Shaun Newman Podcast - #574 - Leighton Grey

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

He is a senior partner and lawyer at Grey Wowk Spencer LL. with a Ph.D. in Philosophy & host of the Grey Matter Podcast. We discuss the Emergency Act being “unreasonable”, Tucker Carlson in Alberta and the AJHL.  Let me know what you think. Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcastE-transfer here: [e-mail] Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/ Email: [e-mail] Phone [phone] – general sales line, ask for Grahame and be sure to let us know you’re an SNP listener.

This is Danielle Smith. This is Tammy Peterson. This is Alex Kraner. This is Curtis Stone. This is Tom Longo, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Friday. Okay.

We're going to start here. Then I'll have my thoughts on Tucker. Then we'll get you into the show today, where we're going to talk about Tucker and a bunch of other things with Layton Gray. Okay. First, Silver Gold Bull. They're running a limited time promo. I was telling you guys about this, that you can,

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to your doorstep like it's it's pretty freaking slick and i got to get my hats off silver gold bull um uh the group there got me and mel second row last night so we got to go um sit second row for Tucker Carlson. And I was pretty sure Jordan Peterson was making it to Eminton, but until it happens, you're kind of like, is he actually going to be there, right? So, you know, in Emmington, you walked into the VIP. I don't know.

How many of you have been in VIP before? I guess I've never really got to experience that. So I walked in and you're sitting there and you're kind of, okay, yeah, and this is kind of interesting and definitely knew a few people. and then in walks Tucker Carlson, Conrad Black, Jordan Peterson, and Daniel Smith. I'm like, holy crap. You know, it's like, how do I get just five minutes to tell you who I am to try and get you two on?

Because I've had two of them on, right? Needless to say, I've had different people. Any closer to getting Jordan Peterson? No. Like, I mean, no. I wish I could be like, ah, I just had this great sales pitch. You know what I had? I had an awkward handshake with Jordan Peterson.

Peterson, that's what I got. Daniel Smith said, hey, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, oh, oh, right? And, and then I went, it was just a weird, you know, and you're like, ah, I could have, I could have done that like 10, 12, you know, whoops. Anyway, so I had an awkward handshake with them, but, uh, regardless, that was super cool. So, behind the scenes, that was super cool. Um, this episode, also, I'll get to a couple other talk or thoughts here in a second.

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Then the show. Okay. Daniel Smith in Calgary. I hear had an interesting exchange with Tucker, and you'll hear about that through Layton on the Coots 4. Oh, man. Been bad a little cold, folks. And then, so Daniel opened up the night, and she was good.

You know, politicians always love to talk too much. That's, this is, like, take 12 minutes, turn it into four. You can do this. I know you can. But she did say she wanted a double. the oil production. Found that very interesting. Then Tucker had his 40-minute

roughly keynote speech and it was a banger. I wish I'd filmed it all, you know? I kind of felt like I was pirating a movie by putting your camera up, but like he was excellent. You know, when you get to see a person in, uh,

I don't know, live in color, man, alive. He just spit fire for 45, 50 minutes had the crowd laughing was just the entire crowd was just engaged you know and rogers place was packed like it was it was it was it was a surreal night and then to have all three of them come up on stage and one of them be jordan peterson so you know you have jordan preterson and tucker carl's on stage you're like oh man how did we luck out alberta like you know rex murphy i hope he gets better like i wish him all i wish him well but him bowing out because of health reasons and having

Jordan Peterson there? Huh. Like, holy dinah. And it was that. It was back and forth, and it was great. Now, Conrad Black, as you listened to a couple episodes ago,

he was part of the Wef for 20 years, he thinks Justin Trudeau is a nice guy and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is my, this is my criticism of the entire night. I think if you're going to moderate, you moderate, which means you step out of the way

and you let Peterson and Tucker talk. But it was three, they needed. a moderator for the three of them. Does that make sense? You know, like Conrad wanted to talk. Didn't make the night bad. Conrad has a lot to say. I did find it funny when he said, you know, Christy Friedland isn't a bad person. And he got booed, right? And I felt like he maybe changed his gears, you know, just ever so slightly after that, went, oh, maybe this isn't the crowd I thought it was. I don't know if that's true or not. That's just my eyes and my ears

what I saw. But like my criticism of the entire night, which isn't much because it was a phenomenal night is the moderator at times you know like if you're one of the panelists right Peterson Tucker definitely panelists they're they're there to hear them talk Conrad is the emcee that the negotiator of the middle to pick up on something that he said oh what do you mean by that you know I hope I do this well that's that's what I think of when I get up on stage no matter who I'm with my thought is I'm here to facilitate their conversation and to try and pull some things out that I'm hearing. I don't think, what do I think?

And at times you can interject with your thoughts. But overall, I think we're all there to hear Tucker Carlson. And when Jordan Peterson gets thrown in as the added sweetener, you're like, oh, and I'll listen to Jordan Peterson to see what he has to say. And so that would be my only criticism. Other than that, it was a great night. And then I was only disappointed by one thing. He gave the final remark, Conrad Black, gave the final remark to Jordan Peterson.

And I don't know what the rest of the audience thought, but as soon as he said it, I'm I went, uh-huh. Like, I'm here to see Tucker. Don't get me wrong. I want Jordan to have a final say too. But throw it back to Tucker and let him have the final work. There's my thoughts on the entire night. Now, for what we did, and I'll let you get on and we'll get on in the episode. But for what we did, you know, I got to give a ton of shout out. I should have gotten an applause for last night and I apologize. But Tara Anderson did a ton of work. You know, there was a, uh, the Mitchells donated. some money to a bus. So we had a bus go from

Lloyd to Eminton, which was unreal. 56 people jammed in. We hammered down there. Had a nice meal out, took her wives. And it was just a healthy night. I even got stopped. This was a cool, this was a super cool experience.

Got stopped, and I forget your name and I apologize. Stopped at the end of the show. He said, hey, Sean, could I take your picture with your wife? And Melo was like, oh, no, I'll just take your pictures. And he's like, well, if it's all right, I'd like to take a picture of you two.

And you could tell Mel was kind of like, I guess, and she's like, well, Sean's always talking about, you know, like, marital values and like how much he loves you and all these different things. And I guess I was just like, man, that's super cool. Because although Mel hears it from me all the time, and I don't think she listens to every episode by any stretch, for the audience to pick up on that, my hat's off to all you fine folks, because that really was a cool moment of the night alongside meeting so many different people, the entire experience, the VIP room,

getting to take a picture with them, and then having Mel come along with me. It was just a fun night. And, you know, does it all of a sudden mean we're out of anything? No, Coots 4 is still locked up. You know, like, I mean, there's a lot of things sitting there, you know,

the whole, well, I don't know. I can go on and on and on. It's I'm at nine minutes. You wanted my thoughts. People were asked my thoughts on last night. I thought it was an excellent night. I would love to see more of it. And I hope whenever the next SMP presents comes,

that we can bring something to the table that makes people want to come to it. And yeah, that's where I'd leave it. And I would give one last final shutout to Tara Anderson for organizing all the people onto the bus and getting us there back and just doing a wonderful job to everybody who came on the bus because that was a ton of fun.

