Western Standard - Government COVID policies have fed Canada’s measles outbreak

00:00:00.000 Good day.

00:00:29.800 welcome to the cory morrigan show back away from the global energy show and in the comfort of the

00:00:34.680 studio again a little easier in here for things well lots on the news front today we got a by

00:00:41.560 election going on in old's didsbury three hills that's going to be finished by the time we do our

00:00:46.840 next show we've got uh the g7 summit wrapped up i don't know if really anything much was

00:00:52.760 accomplished or happened there it's hard to say but we were there covering it the whole time

00:00:56.360 time the Middle East war is expanding I think Chris Oldcorn will expand a little bit on that

00:01:01.580 for us in a moment he's going to give us some updates on the news and uh well the independence

00:01:07.020 movement is still going strong I've got as a guest coming up in a little while uh Calgary Fish Creek

00:01:12.380 MLA Eric Bouchard and he's holding an independence town hall in Calgary which of course has people

00:01:17.620 worked up because he's daring to even talk about it they don't even want us to talk about it well

00:01:21.920 too bad. We're going to talk about it anyways. Either way, I'm going to talk about something

00:01:26.220 else and get things rolling here. So there's always been a segment of the population. They

00:01:31.460 oppose all vaccinations. You know, they've never wanted to take part in them. So they

00:01:35.560 have religious objections or some are just paranoid, whatever their reasons. The number

00:01:40.300 of people though, refusing vaccination really wasn't of much concern because most Canadians

00:01:45.160 took part in vaccination programs. Herd immunity was obtained and many diseases virtually vanished

00:01:50.780 from the landscape. Now we're seeing new outbreaks of diseases such as measles, whooping cough, even

00:01:56.060 polio seems to be making a reappearance in some spots. Now authoritarian-minded people are reacting

00:02:00.980 predictably and destructively to the new outbreaks. Some are calling for crackdowns, forced

00:02:05.540 vaccinations, while other morons are implying that people who refuse vaccinations should be denied 0.99

00:02:10.420 medical care. Hey, if you want to have that discussion on ending universal health care, fine, 0.99

00:02:14.180 but if not, let's get a little realistic here. They don't understand, though, that this is the

00:02:19.060 reaction that fostered the mistrust in the establishment that led to the resurgence of

00:02:23.380 these old diseases in the first place. While COVID vaccination mandates might have ended,

00:02:28.940 we haven't seen any retractions or apologies from the medical authorities for having wrongly

00:02:34.200 imposed them upon people. Citizens had been fed a bill of goods and a trust in the establishment

00:02:39.520 was shattered. If the state can't admit it made mistakes or misrepresented the benefits of the

00:02:44.760 potential harms of the COVID vaccination mandates, why should people trust the state now?

00:02:49.940 When the vaccines for COVID appeared on the scene, we were told they'd prevent transmission

00:02:53.580 of the virus as other vaccines do. The untruth of that case actually quickly became evident,

00:02:58.560 yet the authorities refused to back down on coerced vaccination. To have mandated vaccinations

00:03:03.980 in any circumstance is an abhorrent attack on a person's bodily autonomy. To maintain vaccine

00:03:09.200 mandates when it's evident, the unvaccinated person is no more likely to transmit the disease

00:03:13.100 than a vaccinated one is even worse. Canadians learned, though, that the state would rather die

00:03:17.740 on a hill of misguided principle than back down on a policy. And now citizens are paying the price

00:03:22.480 because that shattered trust has led to people shunning inoculations with proven benefits

00:03:26.620 and safety records. I can't wait for rabies to reappear on the scene or tetanus. When it was

00:03:32.300 proven that healthy children were immune to the ill effects of COVID-19, schools remained closed

00:03:36.880 and it was illegal for children to go to a playground. There was a kid brutalized by police

00:03:41.400 in Calgary for the crime of ice skating. And again, we never saw an apology. People can't and

00:03:46.520 won't forget this soon. It's become clear that medical policies are more about control than they

00:03:51.020 are about protecting the health of citizens. We need to rekindle a relationship of trust somehow

00:03:56.700 with the state, and it won't come easily. I mean, despite courts dropping charges against people who

00:04:01.440 dare to violate control mandates, and despite the lawsuits being won by people who lost their jobs

00:04:06.680 over vaccination status, the government hasn't done a single thing to ensure such things don't 1.00

00:04:11.200 happen again. We remain one viral outbreak away from another mass overreaction and the destruction

00:04:16.220 of countless careers and relationships. In some senses, we got lucky with the COVID-19 pandemic.

00:04:20.920 The virus was devastating for elderly and sickly people, but overall, it wasn't terribly dangerous

00:04:26.960 relative to many other infectious diseases. The Spanish flu wiped out countless children

00:04:30.880 and devastated many healthy people. Now imagine if a disease as lethal as the Spanish flu or the

00:04:36.340 Vibonic plague appeared on the scene. Gun-shy citizens would refuse vaccination or quarantine

00:04:42.200 efforts much more vigorously than they did with COVID, and the consequences will be devastating.

00:04:47.580 We could be fortunate enough to have a vaccine for a new outbreak in short order, but we could

00:04:51.660 see thousands of people dying because people refuse to take it. They don't trust the bloody

00:04:55.040 government. That sort of outcome will be the state's fault, not the citizens who've been

00:04:59.260 trained not to trust it. We've got to try and encourage people to take part in inoculation

00:05:03.800 programs for tried and true vaccinations. But that encouragement must come through education

00:05:08.280 and positive messaging. The gun to the head approach through mandates and coercion only

00:05:12.820 leads to reduced uptake in vaccinations. Let's get results-based policies, guys. Let's take one

00:05:18.360 lesson away from the COVID-19 debacle of nothing else. Drop the authoritarianism and people will

00:05:25.760 take up the vaccines. But right now it's ridiculous. Yes, things like whooping cough and measles 0.96

00:05:30.700 coming around. And yeah, no, I don't agree with people choosing not to get those vaccinations,

00:05:35.260 but they have the right to choose not to. And the fact that it's increasing the number of people

00:05:40.820 who are choosing not to, again, tells us that the policies failed. So think harder, guys. I know

00:05:45.800 that's asking a lot. All right, let's get a view from our man in Saskatchewan, Chris Oldcorn. He's

00:05:52.080 been running a live blog and a number of things and is always putting lots of stories up there

00:05:55.740 at the Western Standard. How's it going, Chris? I'm doing well, Corey. How are you?

