In this episode of The Cory Morgan Show, host Cory Morgan catches up with law professor Bruce Parris to discuss climate change, porn in Alberta schools, and much, much more. If you have trouble getting to sleep tonight, rest easy, because there's a good chance you're going to want to catch up with the Cory Morgan show.
00:00:40.020But boy, it's really coming in with a vengeance this fall, isn't it?
00:00:42.980Yeah, it's kind of a subject for another discussion.
00:00:45.200But, you know, whether or not climate change is happening or who's causing it or to what degree.
00:00:49.560But you got to admit, I was in Alberta my whole life and we didn't get nailed to smoke like this all the time back in the 70s and 80s when I was a kid.
00:00:58.300We can talk forest management, things like that.
00:01:00.340Either way, right now, if you've got asthma and other problems and issues, you should probably stay inside and just catch up on all those, you know, back issues of the Western Standard and things like that until the air clears a little for you.
00:01:17.000He's a law professor from Queen's University.
00:01:19.700One of those few actually good, common sense, conservative, freedom-loving sort of folks.
00:01:24.500There's not too many of them in the universities and we're going to talk a bit about, well, if we get to an independent Alberta, how do we make sure it's actually a better product than what we just left?
00:01:34.880How do we preserve the freedoms we're talking about protecting?
00:01:44.060By the way, though, we're expanding our reach.
00:01:45.940We're proud to partner, actually, with the Solid Gold Family Radio Network, Alberta's very own internet radio, fully owned and operated right here at home.
00:01:54.340You can catch our shows and live streams on Husky on 5, Nashville on 3, Vibe on 2, three of the 27 unique channels that Solid Gold Family brings listeners across Alberta.
00:02:22.180Let's see where we can really screw with the algorithms.
00:02:26.320This alleged book ban in Alberta schools, it's been making news across the country.
00:02:31.100In response to books with graphic pornographic depictions of men performing oral sex upon each other on the shelves of children's libraries, the provincial government set some guidelines.
00:02:43.920In a performative temper tantrum, the Edmonton Public School Board, though, responded by proposing to pull out over 200 books, including 1984 and The Great Gatsby.
00:02:52.940Legacy media outlets are gleefully and dunefully reporting that the Smith government is banning books, and leftists are making the most of it.
00:02:59.600Now, the Smith government has pulled the ministerial order to work on creating something more specific and maybe dumbed down enough for a school board to abide by.
00:03:09.260I mean, it was a political stunt by extreme leftists who are literally willing to keep pornography on the bookshelves of children if it scores points against the UCP government they revile.
00:03:18.800The faux book ban gives fodder to legacy media outlets and eastern politicians who try to portray Alberta as some backwater book-banning neo-fascist state.
00:03:27.420The school board members are playing dumb.
00:03:29.800They're claiming it's impossible to distinguish between a picture of men with genitals in their mouths and whether or not that's more or less appropriate to be presented to children in The Handmaid's Tale.
00:03:39.320Well, I guess when you're considering Atwood stuff, it's pretty vile, too, but all the same, I wouldn't call it pornographic, but that's too complicated for them.
00:03:45.740They're claiming that filtering which books children are exposed to in the libraries would be a form of discrimination against the LGBTQ, amber, sand, dollar sign, whatever the hell it is community these days, too.
00:04:00.220There was heterosexual porn to be found on the shelves, too.
00:04:03.020Premier Smith quite masterfully actually held a press conference where a monitor showed examples of the porn and has been gracing the shelves of Alberta schools while offering to hold the hands of school board members to sort through them if need be.
00:04:13.680Legacy media outlets didn't show those images from the monitors, however, because they were too pornographic to be shown on television.
00:04:20.760The conference can be seen in full social media channels, and independent media outlets give proper coverage.
00:04:25.220Of course, CTV and CBC prefer to maintain the fake narrative that some sort of heinous book ban is happening.
00:04:31.540The images were too pornographic to be shown on television, yet anybody saying they shouldn't be in children's libraries is a book banner.
00:04:38.080Rest assured, it's no coincidence this battle happens to be shaping up all Alberta's teachers unions, threatening one of their usual strikes.
