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The AIH Transcript for August 2, 2019

Hosts: Rosemary Barton and Angeline Tetteh-Wayoe

Prologue

ROSEMARY BARTON: Hello I'm Rosemary Barton.

ANGELINE TETTEH-WAYOE: Good evening. I'm Angeline Tetteh-Wayoe. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

ATW: Tonight...

RB: Flying with extra baggage. Saudi Arabia will now allow women to travel without permission from a male guardian -- but our guest who lied to her family in order to flee the kingdom isn't convinced.

ATW: It takes a village to raise money for tuition. In the US parents can help their kids qualify for student aid by giving up custody -- and our guest is the one who schools us on that dubious scheme.

RB: Scorched earth policy. New research suggests Europe's sweltering summer has been made hotter and more likely by climate change caused by humans.

ATW: Seeing the beak picture. Britain's media watchdog rules it's okay for newspapers to write insulting articles about -- and doctor photos of -- parrots. We'll explain...I promise.

RB: Okay. Condimental drift. A New Jersey restaurant owner is surprised when a guilty ketchup thief leaves a surprising gift and a note of apology rather than keeping their feelings bottled up.

ATW: And adjusted for inflation. A Halifax ER doctor helps create a device that will help you remove your long-stuck ring by reducing swelling in your finger rather than cutting it off...the ring. Not the finger. As It Happens. The Friday Edition. Radio that's glad he's not getting snippy about it.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Scientists link Europe heat wave to human-caused global warming

Saudi Guardianship

Guest: Moudi Aljohani

ATW: Women in Saudi Arabia can't travel outside the Kingdom without permission from a male family member. But now the kingdom says it's changing its restrictive male guardianship laws. In a new set of laws published today, Riyadh says women will be able to apply for passports, register for marriages and divorces, and become legal guardians of their own children. Moudi Aljohani has been calling on the Kingdom to end male guardianship for years. She fled the country in 2017 for the US. We're withholding her exact location for her safety.

RB: Moudi Aljohani do you think that this is the beginning of the end of male guardianship in Saudi Arabia?

MOUDI ALJOHANI: It doesn't sound like it. I mean this is the beginning of something but not the end because there are a lot bigger issues than what's going on or these kind of headlines that's going on. I mean just making it easier for women to leave that doesn't mean that we don't have a major problem. So why women want to just go to another country -- start over -- because we have a major problem in the country. Still there is all the power that for men to do whatever they want. I don't believe there is any women who can call police if there is any crime or violence happen against her. We still have a major problem of the whole legislation that needs to be reformed.

RB: So maybe you can explain how the rules around male guardianship affected you when you were there?

MA: It affected me just like everybody else in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia...their female. I personally was granted a scholarship from the Saudi government -- I was pursuing my master's degree in law at University of Miami in the United States. However, my westernized lifestyle wasn't approved by my family. In fact as a result of that my family tricked me in a way to make me visit Saudi -- and shockingly, surprisingly, I had my passport taken away from me and my scholarship was cancelled. That was all gone. And I was kind of under house arrest for eight months from a punishment from my family and that's how it started.

RB: And in order to escape your sort of imprisonment with your family what did you have to do?

MA: Well I had to do a lot of negotiating and I had to do you know a lot of acting and giving them a feeling I'm not going to be rebellious anymore. It actually worked. I was able to go to Bahrain from a story that I created about an engagement for a family friend and that's how I got my guardian to agree -- to give me permission -- and I stole my passport that I already have the visa for. And that's it. I was gone by then.

RB: So now with this change announced today that women can apply for their own passports, register from marriages and divorce -- just that act, do you feel like that is somewhat of a victory for women there?

MA: I don't want to be very negative with everything but it open up another way -- expose women for a lot of violence.

RB: What do you mean by that?

MA: I believe that's kind of a power that has been taken away from men. Now men knows that women can just you know leave the country. They will make sure that this is not going to happen. If a male wants to imprison a woman in a basement (or) in the house and just not let her leave...it happens many times. I don't know if that would increase also the numbers of violent crimes like the so-called honour killing. That's another subject that nobody really talks about. But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

RB: So why do you think the Kingdom announced this now? Is this part of the attempt to show the Western world that this is a society and a kingdom that is modernizing?

MA: I believe so. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are very obsessed about image. So the fact that the subject of Saudi women has been on headlines for the past few years it's been very painful for the government. So they have to do something in a way that it looks like it's modernized but it's not really modernized.

