Western Standard - February 27, 2025


Let’s talk about Islam


Episode Stats

Length

47 minutes

Words per Minute

196.7725

Word Count

9,324

Sentence Count

463

Misogynist Sentences

10

Hate Speech Sentences

26


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

It's time for the world to have a frank discussion about Islam and how it fits into modern societies that respect human rights. It's an elephant in the room and ignoring it has real costs. This week Cory talks about honour killings and rape in Islamic countries.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Good day.
00:00:29.440 Welcome to the Cory Morgan Show, your weekly chance to let me help you try to navigate through these insane political times.
00:00:35.940 But I've got to admit, I'm not too sure what's going on these days or trying to interpret it.
00:00:40.340 They're just insane. It gives us no shortage of things to talk about, things to cover, and things to interpret.
00:00:47.940 So this is live. Those who are watching live, be sure to use that comment scroll.
00:00:52.360 I see Peter LaFontaine talking about, you know, asking about the Liberal debates.
00:00:55.880 That was one of the things that happened.
00:00:57.080 The Liberal Party love-in was the last couple of days.
00:01:00.680 You know, why weren't they asked tough questions such as about whether or not they would keep Stephen Gilboa?
00:01:05.280 We know they're not going to ask those tough questions at an internal party debate.
00:01:08.720 And you can rest assured when Legacy Media runs the debates in the general election,
00:01:11.860 whenever the heck we might get it, they're not going to ask tough questions like that.
00:01:15.100 But we can take those tough questions here, throw those out there.
00:01:17.060 I see Mike there commenting from Freedom Honey and others.
00:01:20.400 And, you know, just keep things civil.
00:01:22.520 This show, this is how we pay some of the bills,
00:01:24.280 is sponsored by new world precious metals and they're based right here in alberta everybody's
00:01:28.520 big on staying close to home these days well inflationary money printing and debt they've
00:01:32.520 decimated the average canadian savings gold and silver are the only currencies that have held
00:01:36.840 their value for thousands of years last year saw 30 gains new work new world precious metals
00:01:42.520 offers unique platforms to help protect and grow your hard-earned wealth with gold and silver
00:01:46.600 check them out guys get some gold get some silver hedge your bets can't rely on the canadian dollar
00:01:51.080 I promise you. They're at newworldpm.com. All right, so yes, in a bit I'm going to have Erica
00:01:57.200 Barudis on. We're going to talk. She's from Macamie College, their applied politics program,
00:02:01.980 and she's also a senator-elect. We're going to talk about some of the provincial stuff. We've
00:02:05.060 got a budget coming up. I'm going to talk about some non-controversial stuff to get it going,
00:02:09.340 though, and kind of a world thing. It's time for the world to have a frank discussion about Islam
00:02:13.620 and how it fits into modern societies, you know, the ones that respect human rights.
00:02:17.940 It's an elephant in the room and ignoring it has real costs.
00:02:21.180 One of the worst examples was in Rotherham, I'm probably mispronouncing it, UK,
00:02:25.020 where young girls were recruited, groomed, and raped for decades by gangs of Pakistani men.
00:02:30.300 The Jay Report estimates over 1,400 young women were victims of these gangs.
00:02:34.300 The number is likely much higher since so many of these crimes went unreported.
00:02:38.000 So how was it that these monsters were able to assail young women for so long without it being exposed?
00:02:43.120 Well, it's because the perpetrators were Islamic Pakistanis 0.99
00:02:45.380 and authorities didn't want to touch the issue for fear of putting Islam in a bad light.
00:02:49.540 It's one of the most shameful acts of state cowardice in modern history.
00:02:53.300 The crimes were reported for decades, but action was muted for fear of upsetting the Islamic community.
00:02:58.300 Meanwhile, the rapes of young girls continued.
00:03:00.540 And no, not every Muslim is an extremist.
00:03:02.460 In fact, the vast majority of them are peaceful folks.
00:03:04.420 I understand that.
00:03:05.780 But let's quit pretending Islam doesn't spawn more extremists than any other religion. 1.00
00:03:10.220 In fact, more than all of them combined.
00:03:12.640 Part of it's an ingrained cultural and religious disrespect for women. 1.00
00:03:15.380 Women are considered property in traditional Islamic cultures. 0.99
00:03:18.760 They are to be traded, beaten, and even stoned to death for the crime of adultery,
00:03:22.080 which usually means they let themselves be raped. 1.00
00:03:24.280 Yes, rape victims are considered perpetrators in these traditional Islamic states.
00:03:28.900 That's why they're whipped for daring to show their faces or hair in some of those countries,
00:03:32.120 and why honor killings for women who dare to have relations with men their family don't approve of,
00:03:36.280 still happen by the thousands every year.
00:03:38.600 There are 57 member states in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
00:03:42.880 These are the nations dominated by Islamic populations and usually governed under some form of theocratic rule.
00:03:48.920 There are a few that are considered democracies among them, but they're rife with corruption and defined actually as flawed democracies at best.
00:03:54.540 The rest are outright dictatorships.
00:03:56.860 Many of those nations are skirmishing or warring with their neighbours, and when those wars are resolved, they tend to descend into sectarian civil wars, since Sunni Muslims can't stand the Shia Muslims. 0.84
00:04:06.000 When the Islamic nations are liberated by other countries, their freedoms are temporary at best. 0.74
00:04:10.200 Look at Afghanistan. Women are now barred from even seeking an education and going to school.
00:04:14.720 In Iraq, they lower the age of marriage to nine years for girls, following in the footsteps or sandals of Muhammad. 0.96
00:04:20.840 Women have things bad enough in the Islamic world. 1.00
00:04:23.960 Look at the LGBTQ people. They have it even worse. 1.00
00:04:26.400 It's illegal to be gay in every Islamic nation, and the penalty is often death through savage means such as throwing them from buildings.
00:04:32.280 The first openly gay Muslim imam was murdered just weeks ago.
00:04:35.400 This silence from the purple-haired gender advocates in North America is kind of deafening on that.
00:04:40.200 While the constant wars break out in Islamic nations, floods of fighting-age male refugees 1.00
00:04:45.280 pour into other nations.
00:04:46.620 Since opening their borders to Syrian refugees in 2017, European nations have been dealing 0.99
00:04:50.380 with domestic nightmares, as the influx of these men continues to refuse to integrate 1.00
00:04:55.480 into a civilized culture.
00:04:56.940 Parts of Paris are virtual war zones.
00:04:58.860 Germany endured a rape-fest over New Year's Eve, carried out by North African migrants 1.00
00:05:04.780 in 2016.
00:05:06.320 nations have influxes of migrants but it rarely leads to the challenges that
