Western Standard - CORY MORGAN SHOW： Cult-like land acknowledgement chants must end

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

00:00:29.500 another lively week in politics. They just keep going. How about that Calgary-Shaw? I'm not going

00:00:36.120 to start with that, but I will get into that a little bit later. Yeah, the provincial dynamic

00:00:40.360 has changed a little bit. And, you know, it's always the same thing with by-elections. Everybody

00:00:44.900 raises their hands. You know, the losing side will always say, oh, they don't mean anything. It's just

00:00:47.920 a by-election. And the winning side will always say it's a symbol of things to come. I think in

00:00:52.920 Shaw's case, there's a little bit of both to be said with it, actually. But we'll talk a little

00:00:57.700 more on that i gotta admit that's what i didn't see coming i i really thought the conservatives

00:01:02.280 could at least hold on to that but uh should be a wake-up call for a few folks i'm gonna have a

00:01:06.140 guest on a little while lady named catherine cronus wrote a great piece in the c2c journal 1.00

00:01:11.020 about compelled speech because she had a long and extended battle with the school authorities in

00:01:17.080 ontario about what i'm gonna rant about in a short moment here land acknowledgements yes she

00:01:23.080 dared to question compelled speech and it's led to an ongoing thing with the Justice Centre for

00:01:29.080 Constitutional Freedoms helping her out there. People like me and her keep that group working

00:01:33.540 quite steadily it seems. They're a fantastic legal group actually so that we can push back

00:01:37.840 on this stuff. So let me talk about these land acknowledgements and my thoughts on them and you

00:01:43.160 just can't escape them at hockey games, city council meetings, school assemblies and town

00:01:47.680 hall meetings. You see at the bottom of some email signatures and it's even done at the beginning of

00:01:52.580 monthly meetings of the rock and lapidary club I belong to yeah with all those cool kids I stopped

00:01:57.440 going to the monthly meetings because of it it really bugs me that much the prayer begins and

00:02:01.640 we're expected to bow our heads in observance and shame and someone must recite that we're gathered

00:02:06.860 on the traditional ancestral and frequently unceded apparently territory of whichever

00:02:11.960 nations the script committee decided on this year then everyone nods in the real business

00:02:16.520 of whatever you do and begins and nothing really changes well I refuse I've had it I couldn't care

00:02:21.560 less who may or may not have been walking on the land I own, whether it was 80 years ago or a

00:02:26.240 thousand years ago, and I owe them nothing. I feel no guilt or shame for this. I'm sick and tired of

00:02:31.600 woke institutions insisting I display remorse and contrition. It's indoctrination and it's not

00:02:36.780 harmless. The ritual is increasingly compulsory. Parents and school council members who politely

00:02:42.980 object have been investigated, suspended or treated as if they committed a hate crime by

00:02:47.340 decline to read a political statement. Compelled speech is not reconciliation. It's a small

00:02:53.160 daily lesson that certain aid to ideas may not be questioned in public institutions.

00:02:58.420 Children absorb that lesson first, and this is where they're getting into it, guys. It's insidious,

00:03:02.420 and it's where the danger lies. They learn that Canada's legitimacy is provisional. Their presence

00:03:07.560 even requires a disclaimer, and it consists of this, you know, saying of the right paragraph in

00:03:13.960 a woke liturgy. The acknowledgements help set the stage for increasingly aggressive and effective

00:03:18.880 claims on what had been previously thought to be private land. How long did people think they

00:03:23.240 could call themselves settlers, colonists, interlopers, or even uninvited guests? Yeah,

00:03:28.300 that's what UBC guys call themselves now. In public prayers before the alleged victims of

00:03:32.580 these historical crimes demand compensation. When the claimants go before the judges raised on land

00:03:37.780 acknowledgements as well and make the case that the entire society agrees in regular public rituals

00:03:43.380 that the land was somehow stolen, how do you think the judge is going to rule? Land acknowledgements

00:03:48.500 aren't an apology for the actions of prior generations. They're a contemporary admission

00:03:52.720 of guilt. Activists, legislators, and teachers may be too obtuse to understand where these

00:03:58.140 acknowledgements are leading, but investors aren't. Resource projects, they already faced

00:04:03.080 years of consultation, overlapping claims, litigation, risk, and endless negotiations.

00:04:08.460 I mean, there's some potential legitimacy to the process, but what's not legitimate is layering a daily public confession on top of it that treats title as being forever unsettled.

00:04:19.460 Uncertainty has a price. You think separatism causes it? Look at these land acknowledgements.

00:04:23.860 Pipelines, mines, housing, transmission lines, they aren't getting built, guys.

00:04:27.400 They only get built when the rules are knowable, and how do we set rules when we're constantly claiming we stole the land we're standing upon?

00:04:34.380 No nation's history is spotless.

00:04:36.080 Canada's record includes broken promises, residential schools, and dispossession.

00:04:40.420 These facts, though, they belong in history class, books, and museums.

00:04:43.420 They don't require a prayer before every junior hockey face-off.

00:04:46.920 Reciting a claim doesn't return any land, it doesn't build a water plant,

00:04:50.700 and it doesn't make a teenager on a reserve any less likely to finish school or end up in jail.

00:04:54.900 It does make a room full of people, I guess, feel they've discharged a duty in a collective act of virtue signaling.

00:05:00.240 It solves no real problems, though, and increases the sense of victimhood among a large segment of the population.

00:05:06.400 There's two terrible things that can be instilled upon impressionable children as they grow in this world.

00:05:11.260 One's a sense of guilt, and the other's a sense of entitlement. 0.75

00:05:14.080 Non-Indigenous children are being immersed with lessons through these acknowledgements that they're responsible for the sins of the father.

00:05:20.020 Indigenous children are being taught that they were robbed, and the world owes them a debt.

00:05:24.100 Both the children indoctrinated by these lessons are certain to become dysfunctional in a society already ripping itself apart.

00:05:29.480 in the pursuit of some kind of intergenerational reconciliation, which is never going to come.

