Western Standard - It’s time to defund the Assembly of First Nations

00:00:00.000 Good day.

00:00:28.740 welcome to the cory morgan show last one of july no it's not man you know july is actually moving

00:00:33.860 really slowly for me i find usually the summers whip by but in this case uh it's kind of just

00:00:40.100 kind of creeping along which is fine because i've got no use for winter so july can last as long as

00:00:44.500 it pleases though i would like to see a bit of a break from the mosquitoes there's been no break

00:00:49.220 from the news you know often in summer there's not much to cover but uh this this year has been quite

00:00:54.660 an exception especially with what's going on with the tariffs the gordy howe bridge the the prime

00:00:59.780 minister in general just uh not not doing very well for himself and uh in a lot of ways for the

00:01:05.700 one who is supposed to be the diplomatic and economic wizard in a little while i'm going to

00:01:09.940 speak with uh peter david duck maybe he'll uh correct me on the pronunciation of that name it

00:01:15.140 sounds right he's at the red deer dream center and we're going to talk about addiction treatment

00:01:19.220 and things such as that and i think it's really important i mean we have there's no doubt an

00:01:23.540 addiction epidemic going on and a lot of controversy or debate over whether treatment

00:01:29.660 is a better route, enablement through consumption centers and things like that. As it is, we're

00:01:35.900 closing some of the consumption centers. The one in Calgary recently was shut down, but we still,

00:01:40.720 of course, have a lot of people in dire, dire condition that need treatment. And these guys

00:01:44.940 do fantastic work up in Red Deer as due to some down itself. So we will speak to him in a bit,

00:01:51.300 But first, I'm going to get on to my usual rambling and what's got me going today.

00:01:56.780 And yeah, it was in following up with the press releases and statements coming out of the Assembly of First Nations.

00:02:03.200 They had their annual shindig in Ottawa last week, and the outcome was predictable.

00:02:08.140 They offered nothing but anger, indignance, and demands.

00:02:11.860 It's an organization overrun with a sense of entitlement and suffers from chronic oppositional disorder.

00:02:17.820 It's time the taxpayers stopped paying for it.

00:02:20.120 Taxpayers funding a lobby group whose primary output is demands for more funding creates a

00:02:26.600 self-reinforcing loop detached from broader Canadian fiscal reality or voter consent.

00:02:32.080 Something many Canadians don't understand about the AFN is it's just a lobby group. It's not a

00:02:36.660 formal form of government. It doesn't have any legislative authority. It's not bound by the

00:02:41.800 sorts of controls that elected authorities have, and it has no accountability to the people it

00:02:47.160 purportedly serves. Due to decades of indulgence from politicians and media, people have assumed

00:02:53.800 there's some sort of legitimacy within the group to make policy demands upon the government.

00:02:58.060 On top of it all, the group costs taxpayers upwards of $55 million per year. Nearly 90%

00:03:04.200 of the AFN's revenue comes from government agencies. Most of the top lobby groups in

00:03:09.080 Canada get little to no tax funding at all, and they operate on much less than the Assembly of

00:03:13.880 First Nations does. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, for example, is one of the largest

00:03:17.640 lobby groups in Canada. Its budget's around $18 million, and it gets nearly none of it from tax

00:03:23.080 dollars. Or let's look on the left side of things, the Canadian Labour Congress. It has around $20

00:03:27.340 million in annual revenues, and that comes from union dues, not taxpayers. So where does all the

00:03:33.000 money, though, that the AFN takes in go? Well, I went and looked into their financials. Unsurprisingly,

00:03:38.980 Additionally, salaries are the top expenditure at $21 million a year.

00:03:43.440 Some folks are making some healthy paychecks within that group.

00:03:46.640 Of course, they don't break down exactly who makes how much, and they certainly don't lay out what the job duties are.

00:03:52.080 The next largest expenditure of the Assembly of First Nations is on travel.

00:03:56.480 They blow $16 million a year on travel.

00:04:00.140 Member chiefs travel to assemblies and live it up first class on a regular basis.

00:04:05.260 Why do a Zoom meeting when you can fly across the country, stay in top hotels, and enjoy fine dining on somebody else's dime?

00:04:10.660 The travel expenses for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce are less than $500,000, though they have branches countrywide and hold regular conferences.

00:04:18.480 The Labour Congress combines travel and employee expenses for a total of $1.4 million, but the First Nations do $16 million.

00:04:26.140 The next highest area of spending is on professional fees.

00:04:29.660 This nebulous category eats $7 million per year.

00:04:33.480 Doubtless, there's some plum contracts to be found for the well-connected in there.

00:04:37.320 After that, there's a line item for regional service delivery that runs at over $6.2 million.

00:04:42.380 Now, considering the Assembly of First Nations doesn't deliver any services, it's hard to determine what that means.

00:04:48.440 Perhaps it's the cost of the regional offices to house the folks eating up that $21 million in salaries.

00:04:54.140 Speaking of offices, their office expenses come in at $2.8 million a year.

00:04:58.960 That's a lot of paperclips.

