Shaun Newman Podcast - #514 - April Hutchinson

Episode Date: October 13, 2023

She is a powerlifter for team Canada who is the North American deadlift record holder and sober athlete. Let me know what you think. Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast Patreon: www.patreon.com/ShaunNewmanPodcast

This is Leighton Gray. My name's David John Parker. This is Andrew Lotton. This is James Lindsay. This is Jonathan Peugeot. This is Town of today. This is Sean Buckley. Hey, this is Brett Kessel, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast.

Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Friday. First, Silver Gold Bull, North America's premier precious metals dealer with state-of-the-art distribution centers in Calgary, Alberta and Las Vegas. Nevada, they insure fast, fully insured discrete shipping right to your doorstep. Silver Gold Bull offers a diverse set of services, including buy back wholesale registered savings, IRA accounts, RRSP, and TFSA, as well as storage and refining solutions. You can trust Silver Gold Bull to elevate your precious metal needs and investments journey with unrivaled expertise and unparalleled convenience.

Your prosperity and security are top priority making Silver Gold Bull the go-to choice for all your precious metal needs. Just go to silvergoldbill.ca. Rec tech power products. They have been committed to excellence in the power sports. industry for 20 plus years. They got a full lineup including Canap, Skidu, Cedoo, Spider, Mercury, Everhruh, Mahinder Roxxer, and a parts department that's fully

stocked and loaded, fully locked and loaded, stocked and loaded, I don't know, that they can get you hooked up with all your needs. They're open Monday through Saturday, and you can find them on rektekpowerproducts.com, or if you're in the Lloyd Minster area on the west side of Lloyd, go in and see their showroom. It's

something that, you know, is there's a lot in it. You won't be disappointed. Old World Flooring, George, we're going back to episode 4,6, 5. He's the Tuesday mashup sponsor as well for this month. Well, he's your go-to crew for Tile in the Calgary and

surrounding regions from a new kitchen backslash to a handicap, accessible shower. They do commercial and residential jobs as well as new homes and renovations. They want to make sure that you, by the end of the project, you get your money's worth and you will be able to realize your vision, your dream, what you wanted to

make it, they're going to take what you want and they're going to make it happen, you know, turn a dream into reality, if you would. They got European workmanship that I can say firsthand is something else. It's different than anything I've seen where they don't cut corners underneath. They make sure that everything is done right. Go to www.owwf.ltd. That's where you can go to find old world flooring. Ignite distribution out of Wayne Wright, Alberta, that's Shane Stafford and company, they can supply industrial safety, welding, automotive parts, and they do on-site inventory management to make sure that whatever makes your business tick run, move forward. You don't run out of that.

So give Shane Stafford a call today, 780842-3433. And McGowan professional chartered accountants, Kristen and team, they've been looking for different people. It sounds like, you know, it sounds like Kristen's kind of busy, you know. Good problem to have. and they are hiring. So they're looking for another CPA. If you're in the area and are looking for a job,

you can reach out via magalloncpa.ca.ca.a. You can also just stop in. And they're looking for somebody. We'd really love to grab somebody who's local to our area who understand the industries of our clients and how they operate in the community. And she's offering an amazing opportunity above average wages, flex time benefits, and partnership opportunity.

Local firm that provides full service accounting, consulting, tax and financial planning services, and I can safely say, you won't find too many like Kristen, let alone in Lloyd, but around the province. And hey, that's just me, McGowanCPA.ca. Or McGowanCPA.com.com. Yeah, that's, I don't know why that sounded wrong the first time. Now, let's get on to the tale of the tape brought to you by Hancock Petroleum for the past 80 years. They've been an industry leader in bulk fuels, lubricants, methanol, and chemicals delivering to your farm, commercial oil field locations. For more information, visit them at Hancock petroleum dot C.A.

She's a powerlifter for Team Canada, North American deadlift, record holder, and sober athlete. I'm talking about April Hutchinson. So buckle up, here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by April Hutchinson. So first off, ma'am, thanks for hopping on. Thank you so much for having me, Sean. Now, I have a wonderful audience, and they put me on to you.

Otherwise, I don't know if I ever would have found your... I would love to sit here and say that I'm a giant power lifter and everything else, but I'm not. I'm just a regular everyday Western Canadian who watches maybe a bit of hockey. I don't even know if I do that anymore, folks. But certainly we try and track down interesting stories here in Canada, and that's what they've done so well. And then, of course, I started following you. Then I started listening, and I'm like, holy crap, all right. So how about we do this?

How will we start at the beginning? Who is April? and we'll get to where you run into all the problems you're facing today. Okay, so I live in London, Ontario. I started powerlifting actually just right before COVID hit in 2019. And I don't know if you know my backstory at all, which kind of makes it a little bit more interesting. I actually started powerlifting when I came out of rehab

because I actually had addiction problems with alcohol. So I went into rehab, September 2019. I came out and I started powerlifting just as a way to keep fit. All of a sudden, COVID hits. And I basically trained every day in my home gym for like two years, got crazy strong. And then went to the nationals. And then I went to worlds right away. So I've done like a lot of major competitions in just three years.

I went to North Americans. I have the deadlift record. of 5007 pounds for a deadlift i have um i went to world can i can i can i can i just say wow you know like i i don't know there's probably people like uh there's there's going to be listeners like what's a deadlift i know there will be but there's going to be a ton that do it and do it actively and they're like i don't mean i personally april i don't even want to ever get to that much i just you know i like i if i'm deadlifted a little over 200 i'm happy i'm okay i'm like that's enough like i'm good. No, and that's great. Well, so I have to, yeah, I'll correct myself. The death record was

484, but my top lift was 507 at Worlds. But that doesn't really make a difference. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We're talking like 20 pounds and most of us are like, I'm never doing that. It's like, no, I'm probably never doing that. So, bravo to you because that, that is impressive. Yeah. So, no, so it's been a great couple years. Now, during the time that I was training, like, I was, was happy with my training. Everything was going really, you know, pretty awesome. And then in 2020, I one of my friends on Facebook and in Instagram who I had chatted with for about six months, who I assumed and thought this person was a female, told me that he was actually a biological male. I'm going to stop, okay, I'll just tell you right now, I'm going to stop saying biological male.

