Western Standard - CORY MORGAN SHOW： Alberta’s referendum is very real

00:00:00.000 Good day and welcome to the Corey Morgan Show.

00:00:29.580 We're coming live today from the floor of the Global Energy Show.

00:00:35.040 This is one of the biggest energy shows on the planet.

00:00:38.060 It happens in Calgary every year.

00:00:39.980 They changed it a few years ago.

00:00:41.400 It used to be the Global Petroleum Show forever.

00:00:43.740 Now they've broadened it into an energy show sort of thing.

00:00:47.940 But, I mean, no, it is the same thing.

00:00:50.240 90% of it's oil and gas, all sorts of alternative energy things here,

00:00:53.560 things from drones to pump jacks, you name it.

00:00:56.680 There's hundreds of exhibitors, thousands of attendees.

00:00:59.580 and we tend to broadcast from here every year so yell at me in the comments if I forget to

00:01:05.480 keep the microphone up or down because I'm not used to that. I've been spoiled by stationary

00:01:10.180 microphones until now and we make do with a remote broadcast booth. I'm going to be talking

00:01:15.120 to Waleed Tamtam in a little while. He's my guest today. He's our man in Ontario on Parliament

00:01:21.060 covering those federal issues. Lots of stories coming out of him. Certainly there's going to be

00:01:25.220 a lot of stuff that could be discussed from what's coming out of there. And other than that,

00:01:30.960 let's get on to what's got me wound up today to start with. So I know, trust me, I know,

00:01:37.540 the referendum question being posed to Albertans on October 19th is a weak dump of word salad.

00:01:43.580 Independent supporters were led down a garden path with what was thought to be a legitimate

00:01:47.940 form of invoking a referendum through a petition, only to have the fruits of all that work stolen

00:01:53.160 from them by a Liberal appointed judge. The question now being placed on the ballot is a

00:01:57.600 non-binding and it's only a question seeking a mandate to ask another question. Premier Smith

00:02:02.860 has gone on a Federalist campaign as versiferous as the one Jason Kenney has been on and as laden

00:02:08.380 with misinformation as she claims the transition costs would cost about $400 billion. It feels like

00:02:15.840 all the cards are against the independence movement because it's true. The system and those

00:02:19.880 within it are pulling out all the stops to keep Albertans from having the choice of

00:02:23.340 independence. So why should independent supporters carry on with the campaign in the face of such

00:02:28.400 opposition? Well, why should a campaign for this false flaccid question be taken seriously by

00:02:34.920 independent supporters? It's because the opponents to independence are taking it seriously.

00:02:39.760 Federalists and Laurentians see the real risk of the referendum being held and they're pulling

00:02:43.880 out all the stops to fight it. Even Jean Chrétien was drawn out of his crypt to speak in opposition

00:02:48.860 to Alberta's independence, while Pierre Polyev has decided to spend the summer in Alberta

00:02:53.120 trying to convince Albertans why the status quo is fine.

00:02:56.360 Columnists and premiers are fighting along with each other for the microphone

00:02:59.960 to deride independent supporters in Alberta and to campaign against choice.

00:03:04.880 That's because the establishment knows the referendum presents a threat to its comfortable position. 0.99

00:03:10.340 Laurentian elites might be arrogant and parasitic, but many of them aren't stupid. 0.97

00:03:14.580 They saw what happened with Brexit, and know that when the electorate is given a choice in the matter, 0.99

00:03:19.680 they will often choose to oppose existing institutions.

00:03:23.040 Some independence groups and individuals have taken their foot off the gas,

00:03:26.660 and they're tired and dejected after having four months of petitioning effort trampled on by the courts.

00:03:31.320 It's understandable, but they've got to dust themselves off and get back up now.

00:03:35.500 A strong vote for option two on the question.

00:03:39.980 It keeps my teleprompter from working the second week in a row.

00:03:43.080 Oh, and it's gone.

00:03:44.580 Either way, what I was getting at, let's see, here we go.

00:03:48.220 I'm going to find my way there.

00:03:50.900 Okay.

00:03:52.420 Where was I?

00:03:53.320 A strong vote for option two on the question ten in the election keeps the movement alive.

00:03:58.220 A strong vote for option one on the question will put the debate on the shelf for another decade.

00:04:03.880 Albertans can't allow Federalists to put this issue to bed.

00:04:07.320 The months of petitioning in blizzards and holding meetings in town halls and winter nights were not wasted, guys.

00:04:12.040 It doesn't matter if the 301,000 signatures weren't formally counted by Elections Alberta.

00:04:17.580 People would sense no they were genuine and they represent a groundswell of support for a real referendum on independence.

00:04:24.160 The months of petitioning helped solidify the movement.

00:04:26.620 Thousands of volunteers networked, bonded and reached hundreds of thousands of Albertans.

00:04:31.320 They built the foundation of what will be the campaign to win the referendum this fall.

00:04:35.700 The petitioning phase was just a warm-up and a trial run for the bigger campaign.

00:04:39.160 The independent movement also has to be a little honest with itself.

00:04:43.660 While the core of dedicated independent supporters within Alberta

00:04:46.680 has never measured so consistently strong as it has,

00:04:49.060 the number hasn't grown really over the last six months.

00:04:51.860 The mushy middle of undecided voters has remained the same,

00:04:54.700 and those fiercely opposed to the concept will never budge.

00:04:57.480 But that's because the campaign to date has been focused on getting signatures

00:05:01.200 rather than selling the concept.

00:05:02.980 Now the path of the campaign becomes clearer.

00:05:05.380 People must be convinced to choose option two,

00:05:07.460 and to be frank, it'll be easier to sell than the binding yes or no question that petitioners

00:05:11.820 had tried to get on the ballot. With a non-binding option, the independent side could pivot a little

00:05:15.960 and gather those who want to send Ottawa a message rather than start the full process of

00:05:20.900 independence. If those people can be moved, a strong option two victory can be won.

00:05:25.860 With that extra time having been bought, independence advocates can continue to work

00:05:29.380 towards a true independence referendum and to convert those soft supporters into full yes

00:05:33.660 voters in the future. Never has there been so much open debate about Alberta's place in the

00:05:37.500 federation. That discussion is going to be raging until October 19th and if the independent side

00:05:41.960 continues to leave the playing field to their opponents they will lose all momentum. The path

00:05:46.660 to independence is never going to be a simple one or a straight one but giving up is not an option.