00:05:35.280 It has to stop. We got to start speaking up against these damaging public displays. Turn

00:05:39.780 your back when the chant begins. Andy Crooks does that. Cause distractions. Make it clear you won't

00:05:44.800 be one of the woke lemmings marching lockstep off of a cliff with these public apologies. Get 0.98

00:05:50.100 involved with school boards and committees and their local sports teams. Speak out openly in

00:05:54.040 favor of ending these rituals. The public's exhausted with demands for the assumption of

00:05:57.880 collective guilt. If a person gets on your case over your refusal to participate, just tell them

00:06:03.180 you weren't born in a teepee and I never stole an inch of land. Then get on with the real issues

00:06:08.100 of today. Well, that's where I'm kicking things off. How's it going, Dave? Speak the word, Corey.

00:06:12.000 Speak the word. I'm sure I'll be calling the JCCF. Yes, pretty soon. I just got off the phone with

00:06:17.260 Provincial Treasurer Jason Nixon. He wanted to call and thank you for your contribution

00:06:21.780 to paying down the deficit today yeah yes yes uh i i did drive into the newsroom from wainwright

00:06:29.480 this morning had to get up very early and to try and make better time in an act of foolishness in

00:06:34.660 a wide open area middle of nowhere i thought i don't need to stop for that stop sign i can see

00:06:39.200 forever but what i didn't see was the rcmp officer apparently parked not too far up that uh crossroad

00:06:44.100 But I've contributed $405 towards the provincial treasury, and I have no one to blame but myself.

00:06:52.940 Well, the citizens of Alberta, thank you.

00:06:54.780 Oh, yeah.

00:06:55.320 You know, I'm nothing if not generous.

00:06:57.380 There you go.

00:06:58.420 Any sign of your bees?

00:06:59.340 Did they come back?

00:07:00.200 Oh, no.

00:07:00.780 The absconded hive is gone for the season.

00:07:02.780 I'll have to split a hive in return.

00:07:03.880 My other three hives are doing okay.

00:07:05.580 So that's what you do?

00:07:06.600 Just take half and put it in the other? 0.99

00:07:08.380 next spring if they winter all right i should be able to buy a queen split the hive into a new

00:07:13.980 hive and and then i will replace the the lost ones but uh first i got to get these three through the

00:07:19.820 winter i saw you had a visit by an actual cougar this week was there another one or no this is the

00:07:25.740 one that james yeah there's two of them actually two a pair of them went by nice healthy looking

00:07:30.780 ones yeah they were dogs go crazy i know the dogs i think maybe it's one of those areas of wisdom

00:07:35.580 They never seem to go up the hill behind our house when the cougars go by.

00:07:38.320 Skunks, no problem.

00:07:39.680 They love going out there, but they have some self-preservation instances.

00:07:43.340 Skunk bath.

00:07:44.480 So, yeah, very busy day in the newsroom.

00:07:47.080 Big report out today by the U of C School of Public Policy on what they say is the actual cost of independence for Alberta.

00:07:56.660 They say it could cost up to $170 billion over the first five years.

00:08:02.460 and they say provincial GDP will be down, salaries will be down.

00:08:10.080 Basically, they paint a gloomy picture.

00:08:11.920 Right, rain frogs and maybe locusts and floods and earthquakes.

00:08:15.920 Frogs.

00:08:17.020 We did a separate story, our energy expert, Dave Winnick,

00:08:20.880 on what the paper says would mean for oil and gas.

00:08:25.480 They say, yeah, we're going to be free of all those Ottawa restrictions

00:08:29.800 and carbon taxes and whatnot.

00:08:31.580 but uh we won't be able to get pipelines built because uh bc won't accept them and we'd have to

00:08:37.020 go through the states and the u.s uh governors in the northwest wouldn't prove them well i don't know

00:08:44.060 i think it would take about 20 to 30 minutes after we stopped the rail cars coming from bc tracks

00:08:48.780 before we could probably start the negotiations on a pipeline but it's not like we're getting them

00:08:52.700 now. No, no, no, no. Provincial news, the Angus Reid poll is out on Premiers,

00:09:01.820 Daniel Smith falling to her lowest rating ever, 38%. Strangely, David Eby is up 10%.

00:09:09.440 It is odd. He doesn't seem to have done anything right. I guess you see the implosion of his

00:09:14.960 opposition the conservative uh uh fire drill is is causing that uh conservatives are calling for

00:09:22.880 hearings into the fact uh canadian armed forces members help train the members of the chinese

00:09:28.640 people's liberation army like why would you go and help train the chinese they're kind of the enemy

00:09:35.120 i don't know where we're going with things with this i i mean it's bizarre i mean and what what 0.97

00:09:40.800 would chinese soldiers need to learn from us anyhow aside from where our military capabilities are

00:09:46.240 exactly well maybe carney's working to get as a associate country to china oh yes you know don't

00:09:53.280 stop at the eu these new associate memberships big announcement today that we're we could get

00:09:59.760 associate status with the european union what it means nobody knows but just to say what benefits

00:10:06.480 to you as an associate member i had no idea it's just another one of these things like

00:10:12.080 selling airports off that carne never campaigned on and now parliament's out for the summaries we

00:10:17.520 change in the face of the country yeah well it's gonna be a bizarre year i i'm still i'm laying my

00:10:23.920 money on it though i mean i'm often wrong we know that but i think we're in for a later fall federal

00:10:29.760 snap election could be right yeah could be right i think he wants a big majority then he can really

00:10:35.040 make a mess oh and his number polling numbers right now are ridiculous yeah i just wouldn't

00:10:39.120 want to call it now because they probably wouldn't fare well with the alberta referendum go i'll let

00:10:42.960 alberta settle its stuff deal with it and then yeah pull the pin that's my thoughts yeah we got

00:10:48.080 some dramatic video of the nbc news crashing in the lawsuit and three people killed and not judging

