Shaun Newman Podcast - SNP/WS Roundtable #6 - Theo Fleury

Episode Date: October 14, 2022

Stanley Cup Champion, Olympic Gold medalist & Director of Media at Canadians for Truth hopped on to discuss the events that continue to unfold with Hockey Canada. This week Scott Smith, CEO of Hockey Canada stepped down along with the rest of the Hockey Canada board. Hockey Canada has been on every headline for months and everyone wants to know who's to blame? Leadership, players or the culture of hockey itself. Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

Good evening and welcome to the Sean Newman Show on the Western Standard. Tonight we were talking Hockey Canada and I'm joined by Theo Flurry. Oh, wait, Theo, do you want me to say a host of the Patriot Warrior on Canadians for Truth Media? What? At the end of introducing you, what do you want me to say about Canadians for Truth Media? Do you want me to say your show, your host of this, do you want me to mention it at all? Sure. My title is the director of media.

Oh, director of media. And business development and Canadians for Truth media. Director. For Keyes for Truth. Can I just say Director of Media at Canadians for Truth? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Whoops. I meant to ask that before I started. Let's try that again. You can hear me just fine, though? Yeah. Okay, cool. Good evening and welcome to the Sean Newman Show on the Western Standard tonight. We were talking Hockey Canada. I'm joined by Theo Fleury. Everyone will know him as Stanley Cup champion, Olympic gold medalist, and now the director of Media and Canadians for Truth. So, sir, thanks for hopping on.

Now let's start here. Scott Smith, the CEO, and then the entire board of all stepped down from Hockey Canada. Men's hockey has lost pretty much every major sponsor they have, such as Bauer, Tim Horn, The list goes on. It's stemming recently, or I don't know if it's recently, but stemming from June 18th, 2018. I'm sure a lot of people know the story, but Hockey Canada Foundation hosted a gal in golf event in London where it is alleged a woman was sexually assaulted by eight members of the world junior's team.

I use the term alleged because Hockey Canada has quietly settled the lawsuit with the complainant earlier this year. You know, Theo, you suited up multiple times for Canada, and two of those times were for the world juniors team. You know, as this story continues to unfolds, it's not been weeks, you know, you go back through the government interviewing different people. What have been your thoughts?

My thoughts are the big picture, right? Hockey Canada is the flavor of the month, okay? And you know, this is a societal issue. It's not a, it's not specific talk. hockey can't heart like i said hockey canada is the flavor of the month and uh you know whenever i see you know sexual abuse sexual deviation you know rape abuse of children emotionally physically spiritually i always look at this as why aren't we getting the lesson because the lesson has been put in front of us i don't know how many times in the last

25 years, right? Sheldon came out with this story in 1996. I came out with my story in 2009. The Catholic Church has to talk every day about this subject. You know, USA Gymnastics, Penn State, Hollywood, Boy Scouts of America. Like, this has been going on for centuries. And instead of being proactive, we're always reactive, right? And in Hockey Canada's case, similar to the Chicago Blackhawk situation, you know, they tried to cover it up.

And when you try to cover up this kind of stuff, eventually somebody gets to the truth. And obviously, Hockey Canada tried to cover up what happened. And eventually the truth comes out. So now they're in reactive mode. When they could have, you know, I always say, tell the truth. tell the truth from the beginning and then you don't have to go through all of this you know all this stuff and ultimately what happens right what happens people need to pay the consequences for trying to cover up this kind of stuff and so that's why i say today

hockey canons is the flavor of the month and they handled it in typical big company fashion where they tried to cover it up and eventually the truth comes out and when the truth comes out and when the truth comes out, then you have to be in a reactive state as opposed to a proactive state. That's how I see it. Let's, uh, oh, and I'm dropping you out here. What, with, um, with that, you talk proactive reactive. So, okay, proactively. What should we be doing then?

You've made a very good point. This isn't just hockey Canada. Like, uh, you know, USA gymnastics was not that long ago. Penn State with Jerry Sandusky was not that long ago. Baylor University was not that long ago. But then you bring up, you know, Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein, all these different things. Like it's just, it's everywhere. And when you talk about flavor of the month, that makes honestly a lot of sense.