00:05:51.340 The changing of the question for the referendum hasn't erased the path it's only added a curve

00:05:55.100 so the independence movement must navigate that curve and keep moving towards the goal.

00:06:00.300 Quitting isn't an option, and it isn't the Alberta way.

00:06:03.420 And you know what?

00:06:03.920 I want to throw one more thing in, too,

00:06:05.760 because some of the prime campaigners are still obsessed

00:06:07.860 with trying to take Premier Smith out of power, guys.

00:06:10.920 If you split your movement like that,

00:06:12.620 not only will you not get rid of Premier Smith,

00:06:14.620 but we will lose this referendum.

00:06:16.580 So let's think a little harder on it.

00:06:17.700 We can make a mark here.

00:06:19.000 All right, let's see what else is going on out there

00:06:20.760 and check in with our news editor, Dave Naylor,

00:06:22.760 who avoided being down here on the floor

00:06:24.780 and is hiding out in the Western Standard newsroom.

00:06:26.460 How's it going, Dave?

00:06:27.420 Good. I can't tell you how much I'm missing you.

00:06:30.260 I can imagine.

00:06:31.940 Sounds like you might want to ask Derek for a new teleprompter.

00:06:34.960 That's nice now.

00:06:37.060 Yeah, I know.

00:06:37.980 And, you know, honestly, I mean, most of my show I go without,

00:06:40.420 but I do need that kind of four minutes for my opening ramble

00:06:43.000 just to stay true to everything I wanted to hit.

00:06:44.740 Ah, well, we'll see.

00:06:45.600 I'll put it into the budget requests.

00:06:47.340 We know that how it usually goes.

00:06:49.040 Yep, yep.

00:06:50.160 So I was listening to a song about you this week,

00:06:54.500 a country song about you and Tabor.

00:06:57.220 What the heck was that?

00:06:59.420 Yeah, that was quite something.

00:07:01.080 You know, and I'm not a country music listener,

00:07:02.840 but over my whole Tabor sign battle,

00:07:05.920 we need not to go into all the details,

00:07:07.820 but I put up a billboard as a third-party advertiser.

00:07:09.900 The town of Tabor is trying to have it torn down.

00:07:12.740 And somebody wrote a country song

00:07:14.860 and put it up with an AI video that said,

00:07:17.140 Raise a Cobb to Corey.

00:07:19.600 And it was quite funny and a good little theme song.

00:07:23.660 I don't know, maybe I'll make it to the starting opening

00:07:25.720 for some of my other videos I do on the side.

00:07:28.180 but uh there's some pretty talented people out there working with that ai there is i'm sure

00:07:32.180 that's not the first time you've raised the cob no no maybe probably not but there's a few ways

00:07:39.620 you can interpret that i'm not you can't go there this show gets broadcast on tv later i'll leave

00:07:44.340 that to the viewers so we've had a busy morning cory and it's all sort of surrounding uh what

00:07:49.220 you're down at the global energy show uh uh you had scott mo just speak premier of saskatchewan

00:07:55.700 and he's all in on the West Coast pipelines as it needs to be done.

00:08:01.340 It doesn't matter what B.C. thinks we need it to become an energy superpower.

00:08:07.820 And we had an interview with Heather Exner-Perrault.

00:08:12.380 She's with the MacDonald-Laurier Institute and an expert on coal.

00:08:17.340 As you know, Ty Korblund is going to be handing in his petition today

00:08:23.120 at Collections Alberta to try and get coal mining stopped.

00:08:27.160 And Ms. Exner Perrault says coal has become villainized

00:08:32.480 and people really just don't understand the differences

00:08:35.720 between metallurgical coal and other coal.

00:08:38.580 And she says the petition is very ill-informed.

00:08:43.880 So that's interesting.

00:08:46.620 Tragedy in northern Ontario yesterday where a police officer was murdered.

00:08:50.860 Looks like he was murdered by an escaped mental patient who had escaped the asylum and killed this poor officer.

00:09:00.620 So that's certainly an avoidable tragedy, isn't it, Corey?

00:09:05.260 And more on the terrible scenes in Belfast, where a Sudanese migrant attempted to behead a local resident in the middle of the road,

00:09:17.040 literally sawing through his neck to try and chop his head off.

00:09:20.860 All sorts of writing last night. Houses were burned. Buses were set alight. Some video of police officers getting a migrant family out of a burning building. Just the look of terror on the kid's face. Just awful stuff.

00:09:39.460 We got a story on the RCMP.

00:09:41.380 You're warning BC parents that there's a gang out there trying to lure kids in, as young as eight.

00:09:48.660 And these are extremist gangs, and they're getting children to do all sorts of horrible things.

00:09:57.080 And the final thing I'll mention is a new study out by Second Street Organization

00:10:02.140 That shows BC and Alberta combined have lost almost $300 million in unpaid foreign visitor health care.

00:10:11.480 This is somebody going into a hospital.

00:10:14.040 They need their appendix out or something like that, and they have no insurance.

00:10:20.320 So the operation gets done, they get billed, and they're never seen again.

00:10:24.660 So they're in a million dollars, a lot of money, a lot of hip replacement surgeries, Corey.

00:10:29.660 Well, they see us as an easy mark.

00:10:31.360 Meanwhile, Canadians playing by the rules die on waiting lists.

00:10:34.900 It's a frustrating thing.

00:10:36.700 I'm just wondering, though.

00:10:37.460 I mean, Scott Moe's been here.

00:10:38.640 I think last year even the Premier of New Brunswick came out.

00:10:41.580 Premier Smith, of course, is going to speak here, or if she hasn't already.

00:10:45.100 Any sign of David Eby?

00:10:46.360 Is he touching this energy conference at all?

00:10:48.600 I haven't heard anything about him.

00:10:50.140 Yeah, he's not touching it with a 10-foot pole.

00:10:54.420 We're pretty close to the deadline of July 1st

00:10:58.140 when this whole pipeline deal is supposed to be submitted.

00:11:02.420 And EB was saying yesterday, he hasn't talked to anybody about it.

00:11:05.660 He's being kept in the dark.

00:11:07.280 And that's probably the best place for him.

00:11:11.080 Okay, well, we'll see what happens with things.

00:11:13.680 We've got a new Conservative leader to try and take him on.

00:11:16.280 So I'll leave you back to that nice, quiet newsroom,

00:11:18.920 and I'll get on with the broadcast.

