Corey and Dave return to discuss the latest in Canadian politics, including the latest assault charges against the Prime Minister's security guard, David Menzies, for questioning Chrystia Freeland at a public event.
00:00:00.000Good evening, welcome to The Pipeline.
00:00:26.600I am Western Standard columnist and show host, Corey Morgan.
00:00:30.600This is our weekly news and affairs show, a panel show, where we get a few of us turning your ear and dissecting what's been happening and leading the news at the Western Standard through the course of this week.
00:00:43.460I'm going to start, though, before I get to who's joining me today.
00:00:46.200We've been rotating the crowd a lot over the holiday season and talk about our sponsor, though.
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00:00:56.380sponsor it's the canadian shooting sports association guys if you're firearms owners
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00:07:08.220Look, Corey, I'm not a big fan of David Menzies and his antics.
00:07:13.620You know, he's been arrested more times than I've had hot dinners.
00:07:16.380But this RCMP officer completely out of line, completely provoked him and, you know, and caused the entire incident, roughed him up, took four cops to arrest him.
00:07:29.280You know, at least Menzies had the good sense to keep talking during his arrest and got some good video.
00:07:35.860And I'm sure his boss Ezra probably gave him a little bit of a bonus and videos being viewed more than 10 million times now.
00:07:43.400And surely the rebels doing some top fundraising off it.
00:07:51.440And you could just tell Chrystia Freeland smirking away as she avoids a legitimate question about an Iranian group on the anniversary of the day when the Iranians shot down an airliner with a whole bunch of Canadians on it.
00:08:05.320Yeah, well, and as a veteran of many arrests, Mr. Menzies composed himself fairly quickly.
00:08:10.980But, you know, at first, one of the things, I mean, I've watched that video multiple times because I've seen the arguments and dispute.
00:08:15.060The first part of it, you can see he was scared.
00:08:25.500So instantly Menzies wouldn't have known it was a call.0.68
00:08:29.140And this is an act, I mean, of intimidation.
00:08:30.980If you were another reporter, a small person, considering, you know, scrumming or going after public figures, this would have a pretty chilling effect, I think, Nigel.
00:08:38.900You know, in seeing that, you might reconsider doing your job.
00:08:42.680Well, I hope I wouldn't, but darn it all, I believe I would.
00:08:51.840Part of that, I think, the look on Mr. Menzies' face was occasioned by the fact that he just plain didn't see it coming.
00:08:58.900He was concentrating on the minister, and then from the cover of the lamppost out steps this tank,
00:09:06.140bumps into him this is what i see when i look at the video bumps into him when he's looking the
00:09:12.360other way well he was surprised apart from anything else so uh and and rightly so you know
00:09:20.760uh there's a there's a lot of people and you made reference to this a moment ago
00:09:26.720who have no sympathy with menzies because they don't like the rebel and they don't like what
00:09:33.720the rebel does or stands for. Okay, we've said it. Now, does anybody deserve to get
00:09:45.600bumped like that by the RCMP while they're in the act of trying to speak to a politician?
00:09:53.480I say, no. We operate as journalists. We have no special journalist rights. We operate under the same right that every other Canadian citizen has of free speech, free expression, and the right to address a politician.
00:10:16.720Now, there is a time and a place for everything, and you can expect that if you make your move
00:10:26.280at the wrong time, you probably will be rebuffed, but not necessarily out of spite, merely out
00:10:33.180of the fact that, well, we can't really talk right now, but it was noticeable.
00:10:37.460I mean, we all know that they don't like the rebel.
00:10:39.960They don't like us, but my word, they really don't like the rebel.
