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The AIH Transcript for August 28, 2020

Hosts: Helen Mann and Chris Howden

Prologue

HELEN MANN: Hello. I'm Helen Mann, sitting in for Carol off.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Good evening. I'm Chris Howden. This is As It Happens.

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CH: Tonight:

HM: Doing the aftermath. We reach a man in Lake Charles, Louisiana, whose home suffered severe damage from Hurricane Laura. But he says the hardest part isn't what he's personally lost, it's the extent of the destruction to his city.

CH: Once more with reeling. COVID-19 is back with a vengeance in Spain, where 7000 cases are being recorded daily. According to one epidemiologist, the influx of tourists is partly to blame.

HM: Can do attitude. After Canada announces counter measures to new U.S. aluminum tariffs, a Canadian brewery owner decides to impose some counter measures of his own against the Trump administration.

CH: A true professional. CNN journalist Daniel Dale has made a career out of fact checking politicians --- one of them, above all, last night, he gave a master class in truth telling after Donald Trump accepted the Republican Party's nomination for U.S. president.

HM: Trip the bone fantastic. We reached a Scottish paleontologist who is running to catch up with a research team when she stumbled on a huge fossilized find of her own.

CH: And billy club. Lovers of that sturdy utilitarian bookcase can now trace its evolution after IKEA puts 70 years worth of catalogs online. As It Happens. The Friday Edition. Radio that's proud to say no assembly required.

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Part 1: Louisiana man says his city 'looks like a bomb went off' after Hurricane Laura

Hurricane Laura

Guest: John O’Donnell

CH: She did her worst, and now Hurricane Laura has moved east after ripping through Texas and Louisiana yesterday. When the storm struck Louisiana early Thursday morning, it was a category four hurricane with 240 kilometer per hour winds that left at least 11 people dead. In Lake Charles the impact was especially severe with a chemical fire, downed trees, and thousands of homes and buildings damaged and destroyed. John O'Donnell's home was among them. We reached Mr. O'Donnell in Lake Charles.

HM: John O'Donnell, what does your city, Lake Charles, look like today?

JOHN O'DONNELL: It's a disaster zone. I mean, for sure we're looking at catastrophic damage. I don't think there's a single structure here that's not damaged in some way. Power lines in the street. Most streets are impassable. I know that we're working hard to clear the wood out of the streets so that we can start driving around. But it looks bad. It looks like a bomb went off.

HM: When you say structural damage, like what kind of things are you seeing? Are roofs off, that sort of thing?

JOHN O'DONNELL: A lot and a lot of roof damage. People lost fences. People lost the siding of their homes. You know, there's entire walls of buildings that I have seen caved in. There's all kinds of structural damage. I mean, if you can think of a type of structural damage assume that we've got it here, I promise you.

HM: You evacuated to Baton Rouge for the worst of the hurricane and then made your way home early yesterday. What was it like to come back and see the city and the state?

JOHN O'DONNELL: Well, this is my city that I love very much. This is my home. And it was extremely emotional and very very difficult to see it in the state that it was in. I'm getting a little emotional talking about it now, but it was a shock. It was a shock. You know, Hurricane Rita in 2005 was bad and that completely devastated the city as well. This looks worse, and that was a hard shock to me.

HM: What about your own home? What kind of condition is it in?

JOHN O'DONNELL: Well, we had an oak tree and a magnolia tree in our yard, and we lost both of them. We lost a big portion of the back roof. And this is the majority of the damage. And when we lost the back roof, we got a lot of water damage inside the home. We lost windows. And then, you know, all of our fencing, the shed in our back yard. Our house took a hit. Our house took a bad hit.

HM: What kind of preparations were you able to make before you got out of there?

JOHN O'DONNELL: Well, you know, I was thankful that I got my family and my dog out and that was the most important thing. But you know we boarded up the windows and we sandbagged to the door because we heard that the storm surge was going to be pretty bad. Just did everything that we could. And, you know, honestly, none of it really made a difference because of the severity of the storm.

HM: Right. In the days leading up to the hurricane. As you said, you made your own preparations. But I understand you were also helping some other folks leave Lake Charles. Some, though, said they were not going. Why not?

