Western Standard - Triggered： Alberta's next premier must act rather than just talk about issues.

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Good day. It's Tuesday, Tuesday, August 9th, 2022. Welcome to Triggered. I'm Corey Morgan.

00:00:39.260 This is the Western Standards Daily Live News Opinion Ranting Guest Interview Show. We run

00:00:45.660 this Monday to Friday, 1130, till I get sick of talking, usually by about 1. It'll be a little

00:00:50.620 earlier today when we wrap up because we were holding that UCP frontrunners debate tonight,

00:00:56.660 So we got to get over there and get set up and do a lot of stuff at that bar.

00:01:01.680 YYC Downtown is the name of the venue.

00:01:04.440 So good to see you all checking in from all over there.

00:01:06.520 Barb in Calgary, Susan in Hannah, Mike in Squamish.

00:01:09.280 We've got people all over.

00:01:10.100 That's why I'm moving on to good day rather than good morning.

00:01:12.880 Some of us are out in the east side and they're into the afternoon already.

00:01:17.420 So yes, use that comment scroll, guys.

00:01:19.580 Let's make it interactive.

00:01:20.700 Send those questions my way.

00:01:22.300 Send them for my guests' comments.

00:01:23.700 Discuss things with each other.

00:01:24.860 just try to keep it fairly civil though we we don't have to be scrapping with each other any

00:01:29.080 more than necessary in there but i really do appreciate using the comment scroll and seeing

00:01:33.920 that interaction going on out there guys that's what makes it worth doing it all live because

00:01:39.020 it's a workout all right let's look at a couple of the daily observations and see what's important

00:01:43.340 today the things that made it worth getting out of bed the things you want to make sure you don't

00:01:47.160 want to miss sending a card to somebody or something it's national polka day yes this is

00:01:52.460 the big one if you're into polka and who isn't this is the day you're supposed to be celebrating

00:01:58.060 this call your polka buddies get out and do some polka as you can see that picture up there of

00:02:02.760 of course canada's most famous polka band that was the schmange brothers uh who used to get

00:02:08.780 together with sctv and sing their their hit single cabbage rolls and coffee and for those not old

00:02:15.880 enough to remember that sctv stuff get out there and look it up at some of the best canadian stuff

00:02:19.700 that was ever produced. I don't think we'll see the like again. And yeah, John Candy was at his

00:02:24.060 best there. So today is National Polka Day. It's also National Book Lovers Day. This is one I can

00:02:30.000 really, you know, get behind. I mean, I've always been a voracious reader. That's been a thing with

00:02:35.580 me. And this is the day to celebrate those books. Literacy. I mean, come on. Talk about one of the

00:02:40.200 things that brought modern society and civilized society up to the level where it's at. It's that

00:02:44.820 ability to get things out in books and document them as well. It's just great entertainment.

00:02:48.900 it's falling by the wayside too much. Even myself, I find myself staring at my phone

00:02:52.300 way too much when I should be opening a good book. And I just started recently on reading some

00:02:57.580 actually old fantasy novels again. I used to read those a lot. And it's been really good for me,

00:03:01.920 you know, reading those every night. I read way too much news and political content, as you can

00:03:07.600 see, I need to for this show. But boy, it overloads your head with stuff. And getting out there and

00:03:11.880 just reading something entertainment now and then is really good. So it's Booklover's Day.

00:03:15.500 get out there, take out a book from the library, buy a new book, give somebody a book.

00:03:20.380 Just keep that literacy going, guys. It's important. And yeah, it's the day to talk about it.

00:03:27.480 Okay. Let's see what we got in our guest list. We're going to have Melanie Risden coming in

00:03:30.960 again. She was in last week, but that's the Wild Rose, Wild Rose, Western Standard reporter here

00:03:37.000 in Calgary. She puts so much out and she does so many of those specials and video productions and

00:03:41.520 things like that and she's been doing that series on the COVID Freedom Heroes and it's been very

00:03:45.980 well received. Lots of people have been watching it. She's getting near the end of the run on that

00:03:49.520 though of course she's always producing other stuff and we just want to remind everybody what's

00:03:53.840 coming up next and some of the past shows that have been there. So when you put your book down

00:03:57.420 after you know the book celebration today just turn it on and check out some of the stuff Mel's

00:04:03.400 been putting together. As well you have David McClellan. He's of Social Catfish. These guys

00:04:07.680 sent us a release and it's interesting it's an online site uh catfishing i guess you know it's

00:04:12.600 that term for false uh uh identities going around online and sort of rooking people in and ripping

00:04:19.820 them off they think they're speaking to a real person on the other side of the internet they

00:04:24.200 think they're maybe even building a relationship and it turns out it was all a scam well their site

00:04:28.400 helps uh prevent people from being catfished and uh you know save them that grief and possible even

00:04:34.680 financial loss or at least the humiliation that can come from those things. So that'll be an

00:04:38.080 interesting conversation as well. All right, let's get on with what I'm going to talk about. And it

00:04:42.420 fits with the debate that's coming up tonight. So let's talk about the UCP government. And I mean,

00:04:50.780 you know, they've always been nothing but all talk, no action, really, since Jason Kenney

00:04:55.100 became the Alberta Premier in 2019. Let's not sugarcoat it. Kenney promised long, but delivered

00:05:00.260 short in both of his campaigns, the one to lead the newly formed party and the one to become

00:05:04.120 premier in the 2019 general election. And while it's under, it's not yet clear, even if Kenny

00:05:08.760 understands why the members of his own party kicked him to the curb just three years into his

00:05:12.840 premiership, but his successor had better understand it. Albertans are sick and tired of being led down

00:05:18.060 the garden path by politicians. A new government's expected to make substantial changes upon

00:05:23.040 achieving power. People anticipate innovative policy initiatives and a changing of the guard

00:05:29.140 and senior bureaucratic positions. And that just didn't happen with the Kenny government.

00:05:32.760 Yes, we saw a new cabinet and some policy nudging,

00:05:35.020 but mostly we just saw talk and talk and talk and talk.

00:05:38.820 Not only spent four years stacking the already bloated

00:05:41.260 and inefficient Alberta Health Services Administration

00:05:43.540 with her ideological kin,

00:05:45.520 UCP didn't even find the courage to fire Dr. Verna Yu,

00:05:48.240 though, until last April.

00:05:49.780 How could the government even dream

00:05:50.740 of bringing about any kind of healthcare reform

00:05:52.840 when they allow the top managerial job

00:05:55.080 to be held by an NDP appointee?

00:05:56.780 So, of course, nothing changed with AHS in their time in.

00:05:59.680 One of the first things the UCP government did

00:06:01.300 upon being elected was to set up the Allen Inquiry to investigate foreign-funded opposition

00:06:06.160 to Alberta's resource industry. The inquiry proceeded to talk and talk and talk and talk.

00:06:12.080 They dragged their asses, continually delayed their report. Meanwhile, those who do oppose

00:06:16.480 Alberta's industries had years to cover their tracks and worked to undercut the work of the

00:06:20.140 inquiry. By the time Steve Allen finally released his report, the inquiry had basically been

00:06:25.780 discredited to a point where people didn't take the conclusions seriously. We spent millions and

00:06:29.740 wasted years. The inquiry did find that nearly a billion in foreign funds were dedicated to

00:06:34.360 attacking the energy sector, but nobody really cared by the time it was done, because all they

00:06:37.560 did was talk. The much-anticipated energy war room, 30 million bucks. That flop did a little

00:06:43.840 more than create a few micro scandals and issue press releases and talk. Kenny understood that

00:06:49.620 Albertans wanted to stand up to Ottawa, so he set up the fair deal panel. And guess what they did?

00:06:54.120 They talked and talked a lot more and then talked some more. And when they're done with that,

00:06:57.800 they talked some more. Then they released some findings and the government talked about the

00:07:01.040 findings and talked and talked. Have we seen any policy set out for the Alberta pension plan? No.

00:07:07.020 Police force? No. Stuff that was suggested by Albertans from all of that went to the wayside.

00:07:14.280 And in more recent issues, the government's been no better. EMS workers have been warning of a

00:07:17.480 service crisis for years. They've been holding town hall meetings and practically shouting from

00:07:21.880 the rooftops of a growing shortage of resources. They've also been proposing solutions to the

00:07:26.540 crisis. It's not like the answers weren't there for the government. It's fallen upon deaf ears

00:07:30.180 though. What's the government done? Well, they struck a committee on it last January. And since

00:07:34.440 then they've talked and talked and talked. In fact, they just announced that they haven't talked

00:07:39.320 enough and they're going to delay that committee's conclusions for yet another month. I guess from

00:07:43.300 January to talking wasn't enough. While they were talking, an 86 year old woman bled out in her

00:07:49.000 backyard waiting for an ambulance when she was just nine minutes from the largest hospital in

00:07:53.580 Alberta last June. In response to that tragedy, the UCP announced that they're going to strike

00:07:57.700 a task force and talk about the issue for at least four more months. I guess the health

00:08:01.400 minister forgot they already tasked a group to talk about this last January. You can't make this

00:08:05.540 shit up. One of the most lucrative jobs you can get in Alberta these days is getting on a committee

00:08:09.540 or a task force appointment. Then you can waste years spinning your wheels, deferring your reports,

00:08:13.500 and fade into obscurity after dumping a pile of pages upon the government that any intern could

00:08:17.860 have compiled with a few weeks of research. All while drawing, of course, an eye-popping salary.

