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The AIH Transcript for December 4, 2020

Hosts: Helen Mann and Talia Schlanger

Prologue

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

TALIA SCHLANGER: Good evening. I'm Talia Schlanger, sitting in for Chris Howden. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

TS: Tonight:

HM: New charges. Police say three people, including the common law spouse of the man who killed 22 people in Nova Scotia, provided the killer with ammunition. We ask a lawyer for the victims where this leaves the case.

TS: Cruise controlled. One of the passengers trapped aboard The Diamond Princess early in the pandemic has written a book about it that she thinks everyone can relate to since we are all in the same boat now.

HM: Deal or no deal. The Wall Street Journal gets the scoop on a potential deal between the U.S. and Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou. One of the reporters tells us what that might mean for the two Canadians detained in China.

TS: It's an Enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped inside a whole bunch of seaweed. We talked to a German diver who stumbled upon a rare Nazi coding machine at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

HM: Jazz hands. Just ahead of what would have been jazz legend Dave Brubeck's 100 birthday, his son's release and never before heard take of his mega hit Take Five.

TS: And cover art. An artist explains why he's been crafting elaborate, medically inadvisable and completely edible facemasks out of everything from loaves of sourdough bread to steamed dumplings. As it Happens. The Friday Edition. Radio that in this case recommends mask consumption.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Nova Scotia shooter new charges

Nova Scotia shooter new charges

Guest: Rob Pineo

TS: The RCMP in Nova Scotia believes she supplied him with ammunition, but had no idea those bullets would be used to carry out one of Canada's deadliest mass killings. Today, police charged the common law spouse of the man who killed 22 people in Nova Scotia. Lisa Banfield, along with her brother and brother in law, face charges of unlawfully transferring ammunition to the shooter in the month before the attack on April 18th and 19th. Until now, Ms. Banfield was known only as another victim. RCMP say she was attacked and restrained by the shooter before he set their home on fire. She fled and hid in the woods and eventually shared crucial details with the police about her partner. Rob Pineo has been watching today's news. He is the lawyer who is representing the families of those killed. We reached him in Cooks Brook, Nova Scotia.

HM: Mr. Pineo, how have your clients reacted to these new RCMP charges?

ROB PINEO: Actually, they've been quite relieved. They felt throughout this that, you know, the outcome of my girlfriend's possible involvement has been a missing piece in this puzzle. And today they're just happy to have more information than they had before.

HM: The RCMP, though, says there's no evidence that Ms. Banfield had had any knowledge of the attack before it was carried out. Why do you and your clients think otherwise?

RP: Well, we've received information both from the ITO that was released by the court and by corroborating witnesses that on April 18th, the day that the massacre began, earlier in the day, the killer and and his common law partner drove around to a number of the houses that ended up being crime scenes. So, you know, we feel that there's more knowledge there than is being admitted to.

HM: Do you have any evidence beyond that?

RP: No, just that evidence.

HM: You know, even if she were to know about the attack in advance -- according to the police, again, they're saying she didn't or there's no evidence to it anyway -- is it possible that she feared for her own life and that's why she was riding around with him?

RP: I guess anything's possible. We don't have evidence one way or the other about that.

HM: Well, a neighbour, Brenda Forbes, told us it happened in May that Ms. Banfield was facing emotional and physical abuse at the hands of Gabriel Wortman. Ms. Banfield herself has filed a lawsuit to that effect. Is it not quite possible that she is another victim in this attack?

RP: That's possible, yeah. But I understand that the neighbour that gave that evidence was from some time before these events, so I don't know if they're connected to any possible involvement or not. We just don't know because the RCMP throughout this has not provided us with, you know, information, statements, evidence, that sort of thing. We just get the occasional press release that you get.

HM: If she were indeed to be emotionally and physically abused by this man, how might that context colour these RCMP charges?

RP: I actually don't practice criminal law, so I don't know how it would impact the charges. You know, is there a potential that there's a defence there? I suppose, but I really don't know that. You know, as far as the civil suits go, you know, if somebody has materially contributed to harm suffered by another, then they can be liable. So I guess the test will be to find out, you know, what knowledge was had and whether it could have been prevented or not.

