In this week's episode, we talk about the dangers of taking your kids to a family drag show, and why it's a bad idea. We also talk about why we should stop taking our kids to drag events if they're not consenting.
00:01:40.880I don't care if you're an adult and everybody's consenting.
00:01:43.220But there's that first part, the adult.
00:01:44.640Well, and now it just seems we found all the rights and brought them to a great spot.
00:01:49.900But there's the activist element that just has to push it now towards the kids.
00:01:53.360And that's where a lot of people are starting to get upset, even the trans community.
00:01:56.520Yes, there are many people in the LGBT community who are offended by some of the more extreme elements in their activism.
00:02:04.140And you did have that at the end of your story.
00:02:05.780I believe one drag performer who, you know, was speaking on that sort of thing, saying, that was Kitty Demure, saying, you know, people stop taking your kids to these drag shows.
00:02:43.880I'm going to paraphrase it and probably ruin it.
00:02:46.280But in the sense of, you know, you wouldn't look at a run-of-the-mill stripper or porn star spinning around a pole as an example of a good woman.
00:02:54.660Why would you look at the ones who are performing at some of these shows as necessarily good examples for children of trans people?
00:03:00.640Well, even if a person's coming up trans, it doesn't mean they necessarily want to be a stripper and things like that.
00:03:05.380But they just seem to keep pushing that limit.
00:04:00.900Okay, let's talk about some other stories.
00:04:02.400So, what have you been working on this week?
00:04:04.000So, one big story we had come out earlier this week was I filed an ATIP request for your listeners who aren't familiar.
00:04:10.040ATIP stands for Access to Information and Privacy.
00:04:12.840It's where you can get secret government information.
00:04:15.040All you have to do is basically pay the $5 fee, and then the government goes through and gives you a file.
00:04:20.180And we obtained a Western Standard obtained a file showing that the RCMP apparently only paid $527 in overtime pay during the Freedom Convoy.
00:04:29.240Anyway, that seems rather unrealistic, the government saying otherwise, but I'm pretty sure that it just made no sense.
00:04:36.920Yeah, I mean, you know, it was a big action.
00:04:39.580There were a lot of staff on hand, you know, we're to believe they only had eight-hour days throughout the course of that entire thing.
00:04:46.840Yeah, and it was funny seeing that they said, oh, $527 in overtime pay.
00:04:50.560They did say in the ATIP request that they spent, it was $1.6 million on transportation, which seems reasonable, given that all sorts of RCMP officers came in.
00:05:02.120And I think they spent something like $13,000 on accommodations, which could seem practical.
00:05:07.280And then it was like $6,000 on, like, food, which kind of seems a little low.
00:05:11.060But, I mean, then again, these were just early government figures.
00:05:13.360But it was definitely interesting seeing that the RCMP had this information and was willing to give it out to me.
00:05:17.300Yeah, and there were some other things, I think, that came up, though.
00:05:20.840There were some, like, buffets that they attended and things that were pretty expensive that got expensive.
00:05:24.660You've got a lot of people traveling, but those can add up.
00:05:27.300It just seems a little odd, though, when you're that many people and there just isn't that much overtime.
00:05:36.180I've got a feeling the compensation, because you're asking a lot for someone to travel across the country and spend a couple of weeks somewhere.
00:05:40.940They probably called it something else in the compensation than, you know, a travel bonus or extreme circumstance.
00:05:46.640Or I have no idea what they'd label it.
00:05:48.480Another story I did recently that your listeners might be interested to know was I was going through some government expense reports from the Alberta government.
00:05:54.920And I found that Alberta UCP leadership candidate Lula here spent more than $1,000 on pies for a function.
00:06:02.000She said this function was for hospitality purposes.
00:06:05.020But it was rather interesting seeing that she spent more than $1,000 on pies for an event.
00:06:09.020Yeah, that's a good chunk of pies going on.
00:06:14.200And hospitality, you know, this isn't the government's role to expense these sorts of things.
00:06:20.300And if it's a party thing, which I think this one wasn't, but, I mean, she should be coming out of her constituency's pocket, not the government's one.
00:06:27.140But they expense some of the most bizarre things.
00:06:28.840Yeah, like I was digging through some other candidates' expense reports just to see if anyone had anything else that was rather large.
00:06:54.320You know, and this comes up, I guess, you know, over the course of a leadership race that's going on right now.
00:07:01.540And basically, I mean, the other candidates, some of the advantages of ones like, I guess, Brian Jean and Daniel Smith who weren't in office very long.
