The Ben Mulroney Show - What is Chinese developed DeepSeek and why has it crashed the stock market?

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

Guests and Topics: -What is Chinese developed DeepSeek and why has it crashed the stock market? with Guest: Mohit Rajhans Mediologist and Consultant, ThinkStart.ca  -LA Fires could happen in Canada w...ith Guest: General Elliott Cappell, PwC Canada’s national climate change leader -Speaking out about Intimate Partner violence with Guest: Cait Alexander, Founder of the EVE (Ending Violence Everywhere) organization 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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Starting point is 00:00:00 This episode is brought to you by Samsung Galaxy. Ever captured a great night video only for it to be ruined by that one noisy talker? With audio erase on the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, you can reduce or remove unwanted noise and relive your favorite moments without the distractions. And that's not all. New Galaxy AI features like NowBrief will give you personalized insights based on your day schedule so that you're prepared no matter what. Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra now at samsung.com. Much I think a lot of us really thought we were settling into a world where the open AI's and the
Starting point is 00:00:35 Metas and the Googles of the world. They were going to be they were at the top of the summit. They were the ones at the tip of the sword in AI, and all innovation was going to be coming from them. And then we all woke up a few days ago to learn that China had been working in the background on their on a gate literally a game changing technology called deep seek and it is terrified. Americans, Wall Street, and so to figure out what exactly is DeepSeek, how it's different from the landscape that we knew just a few days ago, what makes it so terrifying to the powers that be, we're joined now by Mohit Rajan's mediologist
Starting point is 00:01:20 and consultant with thinkstart.ca. Mohit, welcome to the show. And this is a juicy one. Yeah, okay. This is definitely a juicy one. Let's level set for everyone because this dropped like a neutron bomb. 100%. And let's not also forget that just a couple of weeks ago,
Starting point is 00:01:36 we were talking about a Chinese app being banned globally. Yes. So now we are in different stakes, but let's level set for sure. Tell us, what us what is deep seek? What does it seek? What does it seek to do? And how is it different than the apps that we have already begun to integrate into our
Starting point is 00:01:55 lives? Okay. So let's start with this level set. China actually controls the way that apps and technology are developed within their countries. Europe has let the separate countries control what they do and what they don't do. So certain apps like ChatGPT and OpenAI are not available in certain European countries. In North America, we've just seen in the last two weeks, it's really gone full tilt on open AI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, et cetera, et cetera. What this company has done is it's shown single-handedly
Starting point is 00:02:32 overnight, deep sea, that is that they in China in state sponsored technology are already five steps ahead in solving for the problems that current AI are already already. Okay, yeah. Okay. So let's take a beat there. Because you just said something that a lot of people are gonna have questions on. Why is it five steps ahead? And what are the challenges that make it so far ahead of the pack? Okay, so if we take open AI, which may chat GPT, as the the original precipice, the original person, people, disruptors, let's say.
Starting point is 00:03:07 Number one on the app store in its realm in AI for I'd say the last two years that it's been put out. Now, this app comes along and proves two things right away. A, that it's actually more usable than the old one version, the paid version of OpenAI. Therefore, when I say usable is free, it's actually more usable than the 01 version, the paid version of open AI. Therefore, when I say usable is free, it's open source. You can train it on yourself and you can train it to actually make more from what the free version could be that any of Chatch GPT's current paid models have. So that immediately takes the cost down for anybody who uses this sort of technology, but it gets worse. It gets worse in the fact that the way that they've developed this technology wasn't really to spite the fact that they're getting things done better and more efficient, maybe, but it's also the fact that they're using less chip power. And they're therefore addressing one of the big flags that
Starting point is 00:04:01 people have had about AI technology, even as of last week, which is the climate footprint. Yeah, yeah. But there's also the cost of it, right? You hear the hundreds of millions of dollars that are set to be invested in the AI revolution in the United States. You had Sam Altman saying that you can expect that we're going to need investments in the trillions of dollars moving forward in order for America to maintain its ascendant position in that world. And DeepSeek, if I'm not mistaken, was developed for what, $6 million? from big tech on AI is the most interesting part of why we're watching stocks take a little bit of a hit and all of this. And furthermore, we can't forget that they're also introducing this idea that without having to need this much payment, you know, in building these big places, think of it this way. And this week, you're going to see big earnings from tech companies. There is a real calculated drop of this app into the zeitgeist of North America that I'm seeing from a global
Starting point is 00:05:10 and political perspective. China is definitely putting out here that they are working on several different types of technology that don't necessarily have to wait for the Americans to catch up. Just yesterday or a couple of days ago, meta announced that they were buying data center the size of Manhattan, or New York in order to be able to work with all the different AI technology that they're working with. They've got to be scratching their heads a little bit. Yeah, looking at this. Yeah, they're asking themselves, what do the Chinese know that we don't what are they getting right? That we haven't seen They can make it faster, more user friendly, they can make it free, make a better version of it. It uses less power, is better for the environment, and they built it for a fraction of the cost.
