Western Standard - People demanding we adhere to treaty rights should read some treaties

00:00:00.000 good day it's wednesday december 14th 2022 welcome to the show i am as the name of the

00:00:22.480 show shows cory morgan we do this once a week every wednesday it's live cover news talk to guests

00:00:28.440 I rant and rave, get it out of my system, and we interact with you guys in the viewer's scroll.

00:00:34.460 So thanks for joining, guys. And let's make use of that comment scroll. I mean, these are the

00:00:39.920 advantages of being live. We get to interact. I get to get your questions to the guests,

00:00:44.560 your questions to me, statements, discuss things with each other. I see some great conversations

00:00:48.200 going on sometimes in the discussion scroll over there off to the side, just trying to keep it

00:00:53.140 civil. I've seen some pretty good fights break out in there too. I mean, it's the internet,

00:00:56.100 right? Whether it's a cat forum or a discussion of TV shows, it seems people are capable of

00:01:02.680 getting at each other's throats. Just, you know, we can take it seriously, but not take it too

00:01:08.000 personally. And I do read all of those comments and I do appreciate them. Reminds me that I'm not

00:01:12.220 just talking to my car radio or something like that. There really are people out there tuning

00:01:17.180 in and listening in. So we've got a good one. I've got a lawyer, Christopher Considine coming

00:01:22.380 on a little later he was involved he was supposed to come on last week couldn't make it he was

00:01:26.860 involved in the sue rodriguez case for those who might remember it back in the 90s and we're going

00:01:33.020 to be talking about medical assistance and dying a nice light simple subject to cover today of

00:01:37.680 course we'll have our news check in with dave naylor in a little bit and we will have the

00:01:42.040 agricultural report and lots of news and things and such so we'll start with what i'm ranting about

00:01:47.160 Now, this is actually a column I posted a couple of days ago, but this subject is still

00:01:53.540 going on.

00:01:54.540 And I think, you know, for the people who you should be subscribed and you should be

00:01:57.620 reading my column, but if you haven't already, I want to get it out there on video as well,

00:02:01.100 because people need to, there's a lot of misinformation about what treaties are, what

00:02:04.480 treaty rights are and what's in them.

00:02:06.560 So let's clarify some of that.

00:02:08.780 So, I mean, to start with, to start with every treaty is available on the internet in full

00:02:13.920 and they're remarkably short, simple documents.

00:02:16.360 In most of the text within a treaty, it's spent defining the terms and defining the boundaries of new indigenous reserves.

00:02:22.880 A large part of treaties go into detail on how indigenous signatories are also ceding all further claims to lands and rights outside of what the treaty has determined.

00:02:31.800 That section of the treaty is the most abused one in the modern times, actually.

00:02:35.240 Now, aside from that, treaties tend to call for things such as a small annual stipend for chiefs and headmen, along with the provision of some agricultural implements.

00:02:44.020 In Treaty 6, for example, the Crown's obligated to provide ammunition and guarantee hunting rights for Indigenous citizens on their reserves.

00:02:50.920 This is where some legislation is indeed threatening treaty rights, as Prime Minister Trudeau's Bill C-21 could lead to the seizure of firearms that Indigenous citizens use for hunting.

00:03:01.820 Treaty 1 and Treaty 2, they call for the provision of schools for the children on reserves.

00:03:06.620 So yeah, well, people don't like to talk about it. Access to schools was enshrined as a right

00:03:11.120 in some treaties and probably inspired some of the residential school systems. And treaty signatories

00:03:16.380 signed on wanting that education for their kids. So give those treaties a read. They're interesting.

00:03:20.640 Now, most of the things people reference as being treaty rights in Canada, they're actually rights

00:03:25.960 and benefits conferred by the Indian Act. And there's many things wrong with that act, but it

00:03:30.520 isn't entrenched within the treaties. And it's an act. It can be amended or even scrapped.

00:03:35.100 Treaty rights have been violated before.

00:03:37.740 It's usually a matter of land being taken or obligations for land not filled.

00:03:41.340 Our courts have been settling many of those disputes already.

00:03:43.860 When it comes to the legislation being entrenched within Alberta and Saskatchewan,

00:03:47.480 where we're asserting provincial rights, there's no conflict with any treaties.

00:03:51.800 Before indulging somebody's point when they claim a treaty rights being violated somehow,

00:03:56.220 just ask them which right and which treaty.

00:03:58.380 It's easy enough to check online right on the spot with your phone.

00:04:01.740 They're all out there and they're small.

00:04:04.040 Chances are no right's probably actually being violated.

00:04:06.820 With the ability to instantly fact-check claims of treaty rights,

00:04:09.700 we should be calling out those claims as soon as we hear them.

00:04:12.540 They've been hampering rational policy discussions for too long already,

00:04:15.660 and we don't need to let that happen anymore.

00:04:18.220 Right now we've got the chiefs lined up.

00:04:21.600 It seems Rachel Notley has managed to get them together

00:04:24.060 and claim they weren't consulted now in the Sovereignty Act.

00:04:27.160 Guys, we don't have an obligation to consult them, to bring in legislations.

00:04:31.260 I mean, we still want to consult people as much as possible, as we do with the rest of the electorate.

00:04:35.660 But there's no obligation.

00:04:37.340 And the only way that would come in is if people say, well, now it's constitutional.

00:04:39.720 No, it's not.

00:04:40.580 If there was a problem with the treaty.

00:04:42.540 But there is no problem with the treaty.

00:04:44.140 So all I'm saying is, have a look, guys.

00:04:46.420 Get out there and read those treaties.

00:04:48.060 It'll add a lot more clarity to these discussions, because right now, people have a really poor idea of what they're about.

00:04:54.040 All right, that's what's got me going, because yes, we're seeing all the guns being pulled out against Daniel Smith's Sovereignty Act.

00:05:00.440 with any United Canada for now.

00:05:03.300 We'll see.

00:05:04.420 All right, let's check in and see what else is going on out there

00:05:06.720 with our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:05:08.340 There's lots of other stuff going on.

00:05:10.240 Hey, Dave, how's it going?

00:05:11.840 It's going well, Corey.

00:05:13.440 Just wondering if you could tell our fill-in producer today, Justin,

00:05:17.960 that after four minutes, it's already won nothing for his French team.

00:05:22.300 Okay.

00:05:23.020 Well, he appears to be happy about that.

00:05:25.020 He's pumping his fist in jubilation.

00:05:28.440 Oh, exactly.

00:05:28.980 Nothing better than the World Cup to get the old juices going.

00:05:33.680 Speaking of getting juices going, since Elon Musk took over Twitter, Corey,

00:05:39.060 have you seen any noticeable changes in your tweeting?

00:05:43.640 My tweeting hasn't changed.

00:05:45.260 I've gained about 4,000 more followers and a lot more engagement, though.

00:05:49.180 Oh, so that's good.

00:05:50.100 So what, were you thinking you were being suppressed?

00:05:53.060 You know, I'd really like to see that put out there because I'm very curious about it

00:05:56.300 because I really was having a hard time

00:05:58.220 gaining followers for a couple of years.

00:06:00.320 And then all of a sudden, it's no coincidence.

00:06:02.480 You can see the pattern.

00:06:03.340 My engagement has doubled.

00:06:05.060 And yeah, I'm gaining over 100 followers a day

00:06:07.160 before it was more like one or two.

00:06:09.300 So it seems to be quite a coincidence.

00:06:11.940 Yeah, miracle of miracles, isn't it?

00:06:14.160 Speaking of Elon Musk,

00:06:15.960 he is the main story on our website right now, Corey,

00:06:20.540 because he sort of came out against Pierre Trudeau,

00:06:24.300 or not Pierre Trudeau, Justin Trudeau's Bill C-11,

00:06:27.560 saying that it sounds like censorship.

00:06:30.720 So that's hopefully some good news on that front.