JOHN O'DONNELL: Well, the majority of the people that stayed, stayed because they didn't have any other option. They were either elderly and unable to evacuate. They were disabled or -- you know, we have a high instance of poverty in our area and evacuating can be expensive. And some people just couldn't afford to do it. And so we had a lot of people that just were staying because they had to. Now, we had this local city government and the parish government -- and parishes are what we have in Louisiana that are counties -- did a great job setting up evacuation centres where you can go and they will put you on a bus and the bus just takes you to a hotel room in San Antonio or Austin. Normally under normal circumstances those shelters in San Antonio and Austin would be a gym or, you know, a civic centre of some kind. But in this case, they were hotels because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So sheltering people and evacuating people is a little bit more tricky this time around. But the demographics of Lake Charles have really changed a lot since the last major storm in 2005. And we have a lot of people, a lot of new people here that might not be from Louisiana or might be too young to remember how bad Hurricane Rita was. And what we tried to do before the storm is kind of impart to them some of that oral history of what we lived through during that time to really put the fear of God in them about what was coming. And I think that is what really made a big difference, is just telling people those the stories of those past storms. But, you know, when you go a couple of years without having one of these people get really complacent.

HM: You have officials having describing this one as unsurvivable. So I'm just wondering what it's like for you, you know, leaving the area and knowing that there are people left behind who are going to try and ride it out?

JOHN O'DONNELL: I don't have the personality type that very easily leaves a situation that I feel is not resolved. And I was incredibly emotional on the drive out, I knew that I had to leave. And it was a tough drive. It was a tough drive.

HM: Now, I know you've had a chance now to speak to some of those neighbours who stayed. What kind of things are they telling you?

JOHN O'DONNELL: They're telling me that it was the longest, most traumatic night of their life and that they will never ride out another storm for the rest of their days. But, you know, this was the strongest hurricane to hit Louisiana at 150 years. And so this was like something that no one has ever seen before. And the big thing that people are telling me is, you know, it hit at night and it was like midnight when the eye of the storm came ashore and it was so dark. But the sound of the trees cracking and the power lines coming down and, you know, the roofs getting ripped off, just that roar of destruction is what stuck with most of my neighbours -- that's the one common theme that everybody keeps talking about is the noise.

HM: That sounds absolutely terrifying. You mentioned that, you know, you're back looking at things, thinking about the cleanup. What does that mean for you today?

JOHN O'DONNELL: So today, I am helping friends and neighbours. I've got several friends who lost everything. The roofs of their apartment were ripped off or, you know, the walls of their houses have caved in and they just were going in with trash bags and taking what they have left, and just trying to salvage what we can. You know, it's pouring down rain here today as well, which compounds the situation because what wasn't wet is now wet. And so we're really trying to get some tarps up on some roofs. Most of the roofs have holes in them. And so I'm working with friends and neighbours to get these blue tarps up so that we can try to dry things out.

HM: Gosh. You know, for those of us who don't live in hurricane zones, I think it's sometimes hard to to comprehend how people live through these over and over again and why they stay. What do you say to that?

JOHN O'DONNELL: It's the people. You stay for your neighbours. I mean, yes, we live in an area that is prone to hurricanes strike. However, we live in an area that has this incredible mixture of culture and music, and it's not like anywhere else in the world. You know, we're on the border with Texas. So we have this incredible Creole, French Louisiana culture. But on the other side, we've got this great cowboy Texas Tex-Mex culture. And it's not like anywhere else. And if we move, you know, we're not going to have that. You know, it's not home anywhere else. And this is home.

HM: Mr. O'Donnell, I'm glad that you're well. I wish you the very best at this cleanup effort, getting yourself eventually back into that home. And thank you for talking with us.

JOHN O'DONNELL: Helen, thank you so much for having me. And thanks for drawing attention to this.

CH: John O'Donnell is a resident of Lake Charles, Louisiana, which is where we reached him. Mr. O'Donnell's home, like many others, was damaged by Hurricane Laura.

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Daniel Dale

CH: By this point, Daniel Dale is pretty accustomed to fact checking the U.S. president. It's been his full-time job for more than a year since he left the Toronto Star's Washington bureau and became a fact checker for CNN, focused inevitably on Donald Trump. But last night was a doozy even for him. After Mr. Trump officially accepted the Republican nomination for the presidency, Mr. Dale had his work cut out for him, debunking more than 20 false or misleading claims in about three and a half minutes, seemingly without breathing. It was a sight to behold. And CNN anchor Anderson Cooper beheld it by sipping coffee in apparent disbelief while Daniel Dale said his piece.

