The Ben Mulroney Show - City continues with half measures in protecting places of worship

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

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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. You can bet your bottom dollar that you'll always need air to breathe and water to drink. And of course, you can rest assured that with Public Mobile's 5G subscription phone plans, you'll pay the same thing every month. With all of the mysteries that life has to offer, a few certainties can really go a long way. Subscribe today for the peace of mind you've been searching for. Public Mobile. Different is calling. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Alright, time to hear from you, the listeners of the Ben Mulroney show at 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. When the City of Toronto wants to move, no discussion, no public consultation,

because they wanted to do it. So what does it say that for 19 months in this city protesters have run amok taking over entire swaths of the city grinding the life of the city to a halt whenever they feel like it taking over intersections, taking over highways, taking over communities, protesting wherever they deem acceptable for 19 months. And finally, the city has shown a willingness, or they've been forced to put together details on a proposed bylaw, creating bubble zones around social infrastructure, as they call it.

And despite the fact we've had to wait 19 months, this is the most pathetic watered down bylaw I think I could have ever dreamed up. It is pathetic. So here's what has to happen. First of all, if you're eligible to be protected in a bubble, protesters only have to be 20 meters away. For context, if you want to protest an abortion clinic,

you have to be 150 meters away. 150 meters away. For context, if you want to protest an abortion clinic, you have to be 150 meters away. 150 meters away. All right. So that's that's the context there. Also, you don't get automatic protection. No, no, no, you have to prove that in the past 90 days, you've been protested on meaning you have to show that somebody has projected hate on you already. So this is by no means proactive. This is by definition reactive. We don't let you get protection unless someone has already protested against you, protested you, been at your house, your place of worship, where your kids go to school, your business. You have to have already suffered in order to get this. And then if you get the protection, it's only for 180 days, and police are not

automatically assigned. Bylaw officers are there to issue fines. This is disgusting. Like, can we finally just admit that this is an anti-Semitic city? Can we just do it? Like the people leading it have allowed this to fester. And by the way, I want this to apply to every place of worship, to mosques, to churches, to synagogues, to all faiths. I want everyone to feel safe. But when 3% of the population is experiencing 40% of the hate. It is, the preponderance of the hate

is being targeted at Jews and not just at their places of worship, but in their neighborhoods. So what, I is a, if I live, if I'm a Jew and I live in a Jewish neighborhood, I have to go through this rigmarole? Oh, probably not, because a house probably doesn't qualify as social infrastructure, whatever that nonsense means.

This is, this is, I mean, I can't believe that after 19 months, we just have to call things what they are. There is a virulent strain of anti-Semitism in this city. You're telling me that if somebody wants to protest an abortion clinic, they are mandated to be 150 meters away. But if somebody wants to protest in front of a Jew's home, the most protection that Jew gets is 20 meters. Make that make sense. City of Toronto, explain that to me. Hey, Jeff, welcome to the show.

Hi, Ben, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. By saying places of worship and and the homes of visible minorities or whatever should be protected. But here's what I have a problem with you with with me. Yeah, you do. Okay, go for it. When protesters call for Ottawa and block people's homes and businesses. Yeah. Conservatives like yourself, I don't know if you were in the early time, but

conservatives were saying people have a right to protest. So you have a problem with me, even though you don't know my opinion on it. I thought, I thought the entire thing was insane. No, hold on. Yeah. Hold on. I know where you're going. You're trying to tar me with the pro trucker rally.

I never took a pro trucker rally. Okay, go ahead. Go ahead, Jeff. I'm not making you to the pro trucker rally. I'm saying conservatives like yourself. I didn't say you. I said conservatives. No, no, no, no, no.

You started Jeff by saying this is your problem with me, not with people like me. And here's where I'm gonna go with this. I've said this for years. We either are going to hold everybody to one standard or we're going to have this problem. After 9-11, Muslims have the same problem in Toronto that Jews are having right now. And people made excuses for it at the time. And I was saying then and I'm going to say now, if you allow people to take advantage

of one religion group or one minority group or one group, eventually it's going to come back to somebody else. And this has been years in the making because when it was happening to most of them, people made excuses for it. Now it's happening to another set of religious people. Now everybody's claiming, oh, God, this is falling. This was bound to happen. No, it wasn't. No, no, it wasn't.

