Western Standard - Triggered： Canada is crushing its tourism industry with pandemic lunacy

00:00:00.000 We'll be right back.

00:00:30.000 Good morning. It's June 8th, 2022. Welcome to Triggered. I'm Corey Morgan. This is the

00:00:38.440 Western Standards daily live interview events show. We run Monday to Friday, 1130 a.m. Mountain

00:00:45.280 Standard Time till about 1 p.m. usually. That's how interesting the guests are. I could run a

00:00:50.120 little longer or sometimes we go a little short. We got a good show ahead again today. Always lots

00:00:55.480 of issues, lots of things to discuss. And let's get on with it. I start, of course, with our

00:01:00.540 daily observances, you know, and Dave was questioning it. I pull these up for a couple

00:01:04.800 of reasons. For one, actually, this first couple of minutes, I want to make sure everybody's joining.

00:01:08.080 So we'll talk about some lighter things while everybody gets in there to catch the show. And

00:01:13.080 it's just interesting to see these things that we've made formal observances for every day.

00:01:18.560 There's a big list of them. Every day has something standing out for it. And Dave was

00:01:22.340 wondering actually as he saw me prepping or saw this in the list if I'm you know getting a little

00:01:26.900 too dark with this but it is brain tumor day yes it is international brain tumor day I'm not sure

00:01:32.860 I guess why one is needed and I do take this seriously actually a friend of mine Hutch passed

00:01:38.220 away just a bit over a year ago from a from a malignant brain tumor it is very real and it's

00:01:43.280 very serious but it just seems kind of odd too and I'm not sure what's to be accomplished or

00:01:47.780 having these. But all the same, I bring up these observances, some of the light and some of the

00:01:52.740 dark as they come up. So I mean, hey, if you are concerned about those kinds of things, today is

00:01:58.480 the day to make everybody aware of brain tumors, I guess, and the damage they cause. Getting on to

00:02:02.920 the lighter end of things with the observances today as well. It's jelly-filled donut day.

00:02:07.540 So this is the day you're allowed to indulge. Get out there, get that jelly-filled donut,

00:02:12.960 you know, spill it down the front of your shirt at the start of the workday. Do everything that's

00:02:17.100 good with those sorts of things and enjoy yourself. So don't miss another jelly-filled

00:02:21.980 donut day. It's unforgivable. I got a couple of great guests on today. I got Spike Cohen. He was

00:02:27.060 the Libertarian Party of the United States vice presidential candidate in the last election. He's

00:02:32.380 been a libertarian advocate and activist down in the USA for quite some time. And of course,

00:02:38.340 a big issue that's been coming up in Canada and in the United States, of course, has been

00:02:41.860 firearms and firearm controls, firearm culture. I want to get more of that American

00:02:47.100 viewpoint on this. I mean, we're having that debate in both countries right now. I mean,

00:02:51.820 the United States gun control is really coming up in a big way down there, of course, in light of

00:02:56.240 horrific school shooting in Texas. And up here in Canada, we've got Justin Trudeau trying to

00:03:00.740 basically work towards a ban of all legally owned handguns within Canada. So we'll have

00:03:06.260 discussion from that liberty point of view on both sides of the border there on this issue.

00:03:11.020 I'm also going to have Jade Savage and she has run the e-tick app. And what it is, it's kind of

00:03:18.120 like it sounds like it's an app and it tracks wood ticks across Canada. You can, I'll get more

00:03:23.180 details out of her what that's all about. But I mean, wood ticks have been on the rise and they

00:03:27.620 carry a lot of nasty diseases and things. And a lot of people aren't necessarily aware of them.

00:03:31.980 And there's an app now though, if you encounter ticks, so they're on your pets or yourself,

00:03:34.820 you can share those encounters, register them. And it just helps with the general tracking of

00:03:41.000 ticks and is that time of year people are going to be hiking working in the yard getting out in

00:03:44.420 the farm fields whatnot and you're going to encounter those rotten gross little creatures

00:03:48.320 i encountered so many when i used to work in the oil field so good to see you all coming in from

00:03:53.380 all over monty lake a couple from monty lake there and uh cold lake lots of lake people i'm stuck in

00:03:59.300 the city right now sherwood park good to see you all in the comment scroll so they have that

00:04:03.580 reminder it is live so use that comment scroll chat with each other chat with me send comments

00:04:08.340 It's appreciated and reminds us that I'm not just speaking to the empty air.

00:04:12.300 There's a bunch of you out there listening to me babble, rant, and rave.

00:04:16.000 And I'm going to get going on what I'm ranting about for today.

00:04:19.000 And, you know, this gets an industry I'm very accustomed to.

00:04:24.760 I mean, I grew up in Banff initially.

00:04:26.500 I'm very familiar with the tourist industry.

00:04:28.700 And I own a bar for some years, the hospitality industry.

00:04:31.560 It's a sensitive one.

00:04:33.480 So Canada, though, is unfortunately just hammering its own tourist industry.

00:04:38.120 just hammering it. So I mean, the world for the most part is finally accepting COVID-19 as being

00:04:43.140 endemic, which means it's just here for good. And they're leaving the pandemic behind them.

00:04:47.680 People are working to return to normalcy and start to enjoy life again. One big element of that,

00:04:52.960 of course, is a return to traveling. During the height of the pandemic, travel and tourism around

00:04:57.520 the world ground to a halt. Countries closed borders and locked down. Even domestic travel

00:05:02.720 came to a standstill as lockdowns banned movement. And in Canada, we even had some interprovincial

00:05:07.680 border closures. Countless hotels, restaurants, other tourist-associated businesses have collapsed.

00:05:14.540 Others have managed to scrape by, but they had to cut their operations to the bone and

00:05:18.500 laid off most of their staff. Now, businesses in the tourism sector that have weathered the storm,

00:05:23.980 they've been looking forward to a recovery in the summer of 2022. They desperately need it as they

00:05:28.780 try to recover the staff they had and pay off the debt they incurred in the last two years.

00:05:33.180 By all indications, the tourism sector around the world should experience a mini-boom this

00:05:37.600 summer. Many people have been itching to travel, and they plan to get out and spend hard this year.

00:05:42.940 They've been cooped up, they've missed events, and they've been separated from distant relations

00:05:46.520 and friends for years. They're going to get out this year and make up for it. Canada, though,

00:05:50.960 appears to be determined to keep its tourism sector dejected and broke. While nations around

00:05:55.940 the world are rolling out the red carpet to visitors, Canada is making itself look as

00:05:59.800 unwelcoming as possible. Canada's government refuses to accept the pandemic's over. We remain

00:06:05.240 one of the only nations on earth with vaccination mandates and masking on planes and trains in the

00:06:09.760 country. This cuts deeply into both domestic and international travel. These mandates don't just

00:06:15.380 shut out the non-vaccinated. They're wreaking havoc in airports and border crossings as security 0.98

00:06:20.100 lines are causing massive tourist delays and travel delays and misery for tourists.

00:06:25.600 Former NHL player, gone podcaster Ryan Whitney, documented his horrific experience while

00:06:30.560 stranded in Pearson International Airport the other day as he futilely tried to travel to Boston.

00:06:36.680 Hours and hours of pointless lineups, crowds of stranded passengers, and cancelled flights put

00:06:41.680 him through a weekend of hell. The video went viral, and while it's great to expose this mess,

00:06:46.040 it also sent a message around the world, and domestically, that Canada is not a good place

00:06:51.140 to travel within. Now, these lineups and this mess are created by vaccine mandates. Mandates

00:06:56.720 caused the firings of thousands, leading to labor shortages throughout federally regulated sectors,

00:07:02.100 including airports. So that's airport security, ticket people, and customs agents. With proof

00:07:08.760 of vaccination being demanded, the processing time for travelers, flying domestically as well,

00:07:13.180 is hindered. And of course, heavily hindered when people are entering through customs.

00:07:17.880 Land crossings are a little better. I traveled to the United States just a few weeks ago.

00:07:21.760 Took me five minutes to go into the United States. It took me over an hour in line to

00:07:25.820 get back into Canada though as vaccine requirements delayed customs agents. Canada is literally as well

00:07:32.540 on top of all this marketing itself as a nation that's still keeping its citizens masked. In a

00:07:38.020 paid advertisement by Parks Canada, I saw this last night when I was online, I was shocked. A picture

00:07:43.300 depicts a couple taking a selfie alone in the middle of the mountains while wearing masks. This

00:07:47.900 is a promotional picture. You can't make this sort of stuff up. What kind of image does that present?

00:07:52.360 the Rocky Mountains have some of the freshest air on earth. Why the hell would somebody mask

00:07:56.860 themselves while touring them? The message projected is that Canada remains mired in the

00:08:01.420 pandemic of 2021 and that restrictions are still heavy. This won't draw people who are seeking to

00:08:06.780 relax and enjoy vacations while leaving the pandemic behind. The damage is brutal and much

00:08:11.680 of it is irreversible as many people have already made their travel plans and decided against

00:08:15.940 visiting Canada. We can't start to undo this damage too soon though. We should be reversing

00:08:21.240 our damn unscientific mandates and letting the world know we're open for business. Instead, 0.99

00:08:25.660 we're projecting an image of a nation where people still can't travel freely and can't even look at

00:08:30.600 the mountains without a mask on, the freshest air on earth. The feds aren't showing any signs of

00:08:35.960 backing off anytime soon either. Our tourism sector is going to take years to recover from this,

00:08:40.760 and for no good reason, aside from the actions of a stubborn, vacuous man-child of a prime minister

00:08:46.400 who has a chip on his shoulder.

00:08:49.580 Well, I guess we can just pray for the tourism industry.

00:08:52.680 All right, that's enough of that.

00:08:54.240 Let's get on to other news and bring in our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:08:58.540 Hey, Dave, how's it going?

00:08:59.820 It's going well, Corey.

00:09:01.160 Hey, I understand that every time Duke the Wonder Dog walks by your TV now,

00:09:06.020 the channel changes.

00:09:07.160 What's going on there?

00:09:08.320 Just about.

00:09:08.960 He's consumed two remote controls now.

00:09:11.520 And yes, as I was mentioning that in the newsroom,

00:09:14.580 He has a good digestive system.

00:09:16.400 Things pass right through them.

00:09:17.380 And they were those big remotes.

00:09:18.460 So, you know, I was finding like little numbers and letters in his waist as I was cleaning the yard.

00:09:22.100 I'm waiting for a message to be spelled out in one of them.

00:09:25.160 So far, there's been nothing coherent yet.

00:09:27.260 It just looks like a Trudeau speech.

00:09:28.760 But we'll see.

00:09:30.680 Is there nothing that dog will not eat?

00:09:33.080 I haven't found anything yet.

00:09:34.000 He ate a whole bottle of hot sauce the other week.

00:09:37.080 The one thing you'd think he'd ignore.

00:09:38.500 No, he's, I don't know what that dog.

00:09:42.340 I bet that created a bit of a mess.

00:09:44.740 Yeah, well, it hurt him more than it hurt me in the end, I think.

00:09:47.460 Yeah.

00:09:49.060 Well, we got some good stuff on the website already this morning, Corey.

00:09:52.580 We've got an exclusive up there on freedom of information documents that we filed almost two years ago to the date,

00:10:00.900 looking for how much it was going to cost the feds when the big gun ban was announced.

00:10:06.460 They sent a letter out to every gun owner in the country telling them what the new rules are.

00:10:11.900 And it turns out that cost a pretty penny, two and a half million dollars to do that.

00:10:16.620 So that's a lot of licking of stamps to get that that higher rate.

00:10:21.740 We've got a good story and good photos of a kidnapping drama east of Calgary.

00:10:27.140 People had pulled over to a rest stop.

00:10:29.400 Their baby was inside, but a bad guy jumped in and fled in the car.

00:10:35.080 They were able to wave over a bystander who followed them close by.

