Western Standard - Throne Speech — was this a unifying message？

00:00:00.000 Good evening, my name is Corey Morgan and you're watching the

00:00:30.400 Pipeline. This is the Western Standards weekly panel show where we'll take a number of the top

00:00:35.320 issues and dissect it among us and interpret it and analyze it and all of that. Derek Fildebrandt

00:00:40.560 is usually hosting this program, but he's indisposed today. So you've got me in the seat.

00:00:45.760 I'm one of the columnists with the Western Standard and I host the Corey Morgan show on here once a

00:00:51.180 week as well. So I'm joined by two others. We've got the editors in the house today. I'll start

00:00:55.980 In the far end, we've got our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:00:58.740 Hey, Corey, don't undersell yourself.

00:01:00.640 You're not just a columnist, you're a senior columnist.

00:01:02.860 Senior columnist.

00:01:03.760 So it just makes me feel old.

00:01:04.780 Yeah, exactly.

00:01:05.420 As it should, because you are old.

00:01:07.300 Also a published author in the Amazon bestseller list.

00:01:10.820 That too, yes.

00:01:12.420 I had to get old before I got there.

00:01:13.940 You're just such an honest guy.

00:01:15.340 I'm Nigel Hannaford, and I have my own show on Thursdays.

00:01:18.480 I'm the opinion editor, and I get opinionated on my own show and on this one too.

00:01:23.620 Yes, right.

00:01:24.080 Good evening.

00:01:24.380 The fine part of this job where we can vent and do our blowhard thing and actually make a modest living at it.

00:01:33.180 Bloviate. 0.99

00:01:34.200 Bloviate, yes. 0.94

00:01:35.920 So, and we have a lot of things to bloviate on today.

00:01:39.620 Where to begin?

00:01:40.520 I mean, speaking of bloviating, long speeches and going on, King Charles did the throne speech at the House of Commons the other day, and you wrote up on it, Nigel.

00:01:51.960 Where do we begin?

00:01:52.980 Well, you know, there's several different ways into this one, Flory. I mean, the Speech from the

00:01:58.820 Throne is where the government lays out its plans for the forthcoming session of Parliament.

00:02:05.460 And, you know, not everybody is familiar with the jargon, but, you know, I've spent some long

00:02:11.860 hours in the Prime Minister's office years ago drafting one of these things and the committee

00:02:16.580 sitting around with somebody taking notes, sort of drafting a speech like waterboarding.

00:02:22.140 Very, very hard process.

00:02:23.460 But I don't think this one was hard because I think what they did

00:02:25.780 is that they took the liberal platform from the election a month ago

00:02:30.740 and they said, let's have His Majesty the King repeat this.

00:02:36.020 And they did, right down to the use of Mr. Carney's favorite word,

00:02:40.460 which is to catalyze things.

00:02:42.600 They actually have the poor old king catalyzing stuff for us.

00:02:48.160 I hope he's got a sense of humor.

00:02:49.980 I'm sure he does.

00:02:50.680 But really, there was only one thing that jumped off the page at me, and that was the explicit rejection of Justin Trudeau.

00:03:04.760 You may recall that just weeks after Mr. Trudeau was elected in 2015, he gave an interview to the New York Times, and in that kind of sophomoric way that he has of trying to seem like he thinks great thoughts, he said, you know, Canada's a post-national state that has no real defining identity.

00:03:26.800 And I think a lot of the ill-feeling in Canada at the moment goes back to that,

00:03:31.720 just undercutting the confidence that people have that even were a country.

00:03:35.820 I mean, I'm sure Mr. Trump has read that and thought, well, you know,

00:03:38.600 if they don't think they're a country, maybe they'd like to join ours.

00:03:42.220 At any rate, the very first thing out of the king's lips were the comment that

00:03:50.220 um he had the greatest admiration for canada's unique identity

00:03:57.820 so we do have an identity says the says the governor says mr carney through the king

00:04:06.220 admiration for canada's unique identity recognized across the world for bravery

00:04:10.940 and sacrifice in defense of what national values and for the diversity and kindness of all canadians

00:04:18.940 so mr trudeau thought we had none of that no defining identity no core identity no mainstream

00:04:26.940 in canada the very first thing that mr carney did was to give his own version of events which

00:04:33.260 is the complete opposite and there sat mr trudeau in his i believe they were adidas gazelle running

00:04:40.460 shoes this is a level of detail you don't really need but it was there in the daily express so i

00:04:45.180 recorded it and i just hope he felt this thing of rejection because that that was the first thing

00:04:50.460 after that it was well gosh it was a no there wasn't going to be a bullet there was going to

00:04:56.380 be a 20 billion dollar tax cut nobody said where that's coming from i mean we'll take it but it's

00:05:01.660 uh you know i feel to be honest with you i wonder i wondered whether just having his majesty the

00:05:09.500 king come and do this probably a big thrill for mr carney who's very disposed to look eastwards

00:05:17.340 rather than southwards or westwards i just wondered if it wasn't a smaller a sign of weakness that he

00:05:23.660 needed the big guns to come along and bolster his position now certainly for al burdens it was a big

00:05:30.300 fat nothing burger no mention of pipelines his usual usual uh uh you know energy superpower but

00:05:39.100 with absolutely no details on on uh how he was going to do it uh today in his first question

00:05:45.740 period he must have been asked five or six times whether or not he was going to repeal the uh

00:05:51.500 pipeline build uh and the uh the tanker ban and he just dodged a question you know just you know

00:05:59.100 You know, he seemed like a veteran question period guy because he knows it wasn't answer period, it was question period.

00:06:06.380 Yeah, so for Albertans who were looking for, you know, just a breadcrumb, show us a breadcrumb, not a thing.

00:06:14.620 You know, Dave, it's really interesting.

00:06:17.080 I was watching it with you, and who did he have on his right hand?

00:06:20.620 But his newly appointed environment, Minister Julie DeBruyssen.

00:06:24.920 She is right there in his right ear.

