The Ben Mulroney Show - Best of the Week Part 4 - Melissa Lantsman, Warren Kinsella, Kate Harrison

Episode Date: May 25, 2025

Best of the Week Part 4 - Melissa Lantsman, Warren Kinsella, Kate Harrison Guests: Warren Kinsella, Kate Harrison, Brad Lavigne, Melissa Lantsman, Brad Bradford, Dave Bradley If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the Ben Mulrooney Show Best of the Week podcast. We had so many great discussions this week, including a fired up political panel, plus deputy leader of the conservatives Melissa Lansman joining. Enjoy. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney Show. And it's Friday, which means we've got to take a look back at the biggest political stories of the week. And we do so with a great political panel. Please welcome back to the show, Brad Levine, president and of council PA, NDP strategist. Welcome Brad.

Say hi to Warren Kinsella, former special advisor to Jean Chrétien and CEO of the Daisy Group. Still with his tan, clearly from his time in Israel. Great to see you, my friend. No, it's time in Israel. Great to see you, my friend. No, it's high blood pressure. And Kate Harrison, vice chair at SUMA Strategies, to all three of you, I say happy Friday.

Happy Friday. No tan here in Ottawa. No tan in the US. Well, not with the weather we would have anywhere around here. My goodness, I don't think spring's coming for a while now. All right, let's break down what I think is going to continue to be one of the biggest stories, is Canada's relationship with Israel

and all the knock-on effects. Let's listen to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling out Mark Carney and other leaders. I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney, and Prime Minister Stammer, when mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you're on the wrong side of justice. You're on the wrong side of humanity and you're on the wrong side of history. Now these leaders may think that they're advancing peace. They're not. They're emboldening Hamas to continue

fighting forever and they give them hope to establish a second Palestinian state from which Hamas will again seek to destroy the Jewish state. All right. So listen, is it fair, and I'm going to start with you, Warren, because you were just there. Is it fair to connect the dots between the position that Canada took and the shooting in Washington? Is that, is it fair or is it, I mean, we'll leave it at that. Is it fair? Well, let's put it this way. Yeah, so I was in Israel for a few weeks and got back just a few days ago. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu is really unpopular in Israel.

The war is unpopular in Israel. The focus there is to get the hostages home and to get the war over. So, you know, there's, there's no question about that. The statement by Carney and Keir Starmer and Matt Kroll was a strong statement. I think it caught the Netanyahu government off guard and knocked them off balance. I think having Netanyahu out there as your spokesperson for Israel is just not a good idea. He's very unpopular in the West. And I, you know, I personally think

associating those three leaders with Hamas is not, not helpful. You know, at the end of the day, Israel needs the West to continue to support it. So, but you know, to me it's symptomatic of the overall problem with the Carney government. I'm writing about this for Post Media this weekend. I can't get a clear sense of where they are on key issues, you know, having a budget, energy, Israel, a relationship with the United States. It's messy. And this is another example that they need to clean it up. Kate, the irony is, prior to October 7, it looked like forces

were aligning to turf Benjamin Netanyahu with the changes that, unilateral changes he was trying to bring to the Israeli Supreme Court. I mean, it really looked like his days were numbered. Hamas ensured that he would stay in power for years after that. And so, but I keep going back to him saying they've been emboldened. We've got this murder on the streets of Washington, people saying, free, free Palestine. I heard some protesters, some video protesters here in the city of Toronto, and I'm looking at it through this lens that, you know, are our leaders when they are making what I think are hot takes and poor takes and lack of, like, missing the nuance of the situation. Is it allowing, is it giving cover to people who really don't need that

cover? And when they have that cover, they can go to those extreme lengths. Two things are true in this scenario. Number one, politicians are not responsible for the actions of madmen. That is just as true in this case as it was when you know liberal MPs were accusing You know right-winger conservatives of violence being linked to PR Poliev sometime last spring They are not responsible for that. No for the actions of terrorists. However Our politicians lack of courage Does contribute to a climate and an environment where people do feel emboldened to take extreme action. And I would point to the lack of enforcement of laws we have, put aside the discussion

around bubble laws at the municipal level, but we're not even enforcing laws that we have. We're not providing clarity of conviction on these matters. That was a problem with the Trudeau government. It looks to be a problem for the Carney government. From what I gather, that statement that he signed on to, which was praised by Hamas, was not necessarily run through the town before he signed on to it. So this is going to continue to be a problem unless the government stands on this issue one way or another. They're going to try to have their cake and eat it too. It didn't work for the last government.