00:10:38.720 but the guy basically during the high speed chase 160 kilometers an hour down highway one

00:10:45.040 he suddenly stops and dumps the baby on the side of the road and that picture you see there is uh

00:10:51.180 is the rcmp officers uh rescuing the baby i guess or picking up the baby from the side of the road

00:10:58.140 and uh and there's another picture in the story of uh rcmp uh in a foot chase to uh to capture the

00:11:04.320 guys so which they ultimately did so calgary guy is facing charges of abduction and fleeing police

00:11:13.840 all sorts of good stuff like that so good work by the rcmp there if you remember yesterday the

00:11:21.040 cdc issued a monkeypox warning they raised it to level two and and put a masking recommendation in

00:11:28.640 place. Well, that has quickly disappeared. I guess it caused a bit of an uproar and the masking

00:11:34.260 requirement or recommendation has suddenly disappeared. We've got lots more fallout today,

00:11:40.760 Corey, on that terrible story of the woman killed by the three pit bull type dogs. There's a GoFundMe

00:11:47.720 set up for the woman. Just sounds like a lovely woman, lived in Capitol Hill for 50 years and 0.98

00:11:56.200 was beloved in the neighborhood as she you know she gardened and that's where the dogs got her

00:12:02.060 when she was out gardening our mill resident has done another look at the controversy of the breed

00:12:08.200 itself already there has been calls for pit bull type dogs to be banned in calgary as they are in

00:12:16.200 most major cities in ontario not allowed to be housed within within city limits and there's the

00:12:23.540 other side of the story in there too on the on the the pitbull lobby group fighting for their side

00:12:30.560 we've got a story from our Jonathan Bradley in Ontario if you remember Cathay Wagenstall was

00:12:38.840 escorted from Parliament Saskatchewan MP because she wasn't vaccinated they've now got basically

00:12:45.020 wanted posters on the security desk of this MP so you know eagle-eyed security guys can 0.99

00:12:52.780 And keep an eye out for this woman and just make sure she doesn't get anywhere near Parliament Hill.

00:12:59.460 And you can see the photo there on the desk of the security officer.

00:13:04.880 Our Reid Small in Vancouver has done a story on the coroner's report into the tragic heat dome last year.

00:13:12.740 It killed more than 600 people.

00:13:15.700 Their study has found most of them were elderly and lived alone.

00:13:19.420 And we're now trying to take steps to prevent it again.

00:13:22.780 And soccer fans in Saskatchewan, happy in Saskatoon, plans for a new $28 million stadium have been announced.

00:13:31.740 They're getting an expansion team in the Canadian Soccer League.

00:13:35.580 So all the footy fans in Saskatchewan are going crazy.

00:13:39.520 And I'm sure that franchise will do very well, because other than the Rough Riders, not much to do there, is there, Corey?

00:13:46.940 There's a few things happening out there, but sports-wise, yes, for the big names, that is all they have.

00:13:52.780 I wonder if they'll wear watermelons on their head to the soccer game.

00:13:57.480 Well, you never know.

00:14:02.220 One never knows.

00:14:03.920 Sorry, Cory, give Duke the Wonder Dog a pet for me tonight,

00:14:08.400 and we'll see you on the pipeline.

00:14:09.720 Yeah, well, I noticed there was a commenter, Stone Lee,

00:14:12.120 asked if Duke eats chickadees.

00:14:15.160 You know, we do have those in our yard as well.

00:14:17.340 I guess he was asking on your behalf as you've had your chickadee challenges.

00:14:20.500 I haven't seen Duke going after anything alive, actually.

00:14:23.500 Maybe a dead chickadee he would go for it, but I'm afraid it probably wouldn't eat with your problems.

00:14:28.120 I forgot to tell you, I've got a chickadee plan now.

00:14:30.900 Slingshot. Slingshot. 0.89

00:14:33.420 But, you know, I'm not the heartless bastard my parents and all my friends think I am. 0.93

00:14:39.020 So what I'm going to do is, you know those little tiny marshmallows you put in hot chocolate? 0.86

00:14:42.960 Oh, yeah.

00:14:43.600 That's what I'm going to fire at it.

00:14:45.640 Because that way it'll go away, it'll leave me alone, but it won't get hurt.

00:14:49.300 Plus, the marshmallow will fall to the ground and feed the squirrels.

00:14:55.200 So it's a win-win situation.

00:14:57.240 Great. 0.75

00:14:57.560 Well, I look forward to seeing how the chickadee control endeavors go.

00:15:01.660 Yeah, he's driving me crazy.

00:15:03.300 Right on, Dave.

00:15:04.120 Thanks.

00:15:04.840 Thanks.

00:15:06.040 All right.

00:15:06.340 That is our news editor, Dave Naylor, the, yes, chickadee hater.

00:15:11.300 But aside from that, he also edits and manages our news copy and does a fantastic job out

00:15:18.300 there. As you can see, the stories are breaking exclusive stuff, even our own freedom of information

00:15:22.980 requests, things like that. We're getting out there. We're getting unique news. We're bringing

00:15:27.220 those stories to you. And this is when I remind you that we do this because you guys subscribe.

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00:15:37.380 It's a point of pride. It's a point of reality. But that means we have to have subscribers to

00:15:41.160 keep doing this. And you guys have been great. Subscriptions keep going up. They keep growing.

00:15:46.160 Thank you all who have already subscribed.

00:15:47.940 And if you haven't already, get out there, guys.

00:15:50.080 Westernstandard.news, this is how we maintain independent media. 0.98

00:15:53.340 This is how we keep, you know, from the legacy news, the mainstream media, feeding you that crap. 0.82

00:15:57.540 You need those alternatives. 0.95

00:15:58.900 We do that because you guys subscribe.

00:16:00.680 If you haven't already, $99 a year.

00:16:02.840 So that's less than $10 a month.

00:16:05.220 Or if you just want to go month by month, it is $10 a month of, you know, minor, minor investment.

00:16:10.160 30 cents a day we're talking and you get full access to all of our news copy and all of that

00:16:16.240 good stuff. So, uh, Hey, get out there and take out a subscription. Uh, you know, some of the

00:16:22.680 other stuff getting me going, uh, there's a thing going on right now in the city. And, and, uh,

00:16:27.340 we're going to talk a little about that. We record the pipeline. That's another one of our shows

00:16:30.320 and that'll come out tonight. Maybe we'll have more answers at that point, but we've talked

00:16:34.220 about that on this show before. I mean, Calgary has got just a ludicrous climate change plan.

00:16:39.240 We're talking $87 billion, $87 billion for a city, for a climate change plan. And Mayor Gondek was furious when she couldn't get it ramrod through when it was first brought to council. So the other day, it ended up getting voted to be deferred until July. So at least they can chew on this, look at this for a month and get a better idea.

00:17:01.500 Well, it sounds like there's a move in city council now. No, they're trying again to shove

00:17:05.000 it through today, get it on the table and entrench this policy for the end of the day.

00:17:10.700 What's the rush? What's the rush? And she just wants that jammed through there. $87 billion.

00:17:17.720 We're talking over, where do you go with this? Over a hundred thousand to household,

00:17:22.940 you know, 6,000 a year in property tax increases to make that up. But of course they call it an

00:17:28.100 investment? What do you mean investment? It's a theft. It's going to screw the city. And you

00:17:32.260 listen to the delusional crap out of the mayor of Calgary, Gondek, when she was going on saying, 0.97

00:17:36.600 if we don't get this in, this is sending the wrong message. If we don't get this in, 0.92

00:17:40.040 it's going to rattle business confidence in Calgary. Really? They're nuts. They really are.

00:17:46.460 How would you think any business would look at it and say, yes, I want to see a city piss away

00:17:52.020 $87 billion on a climate plan that isn't going to change anything. And if they don't put it in,

00:17:56.960 I'm not going to feel confident. She has no sense of what business people want. That's why we have

00:18:01.880 a dismal, dystopian, empty downtown. That's why all of these new businesses that have been moving

00:18:06.680 into Alberta move into the Rocky View. They're moving into neighboring communities because

00:18:11.600 they're not coming into this lunatic city. And it's not for a lack of a climate plan that they're 0.88

00:18:16.440 going outside of the cities because the taxes are too high. So if you go blowing $87 billion,

00:18:21.760 and that's just their speculated $87 billion, you know that budget's going to go higher.

00:18:26.620 the taxes are going to skyrocket. 0.67

00:18:28.760 These guys are just completely math illiterate.

00:18:31.840 Shirley Gervais saying,

00:18:32.600 why does Alberta cities keep electing

00:18:34.120 radical left municipal governments?

00:18:35.440 It's not just Alberta, it's everywhere.

00:18:37.100 Vancouver, Toronto. 0.76

00:18:38.340 I mean, the loony left has learned 0.69

00:18:39.900 to win the municipal elections.

00:18:41.980 The reason they do is because

00:18:43.100 they can slide under the radar.

00:18:45.180 There's no party.

00:18:46.300 They run as independents.

00:18:47.740 They lie, the bottom line.

00:18:49.160 Look at how Ninchy got in.

00:18:50.200 Ninchy claimed to be a pro-business conservative

00:18:52.040 when he won as mayor.

00:18:53.920 And once he got in, he was anything but.

00:18:56.560 I mean, Nenshi ushered in one of the few times

00:18:58.080 we actually saw hundreds and hundreds of business owners

00:19:00.620 marching on City Hall in a protest

00:19:02.500 because the business taxes got so high.

00:19:04.900 Never seen that in the city.

00:19:06.640 But he got through, and part of it's our own fault. 0.99

00:19:09.360 We don't get off our asses and vote them out. 0.99

00:19:11.740 You gotta start getting up and firing these guys. 0.99

00:19:14.980 Once a city councillor gets in, 0.96

00:19:16.500 it doesn't matter how nutty they are.

00:19:18.720 We don't get up and vote them out.

00:19:20.440 So what message are we sending them?

00:19:22.660 The responsibility is still yours.

00:19:24.540 We've got all kinds of challenges to our democracy right now,

00:19:27.540 but you have the ability to get out there and fire these guys.

00:19:30.980 And when you get city councilors, some of them sitting around for 30 years on those seats,

00:19:34.960 well, who are you going to blame when they get arrogant and ignore you

00:19:38.240 if you won't actually get up and do your part to fire them?

00:19:42.000 All right, I'll get back to ranting about that crazy climate plan in a while.

00:19:45.780 But first I'm going to get to one of our sponsors,

00:19:47.780 and then I'll get to our guest there who's in the lobby.

00:19:50.180 So our sponsors, the other way, as I said,

00:19:52.040 we remain independent and not take all of those massive Canadian tax bailouts that are going to

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00:20:52.380 guys and take control of your money okay let's bring spike cohen in he's been on the show before

00:20:58.360 and as i said earlier this was the vice presidential candidate for the libertarian

00:21:03.040 party of the united states in the last election and just been a very outspoken person for liberty

00:21:07.480 on social media and all over the place so thank you for coming on to talk to us today spike

00:21:11.740 yeah thanks for having me on again cory good to talk with you man yeah thanks and and part of why

00:21:16.920 I really wanted to get you on is because we've got, I mean, when the United States, something

00:21:20.480 happens there, it ripples over into Canada. I mean, we've got some differences. We've got some

00:21:25.200 cultural differences, legislative ones, but still we share our issues. And the big debate on both

00:21:30.980 countries right now is firearm control. That always happens whenever there's a terrible tragedy as

00:21:36.600 there was in Texas. Down there, you guys are really discussing whether you can start infringing,

00:21:41.980 I guess, on the Second Amendment or not with some controls up here. We've always been heavily

00:21:45.420 controlled. But our prime minister has reacted by cracking down even harder now. And it looks

00:21:49.460 like they're working towards banning all legally owned handguns in Canada in response to something

00:21:55.360 that never even happened up here. But, you know, where do we go from there? I guess, like, I'll

00:22:02.240 just start out, though, like, like, from a, there is a problem. I mean, I think it's hard to deny

00:22:07.960 whether it's cultural, where do we go with it? But I mean, there's not really many developed

00:22:12.300 nations that are dealing with such, even if they're sporadic and horrifying, you know,

00:22:15.980 shootings like that in schools, like, where do we look to try and reduce those and stop that

00:22:21.520 sort of thing from happening? Well, I think, Corey, we have to look at the fact that in the

00:22:26.140 United States, and like you said, this ripples over into Canada, because anything that you can

00:22:30.340 get in the United States can easily be taken to Canada through multiple points of ingress and

00:22:36.400 In the United States, there are more guns than people. Now, whether you like that or not doesn't really matter. There are more guns than people. That's not going to end without some kind of massive door to door gun confiscation program, which ironically would end in much more gun violence than any other proposal being floated.

