Western Standard - Triggered： Conservative debate gong show

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Good morning. It's May 12th, 2022. Welcome to this episode of Triggered.

00:00:38.740 Looks like the Flames are still hard at it. Another great win last night.

00:00:42.600 I mean, never count the chickens before they're hatched, but it looks like there could be another round in the playoffs.

00:00:47.320 It's great to keep people enjoying something, having some fun and being happy out there.

00:00:51.720 We need more of that as well. Observances today. Some important ones.

00:00:56.500 I'm loving this site I found. I can't believe I shouldn't be surprised.

00:01:00.000 But there's something for every day of the year, and they get increasingly bizarre.

00:01:04.620 So today is World Limerick Day.

00:01:07.260 So keep in mind, whatever your favorite once-was-a-man-from-Nantucket limerick,

00:01:11.940 share it with somebody who wants to hear it, or even better, with somebody who doesn't want to hear it.

00:01:17.220 It's your one day of the year to celebrate those things.

00:01:19.320 It's also National Odometer Day.

00:01:21.380 I got no idea what the hell that means, why we would have one, but it really actually is.

00:01:26.280 So, you know, celebrate your odometer, I guess.

00:01:30.180 But, you know, I just got to let you guys know these important aspects of the news.

00:01:33.560 It can't all be political stuff and things like that.

00:01:36.140 See a couple of commenters.

00:01:37.180 I see Wendy and David and Yess are already talking about last night's debate.

00:01:41.540 We're going to review some stuff out of that.

00:01:43.080 That's for sure.

00:01:43.860 What a weird whole debacle that was.

00:01:46.740 I'll expand on that.

00:01:47.620 We'll play a little video.

00:01:49.400 I had a couple of good guests.

00:01:50.320 I got Kalea Carrington on. 0.79

00:01:52.220 She's with the Canadian Blockchain Consortium.

00:01:54.420 and again, they've partnered with a portion

00:01:58.160 of the Alberta government or I guess a crown corporation

00:02:01.280 and they're expanding with the blockchain in Alberta

00:02:04.000 and it's an investment opportunity.

00:02:05.580 It's good for the province, but at the same time,

00:02:06.760 it's kind of confusing and hard to make out.

00:02:09.060 It's just this weird digital currencies

00:02:11.660 and blockchain and things like that, but it's big

00:02:13.600 and we got to start educating ourselves

00:02:14.880 because that's where the economies are going

00:02:16.200 and that's what we got to learn about

00:02:17.220 and this is where things are going.

00:02:18.460 So that'll be a good conversation

00:02:19.420 and we're going to do something different.

00:02:20.940 We're going to have Melanie Risdon 1.00

00:02:21.740 getting down there on the ground in the field. 1.00

00:02:24.140 We're sending her outside with a camera. 1.00

00:02:26.860 She's going to hook up with some folks down there and talk live with them, 0.99

00:02:30.960 interview them downtown Calgary on the C-Train platform and maybe out in the park.

00:02:35.660 We'll see because we've got so many crime issues going on in downtown Calgary

00:02:39.520 and that we're going to try something different, get out there and talk to people,

00:02:42.560 talk to people on the ground, see what they think about things,

00:02:44.660 those commuters and others out there as things go quite bananas

00:02:49.120 with the addictions issue going on in downtown Calgary.

00:02:51.820 So we'll do that later on in the show.

00:02:53.800 Now, first, I'm going to play a quick clip of the best hits of last night's debate before I go into my breakdown of it.

00:03:00.440 It was really something else.

00:03:01.680 If you didn't watch it, this will give you a good flavor of what it was really quite about.

00:03:06.780 You can't mention any other candidate on the stage, and you can't mention any other federal leader.

00:03:12.620 If you do, there's going to be trouble, and here's what you're going to hear.

00:03:18.980 Example, and I'm going to use the name of another party leader now, because I think I'm allowed to.

00:03:23.040 But if you look at the way the Prime Minister used vaccine mandates

00:03:25.460 and actually divided Canadians by demonizing one group over another.

00:03:29.720 You know the rules. You just broke them. We're moving on.

00:03:32.300 Okay.

00:03:33.080 And a captain of your own life. Thank you.

00:03:40.600 All right. Folks, here's the deal. Supporters of any candidate,

00:03:45.220 the time that you cheer is going to be taken away from your candidate.

00:03:48.480 Just so you know, that's the way the deal works here.

00:03:50.540 when have we ever heard the prime minister say i believe in this project i think it should happen

00:03:57.580 and yes please i'm delighted to name him but if you want me you you heard that and for you is

00:04:03.040 what book are you reading now but when you have the opportunity to sit down and listen to some

00:04:08.480 music what do you listen to well pick a local hero paul brant alberta brown all right you got

00:04:14.580 let them applaud that, Tom. Come on. Thank you, candidates, very much. It was a challenging

00:04:21.500 format, but I think that we did well. And that was just a handful of high points or low points

00:04:36.000 or whatever you want to call them from last night's debate. I've really never seen anything

00:04:39.580 quite like it. So I'll break it down. I mean, I'm a political weenie. There's no denying that.

00:04:44.580 And over the years, I've watched countless leaders' debates from multiple parties.

00:04:48.940 I've seen some with fireworks and yelling and hollering,

00:04:52.340 and some that are dull enough to put me to sleep even if I drank half a gallon of espresso.

00:04:57.200 I've never witnessed a bizarre debacle like I did last night, though,

00:05:00.360 with the Conservative Party of Canada leadership debate in Edmonton.

00:05:03.680 This is the first debate held, or the first debate that was held with the CPC leadership candidates was an unofficial one.

00:05:09.420 It was held by the Canada Strong and Free Network at their annual conference in Ottawa.

00:05:13.820 Now, that debate was heated and had a lot of vicious confrontational exchanges between the candidates, Pierre Polyev and Jean Charest.

00:05:21.660 The other candidates had a hard time even gaining notice on the stage as the scraps continued between those two perceived frontrunners.

00:05:28.460 Now, pundits and conservative politicians expressed concerns that such vitriolic displays could sour voters on the conservatives and divide the party.

00:05:35.940 Preston Manning and even ironically, Jason Kenney spoke up on the division being fostered with debates and with candidates being so antagonistic with each other.

00:05:43.820 The debate held in Edmonton was the first official one, so all six candidates for the leadership were in attendance.

00:05:50.520 I was looking forward to hearing more, what I'd hoped to be more nuanced policy discussion from more than just two candidates, and I was to be disappointed, to say the least.

00:05:59.180 Now, to begin with, the audio quality was reminiscent of high school assemblies I had to attend back in the 1980s.

00:06:06.060 Feedback blasted the audience as the event began, and there was an audible humming sound that was assailing the ears of listeners going forward from that period on.

00:06:13.820 As well, the candidates were set up in front of these large monitors, which perhaps looked good from afar,

00:06:18.580 but it led to a blurred and almost nauseating effect whenever the cameras zoomed in closely to the individual candidates.

00:06:24.940 Once the audio was settled enough to get the event underway, we were treated to an uninterrupted two-hour awkward moment.

00:06:31.820 That's the best way I could put it. You know, the term cringe that's used almost too much.

00:06:36.140 In this case, it applied very well to last night's debate.

00:06:39.500 What I can imagine was a response to the somewhat haywire debate in Ottawa.

00:06:42.800 while organizers created a format they felt would prevent candidates from going off the rails in Edmonton.

00:06:48.160 Moderator Tom Clark laid down the law with strict rules.

00:06:51.420 If any candidate mentioned another politician or candidate,

00:06:54.180 they would be interrupted by that sad trombone sound effect that you heard earlier.

00:06:58.440 I thought this was some sort of joke, but quickly within the first round,

00:07:02.080 Jean Charest was interrupted with the trombone because he said Prime Minister.

00:07:06.240 Charest was flustered and annoyed, and who can blame him? It was bizarre.

00:07:10.780 Another rule Clark laid out was that candidates would be penalized with reduced speaking time if their supporters made any noises, such as clapping or cheering.

00:07:18.860 Polyev ran afoul of this rule repeatedly as his microphone was shut down.

00:07:22.720 Polyev was also penalized when audience members booed Shirey over something he'd said.

