On this episode of the Corey Morgan Show, host Corey Morgan talks with Professor Michel Gagnier about the JFK Assassination and conspiracy theories, and why the Edmonton Transit Service wants to ban media access to public transit facilities in order to protect the public.
00:00:30.000Good day. Welcome to the Corey Morgan Show. As you might have gathered, I am Corey Morgan. This is my weekly opportunity to bend your ear, rant, rave, talk to some guests, cover some subjects, and have a good time. Or at least I enjoy it anyway. Sometimes the viewers enjoy it. Sometimes they get upset with me. Ah, you know, it doesn't bother me when you get upset. But, you know, it gets our blood pressure going. It makes things interesting. You can't just always read the columns. That's where you can kind of hear them.
00:00:56.700So, just again, so much news, lots of dark news, sometimes lighter things as well to cover today. We're going to get into a bunch of that. I got a very interesting guest coming on. It is, for those who are watching live right now, it is the 60th anniversary today of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas that day.
00:01:14.680And, of course, there's lots of theories and ideas on how or who or what happened there that day. Still, to this day, a lot of debate and things going on about it.
00:01:23.060So, my guest is Professor Michel Gagnier. I'm terrible with French names, but he's a professor and he's written on conspiracy theories in general.
00:01:31.260And we're going to talk a bit about that, you know. I mean, why are there so many conspiracy theories on things in general?
00:01:37.100Why do people feel inclined to believe some of them when there's very shaky evidence?
00:01:40.960Or why are people so quick to dismiss them if sometimes they're real? It's a hard thing.
00:01:46.440But, you know, with the internet, it's a whole new challenge on trying to keep up with truth from fiction.
00:01:51.640All right. So, I'm going to get it going on one of my truths and tell you how I spent my weekend.
00:01:57.220So, one of the best ways to get me to do something is to tell me I can't do it.
00:02:02.360That's just my stubborn, pugnacious nature.
00:02:04.880So, thus, I found myself riding the LRT in Edmonton last Sunday when I didn't really need to use it to get anywhere.
00:02:10.660You see, the Edmonton Transit Service, which goes by ETS, put out a statement a little while ago to media outlets
00:02:16.100that said media would be banned from public transit facilities unless they sought and got permission to go there first.
00:02:22.120Now, being a unionized gang, of course, you could only get permission from 9 to 5 on weekdays from these guys.
00:02:28.860So, if there were any events that needed coverage and they happened to be happening in the evenings or the weekends,
00:02:33.540I guess the press wouldn't be allowed to report on it.
00:02:35.980The requirement's ridiculous. It's a clear violation of freedom of the press.
00:02:40.200The Canadian Constitution Foundation immediately released a statement saying they're going to take ETS to court if they don't back off on this.
00:02:46.860Higher-ups within Edmonton City Hall, they scrambled to respond and they claimed there was no such restriction placed on media.
00:02:52.280People just misunderstood the statement.
00:02:55.700Well, let's have a look at the statement, then I'll read it to you and see if you misunderstand it or not.
00:02:59.720Here's the statement. It came under the heading, Media on ETS Property.
00:03:03.920It says media are required, required, not suggested, to notify the City of Edmonton prior to reporting, filming, or conducting business on ETS property.
00:03:12.800This includes transit centres, LRT stations, stops along the Valley Line southeast, and inside all buses or trains.
00:03:19.520If you wish to gain access to ETS property, please contact blah blah blah.
00:03:24.240How could this be misunderstood? It was pretty clear.
00:03:26.920They're saying media needs their permission to go on public property and do its job.
00:03:32.360Now, the reason ETS wants to keep us from reporting on transit property is pretty obvious.
00:03:37.260As with most major cities, Edmonton's transit systems turned into a dystopian, addict-ridden nightmare.
00:03:43.240Riding had become unpleasant at best and outright dangerous at worst.
00:03:46.920Edmonton police at one point even recommended people avoid using transit.
00:03:50.900Now, like all good bureaucracies, rather than fixing the problem, the first instinct on the part of the pointy head to little bureaucrats was to cover it up, and that meant banning the press.
00:04:00.240Former Western Standard reporter Arthur Green used to drive them nuts.
00:04:03.160He made it a personal mission to expose the attic-fueled mayhem happening in Edmonton's downtown and on the transit systems.
