Western Standard - The Pipeline： No Thanks, Thanksgiving, Mandatory jabs for MLA's, Equalization Referendum

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00:03:00.000 Thank you.

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00:04:00.000 Good day.

00:04:15.700 Today is October 6th and you're watching The Pipeline on the Western Standard.

00:04:20.900 I'm Western Standard publisher Derek Fildebrandt.

00:04:23.240 I'm joined today as usual by Western Standard political columnist and host of the Cory Morgan

00:04:28.660 show. Corey Morgan. G'day, Corey. You're looking spiffy. You've got a tie on and everything. Yeah,

00:04:33.480 I even brought my own for a change. I didn't have to go into the community tie pile. It's not good

00:04:38.060 ties. No. And we're also joined a special treat. Filling in for our news editor, Dave Naylor, is

00:04:44.320 our Alberta correspondent, Melanie Rizden. Hi. Hi. Happy to be here. She's nicer than Dave.

00:04:53.540 A little.

00:04:54.620 From time to time.

00:04:56.360 Sometimes.

00:04:57.560 Well, we've got an interesting show today.

00:04:59.460 We're going to be talking about Thanksgiving rules across the West, Alberta and BC in particular.

00:05:07.860 Are you allowed to eat the turkey with anyone besides yourself?

00:05:12.040 We're going to let you know, and we're going to let you know how it's shaping up politically.

00:05:15.720 uh also government uh ucp government house leader in alberta jason nixon has declared that it will

00:05:24.220 be mandatory for all mlas in the province and legislative assembly staff to be vaccinated

00:05:30.060 there are major questions around the constitutionality of that is it constitutional

00:05:34.560 to not allow mlas to speak in the legislature or vote on bills if they're not vaccinated we're 0.56

00:05:41.380 going to be getting into that. We're going to be speaking about increasing controversy around

00:05:47.160 early COVID treatments. The most prominent of those is ivermectin. There's a lot of controversy

00:05:53.780 swirling around that drug and a few others. Doctors who are prescribing it now facing removal from

00:06:01.140 their positions. We've got a couple of stories we've been working on that. And we're going to

00:06:06.760 talk about, is Jason Kenney's unpopularity putting the equalization referendum in Alberta

00:06:12.260 in jeopardy? Is the unpopularity of him and his government going to put at risk the ability of

00:06:17.960 the Alberta government to get a strong mandate to remove equalization from the Constitution?

00:06:23.160 We're going to get into all four of those topics, but first I want to thank all of our Western

00:06:27.840 Standard members for your continued support. If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard,

00:06:31.300 you can try it free for 15 days. It's only $10 a month or $99 a year. Just go to westernstandardonline.com, click on membership, start your free trial and see if you like what you're getting. We're bailout free media. We continue to refuse to accept the federal government's media bailout. If you want independent free press to continue to exist in Western Canada, we need you to support the work of the Western Standard and the great journalists we have working here.

00:07:00.300 So let's get started. Thanksgiving coming up. Melanie, why don't you give us the rundown.

00:07:07.900 What are the rules? I guess the ones we've been focusing on that are the most controversial are in Alberta and British Columbia.

00:07:13.460 Why don't you fill us in?

00:07:15.920 Well, it looks like most of the gathering rules are similar to what was announced earlier on.

00:07:23.240 Are we talking Alberta or Lucy?

00:07:24.460 In Alberta, gatherings have been restricted to two families or two households of the vaccinated

00:07:34.140 population. So two families are allowed to gather if 10 of those are eligible vaccinated people.

00:07:42.780 This does not apply to anyone 12 and under in these families. The unvaccinated have not been 1.00

00:07:50.380 permitted to gather in any numbers. So no Thanksgiving if you're unvaccinated. That's right.

00:07:55.500 And even if you are vaccinated, you can't have more than two households. That's right. So two

00:07:59.740 households, up to 10 people of the eligible people who are vaccinated. Outdoor private social

00:08:07.260 gatherings is what changed in Premier Kenny's announcement yesterday. So it went from 200

00:08:14.140 down to 20, 20 people. And those 20 people are going to have to practice physical distancing

00:08:21.820 between those households at all times in outdoor private social gatherings for the time being.

00:08:28.380 So no backyard Thanksgiving either way, because then you can't sit at the same table.

00:08:34.140 That's right.

00:08:35.980 Corey, so I guess this means you're not having Thanksgiving, right? You're going to listen?

00:08:40.840 I will see.

00:08:42.740 But, you know, as long as nobody's peeking over the fence and seeing what we're up to.

00:08:46.460 You know, I mean, this is an unenforceable thing.

00:08:49.020 I mean, they can talk as much as they like, unless the person's holding an excessive large gathering.

00:08:54.060 And there is always the possibility of a nosy Karen next door who's going to call in and report it. 1.00

00:08:59.480 But it's more of a strong suggestion.

00:09:01.880 I mean, you know, listening to Kenny's tone, again, it was more of that pleading,

00:09:04.700 please don't gather in large numbers.

