Western Standard - CORY MORGAN SHOW： It’s time to defund the Assembly of First Nations

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

00:00:29.700 last one of July? No, it's not. Man, you know, July is actually moving really slowly for me,

00:00:34.060 I find. Usually the summers whip by, but in this case, it's kind of just kind of creeping along,

00:00:40.260 which is fine because I've got no use for winter. So July can last as long as it pleases. So

00:00:44.360 I would like to see a bit of a break from the mosquitoes. There's been no break from the news.

00:00:48.960 Often in summer, there's not much to cover, but this year has been quite an exception,

00:00:54.460 especially with what's going on with the tariffs, the Gordie Howe Bridge, the Prime Minister in

00:00:59.660 general, just not doing very well for himself in a lot of ways for the one who was supposed to be

00:01:05.840 the diplomatic and economic wizard. In a little while, I'm going to speak with Peter Davidoff,

00:01:11.380 maybe he'll correct me on the pronunciation of that name, it sounds right, he's at the Red Deer

00:01:15.300 Dream Centre, and we're going to talk about addiction treatment and things such as that,

00:01:19.300 and I think it's really important. I mean, we have, there's no doubt, an addiction epidemic

00:01:24.020 going on and a lot of controversy or debate over whether treatment is a better route, enablement

00:01:30.460 through consumption centers and things like that. As it is, we're closing some of the consumption

00:01:36.080 centers. The one in Calgary recently was shut down, but we still, of course, have a lot of

00:01:40.560 people in dire, dire condition that need treatment. And these guys do fantastic work up in Red Deer

00:01:45.940 as due to some down itself. So we will speak to him in a bit. But first, I'm going to get on to

00:01:52.140 my usual rambling and what's got me going today. And yeah, it was in following up with the press

00:01:59.100 releases and statements coming out of the Assembly of First Nations. They had their annual shindig

00:02:04.340 in Ottawa last week and the outcome was predictable. They offered nothing but anger, indignance,

00:02:10.220 and demands. It's an organization overrun with a sense of entitlement and suffers from chronic

00:02:15.080 oppositional disorder. It's time the taxpayers stopped paying for it. Taxpayers funding a lobby

00:02:21.460 group whose primary output is demands for more funding creates a self-reinforcing loop detached

00:02:27.400 from broader Canadian fiscal reality or voter consent. Something many Canadians don't understand

00:02:32.940 about the AFN is it's just a lobby group. It's not a formal form of government. It doesn't have

00:02:38.220 any legislative authority. It's not bound by the sorts of controls that elected authorities have,

00:02:43.560 and it has no accountability to the people it purportedly serves. Due to decades of indulgence

00:02:49.900 from politicians and media. People have assumed there's some sort of legitimacy within the group

00:02:54.720 to make policy demands upon the government. On top of it all, the group costs taxpayers upwards

00:03:00.300 of $55 million per year. Nearly 90% of the AFN's revenue comes from government agencies.

00:03:06.660 Most of the top lobby groups in Canada get little to no tax funding at all, and they operate on much

00:03:11.540 less than the Assembly of First Nations does. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, for example,

00:03:15.500 is one of the largest lobby groups in Canada. Its budget's around 18 million dollars and it gets

00:03:21.060 nearly none of it from tax dollars. Or let's look on the left side of things, the Canadian Labour

00:03:25.060 Congress. It has around 20 million in annual revenues and that comes from union dues, not

00:03:30.100 taxpayers. So where does all the money though that the AFN takes in go? Well, I went and looked into

00:03:36.000 their financials. Unsurprisingly, salaries are the top expenditure at 21 million dollars a year.

00:03:42.260 some folks are making some healthy paychecks within that group. Of course, they don't break

00:03:46.400 down exactly who makes how much, and they certainly don't lay out what the job duties are.

00:03:51.200 The next largest expenditure of the Assembly of First Nations is on travel. They blow $16 million

00:03:57.120 a year on travel. Member chiefs travel to assemblies and live it up first class on a regular basis.

00:04:04.400 Apply to a Zoom meeting when you can fly across the country, stay in top hotels, and enjoy fine

00:04:08.380 dining on somebody else's dime. The travel expenses for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce

00:04:12.700 are less than $500,000, though they have branches countrywide and hold regular conferences. The

00:04:17.660 Labour Congress combines travel and employee expenses for a total of $1.4 million, but the 0.85

00:04:23.280 First Nations do $16 million. The next highest area of spending is on professional fees. This

00:04:28.960 nebulous category eats $7 million per year. Doubtless there's some plum contracts to be 0.81

00:04:34.540 found for the well-connected in there. After that, there's a line item for regional service delivery

00:04:39.500 that runs at over $6.2 million. Now, considering the Assembly of First Nations doesn't deliver any

00:04:44.680 services, it's hard to determine what that means. Perhaps it's the cost of the regional offices

00:04:49.440 to house the folks eating up that $21 million in salaries. Speaking of offices, their office

00:04:54.820 expenses come in at $2.8 million a year. That's a lot of paperclips. Considering what the

00:05:00.120 organization actually does, they could probably outsource nearly all of that to a travel agent

00:05:03.980 and save millions. Most lobby groups, what they do is research and have policy departments. They

00:05:09.480 conduct polling and offer educational services about the industry or people they represent.

00:05:14.680 The Assembly of First Nations doesn't appear to spend much on such things. Aside from traveling

00:05:18.460 and collecting salaries, the only other notable expenditure is $625,000 on advertising, promotion,

00:05:25.340 and publications. That's just over 1% of their budget. Let's face it, the AFN is little more

00:05:31.340 than a terribly expensive social club for well-connected chiefs and activists within

00:05:35.800 the Indigenous industry. Their statements are marked by petulance and lack a realistic policy

00:05:41.460 depth. At the last Ottawa gathering, they demanded that the government criminalize speech regarding

00:05:45.780 the child burial hoax at the former Kamloosh residential school and came out in blanket

00:05:50.300 opposition to all forms of economic development being proposed by the federal government.

