Shaun Newman Podcast - #1138 - Byron Christopher

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

Byron Christopher is a veteran Canadian journalist and author based in Edmonton, Alberta, with more than five decades in radio and print. He spent 14 years at CBC Radio in Edmonton and more than a decade at 630 CHED, winning national awards for investigative and crime reporting and securing exclusive interviews with figures such as David Milgaard, Colin Thatcher, and Wiebo Ludwig. His work on Talisman Energy’s operations in Sudan reached international outlets and helped force the company to suspend activity there. He later published The Man Who Mailed Himself Out of Jail and the 2025 memoir A Dog in the Forest and Other Discoveries, and now practices independent “no news release” journalism.Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Nor’East Apothecary - USE promo code SNP for 15% off your orderhttps://thepowerofplants.ca/Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

This is Brett Weinstein. This is Tom Lomago. This is Bruce Party. This is Alex Krenner. Hey, this is Brad Wall. This is Dr. Pierre-Core. Hi, this is Frank Peretti. This is Danielle Smith.

This is James Lindsay. This is Vance Crow and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Thursday. How's everybody doing today? I made it back to Halifax. And so thank you for all the prayers, well wishes. Text, phone calls, everything.

appreciate all of you fine folks thinking of me as I race back across country, but I am back in Halifax, baby, all right? That means the show continues, not that it ever stopped, but certainly back now around Mal and the Kids, which means we're here around Halifax for a couple of days, and then we push off again. So thanks again for, well, like I say, thinking of me while I was, well, going from Calgary to Halifax, you know,

and thank a trucker whenever you see one, because, Matt, live. That is a long distance. And you think how this country operates, no wonder when they pissed those folks off why the country came to a grinding home. You can just see it when you go coast to coast. Now, before we get to today's episode, let's talk a little precious metals, shall we?

Whether you're in, I don't know, Halifax or Calgary, or anywhere in between or anyone a little further out, if you're looking for precious metals, I turn you towards Silver Gold Bull. They got their start out of Alberta, but now they're North America wide. And when it comes to questions around precious metals, buying, selling, storing, you just turn to Graham down on the show notes. You can text or email them.

It loves hearing from you. You also just go to the website, Silver Gold Bull here in Canada, silvergoble.com. Sign up for an account. They'll ship right to your doorstep. Back in my hometown, Guardian, plumbing, and heating. These guys have been keeping homes, farms, and businesses running smoothly since 2010. and whether it's expert service, cutting-inch power solutions or advice you can trust,

guarding plumbing, and heating has their back. They're also the guys who do the Guardian Blue Color Roundtable. And, you know, now that I've got four mics, I'm going to have to think about that as I go down the East Coast. And who knows, maybe I can find a blue-collar man along the way. Regardless, I've had some fun with the blue-collar solos across Canada and look forward to some more of those coming up as we go. Guardian plumbing, though, back in Lloydminster. If you're looking for anyone, these guys can help you out.

Guardian Plumbing.C.8. They helped with the new studio, and they did very, very, very good work. Ignite Distribution. Their high service supply company based in Wainwright, Alberta, where we got to start on the trip. Specialize in automotive parts and a wide range of additional products, including safety equipment, welding supplies, fasteners, and janitorial items. They operated as a Napa Auto Parts retailer. On this trip, I've had to stop at many a Napa Auto Parts.

So if you're in the area, you're not going to find anyone better than Shane Stafford and his team. Give him a call 780842-3433. Okay, if you are not upset, I was going to say upset. That's a right to word. If you're tired of mass produced wellness that doesn't deliver, then I point you to to Laura Braden and the Nor East Apothecary, where they craft small batch tinctures, teas, saves, shampoos, conditioners, at a PEI. It's clean health and wellness for your entire family.

You can go to the Power ofplants.c.a and use the code SNP for 15% off, okay? And then finally, October 19th, we all know that's coming. Fast, that is going to be the Alberta referendum. And Tuesday and I, the mashup, are going to be live streaming that day. So make sure to mark it in your calendar if you can't, you know, if you're working or whatever and you want to tune into something. Me and twos, we're going to be live for the day. So more details on that to come, but pay attention for that.

We're looking forward to putting together another production of the Mashup Live and hope you will tune in for it. Now, if you're listening and watching Apple, YouTube, YouTube, Spotify, Rumble, X, Facebook, substack, all the things. Make sure to subscribe. Make sure to leave a comment, review, and make sure to share with a friend. If it sounds like my brain's a little scattered, it's probably because I just drove across country. So one short story, which I think I probably already talked to about yesterday. I can't remember anymore.

But driving back across, Byron Christopher had been texting me. And if you are new to the show, you really should go back and go to episode 150. Byron's been on once since then as well. But Byron's an old school journalist. And he is texting me. And I'm like, where are you going to be? And then everything breaks down. And I'm like, well, how about I meet you in, you know, like Quebec, right, driving?

I'm like, by the time I get here, here, here, well, I went further than I thought I would. So I met Byron in his hometown in New Brunswick. And we sat. And I really respect Byron. He spoke at a SMP Presents Legacy Media. This is back in early 2023 with Chris Sims, Kidd Carson, and Wayne Peters. And he is just an interesting, interesting dude, okay? So, I don't know.