It will work for this one. But the lack of that conviction and that courage and those words, we cannot equate that to the violence and the terrorism that we see south of the border or some of the activities here. Brad, we just had Warren say that he doesn't know where this government stands on a number of key files.

Kate said they want to have their cake and eat it too. Is that how you see it, that this is a government that is going to do its best to be as opaque as possible for as long as possible? Well, I think the short answer is probably, because that's what liberals do best. I think that the last handful of years were particularly troubling for the Liberal Party of Canada. And of course, Warren, with his years of involvement, would know this very, very well. For years, I think the Liberal Party was seen as a party that was behind Israel and I think by and large would compete with the Conservative Party and had,

I think, especially a handful of years ago, enjoyed a lot of the support of the Jewish community and diaspora. I think that under Trudeau, I think that they lost a lot of that. I think a lot of the Jewish community, particularly in the greater Toronto area, moved over to the Conservative Party. Now we'll see what Mr. Carney wants to see, what he wants to do in terms of putting his coalition together. And I think that a lot of that, particularly after October 7th, is challenging inside the

Liberal caucus of the elected members of parliament for the last election. So we'll see where he wants to go. As for giving aid to Hamas, I think that, you know, if you take a look at where, like, obviously Donald Trump is a huge Netanyahu supporter, huge supporter of Israel, and yet this horrible atrocity in Washington was only blocks away from the White House. So you can't say that, whether it's the Prime Minister of UK or Canada and the leaders of France are supporting Hamas, yet this horrible atrocity took place blocks away from Donald Trump's residence. So I don't think that it's

serving the interest of peace in the Middle East to call out Carney, Stammer and Macron. So I want to take a moment and talk about this new bubble bylaw in the city of Toronto. And for those who are listening who are unaware of it, it's a bylaw that just got passed. It offers protections to certain key public locations like schools and places of worship. There are about 3000 locations that would fall under the purview of this bylaw. And it is not specific to the Jewish faith, it's churches, it's mosques, it's synagogues, and schools and the like.

But my question, Kate, I'll start with you. I think a lot of us were surprised that it got beefed up, that the 20 meter bubble was extended to 50 and so on. There's a few places, so it actually got improved from the watered down version that it was before very, very quickly. It's sort of a pivot from my first question. If that violence hadn't happened on the streets of Washington,

do you think we would have seen a beefing up the way we did of this bylaw? I'm sure that recent events resulted in that law being augmented. I do come back to, you know, we do have existing laws that could be enforced. You know, I generally am supportive of making sure they're safe spaces. But passing new laws when the current ones aren't being enforced properly is not going to to fix this problem.

Brad, I'm going to give you about 15 seconds on this. 15 seconds on this. Oh, can I, can I, how about you, Warren? Well, I, you know, having bubble zones around places of worship and not just Jewish ones, you know, in Quebec City, we all saw, you know, how critically important like this could have been on that terrible occasion when so many Muslims of prayer lost their lives. This is something that's supported by most religious communities. And it's something that already exists

in respect of abortion clinics and health providers. So like this was an easy thing to do, but of course, typically Toronto council turned it into a torture chamber, but brought it on for hours. Warren, we're going to leave it there. I'm going to grab, pick you up after the break. Don't go anywhere more with our panel. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show and welcome back to This Week in Politics.

And welcome back to Brad Levine, Warren Kinsella and Kate Harrison. Guys, I want to jump right back in and I want to look forward to Cananascus, Alberta for the G7 Summit. This will be Mark Carney's first as the host prime minister. And it's also Donald Trump's return to the world of multilateralism. And I think it's going to be a very interesting backdrop, given the fact of what he essentially tweeted today, disparaging in the most inaccurate and,

well, inaccurate terms, the European Union, which he said, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on trade. And now he's suggesting a massive trade deficit. He's recommending a straight 50% tariff on the European Union starting on June 1st. So two weeks before the summit. Warren, you know, you worked with a prime minister who attended a great many of these summits. Talk to me about, I mean, who's walking into a buzzsaw here? many of these summits. Talk to me about I mean, who's walking into a buzzsaw here?

