The Ben Mulroney Show - Can Ottawa sue Stellantis for bailing on Oshawa??

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

GUEST: ERIK JOHNSON/Vice President and Senior Economist · BMO Capital Markets - auto expert GUEST:   Dan Carter/Oshawa Mayor If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you've been following the news, like really following it, you know how exhausting it can be. Politics, conflict, uncertainty. It's a lot to carry. And for many men, there's this expectation to stay calm, stay in control. and not talk about how it's affecting you. But the truth is, you're allowed to feel overwhelmed. You're allowed to say, I'm not okay right now. And trust me, I have been there.

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See dealer for details. Hey, uh, seriously, can I get one? Down to Guerrero, and that is going to do it. Jay's make a statement both Shane Bieber on the mound and with their bats hitting five home runs in this game. And the series suddenly feels a little bit different. It's now two to one for the Mariners. It feels dramatically different. They are not out of it yet. The Blue Jays find life in Seattle to reclaim at least one victory thus far. They're down two games to one in this American League championship series. Welcome to the Ben, Rooney show. It's Thursday, October 16th. Yeah, big winners in Seattle last night, but we want to start this show with a winner, a little closer to home. One of our colleagues here at the radio

station, Joy, is, well, Mike, tell us the story of Joy placing a bet or a series of bets on the Blue Jays last night. And for reference, Joy, he was always my expert during the Olympics. on Olympic sports and tennis. Those were his foretays. And I would bring him on the show during the Olympics when I hosted a weekend show. He knew everything about, you know, synchronized swimming or diving and track and field and tennis.

Those are his strong suit. That's the meat of the order for him. He used to be a competitive tennis player. Yes, yes. And yet he, I know a lot about baseball. I've been watching baseball my entire life. I'm a baseball junkie. And the bets that he made, he listed them off for me, I would never have made.

And he won them. And he went for, I think he said he bet $21 and he won $4.80. And I was like, how did you do it? He didn't even know there were nine innings in the game. Yes, he says, I don't know anything about ball. About ball. I was like, just by you saying that confirms you don't know anything about baseball. And so did you ask him why he decided to bet?

He used AI. to say, hey, what are the good bets? And that's what it told them to do. Hey, Chad, GPT. What are the good bets on the game of baseball? Exactly. And he bet $21. He won $480.

He won $480. I was like, I'm floored. Congratulations to the J's. Congratulations to Joy. And by the way, if you are planning to bet, bet within your limits. Please. And bet responsibly. And be like joy.

Be like joy. Don't be like, don't be like, uh, anybody else. Be like joy and earn some. I don't, I love baseball. I don't like betting on the game. You know what? So I've gotten, you know, in my earlier younger years, even when I had anything resembling disposable income and I would go to Las Vegas,

I didn't like the gambling aspect. I, I, I'm just not, it doesn't scratch an itch for me. Yeah. There are other things in life that scratch itches. That for me is not something. I'll play a few hands of, you know who also didn't gamble? My dad.

And one day, he wanted to take us all as a family to Las Vegas. And we went to the Celine Dion show. He wanted us all to enjoy it. By the way, I will say it and I'll say it time and time again. That woman, that show, she was spectacular. And if she were performing again today,

I would be first in line. I love her as a live performer, amazing. So we go to Vegas and my dad doesn't understand why he's not, like he's paying top dollar to take the whole family to Las Vegas and we're staying at Caesar's Palace. He doesn't understand why he's not in the line of like the VVVVVIPs. Like he's in a good line to get, and he's treated very well. But there's, you know, there's men who are dressed like they just rolled off of a Greyhound

bus and he wants to know why those. And my brother points out to him, But dad, if you were willing to spend 10% of what you're actually spending on this trip at the tables, most of what you're paying for would be comped. And so he started thinking about that. And we all go off and do our own thing. And then my dad comes back up to me, my brother, very excited. And he says, well, I gambled.

I went and I gambled. What did he gamble on? And I won $200. That was it. Like, that was it. That was how happy was he gambled. And we're like, that's not going to cut it, dad. But for him, that's not, it wasn't part of the equation for him.

