Western Standard - LIVE - Triggered： Defund the police movement needs to pick a lane.

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Good morning. It's March 15th, 2022 and welcome to Triggered. I'm Corey Morgan. I know you can't

00:00:39.200 quite tell looking right now, but we've actually moved into our new studio. The Western Standard

00:00:43.800 has moved into much larger new offices. It's been quite a scramble. Some people were here

00:00:48.660 late last night getting everything set up, but we've got it together to hold a show today and

00:00:53.460 things are moving onward and upward. Nico now can reside a good distance from me. You know,

00:00:59.420 there's always hazards after taco tuesday and things like that and you'll be much safer and

00:01:03.480 better for it so this is the western standards live show we come every day monday to friday at

00:01:08.160 11 30 mountain standard time run usually till about one o'clock unless you know news is going

00:01:13.220 crazy as it often does and basically the show will go as long as it has to and uh it's good

00:01:18.420 to see some of you folks coming in ashley and pamela and beaver house whoever that might be

00:01:22.980 that's that reminder this is live and it's interactive and that's one of the great things

00:01:26.600 with it you know bring those comments in talk about the guests talk about the news issues

00:01:31.640 amongst each other sending stuff our way whatever way it goes just try to keep things civil of

00:01:36.660 course though let's be somewhat polite to each other as you know i rant i rave i go on but

00:01:41.260 i can still differ with uh people without getting too far over the edge uh let's see

00:01:47.620 somebody connect canuckians they don't advertise charade today uh hey we get different columnists

00:01:53.320 You say a lot of different things with different points of view.

00:01:55.180 And that's part of the fun.

00:01:56.340 I don't certainly agree with everything every columnist puts up.

00:02:01.120 But the more voices we got, the better.

00:02:02.900 And I've got some really great guests on today.

00:02:04.580 And part of the – that will cover a little bit of it.

00:02:06.760 Rachel Emanuel is going to be my second guest. 0.73

00:02:09.020 She's joined the Western Standard team as an Ottawa reporter.

00:02:12.260 She was with the mainstream media and basically had to leave it.

00:02:15.500 She'd had enough.

00:02:16.080 And she's going to explain why.

00:02:17.540 Part of that's that lack of diverse opinions, that, you know,

00:02:20.220 editorial coming down on top of others and saying this is the way it's got to go and it's just not

00:02:24.880 for any principled uh journalists a world to live in i'm also going to talk to independent mla drew

00:02:30.200 barnes medicine hat cypress hills and he wrote a column with us on paul hinman's gamble in running

00:02:36.720 in the fort mcmurray by-election uh drew has some strong views on whether that's a good idea or not

00:02:41.720 and we're going to talk about that for a little bit today so that should be quite interesting

00:02:47.060 Now, for myself, what I'm going to get a ranting and raving on is

00:02:50.980 the fools with the defund the police gang.

00:02:54.780 I mean, the defund the police gang really needs to pick a lane.

00:02:57.600 I mean, while they're pretty much critical of every police action,

00:03:00.660 they're also the first in line to demand that the police start cracking heads

00:03:03.740 when a conservative group decides to protest.

00:03:06.980 Canadian progressives were gleeful as police moved against

00:03:10.740 the Truckers for Freedom convoy protests in Ottawa.

00:03:13.320 Their only complaint was that the police didn't act swiftly or violently enough

00:03:15.940 against the bouncy castle rebellion. Freedom protests have been happening every Saturday in

00:03:20.760 Calgary in the Beltline area, which is just south of downtown, for months now. In recent weeks,

00:03:25.520 these protests have actually been drawing thousands of people, particularly while the

00:03:28.780 Ottawa Truckers Convoy protests were being held. The protest begins in a park where a few speeches

00:03:33.700 are usually held, and then people do a march throughout the area that takes about an hour.

00:03:37.320 We actually live-streamed one of them if you look in our history of videos there. The larger ones

00:03:42.280 take perhaps 20 minutes for everybody to walk by and they do stop traffic and have been causing

00:03:46.680 annoyances to businesses and residents in the area. It is a fleeting moment though. Now in the

00:03:51.760 last two weeks counter protests have been organized by the usual suspects and they've been trying to

00:03:56.960 incite conflict with the freedom marchers. If one attends the protests you know anywhere in their

00:04:01.940 area they know what I mean when I'm saying usual suspects. I mean whether it's the right or the left

00:04:05.060 every city has a group of people who attend every protest and they're always intent upon starting

00:04:09.440 trouble. They usually don't even really care about any cause. They just want to spawn disorder for

00:04:14.080 the sake of taking part in a personal adventure. Well, there's surely some genuine citizens among

00:04:18.320 the counter-protests in Calgary last weekend. The organizers and people who came in front of the

00:04:23.360 90 people who came out, I should say. So there's about 90 people came out counter-protesting,

00:04:28.800 and the ones in the front of that line were chronic protesters who simply want to raise hell. Calgary's

00:04:33.400 police chief, Neufeld, said that the other day in a conference, which of course stirred them all up

00:04:38.060 again. He called them professional protesters, but that's what they are. And this small group

00:04:41.960 blocked the Freedom March last Saturday and wouldn't move aside. Pressure was building as

00:04:45.760 thousands of peaceful protesters were stalled while these counter-protesters screamed at them,

00:04:50.180 calling them fascists and racists, among other things. Police are trained in trying to quell

00:04:55.460 conflict, and that's what they did that day. They asked the counter-protesters repeatedly to move

00:05:00.300 aside and let the march pass peacefully. The counter-protesters responded by getting even

00:05:04.680 more belligerent. Police finally found themselves forced to push back the small group of protesters

00:05:09.200 before things got out of control. They used their bikes and shoved them back. It's a police

00:05:13.620 technique. We saw that in Ottawa too and nobody was hurt. But still a short clip, a video clip

00:05:19.160 of an officer pushing back counter protesters was released and the defund the police cult went

00:05:23.640 predictably wild. How dare these police intervene rather than let a potential riot begin. Oh but it

00:05:29.200 didn't stop there. Some idiot noticed a pin worn by police officers and posted it on Twitter.

00:05:33.800 They declared that the pin indicated support for militias and perhaps white supremacism.

00:05:40.860 Calgary's left-wing Twitterati went ballistic.

00:05:44.260 They were outraged.

00:05:45.000 They'd found proof positive of an institutionalized white supremacist conspiracy in Calgary.

00:05:50.700 The conspiracy ran so deep that even non-white officers were wearing this odious symbol. 0.50

00:05:55.600 They howled.

00:05:56.560 They demanded these police officers be fired.

00:05:58.420 They screamed at their defund the police ally, Mayor Jody Gondek, to get active and disband the entire force.

00:06:05.180 How could such a force allow officers to wear such a symbol?

00:06:09.940 The righteous ire of the mob was almost palpable.

00:06:12.660 Now let's have a look at what that pin was.

00:06:14.780 Here's a close-up picture of what it really is.

00:06:16.960 If you have a look, it says it's the Public Safety Unit.

00:06:19.840 You can't quite see it under the text there on the police officer, but it's worn on his left breast there.

00:06:24.620 And all of the officers taking part wore those.

00:06:27.080 The reason they wore it is because those are officers who've taken special training to manage crowd situations.

00:06:32.460 Situations just like this.

00:06:33.980 Even paramedics who have taken that training wear the same pin.

00:06:37.680 That's all it is.

00:06:38.360 It's an identifier that they've had 80 hours of training for this particular use, and they wear that.

00:06:44.060 It's like a badge.

00:06:45.180 That's it.

00:06:45.540 No scandal, no conspiracy, no racism, guys.

00:06:49.020 Even when the Twitter mob was shown the pin, they were frothing too hard to care.

00:06:53.560 Even if it was an officially released pin to the police and paramedics,

00:06:56.420 it looked icky to them, and it must represent a subculture of racism.

00:07:00.440 The defund the police mob is really nuttier than squirrel poop.

00:07:03.260 I wish we could ignore them, but a number of city councillors and Calgary's mayor

00:07:07.800 actually indulge these guys.

00:07:09.780 Here's the same symbol in another context.

00:07:11.700 Let's have a look at it.

00:07:12.660 It's from the Las Vegas Golden Knights.

00:07:15.460 Is that NHL team a secret white supremacist group?

00:07:18.620 If you listen to these kooks with the defund the police movement, they would think so.

00:07:22.900 Calgary, and there's a few, I think, football teams and high school teams that use that symbol.

00:07:26.880 It's an old thousand-year-old symbol of, you know, I think it's Greek or Roman or something.

00:07:31.480 It doesn't really matter.

00:07:32.820 You know, they're reading everything into it.

00:07:35.300 Now, Calgary and many other urban centers are in the midst of social disorder outbreaks.

00:07:39.660 Social disorder is the polite way to say crime waves.

00:07:42.400 Roots of these crime waves run deep.

00:07:44.180 Tough economic times and an opioid addiction epidemic are contributors.

00:07:47.820 We need better addiction treatment.

00:07:49.520 We need government policies to get better in general.

00:07:51.880 and we need mental health support. In the meantime, though, we still need police. Who the hell will

00:07:56.600 you call when somebody's breaking into your home in the night? Guidance counselors? They're of little

00:07:59.880 use. Who's going to deal with a potential riot if thousands of peaceful protesters are accosted by

00:08:05.040 100 extremists bent on causing issues? I mean, really, if the police had stepped aside, what

00:08:09.360 would have happened last weekend? We don't know. These were peaceful protesters. But as I said the

00:08:13.620 other day, bees are completely peaceful too until you go shake up the hive and then you'll get stung.

00:08:18.920 Now, whose fault is it if you get stung?

00:08:21.660 So what the police did was get between the idiot about to shake the hive and the hive.

00:08:25.740 That's what they did, and they had to push, and they saved them from themselves.

00:08:29.500 Police forces and police cultures have plenty of room for improvement.

00:08:32.040 Hey, I'm not saying they're perfect, but this call to defund them is nothing less than sheer idiocy.

00:08:37.040 Would we improve health care by cutting funding, education, infrastructure?

00:08:41.120 I mean, let's get real.

00:08:42.280 The defund the police movement is hypocritical, extreme, and delusional.

00:08:45.820 We need to stop listening to them and stop even considering cutting funds to our forces.

00:08:50.780 The police forces may be imperfect, but they do keep us safe for the most part,

00:08:54.740 and they have a tough, thankless job.

00:08:56.840 Showing some respect for them would go a long way towards reducing adverse police events.

00:09:01.240 How dejecting it must be to be constantly labeled a racist and a thug

00:09:04.700 by people with the tacit support of many members within City Hall.

00:09:08.140 If we want to work towards a world-over-defund police,

00:09:11.640 allow citizens then to defend their own person and property fully,

00:09:14.880 even with firearms if needed, and to be able to contract private police services in their

00:09:19.920 neighborhood with tax savings. Hey, I'm all ears if we really want to go down that road.

00:09:23.160 I don't think that's where the defund police people want to go. Until then, we need police

00:09:27.620 forces, and we need the ones we have now. We need to support them, stop crapping on them,

00:09:32.040 and ignore the nuts calling to defund them. That's what's got me triggered today. Now,

00:09:38.220 let's check in with Melanie Risden from her fancy new desk in the new offices over there. 1.00

00:09:44.880 Hello.

00:09:45.880 Hey, Mel. 0.98

00:09:46.880 How's it going over there?

00:09:48.880 Good.

00:09:49.880 How are you?

00:09:50.880 Good, good.

00:09:51.880 Settling in so far?

00:09:52.880 Oh, yes.

00:09:53.880 Nothing more hectic than a move.

00:09:55.880 No kidding, right?

00:09:57.880 So, what do we got topping the news today?

00:10:00.880 Well, speaking of what you were just ranting about, City Council will be discussing those

00:10:06.880 protests, the protests and the anti-protests, and what they're planning to do about it moving

00:10:13.880 so our reporter Eva will be looking into that and covering that a little bit later today.

00:10:19.640 We've got Vancouver Police who won back some funding after 5.7 million dollars was cut from

00:10:26.920 their budget so obviously they're quite happy about that right now that's on the website.

