Western Standard - The Pipeline： Mendicino caught in another big lie

00:00:00.000 G'day, I'm Derek Fildebrand, publisher of the Western Standard. Today is June 14th,

00:00:18.460 2023, and you're watching The Pipeline. I'm joined, as always, by Western Standard opinion

00:00:23.520 editor, Nigel Henniford. How are you, Nigel? I'm good, thank you. We've also got, as usual,

00:00:28.120 Western-centered senior Alberta columnist Corey Morgan on a reduced, less furious column writing

00:00:36.920 job, I guess, since the campaign. Yeah, I'm not going to be pumping them out quite as much

00:00:41.160 as during campaign period. I'll still have plenty of rants to get out there though. Good, good.

00:00:45.160 All right, well today we're going to be talking about the Federal Public Safety Minister,

00:00:50.280 Mr. Mendicino, what's his first name again? Marco Mendicino. Dubbed by some as the Minister of Lies,

00:00:59.480 while caught in another probably, I suppose it's not 100%, but oh boy she looks like a big lie,

00:01:07.000 this time about his role with moving of Paul Bernardo from a maximum security prison to a

00:01:15.080 medium security prison, doing his best impression of Sergeant Schultz. I see nothing. I see nothing.

00:01:22.580 I hear nothing. We're going to be talking about that. The Liberals also on the ropes, though,

00:01:28.320 following the resignation of David Johnson as Justin Trudeau's special rapporteur,

00:01:35.660 bending to what seems like the inevitable, resigning from the job, putting this all back

00:01:42.740 in the lap of Justin Trudeau. We're going to talk not so much about the resignation itself,

00:01:46.840 but the fallout from it. What are the consequences, the political damage, and where's the potential

00:01:51.540 inquiry going to go from here? I'm going to talk about the new Alberta cabinet sworn in on Friday.

00:01:59.680 Smith putting her stamp on things as she swears in her first cabinet after receiving a mandate 1.00

00:02:07.240 from Alberta voters. Before we get started, though, I want to thank my favorite sponsor,

00:02:10.460 the Canadian Shooting Sports Association. I've been a member of the CSSA for more than a decade

00:02:15.500 because I trust them as Canada's leading firearm owner rights group. Without the Canadian Shooting

00:02:20.940 Sports Association, the federal government would have an open target on your guns. It's important

00:02:27.260 for law-abiding firearms owners in Canada to stand together against government, particularly federal

00:02:33.020 government, attempts to not let you use your guns for anything, and more importantly, to take them

00:02:39.180 away. So if you're not yet a member of the CSSA, go to CSSA-CILA.org or do what I do, just Google them

00:02:46.300 and click on membership and join today. Okay, Mr. Marco Mendicino, already dubbed by some,

00:02:57.220 you know, probably not his family and friends, but dubbed by some as the Minister of Lies

00:03:00.960 for a whole very long list of statements he's given that have been probably lies.

00:03:13.320 Now we find out, I think it was just yesterday that, was it yesterday or the day before?

00:03:18.680 The day before.

00:03:19.140 The day before, that Paul Bernardo, one of the most notorious mass murderers,

00:03:25.940 I don't know if mass murder is the right word, because he's not a serial killer either.

00:03:29.140 No, free for a serial killer, I believe, so that would be easy.

00:03:32.240 But it has to be like a pattern, not kind of all at once.

00:03:34.500 I don't know.

00:03:35.600 Killed a lot of people.

00:03:37.140 Something I want to know a lot about.

00:03:39.040 Brutally raped, tortured, and murdered teenage girls along with now a parent volunteer at her school, Karloch Molka. 0.71

00:03:50.220 He has been denied, justice was denied in that he wasn't burned alive or filleted like the animal he is,

00:04:00.280 but he was given a life sentence in a maximum security prison, and that's, well, he's not there anymore.

00:04:08.700 The powers that be have moved him to a medium security prison.

00:04:12.420 This morning I kind of flippantly called it a club fed.

00:04:15.020 Medium security prisons are not club feds, I guess.

00:04:17.580 They're not easy. They're not the minimum securities. They're probably not playing golf on their breaks.

00:04:22.700 But they are markedly less severe and less unpleasant than a maximum security prison.

00:04:30.660 Marco Mendicino says, I knew nothing about this. I am outraged, positively outraged, that this monster would be moved to a medium security prison.

00:04:41.900 Well, then the news came out last night or this morning that, in fact, his office was notified.

00:04:52.260 I guess really now Pierre Polyev conservatives are demanding his resignation, saying he lied.

00:04:58.000 He did know about it.

00:04:59.720 I suppose, Nigel, there is a technical small possibility that this note came through his office

00:05:07.340 and one of his staffers looked at this as Paul Bernardo being sent to a significantly less unpleasant prison.

00:05:16.720 That's not news. Let's just pass it on.

00:05:20.500 What are the chances that one of the staffers in this office just did not think this was noteworthy

00:05:25.800 to pass up the chain of command versus what the Conservatives are alleging that,

00:05:31.380 no, obviously someone in his office did tell him he did know about it and therefore lied to Canadians in Parliament?

00:05:36.360 So there are two possibilities out there. One is that the staff are concerned was born less than 30 years ago and didn't actually live through that particular period of Canadian history when this was the hottest topic.

00:05:53.160 Or if he lived through it, it didn't mean anything to him because he was in grade school.

00:05:57.320 Actually, it's taught to every kid in grade nine social studies or legal because of his accomplice, Carla Homolka, and the double jeopardy things.

00:06:05.920 So even people born long after this, they're taught this in high school.

00:06:09.760 And I'm guessing that everybody in the minister's office has probably taught them high school.

00:06:13.760 Why would you teach that in high school?

00:06:16.160 Have they got a course on killers?

00:06:19.020 I don't know.

00:06:19.900 But anyway, maybe he should have known.

00:06:22.480 I'm saying there is a strong possibility that the person, you know, working in these ministerial offices are often very young and just didn't recognize the significance of it.

00:06:34.280 The other possibility, which I lean to, actually, is that somebody said, oh, that is something for which the minister should have plausible deniability.

00:06:46.180 Just don't tell him so that he can get up and say, I had no knowledge.

