Western Standard - Triggered： The ongoing persecution of Tamara Lich

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Good morning. It's May 20th, 2022. Welcome to Triggered. I'm Corey Morgan. Yes, we got this

00:00:39.440 Friday, the last day before the May long weekend or Victoria Day as some call it for as long as

00:00:45.580 we're going to be allowed to call it that, I guess. Looking into all of those who are joining

00:00:50.100 us, a couple other observances. Today is International Clinical Trials Day. Yes, who'd

00:00:55.940 have thought we'd have it, but we do. So if you see that person twitching and shaking going down

00:01:00.620 the street, don't discard them as just another drunk. They could be trying some sort of new

00:01:05.340 clinical treatment for something. So this is the day to recognize that. How we got by without such

00:01:11.380 a day before I don't, I'm not too sure. It's also dog rescue day. That's a little more on the upside.

00:01:15.840 That's something up my alley, of course. We foster dogs, Jane and I, and tend to adopt a number of

00:01:21.780 them over the years as well so actually it's kind of prescient this year there is quite a backlog of

00:01:27.840 rescued dogs these days from a lot of people who got them during the pandemic and then found them

00:01:32.060 inconvenient and dumped them into rescue rather than taking care of them later uh just another

00:01:37.680 update i guess in a sense yesterday was a really good show i i uh had daniel smith on with her i

00:01:42.940 guess her first day of her leadership campaign i had uh rachel emmanuel our own reporter talk about

00:01:48.340 Jason Kenney's retirement and a recording of Jean Charest. Now somewhere in all of that,

00:01:55.460 apparently we ticked off the YouTube gods and that show got pulled off of YouTube. It's yanked

00:02:01.140 off. They don't tell us why they just tell us don't do it again. And it's pulled off. So

00:02:04.340 I just like to remind everybody, I know most of our viewers, you know, the comment scrolls easier

00:02:08.980 through the Facebook video. That's where we see most of them. But the one where we're least likely

00:02:12.120 to be canceled or censored is Rumble. So, you know, check out, search out westernstandardonline.com

00:02:17.520 and look at our Rumble channel.

00:02:19.260 It could be well worth joining to see there

00:02:21.280 so you can catch all our episodes

00:02:22.320 because you never know when some of our stuff

00:02:24.020 might have been pulled down or canceled or censored,

00:02:26.780 unfortunately, and YouTube is just terrible for it.

00:02:29.800 So you might want to check that spot out

00:02:31.680 to get a more consistent product from my show and other shows.

00:02:35.420 And again, unfortunately, Danielle's show,

00:02:37.140 Smith's show won't be coming anymore

00:02:38.780 because it would be a conflict. 0.98

00:02:40.220 She's on the campaign trail,

00:02:41.920 though I'm certain we'll be talking to her again

00:02:43.340 as things move along.

00:02:44.880 Okay, so let's see.

00:02:46.200 I got some interesting guests today, Paige McCann-Saunter, or McCann-Saunter, I should

00:02:51.260 say, and Shauna Pilip-Chuck. They're from the Alberta Disability Workers Association.

00:02:57.160 And that's a group, of course, their name kind of says it. They work with people with disabilities,

00:03:01.280 a lot of home care workers, things like that. They haven't had a raise in something like

00:03:05.640 five or six years. I guess their average wage is something around $17 or $18 an hour. And that's

00:03:11.180 some pretty hard, difficult, and important work. And they're very shorthanded, which is leaving

00:03:15.540 our most vulnerable, even more vulnerable and uncared for. So they've been lobbying and

00:03:22.060 petitioning to try and get that changed. So I'm going to talk to them about that.

00:03:25.600 And we're going to have Franco Teresano pop on. We haven't seen him in a couple of weeks.

00:03:28.860 And it's their gas, the gas tax honesty day or something of that sort. I should remember,

00:03:35.600 we'll play a little clip to get that framed up properly. And of course, Franco will talk all

00:03:39.220 things spending and taxes in general. So, you know, we can look forward to that. It's a good

00:03:44.440 consistent chat with Franco. That's why we get him on all the time. He's always fun to have on

00:03:48.580 and makes some very good points. So before we head into this weekend, let's have a look at what's got

00:03:54.840 me worked up today. This one really does have me ticked off. I've been listening to the coverage

00:03:59.180 of the latest courtroom crap that they're putting Tamara Leach through in Alberta. 0.98

00:04:05.400 And it's just nuts. The government's actions against the trucker, truckers, convoy organizer, 0.93

00:04:10.140 Tamera Leach have, they've morphed into an outright vendetta, and it's repugnant to watch.

00:04:15.820 Crown Prosecutor Moise Karimji sounded obsessive as he demanded Leach be tossed back into jail for

00:04:22.360 the most flimsy of perceived bail violations. So the court exchanges between the prosecutor and

00:04:30.180 Justice Kevin Phillips were fiery to listen to. The judge repeatedly had to admonish the

00:04:36.240 The prosecutor, saying he was surprised by the prosecutor's decorum, and asked him to contemplate that.

00:04:45.120 And the prosecutor was furious, and he asked the justice to recuse himself from the case,

00:04:49.180 stating he was considering a mistrial application due to the judge's comments.

00:04:53.180 This is just a bail hearing, guys. 0.56

00:04:56.360 So what high crime did Tamara Leach commit in order to bring about such an effort to revoke her bail? 0.99

00:05:01.220 Well, Leach is receiving an award from the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms.

00:05:05.460 It's called the George Jonas Freedom Award.

00:05:08.160 She didn't demand the award or apply for it.

00:05:10.260 It was granted to her by the JCCF.

00:05:12.600 They give one out to people every year

00:05:14.320 who they felt were worthy of recognition

00:05:16.200 for their efforts to promote freedom.

00:05:18.980 The alleged crime isn't that Leach is receiving the award,

00:05:22.300 but she dared to respond to the email informing her of it,

00:05:26.220 saying that she'd be honored to accept it.

00:05:28.060 That's it. Nothing more.

00:05:29.580 They're framing that as being apparently promoting the convoy. 0.70

00:05:32.260 It's insane, and they want to throw her back in jail.

00:05:35.460 Leach's been free on bail since March 7th. She's spent weeks in jail already, way too long, 0.52

00:05:41.260 and the Crown fought her release on bail tooth and nail. They wanted her to remain incarcerated 0.85

00:05:45.520 for months. Leach has had the ability, or I mean, has abided diligently by her bail conditions for

00:05:50.820 all of those months. She's not been traveling, she hasn't been talking to any of the press,

00:05:54.740 and she hasn't been doing any social media. It's telling that the worst alleged violation the

00:05:59.520 Crown could find to her bail conditions was an affirmative response to an award she was being

00:06:03.660 offered. Leach didn't commit to traveling to accept the ward, by the way, and she wasn't

00:06:07.740 celebrating or posting about it in social media. All she did was accept it and say she was honored

00:06:12.480 in an email. Due to this, the Crown's willing to tie up our court system and wants a harmless

00:06:18.080 woman to languish in jail for an indeterminate period. Bail should only be denied if the person 1.00

00:06:24.240 charged with a crime is deemed to be high risk to re-offend or flee. Now, Leach has been out for

00:06:29.360 months. She's clearly not made any efforts to flee the country, and it's unlikely she's

00:06:33.560 going to. She's got family here. She's got children here. She has a spotless criminal

00:06:36.900 record as well. She's been a law-abiding citizen for decades. It's not as if she has a propensity 0.99

00:06:41.340 for committing crimes. She isn't a chronic protester or activist. She simply started a

00:06:47.680 fundraiser for a protest and got swept up in what turned out to be one of the biggest public

00:06:51.320 protests in Canadian history. Aside from being involved in a registered federal political party,

00:06:56.600 her record of public actions is actually pretty thin. Not that chronic protesting or activism

00:07:01.340 or crimes anyway. As for re-offending, how or what could she do? It's not as if hundreds of

00:07:07.860 semi-trucks and thousands of protesters are idling outside of Ottawa ready to seize Parliament Hill

00:07:13.060 and erect bouncy castles again as soon as Leach gives the word. The protests are gone. It's done.

00:07:18.280 There's no sign they're going to be returning anytime soon. If the government did decide to

00:07:22.500 reinstate a bunch of pandemic restrictions, I expect the protests would return, but they would

00:07:26.380 do so with or without Leach. She was really only one person among thousands. The crime

00:07:31.200 Leach committed was to embarrass the government. The state vendetta against her today is based on

00:07:36.240 nothing but spite and vindictiveness. Leach is a symbol of reason and activism that the government

00:07:43.580 loathes. She isn't a crazed, screaming extremist with a criminal history. She's a mother who felt 0.99

00:07:48.540 she needed to peacefully stand up against a government overreaching its authority. Her very

00:07:52.520 existence puts lie to the absurd reactions of the government to the convoy protests, and they despise

00:07:58.540 her for that. Leach is innocent until proven guilty, and she should be granted every possible

00:08:03.580 freedom until if and when she is convicted of something. I mean, in 2019, it hit the news that

00:08:08.980 326 people in Toronto alone who had been charged with firearm offenses had been released on bail.

00:08:16.160 In Alberta, I wrote on that just recently. It's a column on the Western Standard

00:08:19.440 that there was three young mothers in the last year who have been killed by offenders who have

00:08:24.580 been released despite having violent histories and convictions. Yet here we are spending all

00:08:29.320 of this time and resources trying to lock up Tamara Leach. The motivation for the vendetta 0.98

00:08:33.640 against Leach is political. It has nothing to do with public safety or law. In a year of national

00:08:38.000 embarrassments, this is yet another one. The continued harassment of Leach from the Crown

00:08:42.500 prosecutor is inspired, of course, by a petty, small prime minister who wants to quell any

00:08:47.580 consideration of protests against his government in the future. It's exposing the corrupt and

00:08:51.900 broken nature of Canada's politicized justice system. If Leach is locked up again, the time

00:08:57.760 to protest will return. And this time it'll be outside the course houses of Canada. We can't

00:09:01.980 allow this gross persecution to continue or to succeed. All right, that's got me wound up today.