Well, actually, none of them are because Chris, you know, when I work for him, I said to him, because I'm from I'm from Alberta, as you know, Ben, and like, why just stick it in Canon ask us and he said, well, if any protesters try and get in there, they're gonna get eaten by bears. So like, it's pretty isolated. So it's gonna be very difficult for any of the many, many protesters who I think would like to target Mr. Trump

from showing up. You know, it's, if you're in the secret service of the RCMP protective service, it's a dream scenario for you because it's the best location for something like this. I thought the Carney- But what's, I mean,'s going to happen with these, what's going to happen with the European leaders

who show up being subjected to 50% tariffs because Donald Trump feels that the European Union's sole reason to exist is to take advantage of the United States on trade. Yeah, and that is the problem with Trump, is just when you think we've got a period of enduring quiet. Oh, I think we just lost. I think we just lost him. Kate, I'm going to jump on and ask you, what do you think this is? He just keeps lobbing bombs, doesn't he? Just when you think

everyone is rowing in the same direction and we might be able to have a little piece in the valley, something like this pops up. Yeah, that's a feature, not a bug. Yeah. Right. So, you know, he starts at 50% today and the lead into the G7, you know, then we end up somewhere around 15 and it still looks like the U S has secured something. He always goes to the extreme and then walks it back a little bit. I think where there's going to be tension around the G7 table, Ben, there might be a, some, of course, with, with European leaders, but how that interaction goes with Vladimir Zelensky, because he will be there.

Canada, I think, will have some positive things to say about support for Ukraine around that meeting. We know that the Trump administration has a very different view on the role that they should continue to play in the Ukrainian-Russian conflict. So I think that might be an opportunity for sparks to fly. It might be the first chance that Trump and Zelensky have being back in the same room together. So I think that that's where we could see some tension

around the G7 table, how Canada navigates the Ukrainian conflict and the support that we provide there, vice where no Americans want to go, which is stepping back from support in that conflict. Brad, give me your quick take on the G7 and what we can expect in light of Donald Trump's opening foray with the European Union. But then I'd like to pivot to the larger conversation about, you know, this the Mark Carney Prime Minister is not Mark Carney, the candidate from the counter tariffs secretly being gone to calling Donald Trump transformational, to asking to be part of the Golden Dome. Is this good diplomacy or a bait and switch?

No, I think that he's looking for, particularly with the G7 coming up on Canadian soil in a short bit, this is all, I think he's just keeping, he's not saying no to trump on anything uh... of substance the transformational comment on the white house and i think that most canadians would give him a solid grade on his performance in their particular we saw we didn't choose a one p as well as the leadership of south africa just a couple of days ago so i i i i think that that that security uh... that will be a big thing i think

the golden dome and what European allies think of Canada's participation in the missile defense initiative and the fact that we're still keeping our options open on that, I think will be a big one. And also I'll just add, I think Alberta separation and the idea of us selling our natural resources, particularly oil and all of that will be something of great interest to the global media on Canadian soil in Alberta. Yeah, Warren, you know, Brad brought up his performance and that's, I think, at issue here

for me is like, how much of this is a performance? What are this prime minister's values? How does he actually see the world? Mackenzie Gray of Global News put it to him and said explain the elbows up when you're the one your team's calling wanting to integrate more deeply with their military on the Golden Dome. We find out about the the tariffs that were secretly removed during the campaign. Never mind the fact that Danielle Smith was called a traitor for the very same policy that she upheld. But I'm just, he mentioned something in his explanation to Mackenzie Gray when he said, he said, look, everything has changed. And now we are willing to cooperate when we can, but we're not necessarily going to cooperate. And I thought to myself, well, explain then, explain then Jean Chrétien staying out of the Iraq War. None of that is different. It just happens to be that we're in a different time. So how do you see this? This? I mean,

is it a new Mark Carney that we're seeing? Well, you know, if you're in a daily campaign, and we are now, your message has to be coherent. Your message has to be understandable. And too often, whether it's on energy or housing or having a budget this year. And now, I mean, like the golden dome. So Trump wants to put a golden dome over North America to protect us from the, you know, the extreme threat we're facing from the North Korean Navy, I guess. So, but you know, Mark Carney said on March the 27th, I checked our relationship with the United States was over and less than two months later, he's like,

hey, let's go for this golden dome thing. And it's like, Mark, like, which is it? Yeah. Is our relationship with them over or not? So, you know, I think we can put a lot of this down to growing pains and new government, new prime minister. But you know, it actually is having the effect of making us all kind of look back nostalgically on the Justin Trudeau era. Well, at least I don't know about that.

But Kate, look, I didn't vote for the guy. So I don't feel like I had the wool pulled over my eyes, but there are a lot of people who got very, very heated because they believed in the narrative that the liberal government was telling them about our relationship being over. And so how are those people feeling today, do you think? Yeah, this is not growing pains. This is political opportunism. Things changed with the relationship

the moment Mark Carney got elected. He turned up the volume on people's anxieties and fears about, you know, the relationship with the US, whether or not we would become a 51st state. And don't get me wrong, Donald Trump started that fight. But Mark Carney certainly didn't back away from it. It was elbows up the whole way until he got in the saddle and said, you know what, this is gonna be a little bit more than than we can handle. So I can understand why a lot of voters would be feeling a bit betrayed by the way Mark Carney has handled his interactions with the U.S. and the president since the election.

