Western Standard - Triggered： Real COVID-19 stats & Consumer Choice Center.

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 I'm Corey Morgan. This is episode number two. So we've done well with the first one. We've

00:00:47.520 already been allowed to make a second one. And actually this show is going to be coming

00:00:51.280 every weekday at 1130 Mountain Standard Time. It runs for about an hour and a half. We got

00:00:57.240 some great guests lined up, great discussion. And being live means we can have comments and

00:01:03.140 interaction. So if you have guest questions, I won't necessarily get to them all, but hopefully

00:01:07.360 we can get some of that out there and chat with them. You know, chat with me. Let me know what

00:01:11.400 we're doing right. Let me know what we're doing wrong. I'm triggered all the time, but I trigger

00:01:14.600 other people and I enjoy the fights. Though we do have to keep things reasonably civil as well.

00:01:20.200 Now, today's guests, by the way, are going to be Melissa Embarkey. She's from the McDonnell

00:01:24.400 Laurier Institute. People familiar with her on social media and talk radio and other spots have

00:01:29.320 seen her. She speaks to indigenous issues a lot and energy issues because she is indigenous and

00:01:34.380 she works in the energy sector and she's always fantastic to talk about and these are always

00:01:38.620 pressing issues. And later on in the show I'm going to have David Clementes from the Consumer

00:01:42.740 Choice Center and there's a lot of things he talks about government interference in markets

00:01:48.200 allowing broader consumer choice and of course the prices of consumer goods which are going through

00:01:52.440 the roof. We've just had a big development in supply management and NAFTA and dairy. And I'm

00:01:57.040 certain that David is going to have a lot to talk about with that. Before I get into what's got me

00:02:01.880 triggered today, I'm going to talk about our sponsor, Bitcoin Well. These are part of the

00:02:06.600 reasons, you know, we aren't tax funded. We get sponsors and they help us keep these shows running.

00:02:11.840 Bitcoin Well is a real cool site, a real cool service. These guys have ATMs all over the province.

00:02:17.260 You know, this is making cyber currency. It brings it into that realm of us who use it for

00:02:21.820 practical purposes. You know, you can set yourself up for paying your bills with Bitcoin. You can

00:02:26.840 draw cash, as I said, at ATMs that are more and more coming in all the time. They give little

00:02:32.260 seminars you can sign up for to learn about cyber currencies because it's kind of a weird

00:02:35.420 nebulous world, but it's a growing one. I mean, it's a huge one and lots of people want to get

00:02:39.400 into it. And I honestly go to bitcoinwell.com and it's a site that'll show you how you can get

00:02:44.920 involved in these cyber currencies and take part in that new and growing market. It's really

00:02:50.180 saying. So bitcoinwell.com. Check them out. Now, as for what's got me triggered today, and there's

00:02:55.480 always something, we don't have to look long. While the legacy media continues to breathlessly report

00:03:00.100 rising COVID-19 case counts, they remain pretty quiet on the fact that hospitalizations aren't

00:03:05.640 rising to reflect those counts. Well, fear sells. And the statistics dribbling out of our healthcare

00:03:11.320 system just aren't frightening enough for the media to focus on. So they like to keep it scary.

00:03:15.940 The question we need to be asking, though, is how many people have been counted as hospitalized COVID-19 cases if they came in with COVID or if they're there because of COVID.

00:03:26.520 And it's a huge distinction, you know, between these two different reasons for these cases and reasons they're adding to the counts.

00:03:32.300 And we've got to stop ignoring it.

00:03:33.640 Now, last week, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kieran Moore, admitted that as many as 50% of the people counted as COVID cases in Ontario hospitals actually entered the hospitals for reasons other than COVID-19.

00:03:46.940 I mean, giving credit where due, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has been outspoken on this, and he's hardly what I'd consider a pandemic denier or a craze right-winger.

00:03:55.820 Usually, I don't agree with much of what he does, but at least he's speaking on this. He wants to see the real numbers. He's seeing the damage these lockdowns are doing.

00:04:02.720 And it's too bad there's so few other politicians that are saying, hey, where are these numbers?

00:04:07.160 Dr. Moore said the hospitalization numbers are going to be updated soon to reflect this reality.

00:04:11.360 But as far as I can tell, they haven't updated them yet.

00:04:13.860 But we can divide things by two, by the sounds of things.

00:04:16.420 So half.

00:04:17.600 I mean, the reason this works out this way, let's imagine you slept on an icy sidewalk and you broke your arm.

00:04:22.640 You go into the local emergency room to get your bones set, of course.

00:04:25.300 Now, hospital policy calls for everybody being admitted to be tested for COVID-19.

00:04:30.560 Now, let's imagine you test positive.

00:04:32.120 Despite not showing any symptoms or anything else,

00:04:33.900 your main symptom is a broken, very painful arm.

00:04:36.800 That's pretty common now with the Omicron variant going around.

00:04:39.320 People are carrying it and they don't even know it.

00:04:41.120 That's how light the symptoms are.

00:04:42.580 Well, congratulations, though, because you've gone to the hospital.

00:04:44.660 You're now statistically considered a COVID-19 hospitalization,

00:04:48.800 even though COVID-19 had nothing to do with it.

00:04:51.420 And these are the hospitalization numbers that people are trying to spread fear with.

00:04:56.700 They've been a favorite statistic for those who want to keep us terrified of COVID-19.

00:05:00.220 The Omicron variant, thankfully, has turned out to come with some pretty minor symptoms so far for most people.

00:05:04.660 It does, however, spread more easily and rapidly than previous variants.

00:05:08.640 So with people being infected, not even knowing it, and they're wandering around, infections are spreading like wildfire.

00:05:13.120 Because people are testing like crazy, the case counts are skyrocketing.

00:05:16.200 But as far as we can see, it's not putting much burden upon the hospitals.

00:05:20.260 The sudden rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations looks frightening at a glance.

00:05:23.800 but then when you cut those numbers in half in order to correct for the actual reasons of

00:05:27.320 hospitalization, they look little worse than a bad flu season. Something to be concerned with. I mean,

00:05:32.520 the flu kills people too, if they're vulnerable, but not something worth locking society down for

00:05:37.280 in a vain attempt to curb infections. The exaggeration of COVID-19 impacts on hospital

00:05:41.980 numbers is starting to be exposed in other jurisdictions too, but it's just not gaining

00:05:45.500 mainstream traction. Counties in Florida and California are reporting nearly 60% of their

00:05:49.680 COVID-19 positive admissions were actually hospitalized for non-pandemic related reasons.

00:05:54.080 In South Africa, where the variant first appeared, the trend's about 60%. In Alberta,

00:05:58.960 our pandemic updates have been woefully sporadic. Yesterday, Dr. Hinshaw gave a report,

00:06:03.420 and I'll give it to her, she was candid about what they know. Apparently, Alberta Health Services

00:06:07.540 doesn't know the number of people who are in for COVID-19 versus those for non-COVID-19 reasons.

00:06:12.360 They don't even know, and I'm not sure why this is so difficult to determine. They're also having

00:06:16.540 a hard time distinguishing between the cases of the relatively benign Omicron variant and the

00:06:20.800 more dangerous Delta variant. And these are important things for both the public and our

00:06:24.320 policymakers to know. Why aren't we getting those numbers? Alberta has a population of 4.4 million

00:06:29.680 people. So let's look at the numbers we got. Out of 4.4 million people, we have 61 in ICUs right now

00:06:35.320 due to COVID-19 and ostensibly 436 in the hospital due to COVID-19. Now we know the real hospitalization

00:06:41.640 is much lower than that. Alberta is no exception from other jurisdictions. If it's the same as

00:06:44.940 others, it's probably more like 200 people in hospital right now. Measure that in case of a

00:06:51.520 province of over 4 million people. These are strikingly positive numbers, yet the Alberta

00:06:55.300 government and the media are predicting Armageddon. Restrictions have been increasing all over.

00:06:58.940 Students have had their in-class instruction disrupted yet again. We're nearly two years

00:07:04.020 into this pandemic nightmare. Have we learned anything yet? Lockdowns appear to have a negligible

00:07:08.320 effect on the spread of the virus, but they have a terrible effect on the psyches and wallets of

00:07:12.220 citizens. Restrictions should only be imposed as an absolute last resort, yet we're seeing curfews

00:07:17.240 implemented in Quebec and gyms locked down in Ontario as panic reigns and these politicians

00:07:21.240 are responding to case counts rather than actual hospital counts. Why is it impossible to show

00:07:26.540 cautious optimism for public figures when we see things like this? We should be celebrating these

00:07:32.080 tiny hospitalization numbers despite the cases rising. I mean, it may be the herald of the end

00:07:36.640 of this pandemic. Instead, policymakers won't even correct the bloody numbers, much less speak of

00:07:40.960 them in a positive way. And we're never going to get back to normalcy if we refuse to recognize

00:07:44.860 the positive developments in the pandemic. We need to start demanding the real figures in

00:07:48.440 hospitalizations and screaming it from the rooftops instead of meekly enduring one crushing pandemic

00:07:52.160 restriction after another. And that's what's got me triggered today. Now, going forward, we'll get

00:07:58.780 some more subjects that I'm certain will help trigger things. We have our news editor, David

00:08:03.320 Naylor on deck here. Hey, Dave, how are you doing? I'm good, Corey. I'm not as triggered as you yet,

00:08:09.660 But congratulations on the new show.

00:08:12.300 And that's great.

00:08:13.460 You've made it to episode two before getting me on.

00:08:16.180 Yeah, well, we wanted to make sure it was perfect before we brought you on there, Dave.

00:08:21.360 So what sort of news items are topping the scroll for the Western Standard right now?

00:08:26.320 What's going on in the newsroom?

00:08:27.840 And for our audience, yes, Dave is working remotely right now from the newsroom.

00:08:32.700 It's a fine looking background, though.

00:08:35.080 Yes, thanks.

00:08:35.960 Thanks, Corey.

00:08:36.620 I'm actually doing an investigative report still out in British Columbia about why their temperatures are much warmer than they are in Calgary.

00:08:45.040 And I'm trying to figure out when it's going to go above minus 20 to figure out when I'm coming back there, Corey.

00:08:51.820 Sounds like a plan.

00:08:53.380 Yeah, a couple of things making the news this morning.

00:08:55.500 And they're actually both out of Quebec.

00:08:58.620 As you know, Corey, Quebec's brought in the most, the harshest lockdowns of anywhere in the country over COVID.

