JIVANI： Even black men can be fired for not being ＂woke＂ enough
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, former radio host Jamil Khalid talks about his long-term relationship with Bell Media and why he decided to take matters into his own hands. He also talks about why he chose to file a lawsuit against the company.
Transcript
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We really got some concerns about our media and allowing, you know, good, unfettered discourse
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on our media and things such as that. And perhaps if you want to lay out kind of what happened with
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yourself and Bell Media, because it really seems to have ended poorly when it could have really
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been a good show you had going there. Yeah. And, you know, I think we've seen a lot of concerns.
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You raised some of them earlier about the intersection of politics and media that we'd
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like to be able to say we've got trusted media outlets that are going to give us the honest news
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and leave it up to the audience, the viewer, the listener, to make a decision on their own about
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what they believe in, what they think. And I think we see over and over again that that's not really
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the state of mainstream media in this country. A lot of these mainstream media corporations and
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certainly my experience with Bell Media affirms this, are interested in telling us what to think,
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not giving us information and allowing us to come to our own conclusions. And really the conflict
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with Bell for me, you know, I wasn't there for very long. I only hosted a radio show full time for less
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than a year. And what I tried to do, which is what I thought, you know, when they were talking about
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diversity and inclusion and wanting to bring different voices from different cultural and ethnic
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backgrounds to the airwaves, I tried to bring perspectives from communities that, you know, like
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the black community I come from in the Toronto area, for instance, and to shine light on some of the
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challenges that you don't get to hear often. For example, that black Canadians are one of the most
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unvaccinated groups of Canadians over the last couple of years. And when I tried to explain, you know, how
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Trudeau's COVID policies, how some of the provincial COVID policies would impact communities like black
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Canadians, indigenous Canadians, people who are working on the front lines and all sorts of different
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industries, I would get told, you know, this is not right. Eventually, they wound up firing me because
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they didn't like that I was bringing these perspectives to the airwaves. But they did want me to bring the
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perspective when it was in line with the sort of liberal political agenda. So you know, the partisan
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nature of what Bell Media does every day, and for listeners who don't know, Bell Media owns CTV, they
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operate the iHeartRadio talk network throughout Canada. You know, they do have a partisan nature to
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what they want to put on the airwaves that they're not willing to admit to. And then they punish people
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like myself, who don't fall into that agenda, thinking that because I'm black, that I would
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naturally be a liberal when obviously that's not the case. Well, yeah, and I mean, we still have
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some valuable value in diverse voices, and we want to hear them like I'm a white guy raised out on the
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prairies. I've certainly got my views on issues, but I don't have any understanding of what a person
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of color in Toronto has had to experience or do and being able to hear that through different people
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speaking on networks has helped me garner some understanding. And if I guess people, you know,
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we're seeking diversity, but only with a narrow messaging that that's not helping me or the
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minority communities in any sort of way. And you're absolutely right, Corey. And that's the
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that's the concern. When you have the biggest telecommunications company in the country,
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thinking that they get to tell people what they're supposed to think based on their ethnicity or their
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culture. I mean, that is weird stuff that like that is not the way any workplace should operate.
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But especially one of that with that much influence and that much power as Bell does.
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So this is why the lawsuit was important for me to file was to sort of say, Look, you cannot treat
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people this way. You can't look at people and say, Well, because of what you look like, or because of
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where your dad comes from, we're going to decide what politics you should have, and then punish you
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when you refuse to be a token. It's unacceptable. And for people who might listen to this and question,
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you know, how much evidence does Jamil have of this kind of partisan bias? Is it just,
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you know, the the the normal liberal spin that we might see in the media?
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I'll tell you, Bell Media in its own statement of defense, and you can read this go on my Twitter,
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you can find a link to this says outright that they fired me in part because I did not defend
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Justin Trudeau against criticisms that a caller made to my show, saying that he was a behaving like
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a dictator and a globalist puppet. Now, whether you agree with that or not,
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that is a legitimate concern for people to have, we have members of parliament to have raised that
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point in the legislature. And yet Bell wants to punish a radio host for allowing a caller to say
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that on the radio show. The other point of partisan bias that Bell admits to in their statement
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of defense to the court, and again, this is in their words, you can read it for yourself,
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anyone who's interested. They say that I did not challenge member of parliament Kathy Wegenthal
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enough when she came on my show to explain why she opposes vaccine mandates. Now, why am I supposed
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to bring a duly elected member of parliament onto the show and not give her a chance to share her
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point of view? We did debate her points with callers immediately after the interview. But I think
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a conservative member of parliament has a right to come on the radio and explain why she opposes
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policies that impact her and her colleagues at the workplace. These are the kind of basic,
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simple things that every news outlet should be able to do. And yet with Bell Media, this is
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controversial and it's mind blowing to me. Yeah, well, and it's interesting you brought up that point,
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for example, with vaccination and some of the areas you want to discuss where you've got, you know,
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cultural differences. We've just got statistics and demographics to show that there wasn't as high
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an uptake in some communities as in others. And we actually had that discussion a lot in Calgary
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because in Northeast Calgary, a lot of our Indian community as well had a low vaccine uptake and
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people were concerned about it. And we had to speak and get the views from community leaders because
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a lot were new Canadians. They weren't necessarily trusting of the government or medical facilities.
