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A giant in every way (the Jason Nixon episode)
56 Plays5 years ago
Stanned by Herald columnists, protected by the old boys' club, and allegely able to disintegrate a grown horse with a single strike: on today's pod Duncan and Mav Adecer delve into the wild history of UCP deputy house leader Jason Nixon.
Further reading:
- "Judge bars media from accessing video of UCP MLA Jason Nixon, siding with party lawyers"
- Sundre horse shooting trial adjourned
- Sundre man not guilty of threatening wildlife officer
- Alberta Conservative house leader fired single mother after she complained of sexual harassment
- Wildrose MLA Jason Nixon faces expulsion motion from students’ union
Mav's friend Jim who's getting sued is our very own Producer Jim, and you can donate to his legal defense fund here.
Support the Progress Report by becoming a patron!
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Transcript
Introduction and Land Acknowledgment
00:00:15
Speaker
Friends and enemies, welcome to The Progress Report. I am your host Duncan Kinney. We're recording here in Amiskwichiwa, Skigan, otherwise known as Edmonton, here in Treaty 6 territory. And while we don't usually do a land acknowledgement on this show, this week's guest, Mav Addiser, has one we'd like to play for you. Land acknowledges are tricky because they don't actually improve the material conditions of indigenous people, so it just kind of becomes this neoliberal, magical incantation
00:00:42
Speaker
You're a sight at the beginning of a show, as if that somehow absolves you of your part in a violent settler colonial state.
Jason Nixon's Wildlife Incident
00:00:50
Speaker
That does it. However, we are in treaty sex territory, and I'm a settler here. And so I would just like to acknowledge very quickly, before anything else, that Jason Nixon of the United Conservative Party did murder a whole bunch of his bare hands.
00:01:12
Speaker
Jason Nixon, of course, we all know, is the sitting MLA for Rimby, Rocky Mountain House, and Sundry. He was the former House Opposition Leader, and he is the current Minister of Environment and Parks. And in 2010, he was arrested for shooting a pregnant wildlife.
RCMP Incident Recap
00:01:35
Speaker
This was detailed in the 2017 article by Nietzsche Corbella of the Calgary Herald entitled, Corbella colon, Jason Nixon is a giant in every way.
00:01:57
Speaker
Now within this article, once you get past Litzia Porella flinging her bean about Jason Dixit's hand girth and shoe size, he talks about Jason Dixit being arrested, quote, in 2010, RCMP officers from three different detachments, some with their guns drawn, burst through the house that he showed to his wife, Tiffany, and they yelled, get down,
00:02:27
Speaker
You big effing retard, unquote.
Comedic Take on Nixon's Reputation
00:02:31
Speaker
Now, they didn't write effing, but also kept the retard part. That's calumny herald for you. Now, Jason Dixon was actually cleared of all charges because photos of a mare had surfaced, and they found that there were no gunshot wounds.
00:02:54
Speaker
on its person. And so the RCMP had to apologize to Jason Nixon for not being woke and a view is actually clear of all charges and no one is saying that Jason Nixon shot that horse. What I am saying is that like the article, Jason Nixon is a literal giant and that he took that horse with his giant hand
00:03:25
Speaker
and then he put his other hand and put on the rump of the horse and that, with ungodly strength, just twisted. Without any effort or thought or hesitation on his part, I ripped that horse apart. Without aid of firearms or really any weapons crafted by the hands of man, and he turned this beautiful magnificent creature
00:03:54
Speaker
into weak confetti, just cascading down a cliff. Jason Nixon of the United Conservative Party had murdered, of course, with his bare hands, and I think that that's very important for us to recognize here as settlers of treaty sex territory. And Jason Nixon of the United Conservative Party, he's a fairy tale ogre, come to life.
Mav Addiser's Political Comedy
00:04:20
Speaker
fairy tale over a fair life, if fairy tale over is rent construction companies, and then fire their female staff after they complain the clients were sexually harassing them, Jason Nixon of the United Conservative Party, a giant in every way, Mitzi Corrella's imaginary boyfriend, murdered a horse with his bare hands, and it took three detachments of RCMP clerics and paladins,
00:04:51
Speaker
were their swords and shields and maces and their buff spells in order to stop the horse murder that he had inflicted upon the land. And so Jason Nixon of the Anacostia River Park did murder a horse with his bare hands. And I
Nixon's Political Career and Media Portrayal
00:05:10
Speaker
would just like to recognize that. His island never ran in a settler here on Turtle Island. And Jason Nixon was a horse murderer. Jason Nixon murdered a horse.