00:04:46.280And that narrative, you know, is always consistent with the teachers' strikes.
00:04:49.580The union always claims their grievances about classroom sizes, but demands more pay and fewer teachers as a solution, and fewer days working.
00:04:56.660The more they can villainize the provincial government while they gouge for more pay, the better.
00:05:00.280And the Edmonton school board is more than happy to facilitate this latest shakedown.
00:05:04.360Lost in all of this is the question of how the porn got on the shelves of the children's libraries in the first place.
00:05:09.900Perhaps once the trash is removed from the libraries, people can take a breath and investigate who is behind curating the material
00:05:15.760and making sure that these people lose all access to children and the material presented to them.
00:05:20.500I understand the battle between left and right and politics in general, but what is with the obsession with exposing children to explicit sexual content?
00:05:29.000It's distressing, dangerous, and unacceptable.
00:05:31.640In the end, though, people are ultimately responsible.
00:05:35.240And the ones who are ultimately responsible are the voters who abdicated their democratic duty to pay attention and participate in municipal elections.
00:05:41.100The lunatics on Edmonton's public school board were put there by an election.
00:05:44.780Many people tend to forget these positions are elected due to the fact that fewer paying any attention to it.
00:05:48.540So is it any wonder that extreme flakes use that opportunity to get into these positions of responsibility?
00:05:53.920Turnouts in municipal elections are embarrassingly low in general, and they're even worse when it comes to public school trustees.
00:05:59.860People running for these positions are often acclaimed as nobody wants to bother with what appears to be a dry, low-paying, semi-bureaucratic role.
00:06:07.240This role, though, involves guiding and influencing our children,
00:06:11.740which is why it should be considered important enough to make people in those roles face the electorate.
00:09:10.180So, in the news today, it's a fairly busy morning.
00:09:13.300Our side right now is leading off with a story on blanket rezoning, perhaps one of the top issues in the upcoming Calgary civic election in October.
00:09:21.860They sent out a survey to all, well, 77 candidates responded.
00:09:28.300All the mayoral candidates, Farkas and Sharp and Davidson, said they would repeal the blanket rezoning.
00:09:40.220Gondek did not reply, but we already know she voted in favor of it once.
00:09:45.940So, one would assume she's in favor of it again.
00:09:49.020Yeah, well, she had to vote against her own policy.
00:09:51.320Yeah, and Brian Thiessen didn't reply either, but by all accounts, he's for it too.
00:12:24.300Obviously, the big one, I think, that's on social media all the time is Tim Hortons.
00:12:29.160But there's lots of others out there that will be broadcast.
00:12:32.900And our Derek Fildebrandt, filling in as a reporter this week, I guess, he uncovered a good story yesterday out of Sylvan Lake,
00:12:42.480where the defensive coach of the high school football team, as was given the boot, was sacked, so to speak,
00:12:51.120because he spoke out about transgender and how there seems to be a link between trans people and all the recent mass shootings in the States.
00:13:03.120It was definitely a link in the most recent one.
00:13:05.760And the principal of the Sylvan Lake High School didn't like it and fired him.
00:13:11.200And that has caused a whole mess of protests, students writing letters, fellow coaches resigning, other teachers supporting him.
00:13:23.320So Derek's going to have a lot more on that this afternoon.
00:13:27.260If you want to see his first story, it's on the site now.
00:16:05.340Well, I think, well, I think amongst university colleagues, I might be regarded as something of a barbarian.
00:16:15.800Well, as long as you embrace it rather than shut up over it, it works out.
00:16:19.560So, I mean, there's so much I'd like to cover with you, and there's so much that can be, but I kind of, I want to talk about just what came up recently on social media, because it's been interesting.
00:16:28.480You've spoken a lot, well, you specialize kind of in talking about freedoms, legislation, that sort of thing, how we could take care of it.
00:16:36.900But the issue of digital identification came up, which people are very concerned about, and how government could abuse that, which I fully agree, government could abuse it.
00:16:45.760I mean, I feel that the current move with Alberta's thing might be innocuous, but still, it brings up the discussion with our freedoms.
00:16:54.620And you've talked a lot about independence.
00:16:56.020We've got these holes in our freedoms, and we might have an opportunity coming if a province becomes independent.