00:09:10.160 So let's get on to Dave Naylor. He's wearing the symbol of Calgary these days, among a few other

00:09:16.580 people in the office with that Flames jersey. How's it going over there, Dave?

00:09:20.380 That's going good, Corey, yeah.

00:09:22.180 My buddy at the Wink and Owl, Blaine, heard me complaining that I didn't have a jersey,

00:09:27.180 so he gave me one of his.

00:09:28.360 So I was quite gobsmacked, very nice of him.

00:09:32.480 But so I hear you're taking your second international trip of the year already.

00:09:39.280 I am.

00:09:39.780 I'm going to try and be a super spreader.

00:09:41.540 I'm heading for the hills as soon as this show's done, down to Sandpoint, Idaho.

00:09:47.260 Ah, very beautiful country down there, Corey.

00:09:49.200 You'll enjoy it.

00:09:52.160 Our website is very politically heavy this morning.

00:09:57.400 Lots of stuff on Jason Kenney's so-called resignation.

00:10:01.000 Well, as we all know, he says he's now going to stay on as leader

00:10:05.080 until the party picks another leader.

00:10:07.660 So he's going to be premier for the future.

00:10:12.380 Anyways, our Mike Thomas has got a column up there on a fun column

00:10:17.260 and how the left and the right in the province dance to different tunes.

00:10:23.140 Kenny held his first cabinet meeting today since his shocking resignation announcement.

00:10:28.560 Our Rob Ward went along and videotaped that, so you can see Kenny's entire remarks.

00:10:35.100 And Amanda Brown, a reporter, was also there,

00:10:37.460 and her story is up on what Kenny had to say about from his first meeting.

00:10:42.660 And we've got Premier Scott Moe next door in Saskatchewan praising Kenny to the high heavens and saying that we're going to miss him and we don't think he's done for good.

00:10:53.900 Other stories we've got up, Corey, include our wacky environmental minister, Stephen Gilbeau, saying they're a bit behind on their plan to plant billions of trees because they really couldn't find any, believe it or not.

00:11:08.020 uh i can just look outside our window and see a few and uh federal employees down in ottawa have

00:11:14.740 racked up twenty thousand dollars worth of tickets uh by uh and just illegally parking so

00:11:20.900 now you know if they can't even park right we know they can't run the country right so

00:11:25.620 uh that's what we're doing we're getting prepared for the long weekend cory gonna be lots of stuff

00:11:30.340 uh coming out saturday through monday so i urge everybody to check back uh even though it's a

00:11:36.420 holiday just to see what's going on and our linda slobodian is writing about uh uh tamara leach

00:11:43.220 as we speak that'll be up shortly and uh yeah she's the same as you corey just calls it vindictive

00:11:48.500 action by uh the government just trying to shut her up so you have a great long weekend have a

00:11:55.700 great trip hopefully you reach uh the united states before the flames game tonight and the

00:12:00.900 ridiculous starting hour of 8 30 and uh i want to hear some go flames go chance from the united

00:12:06.100 States from you. Yeah, I'll be representing in northern Idaho, and hopefully I don't bully you 0.93

00:12:11.280 over as I do my sprint from the office on my way out the door for my three-day escape there.

00:12:17.460 All right, buddy. You deserve it. Have a good one. All right. Thanks, Dave.

00:12:21.360 That was our news editor, Dave Naylor. And yes, lots, always lots going on, guys,

00:12:27.800 particularly on that provincial front. As we said, we sent Rob and Amanda down there to,

00:12:32.900 We're just a few blocks away from the McDougal Center, which is the Alberta provincial government building.

00:12:38.920 So if there's going to be anything going on outside of the legislature and it's in Calgary, they do it there.

00:12:43.600 And Kenny's back for yet another caucus meeting.

00:12:47.440 Yesterday's strange caucus meeting, you know, got delayed.

00:12:51.280 But I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute.

00:12:53.140 But let's first, you know, I want to remind everybody, this is how we can get those reporters out there.

00:12:56.940 This is how we can cover this news and how we do these things is thanks to subscribers, guys.

00:13:02.560 as you can see on the screen. We got a lot of good deals up there for it for less than $10 a

00:13:07.740 month. You know, when you take advantage of the incentives using the coupon code triggered,

00:13:12.000 take it out for a year at a time, well under $10 a month for full unfettered access to the

00:13:17.480 Western Standard, to all of our columns, all of our newsprint as it breaks, things like that.

00:13:23.480 And that's how we can stay independent. I mean, you look at all the garbage on the federal

00:13:26.700 government news. I'll call it federal government news. I mean, they're reliant on subsidies. 0.98

00:13:31.100 They're reliant on bailouts. So once you're dependent, you're afraid to shake the, you know,

00:13:36.200 rock the boat, shake the tree. So our mainstream outlets basically parrot the government line. We

00:13:40.740 saw that. We're seeing that with the coverage of leech. What coverage of leech? Yeah, that's what

00:13:44.220 I'm talking about. Nobody's talking about this. This is a woman in court being put through the

00:13:49.440 ringer on a bail hearing. It's ridiculous. But we're not hearing anything from the mainstream, 0.99

00:13:54.300 are we? No, no, because they don't want to tick off Trudeau and perhaps lose their money. Well,

00:13:59.020 we don't take that money. We rely on you guys. So yeah, if we take enough subscribers off,

00:14:04.740 well, I guess we'll have to reevaluate our plan. So far, obviously, a lot of you guys like our

00:14:09.200 coverage. You're staying on and it's been great. And if you haven't already, take out a subscription,

00:14:13.100 guys. That's how we can keep doing these things. So yeah, as we said, we sent it. It was pretty

00:14:18.220 chilly out there. Amanda and Rob went down with a camera to try and catch the conference. They

00:14:22.780 didn't really say too much of note. Unfortunately, you know, we thought maybe a couple nights ago

00:14:26.860 that this chapter of Jason Kinney's time was kind of over.

00:14:30.420 I mean, I understand it takes more than a few hours

00:14:32.520 for things to turn over and change.

00:14:35.300 But with that, okay, you know,

00:14:36.600 a few days we'll have an interim leader

00:14:38.040 and then move on to a leadership race.

00:14:41.420 But now, no, it sounds like Premier Kinney

00:14:43.160 is going to stay on as premier until a new leader is selected.

00:14:46.500 Now, that's not, this has happened before.

00:14:49.760 Not every time there's a party get rid of the leader.

00:14:53.100 Often leaders have sat as interim leaders themselves

00:14:55.540 until they're replaced.

00:14:56.940 Not usually when they've been kicked out

00:14:58.680 by their own members like that,

00:15:00.180 you know, but everything's been weird

00:15:01.400 and unprecedented.

00:15:02.680 I'm just not sure.

00:15:03.960 I'm not sure.

00:15:04.820 You know, my jury's out as far as I'm concerned

00:15:06.520 on whether that's a good idea

00:15:08.000 for the transition or not.

00:15:10.180 Their meeting yesterday with caucus

00:15:12.380 was only supposed to be two hours.

00:15:13.580 It took something like six.

00:15:14.680 So, you know, they were fighting

00:15:15.560 like cats and dogs as usual.

00:15:17.620 Some of the things I guess that

00:15:19.060 would be a consequence of Kenny

00:15:22.180 remaining as premier

00:15:23.640 until the end of the leadership race

00:15:25.460 which could be five or six months away, is that the members of caucus that he ejected previous

00:15:31.520 probably won't be brought back in. Now, we can't assume that they would be had Premier Kenney

00:15:37.100 stepped aside as well. But we just don't know. So the transition and the change is going to take a

00:15:43.020 little while. I don't know if it's for the better or for the worse. And as I said, it's not

00:15:47.060 unprecedented for a leader to stay on until a new person is selected. But in this case, I mean,

00:15:53.020 to be honest. I just would have thought that Kenny would just say, oh, I've had it with this

00:15:55.980 anyways. I'm exhausted. I failed. Let me just get out the door and, and, uh, retire and, or at least

00:16:00.500 work on, think what I want to do with my political future. So, uh, strange days, but we're covering

00:16:05.360 it. As I said, we sent our reporters down there to, uh, the McJungle center today and, and, uh,

00:16:10.720 didn't really see much of interest. I didn't learn a lot. Unfortunately, it was one of those types

00:16:14.860 of conferences. Uh, Kenny wouldn't take any questions and, uh, they, they shuffled back in

00:16:19.920 that cold wind and, well, we're reporting what we can. And the stories will be up there, as I said,

00:16:24.200 on the westernstandardonline.com. Actually, it's westernstandard.news now. We expanded our website.

00:16:30.640 I'm kind of rambling there. So I see, actually, I've got my guests in the lobby. I won't hold

00:16:34.800 them there too long. I want to speak to one of our sponsors before we pull them in here, because I am

00:16:38.780 really interested in talking to these guys. So let's talk about, oh, and the other reasons we

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00:17:41.720 money. So check them out guys. They've been a great sponsor. Oh, I see Nico's brought them in

00:17:45.960 and that's great. Okay. So we've got our two guests. I've been looking forward to talking to

00:17:49.720 them. I hope I can get these pronunciations right. They don't look that bad for me. I get some

00:17:53.920 complicated ones and I mess them up all the time. So we've got Paige McCann Sauter and Shauna 0.89

00:17:59.820 Pilipchuk and they're from the Alberta Disabilities Workers Association. So thank you very much for

00:18:07.080 coming on to talk to us today guys. Good morning. Thanks for inviting us. So maybe just to begin

00:18:13.400 with like your association, I saw your release and we'll go into more of the issues, but kind

00:18:17.160 of describing what your association is about. It's not a union, but it's still an association

00:18:22.020 of people representing a sector and the workers within the disability services aren't government

00:18:27.880 employees. Is that correct? That's correct. Yeah. So the workforce that provides services to

00:18:34.220 Albertans with disabilities it's a community service so they're not employed by the government

00:18:39.660 the services are provided by non-profit and service organizations as the workers employers

00:18:48.060 okay so a disability worker that would be for like what would be examples of somebody who does

00:18:53.340 that like a caretaker or I guess you could say for an individual or assisted living yeah that's

00:19:00.140 that's a that's a great great question because oftentimes what happens is that there's

00:19:05.660 a misunderstanding of who it is that does the work and we oftentimes are confused with those

00:19:11.980 that work in long-term care centers extended care centers or provide personal care attendance

00:19:18.620 what our workforce is is providing services up to Albertans with developmental disabilities

00:19:24.300 and individuals live in Alberta communities where they are living in their own home. They may be

00:19:30.940 sharing a home with other roommates. They're living and working across Alberta and the workers are

00:19:37.660 there providing services to help them live the life that they want to live and help them live

00:19:43.660 the life as an Albertan and a citizen. Great. So maybe onto your initiative then.

