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Full Comment is Canada’s podcast for compelling interviews, controversial opinions and fascinating discussions. Hosted by Brian Lilley. Published by Postmedia, new episodes are released each Monday.
192 Episodes
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Over the holidays, we’re looking back at some of the best episodes of 2024, a year that may have marked the beginning of the end for left-wing political censorship, especially by professional bodies. Last January, the courts shut the door on overturning a decision by the College of Psychologists of Ontario that ordered Jordan Peterson into a mandatory rehabilitation program for his politically incorrect tweets, which had nothing to do with his practice and involved none of his patients. As Peterson tells host Brian Lilley, his options are now to either lose his licence, try moving somewhere else or submit and undergo “re-education” for his controversial opinions. But even more importantly, Peterson says that if Canada’s speech police can come for a famous psychologist and bestselling author like him, they can certainly come for anyone — including you. (Recorded Jan. 20, 2024)
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His finance minister has quit in disgust. He seems only able to come up with increasingly bad ideas. His government is in disarray, with crises in immigration, housing, the cost-of-living, deficits, debt and more. And the U.S. is about to hit Canada with economy-killing tariffs. Yet, as Brian discusses with Postmedia’s Lorne Gunter and Chris Selley on our year-end political panel, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems determined to tough it out and stick around as long as he can. The trouble is, Trudeau’s refusal to admit to his disastrous defeat — and his party’s unwillingness to force him out — is seriously hurting innocent Canadians. (Recorded December 19, 2024)
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Canadians have been deceived into believing that having strong, stable banks means sacrificing competition, as Andrew Spence, author of Fleeced: Canadians Versus Their Banks, tells Brian. So, we have no real competition, which means we pay more — loads more — for ATMs, Interac, mortgages, NSF fees, exchange rates and more, than people do in comparable countries. No wonder Canadian banks are making out like bandits relative to their U.S. and U.K. peers. Yet, it doesn’t have to be this way, Spence explains. Especially as new, disruptive fintech firms are ready to offer us better, cheaper and more convenient banking services. But the Big Six are doing everything they can to stop that from happening. And they’re succeeding — with the government’s help. (Recorded November 29, 2024)
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Imagine Indigenous people getting to vote for the first time — and voting for John A. Macdonald. Many did. And it was Canada’s first prime minister who gave them the vote. The Conservative leader also kept Aboriginal communities fed (against fierce Liberal opposition) when the buffalo disappeared and protected them from disease, as Patrice Dutil, author of the new book, Sir John A. Macdonald and The Apocalyptic Year 1885, tells Brian. And, yes, Macdonald also offered Indigenous children schooling: a well-intended initiative he’s now being vilified for. But Canada now unfortunately privileges ahistorical, ignorant, and often spiteful slanders against John A. while lionizing a murderous secessionist like Louis Riel. As Dutil explains, Macdonald was a fascinating, brilliant, and benevolent founding father. It’s time we remembered that again. (Recorded November 28, 2024)
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What was once the best immigration system in the world has been turned on its head, former immigration minister and premier Jason Kenney tells Brian this week — all because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has preferred pandering platitudes over practical policy. After eight years of mass migration, Canadians everywhere — including immigrants — are suffering with problems in housing, health care and employment. What’s more, all these millions of temporary residents and unverified asylum-claimants he let in know we lack the capacity to make them leave. Now, Kenney warns, with Trump about to start deportations, we could soon be flooded with hundreds of thousands — or even millions — more. (Recorded November 29, 2024)
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1You’re not welcome in “so-called Canada.” That’s what academics and activists call this country, which they declare “illegitimate.” And, as Adam Kirsch, author of the new book On Settler Colonialism tells Brian, these people aren’t using metaphors. They truly see anyone who isn’t Indigenous as an active colonizer and criminal who doesn’t belong. The idea is steadily gaining currency in our schools, society and government, and it’s brutally playing out against Israel, where Hamas supporters euphorically envision forcing out all Jews (despite the Jews’ own indigeneity). But don’t kid yourself, Kirsch warns: They’re working to dismantle other countries, too — especially this one. And with every land acknowledgment and libel against our nation’s history, we’re helping them do it. (Recorded November 15, 2024)
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The federal Liberals are likely facing an even less friendly Donald Trump administration than last time. And they’re in an even weaker position than they were then, as Brian discusses this week with Postmedia columnist Chris Selley. Their minority government is teetering, mounting scandals are weighing them down, and their mass-immigration and anti-oil policies have hobbled our economy. Meanwhile, Republicans are steamed about our neglect of defence and security, and the president-elect will remember that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has spent the last four years using “MAGA” as an insult. With Washington likely to become extremely pushy and protectionist, Ottawa could get crushed. (Recorded November 15, 2024)