00:04:59.960 considering what the organization actually does they could probably outsource nearly all of that

00:05:04.020 to a travel agent and save millions most lobby groups what they do is research and have policy

00:05:09.800 departments they conduct polling and offer educational services about the industry or

00:05:13.900 people they represent the assembly of first nations doesn't appear to spend much on such

00:05:18.280 things aside from traveling and collecting salaries the only other notable expenditure

00:05:22.400 shares $625,000 on advertising, promotion, and publications. That's just over one percent of

00:05:29.540 their budget. Let's face it, the AFN is little more than a terribly expensive social club

00:05:34.020 for well-connected chiefs and activists within the Indigenous industry. Their statements are

00:05:38.900 marked by petulance and lack a realistic policy depth. At the last Ottawa gathering, they demanded

00:05:44.900 that the government criminalize speech regarding the child burial hoax at the former Kamloosh

00:05:48.800 residential school and came out in blanket opposition to all forms of economic development

00:05:53.240 being proposed by the federal government. Maybe if a few of them had to pay their own

00:05:57.200 bills for a change, they would garner a glimmer of understanding about the importance of economic

00:06:01.760 development. There is a role for a group to organize and speak collectively for Indigenous

00:06:07.240 bands across Canada. They really should be a group doing that. This kind of group can never

00:06:11.820 be representative of the people it claims to represent, though, unless it gets funding from

00:06:15.500 the people themselves. The AFN should be going cap in hand to every reserve in the country

00:06:20.900 and explaining why these reserves should contribute money to them to be represented.

00:06:26.300 You can bet that in such a circumstance, the principals in the AFN would suddenly start

00:06:31.120 paying attention to how much they spend and on what. For now, the AFN is just a group of

00:06:36.480 well-heeled whiners who take their salaries from the productive to lobby against the industries

00:06:40.540 that generate the funds in the first place. It's time to treat them like any other lobby

00:06:44.560 group in canada and defund them let's do it in the name of equality it's only fair isn't it

00:06:50.320 all right well that's just got me started today let's check in on a lot of other news items maybe

00:06:54.400 some more positive stuff we've got secondary dave winnick in thank you uh the other dave is under

00:07:00.320 repair right now he is actually he is how you been cory good good no it's always good to get you into

00:07:05.200 yeah yeah you know summer it's actually well it's been a bit slow but actually today it's actually

00:07:09.040 picked up a bit and speaking of good news well i don't know if this is actually good it could

00:07:12.640 It has the potential to be good, but apparently at the Premier's meetings over in PEI, Manitoba Premier Wapknew says he's open to the Alberta-Ontario oil pipeline, but he's saying that, provided that it has First Nations support and addresses environmental concerns.

00:07:25.680 So I guess, again, First Nations Indigenous Consultation.

00:07:28.260 So we'll see where that goes for the most part.

00:07:29.920 I don't know.

00:07:30.080 What do you think about that?

00:07:31.000 Well, he said he would take it under consideration, which, as a Premier, constitutionally, it's not your role.

00:07:38.300 We're not asking permission.

00:07:39.560 We shouldn't need it.

00:07:40.580 but this relationship's been kind of turned on its end as we've indulged the British Columbia

00:07:44.820 premier and are going to pay tolls for pipelines across there or extortion fee is another way to

00:07:50.380 put it so of course uh Bob Kinney's saying well well keep in mind but how much you're going to

00:07:55.060 offer me that's not a good way to run a federation in my view yeah no you could definitely say it as

00:07:59.300 well and also we have a new thing here it says that um federal documents have been showing that

00:08:03.120 uh you know the CBC's record 1.6 billion in government funding well actually as part of

00:08:07.680 1.6 billion is going to go to combating disinformation and hate so i guess that kind

00:08:12.160 of makes sense right now with uh bill c9 finally going into force here what was it uh july 18th

00:08:16.480 i think just recently yeah so this is all kind of coming together so i i don't know i think it says

00:08:20.960 here that heritage canada says is considering expanding the broadcaster's mandate but that

00:08:25.520 neither them or the cbc have explained how that money is going to be used to combat disinformation

00:08:29.680 so it's just you think this is a bit of same old same old from the cbc when they talk about

00:08:32.880 disinformation hate speech etc it's throwing good money after bad you know something i i said i mean

00:08:38.000 the media uh world is is hurting you know global shutdown in alberta and things like that i mean

00:08:43.440 the advertising dollars aren't there it's just not the way it used to be the way i've put it

00:08:48.880 if we really wanted to fund information across the country so now it's 1.6 billion dollars

00:08:53.920 you could fund 1600 independent outlets with a million a year 1600 of them across you know 160

00:09:01.520 in every province i mean we don't and and then they could raise advertising and so on above that

00:09:08.400 wouldn't that combat a lot more than giving 1.6 billion dollars to these guys that you would

00:09:13.040 think so and the cbc's had a lot of retractions they're not that great for misinformation

00:09:17.680 themselves yeah exactly here we go no exactly also there was a police shooting actually just

00:09:22.880 in north vancouver here yesterday um there was a guy that confronted the rcmp they said that he was

00:09:26.880 armed with an edged weapon and entered a rcmp cruiser before the cops opened fire do you see

00:09:30.800 see this video i did and it was kind of strange looking was he shot then with a firearm or was

00:09:37.100 it a taser if you watch the video there's about it sounds like three gunshots go off and the kind

00:09:41.540 of the camera kind of cuts away and goes back to the guy i'm trying to figure out what exactly

00:09:45.140 happened here because some people were saying that that might have been excessive because it

00:09:47.980 looks like the guy's already in the police cruiser and people were saying why didn't they just shut

00:09:50.980 the door but i don't know how like how do police cruisers like do they turn on automatically were

00:09:54.560 the keys still in the ignition how does that work i don't know and apparently before that he'd been

00:09:58.420 driving dangerously and moving around another thing i mean i don't know i i've thankfully not

00:10:03.000 been in a lot of police cruisers i was gonna say you have experience but they often keep it you've

00:10:06.500 seen they got a shotgun up yeah i've seen that yeah right between the front two seats was there

00:10:10.360 perhaps that there i imagine there's going to be quite an investigation to lay out exactly yeah i

00:10:14.220 was going to think so definitely and as well and speaking of crime apparently the federal

