In the wake of the latest lawsuit against the Trudeau government over the Trans Mountain pipeline, the Western Standard's National Affairs Program takes a look at whether the government should be required to license media outlets in Canada. And what would that mean for the rest of the country?
00:03:50.280Telecommunications Commission. A generally terrible organization to begin with that does all sorts
00:03:56.280of things, restricting the free press already in Canada in different forms of licensing, primarily
00:04:02.280for the traditional old telecoms. And the CRTC has been itching for decades now to sink its claws into
00:04:12.280other forms of media, particularly as online media. And media, broadly speaking, both news, opinion,
00:04:19.280and entertainment has begun to dominate everything from Netflix to the Western Standard. And they released
00:04:29.280in these recommendations some pretty startling findings that you would not expect to see outside of the
00:04:37.280Politburo of the Soviet Union. And what really grabbed everybody's attention, and there was a lot of terrible
00:04:44.280stuff in there, but what really grabbed people's attention was their recommendation to the government
00:04:49.280that all media in Canada, big and small, be required to be licensed by the government and that the government
00:04:57.280would set standards around content. Not that the government would be necessarily dictating word for word what everybody would
00:05:06.280be printing or speaking about, but that it would be holding the media to account rather than media holding
00:05:13.280government to account that the government will hold media to account for what they say is truthfulness and
00:05:19.280and journalistic standards, etc. This is the kind of stuff that you see exclusively in the domain of totalitarian states.
00:05:30.280We already have all sorts of wild restrictions placed on free speech in Canada and many Western states.
00:05:35.280But this was going to a whole new level. And it had very predictable outrage that came from it. Days later, the
00:05:45.280minister seemed to try and walk back his comments. They didn't really seem to be much way for it. Even the left wing
00:05:52.280press thought that this was a bridge too far into 1984. But in walking back his comments, he said, No, we're not going to require
00:06:00.280licensing of everybody in the media. But he seemed to maintain that they still accept the government's
00:06:06.280recommendations that the government is going to be setting standards. And so what form this takes is still
00:06:13.280unclear. But it could take many forms like the government producing itself a list of approved media organizations in
00:06:22.280different classifications and penalizing or making it illegal to advertise with media outlets that don't meet
00:06:30.280government government standards. So on the entertainment side, that could be making it illegal to do advertising for
00:06:37.280entertainment media that don't do can con requirements or on the news and opinion side. Outlets like ourselves who
00:06:46.280couldn't give two farts in the wind about what the government thinks of us might say that it'd be illegal for
00:06:53.280people to advertise with us. So they haven't they haven't defined but his walking back of comments was strictly on the idea of
00:07:01.280licensing, but everything surrounding licensing and government control over the media, they did not walk
00:07:07.280back. So it's very ambiguous about where we stand.
00:07:10.280So I think most listeners and and certainly ourselves, we can come up with a long list of dystopian possibilities
00:07:18.280around what state regulation of media looks like. But to play devil's advocate a little bit, Derek, you know, what is the
00:07:28.280when you look at other industries, take the financial industry, for example, financial industry has a lot of
00:07:34.280self regulation and also has a ton of government regulation. And a lot of people think government regulation in
00:07:42.280that realm is is good. It protects consumers, you know, and I think in many cases, it's filling the vacuum of self regulation.
00:07:54.280And is that maybe the problem. And Dave, maybe you have thoughts on this as well. Is that maybe the problem with
00:07:59.280journalism is has as journalism as a profession failed to regulate itself to a recognizable standard.
00:08:07.280And so the government thinks that this is this is the their opening to to come in, whether it be opportunist or whether they see it legitimately see a problem and want to solve it.
00:08:18.280I don't know if you guys have thoughts on around that as opposed to, you know, the dystopian other extreme is there is there some role for government?
00:08:31.280Well, I was waiting for Dave, but I'll just say no, there is no good role for government whatsoever, period, full stop, no asterix, no, no, no fine print.
00:08:41.280There's no role for government, period. I mean, the the the apologists of this, the statists and liberal sympathizers have said, well, you need a license to own a car.
00:08:52.280Why not a license for this? Well, I'm a bit of an extremist. I'm not even sure you should have a license for a car.
00:08:57.280But but I won't go there because I know I'm in a very small fringe libertarian minority on that.
00:09:03.280But what is licensing other than the government making something illegal and selling the right to do it back to you at a cost and with conditions attached?
00:09:12.280The media in particular is the free speech and a free press is the pillar of any free society without that freedom.
00:09:20.280No other freedom is possible whatsoever.