00:06:26.900 I don't know how much significance

00:06:31.360 You can place on where people sit

00:06:33.980 And where they're placed

00:06:34.880 But she is anti-pipeline 0.98

00:06:37.340 Anti-oil patch

00:06:38.580 She is everything that Alberta doesn't want 1.00

00:06:41.980 And he has decided to put her

00:06:43.960 Where he can speak into his ear

00:06:46.240 And we know who trained her

00:06:47.900 Our friend Mr. Gilbo

00:06:51.120 Mr. Gilbo

00:06:52.080 His first political brainmanship goes

00:06:55.440 I mean, you know, to give the devil his due in a way, I thought actually getting King Charles here to do the throne speech was a good political coup.

00:07:04.520 When you were trying to distinguish yourself not only from Justin Trudeau, but from the United States,

00:07:09.940 when we've had these questions of our sovereignty, it's been that effective for their campaign nationally with their ridiculous but effective elbows-up campaign,

00:07:18.360 trying to, you know, bring about a local jingoism that hadn't existed

00:07:22.640 because Justin Trudeau had been whittling away at it for so long.

00:07:26.940 You know, I think it was a smart symbolic movement as part of it.

00:07:30.200 It might not have endeared Albertans to the central government.

00:07:32.740 I don't know if anything would.

00:07:34.380 But as far as just kicking off his administration on a unique, distinctive note.

00:07:41.260 You saw the amount of people who turned out in Ottawa on the streets to welcome the king.

00:07:48.360 But, you know, I agree with you, Corey.

00:07:50.680 I think it was a brilliant move on the part of Carney to bring in the king

00:07:55.260 as a big F you to Mr. Trump down south.

00:07:59.520 And I think it worked.

00:08:02.520 The king, you know, kept saying how much he loves Canada.

00:08:05.980 And this is his 20th visit, I believe, first as the sovereign.

00:08:11.580 But, you know, it created a point and point made.

00:08:15.620 I mean, people have to understand what a throne speech

00:08:18.960 too. There's a lot of confusion. I've been watching

00:08:20.840 an online internet discussion

00:08:22.820 and so on. I mean, the speech

00:08:24.840 is written by the Prime Minister's office.

00:08:26.820 Whether it's the Governor General or in Alberta

00:08:28.940 the Lieutenant Governor or

00:08:30.480 we'll never. Yes, exactly.

00:08:33.320 They are just going to parrot

00:08:34.940 what was

00:08:36.620 brought to them aside from perhaps a few platitudes

00:08:39.060 on the way out.

00:08:40.560 King Charles is a

00:08:42.860 figurehead. I mean, he's the king, but

00:08:44.680 the significance is what's said within and reflecting on Carney's government.

00:08:49.880 Well, it's interesting to see which direction he does look. As I said a moment ago,

00:08:54.760 he's looking back to Europe. You see that in the defense remarks. They talked about

00:09:03.560 rebuilding Canadian defense. Forgive me if I read this. There's a bunch of stuff here, but

00:09:08.120 all the speech from the throne said in the end was that it would boost Canada's defense industry

00:09:14.680 by joining rearm europe to invest in transatlantic security with canada's european partners

00:09:22.600 now obviously that by definition the u.s alternative is blocked off by the uh by the old

00:09:29.080 feeling between the two countries at the moment but joining rearm europe which is uh is really

00:09:35.800 taking things in a very definite direction and what i thought was interesting about the defense

00:09:42.600 part of it there was no mention anywhere of possible threats in the india pacific region

00:09:50.840 or even of enlarging the canadian armed forces themselves which surely is the first thing you've

00:09:55.640 got to do and that's going to need a culture change which i hope this government is ready to

00:10:01.240 ready to make interestingly the speech came on the same day as uh the unboxing of the john a

00:10:08.280 mcdonald statue on the queen's park in uh in ontario he'd been uh covered up after the

00:10:14.440 residential school hoax was a four-year fourth anniversary today it is thanks for i saw your

00:10:21.240 failure saw your truth there and you know maybe uh you know maybe this is the end of the uh uh

00:10:28.200 trying to erase canada's history people are finally waking up and uh and bringing it back so

00:10:33.560 it's ironic that it would be the liberals who would choose to do this they've obviously recognized

00:10:38.280 that conservatives were onto something with that particular line of rhetoric

00:10:44.600 that Mr. Poliareff had been using quite effectively.

00:10:48.180 So you bring in the king, you take the, how obliging of Mr. Ford

00:10:52.380 to take the wood down, swing your liberals, you know, I mean, the semi-Tory.

00:10:59.500 And another one that they did was the new legislation is promised

00:11:05.480 to increase border security you know actually i think that they just use the laws they've got

00:11:10.440 they can do far more than they've been doing but it's interesting to see which way they're they're

00:11:15.800 looking and once again this is a conservative preoccupation i'm not suggesting this is going

00:11:19.480 to be a conservative style government because i'm pretty sure it isn't but they certainly have picked

00:11:24.680 up some of the the flag flag and tradition stuff well as far as defense goes he's got two big

00:11:30.600 events coming up there's a nato summit and of course the g7 right here in calgary coming up

00:11:34.760 up in two weeks.

00:11:37.000 I expect Prime Minister Carney

00:11:38.660 is going to be expected

00:11:40.440 to get a little more specific

00:11:41.420 on some of the things

00:11:42.220 that he's been giving generalizations

00:11:43.720 for in the throne speech.

00:11:46.520 And he's, you know,

00:11:48.700 well, he's, his old administration

00:11:51.200 has still been talking

00:11:52.040 about both sides of his mouth.

00:11:53.180 He's going to have to start

00:11:53.880 getting clarity on some things.

00:11:54.800 He was offered many opportunities

00:11:56.640 for clarity today

00:11:57.780 in the question period

00:11:58.860 and chose not to answer them.

00:12:00.260 You know, no, again, no budget.

00:12:02.340 The G7 isn't a question period

00:12:04.100 They're going to ask him questions, and they're going to expect an answer.

00:12:07.300 Just like the Golden Dome, he said, you know, I mean, I don't know.

00:12:10.040 That thing could be a disaster in the making, or it could be something brilliant.

00:12:13.560 But he did say that he's considering it.

00:12:15.180 Well, again, it's more considering.

00:12:16.740 Are you in or are you out?

00:12:18.040 I mean, did this...

00:12:19.420 Well, I think that's going to depend to some degree on what it's going to cost.

00:12:22.860 Mr. Trump put out a staggering, you know, join-up fee of $61 billion,

00:12:28.640 which for a country that spends like $30 billion a year on defense,

00:12:32.280 If that, that's almost an offer you can refuse.