00:08:23.360 The next UCP leader is going to have about six months as Alberta Premier before having to face voters in the general election.

00:08:30.040 There's only so much that can be done in that short period.

00:08:32.040 But if the new leader, you know, tries to gut the government in such a short order, it will cause chaos and likely will usher in not only for another term in power.

00:08:38.580 But that said, this leader is going to have to make it clear that some changes are forthcoming and they're going to be seriously following through on promises.

00:08:45.780 If the new leader can't convince UCP supporters

00:08:48.700 that they plan on taking some actions

00:08:49.980 rather than just talking and talking and talking

00:08:51.720 as they have for the last three and a half years,

00:08:53.840 conservatives are going to stay home on election day

00:08:55.540 and likely will usher Notley back into power.

00:08:58.860 Talk is cheap and voters are sick of it.

00:09:02.300 All right, that's what's got me going today.

00:09:04.940 Let's, of course, I talk for a living too.

00:09:07.920 But either way, I'm not taking any of your tax dollars for it.

00:09:10.440 So let's talk to Dave Naylor.

00:09:11.540 He writes for a living and that's more socially acceptable

00:09:13.960 and see what's happening out there in the world of the news.

00:09:15.900 Hey, Dave, how's it going?

00:09:17.080 Yeah, I'm not taking any tax dollars either, Corey.

00:09:19.660 Yes.

00:09:20.840 Hey, big debate tonight.

00:09:22.860 I hear you're the timekeeper.

00:09:24.780 I am.

00:09:25.400 I've been tasked with that critical, important role of sitting there

00:09:29.040 and madly waving those time flags when the candidates, of course,

00:09:32.980 always insist on talking past their timing limits.

00:09:35.900 So I'm getting pumped up and prepped for that.

00:09:39.000 Can you not just sort of like get a big air horn and blow it?

00:09:42.320 I mean, that would shut them up pretty quickly, wouldn't it?

00:09:44.720 I was thinking a water pistol would be great,

00:09:46.820 but unfortunately, Derek, just throws my ideas by the wayside.

00:09:50.420 He's got to listen to you more, man.

00:09:52.880 Got some good stuff on the website this morning,

00:09:55.280 led off with our Chris Holdcorn.

00:09:57.280 Got a really good exclusive out of Saskatchewan

00:10:00.020 where some, I guess, rogue daycare, or not daycare,

00:10:05.140 social workers have been vaccinating foster kids

00:10:09.200 without any sort of consent whatsoever.

00:10:11.380 They just grab the kid, take him to a clinic and get him vaccinated.

00:10:15.980 So that's got some family members upset.

00:10:20.100 Speaking of COVID, an Ottawa police detective has been suspended, charged with discredible conduct for investigating whether there was a link to COVID vaccinations and injuries and deaths and stuff like that.

00:10:35.740 So that wasn't looked on favorably by the brass.

00:10:39.540 And she has been suspended.

00:10:41.380 But Red Deer MLA Jason Steffen has got a column up talking about why he supports the Sovereignty Act in Alberta.

00:10:49.900 And that's an interesting read.

00:10:51.980 I guess there's some outrage in the Hispanic community that a white actor, James Franco, has been selected to play Fidel Castro in a new biopic of Castro's daughter.

00:11:08.440 And the complaint is that, you know, they just take white actors and make them brown face and take away roles for Latinos.

00:11:18.320 So our Mike Thomas has an interesting column.

00:11:21.600 Certainly he knows somebody who's got lots of experience with blackface.

00:11:25.900 And he was actually a drama teacher once, so he probably could act.

00:11:30.760 So that's Mike's suggestion for who should get the role.

00:11:35.780 Leslyn Lewis, Tory candidate for the Tory leadership, says she hates politics.

00:11:44.620 So I think she's probably running in the wrong race.

00:11:48.160 But she explains why and how politics has become all about hate for her.

00:11:55.100 We have a tragic story outside of Canmore in Spray Lakes.

00:12:01.300 a guy was out fishing on a boat his dog jumped in he jumped in to try and rescue the dog and

00:12:10.400 the cold water took them within within seconds and they were both went under and both of the

00:12:17.420 both the dog and the the owner died very sad story and cory we've got a story coming up

00:12:25.040 that is going to make you outraged from our Linda Slobodian on Manitoba,

00:12:30.640 one of Manitoba's most notorious criminals.

00:12:33.560 This is a mother who basically tortured a five-year-old to death

00:12:39.420 or five-year-old daughter, shot her with a pellet gun, believe it or not,

00:12:45.860 made her eat her own vomit,

00:12:48.600 and a doctor described the child's injuries as what you would get in a car accident.

00:12:54.600 that's how bad they were. Well, she's done well in jail. She's got a full-time job in jail, Corey,

00:13:00.360 so they're going to let her out on some day passes. So isn't that nice for her?

00:13:05.680 Oh, yeah. Good for all of us. It's just pathetic.

00:13:09.360 Just pathetic. It's exactly right. All right, Corey, we'll see you at the debate then.

00:13:15.900 Yeah, you bet. We'll move on and maybe, you know, again, find some people who can come up with some

00:13:20.400 better policies law and justice wise and in general for us. Only we could. Right on. Thanks

00:13:27.360 Dave. I'll talk to you a little later. Bye-bye. So that is Dave Naylor, our news editor in the

00:13:33.020 newsroom. And yes, as we see Chris Oldcorn with stories and I'll be talking to Mel and Dave's

00:13:37.800 hard at it. You can see in the background there, Jonathan Bradley was leaning over working hard

00:13:43.160 at his desk there. We've got a full office of people across the country working on bringing

00:13:47.540 this stuff to you guys. And the reason we're doing it is because you guys have been taking

00:13:51.920 out subscriptions. So we really appreciate it. Subscribers have been fantastic. And the more,

00:13:57.420 the better though. If you haven't subscribed already, get on board guys, 10 bucks a month,

00:14:01.120 $99 for a year. There's a free trial to give it a crack. And you can see all of these stories. I

00:14:05.700 mean, we put up more content than most of the mainstream online sites you'll see. And you get

00:14:09.960 unfettered access to it for that low rate. We're not asking for a donation. We're selling a service

00:14:14.560 We're saying, hey, you get good news copy, not controlled by the government, good and independent for the low rate of less than $10 a day if you take it out for a year.

00:14:23.080 Check it out, Western Standard News slash membership, and take out a membership, guys.

00:14:29.340 I'm going to hit on one of our sponsors before we get on to the next thing, too, because like I said, today's a bit condensed.

00:14:34.580 We're going to be running out as soon as the show's over to get set up for that debate tonight, and we will be streaming it as well, by the way, if you can't make it in person.

00:14:41.940 So this is that reminder.

00:14:43.040 Are you tired of having leftism ran down your throat everywhere you turn?

00:14:45.900 I know you are.

00:14:46.480 Everybody's tired of that.

00:14:47.820 And are you frustrated by businesses, of course, giving your money to leftist causes?

00:14:52.600 You know, Bed Bath & Beyond, some of those other ones.

00:14:54.840 They're opposing your industries.

00:14:56.100 They're opposing your life.

00:14:57.400 Yet you don't buy their products.

00:15:01.060 That's not what you bought them for.

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00:15:03.580 They're here for you.

00:15:04.900 And they are anything but leftist.

00:15:07.720 These guys, I mean, hey, this mug came from there.

00:15:10.100 so I can drink my liberal tears during every show.

00:15:13.160 As well, they make excellent coffee.

00:15:14.980 I see a couple of the commenters are saying

00:15:16.300 they already got some from these guys.

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00:15:20.500 It's a Canadian company.

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00:15:25.060 like the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms.

00:15:27.820 And 10% comes off.

00:15:28.880 You go to resistancecoffee.com slash triggered.

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00:15:38.880 it's just winning all around and it helps us with our sponsors of course so check them out guys get

00:15:43.360 on there resistancecoffee.com buy some swag buy some coffee and uh use that backslash trigger and

00:15:49.240 get 10 off your first order you don't take out a big one that way you get that extra 10 off

00:15:52.680 while you're at it all right let's see some of the stories that are going on and things that

00:15:57.640 are happening yeah that was pretty tragic with that dog in in canmore um you know it's a reminder

00:16:04.140 to people i talked a little bit about that when uh there's some other hiking issues and things

00:16:08.240 that happened out in the mountains. I grew up in Banff. That's my hometown. I was talking a bit

00:16:12.280 about that in the newsroom. Like some people underestimate too, and just don't think about it.

00:16:16.300 How cold those lakes are in the mountains. It's not like Ontario or down here on the prairies

00:16:22.700 and the flats. It is glacial water and it is bone chillingly cold. You can't survive more than a

00:16:29.140 couple minutes in that water. They used to call Lake Minnewonka up from Banff, the drown-proof

00:16:33.300 lake when I was a kid. People drown in it or die in it all the time, but it's because they'd fall

00:16:36.840 under the water. They can only paddle for a couple of minutes and hypothermia will take them and they

00:16:40.500 go down. So we saw that happening in Spray Lakes and Canmore, and that's just up the hill from

00:16:44.840 there. It's beautiful back there, but that's high country and those lakes are cold. And we keep

00:16:47.940 seeing that. Wear a life jacket. This is one of my rare public service things to nag a little bit.

