54.580protect canadians because we're not choosing to do our part and an alliance has to go both ways
00:24:59.220you know if we expect the americans to help us if we're in trouble we should be able to at least do
00:25:03.060a little bit to help them if they get in trouble and so i think just you know strategically morally
00:25:08.100ethically you know having a decent military is is certainly not something we can overlook in
00:25:12.740today's world yeah i mean taking our southern neighbors uh goodwill for granted for the sake
00:25:17.540of our own defense is a pretty weak way to go about things you know i'll pivot a bit for our
00:25:22.420last few minutes because you've put another piece out since uh just to talk about it it's more about
00:25:26.420again canada as a whole it kind of ties into the last one you talk about uh you know diversity and
00:25:31.060and uh the liberals love to talk up a good game of diversity but they don't really seem to support
00:25:35.620diversity when push comes to shove in a lot of ways or at least not when it comes to viewpoints
00:25:40.180yeah i mean there's a situation where i think a teacher was uh you know admonishing a muslim student
00:25:45.860for not wanting to attend a pride event and you know that's gone viral and a lot of people are
00:25:50.100talking about that and i think it just goes to show that um you know canada this is the problem
00:25:54.420with not saying you know trudeau said oh there's no core canadian identity you know canada has no
00:25:59.220you know set values but then at the same time bringing a lot of people many of whom come from
00:26:03.620parts of the world with very different values than in canada you know not based on individual
00:26:07.620rights or you know freedom of religion and then you have you know the far left pushing you know
00:26:12.580certain set of values on other people and so you know that's the problem with not ever discussing
00:26:16.340these things as a country and just hoping that a few nice slogans like diversity is strength
00:26:20.340will make it all work together and now personally i think the solution is decentralization you know
00:26:24.180i think we need the technology as i read in the article the technology to decentralize education
00:26:29.380certainly exists it's just politicians and you know entrenched interests who stand in the way
00:26:33.540of that you know if parents want their kids to go to pride events certainly they should be free to
00:26:37.060do so you know we shouldn't be allowing you know discrimination in schools we shouldn't be you know
00:26:40.820teaching people you know to hate any group at the same time if parents for religious reasons want
00:26:45.220their kids to opt out or they want to send them to a religious school we should make that easier
00:26:48.340for people as well i think the only way for a country like canada that's you know diverse in
00:26:52.340terms of you know ethnic backgrounds you know cultures uh religious beliefs the only way for
00:26:57.140for that really to work is to be decentralized because if one group tries to impose all of
00:27:01.080their values on another, it's just going to become, you know, tribal division and anger.
00:27:04.980And I think that's unfortunately seems to be where we're heading. And I don't think that's
00:27:08.640where we want to go because that doesn't really end well. No, it takes some delicacy. I mean,
00:27:15.320if you're going to try and force everybody to be under the same viewpoint, well, you better come up
00:27:19.520with the chart then that we're supposed to comply by. And that doesn't jive with anybody thinking
00:27:24.520that they live in a free nation whatsoever so these contradictions going on i i have to admit
00:27:29.660it puts a it puts them between a bit of a rock and a hard place when they're dealing with lgbtq
00:27:34.780rights and dealing with minority uh islamic rights at the same time maybe that'll force a
00:27:40.880little self-examination on some of these things though yeah i think i think you know that's a
00:27:45.460good point self-examination does need to happen because i see you know some concerning trends
00:27:49.280both on the left and to be honest on the right to an extent you know the left obviously has
00:27:53.840gone so far it's it's like you become so tolerant that you're intolerant of everybody right you know
00:27:58.660only a very small set of beliefs are considered acceptable and any any little deviation from that
00:28:03.600is considered you know hate right so the left has become quite intolerant but then i see some people
00:28:08.820on the right who you know you see them idolizing russia you know praising you know you know
00:28:12.980uganda i've even seen some people in the right praising uganda with their horrific law and so
00:28:17.280it's like you have people who are there oh they don't like that they're seeing you know some
00:28:20.620you know, drag events. So they decide to completely turn against Western civilization0.98
00:28:24.440itself and start praising, you know, foreign dictatorships. And so I think people just need0.65
00:28:29.100to get a grip and realize, you know, this is what living in a democracy is about. Sometimes you're
00:28:32.380out of power and your opponents do crazy things, but you speak out against them and then you try
00:28:36.580to get elected and you try to persuade people to change. I mean, you look at the United States,
00:28:40.320you have a lot of states who are passing laws restricting, you know, I guess what they'd say,
00:28:45.080you know, drag events or certain events. You look at, I think, Norway just banned
00:28:50.200sex chain surgery for children. And so and then some people will like that. Some people won't
00:28:55.700like that. But democracies are trying to figure these issues out. And there's a back and forth
00:28:58.800debate. So I think both the left and the right need to, you know, restore some of their faith
00:29:02.740in the idea of freedom and the idea of democracy, the idea of debate. We experiment different ideas.
