Western Standard - The battle to remove porn from Alberta school libraries

00:00:00.000 Good day.

00:00:28.880 Hey, welcome to the Corey Morgan Show.

00:00:30.800 If you're watching in Alberta, it's a nice smoky September day.

00:00:34.420 You know, we got away pretty good this year, actually.

00:00:36.720 The last, you know, few years have been a lot of smoke in the summers.

00:00:40.020 This year hasn't been too bad.

00:00:41.080 But, boy, it's really coming in with a vengeance this fall, isn't it?

00:00:44.040 It's kind of a subject for another discussion.

00:00:46.260 But, you know, whether or not climate change is happening or who's causing it or to what degree.

00:00:50.620 But you've got to admit, I was in Alberta my whole life,

00:00:53.860 and we didn't get nailed with smoke like this all the time back in the 70s and 80s when I was a kid.

00:00:58.520 Something's changed there.

00:00:59.500 We talk forest management, things like that.

00:01:01.360 Either way, right now, if you've got asthma and other problems and issues,

00:01:04.140 you should probably stay inside and just catch up on all those, you know,

00:01:08.600 back issues of the Western Standard and things like that until the air clears a little for you.

00:01:13.820 Got a good show coming up today.

00:01:15.280 I've got Bruce Party.

00:01:18.060 He's a law professor from Queen's University.

00:01:20.580 One of those few actually good, common sense, conservative, freedom-loving sort of folks.

00:01:25.620 There's not too many of them in the universities.

00:01:26.940 And we're going to talk a bit about, well, if we get to an independent Alberta,

00:01:32.140 how do we make sure it's actually a better product than what we just left?

00:01:35.940 How do we preserve the freedoms we're talking about protecting?

00:01:38.400 It's going to be a good conversation. I'm looking forward to that.

00:01:40.500 And we'll have some other stuff and check in with the news and things like that too.

00:01:43.640 Let me get this.

00:01:45.120 By the way, though, we're expanding our reach.

00:01:47.160 We're proud to partner actually with the Solid Gold Family Radio Network,

00:01:51.460 Alberta's very own internet radio, fully owned and operated right here at home.

00:01:55.280 You can catch our shows and live streams on Husky on 5, Nashville on 3, Vibe on 2,

00:02:01.240 three of the 27 unique channels that Solid Gold family brings listeners across Alberta.

00:02:06.200 So check them out, guys.

00:02:06.920 It's the future radio.

00:02:07.840 Everything's going streaming.

00:02:09.420 It's sgfradio.ca.

00:02:12.640 And again, just Google them, Solid Gold Radio Alberta, and you can get on there and see new format. 0.61

00:02:18.280 All right, let's talk about some porn.

00:02:20.060 That's what you're all here to watch today, right? 0.80

00:02:21.840 It's in the title of the show.

00:02:23.040 let's see where we can really screw with the algorithms. This alleged book ban in Alberta

00:02:30.060 schools, it's been making news across the country. In response to books with graphic pornographic

00:02:35.400 depictions of men performing oral sex upon each other on the shelves of children's libraries, 0.57

00:02:40.900 the provincial government set some guidelines. Those monsters. In a performative temper tantrum, 1.00

00:02:46.500 the Edmonton Public School Board, though, responded by proposing to pull out over 200 books,

00:02:50.780 including 1984 and the great Gatsby. Legacy media outlets are gleefully and dutifully

00:02:56.120 reporting that the Smith government is banning books and leftists are making the most of it.

00:03:01.680 Now, the Smith government has pulled the ministerial order to work on creating something

00:03:06.240 more specific and maybe dumbed down enough for a school board to abide by. I mean, it was a

00:03:11.120 political stunt by extreme leftists who were literally willing to keep pornography on the

00:03:14.880 bookshelves of children if it scores points against the UCP government they revile. The

00:03:20.020 faux book ban gives fodder to legacy media outlets and eastern politicians who try to portray Alberta

00:03:25.360 as some backwater book banning neo-fascist state. The school board members are playing dumb. They're 0.99

00:03:30.940 claiming it's impossible to distinguish between a picture of men with genitals in their mouths

00:03:35.200 and whether or not that's more or less appropriate to be presented to children than The Handmaid's

00:03:39.960 Tale. Well I guess when you're considering Atwood stuff it's pretty vile too but all the same

00:03:43.820 I wouldn't call it pornographic but it's too complicated for them. They're claiming that

00:03:47.520 filtering which children books books children are exposed to in the libraries would be a form of

00:03:52.700 discrimination against the lgbtq amber sand dollar sign whatever the hell it is community this day 0.89

00:03:57.940 these days too of course what isn't these days but don't worry there was heterosexual porn to 0.91

00:04:02.420 be found on the shelves too premier smith quite masterfully actually held a press conference where

00:04:06.960 a monitor showed examples of the porn and has been gracing the shelves of alberta schools while

00:04:11.500 offering to hold the hands of school board members to sort through them if need be

00:04:15.480 Legacy media outlets didn't show those images from the monitors, however, because they were

00:04:18.760 too pornographic to be shown on television. The conference can be seen in full social media

00:04:23.980 channels and independent media outlets give proper coverage. Of course, CTV and CBC prefer

00:04:27.500 to maintain the fake narrative that some sort of heinous book ban is happening. Think about it.

00:04:32.340 The images were too pornographic to be shown on television, yet anybody saying they shouldn't be

00:04:37.180 in children's libraries is a book banner. Rest assured, it's no coincidence this battle happens

00:04:42.480 to be shaping up while Alberta's teachers' union is threatening one of their usual strikes.

00:04:47.280 And that narrative, you know, is always consistent with the teachers' strikes. The union always

00:04:51.140 claims their grievances about classroom sizes, but demands more pay and fewer teachers as a

00:04:55.660 solution, and fewer days working. The more they can villainize the provincial government while 0.96

00:04:59.920 they gouge for more pay, the better, and the Edmonton School Board is more than happy to

00:05:03.280 facilitate this latest shakedown. Lost in all of this is the question of how the porn got on the

00:05:08.300 shelves of the children's libraries in the first place. Perhaps once the trash is removed from the

00:05:12.820 libraries, people can take a breath and then investigate who is behind curating the material

00:05:16.800 and making sure that these people lose all access to children and the material presented to them.

