Western Standard - The Pipeline-May 5, 2021

00:00:00.000 .

00:00:30.000 .

00:01:00.000 .

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 Thank you.

00:02:30.000 Good day, I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard.

00:02:52.620 You're watching The Pipeline today on May 8th, 2021.

00:02:58.140 I'm joined today in the Western Standards Calgary office by our Alberta political columnist and host of the Corey Morgan Show, Corey Morgan.

00:03:08.440 Good day, Corey.

00:03:09.200 Good morning.

00:03:09.900 Good afternoon.

00:03:11.080 It's noon.

00:03:11.780 I'm not really sure ever what to call.

00:03:13.160 Split the difference.

00:03:13.800 How do you wish someone something when it's just noon?

00:03:16.980 Good day.

00:03:17.360 Good noon?

00:03:17.920 Good day.

00:03:18.460 Yeah, just cover the voice.

00:03:19.420 Guten tag.

00:03:20.620 Okay.

00:03:22.500 Bienvenue.

00:03:22.980 Dave Naylor, our news editor, coming to us temporarily from BC. How you doing, Dave?

00:03:30.500 Good. It's still morning here, Derek, for another 52 minutes.

00:03:35.180 Lazy left coasters sleeping in. We've got an interesting show today. We're going to be

00:03:44.320 talking about the fallout of the Rogue Rodeo in Bowdoin, Alberta, the many heads exploding

00:03:50.100 across Alberta and Canada over the event and the media coverage surrounding it. Jason Kenney has

00:03:58.440 taken Alberta's third lockdown and made it a hard lockdown. We are now pretty much fully

00:04:05.480 locked down. We're not under curfew. They're not going to arrest us for walking on the sidewalk

00:04:09.280 after 8pm, but that would seem to be the next step there. We're going to talk about the third

00:04:15.160 lockdown. We're going to talk also about a big exclusive story that came from the Western

00:04:19.720 Standards, Dave Naylor, three UCP MLAs telling the Western Standard that during a caucus meeting,

00:04:27.960 Jason Kenney, referring to people who attended the rodeo said, if that's our base, I want a new base.

00:04:35.520 Fast and furious reaction from many UCP voters across Alberta. We'll talk about the politics of

00:04:42.740 that and what it means. And also today, Alberta RCMP seized the Whistle Stop Cafe, a constant

00:04:50.900 thorn in the side of the government refusing to shut down. They reopened in January of this year

00:04:56.600 because they were just going to go out of business. They've been constantly harassed by

00:05:00.840 police and AHS officials, could refuse to shut down no matter what licenses they pulled. And

00:05:06.860 today they raided it, seized the property, changed the locks. We're going to talk about

00:05:13.160 that. But first, I want to thank all of our Western Standard members who are supporting

00:05:18.580 us in incredible numbers right now. If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard,

00:05:22.300 go to westernstandardonline.com membership. Try us out for 15 days. See if you like bailout

00:05:29.000 free media. If you do, continue on with us. If not, enjoy everything else. And today's

00:05:35.500 show is sponsored by EndAlbertaLockdown.com. EndAlbertaLockdown.com is a citizens advocacy

00:05:43.440 group in Alberta fighting to end the lockdown and some of the harsher restrictions that are out

00:05:49.200 there. They were actually there in significant numbers at the rodeo over the weekend, unsurprisingly.

00:05:55.080 They were one of the sponsors of the rodeo alongside the Western Standard.

00:05:59.340 You can check them out, sign their petition at EndAlbertaLockdown.com.

00:06:03.860 uh well and also also maybe i should remind people you can also uh in addition to watching

00:06:10.520 us on facebook live or youtube live you can also check us out on podcast subscribe so you can get

00:06:15.940 uh every you can get the pipeline every week but also the cory morgan show nathan guida's

00:06:20.380 mountain standard time show and everything else that we're doing we actually now broadcast rodeos

00:06:24.760 live that's what it was a new first that's new business right yes well uh that that's actually

00:06:30.500 a good pivot for us let's uh let's get into the controversy around the rogue rodeo uh the western

00:06:36.660 standard as some of you know was a sponsor of the rodeo we were uh we were there in forest covering

00:06:42.180 the event over the weekend we had uh well it was our first time trying to do some live action film

00:06:48.420 uh of this kind uh we did our best we i was actually pretty happy with it but some people

00:06:53.860 said the audio was a bit spotty but we had uh live coverage of the rodeo in real time uh broadcasting

00:07:00.260 uh across the west uh it was it was a fun time i enjoyed myself uh it really felt good to breathe

00:07:07.380 the fresh air uh but quite a bit of controversy around it many a heads exploding uh in alberta

00:07:14.180 and across canada over the event of course the golden mails western uh columnist uh gary mason

00:07:21.540 i think it is who uh writes about alberta from vancouver uh who put it said this is a very bad

00:07:29.140 thing uh many a progressive on twitter and uh now and and conservative on twitter at least capital

00:07:35.540 c conservative uh accusing the attendees of attempted murder uh i'm not exaggerating much

00:07:42.580 it's been insane with it yeah uh well let's let's go to dave dave why don't you tell us um

00:07:49.220 uh cory will tell us about the rodeo itself but uh dave why don't you just tell us about

00:07:53.700 but the fallout from the event and the political controversy that it's generated.

00:07:59.440 Yeah, as you know, guys, it was put on by Ty Northcott down in Bowdoin, south of Bowdoin, I guess.

00:08:07.740 He was going to hold it at the Bowdoin Agricultural Society,

00:08:11.200 and apparently the AHS put so much pressure on them, Ty took it off their shoulders.

