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Hi everybody, welcome to the Roy Green Show Podcast. We're going to be hearing from Left Behind Alex. He was an interpreter for Canadian Forces in Afghanistan. He's now being threatened, his life is being threatened by the Taliban, and he wants badly to come to Canada.
You'll hear his story and you'll hear James Aacom. He was also an interpreter for Canadian Forces, but he has made it to Canada, and he's very, very happy and fortunate to be here. He'll tell you that. So you'll hear the story.
We need to do whatever we can to get these interpreters into this country. The United States is the US self-examining or self-destructing. I spoke with Polster John Zogvi about that. Alberta businessman Bob Mitchell has a new plan for at least the energy second in Western Canada to introduce itself to the rest of the country, and they're calling it We Are One Canada.
Also, an increase in anti-Semitic violence, I spoke with Andy Ben Lolo, human rights activist and president and CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies in Toronto. And our good friend and former Newfoundland premier Brian Pecherd took a hard look at our leaders in Ottawa. Brian Pecherd does not call his punches as you'll hear. I was thinking last night about Canada Day, and I was thinking about this country of ours.
I came here as a 13-year-old in the dead of a Canadian winter, and the first couple of years, and I talked a little bit about this over the years, but not much, but the first couple of years were difficult, as they often are for immigrant families. And then through just determination and opportunity, opportunity and determination probably in that order, you recognize the opportunity, and then you have the determination to pursue it. I've been able to create a wonderful life in Canada, and proudly became a Canadian citizen of the first opportunity, and I have, throughout my adult life, only identified myself as Canadian. My dad was British, my mother was Swiss, but I've always identified myself only as Canadian.
It's the only identity that I have. And there were so many, I know the stories repeated again and again and again and again across the country, and at this time of the year, so many Canadians are so proud. of being here and being part of this of this great nation. But on the day before Canada Day, and at a time when the federal government is increasing the numbers of immigrants and refugees entering Canada, I got to thinking about a group of individuals who I think should all be here, a few are, most aren't.
But they should all be here, and this group of individuals accompanied Canadian military into battle very recently. And we're often the first targets for insurgents fighting our Canadian soldiers. You know I'm talking about the Afghan interpreters, who unarmed, stood with our Canadian troops, helped our troops understand local customs and culture, and of course interpreted for Canadian soldiers. We've had Canadians who served in the Afghanistan conflict tell us on air that these Afghan interpreters saved Canadian lives during missions, and yet there's no effort being made by the Trudeau government.
And no commitment heard from the Conservatives, or the new Democrats, or the Greens, to open the doors of Canada wide to this relatively small number of interpreters and their families. They remain hunted by the Taliban and likely a research and ISIS presence in Afghanistan. Now the Trudeau government signed the UN Convention on Refugees, which calls on Canada to take in international refugees and protect them. Not a word about the Afghan interpreters who stood with our Canadian soldiers.
Ahmed Husan, the immigration minister, has no apparent interest in the interpreters, neither does the Prime Minister, neither have we heard Andrew Shear or Jagmeet Singh or Elizabeth May speak in support of the Afghanis who are under threat. I'll say it again, which we saved Canadian military lives. I wish I thought of this yesterday before my interview with Andrew Shear, but it just came to me last night, there's something we should do today. So back with me from Afghanistan is one of the interpreters known to us as left behind Alex, and with us as well, one of his great friends and fellow interpreter, James Akam, who was able to make his way to Canada, and James is very happily and very comfortably living his life in the province of Alberta with his family.
And when we last spoke with James, he was well on his way to becoming a Canadian citizen. James, let me ask you first of all, have you acquired the Canadian citizenship? Well, honestly, no, I'm just waiting because there's a certain amount of years, I guess, to wait for that process. Right.
So I'm just waiting to reach that target, like, I don't know, it's four years or five years or five years or five years, but you will as soon as you can, you're going to become a Canadian citizen. That I know. No, I'm here right now, like about, I guess it's four years. Again, time goes by quickly, doesn't it?
I remember when we talked to you when you were the fourth inter-auto. Let's say hello to your good friend, your great friend who's in Afghanistan, who would love to be in Canada, again, I believe should be in this country with his family. We know him as left behind Alex, Alex, Hi. Hi, my friend Rowan, hi to Jim the Caron, first of all, happy Canada day to all the listeners and all the people around me, great nation of Canada.
Let me have you guys talk to each other for a minute before I ask any questions. I appreciate it. You know, how you doing, Jim? I'm good, Alex.
I'm good. How are you? I'm a family from you. I'm doing great.
I mean, just practically with this challenging life. So as usual, you know, there's no change. I know, man. I'm about to yourself.
What you doing out there? Yeah, I'm sorry. I understand. I've been trying to contact you, but I don't know.
For some reason, you are not in those social media, like Facebook. And I think I was trying to contact you, but it doesn't work out, I guess. So I'm happy to hear your advice that you are doing also. I appreciate the Roy Grange show that gave us opportunity to talk to each other sometimes.
Well, what we'd like to do as a range for the two of you to be able to talk to each other in Canada. This is what we have to accomplish and get the political parties to understand. Alex, what's your life like in Afghanistan day to day? What do you do?