00:07:26.780 The moderator just assumed the offenders were Polyev's supporters. It was just weird.

00:07:31.840 The debate was constantly interrupted as the moderator stopped to scold both candidates and audience members for their misbehavior.

00:07:39.960 Clark was in full school marm mode, and he seemed to relish it.

00:07:44.140 Even without interruptions, it was hard to get anything of substance from the candidates.

00:07:48.040 For the first portion of the event, they were limited to 15-second response times.

00:07:51.900 Even on items like abortion. Can you talk about abortion in 15 seconds?

00:07:55.260 I despise formats where candidates can drone on for minutes with every question, 0.98

00:07:58.900 but 15 seconds was just ridiculous.

00:08:02.300 And the event took an even stranger turn.

00:08:04.700 As a series of fluffy questions were presented to candidates

00:08:08.120 in some sort of effort, I guess, to humanize and get to know them.

00:08:11.280 Candidates appeared to be taken off guard as they shuffled

00:08:13.600 and came up with answers to such pressing questions as,

00:08:17.380 which TV show have you most recently binged on?

00:08:20.140 Or, who is your hero?

00:08:22.120 I was surprised that the moderator didn't ask them what their favorite color was

00:08:25.480 or how they liked their eggs cooked at breakfast.

00:08:28.380 Next, the debate moved on to a game show type of format.

00:08:31.500 Candidates were issued these paddles,

00:08:33.320 and they were instructed that they have to raise them

00:08:36.900 in hopes of being chosen to respond to topics during the debate.

00:08:39.840 And those number of responses had a limit to them.

00:08:42.580 So a number of candidates weren't allowed to respond to segments in the later part

00:08:46.820 because they'd used up their paddle time.

00:08:48.560 It was really weird.

00:08:49.920 Lesley Lewis was repeatedly mixed up on when or how she would be able to speak,

00:08:53.820 and she can't really be blamed.

00:08:55.540 The moderator didn't seem sure who was still allowed to speak or not either

00:08:58.400 after this weird period of the paddle mode of the debate.

00:09:02.280 I mean, if you want to make it interesting, have them paddle each other, 0.96

00:09:04.240 but this stupid raising of it was just weird. 0.95

00:09:06.900 The agonizing debate mercifully closed off with short statements from the candidates as they 0.99

00:09:11.540 doubtless were eager to flee the stage from this debacle. If the intent of the organizers was to

00:09:16.800 create an event that would appeal to viewers and instill confidence among people in the ability of

00:09:23.640 the Conservative Party of Canada, they failed dismally. They would have been better off not

00:09:27.040 holding a debate at all than having created this strange event. The campaign for the leadership of

00:09:31.240 the CPC is going to be a long one. Members don't vote until September 10th. This is a blessing as

00:09:36.400 I can only imagine the party wants people to forget the spectacle they created in Edmonton

00:09:40.080 for their English debate.

00:09:42.780 Pardon me.

00:09:43.520 I think I just set off my lungs talking about such a weird thing like that.

00:09:49.100 So let's get somebody else to talk for a little while and bring Dave Naylor in from the newsroom

00:09:52.520 to talk about the other news items out there.

00:09:54.600 Hey, Dave, how are you doing?

00:09:57.720 Oh, he'll be here momentarily.

00:09:59.780 There we go.

00:10:01.120 Corey, what's your favorite color?

00:10:02.200 i don't dwell on it i guess you know i like blue cory what how do you like your eggs cooked

00:10:09.320 oh i definitely an over easy guy there you go yeah it was a very uh very weird night last night

00:10:15.820 wasn't it uh of course i'm wearing flames red today i was more interested in uh in the hockey

00:10:20.460 game than the uh conservative goings on especially after reading rachel's tweets uh wow very very

00:10:27.200 very weird. We've got some good news up already, Corey. The site's led off with an Amanda Brown

00:10:33.360 story at the moment. Male transgendered prisoners can now choose to go to a female prison if they

00:10:39.520 want. Only in Canada, you say, and I'm sure that's right. One of your columnists, Creighton, has 1.00

00:10:45.920 weighed in on the debate last night, calling it the worst political debate ever staged in Canadian

00:10:52.000 history. I'm not sure, you know, that about sums it up right there. Alberta Justice Minister Tyler

00:11:01.960 Shandro has piped in about the new long gun registry saying, once again, it's just going to

00:11:08.180 treat average Canadian citizens poorly and let the criminals get away with it. Our own Rob Ward was

00:11:14.460 at the Saddle Dome last night and he's filed a story on the excitement of being inside the

00:11:19.400 building. And a growing number of North American people that are fully vaccinated are dying because

00:11:26.080 of COVID. Our Mel Rizdin's got that story. Lots of other stuff to come. Amanda Brown currently

00:11:34.300 working on Finland, joining NATO. That's not going to make Vladimir Putin very happy. Russians are

00:11:40.180 already promising actions on that. And Mel's going to have a story before she goes outside 0.67

00:11:47.340 on James Topp, former military

00:11:49.780 member. He's walking across Canada

00:11:51.960 to

00:11:52.500 protest against vaccine mandates.

00:11:56.380 Department of National Defense has

00:11:57.880 charged him under two

00:11:59.740 counts. And we're going to have that

00:12:01.820 story up momentarily. So

00:12:03.840 good news day, Corey, and

00:12:05.640 lots of good stuff to come. And

00:12:07.200 please try not to get my Mel killed.

00:12:10.200 I'll try not to. We'll see

00:12:11.720 what happens down there. James will keep an eye on her.

00:12:14.300 And yeah, we're going to see some

00:12:15.480 interesting interviews and footage down there.

00:12:17.340 And yeah, you know, having a story on the Flames game, why not?

00:12:20.660 You know, I mean, definitely, if a person wanted to productively spend their time last night,

00:12:25.400 watching playoff games was definitely a better way to spend your time

00:12:28.820 than watching that bizarre, bizarre debate last night.

00:12:32.400 Exactly.

00:12:33.280 You can't beat the first round of the NHL playoffs for excitement.

00:12:37.420 And yeah, go Flames, go tomorrow night.

00:12:39.080 Let's wrap it up.

00:12:40.300 Right on.

00:12:40.860 All right.

00:12:41.140 Thanks, Dave.

00:12:41.640 I'll talk to you a little later.

00:12:42.960 Thanks, Corey.

00:12:44.360 So yes, plenty on the news scroll.

00:12:46.100 See, even sports stuff going on, not just me and Mr. Creighton going on,

00:12:50.680 ranting about the horrible debate.

00:12:52.680 We have news items, things.

00:12:54.520 It's interesting with Mr. Top being charged now.

00:12:57.300 And as well, yeah, even covering sports.

00:12:59.820 You know, Rob Ward was there.

00:13:00.800 Why not?

00:13:01.240 Get him right in on those things and some good original content.

00:13:05.120 So that's that reminder, guys.

00:13:06.680 We make original content.

00:13:07.920 We have our reporters on the ground.

00:13:09.360 They're out there in person.

00:13:11.360 Rachel Emanuel, she had to endure that debate in person at Edmonton last night.

00:13:14.920 And she tweeted out a great number of little video clips and comments throughout the debate.

00:13:20.940 And the reason we can do all this, the reason we have these people all over is because you

00:13:25.020 guys have been subscribing and it's fantastic.

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00:14:09.940 which is so important.

00:14:10.780 I mean, that horrible moderator, Tom Clark,

00:14:13.440 at the debate last night was a CTV media veteran.

00:14:17.500 To be honest, I'm not terribly familiar with his history.

00:14:19.440 Perhaps he did some fantastic work.

00:14:21.640 He's retired now, but boy, I think debate moderation

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00:14:27.320 So again, keep remembering to support independent media

00:14:31.100 and those who already have supported us.

00:14:33.180 Thank you again.

00:14:34.840 So let's look into a little bit more of the news there.

00:14:37.640 We saw that yesterday.

00:14:38.840 I actually had gotten an email from somebody

00:14:40.820 pointing it out to me too.

00:14:41.760 It looks like the liberals have come up with kind of a backdoor firearms registry.

00:14:45.780 They've found a way.