00:08:17.540 And I think it basically built a little rodeo ring, you can see by the photos there.

00:08:21.480 I mean, it doesn't get much more Western than that, does it?

00:08:26.200 From all reports, the 4,000 people, more than 4,000 people over two days had a great time.

00:08:33.300 And everything went off as it should.

00:08:36.340 I think from what I saw, the Bulls were winning and the Cowboys were losing.

00:08:40.700 But there you go.

00:08:42.100 But the fallout was quick.

00:08:43.400 The fallout was furious.

00:08:46.060 Rachel Notley took to Twitter to say it was disgusting.

00:08:50.740 This came, the Saturday came the same day as the province announced a record COVID case count, close to 2,500.

00:08:59.380 Rachel Notley said she was at a loss for words.

00:09:02.660 I guess that was expected from the NDP.

00:09:06.060 But the criticism also came from the right wing of the spectrum.

00:09:10.840 Jason Kenney went on a long Facebook diatribe about it, said he was disturbed.

00:09:15.740 disturbed many other people on the right uh also said uh anyway it was just crazy as corey was

00:09:23.460 hinting just really vile uh social media stuff that uh that was just just beyond the pale so

00:09:32.020 you know we'll talk about the further uh political fallout from it and other statements that the

00:09:37.880 premier said uh later on guys but uh it was certainly a polarizing event uh that was held

00:09:45.180 in uh south of bowden on the weekend uh thanks dave i know we had one interesting comment that

00:09:54.620 struck home to me uh in the comments section already uh someone said uh you know they shut

00:10:01.020 oh i i'm skipping way ahead but i did mention the whistle stop at the beginning they said

00:10:05.260 the whistle stop you know they've shut down but it takes years to close a crack house

00:10:09.420 I remember I used to live in Bowdoin, sorry, not Bowness, on the west end of Calgary, and

00:10:16.540 there was a crack house down the alley. It was a nice, relatively nice neighborhood,

00:10:22.420 families, kids, and there was this crack house with just a plague on the neighborhood. We called

00:10:27.380 the cops all the time. I'd call the cops when there were drug deals going down. They'd come

00:10:32.460 a couple hours later, not much attention paid. It seems in Alberta, at least, when it comes to

00:10:38.580 enforcement uh the police are much happier to beat up hockey players to close down cafes

00:10:43.540 than they are to close crack houses um but that that's a bit of a digression from uh

00:10:49.460 from what we're on right now uh the rodeo uh cory i know uh you faced a particular degree of wrath

00:10:59.220 and you always face a lot of wrath i mean you are a shit disturber it's it's a talent you have i i

00:11:06.020 think i'm pretty good at it but you're you are you are special at it and um but particular wrath um 0.76

00:11:12.980 on a one uh so-called progressive uh alberta activist on twitter uh doxed you put your

00:11:21.780 personal information out there i i with the assumed intent of either violence or property damage um

00:11:28.420 um, why is this, why is this rodeo held outside? So pretty safe. It's outdoors.

00:11:35.140 Why is this driving people so batshit crazy? Well, yeah, I mean, I draw a lot of it on myself

00:11:41.540 because I am an asshole and I have been, you know, in their face about it all weekend as I covered

00:11:46.960 it. It's just part of what I do. If you follow me, you got to know what you're in for. Uh,

00:11:50.820 the doxing, you know, that's annoying. It's frustrating putting somebody's personal information

00:11:53.940 out. It's an intimidation tactic. We know most of the people who are upset. We're actually

00:11:57.480 basement dwelling wankers who are never going to leave their house or come and threaten or

00:12:00.920 intimidate somebody but it's still a pretty low tactic to do and you know what extremists on the

00:12:06.140 right do that too it's just a sign of people that are too far over but you know either getting back

00:12:11.000 to the rodeo what I enjoyed at the rodeo and what I found was we had a day of living a day of being

00:12:16.920 out a day of being around other people enjoying ourselves having a good time and I contrary to

00:12:23.160 as some people might believe, a safe time. It was a very great weekend, and we were all overdue for

00:12:29.400 it. And there were smiling faces everywhere. Yes, they were unmasked. You wouldn't be able to tell

00:12:33.000 if they were masked. I honestly feel that upsets a lot of people, though. So there's some people

00:12:37.980 that's fine. They feel that you have to hide in your cave. You've got to stay in your basement.

00:12:42.940 You've got to be miserable. You've got to give up relationships, give up having a good time with

00:12:47.740 other people and being human again. And it infuriates them to see other people actually

00:12:52.320 doing it. And it's the same people we've seen all the way through this. I mean, it's Sylvan Lake,

00:12:56.420 they all lost it last summer. And the usual line, just wait two weeks, just wait two weeks. Well,

00:12:59.960 you know what happened after two weeks? Nothing. If they waited two weeks, they'd still be waiting

00:13:03.780 another year or so probably. Yeah, we see that with every gathering. Super Bowl, same thing. Two

00:13:07.680 weeks, two weeks, nothing. You know, spring break in Florida, nothing. A Houston baseball game,

00:13:13.580 nothing. I don't anticipate a lot coming out of this. I mean, there's some, a lot of what the

00:13:17.900 broader discussion is, is yes, infections rise and lower and go up and down in different areas.

