Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Reshmi Nair and Supriya Dwivedi: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1832

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

In this 1832nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Reshmi Nair and Supriya Dwivedi about their common experiences working on the AM dial in Toronto radio, Mike Stafford, Scott MacArthur, and the world at large. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hi, I'm Rashmi Neyer. I'm Sprua Devetti. And we're meeting for the first time. Yes, on Toronto Miked. It's like you rehearsed that. We didn't actually. You guys got together last week and practiced your cold open. Welcome to episode 1,832 of Toronto Miked.

An award-winning podcast proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online. online at great lakes beer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Right after this intro, I'll get you a beer. I know, I forgot to get it. No, but I get you cold beer right after this intro. I'll fix that in post. Okay.

Palma pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palmapasta.com for more. Fusion Corp's own, Nick Ienis. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline. and building success two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle MyElectronics.c.a.comitting to our planet's future

means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, returning to Toronto Mite, it's Reschmi Nair and Supriya Dividi. Who's whom? It's going to be hard to figure it.

Like the Spider-Man meme. Yeah. Right. So what I missed moments ago, and I joked that I should have had a camera on it, I am just witnessing history. You two just met for the very first time. Is that correct? For the very first time. Yeah.

You're taller than I expected. Oh, that's nice. She's happy to hear that. I actually get the opposite a lot. But you say that because you are also an Indian woman. And so you know that 5 foot 5 is good for our people. but in Gen Pop, you know, I'm considered, yeah. In Gen Pop, like if you go to the Netherlands, you're just a shrimp, but you guys are, okay.

So, so I kind of, I want to get a beer for you guys. I got cold Great Lakes beer in the fridge. So, Supri, did you want a beer? Yes. Do you want a lager, an ale or an IPA? Logger, please. Loger. Reshme, do you want a logger and ale?

Same for me. Okay, so two loggers, and I got to get myself something. I'll surprise myself. Can you even do that? But while I'm kind of making the trek up to the kitchen, we'll talk about you. Not to be confused with Palmer's kitchen, which we'll get to.

I don't know. Talk amongst yourselves. Like you just met each other. Like maybe I want to know, like, and I'll listen closely in the background, but like, what do you know of each other just from, you know? The ether. The ether.

Great vine. Thank you. Oh gosh. Write each other's bios? Yeah. So I guess I'll go first of what I know about you. So I guess I first started seeing you on my television, right, for CP24. That would probably, does that track?

Yeah, CB24 was a couple years ago. Yeah. And then I followed, you know, what you were doing. Then you were at Newstock 1010. You were doing the afternoon show, like the drive, right? And then in fairness, I like sort of dropped off in terms of what things were happening in and around, I would say, like, late 2020, just because my own stuff with chorus was going down. And then in 2023, I just sort of fully fell off the map because my husband got sick and then

passed away. So I actually don't know what you've been up to in recent years. And I'd love to hear about it. I'm sorry. Oh, thank you. Yeah. You've endured in your loss. I was on CBC when you were on CBC, too. You were on power and politics. Oh, yes, of course. And I was at, yes, yes, yes, The CBC News Network. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we were on the same network. Yeah. I'd see you on TV all the time.

Yeah. Cheers. Yeah, so I pretty much dropped off to, I don't know if it's perimenopause or the industry. We could get into it. Cheers, Mike. But I think, you know, perimenopause, am I right, Mike? I know about perimenopause. Turn into a chick podcast real quick.

So you have super light, which is the, it's the logger from Great Lake. with less alcohol. And I, I don't know, I'm a big for us. Yeah, there we go. So maybe you need to drink three of those. But you are, you are bringing some Great Lakes beer home with you today.

Thank you, GLB. Thank you to GLB. So I did hear a little bit of that in the background here, but so you're aware of each other, but you know, you made a joke. I think it was, I can't remember if it was the intro or before the intro,

but maybe it was before the intro, but there was a joke made about how I found the two women of South Asian descent. You said brown. I said brown. You don't have to PC it up. Okay.

Well, I didn't know. I didn't know. Okay. Two brown girls. Yeah. Like, I am aware that it does look like I just found a couple of brown girls and put them together or whatever. But I actually booked you.

Which nobody ever does, though. So good for you. That's true. Because there's always just one. Yeah. Right? There's a token. You can never see two of us together.

Well, so what happened was, I just little history. And then I'm actually going to hopefully recede into the background. Well, you two carry the conversation here. But I had on this program. I had, Reshmi, you came back. It was like October, October 27th, 2025.

It was episode 1787. So, Reshmi, you came on and we talked about what happened to you at 1010 and Bell Media and why you were laying low for quite, I felt like you were laying pretty damn low. Quite some time. It's been like two years. It's not that long time.

Also, is this true, like your co-hosts just kind of like ghosted one day? Did that, that like legit happen? Because that was, you were talking about the ether. Like in the ether, that was like kind of. Scott MacArthur. came over and talked about it. That's what word was. Yeah.

Okay. Scott McArthur. And I have an update on Scott. Do you want it? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So,

because I don't believe you two are like in contact, right? No, Scott never got back to me. I mean, I haven't tried since whenever he disappeared. You're like, yo, are you showing up to work?

Well, we're going to get into all of this, actually, as soon as I get out of the way. But Scott MacArthur started a new position as support assistant at Shelter Nova Scotia. Oh, so he completely pissed. He's not interested in media right now.

That's great. That's great. Oh, good for you, Scott MacArthur. That's great. He has a heart of gold and had big dreams for the show and, you know, the limitations of the industry and all the rest of it. I'm so happy for him. Good for you, Scott. I'm sure he's making a difference.

And I think anyone in this industry is trying to do that. By leaving the industry. Is it that much of a pivot? Okay, so he's a... Wait a mean. He was a radio guy for many men. many, many, many years. And now he's like a social worker working with people who need such services in Nova Scotia. That's not a pivot what is. Like he's not, he's not broadcasting anymore.

No, that's fair. I think we assume that the broadcasting part of a broadcasting job is all that someone does. But, you know, social worker, community service, public service, I think that's in the heart of a lot of people who get into this industry. So it's not surprising to me because I know Scott MacArthur beyond what you've heard on a microphone. And I'm really happy for him. Yeah, me too, me too. So when you came over and we were talking about what happened to you at 10-10, and you talked about Scott disappeared and how you had to leave and everything.

I was in my head, I'm hearing echoes of a previous conversation I had with Supria, where we talked about why she left 640. So there were all these echoes. And then Supriah came back in November with Mike Stafford. I got so many notes of people who love that episode. You and Mike. Like people dug in here. It is Doug in.

Supriya and Stafford were great together. I hope to hear more of them again. I need to know, like, because you two left my home and you were going to have lunch or something. Yeah, we did. Like, is there any possibility we ever hear in public realm, not by just having coffee with you or something,

but hear you and staff together again? I mean, we're, I think Stafford said this a bit what he was here, but like we're both more than happy to come back here whenever. I mean, I just don't know if there's like a world in which you've got one of three major media companies willing to put money behind both me and staff coming back in front of microphones. But, I mean, we need a sports betting place to finance this. Exactly. So, but then, so that was shortly after.

So Reshmi's here. Supriya, you come back and now, you know, my brain's just connecting all these dots. So I put you together and I wanted you to meet and I want to have a chat with both of you. Not because you're both brown girls. I just want to put it out there. It's actually more so because you are women of color that were on AM radio in Toronto and two competing stations, 1010 and 640. And you both, although we're a little bit different, but similar that you both kind of felt you had to leave the airwaves. Right?

Am I right now? You're laughing, but right? I mean, do you want to go first? Okay, well, I mean, like, in my case, yeah, like, I felt like I had to leave because, like, my then one-year-old daughter was getting rape threats, right? Like, I wasn't going to stick around in a gig where I couldn't ensure my kid's safety. And again, like, I have a very thick skin. You can come at me all you want. But, like, for me, the tipping point was, like, the consideration of, yeah, like, just pushing my kid on a swing or watching her playing a playground and then constantly looking over my shoulder.

I have a very good friend who's an investigative reporter, Jane Letvinenko. She does great work. And like at the time, I had just sent into the group chat, like a picture of me and my kid. And you could see just in the off, like in the distance, a bit of a sign of the tennis place that was near my house at the time. And she was like, based on this, she's like, this is where you live. I would guess you live within this block and this block. And just like blew my mind of like how careful I needed to be. So with that kind of rattling around on the back.

background, I was just like, it's just not worth it anymore for me. So, and that was my, my, I was done. Yeah, they're not identically mapped here. Of course. I know, I know, I know. But like, you, you did receive, I wasn't exposed to what I received, but it was, I'm sure it would have still been a fraction of what you had to endure. I mentioned that 10-10, the boss at the time, told me just not to look at the text board. Ah, so I would. Yeah, that's what you want. Yeah, I would go on for four hours and just have no idea. But then other hosts would send me what was on the text board during my show.

Be like, hey, look at what they're calling you. What were they calling you? Mike Stafford's favorite word. Oh, Paci. Oh, the P word. Okay, yeah, okay. I don't know if it's his favorite. I just want to put it out there.

Yeah, I said that. Yeah, I said that. There's nothing less creative than being called a Packy cunt. Can I just say? Like, I don't know. Okay, wait. Former leader of the Ontario, he didn't get to win. Tim Hudak called me an urban elitist on John Moore's show.

Like the first week, I just signed my contract and I'm on this panel. And he called me an urban elitist. And that was the greatest thing ever for my Pachy Khan family. Because we grew up in Rexahill. No, I think my dad would have loved it. To be called an urban elitist, I made it. Did you have to choose between, what is it? The story I heard from Supriah was that her parents were disappointed that she didn't

become a doctor. she only became a lawyer. That's true. So that's like I, you know, people are just, parents are just glad I have a shelter over my head. I don't think I made my parents proud yet. But yeah,

I didn't have to, but I did listen to your episode and, um, it was, it was shocking actually how much, um, there wasn't any sort of team effort. You know,

like, yeah. Like, there's all of the things that people want to talk about. with HR and staff and security, but like, you go to work and you think you're part of a team. I think, and what was interesting to me is that, and I'd be curious as your experience, because like different stations, slightly different vibe, but overall, I think we can agree the general sort of feeling of like an AM talk radio station, particularly in Toronto,

is going to be right-leaning, right? And what I found interesting is that, like, the environment in which was cultivated particularly, not just like the work in environment, but the information ecosystem and the environment about what's being said on air was just like wild. Yeah. Coming from, you know, like I come from talk radio. Like in Montreal, like I got my legs on CJD, but like, there were journalistic standards there. You couldn't just make up shit on air and just like kind of go about your day. Yeah. And we just did not have that. And they still don't have that over there. And now increasingly at chorus,

now you're getting at least the TV side of things used to be like, well, they're on the, the, the news vertical and we're going to stick to, you know, having only journalists be anchors and stuff. And like, you don't even have that anymore with like a partisan host hosting the West block now, well, temporarily while Mercedes is on mat leave or parental leave. Yeah.

