The Ben Mulroney Show - Best of the Week Part 5 - Chris Chapin, Sabrina Maddeaux, Sharan Kaur

Episode Date: June 8, 2025

Best of the Week Part 5 - Chris Chapin, Sabrina Maddeaux, Sharan Kaur Guests: Chris Chapin, Sabrina Maddeaux, Sharan Kaur, Tim McSorley, 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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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Summer is Tim's ice latte season. It's also hike season, pool season, picnic season, and yeah, I'm down season. So drink it up with Tim's ice lattes, now whipped for a smooth taste. Order yours on the Tim's app today at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. This is the Ben Mulroney Show, but this is the time on our Friday episode where we bring on the best political panel in the country. Please welcome to the show Chris Chapin, political commentator, managing principal of upstream

strategy, Sabrina Maddow, political commentator, columnist and director of comms at global public affairs and Sharon Carr, political strategist and former deputy chief to the Minister of Finance. All three of you, I say happy Friday. Happy Friday. Okay, I want to talk about a piece of legislation that I don't think anybody asked for and I wanna get your take on it.

This citizenship by descent legislation. Sharon, I wanna go to you first, because we have a social cohesion issue in this country. We have a problem with people rallying around Canadian ideals, and it is forcing us, it is loosening the fabric of this country. We've been watching it happen in real time over the past 10 years. And I don't remember anybody running on this. I don't remember ever hearing the words,

citizenship by descent, and by the way, we'll remind people it means that citizenship will be afforded to you if your parents have a passport, so you don't even have to live in this country. So to me, this does nothing to deal with an actual problem that we have and could potentially create new problems. So I'd love to get your insights as to where this came from and why we need it. So it's not something new globally. Other countries have done this.

I believe like we've seen in the UK. Correct me if I'm wrong. Does the US not do this as well where you can get citizenship or like a passport based on your background? Maybe, but I don't know that that is I don't know that that's a justification or a reason to say other countries are done other countries have social cohesion issues as well a lot of them in Europe so I don't know that that's the I'm trying to understand where this came from and why I feel like I hadn't heard about this at all well yeah you

know this is it's definitely a bit of a new one. This is not something that we heard in any platform. Like this, this has always been a discussion point amongst people like, hey, if your parent was born there, you should be able to be considered a citizen. Do I think that there was some major need to do this right now? No, I don't believe so. Is this some sort of effort to promote

like some sort of Canadian brand? Maybe it is. Do I think it's going to cause a mass amount of issues? I don't think so because if we think about it from the perspective of how quickly someone can be granted it, it's like we're not talking about immigration or access to the country within five years

or whatever the case may be. Someone has to be born and then they go up and then they get access to it. So I'm not, I don't think this is gonna be an issue in the medium to semi long-term when it comes to immigration. I think this is just part of a larger strategy, maybe around population growth, access to Canada. Listen, is this something I would have done right away? Probably not. It's kind of random out of nowhere. I don't see the, I don't see it being as a complete downside. No, no, I'm sure there are positives that could come out of something like this. But Sabrina, to me, we are we were told we're in a crisis, all hands on deck.

How is this? How is this piece of legislation that is not germane to the subject of the crisis that we're in? How is this one of the first pieces of legislation to come out of the Mark Carney government? Yeah, this seems to be completely at odds with the current movement on immigration and reining that in to make it more sustainable, especially when it's not something that was in the platform or something that was run on. So it's very confusing to see this be one of the new

Carney government's big first acts. And there are potential negatives. I mean, the discussion around social cohesion and prioritizing, you know, high quality immigrants who are truly committed to Canada and whether that's committing to our social fabric, our cultural values or economy. The thing about this legislation is the parent actually only had to have spent a total of three years cumulatively in Canada throughout their lifetime. So we're not talking about parents who are here a decade or more or 20 years, like three years over a lifetime, not even consecutively. Yeah. That's a pretty low barrier to entry, right? And commitment to Canada. And then on top of that, this is going to open up a whole new floodgate when it comes to processing citizenship applications. And our system's already collapsing and struggling under its weight. So there's concerns there about what this does to the system overall. And they haven't even gamed out the numbers, you know, they're saying this adds an unknown number of potentially new