00:06:49.980 If we find that somebody gets fired, dismissed, moved on to something else, that will tell you something about whether it was how deeply Mr. Mandacino feels about the fact that he wasn't told.

00:07:03.400 So that's excellent segue to my next question, Corey.

00:07:07.820 Melissa Lassman, one of the two deputy leaders of the conservative opposition, question period today.

00:07:14.620 She said, asked Mendocino something to the effect of, you know, she said, you're throwing your staff under the bus.

00:07:22.340 You're saying your staff, because we now know your staff knew.

00:07:24.680 You didn't say earlier your staff knew.

00:07:26.040 She said, we had no idea.

00:07:27.140 I had no idea.

00:07:27.740 We had no idea.

00:07:28.640 Now it turns out your staff knew.

00:07:29.780 So, if you're going to throw your staff under the bus, which staff have you already fired for this?

00:07:36.060 Because clearly, if there's ever a fireable offense, it's not passing that one of the most notorious murderers in Canadian history has been moved to a significantly comfier prison.

00:07:49.340 So, yeah, her question was, okay, fine, if this was your staffer, who was a staffer, and have they been fired yet?

00:07:57.140 And he's got no answer for that yet.

00:08:00.480 I mean, you would think if there was a clear person to point to, I mean, the Liberals.

00:08:03.600 The fact that no one has been fired leaves me to think that, no, he was told.

00:08:07.060 Yeah, to throw them under the bus.

00:08:08.780 And if you can't find somebody, then you're going to be stuck with it.

00:08:11.560 And as he said, he's known to just get out of situations by just speaking to the contrary and letting it blow over.

00:08:18.200 But now he's been caught in what is very probably a lie.

00:08:23.380 No staffer has been fired.

00:08:24.940 Clearly, they would know who this is because you sign off on these things.

00:08:28.540 There's a clear paper trail of all this kind of stuff.

00:08:32.500 No staffer has been fired, which leads me, Nigel, to believe that this was not a staffer issue.

00:08:39.920 That, no, this was the minister.

00:08:41.620 Yeah, and let's say it was a staffer issue.

00:08:45.520 We have a thing in this country called ministerial responsibility.

00:08:48.580 Oh, how quaint and burnish of you.

00:08:50.200 I know, I know.

00:08:51.480 It's very charming.

00:08:54.080 But the fact is that if one of his staff made a mistake, then it's his problem.

00:09:00.920 He is the one who takes the fall, not the unfortunate 25-year-old staff member

00:09:05.560 who's three years out of university.

00:09:07.900 You know, there, his judgment is supposed to be the one that counts.

00:09:13.420 And it's not like this is a first offense.

00:09:15.420 It really is time for Mr. Mendicino to step aside.

00:09:18.680 I don't know whether they've got anybody better, but that's the state of the Liberal Party today.

00:09:25.400 The other aspect was just the bad political judgment.

00:09:28.040 I mean, if that came up the lines, you know, his ministry doesn't deal with every prisoner transfer that's going on out there.

00:09:33.800 Somebody in Correction Services Canada realized this is something so significant.

00:09:36.860 We better get a heads up to the others because we know there's going to be some blowback on this.

00:09:41.960 It's not just an unknown name.

00:09:44.040 They don't typically send those memos up, and that nobody caught on to them, that, boy, we got a firestorm coming, we better prepare for it.

00:09:52.020 It just defies belief.

00:09:57.300 You talked, this is not his first offense here, both for, I guess, screw-ups and lies.

00:10:06.400 We had almost a little mix-up when we were talking about our topics for today.

00:10:10.100 you're talking about Mendicino and Bernardo. And I was a little confused at first because our sponsor, Canadian Shooting Sports Association, its executive director is Tony Bernardo. And I know Mendicino and that Bernardo are fighting all the time. And then it got me thinking, which Bernardo does Mendicino have the bigger problem with? The one that's fighting for gun rights or the one who seems to, well, at least privately not have a big problem with moving to a medium security prison.

00:10:40.100 I mean, it's probably a little over the top to say he has a bigger problem with gun owners than Paul Bernardo, but I think it's kind of insightful into the liberal mind that, you know, they're so focused, and Mendicino in particular is so focused on pre-crime.

00:10:59.260 So people who have done absolutely nothing wrong, but we need to punish them, confiscate their otherwise illegal and lawful property.

00:11:06.080 But this guy, one of the most terrible murderers in Canadian history, well, maybe we should ease up a little on him.

00:11:13.200 Well, you know, Derek, it all depends what the ultimate goal of government is.

00:11:17.220 And if it is to provide good governments, then everything you have said is absolutely correct.

00:11:23.020 The guy should go.

00:11:23.840 However, if the role, if the object of this government is to totally change the nature of Canada, part of which would be the removal of firearms from private ownership, then the man is actually doing what he has been instructed to do and I guess doing it quite effectively.

00:11:45.080 So really, he would be in Mr. Trudeau's good books for things that we sit here and say, how can he get away with this?

00:11:52.420 The fact is, he's doing what he's there to do.

00:11:55.120 So, again, you're just setting up perfect segues.

00:11:58.440 Well, we talked about this before.

00:12:00.380 I'll throw it to you.

00:12:01.800 But, you know, most ministers don't resign in the sense of just, oh, I think David Johnson resigned.

00:12:10.820 I don't think he was told to resign by Trudeau because it was not good for Trudeau.

00:12:13.500 I think David Johnson came to the conclusion. This is not tenable. I'm not serving any public good here. I think it's time for me to go. And he resigned. Ministers don't resign that way. They get resigned. They don't resign. They get resigned.

00:12:30.380 The prime minister sits down and says, you've become a liability to the party and to the government.

00:12:36.940 I need you to resign.

00:12:39.220 That's what happens.

00:12:40.420 I can't, has there ever been a fired minister?

00:12:42.700 I can't remember.

00:12:43.420 There has been, but in my life, I can't think of one in my lifetime, but they have generally just resigned.

00:12:52.960 Is this guy going to be finally up to get resigned?

00:12:56.840 because Trudeau has stood by him through a lot of less than ministerial actions.

00:13:06.040 And I'm not aware of Trudeau forcing any minister to resign since he's been prime minister.

00:13:11.600 Well, Jody Wilson-Raybould may...