00:10:56.720 and the u.s is the first time they've got space weapons they've been talking about this

00:11:01.200 yeah star wars yeah is that a big issue now it's apparently up there oh they finally admitted it

00:11:10.960 finally admitted it that's what i got man that's what you got oh quite a bit it's all right what

00:11:17.200 is he what else you working on let's do uh more stuff on the the report ufc report and uh

00:11:25.040 right on it'll keep us busy for the rest of the day great since derek's missing we'll get lots

00:11:34.660 done exactly right thanks yes that's our news editor dave dealer lots on the go and this one

00:11:40.560 i want to remind you our paywall is down right now it's down until october 20th you can get in

00:11:46.500 totally free see the articles see the columns don't have to reach into your wallet uh this is

00:11:53.320 an opportunity because we're in the middle of a referendum because we have such singular times

00:11:57.980 going on we feel it's important for everybody to get in there and be able to read those articles

00:12:02.000 without hindrance so take advantage of that while you can it's a good deal you know we are independent

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00:12:37.040 for those donors who have allowed us to drop that paywall for a little while. And if you haven't

00:12:40.660 subscribed yet, please do guys. It's how we keep media independent because legacy media won't touch

00:12:48.480 the issues that you need to hear about. You know, and I'm still going to talk as it is kind of the

00:12:53.840 news of the day, but the Calgary Shaw by-election, I'll talk about that after I've spoken with our

00:12:58.700 guest a bit more. But I think it's kind of linked to when we see those polls on premier popularity.

00:13:04.940 And I mean, there's so many polls and polls and polls and we love them, I got to admit. And,

00:13:08.100 you know, they always give us something to read into and write about and rant about.

00:13:13.580 The popularity of a premier doesn't necessarily mean the popularity of a party or where they

00:13:17.980 would land in the election, but Premier Smith has really been sinking. And I think it's for

00:13:23.700 the same reason that we saw a loss in what had been thought to be a safe seat in Calgary Shaw

00:13:29.620 on Monday in a by-election. And it's all, see, people are blaming it on the independence

00:13:34.660 referendum and there's kind of some truth to it but each side is blaming the other i think it's

00:13:38.500 kind of both because it is such a divisive issue now smith's been trying to play both sides

00:13:43.860 she has facilitated the referendum and allowed it to happen and hardcore federalists don't feel the

00:13:49.060 referendum should happen at all no matter what so they're furious with her over that meanwhile a

00:13:55.060 large part of the united conservative base is supportive of independence and they like the

00:13:59.780 referendum they're campaigning in the referendum but meanwhile premier smith has come out and said

00:14:04.020 said, I'm going to spend 4 million tax dollars campaigning against independence in the referendum.

00:14:08.000 So she ticked them off too. The result was a terribly low turnout in this by-election. The

00:14:14.160 NDP vote share didn't really grow. The conservative voters who came out collapsed. They stayed home.

00:14:20.580 They said, you know what? I'll just rather not vote at all than get in the middle of this when

00:14:25.360 she's playing both sides like that. And I think that's a reflection of where her personal

00:14:29.000 popularity is landing too. She's trying to be everything to everybody and it's turning into

00:14:33.860 nothing for nobody but i think once we get past the referendum period some of this is going to

00:14:38.500 change and uh we will see uh you know a little more stabilization in polls as we figure out

00:14:44.660 our issues everything's in flux okay let's get on to our guest we're looking forward to this

00:14:48.500 is uh catherine cronis and she's from ontario and dared kind of as per my opening monologue

00:14:56.020 dared to speak up against compelled speech and got yes the the usual uh cascade of opposition and and

00:15:03.060 And boy, just push back in general.

00:15:06.500 I'm glad that JCCF's there to help people like her.

00:15:09.500 And maybe I'll bring her in right now

00:15:10.980 so she can kind of explain a bit of that.

00:15:12.440 So thank you very much for joining us today, Catherine.

00:15:14.960 Hi, Corey. Thanks for having me.

00:15:17.000 So I really appreciate this.

00:15:18.860 You wrote a fantastic extended piece in the CTC Journal,

00:15:22.540 which really lays out the story in detail.

00:15:24.960 But perhaps in a nutshell, you know, in a few minutes,

00:15:27.660 could you kind of explain where you ended up in this situation?

00:15:31.500 So I knew that the board had no authority to impose a land acknowledgement at our school

00:15:40.400 council meetings.

00:15:42.000 So I objected to that imposition at a meeting in April, 2024.

00:15:49.080 And it was a really brief interaction during the meeting, but it wound me up in basically

00:15:55.640 having to participate in a, be subjected to a human rights investigation, confidential human

00:16:01.920 rights investigation for six months. And then I was found innocent of that human rights

00:16:08.720 investigation. They found that I hadn't broken any code of conduct or human rights violation.

00:16:14.120 And so I wanted to put my, I wanted to continue to object to these because I thought that it was

00:16:19.280 wrong for the board to be imposing these on our school council. So I objected again after I had

00:16:24.920 been found innocent. I objected again for the same reasons. And this time the board didn't

00:16:33.680 even investigate. They went straight to a suspension. Yeah. And so you were part of,

00:16:38.580 I mean, you had run for the school board and had a very respectable showing. And then,

00:16:42.880 so you want to be active within the education system, which is fantastic. I think we'd have

00:16:46.300 a lot fewer problems in general if just, if more people got up and paid closer attention to what's

00:16:50.480 going on, but we have busy lives. Then you got on the parent council. So that's a little different.

00:16:56.220 But as you sort of wrote, I mean, you found that it's not a two-way thing. It's sort of where

00:17:00.580 you're just invited to sit there and listen, and they really don't actually want to hear your input

00:17:04.400 on issues. No, I mean, the legislation actually was designed to give a parent the right to have

00:17:11.700 a voice to advise the principal, to advise the board on any issue, any matter. And that's not

00:17:18.080 way that these councils are operating. They're operating as a way for the board to sit back and 0.70

00:17:24.720 I guess, look for affirmation about what they've, what they've, what they're doing and any sort of

00:17:29.760 perceived criticism, particularly on controversial issues is a no-no.

