Western Standard - The Pipeline： Another court defeat for Trudeau

00:00:00.000 good evening this is the pipeline believe it or not your eyes are working just fine

00:00:28.320 I'm not Derek, I'm not Dave, I'm not Nigel, and I'm definitely not Corey.

00:00:34.100 I am your host tonight, James Finkbeiner, and I am joined by our copy editor, our homes

00:00:39.900 reporter, our veteran boss guy around here, Mike Thomas, and we're also joined tonight

00:00:48.800 by our business reporter, Vancouver traffic reporter, Sean Polzer.

00:00:53.280 How are you guys doing this evening?

00:00:54.240 We're good, doing good.

00:00:55.880 Awesome.

00:00:56.720 Everybody's had a good day today so far.

00:00:59.020 Lots of stuff going on, yep.

00:01:00.640 Oh, it's been a busy day.

00:01:01.760 A bunch of bad news, but a bunch of good news too.

00:01:05.960 Indeed.

00:01:06.740 All right, well, before we get started, we're just going to say a big thank you to one of our favorite sponsors,

00:01:12.040 the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:01:14.240 If you're a firearms owner or you're friends with a firearms owner, you should check out the CSSA.

00:01:20.860 They are protecting your gun rights, your property rights,

00:01:23.860 and they are taking the Trudeau government to task on their attempted gun bans and gun grabs.

00:01:30.640 For more information on them, check them out, csacila.org.

00:01:36.680 All right.

00:01:37.420 Well, obviously, the biggest news story of the week so far has been the federal court ruling that the Trudeau liberals

00:01:45.760 broke the Constitution when they invoked the Emergencies Act.

00:01:49.340 So, Mike, why don't you break down this story for us a little bit more?

00:01:56.400 It didn't surprise me at all, that ruling, because it's the truth.

00:02:01.420 I remember two years ago when the trucks were rolling into Ottawa, and I wrote a column about it and said,

00:02:07.400 this is great, but how are they going to be accepted in Ottawa?

00:02:11.840 We all know that story, but it's really, really refreshing to see the federal court go,

00:02:17.640 no, no, no, no, that was wrong and you got to fix it. Not surprisingly, Trudeau's government is not

00:02:24.080 going to appeal it. So who knows where it goes from there? Hopefully the appeal gets shut down.

00:02:30.260 Yeah. So Sean, tell me about this appeal. How would they appeal it? Because looking at the

00:02:36.280 ruling and what was written, I'm not seeing very much wiggle room here. The judge even came out

00:02:42.640 and admitted that he was biased against the protesters before the ruling

00:02:47.880 and wrote that into his ruling, and that's rare on its own.

00:02:51.040 Well, my understanding is that because it is in a federal court that it can be appealed.

00:02:56.160 So the federal court and the federal court of appeal are kind of one and the same thing,

00:03:00.300 but it seems that they would be able to appeal that specific ruling.

00:03:04.680 And I'm not sure what would happen after that, but it would go to the Supreme Court.

00:03:09.760 I don't know who would challenge the ruling, maybe it would be the same parties that brought it forth, the Constitutional Foundation, and then it's going to the Supreme Court, and I'm pretty sure this is exactly where this is going to wind up.

00:03:22.400 Yeah. So the it's Christine Van Guyen, I believe. Sorry, I probably butchered that from the Canadian Constitution Foundation. And of course, they were joined with our friends at the CCFR, John Carpe and the Canadian Centre. Oh, wait, that was the Canadian Centre for Firearms Rights. So sorry, CSSA. So the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.

00:03:48.240 We have so many acronym clubs going on. So those groups, they grouped together and then they fought this at the federal courts. And now we've got this ruling. I don't see that they're going to give up the fight on this at all. And, you know, the ruling that came out was pretty damning, specifically around the unlawful search and seizure, the seizure of the bank accounts.

00:04:13.340 What kind of fallout could we see from that seizures now?

00:04:17.440 Well, we were talking around this morning that it's highly ironic that it is a Trudeau government

00:04:25.520 that is trampling on two signature pieces of his father's legacy, which happened to be the War Measures Act,

00:04:31.980 just watch me, and also the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is what the Emergencies Act was meant to replace

00:04:39.620 because the War Measures Act, you know, as we know, it dates back to World War I,

00:04:44.300 and it's only been invoked a handful of times, including the FLQ crisis, and so there's a bit of an irony there.

00:04:50.480 The other irony was that he made Deputy Prime Minister Christopher Freeland basically stand up and answer for it

00:04:57.120 because he didn't really have the courage to do it on his own.

00:05:00.620 Well, I mean, what happened when the protesters showed up?

00:05:04.400 He had COVID went into hiding, and so did half of the ministers.

00:05:07.600 They refused to talk.

00:05:08.460 Yeah, they refused to meet with any of the protesters. They even refused to meet with the protester surrogates and lawyers. They just, no, we're not talking to them. I believe he called them a small fringe minority with unacceptable views.

00:05:21.100 And tin hats.

00:05:22.220 Tin hats. 0.99

00:05:23.740 You know, bullies are cowards. So it's hardly a surprise that he would do that. 0.99

00:05:27.820 Oh, exactly. It's, you know, it's just another thing in a long line of his missteps. And if anything, it shows his arrogance. This is the third case, I believe now, or third law that's been a pinnacle of his leadership that's now been ruled unconstitutional by courts in the country.

00:05:48.580 and he has vowed to appeal all of them i think even uh alberta premier danielle smith said that

00:05:55.140 the ucp if they appeal this would intervene as well as an interviewer yeah yes and she also

00:06:00.840 cited the plastics ban uh the environmental review ban you know now we've got uh emissions caps

00:06:07.720 you know clean electricity regulations you know there's a whole list of about but the only one

00:06:13.360 that they've actually managed to put through was the price on the carbon the carbon tax yeah and

00:06:18.180 So that was one of the only ones that ended up in the Supreme Court as well.

00:06:21.840 And the Supreme Court ruled that perhaps there is enough of an existential crisis that the only way to combat climate change is nationally.