As fate would have it, I get to meet Byron on the second trip through Canada in his hometown in New Brunswick. So buckle up, folks, because this is going to be, yeah, you know, it's another interview where we're doing it at a dinner table and a restaurant. I kind of just put a mic on Byron and let them go. So enjoy, I guess, let's get onto that tail of the tape. Today's guests are veteran Canadian journalist and author. more than five decades in radio and print. I'm talking about Byron Christopher, so buckle up, here we go. I sometimes wonder, and occasionally I have a dream that I'm back in the newsroom again.

Oh yeah? And I have a minute before we go to air, and I'm still got to write your story, but I'm not sure how to operate the equipment. And it's a panic situation, you know, I'll wake up, oh my God, makes me think, what would I, how would I behave in a newsroom today? Would I be competent, would be able to chase stories, what I have confidence, but I have contacts and yeah you always wonder yesterday when I was for the other day when I was gassing up here how do you on the contacts how do you know who you can trust how

did you how did you build that trusted network that you know if you're digging into something you could be like all right I'm gonna call John from the cops or or this lawyer or that judge or this guy who like how did you drilling to somebody who's telling you something and know they're telling you the truth. You never know. But the key is, you have to build the trust. Look them in the eye. And once they see that and you interact with them, they'll know that you're real. And the janitor to exploit them. First of all, keep your word. I'll see, I'll meet you at 1 o'clock. I always arrive a bit before 1.

So when I told you 120 and I showed up at 1.35, you're like that. Yeah, I was ready to go. Yeah. To hell with you. No, so you keep your word, and if you're real and sincere, it shows. And the other person is at ease. I just met with a man in Ontario who had been shot, nearly killed, 45 years ago in De Brunswick.

He was a police officer, shot on duty. And I tracked him down, and we talked, and he's at times reluctant to tell his story. He's traumatized by it, so I sat down with him, and I said, He sat down with him and I said, Clarence, I'm not recording anything nor am I making any notes. I'm just here so you see me. And he says, you see me too? And I said, yeah, you come across. He's pretty sincere.

He said, you do too. So right away, it's good start. And two hours later, we're still talking. And he invites me out to a pub and he pays for it. And toward the end of the meal, he calls over the way. and says, would you take a picture of me and my friend? Okay, so we stand there, she takes his camera, takes some pictures. A few days ago, I checked my texts, and there's a photograph of us on a t-shirt.

He's made it on a t-shirt. And that's trust that he would, you know, right there, just his behavior. He said, I can count on one hand of fingers how many people have really shown an interest in my case. He said, I read about you years ago. I said, what was this a story about? And he said, two girls getting killed on a mountain in Kempelgham. I said, you read that? He said, yes.

He said, I read that, and I thought, I got to meet that reporter. Because the story lifted off the page. I said, yeah, it's real. So I think the key is you don't know whether you can trust them or not. But the way I approach it is I want to make sure you can trust me. So it has to do with keeping your word, being sincere, don't rip them off, try not to be a sensationalist. simply I'm after information. I'm not trying to be the hero or make myself look good.

No, it's not that. It's about information, whatever you tell me. And that works. It'll work until them a hundred years old. Well, it feels like then I got one thing right. Yeah. Even yesterday or the other day, I was, went to a gas station to fill up my car. I'm walking and there are two guys outside. One of them stepped in front of me and said, are you Byron Christopher? And I said, yes, I am. I didn't know him, about my age. He said, I've read your stuff for years and he told me the stories that he had read, which is true about it. He said, I've always wanted to meet you. He shook hands, not once, twice, but three times. And then he says, I don't know if you've heard this, but the mayor is dead. I said,

I haven't heard it. He had some inside information about something known. The public didn't know. So I called, I wrote to a former mayor. I said, is the current mayor dead? She said, no. And then she double checked. She said, I checked with my office, he's not dead. I said, oh my source tells me he is. And I checked with another alderman. He said, he's dead. Heart attack. Second alderman, dead heart attack. And immediately called the local reporter left a message and saying, just so you know, Byron and back in town, your mayor has died, heart attack. He may have known that? I don't know. He may not have, but now he knows who can get stories. People still call, text, email you then, with leads. Oh, all the time.

Yeah, yeah. Which ones do you decide to take Byron? Because how old are you now? 77. 77. Yeah. And the first time we met was episode, I believe, 150. I still remember that. That was one of the, it was a student of yours, who I worked with at the time, had said, you want an interview? Here's a got to go interview. And so that's why I showed up in Eminton at your spot to come interview you.

But I think back on that interview a lot, because I was trying to ask you how the world worked. It's hard to analyze it. When people ask, what's happening out there, I said, I have no idea, sorry. But get out and try and find out as much information as you can. I was visiting cousins here, and they referred to rednecks in Alberta and British Columbia, and they could all go to hell. I said, you realize those rednecks provide much of your revenue? Quebec?

New York, Nova Scotia, they're essential in welfare from Alberta, because the oil and gas revenues. She said, oh, no, that's Ottawa's oil, not Alberta's. There you go. And I said, where did you get your oil now? She said, I don't know. I said, you get it from Saudi Arabia, which is a family dictatorship. Does that bother you? These are people who haven't traveled.