00:09:06.160 they've got a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, all restaurants and bars are closed, and at the

00:09:13.180 start of it, they'd even considered dog walking. You get home from work late at night at 9 o'clock

00:09:18.560 and you wanted to walk the dog. No, you couldn't do that. That was illegal. They've since relented

00:09:23.680 on that, but what they're doing now is they're looking at a ban on unvaccinated people in

00:09:29.140 government liquor and pot stores. So if you haven't been, if you haven't got your jab,

00:09:35.020 then no booze for you at Quebec government liquor stores. Now, the one saving grace for people in

00:09:41.440 Quebec, the unvaccinated is they're a little bit more with the times and they're allowing 0.98

00:09:46.160 convenience stores to sell booze. So they should still be able to get their six pack 0.88

00:09:51.480 at a convenience store, but no longer in government outlets. And that's to be announced

00:09:58.140 later this week. This morning, some shocking news out of Montreal. Really, really disturbing video

00:10:07.960 of a privately chartered aircraft, a full aircraft, one-wing aircraft going from Montreal down to

00:10:14.820 Cancun in Mexico, full of partiers ready to celebrate New Year's Eve. And I described it

00:10:22.420 in my story uh cory as animal house in the air and if you've seen uh if you've seen the the great

00:10:29.300 john belushi movie you know it's just a frat house out of control and that's what this airplane

00:10:34.120 looked like believe it or not there was like crowd surfing going on down the middle of the aisle

00:10:38.440 it was pandemonium people just standing and drinking and vaping openly and full bottles of

00:10:44.560 gray goose and you know people ended up apparently the the the airline staff just gave up and they

00:10:51.100 went and sort of hid and just let the partiers do what they did. They tried to tie one guy down

00:10:57.660 to his seat and duct taped him pretty good, but he was still able to get his mouth free and

00:11:04.240 continue to scream and yell at people. But again, these people aren't the brightest bulbs in the

00:11:11.600 drawer because now all their faces are going all over social media and they're clearly identifiable

00:11:17.340 And it's gone all the way to the prime minister's office, Corey, Justin Trudeau today saying extremely disturbed by what he saw and has vowed Transport Canada is going to investigate the whole flight and bring in $5,000 fines where warranted.

00:11:35.040 And they could certainly make a lot of money from fining the people in there.

00:11:39.980 And down in Mexico, they were all supposed to come home today.

00:11:43.740 Sunwing canceled their chartered flight.

00:11:46.780 They didn't want a repeat, even though I'm sure most of them would be, you know, hung over quieter state by now.

00:11:52.420 So they're all going to have to find their own way home at their own expense and make sure they've got their COVID rapid test to go at the border.

00:12:00.540 But they're in a world of trouble, Corey.

00:12:02.620 Well, it's kind of ironic that Justin's upset with it.

00:12:05.080 I mean, he's kind of known for losing a bit of control at those kinds of parties and perhaps groping the occasional person.

00:12:10.740 But hopefully he's grown out of that, I guess.

00:12:13.460 I mean, it is a symptom, too, though, of how I think pent up people are.

00:12:18.080 I mean, there's always been those party planes and that.

00:12:19.940 But, you know, then there'd be a couple of little things, but they wouldn't go completely bananas like that on there.

00:12:24.300 But we've locked our youth down for two years.

00:12:26.600 I mean, when they're ready to cut loose, they're ready to explode.

00:12:29.880 Exactly, Corey.

00:12:30.700 And this appeared to be a plane full of mainly college aged kids who should know better.

00:12:37.440 But that's exactly what the prime minister said today.

00:12:40.020 said it was a, quote, slap in the face, unquote, to all the Canadians who have been trying to do

00:12:44.580 their best and live by the pandemic regulations. And when you've got 100 or so people jumping

00:12:50.720 around in an aircraft at 30,000 feet, it's not the safest way to be traveling. So I'm kind of

00:12:56.620 surprised they actually didn't put down at an airport during the route and have them all hauled 1.00

00:13:02.740 off to a jail, preferably a Mexican one might have taught them some manners. Yeah, well, I think 1.00

00:13:09.500 perhaps those Sunwing charters don't quite have the options for stopping. Their whole thing is 1.00

00:13:13.800 about being direct, but interesting. There's definitely going to be some fallout out of that.

00:13:18.820 What other stories have we got developing? Well, our columnist, Linda Slobodian, is taking a deeper

00:13:24.480 dive into the CBC this morning. If you remember, Tara Henley, a former CBC employee, quit and sort

00:13:32.720 of wrote an open letter, scathing, really, really scathingly at the CBC and their management

00:13:39.800 and how they operate and how they decide what stories to cover and just the culture of woke

00:13:46.120 that permeates the CBC.

00:13:49.040 So Linda's going to take a bigger dive into that.

00:13:53.020 Calgary Mayor Gondek has had a press conference this morning blaming COVID-19, of all things,

00:13:58.060 for the arena deal collapse.

00:13:59.940 so our reporter eva is bashing that one out madly uh we've got reed uh read small in british

00:14:07.540 columbia reporting on the day's events out there uh mel risden is doing a story on a mountie

00:14:14.980 who wrote another scathing open letter seems to be the theme of the day cory

00:14:19.220 he quit the rcmp after refusing to take a vaccine that story is already up but some some really

00:14:26.580 interesting uh comments from the former mountian in mel's story there uh you've mentioned the uh

00:14:34.740 setback for canada or maybe a step forward in terms of the dairy cartels uh down east there

00:14:40.020 they've lost a free trade battle at the uh with the new united states mexico free trade deal so

00:14:45.620 we'll see how that affects your your cheese supply at your local supermarket so another busy day uh

00:14:53.060 Derek, uh, or sorry, Corey, for, uh, Oh, now you're going low.

00:15:03.140 You still there, Dave?

00:15:04.880 Yep.

00:15:05.160 Sorry.

00:15:05.480 We just had a pause as you said.

00:15:06.800 Yeah.

00:15:07.020 Very busy news day.

00:15:08.000 So, uh, well, thank you for checking in.

00:15:10.260 I'll let you get back on directing and writing and sourcing all those stories.

00:15:14.140 And, uh, we'll check in with the newsroom again tomorrow to see what, uh,

00:15:17.140 what's going on out there.

00:15:18.560 Thanks Corey.

00:15:19.260 Have a good show.

00:15:20.340 Thanks Dave.

00:15:20.820 so again to everybody go to westernstandardonline.com all those stories dave was talking

00:15:25.940 about they're all there and that's where they're going to keep coming up we break stuff we report

00:15:30.500 on stuff that's what makes us a bit you know different than a lot of those uh alternative

00:15:33.620 media uh sites and and uh companies that are popping up out there and there's some great ones

00:15:38.520 but we really have a strong news focus around here and and we dig into issues and we report

00:15:43.920 on them and the yeah the issues just keep coming out there uh good to see you back there in the

00:15:49.500 comment scroll. Marilyn, yes, I remember you from our past live shows when we were experimenting.

00:15:54.360 We've come a long ways and they've certainly gotten a great deal better and we've got more

00:15:59.380 room to improve. I really like seeing the comments coming in. That's what I like about live is being

00:16:03.500 able to go back and forth. Even if people are calling me things and so on, that's fine. They

00:16:07.180 do that on Twitter all the time too. So yeah, my skin is thick. But yeah, it's funny thinking of

00:16:13.700 the prime minister getting upset about youthful people partying. As far as I saw on all of those

00:16:18.500 plane pictures, nobody on them was ever in blackface. So the youth are still brighter than

00:16:24.160 our prime minister with his indiscretions during his younger times. But I mean, as I said earlier,

00:16:31.800 it's a reflection, you know, people are wound up, they're tired, they're pent up, they want to cut

00:16:35.440 loose. I mean, if I was 19, 20 years old, and I'd been locked down for two years, and I got some

00:16:40.500 money in my pocket, and I'm flying to Mexico. Yeah, I might not have been the most well behaved

00:16:45.480 guy sitting on the flight there either. It would be a time to cut loose. I'm really worried. I

00:16:52.700 mean, it's a microcosm of the larger trend of what we've got going on. We've got stressed people.

00:16:58.780 We've got locked down people. I mean, right now they're just partying it up on an airplane.

00:17:03.680 Down the road though, I mean, we keep pushing, we keep pressuring, we keep stressing people.

00:17:07.960 we get pushback. We get adverse responses to it. So the plane, I think, issue could be reflecting

00:17:16.640 a little more. It could run deeper than that. So we've got to watch these sorts of things.

00:17:21.440 People see it as light reporting, but it's a small part of a larger issue. And we've got

00:17:29.720 so many larger issues and we keep overlooking them. I mean, kind of like Dave said, there's

00:17:34.860 no shortage of stuff to report on. It's hard to keep up because there are so many important things

00:17:40.260 to try and cover and try and bring to people's attention. COVID just overwhelms everything else.

00:17:45.820 And people sometimes forget that the whole rest of the world is happening outside of there.

00:17:49.020 We still have to live. We have to heat our homes. We have to be comfortable. And

00:17:55.780 we don't talk about it enough. So I'm going to be talking. I mean, COVID might pop up once or twice

00:18:02.060 through the conversation, but I'll shortly

00:18:04.180 have Melissa Embarkey on.

00:18:06.140 I've talked to Melissa before. She's always great

00:18:08.200 to speak with. She's with the

00:18:10.100 McDonnell-Laurier Institute. She's worked in energy.

00:18:12.720 She speaks. I had to message her

00:18:14.140 because I look at it. If you don't follow her on Twitter,

00:18:16.220 you really should. She's in

00:18:18.160 there on all sorts of issues and all over

00:18:20.060 the place and all being important.

00:18:22.120 So I wanted to ask, what do we want to cover today? Because we've

00:18:24.080 only got maybe 15 or 20 minutes.

00:18:26.540 So we are going to chat

00:18:28.180 about a number of things. So let's bring Melissa on.

00:18:30.060 I see her waiting on deck there.

00:18:32.480 Hey, how are you?

00:18:33.840 Good.

00:18:34.140 How are you doing?

00:18:35.240 Oh, pretty good on this cold Wednesday.

00:18:38.220 Oh yeah.

00:18:39.080 I see.

00:18:39.860 It looks like we're working on the display a little.

00:18:41.580 Yeah.

00:18:41.780 It's cold everywhere, which I guess maybe we'll get a little background though.

00:18:46.500 For those, those who haven't followed you on Twitter or some of your stuff

00:18:49.220 in the columns you've put out, what is it that you do, Melissa?

00:18:52.160 And what do you want to talk about today?

00:18:55.060 Well, I work with the McDonnell Laurier Institute and what we do is we cover a

00:18:59.860 wide range of indigenous issues so it's everything from residential schools to the recent announcement

00:19:06.820 of the 40 million or 40 billion dollar funding to the child and family as services for indigenous

00:19:14.180 people so we just cover everything even to energy uh covet was an issue early last year so we just

00:19:21.460 cover a wide variety of topics and whatever is current in the news today is what we tend to pick

00:19:26.660 Yeah. So, and of course, naturally, you're very concerned about indigenous issues. And there's a lot of overlap with energy issues. You've been very outspoken, at least, you know, we always hear about the negatives and we hear about how First Nations communities can be negatively impacted by local development, or of course they like to demonize camps and things such as that. And some people like to characterize it as if the entire indigenous community is opposed to energy infrastructure development.

