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The AIH Transcript for January, 2018

Hosts: Helen Mann and Jeff Douglas

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

HELEN MANN: Hello, I'm Helen Mann.

JEFF DOUGLAS: Good evening, I'm Jeff Douglas. This is As It Happens.

JD: Tonight…

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HM: Adding injury to insult. When a Toronto police officer comes forward to complain that a colleague had sent her sexually explicit photos superiors took action — they docked her pay.

JD: In loving memory of a forgotten man. Before this week, when Bruce McArthur was charged with his murder, Dean Lisowick’s disappearance hadn't even been officially recorded — but our guest remembers him well.

HM: Doctors ordered. Judges agree it might violate some physicians religious rights but an Ontario court has still upheld a policy requiring them to at least give a referral to patients asking for an abortion or help in dying.

JD: Charity ends at home. FEMA says it won't fully pull out of Puerto Rico after all. But the mayor of San Juan says the scale of the disaster in the U.S. territory demands the agency not scale back.

HM: In life he cracked the whip — lots and lots of it. Which is why Miracle Whip features so prominently in this surprisingly hilarious obituary for the late Terry Ward, written by his daughter who also managed to work in electrical tape and ABBA.

JD: And…Flight manifest destiny. A Norwegian Airlines plane develops toilet problems mid-flight. But even though a full 60 passengers are professional plumbers their hopes of saving the day are nothing more than a pipe dream. As It Happens: The Wednesday Edition. Radio that knows they wanted to help but they couldn't take the plunger.

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Part 1: Police Complaint, Assisted Death Referrals, Father Obituary

Police Complaint

Guest: Barry Swadron

JD: When a female police officer in Toronto filed a complaint with her superiors she wasn't expecting to be punished for it. Jessica McInnis, a 20-year veteran with the Toronto Police Service, alleges her male colleagues sent her sexually explicit photographs of himself in 2015 and then continued to sexually harass her in person on the job. But when she came forward with the allegations recently she was docked eight hours pay. Barry Swadron is her lawyer, he has helped her lodge a complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.

HM: Mr. Swadron, why was your client docked eight hours pay for telling her superiors about the sexual harassment that she'd faced on the job?

BARRY SWADRON: I think you'll have to get a higher and mightier person to tell you why because I can't figure it out.

HM: What was she told was the reason?

BS: She was harassed over a couple of years and she received all kinds of e-mails and text messages et cetera. And apparently, a group of officers at that station had what they called “The Dream Team” and they used to send messages and because she was a recipient she was penalized. And she came forward when the harassment became so difficult that she couldn't bear it.

HM: But in your client's submission to the Human Rights Tribunals she alleges that one of her superiors faults her for not bringing the harassment allegations forward more quickly. Was that not one of the reasons they were making…

BS: That’s one of the things that she was told. But I am a student of the world and I see countless women coming forward right after, a month after, a year after, 10 years after — they're not penalized for when they come forward. There are all kinds of reasons why she didn't come forward right away. She was hoping that the assailant would be transferred. She was hoping that she would be transferred. She was hoping that it would subside

HM: So she was docked eight hours of pay. What was the alleged assailant, Detective Mark Morris, what kind of penalty did he get?

BS: He was docked the same amount.

HM: Take us back, if you will, to 2015 and some of the complaints that Sergeant Jessica McInnis alleged happened to her at the time?

BS: Well, she would get these text messages, e-mails that had penises on them. He called his penis Anaconda. At one point he said that he would like to sleep over at her apartment, just things that upset her terribly.

HM: In one of the exchanges, an iMessage, she says she texted detective Morris that she had hit her eye on a table and had to get stitches, and he said “People would believe it if you said the Anaconda slipped and I hit your eye.” Is that the kind of tone we're talking about?

BS: That’s exactly it. It is pretty clear that he wanted to have sex with her. He turned into a bully as well. I'm not sure whether it was because she didn't accept his advances or she rebuffed him — he became a total bully. He would shout at her and yell at her in front of others as if he were her superior and he wasn't her superior, he was of equal rank. As a matter of fact, she had been in the service longer than him.

HM: Did she ask him to stop this behaviour?

BS: Oh yes, many, many times.

HM: Your client also talks about a culture that supports, or puts up with, sexual harassment. She describes a sexist culture in 14 Division but says that it's not unique in the force as a whole. What impact did that have on her and her decision about what she should do about what was going on?

BS: Like, right now she moved to a different division where it's not as bad. She's a wonderful police officer. She is happy being a police officer. She wants to continue.

HM: And yet this week Jessica McInnis accepted responsibility for her actions with regard to the receiving of this material and accepted the penalty of the eight hours pay being docked. Why didn't she fight that?

BS: That was on legal advice. If she didn't accept it it would go to the police disciplinary tribunal and we were concerned if they made a finding against her that it could not be overturned by the Human Rights Tribunal. I think that not one good thinking person would ever think that a woman who has been harrassedand came forward would be punished for what transpired. We've got the prime minister of Canada and the premier of Ontario saying that women who come forward should be supported. Well, what kind of support did she get when she came forward?

HM: What position has Detective Mark Morris taken in this?

BS: His lawyer, he says that the allegations are false and misleading. Well, it's going to be very difficult when all of these documents, e-mail messages, they're all in black and white. They're written down. It's going to be awfully difficult, if not impossible, to prove that these allegations are false and misleading. You'd have to be the Oracle at Delphi to dispute that these allegations are true, and for the life of me I don't know if the chief of police is listening, or the top brass, how they allow this to go on and how they're fighting this poor woman who was sexually harassed and maligned and is trying to keep her head above water.

HM: I think most people would agree that it would be unfair to expect someone who was the victim of the kind of allegations that she is making be the one to make a stark life change, but has she considered leaving the force?

BS: Not so far as I'm aware. I speak to her almost every day or every other day. Obviously she's concerned that they're trying to drum her out of the force but she's hoping that members of the public will rally to her defense.

HM: Mr. Swadron, it's a complicated story but I really appreciate you taking us through it. Thank you very much.

BS: Thanks for speaking to me.

HM: All right goodbye.