00:05:09.560 come with sudden numbers of Islamic migrants. I mean women aren't afraid to 1.00
00:05:12.920 walk in a city's Chinatown. Attacks on crowds carried out by Islamic extremists
00:05:17.180 with vehicles and knives are becoming more frequent. Even when they scream
00:05:19.720 Alu Akbar and are in possession of Islamic State flags when they commit
00:05:23.140 their acts of terrorism. Medium politicians are quick to state, well we're
00:05:25.700 not sure what the motive of the attacker might be. Just a lone wolf, right? Let's
00:05:29.120 quit pretending that the Israel conflict isn't rooted in Islam. Well 1.7 million
00:05:34.340 Muslims reside in Israel with full rights. Jews have been driven from every Islamic nation.
00:05:38.660 Islamists in the Middle East can't abide by even a single Jew in Israel and rest assured their goal 1.00
00:05:42.740 is the eradication of them. They don't even try to hide it when they're chanting their genocidal
00:05:46.420 line from the river to the sea at every opportunity. The only ones denying the intent to wipe every
00:05:50.740 Jew out of Israel by neighboring Islamists are Western liberals. The hate-filled pro-Hamas 0.86
00:05:55.220 protests continue to clog Canadian streets while they target Jewish neighborhoods. These protests
00:05:58.980 almost always involve Islamic prayers in the middle of the roads. So again let's not pretend 0.90
00:06:03.140 there isn't an islamist base to this religions are thought systems they aren't immutable like race
00:06:08.180 every religion should be open to critique and most are it's only when one's critical of islam 0.59
00:06:12.340 that the accusations of bigotry come followed by cancellation efforts and usually death threats
00:06:16.660 it's not a matter of being intolerant it's a matter of being a modern thinker i'm not talking
00:06:20.180 about banning islam freedom of religion is essential but i am saying there is something 1.00
00:06:24.020 inherently flawed within that faith and it must be discussed other religions have experienced
00:06:28.740 reformations and evolved with the modern world it's time to examine how islam can start doing 1.00
00:06:33.300 the same we have to begin that process by admitting there's a problem and there is a problem guys all
00:06:39.140 right on that light note i'll turn to other news with our uh news editor dave nailer who i know was
00:06:45.220 gagging as i mispronounced that uh uk community rotherham rotherham okay thank you i i i know i
00:06:51.380 blew it i was actually born near there as a matter of fact and uh i've been to rotherham many a time
00:06:56.660 I'm on the way to my grandmother's place in Role Marsh.
00:06:59.420 Well, there we go.
00:07:00.300 That mother tongue is still cruel to even us English speakers. 1.00
00:07:04.080 I mean, I still can't pronounce Worcester, Chire, Sauce.
00:07:06.580 Yeah, I should stick to English.
00:07:08.660 Not the Queen's English, just English. 0.90
00:07:10.960 What's the King's English now?
00:07:12.120 I'm sorry, yes, the King's English.
00:07:13.900 All right.
00:07:14.720 You're not afraid to tackle the controversial subjects, are you?
00:07:17.500 Well, that one annoys me a little.
00:07:18.940 And the Kamloops hoax.
00:07:21.520 Yes.
00:07:21.740 That's another good one, too.
00:07:22.700 It just keeps going.
00:07:24.100 And what's the latest one this week?
00:07:25.620 you've been having fun with the uh uh the treatment center drug treatment centers yes
00:07:29.480 so you you like to you like to well we you know people shy away from the tough ones i think no
00:07:37.060 we actually need to rip the band-aid off and get on them i mean it's putting things off really
00:07:41.480 makes them better i think so i think you're right i mean i've never seen such a tumultuous time in
00:07:46.280 politics on every side you got your international you got your federal and you got your local here
00:07:51.820 with the upcoming mayor's race.
00:07:53.980 It's just crazy.
00:07:55.420 It's wonderful for news.
00:07:56.840 Yeah, I can barely find time to talk about that.
00:07:58.920 Jeremy Farkas announced he's running for mayor again.
00:08:00.780 He's back again, yeah.
00:08:02.120 Back again, back again.
00:08:04.140 And, of course, it was Donald Trump this morning that was making all the news.
00:08:08.040 Had his first cabinet meeting, invited the press in,
00:08:10.860 and then went on a free-for-all press conference for ages,
00:08:14.960 which somewhere in the middle, we think,
00:08:17.420 he announced that the tariffs are pushed back to April 2nd.
00:08:20.960 So we'll have to start working on our April Fool's Day story now.
00:08:26.960 A big celebrity death to report on the star of Gossip Girl,
00:08:31.520 who I must admit, Corey, I've never seen a single episode.
00:08:34.040 No, either have I.
00:08:35.660 So she died at 39, and it's tearing up social media at the moment.
00:08:43.060 A big story that really bothers me, Corey, that we've had for a couple days now,
00:08:46.740 We had an update this morning on a trans father in Grand Prairie.
00:08:51.800 He's actually transitioning to be a woman, but he's now a trans man.
00:08:57.120 Stabbed his two kids, and one of them very badly slit one of the child's throats through the esophagus.
00:09:05.080 So they're now in the children's hospital here and have been fed by food tubing for the next several months.
00:09:12.800 But some, I guess, some local vigilante want-to-bes or interested folks tracked this guy down.
00:09:20.580 He wasn't charged. He was released after 26 hours in the nuthouse.
00:09:25.740 And they filmed him, and he started explaining why he did it.
00:09:29.280 And this guy is 6'7", big, you know, probably only weighs about 150 pounds.
00:09:35.020 He starts going on about how he was trying to protect his kids from being abducted by human traffickers.
00:09:40.260 And that's why he slit their throats.
00:09:42.800 uh and he's he's out on the streets right i mean i just don't get it uh without charge that we know
00:09:48.800 about the rcmp has handled this badly uh you know the the children need to be protected but nobody's
00:09:55.040 talking about it and uh and we're we're digging away and our uh chris old corn who has led the
00:10:01.120 story and uh linda slavoti and our columnist is now uh working on it uh uh today too uh another
00:10:08.320 Another mid-air collision almost avoided yesterday at the D.C. airport, the same one that had
00:10:15.440 the fatal crash, and it comes on the heels of one in Chicago that we were watching earlier
00:10:22.020 this morning, Corian.
00:10:23.480 And the best news of the day is NASA now says that killer asteroid is not going to hit Earth,
00:10:29.260 but it could hit the moon.
00:10:31.560 So what that does to the moon and potential tidal changes and all that sort of good stuff,
00:10:37.080 who knows but as you can see by the moon it's had crater impacts before so yeah throughout history
00:10:43.060 it's been hit by a few things so we'll have to wait and see whether armageddon awaits well maybe
00:10:47.580 if we had a big enough asteroid tax we could reduce the risk oh that's a good idea don't tell
00:10:51.320 steven gilbo no no it'll be the next minister's thing well i mean yeah some people are a mixed
00:10:56.280 blessing on whether or not the asteroid should come or not yeah if it could land on his head
