The Ben Mulroney Show - Did Carney cave on the DST? And the truth about AID in Gaza

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

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Welcome to the Ben Mulrooney show. Thank you for joining us on this Wednesday, July 2nd. If you had a great Canada Day celebration or maybe you did absolutely nothing, I hope you had a great day yesterday. Time to jump right into the news. All right, prior to Canada Day, the day before yesterday, we showed you a clip of a Canadian country star named Josh Ross. And he was at a music festival in the United States, where he made a bold announcement. He's a Canadian who lives in the States. And here's what he made a bold announcement. He's a Canadian who lives in the States. And here's what he had to say then.

I'm Canadian. You want to know the best fun fact is I moved to the best country in the world. All right. Well, his Canadian fans did not like that very much. My personal take on it was he wasn't denigrating Canada. He was elevating the States. So I didn't take too much of an issue with that. And look, when he said he was Canadian, he got a big rousing applause from the audience. I kid it wasn't he didn didn't get booed, but he decided to wave the American flag. My issue was with his accent. He's Canadian. He's been in the States for a few years. And he said, he's like, I'm with the greatest country in the world. Greatest country in the

world. Dude, you're from Southern Ontario. You're from southern Ontario. I lived in North Carolina for four years. My accent didn't change one iota. The only thing that changed in my way of speaking is I gained a real appreciation for the contraction, y'all. It's just a great expression and everyone says it down there. And so I used it as because it made life so much better. But my my niece and nephew live in North Carolina, they still sound like they're from the GTA. All right. So this so that was him a few days ago. This was him yesterday. I'm sorry to anybody who's offended by what I said. I'm grateful I get to tour all over the world. And I feel like I'm always representing Canada no matter where I go. I'm born and raised in Canada but I've been living in Nashville for the last five plus years. Half my

family lives in Canada, the other half is here in the U.S. and I'm as proud of establishing myself in the U.S. as I am being Canadian. Both sides were not communicated in the clip that you guys are seeing and I'm sorry that that wasn't clear. I'm not gonna pile on this guy for any other reason except he's remember he's sorry he's sorry he's not he's not sorry he's not sorry they got caught he's sorry and he's sorry and he's right come on dude like that's that's that's some code switching right there to use the parlance of our time but anyway listen I wish him the best of luck and he wasn't denigrating Canada. He was uplifting America. He was in America. He all he was doing was sucking up to Americans. And that's, that's like the, that's not a bad thing, right? Because

it happens every day. If our prime minister can do it, then surely Josh Ross can do it. And you'll remember when our prime minister did it a few weeks ago, calling the president of the United States, this man who apparently was the greatest existential threat to our nation ever. He was celebrated as feted by our prime minister as a transformational leader. And the people lining up to defend our prime minister were myriad. This was this. Of course, you've got to do that. You've got to play the game. But but the end result is going to be a better trade deal for Canada.

We because we got the best guy at the table. He thinks in four dimensions. He's three steps ahead of the president no matter what. And so on Sunday night, when we found out that the president no matter what. And so on Sunday night when we found out that the digital services tax in Canada that was going to come to into effect two days ago that the president said was a sticking point. We said no we're still doing it we got to protect Canada it's going to help us bring $7 billion

into the coffers of the treasury over five years. We're sticking with it. Well, then the president cut off all trade negotiations and said, yeah, sorry, well, that's not happening. We told you we didn't like it. And so what did our prime minister do? An about face. What did we get for it? Absolutely nothing. Here is our Prime Minister talking about capitulating.

We saw some challenges this week, even a suggestion that Canada has caved. Are you going to be able to get a deal done in time, Prime Minister? Look, we'll see. We're doing what's necessary in order to get the best deal for Canadians. And we get the best deal for Canadians. We'll agree to it. If we can't, we won't. I mean, it's that simple. We are making progress as a whole. And, you know, look, what we did this week is something that I think we were gonna do anyways

in the end for the deal. But the other elements are coming together, need to fully come together. We'll work hard. With all due respect to the Prime Minister, that contention that we did something on Sunday that we were probably going to do anyway, to use the expression by Veronica Corningstone of Anchorman, the legend of Ron Burgundy, that is grade A baloney. Grade A baloney.

If you were going to do it, if it was always on the roadmap, then why didn't you get a concession out of the United States for it? Why didn't you sit in a room with them prior to that day and say, all right, we're gonna give you this, Mr. President, and then you're gonna be able to go into the White House briefing room

and tell Americans that you got to win. What are you gonna give us so that we can claim the same? What are you going to concede on your end so that we can turn around and say, Canada, it mattered to us to have the DST and we took it off the table, but here's what we got in exchange. That is, I've never negotiated anything significant

in my life, but you know, it's basic horse trading, fundamental to any deal. And he got what he wanted and we got nothing. So don't tell me it was always part of your plan because you didn't leverage the chip that you had. He telegraphed to you that this was important to him. You could have gotten something from him and you got nothing.