00:13:23.740 But the amount of impact that government restrictions and lockdowns have upon these

00:13:28.900 infections is very questionable. So, but it really brought out some vitriol and rage from people that

00:13:35.340 was unprecedented. And hey, keep it coming, guys. I thrive on it. But I mean, it also just showed

00:13:40.420 how divided and, you know, tribal people have gotten over this whole affair. And it's really

00:13:46.360 been that that's not a been a good human side that we've been seeing out of this no um you know

00:13:52.460 we were one of very few media allowed actually onto the property um all the government funded

00:13:58.600 media they were out standing alongside the ditch uh normally about roughly 500 meters between them

00:14:05.560 and the next human being and they sat there in the ditch wearing a mask uh by themselves hey you want

00:14:09.980 to wear a mask it's your personal choice wear a mask i mean i mean i should say it should be your

00:14:14.140 person of choice. But if you want to wear a mask, wear a mask. But they're standing in the field

00:14:18.440 in the middle of frankly nowhere without a human within 500 meters of them in a ditch

00:14:24.880 filming the people on the inside of the rodeo like they were zoo animals. It was quite something to

00:14:32.020 see. The media reaction universally slanted against this. These are bad people, evil people.

00:14:38.820 I know some of the further left commentators saying without exaggeration that if anyone gets sick from this, that there should be attempted murder charges or manslaughter charges.

00:14:52.740 I guess really quick segue, Drew Farrell, city councillor in Calgary.

00:14:58.020 Dave, you had a story on this.

00:14:59.820 She was inquiring if it's possible for the police to start charging people with manslaughter for holding house parties.

00:15:05.860 uh people have lost their absolute minds um and there are extremes on both sides i'm sure you

00:15:13.780 know there's lizard people conspiracy theorists over here um but they seem to be a relatively

00:15:18.980 small number whereas the other side is asking to jail people for not complying with their politics

00:15:27.700 and go further jail people for going to rodeo that's all they did they went to a rodeo you guys

00:15:32.980 are so insane you think the RCMP should march in there and that's what people were demanding they

00:15:37.460 should march in there put them so and not that people were dangerous but you know what i mean

00:15:41.860 you're marching into a situation with say a dozen or 20 RCMP officers we have 2 000 collected people

00:15:47.860 and you're telling them get in there and start enforcing the law and finding people violence

00:15:51.060 they're calling for violence yeah and that could escalate a situation from a perfectly passive

00:15:56.020 afternoon and peaceful one into something terrible so think a little harder guys i know if you're

00:15:59.940 upset with it and everything but your demands are ridiculous and you know these threats of

00:16:03.860 charging people with murder it's just insane and that's the word for the day i think is insane

00:16:08.560 yeah um so we had a swift condemnation of uh of the rodeo from uh jason kenney uh alberta premier

00:16:20.440 uh alberta health minister tyler shando shandro and rachel notley the ndp leader and uh shadow

00:16:27.160 premier i'd say at this point um dave why don't you tell us about the reaction from uh jason kenny

00:16:33.960 before we get into the base thing we'll get into that after but the public on the record reaction

00:16:39.320 from uh from kenny shandro and notley well they all three of them agreed that it was uh

00:16:47.800 not the right thing to do shall we shall we say it that way uh kenny went on a very lengthy uh

00:16:53.080 facebook tirade about it uh called it disturbing and i think he the the thing that upset everybody

00:16:58.760 that was at the rodeo was kenny called it quote not the cowboy way and he said that to a arena

00:17:06.040 full of cowboys basically uh who hadn't worked in a year they were they were they were you know

00:17:12.680 doing the thing they loved and and trying to earn a little bit of money as was the organizer uh

00:17:18.120 Mr. Northcott. You know, he's been the subject of, I guess, four lockdowns now.

00:17:24.460 His business is being ruined. He's down to 50% of the amount of livestock that he had before COVID hit, and he just had enough.

00:17:34.820 So he put on the rodeo, and as you guys have mentioned, the political leaders have mainly lost their minds.

00:17:42.900 Notley was against it.

00:17:45.360 Shandro came out against it, also issued a lengthy statement.

00:17:52.480 Just one thing, just as a side note, guys, about the mainstream media coverage.

00:17:57.500 There was really none leading up to the event.

00:18:00.540 They didn't say it was going to happen.

00:18:02.160 I think maybe CTV did an advance story that it was going to happen.

00:18:06.180 But everybody else didn't even bother covering it.

00:18:08.860 And this was an event that attracted 4,000 people.

00:18:11.900 Didn't bother to cover it until people started speaking out against it.

00:18:16.720 As soon as Kenny did, bang, it was their main news item.

00:18:20.200 As soon as Notley did, bang, it was their main news item.

00:18:23.340 And Shandro, bam, bam, bam.

00:18:25.500 Anybody they could get criticizing it, that's the angle they went with.

00:18:29.060 They didn't care about the average person who was there or what Mr. Northcott has been going through.

00:18:35.780 So it was sadly predictable, Derek.

00:18:41.900 Yeah, it really wasn't. Some of the media even said it's canceled, it's not going forward. They said that because the government said it's canceled. The government said it's not allowed to happen. And much of the mainstream media, I know you caught this, Corey, they said, well, it's not going to happen because the government said it's canceled. I think you're missing the idea of an illegal rodeo. They don't give a crap if it's canceled.

00:19:07.580 They were reporting on a rumor, I think, at one point as well that had been going around.

00:19:11.240 I mean, it was actually some pretty unexpectedly poor media, you know, practice prior to that.

00:19:17.120 You know, it shouldn't be us wagging our fingers at the heavyweight government-funded media out there.

00:19:22.860 You know, I thought you guys were the pillar of media practices, but their coverage of this rodeo, I think it's an event.

00:19:29.780 Whether you agree with it or you don't agree with it, this was definitely a news event within Alberta,

00:19:34.020 and you guys chose to turn your back on it, so that's fine.