00:09:06.820 but it just leads to more of that division and the social consequences of this sort of thing

00:09:12.880 that I'm worried about. You know, this is another major social event, family gathering, things when

00:09:18.920 people typically will travel, get together, see each other and we've been shut down just before

00:09:23.220 it happens yet again. This comes at a cost, you know, you can't measure that cost but there's a

00:09:29.200 cost and it's building and I'm really worried as we keep cracking down on people gathering with

00:09:33.840 their loved ones. I'm doubtful at this point that really anybody's listening. I mean, there'll be a

00:09:40.140 very small number of people, most of them probably just MLAs who follow the rules. They got busted

00:09:46.540 breaking their own rules a few times now at Sky Palace, traveling to Hawaii and Mexico, things

00:09:51.620 like that. But they, I really can't see most people complying with this. First of all, if you

00:10:01.600 You have a nosy Karen next door and she calls the police and the police come and knock on 1.00

00:10:05.140 your door.

00:10:07.860 There's only four words you have to have for the police.

00:10:10.660 Do you have a warrant?

00:10:12.580 If the answer is anything but yes.

00:10:14.480 Is that five?

00:10:15.480 Yeah. 0.99

00:10:16.480 Oh, crap. 0.98

00:10:17.480 I tried to count. 0.99

00:10:18.480 I'm hair split.

00:10:19.480 Okay.

00:10:20.480 You just say, do you have a warrant?

00:10:21.480 And if the answer is anything besides yes, and they immediately present you a warrant

00:10:25.220 signed by a judge, you just, all you say is get a warrant.

00:10:30.360 are trespassing and close the door. They cannot enter your home. Period. They can only enter 0.61

00:10:35.160 your home if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that a crime is in progress or about

00:10:39.720 to be committed. And these are not crimes. There's nothing in the Criminal Code of Canada

00:10:43.640 about meeting for Thanksgiving. At all. Period. Full stop. These are provincial regulations

00:10:51.640 created under provincial statute enacted by Order and Council, which is, in English,

00:10:57.000 means the cabinet said so, and you can get a fine for it, but they can't actually enter

00:11:02.920 your home.

00:11:03.920 Period.

00:11:04.920 And having said that, in BC, it literally is suggestion at this point.

00:11:09.880 There is nothing been mandated or stated that it is going to be enforced.

00:11:15.280 It's just highly suggested in BC.

00:11:17.760 I think there'd be a better chance of people actually not gathering for Thanksgiving if

00:11:21.400 it was a suggestion.

00:11:23.260 Because what this does is it breeds disrespect for the law.

00:11:25.680 When you have bad laws, it breeds disrespect for other laws.

00:11:29.560 And rebellion.

00:11:30.560 Yeah.

00:11:31.560 I remember when I was a younger guy, I lived on this street and it had about five stop signs,

00:11:37.360 about 100 meters, not even 100, 400 meters apart from each other.

00:11:41.320 And we just put there because there were a couple of Karens in the neighborhood who wanted 1.00

00:11:44.060 to slow down traffic.

00:11:45.780 And you know what ended up happening?

00:11:47.820 Everybody started rolling through the stop signs.

00:11:50.160 Everyone just sort of rolling through them and I found, I caught myself starting to roll

00:11:53.580 through a lot of stop signs because these bad, obviously ridiculous stop signs, which

00:11:58.200 were just meant to inconvenience me and not do anything productive for society, my disrespect

00:12:03.560 for those stop signs started bleeding into other stop signs and I eventually caught myself

00:12:06.980 what I was doing. This kind of thing is like an excessive line of stop signs. If you're

00:12:11.900 just telling people to do things that we know we're going to make next to no difference

00:12:16.040 and are hugely destructive to our social lives and our families, people are not going to

00:12:21.440 it. And it's going to breed disrespect for things that maybe do make sense at some point,

00:12:26.240 if it was necessary. Well, and then some of the requests, I mean,

00:12:30.320 not every family member wants to ask every family member or guest, have you been vaccinated

00:12:34.300 or not? And then, are you going to demand proof? Are you going to ask for them to present

00:12:38.000 that? You have to get a bouncer at the door of 1.00

00:12:39.000 your house. If you were that shitty a host, you don't 0.99

00:12:41.760 deserve to hold a Thanksgiving anyway. Yeah. But even if you are vaccinated, you're still 1.00

00:12:45.840 limited to two households. Most Thanksgivings, if you've got any family in town, are probably

00:12:50.500 going to have more than two households.

00:12:52.180 Well, and I have to say that for the vaccinated population who were sort of told that this

00:12:58.060 vaccine was going to allow them to return to some semblance of normalcy in their lives,

00:13:03.900 I would think that a lot of people would be upset that these kind of restrictions have

00:13:10.580 been put on them when they've done the right thing, they've done what they were told,

00:13:15.560 And I would think that that would be, you know, kind of a sore spot for many people

00:13:21.320 right now.

00:13:22.320 And the announcement was late.

00:13:23.520 People have already bought turkeys.

00:13:24.520 People have already invited people over to their house.

00:13:26.520 That's true.

00:13:27.520 People have made travel arrangements, pet sitting, whatever they've had to do.

00:13:29.680 Yeah.

00:13:30.680 I mean, we just hope for the best.