00:05:34
Speaker
The audio in that was exceptionally bad. You really get what you pay for.
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean, it's still, just for context, that bit is from Mav's Fringe show, Last Days on Krypton, a fantastic Fringe show, which you should have seen if you were in Edmonton when Fringe was happening. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. We're so lucky to have Edmonton comedy man, Mav Addiser, back on The Progress Report for a second time, joining a very select group of people who have made it back on the show two times in our short history. But Mav, welcome back. What's up?
00:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. My question to you is, where were you and what were you doing when you learned that Jason Nixon had killed a horse with his bare hands? I think I was sipping coffee reading the Calgary Herald when it first came out.
00:06:30
Speaker
No, actually what had happened was we we were um We were uh, we were My friends and I were super into chapel trap house when it first came out and like we're like we gotta do like a canadian version of this And then we thought there's no way anyone in canadian politics is interesting enough to roast For an hour and then we found jason nixon
00:06:55
Speaker
And here we are, I mean years later, roasting Jason Nixon for, I don't know, probably not an hour, but at least a good chunk of time. And that is the concept of this episode, which is that giant horse killer Jason Nixon is a bad person who's done lots of bad things and he didn't actually kill a horse with his bare hands, let's just get it
Legal Troubles and Courtroom Drama
00:07:15
Speaker
out of the way. We don't have to shout parody, parody after that. But I mean, even if he didn't kill a horse with his bare hands, which he didn't.
00:07:24
Speaker
No one is saying he did that. No, no one. He's still a bad person who's done a lot of bad things. And it's funny because you have to laugh. I mean, I'm happy that we have something to laugh at here just because the past 10 days have just seen awful bit of news after awful bit of news. And as someone who is like professionally obligated to pay attention to the news, I feel like shit.
00:07:50
Speaker
I don't know about you, bud. I feel great. Hillary Clinton. No, it's been a tough time the last little while. On the one hand, I was telling you on the way over here that this is way more depressing than my mother-in-law's funeral.
00:08:13
Speaker
But also, I guess this is the job, is to yuck it up during sad times. Yeah. I mean, if you're not going to laugh, you're going to cry, right? And like, we do have someone who should be laughed at. I mean, despite the fact that he is a terrifying giant of an ogre, I mean, we're obligated to laugh at him, right? And the inciting incident of all this is a 2009 incident
00:08:43
Speaker
where a rancher named Alison Gentry alleged she caught several men and a miner, so a good one there, Jason, hunting deer on her property illegally. They were trespassing. They were killing deer without her permission. And this happened near, somewhere near Cremona, Alberta, which I have no idea where that is. The news report says it's an hour northwest of Calgary.
00:09:02
Speaker
Gentry said Nixon threatened her account that was backed up by her neighbor and the Nixon was later charged with assault that charge was later withdrawn and Nixon signed a peace bond But really what happened the more important stuff is what happened after that Which is when the fish and wildlife officer came to investigate the fact that there was a deer that had been killed on this woman's land and that
00:09:25
Speaker
And I'm a little foggy on how the horse murder works into all of this, but at the end of the day, let's just agree that a Fish and Wildlife officer showed up to a woman's property. Jason Nixon is there with a bunch of his dudes. This woman has called it in. She presumably has fled the scene. And this guy has shown up.
00:09:47
Speaker
And this was covered in the news. I mean, Jason Nixon was charged with crimes, crimes which he eventually beat in court, but he was charged. I mean, the people on the scene felt that enough, they had probable cause to charge him with the things that they charged him with. And the court case that covered these things was well-covered by local media, something we probably wouldn't say in 2019, but back in 2011, I guess there were salad days, journalism.
00:10:15
Speaker
Yes, in the Rocky Mountain Gazette and the Sundry Mountaineer. I don't know if that last one's actually the newspaper's name. But the details of this story are important. And I think before we start riffing on them, I think it's worth going over them a little bit here. So Alberta Environment Fish and Wildlife Officer Adam Meiris was conducting this investigation into this illegally shot deer.
00:10:36
Speaker
when he had the misfortune of running into Jason Nixon and his friends. During court testimony, the video from the officer's truck was played in court, and this incident was reported in local newspapers as well. And this quote that I'm going to give you is from the news report, and it's from the Fish and Wildlife Officer.
00:10:55
Speaker
I then heard him say he was going to manhandle me in about a minute," testified Fish and Wildlife Officer Adam Myras. This is audio that was captured by the cameras running the officer's truck. The camera also caught this choice exchange between Nixon and the officer. Anytime you want to bring your lady over here, I'll service her, you fuck. Get the fuck off my property. Jason Nixon is now, as the Minister of Environment, the boss of this particular Fish and Wildlife Officer.