That was a lot of fun. So let's get on to that. tale of the tape. He's a senior partner and lawyer at Gray, Woke, Spencer, L.L., with a PhD in philosophy and host of the Gray Matter podcast. I'm talking about Layton Gray. So buckle up. Here we go.

Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Layton Gray. So, Layton, thanks for hopping on. And short notice, I might add. My pleasure. Now, we have a lot to cover today. I moved a whole bunch of things around on my schedule because I'm like, oh my God, like so many things have

happened here in the last couple days. And I'm like, okay, where do I want to start? I think, I think I just want to start with Tucker Carlson for a second. He was in, he was in Calgary. You were in Calgary. Then he was in Rogers Place. I was in Rogers Place. What did you think of, let's just start there. What did you think of it? Well, I have to say, I attended the Calgary event. I was fortunate to be included in the VIP group because of, I happen to be the lawyer for Take Back, Alberta. Florida and some people, I'm sure some of yours may like or dislike Mr. Parker, but he happens to be a friend of mine and I admire his word very much. So it was a pleasure to be there, first of all. I did get a chance to meet Jordan Peterson, which was lovely.

I got a very nice introduction, very generous introduction by the Premier to Tucker Carlson. She introduced me as a lawyer who had represented pastors who had been jailed in our province. And of course, you probably know this, Sean, but Tucker covered those stories extensively when he was at Fox. And so I got a very hearty handshake from him. He actually said, God bless you. Because he is, as he said, in his speech in Calgary, he's a very devout Christian. So that was very nice. And also I got to meet Lord Conrad Black, who actually said that he liked the commentary recently did on his new book, which was very, very nice. And he said that he thought I was the best dressed man at the party.

So that means a lot coming from Conrad Black. So that was fun. But overall, I left there feeling like I left a pep rally. It was a very exciting event. I really enjoyed it. The only part of it I found a little bit disillusioning, and I mentioned this on our next live stream that I had last night, I wasn't very pleased with the Premier's answers

when she was asked about Coots by Tucker. I thought those answers were kind of squishy. I think, and I've said publicly, and I would say to her, I think she needs to do more. She has the power to release those men. She has the ability to, to, well, let's, let's, let's, so that's, that's my view. I got to ask then more about that because when we, sure, sure, coots four. Yeah. The, the thing, I hear me being the guy without the degrees and everything else, I go, you know, like,

she got her hand slapped the last time she started to stick her nose into some legal affairs in the judicial system. you say she can do more. Yeah. Well, it's interesting, Layton. I get to sit with the premier here in a couple days. And I'm going, everybody seems to be talking about the coupes for, especially now that the emergencies act was ruled or, you know, unjust, not justifiable, all these different things. Correct.

And you go, hmm, interesting. So when you say she can do more, what can the premier do to people who are being held at the remand? Well, what she said when she was asked by Tucker Carlson, she said that her wings had been clipped because of the Archer-Plovsky affair. And she also referenced the fact that the criminal code is federal law. And so it's somehow outside of her jurisdiction. And with the greatest respect to her, that simply isn't true. The reality is that criminal code offenses in Alberta, and in most of the provinces, to my knowledge, are through an agreement with the federal government, criminal code offenses are prosecuted by. the provinces. So here's what I know about the Coots for. They are in a provincial court. They are

being prosecuted by a provincial prosecutor who is in the employee of the Alberta Department of Justice. I won't say his name here to protect his privacy, but I'll say he is the self-same man whom I dealt with when I was dealing with Timothy Stevens and Ty Northcott and many others. So he was a COVID prosecutor and he is in the employee. His boss is Mickey Amory, the Minister of Justice, who is a lawyer, and he works for the Premier. So when I say that she has the power to do something, legally she does have the power to do something? The question is, does she feel like she has the political will, the political leeway to stick her neck out and do the right thing? And what I would say to her, she says, well, you know, I got my wings clipped. I'll get my knuckles

wrapped if I, if I weighed in here. Well, everybody and his dog knows or ought to know that essentially what's happening to the coupes for is a political prosecution, okay? Correct. And it has a political solution. Those men were arrested and they're being held because they embarrassed Premier Kenny. Premier Kenny is the same man, by the way, who signed on to the Emergencies Act, like all the other premiers, when it was invoked by Justin Trudeau. And I realized that he's no longer the premier, but it's his party that Daniel Smith leads now. And I think, think the real problem, not to throw rocks at her, the real problem here is that there are people within the UCP, within the premier's government, who are still loyal to Jason Kenney, including her

chief of staff. And they, so they are the ones, I think, who are driving this thing. And when I say she has the ability to do more, I think there is the political will there for her to step in, and at the very least, agree to their bail, to their judicial interim release. That's something that Mickey Amory could do and I think it should be done. I think it's wrong and shameful and disgraceful that these men have been held for more than two years without bail and without a trial. Well, I don't think, I don't think you're going to get any argument out of me when it comes to the coupes for and how they're being held and everything else. One thing I would, just me looking at it from afar, as soon as she makes one phone call, like, isn't she like

going to face the same critics and everything else saying she's trying to circumvent the rule of law and everything else, not to mention she could just be like, well, right now the rule of law is being circumvented by these guys being held for as many days as they have been. But like that seems to be the attack she's trying to dodge right now, right? Like, uh, if I make that phone call and say, hey, maybe we should look at releasing these guys. Then they're going to say, all the premier is, is calling in favors and whatever else they're going to say. Um, that's what she's just, but aren't you saying in the same moment though, Sean, that those men, the fact that they've been arrested and they're being prosecuted, that aren't you then saying that what's happened to them

is an expression, the proper expression of the rule of law? Because if that's what you're saying, then you and I are going to have an argument. I think what's happening to them is a perversion of the rule of law. They are being held because of a political process because they embarrass Jason Kenney. That's why they're there. Let's cut through the crap. That's why they're there. That's why they're being arrested. That's why they haven't had bail. Listen, it is highly unusual, thankfully, very, very peculiar in our province, in our country to have men held for more than two years without a trial and without bail. That's really unusual. And, you know, to say that, you know, we cannot go in and correct something that is unjust because that's going to offend the rule of law. To me,

I'm sorry, I'm just not buying them. To me, we can argue all you want. To me, I think if I was like, okay, Sean puts on the premier hat, you know, it's like, okay, well, let's let's let them out. Like, I mean, let's just let them out, right? I mean, like, we could go down the rabbit hole of all the people who are doing some pretty horrendous stuff who get let out pretty darn quick. Yeah. And these guys have been rotten behind the bars. And it's like, let's just let them out.