00:17:03.980Where do we begin, though, then, to enshrine and protect those rights?
00:17:08.940If we become independent and just flip into the same system we just left, we aren't bringing ourselves forward at all, and we really need to start having those discussions.
00:17:17.680You're right on the money with this, Corey.
00:17:19.700And the danger is that what we'll get with independence, even if a referendum passes, is we will get basically business as usual, but without Ottawa.
00:17:31.400And, you know, that might be an improvement, but it's not different in kind.
00:17:38.180What we really need is a new kind of governing system for a new country, because, after all, people in Alberta are recognizing that Canada doesn't work very well, and yet there's an awful lot of Canada inside Alberta, too.
00:17:52.420So if you just escape the Canada that is outside Alberta, and you don't purge the Canada that is inside Alberta, you end up with a little Canada inside Alberta, and that doesn't get you to where you want to go.
00:18:04.360So we need to embrace the idea that an independent Alberta is going to start from scratch.
00:18:10.960You clear the table, and you think fresh about how you want your country to be governed, what kind of constitution you want.
00:18:18.380You do not adopt the Canadian constitution.
00:18:22.000You instead, my preference would be to take some elements of the American constitution, but then make your own, because even the American one's not perfect.
00:18:30.200But you have an opportunity here to do nation-building in a way that only comes around, like, once in a lifetime, if that.
00:18:40.820So it's a moment in time, and I hope Alberta will embrace it and start fresh with new thinking and a clean slate.
00:18:49.620Excellent. Yeah, and that's exactly it.
00:18:53.260I mean, I think of it in the sense of, you know, everybody kind of knows that one guy or girl that keeps going through relationships and splitting, and then going right back to a relationship with someone.
00:19:13.580I kind of like aspects of the Swiss system.
00:19:16.380A whole new hybrid could be built with, presumably, the best of a bunch of systems, but it would be tough to assemble it as well into a functional way.
00:19:24.160I mean, the timeline makes it tough to do it quickly.
00:20:53.440Because the government isn't empowered to censor you or to restrict your religion or to, as the case may be.
00:21:02.720So, I mean, the philosophy of that sounds magnificent.
00:21:07.360The reality is, though, I guess in a governing system, we still end up handing it some degree of authority and responsibility to some sort of governing power.
00:21:14.980And, of course, when they overreach, there won't be an if.
00:21:20.340You know, it's just the nature of them.
00:21:22.780What sort of things could we build in then as a recourse for the citizens to be able to push back and say, hey, you've violated our structure.
00:21:34.760We've got to do something to make sure they're accountable.
00:21:36.140Right. So one other thing that we do in our system, as with the Americans and, you know, across the Western world, is we have an entrenched political class, both in our elected chambers, like the House of Commons and the Alberta legislature, in the bureaucracy, which people are calling the deep state, understandably,
00:21:57.280and in the courts, where judges sit for a long, long time.
00:22:00.340So you have a vested interest, a constituency that has an interest in an expansive presence and power for the state.
00:22:09.440So one other thing that you do in combination with the first idea is you have severe term limits.
00:22:16.140You'd say nobody can work for the state in any capacity for longer than a certain number of years.
00:22:22.240You know, you pick something at random, let's say six, six years, six years in and then you're out.
00:22:27.280And then there's no reason for you to want an expanded state presence because you're not going to be part of it anymore.
00:22:34.080And so you disempower both the institutions and the individuals in the institutions so that you get rid of the dynamic of having powerful individuals running what are supposed to be democratic institutions.
00:22:47.060So in this kind of a situation, you would get rid almost immediately of things like the very heavy lobbying presence and the regulatory capture.
00:22:58.000People are not going to be there very long.
00:22:59.860And so it's not worthwhile trying to influence what they do.
00:23:05.540And as you said, you know, that some of the term people use is the deep state.
00:23:08.780Some, a lot of people forget that, you know, the politicians come and go, but these deputy ministers, senior bureaucrats, ones that you can't name unless you go digging deep into the government books.
00:23:22.120And they often actually will tell the ministerial office what to do, even though people don't realize it.