And let me, Jeff, let me say one thing to you. I walked in the St. Patrick's Day parade. And I turned the corner walking down Bloor Street taking a right onto universe taking a permit to do that. And a few weeks later, protesters took over that entire intersection for an entire day. Do you think they got a permit? What makes them special? What gives them that right? And the answer is not a damn thing, except people are afraid to do the right thing on behalf of taxpayers, citizens and people who just want to live their lives. Jeff, thank you for the call. Let's move on to Vashel. How are you, sir? Hi, Ben. Your last call really got me upset because he's making it an equivalency between people peacefully going to church, their synagogues, or their homes, as opposed to

after 9-11, Muslims getting tarred. Well, they got tarred because there's Muslim terrorists terrorists and it was the terrorism. It wasn't the Muslim part. It was the terrorists well, look what happened what happened what happened after 9-eleven was disgusting as well anti-muslim hate is real and As I said off the top. I want this I want teeth to this bubble law. I want teeth This is pathetic. What's going on? This is this is nonsense. Oh, 20 meters. And you have to prove that you are a victim of hate already. Give me a damn break. I want Muslims protect I want Jews protect I want Catholics and Christians protected. But I am burning all the burning of the churches. Yep. After after, you know, the claims I'm substantiated many of them

about the Catholic church or Christian churches generally in Canada using the school system to genocide against the indigenous population. And that went completely, how can I call it, unpunished. Well, look, I mean, we saw it during the election campaign when somebody tried to get Jagmeet Singh to condemn the burning of churches and refused to even answer the question. People are very selective in their outrage of who gets to be a victim. And we are currently living in a time where Jews who just want to be Canadian

and live their lives don't get to be that because somebody has ascribed oppressor to them unfairly. And I don't have time for it. When 3% of the population is receiving 40% of the hate, that is a problem unto itself that needs specific attention. And what I am saying is even with the specific attention that the numbers demand I want a whole of society Solution and what the city of Toronto is proposing is a lack of leadership. It is a lack of courage It is a lack of a moral fortitude. It is a lack of willingness to do the right thing

It is a lack of I mean Christ. It's just a failure. It's a failure. Unless I'm getting ahead of myself here. Maybe I should let other people talk. Verender, welcome to the show. Hi, Ben. How are you? I'm well, thank you. I'm from Surrey, BC. I used to live in Toronto. Yeah. You know, I'm reading, you know, the book Young Trudeau, which talks about how Montreux has an anti-Semitic history. Toronto has an anti-Semitic history. Dr. Has it at that semitic history? Vancouver has a very anti seek history You know your father when he left when he left the book had to do it for the first term and seek in the RCMP But I got an outrage too. Yeah, and what's happening now at the semantics of the needs to stop would be better representation Yeah, and the House of Commons and here's my idea your sister. Can I marry I remember when he was a winner of the Benai Brist, right?

Yep. She run for prime minister. I read the things from the CPC leader. I'd be more happy to back up a CPC member myself. And we need examples like that. We need better representation of anti-Semitism, more Jewish allies, strong Jewish allies. And Hey, thank you very much. And I think we got time very quickly for George. Welcome to the show.

Hey, Ben, you know what, I think the tide has turned. You would have not seen this happen to Jewish people 20, 15 years ago. You have to look at what's going on. I would love to protest also, but I have a mortgage. I have a job to do. So who's funding these protesters to go, well, you guys are looking at the wrong place. This is foreign money. Unfortunately, the city wants to please everybody, but they're pleased in their lobbyists who are allowing this to happen. George, we got to leave it there. Thank you very much and thank you all for your calls. From commutes that become learning sessions to dishwashing filled with laughs, podcasts can help you make the most out of your everyday. And when it comes to everyday spending, you can count on the PC Insider's World Elite MasterCard to help you earn the most PC Optimum Points everywhere you shop.

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Welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. Here's a statement for you. anti Zionism is anti semitism. Full stop and if you don't believe it, go Google go to YouTube and Google the monk debates, M-U-N-K, on that very subject. Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. The Douglas Murray and his colleague destroyed any argument that those two things are not the same.

And so today I learned that the Toronto Metropolitan University Faculty Association, they know no depths that they are not willing to plumb to service the anti-Semitism of that university. Already it's on record that Jewish students at TMU do not feel safe on that campus. And now we hear that the Faculty Association has adopted a motion recognizing and addressing anti-Palestinian racism. And here is a portion that I would like to read to you.

This motion affirmed that anti-Palestinian racism is a serious and specific kind of violence slash oppression, and that we stand firmly against it. It also affirmed that the support for the Palestinian struggle for self-determination is not antisemitic and that equating the two is an intellectually impoverished argument and a weaponization of the very real problem of antisemitism. Shame on this university. Shame on these teachers. Shame on these people that are crafting and building the leaders of tomorrow.