00:16:53.380 You know, I'm usually not the big safety guy. I used to be the pain in the butt worker for all

00:16:57.160 the guys when I was in the oil field, you know, when it came to safety rules and things like that.

00:17:01.500 But some of it's common sense. Wear a life jacket. Get out there on those lakes. This guy

00:17:06.700 jumped in after his dog. Hey, I can relate with that. I love my dogs. I'll do darn near anything

00:17:11.500 for them. But if you're going to be especially alone in a boat in a mountain lake, wear a life

00:17:16.500 jacket. It was just a terrible, tragic end that really didn't need to happen. And there was a

00:17:20.780 group of two or three guys that also died and drowned when a boat tipped over in those same

00:17:24.360 lakes this year. That's the second time this year we've seen that. Both cases, they weren't wearing

00:17:28.380 life jackets. So just my little public service, because we don't like reporting on these stories.

00:17:33.200 what we'd rather report on is a video that somebody put and say, hey, look at this. This

00:17:37.160 guy's pet jumped out of the boat and the guy jumped out with his life jacket on and rescued

00:17:40.980 his own pet and put it back in the boat and everybody got home safe. But unfortunately,

00:17:46.560 it ended terribly poorly. LinkedIn users are saying, what about the murder of that guy in

00:17:50.360 a bathroom bar? I think that was in Banff as well. That was recently. Yeah, I'm kind of out of touch

00:17:54.540 with Banff these days. I don't go there that often any longer, but that was another, that was the

00:17:58.060 first murder in a long, long time since, what's her name, Trumel? Was she Trumel? Trumel? She was

00:18:04.240 a cab driver in Banff about 30 years ago. So, I mean, Banff is known for its generous spreading

00:18:10.640 of social diseases and things like that, but it's typically not a murder capital and usually a safe

00:18:15.340 spot. But, well, you get drinks, you get jerks, and you get people sometimes still killing each

00:18:21.460 other. That happened in Banff recently. Either way, we want people to enjoy the summer. We do

00:18:25.820 like reporting on some positive stories here. Those do happen. We know that. So let's just do

00:18:30.120 some things to avoid making more of them. But of course, I like stories to get me angry and get you

00:18:33.860 angry as well. And this is one, it's CBC, I guess they're claiming they're tightening their editorial

00:18:39.720 controls now after it published a website commentary depicting white pensioners and

00:18:44.720 conservative party voters as bigots. Well, welcome to the show, guys. I'm glad you realized that

00:18:51.240 that's a bit of a problem, you know? And yeah, it was basically, this was a story from just after

00:18:57.700 the last election from an election poll worker who was saying that she was basically having a

00:19:03.420 hard time wondering if every one of these white people coming in, if they actually hated her

00:19:07.280 because they were casting a ballot for a conservative. Because that was the impression

00:19:11.200 then that this columnist, this opinion writing was saying is if you voted conservative, you're

00:19:16.820 obviously a racist, hateful person. Lots of people with that idiotic belief. Fair enough.

00:19:22.920 But not all of them get paid to write a column for the state broadcaster we call the CBC and put

00:19:28.940 that garbage into print like that. That's where the problem comes about. So it says quite a bit

00:19:34.100 when, you know, even the CBC's ombudsman said, okay, this is not cutting it, guys. I mean,

00:19:40.480 the CBC's been spanked for misinformation. These guys get one and a half billion tax dollars a

00:19:45.280 year, it should be the best news copy on the planet. Yet they're constantly doing retractions,

00:19:51.120 corrections, and getting spanked for crap like this. Seriously, you know, I don't have a problem

00:19:56.420 with left-wing media and so on and biased media. That's fine. As long as you correctly identify it

00:20:00.940 as opinion. And it doesn't take tax dollars. Hey, if you want to get sponsored by union members or

00:20:07.100 some business is dumb enough to sponsor a left-wing group or whatever, you can put out, you know,

00:20:12.220 Karl Marx in his manifesto and things like that, if you like, you know, Das Kapital, and have a

00:20:18.480 whole discussion show on it. I don't care. But once you start taking the tax dollars, theoretically,

00:20:23.000 you should be putting good content out, and that hasn't been happening. All right, let's talk about

00:20:27.780 somebody who's been putting out some good content, and that's here at the Western Standard. We got

00:20:30.680 Melanie Risdon in the studio today. How's it going, Mel? Very good. Very busy. Yes, I know. It's been

00:20:36.480 dragging you out and putting you in here, but it's self-promotional because it's just been such

00:20:41.000 great stuff you've been putting together. That series has been so well received. And I want to

00:20:45.140 just keep reminding the viewers, hey, we've got these episodes coming out. You're getting, I think

00:20:49.160 six out of seven of them are now been released, is it? That's right. Yeah. We have our last one

00:20:53.360 going out on Thursday. Yeah. Tomorrow. Or yeah. What day is it? It's Tuesday. No, we're going

00:21:00.400 out Thursday. Yeah. So that's the COVID Freedom Heroes series. So if you want to kind of go

00:21:06.260 through some of those episodes, I know we covered it before, but there's some new listeners and I

00:21:09.720 I really want to make sure people don't because it gets pushed down in that

00:21:12.260 social media scroll and all those videos too. People don't want to miss.

00:21:14.560 It's not just a clip of Corey ranting. Whoa, there's a, a good, uh, you know,

00:21:17.680 COVID freedom heroes packed in there and the YouTube or rumble scroll.

00:21:20.980 Yeah. And so we've really tried to, uh, you know, really involve the people,

00:21:26.260 the people, um, and, and having them tell their stories.

00:21:30.280 So, uh, pretty much every single episode is involving, um, you know,

00:21:35.560 people we're, we're, we're interviewing the people through.

00:21:37.900 Now, our first episode was Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms.

00:21:42.280 And of course, we interviewed John Carpe, who is the founder of JCCF.

00:21:48.740 And JCCF is an interesting body.

00:21:51.420 They've got about 15 or 16 staff lawyers, but they also do, considering how busy they've been throughout the pandemic, actually,

00:21:57.640 They have actually contracted quite a few lawyers from across the country as well to help with fighting everything from the fines and the tickets that people got sort of individually, but the very large constitutional challenges as well.

00:22:13.280 We had one in Alberta here with lawyers, Leighton Gray, Jeff Rath, and they were fighting against the chief medical officer of health, Dr. Dina Hinshaw's medical orders, the public health orders that were restricting businesses from being able to practice.

00:22:33.000 And so that was an interesting one.

00:22:35.680 Plus, the JCCF has also been instrumental in the fight against the travel mandates, the federal travel mandates.

00:22:42.520 and quite a few other charter challenges across the country.

00:22:49.460 So many lawyers are being sort of commissioned daily by them

00:22:56.320 to help with some of these challenges.

00:22:59.120 And then, of course, we had part two, which was free to fly.

00:23:02.480 And this was co-founded by two Canadian airline professionals,

00:23:07.600 Matt Sattler and Greg Hill.

00:23:09.160 And they started it in April of 2021, but it grew because so many aviation personnel were starting to be affected by mandates that came down sort of closer to the fall of 2021.

00:23:25.000 And of course, there are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands.

00:23:31.800 We know millions of Canadians that are affected and were not able to travel through that time.

00:23:37.160 So I believe their membership for free to fly has grown to about 50,000 aviation professionals as well as Canadian travels travelers and their main goal was just to really was to sort of influence public opinion to begin with.

00:23:56.260 but they have now moved on to a legal challenge and hoping to ensure that those travel restrictions

00:24:04.000 are never put in place again for Canadians or aviation pilots.

00:24:09.740 And the other side of that too was they were making it very public that there are many aviation professionals

00:24:18.900 who have suffered a vaccine injury from this and are no longer able to fly.

00:24:24.660 they also sort of grew the awareness that there are several other aviation

00:24:30.480 professionals who are too afraid to admit some of the symptoms they are

00:24:34.920 experiencing because they know their licenses will be pulled and they will no

00:24:40.840 longer be able to fly so it has sort of introduced a bit of risk there in that

00:24:46.800 in that aviation sector so pretty sad yeah and then there's there's more we

00:24:54.360 Yes, part three, James Coates with Grace Life Church.

00:24:58.620 We were covering that fairly heavily when everything was unfolding with that church.

00:25:03.220 The church was, you know, all churches were limited to 15% capacity.

00:25:08.640 You know, in the beginning, many of those churches followed suit and did what they felt was being asked of them to keep their congregation safe.

00:25:17.500 But as more and more information came out, it was starting to sort of unravel the idea that people were in grave danger from COVID.

00:25:28.580 So at one point, James Coates from Grace Life decided he was going to open the doors of his church and allow his congregation to come as they felt safe to.