HM: Police have said in the past that they don't believe the gunman had a firearms licence. What do these RCMP charges tell us about how he acquired the ammunition?

RP: Well, the charges are, you know, procuring and trafficking ammunition to him. So, you know, they tell us that he was obtaining his ammunition through at least these three people. Lisa Banfield purports to be his partner of 19 years. The other two names were new names to us. We understand that Mr. Banfield that was charged is a relative of Lisa Banfield. And the other fellow is a brother in law. That's all of the information that we have.

HM: There have been many criticisms of how the RCMP handled the attack in April. Do today's charges give your clients more confidence in the police investigation or less?

RP: I mean, it gives them confidence in this aspect of the investigation that they're looking to see if there were other contributing factors or assistance provided to the gunman. That certainly provides a level of confidence. But again, most of the criticism that comes from my clients is related to the command resourcing and response to the actual events. And those haven't changed.

HM: What burning questions do your clients have then that they're seeking answers to at this point?

RP: Many. Certainly they want to know, you know, why so few RCMP officers were dispatched to Portapique? They want to know why local municipal police forces that had offered their assistance were refused. Why instead the RCMP brought members from cities over an hour away to assist? They would like to know why the air support wasn't used earlier. They want to know why the roads weren't blocked. You know, it's a rural area -- there aren't a lot of roads. They could have quite easily been blocked. They would like to know why four children were left in a basement. They were not evacuated for over two hours during the early stages of the rampage. They'd like to know why social media was chosen to be the medium by which a notice was given. They want to know why the national emergency alert wasn't used. There's just many many questions that need to be answered. And today's charges, although providing some relief to my clients, it certainly doesn't answer any of the questions regarding the response to the rampage at the time.

HM: There is an independent investigation of how the RCMP handled this. Do your clients think that they will get the answers to all of those questions?

RP: Yes, there's a high level of confidence in the commissioners that have been appointed and in the process, and they do have full confidence that they will be given the opportunity to ask the questions and get the answers that they need.

HM: In the meantime, when days like this happen and there's sort of a new development, I wonder what kind of emotional impact that has on the people you represent? Have you any sense of how they're responding at that level?

RP: Sure. I've spoken to well over half of the families throughout the day today. And today, certainly, there's a sense of relief and joy, I would say, and that, you know, in this sort of missing piece of the puzzle is at least coming to light. And they've received some information on it. It does, however, beg more questions than it answers. And certainly through the lawsuits or the public enquiry, you know, we intend to get those answers.

HM: Mr. Pineo, thank you for your time today.

RP: Yes. Thank you for having me.

TS: Rob Pineo is a lawyer who has filed a proposed class action lawsuit on behalf of victims families of the Nova Scotia mass killing in April. We reached him in Cooks Brook, Nova Scotia.

[Music]

Meng Wanzhou

Guest: Jacquie McNish

TS: Jacquie McNish and her colleagues got the scoop. The Wall Street Journal reporter and three others revealed in a story last night that the U.S. government is talking about cutting a deal with Meng Wanzhou. Ms. Meng is the Huawei executive detained in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition request. The U.S. government accuses her of violating its Iran sanctions. But Ms. Meng says Canada had no business keeping her. And the Chinese government agrees. And as we know, after her arrest, China picked up two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who remain in custody. We reached Jacquie McNish in Toronto.

HM: Jacquie, what kind of deal are the U.S. government and Meng Wanzhou talking about?

JACQUIE MCNISH: They're talking about reaching what's known as a plea agreement where basically Meng Wanzhou you would agree to admit to certain things and in exchange for that, her prosecution would be deferred, and over time prospect of jail or any other consequences would be dropped. A deferred prosecution agreement is what it's known as.

HM: Do you know what things she'd have to admit to?

JM: I do not. I think they started pretty far off. I think I can speculate only that at one end the U.S. justice system might have wanted her to be a witness against Huawei. On the other hand, she'd like to be able to say, well, I did nothing wrong, please let me go and defer the prosecution. And then you work from those two extremes towards the middle. And I think that there's going to have to be some acknowledgement on her part and then the U.S. Justice Department would having had that carry on.