So we could, and you gave him a bonus. You gave him a roadmap on how to get concessions on the dairy sector, which you have now a law in the books that says you're not gonna touch. So what's gonna happen when you hit that wall? I don't know. Now that may be where you, Mr. Prime Minister, prove to us that you are the great negotiator

who's gonna get us the best deal, but you've put yourself in a hole. You made your job harder by doing this, by not appreciating that this was always going to end with us pulling back on the DST, and you could have gotten something for it, and you didn't. And look, on the American side, they see it the way I did. Let's listen to Carolyn Levitt, the White House press secretary. Very simple. Prime Minister Carney in Canada caved to President

Trump in the United States of America. President made his position quite clear to the prime minister and the prime minister called the president last night to let the president know that he would be dropping that tax, which is a big victory for our tech companies and our American workers here at home. That's all a fact. All of that is true. None of none of the spin coming out of Ottawa is true. And before anybody attacks me for being down on the prime minister, I have been giving

him a lot of praise in the early days of this government, a lot of praise. So when I tell you that I see something as a failure, it's because I believe it was a failure. It was terrible. It was, to me, it's the relics of the Trudeau days being stuck in a position despite facts on the ground telling you otherwise. And it surprised me that this prime minister was so intractable in his position, given how casually and cavalier he was about casting aside the seminal definitional law of the Trudeau years, which was the public-facing carbon tax. He was so, with a flourish and with panache, he signed away, which is something he couldn't do, but he did it for the theater of it all. He was so willing and so eager to do that.

It would have been nothing for him to get rid of this. Do we have a problem in funding and protecting Canadian media? Yes. Do you fix it by taxing the other players on which we rely? No, that was Justin Trudeau's way, controlling and changing people's behavior through taxation. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. That was Justin Trudeau's way, controlling and changing people's behavior through taxation.

It doesn't work. It doesn't work. If it did work, we would add the smallest carbon footprint of any country on the planet because of that. And so, and look, when the Toronto Star puts out an article like this, I gotta read it, that Carney's getting praise and blowback for his dump. I read this.

He's not getting praise he is he is getting the powers that the stakeholders involved were happy he got rid of it not that not the way he got rid of it that's not praise that's saying well thank you thank God you finally woke up before we crashed into the mountain that's what he's getting it was not praise that's a false. And that's all I have to say about that. And I'll remind you, it came from the Toronto Star. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. All right. News that we just came across is that the massive ceasefire deal that Donald Trump has been working on with the Israelis as well as the Qataris and the Egyptians Has been rejected by Hamas

Rejected by Hamas So if I ever see another protest in the city of Toronto demanding a ceasefire now We know where they should be directing their complaints and over the weekend I was brought into a tiff on social media Which I didn't ask for and I engaged in only once to tell people that I wanted none of their complaints on what is actually happening on the ground as far as relief efforts for humanitarian aid. There was a story of Israeli soldiers firing into a crowd of hungry Palestinians. But I've also heard stories of Hamas firing into crowds. I've seen video of that.

I am not on the ground there. So rather than pontificate from a distance, I wanted to bring somebody into this conversation who knows about the dynamics at play in this all too vital attempt to bring food and resources into a place that is sorely lacking them. So please welcome Shana Lowe. She's of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Shana, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you, Ben. So before we get into the nuts and bolts of all of this, why don't you give me a sense of like, what's the theater that groups like yours are operating in? Talk to me about the environment

that you are asked to go into. Well, we are operating in an increasingly insecure environment that is basically made in designs to make it nearly impossible for us to go and do our jobs, which is save lives in Gaza. We have faced obstructions, restrictions. We have faced a near total blockade to enter aid since March 2nd. We are running out of resources. Many of our stocks are depleted. We are continuing to provide services as much

as we can, including providing drinking water to thousands of Palestinians in Gaza every day. But at the same time, we are facing unnecessary obstacles that make it so difficult for us to do our work, whether it's access denials from the Israeli authorities, whether it's the prevention of access of fuel in order to run vital services, including hospitals, bakeries, desalination plants. We are facing obstruction each and every day. We know how to do our jobs. We did them well when we were given access during the six-week ceasefire, when we were able to bring in aid up to scale.