00:25:39.400 which often meant they were you know they were having services of well over

00:25:45.940 the allowed capacity based on the regulations so he is actually to put

00:25:52.660 together a book and it's called God versus government and it's sort of his a

00:25:58.540 biblical perspective he is a he has a master's in seminary and he co-authored

00:26:04.600 it with somebody who also has a master's in seminary I'm sorry I don't know the

00:26:10.100 co-authors name at this point but they they really dove into sort of the ideas

00:26:16.720 behind when it is appropriate as a believer as a faith-based person to

00:26:22.600 follow you know government rules and restrictions and whatnot but when it is

00:26:28.900 also not um appropriate to follow so it's a big philosophical question i mean yeah the old when in

00:26:36.100 rome where do you leave things for god to deal with later or do you deal with that today yeah

00:26:40.640 that's some big questions for people of faith and and that was a big part of the whole covid

00:26:45.160 lockdowns i mean for people of strong faith being separated from their their religious

00:26:50.260 institutions their social networks things like that it was it was very hard on them and yeah

00:26:54.680 There's been a lot of misunderstanding.

00:26:56.380 I am an unapologetic atheist.

00:26:58.920 I've always made that.

00:26:59.920 But I fully respect the right of other people of faith

00:27:02.460 to hold their congregations and have that right protected.

00:27:05.000 I mean, pre-religion is essential.

00:27:06.860 Some of the worst abuses against citizens in human history

00:27:10.000 have been based on people's faith.

00:27:12.080 We can't take any of that lightly.

00:27:14.120 I mean, it's just looking out for your neighbor's rights

00:27:15.740 that gets forgotten because some people,

00:27:18.180 well, I don't go to church, well, I don't care.

00:27:19.520 Well, no, you should because it really impacts us all.

00:27:21.860 Yeah, you're right.

00:27:22.580 and and the the idea behind it is that it becomes a slippery slope where does the line stop where

00:27:29.060 does the you know where where do the restrictions end when when can a person um you know stand up

00:27:34.740 against them what are our rights so um you know this this pastor really kind of took a hard line

00:27:40.500 drew his hard line in the sand uh biblically and uh you know and uh publicly and just really yeah uh

00:27:48.820 said you know we are not going to live and live in fear uh and our congregation is not going to

00:27:53.220 live in fear he he invited anyone who felt um you know that they wanted to come and gather and

00:27:58.980 worship and those that felt unsafe to do so were were obviously not encouraged and to to watch

00:28:04.420 online uh so that was an interesting one part four we um we followed up with chris scott who is

00:28:12.980 the owner of the Whistle Stop Cafe in Mira, Alberta. And again, similar to many who have

00:28:22.180 sort of made their stand through the first wave of the pandemic, when we really didn't know the

00:28:28.020 severity, we didn't know what we were dealing with, and we felt that the restrictions were

00:28:33.380 being put in place, really, to deal with something we were unaware of. But as time went on, and as

00:28:39.860 you know results were coming out and people were starting to see some of the data Chris Scott sort

00:28:47.900 of again drew his line in the sand and said that he didn't feel what the the government in Alberta

00:28:54.680 was putting forward was was well thought out was planned he said at one point you know the

00:28:59.980 government said well these are going to these these restrictions are going to be in place for

00:29:04.780 You know for the foreseeable future and he just felt that you know, he called it throwing spaghetti at the wall

00:29:11.080 That's what he said in in the interview and and in the meantime

00:29:15.880 People's lives and livelihoods were being destroyed. So he became a real prominent figure

00:29:22.620 When it came to businesses who were being affected by these restrictions and and he made it very public by doing a lot of

00:29:31.780 his

00:29:34.220 statements and position uh uh whatnot on social media so a lot of people were able to sort of

00:29:42.380 watch as rcmp came into his establishment and raided it and locked it up and and during the um

00:29:49.100 they they planned a big protest there and that's when he was arrested so a lot of that footage

00:29:55.260 he put on social media so that people were aware truly of what was happening behind the scenes for

00:30:00.620 him yeah he put up with a lot and uh it's interesting to talk to him again i mean and

00:30:06.140 with these people it's good to get the video and listen to you interview them because they get

00:30:09.740 portrayed by you know supporters of the government or supporters of that school that oh these are

00:30:13.420 crazy people they're screaming they're yelling they're unreasonable uh and and no they make

00:30:17.900 rational cases for what their stands were about and you can realize these are are reasonable

00:30:22.620 thinking people that took stands even if you don't agree with the stand they aren't people that are

00:30:27.020 really on the fringe despite the portrayals. Well, and having said that, that's right. I mean,

00:30:32.660 a lot of mainstream media really worked hard at exactly that, portraying these people that

00:30:40.780 we've interviewed as radicals, as, you know, like you said, the fringe and these people who are

00:30:46.820 sort of, you know, mad hatters. But really, yeah, sitting down with them and talking with them and

00:30:52.180 hearing their side of the story and understanding why they took the steps that they took.

00:30:57.020 uh, is really instrumental in people understanding, um, where these people were at. And, uh, you know,

00:31:03.160 when you're pushed to the brink, especially in a business where you're set to lose everything,

00:31:08.080 I mean, what would you do kind of a thing? Yeah. I mean, I, I know we owned a pub for five years

00:31:12.900 and that was a hard go pre pandemic. It's a tough business to work in. And, and you invest, you

00:31:17.200 don't, unless you won the lottery or something, chances are you leveraged a lot of your possessions

00:31:21.680 to open the place and get it running. You're, you're, you're up to lose everything, not just

00:31:26.120 the business, but your home and everything, if that goes down in a lot of those cases. So

00:31:29.780 yeah. And, and specifically for Chris Scott's spot, he bought, bought into the mirror cafe

00:31:38.180 or sorry, the whistle stop cafe and mirror literally less than a year before the pandemic.

00:31:43.720 So, I mean, again, as a business owner, you know, those first few years are you're already in the

00:31:48.500 hole. So, so yeah, it was a tough fight for him and it still is. However, thankfully as we

00:31:55.780 reported just about a week or two ago it's come down that the court has has

00:32:02.920 sort of found that most of the convictions against him have been

00:32:07.480 satisfied and his fine of $20,000 was reduced to $10,000 so yeah some of

00:32:14.140 these some of these situations going through the courts right now are you

00:32:18.280 know they're finding that in fact there was decisions made that were

00:32:23.200 unconstitutional. So then part five, we dove into law enforcement and many of the, whether it was

00:32:32.080 police officers, RCMP, you know, Canadian Armed Forces members that stood out and stood up against

00:32:39.920 what they were being asked to do. They felt many of the orders that they were receiving were

00:32:46.240 going up against the oaths that they took to serve and protect Canadians. So, you know,

00:32:54.260 we had, through the Western Standard, we covered several of those officers and military personnel

00:33:01.660 who put out videos of, you know, just sort of pleading with people to understand what was

00:33:08.720 happening and or in support of what was happening in Ottawa with the freedom convoy. Many of those

00:33:20.080 law enforcement personnel were vilified, of course, by mainstream media and whatnot,

00:33:27.040 but they were also reprimanded and some of them lost their jobs. Several of them actually also

00:33:33.360 spoke out about the mandates and felt that they too did not agree with being forced into taking

00:33:40.000 the vaccines and so also lost their jobs uh so that was interesting because um that interview

00:33:46.560 we got some perspective from boots on the ground uh one of the one of the people we interviewed for

00:33:52.960 that segment was um danny bolford which was part of justin trudeau's security detail for a period

00:34:00.400 of time. He was a sniper with the RCMP and, you know, he spoke up early on and ended up resigning

00:34:08.400 from the RCMP because of it. But he was boots on the ground at the Freedom Convoy and sort of came

00:34:14.720 in as the convoy's security detail and just sort of a liaison between the protesters and the police.

00:34:22.480 And he, you know, again, I mean, he and Constable Brian Dennison from Calgary,

00:34:29.040 Calgary police service, um, 24 year veteran, both served at G8, uh, in, uh,

00:34:35.760 Ontario back in the day and said, you know,

00:34:39.520 those were real protests where police were being assaulted and

00:34:43.840 smashing the barricades. Oh, I remember I've attended those kinds of protests.

00:34:48.240 Yeah. So the comparison to, to interview these, these two, uh,

00:34:53.120 incredible, incredibly brave men, uh,

00:34:56.240 to interview them and talk to them about their experience at a true protest where lives were at

00:35:03.200 risk and there was very dangerous behavior versus what they saw happening in ottawa for the freedom

00:35:09.760 convoy was it was interesting and it's it's interesting because i think again the perception

00:35:14.720 from a lot of the mainstream media people saw the protesters as being violent and there was a lot of

00:35:23.200 false information and stories that circulated at that time about you know weapons being found or

00:35:30.480 arsonist activity things like that that that ended up not actually being the case

00:35:36.400 part six we uh dove into last night actually we spoke with some medical professionals

00:35:42.080 dr gregory chan who is an alberta family physician and dealt with many patients who

00:35:47.520 who were experiencing vaccine injuries and whatnot. But also, we spoke with Dr. Eric Payne,

00:35:54.080 who early on in the fall of 2021, wrote a lengthy letter to the College of Physicians and Surgeons,

00:36:02.560 as well as the AHS CEO and president at the time, Dr. Verna Yu, to reconsider the mandates.

00:36:11.920 It's a 19-page letter from a doctor who is a pediatric neurologist and, you know, a medical

00:36:20.840 researcher.

