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610 CKTB | Deceptive Bookings and State Overstep: The Dominion Society Debate · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Every Tuesday morning, we talk to John Litke, a feature
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: we like to call Litke's Got a Take. Good morning.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Gene.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hey, listen, there is this organization. They're called the Dominion
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Society of Canada. Now, some people suggest that they're a
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: white supremacist group. Others suggest that they're just a far-right group.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Others simply say they have a point of view and
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: they need to express it. So we know that their
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: convention ended up in a banquet hall in Burlington after
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: telling the owner that they were renting the space for
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  Speaker 1: a photo shoot. Now, it was originally supposed to be
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: in Hamilton, but they got chased out of Hamilton. So
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: is deceiving local business owners the only way these groups
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  Speaker 1: can actually secure a physical space now? And, you know,
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  Speaker 1: like it or not, they are allowed to freedom of expression.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: And just because you don't like it doesn't make you right?
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, this is a tough one. I mean,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: I'll just quote right now, Blues Brothers. I hate Illinois Nazis.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: And I think that that's sort of what this is
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  Speaker 2: about here is just it's this idea that, yes, they
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: have a right to be doing what they're doing. But
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  Speaker 2: what is the response supposed to be from our society?
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  Speaker 2: I think that venues not booking them, not allowing it,
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  Speaker 2: makes perfect sense. Because when your core policy platform is
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: the forced mass deportation of up to 9, 10 million residents...
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  Speaker 2: You can't really just walk up to a venue manager,
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  Speaker 2: hand them a business card, and book the space for lunch.
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  Speaker 2: They got shut out of Hamilton, barred across West Lincoln
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: and Grimsby, locked out of Niagara Parks. And so they
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  Speaker 2: pulled a classic bait and switch. But I find it
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  Speaker 2: really interesting that they deny that they're white nationalists. I've
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: seen that across multiple media interviews. And I'm on their
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: website right now, Gene, and they're the ones who put
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: up a bar graph that shows the Canadian white population
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: in 1981 versus 2021 and the white population in Brampton
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: over the same two time periods. And there's a quote
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  Speaker 2: that says, in just 20 years, the ethnic demographics of
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  Speaker 2: Brampton flipped from majority white to majority Indian, and the
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: impact on local culture is obvious. Brampton is unrecognizable. It
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: looks more like an Indian city than a Canadian one.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, if these aren't white nationalists, what are white nationalists? Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, the Hamilton police got on tape admitting they actively
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  Speaker 1: warned venues because of their quote, not mine, how people
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: feel about the group's platform, which you just articulated. But
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: did law enforcement cross the line into political policing or
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: were they justified in taking these steps?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I am very uncomfortable, deeply uncomfortable with hearing the
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  Speaker 2: audio and finding out about this, that a Hamilton police
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: inspector explicitly admitted on tape that they were reaching out
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: to private venue owners to discourage based on community feelings.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: I'm not defending this group. I think they're reprehensible. I
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: think they're vile. But this is inherently a political act.
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  Speaker 2: not a law enforcement act. And it makes it tougher
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  Speaker 2: for them to be seen as neutral arbiters and enforcers
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  Speaker 2: of the law and not as political actors. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I think that that was a misstep. If they wanted
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  Speaker 2: to put out a statement about it through the media,
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  Speaker 2: that's one thing. But to go actively encouraging people from
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  Speaker 2: booking their venues, that crosses a line.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: You know, it's one of those razor's edge kind of
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  Speaker 1: a thing. Like I find their website abhorrent. However, the
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  Speaker 1: Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms warned that the police and
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: municipal leaders violated Charter Section 2 by pressuring private businesses
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  Speaker 1: to cancel bookings. So if a registered nonprofit hasn't any
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: criminal record, hasn't broken any laws, should police have the
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  Speaker 1: power to shut down their political assembly?
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  Speaker 2: No, they shouldn't. The community should make that decision themselves
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: and as venues and as people who may have wanted
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: to go to that venue or not. Vote with your money.
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  Speaker 2: Don't use the strong arm of law enforcement and the municipality,
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  Speaker 2: if you will, to try to enforce political views. I
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  Speaker 2: think that it actually detracts. from, you know, a strong
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  Speaker 2: argument against having them in your city by, you know,
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  Speaker 2: seemingly compelling businesses, whether it's under threat or just, you know,
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  Speaker 2: if you get a phone call from the police saying
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  Speaker 2: we don't think you should be booking this person or
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  Speaker 2: this group, you're going to really think twice about it.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that that's the overstep. But this is
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  Speaker 2: the trap that the extremists set for democratic institutions, right?
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  Speaker 2: And it's a problem, but I think it would have
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  Speaker 2: said a lot more if the community willingly decided not
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  Speaker 2: to have them there without the compellingness of the state.
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  Speaker 1: Well, one of their keynote speakers was denied entry into
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  Speaker 1: the UK, denied entry into Canada. Now, you just articulated
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  Speaker 1: what their platform says on their website, and a lot
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  Speaker 1: of Canadians find that abhorrent. I would probably say the
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  Speaker 1: vast majority. But, John... These far-right groups capitalize on real
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: public frustration over housing, public services that mainstream politicians are
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: failing to fix because they don't want to lose votes.
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  Speaker 2: No, and that hits the nail right on the head, Gene.
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  Speaker 2: Extremism doesn't grow in a vacuum. It grows in the
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  Speaker 2: cracks of institutional failures. People across southern Ontario are struggling
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  Speaker 2: with housing costs, health care wait times, overclouded classrooms, immigration
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  Speaker 2: system that has expanded far faster than local infrastructure can
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  Speaker 2: deal with. And groups like this Dominion Society are taking
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: legitimate public anxiety and they are weaponizing it and turning
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  Speaker 2: it into radical, you know, some would say racist scapegoating,
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  Speaker 2: offering mass deportations and stripping citizenship as a simplistic fix.
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  Speaker 2: It's not a simplistic fix. And it harkens back to
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  Speaker 2: something that, you know, is the 1930s, 1940s. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But didn't Trump win the last election on a platform
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  Speaker 1: of mass deportations, too?
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  Speaker 2: Well, thank God we live up here, Gene. I mean, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: he did. And these concerns are being felt across the
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  Speaker 2: world right now. And it's not to say that these
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  Speaker 2: anxieties don't exist. It's not to say that our infrastructure
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: is what it should be to accept the amount of
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  Speaker 2: people that we were letting in. But having said that,
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  Speaker 2: you don't need to veer hard right into racist white
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  Speaker 2: nationalist territory to be upset about local infrastructure. What you
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  Speaker 2: do in that case is run for city council.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Interesting discussion about this group and another great take
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  Speaker 1: this morning. I appreciate it.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks. Thank you, Jim.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: There he goes, John Litke. Litke's got a take. He'll
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: be back with us on, when is it, Friday morning
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: at 9.15.