That was a term I used to use. I'm just going to say man. because we got to get rid of using that term biological male. So I'm just going to say that he told me that he was, I'll say, male born. And I asked that individual, well, how far do you expect to go in powerlifting? I'm like, you shouldn't be competing against women. That's completely wrong. And he said, no, I'm going to keep going. I'd like to go to worlds.

And I said, well, okay. I said, I'm going to fight that. Like there's no way we're going to let that happen, meaning myself and women with in the Federation. So he's a lot to block to me, which was typical behavior. So ever since then, I've literally just been fighting for fairness in my powerlifting sport with my Federation. Now, the worst part is, is that I've been treated like almost like an outcast and that I'm

doing something wrong for speaking up. So my Federation, I think this year has threatened me three times now with disciplinary reaction. The last letter I got from them, they said they may suspend me because I called Anne a biological male on TV. So I'm so confused. I'm so baffled as to why I'm getting treated this way for literally just speaking the truth. So I mean, I don't know if you saw my last interview with Pierce Morgan. He literally called him a biological man like three times. So you know so that's that's where i'm at i'm basically fighting to make it a female sport only and to create a supper category or to have some type of policy in place to protect women and girls basically

just so i can get a feel um for anne the how much is he lifting or like what's the discrepancy like is it like he's beating you by one pound is he beaten you by what is it yeah So I actually went online this morning to check out my own ratings, like my rankings within the world and with Canada. So I'm like, I mean, during COVID, I was like, or after COVID, I think I was number four. I, because of all this stress and what's been going on, I've fallen down. I'm now like 14 worldwide just because my numbers have gone down because of stress and I've been sick, basically. Now I looked at Anne. So Anne basically, if you look up his rankings, he is number one in the world all time, all ages, ever.

For Canada or for everyone? Ever. His total is 1,327. So that's for a female. If he had competed with the males, he would be number 6,000. So he has the second, he has the highest deadlift ever in Canada, ever, ever in history. He has the second highest worldwide in history for women. So, and he holds three out of the five or four out of five records in Alberta for bench.

And he doesn't have the squat. He almost got the squat. And then he has the deadlift, of course. It's just, yeah, it's no advantage. What are, like, what are the other athletes sick? Because I sit here and I just go like, you know, I don't know. I'm like, there's men, there's women. You can identify as whatever you want, but, I mean, it doesn't take away the fact that you're a man or your woman.

You might be, there's a lot of gray area in between there. But like when it comes to my daughter playing whatever sport, you know, she's only sick. But when I see her play against boys or when, you know, eventually you have like all girls, I'm like, you just want it to be all girls. There's a lot of things that go in there. But it just seems like if we're going to, like we're getting so into like this weird world. And it just keeps getting weird. We're living completely in the upside down, like where we're trying to convince ourselves that men can be women and they can be on the front page of magazines and be like the women of the year and everything on. And you're like, like, this is stupid.

It's just as simple as that, folks. It's stupid. I mean, at some point, you just got to call it out for what it is. But I'm curious, you know, you're getting ostracized from your federation for basically pointing this out. What do the other athletes think? Yeah, so it's basically my, the only people ostracizing me is my federation. So I'll just have to say, at the end of the day, you know, what I feel good as a man going in and taking women's records and podium spots, No, I would not.

So I don't think we should, I mean, a lot of people like to focus it all on Ann. Oh, it's Anne's fault. Anne's horrible. Well, no, who's worse is the Federation for allowing this to happen? They are not stepping up and they're not protecting women. And anyone that goes along with this little charade, they are part of the problem. Okay. So they're actually enabling this.

And so we do have, you know, people that say, well, no, you know, and I don't want people to take this the wrong way, but it's my biggest pet peeve when they start saying trans rights or human rights. And I just go, of course they do. Of course trans have rights. But women have rights. You don't stop on women and put women to the back burner for trans rights. Everyone has the same rights. But then it becomes a privilege. When you start coming into our sports and taking our medals or coming into our bathrooms, that's wrong. And that's when we say no. And that's why we speak up. So, I mean, you're going to have that woke crowd that's, you know, a trans woman is a woman and they believe that. That's great.

I'm not taking your belief or anyone's belief away. But when it comes down to sports specifically, it's about bodies and it's about biology. I don't care if you're a cat. I don't care what you identify as, but bodies play sports, not identities. Well, I should be clear. When I think of Anne, I go, she's being reinforced that this is okay. So, I mean, like, you can get as mad as you want at her. But the thing is, is like, this is the problem we have in society right now.

It's being reinforced everywhere, right? So hockey Canada, big hockey guy, love hockey, grew up playing hockey, went all over the dang world playing hockey. And one of the things, you know, like eventually you get to the point where you go to the rink, you get undressed, you dress, you shower, et cetera, et cetera. Now hockey canadas come out saying nobody in minor hockey. under the age 18 is allowed to do that. They have to wear an underlayer because a coach can't identify what gender they are. So it's being reinforced again in a different way.

And this is the enabling part. We're enabling this to just spread more and more. And it's affecting all areas. It's being put in schools. It's being talked about now in hockey. It's happening in women's powerlifting, right? Where it isn't. Everyone's staring at this.

It makes zero sense. Well, you need to understand. You need some training. You need to understand what's going on here. No, like, no, this is wrong. This is upside down. Now, that doesn't mean Anne. She can identify as a woman.