So providing information to people sometimes will piss them off. And I said, well, what things pissed you off? And I said, well, when I was going to school in the 60s, I didn't know that one of the top officials of NATO was Adolf Hitler's chief of staff. That's bad optics. And he wasn't the only Nazi general in NATO. There's another one there too.

But did we learn about that in school? No. Not at all. In the COVID vaccinations, what did we know about that, really? So it goes on and on, but the idea is to get as much information as you can and then make a decision. I believe that ever since I was a kid. When I saw it information out, I wonder if there's more or more. It was always that way.

Another booby trap is people ask, what's your opinion of something? I said, I don't have any. Don't have any opinion. That gets them because they're hoping to draw you into it. It's a booby-trap question, you know. Yeah, people want to know all the time. They do. What's your opinion? I said, I don't know.

I'm still looking for information. How about you? You know? So when people are sending you notes and stuff on leads, at 77, you know, and I implore people to go back and listen to the other episodes, Byron's been on the podcast. You can just search it out and find it easy enough. What at 77 draws you back in to what you've always done?

Are you always, yeah, no, at 77, what story has drawn you back in? Or is there any? Well, lately it's been a book on my career called Dog in the Forest. That has dominated my life for two years now. And mind you, I started writing that when I got out of the hospital. Well, and I think for a lot of the audience, I almost died. They remember me talking about it on the podcast.

And there was a lot of people wondering how you're doing. So maybe we should just go back to that. You ended up in the hospital and you can walk us through it because there was a pretty scary times there. And then I remember talking a few different times while you're in the hospital and some of the conversations you were having with the nurses and everything. And I remember telling the wife because she knows who you are. And Santa, I think Byron's going to be.

okay because why'd he say that and I'm like eh he's arguing with the nurses I think he'll be just fine yeah but what it was is it was we all make mistakes my doctor misdiagnosed me he thought I had a cold I wouldn't go away fine gives me the medication it's not effective give me more medication top top quote on that didn't matter for a whole year I got the wrong medication I didn't have a cold I had pneumonia so I had the turned bad and then attacked me in the lower spine, number four and five, broke through as poisonous,

and that's where the sepsis had in. And when it hit, it took about a day for it to paralyze me. I was on my bed and I realized I can't get up and I couldn't move my legs. I said, this is serious. Alice called an ambulance. And the ambulance came. It carried me up the stairs to a stretch.

stretcher. And I remember they wheeled me out at the front door into the back of the ambulance. In the back, male and female, at the front was the driver, it was male. The older guy in the back went through my medical card and said, are you with the CBC? I said, no. And the woman corrected him and she said, Ched. So they knew the name, that meant anything, I guess, and they shot morphine into my left shoulder and that relaxed me and then the woman said is the pain come back I said yes it has she'd a bang another shot right away they brought me to the U of A hospital emerge and from there I was there for a while as they found out what the problem was but they had to clean up the

old blood and everything was affected everything where there's blood the lungs 50% capacity kidneys Oh, God name it, every organ, brain, even my brain was affected. People would come in to see me and I wasn't sure who they were. And they asked me, what year is it? It was 2024. And I said, it's 2019. And one doctor looked at the other doctor and I knew it wasn't the right answer, but I didn't know.

And then it was difficult learning how to walk again. I could stand but not move. That was so tiring, even to walk six feet. I did it by dragging the foot. The doctor said, now go back to the bed. And I made my way back without falling. And the doctor said, fall back under the bed. And I did.

And two male nurses grabbed me by the armpits and dragged me up to the pillow. And they put the pillow onto my head and then said, just close your eyes. This was at 2.30 in the afternoon. I fell asleep. I woke up at 11 at night. So that walk, maybe 10 feet, played me out. That's how bad my body was. And I play chess on my iPhone to see how alert I am.

Never won a game. I lost like 49 and 50 games. And I knew then that it wasn't right. So when I get out, I had also a broken hand. I passed out, hand broke. So it was hard to type with a broken hand. But I saw my thought process was scrambled. I'd say, why did I write that?

That doesn't make sense. doesn't flow properly. And it was so hard to do one chapter. And it was like a childhood written out. So I had to work on that over and over and over again. So that was good practice for the brain. In the meantime, I was in a wheelchair and trying to get around. And then to a walker, then to crutches, and finally to a cane.

But I used to walk my little dog, Yorkie, in my neighborhood. One time I went out without a cane. And I stopped to pick up his dog poop, and I couldn't get up. Can't get up in the back. Injured. I had to crawl to a tree hoping no one would see me, and then I got up, and then you realize you've got a long way to go. And around the house I would chase Benji, that he likes to be chased with his toys.

He loves that. And I would start running after him, and after two steps, flat on my face on the floor, and crawl to a chair to get up there, you know. So my mind was telling me, you can do it. but my body was saying, no, you can't. You're in a recovery mode, and I still am. The hardest thing is when I put on socks. I can now do it.

I can even pick up items on the floor. And you saw me walk here. There was no game. Well, I was going to say, I end your mind, Byron. I mean, when I rolled in, you know, so we're sitting in Byron's hometown, okay, New Brunswick. And I am at the end, I've got six hours left of a 48-hour drive. So I'm getting close.

