Western Standard - Triggered： Kenney government in a state of constant disarray

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Good morning. It's January 27th, 2022, and welcome to Triggered. I'm Corey Morgan.

00:00:39.180 This is the Western Standards Live Daily Show. We come every morning at 11.30 a.m. Monday to

00:00:44.660 Friday to discuss news, talk to guests, and it's interactive. So, you know, this is the great

00:00:50.380 thing about being live. We can go back and forth. The comments are welcome. It's one of the great

00:00:55.360 things I like about this, bring them in. We got to remain civil though. I can't, I will read all

00:01:00.680 of them. I see them all. I won't necessarily call them out or address them, but I mean, if there's

00:01:03.960 good questions for the guests, by all means, get them in. And if I get the chance, I will

00:01:07.460 pass it along to them. And I got a couple of great guests today coming up in a little while.

00:01:11.620 I'm going to have a psychologist, Dr. Angela Grace coming on, and we're going to talk about

00:01:16.080 the ongoing, ever going curriculum adjustments through the government. I mean, it's gone on

00:01:21.920 since Redford and Stelmac and then into Notley's NDP.

00:01:25.640 And now it's on with the Jason Kenney's UCP.

00:01:27.560 And it's so important.

00:01:29.060 I mean, we can't think of anything.

00:01:30.440 I think everybody agrees, you know,

00:01:31.780 what we're teaching our children is critically important.

00:01:34.120 They only get one chance.

00:01:35.720 And we can't resist playing partisan games

00:01:38.900 and messing around with it and having other agendas

00:01:42.120 other than the benefits of our children

00:01:43.840 when we develop these things.

00:01:44.920 So I'm really looking forward to talking to Dr. Grace

00:01:46.820 about that, seeing if we can get some good outcomes

00:01:49.900 of this, this ongoing issue there. As well, later on, I'll have Andrea Lee on. You might know her

00:01:55.240 on Twitter as Hannah Bananas. She's, or Andy Lee as well. Something of a citizen journalist. She's

00:02:02.360 always digging into all sorts of issues out there, holding a lot of people to account online. And 0.60

00:02:07.760 she's going to be talking to me about the truckers convoy. And I believe she's actually going to fly

00:02:11.560 out to Ottawa and cover that this weekend. Of course, it's a hot and breaking issue. It's just

00:02:16.780 going on. It should be a really good conversation with Andrea. So first off, though, I do have to

00:02:21.720 get to our sponsors. That's how we're coming to you today. We rely on funding. You know, we don't

00:02:27.100 get it from the government. That allows us to remain critical of the government, provincial,

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00:03:27.840 set it and forget it. Bitcoin savings plans. I mean, it can come out of your account just like

00:03:31.340 a car payment and keep filling that up on the side. Check them out. I'll talk a little more

00:03:35.820 about them later and some of their options. Bitcoinwell.com. They're a fantastic Western

00:03:40.460 Canadian group with a lot of services on digital currencies. So I'm going to get on for my rant

00:03:46.820 today. And yes, I'm triggered as usual. This time I'm triggered about the constant state of disarray

00:03:52.940 of Jason Kenney's UCP. I really want to write positive things about Jason Kenney's UCP government.

00:03:58.620 I really do. They just seem determined not to give me anything to work with. I mean, the UCP

00:04:03.140 wisely stepped on the brakes with their planned implementation of a policy that was going to take

00:04:07.860 away a citizen's right to a day in court with traffic offenses. I mean, I don't want to dump

00:04:11.840 on the government when they're doing the right thing. I'm happy they swallowed some pride and

00:04:15.000 halted this ridiculous plan for the time being. But I still have to ask, what the hell were they 0.98

00:04:18.940 thinking when they were trying to implement this policy in the first place? I mean, principles of

00:04:22.880 due process and individual rights make up the bedrock of conservative ideology. The right for

00:04:27.440 a citizen to defend themselves against any form of state sanction, whether for a crime as serious

00:04:31.640 as murder or as minor as jaywalking should be considered inviolate. How could a government

00:04:36.540 packed with lawyers among the legislators think for a second there wouldn't be a serious

00:04:41.940 backlash to any effort to remove citizens' rights like this? While opposition to the

00:04:47.700 plan to end traffic courts has been strong and steady for months, the government seemed

00:04:51.360 indifferent to it. Their heels were dug in. But that changed when former Justice Minister

00:04:55.320 Casey Maddow found himself embroiled in a scandal over his direct communication with

00:04:59.320 Edmonton's police chief over a traffic ticket he'd received. The irony and hypocrisy of a

00:05:04.420 government member using his position of privilege to talk directly with law enforcement officials

00:05:08.380 about a personal traffic ticket while the government is taking away the rights of citizens

00:05:13.760 to defend themselves in court over traffic offenses was just too much. I mean, the UCP

00:05:17.860 will never admit it, but I'm certain that the Madhu scandal was the tipping point leading to

00:05:22.980 the retreat on this planned policy. And it's a shame because I've really liked Madhu as a cabinet

00:05:26.940 minister, but even a first-year law student understands why justice ministers should never

00:05:31.240 even appear to be using their office to interfere in legal matters that personally impact them. I

00:05:35.560 mean, it was just beyond the pale. Even if it feels minor, that's a major breach of the trust.

00:05:40.500 You can't have that, and that's why he is no longer in cabinet. Now, we should remember the

00:05:45.060 government hasn't scrapped its ridiculous notion to end traffic courts yet. They've just kicked

00:05:50.320 the can down the road, you know, on this issue for a few months. That puts the issue beyond the

00:05:55.120 point of Premier Jason Kenney's pending leadership review, and we can't pretend that's a coincidence.

00:05:59.300 The UCB government's been in power for nearly three years now, and they still can't seem to

00:06:03.220 find their stride. With a little over a year before the next general election is scheduled,

00:06:07.360 they don't have much time left to regain the confidence of Albertans. If they continue with

00:06:10.900 this constant pattern of scandals and policy retreats, we can rest assured that Rachel Notley 0.99

00:06:14.860 will be waltzing back into the Premier's chair. So why is this government so bereft of common sense?

00:06:19.980 I mean, from picking fights with doctors while a pandemic's looming, to having MLAs jetting

00:06:23.820 around the world while citizens are locked down, this government seems just determined to break

00:06:27.660 trust with the electorate at every opportunity. This traffic court fiasco is just the latest

00:06:31.560 debacle. Whether Kenny survives the April leadership review or not, the UCP is going to

00:06:36.220 have to take a radical shift in direction if they hope to crawl back into majority government

00:06:40.160 support levels before the next election. They need to learn how to be proactive rather than

00:06:44.620 reactive. If they would just take some smart policy stances, they wouldn't have to constantly

00:06:49.040 go on the defense and ultimately surrender when the pressure against them overwhelms them.

00:06:52.480 Perhaps if they weren't constantly embroiled in internal battles, they could start working on those policies.

00:06:56.480 For now, the UCP just appears inept as they stumble from one disaster of their own making to another.

00:07:01.480 I just don't see how this ship can manage to turn itself around in the next 14 months, but I sure hope they manage to find a way.

00:07:07.480 I mean, personally, I don't believe we can afford another four years of NDP rule.

00:07:10.480 The best that can be said of the UCP right now, though, is that they're perhaps less bad than the NDP.

00:07:15.480 And that's not a strong case to make to save their electoral hides. They need to be better.

00:07:19.480 that's what's got me triggered today. Now, the blood pressure's up. I'm going to check in with

00:07:24.560 Dave Naylor. He is our news editor at the Western Standard, and he's going to bring up some stories

00:07:29.200 that I'm sure will calm me down and put me into a more steady state of mind. So we'll pull Dave in

00:07:35.180 there in a moment. Hey, Dave, how's it going? I'm doing well, Corey. I'm worried that you're going

00:07:41.380 to be the first person on live TV to have their head actually explode. Well, we'll see. That was

00:07:46.520 done in scanners in some movie a long time ago. I think it traumatized me when I was a kid,

00:07:50.060 actually, for those old enough to remember it. I might be the next one coming, so.

00:07:55.260 Yeah. No, we got lots of good stuff today, Corey, and some of it will make you happy. Some of it

00:08:00.700 will get you triggered. Topping the website right now is a story that I did on Pierre Polyev,

00:08:08.060 everybody out West's favorite MP from Ontario. He was asked, he was walking in to work this morning

00:08:15.740 and a and a scrum got him and he was asked about the quote uh you know the extreme element unquote

00:08:22.060 that's attached themselves to the uh the convoy uh the the trucker's convoy and he uh quite rightly

00:08:28.540 went a bit ballistic and he took aim uh at the mainstream media he said look cbc employees have

00:08:35.580 said that they are systemically racist in that uh corporation but we don't we don't consider every

00:08:41.980 single CBC employee erased us, said Paulie. And he completely eviscerates the mainstream media,

00:08:49.760 says the truckers have kept them alive, quote unquote, for the last two years by filling

00:08:54.880 grocery shelves and, you know, the other stuff in their house. So it's a good story. And you can

00:09:01.400 watch Pierre say that stuff. We've got the video of that up on the site right now. We've also got

00:09:08.300 Paul Brandt Calgary's favorite son the country music superstar he called into the the convoy

00:09:15.120 last night to give his to give his support and he sang a bit of the old CW McCall song convoy

00:09:21.580 and I will spare the listeners any chance of me singing it because we don't want to drive

00:09:27.540 we don't want to drive them away Corey but if you go on the site right now and click on the story you

00:09:32.660 can listen to what he told the truckers. I appreciate your consideration for the ears and

00:09:38.340 eyes of the listeners there, Dave, but keep working on it. Yeah, they're the most important

00:09:42.620 thing going, Corey. So the truckers continue to be the big news. We've got a story on how

00:09:47.980 First Nations and other cultural groups like Hutterites and the veterans organizations,

00:09:55.000 they're all coming together. They're doing smudge ceremonies on the side of the highway

00:09:59.000 for the truckers, and we've got a story on that.

00:10:02.700 I get the sense that the truckers can't believe it.

00:10:05.160 They can't believe the support they are getting.

00:10:08.920 Around the world, COVID restrictions were dropped today.

00:10:12.440 In Denmark, their government announced

00:10:14.560 they're pulling all the COVID restrictions.

00:10:16.820 They ended in England.

00:10:19.380 Other European countries seem set to follow.

