Western Standard - The Pipeline December 16, 2020

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

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00:03:00.000 Good day. I am Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard. You're watching The Pipeline.

00:03:16.100 Joining me today is Corey Morgan, podcast editor and columnist extraordinaire. How are you doing,

00:03:21.320 Corey? Good, good. Dave Naylor, news editor of the Western Standard, joining us today from

00:03:27.220 vancouver british columbia g'day dave g'day i just want to make it clear that the the background is

00:03:33.140 a bit of a fraud it is not nice out here on the wet coast it's gloomy and rainy but uh yeah good

00:03:39.140 to be with you guys and you're not three kilometers in the air no no exactly not i'm not in a not in

00:03:44.980 a special hot air balloon yeah and joining us uh our new ottawa bureau chief uh joining us from

00:03:51.860 close to parliament hill uh on the quebec side of the river is ken grafton welcome to the team ken

00:04:00.340 just downwind from parliament hill there thanks so much good to be here

00:04:05.460 downwind that makes good sense well uh thank you very much for joining us here today

00:04:10.500 uh we're pleased to have you remember if uh if you're a western standard member we thank you

00:04:14.740 very much for your support if you're not yet a member please go to westernstandardonline.com

00:04:19.300 click on membership and support the work we're doing to support bailout free,

00:04:25.300 genuinely independent media for Western Canada. Okay, well, we're going to get straight into it.

00:04:31.060 Today, we're going to be covering if a carbon tax gets increased by 570% and no one hears it,

00:04:39.220 did the carbon tax get increased? Yes, it did. You're still going to pay for it,

00:04:42.980 but the media are ignoring it. So we're going to talk about the, well, first,

00:04:48.500 the economics and political impact of the 570 percent increase in the carbon tax and why the

00:04:53.780 hell the mainstream media is utterly ignoring this we're going to be talking about uh an extraordinary

00:04:59.540 open letter written by a dr dennis modry one of the most renowned and experienced and qualified

00:05:05.940 doctors in alberta who has written an open letter to alberta premier jason kenney uh taking him to

00:05:11.540 task for the lockdowns and mask mandates uh that's had this letter's had an extraordinary impact

00:05:17.220 we're going to talk about that. As well, we'll talk about Calgary and Edmonton who have extended

00:05:21.220 their mandatory mask mandates for an entire year. Yes, you heard that. Calgary and Edmonton bylaws

00:05:26.980 require that you're going to wear a mask almost anywhere you go outside your home until December

00:05:31.460 2021. Well, I don't even know what we can say about that. That's some wild stuff, but we're

00:05:39.700 going to take it on. So we're going to start with the 570% carbon tax increase. The federal

00:05:46.500 liberal government uh announced this when justin trudeau was making an address to the uh un's uh

00:05:53.380 paris climate accord they were having a bit of an online powwow finally they figured that uh if

00:05:58.180 you're going to talk about global warming maybe you shouldn't fly thousands of people around the

00:06:01.540 world to get together for uh for uh for hors d'oeuvres um so they finally had one of these uh

00:06:07.700 climate confabs online they finally figured out zoom is appropriate for these things if you're

00:06:12.500 you're trying to save the planet. And in Justin Trudeau's statement, he just kind of slipped in

00:06:18.260 there. Oh, yeah. And I'm increasing the price, so-called, they call it price on carbon. I don't

00:06:22.940 call it carbon taxes. The price on carbon to, I think, $270 per metric ton, if I'm not mistaken.

00:06:29.820 That works out to a 570% increase from where it currently is. It was already scheduled to get to

00:06:35.400 $50 a ton. Justin Trudeau and then Environment Minister Catherine McKenna swore to the gods.

00:06:42.500 They put their hands on the manifesto and swore that the carbon tax would never increase beyond $50 a ton.

00:06:56.680 And without consulting Parliament or anybody, let alone Canadians, they increased the carbon tax to 570%.

00:07:04.400 Now, there is a lot going on in the media.

00:07:06.340 There's a lot to chase.

00:07:07.600 So it's not like there was nothing else to talk about.

00:07:09.840 But the media have been utterly devoid of any kind of comment on this.

00:07:16.220 There's been a few tiny little spots.

00:07:18.060 Brian Lilly had a spot in the Sunpaper chain calling out most of his colleagues, I think, quite rightfully on this.

00:07:25.560 But in press conferences that Trudeau's been at, the media don't ask a single question about it.

00:07:30.880 It's as if nothing has happened.

00:07:33.580 So I'd like to, we're going to get some more information from our Ottawa Bureau Chief, Ken Grafton.

00:07:39.100 And Ken, why don't you tell us about how this was announced and really how is the rest of

00:07:45.860 the media outside of the Western standard and the odd little bright light out there

00:07:48.740 like Brian Lilly of the Sun, what do you think explains the complete silence for most media

00:07:57.340 around a utterly one of the largest tax, single tax increases in Canadian history?

00:08:01.620 I guess there's a few factors that I see here. One of them, of course, is the liberal bias in media, which is generally acknowledged now. Globally, the United States and Canada, 80% figure that I've read for liberal bias in media, print and other online news media.

00:08:28.320 I think that's part of it, which is, you know, not wanting to really criticize the government.

00:08:36.680 There are certain topics you can take on and criticize the government, but there are others you can't.

00:08:42.140 This one has been covered somewhat in Ottawa, but not as much as you would expect, given the import of this topic and the price that Canadians are going to have to pay for it.

00:08:56.360 Obviously the way Prime Minister Trudeau introduced this was in connection with the UN summit

00:09:06.880 that occurred just recently, and that received very little advance notice.