00:10:59.800 i'd be all for it yeah it's just a matter of where it lands yeah true all right we could guide it
00:11:03.920 All right. Well, thanks, Dave. I'll let you get back to trying to dig through again.
00:11:08.800 It's just such a crazy new scroll these days and report what we can.
00:11:13.620 It's all fun and games.
00:11:14.520 Right on. Thanks, Dave.
00:11:16.200 So that was our news editor, Dave Naylor. And yet the stories are coming hard and heavy.
00:11:20.040 Yeah, Chris Oldcorn, he's always hitting them hard out there out of Saskatchewan and covering stories even that come out out here.
00:11:26.480 The reason we can do it, guys, is where I got to nag you, but it's true, is subscribers.
00:11:30.360 You got to get on there. It's $10 a month, $100 a year.
00:11:33.100 That's how we keep this room going, the newsroom.
00:11:35.240 I've got another show coming.
00:11:36.440 It's going to start next week, by the way.
00:11:37.880 It's going to specialize in covering the election.
00:11:39.740 It's going to come out.
00:11:40.740 We believe it's going to air every Friday.
00:11:42.440 We'll see.
00:11:42.860 I'm going to be recording it every Thursday.
00:11:45.020 But we're going to have that once a week for at least a few months.
00:11:47.820 And it's going to be fun.
00:11:49.740 It's going to be fun.
00:11:50.360 We're going to cover a lot of things with that.
00:11:52.160 So, yes, get on, though.
00:11:54.700 Subscribe.
00:11:55.200 $10 a month, westernstandards.news.
00:11:57.160 You can see it in the bottom, slash, subscription.
00:11:58.640 That way we don't take DAX dollars.
00:11:59.900 that way we don't pander to the party in power like we're seeing with legacy media right now
00:12:05.000 and that way we can just keep this sort of stuff coming so uh yeah good to see you guys coming in
00:12:09.900 wildrose paradoxy yeah you know it's funny some of the you can read exhaustion in a comment with
00:12:15.580 a paradox of like saying along the lines of you know what would happen if we just didn't cover
00:12:19.020 trump for a week you know just left it alone for a week probably not a lot because this is the
00:12:25.060 frustrating thing among many with with with President Trump you don't know
00:12:30.640 where he's bloody coming from I I mean again I I'm a conservative I didn't want
00:12:36.640 to see more Democrats I've been getting into this on social media with others
00:12:39.820 and everything else too I'm sorry but I'm not part of the Trump cult and I
00:12:42.400 won't be we need at least a degree of truth going on one of the most
00:12:48.040 frustrating things if we're talking about negotiating trade for talking
00:12:51.940 about it, if we're going to be serious about it, fine. Absolutely. We've got issues. Certainly
00:12:55.780 got issues. Canada doesn't keep up its share on defense and we can fix things up at the
00:12:59.640 border. Fine. But then when they start throwing out that baloney of $200 billion subsidy,
00:13:05.060 it's crap. It's 100% pure crap. It's untrue. It's a trade deficit. Big difference. It just
00:13:12.020 means they buy more from us than we buy from them. That is not a subsidy by any definition.
00:13:17.460 And it's got to be called out on it instead of having a bunch of Trump's fart catchers online
00:13:20.740 saying well no he means something else no he doesn't mean something else he's nuts he's saying
00:13:23.940 whatever comes out of his head we can't negotiate based on that and it's shaking our economy and
00:13:30.420 then you know look i i am an independent supporter i'm not married to the concept of canada by any
00:13:37.220 means but if you think that this sort of rattling this this taunting this this this 51st stake this
00:13:43.060 governor canada talk from trump brings us any closer to a 51st state you're dearly mistaken
00:13:49.760 It's actually entrenching more nationalism with Canadians than we've seen in decades.
00:13:55.240 And on top of it all, if you look at the polls, the Liberals are gaining because of this.
00:14:00.820 The Liberals are actually starting to do better.
00:14:02.860 When it looked like they didn't have a chance on earth of winning the election, suddenly they're neck and neck.
00:14:09.160 At first it looked like it might have been just Frank Graves in an outlying poll or something like that.
00:14:13.520 But no, we're starting to see it now over and over and over again.
00:14:16.580 And it's basically because when you've got an outside enemy, and I won't go with that talking about Trump, the United States being an enemy.
00:14:27.020 But yeah, in the trade sense, that's pretty much where we are.
00:14:31.140 And it rallies people.
00:14:33.660 It brings them together.
00:14:35.300 I mean, again, people keep dismissing it as just negotiation tactics.
00:14:39.840 Look, lying is not good negotiation tactics.
00:14:42.620 It's not in good faith.
00:14:44.360 We are allies of the United States.
00:14:47.540 We have been for over a century.
00:14:50.220 We're close friends.
00:14:51.000 I love the United States.
00:14:51.900 I spend a lot of time down there.
00:14:53.380 I have family down there.
00:14:54.780 I want us to get closer.
00:14:56.320 I want fewer trade barriers, fewer tariffs.
00:14:59.520 I wouldn't mind getting back to crossing the border without passports again.
00:15:03.680 And that to do such things, we would need to clean up who's coming into Canada in the first place. 1.00
00:15:07.760 I fully understand that.
00:15:08.940 But we need to bring the conversation into rationality.
00:15:13.200 we have to get real with it and we're not doing that because we don't know where he's going to
00:15:18.880 be from day to day i mean trump promised these these tariffs are going to slam us and they're
00:15:22.840 going to come at the start of march and now just out of the blue nah maybe we're going to sit till
00:15:27.320 april okay i i guess that's a relief but how do we plan for anything how do we do anything and how
00:15:33.940 do we know a week from now he won't change his mind again i don't mind a bit of a wild card in
00:15:39.180 politics i certainly don't i like to see things stirred up a bit but this is just getting to the
00:15:44.900 point of causing damage for the sake of damage and and we've got to start thinking about how we can
00:15:49.940 deal with this uh it's not doing us any favors i don't know if it's doing him any either
00:15:56.080 tariffs are clumsy bad policy look if we're conservatives we like to say we are guys
00:16:02.480 we don't try to tax things better. We try to get government out of the way.
00:16:08.980 And it's just a frustrating thing that's carrying on. I see some of the talk about
00:16:14.600 the insanity. And this is what Dave mentioned. So up in Grand Prairie, that crazed person slit
00:16:22.440 the throat of two children and then has been released. And in the case in just a couple of
00:16:27.360 days ago, a person stabbed a six-year-old child that was in Halifax, this woman, and she'd been
00:16:33.280 released on bail just shortly before that, and then she went out and randomly stabbed a child. 0.86
00:16:38.340 I see the guest in the lobby, so I'll just close quickly. I won't talk a little further on that
00:16:41.360 because I want to talk about some of those treatment centers a little later. But this is,
00:16:44.940 we're seeing indications of, is our naive and misplaced movement to take people out of mental