00:10:33.880 Parliament has opened an unprecedented inquiry into the Liberal actions against the Freedom Convoy

00:10:41.320 on February 14 when they invoked the Emergencies Act. So that 11 member panel will have approximately

00:10:50.760 a year to sort of sort through the reasoning behind that and come up with a ruling as to

00:10:59.640 whether it was justifiable. Apparently there was 197 protesters arrested and approximately

00:11:07.960 257 individual bank accounts were frozen with a total of 7.8 million dollars frozen because of

00:11:17.640 some of the actions taken with the invoking of that emergencies act so a large investigation

00:11:23.960 is set to happen into that uh founding president of canada's largest union unifor is now under

00:11:31.880 investigation Jerry Diaz recently quit citing some health concerns and then he abruptly resigned from

00:11:40.200 the union so that is being investigated and they don't plan to put any other statements out until

00:11:46.520 later in March until they get a report back on that. We've got a column from our columnist

00:11:52.920 Karen Selleck on Ontario's Bill 67. She's saying that must be opposed. It is a private member bill

00:12:01.800 that would amend the Education Act, inserting provisions on racial equity in the education

00:12:09.720 system. So you can read up on that. Another story on another bill on the website, this one involving

00:12:16.520 the Protection of Freedom of Conscience Act in Saskatchewan. Now this one forbids intimidation

00:12:23.720 or coercion against healthcare workers to directly or indirectly influence or provide

00:12:31.800 for doctors who will directly or indirectly provide assistance in dying.

00:12:37.180 So we've got a story on that.

00:12:39.420 Home sales are up across the country, and the average home price is incredibly high.

00:12:46.200 It's up 20% from the same month last year, sitting at the average national price for a home, $816,000.

00:12:57.560 So, Corey, hopefully you don't need to relocate anytime soon.

00:13:01.800 We've got an Angus Reid poll up that shows Canadians are split on the removal of mandates.

00:13:07.680 It does vary sort of from province to province, and that poll is broken down on the story.

00:13:14.040 We've got another opinion column from John Carpe.

00:13:16.720 He's a lawyer and the president of Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.

00:13:21.720 He says the outrageous bail conditions for freedom convo organizer Tamara Leach makes her basically a political prisoner.

00:13:30.640 So he explains that in his column.

00:13:34.060 And Corey, if you are looking for a vacation home, I've got the perfect one for you.

00:13:40.300 It's down in Palm Beach, the second floor of the Tiffany building.

00:13:45.280 And it's been turned into 13,000 square feet of residence listed for just under $20 million.

00:13:53.720 I'll lobby for that raise from Derek, but I'm a little bit shy of that so far.

00:13:57.560 But I certainly got something to strive towards now.

00:13:59.420 That's right. We also have a story coming out right away here. 72% of Americans support moving forward with the Keystone XL pipeline. So, yeah, we're working on all of that, plus much more coming this afternoon.

00:14:14.500 well that's that's quite a bunch you know that's the thing we've watched as this shows evolved and

00:14:19.540 these news check-ins i just think it's noteworthy there's so many stories that's just today uh you

00:14:23.860 know that are building up but it's going to be a whole segment on its own pretty soon with with

00:14:27.620 everybody as we get reporters across the country and all these stories so uh yeah we do and we've

00:14:32.260 got lots of new ones as well uh coming on board so it's going to be exciting we're going to have

00:14:37.700 very robust coverage coming from all across canada we certainly will well thanks for those updates

00:14:43.300 It's Mel. I'll let you get back on getting those stories together. We'll see you after the show.

00:14:47.760 Sounds good. Thanks, Corey.

00:14:49.280 Great. Thanks. So yeah, as we were saying, it is getting busy. The reporter I'll be talking to a

00:14:55.860 little later with Rachel Emanuel. She started with us in Ottawa. There's a couple there.

00:15:00.720 And just that reminder, get on there, take out a subscription, westernstandardonline.com. That's

00:15:06.460 how we can do this. That's how we're independent media. That's how the government doesn't tell us

00:15:09.880 what we can or can't say. One of the things that Rachel's going to talk about, part of why she

00:15:14.440 left the mainstream, was that their media outlet got pressure from the Deputy Prime Minister's

00:15:21.260 office. They were actually pressuring the office and the media bent a little. Like, what the heck?

00:15:25.220 We're not there to answer to the government or people in power or pressure. They can get upset

00:15:29.780 with us. They can question articles, but we don't bend when they tell us what to do. A lot of

00:15:34.280 mainstream outlets do, though, and that's what happens when you get outlets that are dependent

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00:16:30.740 clients that way. They've bought bulk subscriptions and that way all of their employees can read the

00:16:35.000 Western Standard Unfettered. I imagine they don't want them doing it while they're on the job,

00:16:38.100 but they like knowing that their employees are kept up to date on news. I'll hit on a sponsor

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00:17:52.300 they've been a good sponsor. Yeah, home sales in BC have gone up in BC over $100,000. Yeah,

00:17:57.540 inflation. People don't want to talk about inflation a lot, but it is huge. It's big.

00:18:04.660 It's impacting all of us. And we knew it was coming. How many times have I brought

00:18:08.420 the Taxpayers Federation on and their new debt clock? They're doing a big new tour. I'm going

00:18:12.700 to talk to Franco and Chris both about that because they're touring across the country with

00:18:18.760 that. They actually had to get a new debt clock because it passed a trillion dollars. They didn't

00:18:23.440 have enough zeros on the old debt clock that Derek, I believe, was traveling around the country

00:18:28.640 with at one time when he was at the Taxpayers Federation. It ran out of zeros. And you see,

00:18:33.920 with that much borrowing, it puts pressure on your currencies. The bank puts, you know,

00:18:37.520 issues bonds. This leads to inflation. It's not just, you know, people are trying to blame it

00:18:42.240 all on the Ukraine-Russia war. No, that's a contributor without doubt. And the energy costs

00:18:46.880 going up and such, of course, it's related. But the biggest issue, the driving issue,

00:18:51.260 this inflation was all happening well before that. This just got sped up through the conflict

00:18:55.240 and the war. It's from government borrowing and spending, of course. So we got a real issue there.

00:19:01.960 Now, an interesting stat with that polling that came out too, speaking of energy, with 70-some

00:19:06.380 percent of Americans said, okay, okay, we're ready for the Keystone XL pipeline. That means a heck

00:19:10.860 of a lot of Biden voters are finally got the common sense driven into their head a little bit.

00:19:16.220 I think maybe a lot of Democrat voters had that common sense to begin with in the first place

00:19:20.620 anyways. But that party's always been strongly influenced by a minority of very strong environmental

00:19:27.640 forces, celebrity-driven things such as that. And that's pressed their policy and that's pushed

00:19:32.220 their policy. But in politics, we know it always comes down to public support. And if they feel

00:19:39.480 they're going to lose too badly in the midterms, they're going to change their direction. So that's

00:19:43.060 a promising thing to see. We also saw with Premier Kenney an interesting stance he took when he's

00:19:49.000 talk, and I'm not so sure about that, but about guaranteeing the pipeline further if Biden would

00:19:52.840 just approve it. Because, I mean, the last time he guaranteed that, called it low risk, we got

00:19:56.180 burned for one and a half billion dollars potentially. So I'm not sure doubling down

00:19:59.740 is the best bet. But if we could convince Biden to turn around and get that thing moving, because

00:20:04.940 the more we can get our product to market, the better it is. That's just simple economics,

00:20:09.600 straightforward economic management, which unfortunately seems too complex for a lot

00:20:15.940 of political leaders and supporters, but the people on the ground are changing their minds.

00:20:19.760 When it suddenly costs you that much to fill up your car, opening up a pipeline from Canada

00:20:23.700 suddenly doesn't look all that bad. So let's bring in our first guest for today. We've got

00:20:29.620 independent MLA for Medicine Hat, Cypress Hills, Drew Barnes, who recently wrote a column for the

00:20:34.980 Western Standard talking about a Northern by-election. So let's pop them in here. Hey,

00:20:40.700 Drew, how's it going there? Oh, Corey is great. Good morning to you. Thanks for talking to me.

00:20:44.500 I appreciate it. You know, it was kind of interesting. You know, you're an independent

00:20:50.000 MLA. You're certainly outspoken. That's part of why you're an independent MLA, actually.

00:20:54.120 Yeah, true.

00:20:56.020 So we've got some, as always, very interesting political times, as we've covered on here.

00:21:00.560 There's a by-election. Actually, tonight, we're going to find out who won in Fort McMurray-Lac-La-Bish.

00:21:06.000 That was a vacated seat. The government certainly didn't want to go to a by-election there,

00:21:09.580 and they waited until the last, very last possible time to go to it.

00:21:13.620 Paul Hinneman, as the leader of the Wilder's Independence Party, decided to run in it.

00:21:18.560 And you wrote on how you feel that's quite a gamble on his part.

00:21:22.460 Yeah, yeah, it is.

00:21:24.060 I mean, first of all, you know, polls and Paul Hinneman have been claiming that the Wilder's is polling as high as 35 points.

00:21:32.920 You know, what a huge opportunity, what an opportune time it is to convert dissatisfaction with Premier Kenney into support for another option.

00:21:44.020 And let's talk about that for a second, Corey.

00:21:46.600 You know, Premier Kenney polling as, you know, hard core support at only 6%.

00:21:51.780 And of course, 60% of Albertans voted for him and fiscal conservative change just three years ago.

00:21:57.960 You know, so there's some side of 50 percent of Alberta voters who are looking for a home.

00:22:03.680 And, you know, this recent budget that we're in budget estimates right now holding the government to account.

00:22:09.340 The government under Jason Kenney is spending six billion dollars more than our NDP government did.

00:22:16.000 And, you know, he tries to identify himself as a fiscal conservative.

00:22:19.320 We're one hundred and fifteen billion dollars in debt.

00:22:22.020 And the minute, thanks to an increase of $10 billion in oil and gas royalties, the minute that he has a small surplus, he, you know, blows that out of the water by, you know, spending it here, spending it there without accountability.

00:22:36.020 So it's really a party, a person's opportunity to give those fiscal conservative, those economic freedom Albertans a new home.

00:22:46.240 And, you know, as I stated in my letter, the Wild Rose and Paul Hinman have been polling between 20 and 35 percent.

00:22:53.620 Let's see if Paul and the Wild Rose can convert those, you know, that those poll numbers into actual votes today.

00:23:00.500 Yeah, well, and so what's the gamble aspect, I guess?

00:23:03.640 I mean, if it's a big leap, I mean, if Paul won that seat up there, it'd be quite an upset.

00:23:10.060 And it would, it would almost be history repeating, like with the Wild Rose when he did back in Glenmore.

00:23:14.300 It would certainly be a party that can't be ignored any longer.

00:23:16.860 But if he comes in with a terribly low showing, I guess, then that would actually even potentially set them back.

00:23:22.140 Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

00:23:23.540 Almost like, like a leadership review.

00:23:25.580 Again, you know, there's all kinds of Albertans that feel the UCP isn't home.

00:23:31.020 There's all kinds of Albertans, maybe more, that will never vote NDP.

00:23:36.100 And they're looking for a place to go.

00:23:38.100 Paul's been up there for months knocking on doors and talking to Fort McMurray, Lacklebish constituents.

00:23:43.760 And let's see if he can convert the dissatisfaction with Kenny, the fear of an NDP government into actual votes.

00:23:52.740 Big risk for Paul in some ways to go there.

00:23:55.360 Of course, we all know that, you know, Brian Jean running for the UCP on an anti-Jason Kenney stance, you know, that will make it interesting.

00:24:05.560 Corey, the other thing that's interesting to me is at this point in time, it's clear that the NDP wants to run against Jason Kenney 14 months from now.

00:24:14.240 They've been beating him in the polls by over a year.

00:24:17.220 They're out fundraising him two to one.

00:24:19.820 It looks like they haven't had a total effort up there to actually try to win that constituency,

00:24:26.260 you know, wanting the disruption that Brian Jean may cause in the caucus.

00:24:32.020 But again, they want to set the table to run against Jason Kenney.

00:24:35.640 So let's see what happens today.

