Western Standard - The Pipeline： Truckers fight back on mandatory vaccination

00:00:00.000 Hello, today is January 19th, 2022. I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard,

00:00:26.300 and you're watching the pipeline. We've got a great show for you today. I'm joined as usual

00:00:34.080 by co-host Dave Naylor, Western Standard News Editor. How are you Dave? I'm good Dirk. But

00:00:39.980 we're not as good as Corey Morgan who is south side, sometimes really south as far as south as

00:00:45.620 Mexico. Filling in for Corey Morgan today is Western Standard Calgary-based reporter Melanie

00:00:51.980 Risen. How you doing, Melanie? Very good. I always like episodes where you're here. Don't

00:00:55.960 tell Corey. Oh, thanks. He doesn't even watch the show. I smell better, too. You do. It's

00:01:03.080 delightful. All right. Well, today, we've got a great show. Truckers are fighting back

00:01:09.860 against mandatory vaccines. Convoy moving from west east from British Columbia, moving

00:01:15.620 its way towards Ottawa. Of course, truckers are very dangerous for catching COVID when you're

00:01:22.860 driving in a truck by yourself all day. I mean, your soda could get COVID. So we're going to be

00:01:30.040 talking about what they're doing. Ronald McDonald House in British Columbia has kicked out a family

00:01:36.560 because they are unvaccinated. That story is getting all sorts of traction. Tons of our readers

00:01:43.420 have been interested in that story we're gonna uh we're gonna dive into that uh alberta minister

00:01:48.860 of justice casey maddou the minister who uh is responsible for taking away the right of albertans

00:01:55.740 to fight a speeding ticket traffic violations uh apparently has found an alternative way to appeal

00:02:01.740 his uh his traffic tickets uh by just calling the chief of police uh huge controversy around that

00:02:08.540 seems uh not much accountability has been done uh all all sorts of controversy around this

00:02:16.540 uh although the answers seem pretty clear about what most people are saying needs to happen

00:02:20.460 we're going to talk about that as well what did i miss what did i miss agents yeah cover agents

00:02:28.400 yes secret shoppers uh the greenery uh fantastic restaurant in red deer alberta in big big trouble

00:02:36.580 for not abiding by what's not a vaccine passport it's a restrictions exemption program

00:02:41.660 uh in place of a qr code they accepted uh pictures of some cute little puppies uh which uh which is

00:02:49.440 really bad really bad they're in big trouble alberta health services has sent uh it's secret

00:02:55.400 police or uh as the mainstream media would call them mystery uh shoppers or secret secret shoppers

00:03:01.040 uh i remember you know when i was uh like in high school i work at a grocery store the boss would

00:03:06.300 say, be careful, the mystery shopper would come and they're going to rate your customer service

00:03:09.760 and how well you can punch in the codes on grapefruit and things like that. I was always

00:03:13.920 worried about them. I didn't think they were coming to check about if we're providing our

00:03:17.100 papers, please. So that's what we've got. Before we get started, though, I want to thank all of

00:03:22.300 our Western Standard members for your continued support. We have had a fantastic year here. We

00:03:26.780 have grown so much. We've grown so much. We have increased the size of our operations and our staff

00:03:34.940 several hundred percent this year. It's been a fantastic year. We couldn't have done it without

00:03:39.040 you. If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, please go to westernstandardonline.com

00:03:43.620 and click on the membership page. Sign up. It's only $10 a month or $99 a year. And you can try

00:03:49.580 it free for 15 days. If you don't like it, you don't have to pay for it. You can cancel it anytime

00:03:53.760 before the 15 days. I think you're going to like it. You're supporting bailout-free, independent

00:03:58.360 Western media. And we've got a great team here who are breaking great stories, producing some

00:04:04.720 fearless opinion material. I think you're going to like it. Money well spent. Speaking of money

00:04:11.060 well spent, today's show is sponsored by Algadex. Algadex is owned by Algonaut. This is a great new

00:04:20.180 technology just coming online now in the digital currency world. Algadex is a great way for you to

00:04:27.220 use the digital currency Algorand in your day-to-day transactions. Can you imagine a world

00:04:34.480 where we don't have to buy a cup of coffee using the federal dollar.

00:04:38.560 That federal dollar that is now, what was the inflation rate that was announced today?

00:04:41.580 4.8%.

00:04:42.460 4.8%.

00:04:42.980 Too much.

00:04:43.720 Highest inflation rate since 1991.

00:04:47.640 I was four years old.

00:04:49.180 I was just a little guy.

00:04:52.140 And I already knew it was bad to take a government to take things from people without their permission.

00:04:56.360 That's what inflation does.

00:04:58.980 Imagine a world where you can just opt out of using the federal dollar.

00:05:03.240 and you don't even have to use the American federal dollar. You don't have to use the euro

00:05:06.700 or the pound sterling. You can use real money, digital currencies that are not at the beck and

00:05:12.760 call of governments and inflation. Algodex is making digital currencies usable in a day-to-day

00:05:22.020 basis. So let's get down to business. Truckers are fighting back. They've been targeted by the

00:05:29.720 federal government because anyone who's crossing provincial boundaries can fall under federal

00:05:32.720 control. And if the federal government has control over something, wow, they are going to make you

00:05:37.040 fall in line. Dave, tell us what's happening. I'm not sure the truckers even know themselves.