00:09:13.980 I found out about it two days after the fact through a piece in CBC, but basically the

00:09:22.520 line that our prime minister has taken is in line with the u.n agenda 2030 and that's climate change

00:09:29.320 and what amounts to a wealth distribution globally an improvement of conditions for

00:09:37.160 developing countries and a host of other people the problem with the carbon tax of course is the

00:09:43.560 magnet our economy is in ruins as a result of liberal spending during covid and the the response

00:09:50.280 to COVID in Canada and other countries. So, you know, a lot of people are looking at this and

00:09:57.240 wondering how they're going to pay an extra, I think it's 37 cents a gallon on gasoline, for

00:10:03.400 example. So, you know, I think that the reason it's not being reported more than it is, is

00:10:11.720 it's an unpopular topic, and most of the mainstream news in Canada is not inclined to do that.

00:10:21.980 Thanks, Ken. Corey, maybe you can add to that. Do you think the reason they're essentially

00:10:29.740 ignoring this is because primarily just that most of the media believe that if we don't

00:10:37.060 increase the price of driving your car and heating your home and whatnot that the world

00:10:43.520 is essentially that most of the journalists out there for the mainstream media agree with the

00:10:49.680 government, but they know that by and large, at least a large segment of Canadians will be angered

00:10:54.920 by this. Is that why they're not talking about it? Or what do you think explains it?

00:10:58.300 I think they might think that a large segment of Canadians aren't interested in it.

00:11:01.620 This comes back to an east-west issue because this is going to disproportionately slap down the west because it really hits agricultural producers and it really hits conventional energy producers.

00:11:13.600 So, I mean, it will catch your average citizen, as was recently mentioned, it's going to catch a pump with up to 40 cents a liter on your fuel.

00:11:22.400 I was looking at a receipt that a farmer had tweeted from Saskatchewan because, again, people in the east don't understand a lot of this.

00:11:29.060 I mean, it's a different business to them, large-scale farming.

00:11:32.120 And it was for their irrigation, it takes a lot.

00:11:34.980 Moving water is very expensive.

00:11:36.680 It's heavy.

00:11:37.080 It doesn't compress.

00:11:37.780 It's difficult.

00:11:38.580 So the electric bill was massive.

00:11:40.620 This farm collective, with a number of farmers together on it, getting irrigation, were paying

00:11:44.740 $18,000 a month in carbon tax bills, just carbon tax.

00:11:49.000 And that's at the $30 a ton.

00:11:51.280 And they pay GST on top of that, so tax on tax.

00:11:53.900 And that's going to go up now to 84,000 and change for that farm collective.

00:11:59.540 Plus, people say, well, farmers are exempt.

00:12:01.460 Well, none of them have it.

00:12:02.460 And they're exempt with gasoline, but not with diesel, which is most of what they use.

00:12:05.980 And then it goes on trains, which have to pay the fuel as well.

00:12:08.600 This is going to shoot the cost of food up into the year.

00:12:11.340 I mean, a carbon tax is a tax on everything.

00:12:13.140 The people have better understand it, but I don't think people are, and I think some

00:12:16.860 of the Eastern media might think it's just not worth noting at this time, but it sure

00:12:20.780 will when it comes to their pocketbook.

00:12:22.780 Uh, Dave, I think Corey's got a point. There might be a bit of an east west divide here.

00:12:27.660 Uh, you know, there are many in the east that oppose the carbon tax. Uh, and you know, the east

00:12:32.860 is not a monolith. I mean, we're in a rural Ontario is pretty radically different from Toronto.

00:12:36.780 Rural Ontario, I've said before, it's got more in common culturally and politically with, uh,

00:12:42.140 with Alberta than it does with Toronto. It just, it doesn't have that regional dynamic, but in many

00:12:47.420 respects, it shares a lot of the same values. But there is still an east-west divide in the

00:12:54.840 aggregate, at least. Dave, do you think that the mainstream media, because this is a federal issue

00:13:02.920 and the vast majority of the mainstream media is owned and mostly operated out of central

00:13:11.840 eastern canada do you think that is the reason that they're by and large ignoring this uh is

00:13:17.280 it ideological or is it just that because voters in the east are more willing to accept this kind

00:13:22.160 of tax increase um than they are in the west and because these reporters are in and of the east

00:13:29.680 uh that's why they're accepting it well i i think cory hit the nail on the head and that nobody's

00:13:36.080 been hit in the pocketbook yet by these the the current carbon tax you know sure you may have to

00:13:42.160 pay a few pennies to uh on a liter of gasoline but it's not it's not a huge deal for most people

00:13:49.040 at the moment agriculture people uh is the are the exception of course but you know and everybody

00:13:55.680 says all the polls show that people want climate change and action for it but again while it's not

00:14:03.600 hitting them in the pocketbook so while it's costing them a few extra bucks to fill up their

00:14:07.920 car people are thinking that they're doing their bit for to save mother earth but when it goes up

00:14:13.760 570 percent and you're now filling uh your car is going to cost you 20 or 30 bucks more then we're

00:14:21.120 going to see whether or not people still want uh to make that sort of sacrifice for climate change

00:14:27.200 and it may fall down the uh their priority list a bit lower as the economy goes in the toilet

00:14:42.560 fair enough uh did you have anything to add before we move on

00:14:49.040 is that to me derek you're ken yeah i didn't hear the first part um yeah i think the i agree with

00:14:56.000 what David Cora said. I think you know another factor in the coverage of this is the overwhelming

00:15:02.080 preponderance of COVID-19 coverage in the media this year has really taken a lot of bandwidth out

00:15:08.640 of other topics being covered by the media and that's certainly still the case here.