That's totally fine. Yeah. But the rest of it doesn't need to happen. And that's okay for people to say. Yeah. And at the end of the day, like I said earlier, like what's happening, whether it's like restaurants, taking away the women's bathroom, you have the hockey thing going on now, too. And in our sports, like why, again, I feel like it's.

I'm not anti-trans. And I've said this so many times. I'm not anti-trans. I'm pro-woman. And what's getting lost here is women's rights and women and girls. So, I mean, yeah, like, Anne's just following the rules. People probably think that I hate Anne. I have nothing against Anne at all, actually.

I do have, you know, as you can tell, I probably don't use Anne's pronouns. Well, I do not have respect for Anne because of the way Anne has treated and harassed me and also has made fun of women. in the federation. So, I mean, I give respect and respect is due. So, I mean, but it's, it's, it's just, it's unfortunate that there's board members in my federation that are using their personal agenda because they might have a trans child or a trans grandchild.

They're pushing their personal feelings and agenda and using me as like the person to like use it against, right? And to punish. And it's just crazy. It's like, how would you feel if you had to lie to yourself every day? How would anyone feel? Like, where's your integrity? Like, it's gone.

So I'm not going to lie and I'm not going to go feel like, oh, it's okay if men compete. No, I was doing that before and I wasn't sleeping. I didn't feel good about that. So I'm speaking it for truth. And hell, I can have a good night's sleep, right? Well, I just, I mean, there's a ton of people wrestling with themselves right now. Right? Probably not a lot of my audience.

My audience is pretty much like, yeah, we get it. We need to hear the story so we can help support April or whoever else it is. Because they're just like, this is wrong. We need to voice our concerns, but they don't know of all the Canadians in Canada that are already doing that. So one of the reasons you get sent my way is because you're like, you need to hear this story. And probably your audience needs to hear this story. But there's a ton of people in society in general wrestling with this because they want to be inclusive. But the thing is, every time you get,

Like, I'm anti everything, supposedly. You know, like, I'm anti, just throw it. Right now I just wear it as a badge of honor because I don't think I'm anti anything. I'm just like, at the end of the day, there are boys, there are girls. I think it's self-explanatory. I don't think you need to confuse children because I'm as an adult confused. So if I can't understand it, but then they throw different labels on you, it'd be like, well, that's because you haven't done anything, you do whatever.

It's like, no. Like, we can just do biology. It's okay. And later in life, I mean, look at, look at, it was just a, what was it the world swimming federation folks they just came out and they had an open division so so they created it so so trans athletes could come and they had zero injuries which is kind of funny you're like so they're trying to make it inclusive here here's your own division you show up you get a gold metal pretty much and nobody showed great you know yeah because at the end of the day like even

with powerlifting, at the end of the day, we are competing with ourselves, right? So I get this a lot where people like, well, just don't compete, just boycott. Okay, so this last Nationals, I actually did boy. I didn't show up. I was supposed to show up. And they're like, April, where are you? I'm like, no, I'm not showing up as long as there's a male lifting with the men, or with the females, sorry. And my women's group, ICFS with Dr. Linda Blade, they all showed up and they protested, which was amazing, amazing support. But I mean, you can't boycott an individual sport. So if no one shows up, but Anne does show up, Anne will still take podium and we'll still get the records and he will still get the medals.

So, I mean, there's, I mean, Strongman Corporation a couple weeks ago, like you're talking Strongman. They have a transgender athlete that's going to nationals in October. They actually just announced four weeks ago that they made a separate category. And I was like, Bravo. Like, they're doing the right thing. They're protecting women. And then just recently we found out that that same athlete in that corporation was basically calling everyone a bigot, calling everyone transphobic. And guess what?

He got suspended for six months. There you go. Beautiful. Now, like, I hope my federation can see this because that's exactly what needs to happen. Like, first of all, Anne does need to be suspended for his behavior. and they do need to implement a new policy to protect women. So we'll see what happens the next month. Yeah, we'll see what it happens.

You know, I don't put a lot of faith in a lot of boards right now. You hope they're going to see the writings on the wall. But the thing is, is like, anytime you talk out right now, if you're a part of the system, you know, you're getting your head taken off on this one. Like, I mean, I don't need to tell you that. I mean, I'm literally watching what's happening to you and hearing, and I'm going, oh, yeah, this makes sense, right? Like, in a really dark, nefarious way, I mean that, right?

Like, I don't mean it in a sense of, like, they need to take you down. It's like, no, if you speak out about this and just relatively like, listen, I don't hate anyone, but this doesn't make any sense and I'm not for it and I'm going to boycott. They're going to label you with everything under the sun. Like, this has been happening over and over again. And, you know, the podcast has only been going five years and people will. will probably point out for only like three years have we been talking openly about things. So in the last three years, I've seen a lot of it. And the more people I talk to, this has been going on for a lot longer than three years.

So I don't think I need to talk to you about that. And you've seen this for longer than three years, correct? Yeah. Like I'd say in the last like three or four years for sure, maybe five. And the funny thing is I will mention though, I haven't actually received much backlash. Only backlash I've received is from my federation. Now, I actually very seldom have, I can count on my hand how many messages I even got to my spam folder

or like kind of got through to my messages of something hateful or someone calling me transphobic because like I'm not. And I guess the people that stand with me or that hear my story, they got to get a sense to know that I'm not transphobic. I've said this on other podcasts. I'm actually very empathetic. There's times where I actually cried because I felt bad for Anne because I thought, oh, you know, I don't want to take a sport away from this person, much like, you know, I have the reason why I power lift to help me with addiction or mental health and has her reason, right? So it's like we all have our journey, we all have our stories, and I don't want to take that away from anyone.

I've never said to ban transgender's either. I've said, please just make a separate category. So, I mean, I have a lot of love for a lot of people. But guess what? Love like any relationship has boundaries. And that's what we have to implement here is, you know, I can still love people. But hey, we need to add a boundary to this or that to protect, say, for example, women and girls. Yeah, the, we just see it.