00:06:35.260 We've got a weird and wonderful story out of Lamont, Alberta,

00:06:39.800 where I guess a nursing aide or an attendant

00:06:43.160 at the Lamont Old Folks Home has been charged

00:06:47.160 because she was taking pictures of residents 1.00

00:06:49.480 and then putting bug-eyed filters on their faces 1.00

00:06:52.460 and sending them out on social media.

00:06:54.440 So I don't even think you would do that, Corey, on Twitter.

00:06:59.360 Our David Creighton is questioning

00:07:01.940 whether we have reached rock bottom in society,

00:07:06.140 and he's got some interesting anecdotes

00:07:09.460 for him to back up that argument.

00:07:12.380 Pierre Polyev today told his caucus in Ottawa

00:07:15.420 that as soon as or if and when they become government,

00:07:19.020 they will improve health care immediately

00:07:21.840 by taking down the gatekeepers and allow foreign trained doctors

00:07:25.440 to be able to work in hospitals within 60 days.

00:07:30.600 So already lots of stuff on the website, Corey.

00:07:34.900 Lots more to come this afternoon and two more hours of thrilling World Cup action.

00:07:40.960 Great. It sounds like you might have a bit of an outbreak of tuberculosis going on behind you.

00:07:45.180 I hope it all remains safe in the newsroom today. 0.98

00:07:48.280 That bastard Jonathan Bradley gave it to me. 0.95

00:07:50.660 Oh, well, we'll see if it all passes through before the holidays. 0.99

00:07:55.500 Exactly.

00:07:56.520 Right on.

00:07:57.320 Okay, thanks, David.

00:08:00.720 Always the coughs and sniffles and everything.

00:08:02.880 You know, that's normal for fall.

00:08:04.720 I mean, it's funny.

00:08:06.820 And it is funny.

00:08:08.000 You know, people are more self-conscious about coughing in public than they are about farting in public.

00:08:12.720 Now, I mean, you can drop a bomb somewhere.

00:08:14.700 People don't smile on it and everything else.

00:08:16.580 But I tell you, all you have to do is cough or sneeze once or twice, and they run off in every direction and glare at you over something, again, that really didn't really harm people as much as people like to make it out to me.

00:08:28.500 I don't want to go into the whole COVID discussion, but, you know, I'm always more than happy to discuss flatulence when I can manage to sidetrack into that favorite subject of mine.

00:08:37.400 But, yes, it's the flu season, and, you know, people, you know, as Ashley's saying, stay home when you're sick.

00:08:43.560 yeah, he's not really sick or anything. There's just a bit of a cough going, but you still got

00:08:47.060 to watch for those things. You don't want to wipe out a workplace with a bunch of people feeling

00:08:50.120 ill and having something go around. It's all common sense. No, he's quite fine. So this is

00:08:55.640 my reminder to folks, you know, get on there and subscribe. This is how we pay our bills. I mean,

00:09:00.580 we're talking about Elon Musk and others exposing the censorship and the problems going on out

00:09:05.300 there. And C18, I'll talk about that in a minute. That's the liberal bill that's really screwing

00:09:10.440 with things and then giving the mainstream media an advantage. Well, the reason, the way we can

00:09:14.640 bypass them guys is through subscribers. Get on there. We got thousands of subscribers. That's

00:09:19.460 most of how we're paying our bills. And we really do appreciate it. 999 a month, a hundred bucks a

00:09:25.040 year. And you get a full access to all of our articles, columns, all of that good stuff as it

00:09:30.700 comes out. And it's really appreciated on our part. And then, then you don't get that government

00:09:35.640 censorship. Good Lord. It's going around, I swear. I don't have a cough.

00:09:42.240 Put a scratch in the throat. I'm sure it's all in my head. So yeah, let's talk about C18 for a

00:09:49.160 second. It looks like that one is going to be going through. I believe it's going through the

00:09:54.220 House of Commons today. It'll be passed on to the Senate. Now that one's a really odious one and

00:09:58.940 it's confusing to a lot of people, but basically what it does is it puts the screws to the social

00:10:03.940 media giants and forces them to pay media outlets for content. It's really screwy. So basically,

00:10:13.940 if the Globe and Mail, you know, or any of those other government funded bailed out news

00:10:18.440 publications put an article on Facebook, and I believe they're trying to hit Google and some

00:10:22.520 others with it, then Facebook somehow has to track and pay back a portion of revenue to those

00:10:28.180 news content providers, I mean, it's going to lead to battles between the social media giants

00:10:35.880 and our conventional media and our government. Well, those battles are already going on.

00:10:39.320 The bottom line is, and this has been lobbied for all the way through, legacy media is dying. But

00:10:44.500 rather than fix themselves, rather than realize why nobody wants to listen to their shit anymore, 1.00

00:10:49.680 they want to get the government to intervene and save their butts. You know, you've got to change 0.99

00:10:54.400 with the times. You can't force people to consume your pap, and it is pap. Part of the problem we

00:11:00.840 already had, and that's what, you know, this brings the problem about onto themselves to a

00:11:05.420 degree. They got, what, the $600 million bailout package, plus there's all sorts of programs and

00:11:10.980 subsidies disguised and cloaked as all sorts of things getting into the newsrooms and media

00:11:15.460 outlets all across the country. Well, the bottom line is what happens then? They become beholden

00:11:20.280 to the government, their coverage goes to crap, it becomes slanted, it becomes, you know, unpalatable 0.97

00:11:26.220 to people. So that just actually compounded the problem. More people left mainstream media, 0.80

00:11:32.220 legacy media, and moved to outlets like ours. So then they're screaming and yelling, the government's

00:11:36.000 got to do something to save us. Well, no, put out better stuff, draw in viewers, listeners, readers,

00:11:41.540 but they don't want to do that. They want to be bailed out again. So this C-18, this intrusive bill

00:11:46.560 would give a massive edge to the heavyweights, to the CBCs, to the Globals. Because, you know,

00:11:55.260 what's her name there? Rachel Gilmore. You know, she's not bringing in viewers and listeners

00:11:59.800 with Global, with her might. I mean, she might as well be a comms person for the Liberals. 0.99

00:12:04.820 It's just so blatant. They want to force you to pay for them one way or another, rather than 0.99

00:12:10.640 actually just let the free market deal with it. C-18 is going to cause a terrible, terrible

00:12:16.320 mess. And I suggest that people go to Michael Geist because it's still, it's a nuanced, odd

00:12:20.460 thing that the hearings, they've rushed it through, they've bashed it through. Media experts,

00:12:24.180 anyways, have always said it's a bad bill, but it doesn't matter. It's all about controlling

00:12:28.480 information and it's about bailing out that media. I mean, the biggest boost in subscribers

00:12:34.220 we ever had in one period was during the trucker's convoy. And it wasn't because we had the most

00:12:40.260 incredible coverage out there, though I like to say it was very good. I'm certainly biased. But

00:12:44.840 what it was also was going on was the legacy media embarrassed itself. They were so grossly

00:12:51.400 biased. Even people watching the coverage of CBC, CTV Global, which all looked exactly the same,

00:12:56.300 they just looked like they were written by liberal templates, realized even if you didn't like the

00:13:01.020 convoy, like this isn't coverage. This is propaganda. We can't stomach this. We can't

00:13:05.900 take this. And they sought out other outlets and they subscribed. These guys are killing themselves.

00:13:11.640 They don't know it.

00:13:13.360 They don't seem to realize it. 0.94

00:13:14.820 C-18, it won't save them,

00:13:17.180 but it'll really make a hell of a mess

00:13:18.620 out of everything else for the rest of us

00:13:20.280 for a while while they try to figure it out.

00:13:22.140 And we've got important things.

00:13:25.180 You know, so C-18 says,

00:13:26.400 this is some of the stuff,

00:13:27.260 so Michael Geist is a fella,

00:13:29.060 if you want to look him up,

00:13:30.220 he's been covering a lot of this.

00:13:31.460 He's a professor, I believe he's a lawyer.

00:13:33.320 He specializes in things like internet law.

00:13:35.440 And he's of course been very outspoken

00:13:37.160 on this whole thing.