00:12:38.740 Well, yeah, this is, of course, and I didn't expect it in the throne speech.

00:12:42.820 It's just not like we heard any hints of coming austerity or fiscal responsibility.

00:12:48.120 I mean, a little bit of tax cut rate, but where are you spending?

00:12:51.580 Well, yeah, and in the last week of the election campaign, we haven't heard any more about it since then,

00:12:57.860 But in the last week of the election campaign, Mr. Kearney did promise to spend, to borrow, I should say, $250 billion over the next four years.

00:13:09.060 There's $20 billion of that for tax cuts.

00:13:12.220 I don't know.

00:13:13.660 He hasn't said and probably wouldn't tell you if he was questioned on it.

00:13:18.580 It's like paying the mortgage on your visa.

00:13:20.480 We've all made the assumption that the banker understands money.

00:13:25.900 And he probably does.

00:13:27.860 But I'm not able to make a little jump from what he has said to clarity on what he means to do.

00:13:37.980 Because some of these things literally don't add up.

00:13:40.720 No, as Corey says, he talks out of both sides of his mouth.

00:13:43.420 And somewhere in the middle, maybe, lie if the truth.

00:13:46.260 Well, you know, you can't presume.

00:13:47.580 I mean, Keynes was an economist, too.

00:13:49.600 And, you know, people still adhere to what he put out there.

00:13:53.680 But it's been some pretty...

00:13:56.260 Or what they've told he put out.

00:13:57.540 Well, yeah, interpretations as well, and then the attempts to induce economic gain through government borrowing and spending haven't really been successful anywhere yet.

00:14:08.600 But that's getting down a rabbit hole.

00:14:10.620 Okay, well, before it bore everybody to tears with economic talk, let's move on to the next part.

00:14:15.420 You went somewhere that was anywhere but boring.

00:14:17.460 Dave, you just got back from Israel.

00:14:20.140 Quite an adventure.

00:14:23.100 It was a tour put on by a group called the Exigent Foundation based in Toronto.

00:14:29.820 They're trying to educate people about the rise of extremism in the world.

00:14:34.460 And they took us to Israel.

00:14:36.700 We weren't in the country 15 minutes before we got our first rocket alarm warning to go

00:14:42.780 to the bomb shelter in the hotel.

00:14:45.980 So did that come over your phone?

00:14:47.580 Yes, and the air raid sirens in Tel Aviv.

00:14:51.660 so quite the uh quite the welcome and it got more interesting from there uh we had a private

00:14:58.620 briefing by the israeli defense force uh spokesman uh it really didn't reveal much new uh but uh you

00:15:06.540 know told us what's been happening since and uh uh totals off the record which we can't report on

00:15:12.220 what may happen in the future we had a visit to the top arms manufacturer in in israel again

00:15:23.580 no photos no everything's off the record they do have a nice plan for border control that they're

00:15:29.500 pitching to uh the government of canada i uh i will say uh we went down to the very southern

00:15:37.340 part of israel right on the border with with the gaza strip uh we heard the uh the constant

00:15:44.060 sounds of artillery thumping as they were firing into this strip we saw

00:15:52.300 an explosion i'm assuming from an air force bomb we were about 1.8 kilometers away when that happened

00:15:59.740 And we were inside the first kibbutz that was hit, 629 on October 7th.

00:16:07.160 Remember the Bilbao family who were kidnapped?

00:16:10.840 This was the kibbutz that they were in.

00:16:13.660 It was the only kibbutz that Hamas completely took over.

00:16:19.440 They stayed there for seven hours.

00:16:21.200 out of the 400 person population of the kibbutz 121 were either killed uh kidnapped or raped

00:16:30.460 so more than 25 percent of the population and for people unfamiliar with what a kibbutz is i mean

00:16:37.720 it tends to be almost a peaceful agricultural commune i mean that's part of how israel kind

00:16:41.660 of settled the the population post 1948 was in these these groups i mean then they're not people

00:16:46.800 doing harm to their neighbors in Gaza Strip. I mean, if you got issues with Netanyahu or

00:16:51.180 the IDF, I mean, these were just people living in these circumstances that they attacked.

00:16:56.080 Yeah. And it was the only kibbutz in Israel that the military didn't fire a shot. So just 0.82

00:17:01.340 total control by Hamas. A short distance away, we went to the site of the Nova Music Festival.

00:17:09.340 This was a gathering of thousands of Israelis, music festival dancing and whatnot. And Hamas 1.00

00:17:16.700 didn't know anything about it they stumbled into it and their their murderous rabid eyes lit up at 0.99

00:17:23.260 the sight of all these jews and and they started killing uh and raping and and kidnapping just 1.00

00:17:30.460 horrible horrible scenes uh there's little flags uh flags uh for each victim there i think there's 0.97

00:17:37.660 300 and some some victims there uh the uh hamas put snipers along the the main road killed people

00:17:47.180 as they came by their cars formed a barricade so nobody else could escape and they were all

00:17:52.860 shot and killed or kidnapped in the uh on the side of the road just uh horrible stuff

00:18:00.060 Then we went to the other end of the country, the borders of Syria and Lebanon. Huge walls, obviously. We went into communities that are still deserted because of the Hezbollah rocket attacks.

00:18:17.060 And that's one, you know, Israel has basically decimated Hezbollah by their bombing campaigns in Lebanon.

00:18:29.400 Syria is a big question mark in the area.

00:18:32.680 They've sort of gone from one murderous regime to another.

00:18:36.900 And the new guy there is still a major question mark.

00:18:41.260 But we went to Jerusalem where we saw the most upsetting thing of the tour

00:18:47.420 was the long video slash movie that the IDF put together of Hamas.

00:18:55.320 Hamas was so depraved they live-streamed all their atrocities, 0.93

00:19:00.580 body-worn cameras, cell phones.

00:19:02.560 And the IDF took that video along with a video from cell phones of the victims

00:19:09.240 and intercepted Hamas communications over the phone.

00:19:17.320 Some of the stuff had been made public before.

00:19:20.380 You remember the terrorist who phoned his mom and dad and said, 0.96

00:19:23.300 Mom, Dad, I've killed 10 Jews with my bare hands. 0.99

00:19:26.860 And the father says, Ali Akbar. 0.99

00:19:29.520 And the mom starts crying with joy and killed 10 with my bare hands.