00:15:15.120 So if you're not talking about COVID-19 you're not getting as much as many column inches.

00:15:20.960 um you know that that's a factor as well i think fair enough all right well we're going to switch

00:15:28.660 gears uh bring a little closer to home here in the west um friday evening uh we posted an open

00:15:36.540 letter from a dr dennis modry uh dr dennis modry performed alberta's first heart transplant i think

00:15:43.160 that was back in the 80s uh he's got more letters after his name than most people have in their

00:15:48.260 first and last names combined. He is a pretty eminently qualified surgeon and doctor in

00:15:57.160 Alberta. And he's a longtime acquaintance of Jason Kenney, but he published an open letter

00:16:02.920 on the Western Standard that has completely broken the internet. This is already, even

00:16:07.940 though it's only a few days old, it is our most read story of all time. It beats some

00:16:14.440 very other big stories that we've uh broken on the western standard but this is already the number

00:16:18.840 one uh it's just gone absolutely viral uh around social media and it's had an impact uh dave uh

00:16:27.640 why don't you tell us a bit about the contents of the doctors uh doctor's letter and what has been

00:16:32.920 the uh political uh response to it derek i remember as a young reporter way back in 1985

00:16:40.440 when dr modri performed the first uh heart transplant surgery in alberta at the university

00:16:47.160 at the university of alberta and i remember being so excited and and what a what a breakthrough this

00:16:52.440 was and he is truly one of alberta's top doctors uh he wrote a scathing letter you can read it on

00:17:00.600 the website it's it is a complete repudiation of everything that jason kenny has done everything

00:17:07.960 that Dr. Dina Hinshaw has done. He's calling for the immediate stopping of all testing in the

00:17:15.400 province. If you're asymptomatic, he's calling for the opening again of hospitals and the end

00:17:21.220 of regulations on gatherings. Just a complete opposite of everything that's going on at the

00:17:28.920 moment. He says the Great Barrington Declaration is where we should be. And that's the story that

00:17:35.860 we've covered extensively that declaration, Derek, as you know, and what they're calling for is the

00:17:41.660 world to return to normal. This has been a document signed by thousands and thousands of

00:17:48.520 doctors and virologists from around the world who have basically said, look, these lockdowns are not

00:17:56.700 working. We're creating a bigger problem than what we have. And the interest in the

00:18:05.480 column has, as you said, tremendous, hundreds of thousands of clicks just on this letter.

00:18:12.160 And I think it's deepening the divide. You're either on the side of the restrictions or you're

00:18:16.980 not. And I think that chasm is getting deeper. I think it was getting deeper before this letter,

00:18:22.520 but I think this letter is, you know, is making it a lot deeper. We tried to get through on the

00:18:29.880 jenny or the kenny press conference uh yesterday to ask him about this but unfortunately we weren't

00:18:35.480 uh we weren't selected so uh certainly at the western standard we're going to keep trying to

00:18:40.520 get the premier's uh comments on it but uh holy cow guys talking about stirring up a hornet's nest

00:18:48.360 indeed we already had uh one person comment uh tk keslow said uh how long before they start to

00:18:58.120 diminish Dr. Modry's career accomplishments and attack his credibility. Well, they've already

00:19:03.320 started. The hardline lockdowners have been out trying to discredit this guy. Corey, maybe you

00:19:15.240 could talk a bit about some of the campaign that's already been out there to try and say, ah, this

00:19:19.200 guy is a quack. He's not credible to try and diminish this guy's letter rather than just being

00:19:24.680 want you know there are doctors who support law things there are doctors on both sides

00:19:28.600 it's an open debate and there are a lot of doctors on both sides it's not like one side is a friend

00:19:32.440 and one side's got it all uh no side can claim to have a monopoly on uh expert opinion here uh

00:19:39.960 why don't you tell us a bit about some of the reaction that's been trying to maybe discredit

00:19:43.320 dr modry and what do you think the impact this is going to have uh in both alberta and across

00:19:50.840 across Canada. I mean, this letter to Alberta, it's addressed to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney,

00:20:00.080 but essentially, Kenney is now doing mostly what other provinces are doing right now,

00:20:03.840 for the most part, with a couple of small details here and there.

00:20:07.520 What do you think is going to be the political fault? So first, maybe talk about the attacks

00:20:12.280 against Dr. Modi, trying to sideline this guy, discredit him. And what do you think is the,

00:20:16.620 Do you think his letter is going to have any real political, lasting political ramifications?

00:20:23.100 Yeah, well, most of the attacks, because his credentials are so rock solid, he's such a

00:20:27.580 respected doctor, he's had so many accomplishments, most of what we're seeing is just a social

00:20:33.200 media backlash.

00:20:34.380 We aren't seeing people in positions of authority daring to take a swipe at Dr. Mogher because

00:20:39.460 it's just going to backfire. 0.96

00:20:41.960 You know, so there's been some tasteless stuff said about him, unusual kind of garbage on 0.98

00:20:45.500 social media. 0.93

00:20:46.100 But the people who are almost cult-like with the pro-lockdown, lockdown, lockdown,

00:20:51.100 don't like apostates, and he broke ranks.

00:20:54.100 And he came out, as with the Barrington Declaration, he's a very credible voice.

00:20:59.100 He said it in a rational, non-hysteric way.

00:21:02.100 He laid out the reasons why he feels the current moves are inappropriate

00:21:07.100 or perhaps ineffective and causing more damage than good.

00:21:10.100 This can do a lot of damage. It's been difficult.

00:21:13.100 been difficult. I mean, Jason King has been losing on both fronts. They say he didn't lock down

00:21:17.260 enough and fast enough. And then there's people on the other side saying he's cracked down too much.

