Western Standard - February 27, 2025


CORY MORGAN SHOW： Let’s talk about Islam


Episode Stats

Length

46 minutes

Words per Minute

198.81238

Word Count

9,263

Sentence Count

740

Misogynist Sentences

12

Hate Speech Sentences

28


Summary

It's time for the world to have a frank discussion about Islam and how it fits into modern societies. It's an elephant in the room, and ignoring it has real costs. Today's guest is Erica Baroudi from Macamie College.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Good day, welcome to the Corey Morgan Show here.
00:00:30.000 Weekly chance to let me help you try to navigate through these insane political times, but
00:00:34.260 I got to admit, I'm not too sure what's going on these days or trying to interpret it.
00:00:38.600 They're just insane.
00:00:39.420 It gives us no shortage of things to talk about, things to cover, and things to interpret.
00:00:46.200 So this is live.
00:00:47.560 Those who are watching live, be sure to use that comment scroll.
00:00:50.620 I see Peter LaFontaine talking about, you know, asking about the liberal debates.
00:00:54.220 That was one of the things that happened.
00:00:55.300 The liberal party love-in was the last couple of days.
00:00:58.640 You know, why weren't they asked tough questions such as about whether or not they would keep
00:01:02.500 Stephen Gilboa?
00:01:03.500 We know they're not going to ask those tough questions at an internal party debate.
00:01:06.960 And you can rest assured when legacy media runs the debates in the general election, whenever
00:01:10.300 the heck we might get it, they're not going to ask tough questions like that.
00:01:13.360 But we can take those tough questions here.
00:01:14.520 For all those out there, I see Mike there commenting from Freedom Honey and others.
00:01:18.640 And, you know, just keep things civil.
00:01:20.080 All right, this show, this is how we pay some of the bills, is sponsored by New World Precious
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00:01:53.440 All right, so yes, in a bit, I'm going to have Erica Baroudi's on.
00:01:56.140 We're going to talk.
00:01:56.800 She's from Macamie College, their applied politics program.
00:02:00.240 And she's also a senator-elect.
00:02:01.560 We're going to talk about some of the provincial stuff.
00:02:03.180 We've got a budget coming up.
00:02:04.580 I'm going to talk about some non-controversial stuff to get it going, though, and kind of a world
00:02:08.580 thing.
00:02:09.040 It's time for the world to have a frank discussion about Islam and how it fits into modern societies.
00:02:14.540 You know, the ones that respect human rights.
00:02:16.180 It's an elephant in the room, and ignoring it has real costs.
00:02:19.420 One of the worst examples was in Rotherham, I'm probably mispronouncing it, UK, where young
00:02:23.580 girls were recruited, groomed, and raped for decades by gangs of Pakistani men.
00:02:28.560 The Jay Report estimates over 1,400 young women were victims of these gangs.
00:02:32.460 The number is likely much higher, since so many of these crimes went unreported.
00:02:36.600 So how was it that these monsters were able to assail young women for so long without
00:02:40.020 it being exposed?
00:02:40.800 Well, it's because the perpetrators were Islamic Pakistanis, and authorities didn't want to
00:02:44.980 touch the issue for fear of putting Islam in a bad light.
00:02:47.760 It's one of the most shameful acts of state cowardice in modern history.
00:02:51.520 The crimes were reported for decades, but action was muted for fear of upsetting the
00:02:55.420 Islamic community.
00:02:56.560 Meanwhile, the rapes of young girls continued.
00:02:58.780 And no, not every Muslim is an extremist.
00:03:00.700 In fact, the vast majority of them are peaceful folks.
00:03:02.680 I understand that.
00:03:03.700 But let's quit pretending Islam doesn't spawn more extremists than any other religion.
00:03:08.580 In fact, more than all of them combined.
00:03:10.960 Part of it's an ingrained cultural and religious disrespect for women.
00:03:13.720 Women are considered property in traditional Islamic cultures.
00:03:17.000 They are to be traded, beaten, and even stoned to death for the crime of adultery, which usually
00:03:20.700 means they let themselves be raped.
00:03:22.520 Yes, rape victims are considered perpetrators in these traditional Islamic states.
00:03:27.140 That's why they're whipped for daring to show their faces or hair in some of those countries,
00:03:30.300 and why honor killings for women who dare to have relations with men their family don't
00:03:33.680 approve of still happen by the thousands every year.
00:03:36.880 There are 57 member states in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
00:03:41.260 These are the nations dominated by Islamic populations and usually governed under some
00:03:45.160 form of theocratic rule.
00:03:46.980 There are a few that are considered democracies among them, but they're rife with corruption
00:03:50.520 and defined actually as flawed democracies at best.
00:03:52.780 The rest are outright dictatorships.
00:03:55.100 Many of those nations are skirmishing or warring with their neighbors, and when those wars
00:03:58.820 are resolved, they tend to descend into sectarian civil wars, since Sunni Muslims can't stand
00:04:03.000 the Shia Muslims.
00:04:04.240 When the Islamic nations are liberated by other countries, the freedoms are temporary at best.
00:04:08.820 Look at Afghanistan.
00:04:09.820 Women are now barred from even seeking an education and going to school.
00:04:12.960 In Iraq, they lower the age of marriage to nine years for girls, following in the footsteps
00:04:17.480 or saddles of Muhammad.
00:04:19.120 Women have things bad enough in the Islamic world.
00:04:22.180 Look at the LGBTQ people.
00:04:23.840 They have it even worse.
00:04:24.580 It's illegal to be gay in every Islamic nation, and the penalty is often death through savage
00:04:28.700 means such as throwing them from buildings.
00:04:30.560 The first openly gay Muslim imam was murdered just weeks ago.
00:04:33.980 The silence from the purple-haired gender advocates in North America is kind of deafening
00:04:37.840 on that.
00:04:38.680 While the constant wars break out in Islamic nations, floods of fighting-age male refugees
00:04:43.500 pour into other nations.
00:04:44.680 Since opening their borders to Syrian refugees in 2017, European nations have been dealing with
00:04:48.740 domestic nightmares, as the influx of these men continues to refuse to integrate into a
00:04:54.220 civilized culture.
00:04:55.020 Parts of Paris are virtual war zones.
00:04:57.140 Germany endured a rape fest over New Year's Eve, carried out by North African migrants in
00:05:03.140 2016.
00:05:04.360 Many nations have influxes of migrants, but it rarely leads to the challenges that come
00:05:08.080 with sudden numbers of Islamic migrants.
00:05:10.380 I mean, women aren't afraid to walk into cities Chinatown.
00:05:12.980 Attacks on crowds carried out by Islamic extremists with vehicles and knives are becoming more
00:05:16.920 unfrequent, and even when they scream Alu Akbar and are in possession of Islamic State flags
00:05:20.900 when they commit their acts of terror as a medium, politicians are quick to state,
00:05:23.700 well, we're not sure what the motive of the attacker might be.
00:05:26.060 Just a lone wolf, right?
00:05:27.140 Let's quit pretending that the Israel conflict isn't rooted in Islam.
00:05:30.860 Well, 1.7 million Muslims reside in Israel with full rights.
00:05:35.060 Jews have been driven from every Islamic nation.
