Smith upset with Trudeau over immigration & no movement with Air Canada & pilots l Sept 12, 24 l BCN

hi I'm hell Roberts this is Bridge City News welcome here's some of the top stories we've been following tensions between Air Canada and its Union continue to escalate as we get closer to a strike by the airlines Pilots calary conservative MP Michelle rle Garner says her party has a plan to protect Canadians from online threats and a forum is taking place tonight in Lethbridge where UCP members will get a chance to meet the three candidates who are vying to become the nominee for Lethbridge West your nation your Province your Southern Alberta from the heart of Lethbridge it's Bridge City News with Hal Roberts thanks so much for joining us tensions between Canada's largest airline and Pilots are mounting as a potential strike or lock out at Air Canada is only days away a number of business groups are meeting in Ottawa right now to urge the government to intervene after calling for binding arbitration in open letter Eric Canada says it's increasingly likely that work will grind to a halt as talks remain far apart with the Union the union says corporate greed is holding up the talks as Air Canada continues to post record profits while expecting Pilots to accept the low Market compensation calary conservative MP Michelle rumbl Garner says she's tired of the trau Liberals not doing enough to protect Canadians from being threatened or abused online she says the Liberals Bill C63 doesn't do enough and instead just ends up censoring Canadians she says the conservatives have a much better plan new conservative legislation will introduce Protections in three areas of focus unlike previous liberal bills it will obtain these protections for Canadians without creating a government managed surveillance state or putting a chill on Charter protected speech the new legislation will first seek to modernize the existing crime of criminal harassment to address the ease and particularly the anonymity of how it happens online to be clear this update won't criminalize something like two people disagreeing about policy online or other types of expression of opinion that is protected under the charter specifically the provision in our new conservative legislation will be based on the existing definition of criminal harassment applying specifically to those who repeatedly send unwanted harassing content that causes somebody to reasonably fear for their safety or wellbeing the Federal caucus Retreat just wrapped up in Montreal NDP leader jug M Singh was asked if we could see an election sooner rather than later as opposed to October 2025 since he ripped up the supply and confidence agreement with the trau government he says you know anything can happen all bets are off uh We've torn up the agreement with the Liberals that means they can expect no help and no support from us anything that happens in Parliament will be based on is in the best interest of Canadians we'll be fighting to find ways to get more relief for Canadian Canadians to get more help to Canadians that's what we're going to be focused on and we will use every two we can to try to get more relief for Canadians a spotlight has been cast on foreign countries like China and their reported attempts to interfere with our elections Fred Bradley served from 1995 to 2013 as a parliamentary development adviser in Ukraine and other countries to ensure election Integrity he says there are steps candidate could take to protect our elections I think the idea of having a foreign registry I think other countries have it Great Britain United States Australia um to ensure that these activities these agents have to register and and and and maybe and our security services U need to be um perhaps given more resources to uh to protect our electoral systems against this make sure you catch more of this informative interview with Fred bridley former parliamentary development adviser and bcn's jet coming up later in our broadcast Premier Daniel Smith has spoken out against the federal government's plan to relocate tens of thousands of Asylum Seekers here to Alberta she says Ottawa is moving ahead even without any financial assistance to support our Province she says last year alone Alberta welcomed over 200,000 people to our Province she says although Alberta represents only 11.8% of the Canadian population we are currently supporting 22% or over 70,000 Ukrainian evacuees who arrived in Canada now in a statement Premier Smith had this to say section 95 of the Constitution is clear immigration is an area of shared Authority between the federal government and provinces yet the trau government's unrestrained open border policies permitting well over a million newcomers each year into Canada is causing significant challenges and it's simply not sustainable the three candidates trying to become the nominee for the UCP for the Lethbridge West writing will be answering questions by party members in Lethbridge tonight now to chat about this in more detail is Davey Wagers he's the president of the ucp's lethridge West writing and he joins us from here in the Wendy City Davey the three candidates are Lethbridge City councelor and former Lethbridge police chief John Middleton hope Aeron ler who was the constituency office manager for both MLA Nathan neudorf nmp Rachel Thomas and Lethbridge real estate agent Shauna gruninger now each candidate brings something special or different to the table where and when does all of the action begin tonight the doors open at the left Public Library theater Gallery at 6 p.m. and uh in the gallery then we'll start the Forum at 7 and that will go through to 9 the six to 7 when the do is open that allows uh the contestants to mingle with the members and uh add any one-on-one conversation they may want to have prior to the event itself so when is the nomination vote when we will officially find out who will become the nominee for the UCP for the Lethbridge West riding coming up really quickly uh just uh a little over a week away on the 23rd and the vote itself will again be held in the theater Gallery at the leich public library Davey this is a writing that was held by the NDP Shen and Phillips for quite a number of years what will it take to make a Tory blue uh we have volunteers coming from each one of those constituency associations uh to come knock on the doors get out the vote and uh ensure that the positive message of the UCP the Forward Thinking and forward action uh that has been put through by our government uh