We've been seeing it play out over the last. I don't know. I'm actually trying to think of how long I've been seeing it for sure four years. But longer than that, arguably, you know, if you go back to Jordan Peterson, the compelled speech thing, different things like that, you can see how long this has been playing out. And we're just starting to see it hit more stages and be more of an issue to the local side of things. I know different coaches that are starting to see it in colleges and different things like that. Obviously, there's some that are like very notable across the world. You know, Riley Gaines is probably one of the most notable, I would think, you know, kind of.

areas but like that's my girl but i mean like even even even that like if i bring it real close to home there's different stories that have come up now where um uh a male has gone on to compete in women's college sports and dominated it like not even like just like dominated it and so then the problem with this that is very i don't know if it's clever or not is like they get everybody just defending, I'm not this, I'm not that, I'm not, and everything, you know, I just got told this, you're always on your back foot of what I'm not. Instead of just being like, listen, we can clearly see that this is wrong. If they want to have their own division, fine, go have their own division, it's fine. I don't care, but I do care about women's sports, you know,

if there was ever a way to get me to rally around women's sports, this has become a way to do it, you know, in a weird way, because it's so evident that it just doesn't, make any sense. Yeah, no. It's and again, it goes, I remember I said like, you know, I can sleep well at night. I mean, because we are talking about biology and bodies. Yeah, when it comes down, like I don't want to go down that rabbit hole and start saying like, well, I don't think men should be in prisons and shelters and bathrooms. And I try to stick to sports, right? But it's true. I mean, how can it be transphobic to want fairness in women's sports? Like, people will twist that around and do that.

And people can do whatever they want. It doesn't bother me. Honestly, if someone calls me a bigot or a transphob, it really just rolls off my shoulder. They are words. It's like me calling you a goof or an idiot. Like, it means nothing, right? It's just words that roll off my shoulders that they use to try to silence me, Even Pierce Morgan's like, yeah, like we get it all the time.

Does not mean a thing to me. I know who I am down to the core as a person. So whatever. Like it doesn't bother me. I'm still going to, like I feel like they're going to shut me up or I'm going to stop talking about it. And it was kind of funny the other day I was talking to my boyfriend. And I said, you know, if someone paid me like $5 million or said, hey, I'll give you

five million if you say that men should lift with women or mention competition. compete in sports, would you take the money? And I was like, no, I couldn't do that. I could not do that. But if someone said, I'll give me $2 million to sleep with a rhinoceros, sure, I'll take it. But you know what I mean? I'm just saying that's one area. I just would never back down on it.

That goes to my, with my integrity, right? Well, I think one of the things on the journey on this side is one of the offshoots of the dark days of COVID, of, you know, some of the things going on in women's sports or there's probably, you know, I'm trying to think of all the different things going on right now. Like, there's just so much is people with integrity that say something similar to that. You just couldn't pay me enough to go against my conscience are starting to pop up everywhere. It's actually really cool. Like honestly sitting on this side, I'm like, this is kind of cool. Like you're starting to see, you know, there was a long time there where I think a lot of Canadians

were going like, where's our backbone? Like, where are the people? And I, I, I, tell you from sitting in this chair, I keep seeing them all over the place. I keep getting forwarded them and it's really cool to see. It's taken, it feels like the train has been slow to get out of the station and you'll sit there and go, listen, I've been talking about this for years. So fairness to my side, maybe it's me who's been slow to get out of the station. But as it gets rolling, it's almost like a bullet train right now trying to keep up with all the Canadians that are speaking out or they're pushing back. And it's really cool. The difference, With Canada probably, I would be curious your thoughts on this, is the difference between Canada and a lot of countries is we don't have CBC championing April Hutchinson.

It's the SMP. It's the Sean Newman podcast and other independents that are talking. You're laughing, so I assume you're like, yeah, let's talk about the CBC for a second. The government funded CBC. Well, like, no, that was kind of like an ongoing joke because the only news that covered. Actually, Global News, the Roy Green Show had me on his show. Okay. I was like, are you sure this is really Roy Green? Like, I was so shocked.

But Rebel News, it's the only outlet that's had me on. Like, I love them. They've been so amazing, Ezra and Menzies. So, but yeah, so definitely CBC or CTV will never touch this topic. Like, there's just no way. Isn't that wild? Like, what are they going to say? Like, there's no way they would ever.

I think once the CBC did an article about how they made rulings for transgenders in chess, in the game of chess, but that's like, that's a week, right? Like, that's, you know, it was just kind of foolish. But, no, I've said that for about a year now. I was like, oh, I guess the Canadian media is not going to touch this one. And then all of a sudden, everything got censored on, remember, we can't even see the news anymore on Facebook or, on meta or now it's leaning towards Google. Oh,

and now it's podcasts, have to register. It's just disgusting. Yeah, the thing on the podcast side, because that's exactly my world, right, is it's really vague right now.

Like, it's really, so the thing is you've got to make over $10 million for them to want you to register. So there's, I don't know, I could be wrong on this. Certainly maybe rebels in that category.

Certainly, there's probably a few others in that category, but in Canada, I don't know of a single podcast are making $10 million. Maybe it's out there. Maybe I don't know about it. But I'm going to say that 100% of us are under the $10 million threshold.

Now, you can have some different agencies or media outlets, kind of like rebel, that certainly are probably in that category. They certainly seem like they're doing fairly well that need to register. And the problem is, is the Spotify, the Apples, the Rumble, the on and on where all of us

release all this stuff so you can find April Hudson, that's who's going to have to register. So November 28th is going, I keep talking about this because I want to keep it in everybody's forethought, is April 28, or sorry April, I'm staring at your name, November 28th is going to be an interesting day. Nothing

could happen or a whole lot could happen, and all I got to point to is meta, and on this side, you know, in the middle of COVID, YouTube, you know, you're starting to feel, you know, there's all these little things from this side, April, that you got to do on YouTube, you know, to finally get to where you can monetize.