RB: So even as we're talking though there are still these eight high profile women behind bars. These are the women who have campaigned to dismantle these guardianship laws -- one of them Loujain al-Hathloul. What might change for these women because of this?

MA: One of the major things that really proves that there is no real change in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is these women are still behind bars. If there is a real change that is going to happen they need to immediately free these women, drop all the charges, and apologize and really reform. But the fact that they're still in prison -- because Loujain was one of the most vocal and drove her car and they still treating her as a terrorist. So the problem that we have right now is not the traveling rights or driving a car, it's the whole criminal system...it's the whole laws that needs to be changed. We cannot criminalize people over a tweet or over an opinion that might sound a little bit offensive for MBS or for the government.

RB: If given these changes, if you went back to Saudi what do you think would happen to you?

MA: Well that's not an option for me because I am definitely on the watch list. I mean I cannot risk it. I will be definitely killed. We still have people in prison for years just because they say something that sounds offensive. So that's really scary. So the fact that just giving the people the right to travel that doesn't change anything because anybody could be in the government watch list which they can be banned from traveling to make sure that these people are not ruining the image of Saudi Arabia. And I know -- no matter what -- I cannot go back.

RB: Moudi Aljohani thank you for giving us some perspective on all these things and these changes today. I appreciate it.

MA: Thank you very much Rosemary I really appreciate you guys having me.

RB: Our pleasure.

ATW: Moudi Aljohani is a Saudi exile living in the US. We are hiding her exact location for her protection.

[Music]

Europe Heatwave

Guest: Fredi Otto

ATW: Last month wasn't just hot. It was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth. That was especially apparent in Europe where cities in several countries including Belgium, Germany, France, and the Netherlands all set new record high temperatures. The warm weather was historic and it also may be an indication of what's to come. According to new research, the recent European heat wave was made more intense and much more likely because of man-made climate change. Fredi Otto is the Acting Director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford. She's also a co-investigator with World Weather Attribution, an international consortium of researchers behind the new study. We reached Ms. Otto in Oxford, England.

RB: Fredi Otto just how big a role did climate change play in this heatwave that hit Europe just last week?

FREDI OTTO: It did play a very big role. So the heat wave at almost all locations we looked at, it would have been about 2 to 3 degrees cooler if it would not have been for man-made climate change.

RB: How were you able to establish that so quickly?

FO: Well we have done this kind of work for a while. In the last years we have developed methodologies and frameworks to answer the question whether and to what extent man-made climate change altered the likelihood of extreme weather events. And the way we do that is we ask the question: What is the possibility -- the likelihood -- of the event that we are interested in -- in this case the heatwave in the last week of July in Europe -- in the world we live in today? And we found -- for example, for France we found that in today's climate with climate change it would have been about a one in 130 year event. But for Oxford, the same heat wave was actually much shorter. So it was less extreme and in today's climate it would have been about a 10 year event. And we use observations from weather stations and climate models to find out what is possible within today's world and then how extreme is the event in today's world. And because we know very well how many extra greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, we can remove these extra greenhouse gases in the atmospheres of our climate models. And so we can simulate a world as it might have been without man-made climate change. And in this world we then ask again the same question: what is the likelihood of this extreme event -- this heatwave -- in the world that would have been exactly as our world today but without man-made climate change? And we found that for France this event it would have been extremely rare. It would have been a one in 1000 year event in the world without climate change. So because the only difference between these two worlds is the extra greenhouse gases in the atmosphere we can then attribute this difference to man-made climate change and can say that in France this event was made at least 10 times more likely because of man-made climate change.

RB: Right. If this is I guess in some ways the new normal, these sort of extremely hot temperatures in major cities and countries in Europe, how prepared are they to deal with them? Because when I see people suffering on TV it doesn't seem like Europe has adapted to those kinds of extreme heat...am I wrong?

FO: You are not wrong largely. So Europe has learned some lessons. So the big heatwave in 2003 which caused over 15,000 extra deaths in France alone was a bit of a wakeup call. Particular in France. So in France for these two heatwaves -- so there were public buildings that had cool rooms which were open to the public so people could go in there to find some shelter from the heat, free water was given out in the metro. So some simple measures to adapt to the effects were done. But we also need much larger changes. The houses -- and I can definitely say that for Britain where I live -- the houses we live in are absolutely not build for these temperatures. So to really adapt to this a lot more needs to happen.