Canadian citizens. And we already can't keep track of how many people are here. So it's confusing, and it doesn't seem very well thought out or in line with what Canada needs immigration wise right now. Yeah, Chris, the Canadian passport is one of the most cherished passports on the planet. It is sought after everybody wants one. And now it seems like we're diluting the value of it further. I'm not trying to be overly critical. My brain genuinely cannot compute the logic. That might neither, you know, I can totally understand that there are probably some Canadians where they don't fit through this and this loophole changing this loophole will

help them get Canadian citizenship that they've long sought after. But you know, that's just such a small window. And I know I'm going to get Sharon's back up against the wall. But I think Sabrina makes a great point. I just don't understand the priority of this decision. This government didn't want to bring forward a budget in this legislative session. But this brought forward this legislation out of what I can only assume is absolutely nowhere. So for a government that, you know, came in talking about a crisis,

you know, wanting to address, you know, priorities that really matter to Canadians, this seems the farthest from it. All right. And I'm going to put this next story out there, and each one of you is going to get one minute to address it. The PBO has said the rubber is meeting the road, and the spending promises of Mark Carney will not be able to be, we won't be able to square that circle solely based on reductions in the public service. And so I want to go to you first, Sharon,

because you know Mark Carney and had this criticism come from, say, Pierre Poliev. That would be one thing, but this is another smart guy in the room, smart like Mark Carney, smart. So what do you think his reaction is going to be to this criticism by the PBO? So, and I'm going to say this with the utmost respect to the PBO, having spent five years

of finance dealing with the PBO, the PBO doesn't always get it right. And I think that it's fair for them to have their criticism, but like they might think the math ain't math-ing, but I would say the PBO does not always get it right. Now I am one of those strong believers that like if you were to ask me and I'll probably get like bombarded by the Public Service Union for saying this, we can cut the public service like probably by 50% there is so much wasted space probably even more. There is just so much wasted space and people who are just kind of I know we're waiting for attrition. I don't

think the PBO is completely right. I think there will be other there will be other things that are cut maybe some sort of programs that are not essential, that are not directly impacting people. But I think that the PBO, like we don't have the full numbers here, but you know what, I am here to cut the public service. All right, Sharon, I'm looking at Chris's face and I think he wants to jump right in here.

So you go next. Sharon's starting to sound more conservative than I am. She's cutting the public service and questioning legislative bodies, independent authorities of the legislature. So no, I couldn't agree more. We certainly could go far beyond attrition. I think it was something Stephen Harper did as a fundamental pillar of the way he governed for almost a decade. He was in power, was putting a cap on the public service and letting attrition do what it does best. But we need to do more. And I think that's where the PBO is right to question. All right, Sabrina, the last word is to you on this. It'll be a true test of Carney's leadership over the next little while, whether he's open to dialogue

and addressing criticism when it comes to economic issues, because that's where he feels he's the expert. That's his wheelhouse, and he's been a little bit prickly there so far. You know, absolutely, public service needs to be addressed. One caution I want to say though, is we've seen there have been layoffs over the last year, and they've mostly targeted the youngest workers in the federal service. So I'm cautious of moving to shut an entire generation out of government policymaking and public service work. So I think that there needs to be some serious thought put into this issue.