So I'm back to work and working for the Native nation and working at the Link West for the special forces. I always been generous, but I have to save money from my family and there's nothing else to do. I know I can be safe when I'm back in the camp with the coalition forces, but when I get out, when I go and leave, apparently I'm on leave, wishing I was okay, like I'm not watching normally free, or let's say like the person of people that live in the town or in the city. So I'm just telling you out here, always after being hiding, you know, always and always, there's no chance for me to live normally like other people out here.
Last time we talked, you told us about a letter that had somehow been passed along until it got to you and it was from the Taliban and they were letting you know that they were pursuing you and when they caught you, they were going to kill you and they were going to kill your family. Yeah, exactly. That's it, you don't have mercy. And you have no, you have no doubt in your mind that if they catch you, they will kill you.
Of course there's no doubt. They do and they say, you know, they don't have to take. Yeah, James, I know you only have a couple of minutes because you're at work. Anything that you want to add to our conversation so far, I'm sure you're worried about your friends' safety.
Well, yeah, of course I'm worried about Alex. Well, how do you think those guys are not joking around? As soon as they catch you, you are done. And like hopefully someone, someone understand his situation and then getting here.
So I don't know how that works. So it's something out of my hand. So I don't know, I hope one day he makes a Canada and he can be safe here. So yeah, the only thing I understand that those guys are not joking around.
Yeah. They're really safe. Once they, they're safe, they're safe. Whatever they say.
So I explained that. Well, we're glad you were here with your family, James, and you earned your passage to Canada by serving with the Canadian Forces. And you're here now. Can't forget our great friend Joe Warmington, who had such tremendous work to get you into the country and was worked extremely hard for the interpreters.
Alex, what did you do with the Canadian troops on a typical day where you went out into the countryside and you had a mission to perform? What was your job? Well, my job was not that easy. And we were going out.
We were the eyes for the advisors. And we were just talking to the local national, exchanging the language. And of course, we were talking as well with the African national army. And we had threats going on like IED threats.
We had sniper, we had incoming, we had like insurgents, ambushes. So we knew all these stuff that are going to happen. But of course, that was our job. We had to do it.
And that's what we were getting paid for. And of course, our job was very hard. You know, it was like we could die there. We could lose our leg.
We could lose our arm. So we already knew about these. But we accepted to go out there with the ISAF mission. So how is it that you're not in Canada?
You know, there was a short window of the conservative government open in 2012. How is it that you didn't get into the country? That is a ridiculous program. That was a ridiculous program actually.
Because they opened the process. They had to program for a short time. They took a couple of inguests or less than most of them. But they left a few behind.
Why are we here still? It's a good question from your side. I understand it. The question is the program was really ridiculous.
There was nobody out there who they speak about this. There's no one to steal out there except you guys. I mean, you're the only one. I know that the Charles Eglor and the rest of the guys who are the students struggling with or is there people?
Yeah, the officials, they're not involved. They're talking about this. Yes, we know. James, we have people wandering into Canada across the border at non-official border crossings.
And they're being taken care of as refugee claimants until their claim is established and settled. But Alex can't make it here. And neither can the other interpreters. And their lives are under threat.
It's all wrong and the whole thing is wrong from all different perspectives. Exactly, everything is wrong. And I lost a couple of my friends just a couple of months ago, they were killed by Taliban. One got killed by the suicide attack.
You got shot like by AK-47 right inside of his house. Right inside of his brother. So, see the situation is not okay out here. It's okay for the people who thought for the lead was to assist the I-SUS mission and the ones who were assisting the NATO mission here in Afghanistan.
Yeah. There should be a possible way for it. There should be a way out for it. You guys suited up with our soldiers every day and you went out on the missions with them every day.
And as one of our soldiers told us on the air not so long ago, the insurgents, and I mentioned this a couple of minutes ago, the insurgents would often target the interpreters first, because if they took the interpreters out, then there was no way for the Canadian troops to communicate. And they didn't know the customs of the area. It certainly made life more difficult for our soldiers if you guys were eliminated. So, on a day-to-day basis, Alex, you're concerned for your life, you're concerned for your family's life, but you're back to working with Western militaries.
Exactly. I do not expect you to have the threat. I'm still working. I know my family, they're not leaving well.
I mean, I'm not talking about financial issues. My financial issue is okay. But there are threats that my family are concerned about. There are threats that my family are concerned about myself, you know, saying, when I'm going outside the animations, they're not feeling okay.
I mean, they're saying, you should be at home. You can do this anymore. I cannot, I cannot make it right. I don't want to surrender.
I don't want to give up. I just want to work until I'm alive until I can make it all the way to Canada or any other countries. Well, you've served one. You've served Canada already.
And James sets the example of what life is like and what the contribution is, and James is making a contribution to this country, living and working in Alberta. So guys, thank you very much. James, congratulations again on being here and on the way to being a Canadian citizen. And Alex, I know that I will, and I know my friend Charles Adler will, and Joe Warmington certainly will continue to fight for the interpreters to come to Canada, to be brought to Canada, and to be properly respected for what you've done.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks for all the colleagues that are working with you. And once again, happy Canada Day to all the Canadians all over the nation.
All over the nation of Canada. Okay. And thank you, James. I just have a nice long weekend for everyone.
So happy Canada Day. Yes, sir. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much for giving us opportunity to talk to each other sometimes.