00:11:20.320 I appreciate the updates.

00:11:21.580 As you said, lots going on.

00:11:23.080 And I guess I'll see you in person next week.

00:11:25.800 Yeah, and you've got all my staff down there.

00:11:28.020 If you could tell them to get back to work, lunch is over.

00:11:31.600 Yes, you bet.

00:11:32.780 They seem to be on an extended social break here.

00:11:35.460 There you go.

00:11:35.980 All right.

00:11:36.400 Take care, Corey.

00:11:37.640 All right.

00:11:38.420 That is our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:11:40.680 That's why I like to remind you guys the reason Dave has all those staff,

00:11:44.100 even though they're hanging around here eating food and such,

00:11:46.880 is that you guys have been subscribing.

00:11:49.620 So keep us independent.

00:11:50.960 Keep us honest.

00:11:52.100 By all means, please subscribe at the Western Standard.

00:11:55.080 Westernstandard.news slash membership.

00:11:57.320 $10 a month, $100 for a year, and it allows us to keep operating and getting those stories out as they break.

00:12:06.320 Yeah, you know, it's interesting with that coal mining petition, you know, that's democracy.

00:12:13.160 Everybody's allowed to put it up, but it is a misguided initiative.

00:12:18.580 But the other thing is, as others pointed out, the First Nations chiefs didn't demand consultation before Thailand did that petition.

00:12:25.280 and you know I don't believe in two wrongs making a right hey he got it through he followed the

00:12:28.960 rules and the activists among the chiefs didn't manage to stop it but there really is a large

00:12:36.100 double standard when it comes to see things that are allowed and are not allowed and likewise I'm

00:12:42.860 certain there's a number of benefits for first nations people that could be coming from mining

00:12:46.840 and such too people don't understand that as Dave was mentioning before too you know there's

00:12:51.020 metallurgic coal there's coal that's used for a whole lot of things and that hypocrisy of

00:12:55.260 David Eby not coming here to the energy show because energy covers a lot of things. BC is a

00:13:02.240 massive coal mining and exporting jurisdiction. Yeah, the green BC, yet Albertans are always the 0.99

00:13:10.020 bad guys, right? Well, Eby, come here and talk to us about that. Why are you blocking a pipeline

00:13:14.020 while you're exporting coal? What is your priorities there? I wouldn't mind seeing Eeyore

00:13:18.060 here with that sad, drawn-out face and those jowls hanging down to try and explain why he's

00:13:23.860 trying to shut down projects in a country that is now technically in a recession, but he doesn't

00:13:29.440 have that kind of courage. Why? Well, because he's NDP for starters. Uh, it's, it's, it's interesting

00:13:35.260 how these things go, but, uh, uh, Nicklin, uh, 1961, uh, commenter saying modern coal-fired

00:13:42.360 power plants produce liquid fuels and electricity. Yes. And, and they're used for, uh, making steel

00:13:47.320 and Coke and, and, and many other things besides just burning for energy. I mean, people, it's not

00:13:53.340 necessarily the best form of energy, but it's plentiful, it's affordable, and it's good for

00:13:56.720 the economy so we can transition to better things like natural gas and other lower emission things.

00:14:02.280 But no, the hypocrisy is all over. We'll see if that goes to a referenda and, you know, if the

00:14:10.800 process works for somebody with it to get their original question on a ballot, because it hasn't

00:14:14.740 worked for anybody yet. Thomas Lukasik's question didn't exactly go on the ballot the way he wanted

00:14:20.960 it to, and the independence question certainly never made it to the ballot the way that Stay

00:14:26.180 Free Alberta wanted to. We'll see what happens to Mr. Lund's initiative, because it really,

00:14:31.920 in the end, is actually up to the provincial government, not the petitioners themselves

00:14:37.540 when the ballot is put. But it's interesting. I'm glad to see people using the system. That's

00:14:41.040 what it's there for. All right, let's bring in Waleed Tamtam. I've been looking forward to this. 1.00

00:14:44.560 He's been our man in Ottawa and covering things in the East, and he's been very prolific and

00:14:49.900 covering a lot of stories so I'm happy to welcome him to the show for the first time to have a

00:14:55.300 conversation and see what he's been up to and covering out there so uh hi Waleed uh welcome

00:14:59.840 to the show um okay just a moment we just don't have any sound quite from you yet sorry nice to

00:15:09.020 be here thank you so much for inviting me Corey great no I I like I said it was overdue and uh

00:15:14.740 we're glad we've had you on there you've been doing great stuff out there covering so much I

00:15:19.140 I don't know where to begin.

00:15:20.520 I thought I'd just go to the first story on the top of the scroll.

00:15:22.980 You posted it pretty recently. 0.95

00:15:25.660 Liberals are clashing with Conservatives over the definition of a woman question

00:15:29.640 with Canada's top scientist.

00:15:31.800 What on earth is going on there?

00:15:33.100 Why is this a controversial discussion?

00:15:36.780 Well, the Conservative MP, Vincent Neal Ho, made that question on a committee.

00:15:42.800 And as he was trying to ask the question to the witness at hand,

00:15:45.680 who is a doctor, I might add, liberal MPs were really much frustrated with the fact that he was

00:15:51.780 asking that question in the first place and tried to shut down that whole discussion. It wasn't until

00:15:56.100 the third attempt that he actually got an answer, and the doctor reaffirmed the basic biology in

00:16:01.500 that matter. But it seems to be that even after that committee, this is a raging discussion with

00:16:06.780 liberals, and they're really much focusing on the emphasis that, you know, we're in pride now.

00:16:10.620 Now, yesterday, Mark Carney, of course, had the flag-raising ceremony.

00:16:14.740 Conservative members also were present at the ceremony as well.

00:16:17.580 So it seems to be kind of a Pride Month-focused emphasis on defence and attack method against that entire question,

00:16:23.700 the entire notion of gender ideology not being allowed to be criticised at this time.

00:16:29.860 So, I mean, it's just kind of odd.

00:16:32.720 I guess it was kind of a trap question, though, because, you know, with political correctness,

00:16:36.820 Even doctors are afraid to state the obvious, to just state the scientific truth.

00:16:40.680 It doesn't mean you're taking a side on the issue, perhaps, of sexual identity and rights as such,

00:16:46.500 but just to be able to outright say as a doctor, this is what constitutes a man and what constitutes a woman,

00:16:51.900 and now it's turned into an ongoing debate.