RB: So that sort of climate or weather adaptation how you deal with these extreme temperatures -- what about preventing it? It's just the obvious answer I suppose, right?

FO: Well the temperatures we see today are already -- and we have now one degree of global warming. And the temperatures we see in Europe are already three degrees hotter than they would have been without man-made climate change and these heat. So climate change is already happening now and while even when we will get to not emitting extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere so that we limit global warming, it will be maybe if we are really good at 1.5 degrees or 2 degrees and so that means that these heatwaves are something we will have to live with for a very long time. And so the way our cities are built and increasingly build is also very dense with very little green spaces. So changing that -- having more green spaces, having maybe white roofs instead of dark roofs is also something that you can do to actually get the temperatures locally a bit lower. So that would also be measures that one can take. But the big one is of course we have to stop net emitting carbon dioxide.

RB: But even if we do that the 1.5 or the 2 degrees we can't unwind this, we can't go back in time. This is just the way it's going to be. Is that fair to say?

FO: Yeah that's fair to say. Definitely.

RB: In your Twitter bio -- you are a physicist, you're a climate scientists, but you're also a philosopher. So we're sort of wondering how that informs your work around climate change?

FO: I think it definitely makes me very aware that climate change is to a large degree and how we deal with climate change is to a large degree a question of justice, of equity -- because I already saw this again on Twitter today after we published the study that some people tweeted back at me, 'Oh well it was a really nice summer. Give me more of that.' And of course for people who are rich, who are well informed, well educated, we can deal with this. But it's the people at the bottom of every society globally and in all countries that really have to pay the price. And so every climate policy for mitigation and adaptation has to be social policy.

RB: That's very thoughtful. Thank you Fredi Otto I appreciate your time.

FO: You're welcome.

ATW: Fredi Otto is the acting director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, and co-investigator with World Weather Attribution -- an international project that aims to assess the human influence on extreme weather. We reached Ms. Otto in Oxford, England.

[Music]

Stolen Ketchup

Guest: Maria DiLeo

ATW: Maria DiLeo is the owner of a Perkins restaurant in New Jersey. As you can probably imagine, there are a lot of ketchup bottles at her all-day breakfast chain restaurants. So when one went missing recently no one really noticed. That was until a guilty ketchup stealer tried to make amends and left the bag outside the restaurants. Ms. DiLeo has since posted the story to a local Facebook group. We reached her at her restaurant in Lacey Township, New Jersey.

RB: So Ms. DiLeo when did your your staff find this plastic bag -- I guess it was a Walmart bag?

MARIA DILEO: Yes. On Wednesday night my manager was closing at 9:00. And right next to the garbage pail there was this Wal-Mart bag. And she's like 'God they couldn't even throw it in the garbage.' And she picked it up and it was heavy. And then she looked in it and it was two ketchups and a note and then she read the note.

RB: Okay. So there were two bottles of ketchup and a note and she read the note. And...

MD: She read the note and she took it home with her. And I worked yesterday. And I came into work and finished and she was my relief and she showed it to me and I'm looking at her and go 'Oh my God this poor girl. I feel terrible.' So I took a picture of it and I just put it in my Lacey Township Chatter (group) just saying like you're forgiven -- you know don't worry, lesson learnt.

RB: Okay well let's back up because what was on the note? Can you read it?

MD: Wait hold on. Let me read it from my phone. Okay it says, "Dear Lacey Perkins. A few weeks ago, I had taken one of your bottles of ketchup off the table because for some odd reason I thought it would be "risky." I am as square as they come and this is the worst thing I've done. Well a few hours later I did it, someone crashed into my car. And since then my karma, luck, and in life has been [censor bleep]. I hope returning the two new bottles will restore some for me and I can stop carrying around all this guilt. Again I am sorry for anything I inconvenienced you for. From an awful person."

RB: So...let me back up. So they took a bottle of ketchup from your restaurant...

MD: They took a bottle of ketchup like a couple of weeks ago.

RB: Did you notice that it was missing?

MD: Absolutely not. I have 60 tables in here and maybe the girl might have just thought it was empty and they might have thought they throw it out during a shift.

RB: And did it because someone had crashed into their car?

MD: Yes -- she just had said ever since she took that that she's had bad luck and bad karma.

RB: Okay. And then you decided to post it to Facebook.

MD: I posted it on Facebook in my local Lacey Township Chatter (group) because I think she has to be from Lacey -- my restaurant is in Lacey.