00:21:20.960 Now, when we had a rational, respectable voice speaking against the lockdowns, the restrictions

00:21:26.840 and the measures, and hundreds of thousands of people were reading that. They were looking for

00:21:30.980 a rational voice to come out and say this. This could have some very strong repercussions. It

00:21:35.400 might lead to other medical professionals coming out to break ranks as well. I mean,

00:21:39.820 one of the favorite things pro lockdown people would always try and dismiss you with on social

00:21:43.400 media or one of our columns is, well, you're not a doctor, so you shouldn't even speak to it.

00:21:47.140 Well, Dr. Modery is, and he's a very good one. So you're going to have to change in case.

00:21:52.340 Yeah. Ken, I don't know if your answer might be just complete no to this, but

00:21:59.200 as we've said, this letter's had massive readership primarily in the West here.

00:22:04.100 Has there, I don't know, has this letter in particular started to make the rounds in the East?

00:22:11.120 Is there any equivalent of Dr. Modri in the East of any kind of credible figure like this

00:22:17.500 taking on, say, the Ontario or federal governments?

00:22:21.560 No and no.

00:22:23.180 I don't think that people are generally aware of Dr. Modri's letter,

00:22:27.640 and I don't believe there's anything comparable yet here in the East.

00:22:34.100 the best source that we can look to for that is the cdc and the world health organization

00:22:40.340 and from the outset cdc i think one of their earliest statements on

00:22:46.180 covet 19 and i'm going to paraphrase slightly here was everybody is going to get it

00:22:54.100 most people will experience mild symptoms and it will affect the elderly most seriously

00:23:00.180 and that has in fact been the case there's been two i think major um divorces from reality since

00:23:10.580 the outset of covid and one is the magnitude of the response compared to the risk involved

00:23:17.220 if you compare that to say influenza which is a similar disease uh 2019 8 500 people in canada

00:23:28.180 died from from influenza alone and i think us upper respiratory illness deaths were somewhere

00:23:35.700 in the magnitude of 45 000 so if you compare 8 500 influenza deaths to the deaths this year from

00:23:43.460 covid uh comparing the traditional response to influenza and this global lockdown from covid

00:23:51.620 it seems completely disproportionate and necessary and the other part of it is is masks there was a

00:23:59.540 great deal of science out there prior to this year which clearly showed showed clearly that masks are

00:24:07.780 not effective in protecting from the transmission of influenza and the definitive study was done at

00:24:16.500 at the University of New South Wales in 2017, I believe,

00:24:22.180 which showed that cloth masks were 97% ineffective

00:24:27.540 and actually increased the likelihood of infection

00:24:30.520 through behavioral aspects associated with masks

00:24:34.580 with use of them.

00:24:36.280 And that the surgical masks,

00:24:40.000 the cloth surgical masks were 47% ineffective.

00:24:44.500 so approximately twice as effective as the cloth masks.

00:24:48.560 And yet our government, you know,

00:24:51.080 Theresa Tam has recommended cloth,

00:24:54.940 well, first no masks, then cloth masks,

00:24:57.360 and now it's a cloth mask with a third layer.

00:25:01.020 The reality is, unless you're using an N95 mask,

00:25:04.480 you're not protected from COVID-19

00:25:07.620 or any other airborne transmission.

00:25:09.500 And the problem here is the size of the pores

00:25:13.880 in masks ranges from 80 to 500 microns,

00:25:18.320 whereas the airborne aerosol particles

00:25:23.320 that would affect you in a room are 2.5 microns.

00:25:26.940 So a pea going through a hockey net, basically.

00:25:32.420 Thanks a lot, Ken.

00:25:34.740 I think the next step of COVID

00:25:36.840 is we're all gonna have to wear hazmat suits outside

00:25:39.260 like we're in a nuclear fallout here.

00:25:41.760 OK, well, we're going to bring it yet closer and closer, not maybe not to you guys sitting

00:25:48.780 in Vancouver and Ottawa right now, but where we are sitting in Calgary, Calgary and Edmonton

00:25:54.020 City Councils have extended the mandatory mask mandates for an entire year.

00:25:59.360 Yes, you heard that correctly for by law.

00:26:03.780 If you wear a mask virtually anywhere in Calgary and Edmonton outside of your home, we'll see

00:26:08.880 maybe let's stop putting in our homes soon enough. You're going to face now doubled fines. And the

00:26:15.320 extension of this mandatory mask bylaws is now extended for an entire year, all the way to

00:26:23.360 December 2021. Now, theoretically, they could repeal that before. They might, because there's

00:26:32.000 just no way everyone's going to comply with that for a year. This stuff requires near universal

00:26:36.480 compliance and as we discussed last week that social consensus is completely broken down

00:26:41.200 for both lockdowns and masks um but uh dave uh you know you've been the city you were the city hall

00:26:48.240 uh reporter uh or editor for uh almost 20 years at the calgary sun uh so you have a pretty good

00:26:54.800 insight into the city halls here uh why don't you tell us a bit more about this mask mandate

00:26:59.920 uh who was for it who was against it and and what they're really thinking behind it

00:27:06.480 I think a little bit of what you're seeing, Derek, is frustration from the city that Premier Kenney hasn't done more.

00:27:14.000 Alberta, if you remember, was the last province in Canada to introduce a mandatory mask bylaw or mask law, and that was only done a couple of weeks ago.

00:27:23.880 Calgary and Edmonton introduced their own version of it a couple of months ago, and they've now extended it for a full year, doubling the fines, 50 bucks to 100 bucks.