00:16:51.380 health care facilities. When we put them out, we see some of the worst of consequences, and that's
00:16:56.420 we're seeing right now they're letting them out because they got nowhere else to keep them
00:16:59.620 and now we're getting literally children stabbed and we can't put up with that okay i see erica
00:17:05.140 waiting in the lobby there so let's bring her in and talk about our provincial insanity for a little 1.00
00:17:09.300 while hello erica how you doing hi i'm good how are you very good well you know mixed i mean i
00:17:16.900 just i i honestly get to the point when i go through all the news stories to try and plan
00:17:20.500 and she'll get a headache trying to think what few things can i manage to cover in this short
00:17:24.340 time because there's just so much going on right now there is not a shortage i was just saying
00:17:29.040 like we're filming our our podcast twice this week because there's so much going on in alberta news
00:17:34.780 um that we want to cover before even talking about the budget and i think that we it needs
00:17:40.400 to have two two shows unfortunately but good for content is really the only upside that is and as
00:17:47.160 well i mean i'll get to that and you're instructing at macamie college with applied uh politics i
00:17:51.620 I mean, for the people whose heads are spinning,
00:17:53.280 that's a great way to get that basic knowledge on these things
00:17:56.040 and try to better equip yourself to interpret.
00:17:58.640 Yeah, we definitely have issues management and conflict resolution portion
00:18:02.780 within the course.
00:18:05.980 So yeah, it's definitely giving us in the class
00:18:08.440 that we've launched our first pilot in January.
00:18:11.520 We'll have another one in May just to test out the material.
00:18:15.360 We're definitely having a lot of great examples.
00:18:18.140 We talked about loss of confidence, and the federal government is giving us live examples of that, too.
00:18:25.840 So it's very much applied to everything that you would learn, or I wish I learned in a poli-sci degree, and in my years at the legislature, all in one course.
00:18:35.820 Right on. That's where I like colleges better than universities in some ways.
00:18:38.400 You get more of the applied stuff, not just getting into the long theoretical, which is important, too.
00:18:43.300 All right, enough of that. So we've got a budget coming in Alberta.
00:18:46.300 kind of start there. I mean, we're at speculation point, but some of the stuff always leaks out a
00:18:51.940 little early. It sounds like the tax break might finally be coming. Oh, thank the Lord. Um, I've
00:18:57.280 been screaming about this because I was, as you know, in the war room, I was part of the Smith
00:19:01.660 administration and this, the, the personal tax credit was the first thing we announced in the
00:19:07.800 election. And it is something that I think when you're talking about affordability or, um, cost
00:19:13.080 of living, anything like that, where it is proven that if you get money back, you put it back into
00:19:17.860 the economy. So I'm excited finally about this one coming through, but apparently it has a caveat,
00:19:24.640 which is a deficit. Yeah. Now that's something I want to ask about. Is it impossible to cut
00:19:31.300 spending? Because I'm getting really tired of conservatives claiming they're conservative and
00:19:34.980 then they lose their courage as soon as they get in and will not cut the bloody spending.
00:19:38.340 Yeah, I don't think any of these ministers went in and are coming out having to really have said that they cut.
00:19:48.480 I think a lot of them stayed whole.
00:19:50.940 Trust me, I'm going to go through.
00:19:53.000 I know before I came on, you were talking about compassionate intervention.
00:19:56.220 But I think the government is pretty quick to assume that their process works as opposed to test a pilot.
00:20:03.560 And these are hundreds of millions of dollars invested into facilities without a proof of concept.
00:20:08.340 I'm very critical of that.
00:20:09.560 I'm very critical of how our grant systems work.
00:20:12.440 I'm sure that the infrastructure list,
00:20:14.840 I'm sorry, you don't fund things
00:20:18.020 that don't put bums in seats or people in care
00:20:21.800 over anything else when you've got a tight budget.
00:20:23.980 So unfortunately, Alberta has been a half province
00:20:26.480 for so long.
00:20:27.520 I actually lived this through the Redford administration
00:20:30.200 of like the first time you really needed to see
00:20:32.440 tightening your belts and it doesn't go over well.
00:20:36.560 We wanna be fiscal conservatives,
00:20:38.160 but we've also been in a very fortunate place for so long
00:20:42.380 that we didn't really need to make tough cuts.
00:20:45.440 Yeah, so some of that can't be...
00:20:46.820 And I hate it.
00:20:47.820 We do have a big variable happening south of the border.
00:20:51.320 We don't know how that's going to impact finances
00:20:53.860 or what's going to happen with some of our commodities and trade goods.
00:20:57.600 But at the same time, that would tell me
00:20:59.180 that means that we should be tightening our belt more right now then
00:21:01.960 so that we can take any ups and downs.
00:21:04.120 I think you're right, Corey.
00:21:05.140 i think the the challenge is is that all that says to me is the deficit will get bigger uh in
00:21:10.660 in fiscal updates right last year they had a good year where oil prices were good um they could
00:21:16.740 really have positive impacts obviously some of it is required to go to pay debt down the deficits
00:21:23.220 are down the debt and also into the heritage trust fund savings um so there is already like
00:21:29.220 money that's coming in has already got to go into the piggy bank to pay off um debt i i'm a huge
00:21:36.100 fiscal hawk uh i don't know how many of those people at treasury board um how they're feeling
00:21:41.780 i think there's like tails between legs that maybe they didn't get um to where they wanted but i think
00:21:47.540 there's a lot of um stuff within every budget that everyone should be like this is a
00:21:54.980 a tough budget not all my stakeholders are going to be happy but we're doing what's right for
00:21:58.580 albertans and what as conservatives we commit to which is a balanced budget yeah so we seem to have
00:22:03.940 a government that's not looking before they leap a lot which again i kind of like sometimes but
00:22:09.700 we're also seeing as you mentioned with the compassionate care centers i'm pretty actually
00:22:13.620 enthusiastic about them but i also understand what you're saying this is untested ground i mean part
00:22:17.860 of the the opponents to it i'm also pointing out because they're saying it never works well wait a
00:22:21.380 minute point to the ones that didn't because actually as far as i could find it hasn't been
00:22:24.340 tried but that's a whole lot of money to try something if we're not sure yeah i'm all about
00:22:29.380 proof of concept so all by all means this is not something i personally experience but
00:22:34.500 if you want to test that do like every other procurement process works and maybe
00:22:38.900 procurement process isn't the thing to be mentioning right now um but that like there