BS: Bye

JD: Barry Swadron is a lawyer. He is representing Toronto Police Sergeant Jessica McInnis who has lodged a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. We reached Mr. Swadron in Toronto. The lawyer representing Detective Mark Morris, the man Sergeant McInnis alleges sexually harassed her, told CBC that her allegations are “either false or deliberately misleading.” The Toronto Police Service had no comment.

[Music: Guitar]

Assisted Death Referrals

Guest: Andrew Taylor

JD: Today an Ontario judge upheld a policy requiring doctors to give referrals to patients who ask for help securing an abortion or an assisted death. That policy had been challenged by a group of doctors who say that it forces them to be part of something they believe to be wrong. And they did score a partial victory. The judge did find that the policy does infringe on their freedom of religion. However, the greater good of their patients is more important. Dr. Andrew Taylor is an emergency care doctor based in Eastern Ontario. We reached him in Ottawa.

HM: Dr. Taylor, in broad terms, what do you think of today's decision?

DOCTOR ANDREW TAYLOR: Well, broadly, I'm disappointed. The court agrees that our religious rights are being violated and this will affect our ability to practice in Ontario, to be honest.

HM: What does it mean for you personally when it comes to that type of medicine that you practice?

AT: Well, presently I'm practicing doing emergency medicine in a small rural emergency room. I have chosen that, in part, because I wouldn't be running into this particular issue of mandatory referral for euthanasia. I'm trained as a family physician and I would have hoped that I could at some point start up that practice again. But this actually makes it very difficult because, certainly, I'm going to be doing everything I can for my patients but presented with a request for physician assisted suicide or euthanasia, the college would require a mandatory referral, which goes against my conscience.

HM: But if you would not be the doctor actually participating in the assisted death, you're just not comfortable allowing a patient to see someone else providing the opportunity for patients to see someone else who would do that?

AT: Well, certainly I'd be grieved seeing somebody — one of my patients who I’ve come to know and to care for choose that route. But to answer your question more directly, the actual act of referring somebody on, which is what the policy of the CPSO speaks to, is requiring me to be an active participant, which, frankly, I consider to be immoral.

HM: The judge did agree that the policy violates the right to freedom of religion but said it was justified because of the benefit to the public at large. If you could directly address the judge what would you say?

AT: I would say I'd be very disappointed and I would actually state that his rationale for saying that it is acceptable to violate our rights to freedom of religion, freedom of conscience in favor of increasing access. I think he is going to be mistaken, unfortunately, because a lot of physicians, I think, are going to choose not to practice over deciding to violate their conscience. The ones who are not, I mean, a large number of physicians are not in favour of referring and I think it will actually decrease access to care overall. In addition to that the government has actually set up a registry where patients can access that if they want to seek out a physician who will provide physician assisted suicide. So there really isn't an — so if I were talking to the judge there really isn't an access problem.

HM: If you got your way wouldn't some patients have better access to these services than others?

AT: I would actually disagree because well, right now if this ruling came down there would be more doctors who would have to leave. So there would actually be a decrease in access to physician care overall.

HM: Are you suggesting that there are more doctors out there than we might realize who share a position that you do?

AT: Yes, absolutely. I know a number of my own colleagues and I've heard that there's about at least a thousand doctors within Ontario who put their name on a database stating that they would not be willing to refer for a physician assisted suicide.

HM: If a patient were to come to you tomorrow, I know you're working in emergency care but you've developed relationships with people, if someone were to come to you tomorrow and ask for help in securing the assisted death what do you say to them?

AT: Well, I would want to find out what is going on with them. That's a terrible situation to find somebody and they must be suffering deeply and I want to do everything that I could to find out why they’d come to an emergency room to determine why they decided to ask for that and see what things we could address going from there.

HM: Yeah, but of course, that's not what I'm asking. I'm saying perhaps you developed a relationship with the patient as a physician and they trust your input.

AT: Yeah. Well, in that case I would have to I'd have to say that there are other avenues available to them that they could they could access. But certainly, I don't think — I would still need to practice with integrity that I couldn't in good conscience. I think I'd tell them you know what you want a doctor that’s practicing with integrity and I would say I have to maintain that, I have to maintain my integrity for your sake. And I wouldn't be able to refer them on as are asking. The options available to them though.

HM: So would you violate the policy of the your body, your governing body?

AT: You’re it trying to get me to say something that I — I honestly don't know if I've ever been put in that position. So I would not want — I’ve placed myself into a position where I don't have to run into that situation. So I won't have to violate the policy, if that answers your question.

HM: All right well, Dr. Taylor I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today. Thank you very much.

AT: Thank you very much Ms. Mann.

HM: Bye-bye

AT: Bye.

JD: Dr. Andrew Taylor is an emergency care doctor. We reached him in Ottawa.

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Andrew Scheer

Guest: Barbara Ehrenreich

JD: In the days since Rick Dykstra resigned as president of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party the fallout has largely been contained to the provincial party. Now however, it is becoming a more serious issue for the federal Conservatives, because before he was the head of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Mr. Dykstra was a federal Member of Parliament. And according to a report in Maclean's magazine Conservative Party officials allowed Mr. Dykstra to stand as a candidate in 2015 — and they did that despite knowing that he was accused of sexual misconduct. Today federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer said that he has instructed his party to launch an independent investigation into questions surrounding Rick Dykstra’s federal candidacy. Here's what he had to say.

SOUNDCLIP

ANDREW SCHEER: Recently there have been serious allegations about a decision taken by unnamed individuals involved with the party's 2015 campaign. Anonymous sources have claimed that the decision in question allowed a specific candidate to run for our party despite serious sexual assault allegations. Now it is difficult to ascertain the facts when sources are speaking anonymously to the media. So to gather these facts I have instructed the Conservative Party of Canada to retain the services of an outside independent third-party who can investigate the situation fully. On a go forward basis, we will be strengthening the code of conduct for all party staff and ensuring candidates are subject to it as well. The additional measures will include mandatory training. Once we have these processes established I will make the details available to our caucus, to candidates and conservative party members.

JD: That was federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer speaking earlier today.