00:05:42.640 There's been flip-flops. First, the government says that they don't have to be vaccinated. Then

00:05:49.040 20 minutes later, they say, well, no, they do have to be vaccinated. So, I mean, the truckers,

00:05:53.840 as you know, are key to the pipeline, the supply chain. They've got to bring their stuff across

00:05:59.600 the border. So those supplies are now being delayed. They're expecting to lose hundreds of

00:06:06.700 trucker jobs. So the truckers in BC have got it started. They're going to leave Vancouver,

00:06:13.300 I believe, 23rd. Don't quote me on that. 23rd, I'm certain. And they're going to go across Canada

00:06:18.820 and they're going to stop in all the cities like Calgary, picking up trucks along their way and

00:06:23.940 drive to Ottawa and

00:06:25.800 hopefully encircle Parliament

00:06:28.320 Hill and just give their air horns 0.99

00:06:30.080 one long, big pull.

00:06:33.100 Truckers in Manitoba

00:06:34.440 yesterday protested.

00:06:36.780 They drove down to the border there.

00:06:38.560 They're having a hard time

00:06:40.140 there. It's just not

00:06:42.440 a good scene for truckers

00:06:43.980 across the country. And they do such

00:06:46.500 dangerous work, Derek.

00:06:47.460 I guess the Coca-Cola

00:06:49.400 is now open. Driving the Coca-Cola

00:06:51.460 in winter, driving Highway 3 during

00:06:53.380 those winter storms when all the bridges were washed out. This is dangerous work. And

00:06:58.120 to me, it just seems like the government's throwing them on the scrap heap.

00:07:03.440 Well, Melody, today, you're filling in for Corey. Melody is normally news, strict news.

00:07:09.780 We're going to cut Melody a little slack today and unleash a real Melody.

00:07:14.140 Tiny, tiny, tiny bit of slack.

00:07:16.740 She's not going to go full, Corey.

00:07:18.120 but i i always know it's uh we're always holding mel back i mean our reporters are humans they

00:07:25.640 have opinions uh just generally uh they're in the newsroom and they're you know their reporting is

00:07:31.260 supposed to be fair and neutral and balanced as difficult as it can be sometimes but you're

00:07:35.680 filling in for cory so you know uh you got a little bit uh melanie uh is there any idea you

00:07:43.760 You actually spoke with one of the leaders of the convoy coming from BC.

00:07:47.800 What did he have to say?

00:07:48.720 Actually, no, I didn't.

00:07:50.540 I think that was Reid that spoke to him.

00:07:53.640 But I will say, you know, my thoughts on this, first of all, is I echo your sentiment.

00:07:59.260 I mean, most of these travelers are, most of these drivers are in vehicles by themselves,

00:08:04.500 first of all.

00:08:05.620 But we have such a supply issue to begin with.

00:08:08.320 You know, I don't know where you get your groceries, but I know there's a lot of spots in our grocery stores that are sitting empty right now.

00:08:15.880 So to do anything that's going to affect our, you know, our supplies and getting food into grocery stores for people, I just don't think it's a wise choice.

00:08:28.040 And I, yeah, it's not really all that logical to me.

00:08:32.040 I mean, vaccines, the evidence, now that we've had them for long enough, seems to indicate that they mitigate the severity of COVID.

00:08:44.280 You know, you're less likely to be hospitalized.

00:08:46.020 It's less likely to be severe.

00:08:47.780 But it seems to make zero difference whatsoever for transmission at this level, at least with Delta and Omicron variants.

00:08:55.500 It's utterly ineffective in dealing with that.

00:08:58.700 So the excuse that you have to be vaccinated for transmission, well, that obviously has zero to do with it because vaccination has nothing to do with transmission anymore.

00:09:07.700 It's been decoupled, to use the language of public health officials.

00:09:13.340 But it's also now that we're dealing with people who, by the definition of their job, work alone. 0.57

00:09:19.080 I mean, they might stop and pump up gas and they would stop at a diner, except they're not allowed to go to diners if they're unvaccinated anyway. 0.51

00:09:26.260 So maybe they go hop and walk through a drive-thru. 0.69

00:09:29.200 I don't know if it's bring an 18-wheeler through a drive-thru at McDonald's.

00:09:31.800 You might scrape the side.

00:09:33.060 Not most of them, yeah.

00:09:35.300 Have we heard anything from the federal government about how they're justifying this,

00:09:39.060 why they're saying it's necessary?

00:09:40.240 There doesn't seem to be anything from the federal government.

00:09:42.320 It seems interesting to note, Derek,

00:09:45.780 that while some places in Canada are ramping up the COVID vaccination restrictions,

00:09:52.600 in the united kingdom today they declared the crisis basically over uh boris johnson got party

00:09:58.780 time you might say yeah party time at number 10 uh boris johnson the prime minister got up and said

00:10:04.100 uh this is going to be the best winter ever open for winter open for winter so there uh mel did

00:10:11.100 the story they're relaxing uh mandates or they don't have a mask um you don't have to wear the

00:10:16.100 mask at school anymore no more vaccine passports so it's just interesting that some countries

00:10:20.940 Czechoslovakia

00:10:23.700 sorry Czech Republic also

00:10:25.520 did that today so as Canada

00:10:27.540 gets more restrictive other

00:10:29.500 countries are getting less restrictive

00:10:31.540 I heard East Germany is opening up too

00:10:33.160 nice

00:10:34.100 30 years behind on your geopolitics

00:10:37.020 was it you who talked about East Germany

00:10:39.320 a couple episodes ago

00:10:40.760 I think it was you

00:10:43.000 yeah

00:10:43.740 maybe we were talking about 1.00

00:10:47.160 giant butch women on steroids in the Olympics 1.00

00:10:49.380 I don't know 1.00

00:10:50.940 i wasn't there no i think you've been chewing some of that stuff cory's uh chewing on in the

00:10:56.440 desert uh no no he's on peyote that's what you do in the desert in southwest uh all right uh well

00:11:03.080 fascinating story we've got uh as mentioned at the top uh the granary a restaurant in red deer

00:11:10.580 in big trouble for uh not uh demanding the right papers dave yeah this is a strange story they

00:11:18.820 I guess they had complaints.