00:24:37.820 Yeah, well, welcome to Alberta and our hornet's nest of bizarre politics. 0.55

00:24:41.260 I mean, we have such an unusual campaign with a UCP candidate who's actually the anti-premier candidate.

00:24:48.480 You've got the NDP, well, at least they're consistent, they're NDP.

00:24:52.500 And there's no victory, no matter what happens tonight, in that by-election for Premier

00:24:57.560 Kenney.

00:24:58.400 No, no, there's not.

00:24:59.420 But nor should there be.

00:25:01.400 You know, he so hasn't met Alberta's expectations.

00:25:04.360 The fact that our government is spending $62.5 billion this year, $6 billion more than the

00:25:10.540 spendthrift NDP ever did.

00:25:12.320 the fact that we're $115 billion in debt, you know, the fact that, you know, any small surplus

00:25:19.400 he had this year is being, you know, thrown into programs rather than reducing our taxes or reducing

00:25:24.740 our utility costs, you know, what should the win be for him? And, you know, Corey, the other thing

00:25:29.620 that needs to be said is, my goodness, so much time is being spent now on April 9th and Kenny's

00:25:35.360 leadership review at a time we're passing a $62 billion budget. You know, what we should be

00:25:41.520 looking at is reducing taxes, reducing the utility costs for Albertans, and getting more value for

00:25:47.640 the money being taken. Well, and that was part of, you know, I talked to Paul, he was actually on the

00:25:52.420 show yesterday, and something I saw that, like yourself, he was talking about the bigger issues,

00:25:57.240 the spending, the energy, standing up to Ottawa, of course, with the Independence Party, that's a

00:26:01.520 strong stance to be taking. And I mean, I would hope that resonates more with voters, because I

00:26:07.000 mean, Brian Jean's campaign to date has mostly been, vote for me, because I'll be a thorn in

00:26:10.960 Premier Kenny's butt, which I guess some people might appreciate with the unpopularity of Kenny,

00:26:15.460 but, you know, issues are far more important than a personal grudge.

00:26:18.900 Yeah, exactly. And that's just it. A lot of people have said that to me. They said,

00:26:22.160 what's Gene's vision? Why does he want to be leader? So what would be the difference be?

00:26:27.700 And he hasn't explained that at all. And again, you know, Paul is correct. It is time for

00:26:34.200 for Albertans to take the risk and push for a fairer deal from Ottawa. When I was on the fair

00:26:42.200 deal panel, 80% of Albertans went to the mic, including Fort McMurray, including Calgary,

00:26:46.680 and said that. So it's a no brainer. But the fact that Premier Kenney hasn't tried to do something

00:26:53.960 about the environmental overreach, environmental laws that have hindered our industry, the fact

00:27:00.520 that he didn't ask for a Alberta appeal court reference on the COVID mandates instead just

00:27:07.480 followed the the Ottawa you know restrictions and did his own blindly you know shows that he's not

00:27:13.160 willing to do it and again when so many Albertans tell me that it's time you know they've seen too

00:27:19.080 much hardship and mostly we've seen too much opportunity not be capitalized on so yeah we're

00:27:25.800 We're just going to have to see what happens today, and it'll be an interesting night for sure.

00:27:31.660 Yeah, well, and I've been excited, or I was excited by the Fair Deal panel.

00:27:34.700 I like the stuff it concluded.

00:27:36.000 I went to a couple of those meetings when they were down in my neck of the woods,

00:27:38.840 and I heard what I would anticipate from Albertans talking,

00:27:42.680 and I heard what I thought I would want to hear from the MLAs that were sitting on the panel.

00:27:46.280 You know, if only one of the recommendations of that panel was on the go,

00:27:52.340 I would be a little more satisfied with the government.

00:27:54.000 but all this time all this talk three years in nothing nothing more talk about more talk well

00:27:59.120 we're going to talk about a police force further we're going to talk about a pension plan further

00:28:02.260 we're going to talk talk talk talk talk no action no action cory we've been talking for 20 years

00:28:08.760 about these things at the at that at that time i think it's 350 billion dollars has left alberta

00:28:14.620 for for the rest of canada at that time we haven't got resource movement we haven't even got free

00:28:19.400 trade. And yeah, and you know, when I came out with my dissenting opinion, saying we needed to

00:28:25.160 take steps immediately to gain the leverage from our own police force, all the benefits from our

00:28:30.040 own pension plan, maybe $3 billion more a year to help seniors afford their lifestyle or to have

00:28:35.840 lower premiums for employees and employers. When I come out and said, and the only way or the best

00:28:40.460 way rather to hold Ottawa accountable is an independence referendum three years from now,

00:28:45.000 Let Albertans decide if Ottawa does enough in the interim to make sure that we do get a fair deal.

00:28:51.680 And, of course, you recall what Premier Kenney did.

00:28:53.940 You either love your nation or you don't.

00:28:56.060 I think he put $8 million into a police study that who knows where that's at now and basically made the whole thing quiet.

00:29:05.320 So, again, that's one of the other reasons why this is an important by-election for Paul Hinman and the Wild Rose.

00:29:12.680 We've been talking about these things for 18 months since the Fair Deal panel.

00:29:17.720 There's 50, 60% of Conservatives with no economic freedom,

00:29:22.380 fiscal conservative home right now.

00:29:24.440 And so let's see if Paul and the Wild Rose can fill that void today.

00:29:29.220 And let's see if we can use that to make Alberta free and prosperous.

00:29:34.240 Great. So on an unrelated note, since I've got you,

00:29:37.500 One of your constituents recently returned from Ottawa to quite a large welcome.

00:29:44.300 Were you there in person?

00:29:45.320 I saw you tweeted a picture of it when Tamara Leach showed up. 0.98

00:29:47.620 Yeah, unfortunately, I wasn't.

00:29:49.660 We were unsure if Tamara was going to make it back Friday night or Saturday. 1.00

00:29:53.120 And I had a speaking engagement in red year Saturday, so I did miss her.

00:29:57.540 Tamara and I did have a good coffee a couple days ago.

00:30:01.920 And, you know, we owe her and the truckers so much.

00:30:05.100 first of all look at the effectiveness of this as it started to roll you know Scott Moe the

00:30:12.680 Premier of Saskatchewan immediately saw what this could lead to in Saskatchewan in terms of trucker

00:30:17.460 convoys and and dissatisfaction so he was the first to to eliminate most of the mandates

00:30:22.720 you know Premier Kenny followed a short time later and other Premiers and and then when when

00:30:28.900 And Trudeau put in the emergency act two days later, hundreds, maybe thousands of Albertans

00:30:36.080 and Canadians moved their money out of the banks for fear of what would happen there.

00:30:40.660 And Trudeau ended up being forced to rescind the emergency act right away.

00:30:45.700 So, you know, Corey, and let's not forget how organic this movement was.

00:30:50.720 You know, Tamara is a hardworking mother and grandmother, I believe, and energy worker, farm worker, who was being support from all kinds of everyday Albertans, organized this thing organically and got there. 0.50

00:31:08.340 My colleague Todd Lowen went down and he told me there wasn't a mile between here and Ottawa that there wasn't a family or a person on the side of the road waiting hours, drinking a coffee, waving a flag.

00:31:18.320 I mean, so look at that support. So here we are with a lady that spent 18 days in jail, part of that in a cell by herself, you know, and bail conditions now that, you know, that are going to limit her freedom.

00:31:34.660 And at the end of the day, I think charged with mischief and collaborating to cause mischief, you know, where, where, you know, the, a lot of the comparables have been out there. The person that drove a car into a demonstration in Winnipeg did only two or three days in jail before bail was set. Yeah, there's Tamir there. Yeah, it's, you know, we owe a lot to her. We owe a lot to the truckers for standing up for freedom.

00:32:01.300 And let's not forget that peaceful assembly, peaceful demonstration is essential, is essential to to making our democracy in our province strong.

00:32:12.100 Corey, I've been saying to Albertans, you know, please, from now on, give us 15 minutes a month, five minutes for your country, five minutes for your province and five minutes for your municipality.

00:32:22.420 while, you know, Tamara's a lady that gave us 18 days in jail and 30 or 40 days away from work and 1.00

00:32:29.060 her family. And yeah, it was effective. Yeah. Well, I think part of why she was held for so

00:32:35.680 long was, I mean, they were trying to maintain a very big narrative and we're seeing some of that

00:32:39.900 falling apart in a number of levels that this was an insurrection and that these people were

00:32:43.700 crazed and they were dangerous. And when people see, no, this is a mother and a grandmother and

00:32:47.740 just a common, you know, concerned Canadian citizen.

00:32:52.080 They didn't want that out there because it undercuts their narrative.

00:32:55.080 So, you know, I think it was in their interest to just kind of keep her behind closed doors.

00:32:59.200 So it's unfortunate.

00:33:01.040 I'll just kind of finish up with you, though.

00:33:02.520 We're coming into a full provincial election year.

00:33:05.180 We're a year away from MUN.

00:33:06.520 I know it's still hard to plan anything on these crazed times,

00:33:09.600 but what are you looking ahead to for yourself?

00:33:11.560 You're still an independent and working hard for your constituents,

00:33:14.080 But you've got some decisions to make in the next 365 days, I guess.

00:33:18.280 I sure do, Corey.

00:33:19.060 Thanks for that question.

00:33:20.460 I've been talking to my wife and my family quite a bit, and I'm grateful to represent Cypress Medicine Hat and Albertans for 10 years.

00:33:26.720 I believe I have the energy and the skill and the ideas to continue.

00:33:30.700 From here, we have to sort out, you know, whether I join a new conservative party, an existing conservative party, or run as an independent.

00:33:38.200 a lot of people are focused on april 9th and of course april 9th is the day that jason kenny's

00:33:44.400 leadership review happens uh so i think it's important to to be involved it's absolutely

00:33:49.700 important to to vote against jason kenny's leadership continuing he has not met expectations

00:33:55.600 he has not delivered the fiscal conservative mandate that he was given so so at this point

00:34:00.720 in time um over the next two months i'm going to be talking to two people like uh wild rose i'm

00:34:06.880 going to be seeing what happens in the in the leadership review um we're going to spend a lot

00:34:11.940 of time talking to my constituents especially uh i've got a three-day trade show in medicine hat

00:34:17.000 towards the end of april uh we're going to meet we're making some phone calls right now

00:34:21.740 and see the direction that they want to go but uh i'm very i'm very much wanting to continue to make

00:34:29.260 sure that alberta can be the freest and most prosperous place and cory you know back to you

00:34:33.760 and our wild rose days.

00:34:35.520 You know, we had so much right

00:34:36.640 about wanting grassroots involvement,

00:34:39.160 local decision-making,

00:34:40.560 and what this COVID pandemic

00:34:42.240 and Ukraine situation has shown,

00:34:45.280 the more we can return

00:34:46.660 to local decision-making, the better.

00:34:48.980 And that's what I'm going to focus on

00:34:50.220 and that's where I'm going to start.

00:34:51.320 So thank you.

00:34:52.340 Well, great.

00:34:53.080 Well, thanks for keeping it up

00:34:54.520 and the update.

00:34:55.580 And of course, I always appreciate

00:34:56.720 it when you come on.

00:34:57.460 So we'll all be watching closely

00:34:59.260 and I'm certain we'll be talking again soon.

00:35:01.640 We will.

00:35:02.180 Corey, have a good day.

00:35:02.920 Great. Thanks, Drew. So, yes, that was Drew Barnes. He's the independent member for Cypress

00:35:08.700 Medicine Hat or Cypress Hills Medicine Hat. And lots of irons in the fire there. We do have some

00:35:14.380 crazy, turbulent provincial political times going on. You know, some people have asked,

00:35:19.300 I've had a few people say, why don't you get Tamara on the show? She's under, as John Carpe 0.98

00:35:24.280 wrote and Melanie mentioned, a whole pile of bail conditions. I mean, thankfully, they let her out

00:35:29.380 the buckets but she still is very much uh basically under host arrest and uh not to be communicating

00:35:36.900 with anybody or she could get thrown right back in they didn't say don't talk to media but they

00:35:40.660 said no social media and it would just be seemingly uh risky for her to get out and speak just leave

00:35:46.180 her alone and let her enjoy her family as things move through the system we've talked we had her

00:35:50.420 lawyer on that that interview was very good uh that's keith wilson he he spoke with us if you

00:35:55.700 If you look back on the YouTube history, you could see that it was very well received.