RB: What makes you think it's a she?

MD: The way the handwriting is on the note...it's definitely a girl. A boy doesn't write this nice.

RB: [Laughs] You're like a detective. What have you been able to find out about her?

MD: Absolutely nothing. I don't even know who she is.

RB: And when she signed off -- we're assuming it's a girl given your handwriting analysis -- when she signs off "an awful person" did you think to yourself, "Yes you are." What did you think?

MD: No I didn't think that at all. I'm thinking this is definitely a kid who definitely -- I mean let's be for real, if this is the worst thing you did -- and you're already driving a car -- is stealing a ketchup bottle, you're in good shape. [Laughter] My own mother goes in and takes the Splenda...Come on Mom, really? [Laughter]

RB: My dad does that too. [Laughter]

MD: So I'm like Oh my God and I really felt bad because I'm like for somebody to do this it must've been really bad. Somebody hit your car. I mean that's terrible.

RB: Yeah there was a lot of guilt.

MD: A lot of guilt.

RB: What are you going to do with the letter?

MD: The letter is framed, and the two ketchup bottles...it's sitting on my table here in Perkins.

RB: So will it be like a warning to people about what happened?

MD: No -- I don't look at it as a warning. I look at it as forgiveness. I would never use that as a warning.

RB: And what about the ketchup bottles -- just get those back into rotation or...

MD: No no no. I would never use those ketchup bottles. They are on the table just for showing that the girl brought it back. I would never put those on my table.

RB: Why?

MD: I don't know -- you know what I mean. They are from Wal-Mart, they all closed, but you don't know. I would never do that.

RB: You think they might not be ketchup?

MD: No I don't know -- I'm not saying that but I just would never do that. I would keep it as all goes together as a piece of.

RB: [Laughter] A tribute if you will.

MD: It's like a tribute. They are really not an awful person. Let me interview everybody here and ask them if they ever took one of my ketchup -- I mean I had a lady take my whole sugar caddy. I mean what am I going to say to her? I figure she needed it more than me. I don't know. [Laughs] Here in Perkins like we're very good in the community like we donate to everything -- we do the schools, free breakfast -- so I'm just giving back to the community.

RB: Well there's a difference between giving back and having things stolen though.

MD: I know but I wouldn't look at it like being stolen. I mean I wouldn't look at it like that. I mean that's obviously how she felt. Did she take it? Yes. Should she have not taken it? Absolutely.

RB: Do you think this customer has come back to the restaurant -- will come back?.

MD: I don't know but I just think she's going to have really good luck and she should go play the lottery and then come see me when she hits it.

RB: [Laughter]

MD: I really think that's going to happen.

RB: Do you believe in karma?

MD: No I don't.

RB: Oh you don't.

MD: No I really don't. Well...I can't say that I don't believe in karma. I just feel like if every night I can put my head on the pillow and know that I'm a good person so I guess I don't feel that karma would ever come to me.

RB: Well listen given the way you so readily forgave this ketchup thief that's good karma for you too.

MD: Right. Yeah. You know this whole world is so bad about killing this and that -- and I think like forgiveness should be part of the world too.

RB: It's a crazy little tale but man you're a good sport.

MD: No problem.

RB: I promise I will never steal Splenda at your restaurant if I come.

MD: Oh I'm going to be looking and I'm going to hold you too because I am going to put in cameras now. [Laughter]

RB: [Laughter] Maria DiLeo thank you. Have a good day.

MD: Okay. You're welcome.

ATW: That was Perkins owner Maria DiLeo telling us about the apology letter that was left at her restaurant by a ketchup thief. We reached her in Lacey Township, New Jersey. If you'd like to see a picture of Ms. DiLeo with that note which she has since had framed, visit our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Parrots

ATW: In a precedent setting ruling, a press regulator has said that British reporters have the right to make fun of parrots. Earlier this year, the British tabloid the Daily Star published a bombshell article that read in part, "A pain-loving parrot cackles with glee when his owners hurt themselves. Harry the macaw throws his head back and sniggers like psycho TV character Arthur Shelby in 'Peaky Blinders' if (his owners) yelp in pain." And there was a picture of macaw, with an Arthur Shelby-style flat cap photoshopped onto its head under the headline "Beaky Blinders." To the group, All-Star Parrots, this was an outrage. That group had placed Harry the macaw with its owners and it believed that the Daily Star was giving Harry and All-Star Parrots a bad name. So it complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation -- or Ipso -- about the story and the photoshopped cap. But in a brave decision, Ipso disagreed. It said neither the photo nor the article violated journalistic guidelines. Now as The Guardian wrote, quote, "The landmark ruling leaves the door open for other news outlets to responsibly use similar photoshopped images when reporting on parrot based stories." So congrats to the Daily Star. I guess it's a real feather under your cap.