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Father Obituary

Guest: Jean Lahm

JD: Miracle Whip, ABBA, electrical tape — likely you are not going to make a connection there. But for Jean Lahm those three things have one thing in common — and that is her late dad. She wrote about him and about them and about a lot more in his obituary, which has been shared widely since he died last week. Terry Ward was 71 years old. We reached Jean Lahm in Crown Point, Indiana.

HM: Ms. Lahm, I'm really sorry about the loss of your dad.

JEAN LAHM: Thank you so much. Thank you.

HM: What has it been like to see so many people sharing what you wrote about him?

JL: Oh, wow. I have been absolutely shocked. When I wrote this obituary I knew it had to be funny because that was my dad. It felt very natural to me, you know, knowing that the audience of this would be just the people who know him. When it went viral it was unbelievable. I've just been thrilled with how it has made so many people laugh now around the world.

HM: Maybe you can give us a sense of the obituary by reading a couple of lines?

JL: Oh sure, sure. I really like this paragraph. He despised uppity foods like hummus, which his family lovingly called bean dip for his benefit, which he loved consequently. He couldn't give a damn about most material things and automobiles were never to be purchased new. He never owned a personal cellphone and he had zero working knowledge of the Kardashians.

[LAUGHTER]

HM: I get a real sense of who he was from that alone. It's quite funny though, he didn't like the idea of hummus but he liked to eat it.

JL: We knew that if we called it hummus he would not even try it. He considered that to be kind of too uppity of a food perhaps, so I would just say ‘Dad I made some bean dip,’ and he would say ‘Oh this is pretty good,’ he'd say.

[LAUGHTER]

HM: Were there other things you sneaked in front of him disguising them?

JL: Yeah, absolutely. If I were to make, for example, a grilled vegetable panini I would call that a cheese and onion sandwich — which he loved.

[LAUGHTER]

JL: If I called it a Panini, no, absolutely not.

HM: I love it. Now, in the first sentence you mention your dad in connection with a zombie apocalypse. What's going on there?

JL: We always teased him. He stocked up on canned goods and things like that, he just did. Truly, I think he got that from his parents who were Depression babies and it was just kind of handed down to him. Preparedness was a big part of who he was. And so he stacked up on all these foods. Do you really need 5 bottles to ketchup? What are you doing with all of this? And, you know, it was it was really a family joke our whole lives.

HM: So he wasn’t, you know, a survivalist or a hoarder, he was just someone who didn't want to run out?

JL: Absolutely not. He was he wasn't a survivalist or anything like that. No.

HM: You imply that he really loved Miracle Whip.

[LAUGHTER]

JL: You know, and there were not literally 32 jars of Miracle Whip. We just we always, in our family, we just — my sisters and I found it hysterical. We would open a cabinet in his garage or something and there would be, you know, maybe 3-4 jars of miracle. That's a whole lot to us, you know. So we would say “What in the world is this? And we would laugh and it would be hysterical.

HM: There was also a section about his love of electrical tape. I recognize that from my own dad. What was his connection? Why did he have all that?

JL: Oh, my goodness. He worked for the phone company. And so working with wires you have, you know, he has access to black electrical tape, so he would take it home and it was just one of those things used for everything. If tape was used with something it was black tape because it was there. He always carried a roll on him as if, you know, he would be prepared for any sort of tape emergency that might occur outside of the home.

[LAUGHTER]

HM: Now your dad was also a veteran. What did he tell you about that?

JL: He didn't talk about his experiences in the Vietnam War. I know that he was in active combat frontline type of a situation. And so I think that, you know, he probably saw some rough things there and that's, you know, I'm sure why he wasn't forthcoming with talking about it. And that was okay, everyone just thought that was okay. We do know he was very proud to serve his country. He volunteered for the army and volunteered to serve in the Vietnam War. And he was very proud of that and with good reason.

HM: You list in the obituary, things your father enjoyed doing, bands he liked to listen to. What are some of the things those things?

JL: He had great music taste. He loved those sort of early rock and roll bands like Cream and The Grass Roots and Grand Funk Railroad and CCR and he also loved ABBA. That was just a very kind of different.

HM: It's really different from the other ones you listed.

[LAUGHTER]

JL: He loved the song Fernando. I remember hanging with him in his garage — when I was in college my college friends — my dad would play Fernando and we would all sing it. So yeah, I know, that that throws everyone off but really truly ABBA has a lot of good music, I will say.

HM: Right. Now, I guess, the thing I want to know is how you hope people will think of your dad based on how you've told his story? What do you hope they'll take away from all of this?

JL: What I hope they'll take away is exactly what I'm reading as I pored through kind of hundreds of comments on Facebook from people who never knew him. And, you know, things like, you know, this is this is a good way of life. This is someone who enjoyed life. And also what they're taking away is that, you know, you can bring humour into an obituary. Going forward, I really hope that we will see more obituaries like this, where people can, you know, honour their loved one just through humor.

HM: Well, Ms. Lahm, it's been a pleasure to speak with you and hear your memories of your dad. Thanks for talking with us.

JL: Thank you so much.

HM: Okay, bye-bye.

JL: Bye-bye.

JD: We reached Jean Lam in Crown Point, Indiana.

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Part 2: Puerto Rico Mayor, Bruce McArthur Follow

Puerto Rico Mayor

Guest: Carmen Yulín Cruz

JD: The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency says it is not abandoning Puerto Rico — but rumblings from FEMA certainly are not giving residents of the island much hope. Yesterday the agency said it would soon halt shipments of food and water, claiming that enough of the local infrastructure was up and running. Today though after a backlash the agency did back off a bit saying it would keep supporting areas of the island that have what it called a quote “identified need.” Carmen Yulín Cruz is the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico. And that is where we reached her.

HM: Mayor Cruz, what did you think when you first heard that FEMA was considering ending food and water shipments to your island?

MAYOR CARMEN YULIN CRUZ: Well, you know, it was appalling as it was to a lot of Puerto Ricans. This past Monday I had to send in water and powdered milk to a school in a place called Morovis, about 45 minutes from San Juan. And in a lot of the places where there is still no electricity 136 days after the storm, people cannot really, you know, maintain their jobs. The economy is really in disarray so everyone is really disappointed because, really, things have not been handled the way they should have been handled, this humanitarian crisis that has been botched from the beginning. And President Trump’s administration continues to not do enough for the Puerto Rican people.

