This week on The Pipeline, we discuss the Prime Minister's new rules regarding streaming services, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association's decision to become a member of the Canadian Sports Shooting Association, and the government's new bill that could see podcasters who make more than $10 million a year have to register with the government.
00:05:03.440But I'm wondering, and maybe Sean will enlighten us on this,
00:05:08.000maybe you don't generate $10 million a year as a podcaster,
00:05:12.180but you probably don't have your own carrier either.
00:05:16.580So are you going to be captured by the fact that you have to, that whoever is carrying your podcast is going to have to be responsible for what you say, and therefore you will have to be careful what you say?
00:06:08.200I'd also like to say that this is also wrapped up a lot with C-18, which is the online news act to force companies like Meta and Google to pay for linking to Canadian content.
00:06:24.460and google in their blog yesterday said and it was more with respect to c11 that
00:06:30.940what is considered to be a news agency should follow the criteria of the companies that have
00:06:37.660accepted the government bailout money to to be considered a journalistic outlet well i think
00:06:45.100one of the things sean not to take away from you here corey but i think one of the things that's
00:06:50.220fairly important is that this legislation that we're talking about and these CRTC regulations
00:06:57.580announced last Friday have their genesis in Bill C-11 and what has really happened here
00:07:06.860is that the government wants to make everybody who puts anything out into a broadcaster so that
00:07:13.420they can then apply the standards to that person now cbc ctv global they've been broadcasting for
00:07:23.820years but there's always been under the crtc a stipulation that they they have to do things in a
00:07:30.300you know in a certain type of way they can't be extreme they can't be they can't do what some
00:07:36.780people do on their podcasts otherwise they get censured and you know there are penalties
00:07:44.220well the great thing about podcasting and just being able to upload your your youtube videos
00:07:51.660and so forth is that you never had to worry about whether it was all in good form and good taste
00:07:58.540and according to the the spirit of the regulations i guess now if you do something a little crazy
00:08:08.140they're going to cut you off and not everybody who is speaking truth that needs to be heard
00:08:15.580is doing something crazy so when dave used that expression which by the way was not original to
00:08:21.980me but but i'll i'll take the credit the anaconda of regulation i was just watching a
00:08:27.180a video of an anaconda the other day that came up when I tried to find the origin of the phrase.
00:08:33.440And, you know, the coils sort of go around and they get a little tighter and a little tighter.
00:08:38.360And pretty soon you don't even hear the pig anymore.
00:08:41.020So it's going to be kind of like that, Sean, I think, that free speech in this country.
00:08:48.540They're just going to tighten it and tighten it.
00:08:51.580And it's not going to be like you had in authoritarian regimes where somebody comes in
00:08:56.100and walks into the newsroom and arrests everybody and sends them off to the gulag you just will find
00:09:03.220the administrative effort of trying to say what you want to say isn't worth it anymore that's the
00:09:08.500danger sorry sean go ahead i was going to say that's true because um in the legislation they
00:09:16.660are aware of uh some charter conflicts and uh even though they are greatly expanding the role
00:09:23.380the CRTC to do things like collect personal information from these companies on their
00:09:28.500subscribers. The government went at pains to suggest that any of these infractions,
00:09:35.220this enhanced regulatory role for the CRTC will not result in the creation of criminal
00:09:44.020offenses or criminal prosecution under the Act. But at the same time, they have noted that
00:09:51.380there's going to be some potential infringements on the role of the crtc under the charter of
00:09:57.380rights and freedoms so that's another whole can of worms that nobody's really open yet
00:10:03.540i think one of the things that's warming the cockles of my old curmudgeonly heart
00:10:08.020is seeing all the podcasters many of whom we know say no we're not going to do it and i think our
00:10:15.060operations manager james has tweeted that we're not going to do it it kind of reminds me of the
00:10:20.180firearms registry and people just said well i'm not going to do it you know so i think there'll
00:10:25.540be a backlash amongst podcasters they just won't do it because there's not many that are earning
00:10:30.50010 million even though we're pretty close actually no we're not we need more advertising uh but uh
00:10:37.380yeah i don't think uh i don't think many podcasters will uh will play along with this one
00:10:42.180but it's insidious right like before i came to the standard i have my own little podcast i set
00:10:46.420up an audio and I do interview people and I would also stream that to Facebook and YouTube and I
00:10:51.940use a service called Podbean which probably is over 10 million dollars the problem is I registered
00:10:58.100with them not the CRTC but Podbean has my information and then it shares it out to
00:11:04.340Spotify and and the other heavyweights iTunes they all now have my information I'm registered with
00:11:10.420them I think the CRT has been smart CRTC why go after all the little guys like me when they can
00:11:15.060can just go to the hosts and when they say the hosts this podcast has been appropriate it's been
00:11:21.560inappropriate you wipe them off in the air or we're going to come after you it's turned them
00:11:26.280into the police and it will be effective gosh it's like the waitress asking to see your qr code
00:11:32.180before she sits you down made the restaurants the same same basic playbook uh you know there
00:11:39.500There is one other thing that we need to put out here on this matter, Corey.