00:10:17.040 conservatives are again blaming um liberal justice policies after stats can reported more than a 601

00:10:22.820 thousand violent crimes in 2025 i mean this seems to be kind of just the same thing over and over

00:10:28.500 again the conservatives criticize the liberals for their policies and their bail policies and

00:10:31.940 nothing really changes so i don't know what your whole thoughts are on this thing it just seems to

00:10:35.300 be more same old same old really it gets difficult i mean what seems hard is the questioning the

00:10:42.020 judgment of the judges at times i mean we have some people who seem to be very very dangerous

00:10:46.580 and at a high risk and then we find out they get out and bail and reoffend and then some people it

00:10:50.340 it just seems unrelatively minor i mean i understand we don't want to keep everybody

00:10:53.420 locked up whilst they're taking the time to prove themselves innocent or guilty in court

00:10:57.080 they just can't seem to get it right though and i i don't know it's it takes legal minds better

00:11:01.400 than mine i don't really know how they would change that either and unfortunately there is

00:11:06.080 another province-wide amber alerts been um issued in bc for a four-year-old ryan andrews who

00:11:11.260 allegedly was abducted in um west coluna and rcmp are saying that he may be traveling with his 40

00:11:15.940 year old mother and there's a bit of stuff about this that apparently there might have been one

00:11:19.200 issued two days ago or else it didn't didn't meet the criteria for an amber alert so rcmp you're

00:11:24.140 still saying that if anyone sees anything or knows anything to call 9-1-1 so unfortunately that's kind

00:11:27.640 of the sort of the last thing i have that's unfortunately not a positive thing but hopefully

00:11:31.260 they find the guy well hopefully absolutely i mean we've got that awful case going on in calgary

00:11:35.480 yeah they're still looking for that young uh autistic child boy that's bizarre yeah it just 0.84

00:11:40.700 seemed to have vanished i mean we're still all holding out hope that he's just kind of curled

00:11:44.660 up somewhere and he can be recovered but they didn't vanish like that yeah it's very odd because

00:11:49.360 there was a case this past summer i think it was darius was it darius mcdougall out by yeah

00:11:54.080 he just disappeared and they never found anything about him no his family was from lethbridge i

00:11:59.820 think yeah down in that area yeah i don't know yeah no idea but uh you know it's mixed i mean

00:12:04.560 some people complained i i know i was actually doing a broadcast when these amber alerts yeah

00:12:08.620 yeah yeah everything somebody complained about that in red deer yeah it's an amber alert i'm

00:12:11.760 okay with it i can take the occasional interruption of my day on something as serious as a missing

00:12:16.480 child uh mostly it does kind of scare the hell out of me sometimes but i mean you know what i i make

00:12:21.580 a living complaining about all sorts of things but we got better things to complain about i think

00:12:25.200 than that one just my thoughts i agree well i hope they find both kids and yeah me too all as well

00:12:29.780 that we can and uh appreciate it well okay well i'll let you back into the newsroom david i

00:12:34.480 appreciate the updates and uh see you on the pipeline i guess so right on so let's just start

00:12:39.780 looking up what we're going to talk about on that i probably should right on thanks thanks so yes

00:12:43.780 from our newsroom that is dave winnick and uh a reminder the reason we can pay for the the multiple

00:12:48.380 daves we acquire around this place to keep the news going is because you've subscribed and uh

00:12:53.540 to get there at westernstandard.news slash subscription it's 10 bucks a month hundred

00:12:58.080 dollars a year that's how we can maintain our independence and continue to bring the news to

00:13:03.840 you because of course as we said the cbc gets their 1.6 billion out of your pockets whether

00:13:08.200 you like it or not you can choose to support us and those who have thank you very much if you

00:13:12.460 haven't yet well get on it eh I just want to respond to one comment before I get to the guest

00:13:17.800 I see we were talking about the pipelines from Pete he says what are you going to do with the

00:13:21.460 oil if it gets to Ontario ship it through the most valuable fresh water supply in the world

00:13:25.340 I guess you're talking about the St. Lawrence Seaway perhaps which does eventually run to the

00:13:29.680 sea uh there are tankers that go up and down that every day they have actually for nearly a hundred

00:13:34.760 years. So we're not talking about something unusual, unprecedented, or unsafe. Not only that

00:13:42.720 that oil, if it went to Ontario, and by the way, I don't think it's going to happen anyways, but if

00:13:47.220 it got there, it goes to Sarnia, it goes to the refineries. That also brings product to domestic

00:13:54.060 markets in Canada and the eastern United States where they will purchase and use it because we

00:13:59.280 don't have enough windmills and fairy dust and things like that to cover all our energy needs

00:14:04.720 at this time. So going from there, you know, hey, when you invent the flux capacitor and we can,

00:14:12.720 you know, put a little garbage in the back of a DeLorean and power the world with it, we'll move

00:14:17.060 on from oil and gas. But in the meantime, we need it and we're going to keep pipelining it. But

00:14:22.620 again, most of that, you know, thing that came out was between Premier Smith and Premier Doug

00:14:28.420 forward and they were just talking about what sounded more like an idea balloon than anything

00:14:32.560 that might actually come into reality because until we get the government roadblocks out of the

00:14:36.860 way we're not going to get anything like that into the ground anyhow but that's a separate issue

00:14:41.460 and i've given you lots of ranting and raving about that let's talk about something a little

00:14:44.500 more you know serious issue but productive people with solution oriented approaches and that's what

00:14:50.120 the dream center does all of us have seen it i mean we can't go down the streets with us i'm

00:14:55.240 seeing some people in terrible dire condition and usually addiction or mental health issues are at