translates into Lethbridge West so Lethbridge can uh present a united front to government and uh you know really bring uh the interest of Lethbridge and Lethbridge West particularly uh to to Forefront Premier Daniel Smith has until January the 1st I believe to call a byelection and your nominee will be chosen by the 23rd any chance the Smith may call the byelection a little earlier before Thanksgiving maybe um if I were a betting man I'd probably say that it would be uh maybe prior to American Thanksgiving but uh I I don't think we're gonna see uh um uh prior to Canadian Thanksgiving I don't think Davey Wagers is the UCP Lethbridge West riding president thanks so much for your time today as for the NDP nominee for Lethbridge West it is former Lethbridge City councelor Rob miiro well that was the Soggy day here in Lethbridge for Thursday and fairly cool Janette R is in now with an early peak of the forecast Janette how long will the showers be sticking around well we can expect another 10 to 15 millimeters of rainfall tonight on top of the 15 to 25 millimeters that we were forecast to receive today so uh soggy Thursday is an understatement there uh but uh the good news is things are going to clear up so as we get into Friday tomorrow uh we are looking at that rain to start easing up by noon and then after that the clouds should start to part and we should start to see that Sunshine again just right in time for our weekend and of course I'll be back later in the show to give you all those weekend details great thanks so much Janette Israeli military officials say they continue to strike major blows against Hamas including taking out four key Hamas military commanders in the Gaza Strip according to TBN Israel correspondent y Pento the fight with the Israel Defense Forces also continues with the other terrorist group Hezbollah the Air Force pounded kisala Targets in southern Lebanon destroying rocket launchers and and other military infrastructure security operations also continue in Judea and Samaria including the targeted assassination of a terror cell in the city of tubas in Gaza Hamas leader y SAR breaks his silence and reveals details about his own plans while the IDF publishes documentation of the tunnel where six Israeli hostages were held and later executed Russia's reportedly began began a counter offensive against Ukrainian troops to take back their land in the KK region according to Russian military officials Russian troops have reclaimed about 10 settlements in the area after Ukrainian forces stormed into K over a month ago a commander of Chan forces claimed six Ukrainian brigades suffered heavy losses Ukrainian President Vladimir zalinski confirmed the counter offensive claiming it was going in line with our Ukrainian plan Ukraine still controls around 1300 square kilometers of Russian territory and is still expected that Ukraine will use these claims as leverage in talks with Russia towards a land swap agreement president zinski is expected to meet with us President Joe Biden with a victory plan sometime this month during this week's presidential debate former US president Donald Trump Amplified rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were abducting and eating pets such as cats Republican party officials in Arizona are kind of playing off the rumors with new creative Billboards in the Phoenix area Donald Trump mentioned that Haitian immigrants in Springfield Ohio are eating people's cats and pets which is a false statement that um has been gaining traction particularly in Republican and more conservative um social media circles online so the eat less kittens ad connects to what we've seen from former president Donald Trump before using anti- immigrant rhetoric connecting immigrants who are coming into the country to uh sort of frankly bizarre behavior um suggesting that unamerican behavior that that these immigrants are eating cats the immigrants in Springfield Ohio the city says first of all that that this behavior is there's no evidence of this Behavior there have been no credible or specific reports of this Behavior the father of an Ohio boy killed last year when a Haitian immigrant hit the school bus he was riding in is imploring Donald Trump and others to stop using his son as a talking point in a debate about immigration I wish that my son Aiden Clark was killed by a 60-year-old white man I bet you never thought anyone would ever say something so blunt but if that guy killed my 11-year-old son the incessant group of hate spewing people would leave us alone the last thing that we need is to have the worst day of Our Lives violently and constantly shoved in our faces politicians Bernie Moreno chip Roy JD Vance and Donald Trump they have spoken my son's name and used his death for political gain this needs to stop now Lethbridge police have arrested a man in connection with a random assault of a 27-year-old woman back in September the 10th police responded to that day after a man broke into the woman's home along the 200 block of Mayor McGrath Drive North and attacked the victim with a weapon before fleeing out through the window the woman was taken to shinook Regional hospital with serious injuries the suspect was identified by members of the violent crimes unit and was arrested on the 11th he remains in custody and the investigation continues Albert RCMP say that three people are dead at a home in Lloyd menster on the saskat side of the city police are investigating the incident as a triple homicide and a targeted attack the bodies were discovered following a wellness check by police the suspect is still at large police issued a brief statement assuring residents that there's no current threat to the public now according to locals RCMP gathered at the home on Wednesday evening taped it off and have been there ever since no word yet on the identities of those who died autopsies will be conducted over the next couple of days cros Ness P Council has announced that residents will participate in an non-binding vote to determine whether or not a significant coal mining project should move ahead at Grassy Mount near the municipality Council passed the motion on September the 10th and will have to confirm the dates while holding the vote within 90 days Deputy Mayor Dean Ward who put the motion forward spoke with Bridge City news on what effects this project could have on their region we're talking about very good paying jobs here the mines over in BC are paying six figure wages to their employees uh there that will create hundreds of jobs