The Ben Mulroney Show - Prioritizing Land Acknowledgement above missing children

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Prioritizing Land Acknowledgement above missing children -City and TDSB eye ‘unique’ program to build schools under condos If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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through NCF conditions apply see Nissan.ca for details. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Thank you so much for making us part of your Friday. We truly do appreciate it. Alright, so in Nova Scotia, two children went missing. And I don't know a lot about how one investigates the missing child. I've watched a lot of Law and Order, but so what I do know is that every second counts, every minute counts, every hour counts in the search and the hunt for missing children.

And so you can imagine in a place like Nova Scotia, the small town where this took place, you can imagine that this would affect everybody there. And if the police get on TV with an announcement to let people know an update in the case, the whole community is invested in the information that is about to be given to them. So you would be forgiven if while you're sitting there waiting

for the best available information as quickly as possible, you'd be forgiven if you were a little upset if prior to getting the information, this is what you heard. Good afternoon. I am Corporal Carly McCann, Provincial Public Information Officer for the Nova Scotia RCMP. Thank you all for being here today. First, I acknowledge that we are in Mi'kmaq the traditional and unceded ancestral territory of the Mi'kmaq people. I also recognize that African Nova Scotians are a distinct people whose histories, legacies and contributions have enriched that part of Mi'kmaq known as Nova Scotia for over 400 years.

I'm sorry, what the actual F? Okay, I'm we're gonna, we're gonna put the political correctness away for a second as a father. That is deeply offensive to me that my tax dollars are going towards a performative piece of theater to satisfy some sort of a woke itch in certain people as opposed to giving me what I deserve, I'm entitled to,

which is the knowledge that you have that we as a community deserve and require. It is offensive on every level. And I am not indigenous, so I cannot speak on behalf of the indigenous people. But how many land acknowledgments have we heard over the past 10 years? Versus how many announcements have we heard over the improvement of, I don't know, drinking water on reserves? That was a problem that was supposed to be resolved under the liberals for 10 years didn't get

resolved, but thank goodness we have these land acknowledgments to make the privileged white people feel like they're doing something. And on top of that, this wasn't just a land acknowledgement. We're adding to it now. Now we're adding to the recognition of distinct people in the area. It used to just be a land acknowledgement. Now we're acknowledging other people. It's only a matter of time before somebody else comes in and says, hey, I want in on that.

I want you to recognize that I'm special or I've been aggrieved or I've been hurt or I've been wronged. Next thing you know, we're doing 30 minutes of this stuff. When you get an amber alert on your phone, is there a land acknowledgement on that? No, because an amber alert is supposed to help people get get on a war footing to go find a missing kid Anytime a kid goes missing we should be on a war footing Feelings be damned So I want to hear from you at 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK This is embarrassing. It is embarrassing 870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. This is embarrassing.

It is embarrassing. And before anybody comes at me and says, telling me that I'm being insulting to any one people or any one group, give me a break. Get off your high horse. There are two missing kids here. You've lost the plot. You've lost the plot if you take issue with anything I'm saying right now.

It's shameful. And I get, by the way, this is not an attack on the RCMP or their hard work or this one person in particular. I have no doubt that they are required by protocol to do these things. Somebody put it in their workflow that this is something they have to say before they get to business. So I'm not attacking the RCMP. You will never find a more proud Canadian

in terms of supporting the people who keep us safe. That is not this. I am talking about the pencil pushers in an office who decided this information, this acknowledgement was more important than providing the information on two missing kids. John, welcome to the show. I'm well, thank you. This thing, you nailed it.

It's totally performative. I don't know this for a fact, but I bet you any money that the names in general aren't exactly pounding their face saying we want this said every five seconds. I've heard this thing more and more over the

last few years. And like you said, we've been doing this for the last few years. in general aren't exactly pounding their fist saying we want this said every five seconds. I've heard this thing more and more over the last few years and like you said look if there's real action needed with quality water quality or something else let's deal with that. Yeah. But this little spiel is just ridiculous and it's a borderline insult to the to the Native community. If I was a native I'd be listening to this going empty words, who cares, it's just and before an amber alert or some kind of missing child thing it's yeah that's insane, that's insane, it's horrible. Well thank you John and it's a self

flagellation that we as a nation have taken upon. Look how wonderfully evolved we are that we're able to acknowledge how terrible we are. And fine, you wanna do that before a dinner? You wanna do that before a TDSB meeting? No problem. But when you are dealing with the lives of children and every second counts, get your head in the game. Get your head in the game. Get your head in the game.