00:04:09.440He constantly embarrassed ETS as he posted photos and video of some of the horrific scenes happening on transit facilities.
00:04:16.080Green's photos, they were often actually pretty tough to view as he highlighted the human misery and waste happening on city streets and transit lines, but they needed to be seen.
00:04:24.100Rest assured, Arthur's work was part of what inspired the idiotic attempt by ETS to control the press on public transit.
00:04:31.780So when I read that ETS statement, my first thought was, who the hell do you guys think you are?
00:04:36.820And I knew I'd have to put their rules to the test.
00:04:38.800I mean, the sheer arrogance of these bureaucrats and thinking they could stop media was galling.
00:04:42.540They likely felt inspired, though, as they've watched the federal government beat on Canada's free press with bills C-11 and C-18, so why can't civic governments do it too, right?
00:04:51.200It appeared to some paper pushers it's open season on press rights, and they wanted to pile on.
00:04:55.600And I tweeted out I'd be riding on city transit and live-tweeted my actions as I rode on and reported on the conditions on the train and in the facilities.
00:05:02.740I didn't really expect ETS to do anything about it, and they didn't.
00:05:05.920Their requirement for permission was just a bluff. Bluster.
00:05:08.640Now let's get on to the ironic part of this story.
00:05:10.820I'm happy to report, actually, when I rode it, things have actually improved quite a bit on Edmonton Transit lines.
00:05:15.180Yes, I saw addicts. I smelled urine. I saw property damage.
00:05:18.760I witnessed a seemingly endless line of tents and makeshift shelters built along the line near Stadium Station.
00:05:24.100They do have some serious issues to deal with.
00:05:26.340But I also saw a very visible presence of security guards, peace officers, cleaning crews, and police at the stations.
00:05:32.040I mean, one young lady was being arrested when I went by, but at least they're doing their job.
00:05:35.560The platforms and the trains were actually relatively clean, despite the smell, and efforts were being made to keep it so.
00:05:40.720Now, it was a Sunday afternoon. I might have been seeing things at their best.
00:05:43.860But all the same, ETS and Edmonton authorities were clearly trying to keep transit safe and clean.
00:05:48.800Now, if I'd been blocked from going on transit, or if I'd listened to them, I wouldn't have been able to report this good news.
00:07:28.760Breaking news at the moment, Corey, coming out of the border crossing from Niagara Falls into the United States, city of Buffalo.
00:07:38.400There appears to have been a terrorist attack, a car full of explosives driving from Canada, hit the U.S. border guards, causing what appears to be a big explosion.
00:07:49.740Fox is reporting that two people were killed in the blast.
00:07:54.120I'm not sure what the if they were both in the car or there was a border people killed as prompted an immediate border clampdown.
00:08:03.540All the four bridges from Ontario into New York state have been shut down on the U.S. side.
00:08:13.160They're now being guarded by the U.S. anti-terrorism force.
00:08:18.200The U.S. FBI is already at the scene in Buffalo and probably leading the investigation.
00:09:02.120I imagine they're not overly impressed.
00:09:05.500Big announcement on health care in Alberta this morning, where the province is going to allow licensed practical nurses to operate their own clinics.
00:09:15.160The licensed practical nurses are sort of more trained than regular nurses and, in fact, do about 80% of what a doctor can do.
00:09:24.180So they're going to allow those people with the right training to open up their own offices.
00:09:30.380A story still reverberating from yesterday, where Calgary police have now apologized to the family of two brothers, one only 14 years old, the other 18, who were arrested last week for the brazen daylight shooting up near Marlborough Park.
00:09:49.980I guess they got the wrong guys and have apologized.
00:09:54.480You know, Corey, in my 30 years or so of covering crime in Calgary, I've never seen anything quite like that apology yesterday.
00:11:55.820What we're talking about is exactly what a private doctor does.
00:12:00.100When you go to the clinic, you go to the doctor, that doctor's paying the lease, that doctor's paying the nurses, that doctor's running a business, and that doctor takes a profit.
00:12:22.620Now, there could be things to be debatable.
00:12:24.540We'd worry that perhaps the practitioner might have a diagnosis slip by, that a full doctor.
00:12:29.800You know, there's reasons that we could discuss that.
00:12:32.980But to dismiss it immediately as if it's a problem because somebody might make a profit, I'm sorry, but that's how health care reform gets stunted.