00:22:43.140 is a process and so we need to test and test concept uh well they could have built three not
00:22:48.180 eleven well and you've helped me segue with that and procurement because i mean we can't avoid that
00:22:53.220 elephant in the room. I wanted to talk mostly about budget, but this just isn't going away.
00:22:57.660 What the heck is going on? I mean, speaking of, I mean, I do believe AHS has a bloated bureaucracy
00:23:02.620 that really needed to be tackled and taken on, but they seem to be losing the war with it and
00:23:09.140 they've made a mess. Yeah, honestly, I feel like, like you said, sometimes they leave and make
00:23:15.140 decisions before sometimes. And in this case, I feel like they're not trying to be proactive on
00:23:20.300 anything to manage this. They're being very reactive and waiting for screaming and shouting
00:23:26.540 to even have that independent inquiry that they're, or the independent investigation that
00:23:30.700 they just announced last week, last Wednesday. And so I feel like they're really losing and
00:23:35.700 struggling with the narrative. Even as recent as today, I think what we're seeing now is that it's
00:23:40.920 not just health. I agree. I still support the reforms. I still think that there's a lot of
00:23:45.480 bloated bureaucracy there. And if someone's not doing their job and their scope, which is to
00:23:52.220 support and enforce reform, and they're the head of it, by all means, they should be terminated.
00:23:59.580 If that's the case. Now, they were peeling back an onion and finding some things. I think timing
00:24:05.880 was a fault of the government's for just the sequence of events. But now we're seeing it
00:24:12.180 in infrastructure. We're seeing it mental health and addictions. We're now seeing it as early as
00:24:16.740 this morning in public safety. So I think the big thing now is every ministry better be going in
00:24:23.480 doing independent investigations, audits. And yeah, like sometimes these are at the director,
00:24:28.160 executive director level that isn't going to catch the eye of the minister, but these are,
00:24:33.360 or be elevated to the minister, which is unfortunate. But this is something where like
00:24:37.940 for their own butts, I would encourage every minister to go do this internally.
00:24:42.180 Yeah, well, and it gets frustrating. I mean, I, again, was optimistic about the concept. We really do need to look at some maybe freestanding specialized facilities outside of, you know, centralized hospitals and yes, private facilities. But if you start to get whiffs of possible corruption, and if it sounds like you're not sourcing those or doing proper procurement, they could be setting the reforms back rather than forward. And that really, I got to admit, is taking me off.
00:25:08.860 It is. I feel the exact same. I think these reforms were, we both know that reforms and generational change won't happen overnight. And this is just like really making it sticky for them to validate why and how they're doing it. Again, I'm all for publicly funding private facilities to speed up service if it's in the best interest of Albertans and it's at a good rate. And if it goes through a procurement process, right?
00:25:34.760 Like, I am not against let's find any solution to deal with this, because I think that everyone's fed up with not having access to care.
00:25:42.180 So let's let's get creative, but not creative and to the point that it's questionable.
00:25:47.980 And I think that that's something that is now being investigated, alleged alleging that there was interference, all of those things.
00:25:56.420 I am at a point where I'm like, I just want the truth.
00:25:59.040 I want good, you know, proper due diligence to occur, because, again, you're right.
00:26:04.760 now, it's setting this back by six months, maybe a year. And generational change is going to take
00:26:09.560 not just one term of Premier Smith, but another term of the UCP. And this is going to get them
00:26:14.560 into a lot of hot water that might impact them in the pools. Well, I think if anything else,
00:26:19.060 they really need to clear the air, you know, have an inquiry, get moving, let's get on with this,
00:26:23.100 because Peter Guthrie, even Don Braid, I have to admit, you know, said like, okay, Guthrie
00:26:27.780 left, and maybe it's a point of principle. But at the same time, he threw a hand grenade with
00:26:30.980 no evidence and likewise we've seen a statement of claim which may or may not be true but we
00:26:35.820 haven't seen any hard evidence we need an inquiry to figure out what's going on you can't keep
00:26:39.840 dismissing it because people will assume the worst and I definitely think that regardless of what
00:26:44.520 ideology you are as Albertans we just want the truth I'm expecting and maybe I'm a little bit
00:26:50.580 more crass than folks but I've lived through enough of this I want some heads on platters
00:26:55.340 So I'm expecting that if there is anyone, whether it was someone affiliated with the government, individuals in bureaucracies, let's find out where the toxicity is coming from and let's clean it out.
00:27:10.700 Well, that's it, because there's motivations that people can read it on both ends.
00:27:13.960 There's some very upset bureaucrats who really actually want to derail any reforms to a system that they're pretty comfortable within. 0.99
00:27:21.040 And unfortunately, there's always people trying to better themselves through procurement processes and their own businesses and things like that.
00:27:28.480 And both are believable. We need to find out what the heck's happening here.
00:27:32.280 Yeah, exactly. And I think if you're a good business and you have a good business case, you should be able to win those bids through the proper process.
00:27:41.560 And it's unfortunate that maybe that wasn't the case.
00:27:44.020 again, all alleges, it's all being allegations. So none of this has been proven. And I think
00:27:49.660 that's a really important thing. But again, coming back to that narrative is if I'm a
00:27:53.900 government and I know something is, you know, sticky, or I'm concerned about it, or there's
00:28:00.520 any caution, I'm like very much of the like, issues manager that's like, get it out and just
00:28:04.980 dump it. Because I think that at least and then this is what we're doing about it now that it's
00:28:09.680 been flagged as opposed to some of the reactionary stuff that we're seeing like obviously I think
00:28:15.800 Pete Guthrie knows something that we don't he's not going to say it but there's obviously an
00:28:21.120 ethical challenge that he is facing and which is why and I've spoken with him he was on transition
00:28:27.300 team with me for Premier Smith so I think that there's something that he ethically can no longer
00:28:32.900 stand behind it's just unfortunate on the timing because there's not something to point to
00:28:38.760 yeah well well you know we've told the facts come out we won't learn too much more
00:28:43.740 so again back to kind of circle back to the immediate thing uh the the budget and uh you
00:28:50.120 know you're going to be breaking that down more in your shows i mean after the budget's been
00:28:53.500 tabled and you can see it in detail uh for this last part of the you know the talk here what would