Glenda, welcome to the show. Hi Ben. I love it when you get worked up. It really tickles my... You are 100% right in this case. The matter at hand is the two missing children, not who owns the land and acknowledges whatever. But it also, Glenn, it also confuses the issue because nobody is suggesting that there is an indigenous component or a black Nova Scotian component to this story. Why bring it up? It confuses the information that we need. You bring that up in this moment and people have to say, wait, hold on a second. Are we looking for somebody who's indigenous or maybe a black Nova Scotian? Of course not. There's nothing to suggest that. So why bring it up?

Exactly. And actually it was the first time I heard acknowledgement for a black Nova Scotian. That's my point. We have now, this is proof of the slippery slope. It's a now, because now what's next? Clearly one another group has gotten in on this or the powers that be decided. We have to show how even more evolved we are because it's not just about acknowledging the land, but now it's about the different peoples. Canada is the most multicultural country in the world. Do you have any idea how long one of these would take if we acknowledged every single people in the country? My goodness Glenda. Thank you for the call. Ken, thank you for calling into the Ben Mulroney show.

Ben, good morning, sir. How are you? I'm well, thank you. I'm very disappointed. My feelings are very hurt. They didn't mention Greek people, the fact that we gave them democracy and freedom, we showed them out of boat, and we give them pharmaceutical, we give them medicine. Yeah, well, you should definitely listen, call, you call up the RCMP and let let their public relations group or whatever, let them know that this is this is the next step in the information, the vital information we need before telling us where the where the missing kids are. It's also a problem maybe with flags. You look at wherever there's flags,

there's like five, six flags. Just keep pulling the Canadian flag. Under the Canadian flag, we are everything and everyone. End of story. They mean it. Listen, I think that simplicity carries a lot of weight. But that part is a debate for another day. I wanna stick to this,

but thank you very much for your call. Shelly, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Hi. Hi. My daughter-in-law is Cree, as are her seven children. And she was adopted as obvious a Cree child brought up in a reservation. Her mother went to a residential school. If she knew that two missing children were announced, but a land acknowledgement was announced firstly, she would be infuriated. Absolutely infuriated.

It feels infantilizing. Again, I can't speak for Indigenous Canadians. I would never put myself in, but I can speak as a fully formed human being with empathy and understanding. And if I were, you know, if this was like, if these were Indigenous kids who went missing and we started with a land acknowledgement for the Indigenous people. I'm pretty sure the Indigenous parents, hoping that their Indigenous kids were okay, would be a little upset that 40 seconds was wasted on something that does not materially help them in any way.

Absolutely. But my daughter-in-law would be infuriated. It wouldn't matter to her if a land acknowledgement was made or not. Let's get the kids. Yeah. Well, listen, thank you very much for your call. And let's keep this conversation going with Frank. Frank, am I just getting worked up here on a Friday? Good morning, Ben. No, no, I think it's all getting worked up on this issue. The message that it sends, Ben, I believe is is that this d i e d i concept or ideology takes priority over a president over a real serious like a

death situation in it it's it's actually sickening to hear this secondly when we talk about the concept of inclusivity you don't want to come out and change be specific about you know i'm making distinctions between these minority groups at the community as part of the community as a whole that actually had stigma from what they stated

it should not have been referenced because we're talking about people that live in an area regardless of their backgrounds that's what inclusivity is all about i think frank thank you i really appreciate it uh... let's take out one more call before the break boris welcome the shop they've been i happen to be in the bahamas a little while ago in the nap uh... and there's a museum slavery and when you walk through the front door the first thing you see

terrible picture of a man who's been whipped so hard is back look like an alligator now but across that was superimposed the word slave ten feet high, eight feet across, slave. And underneath that word was a dictionary definition of the word slave. And it said the word slave is derived from the word Slavic, where the Vikings came into Slavic regions, kidnapped the local population, and sold them to the Romans as slaves. Well, with the name of Boris, you can see I came, my people came from that region. Where are my reparations? Can you get them to cut me a check?