00:06:30.140 They don't actually debate the science around climate change, just whether or not the federal government has the power to impose that, I guess it's, what do they call it, a levy?

00:06:40.300 It's a carbon levy.

00:06:41.100 As you noted though, it's on a national scale, doesn't necessarily give them the authority to start going after singular provinces and singular sectors of the economy. The notion of that ruling was that it was going to be applied equally through all sectors.

00:06:59.100 One of the other things that's interesting with this is if you're the prime minister and you're sitting around looking at your cabinet table and now this is the third law that's been a big part of your leadership and your time as prime minister, do you start looking at your attorney generals and say, why does every law we try to pass get struck down?

00:07:21.220 And do you start to regroup and maybe consider the constitution before you start making laws going forward?

00:07:27.340 I don't think the prime minister is of that mind. No, no. He's got an agenda. And like I said,

00:07:36.540 he's pushing it through. He's a bully. And damn the bridges. I don't think he cares. 0.99

00:07:41.820 Yeah, it would take a little bit of, you know, reasoning. So kind of sober second thinking,

00:07:49.100 because if you think about it, pretty much everything that they've done in this last term

00:07:52.540 has been unconstitutional. I mean, you know, since the liberals have been in power,

00:07:56.540 I think the most secure and best career you could have ever been in was a lawyer because since day

00:08:02.300 one there have been nothing but lawsuits lawsuits lawsuits and that's between the provinces and the

00:08:07.180 feds uh between the citizens and the provinces everybody is just going to court over everything

00:08:13.820 which this ruling now is going to open the floodgates I think on on class action lawsuits the

00:08:20.060 folks who have their bank accounts frozen are gonna have a very good case that the government

00:08:25.180 acted illegally in in freezing their assets oh yeah i agree i agree and i think that that when

00:08:31.660 all of that was taking place two years ago uh initially people were they were afraid of a

00:08:37.580 number of different things and i'm not talking just about the people in audible who were afraid

00:08:41.820 of the convoy and bouncy castles because they're scary um yeah spongebob but i think i think people

00:08:48.940 reacted in fear like like okay what is really going on what is going on and that fear factor

00:08:55.180 I think this lifted it for sure.

00:08:58.000 It took any kind of fear that they were having back then out of it.

00:09:02.760 And I'll bet you dollars to donuts there will be a class action suit with the 500 plus bank account people

00:09:11.080 or people who had their bank accounts frozen because they got a really good case right now.

00:09:16.600 I remember when this was all happening that, you know, my thoughts were like,

00:09:21.840 is there some kind of an insurrection going on in here?

00:09:24.000 you know like they're raising funds and funding money and they're talking about tents full of guns

00:09:29.440 you know off parliament hill and all this kind of stuff and then foreign interference and foreign

00:09:34.640 actors and and you kind of thought like well geez is this really a revolution you know but that

00:09:40.400 all that came from from the other side of the freedom convoy and you know they're just it's

00:09:44.960 propaganda and they're trying to increase the the fear factor and what bad people they are

00:09:50.800 and stuff like that so they'll bring in fake stuff like that like the the nazi flag yeah uh

00:09:56.080 it's totally fake um but people canadians i mean people are busy they're doing what they do and

00:10:01.760 they look at that on tv on the union news or and they're going oh wow this is bad this is really

00:10:06.480 bad if that's happening and that's happening and then you start talking to each other and that

00:10:09.920 just makes it worse yeah so this ruling i think people go wow okay maybe i was wrong maybe i was

00:10:16.800 wrong. Maybe it's okay to go after them now and take and get even if you, for lack of a better

00:10:22.600 term. Yeah. I mean, there was even polls coming out. I believe, I think the last one I was looking

00:10:28.460 at was from November, 2022. And over 70% of the Canadians polled in that poll were against the

00:10:35.360 convoy. But if you go back to the mainstream's media coverage, the way the politicians had

00:10:41.900 phrased everything. Even Jagmeet Singh has now come out saying, well, I didn't support the use

00:10:47.660 of the Emergencies Act. But everybody's sharing the letter that you wrote, Jagmeet. We can read

00:10:52.720 it. We have memories. The internet doesn't forget. But it's fascinating that the judge,

00:11:00.680 and if that judge was just going off of what he's seen in the media, what he was hearing from his

00:11:05.560 politicians, no wonder why he went in thinking that all of the protesters were guilty of sin.

00:11:10.620 But now you have someone who has gone through and looked at every single aspect of this case, and he's saying, no, this was inappropriate. There was no threat to Canada's national security. We can argue if there was a threat to Canada's economic security, specifically around the border blockades.

00:11:28.420 But, you know, in Coutts, there's three other border crossings all within a couple of hours of Coutts.

00:11:33.480 All of the traffic was rooted around it.

00:11:35.860 Were they 24-hour crossings?

00:11:37.260 No.

00:11:37.760 Did it slow things down?

00:11:39.000 Absolutely.

00:11:40.080 Should they have shut the border down and closed the road?

00:11:42.500 Absolutely not.

00:11:44.820 But I don't see if one border crossing is so important to the economic interests of Canada, we may have bigger problems here that we need to diversify our borders.

00:11:56.300 and beef up our security and our economic stability.

00:12:00.220 But I don't think that was the problem.

00:12:01.620 I mean, we've got a lot of border crossings, as you point out.

00:12:04.280 Coutts is maybe the highest profile because of where it is.

00:12:07.980 And so if you're going to have a blockade, that's where you have it.

00:12:10.360 Shouldn't you have had the blockade?

00:12:11.600 No, I don't agree with that at all.

00:12:13.080 And you've also got to remember the blockade was not part of the Freedom Convoy.

00:12:17.960 Nor was the blocking the Ambassador Bridge.

00:12:20.560 That wasn't the people in Ottawa.

00:12:22.200 I mean, should they have done it?

00:12:25.780 Again, no, they shouldn't have.

00:12:27.340 But it's a matter of where you're going to get the most publicity, where you're going to get the most media exposure.

00:12:33.860 And Coots is the answer.