Yeah. And did you find that there was more freedom for the right leaning attitudes? I mean, 100%, 100,000, guillian percent. That's the one thing gets me. Yeah. That's the perfect gets me. Like, even people in my real life, like, why did you go and work there?

And, I mean, they hired me, so I assumed they knew what they were ready. It was Quibi, right? What's that? Quibi. What about Quibi? Like, isn't that what brings you in the Bell Media family? Oh, I was with Bell Media before that. I was a reporter for CTV, Toronto.

And Quibi was, but Quibi was after Quibby. Yeah, like Quibi brings her in the fold. And then Quibi disappears, no fault of your own, Rishmi, okay? I left CBC to. Now she has to find a new home in the Bell Media umbrella, right? So they were really good to me. I will be honest. That was all Wendy Freeman.

She was the news director at the time. And I wasn't worried about my job security. When Quibi was canceled. Right. No, clearly, because you were great on CP 24. And then they gave you the afternoon. You co-hosted the afternoon drive on the Mighty 10-10. On Mighty 10-10.

And, you know, at CB 24, there were people, I remember Elliot Page came out and people wanted to play footage of Elliot Page in the movie, and that's fine, but we can't dead name Elliot Page. and I was the internal ombuds person at the time for CTV, so I'm explaining to everyone in the newsroom. Shit, you had that too. Wow. I volunteered.

I created that. I wanted that. It was a great position. We made some change for a couple of years on certain things. Still can't say Palestine, I'm pretty sure. But, yeah, I, and still, I had pushback from someone you would assume as progressive, being like, like, I remember one person said, to what end? To what end?

I said, you can't dead name Elliot Page. Elliot Page is Elliot Page forever now. Well, we can't say formerly known as, no, this isn't Prince. We're talking about dead naming somebody. But explaining that to people I love and respect, it was a bit surprising the pushback on it. That's CP 24. But then you go to News Talk 1010. And, you know, like, my dad was a conservative.

My dad, we were very opposite on our mindsets. And so Jerry Agar doesn't scare me. You know what I mean? But I assumed that those kinds of people would at least be as reasonable. My father wasn't reasonable either. But at least be able to let me finish my sentence or have space for those other thoughts. And I had a panelist on the show who would bring up communism and everybody's heads would explode. Socialism and communism.

And I remember in one panel, it was just like assumed that this commie reference was so insulting. And I was like, all right, you want to keep throwing that around. What's so bad about communism? And some of the people at work were like, Rushme, are you really asking that? But I found it to be this, you know, underlying insult that you just throw around when a progressive person is speaking. Ah, you're a communist. And it just, and you just keep going.

It's like, well, no, wait a minute. Unfold what you're trying to say about what this person is bringing to the conversation right now. And really expose what you're trying to do here because all you're doing is dismissing what they're saying. and I found the dismissing of things to be so, it's like such a luxury, you know? I couldn't dismiss anything that these conservatives were saying. I had to address every single point.

Yeah, that's a good point. But for them to just dismiss me, it was, it was this shift that I just couldn't respect or accept. Like I find that interesting because like we didn't do, at least on the morning show, we didn't do a ton of panels with like the other hosts or whatever on. on the station. And so, like, nobody actually said anything untoward, you know, while I was there.

Nobody was disrespectful. I also, like, you know, as the morning host, like, in terms of radio hierarchy, like, there is, like, it's a bit there. Drive host is there, too, right? So I'm actually surprised that there was that level of pushback towards you that you received, and it's unfortunate. But I just found, like, the stuff that would be said, like, again, I think I've used this exact example, so apologies for repeating

myself, but like, there was a motion to condemn Islamophobia in like 2017-ish. You know, motion, not a bill. It's like expressing the will of the house. And, like, we had hosts on the station that were saying it was a bill that was going to criminalize any criticism of Islam. And it's like, that's not what it is.

And so if I'm the only one, or the morning show is the only one that's, like, actually saying what's accurate about it. And the rest of the day, the station is filled with, like, you know, D disinformation about what that bill is doing. And yeah, maybe I'd be pissed as a listener and I would think, you know, I'm bringing Sharia law to the country too. You know what I mean? Like it allows this environment where like you're putting the one, you know,

racialized host of the entire station into the crosshairs of an audience and a listenership that you're riling up through the other slots on your daytime programming. Absolutely. There's so much weight on a token shoulder. Yeah, totally. There's so much that you need to stand up for. But, yeah, when Scott disappeared, well, when Scott left. And to be clear, because I did have him over with a million questions about this,

but he literally, like, it sounded like Justin Trudeau's father going for a walk in the snow. Like, it just sounds like he went for a walk one day and had this epiphany. Yeah, this is how it reads. So, like, the job is so shitty that you just keep going in the other direction. I can see it. But he eventually did it too. A lot of people have these epiphanies and then they, there's not a lot of action on the other end or whatever.

But Scott literally, like, he's like, I'm done, and he was done, and he puts his loft up for sale, and he moves, and he's not from the Maritimes. He's like a Mississauga, he's a 905er, and he moves to Halifax, where he is today, and he changes vocations. He goes back to school, and he becomes a social worker, and he's working with people who would benefit from his services.

Like, the Scott, and I don't know, I don't know, like, I kind of tried to get some current day, interaction between Scott and yourself because you both are such wonderful people. Oh, that's nice. You're not getting back to you. Clearly, so I don't know,

but maybe that's part of like him leaving his, like he shed his skin. It will start with an apology, Scott. It will start with an apology. But Scott is like one of the nicest guys I know. Yeah, and I should apologize to him. Really? Yeah, because I,

I wasn't drinking the Kool-A at 10-10, but I was trying to... It's a good thing you held that up. You know what? That's not Kool-Late, okay? I got news for you, man. me that's a lot. I was trying to keep everything going, right? And I think, yeah, I mean, like I, I, I, we tried to fit in. I tried to get us to fit in to that station. And,

and, and I'm not going to speak for Scott, but my takeaway from it was he just stood by his convictions. And at, at one point, the two of us were like, we can never speak to Jerry Agar again. And then they were like, you have to go back on the Jerry Agar show. Mondays and Tuesdays. And it was like, you know, we looked at each other. And I swallowed it. And he left. And it's like it's, it's definitely.

It's kind of a folk hero. I mean, they make movies about guys like that. Well, yeah, like who just like they're on after. And again, I don't know anything about compensation. But he wasn't even there long enough to make a difference. But there are.

It was alluded to earlier. There's two slots on radio that seem to have carried the weight. Like that were people like, oh, you're the morning. You do morning. You do morning. or whatever morning. You do afternoon drive. Like, everything else is sort of like, I don't know,

you get paid 20 bucks an hour, go do your best or whatever. I'm making all that up, of course. But mornings and afternoon drive, there's some legacy weight to these spots. And you guys are afternoon drive. Yeah. But we didn't have a legacy, Mike.

I mean, we were together for a few months, and then Scott left. Is it only a few months? We launched in April, and I'm not pretty sure you didn't make it to Christmas. So, yeah. That's a mind blow for me right now. It felt like it was longer.

That's what I mean. I mean, we got to know each other for a week before we went on air. And we worked together for a couple of months. And so, yeah, if he wanted to have a conversation with us, I would start with an apology. But I think maybe he shed the skin. Like, I think he had this moment, this moment of clarity, where he's like, I don't want to be on the radio anymore.

And he leaves, he leaves the province. And he changes vocations. That is not just between his ears. That is because of the place he works. If we had a comfortable, organic, genuine place to work at where Scott loved his job, I think Scott would still love the job.

What was wrong with 10-10? Like another, I'm again... Listen to your last episodes for that. What's going on here. But I wanted to finish, what I was going to say was when Scott left, they gave me so many co-hosts who lied through their team.

teeth, like Ford government advisors who just would lie through their teeth. And at one point, callers called in and they're like, are they going to be okay? Because I wouldn't let it go. She would lie, lie, lie, and I'd be like, that's not true. And we couldn't move on because I would just, yeah, I find that kind of stuff debilitating. And maybe they get away with it because it's radio and you have to move on. Or maybe because it's AM radio in Toronto that it's a conservative perspective, you get away. with it. What is this

conservative perspective? Well, tell me. I mean, conservative perspective should still be rooted in fact, and this was always my issue. Like, again, CJAD, the station I grew up on, I don't know what 10-10 was like, AM 640 was like in like the 90s and their early odds or whatever, but as a kid growing up in Montreal, I can tell you that

CJAD 100% represented a more right-to-center, a right-wing perspective, but it was still rooted in facts and reality. And the issue I think we're delving into increasingly, and you know, big large social media platforms make this worse. Generative AI makes this worse,

but it's like getting harder to discern what is real and what isn't. And like, again, everybody's entitled to an opinion. You're not entitled to your own to make up your own set of facts. And so I don't know if this is the realm in what you were getting at, but with some of like, you know, the Ford advisors, and you see it on these political panels, which fine, you're on a partisan political panel on like a power and politics, type show or a power play type show question period what have you but when you're there ostensibly

as just like a commentator or as a political analyst with no necessary with no like partisan affiliation uh in front of you that you're supposed to be representing you should be all at least be able to you know swim in the same uh sea of facts and reality and increasingly we're not getting that Absolutely agree. Yeah. Just even thinking about the news in the last couple of months, I couldn't even turn on 10-10. I couldn't even imagine what their takes are on all of the headlines these days.

Well, the guy, yeah, okay. So in this program director you referred to earlier, this is Mike Ben Dixon. No, who are you talking about? Oh, Jeff McDonald. Jeff McDonald. Okay, because he was also 10-50, right? Oh, yeah, because Scott MacArthur was on 10.

No, because 10-50, which is TSN Radio. I think Jeff was program director there. Yes. And that's where he became friends with. Right. And Ben Dixon today is the 640 program director. What a small world. Okay.

All right. Is AM Talk Radio in this country a safe space for women of color? Is that a joke? So I mean, I mean, no. What's a safe space, though? Well, and that's the other thing. Like, I'm not asking for a safe space. You want to come at me?