00:11:21
Speaker
And I think it's just sad that he would reduce sexual threats like that into such a transactional kind of way. It really is neoliberalism at work.
Power Dynamics and Political Influence
00:11:35
Speaker
No, the thing about this is that the reason why the horse murder stuff came along is because apparently there was a certain meth enthusiast that had called a tip line and said, hey, this guy totally wrecked this horse.
00:11:55
Speaker
I saw with my own eyes. Yeah, and pull them half and he he got a sizable We'll say seed money, you know a sizable chunk of reward money for his pursuits Which were then disputed later on. Mm-hmm but judging from his
00:12:15
Speaker
I mean, can you really blame the guy for like shooting his shot? It seems like not that far fetched considering all of this like real actual recorded stuff. Well, he didn't shoot a horse, but he did. Or someone in his party shot a deer on land that they weren't supposed to be on. Right. And that was
00:12:31
Speaker
That was what he was eventually charged with. Jason Nixon did end up beating the horse murder rep, which again seemed kind of specious. He did end up beating the uttering threats charge. He didn't end up beating the assault and the obstruction. But he did receive a $500 fine for possession of an illegally shot deer. $500 whole dollars. The system works, man. The Teflon Don, Jason Nixon.
00:12:56
Speaker
Funnily enough, I mean years later, a journalist in the context of years later, Jason Nixon is now this high profile member of what had just recently become the UCP.
00:13:07
Speaker
you know, a real leader, I think the house leader at the time. And there's this freelance journalist trying to get a hold of this video, you know, this video that was played in open court, this video that was reported on widely by newspapers at the time. UCP lawyers successfully blocked the release of this video that had been played in open court and was reported on by newspapers. And not only did they block the release of it, the judge, a former progressive conservative MLA for the area, or not actually from Calgary,
00:13:37
Speaker
This judge put on a publication ban and I'll just read from the news report here
00:13:47
Speaker
The risk of harm and prejudice to Mr. Nixon outweighs any interests that the public might have in seeing this DVD," she said, noting Nixon's re-election and the fact that he was UCP House leader while in opposition during his last term. Graham, the judge, herself is a former conservative MLA. She held UCP leader and Premier-elect Jason Kenney's current seat, Calgary Lawheed, between 1997 and 2004.
00:14:11
Speaker
This is the editorial voice of the star speaking now. In most cases, the public is granted automatic access to court files and media are constitutionally allowed to publish information about them. Anyone asking for a ban must prove that the benefits outweigh the public's right to freedom of expression.
00:14:29
Speaker
So those UCP lawyers made a hell of a case to this judge, I gotta say. Listen, I'm just gonna quote my favorite rosy-cheeked MLA and say, NO CONFLICT! No. Yeah, oh man. Doug Schweitzer. I mean, we could do an episode on him, too. He's conflicted out all over the place.
00:14:44
Speaker
But, I mean, real, real, I don't know, what's the best way to typify this? This is some old school Chicago shit. Yeah, this is deep state Chicago Democrat, like real, I don't know, I don't wanna get in trouble, but this is just bad and you hate to see it.
00:15:08
Speaker
The fact that Jason Nixon had this legal trouble that was mostly made to go away, a $500 fine isn't nothing, but it's pretty much nothing when you look at ... I don't know what the penalty for threatening a Fish and Wildlife officer is, but I imagine it's not nothing. It's going to be way more than however much he's going to sue us for after we air this episode.
00:15:36
Speaker
Way, way more. But I mean, yeah, it is an incredible example of the raw kind of unvarnished power that the UCP and people like Jason Nixon have in this province, right? That they are just literally able to flex a little bit of lawyer bullshit, and it all just kind of goes away. Well, and just the fact that a judge who was intimately connected to him was the one presiding over his case. Nobody bothered to check that?
00:16:07
Speaker
Yeah. The other thing that relates to this incident that was brought up in the context of the last provincial election was the complainant, the woman who started all this off, Alison Gentry. This is the woman who encountered Nixon and four other folks who were with him at the time, who were allegedly trespassing on her property back in November 2009. In the victim impact statement that she filed,
00:16:31
Speaker
Gentry said she noticed the group, all of whom said were armed, while she was patrolling her land. This was apparently a frequent occurrence for her, people were trespassing on her land to hunt. Without leaving her vehicle, she informed the group that they were trespassing and that there was no hunting allowed on the property.