00:13:37.920 And he's writing daily.

00:13:39.360 So search it out after the show.

00:13:41.280 But have a look at this. And I mean, some of the things he's saying in his own blog was pointing

00:13:46.740 out that the government cut off debate at second reading, excluded dozens of witnesses, expanded

00:13:50.720 the bill to hundreds of broadcasters that might not even produce news. They denigrated online

00:13:55.920 news services as not real news. I suspect they're sort of point an hour away with that one and

00:14:01.140 shrugged off violations in copyright law. Like this thing is a mess, but it could manage to push

00:14:07.100 some independent outlets out of business, it could really screw them up. And Jim Henry pointing out,

00:14:12.220 yes, we had the best coverage in coots, at least. Yes. And that's where we did have James on the

00:14:17.060 ground out there in coots in person. And boy, we had a lot of people tuning into that. That was

00:14:20.900 exclusive stuff. When the legacy media either wasn't there or barely covered it all. So enough

00:14:26.540 patting myself on the back. Let's see what else is going on. This is stuff that legacy media doesn't

00:14:30.140 like talking about. Trade minister Mary Ng yesterday, we were probably hearing about this.

00:14:33.860 This is a cabinet minister giving sole source contracts to a friend.

00:14:37.900 In other words, hey, I got a job.

00:14:39.380 Here's some government money for you.

00:14:41.620 And it was found to be an inexcusable breach of the Conflict of Interest Act by the ethics commissioner.

00:14:50.200 So you know what her penalty was?

00:14:52.320 Nothing. 0.95

00:14:53.120 Not a damn thing. 0.90

00:14:53.900 Nothing. 0.95

00:14:54.260 Absolutely nothing.

00:14:55.320 She apologized.

00:14:57.540 Oh, I'm sorry.

00:14:58.980 She still has her job.

00:15:00.380 She's still there. 0.99

00:15:00.940 She's still a cabinet minister. 0.98

00:15:02.640 no fines, no punishments,

00:15:04.600 certainly no resignation, though of course there's people

00:15:06.340 calling for it, but I get tired of that too.

00:15:08.420 Opposition always calls for everybody to

00:15:10.400 resign, whether it's a conservative opposition calling

00:15:12.300 for it or the NDP. Fine, wait

00:15:14.380 it out until the next election, 0.99

00:15:16.580 then people can fire them. But when you've actually

00:15:18.440 breached conflicts of interest laws,

00:15:20.780 it means you broke a law. You should

00:15:22.280 pay a penalty, not if you're in the Liberal government,

00:15:24.340 guys. Why isn't this making more

00:15:26.380 headlines? Because we have

00:15:27.800 legacy media that doesn't want to report

00:15:30.380 negatively about the liberal government. That's why. So yeah, she gave contracts, let's see, to

00:15:35.280 $23,000 basically to a public relations firm, which was run by her very good friend of nearly

00:15:42.620 20 years. They used to vacation together and celebrated birthdays and holidays together.

00:15:47.660 You know, real close buddies. Hey, what's 20 grand, you know? Yeah, we got problems. And that's why we

00:15:54.640 need independent media, media that's not afraid to report on these things. They're not afraid to

00:16:00.080 rock the boat or we won't hear enough about them. So yeah, she's going to carry on. The thing that

00:16:04.080 bothers me more though, as I said, it should go to the point when they will be fired by the electorate

00:16:08.700 and we see like with the recent by-election in Toronto area or Ontario, I don't see much appetite

00:16:15.060 for Ontario or Montreal to get rid of any of these corrupt liberals. They like them, that's their 0.75

00:16:19.480 people out there and they're just going to keep putting them back over and over again. That gets

00:16:23.180 back to the independence that I tend to push for quite often here. Paradoxy pointing out as well,

00:16:29.080 yeah, the governor general's, you know, trip to Kuwait, $271 salad. Like, again, we aren't hearing

00:16:35.760 enough about this. It is out there, the alternative outlets are covering it. Here's an interesting one,

00:16:41.060 you know, it's kind of ties into the this whole thing. So American lawmakers are considering a

00:16:45.140 ban on TikTok within the United States over security concerns of the Chinese owned social

00:16:50.500 media video app. And this is interesting, because I mean, it's huge. It's huge. And if you take away

00:16:57.200 a platform like that, you intervene that directly on a platform, it's going to have repercussions.

00:17:02.600 Yet at the same time, and I wrote on that recently, we do have to be concerned about a lot of ways

00:17:09.340 that the Chinese companies and the Chinese government have sort of infiltrated their way

00:17:13.680 into companies and policies out here in North America and at least be wary of it. But at the

00:17:18.960 same time, they provide a lot of products and services that we consume and we quite enjoy. We

00:17:23.440 don't want to haphazardly just, I mean, some people say that, oh, just get rid of everything

00:17:26.860 Chinese. Well, you have a look around your household and think of your consumer goods and 0.96

00:17:31.720 your cost of living before you say something like that. Because, you know, we can't just stop the

00:17:36.760 importation of those Chinese goods or some of those Chinese softwares or intellectual properties.

00:17:42.180 We're quite integrated. It's not that easy. I know I wish it would be because I don't think

00:17:47.980 the Chinese government and party typically has our interests in mind when they are sort of 0.97

00:17:53.080 meddling around with us out in North America, but there's not a quick way to go about it. But now

00:17:57.200 we're talking about something as massive as TikTok, which I don't fully understand. I mean,

00:18:01.500 it's those one minute videos and, and I know I'm getting too long in the tooth and gray to

00:18:05.680 understand it fully, but it is big. And there's a lot of content creators. There's a lot of

00:18:10.420 advertising. And I tell you what, if the Americans suddenly banned that giant platform, it's going to

00:18:15.320 stir things up in social media, a great, great deal, which maybe it needs to be stirred up

00:18:20.780 anyways. But, you know, social media is threatening governments in ways that they

00:18:28.900 never anticipated. I mean, who would have seen how things are right now, these, these means of

00:18:32.720 communication, and yes, a lot of misinformation, a lot of controlling of the messaging is coming

00:18:38.740 out through social media. But I fear for having government take more control of it.

00:18:44.820 in order, you know, they're not necessarily going to filter it for the common good,

00:18:50.560 even though they always say they will. I'd like to see more providers out there, not fewer. I mean,

00:18:55.260 when you can get more than one source of information, that's how you can counter

00:18:58.900 misinformation. And it does put some of the burden of responsibility on ourselves

00:19:02.240 to research, to look up when you're being fed BS and have to find the truth. But I still prefer

00:19:09.140 that responsibility landing on our laps than tossing that responsibility to the government

00:19:14.080 saying, please sanitize what I'm going to hear and see and read so I can avoid misinformation

00:19:19.800 because, again, even if they have the best of intentions, when the government controls

00:19:24.780 everything you can see and hear, it's probably not going to end well for your general freedoms.

00:19:30.100 Okay, we're going to get on to our guest here and turn the page a little bit. I'm going to run a

00:19:34.200 quick ad and then I'm really been looking forward to this conversation. It's not going to be an easy

00:19:38.420 conversation, but it's an important one and certainly a timely one. So let's have a quick

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00:20:13.220 Great. So there we go. Hello, Mr. Constantine. Thank you very much for joining us today. As I

00:20:19.460 said, I've been looking forward to this conversation. It's really going to be coming

00:20:23.580 up in the news pretty soon. Good day to you, Corey, and to your listeners as well.

00:20:29.120 So maybe just to give a bit of background, I spoke a little at the introduction of the show,

00:20:33.560 but for some folks who perhaps aren't quite as old as ourselves, it was a huge issue,

00:20:38.980 of course, throughout the 1990s between you with yourself and Sue Rodriguez and Sven Robinson did

00:20:44.360 some fantastic work on it. I don't often applaud NDP members of parliament, I have to admit, but in

00:20:49.200 this case, it was, it was, I think he did a fantastic job. But things have changed. But the

00:20:55.200 Sue Rodriguez case, if you could kind of put in a nutshell, what would happen there?