00:13:13.900 Well, he shuffled her out. 0.91

00:13:15.200 Yeah, that's...

00:13:16.360 He didn't outright fire her.

00:13:18.360 That would have looked too bad, but he shuffled her out to some... 0.99

00:13:22.440 If you make the chair uncomfortable enough, it amounts to the same thing.

00:13:25.060 No, I come back to what I just said, that as far as Mr. Trudeau is concerned,

00:13:31.300 Mr. Mendicino has demonstrated his ability and his willingness to say anything

00:13:37.000 to protect the government, even if it is not true.

00:13:41.140 He will take the calumny and the criticism.

00:13:45.560 That's fine.

00:13:46.520 Government goes on and does what it wants to do.

00:13:49.480 And for Mr. Trudeau, that makes him a pretty valuable minister.

00:13:52.800 So I don't think he's going to get fired.

00:13:55.060 Do you think he, is he in a tenable position here? Because he, I mean, technically there might be plausible deniability that it went to his office.

00:14:05.640 It's not normally known if it's shown to the minister, but I see a very small chance that he did not see this.

00:14:12.000 It seems very, very likely that he was clearly lying.

00:14:15.760 It just doesn't seem to matter, though, and he's a good foil.

00:14:18.880 Well, as Nigel said, he serves his purpose in the House.

00:14:22.700 He'll just lie again, and people will forget about it.

00:14:26.220 The consequences don't seem to land on the Prime Minister's office anyways when it comes to this,

00:14:31.060 even though he is the one who appoints these ministers.

00:14:33.440 I think at worst, Mendocino might not make it through the next shuffle in that role.

00:14:37.940 But as for going outright, as you said, and pushing him out of there,

00:14:41.140 I don't see the government ever admitting error that clearly.

00:14:44.060 Just give him a different podium from which to utter doublespeak.

00:14:48.060 Yes.

00:14:48.940 He's like one of those guys in the Mafia movies.

00:14:51.140 It doesn't matter what you ask them to do,

00:14:52.780 they go and do it, and they come back and kiss the rain.

00:14:56.000 They're more than a man in Medellino.

00:14:57.480 Oh, when did I get that from?

00:15:00.560 That was racist.

00:15:03.380 Anyway, Italian and Irish racism is still allowed on the Western standard, 0.94

00:15:07.400 because they're just too damn fun.

00:15:10.520 I guess the last part would be about Bernard himself.

00:15:15.000 I'm actually not sure what the process is here,

00:15:16.900 But generally, what prison you're serving in is not a directly political decision.

00:15:22.560 The minister doesn't get to say, well, you're going to go to this prison and you're going to that prison.

00:15:26.640 And that's a good thing.

00:15:27.840 I don't think we want the politicians deciding that.

00:15:30.940 That'd be obviously too much direct involvement in the justice system.

00:15:33.980 But they get to set the rules under which these things are decided.

00:15:40.000 What do you think the chances are, Nigel, that Bernardo actually ends up back in a maximum security predatory?

00:15:46.900 Well, if I were him, I certainly wouldn't be sleeping easily at night with that prospect

00:15:52.680 in mind.

00:15:53.680 In the end, part of letting the whole thing go away is not keeping the story alive.

00:15:58.320 So if you move him back to either they're going to do it right away and get it over

00:16:03.900 with, but they're not going to come back in a week's time or two weeks time and make

00:16:07.740 the story go live again by moving him.

00:16:10.460 So I would say...

00:16:11.460 Well, they said, oh, I've asked for a review.

00:16:12.900 Yeah.

00:16:13.900 He's just kind of kicking the can a bit.

00:16:14.900 We can get it through the next couple of days. He's probably going to stay where he is.

00:16:19.760 You think Mr. Bernardo is going to get to stay long term in his comfier new dicks?

00:16:25.420 I'm with Nigel in that if they're going to do it, they're going to do it soon.

00:16:28.060 I think they might do it soon, though.

00:16:29.300 This is something that this gets to the core of Canadians, though.

00:16:32.480 This ticks them off.

00:16:33.440 And I know the system isn't supposed to be based so much on revenge or punishment.

00:16:37.840 But when it comes to somebody in such a singular profile like Bernardo, that's an exceptional case.

00:16:43.460 And they may put the pressure on to say, let's just bump him back into there and let people forget about it over time.

00:16:48.920 I don't know how many people I've talked to who oppose the death penalty, but then they're like, but I'd be okay if you got a prison shake. 0.99

00:16:56.780 This guy deserves to die. 0.87

00:16:59.780 Are we allowed to say that on YouTube, that anyone deserves it? 1.00

00:17:02.420 Well, I'm going to say it right now. 0.99

00:17:03.320 Paul Bernardo deserves to die. 1.00

00:17:05.360 And if we get banned for that. 0.99

00:17:06.260 I mean, I've always been opposed to capital punishment because, I mean, I don't trust the government to get my taxes right, much less to execute people.

00:17:12.560 but I wouldn't we got him on film though like we I wouldn't we know that he was left in his cell

00:17:16.960 with his shoelaces and happened to tie himself up or something I mean so be it but you know uh

00:17:22.940 we should just put him in the same uh prison jail that Epstein in yeah that could that could work

00:17:29.180 let's Epstein the guy it's too bad we ever have to hear about that guy again you know what that'll

00:17:33.040 probably get me in trouble yeah because Epstein did not kill him so the Clintons will be at your

00:17:37.740 house next week. Do any of you actually believe Epstein killed himself? I wouldn't bet my paycheck

00:17:43.720 on it. No. I don't think anyone actually believes that. I'm surprised that Ghislaine is still making

00:17:49.500 it, to be honest. That was a tangent. Isn't that justice? There's only one woman involved in the 1.00

00:17:55.380 entire massive racket, and it's the woman who goes to jail, not the men. Jeez. Okay, that was

00:18:01.060 tangents I'm taking this on there. I'm going to pull it back. So I kind of alluded into this

00:18:07.420 earlier about David Johnson. He resigned last Friday as Trudeau's special rapporteur, special

00:18:14.500 rapper. He, I think, was a rare resignation in any kind of political role in it. I think he

00:18:22.160 actually did resign on his own. I think, I feel kind of half bad for the guy. I think he did

00:18:29.220 accept with the best of intentions. He just should have known it was inappropriate for him to accept

00:18:34.000 that the role shouldn't have existed to begin with. It was clear an inquiry was necessary,

00:18:38.100 and that if you were going to have this silly special rapporteur role, it had to be someone who

00:18:42.160 was impeccably objective and distant from any political connection or personal connection to

00:18:48.040 the local party or to the prime minister or any of the subjects involved, which he was clearly not.

