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The AIH Transcript for August 15, 2022

SUSAN BONNER: Hello. I'm Susan Bonner.

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

[Theme]

Prologue

CH: Tonight:

SB: Left behind. Many Afghans who were promised refuge in Canada are living in fear while they wait for asylum. But the immigration minister says Ottawa is acting as fast as it can.

CH: Image problem. An American flight attendant was fired for posting a controversial cartoon about Donald Trump -- but the Canadian artist who drew it tells us the company is way out of line.

SB: Battered, but unbroken. One of Salman Rushdie's publishers tells us the author will never stop defending free speech, even after a life-altering attack that may leave him blind.

CH: The hidden years. A decade ago, The Satanic Verses author spoke to us about his time living under an assumed name with a price on his head -- and now his words have new resonance.

SB: The mysteries of the dark web. A scientist observes spiders twitching while they sleep, in what appears to be the rapid-eye-movement phase -- and speculates about what they might be dreaming about.

CH: And... fuzzy details. If you see a squirrel spread-eagled on the ground on a hot day, just chill out, because that's what they're doing -- by engaging in a perfectly normal cooling technique called "splooting".

CH: As It Happens, the Monday edition. Radio that figures sprawl's well that ends well.

Part 1: Afghanistan Anniversary: Canada, Salman Rushdie Update, Dreaming Spiders

Afghanistan Anniversary: Canada

Guest: Sean Fraser

CH: It's been a year now, but the scenes of chaos at the airport in Kabul after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan are still all too fresh in our memories: Afghans crowding the runway, some clinging to a US military plane, desperate to get out before it was too late. Today, many are still desperate to flee -- including those who helped the Canadian government and military. But despite the federal government's commitment to resettling 40,000 vulnerable Afghans, officials can only say that so far, they've resettled more than 17,300 refugees. Sean Fraser is Canada's minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. We reached him in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.

SB: Minister Fraser, Canada has promised to resettle at least 40,000 Afghans. So far, we haven't reached half that number. I'm wondering what letter grade you would give to Canada's resettlement program so far.

SEAN FRASER: Well, look, I'll leave it to others to officially grade my performance and the government's performance. But we had broadcasted when we began this effort and scaled up our initial commitment of resettling 20,000 Afghan refugees to 40,000, that it would take place on a timeline that would end at the end of next year. One of the things that I hope people appreciate is that refugee resettlement is an extremely important thing that Canada does better than anywhere else in the world. Just to put into perspective the numbers that we're talking about. There was a grand total of about 58,000 refugees resettled anywhere in the world in 2021. Canada was responsible for more than one-third of that total. In the past 12 months, we've resettled 17,300 refugees from Afghanistan alone. By global standards, there's no question that this is the most powerful refugee resettlement initiative for Afghans.

SB: What's the hold up, Minister? What… what's taking so long? People's lives are at stake here.

SF: With… with respect, what's… what's taking so long is primarily driven by the fact that a significant number of the people that we hope to bring to Canada are in a territory that's controlled by the Taliban, that is not interested in helping the people who they are persecuting arrive to another country that's willing to provide them with safe haven. There's more than 8,000 people who are well on their way to being approved to come to Canada who are still inside Afghanistan. Unlike other refugee resettlement initiatives, we don't have access to these people with a presence on the ground. And it's not ordinary for a country to take tens of thousands of people in a single year or to resettle them in their country. So we're doing as much as we can as quickly as we can, despite the challenging nature of these circumstances.

SB: On your commitment, there are 18,000 spots available through the Special Immigration Measures Program, and that's aimed at Afghans and their families who assisted the Canadian government or the Canadian military. But you're no longer taking new referrals for this program. Why have a cap at all?

SF: Well, it's really important when you're dealing with people who are going to be coming to be resettled as permanent residency that we plan not just to get them here, but to have them do well. When we go through the annual exercise of developing our immigration levels plan, We plan to process a particular number of people to manage Canada's overall population growth. And when it comes to those who have greater needs, to make sure that we don't overwhelm the needs of our resettlement sector, who are experts in helping make sure that refugees who land in Canada are set up for success. So when you're dealing with people who are coming into permanent residence, you do need to set a target in order to manage the system. But we're trying to do it as quickly as possible to help as many people as we can.