00:27:34.800 I think it's probably more, you know, so they don't have to do it every month.

00:27:44.180 This virus isn't going away.

00:27:46.520 Obviously, we're going to be stuck with it well into next year.

00:27:50.060 So instead of having to come forward every single month and get the bylaw to go a little bit further,

00:27:56.540 then they're just going to just put a blanket thing out there to cover it for an entire year.

00:28:02.980 Sorry, Derek, I'm going to backtrack just a little bit because I think we missed a key thing when we were talking about what Alberta is doing with the COVID lockdown.

00:28:15.120 Yesterday, Alberta became the first province in the country and one of the few places in the world to massively expand isolation centers.

00:28:23.660 And what they're doing is they're going into ethnic areas in both Calgary and Edmonton that are really the hot zones in the province.

00:28:31.440 And they're the hot zones through no fault of their own, as the Premier said, but because they're high-density housing, they're lower income, they've got multi-generations living in the same house, and they've got multi-families living in the same house.

00:28:47.540 And a lot of them in those houses don't understand English.

00:28:51.220 So they haven't been able to understand what's out there for them, and they can't self-isolate it when they have symptoms.

00:29:00.260 So what the province is doing is they're moving in, they're sending in people.

00:29:04.380 Dave, that's racist.

00:29:06.160 I'm sorry?

00:29:07.440 That's racist.

00:29:09.660 Yes, and Premier Kennedy's got in trouble for saying that before.

00:29:15.180 But the fact of the matter is, racist or not, these are where the red zone infections are.

00:29:21.420 The province is being proactive and they're sending in teams on the ground,

00:29:24.520 actual workers on the ground to visit homes in the area.

00:29:30.260 to give them information in their own language to give them care packages with masks and hand

00:29:38.500 sanitizers and to tell them that if there are people in the household that need to be by

00:29:43.860 themselves come with us and we will set you up they're setting up 1300 rooms in the hotel rooms

00:29:51.620 in the province mainly in calgary and edmonton to take these people to when they get them into

00:29:57.780 the hotel rooms are going to be given appropriate culturally appropriate meals and entertainment and

00:30:04.740 transportation and when they've done their 14 days quarantine they will get a 625 dollar

00:30:13.940 bonus cash bonus for doing it uh premier kenny points out that that's no different than what

00:30:21.300 the province would give people who are displaced by fires or floods. But I think it's a bold step

00:30:29.140 to try and do something to get the infection rate under control in these key areas.

00:30:38.020 Well, this actually does seem to make a bit more sense than these shotgun,

00:30:43.540 lock down everybody, mask everybody, no matter where they are policies. This does seem to be

00:30:48.260 targeted on actual hot spots where there are problems you know the there are linguistic and

00:30:53.140 cultural barriers here there are people who might not uh listen to english media constantly and

00:30:58.900 i'm getting reasonable warnings not just the scaremongering stuff but reasonable stuff

00:31:02.980 learning to isolate a lot of them might not have the economic means of isolation

00:31:07.220 uh if they are infected so this this does seem to be a bit more targeted um uh so i'd like to

00:31:15.540 get your thoughts uh actually we'll go to ken uh ken give us your thoughts maybe on this targeted

00:31:21.540 new targeted uh response uh we are still keeping these massive shotgun approaches

00:31:26.900 in alberta and across canada um is there anything comparable to this in the east right now with

00:31:33.300 these uh very large and expanded and aggressive isolation centers uh particularly for uh minority

00:31:40.660 communities not that i'm aware of not that's been publicized i i uh i think that it's a good move

00:31:48.500 i agree with dave the uh you know one of the problems with the shotgun approach is that the

00:31:54.740 the data suggests that uh or show that 96 i think of covet fatalities in canada and the u.s are

00:32:05.140 are in senior citizens in extended care facilities and of that percentage 94 have 2.6

00:32:15.540 or more comorbidities um well you know so almost everyone who has died from covet 19 has been a

00:32:23.220 senior citizen in any retirement home of some sort who is already sick with other illnesses

00:32:30.500 however the approach has been to target everyone in the country and it's important to keep in mind

00:32:36.740 also that the UN doesn't support lockdown that's on their website

00:32:41.520 all right thanks a lot uh we're going to go to you uh Corey um we're going to kind of bring it back

00:32:50.680 to uh the um the uh the mask mandates in Calgary and Edmonton extending them for an entire year

00:32:59.720 I don't think, I try to put myself in the shoes of other people that I disagree with and try to

00:33:05.600 at least understand what they're thinking. I don't think any reasonable person thinks that

00:33:09.880 we should just have this for a year. I can think of only two plausible reasons. One is,

00:33:16.120 as they've already said, they don't want the political heat of having to revisit this every

00:33:20.900 month or two. Every time they extend this, it's political follow-up. So this is their way of

00:33:25.160 saying fine we're gonna do this once and we'll repeal it when it's done so that

00:33:30.320 they don't have to do it the political follow it every month the other and

00:33:32.840 these aren't mutually exclusive the other possible reason I think we're

00:33:36.600 explaining for a year is their way of kind of virtue signaling that we are

00:33:43.860 more aggressive we're more lock downy than premier Kenny it's kind of their

00:33:49.500 way of sticking it to him saying we're even stronger than anything he's doing

00:33:54.340 is there any other explanation you can see for this you know is it possible they

00:33:58.980 actually think we should be wearing masks for a year or is it one of these

00:34:02.500 two not mutually exclusive political explanations you covered a bit of it I

00:34:08.280 mean it's definitely that anything you can do we can do better from from the

00:34:12.860 head men she he's been all puffed up over this he was pushing on Kenny saying