00:10:25.080 Interestingly enough, Trudeau has gone away.

00:10:29.000 He's gone into isolation because he said he had a contact with somebody who had COVID Wednesday night.

00:10:36.620 He took the rapid test, came back negative, but he is now going to isolate for five days

00:10:41.520 because that's what the health rules say, Corey, and he's going to be working from home.

00:10:47.000 And we've got out there our real estate reporter, Mike Thomas,

00:10:50.420 has got a real estate forecast on what's going to be happening in your market across Western Canada.

00:10:56.840 So if you're looking to buy or sell, I highly suggest you click on that story

00:11:03.520 because Mike is one of the industry's best in terms of covering that very important sector.

00:11:10.540 So that's what's up so far, Corey, but lots of good stuff to come today.

00:11:14.840 Great, Dave. Yeah, I'm going to have Mike coming into studio tomorrow to talk about a lot of that.

00:11:18.860 I mean, people are concerned. We've got a pretty crazed real estate market going on.

00:11:22.920 I mean, in the lower mainland of BC, it's just in overdrive, yet in other regions, it's real estate values are declining or staying flat.

00:11:32.260 So, I mean, how do we address that and how safe are people's investments?

00:11:35.100 It's going to be a really good chat.

00:11:36.940 Yeah, I basically want to know why my condo has stayed flat.

00:11:40.120 Why isn't it going up?

00:11:41.480 Apparently, I live in the only place in Calgary that's not going up.

00:11:44.660 But I do want to make a mention to our readers that this afternoon, we're having an exclusive interview with Justin Trudeau's half brother.

00:11:52.920 A gentleman called Kyle Kemper, and let's just say he's not a fan of Justin Trudeau, not a fan of some of his policies, and we're going to have an exclusive interview with him this afternoon.

00:12:05.160 Our Mel Rizdin is doing the interview this afternoon, and it'll be shown at 7 p.m. this evening, she tells me, as she interrupts.

00:12:16.780 I'm sorry.

00:12:17.120 No problem.

00:12:18.160 Well, great.

00:12:18.880 There's always stuff breaking in the newsroom.

00:12:21.060 I appreciate you checking in from in there.

00:12:22.560 we expect a little bit of background noise or mean you weren't too busy in there exactly you

00:12:27.000 have a good show all right thanks dave i'll talk to you later so yeah always lots breaking you know

00:12:31.920 and that that trucking story is just going on and on i mean it's really driving the traffic people

00:12:36.660 are back and forth uh unfortunately like so many things it's so polarizing uh what it's turned into

00:12:41.340 though is a a vector for a lot of other demonstrations i mean for people who are

00:12:46.020 concerned about sanctions in general or restrictions uh but it's also turned into a flashpoint for the

00:12:50.500 people who are opposed to reducing restrictions and it's just really snowballed into something

00:12:55.620 unique. I mean, I'm looking at this with optimism, but also with some apprehension. I mean, we've got

00:13:00.920 some very heated people going to Ottawa. And as we've said, there is a tiny minority within any

00:13:08.100 large protest, large group, whether it's left, right or centre, that can go off the rails, that

00:13:12.040 can take it off message, that can potentially get dangerous. I really, really, really don't want to

00:13:17.740 see that. We've got an opportunity

00:13:19.720 to kind of make history, to see Canadians standing up

00:13:21.880 in a, you know, whether agree

00:13:23.700 or disagree, in a peaceful way to

00:13:25.660 make their point in Ottawa

00:13:27.400 in such a large manner. I mean, it's making

00:13:29.780 international news, so I

00:13:31.580 really want to see this come off

00:13:33.280 rationally, peacefully

00:13:35.580 without

00:13:37.540 too much craziness, if that can be

00:13:39.560 avoided. Though, I mean, it just seems that

00:13:41.200 things can get off the rails

00:13:43.480 at times, but so far, so good. I mean, their fundraising

00:13:45.800 has just been amazing on it. As I said,

00:13:47.740 I think because a lot of Canadians, I think it's over 80,000 people have donated to that GoFundMe

00:13:52.340 account. They're supportive of that cause or at least wanting to stand up and push back. They

00:13:55.820 don't have the time or the ability. They aren't truckers to go out and drive to Ottawa and hang

00:14:00.460 around there and clog traffic for a few days, but they still want to support. So they've been

00:14:04.580 putting it in and yeah, it's over $6 million raised now. It's an astounding number. There's

00:14:09.580 been questions on where it's go. I do know one of the organizers and she's very solid person. I'm

00:14:14.000 certain, there won't be misappropriation. I can't imagine it. So, you know, you always got to watch

00:14:19.180 with large numbers. We'll see how they work to offset those costs. They just got so overwhelmed.

00:14:24.920 I mean, it's difficult to manage this and make sure it's staying on the up and up. But boy,

00:14:30.960 we've got a lot to look forward to this weekend, hopefully in a good way. I'm going to speak

00:14:35.580 quickly about one of our sponsors here, actually, before I get on to my guest who's coming up soon.

00:14:39.760 And that is, speaking of, well, yes, controversial issues, but getting rational people involved, is the Canada Shooting Sports Association.

00:14:49.060 Their website is cssa-cila.org.

00:14:54.000 Now, these guys are an organization.

00:14:55.920 I mean, their name kind of says it all.

00:14:57.060 They're in shooting sports.

00:14:58.380 They are strongly supportive of supporting you for your responsible, safe use of firearms, you know, licensed utilization and standing up for your right to do it.

00:15:08.520 making sure that you can keep your property, that you can go out target shooting if you like,

00:15:12.700 or competitive shooting, even just collecting firearms. They just want to make sure you

00:15:17.420 maintain that right and you safely do it. Nobody gets more upset with the dangerous use or criminal

00:15:23.500 use of firearms than people like the Canada Shooting Sports Association, because they and

00:15:29.140 other firearm owners like myself don't want to get smeared when the dangerous people go out and do

00:15:34.380 that. So they're encouraging responsible use of firearms, all sorts of resources there. They got

00:15:38.880 for upcoming firearms shows, they got videos and courses. And as well, they've got legal challenges

00:15:43.740 out there on behalf of firearm owners to make sure that you can maintain those rights and continue to

00:15:48.300 responsibly enjoy firearms. So check them out. Canada Shooting Sports Association. If you Google

00:15:53.840 them, it might be a bit easier, but their URL is cssa-cila.org. And you can join and become a member

00:16:00.420 and help support them because that's again, how you stand up for yourself and make sure you can

00:16:04.220 responsibly maintain your important rights and they and they are important even if you're not

00:16:09.920 into firearms it's fine but make sure that we can keep firearm owners you know working responsibly

00:16:14.480 and safely and enjoying that i mean that's where we got so much problems with this polarized world

00:16:18.480 well i don't do that so i don't think other people should be able to do that and things like that

00:16:21.920 we've got to stop it we you know we can live and let live if it's not bothering you don't sweat it

00:16:27.820 but this crazy world we're in now boy everything's black and white left and right uh that's why

00:16:33.380 again, I'm looking forward to talking to Dr. Grace. I've read some of the work she's done,

00:16:37.600 and there's been a whole lot of it on curriculum. And it's focusing on, it's a nuanced, complicated

00:16:43.340 issue. And unfortunately, the big thing that's turned it into a mess is we've had so many

00:16:47.340 politicians trying to turn it into left and right, trying to make it their mark on things,

00:16:51.780 trying to make it their ideology in that, when the only ideology should be the best

00:16:55.820 outcomes for our children. That's all, nothing else. And I don't think any government has been

00:17:01.020 innocent of you know meddling with this I mean they still always get in there and root around

00:17:07.560 like I said I like to be supportive of the UCP and I would like to be more supportive of them

00:17:12.000 but I see them making an unholy mess with this curriculum affair too and I'm worried about it

00:17:16.300 I mean this lasts for years our kids have had a hard enough time with all the pandemic restrictions

00:17:21.060 and stuff going on so maybe yeah I see her in the lobby there we'll bring Dr. Grace in and get her

00:17:26.120 to expand on that and we'll start that conversation because it's a big one and it's an important one

00:17:29.880 So hi, Dr. Grace, how are you doing?

00:17:31.640 Hi, good. Thanks for having me here, Corey.

00:17:34.520 Oh, it's a pleasure.

00:17:36.120 Maybe if you could share a bit of your background

00:17:38.680 and what you've been doing on this subject

00:17:40.620 for our readers and listeners, see what you're all about.

00:17:44.920 Sure, yeah, well, I grew up in rural Alberta.

00:17:48.140 Grew up near Concert, Veteran Alberta.

00:17:50.560 So I'm an East Central rural Alberta girl.

00:17:53.340 You know, one school to go to

00:17:54.980 and then a high school to go to.

00:17:56.300 So I know rural Alberta schools really well.

00:17:59.400 I went off and got my education and fine arts degree and actually ended up teaching at Foremost.

00:18:04.240 So another rural Alberta school went and moved to Medicine Hat.

00:18:09.200 And then it was at that point where there was a group of my little kids, my little grade one kids.

00:18:14.700 There was something off with the little girls and I caught one of them throwing out her lunch and I'm like, honey, what are you doing?

00:18:22.440 And she said, oh, we started a diet club to be like our moms.

00:18:25.240 and I was like I was just so shocked by this that and like I knew the pain of having an eating

00:18:32.680 disorder when I was in in junior high high school and I wanted to help prevent it so that led me to

00:18:38.320 get my master's in education and counseling and then that led me to a PhD where I studied youth

00:18:44.760 health and wellness and eating disorder prevention in schools evidence-based best practices for

00:18:51.040 comprehensive school health. So really having a real overall picture of what health and wellness

00:18:56.520 looks like in schools. And then in 2017, someone contacted me and said, hey, the Alberta government

00:19:06.440 is working on a new curriculum, and they're looking for community partners to review it.