Like, I mean, at this point, uh, I think that, that should be done. I just looking at it from, you know, when I look at the, what the Premier is trying to talk about, it's like, I can't figure out how easy it is. She picks up and makes one phone call and they're out. Or is it like, no, the person who needs to let them out is the minister of this. Yeah, minister, which I mean, Mickey Amory. So it's Mickey Amory. Mickey Amory is the, is the, is the guy. I mean, I get it. I get it for. But he, but he works for Albertans. He works for Albertans. Yeah. And, and, and, And Daniel Smith is his boss, right?

So you go, she should pick up the phone and go, listen. And we're her boss. Right. And so I mean, ask Albertans what they want. Yeah, they haven't done that. It's late. Come on. Come on.

You're putting common sense in this show. We don't allow that here. We don't allow that here. Sorry. No, it's, to me, I just, I think it's time we held everybody to account, right? We probably well overdue. But you look at it and you go, Mickey Amory, right? Correct.

Yeah. Like, I mean, at some point, maybe some people got to show up to his office and put a little heat on him. Yeah, exactly. At some point, if it's under his, like, if it's his, what the heck am I trying to, his file, his, his purview, his job to look at this. It's like, how the heck haven't we done this yet? Like, let's get to the, let's finish this off. And this is what I'm really criticizing, Sean, when I heard the premier say yesterday, yes, I really feel for the Coots for, but there isn't anything I can do about. it. That's the part I don't buy. Yes, a lot you could do about it. If you really wanted to,

and if you're willing to stick your neck out, if you're willing to do the right thing. Let me give an example. A lot of people criticized Ron DeSantis for some of the steps that he took in terms of, you know, setting limitations on Soji in schools in Florida. A lot of voters didn't like that in that state. A lot of he was criticized for, you know, singling out Disney for some of the things that they were doing. You know, Donald Trump, when he was president in the U.S., that did some things that upset a lot of people. But he ruled by conviction. He governed by conviction. He did the things that he thought that the people who voted him and supported him, the people he represented, that what they would have wanted him to do. And I think

that's what Danielle needs to do. I'm very concerned that, you know, we're getting sort of this squish conservative governance in our province. It's very reminiscent of Jason Kenny. And that's not what she was elected to do. And her base, uh, when you, when you talk to them, a lot of the people who supported Danielle out in the rural places like Bonneville and Cold Lake where I live, uh, they're a little bit dissolution. They expected more. And this kind of squish conservatism where, you know, I'm already campaigning to be elected the next time. Uh, I just don't think that. Well, and the fact that we're supposed to be the, the, the Texas of the north, if you would, the, the free thinking, you know, um, gun, toting, etc.

etc. And yet we have political prisoners who've been in jail now for 700 plus days. Yeah, yeah. Right? You know, it's like something doesn't add up there. So I'm, hey, what did you think of? One of the things that was different Calgary to Eminton is in Eminton, Daniel Smith didn't get interviewed by Tucker. She came out and did a nice, you know, eight minute speech, maybe 12 minute speech. I thought, honestly, if I'm being. critical. I'm like, she could have trimmed it up by five minutes myself. But regardless, it was, you know, it was, yeah, it was premier in the middle of Eminton talking the way she does. But she's a fantastic, gifted orator. But overall, from an Eminton standpoint, Tucker Carlson

was straight fire. And Conrad back, Black got booed when he said, Christia Freeland's a nice lady. That that stirred up the crowd real fast. And I think Tucker, if I'm quoting him correctly, called Christia Freeland, a Nazi midget. And that got the applause of the crowd too. So I mean, it was, if you didn't make it to, I'm going to move on from Tucker, but I do appreciate the comments on Daniel Smith and getting interviewed by her because I'd heard one of the things from people who went to both shows was the, the Coots conversation was a little bit awkward, like she didn't didn't want to talk about it. And in fairness,

it's a blemish rate now on Alberta, right? That we got 700 days of four guys being in there. And, you know, I think most of us, especially on this side of things, through this show,

now that you've, you know, you started to examine all the stuff. You're like, well, this is why the Emergency Act gets invocated. Yes.

And the Emergency Act just got told it was, you know, not justified. That's right. And you're like, well, let's pull this.

all the way back down then and go okay this needs to end it needs to end like yesterday probably 655 days ago you know like 700 days ago I wanted to talk to you about this emergencies act right they're saying you know like two two thoughts right now one is I'm like holy crap I did not see that coming I did not see that headline coming I want to do a you know a victory lap of the building and as soon as I say that then somebody's like Sean, it's not over. This is just a side show.

This isn't that big of a deal. And I'm like, not that big of a deal. A judge just said it wasn't justified. This is huge. Layton, am I losing my mind or am I missing something? Is it a side show to something that I'm not paying attention to? I thought your thoughts on this would be much needed. Well, it's a very important case.

I think it's a landmark case. And people should understand this is not some right-wing, judge. This is a man, a 74-year-old man. He's a liberal appointment. And actually, he said very frankly that going into it before he actually looked at the evidence and decided the case, he sort of had the presumption that the government had acted correctly and that they had met all the requirements of the Emergency Act. So he actually, when he went to look at the evidence, you know, he had to be persuaded. And I say that in part to say this. People need to understand that originally this was an application for what's called a motion to strike.

So the other side, the governor of Canada, actually didn't want the judge to ever look at the facts of the case. They tried to argue that this should be thrown out entirely. Then they tried to argue, they tried to use the mootness argument, which was used successfully in the mobility case involving Brian Peckford and Maxine Bernier. Judge wouldn't have any of that. When the judge finally looked at the facts and the law and applied them, correctly, rationally, there was no other conclusion that could be met, other than that,

number one, the federal government exceeded its authority under that statute. Now, this is really important, okay, because they use this doctrine of ultra-virus, which is the same argument that we use successfully in Ingram. This is really important for people to understand. This is not a technicality. The federal government exists, they are entrusted by us to govern us according to the law, according to the Constitution. The federal government created a law,

Emergencies Act, which grants the government extraordinary powers. Unbelievable, there's no law that they could write that could grant them more power than this one. And this judge found they even exceeded that. That's how much of an overreach this was. So that's really important for people to understand.

More than that, the court here went further than the court did in Ingram in the Alberta case to say, that Section 2B of the Charter was violated. It's freedom of expression and Section 8 of the Charter, which protects Canadians from unreasonable search and seizure. And this is all the bank accounts, right, that people talked about. And the judge said, look, this was completely offside, unprecedented,

and completely unjustified. So what this amounts to, the proper word for this, is it's illegal. So what we have in Ottawa is a government that has established a pattern of behaving illegally. When I say illegal, I mean they have no respect for the Constitution. They exceeded their authority in terms of the pipeline law. You remember that was set aside recently last year. They exceeded their authority in relation to plastics. And now they exceeded their authority in a way that impacted every single Canadian.

You know, Sean, you were there. You live through the excessive force that was used by your own government against Canadians who were there peacefully protesting. And to make matters worse, just to demonstrate how little this federal government has regard for our own law within 30 minutes after this decision was released, here comes Christia Freeland coming out and saying, we're going to appeal. What does Stephen Jebos say about the pipelines case? What does he say about the plastic decision?