Wouldn't you know what? We're finally starting to hit it. We're starting to see thousands of views coming in. You're like, holy crap, what is happening? This is pretty cool. And like, it was like two days after that. I went to find my YouTube channel, and it was gone. Like, gone. And so, um, when it comes to Canada, we're an interesting place because it's kind of like this silo. Like, why are Americans staring at us or other countries going like, what's going on there? It's because nobody's going to be able to talk by the end of this. And you won't be able to find different things, such as April or all the other wonderful stories if the Canadian government continues to do what it's doing. And it seems hell-bent on doing it.

Well, yeah, I mean, I've been saying this forever. I mean, we all have been saying this. Like Trudeau has single-handedly ruin this country. You know, the reason why we are the laughing stock of the world and why we are a complaint. of all these things. It all has to do with Trudeau. And again, but go back to Jordan Peterson when Bill C-16 came out, like, that was just the beginning of it. That was just the beginning of it. And yeah, so it's, it's, I remember, I remember, uh, listening to Peterson talk about Bill, uh, C-16, being like, what the hell is he talking about? Like, I just, I wish I could, you know, I, do you ever wish you could just go

back and sit beside yourself and kind of time machine it and be like you know if you just knew a couple things you'd be way ahead and you'd really be able to jump oh yeah like i remember listening to peterson and being like i don't know what he's getting at now i'm like i know exactly what he's talking about we're seeing exactly what he was talking about play out and i keep saying like it only gets worse like unless you make it black and white on some certain things like this can't go any further like actually we've probably got to repeal some of this um it only gets worse it only gets worse worse from here. It doesn't get any better. Oh, no. I feel it to get worse.

I do you know Dr. Linda Blaine at all? I don't. She's a head of athletics for Alberta, and she's also the head of the ICFS, which is a women's group that helps women in sports. You should get to know her. She has to be amazing to have on their podcast. I tell you what, April, after we're done here, I'm going to help you, or you're going to help me connect at it.

She's an Alberta lady. And she, oh my God, you're going to love her. It'd be awesome to have us both on, like, if you ever be a live one. Because she, honestly, I love her so much. She's, she helped me. Like, when I felt very alone in my battle, she's the one that came and kind of, like, just took me and, like, helped me and had this huge, like, group of women. Like, we're talking Olympic athletes, like Inga Thompson.

That's how I met Riley Gaines and all these amazing people. So, and she actually wrote a book, how trans activism. and trans activism is going to kill sports for men and women. She wrote this book, I don't know how many years ago, and it's actually happening. It's so crazy. I'll have to show you her book sometime, or she can do it herself. But she actually went to the conservative convention last month, and she pushed for the legislation, which got voted 87% by conservatives to pass,

to protect female spaces, sports, you name it. So she's the one really gunning to push that through. Like, she's just an amazing woman. And she's so political. Some of the stuff she talks about, I'm like, wow. So you should definitely talk to her. We're going to do that. We're going to, yeah, an Alberta lady that I don't know what.

See, this is what I mean. I'm slow to get out of the gate. You know, it's like every time I think I'm getting to the bottom of the well, so to speak, on Canadian content or, or wonderful people doing great work and just like pushing the needle forward. I run into somebody such as yourself and I'm like, no, I've never heard of this person.

And yes, I absolutely need to have her on. And sure. And I'm like, oh boy, here we go down another, not rabbit hole folks, but it kind of feels like that from time to time.

You know, I feel like I'm getting to, this is where we're going to be. And then all of a sudden, nope, we're going to have some more. And, no,

absolutely. You know, switching topics just slightly here. We've talked about the powerlifting and certainly that story, just to kind of bring people up to speed if they had no idea. You've mentioned a couple times here about rehab and 2019, you getting sober and moving into something that finding something you're a very good at, obviously,

and something you probably care and obviously or an obvious amount about, right? Like it seems like you're very passionate about this. I don't know why else you'd be speaking out and everything else. Can you, would you be willing to talk a little bit about your journey to 2019? Like, what was going on that pushed you in a rabble? I know coming out of COVID and certainly through COVID, there was a lot of people that fell into some dark places. And talking about it, even from my side, like, very interested

because I think that type of information is really important for people to hear. Yeah, no, I definitely agree. And I actually love sharing my story because I, kind of helps me stay sober, which is good. And if I can help someone. So I had struggled with alcoholism probably my whole life. I started drinking when I was about 12 or 13 years old, just, you know, how you reach that puberty stage. I suffered some trauma when I was a child. And when I was six or five or six years old, I was sexually abused by my neighbor. So going forward, I was very uncomfortable, I guess, in my own.

skin and like I talked about this on I don't know if you know Megan Murphy yeah she's been on the podcast yep she's I love her oh I love her so much talking about brave Canadians she's just freaking wicked but but no I was telling her because all this you know this hormonal changes within kids and like putting them on you know pureblockers so when I was sexually abused by when I was young I actually started pretending that I was a boy after like I I actually hung out with boys. I had an older brother. I would hang it with my brother's friends.

I would dress in hoodies because I thought, you know, if I'm a boy, I won't get hurt. Like men won't touch me, right? So I actually was a tomboy. I got into sports and stuff. But it was to the point where I would cover myself. I was afraid of my own father and my uncles and my friends. I thought they were going to touch me or abuse me, right? So did your parents, did your parents know what happened?

Yeah. So my dad's actually retired police officer. He's still alive. Yeah. So when it happened, it went on for like a while. But then the last time that the male had abused me, it was pretty severe and it scared me. So I tried to run.

