The Ben Mulroney Show - The Toronto cast -- Could unhinged drug abuse be why Toronto is unhappy?

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

- Daniel Tate/IntegrityTO 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

This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you've been following the news, like really following it, you know how exhausting it can be. Politics, conflict, uncertainty, it's a lot to carry. And for many men, there's this expectation to stay calm, stay in control and not talk about how it's affecting you. But the truth is, you're allowed to feel overwhelmed.

You're allowed to say, I'm not okay right now. And trust me, I have been there. Whether it's the state of the world stress at home, or just feeling like you've got to have it all together and have all the answers, you don't have to hold it in. Better help is here to help with the world's largest network of licensed therapists. They've already supported over 5 million people, you can connect with a therapist online from wherever you are, no waitlist, no office visits. And if it's not the right fit you can switch anytime it's time to put your mental health on the agenda talk it out with better help visit better help comm slash Mulrooney today to get 10% off your first month that's better help HELP comm slash Mulrooney

summers here and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days delivered with uber eats what do we mean by almost when you can't get a a Wellgroom lawn delivered, but you can get a chicken parmesan delivered. A cabana? That's a no. But a banana? That's a yes. A nice tan? Sorry, nope.

But a box fan? Happily yes. A day of sunshine? No. A box of fine wines? Yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats.

Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by Regency app for details. ["The Daily Show Theme"] Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for joining us. It is Thursday, what are we, the 17th today? 17th, yes, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. It is Thursday. What are we the 17th today? 17th yes, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us I'm a little excited. I like to live in the moment. I like to enjoy where I am and

There are certain things in life that I was told to not enjoy and one of those things I was told I was worn by Certain people when I got in a radio There are certain things that are fun. And there are certain things that are not fun. And the thing that is not fun is something called an air check. Yeah. Yeah, everyone says it's not fun. It's when you go meet with your boss and he he sits there and he plays stuff for you that

that you don't waste this. Okay, this worked. And then here's all the stuff that didn't work. That's what I was told. I've I've I don't know enough about radio. And I'm sort of making it up as I go because I've been in a grant less than two years now. And so I welcome the the the the sort of the the criticism because for me, it's not criticism. It's like, here's what you don't know. And here's why that didn't work. Because you don't know it didn't it wasn't going to work. Yeah, it's good. It's positive feedback. However,

I'm looking forward to today's air check. You might ask why then? I'm gonna say why because at first I wasn't but now I am as well because we are having we are going off site for today's air check. And then you say where where are we going? Oh, wait, that's where I have to say where are we going? Yeah, where are we going? Then we're going to Cherry Street barbecue. Yeah, right. See, we mean I just spoke with our boss Mike and he goes, Oh, yeah, I don't even know. For lunch on a weekday. It should be. I'm yeah. Cherry Street barbecue. I'm not getting

paid to say this is one of my favorite restaurants in the city. Why is it one of your favorite restaurants because they have because they have brisket in their baked beans brisket in their big you could take me like if you have if you have bad news for me if you tell me Ben the bank is foreclosing on your house. I will take it a lot better if we're eating brisket infused baked beans. Well, let me tell you that the store is open at 1130.

The barbecue place is open. So we can eat? We can. I'm assuming. It's good. It's good. Well done. So I'm just, I'm telling Mike Bendixson,

I mean, short of telling me I've lost my job, you can deliver any bad news you want to me that day, or today. Hey Ben, we want want to me that day or today. Hey, Ben, we want you to shave your head. Fine. Just as long as the baked beans and the ribs are in front of me and the cornbread. Oh, they got good cornbread.

All right. They used to have an outpost very close to my old work at this high-end food, just off of Queen Street, where they had like some of the best restaurants in town, had their, it was called like chef's kitchen or something like that, can't remember what it was called. But anyway, they had an outpost there, so I would go there for lunch.