Oh, that's nice. The court says that, but that's just an opinion. It's not just an opinion. The courts perform an essential function, which is to be a constitutional check on government overreach. And they've done it now just three times in recent cases. And in recent cases, and this government doesn't have any regard for that. They don't think that they're governed by law.

We talked earlier about the coupes for and the rule of law. What we have with the Trudeau government is not rule of law, it's rule by law. The law is whatever they say it is. And they don't care what the courts say. They don't care what the provinces say. They certainly don't care what we say or how it affects us. So this is a very, very hugely important case. And I'll say one more thing about it.

It casts a shadow over every single thing that the Trudeau government has done, not only in the COVID era, but dating all the way back. to 2015. What we have in Ottawa is a government that is not working for us. They're working according to a particular agenda that does not serve Canadians, does not serve our interests, it does not help us feed our families, it doesn't help us do our jobs, doesn't protect our health, it exposes us to international calamity, and they act contrary to the Constitution. So what are we to make of this government that we've elected? What are we to make of them? Well, there's only one word. There's only one word that we can use. And that is they, and I use this this carefully,

but this government governs itself, conducts itself in a way that is contrary to law and that is illegal. Some might call that criminal. I'm not saying that they violated the, the criminal law, but, but here, there's no question in my mind. There is a pattern of illegality that runs from the prime minister who has five times been, has been convicted of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, highlighting the parliamentary ethics, which is unprecedented for any prime minister in this country. And we have a series of a pattern of behavior by this government where they behave in a way that's illegal. So what are we to make of that government? And that this is what this is the things that the courts now, this is the question of courts that our courts are grappling with.

And thank goodness that they are finally. Because many people that I talk to have been questioning the fairness and the impartiality of our, of our courts. in our judges. And some confidence, public confidence has been lost in our courts in the COVID era. You know this, Sean. You talk to people. And when we have decisions like this, I think it's very important that we have judges who are doing this and applying the law correctly because if we lose confidence in our

system of justice, wow, that's one of the boxes that you check on the road to become a partner. Well, this is why I was so, I don't know, I almost thought it was a joke, you know, when When you, I can't be reading that right, right? Mm-hmm. National Post. What, what? Mm-hmm.

Right? Like, that's how dark of a day it has been in Canada when you see a headline that makes sense. Mm-hmm. You're like, this can't be real. Mm-hmm. That's, that's where the time and age we're living in in Canada. When you're like the rule of law and undermining all of it's undermined. You've heard my thoughts on this many a time.

Like, I don't trust at this point, you know, pretty much anything. government institution i'm kind of like hmm i'm wary up right so to have an a ruling like this come out and me and the brothers were talking about you you're exactly right on the judge right like you almost go it's a slam dunk they're going to say no it was justified to move on and and not and for him to come out and say all those things you're like holy man i think about that like i don't know maybe you weren't surprised by it late and i i sure was i was surprised i was surprised because you know last week This is the court that came out and announced that lawyers like me would have to go into that courtroom and announce my gender pronouns. And they were going to, you know, I was going to have to listen to indigenous land acknowledgments.

I don't even get me started in that. But so I had lost, and this is the same court that during the pandemic, the judges came out and they posted a meme saying how proud they were that every single one of them had been vaccinated. And lawyers like me have to go before the judges of that court to fight vaccine mandates. imposed by governments and large corporations. So I had lost a lot of faith in the federal court until, you know, Judge Mosley came out with this one. But as I said, it's part of a pattern here. And I'm praying that this pattern is going to continue, not only because I have a number of cases

before the federal court, but on behalf of Canadians, I think we have to restore some confidence in our courts. And in order for that to happen, we have to have decisions that make sense to people like you and not necessarily to lawyers, but to everyday Canadians, we need our courts to make decisions that make sense to them, that sound rational, that are consistent with the public will of what our expectations are of government. And so this needs to happen more than it is right now in our country. Yeah, it's, it's, it's been a long time since you, you read something in the headline that wasn't, you know, that I literally mean it is a main,

stream headline where you're like, oh my God. It is like maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. Like, you know, maybe the clouds are part and we're going to see some sunshine here for a day or two. I don't want to give too much hope. You know, like, but the same time, a little bit of shot out. Shut, man, that felt pretty good in the old arm, you know. Oh, yeah.

Is that vitamin D? I thought we weren't supposed to take that, you know? Like, I was, I would be very shocked and surprised if the government falls through with its threat to appeal this case, at least. and to argue the appeal. That would be very, very risky for them. What does this mean for everybody who went to the convoy to, like, does this have ramifications across?

You know, you look at your Ingram case and how everything just starts falling off. Yeah. Right. Is this going to be the same thing with this? I think, well, there's a lot of damage control. Of course, Chris, your feeling coming out announcing the appeal was really trying to stick a piece of bubble gum in a dam that's bursting because obviously it exposes, it exposes the government and lots of other entities, including the Ottawa City Police,

to civil liability because we have what, I mean, everything that was done to the Freedom Convoy participants is fundamentally illegal. So there's, we're talking billions and billions of dollars. I noticed that the lawyers are bringing this, this scandalous class action against Freedom Convoy participants in Ottawa. They came out and they were in full damage control mode as well. I think this punches a huge, hole in that in that case I don't know how they're going to make out that that that that class action they better be is that is that um who's leading that one paul yeah that's that's the one that's named to mary leach and others and yes Chris barber to just uh you know ridiculous level of

the numbers is like a hundred guillian dollars or something I think it's I think it's 400 million isn't it yeah it's just crazy so so that's a serious problem but you know the other issue that it raises is, as I said, it calls into question absolutely everything that this government did on COVID. And it will have an impact, I predict, on every single case like this that is before the courts, especially in the federal court. One example is, as you know, my firm is prosecuting a class action on behalf of unvaccinated Canadians. And that action is brought against the federal government saying that the federal government violated their charter rights and committed torts that violated their you know their their their their their their personal security and

well-being um and so uh to to think this case is not going to impact other cases like that that are before the courts i think uh is is is is ludicrous it's fanciful of course um there you know i won't be surprised by any arguments that the government the federal government lawyers bring out But I think that this case is, you know, I would call it a landmark case. And I think based upon my reading of it, I don't see how, I don't see how an appeal could be successful unless it were a situation where we had bias exercised by the judges in the Court of Appeal. I think based upon and that's just not that's not just my opinion. I've listened to some of the commentaries of people like Bruce Party and others who are very, very competent legal scholars in this country. And they all agree with me.

This is a very solid, well-reasoned decision that is not likely to be overturned on appeal. And if the federal government did proceed with the appeal and they lost, oh my goodness, you've got a really serious problem. I can't believe that the Supreme Court of Canada is going to break their silence on COVID over this case. To date, they haven't heard a single case on COVID. They've refused jurisdiction to hear anything. So I can't believe that they would break their silence in order to bail out the Trudeau government. that seems to me wishful, wishful thinking at this stage because these guys are sinking,

these guys are sinking like a stone right now. Yeah, get your pails, boys, we got to go bail out the boat. She's a sinking, you know? Like,

holy dinah, it's going down in a heap. It can't go down fast enough, in my opinion. But, you know, you mentioned, I completely forgot about this.