00:15:00.560 the bottom of it and there's just only so much that we can do to treat them but these guys are

00:15:05.780 doing all they can up in red deer and uh let's bring them in and have a conversation about it

00:15:10.600 so uh hello peter uh i just want to check in did i pronounce your last name correctly

00:15:14.960 pretty close yeah davy duck okay well it was angle-sized ukrainian okay well great well i

00:15:22.800 thank you for taking some time to talk to us today. It's been a subject, I mean, just, I think

00:15:28.560 it should be near and dear to everybody's heart. If you go outside, you see that every family

00:15:32.680 nowadays has known somebody who's been touched by addiction, had difficulties, and I think there's

00:15:38.660 a lot of good and bad programs out there, a lot of well-meaning people, but not all of them are

00:15:43.760 necessarily successful. Can you give a bit of description, though, of what the Red Deer Dream

00:15:48.020 center uh is about what you guys offer yeah well thanks again cory for for uh contacting us and

00:15:53.900 having us on the show um here at the red deer dream center we're a men's drug and alcohol

00:16:00.140 recovery center we've been here about three and a half years we're a uh 30 bed facility

00:16:06.100 a five-month treatment center right here is unfortunately you can hear downtown red deer

00:16:12.380 apologies for the uh sirens um yeah so we're a five-month residential treatment center

00:16:18.640 men enter the program and uh go through two different phases of uh recovery and again it's

00:16:26.440 it's really client focused and not just addressing a substance uh plenty of people can white knuckle

00:16:32.880 through lots of stuff this is really addressing the core issues um as opposed to just abstinence

00:16:41.320 kind of a deal we are faith-based um we very much do let men coming into the program know that

00:16:48.680 we're not although we are faith-based and and and we have faith in our higher power in in god um

00:16:56.780 we're not here to conquer convert or change however it is a component of what we find

00:17:01.880 helps with recovery um and uh in a nutshell that's that's us here in red deer yeah and it's

00:17:10.760 it's a residential program. I believe you guys have there, which, you know, again, that's why

00:17:14.460 there's a limitation on beds. And just myself, I'm intimately familiar with the 12 steps to deal

00:17:21.860 with my own addiction. I've been quite happily sober for over seven years now, but it takes help.

00:17:28.560 It takes a network. And part of it is, as you said, it's not just stopping the consumption,

00:17:33.780 it's rebuilding your life to stay functional and sober, that takes a lot of work and a lot of time

00:17:40.740 and a lot of resources. And that's what you guys offer there. I mean, more than just getting off

00:17:45.060 of the addiction, but how to live without it and going forward. Absolutely. Congratulations

00:17:51.540 to you. Myself, October will be six years in recovery. And like I tell a lot of the men that

00:17:58.340 come into the center um all of my best decisions got me into rehab um you know and and it just

00:18:06.720 unfortunately it is i've lost my oldest brother to addiction and uh like you said a lot of us

00:18:13.200 get touched by it uh addressing the core is really where it's at um and that that happens

00:18:21.080 long before any substance any i don't care whether it's workaholism whether it's eating

00:18:26.340 with whatever it is um there's coping mechanisms that just aren't put in place you know and and so

00:18:33.300 that's that is what we look at uh we're very client focused you know when men enter the program

00:18:39.860 we we take a look at what are your goals what are you wanting with your recovery and here are some

00:18:46.420 ways to get life back because there's lots of life to live um and the funding component exactly like

00:18:53.460 Like you said, we've been very blessed with the fact of the Alberta government partnering with us for 20 beds.

00:19:01.400 20 of our beds are partially subsidized, which reduces a big barrier to getting into treatment.

00:19:07.440 And we do have 10 beds that are privately funded with a sliding scale fee structure.

00:19:13.560 To speak into the funding real quickly, the national average for a clinical-based recovery center is anywhere between $20,000 to $30,000.

00:19:23.460 per bed per month. We work on a different model and we operate at $5,000 per bed per month for

00:19:33.000 a privately funded bed. But again, to the funding component, that's probably the second biggest

00:19:39.460 barrier. The first biggest barrier for recovery and getting into recovery from addiction,

00:19:44.580 it is a willingness from the person. You know, willingness to go, yeah, my life's in a place

00:19:50.640 that I need help. The second biggest barrier is funding. And that's why we have different

00:19:59.300 campaigns. And we really rely on the support of our central Alberta and our Alberta freedom

00:20:07.600 funders and avenues of support like that. Yeah, well, and that part, as you said, the first part

00:20:14.720 is once the person has reached a point where they're really ready to go. And as we know,

00:20:19.560 often there's a number of false starts. There's ins, there's outs. Some people can hit it on the

00:20:24.680 first try. Some people take a few cracks at it. I mean, the main thing is to get somebody clear,

00:20:29.280 but without the resources, the hard part, I mean, I had a recent, you know, episode with a family

00:20:34.000 member. They were ready to go, but then we started searching for centers and the soonest we could get

00:20:38.760 somebody in was looking at 30 days. And well, you know, if the person could go 30 days without a

00:20:44.760 problem, they might not have as serious a problem as we thought. Like the need is very immediate

00:20:48.940 getting acute, but we understand the resource limitations. I mean, I'm certain all of the

00:20:53.560 advocates would love to take in every person the moment they're ready. They just don't have the

00:20:58.580 beds yet. Are things moving in the right direction at least? I mean, I know there's always going to

00:21:03.600 be, I think, more demand than supply, but there's been expansions. There's been more funding. There's

00:21:08.260 been more partnerships. Is it looking optimistic? I think it is looking optimistic. Again, our local