00:11:20.500 People went in and, you know, we've got the Karens of the world that complain. 0.66

00:11:24.020 They phone up AHS and they say, hey, they're just taking dog pictures instead of your vaccination papers or your QR code. 0.99

00:11:32.380 If you show a picture of your cute little dog, they're letting you in.

00:11:35.260 That's not right.

00:11:35.860 I'm complaining.

00:11:36.540 I'm telling.

00:11:37.260 I'm telling.

00:11:38.580 So AHS took that complaint and sent in their secret agents, their undercover operators.

00:11:45.900 I'm sure they're highly trained.

00:11:46.860 I'd like to be an AHS James Bond

00:11:49.580 license to eat

00:11:51.800 so

00:11:53.500 the agents go into the store and I guess

00:11:56.020 they observe this heinous

00:11:57.960 practice being taken

00:11:59.240 being done and that's

00:12:02.000 it the AHS moves in the next day shuts

00:12:03.920 them down completely says you're not

00:12:05.980 allowed to use doggy pictures

00:12:07.680 so it's a good question

00:12:09.820 guys like how many of these secret

00:12:11.800 agents are out there how are they trained

00:12:13.840 who's you know what are they getting paid

00:12:16.540 Who's paying them?

00:12:17.500 How do you apply?

00:12:18.580 Melanie, why does the government hate puppies?

00:12:22.160 I think that is cruel and unusual.

00:12:25.820 But I would say I've actually reached out to the ministry.

00:12:28.980 I've reached out to AHS as well to see who are the secret shoppers,

00:12:34.100 who are these agents that they're sending in, who's paying for them.

00:12:37.660 Is this a contract secret shopper?

00:12:41.300 Is this an AHS officer?

00:12:43.920 you know who who's doing it how many of them are there how often are we deploying

00:12:49.140 them I've got any answers back on this nothing okay well we're gonna have to

00:12:54.900 follow up tomorrow morning if they haven't told us well we're gonna tell

00:12:58.200 burns that they're not telling us I think Albertans deserve the right to

00:13:02.160 know how many of these plainclothes undercover AHS officials are roaming

00:13:09.300 around trying to bust restaurants and other businesses for not complying with this madness.

00:13:17.460 You know Albertans, there's some Albertans I'd like to tattle, right?

00:13:20.980 So when that, what was it, November 15th, you finally had to start showing your papers?

00:13:26.260 Can you imagine the number of complaints that AHS has received that, well, this guy didn't do it?

00:13:31.640 They've got a whole department for the Western Standard alone.

00:13:33.520 Exactly.

00:13:33.920 I mean, the number of agents they could, in theory, have, if they told us, could be a lot.

00:13:38.920 Could be a lot.

00:13:39.920 I'd like to know.

00:13:40.920 But yeah, I think it's a legitimate question.

00:13:43.920 I think it would be interesting.

00:13:45.920 And, you know, as a taxpayer, I would like to know what we're spending on secret shoppers.

00:13:51.920 Like, we've increased the AHS budget by many billions of dollars during COVID.

00:13:56.920 Yet we still have effectively the same ICU capacity.

00:14:00.920 I wonder where that money is going.

00:14:02.920 I think I may know salaries and the 1,900 senior vice presidents they have.

00:14:11.860 I think some of that might be taking up some money.

00:14:13.980 Well, Melanie, make a note.

00:14:17.160 I'm on it.

00:14:17.940 We're filing a Freedom of Information request to tag these buggers, find out how many there are and how much they're being paid.

00:14:24.620 I'd like to know.

00:14:25.580 I'm sure all of you would as well.

00:14:27.200 Well, actually, this wasn't on the agenda, but this kind of fits in in the Karen.

00:14:33.500 Since we're talking about Karen's writing people out,

00:14:36.140 a poll out today shows that one in four Canadians,

00:14:39.540 one quarter Canada's population wants to jail the unvaccinated

00:14:44.420 at undisclosed camps in the East.

00:14:48.480 Dave, I know this wasn't on the agenda here, but tell us a bit about the poll.

00:14:52.420 Well, luckily for you, Derek, I just published that story, so I know all about it.

00:14:55.940 Bam.

00:14:56.520 Bam.

00:14:57.200 uh and it's actually more than a quarter 27 of canadians say the unvaccinated should be rounded

00:15:02.800 up thrown in jail for five days 27 that's quite staggering to me uh and the numbers got higher

00:15:11.920 should the uh should canadians have x or should the unvaccinated lose their right for driver's

00:15:17.520 license renewals got higher than a quarter 33 33 i don't believe in government licensing anyway

00:15:24.260 Should the unvaccinated be denied hospital care?

00:15:27.000 I'd also got a good chunk of support. 0.97

00:15:28.920 I think that was 37.