00:05:54.520 Maybe if a few of them had to pay their own bills for a change, they would garner a glimmer

00:05:58.580 of understanding about the importance of economic development. There is a role for a group to

00:06:04.400 organize and speak collectively for Indigenous bands across Canada. They really should be a

00:06:08.500 group doing that. This kind of group can never be representative of the people it claims to

00:06:12.680 represent, though, unless it gets funding from the people themselves. The AFN should be going

00:06:18.160 cap in hand to every reserve in the country and explaining why these reserves should contribute

00:06:22.640 money to them to be represented. You can bet that in such a circumstance, the principals in the AFN

00:06:29.000 would suddenly start paying attention to how much they spend and on what. For now, the AFN is just

00:06:34.800 a group of well-heeled whiners who take their salaries from the productive to lobby against

00:06:39.140 the industries that generate the funds in the first place. It's time to treat them like any

00:06:43.240 other lobby group in Canada and defund them. And let's do it in the name of equality. It's only

00:06:48.440 fair isn't it all right now that's just got me started today let's check in on a lot of other

00:06:52.840 news items maybe some more positive stuff we've got secondary dave winnick in thank you uh the

00:06:58.600 other dave is under repair right now he is actually he is how you been cory good good no it's always

00:07:03.240 good to get you into it yeah yeah you know summer it's actually well it's been a bit slow but

00:07:07.320 actually today it's actually picked up a bit and speaking of good news well i don't know if this

00:07:10.840 is actually good it could it has the potential to be good but apparently at the premier's meetings

00:07:14.600 over in on pei manitoba premier wap canoe says he's open to the alberta ontario oil pipeline but

00:07:20.040 he's saying that provided that it has a first nation support and addresses environmental

00:07:24.200 concerns so i guess again first nations indigenous consultation so we'll see where that goes for the

00:07:28.360 most part i don't know what do you think about that well he said he would take it under

00:07:31.960 consideration which as a premier constitutionally it's not your role we're not asking permission we

00:07:38.760 shouldn't need it but this relationship's been kind of turned on its end as we've indulged the

00:07:43.240 the British Columbia premier and are going to pay tolls for pipelines across there or extortion fee

00:07:48.880 is another way to put it. So of course, uh, Wab Kinney was saying, well, well, keep in mind,

00:07:53.500 but how much are you going to offer me? That's not a good way to run a federation in my view.

00:07:56.980 Yeah, no, you could definitely say that as well. And also we have a new thing here. It says that,

00:08:00.480 um, federal documents have been showing that, uh, you know, the CBC's record 1.6 billion in

00:08:04.840 government funding, well, actually as part of their 1.6 billion is going to go to combating

00:08:08.980 disinformation and hate. So I guess that kind of makes sense right now with Bill C-9 finally

00:08:13.340 going into force here. What was it? July 18th, I think it was? Just recently, yeah. Yeah. So this

00:08:17.680 is all kind of coming together. So I don't know. I think it says here that Heritage Canada says

00:08:21.360 is considering expanding the broadcaster's mandate, but that neither them or the CBC have

00:08:26.160 explained how that money is going to be used to combat disinformation. So it's just, you think

00:08:29.580 this is a bit of same old, same old from the CBC when they talk about disinformation, hate speech,

00:08:33.820 et cetera. It's throwing good money after bad. You know, something I said, I mean, the media

00:08:37.580 world is hurting, you know, global shutdown in Alberta and things like that. I mean,

00:08:42.700 the advertising dollars aren't there. It's just not the way it used to be. But the way I've put

00:08:47.380 it, if we really wanted to fund information across the country, so now it's $1.6 billion.

00:08:52.880 You could fund 1,600 independent outlets with a million a year, 1,600 of them across, you know,

00:09:00.020 160 in every province i mean we don't have that kind of budget barely and and then they could

00:09:06.000 raise advertising and so on above that that wouldn't that combat a lot more than giving 1.6

00:09:10.040 billion dollars to these guys that you would think so and the cbc's had a lot of retractions

00:09:14.120 they're not that great for misinformation themselves yeah exactly here we go no exactly

00:09:19.740 also there was a police shooting actually just in north vancouver here yesterday um there was a guy

00:09:24.320 that confronted the rcmp they said that he was armed with an edged weapon and entered a rcmp

00:09:28.440 cruiser before the cops opened fire do you see this video i did and it was kind of strange

00:09:33.720 was he shot then with a firearm or was it if you watch the video there's about it sounds like three

00:09:39.400 gunshots go off and the kind of the camera kind of cuts away and it goes back to the guy i'm trying

00:09:43.240 to figure out what exactly happened here because some people were saying that that might have been

00:09:46.360 excessive because it looks like the guy's already in the police cruiser and people were saying why

00:09:49.400 didn't they just shut the door but i don't know how like how the police cruisers like do they

00:09:52.680 turn on automatically were the keys still in the ignition how does that work i don't know and

00:09:55.880 And apparently before that, he'd been driving dangerously and moving around.

00:09:59.460 Another thing, I mean, I don't know.

00:10:00.820 I've thankfully not been in a lot of police cruises.

00:10:03.680 I was going to say, you have experience with this?

00:10:04.620 But they often keep it.

00:10:05.500 You've seen them.

00:10:05.840 They've got a shotgun up in the front seat.

00:10:07.000 Yeah, I've seen that.

00:10:07.480 Yes, I've even tried the front two seats.

00:10:08.960 Was there perhaps that there?

00:10:10.360 I imagine there's going to be quite an investigation to lay out exactly that.

00:10:13.000 Yeah, I was going to think so, definitely, as well.