00:19:36.620 viewers are choosing to turn their back on you yep let them continue to fade away uh dave uh quickly

00:19:42.900 let's just touch on a reaction from the town of bowden very upset with uh premier kenny calling

00:19:48.740 for a retraction why don't you tell us about that yeah premier kenny certainly dragged the town of

00:19:54.820 bowden through the mud uh you know a lot of bowden residents were at at the rodeo certainly helped

00:20:02.080 organized it and helped Mr. Northcott set it up. The town of Bowdoin itself wasn't happy

00:20:08.880 with the Premier's comments. The Agricultural Society was not happy with the Premier's comments.

00:20:14.320 They teamed up to issue a joint statement Tuesday night. There's a story on it on our website right

00:20:20.800 now, westernstandardonline.com. You can read how angry they were. The president of the Agricultural

00:20:29.280 society very very strong in his comments uh demanding the premier retracted and

00:20:35.120 and not paint the uh the entire town of bowden with the same brush

00:20:43.920 okay well uh we've gotten into uh the premier's public reaction but the private reaction this is

00:20:51.120 is something you very rarely get much insight into uh yesterday um we got a tip and dave you

00:20:59.040 made some phone calls we have three ucp mlas on the record uh telling telling us about uh what

00:21:07.920 the premier said in a behind closed doors virtual uh caucus meeting uh dave tell us about uh that

00:21:15.040 story. It's really quite incredible. It really was, Derek. This was a UCP MLA's virtual town

00:21:23.760 hall meeting that they had on Sunday morning. And the premier was still going on a tirade about the

00:21:30.440 rodeo and the people in Bowdoin, all 4,000 of them again coming out. And he was quite strong

00:21:36.880 against it. And MLA then spoke up and said, well, excuse me, sir, but you know, you're talking about

00:21:44.160 our base maybe we should uh maybe we should go a little bit easier on them and kenny said if if

00:21:50.800 that's our base quote i want a new base and and that quote came to us from not one not two but

00:21:57.520 three separate mlas that we talked to on the condition of anonymity of course and that set

00:22:04.560 off an immediate reaction of dismay and anger because these people really are the UCP base.

00:22:14.720 The UCP has always been strongest in the rural areas of Alberta and they're the ones that are

00:22:22.560 currently fighting against all the lockdowns. It was mainly the rural voters that came out on the

00:22:27.200 weekend i would think to uh to the action so kenny to say that though that he wants a different base

00:22:34.880 other than that i'm not sure where he goes there i'll leave the analysis to you to you and uh and

00:22:40.640 corey um in fairness last night when he was asked about it at a press conference kenny denied our

00:22:46.880 story uh said it was inaccurate basically said it was false news uh i think we'll stick by our three

00:22:53.040 UCP MLAs that actually told us what he said. And Kenny said, well, no, he wasn't really speaking

00:23:00.560 about the good people at the rodeo. He was speaking about the tin foil hat brigade and

00:23:07.120 the lizard people, quote unquote. He also went on about death threats that he had received and

00:23:14.400 threats that people said they knew where his widowed 83-year-old mother lives. And

00:23:19.360 And he just went on about the tone of the debate and shook his head about it and said, yeah, said it again.

00:23:30.200 You know, if the tinfoil hat brigade is our base, then, yeah, I'll take a new base.

00:23:35.720 So the reaction was strong, even from former leaders, former Wild Rose leader and Brian Jean,

00:23:43.700 who merged into the UCP with Kenny, came out and basically called him a failed leader,

00:23:50.820 said it's not the base's fault when you lose the leader, it's the leader's fault to lose the base.

00:23:58.760 And a lot of strong off-the-record stuff from other MLAs who are just shaking their head at the Premier's comments, guys.

00:24:09.040 Yeah, well, that was Kenny's excuse.

00:24:12.080 It wasn't actually at a press conference.

00:24:13.180 That was a Facebook Live.

00:24:14.420 He was supposed to have a press conference at four o'clock yesterday, and he canceled that very promptly after this story came out from the Western Standard here.

00:24:26.640 I'm sure he was not looking forward to getting questions from other reporters since Dave Naylor is not allowed to ask questions of the premier.

00:24:36.200 If this story was true, like, did you say I want a new base?

00:24:39.640 So he was asked by people on the Facebook Live later that evening, I think around 8 o'clock, about this.

00:24:47.740 And that's when he gave his story that this was talking about conspiracy theorists and wackos and things like that.

00:24:57.460 I'm not sure how much I buy it, playing the victim card.

00:25:00.720 I've gotten death threats in politics, and I wasn't the premier, obviously.

00:25:04.940 I imagine Jason Kenney does get death threats.

00:25:08.040 But that doesn't seem to be really the context of what was happening.

00:25:11.180 This was about the rodeo, and I am not aware of anyone at the rodeo

00:25:15.060 making death threats against Jason Kenney.

00:25:19.500 I don't know.

00:25:20.960 Do you buy Kenney's story here?

00:25:24.200 And what do you think is going to be the follow-up from this?

00:25:27.080 Because this story has had massive, massive readership.

00:25:29.880 It's really – it crashed our site at one point.

00:25:32.180 It's still got to go as slow as a result.

00:25:34.340 What do you think the follow-up is going to be of these comments?

00:25:36.760 Yeah, well, I mean, I do believe that there's probably been some of that insanity and death threats and doxing and threats to his mother. I mean, that's how polarizing and insane, as I said, this is. And there's, I'm sure out of 2000 people at the rodeo, there was a handful of real flakes among them. That's just law of averages. And unfortunately, there's going to be some extremists. And it's intolerable, no matter what side of the spectrum you're on, threatening people, that sort of crap. It's got to stop. But this is so inflamed.