Not so good for my diet eating ribs and baked beans twice a week, and yeah, I did that. But anyway, Cherry Street Barbecue, like I said, hey, if maybe they wanna be a sponsor of the show, who knows, but cherry street barbecue, some of the best ribs and like I said, baked beans in the city. Good. Whether it's good, good news or bad, it's a great place to eat. Okay, so we got a lot of news to get to today. Well, that's works with

the theme. Good news, bad news, happy,. Today is that we got a theme at the top of this show about how happy people are. Being happy is an indicator of a lot of stuff. And it can get get you through good times and get you through bad. The National Post has a ranking of the happiest cities in Canada. And the top of the list surprised me Mississauga. They have the highest ranking among major cities. Number two is Montreal and Canada, oh Canada, Toronto is way down on the list at number 10.

And as a matter of fact, we're lowest in the top 10 cities. Now, if you go by province, here's what's interesting. Quebec is number one. Well, they've got this, I mean, they're number two on the Montreal, their biggest city is number two. But Ontario is down at number eight. And that that's I guess it's because Toronto at number 10 is weighing down the entire province, even with

Mississauga at number one. So Prince Edward and Prince Edward Island, interestingly, is the least happy province. I mean, it's I've been there many times. It's like living on a golf resort. I don't know how many problems they have that maybe it's because they're so disconnected. I don't know what it is. But we should look into that. That's the only province I haven't been to in this country. And I've heard it's amazing. I've heard it's the most beautiful place in the and you can drive from one side to the other in an hour.

I was there, last time I was there was years ago. It was for Canadian Idol auditions. And I was staying at the Westin, and it was a gorgeous day, like gorgeous day. And I leave the Westin, and there's a cab waiting outside the Westin, I say, take me to Confederation Hall, which was like their conference center. And the guy without batting an eye says,

okay, and I get in the car. And no word of a lie, we drive straight. He does not turn the wheel. We drive straight down the block, maybe 100 meters. And he stops the car and we arrive. And I am charged $12. And at first I want to complain, but I realized I may be the only cab ride he gets all day. And it was also I wasn't paying for it. So but that's like maybe they only maybe they were only pulling cabbies. Maybe they only pulled you that day. Maybe I know I was perfectly happy to be there, you're kidding. It's a Atlantic coast paradise. Women are apparently happier than men. Young Canadians increased their happiness this year,

that makes no sense. That seems counter to what everything we've learned. Well, young people are miserable and they hitch themselves to a political party and a leader who did not win. Older Canadians, let's see, only 20% reported improved happiness, well because they're curmudgeoned. Young Canadians overall ranked 58th globally in happiness, lowest in the G7. That does not bode well again for our Prime Minister. New immigrants reported lower happiness than long term residents. And that was probably

because the long term residents have been on a slow and steady decline in this country in terms of everything that we used to take for granted. And the new immigrants were sold a bill of goods on come to Canada where the streets are paved with gold. Instead, they're riddled with needles. And a lot of the new immigrants are staying in shelters, because there's nowhere for them to live. Now here's here's a weird one. 28% said they're less happy than last year. That's no surprise. But 23% reported increased happiness. That's only a 5% drop overall. And 49% reported stable happiness, stable happiness. That's an expression I'm going to use

from now on. How are you today? Well, my happiness is holding stable. Well, that's just the people who you ask, how you doing? And they go, all right. Now in Toronto, let's go back to it. We're 10th on this list in terms of happiness and why you may ask.