And the first thing Byron hands me is an air freshener that said... Yeah, it's an image of... It's an Epstein on... Jeffrey Epstein hanging there or he's standing in his head is one side. It says, I did not hang myself. It's an air freshener. And I go, well, you know, I wouldn't, you know, in my... From how I remember you to now sitting here across me.

I go, you're the same guy. You made like a full recovery. I mean, you've been giving me one liner since I hopped in the car. And that's what I remember, right? Thank you. And to the audience, we're sitting at a restaurant. So what we're going to do is we're going to pause so that Byron can eat his lunch. And then we'll come back.

It was him with his accent. And he must have known. It was me, with my voice. He didn't look at me. He ordered a coffee and a donut. He went to the back and I knew where he's going to sit. Right in the middle, he sees the doors. They always do that.

And that's where he sat. So I sat down there with him and he stood up and he said, Byron Christopher, it's an honor. Shook hands. Thank you. Thank you. So I said, I can leave it with you for now?

Yeah, sure. Okay. I said, how many people know you're a spy here? He said three people. My wife, you, and my pastor. I said, they don't know who you are. He said, no. So he kept it.

I said, I won't tell anyone who raised. How did you find? How did you find him? He was good. I liked him. He wasn't aggressive. He looked you in the eye. No, no, no.

Oh, how did I locate him? Yeah, how did you locate him? He wasn't a secret. He was public with his condemnation of the spy world and that. I got it. When I worked in the newsroom, I got his number. Yeah. So we had a great talk.

And it was him who told me that one and four, they have files and one and four Canadians, how they do it, how they monitor, and they send up flags and all that. I said, I get that. And so I go around, we used to talk every now and then, I went around to his house once and to meet his wife. It wasn't well, he had cancer or something, and then I dropped around a couple of years ago. They were living in what used to be the officers' barracks at Chatham, where they had a military base, but not far away. And all the houses looked the same, made in the 40s or something. And that's where Mike and his wife lived. So the house looked the same, so I pulled up, I walked up the wrong driveway.

Guy comes marching out, an older guy. He says, can I help you? I said, I'm maybe confused it. Where is Mike Frost? He said, oh yeah, next door. He said, but Mike died. I said, no shit, I didn't know that. He said, they died of cancer.

Okay. And then he said, who are you? I said, I told him my name. And then he tells me right away, he said, I used to be CIS. So they call his retired spies, CSE, he says, who are you? He says, who are you? So I told him, Byron Christopher and he says, I know that name. I thought, I bet you do.

Yeah, so I want to talk to Mike's wife. So all these retired spies are there. spies are there but I wouldn't give out their location they wouldn't if they've made enemies in the spy world well I'm not worried about that I'm worried about the the journalistic side of it and so obviously folks we're back I'm like I'm gonna just hit record again we're once again sitting in Byron's hometown and I'm picking the brain of a guy that I really respect you know the first time you were ever on the podcast I was just looking at it was

before I started talking anything COVID you know you had a very nice write-up in your book about what I've been doing and I chuckled because I'm like I don't think Byron understands it was February 8th, 2021 when I went and interviewed you No I've forgotten about that I know we talked And when I go back and listen to it

Of course the audience probably won't get every question I'm asking But I'm trying to muster the courage To talk about COVID and I'm trying to figure out if I'm probably losing my mind at this point because I'm like, why is nobody talking about this? You're an old school journalist, you know? Like, tell me how the world works, like all these questions.

It's one, episode 110 of Judy Reeves, I always talk about, but the other one is episode 150 with buying Christopher because it's not long after that. I'm sitting with you. I start interviewing all the doctors. And then I haven't looked back since then. You had your impact on the podcast as well. that even what we talked about it's been a while you know you do so many interviews you forget them

yes so yeah i suppose that we did talk about that but to put it in a nutshell when i've read that to introduce a vaccine onto the market there's a period of um waiting to see if there's any side effects could be seven to nine years maybe more so they come out with within two or three weeks with a vaccine that supposedly is safe and effective That didn't compute with me. How can that be? How is it that you could in the past have to have something run by for seven, nine years and all of a sudden it's okay within a few weeks? So I began calling them experimental. Only later did I find out that when they deliver these vials of vaccination, that the inserts, the paper from Pfizer indicated, we cannot guarantee this to be. safe and effective. Hello. So the government lied to us. And the reporters didn't do their job. I mean you just go to a pharmacy and say, can I see your inserts? Okay,

that's what it says, do your story. They didn't. And they didn't do it in Canada, nor the United States, largely. I can't blame the Americans, but, so that's what got me really worked up. And my daughter's mother-in-law, her second injection, which was Morderni, she's a retired nurse, she was in a coma and she died from it. Second one, three days later she died, or three days, three hours later, pardon me, she was in a coma. So that's not safe and effective. And I worked with a guy that he was a former Schumka dancer in great shape. He was a big advocate of this telling people, oh you got to get the vaccine and he had all shots. Bingo, mysteriously

cancer, rapid cancer, turbo cancer. are dead within a month or two. Another woman I worked with her daughter had taken many shots, like seven, on the advice of her boyfriend, safe and effective, dead. At 26 years old. So you can't tell me it's not Russian roulette some form. And I don't know how many of the shots were placebo?