00:18:54.420 we'll start with you Corey was it inevitable that David Johnson was going to end up kind of eating

00:19:04.740 it like this or or at any point down on the way from his appointment until Friday was was there

00:19:12.880 a way for him to steer a different way perhaps by actually recommending the inquiry I don't think it

00:19:17.360 was inevitable or even if he was going to recommend against the inquiry he could have made a much

00:19:22.060 better case for it then. He could have had a better report. It was a half-assed, terrible

00:19:27.560 report that he'd done. He hadn't thoroughly investigated things. If he had, even though

00:19:32.200 there's still, of course, the opposition would be yelling, he's too connected to Trudeau and this

00:19:36.180 and that. But they'd say, look, he's doing his job. He's been interviewing this. He's concluded

00:19:39.920 that. He's suggested this. You know, you guys are just smearing a good man who's doing a good job.

00:19:45.060 But because he'd done such a terrible job, nothing was going to save that position, I think.

00:19:50.060 I don't know, Nigel. It was a terrible job, and that certainly compounded things, but I think just his very presence from the beginning, not having the buy-in from the main opposition parties, made it untenable from the beginning.

00:20:05.480 I think the only way he could have walked out of this with his reputation intact would have been to recommend an inquiry, but he clearly was not going to recommend an inquiry.

00:20:15.520 His mandate came from the Prime Minister. He reported to the Prime Minister. He made amply clear he was not working for Parliament of the people.

00:20:22.680 He was working for the Prime Minister in his own words. Was it inevitable that it had to end in tears this way?

00:20:29.420 Yes, I think it was, because the job as he originally took it was not able to be done on the terms that he accepted it.

00:20:36.700 He had no power to subpoena people.

00:20:38.780 That meant he was never going to get terribly close to the truth.

00:20:42.720 All it was ever going to be was conversations and a sort of a general feeling of, well, things weren't really done right, and we should have more talks.

00:20:52.420 It never was going to be anything else.

00:20:55.100 There was one other thing about Mr. Johnson that I was not aware of when this first came up,

00:21:00.160 and that was his own deep personal connection with China

00:21:03.400 that has since been revealed in a number of articles.

00:21:07.880 He's a distinguished academic.

00:21:10.420 He's a fairly frequent visitor over there.

00:21:12.740 There's one particular university.

00:21:14.260 I can't pronounce it, but there's one place that he feels very close to,

00:21:17.900 calls it a second home.

00:21:19.500 Three of his children have been over there to study.

00:21:22.320 So he is sort of a friendly for China.

00:21:26.220 So between being a friendly for China, I actually believe he was a friendly to China.

00:21:31.260 I'm not so sure he was actually that friendly with Trudeau.

00:21:34.540 I think he probably was telling the truth when he said he had very little connection to Trudeau in the years since Trudeau became prime minister.

00:21:44.280 And one of the reasons that I think that is that if he had actually had a closer connection to Mr. Trudeau, he would have known what a flake he was.

00:21:54.100 And then he would have never got involved with a job in the first place.

00:21:57.360 Possibly.

00:21:57.720 So you have to believe him on that.

00:21:59.080 I'll tell you what, there's no close connection between Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Johnson now.

00:22:02.720 What?

00:22:03.540 No more cozy little Thanksgiving dinners, a ski holiday.

00:22:07.720 I would agree with that.

00:22:08.620 In the future.

00:22:09.140 Although, even if he knew Trudeau was a flake, I'm still not sure he would say no because he saw this as a public service. He's been doing things for the public good in his whole life. He's, you know, previous to now been wildly respected for his public service and selflessness. And, you know, the way he put it was, well, you know, when you're asked to serve your country, you say yes.

00:22:32.120 That's not a West Wing. Nobody does that in the world.

00:22:34.740 I know, I know, but I could, well, he's old, so he might be old school.

00:22:42.700 I mean, he's not a spring chicken.

00:22:44.860 He might have a very old-fashioned view of things, and you're asked by your country to serve, so you serve.

00:22:49.120 And even if your general is Sergeant Schultz, you go into battle.

00:22:55.400 Well, I would love to think that, because I actually still have a soft spot for him from the time that he was governor general.

00:23:02.700 He did a wonderful job in that role.

00:23:04.740 And he was very, very carefully chosen.

00:23:07.540 And I think any significant skeletons

00:23:09.540 in his closet would have been uncovered in the process

00:23:13.400 that led him to be appointed.

00:23:14.600 So I stole.

00:23:17.400 But, you know, he's just got that Central Canadian sense

00:23:21.740 of what could possibly be wrong

00:23:25.780 with having another liberal fundraiser as my lawyer.

00:23:30.380 They're good people.

00:23:31.280 They know how to do the right thing.

00:23:33.240 Well, yeah, but most people don't actually see it that way.

00:23:37.360 They think there could be a conflict, and the fact that you're very friendly with China doesn't make it any better.

00:23:41.780 So he would have been good to stay out of it.

00:23:43.520 So this is clearly damaging to the Liberal government, the Liberal Party.

00:23:48.060 However, those two can be possibly distinguished.

00:23:51.040 There's no question it's damaging.

00:23:53.340 But I guess the question is, how damaging?

00:23:55.520 Is it recoverable?

00:23:56.540 Is it such a muck on them at this point, Corey, that they're not going to be able to wipe it off?

00:24:03.240 Because I think Trudeau is, he has walked out of some doozies.

00:24:07.620 He has cleaned blackface off of himself. 1.00

00:24:10.620 He has gotten through SNC-Lavalin.

00:24:15.060 The Wee scandal.

00:24:16.660 I mean, like, it's too many.

00:24:17.840 I don't know what it takes.

00:24:19.100 I mean, you know, if it hadn't been for all those prior ones that he's managed to slide out of,

00:24:23.200 I would have said, yes, this is it.