00:05:21.960 I understand the battle between left and right and politics in general, but what is with the

00:05:25.880 obsession with exposing children to explicit sexual content? It's distressing, dangerous,

00:05:31.400 and unacceptable. In the end, though, people are ultimately responsible, and the ones who are

00:05:36.980 ultimate responsible are the voters who abdicated their democratic duty to pay attention and

00:05:40.300 participate in municipal elections. The lunatics on Edmonton's public school board were put there

00:05:44.580 by an election. Many people tend to forget these positions are elected due to the fact that fewer 0.63

00:05:48.480 paying any attention to it. So does any wonder that extreme flakes use that opportunity to get

00:05:52.700 into these positions of responsibility? Turnouts in municipal elections are embarrassingly low in

00:05:57.540 general and they're even worse when it comes to public school trustees. People running for these

00:06:01.740 positions are often acclaimed as nobody wants to bother with what appears to be a dry low-paying

00:06:06.140 semi-bureaucratic role. This role, though, involves guiding and influencing our children,

00:06:12.840 which is why it should be considered important enough to make people in those roles face the

00:06:17.000 electorate. That's why they did it. This is a civic election year in Alberta. Take advantage

00:06:21.480 of it, guys. Hopefully, this perverse debacle has inspired voters to take the unusual step

00:06:26.480 of scrutinizing who's on their local school boards and making a choice to vote for sane members for

00:06:30.480 a change. The price for apathy is pretty evident when we see an absurd pitched battle between a

00:06:36.000 school board and the government over the alleged right to present pornography to children. These

00:06:40.420 nuts must be fired, and the only way people who can do it are the voters. The Smith government's

00:06:44.560 made it clear they'll intervene if need be, and I'm happy they're willing to protect our children,

00:06:48.000 but I'm concerned. I don't want a distant provincial government micromanaging what

00:06:52.200 happens in schools. The point of the school boards was to have local accountability and

00:06:56.320 representation in the school system. This will be lost if the provincial government takes over,

00:07:00.840 though I understand why they might have to. So do your duty this fall, guys. Get out and vote.

00:07:05.000 fired the extremists who have seeped in and infiltrated school boards and municipal politics

00:07:10.760 in general it's been said that in a democracy you get the government you deserve and that might be

00:07:15.080 true in general but in this case our children are getting what you deserve and the children

00:07:21.000 deserve better yeah that's what's got me pissed in the morning today how's it going good cory

00:07:25.880 yourself yeah not too bad i mean still astounded you know and i think i've seen it all and no this

00:07:30.120 This is the latest political battle that just, wow.

00:07:32.400 Just crazy.

00:07:33.060 Just crazy.

00:07:33.820 So I think I know why when you were growing up in the 40s and the 50s,

00:07:37.020 you had less fire smoke.

00:07:39.220 No.

00:07:40.080 Less arsonists.

00:07:41.500 We've got way more arsonists now.

00:07:42.820 They do seem to be sprouting up a lot more lately, yes.

00:07:45.380 Yeah, because most of these forest fires are human-caused.

00:07:48.720 Yeah, true enough.

00:07:49.840 Like I said, there's a number of things, but there's definitely been a change.

00:07:52.480 I mean, we didn't see this kind of smoke when we were younger.

00:07:54.800 Not this much.

00:07:55.620 No.

00:07:55.760 It wasn't a while.

00:07:56.480 No, and as you said, we sort of got away with it during the summer,

00:07:59.460 and now we're paying for it.

00:08:00.460 Yeah, it's catching up.

00:08:01.420 Maybe it'll blow through soon.

00:08:02.420 I hear you have a literal bathtub full of honey. 0.93

00:08:04.940 I do.

00:08:05.960 Yeah, the bees really overproduced this year.

00:08:07.980 And Jane, poor Jane, you know, the long-suffering Jane is suffering the mess 0.97

00:08:12.060 that I've made of the house with everything you touch is sticky

00:08:14.240 and buckets of half-processed honey are in the bathtub and in the kitchen sink.

00:08:19.540 250 pounds, that's a lot of honey. 1.00

00:08:22.000 Yeah, those bees really came through this year.

00:08:26.500 Are you going to get shot of it?

00:08:28.040 Are you going to sell it all?

00:08:29.460 I just sold some last weekend.

00:08:31.840 I was at an event in Mirror.

00:08:33.820 Jane sells some on Facebook.

00:08:35.440 We've got a lot of family and friends who like raw honey.

00:08:37.260 So it's moving along.

00:08:38.280 And the nice thing is it keeps pretty much forever.

00:08:41.120 So we will move it.

00:08:42.800 But in the meantime, yeah, we've got to live in a sticky disaster.

00:08:45.940 Well, we've got some in our newsroom kitchen from, is it Mike?

00:08:49.480 That's a pretty funny guy, yeah.

00:08:50.660 Yeah, he spikes it.

00:08:51.700 Who says it's the best honey in Alberta.

00:08:54.060 And one of our new staff members tried it and said it was really, really good.

00:08:58.740 And he says, your honey's going to have a lot to live up to her.

00:09:00.960 So we need some samplers in here, man.

00:09:03.360 I think he's going to have to be reassigned somewhere distant and cold or something.

00:09:06.740 But in the meantime, I'll see what I can bring in.

00:09:08.960 That's always an option.

00:09:11.280 So in the news today, fairly busy morning.

00:09:14.360 Our site right now is leading off with a story on blanket rezoning.

00:09:18.320 Perhaps one of the top issues in the upcoming Calgary civic election in October.

00:09:23.820 They sent out a survey to all, well, 77 candidates responded.

00:09:28.860 All the mayoral candidates, Farkas and Sharp and Davidson, said they would repeal the blanket rezoning.

00:09:41.260 Gondek did not reply, but we already know she voted in favor of it once, so one would assume she's in favor of it again.

00:09:50.080 Yeah, well, she'd have to vote against her own policy.

00:09:52.380 Yeah. And Brian Thiessen didn't reply either, but by all accounts, he's for it too. So there you go.

00:10:01.880 John Carpe, head of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, has been disbarred by the Alberta Law Society.

00:10:09.640 This all goes back to years and years ago where he decided he was going to hire a private detective to follow a judge home

00:10:18.020 and see if that judge was abiding by all the COVID restrictions.