00:22:56.880 So unless you're going to try to pretend that we can make guns go away, which we can't, there are guns. They simply exist. So now we have to decide how do we interact with and allow people to or not allow people to have access to those guns? Who should we be allowing or not allowing to have those guns? And that results in the kind of policies that we have right now, which led to the Evalde shooting.

00:23:19.960 Let's be clear what happened there. Government mandated through the no gun zone laws that they

00:23:26.740 passed in the eighties and nineties. I'm not sure exactly when it happened in Texas, but it was in

00:23:30.780 that period. They mandated that school children in public schools be vulnerable and completely

00:23:36.840 unguarded from attack, which has led to school shooters picking schools as their target for

00:23:42.920 mass shootings because they know that they're fishing a barrel zones. There's no one there

00:23:46.340 that's going to protect them. Then they had the police stay outside for over an hour and stop

00:23:53.460 horrified parents from going in to try to protect or protect their children or stop the shooting

00:23:59.260 from happen. Then they tried to lie about it and say that, you know, that there was nothing they

00:24:03.620 could do. They had tried everything they could when the reality was they had literally stood

00:24:07.320 there. Then finally someone showed up and broke the government's orders and stepped in and stopped

00:24:13.060 the shooter, and then they are now blaming it on the fact that I and many other Americans

00:24:18.900 may or may not own a rifle, that that's the reason why this happened. You cannot legislate

00:24:25.240 bad people into not having guns, at least not in the U.S., and by extension, not in Canada,

00:24:30.980 because in order to be a shooter or a mass shooter or a murderer, you have to have two things,

00:24:36.480 not caring what the law is and a desire to hurt lots and lots of people. Oh, you need a third

00:24:41.580 thing too. You need to not care what the consequences of your actions are. The laws

00:24:46.400 aren't going to stop someone like that. What they are going to stop are law-abiding people who might

00:24:50.900 actually defend themselves against someone like that. Yeah, and that's what we keep getting to.

00:24:55.260 I mean, the bottom line is law-abiding people are the low-hanging fruit. They're the easy ones to go

00:24:59.540 after because they're compliant. And we've seen this, as you pointed out, in Canada, we have a

00:25:04.120 9,000 kilometer border between our countries. It's huge. It's the longest undefended border in

00:25:08.900 the, in the world. And it's very easy to smuggle things across it, particularly small items like

00:25:13.620 handguns. And it's been, it's been documented by the police. Toronto has a big gang war going on.

00:25:19.060 They have a lot of shootings. Over 86% of the firearms they've picked up off the gangsters

00:25:24.100 were smuggled in from the United States. But what's the Canadian reaction? Let's go after

00:25:28.500 the law abiding handgun owners who are already very seriously controlled and we're never committing 0.95

00:25:33.900 the crimes in the first place. But I mean, how do you stop that knee jerk reaction? That's the

00:25:38.800 problem. Well, and this is a tale as old as time, Corey, uh, in the U S and possibly in Canada as

00:25:43.840 well during alcohol prohibition during that war on that particular drug, uh, thanks to alcohol

00:25:49.540 prohibition, it created a black market, uh, for, uh, rum for, uh, at that point, they were two

00:25:55.240 bit thugs, but they turned into some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the

00:25:58.560 country, uh, inside of a year or two, uh, because they were handed a billion dollar industry for

00:26:04.200 them to have exclusive control over. And as a result, they engaged in brutal gang warfare

00:26:09.640 in order to fight each other for turf. This, by the way, was something that did not happen

00:26:14.860 when alcohol was legal because if you had a legal product that you were selling, why would you

00:26:20.360 engage in brutal gang warfare? You would just compete with your competitors legally like

00:26:24.360 all other legal products. And as a result of that, the government blamed the Tommy gun.

00:26:30.200 That was the problem. It wasn't the fact that they had created a black market and that the black marketeers were fighting each other. No, it was a gun that had existed for at least a couple of decades at that point. That was the problem. And so they passed the NFA. We're seeing that now. The war on drugs has created gang violence, which is blamed on the gun. And it makes no sense at all.

00:26:51.020 Well, yeah, and that's getting to where I wanted to go with that, too, because I mean, actually here in Calgary, we have a record amount of shootings happening as well.

00:26:57.600 And pretty much all of them are always gang related.

00:26:59.740 When you have a limited commodity, the unprincipled are always going to get in there and they're going because it makes it profitable.

00:27:05.540 I mean, we used to have cigarette smuggling when we put the cigarette taxes up too high in Canada 30 years ago.

00:27:10.260 We literally have cheese smuggling, a side note, but because we control our dairies up here so much that it's actually 30 percent cheaper to get dairy products from the United States if you can get them across the border.

00:27:20.480 But the underlying issue then is the addiction issues. We do have an opioid crisis going on. We've got more people addicted to items like fentanyl and meth and things like that than we've ever seen in the past that brings about a massive drug trade that's very lucrative and they're having their turf wars. But again, how can we realistically get to that?

00:27:39.240 I mean, I suspect yourself and more like me, but it's a hard thing to sell.

00:27:42.940 If we start moving towards decriminalizing actually some of these drugs and cutting into that, we can get to the solution of that problem.

00:27:48.900 But that's difficult to get past on people. They're too busy looking at the firearms.

00:27:52.820 It is both from the firearms perspective and from the drug itself.

00:27:56.920 You know, it's hard saying I think that these drugs should be legal or at least decriminalized to people who have, for example, lost a loved one to an opioid overdose or to someone who lost a loved one to the gang violence in the drug trade.

00:28:10.820 But the reality is those things are a side effect of illegalizing that drug trade.

00:28:16.560 Or at least it's been greatly made worse by that.

00:28:19.700 I mean, tens of thousands of people die from alcohol poisoning every year in the U.S.

00:28:24.280 And it's an absolute tragedy, right?

00:28:25.860 but but we've already learned and we don't even talk about the suggestion of making it illegal

00:28:31.300 because we already learned our lesson with it we know that that doesn't make it any better

00:28:34.500 it makes it worse when you treat a health problem which is what addiction and overdose is when you

00:28:39.620 treat it as a criminal problem you now create a much larger criminal problem you create a criminal

00:28:46.020 trade you create violence related to that criminal trade you create uh massive cartels that pay off

00:28:53.540 government officials to look the other way which makes them more corrupt and everything else they

00:28:58.020 don't stop being corrupt on the other things so you have a more corrupt government you have more

00:29:02.340 violent uh trades and you have people that have a a legitimate health problem that are being

00:29:07.940 treated like criminals or not being treated at all and end up dying in the streets as a result

00:29:12.180 of it that's not fixing anything it's certainly not fixing the the gun violence problem yeah so

00:29:17.060 i mean a lot of it's not just health but it's mental health and it should be bundled i mean

00:29:20.500 And actually, I think as a world, we're getting better at losing that stigma.

00:29:23.300 A person with a mental health issue is just as sick as somebody who has type 1 diabetes.

00:29:27.520 They can't help it.

00:29:28.080 They need treatment.

00:29:29.580 And that's the root of where we got to go with these addiction issues.

00:29:32.560 I mean, a lot of people are trying to self-medicate for an untreated mental health problem, things such as that.

00:29:37.520 But getting further, can that be tied a little bit?

00:29:40.600 Because the thing that mystifies so many of us, again, is what is compelling.

00:29:43.940 I mean, we'll never know for sure, but somebody to get up and say, I want to go out into a school and start shooting children.

00:29:48.920 I mean, we see them sporadically. It's going to happen. But it just is it a perception that we're seeing this more now or is there are there really more of these shootings happening?

00:29:58.540 So if you look at the data, the number of murders, including murders by gun, have been kind of at least in the U.S.

00:30:06.240 I don't know the Canadian stats. So these could be completely wrong for Canada.

00:30:09.200 But in the U.S., they've been kind of slowly dropping.

00:30:12.460 They reached a peak in the 1960s and 70s. Some would argue because of the massive gun control

00:30:17.860 that had happened in the 60s and 70s that it reached a peak around them because a record

00:30:22.080 number of Americans were unable to legally defend themselves, regardless of whether it was because

00:30:26.260 of that or not. Starting in the 80s, it started to slowly drop. In the last few years, it's been

00:30:32.040 ticking back up, but it's still nowhere near the highs that it was even 20, 30 years ago.

00:30:36.700 So it is much lower. Mass shootings had a major increase in the 1990s. But part of what happened

00:30:44.780 was they lowered the number of deaths from, I think, or number of shootings from a number of

00:30:49.560 people that had to be shot from either, I think, five down to three to qualify it as a mass shooting.

00:30:54.160 So it's hard to compare apples to apples there. What I do know is that looking at it at a granular

00:31:00.060 level, at the why would someone choose to go and kill a bunch of people level, I think that we're

00:31:05.840 looking at very often a failure of the health system to identify actual mental health issues.

00:31:12.140 I think we're looking at a failure of the school system, at least in the US, we're looking at that.

00:31:17.100 And I think we're looking at a lot of failures that result in someone who feels so angry and

00:31:21.240 desperate that they end up doing something terrible like this. And I think in some cases,

00:31:24.880 it's just that some people, whether you want to call it evil or whatever else,

00:31:28.060 some people end up just doing something like this. And that's where you need to look at the

00:31:31.920 deterrent effect. You have to look at what are the targets they choose. This kid didn't go to

00:31:36.980 that school. The reason they pick schools and malls and theaters and things like that is because

00:31:42.200 they know that these are no gun zones. In other words, they're a place where a bunch of people

00:31:46.240 who are law abiding are likely to not have a gun. And they know that the police and the resource

00:31:51.360 officers and the security guards, they're more concerned about their own lives and livelihoods

00:31:56.620 than they are for saving a bunch of innocent people. And so they know they can get in there

00:32:00.440 and shoot up a bunch of people before anyone actually stops them, if they ever stop them.

00:32:04.520 And we need to, I will ask your audience and you that is listening to this, imagine two schools 0.81

00:32:10.340 exactly the same, except one has a sign that says, no guns allowed. And the other one says,

00:32:14.940 we are heavily armed and will protect these children with our lives. Which one do you think

00:32:18.240 is a greater deterrent to school shootings? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's similar to just

00:32:22.720 even owning a dog. If a burglar is scouting houses in a neighborhood and he sees one with a barking

00:32:26.340 dog in the window and one without, he's going to pick the one without. I mean, it's just a mother.

00:32:29.340 Yeah. Predators pick the easiest prey. Exactly. But I mean, is there room for perhaps some increase on controls within the United States? Like licensing, for example, I know that people worry about the incremental effect because that's what we got happening in Canada. Every time the government makes one step, they just take another step and another step. Exactly. But a lot of people don't find it unreasonable. That's looking at the individual rather than the firearm itself. You know, some people just shouldn't qualify to have one. And I know if they're really determined, they're going to get one anyways.