Starting point is 00:05:56 Six million. I mean, the answer, you know what, I just figured out what the answer is. The person who developed it also developed a time machine. They came back from 50 years in the future. And with that technology, we're able to build deep seek. Okay, well, I'd love to think that that's the theory. But I'm going to go one step further here, I'm going to say two
Starting point is 00:06:15 things very quickly. One, I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see some hostility and this app might get banned by it, because let's not forget, you know, we don't have a great relationship with being able to answer to certain things. We're talking about countries and data sovereignty, a lot at stake here geopolitically. Sure. And the second, yeah, but people know it exists. Yes. Yeah. The markets know it exists. Yes. You can't, you can't the valuation itself, that under 6 million to be able to create this. And then the other part of this is the backstory.
Starting point is 00:06:45 There's such an interesting story about how this almost became out of necessity to build because the amount of chips that Nvidia would let into China were limited. Yeah. We're limited. So, you know, we're no longer talking about countries knocking off North American products. They're accelerating way beyond.
Starting point is 00:07:04 Lassie, in about a minute, explain to me why we're talking about earbuds with cameras. We're just we're talking about the fact that the demand is shown since Apple well, rumored Apple, right? This is what I can't figure out here. We're talking about the fact that with spatial technology and with the fact that people want to be able to be hands free more, there is this idea that the introduction of cameras on, um, on your, in your headphones makes sense. I haven't seen any videos that makes me stop and say, yeah, cause I didn't know anything about this. So, so it's cameras on the ear earbuds so that if I want to, if I want to, you know,
Starting point is 00:07:41 raise the volume, I just put my finger up or something like that. No, I think that you already have that ability. Actually, that's what haptics is. So you can actually actually work with motion on your AirPods. And trust me, you don't want to do it because sometimes when it doesn't work, you just look like you're trying to punch yourself in the face. Yes. So you said there's a need for this. Who wants this? So my theory is that there will be a need for it when it comes to spatial technology and people being able to understand more of the interactive world.
Starting point is 00:08:11 So right now we look at augmented reality and this weird idea that it floats in this place, but with the cameras positioned properly, you can feel more like the person's actually right beside. Oh, I see. I, yeah, that's where I think that they're going with it. But I am also not paid enough to be able to come up with the use cases for all these products. Yeah, I mean, look, okay, I guess so sure. If you've got an augmented reality situation
Starting point is 00:08:36 and there's an avatar of your best friend in front of you and he's walking across the room, then... What about a musician? What about your favorite musician performing the song right in front of you? This seems like such a niche thing. And the only thing I care about besides sound quality in my AirPods is battery life. And if there are cameras sucking off battery power from the speakers, then that is not a good trade off. I don't want that.