00:21:16.180 mp burton bailey stopped by recently with a few other mps and just in those conversations i think

00:21:24.100 the um everybody knows the need however we're starting to see that there are certain models

00:21:33.140 that that do that do operate fiscally responsibly but ultimately have outcomes for recovery for

00:21:46.180 men and women in addiction being able to integrate back into society to be the contributing members

00:21:53.660 of society that they want to be, that they are, that they can be. And so I think it is looking up

00:22:01.640 public awareness. It seems we are moving away from just traveling by and seeing whether it's

00:22:09.040 people on the sidewalk doing the Fenty fold or whatever, and just looking at this segment of

00:22:15.640 society and going, oh, degenerates, whatever. The empathy and compassion is coming back and going,

00:22:21.660 no, hold on. That's somebody's son, daughter, father, mother. They're not having their best

00:22:28.600 date. I don't know anybody that wakes up wanting to be a drunk or an addict, you know, but it

00:22:37.640 happens. And so I feel that we are moving in a good direction. And talking with our local

00:22:45.300 political base as well as our national politicians they get the message they understand and and i

00:22:53.240 think we're starting to move into that direction if rather than just throwing money at something

00:22:58.100 let's take a look at what's actually working in the community and and i think that's that's one

00:23:02.240 thing for red deer um as a red deerian we've been able to start various community projects

00:23:10.220 on our own much like the red deer dream center it was the first recovery center in town

00:23:16.080 without government backing solely funded by supporters we opened up we started doing what

00:23:24.360 we do and then we're able to say here's what we're doing here's our metrics would you like

00:23:31.500 to partner and not just with people partnering by supporting but to government agencies saying

00:23:36.360 would you like to partner you know here's here's a here's a model that can be replicated

00:23:42.020 yeah and groups like your own i mean i i you know started my monologue being pretty critical say of

00:23:47.180 a group that didn't have much accountability with the funding they had and you don't necessarily

00:23:50.540 see outcomes with a small group and starting on a shoestring you guys know how to get the most

00:23:55.040 out of your dollars and then it goes in and i like to remind people if they want to be clinical and

00:23:59.960 and cold you know fiscal conservatives as i am to a large degree just looking from that perspective

00:24:05.940 they have to understand that untreated addicted people are costing a fortune i mean they're in

00:24:12.080 the hospitals they're in the jails they're in and out of the ambulances the the food banks you name

00:24:17.320 it i mean we can all do so much better for ourselves if you're just looking at the dollars

00:24:22.720 and cents if a person has recovered and entered the workforce again and and is is become again

00:24:28.280 a functioning member of society so these are well-placed investments whether it's a donation

00:24:33.120 or a tax dollar going into centers like yours well and i feel too um with your viewership and

00:24:38.840 and everyone else out there uh transparency for our financials is paramount and i know i can i

00:24:45.480 can speak for the staff uh here at the center when we do get our funding in we realize these are

00:24:51.320 donations um and it's not our money to just throw around at whatever um this is money given to us

00:25:00.900 that we're entrusted to steward ultimately for the betterment of the clients that come through

00:25:06.620 the doors you know and um yeah some of the statistics recent statistics are every addict

00:25:14.360 off the street immediately equates to um six less crimes on the street now again that's not speaking

00:25:21.440 to the person that's you know principles before personalities it's not saying that oh that addict

00:25:27.820 is a criminal. No, when a person is in addiction and not in their right mind, they will do things

00:25:34.980 that are out of character for them, one of which is crime. So one addict off the streets equates

00:25:41.980 to roughly six crimes off the street, as well as the other outbreaks that we have tied in with

00:25:49.340 other methods of not treatment methods but other methods uh outbreaks in cities like winnipeg

00:25:58.220 with hiv outbreaks and we're seeing other outbreaks like this that we haven't heard of

00:26:03.980 in in years and that the amount of money that goes into then addressing those issues as opposed

00:26:11.020 to preventative such as recovery based treatment ounce of prevention saves i don't know a couple

00:26:19.180 billion in here yeah you mentioned something that makes it more complicated too but I don't I think

00:26:26.400 we've really underfunded uh mental health and addiction are very tightly you know related

00:26:31.800 they're similar issues the people on the streets are often a combination of both issues are going

00:26:37.040 on or sometimes they might be better we don't we also have a shortage of mental health treatment

00:26:42.660 facilities uh when you guys do intake and such do you occasionally refer people perhaps to other

00:26:48.280 centers that they might have a better uh means of treatment at or things like that

00:26:53.160 absolutely that's such a great point concurrent disorders is very prevalent part of our intake

00:26:59.240 process is assessing a client and to seeing if our program suits them and part of that scale is

00:27:06.600 is currently with this person is addiction the primary concern or is it mental health

00:27:12.760 is the addiction driving the mental health issues or is mental health issues driving

00:27:17.800 the addiction um everybody's on a scale when it comes to that and we definitely

00:27:25.000 could use a lot of bolstering with that because we do refer out if if a client wants to come to

00:27:31.640 us and it just it we just don't have the resources or program that suits them we often refer here in

00:27:39.240 in central Alberta, we'll refer to Centennial up in Pinoka and other centers that deal directly

00:27:46.420 with concurrent disorders where they have a strong mental health component, you know, faculty on board

00:27:52.260 and stuff like that too. So yeah, absolutely an area that needs to be looked at and really funded

00:27:58.800 and increased. So is your organization, I imagine, connected to the Calgary Dream Center? It's an

00:28:05.940 expansion of that organization? Actually, we aren't. I know with the Dream Center moniker

00:28:12.020 because there are a few Dream Centers. Glad I checked that. Yeah, yeah. We definitely,