Being proactive then, because I like that word, I like going out and trying to solve things, you know, grab by the root of the problem and pull it out. where do you think people or where should the energy be put then Theo yeah well we need to put in protocol in place for when this kind of stuff happens right um like i don't think we're going to alleviate this kind of deviant behavior on on the planet ever but i believe that we can lesson and we can put protocols in place you know for when this kind of stuff happens, right? And I told Hockey Canada many years ago when I was going through my stuff with them

that, you know, they were heading down a road and heading down a path that they didn't need to go down. And I said, if you don't put protocols in place, if you don't put a system in place, this is what's going to happen. And of course, it happened, right? So what do those protocols look like? I'm not sure. But there has to be deterrence because where do people who abuse children sexually, physically, emotionally, spiritually, where do they hang out? They hang out in kids' organizations, right?

And so what happens is they groom the adults first, right? They get themselves in a position of trust. in power. And then once they have that trust in power within the organization, then they go and groom the kids, right? And so how do we stop that? I don't know at this point. I've been thinking about it for many, many years, but I don't know how we put these protocols in place. But when stuff happens, instead of covering it up, just tell the truth. Because we know that these kind of people infiltrate themselves into kids' organizations. And like I said, we're not going to alleviate it completely.

We're not going to wipe it off the planet. But if we tell the truth, it's way better to tell the truth right from the beginning instead of trying to cover up and lie, which is what Hockey Canada obviously tried to do. And now they're in this position where there's a whole bunch of, I believe really good people who are now out of work because they chose the wrong thing. Well, you know, when we look at some of the scandals that have plagued different sports and everything else, it's a lot of adults in control. Yep.

This one in 2018, you know, I've heard a lot of, you know, my tail feathers get always up in a bunch about when they attack hockey as a, overall, the hockey culture and everything. I came through the hockey culture. I got nothing but love for the sport. I think we both share similar thoughts on that. This is a group of kids that put themselves in a horrendous position. What are your thoughts? Because this is a group of high-end athletes making a poor choice,

beyond poor choice, I might add. So although adults and different things put themselves in positions of power. On this case, Theo, it was a group of kids. But it was the group of kids that exposed the whole entire, you know, organization, right?

Because they started doing digging and found out that, you know, they were using parents' registration. They were taking a small portion and putting it into a pool so that they could compensate, you know, people who were injured by coaches under hockey Canada's umbrella, right?

So, so yeah, we can look at one specific thing. So is that culture? I don't know. Is it poor choice? Is it immature kids whose brains aren't fully developed making bad choices? Like, or is it culture or, you know, what is it? And I think moving forward, I think that's what hockey. Canada, you know, has to look at moving forward is putting these protocols in this, you know,

the structure in place so that, you know, so that when, you know, we're making these, when these kids are making these decisions, you know, it's not on hockey Canada. It's on the kid who made the decision, right? but they're lumping it all into one big pool here and this is what happens. You said it was kids that figured it out. Did I hear that right? What's that? That they found out that there was basically a poor term here maybe folks,

but like a slush fund to make sure that when these things happened, they had the money to pay it. I thought he said that kids found that. No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay, no, then it's just my ears. We've got a slight delay happening between us. Yeah, I know. I'm trying my best here to make sure that I catch every word you got, Theo.

So if you were given the task of Hockey Canada, right? I mean, it's wide open. Like everybody's gone. Their interim leader stepped up, tried defending it, gone. Yeah. You know, I hear Sport Canada and all these different things, and I hear, you know, like, this isn't a small organization, Theo. Like, hockey Canada is giant. It's bureaucracy all over again.

But let's say they approached Theo. What would you do different then? What would you try and do different? Well, I would first of all go to the government of Canada who makes the laws around pedophilia, abuse of children, Child and human trafficking, all of these things, and I would say to them, you know, we need leadership from you guys to put laws in place that this type of behavior is not tolerated in society whatsoever. And, you know, the crime, which it is, anytime you, you know, you abuse a child is a crime. and the time, the amount of time that that person has to pay for the consequences of hurting a child have to match, right?