Starting point is 00:09:07 Oh, I think we're just, we're definitely in the new phases right now. We want an investment. Mohit Rajan's Mediologist and Consultant at ThinkStart.ca. Thank you very much. I hope to talk to you again soon. Thank you. Take care. Got a great show for you today. We're going to get to the important stuff, but every now and then there's something that sticks in your craw and you got to talk about it. What is the best cookie? Right? It's an important conversation to have. We were just having it right before
Starting point is 00:09:34 we came on air and we were talking about a number of them. You know, within the realm of like chocolate chip and oatmeal, I believe that the best of the bunch is oatmeal chocolate chip, followed quickly by chocolate chip, followed quickly, not quickly, there's a gap there. Then you got oatmeal raisin and then oatmeal. And I'm willing to have my mind changed on this. I got a lot of hills I'll die on. I won't die on this particular hill but if you have an opinion on this, call us on the opinion line. 1-833-724-1811. We
Starting point is 00:10:12 can take your calls 24-7 in 45 seconds or less. Let us know who you are, where you're from. Tell me why you think I'm dead right about the cookie hierarchy, or maybe I'm wrong. And if we like what you have to say, or maybe if we don't like what you have to say, but you say it really well, we'll air it on our Friday show. See, these are the things that occupy my mind when we're not talking about the serious stuff.
Starting point is 00:10:37 This is the palate cleanser, if you will. But the serious stuff is these looming tariff threats But the serious stuff is these looming tariff threats by Donald Trump. 25% across the board could be happening as soon as the 1st of February. Danielle Smith was on our show last week and suggested it might not happen until April, but we have to prepare for the things Donald Trump says.
Starting point is 00:11:00 And the word, the words February 1st came out of his mouth. And Ottawa is planning pandemic level relief for workers and businesses if those tariff threats become a reality. I think that I'm prepared to live in a world where the government spends to protect us in a time where where we need it but I do not trust the current government to be in charge of that spending. They have shown that if they turn the taps on and start printing money and spending money,
Starting point is 00:11:36 that they have an inability to stop. And if they turn it on a little bit, they have a natural inclination and predilection to go to turn it up to 11. I want somebody in charge of this type of tactic to be genetically allergic to it, but they're going to do it anyway because it's what the moment requires. I do not want people whose natural default setting is to spend money that is not theirs. And we have seen in the current government an addiction to spending yours and my money as well as our kids, grandkids, and great
Starting point is 00:12:18 grandkids money. If we have to do this, I need somebody else in charge because we've seen what happens when the current government feels it has license to spend money and license to print money. We've seen it happen. I do not want the sequel and I don't know anybody who does. Well, I know some people who do. So please, if this is something that we as a nation are required to do, put somebody in charge who doesn't want to do it, but needs, is forced to do it.
Starting point is 00:12:56 Although I could be wrong, because it's a new era for the liberals. It's not the liberal party of yesterday and of the last nine years. No, no, no. According to Minister François-Philippe Champagne, it's a new era for the Liberals. But ultimately, if the point about Justin Trudeau leaving was that Canadians do not feel at this point in time that your government has delivered for Canada, how does he sell the message that he can with all of you standing next to him?
Starting point is 00:13:27 Well, we're going to do things differently. Trust me. Why haven't you already? Well, there's things that you can do. There's things that we're going to change. This is the, there's a chapter which is closing with Prime Minister Trudeau. This is a new era. This is a new book starting.
Starting point is 00:13:40 And I can tell you, we have dinner, we look at how we can do government, how we can improve our processes, how can we be more nimble. This is a, like I said, it's a wake-up call for Canada. We've never seen anything like that, you know, you've heard the words of the president with respect to Canada. For me, I said let's build now. We need to build infrastructure, we need to diversify our economy, we need to stand up for Canada. You can't make this stuff up, man. It's a new chapter. It's a new book. You've never seen anything like it. This has never happened before because it didn't happen. It's pure fiction. Pure fiction. Stephen Guilbault, the Minister of the Environment, said that he's not going to build any more
Starting point is 00:14:26 roads but now we're building infrastructure. The same people who got us into the mess, they're going to get us out of it? The scary thing is there are a lot of Canadians who want to believe in the Liberal Party so much it's been part of how their families voted for so long, they are the ones who are going to fall for this. They're going to be the ones who, they will be taken advantage of by this argument. It's a new chapter, it's a new book, we're going to do things differently. And credit to Vashikapulos for pushing back, why haven't you done it before? He didn't answer that part.