DANIEL DALE: [SOUNDCLIP: Trump said Joe Biden is, quote, talking about taking down the border wall. Biden has specifically, explicitly rejected that idea. He just said he'll stop further additional construction. Trump claimed, as always, that he is the one who passed the veterans choice law. Barack Obama signed that into law in 2014. Trump signed a 2018 law to modify it. Trump said, I have done more for the African-American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln. That is ludicrous. Lyndon Johnson, for one, signed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Trump again touted a, quote, "record nine million job gain over the past three months." He didn't mention, as usual, that that gain follows a record 22 million job loss over the previous two months. He said he'll, quote, "continue to lower drug prices they've increased during his presidency." He said they opened a Jerusalem embassy for less than 500,000. Early documents show it was at least 21 million. He claimed NATO member spending has increased for the first time in about 20 years. Spending, in fact, rose in 2015 and in 2016 before he took office. He said he will always and Republicans will always strongly protect people with preexisting conditions. That pledge has already been broken. He and they have repeatedly tried to weaken those protections in Obamacare. He claimed again that he banned travel from China and Europe. No, he imposed partial restrictions with many exemptions -- tens of thousands of people continue travelling over. He boasted about the COVID testing system and about his general response. Look, experts near universally say the U.S. was fatally slow in its response, especially slow in setting up adequate testing. He said that he ended what he called a NAFTA nightmare and he signed a brand new U.S., Mexico, Canada agreement, the USMCA. That agreement preserves, maintains, most of NAFTA. He boasted about building about 300 miles of border wall. What he didn't say is that most of that is replacement barrier. And he said that Biden's plan would eliminate America's borders. No, just no. It's wrong.

ANDERSON COOPER: Oh, that's it?

DANIEL DALE: There's more.

ANDERSON COOPER: [Laughs] Wow.

DANIEL DALE: How much time you got Anderson?]

CH: That was, if you can believe it, a condensed version of CNN fact checker Daniel Dale's analysis of U.S. President Donald Trump's Republican National Convention speech last night. We have less time than Anderson Cooper, who also heard corrections about gun rights, police funding, China charter schools, the Iraq war, and cancel culture. According to Daniel Dale, the remarkable thing about the speech wasn't just its inaccuracies. It was that almost all of them came from a prepared text. On Twitter today, Mr. Dale wrote, quote, "In campaign season, they started putting the lies in the scripts."

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Tariff brewery

Guest: Josh McJannett

CH: When Donald Trump announced fresh aluminum tariffs on Canada, yet again, this summer, they didn't come with a ton of explanation. And to many Canadian aluminum producers, they felt like insult to injury in the middle of a pandemic. And so the Canadian government announced countermeasures on the U.S., which go into effect next month. But Dominion City Brewery thought of some countermeasures of its own. Like many small businesses, it's being negatively affected by these tariffs. So the brewery owners thought they would respond in kind. Josh McJannett is the co-owner of Dominion City Brewery. We reached him in Ottawa.

HM: Josh, how is your brewery going to deal with these aluminum tariffs?

JOSH MCJANNETT: So, you know, we learned that this was something that was really coming forward and we're a little bit surprised, given that Canada and the United States really only just signed a new trade agreement. And, you know, for us, it's probably going to mean about two cents per can. So like anybody facing these kind of new and in our view, unnecessary taxes that have really been imposed by the Trump administration, you kind of have a call to make. You can either eat the cost or you can pass it along to your customers. And so, first off, not interested in raising our prices. So, you know, we're going to absorb the higher cost of our aluminum cans and we're going to make a donation of equivalent value to these tariffs to a Black led charity here in Ottawa for every can sold to the end of next month.

HM: What's your thinking behind that donation?

JM: Well, our thinking is that really this is a move on behalf of one person to try to bully Canada in an effort to win re-election and that it's a fairly desperate move. And it's really about putting politics in the United States ahead of people. The result is going to be that folks on both sides of the border are going to be paying more for everything from aluminum foil to cars and potentially to beer. And it's all a bit silly and unnecessary. So, you know, we didn't want our customers to suffer. So, as I mentioned, the first thing was do no harm. When it comes to the people who've got the wind at your back. In our case, our fans here in town. But take the opportunity to highlight the absurdity of it and give people an opportunity to vote with their feet and their wallet and get involved. So in addition to the donations we're making, we're also inviting our customers have their own donations for this cause. And, you know, it's not an awesome hand we've been dealt, but we think that there's an opportunity to do a bit of good with it.