00:19:11.480 So can I put your name forward? And I'm like, absolutely. That's totally up my alley. Education,

00:19:17.640 wellness comprehensive school health new curriculum it needs to be updated so I went up

00:19:23.920 I had to do an interview for to say why I would be a good person to to review it from a comprehensive

00:19:30.580 school health perspective so that's what I did and was was selected so 2017 I went up to Edmonton

00:19:37.680 to review the curriculum documents from a comprehensive school health perspective

00:19:42.800 and in 2017 I stood up in the meeting with 150 other educators and curriculum designers

00:19:49.440 and said I don't know who designed this wellness curriculum looks like a high school

00:19:55.780 phys ed teacher because it is not based on the basics of the the multiple dimensions of

00:20:02.420 comprehensive school health there's no first nation Métis Inuit content there's no francophone 0.59

00:20:07.780 content if you're talking about calorie counting and weighing kids and this has an eating disorder 0.62

00:20:14.820 it is not in best practices it is not going to fly so i spent hours handwriting over all these

00:20:20.900 documents pointing to best practice resources saying this is how we can make wellness a

00:20:26.420 foundation this is how we can really have strong healthy schools and and teach the kids to make

00:20:34.020 good choices with with their own health and wellness and give them experiences because

00:20:38.100 that's what kids need in school they don't need they don't need information thou shalt have a

00:20:42.820 good body image thou shalt eat really nutritious food they need exploration or thou shalt exercise

00:20:49.780 for 20 minutes every day no they need experiences and they need support to do that so then i was

00:20:55.620 invited back in 2018 and and was and reviewed the document again and i'm like okay this is

00:21:02.740 significantly improved it's got inclusiveness um it's got first nation metis inuit and francophone

00:21:10.500 perspectives it's got multiple dimensions of wellness we're good to go and then we're going

00:21:16.420 ready to pilot and and of course i'm only speaking to my small area which is comprehensive school

00:21:22.180 health and then we have to look at science math social studies english phys ed like all of the

00:21:29.380 other areas and there's expertise in every area um so so that being said we've got all these like

00:21:37.380 over 350 experts writing this draft and i can tell you in being there not one single person

00:21:46.340 asked me who i vote for not one single person talked about there being political interference

00:21:53.700 in the curriculum we were all there with best practices in mind and the best interest of the

00:22:00.820 children in mind so the draft was ready to be piloted in from k to four in 2019 well the ucp

00:22:08.020 were elected in april of 2019 and jason kenny's immediate promise was he was going to put the

00:22:15.300 draft in the shredder so i was worried about that i was worried but i was like nope okay they're

00:22:20.420 still promising they're going to work with the ata they're still promising you know they're going

00:22:24.900 to do this excellent curriculum so i met with my mla jason copying in october 2019 and said hey

00:22:32.500 i know you're doing this i i know you need you you guys think you need to look at the curriculum

00:22:37.460 for you know for ndp content um but i'd like to put my name forward to to continue my work on it

00:22:45.460 and he said yep sure yeah we'll put your name forward that sounds excellent well i never heard

00:22:49.860 anything that's fine never heard anything but i'm like okay they're still working on it march 30th

00:22:56.020 march 30th 2021 this new draft comes out and i'm so excited to see it and then i started reviewing

00:23:05.060 it online and all i could do is cry because every single thing that we had worked on and i had

00:23:13.780 reviewed previously was gone and it was replaced with i'll admit yes it was replaced with essential

00:23:23.700 knowledge and skills but it was done in such a way that it became this dictatorial memorization

00:23:33.700 that had no context for actual best practices and education in children's lives

00:23:40.580 and so i i just independently did a review of the wellness portion because that's my area

00:23:48.500 i'm not going to speak to anything that's outside of my area but it was it was really

00:23:54.220 frightening what i was seeing so i just submitted the review and then dr carla pep got a hold of me

00:24:00.060 she said i you know i saw saw your review because i'd submitted submitted it to a few different

00:24:05.280 places and um she asked me to be a part of the academic analysis website so a steering committee

00:24:13.360 for the alberta curriculum analysis website and so i said of course and then i started to see

00:24:20.720 the outpour of leaders in education saying how harmful this draft is going to be

00:24:29.440 and so i'm with you i listened to your introduction i want to support the ucp i want this to be a

00:24:36.240 phenomenal curriculum and the fact is right now it's not it's not so we had rallies there was

00:24:42.720 more outcry and then in december adriana lagrange said okay we're going to put a pause on some of

00:24:49.120 the areas of the curriculum we're still going to implement um english language art english english

00:24:55.040 language arts math and pe and wellness for september 2022 and i was like we can't because

00:25:05.200 this draft like my component the wellness component is going to be so harmful to kids

00:25:12.880 and then if you look at english language arts there's people saying yes there are some

00:25:17.360 foundational skills here that the ucp have put forth absolutely and there's a whole bunch of

00:25:23.920 things that are missing that were in the previous draft same with math there's significant portions

00:25:31.920 that are missing and then when i looked again recently at the wellness curriculum what they've

00:25:36.800 done is they've taken financial literacy which yes is very important and by the way it was already

00:25:43.440 in the 2018 draft it was already there so they're not doing anything new but they're they're claiming

00:25:50.080 that they are and there's these again it's facts but it doesn't match what children can learn

00:25:56.960 so children in kindergarten who can barely tie their shoes and bear and not even count to 10

00:26:02.960 are all of a sudden going to be learning about all the denominations of money as well as credit

00:26:09.440 cards so you know parents of toddlers who are going to kindergarten in the fall you better get

00:26:14.640 your child a bank account and a credit card so that they have something for show and tell at

00:26:18.800 school and then we move to grade six and they're talking about investing in stocks and mutual funds

00:26:25.760 i'm sorry kids in grade six just want to have enough money to go buy a pop and chips at the

00:26:30.320 local corner store right so i agree that all of the essential facts and skills in jason kenny's

00:26:38.640 draft a lot of them are important however they need teachers and educational experts to put it

00:26:46.640 together in a scope and sequence and manner that makes sense. Yeah. So, I mean, it's, it's a whole

00:26:52.620 lot to unpack and that's what, you know, I knew and feared as we were going to go into this,

00:26:57.160 it's, there's only so much you can cover in a, in a 15, 20 minute interview. Right. It's so

00:27:00.820 important. And I mean, as you said, wellness, I mean, I, I was reading some of that with what

00:27:04.940 you'd written on it and that's just one aspect of the curriculum alone that a person can dedicate

00:27:09.500 months into. And then we have all of the different subjects, uh, all the way along from mathematics

00:27:14.740 to social studies, which tends to be a hot point. Again, financial literacy to physical education.

00:27:21.980 And then you break that up because which age is it appropriate to get the children into those

00:27:26.520 things? So I'm wondering though, maybe, you know, how we can try and get to a more functional way

00:27:32.160 of reforming it. Is it possible that we keep trying to bite off more than we can chew when

00:27:36.720 we do an omnibus thing and try to do the entire curriculum? Maybe we can just take it out and

00:27:41.680 bites. Okay, we're going to spend three months with committees and studies and experts and work

00:27:46.240 on this section. And then we will move on to the next one. Rather than trying to make this giant

00:27:51.620 package that obviously is not going to, you know, some people are going to be dissatisfied with it

00:27:55.620 and we just get into a mess. Well, and that's what happened with the previous, with the way,

00:28:01.840 with the previous process. Like it started under the Progressive Conservative, it moved on to the

00:28:06.620 NDP. And by the way, even Jason Kenny's hand appointed experts

00:28:11.860 found zero NDP content in the social studies curriculum. So

00:28:15.980 my perspective is if there was no political interference, if

00:28:20.540 there was no content found, then why was the entire thing

00:28:24.020 scrapped when it's actually functional? And from my

00:28:28.700 perspective, if the 2018 draft wellness curriculum was

00:28:34.020 implemented this fall there would be no public outcry because it's solidly done it makes sense

00:28:40.500 same with the la draft same with the math draft if those were the ones to be piloted then there's

00:28:47.540 there's no there's no issue here and so being a person you know an educational expert who wants

00:28:54.020 to create a win-win i've been volunteering for the last two years to work with this government on it

00:28:59.220 And I'm completely ignored, as are the other experts, except those who completely agree with what Jason Kenney wants to do.

00:29:10.940 So it really has become this political power play that doesn't need to be there.

00:29:18.020 And so, yeah, go ahead, Corey.

00:29:20.620 Oh, I'm just wondering, I mean, you know, are there other jurisdictions perhaps that have models that we could look at?

00:29:27.340 And I'm not even talking about the specifics on where the curriculum goes, what's right, wrong, good, bad.

00:29:32.280 I mean, again, that's where there's just masses and masses of opinion and fact in there.

00:29:37.040 But just for the development, how can we find a functional development model so we can get something that's broadly, you know, appealable to people?

00:29:46.700 We already have one.

00:29:48.300 Dr. Carla Peck did a couple articles on her blog that are a complete outline of the curriculum development process.

00:29:55.360 And the truth is, Alberta did have one of the top models for doing it.

00:30:00.600 So the previous draft had public engagement with over 32,000 Albertans providing input before the experts were even brought in.

00:30:11.960 And then there was a few years of development with Alberta education, with the ETA, this overlap that happened.

00:30:20.180 And then there was ongoing public engagement sessions throughout the development.

00:30:24.540 then they brought in community stakeholders and expert reviewers to say yes no yes no yes no

00:30:30.880 so that process was already being used and the NDPs took that over from the from the PC

00:30:38.500 and used use the ATA as a foundation of how how we can roll up this curriculum how we can do this

00:30:46.500 properly so we've already we've already done a world-class curriculum that literally has been

00:30:52.580 thrown in the shredder by one man who believes to be, believes there needs to be more military,

00:30:59.220 political, and Christian ideology in the curriculum. And we can do that, but we can do it

00:31:08.020 in a process that actually makes sense and is going to be helpful for teachers and for students.

00:31:15.240 We can do that. We can say, okay, we want world religions in there. Let's consult with our

00:31:21.280 with our world religion experts you know um Dr. Margie Knight at King's University I believe

00:31:28.480 that's her last name I'm not 100% sure but like she's an she's an expert in how we can do that

00:31:33.860 and that's what we're missing here the previous curriculum had essential skills essential

00:31:43.320 knowledge facts and the process of how to do it so it made sense for teachers and students

00:31:49.600 this one has essential knowledge to memorize and that's it it's missing the entire process

00:31:58.360 and you're right with your comment before about let's do this in bits and pieces rather than

00:32:05.020 here's the whole thing that that is what was happening before and there's no reason we can't

00:32:12.060 continue to this, continue doing that.

00:32:15.120 And unfortunately, the people in the way

00:32:18.360 are Jason Kenney and Adriana LaGrange as policymakers

00:32:22.940 who are refusing to collaborate.