00:05:59.420 Pretty good, actually. Pretty good. It's nice out here. Summer days.

00:06:03.640 So I guess I'll start with the most recent. You've been kind of keeping track of the budding Israel, Iran, so many Middle Eastern countries and wars going on right now.

00:06:14.380 Israel-Iran war going on. What's happening out there right now?

00:06:19.440 Well, we've entered the sixth day. It started last week, and it looks like Iran is definitely up against the ropes now.

00:06:28.520 there the internet is shut down in the country there's no news media there is that even whatsapp

00:06:35.720 which is the way iranians talk to each other both inside and outside of iran apparently it's the

00:06:40.920 only way they can communicate without the government interfering in the communications

00:06:46.120 and the phone system is down and israel has continued to bomb major centers and go after

00:06:53.240 after their state broadcaster. Earlier today, they took out the internal security headquarters.

00:07:01.080 And it looks like apparently Iran has reached out to the White House asking for a negotiation.

00:07:07.400 And then after that came public, Iran said, no, we would never negotiate, basically.

00:07:11.700 And overnight, three airplanes left Iran to Oman, which will be interesting because I'm guessing

00:07:19.720 that the planes that went there were not carrying civilians, they were probably carrying the upper 0.94

00:07:26.200 echelons of the Iranian Islamic regime. Yeah, and I mean, the way Israel's hit, 0.60

00:07:32.560 and you know that this has kind of been in the works and in the planning for a long time.

00:07:37.380 I mean, the rationale is that Iran has a nuclear program, and they're getting close to having the

00:07:42.540 ability for a nuclear weapon. But is there any indication of evidence of this somewhere? I mean,

00:07:47.480 know there's always been the rumors this is kind of we get memories of the old gulf war when they

00:07:51.640 said iraq had weapons of mass destruction and they really turns out they didn't does it look like

00:07:57.240 there might be evidence of actual uh nuclear capability uh in this case yes uh apparently

00:08:02.920 they were getting close to one functional uh nuclear weapon uh with an with the ability to

00:08:10.280 create a few more a little bit further down the line i've heard anywhere from only being 15 days

00:08:17.000 away to being three to four years away for that first one uh i don't think there's any solid

00:08:22.600 evidence on exactly on how close they were uh however um one of the reasons they did this

00:08:28.920 attack was to take out those nuclear enrichment facilities but one of them is inside of a mountain

00:08:35.320 and the missiles that israel has uh cannot take that site out they're not powerful enough

00:08:45.380 The only one that could take that would be the U.S. because it requires a 30,000 pound bunker buster bomb.

00:08:53.340 And Israel doesn't have one. 0.69

00:08:55.060 So if the intent is to take out both nuclear enrichment facilities completely, the U.S. would have to get involved because Israel doesn't presently have the capability to do that.

00:09:05.720 They can take out everything else they want, and they can take out the other nuclear enrichment facility that they've already actually severely damaged, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

00:09:18.060 And they've been also targeting the scientists.

00:09:22.340 So they are taking out the top nuclear scientists in Iran.

00:09:26.300 So even after this, it's going to take them a while to find scientists to rebuild the program.

00:09:31.540 And apparently this attack has been 20 years in the making.

00:09:35.720 but they only decided to attack about three months ago and got set up to do it.

00:09:41.240 Yeah. Well, I mean, it's, it's concerning. I mean, I, as I said, I, I get a little bit of

00:09:45.920 misgivings because I look at what happened with the, uh, you know, supposed mass weapons of mass

00:09:50.740 destruction in Iraq, but at the same time, if there's any country on the planet, I don't want 1.00

00:09:54.820 having a functional nuclear weapon, it would probably be Iran. I mean, if there's any company 0.76

00:09:58.220 that actually would be perhaps be ideological and fundamentalist enough to actually use it,

00:10:03.280 that would probably be the place. Yes. And we have seen from Iran erratic behavior. We have seen 1.00

00:10:12.700 in the past them trying to hide their nuclear enrichment program when they allow other countries

00:10:18.640 to come in and look at their nuclear facilities. So we know that they've been doing this. There's

00:10:23.660 no doubt that they are. The real question was how close they actually were. And that we probably

00:10:29.980 we'll never know due to the fact that you know one of the enrichment facilities is essentially

00:10:33.800 destroyed and the other one at some point i fully expect that the u.s will get involved and end that

00:10:39.400 one as well because they're the only one that can't so well we'll watch things unfold and and

00:10:44.940 you'll keep uh updating on us uh while i got you though what else is happening out in saskatchewan

00:10:50.380 what kind of stories have you got a little closer to home right now uh well over the weekend um

00:10:56.080 there was a street fight near the University of Regina involving a bunch of international students

00:11:02.480 from India. Apparently they were fighting over a girl and then one of them decided it would be a

00:11:08.960 great idea to go get his car and then ram it into the street fight. So he was charged with attempted

00:11:14.880 murder. He's an 18 year old student from India and one of the individuals was taken to the hospital

00:11:22.720 with a head injury. However, there's been no update other than they're not in the ICU,

00:11:28.320 so it wasn't a life-threatening head injury. And a few people were treated at the scene as well.