SB: What do you say to the people who would say it sounds good to want to set people up for success, but some of these people are just hoping to survive?

SF: I'd say that we're trying to do what we can to… to help them and to move them as quickly as possible. The… one of the things that I don't think people have a full appreciation of is how difficult refugee resettlement has become over the past couple of years. A lot of the global infrastructure for things like the referral process through the United Nations, through our major partners who historically have done large humanitarian lifts in response to refugee initiatives like the United States, really wound down their resettlement infrastructure over the past number of years, including during the pandemic. We're going to continue to do what we can to help those people who are just seeking to survive because of their being persecuted by the Taliban or because they've made a particular contribution to Canada's efforts in Afghanistan.

SB: So you've resettled more than 17,000 Afghan refugees since last year. Meanwhile, more than 70,000 Ukrainians came to Canada in 2022 so far alone. The NDP MP, Jenny Kwan, has said that kind of a stark difference between the government's treatment of these two groups is… is not right. How do you explain the discrepancy?

SF: Well, these are two very different programs that are designed in very different ways. When we're dealing with people who are coming to Canada as refugees from Afghanistan, we know that they're coming here permanently, and we know that, by and large, many of them can't get here on their own. With respect to Ukraine, we don't have anywhere near as many chartered flights. We don't have people who are coming and being set up as permanent residents. And people are able to come on their own volition and support themselves when they're here. The reason that you're seeing significantly larger numbers of Ukrainian people come is because we've set up a pathway that brings them here on a temporary basis as effectively visitors to Canada. We designed that program out of necessity because it was the quickest and most powerful way to create a pathway for large numbers of people to arrive. So the two situations simply can't be compared on the basis of numbers.

SB: Minister, do you think the Canadian government did the right thing by making these bold pronouncements about accepting all of these Afghans when perhaps the bureaucracy wasn't available, wasn't in place for you to be able to do that. And that has led to so much desperation and disappointment.

SF: Well, it's never the wrong time to do the right thing. And I think it was the right thing to do, despite the difficulty, to make a commitment to resettle a significant number of Afghan refugees as Kabul fell. But the reality is, Canada is the leader in the world when it comes to refugee resettlement. And we have a history in Afghanistan that places upon us a moral obligation to do at least our part or more. Coming out with the initial commitment to resettle 20,000 Afghan refugees was one of the strongest statements of any country in the world to say, hey, we want to help. Very quickly, we realized that the demands on that program were going to be exceeded. So we campaigned on a commitment during the last federal election to double that commitment to 40,000. There are going to continue to be difficulties, but we have broadcasted since the beginning when we made the 40,000 commitment that it would take us a bit of time to get through, more specifically by the end of 2023. We're more than on pace to hit that target. Although there may be challenges that are put in our way along our path of getting there, our commitment will not waver until we make good on resettling at least 40,000 Afghan refugees.

SB: Minister, thank you for your time today.

SF: My pleasure, as always. And thank you very much for continuing to focus on Afghanistan. It's important we don't lose sight of what's important.

SB: It is. Bye-bye.

SF: Take care.

CH: Sean Fraser is Canada's minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. We reached him in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.

[Spanish guitar]

Salman Rushdie Update

Guest: William Nygaard

CH: Today, Iran's foreign ministry said that Salman Rushdie and his supporters are the only ones responsible for Friday's attempt on Mr. Rushdie's life. The author's family says that he is recovering from "life-changing" injuries after being stabbed while on stage at an event in New York state. The attack came decades after Iran's Supreme Leader called for the assassination of Mr. Rushdie over his portrayal of the prophet Mohammed in his book "The Satanic Verses". The threat sent Salman Rushdie into hiding. And when he spoke with As It Happens in 2010, here's how he described its impact on his life.