You know, the having to say your, your pronouns in the court of law. This is about it. This is not new. It's happened in British Columbia. It's not strictly enforced. Not all judges forced lawyers to do it, but the judges actually have the ability to pass regulations concerning the conduct of cases before the courts. And it is significant that the federal court is doing this because essentially it's enforcing or it's invocating and making part of its own process the political ideology of the federal government. It hasn't happened in Alberta. yet and I'm thankful for that, but, you know, I wouldn't rule it out. But I, it is very concerning. I have to tell you for somebody, hey, like myself or let's say a James Kitchen, who are Christians, who not only do not agree with woke ideology and gender pronouns, but regard them as fundamentally

illogical, irrational, and evil, it's, you know, we're going to be really grappling with this. So if we have to go in front of a judge in front of a court and provide pronouns, having said that, I did some research. I found over 100 pronouns. And I think I know which one I'm going to use if I'm put to it. And? Every man. Because that's who I represent.

You know what, we were talking this morning at our men's group about what did you learn from Tucker Carlson? And he said, you just have to laugh at them. Like, you know, like this is absurd. Sometimes you just need to laugh at them. They hate laughter. It's like, man, you're probably right. A little bit of humor on, on, on the insanity would be probably a good thing at this moment.

Oh, yeah. And you know, he says some things every once in a while that really strike you. One of the ones he said is that Canada's lost all of our comedians. And I didn't, I just, yeah, wow, he's right. Like, where are the Jim, where are the Jim Carries? You know, where, where are, where are SCTVs? You know, we don't have any John Candies and Eugene Levy's like, you know. In fairness, where did all the journalists go?

Where did everybody go, right? Like, I mean, they went left. Well, it's, it's, that, that one, uh, coming from, from, um, American is like, well, I mean, we all, we're being controlled by the institutions that is so just absolutely corrupt from top to bottom, which is, you know, our Hollywood, is industry, the TV, the, the, the radio, the newspaper, everything like on the, on the scale of Canada is corrupted. I mean.

So where are they all? Well, they got to walk in line, just like how every other institution's having to walk Layton. Like, I mean, it's pretty, where are the comedians? Well, they're making jokes about something that's not offensive, which I mean, goes counteractive to a comedian, right? I mean, they're out there. They're coming back.

I guarantee we're going to have some bangers here in the next couple of years because there's going to be programs like this and yours and others that are going to allow them on. Jeez, what a wild thought, you know? Well, I certainly, I would love. to see what a comedian would make of our prime minister and his is the way he was clapping for those girls at that at that women's if you haven't seen that video folks that is like I'm like he must have said something to his kids right like I and it must be an insight because I'm like I watched it like 10 times I'm like what is he doing? Did you see the F. Trudeau chant they had going in the

Oh yeah and the UFC. The UFC. Oh my goodness. Yeah. It's Dana. white getting questioned and him just laying it down about having a leash on his people. Oh my God. I was just, once again, I'm like, this is, this is, this is, this is beautiful for Canada to have these, these dissenting voices come in and, and really, you know, stir it up. And it's just all these extremists coming in and all, yeah, it's all that, that fighting crowd. And all they're just bad. You're like, oh, get off your high horse. Just listen to what he's saying.

Yeah. Right. I mean, one of the things you got to love about the UFC. And one of the, you know, I, I, I know, I, I know, I, I know, he's. took back, he took back Bud Light or whatever. And that one drove me nuts. One of the things I give Dana White real credit on is he allows Sean Strickland to come out and say his piece.

And then the winner of the, the women's division that night's a lesbian. You're like, man, he just, he just, you know, we're just going to let them all play up. Let's just, let's just go. That's, that's diversity. Isn't it? Yeah. She, she is a, that person is a UFC athlete who happens to be a lesbian.

But the fact that she's a lesbian, that's not who she is. Correct. That's part of her personality. That's a lifestyle choice that she's made. That may be part of who she is, but that's not who she is. That's not what defines her. She's a world class athlete who competes in the UFC. And that's all Dana White.

I wonder if Dana White's going to allow a man in that division. Brock Lesnar identifies as a woman for a day and goes in. I hope not. That happened a few years ago, remember? and the poor girl nearly got was killed was that ufc though i'm not sure it was ufc i know it was it was the same type of uh of uh you know open fisted fighting uh yes i'm not sure if it was ufc i shouldn't say that because i'm not sure if it was i want to say it wasn't ufc and i have this feeling that dana white won't allow that to happen but uh it's you know with the amount of men competing in

women's sports these days uh it just seems like it's coming to a an arena near you awfully soon you and what a, well, I mean, bizarre, bizarre time to be alive. You know, talking about arenas. Can we talk about the H.J.HL for a second? Sure. Like, you, I got, I got the Drayton Valley jersey hanging in the garage, right? Yeah. So I'm like, I was, is Leighton going?

No, Leighton's not going. Okay. Brooks, Spruce Grove, Ocotokes, Blackfolds, Sherd Park. That's right. Those five. Five teams. If you haven't heard this, folks, five AJHL teams are leaving after this season to go to the BCHL. And not only that, I would argue, and I was saying this on the mashup, you got Brooks and you got Spruce Grove who have won that league 12 years in a row and have been in the league finals the last three years straight against each other.

So you have the two top tier teams from the HHL along with others. I don't know. I was going to say fleeing. I don't know if that's right. I highly doubt that's the right word. I don't know, abandoning ship. I don't even know what the heck's going on. I'm just watching this. I'm like, holy crap, what the heck has happened in the H. H.J.HL.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, it's a longish story and it has different moving parts. Part of it is, part of it has to do with hockey Canada. And if you saw the recent story, Sean, about hockey Canada, once again, is investigating athletes who are on the world junior team, really in the absence of, as far as we can tell, any evidence. And it again is talking about this toxic masculinity.

And unfortunately, what has happened is for the H.HL, which is considered an amateur, which is the apex of amateur hockey in Canada, is the Tier 2 Junior A level. The Western Hockey League is actually regarded as a professional league. they are they have they have uh sanctioning from hockey Canada but they operate as a professional league which essentially prepares athletes for pro hockey our league isn't considered an amateur league but in recent years hockey Canada has exert has been exerting a great deal of control uh over over hockey over junior hockey and its culture and um and for that reason largely because of that reason uh the bCHL several years ago opted out and said they would not be part of you know of of

It's called the CGHL, the Kane Junior Hockey League. And so they went rogue and they've done, you know, by most accounts fairly well. There are some very competent business people in that league. And it's a very successful franchise, some really good hockey people. And what's been happening since then is more and more controls being exerted by hockey Canada. They forced our kids to wear face masks when there was that horrific injury that you and I talked about. the last time I was on your program that were a hockey player in Europe who died, they came down immediately and dictated that all the kids would have to wear neck guards.