HM: So how exactly are these tariffs affecting your brewery? You said about two cents a can. What's the cost to you?

JM: Yes. So, I mean, what a lot of people probably don't understand is that Canada is really good at pulling raw material out of the ground. We have a lot of smelting capacity. So we make a lot of stuff that winds up getting made into useful products often in the United States. And that aluminum might move across the border a couple times. And, you know, in the United States, they basically arbitrarily imposed a tariff on any aluminum coming from Canada to the tune of 10 percent. And the government of Canada has really got an unenviable hand to play and really does not have much choice but to respond, which is going to mean that any aluminum coming back across the border into Canada in the form of finished goods like beer cans are going to be subject to a 10 percent tariff as well. So in our case, that means about 10 percent or two cents per can, is what we'll be paying. So doesn't sound like a whole lot, but when you add it up, even a small company like ours, that's the equivalent of a part time job for someone over the course of a year.

HM: So you're being hit on both sides with both the counter measures and the tariff.

JM: Yeah. I mean, it's going to take a few months to kind of wash out through the system, but it's affecting us in other ways too. There's a lot of uncertainty around whether you can order will even come through. But there isn't really any domestic Canadian manufacturing of beer cans. So pretty much any time you're buying a can of beer that can might be Canadian aluminum, but it was definitely sort of rolled into a can in the United States and brought back across the border.

HM: So is this like thousands of dollars to you?

JM: For months potentially, and, you know, for breweries that are a little bigger than us who are already having enough hurdles this year, it's definitely unwelcome for sure. I guess you could put it squarely on Team Canada, though -- you can't just roll over when these things come up. And it really does kind of feel like it's it's a decision that's been made to please an audience of one at the White House. We think it's unjust and ridiculous, but we hope to be able to raise a bit of awareness and maybe do a little bit of good.

HM: Some people, you know, well, a lot of people are critical of the tariffs themselves. Some people are critical of the counter measures. Do you have any problem with Ottawa doing that?

JM: Well, I mean, it's obviously, you know, we'd prefer that it just wasn't happening, but I do think there's something to be said for taking a punch and responding. And I don't think it's a great situation to be in, but I understand where they're coming from. And I think in our case, when it comes between, you know, choosing to ask to be exempted or taking it on the chin and turning it around, we thought this was an opportunity to do the latter.

HM: Right. Now, President Trump claims that Canada continues to flood the U.S. market with aluminum, says that's killing American jobs, and that's why he's installing the tariffs. What do you say to that?

JM: Well, I'd say, I'm for sure no trade expert, but I understood that we were meant to be friends. And to me, this was really about more than just beer. It's about fairness between friends. And, you know, I really hope that our friends south of the border kind of remember who they are again and that we can get back to making sense of this relationship and get back to just, you know, worrying about real problems. We have enough of them.

HM: If a fairly small brewery like yours is affected this way, what does it say about the other businesses that are being affected by these tariffs?

JM: You know, we've been so grateful and fortunate that we've had the, you know, support of our community at our backs since all this started -- the pandemic back in March. We've lost all of our keg accounts: bars and restaurants. We've really been very reliant on selling stuff in cans. But, you know, we can absorb this. But the truth is that a lot of businesses aren't in a position to do that. So in a year when everybody's got a lot on their plate, it really does seem kind of self-defeating.

HM: Some businesses feel they end up paying a price if they get involved in politics. Do you ever consider that it might cost you to wade into a political spat?

JM: Yeah, no, it's definitely possible. I think folks know that we wear our heart on our sleeve. And, you know, we really are kind of interested in doing more than just selling a beer. Hopefully we can use brewing beer to leave the place a little better than we found it. And we're not afraid to do that.

HM: Well, Mr. McJannett, I appreciate you joining us and telling us about your plan. Thank you.

JM: Thank you for having me.

CH: Josh McJannett is the co-owner of Dominion City Brewery. We reached him in Ottawa.

[Music]

Scottish dinosaur

Guest: Elsa Panciroli

CH: They were looking for fossils on the small Scottish island of Eigg. But a paleontology research team came across something much more remarkable: a pretty large dinosaur bone. All because of a major step taken by Elsa Panciroli -- like an actual step. Ms. Panciroli is a paleontologist with National Museums Scotland. We reached her in Inverness.

HM: Elsa Panciroli tell us about the unusual way you came across this dinosaur bone.