00:28:58.900 you like to see in it well i'm i'm very happy should there be and i think yeah we're both
00:29:04.100 uh speculating but i'm pretty confident that the the tax credit is coming for albertans um so i'm
00:29:11.140 very excited about that i'd love to see really strong infrastructure and transportation uh
00:29:17.140 investment because we need to build we have 250 000 new people here um and we need to expedite
00:29:24.260 processes to get those people working because i think there's a lot of new people here we just
00:29:28.260 just need to get them jobs if that's the case. And it may not be what they came here to do,
00:29:35.480 but let's get them contributing to the economy. So I'm super focused on the economic side and
00:29:40.860 also just how the guardrails that the government's going to put in place should and when these
00:29:44.940 tariffs come into place. So I want to see their projections on that. I'm not a huge focus on
00:29:52.700 how many encampments are we going to take down. I would like to also see tougher on crime.
00:29:58.260 and less hugging thugs. So that's what I'm, that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a
00:30:03.740 little bit more hard numbers, um, and return on investment of, of how we're working as a,
00:30:10.100 as a province in the business. Yeah. Excellent. Well, before I let you go,
00:30:13.920 then where, uh, can people find your podcast for when I'm certain you'll be breaking that down and
00:30:17.960 where can they, uh, find your course again, if somebody wants to find out how to interpret it
00:30:22.920 for themselves? Yeah. So Macamie college, as I see it spelled properly on the bottom Macamie
00:30:27.360 College website. We'll just go to the courses and applied politics is there. And it breaks down all
00:30:35.360 the classes as a two-year diploma program. I'm teaching most of the curriculum now, but have
00:30:39.880 other individuals that specialize in the sector. So you don't just have to listen to me for two
00:30:43.900 years. And the podcast where you have to listen to me half the time is alongside Rachel Notley's
00:30:50.580 former director of communications, Cheryl Oates. So we come at it from the left and the right on
00:30:55.240 all issues. And it's called The Discourse. It's on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:30:59.940 Great. And just one more thing before I let you go, I didn't mention it. You're still a
00:31:02.980 senator-elect. How long until that expires? I used to try to brand it senator-elect. And now
00:31:08.020 I feel it's more like in line with the senator and waiting longer. So we'll see someday. I've
00:31:13.540 kind of, it's a position I'd be very honored to hold someday. We just need a new prime minister
00:31:19.060 and we need some of those old liberal appointees to realize in Alberta that maybe it's time for
00:31:24.380 them to retire. Great. Well, I hope we get to see you in there. In the meantime, though, you've got
00:31:28.880 a lot on the go. So I appreciate you taking some time to talk to us today, Erica. Yeah, thanks,
00:31:33.180 Greg. We'll look forward to your interpretation of the budget there. Yeah, thanks. Yeah. Thanks.
00:31:38.620 All right. So that was Erica Burudis. She's been on before. As you can see, yes, lots of things and
00:31:43.100 covers it in a balanced way. You know, not as crazed ideological as I am. She's been in the
00:31:47.980 trenches with a couple of parties now and, you know, gives her views on it. So I do want to come
00:31:53.380 back to that i mean it's a subject i talk about a lot i talk about addiction i talk about treatment
00:31:56.720 i talk about mental health and i'm glad erica brought that up with with the centers because i
00:32:01.580 i'm pretty kind of excited about these treatment centers that compassionate care is what the smith
00:32:05.720 government's calling it uh it'll have i believe 150 beds per center possibly 300 beds in total
00:32:11.480 i'm not sure i'd have to dig more into those numbers and they should be operational within
00:32:16.020 a couple of years we're talking about 180 million dollars being spent i like the concept but can we
00:32:23.020 be confident that the smith government's going to do it right that's where we start to worry because
00:32:28.340 we're wondering what's going on in there you've got a cabinet minister stomping out the door on
00:32:31.940 you we've got people demanding an inquiry over the ahs thing i mean i was optimistic about breaking
00:32:36.520 ahs into multiple pieces into changing things into reforming them but now it looks like this
00:32:41.760 might be falling off the rails because i do think there's room for the these compassionate
00:32:46.700 intervention centers but if it's done wrong it will set it back it will bring those off the
00:32:52.940 table for years to come because I can't I keep looking and people keep talking about you know
00:32:59.020 they never work they never work well wait a minute where has that been tried and I haven't
00:33:03.520 had anybody point to one yet so how do you know it doesn't work at the same time as as Erica kind
00:33:11.480 of pointed out though 180 million dollars is a lot of money to spend on something we don't know
00:33:14.480 if it will work. What I'm talking about, what I'm gathering from these centers, and it kind of ties
00:33:19.380 into what I'm talking about with the stabbings as well, though. These are cases of people with
00:33:24.480 serious mental health challenges. Mental health is very, very directly tied into addiction. That's
00:33:30.900 why usually those departments are tied together. I won't go at length as to why I'm as familiar
00:33:36.340 with addiction treatment as I am. I mean, I've been open about it. I'm a recovered alcoholic
00:33:40.620 and have dealt with addiction on other levels and other things.
00:33:44.780 Different people respond differently,
00:33:46.780 and different people hit different levels of addiction
00:33:48.760 before they're ready for treatment.
00:33:50.640 Some can manage to get out early.
00:33:55.120 Some never successfully are treated and unfortunately die.
00:33:59.340 Freedom Honey Pointing Out worked in Portugal.
00:34:00.780 Portugal's a little different.
00:34:01.960 Portugal, though, isn't forced treatment.
00:34:04.720 It's not what we're talking about.
00:34:06.520 Portugal's got a neat program,
00:34:07.800 and it talks about if you're coming in,
00:34:09.880 you can be compelled towards treatment and it's very treatment focused absolutely but what we're
00:34:16.220 talking about with the compassionate care centers or as people are calling it you know
00:34:20.620 forced treatment centers is police family members a few others can apply to have somebody put in
00:34:29.180 against their will for I think typically they're going to be looking at maybe 30 days
00:34:32.740 and and and put into a center now some people are saying well that infringes on liberties well
00:34:38.720 Well, you know, again, when we're talking about mental health, the Mental Health Act already covers it, okay?
00:34:43.400 If you believe a person is going to do harm to themselves or others, they can be held in a mental health facility.
00:34:51.700 It happens not as often, actually, not as often as it should when we see the stabbings of children.
00:34:58.420 But, I mean, if a person, the analogy I used online the other day,