00:24:24.440 He's done.

00:24:24.900 But you know what?

00:24:26.380 I won't believe it until I see it now.

00:24:28.080 I don't know what it takes.

00:24:30.420 But, I mean, it's really looking dire, though.

00:24:32.260 I mean, the polls are dipping, and that's when things, I think, start to change a little bit.

00:24:37.060 I was talking to Jay Hill earlier on my show today, and you talked about that.

00:24:41.380 You know, not every Liberal member of Parliament is unprincipled.

00:24:44.280 I mean, a lot of them are getting tired of having to wear this odious mess themselves,

00:24:48.940 and some of them have ambitions as well, or they're worried about their own positions,

00:24:52.540 and they've got to be starting to grumble a little inside.

00:24:55.200 The Liberals are very good at keeping it tight.

00:24:56.740 They're fantastic.

00:24:58.080 Conservatives are their own worst enemies, but the Liberals hold the fort.

00:25:01.340 But you know behind closed doors, it's got to be getting tense, particularly when the polls go down.

00:25:06.620 That's when self-interest starts kicking in.

00:25:07.920 I don't see any chance of the Liberals turfing Trudeau.

00:25:10.960 He owns that party.

00:25:12.280 He has fashioned that party in his own image.

00:25:15.300 I guess if he wants to fight the next election, he's going to be the Liberal leader in the next election.

00:25:19.940 I have a very hard time.

00:25:21.580 I mean, he's not an Alberta Conservative leader, for God's sakes.

00:25:23.720 He is a federal Liberal leader.

00:25:26.020 I can only recall one who was truly turfed, and that was Kretchen with the Paul Martin wars.

00:25:31.340 They hate Ignatiev and Dionne, but those weren't well established like Trudeau or anything.

00:25:38.340 And they weren't in government, they weren't the prime minister.

00:25:40.340 I guess it's you Nigel, is this the one?

00:25:46.340 I mean, there's been so many big scandals and Trudeau has gotten through all of them.

00:25:51.340 But this one seems to rise to another level of seriousness and liberal actions to date.

00:25:56.340 just doing the most wild gymnastics. It's like Cirque du Soleil watching them bob and weave and

00:26:07.440 dodge around having an inquiry, even if they weren't guilty. Boy, they sure look guilty now.

00:26:14.220 So you're asking me, is this the one where they'd miss the trapeze and go

00:26:17.400 right into that yeah okay probably not and the reason is that people aren't necessarily going

00:26:27.640 to make their voting decision on this or on any of the scandals they know about it they can't

00:26:33.480 actually name them all where you can but there's not i can't name them well there's too many run

00:26:38.760 out of fingers but the uh they're going to look back and they say okay we know he's you know he's

00:26:44.280 a shady character we know he's on principle but you know what i sure do love it when he stands up

00:26:49.560 for my lbgtq to in and out son or daughter and i sure do like it when he uh when when when he rails

00:26:58.280 against because i don't like poliver and i just i just don't like him i i agree with everything he

00:27:02.680 says i just don't like him but i'd like it when mr trudeau goes after him and they're going to be

00:27:07.640 making their decisions on everything except the things which we think sensible canadians should

00:27:14.760 make their voting decisions on is what are you going to do with the economy what are you going

00:27:18.200 to do with the armed services what are you going to do with the health system that is failing how

00:27:22.680 are you going to relate to the problem that's hardcore partisan voters i mean because yeah

00:27:26.760 no party goes down to zero okay but you know there's uh i mean you know the conservative 1.00

00:27:33.880 say there was a conservative there's a reason the bible calls us sheep we vote for stupid people 0.99

00:27:37.800 and follow them okay but just imagine the conservatives are in power and they're doing 0.99

00:27:42.280 a bunch of things that we like on a policy level but uh it turns out the prime minister or a prime

00:27:48.040 minister was a serial killer well i probably would definitely want a new conservative leader

00:27:52.840 but would never make me vote liberal there's just nothing ever that can just as there are a bunch of

00:27:58.520 liberals who will always vote liberal, maybe they'll go MVP, who knows, but let's follow,

00:28:03.400 let's follow. But then there's a bunch of people in the middle who vote for a variety of reasons,

00:28:07.880 some of which are political policy, some of which are more ethical, nebulous political. 0.79

00:28:16.120 You know, you don't need every liberal voter to say, I'm done with the liberals, they're crooked.

00:28:21.320 You just need, I don't know, 25% of them.

00:28:24.280 Are these the people who, even if it turned out that the Prime Minister was a serial killer,

00:28:30.680 would still vote for him anyway? Not the 25%. They'll probably be 25% at the bottom end who

00:28:36.360 will stay with them, maybe even if he's a serial killer, but the furthest 25%, you know, they,

00:28:41.080 they could move around. Well, it might go to the NDP, and that certainly would have the desired

00:28:44.920 effect. Yeah. Well, let's talk inquiry. It seemed almost inevitable since the beginning that there

00:28:52.600 was gonna be an inquiry because this is what they're for this is a textbook definition and

00:28:58.440 the liberals have done everything on the face of the earth that they could possibly do they have

00:29:04.360 exhausted the playbook they've done everything and it's failed at every single point as i was just

00:29:09.880 saying a few minutes ago if they weren't guilty well they sure found a way to look guilty you

00:29:15.080 know it's like if you uh you know the police come talk to you about robbery of the local 7-eleven

00:29:20.440 and you didn't do it but you happen to pull out a pistol with the file number uh with you know

00:29:26.360 the serial number fired filed off and you're holding a bag of 7-eleven stuff and you run away

00:29:32.840 uh and you got no receipt i mean they certainly made themselves look guilty

00:29:39.240 this has led me to think that they're probably more guilty than i even assumed they were which

00:29:44.680 wasn't particularly i try to be a bit charitable but now i'm i'm increasingly not very charitable

00:29:50.120 towards them on this. Corey, is an inquiry now inevitable? Are we getting one? I don't know.

00:29:57.900 Suddenly, I don't like saying that. I don't want to cop out from you.

