The Ben Mulroney Show - The Friday political panel -- Hamas says no to peace. Quelle surprise!

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

Guest: Warren Kinsella, Former Special Advisor to Jean Chretien and CEO of the Daisy Group Guest: Chris Chapin, Political Commentator, Managing Principal of Upstream Strategy If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Twitter: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ TikTok: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The whole way? The whole way. You are listening to the Ben Mulroney show. It's Friday, October 3rd, and you know what it means on Friday. It's time for this week. in politics with Chris Chapin and Warren Kinsella. Guys, welcome. Happy Friday. Happy Friday, Ben.

You know, happy Friday. It's something we say, but Warren, not very happy day at all, given what happened in Manchester. I know that this is something that you follow very closely. So I'm going to give the floor to you to give me your thoughts. Yeah, on the holiest day on the Jewish religious calendar, a day of solemnity, and when the Jewish people are known to come together. to get ready for what is the new year in their calendar. A monster appeared in Manchester north of London

and killed and attempted to kill many more Jews at prayer when they were at their most vulnerable and was fortunately deterred by security and some brave residents in Manchester. And this now follows Ben and Chris, as you guys know, on killings of Jews in Washington, D.C., Boulder, Colorado, Nashua, New Hampshire, and Minneapolis. And all of those places, the killer yelled Free Palestine.

And so I guess my suggestion would be to the Free Palestine movement, you've got a problem. And, you know, if you look at what has happened in Britain, guys, since the year 2000, there have been slightly more than 100 killings, terrorist killings in the UK. 96 of them have been caused by Islamists. There's a problem. And it's not just a problem in the UK. It's a problem in Canada and the United States as well. And it is imperative that our friends, our brothers and sisters in the Muslim community,

address this and fix it now because some bad things are coming for all of us that they don't. Well, you know, you mentioned something that I was, I've been struggling with all day. The UK has its own problems. It's its own country. They have their own dynamics. They have their own issues with immigration, for example. We are our own country here. But I wonder whether what happened there in some way, shape, or form might happen here, Chris.

You know, I don't want to say it feels like it's only a matter of time because I hope we're better than that then. But man, some days like this, it feels like it's only a matter of time. I think there's, you know, I think there's a big difference. between the comfort level of those that, you know, sit here in Canada and, you know, might shout free Palestine and, you know, a street corner and ask people to honk their cars and, you know, honk their horns and, you know, we're a kaffia in solidarity thinking that they align with, you know, these individuals who have a far, far different view of what that means, you know, these Islamists that will do something like this on the holiest day of the

year for the Jewish community. And so I hope we're better than that. But I mean, we've seen, you know, we've seen gunshots through synagogues. We've seen fire bombings, you know, we're the only thing, thankfully, we haven't seen yet. You know, we've seen it south of the border is somebody get, you know, fatally hurt. I fear that that day could come. Well, if I can jump in and I can understand why both of you would want to put it out of your mind, it has happened here. It happened on Parliament Hill, Corporal Perillo, killed at the war memorial.

the day before a member of the Canadian Armed Forces killed in Quebec, mowed down by an Islamist extremist who was motivated by ISIS. It has happened here already, just not recently. And as both of you said, it's just a matter of time. All right, well, let's turn the page from that for a moment. Let's look south of the border at the government shutdown. It seems like this is something that pops up every few years. But I got to wonder, Chris, Donald Trump, part of me thinks he,

He loves this because it's a great excuse to start firing people. I do agree with you, Ben. You know, I joked the other day. It just feels like I'm so grateful that we don't have this concept of a government shutdown here in Canadian politics because it's such a headache. You know, but every couple years we have a government shutdown and it's over something differently, you know, that the Republicans have it. The Democrats have it. It's over a debt ceiling or a debt clock. Yeah. I think the president in this case relishes it.