No idea. I don't know how many, what percentage were deadly, or the body reacts differently. I mean, you and I could both be very well. you could both be vaccinated, you could be dead in three weeks and I could live to be 120. You know, I don't know how that works, but I can tell you, it raised questions in my mind. Never mind as a journalist, just as a human being. I mean, if someone on the street said to you, here, I want you to take this pill, safe and effective,

I'm a doctor, you know, would you do it? I don't think so. I wouldn't do it. So that's what got me. It just stunk. I still feel that way. You brought up that, now this is years ago, that there was a file on one in four Canadians. One and four, yeah.

I mean, the ability to put a file now on every Canadian is probably easier than, and only getting easier by the day, especially with how much everybody interacts with social media in particular. Yes, please. Once again, for the second interview in row, I got the waitress chiming in, too.

Thank you. You're welcome. Could I have, uh, yeah. Did you like some? Yes, please. And water too, please. For sure. See, blah.

Wee, we. Very good. You're picking it up. Yeah, I'm bilingual. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, my receive cool. The only, by the way, I don't speak French.

The only other word I know is Chevrolet. Now, what I was going to ask is as a journalist, how did you protect, because, like, you've done some large, larger than life stuff. than life stories. You put yourself in the crosshair. You know, actually I'm listening to, once again, I'll butcher his last name, Paul Palango's book right now, on that 22 murders here in Halifax from back in, what was that, 2020, I believe. Right.

And he talks, he even mentions about having, it's just very brief. And the only reason I picked up on it is because you told me a story, probably in the first time I ever talked to you, about how they get beautiful women to try and nudge in beside and influence that way. And he's just said, oh, Paul's saying in the book, oh, this has happened several times. I'm like, oh, so this is just standard playbook. Let's put a pretty woman there to try and, you know, pull him off where he's going. So knowing they have a file on pretty much any journalist who's doing their job right now,

What advice would you have for journalists here in Canada if you're going to go after hard-hitting journalism right now and try and break some stories because it feels like the story, the corruption, is right in front of her face. The danger is, well, everything you've probably faced and then some. And like I listen to the stories of other journalists. It's like the threat is probably real now than it's ever. The corruption is just so blatant and bold. What advice would you give? to journalists out there if you're gonna if you're gonna chase the story and actually go after the government or police or you know the establishment what

advice would you give yeah first of all I wouldn't use that term I don't go after them I would put information out they don't like you know I would never say I'm going after you but the same same effect I suppose there's so much to say about that I mean I've said and in my book I mentioned I don't trust anyone I don't trust the police, I don't trust the judges, I don't trust the prosecution, I don't trust the guards, don't trust the wardens, don't trust the shrinks, you know, I don't trust other cons. You just have to keep an open mind and get as much information as you can and be aware of trap doors. Now this gentleman you refer to has talked about the honey traps.

I'll tell you about one that actually happened. I was working at CBC and I won't mention other persons. name but she was hanging around the newsroom was very late at night I said what are you doing here she said well I dropped off my car for repairs I'm gonna take a bus home I said at this hour I'll drive you home and she lived quite far away and I knew where she lived because Alice and I had been there for a party so I pull up outside her house it's around midnight or so dark and she said are you coming in for a drink I said no well I'm driving I don't want to drink

We come in for an orange juice. Okay. We enter through the back door like we had before. I go and I sit down on a couch to my right, which is beneath the windows, a big couch. She sits down on the floor. Odd. Sits down on the floor. And she said, do you want to sit down on the floor with me?

I'm thinking, well, she's a little hippie-like, whatever. I sat down. I was maybe six feet away from her. Behind her was her bedroom. Door was open, it was dark, I could see the bed. And she's looking at me, not lovingly, but glaring. And the eyebrows went up, down, up, down, up, a concentrated stare. And I went, whoa, what's going on here?

And she had a skirt, and she spread her legs. You could put a two-foot ruler between her kneecaps. Whoa. So I looked at the ornaments on the wall, changed the subject, and got out of there. So I mentioned that to a fellow. I said, what was that about? She's never hit on me at work. He said, I'll tell you what that's about.

You're being set up for a sexual assault. That's what it was. Yeah, so, I mean, you never know. What were you working on at that time, though, that they wanted to set you up for a sexual assault? I can't remember. You work in so many stories, maybe Talism. I don't want to pin it to a story.

I don't remember. I just remember the incident. They looked at Byron and went, Byron's incorruptible, or whatever they thought. And they wanted, that's for a weakness, yeah. And they were looking for something they could hold over you. Oh, yeah. So in your mind is the lady at CBC working with CIS or whatever government agency?

No. She would be on the direction of management. Management would get its orders. She wouldn't have any connection with them. They would say there's a mandate. In fact, a union rep told me this. there was a mandate to get me fired, a mandate. So she's following that.

It's a good career thing. So when I realized that had happened, I mentioned it to staff, and it got back to her, and she took sick leave for a month, then quit. But you never know what's booby-trapped up there. Whoa, I want to hold on this for a second. So you're saying an employee for CBC

because of an internal mandate that said, We need to get Byron Christopher Fire. According to the union rep, yeah. She was willing to lure you sexually so she could have career advancement? Absolutely. What else? They wouldn't pay her extra.