ELSA PANCIROLI: Well, yeah, it was quite serendipitous. So myself and my team were on the Isle of Eigg and we had been looking for fossils, but fossils of things that have been found there before -- things like marine reptiles and fish and invertebrates. It was the end of a long day and I got quite far separated from my friends. I turned to run along the beach hopping from boulder to boulder, and I suddenly realized the boulder I had just hopped onto and run past, it had something in it. But I wasn't sure quite what, so I turned around and went back to look. And it was a dinosaur bone sticking out of the boulder on the shoreline. I had literally just stepped on.

HM: And when you say something didn't seem right, was it cause you felt it or because you saw it out of the corner of your eye?

EP: I saw it. So I think a lot of the time for people who search for fossils, it's about pattern recognition, isn't it? You're looking to recognize something. And it was almost unconscious because I wasn't looking anymore. I was just running. And it was this unconscious thing like, hang on, that looked like a thing, you know, rather than just a rock. [Chuckles]

HM: So you went back. Tell me what goes through your mind in that moment?

EP: Oh, well, you know, I looked at it and I was pretty sure this is a bone. It's too big to be anything else, it has to be a dinosaur. And I was really excited. But also, you doubt yourself. So I went back to the rest of the team and I kind of was really trying to play it cool, you know? [Chuckles] And I was a bit reluctant to see the D-word. So I just kept saying I found something. And eventually they teased it out of me. And of course, the moment when I said dinosaur, everybody downed tools and wants it to come and have a look. And we were just elated. It was fantastic.

HM: You were running to catch up to the team when you found this. Do you think you would have found it if you hadn't been running late?

EP: Well, it's a hard question to answer, isn't it, because somebody said to me the other day, what if I had run further down the beach or further up the beach? I just might not have come across it. So although obviously we're all trained to look for fossils it's a bit of luck as well, isn't it? You happen to be in the right place at the right time. And probably hundreds of people have walked over it before me and just don't happen to look at it -- not happen to look down.

HM: When the team rushed back to take a look, what was the conversation like? What were you all saying to each other?

EP: Everyone went quite quiet. But then immediately everyone's like, yes, it is definitely a dinosaur bone. And we were all just elated and there was hugging. And, yeah, we were really pleased. It was something we just never expected to find.

HM: So now that you've had a chance to study it more closely, what can you tell us about what it actually is, how old it is, how rare it is?

EP: Yeah, well, this is the interesting thing is, although we knew it was a dinosaur bone, of course, at first glance, we really have no idea what kind of bone. It wasn't obvious what it was. So after we extracted it, we took it away and then we kind of assembled a team of people who all had different expertize. And we even did something called histology, where we cut through the bone and we look at the microstructure and all of those things gave us clues and told us that it was dinosaur, first of all, of course, but a stegosaurian dinosaur, so one of those ones with the big plates on its back about the size of a car. So it took a couple of years of this kind of research to realize exactly what we've found.

HM: And it's quite large, as you said. So you knew it was going to have been from a large creature?

EP: Yeah, that's right. So we're pretty sure it's the back lower leg bone of one of these animals. So it's about half a metre long. So that's about 20 inches, so quite big. Yeah.

HM: Yeah. Now, you've made a painting of what you think the dinosaur who owned this would have looked like in the flesh. [Chuckles] Describe the image for us.

EP: Yes. So where we found this born is unusual because it's a marine setting. So underwater but offshore, something salty. So, of course, not very many dinosaurs are out there. So we suspected that this had been washed into a river and out to sea. And that's the setting of how it died and how it was found. So in my picture, that's what I tried to capture, was this animal perhaps crossing a river, maybe to reach its family on the other side and maybe it didn't make it and perhaps died and was washed out to sea.

HM: Based on the size, how large would this animal have been?

EP: Well, it would have been about the size of a car and it was a young animal, so they do get a bit bigger than that. We know it was young from looking at the structure of the bone. It tells us that it was only maybe a year or two old and still growing fast.

HM: Amazing that you can tell that from the bone.

EP: Isn't it? [Chuckles] And just one bone. And also, to be honest, it's not in very good condition. It had been battered by the waves and eroded quite a lot. But as you see, when you can look at the structure in such detail, you can get a lot of information.

HM: So this is the first such bone found on Eigg. What has this said to you about the presence of dinosaurs in Scotland? How does it change everyone's understanding?