00:23:28.600But at the same time, just to play devil's advocate, some of those roles, a bit of continuity and consistency of leadership might help with some of the efficacy of their departments.
00:23:40.660I mean, if you're turning it over too regularly, couldn't that lead to other disruptions?
00:23:47.880So you don't want your government doing very much and you don't want it to be too efficient and you don't want all the expertise to be in the state.
00:23:58.280You want it to be in the private sector.
00:24:00.700And so you don't want to attract the best people and you don't want them to be there very long and you don't want them to be all that effective.
00:24:06.540So one of the great aspects of the American system, and in fact, one of the aspects that people fault it for, is gridlock.
00:24:17.060You know, you have a Senate and you have a House and you have the president and nothing ever gets done.
00:24:23.280Well, part of the beauty of it is that things don't get done.
00:24:26.940You don't want government doing too much.
00:24:28.880And so if you don't have the best, most efficient people in the deep state for very long, that, for my money, is a good thing.
00:24:39.300What you kind of want is not a professional bureaucratic class.
00:24:43.420You want, if I can put it this way, you want a bit of amateur government so that the expertise is in the private sector.
00:24:51.660You don't hear me disagreeing at all with any of that.
00:24:54.900So an interesting aspect of this, one of the commenters brought it up, Jordan.
00:25:02.720Let's say we get to the point, Alberta or maybe another province or whatever says, okay, we've done it.
00:25:50.140Like, how do you want the constitution to be from now on in this new country?
00:25:55.140And on the other hand, the question that you just asked was, all right, so how do we move from where we are to that?
00:26:01.340What kinds of detailed, even constitutional provisions do we need to require the state to back off on all the things, all the restrictions that are going to be included in the constitution?
00:26:14.080You have to, of course, on the next day after the conclusion of the negotiations, you have to have a path forward for the institutions of the state to be able to dissolve themselves and transfer their powers and so on.
00:26:31.080It's a detailed list, but it is remarkably doable, I think, as long as you have the set of principles that tell you where you're going.
00:26:40.480And I think that's the most important part.
00:26:41.740If you know where you're going, then the task of transitioning from here to there is a very doable thing.
00:26:50.640Yeah, well, there's no doubt it would be challenging and difficult, but anything worthwhile always will.
00:26:56.160I mean, some people also play whataboutism to stop any positive changes because they can list all the challenges that will come.
00:27:01.880And sure, there'll be some, but they can be surmounted.
00:27:04.460It's just saying, I mean, the more planning done, the better then.
00:27:07.300So part of the problem we got right now in Alberta, for example, though, we've got a clock ticking right now.
00:27:11.860We might be holding a referendum as early as into 2026.
00:27:14.840I think some circumstances are really going to have to change before we hit the point of a large positive yes in Alberta.
00:27:21.540But who knows? These are interesting times.
00:27:24.820If that comes about, like how should Albertans be preparing?
00:27:28.960Or even Quebec, it's starting to building up over there.
00:27:31.460Should there be, even in advance of this, some sort of general meetings or something where people can get together and formulate the kind of constitution we need?
00:27:40.400I think it might be time for that. I do.
00:27:42.820So the message at the beginning of this path was, well, let's not worry about that just right now.
00:27:48.380Let's get to the referendum, get across that threshold, and then we'll worry about what it looks like over the hill.
00:27:55.220I think you're close enough now that you need to have those conversations at least starting.
00:28:00.860And at the same time as well, you know, people, certain constituencies, parties have been putting forward visions of what it should look like.
00:28:10.500And so there's really no justification now for restraint.
00:28:15.880Let's all talk about what the new Alberta is supposed to look like.
00:28:19.600And there are going to be conflicts and disagreements about that, and that's inevitable.
00:28:25.940Because one thing that will take this over the finish line is if there is an expression of vision, if people understand what kind of a new society they're trying to achieve.
00:28:39.940I've said before that in some ways, Alberta has the opportunity to become the beacon of Western civilization in this adventure.
00:28:50.840And if you don't grab it, it'll be missed.
00:28:53.620And so that's the kind of conversation, the kind of constitutional conversation that I think ought to be starting.
00:28:59.340Yeah, well, I hope you help us out with those.