I think that he is doing things correctly in terms of not shutting down the Golden Dome, even though I think it's a crazy idea that will never ever happen. He's probably going to play the game with Trump. But at the same time, it's a very different Mark Carney than what we saw at the end of March or even April when the election was held. Yeah, that's the thing. I'm not getting heated over the sort of what he's doing day to day, because by and large, these are things I agree with. I'm just, I'm just putting myself in the shoes, Brad, of someone who may have voted for him because they felt that there was a cultural and national imperative to do so only to then see that it's business as usual. Yeah. Well, when it, when it

comes to something like the, like this missile defense, Kate's right. this is never gonna happen. And it's a crazy idea. It was a crazy idea when George Bush Jr. put it to Paul Martin 20 plus years ago. But as a negotiating tactic, you don't have to say no to something that's never gonna happen. You can keep them going and saying, well, we're gonna find out more what he says.

That gets Trump excited. And perhaps it's a negotiating tactic to get him onto other things because we haven't said no to something. And we do got to get to our 2% of our GNP to get to our NATO contributions. So, as long as a conversation is going, and now he's distracted again,

and now he's looking over the Europeans, he's clapping on a 50% tariff there. So maybe there is a method to the madness. All right. With this guy. All right. Hey, to all three of you, I say thank you very much. I hope you have a great weekend. And I'll talk to you real soon. Thanks, Ben. Every journey I take leaves a lasting impact. Traveling the world only makes me

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Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for joining us. Very glad to have my next guest joining me. In any other situation, I would have a raft of questions about politics and what to look forward to in the next parliament. But that is not germane to the conversation we're gonna have today. Please welcome to the show Melissa Lansman,

deputy leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Melissa, thanks so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me. And I'm sure we have plenty of time to talk about what's going on in parliament. Yeah, what happened to all the elbows? We'll find out about where, the elbows are under the golden dome now.

But we'll talk about that a little bit later. I wanna talk to you about really the state of play for Jewish Canadians, Jewish Torontonians, and what seems to me like a chain of events that I'd love to break down with you. So, you know, we had the Canadian government coming out alongside our allies in France and the UK with a very stern condemnation of Israel and its prosecution of the

war with very little mention of Hamas's responsibility. That was followed by the targeted assassination of two Israelis on the streets in cold blood of two young people in Washington by somebody screaming, free, free Palestine. Then Benjamin Netanyahu accuses France, Britain, and the UK of emboldening Hamas. Then we have a beefed up bubble bylaw in the city of Toronto that could have gone the other way, but instead, I think because of all this, fueled almost probably guilt by those who have been

doing nothing on the file to protect Jewish Torontonians. And now we've got a walk for Israel, which is scheduled for Sunday, and a worry that counter protesters are going to blockade it. So I want to talk about all of that with you. Do you see the chain of events as I do? Yeah, look, I think you forgot a couple things. I mean, you've got to reevaluate your politics when a listed terrorist organization, one that we recognize in Canada, thanks you for your stance on the issue. And don't forget that this comes after 19 months of a community feeling entirely terrorized

in their neighborhoods, in their synagogues, in their schools, in their businesses, with a complete abdication of responsibility from every politician at every level of government, including our police and our unions, and it's all coming to head now. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, but it was disappointing is, you know, with a change in government, I was hoping for a change in tone, a change in position, but it's very much in keeping with if not worse than what we saw under the previous government. Yeah, look, I think you have a big, a big departure from, from what was Canada's long

standing position with a democratic ally. You now have a government actively stoking this fuel. And look, the news yesterday of the two innocent bystanders, Jerome Leshinsky and Sarah Milgram in Washington, DC, this is the consequence, the tragic consequence of the relentless falsehoods that have been propagated by the government itself in Canada

and governments around the world. And those who say that these things are understandable because of a war on the other side of the country. There are effectively two Jews that got shot at close range outside of a Jewish building, outside of a Jewish event. And you have people in this country, in our own orbit, saying that this is understandable.

If you don't see this as antisemitism, then I'm not sure there's a way forward. Well, yeah. I mean, I even saw a video a video yesterday or saw it this morning. I guess there were some people having a vigil outside of the Israeli consulate here in Toronto, which is ground zero for so many of the protests, by the way.