[Music]

Part 2: U.S. parents gave up custody of their teens to get more money for college: report

Student Custody

Guest: Melissa Sanchez

ATW: If you're a student in the US hoping to get financial aid in the US but you don't qualify there might be a solution. All your parents have to do is hand you over to new guardians. It's totally legal too. This week, ProPublica Illinois published a story looking into dozens of families in that state who have given up custody of their own children. And because of that reporting the US Department of Education is looking at ways to close the financial aid loophole. Melissa Sanchez is a reporter with ProPublica Illinois who co-wrote the story. We reached her in Chicago.

RB: Okay Melissa Sanchez maybe start by just giving us an idea of how this scheme works?

MELISSA SANCHEZ: So essentially what happens is parents turn over guardianship of their children just before the kids turn 18 -- often the kids are 17 and a half, just a couple of months away from turning 18 -- and they turn guardianship over to somebody else, typically a grandparent, a cousin, or a family friend. And by doing this, when the kid turns 18 and the guardianship doesn't really matter anymore because they're an adult, when the kid applies for financial aid the child's parents income isn't taken into account. Instead only the kid's income is taken into account. And so the kids then are qualifying for federal, state, and university grant dollars that they wouldn't have otherwise qualified for.

RB: They are severing legal ties with their parents in order to not be considered under the same financial umbrella as them?

MS: Exactly. So the kids then are considered financially independent of parents and that means that they're more likely to qualify for all sorts of aid that they otherwise would not have qualified for.

RB: It seems like a drastic thing to do. So why are parents choosing to go in this direction?

MS: So none of the parents who we've identified were willing to talk to us on the record. We've spoken with some people involved in this process including one guardian. But a lot of these parents are saying that they don't make enough money to pay for college outright but they make too much money to qualify for any aid or enough aid. And so I think parents are really desperate for some avenue to help them pay for their kid's college and this is what they've found.

RB: And does that ring true in the instances you found?

MS: It's hard to know. I mean we don't know what everybody's income levels are. But a lot of the people involved are attorneys, there is a doctor, there's a lot of teachers. It's kind of a range from like middle to upper class families. They live in some of the most affluent suburbs in Illinois and they own homes that are worth a half million dollars or more. So from the outside it looks like some of these families might be able to pay for their kid's college but we don't actually know what the people's personal finances are.

RB: So how many parents have you found evidence of doing this in Illinois?

MS: So we started looking at one county where we had heard that this was a problem and we identified 46 cases. There's a handful of those cases that involve siblings so there's maybe more like 43 or 44 families. And that's just in one county. So we're trying to pull court records in other counties where we hear this is happening to see how widespread it is.

RB: Okay. But even that seems like a high number. So how are these people learning about this I don't know tool or loophole whatever you want to call it?

MS: That's a really good question. So a lot of these people seem to have learned about this loophole through college consultant. And so these are people who families hire to help them fill out applications, write essays, and apparently also to look for ways to save money on college. And so there's this company is called Destination College and the woman who runs it has apparently been letting folks know that this is an option for them and we don't know exactly how people are working together but almost every single one of these families used one of two law firm to do the work and the paperwork looks almost identical for all these cases.

RB: And you did talk to some of those lawyers. So how did they explain or defend what they were doing?

MS: So they say that it's legal -- that the statute that allows parents to give up guardianship of their kids -- one of the reasons is they say that it's in the child's best interest to do this because then they can save money for college, and the parents are desperate to find ways to do so. So they say that it's perfectly legal, it's in the state statute, and the parents aren't doing anything wrong.

RB: So if it's legal what could be the consequences of this then? I mean is anyone affected by this adversely?

MS: Sure. So the dollars in need based grants are limited. There's only so much money to go around. In Illinois there's a much higher number of kids who need the aid who qualify for it who don't get it because there just isn't enough. Last year there was more than 80,000 college students who qualified for the states need based grants but did not get them because the money ran out. And these grants -- the state grants are about 5000 dollars apiece.

RB: You also spoke to a guardian who decided that they would do this for a family friend. What did they tell you about why they said they were comfortable doing it?