00:07:09.560So they won't have records that somebody could pick.
00:07:11.600Presumably they haven't done anything wrong anyways.
00:07:13.020But you didn't find anything that untoward from the rest of them then?
00:08:18.920He said that he wants to file this lawsuit with the International Criminal Court to try and hold provincial governments and the Canadian government accountable for alleged crimes against humanity.
00:08:29.180He said he was looking for people who had experienced serious harm or injury or just negative side effects from like vaccine mandates or COVID restrictions, things like that.
00:08:45.680So you can definitely check it out if you're interested.
00:08:47.000All right, well, let's see what else we got.
00:08:50.120Yeah, this is the Campaign Life Coalition and the Wilberforce Project.
00:08:53.480I mean, this happens with every leadership campaign.
00:08:56.700They're unapologetic, you know, basically anti-abortion or socially conservative groups are speaking up in the UCP leadership race on which candidates they may or may not prefer.
00:09:09.000Yes, so Campaign Life Coalition said their top choice is Todd Lowen because he's a pro-life Christian and they said that they're, they like Travis Haves as well, but they said that they were a little concerned about some of his recent comments about abortion.
00:09:24.120And Campaign Life Coalition said that they wouldn't support any of the other candidates because they're for abortion.
00:09:31.780Wilberforce Project was a little different.
00:09:33.060They said that they were endorsing Todd Lowen and Travis Haves and they said rank them one or two however you want.
00:09:39.280And they also said that they like some of the other candidates who had more socially conservative policies but didn't really identify as them.
00:09:44.980And they are opposed to Leela here and Daniel Smith becoming leader because they're pro-choice.
00:09:51.100Yeah, well, I mean, Smith's always unapologetically been, you know, a libertarian rather than a classical small C conservative.
00:09:56.920But one policy, I think, from her platform that would appeal to social conservatives is her plan to add COVID-19 vaccine status and political affiliation to the Alberta Human Rights Act.
00:10:07.920And that could help social conservatives?
00:10:11.780I mean, basically with choice on medical status not being something you can discriminate against somebody on.
00:10:17.620And I think it's a very fair thing to put in.
00:10:21.440You know, as we were talking about before with the guest I had from Valor Law and Slobodian that Linda had been interviewing her, they had taken people and publicly, I mean, around their workplace, shamed them.
00:10:33.800They'd exposed their medical status to co-workers.
00:10:35.980If this had been almost any other kind of thing in a workplace of a discrimination, there would have been something under a Human Rights Act.
00:10:41.080And there's nothing to protect people for medical status.
00:11:02.120We haven't written a lot on it because sports is kind of a bit of our fringe.
00:11:04.560But it's big news is that Hockey Canada review that's going on right now.
00:11:08.420And it looks like they're pulling out some heavy guns, at least, to try and review this thing and try and sort this mess up.
00:11:14.360Yes, former Supreme Court justice Thomas Cromwell will be leading the independent review.
00:11:19.260And Hockey Canada said that Cromwell will be looking at their structures and systems.
00:11:23.900They want to get their structures and systems up to the caliber of similar national sport organizations.
00:11:30.520And he's going to be assisted by these two lawyers, I can't remember, from the law firm that they're going to help with.
00:11:34.360And all this stems from Hockey Canada with all the sex scandals and the sexual assault cover-ups.
00:11:39.940Yeah, well, we've got a lot of stories on the go.
00:11:44.020Let's talk a little health care for a moment here.
00:11:46.280That was an Ontario story, but we're seeing this breaking out everywhere.
00:11:49.800I mean, this was on a poll that showed seven in ten Ontario nurses felt they were unable to provide adequate care.
00:11:55.320Yep, they talked about in the study how many nurses were feeling burned out or were missing meals to, you know, fulfill extra responsibilities, things like that.
00:12:07.840My best friend actually is a registered nurse at SickKids Hospital, and she was telling me all about how they've been really dealing with a whole lot of pressure lately because of the staff shortages, since many Ontario hospitals have vaccine mandates in place.
00:12:20.200And the vaccine mandates are strict, like, they don't even allow religious exemptions in many cases.
00:12:24.580It's the only two exemptions you can really get are if you have a heart problem or if you're allergic to the vaccine.
00:12:30.820Yeah, so, I mean, that's been a contributing factor as well within things.
00:12:35.320But, I mean, the problem we're seeing everywhere, everywhere.
00:12:37.500I mean, we're seeing the emergency care center in Calgary is reducing hours, and in Ontario, they're shutting things down.