00:29:02.740I'm hoping that, you know, we get some groups, whether it's the APP or others, starting that sort of discussion.
00:29:09.780Because what we're asking Albertans to vote for in a referendum is to basically either have a smaller version of the same state, as we said before, which really isn't an improvement.
00:29:20.460Or leaping into a void where, okay, we'll iron out those details the day after the vote.
00:29:24.700A lot of people might just say, well, I'm not ready to vote for either of those yet, so we've got to get something together.
00:29:30.600But it's not, you know, and it's going to take a lot of debate, as you said.
00:29:34.040When I led the Alberta Independence Party, boy, depressingly, over 25 years ago, I had to have at least eight or nine constitutions sent to me.
00:29:42.840And these were printed out, you know, and mailed.
00:29:44.620I mean, the email documents weren't that good.
00:29:55.500And they would turn on their heel and stomp out of the room if they didn't get that in whole.
00:29:59.620So I think the organizers of this should understand that this is going to be a big, large process.
00:30:04.780Maybe it's the sort of thing they can work on while they're waiting for the courts to deal with whatever's going on in the referendum question.
00:30:17.220And it's just, as I said, such singular times, you know, as you said, once in a lifetime where people in a lot of countries, they'll just never get that opportunity in a lifetime.
00:30:32.380Well, we've got to make the most of it.
00:30:35.060There's a lot of moving parts, but that's one I don't think there's been enough discussion on.
00:30:38.900I really appreciate, you know, what you've added so far.
00:30:41.680I listened to you when you came out to Calgary and spoke as well and stuff on this from a surprising source from out of the eastern establishment.
00:30:49.280You've been very helpful for us out here, and I hope you continue to be.
00:30:54.080So before I let you go, I know you work with, you know, you're the executive director of Rights Probe.
00:30:58.520And where else can people find your work?
00:31:00.500Yeah, well, we have a website, rightsprobe.org.
00:31:03.100I also have a Substack page that people are welcome to subscribe to.
00:31:16.220The time wasn't long enough on this show segment, but we covered some ground, and I really appreciate you taking some time to speak to us on that today.
00:31:47.860I mean, right now, the APP, for example, has been holding a lot of meetings all over the province and packing houses and rooms and doing quite well.
00:31:55.120But they're all just preparing and preparing and preparing and preparing for this referendum, for the petitioning, which is important.
00:32:01.160But how long can you keep spinning your wheels?
00:32:03.120You've got a few months to spare now while we wait for yet another court ruling.
00:32:06.120Well, let's have these constitutional discussions.
00:32:08.740This is a big undertaking and an important one.
00:32:14.080Let's see some of the comments from Angry Canadian says, a new Alberta $10 bill featuring Corey Morgan.
00:33:50.260We got to take part in this sort of stuff to make sure that our own interests are represented.
00:33:55.620Maybe I'll call it, you know, a bit of a theme to the show today because I was annoyed, as I said, with these school boards, these horrific school boards.
00:34:11.240Because I had to look up, and I've already forgotten her name, who the school board trustee is in my area down in Ward 3 of the Foothills County.
00:34:19.860I mean, I like to think if I still had kids in school, I'd be paying closer attention, but I should anyways.
00:34:31.660And likewise, if you want an independent Alberta or independent Saskatchewan or independent combination of the two, or Quebec, which is really starting to get exciting over there where things are moving, you've got to take part if you want it to be in your interest.
00:34:45.440If you keep handing it off to someone else, your interests won't be served.
00:34:50.320So you've got to get up and get at it.
00:34:52.240And that's what nobody ever likes to think about or hear about sometimes.
00:34:56.420Let's see some of the other stuff going on.
00:34:57.940This is one that I think is going to get a lot of discussion.
00:35:02.840As Dave mentioned on the news update, Polyev has come out and announced, you know, that he's demanding an end to the temporary foreign worker program.
00:35:09.720And some people are really applauding that.
00:35:53.600The consequence of that is your cup of coffee is going to double in price.
00:35:56.980And I tell you what, despite what people claim, they piss and moan really quickly when what they pay for suddenly goes up a bit.
00:36:04.620But I remember a huge discussion, just to go into the anecdotes, when minimum wage, when I owned my pub and cafe, minimum wage kept getting hiked up on us.