00:19:57.220 you've been outspoken on those issues. I mean, you were talking today about, you know,

00:20:01.140 we need to talk about how some of these can bring benefits to the communities and are actually

00:20:04.020 keeping them impoverished by hindering these projects. That's so true. There was a recent

00:20:09.940 study that went, or a recent survey that went out from Indigenous Resources, and 80% of Indigenous

00:20:16.420 people supported the natural resource sector. So whether that was oil and gas, whether that was

00:20:20.820 pipelines whether that was mining they supported development in and around their areas but what

00:20:27.380 we're seeing in the media which is really unfair to our communities are protesters that are saying

00:20:34.100 we don't support this industry and that couldn't be farther from the truth because a lot of these

00:20:38.900 communities want to bring themselves out of poverty and they want to be able to take care

00:20:43.540 of their people and they want to be able to you know implement services for their people and the

00:20:50.020 more that you know the protesters protesters are out there speaking for us the more voices like

00:20:56.820 mine are being overshadowed and you know we're not hearing enough people who do support this industry

00:21:03.780 and why yeah well and it seems that some people almost like to treat our first nation citizens

00:21:10.180 as if they're they're aliens and they're they have a completely different mindset and don't

00:21:13.940 have the same needs and concerns as everybody else i mean as you said it's cold i mean first

00:21:19.620 stations people understand we need to heat our homes we need to drive around we need these things

00:21:25.060 that modern energy brings us uh as well you know productive work when i used to work in the north

00:21:30.900 there were a number of great uh contractors from uh everywhere from the lubicon reserve to uh

00:21:38.980 the sturgeon area that we would utilize when we were working up that we kept people rolling brought

00:21:43.300 brought home paychecks and let people continue with their lives. And people don't seem to

00:21:49.720 understand that there's not a heck of a lot of other employment opportunities necessarily up

00:21:54.180 in these areas as well. So if you're shutting those down, you're leaving these people dependent

00:21:58.200 on sometimes government aid, which is not good for anybody. Well, it's never enough. Whenever

00:22:03.820 you rely on the government, it's never enough to fully sustain a community. So we have to find

00:22:08.600 find other sources that will bring revenue and economic development, jobs and training to our

00:22:14.180 people. And the oil and gas industry was one of the hugest ones in Canada that actually brought

00:22:20.380 investment into our communities. And now what we're seeing is a lot of people are pulling

00:22:27.060 back from that, a lot of companies, because they think we're opposed to it. And it's in everything

00:22:34.060 that we do it like you said it heats our homes it fills up our gas tanks it you know it creates um

00:22:40.620 jobs if you end up in the hospital what do you think is used to make that equipment you know if

00:22:45.820 you end up on a ventilator you know we don't think bigger picture and how this really impacts people

00:22:52.140 and just our day-to-day living we can have this industry and we can also take care of the

00:22:58.460 environment as well these two things go hand in hand they're not separate and that's what the

00:23:04.140 public you know tends to do they tend to say if you support oil and gas then you don't support

00:23:08.620 the environment well you have to support both if you're in the oil and gas industry so i think

00:23:13.660 there's definitely a lot more education a lot more energy literacy financial literacy that needs to

00:23:20.540 go out to these communities so that they understand how this industry truly impacts us

00:23:26.060 Yeah, and that gets forgotten that a person is not either or you can responsibly develop oil and gas resources. Yes, there will always be a little bit of an impact. I mean, the goal is to mitigate it as much as realistically possible. I didn't spend 20 years surveying, you know, all over in the bush and everything because I hated it out there. I loved it out there. If I didn't have to cut a tree, I didn't cut it. If we didn't have to disrupt a creek, we didn't do so. We didn't go out there with destruction in mind. It makes it sound as if it's this or that you either support the environment or you support

00:23:55.940 energy, we can do both. And nobody's a better place to do it than the people who live in the

00:24:00.240 areas where we're working. Exactly. I worked in abandonment and reclamation for a few years of

00:24:06.420 my career. And we actually left the land better off than what we first acquired it. You know,

00:24:12.540 we went through everything. We went through the vegetation, the trees, anything that was natural

00:24:17.000 to that area. And we put it back to the way it was prior to us coming in. You know, and that's

00:24:22.880 something. If you truly care about the environment, you know, that's something that you would stand

00:24:27.320 behind and support. You know, I think the oil and gas industry in Alberta actually planted more trees

00:24:33.380 in the last 10 years than the federal government promised. You know, they promised to plant 2

00:24:39.400 billion trees, I think was a number at one point. And if you look at the number that the oil and gas

00:24:44.580 industry has done, you know, it's nearing that number. So we don't hear stories like this,

00:24:50.580 You know, and oftentimes it's overshadowed with other, you know, other disputes.

00:24:55.220 And I think, you know, we really have to have a strong voice out there who's willing to educate people on energy and, you know, the process from start to finish and what that looks like.

00:25:07.660 So going further from that, I noticed you tweeted the other day, you dipped into a taboo subject that not nearly enough people I think are willing to talk about.

00:25:15.000 You mentioned the Indian Act and how it should be at the very least modified to perhaps give reserves municipal sort of powers rather than these unusual, I don't know how you would describe them.

00:25:28.240 You know, they're places that were created under the Indian Act, which really limits the flexibility, taxation ability, things that a municipal government would be able to do.

00:25:37.080 What would you like to see change with the Indian Act or do you even think it's salvageable?

00:25:40.400 i think it's salvageable like i don't want to do away with it because you know it did bring

00:25:47.240 you know a community as one you know and we don't want to divide that we want to keep it the way it

00:25:54.440 is but we also want more autonomy when it comes to decision making you know we we want more autonomy

00:25:59.900 when it comes to economic development um and getting outside investments we definitely need

00:26:06.520 to have that discussion on how we can have a little bit more independence, because as leaders

00:26:11.580 coming into these communities, they never realize the amount of control and constraints that they're

00:26:19.420 allowed as a leader. If we were given the opportunity to be able to go out and decide how

00:26:27.100 we wanted to, you know, run our community, we would be a lot better off than we are today.

00:26:32.940 You know, we have to amend it so that it fits today's standards.

00:26:38.120 If you're dealing with something that was written in the 1800s, it no longer applies

00:26:42.440 today.

00:26:43.180 You know, like we have to either amend it or get it working so that as a community, we

00:26:48.840 can prosper and that we're not dependent on government handouts, as people say.

00:26:54.900 You know, we want to be out of poverty as much as anybody else, but we're constrained

00:26:59.540 in what we can do.

00:27:00.700 Yeah, well, and I think there's things we can examine. There's a lot of isolated non-Indigenous communities out there and an ongoing issue that you've spoken to as well and lots of people talk to is the inability to get clean water to citizens living in these isolated communities. Now, that doesn't appear to be a problem in non-reserve areas because the municipality, that's one of the things that falls under their jurisdiction and they work together and they sort it out.

00:27:24.360 But because the Indian Act cause is such a convoluted mess, I believe, in administration, it's hard to get a good responsible development of that kind of local infrastructure that you have in other areas.

00:27:37.360 We should be examining how to make it work rather than keep trying to work within this broken model.

00:27:41.740 I mean, multiple governments have failed on the water issue.

00:27:45.040 Well, water is a big issue.

00:27:46.780 And if we look at the announcement that was made with Child and Family Services, water is going to be the next thing.

00:27:52.940 You know, they ignored decades-long concerns for Indigenous children that were in care.

00:27:59.360 And it got to the point where harm was done to these children, and they're now being compensated for that.

00:28:05.060 The same thing is going to happen to water.

00:28:07.940 You know, they know this issue is out there.

00:28:10.020 They continue to ignore it.

00:28:11.920 They continue to mislead the public on numbers and what they mean without actually fixing the problem.

00:28:18.780 You know, what is it going to take for the government to actually take this issue seriously?

00:28:24.100 It was something that impacted me as a child, you know, dealing with contaminated water.

00:28:28.780 We had high levels of iron in the water.

00:28:31.780 I had sores on my body that, you know, only antibiotics could fix.

00:28:37.800 And, you know, what's it going to take?

00:28:40.400 A community getting really, really sick for them to actually look at the issue?

00:28:44.860 No, we got to fix this today before it becomes a bigger problem.

00:28:48.780 And that just goes back to the Indian Act. You know, we have to be able to find solutions outside of what the federal government is giving us. And if that means that we're acting as a municipality and we can maybe tie our infrastructure into other areas, so be it.

00:29:06.360 you know as long as we have clean drinking water that's the number one priority and it just doesn't

00:29:11.880 seem like it's taken very seriously at this point and when you look at infrastructure like housing

00:29:18.360 and water these were some of the reasons why kids were taken out of their home which shouldn't have

00:29:23.960 happened so you know it just it just snowballs into bigger issues that you know don't need to

00:29:29.800 be there if we address them today and now and it is a good point you'd mentioned it before with

00:29:34.760 with that child and family services settlement,

00:29:36.420 which is massive.

00:29:37.280 I mean, if you're gonna take on the responsibility

00:29:39.420 of these and do it improperly,

00:29:40.600 understand you are gonna pay for it later.

00:29:42.980 And, but nobody wants to be paid out.

00:29:44.820 We just don't wanna have the need for it in the first place.

00:29:47.460 And it's a valid point.

00:29:48.800 I mean, a lot of children who were removed from households,

00:29:51.600 it was because it was an unlivable conditions,

00:29:53.780 but we have to get to the root of all,

00:29:55.000 why was it so bad?

00:29:56.100 It wasn't necessarily bad or uncaring parents.

00:29:58.680 They just didn't have the local facilities

00:30:01.080 and an ability to keep a safe household,

00:30:03.400 which led to a chain of events that traumatized and disrupted entire generations.

00:30:09.160 Exactly. And we wouldn't have known this. And this all kind of came out from residential schools.

00:30:15.080 You know, we wouldn't have known, you know, this was happening in Indigenous communities if,

00:30:19.880 you know, we didn't encounter unmarked graves last year. You know, and that kind of snowballed

00:30:25.200 into, well, there's, you know, child and family services that needs to be addressed. There's

00:30:29.400 poverty that needs to be addressed. There's so many issues that need to be addressed today that

00:30:34.480 are a result of a residential school. If you look at what these schools has caused,

00:30:40.520 children from these schools end up being part of the 60s school. The children of those children

00:30:46.020 end up being the children that we see in care today. So it's a snowball effect of bad government

00:30:51.720 policy. And instead of fixing it, you know, we're putting band-aids every which way we go without

00:30:58.320 addressing the issues and that is really frustrating coming from you know coming from me because we have

00:31:05.760 the solutions nobody's listening you know poverty is one of the biggest things that we need to

00:31:11.520 address now and nobody's listening you know if anything they're creating more barriers for us

00:31:17.760 and you just have to ask yourself when is this going to stop like when are they going to stop

00:31:23.440 and actually listen to an indigenous perspective and you know maybe we might have a better outcome

00:31:28.720 10 years from now five years from now yeah well and we can't uh go back and undo what was done i

00:31:35.760 mean there's a point to reparations and things such as that but i mean what we should be doing

00:31:39.120 then is recognizing are we still doing some of these things wrong right now and let's fix them

00:31:43.840 and we're still operating as you said under that indian act that's a hundred and some years old

00:31:48.000 well that's the very same act that was governing the residential schools i mean we always knew

00:31:51.920 about it just nobody wanted to talk about it that that was the thing you know we didn't want to

00:31:55.920 imagine that really there were people who showed up and took children from people's households

00:32:00.800 and moved them out of their communities and raised them in boarding schools i mean if we'd done that

00:32:05.280 today to any other community people would be up in arms and and uh so with those cemeteries i mean

00:32:11.120 you know it doesn't mean that there was necessarily massive uh slaughter of the children there but

00:32:15.760 just the volume of children who died there away from their homes is horrific and i think it touched

00:32:21.600 everybody. So maybe if we can get some attention to this and change how we're doing things. So

00:32:25.820 that's the more important than trying to fix what we already did. Exactly. And that's what, you know,

00:32:32.440 my goal is, is bringing awareness to these issues, letting people know that we have solutions

00:32:38.120 to these issues. But we don't have the funding, we don't have the services. You know, we have

00:32:45.780 barriers that we're dealing with, you know, we need to come together with the government and start

00:32:51.460 implementing implementing plans today not tomorrow not five years from now today and you know move

00:32:58.260 forward with change if we take a small piece of something and we try to fix it you know it's going

00:33:04.740 to create other things so why not try to address it as a whole and just try to you know move forward

00:33:11.300 with it and i'm hoping with you know with this new funding of social and mental health services

00:33:17.620 to these communities that that that's a start and um it'll be a start to a better tomorrow for our

00:33:23.940 kids and hopefully for their kids so it's a snowball effect either way good or bad but we

00:33:29.860 just want to make sure going forward that it's more good and it's a good movement policy yeah so

00:33:35.540 i want to pivot a little and it kind of ties into a bit of what you're talking about with perhaps

00:33:39.380 moving on to a municipal model as opposed to uh indian act modeled governing uh reserves because

00:33:45.940 A lot of confusion and problems going on, for example, on the coastal gas link line is the mix between the local elected governance of the Wet'suwesson and some hereditary chiefs that still hold a traditional and cultural role, but people trying to say, well, which one holds authority?