00:16:46
Speaker
She says the group left their guns by a fence post and began to clear away a deer they'd shot, at which point Gentry used her cell phone to attempt to take photos of the men. When the unnamed driver noticed, he got out of the truck and she claims he became aggressive. He walked up to my corridor, reached through the open window and tried to grab the phone in my right hand. Gentry's statement reads, I drew my arm to the right downwards towards e-brake as he tried to catch my arm to flip the phone away. After another short exchange, another resident, Donna Maines arrived at the scene.
00:17:15
Speaker
Mains had been called by Gentry for help to take photos of the trespassers. When Mains drove closer to the group, she heard one of the men threaten Gentry. He said, hey, someone's name. Do you want to shoot that bitch? The document states. Gentry told CTV News that
Nixon Family's Impact on Politics
00:17:30
Speaker
Nixon was charged with assault and trespassing and had to sign a peace bond, agreeing to stay away from her property. Now, I should preface that before he said, do you want to shoot that bitch, he did say, are you in a proper headspace to receive negative information?
00:17:45
Speaker
Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did do a vibe check beforehand. So I mean, I think all things being fair, he should be able to get away with that. Right. I mean, again, he signing the peace bond is not an admission of guilt. I mean, you'll read this in every story that you read about this. And again, all of this stuff is going to be all of the links to the stuff that we're citing is going to be in the show notes.
00:18:08
Speaker
But like the language of the peace bond is pretty explicit so it's like I just love that we have moved away from feudalism and that we're no longer lorded over by just monsters who inherited their power and just lorded over us any chance they get that we live in a normal and healthy society where a totally modern society that eight-foot ogres are not able to just rampage over the land doing whatever they want and
00:18:38
Speaker
This this next one is a real peach and in Jason Nixon lore. I mean you may have heard this one already But it really does bear repeating Jason Nixon is the kind of guy who would fire a single mom five days before Christmas For the simple fact that she was reporting to Jason Nixon her boss that she had been sexually harassed You remember this story?
00:19:01
Speaker
Uh, it came out actually, well, it resurfaced, uh, when the NDP were trying to pass some legislation preventing workplace harassment. Yes. It was, it was a debate on workplace harassment legislation in the, in the Alberta legislature. And they, I think they, I think the NDP even let Jason Nixon kind of like talk about it. There's the, the UCPs and Jason Nixon stance was we've got enough of those. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean, do we really need more workplace harassment policy? Um,
00:19:31
Speaker
But yeah, Jason Nixon actually lost a human rights complaint on this file. So the details, everything that we said is true, but the details are actually horrifying and even worse than you can imagine. So I'm going to be reading to you from a new story on this that we'll have in the show notes, but essentially gives the details of the Human Rights Tribunal decision.
00:19:58
Speaker
The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal handed down their decision on December 30, 2008, and it involved three companies, Nixon's Company and Nixon Safety Consulting, Navigator, a construction company building a condo in Kelowna, and Conforte, a company that performed concrete work on the site.
00:20:13
Speaker
This complaint also involved Greg Ford, an independent contractor and a person who we will be hearing about a lot much later. The tribunal found that Nixon's company fired its safety officer, Corey Harrison, in December 2005 after she complained that Ford had sexually harassed her.
00:20:29
Speaker
I find that Mr. Ford sexually harassed Ms. Harrison and that NSC terminated her employment when she complained. Adjudicator Kurt Neuenfeld wrote in the Tribunals decision. I find that Nixon safety consulting terminated her employment at the urging of Navigator and with the tacit approval of Conforte Harrison. This is the woman who filed the complaint. She was 27 at the time and she said that Ford slapped her on the buttocks and propositioned her. Ford also offered her marijuana lingerie and truck tires in return for sex.
00:20:59
Speaker
I love some old-fashioned romance, you know? That is the... I mean, apparently this happened in BC, but that is the most, like... That's the birdest fucking proposition. Yes, ever, ever to exist. She was also encouraged to dress sexier while she worked at a construction site.
00:21:14
Speaker
Ford, who was Harrison's supervisor, watched pornography on a work computer and asked her to watch with him on at least one occasion. The tribunal also found, quote, Harrison told Mr. Nixon what had been going on with Mr. Ford and that he had been touching and propositioning her.
00:21:34
Speaker
At the end of the conversation, Mr. Nixon asked her to send him an email about what had been occurring, as he needed something in writing. Mr. Nixon told her that there was no way this sort of thing would be tolerated. He also told her not to go into work the next day and that he would call her. Smash cut 2. Yeah, he definitely does not tolerate snitches.