00:36:21.560 He's worked at Mayo Clinic.

00:36:23.040 He's, you know, graduated Harvard.

00:36:25.780 So speaking with these two doctors, it was really interesting to get that behind-the-scenes

00:36:31.720 perspective on the medical side of things and find out, you know, truly, I mean, again,

00:36:38.260 the mainstream narrative would have everyone sort of following the health advice coming from AHS

00:36:44.700 and or Health Canada. But these doctors saw a very different side of things and dealt with that.

00:36:52.480 Medical group think was something very strongly kind of enforced within their own circles and

00:36:56.560 from government throughout the pandemic. It was kind of an ugly happening, I think, you know,

00:37:00.960 just not allowing any critical comment. I mean, you know, science means asking different questions,

00:37:05.440 even if you're in the minority and boy they really close ranks well and we know from watching other

00:37:10.720 you know drugs that have been deemed safe and then you know and then found not to be

00:37:15.440 that science evolves and we and we watch and it's evidence-based right and then finally coming up

00:37:20.720 this thursday we are going to feature um probably one of the most prominent people in the freedom

00:37:26.640 movement was tamara litch and uh sorry i there's there's argument whether it's leech or lich um

00:37:33.920 So Tamara Leach, Tamara Leach, we are going to be featuring her for Thursday.

00:37:38.920 And ironically, I believe she is up for an award on Thursday from the JCCF.

00:37:44.100 So, yeah.

00:37:45.340 Well, that's good.

00:37:45.940 And she's definitely been a lot of the face of the movement and took the brunt as a person, again, who just started out.

00:37:53.020 I mean, you could see her own accounts early in it that she kind of got caught in the snowball.

00:37:56.460 It wasn't her plan.

00:37:57.120 She's not a professional activist, but paid quite a price with a lot of time in jail for her efforts now.

00:38:02.480 She did.

00:38:03.120 So, I mean, it's great. I appreciate you coming in to talk about this and doing this series to

00:38:07.280 make people realize too, the restrictions are coming down. We're starting to feel a little

00:38:11.480 closer to normal. We're getting there, but we can't forget it's not over. For one, they could

00:38:15.800 always bring them back. And for another, there were a lot of people victimized and pressured,

00:38:19.320 and we can't let them get away with that. We got to review these things, look back with hindsight

00:38:24.220 now and say, was the government right? Was the government wrong? And then these interviews really

00:38:27.800 talk to those people who were involved in pushing back on everybody's behalf.

00:38:30.960 Yeah, it has been a pleasure doing this series for sure.

00:38:34.620 Great.

00:38:35.040 Well, thanks for the work on it.

00:38:36.420 And thanks for coming in to remind our viewers that they're out there.

00:38:38.800 And yeah, you know, catch these on Rumble on Facebook.

00:38:41.460 I think we've been backing a bit on some of them on YouTube because YouTube keeps kicking

00:38:44.380 us off if we talk about the wrong things.

00:38:46.700 But you can get them on those other two sites and they're really good watches.

00:38:50.460 So, all right.

00:38:52.080 Well, thanks again, Mel.

00:38:53.320 And we'll see you after the show as we scramble to get ready for the debate.

00:38:56.900 Yeah, that's right.

00:38:57.640 Okay.

00:38:57.960 Thanks, Corey.

00:38:58.620 Thanks.

00:38:59.680 So that was the Western Standards,

00:39:00.920 Melanie Risden with the COVID Freedom Heroes series.

00:39:04.800 It's been really good.

00:39:05.740 And we just really, you know,

00:39:06.940 it's something we haven't been good at.

00:39:07.920 The Standards is promoting our own stuff sometimes,

00:39:09.700 not often enough.

00:39:11.540 It's, of course, wait until we're done

00:39:13.140 with this important show before you tune in

00:39:14.920 and watch those ones.

00:39:16.200 But they're fantastic viewing, very informative.

00:39:18.700 And talking to the people that the legacy media,

00:39:20.860 of course, won't talk to.

00:39:22.120 Or if they do, it's going to be in an attack piece

00:39:25.340 or derogatory sort of way.

00:39:28.780 So, you know, looking into the comment scroll, I just see some questions.

00:39:31.960 So, you know, I want to address some of that stuff.

00:39:33.640 Some people get some confusion with things.

00:39:34.900 So I see Rosemary Labatt-Stalker saying, what is the Western standard?

00:39:39.800 Unapologetically atheist?

00:39:41.320 No, I'm unapologetically atheist.

00:39:45.140 I am.

00:39:46.180 There's a lot of people who work for the Western standard of different faiths, different degrees of adherence and all of that.

00:39:51.920 That's not a condition of employment here.

00:39:53.560 And the Western standard itself doesn't have a stance.

00:39:56.060 We're not a faith-based organization.

00:39:58.160 we're a media organization. And this is an opinion show. So this is where you're going to hear my

00:40:03.100 opinion. I'm not, you know, you don't have to agree with it or anything like that. But I openly state

00:40:09.140 where I stand on things with my faith and well, lack of or whatever way you want to put it. But

00:40:13.560 you know, if you're looking for another, there's a show called 100 Huntley Street, you can watch

00:40:19.080 a little more boring than this, but it's unapologetically faith based. But I do get

00:40:24.140 frustrated with some people who do mix up opinion with what the publication stands for. I mean,

00:40:31.500 understand that difference, for example, between Dave Naylor and myself. I mean, Dave has his

00:40:34.500 opinions, but he runs the news division. He makes sure that the opinion stays out of that, and that's

00:40:38.660 news copy. I work in the opinion section. I want it to be opinionated. Different columnists give

00:40:44.540 different opinions. It'd be boring otherwise. It wouldn't be, and if it wasn't opinion involved,

00:40:48.740 it would be news copy. And not all of our columnists share the same opinions. But, you know,

00:40:54.140 how many people I see having a temper tantrum when a columnist writes something they don't

00:40:59.300 like and they send the emails and they post them, the Western Standard's terrible, I've

00:41:02.780 had it with them, it's a rip up my subscription. Think a little harder. You don't have to read

00:41:07.420 or agree with every columnist. That's part of why if you go to the Western Standard and look

00:41:11.320 under the opinion section, there's lots and lots of columnists who are always putting out their

00:41:14.980 views and some of them you're going to like and some you won't. But you know, when people read

00:41:20.060 in. Oh, that person said that. That's the Western Standard is thus. No, it's not. That's not the

00:41:24.080 case. That's not how it works, nor with other publications generally either. I mean, there's

00:41:27.560 definitely an editorial leaning within the publication. But don't start talking about just

00:41:33.240 because I said I'm an atheist and suddenly the Western Standard is an atheist organization.

00:41:36.740 Of course not. It's just me, guys. Just me. And I don't know about others out there. I don't really

00:41:42.820 ask them about, you know, other people's faiths. It's their business if they want to openly have

00:41:49.500 And that's part of what I was trying to talk about when I mentioned my atheism anyways,

00:41:53.840 was that I can still not have faith, but respect the rights of others to have and practice theirs.

00:41:59.320 That's what this world needs to get more of.

00:42:01.620 It's just, it's not my bag, but I'm okay if you do it.

00:42:05.660 And that can apply to people with strong faiths or without.

00:42:08.560 I mean, we've also seen some of the worst atrocities in human history done by people in the name of their faiths.

00:42:13.800 I mean, look at the Inquisition, look at some of the things that were done or things against people

00:42:17.460 because they didn't like their faith, such as the Holocaust.

00:42:21.780 But either way, I mean, I'll say those things.

00:42:24.820 So just, you know, remember, guys, it's opinion.

00:42:27.660 You don't have to agree with it.

00:42:28.860 It's mine, though.

00:42:29.640 It doesn't always represent the entire standard.

00:42:31.560 I mean, if I went right off the edge and gave some really crazy opinions,

00:42:34.040 don't worry, Derek would rein me in and say, okay, that's enough.

00:42:36.620 I mean, there's some degree where still the publication has to be responsible

00:42:39.920 for what they publish and who put it out there.

00:42:42.240 But please distinguish between the opinion people

00:42:44.640 and the state of the publication as a whole.

00:42:47.020 or other people saying, you know,

00:42:48.620 when I get on social media,

00:42:50.640 I read your column, it's so biased,

00:42:52.300 you're an improper news organization.

00:42:54.100 How would you put that biased stuff up?

00:42:56.240 It's why it says opinion.

00:42:58.740 Of course it's biased.

00:43:00.360 If it's not biased, then it's not opinion.

00:43:02.000 And it's boring.

00:43:04.220 And Cindy saying, you know,

00:43:05.540 the old opinions like arseholes thing.

00:43:07.800 Yeah, that's true.

00:43:09.920 You know, but everybody's got one.

00:43:11.820 But that's what we're here to do is share it,

00:43:13.580 whether it's in the comments, scroll,

00:43:14.580 of course, me babbling at length about my opinions.

00:43:17.020 and our columnists writing them.

00:43:19.800 So, you know, just try to distinguish

00:43:22.140 between those differences though.

00:43:23.420 I mean, we saw some of that with this leadership race.

00:43:25.360 A lot of people have been getting pretty, you know, excited.

00:43:28.200 They get passionate about the candidates

00:43:29.880 they're supporting and everything.