Well, Sabrina, if the idea is last one in, first one out, then let's cut the $26 billion in consultants. If the public service is way too big, according to Sharon, right, then let's get rid of the consultants. We already have more people doing the jobs than we need. So that would be my humble recommendation. Sharon, what do you think of the consultants? Like, I always found it really weird

that consultants get brought in to do certain things because why don't we just get that talent in house? Right, I know. I was there, and there are times that you do need consultants in but sometimes consultants are just like glorified like spreadsheet and PowerPoint folks and I think that maybe it's time this is when we look at hey the type of people we're bringing into government maybe they need to have some of the same qualities these consultants do but you don't need to

bring consultants. Sharon, you got to get you got to be around the table because you're making a lot of sense. You're like a lot of sense to me today All right, don't go anywhere. We've got more with my incredible political panel after the break right here on the Ben Mulroney show My administration and They love us and then at some point they miss it so badly and some of them Embrace it and some of them actually become hostile.

I don't know what it is. It's sort of Trump derangement syndrome, I guess they call it. Yeah, I don't know what it is. It's not me, it's you. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to our This Week in Politics panel. And of course, we're talking about the battle royale over the big beautiful bill between Elon Musk and Donald Trump that just Spiraled into a place. I don't think anybody anticipated, but we were all here for it

Let's start with you Sabrina We all knew the divorce was going to be ugly if if there was going to be a divorce It was going to be bad. I don't think any of us predicted the insanity that ensued and divorce, it was going to be bad. I don't think any of us predicted the insanity that ensued. And if you had to speculate and just full disclosure, you do have to speculate. What's your best theory as to what sparked this whole thing? Yeah, the divorce was inevitable. Like you said, you have two very powerful men, two wealthy men with big egos. And I think Musk, after donating so much to the campaign, expected a very large level of influence within the Trump administration. And he appeared to have that for the first little bit, but

then things started shifting and the Trump team seemed to be backing off a little bit and bills were being passed that he didn't agree with. And here we are. And you know what? It has been entertaining so far and I'm sure people are enjoying watching it. My concern is that this could eventually have unintended consequences where if Trump decides to you know take some sort of vengeful action against Elon and pass some sort of legislation or an executive order that then has broader impacts whether that's something targeted at X that ends up impacting freedom of speech or in the EV market

opening up to China, you know, there are a lot of ways this could go. So I'm not fully happy about it. No, no, you're yeah, it does have real world implications when the richest man in the world and the most powerful man in the world are fighting. Yeah, there's there's some spillover that can affect the everyday person. Sharon, what's your thought? What I want you to speculate to. What do you think sparked this? What do you think is really behind it? And what do you think the path forward is? Well, for starters, the next time anyone says that women shouldn't be in politics because they're too emotional, I will remind everybody of what happened yesterday. Because oh my goodness, what sparked this? I don't think there's one specific thing. We've heard rumors for a while now that there was disagreements between Musk and Trump's cabinet and some of the decisions being made.

And we have to remember, President Donald Trump turns on people as quickly as like humanly possible and he went from parading Elon's Tesla outside of the White House buying one himself to basically them going nuclear on each other. And I got to say, this is a good indication of how crazy politics have gone the US but I'm kind of with Sabrina on the, what are the consequences going to be overall for everybody. And, but to be honest, like, I think everyone was kind of collectively like everyone from every direction collectively sitting with their popcorn yesterday just saying, Oh my God, I am here for the drama.

Yeah. Well, and I'll take issue with just one thing you said, Sharon. And I'll pass it over to Chris is yes, Donald Trump typically goes at people, but he was, um, he was quiet for almost three full days and that is unlike him. So that, that is a question that I've got Chris. What do you make of all this? Oh, I think you're on mute, my friend. Well, I'm sorry about that, Ben. I think we saw this coming. It had been-

Did we really see this coming? No, yeah, I do think it was inevitable. And I think the honest truth here is that, you just look at what Elon Musk was brought in to do and what he thought he was being brought in to do. Sabrina mentioned it. He spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get the president elected.