Well, remember this earlier this year, Toronto endured three big consecutive snowstorms started on Superbowl Sunday, ended on family day. We got something like 58 centimeters of snow. And a lot of people called, availed themselves of 311, you know, the, the public service phone line that if you have anything that is a non emergency for the cops, you are supposed to call them. And a lot went wrong. Apparently, we got over 29,000 calls to 311. Here is Olivia Chow

sort of explaining this cock up. First of all, the staff team received 29,000 calls for help through the 311. And they ignored 99.83% of them. They only replied to 51 requests for help. The City Manager's report at the Executive Committee today is the first step in offering some solutions. The report includes actions like more search capacity and faster snow removal. I will accept his recommendations as the first step to address this systemic failure. It's a systemic failure. It is not the responsibility of the

mayor. I really was hoping she would have said, I accept the findings and I accept responsibility. But apparently this is all a problem of the city staff. Now, by the way, not for nothing. On an average day, Rob Ford answered 51 phone calls for any reason. Rob Ford, no problem. That's him in his car ride back to Etobicoke. And so, but our city staff, they're the ones who were responsible. And I'm sorry, that doesn't work for me. Because I can't fire city staff. I don't elect city staff. I don't know their names. And you're saying that this entire thing was their fault. Okay.

So the only people I can affect change with are the people on the ballot. And you ma'am wanted to be the mayor of the entire city that includes the city staff. At some point, it would be nice if I heard you say this happened on my watch. I didn't know what was going on, but I'm the mayor. It happened on my watch. And I'm going to take steps to address the mayor. It happened on my watch, and I'm going to take steps to address this now. So what are you going to do? Are you going to fire them? I doubt it. I doubt so what exactly is going to happen? Oh, we are up against the clock. We're

going to come back after this. And we're going to continue this conversation about being happy. And some people are so unhappy. They're leaving the country. And we're gonna talk about what happens when they want to sell their house. So anyway, this is Ben Mulrooney Show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney Show. And listen, this is a country that has been built on immigration. And you were never going to hear me say that with anything about our storied past and how we built this country. But we, we have a real problem right now with with keeping the people we should now there are you may not like

Jordan Peterson. Plenty reasons not to like Jordan Peterson. But he is in a lot of circles very well respected. I would I would say that of 10 statements he makes. I would say that of 10 statements he makes, I would say that I agree with four of them strongly, and then three others, I would say, probably cast him in a positive light, and then there are three that I just think should be lit on fire.

But he is somebody who has, I remember when he was popping up on my on my feeds every now and then I was like, this guy makes a lot of sense. I can't believe can't believe he's still in Canada. Because I the assumption has always been once somebody hits a certain level of fame, if unless your name is Drake, you are going to leave for the States, or you're gonna leave for that place that that, that allows you to, to fulfill whatever destiny you

wanted. And it looks like eventually, that came true for Jordan Peterson for a number of reasons. I think he's upset with the intellectual climate in Canada, where unless you subscribe to an orthodoxy, that is handed down from the academic left, you are not welcome here. But it could also be the fact that he's probably made a lot of money. And he wants that money to go farther. And, and, and, or it's also because he, he has outgrown the his house because his house

is now up for sale. He's moved to the United States, and his $2 million house is up for sale. And I gotta say, when I saw the pictures of it, I was surprised without look from the outside when I when I think when I think Jordan Peterson, I imagine, I don't know a red brick house. I imagine like a very sturdy red brick house. But this is like a one of those annex style, sort of looks like a semi detached, but I don't think it's semi detached. Well, it is in the annex where the houses are much

narrow together. Yeah. But it's a beautiful house. You look inside. Yeah. It is stunning. It's eclectic. And he's lived there pretty much his entire life. Yeah, yeah. So it's open that neighborhood.

So it's on the market and I got to wonder like, how are you going to market this? I mean, and, and is there a cache? Can you ask for more money because it's Jordan Peterson's house? And like, and is that a selling point? I don't know. I have no idea if it's something probably not in the annex. You got a lot of left left leaning people living in the annex, they might be happy to see him gone. But can he ask for more money? Because whoever

lives there next, whether they hate him or not, they're going to say they're in Jordan Peterson's house. Everyone's going to say they moved into Jordan Peterson's house. And so, but the deck is stacked against Jordan if he's looking to set a record in the neighborhood because the real estate market in the city of Toronto is in the toilet. But 7% of all homes sold in Toronto so far this year have sold at a loss. And by the way, 397 homes have sold in 2025. That's not a lot. Well, that's just the ones that are sold at a loss. Oh, that's tough. Okay. 397 represents the 7%.