00:19:49.660 The problem is, well, the pay, unfortunately, to be blunt from what I've seen, kind of stinks

00:19:55.260 for such an important and challenging job, and it hasn't had a raise in quite some time now.

00:20:02.220 What's going on? I mean, I guess that's a challenge, though, when it's not, I guess,

00:20:05.500 one solid unit. It's not government employees. It's not a union. So how do you address having

00:20:10.780 the wages? I mean, they should rise. They have to. The cost of everything is going up,

00:20:14.140 and this is a tough, important job. So how do we get that raised up? Who are you petitioning

00:20:19.260 to exactly i guess we could say so we're calling on the alberta government because organizations

00:20:25.500 and families who employ staff to provide the services they receive funding from the government

00:20:31.500 in order to hire staff we have not had a funding increase for wages and compensation since 2014.

00:20:39.580 so an already underpaid workforce under undervalued workforce has fallen drastically behind

00:20:47.180 um, what they should be being paid for this important work. And we are having attraction

00:20:52.780 and retention issues to the point where people coming up into the system for services,

00:20:59.180 organizations are not able to take new services on because we can't find staff to do the services

00:21:05.180 we're doing already. People, it's a competitive market and we need to be able to pay people

00:21:10.140 adequately. Well, that's it. And then the cost of living is rising. So, but I mean, so this works

00:21:15.740 through it's kind of indirectly government funded though so it'll come from the government to a

00:21:20.700 number of different organizations and then how does that work towards i i guess somebody is hired

00:21:26.860 in a circumstance it could be at a group home or it could be a a family member hiring an individual

00:21:31.660 or or um uh it's uh how does they i guess the the hiring spectrum work with that

00:21:38.380 so yeah so um the workforce is very diverse in the skill sets and the types of work they're doing so

00:21:47.900 you can have employment specialists you can have community support workers you have people in in

00:21:53.660 their homes providing all the care that somebody and support that somebody would need inside their

00:21:58.300 home and so in our workforce we have about 15 000 workers across the province who are hired by a

00:22:03.900 variety of organizations and families to provide the support and each organization or family has

00:22:09.260 its own government funding to do that so when there's no funding increase you either have to

00:22:16.220 cut back services to give increased compensation or you cannot increase compensation so our last

00:22:22.940 resort is always to cut back service this is absolutely required service in our communities

00:22:28.380 for these people and so we are calling on the alberta government that these funding contracts

00:22:33.020 have to be increased to directly relate to compensation for staff to do this important work

00:22:39.020 right and so when you think about the cost of living over the last eight years so it's not even

00:22:43.500 just what is it currently happening now it's there's not been an increase in that funding

00:22:48.540 so with the cost of living increases service providers have other expenses right insurance

00:22:55.820 maintenance facilities food all those kinds of things are increasing but their contract funding

00:23:01.740 is not increasing and so in order to just stay open they have to start you know moving those

00:23:08.380 funds from what would be called direct service money just to um you know pay insurance pay rent

00:23:15.180 those kinds of things okay so this uh which which government ministry i guess would be responsible

00:23:21.260 for this would this be social services or health or uh where does that you say it's an annual

00:23:26.460 budgetary sort of item right right so it's in the ministry of community and social services

00:23:31.660 and these services are called persons with developmental disabilities or family supports

00:23:36.940 for children with disabilities those are the areas where the funding is going okay and then

00:23:42.780 with disabilities of course that's a a broad term and a number of people suffer from a great many

00:23:46.700 of them but predominantly what you're speaking of are individuals with developmental disabilities

00:23:50.780 i'm guessing right yeah so onset of that disability was before they were 18 and it's a very significant

00:23:57.420 disability to the point where somebody needs support in their life in order to do the things

00:24:03.180 you know they wish to do yeah and that support looks very different for each individual person

00:24:08.620 right so it could be uh 24 hours a day seven days a week type of support to a visit once a week to

00:24:15.740 see how things are going so uh with these workers also i mean as you said there are different

00:24:21.980 circumstances uh is this does this also apply to say larger facilities like a mission or center i

00:24:27.660 know they've been winding down i don't even know if they still uh house people any longer but

00:24:32.780 are facilities like that as well under this umbrella or um well that interestingly enough

00:24:39.180 there's a couple of direct services and so that those are fun those are direct employees of the

00:24:45.260 government so people who work at michener center people who work at residential support services

00:24:51.340 those are government direct services and so they are unionized employees so when we go back to 2014

00:24:59.660 when there was the last increase that increase was really advocacy just to bring the community

00:25:07.180 service workers to the level of the people who work for government that provide to do that who

00:25:12.940 do the same work so they were just trying to bring us to level and we didn't even actually

00:25:17.820 get to that point and they still owed us percentages, but that was the commitment.

00:25:22.840 So since then, we've fallen even more behind that comparison type of work that is truly

00:25:30.140 a government employee.

00:25:31.880 Great.

00:25:32.460 Yeah.

00:25:32.600 I just wanted to clarify everything, you know, as we move our way down, like I said, we're

00:25:35.940 something of a conservative media outlet and a show, but, you know, the reality with conservatives,

00:25:41.240 we believe that people who can't care for themselves without some help, that's our social

00:25:46.080 obligation to help take care of each other that's what we do i mean we uh this is an area i think

00:25:50.960 few people question you know spending some tax dollars and and ensuring we're taking care of

00:25:55.280 our neighbors and our and our friends and uh it's just one of those areas of the worst areas to be

00:25:59.840 cutting back in in my view so i i just wanted to clarify what that's all about yeah and and you

00:26:05.360 know that's one of the things that as an association that we we really emphasize and we it's about it's

00:26:11.600 putting the humanness in it so you know regardless of the governments of the day or regardless of

00:26:17.600 political views we're talking about people and albertans and citizens who require support to

00:26:24.640 live the lives that they want to live and that support needs to be provided by an individual

00:26:30.400 who has certain skill sets because one of the main focuses is to individualize that support

00:26:36.000 and that requires a lot of skill sets and you know with the erosion of the workforce over

00:26:42.640 you know the last couple of decades and the cuts that were happening into human services

00:26:48.240 it's gotten to the point that people are not choosing this as a career because the wages are

00:26:54.000 so low we lost post-secondary educational programs because people were not going to school

00:26:59.920 in order to become a community services disability worker because the wages were

00:27:05.760 were not there once they graduated so it's a long term kind of thing we cycle in and out of crisis

00:27:12.480 but where we're at now is critical and we need some short-term immediate responses

00:27:20.160 from the government in order to just keep people who are working now to stay working

00:27:26.240 and that that's really the crisis that we're in yeah so uh with that it would be difficult to

00:27:33.040 make it happen fast but you mean you still have to start somewhere because so what would happen

00:27:36.480 is they would release the funds that would go you know presumably if they wanted to increase it it

00:27:41.200 would go to a number of organizations and that could funnel down through wage increases what

00:27:45.440 assurances would the government have though that the organizations would you know move it down into

00:27:50.000 wage increases like is it would it be targeted spending there yeah and there's history of

00:27:55.200 government doing this in the past, there's mechanisms where that funding can be provided

00:27:59.040 and released and accounted for. Organizations and families who hire privately are highly

00:28:04.960 accountable for the funding that they get. And so there are ways to do that. We've done it in

00:28:10.000 the past with previous governments back before 2014. And so we're confident that the money would

00:28:16.240 go directly to where the problem lies and to the immediate need that we all have.

00:28:20.240 Great. I mean, our government is, I mean, you know, as I said, I'm conservative. I don't like

00:28:26.100 seeing them spend blindly, but this is an area I feel, especially if they've been sitting on it for

00:28:29.560 this many years, hey, the budget's looking pretty good. We've got some good energy resources coming

00:28:34.480 in. We've got a need. This would be a good time to top up on something like this, where we're

00:28:38.300 helping our citizens and our people on the ground. I mean, God knows we waste money on enough other

00:28:43.820 things. This is an important one they could certainly dedicate towards. Yeah, absolutely.

00:28:48.240 and I think the other thing too like so we have two asks to our campaign we have that immediate

00:28:52.740 intervention to help us kind of get through this crisis and then we have a long-term ask about the

00:28:58.900 idea of having sustainable and predictable funding increases that go along with the cost of living so

00:29:04.700 that we don't see ourselves repeat at crisis over and over and over again so we don't want to see

00:29:09.820 this kind of one-time influx of here's a bonus right we want to see an increase and then we want

00:29:16.580 to see a plan that allows people to have sustainable, predictable funding increases

00:29:22.420 that allows them to increase the wages as we go forward. So going further to that, I mean,

00:29:28.340 aside from, you know, just funding, which is of course, it's essential to everything. Are there

00:29:33.080 just other systemic changes or ways that are things are being done that could be changed as

00:29:37.700 well to improve the process? It sounds like it's a bit of a convoluted path from, you know,

00:29:42.540 from taxpayer to a person who's receiving the services.