Come at me. Like, you want to, you want to, you want to, argue about stuff. You want to like talk about like, you know, big issues of the day. You want to talk politics? You want to talk partisan politics? Sure. I'd love to do that. Like, I'm not scared of any of that stuff. But like, you're going to come at me and tell me that like, you know, we're under a Sharia law or that all of a sudden you're not going to be allowed to do X, Y, or Z because of a non-existent law that doesn't exist. There you go. X, Y, Z, thank you. This is not a safe space. Yeah, exactly. But I just, like, I think, you know, are we actively putting brown women,

women of color, black women that are, you know, in and around talk radio, are we putting them into a line of fire? I think it's less of a safe space and more in that we're actually actively putting them into an adversarial space in which we know they're not going to come out without a few clocks to the face after the fact, proverbial or real. Yeah. I mean, safe space, I think, is an unsafe space is where someone doesn't feel like they can be themselves. And I think most people would say in a workplace, you have to have a certain level of professionalism. So now you can't be your complete self. But when someone brings their professional version to work and they're othered or they're treated differently,

then I would describe that as not a safe space to work. I mean, like, there were perks to my job, like mileage, and I never knew it because no one told me. And it's one of those things around. But would they tell, would they tell Jerry Agar about mileage? I don't know if they got him, never go on site anywhere, but yeah, sure. So there's this white woman who's the manager who just never told me that there's mileage, and I'm going out and I'm-

You claim this mileage. Yeah, and I'm doing all of these events. It's kilometerage, by the way. And it sounds petty, but it's one. example that I'm coming up with where I'm like, well, why didn't even tell me this? But also, was I the one who was supposed to ask? And that moment, in those moments where you find out that there are these things going on and you don't know about them and were you supposed to know, and of course you are. Every employee should know these things, but they weren't told to me,

then you wonder, is it because there's something different about me? So I can't say that she was being racist and not telling me. She could not be racist at all. She could just not like Rashmi Nay. And then she just doesn't want to tell me. But either way, there's something about me that I'm not being given the same information as everyone else. That I think I would describe as like somewhat of an unsafe space. So is radio safe for brown girls? Is radio like Sapriusat? I don't think it has to be a place where everyone is accepted because you want to debate

and you want to take on different positions. But the respect has to be there. And it is not. I would love for 1010 to respect a trans person for five minutes and let them speak. I would love that. They'll never do it. That's why I would say that's not a safe space. Well, you know, when Supriya was literally laughing, was that a joke?

I think she said. It's because, of course, we've heard from Supriah. I'm going to talk like she's not here. But we've heard on Toronto, Mike, from Supria, like threatening to rape her child, for example, which sounds rather unsafe. How do you go to work? What do you do the next day? How do you sleep that night?

And what makes you go to work the next day? So it was during the pandemic. So I was actually working from home. That particular email where I was like the my tipping point email. I checked the email. It was like at like 430 something in the morning because, you know, I used to get, we were live on air at 530. We'd log in at 430. I was supposed to walk in physically into the studio at 430.

I was going to physically be there, so I'd log in at 430, and I checked the email. And I, my producer at the time was, like, messaging into the Google Doc chat to be like, yo, where are you at? Because I wasn't being responsive. And I was like, I just need a minute. I screenshoted the email and I sent it to her. And she was like, fuck, take your time. And then I just collected myself and went on air because I had to go on air because we had a

live show to do. So I did the show. And then during one of the commercial breaks, I, you know, I was home doing the show from home. I grabbed my husband and I showed him the email and he was like, okay, he's like, I had a Toronto police officer who I would not regularly interact with, but like it was kind of a way to not go through the, you know, just filling out a form from scratch sort of thing.

So he was like, I'll get the number because we had it written down in a drawer and I went to, that's what I was going to go do. and like do the process. And then they never called. I mean, in this situation, they said it wasn't an issue because there was no,

it wasn't a direct threat. It was like talking, I guess, in general terms about raping. And then daughter, it wasn't a, you know, time place.

I'm gonna, you know what I mean? Like, so, which is fair. Like, legally, like I get that.

Fine. But from like a workplace perspective, I mean, that's what in my head, I had, I was like, that was it. Like that,

that day. Like, you know, I used to normally try to try and take an app in the middle of the day hosting a morning show. I didn't do it. And like Anup and I, like my husband and I had like mapped out what I was going to do next and like labor lawyers to call and figure out because like I needed to figure out an exit in a way that, you know, they weren't going to come after me for breach of contract or whatever. Did you call the number? Sorry. Did you want to call the number? No, I didn't.

You didn't? No. I knew what was going to, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. Like, I get it. Like, they're, I'd call. I mean, I say that in this seat right now today. But yeah, no, you don't want to flare anything up, but.

Anyway. You don't want to poke the bear? Would you want something to come out of that today? Yeah, maybe. I mean, what I would like is I would like there to be journalistic and editorial standards on across different, you know, especially if you're like a chorus or a Bell Media or a Rogers or a CBC, like you're not, you're not a two-bit operation here. You know, your other verticals have to abide by journalistic standards.

Like you can't be on, you know, the 6 o'clock news and just say whatever the heck it is that just pops into your head. It has to be factual. It has to be, you know, at least substantiated by a set of facts. and evidence, and I just, we don't have that on the talk radio side. First and foremost, I'd like that. And then, you know, secondary to that, I suppose, ideally you'd want people to be non-dickish towards one another, including listeners to hosts and whatever. But I just, I think that's a little pie in the sky. Like, I don't think I'm going to kumbaya solve people being nicer to one another. But the journalistic standard seems like a lower bar to be able to cross.

But even that, I don't know. Did you tell your coworkers? Did you tell Mike? How did people? Yeah, yeah, everybody knew. And how did they respond or react? I mean, they were all very supportive. You know, Gurney for a while, my first co-host used to have to be my muscle.

Like, he would literally walk me in and out of the studio at a time when I did get a rape threat. It was very specific to the chorus garage being empty when I would walk into it. And Gurney was like, okay, I'm going to walk you in and out. you are never to enter the building. So I would like pull. I'd have my flashers on, pull in. I'd wait for him or vice versa. He'd get there first and he'd wait for me.

And then we'd pull in together. And then he'd walk me in and out of the building every day. He did that for like six months. That's chilling to, I can't imagine. Yeah. I mean, also like shout out Gurney. Like stand-up guy. Great guy.

He's been down here like that guy. Absolutely. He's really tall. He's like six four. Yeah, he was one of my co-os for a while. He was great. Yeah. Okay.

Shout out to Matt. Bernie, absolutely here. So, Supriya's got great hair, therefore you aren't wearing the headphones. But in a moment, I'm going to put like a second. Just for a second here. Because quick question before I play this, has there being a regular host of 640 who is a woman of color since you left? Like, do you know? Like, are you the most recent woman of color to have a hosting spot on AM 640?

Yeah. I mean, there aren't a ton. in general, right? Like off the... There's lots of colors, you know what I mean? Like, you know... I don't think so. None that can come to mind

unless you're setting me up. Not setting up, no. Okay. No, I actually don't know of one. And also, I don't know of a woman of color hosting on 1010 since since Resbynese. You're right in front of you.

I know the difference. I know the difference. But I haven't... I don't think so. Right? Yeah. I don't think so. I'm not setting up anything.

This is unrelated. But I am going to play a little clip because, I don't know if you know this, Supriotivetti, but John Oakley retired. Yeah, I think you'd mention that when staff was here last when I was with them. Well, he might have announced it then, I guess. So he's recorded, he's out. Like, he's no longer on AM 640,

but he was the afternoon drive show for a long time there. I guess he was mornings forever. He took over for Humble and Fred. Yeah, and I took over, Gurney and I took over for Oakley. Right, because Oakley went to afternoons. Yeah. And now he's gone. So I'm going to just play a clip.

I guess this is the last week. of the Oakley show where maybe he was a little more unfiltered or something. So here we are 60 seconds or so. We're talking with a friend Joe Warmington columnist with the Toronto Sun, friend of the Oakley show. We go back a long way

and Joe, to a certain extent, you know where the bodies are buried or how they got buried. In fact, you just invoke the name of one of our erstwhile colleagues, Mike Stafford. Now, interestingly enough, you know, he had made a reference, I guess. This was considered to be a perceived attempt.

in a joke, in reference to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who's going to join us shortly at the bottom of the hour. But you know what, Mike had said this in an eternal meeting. It was a screen grab that was taken by the program director of all people, and he fed it to the media. I mean, this is what we went through in kind of that George Floyd panic area and canceled culture. You know, the people were being torpedoed. I mean, I, I, I certainly felt the indignity of it as well. You know, I guess got by relatively unscathed. Mike had to walk the plank.

I mean, did you have any of that going on at the sun? I don't know about it the sun, but I certainly covered a lot of it. I mean, Don Cherry comes to mind. I don't think I did enough to help Mike, and I feel bad about it. But you can only take on so many battles like this. You know, we're fighting for people all the time. I'm curious, Sabrina. For Don Cherry.

Worms out there, okay? Worms out there fighting for people all the time. You know that. But I'm just curious what Suprietaetti thinks of very, I don't think Oakley's commented on the Mike Staff for dismissal, except for that one minute or so I played right there in his last week of show. Profiles and courage. Profiles and courage,

only standing up for him and saying something about it once you're on the way out. Good job. Like, come on. Like, you're going to come at, you're going to stand here and call other people snowflakes and claim that there's like cancel culture gone awry and PC culture gone awry, and you can't even stand up for what arguably is, you know, a long-time colleague, friend, compatriot, whatever, standing against this, the tyranny of woke PC corporate

forces? Fuck that. Come on. What a coward from waiting that long to say that, honestly. And I think the flip side of that is, like, yeah, like, that is what happened. It was an internal thing. I mean, I've spoken about this. I've spoken about this with staff.

right next to me. I don't think he went about it the right way. I think there are a lot of things that play. I think, but part of it is also, you know, he had had a strike against him already in that vein in which he had made a bunch of, you know, again, I know him. Tweets. I know what he was trying to get at.

But like, they didn't land. And it's just, you know. Well, the tweets I still don't get. Like, to be honest, like, I kind of, I know what he was doing with the internal. And I don't think there's a bigger fan of Mike Stafford than yours truly, but I don't actually understand the tweets. I don't understand the... This is when he was at the hospital and he tweeted...

App Pooh from the Simpsons. Yeah, and he tweeted that there were every family member in there because an elderly brown man was waiting to see a doctor. Yeah, so like that one I actually don't understand, but I guess he got reprimanded and then... Which part don't you understand? I don't understand... The offensive part? Well, I understand it's offensive.

I don't understand where the humor is in that one. Like, I understand what... Was he trying to be humorous? I think he was complaining. No, I think he was... trying to be funny. He was trying to be complaining in a funny way and this is my point. It's like swimming and a miss. It didn't land, right?