00:16:53.520 It's just kind of bizarre.

00:16:54.660 I guess Canada's not alone with that, though.

00:16:56.920 Well, Corey, I'll tell you the truth is, you know, to be fair, this was not the topic at hand of the committee.

00:17:01.740 It was probably far-reaching from the Conservative MP.

00:17:03.960 But overall, after the fact that the question was given and there is a clip now on social media that's going viral, the reaction seems to be that conservatives, Andrew Scheer himself, a prolific MP, are getting onto the train on this issue.

00:17:19.140 They're trying to reach out to the public and remind them that they're combating social issues and the culture war even after that they've been a little quiet for a little while now.

00:17:28.020 As you know, Pierre Paliyev took some stances recently at some events in BC,

00:17:31.980 but it seems that the Conservatives are willing not to be muted altogether all the time on such issues.

00:17:36.940 So it's an interesting thing to see, especially, again, during Pride Month.

00:17:41.760 Yeah. So, well, getting on to some of the other fun going on and sensitive areas.

00:17:46.800 I see you wrote there was a Liberal Member of Parliament is proposing a Somali Heritage Month in Canada.

00:17:51.680 I guess not harmful in itself, but I mean, how significant is the Somali population within Canada?

00:17:58.020 there's a fair number of them uh and do these warrant a whole month i mean we've got pride

00:18:02.900 month we got somali month we can only cover so many things for solid months i mean i understand

00:18:07.060 giving recognition for days and things but uh where is this coming from well this came from

00:18:12.820 the etobicoke center liberal mp yvonne baker who i spoke to earlier this morning in the caucus uh

00:18:17.780 pre-media scrum and uh he told me and by the way cory he has proposed three private members bill

00:18:25.940 in this session and all three have to do with the heritage month now himself he's a ukrainian descent

00:18:31.620 uh so he proposed the ukrainian heritage month an albanian heritage month and then a somali

00:18:37.060 heritage month and when i asked him the question he gave me a very specific answer that i mean this

00:18:41.220 is some of the makeup in his community uh and i specifically wanted to refer to the somali since

00:18:45.460 as you know corey there's been over 1.5 million people last time i checked earlier this morning

00:18:51.220 that have viewed that video on x the clip of him standing in the house introducing it

00:18:55.380 you know, very, very simple, straightforward private member's bill that usually doesn't get that attention.

00:19:00.160 I think it's very much clear that the Minnesota Somali story is flooding into the Canadian media landscape on this particular topic,

00:19:07.360 because, of course, there has been that history with certain elements within the Somali diaspora in the United States.

00:19:13.900 But more specific to his answer that he told me is that he believes, regardless of the proportion,

00:19:18.620 which Somalis I think about one point or 0.18 0.2 percent of the Canadian population obviously

00:19:25.860 very small and marginal but he's talking about the fact that regardless of the proportion they

00:19:29.660 make impact so it's without logic in mind I'm very curious to have a follow-up with him and 0.80

00:19:34.160 see exactly how far you want to go well if Albanians and Somalis who again they're a

00:19:38.540 community that exists I think they're quite larger number now out there in Edmonton where

00:19:43.040 that's a little closer to you in Alberta.

00:19:46.160 I think if that's the bar,

00:19:48.520 then a lot more communities can be pushing forward

00:19:50.940 for similar kinds of recognitions in the House of Commons.

00:19:53.220 And at some point, you're looking at

00:19:54.860 almost every nation under the sun.

00:19:57.980 Well, that's it. 0.87

00:19:59.020 I mean, Canada is a nation built on immigration,

00:20:01.740 and we've got people from every country on the planet here.

00:20:04.300 And we encourage, and that's fine,

00:20:06.140 the celebration of the past cultures and things like that,

00:20:08.380 but it's often a municipal initiative

00:20:10.540 or an initiative from the cultural community

00:20:12.880 itself. If we get the House of Commons starting to pick and choose a month for each and every one,

00:20:17.900 as I said, we only have 12 months, we're going to have a lot of overlap. I mean, it leads to,

00:20:21.460 I think, maybe people just kind of ignoring the community altogether and having the opposite

00:20:24.940 effect of what they want to do in the first place. Well, Corey, I know Ottawa, I grew up here,

00:20:29.260 and I've been around in the Brookhole cycle for a little while now, only two months of Western

00:20:33.100 Standard. But of course, every day, something else is happening. I think the tradition is this,

00:20:38.360 If you have a Heritage Month recognized by the House of Commons, now you get events, you get commentary, you get specific community or diaspora community focused recognition and even FaceTime with politicians on the Hill or elsewhere when you have something like this officialized.

00:20:54.100 So I don't think this is giving one month off to every community. You can give one month to five or six different communities.

00:21:00.240 I mean, you have Pride Month for the LGBTQ community, you have obviously other national

00:21:04.900 and diaspora groups that exist in Canada. So one group doesn't necessarily take away from the other.

00:21:10.700 I think it's probably impossible for most people to track. But ultimately, I think it's a bigger

00:21:15.060 question of trying to set in stone a party year where this individual politician or this

00:21:20.960 government caucus, opposition caucus, whoever, will host events related to this diaspora community.

00:21:26.340 So I guess that's kind of what the strategy is for Yoman Baker, who was a substantial Somali community in his area and surrounding areas in his riding.

00:21:33.720 So I guess July might be an opportunity down the line. Of course, it's Canada Day, how it kicks off every year, typically.

00:21:40.100 But I guess he'll be having some events should this private member's bill be passed and July be recognized as Somali Heritage Month, along with probably other communities.

00:21:51.080 Well, I guess, as you said, that's the nature of politics. There's always lots on the go in Ottawa.

00:21:55.420 Well, I mean, same thing out here.

00:21:56.380 We have a Conservative Member of Parliament in an area of Calgary that's got a strong Chinese population.

00:22:01.060 They're going to make sure that they're always speaking up for that population, if only, I would hope, for good reason, but also just for their own political health and their own constituency.

00:22:12.060 So being in Ottawa, as you said, it's a busy area, a lot's happening.

00:22:14.680 What kind of stories are you working on right now?

00:22:16.340 What's coming up and what can we look forward to from you?