00:11:35.760 So that's going on, and that's been part of an ongoing SAG at the University of Regina

00:11:40.880 with regards to issues with the campus and international students. So that's just par

00:11:49.520 for the course presently uh and then we've got scott moe and uh danielle smith doing a bit of

00:11:56.160 an energy tour after the first ministers meeting up in saskatoon obviously touting a pipeline uh

00:12:03.360 to particularly the one they want to get going the quickest would be the one uh through bc uh

00:12:09.440 and then also going north uh to the uh arctic circle and then also if if this could ever get

00:12:17.760 done i don't know if quebec would agree to it but obviously a pipeline to uh both coasts would be

00:12:24.560 ideal uh but uh they're really sort of putting their their first attempts into getting one to bc

00:12:33.360 first uh it's the faster one that could get built it's a shorter distance to build the pipeline and

00:12:38.160 it opens up uh all the asian pacific markets uh for oil for example from alberta and saskatchewan

00:12:45.360 So that's the one they're really touting.

00:12:47.460 And then this afternoon, they are doing a press conference about energy and agriculture up in Lloydminster as well.

00:12:53.240 Great. Yeah, well, it's good to see.

00:12:55.340 I think our Western Premier is acting together for common cause.

00:12:58.360 They've got a better chance of doing it rather than on individuals.

00:13:01.480 So and actually, I'm going to let you go pretty soon because we have an MLA who's up in that Lloydminster meeting,

00:13:06.080 who's going to come on and chat with us a bit further.

00:13:08.480 So I appreciate the update.

00:13:10.880 And before I let you go, then what else can we look forward to coming from you?

00:13:14.660 got some any stuff in the works there yeah i got a couple other stories coming uh one is about um

00:13:20.840 the gen approves the gender identity curriculum since 2015 uh approved by the saskatchewan

00:13:28.300 government which has got some very interesting things in it including not telling your students

00:13:35.660 about heterosexual privilege and incorporating minorities into your everyday classroom work like

00:13:43.260 two trans people and one gay person walked into a bar.

00:13:46.700 How many people is there in total?

00:13:48.700 And literally things like that to how teachers are supposed to do math in

00:13:52.880 classrooms and things like that.

00:13:54.200 So that's going to be a very eyeopening story for people,

00:13:58.140 particularly since it's been approved since 2015, a decade ago.

00:14:02.060 Well, we're living in bizarre times.

00:14:03.840 I appreciate you writing it up and covering it for us anyway.

00:14:07.320 So thanks for the update today, Chris, and hope we get to talk again soon.

00:14:11.100 Sounds good. Thanks, Corey.

00:14:12.280 Great. Thank you.

00:14:13.260 that is chris old corn uh for regular standard readers you know his name because you see him he

00:14:17.340 posts a lot of stories he covers a lot you know beyond just the the stuff going on right in

00:14:21.660 saskatchewan but broader issues as uh we were talking about with the the ongoing things in

00:14:25.980 iran and and the mess going on over there okay so i know he has limited time so let's bring in

00:14:30.940 eric bouchard he's the mla for calgary fish creek as i said he's up in lloydminster and kind of

00:14:36.060 dialing in while he can how you doing eric i'm doing well corey how are you really good really

00:14:41.820 good uh so i mean what a fascinating time to get you and good timing while you're up in lloyd there

00:14:48.220 what i want to talk about uh of course is you have a town hall meeting coming up in in calgary on

00:14:55.420 independence can you kind of expand on that certainly yeah we have a town hall on june 25th

00:15:01.260 and it's titled the courage to listen and exploring what sovereignty within a united canada means for

00:15:07.100 Alberta. We've got, you know, quite the lineup of speakers showing up. You know, we have Chris Simms

00:15:12.700 from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a couple other economists. We've got lawyers. We have,

00:15:21.020 you know, we want to present a dialogue showing all sides of a very topical and very important

00:15:28.220 conversation. So we plan this, I think, maybe a month before the election. And yeah, June 25th.

00:15:35.420 If you haven't got your tickets yet, you can find them at couragetolisten.ca.

00:15:39.500 And, yeah, we hope to see as many people there expecting another packed house.

00:15:44.500 Yeah, well, it's a good title for the event.

00:15:46.800 In the fact that it's there to listen, you're not necessarily taking a side one way or another.

00:15:51.100 And the fact that you have to show courage to even have an event where you can discuss these things.

00:15:54.540 There's been some pretty, I guess you could say, hysteric opposition.

00:15:58.180 People feeling that such a town hall shouldn't even be held.

00:16:00.420 it is uh it's it's shocking to be uh to be completely frank that uh if people don't agree

00:16:08.320 with with a con agree with a subject that you like i i don't know what the answer is um you

00:16:14.720 and i talked uh chatted a while ago you know my dad came uh to canada from england after world war

00:16:20.200 ii and we did have uh the monarchist league of canada was uh was set to speak but they didn't

00:16:26.440 uh feel that they had enough time to prepare to present but i don't i don't know what the answer

00:16:32.120 is and uh so that's why we're trying to you know with with as many people as possible explore

00:16:38.120 what it looks like what what a framework for for alberta moving forward is you know the constituents

00:16:43.480 of calgary lougheed who i represent uh shortly after the election um many emails you know many

00:16:49.560 people coming into the office they're they certainly have a lot of questions so i don't

00:16:54.360 have the answers so we're going to let uh we're going to trust the experts and let uh let them

00:16:58.920 answer any questions that people may have yeah well and the interest in this event i mean it

00:17:03.800 hasn't just been negative that's the stuff that tends to make the news but it sounds like a lot

00:17:06.840 of people are really looking forward to this uh from a positive perspective as well i think so

00:17:12.040 yeah i think it's it's it's it's such an important conversation you know i i understand well one of

00:17:17.320 our speakers uh jeff rath a lawyer and uh i think alberta prosperity project uh they were pulling

00:17:23.080 putting out today i don't know if it's been released yet but they have a fully

00:17:26.680 costed financial plan for what uh an independent alberta would look like so i'm you know i'm

00:17:33.240 willing to listen to all sides to to any conversation not shut anything down so and

00:17:38.120 i think there's there is a lot of interest there should be a lot of interest because

00:17:41.960 alberta has been at the forefront of you know leading canada for for quite a long time now and

00:17:47.880 And I think we should and will continue being the leader.

00:17:51.600 You know, Canada does better when Alberta does better.