Starting point is 00:15:07 No, no, no, no, no. But hey, for the last nine years, they have been quote unquote, delivering for Canadians. That's what they've been telling us every single time. Opposition members have challenged them. They were saying, how dare you? We've been delivering for Canadians. While you don't have a plan,
Starting point is 00:15:23 we've been delivering for Canadians. While you don't have a plan, we've been delivering for Canadians. And you gotta ask if they can so easily and so quickly deny the legacy that they have created for themselves, what do they actually stand for? Why are they presenting themselves? stand for? Why are they presenting themselves? And the answer should be as plain as the nose on your face. They don't believe in anything except they believe that they have a God-given right to govern. And they are willing to govern and they're willing to campaign on a promise that they are not who they've been. That's how serious they are about their commitment to their God-given right to govern. They will do and say anything, including the last nine years never happened, and if they did, we didn't do it.
Starting point is 00:16:26 And as bad as we've been, so bad that we're denying we are turning our back on our legacy, we are still better than any other option. And there are good Canadians out there who will fall for this. But you, I mean, and they believe in their right to govern so much that they're willing to go on TV and say what should be unsayable to anybody else. This is interesting, interesting times. We know that the Conservative Party of Canada believes that the immigration consensus in this country has been broken by the liberals. That they've turned the taps all the way up and invited a whole bunch of people in. No checks and balances. A bunch of people who shouldn't be here are here.
Starting point is 00:17:22 And when they get here, they come either under false pretenses or they they hide and we don't have the ability to find them. A bunch of people, bad people are here who shouldn't be here. It's caused all sorts of crises. So Pierre Poliev is urging a very, a very meaningful change. urging a very, very meaningful change. We see on our own streets anti-Semitism guided by obscene, woke ideologies that have led to an explosion in hate crimes. Hate crimes were up over 100% in Canada before October 7th. Now they're up 251 percent with Jews being the principal
Starting point is 00:18:09 victims of those crimes. We must not just condemn these things, we must take action against them. We must deport from our country any temporary resident that is here on a permit or a visa that is carrying out violence or hate crimes on our soil. I said that a few days after October 7th and I almost got cancelled. I'm glad the people can finally say it. You'd have to be heartless to have watched the images of LA burning to the ground and not feel empathy and sadness for everyone's celebrity and regular person alike. But a lot of us thought to ourselves
Starting point is 00:18:53 it could only happen in LA. We heard the stories about how LA was, it was built in a place that they never should have built a city and with the temperature and the climate and the proximity to sort of the dense brush areas. It was only a matter of time before the fire and forest fire met a city to burn down like that. But it was unique to Los Angeles. So when I read the headline in the article, the LA fires could happen in Canada,
Starting point is 00:19:28 but there's too much we still don't know. I had to reach out to the author, Elliot Capel, PWC Canada's National Climate Change Leader, to learn more. Elliot, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. So I just assumed that those fires and that destruction was unique to Los Angeles and that we could not have anything like that up here,
Starting point is 00:19:51 but that's not the case. Yeah, the key point of the article is that climate risk is real. If it can happen in LA, it can happen in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, or any Canadian city. And we in Canada, we don't really have a very good, actionable understanding of how much risk there is in our economy. And we're still not really doing enough to address the risks that
Starting point is 00:20:13 we know about. Yeah. So there's a constructive thing that we can take away from tragedy in Los Angeles. It's maybe a bit of gusto to make climate risk a priority here in Canada in 2025. So, so what do we know and what don't we know? What don't we know? What are the known knowns and what are the, to use the parlance of the American administration,
Starting point is 00:20:32 what are the known knowns and what are the known unknowns? So the known knowns are that flooding is right now by far the costliest extreme weather event for Canadian families and businesses. And you see insurers taking a really close look at flooding risk in various cities, like for example, in Toronto. And of course, in some parts of the country, it's wildfire or it's permafrost melt, or in the long-term sea level rise, like on the coast or in the Maritimes. But really, we're only starting