00:32:56.520 but perhaps it could reduce some of the spontaneous uh uh possessions and purchases is there room for

00:33:02.320 that kind of discussion so where that comes from is the reality that some people should not have a

00:33:06.660 gun that's 100 correct there are some people that should never be anywhere near a gun the problem

00:33:12.700 is asking the further question do we trust the government to make that decision and and no i

00:33:17.180 don't it's ironic when we talk about things like background checks and licensing and everything

00:33:20.740 else if we looked at government as an entity and had them subjected to these background checks and

00:33:26.120 these types of things, they would never pass their own background checks given their history,

00:33:29.640 right? But you have to look at it at another level. So for example, this Evaldi shooter,

00:33:34.300 and I refuse to use his name, but this shooter, he legally purchased this firearm, which means he

00:33:40.720 passed a background check. He went through the waiting period. He did all the stuff that we are

00:33:44.800 told will stop these shootings. It didn't. Do you know what licensing and regulations and

00:33:52.100 waiting periods and background checks. Do you know who they stop? They stop veterans with PTSD

00:34:00.200 who use cannabis or anyone else who's using cannabis medicinally for a medicinal reason

00:34:07.780 that they have. They stop people that have a conviction for a nonviolent felony 20 years ago

00:34:13.480 who haven't hurt anyone since and have never been violent. They round up a bunch of people,

00:34:18.420 uh people who can't afford the cost of running through all these background checks and inspections

00:34:22.220 and everything else that that sometimes double or triple the cost of a firearm they they run up the

00:34:27.080 cost they they make it impossible for people who are not bad people and if someone is a bad person

00:34:32.880 then they don't care what the gun laws are and they just go and get a gun illegally probably for

00:34:37.780 cheaper right so that doesn't actually fix anything so from the from the the uh i guess

00:34:44.120 philosophical standpoint of are there people who shouldn't have guns yes there are people who

00:34:47.860 shouldn't have guns. Is there an effective way for government to stop them from getting them?

00:34:51.540 I haven't seen that. And I've seen instead that they create this sort of captured market where

00:34:56.020 only those people can get guns illegally. Yeah. And it's funny, your argument was similar when

00:35:02.160 I had some debates with my own, some of the more small C conservative viewers, when I oppose

00:35:05.540 capital punishment. My point is, it's similar to saying, are there some people who are so horrific

00:35:09.540 that they'd probably be better off dead? Yeah, I agree. But I don't trust the government to be

00:35:12.920 the ones to figure out who they are.

00:35:15.120 They can't even get the taxes right. 0.99

00:35:17.820 I don't want them

00:35:18.920 to be the only ones armed in the nation

00:35:21.000 as well. I mean, that's where you get into

00:35:23.060 some very serious difficulties.

00:35:25.280 Just to kind of close off,

00:35:27.120 though, as you were saying, where proposed

00:35:28.760 solutions can become bigger than the problem.

00:35:30.980 I saw you respond to a tweet.

00:35:32.660 I'm forgetting his name now, the fellow from Star Trek

00:35:35.060 there, who I kind of like, George Takei.

00:35:37.660 Yes, George Takei.

00:35:38.860 He was talking about, oh, let's take all the

00:35:40.180 AK or AR-15s and send them over to Ukraine, you know, just kind of a vacuous celebrity sort of

00:35:45.180 tweet. But where you pointed out, well, how much damage would be caused if you really actually

00:35:49.660 try to go door to door and seize every AR-15 in the country, you're going to cause more shootings

00:35:53.740 than you ever imagined. Yes. And in order to, I love watching, in this case, the progressives,

00:36:01.780 they fully are on board with giving millions, tens of millions of unregistered, untraceable

00:36:08.400 machine guns to an entire country of people right now, or any kind of gun, rifles, machine guns,

00:36:14.980 advanced weapon systems, javelin missiles, long range weapon systems. Surely that'll never come

00:36:20.720 back to bite us like any of the other times that we've handed off billions of dollars of weapons,

00:36:25.240 right? But that's okay. But allowing the, I'm sorry. It worked great with the Taliban.

00:36:31.620 It worked great with the Taliban. It worked great with all these freedom fighters that we've armed

00:36:34.820 in the past, like the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, they'll never come back to bite us, right? But

00:36:39.620 at the same time, your neighbor who just wants to be able to defend their home absolutely should

00:36:46.020 not have a semi-automatic rifle because a bad guy who would have gotten that gun, regardless of the

00:36:51.220 laws, did something bad, something terrible and unspeakable and absolute travesty, but that that's

00:36:59.100 the fault of my neighbor who has a gun. But these other people over there, they should have machine

00:37:03.340 guns and whatever else they can have. It is a cognitive dissonance that I hope resolves itself

00:37:09.200 soon. Yeah. Well, people are trying to apply simple solutions to a very complicated problem

00:37:14.700 and they want a quick fix and an easy fix where there just isn't one to be had. So I just hope

00:37:19.640 we can keep having these rational discussions while we maintain what individual rights we have.

00:37:24.000 I assure you, at least you're nowhere near where we are up in Canada with where things are going

00:37:29.280 right now. It's getting ludicrous up here. But I appreciate you coming on to talk to us about that

00:37:33.660 and just offer a good reasoned liberty point of view on it. I always do like seeing that perspective

00:37:38.940 rather than some of the traditional conservative liberal sort of things. We've got to look at the

00:37:43.020 individuals. So where can we find more information about you and what you're doing these days?

00:37:47.860 Sure, absolutely. So my website is SpikeCohen.com. You can find me on all social media at Spike

00:37:54.200 Cohen. I've recently started an organization called You Are the Power. We do grassroots,

00:38:00.020 localized, single-issue advocacy, and that's if you are involved. And if you're an American

00:38:05.140 citizen, I just realized I'm talking to a bunch of Canadians. So You Are the Power is a political

00:38:08.820 action committee, so we're not actually able to take any contributions from Canadians. But if

00:38:12.600 you're interested in seeing what we're doing, you can go to youarethepower.net. And if you're an

00:38:16.340 American, you can join us and become a part of it as well. But if you just want to follow me and

00:38:20.740 see what I'm talking about. Spike Cohen on all the major socials. And thank you again for having

00:38:24.960 me on, Corey. Thank you. I appreciate it. And like I said, there's a lot of resources that we can

00:38:28.600 still share and appreciate up here in Canada and see what's going on. So thanks again. I hope we

00:38:33.520 get to talk again soon, perhaps on something a little less dark than this. Yes, hopefully so.

00:38:37.520 Yeah. All right. Thank you. So yes, that was Spike Cohen, as I said, and he was the

00:38:42.160 vice presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party of the United States. A very consistent

00:38:46.940 libertarian individual uh minded individual person i guess you could say and uh yes it's

00:38:53.020 i i just like seeing that perspective i mean it's the same issue but different problems as he said

00:38:58.420 i mean you can say oh it would be great if we just got rid of all those guns that everybody had but

00:39:02.380 look at the volume there's more than one fire i think it's 1.2 firearms per citizen in the united

00:39:08.340 states so how realistically can you reduce that number how can you change that i mean maybe that's

00:39:14.380 the goal, but you got to get real about it. And as you said, you know, tweets like that went out

00:39:18.320 of George Takei. So let's just grab them all and send them to Ukraine. You know, you could dismiss 0.89

00:39:24.620 it as just a minor tweet, but it's from somebody with some influence in social media polls. So

00:39:28.700 you got to watch for these things and talk about them, discuss them and get rational.

00:39:33.340 All right, let's get to one of our sponsors. It kind of ties into this, and that's the Canadian

00:39:36.900 Shooting Sports Association. They've been a sponsor for us for quite some time, and they

00:39:41.440 speak rationally on these issues as we have been here. These are an association for people who,

00:39:46.600 and not just if you have firearms, but if you're looking to purchase firearms, any sort of way that

00:39:50.880 you're enjoying firearms, whether it's target shooting or hunting or collecting any of those

00:39:54.540 things, this is an organization full of resources for you. They're an association of other firearm

00:40:00.440 owners. That's how you can network, get to know each other, see where there's events, see videos

00:40:04.820 on safe operation, legal operation of firearms. And also is more importantly than ever, I think

00:40:09.840 advocate on your behalf. They push back. As you can see, they're showing, you know, exposing the

00:40:15.680 lies. They've taken things to court. They're standing up for you and your right to have those

00:40:19.540 firearms. So check it out, guys. If you value those rights, you've got to stand up for yourself

00:40:23.740 because the government's coming after them. And the Canadian Shooting Sports Association is the

00:40:27.520 group that will help you do that. Their website is cssa-cila.org, the Canadian Shooting Sports

00:40:34.680 Association. Get on there, take out a membership because they're going to take away your rights,

00:40:38.940 guys, whether you like it or not, if you don't get in there and stand up for yourself. All right,

00:40:45.420 let's see. You know, this is something I went on quite a bit. It's just localized,

00:40:50.200 but this is happening everywhere with that incident Dave talked about. And we're going

00:40:54.140 to talk further about it. I look at some of the people who talk about banning pit bull type breeds

00:40:57.960 are similar to the type of people who just say, we got to ban firearms. You got to look at the

00:41:02.960 individual is managing it, okay? I mean, an inept, idiotic person can take a dog and make it terribly 1.00

00:41:09.540 dangerous. There's no doubt about that. And that person should be held responsible. If the dog's 1.00

00:41:13.840 that dangerous, I agree, it has to be destroyed. And I hate that. You know that. Everybody who

00:41:17.660 watches this show knows I love animals a lot, typically more than people. But we got to figure

00:41:25.140 out what the hell we're going to do about this. And there's where I'm, I mean, I'm not a pure

00:41:28.400 libertarian. As some people talk about, not so much about licensing the dogs, we got to start

00:41:32.560 licensing these owners. I mean, not everybody's responsible enough to own a dog, but how do you

00:41:36.500 do that? How do you move forward? Because there was a case, and as David said, it was a woman who's

00:41:41.760 been living in Capitol Hill for almost 50 years, a person in the community, all she was doing was

00:41:46.540 out gardening. Her neighbor's three dogs got in and killed her. They killed her. There's two issues

00:41:52.320 going on over there right now. One of them is the dog one, and I think we're going to need to

00:41:56.240 discuss that one more. And also, of course, the ambulance response time. Yeah, you know,

00:42:03.320 what's that? Abowich, what's that name? Abowich Wiggler is a commenter there, saying always seems

00:42:10.920 to be the worst dog owners or pit bull owners. Maybe it's just that you tend to take more notice

00:42:13.720 of a weaponized out of control animal. Yeah, you know, I said it in the newsroom the other day. I

00:42:19.100 mean, a lot of the, and it's not all pit bull owners by any means, but you see a lot of them, 0.96

00:42:23.140 they're out there, some, you know, douchebag with a mullet who's probably got a quarter-inch pecker

00:42:27.640 who's trying to compensate for something as their mean-looking dog where they've docked the ears 0.92

00:42:31.460 with a pair of scissors and have a spiked collar on it because, you know, inside they're actually

00:42:36.680 weak, sad little people and they want to have a dog to try and prove something that they're

00:42:42.420 incapable of doing themselves. Yeah, that's my rant on some of those people with those dogs like 0.94

00:42:47.360 that. They want a tough dog, they want a mean dog. I was with the Bulldog Rescue for a long time. 0.93

00:42:51.820 Bulldogs get mistaken for being strong, tough, violent dogs.

00:42:55.000 They are strong, actually.

00:42:55.780 They are very strong, but they're so passive.

00:42:57.340 They've had so much of the aggression bred out of them.

00:42:58.940 They're scared.

00:42:59.560 I had Stewie.

00:43:00.120 He was a big old grunk.

00:43:01.540 He was scared of squirrels.

00:43:04.460 Totally harmless dog.