HM: Shortly after this news came out that FEMA was considering the end of these shipments they changed their tune. I mean, they actually said that they would not be pulling out altogether. What do you think is going on?

CYC: Well, it's very — there's a lot of disarray, it’s very structured. The Puerto Rican government mentioned yesterday that they had no fair warning. They continued to take away resources before everything is stabilized. Back in October, they said they were taking the Army, the Army Reserve out because it was not needed anymore. Yesterday FEMA said mission accomplished. So when you say one thing one day and the next day you have to just turn back exactly on what you said, there is really no structured approach to what you're doing. And a lot of what has been happening has been really made really worse because of the bad management of the Trump administration.

HM: Now, you said to me a few moments ago that there are places in Puerto Rico that are still very dependent on support. How much of that is FEMA aid? I mean, if they were to indeed pull out what would it mean for those people who are still struggling?

CYC: It would mean, basically, that their life support would be diminished. Most of our hospitals are still running on generators, because even those of us that have power, the power grid is very unreliable. You can't have power today and tomorrow you don't have power, or in the same day you go on and off the grid a couple of times. Thirty-five percent of Puerto Ricans about, 750,000 people, still have no power and have seen no power. And the expectancy that the Army Corps of Engineers is telling us is that will get power by May or June of this year. You know, we continue to push for things that are good in Puerto Rico, one, we need a waiver to the staffer act, the Disaster Relief Act that gives birth to FEMA. Because what FEMA expects us to do is that if we have a home that was made out of wood and a zinc top to rebuild at exactly the same way — that that makes no sense. It is not a good use of tax-payers money. Puerto Rico is a small island, it's 100 miles long by 35 miles wide. And up until Irma and Maria all of the energy was generated from the southern part of the island. Now there's some turbines on the northern part of the island that were working, one of them just went off the grid altogether a couple of hours ago. So it's very unstable. The other thing that we need is a waiver on the Jones Act. Let's say for example that Canada would want to send a shipment of some particular aid. Well, you know, it would have to come in a ship with an American flag. Now that makes things a lot more expensive. So at least we are asking for a moratorium, I believe, in the complete repeal of the Jones Act because it makes our life more expensive between 30 and 32 per cent more expense.

HM: Last night you were in Washington at the State of the Union address and President Trump did mention the recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and elsewhere. He said we are with you. We love you and we will pull through together. What did you think, what did you feel as you heard him say that?

CYC: Well I initially felt a knot in my stomach and then I realized I had just witnessed a powerful act of hypocrisy. President Trump says one thing and then does another thing. He says he's interested in the Puerto Rican economy and in his so-called tax reform he imposes a 20 per cent income tax on whatever products come in from Puerto Rico. Yesterday was the day when FEMA said they were going to stop all distribution of water and food supplies. So really the Trump administration has not done by the people of Puerto Rico and we have paid the price, the ultimate price. We were granted a citizenship in 1917, just in the nick of time to be drafted for World War One. And we have participated and shed our blood in every conflict ever since. The truth is that the botched effort of the Trump administration has been so catastrophic that it is really turned a really bad situation into a humanitarian crisis and a violation of the human rights of the Puerto Rican people.

HM: Mayor Cruz, I thank you very much for joining us today.

CYC: No, thank you. And I want to thank all the Canadians that continue to write to us and send their love and our gratitude goes to you and please don't forget us. There are a lot of people down here that still are just waging war against life and death.

HM: All right, well all the best in your continued efforts at recovering from all of this.

CYC: Thank you very much.

HM: Bye-bye.

JD: Carmen Yulín Cruz is the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico. That is where we reached her.

[Music: 90’s Pop]

Listener Response: Found Tortoise

JD: Now a tortoise on the run is not usually cause for excitement because, honestly, by the time you get excited you have likely caught it. That was not the case for Tallulah the tortoise who we told you about last night. Tallulah disappeared for a full six months and her owners went to great lengths to find her, although, Tallulah herself went to not so great lengths. Because after all that time she was discovered a mere 322 metres away. After that interview Mary Watson from Pincher Creek, Alberta sent us this e-mail.

HM: In 1970 or so, our red eared turtle Sam went on the lam. Sam, originally bought at Woolworths for a quarter, was my older brother's pet. One sunny June day as Ken was cleaning out Sam's tank on the patio, my mother asked Kent if he would pick some flowers for her. Looking at Sam basking in the sun Ken decided there was no harm leaving him at large. Sam, it turned out, had other ideas. And when Ken returned a few minutes later Sam was gone. We searched high, we searched low, how far could a turtle go if a turtle was, as turtles generally are, slow. Days passed. No Sam. Weeks passed. No Sam. Months passed. No Sam. It was a total mystery. Until, that is, the September day when my father mowing the lawn on the far side of the house spied a rock in his path. Bending down to toss it out of the way, he realized that his rock was our Sam. Sam had grown in his summer freedom. He was a couple of inches longer and wider having enjoyed the apparent feast all of our yard had to offer, from grasshoppers to flies. How he managed to elude us so completely is a mystery we never ceased to wonder at. But all that really mattered is that Sam was home at last as safe as safe could be.

JD: Thank you so much for sharing Sam's great adventure with us, Mary Watson. We are on Twitter and Facebook, both those accounts. CBC As It Happens. Our Talkback number is 416-205-5687. Our email address is aih@cbc.ca.

[Music: Laidback Jazz]

Bruce McArthur Follow

Guest: Nicki Ward

JD: He deserves to be remembered with the dignity and grace. That is a line from a tribute to the late Dean Lisowick, written by Nicky Ward. Mr. Lisowick is one of the five men that Bruce McArthur now stands accused of murdering. Toronto police say that Mr. Lisowick may have been alive as recently as this past July. But the truth is — his disappearance was never recorded by the authorities. Ms. Ward, who wrote that tribute, is the director of the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association. We reached her in Toronto via Skype.

HM: Nicki Ward, why did you want to write this remembrance for Dean Lisowick?