00:36:01.160 And we are following up on it, but we can't get Tamara herself on. 1.00

00:36:04.360 Others have asked if Brian Jean's been on.

00:36:06.240 No, I haven't interviewed him.

00:36:07.340 I've encountered him a number of times over the years, but we haven't managed to get him on the show yet.

00:36:11.720 We'll see.

00:36:12.220 We'll see if he wins tonight.

00:36:15.800 We certainly want to talk to him.

00:36:16.660 The interesting thing is, if he doesn't win, well, we'll see if he still hangs around politically.

00:36:21.960 That's always some difficult decisions to be made.

00:36:25.700 Yeah, so what was I thinking of? Oh, yeah. So we're getting on to speaking of political decisions. I'll talk about a few more news items. Getting on to an Alberta police, provincial police force. You know, this kind of ties into what I was talking about with the Define the Police lunatics and what they're pushing. But something we've talked about, and as I was saying, ad nauseum, we've talked about in Alberta, forming a provincial police force. See, some people take that as taking a shot at the RCMP, and I know some people are unhappy with the RCMP, and that's fine.

00:36:54.260 But the RCMP would still be there. I mean, if a provincial police force is there, just like many other provinces have, it just means you would have a dominant force that would be provincially mandated, provincially regulated by the government rather than federally controlled, which brings control into our province much more closely and directly.

00:37:14.280 The other thing I see, though, as we said, a lot of people do have issues with policing.

00:37:17.920 They are concerned about it.

00:37:18.800 There are some police cultural issues.

00:37:21.000 I mean, I think it's exaggerated with some people thinking some institutionalized racism and such,

00:37:26.320 but there is racism within those forces.

00:37:27.920 There's problems with some people.

00:37:29.320 Absolutely, there is.

00:37:31.220 And it's part of when you're getting people, I guess, into such a –

00:37:36.320 the type of person who goes in to be a police officer, it's a different mindset.

00:37:39.700 It's a different world to work in.

00:37:40.820 You're working in conflict and face-to-face with people all the time in rough situations.

00:37:47.060 And it's led to a lot of issues with female police officers. 1.00

00:37:49.860 It's not unique to any force where they've had a really hard time.

00:37:52.940 And so there's some cultural things that need to change.

00:37:55.200 But it doesn't mean you scrap the whole thing.

00:37:56.700 It doesn't mean you defund it.

00:37:57.660 I can't think of anything stupider than saying, well, you're not working out right,

00:38:01.020 so we're just going to cut your funding.

00:38:03.380 But when you get the opportunity to create a whole new force, you know,

00:38:06.760 let's look at other forces.

00:38:07.840 Let's look at what's been working, what's not been working.

00:38:10.700 Let's look where the problems are then and fix them, you know, have a different training regimen, have different associations between officers.

00:38:20.080 We've got a lot of things we could do with an Alberta Provincial Police Force.

00:38:22.960 Don't assume it would be a carbon copy of the existing forces.

00:38:25.860 That would be dumb.

00:38:26.900 You know, we're going forward.

00:38:28.200 That's part of the problem.

00:38:29.040 I think the RCMP has.

00:38:30.200 Yeah, as Steve Ruffin was pointing out, we had a story on that.

00:38:33.020 The RCMP is having a hard time even recruiting new officers.

00:38:36.000 They needed 1,500 is what he's got there, and 386 were hired.

00:38:40.700 That ties into a lot of things too, because morale on police forces, that came out in Calgary,

00:38:45.240 I think, with a big pull, and it's happening everywhere, is extremely low. And it's as I

00:38:48.920 was saying with that rant earlier, it's because they're getting crapped on on every level.

00:38:52.860 I wouldn't want to be a cop. Look at this stuff. Everything from getting screamed at by some

00:38:57.080 entitled Karen on the side of the road because you're writing her a speeding ticket, or spit on

00:39:01.400 by some idiot you got to drag out of a bar who is fighting and he's losing his crap, and you got to 0.99

00:39:05.820 maintain your control, not club him over the head, no matter how dearly you might want to,

00:39:09.580 or having to stand between two large groups of protesters

00:39:12.680 and keep them from attacking each other or for damaging property.

00:39:16.780 And no matter what they do, they get in crap for it.

00:39:20.240 So no wonder people don't want to go into it.

00:39:22.300 And no wonder the ones who are into it are unfortunately sometimes acting out poorly.

00:39:26.700 It's all part of a much bigger thing.

00:39:29.540 And I mean, forming a new force with the Alberta Provincial Police

00:39:32.040 doesn't mean perfection by any means,

00:39:33.740 but it sure is an opportunity where we can start looking into,

00:39:36.300 well, where are these problems?

00:39:37.100 what's leading to these problems these outbursts these dangerous actions by some police officers

00:39:42.220 and we can rectify those things so uh yeah there's a lot of discussion to be had but again the

00:39:47.260 provincial government doesn't seem to be interested in moving down that road they just want to talk

00:39:50.060 about it i keep dangling that carrot in the end of the stick i if you know we're really building

00:39:55.420 up to every interview of course whether it's paul whether it was uh drew and others which we've got

00:40:00.460 a big turning point on april 9th uh it sounds like thousands of people are going to be going

00:40:04.060 out there for that leadership review it really is hard to guess what's going to happen there

00:40:08.540 but i think kenny would have been a heck of a lot stronger if he had just done one even one of the

00:40:16.540 things recommended by the fair deal panel and he didn't you know so that's how much more do you

00:40:22.140 want to believe how much longer do you want to be led on it's three years now they've been in like

00:40:26.540 you know the time for talk is done and uh they haven't done so and i think that's really reducing

00:40:33.580 Premier Kenney's chances of winning a strong support, if even that 50% one that's going to

00:40:39.940 come on April 9th. It's a really crazy, tumultuous time in politics. Getting back a little bit,

00:40:45.220 now this is an area they don't talk much about, but what I was talking about also, hey, if we

00:40:48.660 want to go into that free world where we have a castle doctrine and stand your ground laws,

00:40:53.180 things basically for self-defense. You should be in a world where you're allowed to use a firearm

00:40:58.100 to defend yourself in a dire situation, of course, not frivolously. You know, somebody's

00:41:02.920 siphoning your fuel, you shouldn't have the right to fill them full of lead. If they're breaking

00:41:07.100 into your home, you should have the right to defend yourself. And a lot of people own firearms

00:41:10.700 with those things in mind. And thankfully, they rarely ever have to use them for that. We've seen

00:41:14.800 that in Alberta, though, in cases like Eddie Maurice and some others who got dragged before

00:41:19.840 the Canadian courts because they dared to defend themselves. Eddie stood between a couple of meth

00:41:24.240 heads who were trying to break into his property and his two-year-old daughter who was in the house

00:41:28.420 And a ricochet injured one of the meth heads and Eddie got charged and was put through the absolute ringer for months until the courts finally let him go.

00:41:37.200 Because they knew if it went to a jury, they were going to acquit him and it was stupid.

00:41:40.880 But we need those laws entrenched so you don't have to go through the courts and all that sort of thing.

00:41:44.480 Plus, we need to respect that most people who own firearms do it legally, responsibly, and safely.

00:41:51.180 So we got an association for people to do that and that's the Canada Shooting Sports Association.

00:41:56.000 These guys, their name says what they are.

00:41:58.000 They're an association of people who enjoy shooting sports.

00:42:01.060 Whether it's target shooting, hunting, collecting, any of those things,

00:42:05.560 these guys are there for you.

00:42:06.540 They've got the resources like any other association.

00:42:08.580 They have videos on safe use and operation of firearms.

00:42:11.780 They've got resources to point towards hunting sites, trade shows,

00:42:15.840 all sorts of things like that.

00:42:17.680 And, of course, most importantly of all, they speak out on behalf of firearm owners

00:42:22.040 because you need a lobby group to speak out for you.

00:42:23.760 The government is always trying to take away your property, take away your rights, reduce those.

00:42:28.880 And the Canada Shooting Sports Association, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association,

00:42:33.700 they've got three legal challenges against the Liberal government right now to stand up for your rights,

00:42:39.760 to defend yourself or defend your property, I should say.

00:42:42.660 And I mean the property of your firearms.

00:42:44.280 Because the Liberals failed with their registry, they failed with their plans in the past,

00:42:47.660 but they haven't stopped what they keep doing is orders in council

00:42:49.860 and just recategorizing a whole bunch of firearms and taking them away from you.

00:42:53.260 So get out there, support these guys.

00:42:54.660 They need, you can't stand up for yourself

00:42:56.300 without getting out to help those help you.

00:42:59.300 And take out a membership

00:42:59.980 with the Canada Shooting Sports Association.

00:43:02.020 Their website is cssa-cila.org

00:43:05.900 and they're well worth it.

00:43:08.340 Yeah, I see some of the other conversation

00:43:09.680 with people talking about having a Doberman

00:43:12.440 for protection and baseball bats.

00:43:15.460 And as Jerry Armstrong Price said,

00:43:18.960 with the Doberman or the baseball bats,

00:43:20.240 yeah, if you use it wrong, you will be charged.

00:43:22.740 With Pamela saying she's a doberman, and you know what? 1.00

00:43:25.020 If you sick the dog on them, chances are you'll be charged.

00:43:28.180 You'll probably get acquitted later, but they will run.

00:43:30.040 The process is the punishment, and that's a real problem we have.

00:43:33.240 I live in Prittis, just south of the city.

00:43:35.480 I didn't know Eddie Maurice.

00:43:36.740 I was very active on things, actually, back when he was going through the courts.

00:43:40.460 And I remember there were huge, very busy town hall meetings being held in rural Alberta,

00:43:45.040 in our area, in Okotoks, and all through there with the police

00:43:48.000 because we were concerned about rural crime and any ability

00:43:50.380 because we have a lot of crime down there.

00:43:52.680 The criminals see rural properties as being vulnerable.

00:43:55.920 There's a lot of stuff outside that's exceedingly long.

00:43:58.320 In my area, even though I'm 10 minutes from the city of Calgary,

00:44:01.360 the police response time on average is 40 minutes where I live.

00:44:04.080 40 minutes.

00:44:05.240 Because the Calgary police don't respond.

00:44:06.780 It's RCMP.

00:44:07.360 And my nearest RCMP detachment is Turner Valley.

00:44:09.640 At nighttime, they've only got one guy on.

00:44:11.360 It could be an hour's drive away, or it could be five minutes away.

00:44:14.520 And that's where that average comes into 40.

00:44:17.720 If somebody's violent, you're in a dear amount of trouble.

00:44:19.820 So, and I remember a person asking an RCMP officer, well, what if I shot the vehicle with a paint gun, you know, to mark it?

00:44:29.840 So it makes it easier for you to catch them, you know, paintball gun.

00:44:31.880 He said, you'll be charged with pointing a firearm.

00:44:34.000 But it's not a firearm.

00:44:35.200 Well, no, but I guess the way the law works is if it even looks like a firearm, you can be charged.

00:44:39.340 If you're utilizing it like one, I can understand a little of that if you were trying to threaten somebody with a replica firearm, it's a crime.

00:44:45.240 But if you're talking about marking a thief's vehicle with a paintball gun, but you can't do that.

00:44:49.680 I said, you know, what if you go like this?

00:44:51.360 Is this going to be a violent crime?

00:44:52.940 I don't know.

00:44:53.500 It wouldn't surprise me out of some of them.

00:44:55.940 Everything that people said, the police would say why you can't do it.

00:44:59.780 They do not like, the RCMP in particular, do not like when you take care of yourself.

00:45:04.360 And they would always, the way I said is their policy was call, cower, and pray.

00:45:09.740 You got somebody coming onto your property, your rural, call, and then cower somewhere

00:45:13.240 in a corner and pray that the RCMP get there in time to save you from whatever is coming.

00:45:17.180 which most of us in rural areas won't do.