00:43:06.540 But we'd have some coming into the rescue that were vicious. 0.98

00:43:09.160 Why? 1.00

00:43:09.440 Because some idiot would take it in and make it vicious. 1.00

00:43:11.860 They would abuse it. 1.00

00:43:12.820 They would try and turn it into a guard-type animal or a violent animal.

00:43:17.240 And again, it's not the animal's fault. 1.00

00:43:18.520 It's the idiot human who puts them into that condition. 1.00

00:43:21.820 And it's the person who does this to them. 1.00

00:43:24.580 And I can't stand it.

00:43:25.580 I can't stand dog abusers, any animal abusers.

00:43:28.600 And unfortunately, again, when we start going after breeds,

00:43:31.980 we're not addressing the problem.

00:43:33.520 The problem is the people.

00:43:35.440 And it takes a responsible person to say, well, you know,

00:43:38.580 a pit bull type animal is going to do a lot more damage if it attacks

00:43:40.860 versus a chihuahua.

00:43:43.100 As Kim Holmes is saying, you know, chihuahuas are worse,

00:43:45.260 but they don't have the power to buy anything but your ankles. 0.99

00:43:46.740 That's true.

00:43:47.700 And it means it takes some responsibility in owning those animals.

00:43:50.740 so let's figure out how we're going to do that. I mean, some people own horses, those things can

00:43:55.320 stomp you into the ground too, if you're not careful. You can't blame the horse. I mean,

00:44:01.020 of course, but there's regulations. You can't go into a playground with a horse either, right?

00:44:05.380 Particularly one that's not well controlled. But we've got to have a good discussion,

00:44:10.780 you know, nuance. Let's talk further into this, find out what happened, get to the root and try

00:44:15.720 prevent. That's the thing is let's be proactive and look ahead. So again, why? Why were those

00:44:24.180 three dogs unrestrained? How did they get loose? What background was there with the owner with

00:44:31.220 those dogs? I mean, I've got three dogs at home as well. One we're fostering and a couple we've

00:44:37.400 adopted. And I'm pretty sure if those three goofballs got loose, all they would do is slobber 1.00

00:44:41.860 on somebody, maybe dig up their garden, and the one dog might do something nasty to somebody's 0.98

00:44:46.280 leg. But they wouldn't get in and kill somebody like those three dogs did the other day. It's

00:44:52.900 tragic. They went out of control. So let's investigate, not go knee-jerk with this, and

00:44:58.020 try to figure out how to stop these sorts of things from happening. That was just horrible,

00:45:01.540 just a terrible tragedy. The other part, of course, is it took 30 minutes for an ambulance

00:45:06.360 to get to that woman. I mean, I spoke to a paramedic. I talked about that in yesterday's

00:45:09.800 show. He's told me, and I'm going to be speaking from some another pair to another paramedic on

00:45:16.500 Friday or tomorrow, actually. And we're going to discuss some of the challenges we have with our

00:45:20.400 emergency services right now in response times, but half an hour. And as I pointed out, as you

00:45:25.520 can see, this map Nico pulled up, that incident happened 10 minutes, nine minutes drive in a

00:45:31.300 regular car from the largest hospital in Alberta. And it took half an hour for an ambulance to get

00:45:36.460 to this poor woman as she died in the backyard.

00:45:40.080 And now what I'm really getting worried about

00:45:41.620 is the constantly changing story

00:45:43.700 because Alberta Health Services has gone into defense mode

00:45:46.260 and they're making excuses for this.

00:45:49.260 And they're saying, oh, it was a dispatch problem.

00:45:50.880 And we didn't realize that it was a life-threatening situation.

00:45:56.000 I mean, the neighbor who stood there,

00:45:57.340 I've heard on the interviews

00:45:58.280 and we've listened to him on TV breaking down

00:46:00.240 that poor man who's known that lady for years

00:46:03.120 came out and found this incident and phoned 911, and you're trying to tell me that he came across

00:46:10.560 an 86-year-old woman who'd been mauled by three dogs to what turned out to be death, and phoned

00:46:15.560 911 and said, I think we just need police. We don't need an ambulance. I'm finding this very

00:46:19.260 hard to believe. You know, if this was the United States, one of the things they do down there is

00:46:24.460 release 911 calls. I'd really like to hear what was actually said during that call. I mean,

00:46:29.160 perhaps. I don't know. A person's in panic. They're afraid. Maybe he wasn't clear on what was

00:46:33.600 required, but something went terribly wrong. Half an hour to a woman in that condition for an

00:46:39.360 ambulance to even arrive. She could very possibly be alive today, you know, had we not done something

00:46:46.400 about it. And even if that didn't have anything to do with this particular case, we've got some

00:46:50.660 very serious problems with our emergency services. We've been hitting code reds all the time in our

00:46:56.000 major cities where there's no ambulances available.

00:46:59.120 We've been warning about that for years now.

00:47:01.920 We are in dire straits,

00:47:03.660 and there's going to be more incidents of people

00:47:06.780 coming to a terrible outcome

00:47:08.740 if they can't get medical services fast enough

00:47:10.820 in an emergency.

00:47:12.560 So again, we've got to watch for the...

00:47:17.020 Let's just try not to do the knee-jerk reaction.

00:47:19.460 Let's try to look, how can we solve this?

00:47:21.460 How can we mitigate it?

00:47:22.800 Set aside the ideologies and look to what works.

00:47:26.000 Because what's going on right now isn't working.

00:47:29.240 And that is just not acceptable.

00:47:33.100 As Gwen commenter saying, you know, a nice photo of Betty in uniform. 0.97

00:47:37.640 And also include a photo of the beautiful senior she used to be. 0.67

00:47:40.560 Yeah, we can only get one on the cover, I guess.

00:47:42.300 But it was one just to drive home how she was a person who served in the military.

00:47:46.740 Who has just been a very established citizen for a long time.

00:47:50.360 And just had her life brought to a short.

00:47:52.560 prematurely for no good reason. Well, there's never a good reason, but it looks like it very

00:47:59.640 much could have been preventable. All right. I see our guest in the lobby. I might bring her in

00:48:05.240 pretty soon. This is something, as I said, I want to talk about. It's an interesting app and it's

00:48:08.960 with eTick. I mean, that can tie into pets as well. If we're talking about wood ticks and

00:48:14.820 parasites and things like that, our pets are often the ones who are victim to them as well as

00:48:19.780 ourselves when we get out. So let's bring in Jade Savage of e-tick and discuss the initiative of

00:48:25.140 tracking ticks across the country. Hi, Jade. Thanks for joining us today. My pleasure. How are you?

00:48:30.560 Oh, very good. Thanks. I just kind of, as I said in the email, or as I told the viewers, I mean,

00:48:35.100 I worked as a surveyor for 20 years. I traveled all over North America and wood ticks were always

00:48:39.640 a horrible part of my life and working outdoors. You know, some areas were worse than others,

00:48:44.100 but you're always plucking and harvesting those things off you and trying to keep them.

00:48:47.740 But they're getting worse, it sounds like, or they're spreading.

00:48:51.700 And that's kind of what you're addressing with, with your app tracking, I guess,

00:48:55.180 wood ticks and where they've been found.

00:48:56.960 Yes, I guess we're tracking all the different tick species in Canada.

00:49:00.980 So not just the deer tick or the brown dog tick or the American dog tech.

00:49:05.480 So we're trying to follow changes in the distribution of the different species.

00:49:10.860 And of course, some of these species are associated with tick-borne diseases, and therefore we're

00:49:18.360 trying to help people better understand where these ticks are found, but also to get people

00:49:23.680 to realize that there are now ticks in areas where they were not previously seen.

00:49:30.000 And so there are different parts of the country where people are not used to cohabit with

00:49:34.560 ticks.

00:49:35.560 And so we're trying to get them to better understand that ticks are present, however, that not

00:49:40.160 all of them can transmit pathogens or cause diseases and therefore yes we're getting data

00:49:48.080 trying to follow up the ticks in the country but we're also returning information to every

00:49:53.120 citizen that uses our platform by informing them of the resources and possibly the issues

00:50:00.000 associated with the tick that they found so it's a it's a bit of an exchange yeah well and that's

00:50:05.440 part of it i mean not all ticks are equal i guess you could say and that was one of the things i

00:50:08.480 learned is traveling, like in the Red Deer River Valley here in Alberta, down there, actually at

00:50:12.960 one spring, it was terrible. I came out, I had them all over me and they were larger, kind of almost

00:50:16.480 red things. And they were easy to find, at least pretty slow and docile. So they weren't as much

00:50:21.040 of a problem as gross as they were. But I did a number of contracts in Pennsylvania, and they

00:50:26.080 have a number of different types of ticks out there. And Lyme disease was a serious issue,

00:50:29.760 actually, with some of our contractors and workers. And they're smaller ticks. They were,

00:50:33.840 you know, the black legged ticks, deer ticks. And but the thing was out there, at least medical

00:50:38.800 facilities knew what to test for and look for when it came in. Because it's relatively common out here,

00:50:44.000 we're starting to see it happen. But our medical professionals might not know what they're dealing

00:50:47.120 with if they have a tick borne disease come present to them. Agreed. I mean, out east in

00:50:52.480 eastern Canada, so Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, we've been dealing with these black legged ticks

00:50:57.360 and therefore Lyme disease for for many years now. And even if maybe awareness is not as high

00:51:02.800 as it should be, still physicians are definitely more aware. As we move out west, it's a bit of a

00:51:10.160 different pattern. And you're right that Alberta currently does not seem to have any endemic

00:51:18.000 population, meaning that there does not seem to be a continuous cycle for the black legged tick yet

00:51:23.600 in your province. But we do see quite a lot of visitors. So ticks that would come on birds,

00:51:31.120 on other animals from either out east or down south and so there are records of black legged

00:51:37.360 ticks in alberta on etic we've recorded dozens and dozens of them and so we are keeping an eye

00:51:45.360 just to make sure that there are no endemic populations and trying to see how that situation

00:51:50.320 unfolds in the future but for now at least you definitely don't have as many as some of the

00:51:57.040 the eastern provinces. Yeah, well, that's what's really important with how you're tracking that

00:52:01.520 because we can't see it. We see outbreaks, perhaps, that would happen. I mean, a person

00:52:04.580 visiting family out east and has their dogs running around inadvertently, you know,

00:52:08.840 comes back, their dog brings home a foreign type of tick, those things drop off, they breed.

00:52:13.520 I guess if you saw reports on your app of that starting to happen in a region that it hadn't

00:52:17.980 previously, that's when you can start to work towards control or at least warning people that

00:52:21.560 there's something else to watch out for. Yes, and it's also important for especially people that

00:52:25.680 have been bitten or in contact with these black legetik to be able to inform either their physicians 1.00

00:52:31.600 or their veterinarians of what they were in contact with. So a lot of people won't necessarily 1.00

00:52:36.720 recognize a black legetik. And so what our e-take platform will do is at least give them a specific

00:52:42.800 identification. And once they have that identification, they know what species they

00:52:47.600 were in contact with. It's a lot easier than to communicate that information with, as I said,

00:52:52.640 at a physician or a veterinarian, and then take a proper course of action.

00:52:57.760 Well, and likewise, I guess it could comfort somebody if they've had a tick

00:53:00.560 that's predominantly of a benign species that is less likely to give them

00:53:04.640 something dangerous, then at least they'd know they don't have to sweat it quite

00:53:08.200 as much if they've had a different type of tick.

00:53:10.040 Because your average person just doesn't know one tick from another.

00:53:12.000 They just know they're god-awful and you want to get it off yourself.

00:53:14.760 Absolutely.