00:12:35.100 Certainly not Roosevelt in B.C.

00:12:37.980 And, you know, it's funny because a week before the Coots border blockade, and this is when the trucker convoy was already going on,

00:12:45.000 A caller called in to, I believe it was QR77, you know, Shea again on the talk show there, and said there is going to be a blockade at Goetz next week, and this is going to be big, and it's going to be even bigger than what's going on in Ottawa.

00:12:59.360 And really, the problem in Ottawa was just the lack of preparation for the police.

00:13:04.540 You know, they knew these guys were coming.

00:13:06.400 They had 10 days to prepare for it, and they just, they didn't.

00:13:10.380 So when you've got a bunch of rowdy hooligans and hot tubs and peeing, drinking beer in the streets, peeing on a war memorial, that's the thing.

00:13:17.700 I mean, so I was in Coots.

00:13:20.200 The story with that is it was actually the Western Standard.

00:13:24.040 We got sent a message from a source in the trucking community that I know.

00:13:28.380 I passed the information on to Melanie Risden.

00:13:31.180 We started working the story, and yeah, we found out there was, but there was three groups of Coots.

00:13:36.020 There was farmers. There was the truckers. And then there was some more freedom orientated folks that were there. I don't know. I don't want to get into the conspiracy theories on who those people were and what they believed and what they stood for.

00:13:52.740 there may be some evidence that part of those protesters did have a plan to engage with the

00:13:57.600 police. That's going to come out in court as well. But the overwhelming majority of the people that

00:14:04.700 were there were tired of the COVID restrictions. They had gone too far, and they had gone on for

00:14:11.780 too long, and they were concerned about themselves, their own health, and for the health of their kids.

00:14:16.360 They did not want to overthrow the government. Their group in Coutts wanted to have coffee with

00:14:20.980 Jason Kenney, and that is hardly a scary situation, and the demands out of Ottawa were meet with us.

00:14:30.620 I've never, have you guys ever heard of any government that was overthrown by a meeting?

00:14:35.520 No. And also, it seems to me with the coots, because the border was open for cross-border

00:14:43.320 trucking traffic, even though it was closed to tourist traffic and pedestrian traffic, and it

00:14:49.020 was when they imposed the vaccine restrictions

00:14:52.480 on the drivers when they were crossing back

00:14:54.860 and that was causing delays

00:14:57.060 that the protest originally came out.

00:14:59.900 And that just shines a light 1.00

00:15:01.700 on how stupid and thoughtless the restrictions were. 1.00

00:15:07.300 Well, I had a big truck all by himself. 1.00

00:15:09.880 Yeah, that for the last two years at that point

00:15:15.040 had been able to work safely

00:15:17.840 without becoming massive carriers,

00:15:20.140 without causing massive outbreaks, there was no issues.

00:15:22.780 But also let's not forget that Trudeau

00:15:25.340 and the transportation minister at the time, Omar,

00:15:30.900 so I'm spacing on his name,

00:15:32.740 but they were about to pass interprovincial vaccine mandates

00:15:37.020 for truck drivers as well,

00:15:38.480 which means some of these guys had already lost the ability

00:15:41.800 to enter the United States

00:15:42.800 because of the United States' vaccine mandate,

00:15:45.920 which they dropped soon after.

00:15:48.680 But then we were gonna, what were they gonna do?

00:15:51.260 Were they gonna post up the sheriffs or the RCMP

00:15:54.380 at the Alberta-

00:15:55.220 Well, exactly, yeah.

00:15:56.060 And ask for vaccine passports?

00:15:57.220 Blockade, let me see it.

00:15:58.100 Well, they were doing that.

00:15:59.100 They were, if you drove in through BC and across the border.

00:16:01.800 BC they were, yeah.

00:16:02.720 I mean, people were getting their cars key scratched.

00:16:05.380 We got chased around downtown Vernon, basically,

00:16:07.700 because we had Alberta plates.

00:16:09.800 Yeah, so like, it was, it was a wild time.

00:16:13.660 It was crazy.

00:16:14.800 But, you know, even still, Christy Freeland yesterday repeated several times that there was this existential threat to the health and safety of Canadians.

00:16:26.140 But everything that we've seen come out of it, and even the Roleau, that report, you know, that one said that what they did was constitutional.

00:16:37.880 But none of these reports have ever actually indicated that there was a threat to Canadians' health or safety.

00:16:44.260 at all you know and and i was in arizona when everything's got clamped down here like in in

00:16:51.780 early 21 when everything got bad and in arizona it was totally different down there yeah um they

00:16:59.620 they treated adults like they were adults which they didn't do here it's like we've got to cuddle

00:17:05.540 all our little children who are 45 years old and keep them safe down there no masks there's a big

00:17:11.540 big signs on all the stores. If you want to wear a mask, that's fine, but you don't have to.

00:17:17.600 And it was handled so much differently. And the sense down there was, okay,

00:17:23.860 something's going on. I guess we should look after ourselves. Whereas up here,

00:17:27.220 we were corralling and herded around like cattle. Yeah. If you look, Canada and Australia had some

00:17:34.960 of the strangest and strictest lockdowns and COVID rules in place in the entire world.

00:17:42.600 Canada and Australia were some of the hardest hit countries too.

00:17:46.180 Well, China had some pretty bad restrictions. And when I think the turning point for me was when

00:17:52.120 they had locked all those people up into that apartment building and there was a fire and

00:17:55.860 all the people died. And the government was using the restrictions basically as

00:18:00.240 means to keep people from protesting.

00:18:02.540 Yeah, exactly.

00:18:03.320 And I think that the ruling from the Fed court now

00:18:06.140 is going to go back and look at all that stuff

00:18:09.620 and its various forms of restrictions and stuff like that

00:18:13.000 and shine a brighter light on it

00:18:15.600 in terms of maybe there is something that can be done

00:18:19.320 for the people who made those bad decisions.

00:18:23.160 I'm not suggesting they be punished,

00:18:24.880 but at least learn a lesson from it.

00:18:27.920 Yeah.