00:17:54.540 Yeah, well, and then further from Alberta, as you might have heard earlier, I had Chris Oldcorn on from Saskatchewan.

00:18:00.120 And you're coming from Lloyd, you know, that perfect border city, half in Saskatchewan, half in Alberta.

00:18:05.420 And it's kind of a combined caucus meeting you got going on there?

00:18:08.340 It is, yeah.

00:18:08.920 So we have both governments, the Saskatchewan Party and then the United Conservative Party.

00:18:13.580 We've been meeting all day.

00:18:14.700 uh had meetings this morning with some of the town councillors and uh yeah we just got underway

00:18:20.020 a little while ago with uh with both governments and uh all afternoon and there will be a press

00:18:25.800 conference as your previous guest had mentioned and i would imagine some of the topics that we'll

00:18:30.400 be speaking of uh will be brought up yeah well saskatchewan and alberta have a great deal in

00:18:36.180 common and i i imagine um just as far as two governments getting together with a few folks

00:18:40.480 the same room you must be uh sharing a lot of uh like interests it's been it's been amazing so far

00:18:48.080 you know i didn't know uh any any government officials from uh from the saskatchewan government

00:18:53.520 up until this morning and uh yeah people are wonderful just some great conversations uh

00:18:58.480 certainly common interests and and very like-minded so i'm looking forward to the

00:19:02.960 afternoon of networking and uh you know staying in close close contact with some people and uh

00:19:08.240 yeah one side note i've spoken with a couple uh they just recently had their election and uh

00:19:13.680 spoke with a couple new mlas who who are completely brand new which uh was was exactly

00:19:19.840 where i was just uh just over two years ago so um we we certainly have a lot of uh common common

00:19:26.560 ground and common interest to go over great well it sounds like a really positive gathering and i

00:19:32.240 know you've got a hard out you got to get back to it there so uh is there anything else you'd like

00:19:36.320 like to add before i let you get back to work there um well i think you know i guess going

00:19:41.860 back to the shutting down conversations i think you know we're we're in a place in society now

00:19:47.060 where i think it's it's more important than ever to have dialogue and and regardless if you agree

00:19:53.100 or disagree my hope is that you know people people can find you know some common ground or if you

00:19:59.120 don't leave leave like you felt like you uh you were part of a conversation and and i would

00:20:04.620 encourage those who who may may push back on on what we're doing specifically in Calgary Lougheed

00:20:10.720 with our town hall you know give it a listen give it a try you know if you don't if it's not for you

00:20:17.320 that's that's fine too but you know I look at I come from my background previous was in the small

00:20:23.860 business sector and I I would never dream of alienating customers and you know I think so

00:20:30.500 so important now to to to open the doors to anyone to have dialogue great well i appreciate

00:20:36.660 you stepping up to to hold that event there and uh i i'm looking forward to it i'm it'll sure

00:20:42.820 sure be interesting if nothing else so uh thank you again for for giving us some of your time

00:20:47.060 today uh mr bouchard and uh we'll talk again soon always a pleasure thanks very much for having me

00:20:51.780 me on, Corey. Great. Thanks. You bet. Bye-bye. Bye. So we'll bring in Daryl Komick as well

00:20:59.680 to kind of expand on it. He works down at Calgary Fish Creek. Some people might know him. He's been

00:21:03.920 very active in organizing and putting things together. And I imagine he's pretty immersed

00:21:08.140 in this event because I know Eric had to run fairly quickly and I wanted to discuss this a

00:21:12.760 little further. So maybe Daryl can expand a little bit on what sort of space we got left Daryl and

00:21:19.080 and how people can uh take part in this town hall thank you corey i mean participating in

00:21:24.360 the courage to listen i mean the idea was to build a framework for a sovereign alberta within

00:21:29.640 united canada and so in order to do that we wanted to have speakers across the entire spectrum uh

00:21:36.280 with multiple perspectives i mean we uh we see the very um organized effort to uh speak to

00:21:43.560 independence which has been really well done and and now we're seeing a lot of pushback from a

00:21:50.120 group called reboot to try to shut down gatherings of people anywhere and limit free speech so it's

00:21:57.800 important i think to uh say hey you know let's come and have the conversation as eric says and

00:22:03.240 in lahid we have a saying it says that uh let's let's win people over one conversation at a time

00:22:07.640 let's not prejudge where people come from and let's try to uh be gentle and and listen to what

00:22:14.840 people say so this time we went with something that said the courage to listen it's a name that

00:22:19.720 really uh speaks to our approach which is to be open have active dialogue and the courage to

00:22:26.520 listen is really going to have some amazing speakers i mean yes you're going to see people

00:22:31.240 like jeff brath mitch sylvester you'll see chris sims bruce party they'll be there but you'll also

00:22:37.320 hear from ben trudeau now ben trudeau has a very interesting story he was actually one of the

00:22:41.560 people in the room when they wrote the original sovereignty question in quebec but he he sees

00:22:47.880 um sovereignty in alberta very differently uh certainly he has a framework for a sovereign

00:22:53.400 alberta within united canada and talks about how people can actually how albertans could actually

00:22:58.840 benefit inside of canada if they actually worked within the parameters as opposed to

00:23:06.440 simply being a shill for the federal government yeah well there's a few perspectives i i think

00:23:11.880 the regional alienation the frustration that's something common among i'm sure a large majority

00:23:18.440 of albertans but albertans are still divided on how to address that how to deal with it and i

00:23:23.400 mean the definition of sovereignty itself uh depending on who you ask could mean different

00:23:28.280 things so this event kind of offers people to give a few different views on that well you have to ask

00:23:32.840 yourself you know do you feel that alberta is treated fairly by ottawa that's the first question

00:23:37.800 if if you say yes then you you have a predisposed idea on how how good we have it in alberta and how

00:23:45.480 how much canada gives back to alberta uh if you say well maybe uh maybe i'm thinking back to the

00:23:51.560 equalization referendum that we've already had where 62 of albertans says no we want to see