And a woman, I guess, on her way to the subway could not contain herself screaming expletives to the people who were mourning the passing of two innocents by equating it with the war on the other side of the world. And even if you take the Hamas numbers as legit, which they are not, for somebody to walk out of their way to disparage and insult the memory of two people had nothing to do with that war tells you how far we have to go to bring these two sides together. No doubt. And it is all, you know, it is all in a, in a, in a calculation to win a few

votes or be popular at the faculty club or in the worst case scenario, um, hide behind the, the, the, the, the hatred, uh, under the convenient, uh convenient guise of what's becoming much more socially acceptable, which is a new form of anti-Semitism that we haven't seen before. And this puts the Jewish community in deep peril, and there's not a single day that goes by where you don't have a conversation with somebody in that community or that lives side by side or that is an ally of that community who says, you know, is there a future here in Canada for this community? And that is a that is a shocking. It's a shocking relevation. What will you be in attendance at the walk with Israel this weekend in Toronto? Yeah, and I suspect you might be too.

Yes, I am. These cowards and these mobs of protests in our streets and those who fire gunshots into schools and fire bombs into buildings will never silence my voice on parliament. And I know that it won't silence the many thousands of people that will be at that walk. We will walk with pride and we certainly will count on law enforcement to keep that as safe as possible. Melissa, do you think that the police will be motivated to show that they care

just a little bit more about enforcing a law at an event like this today than they otherwise would have been had two people not been gunned down by a pro-Hamas terrorist? Look, I think where I'm at in York region, I think we've had police effectively do their jobs and we've seen a whole lot more

action than we've seen in Toronto. I'm not going to opine on what the police will do, but if history is do their jobs and we've seen a whole lot more action than we've seen in Toronto. I'm not going to opine on what the police will do, but if history is any example, we have seen these lawless mobs get away with breaking laws and the lack of enforcement around that has led us to these things like bubble legislation in municipalities across the country. And I suspect we'll see more of that, but that's only because of the application of responsibility from law enforcement

and from politicians across the board. But there is a wild card, it's reported in the Toronto Sun that not only are anti-Israel protesters planning to attend the walk, but they posted an internet meme suggesting that those behind last year's pogrom attacks after a soccer match in Holland are gonna be participating.

Now that just might just be bluster, but if there is any chance that that level of violence is actively being courted and imported into Canada, surely that's breaking some sort of law. is actively being courted and imported into Canada. Surely that's breaking some sort of law. That level of violence is already here. It's already in our midst. If you're a parent of a school who's been shot at not once, not twice, but three times,

you know that violence is here. If you're one of the businesses that have been vandalized, you know that kind that violence is here. If you're one of the businesses that have been vandalized, you know that kind of violence is here. If you have been sitting on a patio in downtown Toronto, you know, trying to make your way through smoke bombs and genocidal chants, you know that kind of violence is already here. The question is, is what are politicians and what are law enforcement going to do about what's already here? Well, listen, Melissa, as always, your voice on this issue, your courage on this issue is vital. And I'll say it one last time. I don't think it needs to be said, but I reject the binary view that to stand with the Jewish people of Toronto or Canada in any way demonstrates a lack of empathy

for the innocent people of Palestine. I reject that worldview and I'm not playing that game. And I thank you very much. You've never played that game and I know that this community appreciates your support so much. Well, I'm going to show that support on Sunday at the Walk with Israel. And I, maybe I'll text you before, because otherwise I don't think I'll see you in that sea of blue and white. I'll see you before because otherwise I don't think I'll see you in that sea of blue and white. Alright, take care. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show

and color me surprised. I was genuinely surprised when we knew that the bubble bylaw was coming to a vote at City Council. We knew that you well you've heard me say that the it was watered down, it was toothless compared to other municipalities that got there faster and took a stronger position. And it was my assumption that you were going to have a debate at city council that led to further dilution of the value of this bylaw. So color me surprised that the 20 meter distance that was proposed was extended to 50 meters. And there's a couple of other things in there that got changed for the better as well, not to say that it's a perfect bylaw in any way. But here to talk about it is one of the spearheads of this initiative, somebody who has been calling for this for a very long time. I'm talking about

Brad Bradford, Toronto City Councilor for Be beaches East York, Brad, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Ben. Good to chat. Okay, so how did this all come together? Finally? Well, I think job number one of local government is to keep our residents in this city safe. That's what people expect. And that's what people deserve. Over the past 19 months since October 7, we've seen just a triple-digit increase in hate crimes, incidents of hate, and people being harassed and intimidated in Toronto.