00:20:59.540 Certainly. Sue Rodriguez lived in Victoria. She had ALS, which paralyzes you essentially. It stops

00:21:07.640 various organs functioning you end up in a wheelchair unable to speak feed for yourself

00:21:12.280 etc the length of time for which this disease lasts is typically two to three years before

00:21:18.760 death although there are some exceptions such as stephen honking sue came to me uh having

00:21:26.680 worked with other broadcasters across the country explaining her plight she knew that she was facing

00:21:33.800 ultimately the wheelchair she knew that she'd find it very difficult to feed herself have a

00:21:38.280 dignity of quality of life and wanted to have physician assistants to die in a manner which 0.70

00:21:45.400 was not just letting her die from the disease itself but gave her some control as to when she

00:21:49.960 could die and her timing and saying goodbye to her family and her friends we went to ultimately the

00:21:55.800 supreme court of canada where we lost on a 5-4 split on the basis that the supreme court of

00:22:01.800 of Canada felt that the government of Canada should address the issue to allow medical assistance in

00:22:06.840 dying as an option for those who are terminally ill with a physical illness, such as cancer.

00:22:15.240 Yes, and then I guess eventually Ms. Rodriguez managed to find a doctor who anonymously helped

00:22:22.920 her end her life eventually and things moved on, but it took until 2016 before it was really

00:22:29.200 actually legalized, right? Yes, that's right. So many broadcasters, I'm sure including yourself,

00:22:35.760 across the country would periodically revisit the issue. The population account on various polls

00:22:42.460 were approximately 78 to 80 odd percent in favor of having this as an alternative means for people

00:22:48.620 who are at the end stage of life rather than enduring the ongoing dignities. So Sue, in a way,

00:22:55.780 she lost the war in the sense of going to the Supreme Court of Canada but she had opened the

00:23:02.740 door never been opened before in this country and was really the first legal test case in the world

00:23:08.660 on the whole issue and she as you say did have the success with a physician coming forward

00:23:15.060 at that time it was illegal to help her with her death and she was very pleased by that opportunity

00:23:22.340 Since that time, as you know, for those with physical disease, which meets the definition of the revised terms, I've heard from many people who have said from their families or from themselves when they're about to have the assistance of MAID that they welcome this as an alternative.

00:23:41.800 And it should only be regarded, of course, as an alternative. It should only be regarded as an opportunity for people to have an option. So options include refusing to have ongoing medical treatment. Options include refusing to be hooked up to machines or asking to be disconnected from machines.

00:23:59.660 and the options are to let the disease take its course and then in this particular case is actual

00:24:07.200 made with the proper protocols in place to protect the patients. Yeah and I mean it's a sensitive

00:24:13.420 difficult issue a lot of us don't even you know just like necessarily talk about it but it's

00:24:17.140 something we will all face end of life at one point or another and then we have loved ones and

00:24:20.660 there's no I think you know sanctity more important than that of our own bodies particularly

00:24:25.800 when choosing the end. But now, as you'd said, I mean, as well, in the case of Ms. Rodriguez and

00:24:32.720 a lot of others, I mean, it was sort of established, okay, somebody with a terminal illness that

00:24:36.220 their standard of living was going to be greatly, greatly deprived. And the one part as well,

00:24:42.400 those typically they were of sound mind. But now what I'm wondering is, where do we go when we're

00:24:48.060 talking about adding it for mental illnesses? I mean, those are some very vulnerable people that

00:24:53.560 you're sort of offering an option to, it kind of opens a whole new bag of worms.

00:24:57.800 Yeah, so you certainly asked some very interesting questions. So remember that this was for a person

00:25:04.180 who was terminally ill. There was no real prospects of a recovery for them. It was they were going to

00:25:10.600 die, and the question was the option in terms of approach to death. There are, however, two issues

00:25:16.900 on the cognitive side or mental side which have arisen recently first is that as you correctly

00:25:24.500 say corey to have made you have to be in your cognitive state of mind you have to be able to

00:25:31.540 consciously say i understand the situation and i wish to have made and tell that to the physician

00:25:37.140 administering the maid for a big issue which has arisen over the last few years has been that what

00:25:42.740 happens when people express that but they also become demented or develop alzheimer's and are

00:25:52.180 no longer able to express that wish at the end can they give advanced directives so that's one issue

00:25:59.140 and we're still grappling with that as society the other big issue which has arisen and is coming up 0.59

00:26:04.180 as of march 17th 2023 in terms of implementation is made for those with mental illness they're not

00:26:12.740 necessarily physically ill they're not terminally ill from a physical perspective

00:26:18.500 but they're finding that life is intolerable due to a mental illness in parliament this government

00:26:25.540 of canada has said that it is prepared as of march 17 2023 to permit persons with mental illness

00:26:33.620 providing they meet certain criteria to have and seek and have made but there are a lot of

00:26:40.900 potential problems with that, in my view. Well, yes, absolutely. I was looking at one

00:26:46.660 recent story on this lady named Judy LeBlanc. She has a mental disorder as her primary condition. 1.00

00:26:55.460 She has an 11-year-old son, I believe, but she's kind of gone back and forth. At times,

00:27:00.900 she feels it's the appropriate path for her, and at times, she doesn't. Well, and again,

00:27:05.680 well, she's suffering from mental illness, which can be debilitating, and certainly people with

00:27:09.140 that are suffering, but are they in a position then

00:27:13.220 to make such an irreversible choice?

00:27:16.040 Well, Corey, we need to also look at the big picture

00:27:18.960 of healthcare in this country.

00:27:21.060 Canada at the present time

00:27:22.820 does not have adequate mental health resources

00:27:25.720 in order to allow mental health made to go ahead,

00:27:29.760 in my view, in most circumstances.

00:27:33.460 And as you are aware, 80 psychiatrists approximately

00:27:37.000 week ago came out as a block and said we're not ready for made for persons with mental illness

00:27:43.340 because there's not the fundamental resources available to them so they can make an informed

00:27:48.460 decision in medicine are we always advocate and I'm not a doctor of course but I work a lot with

00:27:56.260 doctors and patients we always advocate for informed decisions we advocate for that in other

00:28:01.480 professions as well. Here, patients who are mentally ill do not have access to mental

00:28:08.860 health facilities in this country. I have worked with many, many people who can't get in to see a

00:28:15.860 psychiatrist often for upwards of a year. Psychologists often upwards for six months,

00:28:21.820 and they have to pay for it themselves. People who are in remote parts of this country have very

00:28:27.140 great difficulty accessing mental health care we don't have the resources available by way of

00:28:32.900 facilities if somebody needs to be hospitalized for other than perhaps a few days sometimes

00:28:38.740 in addition why is there mental health disorder in certain circumstances a lot of it relates to

00:28:45.860 a lack of adequate housing food happiness with life and opportunities and until we address some

00:28:51.860 of those issues again it may be an easy way for persons to seek an out from the difficulties they

00:28:59.220 experience but we're not fixing the problems which are underlying the unhappiness that they have so

00:29:06.500 i think that in only in the most extreme cases should this implementation take place in march

00:29:14.100 but otherwise i am very concerned that we will see people who can be cured from their depression

00:29:19.540 with the right resources taking MAID.

00:29:23.700 Well, Sid, with a physiological condition,

00:29:26.660 I think where most people agreed

00:29:27.740 when you're talking about the older polling

00:29:29.040 was when it was pretty much agreed on

00:29:30.780 that the condition was terminal.

00:29:32.140 So there was no treatment available.

00:29:34.040 But as you said, many mental health issues

00:29:36.180 can be stabilized and treated

00:29:38.020 with the proper resources and facilities.

00:29:41.340 So to offer that out rather than examining,

00:29:44.260 being able to give that treatment

00:29:45.760 is not, I guess, a morally acceptable option.