What this is, let's call it what it is. It is a shield to allow protests targeting Jewish students to continue. That's what this is. What this means is if this is accepted as doctrine, as just par for the course, and it means people protesting with signs that say, that call Zionist Nazis, or that say from the river to the sea, or to say death to all Zionists. Not only is that permitted speech, but to suggest it is not is racist. And I want to hear from you at 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. This, the law is going to come for you, TMU.

They're already coming for McGill. They're going to come for you. You are setting the table for them. We already have definitions of Islamophobia. And those things need to have teeth. If somebody demonstrates a hatred towards Muslims, they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Everybody in this country should feel free to be who they are and worship who they want. Do you know, here's a question, a fair question.

Does anybody know a nuanced racist? Does anybody know anybody who sits around and splits hairs and says, well, I hate this type of Muslim, but not that one. Or I have a particular type of hatred towards one Muslim group or another. Cause I don't, if you're a racist, you're a racist. You just hate. Racism is a bazooka.

It's not a scalpel. You don't, oh, I have a problem with this type of blacks, but not that type of blacks. Oh, well, there's certain types of Jews I hate, but the others I love. This nonsense that there's a special type of blacks, but not that type of blacks. Oh, well, there's certain types of Jews I hate, but the others I love this nonsense that there's a special type of hatred reserved for the Palestinian people. No, no, no. If you're somebody who has decided you don't like Muslims, you don't like Muslims full stop.

I'm not going to live in a world of a special type of hate for one person, but not for other people of that faith. That's nonsense. This, this is trying to normalize nonsense and it's coming from people who should know better. I'm telling you, man, TMU, the law is coming for you. The law is coming for you. Somebody is going to sue your ass. And I hope it happens soon. John, welcome to the show.

Oh, hi. Hello. Hey, uh, yeah. So I'm just wondering, when does the line get drawn of like, when can you be against what happens with Israel and what they're deciding to do as a nation, but not be anti-Semitic? I'm sorry? Like, so if you disagree with what's happening in Israel and what Israel is doing to Palestine. So when can you not be anti-Semitic?

When you're not harassing Jewish students who just want to study. But if they're going to... When you're not demanding to globalize the intifada. When you're demanding... But not every single one of those Palestinians and not every Arab or not every non Jew believes that like when they're against what's happening Israel, then we need to find some sort of discourse.

Yeah, we should. We should. Well, I don't know, man, after 19 months of having the city paralyzed by people who've been emboldened to just take over large swaths of the city whenever they feel like it. I've kind of had enough of people having the right to protest. I kind of want the rights to go back to the people who just want to live their lives.

For the Jewish students who just want to be students. For Jewish people who just want to live their lives and have their businesses without having protesters come and take over scaffolding outside their cafes. Like I'm done with those people. Okay, you've had 19 months, sit the F down. All right. Eli, welcome to the show. Hi. Really, the question to ask TMU is stop hiding behind the word Palestinian and

say, do you back Hamas or not? Yeah, that's fair. It's just plain and simple. Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right. There's a, there's a, you know, if people want to link Jewish students to Israel, how come we can't link Palestinians to Hamas? Like tell me, make that make sense. Like what's good for the goose is good for the gander. I'm, I choose to, and by the way, Eli, when I say I stand with Jews, I am not going to be forced

into the naive binary choice that to say I stand for the safety of Jews means I stand against the Palestinian students of that university. I refuse to accept that binary choice. It is not a real choice. It is false. I stand for everybody to live in dignity. But I, yeah, sorry. Go ahead. You have to be really clear. There are a lot of Palestinians who fear for their lives because of Hamas. Yeah. If you're part of the Palestinian authority, they're mortal enemies with Hamas. So this false homogeneity is, it doesn't serve anyone and it certainly doesn't serve the truth. Yeah. I, I, I, I agree with you. Thank you very much. Naeem, welcome to the show.

Hey, Ben. Good morning. I agree with a lot of what you say. Anti-hatred towards any group is unacceptable. So, I mean, and now when we stand up for the rights of a particular group, it shouldn't be automatically conflated that you hate another group. Now, the one thing I want to correct for you about Palestinians is, I know a lot of Palestinians and they take offense to the fact that this is all lumped as Islamophobic, but not all Palestinians are Muslim. Like I'm Muslim, but I'm not Palestinian.

My cause, I have a sympathy towards the Palestinians, but their cause is not the same as my cause. Right? And Naim, thank you for bringing that up. towards the Palestinians, right? But their cause is not the same as my cause, right? And Naim, thank you for bringing that up. I would look at it from the other side of the equation and I would say the person perpetrating the hate, do you think they either know the difference or care about the difference?