00:26:01.240 now with Kenny though he's been losing his base already I mean to go and kick himself

00:26:07.840 like that you gotta understand uh where are you gonna go as Dave said you know if that's the base

00:26:15.120 you want a new one well there's no pile of people waiting with open arms Jason to grab you there's

00:26:20.820 an old saying if you want a western one you dance with the one that brung you and we put you in that

00:26:25.320 position as leader and then premier we're the ones who brung you if you can't represent them anymore

00:26:30.060 Maybe it's time for someone else to step in and do it or learn how to do it.

00:26:34.600 You know, leadership means you can manage that base, even if you differ with them a bit.

00:26:38.620 But right now you've lost control and firing outwards at those people who put them there is not going to do him any more favors with his own personal support or with caucus who are getting more and more uncomfortable with him.

00:26:49.560 As we see, if he held a strong support in caucus, we wouldn't be able to get all those heads up every time he does something like that.

00:26:55.180 You know, it does have to be maddening that if J.C. Kenney says something, normally 30

00:27:01.540 minutes later, it's in the Western Standard when he says these things in caucus.

00:27:08.160 I could tell you, you know, caucus does need to be a place for frank discussion where you

00:27:12.920 start getting, I mean, some people will leak from caucus without good intentions of being

00:27:16.820 troublemakers.

00:27:17.560 But most of the time, if you have a leak from caucus about a discussion that's going on,

00:27:22.020 it's it's a sign that MLAs cannot speak freely they cannot express their

00:27:30.640 concerns for fear of being kicked out of the caucus and the MLAs that are

00:27:36.080 talking to our reporters they've tried everything they can't say much more in

00:27:40.640 public without getting kicked out this this is really their way of expressing

00:27:44.580 themselves so Jason Kenney's left with little else but then to call his own

00:27:48.920 MLA's liars who are who are speaking to us and they're speaking to us pretty pretty commonly

00:27:56.280 right now. It's it's not a good spot for a leader to be in when you've lost that that much support

00:28:02.040 of your caucus where where they feel they've got little choice but to go to media. Okay well

00:28:10.840 So, we have a great segue to segue to segue here today.

00:28:17.700 So, Jason Kenney had a bit of a hissy fit press conference Monday saying, I've been a good papa.

00:28:28.400 I've put us under these lockdown measures and other restrictions, and people aren't listening.

00:28:34.380 And because you're not listening to me, and bad people or disturbing people, like we saw in Bowdoin at the rodeo,

00:28:40.840 I'm going to have to tighten this lockdown further. Jason Kenney is going to tighten his grip. He's going to show no mercy now. We're going to get really serious about lockdowns.

00:28:53.080 So, Kenny is now tightening the third lockdown, blaming much of it, pretty much blaming the entire thing on people not complying.

00:29:01.200 And, well, people aren't complying in massive numbers.

00:29:05.120 For a lockdown to work, you need almost universal social buy-in.

00:29:10.120 You need 99% plus, not just to comply, but to voluntarily comply because they believe that this is serious.

00:29:17.480 They believe it's necessary.

00:29:19.640 I believe it is serious, but I don't believe it's necessary. 0.93

00:29:22.020 I mean, when we saw the first lockdown in March last year, at that time, with what little evidence we had coming out of China, I was willing to accept that that was necessary.

00:29:34.960 As we got more evidence, actual hard facts, it became very clear that it's not.

00:29:39.680 And so you just don't have the social buy-in to make this kind of thing happen.

00:29:44.600 And people are not complying in massive numbers right now.

00:29:48.620 But apparently getting stricter is going to somehow make us just give up and comply.

00:29:54.200 Dave, why don't you tell us about the details of the tightened level of the third lockdown?

00:30:00.960 Derek, Kenny noted on Monday that our neighbors in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, their numbers are dropping.

00:30:08.800 Ours aren't.

00:30:09.680 He said there was a compliance problem.

00:30:11.340 So Tuesday evening, he took to the airwaves and basically put us back to square one.

00:30:19.400 We're back in basically a full lockdown.

00:30:22.600 All school in-class learning is canceled.

00:30:26.660 All restaurants are closed.

00:30:29.200 So all those restaurant owners who spent $10,000 improving their patios, that was now wasted money.

00:30:38.420 He's asked everybody who can work from home to stay at home.

00:30:43.700 He's increased the fines for COVID scoff laws from $1,000 to $2,000.

00:30:51.960 The limits on social gatherings have dropped from 10 to 5.

00:30:57.320 He's only allowing 15 people into a church service, down from the 15% of capacity.

00:31:05.980 weddings funerals they're all chopped in terms of the the attendance attendance figures

00:31:13.740 so we're really back no further ahead than where we were march of last year as you mentioned derek

00:31:20.780 he says it was needed to stop a basically a tidal wave from overwhelming the health care system

00:31:28.460 them. So I think this is what our fourth two-week lockdown to break the curve. So a lot of people

00:31:40.420 aren't very happy about it, but he has promised stepped up enforcement too. So we'll see in

00:31:45.940 terms of the tickets and the upcoming demonstrations that are held every weekend, what happens with

00:31:52.020 those. So we'll get to the whistle stop in a moment, but I think we are seeing some early

00:31:59.000 signs that they are cracking down enforcement. They've doubled fines, but judges are saying,

00:32:06.520 don't fill the courts with this crap. Most, a lot of this stuff is unconstitutional.

00:32:10.540 People are fighting these tickets. These are people are, these are not speeding tickets where

00:32:15.000 you're not happy about it, but you know, you were speeding and there's not much you can do about it.