00:10:22.380 and he got into a whole bunch of trouble because of that

00:10:26.620 and it's basically led to his disarmament in Alberta.

00:10:33.040 It's a bit of petty politics

00:10:35.480 because he actually offered to resign a while ago

00:10:38.240 and they refused to accept his resignation.

00:10:41.860 And he calls it a vindictive move by the Law Society

00:10:47.760 and says the work of the JCCF will continue unabated.

00:10:52.220 And we think that they do a lot of good work, including helping you out, right?

00:10:55.640 They're covering me with the Siksika Native Band versus Cory Morgan case.

00:11:01.100 And, yeah, they do do a lot of good work.

00:11:03.100 I mean, it has to be said, though, God knows he's discussed that enough over the last few years.

00:11:06.600 I mean, it really was a bizarre decision.

00:11:08.700 Don't ever bother a judge or a lawyer.

00:11:11.460 But, boy, he's certainly paying the ultimate price for it now.

00:11:14.620 It's unfortunate because he's done a lot of good work.

00:11:16.820 Yep, he has.

00:11:18.280 Sad news today out of the Calgary Zoo.

00:11:20.640 Their adult resident grizzly bear, Skokie, has had to be put down.

00:11:27.320 He was 35 years old.

00:11:29.520 Not sure what that is in human age, but they describe it as, the zoo described it as very elderly.

00:11:35.760 And he just got to the point where his quality of life wasn't good enough and they had to put him to sleep.

00:11:43.860 WestJet is in the news this morning.

00:11:45.640 They've ordered a whopping 67 new airplanes from Boeing, including a whole schwack of new Dreamliners.

00:11:55.440 So that's going to solidify their air force, so to speak, for the next several years.

00:12:02.940 Temporary foreign workers also dominating the news this morning.

00:12:07.360 Conservative leader Pierre Polyev held a press conference to say if elected, the Conservatives would completely dismantle the program, end it.

00:12:16.220 And he was asked about naming and shaming the corporations that use them.

00:12:22.340 And Palliev said they will.

00:12:25.360 Obviously, the big one, I think, that's on social media all the time is Tim Hortons.

00:12:30.200 But there's lots of others out there that will be broadcast.

00:12:35.260 And our Derek Fildebrandt filling in as a reporter this week, I guess.

00:12:39.580 He uncovered a good story yesterday out of Sylvan Lake, where the defensive coach of the high school football team was given the boot, was sacked, so to speak, because he spoke out about transgender and how there seems to be a link between trans people and all the recent mass shootings in the States.

00:13:04.180 It was definitely a link in the most recent one.

00:13:06.800 and the principal of the Sylvan Lake High School didn't like it and fired him.

00:13:12.840 And that has caused a whole mess of protests, students writing letters,

00:13:19.940 fellow coaches resigning, other teachers supporting him.

00:13:25.360 So Derek's going to have a lot more on that this afternoon.

00:13:28.320 If you want to see his first story, it's on the site now.

00:13:32.000 Right on.

00:13:32.720 I mean, not until right on that the guy got fired for expressing his personal views elsewhere,

00:13:36.800 but glad that it's breaking out. I think people are getting fatigued with it. They're tired.

00:13:42.400 You know, if he was out chasing and beating trans kids or something, I guess that might 1.00

00:13:46.400 be a problem. But where do we stop with this cancel culture? 0.95

00:13:50.880 Yeah. Well, I mean, there's probably accountability is where we need to go,

00:13:54.480 right? If people make a really, really dumb decision, then they need to be held accountable. 0.92

00:13:59.120 Well, I guess those in favor of firing this man would feel that that's what that was. So 0.97

00:14:02.880 So we'll see as the debate unfolds.

00:14:05.180 We need to have it, though, because there's been a lot of careers lost

00:14:08.220 or people afraid to speak, even on their private time now,

00:14:11.160 over these repercussions on something like that.

00:14:14.920 Yeah, and to be clear, this was entirely on a TikTok, had nothing to do.

00:14:19.920 He wasn't presenting to the kids, has never spoken to the kids about it.

00:14:24.260 But my prediction is he'll get his job back.

00:14:26.660 I got a feeling.

00:14:29.060 This is Sylvan Lake.

00:14:30.140 for people not familiar with Alberta, that's not

00:14:32.120 liberal country going on. No, no. It's probably

00:14:34.040 one of the most conservative areas

00:14:36.060 in the province. Well, we'll

00:14:38.060 watch with interest. It's fun seeing Derek play reporter.

00:14:40.380 It is. Now he knows how the

00:14:41.920 real world manages.

00:14:44.340 A little taste of it anyways. Exactly.

00:14:46.400 Right on. Okay. Thanks, Dave. You bet,

00:14:48.140 Corey. I'll get back to the newsroom and

00:14:49.820 talk to you on the next one. You bet. Thanks.

00:14:52.780 That is our news editor, Dave

00:14:53.960 Naylor. And this is what I'd like to just remind everybody

00:14:56.020 the way we're paying these bills is through subscribers.

00:14:58.320 We don't take tax dollars. We don't want

00:15:00.020 them. They're not offering them. Actually, we could get them, I think, if we really tried.

00:15:03.920 Either way, we are independent media. So if you haven't subscribed yet, check it out, guys,

00:15:09.060 westerstandard.news slash subscription. It's $10 a month, $100 for a year. It's just like a

00:15:14.280 newspaper subscription and allows us to keep on these stories, keep out there and cover that

00:15:18.960 stuff that the legacy media just won't touch. So again, if you've subscribed already, thank you.

00:15:24.120 If you haven't, come on, get on with it. We can hire some more reporters.

00:15:27.960 All right, let's get to Bruce Pardee.

00:15:30.420 I've been looking forward to this.

00:15:31.680 You know, and to be honest, it's one of those things I'm surprised it's taken me this long to have him on.

00:15:36.180 It's been one of those things, geez, I got to get that guy on there and I haven't done it.

00:15:39.100 So I finally have got him a professor from Queen's University and executive director of Rights Probe, Bruce Pardee.

00:15:46.920 Hey, Bruce, welcome to the show and thanks for joining us today.

00:15:50.400 Oh, great to see you, Corey.