Starting point is 00:21:05 to get a picture because when businesses do climate risk assessments, they're still using some very basic data. They're looking at individual points. They're doing it on a small scale. And we haven't really looked at a national level to look at that overall risk of how our telecommunications, transportation infrastructure, all the things that we rely on day to day could be impacted by climate change. Yeah, I mean, all of this is, we are living in a world of rapidly increasing risks. I do some work as an advisor for a company out of Vancouver called AI6. And they do they use AI to model wildfires for risk mitigation for
Starting point is 00:21:42 insurance companies. And,. And what they're finding is there's the risks, wherever there was risk before, it still exists and it's increased. Yeah, absolutely. The number one indicator that you look at whether someone's going to flood in the future is whether they flooded in the past. Yeah. But we're seeing is that the climate models are really quite accurate and good at predicting temperature rise, for example, that's a core variable. But when you think about things like flooding or wildfire, it's often from a combination of different variables, like it being really wet, then being really dry, or having a lot of rain in one place and then, dry ground in the other. So it sorts of combination of these different extremes. And
Starting point is 00:22:27 in LA, for example, it was the wettest, then it was the driest, yeah, then it was the windiest. And those sorts of combinations were just not good at modeling at the moment. But how do we take how do we add the human element into that that set of variables? Because there are a lot of natural reasons for conditions that were set that laid the foundation for the fire. But then we also know that there was human error and priorities that led to bad decisions and an inability to get to the fires and get the water where it needed to be. And I would argue that there was the human element in the Jasper fire as well, where there
Starting point is 00:23:03 was there were some controlled burns that could have happened that didn't happen. So how do we how do we deal with the human element? I mean, it's through investment, training and making it a priority, right? Because at the moment when you, you know, we look at our national conversation on climate change, you know, 90 98% of it is around what we're doing around emissions. And that's really, really important, of course. But we also need to have a renewed focus and a priority on
Starting point is 00:23:30 risk management, risk mitigation that happens at the business level, it happens through insurers, investors, and of course, the public services. Well, and that's, I think, a really interesting nuance to discuss because climate change and addressing climate change through our carbon footprint, that's so that we can have results in the future. The polar ice caps are not going to return tomorrow. That's going to take generations. But the impact of the human element on the environment, on climate have immediate pressing needs
Starting point is 00:24:07 that need to be dealt with in the here and now, like we just discussed, the issues in California and the issues in Jasper. And therefore they require risk mitigation in the here and now. We spend so much time, I think, looking over the horizon at the potential problems that we're gonna deal with in the future that we don't realize
Starting point is 00:24:24 that we actually have practical issues to deal with in the here and now. Absolutely. And both our priorities, right? Both things can be true. But on the first point of what we need to do in the here and now, I mean, I'll ask you, you know, you have a lot of political leaders, business leaders on your show. I expect aspiring leaders from every party, federal and Ontario, you know, how often does this topic come up? Well, it comes up after the fact, it comes up after a disaster, after a fire, after a flood, it doesn't, it doesn't, it never comes up proactively. Yeah, and that's really the key thing that I'm, I was trying to get through in the article is that the risk is real. And you know, we really need to make it a bit more of a priority in 2025,
Starting point is 00:25:07 if we're going to manage that risk. Well, Elliot Capell, PWC Canada National Climate Change Leader, thank you so much. The article is called the LA fires could happen in Canada, but there's too much we still don't know. Thanks for sounding the alarm. Thank you very much. Everyone remembers where they were during the Canada post strike. If you're anything like me, you may have had time for the strikers. You may want to listen to what their grievances were, what their issues were. But the moment they decided to strike at the most difficult time of the year, most important time of the year for small businesses.
Starting point is 00:25:48 That's where they lost me. At that point, I said, I don't care what their issues are. They are, they are trying to take advantage of small businesses, the engine of the Canadian economy, the part of the economy that produces the most jobs at a time of the year where they depend on Q4, Christmas, the holiday season. This is where they make the lion's share of their profits to get them through the leaner months.