00:22:19.080 Well, at 4 p.m. Eastern time, which I believe should be 2 p.m. your time,

00:22:22.640 I believe Minister Mark Miller, who's heading the Culture and Heritage Portfolio, 1.00

00:22:27.880 will be introducing the government's bill to ban children who are 16 years and younger users

00:22:34.600 from using social media platforms without consent or without parental involvement.

00:22:40.440 We don't know exactly what we're looking at right now,

00:22:42.400 so I'm not going to give you too much details besides the fact that I'm going to be pressing forward

00:22:45.680 for more details as soon as we get any announcements because there seems to be a bit

00:22:49.500 of a cross-partisan interest in the idea of protecting children online. It's been part

00:22:53.800 of the rhetoric in Ottawa for months now, especially with AI and the takeover of social

00:22:59.180 media in Canadian society. But I think what's most interesting is the how, which is the

00:23:04.080 delivery method of, first of all, verifying people's age, which requires verifying identity

00:23:08.160 as well, and the privacy concerns and the methodology concerns around that. So I'm going

00:23:13.880 looking very close to exactly what it is australia brazil a few other countries have studied that

00:23:18.120 have done things that are similar in nature but typically involves a lot of private sector

00:23:22.120 responsibility before the government even gets involved in some ways where you have a company

00:23:26.760 like for example facebook or any website for example running a business where they

00:23:31.160 might have children involved even though they have content for example like explicit sexual material

00:23:36.520 that is available and ready on their website they might hire a third party to then offer

00:23:41.640 for its software to verify people's age.

00:23:44.500 I know Discord, a very popular video game chat site

00:23:47.700 and platform uses AI to actually look at people's faces

00:23:52.260 in real time with their camera.

00:23:53.760 I know it sounds a little freaky for some of our folks,

00:23:55.540 but I think it's an effective method

00:23:58.200 that some companies are adopting.

00:23:59.740 So I guess the government's gonna be pushing on

00:24:02.060 the companies to do that.

00:24:02.900 Otherwise they might take control

00:24:05.180 or they might perhaps issue some sort of other methods

00:24:08.740 to deter kids from having access to those platforms.

00:24:13.760 Yeah, so it could turn into one of those things

00:24:15.840 I would hope you can get more clarity.

00:24:17.560 You know, there's lots of good intentions perhaps

00:24:20.000 with the enforceability and the viability

00:24:22.020 of making this actually work.

00:24:23.280 I mean, we know kids are creative, they're smart,

00:24:25.320 they're usually better on the electronics than we are.

00:24:27.480 I think Australia has already been discovering a bit of that

00:24:29.720 with their dipping into this,

00:24:31.240 that they're having trouble finding a way

00:24:33.740 to actually keep the kids from finding bypasses,

00:24:35.740 as you said, through AI, VPNs, and all sorts of ways.

00:24:39.200 It might be just a long game of whack-a-mole.

00:24:42.000 Well, look, the G7 is happening soon.

00:24:43.840 I guess my possible future look forward to this bill

00:24:49.140 is perhaps Mark Carney takes this off to France

00:24:52.220 where he'll be meeting other G7 leaders

00:24:54.180 and be pushing for some international cooperation,

00:24:56.140 specifically with the European nations,

00:24:57.420 given the fact that they represent a pretty significant block

00:24:59.580 of online companies, online businesses,

00:25:02.060 and have a little bit of parallel policy

00:25:04.600 on a number of other issues in the same market space.

00:25:07.180 So I guess what I'm thinking is

00:25:08.780 maybe that might be a bit more international push

00:25:11.020 from other countries around the same time as Canada,

00:25:15.280 and perhaps Canada being one of the countries

00:25:16.500 taking the lead on this file right now.

00:25:19.080 Again, for the rhetoric portion is

00:25:21.420 the conversation on online harm

00:25:23.600 is a major conversation through multiple pieces of legislation,

00:25:26.920 including the banning and criminalization of defig AIs

00:25:30.760 when we're using real pictures of real people.

00:25:32.680 But that's the source of what we consider on the political level, Nihar.

00:25:36.840 What this bill today is really just focused on, for now, from what I heard, the access at the social media platform level for those that are 16 and under.

00:25:48.360 So I guess we're looking at Facebook, Meta, even Twitter, all these platforms to have a response mechanism that can allow them to continue their operation in Canada while also ensuring that you don't have unrestricted access at the very least.

00:26:03.780 Because as you know, I mean, we all use social media, you access all kinds of material. Unfortunately, there seems to be a spike in sexually explicit material, thanks in part by AI, but also in part by the fact that the adult film industry uses social media to promote their content, that individuals who are involved in the industry on a personal side are also using these platforms.

00:26:24.480 So my real question angle that I want to take forward to Minister Mark Miller and his colleagues is how far do you want to go?

00:26:31.040 Because if the harm is the real concern here, the harm is platformed by social media.

00:26:35.840 It's accessible on a wide scale on social media, but it isn't a source.

00:26:39.720 Instagram doesn't produce the pornography or the explicit materials or the violence and the gore or whatever else we don't want children to be looking at.

00:26:47.880 Other websites have that.

00:26:49.020 You know, we have gore sites, sock sites.

00:26:52.100 And of course, we all know that there's these 18 plus buttons you got to click when you want to open these websites.

00:26:56.680 But I think that there might be a room for area of a greater conversation on the public policy frontier as to how governments can actually restrict that kind of access.

00:27:05.000 Because the real thing that has changed, Corey, in today's society is that we have all these taboo material and media out there in multimedia formats.

00:27:13.060 But they're all much more accessible than ever before.

00:27:16.260 It is so easy to see these things online, and I think there is a reasonable conversation across the partisan aisles about how the government can combat this.

00:27:23.920 But ultimately, it will come later today.

00:27:27.440 Yeah, and there'll be real concerns with it.

00:27:29.680 I'm wondering, though, have the social media giants reacted at all?

00:27:32.200 Because it does sound like the onus of enforcement, perhaps, and being gatekeepers is going to land on them, which I think sort of makes sense.

00:27:39.780 But that would be quite a large venture and a large change to their platforms to to make some sort of effective gateway to try and reduce the amount of minors getting onto their platforms.

00:27:47.560 Have they spoken up at all about this yet?

00:27:49.640 I don't expect them. I mean, typically, we've covered this before at the Western Standard, that social media companies have oftentimes openly criticized directly government policies.