And we all thought Doge was a joke, but I think it's something that Elon Musk has spoken about at length for years, he's cutting the size of the government in the United States. And he got in there and I would think was very excited about what they were doing. And then he got frozen out, just like any, you know, I think there's a lot in the tech sector that think you can apply how the tech world works to government until you learn how

government works. And it isn't, it isn't easy and it is a mess. And, and cutting the trillions of dollars, you know, it went from what the goal was to cut $2 trillion or $2 billion worth of government services. And the next thing you know, all they could find was like $200 million worth of government deficiencies. So I think that frustration boiling over into this, the big, beautiful bill that spends trillions of dollars,

I think just put them at odds with the president. And at the end of the day, then the ego set in and one man happens to be far richer than the other and one man happens to be far more powerful than the other. And they each have their own warring social media platforms that they can run to and, and put out whatever they want. And that's just, that's what wound up happening yesterday. And it made for, you know, incredibly entertaining reading material. All right. Well, I want to, I want to turn our attention to the seat of provincial government in Ontario, Queens Park. And I want to talk about decorum

because the leader of the opposition, Marit Stiles, had this to say on the floor of Queens Park. It is not a question of if, it is a question of when. When will this Premier grow a pair and demand the resignation of his? I will ask the Leader of the Opposition to withdraw. Withdraw! Okay, so let's call things what they are.

We're all smart enough to know. They workshopped that expression. They thought about it, they wrote it down, they tried it out, they decided they wanted to do that in our seat of government. My contention, and I'll start with you, Chris, is that that is beneath our seat of power. If you have been entrusted by the voter to represent our interests in that esteemed hall,

then we and that place deserves far better than that. What do you think? Yes, Ben, it does deserve far better than that. Unfortunately, that's been gone in that building and on Parliament Hill for a very long time. And you're absolutely right. You know, having written questions for a question period that was workshopped, it was rehearsed, it was practiced, and they decided to go ahead with it. I know some are criticizing, you know, if Doug Ford had said that, you know, the media would be losing their mind. It's just certainly Queen's Park question period across the country has just become political theatre. And so, you know, it's not surprising to me that it's sunk to this level. I fully agree. I think, you know, there's decorum has left that building,

you know, far too long ago and it needs to come back. I just don't know how we ever get there. And look, Sabrina, I'll come to you because this is the NDP. They hold themselves up as sort of the conscience of whatever body they are, they are in. And as a progressive voice, that was a decidedly regressive thing to say. It was and it's disappointing and I think it's beneath them. It's certainly a byproduct of politics for social media these days and question period is all about getting the clips. But the NDP has a leader who is a really solid communicator like Marit can get these clips and bring issues to the table without resorting to this. So I think it actually undermines her capabilities and hopefully they transition to, I think, more decorum and, you know,

playing into the fact that she can talk about the issues in a mature way going forward. And you know, this dovetails into a thought I had a few weeks ago, Sharon, with Pierre Polyev sort of trying to reimagine how he gets back into the House of Commons and asking himself why he lost the election. Perhaps one of the conversations he's having with himself is, do I present as a more like the adult in the room when I come back to the House of Commons? Instead of being the guy who gets those clips, maybe I'm going to be the guy who stands as the prime minister in waiting. So perhaps we might see more decorum in Ottawa. Absolutely. And you know, I've been saying this for a very long

time, especially recently with everyone kind of complaining about the fact that the house is going to rise soon federally and they should be working. They, I say working with quotation marks because they will be working through the summer, but I have been a very strong believer that question period, whether it's provincial or municipal. And you know what, even council, council, municipal, but provincially and federally, they have become theatrics, purely theatrics. Nothing gets done. And when it comes to merit, I don't know why she needed to degrade herself to this. I tell people to grow up here all the time, but I'm not sitting in the House of Commons or in a legislator. And like, yeah, grow up here, people. But you don't need to take that into a space that is cement to be professional

People are sick and tired of this rhetoric of hatefulness and I think you're right like you're probably I've probably walked away saying You know what? Maybe people didn't like that I'm a mean not mean guy But I'm this confrontational guy saying whatever I want to say type of stuff and people want some decorum And that's why I say question period is a waste of time. If there is one place where we should have it in an ideal world it is like I said the the seats and halls of power but you know I may be a little too naive to hope for that in the future. I was hoping this would be a great panel you guys delivered thank you very much