of those High wages uh it'll create numerous spin-off jobs uh there's various contractors that Supply the mines growth will be obvious right the mines got to employ hundreds of jobs and there'll be hundreds of spin-off jobs from the mine we all know this has been a very contentious controversial issue there's many groups that have spoke about this you can't pick up a newspaper or go online today and not read somebody's opinion about this mine and we feel it's really relevant to ask our residents what they feel about this mine before you say no to everything let's take a proper look at it and see if there is a safe way to do it because the plane crashes we don't shut down all the Airlines and stop Flying uh you figure out what cause of problems you fix it you mitigate it and you move on and this province has been founded on the development of its natural resources and uh we want to share that in our corner of the province too the croses pass has a long history of coal mining going back 100 years a historic underground mine and Bell viw from the mid 20th century still brings and many visitors each and every year the Interfaith Food Bank here in Lethbridge is a dire need of food including meat and fresh vegetables the group's executive director Daniel McIntyre explains why they have such a shortage right now nor at this time of year the cooler behind me would be overflowing with produce coming in from our local farms and local gardeners uh but this year we just haven't seen it coming in in the quantities that we need to be able to keep up with the demand at the beginning of the Season we were worried about things like drought and water restrict so we do know that a lot of our local Gardens um didn't grow as much as what they were planning to grow in a normal season um some people decided to not grow a garden this year at all um but we are also seeing that uh the demand for food is high we normally get a lot of the distress Pro uh produce that is not retail perfect but because people are having trouble buying their groceries a lot of our retailers are discounting that produce and selling it uh even if it's not in perfect condition and those are the items that have the most nutrient value the proteins and the vitamins that people need so if you're already struggling and not getting the vitamins that you need you end up with health problems you have other barriers that are keeping you out of the workforce we're really grateful that we're very close to the season of giving and we'll see a lot of Community Collections happening at churches uh schools even local businesses the Interfaith Food Bank has been serving the Lethbridge area for the past 35 years the annual free Fest is coming up to Lethbridge poly Technic this weekend Stephanie Savage manager of alumni and engagement with Lethbridge poly Technic says the institution is opening in stores not just for students but for everyone to enjoy the event will take place from noon till 5: on Saturday Savage explains what the event is really all about and what fun we can expect is all about bringing our community together for a celebration on campus so it's a little bit like a County Fair where you're going to find food food and fun and games and activities and it's just a little bit of everything to make sure that our community is really a part of what we do so this event offers a ton of stuff for the community um 18 different food trucks a big truck Zone where people can see city-owned Vehicles like fire trucks and garbage trucks and buses and this gives them an opportunity to actually go and look at them so that they understand what those vehicles are when they're driving through um there's also egg equipment and there's a little mini show and Shine That's run by excited to have monster truck rid at the event this year it's important that we do this annually because this event celebrates kind of the best parts of our community yeah it's always a great time Savage says the poly Technic which used to be known as Lethbridge College launched kif house back in 2017 to say thanks to everyone who helped make their first 60 years so very successful well we enjoyed some clouds and light showers again today in Lethbridge and that Trend should continue this week a look at the weather pictures coming up well we saw quite a bit of moisture again today and slightly cooler here in Lethbridge Janette R is out with all the weather details Janette you know the nice thing about this rain here in the city is that it kind of settles down all of the Dust well that is true Hal and of course that includes the 25 to actually the 15 to 25 millimeters of rain today we are expected to see another 10 to 15 fall overnight but as we get into Friday we're going to see the rain and around noon also some overnight fog that developed could be dissipating by noon as well after that the clouds should part we should start to see some sunshine for our weekend there a high of 19 degrees on Friday up to 20 on Saturday with clear skies same thing for Sunday there clear skies and 20 degrees down to 19 again on Monday 17 on T Tuesday so both Tuesday and Wednesday we could see that rainfall return again and then a high of 16 degrees for our next Wednesday which kind of brings us a little bit lower than the seasonal average uh for this time of year seasonal high is 20° seasonal low 6° 32 that was our record high happening on this day back in 1969 and our record low for this day was- 6 and that happened back in 1949 7:04 that's when the sun rose this morning a sun set this evening at 7:49 giving us 12 hours 45 minutes of daylight if you can believe it 6 minutes shorter than we saw yesterday that means fall is definitely coming it's right around the corner 16 for a high in Victoria Showers easing up in the morning beginning in the afternoon though in b couver 17 for the high there h a high of 18° in Edmonton we could see mainly sunny skies there and in Calgary clouds in the morning then it makes a sun and Cloud by the afternoon high of 18 there as well as we look to the rest of the Prairies we're seeing a risk of the thunderstorms in Saskatoon 30% chance of showers 18 for the high there up to 60k winds expected looking at chance of showers as well in Regina with the risk of thunderstorms 20 for the high 26 in Winnipeg still summertime there but they could see some showers now over in the central part of the country we're seeing mainly sunny skies at 28 all around for the expected high tomorrow in Toronto Ottawa and Montreal as we get into Atlantic Canada ferton looking at a high of 26 degrees could see that risk of a thunder shower chance of rain there mix the Sun and cloud and Halifax Charlotte Town mainly sunny skies 25 for the high and a high of 20 in St John's tomorrow so there you have it that is your forecast stats Canada says the amount of household debt Canadians owe compared to their income dropped lower in the second quarter household credit Market debt proportional to household income fell to 175. 