I, you know, I joked about the other day, but the video he posted on his Twitter. I mean, it's absolutely absurd and so beneath the president. But, you know, he put out a meme mocking the Democrats for wanting this shutdown so they could fund illegal aliens. Like that's, he really does enjoy this kind of politics. It's, you know, it's a sad state that that's what occupies the Oval Office, but it's the truth. Warren, how do you see this playing out? Is this going to be a long protracted battle or is it going to, are they going to find some swift resolution? Well, I think he's looking at it as a game of chicken, and let's face it, he's pretty good at those.

And so, you know, who's going to blink first? Is it going to be the Democrat leadership or is it going to be his team? However, there are smart Republicans. There's still some smart Republicans left who are in the New York Times this morning, cautiously warning the administration about being careful what you wish for because you just might get it. If you think back to the Elon Musk doge fiasco, you know, they let go thousands of people at that point. That was clearly something they wanted to do with Project 2025. They let go of thousands of people.

What are they doing? They're hiring them back because they found it for sure. There is waste, as all of us know, in government. There is excess. But a lot of those public servants perform valuable jobs. They perform valuable tasks. And now they've had to walk it back and hire many of them. of those people back. So that would be my advice to Republicans is be careful what you wish for

because you just might get it. I think you're probably right. We got to go back to the Middle East for this next story because it doesn't surprise me that Hamas's military leadership is not very bullish on Donald Trump's peace proposal. What do we do, Chris? I mean, rinse and repeat, Ben. this was actually going to work from Hamas's angle, right? Like they they do not represent the kind of peace that everybody seems to think they do. And so I, you know, when the news story came out that, you know, they'd reached a deal. I refuse to believe it. I don't know if a deal can ever be reached. So long as Hamas controls Gaza, this is what it's going to be. And so we can we can clap our hands and applaud the president for reaching a ceasefire deal, but you need the other side

to ceasefire and agree to ceasefire if it's ever going to be a peace deal. And it's, if it's ever going to be a peace deal. It's just, it never will be as long as these guys control Gaza. Yeah, Warren, I don't understand why we are giving Hamas so much, so much agency here. They are the loser in this war. They are either going to, they're either going to have the negotiated peace now or they're going to be destroyed by Israel later. And so I'm, we didn't do this with Japan. We didn't do this with Germany. This is not how wars typically end.

And so the fact that they're balking at this, to me, it just shows how there really is one set of rules for Israel and one set of rules for everybody else. Absolutely. You're both right. And, you know, what I always encourage people to do, what I always say to people is Hamas is very open, actually, about what their objectives are. and their objectives are perpetual all-encompassing war. If you look back at their 1988 charter, which they've never disavowed, that is their supreme law, not only do they oppose peace deals and ceasefire with the Zionist entity, as they called Israel, they mock those who advance those suggestions. They mock those, they consider the PLO too moderate. But don't they take their marching orders from?

someone else, aren't there actors in the Middle East that they listen to that fund them that might appeal? Iran and Qatar and Iran is the campaign manager in this information war and Qatar is the banker. I encourage everybody to check out what I put on my social media this morning, a leader from the Saudi Arabia talking about how poisonous, how toxic the Qatari regime is and and their masters in Iran. So it's in their interest to destabilize the West and destabilize Israel, and they're doing it. And so to your point, Ben, absolutely, Israel is going to win the military war.

They were always going to win that. But Hamas and their side is winning the information war. Take a look at what's happening around the world. Take a look at the polling. It all says the same thing. You've got people who are otherwise reasonable now saying that Israel is committing genocide. That tells you that Hamas may be losing the military war, but they're winning the propaganda war. All right.

Well, we're going to take a quick break. Chris, I'm going to give you an opportunity to weigh in when we come back from the break. But we're also going to be talking about is a story about whether it's discrimination or just good detective work, as well as could we be seeing the end of daylight savings time? Daylight saving time. Thank you very much. All right. Don't go anywhere. Much more to come right here on the Ben Mulroney show.

Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to this week in politics, our Friday edition with Chris Chapin and Warren Kinsella. Chris, I was going to give you the final word on Hamas, throwing up their hands and saying, we don't want to play. I mean, it is what it is. It's the world we're going to live in, I think, then. It's why I think the only way this truly ends is letting Israel take it to its logical conclusion. Because left to their own devices, I think Warren,

nailed it. They want to exterminate Israel. And, you know, you've got an unstoppable force and an unmovable object. All right. Well, we've got an army of people working at the CRA. I think we've got more people in the CRA than we have in the actual Canadian Armed Forces. And so they've got to do stuff, right? And one of the things that they've been tasked with is auditing certain charities for potential terrorism links. And they were just under the microscope because they couldn't just justify why they were auditing certain Muslim charities. It was raising the possibility that some of their decisions were driven by bias and discrimination. And I wonder, Warren, what you think about that, because I guess the question is, were they profiling these people?

Were they looking into these charities just because they were run by Muslims and they were Muslim charities? And I wonder what you think. Is that profiling or is that just investigating? No, it wasn't profiling at all. And, you know, hey, I'm going to do something on popular. I'm going to give credit to CRA. Like CRA and finance have decertified pro-Palestinian charities in the past, in the recent past, for providing funding directly or indirectly to groups like the PFLP and Hamas.

They've done that. That's on the record. Like, you can check it out for yourself. and I've done a lot of investigative reporting about this issue, we have a big problem with those charities. Instead, what they focused on is going after Jewish charities who are doing terrible things like building parks and planting trees in Israel.

That's become the focus of some people within CRA. And CRA, actually, the union, who represents most of the employees there, last August, issued a statement calling for a crackdown on so-called Jewish charities. So no, I think CBC fell for this hook line and sinker. The issue isn't the so-called Muslim charities. The issue is that they're not being scrutinized nearly enough. Well, Chris, I see this as if you take what Warren said as gospel,

then this is concerning because if any time you go and do your job, you are pushed back as somebody who's potentially violating the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and or you are espousing Islamophobia that now you're getting into a place where you're not allowing the watchers to do the watching.

Yeah, I, you know, I think we've seen this been, you know, across different levels of our society, though. You know, we've seen this with police work, for example. The police being told they need to stop doing things that they had been doing for years that kept community safe because, you know, it was biased. You asked that question, is this just good detective work? I think so. The purpose of

these investigations is to determine whether these charities are doing things that might potentially keep Canadians less safe. And so when they find it, there's a reason to keep looking for it. And that's unfortunately the truth. We have seen stories of Canadian charities being used to funnel money to terrorist organizations. That should be of concern to absolutely every Canadian. This is about what's right and what's wrong, not about inherent bias. You know, we don't have a issue with Jewish terrorism in North America. You know, we have had issues with Islamic terrorism in North America, you know. We're all old enough to remember 9-11, you know, and the many other examples even Warren cited earlier that, you know, there are concerns with that. And I hope the CRA keeps doing

this work because it's the right thing to do. All right. Well, now we've got to move to what is undoubtedly one of the most pressing important stories of the day. And I believe, gentlemen, that there are two types of people. There are the people for whom changing the clocks, either going forward or coming back, throws their entire life into chaos. They can't sleep, they can't drive, they can't concentrate, they can't consummate their relationships. Life is terrible. And then there are people like me that just get over it.

And I wonder, before we have this conversation about getting rid of daylight saving time, I want to know what kind of people you are. Chris, tell me. I cannot wait to get rid of this thing. I'll tell you why. I do a lot of work across the prairies with our company. And Saskatchewan got rid of it a long time ago. And so there's nothing more frustrating than trying to figure out which hour or two hours

they're behind when you're trying to schedule meetings because sometimes they're aligned with our clients and the work we do in Alberta. And sometimes they're aligned with the work we do in Manitoba and here in Ontario where they're an hour or two hours behind. And I hate it because I'm from the center of the universe here in Toronto. And I assume there's only one time zone and that's our time zone. So me trying to do the math complicates everything, every single time. So I say get rid of this once and for all.