[sc]

SALMAN RUSHDIE: I mean, I'm happy to say that my youngest son, Milan, really doesn't remember anything about those days. You know, I mean, that's to say that the whole period of police protection, security and so on and so on ended when he was only about a year old. So he has really no memory of it. And grew up and, you know, had a regular childhood. Whereas my older son, of course, grew up through those years and had a very different childhood. I mean, it leaves a mark because I think anything as profound as that happening in a human life can't help but leave a mark, you know? And I think one of the things it did was show me the capacity of human beings to behave very, very badly. But also, the capacity of other human beings to behave very, very well, because enormous numbers of people showed great courage and determination and principle in standing up against that threat and helping me to do so and helping my work to continue to be available and published and so on. And actually, I remember that more than the… than the danger, really. I remember the kind of heroism of ordinary people. You know, not of politicians. Of… of people working in bookshops. Of… of… of… of girls on switchboards in publishing companies who would receive threats from anonymous voices. Of, you know, of publishers and books… publishers and readers. You know, just people deciding not to be told by some alien tyrant what book they were going to read or not read. And I think that was… it was extraordinary to be part of such a… such a principled resistance, if you like, you know?

[/sc]

CH: That was Salman Rushdie on As It Happens in 2010. William Nygaard is one of the book publishers Mr. Rushdie was talking about. The Norwegian publisher defied the fatwa -- and in 1993, a gunman shot him in the back three times and left him for dead. We reached William Nygaard in Oslo.

SB: Mr. Nygaard, what went through your mind when you heard that Salman Rushdie had been attacked?

WILLIAM NYGAARD: That was a horrid moment and very shocking, actually, and not expect that at all. Because he had left Britain after difficult years. Nine years, more or less, isolated. And then left for New York, where he had an independent, free life and could perform his profession as author and also communicator. And in many ways, very important in that respect, working for PEN International and has been a very important man for freedom of expression internationally.

SB: You yourself were attacked in 1993. What kind of memories does this bring back for you?

WN: Somehow, you know, the memories. I have absolutely lived a normal life after what happened here. When I, again, was healthy and it took some time. But I got back to my work and worked as a publisher until 2010. And after that, I've been working for PEN and the Freedom of Expression Association, where Salman has done a fantastic work. In PEN America. He has also invented the free city organizations for authors who are under threat in their own home country. And so, from my point of view, I have been able to pursue the freedom, expression dimension in life, which has been very, very positive and motivating for… for me personally, to be honest.

SB: But the freedom is not really there, as we see with what happened with Mr. Rushdie. It comes with great risk.

WN: Yeah, but, you know, you cannot run along. You know, I was so ski jumper once, and I think that was much more riskier to be a ski jumper than to live as a publisher. [SB chuckles] so I think, you know, you cannot take all these and demands into… you know, to isolate yourself in life. Then what kind of life is that? Life is short, or life is long, and you must take it as it comes somehow. And in the meanwhile, you have to fight for what you believe in. That is the motivation here. And that must never stop. Never, never stop. And this will not stop Salman Rushdie as far as he's able to communicate, which I think he will be after what I am… what I'm hearing, and that is the same with us, his so-called helpers, his close friends.

SB: In that tape from 2010, Mr. Rushdie referred to publishers like you being part of what he called the principled resistance. What… what does this kind of attack do to that resistance?

WN: Yeah. This… if you believe in what your profession means to the society members, and if you believe in what that dimension is worthwhile, you somehow cannot put this into the kinds of limited dimensions. You have to go on. You have to… to work for what you believe. It's so simple and maybe so difficult. This not only a matter of… of Salman Rushdie and "Satanic Verses". It's a general attitude that you have in life. That is part of life for many of us, so to speak.

SB: Well, Mr. Rushdie's family says that he is, in fact, recovering. They refer to his injuries as life-changing. But they also said that his, quote, defiant sense of humour remains intact. What do those words mean to you when you hear them?

WN: [laughing] His sense of humour is fabulous. You know he is really fast. And to be together with him, that is… that is the way we have to be really. I should have slept there last night.

SB: [chuckle] Iran's foreign ministry issued a statement today denying any responsibility for Friday's attack. Instead, Iran insisted Mr. Rushdie and his supporters are alone to blame. You were one of those supporters. How do you respond to that?

WN: No. What I think is unbelievable is that it is possible for them to somehow think that it's indirectly and directly a kind of support to that kind of attack. Supporting violence, not damning it. And that tells a lot about their way of thinking, which I think is very, very sad. I hope, really, when the research in the case is going on, that they can prove that this is a kind of independent statement coming and as well as an independent attack from this guy without any kind of support from the regime in Iran because that kind of expression is that they are a killing regime without respect for any kind of humanity.