MS: The man I spoke with was really torn about it. He said that he really wanted to help this family that he's known for a lot of years and he's watched this girl grow up and he called himself her "cheerleader." He ultimately decided to help the family because they asked him to. But he had a lot of questions along the way and his biggest one was is this going to hurt other kids in the process? Is she going to get money and other kids won't get? Sort of the question we were just talking about. And he says that he asked this to the college consultant, to the family, and to the attorney involved and they all said no, it's not going to hurt anybody. And so he agreed to doing that believing that that was the case.

RB: But of course there was no way to know.

MS: Exactly.

RB: Other than the legal and ethical questions here and I understand those, is there not a bigger question about why the heck is college so unaffordable in the United States? And how even seemingly maybe well-off families or you know average middle class families just can't make it work. Is it possible that some of those people fit into that category and what does it tell us about the state of education?

MS: I think that's exactly right and a lot of the comments we've been getting on social media and via email are just that. That's definitely the other side of the story. College is way too expensive in this country and that's one of the reasons it's become a big campaign issue at the presidential level. But I think at the end of the day it's a problem for all families and here we have a case of you know a few dozen possibly a few hundred families that are taking advantage of a loophole but in doing so this is hurting the people who have the least ability to pay for college.

RB: A day after your report the US Department of Education said they were going to look into this loophole and see about closing it. Have you heard any progress yet?

MS: Not yet but it was really interesting to us that the Inspector General for the US Department of Education called this fraud and so they are looking into it and they say that they're going to try to clarify the language around what the requirements are to be considered financially independent in order to close that loophole and not allow kids who have gone through these kinds of paper guardianships to qualify for aid that normally would not have been entitled to.

RB: Well listen it's a remarkable story and it brings up a lot of different things. Great reporting. Nice to meet you Melissa. I appreciate it.

MS: Likewise.

ATW: Melissa Sanchez is reporter with ProPublica Illinois. We reached her in Chicago. And for more on this story go to our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Alien Movie

Guest: Nyla Innuksuk

ATW: When aliens invade, they tend to focus on densely populated areas. In "Independence Day" Will Smith and company fight to save Los Angeles. In "War of the Worlds" Tom Cruise has to get his kids out of New Jersey. In "Attack the Block" a young John Boyega defends South London. It's part of what makes the forthcoming film "Slash/Back" so unusual and so special. It's an alien invasion movie shot in Pangnirtung,Nunavut, directed by Inuk filmmaker Nyla Innuksuk, and featuring a mostly local cast. We reached Nyla Innuksuk on location in Pangnirtung.

RB: So Nyla Innuksuk tell me about the premise of "Slash/Back."

NYLA INNUKSUK: It's an alien invasion movie about this group of teenagers as they take on you know this invading force in their small Arctic town of Pang.

RB: Pangnirtung.

NI: Yeah.

RB: And where did you come up with the idea?

NI: The idea of kind of this alien invasion taking place in the Arctic I've just kind of had since probably since I was a teenager. Myself growing up as a kid in Nunavut and watching adventure movies and horror movies -- you know I was always kind of inspired by those kinds of stories. And so when I was thinking of an idea of this kind of alien invasion movie, knowing some of the girls from Pang I thought this would be you know a great place for it to take place.

RB: [Chuckles] Why? Tell me what is it about Pang -- or Pangnirtung -- that makes it so receptive to alien movies?

NI: It's one of the most beautiful places on the planet. And I came here about ten years ago. I was making a short doc with the NFB and when I was over here -- being here was so beautiful. It was in the winter when I came. It's very different than it is right now in the summer. But it is just unlike anywhere else. And with these gigantic mountains. And in the summer of course there's 24 hour sunlight. And then when you know I was kind of thinking about who would be kind of the best people to fight back against aliens, the girls in Pang are pretty tough so I thought that it would be kind of a good fit.

RB: [Laughter] Why are they so tough? What do the girls of Pang have that we don't or that I don't?