00:34:02.400 Who actually speaks for the community? And I know it's perhaps a departure from more traditional forms of governance.

00:34:08.920 But if we moved on to a municipal model, you could have a more documented and regulated way of just saying, well, look, this is who's in charge.

00:34:14.940 This is who signs the final agreement or not.

00:34:17.720 And it doesn't mean you get rid of the other form of governance, but perhaps it moves into a more traditional role rather than a governing one.

00:34:23.440 Is that a way we could move?

00:34:25.320 That's definitely a way we can move because then it would incorporate the traditional way of leading and the current more democratic way of voting in your leader.

00:34:35.220 so it would combine the two you know it would get them talking um you know more cohesively

00:34:40.900 it's not going to be a separate you know i want this or this person wants that it would be more

00:34:46.180 of a decision making that would come from all parties and when we work on more of a municipal

00:34:53.060 i guess platform um you know direct issues are solved and there's accountability you know so if

00:35:00.340 if you said you're going to clean or have clean drinking water by 2022 and it's going to cost

00:35:05.060 x amount of dollars that can be accounted for if whether it happened or not or whether you

00:35:11.780 needed more funding for it so there's a level of accountability there as well and it would make all

00:35:17.960 parties you know responsible for their decision making and it would incorporate our community

00:35:23.500 our communities more cohesively you know it's it's kind of a a new way of thinking who you know

00:35:29.660 we've had questions like, well, who would you report to? Would it be the federal? Would it be

00:35:33.580 the provincial governments? Well, that can be worked out in the process, but the current system

00:35:38.300 that's working, that's in place right now is not working and we need to figure out a way to make

00:35:43.560 it work. Absolutely. And as I said, one of the hardest parts is just, you know, if somebody wants

00:35:47.860 to go there, whether you're media or whether you're another level of government, it's just

00:35:50.580 saying, well, who's in charge? And two disparate groups are each claiming that somebody else is

00:35:55.700 and nobody's winning out of that standoff unfortunately exactly and when you look at

00:36:01.500 how the municipality runs you know people are voted in and you do have you know landowners

00:36:08.240 shareholders you do have people that you know that hold the vested interest in who's governing

00:36:13.700 you so the same would apply to an indigenous community you know if our elect if our current

00:36:19.360 electoral system is not working how do we tweak it to make it work and how do we tweak it to get

00:36:24.360 everybody involved, as opposed to causing more division and more chaos, I guess, at the end of

00:36:30.860 the day. Yeah, well, and I have big issues with our entire Canadian system, but that's fodder

00:36:36.000 for an entirely different interview at another time. But I mean, both cases are a matter of

00:36:41.100 we're working with governing documents that were created in a completely different time. We're

00:36:44.920 talking five generations ago. Why would we assume that these would be good and functional and

00:36:50.100 applicable today. Yet again, as I said, I was just happy to see you even willing to talk about the

00:36:54.840 Indian Act because nobody seems to really want to touch that. It's definitely one of those things

00:36:59.400 where, where do you even start? You know, like, where do you even start looking at amendments?

00:37:05.040 And, you know, I've spoken to chiefs where they've actually sent in, you know, stuff they'd like to

00:37:09.820 change. They sent in amendments that they'd like to see fixed in this document and there's no

00:37:14.800 response so at the end of the day who's responsible for this and who's responsible for making these

00:37:20.800 changes we need to start there and then work our way back to what we actually want to see changed

00:37:26.560 in it well i guess you know we'll just keep working on things we definitely want to

00:37:32.400 you know hope for the best like i said this is frustrating with every level government we just

00:37:35.920 seem to be able to incapable of learning from our past mistakes when we move forward so i appreciate

00:37:42.000 your voice speaking out on that behalf though you've got more direct experience and and you're

00:37:46.240 looking at things from a pragmatic way which is uh refreshing and apparent and appreciated i i hope

00:37:50.880 you keep doing so for for quite some time uh where can we find more information on what you're up to

00:37:55.680 and where to find you and what you're doing um the mcdonald laureate website would be a good start

00:38:01.360 also twitter um you know i'm pretty active in politics and you know i comment on a variety of

00:38:07.120 issues and i also tie it into an indigenous perspective like how would this issue impact

00:38:13.040 us if it came to be so um definitely there and yeah i mean i'm on a couple of other platforms

00:38:20.560 like radio shows every now and again so you can catch me catch me there as well well thank you

00:38:26.480 very much for coming in to join me today melissa i i appreciate the the insight and i hope we can

00:38:31.040 talk again soon yeah for sure definitely i'd love to come back on your show right on keep fighting

00:38:35.760 in a good fight. Okay, so yeah, that was Melissa Embarkey, and I had her on before. I believe the 1.00

00:38:43.460 first time I had her on, I slaughtered the pronunciation of her name, so this time I got 1.00

00:38:46.760 that right. Thanks for being patient with me on those things, but you know, I just want to hear 0.67

00:38:52.760 more perspectives, and as I said, if you follow her on Twitter, things such as that, you'll see

00:38:59.120 that she has a very good common sense approach to things. She, you know, is speaking out in areas

00:39:05.560 that others aren't willing to. Who wants to talk about the Indian Act? And you know what, you get

00:39:10.180 called a racist and every other darn thing if you even talk about opening it up. Well, Melissa 0.92

00:39:13.760 obviously is a person, you know, of First Nations background. She's not self-loathing. She's not a

00:39:22.240 white supremacist by any measure. And she wants to change the deal. She wants to look into things. 0.78

00:39:27.020 So give her a follower and check things out.

00:39:30.300 I know not everybody agrees necessarily with where she wants to go with things.

00:39:33.540 I mean, who will?

00:39:34.280 It's a complicated issue, but we've got to start talking about it and start talking frankly

00:39:39.340 about it.

00:39:39.760 And she's been doing that and we need it.

00:39:42.280 You know, industry is good for people in First Nations as well as people out of there.

00:39:47.500 So I'm going to take a moment here to talk about our other sponsor.

00:39:50.260 Now, this is the Canadian Sports Shooting Association.

00:39:55.420 These guys, if you go look them up online, they've got kind of a long URL to get there.

00:40:01.660 But they are standing up for your right to responsibly use, enjoy, and own firearms.

00:40:07.000 This is something very important.

00:40:08.020 This is a right that is constantly being infringed upon.

00:40:11.300 The Liberals want to take your property away.

00:40:13.700 They want to take away your ability to safely use firearms, which are a fantastic tool and they're a fantastic sporting item. 0.59

00:40:21.040 You know, it's idiocy that they're always cracking down on law abiding firearm owners while they're overlooking the illegal gang firearm users in urban areas, which are actually the ones contributing to crime. So CSSA, these guys have a couple of legal challenges out against the government to try and protect your right to have your firearms. They also, you know, they offer membership, firearms education, all sorts of things. Check out their website, Canadian Sports Shooting Association. These guys are looking out for you.

00:40:48.320 they're looking out for your rights and they are a great sponsor, particularly for a show such as

00:40:54.620 ours. So yeah, I'm looking at some of the chat here. You know, people talk about the Chiefs

00:40:59.400 needing to be held accountable. Yeah, Onion Lake, I worked up there. Yeah, there's things I saw up

00:41:04.680 in the Blueberry Reserve in Northern BC that were disturbing or the Horseman family who were

00:41:11.720 governing Horse Lakes Reserve west of Grand Prairie. I'll spare you guys the stories on it

00:41:17.120 from when I worked and mapped that entire reserve back then,

00:41:20.020 but there were some terrible corruption problems.

00:41:22.720 Some people were living very, very high on the hog,

00:41:24.800 and some people were living in the most abject of policy.

00:41:27.980 And I mean, that's where perhaps,

00:41:30.260 as Melissa was talking about,

00:41:31.840 if we can get more towards these different government models,

00:41:34.400 get more accountability,

00:41:35.720 and they don't just need to be accountable to people outside the reserve,

00:41:38.780 they need to be accountable to the ones within there.

00:41:40.980 I don't know if people are familiar with the Stony Reserve much.

00:41:43.620 It's between Calgary and Banff, and it's got Morley in there.

00:41:47.040 Eden Lake is one of their branches down south.

00:41:49.360 That was governed by Chief Snow for a long time.

00:41:52.440 And I tell you, the stories you would hear, I grew up in Banff and we were very familiar with that reserve.

00:41:58.800 He was governing it like a gangster and people were afraid.

00:42:01.760 I mean, they say, well, we have elections on reserve and such, and they do.

00:42:05.280 But I mean, these were pretty slanted elections.

00:42:07.840 You think things are bad in, you know, our municipal and federal politics.

00:42:12.160 Some of the stuff that was going on on that reserve, people were afraid to speak up.

00:42:14.920 Some chiefs act like thugs. And there's also some very good chiefs out there. We've got to remember that. You know, Clarence Louis out in BC, I mean, he's done fantastic things out in our Soyuz or Chief Ellis, is it? He's running for the Liberals out in BC. But again, I mean, don't assume that every chief is unaccountable. But if we get better governance models and systems, we can certainly do so.

00:42:36.360 As we know from our own governance model, though, we've got enough leaders non-reserve who aren't very accountable, who tend to be very corrupt, or in the case of our prime minister, complete abject imbeciles. So, you know, we can't get on too high a horse and say our system is that much better than the one going on over there. All of those systems really need some work, as we're seeing with some of the commenters mentioning that. 0.97

00:42:59.960 You know, I'm going to talk about personal accountability since I'm on the subject.

00:43:04.260 You know, I triggered some folks this morning because I threw a tweet out there about Doug Ford because he's been cracking down.

00:43:12.200 Doug Ford's always been one of the prime panicking leaders in Canada when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic.

00:43:19.220 He's just terrified of this thing.

00:43:20.880 He doesn't hesitate to crack down, lock down, infringe on rights, chase people around.

00:43:25.040 Well, he's just recently closed all the gymnasiums.

00:43:27.560 And I threw a tweet out there saying it's, you know, something along the lines of it's pretty

00:43:31.580 ironic. Doug Ford is closing gymnasiums without shutting down a single KFC. It shows where his

00:43:36.740 priorities are. Yes, yes, it was a jab. I'm sorry if you're triggered. Actually, I'm not sorry a bit.

00:43:41.720 Either way, I do that. I say those things. I'm on Twitter. I'm not a nice guy. Get over it. It goes

00:43:47.300 into a bigger issue, though, and something that's not being talked about. You know, I talked earlier

00:43:50.600 about hospitalizations and COVID. Something we're barely hearing about is the contributing factor

00:43:56.180 of obesity towards adverse outcomes with COVID-19.

00:44:00.040 When people keep talking about, you know, this person died

00:44:02.000 or this person was hospitalized with other comorbidities

00:44:05.300 and things such as that, 90% of the time,

00:44:08.260 one of those comorbidities is obesity.