Like, I get what he was sort of maybe trying to get at by referencing a poo and thought he'd get a few lulls out of it. But, like, again, it didn't but like, you know what? Staff could have used some folks with institutional half at the place standing up for him at the time. So I think it's really shitty that

Oakley waited that long. Because, again, if you... Right. If you've, like, full-throatedly believed that at the time, and these are your convictions, then, like, stand up for them. Right. And he's a, he's a, what do you go, dead man walking. It's his last week of shows at 640, and he's done. And then that's the first time I think he mentions this at all.

Yeah. But when we talk about, I'm going to be a downer here, guys, but when we talk about, like, the standards that you want in a workplace, wouldn't those standards prevent Mike Stafford from speaking like this? Yeah, of course it would. And then wouldn't that make it a better work environment? But he ever said it on the air, right? But it's still a work environment.

I know. I respect your position. I would have taken a completely different one. I don't think it's funny. Are you talking about the Piesler? Are you talking about it? I was already out. So there's two things.

So like when he tweeted what he tweeted at the, I was on Matley. Can all the brown people related to this guy stop coming into the hospital? Like it's a trope. It's a stereotype. It's this assumption. Sure. And you know what? We care about our family members.

You know what I mean? Back off. If there isn't enough room in the ER. But that's my point. So my entire thing was like let Stafford and I talk about it on air. Right. And like have that and have it out. and have that conversation.

And station management was like, no, no, we're not going to do that. So we just had to bury it under the rug. And then I left in December of 2020. And then it was only after that, that the,

the comments. So I would have taken that segment as you doing the heavy lifting to explain discrimination and racism to an old white guy. No, I would have asked him question. Yeah, would have been a fantastic segment.

Yeah, but you would have been doing the heavy lifting, Sapria? Like, would anyone listen to that segment if it's not an old white racist person trying to learn something new. You're doing the heavy lifting, explaining to him why it didn't work. I don't think I would have been explaining anything. I think I would have been asking the questions and I would have let him explain and I think

it would have been uncomfortable at points. I would have probably called him a dumbass at some point. And then we would have at least been able to, you know, present the audience with an actual conversation about, you know, things are messy and sometimes you make mistakes. Like I don't think things are irredeemable either. I don't think just because you put out a tweet. And again, to your point about standards and delineation, I'm not sure where it was in staff's contract that he couldn't have,

that his social media wasn't his own. No, there are no standards, right? But if there were, then a manager would have said, hey, rain, pull back those tweets, that's not appropriate. Exactly. But it's also like, for example, and again, I'm paraphrasing here, but there was a line, I'm pretty sure when Gurney and I first signed our, you know, contracts about social media channels and properties.

Like there was language in my contract that referred to social media stuff as well as Guernies. There wasn't anything in Stafford's because his would have been from, you know. Yeah, he was there for Mojo's launch. So we're going to 2002 or so. So it's like, like, I think that it's a moving target. My space page had to be. And again, like, you know, I'm somebody who is at the station who, encountered multiple personalities, multiple contributors on air for the station.

And Stafford was not the problem there. Like, that's the other thing is that there were actual malicious, racist people that not only harbored views and said views that were antithetical, you would think, to, like, you know, corporate social responsibility, rah-rah media ethos. but to like facts and would just make it up. And that to me is worse. Absolutely worse. Needs to be cut off.

I don't know if you cut them off at the head or if you improve your work environment and not let employees use derogatory racist slurs even in internal messaging because hopefully you're not the only brown person that they hired and other people rightfully are being insult and offended while they're at work. You know, it's, it is, there is a bar that needs to be set. And if you don't set it, then it's free reign. And there aren't any boundaries. And you get the most extreme kind of hate.

But Mike Stafford created a visual of a bunch of brown people in an ER. If it was too crowded for him, he could have bitched about that just fine. But the visual he created was discriminatory. I wouldn't have given it any time or breath to try to understand the brain behind that. But I respect your position. And I think I used to be like that. I used to entertain the racist and the close-mindedness because it didn't seem so crucial to people's lives.

But these things matter now because... But that's not even what God can. No, I know. What is the appropriate punishment for the appoo? I'll call them the Apu tweet. I don't know what punishment is. I think what we're identifying is there's a lack of any sort of fencing in, right? Hey, don't do that.

That's not appropriate. Having a manager to be able to keep everyone on the same level, like, the easiest way to figure out if there's any discrimination is to ask yourself, if you're not part of that group, if you could do the same thing? Could I, could I do the same thing as Mike Stafford? Could I complain about a bunch of white people in Longos or Fortino?

Well, white people are fair game, I think, to be quite frank. I honestly think, but if I tweeted that, Mike. Yeah. I think I said, no, it wouldn't have been okay. I don't know. Okay. No, I wouldn't. Here, sure, fine.

I am, so I... In this discussion, great. And I listened to your episode with Mike and it was great. But to behave that way as an employee. But then I also think the corollary of that and like the double-edged sword or whatever is if you're going to formalize things in that way where nobody can ever be offended ever, then you get... That's not what I said. No, no, no, no.

But like, but, but if everybody, if everything is to the point where a tweet or a comment not on air can come back to bite you in the butt because there are norms and standards with respect to language and how you present outwardly. You just speak respectfully. Yeah, I think you can do that too, but I think the correlator to that is like,

it's no longer, then it becomes about like tone policing and then it gets turned back on folks like me or like somebody, like who, you know, I speak off the cuff generally. I'm not one to, you know, guard my language a lot. So it's like all of a sudden where, where, yeah, you shouldn't be saying racist things, but now it's like you're going to couch that to like saying offensive things.

And like, you know. That's, I have heard that from conservative-minded people. I've worked with that 10-10. Where it's like, well, if you're going to, if you're going to make it fair for everybody, then it makes it all restricted. That's. I don't think it makes it restricted.

I think that's a fine rule to play by. But then. There's no tone policing at all. Just don't say Paki. It's so simple. But we're getting confused, I feel like there's the tweets, which is the Apu tweets. And then there's the team.

comment but it's all making derogatory stereotypical references to brown people I know except the P one I can't believe

I'm gonna defense stafford and the P one you guys are deciding there's a difference between all of it yeah because first of all there is there's a lag

there's a timeline to me it's a white guy dissing brown people but no I don't think so like so I'm in defense of Mike Stafford again I don't know how to defend the tweet because I don't

get a humorous way I think the tweet I think the tweet was offensive but the piece there if I just can for Mike Stavvert that he was saying Doug Ford was going to

call it the piece. I heard the explanation guys. You gave him so much time to go through it. Because I feel there's a significant difference. He's not calling brown people the piece lift. I still couldn't do that on my slacks at work. I couldn't have done that. Well, neither can he?

Because you got fired. No, separate either. I wouldn't have. I wouldn't have because I hold myself to a professional standard. And so if there was a professional standard in that workplace, but like let's say for whatever reason there was a coronavirus variant that was only afflicted.

women, okay? Let's just say, like, that's impossible, but let's just say, yeah, hypothy. And I was like, oh, they're going to call it the pussy. Right. Right. Like, this is, this is the difference. Some people would be just as offended by me using the word pussy. But at least you're a woman. I've never worked in a way. You know what I mean? You have license. I know that it's our word. Right. Right. Right. See, yeah. I can't say the P word. I've never worked in a work environment where that would have been okay. I mean, you've only ever worked in corporate large places though, right? Like, I can tell you right now, we're there standards. Yeah, but like, I don't know, like working in smaller.

places. And again, I've worked in politics. You work campaigns. Like, people say shit. People get, like, it's, I don't know. Like, it's, it's not, there's no, like, HR code of conduct when you're a small GR company of like less than, you know. I don't think you need HR to make people just speak respectfully to each other. It's just a basic moral obligation to not be discriminatory. And I'm very, like, interested in your thought on this, Rushme. But in an internal chat, if you use the P word, regardless of context. Because you're right, you think we're turning ourselves

into pretzels of context. Except to me, it's significant that Mike Stafford is absolutely not calling Brown people the Peasler. Like, to me, he's not doing that. And I know what he's getting at because he's a very jeopardy guy,

very smart guy, and he's trying to make it where Doug Ford would use the Peasler to describe this variant. Yeah, you guys are trying to anchor the word to someone. You're looking for, but I'm just saying, the word itself should not have been tied up.

That's what I'm asking. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Because I think of that, the N-word, for example. Yeah, no one's ever going to use. that at work? There's no context, and Wendy Mesley learned this recently, but there's no context where a white person

using the N word is acceptable. In a workplace. In a workplace. So the P word is in the same bucket. Okay, maybe just for me in this room. No, I'm actually like literally just curious because I mean, he did get fired for using it but it was a second. He did get a warning shot, I suppose, with the Apu tweets. I know. But hold on.

We're just having a nice dialogue here. But I can't know. We'll have a nice dialogue here. And listen, it's going to be worth it because I'm going to give you Palma pasta lasagna in a minute. So hang in there, okay? But the Apu tweet coming first and then the Pisler in the internal thing. And that was it for Mike. Like no severance after 25 years.

He's still fighting chorus to get a few bucks. So you care about the punishment. You guys care about the why or the whatever. Yeah. I don't care about any of that. The only thing I've been bringing to this conversation is shouldn't there be some standards when you're at work that you do not speak like this? this either online, on the radio, or to each other. And I think it's a basic standard, because I

haven't worked with someone who messages like that. And if it's like that in politics on the ground, maybe that's why it's like that in politics on every level now. And I think that we need to stop that shit from the beginning at the base. If you're going to be able to speak that loosely with each other, obviously it is going to keep slipping out. And if we're, but I'll go as far as to say if we're going to create a work environment where these things can be debated and discussed, I think we're going in the wrong direction. I don't know why everybody here just isn't saying, yeah, you shouldn't have said that shit, period. Express how you want. I'm not trying to I mean, I don't think he should have said it. Like, I don't think he should have said it. I don't

think he should have said it either the tweet or the stuff afterwards. He said, just don't talk like that. Yeah, that's fine. Is that tone policing? Yeah, I mean, no, but like, again, in the example in which if I'm sent telling somebody not to be a pussy on teams or whatever like I'm let's say I'm talking about Doug Ford like like I he's you know in true fashion make it worse make it the C word variant okay yeah fine don't be a fucking cunt about it okay at work you've spoken like that I mean yeah all right well I like like like like yeah like this is like I don't I am who I am so it's like I am exactly this way here in front of a camera, in front of a mic. I'll temper my language when there's like a Canadian Standards and Broadcast

Council that I have to worry about. Because you're smart. But like, you know, there's not like, I don't know. I do it being respectful to people's, you know, identity, feelings, whatever. But I think we, and this is my issue with like, and I agree, you shouldn't be saying racial slurs openly in workplace. settings, whether it's digitally or physically present. But I think it becomes a bit of an issue if then it becomes about civility and using

overtly respectful language in any way. I'm not expecting that from anyone at all. I would have, like, be the way that you are as you are, Mike Stafford. Just take the word Paki out of your mouth or out of your thumbs or whatever. So I asked the question, I think when you were Stafford, would it be a bit different if it was P and then two asterisks. I heard all of the semantics. Right. I heard all of it. Does that change

anything? No, it was entertaining. For me does it change anything though? For me, I come from it from a very selfish position, which is I would not have been able to get away with that. And that's, that is the hill I will die on, which is I have worked around. But he didn't get away with it.