00:19:33.300 And, you know, the stuff there was just the worst snuff film imaginable.

00:19:41.520 What these animals did to people is absolutely unbelievable.

00:19:46.740 It's indescribable.

00:19:48.460 I had to turn my head away when they decided to start decapitating people and playing with their heads.

00:19:55.860 And the video didn't show one single case of sex crimes that the Hamas did. 0.91

00:20:01.680 And they said it was just too upsetting.

00:20:04.000 And out of respect for the family, they wouldn't show that.

00:20:07.200 But the idea of a person said it's just as bad as what you've seen here.

00:20:15.280 So very eye-opening trip, very quick trip, six days in the country.

00:20:20.340 But one of the most interesting things was we got exclusive access to a secret military base

00:20:27.380 where we talked to the guy in charge of going into the tunnels, the Hamas tunnels, and deactivating their bombs.

00:20:38.700 I mean, this guy's got balls of steel, right?

00:20:41.900 And you can see by the – he's only like 21, and you can see by the stress he's been in there multiple times.

00:20:47.300 And they created some tunnels in the space.

00:20:52.800 And we were able to go through and sort of see what conditions they had to work in.

00:20:57.960 And it's unbelievable bravery on these guys' part.

00:21:02.200 And we saw them practicing urban combat, kicking down doors of houses and stuff like that,

00:21:08.720 which I think that's eventually what's going to come in Gaza.

00:21:14.840 To me, Hamas is playing games. 0.92

00:21:17.120 all right we'll release a hostage you release a thousand prisoners it's good going for years

00:21:21.600 and uh to be honest i'm not sure why idf for the idf hasn't finished the job there but i expect

00:21:28.880 probably because there's still 20 hostages it's 20. i i talked to one soldier reservist who had

00:21:36.240 just come back from gaza and he said look i know there's 20 people there but

00:21:40.480 But, you know, it's time.

00:21:44.640 I don't want to see any more soldiers die, he said.

00:21:48.040 It's obviously that Hamas is playing games. 0.77

00:21:51.740 So, you know, I'm sorry, but war is hell and let's finish the job. 0.99

00:21:57.060 Well, I was going to say, I mean, some of the restraint, too, I imagine,

00:21:59.960 is the international community has just been repugnant throughout this, 1.00

00:22:03.540 just as the last time when Egypt came across during Yom Kippur.

00:22:06.820 like they just they can't accept Israel disbanding themselves no and the only

00:22:12.280 people denying the atrocities that Hamas committed are Western liberals Hamas 0.76

00:22:17.200 isn't denying it they live-streamed it as at least Israel's showing I appreciate

00:22:20.980 that they you know they're showing to you like this isn't secrets these and

00:22:25.360 there was I think hundreds and hundreds of trucks went into Gaza today and all

00:22:30.880 the flour and stuff was taken by Hamas and put in their already stocked

00:22:35.440 warehouses and uh israeli or non-israelis palestinians today saw this and they sort of

00:22:42.000 rebelled against hamas and they they stormed the uh the warehouses uh hamas opened fire uh killed

00:22:48.720 at least five uh palestinians by early reports so it's just i think the people of the the

00:22:56.960 palestinian people of gaza have had enough of hamas there have been protests uh but they're

00:23:03.440 kind of stuck there at the barrel of a gun. You know, you were talking about the

00:23:09.920 Israelis shelling. You saw a bomb gulf go off, probably dropped from a plane.

00:23:17.600 Is there much left to destroy in Gaza? It all looks pretty good rubble to me. 0.96

00:23:24.320 But there must be because there's still, the IDF estimates they've killed 20,000 Hamas members.

00:23:30.160 um death toll out of if you believe the gas and health authority there's been more than 50 000

00:23:36.760 people killed so that would equal 30 000 civilians uh but yeah i mean there must be there must be

00:23:43.180 places left and what kind of losses has the idea been sustaining well they're not really saying

00:23:48.600 you know you don't get uh you may get the occasional report that you know troops were

00:23:54.460 killed doing this and whatnot but they've been keeping it pretty tight let's say one of the uh

00:23:59.780 One of the most poignant places we went to was up near the Lebanese border

00:24:04.460 where a Hezbollah rocket landed in the middle of a group of kids playing soccer.

00:24:09.880 Saturday afternoon, about 6 o'clock, they're out there playing soccer,

00:24:13.620 and they had eight seconds warning, eight seconds.

00:24:16.520 So there was nothing they could do.

00:24:17.660 They ran towards the bomb shelter, couldn't make it.

00:24:22.900 The poor kid who was closest to the rocket,

00:24:27.720 the only thing they found of him was part of his lower jawbone, and that was three days later.

00:24:32.600 Drew's children have heard.

00:24:33.720 Yeah, Drew's children.

00:24:34.920 They weren't even the designated Jews.

00:24:39.960 No, but we talked to some fathers of the kids who were killed. Tremendous,

00:24:46.200 tremendous courage to talk, and they said they don't want revenge. They just want peace.

00:24:52.440 So outside of Gaza, you know, and around the borders and the walls, did you get much interaction like just looking around Israel itself? Like some people always seem to neglect to mention too. There's a large Arab population in Israel with rights. Did they seem to be living comfortably? I know it's going to be an armed area, but sure.

00:25:13.180 I mean, you look at Jerusalem itself has got a large Arab population.

00:25:19.140 Just on the Tel Aviv outskirts, Jaffa, which we walked through, a beautiful place, Arab population, Tel Aviv, Arab population.

00:25:28.080 And then, yeah, you've got several Druze communities up in the northern part of the country, Muslims who are happy to have the protection of Israel.

00:25:37.620 And we're told many of them have started taking Israeli citizenship out, you know, as a sort of a thank you, I guess, or a sign that we do appreciate you.

00:25:52.260 But yeah, there's no doubt there's a lot of problems in that area.

00:25:56.740 And I think they said Israel has seven enemies around its border that are trying to rub them out at any particular point.

00:26:03.960 But beautiful, beautiful country, great people, great scenery, the history there in the old city of Jerusalem, amazing.