I hope each and every one of you has a terrific weekend thank you so much for joining us and come on back anytime you want. Thanks guys. Bye guys. Now that the warm weather is here is it time to get rid of your old car? Oh sure it's served you well but you know it'd be kind of nice to have something new maybe a convertible maybe maybe something with a sunroof. I know, I know car shopping can be an overwhelming experience. Is this a good price for the vehicle? Am I even looking at a vehicle that's right for me? This is a big purchase and you need to get it right. With CarGurus, those problems go away. They have hundreds of thousands of cars from top-rated dealers so you can

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with us. We appreciate that you can do whatever you want with your time. And a lot of you are choosing to help us build the community around the Ben Mulroney Show. And that means that you might be listening in podcast form. You might be listening on a streaming app or on the Chorus Radio Network, or now you can find us on YouTube. Just search up the Ben Mulroney Show

and we post content over the course of the day. The irony is not lost on me that the only two times in Canadian history that legislation was passed that radically circumscribed our charter rights were under, were put forth by the party of the charter. And now as we get to know this new liberal party, because that Mark Carney wanted us to know, it's a new party, it's a new government with a new leader. A lot of us didn't really know what that meant,

but we are getting starting to get an image as to how he's going to govern based on the ideas he's putting forth in the form of legislation. There's a new border security bill. And there is there's there is a reason and a need to beef up how serious we are about the border, but could this be a threat and a risk to our rights and to our liberties? Here to talk about it is Tim McSorley, the national coordinator for the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.

Tim, thank you so much for being here. But here, thanks, Ben. So I'm gonna guess that you would answer. Yes. Our rights are at risk with this legislation. Definitely. We're really disappointed to see that the first bill that this government has brought forward is one that, you know, it was an omnibus piece of legislation at more than 120 pages. That just brings in a slew of new laws, some relate to the border, but some that go much, much further and that really plays at risk both our civil liberties, our human rights, and a whole range of ways. Yeah. So, so let's, I want to operate in good faith and

I really do want to give this government a lot of room to succeed on behalf of all of us. So, let's start with the good. What is good in this bill according to you? Well, I think that there are some targeted measures around the illegal substances laws. So to be able to target drug smuggling, some others that would allow CBSA access to areas in order to ensure that, for example, they can crack down on car thefts

and other issues like that. And some others around sex offender laws. But beyond that, there's a whole slew of other changes to surveillance, to access to our information for law enforcement, to even the Coast Guard laws and to our immigration laws that really raise a lot of concerns. Tim, is it true that under this law, Canada Post could open my mail? Under this law, based on regulations, Canada Post would be able to open your mail. Yeah, we still don't know what those regulations will be. And so there is that caveat. And, and this is the problem government, both liberal and

conservative have pointed to the idea that we'll bring in these very broad laws and then the details will be in the regulations. But regulations are, are, are passed, you know, they're shared publicly, but it doesn't go through parliament and doesn't go through the same kind of scrutiny as the actual legislation. Tim, I want our border to be as secure as possible. I want us to know who's coming in, what's coming in, and I want us to be able to... I want those who are entrusted with keeping the border secure, I want them to have the tools necessary to do their job. And I don't remember anybody tools necessary to do their job. And I don't remember anybody saying that the legislation

around CBSA, for example, was woefully toothless in the past. What I did here on this show and in conversations with people in the know was that it was woefully underfunded and understaffed. And to me, before we start going down the path of beefing up what these organizations can do, maybe we should take the first kick at the can, should be like, let's make sure that we have