00:30:00.680 Your best instinct. Do you think we're getting one or not? I think we're getting one, but I think

00:30:04.940 it might be a year or so before we do. Before it starts? Yes, before they get that cornered,

00:30:10.560 before it really gets pushed to that point. You need Jagmeet Singh to play ball, and he's just

00:30:15.620 not. Oh, if it doesn't start for a year, then there is no inquiry. I can tell you that. If

00:30:19.300 There's going to be an inquiry.

00:30:20.360 It's going to be the issue.

00:30:21.440 It's going to disappear.

00:30:22.220 I mean, whoever's been leaking this, I think, still has a Trump sized pile of file boxes in this house somewhere.

00:30:29.520 And he's just going to keep putting it out there.

00:30:31.540 This issue isn't going to go away.

00:30:33.040 That's the thing.

00:30:34.280 So, I mean, that's where I agree.

00:30:35.120 It's inevitable.

00:30:36.440 It's just how long.

00:30:37.540 What is it going to take?

00:30:38.780 Where's the tipping point going to hit?

00:30:41.600 And, yeah, maybe it'll be in a few months.

00:30:43.260 But I got a feeling, I mean, look how long they've dragged it out this time.

00:30:46.660 Nigel, they've tried everything possible, far more than I thought they would attempt to.

00:30:53.440 And all they've done is hurt themselves more and more.

00:30:57.000 They didn't come right out and say, okay, you know what?

00:30:59.320 We're going to get to the bottom of this.

00:31:00.560 This is about national security and our democracy.

00:31:02.700 We're going to get to the bottom of this.

00:31:04.380 They now look guilty.

00:31:06.020 The only reason the only reason to not hold it now is that they're far guiltier than even their least charitable critics have accused them of being.

00:31:18.020 So that you know, an inquiry is going to lead to jail time or the absolute devastation of the government's reputation.

00:31:26.020 Otherwise, there's just doesn't seem to be any way out of the hole they're in right now short of an inquiry.

00:31:31.020 what's your better we get one yes but again it'll have its wings clipped

00:31:37.180 there'll be something that makes it less effective than it ought to be either

00:31:42.020 they the person doing it will not be able to subpoena witnesses I think all I

00:31:48.180 think all inquiries can well I mean the inquiry that mr. Johnson conducted could

00:31:54.260 not no but he wasn't an inquiry he was a special rapporteur but it was an

00:31:59.460 inquiry by. I'm adding that to my job title by the way. I'm a special rapporteur. I think that's

00:32:04.420 French. I identify a special rapporteur. I mean or another possibility is that yes we'll have a

00:32:11.620 full inquiry but it will report to the prime minister or it will report to the cabinet and

00:32:18.740 it won't never be unless there's a leaker. Yeah. We'll never get to see it. There is an opportunity

00:32:24.660 to really push this past the point when the next election is going to be. There is a lot of

00:32:30.180 opportunities to play funny with this, because it's dealing with largely confidential documents.

00:32:36.260 And so you know, even a legitimate inquiry might just be able to say, well, you know,

00:32:41.860 speak only in vagaries, I looked at things and there was maybe something over here, but we can't

00:32:47.780 really say what so i think that astonishes me is that they with all the resources they have

00:32:54.820 and all the motivation they have they've not actually outed the leaker which makes me think

00:33:00.740 that what corey is thinking but they may know who this guy is but he says listen if you put if you

00:33:06.340 pull me in i can tell you that there's going to be a lot of stuff coming out from the secret we're

00:33:11.300 dealing with the clandestine services they may have shot him by now he could be dead for all we

00:33:16.980 know. Oh, this is Canada. They can't afford the bullets for that. Oh, when you're dealing with

00:33:21.700 clandestine services, they will shoot. They'll shoot spies and leakers. They'll do it. So who 0.98

00:33:27.480 knows? It's a test. We'll leave if anything else comes up. Okay. Well, let's move to something a

00:33:32.660 little lighter. We're going to bring it back home here to Alberta. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith,

00:33:37.620 fresh off of her election victory, has sworn in her new cabinet. Some of the big jobs. Nate

00:33:46.780 Horner gets finance. He represents Drumheller-Stetler. Big, big sprawling Eastern Alberta

00:33:52.560 riding. Ariana LaGrange formerly the education minister. She moves from education to health.

00:33:59.840 So she moves from the second biggest budget department to the first biggest budget department. 0.83

00:34:06.160 Lots of squawking from the left on that one. They hated her in education. Funny enough, even 0.94

00:34:12.000 I was a pretty tough critic of the Kennedy government, but education was the one area

00:34:15.520 where I was like, they're doing pretty good here. I'm liking a lot of this. So a lot of lefties not

00:34:23.060 happy about her going there. Brian Jean takes the very senior portfolio of energy. I mean,

00:34:31.980 normally that's considered a Calgary job. For some reason, a Calgary minister gets it.

00:34:35.960 You can see where Fort McMurray might fit into it.

00:34:38.640 Fort McMurray plays in.

00:34:39.620 Yeah.

00:34:40.120 Yeah.

00:34:41.000 Rebecca Schultz gets environment, and Demetrio Nicolaitis moves from advanced education to education.

00:34:49.060 So a fairly vertical move for him there.

00:34:53.120 What are the big ones that stand out for you among the ones I've named and the ones I haven't named as the real appointments that stood out?

00:35:01.360 Well, the ones that, first of all, I'm thinking about it like a rugby match, and you've got your scrum, and you've got some heavy-hitting people in the front line.

00:35:16.040 We are going to have a confrontation with Ottawa over pipelines and over the use of natural gas for generating electricity for home heat and power.

00:35:25.680 It's coming.

00:35:26.340 I mean, this is what this Bill C-69 is all about.

00:35:29.380 So who do you want out front?

00:35:30.420 well who you've got out front is danielle smith in whom i have every confidence brian gene and

00:35:36.420 energy in whom i have every confidence and rebecca schultz who i have learned to have confidence in

00:35:43.140 in the leadership campaign and in the months since that is a strong team to stand at the border

00:35:50.740 and say no that was my first and overwhelming impression when she rolled out her cabinet now

00:35:57.220 you also mentioned Adriana LaGrange. As a self-declared unrepentant social conservative, 0.98

00:36:04.740 I admire what she tried to do in education and I thought bring that perspective to health,

00:36:11.060 she'd probably do all right. And then yesterday I was listening to Rachel Notley condemning her

00:36:16.500 and I knew then that Daniel Smith had made the right appointment.