00:26:13.100 It's kind of funny that the holiest sites of Jewish people, Christian people, and Muslim people are all within a city block of each other.

00:26:23.000 It's all Old Testament countries. 0.93

00:26:24.980 I mean, they're all in the same book.

00:26:26.540 They're just coming to some different…

00:26:28.680 It's very different to see everybody in Israel carrying M16s, all military male

00:26:37.320 and females in the army and whatnot. 1.00

00:26:39.560 There's, you know, and you see when you get these lone wolf terrorists that they're

00:26:44.280 quickly eliminated because there's no, you know, everybody's armed, unlike Canada, right?

00:26:50.600 It goes into some of that philosophy.

00:26:51.880 An armed population is a polite one or a safe one. 0.97

00:26:55.400 There's still limits.

00:26:56.120 I mean, they go on the rampages there.

00:26:58.120 It is sad, though, that they have to live like that.

00:27:01.460 I'm certain most people would rather be able to go out to Tel Aviv

00:27:04.440 and hit the beach without having to keep their M16 next to them

00:27:07.540 at any given time.

00:27:08.280 Yeah, we had a bodyguard with us up at the Lebanese border.

00:27:14.440 He had just been behind the lines in Syria the night before,

00:27:17.740 and he's got his gun and his raven lunch at this Drew's restaurant,

00:27:23.620 and his phone rings, and he said,

00:27:25.920 oh, I've just got to go get this phone.

00:27:27.000 I mean, he puts his M16 down on my feet and there it is.

00:27:31.480 I'm thinking, wow, they must have some good trust in us, you know.

00:27:36.220 Well, I mean, as far as demographics go, you know, Western journalists aren't,

00:27:40.360 though there's been a lot of Hamas, you know, throwing the media jacket

00:27:44.560 and then the Hamas band the day after.

00:27:46.880 But I don't think there were too many other candidates.

00:27:48.780 No, and I think most of the journalists on this trip were not CBC types.

00:27:53.800 Let's put it that way.

00:27:54.540 Let me ask you this, Dave.

00:27:55.620 I mean, Canada joined Great Britain and France in taking the Hamas point of view. 0.87

00:28:00.900 There was a declaration, I think it was while you were there.

00:28:05.140 As a Canadian in Israel, do they give you an even break or are they rather conscious 0.87

00:28:11.860 of the position taken by our government?

00:28:13.860 Oh, no, they're very conscious of it.

00:28:16.500 I think Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu slammed them the next day.

00:28:21.700 You know, whenever I talk to Israelis and they learn them from Canada, all they ask about, their top question is, what's going on in Toronto and Montreal, where synagogues have been firebombed and Jewish schools shot up?

00:28:38.840 What do you tell them?

00:28:39.480 I tell them that it's the incompetence of the Toronto police and the Montreal police and the political leadership in those two cities that allow these weekly terror protests.

00:28:53.060 And that's what they are.

00:28:54.300 They're all masked up and yelling pro-Hamas slogans and going to Jewish neighborhoods in Toronto. 0.99

00:29:03.160 It's absolutely disgusting. 0.95

00:29:04.660 And, you know, right now that's what most Israelis' impressions of Canada are.

00:29:10.980 Let's talk about a national embarrassment because Israel got a travel warning to Israeli citizens saying you might not want to go to Canada because it's dangerous.

00:29:17.880 They're living in a war zone, but they're reminding citizens if you want to go somewhere for vacation, don't go to Canada.

00:29:23.360 It's too dangerous.

00:29:24.940 Perhaps consider Mexico or something.

00:29:26.820 You know, when you look at what's going on in Canada now, and then you review how things were, not in 1937-38 in Germany, but in 1934-35, do you think it's a fair comparison?

00:29:43.780 I don't, I think it's not quite fair.

00:29:46.760 I mean, there's that underlying anti-Semitism, it just never goes away.

00:29:49.480 It's just a part of the world for some reason.

00:29:52.580 But, I mean, there was more of a larger populist, fascist movement, I mean, in Canada, in the United States, in Great Britain.

00:30:01.620 I mean, that was there.

00:30:02.420 It was in the minority, but it was very evident and unhidden.

00:30:05.840 And even those who called themselves progressive, I mean, you know, read up on Mr. McKenzie King.

00:30:09.820 And, see, he was a little less than accepting of Jewish people.

00:30:14.780 But this is something.

00:30:15.480 Did he turn the boat away?

00:30:17.320 Yes.

00:30:17.680 And then he also made sure, you know, when he took some Jewish children in, just to make sure, don't worry, we're going to get them out of here before they can blow bloodlines, you know, just keeping them for a little bit till the war is over. 0.95

00:30:27.980 But I think it's a little different this time.

00:30:29.880 That was more of a political movement.

00:30:33.580 Well, I guess some of it is going on now, too, with the weird leftist embracing of this pro-MOS thing.

00:30:38.460 But I think the issue comes a lot deeper to Islam.

00:30:41.600 That's the elephant in the room people really don't want to discuss that much. 0.99

00:30:44.340 But from what I've seen, as far as one fundamentalist Muslim exists, he's going to try and kill every Jew he can. 0.98

00:30:50.060 And I'm not going to sugarcoat that anymore, or at least support the others who are doing it. 0.99

00:30:55.640 Good for you.

00:30:56.140 And we're allowing that to happen here.

00:30:58.200 We're allowing them to shout that on the streets.

00:31:02.620 That actually is an interesting point to drive home, is that there are people who actually do the shooting, do the knifing, and they are guilty as hell.

00:31:14.340 Well, there's a guilt that goes with just being a passive supporter who gives money,

00:31:20.620 and there's a guilt that goes with people who just cheer when they see it done.

00:31:24.480 And they have.

00:31:25.320 And we're seeing that in this country.

00:31:28.000 One of the things in the video that they showed was a murdered Israeli soldier

00:31:34.120 being dumped in the back of a pickup truck and driven back into Gaza.

00:31:37.580 And you see scenes as the truck's driving in very slowly.

00:31:42.220 10, 11, 12-year-old boys are jumping up onto the side of the truck

00:31:46.080 to pound and punch the body of the Israeli soldier.

00:31:50.820 So that's another indoctrinated generation right there. 0.99

00:31:54.320 And that's another harder thing that people have to understand, too.