00:15:51.580 Thanks for having me on.

00:15:53.040 Yeah, well, it's, you know, as I said, I've watched your stuff for quite some time.

00:15:57.240 it's been outstanding it's unusual to see uh somebody outspoken in the way you are from

00:16:01.520 academia it's kind of a rare thing any longer so uh that's appreciated in itself well i think

00:16:07.020 i well great i thought i i i think uh amongst university colleagues i might be regarded as

00:16:14.640 something of a barbarian well as long as you embrace it rather than shut up over it it works

00:16:20.360 out uh so i mean there's so much i'd like to cover with you and there's so much that can be

00:16:25.360 but I kind of I want to talk about just what came up recently on social media because it's been

00:16:28.740 interesting you've you've spoken a lot well you you specialize kind of in talking about freedoms

00:16:33.720 legislation that sort of thing how we could take care of it the issue of digital identification

00:16:40.760 came up which people are very concerned about and how government could abuse that which I fully

00:16:45.320 agree government could abuse it and I mean I feel that the the current move with Alberta's thing

00:16:51.460 might be innocuous, but still it brings up the discussion with our freedoms. And you've talked

00:16:56.140 a lot about independence. We've got these holes in our freedoms and we might have an opportunity

00:17:02.220 coming if a province becomes independent. Where do we begin though then to enshrine and protect

00:17:08.400 those rights? Like this is more your specialty. If we become independent and just flip into the

00:17:12.000 same system we just left, we aren't bringing ourselves forward at all. And we really need

00:17:16.040 to start having those discussions. A hundred percent. You're right on the money with this,

00:17:20.200 cory and the danger is that what we'll get with independence even if a referendum passes

00:17:26.920 is we will get basically business as usual but without ottawa and you know that might be a

00:17:34.600 an improvement but it's not different in in in kind what we really need is a a new kind of

00:17:42.840 governing system for a new country because after all people in alberta are recognizing

00:17:48.360 that canada doesn't work very well and yet there's an awful lot of canada inside alberta too

00:17:53.400 so if you just escape the canada that is outside alberta and you don't purge the canada that is

00:17:59.480 inside alberta you end up with a little canada inside alberta and that's not that doesn't get

00:18:04.440 you to where you want to go so you we need to embrace the idea that an independent alberta is

00:18:10.280 going to start from scratch you clear the table and you think fresh about how you want your country

00:18:17.000 to be governed what kind of constitution you want you do not adopt the canadian constitution

00:18:22.840 you you instead my preference would be to take some elements of the american constitution but

00:18:28.120 then make your own because even the american one's not perfect um but you have an opportunity

00:18:34.200 here to to to do nation building in a way that only comes around like once in a lifetime if that

00:18:41.320 so it's a moment in time and i hope alberta will embrace it and start fresh with new thinking

00:18:48.580 and uh and a clean slate excellent yeah and that's exactly it i mean uh i think of it in

00:18:55.660 the sense of you know everybody kind of knows that one guy or girl that keeps going through

00:18:59.040 relationships and splitting and then going right back to a relationship with somebody just like

00:19:02.400 the last one you haven't learned what you had to leave the last time but as you said like what are

00:19:07.340 the models we can look at we'd want to start with something fresh that's the great opportunity

00:19:10.860 but you still want a structure and a basis you said the american system i kind of like aspects

00:19:15.660 of the swiss system a whole new hybrid could be built with presumably the best of a bunch of

00:19:21.160 systems but it would be tough to assemble it as well into a functional way i mean the timeline

00:19:26.240 makes it tough to do it quickly well yes so here's my first suggestion though and i've got lots of

00:19:31.940 suggestions to offer but my first suggestion is this so we are used to a system in which a

00:19:36.860 constitution if you're lucky lists a whole bunch of rights you know in the canadian charter we have

00:19:42.140 the right to free expression and the right of association and religion and so on and so forth

00:19:47.300 but that approach is it's itself flawed so if you if you simply try to list all the things the

00:19:55.960 government can't do here's the system you set up the constitution in effect gives the state

00:20:01.600 unlimited power. Unlimited. So if you think of the legislature and the executive and the courts

00:20:07.840 all together, they have unlimited power. And then your list of rights in your Bill of Rights or

00:20:15.000 Charter of Rights tries to limit that unlimited grant of power. So my suggestion is flip it.

00:20:23.900 Instead of giving the state unlimited power and then trying to restrict it,

00:20:28.560 You start with this proposition. The state can do only those things that a constitution expressly authorizes them to do. It's not a grant of general welfare. It's not a grant of public interest. They cannot do anything that is not expressly listed in the constitution.

00:20:48.900 And if you do that, you don't need to list rights because you have freedom, because the government isn't empowered to censor you or to restrict your religion or to, as the case may be.

00:21:03.720 So, I mean, the philosophy of that sounds magnificent.

00:21:08.440 The reality is, though, I guess in a governing system, we still end up handing at some degree of authority and responsibility to some sort of governing power.

00:21:17.000 And, of course, when they overreach, it won't be an if, you know, it's just the nature of them.

00:21:23.380 what sort of things could we build in then as a recourse for the citizens to be able to push back

00:21:30.300 and say, hey, you've violated our structure. This can't happen. Not just another finger wagging. We

00:21:35.900 got to do something to make sure they're accountable. Right. So one other thing that

00:21:38.880 we do in our system, as with the Americans and across the Western world, is we have an entrenched

00:21:47.360 political class both in our elected chambers like the house of commons and the alberta legislature

00:21:54.380 in the bureaucracy which people are calling the deep state understandably and in the courts where

00:21:59.860 judges sit for a long long time so you have a vested interest a constituency that has an interest

00:22:06.260 in an expansive presence and power for the state so one other thing that you do in combination with

00:22:13.160 the first idea is you have severe term limits you'd say nobody can work for the state in any

00:22:20.000 capacity for longer than a certain number of years you know you pick something at random let's say

00:22:24.720 six six years six years in and then you're out and then there's no reason for you to want an

00:22:30.860 expanded state presence because you're not going to be part of it anymore and and so you disempower

00:22:36.480 both the institutions and the individuals in the institutions so that you get rid of the dynamic

00:22:42.600 of having powerful individuals running what are supposed to be democratic institutions

00:22:47.700 so in this kind of a situation you would get rid almost immediately of things like the the the very

00:22:55.020 heavy lobbying presence and the regulatory capture people are not going to be there very long and so

00:23:01.160 it's not worthwhile trying to influence what they do that's interesting and as you said you know

00:23:07.840 that some of the term people use is the deep state some a lot of people forget that you know

00:23:11.800 Well, the politicians come and go, but these deputy ministers, senior bureaucrats, ones that you can't name unless you go digging deep into the government books, they're there for a long time.