00:23:57.240 uh the change to equalization that is an incredibly complicated process because that

00:24:01.720 requires a constitutional change we've seen meech lake we've seen so many other issues where you

00:24:06.920 can't change the constitution in canada because the people receiving the money that comes from

00:24:12.600 excess money that alberta uh generates and sends to ottawa they don't want to give it up so in

00:24:19.240 order to come up with uh some solutions here we need to have the active conversation i mean peter

00:24:24.440 Lougheed did it in 79 through 81 and that of course related to Alberta wanting to see receive world

00:24:33.000 price for oil so interestingly enough it was about oil at the time at the time the federal

00:24:39.640 government said no you need to subsidize the rest of Canada with your the price of your oil that

00:24:44.280 changed but that took a lot of pressure that took a lot of people saying oh this is not a fair deal

00:24:50.360 uh remember back to 1931 that's when alberta actually got the rights to uh the resources

00:24:56.360 here in in our province so the deal has always been a little uh inequitable and if when you read

00:25:02.360 jeff rat's uh package that called the value of freedom you'll see that basically alberta is 50

00:25:09.080 billion dollars contributes an extra 50 billion dollars and then from that we get a small portion

00:25:14.600 back so uh there's going to be multiple frameworks to debate with people uh and for them to listen

00:25:21.000 about different perspectives so i encourage you to have a ticket get a ticket you can watch it

00:25:25.240 you can either stream it or you can come in person to the town hall we have a number of different

00:25:30.840 varieties of it or options available for people and so if you go to our website that courage to

00:25:36.440 listen dot ca you can see and get all the tickets there yeah so your venue's solid i mean you you 0.74

00:25:43.720 You pointed out that those clowns with Reboot are trying to shut things down.

00:25:47.160 I know there was an APP event that they managed to intimidate a host from backing down and closing the venue. 0.90

00:25:52.860 I mean, when I look at something where there's two sides to it, and I see one side doesn't want to allow others to debate,

00:25:58.580 I almost automatically assume that the anti-speech people are wrong.

00:26:03.740 I appreciate you guys.

00:26:05.360 You know, you're not letting them push you around.

00:26:06.920 I mean, I was at an event last weekend in Red Deer, a large one,

00:26:10.800 And there was one of the high points of it was a debate between Knight Legg and Keith Wilson, both on, you know, different views on independence.

00:26:21.200 And I tell you, you know, Legg was in the majority in there, but the room was absolutely polite and welcoming to that different point of view being up there.

00:26:28.200 There's quite a different attitude, I think, among the conservative folks who want to welcome discourse and some different ideas. 0.93

00:26:33.860 And then the clowns like Reboot who just want to shut down all possible different points of view.

00:26:39.100 We've had experience, of course, with this group before when we did our kids event called Let Kids Be Kids. 0.95

00:26:45.560 That was an event that talked about child pornography in libraries.

00:26:49.780 They tried to shut us down at the venue.

00:26:51.840 They caused a lot of problems for the venue, cost them a lot of money because they took a perspective to try to damage small business.

00:26:59.060 So this is the challenge that we're seeing out there right now is that these groups want to shut you down from speaking.

00:27:07.200 Now, they're keyboard warriors. They're happy to do all sorts of intimidating things online.

00:27:12.120 But when it actually comes to talking and debating the points, they don't have any points to debate.

00:27:17.220 That's what they tell me. Like you said there, as soon as they try to shut you down from the beginning,

00:27:22.260 you know they don't have much to say that is constructive.

00:27:25.320 So we're going to have a calm conversation, a dialogue, so to speak.

00:27:29.600 We're not looking to raise any barns or anything like that.

00:27:34.400 this is going to be a long process of education for Albertans. They need to know. And by having

00:27:38.860 multiple views, I think Albertans are smart enough that they're going to pick the path.

00:27:43.580 They're going to understand what is best for Albertans in the long run. And how we define

00:27:49.520 sovereignty is really irrelevant right now. I mean, this is stage one of a seven-stage process

00:27:54.440 that would literally occur. So should there be the activation of the Citizens Initiative Act,

00:28:00.680 then there'll be a referendum there'll be more education then there'll be a vote i mean this is

00:28:05.320 a long time coming so people are going to have to have the opportunity to listen and i mean we saw

00:28:09.980 it we got one of our speakers got shut down uh last week because uh groups felt that we shouldn't

00:28:16.680 have a federalist speaking the federalists themselves didn't think that the federalist

00:28:20.660 person should be speaking about why it was valuable for alberta to be in canada so that

00:28:25.460 confusion it's a way that um the quiet not even the quiet the very minor uh opposition uh tries

00:28:34.660 to intimidate what looks like a very large movement to want to listen and want to understand

00:28:41.140 yeah it's frustrating and you know i find it insulting because it's their way of telling

00:28:45.700 albertans we don't trust you to make up your own mind we don't trust you to listen to different

00:28:50.820 voices so we want to take away the ability for you to even hear those so you don't make a decision

00:28:55.860 that we don't agree with it it's really a vile attitude well it's intellectual warfare and i think

00:29:01.700 one of the challenges we have with canadians is sometimes we're intellectually lazy

00:29:05.300 we don't seek out more information we just want what's spoon fed it's easy but understanding

00:29:10.820 deep complex issues or maybe even simple issues just requires a certain amount of critical thinking

00:29:16.100 and these days we're not seeing a lot of critical thinking we're not seeing a lot of people think

00:29:20.340 about i mean i'm even looking at something new bill c5 if you read the fine print of that um

00:29:26.020 build the nation plan it says that the federal government can take away any and all rights of

00:29:30.900 individuals and laws at its whim in perpetuity so that's a very concerning thing it reminds me a lot

00:29:37.460 of the history and if we look back at history we see that it repeats itself so are we at the same

00:29:42.820 point as we were in 1979-81 i don't know but what i do know is that people should have the willingness

00:29:48.740 to want to listen, to come out, and just to show a little courage, show a little spine,