Starting point is 00:26:15 They decided to show how vital they were to small businesses by putting pressure on them, putting them in a position where some of them probably had to close their doors. Why? So that they could get job security. The irony is not lost on me. A group of public sector workers tried to get job security by putting at risk entrepreneurs who by definition do not have job security. And so they went on strike and they they did in a lot of ways they wreaked havoc on a lot of on a lot of people on a lot of lives a lot of businesses and they they screwed up the holiday season for a great many people and a great many businesses then they were ordered back to work. But boy, were they going
Starting point is 00:27:05 to show us how essential they were to our lives. But now we're hearing from the Canada Post CEO that the Crown Corporation is facing insolvency. Despite having a billion dollar loan from the federal government, they're saying now that they could run out of cash by June of next year. So the system's broken. The Canada Post as it exists cannot function. It will stop functioning. cannot function. It will stop functioning. And if I were an entrepreneur with deep pockets, I would maybe float the idea of getting a group together to buy it and privatize it. There are smart people out there who buy distressed businesses and find a way to reorganize them and turn them into something that people actually will use and pay for. And you'll never hear me criticize the hard work of front-line postal workers.
Starting point is 00:28:14 I love my postal worker, always with a smile on their face, delivering in all weather. My issue is not with them. My issue is with the leaders of the union who decide to play Russian roulette with small businesses across the country. And then we find out that this inflated sense of importance was happening with insolvency as a backdrop. So we'll see what happens here, but the current status quo is untenable. And if it doesn't change soon, the whole system's going to collapse. We've heard a lot of premiers across this country weighing in on border security. We know that Danielle Smith, we know Ontario, we know,
Starting point is 00:28:57 I think, I believe, British Columbia. All those premiers have put forth their own border security plans. Well, you can add Manitoba Premier Wab Kanu to that list, announce additional border security measures in a way to address the US's concerns about border safety. Let's listen to Premier Kanu. As part of our overall response to invest in jobs
Starting point is 00:29:18 and to protect the Manitoba economy, we're also sending this message that asking our conservation officers to have that presence, to be that additional eyes and ears along the border, to be able to respond to that humanitarian priority, potentially save lives there. And if they do see anything of note, to feed that into the other law enforcement partners that we have at the federal level who help to secure Canada's borders such as CBSA and of course the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I've said it before, I will say it again and I cannot say it
Starting point is 00:29:53 enough. Border security is not a provincial jurisdiction. It is not the job of the Premier to secure the borders of his or her jurisdiction. It is the sole responsibility of the federal government. So what does it say about the leadership or lack of leadership at the federal level that Premiers across this country feel compelled to step into a jurisdiction that is not their own? It says to me that we have a complete lack of leadership on this file from Ottawa. Now again, I'm sure there are conversations happening behind the scenes, but the people of this country need to know, they need to feel like their know they need to feel like their government is working for them. And the only way to do that is to tell them. If you are doing this work, and this is going out to Ottawa, if you are doing this work,
Starting point is 00:30:55 then please get in front of a microphone and tell us. Because in the absence of any information, I'm going to assume the worst. We heard over the weekend that the very first liberal leadership hopeful to throw their hat into the ring, Chandra Arya, has been denied the fact that he said a few things about the French language could be one of the reasons. Question in French regarding Chandra Arya. What I said in French is, for me as a francophone, I thought that what he was saying regarding francophones across the country was unacceptable. And I expect the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada to be fully bilingual.
Starting point is 00:31:52 Because we are in a bilingual country, we are the party of official bilingualism, and it is at the core of our DNA. Okay. That's a great opinion to have, and that's a great reason not to vote for Chandra Arya. That's why you have a leadership race. He put himself out there as somebody who only speaks English, doesn't speak French. He claimed that Quebecers don't care because he speaks the language of business and job creation. So that was his value proposition. You can choose to accept it or reject it, but he also put himself forth for leadership. His theory should be tested in that leadership race for you to say, I expect my leader to be fully bilingual. Absolutely, more power to you.