00:11:44.480I know you've got three other fascinating subjects to go to,
00:11:47.500but you can see why the CRTC exists in this sense that you have an electromagnetic spectrum
00:11:57.440and somebody has got to be the policeman so you can actually use it
00:12:02.140so you don't get two people trying to broadcast on the same frequency.
00:12:07.020So I inadvertently, in a column on this, used the phrase, the government owns the airwaves.
00:18:57.240was a coven fallout comparisons were indeed drawn to behavior at the sky palace yes in our very own
00:19:04.040alberta government it's um it's most unfortunate but you know you when you when you sort of lash
00:19:09.240out in anger whether it's in a domestic dispute or in a in an election you usually end up wishing
00:19:16.520you hadn't done that oh hypocrisy infuriates people i mean whether it's the sky palace or
00:19:21.800the manitoba issues or area that was happening in the uk as well i mean it was devastating
00:19:26.360people were seeing on both sides of people thinking that the government was too restrictive.
00:19:30.200Well, then when you're suffering under those restrictions and you see them not following
00:19:34.120through or the people who feel that the restrictions are appropriate, they say, well,
00:19:37.400they hear these guys are putting everybody at risk by not masking and gathering. So
00:19:40.920you lose support on both sides. You really don't have a constituency left.
00:19:46.120They just don't get it. And that ire can last for years as it's hung over Stephenson later on.
00:19:52.520But, I mean, the presumption that they'll fall into deficits is probably a safe one, but prairie socialists have often been a bit of a different bunch.
00:20:02.100You know, the ones in Saskatchewan under Romano were quite pragmatic.
00:21:22.620But the chances of finding human remains, when you don't know where they were put, if they were put there at all, that's actually not proven.
00:21:33.640If they were put there, how do you find them?
00:21:36.180what's going to be left and is there in fact a danger, a greater danger, to the people who are
00:21:44.900asked to sift through, you know, thousands of tons of what we have thrown away, which often
00:21:53.000is contaminated by everything you can imagine. So there are dangers to this, but Canu, I believe,
00:22:35.240Well, to add a sympathetic ear, I mean, if it was your family member who disappeared, presumably murdered,
00:22:40.200and you did truly believe their body had been disposed in a landfill, I mean, how awful and humiliating.
00:22:45.860And you don't like to think of them not being properly interred, whatever your local cultures may call for.
00:22:51.380But, you know, I can't subscribe to the no price is too high mentality on things.
00:22:56.880Sometimes the price is too high. $180 million is way. And we know this is an estimate. It would be much more than that if they were to be thorough. And we think the bodies might not even be there. This ties into another issue that is just a, since we segwayed in, it's something I've been on about a lot.
00:23:14.540why is it that we're willing to spend or some activists 180 million dollars to look for the
00:23:19.120bodies of two people who may or may not be there and we still haven't excavated a single one in
00:23:23.740Kamloops where supposedly as many as 200 murdered children may be buried yet we can't do that which
00:23:30.160would you could probably do at a few thousand per grave to be blunt about it we've got a big
00:23:35.520double standard going on here. Corey I would advise you if that is the way you think to say it out loud
00:23:41.760And now, while you can, I don't think that that's going to fly when that's not going
00:23:49.620to be considered fair comment when the CRTC is adjudicating your podcast.
00:24:16.960Which led to an odd wedge issue that really did impact the Manitoba election.
00:24:21.780What an untenable position for the PCs to be in.
00:24:25.000I mean, you don't want to say yes to it because you're opening that up.
00:24:28.020But it'll be interesting to see where Mr. Kinneau goes when the finances come in.