He used to abuse me in his trailer right next door. It was our neighbor, right? So when he did that, I was scared. And I ran out of the trailer. I ran to my parents. I was crying and my mom took me to the doctor. The police were called and my dad came home and I was so afraid of my dad because he had such a bad temper like growing up. He was also a drinker, you know.

I mean, God bless him. I love him now. He doesn't drink. But I was always afraid that my dad was going to hurt me, right? Because I thought I did something wrong even though obviously. Obviously not. Obviously not. So it was all a big mess.

but I ended up taking it too. Sorry. Like this is, this really, really, really, really, really,

really bugs me. I don't know if I can put enough really's behind there. I got a daughter who's six and I'm probably a little over protective

because I hear stories like this and then I'm like, oh my God, like, how, like how did it, do you know how like the neighbor, like was he just friendly

and nobody suspected it or was it like, how did it happen the first time or how did it continue to happen? So the neighbor, he was actually, his name was Tom and he was, he was 17. He was actually considered a minor because he was below 18. So what he would do is like, I mean, first he gave me candy.

Like he, I remember he would give me stuff. And then he was like, oh, do you want to sit on my lap? And I was like, okay. So I would just sit on his lap. But he was giving me treats, right? Like, give me things. And then he's like, and then slowly he got me into his trailer. He did want to see my trailer.

Like, you know, I play forts. Like make forts when you're a kid, right? play doctor all these things so um you know i don't want to go it's because people are going to get so enraged if i even say what he did so i don't i don't mean to pull apart that part just more on like as a father i sit and i hear these stories and i'm like i don't think i'll ever allow that to happen but then i'm like but how does it happen right like is it this weird old guy and he lured jane no it's a 17 year old kid and it seems like honestly what you're pointing out is it it seems kind of almost harmless at the beginning because it's because it kind of was you know

I had Theo Fleurion once talking about just briefly what happened to him in hockey and like to me there's red flags everywhere and adults miss the red flags all over the place that's the only reason I'm I'm pulling out a little bit and I see your point because and that's the scary part is it could happen like how many times can you tell your kids don't talk to strangers don't talk to strangers. And I mean, Tom was my neighbor, right? And he was younger. He was just turning. He was almost 18. So, um, and I have to say, you know, this is why I am so adamant about shared bathrooms. I just, it's, it's so dangerous. It makes it so much more easier. And I, and I'm not saying that trans, like all transgender are doing something bad or that's going to happen.

It just makes it a lot easier. So that's why I just. plead with places like restaurants or bars or anything or just please or target like like a target or any of these dressing rooms just have a separate room at least have a separate like have men's women and unisex so that people all have a choice right so i mean i think what was it sexual assaults went up by i don't know how much percent in the states at target because of the dressing rooms right like people putting cameras underneath the the stalls and it's just you know And I don't feel comfortable. Like I remember when I was in New York City, they had shared bathrooms.

I don't want to go into a bar where there's alcohol and men in the bathroom with me. Yeah, you're just asking for trouble. Asking for trouble. And so, I mean, that's why I'm very adamant about keeping the bathrooms separate too, right? So because of my personal experience. So, but anyway, so that was kind of like the brewing pot of probably why I started getting into drinking. because I wanted to kind of get rid of my feelings. I had, you know, obviously a lot of fear or anxiety,

especially when I reached puberty, right? So I wanted to feel okay with myself and with boys. So I started drinking. And then fast forward, I probably probably was a full-blown alcoholic by 18. I did go to rehab in my early 20s, but that was way too early. Like that was, I was still in my partying stage.

But I had tried. And then just holding on that for a second, when you say it was way too early, like you just were like, oh, fucking I'm getting out of here. I'm going right back kind of thing. Like the mentality was like, I'm young. I'm getting out of here and I'm partying again. Yeah, no, I was like, what? I can't drink ever again.

I was like that's a, and that's the mistake, right? And that's what they teach you in Alcoholics Anonymous or any kind of program is don't look at it as a forever thing. just do it one day at a time. And that's what I do. I go each day. I just, I don't look far ahead.

Yeah. I like to plan in my life, but not my sobriety, right? I'm just like, hey, you know what? If I'm having a shitty day, I'm like, I'm owning my feelings.

And that's what keeps me sober is my emotional sobriety. It's like, hey, I'm feeling really mad right now. Why? So I do like an, I analyze myself and go, what's irritating me?

Whereas before, I would just get angry and say, oh, fuck it. Let's drink. I'm going to get hammered. like it was you know so it's a maturity thing for sure well listen through through COVID um yeah I sat and uh by the end it wasn't well I I I don't mean to paint an ugly picture that I was drinking all the time when I look back at it I was drinking I was so frustrated by the world and the

fact that um you know I I feel like maybe I'm wrong on this I used to be the guy who used to walk into a room and like, you know, I don't know, everybody wanted to kind of talk to you, you know? I don't know how to explain. I was just kind of like I was friendly. I would talk to everybody and, you know, and kind of popular, I guess is the way I would kind of look at it. It kind of feels weird to say that aloud. But in COVID, when you start bringing on doctors and lawyers and professors and really

aggravating the crowd, I would walk in and that that was gone. Like, I'm not saying nobody was happy to see it. There were certain people that are happy to see it, even to this day. There's other people that don't want to talk about. talk to you anymore and it's very uncomfortable like you can you can feel it in people's presence like oh that person knows exactly what i've been talking about and they want nothing to do with me and that's that takes a little bit of time to get over with and i used to um when you talk about drinking and masking i i just i'm just fuck it i'm just gonna have a beer so i was tired of fucking

worrying about the shit like i'm just over it i'm over worrying about and so instead of just being like you know i think of i think it's socrates folks know thyself like once you start to understand who you are and be okay with that, then you don't care what other people think, because it's just they haven't dealt with it yet, or they don't want to deal with it. But alcohol is this lovely thing, you know, as we sit here in October, we're doing sober October, or at least I am, there's a few others that are joining me. You know, one of the things is like, alcohol is a really good, does a really good job, just like when you want to mask emotions, you just take a sip.