00:45:20.380 It's the only reason it's not as huge aquarium wave

00:45:23.760 in rural areas as people think would be

00:45:26.480 with such vulnerable property

00:45:27.560 because at least some thieves are smart enough to know

00:45:28.980 that going on a rural properties

00:45:30.800 could be one of the more hazardous areas

00:45:33.380 to try and steal from.

00:45:34.960 It can be difficult.

00:45:36.640 But I mean, we shouldn't have to play games with it.

00:45:38.980 We should just have that right to defend ourselves,

00:45:40.900 defend our property, defend our households.

00:45:42.800 And unfortunately, we don't quite have that.

00:45:44.720 it's a problem. It's a problem. And that's, it gets back again to maybe where a provincial

00:45:51.540 police force can have a better focus and deal, you know, they can't change the law,

00:45:59.620 but they can change their priorities. And we wouldn't be so fixated on cracking down on

00:46:06.740 citizens for defending themselves and worrying about the fate of these robbers who come out of

00:46:12.940 their property. And yeah, so what have we got here in the comments? More of the same going on.

00:46:20.020 So inflation, here's an interesting one, because we're getting mixed messages out of the federal

00:46:25.080 government. I was talking a little bit of inflation earlier. And it jumped nearly a half a percentage

00:46:29.000 point as a result of the carbon tax, according to the Bank of Canada governor. You know, the

00:46:33.920 government was just recently saying out of cabinet that the carbon tax is going to save us money

00:46:38.680 somehow, which is such a load of crap. But yeah, no, and half a point doesn't sound like much.

00:46:43.820 Well, it all adds up, guys. It certainly adds up. And that's just one contributor. And I'm sure the

00:46:49.140 Bank of Canada governor would rather lowball too. So it's probably even higher than that.

00:46:52.300 And let's not forget, April 1st, not just the April Fool's Day, they are going to raise your

00:46:57.060 carbon tax. Your gas is going to go up another 13 cents a liter or so for nothing, for nothing but

00:47:01.800 a government money grab. That's all it is. It doesn't affect emissions. It doesn't help the

00:47:05.560 environment. It's just packaged up that way to make it look pretty. And they're going to take

00:47:11.200 your hard-earned money. And that's coming up in April. So this was obtained, by the way,

00:47:17.800 from a common standing committee on finance that Global News, I guess, had to dig out the papers

00:47:22.480 for. You know, the government's never forthcoming with these things. But he was asked by the

00:47:27.200 committee, by Conservative MP Philip Lawrence, about the carbon tax's impact on the inflation

00:47:31.800 rate. And, you know, at first he said he didn't have a number, but he would get a written reply

00:47:36.540 in short order. See, a little further, you know, I talked earlier about the protests still going on

00:47:42.580 in Calgary. I know there's still some restrictions. There's still things to push back. They are going

00:47:46.980 down, though. The restrictions are going down. The path is going the other way. There's still room to

00:47:50.780 improve. There's room to move. But people are of differing views on whether they're content now to

00:47:58.900 let things move their course or whether they're not. So a lot are starting to ask with the

00:48:02.740 protesters, well, why are you still protesting? Well, and again, they've got what they feel are

00:48:06.240 reasons. The last time I went though, there were fewer there than on past weeks. So it is starting

00:48:10.080 to wind down, but a lot of people are still concerned. But an interesting release was there

00:48:13.860 was a statement from the Canadian truckers found on YouTube claiming the protesters are going to

00:48:19.500 return to Ottawa to protest again. I don't know. This was reported. I think I caught that one from

00:48:24.740 black locks. I'm not sure, but it sounds a little bit like on the rumor mill sort of thing. I mean,

00:48:29.860 being a decentralized leadership sort of organizations, you can't really point to

00:48:35.060 one organizational hub and say, this is what's going to happen. And this is where it's coming

00:48:38.020 from. But there does seem to be evidence that some folks are looking to try again. I'd also

00:48:42.780 heard there might be people moving towards coots again. I don't know, but I'm not sure if it's

00:48:47.060 going to go as easily as it did last time. We've got police forces and cities and governments that

00:48:51.860 are much more hypersensitive to the potential of another large-scale occupation, I guess you could

00:48:59.640 say, coming on. I don't think they're going to let anybody come in and entrench very easily

00:49:05.360 as they did last time. They will shut it down very fast on the way in. But these things are

00:49:11.160 not over yet. I wonder, some people, though, there is an element that's gotten to the point of they're

00:49:17.600 just discontent with everything. I understand. That's why my show is called Triggered. I always

00:49:21.400 rant and rave and go on. I'm a chronic malcontent. That's what I'm about. But, you know, it takes a

00:49:26.580 certain amount before I feel ready to actually go out in the streets and do things. And as these

00:49:30.440 protests go down, I've got to remember like the yellow vest movement that sort of flared up and

00:49:33.780 went away. But there's always a hardcore group of people who just want to go out and protest

00:49:37.580 everything all the time. And that's kind of what happened with that. And when it faded away with

00:49:41.020 the yellow vest into a smaller core group of those malcontents, that's part of what killed 1.00

00:49:45.120 actually one of the rallies that there was a truck rally that was supposed to be in support

00:49:48.480 of like Trans Mountain Pipeline and things like that, rally for resources, it fell apart because

00:49:53.020 the more fringe, I know you guys cringe at the term, but there is a fringe element, started

00:50:00.380 dominating the show and it just got scrapped because it was going to turn into something that

00:50:04.280 was going to have a negative outcome. And I fear with some of these protests, if they keep dragging

00:50:07.800 on as these restrictions really are fading and most people are becoming content, the ones

00:50:13.120 remaining potentially could start to be a little less rational than the earlier ones. So we'll see

00:50:18.140 how this develops and evolves. I mean, everything's unique. It's not like we can look at a similar

00:50:21.760 period in history with similar issues and know what's going to happen, but we're watching

00:50:25.960 everything just carefully and some trepidation sometimes. So I get on to my next guest here.

00:50:32.580 We have a new edition. We've been adding people to the Western Standard so fast, I can't keep up.

00:50:37.840 And it's great though, because Ottawa has been the hub of everything lately. And we've got two

00:50:42.080 new people in Ottawa now, and we'll be able to much better cover events as they break out that

00:50:47.680 way. We've always been covering stuff, but of course, having people there in person makes it

00:50:51.180 much, much better. And so we've got Rachel Emanuel, and she is, as a number of the people

00:50:58.100 with the Western Standard, came from Legacy Media initially, but has, in my view, evolved upwards

00:51:03.640 into independent media and has joined the Western Standard team. So let's bring Rachel in and 0.63

00:51:08.200 have a talk here. Hey, how you doing out there? Hey, I'm doing well. How are you doing today?

00:51:14.180 very good i appreciate you coming on today i really liked your your first article you know

00:51:19.780 it was reasoned you're not all full of uh vitriol and bitterness with your former employers you just

00:51:24.740 felt it i guess it was time to move away from that uh more institutionalized form of media

00:51:30.180 yeah absolutely no bitterness there no hard feelings um i am grateful for the time that i

00:51:34.340 have there and i definitely feel that i learned a lot and everything i learned i'm going to take

00:51:37.700 into the taken with this new job so i'm excited about just being somewhere that i feel i can

00:51:42.900 you know follow my conscience a little bit more write stories that i think are important

00:51:46.340 and just have an editorial tone that will agree and be more aligned with mine well no and that's

00:51:51.860 great and i've been hearing that more and more and we're seeing more and more of it i don't know if

00:51:55.460 you're familiar with danielle smith but uh she was the leader of the opposition in alberta at one 0.98

00:51:59.220 point and then she moved out from there and uh took on a job as a radio host it did very well

00:52:03.940 for a few years but eventually she had so many clashes with management telling him which guests

00:52:07.860 telling her which guests she could even have and which she couldn't uh and finally she just had

00:52:12.580 to throw up her hands and quit uh i spoke with kid carson out in bc he was a radio host there

00:52:17.860 same sort of thing it wasn't a huge fight with the network but just that they didn't feel that

00:52:23.780 they could be free as journalists to talk about important items any longer yeah absolutely it's a

00:52:30.340 constraint that a lot of us um i think are feeling um it's just it's too bad that it's kind of come

00:52:35.220 to the situation i am grateful that there are new outlets popping up where you have a bit more of

00:52:38.660 opportunities to you know follow what you believe that you should be covering and do it in a way

00:52:43.540 that also reflects your editorial tone accurately um i know both matthew horrid who also started

00:52:49.220 um with the western standard yesterday same as me you know we both left for similar reasons

00:52:53.460 um so i'm excited to be working with this new team and uh yeah excited to have a new opportunity i

00:52:58.580 think great and uh so it was just to get back to your story in which you wrote on the kind of the

00:53:04.740 the final straw episode was you'd written on an, an incident with the,

00:53:08.520 the, the, I think it was a truckers converse boy story. Oh no,

00:53:11.760 it was the protest with Christia Freeland and her office took issue with the,

00:53:15.780 the way it was framed in the story you'd written,

00:53:17.580 but it sounds like the media outlet kind of capitulated and sort of changed your

00:53:21.340 story then to, to match her demands or her offices.

00:53:25.980 Yeah, absolutely. So certainly having, you know,

00:53:28.180 my stories edited in ways that I didn't agree with,

00:53:30.120 it was nothing new for me. I'm not sure if this is something that all, you know,

00:53:34.200 journalist experience across the board, probably to some extent. I do think it is an issue that we

00:53:38.140 face more at iPolitics, being a bit short-staffed. Sometimes changes were made to your work and it

00:53:42.640 was sort of just published without you having a chance to review it or someone went back in

00:53:46.040 afterwards and changed it. So this was something that I had experienced before and that had caused

00:53:50.080 some problems in the past. But the Chris New Freeland story was just much more controversial

00:53:53.960 and garnered a lot of attention. And after it had been published online, you know, it was trending.

00:53:59.780 It was trending really well. Lots of people were looking at it, taking interest in it. And then I

00:54:03.540 got a call from an editor saying that Chris Deerfayland's office had called her and they were

00:54:07.900 upset about the story. They were upset about the editorial tone and framing of the article.

00:54:12.760 And I absolutely stood behind my reporting on that. You know, of course, a politician is going

00:54:17.180 to be upset about a story that doesn't paint them in a flattering, right? That's nothing new.

00:54:21.500 And then a couple hours later, I got another call from this editor saying that they had made some

00:54:24.980 changes to the story. So I was not even given an opportunity to review those changes in advance.