And more concerning to me was also they imposed a third party sort of woke body to impose, you know, sanctions against players for operating in a way that violates woke restrictions. So I'll give an example. A player in our team early this year got into a scrum with another player and you play at hockey. You know what this is like, verbal taunts and things like that. No, nothing bad's ever said in a scrum. Sure. Sure.

So in the scrum, what happens is one player who was on Brooks. They got into a verbal altercation with our player. Our player called the player a retard. Well, not only was this, this is other opposing player not a retard. He was so quick thinking that within, before you could say Jack Flash or Wayne Gretzky, he was in the referee's ear telling the referee that our player had called him a retard. Well, Hockey Canada, the woke police came in. They suspended that player indefinitely.

He was a 20-year-old player. It was his last year in junior hockey. And it effectively ended his hockey career. And this is the type of thing that's happening, this imposition of hockey Canada. And I can't speak for those five teams that are involved in, that have decided to leave the Aberger Junior Hockey League. But I would say there's a strong degree of probability that, you know, they did not like that level of control that is entered into,

into our game. And by joining the BCHL, you know, that all of that is left behind. The real pity for the Burgeoning your Hockey League is, of course, these franchises that are leaving are all excellent franchises. they're run by outstanding hockey people. As you said, they're very successful. National champions, in particular, the Brooks Bandits have dominated junior hockey. And it was wonderful to have them in our league because, you know, thinking of the idea that a high tide floats all boats, you know, a lot of eyes were on our, we're on the other players in our league because those franchises were here.

Having said that, you know, there were some problems within the league because we started to be. become sort of a league of halves and have nots. And the teams that are leaving, you know, are well-moneyed, well-run franchises. And, you know, they, when you have that sort of level of dominance, you sort of have a stratified league. And unfortunately, that seems to me that was starting to happen in the upper junior hockey league. Even though we, even the, even the worst teams in our league are very strong and would probably beat most of the top teams in other junior leagues in Canada. I think it's a shame, it's a pity. I'm very sorry that these teams are leaving.

I hope that they go on to the BCHL and they're very successful. However, it poses a serious challenge for the Alberta Junior Hockey League right now because what do we do? My understanding is that there was a leak, that this was not supposed to come out until after the Centennial Cup championships were over in May, that this is supposed to be an offseason announced, but now we have the teams and these five teams in our league. And, you know, we don't know what's going to happen. the Hockey Canada and the CGHL, which is the governing body for all a junior hockey in Canada,

they're looking into the possibility of sanctions against those five teams. I don't know. For the time being, the governors of our league have said that the teams that are staying, the 11 surviving franchises, of what Strait Valley is won, are not going to be playing those other five teams. Those five teams can play each other, but they're not going to be playing us. it's not clear what's going to happen at the end of the season. The season's going to conclude in the beginning of March, and then we're going to have our league playoffs. It's not clear at this point whether or not those teams are going to be able to participate in our league playoffs.

I would think it would be rather bizarre for them to be able to compete in our playoffs and then go on and win the Centennial Cup, which is sort of the gem, the prize of Canadian Junior A hockey, and then have them go on to participate in a non-sanction league, with which Hockey Canada has had an ongoing battle. And part of that ongoing battle, Sean, is being, for example, we had a goalie on our team who was, by all accounts, our best player. You know, a couple of months ago, a certain BCHL team, I believe it was a Nenimal,

came along or just scooped him. And he's gone. And they're a non-sanctioned outfit. We have no recourse. We don't get money. We don't get a player in return. And so that's part of the tension that's going on with the BNCHO, with the BCHL and the AJHL is that we're losing a lot of players.

And of course, as you know, there are only so many elite level players around who could play at that level of hockey. They're very, they're, you have them on your team. They're very prized. They're precious human assets, let's call them that, for lack of a better phrase. And so when you lose a really good one, like a really good goalie, I mean, we went from from being on a six-game win street to going on our 12-game losing streak because we lost our first string goalie.

imagine the oilers right now if they didn't have Skinner and goal. You know, that's how important. If you'd ask me that question 20 games ago, I would have said, take them. But geez, you know, they are rolling, you know. Yeah. By the time this airs, folks, you know, we're recording it on Thursday. So tonight they play and I guess we'll find out if they make it 15 or if it's, you know. Yeah.

You know, I haven't brought this up. You know, I don't know about you Layton, but you interview and talk to a ton of people. Yeah. And every once in a while you have something that just gets said and it just sticks in the back of your brain. And when I first started the podcast, I was interviewing all these old hockey minds, right? And all these sports figures. And one was Skip Crick. And, you know, Skip, if you ever listens to this, which you probably won't. But, you know, in the middle of COVID, he did not see eye to me with me. And that was, that was a tough, it was tough because he'd help me get like Glenn Sather and like all these different people really believed in what I was doing. And then. You know, you know, when things came to a head through COVID, that's one of the friendships. You know, I don't talk nearly enough. Maybe I don't need to give it any light, but that one was a tough one. And he taught me something that has stuck with me from like episode.

I can't remember. Was he 20 somewhere in that range? And he said, you know, hockey mirrors society or maybe society mirrors hockey. And when you talk about a guy calling someone a retard and then getting suspended for it, I'm like, well, that's society right now. I don't know why we expect our hockey to be any different when we don't conduct ourselves out in the real world any different. Like, I mean, right now that's what we're, you know, can't say that. And, you know, like I bring it a little closer home here in the senior hockey league.

I believe it was, you know, if you didn't have the native line, you guys wouldn't have one. Something along that. Yeah. Which, you know, when you pull that apart, you're like, that that's after they lost that line. that said to one of the guys. And it's like, well, isn't that like a, like, I mean, I don't think he's saying it concedingly. He's saying without the natives, you wouldn't have won. And he got suspended. I think it was like five games.

Was it five games? Somebody's going to text me and tell me, was it three or five games? Got just for that. But nobody heard him say it other than a fan in the stands and everybody runs around. You're like, what are we doing? Like, I mean, the game of hockey at times are there some really stupid things said? Yeah, absolutely. And refs could probably tell you and write a book on stupid things some of the greatest players have said.

But it's the game. And do we want that type of conduct? Sure. Maybe we want it a little better. But that's on how a ref conducts himself and along with everything else. If you start suspending people off of words they said, holy dinah. Like, where are we going? And I mean, then again, I go and then I just poke my head out and look at, you know, what's the word you're going to introduce yourself at Cordes?

Every man? Every man. Every man late in gray here. How's it going on her? I go, well, maybe we're getting what we get, right? Like, I mean, you know, Sean, what are you suspended for lifetime for? I called the guy a retard. Yeah.

Can you imagine if they go back, folks? Well, somewhere there's a ref listening to this and because I run into them from time to time. And some of the things I said back in the day, you know, that I'm not exactly, you know, I didn't have, you know, I said, some dumb things on the ice. And I don't think I would have made it through my 20 year old season either. So I mean, I guess that's just in that portion of both that part. I'm like hockey mirror society, maybe society mirrors hockey, vice versa. And I thought that was just a beautiful lesson back in the day.