00:24:31.060There's one other place where it'll be interesting to see where Mr. Kinneau goes.
00:24:34.720As we've been covering in the Western Standard for more than a year,
00:24:38.440There's considerable interest in an energy corridor from Alberta through Saskatchewan, along Indigenous-owned lands, out to Churchill for the purpose of exporting energy.
00:24:50.120Now then, will Mr. Canoe, as a committed NDPEER, back that plan, which is basically an end run around federal legislation that makes it very hard to build pipelines across provincial borders?
00:25:08.440But if it's not in indigenous land, it's a little different.
00:26:31.240So Prime Minister Trudeau was speaking to Alberta business leaders in Ottawa.
00:26:36.040He was. It's sort of a trade Alberta mission down to Ottawa. We sometimes take part in these in other countries, going to other countries, but it's very rare to sound en masse onto Ottawa.
00:26:50.24050 CEOs of, you know, some of the top 50 Alberta companies went down to Ottawa, you know, to try and hold talks and talk some sense into them down there.
00:27:01.120Prime Minister spoke to them, addressed them on Tuesday night and took a few shots at Premier Smith saying she was basically trying to stoke the fires of fear.0.92
00:27:12.560and accused Premier Smith of being a fearmonger with all these, you know,
00:27:19.540as we know, the UCP has now started advertising campaigns in I think four other provinces
00:27:26.000telling people that enough's enough, we can't afford it, can't afford the net zero electricity,
00:27:33.100we can't afford the carbon tax, and in fact there was a big van with that message parked outside the House of Commons yesterday.
00:27:39.860yesterday. So MPs got to see that as they left question period for the day. But yeah, last night,
00:27:46.760it doesn't appear that there's any warming at all between Trudeau and Smith.
00:27:53.460But I mean, Trudeau was speaking to a business crowd, not his own vanity might make him think
00:28:00.280that they like him. But in reality, I think most particularly, Albertan business leaders
00:28:05.400don't think highly of a lot of the policies coming out of there. I don't know if taking
00:28:09.340shots at smith to that crowd is endearing mr trudeau to them in that environment yeah you know
00:28:15.660it's a think about it cory what a situation it has come to where one part of the country has to get
00:28:23.960together 50 of its best and brightest to go and market itself to a federal government which
00:28:29.800they've got they've got a ministry of western economic diversification they got a similar
00:28:34.800entity for eastern canada they say they're interested they say they want to do good things
00:28:41.400but obviously the perception here is that no they don't and we have to go there in order to get
00:28:49.980something done and try and change minds but what a commentary on the state of relations between
00:28:56.600the central canadian region which we call the laurentian region and other parts of the country
00:29:03.420He spent a lot of time criticizing Mr. Trudeau for a lot of things,
00:29:09.380but boy, this kind of division is a product of his leadership, totally.
00:29:16.960Well, the leadership that he's given, which is deficient in so many ways.
00:29:23.240It doesn't surprise me that he would take the opportunity to take shots at Smith,
00:29:29.400and business people being what they are, I wouldn't count on their loyalty,
00:29:34.140Some of them, no doubt, laughed politely, and some actually thought, yeah, you know,
00:29:38.680it would be better if we had somebody else.
00:29:41.720That's, unfortunately, the way big money thinks.
00:30:20.320the cap is coming in before the end of the year.
00:30:22.920And we're already, you know, into October, you know,
00:30:25.560the end of the year is getting pretty close.
00:30:26.980So it's coming, it's going to be quick.
00:30:28.920And I think that's going to be the day
00:30:30.700when the shoe drops, so to speak, that, okay, full-on war from Alberta to Ottawa.
00:30:37.180Because it's not going to be anything that Alberta can live with, I don't think.
00:30:40.520You know, sometimes, Dave, I get the suspicion that these guys know their time is up.
00:30:48.900Whenever the next election comes, they're going to be to the sidelines for at least four years.
00:30:54.400So they're doing all the dumb stuff that they believe in and to hell with the consequences.
00:31:00.700The trouble is, some of the dumbest stuff that they do is going to take much longer to undo whoever forms the next government.
00:31:10.260It's kind of ironic. That's one of the few downsides I see with term limits that we see in other jurisdictions with a leader.
00:31:17.280When they hit a point where they know, this is my last gasp, that's when you see the worst of the patronage appointments,
00:31:22.920the ideologically bent policies, then, okay, well, I'm going to fire this in because I won't be here to face the consequences if it fails.