00:17:36.560 Yeah. Well, and, and the issue with land acknowledgements, it's not, I mean, part of

00:17:40.240 what I kind of read in with what's going on with you, it's, it's not a matter of whether a person

00:17:44.320 agrees or disagrees with the acknowledgement though. I mean, individuals do disagree with

00:17:47.840 I made it quite clear in my opening, I'm not fond of them, but it's the compelled speech. The fact

00:17:52.880 that you can't exempt yourself from these, if you dare to chair a meeting without inserting this

00:17:58.080 little prayer, you're going to be on the carpet as you've found. Right. I mean, it's not, not

00:18:04.800 everybody's agrees with it. So how can you force it, force it onto other, other people? Yeah, it is,

00:18:11.120 i find it a form of compelled speech um the board the board was treating it as expected

00:18:20.080 um now we found out after two years of me fighting this and having to go through two

00:18:25.360 human rights investigations and a suspension that the board actually admitted in writing that it

00:18:30.480 they are not legally mandatory but i believe that they will the board will continue to um

00:18:36.640 lead parents to believe that they are yeah well that's part of it i mean an implied rule if they

00:18:42.800 aren't clarifying what it is can be still as as problematic as as a real entrenched one in fact

00:18:49.040 it's worse i mean if you've got solid rules in in a mandate or something you know what your

00:18:53.360 limitations are going in these are unspoken rules that that you ran afoul of yes

00:19:02.080 so with the justice center for constitutional freedoms what what remedy are they pursuing like

00:19:06.480 Like how, how are you moving forward with this?

00:19:08.760 So I, um, they supported me through the first investigation.

00:19:13.040 I was found innocent.

00:19:14.340 Then they supported me through the suspension and I was reinstated.

00:19:17.520 And then after I was reinstated, the board tried to prevent recordings of our school

00:19:23.300 council meetings.

00:19:24.640 Um, and they, they helped me through that recording ban and the board had to back down

00:19:29.980 every single time.

00:19:31.940 Yeah.

00:19:32.460 Yeah. So, but is there a way then you can have this entrenched in local rules and regulations or does this need provincial legislation? Like where do you, where can you find remedy for this?

00:19:44.840 So the issue is we have legislation, but we need to be able to enforce the legislation. And I think part of the problem is we don't have parents basically speaking up for their own rights.

00:19:56.440 and we need to we need to have parents attending these school council meetings understanding what

00:20:02.260 the legislation is and speaking up when it's not being followed uh we don't we are supposed to be

00:20:08.680 the parents are supposed to be a um a mechanism like the councils are supposed to be like a

00:20:14.180 mechanism to help to enhance the accountability of the education system but it's not functioning

00:20:19.600 right now at all. So we need parents to be able to start to take a stand.

00:20:27.360 Yeah. And I mean, part of, you know, people who don't necessarily take a part in committees or

00:20:31.500 boards or things like that might not understand, you know, some of those rules of order and the

00:20:34.480 way things work. But a very common thing, of course, is to take minutes throughout. That's

00:20:38.460 part of the transparency. That's part of having a record to look back on if there's disputes over

00:20:43.280 what was agreed upon at the meeting or transparency for people outside of the meeting to see what

00:20:48.300 happened and you've had, they wouldn't approve the minutes that were taken in some of the meetings

00:20:52.040 you made? So yes, the board was interfering in our normal approval process of the minutes

00:20:58.520 on multiple occasions. That is in non-compliance with the Education Act and its regulations 612,

00:21:05.800 which is the law in Ontario for governing school councils. And they continue to interfere. And

00:21:13.660 in the end, as my article details, is that in the end, a version of minutes wound up on the school

00:21:23.960 council website that the council had never approved. And they were indeed different than

00:21:28.600 the draft minutes. And they certainly had not included the land acknowledgement discussion.

00:21:35.440 Well, and doctoring minutes and meetings in a lot of areas, I mean, whether it's associations

00:21:39.760 or political parties, that can get into very serious legal quagmire.

00:21:44.900 It's not something minor.

00:21:46.440 I mean, the point of them is to keep them sacrosanct.

00:21:50.240 Has that been rectified yet, or is this just still kind of in dispute?

00:21:54.780 Currently, there are no, the last time I checked,

00:21:57.600 there were no minutes on the school council website whatsoever

00:22:00.820 because HWDSB did go through like a revamp of their website.

00:22:05.180 If people want to get them, they would have to contact the school.

00:22:08.460 legally, the school does not have to post them to a website. They just have to make them available

00:22:13.560 to the public. But I don't see how you can make minutes available to the public, which have not

00:22:18.760 gone through a proper approval process of the council. And then there's some of the discussion

00:22:25.780 over whether there was harm caused and so on. Harm caused by your daring to dispute it and such.

00:22:30.980 There were what, allegedly a couple of parents said their feelings hurt? Or what was the harm

00:22:35.440 they could indicate that was caused by your, your questioning these acknowledgements.

00:22:39.500 This was very interesting, Corey.

00:22:41.320 So when I received the notice of the complaint, it was, uh, two and a half

00:22:46.180 months after the complaints, the complaint was filed, uh, was filed in June.

00:22:50.680 I received it in, um, you know, September 20th, the complaint said that there were

00:22:55.660 three students who were not present at the meeting, um, had filed the complaint.

00:23:01.100 They had heard secondhand from, um, parents, um, and council members who were at the meeting,

00:23:07.260 what had happened at the meeting and they were not, uh, apparently claiming harm themselves.

00:23:12.540 They were, they were claiming harms, uh, on behalf of other groups of people.

00:23:17.980 So, yeah, so the usual, I mean, I, I guess I won't go to the full stereotypes, but there seems to be

00:23:23.580 a certain category of people who always speak up for the harms on identifiable minorities,

00:23:27.820 but are rarely actually members of those particular minority groups.