00:05:37.140 Islamists in the Middle East can't abide by even a single Jew in Israel, and rest assured
00:05:40.320 their goal is the eradication of them.
00:05:42.420 They don't even try to hide it when they're chanting their genocidal line from the river to the
00:05:45.620 sea at every opportunity.
00:05:46.920 The only ones denying the intent to wipe every Jew out of Israel by neighboring Islamists
00:05:50.800 are Western liberals.
00:05:52.320 The hate-filled pro-Hamas protests continue to clog Canadian streets while they target
00:05:55.900 Jewish neighborhoods.
00:05:56.700 These protests almost always involve Islamic prayers in the middle of the roads.
00:06:00.640 So again, let's not pretend there isn't an Islamist base to this.
00:06:03.700 Religions are thought systems.
00:06:04.980 They aren't immutable like race.
00:06:06.560 Every religion should be open to critique, and most are.
00:06:09.240 It's only when one's critical of Islam that the accusations of bigotry come, followed by
00:06:12.520 cancellation efforts and usually death threats.
00:06:14.660 It's not a matter of being intolerant.
00:06:16.540 It's a matter of being a modern thinker.
00:06:18.040 I'm not talking about banning Islam.
00:06:19.560 Freedom of religion is essential.
00:06:21.120 But I am saying there is something inherently flawed within that faith, and it must be discussed.
00:06:26.000 Other religions have experienced reformations and evolved with the modern world.
00:06:29.540 It's time to examine how Islam can start doing the same.
00:06:32.000 We have to begin that process by admitting there's a problem.
00:06:35.640 And there is a problem, guys.
00:06:37.280 All right.
00:06:37.880 On that light note, I'll turn to other news with our news editor, Dave Naylor, who I know
00:06:42.440 was gagging, as I mispronounced, that UK community.
00:06:46.440 Rotherham.
00:06:47.140 Rotherham.
00:06:47.640 Okay.
00:06:47.980 Rotherham.
00:06:48.360 Thank you.
00:06:48.940 I know I blew it.
00:06:50.000 I was actually born near there, as a matter of fact.
00:06:52.500 And I've been to Rotherham many a time on the way to my grandmother's place in Roemarsh.
00:06:57.560 Well, there we go.
00:06:58.580 That mother tongue is still cruel to even us English speakers.
00:07:02.320 I mean, I still can't pronounce Worcestershire sauce.
00:07:04.820 Yeah.
00:07:05.660 You should stick to English.
00:07:06.900 Not the Queen's English.
00:07:08.480 Just English.
00:07:09.200 What's the King's English, then?
00:07:10.340 No, but I'm sorry.
00:07:11.080 Yes, the King's English.
00:07:12.140 All right.
00:07:12.940 You're not afraid to tackle the controversial subjects, are you?
00:07:15.760 Well, that one annoys me a little.
00:07:17.340 And the Kamloops hoax.
00:07:19.780 Yes.
00:07:19.980 That's another good one, too.
00:07:21.100 It just keeps going.
00:07:22.260 And what's the latest one this week?
00:07:23.900 You've been having fun with the treatment center, drug treatment centers.
00:07:27.280 Yes.
00:07:28.080 So you like to, you like to, you know?
00:07:31.840 Well, you know, people shy away from the tough ones.
00:07:34.800 I think, no, we actually need to rip the bandaid off and get on them.
00:07:37.600 I mean, it's putting things off really makes them better.
00:07:40.480 I think so.
00:07:41.240 I think you're right.
00:07:41.960 I mean, I've never seen such a tumultuous time in politics on every side.
00:07:46.900 You got your international, you got your federal, and you got your local here with the upcoming mayor's race.
00:07:52.220 It's just crazy.
00:07:53.680 Yeah, for getting me, wonderful.
00:07:55.560 I can barely find time to talk about that.
00:07:57.000 I mean, Farkas announced he's running for mayor again.
00:07:59.440 Back again, yeah.
00:08:00.480 Back again, back again.
00:08:02.440 And, of course, it was Donald Trump this morning that was making all the news.
00:08:05.860 Had his first cabinet meeting, invited the press in, and then went on a free-for-all press conference for ages, which is somewhere in the middle.
00:08:14.740 We think he announced that the tariffs are pushed back to April 2nd.
00:08:18.360 So we'll have to start working on our April Fool's Day story now.
00:08:25.220 A big celebrity death to report on the star of Gossip Girl, who I must admit, Corey, I've never seen a single episode.
00:08:32.280 No, either have I.
00:08:33.340 So she died at 39, and it's tearing up social media at the moment.
00:08:40.420 But a big story that really bothers me, Corey, that we've had for a couple days now, and we had an update this morning on a trans father in Grand Prairie.
00:08:49.440 He's actually transitioning to be a woman, but he's now a trans man, stabbed his two kids, and one of them very badly slit one of the child's throats through the esophagus.
00:09:02.800 So they're now in the children's hospital here and, you know, being fed by food tubing for the next several months.
00:09:11.540 But some, I guess, some local vigilante want-to-bees or interested folks tracked this guy down.
00:09:18.780 He wasn't charged.
00:09:19.740 He was released after 26 hours in the nuthouse.
00:09:23.880 And they filmed him, and he started explaining why he did it.
00:09:27.060 And this guy's 6'7", big, you know, probably only weighs about 150 pounds.
00:09:33.260 He starts going on about how he was trying to protect his kids from being abducted by human traffickers, and that's why he slit their throats.
00:09:41.280 And he's out on the streets, right?
00:09:43.940 I mean, I just don't get it.
00:09:45.680 Without charge that we know about, the RCMP has handled this badly.
00:09:50.120 You know, the children need to be protected, but nobody's talking about it.
00:09:54.180 And we're digging away, and Chris Holtkorn, who has led the story, and Linda Slobodian, our columnist, is now working on it today, too.
00:10:06.140 Another mid-air collision almost avoided yesterday at the D.C. airport, the same one that had the fatal crash.
00:10:16.040 And it comes on the heels of one in Chicago that we were watching earlier this morning, Corian.
00:10:21.100 And the best news of the day is NASA now says that killer asteroid is not going to hit Earth, but it could hit the Moon.
00:10:29.860 So what that does to the Moon and potential tidal changes and all that sort of good stuff, who knows?
00:10:35.900 But as you can see by the Moon, it's had crater impacts before.
00:10:40.160 Yeah.
00:10:40.600 Throughout history, it's been hit by a few things.
00:10:42.540 So we'll have to wait and see whether Armageddon awaits.
00:10:45.100 Well, maybe if we had a big enough asteroid tax, we could reduce the risk.
00:10:48.420 Ooh, that's a good idea.
00:10:49.220 Don't tell Stephen Gilmore.
00:10:50.380 No, no, he'll do the next minister's thing.
00:10:52.960 Well, I mean, yeah, some people are a mixed blessing on whether or not the asteroid should come or not.
00:10:56.740 Yeah, if it could land on his hat, I'd be all for it.
00:10:58.800 Yeah, it's just a matter of where it lands.
00:11:00.220 Yeah, true.
00:11:01.160 Right.
00:11:01.560 You could guide it right down.
00:11:03.080 All right.
00:11:03.660 Well, thanks, Dave.
00:11:04.540 I'll let you get back to trying to dig through.
00:11:06.740 Again, it's just such a crazy new scroll these days.
00:11:09.560 And, well, report what we can.
00:11:11.840 It's all fun and games.
00:11:12.760 Right on.
00:11:13.300 Thanks, Dave.
00:11:14.380 So that was our news editor, Dave Naylor.
00:11:16.340 And yet the stories are coming hard and heavy.
00:11:18.360 Yeah, Chris Oldcorn, he's always hitting them hard out there, out of Saskatchewan and covering stories even that come out out here.