00:15:30.020 We should privatize it anyway.

00:15:31.080 Yeah.

00:15:31.640 So, yeah, you know, if you weren't vaccinated, and, you know, I know you are because we've talked about it on the air before,

00:15:37.460 but if you weren't, I could call up and the truck would roll up in front of your lovely house and away you go. 0.64

00:15:43.520 Five days in the Hooskow.

00:15:45.380 You know, this is wild. 0.92

00:15:46.680 I mean, a lot of these, the hyper-vac, like mandatory-vax people, like Justin Trudeau says, these are racist, misogynist, extremists.

00:15:55.920 One guy yesterday said I was a Nazi because I don't believe in mandatory vaccination.

00:16:02.060 If they could just hear themselves, you don't believe that the government should be demanding your identity papers.

00:16:09.100 That makes you a Nazi.

00:16:10.840 Now, I think people throw around these terms way too.

00:16:13.960 They don't understand them.

00:16:15.680 And both sides.

00:16:16.680 i think are guilty of throwing around these terms but it is clear the one side is clearly the

00:16:21.240 authoritarians here some on the side i fall on i think should be a little more careful with the

00:16:28.360 facts but i would you know broadly agree with them even if i don't agree with all their the methodology

00:16:33.160 and and how they might go about expressing their displeasure sometimes but it's i think there's

00:16:38.440 pretty clear one side are the authoritarians here mel yeah i would say so too and uh i've

00:16:44.760 been speaking with lawyers quite a few lawyers over the last few days and I

00:16:49.380 spoke with with one that that basically said it's it's surprising to him in the

00:16:56.880 history of Canada to see that 27% of citizens would you know he points out

00:17:03.960 that you know some people might look at it like it's 27% but this is about

00:17:08.860 jailing people yeah for not injecting something into their body that they may

00:17:15.340 or may not agree with you know we're talking about jailing people in in

00:17:20.140 Canada in our free country of Canada so it's to him very shocking and I think

00:17:27.160 probably to many people very shocking to think that perhaps your next-door

00:17:32.600 neighbor perhaps a friend of yours would be like yes you should be in jail if you

00:17:38.300 choose not to be vaccinated it's well they want 10 of the country jail it's 10 not vaccinated

00:17:44.120 i think that we're gonna put them camps camps were undisclosed locations in the east

00:17:48.780 five days they're spending a lot of money on them

00:17:51.780 you know i remember when uh the western standard uh broke the story um i think early last year

00:18:02.020 that the government was detaining people without warrants at the airport

00:18:07.040 and not even telling their families where they were,

00:18:10.520 taking them to undisclosed detention centers.

00:18:14.920 Everybody, especially people who might not like the Western standard,

00:18:17.800 they're saying, you're making this up.

00:18:19.120 This is clearly crazy. 1.00

00:18:20.580 This is made-up conspiracy theory crap. 0.99

00:18:23.640 Until the federal government admitted it after we broke it 0.99

00:18:27.460 because we followed it.

00:18:29.500 I mean, this stuff is a conspiracy theory Monday.

00:18:32.020 And it's official government policy on Tuesday. Now, I don't think they're going to start just

00:18:38.100 jailing people because there literally isn't enough prison room on the planet to fit 10%

00:18:43.380 of the Canadian population in. So I don't think that'll happen. Although every time I don't think

00:18:49.140 they're going to go somewhere, they end up going there. But what's the crime though? I mean,

00:18:53.700 that's sort of what I asked the lawyer too. What's the crime? There has to be a crime that's been

00:18:59.860 committed. And I don't know that you can justify that. Well, if Quebec goes forward with their

00:19:04.640 mandatory vaccination program, which is a fine, the tax tax, they actually will be jailing people

00:19:11.380 because this is how it works. You know what happens if you don't pay your taxes? If you go

00:19:14.700 to jail, you will go to jail. If you don't pay your taxes, feel free to try this at home, but

00:19:19.720 do not mistake this for legal or tax advice. Bad idea. But try this at home. Don't pay your taxes

00:19:27.160 for 2021. We're coming up with tax time here. Don't pay your taxes. You know what's going to happen.

00:19:31.340 The next thing that happens is the government's going to send you a notice, and then they'll

00:19:33.640 probably send you another one. And then a really, really serious one that's very scary. And if you

00:19:38.700 take it and you just tear up your paper, eventually a warrant will be issued for your arrest for tax

00:19:44.500 evasion, and they will send police to your home. They'll take you to the station. And if you refuse

00:19:49.560 to abide by bail conditions, you will be put in prison. That's what happens ultimately if you

00:19:55.460 don't pay your taxes. Vax tax is a tax. If you refuse to pay the Vax tax, you will go to jail.

00:20:02.780 You will go to jail for being unvaccinated already in Canada. Now, it's not just sending,

00:20:08.460 you know, soldiers with guns to round up 10% of the population. They're not talking about that

00:20:13.060 yet. But if 10% of them, if we had a Vax tax across all of Canada, and all of those people 0.82

00:20:18.400 refuse to pay it. You would jail 10% of Canada. Scary times. Yeah. You're speechless. No, I'm

00:20:29.380 thinking this is a great segue to our next sponsor, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:20:35.280 Oh, goodness. Boy, am I glad I'm armed.