00:32:20.260 it's not really a moral point you wish you could speed but you know it's not a great point about

00:32:25.940 well i think we would be freer if we could speed more but you know that's different discussion but

00:32:29.780 it's a different discussion um people are fighting these in courts uh it's overwhelming the courts

00:32:36.020 uh and they're losing so these things are largely getting thrown out in huge numbers

00:32:40.340 uh when they get to get to trials um do you think that this tightening is going to

00:32:47.860 increase compliance? Do you think this is going to achieve the government's objectives here?

00:32:51.700 No, because the government's lost control of the issue. They've lost respect. You know,

00:32:55.620 that's a large part of it. As you said, the people are getting these tickets. I mean,

00:32:59.060 I've been at protests. I've encountered police officers and a number of things before,

00:33:02.660 and they'll always try the warning route first or, you know, almost often they'll say, look,

00:33:06.820 please do this. And I won't write you up for that. Most of these tickets are getting written up

00:33:10.580 because the officer, after they warn them, the person says, no, give me my ticket. Then I refuse

00:33:14.180 to comply. And then it's the softer non-compliance that you're talking about. Because as you said,

00:33:19.580 if we want government restrictions to work, you need a massive buy-in. And that means you need

00:33:24.220 massive respect and support for the government and belief that what they're telling you

00:33:28.080 is what you should do. You know, you close all these patios as summer's coming, you're going to

00:33:32.840 see backyard barbecues happening. You're going to see people gathering when they go hiking. You're

00:33:36.980 going to see house parties. It's just the reality because they aren't respecting the government's

00:33:40.880 decision. As well, we've seen over the last 14 months that the impact from these restrictions,

00:33:47.260 no matter where you are, unless you're on a small tropical island where you can protect the borders

00:33:51.100 and imprison your population for a year, are negligible. I mean, it's rising here and it's 0.66

00:33:56.700 dropping in Saskatchewan. In three more weeks, it might be going crazy in Manitoba and it'll be

00:34:01.200 dropping here. Like there really hasn't been a good rhythm of rhyme. Kenny has to feel like or

00:34:05.600 look like he's doing something. So that's what he's trying. But if it does bring infections down

00:34:11.240 in the next couple of weeks, I say that'll be incidental. It won't have much to do with the

00:34:13.980 lockdowns to date. Yeah. Well, they probably will go down because we're now, the flu season's

00:34:20.200 ending. I mean, flu goes down. How long has it been? Almost two years since we've had a single

00:34:25.040 recorded case of flu in Alberta. Apparently we've gotten rid of the flu. And vaccines are getting

00:34:30.180 into people's arms. They are getting out there and it is having an impact. We're seeing that

00:34:33.160 in other areas i know that's a separate discussion all the comments are going to explode i know some

00:34:36.920 of the people in the comment section are not going to like that but uh i mean i think there

00:34:42.260 is a pretty good scientific basis for that uh i got the jab but did you get it yet uh i was yes

00:34:48.740 one but uh that's a long story okay but either way i'm pro vaccine i'll be getting all of my uh

00:34:54.220 recommended requisite uh jabs as long as it's you know as long as it's a voluntary choice people

00:34:59.240 can do their own research make their own decisions i made my decision for me and for my kids uh or

00:35:05.160 kid um you know but i i think that is going to make a difference plus the end of the flu season

00:35:10.360 uh numbers are going to go down and then what jason is going to do say ah see my lockdown worked

00:35:15.240 lockdowns are great um you know let's just keep on with these restrictions and if they do go up

00:35:21.240 they'll blame the rodeo yeah he's gotten out it'll all be the rodeo um wild stuff

00:35:29.240 So again, perfect segue. Let's talk about enforcement. New enforcement measures really

00:35:36.140 cracking down. Dave, why don't you tell us what happened just this morning? Still pretty

00:35:42.200 much breaking news. Mounties not just raiding, but now seizing the property of the Whistle

00:35:48.920 Stop. Tell us about what happened at this now very otherwise very little known cafe

00:35:54.740 in the middle of absolute nowhere sorry to people in mirror but you know it is the middle of nowhere

00:35:59.720 it's not a mainstream highway it's a nice it's a nice country out there good farm it's beautiful

00:36:03.720 area but it's it's i don't i chance to say that uh not more than 0.5 percent of alberta had heard

00:36:09.580 of the whistle stop until this happened uh dave why don't you tell us what happened with the

00:36:13.580 whistle stop uh this morning and leading up to it yeah you'll remember last week derek when there

00:36:19.160 was those quite shocking scenes not seen since prohibition days last century when RCMP moved

00:36:27.320 in and took away all of the whistle stops booze well they were back this morning owner Chris Scott

00:36:33.560 was actually on his day off he was looking forward to maybe having a sleep-in day when

00:36:38.240 his phone rang at 6 30 in the morning to tell him that the RCMP and Alberta Health Services were

00:36:43.640 there uh there was one one lone female employee there when they all drove up four police vehicles

00:36:51.720 blocked entrances and they went in and uh padlocked the place uh of course uh the owner chris scott

00:37:00.120 got out of bed got to the scene started uh talking to these the officers uh berating them basically

00:37:07.640 in a calm way he wasn't yelling but uh saying you know how you know how can you sleep at night and

00:37:13.800 if you think this is going to stop me uh you've got another thing coming uh i think it was very

00:37:19.960 telling when you heard an alberta health services spokesman basically saying okay we've got it seized

00:37:25.000 we've got a padlock we need to get out of dodge now and the quote was uh it's probably better

00:37:31.080 that we're all on. Everybody rules in to pick up their breakfast. So interesting days ahead. He's