Well, you'll say he didn't get away with it. He got fired with no no severance. He arguably did not. But I'm hearing you guys with compassion still feel for him. Because we know him and we like him. Great. You know what? He is a very likable man and I agree. I do feel you're right. He did use the P word. None of this would be for me if I did the same thing. That's where, but you would still get it from me. I'd still be. So it depends who you're talking about. But listen, this isn't the progress I'm trying to fight for.

I don't want to be able to be as racist. I don't, I'm not that person. And I know, but I would the majority of people aren't either, right? Like, we're all going in a different direction from that. Interesting. Aren't we? Or are we going to keep encouraging? I'm looking at the lawyer. What does she think?

She's smarter than me. In fairness, I never actually wrote a bar. I just went to law school. You're like Kim Kardashian then? No, no, because I went to law school. Kim Kardashian, no, because she's writing the California bar where you don't have to go. See, I don't know. I thought she finished law school.

Yeah, no, no, no. She didn't even, no, she didn't even go. I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed. No, that's okay. Um, I just heard she failed the bar and I just assumed she had to go to law school first. No, in California is one of the only states actually where you don't actually need to, you don't need to. Can I write the bar in California?

Yeah. Yeah, you can. Like, you, you, like, as long as you can sit for it, like, you don't need to have gone to law school or be a lawyer to write the bar. I had no idea. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, clearly, maybe.

Yeah. Um, I forget the original question. No, I just, I just want to tell people. I failed the bar because they'll be stupid like me and assume I went to law school. No, yeah, no. No, but what was your question to me about what precipitated the law school question? So, okay, I'm sorry for derailing everything with my nonsense. Kardashians chat.

Okay, but I, okay, so this is actually a really, I find this to be a very interesting discussion and the fact that, and again, I don't remember what I was asking you about, Supriya, but I do know, I feel some level of, I feel sorry for Stafford on some level. Like I feel, and I'm not as close with Stafford as Supreme, for example. I've had, I can count, I can't remember five times he's visited this place and we've sat down in chat, maybe four or five times, I think five times. But that's it, like, because we've never gone for a beer outside of this or whatever. And I feel like the Apu tweets, I don't get it, he had to turn off his Twitter account,

and I think he got reprimanded somehow, so there you go. Maybe that's the appropriate punishment. The Pee slur on the internal chats, some part of me thinks, and I don't know if Oakley's correct, maybe this is a question for Supria. Oakley says on AM 640 in that clip that somebody recorded, did you hear something crash in the background? Yeah, I did. Yeah.

Like, so somebody's not even recording it, like just recording it externally. But just so there's a record of it, because it never did get posted as an official podcast at all. But he says a program director screencapped it and fed it to the media. Do we know that, is that just allegedly or is that, does Oakley know something? I don't know. I mean, isn't that kind of what staff said that it was Jason Chapman? Well, okay.

So he's not a program director. He's like, yeah, I don't know. Well, Stafford did blame Mr. Chapman. Yeah, I mean, that's what I thought. That's who I thought he was referring to. I don't know if, like, that would be my speculation. I, again, full speculation. Again, I was already gone.

Like, I had left. You were going. Yeah. Okay. So then to bring this back fold, I like this discussion because if it's a third rail where a white person cannot say the peace lure in a work environment. I know, you're laughing, but I'm being serious. It's 2026, man.

I know. I am not saying the P-sler in any, I don't even have a work environment. This is my work environment, okay? I can drop P-sler as like crazy. And I will not say the P-word, not even on this podcast. Yeah, I dare you. Go. I'm not using the P-word. And there's, I won't use these slurs. So I'm trying to think, like, I think there's an Irish slur, like a Mick or something. Like, I'll use that one, okay, where I feel like in context, if you're making fun of an ignorant premiere that would call this variant, this Irish variant, the Mick variant, I would think that, I mean, so that's also different, though, because now you're talking about somebody, like a group of people,

an identifiable group of people that aren't necessarily discriminated in the same way of a way. Yeah, because. Yeah, they're not oppressed, maybe. Yeah, well, right? And it's like, fine. If you want to talk about 200 years ago where it used to say, like, all over signs, you know, no Irish, no dogs or whatever. Right. Like, see, the problem is I can't use an example because I am in that group and therefore I can't actually, it won't say the word.

But I do feel like your example of the, I'll say it, the pussy variant or whatever. doesn't work for me because you have licensed to use that slur. If it is a slur, I don't even know. But that slur for women, you're entitled to use it as a person who identifies as a woman. So Mike Stad, the problem, so what I'm saying is, a long way to a way of saying, Mike Stafford, as a white man, does not have license to use the peace slurred, regardless of how clever he thinks the context of his joke is. Although he says he trusted that group, like they were buddies or something, and he got,

you know, he fucked around and found out. Okay. Okay, so I guess it's good to have a dialogue about this. But you don't like the idea that Supriya said, let's talk about this on the air at 640. I said I totally respect her position. I don't think I would have done it. See, I don't think it even matters.

Supriya happens to be a woman of South Asian descent. But I think if Supriah were a white woman, that's still a worthwhile conversation to have on the air. Yeah, but I don't think it would have had the same sort of, right? Because, I mean, the whole point was like, I was going to ask him point blank. Like, dude, what were you getting at? Do you realize, like, to your, point about the stereotype about like first i mean i don't think there was as much like thisy hate or a

you know anti-indian hate at the time now obviously uh it's kind of oh what do you think's been adding to it maybe that kind of dialogue you think it's organic years and years of people talking like this absolutely years i don't think it's people talking sure but i don't think the anti-indian hate we're seeing is organic that's an inorganic uh campaign that's stemming from several actors in which that bolster these accounts, like, as well as the algorithms that incentivize racist content to be not only created, but then disseminated, right? Like, that's, that's, that's, that's, those are algorithms tilting the scales. Absolutely.

Towards racism for engagement. And then regular citizens consume that bullshit. Yeah. And then they talk like that. Yeah. And then they go to the hospital and they act racist. A friend of mine works at a hospital in Woodstock, Ontario. It's brutal out there.

She's married to a brown guy. It's brutal out there. But why? Because we allow it, I would offer, in workplaces already. Like, you have to. They don't allow it. You got fired and didn't get severance. Okay.

I don't know. You keep saying that they allow it. And I can't imagine what do you want to do. Put him in jail. Like, they took his job and said, we're not giving you a fucking penny after 25 years. Like, isn't that the most highest penalty there is? So when I say allowing,

I don't mean there needs to be a punishment. I'm talking about the fact that it was... And he felt he could do that. Absolutely. You just said that he felt like he was in a safe, broke... He thought he was in a friendly group where he could talk that way. That's a problem. That's a problem at work.

That sounds like, I don't know. But he was wrong, right? Because it wasn't, to his point. There were consequences to the action. But what I'm pointing out is that it was okay for it to happen. She's saying he was able to type those four characters. I would not be able to do that at work. I would not get away with that.

I would not feel comfortable enough to do that. I didn't have as... Oh, God. But getaway is up to you. Yeah, I know. It happened. And it's still being discussed and debated. No, I don't think it's being debated because it's like, what happened, what happened?

Like, I'm not debating the facts or like what went down. I don't... Okay, sorry. I guess I feel very aware of the fact I have white privilege in this room and everything. And I can tell you personally, I would never... use the peace word anywhere. Forget work. I won't go to a bar and have a drink and use the piece lure. Like,

it's not in my vocabulary. I would never, ever, ever use it. I think the Mike Stafford is sometimes, and again, I don't know why I'm making excuses for the man, but I think he's sometimes... Because you like the guy, because he's beyond these two moments. I can appreciate and respect that. Absolutely. I can appreciate respect that everybody is

so much more than their worst moments. Yeah, I guess I am a forgiving soul where I think people deserve another chance. I'm not even going after the guy. I'm just pointing out that this guy behaved a certain way at work. Do you think he's racist though? Do you think Mike Stafford is racist because he used the pieceler? No, I think that's a bit of a trap,

but I don't think she has to answer that. It doesn't matter if it doesn't matter if he's racist or not. You can't get into somebody's mindset. You can't get into somebody's heart without knowing them. What you can judge them for is the act in question and arguably using the pieceler is racist. So no, no, no, no. I didn't mean to be like to. Yeah, no, totally.

Like I couldn't even be. comfortable enough to be gay and talk about the women I dated at work. That's my, that's an example I'm giving you of like, how comfortable are you at work? Does that, does that work for you guys? Can I ask a question about that? He's comfortable enough. Why weren't you comfortable? Why weren't you comfortable at work to talk about your, the fact that you were?

You only brought down the one beer, right? I'm going to get you another one. Okay. But why weren't you comfortable at work to talk about the fact that you are? And I don't know. I, I, I think anyone. Queer? who I think a lot of people will be able to understand

that when you start a job, you are trying to fit in and you're trying to see if you fit in, and then you keep working and you make friends and you figure out who's fake and who isn't and all the rest of it. You navigate the whole work environment. In no way, shape or form, did I ever have a manager or an office where I could sit down, throw my shoes off,

and call people packies or anything out? Like I don't have that work environment experience. I've always taken myself to work and acted appropriately. There were some HR issues at CBC. We can get into those. I could tell you what I've gotten in trouble for and it was never swearing. But yeah, and their standards are really high and the HR things were a joke. But I appreciate that they exist because it is a commonality for everyone that you will not do certain things.

and it's not tone policing to say you won't swear at each other. You won't call each other names. You won't speak derogatory about a certain group. It's just, it's just, I think it's just simple, basic, I don't know what I'm trying to say. But if you do feel, you don't have to crack that. No, I'm still listening to. You do feel comfortable enough. Hey, I could fill time, guys.

You want to go get some more beers? No, no, we're all professional people. We can fill time. I can fill it. Okay, yeah. No, I get, like, I get every dead air. Yeah, yeah. Like, I get everything you're saying.