00:23:31.700 So I take it there haven't been Indigenous advocacy groups or, you know,

00:23:36.980 parents or children that were upset with these discussions.

00:23:40.320 It's anonymous complaints.

00:23:42.280 Well, they're anonymous complaints and the process was confidential.

00:23:46.340 So I'm not even sure how I can prove who these students were.

00:23:51.800 Now, not to say if they were minors, I'm not looking to have their identities.

00:23:55.540 piece, but the point is, is like, this is a, this is a process that's been run by the

00:23:59.800 board, um, in, in, in confident confidential, um, who's holding the board to account to

00:24:06.880 its own processes.

00:24:08.500 They they're acting like judge and jury in their own sort of investigation.

00:24:12.880 And who's to say what those students actually told the board, um, you know, who those students

00:24:18.760 are, do the students even exist?

00:24:20.860 yeah and and so i mean it turns into pressuring when we don't have proper documentation we got

00:24:28.540 anonymous complaints you don't know if any of this exists i mean that's why we have processes

00:24:33.340 and things like that but there's also in the broader issue of these acknowledgements there's

00:24:38.040 social pressure i admit i i uh admire your courage and and at least standing up and questioning or

00:24:43.940 even just not including him i talked about my opening monologue i'm a i'm a geek i'm a member 0.99

00:24:48.280 of a rock and lapidary club and at our monthly meeting they've started reading these stupid 0.98

00:24:52.420 land acknowledge this is a rock club for crying out loud but instead of complaining instead of 0.98

00:24:57.280 speaking up or doing anything I actually just stopped going to the monthly meetings and that's

00:25:01.340 what a lot of people do rather than make waves or make a fuss and I gotta admit that's more cowardly

00:25:06.620 on my part but probably the more common approach and I hope to grow more backbone on these sorts

00:25:11.420 of things but I imagine the pressure against you has been pretty pretty strong even on the social

00:25:16.040 sense i can say that it it was an immense pressure and i was um i i had no other public support in my

00:25:26.200 in my community i mean i do have people approaching me privately and um you know it nobody on council

00:25:34.600 was willing to take the stand with me uh at least in terms of the fact that like forget the land

00:25:41.400 acknowledgement. It was about, my whole issue was about the board should not be interfering

00:25:46.100 in council governance and our discussions. So it was up to the council decide if they want to put

00:25:53.580 a land acknowledgement on the agenda. That was always what the fight was about. And yeah, it's,

00:26:00.760 it's, it's yeah, it's, it wasn't easy. Well, and there's still not clarity. I see you wrote

00:26:08.060 what in February, 2026, when you had a new chair of the council, they're saying that

00:26:13.820 the government says these have to be on there and land acknowledgements aren't even up for

00:26:17.660 discussion. Was there a declaration on the part of the government saying you must have these?

00:26:23.500 In that meeting, it was very interesting because the chair was under the impression

00:26:29.100 that the government says, this is what we have to do. That meeting also had the principal and

00:26:33.980 the superintendent um the principal was saying well it's the chair's decision and then i directly

00:26:40.620 asked the superintendent um lindsay snell i asked her point blank you know who's making these

00:26:46.620 decisions and she sat there in the room and she would not answer my question i continued to press

00:26:53.340 at which point the principal said you're going to have to ask the board the board was sitting right

00:26:59.580 in the room. So after that meeting, that's when I decided to write the director of education.

00:27:05.100 And eventually I was able to get the answer, you know, end of March that these land acknowledgements,

00:27:12.300 they were finally admitting that the land acknowledgements are not legally mandatory

00:27:17.260 and that the council has their own right to do their own bylaws and have their own governance,

00:27:21.180 which is something that I have been arguing from the start.

00:27:24.860 And your story goes farther in. I mean, you're not alone in this. These things are popping up

00:27:29.260 all over that case in bc was very disturbing where they actually called provincial child

00:27:33.420 protection services on a mother because she questioned land acknowledgements i mean this is

00:27:39.660 talk about intimidation and using the state threatening your children basically

00:27:44.860 yes i i think the laureate's situation was terrible uh um i can say that um oh i can tell

00:27:53.340 tell you an update in the hwdsb i attended a parental involvement committee yesterday it's

00:27:59.820 a public meeting it's open to the public and the superintendent paul denomy i guess everybody's

00:28:07.100 caught wind of my article in the community so they're taking a position of doubling down on

00:28:12.380 this land acknowledgement they read the land acknowledgement at the parental committee

00:28:15.980 which by the way is also supposed to be independent from the school board it's supposed to have its

00:28:21.420 own governments and decide what gets said in their meetings as well but this superintendent decided

00:28:27.740 to also do a little speech and talk about you know the reasons for the land acknowledgement

00:28:32.860 in in my view what he was doing was he was sending a message to the other parents in the

00:28:38.860 parental involvement committee um that you know good people say this so you know in other words

00:28:45.740 if you try to object. Yeah, you must be some terrible, terrible soul who wants to harm the 0.63

00:28:52.140 children. It's that narrative is just getting frustrated. I personally feel there's a silent 0.98

00:28:57.800 majority who are getting exhausted with these things and whether it's at hockey games or

00:29:02.180 in schools or even on radio stations, we're hearing it now, but nobody wants to speak up

00:29:06.660 because they don't want to be labeled that nasty intolerant person, as you said. So this is kind

00:29:13.020 sort of ongoing, before I let you go, where can people find what you wrote and what you're up to

00:29:18.520 to continue to follow what you've been doing on this issue? They can find my article at C2C

00:29:25.580 Journal. And I'm sorry, I don't have anything else to say. No, that's quite all right. I mean,

00:29:32.440 it's an excellent article and I really appreciate it. It goes in depth at length. And I guess,

00:29:37.120 you know, people can keep an eye out for your name in case there's more things. You're somebody

00:29:40.080 who clearly is willing to advocate and get out there

00:29:43.040 and push for your rights and the rights of the kids.