HM: Right. And in terms of her own freedom, this would set her free to go back to China should she choose?

JM: Yes. And I would imagine that would be something she's very interested in, you know, heading back home. And I think that, you know, it's uncertain how it's going to play out. But what we do know is the talks are still continuing.

HM: Do you have any indication of her feelings about all of this, whether she is amenable to admitting anything?

JM: I think that the position that she and her lawyers are taking right now is that she has done nothing wrong. That has been consistent with all of her statements and the pleadings of her lawyers in the extradition hearing in Vancouver that she's done nothing wrong, that what she's accused of is inaccurate. When you think of one of the cores of the U.S. case is that she misled banks in 2013 by not fully telling them in a presentation about their ties to a business in Iran at a time when there were sanctions against Iran. Her lawyers have introduced evidence that they say shows that she actually did in the United States improperly did not disclose the full presentation. So it's a complex case. And I really think that the main issue here is that she is not the main target of the United States. They have several ongoing actions in cases involving Huawei. And I think that they hoped that by arresting her, they might be able to gain more information or perspective from her.

HM: So at this point, who wants the deal more?

JM: I think both sides, frankly. I think the United States would like to see a resolution. As I said, she's not the main focus. They have several ongoing arguments. There's lots of allegations against Huawei about its tactics with regards to allegedly taking patented information from numerous other technology companies. Those cases are working their way through the courts. It could take a long time. So do they really want this to carry on when there's no apparent direct link between her and those alleged activities?

HM: The Chinese government has made it pretty clear that Ms. Meng's detention is tied to the detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in China. What could a deal or a failure to make a deal mean for them?

JM: Well, I think if there's a deal, if you know the history of extraditions, the extraditions with China if there's any indication -- when you think of Su Bin several years ago, immediately after he signed off and pled guilty on the charges against him, the Garratts who had been detained for almost two years in China were released. So I take that as a hopeful sign that if they do reach an agreement, both Michaels will be able to finally come home.

HM: Do you have any sense of what conversations Canada has been having recently with the Trump administration on all of this?

JM: No, I don't have any sense. But Justin Trudeau spoke today and basically it's been very consistent in his public statements that they've been doing everything they can since they were arrested to get their release. And so I've got to believe that involves relations and discussions with the United States. I mean, this action has fractured relations between China and the U.S., between China and Canada, and Canada-U.S. it's a, you know, huge geopolitical situation for all three nations.

HM: You know, this is happening as the U.S. is making this rather awkward transition from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Is that a factor in the timing of all of this?

JM: It's our sense that the current administration would like to resolve this. And I would like to think it's because we also care about the current status of the two Michaels. And I think that, you know, once the Joe Biden administration comes in, they're going to have a lot of things that are a priority on their agenda -- this would not be one of them. This would be a situation created by the Trump administration. So I wouldn't see it being as much of a priority as it might be under the Trump administration at this point.

HM: So when you say not a priority, it would just drop off the radar in a Biden administration?

JM: No, I don't think drop off the radar. There may not be the kind of momentum that we're seeing in terms of these conversations happening, to basically nail down deferred prosecution agreement.

HM: So we don't know specifically how Biden or his team would potentially handle this?

JM: No, I certainly don't.

HM: All right. Jacquie thank you very much for the update. I appreciate it.

JM: You're welcome.

TS: Jacquie McNish is The Wall Street Journal's Canadian correspondent. She's in Toronto.

[Music]

Enigma machine found

Guest: Florian Huber

TS: Last month, a group of German divers went out on the Baltic Sea in search of environmental trash known as ghost nets, that's discarded fishing gear lurking in deep water. Instead, they found another kind of ghost from the past: a Nazi Enigma coding machine. It is the same kind of device British codebreakers famously cracked, revealing German naval codes and helping to win the war. Florian Huber is the underwater archaeologist who made the find. We reached him in s

HM: Florian, how did you first come across this strange object on the seafloor?

FLORIAN HUBER: Yeah, we are scientific divers and we're working for the WWF, so we are searching for lost fishing nets on the Baltic Sea. And we do this while we are using side scan sonar. And whenever we find a lost fishing net, we dive down there to see if there is really a fishing net. And a friend of mine came up and said that there is a fishing net, but there is also some kind of old typewriter. And then we said this is a pretty strange thing. Why is there a typewriter down there?