And in this country, we don't have a justice system. We have a legal system, right? And that has to change, right? So the leadership around this type of behavior has been subpart. Right? There's nobody in government, well, a perfect example was an MP from the Conservative Party of Canada last week tried to bring a bill forward where he was going to get tough on this type of behavior and this type of crime and two liberal MPs were heckling him from the other side.

So what does that tell you? We don't care about kids being sexually abused. We don't care about kids being harmed physically, emotionally, spiritually. That's what it's said. to me. Right? So, and for the last three years, what is the government done? The government is abused its citizens. So if the big entity, which is the government, is using their own tax-paying citizens, are you surprised to hear about Hockey Canada? Are you surprised to hear about the Catholic Church?

Are you surprised to hear about Harvey Weinstein and, you know, Hollywood? Are we shocked about Jeffrey Epstein and, you know, Jelaine Maxwell? Are we shocked? No, we shouldn't be shocked anymore. But what we should demand is, you know, leadership from government. Well, that's a... I saw Justin Trudeau's comments on hockey Canada and talking about the culture. that is in hockey and I was like maybe you should look in the mirror and see what the culture of politicians is

you know leadership I I for one on the hockey side though Theo I have I have a lot of faith that the people that are in and around the sport can do better I mean we both seen and been around I mean you exceptional individuals that this can be better I just can't I have a hard time understanding why people think but I guess that's culture maybe this is just culture that you can think you can get away with it you know like that it was better to like lie and act like you can bury the story in today's day and age I mean it just it just doesn't work that way it gets out one way or another and instead of just you know the big thing now is with these with the kids that

were on the team and now the allegations about 2003 is it These guys could be superstars in the NHL, right? It just makes the entire thing look bad. And you could have just taken it by the root, pulled it out, and been done with it. Yep. Yeah. And it's because there are no consequences for this kind of behavior in society, right? You know, like a perfect example is, you know, how the justice system handles pedophilia, right?

is, you know, you get, you get probably max six years and then through the plea bargaining process, you get it whittled down to 18 months, and then, you know, most of those guys serve six months, right? For a horrific crime, right? Horrific crime. You know, I believe that any kind of sexual abuse, rape, whatever you want to call it, is a living murder. You know, it is a living murder to the people who are. have been abused that kind of way. It's a living murder.

And, you know, what I know is that most men who are sexually abused, they don't make it. They don't make it. They end up taking their own lives at some point in the process, right? Those who don't get help end up, you know, committing or taking their own lives. And so, you know, that's just one example of the system. the system creates this type of, you know, behavior. And if you look at every single thing that's happened in this space, is first of all, they deny it, second of all, they cover it up.

And then thirdly, they keep going with the narrative even though they get caught. Right? And so that has to change. And so if we don't put laws in place, right? And I believe that these kids who committed these, they have to face consequences too. They can't just get, like, just can't slide through like it has for so many years, right?

You know, there has to be some consequences for your choices and your actions and your decisions and your decision. decisions, right? As citizens, we're all held countable by the rule of law, right? And when you break the law, there are consequences for your actions. But the actions or the crime never fits the time that these people need to, you know, to face because of the choices that they made. That's, um, hmm. So it's systemic. Like, it's systemic. Like, it's systemic. It's systemic. It's right from the top and then it trickles down all the way through to what happened at Hockey Canada.