00:29:53.920 so you can speak intelligently about these topics. Absolutely. Well, thank you again. I know you

00:29:59.080 never shy away from any debates there, Daryl. You welcome it on many fronts and venues, so I

00:30:04.520 appreciate that, and I appreciate you coming on today. Maybe just before I let you go, one more

00:30:08.480 time, where can people find information on this for the stream or to take part? It's very simple,

00:30:13.300 thecouragetolisten.ca. You can get the tickets there, or you can go to our other website,

00:30:18.500 ucpcalgarilahi.ca. We have a lot of information that's posted there. It gives the overview of

00:30:23.660 the speakers. And in fact, I think we just posted momentarily ago the first of several papers that

00:30:30.500 we will post for people to get information. This one, The Value of Freedom, and we'll have others

00:30:35.480 about building a framework. Excellent. Thanks again, Daryl. Great to talk to you, and maybe

00:30:39.780 i'll see you there thank you corey right on so yeah check that out guys the courage to listen

00:30:45.040 like i said i love that title because again it's not even taken aside it's just saying and it's

00:30:48.780 sad that you have to show courage to have an event where people can listen but that's what

00:30:52.920 we're at now that's what is going on when they're trying to shut down the venues trying to shut down

00:30:57.260 the discourse and they did it before and people said it was hyperbolic when they were talking

00:31:01.280 about yeah the child porn in libraries we saw it coming up recently from the government there were 0.99

00:31:05.500 in children's school libraries, books with, with men having oral sex with each other. It's bizarre 0.99

00:31:13.080 that anybody in their right mind can think these things are, are acceptable, but you know, if we

00:31:19.100 don't expose them, we can't fix them. And I, I really get frustrated with, uh, you know, one

00:31:25.560 side that always is trying to shout down or shut the speech down on another one. That's when my

00:31:30.520 back gets up. And it, it just seems to be, I understand there's people on the fringe of the

00:31:35.080 right? Absolutely, they exist. But they don't seem to take the tact of trying to shut down

00:31:39.800 discourse of their opponents. They do their other things. But the far left, I mean, I've seen that

00:31:43.480 at universities where they're standing outside in the hallway with bullhorns and banging on drums

00:31:48.040 and banging on doors and kicking windows because they don't like a speaker who's come to the

00:31:52.260 university. This is wrong. This is wrong. You know, I wish the left would kind of have just a little

00:31:57.840 bit of looking at themselves and where they came from. Look back to the 60s. Look back to Berkeley,

00:32:04.180 you know, which now is just a hotbed of vile extremism. But that used to be the place where

00:32:09.720 it was the other way around. It was the old conservatives who were trying to shut down,

00:32:13.900 they were knocking down protests, the anti-war protests, they were trying to shut down speech.

00:32:18.580 You had McCarthyism wasn't that long prior to that. And these were left-wing, but they were

00:32:24.840 freedom-minded people at these universities. They were fighting for the right to express,

00:32:29.040 to debate, to protest. And now they've morphed into this authoritarian animal that doesn't feel

00:32:35.520 people have the right to get together and discuss issues, even if they're sensitive, even if not

00:32:40.280 everybody agrees with them. So always err on the side of freedom, folks, always. Err on the side

00:32:49.280 of free speech. It means you might have to hear things you don't like. You got to hear from people

00:32:53.200 you don't disagree with. It might make a movement go forward a little bit that you don't think is

00:32:57.900 going to be good for you or your country. Debate it then. Counter-organize. Run a different group.

00:33:05.500 Hold a different meeting. But don't try to shut down speech. That's always wrong. Always. So I'm

00:33:13.620 really thrilled that Daryl and Eric are, you know, staying steadfast and pushing this along

00:33:19.440 because these kinds of things are very, very important. It doesn't matter what side of it

00:33:22.740 you're on, having these open discourses, this sort of thing, cutting through the BS, the rabble 1.00

00:33:28.240 is essential. I mean, look at social media today where we are exposed to so much misinformation,

00:33:34.280 so much spun stuff, and it comes from the left, it comes from the right. There's no beating,

00:33:39.820 getting people into the same room together and exchanging ideas, discussing and debating because

00:33:45.760 there's no internet filter, there's no AI, there's nothing else in between you and that person.

00:33:50.300 That's an actual interaction. That's the way good things come about. So I thank them for that. All

00:33:56.440 right, let's get through some of the comments. I guess I'll kind of dial back because it went

00:33:59.640 back a ways with Cyril Arnold saying, we're back to the Iran issue going on with Israel,

00:34:05.420 saying, Iran has deals with Russia. They want to have a problem recovering their nuclear program.

00:34:09.440 Okay, yeah, Russia has been kind of backing Iran, but you know, that's one of the things I was 0.86

00:34:12.700 thinking on. If Russia wanted Iran to have a nuke, Russia has plenty of them left over from the Cold 0.82

00:34:17.780 War. They could just drop one by through Uber Eats or whatever way they would get one there.

00:34:22.520 I think Russia likes using Iran as a disruptor in the Middle East, and they're certainly a source 1.00

00:34:26.520 of oil. But that's what I was talking about is of all the places to be a nuclear power,

00:34:31.140 most people would be worried about Iran because even Russia doesn't want to see a nuke actually

00:34:34.800 used. And Iran is one of the countries that if they got one, there's a really good chance they 1.00

00:34:40.040 would actually use it. And, you know, 90% of the world, China, Russia, even, and so on,

00:34:44.860 they don't want to see that they want to see many nasty things but they don't want to see a nuclear 1.00

00:34:49.120 war but who knows but uh i don't know if russia's that eager to keep iran nuclear able they just

00:34:54.880 like to keep iran there as a spoiler uh kjf saying what a pipeline to skagway being an option so

00:35:02.340 skagway is kind of up in alaska that was the big jump off point for the klondike rush uh you'd have

00:35:08.260 to cross bc and then into the states for that i i don't know i think you know expanding capability

00:35:12.500 to Prince Rupert would probably be more likely to get in the short term. But we've got to look at