NI: [Laughs] I don't know. Since we've been here you know when the sun comes out essentially they have this amazing playground to just be wandering around in and exploring and it's just been amazing. You know just hanging out with some of the kids and seeing the kind of adventures that they get up to. And I've been working with a couple of them for really a couple of years now and it started more as acting workshops, just kind of to get to know a few of the girls in the community and really I saw that there was a lot of interest in acting and in [inaudible] in particular there's a really great kind of film and TV community. So I was coming up and for me you know hosting these workshops made a little bit more sense instead of these kind of formal auditions -- 1) Because I wasn't trying to get experienced actors -- I was trying to get you know young women that would really kind of grow into these characters and that some of the characters might really kind of be feeding off of them and be kind of a collaborative process in that way. And kind of through those kinds of experiences myself and my co-writer Ryan Cavan we really just we're able to put together a script that we felt was really reflective of you know not just my experiences growing up in the Arctic but also the young girls that we were kind of just hanging out with.

RB: So I mean there's so many layers to the movie but I mean obviously the one that occurs to me is you are there on Inuit land in an Indigenous community and aliens invade.

NI: [Laughs]

RB: Obviously I see some parallels there. Were you trying to do that -- to tap into sort of the issues around colonisation and if so what are you trying to tell us?

NI: I mean I totally get the the obvious parallels that are there. This kind of invading force within an Indigenous community and certainly those kinds of themes will definitely resonate in this project. But it wasn't the idea of the movie and really just my main reason for making the movie it wasn't really to make. You know I think that what's great about sci-fi and horror is you can have these kind of metaphors that allow you to kind of deal with these big topics in a way that you can still be fun. And it was also just really important for me to have just a movie that was just really a lot of fun and also showed contemporary girls just kind of you know being pretty badass [Laughter] and just getting to kind of fight aliens and have a lot of fun. So yeah that's kind of where it kind of started for me. But you know those kinds of issues definitely find their way into script.

RB: So there's always people I guess like stunt performers other people like wandering around in alien suits. Is the community [Laughter] obviously the whole community knows what's going on but are there still lots people out sort of gawking at the action?

NI: Well everybody in the community seems to be very excited about the project. And I don't think it would be possible if the community wasn't on board because the community of Pang doesn't have the infrastructure to kind of make a movie like this in the traditional sense. We don't have any hotels to stay in. There's none of the kind of vehicles -- production vehicles -- that we're used to in film production in Toronto. So you know we're staying in the schools and shipping up beds and also you know working with a lot of crew members that might not have been on the set before. So it's very much a different kind of vibe for us.

RB: You also created the Marvel's first Inuk superhero "Snowguard." So you seem very dedicated I think to mixing your art and your heritage. Is that something you are actively trying to do or it's just sort of who you are?

NI: I think it's probably a little bit of both. Probably mostly of just who am I. I think my Indigeneity is going to be a part of what I create just because I myself am Indigenous and a lot of this stuff that I'm working on just happens to come from kind of places that are rooted in my kind of curiosities which are based on my experiences as an Indigenous person. But you know I'm obviously a big fan of geek culture and sci-fi and horror and those kinds of things. So yeah.

RB: That's cool. Great. Thank you. Good luck.

NI: Thank you.

ATW: Nyla Innuksuk is the director of the upcoming alien invasion movie "Slash/Back." We reached her in Pangnirtung, Nunavut.

[Music]

Ring Remover

Guest: Kevin Spencer

ATW: Wedding vows often include the line "Till death do we part." But when it comes to wedding rings you may not want to wait quite that long -- especially if your finger is swollen. And now thanks to a Halifax ER doctor you don't have to. He and a group of engineering students have created a device that temporarily decreases the swelling in fingers so that rings can easily slide off. Dr. Kevin Spencer is the co-founder and president of Ring Rescue. We reached him in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

RB: Dr. Spencer how does your device "Ring Rescue" actually work?

KEVIN SPENCER: Sure. So we tried to tackle the problem of ring stuck on fingers. It's a really common problem. And we try to make the fingers slimmer or smaller by adding air pressure externally to the finger to compress it. And when a finger becomes slimmer a ring that once fit onto a finger can be removed.

RB: So how does the air pressure do that? It pushes the skin down?

KS: Exactly. Yeah I mean the tissues in our body tend to swell and move and fluctuate over time. So the fluids in all these tissues are very mobile. And when you apply a little bit of external compression to the finger the fluid just moves out of the way.

RB: So it's sort of like a compression sock for your finger?

KS: Just like that actually. It's a great analogy because it works the same way.

RB: Where did this idea come from?

KS: Well it actually started at Dalhousie engineering school. There were a couple of engineering students in their graduating year. And so they designed a solution as part of what they call the Capstone project which is their final year competition. And I was there at that event and that's where I saw this. And so we teamed up after that and that's basically where the project started.