00:14:46.860 What they're going to do is force private dealers and people, I guess individuals even.

00:14:53.120 I've been to gun shows or I've, you know, exchanged and purchased firearms from individuals one-on-one.

00:14:58.540 Well, they have to track and keep records now of the transaction.

00:15:02.420 Who bought it?

00:15:02.840 The whole works.

00:15:04.420 It's a registry.

00:15:05.440 Instead of doing it the old way that they tried in the 90s and failed and spent billions trying to do

00:15:09.520 of forcing everybody to register their long guns.

00:15:12.660 Now they're putting all of the onus

00:15:14.440 on dealers and individuals.

00:15:16.140 I mean, and it's gonna be a mess.

00:15:18.280 It's gonna be a mess.

00:15:19.480 It's just more effort to make it more inconvenient

00:15:23.300 than the people wanna bother with with firearms.

00:15:25.500 But what it does is criminalizes others

00:15:27.180 who weren't committing any crimes.

00:15:28.560 And now that includes dealers

00:15:29.660 or people selling guns to each other

00:15:30.820 if you didn't cross a T or dot and I.

00:15:33.880 And of course, the minister says,

00:15:36.080 public safety minister,

00:15:38.080 and this is a man known for lying.

00:15:39.240 he's done a lot of lying. He was the one talking about how the RCMP said they needed the Emergencies

00:15:44.100 Act, and that was a lie. But he's also denying that this is a gun registry, because the cabinet

00:15:49.000 promised never to reintroduce one. He says, this is not a registry, it's a sensible tool.

00:15:53.880 No, Mendocino, you're a tool. If you're forcing the records to be kept, and forcing them to

00:15:59.940 present those private records to the government on demand at any time, it's a registry. Don't try

00:16:05.240 and piss on my leg and tell me it's raining. We can tell. Those records, he's saying they're

00:16:10.160 going to be kept by businesses, not the government. And the purpose of this requirement is to ensure

00:16:13.780 that guns don't get into the wrong hands. How on earth does that do that? As we said, it'll be in

00:16:19.640 the hands of the businesses. But you see, it's also in the hands of the businesses, and the

00:16:23.480 businesses will be obligated to give it over to authorities on demand at any given time. And again,

00:16:29.180 how on earth does that prevent guns getting in the wrong hands? It doesn't. It doesn't at all.

00:16:34.560 There are safety department figures.

00:16:36.380 There's almost 8 million rifles and shotguns across Canada.

00:16:40.580 And again, these are not the firearms being used in crimes.

00:16:43.980 You're not hearing about that.

00:16:45.340 These are duck guns.

00:16:46.340 These are deer rifles.

00:16:47.900 The guns that are causing the crimes, and there's a lot of them, tend to be handguns, stolen ones, or smuggled from up in the States.

00:16:55.820 So again, what's the government doing?

00:16:57.120 They're cracking down on the law-abiding people.

00:16:59.780 These records have to be retained for 20 years and made available to police and without warrant.

00:17:05.880 That's another thing.

00:17:07.120 They walk in, they ask, you will have to, as a business owner or an individual,

00:17:12.320 give them the personal information of somebody who purchased something from you.

00:17:16.120 Don't let this slide under the radar, guys.

00:17:18.680 Don't.

00:17:19.520 You know, in 2012, we repealed that registry.

00:17:24.540 And that thing was going from 1998 up.

00:17:27.720 I mean, they claimed it was going to cost $119 million.

00:17:30.200 In the end, it cost us $2 billion.

00:17:32.020 And if I recall, it was about 60% accurate.

00:17:36.140 And it was just a complete boondoggle with a mess.

00:17:38.940 It made nobody safer, nobody better off whatsoever.

00:17:43.600 And yeah, you know, Trudeau said back in 2012,

00:17:46.300 he said that the gun registry was a failure.

00:17:48.360 And he said he's not going to resuscitate it.

00:17:50.040 That's his own words.

00:17:50.800 But we know, again, we don't have to believe these guys. 1.00

00:17:53.180 They're full of crap. 0.99

00:17:54.400 So they're bringing it back, just rebranding it 1.00

00:17:56.600 and putting it in another way.

00:17:57.720 They're coming after us, guys, because, again, you see the whole point of a registry.

00:18:02.340 They know it doesn't stop crime.

00:18:03.940 They know that.

00:18:05.540 But if you want to steal the firearms from every citizen in the country, you've got to find out where they are first.

00:18:11.980 And that's what the registry is about.

00:18:14.080 They want you to register your property with them so when they do turn around down the road and say,

00:18:19.880 you know, we've changed our mind.

00:18:20.920 We're going to take away your rights.

00:18:22.120 We're going to take all of these away from you.

00:18:23.860 They know where they are, and they will come and get them.

00:18:27.180 Don't cooperate, people.

00:18:29.060 Don't.

00:18:29.740 That's the goal of this.

00:18:30.740 That's the only goal of this.

00:18:32.120 You know, we were in the midst of a gang war in Calgary.

00:18:35.280 There's been some horrible things happening.

00:18:36.580 It's just awful.

00:18:37.480 By the way, and I'll point out to people, there's a go fund me, and I'm sorry her name escapes me, but if you look it up, there was a 40-year-old mother of five got killed because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time the night before last in Forest Lawn in Calgary.

00:18:51.040 There were two vehicles chasing each other at a high speed, and they were engaged in a gunfight between each other, between the vehicles.

00:18:58.700 And it led to a giant crash in the intersection of 17th Avenue and 36th Street in southeastern Calgary.

00:19:05.060 So it's out in Forest Lawn, kind of the rougher end of town.

00:19:07.840 And yeah, this woman got killed, left five children, orphaned.

00:19:11.180 Apparently that the father had passed away not too long ago as well.

00:19:14.260 This is just horrible, just horrible.

00:19:17.120 And I will bet you.

00:19:17.860 you know well for one i want to start on the positive not positive but just productive look

00:19:23.120 up the gofundme those five kids are now orphans this is horrible maybe lend them a hand you know

00:19:28.860 this is what we do as citizens stand up for each other we gotta work with law enforcement a lot of

00:19:32.340 things on the other end but help these guys out but this this weird world of denial they keep

00:19:37.600 calling it a road rage incident they're saying it was a road rage that went bad look your average

00:19:41.880 road rage if you're going to talk about that that's a lunatic who gets out of their car with

00:19:45.860 the crowbar and smashes somebody's windows in, which is of concern and things like that. Or they

00:19:49.640 chase people around or scream at each other, give each other their finger. Two vehicles exchanging

00:19:53.960 gunfire is not a road rage incident. That's a gangland war incident. They don't want to talk

00:20:00.420 about it, but that's the reality. This isn't common, guys. And it's happening over and over.

00:20:05.140 We saw a gentleman got shot in the back of the head while he was stopped at a light a few months

00:20:09.060 ago up on 16th Avenue. The shootings across the city, particularly in the Northeast and Southeast,

00:20:15.020 have been out of control. It's a gang issue. We've had them happen before. They have their

00:20:19.920 spikes, their ups and downs. It's a complicated issue. I mean, we got to look at social causes.

00:20:25.220 We got to look at, you know, drug treatment, a lot of things to get to the bottom of it.

00:20:30.860 But don't go chasing after people with their shotguns for duck hunting and their deer rifles.

00:20:35.880 That's not where the problem is. Take those resources and dedicate them towards the real

00:20:40.080 crimes where real innocent people are dying. And that tragedy was just terribly unacceptable

00:20:45.180 in Southeast Calgary. And I just can't express how horrible I can't imagine for those five children

00:20:50.920 to have lost their mother so pointlessly, so totally pointlessly. I do hope they get to the

00:20:57.700 bottom of whoever is responsible for that and offer whatever we have available in the Canadian

00:21:03.700 law for that sort of thing. Okay, let's get on to our guest. Talk to us a little more positive

00:21:07.260 and looking forward. I've got Kaleah Carrington on. This will be the second time she's been on 0.98

00:21:11.680 the show and we're going to talk about blockchain. Hey, how's it going?

00:21:15.920 Great. Thank you for having me on the show again.