00:53:15.680 So, and again, there are hundreds of records of contacts with some of those,

00:53:21.920 i'd say more innocuous species in in alberta and again as you said it's very good for people to be

00:53:27.920 able to get an answer rapidly so we really try to provide a turnover within about one to two business

00:53:33.600 days okay so that now lyme disease of course the one we hear the most about all the time but there

00:53:38.560 are other tick-borne diseases one we used to hear of in the past was what rocky mountain spotted

00:53:42.560 fever and other things such as that are there more documented cases or any of those happening out

00:53:47.520 here and is that different types of things as well well again i'm not a medical doctor uh but the

00:53:52.800 vector for rocky mountain um spotted fever is different it's not the black legged tick it's

00:53:58.000 another species of tick and that one doesn't seem to be as abundant as it once was but um there are

00:54:05.520 or i know that there have been some cases of rocky mountain spotted fevers in the last few years so

00:54:10.880 obviously that disease has not been eradicated and even though we don't speak as much of it as we

00:54:17.840 used to it is still in the landscape or at least in the medical portrait of of your province yeah

00:54:25.520 so tick activity i mean it's seasonal in nature i mean you can you can get you know a tick any

00:54:31.040 time of year when it's warm i know that when spring they tend to be the worst uh does your

00:54:35.040 app kind of show low track where they're stronger or weaker given at different times a year in

00:54:39.440 different areas yeah so on our interactive map you can actually go check every single record for

00:54:44.320 alberta and you can play with the dates you can play with the area you can look at a different

00:54:50.480 species so depending on what information you're looking for you'll be able to see that however

00:54:55.680 it is true that in the spring you have a lot more of the for example the american dog tick but for

00:55:02.080 For the black-legged tick, in Alberta at least, you get most of them in the fall, not necessarily

00:55:08.680 in the spring.

00:55:09.600 So it's important for people to keep aware that there will be ticks in your province,

00:55:13.340 both in the spring and in the fall.

00:55:15.220 But at least based on the numbers from last year, we received or we saw a lot more records

00:55:20.860 for the black-legged tick in the late summer to fall season than in the spring.

00:55:26.260 So this year in the spring, though, we already have a lot more, probably because this is

00:55:30.820 the second year we are in the province and our services are just better known.

00:55:35.140 So people use the e-tick application and services more frequently,

00:55:39.940 I think now than they did last year.

00:55:42.040 Yeah.

00:55:42.160 So if a person's gotten the app installed, whether proactively or even

00:55:46.080 after encountering a tick, I'm assuming they've saved it.

00:55:48.380 They're going to send in a picture.

00:55:49.780 Like how does that work?

00:55:50.620 You would send a picture in your region and things like that through the app?

00:55:54.100 Yeah.

00:55:54.320 So you can actually just do that on your computer.

00:55:56.440 So you don't have to use the app is just to make it easier for people

00:56:00.520 who want to do it on the fly. So all you need is a picture of the tick that you encountered.

00:56:05.240 Then you need to answer a few questions. So you need to give us the date and where you got the

00:56:12.820 tick. And then as soon as this is done, a member of our team gets a notification and then they

00:56:17.740 will look at your submission. And if the pictures are of a good enough quality, they will provide

00:56:24.340 you with a clear answer as to what species you were in contact with, what the potential

00:56:30.820 medical or veterinary issues could be, and what you should do if there's anything that needs to

00:56:37.220 be done. So it's very quick. And as soon as we've identified your tick, you can also go and check

00:56:42.820 out your own dot on our map because that dot will become publicly visible as soon as we have

00:56:48.580 So mitigating tick harm on yourself or your pets, I mean, it's through education and knowing what's going on in your area and going out, but is there much that can be done for tick control in areas?

00:57:00.580 Like if there's an outbreak or things like that, I mean, is it just kind of beyond our control?

00:57:04.580 We just got to make sure to protect ourselves better.

00:57:06.580 Controlling for ticks is, is difficult again, because there will be different habitats suitable for different species of ticks.

00:57:14.580 habitat suitable for different species of ticks. So unfortunately, you cannot control habitat for

00:57:20.320 all different species of ticks all around 12 months a year. So it is not that easy.

00:57:27.720 So there are obviously, if you mow the lawn, and if you remove lots of tall grasses from your

00:57:35.160 surroundings, you can decrease tick contact a little bit. But I mean, nobody stays within

00:57:40.700 you know, just their backyard. So in the end, really prevention will be at its best when you're

00:57:48.620 looking at yourself and how you can prevent the ticks from attaching because trying to control

00:57:53.020 them in our environment is difficult. Lots of people are working towards finding solutions,

00:57:58.540 but there is no silver bullet, at least not yet. Yeah. Well, a lot of it at least is knowing

00:58:03.500 where you're going. I mean, if you're watching the app or just paying attention, you can realize,

00:58:07.580 oh they get a little bad in my area i might want to inspect the dogs a little more closely or myself

00:58:11.500 when i get back home uh i i mean it's just anecdotal on my part but i always found them

00:58:15.980 worse than the taller grass rather than the bush maybe around the edges of the bush i found them

00:58:19.820 bad and and uh usually they don't travel too far before latching in it was the lower parts of my

00:58:24.220 legs where they would start though i could find them anywhere on yourself uh if you're out in the

00:58:28.220 trees long enough yeah and and you know it might look like a fashion crime but uh putting your

00:58:33.260 pants into your socks when you're in tick habitat is a great way to prevent them from latching on

00:58:38.220 they'll have a longer way to to crawl up to reach out your skin so this is excellent and also keeping

00:58:44.060 in mind that for many of the tick-borne diseases not all of them but the pathogens need several

00:58:50.620 hours to be transmitted to the host so if you remove the tick rapidly it decreases the

00:58:56.300 probabilities of infection for again some infections such as lyme disease for example

00:59:01.500 So tick checks and, you know, good clothing and, of course, tick repellents together will work very well to decrease the probabilities of infection.

00:59:11.820 Yeah, and sooner rather than later definitely helps.

00:59:14.820 And there's a lot of myths, unfortunately, with ticks and things like that.

00:59:17.920 You know, to warn people, don't do the red hot needle on it.

00:59:21.500 Don't smear Vaseline on it.

00:59:23.960 There's a lot of ways to safely extract a tick from yourself without going to all those measures that might cause you more damage than good.

00:59:31.100 absolutely and usually just using for example eyebrow tweezers very close to the skin and

00:59:36.780 pulling without twisting because when you twist you have a higher chance of breaking the head

00:59:41.820 and then it can be itchy um can cause a little bit of irritation so yes there are no better ways than

00:59:47.340 just using tweezers to remove the tick and and pulling it out gently without breaking it is the

00:59:53.900 best solution yeah and there's one of my commenters is saying yeah don't panic and i know that's your

00:59:58.220 first instinct especially when you brush and you realize this thing isn't just crawling on me it's

01:00:02.060 stuck and you freak out and you really want that off yourself but just try to stay calm and get it

01:00:06.940 out because an infection could happen afterwards too aside from some of the transmissible diseases

01:00:10.940 if you if you haven't extracted well of course i mean you have you know you've broken the skin so

01:00:15.420 bacteria can come in just like if you'd broken the skin with any other implement or or you know

01:00:21.580 scratch or anything so of course you have to be careful with that and yeah don't panic is a great

01:00:25.980 piece of advice. Ticks are not quick. They're not spiders. They don't run around. And so keep calm

01:00:31.760 and remove them gently is the best solution. Yeah. They do that really gross, slow sort of walk

01:00:37.860 actually. And as you said, if the socks are tucked in, you'll see them coming up your pant legs if

01:00:41.440 you're in a bad area, but at least, you know, it's a good spot to watch for them. And, you know,

01:00:45.600 somebody else saying chickens, you need more chickens. They love eating ticks. Well,

01:00:48.780 some, somehow yards that could help is absolutely in areas where it's allowed.

01:00:53.380 But that's great.

01:00:54.060 Is there more, you know, where would people find information about your app and your site?

01:00:59.300 And is there more advice you can offer?

01:01:01.020 Well, I would say Google it.

01:01:02.640 You know, ETIC is a short word, easy to find.

01:01:06.420 And again, this is not just for the residents of Alberta.

01:01:09.240 We now have pretty much full Canadian coverage.

01:01:11.840 And it's also important for you to keep in mind, not just in your daily activities,

01:01:16.020 but if you travel to another province, especially out east, you can also use our app.

01:01:22.300 So obviously, we're asking you your province of residence, because this is where you will get services in case you contract a tick-borne disease or in case you need to consult with your dogs.

01:01:33.920 So don't hesitate to use the platform, even if you think the tick that you were in contact with comes from a different province.

01:01:41.820 But at least for the residents of Alberta, my main advice would be don't panic.

01:01:47.100 Yes, there are black legged ticks that are coming over to your province, usually through dogs or birds or other animals.

01:01:55.700 But at least until now, you are still doing better than a lot of the eastern provinces.

01:02:01.480 So, you know, be aware, but keep going.

01:02:05.920 Yeah, well, that's, you know, it's interactive.

01:02:07.760 So, I mean, it's up to the person, but if they want to help and participate, I mean, the more data you have, the more accurate the entire thing is going to be.

01:02:13.700 Absolutely.

01:02:14.140 And the more data points we get, the more we can also react quickly.

01:02:19.280 If there are at some point some unusual patterns, there are possibilities of new species coming up from the U.S.

01:02:26.760 Through climate change, habitat change, we see the population and distribution of these populations change quite rapidly.

01:02:33.580 So, of course, we're talking about the black legged tick now, but I might be back next year talking about something else.

01:02:39.560 So that is why we need everyone's help into following these ticks. We don't have enough people on the field to collect them. And so citizens here are really helping various researchers adding data to our growing data set and our ever evolving data set.

01:02:59.780 So that's why even if you did one last year and you recognize a tick this year, please submit it.

01:03:06.100 It's important for us.

01:03:07.640 And who knows, maybe you came across something that is different than what you found the previous time.

01:03:12.540 That's it.

01:03:13.100 And I mean, it could help with veterinary or medical professionals too.

01:03:15.940 I mean, if they can see trending and something's happening somewhere, we can respond better to it.

01:03:19.600 As I said, your average doctor in Alberta is just not going to look for Lyme disease.

01:03:23.380 But if it turns out in a region, there's suddenly a big outbreak of black-legged ticks,

01:03:27.120 then perhaps they'll send a bullet into local physicians just to say, yeah, well,

01:03:30.580 you've got some people presenting with that kind of rash or fatigue or headache.

01:03:34.280 Maybe you might want to test for that.

01:03:35.980 Absolutely.

01:03:37.420 All right.

01:03:37.820 Well, thank you very much for coming on to talk to us about that and for the work on the app.

01:03:41.700 I just like seeing, you know, proactive things using our technology just to help, you know, inform each other.

01:03:47.560 Because, I mean, hey, we've had a rotten couple of years for a number of reasons.

01:03:50.600 I know people want to get outside and enjoy themselves and take part.

01:03:54.340 and you know, we're in Canada, we got some beautiful terrain, but we want to make sure we

01:03:57.600 stay safe too. So thanks. Absolutely. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about it.

01:04:03.140 All righty. Have a good day. You have the good work. So that was Jade Savage of eTech. And yeah,

01:04:08.940 check it out guys. As you see, it's easy to find online. Cheryl was asking, Jade's still in the

01:04:13.400 lobby. Hey, you can see me. Cheryl was asking, is the app free? I believe it is. But if you give me

01:04:17.040 a nod, I would know that. Yes, she's nodding. Okay. She hasn't departed yet. Thumbs up. Cheryl,

01:04:22.300 the app is free. So get out there, check it out, eTick. It's easy to find on Google. And yeah,

01:04:27.620 take part in it, you know, help participate. Hey, what does it take to just document something if

01:04:32.580 you've run across one or found one on your dog or found one on yourself? As I said, I despise those

01:04:37.600 things. I've dealt with them so much over the years. And there's other aspects to, you know,

01:04:42.460 Google and search in general, as I said, Lyme disease has made a lot of news, but it is relatively

01:04:47.020 rare in a lot of areas, but it can be terribly dangerous if it's undiagnosed in somebody for

01:04:51.340 too long. So see what those symptoms are. Your chances of it in Alberta are unlikely. But if

01:04:58.720 you're out east and you're in some of those areas where there's a high percentage, then yeah, you

01:05:02.520 may want to keep an eye out for that sort of thing. And that'll help you too, though. I mean,

01:05:06.200 if you get home and oh my God, I got one of these gun awful things on my leg, what's it all about?