So the idea of bubble zone bylaws or safe access zones around places of worship, faith-based institutions and daycares is really just saying when people are going to practice their faith, when they're going to worship, regardless of their religion, we are not going to tolerate folks standing on the doorstep of a mosque or a synagogue or a shul, harassing and inciting hate. This would set up a perimeter around those spaces and keep the protests outside of that space so that we can protect people's rights to worship. Okay. Look, it came here, you know, this was the fourth crack at it that we had brought forward at Toronto City Council and you pointed out jurisdictions like Vaughan and Brampton were able to do what took

Toronto nearly 19 months, they were able to do it in six weeks. But yeah, we were able to find a way forward on council floor that strengthened some of the protections versus what the staff had come up with, which was a very mild, meek, watered down version of a bubble zone bylaw. We made it better. And I think you're right. It's not perfect. But it's important that we got something done, especially in light of what's happened over the past 48 hours. That's what I was going to ask you, Brad. If two innocent Israelis aren't gunned down the street of Washington by somebody screaming,

Free, free Palestine, do you think you have more opposition to this by city, by opponents at city Council? You know, part of it was, when 20 meters came out, that is one fifth of what every other municipality is doing. Every other municipality is doing 100 meters. The protections around abortion clinics is 150 meters. So 20 meters was actually really unprecedented in terms of just how weak that was. Well, city staff. I mean, listen, I don't know any city staff personally, but but writ large, I don't know any city staff personally, but writ large, I've talked about them enough on this show

to know where their allegiances are generally. Well, and I would say honestly, like that's done in collaboration with the mayor's office. He wanted to be able to do something to say that they're doing something, but it seems to me based on the mayor's actions, she actually wanted something so ineffective that it would never actually work.

So how did the vote shift yesterday? Well, you know, Councilor Pasternak to his credit, he moved the motion for 100 meters. And I think that almost created a permission structure for people to say, all right, I'm not gonna support 100 meters, but I could support 50. That's just the brass tacks of how the politics were playing out on the floor. We were able to get that done. The mayor, of course, voted against that. She voted against

every single thing that we did to strengthen this bylaw. But then at the end of the day, she voted for it as amended because I think she wants to be able to say she want to be on the winning side. Yeah, even though even though she tried to undermine it, right from day one. But the most important thing is that this was put in place. We made it less bad is how I'm characterizing it. And honestly, it's a win for these communities that have been under attack here in Toronto. The common sense thing to do, and it's long overdue to flex some leadership

in the council chamber and actually stand up for people who are under attack. But Brad, there are over 3000 locations in this city that would fit the description that would allow for this bylaw to the bubble zone to take place around them. Explain to me how it's gonna work because unlike other municipalities, other jurisdictions, you have to prove that you have been protested against or that somebody has perpetrated hate on you in the past nine

months just to be eligible for this. So walk me through what let's say I'm the principal at a Jewish school in on Bathurst in this city. And how do I get the protection if like to walk me through it? Well, that's a good point. And for everybody's understanding, the way this was originally drafted was basically the city was saying you are going to have to provide an attestation that you've been victimized, which is just insane. It's insane. It's insane. It's insulting. It's it's backwards. It's

regression. And then you have to be you have to be victimized before the City of Toronto is going to take you seriously. Yesterday, we actually removed that clause. That is no longer a requirement. Institutions that want to participate, places of worship, they will just fill out a form saying that they want to be a part of it, and they will be approved.

Okay, well, that is good. Yeah, it's better. And we also extended what was originally drafted as a 180 day safe access zone. We extended that to a year. That's great. So it's an annual renewal versus a six month renewal. And again, these are some of the steps that we were able to get passed

to make it less bureaucratic, less onerous on these institutions that we're trying to protect. Okay. Because the way staff and the mayor's office had sort of put this together, there was a tremendous burden on people who are already under duress.

Okay, lastly on this particular issue, is there not a fear that this lets the police off the hook? I mean, the do nothing leadership that has seen our streets to get taken over for 19 months. But now there are bubble zones. And if everyone that wants to be protected can be protected, isn't that like a, for lack of a better expression, a get out of jail free card for the cops who haven't done anything

on this front, because now you're just going to have bylaw officials writing tickets. Well, the reality is when you need to clear a sidewalk, it's not the bylaw officers that are writing the tickets that they just don't, you know, have the ability to do that in the same way law enforcement and police officers do. So I think this is, again, it's not a panacea, but it's an additional tool, we will now effectively be able to have these safe access zone perimeters that make it pretty clear, like literally with a

line, you gotta be 50 meters back. And so bylaw will be there, I think, first and foremost, identifying the issues, but then it's the police that are gonna come in and be able to effectively move in almost like a trespass to clear these people out. So it's not gonna be perfect, not at all.

