The Ben Mulroney Show - Is the trucker convoy punishment worthy of the crime? Also, Oct.7 fallout

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

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Don't worry about it. It's payday. Payday, huh? I bet you it went straight into your bank account and you didn't even check your pay stuff. My what? Your pay stuff. Back in my day, you had to wait for a physical check. Then you had to go to the bank.

Deposit it and wait for it to clear. Your pay really meant something. Payroll was incredibly complex. It's art and the science. It literally keeps the economy moving. Parole professionals do a lot for us. You know, it's about time we do something for them. How about we ask our leaders to name a day in their honor,

a national day to recognize payroll professionals? I got it. This is perfect. Why don't we explain to people just how important the roles are the payroll professionals play in our lives? We can even ask them to sign a petition. We can even ask them to sign a petition to recognize the third Tuesday in September as the National Day to recognize payroll professionals. We'll rally support and bring the payroll party to the next day

the payroll party to the nation. A national payroll party? Precisely. Sounds like a plan, you know, just one thing. What's that? I'm choosing the music. What? And I'm sitting in the back seat.

The whole way? The whole way. Welcome back. Welcome to the Ben Mulerney show. It's Wednesday, October 8. Thank you so much for spending a little bit of hump day with us. And look, today is we've got another baseball game. Hopefully the Jays can close her out. And you never know who you're going to meet around this building. I'm very happy to be joined now by Rachel McAdam, the VP of Marketing of Skip. Thank you so much for being here. Oh, happy to be here. Good morning. It's so interesting. Talk to me about this company that, I don't know, 10 years ago, most of us were living our lives, completely up. unaware that this new way of shopping, of ordering food, of ordering pretty much anything

was right around the corner. So, I mean, it's a, skip is a big company. Yeah. So we started 13 years ago in the Prairie provinces. And at the time, it was about, you know, skipping the dishes. Skipping, you know, making dinner, going out to restaurants and bringing the convenience of that home. 13 years later, you know, we've dropped the dishes where we're skip because we deliver far more than just your Friday night pizza. So now you can get groceries and pharmacy and LCBO and really it's about skipping the everyday hassles, not just groceries and dinner, but, you know, the pharmacy runs and all of those things.

Oh, yeah. And you can bring it straight to your door. Absolutely. And so you got to be busy. I have to assume what's the busiest time of year for Skip when it comes to food? So, hey, NHL starts tonight with the Leafs. Great night for ordering in. It's actually, it's a Habs game.

It's a Habs game featuring the Leafs. But, you know, it's going to be a great game, nonetheless. And it's a great night for entering in. So we find, you know, people when they gather together, they want the convenience of ordering it. Super Bowl's got to be a big one, too. Super Bowl's been the fall. You know, when it's cold and you don't want to go out and you don't want to shovel the walk, you can just order it straight to your door.

And you guys are known for some great commercials. You've got somebody new who's going to be in front of the camera. We're excited today, yeah. So, you know, as a Canadian brand, we wanted to work with a Canadian celebrity. And there's no one bigger right now than Seth Rove. And so we're thrilled to launch our new spot with him today. Not only is he starring in it, but he and his partner, Evan Goldberg. Evan Goldberg.

Yeah, they actually co-wrote the spot. So it really is authentically Seth's voice. I mean, look, you're catching him at a time where he is one of the most successful TV stars in the world now. His show, the studio, I think, won like 20 Emmys or something, something ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, that's impressive. Did you negotiate with him before the Emmys?

Because something tells me he would have cost a little more after. You know, sometimes these things take a long time, and that's a good thing. And so it certainly played to our advantage. But, you know, he's a Canadian that loves being Canadian. We shot in Vancouver. He had his mom and dad come to set. Oh, he's a good guy. He's a great guy.