00:21:55
Speaker
Smash Cut 2, on December 20th, 2005, five days before Christmas, Harrison received a letter from Nixon, notifying her that her services were no longer needed. The tribunal report said, we are writing to inform you that as of January 1st, 2006, so 10 whole days notice, we will no longer require your services on the Lofts project. Over the past few weeks, it has become apparent that you are not fitting into the role that we need.
00:22:22
Speaker
on the Lofts project. And upon review with our client Navigator Development, it is clear that you are not meeting the requirements of the Site Safety Advisor position.
Religion's Role in Politics
00:22:31
Speaker
Harrison ended up winning a $32,000 award for damages and loss wages. All, all of this before Jason Nixon reached the ripe age of 30. I mean, real top 30 under 30 shape. Oh man, I want to see that magazine profile.
00:22:49
Speaker
Kenny, when asked about this, said in a statement, so he didn't even face the media when dealing with the blowback from this. Kenny said in a statement that Nixon was a 25-year-old small business owner when Harrison was fired from her job. As if that is somehow exculpatory in some way. You know what? When I was 25 and owning a small business, I really didn't want to murder that guy, but I was 25 and a small business owner.
00:23:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean it's it's The fact that that I mean I could maybe go and try and find something more from Kenny on that But the fact that that's the the art of the quote that you get in the article on this is just like It's essentially jason kenny throwing is his palms there and saying so fucking why yeah Basically, it's just like yeah boys will be boys. You know how it is
00:23:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I don't know how Jason Nixon was in the position he was in at the age of 25. I assume it had something to do with his daddy and his connections. But, like, how does this man have, like, power over anyone? And the fact that he has power over anyone is just, like, scary and frightening to me. And what does his record show, right? Yeah, well, I think it all started when Pat Nixon was the king of Minos.
00:24:10
Speaker
And then he asked when Jason Nixon was born, the engineer Daedalus to create a labyrinth in order to prevent him from wreaking havoc upon the land. He somehow managed to escape that. Yeah, but he flew away. We don't know what happened.
00:24:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it is one scenario. I mean, there are possibly many scenarios here. There's another section of Jason Nixon's life that doesn't get talked about a lot. I mean, I think Dave Cornway and Dave Berta has done a bit of writing about this. I know that the people of Athabasca University care about this a lot, because he did kind of leave a bit of a flaming bag of shit there. But Jason Nixon was the former Student Union president of Athabasca University.
00:24:59
Speaker
His term ended under somewhat murky circumstances. I don't know if you'd heard about this or is this me bringing this to your attention? No, I I didn't even know he was an Athabasca kid. I mean, I don't think he is like I think he was just taking distance learning and And got involved in student politics right sure which I don't understand like Total commuter not even commuter campus total like distance learning campus. How does it even have a Students Union, but that's that's besides the point
00:25:29
Speaker
No, so his time as the Students Union President at Athabesk University ended under somewhat murky circumstances, mostly because his pay rose to $49,851 a year. Hell yeah, dude.
00:25:42
Speaker
This made him one of the highest paid student union execs in the province. Well, even though Athabasca is the smallest of the four research universities in Alberta. That just goes to show how high his bootstraps are that he lifted himself up. Apparently the salary when he began his time there was a little under 22,000 and by the time he left it was 49,000. More than doubling.
00:26:09
Speaker
Are you sure this isn't Richard fucking Nixon my god Nixon Speculated so a lot of this was dug up by the the student newspaper at Athabasca University Nixon was speculating that the student paper was making such a stink because they were seeing their services cut so as the students union president what did Nixon do but of course cut funding to the students newspaper and
00:26:32
Speaker
So what you're saying is that his involvement in public policy has started all the way from when he was a university student. Yeah. That he's a young, you know. He's a real protege. A real wunderkind when you get down to it. Damn. That's amazing, actually.
00:26:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean start young, right? You're never gonna be a shithead conservative politician if you start in your 50s. That's true. If you start in your 20s, think of the head start you'll have on all the old gray and white guys. I imagine Jason Nixon with his dad in the scene in The Lion King, where it's like, everything the light touches is our kingdom.
00:27:14
Speaker
I mean, that is literally how conservatives view Alberta, right? I mean, the fact that Rachel Notley had four years of running this province. Yeah, exactly. It's like, hey, what about that shadowy part over there? Never go there, Jason. That's Edmonton.
00:27:33
Speaker
It's also worth noting that Jason Nixon likes to hold himself up as this champion of rural Alberta, but he was the author of a report that explicitly wanted to pull Athabasca University out of the town of Athabasca, a move that would crush this rural Alberta town, would render it a shadow of what it once was. It's one of the biggest employers there.