5% on a seasonally adjusted basis in the second quarter that's down from the first quarter now the household debt to service ratio increased to 14.97% on a seasonally adjusted basis that is up from 14.89% at the end of the first quarter stats candidat say households had average debt including mortgages of $176,500 parts and Source raw materials such as steel and critical minerals used in batteries the partnership marks the first time Hyundai has been linked with another automaker for large scale initiatives now here's a look at today's markets the TSX was up 263 points on the day to finish at 23475 the Dow was up 235 points to 41096 the S&P 500 was up 41 on the day to 55 95 and the NASDAQ was up 174 points to 17,569 West Texas intermediate oil was up a185 to 6916 us per barrel natural gas was up a cent to 236 US Gold was up 4767 on the day to 25591 us an ounce and silver was up $119 to 2988 us an ounce feed wheat is at $756 per bushel barley at 592 canola at 1274 and cornis at 734 per bushel life cattle October contract was down a130 to 18315 Peter cattle were up a150 to 24205 and lean Hog's October contract is up 90 to 8733 the Canadian dollar was down slightly over the past 24 hours to 7360 us recapping one of our top stories a number of business groups are urging the federal government to get involved in negotiations between Air Canada and its Pilots they're calling for binding arbitration Air Canada says it's increasingly likely that work will grind to a halt as talks remain far apart with the Union the union says corporate greed is holding up the talks as their Canada continues to post record profits while expecting Pilots to accept below Market compensation when it comes to election interference what can Canadians really do about it Fred Bradley is a former MLA and has some ideas he shared with bcn's Janette Rocha watch for that informative interview coming up shortly when you see news happening in your community be sure to drop us an email at info@ bridg cityne news.ca also be sure to visit our website anytime to check out a number of stories and interviews the US presidential election will be here very soon and of course here in Canada we could see a federal election as well because we currently have a minority government increasingly we are hearing concerns about election integrity and potential election fraud so joining me today from the crow Nest pass area of Alberta is Fred Bradley and many of you may remember Fred is the former MLA for Pincher Creek from 1975 through 1993 and he also served from 1995 to 2013 as a parliamentary development adviser in Ukraine Armenia and Kyan which included advising on Election Integrity so Fred great to have you with us today welcome to Bridge City News well thank you very much very pleased to join you okay so Fred what was your experience like in some of the foreign countries that we mentioned there and to what degree did they experience attempts to manipulate the elections well my my actual experience was most was in Ukraine in terms of election monitoring and I monitored elections in the 1998 parliamentary elections uh the 2004 presidential election and the 2012 parliamentary election and over the period of time I saw in my initial experience in 1998 there was certainly um a lot of manipulation and fraud at the polling stations um but what I witnessed in 2004 during the presidential election was certainly uh um very eye opening because I monitored three the three rounds of the presidential election in in 2000 or in in 2004 and saw many different types of election fraud during that and manipulation of the vote when we got to the 2012 parliamentary election it was basically a what we would call a fundamentally free and fair election the processes uh the the results of the voting were accurate and portrayed the the will of of the people but in uh I saw some interesting things in in 1998 um in terms at polling stations um obviously manipulation by um administrative resources being used to back the party of powers candidates in elections um voting irregularities at election polling station uh but 2004 was really the ultimate um experience in in monitoring uh pervasive election fraud um conducted by um the the the administration uh of the the political party and and the administr the administration uh presidential Administration in Ukraine or or their cohorts in Russian interference was obviously a Hallmark of that I could go into some detail on that if you wanted me to but there was things like uh Carousel voting where buses would roll up and they people would come out and go into polling stations and vote and then go on to another polling station because they their names were on multiple lists in multiple different polling stations and they just that's how one way of influencing the vote the other was a disappearing ink where if they knew a polling station was uh going to vote for an opposition candidate they would have this disappearing ink pen and when the ballots went to count there would be no the ballots would you know would not show the the mark for the opposition candidate and then there was actually in the second round experience where the one constituency would be monitored in that at the end of the day the polling commission had got so um expert in what they were doing was they just reversed the results so they reported that they they their favored candidate uh which was the Russian supported candidate had won the election they reversed the votes for the Yenko who who ultimately won the presidential election but they just reversed the votes and filed them accordingly and said this was the result of the vote for this Election Commission in favor of the of the yanukovich versus jenko it was really a real eye opener in terms of what can be done but the use of administrative resources the um election commissions itself the central Election Commission they they they had one million more people vote at the end of the end of the day that uh then had registered to vote during the election so they just created all sorts of election that was absolutely election fraud at