00:43:31.560 I write a column that's critical of one candidate

00:43:33.340 and the other candidates, you know,

00:43:34.860 or the candidate goes crazy or their supporters go crazy.

00:43:37.400 And then I write one that's favorable of another

00:43:39.180 and the people opposing them go,

00:43:41.080 guys, I'm going to be critical of any and every one of them

00:43:44.780 when I feel, in my opinion, they've stepped the wrong way.

00:43:48.400 And I'll celebrate them and be nice to them

00:43:52.260 when I think they've done something right.

00:43:53.540 It's basically as simple as that.

00:43:55.880 All right, enough of that, Naga.

00:43:56.740 Let's see what we got for some other new stuff

00:43:58.680 to talk about before the next guest gets on here.

00:44:01.700 But yeah, somebody was talking about that

00:44:02.960 with that person who wrote the column

00:44:06.220 saying she was working as an election worker.

00:44:08.140 No, she didn't know who, somebody said,

00:44:09.600 oh, how does she know who voted which way?

00:44:11.020 She didn't.

00:44:11.820 If you read the column she wrote,

00:44:13.200 she talked about, she was saying in her head, I wonder if that person voted conservative,

00:44:17.500 because that would mean that person hates me. But no, she didn't have any idea. I didn't know

00:44:20.660 who voted which way or not. You know, yesterday I wrote on, or, you know, I had my opening monologue

00:44:28.420 on the Alberta Provincial Police Force and why I'd like to see one. And again, we could screw

00:44:31.880 that up as well. Hey, you know, just so you could have a smaller version of the same thing if we

00:44:34.960 don't make it better. We're looking at some of the federal stuff that comes out. I'm still kind

00:44:38.240 of laughing at this one because suddenly it became a big issue when it was discovered that,

00:44:43.660 you know, the RCMP has been snooping on people's personal phones and personal information. We knew

00:44:49.380 about that for a while, but it wasn't really a huge issue until they discovered, wait a minute,

00:44:53.240 they've been spying on MPs too? Members of parliament? Yeah. Hey, guess what? You got to

00:44:57.760 be citizens like the rest of us. And now it's a big deal, of course. And Brenda Lucky, Trudeau's

00:45:04.780 little appointed, little head of the RCMP there, the one who pokes into criminal investigations

00:45:10.780 such as the biggest mass shooting in Canadian history on his behalf, allegedly. So she refuses

00:45:18.660 to say, she won't even tell the House of Commons committee whether they used it to monitor MPs.

00:45:23.900 Well, who do you answer to? If she doesn't answer to a Commons committee, who does she answer to?

00:45:30.440 Is she really directly that up Trudeau's back door there?

00:45:35.800 I mean, you should be answering these things.

00:45:37.820 You're an employee of the nation.

00:45:40.000 You're supposed to be serving us.

00:45:41.100 There's so many of these civil servants.

00:45:42.260 The politicians are bad enough,

00:45:43.360 but these senior civil servants, don't forget,

00:45:45.580 you work for us, even if poorly.

00:45:48.820 And if you're asked by an ethics committee,

00:45:50.300 you should be bloody well answering.

00:45:51.580 What do you mean you won't tell

00:45:52.520 if you've been using it to monitor members of parliament?

00:45:55.120 This is important.

00:45:56.460 You don't have to tell what you saw on that.

00:45:58.840 I think it means that yes, you were.

00:46:01.460 And I don't like knowing that a federal police force

00:46:04.020 is digging into the personal communications

00:46:06.100 of our elected officials,

00:46:08.520 especially one who, again,

00:46:10.540 seems to be so grovelingly beholden to the prime minister.

00:46:14.360 Would they share incorrect information

00:46:17.220 on behalf of Trudeau to try and shame

00:46:19.740 a member of parliament who had something on their phone

00:46:21.440 that they didn't want shared?

00:46:22.440 Where does this go?

00:46:23.520 this country is in a bad way so i mean the committee passed a motion in july asking for

00:46:31.640 a list of warrants or uh any other information but they haven't gotten any yet and it shouldn't

00:46:35.400 be that hard to get and when she's refusing to answer that's basically saying a yes so the next

00:46:40.300 questions are who are you spying on and uh what what information did you garner why of course is

00:46:46.300 another nice big one isn't it so uh stuff interesting worth watching here speaking of

00:46:52.780 opinion. Here's some fun things. The Globe and Mail, that was making the rounds on social media

00:46:56.800 yesterday. They're seeking a new columnist for their opinion team, but he or she must be vaccinated.

00:47:02.540 They have to prove vaccination status. Why? Why? And somebody said, oh, it's because that person

00:47:09.580 will be stationed overseas for an opinion columnist. I got the wrong gig here. Well, I understand we've

00:47:17.940 got limited budgets. We don't, but I mean, opinion folks don't typically get shipped out. And also

00:47:22.700 most of the world doesn't have these vaccine mandates anymore. So the vaccine won't make a

00:47:27.540 difference with that. But I mean, hey, it's the global. Well, actually, I shouldn't say I was

00:47:31.040 gonna say the global mail is a private business. But no, they suckle on the taxpayers teat for

00:47:34.700 bailouts and money as well. So no, I won't be as forgiving with these guys. If they're fully

00:47:39.000 private, hey, do whatever the hell you want. Fine. Why? What is the point? This virtue signaling

00:47:45.020 with an opinion person saying they must be vaccinated, it does not make any difference

00:47:48.960 to the safety of fellow employees. It, uh, I think all it is, is they're looking for somebody

00:47:54.080 of the right mindset. So they know if they're vaccinated, then they know that this was somebody

00:47:57.780 that, uh, uh, you know, be able to, uh, push their agenda a little further. It's another way to ask

00:48:05.280 without asking. Uh, let's see, uh, Cheryl saying, I knew a 16 year old who ran away in the RCMP

00:48:11.720 were able to locate her with just her phone and, uh, and locate her phone when it was turned off.

00:48:17.500 Yeah, like these phones are, they've got everything.

00:48:20.500 They've got our information, they've got our location,

00:48:22.120 they've got our personal communications,

00:48:23.600 they've got pictures on them.

00:48:24.760 I mean, it's not a minor affair

00:48:26.600 to have somebody accessing our phone.

00:48:28.640 And in circumstances like that, with a warrant,

00:48:32.680 I can see reasons why the RCMP should,

00:48:36.180 or other police forces, be able to access phones,

00:48:39.500 but not on a whim.

00:48:40.680 You see, this was a thing

00:48:41.360 where they basically got a blanket policy

00:48:42.880 and they won't even tell you who or when or why.

00:48:44.400 Well, the warrant means you documented which phones,

00:48:46.880 which people, what you were looking into, why you were violating that privacy, how. So yeah,

00:48:53.120 if you're trying to find a young person who's lost or run away, sure. Also, it's an interesting

00:48:59.060 story. I still get more details on that. But I talk about that now and then when my pub got

00:49:03.020 repeatedly robbed by those guys that turned out to be murderous thugs. They killed two people

00:49:07.140 later on. But they robbed my pub a couple of times. They robbed a number of other rural businesses in

00:49:11.860 our area over a crime spree for a while. The way the police caught them was actually, well,

00:49:17.100 some security footage from a Brad Creek pub, because these morons were actually scouting the

00:49:21.320 pub in the same outfits that they came back that night in and robbed it with. So, you know, even

00:49:26.580 though they had a mask on their face, they had the same clothes. So it wasn't that hard to figure

00:49:29.220 out. And then once that got shared, they got all sorts of tips, you know, through social media on

00:49:33.000 who these guys actually were, but still you need more evidence. So what the RCMP did was did,

00:49:37.220 Yeah, it was RCMP, and they cooperated with Calgary Police.

00:49:40.740 But they got warrants, and they watched all of these guys' phones at their locations.

00:49:45.240 And they watched and monitored and watched and monitored, and suddenly they saw all the phones were all getting together.

00:49:50.320 I believe it was a northeast business up in northeast Calgary all at the same time.

00:49:53.060 They saw them all moving into the same spot.

00:49:55.220 So the police all rushed in, and sure enough, they were all getting ready to break into another business,

00:49:58.620 and they caught them right in the act and nailed them.

00:50:00.840 That was a good use.

00:50:01.700 But you see, they didn't just get blanket access to these guys' phones like that, though.

00:50:05.080 they had to get warrants. They had to go before a justice and say, this is why we need to go into

00:50:11.060 these people's personal items and access it. And I mean, I think that's a realistic cause.

00:50:18.460 And if it was done frivolously, the judge would say, no, I'm not giving you permission for that.

00:50:22.740 And so, I mean, I'm not fully ruling things up, but right now what we're talking about

00:50:26.480 is just some blanket abilities to search into things and even members of parliament, apparently.

00:50:33.720 And we wonder about a lot of that.

00:50:35.640 That's the things, that's why people can't forget

00:50:38.500 just how intrusive and odious and nasty

00:50:40.600 the Emergencies Act was

00:50:42.340 because it suspended a lot of individual rights.