00:32:26.000 And I saw someone posted in the comment,

00:32:29.120 oh, and Dr. Angela Grace is not non-partisan.

00:32:31.580 You're right, I'm not, but none of us are.

00:32:34.520 And the point is, is to have everybody around the table

00:32:38.020 saying, how can we create a win-win?

00:32:42.060 Well, that's just it. I mean, I did some reading up and looked in your background. I suspect if we sat down for a drink or two, our political views would be quite divergent from each other on a number of issues. But in this, we can talk together. I want to see a committee when it comes to education with people from a number of political leanings and ideologies. And hopefully if they're not being too ridiculous about it, they can hammer something out that's acceptable. And that's it. And I worry about that.

00:33:09.300 I mean, I'm not going to say whether or not it happened with the NDP development or not.

00:33:13.320 That was what it was accused of.

00:33:15.200 And now the UCP, like it's just this politicization ruins.

00:33:18.800 I mean, we can't dismiss everything that comes out of one of them just because it was that party in power.

00:33:24.240 Another more immediate challenge, and if we're breaking things up, your field is wellness in that general area.

00:33:30.620 And they've been talking about, you know, trial runs of the curriculum, I guess you could say, or I forget what that's called.

00:33:35.480 but we got an extra challenge right now and that we're kind of in a singular time with the

00:33:40.600 covid 19 going on with schools being in and out and being separated uh new policies um wellness

00:33:48.840 when that comes into a curriculum how much flexibility is in there i mean you couldn't

00:33:52.680 write a curriculum for wellness and uh school policy to deal with a pandemic because we'd never

00:33:58.840 experienced anything like that before we have to be able to pivot and address these as they come

00:34:03.000 well and that's where you know that's where some like there was a partnership between

00:34:09.000 between alberta education and the and alberta health services where alberta health services

00:34:14.520 could come in with their health promotion experts and do presentations and have that overlap with

00:34:20.280 schools and the ucp cut that so that partnership was dissolved by adriana lagrange for no reason

00:34:28.600 with zero consultation and now more than ever we need to have our schools based on a foundation of

00:34:34.040 wellness for all and so there really is that capacity but you know i can only share my idea

00:34:41.000 my expertise and ideas for that when we're around the table right um yeah like well like for for

00:34:48.440 example in look and i'm doing a new review of the updates to the wellness curriculum

00:34:53.240 and for example in the kindergarten curriculum it suggests five ways that children can deal

00:35:01.480 with upset feelings by going to be by themselves go take a time out go have some space by yourself

00:35:10.280 no four and five-year-olds need connection they need to they need exploration of how they can you

00:35:16.280 know snuggle their dog or cat or hug a stuffy or get a ask an adult for help right so mental health

00:35:24.840 and wellness absolutely needs to be the foundation of of education moving forward especially

00:35:33.080 nowadays when things have been so so chaotic and that's where the joint consortium for school

00:35:39.320 health that's where a foundation in comprehensive school health can provide that i teach a course

00:35:45.720 on comprehensive school of health at the university of calgary and i will tell you in three classes

00:35:52.520 my group of 27 students knows more about comprehensive school health and how to teach it

00:35:59.240 than is anything in this new curriculum yeah well it is important i mean if kids aren't mentally

00:36:07.800 healthy or physically healthy then the learning isn't going to follow they're dealing with other

00:36:12.040 issues and we're getting better with time and learning how to deal with that and getting better

00:36:17.160 with it and and we need to have those conversations so as we start to wrap up though then what do you

00:36:23.400 think should or could be done in these next coming months to salvage this or or at least just again

00:36:28.920 best treat our children until we can figure out how to properly form a curriculum for them i know

00:36:33.560 it's a lot to pack into a few minutes but you know honestly i think right now the best thing that we

00:36:39.160 can do is put a full stop just abort the mission full stop on this draft re-engage with teachers

00:36:47.480 and educational experts from a broad variety of perspectives i'm sorry not just 12 hand-appointed

00:36:53.720 people by jason kenney and it's just not it's not sufficient you know i i was thinking of an analogy

00:37:01.880 so what's happened education now is like the eta has been around for 90 to 100 years the alberta

00:37:10.680 school councils association has been around for 90 years we have these structures that

00:37:15.640 foundationally work and support education and support our students teachers and parents

00:37:20.920 what's happened so a parallel is if you look at the alberta federation of agriculture

00:37:26.200 you know that supports all of our all of our rural alberta farmers and all of our

00:37:30.280 agriculture producers so all of our farmers my parents included have their ways of doing things

00:37:36.120 that are tried true tested and work work for them so a parallel what's happened is jason kenny has

00:37:42.280 come in is going to come in and say y'all farmers you're going to plant corn and everyone's going

00:37:49.240 to get 100 acres and that's that deal with it and the farmer the farmers would be like no corn

00:37:56.040 doesn't grow in this area it's not going to be sufficient if we all plant corn there's not going

00:38:00.440 to be diversity and kenny's response would be i don't care you're you're doing what i think is

00:38:08.520 best even though i have zero idea what your profession actually does and that's it's tragic

00:38:14.920 but that's what's happening i i and all of the other educational experts teachers academics

00:38:22.680 wellness experts, youth mental health experts, all of us want to be allies and right now we are

00:38:30.600 being treated as enemies. Now and that is just unfortunate hopefully we can get something of a

00:38:36.360 less polarized and cooperative attitude going forward because again I mean no matter where

00:38:40.840 people are coming from you know 99% of them have even if they have different views they

00:38:45.480 want the children to get the best education they possibly can. And at the end of the day that's

00:38:50.520 all we want yeah you'd sure to link in the comments uh for uh i believe it was albertacurriculumanalysis.ca

00:38:59.160 and that's where a lot of this is going on that's where that's for a lot of the evidence-based best

00:39:05.480 practices the academic reviews all of the media pieces i did a timeline um of a media timeline

00:39:12.760 of jason kenny and adriana lagrange's influence on on the curriculum and some of the pieces of

00:39:17.720 education and it's hard because get little pieces out there and people get really confused and they

00:39:25.240 don't they don't have they don't have the full picture so i'm just trying to show the full

00:39:30.280 picture of everything that's happened and encourage people reach out to your mla the

00:39:36.760 the minister of education the leader of the opposition the education critic and let let them

00:39:43.000 know what your thoughts are around it because we really are allies and we do want to turn this

00:39:47.960 around because this curriculum is going to last the next 30 to 40 years and we need to get it right

00:39:55.080 okay well thank you very much for joining me today i'm certain we could go on much

00:39:58.760 longer but that covered a lot of it and uh and where can we find more information about what

00:40:02.360 you're up to uh before you go uh you know honestly everything's going to be on albertacurriculum

00:40:07.080 analysis.ca. I do post some things on Twitter so you can follow me on Twitter as well. Right now

00:40:13.640 I'm going to go back into my little writing cave and do another review of the curriculum and see

00:40:18.920 if I can bring bring some things up to date for people. I'm also going to be hosting a public

00:40:25.000 information question and answer session once I get that review done and hopefully get some more

00:40:30.440 people engaged and talking about it. And we're also looking at doing a province-wide rally again

00:40:36.200 on April the 1st because why we chose that date is unfortunately this curriculum is a joke and

00:40:43.320 we need to rally together and say we support our we support our students teachers public education

00:40:49.640 and want the best for our kids great well thank you again for coming on let's hope eventually we

00:40:54.840 figure out what's best for our kids and get that done so yes everybody that was Dr. Angela Grace

00:40:59.800 and perhaps we'll talk again down the road. Thanks so much Corey. Thanks. So yes and yeah

00:41:06.920 Dr. Grace made it quite clear she's certainly not a Kenny supporter but she didn't pretend

00:41:11.880 you know not to be and a person can't be I mean completely unpartisan that's the way it goes and

00:41:19.000 that's fine. The thing is making sure we're hearing from all of them and that's the difficult part

00:41:23.320 when we set up our little castles our teams and so on then we don't get that broader discussion

00:41:28.420 and can't make those changes.

00:41:29.860 I mean, going further into it,

00:41:31.080 or perhaps I could talk to Dr. Grace about it

00:41:32.920 at another time or others.

00:41:34.720 I mean, part of what I see

00:41:35.760 is something that can mitigate some of this,

00:41:38.240 though I'm a strong proponent of student choice

00:41:41.100 or, you know, parental choice

00:41:42.560 of where they're going to go to school.

00:41:43.580 You still need a regulated basic curriculum, though,

00:41:46.720 to make sure the kids are getting

00:41:48.220 the best education they possibly can.

00:41:51.620 But then some of those things,

00:41:53.120 you know, charter schools, separate schools,

00:41:54.540 things like that,

00:41:55.760 aside from the private element of it,

00:41:57.440 a large area that we're really learning and getting better with now is that kids learn

00:42:02.040 differently. You can't give the same carbon copy type of learning to every child and have it work

00:42:08.020 for them. That's always been a difficult thing. Some work and learn in, you know, they can learn

00:42:13.020 from rote reading immediately and quickly. Others need a different way to get in there and catch on

00:42:18.000 to it. And when we keep doing this, this same sort of, you know, again, as I said, carbon copy

00:42:23.880 educational approach, the kids can often suffer. And there's other challenges, kids in rural areas,

00:42:28.060 I mean, you only have one school, you only have one choice, they're not going to open a large

00:42:30.880 private school, you know, way out in some of those smaller towns, you have to deal with that option.

00:42:35.480 So that general curriculum is important. Somebody else had mentioned Kaylin Ford,

00:42:40.300 and the school she's got on the go there, the charter one that just got approved. I've had

00:42:43.980 Kaylin on before. And yeah, I would like to talk to her again in the future on that,

00:42:47.980 that'd be again, more along the lines of school choice. I spent some time at a private

00:42:53.740 Academy in Vancouver Island,

00:42:55.840 Seanigan Lake School. It was all boys.

00:42:57.700 It was the old traditional 0.99

00:42:58.620 tie and

00:43:01.700 blazer.

00:43:03.420 I got a fantastic education there,

00:43:06.520 but it was also,

00:43:07.600 I look back on it, and they've improved

00:43:09.680 as a school dramatically. All schools have,

00:43:11.600 but it was a vicious environment.

00:43:13.760 They still had the cane when I was there.

00:43:15.840 Bullying was actually encouraged.