00:44:11.300 It contributes, and it also contributes to a great deal

00:44:13.720 other health issues such as, I mean, and again,

00:44:17.140 it's not, oh, people call it fat shaming, whatever, whatever.

00:44:20.820 It's, I'm not in the best of shape. 0.94

00:44:22.700 You know, I got man boobs starting up.

00:44:24.100 I could do more exercise. But if we really are looking out for the health of people,

00:44:30.320 we should talk about the easiest things that they can change in their lives that will make

00:44:33.200 them more healthy and less inclined to be hospitalized by COVID. I do believe, and I'll

00:44:37.080 hear the comments are going to come. I think vaccination helps reduce your ending up in the

00:44:40.500 hospital from COVID as well. But on top of that, or even aside from that, vaccination always has

00:44:45.480 to be a choice, as does exercise. But I mean, we should be encouraging people to get healthier,

00:44:50.580 lose some weight, you know, get some exercise. Well, what are we, what messaging are we giving

00:44:56.360 when we're closing gyms? And I don't want to see fast food places closed, by the way, so it's not

00:45:01.880 tit for tat on that. But we don't seem to have our priorities in order when it comes to that. I mean,

00:45:10.240 gyms, we have no evidence that these are causing any undue spread of COVID-19 any more than any

00:45:17.840 other place. You can stand bumper to bumper in a lineup in Walmart with people and get an infection

00:45:22.700 just as easily as you can in a gymnasium, perhaps more. And in Walmart, you can be infected with all

00:45:27.580 sorts of things. Yet that's what gets targeted. That's what gets closed. These gyms, for one,

00:45:33.060 they're owned by small business owners and they are suffering. It's not a high margin, get rich

00:45:36.420 sort of world out there, guys, especially for small business owners like gym owners.

00:45:40.280 And the other thing is working out for some people is very important. It's good for your health. It's

00:45:45.120 good for your body. You feel better after a workout. I know I put them off. I rarely do

00:45:50.720 them, but it's one of those things. If you want to clear your mind, I mean, if you see any, uh,

00:45:55.500 psychologist or psychiatrist saying, how do you want to deal with stress without taking pills and

00:45:59.280 medication? What's a way to vent, get rid of some anxiety. You know what, getting some exercise,

00:46:03.220 whether it's a good solid walk, a jog, uh, you know, or a workout in a gym, you're going to feel

00:46:09.560 better afterwards when you wind down. Well, you feel better because you stopped too. Cause I mean,

00:46:12.940 it feels miserable when you're working out. I'm not a big fan of it, but we can't under

00:46:16.220 cut the benefits of these things. Yet that's what's going on. We aren't talking about preventative.

00:46:21.320 Somebody else mentioning vitamin D, cheap and easy. But yes, there's things we can do to make

00:46:24.780 ourselves healthier and less vulnerable to things, whether it's COVID-19 or other sicknesses in

00:46:30.980 general. If you really are worried about overburdening the health system, let's make our

00:46:34.840 people healthier. Locking them down is not making them healthier. It's causing an opioid epidemic.

00:46:40.380 It is stressing people.

00:46:42.080 It is making them get out of each other's throats.

00:46:43.980 It's like we were talking about with those kids who've been locked up

00:46:46.280 and now they get onto a jet and they go bananas on the thing.

00:46:49.060 You know, if they've been partying on the weekends like normal kids do

00:46:51.340 for the last couple of years, maybe they wouldn't have been lit up

00:46:53.440 like a firecracker when the time came to get a break.

00:46:56.760 But again, we aren't going preventative.

00:46:59.160 We're just locking people down.

00:47:01.140 We're not changing our health system, too.

00:47:02.480 I mean, that's a whole other discussion.

00:47:03.900 I think I'll get my guests before we get there, but I'd like to talk about it.

00:47:06.680 It's been two years.

00:47:08.180 Why are we still terrified that a handful of cases is going to overwhelm our health systems?

00:47:12.440 Well, what the hell is wrong with our systems?

00:47:14.920 This is one of the richest countries on Earth.

00:47:17.060 It's got supposedly one of the most modern and best health care systems on the planet.

00:47:21.380 Yet after two years, we haven't figured out how to deal with an increased capacity.

00:47:26.300 Why? I'm worried. What happens if we do get a real plague?

00:47:29.700 What if smallpox makes a resurgence or some other bug we've never heard of that really is a hell of a lot more deadly than COVID-19?

00:47:36.160 Will we have learned from it? Will we have learned to be able to expand our hospital capacity to deal

00:47:41.100 with it? I mean, we've got to get to that point we've talked about of turning this into something

00:47:45.940 that's endemic. It means we know and accept that it's not going away. We're stuck with it. And we

00:47:52.760 have to learn to live with it. It'll have its ups and downs. Well, that means we want to do things

00:47:57.560 then to keep ourselves safer while it's still always wandering around out there making the

00:48:01.460 rounds, one of which is staying healthier. And one of those ways to stay healthy is to try and

00:48:07.320 keep our weight in a manageable level, because it's one of the most direct things we can point

00:48:12.340 at. And I find it less worrisome for somebody to not be afraid of embarrassing somebody who may be

00:48:18.920 overweight by pointing out that problem. And again, I'm not talking about shaming in public

00:48:23.000 or things like that so much, but that's less intrusive in somebody's life than going out and

00:48:28.060 trying to lock down the world for fear of a virus going around. I mean, let's look at the solutions

00:48:35.260 we can do that are the easiest without disrupting people. In fact, they come with a great deal other

00:48:40.040 benefits from things. Yeah, you know, June there saying she's a nurse of 35 years and all this

00:48:47.260 money and we have fired the unvaccinated and not built one new bed. You know, and here's Ashley 0.99

00:48:53.800 seeing my wife got her booster. So far, so good. Yeah, I'm not worried about the vaccinations. 0.98

00:48:58.460 But the one thing we have learned with the vaccinations, though, is they obviously don't

00:49:01.600 stop the spread. That's another discussion altogether, too. You know, they may reduce,

00:49:07.140 I don't know, a lot of people just debate it, and that's fine. But the negative outcomes from

00:49:11.600 an infection with COVID-19 are reduced if you have been vaccinated, but they don't do a thing

00:49:19.300 for the spread. Otherwise, we've got the majority of the population vaccinated. Omicron wouldn't

00:49:23.920 be sweeping across the country the way it is right now. So the next question is, what's the

00:49:29.680 point of the vaccine passports? What does it matter? There, Ann just came up with that comment

00:49:34.200 herself there. If it's not going to stop the spread, why are we chasing people around? Why

00:49:40.760 are we spending the money? Why are we making them suffer? This isn't helping. Let's do some

00:49:46.620 evidence-based solutions with things now rather than these knee-jerk things. Knee-jerk reactions

00:49:50.760 to a pandemic perhaps are acceptable in the first four months of it. We're getting into two years on

00:49:55.820 it and we don't seem to know any better than we ever did in the first place. Okay, so getting on

00:50:01.380 from that, I'm going to move on to consumer and trade issues with David Clement. David is with

00:50:07.800 the consumer, oh boy, I'm going to bring David in so I can remember that now. It's the consumer

00:50:13.400 center david how are you doing i'm doing well thank you for having me good i've been ranting

00:50:17.960 at everybody's years you know for uh an hour and ten solid here and i forgot it's the canadian

00:50:23.240 consumer it's called the consumer choice center okay we actually operate all over the world but

00:50:29.800 i'm based in the greater toronto area yes and excellent thank you and i knew that i just couldn't

00:50:35.480 get it out of my head i gotta get better with my notes hey this is day two for our reboot of the

00:50:38.600 show another mental note get on to those things so thanks for joining me i've had you on before

00:50:43.080 you're certainly a fellow libertarian. We want minimal government. We want as much free commerce

00:50:49.980 and movement of goods as possible. And we're living in times where all of that's extremely

00:50:54.860 challenged. Something that's broken recently, though, we might as well go right into it,

00:51:00.180 is one of our favorite subjects, supply management. It seems that it may have led to a real problem

00:51:05.280 with the new NAFTA negotiations. Yeah. So essentially what the Biden administration

00:51:10.660 had done is brought forward an official complaint under the USMCA, which is the new name for

00:51:17.180 NAFTA, mostly in regards to dairy access in Canada for American farmers.

00:51:25.820 And I mean, it's a weird, weird scenario because for most other agricultural products, this

00:51:32.200 isn't a problem, but obviously for anybody who knows what supply management is, it's

00:51:36.420 system of production controls quotas and very very high tariffs on foreign products which

00:51:43.780 basically keeps them off canadian shelves and so they issued this this complaint uh and the

00:51:50.820 the review board who reviewed the complaint has uh essentially ruled in the united states favor

00:51:58.020 and given canada notice in regards to allowing access to the canadian market and so

00:52:05.220 So, I mean, supply management is something that I've long argued we should be getting

00:52:10.820 rid of for our own sake, because it's something that inflates prices on core food items, and

00:52:17.460 that obviously has a really disproportionate impact on lower-income Canadians.

00:52:23.220 And so this is good news if you care about the cost of food and you care about food inflation.

00:52:29.540 It's good news if you care about free trade, and it's good news if you care about pushing

00:52:34.020 back against cronies because we've seen for far too long the dairy lobby have have quite a serious

00:52:42.240 grip on power in ottawa in regards to their lobbying efforts so this is good news we're still

00:52:48.860 waiting to see what happens next but i'm hopeful that this can be the beginning of the end of

00:52:54.520 supply management yeah well and this is showing a different cost i mean one we've been kind of

00:52:59.080 screaming from the rooftops for years to saying hey this is costing you this much out of your

00:53:02.480 wallet every year when you buy your groceries, but it just doesn't cut quite enough attention.

00:53:07.620 Well, now it's really interfering with our trade deals and things such as that. And I don't like

00:53:13.060 giving Biden a lot of credit for a lot of things, but they're right there. I mean, this is an unfair

00:53:16.520 system. It's not trading in good faith. And I'll just kind of lay a little more. You and I are

00:53:22.460 very familiar with supply management, but for some of the viewers, it might not be as much. I mean,

00:53:25.900 this is a system we've had in Canada. It covers dairy, poultry, and eggs. And basically, it

00:53:32.160 completely controls the amount you're allowed to produce, where you can sell it. I mean, it's

00:53:35.900 Soviet style. My wife, Jane, grew up in a dairy farm out by Rockyford, a small one. Her father

00:53:41.460 did other things, but they had some dairy cows. They had a quota for cream. And I love using this 0.97

00:53:45.180 analogy from her because it just shows how ridiculous the system is and how long it's 0.93

00:53:50.540 been going. I won't say exactly how long since Jane was young, but he was only allowed to skim

00:53:56.060 the cream, literally, and sell it. He was not allowed to sell the milk. So the remaining milk,

00:54:00.060 you feed as much as you can to the family if you got pigs you pour it to the pigs or literally you

00:54:04.360 would pour it in the irrigation ditch because you just couldn't do anything with it and it wouldn't

00:54:06.980 keep you would waste it as you say and you want to hear something that will make that point even

00:54:11.960 more irritating um it was just discovered at least for me and i think for most people who follow this

00:54:19.020 that in the cost of production formula which is just a fancy way of like the guaranteed income

00:54:25.160 that farmers will get because of this system it actually includes the cost of dumping um

00:54:31.560 so so when the system fails which it has at several points in its history in regards to

00:54:38.520 meeting demand or oversupply and all of those issues um we've heard of uh of milk being poured

00:54:45.560 out we've heard of chickens being called and things like that they actually get paid for that

00:54:50.280 they get paid for ironically the mismanagement of supply so it it is really a backward system

00:54:58.680 that importantly we don't do for anything else beef farmers don't get this pork farmers don't

00:55:04.520 get this and so there's no need for it on an equity basis if we look at how we treat farmers

00:55:11.560 across canada but at the same time there are two other looming trade issues that are kind of front

00:55:18.520 of mind right now, and that is Canadian lumber. So the Trump administration made a huge error,

00:55:25.940 in my opinion, in increasing tariffs, and the Biden administration doubled down on those and

00:55:30.660 increased them more. And then the other one is whether or not our auto manufacturers in the

00:55:36.240 electrical vehicle space will be allowed to contribute under Biden's Buy American plan.