00:13:32.080 Some people are going to back off and gatherings, others are just going to happen and let's

00:13:37.440 just hope it doesn't lead to further infections.

00:13:38.440 I guess this means I'm just going to have to eat the whole turkey by myself.

00:13:41.060 Well, the other thing that I wanted to mention, too, that didn't seem like it made a lot of sense to me was Kenny also stated that the numbers are plateauing and, in fact, getting better.

00:13:51.480 So it seemed a strange time.

00:13:53.860 I grasp that we're going into a weekend where a lot of people will be gathering, and so we want to put some warning on that.

00:14:00.080 But the fact that the numbers are going down, we're plateauing, things are actually improving, it seems strange to come out and say, make a statement that it's not enough.

00:14:09.960 we need to lock down further. Well, let's just remember that the last lockdown we had over

00:14:15.080 holidays, Christmas last year, while Albertans, while it was illegal for Albertans to see their

00:14:21.840 loved ones and share Christmas time together, a very large number of UCP, MLAs, a cabinet minister

00:14:30.000 and several staffers, they went, left the province that they had locked down and they went to

00:14:35.740 jurisdictions where they could be with their families.

00:14:38.860 So let's just remember the moral authority of a government telling you what you can't

00:14:43.120 do when they're so willing to skip town to enjoy themselves elsewhere and avoid their

00:14:49.780 own rules.

00:14:50.780 Well, speaking of rules around MLAs, so the government's house leader, Jason Nixon, that

00:14:58.840 is essentially the, it's normally a cabinet minister who is in charge of kind of the procedure

00:15:03.780 inside the legislature, all parties in all legislatures and parliaments have these now.

00:15:10.100 He has said that, unilaterally declared that all MLAs and legislative staff, that is people

00:15:18.620 who are working supporting the legislature, staff working for MLAs, they're all going to be required

00:15:23.280 to have mandatory vaccination. Now, this is interesting. Actually, why don't you set up

00:15:30.100 of the details of the story. Or was that it? The MLAs? Yes. You didn't have it. Okay.

00:15:38.800 So they've got, it's interesting, because he just declared it. And you can't do that.

00:15:47.060 To change the rules of the legislature requires the legislature to vote on changing its standing

00:15:53.420 orders. And I know that some of your eyes are starting to glaze over. But this is important.

00:15:57.220 This is the rules around the legislature.

00:15:58.720 Like, there's a dress code that applies mostly just to men.

00:16:01.720 The women's dress code says, look nice, because it's impossible to define a dress code. 1.00

00:16:05.720 For guys, it's easy.

00:16:06.720 Suit, tie, trousers.

00:16:08.720 Once I wasn't allowed in, I had jeans on, even though the camera doesn't see your jeans.

00:16:12.720 I wasn't allowed into the legislature, because I had jeans on.

00:16:14.720 It was like 2 o'clock in the morning.

00:16:16.220 I was like, come on.

00:16:17.720 And then the security guy said, like, nope, can't go in.

00:16:19.720 So there's rules that govern the legislature, procedure, dress codes.

00:16:24.220 Now they want to make it mandatory to be vaccinated, and they didn't even say that there's going to be a motion.

00:16:32.220 Now, they're probably going to have to bring one in.

00:16:34.220 We spoke to the Speaker of the Legislature, Nathan Cooper, and he confirmed that no, that is not enforceable without a motion of the legislature.

00:16:45.220 Melanie, have we heard anything that the government has any intention of bringing forward a motion of it?

00:16:50.220 And also, maybe we could speak to the constitutionality of, can the government, even if they pass a

00:16:55.820 motion, can a legislature bar some of its members who are not vaccinated?

00:17:00.720 Well, I think that is a constitutional question that spans many areas here, whether it's,

00:17:06.920 you know, AHS employees, teachers, all across the board.

00:17:10.720 I think there are a lot of lawyers, especially lawyers that I've spoken to recently, who

00:17:16.520 are unequivocally arguing that this is a violation of our Constitution also under

00:17:25.040 the Employment Act and and people's actual functional what's the word I'm

00:17:34.080 looking for their their help me out here there don't know contracts the

00:17:40.900 contracts that they have for their positions with their employers you you

00:17:45.400 You can't just arbitrarily make a declaration that goes against what the contract states,

00:17:53.660 what the expectation of the employee states, and just expect that to be bying on.

00:17:59.640 This raises broader constitutional questions as well beyond individual rights.

00:18:04.640 Corey, this is also going to very murky territory about, can the legislature not allow an elected

00:18:14.680 representative to enter it. I like that there are some circumstances. Like, yeah, you've

00:18:18.300 got to comply with the dress code if you're a guy. I was really jealous of the ladies 1.00

00:18:22.180 in the legislature because some of them dress very nicely. Others, I was like, I don't think

00:18:27.000 I'd get away with the male equivalent. Side note, if you threw on a skirt and identified 1.00

00:18:30.620 differently today, I got a feeling you'd be able to bypass that rule. I considered identifying

00:18:35.780 as a generic member once just to get in in jeans, but I decided against it. Yeah, but

00:18:40.100 either way, you know, it is complex and convoluted because what you're talking about now isn't

00:18:44.580 just the member's right that you're violating, it's every constituent that that member represents.