And I think I get that from him. But anyway, back to, back to the here and now. Very, very happy that the Jays did that. Very happy for joy. But there is, there are some more concerning news. You know, with the good, you got to take the bad. And the news that is consuming so many people in Ontario. And indeed, the ramifications for this story around the country are the,

the Stalantis news that they are going to be shuddering operations here in Ontario and moving them down to Illinois. What is the next step in this story? Well, Ottawa is threatening legal action against Stalantis for moving Jeep Compass production from Brampton to Illinois. Industry Minister Melanie Jolie sent a letter and spoke to the press saying it's unacceptable. We're going to play. Let's play that for you right now.

We will fight for the jobs at Brampton, we'll fight for the jobs that were committed by Stelantis, and we'll fight for our auto sector. I've been in contact with Lana Payne, the head of Unifor, yesterday and today. I've been in contact with Flavia Volpe, who's an important voice in the sector. We've been working hand and glove also with the Ford government, and we're one strong team, Canada, together. And the company has commitments under different types of agreements with the government. including the fact that we provided support for the retooling of the very Branton facility that right now is sitting idle. I've told you before.

You are not going to have in me somebody who has a reflexive, negative reaction to words that come out of the mouths of liberal cabinet ministers. If they say something that I agree with, I will endorse it. that statement by Melanie Jolie was note perfect. Everything she said was right. Everything, her objection to this entire situation, her evidence in the case, and the remedies that she's looking to secure,

I completely and wholeheartedly endorse. And I hope that, I hope we hear more of that. And I hope they go as far as they possibly can to seek redress for what I think is a disgusting act. And I get it, I get that there's pressure being put on them. But let's also remember that the federal government and the Ontario government pledged $15 billion in incentives for Stalantis to set up a battery plant in Windsor.

So the fact that they are now investing $13 billion to set up new manufacturing in the U.S. rubs me the wrong way. And some of the battery plan incentives are tax breaks rather than direct cash, so they reduce what the company pays rather than giving money up front. But those deals were made before Donald Trump opened up his tariff or all that I concede. Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown says Stalantus pointed the finger directly at tariffs. Let's listen to the mayor. Listen, as I spoke to Stalantz yesterday, they booked a meeting with

me after, you know, they made their news public. And they said as long as there's tariffs, there's just not a business case for production in Canada. You know, they claim that 90% of what they build goes to the U.S. and they would love to see Canada get a trade deal and they love to see us get tariffs so that they could return production and they love Canada. But for me, that's very hollow. It doesn't give me any confidence. If I'm one of those 3,000 workers that lost their job, what confidence do I have that there might be work again years in the future if there's not tariffs and auto when the U.S. President has been very clear he's going after all our auto jobs. And so, yeah, I'm not reassured by Stalantis's comments.

Cold comfort indeed. And again, a reminder in 2008, 2009 during the financial crisis, about $13.7 billion in loans, equity, and support from the various levels of government were given to General Motors. Chrysler, which is now Stalantis, province of Ontario covered roughly one third of that. Chrysler repaid its portion in 2011, but the point is, and the point to remember, is that when these companies needed our help, we were there for them. And the second that things become tricky for them, the second that there is pressure on them, they choose the path of least resistance. There is no recognition of what the taxpayers of this country have done for these

companies. And there's no loyalty. There's no loyalty and they have very, very short memories. And I would recommend to our politicians and to the taxpayers of this country to have longer memories and remember this sort of thing in the future. Up next is the auto sector, the sacrificial lamb for a bigger trade deal with the U.S. We'll discuss next. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. All right. Before the break, we sort of laid it out for you. The lay of the land as it relates to this.