00:12:40.700That's how we don't have discussions to make better care.
00:12:44.100Look, our waiting lists are among the worst in the world.
00:12:46.580When you look at the waiting lists, the cost for health care versus the outcomes, we measure really poorly worldwide on all fronts.
00:12:56.920We've got fantastic health care providers once you can get in, but you could be very ill and waiting a long time to get there.
00:13:04.460Now, we also know, most of us know, there's a whole lot of things that people go to a doctor's office for, and they don't necessarily need to see a doctor.
00:13:12.300How many times do you need to see a full-out physician and tie it up at the emergency room or a doctor's office when your kid has the sniffles?
00:13:18.260When you have a mole you think might need further looking at, or a few other things.
00:13:22.580I mean, I have to get my driver's license renewed every two years because it's a class four.
00:13:26.400I've got to get a driver's physical for it.
00:13:29.300It's just checking me out to see if I've got any very evident heart conditions or health issues or breathing problems, things like that, and checking my eyesight.
00:13:37.480Now, do we necessarily need a full-out physician to do that?
00:13:45.260And because this way I'm not taking away the time from a physician with my driver's test, that physician can be looking at somebody with a potentially more serious need or condition.
00:13:55.580Donna Jean, a commenter, saying doctors make mistakes too, and nurse practitioners are great at it.
00:14:00.800And, I mean, with good training, you know, if somebody comes into something that's beyond the ability of a nurse practitioner, presumably that practitioner is going to say, whoa, okay, you need to see somebody with more ability, you know, and training to deal with that specialized need.
00:14:14.080But that's often the case with a doctor as well.
00:14:16.120I mean, you see a general practitioner, and they find something that appears to be, you know, far beyond what you would see in the regular clinic.
00:14:23.340They will determine your best person to refer you to, whether it's a cardiologist or an oncologist, you know, if they've seen something that's of strong concern, and they will send you in that direction.
00:14:36.940It's a way that we can shorten those waiting lists and still make sure everybody's getting good coverage for their health, because that's what we all want in the end.
00:14:44.380So, let's not be fearful of changes just because somebody has a private shingle hanging in front of a place.
00:14:48.780It's still not coming out of your pocket.
00:14:50.120You're still covered by your Alberta Health Services card.
00:15:20.220So, I said off the top of the show, I mean, it happens to be the 60th anniversary, I believe, today of the JFK assassination, and that's sort of the granddaddy of conspiracy theories.
00:15:31.320It's been going on 60 years, and there still doesn't feel, a lot of people don't feel it's resolved.
00:15:35.380I wasn't born when it started, but I have to tell you, I got drawn into it when I was in university.
00:15:41.080I spent about 15, 20 years believing the CIA killed Kennedy.
00:15:44.700That led me to believe in a number of other theories that eventually turned out to be false.
00:15:49.420So, I'm happy to say I'm out of the rabbit hole, but it takes a while.
00:15:53.480It takes a lot of effort to think critically to be able to get away from these very kind of corroding myths that our society embraces far too easily.
00:16:02.680Yeah, well, we seem to have, I believe, I mean, and you break it down into that in your article, which was fantastic too, but just some of the things to watch for in a conspiracy that perhaps isn't a legitimate one or isn't well-founded.
00:16:33.500A lot of smarter people than me, a lot of people in social scientific research have highlighted some of the major elements that make us want to believe in conspiracy theories.
00:16:42.620One of the ones that tends to be universal is a feeling of powerlessness.
00:16:46.360You can be either unemployed or you can be Donald Trump.
00:16:49.980If you believe that somehow you're losing power or you're being shut out of power, you're more likely to believe that there's some nefarious group that is doing this behind your back.
00:17:00.280Our cultural ideologies tend to influence what kind of conspiracy theory we're likely to believe in.
00:17:06.120The groups we associate with, sometimes because our friends believe it, we're part of an echo chamber that we believe that it must be true if everyone else is repeating it.
00:17:14.300And then I think just the regular zeitgeist, you know, every generation or so there are issues that trouble us more than our ancestors or our children will.
00:17:23.140I know for me it was nuclear war when I was young.
00:17:25.980Today it seems to be climate change or vaccines.
00:17:28.840So depending on what events struck you as odd, suspicious in your youth, particularly in your youth, we often call these flashbulb memories.