00:20:41.600 um our show uh is also sponsored today by the canadian shooting sports association

00:20:48.560 uh the ccsa is a fantastic group standing on guard for your right to own use purchase uh

00:20:56.300 firearms in canada safely uh they are they lobby the politicians to make sure they try to do their

00:21:04.320 damnedest to make sure they can understand smart firearms policy in canada uh and when that doesn't

00:21:10.380 work they do great advocacy campaigns because let's face it a majority of the politicians in 0.93

00:21:14.660 canada have no idea what they're doing or if they have any idea about firearms policy it's normally

00:21:20.320 pretty uh pretty stupid ideas so they run a lot of advocacy campaigns this is a critical group 0.96

00:21:25.260 to support uh if you uh own a firearm if you want to own a firearm or you just support the right 0.99

00:21:31.660 of your neighbor to legally and safely own a firearm um they uh i've mentioned before i've

00:21:39.100 got i've been a member for a decade uh i was visiting family uh back east uh this summer and

00:21:44.540 i saw ccsa bumper sticker on my uncle's car and uh uh so i go with these guys a long time i'm not

00:21:51.940 just saying that they're great because they're a sponsor even though i am uh i'm saying they're

00:21:56.660 great because i've been a member personally for a decade they're a great group doing great work

00:22:00.700 you should uh check them out google uh cssa or canadian shooting sports association check them

00:22:06.820 out become a member uh they're doing fantastic work they're supporting you you should go out

00:22:11.860 and support them too all right uh ronald mcdonald fun uh goofy guy i always like ron mcdonald actually

00:22:20.500 i didn't like ron mcdonald as a kid i was always a i was i don't like clowns i still don't like

00:22:25.440 clowns but you know grimace he doesn't really scare me anymore but um i remember once i was

00:22:30.420 a little kid with my parents at mcdonald's and there was a guy dressed these actually have ron 0.72

00:22:35.940 mcdonald at mcdonald's they did i know yeah and all i remember is i i was scared i hid under the

00:22:40.900 table and i just remember his giant goofy red shoes coming under the table ominously

00:22:45.420 so i actually have bad memories of ronald mcdonald it was kind of creepy yeah it was scary i still

00:22:52.200 remember it um so ronald mcdonald house in bc uh you know they're a fantastic charity doing great

00:22:58.540 work for for families in need here uh but booting a child uh was this was melanie who wrote the

00:23:05.720 story it was okay so we're gonna go to melanie uh melanie tell us about the story of the family

00:23:10.360 being booted from roland mcdonald house in bc well uh it was a family of four uh their four

00:23:15.640 year old son jack was being uh treated at the bc children's hospital for leukemia uh and he had um

00:23:23.560 He had been diagnosed in October. So the family moved in in October and they had been staying there. The father, Austin, had been commuting back and forth. He'd been commuting from Kelowna to finish some education that he was finishing up.

00:23:41.820 he's a red seal electrician. Anyway, he joined his family in January and was going to be staying

00:23:48.220 there permanently while Jack was being treated. And they were anticipating it was going to be

00:23:53.480 until about June. But then Ronald McDonald House in that particular location, their board of

00:24:00.580 directors decided to update their vaccine policy. And so anyone who comes into the home, stays in

00:24:07.420 home guests visitors staff all needed to be uh vaccinated fully vaccinated and um if they were

00:24:14.860 not they had until the end of january to to move out uh so this family had sort of banked on the

00:24:21.340 idea that they were going to be staying in this home um two very small children so jack and his

00:24:27.660 smaller brother a two-year-old brother uh so very stressful for this family um what happened was the

00:24:34.380 The father confronted the administration at the house and, you know, basically said, this is insane.

00:24:43.860 This policy doesn't make sense. This is discriminatory.

00:24:47.100 But Ronald McDonald House has not changed their position on their policy.

00:24:51.860 And I mean, you know, we're talking about a place where immunocompromised children are.

00:24:56.280 So, you know, it's been a very polarizing topic because, of course, there are people who say, yes, of course, you know, this makes sense.

00:25:03.140 um these these children are immunocompromised we need to make sure that we are creating

00:25:08.600 a safe environment for them but on the other side you know we're just talking about how

00:25:13.380 everyone can catch carry and spread uh covet 19 yeah the vaccine only deals with the severity

00:25:19.280 if you get it has nothing to do with you're going to get it or not with transmission exactly so so

00:25:23.680 this is sort of the argument that's being brought forward by by this family is that these this

00:25:29.420 mandate is really not an effective tool to protect immunocompromised children. And what it's doing

00:25:37.980 is it's penalizing families, including this one. So the good news is they were placed at the Easter

00:25:45.580 Seals house, which is just down the road from Ronald McDonald House. But it has created this

00:25:50.380 storm of, again, polarized attention for this family, people praising them. In fact, there was

00:25:56.680 a GoFundMe page started for this family early on, way before this. It was started by a friend of

00:26:02.060 theirs to help them recoup some of the expenses of traveling back and forth. And both of these

00:26:08.020 parents are likely not going to be working for a chunk of time. So in the first couple of months

00:26:13.880 of this GoFundMe page, I think they had raised about $3,000. Well, once this story broke and

00:26:19.700 went viral, support just started coming in for the family. So last time I checked, it was over

00:26:27.480 $173,000 in support for this family. They were featured on Fox News. And I know that there are

00:26:36.520 other, you know, a podcaster and a radio host featured them in the US. So it's really spread.