00:27:55
Speaker
And I was gonna do it with his bare hands though. So they would have cut they would have cut all those costs He was just gonna lift the town up and put it on his shoulders And uh, and just move it to st. Albert or something. I don't know Um, I mean we've brought up the nixon family a few times and his dad so I mean jason nixon doesn't exist in a vacuum
00:28:18
Speaker
He does exist
Charity and Political Power
00:28:20
Speaker
as the son of someone named Pat Nixon. Pat Nixon is a man who started up the mustard seed. The Colonel Mustard Seed. The Colonel Mustard Seed. You know, a nonprofit that has offices all over Alberta that does a lot of work feeding and clothing and housing people also does a lot of work proselytizing and spreading the good word.
00:28:43
Speaker
By that I mean just like Christian missionary shit, but to the poor people. If you read Pat Nixon's biography, I mean he does have a compelling story. He does seem to be a very charismatic person. His like grew up in BC. His dad used to beat the shit out of him and his parents. He was a drug addict. He used to live rough. And he turned it all around with Christian charity.
00:29:03
Speaker
And that's, I don't know, that's really the extent of the research I've done on Pat Nixon. But he did start the mustard seed. He also had six children. And Jason Nixon does have a normal sized brother who is an MLA, a UCP MLA in the legislature. There are also four other Nixons running around, four other brother Nixons running around, Alberta. God help us.
00:29:30
Speaker
I think they they just stay in like the Rocky Mountain House sundry area in their case In an enclosed space with yeah wizards and paladins just kind of monitoring them I mean God help us like this this family this Pat Nixon is is I mean he was the guest of honor at the recent Edmonton prayer breakfast that happened I think the first prayer the first prayer breakfast that had happened in Edmonton in like five or six years now Duncan
00:29:56
Speaker
Why do you hate charity? Why do I hate God and Christianity and charity? Yeah, what is what does Chairman Mao say about? Giving to the poor and and Clothing the needy and stuff. No, I don't know you have to tell me. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you I think it's good. I think it's good that the people are you know being provided soup while they
00:30:25
Speaker
get lectured at by a self-righteous douchebag. The great thing about the mustard seed and places like it is that they exist because social safety nets are constantly getting slashed in this fucking province.
00:30:45
Speaker
So there's totally no conflict between the existence of the mustard seed and then just all of these chuds just viciously putting austerity into the province.
00:30:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean it's real what kind of society do you want shit right? It's it's it's a question of should this work be offloaded to Religious charities who have their own agenda or should we as a society intentionally decide to provide a minimum amount of food and lodging for people you know I mean like
00:31:17
Speaker
Mustard Seed gets a lot of cash, don't they? If I had more time, we could go through the Blue Book. There was just a recent announcement from the government of Alberta. There was $3 million in grants announced for school nutrition programs. These were all school nutrition programs that were partnering with nonprofits. One of those nonprofits was the Mustard Seed outpost in Red Deer.
00:31:38
Speaker
That's the one example I found, but I imagine you could find all sorts of other entanglements between the mustard seed and the government of Alberta. Actually, it's relatively easy to find that stuff, but I haven't had the time to check into it. Yeah, once again, Schweitzer voice, no conflict. No conflict.
00:31:54
Speaker
The prayer breakfast stuff, too, was enough to give me pause. The fact that they were reviving this thing that had died five or six years ago, I guess that probably would have been what Redford was in office.
00:32:13
Speaker
That's strange, thank you. It just seems like it seems like a throwback to like bible bill days. Yeah, it seems like a throwback to like American politics, right? Where it's like the evangelicals kind of explicitly get together and have their like political goals and their political rallies and they kind of onward Christian soldier into the like political sphere. Yeah, I like, I mean, it's it's fine, though, because they are they are doing prayer breakfast for all different religions, aren't they?
00:32:45
Speaker
Well, that was one of the hilarious things that came up in the defense of the prayer breakfast was like, well, those critics don't get mad when I do little videos on like Diwali or an ex-Jewish holiday, right? And it's like, you're not having a breakfast with like every single Christian or every single MLA of that faith, explicitly having it about that.
00:33:08
Speaker
No, I want to see Jason Kenney doing Seder dinner. That would be tight.