Starting point is 00:32:36 Vote for somebody who reflects that value. So something else has to be going on here because it's not illegal to only speak English. It is not against the law to say the things he said. It may be against your values and therefore it's your right not to vote for him and to support someone else. So I will ask the question again. Why is he being denied the right to run? Something else is going on here. And we were promised, none of us wanted this, but now we're subjected to it.
Starting point is 00:33:13 We were promised a national and robust leadership contest. And now you're denying people the right to run and you're not going to tell them why, and you're not going to tell them why, and you're not going to tell us why, you're going to winnow down the field without telling us why? That doesn't work for me. That doesn't work. Tell us why he's not allowed to run or let him run. What would you do if I decided to be an R&B singer? The reason I ask is because Justin Trudeau's oldest son is set to launch an R&B career in February. Xavier Trudeau, he's 17, and he's got a music video for a song called Till the Night's Done. It's scheduled to debut imminently on YouTube.
Starting point is 00:34:04 I have no idea what to expect. But I suspect that a lot of us will be tuning in. I wish them the very best. The issue of intimate partner violence is an epidemic across this country. I could quote numbers at you, I could quote statistics at you, but until you hear about it firsthand, until you read about it or hear about it or talk to somebody who's experienced it personally, it can be hard to appreciate the corrosive nature of it in your own life. And a little while ago, I read a story in a magazine, Toronto Life,
Starting point is 00:34:48 that was entitled in 2021. I was beaten by my partner and left for dead in our home. Despite overwhelming evidence, the case never went to trial for one simple reason. It took too long. I'm joined now by Kate Alexander, who was the victim in this case and whose story was so moving and so touching. Kate, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me, Ben. So, Kim, let me be before we get into it. Where are you in your life? When you when you speak about this now, how do you how do you feel?
Starting point is 00:35:18 I feel a sense of community because the community has rallied behind me and survivors in such incredible ways. I feel finally empowered, but I also feel very lucky to not live in Canada away from the individual who tried to take my life. And that is a very, very scary reality that Canada just has become unsafe. Yeah, it's been scary on a number of fronts, but on this front, particularly, I called it corrosive because it has a way of eating away at the very fabric of community. I say often that people deserve to feel safe in a number of places. And the one place where everyone deserved to feel safe is in their home. And that was not the case for you. It's not the case for so many survivors.
Starting point is 00:36:17 And this issue predominantly affects women and children and the current systems that Canada is essentially weaponizing, Canada and the provinces and territories, obviously it's a federal and a provincial issue, but the systems that are in place are often manipulated and they assist the abuser in actually achieving their goal, which is power and control. And we really need immediate reform within the
Starting point is 00:36:46 country to ensure that safety. And intimate partner violence, sexual assault, femicide, those are not issues that are private matters that affect a singular person. They affect the families of the survivor. They affect the entire community. I said in my speech at Queens Park last week, my ex and his best friend have abused directly over 50 different people. So it's the same individuals causing these problems. No woman goes out, starts their day saying, I wanna go find a toxic man
Starting point is 00:37:24 who's gonna beat me nearly to death. How did you find yourself in a relationship that either, I don't know if you missed red flags or he was easily, he was, what was it about him that first attracted you? And when did the violence come into the picture? It was 2020 into 2021. The world was obviously a very unique space. We don't we don't need to rehash all that. But I was actually in a really great place in my life. And abusers, narcissists, the dark triad, the Mecca valiant and psychopathic individuals, they are attracted to people who are empathetic,
Starting point is 00:38:09 loving, caring. He love-bombed me the entire time he used his son to sucker me in and I wanted a relationship, I wanted family, it was January, middle of COVID, winter, you know, all of the factors. And my first date was at his dinner table. And he presented so well to my family and to my friends.
