What made a mentorship like that so impactful?

In every industry, but especially the oil field, you know, it's, you know, work by your back, work by your sweat, get the job done.

Who can help me as the leader to get my work accomplished the fastest and most efficient and the safest? But when, you know, Shannon was the name, when he took it and said, hey, I'm actually going to take this person, and I think he understood, I'm going to take this person and I'm going to teach them why they're doing this and not just tell them to do this.

And what I have found out is I adopted that and moved forward with it.

And when people understand why they're doing something versus just blindly doing it because you told them, they take a little more ownership into it.

And then they take a little more pride into it.

And then it becomes their own.

Looking back, what lessons have the oil field have stayed with you the most, even outside the energy industry?

it.What did you learn about the West End Gang in particular, and why did you feel, again, I'll use the word compelled, to add to the, to the story that you guys created in the original Kings of Coke?

Well, so in the original Kings of Coke, we end in the early '90s, in, uh, 1992, and w- what we learned is after that, you know, guys like Dooney Ryan and Allen Ross, who are kind of considered kingpins within the West End Gang, Dooney is killed, Allen ends up in, uh, American prison for life.

The Maddox brothers kind of emerge as the next sort of like, you know, top dogs in, in the organization, the West End Gang, which is not really an organization, but i- they, they are the most visible ones, and they have a stranglehold on the port.

Uh, and what we learned was just how deep that went, uh, how deep their connections went, and what their...

Uh, how much...

How respected they were within the community, both, you know, uh, in the port and outside of the port, i- in Point Saint Charles, for instance, and the Irish community.

They were really integrated into, uh, the community, and, and people looked out for them.

How did he end up here, and what took him to BC, where the real crazy part of the story begins?

So what does this, what new aspects does this reveal?

So New Blood takes off kind of where the first Kings of Coke ended, which is like in the early 90s.

And it shows how the West End gang sort of got sucked into the biker war in Quebec from like 94 to 2002.

And, you know, the sort of reach of the West End Gang kind of reaches its peak.

The international connections that they have, as well as their kind of control of the port.

And, you know, there's this sort of epic biker war happening, yet the West End Gang is supplying both sides, the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine, which is, you know, a very dangerous game to be playing on a lot of fronts.

Who's Rory Shane?

So Rory Shane is a bank robber, most infamous for robbing a bank with a helicopter on Côte Vertue back in 1979, which was just one of multiple brazen crimes he committed, including he robbed a bank in British Columbia, which he got away.

So what is this? What do, what, what new aspects, uh, does this reveal?

So New Blood takes off kind of where the first Kings of Coke ended, uh, which is like the, in the early '90s, and it, it shows how the West End Gang sort of got sucked into the, the biker war, uh, in Quebec from like '94 to 2002.

And, you know, the, the, the sort of reach of the West End Gang kind of reaches its, its peak.

The c- the international connections that they have as well as their, their kind of control of the port and, you know.

There's, there's this sort of epic biker war happening, uh, yet the, the West End Gang is, is supplying both sides, the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine, which is, you know, a very dangerous game to be playing on, on a lot of fronts.

Yeah.

Uh, which is, you know, a dangerous thing to do because we're talking about, uh, you know, a world that is very violent, very dangerous, very self-serving.

And so as much as, you know, with, let's say, Rory Shane or New Blood, I mean, we, we kind of really wanna highlight the, these moments of, that are sort of incredible, incredulous or, or, or whatever.

It's been a long time in the making, and we could go back, uh, to the 1980s and the 1990s and seeing the level of welfare benefits in Australia not keep pace-

pace-With the actual cost of living, which is why ACOSS in its, uh, pre-budget submission to the federal government called for a $26 a day uplift to JobSeeker to bring people on basic welfare benefits up to the, uh, acceptable poverty line, the, the pension, uh, line actually.

And Andrew Wilkie, uh, MP yesterday actually said, and I'm quoting him directly, "The fuel and cost of living crises are hitting hard, but there is simply no excuse for anyone going hungry in one of the richest countries in the world.

Many Australians are in need of emergency food relief because the government's priorities are currently wrong, and now is the time to rebalance our priorities." And that's the perspective that we take on this issue of food insecurity.

We say that food is a fundamental human right, and that's not pie in the sky wishful thinking.

That's actually part of international law that the Australian government signed us up to back in 1976, but has never actually put into domestic legislation.

So with the federal government now developing Feeding Australia, the national food security strategy, we say that a key pillar of that should be finally, uh, joining 120 other countries around the world, making access to good, healthy, nutritious food, uh, and affordable food, a basic human right available to everybody in this country.

Instead, we as local communities could take more control of our food supplies, growing at home, community gardens, supporting agriculture, and supporting local businesses." Nick, how do you reconcile these, these two things that seem at odds with each other?