00:10:14.640 And speaking of crime, apparently the federal conservatives are, again,

00:10:17.300 blaming liberal justice policies after StatsCan reported more than 601,000

00:10:22.280 violent crimes in 2025.

00:10:24.140 I mean, this seems to be kind of just the same thing over and over again.

00:10:27.980 The Conservatives criticize the Liberals for their policies and their bail policies,

00:10:31.000 and nothing really changes.

00:10:32.140 So I don't know what your whole thoughts are on this thing.

00:10:33.980 It just seems to be more same old, same old, really.

00:10:35.920 It gets difficult.

00:10:37.540 I mean, what seems hard is questioning the judgment of the judges at times.

00:10:42.740 I mean, we have some people who seem to be very, very dangerous and at a high risk,

00:10:46.520 and then we find out they get out and bail and re-offend.

00:10:48.920 And then some people, it just seems unrelatively minor.

00:10:50.900 I mean, I understand.

00:10:51.560 we don't want to keep everybody locked up whilst they're taking the time to prove themselves innocent

00:10:55.320 or guilty in court they just can't seem to get it right though and i i don't know it's it takes

00:10:59.640 legal minds better than mine i was just saying i don't know how they would change that either

00:11:03.800 and unfortunately there is another province-wide amber alerts been um issued in bc for a four-year-old

00:11:09.320 ryan andrews who allegedly was abducted in um west colonna and rcmp are saying that he may be

00:11:14.120 traveling with his 40-year-old mother and there's a bit of stuff about this that apparently there

00:11:17.720 There might have been one issued two days ago

00:11:19.260 or else it didn't meet the criteria for an AMRA alert.

00:11:22.360 So RCMP, you're still saying that if anyone sees anything

00:11:24.520 or knows anything, they call 911.

00:11:25.840 So unfortunately, that's kind of the last thing I have

00:11:28.640 that's unfortunately not a positive thing,

00:11:30.100 but hopefully they find the guy.

00:11:31.280 Well, hopefully, absolutely.

00:11:32.780 I mean, we've got that awful case going on in Calgary.

00:11:34.680 Yeah, they're still in the park, yeah. 1.00

00:11:35.780 That young autistic child. 1.00

00:11:38.540 Boy, that's bizarre. 1.00

00:11:39.360 Yeah, it's very bizarre.

00:11:40.300 Seemed to have vanished.

00:11:41.140 I mean, we're still all holding out hope

00:11:42.460 that he's just kind of curled up somewhere

00:11:44.240 and he can be recovered, but he didn't vanish like that.

00:11:47.360 Yeah, it's very odd because there was a case this past summer.

00:11:49.980 I think it was Darius, was it Darius McDougall out by the lake?

00:11:54.040 Yeah, he just disappeared and they never found anything about him.

00:11:57.400 His family was from Lethbridge, I think.

00:11:59.160 Yeah, down in that area.

00:12:00.400 Yeah, no idea. 1.00

00:12:02.360 But, you know, it's mixed.

00:12:03.580 I mean, some people complained.

00:12:04.680 I know I was actually doing a broadcast when these Amber Alerts were there and everything.

00:12:08.460 Somebody complained about that in Red Deer, yeah.

00:12:09.960 It's an Amber Alert.

00:12:10.760 I'm okay with it.

00:12:11.580 I can take the occasional interruption of my day on something as serious as a missing child.

00:12:16.000 we'll say it does kind of scare the hell out of me sometimes but i mean you know what i make a

00:12:20.820 living complaining about all sorts of things but we got better things to complain about i think

00:12:24.320 exactly i agree well i hope they find both kids and yeah me too all's well that we can

00:12:29.400 and uh appreciate it well okay well i'll let you back into the newsroom david i appreciate the

00:12:34.120 updates and uh see you on the pipeline i guess so right on so let's just start looking at what

00:12:39.300 we're going to talk about on that i probably should right on thanks thanks so yes from our

00:12:43.180 newsroom. That is Dave Winnick. And a reminder, the reason we can pay for the multiple Dave's

00:12:47.900 we acquire around this place to keep the news going is because you've subscribed. And to get

00:12:52.900 there at westernstandard.news slash subscription, it's 10 bucks a month, $100 a year. That's how we

00:12:58.340 can maintain our independence and continue to bring the news to you. Because of course, as we

00:13:04.200 said, the CBC gets their 1.6 billion out of your pockets, whether you like it or not, you can

00:13:08.580 choose to support us. And those who have, thank you very much. If you haven't yet, well, get on

00:13:14.260 it, eh? I just want to respond to one comment before I get to the guest. I see we were talking

00:13:18.280 about the pipelines from Pete. He says, what are you going to do with the oil if it gets to Ontario?

00:13:21.720 Ship it through the most valuable fresh water supply in the world. I guess you're talking

00:13:25.920 about the St. Lawrence Seaway, perhaps, which does eventually run to the sea. There are tankers that

00:13:30.580 go up and down that every day. They have, actually, for nearly 100 years. So we're not talking about

00:13:36.700 something unusual, unprecedented, or unsafe. Not only that oil, if it went to Ontario,

00:13:44.260 and by the way, I don't think it's going to happen anyways, but if it got there,

00:13:47.020 it goes to Sarnia, it goes to the refineries. That also brings product to domestic markets

00:13:53.760 in Canada and the Eastern United States where they will purchase and use it because we don't

00:13:58.600 have enough windmills and fairy dust and things like that to cover all our energy needs at this

00:14:04.220 time. So going from there, you know, hey, when you invent the flux capacitor, and we can, you know,

00:14:12.000 put a little garbage in the back of a DeLorean and power the world with it, we'll move on from

00:14:16.660 oil and gas. But in the meantime, we need it. And we're going to keep pipelining it. But again, 0.69

00:14:22.720 most of that, you know, thing that came out, it was between Premier Smith and Premier Doug Ford,