00:17:39.440For me it was the Reagan assassination attempt in 1981, but for many people it's the Kennedy assassination or 9-11 or some of these other events.
00:17:48.620Yeah, well, so we've got to, I'll kind of circle back to the Kennedy one.
00:17:53.980I want to talk a little bit about more others soon, but I mean I just recently actually was listening to a different podcast.
00:17:58.340It sounds like Rob Reiner has done a long series of podcasts.
00:18:02.120Now a person of pretty high profile, pretty high reach, and he goes right on to the second and third shooter theories.
00:18:08.400He's confident that really happened and he lays it out over a matter of a number of hours.
00:18:12.660So we're not talking about an obscure person from years ago with a bunch of, you know, old folders they're holding in the air now.
00:18:19.380We've got contemporary celebrities that are still propagating, I guess, their interpretations of what happened in those events back then.
00:18:25.820And I personally, I think, makes some pretty large leaps of logic.
00:20:31.160They spent it on their debts or on restaurant dining.
00:20:34.280They didn't actually do what they were asked to do.
00:20:36.120And in the end, we can see how conspiring is not something that's very successful when a large group of people do it and they're not part of some network.
00:20:44.960I mean, the CIA can kill people and keep a lid on it, at least for some time.
00:20:49.280But when you ask a number of people in different organizations to conspire together, the odds are it's not going to work out very well.
00:20:55.540And it didn't work out for President Nixon either.
00:20:58.120Yeah, well, I mean, just speaking anecdotally, I mean, if you have a circle of 10 friends and you try to keep a secret, all 10 of you know, chances are within a week or two, it's going to spread well outside of that circle.
00:21:08.120I mean, people aren't really that good at keeping secrets.
00:21:10.600And when some of these conspiracies talk about it, as many as hundreds or even thousands of people keeping a secret, it just starts to defy belief a little bit.
00:21:17.780Yeah, I was interviewing for my podcast, Paranoid Planet.
00:21:20.820I was interviewing a filmmaker called James Lambert, and he pointed out that, you know, when you start involving multiple generations in one single conspiracy, that's when really you're killing it with bad logic.
00:21:35.240Because how could you predict how the next generation will do in terms of either covering up or revealing some dark secret?
00:21:43.220So there's a number of ways, and I point these out in my article, you don't have to be an expert in science or history to debunk a conspiracy theory, you need to be equipped with the right kind of logic.
00:21:53.380And sometimes circular reasoning or straw man fallacies, you know, creating a very simplistic version of the theory you're trying to debunk so that it's easier to set it aflame, so to speak, then those are, you know, indicators that a conspiracy theory is likely not believable.
00:22:11.500The more it is like a Hollywood film script, the less likely it is to be true.
00:22:16.340Well, and there's one stubborn one I just came off a speaking tour I was doing on weekends, and twice at two different stops, we had people come up and ask the question about the old chemtrails, which is contrails from jets you see in the sky.
00:22:27.880And, you know, I've talked to people, they're not necessarily foolish people, they're lucid, they're typically rational, but somehow they believe that, again, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of pilots and baggage workers and chemists and who knows else are all tied in with the government, and they're trying to poison us through spray coming from jets and planes above us.
00:22:47.860It just seems to defy when I talk to this person, I really this is not a foolish person, yet they're clinging to something that just seems so irrational, I don't understand how it spreads like that.
00:22:56.680Well, I think we live in an age where we're very suspicious of people in authority, and that's unfortunate, I mean, we should be skeptical, people in authority are still humans, and if they're given the chance, they might be corrupt, they might do something illegal.
00:23:08.520But ultimately, if we start with a default assumption that scientists, professors, journalists like yourself are deliberately part of some larger scheme, then we're not even giving ourselves a chance to look for truth, we start with the assumption that everything happens behind closed doors by some furtive force, that we can only identify with words like oligarchy, or patriarchy, or military industrial complex.
00:23:36.440At the end of the day, these words don't mean anything.
00:23:39.320Yeah, well, one of the things to watch for as well, you pointed out was an assumption of hyper-confidence.
00:23:43.660I mean, when we look at government, this is the same sort of person who would sit and say, look, I feel Trudeau's a fool, and his cabinet's weak, and the bureaucrats are incompetent, but somehow they're pulling off a massive conspiracy to do such and such.