00:11:24.640 The reason we can do it, guys, is where I got to nag you, but it's true, is subscribers.
00:11:28.580 You got to get on there.
00:11:29.320 It's $10 a month, $100 a year.
00:11:31.360 That's how we keep this room going, the newsroom.
00:11:33.480 I got another show coming.
00:11:34.700 It's going to start next week, by the way.
00:11:36.140 It's going to specialize in covering the election.
00:11:38.000 It's going to come out.
00:11:39.000 We believe it's going to air every Friday.
00:11:40.680 We'll see.
00:11:41.100 I'm going to be recording it every Thursday.
00:11:43.360 But we're going to have that once a week for at least a few months.
00:11:46.020 And it's going to be fun.
00:11:48.000 It's going to be fun.
00:11:48.600 We're going to cover a lot of things with that.
00:11:50.420 So, yes, get on, though.
00:11:52.920 Subscribe.
00:11:53.440 $10 a month, westernstandards.news.
00:11:55.400 You can see it in the bottom, slash, subscription.
00:11:56.920 That way we don't take tax dollars.
00:11:58.140 That way we don't pander to the party in power like we're seeing with legacy media right
00:12:02.840 now.
00:12:03.820 And that way we can just keep this sort of stuff coming.
00:12:06.700 So, yeah, good to see you guys coming in.
00:12:08.200 Wildrose Paradox.
00:12:09.240 Yeah, you know, it's funny.
00:12:11.180 Some of the, you can read exhaustion in a comment with Paradox saying along the lines of, you
00:12:15.760 know, what would happen if we just didn't cover Trump for a week?
00:12:18.540 You know, just left it alone for a week.
00:12:20.740 Probably not a lot because this is the frustrating thing among many with President Trump.
00:12:27.660 You don't know where he's bloody coming from.
00:12:31.420 I mean, again, I'm a conservative.
00:12:34.260 I didn't want to see more Democrats.
00:12:35.620 I've been getting into this on social media with others and everything else, too.
00:12:38.840 I'm sorry, but I'm not part of the Trump cult, and I won't be.
00:12:42.400 We need at least a degree of truth going on.
00:12:45.700 One of the most frustrating things, if we're talking about negotiating trade, if we're talking
00:12:50.100 about it, if we're going to be serious about it, fine.
00:12:52.160 Absolutely.
00:12:52.800 We've got issues.
00:12:53.700 Certainly got issues.
00:12:54.560 Canada doesn't keep up its share on defense, and we can fix things up at the border.
00:12:58.120 Fine.
00:12:58.420 But then when they start throwing out that baloney of $200 billion subsidy, it's crap.
00:13:04.080 It's 100% pure crap.
00:13:06.520 It's untrue.
00:13:08.080 It's a trade deficit.
00:13:09.480 Big difference.
00:13:10.060 It just means they buy more from us than we buy from them.
00:13:12.160 That is not a subsidy by any definition.
00:13:15.800 And he's got to be called out on it instead of having a bunch of Trump's fart catchers
00:13:18.660 online saying, well, no, he means something else.
00:13:20.400 No, he doesn't mean something else.
00:13:21.300 He's nuts.
00:13:21.860 He's saying whatever comes out of his head.
00:13:23.980 We can't negotiate based on that.
00:13:26.180 And it's shaking our economy.
00:13:28.700 And then, you know, look, I'm an independent supporter.
00:13:32.900 I'm not married to the concept of Canada by any means.
00:13:35.840 But if you think that this sort of rattling, this taunting, this 51st state, this Governor
00:13:41.660 Canada talk from Trump brings us any closer to a 51st state, you're dearly mistaken.
00:13:48.000 It's actually entrenching more nationalism with Canadians than we've seen in decades.
00:13:53.480 And on top of it all, if you look at the polls, the liberals are gaining because of this.
00:13:59.080 The liberals are actually starting to do better.
00:14:01.120 When it looked like they didn't have a chance on earth of winning the election, suddenly
00:14:06.540 they're neck and neck.
00:14:07.420 At first, it looked like it might've been just Frank Graves and an outlying poll or something
00:14:11.080 like that.
00:14:11.620 But no, we're starting to see it now over and over and over again.
00:14:15.620 It is basically because when you've got an outside enemy and I'm not, you know, I won't
00:14:21.540 go with that talking about Trump, the United States being an enemy, but yeah, in the trade
00:14:26.740 sense, that's pretty much where we are.
00:14:28.460 And, uh, it rallies people.
00:14:31.900 It brings them together.
00:14:33.300 I mean, again, people keep dismissing it as just negotiation tactics.
00:14:38.060 Look, lying is not good negotiation tactics.
00:14:40.860 It's not in good faith.
00:14:42.620 We are allies of the United States.
00:14:45.780 We have been for over a century.
00:14:48.460 We're close friends.
00:14:49.240 I love the United States.
00:14:50.140 I spent a lot of time down there.
00:14:51.620 I have family down there.
00:14:53.000 I want us to get closer.
00:14:54.480 I want fewer trade barriers, fewer tariffs.
00:14:57.400 I wouldn't mind getting back to crossing the border without passports again.
00:15:01.720 And that to do such things, we would need to clean up who's coming into Canada in the
00:15:05.660 first place.
00:15:06.020 I fully understand that.
00:15:07.320 But we need to bring the conversation into rationality.
00:15:11.620 We have to get real with it.
00:15:13.960 And we're not doing that because we don't know where he's going to be from day to day.
00:15:18.560 I mean, Trump promised these tariffs are going to slam us and they're going to come at the
00:15:21.600 start of March and now, just out of the blue, maybe we're going to sit till April.
00:15:26.720 Okay, I guess that's a relief.
00:15:29.360 But how do we plan for anything?
00:15:30.780 How do we do anything?
00:15:31.860 And how do we know a week from now he won't change his mind again?
00:15:35.480 I don't mind a bit of a wild card in politics.
00:15:37.840 I certainly don't.
00:15:38.440 I like to see things stirred up a bit.
00:15:39.920 But this is just getting to the point of causing damage for the sake of damage.
00:15:45.740 And we've got to start thinking about how we can deal with this.
00:15:51.200 It's not doing us any favors.
00:15:52.820 I don't know if it's doing him any either.
00:15:54.900 Tariffs are clumsy, bad policy.
00:15:58.440 Look, if we're conservatives, we like to say we are.
00:16:00.580 Guys, we don't try to tax things better.
00:16:03.420 We try to get government out of the way.
00:16:05.980 And it's just a frustrating thing that's carrying on.
00:16:11.820 I see some of the talk about the insanity.
00:16:15.780 And this is what Dave mentioned.
00:16:17.280 So up in Grand Prairie, that crazed person slit the throat of two children and then has been released.
00:16:23.680 And in the case in just a couple of days ago, a person stabbed a six-year-old child that was in Halifax.
00:16:30.340 This woman, and she'd been released on bail just shortly before that.
00:16:34.320 And then she went out and randomly stabbed a child.
00:16:36.380 I see the guest in the lobby, so I'll just close quickly.
00:16:38.580 I won't talk a little further on that because I want to talk about some of those treatment centers a little later.
00:16:42.200 But this is what we're seeing indications of is our naive and misplaced movement to take people out of mental health care facilities.
00:16:51.440 When we put them out, we see some of the worst of consequences.
00:16:54.100 And then that's what we're seeing right now.
00:16:55.560 They're letting them out because they've got nowhere else to keep them.
00:16:57.460 And now we're getting literally children stabbed, and we can't put up with that.
00:17:02.040 Okay, I see Erica waiting in the lobby there.