00:55:43.040 And so, I mean, for me, if I'm at the bargaining table, I say, OK, look, enough of the rigmarole of going back and forth under the USMCA.

00:55:53.600 Let's make a deal. Let's trade. We'll trade you dairy access, which is something that would be great for Canadian consumers and dealing with food inflation.

00:56:01.740 But we'll trade you that for concessions on lumber and electric vehicles.

00:56:06.500 And you get to boost two other important sectors in the economy, lumber and the automotive space.

00:56:14.080 And at the same time, you get to give Canadians some more choice, some more competition and some better prices.

00:56:21.300 Yeah, well, and competition.

00:56:22.920 And when we get to protectionism, I mean, the consumers always fail.

00:56:26.880 I mean, they always lose, I should say, at the end of it.

00:56:29.340 You know, they sell this, politicians sell it, some crony capitalists sell it and say,

00:56:34.040 look, if we can just protect our domestic markets, we're all going to do better for it.

00:56:37.320 But we almost never do.

00:56:39.060 I think it was Hayek in a clip or a speech, if people look it up,

00:56:42.440 he gave an analogy to a university group on protectionism about, I think,

00:56:46.060 something with a manufacturer of a pencil or something.

00:56:48.700 But it just showed, again, the absurdity of trying to fight in these subsidy wars

00:56:54.000 and protectionism with each other.

00:56:56.260 The main way he put it, because it was Japan that was the big issue back then,

00:56:59.080 was, hey, if they want to subsidize their stuff and sell us cheap goods,

00:57:02.560 why should we be stopping them?

00:57:04.040 Yeah, yeah. And that's been a common argument from the dairy farmers of Canada is that they don't get subsidies, which is just a bold-faced lie. They do get additional subsidies outside of the government protection that they currently receive in regards to competition, which is a form of subsidy.

00:57:24.020 um and so i mean this has come up in debate where i've debated lobbyists on behalf of the dfc

00:57:31.300 well they'll say well uh if if another country has has subsidies well that's not fair and my

00:57:39.820 response is quite easy is quite simple okay well then we should have free trade with new zealand

00:57:44.860 on all agricultural products including dairy because they have no farm subsidies in any way

00:57:50.480 shape or form. And that is obviously not accepted by them. But I mean, the big thing here is that

00:57:57.060 most people, most protectionists forget that trade is not a zero-sum game. So the benefits of this

00:58:07.100 are going to be enjoyed on both sides of the border. There's a U.S. Trade Commission report

00:58:11.620 that estimates that U.S. imports of Canadian dairy products would increase by $161.7 million

00:58:19.720 dollars if we lived up to the terms of the USMCA. And so reduced trade barriers would allow these

00:58:28.420 Canadian farmers to sell their products to a new American consumer base. And yes, they're going to

00:58:33.780 face some more competition domestically, but with that opening of trade comes more opportunity

00:58:39.340 abroad. And so the question is, do we want a sector that's insular, protected from competition,

00:58:45.580 protected from innovation slow stagnant or do we want something that is on the world scale

00:58:52.080 competing competing on price competing on quality um i i certainly think the latter is far more

00:58:58.940 preferable well absolutely and if we compete we will step up uh you know we've got all of this

00:59:05.820 land we've got a fantastic agricultural base we can produce dairy products on par with with

00:59:10.480 anywhere in the world we've got that down so we shouldn't be so insecure to think that the only

00:59:14.340 way we can do it uh efficiently is to protect it like that to put tariffs on outside goods

00:59:20.020 or choke the amount that a person's allowed to produce it's ridiculous and and one of the things

00:59:25.220 that's often forgotten is that beyond the united states by getting rid of supply management it

00:59:32.420 would open up export opportunities to the the emerging middle class that has has developed

00:59:40.820 in the developing world where people have been lifted out of poverty.

00:59:45.860 And one of the key trends that we see when those folks are lifted out of poverty

00:59:49.480 is that their consumption and demand for dairy, chicken, and eggs goes up quite a bit.

00:59:54.760 And that's why all of the forecasts for global consumption for those free goods

00:59:58.680 are forecasted to continue to grow up as global wealth goes up,

01:00:02.360 as globalization continues to lift people out of poverty.

01:00:05.980 And so it really is a scenario where beyond our relationship with the U.S., there is a lot to be gained on the world stage here for Canada and Canadian farmers to be out there and shipping our products internationally.

01:00:22.560 We don't do that now, but we certainly could if we got rid of this silly system.

01:00:27.960 Oh, absolutely.

01:00:28.540 I mean, a lot of dairy products like cheese and frozen products and such can be shipped a long ways.

01:00:32.860 uh just to get before we move on from supply management a uniquely canadian thing or maybe

01:00:38.440 the second uniquely canadian thing because there's another supply management thing with maple syrup

01:00:41.760 but was there was actually cheese smuggling going on there was uh gangsters smuggling american cheese

01:00:47.940 up and selling it to canadian restaurants uh you know i owned a pub that sold a lot of pizza and

01:00:53.680 actually cheese is a big chunk of your food bills on a narrow margin business i don't know if some

01:00:59.120 gangster came into my place and said, you know, I can sell you that at 30% less. I don't know if

01:01:03.940 I'd say no to it at that time, but just how ridiculous that is that we're actually smuggling 0.67

01:01:08.220 cheese. What do we become? And if we do get rid of the supply management and that sort of garbage,

01:01:12.120 we end that underground market, which is actually taking away from tax bases and local producers.

01:01:19.020 Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I mean, when I've spoken to people about that

01:01:25.300 had mentioned cheese smuggling most people kind of roll their eyes as if it wouldn't exist as if

01:01:30.500 it wouldn't exist but people went to prison um people were arrested um for doing this it was it

01:01:37.000 was a serious it was a serious offense um and so yeah that would obviously uh cease to to exist in

01:01:44.560 its current state at least um if we were to open things up have more competition and put some

01:01:49.820 downward pressure on prices, which I mean, inflation beyond what's going on with COVID

01:01:55.360 inflation, specifically food inflation is one of the, when comedians are pulled, one of the top

01:02:02.180 issues of the day. And a lot of the time politicians are asked, well, what are you going to do about

01:02:08.040 food inflation? Most politicians just shrug their shoulders. The conservatives on occasion will say

01:02:14.160 some things that are in line with trying to increase access, but they obviously have a huge 0.87

01:02:20.020 blind spot because they support this silly system as well. And so it would be nice if Ottawa, I mean,

01:02:27.180 if I were advising Trudeau, it would be very simple. I would just say, hey, this is a win-win.

01:02:32.620 This is a no-brainer. Let's take this to the bank and tell Canadians that we're going to reduce

01:02:39.180 prices for these core food items, and here's how we're going to do it.

01:02:43.440 That speaks to virtually all Canadians, unless you're a vegan.

01:02:50.500 So will they do that?

01:02:52.720 Probably not.

01:02:53.500 I'm not hopeful that they will see the light on this.

01:02:56.700 But in terms of a clear policy action that can reduce prices and calm inflation, this

01:03:03.620 is a relatively easy one.

01:03:06.240 Yeah, supply management's a good low-hanging fruit.

01:03:08.340 As you said, even though it's easy to make the case, they are such an entrenched lobby that it's very difficult to actually make change on it.

01:03:15.260 Outside of that, though, inflation is a huge issue right now, and it's going to be more so, whether it's energy products or lumber and other such things.

01:03:25.320 What are you proposing to help consumers?

01:03:27.660 Because we're all taking a wallop here as our currencies devalue and the price of everything goes up.

01:03:31.160 Yeah. I mean, inflation is one of those things where it's a hidden tax. So it's something

01:03:42.660 that is felt very, very intensely by lower income Canadians. This is where free trade

01:03:50.140 and open markets come into play. Most people, I mean, I know that Pierre Polyev has talked

01:03:55.920 to go in monetary policy. That's certainly a valid debate, and I hope that he continues to

01:04:01.860 carry that banner. But in terms of things that can be done in the short term to calm inflation

01:04:09.860 and inflationary concerns, it's opening up the Canadian marketplace so that there is downward

01:04:15.800 pressure on prices and competition. It's one of the leading factors, in my opinion,

01:04:22.180 why we for a long time were able to keep prices so stable, so much so that one of the former

01:04:29.620 senior advisors to President Obama was on Twitter essentially saying the same thing,

01:04:36.640 that the Biden administration, if they care about inflation, they don't need to

01:04:40.960 beat the drums of antitrust and worried about potential price gouging, which probably doesn't

01:04:48.740 exists. What they need to do is roll back the regulatory state, peel back the regulations that

01:04:55.840 are limiting production, and continue to open the U.S. market. So I think that that's probably a

01:05:00.860 recipe for success here. We've seen it work in the past, and it is one of those things that can be

01:05:06.340 done if you have the political courage to do it in the near to short term. Yeah, well, you've

01:05:14.640 certainly got your work cut out for you. But I mean, people will act finally when things kind

01:05:18.860 of hit them and they kick them in the butt or hit them in the wallet. So hopefully you can keep 0.99

01:05:22.520 pointing out solutions when people start finally realizing that they've got a problem. Where can

01:05:27.180 we find more information on what you're doing and what you're up to, David?

01:05:31.260 Yeah, consumerchoicecenter.org is the organization. And then you can follow me on Twitter at

01:05:36.520 at Clement Liberty, where I am quite active on all issues of consumer choice, whether that be

01:05:43.560 energy policy or the ordinary goods that people buy today excellent well i appreciate you coming

01:05:49.560 on to talk to me today it's an issue that's going to be big in 2022 and we're looking forward to

01:05:54.280 seeing you keep proposing solutions and exposing problems so uh thanks again keep up the good work

01:06:00.280 and i hope to talk to you again soon appreciate it thank you and that was david clement as i said

01:06:08.040 follow him on those social media channels he's always got good stuff to say you know on twitter

01:06:12.280 People complain about Twitter a lot, but I tell you, it's a good spot to stay on top of things.

01:06:15.780 You don't have to get on the fights and into the cesspool with everybody else, but you will see things as they break.

01:06:20.480 And when David puts out new articles, things like that, that's where he's going to share them.

01:06:24.180 Same with Melissa and others I've spoken to on here.

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01:07:30.080 sponsor. So yeah, who was it? Somebody earlier was mentioning, getting back to that supply

01:07:36.100 management talk about Deb, I think, remembering feeding the milk to the pigs when she was younger.

01:07:43.020 And yeah, these are things that happen. If you had pigs, you could do that. Not every farm had

01:07:45.960 that. It's just such a ridiculous, ridiculous policy. When it comes to chickens, I've got a 0.99

01:07:51.040 flock of nine that we keep at home for home fresh eggs. No, I'm not going to get in problem with big

01:07:57.260 egg markets or anything. But you know, it's actually, I believe the number is 300, which I'm

01:08:01.940 never going to have. But if you have over 300 chickens and you don't have a government quota,

01:08:06.820 you have broken the law. They will come down and they will fine you or they can jail you. That's

01:08:11.480 how absurd these supply management policies are. That's how controlled that market is.