Racists don't care about that. Racists don't care about nuance. They don't care about who, they look, they see a brown person and they say, I hate that person. You're giving away this, this definition is giving way too much credit to the person hating like, like, yeah. So if I can just get a word, I mean, if a person's not taking the nuance, but that doesn't stop the need for the education, right? That Palestinians are not homogeneically Muslim, right? And so let's not-

But neither are Jews, and yet Jews are tarred and feathered. I mean, there are some Jews who aren't even religious, and they are, if you're a Jew, I mean, if you live in a Jewish neighborhood. And this is why I think it's a disservice to actually make anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism all in one.

I think that that's a bigger disservice to the Jewish community. If I have an opposition to Israeli legal governmental policy, now that that's conflated as being anti-Jewish, that's a disservice to the Jewish people. Sure, but that's not anti- There are Jewish people who don't agree with what- Sure, but that's not anti-Zionism. Anti-Zionism is a belief that Israel should not exist. That's anti-Zionism. And no, I mean, that's gonna be a different discussion,

but anti-Zionism is a belief that you, if you convert to Judaism and you have no trucker trade with the state of Israel, have a right to go there and displace a Palestinian so that you can live there. The definition of Zionism is that the Jewish are entitled and have the right to a homeland. And given the fact that it's the only place

in the Middle East that exists for Jews, I think they're entitled to their tiny little swath of land. But Aniem, I want to thank you. That's the tone I'm hoping this conversation can go by. We got a little more time. Let's say, let's welcome Nathan to the conversation. Yeah, hey, good morning, Ben. Good morning.

I 100% agree with everything you've said. But I want to make this point here. I know a lot of Muslims as we all do, and I got to be honest, I don't think any of them, I'm pretty sure none of them have a moment out of their daily lives where they're working hard, supporting their family, to get involved in this. I think the people that are doing these protests are the same rinse and repeat people. It's a small sect of people who don't work for some reason, they have a lot of time on their hands and they're constantly at these protests they're rinse and repeat professional protesters I would argue the fact that some of them are paid to be there and frankly I have no doubt I have a higher guns they're higher guns I don't know why our

authorities don't clamp down find out if they're not Canadian citizens you're gone so yeah listen because you're disrupting the lives of everybody, including many working Muslims. I co-sign everything you just said. I would have been as optimistic as you about the, our leadership in the city of Toronto, doing anything about this 19 months ago, but it's been 19 months.

They've clearly decided what side of this they are on. And so that is the state of play in the city of Toronto. Thank you to everybody who called in, this 19 months ago, but it's been 19 months. They've clearly decided what side of this they are on. And so that is the state of play in the city of Toronto. Thank you to everybody who called in, especially those who disagreed with me and still had an engaged in conversation. I absolutely appreciate it. Hi, I'm Donna Friesen from Global National.

Life moves fast these days and we wanna make it even easier for you to get the news you need. That's why you can now get Global National every day as a podcast. The biggest stories of the day with analysis from award-winning global news journalists. New episodes drop every day so take this as your personal invitation to join us on the Global National podcast. You can find it on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney show and time to pivot to a different conversation. And this one is about the size of the public service here in the, across Canada.

It's enormous. This we know. It's grown at an unsustainable pace. Even our Prime Minister, Mark Mark Carney mentioned that months ago. He, he knows that it's true as well. What to do though. That's the question. So there's a think tank that found that a program review like the one from 30 years ago would result in the elimination of about 64,000 federal jobs. You know, if we, if we looked at who's doing what and what do we need, what size do we need? we would eliminate 64,000 jobs from 2015 to 2025. The number of federal public servants

increased by more than 110,000. That's a 43% increase. There are 367,772 federal employees or nine for every 1000 residents. That's compared to 7.2 when Trudeau took over. And by comparison, the UK has 7.4 federal employees per 1000. Germany has 6.2 per 1000. And when when you were waiting in line for days and weeks and months to get a passport, did you think to yourself, like what did you think of the federal the federal public service? Personally, I don't care what the number is, so long as the number is justified by the services

that we're getting. But what should Mark Carney do to cut out the bloat in the public sector? You know, we currently have an unemployment rate of 7.8% in the province of Ontario. There are certain places where it's even higher than that. This is if if we were to cut the massive amounts of people from the public service, they're just going to end up on AI for a while, right? So I want to hear from you at 416-870-6400 or one triple eight, two to five talk, do you work for the public service? Do you have family members or friends who are in the public service? I'm not suggesting that we do not

need a robust, vibrant public service in this country. We have a big government, we have ambitions as a country, we need the manpower to get those things done. But it's too big. I mean, we can all agree on that, right? There are too many people doing the jobs of fewer people. There are redundancies. There is no doubt about it. But what to do in this specific time? Look, if times were great, if we didn't have the tariffs, if the economy was humming, if businesses were hiring, I would say figure out a way to transition them

from the public service. They will find jobs in the private sector. That's not the reality we're living in right now. And I'm not so heartless as to say, cut them loose. What do they do? You know, you're just, you're essentially solving one problem only to create another one. They're on the public goal one way or the other.