the right number of people funded at an adequate level to do the job that they're entrusted to do. And then let's see if the laws need to be tweaked. Well, clearly the resources need to be there. One of the questions that we have is that, you know, a lot of this is in response to the US government saying that there's a problem with, you know, illegal immigration and irregular immigration. There's a problem with drug trafficking that even our law enforcement and CBSA have said

is grossly exaggerated, isn't based on facts. So I think what we need to do is take a step back to even evaluate whether or not the new resources being provided are needed. And then there's a really important thing is that the MPs voted last year to set up an oversight body for the CBSA. And the oversight body will be able to take complaints

from individuals, but also ensure that CBSA is working efficiently and is doing their job. And we haven't seen a single move on the establishment of that oversight body throughout all this. And that could be a really key solution to ensuring that we know what needs to be done if there is even an issue,

but we haven't seen that happen yet. So Tim, we talked about the good and that was a very short part of our conversation. I suspect this longer part of the conversation will be about where you see the failures in this bill. Yeah, well, I think there's a lot of areas where we see failures. An important part is around issues regarding privacy and, and surveillance and access to our personal information. So there's sections of this bill that give police and national security and intelligence agencies new powers that they've been trying to get for years now

in order to more easily access our basic information. So being able to find out whether or not we have accounts with internet service providers, you know, providers and anyone else providing a service online. And then based on that, be able to request our information at a lower threshold than they can currently do. And so our worry is that this will allow

for phishing expeditions, but this isn't just limited to the border, but that it can be applied to under any act of parliament. And it also allows Canadian police but that it can be applied to under any act of parliament. And it also allows Canadian police and intelligence agencies to more easily request information from foreign agencies about Canadians. But also there's reciprocal powers that would allow foreign agencies easier access to request information about Canadians and people in Canada. Oh really? And there will be restrictions,

and we've made it clear that any request has to obey the charter, but we're very concerned about how that will actually play out in reality. And it's certainly not something that we would expect to be in a border security bill. We would expect it to be in a standalone bill that would discuss whether, you know,

how and whether national security agencies and law enforcement can access our private information. I mean, Tim, I don't know how this is going to play out. I've been trying to game it out in my head. And now you just said yourself that our government has said that the threats at the border, the crisis at the border, has been overblown. So we don't even have, like they can't say with a straight face

that these extraordinary powers need to be doled out because we're in a crisis. Like they've said, it's not the crisis that we've been told it is. So I mean, I've seen charter challenges be successful over a heck of a lot less than this. Does it? I can't imagine that in its current form, this piece of legislation is going to become law.

I think that will have a lot of debates and discussions at committee. I expect a lot of amendments to be proposed. We ourselves and others we work with are going to be working on crafting amendments to try to address this bill that goes forward. But what we're actually calling for us and other digital rights groups, other human rights organizations, immigration rights organizations are asking for the bill to simply be withdrawn. As it stands, it can't be fixed. There should be a targeted specific bill for border security. And if they want to change everything else, they need to come back with specific legislation, do consultation on it, and actually justify why why why it needs to be passed. Well, yeah, I'm impressed that they were able to put this entire piece of legislation together so

quickly. I mean, we're told the government hasn't had enough time to look at the books and put a budget together. But this is quite a complex piece of legislation. I don't know where they found the time to do this. Well, certainly I, you know, there's parts of it that I think, um, the government, you know, previous governments have been working on some aspects of this legislation and that it's being added to, to this bill. So as I said, you know, issues around lawful access to our information, this isn't new. We've seen in a proposed by, uh, you know, over the past 15, 20 years, we've seen multiple versions of this kind of, these kinds of laws being proposed. And some of the integration changes, the idea of cutting

off of silent claims, if somebody's been in Canada for one year, regardless of whether or not, you know, there's a coup in their country, and it's not safe for them to go back. Right. These are the kinds of things that we know that the U.S. has been putting pressure on Canada to do and that Canada has been mulling over for the last few years. And that just isn't a border bill. And it's completely, you know, whatever you say people think about, you know, immigration, it's an issue of human rights. Yeah. Yeah.