We'll keep working on it. Okay, thanks guys. There is Alex, left behind Alex, and James Beckham on the Roy Green Show with us now, and we're going to talk about our friends across the border in the United States. There are National holidays coming up in a matter of days.
After the G20 and President Donald Trump, setting foot inside North Korea, America appears to us to be a nation in turmoil, political ugliness in Washington between Republicans and Democrats, violence on the streets, Portland, Oregon last night, political cartoon of Donald Trump with a golf carton carrying a golf club standing over the image of a drowned migrant father, and baby daughter asking if he can play through. That's gotten a lot of negative response. A lot of other people are saying, first amendment rights, the cartoon has got fired. So one of the questions is, is our southern neighbour and the world's most powerful nation, of examining or self-destructing?
John Zogby is the founder of the world famous Zogby Poll. He's certain op-eds, we're major media like Wall Street Journal and New York Times. He's the author of We Are Many. We are one tribal analytics in 21st century America.
John, thank you for the time. I always look forward to our conversations. I do too, Roy, and thanks for asking and happy holidays. Well, thank you.
Yeah, Canada Day tomorrow, and you have yours coming up on the 4th of July. On the 4th of July, yeah. So how would you describe what's going on in the United States right now? We look at this picture, this, sometimes I just see a goulash of confrontation.
Are you self-examining? Are you self-destructing? Are we with some misunderstanding? What's happening in the United States?
No, I think you nailed it. Self-examining, self-destructing, and self-creating all at the same time. Every changing technology is just changing every institution, every agency to a great degree, our culture and the mindset of our age cohort, all at once. And things are crumbling before our very eyes.
Not just simply politics, but the workplace, how we conduct business, churches, hierarchy, and so on. And politics and government are just another very important symptom of this creative destruction that we're going through. The days will get better, but we're really in the middle of it right now. So how do you see what's going on in politics?
I sometimes feel that if government is misbehaving, it gives license to everybody else to misbehave. So you have the Democrats and the Republicans daily at each other's throats, daily. And now we have the election campaigns underway. My God, I mean, it's way too long, John.
But so... You think so? Oh, yeah. Donald Trump announces that he's running again, so that gets a lot of attention.
Then the Democrats, they have so many candidates for to represent the Democratic Party in 2020, the presidential vote. They have to hold the debates on two nights. So we've got 20 people, 19 are eventually going to disappear. How do you see what's going on in your government?
Now, let's start first of all with Donald Trump. He wrote a wave. You know, it wrote a couple of waves. Actually, there's a deep-seated anger.
There was no surprise. We've been talking about that anger since the early 90s. The angry white male and plus some. And he encapsulated that feeling and wrote it to victory with an anti-establishment campaign.
And he was fortunate enough to run against perhaps the most establishment candidate that the Democrats could have put up. But the same token, the other piece of it was that this is the merger of entertainment and politics. And he embodied that. You know, he's a personality unto himself, a reality show star.
Someone who, more than anything else, more than building buildings and applying his brand name to anything and everything, he's a creature of the media. And so all of that came together. And obviously with no preparation whatsoever to lead a nation or to be engaged in politics or to and are incentive to act the way that leaders normally act, both here in this country and on the world stage. I mean, the list of groups that he has deeply insulted, the list of world figures that he's deeply insulted are just legion by now.
But he gets away with it because he has a solid base, not a majority base, but a solid base that keeps him in office. Is there a sense in the United States that even though Donald Trump is, let's use the word unusual, that he's still accomplished some remarkable things? At the same time, he's upset a huge number of people. And now there's this, there's this busload of Democrats who feel that they should be the ones to defeat Donald Trump in the, in the election in 2020.
I was talking to an American friend on the phone yesterday on Friday and a friend of mine said, none of them is going to have a chance of beating Donald Trump. He said, I'll watch them. I listen to them. They're going to play right into his hands.
He will take them apart, just like he took the Republicans apart in the primaries. What do you think? There's a strong element of truth to that. If the election were held today, Donald Trump would lose.
But the election is not today. And there's plenty of times for the Democrats to self-destruct. I think you saw the first step just the other evening, you know, when, you know, lesser known, but very strong U.S. Senator from California, Kamala Harris, who is up high on the list of frontrunners, really went after former Vice President Biden.
Oh, almost withered him, I guess you can say. And while she certainly was able to display prosecutorial talents and ability to rally a base, she kind of in effect began the process for opening the door to all of these candidates, just firing the way at each other while Donald Trump sits on the sidelines and smiles. And he won't just smile, he'll take advantage of that. So we can't rule Donald Trump out because we can't rule the Democrats in.
Yeah. John, when you, let me ask you for a thought about Trump and his step into the North Korean into the DPRK. How did you see that? Well, it's a huge media event.
And that doesn't necessarily make it a negative. Obviously, you know, most people would prefer talking to the enemy rather than pointing a gun or having a gun pointed back at the enemy. These are two nuclear powers. The fact that however is that, you know, this is a very strange and thoroughly disgusting dynasty, the Kims, the stories abound.
Yes. And this has been the Hermit Kingdom, you know, for many years. We know very, very little about what goes inside North Korea. I guess that makes it even more stunning that he would do that.