a very high scale which resulted in a third round of voting the firing of the the then Central Election Commission which had per perpetrated the fraud and then had a fair and free election um the third round was absolutely different they followed the procedures as laid out by the law and they didn't have the interference that had taken place in the first election that's that's basically the experience that I had witnessed in terms of election fraud so corrupted now here in Canada and the US there's been a lot of attention on foreign interference attempts from Nations like China and Russia and Iran among others so what methods are hostile Nations using to try to sway election results over here well there's all sorts of of um it's got sophisticated obviously than the disappearing the game has changed incredibly social media is a big part of it manipulating social media um fake news and propaganda um deep fakes and manipulated media I mean they hacking into political parties campaigns this is happen United States both currently in terms of Democratic and Republican attacks um they can Target voting infrastructure there's just you know there's diplomatic and economic pressures that have been used they can targeting uh U influence operations uh man manipulation of traditional media sources with putting in wrong data out there which is then reported Etc so there's there's many different ways of in which inter forign actors can interfere in our election s um and then there's there's actually then they have their Espionage and covert operations and they will also exploit any any loopholes they see in our electoral processes if they can do that so there are many different ways in which that foreign interference and manipulation can take place and both Russia and China have been been act big actors in that in the United States uh Russia more United States China here and Canada in terms of the some of the recent things we' seen do we know spread if any of these efforts have actually changed the outcome of an election you know it's really that that is really difficult to determine I mean in very close targeted writings it may have an influence I think there's been those allegations in Canadian elections particularly I think in one in Vancouver um they've manipulated political parties um have have they actually affected the results that's extremely difficult to assess in a very close election I mean how do you influence public opinion if you if through social media and and influencers you influence public opinion H how do you measure that how do you actually show that that's had an effect on the results so that's that's one aspect and recently I think we've seen in United States uh where the Russians have just perfected their their uh manipulation where they actually are paying um um domestic U social media influencers to put forward their propaganda pieces which they promoted in RT and other sources so they're actually paying Americans or Canadians um to manipulate what is being what what what they the the information they want to to Target to to voters in terms of trying to influence an election or a public opinion I mean if you push certain stories which aren't true or or there partially true and just continue to push that with people but people generally after many periods of receiving information they start to even though they may know something is false it part becomes part of the psyche of of what they believe or what they think is true yeah that's true I what changes do you think the federal government could put in place to make it a lot more difficult for other nations to interfere well we currently have a royal commission that's looking into that and we're going to provide some uh some advice on that um obviously um whether it's direct foreign INF influence by embassies or staff of embassies I think actions need to be taken I think the idea of having a foreign registry I think other countries have it Great Britain United States Australia um to ensure that these activities these agents have to register and and and and maybe and our security services uh need to be um perhaps given more resources to uh to protect our electoral systems against this um social media how how do you control that we have the arguments free um free speech versus actually putting out misinformation and and U Miss facts it's that's very difficult to control um and and and cyber security I think you have to look at also those aspects so there's many different ways we can look at it but it's extremely difficult to um to in this age and with artificial intelligence and the manipulation that can be done there I mean we've seen United States where there's fake videos out there now that is the scariest thing like you were saying before of a of a of a of a very prominent uh musician endorsing one candidate when she's actually out endorsed another candidate publicly last night so yeah oh that is the scariest do you think that we need stricter voter verification rules or as some argue would that discourage people from voting because you know we've you've hear stories of like election poll stations where like elections Canada surveyed election officers during the 2019 Canadian federal election discovered that what was it 35% % of polling staff sometimes are often encountered individuals asking to vote who were not on the list of electors and who were unable to be registered at the polling station so should that maybe raise some R some red flags well you know we have I I think we have some very good election processes in Canada the um so what happens at polling stations and and maybe this you know we used to have an enumeration list where we hire enumerators to go door too in the first part of when we had longer election periods so we we decided we had to shorten the election period there used to be two months Federal elections because it gave time for hiring enumerators to go door too to register voters those lists would be published then people could go to the list and re have an opportunity to revise and have their name put on the list but we don't do that anymore it's it's piled electronically based on uh provincial records or federal records and they have a list that list so we shorten the election campaign to basically a one-month campaign um so if your name isn't on the list you have an opportunity prior to the election to have your name added to the list and you go is usually an electronic process the day of the election people will show up and what we require for verification even you'll get