00:27:58.720 But typically that only happens once the legislation has been tabled in the House of Commons, once there's a text of a bill, once there's certain languages and provisions that can actually be read before the reactions are issued by the relevant platforms that will be affected.

00:28:12.200 So there have not been any that I know of reports of any statements made by these companies who would be affected. No, not yet.

00:28:20.420 Great. Well, I'm looking forward to hearing the answers that Minister Miller offers you when you get to get him to the question there when you're up there.

00:28:27.640 The time went fast and it was easy because you've written so many stories.

00:28:30.460 You've been great and prolific there on the Western Standard in your short time with us.

00:28:33.900 It's been fantastic.

00:28:35.240 Before I let you go, is there anything else you'd like to point our readers toward to make sure to follow what stories you're going to be working on?

00:28:41.900 Well, I mean, also today, this is probably the biggest story I've covered today in terms of the amount of time I've spent on the ground.

00:28:48.040 On the Parliament Hill, we had a couple hundred protesters with conservative politicians protesting the Altar Project.

00:28:54.840 That's the high-speed rail transit project between Quebec City, connecting Ottawa, connecting Montreal, essentially connecting a very small part of the country, geographically speaking, a very small part of the population that would actually be benefiting from this at a tune of $90 billion.

00:29:09.280 Of course, all told, there's also concerns with the corporation's connections with the family of Minister Champagne.

00:29:15.360 We've heard this rhetoric at least come from the Conservatives for now.

00:29:18.700 I didn't have any chance to speak to any government members on this issue today.

00:29:22.700 but I've talked to protesters it seems like a lot of people are concerned about the project

00:29:26.420 you know blowing through 90 billion or more dollars typically speaking these projects can

00:29:31.660 also fluctuate in their cost over time I know very well personally as an Ottawa resident that

00:29:36.640 the LRT project this is much much smaller scale project has you know delayed itself has cost more

00:29:43.820 and there's always going to be concerns from public because you know taxpayers are the one

00:29:49.540 be footing a deal if it's too big and of course the real question here but also is how many people

00:29:54.580 are really going to be benefiting from a higher speed transit that can maybe save you one hour

00:29:59.520 at most cases or maybe two if you're taking the full lane um in terms of a trip on that part of

00:30:06.560 the country and of course the whole nation is going to be footing the cost so and this might

00:30:10.660 be again i mean cory you know very well western alienation is happening at uh you know higher

00:30:15.280 proportion than ever before and I think this could be one issues that plays into

00:30:19.480 that rhetorical conversation at the at the federal level actually so it's

00:30:24.640 still very early on even if this project is approved at every stage there's

00:30:29.320 decades before we'll actually see this infrastructure in operation but

00:30:33.700 ultimately it's something that many people are concerned about and I'll ask

00:30:37.420 our viewers to stay tuned for that video report coming out tomorrow great well

00:30:42.260 thank you very much for coming on to talk about these stories today well

00:30:45.220 Waleed, as I said, it was overdue.

00:30:46.940 I'm happy we've had you on. 0.99

00:30:48.460 I'm certain we'll be talking again soon.

00:30:50.220 And thank you for covering things on so many of those important issues from Ottawa for us out here in Alberta.

00:30:55.460 We sometimes forget where the centre of power is over there.

00:30:57.700 Maybe we try to, but it's important to cover all of that.

00:31:00.600 And you've been doing a fantastic job.

00:31:02.000 So thanks again.

00:31:02.900 Good to meet you online.

00:31:03.960 And I'm certain we'll talk again soon.

00:31:05.820 Thank you so much, Corey.

00:31:06.860 I'll see you soon.

00:31:08.380 Great.

00:31:08.700 Thanks.

00:31:09.860 So, yeah, folks, as you can see, yes, and Waleed's been doing a great job.

00:31:12.600 We cover things, we're the Western Standard, but we still cover, of course, national issues and having somebody on the ground there.

00:31:18.500 He's been great at those scrums, getting those direct answers from cabinet ministers at those conferences.

00:31:23.960 You need that presence because legacy media, they can be pretty selective about which stories they might want to get into or which questions they might ask and which they won't.

00:31:32.240 And Waleed's been excellent in just asking good to the point questions and getting good answers and writing great copy and stories for us.

00:31:40.420 So, yes, I'm thrilled he came on to talk with us.

00:31:43.660 You know, it's interesting with that Internet regulation bill, like, you know, where they're going with it.

00:31:51.500 I'm mixed on it. I really am.

00:31:52.740 I mean, we can all see the dangers of, you know, those of us who participate in social media.

00:31:58.540 We can see that parts of it are awful.

00:32:00.620 Some really horrible people lurk on social media.

00:32:03.780 Some people reach out and try to victimize others on social media.

00:32:07.080 Or some are just putting up content that just, you know, isn't healthy.

00:32:10.420 to get in front of the eyes of kids i mean they really shouldn't be exposed to some of that at a

00:32:14.660 young age they aren't developed enough or mature enough to process it and it could certainly come

00:32:19.460 with you know mental health consequences down the road but and there's always the big but how do you

00:32:27.140 effectively enforce it right these kids have already been on there quite a bit they're already

00:32:33.060 entrenched and they're going to find ways around i mean i grew up in the 70s 80s even as kids then

00:32:38.980 there was limited access to the main thing back then it was physical adult magazines that be

00:32:45.020 around you know Hustler and so on things like that somehow we would always get our hands on

00:32:50.060 them I mean the stores were gatekeepers it was illegal to sell that sort of matter to kids

00:32:53.720 but there'd be one found in a garbage or one taken from some kid's father or whatever the kids would

00:32:59.260 get a hold of it and you still get to see that content that's going on in there so how do you

00:33:05.160 stop it from getting in their hands. And as I said, getting your first education on sexuality

00:33:10.860 from adult magazines or later with the incredible amount of horrific porn that's available on the

00:33:16.880 internet, it is not good for kids. But how do we stop it? I think back to a South Park episode,

00:33:24.240 one of the early ones, I think, when the kids, you know, in the cartoons were scrolling through

00:33:28.040 and they went to some adult site and then the question popped up, said, are you over 18 years

00:33:32.620 of age or not the kid looks at it and just clicks yes and then off he goes that's the extent of it

00:33:37.180 but how how do you manage it we'll see we'll see what comes out of Ottawa I said while he's while

00:33:42.780 he's gonna ask questions on that and maybe we'll uh you know maybe the government will get something

00:33:49.080 a little bit right but when they start with big encompassing legislation unfortunately it also can

00:33:53.860 often turn into a terrible mess I mean what I'd like to see more strongly perhaps is more efforts

00:33:59.900 And I don't like seeing the kids exposed to bad stuff,

00:34:01.760 but I'm really worried about the predators.