NICKI WARD: Well, I'm an LGBT advocate in the community and for the past months, in fact, years, I've been speaking in a more general way about the events the serial and the problems with our local policing. But when news of Dean Lisowick came through I was so terribly, terribly touched. He was like, he was a known face in our community and it didn't feel like there was anybody speaking for him. I held off for about 24 hours and realized that nobody else was stepping up and I just felt compelled to say something, even if it's not my place, I just felt compelled to do so.

HM: Can you tell us then a bit about him and how you are remembering Dean Lisowick?

NW: He was a very gentle soul. That's what most people are saying in the comments and that’s certainly my experience of him. He was street-involved and so had a bit of a street persona. But what really shone through was his quietness, his politeness and very vulnerable quality, and my heart just broke, so terribly sad.

HM: You speak of him being street-involved and maybe unable to express that gentle nature. Do you think the public would have understood the people who necessarily saw him in the neighbourhood, who he was?

NW: You know, I'm seeing the comments and it's so incredibly touching. There are other people who lived in the neighbourhood, who had their own interaction with Mr. Lisowick and everybody says much the same thing, that he may well have been street-involved but he was definitely a part of our neighbourhood an extension of our community. The only thing I'm seeing are messages of compassion.

HM: The only photograph available Dean Lisowick now appears to be that mug shot. It's unfortunate. I'm just wondering what it's like for you to know that that is how people are seeing him?

NW: Well, I'm looking at a picture of him right now and what I see is not a criminal mugshot, but a very sad, sad — the thousand yard stare in the posts that I wrote that that's what I referred to. I don't see any mug shot. I see just a sad wounded individual.

HM: Can you give us a sense of the kind of life he was leading on the streets perhaps?

NW: He did odd jobs around and helped out where he could, he panhandled here and there, folks maybe helped out with a meal. But he was a good soul and welcomed as part of our community.

HM: We have heard that he was a user of the shelter system in Toronto and, as we mentioned earlier, that his disappearance was not logged by police. What do you think of the kind of vulnerability someone in his position might have in terms of the potential for violence given that marginalized position?

NW: It's deeply troubling, the folks that we're talking about on the margins of society, whether because they're under-housed, or because they're poor, or because they're members of the LGBT community or perhaps people of colour. That's the common thread they’re on the outskirts of society. And one of the problems we have is that our reports of missing persons were not taken seriously, in some cases, seven years ago. We’ve been resolute in bringing our issues to the fore, but it seems that unless someone is yelling and screaming to the Toronto Police Services are not prepared to listen. It's very unfortunate and certainly not helpful going forward.

HM: Your first line in the remembrance was “There but for the grace of God go I.” What do you mean by that?

NW: Well there but for the grace of God go any one of us. The missing and murdered people, some of them are identified as gay men, some of them, of course, some of them were other members of the LGBT community and any one of us could have been on unrecorded or not deemed important enough to report as missing. This has really touched all of us very, very deeply. The people who have gone missing and murdered, and not just the gentleman but the other the other folks as well, it's a relatively small and close-knit community. There are no degrees of separation between us and these folks. Everybody knows at least one, many of us knew more than one. It's a terribly tragic story and I'm glad that on a personal level, which is why I originally posted this, I was able to say something to make sure that Mr. Lisowick was remembered. One of the issues here is that the murder was always referred to with an honourific, but the victims rarely so. And so I wanted to make sure that Mr. Lisowick was honoured properly in any way accurate.

HM: Do you think that the Church Wellesley neighborhood will find, perhaps, a more formal way to honor Mr. Lisowick’s memory and that of the others whose names are emerging?

NW: Absolutely, we're a very resilient community. The trouble is, of course, that so many more bodies are turning up and so many more, we suspect, will. And so we cannot even begin to approach closure as a list of people continues to rise. So it's very challenging, even in a neighbourhood like ours that dealt with the AIDS crisis, spoke out about the Orlando shootings, we have the capabilities but we've never seen anything on this scale and it continues to emerge.

HM: When something like this happens, obviously, it affects a community, but it affects the individuals as well. How are you yourself doing?

NW: I don't even know the answer to that question, frankly. I'm just doing the next right thing. And then the next right thing and the next right thing. Many of my colleagues have have put in sterling yeoman service but just can't give anymore. I'm still keep on keeping on — but it's so, so very difficult for all of us.

HM: What are you trying to do for each other?

NW: We hug each other a lot when we see each other on the street. We check in say ‘How you doing?’ And this is a community that is characterized by a great — I’m sorry. I live here for a very good reason, because of the wonderful people here. And I have never felt more a part of anything. And we just try and take care of each other best we can.

HM: Thank you again for speaking with us.

NW: And thank you again, so very much, because this is about Mr. Lisowick, who doesn't have a voice to represent him, so thank you for the opportunity to do that as well.

HM: Thank you.

NW: Bye-bye.

HM: Bye-bye.

JD: Nicki Ward is the director of the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association. We reached her in Toronto. And you can find her tribute to Mr. Dean Lisowick work on her website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Blues Guitar]

Plumbing Airline

JD: In Passenger 57 it is a retired U.S. Secret Service agent played by Wesley Snipes. In Flight Plan, it's an aviation engineer played by Jodie Foster. In Nonstop, it is a former cop turned air marshal played by Liam Neeson. Whenever someone tries to hijack a plane in a movie it always just so happens that someone on board has a special expertise that averts disaster — but obviously that's Hollywood. When a real hijacking takes place on a flight it's much harder to be a hero — even when you and dozens of your friends are uniquely, oddly qualified to step in. When a Norwegian Airlines flight left Oslo for Munich on Saturday everything seemed fine. But then suddenly a hijacker was revealed — the onboard toilet. And until it got what it wanted, which was to be fixed, it would hold every passenger hostage. But there was a twist. And if this story were an action movie you would have walked out of the theater because it is so implausible. On board that flight on Saturday, were 85 employees of the Norwegian plumbing company Rørkjøp — 60 of whom were actual qualified plumbers. But wait, there's another twist. And it guarantees that there will never be an aeroplane thriller called Busted Flush starring The Rock, when it comes to fixing the facility's Rørkjøp Chief executive Frank Olsen said quote “Unfortunately it had to be done from the outside, and we did not take the opportunity to send a plumber at 10,000 metres. In the end the flight just circled back to Oslo and the flight was rescheduled. And so it turned out to be less exciting than Conair — slightly — but also less far-fetched and sadder, because for all those frustrated would be heroes the inability to wrench must have been wrenching.