00:29:46.480 Absolutely. 0.97

00:29:47.180 We always talk about there's a whole bunch of balls

00:29:48.940 that have to be in the air at the same time, right?

00:29:51.140 Because it is very complex.

00:29:52.960 So one of the things that we recognize

00:29:55.520 in order to have a sustainable for people

00:29:57.880 to choose this as a career

00:29:59.200 is the idea of competency and certification.

00:30:03.420 So at ADWA, we've also been working on a certification model

00:30:07.460 that looks at a certain skill set.

00:30:09.360 And with that skill set comes a professional wage, comes a professional expectations and professional responsibilities.

00:30:17.120 And that was one of the reasons why ADWA started in 2010 was to be a voice for that workforce and to try to see what has been eroded since the 80s to come back to where it needed to be.

00:30:31.840 And so we want to see a level of skilled workers who choose this as a career and are committed and stay in it.

00:30:42.180 And that the post-secondary institutions are able to have those programs available to them to provide the skill set and the workforce that's needed for Albertans.

00:30:55.480 I would imagine reducing turnover is very important in this too.

00:30:58.460 like workers have developed relationships quite often with the people they're caring for

00:31:02.620 working with and it's not good some people with developmental disabilities to have a number of

00:31:07.260 changes and and changing faces and things like that with their individual needs so again i mean

00:31:12.460 if there's better compensation you're going to reduce the chances of people constantly changing

00:31:16.700 jobs right absolutely and relationships are key right relationships are one of the reasons why

00:31:24.060 people who are currently working in the sector don't want to leave right so they are struggling

00:31:30.060 the stories that we hear on a daily basis are the struggle and the dilemma that they're facing that

00:31:35.580 they're they're passionate about what they do they're committed to what they're doing they're

00:31:39.900 committed to the people that they work with and yet they find they can't afford to stay

00:31:45.420 and if they can't afford to stay they they're making a choice now to leave and and that's

00:31:52.300 the crisis and then when they leave we don't have somebody else with that skill set to come in there

00:31:59.420 isn't that recruitment to replace the person who chooses to leave so that's that emptiness

00:32:05.020 and that puts people with disabilities with fewer staff that are available to provide the services

00:32:12.700 as well as the unpredictability of who's going to be working who's going to be with me tonight

00:32:19.740 in the evening, who's going to be with me tomorrow morning, right? So that inconsistency of the

00:32:24.940 staffing for individuals is really, it just, it really isn't fair to them.

00:32:33.020 Yeah. And it's a competitive work market. I mean, if a person has to choose between paying the rent

00:32:38.380 and keeping the job they like, well, they still might have to just take that other job that pays

00:32:42.700 better and move on. And again, it's putting a very vulnerable sector, even more vulnerable. So

00:32:48.620 that's why i wanted to have you guys on to speak to it because it's kind of sliding under the radar

00:32:52.380 you don't have uh you're not a union so you don't have that that uh strength in in quite the the

00:32:57.580 making noise or lobbying government so directly and uh you know we just don't want people to

00:33:02.540 forget about that so with your initiatives out there you've got a petition and some other things

00:33:06.620 how can people uh support your your efforts um our website is um atma.ca and we have uh yeah there it

00:33:15.420 is and the button the essential but forgotten so one of the things like you said because we're not

00:33:19.740 a union and we're a professional association our role is really about advocating for the workforce

00:33:26.300 for people who do this work across albert alberta but we also feel very strongly about empowering

00:33:33.420 our membership and the people who do this work to advocate for themselves and so what you what

00:33:39.180 we're seeing is support from families we have support from self-advocates we have support from

00:33:45.740 members all across alberta who are doing writing letters having meetings with their mlas who are

00:33:52.060 doing everything that they can in order to get this message heard and you know being on a show

00:33:58.780 like this we appreciate it because you're right having the the misunderstanding of who it is and

00:34:04.700 what this workforce is, is something that is a challenge for us. But I mean, a lot of people

00:34:12.940 are talking about it and that's a great thing. Great. Well, Paige and Sean, I appreciate you

00:34:19.340 coming on to talk to us today about it and the work you do. Is there anything else you'd like

00:34:22.940 to add before I let you go? No, I just think go to our website and we provide it different

00:34:31.260 examples we give sample letters of how you can connect with your mla and we're going to continue

00:34:37.020 doing that and posting we have a lot of stories and just kind of remembering um who it is that

00:34:43.500 we're talking about we're talking about people albertans with disabilities who require support

00:34:48.460 and we're talking about the people who are employed by community-based organizations that

00:34:53.900 are providing that service so it's really about people um and and not about the money and the

00:35:00.780 statistics great well uh thank you again and and i hope somebody uh starts paying attention out

00:35:07.100 there and we can resolve this before there's any more damage done so again thank you for coming on

00:35:12.060 today guys and uh perhaps we'll talk again in the future on a more positive note great thanks very

00:35:16.300 much thank you very much thank you so as i said that's the alberta disability workers association

00:35:22.780 And as we said, you know, it's different than some of the other things I noticed in some of the comment scroll, you know, people saying, are they a union?

00:35:29.860 No, they're not a union. Are they part of AHS? No, it's not part of AHS.

00:35:33.720 And these are things I had to learn as well.

00:35:35.720 Like it's so it's a and perhaps that's why I asked about systemic reform, though I understand they can only talk so much to that.

00:35:43.100 But it could be a bit convoluted if you've got a number of organizations getting those services down to the individuals.

00:35:48.680 but it's hard to have a centralized organization that can do things correctly as well because I

00:35:53.240 mean there's different types and levels of care different individuals as they were saying to us

00:35:58.160 some need 24-7 semi-medical sort of care and facilities other people might just need a few

00:36:04.480 hours a day of some help some might be just a little bit of family support so you have different

00:36:10.060 organizations that are supporting the different people it's different training and as some others

00:36:15.940 are pointing out who have encountered the work that these people are doing is that they are

00:36:19.920 getting paid terribly. We're looking at about $18 an hour. And in Alberta today, that is not a heck

00:36:25.300 of a lot of money. That's not a lot of money for a job that is that difficult and that important.

00:36:32.160 I've said it before and I said it again. I mean, the term for it is compassionate conservatism,

00:36:35.820 right? I'm a libertarian leaning person, but I'm not, you know, I'm not a classical liberal. I'm not

00:36:41.140 a hardcore anarchist, just let's let, you know, society go to the wolves. I strongly believe in

00:36:46.700 taking care of those who can't take care of themselves, you know, as opposed to those who

00:36:50.800 won't take care of themselves. And it can be difficult to distinguish. But when it comes to

00:36:54.940 a lot of citizens with developmental disabilities, it's not that difficult to determine. These are

00:36:59.380 people that need some help. They need help taking care of themselves. Their families need help

00:37:03.920 taking care of them. I mean, you know, this is how we prevent people from ending up in

00:37:09.460 institutions or in healthcare facilities or being harmed or homeless or on the streets

00:37:14.280 if they have disabilities. And, you know, we can keep them around family longer and have them in

00:37:20.080 more stable environment longer and living better longer. But I mean, look at the work. I mean,

00:37:23.700 I'm sure everybody's encountered disability workers. You've seen them. They're trying to

00:37:27.680 keep a number of challenged people safely occupied and entertained and productive. I mean,

00:37:34.220 they're taking them out for field trips. I've noticed even in Superstore, I've watched groups

00:37:38.120 taking groups out shopping, but sometimes an individual will have, you know, for lack of a

00:37:42.800 better term, a meltdown. Well, it takes incredible patience to be able to calm the challenged person

00:37:49.100 down and get them stabilized again and carry on with the day. Like this is not minimum wage sort

00:37:54.720 of work. It really shouldn't be. And as I said, I can only guess that you really have to get to

00:38:00.100 know the individuals you're caring for so you know how to respond to them. So this isn't a job you're

00:38:04.940 to do well if you're new to it all the time or if you've got turnover. So as somebody's responding

00:38:11.500 to Al Rourke, yeah, it's contracted services and they're on all sorts of levels. I know there was

00:38:15.640 some questions about the vaccination. I'm not going to go into it because it's a number of

00:38:18.360 different organizations. It's not like AHS. And that's sort of a side issue with it. It's an

00:38:24.160 important issue, but it's a side one. So at this point, though, again, we've got a lot of people

00:38:30.560 in need. I mean, try to put yourself in the shoes of the families who have, you know, a family

00:38:35.120 member who has serious disabilities. How much resources, how much time can you put in? I mean,

00:38:40.880 you still want to work. You still want to have a bit of a life. You want your family member with

00:38:44.980 the challenges to be as well guided and cared for as possible. And you can't get workers. You can't

00:38:50.260 get necessarily properly trained workers. You can't maintain them, especially right now when

00:38:55.320 they haven't had a raise in seven years. And right now the cost of living, everything is going

00:39:00.380 through the roof. So I'm glad these guys are speaking up. And as I said, as for the confusion,

00:39:04.840 they're not a union. And I don't want to see a union. As we know on this show, I'm not a big

00:39:08.340 fan of unions by any stretch. They're an association and they're speaking up for that

00:39:13.520 group in that area. And I'm glad they are. And they got a bigger challenge in speaking up for

00:39:18.740 it as a non-union organization than others would. So check them out, guys, because I think it's one

00:39:23.920 of those areas where the government shouldn't be. I mean, hey, we always get to watch our dollars.

00:39:27.180 we want to make sure they go where they belong. But this is an area that we can most definitely

00:39:31.600 increase some funding, guys. We've got the budgetary room. Lord knows that I point out

00:39:39.160 waste and bad spending all the time on things the government's doing. And I'll point out a few more

00:39:42.960 today as we go through some news items. And I have Franco from the Taxpayers Federation on.