00:17:04.740 So let's bring her in and talk about our provincial insanity for a little while.
00:17:08.240 Hello, Erica.
00:17:09.040 How are you doing?
00:17:10.200 Hi, I'm good.
00:17:11.140 How are you?
00:17:12.820 Very good.
00:17:13.620 Well, you know, mixed.
00:17:14.920 I mean, I honestly get to the point when I go through all the news stories to try and plan that she'll get a headache.
00:17:19.460 What few things can I manage to cover in this short time?
00:17:22.900 Because there's just so much going on right now.
00:17:25.300 There is not a shortage.
00:17:26.640 I was just saying, like, we're filming our podcast twice this week because there's so much going on in Alberta News that we want to cover before even talking about the budget.
00:17:37.200 And I think that it needs to have two shows, unfortunately.
00:17:40.920 But good for content is really the only upside.
00:17:44.360 That is.
00:17:44.980 And as well, I mean, we'll get to that.
00:17:46.880 And you're instructing at Macamie College with applied politics.
00:17:49.760 I mean, for the people whose heads are spinning, that's a great way to get that basic knowledge on these things and try to better equip yourself to interpret.
00:17:56.940 Yeah, we definitely have issues management and conflict resolution portion within the course.
00:18:04.240 So, yeah, it's definitely giving us in the class that we've launched our first pilot in January.
00:18:09.760 We'll have another one in May just to test out the material.
00:18:13.600 We're definitely having a lot of great examples.
00:18:16.380 We talked about loss of confidence, and the federal government is giving us live examples of that, too.
00:18:24.080 So it's very much applied to everything that you would learn, or I wish I learned in a poli-sci degree and in my years at the legislature all in one course.
00:18:34.060 Right on.
00:18:34.460 That's where, like, college is better than universities in some ways.
00:18:36.640 You get more of the applied stuff, not just getting into the long theoretical, which is important, too.
00:18:41.780 All right.
00:18:42.340 Enough of that.
00:18:42.880 So we've got a budget coming in Alberta.
00:18:44.760 We kind of start there.
00:18:47.140 I mean, we're at speculation point, but some of the stuff always leaks out a little early.
00:18:50.580 It sounds like the tax break might finally be coming.
00:18:53.100 Oh, thank the Lord.
00:18:55.160 I've been screaming about this because I was, as you know, in the war room.
00:18:58.360 I was part of the Smith administration, and the personal tax credit was the first thing we announced in the election.
00:19:06.840 And it is something that I think when you're talking about affordability or cost of living, anything like that, where it is proven that if you get money back, you put it back into the economy.
00:19:16.640 So I'm excited finally about this one coming through, but apparently it has a caveat, which is a deficit.
00:19:25.380 Yeah.
00:19:26.220 Now, that's something I want to ask about.
00:19:28.260 Is it impossible to cut spending?
00:19:30.120 Because I'm getting really tired of conservatives claiming they're conservative, and then they lose their courage as soon as they get in and will not cut the bloody spending.
00:19:36.580 Yeah, I don't think any of these ministers went in and are coming out having to really have said that they cut.
00:19:46.720 I think a lot of them stayed whole.
00:19:49.180 Trust me, I'm going to go through.
00:19:51.240 I know before I came on, you were talking about compassionate intervention.
00:19:54.460 But I think the government is pretty quick to assume that their process works as opposed to test of pilot.
00:20:01.800 And these are hundreds of millions of dollars invested into facilities without a proof of concept.
00:20:06.340 I'm very critical of that.
00:20:07.820 I'm very critical of how our grant systems work.
00:20:10.500 I'm sure that the infrastructure list, I'm sorry, you don't fund things that don't put bums in seats or people in care over anything else when you've got a tight budget.
00:20:22.280 So unfortunately, Alberta has been a half province for so long.
00:20:25.440 I actually lived this through the Redford administration of like the first time you really needed to see tightening your belts.
00:20:32.620 And it doesn't go over well.
00:20:34.520 We want to be fiscal conservatives, but we've also been in a very fortunate place for so long that we didn't really need to make tough cuts.
00:20:43.680 Yeah, so some of that cut...
00:20:44.800 And I hate it.
00:20:46.120 We do have a big variable happening south of the border.
00:20:49.560 We don't know how that's going to impact finances or what's going to happen with some of our commodities and trade goods.
00:20:55.860 But at the same time, that would tell me that means that we should be tightening our belt more right now then so that we can take any ups and downs.
00:21:02.380 I think you're right, Corey.
00:21:03.520 I think the challenge is that all that says to me is the deficit will get bigger in fiscal updates, right?
00:21:10.860 Last year, they had a good year where oil prices were good.
00:21:14.720 They could really have positive impacts.
00:21:17.400 Obviously, some of it is required to go to pay debt down the deficits or down the debt and also into the Heritage Trust Fund savings.
00:21:26.340 So there is already like money that's coming in.
00:21:28.780 It's already got to go into the piggy bank to pay off debt.
00:21:31.980 But I'm a huge fiscal hawk.
00:21:35.680 I don't know how many of those people at Treasury Board, how they're feeling.
00:21:40.160 I think there's like tails between legs that maybe they didn't get to where they wanted.
00:21:45.040 But I think there's a lot of stuff within every budget that everyone should be like, shit, this is a tough budget.
00:21:54.100 Not all my stakeholders are going to be happy, but we're doing what's right for Albertans and what as conservatives we commit to, which is a balanced budget.
00:22:00.240 Yeah. So we seem to have a government that's not looking before they leap a lot, which, again, I kind of like sometimes.
00:22:07.020 But we're also seeing, as you mentioned, with the Compassionate Care Centers, I'm pretty actually enthusiastic about them.
00:22:13.000 But I also understand what you're saying. This is untested ground.
00:22:15.860 I mean, part of the opponents to it, I'm also pointing out because they're saying it never works.
00:22:19.480 Well, wait a minute. Point to the ones that didn't.
00:22:21.000 Because actually, as far as I could find, it hasn't been tried.
00:22:23.320 But that's a whole lot of money to try something if we're not sure.
00:22:26.880 Yeah, I'm all about proof of concept.
00:22:28.320 So by all means, this is not something I've personally experienced, but if you want to test that, do like every other procurement process works.
00:22:36.660 And maybe procurement process isn't the thing to be mentioning right now, but that like there is a process.
00:22:42.140 And so we need to test and test concept well.
00:22:45.420 They could have built three, not 11.
00:22:47.740 Well, and you've helped me segue with that and procurement because, I mean, we can't avoid that elephant in the room.
00:22:52.480 I wanted to talk mostly about budget, but this just isn't going away.
00:22:55.900 What the heck is going on?
00:22:57.480 I mean, speaking of, I mean, I do believe AHS has a bloated bureaucracy that really needed to be tackled and taken on.
00:23:04.100 But they seem to be losing the war with it and they've made a mess.
00:23:09.580 Yeah.
00:23:09.760 Honestly, I feel like, like you said, sometimes they leave and make decisions before sometimes.