00:23:21.040 They're usually extremely well paid, and they often actually will tell the ministerial office what to do, even though people don't realize it.

00:23:29.660 But at the same time, just to play devil's advocate, some of those roles, a bit of continuity and consistency of leadership might help with some of the efficacy of their departments.

00:23:41.460 I mean, if you're turning it over too regularly, couldn't that lead to other disruptions?

00:23:45.620 Well, quite possibly.

00:23:46.600 But here's the change in thinking.

00:23:48.680 So you don't want your government doing very much.

00:23:53.220 And you don't want it to be too efficient.

00:23:55.760 And you don't want all the expertise to be in the state.

00:23:59.320 You want it to be in the private sector.

00:24:01.540 And so you don't want to attract the best people.

00:24:03.840 And you don't want them to be there very long.

00:24:05.900 And you don't want them to be all that effective.

00:24:07.600 So one of the great aspects of the American system, and in fact, one of the aspects that people fault it for, is gridlock.

00:24:18.120 You know, you have a Senate and you have a House and you have the president and nothing ever gets done.

00:24:24.340 Well, part of the beauty of it is that things don't get done.

00:24:27.980 You don't want government doing too much.

00:24:29.940 And so if you don't have the best, most efficient people in the deep state for very long, that, for my money, is a good thing.

00:24:40.360 What you kind of want is not a professional bureaucratic class.

00:24:44.480 You want, if I can put it this way, you want a bit of amateur government so that the expertise is in the private sector.

00:24:52.620 You don't hear me disagreeing at all with any of that.

00:24:55.960 But so an interesting aspect of this, one of the commenters brought it up, Jordan.

00:25:03.760 Let's say we get to the point, Alberta or maybe another province or whatever says, OK, we've done it.

00:25:07.820 We're out. We've had a referendum. The country is negotiating in good faith.

00:25:11.880 We've drafted this big system, but it's not like just turning a page.

00:25:16.240 How can we deal with the transition? We can't have a point, a void where there's no system.

00:25:21.580 but just flipping over from a one to a radically different one uh you can't quite ease into it but

00:25:28.140 you you can't quite uh go without one either have you put thought in how that might be able to work

00:25:33.340 right so i well it's a very good point and transition is going to be tricky and and has

00:25:38.060 to be considered in in in great detail so you don't end up with a vacuum but i think i imagine

00:25:44.460 it this way if you're thinking about a new constitution then you are thinking in two

00:25:48.540 different ways number one is the permanent one like how do you want the constitution to be from

00:25:53.500 now on in this new country and on the other hand the question that you just asked was all right

00:25:59.260 so how do we move from where we are to that what kinds of detailed even constitutional provisions

00:26:07.340 do we need to require the state to back off on all the things all the restrictions that are going to

00:26:13.420 be included in the constitution you have to of course yeah on on on the on the next day after

00:26:20.540 the conclusion of the negotiations you have to have a path forward for the for the institutions

00:26:26.460 of the state to be able to just dissolve themselves and transfer their powers and so on

00:26:32.620 it's a it's a detailed list but it is it is remarkably doable i think as long as you have

00:26:38.380 the set of principles that tell you where you're going and i think that's the most important part

00:26:42.700 If you know where you're going, then the task of transitioning from here to there is a very doable thing.

00:26:52.640 Yeah, well, there's no doubt it would be challenging and difficult, but anything worthwhile always will.

00:26:57.200 I mean, some people also play whataboutism to stop any positive changes because they enlist all the challenges that will come.

00:27:02.940 And sure, there'll be some, but they can be surmounted.

00:27:05.500 I mean, the more planning done, the better then.

00:27:08.240 And so part of the problem we got right now in Alberta, for example,

00:27:11.080 that we've got a clock ticking right now.

00:27:12.920 We might be holding a referendum as early as into 2026.

00:27:15.900 I think some circumstances are really going to have to change before we hit the

00:27:19.960 point of a large positive yes in Alberta.

00:27:22.600 But who knows?

00:27:23.040 These are interesting times.

00:27:25.860 If that comes about, like how should Albertans be preparing?

00:27:30.020 Or even Quebec, it's starting to building up over there.

00:27:32.500 Should there be, even in advance of this,

00:27:35.400 some sort of general meetings or something where people can get together and formulate the kind of

00:27:40.160 constitution we'd need? I think it might be time for that. I do. So the message at the beginning

00:27:45.580 of this path was, well, let's not worry about that just right now. Let's get to the referendum,

00:27:50.460 get across that threshold, and then we'll worry about what it looks like over the hill.

00:27:56.220 I think you're close enough now that you need to have those conversations at least starting. And

00:28:01.900 And at the same time as well, you know, people, certain constituencies, parties have been putting forward visions of what it should look like.

00:28:11.620 And so there's there's really no there's no justification now for restraint.

00:28:16.820 Let's all talk about what the new Alberta is supposed to look like.

00:28:20.580 And there are going to be conflicts and disagreements about that.

00:28:24.020 And that's inevitable. We shouldn't try to avoid those.

00:28:27.000 Because one thing that will take this over the finish line is if there is an expression of vision, if people understand what kind of a new society they're trying to achieve.

00:28:41.340 I've said before that in some ways, Alberta has the opportunity to become the beacon of Western civilization in this adventure.

00:28:51.700 And if you don't grab it, it'll be missed.

00:28:54.520 And so that's the kind of conversation, the kind of constitutional conversation that I think ought to be starting.

00:29:01.200 Yeah, well, I hope you help us out with those.

00:29:03.740 I'm hoping that, you know, we get some groups, whether it's the APP or others, starting that sort of discussion.