00:10:42.620um can't even get recognized as a as a newspaper they don't get admitted to liberal party events
00:10:51.760it goes on and on and on so there's clearly the rcmp knew who menzies was here comes the minister
00:10:57.940menzies is going to make his move whether it was a misplaced act of gallantry or some more sinister
00:11:04.140explanation that I that I hesitate to even speak about on the air what happened happened and it
00:11:12.920shouldn't happen because that if you have been walking by or as a person who is not involved
00:11:19.300with the media at any time see Minister Freeland and just mind who that is Minister Freeland when
00:11:26.120are you going to recognize when are you going to condemn the IRGC you shouldn't expect to get
00:11:31.240slammed against the wall by the RCMP. But you have as much right to ask that question as the
00:11:36.600journalist has, we're operating under the same code. Absolutely. And I mean, again, that's why
00:11:43.580it was so important to play this video, because I've seen a lot of apologists or people making
00:11:46.520excuses. I mean, had Mr. Menzies been aggressively approaching, if he'd been sprinting towards her as
00:11:52.520if he was going to make contact, or if he hadn't even been with a camera person, I mean, it would
00:11:56.700be clear to anybody saying this is a person doing a report. If this was a run of the mill
00:12:02.480civilian making a run at a minister, I expect the RCMP to get in and make a block and say,
00:12:08.740excuse me. But even then, you know, you block them off, you don't grab them and slam. And again,
00:12:14.900that absurd charge, which was dropped, you know, some hours later of assaulting a police officer.
00:13:34.780And we've got police as well where it's a tough job.
00:13:38.020And, you know, they get questioned on a lot of arrests.
00:13:40.360They get questioned in a lot of circumstances.
00:13:42.600When we do see on video a clear example of an officer making up a charge against somebody, that adds to mistrust of police in general.
00:13:53.580When people see that, you know, quite often when you hear some criminals say, I was falsely accused, this and that, people roll their eyes.
00:15:14.680So, I mean, and that goes further into some of the discussion I saw online.
00:15:18.900And, of course, it's not always the most nuanced and bright discussion, but it's something a lot of people throw out when they're the tribalistic nature.
00:15:26.960But when people keep throwing in and it annoys that crap out of me, journalist in quotes, reporter in quotes, or saying they're not real ones.
00:15:32.920I mean, just to clarify, for one, there is no actual certification for who is or isn't a journalist in Canada.
00:15:57.020So if anybody can define who is or isn't a journalist, you can say it's a bad journalist, an incredible journalist, a tasteless journalist, fine.
00:16:05.260But they're still technically, if they're reporting on something, a journalist.
00:16:08.660I mean, I had a conversation with Mr. Menzies yesterday, and he tells me that he spent three years at Ryerson University when it was called Ryerson, came out of there with a journalism degree.
00:16:21.500even if there was a professional designation of journalists, I would hope that three years at
00:16:27.660Ryerson would satisfy the critics, plus 25 years since working in the industry. I mean, like you
00:16:33.840said, good journalist, bad journalist, journalist anyway. Yeah, you may not like their style or how
00:16:39.160they go about being a journalist, but you can't argue who's a journalist and who's not. Well,
00:16:43.540people try, and it's just frustrating. I mean, if we get into regulation, this was kind of
00:16:48.260unexpected. It was something that came up earlier, and you've written on it, Nigel, with CRTC is
00:16:53.440hinting at coming up with codes of conduct. I mean, that's quite a regulatory step towards
00:16:59.280actually saying who's a journalist or who isn't, and what you're even allowed to do as a journalist
00:17:03.340or not. That's kind of distressing. I mean, I, you know, honestly, Corey and David, we're not a
00:17:12.640long-lived breed but I expect nevertheless to live to see the day that we have that kind of1.00
00:17:20.000licensing for journalists. I am told anecdotally that they already have it in Great Britain. I
00:17:26.680find that hard to believe and I haven't checked it out but the person who told me had been at a
00:17:32.120press conference where it's all right boys let's see your licenses and we go here we go again sort
00:17:37.460of thing you know and he came to the Canadian he said well we don't actually have a license to be
00:17:41.600Oh, don't you? Oh, okay. Well, fair enough. Carry on. Really? Is that how far things have fallen?