RB: So you partnered up with these younger people and you came up with something that anyone could use or hospitals could use?

KS: Well the original idea was that stuck rings was a problem faced by hospitals. But what we realized is that a lot of jewelry stores have the same problem and in fact a variety of places that you'll see this problem -- nursing homes, family medicine and surgical clinics. So there's quite a few places that deal with stuck rings and we feel that we really came up with a nice compelling solution for that.

RB: So you said that this is common. How common? I mean it's happened to me.

KS: We actually see this a couple of times a week in the emergency department -- people presenting or showing up with the problem of a stuck ring. And usually what happens is somebody tried to get it off at home then the more they pull on it the more swollen it gets and the problem gets worse. But we also see it for a variety of other reasons as well. So for example if you fall and break your wrist, a ring that was otherwise not stuck can now become stuck with the swelling. So whether it's a bee sting or an injury there's lots of reasons why kind of a snug fitting ring has now become a problem. And we see all of this in the emergency department.

RB: And so why wouldn't you just you know put some lotion or some butter or spray some Pam or something on your finger to get it off that way?

KS: Well people normally do all those things at home before they come in and there's a lot of different solutions you might find on YouTube. You can wrap sort of dental floss around your finger or apply soap or lubrication and those sometimes work but often they don't. And then those are the cases that we can help out with.

RB: And so what typically happens then in an emergency room?

KS: Unfortunately cutting rings off is generally what happens. And yeah ring cutting is challenging. I mean people don't like to have their rings cut obviously -- they can be expensive and sentimental. And from the physician side of things, ring cutting can be difficult -- that you have sharp edges to work with, you have to pry the rings apart, it's just not a very fun procedure most of the time. And some materials are very very difficult to cut too so tungsten and titanium and some of those harder materials -- the ring cutters won't touch. Yeah it's a real challenge sometimes.

RB: I suppose you could just cut the finger.

KS: We don't like to do that. No that's usually what we try to avoid.

RB: [Laughs] That's probably a good idea.

KS: Yeah that's right.

RB: Now you've got clearance from Health Canada and the US Food and Drug Administration. How much are these devices going to sell for and what seems to be the interest level?

KS: Well the interest is great. I mean we're just starting to ship devices in the coming weeks. We're selling it for 299 US or 369 Canadian, and that's ready to go and we have really nice packaging with it too. So yeah it's ready to go.

RB: So you're not going to buy one for your home necessarily?

KS: My wife actually -- her ring gets slightly stuck, not necessarily stuck but slightly stuck periodically, so she actually uses it around home a lot but it really works. We're trying to sell this to hospitals and jewelry stores -- at least starting out.

RB: More normally I guess we're talking about engagement rings, wedding rings, maybe university rings. But I understand that there was one very special ring that was saved.

KS: Absolutely. So a colleague of mine -- an orthopedic surgeon -- in the Toronto area contacted me because one of his patients had a World Series Championship Blue Jays ring stuck on his finger. And of course that's not a ring that anybody would want to cut off and destroy. And so we sent a device up and he was able to get the ring off intact and safe and sound.

RB: Who was it?

KS: Well you know I can't tell you that.

RB: Can you give us a hint? [Chuckles]

KS: I'm sorry I can't. I would love to tell you. You know what? I'll leave it to your imagination.

RB: And he only had the one ring?

KS: [Laughs] You know another question that comes up -- people have asked well this works for making your fingers slimmer, will it work for waistlines as well? And of course the answer is no for that one.

RB: That was a good dodge there Dr. Spencer.

KS: Did you like that? Okay thank you.

RB: Yeah. I'm still waiting for that answer. [Laughter] You said it happens to your wife often. Has it happened to you?

KS: No actually it hasn't. But I have been removing rings for many many occasions over the last eight years of my ER career.

RB: Did you ever think an emergency room doctor would get into the business of selling Ring Rescues?

KS: Well I actually started my career as a mechanical engineer. So this is a great outlet for me to combine engineering and medicine actually.

RB: So it actually makes a lot of sense.

KS: It does. Absolutely.

RB: And that Blue Jays player would be?

KS: [Laughs] Right.

RB: [Laughs] All right Dr. Spencer thank you for your time I appreciate it.

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

RB: Good chatting. Bye bye.

KS: Take care.

ATW: Dr. Kevin Spencer is an ER doctor and the co-founder and president of Ring Rescue. We reached him in Halifax.

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August 2, 2019 Episode Transcript

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