01:05:10.040 Well, take that picture, send it in, and maybe you can give yourself some peace of mind and say,

01:05:13.680 no, this is just one of those, one of the ones you'll get out in the prairies and they're

01:05:16.920 disgusting and gross, but you'll likely be just fine. So yeah, let's see where we'll go now on

01:05:23.460 some of the other things. Somebody had asked actually, I think it's, you know, I didn't want

01:05:29.760 to go down too much in the rabbit hole, but asking whether it could be related to bedbugs or for

01:05:33.340 tracking those outbreaks and things like that. That's another gross parasitic bug, absolutely

01:05:37.160 for sure. I won't name the hotel, but when I was in the oil field, I stayed in one that had

01:05:41.540 infestation and it was just, I still get the willies when I think about that. I think it's

01:05:45.300 even worse than ticks. But that's unrelated. That kind of spreads. Unfortunately, people bring those

01:05:50.940 along. Yeah, whether you're not doing your laundry right, things like that. You move hotel to hotel,

01:05:56.520 camp to camp that happens in the oil field, things like that, or in other areas where you just got

01:06:00.980 hygienic problems, the bedbugs. It'd be interesting if somebody brought up an app, though. Maybe you

01:06:04.600 could see outbreaks and so on, but I'm pretty sure it's unrelated. I didn't want to digress

01:06:08.000 too much on that one, but it's another issue. Maybe eTick will inspire that, and eventually

01:06:13.140 you'll have e-bed bug and people will trace those things as they encounter them as well.

01:06:18.740 Unfortunately, there's just a whole lot of creepy crawlies in this world that are trying to eat us

01:06:22.500 and spread. And the more we can prevent it from happening, the better. As I said, this summer,

01:06:27.240 a lot of people are going to be getting out and going and doing things. And if you're not as

01:06:30.300 familiar with these things as I was after so many years of working in the trees,

01:06:35.500 and I still get the willies from them, still the more educated you are, the better the chance you

01:06:39.780 just won't have a negative outcome because you'll have removed it fast and perhaps again, shared it

01:06:43.800 with eTech and let's try and track these things down and then knock down the gross diseases those

01:06:49.300 things can bring about. All right, let's speak about one of our sponsors again before I get on

01:06:53.880 to more news items and that is Bitcoin Well. We'll get back to them one more time just to remind

01:06:59.240 everybody the services they offer. If you're looking into getting, sorry, Cecilia Charles,

01:07:08.440 I got to digress. I've got a commenter who's just kind of spamming my thread. Please stop

01:07:12.280 doing that or I will have to block you from posting on there. I appreciate sharing some

01:07:15.220 things, even the occasional link, but just one not over and over and over again. It distracts

01:07:19.100 from the conversation for others. Thanks. All right. Back to Bitcoin. Well, so I'm spamming

01:07:23.780 with that, but those guys are paying our bills and they provide a good service. They have ATMs

01:07:29.580 all across Canada. You can see that the map of it that Nico brings up now and then it makes it

01:07:34.260 practical. It makes digital currencies make sense and brings it home to you. It seems foreign. It

01:07:42.520 seems odd. How could there be any currency other than my own or a foreign currency or a government

01:07:45.620 run currency? Well, these guys help you so you can set it up to pay your utility bills. They can set

01:07:49.540 it up for a savings plan. You can have automatic debit from your bank account into a savings

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01:07:59.340 see, they got Bitcoin Academy and that's partnered with Athabasca University. So you can learn what

01:08:04.140 this is all about and see if it's for you and see how you can invest or what you can do with it.

01:08:09.620 Check them out. They're a good Canadian company, Western-based. Of course, I always love that.

01:08:15.180 Bitcoinwell.com and take control of your money. Let's see here. Jet Gorgon saying,

01:08:20.180 even in the tropics, I had no bedbugs or lice in my huts. Check and secure the place with bug spray.

01:08:24.300 Yeah, you know, worse than ticks. As I said, there's all sorts of things. I mean, there's

01:08:27.180 scabies, there's fleas, you name it. But ticks are something that are happening a bit right now,

01:08:31.180 and you got to watch for the darn things. 0.98

01:08:33.860 As somebody, the other commenter was saying, 0.99

01:08:36.200 yeah, you tuck your socks into your shoes

01:08:39.180 or flip your waistband out on top of your pants.

01:08:41.240 And when you're in those areas, as I said,

01:08:42.760 I know some of the worst areas I've ever worked from

01:08:45.040 was in Manitoba, Southern Manitoba,

01:08:47.320 out by Verdon and down that way.

01:08:49.520 Oh man, you would walk in the tall grass

01:08:52.060 around clumps of bush and things like that.

01:08:54.300 And as soon as you came out of it,

01:08:55.260 you'd see four or five of those things

01:08:56.560 making their way up your pant legs to try and get to you.

01:09:00.620 So watch for those spots, though.

01:09:01.960 We did learn that, you know,

01:09:02.780 when you're in the middle of a wheat field,

01:09:03.900 you weren't going to have a problem with it.

01:09:05.040 And even in the middle of trees,

01:09:06.280 there's always the tall grass on the edges of those trees.

01:09:09.800 And, you know, learn to where you got to watch

01:09:12.080 for those things and try and avoid them.

01:09:14.800 All right, as another commenter saying,

01:09:16.660 it's making itch.

01:09:17.420 Yeah, that's enough about the bugs for now.

01:09:18.680 Let's talk about something else odious

01:09:20.580 and frustrating and annoying and enraging. 1.00

01:09:23.840 And that's our finance minister, Chrystia Freeland.

01:09:26.840 Yeah, this is interesting.

01:09:28.860 You know, I wonder if we're going to hit a tipping point with our liberal government where just enough people with some sense are going to turn against them.

01:09:35.160 As I said, in the Senate, we're seeing senators, liberal appointed senators, turning against Bill S-7.

01:09:41.120 And now we're seeing the Parliamentary Budget Office saying that, and this is their words, that Freeland's plan for deficit reduction is not believable.

01:09:49.440 It's not credible. That's what they're saying.

01:09:51.340 They're basically saying our finance minister is full of crap. 1.00

01:09:54.280 They're saying her plan won't work. 1.00

01:09:55.760 It's not realistic.

01:09:57.320 And it's just not going to happen because she and her budget predicted the deficit's

01:10:01.620 going to fall from $113.8 billion to $8.4 billion by 2027.

01:10:07.260 She says it's going to go down 93% in the next five years.

01:10:12.500 And if they keep the spending up where they are, that's just not going to happen.

01:10:16.060 And that's what the budgetary office said.

01:10:17.440 You know, you can throw out those numbers, but when you crunch them and actually calculate

01:10:21.360 them, that's just not true.

01:10:22.900 and she's being called out on it.

01:10:24.480 And again, that's before a Senate National Finance Committee.

01:10:27.740 I'm starting to see some value of the Senate lately,

01:10:31.540 more than I've ever seen before.

01:10:33.100 It's been refreshing. 0.98

01:10:34.160 Senators have usually been so sleepy and borderline useless.

01:10:38.640 But in this case, they really seem to be starting to hold the government to account.

01:10:43.420 It's making me start to rethink some of my views on things.

01:10:46.720 People have said that having this unelected group,

01:10:49.220 I mean, I believe in having a house of sober second thought.

01:10:51.540 I believe, in having a second level of government. I think bicameral is good. I just didn't think 0.90

01:10:55.800 that having a bunch of appointed ones for such long terms and everything could ever be effective.

01:10:59.840 But I'm warming to them. I still think it needs massive reform. And I mean, the regional imbalance

01:11:06.020 within it is terrible and things like that. But at least at this point, because nobody else is

01:11:11.080 holding Trudeau account. Jagmeet won't. The Senate is saying that, hey, guys, you know,

01:11:19.260 and these presentations to the Senate in front of the budgetary office saying, no, these numbers

01:11:24.360 aren't working. And I mean, the debt ceiling's up to 1.168 trillion. All these numbers are just

01:11:30.320 staggering. And again, this is why we have inflation. You know, I was listening to an

01:11:34.760 apologist fart catcher on the talk radio on the way in this morning. And they're talking about

01:11:39.820 pointing out it's a world issue, you know, parroting Justin Trudeau's line. It's a world

01:11:43.320 issue. We can't do anything about it. Inflation is world. Yes, you can do things about it.

01:11:47.020 I mean, world commodities are going to go up.

01:11:49.920 Energy prices, oil, metals, things like that.

01:11:52.640 Sure, grains, wheats.

01:11:55.080 But still, domestically, when you start printing off the money like crazy,

01:12:00.360 your purchasing power with your local currency goes down and the price of everything goes up.

01:12:05.640 That is in Justin's wheelhouse and it is his responsibility and we're paying the price for it.

01:12:10.740 So quit trying to point to the rest of the world and say there's nothing you can do about it.

01:12:13.580 There's some of the irony.

01:12:14.460 Somebody else pointed that out to me saying, oh, it's a world problem.

01:12:17.320 We can't do anything about it, so we won't do anything about it.

01:12:19.520 Oh, except when it comes to climate change.

01:12:20.820 Then all of a sudden, oh, we can do something about it.

01:12:22.860 Yeah, Canada makes up 1.6% of the world's emissions,

01:12:25.880 but we can do something about the world emissions somehow.

01:12:28.260 Really, you know, you've got a double standard there.

01:12:30.180 Likewise, with that crazed mayor of Calgary and her bizarre council members

01:12:35.580 supporting her saying that we should punish Calgarians 0.97

01:12:38.460 with an $87 billion climate change plan,

01:12:42.660 which will have absolutely no effect on the climate whatsoever but it sure is going to have

01:12:48.400 an effect on calgarians give it that i god she's making me miss ninchy that says a lot i mean those 0.94

01:12:54.620 who know me the amount of times i was on ninchy's case a pain in his butt on a number of levels as 0.61

01:12:59.660 an activist and then later as we were writing and my god ninchy was 10 times better than gondek 0.93

01:13:05.780 and this gang of nutcases she has in there the the the two courtneys and kara oh wow calgary is in

01:13:12.060 such trouble, such trouble. Let's see here, getting back to another special committee in the

01:13:18.340 parliament. You know, the more these liberals talk, I saw a column from somebody the other day

01:13:23.100 too saying, you know, the liberals are in big trouble with the Emergencies Act. The investigation

01:13:27.620 with that justice, even if it's a liberal one that was appointed by the government to follow

01:13:31.080 through and see if it was justified, could be in a lot of trouble because the whole narrative is

01:13:36.720 completely falling apart for why the liberals imposed a modern day version of the War Measures

01:13:41.200 Act upon its citizens of Canada. And every time these clowns, these ministers, as I said, Trudeau 0.96

01:13:48.000 doesn't exactly put luminaries around them as cabinet ministers. Every time they have to speak 0.97

01:13:52.780 to a committee, it just gets worse and worse, you know? So yeah, this is one. This is the Deputy

01:13:57.440 Justice Minister, Francois Daigle, said he supported, this is Deputy Minister, so that'd

01:14:02.200 be a bureaucrat, I think. Either way, it's still chosen by the Liberals in the end. They got their

01:14:06.280 facts by watching TV, TV news coverage of the blockade. That's why they felt they needed to

01:14:11.160 impose this act because I saw it on TV and it scared me. And I thought we better step on

01:14:15.700 individual rights. This is the case the liberals are down to. I mean, I know there was also already 0.98

01:14:19.920 exposed to a point that they'd gotten some of their facts from CBC and CBC multiple times had

01:14:26.760 to retract stories because they'd spread false news. These guys, the more they're questioned,

01:14:31.220 the more you're realizing they're incompetent, they're inept. It was a reactionary move. It was 1.00

01:14:35.740 an unforgivable incursion upon individual rights in Canada with the invocation of that act.