And, you know, we know that God is going to put these things in front of our face and keep putting in front of our face until we actually get them. But when it comes to the subject of any kind of child abuse, whether it's sexual, physical, emotional, or whatever, we have completely dropped the ball when it comes to that type of behavior. Yeah, it blows my mind, Theo, that, you know, it's funny the way my brain works, because when I first read the story and I'll go back, you know, even, even different stories of, you know, Harvey Weinstein's a perfect one. You know, this is, when I first read it, I was like, right,

oh, okay. And then I almost, I was sitting at breakfast and with my wife and I said it. And then I read the actual article and some of the things he did. And I was like, well, I immediately, take back everything I just thought because that is horrendous and I I fast forward to the the group of guys in the hockey world you know when I first heard about it I was like ah you know like I mean being an athlete and I never played at that that level you certainly did you know it's it's an interesting world and I've seen and heard stories I've certainly seen him been a part of my own stories of just at the levels I've played And athletes or people that are put on a pedestal are kind of privy to a world that most don't experience.

And yet, when I read, they brought golf clubs into the hotel room to further intimidator. I was like, well, that is, you know, like immediately. That's criminal. And so why would you try and protect that? Like, in your brain, you go, well, if we protect them, you know, the game doesn't get whatever. but instead what happens is now I'm like I'm at a point with hockey where I love the game I just don't love the organization around it right like it's it's giving everybody a tarnished look when the game is given so much to me so much to a lot of us and yet that right there is like

just poor judgment but but beach and and and and we can't defend it we can't as much as we want to defend it we can't anymore right you know you know you if you look at the pros and the cons, what Hockey Canada did for me and what they did now, I can't defend it anymore, right? I can't defend, I can't defend them anymore, right? Despite all the amazing experiences I've had, I can't defend them, and I can't defend the game anymore,

which means there has to be significant changes made and things put in place, where this can never happen again. You think this has been going on for longer than, I don't know, actually I shouldn't. It's been happening since the beginning of time, Sean. We're trying to undo 2,22 years of abuse because it's been happening right from day one, right? You know, in the Bible, Kane killed Abel, first crime, right? And it's just, you know, it just hasn't stopped, right?

For whatever reason, I don't know, right? That baffles me every day thinking about, you know, how do we change this, right? But I believe it's leadership. It's leadership from the very top, you know, all the way down, right? Look at how, you know, look at how we deal with human trafficking, child trafficking. Look at how we deal with that. Right? So if we deal with that that way, how do we,

how do we, how do we deal with human trafficking feel? Well, you've got to put those guys away who are responsible for the rest of their lives. They should never be allowed the freedom to do anything, right? Because like I said, it's a living murder. Abusive children is a living murder, right?

And I've been dealing with that. My whole adult life is dealing with the after effects of what sexual abuse did to me. Right. So, like, and, you know, some smart-ass lawyer somewhere along the line changed the word rape to sexual abuse, which got his clients off on linear sentences. Because rape, rape is, you know, an ugly word. But they changed it. The legal system changed it to, you know, there's all kinds of categories now of, you know,

abusing children, right? There's different words, different phrases, right? They carry lighter sentences, right? But in actuality, it's a living murder called rape. And if we don't talk about it as being rape, this is what happens. there's a gray area for these kids who don't fully understand what they're doing. And they know, they know because they're star athletes that Hockey Canada is going to protect them. And that's exactly what happened.

So it's leadership. It's leadership. It's, you know, it's standing in front of those kids and saying, you know, if you do this, you're never going to play hockey again. If you do this type of behavior and you get caught, there's no way you're ever going to play hockey again. But nobody's ever said that. They've allowed this type of behavior for many, many years.

Right. So is the world, though. The world. I'm talking a big picture here. Like, we've got to look at this underneath a bigger, lens, right? You know? But, but because, you know, it's the flavor of the month, right?

It's the number one story on mainstream media, you know, politicians are talking about it. You know, there's inquiries about it. So it just feeds, you know, it just feeds that that messed up system that we've been in for, like I said, centuries. Yeah, and culture, I mean. you just got to look at some of the different major sports and see how they've handled some of their stars in the past where they always get a second or a third chance after doing something really, really, really bad.