HM: So you decided to pull it up?

FH: Yeah, we had to wait two weeks until we could come back because of bad weather. So then I dived down there together with a friend and I saw this typewriter and I cut it out of the net. And then we raised it, put it on our little research vessel. And on-board of the ship, we finally realised what we found there.

HM: And what did you find?

FH: Yeah, well, it was not a typewriter. Well, it is a typewriter, but it was a very special one. It's one of those legendary Enigma. So one of the cipher machines the Germans used during the Second World War.

HM: Did you know right away that that's what it was once it was in your hands?

FH: Yeah, once it was in my hands. I knew it immediately because it looks totally different to a normal typewriter. And when my friend came up two weeks ago and said, there's a typewriter, I already had kind of guessing because I knew that in the area where we dived the Kiel Fjord and the Flensburg Fjord area, a lot of ships and u-boats scuttled themselves after the Second World War in May 1945.

HM: I understand there were orders issued by the Nazis to the u-boat captains to actually discard the Enigma machine. So is it possible it was actually thrown off the u-boat before it even was scuttled?

FH: Yeah, we're pretty sure. We are pretty sure it comes not from a u-boat, because during that time they had a different kind of Enigma. They had the M4 Enigma on board, but we found an M3. So maybe it came from just another warship and maybe it was just thrown over, and the ship did not scuttle themselves, it was just driving away. So this is still mysterious. So we can't say this at the moment. We're going to do a lot of investigation in the future weeks and months. But we can definitely put it into this historic event of the scuttling in this area.

HM: So what condition is this Enigma machine in after it's been some 80 years on the seafloor?

FH: Yeah, well, after 80 years, you don't look super good, but you can still see that it is an Enigma. So the wood remains and you can see the different typings -- different letters. After we raised it, we put it into an X-ray machine and in a computer tomography machine so we can have a look inside the whole machine. And there we can see all the different electronics and we can see the rolls. So inside it looks really really good. Outside, of course, it's pretty rusty. But I brought it today to the conservation department and now the conservationists are taking over and they're going to clean it and then make it ready for exhibition. And our goal is that we can show it to the public in maybe one or two years. And then we would have a big exhibition about the history and the Enigma.

HM: You know, the Enigma machine is one of the most famous devices of the Second World War. It's been featured in numerous books and films. But I guess not everyone understands or knows the history of it and why it was so important, especially as the war was progressing to its end. Can you just remind us why?

FH: Yeah, well, the Germans used this machine to secretly communicate with the u-boat and their troops in Russia. So the whole military communication was done via the Enigma so nobody could actually listen to what the Germans were planning. But the Polish guys and the English guys, they were during the war already able to listen to those secret messages. They could understand it basically, but they were not able to tell it to the Germans. So they had to act really carefully, but they could really see what the Germans were doing. And a lot of historians believe that this is the cause why the war ended much earlier and saved probably hundreds, thousands of lives because the allies did know what the Germans were doing because they were the code breakers and they could really read the secret messages from the Enigma.

HM: How does this rank amongst the other finds that you have made in your career?

FH: Well, it's probably the most important find ever. The fact that I'm talking to Canada at the moment is the proof, because this never happened before. And in the last three days, a lot of people called me. We got interview requests from all over the world. People want to have our pictures. They want to tell our story. Here in Germany everybody knows, and everybody is calling me and writing me on Facebook 'Congratulations on the find.' So, yeah, it's really funny. It's completely coincidence. And I guess we all had a bad year during this corona disease. And so at the end of the year having this beautiful discovery together with my team, because it was not only me, I'm the guy who's talking now because I'm the archaeologist, but we were a team of scientific divers who found it, yeah makes this really a unique find. And I guess this will be the find of my life, probably.

HM: Well, you never know. There's lots of life to come. But again, congratulations. I hear the excitement in your voice. It's a great story. All the best.

FH: Yeah. Thank you very much.

TS: Florian Huber is an underwater archaeologist. We reached him in Kiel, Germany.