SB: Just to be clear, you're saying that you hope throughout this trial that it emerges that this guy was a lone wolf in his attack?

WN: Yes. That is what we hope, of course. And that is very important to find out if there's any kind of link. Because if there's some kind of link, it is… then, it's, of course, much more serious. But on the other hand, of course, a fatwa in itself is a kind of long-term signal where they somehow give the responsibility to some kind of positive attitude to those who are willing to take that risk, as this guy has done. But we really hope that this is a lonely wolf, yes.

SB: Mr. Nygaard, thank you so much for your time today. Appreciate it.

WN: Thank you.

CH: William Nygaard was Salman Rushdie's Norwegian publisher and is the survivor of a 1993 attempt on his life. We reached him in Oslo, Norway.

[calypso]

Dreaming Spiders

Guest: Daniela Roessler

CH: A lot of us have an immediate, instinctive response to seeing a spider. And that is: to squish it. But what if I told you that that spider dangling from the ceiling sleeps, just like we do? And that it might even dream? Would you still want to squish it? You probably would. But maybe your feelings will change after this interview. A team of researchers has found that a common species of jumping spider experiences rapid-eye-movement sleep. That's the phase in which humans dream. Daniela Roessler is a behavioural ecologist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Konstanz in Germany. She made this spider-REM discovery almost by accident. We reached her in Glarus, Switzerland.

SB: Ms. Roessler, you didn't set out to study whether spiders sleep when you first started collecting these jumping spiders. How did you arrive at this moment?

DANIELA ROESSLER: Well, I was basically collecting these jumping spiders for a completely different set of experiments. But when I… when I caught them in the field, and because it was lockdown, I had to take them home. And because I did not have any access to a… to a lab. So I put them on the windowsill, and I found them one night when I came home hanging from the lid of the plastic boxes that we put them in. And that was very peculiar, because I did not recall any such behaviour ever being… being reported or documented. And so, we started to look more into what's going on with these spiders at night because it gave us such a nice, unique opportunity to actually observe them in a very exposed way.

SB: Okay. What are some of the things you saw in these spiders [both chuckle] while you were monitoring them? And how… how were you monitoring them?

DR: So I… first thing I did was get a really cheepish… well, actually pretty cheap night vision camera on Amazon. [laughing] And I duct-taped a couple of magnifying lenses on top of… of the lens because it was made more for a far-range hunting-style situation. [laughing] So I really had to modify it a bit to make it work for these tiny, tiny spiders. And then, I sat down and set it all up and tried to make the… the infrared light go to the spider and make sure I could actually see it. And then, I was, like, just there hunching over it, looking through this night vision camera. And then, for the first time, I saw this adult spider that we started with just suddenly twitch, and she kind of curled up all the legs and… and she was making these really uncontrolled moves. And it just… I didn't know because it was the first spider I ever saw. I was like, oh, is she sick? Like, is she dying? What's happening? [chuckling] And then, we saw that it happened over and over and over again in very regular intervals. And it happened in all spiders that we filmed after that one. And so, it became clear that there is something more… more to it and more to this behaviour, which is when we started hypothesizing that they may actually experience something like REM sleep.

SB: So you say that they may experience REM sleep. So what does that mean in terms of your research? You still have to prove it?

DR: Well, first of all, we still have to prove that they are actually asleep because there are a couple of definitions. And we… we actually never did those classic sleep experiments. However, researchers across the world would agree that we by now actually know that all animals sleep. So we're quite confident that they are asleep, but we will still have to show it.

SB: How do you do a classic sleep experiment on a spider?

DR: Well, there's a couple things that you would need to show, but the most important one is when an organism is asleep, it is less responsive and less arousable. So sleep is defined by a higher arousal threshold. So if you try to, like, wake the spider up or just touch it or turn on the light, you would expect if it is actually asleep, that it will take longer or does not even show a reaction to a certain stimulus where it would show a reaction very quickly if it were awake.

SB: Can I confess to you at this moment that my heart is beating quickly and I actually feel terrified just talking about spiders? [DR laughs] I am not alone in this fear of spiders, am I?

DR: No.

SB: How… how do you approach these creatures?

DR: Well, for every arachnophobe out there… well, actually, one thing that may help you is the last research we did, which has nothing to do with sleep, which shows that spiders are terrified of other spiders. [chuckling] And there's really cute videos of that where they run away when they see another spider. The… the other advice I would have is just to Google the term jumping spider, and --

SB: No, thank you!