00:37:40.440 perhaps the most famous of the anti-lockdown crowd. He's been ticketed repeatedly. He's vowed

00:37:47.560 to stay open. In an interview with me earlier, he's basically said he either opens or he goes

00:37:54.920 bankrupt. He and his sister have invested their life savings in it and they just can't afford to

00:38:00.520 close anymore so getting love they're getting lots of support uh people are stopping in from

00:38:06.200 all over the province now and uh i i knowing chris i would think he'll have a plan to serve breakfast

00:38:13.480 tomorrow morning to his customers but uh maybe on the outside as opposed to the inside of the

00:38:18.760 building there and dude uh we got a wonderful comment here from a chris christiansen it's all

00:38:27.320 bullshit just say no i will not comply fu western standard uh well i didn't know people had such a

00:38:35.000 strong opinion about the choice of whether or not you should take a vaccine you know people like

00:38:41.000 this need a brain transplant you know uh there there is a not insignificant number of people

00:38:47.720 out there who believe in mandatory vaccines and these people are absolute statists they have no

00:38:53.720 no concept of freedom, believe in vaccine passports to tell us what we need to do with

00:39:00.280 our own bodies. Vaccines should always be a choice. And that's what I've said. That's what

00:39:04.200 you've said, Corey. But I don't understand this small fringe of people on the other side who

00:39:09.120 also believe the vaccines shouldn't be a choice. They believe it somehow should be illegal for me

00:39:14.480 to take a vaccine. Well, it's my choice. And if you've got a problem with it, you know what? You

00:39:18.300 don't have to. We're not the CBC. We're not the government funded mainstream media. You don't

00:39:22.920 have to support us. So take your little keyboard and get the fuck out of here. Pardon, pardon the 0.97

00:39:33.060 language. We support choice. We support your choice to sit here and be a tool or to leave.

00:39:40.040 I apologize for the zesty language, but you know, some people like this, people on both sides who

00:39:45.000 don't believe vaccines should be a choice, that believe that the government should somehow step

00:39:49.340 in and force you to take a vaccine or force you to not take a vaccine. These people are just

00:39:54.840 terrible. And I really think they've got no place in a free society. And a side note in the same

00:39:59.100 sense, as I said, the environment at the rodeo was really, really good. But I mentioned this on my

00:40:02.580 show the other day too. I also wanted to, there was a few young people actually who were wandering

00:40:06.460 behind the stands who had masks on. They'd chosen to wear masks. And there was a person on the top

00:40:10.360 of the stands yelling down at them, hey, you're at a rally. Don't you dare wear a mask here. You

00:40:13.760 should be wearing a mask. Now, wait a minute. You've lost it. You've gone wrong. They can choose

00:40:18.660 to wear the mask just as you can choose not to. We have to maintain that choice narrative. You

00:40:24.280 don't have to like the other person's choice. Just respect it. Yeah, that's the thing. Don't be

00:40:29.160 anti-mask or anti-vaccine. Be pro-choice. Be pro-freedom to make your own decisions about

00:40:37.300 your own body, what you're putting in it with vaccines, what you're going to put on it with

00:40:41.640 what you wear like a mask, what you want to do it or not. It should be about choice. Don't be as

00:40:46.760 stupid as the other side for god's sakes people the only way you can stop me from getting a

00:40:51.400 vaccine is to make it mandatory yeah if they made it mandatory i i have we got a problem yeah we've 0.79

00:40:56.180 both said on the program before if they make it mandatory i'm not getting it i think you've said

00:40:59.920 that too uh they didn't make it mandatory so thank goodness that's one bright spot but uh they didn't

00:41:06.700 make it mandatory so i'm i'm good uh i'm good to get it i did my own research so if you don't like

00:41:12.880 it don't get it it's not simple people um so dave have we heard anything from uh chris the

00:41:20.000 owner of the of the whistle stop uh just said he vows to be back tomorrow morning uh serving

00:41:26.400 breakfast for his customers uh uh obviously this is going to go uh to the courts uh he's had other

00:41:33.680 charges thrown out in the past i believe now he's just currently facing one public uh public health

00:41:39.840 fact charge so as you said it's still breaking we'll be monitoring and we'll

00:41:46.800 bring you the latest up to Western standard online.com very good well I'm

00:41:54.540 curious on that they've changed the locks on his business these thugs have

00:41:58.980 come in seize his property change the locks on it is he has he said anything

00:42:05.160 about if he's gonna essentially break into his own property and start cooking

00:42:08.040 and bacon and eggs uh well there were certainly the people that were in the background were uh

00:42:14.440 making that suggestion and i think there would be no shortage of uh of pickup trucks and chains to

00:42:20.360 to help him do that but uh uh he may be stepping on dangerous legal territory there so uh remain

00:42:30.760 dave we've got some commenters right now saying chris is there uh he's cooking burgers

00:42:36.520 um serving hamburgers and coffee when we're done the the program here why don't you uh give the

00:42:43.440 whistle stop a call and see uh see what's happening does he did he break into his own

00:42:49.080 property if i really don't want to put it that way uh somebody else he's firing up the barbecue

00:42:53.160 so he might be finding a workaround it's uh it'll be interesting maybe he's going to serve in the

00:42:56.440 parking lot i i don't know uh let's see but uh if you um if you uh want to take a look at that

00:43:03.260 after the program I think we can give our readers an update I would bet he's

00:43:07.660 setting up shop outside and and doing it in the parking lot but well certainly be

00:43:14.420 checking in well god bless this guy well before we we close we have got a

00:43:20.540 question here from dawn boysen if I got that name right saying asking if they

00:43:28.920 think there's a chance Kenny will hold a party convention before the next

00:43:31.940 election? Well, they will have a convention where they've promised a leadership review to take

00:43:38.700 place, but it'll be only six months before the next election. And Kenny's going to make a pretty

00:43:42.560 strong argument that you can't change the leader six months before an election. That'll be chaos.