It's an issue that, you know, people will be persecuted if they're sent back to their country. Tim, I want to thank you so much for highlighting this. Important to get your voice heard on this. We appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks so much, Ben. Time to drive away from the grind

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Conditions apply. Details online. Welcome back. The Ben Mulroney Show marches on on this Friday edition of the show. And thank you for listening to us in podcast form on a streaming app, perhaps on YouTube or on the good old fashioned radio box on the Chorus Radio Network. We love that you carve out some time for us

every single day. So thank you very much. It's that time of the day folks on Fridays where we like to play a little game. It's one of the most popular podcasts that we do. But it does contain some spicy language. So if you are a Pearl Clutcher or you just don't like to hear swear words, I

would advise you to go do anything but listen to the radio right now. And then you can come back after and enjoy this to your heart's content. We invited Dave Bradley from the newsroom into the show a while ago. It gives a real gravitas and seriousness to this segment. And I have to say, last week I did very, very well in this segment.

I didn't think myself out of the right answer. So you play along with me at home, and hopefully you can beat me. It is now time for Is It BS or Is It 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. All right, so Dave Bradley, are you ready with the first story? I am ready to go So did an AI company file for bankruptcy after being exposed as a team of engineers So 1.5 billion dollar AI company backed by Microsoft is now shuttled down

After its neural network was discovered to be actually hundreds of computer engineers based in India Natasha an AI app building service from London-based Builder AI, claimed it had the ability to use artificial intelligence to create applications from coming up with app designs to writing code. Microsoft reportedly backed the neural network with a 455 million dollar investment leading to a valuation of $1.5 billion. But it turns out, all that cash was going toward a workforce of over 700 Indian engineers, rather than AI.

The farce lasted for eight years, getting exposed just last month. Builder announced bankruptcy shortly thereafter, writing in a statement on LinkedIn that it would be entering into insolvency proceedings. Alright, Dave, there isn't a chance in hell that this is real. Yes, governments screw up and hire frauds. Microsoft does not become Microsoft without doing due diligence on their companies.

No effing way. And what I will say is, this to me feels lifted from the Amazon story where Amazon has their Amazon fresh grocery stores, where you just walk in and it recognizes that you are an Amazon prime customer and you can just grab things and it's got sensors and cameras everywhere. And you just, you take it and you don't have to pay. You just get charged and the sensors identify it's all AI. And it turns out it's not all AI.

It's a bunch of people sitting in India watching cameras. So I think that's what this is. So I'm saying it's BS. Is it possible this story is true? Yes, it is. You talked your way out of it. I didn't talk my way out of it. This is insane.

This is insane. Microsoft, a vapor company was valued at $1.2 billion? $1.5 billion. How can I get in on stuff like that? They accepted a $455 million investment. I mean, look, I want the world to be better than it is. That's the problem. That's the problem.

I will never apologize for that, Canada. I will never apologize for believing in the best. Alright, story number two. Did scientists create the world's smallest violin? If you have a complaint over your timetables or exams, Lowbrow University may not be the place to air it. For physicists at the university, they believe they have created the world's smallest violin using nanotechnology. They say work on the tiny instrument, which is smaller than the width of a human hair, will help with research into an array of applications from improving the efficiency of computers to finding new ways of harvesting energy. The violin measures 35 microns long and 13 microns wide.

A micron is one millionth of a meter. A human hair typically ranges from 17 to 180 microns in diameter for comparison. If you're hoping to hear what it sounds like, you will be disappointed since the violin is more of a microscopic image rather than a playable instrument. Okay, yeah, so let me just get some clarification here.