00:39:48.580 But this is an area where they need our help. They need our money. And because we're taking

00:39:54.360 care of each other's guys. We're not that heartless. I'm a scowling, crabby old conservative,

00:39:58.640 but I know which people need to be cared for and which don't. And the people with disabilities are 1.00

00:40:03.300 people that do. So let's see, before I move on, Frank will be on in a little bit. Let's talk,

00:40:09.540 I'm going to get my other sponsor out of the way. Speaking of individual rights, speaking of

00:40:12.920 associations, and that's the Canadian Shooting Sports Association. Same sort of thing. See,

00:40:17.800 that's not the Canadian Shooting Sports Union. It's an association. It's an organization of

00:40:22.620 like-minded people with something they have in common that they want to support, and that is

00:40:27.260 shooting sports. All sorts of resources, guys. They got things on, you know, videos on how to

00:40:33.020 safely operate firearms, different things you can do with them. Target shooting, trap shooting,

00:40:37.480 black powder shooting, all those different things for those hobbies. A lot of people really love it.

00:40:41.680 Links to trade shows, links to regulations, so you know how to legally stay within the right bounds.

00:40:47.740 I mean, we're law-abiding firearm owners. We're not out hurting anybody. And also, like the other

00:40:52.260 Association are advocating for their members. And in this case, it's a matter of advocating for

00:40:58.560 firearm owners because we have a government that brought back the registry through a back door

00:41:02.620 that recategorized hunting rifles as assault style weapons and banned them. Well, we got to stand up

00:41:09.060 for ourselves. If you want to maintain your property, if you want to keep enjoying that

00:41:12.940 great sports of firearms or collecting them or whatever you want to do, you got to stand up for

00:41:17.360 yourself. And that's what the Canadian Shooting Sports Association is all about. Get onto their

00:41:20.920 site, check them out, take out a membership. It's not that much. It's well worth it. It's an

00:41:25.020 investment in your own rights. CSSA-CILA.org. It's the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:41:33.940 Okay. So let's see here. Speaking of crazy left, this is a story that came up. Yeah. We got a

00:41:40.240 new Democrat lawyer who endorsed decriminalizing heroin, appointed a judge by the federal cabinet.

00:41:49.720 So Susan Fraser of Toronto is now an Ontario Superior Court judge.

00:41:55.740 You know, there's some discussion about decriminalizing on drugs and some things like that.

00:42:01.740 So, I mean, this story I don't see as such a being beyond the pale.

00:42:07.580 But if you look deeper into this person who was appointed, like, holy cow, we're talking crazed hard, hard left individual.

00:42:13.540 We're not talking center left or a little red.

00:42:16.000 this gal is, she's living in a weird blended relationship. And I'm not talking about sexual

00:42:21.680 orientation. I'm talking about one of those open things where we'll all just kind of have a

00:42:25.000 free for all. And that's her business of consenting adults. But this is the world of the wacky far

00:42:30.020 out left really getting out there. And we do have to worry to some degree about the crossing that

00:42:36.160 line between enabling addiction and saving lives and having somebody who's that strong and advocate

00:42:42.500 on some things and then putting them on the bench. I don't know if that's going to be a good idea,

00:42:49.740 but it's too late. This is more of that indication of what's going on. But now that we've got that

00:42:56.860 unholy alliance between Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh, you know, the liberal NDP line is

00:43:02.660 very, very blurry at this point. So this new justice was part of, here's another example,

00:43:11.120 a council for the coalition for gun control so she's anti-firearm she wants to bring in more

00:43:16.860 laws like this so i mean when you want to bring in a justice i understand it's politicized

00:43:20.740 that's the way it goes you would hope and i know the right and the left are both guilty of it but

00:43:27.020 still you would hope they try to find somewhat centrist thinking people somewhat ones that

00:43:31.620 will actually be a judge you know holding those scales and being blind like the the statue down

00:43:36.460 the states and just looking at the facts. But when they have such an activist history like this one,

00:43:41.940 you're not going to get a balanced judge at all. She was, yeah, the counsel for the Coalition for

00:43:45.840 Gun Control. She contributed almost $2,000 to the NDP. You know, so yeah, she's not just,

00:43:52.680 you know, NDP leaning. She's a heavy NDP supporter. Again, that's nothing new with

00:43:58.420 judges who are getting in, though a liberal government just appointed an NDP judge.

00:44:04.480 Think about that, you know.

00:44:06.300 The NDP never really federally ever had the power to appoint judges before,

00:44:10.220 but they've got that very, I'm going to stay away from the tastelessness before the weekend,

00:44:15.660 but Justin Trudeau and Jamie Singh have a very tight relationship.

00:44:19.840 And it's showing in some of the actions of this government now.

00:44:22.840 So I can't wait to see some of the rulings that will come out of the Ontario Superior Court

00:44:27.260 from this new hard, hard left judge that they've put in there.

00:44:31.280 and we're going to have some problems.

00:44:34.240 And now speaking of government waste,

00:44:35.680 so here's what we're talking about.

00:44:36.780 We've got people with this association

00:44:38.900 of disability workers in Alberta

00:44:42.380 that are making about $18 an hour

00:44:45.040 when the cost of everything's going through the roof.

00:44:47.720 Well, senators yesterday

00:44:49.120 were considering billing taxpayers

00:44:51.280 for $175 an hour counseling service

00:44:55.000 for witnesses who testify at committee hearings.

00:44:58.280 Yeah, so this is what the government's doing with our money.

00:45:01.000 We can't afford to take care of our citizens with disabilities correctly, but we can spend $175 an hour to counsel people because they had to be a witness at a committee hearing.

00:45:12.260 Because what? Their feelings might have been hurt? They might have been questioned on something?

00:45:17.400 Oh, don't call snowflakes to your committees anymore.

00:45:20.360 But either way, $175 an hour on a no-counseling is expensive.

00:45:24.100 What obligation do we have? And how bad are these hearings?

00:45:26.920 I wish these hearings were so volatile and lively

00:45:31.000 that they would actually put people into a place

00:45:33.840 where they need therapy almost.

00:45:35.540 But this is where the money's going, right?

00:45:38.140 Again, we can't afford to protect our most vulnerable.

00:45:40.940 But you know these ones who are asking for the counseling,

00:45:43.640 you know the snowflakes who are whining for it?

00:45:45.680 We don't have to wonder about that.

00:45:46.980 It's whenever you call up a senior civil servant. 0.99

00:45:49.140 It's whenever you call up one of those clowns 0.98

00:45:50.860 and call them to account in front of a committee 0.99

00:45:52.820 for how they pissed away our money or what they did,

00:45:56.020 what their actions were and then they got to cry their tears we got to pay 175 bucks an hour so

00:46:01.860 they can lay on a couch and whine at somebody else about it that's our money at work good work

00:46:07.400 so uh yes the house speaker confirmed it's paid nurse counselors they're called for witnesses

00:46:13.520 and uh based on an as-needed rate uh you know like millions and millions of dollars guys uh

00:46:22.620 So, yeah, sharing is the one's lived experience.

00:46:25.140 When that experience is traumatic, you know, it's tough.

00:46:28.300 Yeah, fine.

00:46:28.960 You testify in front of a committee, it's harsh on you.

00:46:31.520 Guess what?

00:46:32.540 Let's talk about some of those things.

00:46:34.060 You know, they talk about when people come before their committees in their ivory tower.

00:46:38.360 Getting back to justice, justice services, courthouses.

00:46:40.800 Well, there's people who testimony victims who have to go in and face the perpetrators.

00:46:45.380 They deal with traumatic circumstances. 0.99

00:46:47.700 they deal with being victimized by a crime and then having to see the scumbags who committed 0.98

00:46:53.360 the crime when they go to court and then perhaps have to see them over and over again when they 0.91

00:46:56.960 keep applying for parole they're not getting 175 an hour for counseling services no because they

00:47:02.800 aren't in the house of commons around a bunch of useless senators at one of their committees

00:47:05.880 they're just busy fighting for their own lives in our justice system or as wendy's saying yeah

00:47:10.740 supporting veterans with ptsd people who encountered very serious uh you know terrible

00:47:16.900 uh incidents while they're in service overseas or domestically even they need help they need

00:47:21.940 counseling but no we're spending 175 an hour for people because oh no i had to testify at a 0.98

00:47:28.020 committee oh you poor bugger save your own nickels and do it yourself but well that's your tax dollars 0.98

00:47:36.340 at work so yeah i can get upset and you know and you see we can walk and chew gum we can talk about 0.99

00:47:42.500 where there's gross waste of money being poured out in one area and another area where most of

00:47:48.420 us i think agree such as paying for people to take care of our fellow citizens who have disabilities

00:47:54.260 we the government won't open their wallet for that we've really got our priorities in a terrible

00:48:01.060 place whereas dave was pointing out yeah we got government drivers here but you know this was a

00:48:05.940 neat one uh out of ottawa you know federal employees ran up nearly 20 000 parking and

00:48:11.540 traffic violations. I mean, people say, oh, the federal government, that's next to nothing. Well,

00:48:16.120 it is, but it's the principle, right? What's that old saying, take care of the pennies and the

00:48:20.880 dollars will take care of themselves. If you can piss away 20,000 without thinking about it,

00:48:25.820 you can piss away millions without thinking about it. If you can piss away millions without

00:48:28.660 thinking about it, you can piss away billions without thinking about it. So every dollar has

00:48:31.700 to be accounted for. Everything has to be taken seriously. These are people, whoever these

00:48:35.880 individuals were who ran up those tickets, were completely indifferent to your dollars because

00:48:39.780 they're expensing their traffic violations. Where can you do that? I mean, we don't have a Western

00:48:45.260 standard vehicle or anything, but I can tell you if we had say a wrapped Western standard car and

00:48:49.820 I went out and parked it somewhere stupid and it got towed, I'll tell you the chances that Derek

00:48:54.580 is going to give me the money to pay the ticket for it. Yeah, nor should he. I mean, I know how 0.98

00:49:01.560 to avoid getting speeding tickets and traffic tickets. And if I get them, they do have occasionally

00:49:07.240 happen. Guess what? It's my own fault. But if you're a federal civil servant, well, it's somebody

00:49:12.020 else's problem, I guess. Let's see. Canada Post in a 2019 access to information filing said it paid

00:49:19.600 almost seven and a half million dollars in tickets over a $10 period. Look at that. So yeah, I had

00:49:26.540 to scroll down farther, I guess, to see the real story. So that was just $20,000 in a couple of

00:49:30.660 different departments. But Canada Post, boy, these guys have really broken the record here. I guess

00:49:36.220 You know, you don't want a postal worker to park somewhere where you'd have to walk more than a block to get to his route.