And he was really authentic. Let me ask you a quick question. Rachel McCadam, is there anything where you'll deliver for wedding crashers? Oh, you worked on that. real hard, didn't you? Thank you. Yeah. Okay, you can turn your mic off now. Is there anything that Skip wants to deliver, they don't deliver yet? Well, I think if you were talking to Seth, you know, he'd love us to deliver marijuana. Oh, yes, of course, weed, right? Yeah, I didn't even think about that. Sure, of course that's where he would want to go.

But pretty much everything else, we can deliver to your door in 30 minutes or less. Well, Rachel McAdam, thank you very much. Congratulations. I actually didn't know it was a Canadian company. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, born and raised in that. Prairie provinces. Our head office is in Winnipeg. Well, congratulations. Thank you so much. And congratulations on this new partnership with Seth Rogan. He is a great Canadian, a talented guy. And I'm sure he's going to do great things with you. So thank you very much. Thanks so much. All right. We are going to get back to the news now. And something that we haven't necessarily talked about yet because we were awaiting the conclusion, if you will,

of the trial for the two people. involved in the Freedom Convoy. And now that they've, now that that's done, we can talk about it. Let's listen to the lawyer for Chris Barber. I think the message from the judge was really clear that the, my client and Ms. Leach had the best intention when they came to Ottawa. It was a lawful protest. She found that it turned into unlawful because of the blockage of the streets.

And that's where the message is like protests, but don't block. street, don't interfere with other people's enjoyment of their property is the clear message. I think the judge wanted to make sure in their decision today and even in their decision on conviction that protest is allowed. That's not the issue. It's the matter of the protest. So this concluded in a way that I think it needed to conclude because Chris Barbara and Tamara Litch both got house arrest, right? Yes, they both get a year of house arrests and then probation afterwards. Yeah. Now, like, listen, there

are people who believe that the moment they were arrested, that was already too onerous, right? But this was going to go through the courts. I think they want to make an example out of these two people. And I, frankly, given how permissive we've been with actual real hardened criminals

who have been terrorizing neighborhoods and break-ins and armed robberies and you name it. And they just get out on bail and they never see the inside of a jail cell, really. This, you could argue this was a tale of two justice systems. However, listen, they broke the law, and they ended up in the criminal justice system.

Had they had the judgment against them resulted in them spending even one more day behind bars, that would have been, to me, offensive. It would have been offensive given the stories that we tell you each and every day of people. people who break the law, use guns. And considering it's four years. And it's been about four years since this entire process started for them. So the fact that they are now more or less, you know, free of this, I'm glad. Listen, if you if you break a law, you pay the penalty, I feel to me like they've paid the

penalty already. It does. And it's just the, I guess it's, it's penalty equivalency. Yeah. throughout the law, because you could get six months for a sexual assault. Yeah. But then also six months for a fraud. I just always find it hard to sort of find a balance.

Yeah. And you'll remember last week on this show, we had a lawyer. Ari Goldkind was here to talk about how you can have four different people from four different cultural communities doing the exact same crime and the penalty that they will get. well, you'll have four different, you'll have four different outcomes because I guess in Canada, we have to take into account the, uh, the, the, the, the, that person's cultural background and any associated perceived structural racism, poverty, you name it, inequities, those things have to be taken into account when rendering judgment on those people. So a murder doesn't get you.

It doesn't matter. Not about the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the perpetrator of the murder. But they're also, with this judgment, they are attacking one subset of Canadian culture that has been very vocally anti-government, or at least anti-trudeau, right? And that was becoming a huge problem. Yet the justice system is not doing the same with other voices that are becoming a problem now. Yeah. Well, look at how many the protesters that are clogging up our streets. You could argue that those protests have been as, um, uh, they've had a stranglehold on this city for the better part, for Toronto and other cities for the better part of two years.

And, you know, what happened in Ottawa, I thought was, I think they made their point after a day. They should have left and they didn't. But that was, how long did that last for? Was it four weeks, five weeks, something like that? Whatever it was, it was too long. I was there for like five days and it was too long for me. Yeah.