00:36:22.180 What are the big ones instead of to you, ones I've named or not named?

00:36:26.660 Yeah, well, seeing LaGrange in health, it's showing that Premier Smith isn't looking to just

00:36:32.180 put somebody in then to smooth the waters and maintain the status quo. She knew that was going

00:36:35.620 to draw fire. So she's ready to fight a bit on the health front and with those labor unions. And 0.99

00:36:41.620 I'm heartened with that. As I just said, the way they're responding tells me she's over the target.

00:36:46.260 I think that's really good. Justice, you didn't mention with Mickey Amory. I don't know a lot

00:36:52.820 about him. I know Moe Amory. Yeah, his father who is the MLA player. And Moe is an interesting

00:36:59.540 character as an MLA. I just don't know. He's a big variable in a big position. Justice is not a

00:37:05.840 minor portfolio. And he wasn't in cabinet at all before, right? No. That's a major elevation. So

00:37:10.380 that's kind of an unexpected. But there was only three lawyers. Yeah. So he had a really good chance.

00:37:14.980 You got Brian Jean going to energy. We were talking about this last week and I think you guys

00:37:18.740 I was like, three lawyers, all three are serving.

00:37:24.040 Yeah, so I mean, he's a big question mark

00:37:25.720 sitting in there anyways,

00:37:26.720 because Justice is, you know,

00:37:27.980 well, Shando certainly learned 1.00

00:37:29.160 that you can get in trouble in there,

00:37:30.480 or more so Casey Maddow.

00:37:33.280 Hopefully Mr. Amory is just going to manage it confidently.

00:37:36.260 I don't think Justice is a big area

00:37:38.120 where Smith is looking for battles in the near future,

00:37:40.920 but, you know, health, education, and the Ottawa front,

00:37:43.700 I mean, they're certainly huge.

00:37:44.680 It's interesting that United front,

00:37:46.400 as Nigel laid it out,

00:37:47.240 When you can see the signaling coming from Premier Smith that that's where she wants to go with a big main task of the government to begin with. 1.00

00:37:54.640 And they're all three leader contenders in the last race lined up in those key positions.

00:37:59.580 So I'm just impatiently looking forward to fall to seeing, you know, what sort of direction she's going to put that cabinet in.

00:38:06.220 And I saw Rick McIver was put into transportation or no municipal affairs again.

00:38:10.380 A job which he has been in before.

00:38:13.460 Possibly.

00:38:14.520 I guess he might go finance, but I was wrong.

00:38:16.400 But yeah. So that's actually where I want to go next is the ins and the outs. Inns first, and then notable ins and notable outs.

00:38:25.660 Notable ins, Rick McIver, who I very much expected to return.

00:38:32.160 You know, he's very, actually, he's easily the most experienced minister in the government.

00:38:36.500 He, you know, he was on Calgary City Council for a long time.

00:38:40.280 Then he was a minister under Redford, Prentice, Kenny.

00:38:44.360 He's been a minister for a long time.

00:38:46.400 And I was surprised not to see him in Smith's first cabinet.

00:38:52.580 But back in now, I mean, nine of 12 UCP MLAs in Calgary are in cabinet.

00:38:58.060 So MacIver.

00:38:59.740 And then Nixon.

00:39:01.100 That was one of the ones we were talking about.

00:39:05.140 Very controversial choice, Corey.

00:39:07.840 It was.

00:39:08.460 I mean, it was the one we kind of agreed to.

00:39:10.000 She wouldn't put him back in, or at least not in his first run.

00:39:13.660 But he's back in cabinet.

00:39:16.400 And as we talked about, though, if there was going to be a flashpoint of caucus discontent or somebody who's going to be problematic, Jason Nixon potentially could have been that.

00:39:25.860 And there's some of the old, you know, keep your enemies closer, keep them in cabinet, keep them calm, keep them contained, and it's one less thing to sweat.

00:39:33.800 But there's also the possibility, Corey, that there could have been a serious conversation.

00:39:38.120 So I'm Premier, you're not.

00:39:40.400 What's it going to be?

00:39:41.080 I mean, you can do this.

00:39:42.860 You can be out on your own and make it hard for me.

00:39:46.260 I know you can do that, but she could actually be doing something very good.

00:39:50.480 I don't think she wants an adversarial minister in there.

00:39:52.960 I mean, you still want a functional one.

00:39:55.800 A cabinet generally buys you a fair degree of loyalty.

00:39:59.020 Probably should.

00:40:01.620 Yeah, I suppose time will tell.

00:40:03.360 I mean, it's generally been assumed that he was kind of the focal point of caucus discontent against Smith.

00:40:10.240 I mean, he could potentially be, but it would be considered a whole new level of treasonous to do it while in cabinet.

00:40:17.720 Well, in cabinet, there's cabinet solidarity.

00:40:20.440 When the cabinet speaks to caucus, the cabinet is supposed to speak with one voice, never dissenting, even in a caucus meeting.

00:40:28.040 So, I mean, it could go either way, but it definitely appears to be an attempt to buy some peace.

00:40:34.520 Well, I certainly can't imagine that the appointment was made without some kind of explicit understanding.

00:40:40.240 Yeah, it wasn't frivolous.

00:40:42.020 No, there's no doubt about that.

00:40:43.160 So some notable outs, not huge, not really big ones, but notable outs, you know, when I went through the list.

00:40:51.460 Shane Getson, he is just north of Edmonton, so vaguely Edmonton area-ish, which generally puts you on a short list of cabinet now, since there's no UCP MLAs in Edmonton.

00:41:03.300 But he, I mean, I don't think he was, no, he wasn't anti-vax, but he made a bunch of news when first reported by the Western Standard that he had some very serious adverse reactions to vaccines.

00:41:16.680 His face blew up.

00:41:17.880 Most of that picture, yeah.

00:41:18.580 I mean, it was shocking.

00:41:20.200 Stop. 0.99

00:41:20.580 Holy crap. 0.99

00:41:21.520 And I think that angered Kenny and some of the cabinet ministers that, hey, you're not making life easy on us here. 0.97

00:41:32.520 I want you to keep this quiet.

00:41:35.660 So, I mean, he's not in cabinet.