And it's immediate, it works, it's effective. You know, if you don't overdo it, nobody knows. And so you just carry on. And now you don't, you know what, I'm pissed at this. And so you have a little bit. The problem with, I don't know, from my side was a little bit turned into more and then more turned into a lot. And, you know, it's not like seven days a week I was doing this.

But certainly in the dark days of COVID, it was more than less. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing. Like, when you talk about them asking, like that's what I used to. do all the time was mask of feeling but what people don't know obviously those feelings just reappear once you get sober right so um with me like towards towards the end and this is actually a fun fact i actually did all this so i got sober when i turned 40 i went into rehab and i did all of this stuff in my 40s so not only did i lose weight and get pretty buff probably my best shape ever

and crush it at worlds and do all this stuff and powerlifting That's pretty cool, actually. Anyone out there in your 40s that say, oh, well, I'm over the hill, screw that, you can do it. And I'll be on you for it because you can definitely do it. But I was a wine drinker, and I was like, you know how many women love wine? Well, I was drinking a box of wine a day, a night. A box of wine?

Is that as even possible? 4-liter box. And my doctor basically said, if you keep drinking the way you are, this is before I got sober. She's like, I gave you probably a year, a year and a half to live. What I didn't know was my body was slowly shutting down because I literally, like, I was, I was having seizures if I didn't have alcohol in my system. I was very dependent on it on a daily, it was like my medication, basically.

So if I didn't have it and I tried so hard to go through a day without it and I just needed it. I was shaking. I was sweating. I was throwing up I couldn't walk from say my car to the grocery store without literally projectile throw up

and I couldn't help it it was just it was it was horrible so anyways it was in 2018 that I just had tried so many times to wean myself off the alcohol that I was like

I wasn't working at that time I took some time off work and I ended up trying to commit suicide So I tried to take my own life. I overdosed on pills. And I woke up in the ICU unit on a breathing tube. So fucking, yeah, like, thank God if there is one that I'm alive today because, I mean. Oh, there is one.

Don't, don't kid yourself. There is one. And obviously. I don't know what. Obviously, obviously. Obviously, you had bigger things to do, you know. that's um that is wild i like think about that folks and i hope i heard this right so you're an alcoholic you go through rehab in your 20s you go fuck this because i think i i'm just like i get that i'm gonna

i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna find a way to get out of this so that i can just get back to what i was doing yeah you get to the point in your life where you can't go a day without drinking a box of wine which i didn't even know that was possible personally um but i i chuckle about it in in the sense of like, but I understand how you get to that point. But then you're at a point where you literally can't go a day without drinking because your body is revolting against you. And so you try

and take your life, that won't work. Now you've gotten sober to the point that you're a world-class athlete in your 40s. If that's ever a wake-up call to anyone that it doesn't matter where you're at and it stays your life, just get to it.

And all of a sudden, you can be like the best version of yourself. Yes. In a, in a, in a, almost like a snapshot of your life, you know, like, and just, it's going to take some work and some pain. Like, I don't mean to gloss over it. But think about it.

In 40 years of April's life, roughly, you know, that's where she'd gotten to. And then in a short brief stint after that, she's now a word class athlete on the top charts, traveling the world, competing in the best shape of her life and everything else. You're like, hmm, that's pretty freaking cool. Yeah, I know what I actually get a podcast going myself because I'm like just hearing that how you say it. I'm like, wow, that really inspires and motivates me because no, I just because I hate that. Like not only do I hate laziness, but I just hate people that are like, oh, well, you know, I used to do drugs or like I used to smoke cigarettes too. Oh my God.

I can't believe I used to smoke cigarettes. I just, I still can't believe it. Didn't we, didn't we all try it? Yeah. So it's like even my boyfriend's like he was, you look, first of all, I really. like you don't look your age, blah, blah, blah. I'm like 47 now. And he's like, I can't believe you look the way you do because you abused your body so bad.

Like I don't have wrinkles. I'm like, wow. Well, isn't the body, the human body just, I have a friend who tells me the human body is amazing. You know, and you're living proof of it because, you know, like all you got to do is relatively right and it will do wondrous things for you. You know, you think of how crappy we can be to ourselves and how much further we can come along if we just we start doing the right things. Yeah and my life right now is very simple. Like I literally, so I gained some weight. I mean, I've never been overweight, but I kind of gained

weight from powerlifting. I was just at my heavier stage. So I'm like, you know, I'm going to cut some weight. So I've already cut, like I've already lost about 10 pounds. But I'm just, my life is very simple to the fact where even when I eat, I just very simple. I, it's mostly not, I'm not a vegetarian, just very limited meat. I eat whole foods. I try to help. I, I try to someone every day because I mean that helps me with my sobriety helping people are doing volunteer work um like i said i'm not overly religious i do thank a higher power and i and i do my sports and i keep active it's just pretty simple and i just i laugh and i try to be loving that's that's my key to sobriety and if i feel upset i talk it out so if i'm mad or i'm sad or i'm stressed out i'll

call a friend or i'll talk to my boyfriend i just don't sit there and stew i make sure i work it out. You know, I'm really into meditating too and stuff. So just for anyone out there, if you ever have a shitty day, just know if things always work out, they always work out. It always will be different. Just give it time and don't drink. It's a, it's a cool little message, you know, honestly, when I, when I, when I, when I, when I stare at your story, I didn't know all that. Like, I mean, it's funny that, you know, like where you've got to in your life, where you're speaking out against the Federation and the The Federation's coming down on you and going like, you might be out of here and you're like,

think about what you, I don't know. Once again, I'm going to take a step back and I'm going to go think about this. And I hope I'm summarizing this right way. But here's a lady who pretty much had lost everything, right, given the life over to the point where she's going to take suicide as the way up. Now you've gained almost everything. Okay. You were at the top of your physical peak of everything.

you're competing, you're on the charts, you're there. And now you're going to speak out knowing that if you lose this, and once again, maybe I shouldn't put words in your mouth because I'd love your thoughts on this. I just look at this. I'm like, if you speak out, you could lose everything that has kept you sane and sober and everything else. And that's what it means to you, I think. And that's what it goes back to. Like you actually said you were kind of dabbling on the quote.