But he would do that because, you know, making it into the lines in the history book, you know, kind of like the plaque and what goes under your name, that includes accomplishments, but it also includes stunning kinds of events. And this is a stunning one. It is. And it's open to all sorts of interpretation.
Now, I was just thinking of young Mr. Womburger, who was tortured and sent back to the United States in such a terrible state of physical disparity we died in short order. He seems to have been forgotten. And that is something that I just, actually I was thinking about that when I watched the President of the United States crossover into North Korea.
Time always gets away from us. Let me ask you about what's going on at the United States-Mexico border. There are so many accusations. There's talk about the detention centers for migrants being concentration camps.
I'm going to be speaking to a leader in the Jewish community about that later in the program today. John, how do you see what's happening at the US-Mexico border? How do you interpret what's going on? We cannot express enough outrage as to what is going on.
Look, it's not only contrary to American ideals, it's inhuman, it's what it is. Migration is a story of humankind. People seeking to enter our shores not only for freedom but a chance to live. It's clear if you can get.
And look, the man at the top gets the blame for it, just like he gets the credit for the economy. He gets the blame for this. And the fact that not only is he not seeking a humane solution, he is making things worse. That's why I'm not a big fan of going over the top like with cartoons or with rhetoric.
But this cartoonist, I think, encapsulated what a lot of Americans and a lot of citizens the world feel, frankly. How do you fit that into this larger picture? The fact that Bill Clinton and then Barack Obama both spoke very emphatically about not allowing people across the border in an undocumented manner in large numbers. Is it the way it's being handled?
How do you put all these component parts together and come up with something that's cohesive? It's a very good question. There are no heroes in this story. And the politics of illegal immigration has been such that these folks are pariahs.
But there's been such an intense focus on refugees, whether they're established refugees or self-identified refugees, that the media attention is on it. Now, to the best of my knowledge, I know that Bill Clinton spoke strongly about illegal immigration. I know that Barack Obama deported actually a few million illegal immigrants. But the best of my knowledge, I do think that they had some kind of criminal record.
But this is being handled as a political football. And the United States is under President Trump is actually making a racist case against them. And it's actually talking to the women and children of Guatemala. Go back where you came from and they can't go back where they came from.
It's an awful situation. It really is. There are so many that we have far more questions now than we have answers. And I start to wonder in the few seconds we have left, John, whether we have the right people in leadership in either of our countries and whether the potential successors would be necessarily better than who's...
Well, I shouldn't finish that sentence because I'm just such an opponent of Justin Trudeau. But there is a question about do we have leadership and is there a succession for leadership that will do a better job? It's hard to be a leader when you're standing on tectonic plate. But I think one thing that is revealed here is that we've got a very far right wing government here in the United States.
You've got a pretty left wing government in Canada. This is a time when ideology is more and more irrelevant. Well said. And leadership is important.
And my friend, I have to run. But it's always an honor to speak with you. Thank you, John. Thank you for the time.
Always good, Roy. Talk again. And happy for it for July. You can first of July.
Thank you. Okay, John Zogby from the Zogby poll. And to spoke as we are many, we are one. Visit BetMDM Casino and check out the newest exclusive, The Price is Right Fortune Pick.
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I was particularly glad that I'd heard from Bob Mitchell, who is an entrepreneur in the All-Sans. His company is Unity Rig. And Bob was on the air with us three weeks ago, two weeks ago. He read an open letter to Canadians about what life is like for the business community and for people working in the All-Sans.
And it's not good. It really is not good. It's bad. They're in crisis state.
And there was so much response to that that I heard from Bob again. And I'm going to put him back on the air because I asked him to come on the show today to speak to what he shared with me the day before yesterday, trying to keep all this timeline straight. First of all, Bob, thank you very much for coming back. Thanks for your initial visit.
And you know that you're open letter to Canadians, which I'm going to repost the link to after we talk. I'm going to put a letter to Canadians, generate a ton of feedback, not only on social media, but certainly on my email. So did that surprise you? And did the tone of what you heard surprise you?
And I'm correct, right? When I said, what in the open letter you pointed out that it's crisis time in the All-Patch? It absolutely is crisis time. You know, and Roy, I wanted to sincerely thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak to Canadians on your show.
I know from talking with so many people here that there's kind of a general feeling of nobody cares about what's going on in our communities. But you know, the amazing thing, as I was reading all the concerned and sympathetic Twitter posts after the segment, I realized that there are people who really do care at least. And it occurred to a few of us here that still believe in the fairness of our fellow Canadians, that if we put an actual face on the pain of the families and their communities, maybe, just maybe more people would hear us. Well, so what you've told me you want to do, and I'm going to ask you to explain it to us in just a second.
But what you want to do is, and use the word communities, you want the rest of the country to understand and feel what's going on in the small towns and in the population centers, not big population centers, but population centers that have built up around the energy sector in this country, which drove so much of our economy and brought so much success to our national economy for such a long period of time, right? You know, right, over the last 40 years that I've been in this business, I have watched most of these sleepy little farming communities grow and develop as the energy industry brought people and investment into these small towns. You know, when they built motels and restaurants and other new buildings, and with that, the towns paved gravel roads, they built arenas and provided other vital infrastructure required for a thriving prosperous community. You know, branch offices moved in, repair welding and machine shops were opened and added more fuel for more stores and services.