00:18:28.400 Yeah. And is there a lesson? Like, are the feds going to learn a lesson here? Like, like I said, we've got three different cases now ruled unconstitutional. They've been told to stay in their lane. They've continued like Stephen Goebel has not taken the foot off the gas pedal on plastics at all, even though the courts have just said no. And I mean, not going to get too far into our next topic here, but does this at least restore some faith?

00:18:57.440 because I think Canadians have lost a bit of faith in our judiciary and our judicial system.

00:19:01.720 Do you think this kind of ruling restores them faith and says that, no,

00:19:05.460 there's actually quite a lot of very good people inside the judiciary in this country?

00:19:09.400 I don't know. I don't know if that's what I'm hoping,

00:19:14.460 is that people who have been on the sidelines, either who bought into the whole thing

00:19:20.260 or just sat back, I mean, this doesn't look right, but kept quiet,

00:19:23.360 that people will now be motivated to come forward and make some noise with the politicians because

00:19:30.060 there's only one thing that scares a politician and that's not getting re-elected and if the

00:19:36.000 people stand up and wave flags and go you're out of here unless you do this this the other thing

00:19:40.900 um they're not going to do anything yeah but the people need to stand up and go enough is enough

00:19:47.320 and if they want to revisit what happened they should do that and talk among their they should

00:19:51.680 sit down with people they know and say we have to get together and do something about this because

00:19:57.760 we can do something about this at the at the polling booths and and just by making a lot of

00:20:02.960 noise instead of the politicians scaring the populace the populace need to rise up with the

00:20:08.160 pitchforks and the torches you know and scare the politicians well my impression of this whole thing

00:20:13.440 is it doesn't really restore any of my faith in the justice system but i think what it does is it

00:20:19.440 reinforces uh some of that anger that's out there in some of those old divisions and it's like you

00:20:23.600 know see we told you so like all the way along and we were right and you're wrong and they're

00:20:28.560 gonna go ahead and appeal it oh for sure i i was lucky enough to host the cory morgan show earlier

00:20:34.000 today and the comments they there was people in there and they said no we're we're gonna sue

00:20:38.080 we are going to come back after you and you know what i hope i hope you all win i do uh i'm a little

00:20:44.880 have said that it's tax dollars. I wish our politicians would start respecting the money

00:20:49.880 that we're paying them instead of pumping them all into these legal cases. If you do what you're

00:20:54.820 elected to do and you do what you said you were going to do, you're not going to have everybody

00:21:01.660 taking every single policy to court. So one of the other things that's happened out of this now

00:21:06.760 is a liberal MP from Newfoundland, I believe it's Ken McDonald, has now called for a leadership

00:21:13.520 review of Justin Trudeau. And we've seen when people started calling for a leadership review

00:21:19.640 of Jason Kenney, that ball started rolling and that ball didn't stop rolling. Do we think this

00:21:24.620 is going to pick up momentum here in the next few months? I think, yes, yes, short answer.

00:21:31.160 I think that, again, when there's a leader of things that people have been afraid to undertake

00:21:38.100 by themselves, but understand now that there's possibly a group of people who will join in and

00:21:43.980 do that kind of thing. More people will join in and do that. So I think it'll have an effect and

00:21:50.220 I think it could snowball. But again, people have to get involved. I'm not so sure. I think that

00:21:56.060 it's because of the liberal power base is so concentrated, you know, out in the Atlantic

00:22:01.040 Carolina, it's a little bit of an outlier. And we've seen some of these things with the fuel oil

00:22:05.140 And, you know, those guys are genuinely scared that they're not going to get re-elected.

00:22:09.360 But, I mean, you start coming out west here, we've got, like, what, two in Alberta?

00:22:13.020 Two.

00:22:13.360 And they're gone.

00:22:14.500 Like, I mean, they're...

00:22:15.560 The Conservatives were out door knocking in Calgary Skyview here last weekend.

00:22:21.540 So they're taking aim at George Chahal.

00:22:25.840 And I think he's going to have a big fight in the next election.

00:22:29.900 But speaking of former liberals and former liberal ministers and Alberta liberal ministers, Amarji Sohi, Jody Gondek, Calgary and Edmonton's war on lunch.

00:22:43.120 But not just Calgary and Edmonton, Banff. Banff is in on this, too.

00:22:47.800 So, Sean, you wrote the article on this. Please explain this to me.

00:22:54.220 Oh, my God. How do we begin here?

00:22:56.200 Okay, so let's frame it against a backdrop of the single-use plastics ban, which has been overturned by the Constitution, right?

00:23:06.900 So now what we're doing is we're putting charges on compostable and reusable paper bags.

00:23:14.560 We're increasing the charges on the reusable cloth bags.

00:23:19.080 We're trying to eliminate ketchup packets and disposable cups from our landfills. 0.98

00:23:24.940 So, you know, you've got to think this has been done in Vancouver already for more than a year and a half.

00:23:31.500 So would it ever happen in Vancouver?

00:23:33.180 Is it going to be coming here?

00:23:35.240 Edmonton last week just cranked up the price on its reusable bags.

00:23:39.180 And so these are the ones for the shopping.

00:23:41.440 I think most people kind of already got their head around grocery shopping that you bring in a reusable bag.

00:23:45.840 But now those are two bucks in Edmonton.

00:23:48.340 Right.

00:23:48.980 And then now they're also doing them in the restaurants.

00:23:51.940 Right.

00:23:52.140 So when you go through your fast food and your takeout, I think it was publisher Derek there was complaining that they'd put his food on a tray and they'd put it on the hood of his car and have him to come out and get it or pay 15 cents.

00:24:07.380 And, of course, you know that he's not going to pay 15 cents.

00:24:09.160 But even paying 15 cents, they're saying, don't use these bags unless you pay for them.

00:24:15.280 But we want to keep these bags out of the landfills unless you pay for them.

00:24:19.760 Then it's okay.

00:24:20.480 None of this makes any sense.

00:24:22.760 No.

00:24:24.580 We already pay for our compost.

00:24:27.080 The paper bags are compostable.