00:36:15.500I could either reduce the food costs or increase the price.
00:36:18.580I usually would, you know, try to do it in a combination of both.
00:36:21.680And in one case, because I'd reduced, we used to give out a massive plate of nachos, you know, and they were really popular.
00:36:27.520I mean, you get a giant, it's a good sharing item and it was a good price and you could sit at your table and eat.
00:36:32.180Um, but I, as a restaurant owner, you would see a lot of those plates would come back with a quarter of it on the, you know, cause it was such a large portion and not everybody would eat the whole thing.
00:37:00.160Somehow I could have raised the price of the nachos a bit.
00:37:02.120Well, he would have complained about that too.
00:37:04.940What I'm saying is it doesn't mean that we should just keep using TFW as temporary foreign workers to keep filling the voids, but it's not as easy as just flicking the light switch and throwing them all out.
00:37:17.000We've got some systemic problems going on in general with our economy and with our system.
00:37:23.460And, uh, the, the, the temporary foreign worker program has been abused and it's being used incorrectly, or maybe there shouldn't be one at all.
00:37:30.780That's certainly up for debate, but people saying, just stop it right now and we'll deal with it later.
00:37:36.900I saw some of that discussion on X, just who cares?
00:37:39.520We'll just stop it, deport everybody and it'll be okay.
00:37:43.240Well, you're not having a closer look at how economics works.
00:37:46.260And if you rattle all your industries and your economy like that with such a shot, we are, our economy has already been getting a lot of rattling lately.
00:37:54.060Uh, the, the, the cost is going to reach you.
00:37:56.500That's who the end consumer always ends up being.
00:38:01.680I do think we should be going after that, that program.
00:38:03.880I think something that was funny and hilarious out of the whole thing, it was discovered that the CBC, yes, our state broadcaster uses temporary foreign workers, but we're being a little too simplistic to think that we can just shut something like that down and kick out all the people working within it and not pay some, some heavy consequences.
00:38:22.120The term, and I know it doesn't sell as well, uh, in a political soundbite.
00:38:25.780And that's part of why, you know, probably has no fool.
00:38:27.460Uh, he's just talking about going after the system as a whole and naming and shaming particular companies that are abusing it.
00:38:43.780And speaking of government waste, didn't we see that, you know, and performative actions, Doug Ford up there at the microphone tipping over a big bottle of Crown Royal that could have been donated to Elizabeth May.
00:38:55.760I mean, now she's just going to have to keep getting gin at full price, but really, you know, it's just this, this, this foolishness.
00:39:03.840All this tells me with this stupidity going on and whether we sell or Canadian carry boozes that are distilled in the United States or in Canada.
00:39:11.840Uh, I don't think the government should be in the booze business at all.
00:43:26.280Those four books that were beyond the pale.
00:43:30.140And, uh, then the Smith government wrote some rules saying this is what's not to go on there.
00:43:36.980So this school board so upset that the porn might get pulled down said, well, we're going to follow these rules to a T and apply that to all these classic novels and historical novels and pull them off the shelves because we'll claim she told us to.
00:43:53.620It's a political stunt by a school board full of leftist lunatics who prefer child porn over on a child porn, but pornography exposed to children just so they can score points against the premier rather than just saying, geez, something went wrong.
00:44:19.000Just because they get exposed to it there doesn't mean the school has to expose them to it as well.
00:44:24.320I first found porn when I was a kid because I found a rolled up swank magazine in the bottom of my father's golf bag back in the 80s and off into the woods.
00:44:34.300Yes, even back then kids would find it and read it, but we don't need to facilitate it.
00:44:39.600And it's certainly not the bloody role of the school to.
00:44:41.860Is there even a grain of common sense to, you know, somebody speak up and look at that and say, geez, maybe this shouldn't be on the shelf.
00:44:51.720But instead they did a pushback and a fake book ban.
00:44:55.080You know, they fabricated a whole new issue rather than just actually address something that's a bloody problem.
00:45:03.100If you just pull the damn books in the first place to, yes, I guess these don't belong in front of elementary school children.
00:45:07.840Pictures of men going down on each other.