And this is still one of the weaker examples of this type of bylaw in the country, but it is what we were able to get done under Mayor Chao at the City of Toronto, where, frankly, most of my colleagues have been fighting this every step of the way for the past 19 months. Okay, so lastly, Brad, if somebody wants to take advantage of this, when does it become an option?

My second. So it comes into effect on July 2nd. There will be information up on city websites shortly about how you get into the program. I don't anticipate that all potentially 3,000 sites in the city of Toronto will participate, but there are definitely communities that have been

targeted and attacked and harassed and I think this will come as some relief for those folks. I actually you know what I was at the CJ PAC event last night which is uh Canadian Jewish Political Action Committee and I had I had a woman come up to me and she was actually in tears and she just said this feels like the first time the city of Toronto has done anything to protect the Jewish community over the past 19 months. And despite all the squabbling and sort of toxicity of the council chamber and the heavy lifting to get there, that reminds you of what's at stake, what's on the line and why you fight to protect people in the city. Hey, Brad, thank you so much. Congratulations. It is a win. and it should be a feather in your cap.

Still a lot of work to be done, but I appreciate your time today. You betcha, we'll see you soon, best thing. Yeah, all right. There are very few things that you can be certain of in life, but you can always be sure the sun will rise each morning.

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Public Mobile, different is calling. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show and welcome back to a segment that I love doing because I get to work with Dave Bradley right here. It's Is It BS or Is It Real? And as always, very colorful language in this segment, as you will hear in just a moment. So if you have a problem with that, if you are a pearl clutcher in any way, go walk the dog, go do something, go do anything. But do not whatever you do, I repeat, do not listen to this segment. Maybe that's a good tease.

Whatever you do, don't listen to this segment. All right, so here's what I want you to do. I want you to play along at home. Dave is gonna read a news story, which may or may not be real. I'm gonna sit here hum and haw, probably talk myself out of the right answer, and I want you to play along at home. So with that, let's start, is this BS or is this real?

See now that's some bullshit. This is bullshit. Man, this is some bullshit. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers? I want the truth. You can't handle the truth.

You are fake news. I love that it gets tagged with you are fake news. Okay, Dave Bradley, over to you. All right, is someone pushing for kitchen knives, as we know them, to be banned in the UK? A survivor of a knife attack in the UK is now calling for banning the use of sharp tipped knives in home kitchens. Leanne Lucas, who was stabbed in a Taylor Swift themed dance workshop, was attacked by someone using a kitchen knife with a sharp blade purchased from Amazon. Lucas' campaign, which launched this week, is called Let's Be Blunt.

It aims to raise social awareness of safer tipped knives. She says we don't need to wait for government or the police to tell us what to do and is calling on the public to do an inventory of their kitchen knives. According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, kitchen knives are the most common type of weapon used in knife homicides. Miss Lucas says since the attack she has never cooked with a pointed kitchen knife again and that using a blunt tip knife makes her feel safer. All right, this is going to be one of those where I talk myself out of the right answer. Because yes, knife attacks in the UK have been on the rise, and blunter knives would

probably be helpful. But it's an impossible thing to do. Like if I'm at home with my steak knives, right? And I'm sure you could create a steak knife with a rounded edge I'm sure you could but if I'm at home with my steak knives and I hear this I'm gonna say well Why would I get rid of my steak knives? I'm not a no one in my house is a is a killer or in danger of ever using them

So it seems like a fool's errand So I'm gonna say it's made up. I'm gonna say it's made up. Joy? Is it possible this story is true? Oh no. Yes it is. I mean, I get the idea, I do, but it's like nothing's gonna come of this.

Yeah. And yeah, I feel bad for it. If she was stabbed at a tailor, that's terrible. Then the blood knives are already out there. Like you can still get them. They just, they're not quite as fancy as like a proper steak. They're not as pretty. I'm sure they don't.

But I bet they cut the steak pretty well. Anyway. All right. I got that one wrong. All right. Moving on to story number two is Kermit the Frog said to deliver a commencement address at a graduation. The University of Maryland is welcoming an unlikely commencement speaker to usher off

the class of 2025. A bright green Muppet. Kermit the Frog, a famous family favorite and self-proclaimed amphibitarian, announced the momentous occasion in a YouTube video posted by the university. In the video, the speaker was hailed as an environmental advocate, best-selling author, Peabody award winner, international

superstar, friend to all creatures, and champion of creativity, kindness, and believing in the impossible. The camera then sharply pans to Kermit the Frog. Kermit, who is traveling a long way from Sesame Street for the occasion, said nothing could make these feet happier than speaking at the university. Says in a statement, I just know the class of 2025 is going to leap into the world and make it a better place. So if a few encouraging words from a frog can help, then I'll be there. It's unclear fellow Muppet, Miss Piggy or any other members of the Fleecy Crew will be in attendance. Okay, so this is another one of those cases where I saw this story before. So I know it's true. But let me tell you why I'm so glad it's true.