But you know, unfortunately, over the last couple of years, investment has completely stopped completely. Businesses have closed, people have moved, and it's getting harder and harder for these municipalities to be able to provide even the basic services. You know? Yeah, continue.
Tell us what you've come up with and what the plan is going forward, what you'd like the rest of the country to be aware of and participate in. Well, you know, there is, we started a, well, basically what happened is after the show and after we realized that there was some people who were listening to us, we decided to, a few of us got together and we decided to create a grassroots appeal platform that was completely community funded with a common belief of no politics, no politicians, no companies, and we managed to raise a small amount of money in order to start a Facebook page called We Are One Canada, and we are working on a website that will feature a scrapbook of stories and activities, community by community. There will also be a place where families can list their name, town, and post a photo of their family under the heading of Has the Energy Downturn Hurt Your Family. We are also planning to hire a journalist to travel, photograph, and interview people in their communities to create this scrapbook telling the story.
We are hoping that by putting a real face on a real person, all Canadians can understand how important this is. You know, Roy, once this appeal filters out in its entirety to our fellow Canadians, if the response that comes back is, you know, we don't care. I don't think I need to tell anyone what will happen next year. You know, I mean, when you look at, there are a lot of people that have lost absolutely everything over the last few years and are really pretty angry.
And there are a lot of people that truthfully are just ready to give up. But honestly, almost everybody in these communities feels the same as far as being betrayed by fellow Canadians. We know that everywhere else in Canada, people are still driving their cars, eating their homes, taking trips on airplanes and cruise liners. Same as always.
Roy, we have more than a million Canadians here that cannot understand why it is only our families and our communities to have to bear the cost of public opinion that turns against the energy sector. I mean, we don't get it. Do you think it's Canadians that have turned against the energy sector or do you think it's government and an agenda that's turned against the energy sector? Is it a combination of...
Like, I'm just asking what you feel. What's the feeling among Albertans in the oil industry? I can probably extend this to Saskatchewan and maybe even alone. We're all involved.
What's your sense? Is it the people? Is it the government? Who's behind it?
Well, who's behind it obviously is our federal government. There's no question about it. But the thing is, we the people are the government. If we don't agree with what's happening out there, it's we the people that have to change it.
Okay, so people, if the rest of us Canadians don't believe in what's going on, it's we the people that have to change it. So that we are one Canada initiative, it's going to be about the small towns in the oil sands area. No, it's a note. There's a lot more area right than the oil sands.
Okay, so small towns where most of the people are employed is in all of these small communities that operate in the oil and gas production. So in the energy sector, right? The small towns are the images. Okay, so they're all hurting and they're losing population, they're losing business.
And they're looking around to say how come nobody's got our back. Right, exactly. You got it, exactly what it is. So you're going to, with this, we are one Canada initiative.
You're going to tell the story on social media and elsewhere here. And I imagine I'm starting to put our affiliate stations in Alberta in touch with you and make them aware. You're going to tell the story to the rest of the country. And then what comes back from the rest of the country is going to tell the tale about what the reaction is going to be and what the responses are going to be.
And is it going to be, okay, you don't care about us? So we're checking out. You know, that's kind of the feeling that people are definitely starting to spread. I mean, starting to, right now we can stop it right now with some help.
You know what I mean? This is an appeal campaign, Roy. If we want to stop that feeling, we collectively as all Canadians, we can stop it. We can stop it overnight by getting some help.
I mean, people here want to work. We just want to go back to work. That's it. Hey, Bob, I get it.
If you lose everything, you're not just going to sit there and say, well, just take everything. Just take my underwear, too. You know, it's going to be okay. So you're going to drop.
I'll take my home. Take my car. Take my tools. Now what?
It's crisis time, right? It's crisis time. You know, our natural gas sector is an absolute crisis. This sector is months, not years before complete collapse.
We need at the very least a big honking gas pipeline going east just as fast as we can dig a whole and bury pipe. And with a promise to do that, we can probably bring a few dollars back into the industry and revitalize at least one sector for now, you know? So you want to hear from Joe and Jane, Mrs. Canada, Mrs.
Canada, everybody. I'm going to get in trouble now for saying, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Hill.
It's Mr. and Mrs. out here. I mean, it's all about part.
I mean, you want to hear from Canadians? Right. What their response is to the message. To the plea.
To the plea. And you're going to tell the stories of individuals and you're going to tell the stories of towns, small towns. And it's going to be inescapable. And then the response is going to come from the rest of Canada.
I'm studying. I worry though, Bob, that no matter how much support you might get from the average Canadian in other provinces, you still have to get the governments to let you work again. You know what? You're not going to worry.
I mean, if the feeling of Canadians is that we're going to be hurt more without a change of government, well, that's up to, I mean, we are non-political as a group. We're not about politics at all, Roy. Like it said, I mean, this is up to Canadians. They have the right to vote.
And they need to vote with their hearts, you know, and if they vote with their hearts and they look at, I mean, we've got millions of people out here, right? Millions of people. You know, we need to feel people in the East need to communicate with us. I have to tell you, Bob, I think that the majority of people in this country are quite empathetic.
Feel for you. Don't quite know what to do for you. But they're definitely understanding and you are our fellow Canadians. But here's what I want to do.