So I don't want to sound like I'm jealous, but it is from a perspective of, wow, I wouldn't be able to get with that shit. And so why does that ability environment option for them exist still? Because it shouldn't. There are more of us than there are of them. And I'm talking about people who speak like that. There are more people who do not speak like that than people who do speak like that. and the ones who do have an audience or a support system or, you know, that corner office to be able to say that shit with their manager. And I don't think that is necessary or helpful to society.

You know, I can't even imagine what some of these hosts talk about off air. But when you hear them on air, it's like what sort of thought process got you to this point? There must have been a lot of things that you said off air to get to this point. So even if they don't say it on air, the mindset is still there. And I don't know if it's helping anybody. I just, it's not helping. So. But what got you in trouble at CBC?

This is so funny. I'm going to be really honest about it. Yeah, yeah, go. Do you know Carol McNeil? She was a great anchor on CBC News Network. Carol McNeil has a history of, okay, so when you do hits with reporters all across the country on CBC News Network, there's usually two questions in the script. and it's usually, you know, what's the latest and how did we get here?

And then the reporter does they hit, but they do a hit every half hour or an hour. So it's always the same. So there was a court case and there was a conclusion. And we needed the conclusion. And the reporter... It's always the same, sorry, because you're checking in with them repeatedly, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the two questions in the script are always the same.

Right, okay. So we had a new development on whatever story it was, and we went to our reporter in Vancouver. And I knew what the new developments were. And I don't know if she did, but we started. like, okay, she joins us now with the latest. And she goes, yeah, this, this, this, this is similar to what we heard her say for every hour before. And I was like, right, but now we've got this. So what does that mean? And it kind of threw her off. And then she answered. And then we finished the hit. And the control room came in my ear and said, you didn't ask her the questions in the script,

which were stale is what we would say in the industry. Right. Anyway, it was no big deal. It was an average reporter hit. And we went to commercial. And I'm all alone on. with my floor director and my camera op. I love my camera op. She was awesome. But I'm like, what? And the camera op looks to me and she's like, what's,

I don't mean, what was the problem? And I was like, I didn't ask the right question. I'm pretty sure I asked, anyway, I asked the right question. And,

and then I got a message from a friend of control room who was like, hey, the exec is annoyed. You didn't ask, you threw her off. And I was like, what did I do?

I fucking Carol McNeiled her. Because Carol McNeil has a history of asking people questions that aren't in the script. And bravo to you, Carol McNeil. Oh, well, it's what journalists do. And you should be able to answer the question as a reporter. Like, we're not out to get each other.

We're on the same team. We're just lobbying questions back and forth. But because I said, what did I? Oh, I did say the effort. I fucking Carol McNeiled her. That clip was taken by my exec and sent to HR. And there was an HR investigation launched because they went and interviewed her and showed the reporter the clip and then told me that she cried about it.

So I made, Carol McNeil cried about it? Nah, this reporter at Vancouver. Yeah. And the reference was I Carol McNeiled her. So there had to be a huge, there was an HR investigation, like all the documentation of Carol McNeiled her and what does that mean? But that was enough for an HR investigation. So I don't, again, like I think that's really fucking stupid.

It is. Sorry, I'm swearing left, right, center. Is that okay when I'm doing that? You can swear all you want. Okay. It is stupid. But I appreciate the standard that it sets, which is even on commercial breaks, don't talk like that. But that's insane.

But that's insane to me because I've been, okay, on a hot mic, like, control room can hear me at CBC. The host, like the host can hear me. It's not for air. We have said all sorts of nonsense on that mic before. But don't do it because if someone doesn't like you, they can feed it. No, everybody likes you. I welcome it.

I welcome it. I welcome that. And I said this, I said a version of this, I'm a lovable fucking scamp, okay? Like I can, and this is,

and this is what it comes down to, I think, in like, in terms of like, who gets away with what and whatever. I think intent matters. I think your character matters. So folks can say,

like, you know, such and such person, maybe not in a place as bureaucratic as the CBC. I will grant you that. But in another workplace that doesn't have like,

Sorry, you're looking at me like I should. No, I was just thinking of when Avery Haynes got caught on the hot mic. And then she was shortly thereafter, let go. But she got caught on a hot mic. Well, I forget what happened. What was the? It was, I mean, she was just talking, if only she was, I can't remember now, some kind of a lesbian, indigenous unicorn or something.

There was some offhand when she was, it got caught on a hot, she got caught when she thought she wasn't on TV. And then she got let go shortly thereafter. And then Moses Nymer hired her at City TV. Avery Haynes, but sorry. So that's the look I had. I wasn't trying to interrupt. Yeah, yeah, no, no.

That's, but like, I just think that like intent matters and like there's a difference between, like to your point, like fucking Carol McNeil to somebody is not the same as like a racial slur, right? And I think it's bad when a place like the CBC would treat those two things as like being on equal footing or similar footing. and you would be, and like we're talking about two extremes here, I think, and in one case where, you know, in the AM talk radio sense, you just say whatever, putting out racial slurs, whatever, and like things don't never come to a head and there's never any accountability versus a situation in which you're saying, in jest, in a commercial,

you know, I fucking Carol McNeiled somebody, and that results in a disciplinary action. Like, to me, you're kind of proving my point of like we can't be so, rigid about some of these things and like because otherwise it's to the point of absurdity and you're the example I would use as the point of absurdity well I don't mind this absurdity if it prevents people sure fair fair for fair see that's what I'm saying is like there's a net there yeah for my bullshit but then it also stops all of the racism and discrimination too I just had an idea you know I like to put these pairings together so I had this moment of like I had my own version of what Scott macarthur had on that

walk or whatever where I had, oh, this story I just heard from Rushme. Now I'm going to tell you about an ex-boyfriend. Reminds me. I've dated people longer than I worked with Scott MacArthur and he keeps bringing this guy up. Well, Scott MacArthur had this moment of clarity. So I'm just using it as a reference point. And then I had this moment of like, oh, I need to put Supriah and Reschmi on the mic at the same time because I think there were a lot of commonalities. I'd like to hear that conversation.

That's how I'm going to do it. I need to pair Mike Stafford with Rushmi Nair. I need Mike Stafford and Reschmi to have a chat about this. But she just said she doesn't want to do that work, dude. You're just making her do all the racial work. We've never met. I don't think we need to. I have no.

I am just joking, really. But just a moment of like what an episode that would be here. So may I ask? Okay, so I played the Oakley Glenone. We're just changing the channel a little bit because I think. Yeah, we need to. I think I appreciate your insight, your valuable insight. And I am listening.

And I maybe I'm, maybe it is like a third rail. Like, just don't fucking say it. Like, I'll get a T-shirt that just says, don't fucking say it. But Oakley retires. We heard him talk about Stafford with the worms there. The new afternoon drive show host is a guy named Ben Mulrooney. I don't know if you guys have heard of this guy. I'm just curious if Supriah has any thoughts on Ben Mulrooney,

now being the afternoon drive host on her former workplace, 640. No, I mean, I've only ever met Ben in a personal contact He's friends with a good friend of mine from Montreal. So, like, if that friend is going to have, like, a large birthday party or, like, something for, you know, like a larger event, he'll be there. I have, like, I wish him the best of luck. I think it makes a lot more sense for somebody as opinionated and as openly partisan as Ben to be on the talk radio side of things

and on the opinion side of things than it is to be on the West Block as an anchor and host. So what do you think of that? I don't think it makes a lot of sense to put a non-journalist, non-political journalist, a non-reporter in to host the flagship political news program, right? And he's not like, you know, I always joke. Like they're supposed to be a firewall between opinion and news at KORIS. In fact, the entire basis for their defense against why they were allowed to allow an environment of, you know, alternative reality and facts on radio was because of that firewall.

And now they've gone and pierced that firewall to suggest that none exists. And you can go back and forth from the opinion side to the reporting side. And it makes no difference. And of course it makes a difference. Because Ben Mulroney wears his political stripe on his sleeve. There's no, there's no question. There's no way. And irrespective of whose father was, like, I think his own opinions. Like you can take him away from his family to some degree too, right? I'm talking about him, the man, the person, his own opinions, his own political leaning. Sorry to have cut you off. No, no, no, that's okay. But I do know that he was very vocal. His father endorsed Pierre Polly, for example. And Ben, I did read words written by Ben Marrooney about how he was aligned with

his father in this regard. Like, it is interesting. Because I know. Brian Mulroney supported? Well, Brian's dead now. But yeah, back when he was alive, Brian Marrooney supported Pierpola. He publicly endorsed him before he passed, obviously, because if he did it after he he passed, I'd be shouting out Ridley Funeral Home. That would be a mind blow right there. But he did it before he passed. So let me do this here. I'm going to just before I forget. Wait, do you think that he's going to get into politics? And I wanted to ask, sorry, I'm hijacking. Go ahead. I mean, go ahead. Did you get that vibe? When you host it, when you're in talk radio, like, did you get the vibe where it's like, well, are you going to go into politics? People were saying

that to me. And that was kind of why I got out of it. to you because I was like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not a politician. And I thought I was in the wrong place because everyone's like, well, if you go from the newsroom to talk radio, the next thing is politics. Great Brady tried it. Jump me and get me off that track then. But did you ever feel that vibe in like doing talk radio, the next thing would be for, for myself? Or for anyone around you? But yeah, for yourself, too. I mean, I think there are a lot of wannabes around talk radio that are auditioning for some sad MP for somewhere. But I mean, that was never my vibe. And I think, I think, I

don't think, you know, with all due respect to AM 640, I think if Ben Malrooney wanted a career in politics, I don't think AM 640 is what's going to make or break him. You know what I mean? Like, so I don't, I don't know. Like, it's, like, if Homeboy wanted to be in politics, he could be in politics right now. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, he's not Ben Smith, right? Ben Maruni. But okay, so I do want to point out that I originally planned to do this intro between you two, because I did want to introduce you to each other, Rashby and Supria. for doing this, Mike. Yeah.

Thank you, Mike. I have to listen back later and decide whether this was a good idea or not, but I do enjoy this. I am enjoying this conversation. I won't keep you here all afternoon. I know we have a lot of responsibilities. But, Reshmi, I want to thank you personally. I mean, hopefully I don't. This is my second beer.

Hopefully my responsibilities are done for the day, but yeah. Well, this episode has been enhanced by Great Lakes Brewery. But I want to thank you, Rashmi Nair. And have you noticed I'm working on saying your surname with two syllables? Yeah, thank you. Because I was doing it with one syllable. But I am listening. I also butchered the surname of our friend here, Supriya,

and Steve Paken had to sit me down and tell me that the W is silent. Yeah. I did not know this. It's because like it's... I'm always learning. Like in Hindi, you would say divedi. Yeah. And then so like, I don't know.