00:29:51.620 And some of that discussion's happening as well,

00:29:54.040 though it's a bit more anecdotal,

00:29:55.240 but some people saying they can't get the health resources

00:29:58.640 for their physiological condition as well,

00:30:00.840 and it's left their life so intolerable

00:30:02.360 that they want to go for MAID.

00:30:04.900 Well, in that case, shouldn't we be examining

00:30:06.640 how to get those resources to them in a more timely manner?

00:30:09.760 Well, certainly with mental health illness,

00:30:11.280 I have seen so many people who've been very, very depressed

00:30:14.160 who've talked to me about wanting to die.

00:30:18.060 And when they're directed to the right healthcare professionals

00:30:20.820 with the right assistance, medication, counseling, et cetera,

00:30:24.400 right changes in their life circumstances,

00:30:26.760 they recover from the depression.

00:30:28.820 But if we're not able to provide those options to people,

00:30:32.040 then I'm very, very concerned about permitting to go ahead with MAID.

00:30:36.000 Hopefully the doorkeepers will be the MAID physicians

00:30:38.700 who will also say there are other potential options out there.

00:30:43.280 And until those have been exhausted and government has given you the options to pursue, we're not prepared to provide MAID.

00:30:50.420 That's what I hope will take place.

00:30:52.220 Yeah, so that's kind of what I wanted to get to asking.

00:30:54.280 You know, back in the 90s when you were fighting this cause, was what we're looking at today what you were envisioning this evolving to eventually?

00:31:01.720 It's a good question.

00:31:03.020 The Chief Justice Lemaire, who was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada at the time that I was appearing before him and the court on Rodriguez, had raised that very question.

00:31:11.200 He said, what about those with mental health?

00:31:13.280 And my response to him in court was that we were not yet ready as a Canadian society to go there.

00:31:20.240 We should take MAID with great care as we explore it. 0.91

00:31:25.700 And therefore, I advocated for those with grievous physical illness leading to death,

00:31:30.640 that they were terminally ill, should be able to have MAID.

00:31:33.380 And he agreed with that, by the way, as did the subsequent Chief Justice, Bev McLaughlin.

00:31:39.500 and ultimately as you know everybody agreed with it in the carter case as a result of the experiences

00:31:47.020 in the united states uh certain states the united states and in europe so i think that was fine but

00:31:53.900 to go with the mental health at this stage where we don't have the right resources can open some

00:32:00.620 real concerns the other concerns we see is that if we open it up too much then we can see a repeat

00:32:07.900 of what happened at Veterans Affairs, and you'll remember several weeks ago, there were some of our

00:32:12.760 fine veterans who do suffer from depression, because I've worked with some of them. I know

00:32:17.640 the terrible circumstances they have to confront sometimes, and to be told, well, you can just go

00:32:24.320 get made, even though they're not terminally ill from a physical perspective, is unfortunate. It's

00:32:30.100 a cop-out. We need to really think about this very, very carefully and provide the resources,

00:32:34.800 just as those 80 psychiatrists have advocated.

00:32:38.300 Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up with the veterans

00:32:40.540 because that sounded almost like a case,

00:32:42.360 even if perhaps well-meaning, but of coercion.

00:32:44.600 And that's a whole other issue as well.

00:32:47.400 I mean, the person's choice should be on their own.

00:32:49.180 They should know the alternatives they have,

00:32:50.780 but I don't think any medical professionals

00:32:52.480 should be necessarily encouraging people

00:32:54.720 to move in that direction in any circumstance.

00:32:56.740 They should just let them know what the alternatives are.

00:32:59.420 Yeah, and I don't think that was a medical professional.

00:33:01.100 I think it was sort of a case officer in Veterans Affairs, from what I can gather.

00:33:06.520 But it becomes such an easy cop-up to say, well, if you're depressed, just take MAID.

00:33:11.240 That's not acceptable, not acceptable in our Canadian society.

00:33:15.660 We have a very fine society.

00:33:17.260 We're regarded as one of the best places in the world to live.

00:33:20.240 And we, therefore, have a responsibility to those who are less fortunate,

00:33:24.220 whether they have mental health issues, which probably many, many people do in our society

00:33:28.560 at one time or another, physical illness issues.

00:33:31.720 And we need to provide those alternative resources

00:33:34.460 so they can be properly explored.

00:33:37.100 Yeah, so just to wrap it up,

00:33:39.020 sort of in getting back to your area of specialty though,

00:33:41.540 one of the commenters had mentioned,

00:33:43.280 do you foresee legal challenges potentially coming from this?

00:33:46.360 I could see this perhaps from family members

00:33:48.240 who have a family member who's choosing MAID,

00:33:51.720 but is doing so with a mental health disorder.

00:33:55.660 Like this probably isn't cut and dry,

00:33:57.940 but as far as the law is concerned.

00:33:59.840 No, I can see in certain circumstances

00:34:01.800 in which a family learns that one of their beloved ones

00:34:06.020 intends to take MAID with mental health issue

00:34:09.000 and that those mental health issues,

00:34:10.680 alternatives have not been explored properly

00:34:13.520 or made available to the person

00:34:15.460 that an application could be made for an injunction

00:34:18.240 in the courtroom to say, look,

00:34:20.520 this doesn't meet the criteria and this should stop.

00:34:23.620 So it'll be very interesting to follow that through.

00:34:26.100 Great. Well, we've got a lot to examine and think about as we come into this, I guess,

00:34:32.500 this issue in these legislative years. I really appreciate the work that you did on this in the

00:34:37.780 1990s and that you're still maintaining, you know, it's not an ideologically fixated view on this by

00:34:43.340 any means. I mean, it's a challenging, nuanced issue that's not cut and dry, and we still need

00:34:48.680 to keep talking about it. So I thank you very much for coming on to talk to us today about it.

00:34:52.840 My pleasure, Corey, and thank you for your interest in the subject.

00:34:55.460 Great, thanks.

00:34:56.600 Bye-bye.

00:34:57.260 Bye.

00:34:58.840 So there you go, guys.

00:34:59.960 Again, that was a good conversation.

00:35:01.440 Like I said, there are no easy answers in this one.

00:35:03.780 This is difficult.

00:35:04.820 And I really appreciated Mr. Constantine coming to talk to us about it.

00:35:08.400 Because this isn't somebody who was opposed to the concept.

00:35:12.120 Clearly, he's very, you know, been invested in making sure that people have the ability to have a dignified end of life if they so choose.

00:35:20.440 again though in a circumstance where you have a terminal illness where your standard of living

00:35:25.320 has you know has been greatly deprived and you can't turn it around and most people as as he

00:35:30.660 mentioned even the polls back then agreed with that but this sort of has turned into something

00:35:36.720 much more and it's getting concerning particularly with mental health and and something that

00:35:41.420 Mr. Constantine said at the end too with with people having you know bouts of depression or

00:35:46.640 in and out. And that's the thing. Depression isn't necessarily a permanent condition with

00:35:52.320 treatment, with therapy that can be mitigated. And a person's standard of living can be brought

00:35:58.980 up again, or they could change their mind. If you've got a terminal cancer diagnosis, you have

00:36:03.880 ALS as Ms. Rodriguez did. No, you're not going to. So then again, that's where perhaps a person

00:36:11.480 would rather have that option. But, you know, Jet Gorgon's saying, you know, and this is fair

00:36:18.680 enough, it should not be an option, it's murder. And I mean, that's the one polarized view that

00:36:23.340 some people feel, you know, that there's just no place in any circumstance ever for there to be

00:36:29.700 medically assisted end of life. Fair enough. I don't agree on that one. I just think, though,

00:36:36.160 that we've got to be exceedingly careful about who we offer it to. Particularly, again, I mean,

00:36:42.260 can you think of it? In my view, the worst person you could be offering to is somebody suffering

00:36:45.880 from mental illness. I mean, this is not somebody who is making good life choices at that point.