Starting point is 00:38:36 And everyone thought that was it. And how quickly it changed. I mean, it was a seven month relationship. I went from, you know, we're going to get married to nearly dead was a seven month relationship. I went from, you know, that we're going to get married to nearly dead in a seven month period. Yeah. And, and, and then talk to me about, because that would, that that's a, that's criminal unto itself. But the fact that it didn't go to trial is, is, is another level of injustice. It's another level of, it's an assault on you in a different way. Three years going,
Starting point is 00:39:09 and I mean, my attempted murder July 31st, 2021, the tactical, the SWAT team was there. It's on video. I have photo evidence. I, there was blood all over the walls. I can go into more graphic detail, but I'll spare people. There's no contest as to what occurred.
Starting point is 00:39:28 He's also a 6'3", 220 to 50 pound individual, and there's no contest as to what happened. And so the fact that the Crown attorneys and the justice system had all of this evidence, they had police involved in it. Because of Chapter 11B of the Charter Rights, which was implemented by the Supreme Court in Trudeau in 2016, because of that, because they didn't get the charges to a trial fast enough, they threw out the case.
Starting point is 00:40:04 It's another example of sort of the justice system prioritizing the the rights of the accused over the rights of the victim. And we talk about it in in a lot of cases. This is the first time on this show that we've we've spoken about in the case of intimate partner violence. When that happened in that moment where that decision was rendered, how did you feel? When that happened, in that moment where that decision was rendered, how did you feel? It was December 16th, 2022, and the world fell out beneath my feet again. I still don't
Starting point is 00:40:46 know how, I don't, I have a hard, I still have a hard time accepting that. I can accept that I was with someone who's dangerous and lethal, but I have a really hard time accepting that Canada permits this. And that this is where we're at. I mean, it's insane to me that two years was deemed unacceptable. And to the point that it would get thrown out and this violent criminal would be allowed back on the streets, no doubt with an aim to do it again.
Starting point is 00:41:11 But I wanna end this conversation on a positive note because you took matters into your own hands and you founded an organization called Ending Violence Everywhere. Tell me about that organization. Thank you, yes. End Violence Everywhere, Eve, is a nonprofit in Canada Tell me about that organization. Thank you. Yes. And violence everywhere. Eve is a nonprofit in Canada and the states and we provide novel end to end advocacy services
Starting point is 00:41:33 for survivors, whatever the survivor need needs in whatever stage of their recovery or process we with a team of advocates and a board therapist who provides trauma informed EMDR therapy, we help the survivor in whatever capacity they need, whether it be legal assistance, medical assistance, assembling, you know, administrative work, therapy, obviously housing. I mean, we've fed people, it's, it's really important that we understand that survivors need the support in the system. And so out of the, you know, the living through something like that, and not having, I mean, I have an amazing family, you know, I do believe the police did everything they could, but having literally no one there for
Starting point is 00:42:22 me in the process, founded the organization based on that. What's one thing that you now know, having gone through such a terrible ordeal and but also having connected with this community through your organization, what's one thing you know now that you wish you'd known then that maybe you want to share with our listeners, some of whom may be going through what you went through. Get out, call us. I'm always I we all we respond to everyone. I know there's wait lists and people we don't want we're not running our organization like that. Please call us. Please
Starting point is 00:42:53 tell someone make a safety plan. Get out. Sooner it's not going to get better. The article in Toronto Life is called dismissed. I've been speaking with Kate Alexander, the founder of Eve. Your story is one that everyone should read, men, women, other. I'm so sorry you went through it,
Starting point is 00:43:12 but I'm so happy that you were able to come on the show and share what you have made of that terrible crime. And I believe that you're helping people who need it every single day. I wish you peace. I wish you a satisfying life. And I want to thank you for joining us. Thank you so much, Ben. That was Kate Alexander, the founder of Eve ending of violence everywhere. And again, the article is called dismissed in 2021. I was beaten by my partner and left for dead.
Starting point is 00:43:42 Despite overwhelming evidence, the case never went to trial. It's a powerful, powerful read. country. I'm Donna Friesen in Berlin. Just keep your head down. He's away, he's away, go go go. Watch Canada's number one national newscast. A rail strike could cost this one southern Alberta farm as much as a million dollars. The award-winning global national with Donna Friesen.

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