00:21:18.120 I appreciate it. So, I mean, maybe I'll kind of start. You took part in that large event downtown

00:21:24.780 in Calgary at the old theater there and you were discussing a whole lot of digital currencies,

00:21:29.640 blockchains, things like that. Can you give a rundown on how that went?

00:21:32.400 No, it was fantastic. We ended up selling out the event. We had about 330 seats available

00:21:40.380 and we had about 370 people register for it. The feedback was incredible. They loved the

00:21:48.820 people in the room, the discussions that happened. We did a little impact report afterwards

00:21:54.660 and about 72% of the people who attended said that they had an incredible time, lots of

00:22:02.220 really good networking opportunities, and they learned an incredible amount about the technology.

00:22:07.000 Great. So maybe we went through this in the last show, and I'll get you to start with it right now,

00:22:11.100 though, you know, blockchain is a new term. It's a complicated one to a lot of us in a foreign one.

00:22:16.200 Can you kind of break down what that means? There's a lot packed into that one word.

00:22:20.400 So when it comes to blockchain technology, so when Satoshi Nakamoto or the group of developers

00:22:26.580 released Bitcoin. Blockchain was the protocol and Bitcoin was the product. So blockchain is

00:22:32.660 considered a digital ledger database. And for Bitcoin's blockchain, it basically just keeps a

00:22:38.360 full transactional history of every send and receive that happened. So in the cryptocurrency

00:22:43.200 space, when people refer to like their blockchain and then their token that comes on it, that's kind

00:22:47.400 of one aspect in the financial services space. In the enterprise space, it is basically a database

00:22:53.080 It allows multiple different companies to be able to view a particular set of data facts, to be able to share data in a more transparent way.

00:23:00.020 It's really just a database in its essence.

00:23:03.000 Okay, so your group, and that's the Canadian Blockchain Consortium, have partnered with Alberta Innovates, and you're working to grow the province's blockchain market.

00:23:13.140 So, I mean, Alberta Innovates and yourselves, I guess, are seeing opportunities.

00:23:17.880 Like, how would that appear to us?

00:23:19.340 Would that be businesses setting up within the province, things in the cities?

00:23:23.420 How does that work out?

00:23:25.400 So since I started and took like, so I founded this organization as a not for profit.

00:23:31.280 And since we started blockchain in the province has definitely exponentially boomed.

00:23:36.880 There is an incredible amount of companies that have started setting up here.

00:23:41.000 Initially, there was a lot of kind of like fractured meetup groups across Canada.

00:23:44.420 People thought Toronto was definitely more of the hub for what was happening.

00:23:47.660 And we came in to kind of support helping and amplifying that voice.

00:23:50.720 So we've seen an incredible amount of potential for this technology, especially in Alberta, from multiple different streams.

00:23:57.280 One from mining. We feel that Alberta is positioned to be able to sell our energy on the Internet and being able to support data centers like Bitcoin mining coming into the province, utilizing our very clean natural gas and our resources from the enterprise side, supporting our agricultural resource, supporting our energy sector, creating better efficiencies.

00:24:15.720 and then from the financial services side.

00:24:18.400 And we're seeing Alberta Innovates is now starting to see

00:24:21.740 this exponential opportunity for growth that could bring in

00:24:25.060 not just billions but trillions of dollars worth of business value

00:24:28.120 into the economy here.

00:24:29.980 And how we've partnered with them is in support of developing

00:24:33.260 out a convergence plan.

00:24:34.540 So it'll be a series of industry-led forums from major technology

00:24:39.680 companies and players, not just in the blockchain space

00:24:41.860 but also in the holistic tech community from IoT

00:24:45.020 and augmented reality of metaverse, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to come

00:24:51.240 and see how can we support this technology sector? How can we support this ecosystem? How do we

00:24:54.980 support adoption? How do we start generating the excitement from businesses to start setting up

00:25:00.140 locally? We've already seen businesses finance. One of the largest exchanges in the world pick

00:25:06.900 Calgary to be their destination because the value, the quality of life that Albertans can have being

00:25:12.660 so close to the mountains, a very tent-friendly tax jurisdiction, an incredible amount of tech

00:25:17.740 talent. So the goal of this is to be able to create like a step-by-step guide for how we can

00:25:23.460 support this expansion from an industry-led perspective. And then we plan on announcing

00:25:28.800 and launching this plan starting in April of 2023 when we have our third annual technology

00:25:35.500 symposium. And we'll be showcasing how we're going to be able to create this, having the KPIs and

00:25:41.420 showing like how many businesses have moved here, how much business value has this created?

00:25:45.680 Because everyday Albertans are wondering what's in it for us. And if Alberta has a thriving

00:25:49.660 technology ecosystem and a thriving economy, if Bitcoin miners start moving up here, you're going

00:25:54.740 to see a lot of job opportunity and creation. If there's a downturn in oil and gas, they'll still

00:25:59.940 be mining and they'll still want technical skilled labor to help manage that operation.

00:26:04.660 Texas alone, when they said no, they wanted to start Bitcoin mining brought in $3.6 billion

00:26:08.860 dollars worth of business value within the first few months, actually. So it's a booming industry.

00:26:14.260 It creates jobs in terms of the enterprise sector. It's going to create better efficiencies. It's

00:26:19.260 going to create more need for jobs. I know Nate right now, we're building out their education

00:26:24.360 curriculum, and they're looking for how do we support job training, job creation, job growth

00:26:29.900 within the education portion of this. So there's a lot of different ways that blockchain is going

00:26:34.140 to create value for this province. Yeah, and Bitcoin mining, you mentioned that a couple of

00:26:38.440 times. And it's an interesting, you know, almost abstract concept. It's got some controversy

00:26:42.840 attached to it, but I can see why Alberta is well-placed for it as well. So it's a means that

00:26:47.640 I guess computers are set up to constantly compute, I guess, complex formulas and such.

00:26:53.460 It's very energy intensive, and that's how it's mined. Alberta being an energy leader, I mean,

00:26:58.720 we could be ideally set up to be able to set up those sorts of facilities. But I know in other

00:27:03.840 areas, there's been some controversy because of power usage, noise generated, things such as

00:27:08.300 that? Are you working on mitigating some of the concerns people have or I guess inconvenience

00:27:13.120 because it could be caused by those sorts of operations up here? Definitely. So I know from

00:27:17.400 an environmental aspect, a lot of people are like they have concerns naturally. So ESG, like

00:27:23.840 environmental social governance is definitely first and foremost in people's minds. When it

00:27:29.160 came to Bitcoin mining, getting this kind of negative rap, a lot of it was based on China had

00:27:34.740 60% of the global hash rate. So the majority of miners were in China operating off of coal. It's

00:27:39.060 not a clean fuel source. It does definitely create damaging emissions. Alberta is the cleanest energy

00:27:45.040 provider in the world. Our energy resource industry only makes up for 1.5% of the global

00:27:50.880 emissions, or I think 1.6%. In terms of the noise, we have a lot of islanded energy in locations that

00:27:58.400 not close to cities and smaller municipalities where we can send it off. We have some of the

00:28:05.140 cleanest natural gas, like you can use a natural gas, put that through a generator, power the

00:28:09.140 Bitcoin mining. I think what they say, 68% of Bitcoin mining currently is on renewables. They're

00:28:15.400 looking at doing it from solar. They're looking at doing it from wind. They're looking at doing

00:28:18.900 it from clean things like natural gas. So it's environmental stewardship, absolutely. But then

00:28:24.300 there's the economic value where the energy is going to be produced on the grid and miners are

00:28:30.080 looking to be the consumer, right? Similar to how you would consume energy if you're sitting in your

00:28:34.920 house or you're running your business or data centers. Very few people complain if Amazon has

00:28:40.220 a data center, Google has a data center. People are looking at the metaverse right now. Data

00:28:44.260 centers are going to have to 3x their infrastructure. Data centers are identical to Bitcoin mining. It's

00:28:49.520 You have computer systems that are operating 24-7 to be able to support a network that everyone uses every single day, right?

00:28:57.080 So it's not an environmental hazard.

00:28:59.800 It's not taking away any additional resources than any other industry would.

00:29:03.780 There's actually way more environmental damage to the traditional banking system just based on the emissions that come from there and the infrastructure that's required for it.