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The presidential election came down to the clevers versus the normals, guest John Robson tells Brian this week. Those succeeding in the establishment’s ever more complicated system of official and unofficial rules around work, business, education and identity politics went for Kamala Harris. Everyone else —feeling left behind, ignored and scorned — went for Donald Trump. Including many minorities. Robson, an American historian and National Post columnist, says Trump is clearly unfit for the White House, so it should petrify Democrats they’re seen as worse. But it shows that the anti-Western, woke-activist, mass-immigration, climate-obsessed political package repulses people everywhere. And, as the Trudeau Liberals are discovering, the common-people counter-revolt is building in Canada, too. (Recorded November 8, 2024)
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It’s the final hours of a “dumpster fire” of a presidential election, as guest and American political writer J.D. Tuccille calls it. And it’s hard to imagine a worse one. Democrats are back to comparing Donald Trump to Hitler, and Republicans say the Democrats are communists. The vice-presidential picks JD Vance and Tim Walz have had minimal impact while the U.S. media has again beclowned itself running interference for Kamala Harris. But, as Tuccille discusses with Brian, there are serious issues facing America, including uncontrolled immigration and runaway living costs, not to mention serious foreign crises. Voters are left to sort through Harris’s “word salads” and Trump’s bluster to decide which of the two is the least inadequate. (Recorded Oct. 31, 2024)
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So, the rebels in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s caucus couldn’t convince him to quit. But they’re still fed up, and they still have forceful ways of showing it, as veteran Postmedia politics columnist John Ivison discusses with Brian this week. That may just include sabotaging a confidence vote that could bring down their own government. Now Trudeau is desperately trying anything to survive — including reversing key policies and playing politics over foreign interference. Backtracking on his beloved carbon tax may even be next. Meanwhile, the House is paralyzed in a procedural standoff and prorogation seems like the best option for Trudeau in what Ivison says seems like the “end of days” for this government. (Recorded October 25, 2024)
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Prioritizing medical expertise and skill in doctors is so passé. If powerful activists pushing to redesign Canada’s physician regulators get their way, tomorrow’s doctors will be focusing on promoting anti-oppression and anti-racism. Dr. Mark D’Souza has been on the forefront of the fight to prevent that. He explains to Brian how the radicals’ plan could endanger patient health by sidelining merit in medical schools in favour of equity quotas, while eliminating critical distinctions of sex in diagnosis and treatment. The good news? D’Souza, author of the new book Lost and Found: How Meaningless Living is Destroying Us and Three Keys to Fix It, believes most Canadian doctors oppose the changes. The bad news is they’re cowed from speaking out. (Recorded September 13, 2024)
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British Columbia voters are so unhappy that they might elect a party this week that barely existed two years ago: the Conservatives led by John Rustad. No wonder. As veteran B.C. politics columnist Vaughn Palmer tells Brian, voters see crime as out of control; drug decriminalization creating no-go zones everywhere; and immigration soaring even as the housing crisis seems worse than ever. Meanwhile, their made-in-B.C. carbon tax has become punishing. NDP Leader David Eby appears desperate to disown his record since taking over as premier last year. But, as Palmer explains, although Rustad is less polished and has some problematic candidates, the surprising closeness of this race speaks to how bad things seem to so many. (Recorded October 10, 2024)
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The now legendary “firewall letter” stunned Canadian political watchers. Officially called the Alberta Agenda, it called on the province to start taking back powers from the federal government, refusing to be taken further advantage of. And for 20 years, Alberta governments largely ignored it. But as former provincial finance minister Ted Morton discusses with Brian, Alberta’s UCP government is finally changing that. He was one of the letter’s signatories, along with Stephen Harper, who later became prime minister. As Morton discusses his new memoir, Strong and Free: My Journey in Alberta Politics, he explains how a new conservatism is changing his province — and Canada. (Recorded September 25, 2024)
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You’d have to be a fool not to see how the UN has been taken over by malevolent dictatorships. But rather than give up on the ideals the United Nations was founded on, Hillel Neuer forces the world body to face its hypocrisy, antisemitism and despot-worship. The Montreal-born executive director of UN Watch joins Brian this week to talk about his work in Geneva, where he tirelessly torments corrupt UN bodies and delegates by revealing their complicity with the worst human-rights abusers and terrorists, while persecuting liberal democracies — especially Israel. Neuer discusses the many ways Iran, China, North Korea and Russia pervert the UN’s noble ambitions and what can be done to make it live up to its noble aspirations. (Recorded September 25, 2024)