Yes. 7% sold at a loss. I mean, every, when I sold my in my neighborhood, eight years ago, we set a record for the neighborhood to the point that to the point that every every and by the way, I that was great on that end of the equation. I also bought at a high watermark as well. So you know, if if if karma giveth, it also taketh away. We sold at such a record that I had people on my street coming in thanking me because they want to go on the market soon. And we helped them sell at a higher at a higher number because we pegged

it. We pegged that new record. So 7% of them have sold at a loss. And that number, by the way, is even higher in old Toronto, which is where Jordan Peterson's house is. Sellers have lost money on the price in 9% of sold homes. And that is a huge jump, by the way. Everything is relative. And in 2022, that number of 7% it was actually 0.7%. So it represents 10s of thousands of dollars in losses for sellers. And let's also forget, not forget, that the land transfer tax, the made up municipal land transfer tax, thank you, David Miller, and the provincial one that takes a hit as well. That's less money going in to each level of government. And so these these are not good signs like the the

real estate market is not the economy writ large, but it is a bellwether it is an indicator. And this is the worst indicator that we've ever seen. We've seen slowdowns in the market we've seen this is this is not that. And I got to put myself in the shoes of like, I'm happy in my house. I'm not leaving. I have no desire to leave anytime soon. I want I've always said it's my forever home. And I have picked an area in the back where in on the day that I leave this mortal coil. That's where I want to be buried. Because this is that is my happy place.

And for a lot of people, that's that's the plan. The house that you get is the house that you want to the house your forever home is exactly that. And there are some people who are nervous, really, really nervous about re-upping on their mortgage that they don't know what to do. They don't know what's gonna happen when their mortgage matures. And the bank tells them, yeah, the interest rate is not what you thought

it was gonna be. And who knows where they're gonna be with their jobs? Who knows if their jobs will be affected by the trade deal? Who knows if they're going to be able to afford the mortgage they have, let alone the mortgage that they might have to agree to. These are real problems for real people. And while we start this conversation with the Jordan Peterson, who has choices, and options, a lot of us don't. A

lot of us don't a lot of our listeners here at the show don't. And these are indicators that have been, they have been on the roadmap for a long time. I know they have been because I've talked to experts on this show for months. And in fact, since I started doing radio almost two years ago, and they said, look, this is not looking good guys.

We're coming up against an iceberg and that iceberg is rapidly approaching. We talk a lot about the rotating the revolving door of our, our bail system, our criminal justice system. And we also hear that, I mean, I remember Pierre Poliev on the campaign trail saying, we don't have a crime problem. We have a criminal problem in this country where a select few hyper motivated people go out and conduct most of the crime in this country. And if you could target those people and keep them off the streets, our crime rates would go down tremendously. Well, on Wednesday, Toronto police put out a press release saying they're looking for a and keep them off the streets, our crime rates would go down tremendously. Well, on Wednesday, Toronto police put out a press release saying they're looking for Shaquan Mosquito.

That's his real name. Thirty one following a stabbing near Young Dundas around 1030 on Friday. And the police confirmed Wednesday that that man is the same one convicted in connection with the 2012 Danzig shooting. You'll remember that's in July, 2012, where two people were killed, five people were injured at a community block party. This guy claimed he was responsible for it.

Turns out he wasn't. He didn't pull the trigger, but he was part of it. So he got prison time, eventually came out. And he's been, he's just a stabby kind of guy. Lot of stabbings in his past. He's one of those guys who is just an inveterate criminal. He's just one of those guys that if you put him away, that's a lot of crimes that aren't done.