00:29:13.200 Bitcoin mining takes up, I think, maybe 0.5% of global energy currently consumed.

00:29:19.000 Great. And I mean, in some senses, if one looks past, you know, again, it being kind of an abstract sort of thing, it's mining, it's going to develop a resource, it's going to pull it in, it's going to bring in a product. Now, how is that for employing individuals? I mean, it's not just something where you're going to set up some units to plug and play, like, there's still going to be a lot of involvement in keeping people busy and maintaining that sort of structure, I imagine.

00:29:42.160 Absolutely. You need to hire people to build out the facilities.

00:29:45.400 You need to have people there to manage the mining facilities.

00:29:49.960 Like if you're partnering, say, potentially with an oil and gas company, right, this gives an opportunity to be able to, you know, build out more generators.

00:29:57.580 So from a supply chain perspective, you have people who like electricians, instrumentation techs, multiple different trades that get jobs from being able to build support and create the infrastructure.

00:30:11.340 And then the product that gets sold supports the financial service space.

00:30:14.880 And now you have job creation on exchanges and money service businesses, Bitcoin ATM companies.

00:30:19.780 I think the one that you support, Bitcoin Well, who's a sponsor to your network, they've grown from, I think, one ATM to well over 120 all across Canada.

00:30:28.400 They went from like eight employees two years ago and they're sitting at potentially 80.

00:30:32.520 Right. So now you're seeing growth in jobs or they're taking up space in office space.

00:30:38.200 So they're providing revenues. They're giving towards the GDP.

00:30:41.740 So there's a lot of aspects along that supply chain where supporting Bitcoin supports Alberta, supports jobs.

00:30:49.380 Great. And then there's some work, it looks like you guys have been working with

00:30:52.740 Northern Alberta, well, NAIT and Deloitte, Edmonton Global, a few other partnerships,

00:30:58.420 things like that. Are there any projects on the go, like things on the move right now,

00:31:02.820 or is everything still sort of just organizational and speculative?

00:31:06.740 So in terms of with NAIT, we're really excited. We're going to support them becoming the gold

00:31:11.540 standard for blockchain training. And so in the mining space, the financial services space,

00:31:16.420 the enterprise space, development space. Right now we're under contract to build out three

00:31:21.220 certificate programs and ideally we'll be able to build out up to 20. And the exciting part about

00:31:26.180 this is it's industry-led. So we have industry leaders who are looking at, we want to support

00:31:30.660 jobs, we want to support growth, we need to be able to hire. What skill sets, what education

00:31:35.220 training do we need people to have to be able to come into the organization? So through that

00:31:39.620 partnership and that ability to have industry-led education, ideally it's going to create job growth.

00:31:44.900 so we're training them in these amazing academic institutions and now we're retaining as opposed

00:31:49.540 to losing our students to other areas where they because they don't know about the opportunities

00:31:53.620 happening here so that's just one of the ones that we're doing the other one through uh the

00:31:58.180 conferences the convergence plan um we create amazing opportunities for c-suite local executives

00:32:04.660 and decision makers government officials to come together and create business opportunities i think

00:32:08.900 the i think it was 68 of people who attended our event said they walked away with at least five to

00:32:15.940 seven business connections that's going to help them grow their business in the future so creating

00:32:19.940 those opportunities and having businesses start to collaborate revenue get generated jobs get created

00:32:25.220 again yeah well that's good to know i mean because again if you're uh somebody entering the workforce

00:32:31.140 or changing jobs in the workforce i mean you can't necessarily just jump right into one of

00:32:34.900 of these initiatives, you still need some training. So Satan, Nate would be presumably

00:32:39.260 able to offer some courses to help one get involved in that. And it would lead, I guess,

00:32:44.120 to economic diversity, as you said, not as much dependence just on oil and gas revenue for our

00:32:49.840 economy, but some of some other broader basis. Exactly. Like supporting the technology ecosystem

00:32:56.140 as a whole, not just the blockchain side, but supporting the entire tech ecosystem. Like

00:33:00.780 Technology is truly the foundational layer that supports every traditional resource industry, whether you're in agriculture, logistics, supply chain, the energy space, the financial service business.

00:33:10.880 You need technology to be developed.

00:33:13.060 You need to create better efficiencies with it.

00:33:15.140 And by supporting the tech ecosystem, you create opportunities where talent comes from around the world to be able to set up shop here.

00:33:22.260 Money gets attracted.

00:33:23.560 We have exponential growth in terms of startups getting funding here.

00:33:29.080 We have I think we have five unicorns that have come out of Alberta alone, billion dollar companies because they're seeing so much opportunity in this tech ecosystem.

00:33:38.500 So we, of course, are still an energy based province, but now we're able to support our energy sector on an even larger scale by diversifying it and showcasing that we have, you know, like we can be that Silicon Valley.

00:33:52.040 We we can be that that technology hub.

00:33:54.720 Great. So have you got any upcoming events or things, seminars, anything like that going on?

00:34:02.640 Absolutely. We're definitely excited. We're supporting Inventures. So Alberta Innovates

00:34:06.640 puts on an incredible, very large conference every single year. I know during COVID,

00:34:12.160 they weren't able to quite do it, but we're doing an entire day of content during that event. And

00:34:18.560 then we also have our Canadian Blockchain Summit happening in the fall. So we'll be attracting

00:34:22.880 blockchain technology companies from all across the country being given an opportunity to highlight

00:34:28.580 and profile what's happening in Alberta but really the goal is to put Canada on the map for what we're

00:34:33.060 what we're able to develop. Great well before I let you go where can people go to find more

00:34:37.620 information on what you guys are doing and what you're up to out there? Best way to do it is go

00:34:42.220 to canadblockchain.ca sign up for our newsletter check out our website we have amazing resources on

00:34:48.480 there read our latest white paper on how blockchain supports Alberta's economic recovery. You see a

00:34:54.080 lot of amazing companies that have set up shop here that want to support the province and the

00:34:58.120 people in it. So it's a good resource website to go to. Great. Well, thank you very much for

00:35:03.860 joining us again today and giving an update on that conference. And again, I look forward to

00:35:08.640 seeing new industries develop. I mean, it's better for all of us to see as much of a broad economic

00:35:13.280 basis we can get. So, well, keep up the good work and I hope we get to talk again sometime soon.

00:35:18.480 absolutely thank you so much for having me on the show thank you so yeah and again i know there's a

00:35:24.440 lot of doubt or questions that people are saying or scott saying you know you're assuming most of

00:35:27.600 us understand what the heck you're talking about i yeah it's it's a new and complex field this

00:35:31.700 entire thing and it's not for everybody i see some people don't trust it or concerned about it

00:35:36.240 that's fine but the more we can find out the more we can learn and educate that the better off we

00:35:40.300 are for it and i'll kind of pivot into as uh ms carrington mentioned uh bitcoin well that's one

00:35:46.320 of our sponsors. So not going as deep into things like Bitcoin mining and the whole blockchain. But

00:35:50.940 if you're an individual, you want to get out of regular currencies, you want to hedge your bets,

00:35:54.840 put your money into something a little different. Bitcoin is, of course, the prime digital currency

00:35:59.460 out there. It's the big option. But how do you get involved? How do you facilitate that? Well,

00:36:04.120 Bitcoin Well is an Alberta company. And they're based, again, that they're safe. They're publicly

00:36:09.640 traded. They are right here. They give face-to-face service, one-on-one, leading you into

00:36:15.420 how you might want to invest in Bitcoin, what you could do, how to set up your wallet, ways that you

00:36:20.620 can pay utility bills, even set up payroll savings plans, things such as that with Bitcoin.

00:36:26.020 They offer it all. And it's a real educational sort of site. That's their whole basis because

00:36:29.920 it might not be for you. Again, you want to find out how it works, what's going on with it. Well,

00:36:34.940 that's what these guys do. They show you that their site is very deep. And if you're interested

00:36:38.960 in going further, the consultations are free to talk one-on-one with a real person and see if it's

00:36:43.820 for you. Check them out, bitcoinwell.com. And that's how you can, one way you can take control

00:36:48.820 of your money. All right, let's get into a little more news. I see Mel has been popping in and out

00:36:54.240 of the broadcast here and there, and that's all right. We're doing something different today. As

00:36:58.080 I said, she's out on the street and she's going to be interviewing some folks and such, and we'll

00:37:02.040 pull her in when she's ready at some point and get some live stuff from downtown Calgary here.