00:35:01.420 if you saw somebody running and smashing their face into a wall over and over and over and over again,
00:35:05.800 and they're compulsively doing it, something's gone wrong in their brain,
00:35:07.920 they've blown a fuse, and they keep doing it, we intervene.
00:35:10.760 We stop them.
00:35:11.800 We restrain them if we have to.
00:35:14.100 We can't just let them keep hitting their face on the wall.
00:35:17.560 And then we try to treat them.
00:35:20.940 Will it work? Will it not? We don't know.
00:35:22.440 And if you can't treat them and they just keep hitting their head on the wall no matter what,
00:35:25.560 well, sometimes, yeah, you've got to keep them for a long, long time.
00:35:29.360 Now, you've got to look at the scenario for some of the people,
00:35:32.320 and we're talking about late-stage addicts.
00:35:34.040 We're talking about these centers possibly having 300 beds.
00:35:37.900 Anybody, because they're saying, oh, they're just going to be swooping up.
00:35:40.080 I saw one guy on X saying, oh, boy, well, recreational drug users better be afraid.
00:35:44.580 Do you really think they want to spend that money on these 300 beds that we've got
00:35:49.140 and go out and stick a pothead in one? 0.96
00:35:51.500 You know, take somebody who's only got a minor addiction issue,
00:35:56.040 and there are levels of addiction, and put them in there.
00:35:58.940 Trust me, those beds will be full fast, and they're going to be with hard cases.
00:36:03.560 Look on the streets.
00:36:04.680 If you haven't been downtown in an urban center lately,
00:36:07.400 you can see the hard cases I'm talking about.
00:36:09.580 We're talking about the walking dead.
00:36:11.660 We're talking about people that are basically at the end of their rope through addiction.
00:36:16.760 They're scrawny.
00:36:17.400 They're covered in sores.
00:36:18.420 They're living behind dumpsters.
00:36:19.520 They're often already missing digits from frostbite, from passing out in the cold weather.
00:36:24.540 These are the ones.
00:36:26.420 They're no longer anywhere close of sound mind.
00:36:29.460 Maybe, and I know the shot is long, but maybe,
00:36:32.900 If you snatch one, because you've got to remember, they do have parents, they have siblings, they have loved ones,
00:36:37.640 but they've disconnected, they've moved on, and desperate families just want somewhere to put them.
00:36:41.920 Put them somewhere for 30 days.
00:36:44.360 Start with detox.
00:36:46.020 Get the junk out of them under medical supervision.
00:36:49.820 I mean, yes, chaining somebody down in a straight detox, you can do more harm than good.
00:36:53.260 Get them straight, because they're not going to do it willingly.
00:36:57.120 Maybe, maybe, I know it's a long shot, but you see, again,
00:37:00.340 the chance of success when you leave them on the streets at that point are pretty much zero.
00:37:03.440 They're going to die.
00:37:04.540 They're going to overdose or get killed by another dealer or something.
00:37:08.700 They're going to die.
00:37:10.260 So even if it's only a 20% success rate, a 10% success rate in one of these centers,
00:37:15.920 it's better than leaving them where they are once they've hit that state.
00:37:19.840 Get them dry, maybe a week, maybe two.
00:37:22.500 Maybe at that point, their mind will click enough to say, yes, you know what?
00:37:25.340 I'm ready to try treatment.
00:37:27.880 You know, they've eaten some meals.
00:37:30.340 They've gone through the worst of the initial DTs.
00:37:33.200 They've had time to sit with counsellors.
00:37:35.040 They've had time to sit with other recovered addicts.
00:37:37.140 They've had time to try and consider these things.
00:37:41.000 And then maybe they would embrace a longer-term program.
00:37:43.740 I know a lot of them, after 30 days, you let them out,
00:37:46.800 they're going to be behind the dumpster on their junk the day after.
00:37:49.640 That's just the way it's going to be.
00:37:51.200 But as I said, if we don't intervene, we already know the chances are zero.
00:37:54.660 As I've seen some of the people talking about in the comments,
00:37:56.540 we've already tried the other route, the enablist route,
00:37:58.880 the almost cultish root of these lunatics who think if we just keep giving them enough drugs,
00:38:04.160 they'll get over it. They won't. They get deeper into it. The drug is the problem.
00:38:10.120 The drug, the addiction, you can't enable it and expect them to recover. They won't. They just keep
00:38:17.780 going further, particularly when you're talking about opioids, when you're talking about fentanyl,
00:38:21.860 you're talking about some of these things so yes i would like to see these centers i would like to
00:38:29.640 see uh you know i i heard a quote from a recovered addict a little while back who said again as long
00:38:34.160 as somebody's drawing a breath there's still a hope because one of our things is as human beings
00:38:40.460 is i i really do believe if we don't want to use the word compassion compassionate conservatism
00:38:45.620 it means taking care of those who can't take care of themselves and when somebody's that badly
00:38:51.120 addicted they can't take care of themselves then it's our jobs as people to take care of the part
00:38:56.000 of the problem is we start going into ubi and crap like that where we're taking care of people who are
00:38:59.200 too lazy to take care of themselves there's a big difference between the two but when we have
00:39:02.880 addiction and mental health issues and that's the other thing too that we've got to accept and i
00:39:06.560 know that's not in the current set of cards but i hope we have more of those discussions
00:39:10.560 deinstitutionalization we shut down our mental health institutions that's a trend that's been
00:39:15.680 happening since the 70s throughout north america throughout the world and yeah some of those
00:39:19.760 institutions were terrible they were sticking people in them because they were deaf they were 0.87
00:39:24.720 sticking people in because somebody bribed a doctor to get a family member out of the way
00:39:28.960 they were terribly abused they were brought about for actually very good reasons uh you know with
00:39:35.200 with the best interest of the patients at heart that's why they were called asylums but they got 0.51
00:39:40.720 screwed up and that's why i talk about when government takes something and good and then
00:39:44.400 screws it up it makes it bad in the long run so we closed them down where did all the people with
00:39:48.320 with the mental health problems go to the streets we don't you know they say oh we'll just let them 0.91
00:39:55.500 have community living it doesn't work that way when the voices in the head start talking to them
00:39:59.880 they don't stay in the community living area that's the ideal position for people to be in
00:40:05.880 but a lot of them need treatment and that means secured treatment that means being in a facility
00:40:11.440 and here's the hardest part some people don't ever want to accept some people with mental health
00:40:16.520 issues should be in an institution for the rest of their lives, or at least until we find some sort
00:40:22.620 of surgical or drug breakthrough or something that fixes them. Because it's still better and
00:40:27.400 more humane than having them in the streets. And I know it's a difficult decision to make. It's