There's something about the Hindi to English script. They stuffed a W in there. I don't know why. I can't read Hindi. I can read English. I know there's a W there. But if I was speaking to a Hindi speaker ordu speaker or whatever, I would say Devedi. I wouldn't say Devedi.

Right. Right. Same thing with Diwali, though, right? Yeah. I worked in a radio newsroom in Vancouver and I was the only brown person. They're like, but how do we say this? And I was like, I don't know. I felt all the pressure.

Diwali. Davali. But you. Right. People are saying Diwali. Well, yes. Well, what do you say? Can they?

I would say Devali. But like, but like in. Diwali as though it's a W. No, but Deval. Like I would do the V. Like, but you go, but you're not reading it. But you see the W, but you read it as a V. Yeah?

Well, it's because I know it's Devali in my head. If I was going to encounter that word for the first time in my life, I would pronounce it DeWally. But do you, okay, so what do you, what would you tell Matt Gurney to say? Devali. Devali. Okay. Yeah. I speak for Matt.

Now, let me thank you, Reschmi. This is an important, I've been building up for last 10 minutes here to say, thank you. Thank you for coming to TMLX21 at Palma's Kitchen. I had so much fun and I represented Supria as well. Well, I actually think. So many people thought I was Supriya. I did not go, you sent me an email. Yeah, yeah.

So I actually thought you're both coming. I had a name tag and people still came up to me and said, hey, yeah, I listened to your episode and like actual conversation. Man, I can't believe what you went through, you know? And like, so global, eh? Like 640. And I'm like, oh, that's Supriya. I'm Rashby.

I would never make this mistake. I said, Mike, I got mistaken for Supriya a few times. And the first thing he said was with a name tag. So you were there. So, yeah, not to bury the lead here. No, I've ruined your reputation. Supriya's busy woman. She did say she would be there,

so I thought you were both going to be there, and I did plan to do that. You know how it was set up, where there was the two open mics, and I was going to pair people. Like, I produced this thing in real time. Over three hours, by the way, no edits and no breaks.

It was great. I was going to put you on with Supria and do an intro, and then Supriya. I looked in the room, where's Supriya? I couldn't find her, but you have busy life. But I want to thank you,

Resch Me for being there. You kind of stole the show. And not only, you didn't just do like a, I won't, I was going to call it a Carla Collins, but I don't want to be here. We say Carla Collins stole the show. Well, Carla Collins did her thing and then she disappeared into the abyss or whatever, but you stuck around?

Like, I was wanting a selfie with you and I couldn't do it during the recording. And that was a three hour, 15 minute episode, but you were there at the very end. And I just want to say thank you for being there. And I know everybody in attendance was delighted to see Reschminare at TMLX-21. It was a really good to meet your fans. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. It was a great time.

Will you come to another TMLS event? Absolutely. And I'll make sure you can. Can I get a ride with you next time you go? You don't want to miss it. The lasagna is delicious. But your fan base or your audience, like they're all really great people. No, we can call them my fan base.

I like it. They're good people. It was so much fun. I mean, it was frustrating for you, I guess. They had the whole top floor of Palma pasta and you're broadcasting. But then we're all chatting too, right? Well, it doesn't bother me, actually. But I do get comments from people who can't quite hear everything because they have one,

one speaker, but there's a lot of chatter going on there. Yeah. But I do talk. to the diehards who come out to all these events. And they like to chat. They like to network. So it's like, I'm going to record a show.

Hopefully you can hear if you're right by the speaker or whatever. Otherwise, you're going to have to listen back and find out what you missed. It was really fun though. And then I was caught in conversation sometimes. I was like, I really want to listen. But yeah,

and then some really great moments. The mic. The mic. The mic. I wish. You were great on the mic. And you got your palm of pasta. And I am sending you each home with another

lasagna from Palma, Pashton. Really? It's in my freezer. You each get one? Yeah, that's an empty box. I don't take that.

You take one on the street car? Did you get one last time? Supriya DeVetti. I did, yeah. Okay. Did you eat it? I did. Yeah.

Was it good? It's a great weeknight, you know, dinner, yeah. And there's leftovers? Feeds me for two days. What time should I come over for the leftovers? I just want to know what's going on over there. I'm all the way in the East End.

You want to make it out there. I bike to EastEnders all the time. I was at Monarch Park just the other day. Me too. So icy. Not really, not anymore. We got a 15 degree day on Friday. Oh, I was there before that, yeah. Yeah, but yeah, love at the East End.

I got to go to the Danforth Music Hall, see what's going on there. Do you have dogs? Nope. Oh, what are you doing at Monarch Park? Soccer, my 11-year-old play soccer. Oh, that's stadium. At the bubble. There was a plane crash there in the summer.

Yeah, yeah. My kid plays soccer there too. At the time when the plane crashed there, they had already wrapped up. Was your kid there that day? No. Okay. This little Cessna. Was it a assessment?

It was tiny. I heard about that. Yeah, but it did, yeah, right by the pickleball court or something, right? Like, yeah. So, you know, that's exciting, right? That's exciting for the, it's not quite, I learned this. I was calling it East York, but apparently East York starts on the other side of Danforth. This is actually old Toronto, like it's still rural Toronto.

All right. It's not East York. Okay, I learned it. Because some people call this, they go, oh, I'm saying Mimico or whenever. I'm like, go, fuck yourself. This is New Toronto. But it's also, it's all Toronto. Correct.

Like, there's, Megasicic. Supriya, a very important question. have you ever hung out with Justin Trudeau and Katie Perry? No, never. So if you met Katie Perry, when will he introduce you to his girlfriend? I assume that's what he wanted to do first and foremost instead of introducing her to anyone.

The first thing he would have said was, I need you, yes. Do you approve yes, no, maybe as the Indian auntie in my life, what do you make of this Rishda? but like, no, negative. What would Auntie have said? She's so sarcastic. I mean, Andy would have said,

he's, like, he's happy. He's happy. He's happy. Like, he's happy. You know what I mean?

Yeah, we just want him to be happy. Yeah. So. Why don't you want him to be happy? I want her to be happy. Everybody seems happy. Everybody seems good. There's a great Simpsons.

I know it often comes back to the Simpsons when I have Supriya on or Mike Stafford on. But there is that great Simpsons where they're like, they're like, they're like, they're puppets, I want to say they're muppets. Like,

at the end of an... It's very recent seasons. Okay, so then no. I'm like, see, I cut off at season eight. Yeah. This is way post-8. Yeah, well, you know,

this show debuts in December 89. So yeah, you're right. So anyway, this episode, I know that Katie Perry is like getting a hug from Moes-Syslack, but Moe Zizlac's not a cartoon. He's a Muppet, if you can imagine.

And Katie's, Katie, a human being, okay, dating Justin, Chudeau. And so Moses Lack's mouth is basically where, I want to use the word you guys used earlier, where Katie Perry's pussy might be. Oh, my God. Oh, my.

Oh, my. I can say that, right? She was talking about a variant. You don't use it in reference to the. Oh, yeah. Well, I apologize. I will, listen. You took both of us.

You know, you can take it up with HR. This is white guy from each. The ombud's person. Take it up with HR. But Katie, I can't remember. But her final line is, I didn't say stop or whatever. Like,

the most sexual joke I think I've ever heard in Simpson's history was Katie Perry and Moses Lack in this episode. Like, go to Disney Plus and dig this up. What happens? It's just an allusion. You can listen back to this episode. Oh, sorry, I just missed the joke. You just missed the joke.

Because I was still thinking about how you said that. So, am I? Katie, Perry's. It's called a callback. I was bringing up a term that had been used many, many times. I'm not sexualizing Katie Perry, but I think Mo Cislaq was, and I think she was all into it.

Okay. I don't want to say anything, but my former boss could take you, so I would be very careful. I think Katie Perry could take you. I respect, Katie. He's a feminist. He'd let her.

I respect every. I respect every. Equal opportunity respect her over here. I'm nervous now. What have you guys done here? I'll fix it in post. So on that note, last two shoutouts here.

And then I know how I want to wrap but we'll see how this goes. But I want to say thank you to Ridley Funeral Home. And you guys are playing with your measuring tapes already. And I know you're collecting them now that you come over, you get a measuring tape. Yeah, it's true. So thank you to Ridley Funeral Home.

They have a great podcast called Life's Undertaking. And speaking of great podcasts, thank you to Nick Aienes for sponsoring shows this month. He's got a great podcast called Building Toronto Skyline. He's got another called Building Success. And we love Fusion Corp's own Nick Iienes. And last but not least, Recycle My Electronics.

That's where you go. If you have old cable, I now regret saying that P word. I feel like Stafford must have felt this way. Like, this is how Stafford felt. And I'm like, I'm getting no severance here. I'm so fucked.

It's just about the visual, you know? I know, but you have to see the, I think if you saw it, it would make more sense. The Simpsons episode. Yeah. Right.

It's the most sexual Simpsons joke, I think, in the history of the show, a long history, too. I know. I'm trying to talk my way out of this one. You have to see the, the context. You got to watch that. Everybody, go

to YouTube and see it right now. Moses is lacking Katie Perry and let me off the hook here. Did she have a cat named Kitty Puri? I think I heard that once here. So thank you to recycle my electronics.coma. That's where you go if you have old. I think that's the truth. That's using pussy appropriately. Yeah, I regret it all. Like I have a lot of regrets from this conversation, but I did enjoy it for what it's worth. But I do

want to remind people that if you have old electronics, old cables, old devices, go to recyclemyelectronics.ca.C.A. put in your postal code and find out where you can drop it off to be properly recycled. So before I find out what you're up to these days, I know Supria is on a podcast called Real Talk with Ryan Jesper... Jesperson. Jesperson in Edmonton, Alberta, but you do it from here.

Correct. Yeah. I... Something called Zoom nowadays. It's on the... Never heard of it. Never heard of it. Get a computer. No, I know. I know you took a trip to Edmonton for something. I did. I did. I love Jespo. So, you know, he's a chorus guy. we both have our issues with chorus and you be forged friendship and fire.

And it's good that we have a place we can go to here fresh. Supria takes on things. Every Monday. Every Monday. Catch Supria on that program here. And what are you up to these days? I just show up here once in a while. That's it.

That's all I'm doing. How often can I knock on that door before you find it annoying? Have we already hit that point? I can eat pasta at least once a month. Okay. I was actually earlier when I think off the very top I talked about that episode of Mike Stafford and Supriada Veddi. And I do wonder, like, how often can I knock on Stafford's door and say, come over for a chat?