00:14:27.960 and they were just talking about what sounded more like an idea balloon than anything that

00:14:31.920 might actually come into reality because until we get the government roadblocks out of the way

00:14:36.240 we're not going to get anything like that into the ground anyhow but that's a separate issue

00:14:40.580 and i've given you lots of ranting and raving about that let's talk about something a little

00:14:43.620 more you know serious issue but productive people with solution oriented approaches and that's what

00:14:49.240 the dream center does all of us have seen it i mean we can't go down the streets with us i'm

00:14:54.360 seeing some people in terrible dire condition and usually addiction or mental health issues are at

00:14:59.680 the bottom of it and there's just only so much uh that we can do to treat them but these guys are

00:15:04.900 doing all they can up in red deer and uh let's bring them in and have a conversation about it

00:15:09.720 so uh hello peter uh i just want to check in did i pronounce your last name correctly

00:15:14.080 pretty close yeah davy duck okay well it was angle-sized ukrainian okay well great well i

00:15:21.920 thank you for taking some time to talk to us today uh it's been a subject i mean just i i think it

00:15:28.140 should be near and dear to everybody's heart if you go outside you see that every family nowadays

00:15:32.300 has known somebody who's been touched by addiction had difficulties and i i think there's a lot of

00:15:38.460 good and bad programs out there a lot of well-meaning people but not all of them are

00:15:42.780 necessarily successful can you give a bit of description though of what the red deer dream

00:15:47.100 center uh is about what you guys offer yeah well thanks again cory for for uh contacting us and

00:15:52.940 having us on the show um here at the red deer dream center we're a men's drug and alcohol recovery

00:15:59.740 center we've been here about three and a half years we're a 30-bed facility a five-month

00:16:07.020 treatment center right here is unfortunately you can hear downtown red deer apologies for the

00:16:12.940 sirens it's okay um yeah so we're a five-month residential treatment center men enter the

00:16:18.940 program and uh go through two different phases of uh recovery and again it's it's really client

00:16:26.460 focused and not just addressing a substance uh plenty of people can white knuckle through

00:16:33.420 lots of stuff this is really addressing the core issues um as opposed to just abstinence

00:16:40.940 kind of a deal we are faith-based um we very much do let men coming into the program know that

00:16:47.660 That we're not, although we are faith-based and we have faith in our higher power, in God, we're not here to conquer, convert, or change.

00:16:58.380 However, it is a component of what we find helps with recovery.

00:17:04.780 And in a nutshell, that's us here in Red Deer.

00:17:09.060 Yeah, and it's a residential program I believe you guys have there, which, you know, again, that's why there's a limitation on beds.

00:17:14.760 and just myself, I'm intimately familiar with the 12 steps to deal with my own addiction. I've been

00:17:23.440 quite happily sober for over seven years now, but it takes help. It takes a network. And part of it

00:17:30.540 is, as you said, it's not just stopping the consumption, it's rebuilding your life to stay

00:17:35.140 functional and sober. That takes a lot of work and a lot of time and a lot of resources. And that's

00:17:41.900 what you guys offer there. I mean, more than just getting off of the addiction, but how to live

00:17:46.160 without it and going forward. Absolutely. Congratulations to you. Myself, October will be

00:17:53.120 six years in recovery. Like I tell a lot of the men that come into the center, all of my best

00:18:00.200 decisions got me into rehab. You know, and it just, unfortunately it is, I've lost my oldest

00:18:08.780 brother to addiction and uh like you said a lot of us get touched by it uh addressing the core

00:18:16.060 is really where it's at um and that that happens long before any substance any i don't care whether

00:18:22.860 it's workaholism whether it's eating whatever it is um there's coping mechanisms that just aren't

00:18:29.820 put in place you know and and so that's that is what we look at uh we're very client focused

00:18:36.780 you know when men enter the program we we take a look at what are your goals what are you wanting

00:18:43.260 with your recovery and here are some ways to get life back because there's lots of life to live

00:18:49.820 um and the funding component exactly like you said we've been uh very blessed with the fact of uh

00:18:57.100 the alberta government partnering with us for 20 beds 20 of our beds are partially subsidized

00:19:03.340 which reduces a big barrier to getting into treatment and we do have 10 beds that are

00:19:07.980 privately funded with a sliding scale fee structure to speak into the funding real quickly

00:19:15.580 the national average for a clinical based recovery center is anywhere between twenty to thirty

00:19:21.820 thousand dollars per bed per month we work on a different model and we operate at five thousand

00:19:29.420 dollars per bed per month for a privately funded bed um but again to the funding component

00:19:36.860 that's probably the second biggest barrier the first biggest barrier for recovery

00:19:41.260 and getting into recovery from addiction it is a willingness from from the person you know

00:19:47.180 willingness to go yeah my life's in a place that that i need help um the second biggest barrier

00:19:53.740 is funding and um that's why we have different campaigns and and uh we really rely on the

00:20:01.420 support of our central alberta and our alberta um freedom funders and and avenues of support like

00:20:10.700 that yeah well and that part as you said the first part is is once the person has reached a

00:20:15.500 point where they're really ready to go and as as we know often there's a number of false starts

00:20:20.300 there's ins, there's outs. Uh, some people can hit it on the first try. Some people take a few,

00:20:25.500 uh, cracks at it. I mean, the main thing is to get somebody clear, but without the resources,

00:20:29.740 the hard part, I mean, I had a recent, uh, you know, episode with a family member,

00:20:33.740 they were ready to go, but then we start searching for centers and the soonest we could get somebody

00:20:38.220 in was looking at 30 days. And well, you know, if the person could go 30 days without a problem,

00:20:44.060 they might not have as serious a problem as we thought. Like the need is very immediate and acute,

00:20:48.620 but we understand the resource limitations there I mean I'm certain all of the advocates would love