a polling card I think from the federal government but what we require when you go to vote is to show a photo ID a government issued piece of photo ID with your name and address on it or two pieces of ID showing your name and address and that's what that's when people go to the poll they expect they can go in and vote they may not have their ID with them that verifies that so and their name may not be on the list and that's where um we you know that that's where the issue comes in you go to the polling station and you haven't brought your ID with you and per people will say I'm not on the list or I can't vote because I don't have my ID so those that and that's pretty strict I mean that's pretty strict identification of a voter yeah yeah photo ID or two pieces of government issued or something a a a utility bill that has your name and address that proves that you president in the place in which you were voting um that that and that I think is the cause but I I do think you know the those requirements are are very uh very stringent to some degree uh that you have to have these two pieces of ID to prove who you are so it's very I I don't think you have people voting who aren't eligible to vote it's people who may be disqualified because they can't prove their residency uh does that change the results of an election I think those and the other thing if you don't have that information if you have a voter a friend or someone goes with you who lives in the youve sign a sworn statement that I live in such and such a address and you have a neighbor or a friend who comes and signs a sworn statement yes I know this person I verify that they live at this address they will put you on on the list so I mean that's and that's that would be um access to voting do all citizens have have credible access to voting and we have all sorts of procedures for absentee voting if you're out of the country or if you are in a nursing home or some incapacitated voting opportunities for people right oh gosh it looks like we're out of time here but Fred we appreciate you coming on today and and uh sharing your your knowledge with us especially from the uh the voting interference that you experienced in those other countries so fascinating it was a certainly a fascinating experience for me and uh a very interesting period of time in my life absolutely uh Fred Bradley is the former Alberta MLA and an overseas parliamentary development advisor what would our world look like if we ever saw truth in politics and do we ever currently see truth in politics and and if we do what happens to the politician and how does the public respond to that revelation of Truth well today's guest joins us from Ottawa he is Dr John Robson and a professor at Augustine college and a columnist with the National Post Looney politics and also the epoch times where he recently wrote an article entitled refusing to lie or to acques in one is vital for a thriving Society good to have you with us Dr Robson it's a pleasure to be here he said truthfully yes awesome yeah it goes without saying if if someone's talking to me and they they start a sentence with being truthfully honest or in all honesty it causes me to wonder what happened to the veracity of what came before so I want to ask you you quote John 8:32 in your article you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free if everyone pledged never to tell a lie or to acques in a lie you suggest it would have a significant impact on our society it would be I think transformative and I want to say that it also would be transformative to the people who decide to do it and then I want to be very clear as I always try to be uh I'm not suggesting here that what we need is for everybody to be like me this is not about how great I am it's about how great the truth is and when you look at it just to begin with in politics what is the number one thing that people hate about politicians the thing that comes up again and again in surveys and in conversations that politicians don't tell the truth they say what they think will advance them personally what will advance their party and they're cunning at it they put enormous amounts of time and effort into spin control the result of which paradoxically that nobody believes anything that comes out of their mouths with rare exceptions so it's even self-defeating tactically but at a much more profound level it means that government goes badly wrong and we can't have a proper discussion about what's wrong because you can't say that is the rule on almost anything that's true and important for instance that the Canadian Health Care system not only isn't working but can't work as currently structured that Canada has too much immigration the Canadian governments spend too much and they try to do too much or even and this was actually what triggered this whole thing I got to thinking about this about a year ago because I was at a dinner that began with one of those usual uh sanctimonious land acknowledgements right and I sat there thinking to myself this is a double lie it is a lie because many of the people in the audience do not believe that they are on Stolen land and because the people who actually do think so don't tend to give it back which in many respects is worse and I thought okay here I am the outlier weirdo you know don't make a fuss and annoy people and then after the dinner was over somebody that I knew but not very well came up to me and said we've got to do something about those land acknowledgements they're totally untrue and about three or four other people from the table came over and joined in and they all thought the same thing and I thought wait a minute we all know this is a lie and we've been sitting here cowed either by fear of the author ities or just a desire not to offend people and be you know ostracized for the rest of the evening when in point of fact these land acknowledgements are even a big obstacle to reconciliation to moving forward on the Aboriginal file which is one of the worst Messes in Canada today and what's at the core of the whole problem they're false they're actually untrue they're based on false history and they make false promises and I thought what if we all just said no and that put Me In Mind of this thing and now I can't find it that somebody I'm sure somewhere said if everybody under communism had insisted on telling the truth for one day it would have collapsed but so many people in so many parts of the world and in so many areas of their lives live lies and they think it makes their