Stalantis throwing a grenade into the lives of so many people in the auto sector here in Ontario, with 3,000 direct jobs, another 1,000 indirect jobs being immediately and direct. directly affected. And we heard the voice of our industry minister, Melanie Jolie, who rightly took great offense and great umbrage and laid out some possible means to seek redress, one of them being a lawsuit. To discuss this, we're joined by Eric Johnson, Vice President and Senior Economist at BMO Capital Markets. He's also an auto expert. Eric, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Great to be with you, Ben. Okay, so give me the big picture of this crisis as you see it? Yeah. So I think it's important to remember if we're just thinking in the grand scheme of

the Canadian economy, you know, one kind of auto assembly plant, while, you know, very important to the community of Brampton and Southern Ontario, you know, is a relatively small chunk of the Canadian economy. You know, there's about 3.4 or 3.7 million workers in the GTA alone. And so it just gives you a sense on that level, it's a really small, a smaller piece of that puzzle, but certainly for those community that is really tied into those, all those direct, indirect and induced jobs that you, you know, kind of, you know, spelled there. And then this idea that, you know, somehow a potential, you know, upside here would be that you could, you know, shift some of those jobs to Windsor, which we're supposed to go to kind of, you know, people in the area of Windsor. And,

you know, you imagine just having to pick up your life after, you know, all of this kind of troubling news, you know, I think it's, you know, just speaks to the kind of, I think, disrespect that decision like this and can certainly lead to. And Eric, Eric, is it, is, is the concern. And I take your point about, you know, the raw numbers, right? The raw numbers relative to the stars of the economy. But I think people might be afraid that this, this is just the beginning, right? This is absolutely.

And that's where I was getting to is that just if we think of the direction of travel here. So for a long time, I would say for the past, you know, four or five months in this trade kind of war that is happening with the United States, you know, companies weren't really having to deal with some of the direct challenges of paying those tariffs, you know, when they're shipping goods to the United States. And that was true, particularly the auto sector, we're really only over the last few months, have we started to see the official data show, you know, meaningful tariff rates on Canadian-made vehicles entering the United States. And a lot of these companies now, you know, don't have, you know, they're running out of pre-tariff inventory. And so this is kind

of where, you know, we're in a situation we're in today where, you know, if we continue, to see these sectoral tariffs, not just hit the auto industry, but certainly, you know, metals and a lot of other sectors in Canada, this is really what has the potential to kind of continue to hollow out, not just the auto industry, but a lot of the, you know, kind of the manufacturing sector in Canada writ large. Because remember, yes, Canada has a diverse, talented workforce, which is its primary strength in, you know, attracting investment and jobs in those kind of spaces. But the other big comparative advantage we've had for a long time now is, you know, immediate and what used to be, you know, relatively free access to, you know, the largest consumer

market in the world in the United States. And, you know, as that's been eroded away, you know, there's a lot less kind of interest in, you know, investing and kind of growing the capacity in Canada here. And so this is, you know, I think one of the challenges going forward is that, you know, while Branton, you know, kind of was this first domino potentially fall here, you know, we have a lot of other, you know, plants that are in not such a dissimilar situation to Branton. they certainly can follow, you know, Branton here if we don't get some resolution on the trade front in the near term. Well, a resolution on the trade front,

but also it feels to me if, in fact, this behavior that we're seeing from Stalantis could be, I mean, we can expect that it could be modeled in similar fashion in other places and other sectors, and indeed, it's still in the auto sector, then how we react to it is going to determine a lot moving forward.

So I guess the next question is, what are some very real and meaningful actions that we as Canadians at various levels of government could take to affect the behavior of analogs throughout the auto industry? Yeah, I mean, certainly the direction that the industry minister has taken. You know, when you do accept public funds, I think there are often our conditions of accepting those public funds. I think a little bit of the shroud and the question marks around this on, you know, exactly what kind of language was put into those deals when they were signed with, you know, Stalantus

and these other automakers. And so that, you know, language really will matter. And because none of it was public, you know, we don't have a good sense of it. But I think if we, you know, we're zooming out for, you know, what kind of things our country needs to do to, you know, kind of continue to, you know, kind of continue to, you know, kind of see growth in a lot of these, you know, manufacturing related sectors, you know, we have to be a destination that, you know, is advantageous for, you know, capital and new investment. And so that means, you know, making sure we're competitive on a tax basis with the United States and making sure that, you know, we're making it as easy as possible to grow and expand your business in this country. And that,

you know, we do the things that we're already doing very well, which is, you know, training and maintaining a very, like, highly skilled workforce. And so I think that's really where, you know, those are the levers that we have to pull that we don't have to rely on, you know, potentially front negotiations with the United States. And so I think that's where, you know, policy makers really need to focus, certainly over the next near term here. Eric, in our last few minutes, I'd love to sort of zoom out and look to the future. And really, I want to ask you to be creative in your vision for the future here,

because we have to, we're going to have to have some really adult conversations and have some tough conversations about what to do with the tariffs and the Trump. of it all, meaning there is a conversation to be had about a world where we no longer have the auto sector that we thought we had, that we were comfortable having, that we were building. We, is there a world where we can have a robust auto sector in this country that has nothing to do with these American companies? Is there a world where, I don't know, we revisit the, uh, the terror.