00:31:57.900 Depicting the entire Gazan population as innocent civilians

00:32:01.520 with just a fringe of Hamas, but let's quit pretending 0.54

00:32:04.180 that Hamas isn't supported by the majority of that population.

00:32:07.560 I understand dropping more bombs in Gaza isn't going to endear the people to Israel, but you couldn't keep that many hostages in an area that small for this long without public cooperation.

00:32:19.820 Of course.

00:32:20.720 You couldn't keep those fighters hidden so well when they take off their mask and then sink back into the populist crowd in and out, which is a war crime, technically, in any real war, yet they never get called on that.

00:32:36.260 you're not supposed to be able to slide in

00:32:38.900 that's the point of uniforms

00:32:40.280 it's part of the humanity

00:32:43.020 making the rules of killing each other

00:32:44.520 that we try to adhere

00:32:45.780 I don't think the Geneva Convention applies in Gaza

00:32:48.660 no, but yet they put

00:32:51.020 a standard of expectation

00:32:52.800 on Israel to somehow

00:32:54.740 I mean even when they blew the nuts off

00:32:56.880 of Hezbollah members with pagers

00:32:58.120 which I thought was one of the best

00:32:59.240 targeted military operations in modern history

00:33:03.200 I mean the only people on earth

00:33:04.620 still carrying pagers where Hezbollah members.

00:33:07.080 Brilliant.

00:33:08.040 And people called that a war crime because it was a,

00:33:11.020 they can't win in public opinion.

00:33:13.080 I imagine you get the impression of Israel to the point

00:33:15.700 where they don't really care about public opinion.

00:33:17.060 No, no, they don't.

00:33:18.820 They do what they want to do and, you know,

00:33:22.000 to hell with the consequences. 0.76

00:33:23.700 One of the interesting things I saw and learned about

00:33:27.280 was the compulsory military service that you have to do in Israel.

00:33:31.420 You've got to have two years in.

00:33:32.700 So you get, you know, you turn 18, you join the army, you have to, uh, might be good for Canada, you know, would certainly solve the recruitment crisis and teach, uh, teach kids, uh, some, uh, some discipline.

00:33:45.240 Yeah.

00:33:45.480 Well, it's, it's funny when I owned the pub, I had a, there was a young lady worked in our kitchen and, uh, she had moved from Russia to Israel.

00:33:54.360 A lot of Israelis came from there and then immigrated to Canada.

00:33:58.740 She did her time in the IDF while she was in it.

00:34:00.900 She's just a slip of a girl. 1.00

00:34:03.240 And one time she showed a picture of her in her uniform in M-16.

00:34:06.280 It's just unimaginable, this soft-spoken girl.

00:34:09.920 And serving in the military, not just like a reserves in Alberta,

00:34:13.820 where the most you might ever do is go out and look for a missing dog or something.

00:34:17.800 They're in a war zone.

00:34:18.880 They're in a very dangerous, realistic place where they might be called to action.

00:34:22.980 And as I found out, there's nothing sexier than an Israeli woman in uniform with an M-16. 0.99

00:34:28.740 Well, there's the Girls of IDF account on X that Jane got upset that I followed back on, which they followed me first.

00:34:36.820 I should follow that one.

00:34:38.400 It's an interesting one.

00:34:39.900 Girls of the IDF.

00:34:40.880 Girls of the IDF.

00:34:41.820 Check that out on X.

00:34:43.000 And yeah, but what I like about that, not just that, yes, there's some very pretty ladies that get depicted on those pictures on there. 1.00

00:34:50.020 But it also kind of is really dark humor.

00:34:53.120 I see that they kind of rub it in, too.

00:34:54.640 You know, they're up against the culture that dresses their women and, you know, hides them, cloaks them to the to the ankles and the edges and even to the eyes. 0.97

00:35:04.160 And these are girls who are serving in the military force and winning.

00:35:08.520 And then they're on the beaches in Tel Aviv wearing next to nothing.

00:35:11.540 That's who's defeating you guys.

00:35:13.240 Good work.

00:35:14.360 One interesting quick story.

00:35:15.940 We on October 7th, there was a Black Hawk helicopter Israeli ferrying troops to the area where the fighting was going on.

00:35:24.100 was hit by an RPG and it crashed into this field and everybody from the area sort of went out there

00:35:31.060 and helped them provided aid and blankets at this intersection. So out of that there's grown this

00:35:37.460 big truck stop now run by two brothers and it's the first place Israeli soldiers go when they

00:35:44.420 leave the Gaza Strip after doing their their their duty there. They get clean shirt, clean underwear,

00:35:51.220 clean socks and they get a they get a hot meal and can just uh you know unwind uh it's run by

00:35:58.500 two brothers and it's completely just on donations um local people come and drive and they you know

00:36:05.700 they donate a thousand socks and international people are donating and you know all this stuff

00:36:12.060 i've talked about today i will be doing stories on in the in the coming days in the western standard

00:36:16.860 and I'll do a story on these two brothers.

00:36:19.880 So much passion in them

00:36:21.060 and I'll put in there a little place

00:36:23.280 where you can send a donation to help out.

00:36:25.200 Yeah, but you actually had a story in yesterday.

00:36:27.580 I did, I had a column.

00:36:29.100 It was the one I was going to talk about.

00:36:30.680 Oh, thank you.

00:36:31.420 No, got a lot of good comments,

00:36:35.180 got a lot of bad comments.

00:36:36.820 I just think it's time for Israel 1.00

00:36:38.100 to go in there and finish the job 0.98

00:36:40.120 and to hell with Hamas, 1.00

00:36:43.520 send them to hell and flatten them. 1.00

00:36:46.520 Well, it's just a soft sell isn't working. 0.98

00:36:48.860 And it's interesting to hear the other things, though, your groups.

00:36:51.000 The brothers are, again, David Adom with the ambulance service out there.

00:36:55.020 Again, that's typically funded by donations from outside of Israel.

00:36:58.920 Workers, I mean, Don Sharp, who's been in here a couple of times as a guest,

00:37:02.080 he served in the ambulances over there.

00:37:04.520 It's kind of an all-hands-on-deck in Israel.

00:37:06.420 It has to be.

00:37:07.080 I mean, they're fighting for their survival over there.

00:37:08.720 Every day.