DR: Should give you. [both chuckle] They have the cutest faces and cutest eyes. They are adorable. They behave nothing like what you think of a spider. It behaves pretty much like a cat because they have awesome vision, they're very intelligent, so they will turn around and actually look at you. They don't do any unpredictable movements like the standard scary basement spiders. They're very, very peculiar and different from… from other spiders. So it's a great… it's a great entry spider. [SB laughs] Or if you ever feel like you might want to try to approach them, just Google the term jumping spiders.

SB: Would you forgive me if I… if I just say I'll take your word for it?

DR: It's fine. It's totally fine. [both chuckle]

SB: But to get back to this important research, how important is this discovery?

DR: Well, it is… if we actually… so, if we will be able to show that they are asleep and we actually can talk about REM sleep rather than an REM sleep-like state as we're doing now, then this will add a pretty big piece to the puzzle of how sleep evolved and where it originated. Because so far, REM sleep is something that is pretty special to… to mammals and birds and kind of connected to big complex brains. And if we're able to show that this is a state that may be much more… much more ancient and much older than we expected, that would give us a lot of insight. And consequently, we could use this opportunity that we have in… in these jumping spiders with a less complex brain where we can test fundamental functions of REM sleep that we would not be able to test as easily in… in humans, for example.

SB: And is one of these complicated functions the ability to dream? Do you believe that spiders might dream?

DR: We can't really look into their brain. I'm personally… I think them being such visual creatures with such… like so much sensory input during the day, I think they are dreaming whether that is the same thing or even anything close to what we experience as dreams is, of course, a completely different question.

SB: You sound rather affectionate about these… about these jumping spiders.

DR: I'm absolutely. There's no… no way around it. Working with these animals is such a joy. It's just not your standard spider.

SB: Okay. Well, I'm… as I say, I'll take your word for it. [DR laughs] And I wish you luck with your research.

DR: Thank you very much.

SB: Bye-bye.

DR: Bye-bye.

CH: Behavioural ecologist Daniela Roessler is the lead author of a study on jumping spiders, which was published earlier this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. We reached her in Glarus, Switzerland.

[electronic]

Part 2: Delta Airlines Cartoon, Pre-Construction Price Hike

Delta Airlines Cartoon

Guest: Terry Mosher

CH: Terry Mosher may be the only person in Canada who thanked an airline this week. The longtime political cartoonist, who goes by the pen name Aislin, found himself at the centre of an international controversy because of Delta Air Lines. On Saturday, news broke that a former flight attendant named Leondra Taylor had filed an employment discrimination lawsuit in Atlanta. Ms. Taylor was fired after posting an editorial cartoon that was drawn by Mr. Mosher in 2020 during the U.S. presidential election. And that story has his work going viral again, which suits him just fine. We reached Terry Mosher at home in Montreal.

SB: Terry Mosher, where were you when you found out that your cartoon was making news again?

TERRY MOSHER: Sunday morning, sitting on my sofa with my dog. My wife looks at me, who's checking out news on her iPad, and says, guess what? You're on CNN. [both chuckle] That doesn't happen every day.

SB: I guess it doesn't. Now, let's… let's back up a bit. For people who haven't seen this cartoon, it was published right after the 2020 presidential debates. Can you describe it for us?

TM: Yeah, it's one of the more popular cartoons I've ever concocted because it… it had to do with the debate, that initial debate between Trump and Joe Biden back in 2020. And I was watching the debate and looking for an idea. And suddenly, the idea popped out at me. And I did a sort of… a sort of a montage. I took a photograph of the debate and then added lines and this, that, and the other to it. And the moderator is saying to Donald Trump, thank you very much for wearing your mask, but is wearing a Ku Klux Klan mask. [chuckling] Because he had just refused to sort of denounce the Proud Boys or whatever it happened to be. Anyway, it seemed like a pretty good idea, and as I do, I sent it off to the Gazette for use later on. They put it on their website, I put it up on my Facebook page, and there you go. I thought… I thought I had a pretty good cartoon. I had no idea how popular it was going to be. The next morning, I woke up, and there were hundreds of thousands of views of this particular cartoon. It had, as has happened, and it's still a puzzle to me. It had spread all over the world, hailing from Hong Kong and all kinds of places.