EP: Well, every fossil dinosaur we have in Scotland has come from the Isle of Skye before now. We've also found mainly just two different types of dinosaurs with a big, long necked, very heavy dinosaurs. And then you have meat eating dinosaurs that walk on two legs. But this is this third group, the stegosaurian dinosaurs. So it, first of all, tells us that there is this third group of dinosaurs present. So that's interesting in itself that they were present on Eigg, which is a different part of Scotland. But really, the main thing that I think is interesting about it is the time period. It comes from the middle Jurassic. So it's 166 million years old. And this is a time when fossils, globally speaking, not just in Scotland, are very very rare. Just finding it in the first place is really quite significant.

HM: So how is this going to affect your research going forward?

EP: Well, we are going to continue looking at fossils on Eigg and Skye and also searching elsewhere. And it helps us build up a kind of ecosystem picture. So rather than just focusing on one or two animals, we can start to understand how the whole ecosystem works. And we already know that there were also mammals at this time, the very earliest ones, but also things like salamanders, crocodiles, turtles. So we can even look at food chains. It is only the beginning of research.

HM: Do you think this has been a career peak?

EP: Oh, well, I would like to think not. I'm going to find more. [Laughs] I think we always want the find more. Well, I'm definitely excited I've found and certainly it is always lovely to find something in your home country because I think I expected that I would probably have to travel abroad to look for something like this. So it's a big surprise.

HM: It's very exciting. And thank you for sharing it with us.

EP: Thank you so much for having me on the show.

HM: Good to talk to you.

CH: Elsa Panciroli is a paleontologist with National Museums Scotland. We reached her in Inverness.

[Music]

Part 2: Spain COVID

Spain COVID

Guest: Daniel Lopez Acuna

CH: Like many European countries, Spain seemed to have something of a handle on its COVID-19 crisis. Then came a concerning spike in cases. Now Spain has the highest level of infection in Europe, with 7000 new cases every day for the past week. This week, the government tapped the army for help. Daniel Lopez-Acuna is an epidemiologist and associate professor at the Andalusian School of Public Health in Spain. We reached him in Gijon.

HM: Dr. Lopez-Acuna, why has Spain taken this step to deploy 2000 troops to assist with COVID-19?

DANIEL LOPEZ ACUNA: Well, I think it's a good measure of the Spanish government to back up the efforts of the different regions with people of the military, I think this is a good step. And it is activated to ensure that some of the communities that may not have the capacity, scale up their capacity to the level that ought to be applied for appropriate tracking of the case.

HM: So the troops that are helping are essentially going to be doing contact tracing, is that correct?

DANIEL LOPEZ ACUNA: Yes, it is in support of the public health departments of each and all of the regions in Spain.

HM: Tracing the virus has been a challenge for these certain areas of Spain you refer to. But besides that, why is Spain seeing this major uptick in cases?

DANIEL LOPEZ ACUNA: In many respects, this is due to the relaxation in the measures for keeping the physical distance and the protection. And it has taken a toll by creating transmission, particularly among the youngsters in nightlife, mass gatherings, in social and family activities.

HM: So is it things like cinemas, nightclubs, bars, that sort of thing?

DANIEL LOPEZ ACUNA: Well, yes. Until two weeks ago on the 14th the government has banned the nightlife and has created prohibition to smoke in terrace and the public spaces. And it has restricted the movement of people and the gathering people in bars, terraces. It was operating relatively freely in the new normal. And evidently this was not the optimal behaviour when the virus is still around.

HM: Spain's tourism industry plays a big role in the economy. The country was eager to reopen that industry. Is that playing a role as well that you can see?

DANIEL LOPEZ ACUNA: Yeah, I think all Europe rush a little too much in reopening the tourism season. I understand that particularly the Mediterranean countries but all European countries are very reliant on the tourism economy during the summer months, Spain included. And in my view, it was a little rushed and we probably should have been more careful in connection with not only the foreign tourists, but also the national tourism. Because bottom line is that what we needed to have in the months of the summer was a much more discipline and responsible behaviour of individuals with much less mass gatherings or groupings or activities that may jeopardize the control of the disease.

HM: Earlier in the year, we saw Spain impose a state of emergency that was very strict. I'm wondering, was it a mistake for Pedro Sanchez's government to lift that state of emergency in June?

DANIEL LOPEZ ACUNA: No, I think it's very important to understand that Pedro Sanchez wanted to continue with the state of emergency. But these require the parliament approval. And it was the opposition that adamantly was against continuation of the state of emergency, which I think was a mistake. You would have been much better to have a unified command.