You've alerted us to the fundamentals now. The program's going to get underway. We are one Canada. We are one Canada.
We are one Canada. Let's pull together. Okay. But if it doesn't all, it doesn't come back, then there might be another development.
So it might be a separation, more of a separation development. It might be more of an national unity question issue. I don't know what the reaction is going to be. But Bob, I thank you for coming back on.
I'm going to repost your open letter a couple of weeks ago on Twitter shortly. And I'm going to open up our phone lines now. And the question that I'm going to be asking, and it can fit in that we are one Canada initiative. Because the question I'm asking is, what is Canada's future?
Bob Mitchell, thank you very much. I really appreciate this. I really appreciate your help this phenomenon. You're a contributor.
You're a business man. You're an entrepreneur. You put your own money and your heart and your soul into your company and into your country. And you deserve some answers.
Bob, thank you. Thank you. Take care. Bob Mitchell.
And he's an entrepreneur in the oil patch. And his company is Yolidirig.com. So we are one Canada. He's the initiative from Mr.
Mitchell and his associates friends. Other small business owners. I read a statistic about two months ago that I really, really, really disturbed me. And it didn't have anything to do with any political organization or polling organization.
This was the New York Police Department, the NYPD. And the NYPD indicated that there had been an 82% increase in violence against Jews in New York City in the first month of 2019 versus the same time period last year. 82% increase in violence against Jews in New York City in the first month of 2019 versus 2018. A lot of things that I want to talk to our next guest about, and I'm glad he's with us.
Abi Benolo is a human rights activist. He's president and CEO of the Friends of Simon, Eastern Paul Center for Holocaust Studies in Toronto. Mr. Benolo, thank you for the time.
Thank you for having me and happy Canada Day weekend. Happy Canada Day weekend. That is a very alarming statistic from the New York Police Department. It is alarming.
Unfortunately, it's becoming quite common. It's not just the New York Police Department. It's also in most Canadian cities. We find very, very similar stats.
And if you would believe the Berlin Police Force has recently revealed very similar status statistics. So this is quite widespread and obviously very disconcerting. I saw that story coming from Germany. And given that they have federal laws in Germany, which do not allow Holocaust denial, when you're talking about a statistically significant increase in anti-Semitic activity in Germany, that is of a huge concern everywhere.
But you particularly pay attention to Germany because of its most recent history. That's right. And that's what's shocking about it all, that we're nearing 75 years since the conclusion of the Holocaust. And we're seeing the resurgence of Nazi white supremacist ideology emanating from Germany of all places.
And despite the hate crime laws that you've mentioned. And the election, in fact, of a stronger right-wing political element within Germany, that's also very concerning. And obviously, it shouldn't just be concerning to the Jewish community at large, but to the world at large, that we're seeing the rising tide of this kind of hatred and intolerance. What I also find disturbing is how gratuitously Nazi terminology is tossed around these days.
And it's almost as though there's an absence of understanding of history, recent history. It's almost as though there's an absence of understanding of the massive genocidal realities of our recent history. And then I hear politicians like Congresswoman in New York at AOC on Twitter, like in detention centers on the US-Mexico border for migrants attempting to enter the United States, to Nazi concentration camps where Europe's Jews were heard of mass extinction. I say to myself, is the English language so restricted that you can't think of any other terminology?
I mean, when you see that, Mr. Menel, how do you react? Well, there's a whole... What you've just said, you know, is to be impacted in a very lengthy response.
Firstly, there's a rising tide of ignorance about the Holocaust. We're finding that education is more necessary than ever an understanding. You know, the Holocaust, the genocide itself, when it was, where it was, who did it, why they did it, all of those questions need to be entered into the education system far and wide. We're finding more millennials, more young people who are just not knowledgeable.
Some people don't even know what the swastika means. We find in our educational workshops that we do at our center. And so we need to go in and we go, we educate about 1,000 students a week and we're happy to do it, but more is necessary to bring light. And it's not just a matter of the Holocaust, it's either the Jewish community.
This is where the world events that allied countries were involved with. Canada lost 40,000 soldiers, over a million soldiers, people were involved in that war, Canadians were involved in that war. And so it's part of our own historical fabric that we should be very much aware of and should be part of our educational system. And it's not.
And so it was not sufficiently. And so we need to think about how people are understanding that and not forgetting because history can repeat if we're ignorant of it. And the issue of comparison by AOC of concentration camps to the immigration issue, the immigration issue in the US is horrific and there's no question about it. But there is absolutely no comparison.
And it's outrageous that the detention centers down in the border with US Mexico would be compared to Nazi concentration camps. There's just no comparison. There's no equivalency to what took place. And I've walked the grounds.
I do so every and actually in a week. I'll be at Auschwitz with another Canadian delegation comprised of police chiefs and educators and politicians to show them what actually took place. And Auschwitz alone, over 1.1 million Jews were murdered. And they were sent to gas chambers.
And so to compare that to what is taking place, actually almost anywhere on earth, anywhere on earth, is outrageous. And so it diminishes the Holocaust. It's in a way really watering down what happened. And we are in dangerous territory when that starts to happen.
Let me ask you this. How dangerous is the territory when we have, as a legible found out, 53% of Quebecers saying they had no instructions on the Holocaust. Nobody, no talk about Holocaust while they were in school. And for the rest of the country, it's 35% of the population.