00:29:07.540One jurisdiction tries one thing. One tries another. We see how it works. And, you know,
00:29:11.060we fight it out politically. But the idea that we should turn to being a dictatorship or being
00:29:16.380communist or something because we're a little dissatisfied with Western democracy, I think
00:29:20.560that would be a massive mistake. Awesome. Debate and live and let live concepts. They sound like
00:29:25.440simple ones, but not enough people seem to recognize them sometimes. Well, we'll keep
00:29:29.900debating anyways and keep pushing and shoving and trying to keep a balance in the nation,
00:29:34.880I would hope. I appreciate your contributions and your columns going out there. Just to kind
00:29:40.740to remind everybody one more time before I let you go. Where can we find where you're writing
00:29:43.820and where your presence is out there, Spencer? Yeah, you can go to spencerfernando.com. That's
00:29:49.060where most of my articles are. And then I publish one column about once a week for the National
00:29:54.340Citizens Coalition. So you can find that on nationalcitizens.ca. Great. Well, I appreciate
00:29:59.780you joining the show again, Spencer. It's always a good conversation. I hope we get to talk again
00:30:04.000soon. Sounds good. Great. Thanks. That was Spencer Fernando. And yes, and you can watch from as well
00:30:09.980on Twitter. He's on there and it's, you know, Twitter's a good spot. Like I said, people say
00:30:13.420you get too worked up about the discourse and debates on Twitter, but it's a good spot to see
00:30:16.920stories and items when they first come out. So give Spencer a follow on there and then you'll
00:30:21.480see those columns as they pop up along with the Citizens Coalition and things like that.
00:30:26.720So, you know, yeah, I want to pivot a little to, you know, this is some of the areas where people
00:30:31.820get worked up. Somebody threw it out because I got on Twitter, I put it out there when people
00:30:36.940are talking about banning Fox News, for example, we got to ban them. We want to CRTC to step in
00:30:41.440and ban them. They said, no, get over it. Don't watch it. Just change the channel. Why is it
00:30:46.700always banning? Why is it always shutting down? Why have people jumped straight to attacking the
00:30:52.300other viewpoint, not allowing the other viewpoint? But somebody tweeted back at me saying, so fine,
00:30:56.980so you'd be okay with LGBT people in schools and, you know, drag shows and libraries. And
00:31:13.560In a library, for example, as we mentioned before, join the library board if you're really that concerned and don't have trans shows going on there.
00:31:20.680Likewise with the school, we need charter schools.
00:31:22.640We need to let parents choose where their kids are going to go and where they aren't.0.92
00:31:26.820And we need to reframe the discussion and take it back from the trans activists.0.70
00:31:31.960not trans people, trans activists. And you know, the trans activists are usually the same0.71
00:31:38.880hysteric jerks that are the activists that get involved in all the woke causes. Usually some0.99
00:31:45.540basement dwelling, white, middle class person who feels that they want to get a chip on their
00:31:51.580shoulder and make the world a better place by speaking up as a white knight on behalf of
00:31:55.280some minority or another minority that they aren't even actually a part of.
00:31:58.660trans people have been around for a long, long time. And they've been achieving a lot more rights.
00:32:06.480And they should, I think, you know, they want to live their lives. But the activists got involved.
00:32:11.720The activists got into the mix. The activists moved the goalposts. They're there to outrage.
00:32:17.860They're not there to make things better for anybody else. They just have to push it farther
00:32:22.440and farther and farther. They found the line that's ticking off just about everybody. They
00:32:27.700finally found it. And it's a straightforward line for most people, kids. Why are they always so
00:32:33.380obsessed in getting in front of kids? Why? And no, by the way, because some people imply that0.84
00:32:39.840they're saying that that's because all those trans performers and drag story, our readers are0.97
00:32:43.700pedophiles. No, no, they aren't. Not all of them. Not most of them. Hopefully not any of them.0.98
00:32:49.480But it is odd with that hang up and getting in front of kids. You got the age of majority that
00:32:54.640hits at 18. That means the majority, guys, guys, gals, whatever, you can perform and do your things
00:32:59.540in front of millions and millions of people who were older than the age of 18. There's nothing
00:33:04.080stopping you. It's perfectly legal. It's perfectly allowed. Go for it. But instead, they got to keep
00:33:10.900pushing it. I mean, that's a story that just kind of, I got to admit, and I'm not easily shocked,
00:33:14.840but got me the other day when I saw that was trans woman's testicle falls out in front of0.99
00:33:20.180children during performance. Yes, because again, this goes beyond. There's more than one thing1.00
00:33:27.760here with the trans performances. Now, there's drag time story hour. In that case, somebody's0.94
00:33:34.040kind of dragged up, dolled up, and reading to some kids, usually pretty benign and harmless.
00:33:38.360But then that limit keeps getting pushed, and we see the videos, and it's not everywhere. We see
00:33:42.600enough. We see the ones where there's kids going up and putting money into the G-strings of trans0.73
00:33:47.660performers. You know, it would be illegal if these were straight people up there. Just leave the kids
00:33:53.160alone. Leave the kids out of it. Why? Why do we have to keep pushing? And I think personally, I can't1.00
00:33:59.240speak for them, but I think it's probably making it harder on the genuinely trans people who just
00:34:04.380want to live their lives. Just leave the kids out of it. Move on. But it's the rage. It's the rage.1.00
00:34:10.720They got to push. They got to push. You know, I listened to something the other day. I listened
00:34:16.200to Adam Carolla's podcast a lot, and he said something interesting, or he had a guest who
00:34:20.740said something interesting. He said, a lot of libertarian-minded people tend to be on the autism
00:34:24.680spectrum because they have a different way of emotions in the way they work with things, and I
00:34:29.080don't know if that's fair or not to say if that's the case or whatnot, but yes, I do think, though,
00:34:34.340and one of the ways he put it was good, wasn't that, because we get accused of that. You get
00:34:38.060accused of these sensitive issues. You're heartless. You want this. You want that. No, not. No, not,
00:34:42.100But a libertarian person won't look at an emotional argument as being valid when it comes to policy.
00:34:51.600So yes, emotions are important, but I honestly don't care what you feel.