And I see it play out more and more and more, right? Like, I mean, and we're trying to change that. But it's, you know, people walking away from hockey Canada. I can't figure out if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I don't know. I think that I'm very concerned about what Hockey Canada is doing because we were talking earlier about the federal government. Hockey Canada is now, and I'm not sure how this happened, but somehow the federal government decided that they own hockey in Canada. And I think what some of these guys, and understand, you know, take Spruce Grove.

Spurge Grove Saints are run by, you know, the L'Akel brothers who are incredibly successful. businessmen. You know, they've got a whole hockey business. They own the Seattle Thunderbirds, who are the champions of the Moro Cup champions. They have their own hockey business, the hockey super league. They just built a $68 million arena out by Niskew, which is being used, which provides a benefit to the entire, you know,

community. But these are guys who, I would think, I can't speak for them, but they probably wouldn't take very kindly to, government bureaucrats telling them how to run their hockey business. You know, and I think that's, I can't speak for them because I don't know the reasons why the teams have left. But I think that's part of it. These are business people. They're running successful hockey operations.

And I think that they just don't want to be told how to run their business. They want to be able to run their business according to their own principles and the way they think their hockey business should be run. And more and more hockey Canada is saying to junior A hockey hockey. operations, you know, you've got to run things, you know, our way. And if you can point to something that the government of Canada has ever done a good job at operating, I'll give them one. Parks. We have great national parks. I think our national parks, you know, I think those should be run by, you know, by the government. I think the, I think Baph is beautiful, Jasper's beautiful, Waterton's beautiful. But once we get past that, I really don't, I can't think of anything the government

it does a really good job operating. Yeah, I think I've fallen into Chris Sims' thought process, you know, government should be small. Where I sit today, if I haven't told you, I think most people know my thoughts on this. Like, if you can get government out of all parts of your life, you should. Because everything they touch is just going up in flames. And I mean, all you got to do is look at, well, everything they're doing is just a big old mess. and you know over the course of years we've just given them you know abdicated a bunch of responsibility and farmed it out and pretty soon they're they're the one holding all the cards

and you look at hockey canning well why are you doing all this i mean it seems like it's another political tool to get their agenda through you know like it's just yeah but that seems to be i always go back to you know i go back to that skip craik you know he played for the buffalo the original buffalo sabers late really in his house he had original they gave each team member sabers like swords two of them I'm like this is this is something you know I never get sock hockey on it I mean a little bit if or what I mean they were going to play each other so right now I'm just looking at the standings just so people people you know it's funny I just had a guy reach out this morning he's going back through all the podcast he says I skip over

some of the deep hockey ones though because I'm not really a hockey guy so there's probably a bunch of people that have turned us off by now you know but I'm like oh this hockey that Geez, I haven't talked to the AJ H.L in a long time. As it sits right now with the five teams being removed, Brooks, Shored Park, Okotok's, Blackfaults, or your one through four teams in the AJ right now. Correct. Which means automatically the top three teams go to White Court Bonneville and folks hold onto your hats. Lloydminster Bobcats would be number three in the league.

Think about that. Like all of a sudden, all of a sudden they're like, we're buying. Trade deadline, we're buying. Hey, Layton, what do you got over there? We want to load up for the playoff push. And I, you know, I don't talk about the Boggats a whole lot. But I tell you what, it has been a long time since the Bobcats have been putting the light of, hey, maybe we could win a playoff series, let alone, let alone the league.

I mean, just a playoff series, right? Yeah. No, they're very nice organization. Nigel Dubay does a great job there. There's a tremendous young man I've known since he was four or five years old, who's your captain there, Caden Cabana from Bonneville. And they've, they've built a really nice team this year. And yeah, they haven't, I honestly, they're going to give any team, you know, a tough time in the playoffs.

So, and, you know, you raise a good point. I mean, at 11 teams, we're going to have more parity in the league. And, you know, the Alberta Junior League still has a, we still have a great league. We have, we already received a number of franchise applications. One, I'll just tell you about one thing that kind of intrigued me. There was somebody posted on their, on their X page, the idea of the possibility of AGH-SJHL interlocking schedule. This is kind of interesting because the SJ right now has some very, very strong teams that

are ranked very highly nationally. They would have 12 teams to the HHL's 11 if we stayed at our current size for next year. And this is a very intriguing concept. And this is a good point. I mean, yes, it's very sad that these five teams are leaving because, as I said, they're excellent teams, very well-run franchises, outstanding business people running them. And I'm not saying that the HHL is better for them departing. I would say the opposite is true.

But, you know, behind every door of change, there's opportunity. And so these are things that we can talk about. And maybe we could have a very interesting partnership with. the SJHL that we've never really looked at before. So there are, there are changes that there are opportunities that could arise out of, out of change again. Yeah. Take the, um, take the Sask Elta senior league model.

You know, here, here in Lloyd Minster, we have this really, you know, I, I'm sure there's other teams out there, but, you know, the Bobcats, once upon a time, the Lancers, the Blazers, now the Bobcats once played in the SJ. And then they switched over to the AJ, right? And here in Lloyd Minster, we sit right on the border. So we're half Saskatchewan, half Alberta. And the senior league here, the SAS Delta is half Saskatchewan and half Alberta.

And what you're talking about is a larger version of that for Junior A. And I mean, who knows what the inner workings of that would look like. But can you imagine, Lloyd, not only do you get the Alberta teams coming in, but you also get to see North Battleford that's an hour down the road. You know, when COVID hit late, just before it did, Holman, my hometown got to host Hockey Day in Saskatchewan for all of Saskatchewan. and the Notre Dame hounds played in the North Battleford stars who, what did they win the league that year, folks?

Or they won the league, they were a phenomenal hockey team. We got to host those teams in Helmont. And to see those teams come to town, that's something. You know, like that's super cool. And what you're talking about,

you know, I don't know how you'd ever build that, but like that'd be really cool to see, to see the Estevan Bruins or the, probably people have more lean, towards like probably the Humboldt Broncos or somebody like that. But can you imagine if all of a sudden those were part of the games too? That would be, um, that would be curiosity.

Our fans would be very excited to see that. And, uh, just plugging the SJHL for, for a second, uh, this is a very strong league, excellent players there, very well run franchises. And one of the things I really like about the SJHL is that it, when you watch that, when you follow that league, they seem to have a new champion every single season, which to me is the sign of a very healthy, Healthy. Yes.

And not to say that the Alberta Junior League is not healthy, but it gets back to my sort of have and have nots. You know, we have teams in our league, the ones that are leaving that are so strong, that, you know, it makes it difficult for the other franchises to compete with them.

And even though, even though it makes overall the league more competitive, it is disheartening for, say, fans and or Lloyd Minster on day one of the regular season, you know, when they don't really have any, belief that at the end of the season, you know, they're going to see their boys, you know, skating around the ice with the trouble.