00:20:53.480 to take in every person the moment they're ready they just don't have the beds yet uh are things

00:21:00.040 moving in the right direction at least I mean I know there's always going to be I think more

00:21:03.320 demand than supply but there's been expansions there's been more funding there's been more

00:21:07.660 partnerships is it looking optimistic I I think it is looking optimistic um again our local MP

00:21:15.740 Burton Bailey stopped by recently with a few other MPs. And just in those conversations,

00:21:22.540 I think everybody knows the need. However, we're starting to see that there are certain models

00:21:34.620 that do operate fiscally responsibly, but ultimately have outcomes for recovery, for

00:21:45.740 men and women in addiction being able to integrate back into society to be the contributing members

00:21:52.760 of society that they want to be, that they are, that they can be. And so I think it is looking

00:22:00.500 up. Public awareness, it seems we are moving away from just traveling by and seeing whether it's

00:22:08.140 people on the sidewalk doing the Fenty fold or whatever and just looking at this segment of

00:22:14.760 society and going, oh, degenerates, whatever. The empathy and compassion is coming back and going,

00:22:20.780 no, hold on. That's somebody's son, daughter, father, mother. They're not having their best

00:22:27.700 date. I don't know anybody that wakes up wanting to be a drunk or an addict, you know, but it

00:22:36.740 happens. And so I feel that we are moving in a good direction. And talking with our local

00:22:44.420 political base, as well as our national politicians, they get the message. They understand. And I think

00:22:52.620 we're starting to move into that direction. Rather than just throwing money at something,

00:22:57.500 let's take a look at what's actually working in the community. And I think that's one thing for

00:23:01.700 Red Deer. As a Red Deerian, we've been able to start various community projects on our own,

00:23:11.300 Much like the Red Deer Dream Center, it was the first recovery center in town without government backing, solely funded by supporters.

00:23:20.720 We opened up, we started doing what we do, and then we're able to say, here's what we're doing, here's our metrics, would you like to partner?

00:23:31.520 And not just with people partnering by supporting, but to government agencies saying, would you like to partner?

00:23:37.740 You know, here's a model that can be replicated.

00:23:42.120 Yeah, and groups like your own.

00:23:43.460 I mean, I, you know, started my monologue being pretty critical, say, of a group that didn't have much accountability with the funding they had.

00:23:48.920 And you don't necessarily see outcomes.

00:23:50.580 With a small group and starting on a shoestring, you guys know how to get the most out of your dollars and that it goes in.

00:23:56.180 And I like to remind people if they want to be clinical and cold, you know, fiscal conservatives, as I am to a large degree, just looking from that perspective,

00:24:05.040 they have to understand that untreated addicted people are costing a fortune i mean they're in

00:24:11.200 the hospitals they're in the jails they're in and out of the ambulances the the food banks you name

00:24:16.440 it i mean we can all do so much better for ourselves if you're just looking at the dollars

00:24:21.820 and cents if a person has recovered and entered the workforce again and and is is become again

00:24:27.400 a functioning member of society so these are well-placed investments whether it's a donation

00:24:32.240 or a tax dollar going into centers like yours well and i feel too um with your viewership and

00:24:37.960 and everyone else out there uh transparency for our financials is paramount and i know i can i

00:24:44.600 can speak for the staff uh here at the center when we do get our funding in we realize these are

00:24:50.420 donations um and it's not our money to just throw around at whatever um this is money given to us

00:25:00.020 that we're entrusted to steward, ultimately, for the betterment of the clients that come through

00:25:05.740 the doors, you know, and yeah, some of the statistics, recent statistics are every addict

00:25:13.480 off the street immediately equates to six less crimes on the street. Now, again, that's not

00:25:20.240 speaking to the person. That's, you know, principles before personalities. It's not saying

00:25:25.460 that oh that addict is a criminal no when a person is in addiction and not in their right mind

00:25:32.580 they will do things that are out of character for them one of which is crime so one addict

00:25:39.540 off the streets equates to roughly six crimes off the street as well as the other outbreaks

00:25:46.880 that we have tied in with other methods of not treatment methods but other methods

00:25:52.880 outbreaks in cities like Winnipeg with HIV outbreaks. And we're seeing other outbreaks

00:26:01.180 like this that we haven't heard of in years. And that, the amount of money that goes into then

00:26:07.600 addressing those issues as opposed to preventative, such as recovery-based

00:26:13.400 treatment. Ounce of prevention saves, I don't know, a couple billion in cure.

00:26:19.600 yeah you mentioned something that makes it more complicated too but I don't I think we've really

00:26:26.060 underfunded uh mental health and addiction are very tightly you know related they're similar

00:26:31.660 issues the people on the streets are often a combination of both issues are going on

00:26:36.600 or sometimes they might be better we don't we also have a shortage of mental health treatment

00:26:41.780 facilities uh when you guys do intake and such do you occasionally refer people perhaps to other

00:26:47.420 centers that they might have a better uh means of treatment at or things like that absolutely that's

00:26:53.020 such a great point concurrent disorders is very prevalent part of our intake process is assessing

00:27:00.380 a client and to seeing if our program suits them and part of that scale is is currently with this

00:27:07.260 person is addiction the primary concern or is it mental health is the addiction driving the mental

00:27:13.660 health issues or is mental health issues driving the addiction um everybody's on a scale when it

00:27:21.100 comes to that and we definitely could use a lot of bolstering with that because we do refer out if

00:27:29.420 if a client wants to come to us and it just it we just don't have the resources or program

00:27:35.100 that suits them we often refer here in central alberta we'll refer to centennial

00:27:40.540 um, up in Pinoka and, and other, uh, centers that deal directly with concurrent disorders

00:27:46.780 where they have a strong mental health component, you know, faculty on board and stuff like