00:35:17.340 all options there. I see Debbie checking in from Tabor. Good to see you. Jacqueline Littler saying

00:35:24.300 no sovereignty inside Canada, straight independence. And yeah, that's what we're

00:35:28.400 talking about. You know, that there's different definitions. You find five Albertans and I think

00:35:32.960 four out of five are upset with the status quo, but three out of four are going to have different

00:35:38.260 definitions on what independence is if they're trying to pursue it. So we've got to iron a lot

00:35:45.660 of that out. We've got to hammer it out. And something people have talked about a lot too

00:35:49.020 is, well, what's the costing? It sounds like Jeff Rath has something coming out pretty soon to

00:35:53.800 address a bunch of that. Jeff's a colorful character. He's quite the person who's been

00:35:59.000 on the front with the Alberta Prosperity Project, but he's dedicated to it and he can put out some

00:36:03.000 reasonable stuff. So it'd be interesting to see those documents coming out. There it is. Okay,

00:36:09.820 Searle is saying, yeah, the Alberta Prosperity Project just emailed their fiscal plan to everyone

00:36:14.080 who signed up on their emailing list, and he's reading it right now. So, you know, we'll keep

00:36:18.060 breaking it down. There's a lot to do. I was just reading, Ezra Levant sent it to me, actually,

00:36:24.480 an executive summary. I'm still working my way through it. Quebec did a massive amount of this

00:36:29.240 kind of worked back in the 90s and it's gotten forgotten. They got a lot of experts, professors,

00:36:35.020 people from all over and addressed loads of the questions on what independence would look like

00:36:41.000 and what they're working towards. And sovereignty was one of their prime terms for it. And we,

00:36:45.600 that, you know, the executive summary, I think is a hundred and some pages. And then the stuff

00:36:49.020 itself is just volumes and volumes. The only thing in English so far is just the executive summary,

00:36:52.680 but even there, there's a lot. And we don't need to reinvent a lot of these wheels. We need to be

00:36:57.020 looking back at some of the stuff that Quebec's already done. And sure, you've got to adjust some

00:37:00.980 things for a Western perspective, but a lot of it can be applied here. But we got a lot of work to do

00:37:05.980 in a relatively short time. It's looking most likely, we're going to have a referendum on this

00:37:14.040 in early 2026, maybe mid-2026. So that is not too long. I mean, some people say, oh, it's a year,

00:37:21.860 that's a long time. Well, for the amount of stuff that has to be done, and I'm not just talking

00:37:26.520 about the logistics though that's a big part too uh just getting the petitioning you know again the

00:37:32.340 bar has been lowered people are acting as if uh it would be easy to trigger uh a referendum no it

00:37:38.740 wouldn't be that easy people who haven't done a real official petition don't understand just how

00:37:44.280 tough it is uh i should have almost kept daryl on to speak to it he knows about it he took part i

00:37:48.660 believe and helped with the uh recall gondek thing or at least he was watching it closely

00:37:52.240 and they got I believe close to 70,000 signatures it was it was quite a feat but well short of the

00:37:58.500 ridiculous bar that used to be set there and that took hundreds and hundreds of people putting in

00:38:03.160 countless hours to get that but it also shows 177,000 across the province with four months and

00:38:08.820 with the attitudes now absolutely that will get done so now that that bar is achievable though

00:38:13.660 making that tipping point for those who want independence those who vote

00:38:18.400 to make their mind up and put that X there. And that's a big decision for a lot of people. It

00:38:24.280 really is. There's a lot of people on the fence on that. There's a lot of people not necessarily

00:38:28.040 convinced. There's a lot of question marks and those need to keep getting filled. The economic

00:38:33.300 ones, the post-independence ones, or just addressing people's concerns as we get up to it.

00:38:39.100 It's going to be a lot of work. There's a solid 30, some say 40% support for it. I don't know,

00:38:45.740 but we're going to get well over 50 if you're really looking for a positive independence vote.

00:38:50.720 And that, well, some of that's in the federal government's ballpark. It depends on what Carney

00:38:55.060 does in the next six months, because he can certainly raise the support. Or you know what,

00:38:59.520 I'll tell you what, he could deflate it. If he actually showed leadership, actually showed that

00:39:05.140 this is a federation, and that means one of the few areas where central leadership will intervene

00:39:09.640 is when they're saying, this is intra-provincial infrastructure

00:39:13.760 and we're going to get it done. 0.97

00:39:16.100 Shut up, Mr. Eby. Shut up, Mr. Legault. 1.00

00:39:19.040 We're getting a pipeline across. 0.99

00:39:20.640 Your provinces will consult you, will respect you,

00:39:22.860 but you cannot stop it because the purpose of a federation

00:39:25.940 is to have that ability to get product unhindered

00:39:29.020 back and forth on each side.

00:39:31.180 If he did something like that,

00:39:32.840 I could see independent support flatlining at least.

00:39:35.820 It wouldn't grow further because that's one of the frustrations.

00:39:37.980 But I don't think Carney's going to do it.

00:39:39.640 that's the thing so but a lot of that bowl you know is in his court right now so we'll see what

00:39:46.900 happens with that uh oh boy you know and then we got mike here still talking about his beekeeping

00:39:53.320 this is a different fella freedom honey and not a bad guy for some of his veteran work but he's

00:39:58.400 claiming he's a better beekeeper but i don't know i've seen him bounce around with those ugly plastic

00:40:02.480 hives of his and i i wouldn't put much stock in it his product's pretty good but i don't see any

00:40:08.100 ribbons from local fairs on any of his honey yet. Uh, let's see what else we got going on out there.