00:23:56.100Well, you've got a conflict of your logic going on right there.
00:23:58.860It's one of the things perhaps people should watch for.
00:24:00.500Don't assume that the government's really that good at being able to keep a conspiracy like this.
00:24:04.620What's interesting is often that same line, those two contradictory points are made by the same people, that somehow the conspirators are hyper-competent, so they can use laser beams, or they can somehow brainwash us through the media.
00:24:17.360But at the same time, they are so incompetent that they leave this breadcrumb of evidence, supposedly, all over the place.
00:24:25.080You know, I have a story on my podcast this week about a woman called Julianne Mercer, who thought she saw Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald sneaking a rifle onto the grassy knoll.
00:24:34.900Well, if they did that, they were profoundly stupid because they're doing this in broad daylight, where they could get arrested before they even get their caper pulled off.
00:24:43.340So, yeah, it's not just the fact about hyper-competence.
00:24:46.700It's the contradictory ways that hyper-competence is often used.
00:24:50.160Yeah, well, I harbor a good deal of mistrust of government, and that's part of why I traffic in it, and they give me lots to work with.
00:24:57.800But at the same time, I mean, I don't always assume every move is malignant, but some of the things we could dismiss, you know, the moon landing theory.
00:25:04.380Fine, people are very dedicated and feeling it was fake, but there's not too much harm done in a sense of holding onto that one.
00:25:11.000But ones that worry me sometimes are medical conspiracies.
00:25:14.280The ones where they say, oh, pharmaceutical companies and doctors are hiding the cure for cancer because they make more money treating people with cancer.
00:25:21.620And, you know, that takes the assumption that these doctors will die and let their family members die, and these pharmaceutical heads will die, rather than let up the secret of this cure for cancer they're hiding.
00:25:33.040But the thing that gets me is it might encourage people to avoid treatment for something that may be very treatable, and that's when it moves into the realm of the dangerous.
00:25:40.600Yeah, I'm not a medical expert, but, you know, I've looked into this enough to see that there's no evidence, for example, that vaccines cause autism.
00:25:49.460And yet we have a candidate right now, or the Americans have a candidate running for president, you know, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who says that they do, who believe that the COVID vaccines were some kind of a racket, and even that the CIA murdered his uncle.
00:26:04.120So even people in very high places can believe this.
00:26:07.900But I have to say that as far as vaccines go, we have to understand the psychology of vaccines is not like other medicine.
00:26:15.680You go to the hospital, you get treated once you're sick.
00:26:18.880Vaccines are a form of therapy, a medical therapy that we use before we're sick.
00:26:23.840So it's very counterintuitive, and I think that's why a lot of people refuse to take a vaccine because they would rather live with the evil that they know, say COVID, rather than the evil that they don't know or that they presume, which is presumably mercury or other toxins in the vaccines.
00:26:43.280So the fact that knowledge has become so complex on issues like health care feeds into the suspicions that people have, because there's just not enough time for most of us to get educated on these subjects.
00:26:57.240And that's why I say we do need to defer to experts, maybe not, you know, without some skepticism, but perhaps we've gone too far in thinking that every person is their own expert.
00:27:08.360You know, just like, you know, the roots of Protestantism said that every man is his own priest, but you have to have also some knowledge to be able to make affirmations.
00:27:18.880Yeah, well, and we get, as you said, that the vaccines cause autism when, for example, or I see a commenter saying the polio vaccine was a real vaccine.
00:27:25.520So a lot of people have faith in the older vaccines, but that conspiracy theory of the autism, which was very heavily disproven over years and years, multiple studies, lots of times, that wasn't over the COVID vaccine.
00:27:35.140That was over the MMR vaccines that have been used for a long, long time.
00:27:39.760That's quite different than what was applied now when we get into COVID, which is a newer vaccine.
00:27:45.980And people, when you're getting coerced into taking it, I can understand people's misgivings and fears and when it hasn't been as long established as some of the other vaccinations.
00:27:56.040So, I mean, there's some difference, but that mistrust can lead to issues, of course.
00:27:59.320That's true. Look, I have a personal anecdote about this, and that is when the vaccines were available for people 50 years and older, at the time I was about 48, and I couldn't wait to actually get my shot because I want to be able to have the freedom to go to places where there were vaccine mandates.
00:28:14.000I went three or four times to get the AstraZeneca shot, but every time I went, they were out of doses.