00:18:50.180 You've got a whole constituency now that has lost their voice in the legislature because

00:18:55.600 that representative is not allowed to be in there.

00:18:59.120 I think they have to come up with an accommodation, that's what I think, but for what that's

00:19:03.040 worth isn't much, even if it's then teleconferencing in or something because you can't take out

00:19:11.300 that ability.

00:19:12.300 I think even that's too weak. I mean like teleconferencing. These digital parliaments are

00:19:16.300 bullshit. Like no one cares. I mean no one even listens even if you're in the place. 1.00

00:19:19.980 But if you're not in the place you can't command any presence.

00:19:23.900 Oh it's a weakness without doubt but I don't see how they can you know. But the way we're seeing

00:19:28.380 things now they'll step on the right and apologize later if the courts overturn it. The courts will

00:19:31.980 take years. I mean they're so backed up with everything else and if somebody claims a charter

00:19:35.820 challenge we know the charter is useless now. They just invoke section one every time somebody

00:19:39.020 challenges. So I think the non-vaccinated MLAs for the immediate term are out of luck. They're

00:19:46.860 either not going to step foot in that place or they're going to get the job. Well, it'd be

00:19:49.580 interesting to see what happens. Are we going to get to the point where some of these MLAs,

00:19:54.700 I think it'd be interesting to see if the UCP MLAs comply, because there are some that have been

00:19:59.300 unvaccinated that might still be, they have until October 25th to comply when the legislature

00:20:03.800 resumes. It'll be interesting to see, because then you've got Todd Lowen, Drew Barnes, these two

00:20:09.560 independents. I don't know their vaccination status, but I'm just gonna throw a dart against 1.00

00:20:14.040 the wall and say probably not. It's undisclosed anyway. It's undisclosed, yeah. And frankly,

00:20:19.560 they could be vaccinated, but refuse to provide the card. Like, that's what I've done at times.

00:20:25.000 I'm vaccinated, but I'm not showing you my papers. We're not in Paris 1942 here. I don't have to show

00:20:30.600 anyone my bloody papers to sit down. So are we going to literally see the speaker order the

00:20:36.520 sergeant at arms to physically drag MLAs out of the chamber because they're not vaccinated?

00:20:42.120 Because what you're doing there is you were saying that these hundreds of thousands of

00:20:45.560 Albertans who have elected those MLAs don't get to have a representative, that they don't get a

00:20:51.560 voice. So if you vote for these people, you get no MLA. They're literally not allowed in the place

00:20:56.920 to vote on bills or motions. They're not allowed any place to speak.

00:20:59.920 Does it apply to committee work as well?

00:21:01.920 Independents don't get committees generally to begin with.

00:21:04.920 But this is applying, there's some UCP MLAs who haven't disclosed their status as well.

00:21:07.920 I imagine they're on some committees.

00:21:09.920 I think the other Nixon brother there, Jeremy, is undisclosed at this point.

00:21:14.920 That fellow from Slave Lake got kicked out.

00:21:17.920 I bet you he does with everything he's told now.

00:21:19.920 He was down on his knees performing political acts of disgrace

00:21:24.920 grace to get back into the UCP caucus. Absolutely but he's one of the there's only like five I

00:21:29.560 believe who don't have their status declared anymore and and those two were two of them which

00:21:33.560 was surprising. Yeah we'll see and I would have thought that Pat Rand would have been right on

00:21:37.320 the head of the line yes here it is look at that I still got the syringe sticking out of my arm

00:21:40.600 please let me sit back. Yeah yeah. He seems to be quite the procrastinator. Okay well we're going to

00:21:46.040 move on now to swirling controversy around early COVID treatment cases. I know Melanie you've

00:21:53.880 been covering a lot of these stories. Why don't you fill us in, kind of give us the high level of

00:22:01.800 what's happening with some of these doctors trying to prescribe things like ivermectin that are not

00:22:09.160 yet approved by Health Canada and all of the different provincial colleges of physicians

00:22:16.440 and surgeons.

00:22:17.440 Well, I think the gist of it is this.

00:22:21.120 There is a real concern that these colleges of physicians and surgeons, these higher-ups

00:22:28.260 are sort of interfering with how doctors see fit to care for or prescribe for their patients.

00:22:37.900 And as much as one of the drugs, one of the controversial drugs is ivermectin, it at this

00:22:44.980 point has been banned from use in treatment of COVID, and it often is referred to as a

00:22:51.640 horse dewormer, but it has been widely used in different forms and different doses.

00:22:59.540 If you do take, if you go to the equestrian store and you bought the horse ivermectin,

00:23:05.300 you're probably going to have a very soggy day in your pants.

00:23:07.940 It's not a good idea, but it is prescribed for humans in different doses and in different

00:23:12.560 forms at times.

00:23:14.160 Well, let's clarify that because, yes, there are agricultural forms of this medicine that

00:23:23.280 are mixed with other things that, yes, as a person you wouldn't want to take, but the

00:23:26.820 pure form of ivermectin, if you are getting, whether it is the medical grade, the chemical

00:23:33.740 grade for humans, or you're getting the same form.