00:31:30.700or goes and the entire world has sort of taken a look at the the environment stuff and say okay
00:31:36.780you know it's it's it's a good idea but we can't do it at the pace everybody wants to do we need
00:31:42.300to slow down because it's going to be very expensive except canada you know everybody in
00:31:46.940the world is is drilling for more oil and doing natural gas and they seem to find a business case
00:31:52.300for it uh but in canada and we're the only major country in the world we still are plowing ahead
00:31:58.300you know, guns are blazing. And I think, you know, you may be right. The Liberals realize that at
00:32:03.500most they've got two years left and they're going to try and do as much damage as they can.
00:32:08.460We certainly can. I mean, even in Ontario, a provincial report came out from a, you know,
00:32:15.340group out there and it said that if they phased out natural gas, as it had been talked about for
00:32:21.100Ontario to meet the targets that have been set for it for their generation, it's only 10% of
00:32:25.180of Ontario's capacity, but it would actually lead to an increase in bills for average Ontarians
00:32:31.400of as much as $3,200 a year. Like this is what's catching up with the Trudeau government. I think
00:32:35.640in public support, like people are just can't take more wallops to their pocketbook
00:32:39.660for his ideals, but he won't back down. But even the provinces are starting to say, look,
00:32:46.320we can't do this. There's a commentator by the name of Warren Kinsella last night tweeted,
00:32:51.260I just found out my mortgage payments are doubling next month, dot, dot, dot.
00:32:56.260And the Liberals wonder why they're losing in the popularity rose.
00:33:00.460Yeah, it's the economy is starting to hit, starting to hit Canadians hard.
00:33:05.340Well, I mean, with two more years to go, though, I mean, I was thinking earlier today, I've been predicting.
00:33:12.760I thought Trudeau is going to take his favorite of walk in the snow soon because, I mean, it's just nothing's gone right for him in six months.
00:33:19.080Everything he touched has turned to a disaster and his personal life is serious about some challenges going on.
00:33:25.400Which, you know, is not really our business, but it obviously must impact his decisions and where he's looking going forward.
00:33:31.500But looking at his attitude going in, he's reminding me almost of that Iraqi minister from the past war.
00:33:38.060Everything's blowing up in the background.
00:33:39.620The guns are on their doorstep and he's still saying, no, don't worry.
00:33:46.540Just look at this week with the election of the speaker, Canada's first black speaker.
00:33:52.220He was a former parliamentary secretary to Trudeau and had an ethics violation seven months ago.
00:33:58.920Yet it didn't stop the liberals from getting their own speaker again.
00:34:04.620And Trudeau is pictured today in the House sticking his tongue at him and winking at him.
00:34:09.540I mean, the disdain that Trudeau has is unbelievable.
00:34:13.760Now, nothing will change, I'm afraid, with this fellow, but I honestly believe he means to stick it out, which means electoral death for his party.
00:34:26.340To be honest with you, I'm almost glad that that's the plan.
00:34:29.620It's a painful way to do it. It's like a chemotherapy. You're going to cause a lot of damage to healthy tissue on the way of getting rid of this.
00:34:35.540So, okay, but let's say he stepped down tomorrow. Who's going to come in and replace him? Would we like Christia Freeland any better?
00:34:43.760she just commented that she i beg your pardon it was her department who which commented that
00:34:50.240they didn't even know how much we were spending for interest that's the kind of stuff you should
00:34:54.320know would you be better off with mark carney and he probably would know governor of the bank of
00:35:00.560canada governor of the bank of england i imagine he's well carney's frightening because he's
00:35:04.160actually quite bright he's actually quite bright so if you think it's tough i i say let mr truder
00:35:09.600do what he can for the next two years, lose the election, and start putting things back together
00:35:17.760again. You know when they say build it back better? Maybe just put it back the way you found it,
00:35:24.720you know? What an election slogan. But I mean and I could see that with some of them who've already
00:35:29.680feathered their nests well enough saying fine we'll ride this two years out and go out in the
00:35:33.840the sun set, you know, in our blaze of glory. But then is that that loyalty of liberal members of
00:35:41.760caucus is going to fray for some of them, some of those backbenchers realizing, like,
00:35:46.060I'm going to be done. I mean, they must have had some aspirations in getting into politics and
00:35:49.840some goals. Are they going to sync with that ship? They're just insistent no matter what,
00:35:54.600when they realize. Yeah, at some point, you would think the long knives would come out, but
00:35:59.220no sign of them yet. They're all being
00:40:23.000Under Mr. Trudeau, they have had no equipment and they've had no respect,
00:40:28.000And it's the latter that is the killer, and this cut is just one more kick.