But since the crossings were shut on March 2nd, we've really faced a deteriorating operating space that makes it more and more difficult for real humanitarian organizations like the Norwegian Refugee Council, like our partners, like UN agencies to go in and be able to serve civilians and ensure that they are protected and provided with their basic needs. Shayna, I've got, so there's a story on the CBC website that says more than 170 non-governmental organizations have joined forces to call for the dismantling of a food distribution system run by a US and Israeli back group as civilian deaths and injuries mount near aid sites. Then they're talking about the Gaza humanitarian foundation who then responded saying it had delivered more than 52 million meals in five weeks and other humanitarian groups had nearly all of their aid looted. Like I have to believe and again, I haven't been there so I'm going to defer to you on

this but I have to believe that there is a lot of blame to go around, depending on which echo chamber you find yourself in, you're either going to hear that Hamas is hoarding the food or they're selling it back to their people or they're using it as a leverage point or they are staging it to look like aggression from Israel or on the other side, you're going to have people on the Israeli side,

on the, I think I confused my two situations. All the blame is on one side or the other. And I have to believe as a rational person that there's a lot of blame to go around. I mean, of course, there are multiple parties to this conflict and there are issues that are arising on the ground, but the responsibility really lies with Israel, with the occupying power of Gaza that's been reaffirmed by the highest, by the world court.

And they have obligations as the occupying power to provide or facilitate humanitarian aid and humanitarian access. And what we've seen over the last 20 months is repeated denials. Now there's a reason that the Norwegian Refugee Council and now over 200 of our peer organizations have signed on to this joint statement condemning the GHF. And that's because when we conduct our distribution under conditions that that people can easily access the aid that is brought to them rather than having to go and seek it when the when the systems are organized

as humanitarian agencies do we don't see hundreds of people being injured and killed trying to find food. No Palestinian should be forced to cross to walk miles through through military zones, closed military zones and risk being shot in order to feed their families. And that's what we've seen over the last five weeks. In the 20 months of operating in Gaza, we never saw conditions like we've seen at these sites or in the areas surrounding these sites. So, so Shaina, so you're on the ground there. Talk to me then about if you could wave a magic wand or if you could get the people

that you view as central to the problems that you're dealing with and the choke points that you're dealing with. If you could wave a magic wand and change a few things that would make your life easier and by extension, the lives of innocent Palestinians better. What are the changes that need to happen on the ground? First and foremost, we need a ceasefire and we need a long term ceasefire that's going to lead to something long term. We cannot have what happened in january happen again where there was a multi step plan and uh... and uh... uh... a and peter's two and three were just never implemented so we need to have a piece fire

but even without a piece fire even after the piece part what we need is what we've been paying for the last twenty months we need the cropping to be open we need a to be allowed in that you know we need access to all parts of Gaza in order to serve people wherever they are and make sure that the most vulnerable who are

unable to move, the sick, the wounded, the elderly, single parent households where a parent can't leave their child, but they have aid brought to them. And we need to ensure that there's protection of civilians.

The civilian areas are not targeted. And so it's very simple. We know what to do. We saw the successes in January and February when we were able to start meaningfully addressing people's needs. And we need those conditions to be implemented. Shane Alou of the Norwegian Refugee Council, I can hear the frustration in your voice and I know that you're trying to do good on the ground. And so I hope from your lips to their ears. And I do hope that that changes soon. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ben. Have a good day. Thank you. And look, I said, I haven't been on the ground. That's why I want to have somebody on the show, but therein lies the rub. What's the first thing that needs to change? Well, there needs to be a ceasefire. That's why I want to have somebody on the show, but therein lies the rub. What's the first thing that needs to change? Well, there needs to be a ceasefire.

That's the first. Everything that flows from that is secondary. Who just rejected the ceasefire? Hamas just rejected the ceasefire. So right there, you've got an issue. And then, and again, and I don't, I can't, how do I say this? When Shana says that they know what to do,

and she said it worked when there was a ceasefire. Okay, well, let's assume there's no ceasefire. But to get into, we have to get into all points of Gaza. We have to be able to help innocent civilians. If you can tell the difference between innocent civilian and a Hamas supporter slash fighter, I'll give you a million bucks because that's their whole way of fighting,

of being able to hide in plain sight. And the rules of war do not apply here because Hamas is playing by a different rule book. All those conventional rules of warfare have been thrown out because Hamas took that rule book and lit it on fire. They lit it on fire and they said, with this is a, we're going scorched earth here, we're going Sherman's March to the sea,

and we're gonna do whatever we need to do, including and not limited to using our own civilians for our own purposes. And if you ask yourself, why wouldn't Hamas get on board with this massive ceasefire? Because this, because we on this side of the fence are assuming that the end goal here is a better life for the Palestinian people of Gaza. That is not the end goal of Hamas.

Hamas' goal is the perpetual power of Hamas. And so any deal that sees that power removed from them and them removed from Gaza does not meet their, oh, also their end goal is the destruction of Israel. They've said it, they've said as much. And now the

competition has begun and now the competition has

begun and now the competition Thank you. bit of work to do. Design expert Paige Turner joins David as they ask homeowners the all-important question. Are you gonna love it or are you going to list it? You want to tell them? Love it or list it. All new Sunday at 9. On Home Network. Stream on STAC TV and the Global TV app.