SB: So Trump --

TM: It just caught on the way things do. It went viral. And by the end of the day, there were two million hits or something, and I just stopped counting it. I couldn't comprehend it.

SB: What message were you trying to send with this cartoon that featured Donald Trump with this Ku Klux Klan mask?

TM: Well, there was the obvious thing that he would not denounce these alt-right groups of radicals, even though asked directly about it. And the secondary point was the business of COVID and wearing masks, you know? And sort of sardonically, the moderator, depending on how you interpret it, is saying, thank you very much, Mr. Trump, for wearing your mask. So there's a double message in there, as there are in so many cartoons.

SB: And what do you make of this Delta flight attendant being fired for sharing your cartoon on her Facebook page?

TM: Yes. Well, let's… I mean, look, people share things all the time. I mean, you know, look at any… cartoons are constantly picked up. We don't get any money for it. It's just sort of the name of the game these days. And so that had been picked up all over the place. And I'm quite sure this… this flight attendant had seen it, had liked the cartoon and put it on her own personal Facebook page, I believe Twitter or Facebook. In any case, you know, everybody does that. But then, Delta were clearly looking for an excuse to fire this woman. And they said, you know, you're making some sort of statement on your own personal webpage by… by showing this cartoon. And they… now, I don't know the whole story. Who does? But if that, on the face of it, is why they fired her, that's a very, very dangerous proposition. You know, we can't express ourselves on our own. And, you know, we're dictated to by the companies we work for on what we can and cannot do on our own personal space? I don't think that's right, do you?

SB: Well, how do you feel as a political cartoonist doing your work in what can only be described as downright nasty, polarized times that we're living in?

TM: Well, cartooning, despite difficulties in the newspaper, business and print in general, cartooning has never been more popular. You know, they're spread everywhere. They go all over the place because it's a rich time. A controversial time for any satirist is a rich time. And we're in a very rich period. And it goes on and on and on with Donald Trump.

SB: Is it also a dangerous time?

TM: Well, it can be. And we've gone through a sort of a series of dangerous times. You remember in 2005 there was the controversy in… in a Danish newspaper. And, you know, hundreds of people were killed as a result of that. And there was the slaughter at Charlie Hebdo, and cartoonists were killed by Muslim radicals. So, yeah, we are… [chuckling] I'm afraid to say that cartoonists generally are at the forefront of… in a dangerous, dangerous area. And that probably the proof is in the pudding that we're quite effective.

SB: You're no stranger to stirring up controversy with your work. Does it surprise you the ongoing relevance of political cartoons? I mean, you mentioned that it's a rich time.

TM: Well, they're also making the switch to a new platform very effectively, the Internet. You know, there are days when I have more people see my cartoon on the Internet than they do in the actual newspaper. So we are making the transition. Any young person coming in to see me who's interested in doing satire, I say you have to establish yourself on the Internet. This is the way to do it now. It's the new communication platform. And politely, we keep newspapers going, you know, for the benefit of older readers because they still like to hold a newspaper. But the days are numbered.

SB: So, what are you working on now? What's next?

TM: Well, we've got a Quebec election coming up here.

SB: Ah, yeah!

TM: That's always interesting. You know, also.. you know, my problem, I got to tell you, Susan, is most days is what not to draw because there's always something going on.

SB: So you're not going anywhere?

TM: Well, yeah, I'm turning 80 in November. And, you know, I've talked about retiring. And the Gazette doesn't want me to. So, I guess that's proof that the work is still popular.

SB: I… just before I let you go, do you think that you're speaking out the way you are about this controversy with Delta? Do you think it might affect the court case in any way?

TM: I don't think so from my small perch in Montreal; I doubt that they'll even hear anything of it, perhaps just briefly. But it's gotten me thinking about the business of companies trying to dictate what people can do in their private lives. And it bothers me a great deal. Even the companies we work for have policies where you're not allowed to criticize the company. Well, I suppose within the context of the company, but personally, that's part of freedom. That's part of the freedom that you're allowed to take a cautious look at things. And that's got me thinking of perhaps pointing more in that direction at companies that are trying to dictate how we should live our lives.