00:27:51.940 that too. So yeah, absolutely an area that needs, um, to be looked at and, and really funded and

00:27:58.140 increased. So is your, um, organization, uh, I imagine connected to the Calgary Dream Center,

00:28:04.620 it's an expansion of that organization or actually we aren't i and i know with with

00:28:09.980 the dream center moniker because there are a few dreams but i checked then yeah yeah uh

00:28:15.980 we definitely are our board of directors and and uh our chairman of the board wes geesebrecht when

00:28:22.220 he and his partners were first looking at opening the center they definitely conversed and and used

00:28:27.660 the dream center in calgary as kind of a model but really that was all birthed out of the dream center

00:28:32.540 that's in Los Angeles, California. I believe they're just over 30 years running and operating

00:28:40.020 in Los Angeles, in the heart of it. And their model, it's kind of the umbrella of Dream Center,

00:28:47.120 which is a recovery treatment-based, faith-based meeting needs where they need to be met.

00:28:56.060 And so although it is Dream Center, we're not directly tied to them. We're more partner in

00:29:02.340 the ethos of of recovery and restoring restoring lives hey well i i really appreciate the work on

00:29:09.220 on both centers and the time passed quickly because it is such a massive massive subject

00:29:14.020 but you know before i let you go how can people find out about your organization whether to

00:29:18.740 support it or to consider uh services that you guys offer and anything such as that yeah absolutely

00:29:24.500 Our main website is rddc.ca right there on the screen. Go there, hit it up. If you are needing

00:29:33.220 our services or know family members that need it, you can click on apply as well as donate for

00:29:39.600 funding. As you can see behind me, we've just launched our Freedom Starts This Summer campaign

00:29:44.680 where we're looking to reach 150 new freedom funders by the end of September. What our freedom

00:29:52.380 funder campaign is is uh much like yourselves monthly support recurring uh subscription-based

00:29:59.500 support of forty dollars a month uh if we were to have 3 000 albertans canadians north americans

00:30:06.860 global persons if we had 3 000 freedom funders at forty dollars a month we would need no other

00:30:14.620 funding we would be in the black and that would reduce every barrier for any man coming into the

00:30:20.220 program so yes please check out our uh our website as well as facebook find us on facebook you'll see

00:30:26.300 this mug uh posting lots of stuff on there and um yeah just keep in touch reach out excellent well

00:30:33.580 thank you very much for the work you're doing i'm glad you're uh enjoying the sober life as well

00:30:39.820 and uh you know i i really uh well just appreciate you coming on to talk to us about it and i hope

00:30:46.060 you reach your funding goal because it's it's just uh so important awesome thank you again so much

00:30:51.500 corey great thank you so again guys yes red deer dream center check them out again from whichever

00:30:58.460 front whether you know somebody who needs help if you need help or if you're in a position to help

00:31:03.900 them because it's it's it's a difficult expensive process part of the challenge is this part of what

00:31:10.780 I mentioned is not everybody responds the same way. Not everybody has the same roots to their

00:31:17.640 addiction or to their challenges. That's why I mentioned mental health because it's tied in with

00:31:22.740 it, but some people might need treatment in a different way than others. So having a variety

00:31:28.360 of treatment options is so important too. And somebody else earlier had mentioned one of the

00:31:33.400 commenters saying along the lines, you can't force somebody into treatment or something like that,

00:31:37.560 but that's the truth. But it's as I mentioned before, too, you can't predict when somebody's

00:31:43.040 ready to go. And that window could close quickly. And the more spaces we have when somebody has

00:31:50.420 reached that point, when they're ready for treatment, when they're ready to make that

00:31:55.520 process, you want to have that door open as soon as possible. Because untreated, well, they're in

00:32:02.580 they're in the throes of addiction. There's a very high chance they're going to use again or

00:32:07.880 get in further trouble. Or of course, the worst is an overdose and dying or ending up in jail.

00:32:15.240 I mean, I know again from meetings we've talked about or that I've attended. That's kind of where

00:32:20.240 your end run goes. Either you get yourself sober and treated or you'll will end up either in jail

00:32:26.180 in a hospital or in a morgue. It's an awful, awful path. And we need to help each other get out of

00:32:32.520 it. That's the thing. People can't do it alone. That's something that's so integral with centers

00:32:38.760 like the Dream Center and others. And you see that component often in government centers and

00:32:44.340 every other kind for treatment is you're going to have people involved who came through addiction

00:32:48.760 themselves because that ability to be able to relate with those who were fighting that addiction

00:32:56.000 at that time is so important and allows you to be so much more helpful with them in moving along.

00:33:01.260 That's why the 12th step is so important as well. And it's a process. It's not an overnight thing.

00:33:09.180 That's the part that some people don't necessarily understand either. It never stops.

00:33:14.120 You're changing. You have to change your life. You have to be able to live sober. Getting sober

00:33:20.260 is the first step. You know, that's the first important part, of course. But then being able

00:33:26.580 to stay there and staying productive, that's, that's a whole other process. And that takes time,

00:33:31.960 that takes therapy, that takes interaction with people, and it takes money, it takes funds. So

00:33:38.500 groups like the Red Deer Dreamers Center need help. And as I just like to point out to people,

00:33:44.620 if you want to look at it just in that cold clinical point of view, it will save you in the

00:33:50.020 future too, because every addict who gets treated successfully is going to be out and either

00:33:57.700 productively helping other addicts get clean or at least just being in the working world, not in

00:34:01.660 and out of the hospitals, not in and out of the jail system, the justice system. And we all get

00:34:06.980 better for it. People talked about the war on drugs. And yeah, I'm not, I mean, I don't believe

00:34:13.560 we should have some sort of libertarian dystopia where people are, well, that's pretty close to

00:34:19.780 what we're getting to right now. I mean, I noticed that literally as I walked into the office, I'm in