00:33:17
Speaker
Yes, I mean I'm sure he's done it He's the guy who loves religions
Young Politicians and Conservative Agendas
00:33:20
Speaker
like the one if there if I have any insight into Jason Kenny's like brain And I've spent a lot of time thinking about this guy It's like if all he could do was like read and talk to other high-level religious wonks for the rest of his life He'd be very happy like if you read him in Civitas Civitas is this
00:33:40
Speaker
It's this Christian nonprofit think tank. And he'll give speeches to these things. Christian nonprofit think tank. There's so many conflicting ideas in that one phrase. Yeah. And so he's given a couple of speeches of these, and you can go and read these speeches. And this is where I think you get into the real Jason Kenney, right? When he's getting into arcane bits of
00:34:03
Speaker
various christian sect lore and he's like talking about how it relates to like the present day and the politics of this or that thing like that's what that's what really he gets off oh god he's a token nerd but for the bible yes yeah but and i would say even all religions but like definitely the bible sure see and i think this is like
00:34:23
Speaker
You know, like somebody might be asking like, why, why focus in on these people and like this, why this episode, you know, and I think that it, it just, it kind of boils down to how we need to understand these people who govern us and how they are.
00:34:42
Speaker
not just awful creatures but just like how craven and corrupt and like power hungry these people are and how like despite all of their rhetoric of like pulling yourself up from your bootstraps
00:34:59
Speaker
it's still down to other people paving the way for them to get into power and then fuck up all of our shit. I mean, the real scary part is when you combine the class warfare stuff, like Jason Kenney is viciously prosecuting this class war on behalf of the rich on almost every other Albertan, right? And then you combine it with the like,
00:35:24
Speaker
the explicit God stuff right at the Christian prayer breakfast and And that's that's the scary to me. I mean, I'm I am elapsed like a Christian evangelical, right? Like I come from that world and I don't like those people those people I left for for reasons like they fucking suck and they weren't good people I didn't like hanging out with them and I was 15 years old and I was like no absolutely not and
00:35:48
Speaker
And sure, I was like, I'm not saying, I'm not like a Dawkins atheist asshole anymore. Like those people are really obnoxious and I'm not here to slam faith. But those particular strand of like Stephen Harper, Christian and Missionary Alliance evangelicals like really twig me. And that's my own personal bias, but.
00:36:07
Speaker
Yeah, but also it's kind of horrifying to, you know what, when it's just, when a person is just corrupt because they want money, you can almost work with that, you know?
00:36:24
Speaker
But we understand why everyone's here, right? But when there's a zealous fervor behind it, that's horrifying because it's impenetrable. You can't penetrate that with logic or reasoning because it's just coming from this mythical place and you believe yourself to be like... You are correct. Yeah. Yeah.
00:36:47
Speaker
Yeah, and and I mean when we look back at Jason Nixon, I mean the guy is literally like he's he's our age I mean, he's like a few years older than us. He's like 39 and he's also twice our size combined Yeah, I mean we're not big dudes, but he is a huge. Yeah, huge person. I mean a large Sunday is Alberta's largest If you if you the pictures of him standing next to Jason Kennedy like our comical like how are you down there like
00:37:14
Speaker
like it is the fact that he is the the deputy like the second in command and that The size disparity is what it is because Jason Kenny's like like not boy. Yeah, right Especially lately. He's he's he's doing his keto, you know, he's he's keeping it tight. Yeah. Yeah, that's yeah I mean, I wish I could just like take two months off and lose 60 pounds or whatever it was man
00:37:37
Speaker
That was a slightly alarming to see that when it happened, but I mean I guess I mean I I was I was hoping for some sort of flesh-eating disease, but you know Can't always get what you want. Nope. I mean so where do we go on this? I mean we spent 20 30 minutes talking about Jason Nixon. He's a bad person who's done bad things He's monstrously powerful in the context of Alberta. That's right I mean this is this is the the the Lenin part. You know what is to be done? I mean yeah
00:38:07
Speaker
Well, I guess we should then No, I mean we don't have to have the answers for everything right here right now But I mean at some point Some silly content is just some silly content. Yeah, but I
Activism and Political Engagement
00:38:20
Speaker
think that what's important to understand now is that That we are in an existential conflict with these people and
00:38:31
Speaker
You know that like this isn't just oh A debate in the marketplace of ideas or whatever No, these motherfuckers are out to get your lunch and your dinner and your dessert and your job and everything Yeah, your livelihood. I mean worse. We just saw your horse here careful with your horses around Jason Nixon kids and they
00:38:56
Speaker
And they they know, like, that's the thing is that, like, they know that they're in a fight and they are out for blood. And so many of the people that they're declaring war on don't even know that they're in a fight. You know, I mean, this is this line. This is a line I keep coming back to. Right. Which is that you can't expect your bully to get tired of beating you up and for him to stop. You have to fight back.