00:36:54.120 The other reality is, too, I mean, people, if they really want to commit suicide,

00:36:59.260 they typically can. I mean, we are fragile creatures. These meat sacks we live in,

00:37:04.680 you know, with the right poison or, you know, a bullet or hanging. There's many, many ways we can

00:37:09.420 manage to end our lives. Aside from some people are very debilitated. That's some of the difference

00:37:13.120 with the people seeking medical intervention or assistance at the end of life. But when it comes

00:37:19.180 to a mental health disorder, again, a person would rather it in a controlled way. But then again,

00:37:23.260 if you're suffering from mental health issues, are you really envisioning the best controlled

00:37:29.680 method for yourself. This isn't easy, but I am not comfortable with offering this with somebody

00:37:36.900 when mental illness is their problem. I mean, it's not meeting my personal thresholds what I think

00:37:44.860 is acceptable, which means it has to be irreversible. There has to be no cure. There has to be no way

00:37:49.800 that you can turn this around and make a person's life more, you know, standard of living decent.

00:37:55.580 I mean, again, a person suffering from serious mental health disorders, their life can be pretty miserable.

00:38:01.140 They can be having a very hard, terrible time, but it doesn't mean it can't be cured necessarily.

00:38:06.920 And again, it's certainly not somebody who can make the choice.

00:38:09.940 It's the choice.

00:38:10.800 It's the most irreversible choice you could possibly ever make.

00:38:16.220 And then the other things we're seeing, as was mentioned, basically being offered to veterans, basically because they didn't have the resources.

00:38:23.080 Well, you know what?

00:38:23.560 It's cheaper if these guys will just go.

00:38:25.080 There was that other gentleman, if you look it up, he put it on video because he was very sick, but he wanted to live.

00:38:30.820 He wanted to live right to the end, and he should have that choice.

00:38:33.980 And they kept offering it to him and almost pushing it.

00:38:37.040 He recorded it on a phone and had to share it.

00:38:39.140 Like, this is what this person in this rough condition is getting, is medical professionals pushing it on them.

00:38:44.200 Well, hang on a minute.

00:38:45.360 If they don't want it, leave it alone.

00:38:49.140 So, um, there's those, you know, here's another interesting point with, uh, Judy and Jim, uh,

00:38:55.740 Jarotowski, very much like abortion, what was first brought in, it was supposed to be safe

00:38:59.440 and legal, legal and rare. Uh, we're far from that now. Uh, I'm just talking about how when

00:39:04.920 it gets ideological and almost pushing, I'll give a, you know, a bit of a, uh, an anecdote,

00:39:10.280 a very direct one, a personal one when I was quite young and 19 years old. And suddenly it

00:39:14.700 It turned out I was going to be a father.

00:39:17.060 And the girl I was with at the time, we really, you know, we're scared.

00:39:21.600 We're pretty darn young.

00:39:22.720 And we wanted to examine all the options we could.

00:39:25.960 Yeah, we know what the options are and were.

00:39:28.520 And we went to the health clinic in Calgary here and sat down with a counselor.

00:39:33.200 We just wanted to find out what's on the table, what's there.

00:39:36.420 Everything from adoption to abortion to raising the child.

00:39:39.500 And that person behind that desk basically, abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion.

00:39:44.700 That's all she would counsel.

00:39:46.140 No, no, adoption is not an option.

00:39:47.660 No, you guys aren't in condition to raise children.

00:39:49.520 You're not ready to.

00:39:51.460 This person was fixated on abortion as the option to take.

00:39:55.500 Well, we went there to hear options, not single-minded obsessiveness.

00:40:00.240 In the end, by the way, she chose, and it is the woman's right to choose,

00:40:04.940 she chose to keep it, and Lane, our son, he's fantastic, and he's alive today.

00:40:08.920 I'm not going to go into whether or not abortion is right or wrong.

00:40:10.940 this is a separate discussion, but I don't like when advocates start pushing it as if it's the

00:40:15.060 only option. And we're seeing that now with this medical assistance and dying, perhaps where some

00:40:19.680 of these, these people are turning into advocates within the medical profession and pushing that as

00:40:25.900 the only option as with this, this, this sick individual out, I believe it was Ontario. I wish

00:40:30.840 I had researched more. I would have gotten his name. You guys probably remember those videos.

00:40:33.820 It made a lot of news because again, he had to actually record the audio to prove how they're

00:40:39.360 pushing this on him for lack of resources. And that goes into a bigger issue. And I've written

00:40:45.460 on this a couple of times, and it's something we've got to dig much more into. And that's people

00:40:49.660 with, yeah, mental health issues. And that ties into high crime. It ties into the addiction

00:40:54.080 epidemic. It ties into our healthcare being overwhelmed. A lot of it is due to, and I noticed

00:41:01.040 Mr. Constantine talked about it, though I didn't say it directly, deinstitutionalization. We don't

00:41:06.440 have enough long-term mental health facilities anymore. We went on this track back in the 70s

00:41:13.460 and 80s, pushing people out, saying they're better off within the community and pushing them out of

00:41:18.640 mental health facilities, closing down mental health facilities. Understandably, they were 0.65

00:41:23.960 not always the nicest facilities in the past. And nobody likes to think of a person being

00:41:28.660 secured within a facility, you know, when they wouldn't want to be. But sometimes they can't

00:41:35.300 take care of themselves. And what happens when you push them out in the street? Well, they often end

00:41:38.240 up in prison, or they end up in the hospital, or they end up committing suicide, or they end up

00:41:42.620 self-medicating. And that's how we get a lot of the people addicted to meth, fentanyl, and so many

00:41:47.300 other things, because they don't know where to go. And if we had the mental health facilities that

00:41:53.260 could properly treat the specialized facilities for people who are in serious mental distress,

00:41:59.200 again, they could be treated, stabilized, and living as good a life as possible. But still,

00:42:03.200 yes, sometimes for life in a secure environment. Right now, yeah, we have our mental health

00:42:08.440 hospitals, but they are of a very, very last resort, and typically only for people who would

00:42:13.220 be very dangerous to themselves or others if they were released. Otherwise, they typically use

00:42:17.600 wards within existing hospitals for mental health treatment and things like that, which isn't

00:42:24.660 appropriate. It doesn't give a good standard of living. You're stuck on a wing or a floor on a

00:42:28.880 hospital. I mean, you can build campuses, you can make decent lives for people. We've got to turn

00:42:33.280 that deinstitutionalization trend around. And you know what, as part of what Mr. Constantine was

00:42:40.220 pointing out, if you have all of those that you can offer somebody with mental health challenges,

00:42:46.040 when you can say, look, this is where we can treat you, this is where we can help you,

00:42:50.340 and if all of that fails, sort of like with the physiological, when there's no other options,

00:42:55.100 that's when you can start looking at MADE. But right now, we've got a whole bunch of options,

00:42:58.320 we just aren't providing them right now. We talk about our healthcare system and how it's failing

00:43:03.480 and it is failing at a lot of levels. These people who think Canada system's universal, it's great,

00:43:07.020 it's fantastic. As he pointed out, no, it's not. Mental health is very much a health issue and you

00:43:11.960 got to pay out of top pocket for a psychiatrist. You got to pay out of pocket for the medications

00:43:16.720 that might help you, for the psychologist or counselors that could help a person with mental

00:43:21.700 health challenges. That's not covered in the universal thing, but they're very real health

00:43:26.300 issues. So they recognize that mental health is such a serious health issue that it could lead

00:43:31.100 to offering medically assisted dying, but it's not a serious enough health issue that we'll cover it

00:43:35.840 under our supposed universal health care system. Seems to be a bit of a conflict going on there.

00:43:42.520 Again, we need to re-examine our entire system. The problem is too, is our system is stretched

00:43:46.240 more thin than it can handle. We can't, we don't, can't afford to get any bigger,

00:43:51.780 but we're into those battles. We're watching that in Alberta. We're watching that everywhere.