00:23:15.200 And in this case, I feel like they're not trying to be proactive on anything to manage this.
00:23:20.260 They're being very reactive and waiting for screaming and shouting to even have that independent inquiry that they're the independent investigation that they just announced last week, last Wednesday.
00:23:30.980 And so I feel like they're really losing and struggling with the narrative, even as recent as today.
00:23:36.600 I think what we're seeing now is that it's not just health.
00:23:40.280 I agree.
00:23:40.920 I still support the reforms.
00:23:42.160 I still think that there's a lot of bloated bureaucracy there.
00:23:45.520 And if someone's not doing their job and their scope, which is to support and enforce reform and they're the head of it, by all means, they should be terminated.
00:23:56.960 Um, if that's, if that's the case now they were peeling back an onion and finding some things, uh, I think timing was a fault of the government's for just the sequence of events.
00:24:08.900 But now we're seeing it in infrastructure.
00:24:11.460 We're seeing it mental health and addictions.
00:24:13.440 We're now seeing it as early as this morning in public safety.
00:24:16.880 So I think the big thing now is every ministry better be going in doing independent investigations, audits.
00:24:24.320 And yeah, like sometimes these are at the director, executive director level that isn't going to catch the, the eye of the minister, but these are, or be elevated to the minister, which is unfortunate, but this is something where like for their own butts, uh, I would encourage every minister to go do this internally.
00:24:41.240 Yeah.
00:24:41.600 Well, and it gets frustrating.
00:24:43.480 I mean, I, I, again, was optimistic about the concept.
00:24:45.800 We really do need to look at some maybe freestanding specialized facilities outside of, you know, centralized hospitals and yes, private facilities.
00:24:53.440 But if you start to get whiffs of possible corruption, and if it sounds like you're not sourcing those or get doing proper procurement, they could be setting the reforms back rather than forward.
00:25:04.320 And, and that really, I got to admit, it's taken me off.
00:25:07.120 It is.
00:25:08.160 I feel the exact same.
00:25:09.540 I think these reforms were, we both know that reforms and generational change won't happen overnight.
00:25:15.600 And this is just like really making it sticky for them to validate why and how they're doing it.
00:25:22.140 Again, I'm all for publicly funding private facilities to speed up service if it's in the best interest of Albertans and it's at a good rate.
00:25:30.840 And if it goes through a procurement process, right, like I am not against let's find any solution to deal with this, because I think that everyone's fed up with not having access to care.
00:25:40.540 So let's, let's get creative, but not creative and to the point that it's questionable.
00:25:45.840 And I think that that's something that is now being investigated, alleged, alleging that there was interference, all of those things.
00:25:54.540 I am at a point where I'm like, I just want the truth.
00:25:57.540 I want good, you know, proper due diligence to occur, because again, you're right now it's setting this back by six months, maybe a year.
00:26:05.740 And generational change is going to take not just one term of Greener-Smith, but another term of the UCP.
00:26:11.800 And this is going to get them into a lot of hot water that might impact them in the pools.
00:26:16.040 Well, I think if anything else, they really need to clear the air, you know, have an inquiry, get moving, let's get on with this.
00:26:21.400 Because as Peter Guthrie, even Don Breda, you know, said like, okay, Guthrie left and maybe it's a point of principle.
00:26:27.620 But at the same time, he threw a hand grenade with no evidence.
00:26:29.800 And likewise, we've seen a statement of claim, which may or may not be true, but we haven't seen any hard evidence.
00:26:35.300 We need an inquiry to figure out what's going on.
00:26:37.640 You can't keep dismissing it because people will assume the worst.
00:26:41.080 And I definitely think that regardless of what ideology you are as Albertans, we just want the truth.
00:26:46.180 I'm expecting, and maybe I'm a little bit more crass than folks, but I've lived through enough of this.
00:26:52.440 I want some heads on flatters.
00:26:54.580 So I'm expecting that, like, if there is anyone, whether it was someone affiliated with the government, individuals in bureaucracies,
00:27:02.800 like, let's find out where the toxicity is coming from and let's clean it out.
00:27:08.900 Well, that's it.
00:27:09.640 Because there's motivations that people can read in on both ends.
00:27:12.160 There's some very upset bureaucrats who really actually want to derail any reforms to a system that they're pretty, you know, comfortable within.
00:27:19.540 And unfortunately, there's always people trying to better themselves through procurement processes and their own businesses and things like that.
00:27:26.660 And both are believable.
00:27:28.240 We need to find out what the heck's happening here.
00:27:30.100 Yeah, exactly.
00:27:31.200 And I think if you're a good business and you have a good business case, you should be able to win those bids through the proper process.
00:27:39.820 And it's unfortunate that maybe that wasn't the case.
00:27:42.340 Again, all alleges.
00:27:43.980 It's all being allegations.
00:27:45.980 So none of this has been proven.
00:27:47.560 And I think that's a really important thing.
00:27:49.320 But, again, coming back to that narrative is if I'm a government and I know something is, you know, sticky or I'm concerned about it or there's any caution, I'm, like, very much of the, like, issues manager that's, like, get it out and just dump it.
00:28:03.620 Because I think that at least, and then this is what we're doing about it now that it's been flagged as opposed to some of the reactionary stuff that we're seeing.
00:28:12.900 Like, obviously, I think Pete Guthrie knows something that we don't.
00:28:16.660 He's not going to say it.
00:28:17.900 But there's obviously an ethical challenge that he is facing, which is why, and I've spoken with him, he was on transition team with me for Pranger Smith.
00:28:27.160 So I think that there's something that he ethically can no longer stand behind.
00:28:32.200 It's just unfortunate on the timing because there's not something to point to.
00:28:37.000 Yeah, well, you know, until the facts come out, we won't learn too much more.
00:28:42.320 So, again, back to kind of circle back to the immediate thing, the budget.
00:28:47.460 And, you know, you're going to be breaking that down more in your shows.
00:28:50.660 I mean, after the budget's been tabled and you can see it in detail for this last part of this, you know, the talk here, what would you like to see in it?
00:28:58.760 Well, I'm very happy, should there be.
00:29:01.220 And I think, yeah, we're both speculating, but I'm pretty confident that the tax credit is coming for Albertans.
00:29:08.980 So I'm very excited about that.
00:29:10.660 I'd love to see really strong infrastructure and transportation investment because we need to build.
00:29:17.260 We have 250,000 new people here and we need to expedite processes to get those people working because I think there's a lot of new people here.
00:29:26.320 We just need to get them jobs if that's the case and it may not be what they came here to do, but let's get them contributing to the economy.