[Music]

Part 2: Why this N.Y. artist is spending the pandemic turning his meals into face masks

Diamond Princess cruise author

Guest: Gay Courter

TS: When we last spoke with Gay Courter, her story was a cautionary tale. She was one of the unfortunate passengers stuck on board The Diamond Princess, the cruise ship floating in the Port of Yokohama in Japan. You remember the one. Along with Italy, Iran and Wuhan itself, The Diamond Princess was one of the first places covid-19 struck weeks before it became clear that it would eventually strike everywhere. Here's some of what Ms. Courter told Carol at the time.

GAY COURTER: We mostly get our information from the Internet and outside sources. The captain talks to us a couple of times a day. They've been pretty honest with us within certain parameters. So far, an additional ten people were taken off the ship yesterday in quarantine conditions. By that, I mean hazmat suit-type things. We weren't even in port. We weren't even allowed to land at the terminal. We were stuck in the middle of the harbour for 24 hours or so. And doctors and infectious disease people were running around the ship, and we were confined. I saw somebody in the hallway briefly in hazmat equipment. And I'll see what's going to happen next — although being restricted to cabin, we don't see much of what's going on.

TS: Now, Gay Courter has published a book about those early days. It's called Quarantine: How I Survived The Diamond Princess Coronavirus Crisis. We reached Ms. Courter in Crystal River, Florida.

HM: Gay, what is it like to hear yourself now speaking with us from The Diamond Princess ten months ago?

GAY COURTER: I was so innocent. I was trusting that, you know, the ship and everybody is going to take good care of us. And we actually did not get very good information as time went on, the cases went up, you know, 10, 20, 50, 100 a day -- finally, the captain stopped telling us what was going on.

HM: And this was back in early February when you were speaking with us, right. So people didn't know much, as you say, about the virus. There was no masking or isolating.

GC: Well, at that point, we were isolating in a room. But the shocking part that came next was we thought, okay, so we'll stay here for two weeks and we'll be safe. But we had a view from our balcony overlooking the pier and the ambulances kept coming and coming. And we heard initially from the ship, and then later I made some friends in the media and they were telling me what was happening, that, you know, there were 300 cases aboard, 400 cases, 500. Eventually there were more than 700 and 14 deaths. Mm hmm.

HM: When did you decide to write this book about your experience?

GC: We ended up on Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. And the room we were given had a leak and there was water pouring out of the bathroom drains into our room. We just travelled in a cargo plane with porta potties on board and had been up for 24 hours or more. And I just lost it and I started crying. And I wanted out of there and I wasn't going to stand for it, not that I had a choice. So my family members were calling to try and, you know, make it seem better. And our son said, hey, mom, you're the luckiest writer in the world, you are locked in a room for two weeks with a great story to tell. Now, that actually reached me and I thought, oh, wait a minute, this is a good story. And I wrote a book proposal.

HM: Back in February, you had finished a book called The Girl in the Box, which was actually about a cruise ship murder, of all things. Did writing that book inform this one in any way?

GC: Yes, because that book, which I weirdly researched on the same day Diamond Princess ship two years earlier, a lot of it is from the crew point of view. And so I learnt what tight quarters the crew lives in and what their life is like and the social life. And so I was very very concerned about the crew because they were not isolating -- they were taking care of us. So we really wanted not only to get everybody off the ship in terms of passengers, but we really were thinking of the crew as well.

HM: Hmm. Now, after you got out of quarantine, you know, you'd been on the ship, stuck there for weeks, stuck in quarantine. Was it hard to come to terms with the experience? Did it affect you emotionally?

GC: It did much more than I would have expected. And I realised that we had symptoms of PTSD. And so my daughter actually is a therapist. And I went to an agency and I called her and said, you know, can we have one of those PTSD tele-therapist? And she said, oh thank you for mentioning it, we've all been discussing how to break it to you that you needed help.

HM: Wow. You know, I mean, we may not all be suffering PTSD, but we're kind of all on the same COVID boat now. When you think back to your experience, your husband's, all those other cruise ship passengers, you know, being canary's in some kind of COVID coal mine. I mean, what do you think?