00:34:16.380 if Kenny doesn't come in and save Albertans I'll stand up and do it I'll

00:34:19.900 lock Calgary down if he doesn't do it tomorrow and then he did lock Albertan

00:34:23.820 So so now it's what's that she in the end is his collection on council going to do well

00:34:29.340 They say well, we're we're gonna see the Bertans by extending this mass law for a year

00:34:33.720 There was other things rather than just poking a stick in Kenny's eye of course, too

00:34:38.060 I

00:34:38.940 Do believe a lot of believe the master effective. It's fine. It's debatable where we are with it

00:34:43.560 But and extending it for a year

00:34:45.340 You don't want to have to revisit it every month or even two months for a year is

00:34:49.700 is excessive and it's lazy and it's a it shows that their default is actually to infringe on us

00:34:56.420 and have to justify taking the infringements off later it should be the other way around i mean

00:35:01.300 maybe three month periods or something hey you took on the tough job you're gonna have to get

00:35:05.620 in there and re-discuss this damn bad we don't like it quit i'll be more than happy if you do

00:35:10.180 but for the time being if you're going to bring in something like that it's your job to come in and 0.60

00:35:14.340 explain why it needs to be kept i mean we're hearing about a vaccine we're hearing that perhaps

00:35:18.980 all canadian can want the vaccine to be vaccinated by september uh why on earth are we extending

00:35:24.100 restrictions and laws all the way to december there's no reasoning for that they shouldn't

00:35:29.140 have to revisit this regularly yeah uh we've got a comment from uh laurie burnside says how many

00:35:36.980 seniors homes have you uh any of you been in uh well i'd say none for very good reason that those

00:35:44.020 are the single most high risk places to be um people my age um even all the way up to you old

00:35:52.260 gentlemen are not particularly at risk uh i mean you could die from covid chances are you're not

00:35:58.980 but you can transmit it if you're even if you're healthy but you're carrying covet and you go into

00:36:03.060 into a senior's home um you can infect people and uh you know the average day age of a covid death

00:36:09.700 in alberta and most of the world is 82. the average life expectancy in alberta uh sorry no

00:36:16.100 it's 80 81.5 and the average life expectancy in alberta is 82. so there's a six month

00:36:22.900 cutting short of people's lives on average here uh that is bad and we need to protect these people

00:36:28.260 but it's it's affecting older people so there's good reason uh i haven't been with seniors home

00:36:33.060 other than that i've got no one in a home right now uh but if i was to go in a senior's home

00:36:38.420 i'd be putting people at risk and this is one of the few risks this is one of those restrictions 0.86

00:36:43.620 that i think makes sense we shouldn't have you know this is isolating seniors but they are

00:36:47.860 genuinely at risk so you know if you've got to see grandma and grandpa in the seniors home uh

00:36:54.500 that is unfortunately genuinely at risk uh you know i think this is actually a good tangent

00:36:58.740 when we go to dave we had a case uh i think it was in calgary we had a man who was knowingly

00:37:04.580 infected, going into a senior's home. Dave, I think that's a good tangent to go to you over.

00:37:09.460 Why don't you tell us about what happened in that story?

00:37:13.140 Can you imagine anything more selfish, anything more despicable than knowing that you have COVID,

00:37:19.940 knowing what they do to old folks' homes, how they spread like wildfire,

00:37:24.260 knowing that you have it and going into one. This happened in Calgary last week where a gentleman

00:37:30.660 who knowingly had the disease went into a uh an old folks home and lied to them they are obviously

00:37:37.460 all visited visitors are asked and he said no he didn't have it that didn't have any symptoms and

00:37:43.220 and lied and visited his family member uh just absolutely disgusting it's being investigated by

00:37:50.740 by health services and uh you know hopefully it gets to the police because i think criminal

00:37:55.300 negligence charges should be laid as to the viewers question i think the the answer is no 1.00

00:38:03.380 we wouldn't be invited we wouldn't want to go into a an old folks home for for their own safety i 0.99

00:38:09.460 know unfortunately i don't have any family members who are in there i know lots of people who do 1.00

00:38:14.500 though and in fact i know a person whose uncle died uh in in one of the outbreaks at a calvary

00:38:21.540 home i've seen the agony of people that cannot visit their relatives that they're they're not

00:38:26.980 allowed to visit them they can't you know just no human contact whatsoever and it's absolutely

00:38:33.060 heartbreaking and i think what has happened to old folks homes not in alberta but across the country

00:38:40.580 is a national disgrace an absolute disgrace and answers need to be found so it doesn't happen

00:38:48.340 again. Yeah, it really is a tough situation. If these are communal living places, transmissions

00:38:57.840 of any kind are very easy, especially for an easily communicable virus like COVID-19.

00:39:04.240 And COVID-19, while it might not be particularly dangerous to me, I'm probably jinxing myself. I'm

00:39:09.800 going to get the Rona now. But, you know, it's not particularly dangerous to people in my age

00:39:18.120 demographic. But it is extremely dangerous to older people. There's a very high fatality rate

00:39:23.080 for older people, particularly if they're already have their health compromised, requiring them to

00:39:28.360 be in a senior's home. But at the same time, it's leaving them devastatingly isolated. These are

00:39:34.660 people who are already pretty isolated. They're very sad not to be living in their own home

00:39:38.960 anymore. They're now playing bingo, you know, half of their day and jeopardy. Like it's not,

00:39:45.500 it's not they're already feeling pretty isolated now they're not able to see any one of their loved

00:39:49.900 ones so it it's extremely tough but i think it is one of the few areas uh that that is necessary

00:39:56.700 if you get a corporate break outbreak in a senior's home there's going to be a lot of deaths