00:09:23.280And what they're what the government's proposing here is that the same people who lied and covered up the SNC Lavalin corruption affair are going to be responsible for making sure that the press is truthful, that the press is press is honest in the new media environment.
00:09:42.280And I media to talk about themselves too often, but we're new. So we can we haven't done it too much.
00:09:47.280But I mean, not everybody in the press today subscribes to the press corps.
00:09:52.280They don't all subscribe to the big black tie broadcasters and journalism associations anymore.
00:10:00.280We don't. And and many independent media do not.
00:10:03.280We don't have any interest in participating in that.
00:10:06.280We're not playing by the old boys club's rules here.
00:10:08.280And some players in that are going to engage in misinformation or outright lies and propaganda on the left and in the right.
00:10:16.280And and that's frustrating to many people if you've been on the receiving end of that.
00:10:24.280But the answer to that would be strengthening laws around libel and defamation, allowing people to take private action in the court to ensure that these kinds of mistruths are not are not out there.
00:10:37.280Instead, this is the government trying to be the arbiter of what is right and truthful.
00:10:41.280And I cannot think of a less credible body regardless of what parties in power.
00:10:46.280I cannot think of a less credible organization than a government to ensure that the press is honest and truthful.
00:10:54.280I'm not finding myself in disagreement with a lot of what you're saying.
00:10:57.280I'm the guy who has a problem with with the government issuing marriage licenses.
00:11:01.280But Dave, you you have a unique in this circle, you have a unique perspective as a as as a journalist.
00:11:10.280You know, is there something that journalism needs to do to prevent this sort of this, you know, thing from being perceived as a necessity?
00:11:20.280Well, I think the the key thing is to keep it out of the government's hands.
00:11:25.280To me, if you're producing journalism that that nobody wants, that isn't being read and that is considered fake news, the marketplace will decide your fate.
00:11:37.280People will stop subscribing to your newsletter or your podcast or they will not go to your website.
00:11:44.280You know, the government getting involved just is saying to me that the Canadian public is not smart enough to realize what news is and what fake news is and what slanted news is.
00:11:57.280And to me, you never underestimate the credibility of your reader.
00:12:01.280Well, and of course, it's not even about competencies.
00:12:04.280It's about perception of corruption and perception of influence. Right.
00:12:08.280Even if the dystopian reality were not what happened, you know, the fact that the government would step in at all would open up question marks about, well, you know, are they trying to influence the media?
00:12:20.280Even if they're they go to great lengths not to, it's going to be hard for them to avoid that kind of perception.
00:12:25.280So why would you want to even step into that?
00:12:27.280This this is the next logical step after the six hundred million dollar a year media bailout.
00:12:33.280Many of us, including many in the mainstream media, warned that this was government meddling in the media, that the media, those running the newsrooms, those running editorial pages, even if they don't want to be influenced by the prospect of government cash being dangled in front of them, are going to be unduly influenced by it.
00:12:55.280I mean, it's a tough business. The print guys are going out of business left, right and center.
00:13:00.280It's it's difficult for even the alternative media to break in.
00:13:03.280You know, we're we're fighting to do so, but it's not an easy battle.
00:13:06.280And the temptation to tow the government's line to accept government cash is going to be there.
00:13:12.280And they all warned. Many of us warned that this was undue meddling, but they all dismissed us as conspiratorial kooks, believing that this is going to result in some kind of 1984 government control over the press.
00:13:25.280But we are now seeing what is an unbelievable.
00:13:29.280Well, I never actually imagined that it would get this far.
00:13:32.280And I am as paranoid about government as it comes.
00:13:35.280And I never believed they would go this far.
00:13:37.280So they back down from direct media licensing.
00:13:40.280But I think they are they have every intention of going forward and finding other ways, as I said, around deplatforming and demonetizing through penalizing potential advertisers for non licensed media or non government approved media.
00:13:55.280They also might go, I think it was Dave who alluded to it here.
00:13:58.280They might require that Facebook put put things on social media feeds.
00:14:04.280If you're a non government approved website like Western standard will be Facebook's already doing that.
00:14:11.280Yeah, but using their own standard as opposed to a government standard.
00:14:15.280They've organizations to try to figure out what's legitimate what's not true, but many of Facebook's rules around that are under pressure from the US government already.
00:14:25.280And so they are self censoring themselves and cracking down.
00:14:29.280The Canadian government might go further and much more extensively than Facebook already is.
00:15:23.280Well, not only was it dismissed, Paul, it was thrown out as far as the judges could throw it.