Right. Yeah, it's very dangerous. And that's why what we're seeing is an extreme amount of intolerance coming out of Quebec. And I hate to say that.
But we did a poll our own poll last summer, exactly at this time. And we found that approximately 27% of Quebecers hold anti-Semitic views. And that will probably be the same against any other minority within Quebec. So what you're seeing is a society that is highly intolerant.
And we believe that through further Holocaust education, genocide education, or education, look, education about Rwanda are four other historical events that were promoted through intolerance and racism and discrimination. We can educate societies and communities to be much more respectful of one another. We just saw the recent bill that was passed in Quebec, you know, against minorities and so forth. And that has caused a lot of consternation.
And some people are obviously saying this is against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in this country. And so as Canadians, we should be promoting more education around racism and tolerance discrimination. And the Holocaust is part of that discussion because it will foster greater compassion, better citizenship for all Canadians. The youngsters will have that in mind, will understand what we as Canadians went through, and the dangers of promoting intolerance in this country.
If you look at the tolerance timeline of this, of our nation, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Italian community, the First Nations communities, obviously. So many communities have suffered through discrimination. It's important for us to remember those struggles, to celebrate where we've come as a country, where tomorrow we're celebrating Canada Day, because we are in an unbelievable country. This is the best country on Earth, but also to think about how we can enhance that into the future.
Well, the numbers are disturbing, the actions are alarming, and the situation seems to be getting more challenging, more difficult, worse is the better word. Mr. Ben Lolo, thank you very much for the time. It's good talking to you.
All the very best. Well, thank you for having me on your show. Bye-bye. Abby Ben Lolo is the President and CEO of the Friends of Simon Viesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies in Toronto.
I always look forward to the segments that we air with the former Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. We remember Brian Packford, and you can find his really extremely interesting and entertaining emphasis on interesting blogs at peckford42.wordpress.com. peckford42.wordpress.com. Mr.
Premier, I have a lot of questions for you. Thank you very much. I am willing and able. I have a lot of questions for you.
Well, listening to your program was last few weeks. I end up with a lot of questions too, I got to say. Life has become a question, hasn't it? Has it ever?
Here's a question that I asked. I want you to think about this and I'll ask you for an answer toward the end. What I asked in the last hour was after we spoke with Bob Mitchell in Alberta, business owner in the oil patch, who expressed the frustrations and the fears and the crisis mentality that exists there because of the collapsing economy. I asked what's the future of Canada?
And it turns out it's a difficult question to answer. So I'll ask you to think about that, Premier. But let's start with a couple of things. You just heard the clip from Mr.
Trudeau sounding like he had a substantive meeting with the leader of China. What do you make of the Prime Minister's performance at the G20? Well, unfortunately, I don't think too much of it. And listening to the clip that you just played, he had discussions.
I mean, what the Prime Minister should be able to say to Canadians is, I said to the head of China, you are operating in a way which is injurious to Canada for no good reason. And we want our hostages back and we want you to start conducting trade in an honest and fair way. And to say to Canadians that somehow we're going to be appeased by telling us he had discussions when it looked like he had hello and goodbye kind of thing, exaggerate what he actually did. Let me play that clip for you again.
Here's the Prime Minister of Canada. I think it was important that I have an opportunity to have face-to-face discussions with the President Xi on this issue. We take the situation between Canadians detained in China extremely seriously. What does that mean?
We take the situation of Canadians detained in China. Very serious. What kind of babble-gouble is that? Well, I thought that was over, that he took it serious.
I thought the whole idea was to do something about it. And having discussions with the head of China, you know, a lot of people were doing the same thing. And I think that's the case with a lot of people. That is what he talks or anything like that seems to me to exaggerate what he actually accomplished there, which was zero.
So, okay, so we'll come back to Mr Trudeau in a minute, like I said, a lot of questions for you. The President of the United States crossed into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea into that abysmal regime's territory. But at the same time, I have a feeling that Trump accomplished something, or may have accomplished something. What do you think, how would you assess what's what's the question?
I take the view that, yeah, I would say, and I put it on my blog this morning, that, you know, if in fact, by having a personal relationship I give them, it's with a leader who's operating a very cruel regime, but so was China, so was Iran, so were many other countries where we're doing business. So let's not suddenly get very pure about this when we know we're dealing with a lot of other countries where they're doing a lot of awful things too. So if in fact this personal relationship can mean that they get back to the table and there's no missiles being fired out into the China Sea or over Japan, well then I guess something has been accomplished as much as the majority of people in Canada and the United States want to tell Mr. Trump where to go and go fast.
But I take the opposite sort of view or at least a different view and say that this is better than nothing and you know what Clinton did, I mean we gave the Americans, gave North Korea a lot of money and they were going to negotiate and they got nothing out of the tall. So if by talking we can at least sit down at the table and we didn't lose any money by so doing then that is something I suppose. Yeah I see an upside possibility here and with North Korea in play any upside is worth pursuing. You wrote an open letter to the current premier of Newfoundland and you included a commentary or two about a certain federal minister who pales from Newfoundland, could you share your thoughts?