00:34:23.600 downtown Calgary. I saw three people huddled across the street smoking what I'm going to presume was

00:34:29.360 fentanyl from glass pipes because they were starting to do that bend over and slouch and

00:34:33.020 everything there. Now, is there any point chasing after them and trying to grab them and throw them

00:34:40.620 in jail? Well, no. I mean, I'm not, we don't want to normalize that consumption, but at the same

00:34:46.800 time trying to legally going after them isn't necessarily good either. Getting the demand down

00:34:55.260 that's the thing as was pointed out by Peter crime comes along with it but it's often not even

00:35:00.600 necessarily the addict but still the associated lifestyle and things that will come around with

00:35:04.980 it too. The people funding the addiction or feeding the addiction I should say the dealers

00:35:09.840 the networks the gangs that comes with it too. If you can treat the demand end of it it brings it

00:35:16.440 down. Trying to, I don't believe in full legalization, things like that. But if we think

00:35:22.160 that interdiction and trying to chase down all of the sources of incoming drugs is the way to stop

00:35:26.700 it, it's not going to work. We have to treat the addiction. It's just like with gambling. And

00:35:32.860 addicts will always find their way to their poison. You know, it used to be very difficult to gamble.

00:35:39.340 There were limited options. Casinos and such were mostly only in Las Vegas, you know, 30,

00:35:43.500 40 years ago. You could have a few other things. Maybe some VLTs came in and some lottery tickets,

00:35:49.140 racetracks. Well, back then you had bookies, you had loads of them and people ruined their lives

00:35:53.940 because they will find a way. In Chinatown, Calgary, I remember that when I first moved 1.00

00:35:58.440 here, there were literally underground basement gambling casinos in those places. So just

00:36:04.980 illegalizing the process doesn't work. You've got to treat the person who's suffering from it. So

00:36:12.120 it's it's it's a larger thing and I just really appreciate I wanted to bring him on because we

00:36:17.120 did shut down the the safe consumption center uh at the Sheldon Schumer in Calgary and I I'm not

00:36:22.880 sure where where the dream center stands on those things I do understand that you know you can't

00:36:27.120 treat somebody if they're dead so if they've overdosed you know we we've lost an opportunity

00:36:32.160 we've lost a window uh but at the same time I see those often as enablement centers I see them often

00:36:38.000 and actually taking an approach, acting as if the addiction is sustainable.

00:36:42.760 There's an ideology out there where I have a big beef with.

00:36:45.840 And we saw a lot of that in Vancouver,

00:36:47.900 particularly when they're talking about safe supply and things such as that.

00:36:51.800 There's no safe supply of meth, guys.

00:36:53.660 There's no safe supply of fentanyl.

00:36:56.260 Any of those drugs can kill you if improperly consumed.

00:36:59.720 And doing it in a controlled environment doesn't stop it.

00:37:05.280 and they, they seem to be fixated on that no matter how badly that process of enablement would fail.

00:37:13.400 The resources that were going, I mean, there was an interview I listened to on a radio show and

00:37:19.700 they spoke to a young lady who was talking about how essential the safe consumption site in Calgary

00:37:26.660 was to her because she could go before work, go in there, take her drug, work for a while,

00:37:33.220 then go back in at noon to the center, take more drugs, go back to work and then go home.

00:37:39.480 They were trying to imply that her addiction was sustainable. They were trying to imply

00:37:44.240 that the only problem, it wasn't the addiction, it wasn't the drug, it was just the fact that

00:37:49.440 she couldn't take it somewhere safe, which I think is absurd and I think is dangerous to put

00:37:55.560 that notion out there. The path when you're taking drugs like that, drugs that dangerous,

00:38:00.740 that drug is that serious, it's death. It accelerates. Addictions don't stay where they

00:38:08.960 are. Eventually it goes higher and higher until you become out of control. Robert commenter saying

00:38:16.440 just straight out, yeah, there's no such thing as a sustainable addiction. You know, we can control

00:38:21.360 things. We try to get people into treatment. It's hard, but that's the only route we've gotten. It's

00:38:27.380 the best route we've got. And, uh, you know, I've heard people talk about how low some of the

00:38:31.400 treatment, uh, success rates can be in some places and centers. Sure. But compare that to the success

00:38:38.940 rate for individuals if they don't get treatment at all. And there's where we, we, we get a, you

00:38:45.560 know, a difference if it doesn't matter. I mean, we, we want to bring that success rate as high as

00:38:50.540 humanly possible. But even if it's a bit low, it's better than the alternative. So let's get

00:38:58.060 into it. You know, I don't know if it'll, maybe one day a wonder cure will come along, whereas

00:39:03.460 addiction can be treated immediately and quickly, as it is right now. It's expensive, complicated,

00:39:09.480 but still well worth it. I mean, things were around now, things are around now that weren't

00:39:13.560 around when I was young. You know, Calgary, when I moved to the city at the end of the 80s,

00:39:17.700 there was a part out in Inglewood, which they, you know, actually Inglewood, Calgary is pretty

00:39:21.520 trendy now and nice. And there'd be a handful of homeless people there. Heroin was going around a

00:39:28.180 bit and a lot of alcoholics in the area, but you didn't see things like, like now, like this meth

00:39:34.700 and fentanyl. These are things that they're just a supercharged, awful, relatively cheap drug that

00:39:44.400 is just eating these poor people alive out on the streets. And don't think for a second. It's just

00:39:50.500 always somebody else's kid, somebody else's relation, somebody who came from a bad household 1.00

00:39:55.460 or somebody who deserved it because they made a stupid decision or something like that. This can 1.00

00:39:59.920 hit anybody. It really can. And we see it. There's stories of some people, again, it often begins,

00:40:05.860 it can be a professional. It starts with painkillers for a surgery, but they got too

00:40:11.320 dependent on them and then traveled down that road of addiction and end up, uh, you know, in,

00:40:16.400 in, in dire, dire straits. So it's an area where we really can afford some compassion, I think.