lives easier but this is where you get to the personal part it doesn't it is a transformative experience to say from now on I will not be part of falsehoods I mean sometimes it's awkward right there are moments where would be easier to lie you could get more money you could escape from an awkward situation but then you get caught in the lie and you have to keep living it and it's not a call to be rude to people or unduly harsh in your judgments but to be honest never to say the thing that is not and never to sit there nodding and smiling or even just silent when you hear something you know isn't true got I've got to ask you this we we do hear so many lies in politics and media does lying really matter well I think that it does and and as I say I think it matters in public policy because it means that people are misdiagnosing a problem then providing wrong Solutions and then being deceitful about what actually happened as a result so you don't get this kind of useful feedback mechanism on what works and what doesn't but whereas in the marketplace I mean one of the classic things it doesn't matter what lie you tell if there's no customer in your store you don't make a sale they get this inescapable truth that your product is not pleasing the public but it's also on a personal level and again I brought up this example as of comes up in movies from time to time but it's a real thing where somebody has is serving a life sentence in prison and and justly they've been convicted of some terrible thing they did and their whole life has been a mess and you feel sorry for them but they they do belong Behind Bars and then they find truth normally because they find the Lord and they say for the first time in my life I'm free and you think to yourself I mean in some sense this is an absurd statement no you're behind bars and there you will stay you don't get to choose how you're going to spend your day or where who you will associate with any of that but the freedom that comes from setting aside the deceit and living the lie and all of the burdens it is in fact liberating and I found this in my own life when I changed my mind on a series of public policy issues and every time I thought oh this is a bit weird like when I became in favor of uh civilian gun ownership because I was believed in gun control when I was young I thought this is I'm going to go through the rest of my life carrying this idiotic belief that will crush me and instead it was like hey wait a minute no my worldview makes more sense I am Freer and easier I believe in the right to self-defense I believe that an unjust government should be opposed it all worked for me and then there were a series of other things including becoming pro-life um and then becoming Christian and at every step I thought well now I'm really doomed to unpopularity and misery and instead every time the burden was lighter so I say to politician you are afraid if they tell a lie that their career will end the answer is probably it won't people will be so thrilled and excited and pleased that your popularity will soar but suppose it does and you have to go and do something else for a living okay you're no longer a politician telling lies and implementing failed policies and pretending they worked so you give that up but on the other hand you're no longer a politician implementing failed policies and deceiving people about what happened and in your personal life it's just cleaner it's lighter there are plenty of things you you can do in this world where you don't have to lie and you will be a happier and better person so what's what I mean why not try it what is to be gained by living in a web of Deceit I mean you look at the political parties now and their carefully massaged platforms that are just I don't know how they can stand to recite the talking points I don't know how they can bear it yeah and it's great for us to be able to have a conversation on this it it sounds like lies is just one of the uh uh new set of clothing that's that's given to the emperor for The Emperor's New Clothes uh yes and everybody does it so it becomes habitual and you think it's not a big deal and oh I'm lying today so I can be honest tomorrow you know the the father of Lies feeds us all kinds of comforting thoughts about deceit but at bottom it's just a bad thing everybody knows deceit is bad in a marriage deceit is bad in a family you shouldn't deceive your your kids your kids maybe sometimes ought to you know not be completely Frank with you about things but um it's bad and B business dealings why would it be better in politics why would this where the police power of the state is invoked why would this be the one place where it's really important to lie all the time well I think that in business it would probably be referred to as fraud uh a new word that we hear a lot is misinformation is misinformation not just a fancy word for lying well it is when it's not the government saying that something that's true shouldn't be discussed because they find it unpleasant which which is where misinformation is itself very often a lie uh because someone has said something that's actually true and people are going oh yeah that's true I didn't realize anybody else thought that and they're like no no that's misinformation you we went through this with covid right with the masks and that sort of thing and the the social distancing and the fact that the idea that this was a deadly disease to healthy middle-aged people or that uh that if you got the vaccines you'd never get covid we were just told one lie after another but everybody who tried to say wait a minute I'm not sure these vaccines really work very well or I don't think that it lurks on surfaces or I don't think the masks are very effective especially not the cloth ones uh was accused of misinformation because they were telling the truth and that to me is ridiculous I mean don't don't use neologisms is a good rule for clean living as well right so are there some examples that you could maybe share with us of politicians who've been good at telling the truth yes and actually the the column you referred to came out of a speech I gave to the economic Education Association of Alberta in which I focused on two people in particular uh and one of them was Martin Luther King Jr and you think what an extraordinary moral Beacon he was and one of the reasons why is that he never lied well he in his personal life he had some failings but in his public life and on one point in particular at a time remember when this was