00:24:29.560 Even a paper bag that goes into the environment, believe it or not, it's also compostable.

00:24:35.160 So I understand wanting to reduce waste.

00:24:37.800 I do.

00:24:39.540 Humans are just inherently wasteful.

00:24:43.280 But inflation, the cost of living, and just living life is inconvenient enough.

00:24:50.480 And now you're going to get, like, what, you were supposed to carry lunch kits around with us everywhere, you know, when you go out for the night.

00:24:57.520 Sometimes you don't expect to take anything home.

00:25:00.000 I usually eat a portion of my meal and I'll save the rest.

00:25:03.880 But now you're telling me that I can't have a bag to take that home.

00:25:07.400 You have to bring your little lunch bucket.

00:25:08.900 Yeah.

00:25:09.200 You know, I think that's a great idea.

00:25:10.560 I used to have my Bobby Orr lunch kit when I was in school.

00:25:14.360 And my thermos.

00:25:16.080 Isn't that cute?

00:25:17.080 That's nice.

00:25:17.480 A friend of a friend was explaining to me today that their friend is in Edmonton.

00:25:23.760 And you know those plastic lunch trays?

00:25:26.340 Yeah.

00:25:26.600 Like the cafeteria-type tray.

00:25:28.520 They have that, a lunch kit, and a reusable set of forks and knives, a metal straw, and all of this just in their vehicle now, just in case they want McDonald's.

00:25:40.700 I don't know what your guys' vehicles are like.

00:25:42.820 My vehicle's a mess.

00:25:43.700 I would not eat off of anything in my car.

00:25:46.400 So, like, I just, you know, what are the sanitary concerns?

00:25:53.680 I noticed in the Banff bylaw that they don't have to accept a dirty bag if it's unsanitary.

00:25:59.660 But I know of some people here in Calgary that have been handing the folks at Wendy's McDonald's bags and Burger King's got in a few Dairy Queen bags.

00:26:10.860 You know, is it sanitary to hand fast food employees back a used fast food bag?

00:26:15.860 They're encouraging, the city will have bag police. 1.00

00:26:20.800 They will go around and they will check it, you know? 0.94

00:26:23.940 And so, I mean, it's just, the whole thing is ridiculous. 0.98

00:26:26.260 It's ridiculous. 0.88

00:26:27.100 I am not telling which restaurant yesterday 0.92

00:26:29.140 did not charge me for a bag when I got my soup and sandwich.

00:26:32.100 Okay, write it down, because we're going there.

00:26:33.920 I was a little shocked.

00:26:35.980 They asked after I'd already paid if I wanted a bag,

00:26:38.780 and I thought, well, this is gonna be awkward,

00:26:40.260 but it's gonna be even more awkward

00:26:41.560 carrying my soup and sandwich through the plus 15,

00:26:44.480 going like this.

00:26:45.480 but like it's, you know, inflation's already through the roof.

00:26:49.500 The cost of food is through the roof.

00:26:51.180 People are going grocery shopping.

00:26:52.520 And, you know, honestly, we don't mean to not take a bag.

00:26:56.120 I just forget mine.

00:26:57.320 Okay, but you know, we're spending way too much time

00:27:00.000 on what a bunch of people did.

00:27:02.720 We should spend time on those people.

00:27:05.600 You know, in Calgary, the City Hall and Edmonton folks

00:27:08.960 in City Hall, this was their idea.

00:27:11.620 I mean, and where did they get the idea?

00:27:14.440 what do they think they're accomplishing?

00:27:16.240 They don't justify it.

00:27:17.400 They just go, yeah, we're doing this.

00:27:18.840 You know, we'll keep the bags,

00:27:20.860 we'll be going to the landfill.

00:27:22.260 Well, they will.

00:27:23.100 All you have to do is you're paying 15 cents for a bag

00:27:26.000 that's gonna go to landfill. 0.93

00:27:27.880 You know, so we can complain about the counter experience,

00:27:33.300 but what needs to be done, again,

00:27:36.120 is that people need to look at the people 1.00

00:27:38.340 who sit in the city hall and make these idiot decisions 1.00

00:27:42.080 and accost them, not accost them physically, 1.00

00:27:45.320 but verbally or in writing letters and saying,

00:27:50.320 you're out, you're out of here. 0.98

00:27:52.300 And petitions and stuff like that

00:27:54.540 scare the hell out of politicians.

00:27:56.660 If they think they're not gonna get back in,

00:27:59.520 they'll change.

00:28:01.240 I think we need to look at,

00:28:04.360 you know, proactive solutions that work.

00:28:06.720 I think people generally will go along with things

00:28:09.300 if they think that it's going to have an effect

00:28:11.160 if it is going to make a meaningful difference my first job when i was growing up was at mcdonald's

00:28:16.360 and back in the day like you're talking about the packaging it was that styrofoam oh yeah you got

00:28:20.520 your big macs and a styrofoam and that's right and of course the issue there back then was uh

00:28:24.200 the ozone layer you know so uh you know they went whole hog into the paper and things but

00:28:29.560 styrofoam spand if you've ever had to work in the back of a mcdonald's restaurant and you see how

00:28:33.960 much of that crap it's up in the bin i don't want to know how it smells i don't want to know then

00:28:39.240 you can kind of go okay well you know what maybe there is a solution and if we could come up with 0.97

00:28:43.320 a solution that would work but see but we've already come up with a solution a calgary company

00:28:48.840 has come up with a solution yeah the co-op calgary co-op didn't even fight for them and they helped

00:28:54.680 develop these bags with the city of calgary with the city of calgary waste department and we're not

00:29:01.000 even using these bags so we have to buy these compostable bags the the the paper bags or a

00:29:08.840 cloth bag but we have a perfectly good plastic adjacent type bag that is not plastic it is

00:29:14.520 compostable i reuse that bag every single time i bring that bag home from co-op uh it gets used

00:29:21.800 in my house it goes into my compost bin it gets filled up with compost and it goes and it gets

00:29:26.520 composted that was a common sense that was a brilliant way to reduce and eliminate waste