00:37:07.360 In the meantime, man, this cough is bothering me today. I promise I don't have COVID.

00:37:11.480 We got stuff going on. There's a push in Ottawa. Yes, they want more French directors in CN, you know, and there's stuff hitting the fan there. This is where we get our languages minister, like we should even have one, but saying she's very disappointed because English directors have been appointed to companies such as Canadian National Railway, and we need more French people in there.

00:37:35.560 you know this is one of the things that screws this nation from end to end it's one of the things 0.99

00:37:40.060 that undercuts unity our bilingualism is wretched it's it's divisive it's useless it's stupid and 1.00

00:37:48.900 it's expanding I mean it's one thing which is bad enough when you get the the odious actions in 1.00

00:37:55.540 Quebec that are constantly stepping on every other language out there stepping on businesses

00:37:58.840 and it's bad enough when government jobs constantly have bilingual requirements even if nobody really

00:38:04.840 needs it and if there aren't unilingual French people being served. But now they're going into

00:38:09.460 all the industries that are federally regulated and forcing them to have French-speaking people,

00:38:15.920 not bilingual, French-speaking. Let's not forget that. Because if we want to speak multiple

00:38:20.100 languages, we want to be practical, we want to recognize other ones, then let's get real with it.

00:38:23.820 French is, what, 18th among unilingual languages spoken in Alberta? Let's bring in people who speak

00:38:29.340 other languages first if we're really going to prioritize that. I want to see people speaking

00:38:32.800 Hindi. I want to see Punjabi. I want to see Cantonese, Mandarin, German. Swahili is probably

00:38:39.520 spoken more than French in Alberta by unilingual people. But our laws force us to do this. And this

00:38:45.700 crosses another line. These are private companies, but federally regulated. Now, you know, so then

00:38:52.900 you get blurry, you get into Air Canada, CN, things like that. But what does it do? Well, for one,

00:38:58.140 it screws anybody who doesn't speak French. So you're now pushed out of the job market. You

00:39:03.000 either got to learn or there's a lot fewer opportunities for you there. And they're

00:39:10.380 planning on mandating more private businesses. How far is this going to go? I mean, the trucking

00:39:14.740 industry is federally mandated. We saw that with how badly the federal government has treated our

00:39:19.760 truckers in general and on a lot of things. So when they're going into the private

00:39:27.920 industry and forcing this, this is going to be a real problem. Listen, in 1971, I see some stats

00:39:33.760 here. The Francophone population outside of Quebec was 6.6% of the country. Current projections

00:39:39.900 say there's going to be only three. That's part of where I guess they're feeling insecure. I

00:39:46.240 understand that. Their language isn't being in popular use. That's not our problem. You know,

00:39:52.080 the only person responsible for the preservation of your language is you, not me. I'm not responsible

00:39:57.660 for how many Canadians speak French, nor should anybody else be. And, you know, you let it evolve,

00:40:04.380 leave it alone. Quebec wants to do their thing in Quebec, do it, but leave us alone. No, it keeps

00:40:08.740 spreading outward and outward and outward. And again, it's one of the many, many, many ways that

00:40:14.860 this country keeps slanting to the advantage of Quebec. That's how Quebec dominates the civil

00:40:18.720 service. Quebec dominates the military. It's how Quebec now is going to dominate the private market.

00:40:24.840 Not because they run good businesses and industries.

00:40:27.000 I mean, the mafia seems to be their main industry in Montreal.

00:40:30.980 But because they can get their fingers in on all of those positions

00:40:34.980 in private market businesses now that are federally regulated.

00:40:40.880 So, yeah, we're going down the wrong road, guys, and it just never stops.

00:40:45.560 Again, independence, it's going to be the only way out in the long run.

00:40:49.120 In the meantime, though, we're stuck with it for a while.

00:40:51.320 Well, here's one that's interesting, a little different.

00:40:56.540 Again, it gets into government messing around with private industry.

00:41:01.080 I talked a bit about that yesterday when they were worried about the antitrust legislation.

00:41:04.320 In this case, they're looking to criminalize wage fixing on some reforms to the Competition Act.

00:41:10.400 So this is in a 464-page, well, part of the budget bill.

00:41:14.480 and it gives a prison sentences to companies that I would guess they collude and fix wages

00:41:22.180 in their industry in order to, you know, make sure that the same wage is paid no matter

00:41:27.460 company to company. It's, I don't know guys. I mean, it happens, I guess, but the best

00:41:33.820 way out of these things usually is just to get the hell out of the way. As long as there's

00:41:37.440 competition, as long as businesses can compete, they will compete for employees. We've got

00:41:41.360 a labor shortage right now. Companies can't find employees as it is. I can't see them managing to

00:41:48.120 fix wages being low. It just means that you're going to lose them to other industries and other

00:41:51.960 areas. Employees are holding the upper hand right now. I mean, Canadians are suffering because the

00:41:56.600 cost of living is going through the roof, and we've got all sorts of challenges and problems

00:42:01.880 there. But I don't know if wage fixing, but you see, I keep seeing the government poking and

00:42:06.240 exploring more ways to control us. That's the problem. It's always more legislation to go

00:42:10.980 deeper into areas that should be left to the private market. So we should be worried. I mean,

00:42:15.540 that seems to be no end to what Trudeau is always doing. They want to control the media. They want

00:42:19.600 to control your firearms. They want to control your property. They want to control your movement. 0.99

00:42:23.380 They want to control how you medicate yourself. Well, now they're also controlling the languages

00:42:27.880 and businesses and going after how much or what they may be able to pay people. This is a trend,

00:42:32.860 guys. We're getting into socialism through incrementalism. You know, the Soviets did it

00:42:37.840 quick and fast. In 1917, it screwed themselves for decades through a revolution to really find 0.94

00:42:43.140 out just how bad it is. But we're unfortunately going down the same road, but we're just doing

00:42:46.840 it policy by policy. But the outcome is going to be the same. It's going to be the same.

00:42:52.860 Just to follow up, I was talking again about that horrible, horrible accident. Well, not accident,

00:42:57.460 that the murder of a woman of five in Calgary, her name was Angela McKenzie.

00:43:03.040 so again if you're looking to to help out the family there if you if you search out the name

00:43:09.860 uh uh angela mckenzie and you you can uh find some information on how you can get some money

00:43:15.540 to help out her kids because the kids uh yeah five of them between the ages of nine and 17

00:43:20.040 they're all young and their father just died in february so uh it's just just horrible it's just

00:43:28.060 horrible uh there were stray bullets flying all around throughout that incident too the police

00:43:32.040 still, I think, have, the last I'd heard, a lot of the area controlled, you know, they're trying

00:43:36.640 to find all the bullet holes and do their investigation. This was extremely dangerous.

00:43:41.000 It's horrible that this woman was killed, and it's surprised that she was the only one.

00:43:45.640 And they got to get to the bottom of that mess, because there's going to be

00:43:49.060 more people harmed as this goes on. Now, let's see, another story hitting the news there. We got to

00:43:57.240 uh, we'll see. It looks like Mel might be ready to pop in. We'll see. That could be coming up 1.00

00:44:02.220 pretty quickly. Uh, are you ready to roll there, Melanie? Give us a wave if you are.

00:44:07.140 Yeah. Okay. Well, let's bring Melanie Rizdin in. We've stuck her out on the mean streets of Calgary

00:44:11.320 for doing a bit of a different sequence here. Hey, Mel, it looks like I recognize you're over

00:44:15.160 at that park over there west of it. Yeah, we are just, uh, like a block from the office. This is,

00:44:22.260 Century Gardens, and it's right at the 8th Street Southwest sea train ramp, and we thought

00:44:30.220 we would come out and just have a good look at what's going on nearby here. I know there's

00:44:34.780 been a lot of complaints from people about the safety of downtown, of the sea train,

00:44:41.680 riding the sea train, the things that you're seeing. I mean, in the park here right now,

00:44:46.200 We've got somebody behind me who looks like he's preparing what looks like a pipe in the middle of the park here for the noon hour.