00:43:17.820 A kid who was getting picked on,

00:43:19.780 and I tell you, in a boys' school, that happens a lot.

00:43:21.580 They were told to buck up and toughen up.

00:43:23.740 this isn't good. We're getting better. That's where things like that wellness discussion come

00:43:29.780 in. You know, get a more sensitive outlook. Look at the well-being of the kids, their emotional

00:43:34.400 state. Because you can't learn when you're fearing for your life about a bully or if you've got other

00:43:38.520 issues going on. It's not good for you. But it's just such a massive, broad subject. And it's such

00:43:46.320 an important one, of course. I mean, all of us who've been through education, that's our formative

00:43:49.420 years. That sets us up for how we're going to be for the rest of our lives. And we have way too

00:43:54.480 many politicians screwing around, playing games with it. And it's just not serving our children

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00:45:11.500 So, yes, let's see what we got going on.

00:45:14.500 One of the things I want to go on,

00:45:15.520 the trucker issue is going to be coming up again,

00:45:17.160 and I've been watching that with a lot of interest and excitement.

00:45:19.160 Yesterday, in the last few days,

00:45:20.060 I've been doing updates on the fundraising

00:45:22.080 because I feel that whatever happens on Ottawa,

00:45:24.740 just this site alone, though, is really indicating

00:45:26.800 what kind of trend of broad support this is getting across the nation

00:45:31.440 with people who are reaching into their wallets to reach out and help.

00:45:34.040 I just see another person there donated to Esther Taylor, $6.

00:45:37.680 You know, it's not all massive donors.

00:45:39.780 So let's see, the total right now is $6,178,000, I checked it about 20 minutes ago, I'll refresh

00:45:47.180 it, it's now $6,223,800, that is from over 80,000 individual donors, like we are watching

00:45:57.860 something outstanding going on, something unusual and brilliant, and I mean this could

00:46:04.340 turn into something fantastic, I worry about the risk of it turning into a disaster, but

00:46:09.180 when you've got 80,000 people, individuals reaching into their pocket, and these are tough

00:46:14.840 times and funding this sort of thing, you've got something really, really special going on. And I'm

00:46:22.140 just overjoyed in watching what's happening with it. Again, I do fear for things going bizarre. I

00:46:27.740 mean, it's when you've got truly grassroots going on, you don't have strong central control. You

00:46:32.620 don't have an organized way of keeping it together. So hopefully this almost spontaneous

00:46:38.600 thing in Ottawa goes great. I suspect it will. I mean, let's shake up the establishment. Let's

00:46:45.300 let them know that people are upset. Here's some news that just came out recently. Let's talk about

00:46:51.480 bad protesters. Those idiots who were illegally blockading workers in on the coastal gas link 1.00

00:46:58.940 pipeline. You might remember that back there a little while back. They built buildings right 1.00

00:47:02.880 on the road. They blocked the workers from getting food and water. See, that's the kind of protesting

00:47:07.520 that's beyond the absurd. Yet you didn't hear Trudeau calling them extremists, that coward. No, 1.00

00:47:11.680 you wouldn't call them that. He let that go. Eventually, the police had to come in and raid

00:47:16.080 them. And it turns out there were actually CBC funded reporters embedded in there. Yes, our tax

00:47:21.400 dollars were paying for these jackasses to take part in a legal blockade on a road for the coastal 1.00

00:47:26.460 gasoline. Well, Blacklock News

00:47:28.580 covered that today with some of the stuff coming

00:47:30.560 out. The Public Safety Department

00:47:32.460 in a November 25th internal briefing note

00:47:34.420 said facts contradicted media accounts

00:47:36.340 of the RCMP raid. You see, these

00:47:38.420 CBC hacks who were in there,

00:47:40.560 our tax-funded hacks, had locked themselves

00:47:42.680 into a building with the protesters and

00:47:44.420 forced the police to drag them out. And then

00:47:46.420 they released some footage of it. Oh, look at these

00:47:48.320 big, evil, militarized police dragging

00:47:50.580 out innocent protesters. They were all screaming there

00:47:52.520 at the press pretty quickly when the police got there because 0.99

00:47:54.500 they wanted to cover their own asses. It was really pathetic. But either way, the facts are 1.00

00:47:59.860 coming out in the briefings in the public safety department. And the occupants of that

00:48:02.960 cabin were given more than an hour to leave. They made repeated insulting remarks to police,

00:48:09.500 and they never identified themselves as journalists until the RCMP chainsawed their way

00:48:13.620 into the door, set a briefing note on the coastal gas link pipeline protests. So this is the kind

00:48:20.900 to protest Prime Minister Hammerhead won't talk about, you know, he won't talk about how they're

00:48:25.800 extreme, how they shouldn't be taking tax dollars. Yet, we're going to call a protest with 80,000

00:48:32.260 donors of individuals willingly giving money to it. Something full of extremists, white supremacists, 0.96

00:48:38.100 all of the usual tripe. And I see it's backfiring on them. Trudeau's gone into hiding. Oh, look at 0.97

00:48:43.120 that. He happens to have come in contact. He hasn't even tested positive. He came in contact,

00:48:47.580 apparently was somebody who tested positive for COVID. So now he's going to spend five days in

00:48:51.700 hiding, make sure he saves the world from the common cold. Come on, feed me another. He's hiding.

00:48:57.360 And hey, I don't blame him. Look at all the people coming there. I'm not saying they're

00:49:00.680 going to come there and harm him, but it would put him into an awkward situation. And we know

00:49:04.040 how well Trudeau responds when he has to respond to an issue on his feet. He's not exactly the

00:49:08.480 sharpest crayon in the box there. I will bring a sharp crayon in in a moment, though. I'll segue

00:49:14.200 way into that. I see her in the lobby. I've got Andy Lee. Those who are on Twitter are familiar 1.00

00:49:19.820 with her. She's done some political runs in the past. She does a lot of investigative stuff as 1.00

00:49:26.360 essentially a citizen journalist. And of course, she's been very outspoken on the trucker's convoy

00:49:31.880 and digging into things. And I'm really looking forward to talking to her. So let's bring her in

00:49:35.840 here and see what Andy has to say.

00:49:40.160 There we go. Hey, do you prefer Andrea or Andy?

00:49:44.120 Andy works for me.

00:49:46.280 Thank you very much, Corey. It's good to be here.

00:49:48.800 Yeah. No, I appreciate you coming on. Some people have asked

00:49:51.360 you to get Andrea on there. Sure. I'm happy to.

00:49:54.640 Yeah. Yeah. It's really a busy time. So, you know, obviously

00:50:00.440 I met up with a convoy. I'm going to be meeting up with him

00:50:02.900 again tomorrow for the final leg uh you know it's really hard to get information on what's going on

00:50:09.800 right now because they are being very cautious as to who they talk about we have seen you know

00:50:15.420 journalists and and bad actors sort of you know embed themselves within movements before um so

00:50:22.540 you know they're they're aware that that sort of thing is happening um and so you know they're

00:50:28.140 they're being you know they're proceeding with the utmost caution and only sort of speaking with

00:50:32.440 you know certain people that they've deemed to be you know real news yeah and it cuts both ways i

00:50:39.680 mean i understand their reticence you know if you talk to a cbc reporter they can pull things out

00:50:44.460 of context and they're known for doing it and things like that but at the same time you do want

00:50:48.240 to be communicative because if you aren't speaking up for your the the movement then people will do

00:50:53.200 it on your behalf and they'll take control of the narrative and that makes it a challenging

00:50:57.860 yeah i mean that's part of the challenge is you know you know and i i hope they'll get a media

00:51:03.780 spokesperson moving forward uh to address some of this because if you don't address it then it's

00:51:09.940 speculative and there's been a lot of speculative and you know there's the this sort of unusual

00:51:15.860 narrative going on that this is a convoy of white supremacists uh you know this is a bunch of

00:51:21.700 terrorists extremists things like that i mean i can tell you and this is why i joined the

00:51:26.900 convoys i wanted to see right i wanted to be honest and be like what is this movement and 0.93

00:51:33.060 you know that that's just not what i saw i saw a lot of diverse people who are very very angry

00:51:39.140 not just at vaccine mandates but at our government in general uh so you know it's very important to

00:51:45.060 say that this has evolved from the initial sort of complaints and it's gotten much larger than that

00:51:51.300 it's you know it's enveloping lockdowns it's enveloping mask mandates uh so you know it's

00:51:59.220 the purpose is really broader than than what the initial sort of grassroots movement started out as

00:52:05.380 and that's why i joined the convoys i wanted to see what what what they were doing and what they

00:52:09.780 were all about and you know they've been doing a lot of wonderful things actually and and they're

00:52:15.780 really you know creating a sense of unity that our government has not been able to do

00:52:21.860 and i think that that's why you know we're seeing them hiding is that you know these truckers have

00:52:28.260 captured hearts and minds and spirits of canadians uh you know and they're accomplishing something

00:52:35.940 that our government hasn't done and that's very terrifying for them that we're all going

00:52:42.020 to show up there and we're all gonna be standing together and uh you know so yes so now so justin

00:52:48.580 trudeau is not going to come out but i mean that's okay we're gonna still be there on tuesday

00:52:54.980 when he gets out of isolation and i think the thing is is that he's got an opportunity here

00:53:02.340 um you know he can come out and he can you know face his citizens and we are all his citizens

00:53:10.340 you know he didn't sign up to be prime minister to represent a segment of canadians that he deemed

00:53:16.660 worthy that's not his job his job is to represent all canadians so canadians are coming to his

00:53:23.060 doorstep and you know he has an opportunity to address them and to uh you know hear their

00:53:30.820 concerns and to try to find a way to move forward uh past this that is agreeable to everybody so

00:53:39.540 I do hope that that opportunity will be taken by Parliament.

00:53:45.160 I certainly hope so.

00:53:46.160 We can't measure what's going to happen in Ottawa on the Hill yet.

00:53:50.040 So that's why I use measures, as I said, with updates on the fundraiser,

00:53:52.780 because I just find it interesting if we're talking, as you said,

00:53:56.740 about a prime minister who didn't win on a majority

00:53:59.040 and not the majority of the country supports him.

00:54:00.760 So, I mean, he can't get on that high horse anyways.

00:54:02.700 If he got elected with 80%, then perhaps he could do that, but he didn't.

00:54:05.720 So he's got to bear in mind the other people who didn't support him.