00:28:17.960 our board of directors and our chairman of the board, Wes Giesberg, when he and his partners

00:28:24.200 were first looking at opening the center, they definitely conversed and used the Dream Center

00:28:29.280 in Calgary as kind of a model. But really, that was all birthed out of the Dream Center that's in

00:28:34.060 los angeles california i believe they're just over 30 years uh running and operating in los angeles

00:28:42.540 in the heart of it um and their model is it's kind of the umbrella of dream center which is

00:28:49.500 a recovery treatment based faith-based um meeting needs where they need to be met and um so although

00:28:58.140 it is dream center uh we're not directly tied to them we're more partner in the ethos of of recovery

00:29:05.500 and restoring restoring lives hey well i i really appreciate the work on on both centers and the

00:29:11.340 time passed quickly because it is such a massive massive subject but you know before i let you go

00:29:16.780 how can people find out about your organization whether to support it or to consider uh services

00:29:22.220 that you guys offer and anything such as that? Yeah, absolutely. Our main website is rddc.ca

00:29:29.160 right there on the screen. Go there, hit it up. If you are needing our services or know family

00:29:36.020 members that need it, you can click on apply as well as donate for funding. As you can see behind

00:29:42.140 me, we've just launched our Freedom Starts This Summer campaign where we're looking to reach 150

00:29:48.200 new freedom funders by the end of September. What our freedom funder campaign is, is much like

00:29:56.480 yourselves, monthly support, recurring subscription-based support of $40 a month. If we were to have

00:30:03.820 3,000 Albertans, Canadians, North Americans, global persons, if we had 3,000 freedom funders

00:30:12.240 at $40 a month, we would need no other funding. We would be in the black and that would reduce

00:30:18.340 every barrier for any man coming into the program. So yes, please check out our website

00:30:24.420 as well as Facebook. Find us on Facebook. You'll see this mug posting lots of stuff on there and

00:30:30.600 yeah, just keep in touch, reach out. Excellent. Well, thank you very much for the work you're

00:30:36.200 doing I'm glad you're uh enjoying the sober life as well and uh you know I I really uh well I just

00:30:44.680 appreciate you coming on to talk to us about it and I hope you reach your funding goal because

00:30:48.680 it's it's just uh so important awesome thank you again so much Corey great thank you so again guys

00:30:55.620 yes Red Deer Dream Center check them out again from whichever front whether you know somebody

00:31:00.940 who needs help if you need help or if you're in a position to help them because it's it's it's a

00:31:07.660 difficult expensive process part of the challenges as part of what I mentioned is is not everybody

00:31:13.600 responds the same way not everybody has the same roots to their addiction or to their to their

00:31:20.140 challenges that's why I mentioned mental health because it's tied in with it but some people

00:31:24.860 might need treatment in a different way than others so having a variety of treatment options

00:31:30.140 is so important, too. You know, and somebody else earlier had mentioned one of the commenters

00:31:34.740 saying along the lines, you know, you can't force somebody into treatment or something like that,

00:31:38.480 but that's the truth. But it's, as I mentioned before, too, you can't predict when somebody's

00:31:43.920 ready to go. And that window could close quickly. And the more spaces we have when somebody has

00:31:51.300 reached that point, when they're ready for treatment, when they're ready to make that

00:31:56.400 process, you want to have that door open as soon as possible. Because untreated, well, they're in

00:32:03.460 the throes of addiction. There's a very high chance they're going to use again or get in further

00:32:09.320 trouble. Or of course, the worst is an overdose and dying or ending up in jail. I mean, I know

00:32:16.700 again from meetings we've talked about that I've attended. That's kind of where your end run goes.

00:32:22.000 Either you get yourself sober and treated, or you'll will end up either in jail, in a hospital, or in a morgue.

00:32:28.760 It's an awful, awful path.

00:32:31.300 And we need to help each other get out of it.

00:32:33.520 That's the thing.

00:32:34.460 People can't do it alone.

00:32:36.260 That's something that's so integral with centers like the Dream Center and others.

00:32:41.720 And you see that component often in government centers and every other kind for treatment,

00:32:46.340 is you're going to have people involved who came through addiction themselves.

00:32:50.220 because that ability to be able to relate with those who were fighting that addiction at that

00:32:57.280 time is so important and allows you to be so much more helpful with them in moving along.

00:33:02.240 That's why the 12th step is so important as well. And it's a process. It's not an overnight thing.

00:33:09.900 That's the part that some people don't necessarily understand either. It never stops.

00:33:14.440 you're changing you have to change your life you have to be able to live sober getting sober is the

00:33:21.460 the first step you know that's the first important part of course but then being able to stay there

00:33:28.040 and staying productive that's that's a whole other process and that takes time that takes therapy

00:33:34.120 that takes interaction with people and it takes money it takes funds so groups like the Red Deer

00:33:40.760 drainage center need help. And as I just like to point out to people, if you want to look at it

00:33:46.440 just in that cold clinical point of view, it will save you in the future too, because every addict

00:33:53.260 who gets treated successfully is going to be out and either productively helping other addicts get

00:34:00.180 clean, or at least just being in the working world, not in and out of the hospitals, not in and out of

00:34:04.280 the jail system, the justice system. And we all get better for it. People talked about the war on

00:34:09.840 drugs. And yeah, I'm not, I mean, I don't believe we should have some sort of libertarian dystopia

00:34:17.900 where people are, well, that's pretty close to what we're getting to right now. I mean, I noticed

00:34:22.380 that literally as I walked into the office, I'm in downtown Calgary, I saw three people huddled

00:34:26.880 across the street smoking what I'm going to presume was fentanyl from glass pipes because