00:50:45.980 And that's the sort of thing that happens

00:50:47.300 when your rights are suspended

00:50:48.240 because then suddenly you can give the state police,

00:50:51.480 and I'll call it that, you know, the federal police,

00:50:53.780 the ones controlled by Trudeau,

00:50:55.180 the ones where he directly appoints the head of their force,

00:50:58.640 you suddenly give them this authority

00:51:00.060 to set aside your individual rights.

00:51:02.040 And I mean, they could arrest people without warrant

00:51:03.640 they could search without warrant. They could press people into forced labor as they were

00:51:08.000 talking about with tow trucks, but also they could get in and search your personal

00:51:12.260 items. And now they're refusing to tell who. And I got a feeling there's going to be more

00:51:17.920 follow-up on that. And hey, liberal MPs, they might've been looking in yours too.

00:51:23.040 And I'm sure there's got to be at least a few liberal MPs who really wouldn't want this

00:51:27.300 contents of their phone to be exposed publicly. Maybe wonder, you know, when you give

00:51:31.420 the authorities too many things to powers and abilities, it can turn back and bite you in the

00:51:37.760 butt. Here's another beauty. So the federal subsidized art programs being told the Canada

00:51:45.100 Council for the Arts must embrace social activism. So not just promoting art, they have to make sure

00:51:52.780 it's social activism. Of course, it won't be conservative social activism, it'll be woke

00:51:58.260 social activism is talking about should support social justice and addressing, you know, inclusion

00:52:04.820 and diversity, all fuzzy things. Why is that going on in our arts budget? I just want pretty things

00:52:10.580 out in the street, guys. I understand art can be controversial and address things and stuff like

00:52:15.080 that. But once you start going into the tax pool, once you force all of us to pay for it, once we

00:52:21.700 have no more choice in the matter any longer, and we have to pay for it, then I think you should

00:52:26.020 stay the hell out of activism, because that's not what we paid our taxes for, is it?

00:52:30.240 But apparently, that's what these guys have for their motivation and their rationale.

00:52:37.400 So, you know, it's bad enough with the bad art we got. And Calgary has been notorious for it. I

00:52:42.640 guess Montreal outdid it. They did a blue ring that was even more expensive than the Calgary

00:52:48.620 one. People are familiar with it. The big blue ring. It's funny, the left have been embracing it.

00:52:52.120 I got into a online debate with this, this ding dong Courtney Penner. She's a progressive member

00:52:57.980 of council in Calgary. She was talking about how wonderful the blue ring is. And it's a part of

00:53:02.140 Calgary. No, it was $500,000 pissed away for a blue circle on a lamppost on an overpass halfway

00:53:11.120 between the airport and a residential area made by German artists. Don't celebrate that. That was an

00:53:17.740 abuse of our trust. It was an abuse of our dollars that was put into something like that,

00:53:22.900 as well as a number of other examples all over the city. There's those things that

00:53:26.600 people thought was a bunch of construction waste. That's over on the west end of town. It was because

00:53:31.040 there's a bunch of iron bars and rocks. They thought it was junk from a bunch of road

00:53:34.000 construction. No, it was a public art program from some New York artists and it cost, well,

00:53:38.640 that one was a couple million dollars, if I recall. All right, I see my guest in the lobby

00:53:43.420 here. And I am going to cut over to him right away. And we'll discuss that other issue we

00:53:49.780 wanted to get on to today. So this is David McClellan of Social Catfish. And hey there,

00:53:56.540 David, how you doing? Hey, how's it going? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me.

00:54:00.580 Well, I appreciate you joining us today. This is an interesting subject. It was a very

00:54:05.100 interesting release and the services you guys provide. But maybe, you know, for our viewers

00:54:10.060 and listeners, if you could kind of give in a nutshell a background on what catfishing is and

00:54:14.020 how that puts people at risk. Yeah, absolutely. So catfishing is essentially pretending to be

00:54:19.500 somebody else online. And so when we started the company eight years ago, you know, we thought it

00:54:24.320 was this, you know, thing where you had a bunch of insecure people on the internet, you know,

00:54:28.320 using other people's pictures and, you know, a semi harmless way. And what we quickly realized

00:54:33.660 is like most of the catfishing that actually happens is our people that are actually trying

00:54:38.040 to scam people out of money. Yeah, and this can be very serious. I mean, not just, you know,

00:54:43.100 scamming people out of money. I mean, it can bankrupt them or cause a lot of social damage,

00:54:47.740 or I mean, the humiliation factor, just like anybody with online ripoffs, they don't want

00:54:51.660 to report or could even lead to suicide if it's bad enough. Yeah, absolutely. We have a huge

00:54:58.200 network of about a million plus people. And what we found out is only about one in every three

00:55:02.540 people report these types of scams because they're too embarrassed. And so Social Catfish,

00:55:07.380 what my company does. We help people find and verify people online with a focus on online safety.

00:55:12.620 So that like weird phone number that you get that calls you if you're meeting somebody in line for

00:55:17.640 the first time, or you just want to know where your information is online to be safe, you can

00:55:22.620 use a service like ours. And that's what we do. Yeah. So your service kind of covers two fronts

00:55:27.660 in a sense. I mean, there's not just the people who have been contacted by perhaps a false identity

00:55:32.700 out there, but somebody might be using your pictures and identity and contacting others as

00:55:37.140 well out there and you don't know it. Yeah, absolutely. You'd be shocked how often that

00:55:40.920 happens. Anybody who's public on the internet is a potential victim. So what happens is these

00:55:48.140 scammers, they go online, they find profiles that have a lot of pictures, they download all the

00:55:53.380 pictures or screenshot all the pictures, and then they put them on dating sites, social networks,

00:55:58.740 forums, chat rooms, basically anywhere where you can chat with people. And they use those pictures

00:56:03.760 and they build this backstory to meet people

00:56:06.180 and coerce them into giving them money.

00:56:09.860 Yeah, so it's good to have a service though

00:56:11.780 where you can verify these

00:56:12.660 because I mean, not everything on the internet's bad.

00:56:14.640 I mean, I met my wife through a social media site

00:56:17.640 17 years ago.

00:56:18.760 I mean, you know, more of the primordial online meetings

00:56:21.600 and still to this day, she's putting up with me.

00:56:23.940 I mean, it was a good match and we did all right.

00:56:26.440 So I mean, you don't want to lose all the value

00:56:28.040 of being able to meet people and interact online.

00:56:30.540 But with those risks out there,

00:56:32.200 I guess you want to mitigate them as much as possible. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we say this

00:56:36.120 all the time that, you know, you go to school, right? And you learn about math and science

00:56:40.400 and history. You even learn about sex and drugs, but you don't learn about online safety. And so

00:56:45.560 those are the things that have to change. You know, that's why our service exists and we do

00:56:49.480 all the work that we do. But 100%, the internet's this amazing, beautiful place that you can learn

00:56:55.620 and you can meet people and interact, especially during COVID. We saw a lot of that. But there's,

00:57:00.780 It's also still the wild, wild west, and the internet's still in its infancy.

00:57:05.900 Even though it's been around for 30-plus years, it's continually changing.

00:57:11.060 We're seeing so many things change, and what we've learned is that every time technology changes or a new platform emerges, a new rush of scams comes out.

00:57:20.720 Safety is another aspect you mentioned.

00:57:23.300 There's a lot of cases we read, unfortunately, more and more of child luring that goes on,

00:57:27.380 sometimes it's been a profile of a grown person pretending to be younger and and luring in a

00:57:32.980 younger person into a you know eventually meeting in person or things like that it can be terribly

00:57:37.300 dangerous does your service provide things for parents to be able to apply or things like that

00:57:41.380 to check or how does that work so what you can do with our service is you can go and plug information

00:57:47.140 so you can go and and put in a picture a phone number a username and you can see anything that's

00:57:52.660 attached to that that's public online we we call them footprints you know so most people you know

00:57:57.860 my name is david mcclellan and you know i i go and i have usernames online and and if you go and

00:58:04.340 create a new profile online those usernames are typically you know using the same username is

00:58:08.980 typically easier for me to remember and so and usually using similar profile pictures and so

00:58:14.980 we use those things to validate like who people are online so if your children are talking to

00:58:19.540 somebody first of all i don't let my children talk to anybody that they don't know online you know

00:58:23.700 that's that's really the solution but if um you know if you're talking to somebody or you know

00:58:29.540 somebody's talking to somebody online you can always throw in a picture you can put in a username

00:58:34.500 a phone number an email and you can see the backstory on that and see how long it's it's

00:58:38.900 been in existence if it's been reported for fraud or scams you know if it's attached to somebody

00:58:43.860 with a different name which raises a red flag and will even give you ages if we have it um so a lot

00:58:48.820 of things you can do to just look up some basic information do it very quickly and just make sure

00:58:53.460 you're making the right decisions so with a lot of this that's going on i mean particularly with

00:58:58.500 the ripoffs is this like organized groups or these overseas groups you know call center type things

00:59:03.060 i guess you could say or is it often domestic people doing these impersonations yeah so it's

00:59:08.260 definitely a combination of the two we typically see most of these scams overseas so in places like

00:59:13.940 lagos nigeria russia the philippines china um and so you know typically in those countries

00:59:21.380 they're not really scared of of getting caught you know the problem is the jurisdiction like

00:59:26.820 our countries don't talk to each other very well and we don't work with each other very well and so