Yeah, Boris, thank you for the call. And listen, I'm not going to suggest it. It's a Pandora's box. And once it's open, you can't, you can't put everything back in. But yeah, we're, it, we're get, it does feel like if we, if we're still open to this in a moment like that when all we should be thinking about are the kids, my God, is there any hope for us? Look, we're going to keep this conversation going after the break. If you're on the line, don't go anywhere. More on this topic after the break on the Ben Mulroney Show. Good afternoon.

I am Corporal Carly McCann, Provincial Public Information Officer for the Nova Scotia RCMP. Thank you all for being here today. First, I acknowledge that we are in Mi'kmaq'i, the traditional and unceded ancestral territory of the Mi'kmaq people. I also recognize that African Nova Scotians are a distinct people whose histories, legacies and contributions have enriched that part of Mi'kmaq'i, known as Nova Scotia, for over 400 years. All right, welcome back to the show. And that was just a taste

of what has gotten my blood boiling today. In the face of a race against time to find two missing kids, the update provided by the RCMP in that moment started first with a land acknowledgement, second with an acknowledgement of a group of people, which means third on their list of priorities was to give us the information

on where the investigation was. Now, I wanna be very clear, and I have to say it, nothing of what I'm saying is meant to be seen as an attack on the RCMP and the good hard work that they do and the bravery that they display each and every day, putting on the uniform to keep us safe. What I have a problem with is the workflow that has positioned a land acknowledgement

as something that must be done above all else, including moments like that when every second counts as we look to save the lives of two lost or taken children. And I want to hear what you have to say, because it feels to me like we have lost our collective minds. Ken, welcome to the show.

Good morning, Ben. Thank you for taking my call. Yes. I agree with you 100%. It's all about priorities. It's not about not including someone. That's good. We need to be doing that.

However, think back to the 80s and 90s, and I'm dating myself a bit here, but when we had the testing of the emergency broadcast system on TV, if they took two minutes, three minutes, whatever it is to do the acknowledgement and did that first, and did it every time, no one would have paid attention to it. And that was the way that we got used to this back in the day. And now we have it with everything. Like I'm a university grad and we had it before every class and every student would sit there and stare at their phone.

No one paid attention. So yes, we need to be inclusive and care for people, but when does it go over the line? And I agree with you, Ken. And look, who needs to be included in an update about missing kids? Honestly, that's my question. Who thought we need to include people? It needs to be more inclusive. Like I said, when you get an emergency alert on your phone,

or you get an Amber alert on your phone, there is no inclusion in that. Because the only thing that matters is the missing child. The only thing that matters, and their family. And the fact that we are prioritizing the feelings, the, I don't even think we've checked with those people. I would like to check with indigenous people. Do you want to be included?

You want a land acknowledgement before we start telling people where their kids are? I guarantee you, you wouldn't get universal endorsement of that policy. But thank you for the call. And Dion, welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. Hey, Ben. So I always used to rush Limbaugh, the greatest of all time. And he said, he used to say, anything the left touches, it corrupts.

And that's what's happened. The RCMP has been corrupted because of the past 10 years. Yeah, I just don't think that they, I don't even think anybody there thinks that there was anything wrong with that. I think for them, that's the new normal, right? The new normal is in order for us to be the best versions of ourselves as a country, we have to show everybody

how evolved we are and how we recognize the sins of the past within every statement that we make to the public without thinking to themselves, Hey, does this situation call for something different? And so it's not an attack on them, but it's an opportunity for them to see, yeah, we got to change the way we do things. Because if I see another one of these things, oh my goodness, I think I'm gonna lose my mind. Andrew, welcome to the show. Morning. Yeah, so as I was saying to your screener, imagine if a firefighter had to do a land acknowledgement for going into a burning building. You're right, I mean look, that's real damage that's happening to the land.