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And through those discussions that people felt more comfortable and could, you know, well, choose
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whether or not they were going to be vaccinated. But that discussion was valuable and it was
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important. And to have it just coming from one side or saying we shouldn't even touch those issues,
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again, is putting communities at harm. You're absolutely right. And this is gets to sort of
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the phoniness of this whole diversity and inclusion thing. You know, there's a genuine way to do diversity
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and inclusion. And I think it's what you're talking about here, Corey, bring people in with different
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perspectives, trying to understand one another, trying to build genuine dialogue. But what Bell operates with
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is a sense of diversity and inclusion that says we want everyone to look different from one another,
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but ultimately think and say the same things. And if you don't fall in line, if you don't say and do
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what we want, then you don't count as diversity. And it's like, what is that? That is the opposite of
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what diversity is. Diversity means actually contending with people who have different points of view and
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trying to reach a middle ground. These guys want to punish people who don't have their point of view,
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and then pat themselves on the back as if they're diversity and inclusion experts. It's like,
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it is it is actually a really important issue facing our country because this is not just a Bell
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problem. This is happening in institutions all over the place, government offices, corporations,
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university campuses. And I think it's time for Canadians who believe in real diversity and inclusion
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to speak up and stop being bullied into silence, because we're afraid somebody is going to point a finger
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at us and call us a bigot because we don't want to toe the line.
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Yeah, well, and this could be like a bit broader. I think of some of it. I mean, there's some people
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who are activists within some communities or progressives, and they feel some fear when I think
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perhaps conservatives are evolving and moving beyond the old stereotypes of conservatives as well.
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And that adds some fear. I mean, when finally, and it's fair enough, you know, the conservatives didn't
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have a lot of members of the LGBTQ community taking part within them in the 90s and so on. But that's
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because people from that community got a very negative reception when they'd go to a conservative
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function, there were people opposing broad marriage rights and things like that. But once it was realized,
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we could be much better accepting, you know, because there's a lot of people in the LGBTQ community
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were business owners and worried about high taxes like anyone else. They come out as conservatives,
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and they get a backlash for that. I mean, it doesn't mean they stopped being a member of that
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community or didn't deal with some of the challenges of that community. But they're
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expected by some activists that they have to toe a certain line if they're part of that community.
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And that's not right. Yeah, and certainly, you're right. The LGBT community has gone through that.
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A lot of minority groups have gone through that. I've been able to talk to all sorts of different
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people in my role as president of the Canada Strong and Free Network, who experienced this sort of
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stigma, where when you say you're a conservative, but you're not the quote unquote, typical conservative,
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meaning you come from a maybe an unorthodox background for what people assume a conservative
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would be. All of a sudden, people want to make you feel judged for that. And that is it is my view,
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despicable, because the reality is this, every group of people is ideologically and politically
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diverse, every single group, women, men, different racial groups, newcomers, people were born here.
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And we should expect in a society that political parties of all stripes have to compete for the
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votes and the support of all citizens, regardless of what they look like, or where they come from.
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And the reality is that the left and I use that in a broad sense, you know, liberals, socialists,
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people who identify with the left side of the political spectrum, they feel entitled to own
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people to own their votes to own how they think to dictate to people based on what they look like
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and where they come from, how they're supposed to think about laws and policies in this country.
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It is textbook racism. And yet somehow, the liberals and the left have convinced everyone that they
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aren't racist, and they get to point a finger at the rest of the world. It is very backwards,
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because I would argue that some of the most racist thinking today is embraced by elite liberals.