And we talk about that time and time and time again on this show where people get out on bail, commit a prison, commit a crime back in, back in police custody at afternoon to commit another crime that evening. And that is the cottage industry that they are involved in. So here's hoping that Shaquan Mosquito sees some real jail time and that way, the stabbings that he tends to do when things, when the spirit moves him will stop. All right. When we come back, we've got a conversation with Daniel Tate,

a very engaged Torontonian about the state of play in this city and where we go between now and the next election. Don't go anywhere, this is the Ben Mulroney Show. ["The Ben Mulroney Show Theme"] Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Are you worried about your neighborhood? The city does not want to hear about it. You see what I did about it? See how I did that? Yeah, they just don't care. The city does not care. Yesterday at City Council, there was, there was a MP Roman Baber, who is an MP for Northern part of the city. He was there to, to give a deputation about a homeless shelter that was supposed to go into a

residential area. And, and he really got into it with Gord Perks. And we'll play the audio for you in a minute. But the gist of it is, is that Gord Perks, the city councilor, was very heavy handed in his and quite disrespectful of a fellow politician, a fellow representative of the people of Toronto. And he claimed that he was using his position to shut down any criticism of the city. He said that this was,

the only things that could be discussed at this time were zoning and like essentially the details of the plan. This thing was going in, but what it's gonna look look like that's what we're talking about here today. And Roman Baber made the point you didn't consult with anybody. You didn't consult with anybody. And despite that, Gord Perks kept bullying. Yeah, he bullied the MP disrespected him tremendously. And Roman Baber eventually I think got the upper hand saying, Look, he gave us no opportunity

to come in here and discuss this. And I could talk about this forever. But instead, let's hear that interaction directly from Roman Baber himself. I may have a different proposal for what might be appropriate. And that is a zone or might not be appropriate. And that is a zoning issue. Mr. Chair, point of order. I have come here for a deputation. Point of order, you're not a member of the committee. That is true too. I was invited for a five minute deputation which you cut by two minutes at the commencement of this meeting and I'd like to put on the record

that you will not permit me to speak against the construction of a homeless shelter between 100 metres away from the Pierre LePort Middle School and 100 metres from the St. Teresa Child Care Centre. You will not permit me to testify that an intersection away at Jane and Wilson, the Toronto Plaza shelter has become an epicentre of crime and drugs and chaos. The Toronto City shelters are now heading out drug paraphernalias inside Toronto City shelters. Children will be picking up needles. This is on you. You have not consulted any of us. You will bear responsibility for this vote. And that completes your time. Are there any questions of

the deputant? There you go. I mean, that is a it shouldn't be shock. It should be shocking. It's not because our next guest has felt the brunt of the disrespect of the entitlement of certain members of City Council firsthand. It was it was such a disgusting display and an ass backwards dynamic of a city counselor who should be working for the deputant and instead demanded respect that he doesn't deserve. I'm talking of course of Daniel Tate.

Welcome back to the show, sir. Hi, Ben. Thanks for having me. What is your what is your title that we should be addressing as it should be Mr. Tate? Ultimately concerned citizen, but I am the executive director of IntegrityTO, which is Toronto's newest and fastest growing civic advocacy group.

And we're watching what's going on at City Hall. And- No, but my point was a call back to Chris Moyes, demanding that you call him Councillor Moyes. Oh yeah, the right honorable Lord, Chris Moyes. Oh, no, no, and it's racist to call him anything else. Unbelievable. And no, I've told you before, it's a disgusting display when a city counselor in your own ward says,

I don't know the man, I don't wanna know the man. And point of fact, he has to know you. It's his job because he works for you. But nevermind, and it's my contention that activists make the worst politicians. We can talk about that later. What did you think when you heard about this, this Gord Perks, Roman Baber dynamic?