that we placed on Chinese EVs, for example, and we did so in solidarity with the Americans. That got us nothing, except 100% tariffs on our canola industry. I wonder if there is a conversation to be had today about doing something bold and doing something decisive and doing something taking a really big swing that we might never even have considered just a few years ago. Yeah. I mean, I think the challenge is not just in a Canadian context, but really in the broader North American context, is we're sort of in a position right now where we really make vehicles that are competitive and do well in our home markets. And, you know, we've got even better by that by specializing, you know, every single plant is specializing in a particular model. And, you know, we've been taking advantage of the fact that, you know, that's spread across the full kind of Mexico, Canada, United States space. I think the challenge going forward is, you know, you have to be making vehicles that are going to be globally competitive. And so that certainly means entering some of these new vehicle platforms,

whether it's in the EV or kind of the plug-in hybrid space. And so I think that's really where, you know, if we want to have a Canadian, you know, kind of focused and made auto industry going forward, you know, that has to be a little bit more of the focus. And we need to be kind of setting the ground rules and, you know, creating the incentives to allow that to happen. because again, if we're, you know, a lot of the vehicles that we make today are, you know, sold south of the border.

And so if that channel is no longer there and we want to have anything in terms of a scale of an industry that we see today, you know, we have to be making vehicles that can be sold in other markets. And, you know, that is a challenge when you're building, you know, potentially heavy objects that need to be to move far. And so the way you do that is, you know, you innovate and you make vehicles that, you know, are not just going to be, you know, I would say, you know, desirable from a quality and, you know, a product offering point of view, but also are going to come in, you know, I would say, at a very affordable price point, because that's really the challenge in the market today is that, you know, we can't continue to buy these really expensive vehicles when, you know, a lot of Canadian households can, you know, barely afford to pay rent or certainly even consider rent during the housing market.

Eric Johnson of BMO Capital Markets, thanks so much for adding your voice to this conversation. My pleasure. Thanks so much, Ben. Hey, if you love true crime podcast or can't get enough true crime documentaries on Netflix, we got something for you. 640 Toronto is excited to announce a new show, Crime Time, two hours of the best true crime stories hosted by Dark Putine's Mike Brown. From shocking real cases to unbelievable twist, it's all right here every week. Crime time starts this Friday.

So tomorrow, 9 p.m., completely uninterrupted, two hours of true crime right here on 640. And you can stream on the IHart Radio app, the radio player app, or at 640. Toronto.com. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrini show. Really appreciate you joining us on Thursday, October 16th. I had to check the fact to check. I just, I was told there would be no math in this job. Well, the date isn't really the math, but sure.

It's counting. You've got it. Listen, 15 follows 60, 16 follows 6. There you go. 16 follows 15. Ah, okay. Well, welcome back to this show. Really important conversation to be had about the automotive industry in the province of

Ontario. It's existential at this point. And so very glad to be joined by someone who is in the thick of it himself, the mayor of Oswe, Ontario, Dan Carter. Mayor Carter, thank you so much for joining us on the Ben Mulroney show. Yeah, good morning. and thank you for asking me to join you this morning. Okay, so give me a sense of, you know, the news from Stalantis,

when you heard it, what did you think to yourself? Well, I mean, first and foremost, I mean, I was disappointed, but not shocked. I mean, we heard the Commerce Secretary last week say that the United States was going to be number one in Canada should get comfortable at number two. I mean, the reality being as I'm disappointed in regards to the decisions that are being made, because I think the federal and the provincial governments have made significant investments in the auto industry. And I think that they have every right to be able to say

that I think that you should love up to the agreement that we put forward and the money that we've put forward. I mean, this is significant. You know, the auto industry is so intertwined between Canada and the United States. Every action that happens is going to affect the American market just as much as a Canadian market, but I'm very, very disappointed in regards to the announcement.