00:49:40.860 So I guess they've been running up those tickets.

00:49:42.280 They operate a 13,000 vehicle fleet, seven and a half million tickets.

00:49:46.880 You know, I drove company trucks when I was in the oil field.

00:49:49.180 And if you got a radar ticket or something like that, guess what?

00:49:51.960 It would come to me.

00:49:53.340 The boss wasn't going to cover it for me.

00:49:54.760 But hey, look at that.

00:49:55.920 And a post will foot the bill, seven and a half million over 10 years.

00:49:59.420 So about 750,000 a year.

00:50:01.900 But again, I despise when people dismiss expenses and costs like that.

00:50:06.840 It's not their money.

00:50:08.600 750,000 a year is a lot of money.

00:50:10.080 It's a lot of money to me.

00:50:11.960 It takes me a good few years to make that sort of money up.

00:50:15.160 So no, don't say that's minor.

00:50:16.740 Don't dismiss it.

00:50:19.060 And that's where we get to talking about, you know, government doesn't need more money.

00:50:23.060 They don't need to take more taxes.

00:50:24.520 They just need to spend it better.

00:50:26.340 Spend it where it belongs.

00:50:27.320 So stop paying posties speeding tickets. 0.96

00:50:30.540 It's stopped giving counseling to a bunch of pussies from the civil servants because they had to give a testimony at a Senate committee meeting and give the money to people who are actually working on the ground, doing important things for people who can't do them for themselves. 0.99

00:50:46.020 That's what we got to do with things. 1.00

00:50:48.340 So I'm going to talk to somebody who likes getting pissed off about waste of tax money himself as well.

00:50:52.220 And that's Franco Tarzano. He's going to be on soon. And I'm going to line up with a clip from a video actually from their initiative on the honesty in gas taxes and such. And that'll set the stage for gas tax discussion with Franco. And we'll go on from there. So let's run that video, Nico, and then we'll bring Franco on for a chat there.

00:51:13.600 Hey everyone, it's the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's 24th Annual Gas Tax Honesty Day,

00:51:19.000 where we shine a light on all the hidden taxes that you pay every time you fuel up.

00:51:23.560 Over my shoulder, you can see gas prices in Ottawa is over $2 per liter.

00:51:28.720 And here in Canada, taxes can make up to 38% of the pump price,

00:51:34.000 which means that on a 64-liter fuel up, you could be paying more than $35 just in taxes.

00:51:39.420 But here's where the pain is really coming.

00:51:41.400 By 2030, because of the Trudeau government's announced carbon tax hikes, the total tax bill at the pumps could reach 96 cents per liter of gasoline.

00:51:52.120 So you know what? It is extremely tone deaf for the Trudeau government to continue raising the carbon tax when Canadians are already struggling to afford to fuel up their cars with gasoline on the way to work.

00:52:03.620 We need tax relief and we need tax relief right now.

00:52:06.280 great so i've already you know messed up uh franco's messaging and derek corrected me on

00:52:12.920 that earlier and i didn't pass it to nico so it's not his fault it says gas tax freedom day but we

00:52:17.340 could use a gas tax freedom day anyway so maybe that'll be your next one but it was gas tax

00:52:22.060 honesty day and that was my fault for not passing the correction down but all the same they're good

00:52:26.900 messages it looks like that was a pretty soggy taxpayers federation guy standing out there

00:52:31.500 they're ranting Franco but I appreciate the work so what's that all about expand a little further

00:52:36.780 on your latest initiative there yeah well thanks Corey I mean that's it's a part of our 24th annual

00:52:42.860 gas tax honesty day so we've been doing this for 24 years and what we do is we're trying to shine

00:52:47.740 a light on all the hidden taxes that you pay every time you fuel up your car and I say hidden taxes

00:52:53.100 because when you fuel up your gas you get the receipt you see the total amount you're paying

00:52:57.740 you see the sales tax. That's the only type of tax that you see on the bill. And in some cities

00:53:02.840 like Vancouver or Montreal, you could be paying six different types of taxes every time you fuel

00:53:08.580 up. But most Canadians don't know that a big portion of the price up to 38% here in Canada

00:53:14.880 is just taxes. So you have governments that are taking a huge chunk of money from us every time

00:53:21.560 we fuel up. And it really should be the perfect time right now for every single government,

00:53:25.520 provincial or federal to give us some relief and do that by cutting that tax bill oh absolutely i

00:53:31.520 mean they've got enough money for crying out loud and yeah this is the good timing we're coming

00:53:35.360 before the may long weekend it says i say at the start of the show i'm going to run down to sand

00:53:38.320 point idaho this weekend and i looked ahead and uh fuel down there in sand points a dollar 21 a

00:53:44.240 liter american so even with conversion though it's well under what i'm paying here in alberta

00:53:48.960 and i don't think there's a single gas pump in idaho but they're paying far less for fuel than

00:53:54.640 And I am here in the heart of energy in Canada.

00:53:57.840 So, I mean, it's all taxes.

00:53:59.740 And what's so crazy too, Corey, is that the tax bill in Alberta is the lowest that it is in Canada for two reasons.

00:54:06.420 I mean, number one, there is no provincial sales tax in Alberta.

00:54:09.640 But number two, you just have the Alberta government.

00:54:12.020 And we have to give them some kudos here.

00:54:14.540 They just scrapped the provincial fuel tax, saving Canadian drivers about 13 cents a liter.

00:54:20.340 Now, where Albertans, like all Canadians, are really getting hammered is because of where I live.

00:54:24.640 politicians in ottawa the federal government which continues to hammer canadians with carbon

00:54:30.000 tax hike after carbon tax hike we've already seen the carbon tax increase three times during the

00:54:34.800 pandemic and corey we are seeing these gas prices absolutely surge right you saw in that video in

00:54:40.800 ottawa over two bucks a liter for gasoline but the pain hasn't even hit us yet by 2030 we're looking

00:54:48.000 at about 96 cents a liter across canada just in taxes because of trudeau's carbon tax hikes

00:54:53.520 well we'll all just get into electrical vehicles right so yeah well yeah good one but here's the

00:54:59.800 problem right i see this on twitter i posted i shared that video that you just had that was

00:55:04.900 taken by your uh your reporter matthew out in ottawa and you know some of the comments that

00:55:09.740 i've seen on that and other videos that we're sharing is well you know i'm not paying any tax

00:55:14.220 or i'm paying zero dollars of gasoline for my electric vehicle well you know what not everyone

00:55:19.220 has the type of money where you can just go out and buy a tesla and here's another thing that the

00:55:24.180 zoom class sometimes forgets is that many canadians need to hop in their car on the way to work

00:55:31.140 well there's so many people right now who are struggling to afford the fuel that they need to

00:55:35.540 get to work and of course also i know we're talking about gasoline but let's talk about

00:55:40.100 natural gas because canadians get hammered there during the winter and the carbon tax pushes up

00:55:44.740 the cost for natural gas as well. Yeah, well, and a lot of people don't understand. I think

00:55:50.480 sometimes even if they aren't driving vehicles, you're going to pay for it. You pay for it one

00:55:54.080 way or another. I, you know, I like going out driving Uber occasionally. I still do that. It

00:55:59.480 gets me out. It gets me around people. I make a few extra bucks, not many now with the price of

00:56:02.940 gas. But part of what Uber did was they've put a premium now on Uber fares to cover for the higher

00:56:08.360 price of fuel. And that part of that higher price, because I don't get a break on the taxes when I

00:56:11.780 up is the tax so just the message to people saying well i don't drive it doesn't affect me yes it does

00:56:16.740 no matter what you do it's gonna catch you yeah how do you think you got your food probably from

00:56:21.940 a long-haul truck right look at their diesel bill look at their gas bill uh it's influenced by all

00:56:27.860 the different taxes that canadians pay and the higher cost that they pay i mean in one way or

00:56:32.020 another whether they're adding on the tax to the price or whether it's just reduced supply you're

00:56:36.980 paying the higher grocery bill because of that so it's not just people who have these so-called

00:56:42.580 gas guzzlers and nothing wrong with that i love a good dodge uh but it impacts every single

00:56:48.820 canadian in every single aspect of life when you have governments that are completely tone 0.61

00:56:53.940 deaf that continue to raise tax after tax after tax after tax so well i'll throw you a loaded

00:56:59.380 one here though i mean if the government got rid of all those fuel taxes wouldn't they go broke 0.99

00:57:04.700 Yeah, good one.

00:57:06.020 Is the Alberta government broke?

00:57:07.540 Do you still have roads in Alberta?

00:57:09.160 I haven't been in Alberta in quite some time.

00:57:11.240 I'll actually probably be there this weekend.

00:57:13.160 I'm sure the roads are doing just fine there, Corey,

00:57:15.400 even though the Alberta government cut its fuel tax.

00:57:17.800 But here's something.

00:57:18.900 I was just on a national debt clock tour.

00:57:20.780 I was on the road for seven weeks driving coast to coast.

00:57:24.020 And you know what, Corey?

00:57:24.900 On average, we're paying 55 cents per liter of gas in taxes.

00:57:29.440 That money, you know, politicians like to say it goes to the roads.