Chapin, just use Google. Hey, Google. What time is it in this guy in Regina? It's not that complicated. I have to. I feel like an idiot. The number of times I Google, what time is it in Regina? You know, Ben, I've lost track.

All right. Warren, what kind of person are you? Chapin is a central Canadian fascist. You know what he said. I am. I am. I don't care about this issue. Like, I care more about what Taylor Swift had for breakfast

out here with this issue. Like, these suitcases under my eyes right here that you can see, they're not going to disappear. It doesn't matter if we're springing ahead or falling back or whatever. Like, I never get it right. A lot of people don't. And so, like, I just don't care. But for sure, you know, for the pundit industry, like the three of us are in,

this is a lot of fun to talk about it. I just don't have an opinion on it. I don't care either way. Just make your mind up and do it. Okay, well, to that point, to wit, Warren. So Marie-France Lalonde, the MP, is planning to introduce a bill aimed at ending daylight saving time. But it's not a bill to end daylight saving time. It's a bill to study it.

And that is the most Canadian, most government thing you could possibly do. Like, pick a lane. Keep it, get rid of it. But we don't need to study it, do we? Chris? I howled when I read the article, Ben. It was the most liberal thing that I could possibly. come up with, that you couldn't just be definitive on keep it or get rid of it.

It's let's have the federal government, I believe the language is, organize a conference with stakeholders to formalize whether we would keep this. Aren't we all stakeholders in this? Anybody who like lives according to the clock, don't we are we all stakeholders? Like couldn't we just have like a push poll or something? Like all Canadians just answer one or two. Yeah. That seems far easier or just make up our minds.

Yeah. Warren, the fact that this is going to be, is going to be turned into a roundtable discussion with stakeholders is it's just the government making busy work. Yeah, I'm a see here. I've got to watch. Like I'm a stakeholder too. But she's a very nice lady and I like her a lot. But can you think of a more uniquely Canadian response than to convene a conference to study

an issue instead of actually dealing with it? Again, I don't care. It's just like, guys, like can we? just stopped talking about this and move on to some of the more important subjects like the ones we were talking about earlier in the show and focus on those. This one seems to be a bit of a time wasteer. But Chapin,

that central Canadian solipsistic guy. The wrench and a lead I get called when I'm out in Regina. He's just focused on his own needs. We only have about a minute left. So in that time, let me ask you. You guys going to watch the Blue Jays this weekend?

I can't wait. I think it should be a good series. We need to be able to beat up on the Yankees. he's been beat up on them well. I can't believe we're here, but we are. But I can't. I'm up in my cabin in the woods and I don't have TV here. So I'm going to have to listen,

do it the old-fashioned way and listen to the radio. Yeah, but you got Wi-Fi. We're clearly talking to you right now. You could watch. I mean, clearly you got that. No? Yeah, I guess so. I guess I could do that.

But, no, I actually like listening to games when I'm driving on the radio. You know, because, I mean, I'm not trying to, you know, butter your toast here, Ben, but I think radio guys describe games better than TV guys. I find it more compelling. Yeah. It's a tougher job for guys like you, and I enjoy it more. Well, fortunately, that is not in my wheelhouse. I will tell you, though, those, the TV guys, one day, I was years ago, I was watching a, I was watching a Cubs game. And I think it was on, I think it was on Father's Day. And the guys had just run out of steam. They had run out of things to say. And the guy says, And today's Father's Day.

So to all you fathers out there, happy birthday. My favorite line ever from any sports guy ever calling the game. Anyway, guys, thank you so much. Have a great weekend. Really appreciate your insights today. And we'll see you next week. Take care. See you guys.

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