00:54:30.540 I went back in and saw them online around the same time. The public did and they even ran a

00:54:34.860 correction for the story for some of the changes that they had made and again I had not seen the

00:54:39.820 changes in advance and I did not agree with the changes that were made to my work. At this point

00:54:44.700 I had already decided to take the job with the Western Standard but then I just realized I

00:54:49.420 couldn't write anything else for the publication. I was just not comfortable having my name on the

00:54:54.620 website because I had completely lost control over work that was being published under it

00:54:58.140 and at that point I made the decision that that was my last day and that I would not

00:55:01.420 write anything else for them. Yeah and that is too bad I'm the opinion editor here at the

00:55:06.220 Western Standard and I know people you know at times they take issue with even the authors

00:55:11.100 with the title I've chosen for their story as it goes up but these are minor things and

00:55:14.380 occasionally I've had to go in and differ or go back and forth on views on the body within the

00:55:20.220 story and being opinion of course it's a little more dicey than reporting but I mean I would never

00:55:24.780 put something up until i've run it past the author and say well this is the edits we feel are

00:55:28.060 appropriate we we go back and forth until it's approved it doesn't go up you know i just can't

00:55:33.100 hack a story and and put somebody else's name on it and stick it up there it's not principle

00:55:38.700 yeah absolutely that was very concerning to me knowing that you know we made changes after

00:55:42.380 pressure from freelance office but that i had no say in them um and then that we would even have

00:55:46.380 deleted the original post and ran a correction and that i had absolutely no say in the matter

00:55:50.300 uh it was quite shocking and really quite upsetting it's not a comfortable feeling having

00:55:54.060 work published underneath your name that you don't stand by and that you're not proud of

00:55:58.220 well that's it and your name's attached to it and you are a young journalist i mean you don't

00:56:02.620 join journalism for uh you know looking for uh large paychecks or an easy job or uh things like

00:56:08.860 that in life usually it's because people have a they're drawn to it and it's a vision but you want

00:56:13.180 to you want to explore stories you want to dig into them and get your story out there with your

00:56:17.500 name and there's not many things more insulting than having somebody change your story on your

00:56:21.180 behalf without consulting you yeah 100 that's just it uh it's not it's not a fun feeling um

00:56:27.820 but i've already you know had quite a different experience with the western standard in my

00:56:30.940 column i sent it in i wasn't sure how that was going to be received and um it received quite

00:56:35.020 well they actually sent it back with just a couple minor edits that i felt actually really improved

00:56:38.620 it so that was great and a bit of a new experience for me so i'm definitely looking forward to that

00:56:43.180 oh good and yeah and i just uh the concerns in general i i hope you settle in and it goes quite

00:56:47.980 well here because we're you know we're a new outlet but we're really developing and it's been

00:56:51.340 going really good and i mean there's editorial slants there's views there's things that are

00:56:54.860 covered but you know there's always a reason you you've got to keep a degree of control on things

00:56:59.020 but we're not afraid of upsetting the establishment and that's i think what we're seeing a lot more in

00:57:02.940 the legacy media they're entrenched they just they don't want to ruffle any feathers anywhere

00:57:08.860 and i mean nothing good has come over years uh from journalism until journalists got up there

00:57:13.980 and wanted to ruffle feathers they got to push back a bit and and what you're getting afraid to

00:57:17.980 do it now absolutely and i think that this is especially important now and we're seeing just

00:57:23.900 in the last two years such insane levels of government overreach into as i mentioned in my

00:57:27.900 column really just into every aspect of public and private life um there is a deep need to be

00:57:33.420 pushing back on some of these rules and really questioning the legitimate legitimacy of them

00:57:37.340 especially when we see you know all these measures are in place to curb the spread of

00:57:40.700 COVID-19 and the new variant but you know when we look at public health outcomes across the board

00:57:44.860 they're actually doing significantly poor when we look at opioid related deaths and depression and

00:57:49.100 suicide and surgeries that are being missed and cancers that not being found so some of these

00:57:53.020 things just really aren't adding up and I don't understand why the scrutiny hasn't been more

00:57:56.540 critical of that. Well that's it we just need critical discourse we need I mean there are

00:58:00.780 different sides even though there's been an attempt to make a narrative as if there's there's one

00:58:04.380 legitimate side and everybody else is crazy conspiracy theorists well hold on I mean there's

00:58:09.260 some very skilled uh people out there there's some medical experts there's other even statistician

00:58:14.780 statisticians that are putting out things that perhaps are contrary to the public line and maybe

00:58:19.340 they're wrong maybe they're right but we won't find out until we dig into them and look at them

00:58:23.340 and there's almost just a no-go atmosphere in a lot of outlets saying no we just won't even entertain

00:58:27.660 the thoughts that the public health officials might be misguided in some areas

00:58:33.180 yeah there's definitely a fear there i think to rely on any experts that aren't like government

00:58:37.020 experts so there's a fear that you'll be seen as being anti-science or anti-vax

00:58:41.980 which is unfortunate and i think especially when we have doctors that are on the government payroll

00:58:45.740 there's even that much more of a need to be you know scrutinizing what they're saying but we've

00:58:49.820 seen just sort of a deep desire to draw away from any of the doctors that are you know pushing

00:58:54.940 against some of the narrative that we're seeing and offering different critiques and different

00:58:57.980 insights which is uh which is really unfortunate yeah well either way so you're going to be

00:59:03.660 reporting from ottawa um i haven't had a chance to look into it so you're going to be dealing

00:59:08.140 with parliament hill quite a bit or just in the general ontario area what areas are you going to

00:59:11.900 be focusing on mostly in the weeks months to come sure so i'm definitely going to be looking at

00:59:16.700 parliament hill so anything coming out of the federal government and then also ontario we

00:59:20.220 have an election coming up in ontario uh this spring so i plan to be covering that and then

00:59:24.460 throughout the summer we're going to be having the conservative leadership race i'll also be

00:59:27.580 following that so we've got lots of big stories coming up i'm very excited to be covering them

00:59:31.500 them for the western standard excellent well i appreciate you coming on to talk about it today

00:59:36.540 and i'm really looking forward to seeing you adding to our our team and our coverage out there

00:59:41.060 in ottawa as i said we've been doing well but we'll be doing a lot better with with you and

00:59:44.800 matthew on the job out there now so uh thanks again and uh look forward to talking to you again

00:59:49.100 soon yeah absolutely thanks so much all right thanks so yeah it's rachel emmanuel and yeah you

00:59:56.140 know, it's been almost frustrating to watch. I mean, I started in other areas and moved my way

01:00:02.240 up into what's now, you know, new independent media. I didn't go to school. I wasn't drawn to

01:00:08.640 any form of journalism or anything like that at a young age. But a lot of people get drawn to those

01:00:13.260 things, you know, out of a sense of idealism. They want to get out there. They want to be,

01:00:16.260 you know, they idolize, say, the old investigative journalists, you know. Think,

01:00:21.120 would Watergate ever have been exposed and really sorted out

01:00:25.900 unless a couple of journalists dug deeply into that?

01:00:29.220 They got a lot of backlash and pressure of those guys when they did that.

01:00:32.580 And they hit the jackpot.

01:00:33.600 Some other times investigative journalists might actually be down the wrong track.

01:00:38.780 They could be wrong.

01:00:39.820 But the more the better.

01:00:40.600 And you've got to be able to ruffle the feathers of the establishment.

01:00:43.760 And the establishment isn't liking that these days.

01:00:45.660 It's not allowing it.

01:00:47.520 So we're disenchanting.

01:00:49.480 you know, a lot of young, talented people out there. And well, I guess the evolution is good

01:00:55.540 in a way, though. We benefit by that. The Western Standard, we've been getting some excellent,

01:01:01.540 talented people on board, including Rachel and others. And a lot of them have bring that legacy

01:01:06.880 media experience just because they came from the legacy media, of course, doesn't mean they're

01:01:10.120 tainted by any means. I mean, the reason we put out such fantastic news content is because

01:01:14.280 we have Dave Naylor in the newsroom as our news editor, who has decades of experience in the

01:01:19.160 the mainstream prior but uh it's just not an institution he wants to take part in anymore

01:01:24.200 and a lot of our columnists are in similar spots so it's uh we keep developing we keep expanding

01:01:30.540 i know we like blowing you know tooting our own horn here while we're at it but

01:01:33.580 it's uh you know important to point out why we're doing as well as we are i think you know

01:01:39.380 i'm talking to a bit of an echo chamber audience the reason you're watching i presumably is because

01:01:43.840 most of you like it, but people want some solid, unfettered journalism out there. And Rachel wasn't 1.00

01:01:50.220 willing to sit in a place where she felt she couldn't properly do that. So she moved on. That's

01:01:53.920 a pretty strong indication of principle right off the bat, as with Matthew and the other people in

01:01:58.580 the newsroom. I mean, you get conflicts in media institutions. It happens, but we are seeing a

01:02:04.440 trend. As I said, I talked about Kid Carson out in BC or Danielle Smith here. And that's part of

01:02:10.640 we've got this show going i mean talk radio for those who are listeners has gone to crap i mean

01:02:15.200 let's face it there used to be some fantastic hosts out there with some really in-depth

01:02:20.080 entertaining content you know dave rutherford used to just rip into guests sometimes and he would go

01:02:24.240 into issues that would drive them out it was actually uh his coverage i think it was the

01:02:28.080 high river floods where he got upset and he fought with the editors after being a uh an

01:02:32.400 you know a stalwart part of that station and when he parted ways with qr 77 in the end it wasn't

01:02:38.480 good. Now, now our radio hosts are boring. They're dull as dishwater. They don't want to

01:02:43.900 ruffle any feathers. They're there to make their paychecks. And, you know, hey, people got to pay

01:02:49.900 the bills. They got to do their jobs. But I just can't listen to these guys anymore. It's sad. It

01:02:56.340 really is because it used to be so informative and entertaining at the same time to listen to

01:03:01.440 some unrestrained hosts and journalists get out there. And we're seeing that as well. I mean,

01:03:05.660 when a, why would a cabinet minister's office even feel they have the right to call a publication

01:03:12.300 and complain about what was put up there? I mean, if it was slander, okay, that's different. You

01:03:16.820 know, if it was something that's completely untrue or extremely unfair, yeah, yeah, you could, you

01:03:23.160 know, they got the right to defend themselves as politicians and things like that. But this wasn't

01:03:27.320 a case that they just didn't like where she went, not what she said. And even worse, the publication

01:03:34.580 caved in that case. And then we see more and more of that. So again, you know, people are afraid to

01:03:39.940 dig in on things. I mean, we get, you know, the Kennedy government certainly gets upset with some

01:03:44.180 of the stories we write because we dig into other areas, but we're just as happy to rip into the NDP

01:03:48.440 or any other party if we feel they're going the wrong way. And when it comes to news reporters,

01:03:52.080 they just write the news. They write what they see. There's no no-go areas. Write and, of course,

01:03:57.820 source it to be accurate. There's certainly policies and accountability, but there's no

01:04:04.280 editorial things and you, you know, you can't touch this. You can't go there. Um, yeah,

01:04:08.640 I see, uh, Nico's got my Twitter handle up just to remind people on conversations and somebody I

01:04:12.900 will be talking to. I gotten a great email from a fella, uh, yesterday on it. Um, I'm going to be

01:04:18.940 talking to Pierre Polyev. It's going to be a recorded interview. It'll be tonight and we're

01:04:22.380 going to run that tomorrow. And, uh, you know, I've only got 15 minutes with them and I'll get

01:04:27.060 as many questions in as I can, but I appreciate others sending questions. Uh, as I said yesterday

01:04:31.500 too I'm not going to go into the WEF thing he answered that with Andrew Lawton quite thoroughly

01:04:35.020 I think there's no sense uh asking it again so it's not me avoiding the WEF question it's just

01:04:39.720 the fact that he's already been asked and he's already made his response so there's no sense

01:04:43.160 getting repetitive I certainly you know at best with True North and Landry Lawton they would call

01:04:47.880 them uh friendly competitors we have no beef with them so I'm not afraid of directing people over to

01:04:52.400 what was a really good interview with Polly have with Lawton and hopefully I can ask some questions

01:04:56.700 that Andrew didn't get to and we'll have a really good show for that tomorrow but if you got other

01:05:00.820 questions. I can't guarantee that I'll get them to them, but send them to cmorganatwesternstandardonline.com

01:05:06.460 and I'll certainly try and I appreciate them. Plus, you know, guest suggestions, topic suggestions,

01:05:11.360 things like that. We've got this show five days a week. It's a lot of work for me to make sure.

01:05:14.760 I mean, there's always a lot of issues and everything, but the more we can get feedback

01:05:19.080 from you guys who are listening in, the better. So I appreciate that. And again, I'll do my little

01:05:24.020 nag for the money. Make sure to subscribe, subscribe to the Western Standard, take it out. 0.99

01:05:28.460 best money you'll spend $10 a month, 10 bucks off. If you use that code triggered when you do it.

01:05:35.100 And, uh, that helps us keep going. That's why we're getting these new reporters. I'm really

01:05:38.860 excited. I mean, so much has, we've covered Ottawa really well already for the small outlet that we

01:05:43.940 are. And we didn't have, we, we had contacts out there and we've had some columnists out there,

01:05:48.400 but we haven't had a full out, uh, staff on the ground full time like this now. And we've got

01:05:52.860 two people out there. So we're going to see a lot more, uh, depth coverage of things that happens

01:05:57.280 in our nation's capital.

01:05:59.920 So, Stephen

01:06:01.460 Rutherford saying, yeah, Canada's state-run media

01:06:03.300 goes far beyond the CBC when Freeland's

01:06:05.520 office interferes with the media. Yeah, I mean, that

01:06:07.200 wasn't CBC that Rachel was working

01:06:09.380 for.