00:29:10.820 Because what we're asking Albertans to vote for in a referendum is to basically either have a smaller version of the same state, as we said before, which really isn't an improvement,

00:29:20.320 or leaping into a void where, okay, we'll iron out those details the day after the vote.

00:29:25.860 And I got a lot of people might just say, well, I'm not ready to vote for either of those yet.

00:29:30.120 So we got to get something together, but it's not, you know, and it's going to take a lot of

00:29:34.120 debate, as you said, when I led the Alberta Independence Party, boy, depressingly over

00:29:37.800 25 years ago, I had to have at least eight or nine constitutions sent to me. And these were

00:29:44.180 printed out, you know, and mailed. I mean, email documents weren't that good. People were already

00:29:48.580 thinking of that but they're also every person who drafted these ideas for constitutions that

00:29:52.600 was a hill for them to die on that was their baby that was their creation and they would turn on 1.00

00:29:57.780 their heel and stomp out of the room if they didn't get that in whole so i think the organizers

00:30:01.900 of this should understand that this is going to be a big large process maybe it's the sort of thing

00:30:06.580 they can work on while they're waiting for the courts to deal with whatever's going on on the

00:30:10.140 referendum question why not why not that makes sense to me well great we're much on the same

00:30:17.760 page. And it's just, as I said, such singular times, you know, as you said, once in a lifetime

00:30:22.960 where people in a lot of countries, they'll just never get that opportunity in a lifetime.

00:30:26.300 Never. It would never come up. And yeah, so I hope Albertans will seize the day. This is your

00:30:32.540 moment, folks. Well, we've got to make the most of it. There's a lot of moving parts, but that's

00:30:37.900 one I don't think there's been enough discussion on. I really appreciate what you've added so far.

00:30:42.540 I listened to you when you came out to Calgary and spoke as well and stuff on this from a

00:30:47.600 surprising source from out of the eastern establishment you've been very helpful for us

00:30:52.440 out here and i hope you continue to be uh so before i let you go i know you work with uh you

00:30:57.580 know you're the executive director of rights probe and where else can people find your work

00:31:00.960 yeah well we have a website rightsprobe.org i also have a sub stack page that people are

00:31:06.260 welcome to subscribe to and on x i'm at uh at party bruce excellent well i recommend folks

00:31:13.900 check it out. Have a look at Bruce Party. Lots of wisdom to come from. The time wasn't

00:31:18.040 long enough on this show segment, but we covered some ground and I really

00:31:22.240 appreciate you taking some time to speak to us on that today. I appreciate it, Corey. Thanks for

00:31:26.140 having me on. Great. Thanks. Hope we can talk again soon. So yes, you know, and again, so you

00:31:31.900 know what? I'm going to get on that a little. I mean, I'm an independent among the independence

00:31:35.660 movement. You know, I just kind of do my own thing. People don't have to wonder where I'm

00:31:38.840 coming from, but I'm not a member of any group or party or anything else, but I'm going to nag a bit. 0.99

00:31:42.500 Let's get some conferences going.

00:31:45.700 Let's get some discussions going.

00:31:47.560 Let's fill that void.

00:31:48.900 I mean, right now, the APP, for example, has been holding a lot of meetings all over the province and packing houses and rooms and doing quite well.

00:31:56.160 But they're all just preparing and preparing and preparing and preparing for this referendum, for the petitioning, which is important.

00:32:02.260 But how long can you keep spinning your wheels?

00:32:04.180 You've got a few months to spare now while we wait for yet another court ruling.

00:32:07.180 Well, let's have these constitutional discussions.

00:32:09.780 This is a big undertaking and an important one.

00:32:15.080 Let's see some of the comments from Angry Canadian says,

00:32:19.940 a new Alberta $10 bill featuring Corey Morgan.

00:32:22.060 Oh, yeah, right.

00:32:23.400 Yeah, you might have seen the headshot I shared on X.

00:32:25.360 Yeah, I'm not that photogenic when it comes to those things.

00:32:27.440 You must be indeed an angry person to wish that upon Albertans like that.

00:32:31.960 But all the same, the radar currencies are depreciating.

00:32:35.160 You know, that'd be a whole other discussion too, actually,

00:32:37.740 is what the currencies would be.

00:32:41.480 That's the hardest part in a lot of ways

00:32:43.600 for the independence movement

00:32:44.720 is answering all the questions.

00:32:46.880 A person can kind of defeat it

00:32:48.180 by just keep running down.

00:32:49.320 Well, what about this?

00:32:49.920 What about this?

00:32:50.440 What about this?

00:32:50.960 And there's groups working very hard

00:32:52.860 filling those questions in.

00:32:55.140 But a big one is the system itself.

00:32:58.320 And you want to make something better.

00:33:01.480 And there's a risk.

00:33:02.800 There's a risk.

00:33:04.160 You could actually come out of it

00:33:05.380 and make something worse.

00:33:07.680 My biggest fear is that you get a smaller state that's run by authoritarians that don't respect individual rights.

00:33:15.600 And then they're even more empowered than they used to be.

00:33:18.220 We got to remember the type of person drawn to leading in those spots is often, even if they might begin well-meaning, they want to lead.

00:33:26.720 They want to control. They want to tell people what to do and how to do it.

00:33:31.260 so their instinct might not work in your best interest when they're at the point of drafting

00:33:37.060 these things. So the irony of it is we want individual freedoms and the people we put in

00:33:41.380 the front to pursue them are people who actually don't necessarily intrinsically respect individual

00:33:46.380 freedoms. So we've got to speak up. We've got to speak up as individuals. We've got to take part

00:33:52.420 in this sort of stuff to make sure that our own interests are represented. Maybe I'll call it a

00:33:57.760 bit of a theme to the show today because I was annoyed as I said with these school boards these

00:34:02.960 horrific school boards yet they were elected guys we put them in there I'll say we I will admit

00:34:11.680 because I had to look up and I've already forgotten her name who the school board trustee is in my

00:34:16.980 area down in ward three of the foothills county I mean I like to think if I still had kids in

00:34:22.960 school I'd be paying closer attention but I should anyways I still have a right to vote

00:34:26.100 I didn't know. We've got to watch these bloody school boards and we've got to take part. And

00:34:33.040 likewise, if you want an independent Alberta or independent Saskatchewan or independent combination

00:34:37.700 of the two or Quebec, which is really starting to get exciting over there where things are moving,

00:34:42.880 you got to take part if you want it to be in your interest. That's the only way. If you keep handing

00:34:47.140 it off to someone else, your interests won't be served. So you've got to get up and get at it.