00:23:36.560 We're not going to, neither of us are doctors, so we're not going to debate if you should

00:23:39.640 be taking ivermectin or not, but what we're discussing is controversy around what's happening

00:23:45.040 with doctors that are prescribing it, so why don't you set us up with maybe the most important

00:23:50.580 of these cases that we're looking at right now.

00:23:53.240 Right now we're putting out today a story about an Alberta doctor who sort of makes

00:23:59.500 his rounds in some of the rural hospitals working through the ER and helping staff,

00:24:03.960 he came to a Rimby hospital where there were three emergency patients that were diagnosed

00:24:10.200 COVID. They were failing and he recommended that they try ivermectin and he was able to obtain,

00:24:19.080 and this is why I was bringing that up, he was able to obtain some agricultural grade ivermectin

00:24:25.160 which was the representatively the the same as what humans take just in liquid form. So

00:24:31.800 just want to preface that by saying that was confirmed by the pharmacist and the doctor.

00:24:38.360 And so he has now, because he brought this treatment into the hospital and gave it to these

00:24:46.440 patients, he has now been banned from practicing in Alberta hospitals. So he gave a speech

00:24:54.760 speaking about this experience that he had, but he also goes on to say that two of the three

00:25:00.680 patients that were administered the ivermectin actually very quickly improved very quickly

00:25:06.680 improved and were able to leave hospital within within that week and the other person was an

00:25:11.720 elderly uh 95 years old who stayed in the hospital but did not um did not get any worse did not get

00:25:19.880 any better likely likely quite a uh an immune system challenge but regardless the point being

00:25:26.840 and what is being challenged more and more is the fact that there are considerable early treatments,

00:25:34.680 to name a few. They list hydroxychloroquine, other amoxicillins or antibiotics and whatnot that are

00:25:43.000 not being promoted or even released to be able to use in treatment of COVID patients. Yet there

00:25:53.720 There are a number of studies that are showing there is promise with some of these.

00:25:58.480 Well, let's just be cautious here, because we're not doctors, none of us know anything

00:26:04.220 about this stuff.

00:26:05.580 We can only just report on what people who do know have written.

00:26:11.400 There's a debate, and it's a significant debate about these issues.

00:26:15.000 I think the case for, how do you say the hydroxychloroquine, yeah, I can't say that.

00:26:21.320 I don't know why. Hydroxychloroquine.

00:26:24.540 I'm not even going to try.

00:26:25.540 Too many times they're going to pull it off YouTube.

00:26:27.360 I can't even say it once.

00:26:29.580 So because I can't say it, they can't pull it.

00:26:32.860 I didn't say it. I'm not capable of saying it.

00:26:35.240 So that one, I think, they've been looking at that longer.

00:26:40.800 The evidence for that being an effective and safe treatment for COVID,

00:26:44.000 I think does not seem to be going in favor of that drug.

00:26:47.880 Ivermectin, though, there is an open debate right now.

00:26:50.340 Now, health officials pretty much everywhere, at least in Canada and the United States,

00:26:54.620 at the federal level and the provincial level in Alberta, are saying, no, it's not yet done.

00:27:00.860 The FDA in the United States, the Center for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization

00:27:05.940 are all conducting trials on this right now.

00:27:09.200 So, it has not been proven one way or another.

00:27:11.540 They're different.

00:27:12.560 Both sides are presenting evidence.

00:27:14.380 And I can't say who's right.

00:27:16.100 I don't know.

00:27:16.620 At the end of the day, I'm probably going to just trust my doctor

00:27:19.020 because he's infinitely smarter about these things than I am

00:27:21.900 and probably most other things, too.

00:27:23.700 So we're not going to give medical advice ever at the Western Standard.

00:27:28.960 It's not something we do.

00:27:31.020 So whatever side you're on, don't look to us for validation

00:27:33.880 or don't look to us for medical advice.

00:27:36.660 But we're reporting on that this is a significant debate right now

00:27:41.020 and there are some doctors in Alberta who are convinced

00:27:43.780 that alternative treatments, early treatments for COVID, like ivermectin, they believe it is

00:27:50.540 effective. And they believe it's their right as a doctor to be, to treat their patients as they see

00:27:55.300 fit, because it is an approved drug for humans. It's just not approved yet for treatment of COVID.

00:28:00.980 And they believe that's within their rights. And the College of Physicians and Surgeons is in

00:28:06.460 Alberta and right across Canada is stripping doctors of their right to practice medicine

00:28:12.360 if they're engaging in that.

00:28:15.660 Corey, do you think...

00:28:17.660 Where is this going to go?

00:28:21.340 Are we going to...

00:28:23.160 And what happens if in the end,

00:28:25.660 the FDA...

00:28:26.300 I don't know how these are going to rule,

00:28:28.080 but if Health Canada in the end says,

00:28:29.840 okay, yeah, it actually is safe

00:28:32.220 and you can prescribe it,

00:28:34.840 what's going to happen?

00:28:35.740 What do they have to do with these doctors then?

00:28:38.300 I don't know.