I think you said, Socrates, know thyself, yes. Yeah, so on the back of my AA coin, it says, to thine own self be true. So I don't know if that's the same quote, but that means, and why it's on the back of my coin from AA is because if I start lying or if I start being shady and I start doing bad things, right, like say morally wrong or whatever, or not being true to myself, I'm going to relapse. so that will make me drink eventually. Same with other things like resentments or whatever. But yeah, so basically I told my boyfriend this a long time ago. When I found out that Anne was competing, I wasn't sleeping. I was just a big wreck.

I actually sleep better now knowing like my Federation might suspend me because I'm doing the right thing. So I'd rather speak the truth and get suspended than say, oh, no, sorry, yeah, you're right. I'm wrong. Yeah, well, I think it's a good message to everybody. how well you can sleep when you're doing the right thing. And you just, you know, people don't agree with you, that's fine. Like to yourself, you know, you're at peace with yourself. Essentially is what you're saying.

And here's some information on your quote. To thine own self be true is a well-known proverbial expression, which means be true to yourself or don't do anything that would go against your true nature. It first appeared in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. There you go. So Shakespeare's Hamlet. That's where it's saying, good old Google. We'll see if it's bang on.

I'm sure a few different people have different. I bet scripture will come through the text line, but I'm sure it probably appears in a few different things, but leave it to the back of a coin in AA to have a little Shakespeare sitting there for you. Before I let you out of here, let's do the Crude Master final question. And I think I get a feel for where you're heading, but maybe you'll surprise me here. It's Heath McDonald's words.

He said, if you're going to stand behind a cause, stand behind it absolutely. what's one thing April stands behind? Well, just what I, what I've been fighting for, I stand for fairness of women's sports, women and girls' sports. And if any of the listeners or watchers wanted to get one of those lovely hoodies you're wearing right now, female XX, keep female sports female,

or they want to support you in any way, what's the best way to help you along? I don't know if you tell me, Do you have expenses coming in? Are you just trying to raise awareness? Could you give us a little, maybe a little bit of information that way? Yeah, so a couple weeks ago, I partnered up with a local company, hustle clothing company.

He's a big believer in my cause and keeping female sports female. So I gave him this logo and I said, hey, can he make some sweatshirts? And he actually said, oh, you know, I'm not going to, you're going to charge you. You'll just get it at stock. And so I'm like, you know, everything that you make on these sales is going to go to my legal fund. So my legal fund is basically my lawyer fee. So I've had a lawyer sent a letter a couple months ago to my federation. I don't know if many people know, but a letter from a lawyer costs about $4,000, depending on how much work they put into the letter.

I just sent out another one two weeks ago, another $4,000. my women's groups have been helping me with costs, but I obviously want to contribute. And so, yeah, any of the funds, if you do buy a hoodie or if you do buy a T-shirt, I think we have stickers coming so you put them on your water bottles, hats and stuff like that. There is a link in my Instagram account in my bio to where to order them. There's also a link in my Twitter account where you can directly send funds to my PayPal. So other way, it does go towards my fight against my federation. And then if I'm sitting in Western Canada, can I order a hoodie and have a ship here?

I assume yes. Yes, yes. Cool. Oh, yeah, we actually, when we first put out the link, we had people from Panama, Europe. We've sold, I mean, we sold only like 30 or 35 so far. But if there's anyone local, like close to London, Ontario, I also have some that I can actually give to you. like in person or I can I just send it in like regular mail whatever. So yeah, there's more stuff to come.

But that's basically, yeah, all the money I've been using this for my lawyer. So I might end up suing them. I have to wait to see how they have the panel on the 18th of October. And that's when they decide if they're going to suspend me. So I'll keep you posted on that one. Yeah, please do. I mean, obviously there's going to be more people falling along with you and trying to find you and if they hadn't already.

And certainly me falling on Twitter now, we'll be paying attention. October 18th, you said. Yeah. Oh, I'm sure I'll be posting it, you know. It's going to make them like horrible. Like, it's just going to go crazy. So, like, I'll be shocked if they do, quite shocked.

But we'll see how, see what happens. I want to start prepping for my next competition. So I don't even know if I'm going to be competing. So that's, again, creates. a lot of anxiety and it's psychological abuse at the end of the day, right? So, but fingers cross, I don't. Well, I appreciate you hopping on and doing this. And I don't know, I'll, I've got your contact info. I assume, you know, there will be some thoughts come through via the text line about your story and hearing some of what you've talked about because it's, we've

gone the full gambit this morning. Either way, I appreciate you hopping on and doing this and we'll be paying attention, you know, as the 18th looms. I mean, what is that? That's not far away at all. And be paying attention, you know, as things progress here in the future. Yeah, and I just want to add before you go, if anyone wants to shoot me a private message, I'm always, like, I'm actually that person that I check my spam folder because I get a lot of messages in there that I would miss, right? And I get messages from people saying, hey, I have a daughter. Thank you for standing up for women. So send me a message. Speak up. up or if you have a question also if you yourself or you know anyone struggling with addictions

I would love to help you send you a message and I can help you with that too thank you so much again April for hopping on and well we'll see what the audience has to say I'm sure they'll have a few different thoughts but either way have a great day and thank you again for for hopping on the set yeah thank you so much Sean