01:06:11.060 And, uh,

01:06:11.960 since Derek forces you to wear a suit and tie, maybe go

01:06:15.240 full Don Cherry.

01:06:16.940 You could look pretty sharp in a high-collar

01:06:19.260 three-piece. Yeah, you know what? I'm going to bring

01:06:21.280 a picture of a jacket and tie I had

01:06:23.460 in the past, and I'm sure

01:06:25.140 somewhere buried in the basement box somewhere. I've got that thing. Maybe I could bring that in

01:06:28.560 as these battles go on. I'm just not a shirt and tie guy, but I lost the dress code battle. So I

01:06:32.700 got to keep wearing these things. I'm certain there's room for improvement with my wardrobe,

01:06:37.580 but we'll see. I don't know if I'll go full Don Cherry. He's already done that for us all and

01:06:43.440 entertained us quite well. Hope he's doing all right. He's really getting up there, that fella.

01:06:47.180 That's something that came up. Let's get into a little more newsy stuff here. The Saskatchewan

01:06:50.240 government. Yeah, that digital identification system. And it said it would be optional for

01:06:56.080 residents with the aim of facilitating better government programs. This is one of the areas,

01:06:59.960 you know, I talked a bit about this before, that it's unfortunate that governments have made us

01:07:04.140 mistrust them so much that something like this becomes quite a controversy and people aren't

01:07:09.640 willing to get involved in it. And I don't blame people for not trusting the government. I mean,

01:07:13.800 look how quickly they snatch people's bank accounts. I know the Saskatchewan government

01:07:16.560 didn't do it, but a government is a government. And when they get a hold of power, they aren't,

01:07:20.240 too thrilled with it. But we've got a lot of inefficiencies with ID. You know, I mean,

01:07:27.180 the government does have your information already. I mean, unfortunately, whether we like it or not,

01:07:32.200 they can find us pretty fast. There's a lot of things we can't do without some form of

01:07:36.080 government-issued identification. Federally, you know, I've got my PAL that I like using when I

01:07:41.780 need federal ID. But of course, I've also got my driver's license and I've got my health care card

01:07:46.180 and I've got my social insurance card and I got my birth certificate and I got all of these things.

01:07:51.660 I don't think it would be necessary. In the name of efficiency, putting it together into one

01:07:56.100 identification card that could be scanned and identify those sorts of things altogether

01:08:00.320 wouldn't be a bad thing. I mean, it would be a move towards general efficiency.

01:08:06.240 But of course, we fear that the government's going to use it

01:08:08.420 inappropriately, which is a very real fear to have. So we'll see how that develops. But I mean,

01:08:14.760 I'd like to see it. I wouldn't mind seeing more of a government ID in Alberta. I mean,

01:08:18.640 for people in Alberta, the viewers, you know, we've got these stupid paper health care cards.

01:08:23.800 They're the dumbest things on earth. They fall apart in your wallet. They're garbage. Laurie,

01:08:29.620 not a bad thing. Yeah, I mean, not a bad thing. We have to have identification. We have to.

01:08:33.520 That's modern society. Our problem is with the government. Yes, the government is a bad thing.

01:08:39.980 The identification isn't. How the government uses the identification is a bad thing. Now,

01:08:44.400 the government, you're saying I do, you know, do I trust the government? No, I don't. But I mean,

01:08:51.080 some things are unavoidable. I'm just saying, they've already got your ID. They've already

01:08:54.760 got your driver's license. They've already got every other piece you got. So I'm just looking

01:08:58.160 at, if you've got a problem with the government, oh, we're talking about the global digital idea.

01:09:02.380 Well, globalists will want it worldwide. Yeah, they probably will. And they already can. Look,

01:09:08.160 you got your passport, registered guys, if you got a passport, you got your driver's license.

01:09:11.200 one piece of ID or another is already shareable by the government. They've already got your info.

01:09:16.420 So right now I'm just looking at more efficiency so we can maybe lay off some of those useless

01:09:20.260 civil servants sitting around there and duplicating services. But, well, Gail, okay, 0.91

01:09:24.440 you don't agree with me on this. And that's fine. Lots of listeners don't agree. But what do we do?

01:09:27.800 Get rid of ID? Get rid of driver's licenses? Get rid of PALs? Get rid of passports? Get rid of

01:09:33.200 healthcares? Get rid of social insurance? Get rid of birth certificates? The ID's there.

01:09:38.260 they got it they can share it they can share it with the wf well pat saying no thanks well

01:09:44.140 what's going to be different i'm just talking about taking a bunch of cards and sticking them

01:09:48.580 on one they've got it guys they're not getting anything new uh as june is saying you know soon

01:09:57.480 it'll be how far did you travel in your car are you vaccinated well fine but they've got all that

01:10:00.900 information already so uh if you got a cell phone yeah we're well tracked or even going farther back

01:10:06.840 you know, back to air miles. It's funny. I mean, people, and I didn't mind. I think the air miles

01:10:09.860 program is good, but you know, the whole root of the air miles thing, you know, what it was,

01:10:13.740 was gathering information everywhere. You went with your air miles card. That's where they got

01:10:17.680 their value. That's where they got their money because it was constantly tracked and they could

01:10:21.820 sell that data of consumers because every purchase you bought at every sale price, every time of year,

01:10:26.920 they get to know that this person at this age of this gender in this area at this time of year

01:10:31.000 is purchasing these sorts of things, and it helps companies model their things. And that data is

01:10:38.200 very important to them. And we give it away freely. We signed up for that card right away.

01:10:43.020 And your cell phone, it tracks and shares where you are at all times. When you put your things

01:10:48.800 up in Facebook and you fill out those little forms, it's data mining, guys. You share it.

01:10:54.780 You choose to share it, even if you don't realize you're doing it sometimes.

01:10:58.220 Gorgeous Durs saying they aren't coordinated.

01:10:59.700 Yeah, I guess, you know, there's a degree of the government.

01:11:01.580 It doesn't know what one hand's doing and the other.

01:11:03.240 But if they want information on you, they can get it.

01:11:05.680 It's there.

01:11:06.640 You can hide out all you like.

01:11:08.880 But so here's another good point.

01:11:11.220 I like the way Susan put it.

01:11:12.260 Susan DeWald, a commenter saying,

01:11:13.320 having ID and being made to show it for food or work is the problem.

01:11:16.200 Yes, I can agree with that.

01:11:17.640 See, there's where the issues came.

01:11:19.160 You know, if you've got to have that VAX passport to show your way in and out of places and stuff such as that.

01:11:23.340 But the form of the identification itself wasn't the issue.

01:11:26.800 It was the government policy. And I wouldn't mind having a wallet that doesn't have 25 cards in it

01:11:32.220 that are just a bunch of repetitive things and a whole bunch of other things. I mean, I was

01:11:36.720 thrilled when they finally, you know, just let me put my bloody organ donor sign on my driver's

01:11:42.000 license properly without having to go over and over again. Either way, it's just one of many

01:11:46.520 issues. Again, what's reflected with the commenters, though, is just that deep distrust people have

01:11:50.900 with the government and for very good reasons. And that's what I'm saying is it's unfortunate

01:11:56.720 that there has been such deep distrust brought in so that people don't want to move on to things

01:12:04.940 that might lead to actually just some more government efficiency. Of course, government

01:12:08.440 efficiency also means that they can pick your pocket with more efficiency down the road sometimes.

01:12:12.940 Speaking of picking your pocket, then I'm going to get on to that with Bitcoin. Well,

01:12:16.200 I'm going to talk to them one more time today. They are one of our better sponsors and all our

01:12:20.560 sponsors are great. We really appreciate them. Just a reminder actually as well, while I'm at it,

01:12:24.780 plug myself. If you have a product or service, you wouldn't mind advertising with the Western

01:12:28.800 Standard or on this show. Hey, send me an email. Maybe we can set something up. It's a very good

01:12:33.580 way to directly, you know, talk about what product or service you have and get it out there to a good

01:12:38.000 targeted common sense audience and market. Bitcoin Well is one of our sponsors and digital

01:12:44.060 currencies. I know some people have some doubts there and they have concerns. But what I like

01:12:47.580 about Bitcoin Well, it's not some foreign nebulous company. It's not distant and out of reach. These

01:12:54.560 are real people on the ground. Like they offer one-on-one consultations with a real live person

01:12:59.000 in certain cities, Calgary, Edmonton, the West is where they are mostly. I believe in Montreal as

01:13:03.140 well. And they'll do Zoom one-on-ones to help walk you through things as well and stuff like that.

01:13:08.840 It's a real company that they're publicly traded, you know, and they never have control of your

01:13:14.140 money and they make it straightforward for you. We've set that up with the Western Standard. I

01:13:19.240 talked about that yesterday. They got corporate deals set up so they can set you up with,

01:13:24.560 your wallet and it's voluntary. And Mike, you know, and those of us, the Western standard had

01:13:29.100 that choice of a percentage of your paycheck goes into your Bitcoin account. And then it actually

01:13:35.360 gets matched by the Western standard themselves. There's all sorts of combinations of things you

01:13:39.560 could do. So that way I've got a little bit being set aside in a different account outside of that.

01:13:43.600 It's a little comforting thing. I'm not putting a whole whack in there, but it's a nice way to

01:13:46.820 set some aside a little bit somewhere else, whether it's, you know, some people have some

01:13:49.760 gold coins, they squirrel away in their house and some other things. Well, this is another way to do

01:13:52.840 that too. And the digital currencies are certainly a huge and growing thing in general. So check them

01:13:57.040 out, bitcoinwell.com. They can explain the process and see if it is for you or isn't for you. That's

01:14:02.040 what it's all about. And they really help, you know, for people who are beginning in the digital

01:14:05.560 currency market. So they're a good sponsor and have a look at them. So getting back to stupid

01:14:11.820 government, why not, right? There's always more stupid things they do. So this is a city one,

01:14:17.180 but every city gets to deal with this one. Edmonton had their talus balls, which is a bunch of little

01:14:21.720 shiny balls in a stack and i think it cost them three quarters of a million dollars or some stupid

01:14:25.880 thing public art projects are just brutal well calgary had one and this one's come back in the

01:14:30.600 news it's been a while called wishing well and it had like a big silver ball and some stuff too

01:14:35.400 the problem was with this thing was the artist didn't know a heck of a lot about physics i guess

01:14:40.200 and what it did was actually uh the sunlight on it is an outdoor display concentrated so much

01:14:45.160 sunlight it was like a magnifying glass it actually burned a hole in somebody's jacket

01:14:48.200 it became a dangerous uh item and this shows how stupid the government is anyways inefficient you

01:14:54.520 know getting back to that uh so they they yanked it out of there quickly they said oh we got to get

01:14:58.600 this out of here before we you know light somebody on fire i mean burning children is always bad for

01:15:02.760 pr uh so they put it away but they finally found a safer home and they put it in bridge land just

01:15:07.880 north of downtown good work guys it only took them like three four years this is how we get with

01:15:14.520 with government. Problem solution. If it's private market, okay, we got this art project that if it's

01:15:19.000 out in the direct sun, it burns people alive. Okay, that's a problem. That's a problem. Move it. Okay.

01:15:24.260 Private industry, we'd have it moved in a week. Government, it took those imbeciles years. 0.83

01:15:29.440 I mean, on top of it, I can't even imagine what that thing must have cost. But,

01:15:33.740 God, these guys just move it like a glacier. It's just brutal, and it's costing us a fortune.

01:15:40.960 Yeah, they called it a multi-sensory interactive piece.

01:15:43.400 Oh, here it is.

01:15:43.980 Okay, I've got more detail on that.

01:15:45.720 Created by renowned artists from living lenses.

01:15:48.540 Yeah, living, right.

01:15:49.300 It was a lens that almost made somebody not live anymore.

01:15:51.780 Luckily, that person didn't have flammable clothing on.

01:15:53.780 It just melted, I guess.

01:15:55.300 Of San Francisco, of course.

01:15:57.240 At the cost of $559,000 to the city of Calgary

01:16:00.660 through their public art program.

01:16:02.960 Good work.

01:16:03.420 That's your money well spent, isn't it?