00:34:31.660 they were starting to do that bend over and slouch and everything there. Now, is there any

00:34:36.600 point chasing after them and trying to grab them and throw them in jail? Well, no, I mean, I'm not,

00:34:43.700 we don't want to normalize that consumption. But at the same time, trying to legally going after

00:34:50.580 them isn't necessarily good either. Getting the demand down. That's the thing, as was pointed out

00:34:58.540 by Peter, crime comes along with it, but it's often not even necessarily the addict, but still

00:35:02.600 the associated lifestyle and things that will come around with it too. The people funding the

00:35:08.300 addiction or feeding the addiction, I should say the dealers, the networks, the gangs that comes

00:35:13.220 with it too. If you can treat the demand end of it, it brings it down. Trying to, I don't believe

00:35:19.500 in full legalization, things like that. But if we think that interdiction and trying to chase down

00:35:25.120 all of the sources of incoming drugs is the way to stop it, it's not going to work. We have to

00:35:30.680 treat the addiction. It's just like with gambling. And addicts will always find their way to their

00:35:36.600 poison. You know, it used to be very difficult to gamble. There were limited options. Casinos and

00:35:42.420 such were mostly only in Las Vegas, you know, 30, 40 years ago. You could have a few other things.

00:35:46.940 Maybe some VLTs came in and some lottery tickets, racetracks. But back then you had bookies, you had

00:35:53.060 loads of them and people ruined their lives because they will find a way. In Chinatown, 1.00

00:35:57.880 Calgary. I remember that when I first moved here, there were literally underground basement gambling

00:36:02.740 casinos in those places. So just illegalizing the process doesn't work. You've got to treat

00:36:09.540 the person who's suffering from it. So it's, it's, it's a larger thing. And I just really

00:36:16.160 appreciate, I wanted to bring him on because we did shut down the safe consumption center

00:36:20.080 at the Sheldon Schumer in Calgary. And I'm not sure where, where the dream center stands on

00:36:25.520 those things. I do understand that you can't treat somebody if they're dead. So if they've

00:36:30.900 overdosed, we've lost an opportunity, we've lost a window. But at the same time, I see those often

00:36:37.100 as enablement centers. I see them often actually taking an approach, acting as if the addiction

00:36:42.820 is sustainable. There's an ideology out there where I have a big beef with. And we saw a lot

00:36:47.340 of that in Vancouver, particularly when they're talking about safe supply and things such as that.

00:36:52.520 There's no safe supply of meth, guys.

00:36:54.560 There's no safe supply of fentanyl.

00:36:56.760 I mean, any of those drugs can kill you if improperly consumed.

00:37:00.840 And doing it in a controlled environment doesn't stop it.

00:37:07.300 And they seem to be fixated on that, no matter how badly that process of enablement would fail.

00:37:14.440 The resources that were going, I mean, there was an interview I listened to on a radio show.

00:37:20.060 And they spoke to a young lady who was talking about how essential the safe consumption site in Calgary was to her because she could go before work, go in there, take her drug, work for a while, then go back in at noon to the center, take more drugs, go back to work and then go home.

00:37:40.260 They were trying to imply that her addiction was sustainable.

00:37:44.120 They were trying to imply that the only problem, and it wasn't the addiction, it wasn't the drug, it was just the fact that she couldn't take it somewhere safe, which I think is absurd and I think is dangerous to put that notion out there.

00:37:58.640 The path when you're taking drugs like that, drugs that dangerous, that drug's that serious, is death.

00:38:05.380 It accelerates.

00:38:07.120 Addictions don't stay where they are.

00:38:10.260 Eventually, it goes higher and higher until you become out of control.

00:38:15.000 Robert commenters saying just straight out, yeah, there's no such thing as a sustainable addiction.

00:38:21.060 You know, we can control things.

00:38:22.680 We try to get people into treatment.

00:38:24.600 It's hard.

00:38:25.960 But that's the only route we've got, and it's the best route we've got.

00:38:29.760 And, you know, I've heard people talk about how low some of the treatment success rates can be in some places and centers.

00:38:37.360 Sure, but compare that to the success rate for individuals if they don't get treatment at all.

00:38:43.540 And there's where we get a, you know, a difference.

00:38:47.720 If it doesn't matter, I mean, we want to bring that success rate as high as humanly possible.

00:38:53.080 But even if it's a bit low, it's better than the alternative.

00:38:57.620 So let's get into it.

00:39:00.040 You know, I don't know if it'll, maybe one day a wonder cure will come along,

00:39:04.100 Whereas addiction can be treated immediately and quickly as it is right now.

00:39:08.060 It's expensive, complicated, but still well worth it.

00:39:12.100 I mean, things were around now.

00:39:13.160 Things are around now that weren't around when I was young.

00:39:16.100 You know, Calgary, when I moved to the city at the end of the 80s, there was a part out in Inglewood, which, you know, actually Inglewood, Calgary is pretty trendy now and nice.

00:39:23.720 And there'd be a handful of homeless people there.

00:39:27.720 Heroin was going around a bit and a lot of alcoholics in the area.

00:39:31.940 But you didn't see things like now, like this meth and fentanyl.

00:39:36.480 These are things that they're just a supercharged, awful, relatively cheap drug that is just eating these poor people alive out on the streets.

00:39:48.240 And don't think for a second. 0.99

00:39:50.700 It's just always somebody else's kid, somebody else's relation, somebody who came from a bad household or somebody who deserved it because they made a stupid decision or something like that. 1.00

00:40:00.340 this can hit anybody. It really can. And we see it. There's stories of some people, again, 1.00

00:40:05.300 it often begins, it can be a professional. It starts with painkillers for a surgery, but they

00:40:11.520 got too dependent on them and then traveled down that road of addiction and end up, you know,

00:40:17.060 in dire, dire straits. So it's an area where we really can afford some compassion, I think.