So, yeah, it's not a real violin. No, you can't hear it. But they want to show what the technology could do. Exactly, so you can see it through a microscope, you can't hear it. Okay, I've seen stuff like this before when they wanna show how small they can get things, to show a technology

is viable. Hey, look what we can do with this technology. We were able to make a violin that was this small. I'm going to say it's true. It's fact back in the game. Back in the game. Okay. All right. Let's move on to number three. Let's see. It's the rubber match. Did a surgeon blame a shocking drug test result on bagels? An embattled Sydney surgeon has once again been hauled in front of medical authorities, this time after testing positive for a slew of illicit drugs. Dr. Tobias Pincock was nabbed for being on illicit drugs

while working. Australia's medical regulator released its findings from a tribunal that was held in late 2024. It investigated a complaint against Dr. Pincock. Now due to past positive tests he was required to take periodic random drug testing but throughout the testing Dr. Pincock tested positive for cocaine, oxycodone, morphine, codeine, opiates even. Dr. Pinchok provided the tribunal with many explanations for the positive test results, but most outrageous was the fact that he had eaten several poppy seed bagels on the

day of the testing or on the previous day and it was probably the cause of the false positive result. Needless to say, no one was buying that excuse. Well, it's the Elaine Bennis justification. Remember when Elaine was supposed to go with Jay Peterman to, I don't know where she was supposed to go, the Andes or something, and she couldn't go because she popped on her drug test for opium. And it was because of a poppy seed muffin. So that's why I think this isn't true. Somebody was inspired by Elaine Bennis and created this fiction of a story. I'm going to say it's BS. A similar event. Oh come on! Maybe he was. These things are so similar to things

I've heard before. That's why I'm not believing them. Alright let's move on to we got time for another one? Yes, we got time for another one. Did a mom attack a principal after being called to school to discuss her daughter's fighting? A North Carolina mom accused of attacking a middle school principal and superintendent, grabbing one of the administrators by the neck, nearly choking her during a meeting at the school

to discuss her daughter's involvement in a fight. Mariah Hector was arrested, charged with assaulting a school employee and second degree trespassing. Hector and other family members were called to Randolph Middle School in Charlotte after her daughter was involved in a fight. While at school, she reportedly became hostile and was asked to leave. Instead, she pushed past that employee and shoved the school's principal into a wall. Hector then grabbed the assistant superintendent with both hands around her neck and attempted to choke her. The school was then placed on a lockdown.

Hector was taken into custody. So the mom went to the school to deal with the daughter's fighting and got into a fight herself? That's right, yeah. That's a very American thing I'm saying it's true. Yes, okay. I want to go fast through that one because I think we got time for one more. Yeah, I think we do. Did Doordash delivery at O'Hare expose holes in airport security? Newly obtained video shows a Doordash driver's attempt to deliver food to a customer at O'Hare International Airport last month not only breached perimeter security but also failed to trigger an immediate response. The delivery driver's red Hyundai Elantra is seen on airport surveillance video pulling up to and stopping right next to a jet. Baggage handlers noticed the driver and approached, however it took nearly 10

minutes for a marked Chicago police vehicle to arrive. The driver entered the restricted area through a security gate on the southeast corner of a hair, indicating he traveled a significant distance across a massive airfield without ever being stopped or even raising an alarm. Authorities were relieved it was a harmless accident, not someone intending to do serious harm. And officials say they'll learn from these mistakes.

All right, this one's tricky, man. This one's tricky, because I could see it happening. Some stranger things have happened. But I haven't heard anything about this in the news. I think I would have heard about this. We would have talked about it on this show. I'm going to say it's BS. It happened. This one took place. This is not a good week for me. We should talk about it now. Oh my God. This is not a good week. I have to do some self-reflection when I get home. Dave Bradley, have a great weekend. Thank you so much for joining us. That was

got everything wrong. Almost. I only got one right. Thanks for listening to the Ben Mulready 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, Spotify, Amazon music, or wherever you get your streaming audio. We release new podcasts every day. Thanks for listening. on music or wherever you get your streaming audio. We release new podcasts every day. Thanks for listening. Please let me out. Rick put you in there for a reason, sweetie. Mom, just say it! Yes! Get back here!

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