01:08:17.740 And if you go traveling to the States, much or most other countries, you go to the grocery store

01:08:20.680 and you see the price of dairy products, meats, chicken, eggs, all of those things, all the

01:08:24.880 basics, the essentials, they're way lower than here. That's supply management, guys. And yeah,

01:08:30.940 the Conservatives chicken out every time when it comes to addressing supply management. They talk

01:08:34.900 big and they cower away because the dairy lobby is strong. And the other thing people don't like

01:08:39.360 to talk about with it, well, politicians don't like to talk about it, is most of Canada's dairy

01:08:44.500 now is in Quebec. The bulk of it is there. They're terrified of upsetting Quebec producers. Welcome

01:08:50.560 to the politics of Canada, of course, just on every level all the time. It's what's in Quebec's

01:08:56.700 interest, not what's in the rest of Canada's interest, what's in Quebec's interest. I got

01:09:00.840 a feeling if Alberta had 80% of Canada's dairy products, we would suddenly see supply management

01:09:06.960 vanishing very, very quickly. But it's Quebec, so we keep the kid gloves, we protect their markets

01:09:13.140 at the expense of everybody else. And something I mentioned to Clement, yeah, their maple syrup

01:09:17.060 market is actually supply managed to very heavily controlled. And you pay a very high premium for

01:09:23.080 maple syrup. I mean, the good stuff's expensive anyways. But I mean, let's get free market. We

01:09:27.640 don't need government managing food. Look how badly they manage everything else. Man, I don't 1.00

01:09:31.700 want them managing what I eat. They do a terrible job of it. So get government out of it. We need to

01:09:37.320 push back against supply management. Unfortunately, not even enough Canadians have even heard of it.

01:09:41.140 You know, the dairy market doesn't really want to talk about it. Politicians don't want to,

01:09:44.220 especially conservative ones, because they got to stare at their shoes. Because you can't pretend

01:09:48.080 to be a fiscal conservative and say you support supply management. You can't. It's a lie. That's

01:09:54.260 a pure lie. It is completely the opposite of free market. It is government illegalizing somebody

01:10:00.160 selling a product and favoring somebody else selling that product. So you can't pretend to

01:10:05.740 be a conservative and say that policy is acceptable. Yet our conservative party does it

01:10:09.600 all the time. As David mentioned, Pierre Polyev spoke against it, but he sits back and speaks

01:10:15.660 against it. The leaders never do. Go ahead, go after Shearer. Shearer got his leadership from

01:10:21.220 the dairy lobby and O'Toole certainly isn't out there beating the drum against supply management

01:10:25.460 either. So it's an unacceptable policy and why we just keep accepting it is a frustration. But I

01:10:33.200 mean, let's talk about our major media outlets, at least we're talking about. I'm going to bounce

01:10:36.220 around a bit here. The CBC fallout keeps going on. This is brilliant. From that the CBC journalist

01:10:45.280 who basically said, I'm going to Substack, I'm leaving. And she's done with it. Slobodian wrote

01:10:51.260 a great thing about it. But it just, the amount that the progressive journalist set, I guess you

01:11:00.040 could say online has gone bananas over this. And yes, you know what? There was one in Vancouver.

01:11:06.760 I don't know who she is. Some low grade with the CBC, but she basically called everybody in

01:11:12.840 Substack white supremacists. Yeah. It always goes back to that. Where and how on earth do you get

01:11:19.200 that? But that's where they gone. The left and the progressives have gone bananas because this

01:11:23.360 woman has exposed the CBC for the woke garbage dump that it is. And you know what? In a free 0.99

01:11:28.960 market, we could have all the woke garbage dumps in the world that you want. I don't care about 1.00

01:11:32.480 the CBC's content so much as the fact that I got to pay for it. That's what pisses me off with the

01:11:38.160 CBC. People say, if you don't like it, change the channel. Well, I can do that, but I can't

01:11:42.120 stop paying for it. More than a billion a year. And the other part with the CBC and what they do

01:11:47.120 and where they screw communication and media in Canada is that their TV channel sells advertising

01:11:53.500 as well. At least the radio, you know, it's tax funded, doesn't sell advertising. The TV sells

01:11:57.560 advertising. But it's subsidized, of course. You know, this is a company that's getting a billion

01:12:01.060 in some from the taxpayers a year. So they can undercut other advertisers. They can undercut

01:12:05.180 other media producers and sell better advertising package deals to them because they're getting all

01:12:12.380 those tax dollars. Well, in my view, that's advertising dollars stolen from other outlets.

01:12:16.580 And we've got some great advertisers. I just spoke to a couple of ours here already. But it doesn't

01:12:20.720 make our job any easier when we've got to compete in the market or we've got a behemoth like the

01:12:24.360 CBC selling ad space for far less than we can. We can't afford to go at their rates for that sort

01:12:31.460 of thing. The only upside is less people are buying or fewer people, their ad revenues are

01:12:35.620 going down into the toilet anyways, because nobody's watching the CBC. We're still paying

01:12:39.220 for it, but nobody's watching that crap. But it's still going on. And it's been fun watching the 0.99

01:12:43.920 fallout though, because those dependent on the CBC, those woke people, those people who make

01:12:48.200 their living out of the trash that that state broadcaster produces, feel vulnerable. They know

01:12:53.180 it's garbage. And they know when it gets exposed, more and more taxpayers are not only tuning out 0.99

01:12:57.400 of their rotten content, but they're actually saying, let's get rid of it. Why am I paying for

01:13:01.840 this? So let's keep saying that. And the other way to do it is also support the alternative

01:13:06.660 medias. Let's keep pulling those advertisers away from the CBC. Let's starve that company.

01:13:11.900 So outlets like the Western Standard, yes, I'm going to be self-promoting here, but hey,

01:13:16.060 that's what we do. Come on. We put stuff out. The government doesn't tell us what to say,

01:13:20.300 and it certainly doesn't give us any money help us along if you haven't subscribed to the western

01:13:25.140 standard already get in there go to the western standard online.com take out a membership you

01:13:30.220 can take a trial membership you can get full access to all our columns our content our news

01:13:34.240 stories as they break it's a free trial for the first little while and then you can carry it on

01:13:37.860 and most people when they go in they check it out they keep the membership after the trial expires

01:13:42.420 for 10 bucks a month it's a fantastic value you know as i said cheaper than the old

01:13:48.340 newspaper subscriptions to get it brought to your door. And you don't have that pile of old

01:13:52.260 newspapers that you got to try and get rid of after every couple of weeks when you put it off.

01:13:55.160 So go to WesternStandardOnline.com, take out a membership, help us out. I mean,

01:14:00.380 these subscribers are what keep us going as well as our sponsors and share this, you know,

01:14:04.200 follow us on YouTube, Rumble, Twitter, all of those social media things, keep sharing it with

01:14:08.860 others, get more people on and it helps us. And we produce more content and we can just keep

01:14:13.100 spreading. Yes, we're spreading the alternative media, the real media. Now the ones that speak

01:14:18.180 to the issues you want to hear about, not what the government wants you to hear about.

01:14:22.680 So it goes both ways. We really appreciate those who have already subscribed. We appreciate the

01:14:27.600 people who have donated and sponsored. And again, just keep encouraging and share it on Facebook,

01:14:32.560 like it on Facebook. I know people get tired of every social media person saying, you know,

01:14:36.020 slam that like button and all that stuff, but it's really important to us. And this is the way

01:14:39.480 we can bypass the mainstream media. You know, we don't have to keep eating their stuff. We have

01:14:43.780 another route. We have another means of news. We have another means of opinion, another means of

01:14:48.320 discussion. As June's saying, yeah, she hasn't watched the CBC in a decade or so. Yeah. So I

01:14:56.060 mean, if we aren't watching, why are we still paying for that crap? But we are, and it's going 0.99

01:14:59.900 to take some pushing. Speaking of O'Toole and his rubber backbone, he talked about defunding the CBC

01:15:05.120 when he was campaigning, but much like his carbon tax flip-flop, now he's talking about fixing it.

01:15:09.200 You can't fix it. It's a state broadcaster. You couldn't fix Pravda in Russia. You're not going

01:15:14.420 to fix CBC in Canada. Just get rid of it. We'll do fine without it. Most people have already

01:15:20.020 abandoned it. They're done with it. So here's another beauty going on is speaking of consumer

01:15:26.280 things. I should have talked to David about this as well, because it's the big push for electric.

01:15:30.900 You know, this is a story. I think it's going to be coming out on the standard if we haven't

01:15:33.940 done it already, but there's a group that it's an association that pushes electric cars, you know,

01:15:38.380 electric vehicles and so on and they're lobbying the government and they're pushing and they want

01:15:43.180 the government to put an extra charge of $4,000 on every SUV in Canada. They want to make you pay

01:15:49.920 another $4,000. My little Hyundai Tucson, it's a four-cylinder vehicle, fantastic on gas,

01:15:55.580 but that's categories as an SUV. So they would tack another $4,000 on that because what they

01:16:01.400 want to do is force you to buy their crappy electric vehicles. Look, if your car is good,

01:16:06.240 I'll buy it. Don't force me there. All that tells me is your machine is crap. It means it's not worth

01:16:12.860 it. It's not a good investment. If you have to force people to buy your product, your product

01:16:17.940 stinks. I mean, make a good electric car. Make the good infrastructure. That's your job. Be a

01:16:24.940 capitalist. If it's good, it'll get there. We didn't have to put a high price on horses to make

01:16:30.980 people move on to combustion engines and cars later on. They made better cars. The Model T

01:16:35.900 came along. People realized we're better off buying these vehicles and they did it on their

01:16:40.960 own. And auto manufacturers competed and made better products. And the advent of the personal

01:16:46.020 automobile made for one of the biggest benefits of industrialized society that we don't get enough

01:16:52.280 credit for. You know, I'm going to carry on an aside rant with my tirade here because we have

01:16:57.380 the crazed left, the bike lane cultists, the city hall lunatics, who, by the way, they're now

01:17:03.200 lobbying them to try and get rid of all the one-way roads in downtown Calgary because they want to slow

01:17:06.780 everyone down. They despise the individual car. They say it's terrible. It's evil. It's ruining

01:17:11.640 the environment. It's splattering pedestrians. It's sidelining cyclists. It's spewing stuff out

01:17:16.640 of its exhaust. And they want us all to ride the bus, ride bikes, walk, check outside. It's minus

01:17:21.720 30. Yeah, nobody's riding a bike in that except for a handful of hipster lunatics. And this is 0.96

01:17:29.060 what they're pushing for. But the left forgets. You know, I did some work in Pennsylvania and I

01:17:33.700 wrote that on a blog post years ago. I mean, I did a lot of work in Pennsylvania, but there's

01:17:37.100 this little town in a valley. I can't remember which one it was called. I think it was Vander

01:17:41.000 Grifts. No, Salzburg. Either way, Salzburg, Pennsylvania. It's in this valley with a river 0.87

01:17:45.320 and there was a big steel mill there. It was the town factory. It was the one and only employer

01:17:50.380 down there. It was, you could tell it was a factory town. You know, the grocery store was

01:17:54.180 kind of standardized, the gymnasium, the school, all of that. The company that owned the factory

01:17:58.160 built it all. It's out there in the Rust Belt and it's rough country. You know, it's a big steep

01:18:03.900 hill to get out of there. And it had a railroad going through. And I looked into the history of

01:18:06.700 the place. And I tell you, when you worked in that town, the company owned you because you

01:18:12.140 couldn't escape. Where else are you going to work? The company owned the store, the company owned the

01:18:16.200 factory. The company owned a lot of the housing even. You rented from them. So they owned you.