00:54:08.140 he is the Prime Minister for us all, whether we like it or not. And I compared some of those

00:54:12.960 numbers recently on Twitter, though, because if we're looking at support, well, the Liberals

00:54:15.840 raised three and a half million dollars in their first quarters over three months from 30,000

00:54:20.400 people. Meanwhile, this trucking convoy has raised over six million dollars from 80,000 people in

00:54:25.660 two weeks. You can't pretend this doesn't have some broad support across this country and growing

00:54:31.520 support. You don't have to agree with that support, but address it. There's concerns. Obviously,

00:54:35.980 people are very, very upset and they're getting behind this. And yes, it's more than truckers.

00:54:42.940 Yeah. I mean, it's not going away. They're extremely well-funded, you know, and it's not

00:54:47.860 just a couple of people who are funding them. You know, we've seen a lot of outpouring of support.

00:54:52.820 I mean, a relative of Jagmeet Singh funded the convoy, right?

00:54:56.900 Yes, he did.

00:54:58.140 So, I mean, you know, over half of our truckers are of South Asian descent. 0.97

00:55:02.860 um so there you know we've got a lot of people who are included under this this sort of blanket

00:55:09.320 term you know that's been coined that say that these are a bunch of unvaccinated white people

00:55:14.880 who are heading to ottawa that's that's not the case at all um and you know they're well funded

00:55:20.460 and they intend to stay they're not just driving to ottawa yeah you know they're there for the long

00:55:28.540 hall they they have no intention of of going anywhere until there's some sort of a reasonable

00:55:35.340 dialogue created between them and the government and i know a lot of people have looked at the

00:55:40.780 memorandum of understanding and uh you know maybe rightfully critiqued it and that's okay um but

00:55:48.460 you know i think the point is that underneath of that that there's a very powerful movement going

00:55:54.460 on it's got a lot of support and it doesn't matter if there's 500 truckers or 5 000 truckers who show

00:56:00.860 up um because for every trucker that shows up they've got a hundred or five hundred or thousand

00:56:07.180 supporters behind them so that's the real story there is that you know it doesn't matter how many

00:56:13.900 people show up in ottawa these truckers have captured the nation they've actually captured

00:56:20.060 the world you know if you go on the radio there's people radioing in from all over the world giving

00:56:25.820 them their support uh so you know it's not something that our government's going to be able

00:56:31.740 to ignore no and then people people are coming from all over that weren't even involved in politics

00:56:37.820 i was quite surprised it's purely anecdotal but i came home you know last night from work and i was

00:56:41.500 talking to jane and some friends of ours who we never even knew were even politically you know

00:56:45.740 watching or involved i mean we never really discussed those things they decided on a whim

00:56:49.500 you know what we got some time we're packing up the car going on a road trip and we're gonna go 0.96

00:56:52.940 to this Ottawa thing holy crap you know I mean a political lunatic like me or some others that I 0.68

00:56:58.060 know I could see that but these guys were it's out of the blue and I mean if they if they were 0.91

00:57:02.620 are doing this how many more I mean how much and that's just what I'm just thrilled with this big

00:57:07.900 question mark on what we've got coming this weekend all we know is it's going to be big

00:57:11.740 i i think it's a lot so i think um rcmp is expecting about 10 000

00:57:18.460 uh i'd say that's probably a very fair number of people to expect

00:57:25.580 um but like i said i think that as this drags on like we're seeing that the government obviously is

00:57:32.060 not going to come out and sort of address the protesters on parliaments this weekend as as

00:57:38.380 was hoped so you know i think as this drags on and as they continue to ignore it i do expect it to

00:57:45.420 actually grow and get larger um you know so i think that that's a real misstep being made

00:57:53.020 uh by parliament hill is that they should be coming out they should be talking to their their

00:57:58.380 citizens they should be talking to the canadians and trying to find out if there's you know common

00:58:04.780 ground and how this is going to end because everybody wants it to end well right we don't

00:58:12.220 want I mean that's the last thing that anybody wants is you know anything bad to happen we don't

00:58:18.600 want any aggression or anything like that and the truckers it's very very important to distinguish

00:58:24.100 that is that they're calling for a peaceful protest and a lot of people will take this

00:58:29.540 movement and try to manipulate it and try to make it into something that is not what it's meant to

00:58:36.280 be and that's not what it's meant to be at all it's meant to be a peaceful protest i traveled

00:58:40.740 with these people people said well they're terrorists they're shutting down roadways

00:58:44.180 no no they're not at all right now they're people traveling from point a to point b

00:58:49.180 if they wanted to shut down roadways they could shut down roadways that's not what they're doing

00:58:55.320 right? Right now they're taking their protest to Ottawa and that's where they need to take it,

00:59:01.400 right? Now what happens when they get to point B is, you know, it's really going to be up to

00:59:05.960 the government. The government needs to come out and they need to, you know, meet this head-on

00:59:12.280 and they really, really need to address, you know, these concerns for everybody to

00:59:17.960 to move forward and, you know, in a good manner, in a peaceful manner.

00:59:21.760 And it's grabbing imagination and support from all around the world.

00:59:25.060 As Nico just pulled up, if you saw, you know, Elon Musk, of all people, coming out in support.

00:59:29.580 I mean, this is a man known all over the world.

00:59:32.460 I mean, whether you like or dislike Elon, I saw a commenter wasn't too fond of him.

00:59:35.360 And that's fair enough.

00:59:36.560 But, I mean, it's an indication of just how huge this is getting.

00:59:40.600 I mean, you know, people are using this as their proxy pushback throughout North America, essentially.

00:59:46.020 Saying this is the movement we've been waiting for to shake the establishment on it.

00:59:49.620 And as you said, they're not blocking the highways.

00:59:52.160 But I mean, we talked about that during the pipeline last night when we recorded it, too.

00:59:55.960 For those who haven't been to Ottawa, though, and when those trucks get there,

00:59:59.680 downtown Ottawa and around Parliament, those are narrow streets without a heck of a lot of parking.

01:00:04.740 There's been a lot of disparate numbers about how many trucks and cars and everything are going to be showing up.

01:00:09.680 Nobody really knows for sure, but we know it's going to be a lot.

01:00:12.580 And they're going to be staying.

01:00:13.660 And it is going to choke up downtown Ottawa brutally for a while.

01:00:19.280 And maybe that memorandum of understanding, I don't say maybe, I don't believe it's reasonable, but it's a starting point.

01:00:25.060 There's going to have to be some kind of discussion.

01:00:27.160 We're going to have to talk about something because, as you said, when they've got millions in the bank,

01:00:31.480 people who are happily funding people to stay in their sleepers, buy food and stay there, they're going to stay for a while.

01:00:38.000 yeah yeah so yeah i mean uh you know i think ottawa should have been and you know they they

01:00:45.540 were they were warned put it that way they knew that the convoy was coming you know apparently

01:00:50.520 yesterday they just started making preparations for this um so but i mean you know if you follow

01:00:57.800 the radio and if you travel with the convoy you would know that you know the convoy has been

01:01:02.660 working with law enforcement the entire time um to try to make sure that yes i mean we've got a lot

01:01:09.140 of people we've got a lot of big trucks and we've got a lot of followers you know sort of families

01:01:14.020 following along and things like that so yeah we want to make sure that you know everybody is

01:01:19.620 you know proceeding safely in and out of check spots in cities and things like that and so we've

01:01:26.100 we've gotten a police escort in and out of of you know stops and things like that and that's how

01:01:33.060 it has to be uh it has to be done right it has to be a collaborative uh you know and a coordination

01:01:40.660 to you know make sure that that this these convoys roll into the cities and uh you know don't sort of

01:01:48.020 get into because you know as much as people have the right to protest people also have the right

01:01:53.860 not to protest it's a very important thing to know you have a right to protest but people also

01:01:59.380 have a right not to protest so you know we're trying to make sure that that these aren't

01:02:04.900 blocking people who are going about their everyday lives and people who don't want to protest

01:02:09.700 um but i mean ottawa should have been should have been preparing for this a long time ago

01:02:14.980 uh you know for them to just start preparing yesterday is typical ottawa right yeah we're

01:02:21.460 always 10 steps behind death by committee they knew they knew a week ago that you know we were

01:02:27.700 coming so uh you know if things are not well coordinated when the truckers show up at ottawa

01:02:33.940 you know i think that that's on ottawa well i think some of it i mean the best defense against

01:02:40.900 uh radical or unreasonable minority is an overwhelming rational controlled majority i

01:02:46.820 mean there's gonna be a lot of people there i'm sure i've seen that discussion from some of the

01:02:50.740 the other saying they're going with the convoy, they're going out saying, look, we don't want to

01:02:56.660 see this. We don't want to see people doing anything beyond the pale, vandalizing things,

01:03:00.380 getting violent. If there's only one of these lunatics trying to make a mess versus hundreds

01:03:07.320 and hundreds of rational supporters, they will be overwhelmed. You can police yourselves. And we 0.74

01:03:12.580 can't expect a handful of Ottawa police to stop things if they go off the rails with a whole pile

01:03:17.120 people but a whole pile of good rational demonstrators can ensure that that doesn't happen

01:03:23.120 yeah i mean i'm trying to work with the convoy about getting some you know some professional

01:03:28.000 sort of event organizers um because this you know when it started out nobody knew it was going to

01:03:34.640 blow up like this it was very much unexpected uh you know how where it where it came and so you know

01:03:42.080 i'm sort of urging them that since they've got this funding to get some professional

01:03:46.720 event organizers who are able to you know be uh liaisons with with police and with law enforcement

01:03:54.720 and things like that uh you know to make sure that as the protests progresses that everybody's

01:04:02.160 in touch and you know everything is you know run smoothly and that everybody's working together

01:04:09.600 that's very important absolutely so you're gonna be there how long do you intend to stay

01:04:14.960 with the convoy and the protests um well i'm i'm not sure i've got two young children

01:04:22.400 so i i'm flying into friday or tomorrow friday i'm flying into toronto to get that leg uh and

01:04:30.480 then yeah we've got a small mini convoy who's going to kingston for the night and then we'll

01:04:37.280 be going from kingston to parliament hill on saturday so i expect to be there at least until

01:04:43.120 tuesday and on tuesday i do expect some sort of an address from the government to happen

01:04:51.600 after justin trudeau comes out of his uh his isolation um i am expecting by then