enormously controversial do you want full social equality and it would have been very easy to say oh no no no no uh we're happy to be treated as second rate in all kinds of ways we don't believe in racial marriage or intermarriage but there's just a few little things we want and King never said that he said yes we're all God's children and I look forward to the day when we sit down in Brotherhood in the states in the United States like Georgia and Alabama where the situation was worse at the time and this was it might sound tactically unwise but in fact even tactically it was enormously powerful because it called people to a vision and it didn't get you caught in little deceits and then the other one that I cited Patrick Moore who has spoken at some of those EA events though he couldn't make that one and I'm not saying that everything Greenpeace thought in the early days was correct but here were some people who said they were always going to act on what they believed and they were always going to be straightforward about it and they changed the world because they didn't trim and hedge and fudge like some political party and then the third example obviously is Jesus Christ and we can't be him but the same time this extraordinary power of just saying what is so and saying I am not going to be rude about it I'm inviting people on an exciting Journey I'm not trying to exclude them but here's how things are and it's enormously important that you should know it and in the end it will make you a better and a happier person so come along with me and we see how Martin Luther King changed the United States that I Have a Dream speech I think you can still find it online and if you haven't seen that incredible concluding part of it it is again almost a transformative experience it's a marvelous thing and everybody should watch it uh and everybody should think about how we're all environmentalists now because of people like Patrick Moore and we may still debate the details and I hope we do so honestly but the idea that we can afford to ignore human impact on the planet Green Peace completely changed that and they did it because of the power of Truth and of honesty and so it really is again I say to politicians don't think I'm asking you to give up your glorious horrible political career uh I'm saying you could be a much better person and a much better politician if you just told us the truth including when you don't know something or when you're worried about something or when you think your party's policy in some area may not be as good as the press release said it was talk to us like adults and you'll become an adult right well and we want to have that give and take and conversation it certainly takes uh courage for politicians and other leaders to swim let's say Upstream against the popular opinion uh do you think it's possible that maybe even our education system perhaps has something to do with this pure pressure oh unquestionably I mean one of my things I keep saying is everybody knows government run schools are terrible so why don't we bring in the voucher system under some name or another so that the government makes sure everybody can afford an education but it doesn't actually run the schools and surely it is so much past time to bring this in because the current result is that kids aren't learning they're not happy and they're not becoming good citizens but again I want to say to politicians you might think that telling the truth will get you in trouble and there there will be a jolt I'm not saying there won't but if you make some controversial statement here's what's going to happen the media are going to say wow did you really say that and then they're going to hand you a microphone and you get to explain what you said and why you said it and if you haven't thought it through you're going to be in the soup but if you have it doesn't take as much courage as you might think I mean some sense to me what takes enormous courage is lying of saying I'm going to live my whole life in a web of Deceit and unhappiness like that I wouldn't dare do that and I'm again I'm not saying I'm a model right I'm just saying the truth will make you free and it will make you free at all kinds of levels including you will be a lot Freer from anxiety because you will no longer be living at odds with the whole way that you and the universe are meant to be yeah well just in that coners ation about Freedom it definitely makes me think of uh Me and Bobby McGee By Janice Joplin saying that uh freedom is just another word for Nothing Left to Lose uh just from from what we're chatting about here now I wanted to ask you um what do you think lies have to do with the desire to control the listener well yes obviously it you're getting into what that Martin boers thing about an IIT relationship with another human being rather than an i thow relationship and once again you're being promised short-term gain but you're looking at extreme long-term loss the idea I mean whoever gets to their end of their life is it a Tony Robbins thing about you're on your deathbed do you think yourself I wish I'd manipulated people more you know it's like I wish I'd spent more time playing video games you know I wish I'd spent more time drunk there's all these sort of things that nobody ever says on their deathbed so think about the fact that sooner or later we must all die and what do you want on your Tombstone you know he never told the truth unless he had to I don't think so I don't think and I don't think people go into politics thinking now I shall lie but the process is very corrupting and subtly so I understand it's hard but if you take the Long View and say what do you want people how would you like people to see you properly speaking those who see you as you are because the Lord sees you as you are what do you want him to see is it somebody who was so good at lying people thought they were telling the truth I wouldn't dare get to the Pearly Gates and have that be what they said like they there's going to be enough bad stuff in the book already let's not make it worse okay and unfortunately that's all the time we have today John thank you very much for joining us thank you for having me it was great to have you here and to chat about this transformation topic that was Dr John Robson he is a professor at Augustine college and a columnist with the epoch times you can check out his thought provoking articles at thej robson.com for all of us here at BIR city news I'm Michael Clon thank you for watching [Music]