Well what has happened is as all of Canada knows that the Canadian government has passed two very very bad pieces of legislation, Bill 69 and Bill 48. Bill 69 deals with a new way of dealing with resource developments in this country. But in so doing and the provisions that is in Bill 69 it essentially shuts down a lot of additional resource development or makes it very very difficult to get anything going. But in addition to that most Canadians wouldn't know because there is only a small number of the Newfoundland is that Bill 69 also has provisions in it that break provisions of the Atlantic Accord which was in the court signed by the government of Canada and the government of Newfoundland and put into legislation in 1985-86.
So I wrote the premier, the present premier of Newfoundland saying you must take the federal government of the court because they are violating a federal provincial agreement already in place that was signed in 1985 as related to the principle of joint management of the offshore oil and gas resources. So and that very upsetting and of course the minister for Newfoundland, so Regan has done nothing to support the province of Newfoundland or to support Newfoundlanders in pointing out and taking on this issue with his friend the Prime Minister. He has stood behind the Prime Minister in taking away from Newfoundland rights that we gained through the Accord. So he is no friend of Newfoundland, he might be a Newfoundlander and he might be in the Cabinet of Canada representing Newfoundland but he has done nothing to demonstrate that he is behind his problems which he should be legitimately as a Minister of Newfoundland.
I mean I'd never be critical of you you know that but I think you could have stopped when you were talking about Minister Regan when you said he's done nothing. I didn't think you needed to go beyond that. It's okay so I was trying a little human and it felt fine. I have to focus on one of your blog pieces and I'm not sure how am I going to do that without blowing it.
You commented on a photograph of Trump, Trudeau and G on the CBC website and beside it the word Titan. I can't even say it. Titans. I couldn't help myself.
I mean when I opened the CBC news on my computer on my iPad and saw this word Titan and there we had the head of China and the head of America and then it jumped from Trudeau. I mean you know of course I go out of my blog to talk about the word pygmy as an unimportant person to more adequately describe our Prime Minister. I mean it boggles the mind and of course it's great to cycle up. What journalism is doing these days is putting together these kinds of things to subtly right across a message.
So anybody just innocently reading that would come away with you know putting out your chest that somehow our Prime Minister was putting the same league as the President of the United States and the head of the government of China and you know I accuse the CBC of a lot and right here here's a really good example of a very much like a linguistically cute way of supporting the Prime Minister when he doesn't deserve it. Or they don't know the word meaning the word Titans. Well that's helping them out significantly. We all know they know that.
Let me just get to this question that I've been asking and it was based on a number of issues and it just sort of fell into my lap last night while I was thinking about this country and Canada the day tomorrow. Watch the future of Canada. Primer how do you see the future of this country? I would take it down two levels.
First I would take it as you ask the question and that is on a strictly practical Canadian level whereby I think the future is very very questionable at least a successful future for our country because you can't have a law for BC where you're not allowed to have oil tankers on the one hand and then don't have a law in Newfoundland where hundreds and hundreds of tankers are going up the Central Bay every week and every year taking oil to market, to taking oil to come by chance for finally taking oil from Hibernia bringing it into the Central Bay and then trans shipping it around the world. You can't have two sets of laws governing the same industry. You either have a country or you don't. Then Bill 69 which tends to discriminate against Alberta and Saskatchewan in particular that will not sustain our country.
So to me on a very practical level our country is in trouble in the sense that our functioning federation will diminish over time and we will be a very weakened fractured place, call it nation, call it country, whatever. How it manifests itself 10 years from now I don't know but it will mean that we will not be cohesive and we will not be performing at a level at which we should. Second level is more philosophical and global. Canada is becoming more and more urbanized.
Cities are starting to dictate national policy leaving the countryside in ruins and that's what's starting to happen and will happen more and more over time and therefore the collars to your program that you had today from Alberta and other places which are concerned about rural parts of the nation will only exacerbate over time. This is also made worse by a globalist agenda that most national governments are following. That's my opening statement. I have to, I have nothing to add.
That's perfect. I mean it really speaks to everything that we're dealing with. Let me read you this email that I received from Sean. Politicians, he's looking at the political side of things, political arena.
Politicians look to please everyone except Canadians. There's no politician who will stand up and have a backbone. Andrew Sheer doesn't know what he wants. Trudeau is a disaster.
Singh even his own party doesn't like him. I thought Ford might be different but he's turned out to be a joke. There's no one to guide this country. We're losing what made us great and you want to talk dirty oil?
No dirty oil? That from Saudi Arabia. Sean. Wonderful, wonderful.
I applaud his pros and I applaud his intervention into the discussion. That's dead on. There's a leadership vacuum in this country. We just want to sort of cater to sort of the lowest common denominator.
Some group however small raises up and makes a point. We somehow have to respond to it whether it represents the Canadian majority or not. We seem like we have to appease all over the place. There's no coming together as a nation.
We're getting fractured more and more every day. Thank you so much for the time. As always, there were more issues we wanted to get up and we got quite a few. We've done a real good job today.
Roy. Well, you did. Thank you, Premier Pekford. Thank you and happy Canada Day, never go away.
Happy Canada Day. Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If you want to hear more, subscribe to the Roy Green Show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find your favorites. And if you like what you hear, leave us a review and tell a friend.
I'm Roy Green. Have a great weekend. Hopefully on Netflix, The Hawk. From the mind of Will Ferrell.
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