I can't actually, I don't know, Theo. Do you know of a major sport where if you stepped out of line, whether it's, you know, the abuse Well, I face the consequences of my actions, right? like I got kicked out of the NHL because I kept doing drugs and I kept drinking and you know I wasn't getting the help that I needed

so they said you're out right and I fully accept that I live with that every day but those were my choices my actions and my own decisions that led to the consequences that I faced

right so why aren't these type of consequences put in place and made known to the people who participate in hockey Canada, if you behave this way, we are not going to protect you. You are going to face the full extent of the law, the full extent of your choices, your actions, and your decisions. But that has never been in play here. Why?

Because they always protect the money. Right? And what happened in this scenario is hockey Canada lost all of the money. And then they were faced with that decision that everybody who is involved in trying to cover this up is no longer working at hockey Canada. So follow the money. Follow the money. You know, why did Penn State cover up all that stuff? because they were getting $52 million a year from Nike.

So money creates power and then power creates abuse. It's the trickle down effect of, you know, trying to protect the entity, trying to protect the money, right? It always comes down to money. And when you put it that way, you just I go okay hockey Canada is always going to you know in Canada it's always going to have a ton of money

because if it isn't hockey Canada let's say tomorrow hockey Canada just scrub from the books and then whatever you want to put in place of it the same effect like there's a ton of power that comes in the form of just like where in society we put that where I you know like hockey Canada is I mean right at the top of the list for things in Canada

Well, think about how much money the World Junior Tournament in Canada creates for Hockey Canada. Millions upon millions. Millions upon millions, right? And then TSN took a hold of this event and they created a huge amount of money by covering the World Junior Tournament. I guarantee their sponsorship every year on television is sold completely out and sold. at the maximum amount of money. So in the end of the day, this is all about money, which is unfortunate,

which is backwards, because we should be protecting kids before we're protecting the money. I think that's a very lovely thought. Man, I appreciate you coming on and doing this with me. I wouldn't say I was nervous to do this because my hockey background and loving the sport But that's not our responsibility, Sean.

Yeah. The responsibility falls in the hands of the people who, you know, talk about protecting kids, but don't in the end protect kids. And so they put us in a really shitty place, right? Because we love the game so much that we don't want to shit all over the game. But at this point, they leave us no choice. They leave us no choice. And that's the unfortunate thing about all of this.

Is that, you know, the hockey world has created a lot of amazing human beings. And I got to play with a lot of them. You know, the Marios, the Waynes, the Joe Sackics, the Steve Eisenman's. Like, I played with those guys. And they're quality human beings that the hockey raised all of us. And now we're put in a position where there's no win here. There's no win. right? Yeah, of course, human nature, we want to protect something that we love so much,

but they put us in a position where we have no choice. And that's the unfortunate thing about all of this. And the ultimate goal here is the real reason why we do the hockey thing got lost. And it became about money, which it always does. Well, Theo, I appreciate you coming on and giving me some of your time. I don't know how much more there is to say. You know, I think you've really done a very, very good job on it. I don't know.

I love the sport. I love everything about it, but you're bang on on a lot of your points. And, you know, when I think about... And you know the one thing, Sean? Not one person from Hockey Canada reached out to me. Not one. So what does that tell you? What does that tell you, Theo?

Well, it tells me it's typical of how they deal with this shit. Right? Like, I've been in this space for 15 years. I've seen, I've heard every horrific story you can possibly think about. Right? And, you know, I believe that I'm a very highly intelligent human being. and nobody called me. Not one person called me.

But do you think they reached out to anyone else? I don't know. I don't know. But I would think the first person that I would think about talking to would be me or Sheldon. Right? You know? So I just find it weird, you know, because I'm not bitter anymore. You know what I mean?

I'm not bitter. I don't want to take down Hockey Canada. I just want to improve on what's happening. That's it, right? The core of my being, and you know me long enough now, Sean, to know that I care. And I care very deeply about everything. And I'm just here to help. And, you know, I've had so many experiences with abuse that, you know, I would think that I would be the first guy they call.

But they don't. They didn't. right and I guarantee you when they're when they're putting this thing back together they're not going to call me either you know when I think about hockey culture not not to shift gears slightly on you feel but when I grew up playing hockey they had you know we called it hazing or whatever else and at the time I remember getting out of junior and all the articles coming out about someone in Ontario in the hazing and I remember thinking like I'm fuck, just girl the fuck up, right?