Hey, can you give me a sense, Mr. Mayor, about how long it takes from the, from the time, say, Stalantis says, we're moving, we're moving down to Illinois. So that decision was now made, right? How long before that plant comes online? I can't imagine that you can turn that on overnight. Well, I don't believe so. I mean, if you look at it, I think the Brampton plant was closed temporarily to be able to retool. And that's almost a year that they've been retooling. So you have to take that into consideration. I don't see how. how they're able to flip the switch so quickly. I know that in Oshawa, we're very fortunate because we can run two different products down the same line, but it's a unique production line, very unique in North America. So even that, when General Motors did close an Oshawa and then reopened, it took a significant amount of time to be able to get the lines ready, get the people trained and hired. So you're looking at between 12 and 18 months.

Now, I don't know what the plan is for Stalantis. and, you know, some of the talk is we're going to move some of the jobs to Windsor, some of them are going to go to the states. I think everybody's kind of looking for clarity in regards to it. And again, this comes back down to stability. Yeah. We don't, the stability on the people that are infected, directly affected, which is the men and women that put the product together,

the people that dedicate themselves in regards to building this product, this instability is not good for them. No. And it's not good for the auto industry itself. Well, you know, something that needs to be, that people need to be reminded of, and I would hope Donald Trump was aware of, was these are American companies, right? Their corporate offices are American. If you shut down a plant in Canada and you cause the chaos that you've now described, that affects that company negatively. And so then you have to ask

yourself, well, who benefits? And without, I have no, this is not a value judgment in any way, but it's going to affect that company's competitors in a positive way, right? So, Korean car companies, Japanese car companies, those are the ones that are going to take advantage of these moments of self-imposed transition to build a better company and build a better product and obtain market share. And, you know, the reality being is, what does it do to the brand itself? I mean, people are, there's going to be a point where Canadians are going to start saying, okay, I've got to make different buying decisions.

And what that hurts is not just the automakers and producers that are producing these vehicles, but the auto dealers themselves. These are people that have nothing to do with it except for making sure that they make their services available to be able to service our cars, but they're going to be affected. And so, you know, Canadians are going to start making buying and branding decisions in regards to how they interpret this. And it's going to hurt on both sides. The other thing that really get, that I don't believe,

will continue is, the levies or the tariffs that have been put on the auto industry, I think in the first quarter GM saw something like $5 billion hit in regards to it. How much longer do you think shareholders are going to allow them to absorb that without going to the consumer in the United States? Once the consumer in the United States starts seeing increases of four, five, six, or $7,000 on an automobile, what does that do in regards to the brand? And what does that do in regards to their buying decisions? And then what does it open up for those other competitors that are willing to be able to sell their product at whatever price they feel is fair? And do they take even more of the market share? This is devastating to both sides, Canada and the United States. And I wish

it was a system that worked well. Yeah. It was coordinated. It was efficient. And now with this, it just brings such instability in regards to the auto industry itself. So, So Mayor Carter, what's your role in this today? We've now seen that, you know, how precarious a relationship between an automaker, an employer, a massive driver of employment in a city like Brampton could be, and then the work that is now being done to mitigate this, the damage. And this, the fear, because Howard Lutnik said is, he's coming for it all, which means, you know, you've got Oshua.

has a target on its back. So what are you doing to shore up your relationship with GM? What are you doing? I mean, I have to assume you're fielding nervous calls from citizens whose livelihoods depend on their jobs at the GM plant. What's your job today? So first and foremost is to make sure that I represent the people that are not only directly impacted, but the people that are indirectly impacted.