00:29:32.360 because i we reduced it by getting rid of the plastic bags we eliminated plastic and and then

00:29:38.280 i reused it a few times and then it composted and returned back into dirt but that's a bad idea well

00:29:44.840 you know it's so funny because i went to the calgary wine store here last week just and it

00:29:49.960 was a day after the bylaw came into effect and i asked for a paper bag for the wine and normally

00:29:54.520 it doesn't cost anything right and the guy said well it's gonna cost a buck right i said you

00:29:57.880 serious he goes yeah i'm serious so then next to at the till they were selling those rolled

00:30:02.920 up compostable bags like a dozen of them for 75 cents yeah so i went oh okay you're giving the

00:30:09.320 compostable bag honestly like i co-op is still selling those bags i may pop in and just go buy

00:30:15.400 some and use those because we use them at home for our organics yeah they're going to be a lot

00:30:20.440 more convenient to throw in a box in your vehicle and when you need the bag like it's going to be

00:30:25.400 like kleenex you're going to be reaching into the back of your vehicle pulling out all of these bags

00:30:29.800 but like it's just i i i'm fine with reducing waste but i like good ideas and i don't think

00:30:37.640 charging a fee and making things more inconvenient for people is going to work

00:30:41.560 i have a closet full of cloth recyclable bags or reusable bags because i forget them and you know

00:30:47.720 And you'll do it.

00:30:49.420 You'll pay the dollar, but nothing's going to change. 0.98

00:30:51.440 I still have all of that trash.

00:30:53.840 That did not get reused.

00:30:55.240 And as far as I know, those cloth reusable bags are not recyclable, and they're not compostable.

00:31:00.440 I don't know.

00:31:00.920 But I have the same thing.

00:31:02.540 But I figured out the other day, because I'm a little slow at some of these things.

00:31:08.000 Once I get home, get stuff out of the bag, I take the bag and put it back in the car.

00:31:14.200 So it's there.

00:31:15.300 So I don't know if I'm going to go someplace and need it.

00:31:17.720 or not. But if I do, there it is. Instead of going, oh, now I've got to buy another one.

00:31:22.560 I've got a pile under my desk.

00:31:23.800 Yeah?

00:31:24.300 Yeah, if anybody needs one, just to get under the body.

00:31:27.180 That's gone after this.

00:31:28.560 But I think you make another good point, though, is that when you inconvenience people,

00:31:32.220 sometimes you have the opposite effect, right?

00:31:34.440 Yeah.

00:31:34.560 Like, instead of accepting a reasonable solution where people can, you know, if you just inconvenience

00:31:39.600 them and just piss them off, then people just aren't going to go wrong.

00:31:44.320 Well, and even on apps, Skip the Dishes, Uber Eats, stuff like that. Now they're just tacking on a bag fee, but it's just a 15 cent bag fee. So the amount of bags doesn't seem to matter because Uber Eats doesn't know how many bags you're going to need to package that order. The restaurant doesn't know how many bags you're going to need to package that order.

00:32:03.320 so you know I feel like some businesses are just going to completely ignore it and say okay city

00:32:08.820 go ahead come get us and some businesses are just going to do okay we'll put 15 cents on we can't

00:32:15.420 guesstimate excuse me how many bags we're going to need so we're just going to throw 15 cents on

00:32:20.880 there and other businesses like you said co-ops charging a dollar for a paper bag already well

00:32:27.160 it says 15 cents so please tell me why your paper bag is so expensive it's i i don't know

00:32:35.160 and it's just a single use wine bag you know which reminds me everybody please vote in the

00:32:39.560 next election uh i'll talk about this column for the second time today december 12th preston manning

00:32:45.400 20 of calgarians support this mayor or voted for this mayor so 80 were the majority let's

00:32:55.320 make some changes in 2025. All right, so moving on, Tucker Carlson is in town. Tucker. Tucker Carlson

00:33:03.880 is in town, and holy what, I don't get it. So there's protests going on, I believe, in Calgary.

00:33:12.120 There was a, whatchamacallit, there was a GoFundMe change.org petition to have him

00:33:21.720 banned from entering Canada.

00:33:25.140 Why is everybody so up in arms about Tucker?

00:33:28.680 They're afraid of him.

00:33:30.100 He speaks from the other side of the political mind

00:33:34.540 and he's not afraid to say what he wants to say.

00:33:37.560 I mean, and you gotta understand,

00:33:38.860 I mean, a great part of Tucker Carlson is the performance

00:33:43.200 and the amount of money he gets for performing.

00:33:46.240 But I think the people who start partitions,

00:33:49.220 they're just out afraid of him that he could influence an election

00:33:55.080 and all the people in the right wing get elected and the other people don't.

00:34:00.360 So I think it's fear.

00:34:02.000 I think it's just pure fear.

00:34:03.420 Well, you guys didn't go, but I did.

00:34:05.060 Yeah, you did.

00:34:05.380 You handed me off your ticket, so I did come down there.

00:34:10.040 Protests, I mean, the security out there was nuts.

00:34:13.040 It was crazy.

00:34:14.380 There was definitely way more security personnel and cops than there were protesters.

00:34:19.220 Took me almost an hour to get in.

00:34:22.540 I wouldn't consider myself a Tucker fan.

00:34:25.080 You know, I'm familiar with him, you know, and he's got the persona and the celebrity and everything.

00:34:29.520 But he gave a barn burner of a speech.

00:34:31.700 Like, he doesn't use any notes.

00:34:33.680 There's no teleprompter.

00:34:34.720 He just goes straight from the lip.

00:34:36.560 And that's pretty much exactly what he said.

00:34:38.640 He said, the reason these people are afraid of you is because you're telling the truth.

00:34:41.860 Yeah.

00:34:42.540 You know?

00:34:43.000 Yeah, we've got our young Jonathan Bradley in the Edmonton one tonight.

00:34:47.100 So get on to the Western Standard and read about all this stuff.

00:34:51.060 We've got Jennifer, who covered Calgary, and Jonathan covering Edmonton tonight.