00:44:57.900 We also have somebody over here that is potentially having a rest.

00:45:04.420 We haven't inquired as to whether this is just an afternoon rest or if they have been taking drugs at the moment.

00:45:14.140 so we are going to speak with a few people we're going to try and talk to people in the area

00:45:20.140 perhaps people that ride sea trains just to see how they feel about their safety while they're

00:45:25.580 downtown we've got some students over here they attend the university of calgary facility that's

00:45:32.620 downtown and it looks like they're out here for their lunch break i suspect they do this often

00:45:38.060 and there was one student we were going to speak with that is going to tell us her experience

00:45:43.180 downtown. And she also lives downtown. What was your name? My name is Matea. And Matea, tell me

00:45:50.480 about, so you go to school here at U of C downtown and you also live downtown. Yeah, so I live in

00:45:55.480 this area. So I'm, this is kind of my neighborhood. I walk everywhere around here and yeah, live,

00:46:02.200 like I said, live and go to school in the area. So. And how are you feeling about more and more

00:46:08.940 cases of perhaps violence that have been reported downtown. I know a lot of people are talking about

00:46:15.340 the safety of traveling on the C train. What are your thoughts there? What have you experienced?

00:46:20.420 Well I don't use the C train very often so I can't really speak to that but just my experience of

00:46:24.120 like I said living and walking around downtown. I haven't really noticed any changes. I know that

00:46:29.700 I took the initiative to go and get some naloxone training and do carry that on me for if I ever

00:46:35.180 need to use it or assist under the Good Samaritan laws. I haven't had to do that at all. I do leave

00:46:41.180 my car parked in this area. I haven't had any problems regarding any of that. I do find that

00:46:46.740 regarding this community, it can be a little scary sometimes when we're reading the

00:46:51.400 news and we do see there's reports of increased violence or crime. But again, that really hasn't

00:46:57.600 impacted me at all or really impacted my safety other than just making sure that I'm staying

00:47:02.300 educated. Absolutely. And so how do you feel about coming out here, just coming across the street

00:47:07.180 from the, uh, from the facility here for the university campus downtown? How do you feel

00:47:12.560 about coming here, sitting in the park, having your lunch, uh, knowing that there are people in

00:47:17.260 the park that are, uh, shooting up that, you know, somebody is preparing a pipe over there. Like,

00:47:22.980 how do you feel about that? Um, I, uh, part of my education actually is an occupational therapy,

00:47:28.840 and we do spend time learning about kind of the social determinants of drug use and so what kind

00:47:34.240 of leads to that and what the research has really shown is that nobody chooses this lifestyle. This

00:47:38.920 is not something that is done because the individuals doing it want this lifestyle for

00:47:44.940 themselves but rather because they feel like they have no other options. So with that background in

00:47:49.900 mind for me what I really find is that I want the individuals in this community to know that when

00:47:54.880 they're ready there are resources um to help help you know choose a different lifestyle to get

00:48:01.360 better um but that it really needs to come from the individuals themselves we can't force that

00:48:06.080 that's not really how this this style of therapy works it's not what's shown to be effective and

00:48:11.120 so i want i want the community members here to know that um they're not going to receive judgment

00:48:17.360 from me or my peers or the profession that i hope to work in and as a result um you know it's

00:48:24.240 uncomfortable. I do have a sharps kit. I, like I said, I do have naloxone training as well as the

00:48:29.820 kit. And that just helps me keep myself safe as well as my peers safe. But I don't feel any threat

00:48:36.020 from their use in this area. And again, you know, there are very few spaces that people can go and

00:48:42.380 it not cost money. And so, you know, parks is one of those spaces and I want them to be available

00:48:46.980 for everyone. Do you think the city offers enough supports, has enough in place for dealing with

00:48:55.540 how, you know, it's becoming such an epidemic? Yeah, I think epidemic is a really good word

00:49:00.980 to use for that. I always think that there could be more resources. If you guys haven't noticed,

00:49:06.100 I'm kind of pro-funding in terms of everybody having access to these resources. I do recognize

00:49:11.700 that i being at the school have the privilege to access naloxone training to have a sharps kit to

00:49:17.380 be able to spend both time and money to prep those things and i do think it would be beneficial for

00:49:22.020 everybody to kind of have that access as well um so i'm always more resources and i do think when

00:49:27.380 we invest money in these resources it comes back you know tenfold not just for the individuals that

00:49:32.260 are accessing it but for us too that maybe don't feel as safe downtown as a result um so yeah just

00:49:38.180 kind of pro-funding in that in that area yeah absolutely agreed okay well thank you very much

00:49:43.700 for uh sharing and great conversation yeah i think that's a a really good conversation around

00:49:50.820 um why don't we go and see if we can talk to people uh closer to the c train um yeah corey

00:49:56.100 i think you know there's there's perhaps more the city can be doing i know that uh dan mclean

00:50:02.740 was calling for turnstiles to be put into the uh the use at uh c train platforms to prevent uh you

00:50:12.260 know people being able to get on to the c train and creating an environment where they are you

00:50:19.060 know feeling people are feeling more unsafe and uh whether that would be a solution i'm not sure

00:50:26.900 not sure how you feel about it but uh we'll see if we can get some people i know we're

00:50:32.980 going to throw a few people um kind of in front of a camera here we'll see if anyone wants to

00:50:39.540 comment and i'll give some background while you look around just to remind people yeah for sure

00:50:43.460 it's off 7th avenue in calgary and near the lrt station as you can see with melanie

00:50:48.740 and uh it is an area we just have yeah hi we're just asking uh people in downtown whether they

00:50:55.140 feel safe in the downtown whether they feel safe at the c-train platforms uh what's your experience

00:51:00.260 been i mean i feel safe but i've seen other people definitely have some scary situations but yeah

00:51:06.740 there's definitely some weirdos downtown more than late i would say do you ride the c-train quite

00:51:12.980 regularly most days yeah yeah and uh and have you seen anything on the train while you've been in a

00:51:19.460 trip where you've been concerned or felt unsafe uh i see the guy peed in the corner of the train

00:51:25.060 once that was kind of gross but i wasn't like unsafe but yeah it was just like concerning i

00:51:30.020 guess yeah yeah yeah for sure and what was your name landon landon thanks very much yeah thank

00:51:36.580 you all right uh we'll see if we can find some other people that might have an opinion on

00:51:42.260 how they feel being downtown i know there's some guys sitting over here i was gonna check and see

00:51:48.820 if they might um let us know their thoughts on uh how they're feeling being down in the park here

00:51:59.380 thing it is a nice park it's been recently renovated unfortunately they they close all

00:52:04.020 the washrooms and facilities there again because they had some drug consumption problems going on

00:52:08.260 within them uh and again that's across from them it's uh hey guys we're just uh doing a quick

00:52:15.380 chat with people around here just seeing how you are feeling about being safe in downtown being

00:52:21.140 safe potentially riding the sea train what are your thoughts what are your experiences being

00:52:26.500 down here i haven't had any problems with it at all really i haven't felt too unsafe or anything

00:52:32.180 at all so okay great what was your name uh aaron aaron thanks how about you are you you're good

00:52:38.580 okay uh can we ask you how your experience has been downtown have you been feeling

00:52:44.740 safe or unsafe at any times do you ride the c-train at all i feel pretty safe you do and

00:52:50.420 are you downtown do you work town downtown you do hey okay any concern anything that's been

00:52:55.540 concerning you about uh any of the drug use that's been happening downtown nothing i see on a daily

00:53:01.460 basis okay all right thank you okay so yeah cory i think um you know it's it's kind of a quiet park

00:53:11.140 at this moment but i'll be honest i walk by this park every day when i come into work and

00:53:18.740 oftentimes there are ambulances nearby that are dealing with people who may have

00:53:26.740 you know overdosed or need medical attention uh and i know there have been complaints in this park

00:53:34.740 about a lot of you know fecal matter that is is left behind uh i know i've had to step over a few

00:53:43.620 here and there so uh yeah it's it seemed that the people there are well they seem comfortable and

00:53:49.860 feeling safe at the at the park and around the train though it's kind of interesting it's uh

00:53:54.420 yeah that's that's for sure and i would say one of the things i noticed too corey is is the dynamic

00:54:00.100 and the feel really does change when you go from daytime to nighttime in downtown Calgary for sure

00:54:06.280 well we're not going to send you down there at night but uh you know it's interesting to get

00:54:12.100 some perspectives on that as I said I wrote about that a while back that's the same park where I did

00:54:16.620 run across an unfortunate overdose that didn't end well it's pretty common down there but I guess

00:54:21.580 the daytime crowd down there is uh somewhat comfortable with it which is good you know I

00:54:26.240 I mean, maybe some of it's a little overrated with how scary it may be down there.