And if there was ever a justification for a land acknowledgment, it should be for things that directly affect the land, like what about a forest fire? And again, I don't think, I think that there is a place to show respect, and a time to show respect, and a way to show respect. I don't think it's respectful to the indigenous people of that area to put their names in front of an alert

about missing children. Cause I said before, I think Andrew, it might confuse the issue. Where, who took the kid? What do they look like? Where do we, where were they last seen? If you start talking about blacks and Nova Scotians and indigenous people, you run the risk of having people think that they are somehow included in

the search for these kids. And that is dangerous, irresponsible, and it's also sort of flies in the face of just give us the facts. Anyway, Andrew, thank you for the call and let's welcome Stanley to the Ben Mulroney show. Hey, good morning, Ben. I mean, they're taking forty seconds to to do it stand at a podium every second counts when there's kids missing yeah this is nothing more than uh... a big show with the entering knowledge e you're gonna sit in knowledge every culture that landed in canada it was before he had made it everybody

it's ridiculous i agree what my question is we had this broadcasting alert message tested, Quebec's not part of it. Why? Aren't they part of Canada? Nine hours, you can be in a car in Quebec. Yeah. Honestly, I don't know enough about that to have an opinion on it, but I thank you for the call. And yeah, this is to me is,

I'm down with the performance if you fix the actual problem like solve the problems that that the government says are plaguing the indigenous communities poverty drug use isolation lack of clean water lack of access water, lack of access to opportunity, lack of access to high speed internet, the digital divide, all that stuff. Solve those problems. I think that would go a heck of a long more long way than simply acknowledging every time you're in front of a microphone,

acknowledging where the land you're on. Like make people's lives better before defaulting to this, the performance and the theater all this. Oh, we gotta run. More on the Ben Mulroney Show after the break. Right now we're gonna talk about something that I think is a novel idea that deserves exploration. And I want to hear what you have to think at 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225. Talk over the past couple of weeks, there's been a back and forth between the city and the TDSB and the province over a $54 million shortfall from the $3 billion budget that the TDSB has. Ontario is telling him figure out

how to fix that. And the and the TDSP has been coming back with some pretty lame cuts to pool use and music classes, when in fact, there is I'm sure some fact that they can trim and rather than actually do the hard work of looking about where there is bloat where there is redundancy where there is waste, they are choosing to make cuts that will affect the quality of the education and the quality of the experience of the schools of our children. So I have a problem with that. However, this morning I wake up to a fairly novel idea which I think bears some exploration because it could be a pot of gold, honestly, for the TDSB. TDSB owns a lot of land. TDSB owns a lot of land. TDSB owns a lot of schools that could be renovated

or raised to the ground and rebuilt. And they are exploring, working in partnership with the city of Toronto to get into the condo business where they would have a school in the podium of a condo and above it would go condos. And this would be they would they would participate in the in I guess let's assume people want to buy condos and we're still living in a time where nobody wants to buy condos. But let's assume for a second that we get to a point where people want

to buy condos again. And this this could be a very good thing. Now I've had some conversations this morning about whether or not it's a good thing. There's some fears over public safety, the safety of our kids. What happens when you put kids in an environment where there's thousands of people in a condo and maybe there's retail around there as well. When we'd like to think of schools, we like to think them cordoned off

from the dangers of the world. But I wanna hear from you, 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225 talk. It's a, it'd be a great idea to save space in a city that's crammed and we would build up. Or do you not wanna see your children going to school in a place where there are lots of unknowns? I think that both, I mean, both sides of this conversation

absolutely have to be given credence and respect because when it comes to our kids, we get one chance to do it right. Right, you don't wanna do this and then realize you went down the wrong route and you put the children of this city in danger, at risk. So I like the idea of exploring it. I like the idea of, well, there are a couple of things we gotta get right. The TDSB and the idea of exploring it. I like the idea of,

well, there are a couple of things we gotta get right. The TDSB and the City of Toronto should not be in charge of building. They should partner with actual builders who know what they're doing. Let the builders build, let the school educate, right? And the safety of kids has to be involved in every question that is asked along the path of getting us to this scenario.

Meaning, if the, if the, if the city, if the, if the property sort of has frontage on two streets, north and south, or east and west, for example, then one side should be for access to the condo, and the other for the school. Meaning meaning they are part of the same building, but you can't get from one part to the other. There is no back door from the condo building into the school. Because if it's a school, it should be a pure school, even though it's attached physically to a condo. That, to me, is a not.