00:34:03.600 They really like getting to young people,

00:34:06.800 using social media as a tool, 0.66

00:34:08.320 as a way to reach them, those monsters.

00:34:11.000 And how can we get to them?

00:34:13.960 Is there more law enforcement ways,

00:34:15.200 more ways to track them,

00:34:16.360 find them in their basements, in their homes,

00:34:17.980 wherever these perverts are coming from,

00:34:19.700 and get them, catch them,

00:34:21.580 not just trying to block the kids from access.

00:34:24.080 I don't know.

00:34:25.800 All right, speaking of monsters,

00:34:27.600 some people might've seen the video

00:34:28.980 we're seeing the pictures of over in Belfast. Dave Naylor mentioned it. So there was a beheading

00:34:35.000 attempt. It was awful. This guy kneeling over a man with a knife and just basically turned this

00:34:40.800 poor man's face into hamburger. The man survived, but he's grievously injured, lost an eye. You know,

00:34:46.560 and I can't imagine the terror and trauma, but it's also an aspect of a much bigger issue. So

00:34:54.720 this man was, of course, turns out to be an asylum seeker from North Africa, I think Sudan. 0.79

00:35:02.320 And it led now to riots and burnings and things throughout Belfast and area. And the Irish up in 0.74

00:35:10.460 Northern Ireland, you know, they're, we want to talk about social disruption, they're well 0.92

00:35:16.160 practiced in it from past years. And the innocent victims are going to get caught up in this. That's

00:35:21.860 the worry it's true you know when you get mobs in the streets you get vigilantes they don't judge

00:35:28.000 between somebody who's caused a problem or somebody who didn't they can't tell the difference between 0.66

00:35:32.640 an immigrant who's might have been there for two or three generations all they might see is the skin 0.81

00:35:37.640 color and they get caught in the middle but this is a consequence of cowardly federal governments 0.78

00:35:44.540 allowing mass immigration particularly from countries like Sudan where let's face it 0.86

00:35:51.560 they practice medieval social standards and they've overloaded nations with this then they 0.97

00:35:57.160 got issues with grooming gangs rape gangs uh beheadings terrorist acts let's quit pretending

00:36:04.660 that these sorts of problems come from every part of the world there's only certain ones that are

00:36:09.900 really the flashpoints that are the main source of that doesn't mean we stop bringing people in 0.96

00:36:14.300 whatsoever from those countries but mass immigration from them has caused massive problems

00:36:19.720 and how much are you going to fault because of course you see the prime minister of england 1.00

00:36:23.300 going on and lecturing the people in belfast and you see people coming down on social media posts

00:36:29.340 and other protests calling them racists and everything else it's not helping you guys the

00:36:32.980 problem is real the people on the ground know it they understand it and they're going to push back

00:36:39.240 and it's going to get worse it's going to get much more violent and innocent people are going to be

00:36:44.160 caught up in that violence. And I think it might be too far to stop a lot of it. But you can at

00:36:50.440 least stop adding to it. Cut the mass immigration. It must stop. And what we're seeing there is only 1.00

00:36:58.760 a precursor of what we're going to see over here eventually. You can't absorb too many people

00:37:06.200 from those particular cultures without there being repercussions from the overload of the people from 1.00

00:37:12.160 medieval cultures and the people living here even new canadians from more civilized cultures 0.99

00:37:17.280 who just do not want to see that sort of thing overwhelming the streets i mean we've got paris

00:37:21.680 with no-go zones in there where people just cannot be seen walking in there it's too dangerous whole

00:37:27.120 parts of one of the most historic and major cities in the world we've got to get real on addressing

00:37:32.960 this because as i said when you end up leaving it to the citizenry when you leave it to mob rule

00:37:37.760 when you leave it to a reactive population it's going to be ugly it's going to be indiscriminate

00:37:44.800 and i you know people say it's discrimination yeah but it's going to be indiscriminate in

00:37:47.920 their discrimination and some innocent people are going to suffer very badly don't lecture

00:37:53.440 the people on the ground who are concerned about what's happening these political leadership

00:37:57.760 is only inflaming them further address the issue put a cork in the mass immigration

00:38:03.440 bubble and then start working on dealing with the culture cultural problems we've got as a

00:38:08.940 consequence of this it's been going on for a decade but it was just horrible just horrible

00:38:13.800 with this poor man and uh you know when is it going to stop i don't know but i mean if it has

00:38:19.960 to stop with riots that's really a terrible way to go uh let's see a little more from the uh energy

00:38:25.340 show here uh i'm on the floor from it as dave was mentioning too with the news check-in provincial

00:38:29.900 leaders here are here every energy company leader is here and something interesting was uh the head

00:38:34.840 of synovus who just blasted the canadian government again you know it's one of the biggest companies

00:38:39.980 in canada the oil sands and basically saying canada's not worth investing in the the all of

00:38:46.540 this talk all these mous all of this major project offices all of this baloney and it is baloney is

00:38:51.020 not going anywhere it's dragging things out because we still regulate our industry to death

00:38:58.540 You know, where's Carney?

00:38:59.700 I mean, I know the federal minister came here

00:39:01.320 and talked about how oil and gas was so integral

00:39:03.140 and everything he did speak.

00:39:04.100 I think it's Wilkinson.

00:39:05.480 But it doesn't matter if you guys put a brick wall

00:39:08.420 in front of pipeline development.

00:39:10.180 It's just a bunch of lies.

00:39:11.640 They know exactly what they must do.

00:39:14.920 If they really want the private proponents,

00:39:16.340 that was one of the men,

00:39:17.240 the head of Synovus is the private proponent saying,

00:39:19.500 we're not going to do it

00:39:20.320 because Canada is not worth doing business in.