I was disgusted by it. I thought it was repugnant. I thought that Councilor Perks was on brand though, because his brand is being a smug, arrogant individual who is condescending. And he does this in every interaction that I've seen, not just with me, with other constituents, with other citizens. And it's like, he has this worldview. And if you disagree with his view, he'll do everything in his power to silence you. And people have a democratic right to speak at a

civic deputation. It's like foundational to local democracy, especially if the city has failed at properly getting buy in from the stakeholders, right? Like if you've set up a system where the people living in that area do not have the opportunity to speak out and talk about the problems that they have with it, then they're going to take any avenue available to them. Yeah. And this is why trust in local government is declining because people are seeing this kind of stuff. And you know, Roman Weber came, yes, he's an MP, but he came as a concerned

citizen and he made a very great, very good case and he made a plea and he was just shut down by, by perks. Yeah, like no compassion from perks. No, he's been there. He's been there 19 years. That's too long term limits. Look, by the way, our prime minister addressed this sort of in a in a different form. And when he talked about his issue with the public's the civil servants in Ottawa, he said some of them have been there too long. And they are, they are leaning on institutional muscle memory. And they are more concerned with process than getting results that are right for the the this

the our the voter, right. And that's what he cares about. This guy has has his worldview and he's and he's hiding behind it, saying, well, we're just checking the boxes here where I need the the outcome is almost secondary. But but you so yesterday you were in Nathan Phillips Square with an announcement. Yeah, that's that's right. So yesterday, while all this was going on inside the executive the committee room upstairs at City Hall, we were outside as part of the Toronto Concerned

Citizens Coalition, this rapidly growing active citizen group, we got together, we did a press conference. It was a great press conference. A lot of issues were being discussed and it was very well received. We got a lot of press and it really jazzed up a lot of people. But I watched some of the clips and it was hard to hear you. There was a lot of noise.

There was a lot of shouting and talking about what you were up against there. I think some noise bylaws were violated and I think some of the people who were abusing the megaphone should be investigated. Because, yeah, we had a press conference, and they decided that it was good form to literally come right beside us with two megaphone in hand,

dialed up to full blast, and just shout all these Vietnam era slogans in our ears, no justice, no peace when I'm we're talking about, you know, Yeah. bike lanes, shelters and other things. That's two days in a row that that's happened. Now I've now or maybe twice this week where I had Carlin Nation on the show a couple of days ago, talking about being there with the downtown concerned citizens coalition saying the very same thing

that they were just trying to get their point across at a press conference. And these, what she said, felt like sort of professional protesters were there trying to shout her down. And I know that you were quoted in the Toronto Star article saying, you don't do the whole left-right thing.

The reason I have to focus on the left-right thing is because yes, there are bad actors on both sides in every conversation when you with a with a big enough data set, you're gonna have bad actors involved with everything. However, in my opinion, it is the exclusive domain of the left to to behave that way, right? They shut down debate, because because of their worldview, because of their worldview, where there's a certain type of person, i.e. people who look like you and

me are oppressors, then and because they view everything as class warfare, then the simple act of asking questions about a bike lane means you want you hate cyclists that there has to be some sort of class warfare or this their system doesn't work. And because of that, they are not interested, just like Gord Perks, not interested in debate. Because to suggest we don't like a shelter in our area, that means you don't care about the best, you don't care about the most vulnerable in our society. And it's incumbent upon me, perched at the highest point of my self-righteous throne, I have to instruct you that you're wrong and we're gonna get this done.

I think that's an accurate observation. And I've started to feel it myself, not just when Chris Moist called me the word that rhymes with bassist, but when we announced this press conference, all of a sudden they started calling me a rage farmer, which is a word I hadn't really heard before. But now I'm thinking to myself,

oh, so if you criticize anybody, the policy of anybody on the other side, instead of them engaging you intellectually on the details of that subject, you're just immediately a nimby rage farmer. And I'm thinking to myself, this is the lowest form of debate because they just resort to insults

and it only makes themselves look foolish. So talk to me about this petition, the petition for an independent audit of Toronto Shelter and Support Services. Yes, a lot of people don't know this, but the Toronto Shelter and Support Services division at City Hall is the third most expensive division in our entire local government,

only behind TTC and the Toronto police, which serve everybody. So it's more than education. Well, yeah. Well, education's part of the provincial purview, but yes. So their annual operating budget is $900 million. It's going to eclipse a billion very soon. And let me ask you, is homelessness getting better?