00:29:35.820 So I'm super focused on the economic side and also just how the guardrails that the government's going to put in place should and when these tariffs come into place.
00:29:45.500 So I want to see their projections on that.
00:29:47.940 I'm not a huge focus on, you know, how many encampments are we going to take down?
00:29:54.520 I would like to also see tougher on crime and less hugging thugs.
00:29:59.500 So that's what I'm looking for.
00:30:01.500 I'm looking for a little bit more hard numbers and return on investment of how we're working as a province and a business.
00:30:10.300 Excellent.
00:30:11.100 Well, before I let you go, then where can people find your podcast for when I'm certain you'll be breaking that down?
00:30:16.160 And where can they find your course again if somebody wants to find out how to interpret it for themselves?
00:30:21.640 Yeah. So Macamie College, as I see it spelled properly on the bottom, Macamie College website will just go to the courses and applied politics is there.
00:30:32.520 And it breaks down all the classes as a two year diploma program.
00:30:36.140 I'm teaching most of the curriculum now, but have other individuals that specialize in the sector.
00:30:40.300 So you don't just have to listen to me for two years.
00:30:43.400 And the podcast where you have to listen to me half the time is alongside Rachel Notley's former director of communications, Cheryl Oates.
00:30:51.600 So we come at it from the left and the right on all issues.
00:30:54.020 And it's called The Discourse.
00:30:55.380 It's on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:30:58.200 Great. And just one more thing before I let you go.
00:30:59.820 I didn't mention it.
00:31:00.480 You're still a senator-elect.
00:31:01.940 How long until that expires?
00:31:03.700 I used to try to brand it senator-elect and now I feel it's more like in line with the senator and waiting longer.
00:31:10.060 So we'll see someday of kind of it's it's a position I'd be very honored to hold someday.
00:31:15.760 We just need a new prime minister and we need some of those old liberal appointees to realize in Alberta that maybe it's time for them to retire.
00:31:23.640 Great. Well, I hope we get to see you in there.
00:31:25.580 And in the meantime, though, you've got a lot on the go.
00:31:27.920 So I appreciate you taking some time to talk to us today, Erica.
00:31:30.240 Good. Yeah. Thanks, Gray.
00:31:31.920 We'll look forward to your interpretation of the budget there.
00:31:34.220 Yeah. Thanks. Yeah.
00:31:35.900 Thanks. All right.
00:31:37.200 So that was Erica Barudis.
00:31:38.440 She's been on before.
00:31:39.460 As you can see, yes, lots of things and covers it in a balanced way.
00:31:42.400 You know, not as as crazed ideological as I am.
00:31:45.500 She's been in the trenches with a couple of parties now and, you know, gives her views on it.
00:31:50.540 So I do want to come back to that.
00:31:52.180 I mean, it's a subject I talk about a lot.
00:31:53.640 I talk about addiction.
00:31:54.360 I talk about treatment.
00:31:55.040 I talk about mental health.
00:31:55.800 And I'm glad Erica brought that up with with the centers, because I'm pretty kind of excited
00:32:01.040 about these treatment centers that compassionate care is what the Smith government's calling it.
00:32:05.800 It'll have, I believe, 150 beds per center, possibly 300 beds in total.
00:32:10.140 I'm not sure.
00:32:11.120 I'd have to dig more into those numbers and they should be operational within a couple of years.
00:32:14.820 We're talking about one hundred and eighty million dollars being spent.
00:32:17.500 I like the concept, but can we be confident that the Smith government's going to do it right?
00:32:24.960 That's where we start to worry, because we're wondering what's going on in there.
00:32:27.940 You've got a cabinet minister stomping out the door on you.
00:32:30.500 We've got people demanding an inquiry over the AHS thing.
00:32:33.440 I mean, I was optimistic about breaking AHS into multiple pieces, into changing things, into reforming them.
00:32:38.140 But now it looks like this might be falling off the rails, because I do think there's room for these compassionate intervention centers.
00:32:46.320 But if it's done wrong, it will set it back.
00:32:49.600 It will bring those off the table for years to come, because I can't.
00:32:54.200 I keep looking and people keep talking about, you know, they never work.
00:32:58.120 They never work.
00:32:58.620 Well, wait a minute.
00:32:59.420 Where has that been tried?
00:33:01.080 And I haven't had anybody point to one yet.
00:33:04.600 So how do you know it doesn't work?
00:33:06.100 At the same time, as Erica kind of pointed out, though $180 million is a lot of money to spend on something, we don't know if it will work.
00:33:14.460 What I'm talking about, what I'm gathering from these centers, and it kind of ties into what I'm talking about with the stabbings as well, though.
00:33:21.480 These are cases of people with serious mental health challenges.
00:33:25.400 Mental health is very, very directly tied into addiction.
00:33:28.900 That's why usually those departments are tied together.
00:33:30.940 I won't go at length as to why I'm as familiar with addiction treatment as I am.
00:33:36.640 I mean, I've been open about it.
00:33:37.880 I'm a recovered alcoholic and I've dealt with addiction on other levels and other things.
00:33:43.000 And different people respond differently.
00:33:45.040 And different people hit different levels of addiction before they're ready for treatment.
00:33:48.760 Some can, you know, manage to get out early.
00:33:53.360 Some never successfully are treated and unfortunately die.
00:33:56.940 Anyway, Freedom Honey Pointy, I've worked in Portugal.
00:33:59.020 Portugal's a little different.
00:34:00.220 Portugal, though, isn't forced treatment.
00:34:02.980 It's not what we're talking about.
00:34:04.780 Portugal's got a neat program and it talks about how if you're coming in, you can be compelled towards treatment.
00:34:10.880 And it's very treatment focused, absolutely.
00:34:13.140 But what we're talking about with the compassionate care centers, or as people are calling it, you know, forced treatment centers, is police, family members, and viewers can apply to have somebody put in against their will for, I think typically they're going to be looking at maybe 30 days and put into a center.
00:34:34.780 Some people are saying, well, that infringes on liberties.
00:34:36.880 Well, you know, again, when we're talking about mental health, the Mental Health Act already covers it.
00:34:41.060 Okay, if you believe a person is going to do harm to themselves or others, they can be held in a mental health facility.
00:34:49.960 It happens not as often, actually, not as often as it should when we see the stabbings of children.
00:34:54.900 But, I mean, if a person, the analogy I used online the other day, if you saw somebody running and smashing their face into a wall over and over and over and over again, they're compulsively doing it, something's gone wrong in their brain, they've blown a fuse and they keep doing it.
00:35:07.380 But, we intervene, we stop them, we restrain them if we have to.
00:35:12.340 We have, we can't just let them keep hitting their face on the wall.
00:35:15.800 And then we try to treat them.
00:35:19.160 Will it work?
00:35:19.840 Will it not?
00:35:20.240 We don't know.
00:35:20.680 And if you can't treat them and they just keep hitting their head on the wall no matter what, well, sometimes, yeah, you got to keep them for a long, long time.
00:35:27.540 Now, you got to look at the scenario for some of the people, and we're talking about late-stage addicts.