00:28:39.000 There's a lot of social politicization

00:28:40.600 around this right now.

00:28:41.580 Some of what's happening on this whole thing is actually a Trump derangement hangover.

00:28:46.480 Like, way back in the early part of the pandemic,

00:28:49.480 Donald Trump was talking about some of those alternative treatments,

00:28:52.180 and some of it sounded like it turned out it probably was just more Trump,

00:28:56.020 just being Trump, and it was baloney, and so on.

00:28:58.180 But what it did was set up this world where you're no longer allowed to talk about treatment.

00:29:02.720 Everything's got to be vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine.

00:29:05.340 Treatments are not on the table.

00:29:07.040 And that attitude has really been pervasive.

00:29:09.520 And I saw a tweet recently that kind of showed somebody picked up, you know, everybody remembers your tweets of this leftist, you know, Trump deranged person going on because at that point Trump was pushing, this was about a year ago now, vaccine saying we got one coming down the lines.

00:29:22.860 I would never take Trump's poisonous vaccine.

00:29:25.060 It's terrible.

00:29:25.620 Yeah, but the left were the anti-vaxxers. 1.00

00:29:27.220 Yeah, and eight months later, this same person saying you better get out and get vaxxed or you're a scumbag. 0.99

00:29:31.020 Like, come on, you guys, get the politics out of it. 0.99

00:29:34.040 And let's look at the realities of some things.

00:29:36.780 So I spoke actually last spring with a doctor and sat down for a while with him and he,

00:29:42.340 on condition of anonymity, said he was prescribing and using that with some patients with ivermectin.

00:29:49.600 What was interesting he said though as well is, so the vaccines, the reason they got through

00:29:54.100 so quickly with his limited testing is because it's an emergency measure and the only way

00:29:57.480 you can do that is if you can prove that there's no effective treatment for the condition.

00:30:02.660 If something is proven to be an effective treatment for the condition, the emergency

00:30:06.320 status for the vaccines disappears.

00:30:09.000 So they got to be very, very careful before they say, hey, this works on anything, because

00:30:14.840 that will change the whole ballpark for the vaccinations. 0.99

00:30:19.120 So it's a real dicey, dicey.

00:30:22.420 There's a bit of Trump derangement system, I think, on both sides here.

00:30:26.000 And this might not be a popular thing to say with some of our viewers, but I think it's

00:30:29.240 got to be said.

00:30:31.060 There are some people who, you know, if Donald Trump says, Ivermectin is a good thing, there

00:30:39.180 are people who are just going to say, well, it must be poison, it must be bad, it's wrong,

00:30:44.580 it's kooky conspiracy theory stuff.

00:30:46.580 But at the same time, there are people on the other side, if Trump says, Ivermectin

00:30:50.160 is good, they say, well, it's as good as my doctor saying it, it must be effective, it

00:30:55.320 must be safe, it must be the right way to treat COVID.

00:30:58.860 Both of these perspectives, well, I am oversimplifying things a bit.

00:31:03.480 Both of these perspectives are bunk.

00:31:06.360 There are credible doctors on both sides of this debate, and I don't know which one is

00:31:11.020 correct, and I'm just going to have to let them have at it.

00:31:15.000 Where I think what we should do, though, is respect the right of doctors to treat their

00:31:18.420 patients as they see fit.

00:31:20.800 I mean, if nothing else, even if it's totally ineffective, say it's just pretty much a placebo,

00:31:27.920 not considered a particularly harmful drug oh and that's something the other doctor had pointed out

00:31:33.040 to me as well i mean ivermectin has long been prescribed very safely to people with very few

00:31:37.680 adverse effects not for this and it may be completely useless for covet i have no idea

00:31:43.120 but if you go into the doctor and say i got an itchy starfish he says you've got a tapeworm

00:31:49.200 that took me a second oh god ivermectin and there's no problem no harm this is live we can't

00:31:55.200 even bleep you out we can't even bleep you out this is live it's a starfish i didn't say oh

00:32:00.800 no more either way there are conventional uses where you won't get drummed out so i mean if a

00:32:05.040 doctor writes up their writ the right way they can prescribe ivermectin perfectly legally it's

00:32:09.760 just if they do it for covet in particular where they get into trouble well and that's that's you

00:32:14.720 you had said it derek you had said i'm going to trust my doctor if your doctor believes that

00:32:20.640 something is off-label but useful in your treatment, this is sort of the first time

00:32:28.420 that doctors have been shuttered to be able to do that, to be able to treat their patients

00:32:34.620 as they see fit.

00:32:35.620 This sort of is unprecedented.

00:32:38.300 So that's one of the questions of this debate as well.

00:32:41.400 Well, I'm going to trust my doctor either way.

00:32:42.400 If my doctor says, no, ivermectin is nuts, it's going to be harmful to you or it's not

00:32:47.340 going to be helpful. I'm probably going to say, okay, you're smarter than me. I know

00:32:52.300 nothing about these things. Well, you're going to trust who you have the relationship with,

00:32:55.280 right? But the fact that these doctors are not able to do that anymore is questionable.