00:29:45.700 So I thank you for that and for documenting it like this

00:29:48.740 and for coming here to talk to us today.

00:29:50.860 Thanks, Corey.

00:29:51.540 Thanks for having me.

00:29:52.540 All right, thanks.

00:29:53.880 So yeah, guys, if you go to Sea to Sea Journal

00:29:56.220 and it isn't spelled like it would sound

00:30:00.240 if you're thinking, you know,

00:30:00.960 it's not like sea to sea like oceans,

00:30:02.940 it's the letter C, number two and letter C.

00:30:05.780 And actually there's a lot of great articles

00:30:08.420 within there on all sorts of things. It's a very good publication. And if you search out

00:30:16.080 Catherine Kronas, K-R-O-N-A-S, you will find that article and really get the details of what's going 0.63

00:30:22.520 on because, you know, we got to push back. And these issues, when they turn it into a moral

00:30:28.500 issue, right, when they shame you for daring to speak up, when they do try to imply you're a bad

00:30:35.040 person. You're an intolerant person. Or of course, you know, it's almost always going to descend into

00:30:41.600 the R word, right? You must be a racist. You know, it's absurd. And there's free speech, which means 0.95

00:30:49.220 allowing people to say pretty much what they please within reason. You know, you can't threaten

00:30:54.500 people. You can't tell people to commit a crime and everything. But what we have here is compelled

00:30:59.160 speech and that's problematic too you're essentially forced to take part in this

00:31:04.600 ceremony whether you agree with it or not whether you feel the same or not and and that's that's a

00:31:10.920 very personal violation on an issue that some people take very personally in general so i i do

00:31:17.320 appreciate and it's sad that it does take courage to push back on something which should be considered

00:31:24.760 as common sense as this. All right. So I was looking at, uh, one of the commentators there

00:31:30.400 and, and, uh, I'm just going to get back to that Calgary Shaw, uh, by election. And, and I

00:31:35.860 appreciate that. He was saying, and he was blaming the, the Alberta, what are they? Progressive

00:31:41.660 Tory party for the loss in Shaw. Uh, now if you look by the numbers, I'm not big on that, you

00:31:49.660 You know, I'm honestly not.

00:31:51.100 But by the numbers, they took nearly 1,000 votes with this progressive Tory party.

00:31:56.840 And the UCP candidate lost by 600 and some votes.

00:32:01.000 I don't know the numbers right in front of you, but around there.

00:32:02.820 So theoretically, if those within the Tory party had voted for UCP, the UCP would have held the seat.

00:32:09.560 But we can't always presume they would have gone over there.

00:32:14.240 These are people who could have had issues with the UCP for any number of things.

00:32:17.480 And it could have been people that actually used to be voting NDP because they were more of a red, red Tory and found the sort of liberal offering with this progressive Tory party, something better for them to choose towards.

00:32:33.120 So we can't be assured, say, if it was just a two party race, it might have gone UCP in that circumstance, but it might not have either.

00:32:41.480 We got to look at the bigger holistic thing on what's going on.

00:32:45.920 And as I said, what's happening, I think, is Premier Smith's taking everybody off.

00:32:51.280 And to be honest, I don't know exactly how she can avoid it.

00:32:53.940 I mean, some of it I know how she can avoid.

00:32:55.680 Just take your foot off the gas on the referendum and let people deal with it.

00:33:00.740 Just stay out of the way.

00:33:02.440 You know, I understand she stated she's a Federalist.

00:33:05.120 She stated she's supporting option one on question 10.

00:33:08.320 Fair enough.

00:33:08.840 You make that, you get it out there.

00:33:09.980 But to get out and spend $4 million of our dollars to campaign against us,

00:33:13.660 that stirs people up that gets them pretty crabby and a by-election offers them a very real chance

00:33:20.920 to say you know what no we're not supporting you if you're doing this and likewise it is a very

00:33:28.120 divided there's not many people when you're on the outsides of this if you're a hardcore federalist

00:33:32.760 type they are you look at the narrative you look at the writings you look at what they're saying

00:33:37.200 they're not just saying we should vote against independence they're saying we shouldn't be

00:33:42.100 allowed to vote on it at all. We shouldn't have citizens initiated referenda. These are

00:33:46.200 authoritarians. They don't want you to have a choice. They don't even want the question put

00:33:50.180 to paper. So they're upset with Premier Smith just for putting them on the ballot. Now,

00:33:57.080 looking at, what is it, Blue Line, Tyler saying Smith needs to go. Well, I don't know about that.

00:34:01.760 I mean, that's up to UCP members. But a lot of the people with these visceral reactions to Smith

00:34:06.580 look a little farther down and see, well, who will we replace her with and how and why

00:34:11.280 a year from a general election because if you got somebody with a pure independence mandate let's

00:34:18.560 just say you put jeff wrath in the chair unapologetically purely independence i mean he's

00:34:23.900 not running for it i'm just throwing it out there you won't get as pure a secessionist leader to sit

00:34:28.820 in that role than him they will get slaughtered in the election slaughtered there is not enough

00:34:35.840 support that's that condensed for independence for a party to take on that stance. Likewise,

00:34:43.480 though, if she keeps messing around and infuriating the independent supporters, which are a large,

00:34:49.140 if not majority segment within her party, she can find herself in great, great trouble as well.

00:34:56.320 She's really got a hard balance. But remember, a majority within the party isn't the same as a

00:35:00.800 majority at the voting booth. So just because you got 60, 70% of the members support this

00:35:06.180 doesn't mean 60% of the people voting on the ground do. So we do have to think a little more

00:35:11.580 strategically and a little less reactionary with some of these things. Maybe, maybe replacement

00:35:17.640 is the better idea, but I tell you what, we're getting into some very dangerous territory.