They're either getting paid by the government or they're gonna receive government assistance on the other side of that job. So I would love to hear from you at 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225. Talk, what is Mark Carney to do on this subject? Max, welcome to the show. Hey, Ben, thanks for taking my call. Definitely got to cut some of it out for sure. You know, you never want to wish that upon anybody or that anybody loses their job. But I was just telling your screener there I got a

friend who works for the region of Halton right now definitely a smaller scale but interesting budget story I guess they had a surplus one year and instead of giving that surplus back they decided to buy all the furniture have a couple pizza parties go ahead and make sure that they used that surplus right so that they didn't use anything for next year. So if that's happening on a municipal scale, I can only imagine that that's happening. Max, you didn't hear that. You didn't hear the story a few months ago. Melanie's office was facing a surplus in their budget. And so they went out and bought over $300,000 worth of furniture just to make sure that that budget would be there next year. Yeah, clearly it's a common

theme. So all that being said, something's got to be done. And I think the other kind of flip side of the coin to this story, Ben is the consultants as well. Those cut back, because it's definitely the same side of it or the same coin and flip side of it. Well, and thank you very much for the call, Max. Exactly. I mean, listen, if we have a huge government and a whole bunch of people doing a whole bunch of jobs, what the hell do we need to be spending billions of dollars on outside consultants

for? Like, tell me, hey, Tom, welcome to the show. Thanks for calling in. Hey, Ben, thanks for taking my call. Yes. Well, first of all, if you're hiring people that cannot find a job in the private sector, doing these jobs with the government, then there's a problem with the government hiring these people because they're not super specialized. If you have a consultant, you just said before, you're hiring a private consultant, don't you have an in house consultant? Well, that

yeah, and I never understood that. I mean, Justin Trudeau's decision to expand the public service all while using outside consultants at a rate I don't think I've ever seen before. Like, what are you doing, man? Well, that being said as well, and our economy cannot support this type of like, we're not large enough as an economy to support these many workers. It's just not need to hate to be heartless, but these people could be retrained. And to your point, if they go on unemployment, yeah, you're paid just for six months, but they can be

retrained. You know, these people are not, if you're gonna let go of a consultant, they're an educated individual, they can find work in a private sector. So I just think it's full out just government bloat. And you know what? Most people can be retrained. I do a lot of work with the government. I'm a private contractor.

And to your other, to other car's point, when they have a surplus in budget, they have to use it to maintain that budget. In the private sector that I deal with, if they have a surplus in that budget, and they find efficiencies, you know, you reward the employees, you, you reward the people, I think the mentality of the government has to change.

I agree. I agree. But what do you what do you say? Like, look, we were talking earlier about this very special time that the unfortunately, the we've got a lot more spending in the Progressive Conservative Ontario budget right now than I think anybody wants. But with the tariffs, it's all about protecting workers and businesses. What do you say to possibly, I mean, is this such an exceptional time now that maybe it's not the right time to be laying people off? Well, first of all, that's kind of a loaded question.

But if you're going to be spending money, the money should be set spending on our companies, especially small businesses, giving them the tax breaks and cuts for them to keep to keep going as a business. Yeah, shouldn't be spent on government workers, you shouldn't be keeping these people on board. If they're not needed, just for the sake of all we need to pay people so they don't go to unemployment. Yeah, same thing as a catch 22. Yeah, well, Tom, Tom, I want to thank you very much for the call, Tom. And look, I get it. Like, I think that, I think the, there's, there's way too much bloat in the federal bureaucracy. I think a lot of people would agree with me on that. I don't think it's heartless to say that, but I got to say, if I'm being honest about what's in my heart, I don't like the, these are our

friends and our neighbors and our colleagues. These are people who went to school with these are our cousins. They are good people who want to do good. They want to put in a good hard day's work and then they want to go home. Although a lot of work from home. That's a whole other conversation. In my heart, if I'm being honest, emotionally, I just don't like the idea at this time of giving people pink slips and saying good luck to you. Hey, thank you so much for all your calls. I've just been to Specsavers and upgraded my lenses to extra thin and light with 50% off. Now, what else can I upgrade? My cat?

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