Do you see less people on the streets? Are people have a pathway to homes and they're getting clean? And is that billion dollars being managed appropriately? And I'm convinced the answer is no, because in an irrational world, when you're throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at a social problem you expect that that problem will get

better. Yeah. The problem's getting worse. Yeah. So where's our money going because we are enduring double-digit property tax increases year over year and something is funky with this division and so we think that this petition which is calling for a third-party audit so not a city audit, because there's limitations there. We want either a third party firm like Deloitte or KPMG to come into a forensic audit. And if not get the provincial auditor general, can you stick around for a little bit? All right, we're

gonna stick around. We're gonna talk some more. We're gonna take some calls. Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulrooney show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney show. And I'm in studio with Daniel Tate, whether it be questions on our history or issues at City Hall, he always comes correct with the facts, he always comes prepared. And so we are going to continue this conversation on accountability at City Hall, where does the buck stop? How much power do we as citizens have? And yesterday on the show, Daniel, I was talking to the mayor of Nanaimo, BC, because the people working at City Hall have felt under siege from what they call their version of a of a safe injection site, I think it's called an overdose prevention site. And the knock on effect has been so negative

for the people at City Hall that they have he they've had no choice to but to consider putting a fence between the the safe injection site and the people at City Hall at a at a cost of almost $500,000 to the taxpayer. But the the mayor said, We don't have any say over that thing. That's a provincial jurisdiction. We have no control over those things. This is the only thing that we can control. Let's listen to his description description of the situation.

An overdose prevention site was erected next to City Hall or installed in December of 2022. And since then we have seen an awful lot of activity, including congregations of 20 or 30 plus individuals during early morning hours, drug trafficking, open substance use, vandalism, damage to HVAC systems, our fencing and landscaping, frequent hit and run accidents with vehicular damage, fire hazards, including unauthorized fires, like set in the doorway to the City Hall,

graffiti, litter, human waste, etc. So staff have presented a report to council that will be discussed by council. You know what, we can cut it off there that I really just want to get that the state of play like this is this is what what the people at City Hall deal with. And look, there are a couple of things Daniel that I don't need a study on I take that mayor at his word. Like what he said is these this is the state was what happens when you put these safe injection sites in. So then if that's happening at that one, it's happening at all of them. And if it's happening there, it's happening here, right? I think that, I think we can agree on that, right?

Yep. And if, and my assumption is that if that's happening there, some of those things are also happening in homeless shelters, right? Because the Venn diagrams of who uses those things overlap in certain ways, right? So in that case, if you believe that there is a 1% chance

that some of those things that that mayor described could be happening at a homeless shelter, and you're gonna put that next to a school or a daycare center, you have an obligation to double, triple check with the community to make sure that they want that. And instead you have what Gord Perks did to Roman Baber yesterday.

Yeah, that's exactly what Baber's argument was. Not only how can you do this without consulting us, but how can you put it so close to a school, knowing that these sites will attract certain elements, they will attract nefarious things. That's just the, that's the law of how this stuff goes. And you're just going to arbitrarily with put it here. But you're gonna, you're gonna do something else, my friend. Mike, who dropped this off for us? Somebody who is very close and concerned about these centers

within the city of Toronto. Right. So and how they are disbursing. Yeah. So it's so it is a negative thing. It is unless it's not unless you decide through language that it's not and so a concerned citizen sent us what the city has been given out across like at these at these safe injection sites and yeah here's like take the whole bag. So it's got everything that you need. I've got like, I've got a crack pipe in here. There's a crack pipe right here. And I've got, I've got, oh, if I, if I'm snorting cocaine, I've got a, I've got a, I've got a straw. And you can hear it. You can hear the crack pipe.