00:43:54.920 Hospitals are being overwhelmed across the entire country, yet nobody wants to admit you could do

00:43:59.380 anything else with them aside from pour more money into them. You listen to Rachel Notley,

00:44:03.080 money, money, money, money, money. Well, that's because her priority is union jobs, 1.00

00:44:05.880 not the health of people. There are a lot of universal health systems all over the world 0.99

00:44:10.960 that are outperforming us, many of them in Europe. They're still universal. They still cover everybody,

00:44:15.640 but they're different systems. They allow more private provision. They allow more flexibility.

00:44:20.280 And guess what? You know, when you go to those areas, quite often what they also cover, which

00:44:23.400 we don't have covered here, optical, auditory, and mental health prescriptions, things like that.

00:44:30.040 Sometimes you might pay a little more for it, but boy, you get a heck of a lot more coverage for it.

00:44:33.720 But we got to examine the whole system. And what's this Saxon of Riverstone saying? They closed the

00:44:40.720 Queen Street mental health care in Toronto in 1985, just pushed them in the streets. It was a horrible

00:44:44.880 way to treat people. Yeah, it's absolutely true. And they just pushed them out. They think they're

00:44:49.860 doing better. I think most people are well-meaning, but not necessarily. I wrote a piece in my blog

00:44:55.060 years ago, but I remember because it struck me. I was out on the road and I was driving and I saw,

00:44:59.340 you know, a dumpster diver. This is fellas in these getting stuff out of a, you know, garbage

00:45:03.220 and he's getting bottles and food. And I realized that the filthy jacket he's wearing is this team

00:45:09.160 type jacket was actually a special Olympics jacket. Now this guy, and he was relatively young.

00:45:16.760 I don't know what his story was. Maybe he didn't even originally have the jacket, but I suspect he

00:45:22.240 might have. Now, this isn't a case of somebody with, you know, mental health, depression like

00:45:26.660 that, but this is also somebody that perhaps needs more help in the community than others,

00:45:31.700 and somehow, no, no, we've closed those facilities. You can live on the, you know,

00:45:36.580 community living and so on. Well, they can't, and they end up on the streets.

00:45:40.580 Michener Center, if people know it, in Alberta, they've shut down most of that. That was a center

00:45:45.540 and red deer that took care of a lot of people with serious developmental disorders and things

00:45:50.700 such as that. And yes, it was a large institutional style campus. And hey, they did some bad things

00:45:56.460 there. And you know, back in the 60s, 50s, they did eugenics, they were sterilizing. Ashley just 0.62

00:46:03.040 brought it up there. Yeah, recalling as a kid mentally ill being sterilized. There was a big

00:46:06.000 case in Alberta, Lilani Muir, Muir was her name. And she sued. This was back when Ralph Klein was 0.68

00:46:13.860 premier. That led to almost the invocation of the notwithstanding clause. I believe Klein blinked

00:46:19.520 and compensated all those people who had been sterilized. But you see, just because the area

00:46:23.000 had some negative history doesn't mean you throw out the whole institution. There were some

00:46:28.100 interesting discussions at that time. I remember when they were closing and I went to a meeting

00:46:31.880 where people were talking about what was going to happen to the residents. There's people living in

00:46:35.680 those institutions. They've been there all their lives. They're comfortable there. The stable

00:46:39.720 environment helps them there. And there's things that can be offered nowhere else. One of the

00:46:44.160 things a mother brought up was that's the only place where her son can get his teeth taken care 1.00

00:46:48.620 of. Once a month, a specialized dentist who deals with people with developmental disabilities,

00:46:52.960 the serious ones can get in and get in their mouths because these aren't, you can get your

00:46:56.640 finger bitten off. I mean, I'm being serious about this. This is a specialty. You've got to work very

00:47:01.220 carefully with people in there. You can't just take somebody in that circumstance to a special

00:47:05.540 lie to just any dentist. I mean, this is just one area specialty I'm talking about. When you have

00:47:09.920 it together in one larger space, you can afford and you can bring in those specialties to help

00:47:15.240 the people that are living there. It doesn't have to be bad. Don't let the negative experiences and

00:47:20.920 mistakes we made in the past stop us from keeping the entire thing going.

00:47:27.260 Either way, big discussions and challenging ones, but well, we got to keep having them.

00:47:32.580 It says I've talked about on here before too. We talk about things like medical assistance and

00:47:36.480 dying and things like that. It has to be discussed because that legislation is coming, but I don't

00:47:39.800 like discussing it. I've said it on here before. I'm terrified of death. It freaks me right the

00:47:43.460 hell out. I want to put it off as long as I possibly can. But whether I am terrified of it

00:47:48.840 or not, chances are it's going to get to me at some point or another. And we need to discuss

00:47:53.640 these things. So whether I like the issue or not, we're going to talk about it. Let's see. I just

00:47:59.240 want to touch on this before we get in with Jim and talk about some of the agricultural things.

00:48:03.600 This was something I saw on Twitter yesterday. The campaign is on. The campaign is on in Alberta

00:48:09.980 in full bore. Our radio ads are overwhelmed with the Alberta Federation of Labor, which is acting

00:48:14.320 as a branch of the NDP. NDP ads all over the place. UCP ads all over the place. The TV ads

00:48:19.880 are starting. Oh my God, we got five more months of this. And they're just warming up. But Notley's

00:48:25.320 Twitter account has just been unhinged. I mean, it's just firing these tweets out all over the

00:48:29.860 place, promising anything and everything. She's going to promise people more, you know, better

00:48:34.640 suntanning methods in summer or something pretty soon, anything to get herself back in. Well, she 1.00

00:48:39.440 made this big promising, we're going to bring rural high-speed internet to every household in

00:48:44.280 Alberta when we come back into power. Well, wait a minute. Jane looked that up. Notley promised that

00:48:50.000 way back when she first got into power. She didn't do it then. Why the hell would she do it now?

00:48:55.320 Not to mention, as many, many commenters pointed out, Starlink's here. Elon Musk already did what

00:49:02.880 you guys have been twiddling your thumbs about. And I get it. Kenny didn't bring his high-speed

00:49:06.060 internet in the rural areas either. Nobody's done it. Everybody promises it. Nobody does it.

00:49:10.720 Now I've got Starlink up on top of my house. Out there, we'd been using the TELUS hub. It sucked.

00:49:15.400 It was getting overwhelmed. Starlink was a game changer in the rural areas. But this is how 0.94

00:49:21.540 behind the times. Notley is, we're going to promise high speed internet. No, the private

00:49:25.720 market took care of that, Madam Notley. Try to move on to some more valid promises and see if we

00:49:31.040 can get something more productive out of this. All right. I've ranted, pitched and pissed and

00:49:35.940 moaned long enough. Let's talk about some agricultural commodities with Jim Bousicombe

00:49:41.320 from Marketplace Commodities. Hey, how's it going? Hey, good, good, Corey. How are you doing?

00:49:45.760 Not too bad, actually. It's been a really interesting show and yeah, it's good to cool

00:49:50.620 it down a little and check things out in the real world there. I didn't know Notley was offering

00:49:55.760 any tanning products, but anyway, if you say so, I'll go with that. I got to say, she hasn't put

00:50:04.440 it up yet, but I mean, just, they seem to have anything. What can we possibly promise to coax

00:50:08.660 people into coming in? And they're promising things we've already got. So we'll see what's

00:50:12.480 next. All right. So you'd sent me some notes on, uh, uh, some of the stock estimates, uh, for the

00:50:20.980 year worldwide. Uh, I don't have those images, uh, rates prompted here, but, uh, we, we've got some

00:50:26.560 commodity numbers. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So we're, yes, we'll go over, uh, so last week's Friday,

00:50:33.460 yeah, no, that's okay. I'll, I'll go over some of the quick numbers here. So previous week we

00:50:39.160 talked about stats can so that would be canadian production numbers across all of canada last week

00:50:44.200 friday usda came out with their united states uh crop production estimates and also world stock

00:50:51.700 estimates and i'm not going to quote all the numbers because i don't think anyone's going to

00:50:55.680 remember it but really like the short of it is we've seen roughly normal production in the united

00:51:02.700 states stocks are roughly where we'd want to see them at this time of the year and even across the

00:51:08.760 world, we have good stocks. Corn stocks are slightly lower than the previous year at this

00:51:15.520 time. Soybean stocks are growing. Wheat stocks are roughly the same. So what I was going to say

00:51:22.900 about the reports is that in many ways, they're actually a bit of a boring report. And maybe

00:51:28.460 it doesn't give us much to talk about from the excitement of numbers, but that's a good thing.