Because with the, with the, he's not going to get political, right? There's no, if you are going to protest this, a muppet, then there's something really wrong with you. This is, this should be a great moment for anybody. At my, at my graduation from university, Jimmy Carter was the speaker. And that would have been fine. Well, he's very boring.

But on top of that, I was very drunk the night before. Very drunk the night before. And my mother insisted that I wear a suit. So I had to wear a suit under my black robe with my black hat in the beating sun of North Carolina in May. I almost died and I had to sit there listening to the most boring speech ever. It was awful. So I would take this guy any day of the week. Kermit the Frog, congratulations to you. So I know that's right. So I'm one for one. Yeah, you don't have to say it.

It's fact. Yeah, there you go. OK, let's move on. Number three. All right. Did the Chicago newspaper run a list of must read books that didn't actually exist? The Chicago Sun Times apologized on Tuesday for an embarrassing fiasco involving AI in its Sunday edition. The paper published a summer reading list with titles, authors and descriptions of 15 books. It turned out 10 of those 15 books didn't exist.

The authors attached to the names of the fake books are all real, but the books that they were said to have written don't exist. Of the five that are real, none of those books are new. As a matter of fact, the descriptions even acknowledged that two of the books were published in 1954-1957. The Suntime special

section was licensed from a national content partner that used a freelance writer. The section not approved by the paper's newsroom. The Suntime says it's updating its policies to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. Well, okay, that last part that you just said, that explained away my biggest concern about oversight from editors. I still don't buy it. I still, there's no way, there's no way that that got, no way. Ummm, now I'm thinking. No, no, I refuse to believe that a newspaper of that caliber would have done something that stupid.

So I'm gonna say it's BS. A similar event did take place. No I'm gonna say it's BS. Similar event. Talk your way out of it. Listen, newspapers, these are self inflicted wounds. You wonder you wonder why people don't trust the news anymore. You used AI. Oh, it's a third party doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. You got a contract with these people oversight is key. So disappointing.

OK, so I'm down by one. OK, next one. All right, let's make up for it. Did Donald Trump strike a deal with Qatar for a luxury golf course? The Trump family company struck the deal to build a luxury golf course and resort in Qatar and a sign it has no plans to hold back from foreign deal making during a second Trump administration. Despite the danger of a president shaping US public policy for personal financial gain,

the project, which features Trump branded beachside villas and an 18-hole golf course, is to be built by a Saudi Arabian company. It's the first foreign deal by the Trump organization since Donald Trump took office, and unlike any done in his first term, the deal for the Trump International Golf Club and Trump Villas is unlikely to be the last of its kind follows several other deals made before Trump was sworn in, including one for a golf resort in Vietnam late last year with a firm with ties to the Communist Party.

The deals have drawn outrage from government watchdogs, mostly silence though from Trump's fellow Republicans in Congress. I'm just going to say it's true, because it feels true and so much with Donald Trump is about feelings, so I'm going to say it's true. It happened. There we go, of course it happened. Okay, I think we got time to burn through one more. Okay, quickly. A townhouse owner in B.C. was fined $8,200 for breaching a noise by-law by regularly vacuuming his patio and terrace, and he's won his fight with the managers of the complex for now. Yi Fei Hu challenged $8,200 in fines, claiming they were invalid because they repeated

complaints from his neighbors, were not properly investigated, and the noise from the shop vacuum was not unreasonable. The complex who lives in is made up of ground level two-story townhomes as well as an adjacent ten-story building. The first complaint came from a neighbor living up on the sixth floor of the building, whose unit looks down on who's townhouse over the next three weeks. An additional five complaints were submitted, all alleging that he used the vacuum almost daily sometimes for several hours. I wish he'd come to my house and won his appeal. However, because he adequately of the appeal because the complainant I have failed to adequately prove the noise was unreasonable needed decibel recordings

or report. Yeah, you got to you got to prove you have to actually show a decibel to prove there's a noise complaint. I'm going to say it's real because it just sounds like something that would happen. It happened. On a high note, fantastic. Dave Bradley, thank you so much for joining us. No problem. Thanks for listening to the Ben Mulroney Show podcast. We're live every day nationwide on the Chorus Radio Network and you can listen online to the Radio Canada player and the iHeart Radio Canada apps. And make sure to follow and subscribe on Apple Podcasts,

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