00:28:20.180So I ended up getting the Pfizer, but between the time that I tried to get the AstraZeneca to the time that I got the Pfizer, which was believed to be safer, I had some serious health issues, chest pains that turned out to be not cardiac, but at the time I believe they were, it had to do with my gallbladder.
00:28:36.600So had I actually had these chest pains after taking the AstraZeneca, I might be one of those people right now thinking that the vaccines made me sick.
00:28:45.400So sometimes there's confirmation bias, other things might make us ill, or there might be that we have a particular reaction to the vaccines that millions of people will not have.
00:28:55.620And at the time of COVID, I think there was a, there was a certain balancing act to do.
00:29:02.160Of course, you know, many people, including myself, didn't feel comfortable with, with the government coercing.
00:29:09.180But at the same time, we had a health scare in which most people want to get back to normal.
00:29:14.580And vaccines, I believe, were a way to get back to normal, but many decisions were taken very quickly because time was short.
00:29:22.320You know, it's like a pregnancy, you only have nine months to decide if you're keeping the child or not.
00:29:27.540So as far as vaccines go, we only had a few months to determine what products to put on the market.
00:29:33.940Yeah, and people had, again, you know, concerns about rushes to vaccines.
00:29:38.120I just recently read a story about a potential vaccine that may help with Alzheimer's disease.
00:29:49.860But the first experiments with it, they found they were causing brain swelling and trouble with people when they were starting human trials.
00:29:54.900So they backed off and had to change it.
00:29:56.900But I'm just saying that you can't fully dismiss people's concerns with a rushed vaccine because vaccines can have some serious consequences.
00:30:04.660And I think the biggest problem is that there was kind of a shutdown of debate.
00:30:07.960The media and the government, the Trudeau government, you know, were not really allowing a full conversation on this because they didn't want to feed conspiracy theories.
00:30:20.000But at the same time, I think more suspicion was fed because people didn't feel they had any platform for sharing their views.
00:30:26.440So perhaps what could have happened or should have happened is that people who had a better grasp of the issue, scientists, sociologists, economists, should have been given more room to debate this publicly so that the person on the street didn't feel that they had to go to some obscure website to get some information that may or may not have been useful to them.
00:30:46.760Yeah, well, we're going to see more and more as we see, well, the sharing of information through social media and authoritarian governance, unfortunately, doing things that cause more mistrust between people and them.
00:31:01.000But I mean, we just have to always be on guard and see which theories perhaps have some merit to them and which are, well, and many are a lot of bunk, unfortunately.
00:31:08.660So where can we find more information about your work and your articles and such?
00:31:12.020Well, there's the Aristotle Foundation, where you're going to find the article I published this week.
00:31:15.620I also wrote a book recently, last year, called Thinking Critically About the Kennedy Assassination.
00:31:21.120It's essentially a critical thinking handbook, but it's pretty thick as most Kennedy books go.
00:31:26.260But I think it's accessible for anybody with at least a high school education.
00:31:30.360And then I have my podcast, which is a little bit more popular level.
00:31:34.520It's called Paranoid Planet, and the website is www.paranoidplanet.ca.
00:33:42.240You see, I have always vehemently and regularly said that.
00:33:47.540I've said it's wrong to make a person have to choose between keeping their job and getting a vaccination.
00:33:51.620It's wrong to make a person choose between going to a school and getting a vaccination.
00:33:56.040It's wrong to make a person choose between getting a vaccination and traveling to see friends, loved ones, or go to places or take part in sports.
00:34:02.880I've always said all those things, Jim.
00:34:04.460Yet when I talk about one thing you don't like, you say, are you a shill for big pharma?
00:34:24.960And we've had an interesting bill that's kind of making the news right now because it's not even so much what's in the bill, but the way the politics are being played around it that shows how sick and broken our government is.
00:35:58.560We saw that repeatedly with Paula Simons, who drives me nuts with her hypocrisy in there.
00:36:03.180She's supposedly supposed to represent Albertans in the Senate.
00:36:06.160And I tell you what, I really respect Simons because she did some fantastic columns on some of the terrible stuff in child welfare cases in Edmonton in the past when she was a journalist.
00:36:16.340But once she got appointed to the Senate, she became Trudeau's little gal in there.
00:36:20.400And she does what she's told, even though they say independent.