00:15:29.280It was a unanimous verdict, three to nothing, that cleared hopefully what is the last hurdle for the TMX to go through.
00:15:40.280I think most significantly the judges said that Indigenous people in Canada do not get a veto over these type of massive projects.
00:15:52.280So the small band of Indigenous groups that are fighting the TMX immediately filed to the Supreme Court for an appeal.
00:16:01.280That is unlikely to be heard because of the unanimous verdict in the federal court.
00:16:07.280So I think the only thing that's left for pipeline opponents now is civil disobedience.
00:16:12.280So I think the next thing we're going to see is people handcuffing themselves to the site in Burnaby.
00:16:18.280And you're going to have a similar sort of standoff like what's going on right now up in Smithers with the coastal gasoline pipeline.
00:16:27.280So the next move will have to be, you know, what do the RCMP do with these civil disobedience protesters?
00:16:35.280And that's going to be very, very interesting in the weeks to come, Paul.
00:16:39.280Well, and I and for those who haven't been following the story and Dave, feel free to chime in on this.
00:16:45.280You know, all of this followed on a previous lawsuit that where these I believe it was the Supreme Court of Canada actually ruled that the government had not sufficiently consulted with First Nations.
00:16:59.280And as a result of that lawsuit, they went back and did, you know, quite a rigorous consultation.
00:17:08.280But, you know, there's obviously groups that are just determined, you know, consult all you want.
00:19:19.280But it's very interesting now how this is going to play out in B.C.
00:19:23.280as you alluded to with the coastal gas pipeline.
00:19:27.280And John Horgan is now facing the exact same thing.
00:19:33.280I think Don Braid at the Calgary Herald had a really good column on this yesterday after the decision came down.
00:19:39.280That John Horgan is, you know, none of us want to see the coastal gas pipeline in Alberta not go forward.
00:19:46.280But there is a bit of schadenfreude that John Horgan is now facing the same kind of people.
00:19:51.280In many cases, the exact same people who do not respect the rule of law in these.
00:19:56.280And he's pleading for people to respect the rule of law after he himself has has bent it as much as possible for political ends.
00:20:04.280So it's but all of this is to say, I still think the pipeline opponents have won, even though we've won virtually every Supreme Court decision.
00:20:13.280We won the regulatory board decisions and it is now technically going for it.
00:20:18.280And I do think the TMX pipeline will get built.
00:20:21.280I still think the opponents have won because they have forced the taxpayers to nationalize this pipeline at tremendous cost of the taxpayer that we will probably not recover.
00:20:32.280They have and they have created such massive uncertainty in the investment climate that no one's saying is going to propose a major interprovincial pipeline in Canada again beyond the Alberta Saskatchewan border.
00:20:44.280So while this pipeline goes forward, I believe, I think in the long term we have won this battle, but I believe we have lost the war because we have given these people far too much slack in believing they can use consultation processes as not consultation, but as a veto.
00:21:01.280And I think you're right. I think this is the last great pipeline that's going to be built in Canada.
00:21:08.280You know, no investor certainly is going to do another one. And, you know, 50 years from now, it's not going to none of this is necessarily going to matter.
00:21:17.280But, you know, I think in the short term, let's let's just hope it gets built and gets operational without too much interference beyond the legal realm, which has been exhausted.
00:21:30.280But all right, well, let's move over just for fun to American politics, just so we can gloat as Canadians about our great electoral systems.
00:21:40.280The Iowa caucus results. We still don't have three days later the or two days later the the actual results.
00:21:49.280We know that Pete Buttigieg is slightly ahead of Bernie Sanders and way off in fourth place is a fellow named Joe Biden.
00:21:59.280So I don't know why don't we just go around the table and give me your thoughts about the Iowa caucus who wants to start Derek.
00:22:12.280Well, I love I loved it. I had there is I had a screenshot. It was I think more I think was roughly 24 hours after the polls had closed and it showed everybody at zero percent.
00:22:22.280And I said, it's just the way I like my Democrats. None of them.
00:22:26.280It's it's a bit of a cluster. I mean, I've spoken favorably of the American primary process in the past, but I was actually not a primary.
00:22:36.280It's not a great interparty Democratic vote. It's a very archaic system where you meet in your local church basements and gymnasiums and you literally stand in different corners to support different candidates.
00:22:47.280And you have people moving around the room and debating in real time till they meet certain thresholds.
00:22:52.280It's all very complicated. It sounds fun. And I used to live in Iowa. Funny enough, I think the average voter in Iowa is more powerful than the average politician around the world.