00:37:09.420 So fight for their literal survival.

00:37:12.240 All right.

00:37:12.800 Well, and again, that's a reminder to people, yes,

00:37:14.780 Steve has that excellent column more coming out.

00:37:17.040 Nigel is always curating others.

00:37:19.300 And I've got to remind folks, you've got to subscribe, though.

00:37:21.340 $9.99 a month, $100 a year.

00:37:23.620 That's how we pay our bills here.

00:37:24.720 It's how we stay independent.

00:37:25.600 It's really important.

00:37:26.420 But I just want to note that.

00:37:28.960 And I'd like the Toronto Star, which put out a story saying that they were getting like $600,000 a month from the federal government under the program.

00:37:39.480 The Red Star.

00:37:40.220 And surprisingly, they sound a little favorable of the government.

00:37:43.300 They do.

00:37:43.400 Yeah, if we did that, we might even get a raise out of Derek.

00:37:48.240 No, probably not.

00:37:51.660 All right, well, let's turn the page into something a little closer to home,

00:37:54.340 and it just is disturbing and bizarre.

00:37:57.220 We've got a big festering controversy in Alberta

00:38:01.520 because Premier Smith's government has decided to pull books 0.96

00:38:06.080 that depict men performing oral sex upon each other 0.85

00:38:09.700 out of K-12 libraries.

00:38:11.860 let's not forget the female equivalent so the the decision is not taken well i think it probably is 0.93

00:38:18.300 but what they've actually announced is a consultation so you can go on to uh the

00:38:23.580 government website find the survey uh the survey will show you what they are talking about it's

00:38:30.920 wild stuff you don't want to see it we're not putting it up on the on the screen here for you

00:38:36.720 to be mad about

00:38:38.760 or be mad at us

00:38:39.640 instead of the

00:38:40.500 instead of the

00:38:41.660 school.

00:38:42.380 Yeah, the verbal

00:38:42.880 description pretty much.

00:38:44.220 That's your thing

00:38:45.020 and you're an adult.

00:38:45.700 By all means,

00:38:46.260 go look it up.

00:38:46.860 Well, that's it.

00:38:47.400 You see, we're not

00:38:47.980 nobody's talking about

00:38:48.780 banning these

00:38:49.420 publications.

00:38:51.460 They are comic books.

00:38:53.460 You know,

00:38:54.060 when we were kids,

00:38:54.720 we had comic books,

00:38:55.940 but it was moral,

00:38:57.220 you know,

00:38:57.720 and PC and that sort of

00:38:59.160 Yeah, there's never

00:38:59.900 somebody and Veronica

00:39:00.800 do what these

00:39:01.440 were doing in these ones.

00:39:02.960 No, that's for sure.

00:39:04.840 So,

00:39:05.000 So the government is just putting, what do you think?

00:39:09.040 Do you think we should do something about this?

00:39:10.560 And it's just astonishing to me that these comic books have defenders.

00:39:15.520 That's the first thing that astonishes me.

00:39:18.340 The second thing is, how does what is basically a piece of filth

00:39:24.460 find its way not just into one school library

00:39:28.540 to be available for kids from K to 9,

00:39:31.740 but into apparently dozens of school libraries.

00:39:34.680 Like, who makes the decision?

00:39:35.920 Oh, that would be a good one.

00:39:37.120 And why?

00:39:38.100 What's the angle?

00:39:39.140 I mean, is this, well, let's not beat it out of the bush.

00:39:42.380 Is this a kind of grooming?

00:39:43.480 Is this sort of a promoting lifestyle?

00:39:48.240 It's also worth pointing out that although we have mentioned in this conversation 0.81

00:39:53.000 the gay sex that's depicted, there's also straight sex that's depicted.

00:39:58.940 And quite frankly, you don't want your kids, even if it's man and woman, woman and man, you don't want them looking at this kind of materials.

00:40:12.740 It's just not age appropriate.

00:40:14.200 It's as simple as that.

00:40:15.860 I don't know whether there is an appropriate age, actually.

00:40:18.540 But it's a better discussion.

00:40:20.400 But once somebody's past thinking, let's try it whether they want to do what they want to do. 0.99

00:40:24.540 The stupid thing is, why is this a controversy? 0.99

00:40:26.660 it, right? How can people defend this? Just get these, get the books out of the school. 1.00

00:40:31.820 It's quite simple. I'm not sure why there has to be a consultation.

00:40:35.420 I see some of though, and I saw that, I listened on the radio this morning. I mentioned that

00:40:40.540 earlier when they talked about this issue and they brought in this library and they're

00:40:43.340 calling it the book banning, which is nothing of the sort. The books aren't being banned.

00:40:46.600 They just aren't going to schools. The legacy media is all over it. And I tell you what,

00:40:49.700 they despise the Smith government and nothing she does can be right to the point where they're

00:40:55.180 pulling graphic pornography out of access to elementary school children age and the media

00:41:01.120 is still condemning her for it. I don't know how she can possibly ever do anything right.

00:41:06.240 New poll out today from the CBC. Janet Brown says Albertans agree with you guys that the honeymoon

00:41:13.360 with Danielle Smith continues. And if an election were held today, Nenshi and the NDP would be

00:41:19.520 crushed. So CBC said that. CBC said that. Believe it or not.

00:41:23.300 Brown does some very intensive polling

00:41:25.320 action. She's 0.51

00:41:27.280 a credible pollster for those things.

00:41:29.020 That's part of what kind of shocked me is Nietzsche.

00:41:31.080 You've got to find better hills to die on.

00:41:32.980 I don't think he's mentioned this particular incident.

00:41:35.100 I don't think I've heard from him. There was an NDP MLA

00:41:37.160 or two that just pulled up, but

00:41:38.520 whatever Nietzsche might be, he's

00:41:41.020 not stupid, but they've got to find better 0.96

00:41:43.160 things to attach themselves 1.00

00:41:45.100 to if they're going to bring this

00:41:47.160 government down. I think the Smith government gives them a lot

00:41:49.240 of room for critique.

00:41:50.860 This isn't one of them.

00:41:52.500 This is no, no, actually they're good tomorrow on the Hannaford show.

00:41:56.460 I've got John Hilton O'Brien from the parents for choice and education coming

00:42:00.500 onto the show.