00:36:23.800Well, these three new independent senators, how do you think they're going to vote on this carbon tax bill that's going through the Senate?
00:36:35.000But, guys, they're going to shut it down.
00:36:38.760So, again, it shows the abuse and waste in our system.
00:36:42.500I mean, the unelected, the totally appointed by Trudeau ones, those barking seals in Senate, will get to shut down a bill that's gone through every other level of Parliament because Justin doesn't want yet another embarrassment.
00:37:08.060So, for people watching live, I guess if you're Ontario, you're thinking of crossing the border, you aren't going to make it on any land crossings.
00:37:13.660Probably, I'd bet, in the next couple of days when it's something this serious.
00:37:16.140It's going to be interesting to see what comes out of that.
00:37:27.140There were farmers who carved that into fields out here in Western Canada.
00:37:31.080It stands for Senate reform, which is equal, effective, and elected, which would mean, say, for example, I don't know, every province and territory got three senators each making it equal.
00:37:41.140And if it was elected, they would be elected.
00:37:49.820But as it is, it's just a pasture for old men and women for political patronage, where you get a huge salary, a lot of giant pension for it.
00:38:09.380Any land crossings right now, they might be really, I imagine if they're open out here in the West or whatever, they're going really, really slowly.
00:38:15.980So all I can recommend to people watching this live is, you know, check.
00:38:19.140There's online things for border crossings.
00:38:21.160Check with your news and things like that and make sure it is open for you.
00:39:15.920Now, someone, to be fair, though, we could be, unfortunately, still, because Jagmeet, you know, he knows he's as close to power as he's ever going to get.
00:39:23.060He'll shore up this government no matter what.
00:39:25.480But if he goes two more years, two more years in politics is a long time.
00:39:32.180Warren Kinsella, a person a lot of us love to hate, but he can make some valid points.
00:39:35.700He's worried that conservatives are peaking too fast.
00:39:37.640It's one thing to be this strong in support right now.
00:39:39.740But can you maintain that for two more years?
00:39:43.160You're just all one, ah, crap, away from suddenly dropping again 20 points in the polls.
00:39:47.700So the best time to be sitting in polls like this, of course, is a week or two before voting day, not potentially two years before it gets here.
00:39:54.660All the same, they're really nice numbers to see because this is a government that clearly Canadians have had enough of.
00:41:01.220That means of 350,000 people who saw what this tweet put out there about us being settlers, only one in 3,500 thought, yeah, you know, I agree with you.
00:41:10.520And at that point, there were 1,200 people who took the time to say you're an idiot and responded to them.
00:42:58.300But when you mire yourself in it, when you turn yourself into a chronic victim, there's a, Nico's been pulling out, yeah, the tweet, look at that, you know, 350,000 views.
00:43:09.360But when you turn yourself into that victim, you can't crawl out of it.
00:43:14.540And this settler stuff is not helping anybody at all.
00:43:20.060I mean, let's look at, for an example, again, the Chinese.
00:43:23.180The Chinese were treated horrifically in Canada, terribly.
00:43:27.100Brought in for cheap labor to build a railway, abused under terrible working conditions, separated from their families, paid next to nothing.
00:43:36.240I mean, it was this close to being literal slave labor.
00:43:39.120And then when the railway was done, they found themselves on the West Coast.
00:43:58.340They, in fact, got the best revenge they could by succeeding.
00:44:02.260The Asian community in Canada is doing fantastic.
00:44:04.860If you look at statistically, if we're looking at ethnic breakdowns for high levels of education, high levels of compensation, business ownership, all of those measures, the Chinese are doing, you know, of generations in Canada, doing fantastic.
00:44:17.860Because they didn't roll over themselves and say we're victims and we're just going to piss and moan about it for the rest of our lives.
00:44:54.800I don't, that's a term I should stop using when it comes to the government at that time, stole their property, stuffed them in there and kept them in those camps till the end of the war.
00:45:03.300When the war was over, they basically said, okay, you're all free now.
00:45:30.520But they didn't leave themselves stuck there.
00:45:33.240So when we take on this settler colonial crap, and we keep blaming anything and everything, well, we don't, but some people do, anything and everything wrong in their lives with the settlers and with the colonials.
00:45:42.680And we're seeing it, of course, when it comes to Israel, too, but that's a separate discussion altogether.