01:18:21.360 It didn't matter if you unionized and things like that. You were very beholden to that country. How

01:18:25.280 did you get out of there? Because the train, which the company was tied with, was the only way in and

01:18:30.220 out. Well, the personal automobile changed all that. All of a sudden, a person can commute to

01:18:36.700 Pittsburgh and get a different job. I can go down the road to another town and work at a different

01:18:40.620 steel mill. I can move my family perhaps if I have to. It empowered the individual. It empowered

01:18:46.720 the worker. It empowered the middle class. Individual cars are important. If we get to this

01:18:52.400 supposed blissful world where the government runs all forms of transportation, they run nothing but

01:18:57.240 buses and trains and stuff like that. Well, guess who suddenly owns your ass? When you got that 1.00

01:19:01.960 means, you got that key, you got that individual car, you have the power to bugger off. My brother 0.98

01:19:08.560 worked for me years ago, actually, you know, it's a side thing. It was a, we have a good

01:19:12.240 relationship, but it gets mixed. And I used to work on survey contracts up north with my company

01:19:16.620 and he would work with me, but he was always fearful that we were going to have a big fight.

01:19:19.700 And even though I provided a company vehicle for him to get up to the job, say up in Fort St. John,

01:19:23.500 he would always bring his own truck. And he'd say, why are you doing that, Jay? So that's my FU

01:19:27.800 license. So when I'm ticked off, I can get in the truck and leave. I'm not waiting on the greyhound.

01:19:32.700 Okay. Brothers can do that sort of thing to it. But that principle is the same,

01:19:35.660 that that personal mobility empowers an individual and the left hates that and then so we've developed

01:19:42.780 into that and then we developed into affordable mobility and means of getting around they want us

01:19:46.980 to move away from that they want us to move into these horrifically expensive electrical vehicles

01:19:50.520 that we don't have the charging grid to do we don't have the ability to maintain these things

01:19:55.640 they hold a terrible value we literally saw a guy dynamite his tesla because it was a twenty 0.93

01:20:00.760 thousand dollar repair bill to upgrade the darn thing so we just thought ah screw it i'm gonna 0.97

01:20:04.460 blow it up, make a point. Maybe they'll get there one day. That's what I mean. They can replace the 0.98

01:20:10.600 combustion engine perhaps, but it's going to take a while and it's not going to be worth it until we

01:20:15.660 say, Hey, I like that. That's an affordable alternative for me. It's reliable. It'll work

01:20:20.160 in these god awful cold weather. It'll get me where I need to go. I'll invest in that. I'll buy

01:20:25.720 it. I'll bring it home. I'll use it. But right now it's not there. It's not even close. And then to

01:20:29.120 have it. Well, if we just tax the crap out of everything else and force people to buy it,

01:20:33.400 what do you think is going to happen? Is that making it better for any of us? Is it better for

01:20:37.420 the manufacturers? Probably not. It just encourages them to make a crappy car. I mean, Clement was

01:20:42.100 talking about how it's an international market. If they don't have real competition and they

01:20:47.360 aren't innovating and making better cars, they're not going to be able to compete when foreign cars

01:20:51.160 that are better are starting to come in. Let's not get into this subsidy war. It's bad enough.

01:20:55.980 We've already seen some of that. I do believe Ontario was subsidizing. I mean, before it was

01:20:59.120 kind of giving you a credit towards the purchase of an electrical vehicle. And now they're talking

01:21:04.000 about punishing you for buying something that isn't electric. This is a bad road, a very bad

01:21:10.360 road. But crazy Mayor Gondek has a climate emergency. You know, Justin Trudeau thinks the

01:21:15.580 world's lighting on fire. These are the sort of things that appeal to politicians like them.

01:21:19.700 So we've got to be afraid of these proposals from these groups, these lobbyists. So we've

01:21:22.700 got to speak up. We've got to push back. We're going to bankrupt ourselves trying and the

01:21:27.980 climate isn't changing. We tried carbon taxing everything cooler in BC. How'd that work out for

01:21:32.260 us? That's been going for a decade. All they did was pay more money. Their emissions didn't change

01:21:36.160 and the climate keeps changing. We call it weather. There's not much to be done about it.

01:21:42.380 Lots to rant about today. I've been plenty triggered. Come on, commanders. What do you

01:21:47.160 want us to go on about today? We're getting near the tail end of this show and it's been a good one.

01:21:53.460 By the way, I don't know if I mentioned that with the obesity thing. CNN actually put a story out

01:21:57.480 pointing out how obesity contributes to COVID negative outcomes, you know, so even CNN is

01:22:04.760 recognizing this. So yes, for your triggered Ford supporters, get over yourselves. Even your hero

01:22:11.360 as leftists, the CNN agrees with me that we should be examining things such as reducing obesity.

01:22:17.900 I'll kind of close up though, actually something that Mel Riston talked to former mayoral candidate

01:22:21.820 Jeff Davison today. She's going to have an interview going up in a little while at the

01:22:24.940 Western Standard at one of our channels, YouTube and such. She does some great interviews and it's

01:22:29.840 about that arena deal. You know, the deal is done, but there's still a lot to talk about.

01:22:34.480 What happened? What was the problem? I mean, part of the problem was that in my view, I said it

01:22:39.240 yesterday, government just shouldn't be in business on these things in the first place.

01:22:42.680 These partnerships don't work out and they fall apart or the taxpayer just gets horrifically

01:22:47.580 gouged. I mean, Mayor Gondek and the city of Calgary just pushed it too far. They kept adding

01:22:52.560 costs, adding demands, adding your climate crap, saying it has to have solar panels and junk like 0.99

01:22:56.980 that. And the owners just said, you know what, we're out of here. And they left. And we're left 0.98

01:23:00.540 holding the bag. Millions of dollars were spent and we got nothing. If people know Calgary, look

01:23:05.000 at that dead zone north of the saddle dome, all that big stampede parking lot there. We got a

01:23:09.640 problem. I don't know what we're going to fill that with. Hopefully private enterprise does it.

01:23:14.580 Hopefully we've learned from it, but they do know there's a problem. My only question is whether

01:23:19.540 Gondek was intentional in scuttling this thing, or just really thought we can just keep gouging

01:23:24.340 and gouging and gouging, and they're never going to go away. Because both are very conceivable,

01:23:29.420 you know, when it comes to the actions of left-leaning progressive politicians. But this

01:23:35.560 arena is a big problem because, yes, Calgary does have a hockey team that will still only stay for

01:23:40.380 so long. People say they'll never go anywhere. Never say never. There's other cities that is a

01:23:44.140 competitive world. Plus, we like to draw things, whether it's trade shows, concerts, you know,

01:23:48.820 other events like that, and Miss Alabama's just getting them worn out. So what are we going to do

01:23:52.740 about it? I mean, I propose just get the city out of the way, let the private investors come up with

01:23:57.620 something. They will come up with something. But right now, that whole river district in East

01:24:01.300 Village is turning into a garbage dump, and nothing's getting built out there, and they're

01:24:04.500 in big, big trouble. Watching the fingers pointing all over the place. Gondek now is blaming COVID 0.86

01:24:08.960 for the thing falling apart. Sorry, Gondek, you were right in the middle of that mess. Kenny is

01:24:13.720 taking shots at Gondek over this thing.

01:24:16.300 Stephen Carter is scurrying

01:24:17.800 around doing Stephen Carter things over it.

01:24:20.100 It is a public relations nightmare. Calgarians 0.80

01:24:21.920 do love their Calgary Flames

01:24:23.640 and they don't want to see them gone.

01:24:27.140 And again,

01:24:28.040 whether they supported having government in these arena

01:24:29.840 deals or not, what they are seeing

01:24:31.860 now is a very vulnerable

01:24:33.600 sports market going on because it's all tied together.

01:24:35.900 If you lose the Flames, I don't think the Stamps make a hell

01:24:37.780 of a lot of money. And that McMahon

01:24:39.580 Stadium is a pretty ancient, big old piece of cold concrete

01:24:41.800 up there as well. We might

01:24:43.700 lose the Roughnecks. I mean, it's all tied together. So Gondek in her first few months

01:24:47.680 on a number of levels has got a whole bunch of problems on her plate. She's not off to a good

01:24:52.720 start. And unfortunately we have more than four and a half years of her governance yet to look 1.00

01:24:57.360 forward to. At least you know, on this show, I'm going to be on her case though, for the entirety

01:25:02.600 of it. We're not going to let her get away easy. I was never easy on Nenshi, but I'm not going to

01:25:07.200 be any easier with Mayor Gondek. So what do we got here? I'm going to talk one more time about

01:25:13.640 our sponsor, you know, again, this private enterprise, that's what we are. Bitcoin Well,

01:25:18.680 these guys, they've been good with us as a sponsor. And part of it is because a lot of our readers

01:25:23.380 and viewers have been going there and checking it out. And they're realizing Bitcoin Well

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01:25:33.980 it can be a confusing world. If you're not familiar with it, it seems almost not to make

01:25:36.820 sense. But I mean, we can make sense of an ATM. We make sense of online bill payments. It's just

01:25:41.620 a matter of where the account is. And I mean, yes, there's going to be a different symbol next

01:25:45.060 to the currency, but it's cyber currency. You're getting out of the old bank controlled, government

01:25:51.120 controlled currency market. And looking at the world today, I think hedging yourself against that

01:25:56.060 control is a very good idea. So again, be sure to go to the Western Standard online to keep getting

01:26:02.560 the full stories and opinions. If you haven't subscribed, please take out a subscription.

01:26:07.180 Follow me on Twitter. You really want to see the scrappy me come out where I don't

01:26:11.340 censor my language. That's Corey B. Morgan. Yeah, I love scrapping it out on there. Come back

01:26:17.500 tomorrow at 11.30 a.m. We're going to be back on live again. I'm going to have guests, Paul

01:26:21.080 Hinman. He's the leader of the Wildrose Independence Party. He's running in Fort

01:26:25.020 McMurray in the by-election, whenever that gets called. I really want to ask him what the rationale

01:26:29.440 that is, because I'm not sure if that's such a good idea or not. But well, Paul will explain it

01:26:34.020 to me. And I'm going to talk to Kelly Malmberg. He's a local agricultural producer from down by

01:26:38.480 Blackie way. And we're just going to talk about some of the agricultural issues. He's written a

01:26:42.860 column for us in the past and things that are challenging Albertans, people in Saskatchewan,

01:26:46.520 or even BC producers. Like it's a tough industry right now. You know, here's some of the ironies

01:26:50.400 of people having high prices for food, for staples, for essentials. Yet at the same time,

01:26:55.660 the agricultural producers are not making money hand over a fist, unless they got dairy quotas.

01:26:59.440 So I'm going to talk to Kelly a bit about that tomorrow. And of course, we'll have a lot of talk

01:27:03.140 on the issues, the newsroom check-in and all that good stuff. So thank you very much for tuning in

01:27:08.260 today and I will see you all tomorrow.

01:27:38.260 You

Western Standard - January 06, 2022

Triggered： Real COVID-19 stats & Consumer Choice Center.

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