01:04:58.960 probably there's going to be you know some acknowledgement of what's going on there

01:05:03.760 so i'd like to capture that great i'm just kind of getting at something too i'm hoping i'll be

01:05:08.480 able to check in with you on monday perhaps even uh you know we can do these even through phone and

01:05:12.640 so on because i mean if people in alberta really want to see updates on what's happening as it's

01:05:16.160 going and and not through ctv and cbc uh so i'll talk to you uh offline you know a little later

01:05:21.760 but uh i sure hope we can hear some more absolutely absolutely yeah i'll probably be in my car

01:05:29.680 you know but that's that's okay that that's how this is rolling and and yeah and that would be

01:05:35.280 great because you know i'm not looking for sort of you know the few people who are maybe looking

01:05:41.040 to derail this protest i'm looking for the good that's coming of it and there are good stories

01:05:47.760 that are coming out of it and there's a lot of unity and there's a lot of support

01:05:51.840 and it's giving people a lot of hope so that's that's what i'm there looking for and so i'm

01:05:56.960 hoping to you know find a lot of that and i think it will fantastic yes well we'll be looking forward

01:06:02.080 to watching it i appreciate you coming on and i want to talk to you again down the road because

01:06:05.600 i know you've done a whole bunch of other investigative stuff we talked about a little

01:06:08.240 while ago just kind of got preempted by the convoy right now so uh i'm certain we'll talk

01:06:12.720 again thanks again for coming on and where can people keep track of what you're doing uh andy

01:06:17.680 yeah well uh you know i'm i'm hannah bananas on twitter it's a funny handle but i used to be

01:06:23.840 anonymous so uh you know i'm getting inundated with messages right now and i'm trying to get

01:06:30.240 together like i said in my own group to head on to ottawa so sorry if you know i'm not manning

01:06:36.640 things the way I usually am, that people can message me, message me there, of course.

01:06:42.240 Great. Well, thank you very much. I'll let you get on with organizing, get ready to travel,

01:06:45.760 and I look forward to talking to you soon, Andy. Thanks, Corey. We'll see you again shortly.

01:06:49.920 You bet. All right. So yes, see, that's a great getting reports. There's rational people going to

01:06:56.560 watch this, take part in this and cover it for us. Always good to hear from Andy. So I see it

01:07:01.920 breaking uh dave uh nailer is in the lobby there it sounds like as we brought up during the thing

01:07:06.960 that uh just that our website's kind of blowing up over this elon musk endorsement of the truckers

01:07:12.240 hey dave oh it certainly is uh corey talk about out of this world endorsement uh the space pioneer

01:07:19.680 uh just a short time ago tweeted his support saying uh canadian truckers rule uh this is a

01:07:26.240 guy worth 242 billion so uh if he's throwing his support behind him maybe he wants to throw a few

01:07:32.720 pennies their way into the the gofundme thing but uh it's just interesting to see all the different

01:07:38.400 levels of support cory from you know from first nations on the side of the road to calgary country

01:07:44.400 star paul brant singing to them uh to elon musk you know uh to even get the attention of this guy

01:07:52.080 uh you know we can imagine he's so busy but for him to take the time out to tweet uh canadian

01:07:57.840 truckers rule that's that's just got to give a lift to uh every single one of those truckers that

01:08:03.120 uh that are heading east at the moment cory yeah this just keeps getting bigger and bigger and as

01:08:08.000 andy was saying you know they're planning on staying there for days like trudeau can't hide

01:08:12.400 out in self-imposed quarantine forever and hope this will go away they're gonna have to come up

01:08:16.720 with a plan on how to address this yeah exactly uh trudeau's gone for five days now self self

01:08:25.680 quarantine because of a close coveted contact apparently he's already tested negative but

01:08:32.080 he's going to follow the health rules to the letter and he's going away for five days uh

01:08:38.400 so that that rules him out monday so he won't be around monday for the opening of parliament

01:08:42.960 and the big protests. So I don't think there's any chance whatsoever of him actually meeting with

01:08:49.920 these truckers or coming face to face or addressing the protest whatsoever. I'm sure he'll find a way

01:08:55.520 out of it. Great. Well, thanks for coming to keep us up to date on that, Dave. Always on things as

01:09:01.600 they're breaking. I mean, we hit them as soon as they're coming. That's just that difference between

01:09:05.440 us and a lot of those alternative news sites. We are live, guys. We got a full newsroom in there

01:09:09.760 following this as it breaks. So keep going to westernstandardonline.com and watching our

01:09:14.460 Twitter account and Facebook and seeing Dave and Mel and Eva and the rest putting those stories up

01:09:20.200 as they break. Thanks, Corey. Yeah, we'll get back to work now. Great. So yeah, it just keeps

01:09:28.220 developing and bigger names are getting behind this and involved. And I know people worry about

01:09:32.220 celebrity culture, but hey, it makes a difference. It does. You know, when those endorsements come in,

01:09:36.760 it spreads it wider. In some of the comments, yes, everybody, of course, likes Hannah Bananas,

01:09:41.620 you know, Michael Pitchford saying she's a Canada's rock star. The Usual Suspect 2013 saying

01:09:46.940 Global got their hit piece, some rando got in their face. Yeah, you know, there's going to be

01:09:51.020 people getting in the face of the media and they love that. Well, the reporter themselves might not

01:09:54.580 quite love the experience. Let's, you know, be kind with them on us. They're just doing a job

01:09:59.360 even if you don't like that. And we're not nice to them, I assure you. And Global has been horrible.

01:10:02.700 I mean, I ripped into their garbage reporting the other day. 0.97

01:10:05.440 But again, don't attack journalists. 0.89

01:10:07.180 It doesn't help.

01:10:07.760 It doesn't do any good.

01:10:08.420 Just don't talk to them.

01:10:09.640 And that's where we've got people like Andy Lee and things like the Western Standard to

01:10:13.220 cover these things.

01:10:14.740 So you don't have to rely on that crappy mainstream media. 0.97

01:10:18.700 And it is crappy.

01:10:20.360 And we're going to be there and we're going to get the story direct to you.

01:10:24.000 I'm not sure if Nico's got it on deck, but speaking of people speaking up for it, I mean,

01:10:28.000 some politicians have been hiding, but Pierre Polyev has been very vocal.

01:10:30.940 and he gave a great statement there

01:10:33.900 the other day. We're going to play that video

01:10:36.120 because I just like hearing some good words

01:10:38.080 from a politician rather than all the dodging or even

01:10:39.940 negative stuff.

01:10:41.220 What do you mean to the extreme elements trying to latch on

01:10:43.900 to the tough convoy?

01:10:45.220 Well, you know what I think is interesting

01:10:46.860 is that

01:10:48.840 when there's a left-wing

01:10:51.860 protest on Parliament Hill, we don't see

01:10:53.840 the liberal media going

01:10:55.940 through every single name of the

01:10:57.940 people who attends to try and find one

01:10:59.940 person that they can disparage the whole group with. CBC, for example, has been accused by its

01:11:11.420 own employees of systemic racism, and yet we don't see the media here generalize that everyone who

01:11:18.000 works at the CBC is a racist. Whenever you have five or ten thousand people who are part of any

01:11:25.240 group you're bound to have a number who have or say unacceptable things and they

01:11:35.260 should be individually responsible for the things they say and do but that

01:11:41.140 doesn't mean we disparage the thousands of hard-working law-abiding and

01:11:47.880 peaceful truckers who quite frankly have kept all of you alive the last two years

01:11:53.680 by filling your grocery shelves with the food that you eat

01:11:57.720 and filling your homes with the products that you rely upon.

01:12:01.840 So I think that it is possible to hold individually responsible

01:12:07.080 anyone who says or does anything unacceptable

01:12:10.060 while showing support for the hardworking, law-abiding, peace-loving truckers

01:12:19.640 who are fighting for their freedom and their livelihoods

01:12:23.280 and on whom we have defended, we have depended for our very existence over the last two years.

01:12:31.560 Isn't that brilliant? I mean, so refreshing out of a politician. That wasn't a staged speech,

01:12:36.160 you know, they grabbed him on the steps, and that's what he put out there. As Claudette said,

01:12:39.980 he should have been leader. Yeah, I really, really wish Pierre was the leader of the Conservative

01:12:43.820 Party. He's young. I suspect we might see him in that role yet. Who knows? I can't speak for Pierre.

01:12:48.580 I've reached out, I'd love to get him on the show

01:12:51.100 but he's quite busy

01:12:53.080 he hasn't quite gotten back on that yet

01:12:55.420 but if we can get him, we certainly will

01:12:57.020 and just that reminder that not all the politicians

01:12:59.420 boy, way too many of them, that's for sure

01:13:01.180 but not all of them are

01:13:03.160 mushrooms like Aaron O'Toole

01:13:04.800 you know, they're willing to take a stand, they're willing

01:13:07.120 to speak up on behalf of their constituents

01:13:09.020 on Canadians and give a rational

01:13:11.440 response and give it back to them

01:13:13.100 you know, he swiped at that mainstream media

01:13:15.060 he pointed out their selective

01:13:17.140 coverage on what they're going to look at. And it's just great to see him speak up like that.

01:13:23.120 And, you know, I'll get to a story from BlackRock's reporter again, which talks about the

01:13:26.820 mainstream media. They're out begging for tax dollars again, for more. They already got 600

01:13:30.800 million from Justin. And that's reflecting on the horrific liberal leaning coverage we've been

01:13:36.500 seeing lately, that god awful global piece the other day and more stuff coming out of them,

01:13:41.160 CTVs, constant stuff. If you don't want to try and pretend that the government handing out money

01:13:45.100 media outlets doesn't make a difference. Let's have a look at it. Though I'm not sure if the TV

01:13:48.560 ones got that. I got to be fair. That was mostly to print media, but it impacts the whole works.