00:57:32.360 have you seen the quality of our roads in Canada? We're paying this huge tax bill and we're not

00:57:37.780 even getting the high quality service to match. You know, like I said, I went cross Canada

00:57:43.020 driving a truck and you know how many potholes we were running over? A lot. Yeah. Well, in Calgary,

00:57:49.100 we spent all the money building bike tracks. So the vehicles have to be put off a little bit,

00:57:55.240 but I mean, the roads are not perfect by a long shot, but that's one of the things is it's tax

00:58:02.340 by deception is it's like another one of your favorites uh bracket creep uh it's another way 0.58

00:58:07.220 again the government is addicted to taxes but it's even worse when you can't see the darn thing when

00:58:12.700 when they slip it in on you or they slip the increase in on you so i i appreciate your efforts

00:58:16.980 you know and initiatives to get as you said the honesty of it let's see where it is and maybe

00:58:21.340 people have a different perspective if they understand what they're paying and cory there's

00:58:25.200 one other very unfair tax right i told i told you about how there could be six different types of

00:58:29.960 taxes if you're in a place like Vancouver or Montreal. But here's another unfair tax that

00:58:34.820 all Canadians pay regardless of where they live in Canada. And it's the gas tax on tax. And that

00:58:41.220 happens because the federal government and some of the provinces, obviously not Alberta,

00:58:45.760 calculate their sales tax after adding up all of the per liter fuel taxes. So you pay for the price

00:58:52.420 of fuel, you pay for all these fuel taxes on top of that, but then you pay the sales tax on top of

00:58:57.960 the fuel taxes on top of the price. That's called the tax on tax. It's extremely unfair.

00:59:04.000 On average in Canada, it adds an extra 4.1 cents per liter of gasoline. So if politicians really

00:59:10.300 want to provide relief, they could scrap that tax on tax. And one thing I'll say, Corey, just to

00:59:14.980 kind of conclude my thought there, is that if politicians don't provide relief immediately at

00:59:20.660 the pumps, it's a choice. They could do so right this second, put a ton of money back into taxpayers

00:59:27.140 There's pockets simply by cutting that big tax bill we're all paying at the pumps.

00:59:31.280 Well, and further to what you're saying, a convoluted tax system is an expensive tax system.

00:59:36.260 I know my wife is a bookkeeper can speak to it.

00:59:38.420 I mean, if you're in a commercial business of some sort, you will try to write off a number of taxes.

00:59:42.800 But if you've got a whole bunch of different ones and taxes on taxes, these things take time to calculate, to sort out.

00:59:49.380 It can cause errors.

00:59:50.580 You're paying, I guess it helps Jane more for your bookkeeping and things like that.

00:59:54.160 But it's another expense that gets passed down.

00:59:56.260 Like, you know, a simple straight tax, then if you're going to tax, it should be transparent and simple.

01:00:02.900 You know, I'm so glad you brought that up because it leads me into my next point, which is the second carbon tax that is coming in late this year, just before Christmas.

01:00:12.060 Yes, you heard that right.

01:00:13.240 Not only are we paying Trudeau's carbon tax hikes all the way to 40 cents per liter by 2030, but the Trudeau government is bringing in a second carbon tax that is buried within fuel regulations.

01:00:24.540 So, you know what that means?

01:00:26.020 you're going to need a whole bunch of paper pushers in the federal bureaucracy to administer 0.99

01:00:30.980 these new fuel regulations. Now, I don't have the exact number off the top of my head,

01:00:36.460 but it's going to cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars just to pay for the bigger bureaucracy

01:00:43.240 to administer the Trudeau government's fuel regulations, which is the second carbon tax.

01:00:48.640 So you get dinged twice, right? You get dinged at the pumps, and then you get dinged on your tax

01:00:53.960 bill because you have to pay for all these new bureaucrats in ottawa to actually administer 0.98

01:00:58.840 the regulatory quagmire a lot of bureaucrats are an important cottage industry for the country

01:01:04.280 aren't they yeah well that brings me to another point there core you're just putting it on the

01:01:08.840 tee for me but you know since 2017 in ottawa we've seen the federal bureaucracy increase by about

01:01:15.160 56 000 employees corey 56 000 employees is the additional amount of bureaucrats in ottawa

01:01:22.920 since 2017 now i don't know about you corey but i don't remember uh picking up the ottawa citizen

01:01:27.960 or the ottawa sun and hearing about this big bureaucrat shortage in ottawa before 2017.

01:01:32.760 do you remember that no i i don't remember people wailing in the streets oh holy we had

01:01:37.480 more bureaucrats my life would be so much better right now i imagine their their wages haven't

01:01:42.520 remained static throughout these periods either oh no no no not even during the pandemic core they

01:01:47.720 They just couldn't help themselves.

01:01:49.340 We know in the last few years, you have more than 312,000 bureaucrats that received at least

01:01:55.480 one pay raise during the pandemic, while their neighbors in the private sector, of course,

01:02:00.060 struggled with pay cuts, job losses, or even business losses.

01:02:05.120 And you know what really boils my blood, Corey, among many things, is that we just find out

01:02:09.840 that about 89% of government executives received a bonus during the pandemic, even though

01:02:17.100 departments met less than half of their performance objectives. Corey, what would Derek do to you if

01:02:23.480 you couldn't meet half of your objectives? He wouldn't be giving you a bonus. He'd be

01:02:26.840 kicking your butt on your way out the door. Oh, yeah. No, I can relate directly to it. I 1.00

01:02:31.640 barely meet any of my objectives. He hasn't kicked me out, but I'm not getting any extra money for

01:02:35.960 it. I get chronic, constant nagging. But you know what? We're joking, but that is the total difference

01:02:42.120 between the private sector and what we've seen in government, right? We've seen in government

01:02:45.560 throughout this whole pandemic just a bunch of essentially the bureaucrats are shielded behind

01:02:50.440 the golden gates of government and it's really unfortunate because you've seen private sector

01:02:55.000 taxpayers get kicked in the teeth whether it's from uh the lockdowns that have led to so many

01:02:59.720 job losses or pay cuts or whether it's these higher taxes that we're paying like the higher

01:03:04.200 carbon tax right like the higher boost taxes like the higher payroll taxes like the sneaky backdoor

01:03:10.360 income tax hike known as bracket creep in Alberta it really seems um like you just have these

01:03:16.600 politicians and bureaucrats that keep reaching deeper and deeper and deeper into our pockets

01:03:21.400 but Corey do we really see the level of services going up in Canada I don't think so

01:03:27.240 no and and I had some guests on earlier that you didn't catch but they were from the the

01:03:31.000 Disability Workers Association for example in Alberta but they're not government workers

01:03:35.000 and they aren't unionized and they do a side service they haven't had a raise in seven years

01:03:39.880 and uh you know this is an area where we just can't seem to get our priorities straight you

01:03:44.600 know we can pack those offices with people to shuffle ways on how to collect tax and administer

01:03:49.160 it but we can't seem to get people boots on the ground we don't want to fund them yeah and you

01:03:54.280 know you know what i've also seen that i think we have to talk about just in this broader context

01:03:58.600 of inflation and gas taxes going up there's actually a huge difference between what our

01:04:03.160 governments are doing to us and what other governments are providing for their citizens

01:04:07.800 right we can look around and we see a whole bunch of other jurisdictions that are actually providing

01:04:12.040 their citizens with much needed relief uh you have you have spain and france that are reducing

01:04:17.400 electricity taxes you have south korea that cut its gas tax by 20 percent you have india that cut

01:04:22.760 its gas taxes you have a whole bunch of these indian states and territories that cut gas taxes

01:04:27.560 as well uh you even have italy that has cut taxes including fuel taxes um you have american states

01:04:33.800 that are cutting income and business taxes you even have president joe biden who said he's

01:04:38.840 considering gas tax relief so you have all these countries um all these other jurisdictions that

01:04:43.960 are providing their citizens with relief and what does ottawa provide us a higher tax bill go figure

01:04:50.120 well they're consistent if nothing else uh i appreciate the efforts you guys always do to

01:04:55.560 keep shining a light on these things and uh well trying to keep the government as honest as we can

01:05:00.600 so you got your work cut out with it.

01:05:02.900 Where can we find more information

01:05:04.140 on the gas honesty report

01:05:06.200 and your other activities, Franco?

01:05:07.960 Well, first, just please head over to taxpayer.com,

01:05:10.920 click on the newsroom tab,

01:05:12.220 and you'll find the report right there.

01:05:14.800 Right on.

01:05:15.400 Well, thanks for coming in to check in with us again, Franco.

01:05:18.180 It's always a good conversation.

01:05:20.480 We're of like mind.

01:05:21.300 I got to, you know, I'll have other views

01:05:22.240 where I can fight with people.

01:05:23.220 I'm sure we'll find something we'll fight over.

01:05:24.520 Well, one day, one day,

01:05:26.260 once we cut these taxes a little bit lower, hey?

01:05:29.380 Right on, you bet.

01:05:30.600 Okay, well, I appreciate it.

01:05:32.320 We'll talk again soon.

01:05:34.400 So, yes, that was Franco Teresano,

01:05:35.840 the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

01:05:37.800 You know, as some have noted,

01:05:38.500 I have him on quite often,

01:05:39.640 but as some have noted,

01:05:40.620 it's always a good conversation.

01:05:41.780 This guy knows his numbers, his facts, unlike me.

01:05:44.260 So I appreciate Nico for quickly moving

01:05:46.520 to correct all those graphics

01:05:47.660 after I gave him the wrong information

01:05:49.600 on what was supposed to be up there.

01:05:51.520 He does a fantastic job.

01:05:52.800 You can tell he's not union as well then, obviously.

01:05:55.820 So, yes, gas tax honesty.

01:05:58.040 And, you know, they just keep getting it to us one way or another.

01:06:01.600 And when it comes to all kinds of taxes that are difficult, gas taxes are much like GST and so on.

01:06:07.020 You just can't avoid them one way or another.

01:06:09.100 They're going to get you.

01:06:09.860 They raise your cost of everything.

01:06:13.060 As Claudette was saying, yeah, Biden shut down oil and gas.

01:06:15.640 And then look at the problems they're having with it, right?