00:40:23.220 and even if you want it in your own self-interest,

00:40:27.120 addiction treatment is just so, so darn important.

00:40:32.000 So, and every level of it.

00:40:34.080 And that's where I want to see more centers out there.

00:40:36.640 I didn't realize that the dream centers weren't connected,

00:40:38.420 but I mean, they're of similar models, but that's great.

00:40:40.640 And they're competing with each other.

00:40:43.080 You know, some are more faith-based than others.

00:40:44.740 Some are following different models,

00:40:47.120 but as long as the centers are there,

00:40:48.460 some people are going to respond better or worse to other ones.

00:40:50.880 The more, the merrier, as far as I'm concerned,

00:40:52.640 as long as the outcome and the goal is successful addiction treatment.

00:40:57.340 Let's see, I've used a fair amount of time on that,

00:41:01.600 which again, I feel like it was time well spent.

00:41:05.360 I should remind people, I touched on that with Dave.

00:41:08.640 I think it'd be impossible for anybody in Calgary

00:41:11.720 not to know what's happened with the situation

00:41:15.000 with that young fellow, Parker.

00:41:18.180 He's a boy, he's autistic, he's nonverbal.

00:41:20.200 he wandered off it's just strange he uh you know people are searching all through north calgary

00:41:27.720 he might he's he might have curled up into a strange hiding spot and be hiding out and so on

00:41:32.620 it's been a few days i really hope they find it but it's one of the sickest stories it's on western

00:41:37.140 standard online boy i i tell you if you want to get violent with somebody here's somebody who

00:41:41.640 deserves it somebody put a fake go fund me scam up to try and raise funds on that missing child

00:41:48.980 in Calgary. And I'm certain it's probably pulled down now, but I just got to warn people, there are

00:41:54.440 some really vile, disgusting individuals out there who will capitalize on the worst possible things.

00:42:01.880 And, you know, people meaning their very best, giving money into something like this, thinking 0.85

00:42:07.120 they were helping with that child or the family or to find them or something. And it was a rip off.

00:42:13.260 So always be careful with where you put your hard earned money, people, you know, check the

00:42:17.560 background on things and stuff such as that. Uh, I hope they catch whoever put it up. They

00:42:23.480 probably don't cause they, you know, they do these things from overseas and so on, but

00:42:27.340 what an awful, awful thing. And I hope that boy's found very, very soon. It's just, uh,

00:42:34.020 awful. Uh, let's see a little note. Uh, Paula Simons, Alberta, uh, Senator appointed by Justin

00:42:44.600 Trudeau, of course. Speaking of our bad media, because that's your reward. If you want to be

00:42:48.820 like Charles Adler and Paula Simons and just really lock your lips on the liberal government

00:42:53.600 long enough and hard enough with your stories and, you know, pump their tires for them all the time,

00:42:59.060 you might win the jackpot and get appointed to the Senate where you can collect a massive salary,

00:43:03.740 get massive benefits and a pension, and rarely have to show up for work. But she had the nerve

00:43:08.600 to get onto a podcast with a clown out in British Columbia and see that the independent supporters

00:43:15.420 in Alberta don't understand Alberta. You know, I don't even know how often she shows up in Alberta

00:43:19.860 anymore. And she actually, multiple times, she's a supposed independent senator, but come on,

00:43:25.240 she was appointed by Trudeau. She's liberal. Let's just not beat around the bush. Said elbows up a

00:43:29.480 couple of times, one of which saying, we got to go elbows up against the Alberta independence

00:43:33.580 movement, against the supporters, against fellow Albertans. This weird, bizarre, liberal elbows up

00:43:39.320 notion idea, which is actually an analogy for dirty play in a sport. And she wants to encourage 0.99

00:43:45.840 Albertans to take their elbows up against each other. Yes, Paula, that's certainly a way to

00:43:52.360 promote unity in the province, isn't it? That's bringing us together. That's making for better

00:43:58.780 outcomes out here man i mean we want to talk about abolishing the senate and that's one of

00:44:04.060 the questions going on the referendum that sure encourages people to say yeah let's just get rid

00:44:09.180 of the whole work see get rid of people like paula simons go back to work write columns for living

00:44:13.740 see if anybody wants to pay to read your stuff anymore i suspect they don't though she's been in 1.00

00:44:19.100 the senate long enough to i'm certain we uh have her nest feathered well enough with a large pension

00:44:27.100 that we can only dream of so uh you know just wanted to get that note out there about miss

00:44:34.880 simons uh at the end of things um all right lots going on guys just keep an eye on western

00:44:42.620 standard dot news to get your news it's up there going up fast as ever when uh the dives get to

00:44:49.740 work the stories break and we put them up there fast so you don't have to rely on the paula simons

00:44:54.660 we don't have to worry about me being appointed to the Senate at any time soon with the way I'm

00:44:57.960 doing things uh it's I'm going to be an independent media for a long time so be sure to tune in to

00:45:05.180 the pipeline tonight we're going to have a panel a few other folks covering some stuff we'll hit a

00:45:08.880 few stories the trade war going on and a number of other issues subscribe like share do all of that

00:45:15.620 important stuff for us it helps us get the word out there and get that coverage so you don't have

00:45:19.540 to listen to that nasty old legacy media thanks for tuning in on a nice summer day and we will

00:45:24.900 see you again next week at this time

00:45:49.540 You

Western Standard - July 22, 2026

It’s time to defund the Assembly of First Nations

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