00:33:01.940 So I think that's what this is hinging on around right now. It's just beyond me that

00:33:07.620 medical policy, like really nichey stuff, has become so politicized on both sides.

00:33:15.920 and it's just not leading us to

00:33:18.580 we can't agree on

00:33:20.520 any facts as a society anymore

00:33:23.120 like we don't even agree

00:33:24.840 on the time of day

00:33:25.460 we're literally having a referendum

00:33:26.640 on the time of day

00:33:27.680 in about a week and a half

00:33:30.440 we're having a referendum

00:33:31.180 on the time of day

00:33:32.120 we agree that little

00:33:33.640 about anything now

00:33:34.780 well speaking of referendums

00:33:37.260 on the time of day

00:33:38.460 see the segue I did there

00:33:40.940 that is a good one I think

00:33:43.600 Okay, speaking of referendums on the time of day,

00:33:47.760 I'm very pleased with myself.

00:33:49.700 The same time we're having a referendum on equalization.

00:33:54.260 Should equal the equalization principle

00:33:56.100 be removed from the constitution?

00:33:58.780 This goes way back.

00:33:59.900 I remember when the idea was first announced.

00:34:03.340 It was a funny time.

00:34:04.720 It was Brian Jean, myself, and Lila Ahir,

00:34:09.280 and I should remember his name,

00:34:12.420 An academic from the University of Calgary, I believe,

00:34:15.120 we sat down and released the results of the Wildrose Caucus' equalization reform panel.

00:34:21.720 In it, we recommended a referendum on equalization as a constitutional change

00:34:28.720 to trigger a Clarity Act question using the Quebec secession reference question to the Supreme Court,

00:34:36.820 which requires the rest of the country to negotiate in good faith

00:34:39.520 once the province has had a referendum on a clear constitutional question.

00:34:45.880 Fast forward, Jason Kenney kind of picked up the mantle, ran with it.

00:34:50.100 Poor Brian Jean was like, it was my idea.

00:34:52.280 Actually, it was that academic guy's idea.

00:34:53.720 It wasn't my idea. It wasn't Jean's idea.

00:34:55.500 But Jean kind of picked it up as the first politician along with us to run with it. 0.99

00:34:59.120 But Jason Kenney just kind of stole the thunder of it and ran with it.

00:35:02.540 Got elected in the last election on the mandate of doing this.

00:35:05.340 We're going to show those bums in Ottawa and we're going to have a vote. 0.99

00:35:08.360 All expectations were until pretty recently that this was a slam dunk.

00:35:13.860 Albertans are overwhelmingly opposed to equalization.

00:35:16.440 Any poll you do, it's pretty clear.

00:35:19.920 And the expectation was we'd probably get an 80% plus mandate,

00:35:23.740 and then we can go to Ottawa.

00:35:26.180 Nothing would probably still happen.

00:35:27.840 But we'd have a big mandate for change.

00:35:30.440 That vote is coming up on October 18th.

00:35:32.780 There are now some very real worries that the extreme unpopularity of Jason Kenney and his government is now going to put this at risk,

00:35:44.540 that Albertans might end up voting against it, or at the very least voting for it with a relatively small margin

00:35:51.700 that would not give the provincial government a strong enough mandate to go and negotiate with Ottawa and the other provinces.

00:35:57.900 Corey, is this just the fever dreams of anti-Kenny people, or is this a real thing?

00:36:03.460 I hope it's fever dreams.

00:36:04.740 You know, I mean, don't use this to give the finger to Kenny.

00:36:07.540 You've got other means.

00:36:08.680 I mean, he's got a leadership review coming that I doubt he's even going to make it that far before his caucus rips him out of there at the rate he's going with popularity.

00:36:15.160 There's other ways to express your frustration.

00:36:18.900 The others who absolutely love equalization, love socialism, love wealth redistribution.

00:36:24.380 yes, Andrew Leach, I'm talking about you, has been strong on social media going on about,

00:36:29.140 we've got to use this to tell Kenny to get stuffed. You know, they understand that Albertans

00:36:33.880 do not like that policy and they are pivoting it. They're switching it. They're saying,

00:36:37.720 use this to get at Kenny. And it's just the wrong way to use a referendum. It's going to be a

00:36:44.220 backfire if that does happen, because we as a whole do despise this equalization formula that

00:36:50.040 punishes us disproportionately to the rest of the country with a hydro exempt in Quebec

00:36:54.940 and such. But they'll be able to turn around and say, well, you know, 55% of you were the

00:37:00.360 only ones that upset. Everybody else likes it. This is a, I really hope that this doesn't

00:37:04.200 turn out that way and people just stick to what the vote's about.

00:37:06.660 Melanie, we're actually seeing it kind of on both sides. People, not just, so we're seeing

00:37:14.900 the pro-equalization, kind of the, you know, the pro-equalization hard NDP types and liberal

00:37:21.280 types, they've generally been mostly sheepish in the past about defending equalization.

00:37:26.020 They say, oh, well, you know, it's not great, but, you know, they kind of just don't really

00:37:30.940 have a defense.

00:37:32.240 They're becoming much more aggressive, but now people to the right of Kenny, people who

00:37:36.420 are even full-blown sovereigntists, they're saying, why should we vote?