And she wasn't especially talented. You know, if she was on a hockey team, she'd be third line forward kind of thing. You know, it wasn't too talented as a reporter. Never broke any stories. They were a careerist, a fake feminist kind of thing. You know, but there's one. way to get ahead and there's a lot of people one way to get ahead is to yeah absolutely play the victim mm-hmm sure so but I can't connect it to any one

story at the time I don't remember what I was working on but I never forgot that and that's what I wrote about it in the book I don't do not identify her can't you never charge but it shows to me how Sleazy management can be that's not a coincidence you know but in my career I've noticed the reporters who don't break stories who don't rock the boat they're still there there no threat very true so yeah so be careful okay so then I come back don't don't trust the system I mean that the officer that I interviewed had been shot five times in the chest they didn't find the assailant his evidence disappeared and he

He left a broken man. He said, I joined the police to help society. Look how God betrayed me. You know, that was initially how he thought. And he ended up moving to Ontario, living in the back of an ambulance. That was his home. Now he has an apartment, but he's a happy man. He's content. He said, the people who shot me are dead, likely. Those arranged it, gone. They're old. They're dead. He said, I'm alive. turn my life over to God. He would often refer to passages in the Bible and identify them. And he didn't do it by looking away. He would look you in the eye and he felt good about it. So he's come out ahead somehow. It's odd. But I told him and said, well, look buddy, you're,

you started off as a cop and you end up being a soldier for God. Is that right? He said, yes, right on. That's a cool story, isn't it? It is a cool story. Yeah, so what else you want to talk about? Well, the Oilers. I think Alberta independence would be interesting to have Byron's thoughts. I mean, you've got an October 19th referendum coming up to see if we're actually going to get a real referendum regardless. I understand, yeah.

Your thoughts on, yeah, vote coming up on Alberta's place in Canada, whether to remain or whether to actually see if they go. I wouldn't express an opinion, start with, but I'm happy they're having the referendum, that should be done. And I hope the facts are out there, and sometimes people down east don't want to hear the facts. I found that out, just talking to relatives. They didn't know that they're heavily subsidized by the Alberta government, who's oil and

gas revenues. In fact, they didn't want to know it. And I said, where did you get your oil? I said, Saudi Arabia. I said, that is a family dictatorship. Hello, you okay with that? No answer. And I said, well, Quebec blocked the pipeline,

but they get their hands open looking for handouts from the Alberta government. Doesn't bother you? I'd like all that information to come out there and have people make decisions, but I won't tell anyone which way I would vote, but I'm just happy they're doing it. And if anything, they might get Ottawa's attention.

We found out how fair they were in the truckers protest. You know, so, yeah, so it's a mess out there, but I think I get satisfaction by exposing some of it. And do they monitor me? Oh yeah, that's why I refer to them in emails. Hello, CSE, how's the day going? Let them know. Well, you brought up CSE and I, you brought up CSE and I, you know, you know, you brought up CSE and I, you You know, I always joke that the R.CMP or CIS is listening in.

No, CSEA, no. CSEA stands for the Communications Security Establishment. They handle, they monitor emails in Canada and phone posts. For instance, a landline phone. It's on the wall. It's hung up. It's not being used, right? Wrong. They can hear everything, even though it's hung up. There's a microphone in there.

Even if it's hung up, they can hear you. That's why when there's a hostage taking in a house, police want to know where the phones are so they can hear everything. It's one thing. Emails? Yes, put in the word bomb in your next email. I bought a car. It's a bomb.

It will be monitored in Ottawa flight. They'll check it out and say, oh, I'm just complaining about a car. No problem. Or cocaine or women's rights, native rights, vaccinations, whatever. And they have files on one and four Canadians, according to the agent I talked to. and according to a story in the Globe and Mail. It's parliamentary information. It's not a secret.

But Canadians are okay with that. Don't seem to mind. But when you think about it, one and four, take away the kids and the grandmothers and the grandfathers. You get a good portion of the population targeted, being watched. And they don't play by the rules. the woman that invited me to her house and did that, that's not fair game. Had I taken her up on her offer, she, of course, would have been raped, right?

So that was the setup. And I was warned against that. Oh, okay. And even when I traveled to the United States to research a book on Richard Lee McNair, I flew from Edmonton to Toronto and from Toronto was to fly to Dallas, Texas. In Toronto, I lined up at the booth of the US immigration, a whole pile of us on an Air Canada flight. Came to me, the guy who looks at my passport, scans it, sees something on his monitor, which I couldn't see. Wheels his chair to a far wall, picks up another phone.

I couldn't hear everything, but I heard him say, what do we do with him? So you're flagged. Wheels back, gives me my passport, doesn't say anything. it doesn't say anything and says next. So you're monitored. I know I am. I was told I would be. And that's true.

It is what it is, my friend. Have you ever had a story, Byron, where you were actually herbous, fearful? Yeah. Oh, yeah. In Nicaragua, in, I think, of the year, early 90s maybe, mid-80s. I was there with two journalism students, and we were in a port called Bluefields out on the coast.