00:17:48.960I relate it as an unattributed anecdote that I have not checked the truth on yet. I only heard
00:17:55.380it very recently. But certainly there are many places in the world where you don't just get up
00:18:02.840and start writing. You have to have permission. And Canada at the moment is not one of those
00:18:08.300places and may that continue i just don't have a very happy expectation that it will
00:18:14.940well anything the crtc does they mess it up yeah you know they couldn't organize their
00:18:19.180booze up in a brewery but uh it is it is scary to think of you know the code is going to say
00:18:24.460you must stay 10 10 feet back from any politician and you know it's uh i'm not sure it will get far
00:18:31.340peace david i don't know i mean the only thing i can think of that would be worse than an
00:18:35.740inefficient crtc was an efficient crtc yes yes good point you know maybe maybe we should just
00:18:43.420hope for at least a little incompetence in the administration of this should it ever come about
00:18:48.540well their middle name is incompetence so i'm sure it'll be there it'll be the one thing they
00:18:53.180get right you mark my words well and i just always like to remind folks in situations like this when
00:18:57.820you're talking about empowering a government further and even if you like the current government
00:19:02.940just remember it's not always going to be a government you like and if you've empowered
00:19:07.420them to step on those sorts of rights when the government comes in that you don't like
00:19:12.300the journalists that you enjoyed before suddenly might find themselves being shut out from
00:19:17.020communications or the ability to report and everybody again has done a disservice all over
00:19:22.780again well nigel you worked in the pmo with harper for for 10 years now that was a guy journalists0.74
00:19:28.780hated. Journalists did not like Harper, but he wasn't blacklisting anybody or sending his RCMP
00:19:34.700thugs to arrest anybody, was he? No, he did not. And I actually, I was thinking about this very
00:19:42.460thing and wondering whether something had changed in the years since I was voted out of office,
00:19:49.660so to speak. I was, for the benefit of those who don't know the Hannaford story, I was a staffer,
00:19:55.500I wasn't an elected person, but I was looking after the Prime Minister's speeches for about six years.
00:20:02.260And in all of that six years, I had the opportunity to hang out, I guess you would say,
00:20:10.300with a lot of these RCMP officers, because they were the only people on a trip who were close to my age.
00:20:15.180And, you know, it's either that or join the young staffers while they sit there on their phones, you know,
00:20:21.340and sort of trying to hit on each other. That's what they would do.
00:20:24.440Anyway, so I ended up gracious enough to make room at the table for me, and a pretty good bunch of guys.
00:20:32.480And the men that I and a couple of women who were on the PMPD, who I knew between 2009 and 2015,
00:20:42.660I would not expect this kind of thing from any of them.
00:20:47.640There was not one that I thought, well, you know, good job he's on our side, but he is a bit of a thug, you know.
00:22:37.740Yeah, his wife clubbed the guy with Inuit sculpture.
00:22:40.740I don't know. You say you didn't used to care much for Mr. Kretzian, and I guess I would say the same, but I'm sure missing him now.
00:22:49.380Absolutely. I mean, he was still, even if he didn't like him, he was respectable.
00:22:52.760Yeah, you've got to have a liberal prime minister.
00:22:55.080He was smart, and he had a degree of dignity. His treatment of the West, again, is as typical of liberals, drove me bananas.
00:23:01.800But I wasn't cringing in fear whenever he'd go overseas representing the country versus today when, I just wish Trudeau would extend his vacations year-round, to be honest,
00:23:10.500because he just can't seem to get through one
00:28:39.760You know, when people look back in 30 years, he's going to say, well, I started the Green Revolution in Canada, and we ended up saving the world.
00:28:47.840You know, despite the fact Poliev, when he gets in, is going to change everything back to normal, hopefully.
00:32:24.660And part of the problem, and that's what they're listing, is the damage he's doing, and that will hang over.
00:32:28.720Even if Trudeau suddenly said, you know what, I've had enough of this guy.
00:32:32.160I've got to refocus if I've got any hope in being reelected.
00:32:36.360The chill he's put on investment, as you said, it's a long game.
00:32:40.040Who in their right mind would invest in a gas generating facility in Alberta when they're talking about capping you off on that in a few years?