A lot of dentin, a lot of meth can be injected with these needles. But here's my favorite part. There is actually how to talk to children about the needles that you find on the street because you and I get angry about it, right? And we should be angry about it. I wanna read to you the suggested language

of what to say to a child if they see one of these on the street. And by the way, we're gonna do a total unboxing of this. Yeah, we're doing an unboxing of this. At a later date, next week we're gonna do this. But this is sort of a preview. Yeah. So if a child says to you, why are these needles on the ground, you shouldn't say to them, you shouldn't outrage

them or make them angry and make them scared. You say, sometimes people throw things away incorrectly. Maybe it was an accident, or maybe they didn't know where to put them. Sometimes people throw their wrappers or coffee cups away. They're likening throwing a needle, a hypodermic needle on the ground to a Tim's cup. This is so if you can normalize this, then it's not an issue. Who published that? Where's that from? This is from this is from c a needle.com.

And we'll we're gonna we. And we'll figure that out, but this is all based on Health Canada's stigma, why words matter guide. Okay, so first off, this sanitizing of the English language to make really dangerous social ills sound innocuous needs to end. They're always playing this like word salad

to make terrible things sound soft. That's number one. Number two, you're absolutely right because I posted a video on Instagram last week of all these needles that I found near St. Mike's. It got 300,000 views, but one thing that really stood out to me was the fact that the City of Toronto official Instagram site commented, they're like, oh just call 311 when you see litter. Okay, when you see litter. Couple of things. So these needles are litter.

It's a health issue. And two, if 311 can't remove snow, and if they only answer 51 of 29,000 calls during a snowstorm, I'm not trusting them to pick up a goddamn needle. Like, sorry, you're failing at the most basic thing. This isn't basic, This isn't normal. That's not litter. That's a biohazard that can cause disease. Yeah. And but the fact that they

think that way and they that that that's a sign of how the thought is at City Hall. Like it's part of how they look at this stuff. Like it's again, like it's innocuous. It's not a problem. Of course, this normalization needs to stop. Well, the normalization of this, and we've seen it in the courts, this idea that someone has a charter right to shoot up in public spaces. And it's about them having agency over their lives. I'm sorry, I've heard from enough drug addicts to know that drug addicts, if they were, if they had a moment of clarity, they would beg to get off of the drugs. But they're the how many times have you heard from a drug addict? It's not me talking, it's the drugs talking

like when you hear from an expert, it's you're not talking to that person, you're talking to the person with the disease. There's too much coddling of people. And we have to take a tougher approach. The current the stack quo isn't working. The current approach isn't working. We take a tougher approach. The current, the stat quo isn't working, the current approach isn't working, we need a new framework. Yeah, and part of that is this petition for an independent audit of Toronto shelters

and support services. Remind people how they can sign up to this change.org petition. Yeah, so we would love people to read this great petition on all your tax money that's being used to support all this nonsense that we've been talking about. So please check out the petition. The link is change.org forward slash audit dash TSSS one more time change.org forward

slash audit dash TSSS. And look what's going to happen if this audit goes through and the auditor says, you know what, they are spending the money. Well, what are you going to do? Well, I highly doubt that'll be the case. Sure, but let's give them a fair shake. Okay, so at least we'll know where the money's going. Like how much money's being spent to hand out these needles.

Like what's our needle budget for fiscal 26? I'd like to know, is my taxpayer, am I buying a million needles, 500,000? This is the transparency we want. Yeah, well, and the reason I wanted to get you on the record with that is because some people are going to try to turn this around and say, oh, you've got an agenda, and all you're trying to do is shut down these people doing great work. But you know, let's just like information and clarity is, is, is the

Yeah, I do have an agenda. It's called transparency with public money. Call me crazy. I'd like to know how it's spent. Daniel Tate, always great to catch up with you. All the best to you..com. The .com. The .com. The .com. The

.com. The .com. The .com. The.com. The that's better than other Japanese and Korean competitor SUVs. Hurry into your local dealer and drive away in the award-winning Nissan Rogue. Conditions apply. See Nissan.ca for details.