Like a little bit of hazing, you know, brings a team together and that type of thing. Yep. Mm-hmm. But once again, where I was at, it never got taken too far. At least from, and everybody's different, but from my eyes, it never went to places that I thought was too far.

And I would add in, we had a coach that provided the leadership needed to ensure it never went too far. And you think, you think, what you're talking about with leadership, if, um, I don't, but I, I mean, that's, that's a huge ask. I, I, I, I, I just look at it and I go like, right? I mean, as I'm talking, I'm like, that's like a giant ass. It's like, how do you change the mentality of an entire, um, culture,

culture. Mm-hmm. Because, you know, to the listener, uh, some of the worst hazing I ever got in my mind, didn't come in Canada. Right. It just didn't. So you're like, well, hockey Canada is the root of all evil because we're the best at hockey. It's not sure.

It's sure. I mean, don't get me wrong. Parts of it stem from Canada, sure. But like, other nations have their own rituals. And if you don't realize that, you're blind. Right. But, you know, it's the old military style of leadership that we grew up in, right? Suck it up, you know.

So this is a direct result of, you know, our grandparents, you know, grandparents who grew up World War I, World War II, you know, all the way through where, you know, we didn't talk about this stuff, right? And so we've created a culture because of that kind of leadership. But eventually, here we are, right? this is a different time. This is a different space. This is a different world that we're living in. And so this stuff is no longer tolerated. And in the past, it was tolerated, right?

Or it was kept secret or you didn't say anything about it. Right. But now it's all coming to the surface. And so now we have to change with the times. It's called evolution. Well, I think a lot of... And we've evolved as a society where we're talking about our trauma way more than we have ever talked about trauma at any point.

Do we still have a long ways to go? 100% we have a long ways to go. But, you know, the military style of leadership has got us into this situation. Yeah, I think we're learning... I mean, it is, you know, When it's the United States, when it's Hollywood, when it's things that feel so far off. I've been saying this a lot lately, but when it feels like it's on the other side of the planet, you know, I'm not, like, I'm not, like, I read the story. Oh, holy shit, that's fucked up.

But that doesn't happen around here. You know, and then I go back to one of our chats on the podcast, and then you leading me to Paul Brandt and having different conversations with him. and now like it coming to roost in hockey Canada and certainly I say that to a guy and that's I mean that in the best possible way because I mean Jesus you're a guy who's lived it Theo along with others but like it is just like everywhere right now and you're right this is flavor the month but a long string of events that we are slow as a society to just realize is permeated a lot of different parts of our not only our our country, but probably closer to home than any of us care to admit.

Yeah. It's, uh, you know, it's, it's that, it's that, it's that, uh, you know, it's that, uh, you know, the government likes to use. It's systemic, right? It's, it's, it's like DNA stuff, right? You know, that's, that's how deeply rooted it is. It's deeply rooted in our DNA, right? But the great thing about DNA is DNA can be changed, right?

Through behavior and, you know, making different choices and different types of therapy and whatever. We can change, we can change all that. And so I believe what the universe is telling us is that, yeah, if we don't deal with hockey Canada, the next organization is not too far behind who's going to be front and center again, right? you you um you make it what what pops in my brain theo is is essentially you know we got to stop acting like whoever it is that steps into hockey Canada is all of a sudden going to make a wide sweeping change and things are going to get drastically better as we've seen over the last little bit when you put all your faith in the bureaucracy of an organization whether it's the government

whether it's um you know like but but here here when when when when when The prime minister of our country is calling people who are unvaccinated, misogynist, what is he teaching the young people in our country? He's teaching them about hatred. Right. So you want to talk about systemic. It's systemic, right? So if the people at the top are abusing, like I said, the citizens,