00:26:45.880 and in fact, there was even a news story of it out of the UK. So this story has been,

00:26:52.120 has kind of circled the world. It's been huge. And I think it's really, you know,

00:26:59.000 speaking with the family, I had an update with them yesterday. It's really exposed the,

00:27:06.360 I think the humanity behind what these mandates are doing to some people and how it's negatively

00:27:12.600 affecting people and so can i play corey can i have an opinion on this one yes you don't want

00:27:18.040 to have at her all right look this is basically a hospital we're talking about this is a house

00:27:24.920 filled with critically injured critically ill children very young children jack is four other

00:27:32.040 children um why would you take any chance of perhaps exposing them to a virus that could kill

00:27:40.840 them in their weakened immune system which i'm sure a lot of these a lot of these these children

00:27:46.280 have so i mean i i think ronald mcdonald houses do great work they do great work all over the country

00:27:51.880 uh fabulous work here in calgary that i've done stories on in the past but surely you can't risk

00:27:58.840 the health of everybody for the for the health of one uh and i you know i i mel is right it is very

00:28:07.720 very polarizing and i feel nothing but sympathy for this family but you've got to realize there

00:28:13.640 may be 10 other kids in there who the vaccine has nothing to do with transmission anymore

00:28:19.240 well no not since delta and omicron it's been completely decoupled like the the transmission

00:28:24.680 rate between the vaccinated partially vaccinated and the unvaccinated is equal but but keep in

00:28:30.200 mind all the parents that are in this house too with their various kids they're basically they

00:28:35.320 they just go from there to the hospital hospital to there uh so they're in i won't i won't call

00:28:40.840 it a completely sterile environment but they're in a hospital-like sterile environment yeah but

00:28:47.720 there's no difference in transmission if they're vaccinated or not it's no but if uh uncle joe

00:28:52.840 comes in and uh and he has with them what i just did why the risk why the risk when you're dealing

00:28:59.000 But if Uncle Joe was vaccinated, he is just as likely to be carrying COVID as Uncle Bob, who is unvaccinated at this point.

00:29:10.540 Now, just Uncle Bob is more likely to be hospitalized by a vet.

00:29:16.060 Like, he's more likely to have a severe outcome.

00:29:17.840 But that has nothing to do with anyone else's health there.

00:29:20.660 What matters is, do they have COVID or not?

00:29:23.640 Not, are they vaccinated?

00:29:24.720 Because there is just no statistical difference between them now on transmission.

00:29:29.000 Sure. Those those statistics that you're talking about, I think they're fairly recent, probably less than a month that we started seeing that the gap.

00:29:39.440 Well, really, really since Omicron. Yeah. Well, it actually started during Delta, but it was still decoupled a bit.

00:29:45.120 It just closed. But as a society, we have not made that step yet.

00:29:52.600 Our medical health officials have not said, OK, everybody's carrying it now.

00:29:56.200 might as well mix together right no but they've been wrong at every damn sure sure absolutely

00:30:01.560 i'm not arguing that i'm just saying the ronald mcdonald people are playing the cards that they've

00:30:05.960 been dealt with now right they made their the board made their decision when it was clear that

00:30:11.240 hey if if you were infected you spread it and the uh the vaccine was supposed to keep you

00:30:17.720 safe we know that's not true now so like i said they're just playing the hand they were dealt

00:30:21.880 with and it's just very difficult situation when you've got young and potentially dying children

00:30:27.080 involved and you're right i think that's what's making it so polarizing because again the family

00:30:32.360 sort of used that as their as their argument is you know anyone could be bringing this into the

00:30:37.800 house um not just us unvaccinated so um very polarizing they have seen massive amounts of

00:30:46.200 support but i i can i can imagine it would be very difficult because not only are you being praised by

00:30:51.880 you know one side but you are being they were so vilified so vilified from from the other side of

00:30:58.100 the coin right so i can i can understand the stress they've been involved in with all of this

00:31:04.080 and with the spread of this going everywhere but the good news is they are moving to a house where

00:31:08.500 this is not a mandate and uh they will be just as close to the hospital and jack will continue to

00:31:15.320 have good care from the bc children's well let's move on to something where everybody can agree

00:31:20.220 the government is wrong. Alberta Minister of Justice and

00:31:24.220 Solicitor General Casey Maddow

00:31:26.440 he got pulled over. You'll tell the story

00:31:32.160 but he's in hot water. He's in really hot water.

00:31:36.260 It's got to be one of the dumbest political moves in recent Alberta 0.98

00:31:39.980 history. He is basically Alberta's top lawman. So he's driving 0.99

00:31:44.040 through an Edmonton playground zone. He's talking on the cell phone, which you know, hey

00:31:48.040 you're the top lawman, you might not want to do.

00:31:50.540 So an eagle-eyed Edmonton Police Service officer pulls him over,

00:31:54.520 gives him a ticket for $300 for distracted driving.

00:31:57.540 So before the ink is even dried on the paper,

00:32:01.580 he's calling this Edmonton police chief.

00:32:04.080 But he didn't call about the ticket.

00:32:06.340 No, no, no, no.

00:32:07.280 The ticket didn't call about that.

00:32:09.000 He wanted to make sure he wasn't being racially profiled.

00:32:13.180 Because he's a black Nigerian immigrant.

00:32:16.960 We all know in the past the police have pulled over a greater representation of African-American drivers.

00:32:22.840 He wanted to know if that happened here.

00:32:24.940 I'm sure the chief would know if that was the reason.

00:32:27.120 Yeah, exactly.