00:54:31.120 One comment that came pointing out that the people who don't feel comfortable, of course, aren't there.

00:54:38.060 Yeah, and that's the thing.

00:54:40.200 Like, I'll be honest with you.

00:54:41.880 We did speak to a few people that didn't want to go on the record that have had incidents and experienced things that left them feeling vulnerable and feeling unsafe.

00:54:55.500 a couple of them were federal employees so they did not want to to go on record but yeah i think

00:55:02.780 i think ultimately it is something that we're seeing increasing in downtown and i think there's

00:55:10.140 you know something needs to be done i i don't know what your thoughts are on the turnstiles at the

00:55:14.780 city train and whether that would would help with the scenario but i know that is something that's

00:55:20.780 on the table within city council right now.

00:55:24.160 Yeah, well, I would think like the turnstiles

00:55:25.740 more of that issue is the on-train problems we've had

00:55:28.720 as the pictures that were put out by a councillor

00:55:31.740 of a guy who had an episode, an incident

00:55:33.300 right in the middle of a C train.

00:55:35.160 I imagine the surrounding parks,

00:55:36.740 it wouldn't have much impact

00:55:37.900 on what's going on there necessarily though.

00:55:45.180 Still wandering along there, but yeah,

00:55:47.420 it's, there's sort of separate issues.

00:55:49.660 just see i've got a lady here hi there um we are just chatting with calgarians to see if they are

00:55:57.420 oh you speak spanish do you understand a bit of english a little bit do you feel safe do you feel

00:56:03.100 safe here excuse me safe do you feel uh do you feel protected dangerous she speaks spanish so

00:56:14.620 So we are not incommunicado, thank you.

00:56:20.380 Okay, well, you know, we're doing a live experiment

00:56:22.860 and finding these streeters

00:56:24.380 and interesting people to speak with.

00:56:27.640 But yeah, as I said, there are a couple issues.

00:56:31.060 I mean, nothing's, Sarah, you can move on.

00:56:34.220 So, I mean, there's a couple of issues going on.

00:56:37.840 We've got an addictions crisis

00:56:39.220 as the first person you spoke to was talking about.

00:56:43.660 we've got a transit crisis that's going on.

00:56:46.560 And as you said, with the turnstiles

00:56:48.440 and the thing that's making the issues these days,

00:56:52.400 that would address, again,

00:56:53.580 it doesn't do anything for the addicts.

00:56:54.900 It doesn't do anything for the homeless.

00:56:56.300 It just potentially could get them off the trains though.

00:56:58.520 I mean, that's where there's a lot of issues

00:56:59.980 and challenges going on.

00:57:02.600 But I guess, you know, and going down to talking people,

00:57:04.900 if we find people lounging around having lunch

00:57:06.800 in that particular park,

00:57:08.280 they clearly are comfortable with it and good on them.

00:57:10.900 Then maybe some of the risk is a little overrated.

00:57:13.440 worry a bit too much sometimes on the safety. But we'll see. And yes, because I mean, again,

00:57:24.480 well, the incidents can be spread out at times. Francesca saying it's a nice park.

00:57:29.280 It does look nice. And it's in a spot that could use it as we saw the university students getting

00:57:34.400 down for lunch between classes down there. The green spaces downtown are important. And again,

00:57:40.400 People aren't that concerned, but as Mel said, for people to get upset because I post pictures of

00:57:47.440 syringes and things as I see them on my way to work, there are problems down there that need to

00:57:54.240 be addressed and need to be worked on. But ridership on the trains right now is at 54% of what it was

00:58:01.200 two years ago. So a lot of people are just choosing not to come downtown anymore or not to use public

00:58:06.080 transit in order to do it so uh again just gonna see if i can uh check with someone over here

00:58:14.800 to see if he's had much of an experience down here hi there just curious are you somebody

00:58:22.240 that rides the c-train quite frequently yes and to get to work yes yes and are you feeling safe

00:58:29.840 downtown are you feeling safe on the c-train what's been your experience been recently i've

00:58:34.960 been threatened i've been yelled at and stuff like that but i'm six foot four and i'm 240 pounds

00:58:41.040 even though i am 60 years old i'm still you know people generally leave me alone

00:58:47.040 so i really don't have much to say in regards to that i have seen

00:58:52.640 questionable behavior on the train and usually it's we just phone it in and we have our own

00:58:58.960 policing service uh public safety service and they come along and either you know move them along or

00:59:06.640 take them down to alpha house or to the drop-in center or wherever they need to go if anything

00:59:11.120 more serious than that then uh the police are involved are you feeling that it's growing are

00:59:16.720 you feeling the concerns are growing i mean we are seeing more of it yes um but it is it is kind of

00:59:25.520 kind of comes comes with the times i guess you know there's really nothing that we can do where

00:59:31.360 we can put them uh you know where the outreach programs or services don't seem to be able to

00:59:37.600 deal with it anyways that's there's there's your train thank you saved by the train

00:59:44.960 uh cory there's a little vendor just down here i'm gonna see uh just check and see if they maybe

00:59:50.880 have a comment maybe they have experienced things that have left them feeling uh unsafe downtown

00:59:56.960 we'll just get a quick uh see if they're interested in chatting with us and uh sure

01:00:04.160 cliff and sylvia pointing out something else for people just wondering we're just checking

01:00:08.000 with people in calgary to see if they're feeling safe being downtown how safe are you feeling

01:00:14.320 working down here with your with your vending and downtown little bit save not too much but outside

01:00:22.960 downtown like 17 or somewhere it's a little bit safer so here the middle of downtown center street

01:00:33.680 or this area not too much safe even no police officer here like an interior tour into every

01:00:43.040 station have one police officer. Here, I don't see any police. Sometimes they come here,

01:00:51.840 this station, and these guys, they say, if you want to help, you call us and we help you. So

01:01:01.040 sometimes I call and you bother me or something. And this group that you're pointing to here,

01:01:06.720 are they just a citizen group? The group that you're pointing to in that picture,

01:01:12.000 is that a citizen group helping people for from government they say call us as soon as possible

01:01:20.720 we come the police is late something like that okay it looks like that's a downtown ambassador

01:01:26.160 okay so and a phone number on there that you can call if you're if you're having issues i don't see

01:01:31.120 now not too much after six o'clock they will bother people yeah i don't know sometimes sometimes not

01:01:44.160 not always but you being down here running a business down here have you had a bad experience

01:01:51.760 not yet now sometime i get they say give me free i give them something hot dog something like that

01:02:00.320 i don't want to get trouble for 450 that's it yeah understandable for sure well thank you very

01:02:07.760 much for sharing your uh your comments okay okay well there you go cory uh you know it kind of

01:02:15.360 comes and goes he kind of did know he did note that it does seem to get a little sketchier after

01:02:21.280 six o'clock um but uh yeah i think uh it's kind of mixed reviews for sure well i appreciate the

01:02:28.720 the check-in from down in the streets there maybe grab a hot dog or something like that it was good

01:02:32.960 to get a mixed view reviews and the different interpretations from people so it's appreciated

01:02:37.440 thanks for heading out there mel i'll see you a little later yeah you bet okay so that's the

01:02:43.520 the first time we've tried one of those live streeters and uh well we did get different

01:02:46.720 points of view than we might have imagined and uh you know speak to some individuals there to

01:02:51.200 to get their perspective on what...

Western Standard - May 13, 2022

Triggered： Conservative debate gong show

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