Make sure that we're optimistic, hopeful, and that I communicate in an clear and concise way. And that's what I've been trying to do. And what's, has GM been telling you anything? Have you talked to him? The good thing about it is there's two, two lines of communication that are really well and have worked really well since the beginning of this, which is Unifor has been a great partner in regards to making sure we get the information and understand what the workers are doing and bringing ideas forward in regards to what we can do in the Canadian auto market. That's number one. Number two is GM has been very, very, very clear and concise in regards to our communication back to me and saying,

this is an important plant, this is an important market, we're going to do everything we possibly can to look at, the diversification, not only about what we're building today, but what could we build tomorrow? I just want to remind you something. In the 1940s, GM plant in Oshawa was able to convert immediately to be able to provide vehicles for the Canadian defense industry. And I believe that that opportunity still exists today,

but we're looking at every opportunity to be able to bring more product in here, bring stability to our plant and make sure that we have an opportunity to get through this storm. I think it's really important. But, Mr. Mayor, I got to, because I really want to get into the mind of, or I want to be sort of a fly on the wall listening to the conversations between sort of your city and your partner in GM, because if you take Howard Lucknick at his word, pressure is being put on GM right now, right now to decamp and move. move somewhere south of the border.

So what are they telling you? What are they telling you about that, about the pressure that they are feeling and how they are reacting? One is that it's clear and concisive. What is the things that we can control and what are we committed to? And what is that the advantage we have here in the Oshawa plant? And we've been very clear about that. The productivity is high.

Our costs are low. We have great individuals that are dedicated to this. GM is telling me that they are absolutely 100% committed in regards to the Oshua plan. They're going to do everything they possibly can to continue to make sure that the 100-plus year history continues in the great city of Oshawa. Mr. Mayor, I've got to ask a question. Can you let me know? Have you heard anything specific about these supposed 1,500 jobs that might move to Windsor?

I mean, do you know whether any employees have actually been made an offer to move? I have not heard a word. Okay. Not a word. Nothing. Nothing at all. And by the way, you know, saying that you're going to go from Bramford to Windsor is a big family decision of regards to those individuals. So think about the impact that that will have on families, kids in school, doctors, nurses, and other partners where they work. How's that going to affect them? Mr. Mayor, we're going to have to leave it there. I want to thank you so much. Candid conversation, important conversation. I want to know you always have a microphone here at the Ben Mulroney show. to help share and spread

and keep us updated as to what's going on in your community. I appreciate the opportunity and know that I welcome your call at any time. Thank you so much. All right. Up next, did Paul Kalandra know what he was getting himself into when he took the job as Minister of Education?

We'll give you some examples as to why he may want to sleep with both eyes open because if he blinks, he's going to miss some egregious behavior. Take care. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. There are very few issues as important as public education. How we educate the next generation and prepare them for the world ahead is paramount.

You don't do that. You don't have a next generation. And there are a lot of parents out there who have been witnessing in Ontario what they think is a devolution in the quality of education. because there has been a binary choice between educating our kids and activism in the classroom. And Paul Calandra, the Ontario Minister of Education, took a very bold move when he saw waste inefficiencies and activism coming together in a confluence of a mess of a maelstrom of nonsense and decided that he was going to be the adult in the room. and he took all their toys away. And the TDSB and the TCDSB as well as their analogs in Ottawa were told you don't get to make decisions anymore because the decisions that you have been making have been foolish and have not been in the best interest of our children and our educators.

And a lot of people saw, there were some people said, oh, that's a bridge too far. I was not one of those people. But some people thought, okay, the job has been done. the job is over it is not over it is not over like as i alluded to before the break if you blink while you're blinking some activist is going to do something's crazy that's going to tell you that there's so much more work to be done case in point in caledon identity politics in the classroom where is that what are we looking at here this is what they're teaching elementary schools as students, that life is a bit easier for somebody just because of their identity.

And what is their identity? It's made up of skin color and gender and sexual orientation, nationality, culture, ability, religion. They are literally telling people to judge a book by its cover. That when you see somebody who looks like me, you have to assume that I have a leg up over you. you are literally ingraining in young children a victim complex that the world has from the moment they are born because of their skin color, gender, sexual orientation, education, nationality.

The moment you see somebody, you know that they have an advantage over you. That's what you're teaching children. That's just one of the screen grabs that somebody, well, Jamie Sarkonic put out, put out there. Here's, this is what the Tony Pontus Public School in Caledon. What's another one of the slides? Oh, telling people, reminding people that, again, images of different looking people and reminding people that, yes, you must, you must judge someone by how they look.