Because you mentioned that, like, that's when you guys are talking when you come over here. It's only happened once. But, like, I don't know the answer to this question. Like, I'm trying to feel it out. But, like, if I wanted Stafford to visit me every quarter, is that asking too much? No, I don't think it is. Ask him and then get a Patreon going of folks thrown a few dollars this way for an appearance. You do know, I've tried.

You know, I think you know. But I have, and in fact, everyone knows because I put it, I talk about it on the podcast. But I have told Mike Stafford that I will produce his show for free. No invoice will come my way. And I said, let's try a Patreon and see if people will chip in, whatever, 10, 15 bucks a month to put some money in Mike Stafford's pocket for doing it. And I mean, he can do it Zoom. You mentioned Zoom. Like, just I'll set up the mic.

I'll come over, set up the mic, some USB Yeti or something. And then you can do it via Zoom and I'll record a half an hour a week and I will do everything for free. and it's still not yet happening. So I do want to... So this is you asking me to nudge Mike. I think Mike's listening. I think I'm talking about Mike. No, 100% he is, but...

Mike, we should do this. Let's do it. Do it stuff. Do it. Let's guess three people here say, let's do it here. Okay. Now, you don't have to go too deep into this,

but I did have on the show, Ed Keenan the other day. I think it was Thursday. Ed Keenan as a columnist for the Toronto Star. Love Ed. You have pretty good two-hour chats, to be honest.

Like every episode, I nail it, like two hours. I used to have him on the radio regularly. Yes. I like this guy very much. But he covered, he was covered, he was in Washington, D.C. area to cover Donald Trump during his first term. He was there on that November's, November, January 6th, 2021. He was there not participating in their insurrection, but he was covering the events there. And so we have a lot of talks about what's going on.

And I guess I'm wondering if we could have just a brief chat before I say goodbye, because I was talking to Ed about this last week, about. about this anxiety that I can feel. Like, I can feel on my body, I'm carrying this anxiety, that I can tie to what's happening with President Trump in the United States of America. And I guess you're too smart people if we can have a little chat, because, like, I know what he did in Venezuela,

and I know what he's threatening to do of Greenland, and you can throw in Mexico, and I know he wants Canada. And I'm at a point now where I think, I think they're just going to kind of come in and take over this country, I love. And I'm just curious if anyone else in this room is carrying what I'm carrying. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I'm not following the news as much as I had to before, and that's just for my own mental health. But I remember growing up and everyone in their lockers had that printout. First, they came for the somethings and I said nothing. And then they came for and I said nothing. Yeah, it reminds me of those days. But with the globalization and social media and all of that instant information, it's going to be different.

You know, ice shot a woman in the head. And then the next video I saw the day after was a nice guy slipping on ice. And I was like, I can't laugh at that now because they're shooting people in the head. So the more we allow it all to happen, the more will happen. Yeah, I mean, I agree with that. Look, I don't think it's going to any sort of U.S. incursion on Canadian sovereignty. It's not going to come in the form of tanks. It's not going to come in the form of like a seal team six taken out Kearney in the middle of the night.

It's going to come by economic coercion. It's going to come by increasing incursions on our territorial sovereignty, particularly our Arctic territorial sovereignty. If you look at the national security document that was just put out by the United States prior to the holidays, Canadians should read that and become very, very concerned about the sovereignty of our Northwest Passage, which is like the only navigable shipping route in the Arctic. You know, there's a specific reference in that national security document about doing away with like administrative or regulatory burdens and how the U.S. has to make way for like, you know, shipping routes and sea lanes.

Like that is a, that's a direct hit at a Northwest Passage. That's what that is. all this bullshit about Greenland, how they need it for security and sovereignty, you know, for their own military, whatever. That's BS, like, they're a NATO country. You can put, they already have a military base there. Put more troops there, just ask, and you can do it, right?

So, like, all of this is, uh, is I think, yeah, you look at the way the Carney government has been, you know, they went from very elbows up to like a bended knee, um, from like campaign to governing. And yeah, of course we have to be careful in terms of pissing off the orange king and not displeasing him. And of course, the U.S. is our largest, you know, trading partner. And we can't just do away with geography.

So even if we diversify a bunch of other economic trading partners, we still have the U.S. to contend with, that's all true. But it's like at what point do we just give away our own values and our own principles. And I think that's what we should be asking. And I don't know what red line currently exists for the Carney government, but so far we haven't seen it. whether it's like they won't even they won't even denounce X by name and grok by name for generating child sexual abuse material they just you know they're just saying how they won't ban it and they won't like whatever but it's like guys come on have a little backbone I don't know is banning going to make no it won't ban it yeah yeah I'm not I'm not I'm not for a ban but like you can pursue right now it's like 161.1.1.

I think of the criminal code, double check me on that. But there's like, that is the provision that's anti, you know, child sexual abuse material, the generation of it, the distribution of it. GROC right now is an on-demand

child sexual abuse material producer and distributor. Like, they're already breaking the law. But then legally is like, do you need a person to accuse of that? Can you accuse, can GROC be accused and held to charge? I'm asking for me.

I mean, yeah, like presumably they can. And I know that the federal government has also put forward more measures to amend the criminal code with respect to like deep fakes in particular or like you know generated images. But again, if they wanted to act, they could. They're not. And it's like, okay, like fine.

Does anyone in this room post to X? No, I deleted. I mean, I still do. Like I still have it just because like I have it. And like I have folks on there that I would not. not be able to contact otherwise, but I'm not the Canadian government. No, you're not the Canadian government, but I was going to ask about this column I just read in The Guardian, and I took a quote here.

It reads, if women quit X because of GROC's deep fake nudes, the predators win, so I'm stain. Someone wrote this. I don't know if you caught wind of this. Yeah, like, I didn't read the piece, but I mean, like, sure, I guess, maybe, but like, what are we fighting for? Twitter territory? Yeah, like I also...

I don't know. Like, I don't know. Like, look, I very much, I can appreciate the fact that, like, if you are a government entity, whether or not you're like an MP, but you're like a parks department, whatever, and you need to communicate with as many people as possible, right? So you're going to be on every social media platform, presumably, every mainstream one. The mainstream ones, yeah. They're not on blue sky.

Yeah. Well, that's it. So I think increasingly, as like, first of all, be on blue sky or be on these other verticals or other channels that you can be on. But then we have to ask ourselves, is X still, in fact, a mainstream social media platform? And I don't necessarily think it is. And it's like, today, if somebody asked you,

you or you or me, would you go on a platform that generates and distributes child sexual abuse material? Of course the answer is no, right? Well, this was in April 2025. Mike Wilner sat there and asked me, he said, if you loved going to a bar to have your great legs beer, and you found out the owner was, a Nazi, would you keep going to that bar?

And I said, oh, I'll probably go find another bar, actually, if I found that out to be chewing. And he goes, well, then he goes, why are you still posting to X? This was Wilner asking me. Because Elon Musk twice in that footage I watched, threw up, I don't know what you call this, the Hitler. Nazi salute. Not least a Nazi salute.

Like, he did it twice. So I actually, that day, after I chatted with Mike Wilner, that day I posted my last ex post and I haven't actually been back. But I just was curious, Supria, if you were still posting there. Yeah, I still post there. Not out of any fidelity to Elon Musk or whatever, just because, like, out of habit. I have one social media platform that I've ever been really actively engaged on. And it was Twitter.

Right. I still call it Twitter. I still have friends who send me stuff. And I still... I love Twitter, too. I was there from it. And I think that the timelines all fucked. Like, it's no longer chronological.

And it's like it's bad for following. real, because I used to use it, I'm sure you did too, like for real live, like breaking news events, right? Like it's completely useless for that. It was great, like the bat flip from Joey Bats. There was no better place to be in Twitter. It was wild during the Arab Spring. I remember it was so useful during the Arab Spring. Yeah.

And like all of that's gone now, right? So all of that utility is gone. So I post like incredible, like I would say with a lot less frequency than I did before. But yeah, I'll still, like I also post my articles there. Like I think my last tweet is probably something about what I would have last written for the National Observer or the Toronto Star. Shame on you, Supriadavetti. Yeah, sure, fine. Yeah.

Shere, so was this okay, Rashmi? This is great. It was so great to meet you. It's hard. Sometimes it when you're in the room. Was this okay for you guys? I loved it. But sometimes when you're in the room, you're like, I tend to miss, you know, tones or whatever.

But I have to listen back and pretend I'm just a listener or whatever. But I actually thoroughly enjoyed this 90-minute conversation. Is this you telling us you miss social cues? and you're maybe a little bit on the spectrum. Is that what this is? A really great time. You're okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Something like that. But I got to say so for me, sitting here now in real time, is I fucking love that 90 minutes of you two. And I would do this again. But I actually could find out later. I missed it all 100% these fucking,

these ladies hated it. No, no. I am fine. Like I said, I'm a lovable scamp. I will tell you straight up if I fucking hated it. You are a lovable scamp, by the way. Yeah.

You call me a pussy? I did. That means a like a, cat, not like a vagina. Oh. I knew he said vagina. I used to object your terms. End this.

Put us out of her misery. Vagina. Vagina. That's how you're supposed to pronounce it, by the way. Vagina. I'll fix us in post, you know. Sure you will. And that!

That's what you want to, do you want to say it? And that, it's fine. You want to it? You go for it. I've done it at 18. I've done it a lot of times. And that brings us to the end of our 1,832nd show. Would you two come back at some point?

I would. Yeah, I mean, I think you've already had me on the record of coming back. You keep plying me with beer, so I'm going to keep coming. Don't forget the lasagna. Yeah, and lasagna. You're like Garfield over here. Yeah. Go to TorontoMike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs.

and much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery. The next TMLX event would be at Great Lakes Brewery, Reschme. So I expect to see you there now. Glad I'm getting into the Superlake. Palmaposta, they're going to feed us. Nick Ieini's, I hope to see him there. Recycle My Electronics.C.A., shout out to Cliff Hacking.

And Ridley Funeral Home. You know Brad Jones will be there. Want to name that tune? That's the Zit Remedy. Okay. Everybody wants something. You too young. CanCon?

It is Cancone, but it's Degrassi Jr. High. Do you know this one? That's Gino Vanelli, Black Cars. Also before your time. I know Gino Vanelli. I know the name, that. What is this, Mr. Dressup? That was Mr. Dressup.

Absolutely. Well, that's Pokedat Dore, but Mr. Dressup was earlier. Oh, Pogodot. Because they're both in the mix. Shout out to Rob Pruss. See him tomorrow for toast with Bob Bullett. See you all then.