what do you think is going to happen? What do you think is going to happen in organizations? What do you think is going to, this is what happens. So if we don't change the DNA around abuse, we're never going to get the lesson. There's just going to be more stories like this that surface. Well, and all I was going to say was that I think it's good for people to understand that they can't look at any entity. Do I want whoever to run our country and have all the best values and start instilling that? 110%. But it's always going to come, it's always going to come back down to the individuals,

how you interact with your family, because if you can do that, then chances are you can impact your community. You get a strong community. Now you start to impact bigger things. We keep wanting it top down. We keep going, if only somebody at the top will give us the way. Yeah, we already know the way, right? Like, I mean, we got to start impacting our own families, taking care of one another in this tight little circle so that we can be better parts of our community as a whole. That's the building blocks of society. Right. Well, but, you know, the one thing I believe we've lost as a society is just respect. Respect for other people, respect for people's feelings, their things, you know, their possessions. Like, we need to get back to respect. And that's teaching our kids about

respect, right? You know, and yeah, my parents did a whole bunch of horrible things to me when I was a kid, but I still respected them, right? And that, to me, is probably the biggest thing that's been lost and in all of this is respect. And when you bring back respect, I think you solve a lot of these problems, these, a lot of these issues that we have. But you don't, I could be wrong with us. I don't feel like you teach respect, you show respect. That's something you, you, you observe as a kid, as an adult, as everything, right? You observe somebody who respects XYZ. And there used to be consequences to disrespect.

There are no more consequences to disrespect, right? If I disrespected people as a kid, guess what? I didn't get to play hockey. if I treated people the wrong way, I didn't get the play. And those were consequences to me disrespecting people. There is no more consequences to disrespect, right? And a perfect example is what we've been through the last three years. Because I made a medical choice and medical decision,

I've been grossly disrespected because of my choice. and the people who've disrespected me have faced zero consequences for doing that. Well, I was going to, you know. So if we want to get really philosophical and we really want to peel the layers of the onion off and get to the core of the reason why Hockey Canada is the flavor of the month, it all starts with the basic, basic, basic principles of how we treat people. And that has slowly, slowly gone away because of this woke culture that we live in, where they demand that we respect what they're doing when they're disrespecting us at the same time.

I don't know if that's been more evident than Daniel Smith's first press conference. Right. Right. but it's a what a beautiful distraction to what happened at the EU parliament two days ago. You're talking, was it Pfizer? Pfizer. Yeah, basically said, yeah, the vaccine didn't do anything we told you it was going to do. What should have been the biggest news story on the planet?

And no Canadian mainstream media said a word, no politician in Ottawa. said a word about that. So you're wondering why hockey Canada's front and center? Great distraction. Why Daniel Smith's statement about discrimination? Why do you think it's front and center? It's because, you know, it's just, it's insanity. We are living in the, the byproduct of what we're talking about here, Sean.

Well. You know? So you expect hockey candidate to behave themselves when all this is going on? It's not going to happen. Well, Theo, I've really appreciated you hopping on and giving me your thoughts. As I always tell you, it's never a dull moment sitting across from you. But I appreciate you coming on and not playing along, but essentially talking. talking about some things that I've been thinking about,

especially when it comes to the hockey community. It's right in both of our backyards, so to speak. And I appreciate you coming on and doing this with me, and I'm sure we'll bump into each other here soon enough. Oh, yeah, anytime. It's unfortunate that we have to talk about this stuff, but I also think it's an opportunity to bring a different perspective. And, you know, I think probably the majority of people

would have thought that I would have jumped on the bandwagon and ripped hockey can on a new outfit. But no, this is this is bigger than both of us and it's been brewing for a long, long time. And, you know, Hockey Canada has given us an opportunity to change. And let's see if that's going to happen. Or are we going to get the next flavor of the month, right? That's what I believe the universe is telling us is that we have, here's another opportunity for us to make changes. and, you know, are we finally going to get this lesson that, you know, a kid somewhere in the world,

every second of every minute, of every hour, of every day is being abused sexually, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and are we going to do something about it? That's how I see it. Well, thanks, Theo. Look forward to our next chat. Yeah, me too. Thanks.