00:34:55.420 But, yeah, no, not only is he a fabulous speaker, he's also got quite an extensive Canadian background.

00:35:01.320 His family is originally from Nova Scotia before they emigrated to the States in some kind of generation.

00:35:06.480 So he's, you know, he's always two or three generations removed.

00:35:09.540 And he's very familiar with the political scene up here.

00:35:12.260 he knows lots of Canadians and he basically just said Canadians are too polite you guys don't want

00:35:19.060 to talk about this and you know and that's the difference between the politics up here and down

00:35:24.420 in the states is because when people are making these changes up here and these liberal governments

00:35:29.700 and you know they're telling you you're wrong we don't want to have to you know stand up and

00:35:35.220 and basically shut them down so he says when somebody gives you a slogan you know diversity

00:35:40.820 of strength he goes like ask them why how what do you know like we go to the hockey and we see

00:35:45.780 diversity of spray you know and we just all kind of you know okay whatever you know that we all try

00:35:51.380 to be too accommodating basically of other people's views well and that's right again and i i keep

00:35:56.340 riding the same horse around this room but people got to get involved they got to question things

00:36:00.820 and go okay why why is that prove it to me yeah so he said like you want to increase immigration

00:36:06.020 to increase the economy of the country tell me how it's doing that he goes when your house prices

00:36:11.300 are so high when your health care system is overtaxed he said that he doesn't know one single

00:36:15.780 canadian now that brags about the health care system he says because there's just too many

00:36:20.040 people there's not enough to go around right i know like even just and he said that's not racist

00:36:26.360 that's math oh it for sure like i i am a massive supporter immigration when it's done intelligently

00:36:34.160 but we cannot open the doors and bring everyone in when we don't have a house for them we don't

00:36:39.260 have a doctor for them we don't have a school for them it's like inviting someone over to your house

00:36:44.780 they show up at your house it is jam-packed full there's no place to sit there's nothing to eat

00:36:48.860 they can't go to the washroom and you just tell them to stand out on the front step and freeze

00:36:53.060 but enjoy the party or they never leave yeah he made this joke about uh because his family is

00:36:58.380 episcopalian at christmas time he says and then everybody shuts up until they have a couple drinks

00:37:03.920 well and even like in the united states there's some contrast here as well because they're having

00:37:11.520 a massive illegal immigration crisis ours is legal ours is encouraged theirs is illegal i've

00:37:18.520 seen that uh governor uh greg abbott in texas today put out a letter saying uh biden if you're

00:37:25.060 not going to take care of this border situation we are and this is no longer you're on notice on

00:37:29.880 letter. This is, I have activated the Texas National Guard to defend the interests of Texas.

00:37:35.720 Now, that's not going to happen in Alberta. We don't have an Alberta National Guard.

00:37:39.240 But you know, I watched the primary in New Hampshire last night, and they polled

00:37:45.720 the people, and their number one concern wasn't the economy, it's the border. Yeah.

00:37:53.160 All of a sudden, that border crisis down there is number one in New Hampshire, for crying out loud.

00:37:58.280 yeah you know so again you get involved you see what's going on you ask the

00:38:05.240 questions and it changes things so Brett Wilson asked him this question you know

00:38:10.520 Tucker what do you think of a border wall between Canada and the United

00:38:14.420 States and then he says yeah I think it's a

00:38:17.300 great idea he goes but not for the reason that you think it's to shield you

00:38:22.380 guys from us. I would agree with him there because almost all a Canadian gun crime is because of

00:38:30.960 illegal guns smuggled in from the United States. Now, Canada's drug problem used to be majorly

00:38:36.980 contributed by the United States. That's not true anymore. We've turned those tables around. We now

00:38:41.660 import the drugs from China and we're the problem. The drugs are leaving, especially from the West

00:38:47.600 coast into the united states and like they they have the like liberals and the people on the left

00:38:55.020 have essentially made it that if you're against immigration or uh secure borders in any way that

00:39:02.380 you're racist and that is just simply not true if i'm going to invite somebody to my house i want

00:39:07.920 them to be safe warm fed have health care be able to get a job be able to find a place to live we're 0.75

00:39:13.520 to come live with you and be and be polite well as good house guests right yeah but we've done

00:39:20.640 nothing and in fact we we started with bc asking to maybe have an itty-bitty decriminalization of

00:39:27.440 an itty-bitty amount of drugs what but bc asked for that how did it end up across the whole

00:39:32.400 country before anybody even noticed nothing else was changed so now you have all these drug labs

00:39:37.760 being set up in canada to sell to the states and you know being a good neighbor is having a good

00:39:43.680 fence yeah so you know we the united states and canada need to work on their own border but

00:39:49.440 the border at mexico and the united states also affects canada and these things need need to be

00:39:55.680 addressed he made a comment about that as well and it was not so much about a border thing but it was

00:40:00.400 about uh how the government is giving your kids fentanyl right yeah and he and he said they are

00:40:06.400 basically literally killing your kids yeah yeah you know well and we've seen that this is happening

00:40:11.420 in bc and it's happening without parental permission right and that is psychotic look at

00:40:17.560 the way we uh put warnings on cigarettes and cannabis uh compared to how uh those uh info

00:40:25.740 pamphlets that came out of medicine hat on crack and meth yeah how i'm terrified to look at my

00:40:32.660 cigarette packages the ones that started coming out this year the new ads they're effective

00:40:36.420 they're graphic some of them are a little stomach churning but we are handing out free crack pipes

00:40:43.480 and teaching kids how to safely smoke meth so you know it tucker has a lot of but the other thing

00:40:50.160 when handing out the free drugs is you're creating a revenue stream for those people because they get

00:40:54.460 the free things they go out and sell them on the street yeah so the the the people who get the free

00:40:59.620 drugs are making money off of them.

00:41:02.220 Yep, well, but then Tucker stands up and says something

00:41:05.720 against these things, and they instantly push him

00:41:09.160 and say, nope, that's just alt-right.

00:41:10.620 That is your conspiracy theories, it's everything.