00:40:22.600 And even if, if you want it in your, your own self-interest, it's, uh, addiction treatment is

00:40:28.420 just so, so darn important. So, uh, and every level of it. And that's where I want to see

00:40:34.100 more centers out there. I didn't realize that the dream centers weren't connected, but I mean,

00:40:37.780 there are similar models, but that's great. And they're competing with each other. You know,

00:40:42.480 some are more faith-based than others. Some are following different models, but as long as the

00:40:46.860 centers are there, some people are going to respond better or worse to other ones. The more, the

00:40:50.640 merrier, as far as I'm concerned, as long as the outcome and the goal is successful addition

00:40:55.140 treatment. Let's see if I've used a fair amount of time on that, which again, I feel like it was

00:41:02.480 time well spent. I should remind people, I touched on that with Dave. I think it'd be

00:41:09.520 impossible for anybody in Calgary not to know what's happened with the situation with that

00:41:14.680 young fellow, Parker. He's a boy. He's autistic. He's nonverbal. He wandered off. It's just strange.

00:41:24.700 People are searching all through North Calgary. He might have curled up into a strange hiding spot

00:41:30.440 and be hiding out and so on.

00:41:31.760 It's been a few days.

00:41:33.480 I really hope they find it.

00:41:34.520 But it's one of the sickest stories.

00:41:35.840 It's on Western Standard Online.

00:41:37.160 Boy, I tell you, if you want to get violent with somebody,

00:41:40.300 here's somebody who deserves it.

00:41:41.660 Somebody put a fake GoFundMe scam up

00:41:45.340 to try and raise funds on that missing child in Calgary.

00:41:49.440 And I'm certain it's probably pulled down now,

00:41:51.780 but I'm just going to warn people. 0.60

00:41:52.920 There are some really vile, disgusting individuals out there 0.67

00:41:57.600 who will capitalize on the worst possible things

00:42:00.240 and, um, you know, people meaning their very best giving money into something like this,

00:42:05.660 thinking they were helping with that child or the family or to find them or something.

00:42:10.120 And, uh, it was a ripoff. So always be careful with where you put your hard earned money. People,

00:42:15.640 you know, check the background on things and stuff such as that. Uh, I hope they catch whoever

00:42:22.080 put it up. They probably don't cause they, you know, they do these things from overseas and so

00:42:26.000 on, but what an awful, awful thing. And I hope that boy's found very, very soon. It's just, um,

00:42:33.140 awful. Uh, let's see a little note. Uh, Paula Simons, Alberta, uh, Senator appointed by Justin

00:42:43.720 Trudeau, of course, speaking of our bad media, cause that's your reward. If you want to be

00:42:47.960 like Charles Adler and Paula Simons and just really lock your lips on the liberal government

00:42:52.720 long enough and hard enough with your stories and, and, uh, you know, pump their tires for them all

00:42:57.640 the time. You might win the jackpot and get appointed to the Senate where you can collect

00:43:01.780 a massive salary, get massive benefits and a pension and rarely have to show up for work.

00:43:06.320 But she had the nerve to get onto a podcast with a clown of British Columbia and see that the

00:43:13.560 independent supporters in Alberta don't understand Alberta. You know, I don't even know how often she

00:43:18.080 shows up in Alberta anymore. And she actually, multiple times, she's a supposed independent 0.83

00:43:23.500 senator, but come on, she was appointed by Trudeau. She's liberal. Let's just not beat around the bush.

00:43:27.640 Said elbows up a couple of times. One of which saying, we got to go elbows up against the Alberta

00:43:32.240 independence movement, against the supporters, against fellow Albertans. This weird, bizarre,

00:43:37.440 liberal elbows up notion idea, which is actually an analogy for dirty play in a sport. And she 1.00

00:43:44.020 wants to encourage Albertans to take their elbows up against each other. Yes, Paula, that's certainly

00:43:50.580 a way to promote unity in the province, isn't it? That's bringing us together. That's making for

00:43:57.320 better outcomes out here. Man, I mean, we want to talk about abolishing the Senate, and that's one

00:44:03.120 of the questions going on the referendum. That sure encourages people to say, yeah, let's just

00:44:08.000 get rid of the whole work, see? Get rid of people like Paula Simons. Go back to work. Write columns 1.00

00:44:12.500 for a living. See if anybody wants to pay to read your stuff anymore. I suspect they don't. Though

00:44:17.540 she's been in the Senate long enough to, I'm certain, have her nest feathered well enough 0.99

00:44:25.020 with a large pension that we can only dream of. So, you know, just wanted to get that note out

00:44:33.280 there about Ms. Simons at the end of things. All right, lots going on, guys. Just keep an eye on

00:44:41.420 westernstandard.news to get your news. It's up there going up fast as ever. When the devs get

00:44:48.680 to work, the stories break and we put them up there fast. So you don't have to rely on the

00:44:53.260 Paul Simons. We don't have to worry about me being appointed to the Senate anytime soon with the way

00:44:56.820 I'm doing things. I'm going to be an independent media for a long time. So be sure to tune in to

00:45:04.300 the pipeline tonight. We're going to have a panel, a few other folks covering some stuff. We'll hit a

00:45:08.000 few stories, the trade war going on and a number of other issues. Subscribe, like, share, do all

00:45:14.480 of that important stuff for us. It helps us get the word out there and get that coverage so you

00:45:18.420 don't have to listen to that nasty old legacy media. Thanks for tuning in on a nice summer day

00:45:23.420 and we will see you again next week at this time.

00:45:38.000 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - July 25, 2026

CORY MORGAN SHOW： It’s time to defund the Assembly of First Nations

Episode Stats

Transcript