00:32:47.920Who's going to invest in an auto dealership or, you know, any number of things when you know that these guys have already, I mean, the damage is done.
00:32:57.540I mean, we can undo some of it, but it's going to hang over.
00:33:00.120Well, you know, Corey, who would you even want to invest in manufacturing electric vehicles
00:33:09.000if you can't be sure that people are going to, A, want to buy them, and B, if there's nothing else
00:33:14.420left to buy and they have to, that they'll be able to plug them in and charge them up. Because right
00:33:19.540now, that is not by any means a certain thing. No, our grid, there's a lot of big question marks
00:33:25.780So he's well out past any rational people with his policies, and we've got this mess.
00:33:31.680I just came back from Vancouver, and I'll let you know, every second car seems to be a Tesla.
00:33:45.560Interesting to keep watching that crazed man.
00:33:47.940I mean, I got sent running out, I don't know if you remember, to take pictures of him when he came across the Hall of Fame with Premier Kenny, actually.
00:33:54.480and he got out with his entourage from a minivan from the airport parked and idling over off to
00:34:01.180the side that he was warm while he was having his meetings for him. I was frozen because they kept
00:34:05.360running me in circles trying to find him, Derek phoning me and texting me and so on, but
00:34:08.740he's a character, quite indifferent he seemed to me anyway, so at least I didn't get arrested or
00:34:14.480beaten up for my troubles. You obviously weren't trying hard enough, were you? I guess I needed a
00:34:19.860rebel mike they didn't know what this western standard thing was all right well armed and
00:34:26.440freezing we've got you know the weather's changing and it's going to make i mean a problem that's
00:34:32.360been building for a while now is going to hit critical level really fast what's going on dave
00:34:36.680yeah as i mentioned earlier we're going to be minus 36 like it feels like in the morning
00:34:41.480um they've had some major problems in edmonton with homeless homeless camps and they shut one
00:34:47.680down and they gave the media sort of a behind scenes look and they called him in and on a table
00:34:53.200there were all sorts of weapons laid out from from firearms to machetes to brass knuckles
00:34:59.360and they showed a really what was called a horrific film of what what happens in these tents
00:35:04.400and you could see one guy trying to light a propane tank to get some heat coming off it and
00:35:10.000he blows off his hand he eventually dies uh from his injuries and other people die in fires because
00:35:17.520are too intoxicated to to save themselves and it's it's it's a real mess uh and
00:35:26.640this week the government announced in alberta opening up another 150 emergency shelter spaces
00:35:33.040in edmonton so you know what if people want to go there's room for them uh but a lot of these the
00:35:41.520homeless don't want to go they don't like the shelters it's dangerous for them they can't do
00:35:46.240their drugs uh in the shelters a lot of them are also mentally ill um so yeah it's it's a tough
00:35:53.920job for all the social workers and the police officers and it's it's not just edmonton it's
00:35:58.960calgary it's basically every major city in canada now has homeless camera almost camps uh set up in
00:36:07.280them so major problem this is the first cold wave of the winter and let's hope everybody makes it
00:36:12.480it through. These cities are in a rock and a hard place. I mean, if they don't enforce, if they don't
00:36:17.680take down these tents, we know how the activists will react when the fires happen, not if and when
00:36:23.880the people are, you know, overdose or intoxicated to the point where they freeze to death and not
00:36:28.620realize it. The city and authorities will get the blame for not having gone in there. But right now,
00:36:34.680of course, they're getting the blame and being called heartless for going in and tearing down.
00:36:38.060Like, is there ever going to be an acceptable answer to this?
00:36:41.820Actually, as Dave was speaking, I was just thinking, if you had all the money and all the power in the world, what would a solution be that could work?
00:36:50.680I could not think of one that does not require the active participation of the person that you're trying to help.
00:37:01.880I remember an article that you wrote, Corey, probably three or four months ago, in which you mentioned the dilemma posed by encountering a person passed out on, I think it was on a park bench, laying there in stark misery.
00:37:20.460and is it the right thing to walk on by