00:34:53.280 And that's what nobody ever likes to think about or hear about sometimes.

00:34:57.460 Let's see some of the other stuff going on.

00:34:59.000 This is one that I think is going to get a lot of discussion.

00:35:03.880 As Dave mentioned on the news update,

00:35:06.460 Polyev has come out and announced, you know,

00:35:07.920 that he's demanding an end to the temporary foreign worker program.

00:35:10.860 And some people are really applauding that.

00:35:13.220 And I'm kind of mixed.

00:35:15.740 Now, I understand how that's a smart political move as an opposition leader

00:35:19.520 to push because you can say it and you don't have to really deal with it.

00:35:23.280 and it's an issue that needs addressing, and it's one that can really get people, you know,

00:35:30.060 worked up and realizing how broken it is. Because why, for example, when it comes to areas like

00:35:35.740 Tim Hortons or unskilled areas, why are they needing to import people? Why can't we find

00:35:42.680 local? There's a bigger discussion to be had. I owned a service company, a food service company.

00:35:48.340 The locals don't want to work in it. And people say, well, just pay more. Okay. The consequence

00:35:55.400 of that is your cup of coffee is going to double in price. And I tell you what, despite what people

00:35:59.520 claim, they piss and moan really quickly when what they pay for suddenly goes up a bit.

00:36:06.300 I remember a huge discussion just to go into the anecdotes when minimum wage, when I owned my pub

00:36:10.800 and cafe, minimum wage kept getting hiked up on us. So, I mean, it's just natural. I had two options.

00:36:16.560 I could either reduce the food costs or increase the price.

00:36:19.660 I usually would, you know, try to do it in a combination of both.

00:36:22.780 And in one case, because I'd reduced, we used to give out a massive plate of nachos, you know, and they were really popular.

00:36:28.700 I mean, you get a giant, it's a good sharing item and it was a good price and you could sit your table and eat.

00:36:34.080 But as a restaurant owner, you would see a lot of those plates would come back with a quarter of it uneven, you know, because it was such a large portion and not everybody would eat the whole thing.

00:36:42.000 So that's a good area.

00:36:42.960 I can actually scale the size and the portions down a bit.

00:36:45.360 and one fella noticed that fast boy he went off like holy cow what have you done you shrunk my

00:36:52.800 nachos and lost it on me and everything i had a debate with him at the table i said well i had to

00:36:57.060 i had to give all my kitchen staff another dollar 15 an hour raise and i got to deal with that

00:37:01.140 somehow i could have raised the price of the nachos a bit well he would have complained about

00:37:04.060 that too what i'm saying is it doesn't mean that we should just keep using tfw as temporary forward

00:37:11.020 workers to keep filling the voids but it's not as easy as just flicking a light switch and throwing

00:37:16.400 them all out. We've got some systemic problems going on in general with our economy and with

00:37:24.000 our system and the temporary foreign worker program has been abused and it's being used

00:37:29.480 incorrectly or maybe there shouldn't be one at all. That's certainly up for debate

00:37:33.080 but people saying just stop it right now and we'll deal with it later. I saw some of that

00:37:38.740 discussion on X. Just who cares? We'll just stop it, deport everybody, and it'll be okay. We'll

00:37:42.980 fix it. It'll fix itself. Well, you're not having a closer look at how economics works.

00:37:47.280 And if you rattle all your industries and your economy like that with such a shot,

00:37:52.000 our economy's already been getting a lot of rattling lately. The cost is going to reach

00:37:57.140 you. That's who the end consumer always ends up being. So I think he's on the right track. I do

00:38:03.180 think we should be going after that program. I think something that was funny and hilarious

00:38:06.680 out of the whole thing, it was discovered that the CBC, yes, our state broadcaster, uses temporary

00:38:11.720 foreign workers. But we're being a little too simplistic to think that we can just shut something 1.00

00:38:17.200 like that down and kick out all the people working within it and not pay some heavy consequences.

00:38:23.180 The term, and I know it doesn't sell as well in a political soundbite, and that's part of why,

00:38:27.520 you know, Polly has no fool. He's just talking about going after the system as a whole and naming

00:38:31.860 and shaming particular companies that are abusing it fine but uh you know just because it makes

00:38:39.460 good political points doesn't mean it makes for better policy later but he knows that oh yes

00:38:44.780 speaking of government waste didn't we see that you know and performative actions doug ford up

00:38:50.100 there at the microphone tipping over a big bottle of crown royal that could have been donated to

00:38:56.200 Elizabeth May. I mean, now she's just going to have to keep getting gin at full price. But really,

00:39:01.880 you know, it's just this, this, this foolishness. All this tells me with this stupidity going on 1.00

00:39:07.300 and whether we sell or Canadian carry boozes that are distilled in the United States or in Canada. 1.00

00:39:13.980 I don't think the government should be in the booze business at all. We got to get them out

00:39:18.300 of that. It's in Alberta. It's true. It's Ralph Klein. It was one of his greatest moves as he

00:39:24.780 privatized the liquor stores. He got us right over there. And all the unions, everybody said

00:39:28.160 the world would end and everything. Yeah, it sure ended all right. We used to, for those not gray 1.00

00:39:32.080 as me, I'll explain. You can only get booze from nine to five, Monday to Friday. There'd be the

00:39:38.420 odd store open on a Saturday. You can only get warm beer. There were four different kinds and

00:39:42.620 those jerks would go on strike every couple summers. That was our liquor selection back 0.98

00:39:47.540 in the day until Ralph privatized it. The problem is that he privatized the retail end,

00:39:54.340 but the distribution is still totally provincially controlled.

00:39:58.840 That is all AGLC in Alberta.

00:40:01.280 Ontario's got their beer store and other things.

00:40:03.300 And just government is one of those areas that's heavily entrenched into liquor.

00:40:06.740 I think it used to be more on laws based on morality.

00:40:09.440 This gets back to what Mr. Party was speaking of earlier.

00:40:13.180 That the freedom's lost.

00:40:15.920 The government's doing it for your own good.