01:16:06.020 Again, you know, getting back to why we don't trust the bloody government.

01:16:08.180 I mean, not even just on that personal security thing in general, but just looking at how idiotic these people are with our money.

01:16:14.940 Yeah, I know.

01:16:15.640 We don't want to give them any more bloody control than they already have.

01:16:19.300 And some of that, so that more that's coming out, cabinet use of the Emergencies Act.

01:16:24.340 You know, there's going to be an investigation.

01:16:25.820 They're talking it's going to take them a year and looking back at what they did.

01:16:28.700 And I know it's way too long, getting back to being slow, stupid government.

01:16:32.200 And their conclusions will probably be kept hidden.

01:16:36.220 and then we'll have to do FOIP requests and they'll send up redacted stuff.

01:16:39.260 But our grandchildren might finally find out exactly what happened this last year

01:16:43.040 with some of the stuff the government did, the Emergencies Act,

01:16:45.720 in their short period that they had it.

01:16:47.980 But the Assembly of First Nations isn't so thrilled about it either.

01:16:51.340 They told the Finance Committee that it sets a bad precedent far and wide.

01:16:54.860 And we do know that many First Nations do like exercising the right to protest

01:16:58.440 and civil disobedience quite often.

01:17:02.440 And they are concerned it's going to be used as a tool against themselves.

01:17:05.520 And they should be. When government finds any tool that they can use against people, don't assume you're immune.

01:17:10.600 You know, this is stuff that I've been fighting, you know, on Twitter with.

01:17:13.840 If people follow me there, if you want to see it more lively, it's at Corey B. Morgan on Twitter.

01:17:19.100 But pointing out, again, with these guys who are saying, we want the police to come in there and just smack those heads of those protesters at the park and the belt line.

01:17:24.660 They're getting annoying. They're getting loud. They're honking their horns. They're ticking me off.

01:17:27.060 if the police become empowered

01:17:31.940 and the city of Calgary becomes empowered

01:17:33.840 to do that to peaceful protests,

01:17:36.860 don't think for a second

01:17:38.120 they won't do it to your peaceful protest later.

01:17:40.780 That's how it works.

01:17:41.720 That's how the precedents get set.

01:17:43.800 So just because you don't like the freedom protesters,

01:17:46.240 you don't like their message,

01:17:47.320 you want to wear a mask till the end of time,

01:17:49.140 good for you.

01:17:52.100 It'll come back on you guys.

01:17:53.860 The government isn't always going to be governed

01:17:55.620 by a loony lefty like Jody Gondek.

01:17:58.440 It's not always going to be Justin Trudeau.

01:18:01.380 Eventually, there's going to be some conservatives who get in.

01:18:03.600 It seems to be too far and few between sometimes, but they do do that.

01:18:08.280 And setting these precedents and letting the government just constantly come in

01:18:13.760 and wipe out inconvenient protests, it's not good.

01:18:16.260 It's not healthy for democracy.

01:18:17.760 It's not healthy for anybody.

01:18:19.280 So either way, this Joint Committee of Parliament now has opened an inquiry

01:18:23.520 into the actions against the convoy.

01:18:25.600 It's an 11-member panel.

01:18:26.940 They have one year to determine

01:18:28.440 why the cabinet invoked those powers.

01:18:31.020 It's got all members.

01:18:32.640 It's got block members and conservatives,

01:18:34.720 so maybe something useful will come out of it,

01:18:37.640 but it's going to take these ding-dongs a year.

01:18:40.100 I don't hold out a lot of faith

01:18:42.260 that they're going to be able to come up

01:18:46.140 with good justification.

01:18:47.360 And here's a good news story.

01:18:48.820 You know, I was a little sad about it at first.

01:18:50.100 I mean, I heard Jerry Diaz,

01:18:51.260 So he's the founding president of the Unifor, which is a big union in the private sector.

01:18:57.560 A lot of the media actually are Unifor members.

01:19:00.720 And he was sick, I guess, recently, and then he recovered.

01:19:05.820 But then he suddenly resigned from it.

01:19:08.180 And at first I thought, oh, dear, he's probably very, very sick.

01:19:10.740 And the union guys I'm not a fan of, and it's particularly Diaz because he is a scumbag.

01:19:15.080 But put all the same, I don't wish death or ill health upon them.

01:19:19.700 I just wish they wouldn't be controlling our unions and our media and things such as that.

01:19:24.940 But it sounds like he's actually under investigation over dealings in Unifor finances.

01:19:31.740 The union's national treasurer ordered an outside inquiry, Unifor said yesterday.

01:19:36.320 So it has nothing to do with his health, just his fiscal health.

01:19:38.980 We'll see how whatever comes out of that inquiry, how public that'll get.

01:19:41.980 But, you know, there's where your union dues go, guys.

01:19:44.020 That's that chunk of money they suck out of your wallet.

01:19:46.560 But I mean, unions, you know, I mean, look to the history of the Teamsters and how above board unions tend to be in general.

01:19:53.040 They don't really have a really good history.

01:19:56.400 It's no surprise they're so close to government institutions.

01:19:58.780 They all know the same sort of ethics to follow in general.

01:20:03.760 I mean, we'll see.

01:20:04.380 The union has no further public comment prior to receipt to the investigative report.

01:20:08.580 And maybe there's nothing, maybe the benefit of the doubt, even with Diaz, innocent until proven guilty.

01:20:12.840 Like I said, he's guilty of being a weasel in general, but we don't know if there was anything been done wrong.

01:20:18.560 But when he resigns that quickly, we've got some smoke.

01:20:21.680 There's probably a fire there.

01:20:23.880 And that union has $285 million in assets that belongs to the 315,000 members who have to, have to.

01:20:33.800 Remember, union donations aren't voluntary when you're in a closed shop.

01:20:37.120 They have to give them that money.

01:20:38.440 And it sounds like perhaps that money has not been properly used.

01:20:43.520 Here's another interesting one. National Defense Minister Anita Anand is planning a trip to the

01:20:48.600 Arctic as she gathers her allied counterparts in Arctic countries for a joint discussion on the

01:20:52.780 security of the region in light of the Russian aggression in Ukraine. I've mentioned on the

01:20:57.880 show before earlier when I was in the oil field, I did four years, four seasons in the Arctic,

01:21:02.800 I should say. We just did winters. It was cold as all hell. It was up north of Inuvik, out in the

01:21:07.460 Delta area, and up Tuktuk area on exploration projects. I got a lot of reading done while I

01:21:13.120 was up there in those seasons, and it was good money. Very difficult areas to access, of course.

01:21:18.500 Isolated, expensive, dark, cold, a lot of hazards. Our own military, for the most part, can't get up

01:21:24.100 there. They can't. The dew line's gone. I mean, they're decommissioning all those sites. They're

01:21:28.540 still cleaning up to this day, and that was an old military line of stuff that was set up back

01:21:33.480 in the 50s in the Cold War to watch for Russian invasions and missiles coming from over the north.

01:21:37.460 But you see, what's been going on under the Arctic ice, which Canada can't do at all because

01:21:41.480 we don't have nuclear submarines.

01:21:43.140 The only way to get under Arctic ice caps is with a nuclear sub because you can maintain

01:21:48.640 an air supply long enough down there.

01:21:50.860 Diesel submarines, you're going to have a problem.

01:21:53.140 You can't go that deep under the ice.

01:21:55.260 It would be suicide.

01:21:56.260 Canada, while we claim a whole pile of the Arctic up there, we can't even get to it.

01:22:02.420 If there's going to be any claims against our Arctic, they'll have one valid point

01:22:05.720 and say, well, you guys can't even get to it.

01:22:07.360 How can you say it's yours?

01:22:08.680 You won't develop it.

01:22:09.480 You won't run a pipeline even from a Nubik. 1.00

01:22:11.320 You're not doing anything with it.

01:22:12.940 So how can you say it's your Arctic?

01:22:15.300 And the high Arctic, and we're talking high Arctic.

01:22:17.820 Nobody lives up there, guys.

01:22:18.940 There's some stations and a few little communities,

01:22:21.540 but even the indigenous people didn't live in the high Arctic.

01:22:23.900 It's like living on top of a glacier year-round.

01:22:26.320 But under that ice cup, there is water,

01:22:28.480 and there are Chinese, Russian, American submarines.

01:22:30.960 They move around under there.

01:22:32.120 They do their stuff.

01:22:32.920 We don't hear about the details,

01:22:35.080 but they've got more control of Canada's Arctic

01:22:36.600 think canada does russia certainly does and that might be the next big battle that's coming uh

01:22:41.880 we've had smaller little things you know like a dispute with denmark over an island in the arctic

01:22:46.440 on the eastern end which you know they just do their little game of putting different flags on

01:22:49.880 top of the rock i mean there's not much there but there's a lot of oil and gas under that arctic as

01:22:53.880 well i know that firsthand from working up there on those projects it's just sitting there and if

01:22:58.360 we don't develop it somebody else might say well we're gonna and you know what could we do about

01:23:01.960 it now whether an and is really going to do anything productive i'll tell you the one thing

01:23:06.280 they'll have to do get nuclear subs get icebreakers because you can't get up there the global warming

01:23:10.440 despite what crazy dave suzuki said hasn't opened up the whole arctic yet the north northwest passage

01:23:15.720 for for periods of time in the year perhaps but the high arctic no that's permanent ice and we

01:23:20.680 can't get to it we the last submarines we bought if people remember was a while back and uh that

01:23:26.600 that was english ones used ones that we bought and i believe it killed one or two of the sailors just

01:23:32.360 as they were trying to bring them from England back to Canada because the thing caught on fire

01:23:36.200 on the way here. They're rickety antiques and we can't get to our own territory. So we don't have

01:23:41.720 a really good claim on our own territory if we can't even actually get to it. So maybe

01:23:49.880 the Russian situation will wake up some of the people of government. I don't want to see big 0.85

01:23:53.880 militarized government and everything, but if we're going to claim to be an Arctic country,

01:23:57.720 we should have the ability to get to our Arctic regions.

01:24:01.420 I mentioned that before when we were working on a camp out on the Delta

01:24:03.960 that was frozen in on a barge out there way up in the Arctic.

01:24:07.720 Government scientists were kind of boarding with us

01:24:10.260 because they didn't have the resources.

01:24:11.520 The oil companies had the resources to get up there.

01:24:13.380 It was still terribly expensive, but the government couldn't manage to do it.

01:24:17.120 So maybe they should reevaluate some of those things

01:24:20.800 if we really want to keep claiming and pretending we are a sovereign country.

01:24:25.920 So, okay, I'm going to wrap up.

01:24:27.280 Tomorrow, of course, I'm going to be playing the Pierre Polyev interview, and that should be very interesting.

01:24:32.280 I'm sure that'll be quite good.

01:24:33.960 Also, I'm going to talk to a respirator specialist, Chris Schaefer.

01:24:37.020 This was somebody that I guess Daniel Smith had wanted to talk to before, but wasn't able to.

01:24:40.980 Speaking of media, being told what you can, what you can't.

01:24:43.400 But he put out a video on tests, real tests, and he's a specialist.

01:24:47.120 He's not, you know, a basement hack from YouTube University.

01:24:51.680 He specializes in facilitating people's breathing.

01:24:54.280 and he found that masks aren't necessarily as harmless as people may think they are

01:24:59.140 and they certainly aren't as beneficial as a lot of people think they are.

01:25:02.440 And while most of the mask mandates are gone, they're not totally gone

01:25:05.300 and maybe it's time we work more on that.

01:25:08.700 It's going to be an interesting discussion with him on what he's come up with

01:25:11.040 and what he's studied.

01:25:12.340 So that's about it for today, guys.

01:25:14.560 Make sure to like us, share us, Facebook, YouTube, all that good stuff.

01:25:17.720 That's how we can keep spreading the word out there.

01:25:20.580 Tune in tomorrow at 1130.

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01:25:22.760 we'll report on tonight's by-election and we'll have those interviews and more back and forth

01:25:26.980 with you guys. So thanks for tuning in today and we'll see you tomorrow.

01:25:52.760 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - March 16, 2022

LIVE - Triggered： Defund the police movement needs to pick a lane.

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