Well, listen, we've got so much, gosh, we didn't get to any of this stuff. how do we just should we here here's what we're going to do when we come back from the break we are going to be talking with someone i've actually known for years but i did not know that he had taken on this new role as as one of the i guess founders or leaders of um unapologetically jewish he and his organization have taken it upon themselves to do something i think extraordinary which is bring uh human rights violations cases against the mayors of montreal and toronto the police chiefs of Montreal and Toronto, the police boards of Montreal and Toronto, and the cities of Montreal and Toronto for what he says are human rights violations to the Jewish people of Montreal and Toronto. So we are going to dig in to what I think is a pretty big lawsuit

that's facing those two cities next. Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulroney show. Welcome. back to the Ben Mulroney show. We appreciate all of you, everyone who joins us here on the Ben Mulroney show each and every day. I'm very, very pleased to be joined by my next guest. And look, back in the day, he used to train me. He was my trainer. And he was always the one of the most positive people I was ever in, who was ever in my orbit. And then life got in the way and I moved. It was harder to go see him. But we stayed in touch on social media. And then all of a sudden he pops up on my social media feed. not for his, for health care or for training or the fact that he's been sober for God knows how many years. No, and now he's taken up the defense of the Jewish people of Canada as part of an organization called unapologetically Jewish. Please welcome to the show, Matthew Taub. Hey, Ben, how's it going?

I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. It's been a long time. It has been a long time. Now, before we get into all of it, what is unapologetically Jewish? All right. Unapologetically Jewish start off as an online advocacy through social media of trying to get a voice for the Jewish community and expose things that weren't right. And over the last two years now, it evolved into a larger movement of more people doing unapologically Jewish things and speaking out. And a few months ago, I decided to take it to the next level and we became a nonprofit, a federal nonprofit. It's designed to lobby, defend, empower, and unify the Jewish community.

across Canada through grassroots advocacy, legal action, political engagement, and public education, holding people to task for their failings. Well, look, have we been chronicling what I think have been the failures of the city of Toronto? And sometimes we talk about Montreal as well over the past two years by omission and by inaction and by silence and by also creating a permission structure for protesters to do what they want and protest where they want, they have, in my opinion, have created an environment of hostility and a lack of safety for the Jewish people of their respective cities. And so when I saw you get in front of a microphone and throw down the gauntlet and say,

yeah, that all happened. And we're coming for the people who could have done something about it. So talk to me about what you're pursuing against Montreal and Toronto. All right. So Montreal and Toronto, as we know, I mean, Montreal. all seems to be the hoppet. It's actually hotter than Toronto is. And the protests that are occurring that are breaking so many rules and so many laws and you discuss with Kevin yesterday, you know, the charter is actually thrown in there as well. So the inaction, as you mentioned yesterday as well, Kevin, the inaction of the mayors of both cities, the boards as well as the command of the police, allowing these protests to occur. There's nothing wrong with protesting in

Canada. We know that. But there's a line that is crossed when it's especially when it comes to the charter, charter, you know, Article 1 supersedes everything else. You can't just do what you want because you feel like it. So the

police standing by and they're using that charter to say they have the right to do it. They have a charter right, a charter right to protest. It's sacrosanct. Right. But there's more than one amendment on that

charter. There are more than one articles on that charter. So standing there and not allowing it to happen in boldens the protesters. It gets worse and worse every day. What started off, especially in Toronto at the overpassed Avenue and the 401, to what we're

seen just last night with, you know, honoring the martyrs on October 7th. Shutting down the street and lighting smoke grenades and all that, it's going to get worse. This is not where it started. Where we Now is not where it started. So we're taking to task the cities, the boards, and the command to say you're not protecting the rights. And I don't even want to say right now it's

of Jews, but this is a Canadian issue. Yeah. Well, the Jews are always the first, right? If hatred for the Jews spikes, they're the tip of the sword. It's coming. The hatred for everybody else is just like a short, just wait. Just wait. Just wait. It's coming. But I want to ask, okay, so you're taking them to task. You're saying you didn't do your jobs. And now we are now living in a world where our rights have been infringed. So what is the process by which you seek redress from the human rights tribunal? Well, so the process now, we've done it both in Montreal and in Toronto.