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It's not embraced by the average working class, middle class family. It's people like what we've
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been talking about with Bell Media, who want to control others and tell them this is how you must
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think and feel because of what you look like. And there are a few things more insulting than
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tokenism. I mean, no matter where it's applied. What's the timeline like on your action at this
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point, I know these things can move pretty slowly through the, you know, the gears of the legal
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world. I mean, how's the suit been going? Yeah, you're absolutely right. These things
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can move slowly. It all kind of just depends on the people involved. It depends on how the process
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goes. You know, we've gone through what's called the pleading stage where we submitted our statement
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of claim, Bell submitted their defense, and then we replied to their defense. So, you know,
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we've got those, those pieces of the process done and the rest of it can take, could take months,
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could take weeks. We just, we don't know yet. So we've got to just stay focused. And, you know,
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it's, it's one of those things where it's difficult to read dishonest things about yourself in the media.
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And I think every public figure goes through that. Bell said some things that were really unfair in
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their defense, but this is the, that comes with it. You know, you go through the process,
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you stand up for what you believe in, you take the hits as they come and you hope that you get
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justice in the end. So that's what I'm focused on. And, you know, we're going to, we're going to keep
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doing our thing and hopefully good things will come out of it. Yeah. Well, and I noticed in your
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statement of claim, you know, the, the asks, as far as this kind of suit go, aren't unreasonable.
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It's not like you're asking for a hundred million dollars or trying to bankrupt the corporation.
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You want to be compensated for an improper dismissal and there's a punitive factor, but it's not huge.
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But I guess most of us also hopefully exposing this and the goal would be for Bell Media and
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others to realize you're on the wrong course. Don't do this. It's, it's, it's doing a disservice to
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people who follow the media, people within minority communities and just people in general.
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Yeah, you're exactly right. I mean, there are, you know, good people who work at Bell,
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like some of my former colleagues, for example, and they should not be subjected to these kinds of
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policies. I worry whether some of them are going to be fired and manipulated and punished
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in the same ways. So yeah, it is, it's, you know, money's, you know, always part of every lawsuit,
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but really, you know, there's a, there's a point here beyond just money, which is that there are,
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there's a right and a wrong. There's a way people deserve to be treated. Employees of all backgrounds,
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all races deserve high quality respect. And when they're not being given that, especially by one of the
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biggest and richest corporations in the country, I think that corporation in this case, Bell has to
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answer for its own behavior. Yeah. Well, and I hope this gets settled well. So maybe moving beyond
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that then, just since I've got you, how are things going with the Canada Strong and Free Network?
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Can you explain a little bit of what that's about and your role with it? Because that's a relatively
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recent, you're joining as the president of it, right? Yeah, exactly. I joined in June, so it's only
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been a few months now. And for people who haven't heard of the Canada Strong and Free Network before,
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we used to be called the Manning Centre. So we've been around for 15 years, but most of those years,
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we had a different name. And what we do is we organize conservative conferences all around the
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country, conservative events, we want conservatives to connect with each other, we believe that there's
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strength in numbers. And we also believe conservatives should not be made to feel alone, to feel isolated.
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A lot of the activist tactics on the left are designed to make you feel like you are an island
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unto yourself if you don't go along to get along and join the crowd. So we do these conferences
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because we want to bring people together, bring people of different ages, whether it's people who
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are active when Preston Manning was in political office, or people who are active when Stephen Harper
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was the Prime Minister of Canada, or now people who are looking at maybe the future looking at excited about
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a possible Pierre Polyev Prime Ministership and saying, I want to get involved in the movement
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and start, you know, building ideas and networks and relationships that might help guide the country
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in a better direction. So we encourage people who'd like to come to our events to learn about what we
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do, we do virtual events and in person events, you can visit our website Canada strong and free dot
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network, where you can learn all about us. Our next big conference is in Ottawa in March. So I encourage you to,
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to look out for updates on that. I'm really excited for what we're putting together for that March
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Great. Well, I really appreciate your work. I mean, in that as well. I mean, it's good for
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getting a lot of young conservatives or even the older ones. I mean, just to become more effective
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communicators or working on things. And as well, of course, I mean, I got some self interest, but I
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want to see as much free press as possible and as much discourse as possible. So I appreciate your,
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you know, you're taking that fight up rather than just letting it go and putting it behind you.
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And of course, I appreciate you coming on and talking to us today. Is there anything else you'd
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No, I just want to say, you know, I really appreciate the work you do, Corey. Like I spent
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a lot of time talking about where media is failing, but we've got a lot of strong, new independent
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outlets, shows like yours, thinkers like you and others at Western Standard. So appreciate the work
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you guys do to bring attention to these important issues.
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Great. Well, I wish you the best on your legal actions and your future endeavors with the
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McDonnell Laurier and the Canadian Strong and Free Network. So thanks again for coming on. I hope we
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