00:40:01.900 uh well uh anything else to add on that or the mask mandates

00:40:11.500 okay well uh we're going to take a little time kind of go through some of the comments and

00:40:14.780 questions that we have uh we're not going to be able to get to uh every single one unfortunately

00:40:20.300 uh we've got quite a few uh the audience is building up quite a bit on the pipeline here

00:40:27.100 so uh it's it's getting more difficult to go through everyone um

00:40:34.620 uh dean elson says uh the media ignores everything except what sock boy i'm guessing 0.91

00:40:39.740 suck boys our prime minister uh tells his masters don't want published um i think insinuating pretty

00:40:47.820 strong pretty strongly uh i wouldn't even say insinuating saying quite strongly that uh you know 0.97

00:40:53.340 trudeau uh has some kind of direct control over the media here and that's why they're not publishing

00:40:58.460 about the 570 increase in the carbon tax uh yes there's going to be some uh media probably not

00:41:07.020 an insignificant number of media in ottawa that have some kind they feel some kind of personal

00:41:12.940 obligation to trudeau or an ideological affinity uh which is why they're not doing this but i i

00:41:18.380 don't think he's necessarily making orders i think this is uh self-censorship and that this is not a

00:41:24.060 good story for the liberals uh this is not something that would be popular with a lot of

00:41:28.860 people particularly in the west but many in the east as well um i i don't know i corey do you think

00:41:35.580 this is more, do you think there's anything to this, that this is kind of directly coming from

00:41:40.540 the PMO, or do you think this is more a conspiracy of silence in the sense of they're just kind of

00:41:46.640 running cover for the Prime Minister by not covering this issue? Yeah, I don't think there's

00:41:50.020 anything direct from him or anything. I mean, I wouldn't shock you, perhaps, a bit in the state

00:41:53.880 broadcaster and Mother Corp there, you know, on the CBC that they're in a bit of a different bubble

00:41:58.220 of world. But for the most part, I mean, we just do have a liberal-leaning mainstream media. I mean,

00:42:04.200 whether it's the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail,

00:42:06.960 typically, they're calling this some others

00:42:09.480 to start to see that as a priority

00:42:10.800 on something that might not be friendly.

00:42:13.400 Yeah, the comment immediately following from Corey Shiplack

00:42:17.960 says the mainstream media are paid lackeys.

00:42:21.320 I think there's a lot to that, that the media now,

00:42:24.160 not just the CBC, which is directly funded by the government,

00:42:26.720 but now the vast majority of the mainstream media

00:42:29.320 are on the take and being subsidized

00:42:32.120 by the federal government.

00:42:34.760 I'll repeat for the 10,000th time,

00:42:36.620 the Western Standard refuses to accept government subsidies.

00:42:40.620 Whenever we point this out,

00:42:41.660 this makes a lot of people in our competitor media

00:42:44.960 that do receive the subsidies very angry.

00:42:47.060 They say, no, no, no, this is just economic aid.

00:42:49.260 This has nothing to do with our coverage.

00:42:52.220 Ken, do you think that the media subsidies

00:42:55.340 have something to do, I guess, first more broadly,

00:42:59.540 Does the media subsidies from the federal government impact coverage at all in the media

00:43:07.260 that receive this money?

00:43:09.520 And do you think it has any impact on how they're covering, or I should say not covering,

00:43:14.720 this huge increase in the carbon tax?

00:43:16.720 Well, Derek, it's not supposed to, obviously, but on the other hand, the federal government

00:43:22.340 is giving these media outlets money.

00:43:29.180 how likely are you to criticize someone who is paying your bills? That's really the

00:43:36.460 philosophical difficulty with that practice. I don't think that it's a case of the PMO

00:43:43.660 issuing orders to specific media outlets. But the other part of it too, I think, is access.

00:43:51.740 so if you're a reporter uh looking for uh you know an interview with a minister or perhaps

00:43:59.820 the prime minister um the way that you have reported on that minister may affect your

00:44:07.020 chances of getting the interview so you know that's true in the united states as well it's

00:44:11.900 a question of excess well that's a good that's actually actually a great point in general you

00:44:17.020 know if you're critical of politicians you're less likely to get interviews with them sometimes

00:44:21.020 fairly if you're being unfairly critical of a politician they have a right not to talk to you

00:44:25.980 uh you know when i was in politics there were some reporters that i knew uh would hate me no matter

00:44:30.460 what and i just wouldn't talk to them because you're just not gonna get a fair shake um but

00:44:35.180 they're all you know i think it's fair to say just anyone being critical sometimes some uh you know

00:44:40.940 trudeau the liberals are used to very favorable coverage and if you're critical you're just not

00:44:44.380 going to get the questions uh you know again coming back to brian lily's piece in the sun

00:44:49.660 about uh media coverage mainstream media coverage of the carbon tax increase

00:44:54.540 uh justin trudeau took questions from a student newspaper uh but wouldn't even take questions

00:44:59.340 from brian lily at the sun one of the biggest part of post media the biggest media chain in the

00:45:03.180 country uh dave uh i mean you've been trying to yeah we're often i think i consider us to be of

00:45:11.660 course i would but i think we are fairly considered to be um a fair but critical uh news outlet

00:45:20.460 of governments uh we're probably the only news outlet that sorry someone's got a phone going on

00:45:27.020 in the background uh but if uh you know at least in alberta we're essentially the only news that

00:45:33.980 would criticize uh jason kenny and the ucp from a perspective that is not to their left um you know

00:45:41.020 so we've been critical at least on our opinion side in lockdowns and whatnot dave do you think

00:45:46.780 this is um you know do you think say our coverage of this is a reason that someone like uh you know

00:45:53.980 jason kenney won't take questions from the western standard or or be interviewed by the western

00:45:59.820 standard uh while he talks to most most mainstream outlets that he might be more he's less comfortable

00:46:06.300 with any criticism that would be coming from his right side?