00:35:32.320 We're talking about these centers possibly having 300 beds.
00:35:36.120 Anybody, because they're saying, oh, they're just going to be swooping up.
00:35:38.320 I saw one guy on X saying, oh, boy, well, recreational drug users better be afraid.
00:35:42.460 Do you really think they want to spend that money on these 300 beds that we've got and go out and stick a pothead in one?
00:35:49.800 You know, take somebody who's only got a minor addiction issue, and there are, there are levels of addiction,
00:35:55.780 and put them in there?
00:35:57.180 Trust me, those beds will be full fast, and they're going to be with hard cases.
00:36:01.940 Look on the streets.
00:36:02.880 If you haven't been downtown in an urban center lately, you can see the hard cases I'm talking about.
00:36:07.840 We're talking about the walking dead.
00:36:09.620 We're talking about people that are basically at the end of their rope through addiction.
00:36:15.020 They're scrawny.
00:36:15.660 They're covered in sores.
00:36:16.680 They're living behind dumpsters.
00:36:18.060 They're often already missing digits from frostbite, from passing out in the cold weather.
00:36:22.820 These are the ones.
00:36:23.900 They're no longer anywhere close of sound mind.
00:36:27.780 Maybe, and I know the shot is long, but maybe, if you snatch one, because you've got to remember,
00:36:32.320 they do have parents.
00:36:33.260 They have siblings.
00:36:34.580 They have loved ones, but they've disconnected.
00:36:37.080 They've moved on, and desperate families just want somewhere to put them.
00:36:40.180 Put them somewhere for 30 days.
00:36:42.620 Start with detox.
00:36:44.240 Get the junk out of them under medical supervision.
00:36:48.040 I mean, yes, chaining somebody down in a straight detox, you can do more harm than good.
00:36:51.180 Get them straight, because they're not going to do it willingly.
00:36:55.380 Maybe, maybe, I know it's a long shot, but you see, again, the chance of success when you
00:36:59.820 leave them on the streets at that point are pretty much zero.
00:37:01.660 They're going to die.
00:37:02.820 They're going to overdose or get killed by another dealer or something.
00:37:06.940 They're going to die.
00:37:07.680 So, even if it's only a 20% success rate, a 10% success rate in one of these centers,
00:37:14.160 it's better than leaving them where they are once they've hit that state.
00:37:18.080 Get them dry.
00:37:19.460 Maybe a week, maybe two.
00:37:20.760 Maybe at that point, their mind will click enough to say, yes, you know what?
00:37:23.600 I'm ready to try treatment.
00:37:26.400 You know, they've eaten some meals.
00:37:28.700 They've gone through the worst of the initial DTs.
00:37:31.420 They've had time to sit with counselors.
00:37:33.300 They've had time to sit with other recovered addicts.
00:37:35.400 They've had time to try and consider these things.
00:37:39.260 And then maybe they would embrace a longer-term program.
00:37:41.980 I know a lot of them, after 30 days, you let them out, they're going to be behind the
00:37:45.860 dumpster on their junk the day after.
00:37:47.880 That's just the way it's going to be.
00:37:49.420 But as I said, if we don't intervene, we already know the chances are zero.
00:37:52.900 As I've seen some of the people talking about in the comments, we've already tried the
00:37:55.580 other route, the enablist route.
00:37:57.140 The almost cultish route of these lunatics who think, if we just keep giving them enough
00:38:02.040 drugs, they'll get over it.
00:38:03.280 They won't.
00:38:04.460 They get deeper into it.
00:38:06.340 The drug is the problem.
00:38:08.360 The drug, the addiction, you can't enable it and expect them to recover.
00:38:13.920 They won't.
00:38:15.500 They just keep going further, particularly when you're talking about opioids, when you're
00:38:19.080 talking about fentanyl, you're talking about some of these things.
00:38:22.840 So, yes, I would like to see these centers.
00:38:27.100 I would like to see, you know, I heard a quote from a recovered addict a little while
00:38:31.100 back who said, again, as long as somebody's drawing a breath, there's still a hope.
00:38:35.280 Because one of our things as human beings is, I really do believe, if we don't want to
00:38:41.260 use the word compassion, compassionate conservatism.
00:38:44.000 It means taking care of those who can't take care of themselves.
00:38:46.760 And when somebody's that badly addicted, they can't take care of themselves.
00:38:51.600 Then it's our jobs as people to take care of it.
00:38:54.160 Part of the problem is we start going into UBI and crap like that where we're taking care
00:38:57.080 of people who are too lazy to take care of themselves.
00:38:58.740 There's a big difference between the two.
00:39:00.640 But when we have addiction and mental health issues, and that's the other thing, too, that
00:39:03.800 we've got to accept.
00:39:04.740 And I know that's not in the current set of cards, but I hope we have more of those
00:39:07.820 discussions.
00:39:09.860 Deinstitutionalization.
00:39:10.180 We shut down our mental health institutions.
00:39:12.980 That's a trend that's been happening since the 70s throughout North America, throughout
00:39:16.040 the world.
00:39:17.480 And yes, some of those institutions were terrible.
00:39:19.480 They were sticking people in them because they were deaf.
00:39:22.860 They were sticking people in because somebody bribed a doctor to get a family member out
00:39:26.960 of the way.
00:39:27.320 They were terribly abused.
00:39:29.300 And they were brought about for actually very good reasons, you know, with the best interest
00:39:35.540 of the patients at heart.
00:39:36.380 That's why they were called asylums, but they got screwed up.
00:39:39.480 And that's what I talk about.
00:39:40.140 When government takes something good and then screws it up, it makes it bad in the
00:39:44.380 long run.
00:39:44.680 So we closed them down.
00:39:45.540 Where did all the people with the mental health problems go?
00:39:47.820 To the streets.
00:39:51.420 We don't, you know, they say, oh, we'll just let them have community living.
00:39:54.740 It doesn't work that way.
00:39:55.980 When the voices in the head start talking to them, they don't stay in the community living
00:40:00.780 area.
00:40:01.340 That's the ideal position for people to be in.
00:40:04.620 But a lot of them need treatment.
00:40:07.080 And that means secured treatment.
00:40:08.380 That means being in a facility.
00:40:09.940 And here's the hardest part some people don't ever want to accept.
00:40:12.760 Some people with mental health issues should be in an institution for the rest of their
00:40:19.000 lives, or at least until we find some sort of surgical or drug breakthrough or something
00:40:22.880 that fixes them.
00:40:24.100 Because it's still better and more humane than having them in the streets.
00:40:27.280 And I know it's a difficult decision to make.
00:40:30.580 It's talking about a lot.
00:40:31.520 It's talking about taking the liberty away from somebody who may not have committed a crime.
00:40:34.200 But is it better?
00:40:36.760 Is it really more dignified to leave them on the streets?
00:40:41.620 The example I use is too, for the frustrations of family, when they're talking about an addicted
00:40:45.300 member, a young person who's out there and you see them, you see them on the streets,
00:40:48.180 you see them desperate.
00:40:48.860 You see them in that sad, sad shape.
00:40:50.460 If it was your daughter, your son, that broke, that out of communication, and they're doing
00:40:56.040 anything for their next fix.