So we've submitted to the Quebec as well as the Ontario tribunals. And they take it on, they look at it. If they accept it, they accept it, that's a whole other issue. Right. If they see that this is not a problem, then we have another case to go forward on another court. Then you take the human rights tribunal to the human rights tribunal. Exactly. It's maddening. So the idea is to get the tribunal to take it on and look at what is happening and look at the laws that they have within the police services, including within the

Toronto Police, the Montreal Police, to enact the laws that have to be enacted. So if they're not enforcing criminal charges. If they're deciding, which is what we're seeing, front line responders and just the inspectors and all the police there, they're playing crown as well as judge right there. Yeah. That's not their job.

You know, I agree with you. That's a very good point. Like, what has struck me since the beginning of the protest culture that's taken root in cities like Toronto and Montreal is that on the spot, like we've seen, we've seen protesters, masked protesters,

threaten people's lives right in front of cops. They're, that's, I'm sorry, that's an automatic go to jail. I don't, I don't get why, why those, when you let something like that slide, they're going to do it again next time, but they're going to go just a little more past the line. And again, and again, and again, the second that they decided that they were going to protest inside a Jewish neighborhood, which is, there's no, no meaningful reason to do that except to intimidate and scare and strike fear. And when they were allowed to do that, not once, but multiple times, I thought, like, what is going on here?

And that's the problem. And you see that even in Montreal. They're doing the same in both states. And it's not just Montreal, Toronto. This is a nationwide issue to Vancouver. And I apologizely Jewish, as we move forward, these aren't the only two cities that we're going to be tackling. But these are the first two cities we're going to be tackling. Well, I want to be, before I let – we only have a couple of minutes left, and I want to spend a little bit of time with you just to, you know, take a little bit of

look at the lay of the land as it occurred yesterday. The fact that at a school in Toronto the Canadian National Anthem on October 7th was played in Arabic and the principal

in his statements about October 7th, neither mentioned Jews nor Israel. What do you think of that? I get we are in we are in Muslim celebration month or whatever it's called. But

of all the days to play the National Anthem in Arabic, October 7th with Jewish students in the room, it seems to me I'm not going to describe stupidity. I think there was an agenda. I think there was an agenda as well.

Let's start off with the simple stuff. Again, go back to enforcing the laws. In Canada, there is a National Anthem law that we're only supposed to be playing it in our two official languages. That is it. English and French. No other language should be played. Well, so we, so listen, we looked at the law itself today, and there's no language explicitly saying that it has to be in English or in French. However, we are, I'm choosing to interpret it because we have two national languages, two official languages, I think it's implied in the law that it has to be English or French.

Right. And I agree with that. And doing that on October 7th, it wasn't the same. it wasn't the 8th. It was on October 7th. Everything was done with intent. There's an agenda not mentioning the atrocities that happened on October 7th in the announcements. There are Jewish kids and even non-Jewish kids who sit there and see what happened and say this is wrong. And I think the biggest step now is a statement from the principal and the vice principal over the announcement to, again, teach the kids. We screwed up badly and we're going to going to take accountability for that. I deal with my own children all the time.

I screw up. I'm going to take point to them. Right. Yeah. But you know, Matthew, what is so disappointing is, you know, to sit and mourn the loss, the losses that were felt on October 7th does not have to mean that you are in opposition to the Muslim students in the school. It doesn't have to be oppositional, right? Two things can be true. You can respect and celebrate Muslim cultural month.

and you can honor the passing of those on October 7th. And the fact that people want to put us in a binary oppositional world is disappointing. But I thank you so much for joining us. Please keep us up to date as to what's going on with this pursuit of justice. We appreciate it. Thank you, Matthew. Absolutely. Thanks, sir. I run to the chaos, and Survivor is chaos.

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