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Part 3: BBC Pay, Toe Nail Clippings

Veterans Supreme Court

Guest: Martin Lalli

JD: He calls it a national disgrace. That is how retired major Mark Campbell described his ongoing legal battle with the federal government at a news conference earlier today. Major Campbell is one of six disabled veterans known as the Equitas group. They are seeking better pensions for injured soldiers. Since their pensions were overhauled in 2006 the group says Ottawa has failed to provide adequate compensation to disabled veterans and to uphold a quote “solemn obligation to care for soldiers injured in the line of duty.” At today's news conference Major Campbell announced the group is now taking their case to the Supreme Court.

SOUNDCLIP

MAJOR MARK CAMPBELL: We're here in Ottawa today to announce that as of this morning we have formally filed with the Supreme Court of Canada seeking leave for an appeal. Specifically, we're requesting the permission of the Supreme Court to appeal a recent decision by the B.C. appellate court that struck down our claims of inadequate compensation for Afghanistan war wounds. You may recall that our case began five years ago in the B.C. Supreme Court where we successfully argued that the government of Canada had inappropriately reduced disability compensation for ill and injured members of Canadian Armed Forces in the middle of the Afghan war by enacting the widely despised New Veterans Charter. The government of Canada appealed our positive judgment and was successful based on what we believe were questionable grounds. We're appealing the findings of the B.C. appellate court, specifically the shocking determination of the judges that there exists no social covenant which assures service personnel injured or killed in the line of duty that they and their families will be appropriately cared for. The social covenant has formed the basis of Canada's relationship with its all-volunteer armed forces for 100 years. In the absence of a covenant, there is no guarantee of reciprocal care for disabled service personnel, and this creates a fundamental imbalance in the long standing relationship between Canada and our servicemen and women which cannot be tolerated. In effect, why would members of our armed forces continue to put their lives on the line for a country which promises them no reciprocal care if they're ill or injured in the line of duty. I would never allow my children to join such an organisation nor given the choice again would I join. Worse is the fact that this new uncertainty is occurring in the midst of a military recruiting and retention crisis. The armed forces are short thousands of trained soldiers, airmen and air women and sailors. You cannot ask for worse timing for a bad legal decision which is tossed a 100-year-old national relationship, dating back to the eve of Vimy Ridge, on the trash bin. So we're appealing to the Supreme Court because we believe we have no choice. The lack of a social covenant and reciprocal care and compensation for Canada's ill, injured and wounded cannot be allowed to persist. This situation is one of serious national importance which must be resolved by the Supreme Court of Canada.

JD: That was retired Major Mark Campbell speaking at a news conference in Ottawa earlier today. Major Campbell is one of six veterans in an ongoing legal battle with the federal government to improve pensions for soldiers injured in the line of duty. The veterans are now taking their case to the Supreme Court.

[Music: Sombre Guitar Plucks]

Carrie Gracie

Guest: Professor Kenneth Catania

JD: It was a bold move when Carrie Gracie quit her post as BBC's China editor on its own, but in some remarkable testimony before British MPs today, Ms. Gracie proved she is just getting started. She is still employed by the BBC in London. She quit her post in China this month to protest the wage gap between men and women at the BBC. And today a parliamentary committee hearing she did not hold back in criticizing her employer. Here's part of what she said.

SOUNDCLIP

CARRIE GRACIE: My case is just an example of the bigger problem. But it's a useful example because I was a senior person, who the BBC really wanted to keep in position, and yet even at the point where this arose and for six months I've been trying to get the BBC to take my issue seriously and it hasn't been possible for that to be resolved in the way that I feel is in accordance with the law. And so if the BBC can’t sort it out for me, you know, for me a senior person of 55 in a powerful position, then how can it sort it out for more vulnerable people who don't have a public profile. That's my concern and that's the only reason that I'm really prepared to talk about my case.

BBC Pay

Guest: Eleanor Bradford

JD: Eleanor Bradford was watching Carrie Gracie’s testimony. Ms. Bradford is a former BBC Scotland health correspondent who also quit her post, in part, over issues of pay inequality. We reached Eleanor Bradford in Murray, Scotland.

HM: Ms. Bradford, what is it like to hear Carrie Gracie speak so forcefully against the BBC in the British parliament today.

ELEANOR BRADFORD: I thought Carrie was magnificent. She has clearly been through the mill. I would say that I don't feel as angry as Carrie because I haven't sacrificed as much as she has. In order to be a correspondent at her level, she really wouldn't have seen her family very much, she had to move her whole family out to China at a particularly sensitive time for them. In my case — although I did sacrifice a lot for the BBC including my partner giving up his job because my job was so unpredictable he needed to stay at home to look after the children — but I was met with friendly stonewalling, I would describe it as. I wasn't bullied, I wasn't harassed when I asked for equal pay, but neither did any of the management really deal with my complaint properly. And even when they did admit that I was underpaid they didn't offer me any back pay — but it was all done in a very friendly way.

HM: Carrie Gracie said that her bosses justified the lower pay because they said she was in development. I mean, you've already indicated she had a very senior position. Does that make any sense to you given the job she held?

EB: It's clearly ridiculous. I mean, she wasn't someone who was in development. She was one of the only people who spoke Mandarin. She'd worked in China. She had a Chinese degree. There was simply no one else for that position. So that was clearly ridiculous. In my situation the frustration was that the men who were doing exactly the same job as me had a different job title, which was editor, which you would think meant a different level of responsibility, you would think that they had staff working for them or had more managerial responsibilities, but in actual fact, we all did exactly the same. And I actually measured and made sure that we had the same number of stories on air and the same profile and yet they were deemed worthy of this more senior title which allowed them to access the higher pay band.

HM: Did they have any more experience as journalists?

EB: One of them had been with the BBC longer and was, perhaps — yeah certainly — more experienced than me. I don't know whether the pay difference reflected that whether it was beyond that level of expertise. The other one was appointed after me and although he'd worked elsewhere he'd never broadcasted before.