What do people want to rally around Layton? They want to rally around a winning team. Yeah, they won a champion. Two months ago, the Emmington owners were stinking it up and nobody was going, right? Now they're, they have an opportunity to, now my wife will make fun of me, Mel, as you've, met her. She's an American and she's like, yeah, they won't. She just cuts me right to the heart.

Yeah, they won't get it done in the playoffs and walks away. And I'm like, oh, but, hun, they're a boy. to break, they have a chance here to break the, well, I mean, we don't know how tonight goes, but they're close to breaking the longest win streak of all time. She's like, yeah, it's not the playoffs, though. I'm like, yeah, that's true. God, that's it. But

what happens is, all of a sudden, the entire hockey world is watching the Amitton Norther's. And whenever a team is, you know, right now old's grizzlies, right? Ten wins, 30 losses. I bet you their attendance isn't booming. I'm just going to take a stab and say they're not

getting, you know, but all of a sudden you flip that around. What if they were 30 and 10? Especially after being a bad team for so long, and I'm picking on the old, sorry, olds. I just mean if you'd come through a slump of year after year after year, all of a sudden you're good. You watch the fans pour back in. You know, I got to give a show, I don't know if I want to do this. The Lashburn Flyers won our senior league. They were like my sworn enemy, you know, down the road late. And they were a team that at one point in time. Now, this is senior hockey,

and I understand. I'm bringing it down to the lowest level, folks. Forgive me. But they were a team that at their lowest folded for a year and combined with Hillamon, my hometown, so that their guys could still play and the two teams didn't just fold, right?

And then they come back, and they have seasons where they don't win a single game, well, close to a single game, right? Their guys joke about it all the time. And then they just won the league, and all their fans are out wearing their gear, and you can just feel it. Now, if you win the link 10 years in a row,

You think you're going to have the same fan support that you did. I mean, it's junior A to senior, I get it. But the truth of the matter is, is if Olds won at one year, and then the next year, Grand Prairie goes on a three-year run and wins it three years in a row. And you go, who's going to knock them off? And then all of a sudden, Canmore comes storming in and wins. And then all of a sudden, Lloyd Minster's there.

That does well for your entire league. When you look and you go, Spruce Grove and Brooks have been there 12 straight years, you go like, I mean, that's for across Canada, that's amazing to have the AJHL to have that strong team who's going to be at the top of the, the championship at the end. But it's super cool for a fan to any team that walks through the door is that good. Look at the NHL. The NHL right now compared to baseball, compared to arguably football, basketball for sure,

is the most competitive league out there. Yes. Yes, it's true. And, you know, for those five teams that are leaving, And I think another factor in their decision is that there are some teams in the BCHL that are also very, very dominant teams, teams like Pentectin, the Vernon Vipers, you know, teams like that, West Colonna Warriors who are very, very strong. And so they're probably thinking, well, you know, we want to be in a league where, you know, where there's more parity, where there's more competition. And I think that might be part of their decision as well, I'm guessing. But I suspect that might be part of their decision, apart from escaping, you know, the control of high.

Canada. But as I said, I'm sorry to see them go. I wish they would change their minds and stay. But at the same time, you know, they've been great business partners and we just have to wish them well. And we have to focus on what's best for the Alberta Junior Hockey League going forward. Yeah. And try to make sure that we have a great product for our, for our fans. Well, I tell you what, you know, today we, folks, we've been all over the map with Leighton, you know. We start out with Tucker Carlson. What a, what an interesting ride for Alberta, you know. to have them in Calgary and then Eminton, uh, to the, to, you know, the ruling on not justified, you know, like, blow my mind to the H.HL seeing midseason five teams being, we're going somewhere else. Like it leaked or not leaked, you know, it's just, it's just, this is, you know, wait, just when you think you're going to have a couple of dull days in the middle of January and it's kind of cold, we got plus two on the horizon and just things are going haywire right now. I want to thank you for hopping on, Layton.

You know this. The next time we do this, we're going to book it in advance. You're going to come in the studio. This was just like, we got to talk about this. Like I can't wait. Somebody's like, are you going to talk about it? I'm like, yeah, but I'm like, I'm supposed to be in Tucker tomorrow. I'm like, Layton, can you come on first thing in the morning?

And you're like, well, I'm in Calgary. And I'm like, I don't. But let's just do this from the sidelines. I don't care where you're at. Put your phone in your hand. We got to talk about this. This is huge. But, Sean, I got to mention one more thing.

I had a question for you. Yeah. So the CBC I heard this morning described Tucker Carlson as a, as someone who peddles in misinformation. Sure. So if that's true,

what does that make you and me? Oh, man. I'm a mass dealer of disinformation, I guess, right? Like, I mean, they'll be making,

um, yeah, I, just, all I can say that is keep, keep peddling misinformation. You know, It was, yeah, isn't that here?

I, uh, you know, like, they're on stage. You got, you got Conrad Black in the middle of Jordan Peterson and Tucker Carlson. And like, that in itself, just take the picture and walk away. Great. Yeah, yeah. But Tucker Carlson was like spitting fire like I've seen few be able to do. And that's no knock, like, you know, the fact that Conrad Black said, Christia Freeman's a nice lady.

all do respect Conrad and I had him on the podcast and people I let people speak their mind on here right I hope I do that that's what it's you know and at times should I push back harder sure I will take that it's a learning lesson but he said on here that you know that Justin Trudeau's a fine man and and I can't remember what was the other one folks that he'd met he'd been a part of the world economic forum for 20 years and it was good business dealings for him and and to see him on stage, say, Christia Fieland is a nice lady, and then get booed, and then Tucker Carlson hop in and just like straight fire, you're like, that's cool. And I, they can call it whatever they want. The CBC is a sinking ship. They can't bail it out fast enough. And the sooner

everyone realizes that on, if you're still paying attention to that, the better. Because I mean, The misinformation disinformation thing, you know, is, I don't know, it's like you sit and listen to us for the last hour. Was there things that we got maybe partially wrong? Maybe. But I mean, overall, we're talking about the things that actually matter here in this country. And we got to talk a little bit of hockey, which I mean, holy dinah, does that feel nice, you know? Yeah. Thanks for coming on, Leighton.

Appreciate it. Next time's in studio. Next time's in studio. Yeah. And, uh, much good success with you and your, and your show. Yeah, you was your, uh, you were. You as well, sir. Yeah, I appreciate you coming on and answering the call whenever I shoot it out

a text like, holy crap, what is this about, you know? Yeah, we'll make sure we get you in studio next time and hash some things out. And you can go at me about Daniel Smith some more, you know. We'll see how that goes on the weekend when I get to sit with her. We'll see, assuming it happens, you know, I shouldn't say it all the time. Because then if schedule changes, I'll be deflated and the audience will be. but she should be back on folks next week. So buckle up.

Great. Thanks, Sean. Thanks, Layton.