HM: In Canada the provinces have authority over health care. In Spain regions have a lot of autonomy on this. Is there any connection between how municipalities have dealt with this and the rising number of confirmed COVID-19 cases?

DANIEL LOPEZ ACUNA: The fundamental responsibility is not at the municipality level, it is at the regional level where some regions have done very well in terms of the public health services and the health infrastructure. And so all the regions have not gone at the speed that was necessary for early diagnosis, for tracking, for reinforcing the capacity to do PCR testing. And this is what needs to be improved in the coming weeks.

HM: What are you seeing and hearing from Spaniards in terms of their response to these rising numbers? Do you see people starting to dial back those activities? Is there concern or even panic?

DANIEL LOPEZ ACUNA: Oh, there is huge concern. And I would say the general sentiment and climate today in the Spanish population is, well, we need to be careful, we shouldn't go back to a situation that is like the one we have between March and May. We need to be particularly attentive to the risks that may be posed by the return to school. And all in all, I think there is awareness and there is a sense of responsibility, but it's very important to strengthen it with the governmental measures, both regional and central.

HM: Here in Canada at this point, we have managed to get daily new case counts down to a few hundred. Do you have any advice for our country on how we might avoid the kind of spike that you have seen in Spain?

DANIEL LOPEZ ACUNA: First of all, it's not to forget that the virus is still there, not to think that the epidemic or the pandemic is over. To stick to the measures of the use of the mask, of the physical distance for protection, avoid the mass gatherings, avoid the celebrations and social events, restrict or even ban the nightlife in my perspective -- this has been a real trigger of infection. And this has to do a lot with the social responsibility and individual responsibility. But also to ensure that the primary health care that the family doctors and that the public health authorities at local and regional or provincial level in your case, can have the capacity to do early diagnosis, tracking, testing, lots of PCR testing in a targeted way, and the isolation of the asymptomatic positives that have been the real trigger of these massive transmission that we have observed.

HM: It's good to talk with you, Dr. Lopez Acuna. Thank you very much.

DANIEL LOPEZ ACUNA: My pleasure.

CH: Daniel Lopez Acuna is an epidemiologist and associate professor at the Andalusian School of Public Health. We reached him in Gijon, Spain.

[Music]

Claudio Brunetti

CH: In the security camera footage, the black bear runs down the sidewalk for a few seconds. It takes a sharp right through an open door. Claudio Brunetti's in-store cameras picked up the next part of the bear's journey. The Revelstoke liquor store owner spoke with the CBC's Brady Strachan.

CLAUDIO BRUNETTI: And it just turned right into the store like it didn't just stick its head in there and look. It just kind of like barrelled right in and then it stopped for a moment, stared at my customer, which is five feet away from him because my table is right next to the door anyways. And then he proceeded to go down the aisle. And then I yelled at him -- started yelling at the bear. And it turned around and barrelled back out the door so ten-fifteen seconds. So he wasn't running around in a store. That would have been chaos. My reaction, I was like, Holy Christ it is a bear! Because I see bears every day, like I see all the time -- they are in my back yard. And I'm used to bears. I've been here all my life. But it was unusual for the bear to come in here. But watching the customer that was...he almost went into shock. He was pretty dazzled. He was pretty freaked out. He was from Italy. And I'm Italian also. So I was talking to him for a moment there when the bear came in and he kind of like just looked and he just froze and he held his breath there for a minute. And he's all freaked out. Anyway, it was pretty wild.

BRADY STRACHAN: What did you actually yell at the bear? Do you remember what you yelled at him?

CLAUDIO BRUNETTI: I just went, "Hey, hey. Get out." That's about it. I started yelling, "Hey get out. Let's go." And then the bear just turned around and he barrelled back out the door. Then he went across the street and he climbed up the tree. And he sat up there for a while. [Chuckles] It was a big bear, though, he's like a 300 pound bear -- four or five year old bear. Nice bear -- really healthy bear.

CH: Claudio Brunetti is the owner of Last Call Liquor Store in Revelstoke, British Columbia, which was visited by a black bear on Monday.

[Music]

Germany library book

Guest: Peter Burschel

CH: A German library has acquired a book to add to its collection for 4.3-million dollars Canadian. And it's long overdue. A collector for that library tried and failed to acquire the very same book almost 400 years ago. It's known as a friendship book. It contains art and a number of signatures of high profile figures from the 1600s. The Times of London has compared to a 17th century LinkedIn page. Peter Burschel is the director of the Herzog August Bibliothek. We reached him in Bielefeld, Germany.