HM: So after Carrie Gracie quit her post the BBC decided to commission a report to examine the issue of gender bias in pay, that came out yesterday. What did it determine?

EB: Well, that report found that whilst there where some discrepancies, it said that these could be explained because of different levels of experience, which I think really they clearly didn't look very hard. And the issue I have with that report is that it was a report that was commissioned from accountants and paid for by the BBC. And anyone who knows anything about research will tell you that if an organization pays another organization to do a report on it then that's automatic bias there. What I would have liked to have seen is an independently funded academic piece of research and then I would have given the findings a lot more credibility.

HM: Well, in fact, Ms. Gracie, and many of the other women who have come out to support her from the BBC, seem enraged by the findings of the report and the way it was handled. I mean, has it made the situation, perhaps, even worse for the BBC and given women more of a case?

EB: I certainly think the BBC hasn't handled itself in glory, particularly, in the way it's reacted to Carrie's situation and briefing against her and suggesting that she only worked 100 days a year. I mean, that's absolutely outrageous. The thing I would say is that, certainly from my experience at BBC Scotland, there were different situations in different departments, which might mean that when you look at the BBC as a whole some of the biggest discrepancies are ironed out slightly because there are not such big discrepancies in other departments. I also think that, you know, the BBC is having to deal with this issue which is a society issue. And if the pay packets of other organizations would were laid bare we would find a much bigger problem. But I still think that it should be the BBC that deals with this and maybe the BBC who has to deal with this first because it's paid for by us the public through a licence fee. And that means that it has a duty to be tackling this.

[Cat noise in the background]

HM: My goodness, that cat is very unhappy. Well, given the findings of this report the fact that the women who were complaining were not even consulted, I'm just wondering how much hope you have that the BBC will resolve this situation?

EB: To be fair, there had been some changes at the time I was leaving and when the new director general came in I could see that there was more of an effort to tackle this. But I still think that the measures it's outlined don't go far enough and aren’t fundamental enough. I think we need to have really, really good training about unconscious bias, training that really challenges people. I think that we need to end a culture where jobs are given over a cup of coffee. And there is still a situation at the BBC where short term contracts don't have to be put before a range of candidates at interviews, they can be given over coffee — it's called a cappuccino interview. So we need to end that because that favours male candidates. And we need to have more transparency over pay levels and stricter criteria and everyone on each point of the pay scale paid the same.

HM: Eleanor Bradford, I appreciate you talking with us today. Thank you very much.

EB: You're welcome.

JD: We reached former BBC correspondent Eleanor Bradford, and her cat, in Murray, Scotland.

[Music: Ambient Guitar]

Scott Pruitt

JD: It is safe to say that over the first year of the Trump administration Scott Pruitt has been an unwavering supporter of his boss. As head of the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, Mr. Pruitt has executed President Trump's deregulatory agenda with gusto. When Mr. Trump announced the U.S. would be withdrawing from the Paris climate change agreement Mr. Pruitt was one of his most steadfast supporters. Apparently though, that was not always the case. Before the election Mr. Pruitt was the attorney general of the state of Oklahoma, and in February of 2016 during an appearance on a local radio show and Tulsa, host Pat Campbell asked Mr. Pruitt his opinion of then candidate Trump. Here's part of that exchange.

SOUNDCLIP

PAT CAMPBELL: Given your comments about hubris, I'm going to say that you're probably not a big Trump supporter?

SCOTT PRUITT: No. You know, you say that Pat but you know what's interesting? I believe that Donald Trump in the White House would be more abuse of the Constitution than Barack Obama — and that's saying a lot.

PC: Wow. That’s a new clip Richard.

SP: I really believe when you look at —he would use a blunt instrument. This president at least tries to nuance his unlawfulness. Donald Trump has said many, many times ‘Day one I'll do this, I'll do that.’ And those things that he's mentioned cannot be done. I think executive orders with Donald Trump would be a very blunt instrument with respect to the Constitution.

PC: This is amazing because you're echoing, basically, what Glenn Beck has been saying for months. Everything that we loathe and detest about Barack Obama and the abuses of power, Donald Trump is the same thing — except he's our bully.

SC: And this president has basically taken an approach that says that if Congress doesn't act, or they don't act the way that I want them to, then I can act in their place. That’s just not how our system works. But this, you know, if Donald Trump is the nominee, and eventually the president, he would take, I think, unapologetic steps to use executive power to confront Congress in a way that is truly unconstitutional.

PC: It's funny because I had a conversation with my dad not long ago and my dad is an immigrant. He came here as a young child after World War II. And he doesn't —he's not real long winded like me. He summed up Donald Trump in one word. He said he's dangerous.

SC: You know, your dad is very astute, because I will say to you, I think he has tendencies that that we see in emerging countries around the world, where he goes to the disaffected, those individuals and say, look you give me power and I will give voice to your concerns. And that's a dangerous place to be.

JD: Scott Pruitt, who is now the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, speaking to Oklahoma radio host Pat Campbell in February of 2016. That recording was brought to light by the watchdog group Documented. A transcript of that exchange was read for Mr. Pruitt at a Senate hearing yesterday. He was asked if he remembered it, he said he did not. His office did however, issue a statement later that read in part quote “Now having the honour of working for him, it is abundantly clear that President Trump is the most consequential leader of our time. No one has done more to advance the rule of law than President Trump,” unquote. As we go to air no word as to whether the president — well the president has not addressed the recording — publicly.

Toe Nail Clippings

Guest: Dr. Anil Adisesh

JD: Somewhere in Atlantic Canada there are 32,000 toenail clippings just sitting in storage waiting. Now obviously, that fills many of us who are now sitting down to dinner with dread and disgust. But it fills the people collecting those toenail clippings with hope because those toenail clippings were collected as part of a giant health study of people from Atlantic Canada. And it is now thought that they could provide some insight into high rates of prostate cancer. Dr. Anil Adisesh is leading the research. We reached him in Saint John, New Brunswick.

HM: Dr. Adisesh, before we get into the research itself I'm just wondering, does it ever gross you out to be studying tens of thousands of strangers toenail clippings?

DOCTOR ANIL ADISESH: Oh no, we really quite love the toenails. It's great having access to over 32,000 toenails. The Guinness World Record Collection of toenails, in fact.