00:39:22.980 Carney, the financial genius

00:39:24.660 who's led us into a recession now,

00:39:26.340 knows damn well no private investor is going to invest in a pipeline that goes to a dead end 0.92

00:39:32.400 you've given indigenous veto powers that don't exist to indigenous activists you've allowed

00:39:38.760 david eby to get a veto power that doesn't exist in the constitution he's kept a tanker ban and

00:39:43.900 again why would you spend a few billion dollars to move product to a spot you're not allowed to

00:39:48.420 ship it out from it's like saying you can open up a store but we're going to put an iron door in

00:39:52.120 front of it and not let customers in. Of course, there isn't a private proponent. Carney could

00:39:56.680 say it in a minute. He could change the tone in a minute and he knows it. He could do a speech and

00:40:01.200 say, that's it. It's in the national interest. We're lifting the tanker ban. We're getting rid

00:40:06.480 of the anti-pipeline bill. We're going to tell the Indigenous bands that we're going to consult,

00:40:12.220 but it's going through whether you like it or not. That and only that will lead to proponents

00:40:17.880 and Carney knows this. So if Carney won't say it, it means he's never doing the pipeline.

00:40:23.280 Never. And Premier Smith's got a quick kiss in his ass. It's enough. I understand she shouldn't 1.00

00:40:29.800 walk into a room negotiating and give the finger. That's not going to work. You start by trying to

00:40:34.360 be reasonable. You start by trying to negotiate, but now it's enough. They've been stringing her

00:40:39.520 along for over a year now and nothing's getting accomplished. We've got a carbon tax for our

00:40:42.760 troubles. Oh, you lifted the emissions cap. Good. Okay. And why do we have to even negotiate on that?

00:40:48.200 It was crippling the whole country. I'm glad it's lifted, but it still doesn't solve the key issues

00:40:53.280 that we're sitting on and he's stringing us along. And that's part of why there's an independence

00:40:57.660 movement blossoming out here because people realize that this country is disingenuous.

00:41:02.500 The leadership doesn't care about our interests. They're ideologically as driven as the Trudeau

00:41:06.800 government was the lost years of Trudeau, the government that drove away a trillion dollars

00:41:11.400 in investment over you know according to rbc over 700 billion of was from energy

00:41:18.720 carney is just a different face but he's doing the same thing nothing else is moving ahead

00:41:24.960 we shouldn't have to negotiate to get these things done this is our our right and ability as a

00:41:31.520 province there's no reason to be stopping we it's humiliating to be blunt something else carney

00:41:39.380 could be working on I see and there's one of the areas I don't envy him for I gotta admit

00:41:43.340 uh apparently President Donald Trump came out today basically saying I'm not looking to renew

00:41:48.800 uh the Canada U.S. Mexico agreement and uh he says we don't need anything that Canada or Mexico has

00:41:55.260 I don't know I don't know what it takes uh to negotiate with Trump it'd be a difficult task

00:42:01.780 for any prime minister to try and reason with him but either way as frustrating as it might be

00:42:07.780 you have to, Carney. We've shown that Carney isn't an economic wizard despite what they try

00:42:13.620 to frame him as. He seems to be an economic imbecile. Our budgets are getting blown. Our 1.00

00:42:17.500 deficit is huge. Our debt is growing. Our payments on interest are growing. Inflation is rising.

00:42:22.660 We're in a recession. Yes, thank you, Central Canada. You elected the economic wizard. So far,

00:42:28.100 he's been doing a brilliant job. But part of that also has been, yes, due to the tariffs and some

00:42:33.180 other issues with the United States. But isn't Carney supposed to be the diplomatic wizard as

00:42:37.300 well, well, that seems to be bloody failing, isn't it? Get down there, do whatever you have to do with

00:42:42.760 Trump, because whether you like him or don't like him, he is our next door neighbor in charge of

00:42:48.780 the largest economy on the planet, and our main trading partner, products going both ways. We have

00:42:57.240 to cut a deal with that man, as infuriating as he might be, as intractable as he might be,

00:43:03.700 and as stubborn as he might be i'll finish off with something a little lighter i guess in a way

00:43:08.440 people probably saw that story and i was just astounded with it with that air canada pilot

00:43:12.460 who apparently was flying for 17 years without a valid license uh you know on commercial flights

00:43:19.060 uh hundreds 900 commercial flights apparently he flew without a license my thoughts of it

00:43:24.940 jane was saying that the other day well i can't give him a license my lord i think he's kind of

00:43:30.100 proven he's good enough at it. I know that's not a way to bypass. We don't want people sneaking in

00:43:34.360 and seeing if they can pull it off, you know, from on the computer simulators long enough

00:43:38.660 and fake it. But good heavens, you know, I mean, I imagine there's a lot of licensed pilots who do

00:43:45.960 a lot worse than that. That's amazing. Obviously, he's had some training and there's some more

00:43:49.900 background to however the heck this man managed to pull this off for that long. I wonder if maybe

00:43:55.620 feels a little relieved that that secret's uh out so he can move on and forward i don't know

00:44:01.860 but 900 flights and safe landings uh i i think he's proven himself to be an adequate pilot i

00:44:07.380 don't know give him a hundred dollar fine and then force him to go in just to apply the license and

00:44:11.300 get the thing we could use more pilots anyways he apparently is a pretty good one so uh you know

00:44:18.500 just to keep those things in mind uh let's see richard l nisky saying president trump's doing

00:44:26.180 what's best for america um maybe he's doing what he thinks is best for america but we don't have

00:44:30.880 time left in the show today to talk about the foolishness of using taxation as a tool to try

00:44:35.060 for economic development tariffs are not good policy they're clumsy policy and it's it's not

00:44:40.680 helping american businesses either but it's the nature of trump anyways and he's the man who's

00:44:45.260 going to be in there for the next couple of years, whether and people like it or don't like it. So

00:44:50.700 you've got to negotiate with who's there. And Kearney, as with so many other things, is doing

00:44:55.600 a horrifically terrible job of that. All right, guys, the 45 minutes are up from the floor of the

00:45:02.280 show here at the Global Energy Show at the Western Standard booth. Thank you for tuning in today.

00:45:08.520 Make sure to do all the liking, subscribing, sharing. Let's make these things continue to be

00:45:12.320 going viral out there and tune into the pipeline we're going to record that from here as well

00:45:18.060 and it'll be on tonight at seven o'clock we'll break down a few more of those issues be sure

00:45:22.880 to come back again next week and we will cover all the issues and maybe i'll be in the comfort

00:45:27.600 of a studio finally from there all right thank you all guys we'll see you on the next one

00:45:42.320 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - June 13, 2026

CORY MORGAN SHOW： Alberta’s referendum is very real

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