00:40:17.420 And eventually the government does it for its own good.

00:40:19.640 The other thing is lucrative.

00:40:20.680 It makes a lot of money selling booze.

00:40:23.260 whether you're on the distribution level

00:40:28.260 or the retail level or wherever you're at,

00:40:29.900 the government takes a heck of a bite from it.

00:40:32.060 And then on taxes on top of that as well.

00:40:34.120 But it also allows them to start using liquor

00:40:36.680 for things like posturing,

00:40:38.500 as Doug Ford did the other day,

00:40:41.460 with his weird dance between being a liberal,

00:40:44.940 being a conservative,

00:40:46.000 he's being whatever he thinks he has to be.

00:40:48.500 We know what his eyes are on, though,

00:40:49.820 or on Poliev's job.

00:40:51.480 He's just not sure when the opportunity

00:40:52.520 is going to get there for it. Let's see, we're talking Alberta next panel tour is still happening

00:41:01.020 in Alberta. That's where Premier Smith has been going around. And it's funny how things get

00:41:05.020 changed, right? The press was all questioning her on the book ban. No, it's not a book ban.

00:41:11.720 The problem is porn in children's schools. Let's keep that subject where it's supposed to be. 0.93

00:41:15.320 But her thing was supposed to be on holding meetings around the province on how to deal 0.99

00:41:19.180 better with Ottawa and government incursions. And it started to wind down. I think they're

00:41:24.320 kind of hearing their own things. A lot of what I think was coming out of this was the provincial

00:41:30.300 government just kind of trying to get the answers they wanted to see in the first place. You know,

00:41:35.200 it's a bit of a self-indulgent thing, but that's okay. I like what they're looking to hear out of

00:41:40.200 this. So, but it's important they're holding the meetings, get out there and speak. There's a few

00:41:44.220 more left. Check them out if you want to get there in person. I mean, credit due. How often do you

00:41:48.680 see a sitting premier willing to sit in the front for hours around the province all over the place 0.97

00:41:53.200 and these kinds of very public meetings with an open mic and they had Ninchy that pathetic excuse

00:41:58.360 of an NDP leader in Alberta he won't allow open questions at the town hall meetings those

00:42:02.700 sparsely populated ones he's trying to hold. Smith is ready to get in the front line and take the

00:42:08.900 heckling and the yelling and there's some of that at these meetings so hopefully something productive

00:42:12.920 comes out of it though it'll be interesting to see what their conclusions are. I see some of the

00:42:16.980 comments. Yeah, Jordan saying, I like bourbon and rye. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I abuse my

00:42:21.100 privileges. I've been open about that on the show and everything. I haven't drank for some years

00:42:24.240 now. I got to say between the two though, I always really preferred bourbon. Boy, I like a nice

00:42:29.200 bourbon. Oh, I miss bourbon. But my own fault. I can't responsibly consume it. But I don't fault

00:42:35.040 those who want to. You want to strike a blow against the United States though. I think there's

00:42:40.120 better ways to do it. Jason Corp saying, it's a book ban. No, it's not. It's a porno ban.

00:42:49.060 You know, see, it's funny that that narrative keeps going back to that. Who generated this

00:42:55.180 list of books that were to be pulled off the shelf? Not the government. The school board did

00:43:00.700 that. Smith didn't do that. The school board did that. The school board did it to give a middle 0.91

00:43:06.420 finger to premier smith the school board was upset that premier smith has said you can't put porn on 1.00

00:43:11.460 the shelves in alberta schools anymore and because the school board was so stupid and so perverse 0.97

00:43:17.780 that they allowed porn to get on those and and the alberta minister has been putting lists because 0.98

00:43:22.980 people say well what schools is it one school two school no dozens of schools dozens of schools

00:43:27.860 four books that were beyond the pale and uh then the smith government wrote some rules

00:43:36.420 saying this is what's not to go on there.

00:43:38.020 So this school board, so upset that the porn might get pulled down,

00:43:41.820 said, well, we're going to follow these rules to a T

00:43:43.960 and apply that to all these classic novels and historical novels

00:43:48.020 and pull them off the shelves because we'll claim she told us to.

00:43:51.340 They're making hay of it.

00:43:52.180 It's a political stunt.

00:43:53.320 It is not a book ban. 0.99

00:43:55.600 It's a political stunt by a school board full of leftist lunatics 1.00

00:44:00.140 who prefer child porn over on a child porn, 0.99

00:44:02.860 but pornography exposed to children just so they can score points against the premier rather than

00:44:08.260 just saying geez something went wrong this stuff's not appropriate let's get it off the shelf it's

00:44:13.700 funny watching some of the other discussions well the kids are getting exposed to it anyways on

00:44:17.680 their phones okay fine but that's not the school's rule just because they get exposed to it there

00:44:21.580 doesn't mean the school has to expose them to it as well i first found porn when i was a kid because

00:44:27.840 I found a rolled up swank magazine in the bottom of my father's golf bag back in the 80s and off

00:44:33.520 into the woods a few of us went to read it yes even back then kids would find it and read it but

00:44:38.940 we don't need to facilitate it and it's certainly not the bloody role of the school too is there

00:44:43.580 even a grain of common sense to that you know somebody speak up and look at that and say geez

00:44:50.620 maybe this shouldn't be on the shelf but instead they did a pushback and a fake book ban you know

00:44:57.800 they fabricated a whole new issue rather than just actually address something that's a bloody 0.82

00:45:03.240 problem if you just pull the damn books in the first place to yes i guess these don't belong 0.96

00:45:07.700 in front of elementary school children pictures of men going down on each other that's what it is 0.99

00:45:12.800 look it up guys i'm not putting it up on this site that's what they were giving to our kids

00:45:17.260 and for having others to play that game it's a book ban no it's a porn ban child you know children

00:45:23.820 in front of children adult people can watch all the weird stuff they want that's their business

00:45:27.400 why is it so hard to distinguish it isn't not going to make it political stunts all right i'm

00:45:31.440 all ranted out uh thank you all for tuning in we've got a pipeline coming on a little later

00:45:37.020 tonight with our panel we'll break down a few more issues uh as well of course nigel uh hannaford

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Western Standard - September 04, 2025

The battle to remove porn from Alberta school libraries

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