Then there's a post-it note that a child wrote with a, you know, that children's handwriting. It is nice to know that kids do know how to actually write out words. as opposed to typing them. It's a shame that it's not cursive, but, yeah. Gender is that if you are a girl or a boy, you can be both. June is Pride Month. Here's something that is just curious and perplexing. What is drag?

What is a drag queen? Have you ever heard of RuPaul's drag race? How do you get into drag? What do you get out of being a drag performer? Are there drag kings? Is there a difference between you and your drag persona? Look, I, not only do I not have problems with drag queens, I, I think they're fantastic. What the hell are we doing spending valuable time in school teaching kids about drag as part of the curriculum?

Look, seriously, what are we doing for every minute you're spending on this? You're not spending on when I was a kid. Drag, drag existed when I was a kid. they were nowhere near the curriculum nowhere why because they don't matter to kids what matters is teaching kids how to share and how to listen and how to count and how to read those are the things that matter at this age why are you wasting time in the classroom teaching kids about drag why answer that question and you can't in any way that will make sure that you have a job tomorrow because make no mistake the the ministry

of education is coming for crap like this they are you are giving them an excuse to make you redundant you you are demonstrating with these choices that you do not care about the fundamentals of education you have an agenda that you are pushing and you may be You may be pure of heart, but you are confused in your mind that you think this is your job. This is not. You want to do this? Be an activist. Be an activist.

Start an extracurricular activity where kids in their free time with the consent of their parents can put them in a class where they can learn this. How is this any different, do you think, from teaching kids about religion, and pushing whatever religious, whatever religion is on children. We're supposed to have, you know, a religious free school system. That's why we have a Catholic school system. There are Jewish schools out there. There's various schools for different people who want their kids to learn certain things. But how is this any different?

It's identity politics. It's your belief system, and you're forcing this belief system on others, whether or not people agree with it or not. Yeah, exactly. But also, you're not doing what you're supposed to do. Teach my kids. This is not education. This is not education.

I don't know what this is, but it isn't education. And the minister is going to come for you. The ministry is going to come, and he's going to ask you some hard question. Far harder than I'm asking you right now. He's got a job to do, and he's taking it seriously. And it's all over the place in Ontario. Yes, let's go to Hamilton now with a trustee who in a public meeting,

we're not playing the audio for you because it's too long, but I'm going to give it to you in bullet points and you can go find the link. Schools are similar to prisons. How? According to this school trustee, Sabrina Dahab. Well, there are set schedules and punishments. And according to this trustee, black students see teachers as police officers, classrooms as prisons, and education in this province is shaped by colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism.

cite your sources, cite your sources or shut up. That is nonsense. I have done any polling, but I doubt you have black students, which ones? How many? Where? What was, by which method did you collect this data? That is BS nonsense. And I will say it is a lie.

It is a patent lie that blacks see teachers. as police officers. You, ma'am, are a liar. Sight your sources or sit down. And by the way, so here we go. Hamilton trustees. Mr. Paul Calandra, education minister, go audit these people.

Audit them right now. This is another example of adults that need to be brought into the conversation because if this is somebody who is shaping education, then they need to be taken out of the, they need to be taken. out of their position right now.

This is insanity. And if I put that in a piece of, in a, in a, in a school project and I didn't cite my sources, I would get an F. You ma'am get an F for your efforts here. Shame on you. And then let's, look, here's another, just one last example. From the TDSB. Oh, the old trust of TDSB.

The old, reliable. Oh, you can always rely on to do you know they're going to come up with something good. They planned to put 2,600 students in an Arabic calligraphy workshop. Awesome. Love it. Honestly, it's great. I think that's fantastic. Hey, they learned penmanship.

They learned art. Nothing wrong with that. But let's look at these case by case. Let's look at who was going to be running this class. This is a woman who uses her art to call for the obliteration of Israel. now it was canceled but there was a system in place that allowed for this to get almost to that point you want to talk about systemic racism let's talk about systemic ineptitude this needs to be ended right now the whole thing's got to go we got to take this mother down to the studs and start again because our students deserve better Canada's oil sands produce the energy the world needs, but it's the benefits that flow to all parts of our country,

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