01:06:17.760 You've got to get realistic with some of this stuff.

01:06:20.420 All right, I'm going to run through a couple more news items before we wrap up.

01:06:23.040 But I'll talk about our sponsor one more time as well, just to cap off the week.

01:06:26.960 because they're helping pay our bills, as are you guys, which I greatly appreciate.

01:06:30.680 And it is BitcoinWell.com.

01:06:33.600 Again, those guys, because there's a lot to their site.

01:06:36.820 It's a deep one.

01:06:37.460 You know, you really should.

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01:06:40.300 BitcoinWell.com, because they have all those resources, all that information.

01:06:43.380 They got online webinars, things they call Bitcoin Academy to help teach you what Bitcoin

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01:06:49.520 They're partnered with Athabasca University, you know, so they put a good, informative

01:06:53.560 product together.

01:06:54.440 find out if Bitcoin is for you or not. You know, I know some people have been talking about things

01:06:59.660 that Bitcoin's gone down in value recently. Yeah, it has, you know, it's like any investment goes

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01:07:12.060 These guys can help advise you on that. Make sure your money is safe. I mean, I don't think anybody

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01:07:35.140 as well as Nico's been putting up there. Yeah. Visit the new website. We've updated it. We've

01:07:39.760 upgraded it. You know, there were a few hiccups, but for the most part, it seems to be ironed out

01:07:43.120 and it's much smoother now. We target our stories a lot more regionally, break them down a lot more.

01:07:48.140 We outgrew our old system basically. And it's at westernstandard.news. It's a shorter URL,

01:07:53.780 than it used to be. And of course, it still has all the options for subscription and getting on

01:07:58.140 there, be able to see all of our stories as they break, because we write them as they break. I

01:08:01.900 mean, we are a news organization, we don't cut and paste, we got reporters on the ground.

01:08:06.160 So let's see what else we had in the news there. Yes, a few seven ministers old war game depicting

01:08:13.500 global leopard pox, whatever. So yes, the border reforms, there's another one. The third try on

01:08:19.100 border forms that applies to me today, I guess I'll be crossing the border with any luck this

01:08:22.620 evening going down into Idaho. Cabinet just can't seem to figure it out though. So this is the third

01:08:29.380 time in two years they've introduced a bill for the Border Services Agency. You got to remember

01:08:33.400 they were striking and they've had all sorts of other challenges going on down there. That's an

01:08:38.840 agency with a $1.6 billion budget, 11,500 employees, and they don't have an independent oversight

01:08:46.760 board. I mean, they're kind of like a police force, but they don't have, our government can't

01:08:51.440 seem to figure out how to manage them.

01:08:54.020 So yes, for the third time, they have brought in,

01:08:58.340 or they're going to try and bring in a bill to strengthen things up.

01:09:01.760 But of course, the person in charge of it is good old.

01:09:04.720 And boy, he's really been coming up a lot lately.

01:09:08.920 Public Safety Minister Marco Mendocino,

01:09:11.860 the one who has been known for lying and lying and lying again,

01:09:16.440 lying a little more.

01:09:17.320 He's the one who lied 11 times,

01:09:18.740 saying that police forces asked them to enact the emergencies act.

01:09:22.640 He's the one who lied, who said that arsons were from the truckers convoy

01:09:27.480 were trying to burn buildings down.

01:09:28.780 So I'm not going to put a lot of stock in his promise to fix things

01:09:31.060 at the border services either.

01:09:33.000 Just responding to a commenter there I saw was Brad asking,

01:09:37.520 is it better to invest in Bitcoin when it's low?

01:09:40.080 I imagine, and that's under the presumption it'll go up.

01:09:42.520 One thing I don't want to do actually is offer financial advice.

01:09:45.260 I'm not qualified for that.

01:09:46.100 your money is too important to listen to me on that. That's why I direct you to the people who

01:09:50.500 do know what the hell they're talking about. And that's groups like Integrated Wealth Management,

01:09:55.720 if you're looking at the broader things and things such as that, or Bitcoin Well, if you're looking

01:09:59.400 at digital currencies, and they help guide you on when you want to get in or out. But as for

01:10:05.200 exactly when or not, it would be very irresponsible of me to try and say anything along that line.

01:10:11.040 uh let's see bill c20 enact establishing the public complaints and review commission would

01:10:17.740 appoint independent independent board to field public complaints that's pretty boring stuff

01:10:22.400 isn't it oh there's more stuff from indoncino you guys are painful i mean i guess that's one

01:10:27.520 of the things that these bureaucrats they do have to pay the fair amount i wouldn't be traumatized

01:10:31.600 in committee uh from hard questions or anything like that i'd be traumatized from boredom with

01:10:35.820 some of these things as they got to go through i mean this stuff's important this is how they

01:10:38.720 slide stuff down, you know, under the radar and give us bad policy at times and things.

01:10:43.360 These long, convoluted, wordy bills buried within them. You got a bunch of garbage and we all pay 0.93

01:10:48.820 an awful price for it. Yeah, here's the fear story of the week, of course. And here's the 1.00

01:10:56.200 Quebec Health Ministry announcing there's two cases of monkeypox in Quebec. You know, whatever.

01:11:05.060 It just never ends, right? They want to keep the fear going. I know people say, well, why are you

01:11:08.100 even talking about? Well, because I like to point out there's two. They got 20 suspected. Big deal.

01:11:12.540 It doesn't spread that much, but it's making headlines because it's hideous looking. You see

01:11:15.580 these bumps and pox all over people. Boy, they just love keeping us afraid, don't they?

01:11:20.640 Well, we're going to report, you know, if there's a mass monkey pox plague, we will report on it. 0.99

01:11:25.440 But at this point, I will counsel people. Don't lose sleep over it yet. Elon Musk. Yeah, they're

01:11:30.880 really after him. You know, not surprisingly, they're scared. You know, the crazed left,

01:11:35.820 the woke left, the censorship left. They want to, you know, they love Twitter. They loved how they

01:11:39.920 could throttle conservative voices and how they can kind of corner that market where a lot of 0.90

01:11:44.120 media member goes and those arrogant blue check buggers on there. Well, he had to denounce what 0.97

01:11:51.740 he's saying anyways, are untrue claims that he sexually harassed a flight attendant on a private

01:11:56.160 jet in 2016. I don't know. I got no idea if it's true or not. I see no evidence that it is though.

01:12:01.400 I mean, the article quoted, this is for Reuters, right? So they quote, they put this whole thing

01:12:04.920 and make international news out of it,

01:12:06.580 an anonymous person who said she was a friend

01:12:09.320 of the flight attendant.

01:12:10.420 So a friend of a friend said Elon was naughty

01:12:13.320 on a plane seven years ago.

01:12:15.160 And guess what?

01:12:16.940 Let's make world news about it.

01:12:19.060 Let's report the whole thing

01:12:20.900 because they want to discredit Musk as much as they can.

01:12:23.780 It's funny, the man who used to be their hero

01:12:25.340 because he was bringing about electric cars,

01:12:26.880 now they want to drag him down. 0.99

01:12:29.080 So they report on crap like this. 0.99

01:12:31.360 A friend of a friend said something happened 0.99

01:12:33.240 and we're gonna make news.

01:12:34.120 So he did respond to it. 0.94

01:12:35.220 He says, I have a challenge to this liar.

01:12:36.600 This is from Musk.

01:12:37.980 Who claims their friend saw me exposed.

01:12:39.760 Describe one thing.

01:12:40.720 Anything at all.

01:12:41.380 Scars, tattoos, anything that is known by the public.

01:12:44.000 He says she won't be able to because it never happened.

01:12:47.680 Now, of course, it does make the curiosity, and I don't want to see and find out.

01:12:50.900 But, yeah, he's got to have some weird scar or tattoo he's thinking of down there.

01:12:54.200 I don't know.

01:12:54.780 Who knows?

01:12:56.080 But this is the world we're in, guys.

01:12:57.460 You shake up the left.

01:12:58.800 They're going to come after you.

01:13:00.920 And do what they can. 1.00

01:13:03.120 And as Claudette was saying, you know, he couldn't care about these fools. 0.99

01:13:06.280 Yeah, but, you know, he's big, but they can still keep chopping the legs out from under him. 0.97

01:13:12.220 You know, don't underestimate when the left manages to get their forces together with a common enemy.

01:13:21.180 They can do some pretty nasty things.

01:13:24.100 All right, let's see what else we got.

01:13:26.080 Not much happening here today.

01:13:28.760 Next week, well, let me get out of here, guys.

01:13:31.420 I'm going to go.

01:13:32.040 I'm heading to Idaho.

01:13:32.480 Oh yeah, one other thing I missed, it was National Bee Day, just so you know.

01:13:35.640 I'm supposed to get my bees, they've been delayed again.

01:13:37.560 Global warming has made this spring so cold that my bees that were supposed to get here a week ago

01:13:42.140 were delayed until Tuesday, and now they're delayed into mid-June.

01:13:45.240 So I'm not going to be able to show all those videos of myself getting stung until sometime after mid-June.

01:13:49.860 But it is National Bee Day among all those weird observances today.

01:13:53.080 And on Tuesday, I'm going to have Chris Oldcorn on.

01:13:55.500 He's, again, a Western Standard columnist, and we'll talk about a number of things he's been writing on.

01:13:59.820 He's been doing some opinion stuff.

01:14:00.980 He's going to be in person, actually, here in the studio.

01:14:03.220 And I'm going to talk to Colin Krieger.

01:14:05.100 He's the new leader of the Maverick Party.

01:14:06.920 He was just elected to that position by the members a week ago.

01:14:10.540 So we'll see where they're going on the federal front.

01:14:12.580 So Wendy, Al, all the rest of you guys, Dash, you all have a good long weekend.

01:14:16.840 I know I'm going to.

01:14:17.980 And I'll see you all on Tuesday morning.

01:14:30.980 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - May 21, 2022

Triggered： The ongoing persecution of Tamara Lich

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