00:35:23.900 When we do see a Calgary seat that was considered safe has now swung to the NDP. We've been there

00:35:30.220 before, guys. I'll tell you one thing the NDP never even would have given us is even the mushy

00:35:35.060 referendum we have now. You'd get nothing. We get another term of NDP, there is no movement on the

00:35:41.360 independence front. None. We got socialism, and we're really up the creek. Just remember, when you

00:35:49.100 vote, you're never going to get somebody who's 100% of what you like. You got to pick somebody who's

00:35:53.960 80% there. Somebody who's representing the majority. I think there's going to be a lot more clarity on

00:35:59.340 October 20th. You know, people are fighting the campaign right now. I am. As Dave was saying,

00:36:04.080 I drove in from Wainwright. I spoke last night at a meeting in Wainwright. It was fantastic,

00:36:08.080 by the way, a great crowd of folks that came out there. This campaign is going full bore. You know,

00:36:14.100 the signs are out there. The people are knocking on doors. People are doing conventional campaign

00:36:18.820 things. And we're now just a hair over a month away from voting day on it. And we've never seen

00:36:24.860 anything like it before. You know, the province is in new territory. That's where we got to watch

00:36:30.320 it a little too. Jacqueline saying, we got rid of the Progressive Conservative Party because they

00:36:36.640 were corrupt. Do we need a repeat? Well, I don't see corruption in the UCP party. I see some

00:36:41.700 competency issues. But I mean, the repeat and getting rid of them was a real painful process,

00:36:48.900 right? How did we do it? Well, we did it by putting the NDP in power for four years.

00:36:53.860 So let's just be a little careful about what we think might be a solution to things.

00:36:59.020 Because sometimes the cure can be pretty darn painful.

00:37:02.660 Again, wait until October 20th.

00:37:04.540 Put out the torches, put away the pitchforks.

00:37:07.440 Wait until October 20th.

00:37:08.640 Then we rethink strategy in general.

00:37:11.800 Speaking on the other front, and here's somewhere that I find interesting.

00:37:16.920 I was at a conference last weekend on Friday night and Saturday.

00:37:22.240 It's called the Capitalism and Morality Conference.

00:37:25.260 It's fantastic.

00:37:25.900 Mostly libertarian-leanings types of folks, all sorts of great speakers, freedom-minded people.

00:37:31.700 You know, I was chatting with Frances Widdowson and Tamara Leach.

00:37:35.940 You know, we were sitting. 1.00

00:37:37.880 The funny thing, when I look at the two of them, as I said, the combined weight of those two ladies is probably under 200 pounds between the two of them. 0.99

00:37:45.560 Yet, they're a couple of the strongest people you'll ever meet. 0.66

00:37:47.940 uh you know the the size of the package doesn't necessarily reflect the strength of it but it was

00:37:54.860 a good conference and drew barnes was there and i hadn't seen drew in a couple of years he's a

00:37:59.340 former wildrose mla he was from medicine hat he was out there for a couple of terms as the

00:38:05.060 representative i believe he ran for mayor as well i think i had him on the show during that election

00:38:09.200 um he's now on an initiative to launch alberta now and he spoke to media at that conference about

00:38:17.640 that. He's starting a federal provincial party, not necessarily an independence party, but

00:38:22.940 a purely Alberta party. One that would be like reform. He's looking, I guess, just in Alberta

00:38:30.200 itself, not even going as far as Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and BC like the reform party did.

00:38:34.660 But just having an Alberta party, I think we have, I could be wrong, somebody might correct me in the

00:38:39.180 comments, 37 seats in Alberta. So he would be contesting those seats exclusively. Now,

00:38:47.840 people talking about vote splitting, because I was just going on about that, right? Like that

00:38:51.100 would be very harmful, potentially, for Pierre Polyev's federal conservatives to form a government.

00:38:58.580 That's true. But where is he going now? You know, he's doing everything he can,

00:39:05.220 and he's just still continuing to plummet in the polls.

00:39:09.120 Polyev's getting worse and worse as far as polling goes.

00:39:13.400 Central Canada won't vote Conservative. 0.99

00:39:15.620 Get over it, people. They'll never.

00:39:17.900 They're different than us.

00:39:20.040 It's different than provincial.

00:39:22.400 So what do we do?

00:39:25.360 We either accept basically Liberals forever.

00:39:30.080 The only way the Conservatives will ever get in

00:39:32.100 is if they turn themselves into something indistinguishable

00:39:34.880 from the Liberal Party.

00:39:35.820 That's the only way Toronto and Montreal

00:39:37.500 are going to accept them.

00:39:38.680 Or maybe even if they're a little bit conservative.

00:39:41.400 You know, Stephen Harper was fairly conservative.

00:39:43.420 We got to remember that.

00:39:44.380 We're getting on close, you know,

00:39:46.100 over 15, 16 years ago when he got in

00:39:47.920 for a relatively short time.

00:39:50.380 And what did he change while he was in there?

00:39:52.700 He wasn't bad.

00:39:54.600 Like I said, I quote, okay, often

00:39:55.820 when we get conservative governments,

00:39:57.080 they're necessarily good to the West,

00:39:58.400 but they're just less bad to them than liberals are.

00:40:02.260 What I did really enjoy, though,

00:40:03.780 and if we're going to go back farther years then reform the original reform reform when they didn't

00:40:10.340 have the ambition to try to go to ontario when they were like the block when everything they

00:40:16.660 considered everything they voted on was always by the lens of what's in it for my constituents

00:40:21.860 because they don't care right now conservative members of parliament are gagged they're gagged

00:40:26.420 they won't admit it but they're gagged how often do you hear conservative mps actually how often

00:40:30.820 do you hear them in media in general not a lot they're pretty much told to keep your head down

00:40:35.540 particularly the western ones how often do you hear them speaking up on western issues almost

00:40:40.900 never even though that is their job and there are some good conservative members of parliament

00:40:45.540 but they're in a party that has a mandate to try and win toronto and montreal

00:40:50.820 so these members have to always keep that in mind with anything they might say in public

00:40:54.700 I want a party with members who feel that their top role is to speak for the people who elected them locally.