01:14:42.200 Some people in Parliament, in the Senate, are holding them accountable, at least in these

01:14:48.540 committees. Whether the voters ever will, I don't know. I just don't know. I don't know what it takes

01:14:54.580 to dislodge, speaking of wood ticks, you know, these parasitic liberals. I mean, how bad have 0.99

01:14:59.440 they got to get from this arrogant blackface wearing moron we got for a prime minister who 1.00

01:15:04.400 embarrasses us on the world stage every day does this stunts like this and we see them exposed like 1.00

01:15:09.620 this in committee but still Canadians keep voting them back in so I again that responsibility keeps

01:15:15.580 coming back to us it feels frustrating well again it gets back to an independence movement in the

01:15:19.920 short term what are we going to do uh Maria Marine bring up that kidnapping yeah that was a case of

01:15:27.000 uh the guy put the baby on the side of a highway so he stole a minivan um and uh there was a child

01:15:33.980 him and took off with him. I'm just guessing from the facts, they're still just kind of coming out

01:15:37.680 that was east of Calgary, pulled over and just dropped the baby on the side of the road and

01:15:40.760 carried on like, the guy's been caught and charged. But this is Canada. This person will be out

01:15:45.400 before you know it. I believe actually Rick Bell wrote on that today, not on that, but on a bunch

01:15:52.360 of offenders in Calgary, again, getting back to the city of Calgary, but this happens across the

01:15:55.020 country. Because this is federal, this is justice, this is law. A lot of addicts, violent, repeat

01:15:59.860 offenders, some of them have 60, 50 convictions, things like that, they're still on the streets.

01:16:03.840 They're constantly getting out. 0.96

01:16:05.740 This loser stole the van with the baby. 0.91

01:16:07.300 I bet you he's got a whole string of convictions in his past. 0.99

01:16:11.960 These ones in Calgary, we've got these meth heads that are on these trains.

01:16:14.800 These are ones arrested.

01:16:15.920 And we just in and out, in and out, in and out.

01:16:17.560 And they're dangerous.

01:16:18.320 They're violent.

01:16:19.700 But if we don't keep them behind bars,

01:16:21.840 the easiest predicting the sunrise.

01:16:23.960 But not to our elected officials, it appears.

01:16:26.880 There's another story.

01:16:27.580 So yeah, 24% of airport staff had been laid off.

01:16:31.260 This is the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority figures.

01:16:35.740 So yeah, they're scrambling to rehire.

01:16:37.420 But again, that gets back to a lot of them

01:16:38.640 weren't just laid off because of the slowed down travel.

01:16:44.740 Some of it was, of course, they were unvaccinated. 0.99

01:16:48.040 So we just fired them. 1.00

01:16:48.820 They're gone. 1.00

01:16:50.240 Stupid. 1.00

01:16:50.900 It's not making anybody safer. 1.00

01:16:52.320 It's ridiculous. 0.88

01:16:53.220 And now, as I said, the nation's getting embarrassed. 0.87

01:16:55.260 Our tourism is still getting crushed in Canada.

01:16:59.500 And it says, yeah, so 1,750 screening officers out of 7,400 were laid off.

01:17:05.460 Hundreds never returned.

01:17:06.360 Yeah, they don't want to come back, especially considering a lot of them were probably actually pushed out because they weren't vaccinated.

01:17:14.040 And now we've got airports with people waiting as long as three, four hours, if they can get on their flight in time.

01:17:20.640 And there's inexperienced staff in the airports.

01:17:22.740 And the other thing is, you know what?

01:17:24.100 Take one of the layers of things they have to do off their back.

01:17:27.580 get rid of the bloody mandates and we can get these people on the planes. It's slowing them down.

01:17:36.180 Let's see. Oh, here's a, you know, a house affairs committee again. So this is saying a

01:17:41.060 cabinet bill, C-14. This is the redistributing of seats in the house of commons. It says West

01:17:48.180 East seats. Boy, that's a tongue twister, isn't it? Skewed. Man, these headlines. You're killing

01:17:54.860 me, you guys. Canada's fastest growing provinces are short dozens of seats under the electoral

01:18:00.280 redistricting. This is the bill that's going to guarantee Quebec 78 seats no matter what.

01:18:07.100 No matter what. So even if Quebec, I mean, again, as I said, you know, if the Quebecois are that

01:18:13.440 insecure, they're that worried, they want to, they're losing seats because their population

01:18:16.560 isn't going up, screw better. God, you guys reproduce, get on the job. Do a better task of

01:18:23.220 it. It's not our fault, but instead our cowardly representatives in Ottawa have now legislated it

01:18:32.000 rather than upset Quebec. So, okay, it doesn't matter how much your population goes down.

01:18:35.120 It doesn't matter how much your, your rotten bills like 21 drive, uh, bill 21 in Quebec that 0.50

01:18:39.880 drives immigrants away from your province, that drives new, new Quebecers out of there.

01:18:44.440 We, as the rest of the country have to indulge you and make sure you always have a baseline of 0.99

01:18:50.040 seats. That's where I kept going. That's a conclusion. Canada is broken. And it really is.

01:18:55.620 And that tail, that Quebec tail wags this dog so badly. And I'm going to keep blocking you guys if 0.99

01:19:03.000 you keep spamming on there. So there's another one. And either way, C-14 is going on through

01:19:07.820 and Quebec has got their seats. And guess who's paying the price for it? The West. That's nothing

01:19:13.800 new. And it just carries on. But it's interesting that makes a story. Well, the West is getting

01:19:18.920 screwed in seats. Well, welcome to Confederation. That's been happening since you guys began. 0.98

01:19:25.640 Let's see a new history board mandate. Cabinet introduced a bill guaranteeing three Indigenous

01:19:30.000 seats on a federal board responsible for historical designations. Ah, man. You know,

01:19:36.080 and it follows a 2019 order that historic plaques address colonialism, patriarchy, and racism. So

01:19:41.560 we just get that woke thing legislated into everything we do. Look, we should be addressing

01:19:46.980 what happened historically. We should be addressing some of the things that happened.

01:19:49.940 You know what? Colonialism was good. Get over it. It was. Yes, things changed. Yes, some things were 0.58

01:19:56.320 done wrong. Absolutely. Yes, the residential schools were horrific and they were trying to

01:20:01.220 wipe out the culture of a bunch of Canadian citizens. And we should learn from that and 1.00

01:20:07.400 we should address that. But quit pretending that this was some sort of paradise in North America

01:20:13.060 before anybody ever showed up here.

01:20:15.540 What was the life expectancy back then?

01:20:17.300 30? 29?

01:20:19.140 It was a rough, as has been put up, brutish life.

01:20:22.060 It's short.

01:20:23.360 And everybody is living a lot better now

01:20:25.320 as you keep talking about this awful colonialism.

01:20:28.300 Oh, how dare you?

01:20:29.940 Come on, guys. 1.00

01:20:31.360 Quit hanging up on that crap. 0.99

01:20:32.440 But now, this is what I don't like 0.99

01:20:34.200 when you see quotas on committees.

01:20:36.140 Quotas.

01:20:37.180 Yes, we should have participation

01:20:38.280 from different individuals, from different groups.

01:20:40.300 Absolutely, we should have that feedback.

01:20:41.800 But when you set those hard quotas, you have to have this many, and you're going to have a dysfunctional committee.

01:20:46.680 And it's not going to properly represent people.

01:20:49.720 But this is where we're going.

01:20:50.860 So this is where you start redrafting history.

01:20:52.580 This is where you start getting new think.

01:20:54.660 And that's where we should be pretty bloody concerned.

01:20:58.940 Let's see here.

01:21:00.820 Lufthansa Land Police.

01:21:01.860 This is another beauty.

01:21:02.760 This is our money at work.

01:21:03.540 They chartered a $91,000 flight to fly an accused killer across the country.

01:21:11.800 Yeah, this is the RCMP in Newfoundland, or no, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

01:21:16.920 Okay, it's their own police.

01:21:18.600 They chartered a private jet to get a guy from St. John's to Calgary.

01:21:23.400 The force said he'd been banned from flying commercial.

01:21:27.600 Really?

01:21:29.360 I mean, I guess if private airlines don't want to take this nutcase, what can you do?

01:21:34.720 Put him in a van.

01:21:36.060 Pay me $5,000.

01:21:37.400 Handcuff him in the back.

01:21:38.260 I'll drive him across there. 0.54

01:21:39.940 This is nuts.

01:21:41.280 $91,000 to move one murderer?

01:21:44.160 He's arrested in Calgary in March, I guess, for second-degree murder.

01:21:47.440 I mean, it sounds like he's a pretty nasty character,

01:21:49.480 and I hope he's tried and does a relatively serious amount of time,

01:21:54.820 but spending $93,000 to fly him across the country, it's absurd.

01:21:58.660 And that's just, you keep getting these individual cases like this when they pop up.

01:22:05.920 That means there's a lot of spending issues going on all over the place.

01:22:08.600 People say, oh, it's just one issue.

01:22:09.800 Well, it's not. It's one of hundreds and hundreds, thousands of things where they're

01:22:12.780 spending your money, the money you're working for. Brad saying, can't the military fly? Yeah,

01:22:16.400 I don't know. I don't know how often our military planes fly. Maybe that's another way to do it.

01:22:19.480 If they're flying anyway, stick him in on there, chain him in the back. I don't know. But there's

01:22:24.880 got to be a better way than chartering a whole plane to get this clown across the country at 0.96

01:22:28.900 $93,000. That's just nuts. Another commenter saying, make him walk cross country and pay me 0.98

01:22:33.960 to walk in there. Yeah, you know, who wants a nice long road trip? All right. Well, I think

01:22:39.400 I've covered enough. I'm going to be speaking to, he's

01:22:42.860 a doctoral student in Canada. He's written a lot out there

01:22:47.200 in some columns and things like that in papers. His name is Benjamin Woodfine

01:22:50.700 and he wrote a really good article a little while back talking about just this

01:22:54.980 relabeling of populism and how they're trying to make

01:22:59.080 populism sound extreme or some of the political policies and things that they're

01:23:03.140 labeling as extreme, as populist. And it's kind of ridiculous, particularly 0.93

01:23:07.120 in response to Pierre Polio's federal leadership campaign. So I'm going to have Benjamin on. We're

01:23:12.060 going to have a good talk about that. George Porter, again, he's been an activist. He was a

01:23:16.180 long, long time paramedic in Alberta. And he's been pushing again for all of these problems we

01:23:24.060 have with our paramedic system. We're not going to talk specifically so much on the ordeal that

01:23:27.700 happened last weekend with that poor woman who died, but we are going to talk about the issue

01:23:31.020 as a whole, and that's going to be really good. And then I do have returned, because she rebooked

01:23:34.340 with me, Leslyn Lewis, and she's going to come on and talk a little bit about one of her press

01:23:38.700 releases regarding, I think it was the World Economic Forum, actually. So we'll see what

01:23:42.680 Dr. Lewis has to say. That'll be a quick interview at the end of the show tomorrow.

01:23:46.960 So it's going to be a packed one tomorrow, guys. So make sure to tune in at 1130 a.m.

01:23:51.080 sharp, and we will do it all again. Thanks.

01:24:04.340 Transcription by CastingWords

Western Standard - June 09, 2022

Triggered： Canada is crushing its tourism industry with pandemic lunacy

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