00:32:28.140 The chief is the guy who would know any racial motivations behind the police officer.

00:32:32.100 Yeah. 0.75

00:32:32.500 So, I mean, even as shocking as the dumb thing that he did is Kenny's reaction to it.

00:32:40.720 Kenny suspends him.

00:32:42.020 Minutes after the CBC

00:32:44.960 I don't give the CBC credit here

00:32:46.260 they broke the story

00:32:47.020 minutes after they broke it

00:32:49.520 you had respected political scientists

00:32:53.020 saying he's got to go

00:32:54.120 he's got to be fired

00:32:54.880 this is an egregious breach

00:32:58.060 and Kenny only suspended him

00:32:59.960 and they're going to call in

00:33:01.660 an independent investigator

00:33:02.960 well Madhu has already said what happened

00:33:06.160 Chief McPhee has already said what happened

00:33:08.480 why do they need an investigator?

00:33:10.780 Based on the facts that are already there, that's a fire of all events.

00:33:14.560 So people are saying, well, perhaps Kenny's just calling this in

00:33:18.020 to give him some delaying tactics until after the Kenny AGM.

00:33:23.000 But your history of Alberta political science,

00:33:27.240 we also had an attorney general or justice minister at the time 0.51

00:33:31.180 that was picked up for talking to prostitutes on the street.

00:33:35.960 Do you remember that?

00:33:37.420 In the States? Are you talking Don Scott?

00:33:38.700 No, no, it was Alberta.

00:33:39.680 Okay, well, Don Scott got busted for hookers when he was down in the States once.

00:33:44.360 But he's from Fort McMurray.

00:33:45.500 Everybody thought that was normal.

00:33:46.340 Yeah, no, this was an actual attorney general.

00:33:48.360 It might have been in the 80s.

00:33:50.120 I'm sure one of our viewers will remember it.

00:33:53.560 But, yeah, it's – I don't know what was going through his mind,

00:33:59.040 and I don't even think – I don't think he knows.

00:34:03.820 This is crazy.

00:34:04.500 I mean, the ticket, not a good look, but I don't think that's a fireable offense.

00:34:12.500 But, you know, he was very, very clearly using his influence to try and weasel out of a ticket.

00:34:20.660 You know, when I was in politics, I'd get pulled over.

00:34:23.380 I never once asked for a favor, and I'd get tickets.

00:34:27.720 It never even occurred to me to call, like, the Strathmore police chief. 0.91

00:34:32.520 that i didn't even think about doing that it's such a stupid idea uh and i'm kind of disappointed 0.86

00:34:40.320 because i like casey maddu i mean i thought he was one of the brighter spots in a not very bright 0.91

00:34:46.160 government like there's not a lot of good bench strength they're a disaster on a lot of fronts

00:34:51.460 and he's been amongst the better performers and he's the only government mla uh ucp mla

00:34:59.560 in Edmonton, which guarantees you a cabinet

00:35:02.080 spot, and he's fairly qualified, and he's

00:35:04.000 a lawyer. So, Kenny's in a tough spot

00:35:06.160 here. He's also

00:35:07.620 pretty much the only cabinet minister

00:35:09.860 enthusiastically

00:35:11.240 waving the flag for Jason

00:35:13.780 Kenny's leadership.

00:35:15.820 They sent him up to forming Marie

00:35:17.760 to fight Brian Jean. Yeah.

00:35:19.980 Not terribly successfully.

00:35:23.660 Someone ask me, Corey.

00:35:26.380 Just give us your

00:35:27.860 two cents.

00:35:29.560 well he said he paid the ticket of course he paid the ticket you know why he paid the ticket

00:35:34.120 because you can't appeal it anymore that's right because this is the same minister actually so

00:35:39.560 this is actually the part i want to get get your two cents from it was this minister for this

00:35:44.920 government that took away the right of albertans to appeal their traffic tickets without paying

00:35:50.920 like 150 bucks and a bunch of other stuff if you're charged with murder it doesn't cost 150

00:35:57.400 bucks to get a day in court. But if you get a speeding ticket or talk on your cell phone in a

00:36:03.440 playground zone or school zone or whatever it is, it costs 150. So essentially, who's going to pay

00:36:09.460 150 bucks? Because 150 bucks is like, that's the cost of a low level ticket. No one's going to do

00:36:14.000 it. So this is the minister who takes away your right to appeal a ticket. Well, it turns out there

00:36:19.240 is a whole new appeal process. You just call the police chief. Melanie, I got nothing else to say,

00:36:24.980 just but i know you do oh uh well i i think you know i think even just just looking at it from

00:36:31.060 the optics perspective i mean whether he's telling the truth and he he denies that he called uh to

00:36:39.780 to argue the ticket to get up but he clearly winked wait he's sure he didn't say please get

00:36:44.420 rid of the ticket he's like i just want to make sure you know he was hoping that he was hoping

00:36:48.980 after the phone call the chief would phone down to the officer and say well just just yeah yeah

00:36:53.300 that's what he was hoping we don't want to travel over racial profile yeah and of course he he was

00:36:57.780 smart enough not to come out and directly ask yeah and then the edmonton police shiftman fee

00:37:02.580 yes says he never talked about it like corruption is not normally explicit like cory's in mexico

00:37:08.020 right now uh now i've never grabbed a mexican police officer but i probably would if i got

00:37:11.860 pulled over because that's just the way it works but in these kinds of those kinds of arrangements