HM: You have bragging rights among researchers it sounds like.

AA: Sure.

HM: Now what exactly are you and your colleagues going to be doing with all these clippings?

AA: So what we want to do is to measure the concentrations of two metals cadmium and arsenic in the toenails. And we want to see if there's differences in the toenails from men who have told us that they have a diagnosis of prostate cancer comparing them with men without that diagnosis. And we're doing that in the Atlantic PATH population. These are Canadians from all over Atlantic Canada, 35,000 Canadians, that answered questions for us, took measurements, we've got measurements of height, weight, blood pressure. Many of them gave as blood samples about 23,000 blood samples, saliva samples, urine samples and the toenail clippings that I mentioned.

HM: What kind of concentrations of these metals could perhaps be found in the clippings?

AA: Concentrations can vary according to whether the person is somebody who might be exposed through work or whether they simply are exposed through the environment. And for those who are exposed in the environment, one of the sources is through well water. And so our colleagues in the Atlantic did do a study looking at just under a thousand people in Nova Scotia who are on well water measuring the well water and also the arsenic in the toenails. And they found a very strong correlation between the well water arsenic levels and the toenail concentrations.

HM: So why are toenails maybe better for you as a sample than perhaps hair or blood or tissue samples?

AA: The answer to hair is that there's a possibility with hair samples contamination of the hair sample from the environments and the sorts of things that many of us may put on our hair, wash our hair with. They also give us a longer readout, as it were, than say blood or urine. For instance arsenic when you are exposed to it, probably half of it of any one dose would be passed in the urine in the next 60 hours or so. So it doesn't last too long in the body, whereas the toenails grow quite slowly over a six to seven months from the base of the toe all the way to the tip where you would then clip it. And in the sort of clipping that you might take we would probably have enough not clipping to have an estimate of the exposure in the last month or so.

HM: So what kind of link are you expecting you might make between what you find in the clippings and rates of prostate cancer?

AA: Well, there have been a number of other studies looking at cadmium for instance and prostate cancer. Studying the Atlantic PATH population where we have already 149 men who've told us that they have prostate cancer and we’ll match them with more than twice as many men who don't have prostate cancer for comparison. We'll have more participants in our study than either of the other two studies. So we should be able to put down a pretty good marker of whether or not cadmium is associated with prostate cancer.

HM: What exactly will you be doing with the toenails to test them?

AA: We will take the toenails put them in some nitric acid and heat it up, which dissolves them. And then take that solution and put it in an instrument called a mass spectrometer that then burns it and we can measure the particles in the flame and determine how much of each metal that we're interested in is present. Now unfortunately doing that means that once we do that we've lost that bit of toenails. So together with a couple of colleagues, one professor of geology at the University of New Brunswick, he has a laser device that he usually uses for analyzing rocks. And we've taken another sample of toenails from our collections and he's been using his laser to analyze those. It burns a very tiny hole and effectively is non-destructive to the nail. And after taking the toenails there I took them to another colleague, Professor David Fleming at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, and he's a physicist who uses X-ray apparatus to measure metals. He's used it for measuring arsenic in rice. It's a bit like if you go to a disco and you have a UV light shining on your white shirt or blouse and it glows a bluish purple color. Well, if you shine x rays onto the toenails you get a bounce back of the x rays and that's a similar sort of global fluorescence that he can measure and quantify how much of the arsenic is in the toenails.

HM: I think some of us might be thinking a little differently next time we trim our toenails after hearing from you. Thank you for sharing your research with us.

AA: Thank you, Helen.

HM: Bye-bye.

AA: Bye.

JD: We reached Dr. Anil Adisesh in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Sound of the Day: Talking Orca

[Whale making sounds]

JD: Now that is not necessarily the sound of a student fed up with her teacher. I mean, that student is probably fed up with her teacher. After all she would probably rather be out playing somewhere, or at least out. But Wikie may also be doing her very best to repeat what she is hearing. It's just that it is a very, very steep learning curve — for an orca. Now we already know that orcas communicate with each other via sound and that pods from different regions have distinct dialects. What scientists wanted to know was just how talented and versatile killer whales were when it came to mimicry. As Josep Call put it, he's a professor in evolutionary origins of the mind at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. As he put it quote “We thought what would be really convincing is to present them with something that is not in their repertoire. And in this case ‘hello’ is not what a killer whale would say,” unquote. No it is not. But say it she did. This audio accompanies a new study on Wikie’s ability to imitate human speech.

SOUNDCLIP

TRAINER: Hello.

WIKIE: Hello.

TRAINER: Hello

WIKIE: Hello

JD: And here is why he imitating a human being saying the name Amy.

SOUNDCLIP

TRAINER: Amy

WIKIE: Amy

TRAINER: Amy

WIKIE: Amy

JD: That is kind of mind blowing. She is speaking, or at least she's mimicking, the language of a completely different species despite having a completely different vocal apparatus. So it is amazing but it's also sad — because while he lives in captivity at the Marineland aquarium in Antibes, France. She was born there. She has lived there since 2001. She's only able to use her imitation and communication skills with her offspring, also captives of Marineland, and human scientists. So if she could actually speak English she would be saying a lot more than hello.

Archive: Talking Pig

JD: Mouse the pig, on the other hand, only said hello — and that was if your ears did the equivalent of squinting. In 2005 our former hosts Mary Lou Finlay spoke with Mike Reese the owner of mouse the pig.

SOUNDCLIP

MARY LOU FINLAY: Does the hello sound like oh, a grunt?

MIKE REESE: Right. A local camera crew has been up to us four times, they capture this on TV every time, it’s brilliant. I’ve recorded the footage.

MLF: You recorded it, yes?

MR: I can play this for you. But you can get the hello quite clearly. There’s a bit of footage of the presenter coming in first and then it’s quite distinct with Mouse the talking pig coming in after. Would you like to have that?

MLF: I'd love to have that.

[PIG GRUNTING]

MR: What do you think?

MLF: I think we got it. Yeah that was good.

JD: Ah ha. Okay just a sec. Studio enhance. Well okay if you say so.

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January 31, 2018 episode transcript

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