00:23:01.280If I had stayed in Iowa as a kid, I'd be a very powerful voter. They're the most powerful voters possibly on the planet.
00:23:08.280And super engaged in everything political.
00:23:13.280Council meetings have thousands of people show up in Iowa.
00:23:17.280But they, this all happened because the Democrats, the official answer is because they had a huge software meltdown with a new app they were supposed to use.
00:23:28.280But very strangely, it was captured live on CNN. There was a Democratic Party, essentially a poll captain who's there to, he was on hold for hours and he was talking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN.
00:23:39.280And after waiting on, on hold for an hour or more, they just hung up on him. They refused to even accept his results.
00:23:46.280So they're there. On the surface, we can blame this on software bugs, but there's the more conspiratorial minded think that there's more going on.
00:23:56.280It's hard to say what is if there is something going on, it would be to disadvantage the outside candidates from the whole point of Iowa is not actually that there's very many delegates at stake for the Democratic nomination.
00:24:08.280It's that it gives you that early burst of energy for outsider candidates and the two who are virtually tied are Buttigieg. Can you say his name properly?
00:24:25.280And Bernie Sanders. Those are two anti-establishment candidates. Although Buttigieg is not seen as extreme, but he's not the establishment favorite.
00:24:31.280And neither of them get that huge shock of media for the outsider candidate that you'd normally get with an Iowa upset.
00:24:37.280Joe Biden dismissed it long before because he wasn't going to do well there. And Bloomberg wasn't even on the ballot there. So those are the two big establishment candidates.
00:24:49.280And so if you were suspiciously minded, you could say that this fact that there was essentially no results to give you that shock out of Iowa favors the establishment candidates Biden and Bloomberg and disadvantages the others.
00:25:19.280Mayor Pete and Sanders now leave Iowa for New Hampshire with momentum.
00:25:28.280Biden, I think, is in trouble. He did very poorly in Iowa. As Derek says, he wasn't expected to do well there, but he's still coming out of there with zero momentum.
00:25:41.280There's talk about him having money trouble as they move into New Hampshire. But, you know, Mayor Pete will have an extra, you know, spark in his cup.
00:25:52.280And as I said, the big winner is Trump. I think Trump had the best week of his presidency. The State of the Union, I thought was perhaps his strongest speech as president. The theatrics of Nancy Pelosi ripping up his speech behind him will enrage his base.
00:26:11.280And on Wednesday afternoon, he's going to be acquitted in the Senate with the impeachment charge. So coming out of this, Trump is on a roll and New Democrats are having to deal with the Iowa fiasco and trying to figure out how to get out of that slump.
00:26:29.280It really is the best week for Trump all for all the reasons you mentioned in there. It's also polls coming out showing that he was at a 49% approval rating, which in Canada, maybe doesn't, you know, doesn't sound, you know, wow.
00:26:45.280It's actually Canada would be amazing. But when he was, when he was elected the first time, Paul, his approval rating was in the thirties.
00:26:51.280Exactly. Yeah. So 49 is pretty high for him. The highest he's ever been.
00:26:57.280It's the highest he's ever been. And, um, and it's very rare for somebody this close to an election to lose with such a high approval rating, especially an incumbent. And so, uh, yeah, so we might be headed for Trump's second term.
00:27:13.280And I really feel like the reason for that is Democrat incompetency and meltdown and division. Um, you know, they were so determined to throw it, you know, this, you know, to throw out a bad meme, the orange man bad, you know, just determined absolutely to get, um, you know, to get Trump out of office.
00:27:37.280And I think they shot themselves in the foot with that whole, um, you know, the whole impeachment thing and then that being thrown out.
00:27:44.280And then I guess the, um, the other piece of it is, um, you know, Trump, uh, um, you know, is not like has all these character flaws, but most, most people seem to just look beyond that. Right.
00:27:58.280I had the displeasure of watching the CNN after speech show and it was literally out of control shrieking by every single one of their panelists who are all, uh, Democrat supporters, but they were all yelling over each other to try and say how bad the speech was. It frankly looked ridiculous.
00:28:17.280Uh, you know, meanwhile, Trump is just rolling merrily along. I think most political scientists would say they don't see anybody in that democratic field.
00:28:27.280That is going to lay a hand on Trump in November.
00:28:31.280Well, and I think you could break it down. You know, there is the, that progressive wing, uh, you know, that would get behind Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.
00:28:40.280And then there is the more establishment wing that would be happy with the Joe Biden, maybe a Pete Buttigieg, um, but certainly a Bloomberg.
00:28:48.280And I think all of those candidates, um, are not going to please the people on the other side.