00:41:14.100 So I've got issues with Tucker.

00:41:15.960 I'm not Tucker Carlson's biggest fan.

00:41:19.920 If any reporter costs the Western Standard a billion dollars,

00:41:23.840 I'm probably not gonna like them either.

00:41:26.000 But.

00:41:26.840 I promise, I promise.

00:41:28.160 free speech is so fundamental to a functioning democracy and it mind boggles me and blows my

00:41:37.280 mind that these people want to shut him down from speaking in canada i have been saying this since

00:41:42.400 the day we announced the event if you don't want to hear tucker carlson's don't go don't go

00:41:48.400 you can shut off your phone you don't have to follow him on twitter you can even block him

00:41:52.160 you can hit the mute button he's got a new show on rumble we're also on rumble i hope all you

00:41:56.400 you guys are watching on rumble if you're on our youtube channel make sure you switch over to rumble

00:42:00.500 join the conversation there but you know rumble has been this growing platform because unlike

00:42:05.460 youtube they're not censoring every single thing they have very broad rules if it's not illegal

00:42:11.280 and it's not i believe pornography it's generally allowed on rumble and that is it's kind of ironic

00:42:18.360 that tucker carlson is now doing his shows based on free speech and canada which should be one of

00:42:24.960 the best protected free speech countries on the planet,

00:42:28.760 there's a group of people

00:42:30.000 that just wanna shut that speech down. 1.00

00:42:31.540 Yeah, out of fear.

00:42:34.120 Yeah, it's really disappointing.

00:42:37.340 So last thing, we have this note on here.

00:42:41.940 Actually, no, I wanna go back to Tucker a little bit longer.

00:42:44.720 So as you said, Jen is out covering Tucker in Calgary, 0.90

00:42:48.000 but tonight, the big event, Rogers Place,

00:42:51.920 but I think it's 15,000 or just under 15,000 people.

00:42:55.080 It would be something like that, yeah.

00:42:56.080 It's hot green.

00:42:56.800 Yeah, and he's got Conrad Black and Rex Murphy with him.

00:43:01.160 And I am jealous.

00:43:02.500 I am a massive fan of Rex Murphy.

00:43:07.240 What kind of message do you think Rex Murphy

00:43:09.640 is going to send to Canada, specifically the West, tonight?

00:43:17.260 Speak your mind.

00:43:18.560 Don't be afraid to say what you think.

00:43:21.200 Don't let the left-wing radicals, I guess they are, intimidate you.

00:43:28.440 Stand up and go about your business and get other people involved.

00:43:33.720 I think that would be his message.

00:43:35.080 I can't obviously speak for him, because I'm with you on that.

00:43:41.220 I really like that guy.

00:43:42.680 Yeah, every time I read one of his columns, I read it in his voice exactly the way he would say it.

00:43:48.680 Yeah. I actually do it with Nigel as well. It's from when Nigel, Nigel, when he's on the show or when he used to read some of his columns for video work, just the way he reads it, the way he speaks. Now when I when I read one of his columns, I hear his voice in my head the whole way through.

00:44:07.520 yeah so uh finally uh last thing we've got on the list here sneaky fourth topic uh the alberta

00:44:14.640 pension plan so is that done did did the united conservative party just give up are they gonna

00:44:21.840 throw their hat in what do we think uh i was talking to a lady when that was first uh announced 1.00

00:44:29.520 and she's she's collecting CPP and she's was like totally against the Alberta pension plan

00:44:38.640 because she didn't think she didn't understand it she thought she was going to lose her pension

00:44:44.020 she wasn't going to get any money and I think that's a general thought especially among them

00:44:49.740 the older people like me um who I don't why wait who who don't understand it and I think the Alberta

00:44:58.480 government could do a lot better job explaining it. And I think they may have just gone under the

00:45:04.720 cloud cover for a bit to get organized, to get the word out there properly of how actually it works,

00:45:11.840 because they just went, well, I'll get $3 billion from CPP and we'll do this, we'll do that.

00:45:16.720 And nobody believed it. It sounded like, no, that can't be happening.

00:45:21.280 Well, I do know because I sat in on a session here out at Pritis a couple of minutes back

00:45:29.120 before Christmas, and Travis Tabes was talking, and they had been working on the pension plan

00:45:34.620 reform even before, well, when Jason Kenney was still premier, and he was still finance minister,

00:45:41.320 and he was basically saying, so they're waiting for this actuator's report on how much they are

00:45:46.580 actually going to get back he said because when they saw that 344 billion dollar number because

00:45:51.380 their eyes popped of course and he goes if it's even half that much you know then this is an easy

00:45:57.220 sell right yeah but the problem is is that we don't know how much it is or no no or how their

00:46:02.340 ottawa is going to respond and we need to know that we need to find out well they need they need

00:46:06.100 us i don't think until i don't think anything's going to move on this until we actually get the

00:46:12.180 I think it's the parliamentary budget officer that's putting out the report on how much Alberta's portion actually is.

00:46:18.300 Parliamentary budget officer is fairly empathetic to these kinds of causes that we are in favor of.

00:46:24.240 I like him because he is no nonsense, and all he ever says is exactly how much something's going to cost.

00:46:30.220 There's no politics, there's no feelings, there's no nothing, there's numbers.

00:46:33.620 That's the way it should be.

00:46:34.640 Well, that's all we have time for today. Thank you very much for joining us.

00:46:37.800 If you are not already a member of the Western Standard, check out www.westernstandard.news

00:46:44.200 slash subscribe.

00:46:45.400 You can get a membership there for $100 a year or $10 a month, and we should appreciate

00:46:50.240 your support.

00:46:51.120 It's support from our members and folks watching like you that let us do these things, that

00:46:55.620 let us give away free tickets to Tucker Carlson, that let us put the shows on.

00:46:59.440 So thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next time.

00:47:02.060 Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:47:03.760 without the cssa our gun rights would have been taken long long ago these guys are on the front 0.98

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Western Standard - January 25, 2024

The Pipeline： Another court defeat for Trudeau

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