00:40:15.940 Uh, so Ryan Friel Burton said, we need to then decide the way out. Um, why doesn't anyone mention

00:40:22.180 open market on cellular providers, internet providers could save every households a hundred

00:40:26.020 a month. Yeah. Well, there's lots of things. Yeah. You know, Canada's got some of the most expensive

00:40:29.700 cellular data and all that things in the world. So it's kind of a bit of both. I know what you're

00:40:34.660 saying you see one of the risks for the independent movement is independence movement is going down

00:40:40.260 the road of whataboutism and you bounce around you're asking questions and you're asking and

00:40:44.260 you're casting doubt and you're all over the map and you're never actually getting done because

00:40:48.180 you're spinning your wheels the reality is we've got to focus on getting people to mark yes on an

00:40:52.660 independence vote everything else will have to happen after that anyways we could talk about a

00:40:56.820 lot of things that'll happen after that but first things first the campaign has to be mostly focused

00:41:01.220 on getting a person with two things to choose from and they will choose one and independence

00:41:06.820 minded people want it to be yes but at the same time to convince people to make that decision

00:41:12.580 you've got to have some depth behind the movement you've got to make people comfortable so it's not

00:41:18.260 written in stone what will happen the day after a yes vote but you got to have a pretty good idea

00:41:22.820 what's going to happen there's got to be a vision uh i talked about that one of the videos on my

00:41:27.620 personal channel a little while back but it was a an ayn rand quote but she talked about how you

00:41:32.260 you know i'm just paraphrasing but basically no movement has ever been successful just breaking

00:41:37.460 away from something you have to move towards something you have to build something so we've

00:41:43.700 also got we know what we want to get away from that's pretty clear but we also have to tell

00:41:48.660 people what we're moving towards and uh that's being filled out but it's going to take some time

00:41:54.420 and then it's going to take a lot of time to get that out to the other people uh jr michael ensure

00:41:59.460 to keep the separatist parties in the background we can utilize the existing government in place

00:42:03.460 inside afterwards yeah that's where there's been another big discussion we'll see i'm watching the

00:42:08.820 by-elections closely i'm not big on the party approach to it i've been there i've run twice

00:42:14.740 actually under independence banners a long time ago and it doesn't get anywhere you smack your

00:42:19.220 face against the wall and we don't get any closer to independence through that it has to be

00:42:24.020 referendum focused and i know some people say no harm no foul the parties aren't hurting anything

00:42:28.100 well aren't they the thing is that we only have so much intellectual energy we only have so many

00:42:36.020 resources with thinking on subjects discussing subjects promoting subjects raising money for

00:42:41.300 them campaigning for them and independence parties are gobbling into that a bit yet not really moving

00:42:47.300 us anywhere closer to the finish line because they don't get anywhere when they run in the elections

00:42:51.860 so we're losing resources that really could be better dedicated to working towards that

00:42:56.340 yes vote if that's really where you want to go not to say everybody in the independence

00:42:59.380 parties are bad or anything but they're just not doing it it's not working we'll see what

00:43:03.540 holds did three hills i mean that's the most fertile area for an independence party to possibly

00:43:09.380 do well unfortunately the dominant one is the republican party which frankly is weird

00:43:14.340 and sprung out of nowhere, seems to have some funding that nobody can quite pin down where it

00:43:18.780 came from, runs signs that look like they're liberal, divides the movement by attaching

00:43:22.700 itself to an American movement, and I just don't think is doing the independence movement a bloody

00:43:27.700 bit of good. But that's up to the voters in Old Stidsbury Three Hills to see what they say about

00:43:32.140 it. But the irony is no matter how they do, it's going to hurt the independence movement, because

00:43:35.300 if they do well, they're still establishing themselves as a voice for it. And if they do

00:43:38.680 poorly, people will say, well, look at that. They couldn't even do well in Old Stidsbury Three Hills.

00:43:42.480 But it's their right to run, by all means.

00:43:45.340 And again, that decision is up to the citizens of Old Sidsbury, Three Hills, and nobody else.

00:43:51.300 J.R. Michael saying, Danielle has given us a path for a reason.

00:43:53.460 She can't come out and say she supports it, but she can give us a path.

00:43:55.760 It says a lot.

00:43:56.600 I completely agree.

00:43:57.960 Look, and I know some people have been saying Smith has to come out and fully support this.

00:44:02.560 Well, she wasn't elected on that mandate.

00:44:04.540 That wasn't what she campaigned on.

00:44:06.500 We have never been given more tools for independence than what has been handed to us.

00:44:13.400 Could you imagine another premier, actually?

00:44:15.380 Could you imagine Jason Kenney allowing somebody like Eric Bouchard to even hold a town hall like that?

00:44:21.780 I don't think so.

00:44:22.720 Premier Smith is giving leeway to her elected representatives to be able to go out and ask those questions and have those discussions with constituents.

00:44:29.700 We're getting as much from the premier as we should get and we can get at this time.

00:44:35.860 Now her role is to govern. 0.99

00:44:37.080 And I tell you what, she's got a whole lot of things she needs to do better, in my view. 1.00

00:44:40.920 And, you know, I talk about that on here.

00:44:42.980 But whether she should jump in and take a full independent stance, no.

00:44:47.420 I don't think she should be pressured towards that.

00:44:50.140 I don't think she's considering doing that.

00:44:52.320 And I just don't think that that's part of her role or job.

00:44:54.960 She just was not elected with that mandate to begin with.

00:44:58.680 But time will tell.

00:44:59.980 Boy, are we in interested times, guys.

00:45:03.000 And optimistic.

00:45:04.740 I really do.

00:45:05.480 think they're good times. We're moving towards change in a way we've never seen before. We got

00:45:09.600 an opportunity like we've never seen. We've got a lot of craziness going around in the world,

00:45:13.320 whether it's the Middle East or our G7. I barely talked about that and other things, but

00:45:16.920 we'll keep on it. Keep pushing, guys. Stay active. Stay listening. Keep sending the feedback. We'll

00:45:23.060 figure out the answers and we'll make it better. So be sure to tune into the pipeline. Nigel's got

00:45:27.680 a great interview coming tomorrow as well. Hannaford, watch the rest of our channel,

00:45:31.680 subscribe, share, all that good stuff. Thanks for tuning in today and I will see you all on the next one.

00:46:01.680 You

Western Standard - June 19, 2025

Government COVID policies have fed Canada’s measles outbreak

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