Don't do that, then don't do it at all. Hey, Joe, welcome to the show. Oh, hi, Ben. Thanks for having me on. Well, great show. Really appreciate it. Thank you. My son is grown and finished secondary school now, but he's in a wheelchair and he had a deafblind intervener and accessibility is something that's not discussed here. When we talk about putting schools underground. If you have fire drills or an actual fire emergency they have to be carried out. Yeah well I'm struggling to see where the accessibility issue would be because

in my mind and again I don't have all the details yet Joe but in my mind the school would be on the you know the first couple of levels and just just as as schools are today there's a front door and you could have accessibility into the front door and then within the school itself, accessibility measures to make sure that kids with mobility issues are able to take advantage of the school as best practices dictate.

Well, that makes total sense for sure, but when it was discussed earlier on the previous show and the TDSB person was talking about it, they were talking about underground. Oh, I'm not, listen, to me again, like, I think at this point, Joe, I think we're dealing with very early stages. So I think everything is being explored. To me, I would not support anything

that didn't prioritize the school, right? Meaning that's the reason you're building it and you're building condos on top because you can and you can make money from it. But we're building a school first. And if we're not thinking of the students first and foremost with every single step of it, then don't do it. Don't do it.

And when I say students, I mean every student, including students who have mobility issues like your son, Joe. Because without that, then just don't do it. It means you're destined to fail. Right, absolutely. But if it begins to be run kind of like Toronto Community Housing, you know where that will go.

Well, listen, exactly. We got to go around the world and see where they're doing this best. We got to lift the best ideas. The Listen, exactly. We got we got to go around the world and see where they're doing this best. We got to lift the best ideas, the ones that don't work, we got to avoid. We got to go see where they're doing it the best in the world. And because there's nothing special about building up in a city. Like we're not the only city in the world that has these issues. So let's go see who's done it best and lift the best ideas from them.

Make a Toronto version of Toronto solution specific to our city. And let's put our kids first, let's put some money in the pockets of the TDSB so that those schools, every school can be the best version of itself. Joe, thank you very much for the call. Hey, Dan, thank you for calling into the Ben Mulroney show. Hey, good morning, Ben. This isn't my main point. I'll get to that in a second. But I think we have examples of this already in Toronto, at Yonge and St. Clair, Young and Bloor, where they sold off

a chunk of their property and built condos. I think they're doing it at Deferrin and Lawrence. You just have to look into it. However, you're getting distracted by the shiny object. Let's get back to the budget shortfall. Once they get revenue from this, somehow it's going to disappear again in bureaucracy. Oh, no, yeah. Yeah, listen, I agree, Dan. But I'm not distracted. In fact, that was the first thing I started with. I said, I said, they're, they're trying to make some

performative cuts that only hurt our kids. And they're not even, they're not taking a good hard look at their budget. And they're not looking at good hard look at that, at their costs. And they need to do that. Otherwise, the the Ontario government is going to rightly step in and do it for them. Who's going to demand and be accountable for making sure that's like, let's get their budget straight first. And all these every time you hear funding from the government, whether it's like another 200 million for education, three,

you know, 26 million for the police, look deeper, it's always 80%, 90% goes to salaries. It's more money for education just means it's going to pensions and salaries. That's all it is. And the kids always keep getting cut. And where I was in York region, they went from two special, the special,

what's it called? You know, the support teachers for the kids. Supply teachers? All of York region, they had funding shortfalls, they cut it down to one. So that they could pay for the trustees. Yeah, no, but that's my point. I mean, then the government,

the Ontario government does seem to be holding firm on this idea that they need to have a really serious, hard look at what it costs to run the TDSB. And if they don't do it, the government's gonna step in. And I'm all for that. I mean, look, when you've got a budget of $3 billion, there's no way you can tell me with a straight face. You got a budget of $3 billion, you got a $54 million shortfall. There's no way you can tell me that you're right or you are running the tightest ship possible. So I'm all for having an adult conversation about that. But yeah, we can do two things at once. We can explore this idea that could be of great benefit,

not just to the City of Toronto, but to the TDSB and to our kids. We can do that while we take a look at the budget of the TDSB and say to ourselves, can we find ways to make this thing run more efficiently? And can we find ways to trim the budget all while maintaining and perhaps even improving the quality of education for our kids which is the reason that TDSB exists in the first place. But thank you to everybody who called in. To celebrate the Days of Our Lives 60th anniversary, W Network and Stack TV invite you to enter

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