01:13:52.300 They're tied together, guys. And so he's saying this lobbyist for News Media Canada, it's a trade

01:13:59.620 group, and they managed to get that 600 million in federal grants. His name's Irving, his first

01:14:04.940 name handy here. And yes, he is a member of the Irving family. People in New Brunswick area are

01:14:09.460 familiar. These are some billionaires out there. They are the heavyweights of New Brunswick. Well,

01:14:14.480 they're saying that we need to spend more tax dollars to fund mainstream media outlets. Come

01:14:20.960 on, look at the garbage they're giving us. So yeah, as there's my self-serving rant, 0.99

01:14:25.120 we don't get tax dollars. I had somebody complaining on Twitter at me, your stuff's

01:14:29.680 behind a paywall. Well, yes, we have to pay our bills. We have great reporters like Dave and Mel

01:14:35.700 and Eva and others around the country, columnists. It takes resources and we get that from our

01:14:43.540 subscribers. And for $10 a month, I mean, come on, just remember a few years ago, you used to have

01:14:48.160 to get a newspaper subscription, you'd pay that much and get it delivered to your door, and then

01:14:52.400 you'd have all that paper to get rid of all the time. For less than that, you can subscribe to

01:14:56.660 the Western Standard, and you get a two-week trial free. So, I mean, check it out, it's risk-free.

01:15:01.220 Spend two weeks. If you really don't think it's worth $10 a month to you, then don't renew. But

01:15:04.840 you know what, we've got like well over 90, 95% of the people who take the trial carry on with

01:15:09.360 their subscription and that's how we can keep creating this content so I'm sorry if it upsets

01:15:14.880 some folks if it's behind a paywall and I know some people are tight for money even $10 a month

01:15:18.140 can feel like a bunch but at least you know you're paying for it anyways with the mainstream they're

01:15:22.180 just getting it through tax dollars at least this way it's up front so go to westernstandardonline.com

01:15:28.280 slash membership take out a membership and help us that's how we can keep again creating this

01:15:33.960 content for you i mean it's just important keep media independent and that's the only way and

01:15:39.440 we've got membership by the way has been fantastic they're coming in so share us you know share our

01:15:44.220 news stories share the facebook link you know like us subscribe on youtube all those things

01:15:48.660 you always hear on social media i know it gets tiresome but that really helps spread it and

01:15:52.560 keeps us solid it keeps us growing and then we just keep coming up with that content and then

01:15:56.380 we get more and more subscribers we get more and more sponsors at all you know because then we can

01:15:59.580 improve viewers and readers, and we can get that.

01:16:03.480 So we'll get my final ad with Bitcoin Well with you guys today.

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01:16:46.760 a plan quite soon myself. So bitcoinwell.com, check these guys out. So let's see, O'Toole

01:16:54.700 could claim he never supported the protest

01:16:56.660 if it goes off the rails. Yeah, you see he's covering his butt 0.99

01:16:58.720 you know, he's being a mushroom 0.99

01:17:00.360 and that's how he loses though right

01:17:02.060 you've got to take a stand

01:17:04.660 somewhere or you

01:17:06.680 just fall by the wayside

01:17:08.100 as I said, O'Toole's just

01:17:10.540 showing himself to be another Trudeau but without

01:17:12.140 the hair to you know brag about

01:17:14.660 I mean he's just

01:17:15.700 not what we need right now 0.88

01:17:18.240 so Polyev is basically the real

01:17:20.480 leader of the opposition. Candace Bergen

01:17:22.220 some other members of parliament have gotten up

01:17:24.320 and spoken openly, at least supportively of this.

01:17:27.280 I mean, they're not supporting extremists

01:17:28.960 within the convoy.

01:17:30.280 They're not trying to goad on any unlawfulness.

01:17:34.620 They're recognizing that there's something

01:17:36.440 very big going on,

01:17:38.940 and it's represented by a lot of Canadians,

01:17:40.800 and we have to address it.

01:17:41.960 It's going to be amazing to see what happens this weekend.

01:17:44.640 I'm looking forward.

01:17:45.280 I'm glad Andy committed to giving us some updates

01:17:47.520 on what's happening.

01:17:48.180 I'll give you another one of those updates,

01:17:49.260 actually, on the Freedom Convoy fundraising site.

01:17:51.060 Like I said, it's the best measure we've got right now.

01:17:53.740 So let's see.

01:17:54.220 $6,223,000. I'll give it a refresh. $6,263,000 now in what? 20 minutes since I last updated you.

01:18:05.740 So as Andy was talking about, see if that fund is there and it's funding these truckers to stay

01:18:09.780 parked and protesting and living in Ottawa essentially and fed, they can stay there a long

01:18:16.600 time. And Ottawa has to do something about it. Peacefully, these guys are protesting. They're

01:18:22.880 putting Ottawa on the spot, running away and hiding as Trudeau is doing is not going to make

01:18:28.180 this go away. It's only going to get worse. So stand up, address it, figure out what's going

01:18:35.160 wrong, do something about it. We're seeing vaccine mandates dropping all around the world. Maybe it's

01:18:40.320 time we did. I mean, we've seen the vaccines and I'm not anti-vaccination. We've gone over that.

01:18:44.820 I know supporters get all wild when I get vaccinated. I'll probably get the booster too,

01:18:48.000 because I do believe it reduces your chances of being in hospital here, but clearly it doesn't

01:18:51.640 reduce spread. It doesn't. It doesn't do a damn thing for it. Omicron cut through it like a hot

01:18:56.380 knife through butter. So why are we hindering businesses with these ridiculous vaccine 0.99

01:19:01.260 passports? You know, and that was interesting out of Jason Kenney. I like the language out of him 0.82

01:19:06.280 and Premier Mo on this. I mean, they were supportive of the truckers. They were saying

01:19:09.160 we should lift the mandates for those truckers across the border. I agree, Premier Kenney,

01:19:13.320 but you have it in your power to lift the vaccine mandates in our restaurants and bars right now,

01:19:17.180 too. So get on with it. If it doesn't stop the spread, then why are we doing it? You're reducing

01:19:23.780 customers on these hurting businesses. They're having a hard time as it is, and customers aren't

01:19:27.980 coming in. Staff are dealing with the headaches from belligerent people who don't want to deal

01:19:31.800 with it when it comes in. The goal, as some will honestly admit, is to hound and harass and annoy

01:19:37.840 people who have chosen not to be vaccinated into getting vaccinated. Well, guess what? If they

01:19:41.220 haven't by now, they're not gonna. So let's work with it rather than trying to force it. That's

01:19:45.560 not how a free country works and now we're seeing this pushback and it's a big one and as we said

01:19:51.680 you know as Andy said and others it's way beyond anything with just some truckers now this is

01:19:58.060 people across the country organizing with a peaceful rational demonstration in Ottawa and

01:20:04.600 putting Ottawa on the spot I am so excited about this you know me the ranter the crabby guy well

01:20:09.220 I tell you what yeah I won't show you my brilliant smile but I'm happy I'm thrilled I'm looking

01:20:13.340 forward to this. I mean, the little bit of anarchist

01:20:15.480 in me just wants to see some good screaming and yelling, but

01:20:17.400 not vandalism or violence.

01:20:20.120 But I love seeing the establishment

01:20:21.580 put on the spot. They're terrified.

01:20:23.480 They are. I mean, look at the tone from them.

01:20:25.660 They don't know what to do.

01:20:27.520 I mean, they didn't know what to do before anyways. You know, come on,

01:20:29.580 they're hammerheads. But they

01:20:31.460 are abject, terrified

01:20:33.440 now. They don't know what to do about it. And this thing is

01:20:35.420 just growing, and we're going to keep reporting on it

01:20:37.460 and keep, I'm going to keep encouraging it.

01:20:39.480 If I had the means, I'd be out there too

01:20:41.520 it covered. I'm afraid I've got things to do here. I think most Canadians do. That's why we're seeing

01:20:45.600 far more donations than we are with actual participants. The participation numbers have

01:20:49.460 been difficult. You know, we're hearing rumors. There's some that are greatly exaggerated. There's

01:20:52.360 not 50,000 trucks heading there. I wish there were. There aren't. But others who were saying

01:20:56.720 there's just a couple dozen or a few hundred, it's much more than that. I don't think we're

01:21:01.860 really going to know the numbers until it happens. And that's, again, that big question mark that

01:21:05.440 terrifies so many people. But we just know it's going to be big. They're coming from Newfoundland.

01:21:09.000 And there's ones who couldn't catch the convoy in time,

01:21:11.280 so they're doing catch-up and they're coming later.

01:21:13.420 There's some coming up from the States.

01:21:16.760 All sorts.

01:21:17.780 So this is, I mean, once it gets there,

01:21:19.360 it's probably just going to keep building.

01:21:21.120 And yeah, this is just brilliant to behold.

01:21:25.200 So tomorrow I'll have another great show.

01:21:27.380 I'll certainly be updating more on the convoy,

01:21:29.100 reporting on it.

01:21:29.800 I mean, we just can't leave that story alone.

01:21:31.380 We'll see what other celebrities

01:21:32.840 and interesting people have come up in support of it.

01:21:34.860 I've got Western Standard columnist Mike Thomas coming on.

01:21:37.820 And he spoke again about how he wrote a column, actually, for the Western Standard on how the convoy is kind of Canada's Olympics.

01:21:46.000 We're united.

01:21:46.620 We've got something to cheer for, finally.

01:21:48.240 We can sit at home and watch this as an event that's pulling us together that we sort of need and haven't had in a while.

01:21:54.200 And, of course, the other thing with Mike is he's a real estate writer with a long history and fantastic experience in talking about real estate.

01:22:00.940 And he wrote a column on real estate trends as it applies to COVID.

01:22:04.300 Go to WesternStandardOnline.com.

01:22:05.860 You see all Mike's stuff

01:22:06.740 because we're going to have him

01:22:07.780 come in tomorrow in studio

01:22:08.900 and we'll talk about those columns

01:22:10.920 and, well, whatever else comes to mind.

01:22:13.720 That's the nice thing with an open show.

01:22:15.740 So until then, 11.30 a.m. tomorrow morning.

01:22:18.180 And oh, don't forget,

01:22:18.960 Mel Riston mentioned

01:22:19.620 she's going to have an exclusive interview

01:22:21.320 with Justin Trudeau's half-brother tonight

01:22:23.480 that'll be coming out.

01:22:24.320 I believe it's seven.

01:22:25.100 I'm not 100% sure,

01:22:26.400 but make sure to watch that.

01:22:28.220 It should be quite interested. 0.98

01:22:29.560 Mel does great interviews.

01:22:31.140 And again, I will see you all

01:22:32.620 at 11.30 a.m. tomorrow for another show.

01:22:35.800 Welcome

01:23:05.800 You

Western Standard - January 28, 2022

Triggered： Kenney government in a state of constant disarray

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