00:12:43.640Maritimes, I saw some hospitals cutting.
00:12:45.500And, I mean, it's funny, we see Rachel Notley up there screaming and howling, and it's Kenny's fault, it's Kenny's fault, it's the UCP's fault.
00:13:37.460I attended Daniel Smith's campaign rally, it was about two-ish, three-ish weeks ago, and she spoke about the health care and how it was a problem.
00:13:47.140And she said, one way that we could solve this is by repealing the vaccine mandate, which the next day the Alberta Health Services ended up doing.
00:13:54.240I mean, heck, she had a premonition probably about that because she said that many health care workers were just getting up and leaving the province.
00:14:02.820At her rally, she spoke about a doctor who she met.
00:14:05.600He was from South Africa, and he got up and left and went back home because he was tired of dealing with the vaccine mandate.
00:14:12.080Yeah, well, and another one I was talking, it wasn't the vaccine mandate, but it was just our system in general.
00:14:16.960I talked about that on the show yesterday.
00:14:18.240He's a fellow looking to come here, a nurse from Croatia, and he's been trying for two years to get in on Ontario and the bureaucracy and the applications.
00:14:26.560And then he finally threw his hands up and said, ah, screw it, I'm going to Texas.
00:14:29.400So, I mean, you know, we've got a lot going on that's keeping us from getting good qualified people coming in to help serve these staffing shortages right now.
00:14:37.700I mean, I'm from Ontario, and we're well known for our long hospital wait times.
00:14:41.220I haven't been inside a hospital in Alberta yet.
00:14:43.800Hopefully, it won't have to be, but, yeah, in Ontario, some of the wait times are really bad.
00:14:49.000I mean, we always want to avoid a hospital whenever possible.
00:14:51.280You know, nobody really ends up there if they wanted to, but, I mean, that's something.
00:14:55.560I think it's always a top story in every provincial election, always the top issue, anyways, if they pull.
00:15:01.140Health care is always in the top two, and they're going to have to deal with that.
00:15:05.980These leadership candidates are going to have to deal with it, and they're going to have to deal with it going into the general election.
00:15:10.080I mean, the next Alberta election is coming up in April, and we'll find it.
00:15:16.060We'll see who the next premier is, and, I mean, some of the candidates have really interesting proposals with health care, like Daniel Smith wants to create health spending accounts and give $300 to everyone who, every Albertan, to use on things like psychology, dentistry, chiropractic.
00:15:29.740I think that could be a worthwhile idea, and it might allow her to pick up some momentum and maybe even win.
00:15:35.720And with some people, I mean, some of the fear, too, is, I mean, people have built this sacred cow out of the health care system.
00:15:43.080And I can tell you right now, I know how, you know, the campaigning works, and Rachel Notley and the others are going to be saying, you know, assuming, say, Smith won.
00:15:50.240Well, they'll be saying it about no matter who wins.
00:15:52.560As long as they're conserved, they're going to say, they're going to tear down and Americanize the Canadian system, and you're going to die if you don't have a high enough credit limit.
00:15:59.620And you'll have to sew up your own wounds and, you know, set your own leg.
00:16:04.360And, you know, we know that rhetoric's coming, but at least, you know, it doesn't always have to be effective.
00:16:10.240I'm kind of impressed in seeing somebody challenging it, even if you know you're going to get the blowback.
00:16:15.100I think it's time they do, because they're going to get the blowback no matter what they say.
00:16:17.780Yeah, like, regardless, whoever wins the Alberta NDP will definitely portray the winner as some evil, racist, bigoted monster.
00:16:25.260Whether that be even, whether that be Daniel Smith or Travis Taves or even someone like Rajansani, who's a person of color.
00:16:33.600Yeah, they only have so many lines, it seems, in opposition.
00:16:37.460As we watch this develop, I just hope, I want to see from some of the other candidates in this race, because, you know, we've both been watching it.
00:16:53.500It doesn't even have to necessarily agree with me with privatization, but show some courage.
00:16:57.140Like, you've got, clearly the status quo isn't cutting it, but none of them have the courage, really, to shake it up.
00:17:01.560Yeah, privatizing health care is definitely a touchy subject, because then you have all the left-wing politicians screaming, being like, oh, conservatives want people to die, even though people are dying, waiting for health care right now.
00:17:13.240But it's free to die waiting for health care right now.
00:18:30.800Like the one out there, I mean, people don't necessarily all dress up Western around the whole city and everything during that period either.
00:18:36.100I mean, that's the thing with the Stampede.