And someone told me a lot of cocaine came in there. I mean, a lot of cocaine came in. So I mentioned in an interview with the mayor of Bluefills, I understand a lot of cocaine is coming in here. He acted surprised, and I thought, that's strange. You would know. I know of it. So what does he do? He phones Monagra.

the Capitol. I get a call from the former ambassador, now a Charzade Affair in Toronto. He said, Byron, stop being the white knight on the white horse, meaning don't be a hero. You don't ask questions about cocaine. It is coming in. I said, whoa, hang on. Weren't you arguing with Ronald Reagan in Time magazine, that it was all BS? He said, Reagan was right. I was wrong and I'm ashamed. But the point is, keep your mouth shut and get out of there. And he said, by the way, when you're in Monagra, did you not see the big houses on the hill? I said, yes, I did.

He said, where do you think the money came from? Cocaine and a lot of it. So there's an example that you get out. And he said, he said, your life is nothing to these guys, Byron, forget it. And, you know, so watch it. Another time it happened to in Nicaragua just after the war, they had shot, I know one of our guys, A.B.C. fella, and shot him in the head and killed them. I was in Canada then, but I arrived after and everyone were all kind of scared. War was over, but still a lot of tension. I was

in a town called Matagalpa and I had papers from Ottawa, the Nicaraguan government. in Spanish, meaning I was okay. Essentially, I'm walking down the street. On the other side of the street is an officer, the Sundinistas. He didn't have a handgun, so I thought he was an officer, and he was. He came over and asked in Spanish for my credentials.

So I showed him my press ID. It didn't mean him. Then I remembered the letter from the embassy. I pulled it out, and he started reading it. Unfolding, read everything. Flips it over, reads the second page. page and looks at me and stands back gives me a salute and hits these boots together like that whoa this is pretty cool I don't know what was written but it

was friendly though foolish me I went down to the bottom of the hill there was a barricade there and there was a prison where the National Guard were being held prisoner on the second form of an old school barricade pervited it stopped anyone from going on the sidewalk well I went around it I shouldn't have but I did So I go around the barricade. I feel I'm pretty confident. I'm looking through a bull-like scammer trying to line up shots of these prisoners. And all of a sudden, bang, an officer hits me with a rifle like this, and it hurt, you know.

My head hit the brick wall behind. So I instinctively pushed back, you know, and it was a lady officer who hit me. And the guy with the machine gun took it off and poked me with it, you know. He wasn't shooting. But at that point, I thought, oh, there's a lady officer who hit me. This is it. I've already killed Bill Stewart, ABC News. So I showed him the letter and I didn't get a salute, but she said, well, shoot.

So I complained to the ambassador about that. He said, well, Byron, you went in a restricted area. You knew the barricade was there. You went beyond it. That's mistake number one. Second, the country is still on edge because of the war. It's over but not over. And he said, remember what happened to Bill Stewart.

Stiller didn't shove any soldier. You did. So in that sense, it was foolish, but I didn't pay any price other than sore throat. Did you ever lose your foolishness or your naivity, naivity, naive? Like, did you eventually graduate out of that where you're like, I'm not going to put myself in that type of situation again? Or in order to be a good journalist, you have to be willing to do some. I felt that way. And you remember the flooding in Alberta, I think it was early 90s. There was an early melt in the Rockies and the rivers overflowed their banks, the Pembina especially.

I went up there to cover the flooding and it was pretty dramatic. You could stand by the shore of the Pembina River and as you're doing your report you had to walk backwards because the water was pulling in on you and it was wiping out homes and everything. I returned the following day in the cruiser with hip waiters in case I needed them and I did There was a farmer about a mile and a half way who had refused to move They arrived at the helicopter said we'll pull you out of it. He said no, I'm gonna try to save my farm my house Putting up sandbags he refused to move I said now that would be a guy to interview

Put on the hip waiters started walking down the highway the water was initially up to my knees and it got higher higher, higher until it started going into the hip waters, into the hipwaters. It was cold, but a sunny, bright, sunny day, warm. And then the water picked up speed, and it turned into swells like on the ocean. You said, whoa, here it comes. And the debris coming at you, like broken branches and pieces of fences and parts of... Everything's good? Yeah.

Minures, you know, clunks of manure and everything. And you had to watch it. You could see them come and zip right by you, stood there. and zip-eye again, because I knew if I fell down, you cannot get up. You're drowned. You can't. There's so much water, it was just like dead weight. But it ended up saving me.

I kept walking until I got near that man's farm, and I thought I could cross into the ditch. And I did, and I won under completely. Recorder finished. Notepad, all wet, everything. And I climbed out. I can't swim. And I was spitting out the shitty water.

God. And I stood there in the road and the water was up to my chest. And I heard a bullhorn, rescue, rescue. Where are you? I said, maybe that's me. And they were looking for me. And they buzzed by with a small motorboat. And the guy buzzed by to my right, he said, we're going to go by, jump in.

But I threw in my equipment first. He turned around, came back. And then I got in. And I remember all the water pouring out of my hip waiters. And then I thought, boy, I hope it doesn't stall. because at the other side of the road was a ditch and as the water went over was churning like really rapid and I thought we can't go there and get the water the motor died and the guy we went over and he was swearing trying pulling on the cord to start the motor trying to keep it

from us going down there were three of us he finally got it going we got back onto the road made it back to the bridge and there was a pile there in fact one idiot stuck in movie camera in my face and everything. So I thank them, I shook hands with them and I said, you saved my life and I went back to the cruiser trying to file stories. Someone came up and knocked on my window and they said, somebody wants to give you a meal. It was a woman. And she had not only a meal but clothes that fit me. Her son was my size. Gave these clothes, gave me a nice meal and I filed stories from there. And another neighbor said, you really want to get out to that farm, I'll take you out there in my motorboat. So we zoomed across the fields, including the fences.