SB: Well, we'll look forward to your next cartoon. And thank you for your time. Nice to talk to you.

TM: Thank you, Susan.

SM: Bye-bye.

TM: Bye-bye now.

CH: That was Canadian editorial cartoonist Terry Mosher. You might know him better as Aislin. We reached him at home in Montreal.

[chillhop]

Taliban Takeover Anniversary

CH: As you've been hearing today, it's now been one year since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan -- hours after the president, Ashraf Ghani, fled the country. As Taliban leaders took over the presidential palace, tens of thousands of people tried to escape -- swarming the country's borders and its airport in Kabul. Earlier in the program, we spoke to Canada's minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, about Ottawa's efforts to help the Afghans want to escape to Canada. And among those who've made the journey is Karima Delijam. She first fled to Pakistan with her husband and two kids, and settled in Edmonton this past January. Ms. Delijam reflected on the day the Taliban took control, her journey to Canada, and the family she left behind.

[sc]

KARIMA DELIJAM: There were crowds of terrified people. They were running to their houses. You know, they were fleeing to their houses. Car horns were blaring. And I can remember I saw a school girl and her books had fallen out of her hands and were trampled under foot. And just I could make it. I arrived home that day safe, but I was in shock. So, we had no choice, really. However, it was so difficult, especially for me. I was leaving my family, my friends behind, especially my parents, my siblings. It was… I never could think of that. So, it was really difficult, but really, we had no choice. And crossing the border, we wear the hijab. Thousands of people were standing in scorching heat. And it was really so difficult, you know, crossing the border. But we made it. And then, I think it was four months that we received from the news that now we can… our cases are under processing by the government of Canada and they accepted to evacuate us through humanitarian program for the human rights defenders. First weeks, just… we arrived. We were in a hotel. I remember it was so difficult for me because even when I was in Pakistan, I did not that much worry about my family or I didn't miss them that much. But when I get so much far from them, my depression gets so worse. And I can say every night I had nightmares about my family, my parents, my sisters, I… the nightmare was about, like, Taliban was searching after them. And they are running, they're shouting. And I can say how far away our soul is back home, of course. And bny each bad news back home, we feel it here, of course. [sniffle] And my hope is that I can see my country really in real peace one day. And I can, of course, meet my family, my parents again. This is my biggest hope.

[/sc]

CH: That was Afghan refugee Karima Delijam speaking with CBC Edmonton.

[chillhop]

Pre-Construction Price Hike

Guest: Jennifer LeFeuvre

CH: In 2019, Jennifer LeFeuvre and her husband bought a pre-construction home in Stayner, Ontario -- north of Toronto. They imagined they'd retire there. But now, Ms. LeFeuvre says they're having problems they never imagined: she says the builder has given her the option to back out of the deal -- or pay an extra charge of $175,000. And it's not an isolated situation. We reached Jennifer LeFeuvre in Inglewood, Ontario.

SB: Ms. LaFeuvre, I imagine you were quite excited when you purchased your home in 2019. How would you describe how you're feeling about this experience now?

JENNIFER LEFEUVRE: So right now, I'm just feeling like my husband, and I are in limbo. It's been nothing but nightmares for the last almost month-and-a-half.

SB: You agreed to pay about $600,000 for this house, and that was including some upgrades.

JL: Um-hmm.

SB: How were you informed that the price tag was going to change?

JL: So, July the fourth, I believe the date was, at 10 to 5, an email was sent out from Briarwood. I checked my email shortly after 5 o'clock. They had asked for us to come down to their head office in Markham. I immediately replied back, asking what exactly the meeting was about. There was no reply. So we called in. There was nobody in the office at that time. So my husband and I got in the car first thing July the fifth, drove down to Briarwood head office, and we were given three sheets of papers. One being a closing date of July… sort, June 30th of 2023. The other option was to mutually release, which would give us back our deposit, and we would not have a home, or we could pay an extra $175,000, and they would continue to build our house.

SB: So, how did you react?

JL: Well, my husband and I were upset, surprised. After waiting for three years for our house with numerous delays and no mention of any increased cost to the house, this was a shock. And we were disappointed because we were so excited to have this house.

SB: Now, the builder is saying that it has no choice, that these are extraordinary times, that COVID-19 pandemic has caused supply chain issues.