00:40:35.280Well, it's surprising in a sense of, not that Trudeau cares about our military, I think it's pretty clear he doesn't,
00:40:41.960but he cares about himself a lot, he always has.
00:40:44.440And he fancies himself as an international player, that's why he loves those overseas gatherings.
00:40:48.800He likes to pretend, and I think most of the world has seen through that, they don't take the buffoon seriously, but he still goes.
00:40:54.440One of the areas, though, is with NATO, which has become so important of late with the affairs going on in Eastern Europe right now.
00:41:02.180And they've always been critical of Canada. We haven't pulled our weight.
00:41:05.360I mean, they won't kick us out of NATO, but they say, you know, the amount you're supposed to be obligated for domestic military spending to be a NATO member.
00:41:12.480We're well under that. We have been for a long time. And to cut further puts us even worse and taken even less seriously.
00:41:19.260And we get sidelined from more NATO events, talks, and actions.
00:41:26.920I mean, if he wanted to buy his way into being taken seriously on the federal or the international front, that could have been one of the means.
00:41:33.340And he's just sidelined himself further as well.
00:41:35.900Just take a look at the billions and billions he's given in subsidies to electric vehicle, the battery places and manufacturing places.
00:41:45.500I mean, the military could have used that as a world of good.
00:41:49.260you know, food banks across the country could have used that to feed hungry Canadians.
00:41:55.520But, you know, he's continuing on with these vanity climate projects
00:41:59.160that are costing taxpayers billions and billions of dollars.
00:42:03.420So it's just, you know, we can agree that he doesn't care about the military,
00:42:08.440and this is just yet another priority he's got wrong and cannot see it.
00:42:13.220You have to wonder what will happen when they actually have an emergency in this country
00:42:19.160for which the military is the only solution.
00:42:23.540Well, and that's something that, you know, Canadians don't like talking about.
00:42:27.360But the reality is our security as a nation has always been fully dependent on our southern neighbors.
00:42:33.340I mean, there are some of the smallest nations on Earth could successfully invade and take Canada over quite quickly.
00:42:41.040But they know that that juggernaut down south of us would not tolerate that for a minute.
00:42:45.520But talk about taking your friends for granted.
00:42:47.120You know, they get a little tired of pulling the weight on our behalf.
00:42:51.180I mean, not just NATO, then we're getting on to even Joe Biden, who doesn't seem to be all that endeared with Trudeau either.
00:42:58.360It's just their relationship is certainly sour from the halcyon days.
00:43:03.560But yeah, I mean, certainly, you know, the Chinese invasion plans when they're coming across the Pacific, they're not worried about Canada.0.80
00:43:09.900You know, because we can maybe wrestle one warship and we're lucky maybe a leaky submarine to stop them.
00:43:16.900But thank goodness the states are there to protect us.
00:43:20.780Since when I was working on seismic projects in the Arctic up on the Beaufort, we would joke about it, but it was the truth.
00:43:27.560We know under this, we're on a camp frozen in a barge out on the ocean.
00:43:32.220They're playing games under us in the ice.
00:43:34.260The Russians are down there, the Chinese are down there, the Americans are down there.
00:43:38.520They know about the resources of the high Arctic.
00:43:40.760We actually housed government of Canada scientists in our camp
00:43:44.160Because the oil companies could get to the higher Arctic reaches where our own scientists couldn't afford to get up there.
00:43:51.520No Canadian subs because we don't have them.1.00
00:43:53.340We had diesel ones that we cooked a couple of our sailors just trying to bring them over from England when we bought them.
00:43:58.820You need nuclear capability to get up there.
00:44:01.440And so how do we claim our sovereignty up there when we can't even reach it?
00:44:06.340And war discussion aside, I think Nigel was hinting at it earlier.
00:44:09.580What happens if the big one hits Vancouver?
00:44:12.260And, you know, it's a natural disaster, and the military wouldn't be able to overly help much, you know, because they just don't have the manpower or, you know, training anymore to do it.