00:37:41.660 This is just becoming a Kenny, give him a political win and validate him.

00:37:46.580 Do you think there's much risk that this goes down because of the unpopularity of Kenny

00:37:51.060 or do you think this is still in the bag?

00:37:53.420 Listen, I think Albertans are smart enough to know that a vote for this referendum idea

00:37:59.420 is not a vote for Kenny.

00:38:02.020 They're two completely separate things.

00:38:05.580 I think Albertans are smart enough to understand that.

00:38:08.560 when we're talking about how unpopular this is with Albertans, I mean we're talking about

00:38:14.320 sending money, we're talking about continuing these transfer payments to a government that is

00:38:22.880 stifling our energy development. So literally kind of paralyzing us from being able to

00:38:31.200 further our energy and the exploration and production of our resources, yet we're still

00:38:37.200 going to have to continue to pay. I mean, I think Albertans, you know, can see the true picture of

00:38:43.760 this. And I think again, they're just, they're smart enough to know that this is not a popularity

00:38:49.200 vote for Kenny. This is about our sovereignty as a province in, you know, in dictating and retaining

00:38:57.040 the money that comes from our resources. Well, Kenny and the referendum on equalization

00:39:03.840 are separate in substance but they're not separate in style because they they are directly linked it

00:39:09.440 was one of the key promises of jason kenny in the last election and they are completely separate in

00:39:16.000 style i think albertans would be foolish to vote uh no that is to retain equalization

00:39:22.160 in the constitution i think albert would be foolish to do so but for many people left and 0.69

00:39:27.360 right of jason kenny this is their first chance to punish some albertans actually did punish jason

00:39:33.680 Kenny indirectly. Even though he's not running to be prime minister, they screwed the federal

00:39:38.960 conservatives in Alberta to some extent to get back adjacent Kenny. But this is his pet project.

00:39:45.760 And a lot of people, they're so angry at him from both directions that they don't want to give him

00:39:50.480 a win. And so, yeah, they are entirely separate. And I think Albertans will be foolish to take out

00:39:54.880 their anger on Kenny doing this. But I think a lot of people are. But it's throwing the baby 0.98

00:39:59.360 out with the bathwater. I mean, again, I would argue that we're too smart for that.

00:40:06.480 Well, you have a higher opinion of people.

00:40:11.840 They're smart. They're going to vote against equalization.

00:40:14.400 Oh, I think our readers will, but I think a lot of Albertans are going to take that

00:40:19.360 frustration out on others. Actually, I should let you know, we're trying to commission a poll

00:40:25.520 on equalization, how Albertans are likely to vote. This is very important information to have.

00:40:32.480 We need to know, is this at risk of failing? Is there a chance that the vote fails? At the very

00:40:40.700 least, I think it's not going to get the huge supermajority threshold that it would have gotten

00:40:44.960 in regular times if the government wasn't less popular than coronavirus. But we're going to do

00:40:51.680 a poll on this. So I'm actually going to push out a link. We're going to be asking Western

00:40:55.920 Standard members and non-members if you can kick in a few bucks to help us raise money to get this

00:40:59.840 done. We're commissioning a professional, high-quality polling firm, Main Street Research,

00:41:04.100 which we work with. So we could use your support to help us raise enough money to get this over

00:41:10.040 the line, get some good information out there, and we'll let you know where are Albertans on

00:41:13.680 issues like this. We're going to pull out some other issues too. Where are Albertans stand on

00:41:17.240 issues like independence. No other media really asking that question. We poll on it every

00:41:22.720 few months. We do a good, credible, scientific poll on it. This is not just like we put up

00:41:26.320 a little link on the side of the website and Western Standard readers are only ones voting.

00:41:30.760 I mean, if we ask these questions and only Western Standard readers were voting, I mean,

00:41:35.860 I feel very good, but we are not representative of everybody. We need to know how are these

00:41:40.260 votes actually going to go down. So we're going to poll on things like sport for independence,

00:41:44.320 The equalization vote. The Senate race. I haven't seen a single vote on the Senate race.

00:41:48.320 We're going to poll on Kenny's approval rating. Do Albertans think he should resign?

00:41:52.320 We're putting all of these questions into the field today, and we're going to need people to step up and donate to help us make that happen.

00:41:59.320 Well, let's wrap it up for there. I want to thank all of our Western Standard members for your continued support.

00:42:07.320 If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, please try a free trial for 15 days.

00:42:12.320 15 days, go to westernstandardonline.com, click on membership, you can learn about why

00:42:16.760 you should become a member.

00:42:18.260 Try it for free for 15 days, it's only $10 a month or $99 a year to support bailout-free

00:42:24.520 Western media like the Western Standard.

00:42:27.100 Corey, Mel, it's been a slice, Mel, a great debut on the show.

00:42:32.140 Thank you for joining us, and thank all of you for sharing your time, sharing your lunch

00:42:36.460 hour with us today, God bless.

00:42:42.320 .

00:43:12.320 You

Western Standard - October 07, 2021

The Pipeline： No Thanks, Thanksgiving, Mandatory jabs for MLA's, Equalization Referendum

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