00:39:17
Speaker
The only thing that bullies will respond to is you actually punching back. I say this in the context of when I speak to people who are involved with unions or nonprofits or organizations that are looking around at the world around them and they're like, shit is fucked up, what do we do?
00:39:35
Speaker
And the one thing you cannot do is you cannot curl up into a ball and hope that this will pass. You do have to start talking to your members. You have to start talking to your supporters. You have to start coming together and figuring out how you're actually going to make life difficult. You have to stop taking photographs with them, providing them photo ops while students are protesting at the legislature.
00:39:57
Speaker
You're talking about the student union leaders. Yeah, whose like ostrich approach is working tremendously well for them right now. Yeah, like we have tools, like as working class people, I mean ultimately what we have is the ability to withdraw our labor, right? And there's a lot of talk about general strikes right now. And I would say, yes, let's talk about general strikes. There's nothing, it's a fantastic tactic if pulled off.
00:40:26
Speaker
But in Alberta, we are not even at the scale of a large scale single or even multiple contract labor disruption. Why don't we have a few of those where we demonstrate solidarity with those folks who are going on strike, legally or illegally, and let's see what we can do in the context of the unions that actually have their shit together right now.
00:40:50
Speaker
Totally and also just kind of like framing things in this like oh What's legal and what's illegal? Like it's such a it's such a narrow way to think about all of this stuff Especially when your enemy is literally the government and they write the rules Yeah, so of course like all of you all of the shit in your arsenal is going to be quote unquote illegal. Mm-hmm
00:41:15
Speaker
I just I would like for people to get pissed and I would like for people to get combative That yeah and just to know that these craven sons of bitches are Not the demigods that they walk around being All right folks you heard it. It's time to get cray
00:41:36
Speaker
Thank you so much for being on the show, Mav. I really do appreciate it. Now
Podcast Support and Episode Wrap-up
00:41:40
Speaker
is that time of the show where you were able to plug the things that you were doing, plug your pluggables. Alright, so don't go to my Twitter, mavtime, M-A-V-T-H-Y-M-E, that's private.
00:41:52
Speaker
Donate to my friend Jim's fund, because he's getting sued. That's going to be in the show notes. And listen to Kino Lefter, which is my favorite Edmonton podcast, next to this one. Next to this one, very generous of you. Also, Mav does comedy at a very few places around town. If you're going to go to Edmonton comedy stuff, he'll probably be there. If you like this podcast and you want to hear more,
00:42:19
Speaker
progress reports I mean there's very few very simple steps you can take one thing you can do is you can share it you can talk about this podcast with your friends be like oh yeah this is really funny there is this mav guy talking about how Jason Nixon murdered a horse but not really any way you feel to share it whether you're texting it putting it on your wall the word-of-mouth stuff is really how we grow the audience so if you like this podcast please share it with your friends
00:42:45
Speaker
The other thing that's really helpful is you can leave a review. I mean, five stars minimum, but if you can leave a written review, that's the gold standard of podcast reviews. And for whatever reason, Apple Podcasts thinks it's really important. And really, it's a contest, I think. I look at our podcast and we only have, I don't know, 40-something actual written reviews. And I'm like, yo, why don't we have 400, yo?
00:43:09
Speaker
Exactly and also like how much how much does Ryan Hasman have in reviews? We need to crush Ryan Hasman Yeah, I mean agreed in any of that in any context you care to take that But But if you want to the other thing that you can do to support this contest beyond leaving a review and beyond sharing it with your friends is Give us money
00:43:34
Speaker
We don't have a Patreon ... I don't know if I believe in the long-term viability of Patreon, but that's not why we're not on Patreon. It's just through our Nation Builder. It's through theprogressreport.ca slash patrons. There you can give us $5 to $15 a month, and you can join 300 other folks who are doing the same thing, and you can help keep this independent media project going.
00:43:56
Speaker
We do serious stuff, like our last episode is literally independent reporting on how the corporate tax cut is much, much bigger than is being reported by media and government. Then we also have fun stuff where we talk about how Jason Nixon allegedly murdered a horse. I just don't think you're going to get that mix from any other kind of podcast out there.
00:44:15
Speaker
Also, if you have any notes, thoughts, or comments that you think I need to hear, I'm on Twitter, at Duncan Kinney, and you can reach me by email, at DuncanK, sorry, you can reach me by email, at DuncanK, at ProgressAlberta.ca. I mixed up my ads there. Thanks so much to Cosmic Find Me Communist for the amazing theme. Thanks so much to Mav Addiser for being on the show. Thank you for listening, and goodbye.