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The Conservatives’ attempt to bring down Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government with a non-confidence motion was virtually DOA when the Bloc Québécois quickly said it would refuse to support it. No wonder: With no NDP deal to back the Liberals, the Bloc suddenly finds itself with significant power over the Liberals, as Brian discusses in our politics roundtable with columnist Tasha Kheiriddin and Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson, the team behind Postmedia’s Political Hack newsletter. They also get into what the recent Montreal byelection says about how badly Liberals are losing Quebec to the Bloc. And why the recent Winnipeg byelection shows that the Tories’ big challenge in many ridings come the next election will be winning over alienated New Democrats. (Recorded September 18, 2024)
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If you’ve ever wondered how some self-proclaimed feminists can defend the brutal rapists of Hamas, or how people can passionately believe men can get pregnant, Gad Saad has an explanation. As an academic researcher in behavioural science, Saad has spent his career studying how perceptions and ideas can produce biological effects. He joins Brian this week to discuss how “woke” concepts like postmodernism, moral relativism and social constructionism act like pathogens on people’s minds. He explains how wokeness can spread, damaging people’s ability to think rationally, in the same way that other dangerous ideologies have warped the minds of masses in the past. And he talks about how he, and others, are working hard to save society from the disease. (Recorded August 30, 2024)
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The leader of the federal NDP has spent two years thundering righteously against the Liberals —while propping up their minority government through a supply-and-confidence deal. Now, Jagmeet Singh has said he’s for sure, no-joking, super-duper fed up with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and he’s cancelled their bargain, which means giving up his leverage to advance NDP priorities. As former, longtime NDP power-player Karl Bélanger discusses with Brian this week, Singh is out of excuses for denouncing Trudeau while backing the government on confidence votes. Bélanger says the NDP leader will destroy his credibility if he keeps exuding hypocrisy. But he also stands a chance of turning around his party’s unpopularity and salvaging its fortunes for the next election. (Recorded September 6, 2024)
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Fast enough to make your head spin, Canada’s “harm reduction” approach to helping drug addicts went from a few safe injection sites to giving away powerful opioid drugs to addicts. As Adam Zivo, journalist and director of the Canadian Centre for Responsible Drug Policy discusses with Brian, ideologically radical public health officials now even insist that any addiction treatment other than giving addicts more free drugs is racist and colonialist. And despite overdose deaths rising and more addicts being created by the diversion of so-called safe supply, Zivo says these drug-policy extremists won’t stop until they make all dangerous street narcotics legal — and as easy as possible for anyone to get. (Recorded July 25, 2024)
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We’re still learning how institutions and officials politicized science during the pandemic to justify economic lockdowns, border closures, school shutdowns and other measures that lacked supportive evidence but carried grave consequences. Vanessa Dylyn is the award-winning director of the new documentary Covid Collateral, which shows how real scientific methods and debate were sidelined, even banished, as governments faked expertise during COVID-19 with the help of compliant doctors and journalists. She joins Brian this week to talk about the shocking things she discovered while investigating the official responses to COVID; the damaging public health policies that continue to affect individuals and our society; and how we can hopefully prevent this all from happening again when the next pandemic comes. (Recorded June 27, 2024)
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Not long ago, our practical, moderate approaches were considered exemplars that countries around the world tried to emulate. But as Postmedia’s Tristin Hopper discusses with Brian this week, in just a few years Canada went from paragon to cautionary tale. A model of how one should definitely not handle drug policy, euthanasia, housing, online censorship, gender policy, immigration, and more. Sure, some of this is the work of an activist federal government, Hopper says — but not all of it. Social-policy extremists have infiltrated myriad levels of Canadian policy-making. Ending the havoc might take more than a change in government, he predicts. It may require a new quiet revolution led by a (still-moderate) Canadian majority. (Recorded July 29, 2024)
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https://sprunkiretakemod.io/ Brian Lilley's expertise and engaging hosting style make the podcast enjoyable and informative.
two of the most respectable journalists in Canada, at a time where respect of journalism is justifiably at a record low.
really
Great interview and sensible guest, thanks. Good luck.
Great interview. I could not agree more.