00:41:38.420 Bouchard, he replaced Jason Kenney in Calgary Law Heat, was backed by Take Back Alberta.

00:41:48.040 seems a fairly competent guy and you know nine of 12 Calgary MLAs are in cabinet

00:41:53.920 to be a Calgary MLA and not be in cabinet you got to be wondering now

00:41:58.100 what the hell did I do um and the one that stands out most to me is Grant Hunter uh Grant Hunter

00:42:05.420 is one of the longer serving MLAs there he was elected first as Wildroser in 2015 very very

00:42:11.660 competent, solid conservative. He served as an associate minister and Kenny's first cabinet

00:42:19.020 minister for red tape reduction, so very minor role, but seems to excel at it. Kenny booted him

00:42:24.380 out once the COVID rumbling started because he was a bit of a dissenter, but he ended up in the end

00:42:30.300 backing Travis Tate for the leadership, so it seems like he would have been actually a pretty good fit

00:42:33.660 coming in anyone else from either of you who stands out as huh surprise I'm

00:42:41.660 surprised they're not in cabinet oh really of the people that you've

00:42:46.480 mentioned most of them you know I wish these things fairly carefully but they

00:42:51.600 didn't create such a high profile for themselves but when the announcement

00:42:56.400 came out I was thinking well just a second word did I miss ground hunter

00:43:00.380 here somewhere. You know, it just didn't take me that way. And that's no reflection on the

00:43:05.760 competence or the personalities of these men and women. But she had a set of priorities. I think

00:43:13.280 that this message, you know, there's messaging in the appointment of cabinet ministers, either

00:43:18.760 look, we're favoring this group or favoring that group, or we've not got enough women or something 1.00

00:43:23.760 like that, you know, and that I suppose would be a... Yeah, we haven't even talked about the

00:43:28.040 The whole diversity thing. The rest of the media can talk about the diversity bingo card game.

00:43:32.980 I think it can get away with less women. 1.00

00:43:34.300 I didn't even think about it.

00:43:37.120 I forgot one notable in. Devin Grishan returns to Cabinet now.

00:43:42.620 He was the Minister of Agriculture.

00:43:45.900 There was a kerfuffle in the last year of Kenny involving alcohol in the legislature.

00:43:55.280 Everyone's so surprised there's alcohol in the legislature.

00:43:58.040 Come on, I spent four years around there. Other than the Mormons, everyone is, everyone's imbibing quite liberally from time to time. Although some of this stuff, none of it was proven. 0.91

00:44:10.620 It's a matter of responsibly.

00:44:11.660 Yeah, you got to do it responsibly. Anyway, he returns as Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors. The Economic Corridors is a new sort of portfolio attached to it, which I know you're going to have more to say on possibly next week. We've got some columns coming up on it.

00:44:25.100 Not cabinet, but actually is a very notable out, but there's a very good reason probably for it, and that is Nathan Cooper.

00:44:33.100 Nathan Cooper is technically, I guess, still the speaker of the legislature.

00:44:39.100 He was the speaker from 2019 until now, and he was house leader of the Wildrose opposition from four and actually interim leader of the UCP after the merger before Kenny was elected leader of the UCP.

00:44:54.100 the single biggest nerd within a few kilometers of the legislature. The guy just, so you had Jay

00:45:04.280 Hillen on your show earlier, a parliamentary procedure and stuff. Nathan Eats policy. Jay

00:45:10.080 Hill is like Michael Jackson cool compared to how much of a nerd Nathan Cooper is on this stuff.

00:45:17.560 The guy's life ambition is to be the speaker of the Alberta legislature. He loves everything.

00:45:22.680 Nothing else. So he is a guy who would have, I think, been on a very short list for cabinet. If he's not in cabinet, it's almost certainly that he said, no, Madam Premier, I, I want to be speaker. So, and I, and I spent a good one. He's actually been a very good speaker. Yeah.

00:45:38.700 So does the speaker in the legislature have the same kind of entertainment budget and privileges as the speaker in the House of Commons?

00:45:45.600 No, no.

00:45:46.800 Then why would you want the job?

00:45:49.020 Well, I guess he's just maybe not quite the drinker, because the Speaker of the House of Commons has this big cottage in the Gatineau site with this massive scotch collection.

00:45:59.140 It's like a scotch library.

00:46:00.400 I mean, I think any one of us, maybe not you, but if Nigel and I became Speaker, we had this unlimited library of world-class scotches that never ran out, we'd never get to work again.

00:46:14.960 It would kill us.

00:46:16.040 But it is something, you know, whether Nathan Coober, if you've watched him in there, I mean, he just, he thrives on it.

00:46:21.460 He loves it.

00:46:21.940 He does stuff outside of there.

00:46:23.260 He educates on procedure and things.

00:46:25.820 Yeah.

00:46:26.080 See, it's good to see, actually.

00:46:27.160 He's kind of a brighter...

00:46:28.040 Honorable member for Lethbridge East.

00:46:30.400 Yes.

00:46:30.860 It's nothing but fun.

00:46:32.280 All right, dear.

00:46:33.120 Well, perfect timing.

00:46:35.040 We're going to wrap it up there.

00:46:36.940 We're going to wrap a tour it up.

00:46:40.260 Come on, please, please.

00:46:42.480 Oh, come on. 0.87

00:46:43.400 I have to work for the rest of the afternoon without ringing in my ears.

00:46:45.720 It was a very special joke to me.

00:46:47.580 Okay.

00:46:49.600 It was special.

00:46:50.640 Yes.

00:46:51.820 All right, Nigel, Corey, thank you very much for joining.

00:46:54.800 And thank all of you for joining us today.

00:46:56.820 If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, go to westernstandard.news, click on membership.

00:47:01.180 It's only $10 a month or $100 a year for unlimited access to all Western Standard content.

00:47:07.060 Thank you very much for joining us, and God bless.

00:47:09.040 The Canadian Shooting Sports Association, without the CSSA, our gun rights would have been taken long, long ago.

00:47:16.820 These guys are on the front lines, helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms regulations and legislation in Canada.

00:47:24.480 And more importantly, educating the public about how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people.

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Western Standard - June 15, 2023

The Pipeline： Mendicino caught in another big lie

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