00:59:31.220 you know we tend to see a lot of scams over there people in the us definitely get involved we um but

00:59:36.260 they typically get arrested there's people in canada you know get involved but they're typically

00:59:40.660 could get arrested because we all have more jurisdiction. Um, the people that do this in

00:59:46.880 the States tend to be people that, um, are, um, like become money mules. So somebody has contacted

00:59:54.140 them from overseas said, Hey, will you do this for me? Will you help me out? They get, um, they

00:59:59.020 become a money mule and start money laundering. And now they get in a position where they can get

01:00:03.340 in a lot of trouble. Yeah. And looking at your site there at socialcatfish.com, I see you offer

01:00:09.120 a lot of resources as well, like just to help educate people. I mean, not just the ability to

01:00:14.040 check these profiles, but a lot of blog postings, reviewing different dating apps and things such

01:00:18.940 as that. So people have some background to start with. Yeah, we spend a lot of time doing things

01:00:24.000 that, you know, we don't necessarily get paid for. And so, but we believe it's really important to

01:00:29.540 educate people and show people what's really happening. You know, with the polling that we've

01:00:34.240 done, the people we've talked to, most people don't come out and don't report these types of

01:00:39.320 scams. There's a massive amount of money that's being lost every year, hundreds of millions of

01:00:44.220 dollars. And if we don't report the stuff, we don't educate people, this is going to continue

01:00:48.580 to get worse. Well, and speaking of reporting though, so as well, once somebody, if they've

01:00:53.760 checked a profile, they found out, yes, this is a scammer, this isn't legitimate. Are there ways

01:00:58.100 that you guys will follow through at least to hopefully start wiping that profile off or

01:01:02.800 flagging it for other people in the future or or at least you know uh trying to catch these guys a

01:01:07.460 bit yeah so we have an internal group where we go and actually we have volunteers that go and

01:01:13.440 report fake profiles as you can imagine it's a massive task i mean we delete uh we we report

01:01:20.140 about 1500 profiles a day you know on on various social networks um what you can do is if if you do

01:01:26.320 see fake profiles on social media or dating sites or specific apps like most of those have reporting

01:01:32.780 features or functions. And so we highly encourage you to go and report those. It doesn't mean that

01:01:37.640 we'll always get taken down, but we go and highly suggest that you go and look at those and fill

01:01:43.960 those out. Yeah. And I mean, it provides a service too that can give a person peace of mind. I mean,

01:01:48.580 maybe they're developing what does seem to be a promising relationship and it can help them relax

01:01:52.080 when they've checked out the profile. Hey, this is real. I can carry on and perhaps meet somebody

01:01:56.500 and get more personal, but you can lose that inhibition, I guess, that's the wrong term for

01:02:04.020 it, but your worries about it. So it's a valuable service that way too. It doesn't always have to be

01:02:07.220 a negative outcome. Yeah. We just had somebody come to us the other day and they met somebody

01:02:13.380 at a concert and they really hit it off and they came to us and said, hey, look, I just have a

01:02:18.340 picture. Can you find this woman? And so we said, hey, look, what we'll do is if we can find her,

01:02:24.420 we'll contact her and if she wants to get in contact with you we'll we'll we'll essentially

01:02:28.980 match me and so we finally got we found her facebook profile we messaged her and uh she's

01:02:35.240 like sure send in my information so i mean there are definitely some good outcomes and and you know

01:02:40.440 um you know not everything we do is involving scams sometimes just people coming to us to be

01:02:45.640 proactive but we definitely do that that sort of thing too yeah well i appreciate where you went

01:02:50.380 at first i thought whoa these guys are facilitating stalking oh no you you did check with her before

01:02:54.360 or having more content.

01:02:55.380 Yeah, we don't give any information out

01:02:57.420 until we get the AOK to do so.

01:03:01.600 Right, so is it a subscription sort of service then

01:03:04.140 for what you guys provide

01:03:05.380 and then you have kind of an ongoing access?

01:03:07.580 Yeah, so there are a few different plans that we have.

01:03:10.480 You can run very, very basic searches for free.

01:03:13.700 It is a paid subscription to actually use the full service

01:03:17.200 but it's unlimited searching.

01:03:18.260 so for you know a little under like uh seven uh seven dollars you can go and you can run unlimited

01:03:26.020 searching and then for a little under thirty dollars you can um have a monthly subscription

01:03:30.900 access to all the services uh we do have a uh what's called an in-depth search where you can

01:03:36.500 hire us and we'll do the searching so we use tools that um that we don't use for everyday users um

01:03:43.780 So things like people typically come to us if they've been involved in like crypto scams.

01:03:49.240 And so we have tools to go and and track and trace, you know, wallet addresses for for crypto scams and other look at other types of public information.

01:03:57.620 So that one costs a little and over three hundred dollars to do.

01:04:02.140 OK, well, no, it's great to know. As I said, you know, the Internet is a big Wild West in a way.

01:04:06.920 I mean, that's part of what the beauty of the Internet is. But unfortunately, there's a lot of hazards, too, and people can't necessarily pay attention to everything.

01:04:13.040 So having a service to help protect themselves and feel safer and more comfortable is a really great idea.

01:04:20.240 And it seems to be doing quite well out there.

01:04:21.920 Is there more information you'd like to share on how people can check out your service and get in touch with it?

01:04:27.080 Yeah, I mean, definitely go to socialcatfish.com.

01:04:29.220 It's a great resource.

01:04:30.740 We put out a YouTube video every Wednesday.

01:04:33.960 And so we have a channel called Scamfish, where we actually take people that have been victims of online scams

01:04:41.320 and we profile exactly what happened to them.

01:04:43.740 We break them down.

01:04:44.580 We do real investigations.

01:04:46.840 We do 52 episodes a year,

01:04:48.560 but they're really educational

01:04:50.100 because we break down exactly how the scams work,

01:04:53.120 why they worked and all the information we found out.

01:04:55.720 So you can check us out on YouTube too.

01:04:58.000 Well, that's excellent.

01:04:58.840 It lets people know too.

01:04:59.840 I mean, this can happen to anybody.

01:05:01.200 You know, they shouldn't be ashamed.

01:05:02.340 I mean, there's some very smart,

01:05:04.480 subtle scammers out there.

01:05:06.080 And if you got nailed it,

01:05:07.160 it's still better to speak up and follow through

01:05:09.860 rather than let them get away with it.

01:05:11.700 You know, you're not alone.

01:05:13.280 Yeah, absolutely.

01:05:15.040 All right.

01:05:15.600 Well, thank you very much for coming on today

01:05:17.180 to talk about that service and for putting it together.

01:05:19.780 You know, the more we can see those kind of predatory people

01:05:22.460 on there taken to task

01:05:24.560 and the more other people can enjoy the internet properly

01:05:26.860 is all the better.

01:05:28.560 So thanks again.

01:05:29.580 And maybe we'll talk again down the road.

01:05:31.760 Absolutely.

01:05:32.320 Thanks for having me.

01:05:33.280 All right.

01:05:33.440 Thank you.

01:05:35.020 That was David McClellan of Social Catfish.

01:05:39.860 dot com. And yeah, you know, you hear that term catfishing and things like that. And for ones

01:05:43.840 like me, you're getting a little more gray in the muzzle. I don't necessarily know every term and

01:05:47.300 so on. But I, you know, that sort of stuff was even happening way back when when Jane and I met

01:05:52.860 online as well. Actually, there's people that, you know, putting false identities out and trying to

01:05:59.240 shame other people and things like that with their pictures online that they can steal them. So

01:06:02.780 it's a service to consider, you know, if you're getting contacted by somebody, if they're looking

01:06:08.400 into things. You got a little bit of information right off the bat. You can check it out. Image

01:06:12.600 reverse searches, things like that, that you don't tech, you don't necessarily have the tech ability

01:06:16.440 or, or the background to look into. These guys will do it. So, yes, that was an interesting chat

01:06:23.520 there. It's an interesting service. So check them out. All right. I'm going to close things up

01:06:27.760 pretty quickly here, guys, just because we are going to be getting ready for that debate tonight

01:06:32.440 at, and it'll be streaming. And if you, there's some tickets left, I think you can check it out

01:06:37.260 on WesternStandardOnline.com for that.

01:06:40.620 And it's going to be at Rooftop YYC.

01:06:42.700 So that debate's going to start about 5.30 tonight.

01:06:45.020 It says live at 4.30, but I believe that's when the doors open.

01:06:48.140 And it'll be running about 5.30.

01:06:50.420 So let's see who I've got tomorrow.

01:06:53.900 I've already forgotten.

01:06:54.960 Me and my muddled head.

01:06:55.920 We've got a busy day.

01:06:56.620 Yes, we've got David Millard Haskell coming on.

01:07:00.820 He's a social scientist, university professor.

01:07:03.840 We're going to be talking about CRT.

01:07:05.280 and I'm going to have David Craden on

01:07:07.640 to chat about his column and some of those other things

01:07:09.640 so thanks for tuning in

01:07:11.320 today guys, it's always

01:07:13.240 appreciated and check us out tomorrow

01:07:15.420 at 11.30am sharp

01:07:35.280 Thank you.

Western Standard - August 10, 2022

Triggered： Alberta's next premier must act rather than just talk about issues.

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