00:46:10.080 Oh, absolutely, Derek.

00:46:11.720 I mean, at the Western Standard, we don't care who we piss off as long as we, you know,

00:46:16.800 as long as we get the story right and make it accurate.

00:46:19.740 But if you're an average consumer of the news and you're sitting at home and you're listening

00:46:26.900 to a Jason Kenney press conference or you're listening to a Prime Minister Trudeau press

00:46:34.260 conference just listen to who they're accepting questions from when they're taking questions over

00:46:40.420 the phone it's not first come first serve and it's not random they pick and choose who gets to ask

00:46:47.540 the questions so of course they're going to choose a cbc reporter every time of course they're going

00:46:53.700 to choose a french cbc reporter every single time of course they're not going to pick brian

00:46:59.860 lily of the toronto sun or perhaps dave nailer of the western standard because they know they may

00:47:06.500 not have the answers to the questions that uh uh that that we're going to ask so it's uh

00:47:14.740 you know you know as ken said if if if you're all young reporters will say that they're not

00:47:21.380 influenced by any of this bailout money and they and they just want to to get the story and for

00:47:27.940 obviously that's correct yeah you know the the warrior so is the higher of the higher levels of

00:47:34.500 the newsroom there are no red phones in publisher's office to the to the to the pmo but surely that

00:47:41.700 they you know once you get to a certain level within the newsroom there must be in the back

00:47:46.900 of their heads and you know again just listen to who the the the politicians are accepting

00:47:52.900 questions from anything that tells you a lot about it

00:47:57.700 uh indeed uh we've got a comment from uh ab free i'm not sure uh from uh

00:48:04.260 youtube we're actually yeah we're now streaming finally on youtube ab free

00:48:07.460 says uh how can we replace kenny with someone

00:48:10.180 who will respect our liberties as soon as possible

00:48:13.220 um

00:48:16.900 corey why don't you try to bite that off there's not much to be said i mean

00:48:20.580 You know, we are as frustrating parts of our democracy, organized on the ground, work with a different party or work within that party.

00:48:30.420 There's an election in a couple of years and you have to convince enough Albertans to move along.

00:48:35.400 That's the only path.

00:48:37.360 Rationally, I see.

00:48:38.180 I know some people might want to pursue things that are faster, but as far as that goes, that's the only way he's going to be replaced.

00:48:43.660 there is no effective way to replace a sitting premier or prime minister in

00:48:49.420 Canada unless you have a caucus revolt and even then

00:48:52.460 there are questions around it the UCP constitution does not allow

00:48:58.860 even a vote by the members on a leadership review

00:49:02.060 if they're in government there's only ever a vote on leadership reviews

00:49:05.420 if they lose the election now the guy who essentially wrote that

00:49:10.380 constitution might have something uh might have some kind of vested interest in a rule like that

00:49:15.980 but uh you know i've had ucp members contact us who are upset saying hey can we uh why don't you

00:49:21.260 do something on there being a leadership review in the ucp well no it's not allowed there is no

00:49:24.780 leadership reviews in the ucp if if they won the last election and they did win the last election

00:49:30.300 uh so theoretically the only way to get if you're a ucp member and you want to keep the ucp but get

00:49:35.980 rid of jason kenney you have to convince the majority of the caucus to vote him out highly

00:49:41.020 highly highly unlikely uh it does happen but generally it only happens when your polls start

00:49:46.140 to head towards single digits and mlas are worried about losing the election then you get something

00:49:50.620 like what happened with alice and redford where the caucus says okay we're going to lose our seats

00:49:55.740 so you're gone uh otherwise uh your only other option is to support a different party uh i mean

00:50:02.860 but if you're on the right you're obviously not going to support the ndp so that leaves you with

00:50:06.860 one of the smaller newer parties like wild rose independence or i guess there's a there's a whole

00:50:13.980 array of small parties on that side but yeah there's a few of them there but uh really there's

00:50:19.580 not much you can do between elections uh we were promised there'd be recall uh but there is no

00:50:24.860 recall yet that i'm aware so that's that um well i think we'll uh we'll wrap it up there i know

00:50:33.420 there's a bunch of others uh other comments here and questions but uh we try to keep it short not

00:50:38.300 waste your guys time uh but make sure you turn in next week uh if you're remember if you're trying

00:50:43.580 to comment and you like your comments displayed on the uh on the stream you need to keep them

00:50:49.260 short if they're too long or you put links in them we're just not going to put it on because

00:50:52.860 it'll cover half the screen and cover our beautiful faces and we're just not going to do that but we

00:50:57.740 thank you very much for your participation uh we thank our western standard members for your

00:51:02.140 support again if you're not yet a western standard member but like what we're doing you want to support

00:51:06.860 an independent western free press that refuses to accept government subsidies please go to

00:51:12.300 westernstandardonline.com click on the membership section and sign up uh we very much need your

00:51:17.900 support to continue doing what we're doing thank you very much for your time uh we appreciate you

00:51:23.020 tuning in your questions and comments uh cory dave ken thank you very much for joining us and

00:51:27.980 especially ken i guess uh who's appearing for our first time from our new uh our new bureau

00:51:33.820 in ottawa thank you very much for joining us guys thanks jared bye welcome aboard ken thank you

00:51:47.900 You

Western Standard - December 17, 2020

The Pipeline December 16, 2020

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