00:51:35.140 That means we're producing enough commodities across the producing nations in the world to feed the people and to provide feed for animals.

00:51:46.140 And that's more or less the short of it.

00:51:48.080 There are enough decent crops across Canada, United States, even other places, Ukraine, Russia, Australia, et cetera.

00:51:56.520 There's always problem spots, but generally speaking, world stocks look pretty good.

00:52:02.360 Yeah, well, I noticed on that report also, it talked about 2022, 2023, China imports.

00:52:08.660 I was talking a bit about China and just how, you know, whether we like it or not, our economies are very integrated.

00:52:12.960 I mean, we take in a lot of manufactured products from them and they take a lot of our raw resources, whether it's, you know, agricultural commodities or petrochemical products even.

00:52:23.180 But these are things I imagine you've got to watch.

00:52:24.980 Like this is the consumer downstream and trying to watch the trends of where they're going to be going with what they're consuming.

00:52:29.760 yeah so china continues to buy a lot of soybeans from the united states they of course buy a lot

00:52:36.400 of soybeans and i should also say a lot of other commodities from around the world but

00:52:42.480 the u.s exports more soybeans to china than any other single country and that carries on we've

00:52:49.760 seen numerous geopolitical issues over the last year especially in the last weeks months whether

00:52:56.560 it's russia ukraine argentina china taiwan etc etc but the trade still carries on those are things

00:53:02.960 that people should be concerned about there is enough product across this world in some ways

00:53:09.600 but the geopolitical issues is what affects deliveries it affects logistics steamship lines

00:53:18.480 you know they you know going to and from certain parts like port congestion in various places and so

00:53:24.160 on so that's really i keep a good eye on what's happening as far as logistics not really any

00:53:33.760 shortages of supply but whether countries continue to trade with each other or whether there's trade

00:53:40.000 issues or other geopolitical conflicts that affect trade yeah well and i i mean in the prairies we

00:53:46.160 don't typically see soybean grown but i mean with those commodities will still impact i guess other

00:53:50.480 crops or considerations you're taking out here because it impacts what's going to be grown in

00:53:56.400 in eastern states or eastern canada then right yeah to some extent it would be that but what

00:54:01.120 i would look at in comparison to soybeans in canada we'd look at canola so they both are

00:54:05.840 used to produce vegetable oil soybeans are crushed and soybean oil is extracted from that obviously

00:54:13.120 and here in canada we would crush canola and would have canola oil canola oil tends to trade at a

00:54:18.800 premium to soybean oil but nonetheless those two commodities will trend similar in price they will

00:54:27.360 there'll be some variance on how much of a premium canola will trade over top of soybeans

00:54:31.680 but they largely will follow the same general trend great well always such a big picture to

00:54:38.560 always have to watch must be fun watching your computer screen with all those numbers but that's

00:54:43.440 what your specialty is and that's the services you guys provide so marketplace commodities is

00:54:48.160 the website i believe yes it is www.marketplacecommodities.com and 403-394-1711 we're

00:54:56.160 always happy to talk to any of you so please give us a call shoot us a message and uh let's leave

00:55:02.400 her at that excellent well thanks for the update this week jim and we will talk to you again soon

00:55:07.200 all right take care corey bye-bye thanks so that is jim who's he come from uh marketplace

00:55:13.680 commodities and yes, it comes on every week. And it's just such a big, immersive business and

00:55:20.460 industry, you know, and I mean, a lot of us who are, well, I live rurally, but I'm not a farmer

00:55:25.500 by any means. But, you know, you get those romanticized notions of a small operation and

00:55:31.160 sustenance farming, but those days for the most part are long gone. It's a big business and

00:55:35.580 you're dealing with some very large numbers and commodities like anything else. And you really

00:55:39.620 have to watch what you're putting in and what you're putting out. And then of course, you know,

00:55:43.240 on top of doing everything else you've got to do around the farm and around your production

00:55:47.760 facility. And that's where these guys provide those services to look at the whole commodity

00:55:52.540 aspect of it. So check them out, marketcommodities.com. All right, let's see what else we got

00:55:58.520 going on. Speaking of China, China, you know, it was the only thing I liked about Trump was the way

00:56:02.420 he pronounced China just because it would be great on so many people that we're China. Other than

00:56:06.280 that, I don't really miss the orange bugger. But, you know, again, they keep coming up and keep 0.96

00:56:10.880 coming up. And cabinets, this is yesterday, says they don't know the names. So we've probably heard

00:56:16.640 this news story and things like that. Don't know the names of the 11 federal candidates allegedly

00:56:21.760 targeted by Chinese communist agents in the 2019 elections. The House Affairs Committee hasn't been

00:56:27.620 able to uncover any evidence, new evidence, you know, regarding those claims. I got a feeling,

00:56:34.180 Let's just go out on a limb. And if and when we ever find out who those 11 candidates were in the federal election who had some help from the Chinese government, the Chinese communist government, they will be liberals.

00:56:47.760 I could be wrong, but I'm going to go out on a limb and suspect that's the case.

00:56:51.340 And with that being the case, the chances of an internal government investigation ever exposing that is extremely slim.

00:56:58.700 so I won't hold my breath on finding out exactly which candidates those were, but who knows?

00:57:04.660 Things leak, things move along, and maybe things will change. You know, here's something of the

00:57:11.580 cabinet bill. Yes, Bill 21, we've talked about that. The firearms, they kept expanding it. They're

00:57:16.020 looking to steal your firearms. We know that. They've wanted to for a long time, and it looks

00:57:21.300 like now it's been so delayed. Basically, they've screwed it up. They bit off more than they can

00:57:25.140 chew. And it's going to go into spring. And they tried to rush it through the public safety

00:57:31.500 committee. It looks like, but opposition MP said, no, no, we're not going to let you rush this. So

00:57:35.240 they've run out of time. It's going to go to spring. Maybe, maybe some reality will be injected

00:57:40.120 into this thing. And that thing is going to be shelved because I mean, there's no fixing that

00:57:44.140 damn thing, but they'll push on it. They want it. Justin wants your firearms. He wants your little 0.95

00:57:51.600 22 with the semi-automatic

00:57:54.500 because, you know, while it never actually

00:57:56.160 has been used in any mass shootings, he wants to

00:57:58.060 imply that you would if you dared have

00:58:00.140 that gopher gun in your possession or grandpa's

00:58:02.240 old duck gun in the basement and things

00:58:04.200 like that. But either way,

00:58:06.180 the bill got delayed. It is kind

00:58:08.140 of a decent sign in a sense.

00:58:10.340 We got a lot of other things to

00:58:11.900 look forward to. Christmas

00:58:14.240 is coming up, guys. Things are slowing down,

00:58:16.180 but we still got a couple more shows before the

00:58:18.120 end of the year. On the 28th, I am

00:58:20.160 going to have

00:58:20.800 Franco Tarrazzano in to do an end of year sort of update from the Taxpayers Federation.

00:58:26.460 Next week, I'll have somebody coming in to chat with us and we'll discuss some issues in general.

00:58:31.180 And of course, there'll be plenty more news and ranting and raving and stuff to cover then. So

00:58:35.120 thanks for tuning in today, guys, and we will see you next week at the same time.

00:58:39.660 It's a tough job, so I take care of my mental health.

00:58:43.080 I get eight hours of sleep and eat as healthy as I can. It's actually starting to catch on.

00:58:50.800 And if I ever need more support, I call 211.

Western Standard - December 15, 2022

People demanding we adhere to treaty rights should read some treaties

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