HM: Mr. Burschel, what is it about this book's more than 200 pages that strikes you most as you flip through it?

PETER BURSCHEL: Yes. There are several aspects. Firstly, there is an aesthetic aspect. It's absolutely amazing because every page is a page by its own -- by an painter or artist. The impression is wonderful. And the colours are...I can't explain it. The colours are as painted in this moment. Yes. And the other aspect is that this stammbuch or album amicorum or book of friends or a friendship book -- it's a very special book because it's a business model. Or perhaps you can say it's a door opener for this Philipp Hainhofer who was a merchant of Augsburg. He asked people, friends, especially nobles, to give him their signature. And they did so because they wanted to be part of the community collected in this book.

HM: So Philipp Hainhofer you say, was a merchant, a merchant's son, and yet he was spending time in royal courts among notable people. Why? Who was he? Like how did he have those contacts?

PB: Firstly, he was an Augsburg merchant and Augsburg in around 1600 was one of the financial and economic centres of the Holy Roman Empire. And firstly, he was a normal merchant, but he was more because he was a cultural broker and he was a broker of information and he was a dealer of books, for example, and of luxury of expensive furniture. And this book was his idea to open especially noble doors for his interests. As he was interested on the one hand of selling things. On the other hand, he was interested to become a friend, a friend of all these higher people, of all these nobles to get a foot into the door and to be a friend of them for, I don't know, for selling information, for becoming a diplomat and so on.

HM: What are some of the more notable signatures that he collected in the book?

PB: Yes, there are two emperors, Rudolph the Second and Medici. There are several kings, for example Christian the Fourth of Denmark. But there are others. There are friends from or there is this famous Duke August one of the founding fathers of our library and collector of books. His signature is in the book. Or perhaps Elizabeth Stewart, who was exiled -- her signature in the book. So there are around 100 signatures with little labels, with little poems. And every page signatured was illustrated in a unique way.

HM: How did that come about? I mean, did the people themselves do the illustrations or did he have somebody else illustrate them both?

PB: Both are possible. It could be that a duke or a king or an emperor says, okay, yes, you will get my signature but I have an important artist here at court, and he would be able to do something to illustrate it. Or it was possible that Philipp Hainhofer said, okay give me your signature, perhaps with a little poem or whatever and I'll take it and bring it to an artist. And so both ways are possible. But I have to say we have to do a lot of research and we hope in one, two, three years to know more about the book and his development.

HM: Your library has been trying to acquire this book for a very long time. How have you finally managed to get it?

PB: Yes. The first one who tried to get it was Duke August. And then we don't know what happened to the book. And we know in 1931 it was back in London. We tried to acquire the book in 2006 -- the first or perhaps the second time, if you like it. There was an auction in New York at Christie's, but we failed again. And now, 15 years later, 2020, yes, it worked.

HM: Well, Mr. Burschel, I'm happy that you finally have your hands on this book that you so value. Thank you very much for describing it to us.

PB: Yes. Thank you for your questions.

CH: Peter Burschel is the director of the Herzog August Bibliothek. We reached him in Bielefeld, Germany.

[Music]

IKEA Catalog

CH: You often don't know you're doing something for what may be the last time, like spending time in your favourite part of IKEA. The one place in the giant store where everything just made sense before the pandemic. And as you sat there feeling at peace, a security guard said, "Sir, we've told you before, the ball pit is not for adults." We may never get back to that relaxing wonderland of multicoloured plastic balls. [Chuckles] I definitely won't -- I got a lifetime ban. But there's good news for anyone who likes to wander among the poangs, the ektorps, and the small, perfect Swedish meatballs. IKEA has just put every one of its past catalogs online. Now you can peruse IKEA's entire history without leaving your mlam bed. Travel back to 1950 when the superstore's first catalog featured everything from furniture to neckties to plastic cigaret cases. Stroll the virtual aisles of IKEA in 1980, when the modulars square double chair was a groovy place to chill and watch Eurovision or discuss late period Ingmar Bergman. You can get us lost in the catalog archives as you get in an actual IKEA store only you won't end up weeping amidst a forest of floor lamps. We all need ways to escape these days, even if they are provided by major corporations. So thank you IKEA. Perusing exotically named pillows may just be a dream right now. But Swedish dreams are made of this.

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August 28, 2020 Episode Transcript

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