00:43:47.540 Because even if he gets voted down there, it'll take another month to organize it. And then

00:43:52.460 probably another few months to actually hold the thing. So the new premier will be going straight

00:43:57.160 to a new election um so that'll be his argument i'm also not convinced you know these things are

00:44:03.120 not held by uh you know some of you might not trust but i have a general level of trust in

00:44:08.820 our election commissions to count ballots fairly um these things are not held you know done by

00:44:15.460 elections alberta an independent third party they're done internally by people in the party

00:44:20.260 appointed by people in the party i'm not terribly convinced to be a fair vote in any case um so yeah

00:44:26.320 there'll be a vote on kenny's leadership theoretically but honest honestly uh i don't

00:44:32.160 think he's gonna go anywhere i know there's tremendous pressure from members and voters

00:44:35.880 to deter from his leader right now but i i don't think it's gonna i don't think it's gonna succeed

00:44:41.400 i could be wrong but uh i'm willing to give you cory uh two to one odds if you want on uh on a

00:44:48.300 six pack if uh i i say he leads the ucp into the next election i i feel he won't actually but i

00:44:56.040 don't think it'll be that convention uh you know shortly before the election where it'll do it

00:45:00.660 uh i mean guessing in an exact timeline i'm not sure but his caucus is turning on him and they're

00:45:05.760 fearing for their jobs and then you know if you want to see a politician suddenly get active when

00:45:10.240 they think they're not going to get re-elected they are going to act and uh i unless he really

00:45:16.100 brings about a huge turnaround sometime i'd say in the next year they're going to pull him down

00:45:21.080 from within that's my thoughts on it so we'll bet that six pack on it and see but uh i'll give you

00:45:25.380 Two to one odds, because even if the caucus was, normally these things actually, Alberta beer, wild rose, do some wild rose.

00:45:35.560 If the caucus wanted to move on them, yeah, they could.

00:45:39.140 But Kenny, this is another great exclusive that we had.

00:45:43.240 Kenny threatened the caucus with an early election if they didn't have confidence in him.

00:45:47.420 And it didn't really make sense to me at the time.

00:45:49.440 It seemed like a crazy thing to say, but it started actually to make a bit of sense.

00:45:53.880 with a bit of hindsight and trying to think about the broader political landscape here.

00:46:03.560 Jason Kenney would probably lose a snap election. If he was to call an election tomorrow,

00:46:07.860 he would probably lose it. But let's be generous and say he's got a 33% chance of winning because

00:46:13.640 this is Alberta. I don't think people are pining for a return to the NDP. They might be piping

00:46:17.980 angry at the ucp but you know other parties like wild rose they're not they don't have a permanent

00:46:23.660 leader yet they have nominated candidates they're not quite ready to fight an election they don't

00:46:27.020 have any money or not very much at least um so he might say he's got a 33 chance of winning

00:46:33.420 it's not a very good chance but a 33 chance of victory is better than a zero percent chance which

00:46:39.500 is what happens if he lets caucus push him out uh if caucus was going to push him out i believe he

00:46:45.100 would uh call a snap election and just simply not sign the nomination forms of all the uh rebel uh

00:46:52.460 mlas appoint his own people there and take his chances yeah he'd probably not have a great chance

00:46:57.340 of winning an election but he at least have some chance of winning it versus uh a zero percent

00:47:02.780 chance if he was to let them overthrow him as leader certainly see that's why i'm willing to

00:47:08.620 give you two to one odds okay everybody well uh thank you so much for joining us today uh today's

00:47:15.260 show was sponsored by end albertalockdown.ca uh again they're an advocacy group in alberta

00:47:21.660 working to end lockdowns and uh lift some of the more extreme restrictions you can

00:47:27.260 get involved with them or sign their petition online at endalbertalockdown.com again we want

00:47:33.420 to thank all of our western standard members for the outpouring of support we've had over the last

00:47:38.620 two and a half months since we've put up a very limited soft paywall so that people who do a lot

00:47:45.320 of reading on the Western Standard are required to pay. We still make sure people get a lot of

00:47:49.100 free reads, but because we want to share our content with you, we want to make a difference

00:47:55.380 here, but we do need to continue to build the Western Standard up so we can continue to provide

00:48:01.400 good content and improve the quality of what we're doing. Maybe we'll actually have functioning

00:48:04.940 microphones at the next rodeo we do. So go to westernstandardonline.com membership. Try it

00:48:11.240 free for 15 days. See if you like it. Thank you very much. Tune in tomorrow at 10 a.m. Mountain

00:48:19.320 Time, 9 a.m. Pacific Time for Mountain Standard Time. That's a mouthful. I should just say MST

00:48:27.200 because it's very confusing. Mountain Standard Time show with Nathan Gita. I know some of the

00:48:31.300 commentators on today's show have really voiced that they love him. He's really good. Yeah. He's

00:48:38.500 much more pleasant than Corey, but Corey is charming in his own way. He'll be back with us

00:48:45.680 again Friday, 10 a.m. Mountain Time MST and 9 a.m. PST. Oh, I hate PST. That's a tax. Yeah, I know.

00:48:56.300 Yeah. Thank you all very much for joining us. God bless. Stay safe.

00:49:01.300 You

Western Standard - May 06, 2021

The Pipeline-May 5, 2021

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