00:40:57.900 Do you really want to mentally imagine what they're doing to make a couple of dollars to
00:41:01.800 get another fix?
00:41:03.420 People say, we've got to maintain their dignity.
00:41:05.140 There's no dignity left at that point.
00:41:07.260 None.
00:41:08.740 So what's to be lost?
00:41:11.200 And pulling them in, well, there is something to be lost, $180 million.
00:41:14.680 So Eric is quite, you know, right in bringing that up and saying, we've got to look at the
00:41:20.360 whole thing, because if we screw it up, we could make it worse.
00:41:23.820 But we've screwed up the enablement thing.
00:41:25.580 I don't think it would ever work.
00:41:26.520 And I'm not wholly against safe consumption sites.
00:41:29.800 I'm not wholly, you know, but the thing is, it's got to be coupled with the second that
00:41:33.920 person comes in.
00:41:34.620 For one, you don't give them drugs and let them leave.
00:41:36.160 It doesn't happen.
00:41:36.940 No, absolutely not.
00:41:38.580 All we're talking about is a spot where you can be supervised while you take it.
00:41:41.780 So you should theoretically live through the drug you've taken.
00:41:44.600 But you should be nagged from the second you walk in that door to the second you walk
00:41:47.480 out to get into treatment.
00:41:49.180 Push towards it.
00:41:50.020 Give in the pamphlets.
00:41:51.220 And that's the other thing too.
00:41:52.660 So other things, we don't have enough treatment beds for the people who want to get into
00:41:56.500 them.
00:41:57.400 That's another big issue.
00:41:58.940 There's a lot of people with mental health issues and with addiction issues that really
00:42:02.640 do want to seek help.
00:42:03.720 They want to get into a stable facility and there's not room.
00:42:06.820 They go banging on the door and say, I'm ready.
00:42:08.440 I'm ready for treatment.
00:42:09.200 I'm ready for help.
00:42:09.860 I'm ready to kick this.
00:42:11.940 Great.
00:42:12.820 We'll have a bed for you in 30 days.
00:42:14.260 Hang in there, chump.
00:42:16.660 Yeah, that's how it is right now.
00:42:18.800 So you better hope.
00:42:19.940 If they were at the point where they could go 30 days clean without help, they aren't
00:42:23.860 addicted.
00:42:24.180 They need to knock on the door and be taken in right now.
00:42:30.060 At most, you know, within a couple of days.
00:42:34.280 Joe Mills, a commenter saying treatment or jail.
00:42:36.880 And yeah, I mean, you know, jailing is kind of what ends up happening to a lot of the addicts
00:42:42.580 in the long run.
00:42:43.040 Is that better?
00:42:43.540 Of course not.
00:42:44.780 So it's another form of incarceration.
00:42:46.220 If you leave them on the streets when they're that far gone, yeah, it's not just the morgue
00:42:50.100 they might end up in.
00:42:50.760 They might end up in the hospital or they might end up in a jail.
00:42:53.580 So we still end up spending the money.
00:42:55.180 But a conventional hospital isn't going to offer the secured treatment that they need.
00:42:58.540 And a jail is going to have them secured, but it usually makes them a lot worse off than
00:43:01.980 they were to begin with.
00:43:03.000 I want to see the murderers in jail.
00:43:04.920 I want to see the addicts in treatment centers.
00:43:07.020 And I want to see the people with mental health problems in mental health institutions.
00:43:10.380 And we aren't funding any of those enough.
00:43:12.880 But we're paying the price anyways.
00:43:14.540 That's what people have to realize too.
00:43:16.040 Boy, that would be terribly expensive.
00:43:17.360 It's already expensive.
00:43:19.220 Go downtown anytime.
00:43:21.100 And the ambulances, they never stop.
00:43:22.920 You never hear the sirens stop downtown.
00:43:26.340 Who do you think is paying for that?
00:43:28.080 For the constant revivals of people as they overdose.
00:43:31.800 When you see the police constantly breaking up those encampments, when you see these addicts
00:43:36.500 constantly going into jail, we're paying.
00:43:38.540 We're paying.
00:43:39.480 When they're robbing nearby businesses, when they're vandalizing places, when they're burning
00:43:42.880 things down, we're paying.
00:43:45.020 So let's pay on the treatment side then.
00:43:49.060 Let's spend that money targeted.
00:43:51.900 Make it better.
00:43:53.760 Van Fashen saying, ACCO has all the temporary shelters we could need and we'll build more.
00:43:58.300 Yeah.
00:43:58.680 I mean, part of it, there's one of the discussions too.
00:44:00.720 They talk about housing first.
00:44:02.780 And again, there's one of the misguided concepts out there.
00:44:06.580 The housing is important because yes, you can't have, oh, we'll have a voluntary treatment
00:44:09.660 program.
00:44:10.000 The guy who's living in a tent in a park is going to just come in on his own once a day
00:44:13.540 and sit down and do group session and all of that stuff.
00:44:16.480 No, no, they need to be in a facility.
00:44:18.940 When they're talking about housing, they're talking about, well, we need to get the addicts
00:44:21.080 into long-term housing before we can start treatment.
00:44:23.540 Well, no, no.
00:44:24.680 If they're that late stage addicted, they aren't ready for a house.
00:44:27.520 They will strip the copper out of the walls and sell it for their next fix of junk.
00:44:30.700 They will burn the place to the ground.
00:44:31.940 They will turn it into a crack house.
00:44:33.120 That's not being mean.
00:44:34.240 That's reality.
00:44:35.460 They need a stable environment, but it needs to be an institutional one.
00:44:40.340 ADCO housing for people who are in trouble and just need to keep warm.
00:44:43.040 Absolutely.
00:44:43.700 I mean, we don't want them freezing in the streets, but longer term, if they're addicts
00:44:47.120 or have mental health issues, and let's quit pretending that the people on the streets
00:44:51.340 are ones who just fell on hard luck.
00:44:53.060 The vast, vast majority of them have mental health issues or addiction issues.
00:44:58.100 That's the underlying thing.
00:44:59.380 We have to treat that.
00:45:01.340 If we don't, we won't solve it.
00:45:03.580 It's a hard reality.
00:45:04.620 Hard realities suck, but we don't fix anything until we address them.
00:45:08.520 You've got to find courage.
00:45:10.740 So we also have to find optimism.
00:45:12.680 I really do hope that the centers that the Smith government are planning and put together
00:45:16.500 work and work excellently.
00:45:18.220 I hope they sort out the bloody AHS mess that they've got going on in the Alberta government.
00:45:22.600 And I hope that Trump becomes lucid and we can come up with good, productive trade
00:45:26.320 agreements between Canada and the states and get on with our lives in making Alberta
00:45:30.020 and the rest of Canada a better place.
00:45:31.760 Okay, that's enough ranting out of me.
00:45:33.120 Tune in next week.
00:45:33.800 I'll be on on Wednesday again at this time.
00:45:35.520 And yes, there's going to be another show coming after that, which will be even a bit
00:45:38.340 longer.
00:45:38.840 It won't be live, but we'll be covering things at length and I will have a number of guests.
00:45:42.940 It's going to be very election focused and I'm looking forward to it.
00:45:45.720 It's going to be a lot of fun.
00:45:46.780 So thanks for tuning in today, guys.
00:45:48.880 I really appreciate it.
00:45:50.380 And tune into the pipeline tonight.
00:45:52.000 There's another panel with us and we're going to break down a few more of those issues and
00:45:55.180 I'll see you next week.
00:46:05.520 I'll see you next week.