00:40:32.480 talking about law. It's talking about taking the liberty away from somebody who may not have
00:40:35.260 committed a crime. But is it better? Is it really more dignified to leave them on the streets? The
00:40:43.660 example I use too for the frustrations of family when they're talking about an addicted member a
00:40:47.520 young person who's out there and you see them you see them on the streets you see them desperate
00:40:50.500 you see them in that sad sad shape if it was your daughter your son that broke that out of
00:40:56.120 communication and they're doing anything for their next fix do you really want to mentally imagine
00:41:01.160 what they're doing to make a couple of dollars to get another fix people say we got to maintain
00:41:06.160 their dignity there's no dignity left at that point none so what's to be lost and pulling them
00:41:13.580 in, well, there's something to be lost, $180 million. So Eric is quite right in bringing
00:41:20.420 that up and saying we've got to look at the whole thing, because if we screw it up, we
00:41:23.740 could make it worse. But we've screwed up the enablement thing. I don't think it would
00:41:27.940 ever work. And I'm not wholly against safe consumption sites. But the thing is, it's
00:41:33.340 got to be coupled with the second that person comes in. For one, you don't give them drugs
00:41:37.340 and let them leave. It doesn't happen. No, absolutely not. All we're talking about is
00:41:41.200 spot where you could be supervised while you take it so you should theoretically live through the
00:41:45.300 drug you've taken but you should be nagged from the second you walk in that door to the second
00:41:48.920 you walk out to get into treatment push towards it's given the pamphlets and that's the other
00:41:53.560 thing too so other things we don't have enough treatment beds for the people who want to get
00:41:58.040 into them that's another big issue there's a lot of people with mental health issues
00:42:02.360 and with addiction issues that really do want to seek help they want to get into a stable facility
00:42:06.980 and there's not room they go banging on the door and say i'm ready i'm ready for treatment i'm
00:42:11.080 ready for help. I'm ready to kick this. Great. We'll have a bed for you in 30 days. Hang in there,
00:42:16.640 chump. Yeah, that's how it is right now. So you better hope if they were at the point where they 0.98
00:42:23.040 could go 30 days clean without help, they aren't addicted. They need to knock on the door and be
00:42:29.220 taken in right now. At most, you know, within a couple of days. Joe Mills, a commenter saying
00:42:37.300 treatment or jail. And yeah, I mean, you know, jailing is kind of what ends up happening to a
00:42:43.820 lot of the addicts in the long run. Is that better? Of course not. So it's another form of
00:42:47.440 incarceration. If you leave them on the streets when they're that far gone, yeah, it's not just
00:42:51.460 the morgue they might end up in. They might end up in the hospital or they might end up in a jail.
00:42:55.360 So we still end up spending the money. But a conventional hospital isn't going to offer the
00:42:58.760 secured treatment that they need. And a jail is going to have them secured, but it usually makes
00:43:02.720 them a lot worse off than they were to begin with. I want to see the murderers in jail. I want to see
00:43:07.180 the addicts and treatment centers, and I want to see the people with mental health problems 1.00
00:43:10.480 and mental health institutions. And we aren't funding any of those enough. But we're paying
00:43:15.200 the price anyways. That's what people have to realize too. Boy, that would be terribly expensive.
00:43:19.100 It's already expensive. Go downtown anytime. And the ambulances, they never stop. You never hear
00:43:25.380 the sirens stop downtown. Who do you think is paying for that? For the constant revivals of
00:43:31.920 people as they overdose. When you see the police constantly breaking up those encampments, when
00:43:37.080 you see these addicts constantly going into jail we're paying we're paying when they're robbing
00:43:42.040 nearby businesses when they're vandalizing places when they're burning things down
00:43:45.440 we're paying so let's pay on the treatment side then let's spend that money targeted make it
00:43:54.040 better uh vamp fashion things echo has all the temporary shelters we could need uh and we'll 0.93
00:43:59.540 build more yeah i mean part of it there's one of the discussions too they talk about
00:44:03.000 housing first and again there's one of the misguided concepts out there the housing is
00:44:08.800 important because yes you can't have oh we'll have a voluntary treatment program the guy who's living
00:44:12.340 on a tent in a park is going to just come in on his own once a day and sit down and do group session
00:44:17.000 and and all of that stuff no no they need to be in a facility when they're talking about housing
00:44:21.380 they're talking about well we need to get the addicts into long-term housing before we can
00:44:24.820 start treatment well no no if if they're that late stage addicted they aren't ready for a house they
00:44:29.380 will strip the copper out of the walls and sell it for their next fix of junk they will burn the
00:44:32.920 place to the ground they'll turn it into a crack house that's not being mean that's reality they
00:44:37.500 need a stable environment but it needs to be an institutional one atco housing for people who are
00:44:43.280 in trouble and just need to keep warm absolutely I mean we don't want them freezing on the streets
00:44:46.860 but longer term if they're addicts or have mental health issues and let's quit pretending that the
00:44:52.500 people on the streets are ones who just fell on hard luck the vast vast majority of them have
00:44:57.560 mental health issues or addiction issues. That's the underlying thing. We have to treat that. If we
00:45:03.520 don't, we won't solve it. It's a hard reality. Hard realities suck. We don't fix anything until
00:45:09.600 we address them. You got to find courage. So we also have to find optimism. I really do hope
00:45:15.220 that the centers that the Smith government are planning and put together work and work
00:45:19.160 excellently. I hope they sort out the bloody AHS mess that they got going on in the Alberta
00:45:23.560 government and I hope that Trump becomes lucid and we can come up with good productive trade
00:45:28.060 agreements between Canada and the states and get on with our lives and making Alberta and the rest
00:45:32.660 of Canada a better place. Okay that's enough ranting out of me. Tune in next week. I'll be on
00:45:36.060 on Wednesday again at this time and yes there's going to be another show coming after that which
00:45:39.560 will be even a bit longer. It won't be live but we'll be covering things at length and I will have
00:45:44.040 a number of guests. It's going to be very election focused and I'm looking forward to it. It's going
00:45:47.640 to be a lot of fun. So thanks for tuning in today guys. I really appreciate it and tune into the
00:45:53.100 pipeline tonight there's a another panel with us and we're going to break down a few more of those
00:45:56.160 issues and i'll see you next week
00:46:23.100 and silver today
00:46:53.100 Thank you.