That's how far underwater they were. And we parked the motorboat just outside the guy's side door, knocked on it, he opens the door, and I said, I'm from CBC. I'd like to talk to you about why you didn't move. And he says, I don't want to talk to you. I said, what are you talking about? I almost drowned getting here, so he gave the interview. So I went back to CBC. and called into the office and they said you put yourself in danger just to get a story. I said, that's right. I did. Well, that's unacceptable. Are you going to do that again? I said, yes, of course. He said, get out of here. That's how the meeting ended. But, you know, as a journalist, I don't think you think about that too much. You get the story, you know.

I've run into these encounters with rebels in Nepal. I was at a fight at a roadblock, you know, they accused me of being obnoxious, but I went through them. And after I left, they killed two people there, two missionaries. So you roll the dice, sometimes I think you pay for it, and other times you get away. But I believe in pursuing the story, and I'm sure you've heard this. Well, some people say, well, if you're going to chase the story, you shouldn't do that. And I said, well, what if you're a firefighter? Do you walk away?

Well, that's too hot, I have to go home. Or a policeman or a soldier. You don't get into the business. And that's what I say to journalists. If you're not willing to put your life on the line, work for an ad agency or something, or sell cars. You know, know that. That it's worth it, I guess, in simple terms.

If you check out, if you're doing your job, it's not nice, but you can't run away from it. from that stuff. Everyone suffers because of it. Does that answer your question? Yeah, I think it does, Byron. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm back in my hometown. I left here when I was 18 to work at a radio station. It is now called Miramashie, a small station there. And from there, I went to Quebec City, an English

station worked there, did the morning show. And from there to British Columbia. We did TV and radio, some of the news reading, very little reporting. And then to Australia where I worked for two years. And then to Africa there for a while. And then I lived in Europe for a year. How important in seeing how the world worked was traveling then for you? Enormous. Yeah.

I arrived back in Canada, I had an accent. I was away for three years. But it's as if I had been away for 10 years. You learned so much. much. You grow. But funny thing is, I come out with this book and I'd lived in Australia a couple of years. One of the editors of the Adelaide Advertiser, huge paper down there, had heard I was writing a book, so he writes and said, how many chapters are you doing on South Australia? I said, I'm doing five in Australia. I'm doing three on South Australia. He said,

we'd like those. Can you show us in advance copies? So I did. I thought there might be a little bit of a write-up, maybe a little corner of a page or something. They spread it out over three pages, big columns, quite complimentary. And I knew what they would like, you know. And they printed, it was what I thought they would print, you know, a little of challenging things with people and that. And it was cool. But they've been, Australians have been very supportive of me, have been, even since I left a long time ago. I made friends there. When you came back to Canada after being away, what did traveling and getting outside of

where you were from and working change for you? Everything. I looked at everything. I mean, my God, when I left home, I was 18. I didn't know how to drive a car. When I got a car, I said to the salesman, I was 18, mind you, why does it have two breaks? He said, one is a clutch. Oh my God, who doesn't know that?

You know, so it was quite naive. But your mind sort of expands. It's as if your brain is a camera lens and suddenly you have wide-angle lenses so you see a lot more. And then you meet people of different cultures and imagine working in Finland. Well, you know that was your home too. I didn't know the language. I had to do work on the dock that the others didn't do.

and I learned some of the language and studied the people and grew up because of it. When I returned to Canada, I had an accent. I remember applying for a job in Brampton outside Toronto. I formed a program director. When he heard me talk, he just hung up. No, thank you or anything. It had an accent. Once I got rid of that, I joined the federal government,

and that was not a good move, and it was good economic. It was good economically, but I was a square peg in a round hole, if you will. But I then moved into out west in Edmonton, CFRN, started doing soft documentaries and joined CBC, started doing harder ones, picked up an award or two, and then it was off, off to the races. I will die, a reporter. I never want to retire. They asked me, I work part-time at Costco doing security.

When are you going to quit? I said, I have a new financial plan. Freedom 85. It's funny. I'll work until I check out. I think be torture. I went on holidays, let's say to Mexico and did nothing. I'd go crazy.

I get on the laptop and work on copies or stories or emails or whatever, you know. But I like being active and chasing stories. Even here, when the mayor died, I got inside information that they didn't have. I thought, wow, that's cool. That's a big part of the game. Well, what we're going to do, because I'm up against the clock, because I've been driving so much, is we're going to give you the 10 bonus questions on Substack. So if you're listening to this, folks, obviously, not watching,

because this week I've had no video. It's been pretty back to how it began with just a couple of mics. What we're going to do is we're going to switch over to substax. So if you want to go watch there on, I'm very curious to hear. I've got some quick hitters for you, okay, Byron? But we'll switch over to the substacks. We'll pause for a second. If you want to come over and hear Byron.

So I'm curious what Byron's favorite or the one conspiracy theory he would want. But, yeah. What would you like, Byron? Yeah, no, I want to pay the bill. Oh, he wants to pay the bill. Anyways, we'll hop over to Substack here.