00:37:16.980 the cop doesn't say if you give me you know 300 pesos we can make we can forget about this

00:37:23.780 it's it's a subtle ask uh and so you know i think you know casey maddie's not saying hey can you

00:37:30.580 take care of this ticket for me saying hey you know i just uh i'm concerned about racial profiling

00:37:34.740 and people being stopped right uh inappropriately i get it wink wink i think my point is that even

00:37:41.460 if even if he's telling the truth the optics especially on the heels of coming you know

00:37:49.140 coming forward and and not allowing people to to fight tickets fines uh whatever they get you know

00:37:57.220 it's almost it would be an embarrassment like i i like you it wouldn't even dawn on me to do that

00:38:02.740 because i wouldn't want something like that coming back on me and looking bad even for optics so

00:38:08.260 So even if he felt justified and really felt like he was being racially profiled, just the optics of it, I would never have considered it.

00:38:19.240 Well, if nothing else, there should be a traffic court where he could have gone and fought it.

00:38:23.380 I think we can agree on that.

00:38:24.680 Instead of doing away with them.

00:38:25.860 I think Kenny made a big mistake by not firing immediately.

00:38:28.980 Yeah.

00:38:29.180 I think whoever he calls in, is there like an investigative company that investigates corruption or something like that?

00:38:36.100 I mean, who's he going to call in?

00:38:37.060 But when they do file their report, it's obviously going to demand that he should go.

00:38:42.600 And then, you know, because he didn't explicitly said, hey, chief, take care of this for me.

00:38:47.600 It might say it was inappropriate, but it wasn't illegal.

00:38:51.280 All right.

00:38:51.720 And that might give Kenny the wiggle room, because every time he's had ministerial resignations, he always drags his feet on this.

00:38:58.320 He dragged his feet on Tracy Allard after, you know, the Snowbird travel scandal to Hawaii and things like that.

00:39:04.360 He dragged his feet on Tyler Shandro, who was clearly a cluster mutt when it came to his competency around managing COVID, managing the healthcare system, not to mention just a total authoritarian who became a political liability for the government.

00:39:20.800 He ended up being forced, kicking and screaming to fire these guys when it was pretty clear to everybody else, looking at this clearly, that these ministers are going to go one way or another. 0.98

00:39:30.720 Is this the problem? He can't fire the minister because he would have to do a complete reshuffling of his cabinet because only a lawyer can have that job?

00:39:39.420 Not legal. That's not technically true, but it is effectively true.

00:39:44.460 It's become a constitutional convention that the top lawyer of the province should probably be a lawyer.

00:39:51.760 I think the NDP, when they formed government, they had only two lawyers.

00:39:54.600 One of them was Rachel Notley that guaranteed Kathleen Ganley that job.

00:39:59.500 And it meant that she could not lose it unless Rachel Notley took over as attorney general.

00:40:03.840 So it's not technically true, but it's effectively true.

00:40:07.600 So, I mean, he cannot appoint one of the other lawyers because they're all in sort of key portfolios and whatnot.

00:40:13.680 He could move him around.

00:40:14.980 He could move him around.

00:40:15.980 But it requires a whole shuffling of the deck.

00:40:18.180 One of the lawyers in the UCP caucus is Jason Stephan, an outspoken critic of Jason Kenney's leadership, lockdowns and vaccine, mandatory vaccination.

00:40:27.100 So I don't think he's going to be getting the job anytime soon.

00:40:30.980 No, but it's every day.

00:40:33.520 It's another outrage with the UCP.

00:40:35.200 They just can't help themselves.

00:40:37.120 They cannot help themselves.

00:40:39.000 You're almost to the point now where you feel sorry for Jason Kenney.

00:40:42.780 It's, you know, I'm not a big NASCAR fan, but when I watch, I watch for the crashes.

00:40:46.880 and like this is great tv if you're a political fan in alberta you've got your money's worth this

00:40:54.260 year i would say yeah yeah sports uh politics as a spectator sport all right uh we're gonna

00:41:01.620 wrap it up there but i want to before we go thank all of our western standard members for

00:41:05.120 your continued support uh you've just been incredible to us over the last year you've

00:41:10.520 allowed us to build out the western standard so much uh to bring on new reporters uh bring on

00:41:16.440 great folks like uh well and actually somewhat properly pay our existing reporters um bringing

00:41:23.440 on guys like nico you can't see him he's behind the screen but uh you know great video production

00:41:28.120 uh folks we've got here uh membership services people who are taking care of uh many more

00:41:35.640 issues than i even i like to think about but uh to really expand what we're doing here we're so

00:41:40.180 grateful for all your support if you're not yet a member of the western standard go to western

00:41:43.680 standard online.com. Try it free for 15 days. If you don't like it, you cancel it anytime before

00:41:48.440 that. After that, it's only $99 a year or $10 a month. That's it. That's all. Can we keep her?

00:41:58.320 You can't afford it. You know, I think they might have not let Corey over the border.

00:42:01.980 There you go. I think he's requested that we open a Mexico bureau.

00:42:07.020 I heard that, yeah.

00:42:08.420 We do miss you, Corey.

00:42:12.760 Thank you very much, Dave, Melanie.

00:42:15.360 Fun as always.

00:42:16.660 And thank you all for joining us.

00:42:18.080 God bless.

00:42:37.020 Thank you.

Western Standard - January 20, 2022

The Pipeline： Truckers fight back on mandatory vaccination

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