00:42:01.160 We're going to be talking about this subject.

00:42:03.360 He's much more knowledgeable about it than I am.

00:42:05.580 And maybe we'll have some of the answers to the questions that you were

00:42:08.580 raising.

00:42:08.900 Sure.

00:42:09.100 And he did a, he did a column on it for you.

00:42:10.920 Yes.

00:42:11.220 Yesterday or the day before.

00:42:12.600 As a matter of fact, but there's more yet to say.

00:42:15.560 Absolutely.

00:42:16.580 There's always more to say.

00:42:17.900 We're blowhards, bloviating, professional bloviators.

00:42:21.360 Well, let's get on and bloviate with our parting shots.

00:42:25.880 I'll start with my own then, since it's already been in.

00:42:28.040 I just wanted to make sure that, acknowledge and recognize everybody.

00:42:32.220 It's four years now since, and I pulled up the story, I put it on X,

00:42:37.000 still shows the CBC headline,

00:42:40.280 215 bodies found in Kamloops at the residential school site.

00:42:45.080 It's been over $12 million spent on just that site alone.

00:42:48.880 The body count remains at zero.

00:42:50.040 four years and meanwhile calgary is building a memorial to these bodies that don't exist

00:42:56.580 uh the whole country has turned itself upside down we're hearing less about it because i think

00:43:00.980 they're realizing maybe people are kind of scratching their heads like shouldn't somebody

00:43:03.760 dug a hole by now if they haven't by four years they're obviously never going to 0.99

00:43:07.280 uh but i'm going to keep calling it a hoax guys because it is and uh i just wanted to acknowledge

00:43:13.880 that well i don't feel so bad about taking a serious note because usually these parting

00:43:19.180 shots are supposed to be uh leave you laughing that you know unless you've got a bizarre sense

00:43:24.460 of humor the some stuff you just you hear about it you got to say it there's a liberal mp bill

00:43:31.980 casey is his name and this is what he put on his x site this is what he tweeted it is not uncommon

00:43:41.100 for jews around the world now to be shown scorn and disrespect not because of their faith but in

00:43:47.820 the hope that the message will reach the netanyahu government that what the israeli government is

00:43:54.540 doing in gaza is not acceptable so you know you've got a your next door neighbor the kid

00:44:00.380 the kid in the class at university according to bill casey you can be mean because your your

00:44:08.140 intentions are good and that kid might only might not even have ever been to israel this is what

00:44:14.140 we've got there are people like this in the liberal government and these people vote on

00:44:19.660 the laws we live by i just find that astonishing yeah uh i came back from israel to find that the

00:44:27.180 seasons had changed in calgary you know we got fall winter spring summer and right now it's

00:44:33.020 construction season and my god as a city of calgary really screwed this city up uh you know

00:44:39.660 One of the busiest thoroughfares into the downtown was down to two lanes today, traffic backed up for kilometers, and they're still working on that bridge repair in 18 months.

00:44:50.800 I mean, come on, get serious.

00:44:53.120 18 months?

00:44:55.020 And it seems, well, it doesn't seem, it is a fact that every single street in downtown Calgary is under construction.

00:45:03.280 I hate construction season.

00:45:05.120 I hear you.

00:45:06.120 I hear you, dear.

00:45:07.080 I drive on these every day, and boy, it's getting worse and worse.

00:45:10.560 They're good at start, and they're just never good at finishing.

00:45:12.940 No.

00:45:14.200 Things don't get better, do they?

00:45:15.700 In the Second World War, the bridge was bombed.

00:45:17.840 The Corps of Engineers would have a Bailey Bridge up in 12 hours.

00:45:23.480 And here, 18 months, you said?

00:45:25.140 18 months for, what is it, maybe a 400-meter way or pass?

00:45:29.140 Yeah, it's not even an outstanding bridge.

00:45:30.900 Oh, I mean, come on.

00:45:32.720 Come on, man.

00:45:34.060 Well, they do that little bridge off the 4th Street down south, too.

00:45:36.880 that was a 12-year 12-month project and that that's crossing the elbow river it's a two-lane

00:45:41.280 car bridge how i wonder if you guys take that long are you hand edging the

00:45:45.600 i don't get it but uh i'm not an engineer no we'd have a lot more money if we were i think

00:45:50.400 that's a racket going on some people are doing real well it's like those overpasses on stony

00:45:54.080 that they've been working on for the last two years nobody knows what they're doing either

00:45:58.880 so always work for construction people in calgary that's for sure i appreciate the

00:46:01.920 the reminder that it is construction season here.

00:46:04.280 Let's look forward to it.

00:46:06.260 With the G7 and Stampede and everything

00:46:07.880 else coming, it's going to be...

00:46:09.600 Oh, yeah. Don't forget to come and see us at the

00:46:11.820 Global Energy Show. Yes. The Western

00:46:13.900 Standard will have a booth. We will. We're going to

00:46:15.880 be there. Come meet those Western 0.95

00:46:17.880 Standard Boviators in person.

00:46:19.660 Yeah, maybe buy a book.

00:46:21.620 Well, I don't know. I'll use it to flog books, but I'll see

00:46:23.900 it. I'll put in self-interest at a time.

00:46:26.220 All right. Well, thank you, Dave and Nigel

00:46:28.140 for making the hosting of the

00:46:30.040 Pipeline easy when I'm filling Derek's big and

00:46:32.380 different shoes.

00:46:35.680 And

00:46:35.860 as far as I like to test if he ever

00:46:38.440 watches this show.

00:46:40.400 Yeah, I don't think he does.

00:46:42.120 No, probably not. So

00:46:43.520 I'll close it off by thanking

00:46:46.280 everybody else for tuning in

00:46:48.260 today and be sure to get on to the Western Standard.

00:46:50.500 Subscribe, take one out and share

00:46:52.180 all our socials. We don't have to listen to that

00:46:54.180 nasty Red Star and Red Legacy

00:46:56.100 Media guys. This alternative we're here.

00:46:57.920 thank you all for tuning in tonight

00:47:00.100 and be sure to tune in to the rest of our shows

00:47:01.820 Nigel's is on tomorrow talking to John

00:47:03.520 and it'll be very interesting

00:47:27.920 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - May 29, 2025

Throne Speech — was this a unifying message？

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