00:41:03.220 And the Reform Party did that for a while.

00:41:06.200 And we look at some of the best government we had federally in Canada. 0.84

00:41:11.520 You know, in my memory as a graying fellow with bad hair.

00:41:15.400 Was actually Jean Chrétien's government with the Reform opposition breathing down his neck.

00:41:21.660 Chrétien balanced the budget. 0.95

00:41:24.020 Chrétien of the 90s was more conservative than Paliyev of today. And part of that was because 0.87

00:41:31.940 they had to respond to an unapologetically conservative party in the House of Commons.

00:41:37.260 So, Drew's putting something together very interesting with that. And here's a quote from

00:41:44.200 Drew in a story, you know, that reported on it. He said, Quebec's shown with the Bloc Quebecois

00:41:49.240 that they've been very effective at advancing Quebec culture, Quebec values, and Quebec needs

00:41:52.560 legislation in ottawa and he said their goal would be to do the same and i i'm with that i

00:41:58.160 mean what's the worst that's going to happen well we got for example some rural federal ridings in

00:42:02.560 alberta which where the conservative support lands on those you could split it four ways and you're

00:42:08.800 still not going to get a liberal in there there are some dicey conservative seats in calgary

00:42:13.760 in edmonton that potentially i guess if another party ran that you might end up with a liberal

00:42:19.360 in there or something. But so what? We got a liberal majority anyway, federally. I'd still

00:42:24.960 rather have 20 Alberta members of parliament who can speak their minds on my behalf as an Albertan

00:42:30.580 than 35 Alberta MPs who are ostensibly conservative, but are gagged because they're

00:42:38.480 constantly trying to win Toronto and Montreal. So I like this initiative. We'll see where it's going.

00:42:44.640 But again, starting parties, getting them rolling, uh, getting them organized, uh, is a mire. I'm done with participating any longer. I mean, I, I support things. I oppose things. I certainly am outspoken, but I'm not getting directly involved in this, but I'm very excited of seeing where it might go.

00:43:03.000 But I also know that these are things that are fragile and can blow up quickly and sometimes make things worse than what they're intended.

00:43:11.020 But I mean, I think Bruce's, Bruce's, Drew's intentions I think are genuine and he's a good, credible individual.

00:43:18.580 It's going to be interesting to see what comes of it. 1.00

00:43:20.600 I think something that if I recall speaking at the conference, that they were being very clear that they didn't want floor crossers.

00:43:26.480 I'm not sure.

00:43:27.040 I could be misquoting that.

00:43:28.120 personally, I think at a formative point with a party like this, if they could, you know,

00:43:33.620 if they get registered and they're set up and they got somewhere for conservative MPs to land,

00:43:37.900 my view of it is they should welcome the members of parliament in Alberta who might want to say,

00:43:42.020 you know what, I am tired of being in a perpetually gagged opposition party. And I would

00:43:46.680 like to jump on with this so I can speak for my constituents. And then you make them win a

00:43:50.480 nomination later if that comes to it. But personally, I would like to see that. I mean,

00:43:55.660 if you've got a head start with suddenly having a half a dozen or more conservative member of

00:43:59.420 parliament, because you know, a lot of them are getting a little tired of being gagged. They

00:44:03.080 didn't go through all the work of getting elected and getting in there just to sit. I mean, some

00:44:07.620 people do that in politics, but that's usually in the Senate. It's a lot of work to get elected

00:44:11.080 federally. And, uh, you know, usually it's because people have some ideals. They have some things

00:44:15.320 they wanted to speak up on some things they wanted to change. And a lot of these guys in Alberta and

00:44:19.860 gals get elected. They get in and then find out that the party tells them from top down. Yeah,

00:44:24.060 this is what you're allowed to talk about and that's what you're not. And that doesn't do Alberta

00:44:28.340 any good. And to be honest, I'm here to be concerned about Alberta. I'm not too concerned

00:44:33.960 about the other things. I mean, we see this latest story, which is why we should be speaking for

00:44:38.420 Alberta. I haven't heard Pierre Polyev on this one yet. Maybe because he's doing polling in Toronto

00:44:43.580 and Montreal to see how it is. I don't know. But it says Canada can become a European Union's

00:44:47.400 first ever associate member. You know, Dave mentioned that. It's in the westernstandard.news

00:44:51.720 online. They're the story. What even is an associate member of the EU? Why are we trying

00:44:56.560 to join the EU? Why do we want to be bound? I got enough problems as an Albertan having

00:45:02.440 leadership way the hell over in Ottawa that doesn't represent me. Why do I want to be

00:45:06.040 tied at the hip to somebody in Brussels? But this is where they're going, and we've got

00:45:11.500 a nutless conservative party that isn't doing anything to stop that. I'd rather have some

00:45:15.140 local MPs who can speak up on how stupid and destructive something like that might be. 0.99

00:45:19.920 Either way, we'll see how that develops. 0.98

00:45:21.160 I'm going to see if we're getting Drew on soon

00:45:22.360 so he can talk about it a little further.

00:45:23.940 So we'll see if I can get him on next week or soon

00:45:26.240 because I'm quite pumped about it.

00:45:28.360 Either way, guys, that's the time I've got for today.

00:45:30.860 Thank you all for tuning in.

00:45:32.980 Be sure to watch the pipeline tonight.

00:45:35.100 And again, a reminder,

00:45:36.140 the paywall is down at the Western Standard.

00:45:37.780 If you want to get to those stories,

00:45:38.920 you can get straight to them.

00:45:40.240 You don't have to pay, though.

00:45:41.300 I mean, hey, you're still welcome to subscribe.

00:45:43.220 We need subscriptions.

00:45:44.780 And like, share, subscribe, all that good stuff.

00:45:47.680 and we will catch you next week at this time with a whole new set of issues. Thanks again.

00:46:17.680 You

Western Standard - September 19, 2026

CORY MORGAN SHOW： Cult-like land acknowledgement chants must end

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