JL: Um-hmm. Sure.

SB: That everything is more expensive, labour and material, and they have to find new ways to move forward. They call them constructive ways.

JL: Right. Okay.

SB: Do you… do you accept that argument at any level?

JL: So, first of all, I have a binding agreement. So, that was the agreement that was given to me in 2019. I feel that them showing me the cost of what phase five is… So, I bought in phase one. Phase five houses… My phase five house would be $1.175 million. Well, to me, I don't care what it's worth today. And I feel that by showing me that price, they just want to cash in on the difference of what I paid for the house and what… what they think it's worth now.

SB: Have you had legal advice on this issue?

JL: We have a lawyer who has already sent a letter to their lawyers saying we do not agree to the mutual release and we do not agree to the price increase. Unless they can show me and justify the price increase and show me in the contract, the original contract, that where it states that they can change the pricing when they feel like they can do that, I feel that they're doing something illegal.

SB : The Ontario government has a code of ethics for builders.

JL: Um-hmm.

SB: It said it wanted to crack down on, quote, unethical and egregious practices.

JL: Um-hmm.

SB: But there are those who say that what is considered unethical is not spelled out. It's not… there is no clear definition. How have you found navigating this whole system of questions?

JL: It's a nightmare. Nobody wants to deal with it. We've gone to Terreon, the Homebuilders Association. We've gone directly to Doug Ford's office, MPPs, the mayor of Stayner. Everybody just passes us off to somebody else. It's not clear who deals with this. In my opinion, this should be black and white. Who does deal with this? Because you can't just go and change a contract that has been written years ago that says this is our price.

SB: So what are you going to do? Are you going to pay the extra $175,000 for your home?

JL: No, I'm not.

SB: Are you going to sell it?

JL: No, I'm not.

SB: So what are you going to do?

JL: I am going to wait for them to build it. And my closing date is June the 30th of 2023, and it better be built.

SB: But will they give you the keys if you don't pay the money?

JL: They have to give me the keys. That's my closing date.

SB: How stressful is this for you?

JL It is extremely stressful. And, I mean, I've read the comments from the news story from the CBC today. And yes, this has taken over my life. I am homeless right now. I'm staying with family members. I'm paying them rent. I expected my house to be done. Other houses have been built throughout the whole pandemic. So what has Briarwood been doing? Are they the only builder that can't build because there's a pandemic going on? They couldn't get wood. They didn't know back in 2019 that they were building a subdivision. It's very frustrating. I'm sorry. [laughing]

SB: I understand. I hear the frustration. And I wish you luck in getting a resolution. Thank you for telling us about it.

JL: Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much for having me.

SB: Goodbye.

JL: Bye.

CH: Jennifer LeFeuvre is a pre-construction homebuyer in Ontario. We reached her in Inglewood. In a statement to As It Happens this afternoon, Briarwood Development Group said that it is continuing to engage in, quote, "transparent and good faith discussions about these challenges with partners and customers, and we are endeavouring to find constructive solutions." Unquote.

[chillhop]

Splooting

CH: You're walking through the park on a sweltering summer day when you see a tearful crowd gathered. You also see a sweaty paramedic wheeling a tiny stretcher toward the scene -- where a squirrel lies flat on the ground, its limbs splayed out. You expect the worst. But as you get a closer look, you breathe a huge sigh of relief. "Nothing to worry about here," you call out to the concerned bystanders. "That squirrel is simply splooting." And everyone laughs and bursts into spontaneous applause. It's that time of year when you see all kinds of mammals -- squirrels, marmots, your dog -- spread-eagled on flat surfaces. It looks concerning. But, as New York City's Parks Department tweeted last week, "If you see a squirrel lying down… don't worry: it's just fine. On hot days, squirrels keep cool by splooting (stretching out) on cool surfaces to reduce body heat." Now, maybe you're familiar with "splooting", the behaviour, but not "splooting", the word. That makes two of us. But apparently, it originated as a word in the online language known as "Doggo", which is used to describe dogs in the cutesiest, and often, most onomatopoeic way possible. Well, splooting mammals look like they've fallen from a great height, so I guess "sploot" is like "splat" but cute. And if that seems like a stretch -- well, good. Because that's what splooting is.

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August 15, 2022 Episode Transcript

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