00:28:54.280Maybe Pete Buttigieg could be the uniter and maybe that's what they're hoping for.
00:28:58.280But, uh, you know, he's progressive enough for the progressives and establishment enough for the establishment.
00:29:04.280But, um, you know, if they don't figure out, um, a candidate that they can all get behind, this is a done deal.
00:29:10.280We may as well just call the results today. Derek, any other thoughts?
00:29:14.280Well, I think I forgot which one of you said it, but I think, uh, whoever did was corrected.
00:29:18.280This was the best week of his presidency, at least politically for him.
00:29:22.280Uh, it's quite bizarre that an impeachment becomes a political plus for the person being impeached, but it absolutely has here.
00:29:31.280It, um, you know, whatever you think of Trump and I was initially, uh, extremely opposed to Trump during the Republican primaries.
00:29:39.280I only came around, uh, round to him later on, uh, essentially just, I would have voted for the guy, uh, just as a big, uh, middle finger to the democratic and political establishment.
00:29:49.280I think that's why most people voted for him.
00:29:54.280Um, but he has, uh, his, I mean, he still does his, uh, two in the morning, uh, tweeting from the toilet rants, but, uh, his state of the union speech, I thought was, uh, a, a rare statesman like event at exactly the right time.
00:31:08.280And what I, what I think the real result of this is going to be is, is twofold in the next election.
00:31:14.280It's going to energize absolutely every Trump supporter and Republican to come out in massive numbers because they know that, uh, the Democrats will just try to overturn the election.
00:31:26.280The day after Trump has reelected, I guarantee it that may even start it even before he's sworn in for a second term, but very importantly, and I haven't heard anyone touch on this yet.
00:31:34.280Is that I think this is going to help Republicans to potentially retake the House of Representatives.
00:31:41.280Americans often like to send a divided executive and legislature to Washington because it checks the power of one another.
00:31:48.280It's, it's generally a positive system.
00:31:50.280That's why people, uh, you know, presidents often lose their, uh, their house or their Senate, uh, in the midterms.
00:31:57.280I think there's a good chance that Republicans are going to retake the house, uh, in, uh, next November, because Trump is going to be a president.
00:32:03.280Because Trump is going to be able to make a very strong argument that even if he's reelected, the Democrats will just try to impeach him the next day.
00:32:09.280And this will be political games, uh, going on and on and on.
00:32:12.280And so you need to elect Republicans to the house, uh, to, to govern rather than Democrats who will just continue to, uh, re litigate, uh, impeachment.
00:32:20.280So I, it's impossible to say how this is all going to turn out.
00:32:23.280The only way this can get any better for Trump, I think is if Bernie Sanders gets the Democratic nomination.
00:32:28.280And I think, I think on all those points, you're dead right.
00:32:31.280The, um, the, the invigoration of the Republican base is going to hit those down ballot, um, you know, all over the country.
00:32:40.280Um, you know, for senators and Congress and state representatives, um, you know, we're going to see a massive Republican upswing just as a result of the president's, um, popularity and, uh, and that invigorated base showing up to vote.
00:32:57.280And, and a lot of people aren't talking about that yet because you know, it's, it's hard to predict, but you know, I mean, just by sheer, sheer mathematics, a bunch of people show up to vote for the president that wouldn't otherwise have voted three months ago.
00:33:09.280Uh, it's going to have some effect down ballot for sure.
00:33:12.280Um, I mean, the time between now and next November is going to be startlingly starting startlingly like Napoleon's retreat from Moscow.
00:33:21.280The Democrats got there and there was nothing to sack, nothing to capture.
00:33:25.280And now it's a long retreat back with nothing to show for it.
00:33:28.280And I think by the time they get to November, they're going to be very demoralized.
00:33:32.280Well, and just quickly before I go to Dave, the, this whole exercise with the impeachment, you know, Nancy Pelosi came out.
00:33:39.280She said, we're not, we don't want this to be political.
00:34:22.280Um, but you know, ultimately, um, they, all of the things came down to maybe poor decisions and character flaws.
00:34:32.280Uh, they didn't, they didn't bring up anything, any, you know, crimes, any misdemeanors, any of these things that, you know, you're supposed to, um, uh, you know, convict the president of and these, you know, they just didn't do it.
00:34:46.280And, um, and so you can dislike Trump all you want.
00:34:50.280Uh, you can think he has massive character laws.
00:34:52.280You can think he made bad decisions, but are any of those really good reasons to impeach?
00:34:57.280And I think an honest person needs to take a step back and say, well, probably not.