GC: Well, I never, ever expected that a year would pass and the whole world would be in the same situation we were in. Sometimes I just, in my mind, go over how the world has changed, that there's no theatre, there's no opera, there's no orchestra, there's no movies, and there's certainly no cruising. And how is this all going to shake down? I have found personally that I'm extremely grateful for things from as little as my toilet paper subscription delivery [chuckles] to my lovely husband and the fact that we could be together because our biggest fear was one of us getting sick and being separated and possibly having to die alone. And I am like a vigilante about masks. I live in an area that's very anti-mask. I just can't believe the people still think a mask is a ridiculous thing to wear.

HM: When you started writing this book, you and your publisher thought the. pandemic would it be over by the time it was published. How do you think it's likely to land with readers now, given that the pandemic is still very much underway?

GC: Well, I've heard people say that it's like reading like the earliest situation in, let's say, a political situation or a war, you know, who were the first people affected? I never thought I'd ever be in that position. But it shows you where we were. And, you know, people say, why did you go to Japan? It was January 14th when we got on the plane. Nobody really worried about it two weeks after we heard an announcement -- it was in some far place in China. So, you know, realising that place of profound ignorance to where we are today, it's very shocking and, you know, what could we have done otherwise?

HM: I have to ask you a question that's probably not very original, you probably hear it all the time. But do you plan to take another cruise at any point?

GC: I will go cruising after I have my vaccination and everybody who gets on that ship has to have a vaccination. And that there is also good therapeutics available to everyone.

HM: Well, Gay it is really great to hear that you and your husband are doing well all these many months later and that you're staying safe. Thank you very much for telling us about your experience.

GC: Okay. Thanks very much Helen. Bye bye.

HM: Bye. Good luck with the book.

TS: Gay Courter is the author of Quarantine: How I Survived The Diamond Princess Coronavirus Crisis. She spoke to us from Crystal River, Florida.

[Music]

More Act

TS: Matt Gaetz is no friend of the Democratic Party. The Florida Republican is a staunch ally of Donald Trump and has clashed with Democrats on issues of racial justice and police reform. But today he stood alongside Democrats in the House of Representatives as they passed the More Act. The bill would federally decriminalise marijuana in the U.S. and create a path to expunge the convictions for non-violent, violent federal marijuana offences. The bill is unlikely to pass in the Senate, but that didn't stop Mr. Gaetz from calling on his fellow Republicans to support the bill. Here he is before the vote in Washington, D.C.

MATT GAETZ: The More Act is flawed. It uses cannabis policy to do a great deal of social engineering, to create new taxes, and new programmes, and redistribution of assets. But I am here as the only Republican co-sponsor of the More Act, and I'm voting for it because the federal government has lied to the people of this country about marijuana for a generation. We have seen a generation, particularly of Black and Grown youth, locked up for offences that should have not resulted in any incarceration whatsoever. I'm also deeply troubled that the current policy, the federal government, inhibits research into cannabis, research that could unlock cures and help people live better lives. My Republican colleagues today will make a number of arguments against this bill, but those arguments are overwhelmingly losing with the American people. In every state where cannabis reform was on the ballot in this country, it passed. It passed with overwhelming support. Matter of fact, the only thing that I know that's more popular than getting out of the war on drugs is getting out of the war in Afghanistan. But if we were measuring the success in the war on drugs, it would be hard to conclude anything other than the fact that drugs have won because the American people do not support the policies of incarceration, limited research, limited choice, and particularly constraining medical application. We are here in a time where many people in our country are suffering, they are in pain. And it is documented that states with medical cannabis programmes see a reduction in the prescribing of opioids, in the number of opioid abuses and deaths we've held hearings in the House Judiciary Committee where people in our government must confess that this is in fact true, that the more we give people access to medical cannabis programmes the more we see a blunting of this horrible scourge of opioid addiction and opioid abuse. I'm going to vote for the More Act. It won't pass the Senate, it won't become law, but then we should come back and the 117th Congress and we should truly do more for our people.

TS: Matt Gaetz is a Republican congressman. He was one of only five Republicans to vote in favour of the More Act today in the U.S. House of Representatives.

[Music]

Food mask

Guest: Antonius Wiriadjaja

TS: Some people don't like having to wear face masks. In fact, most of us probably don't. But for some, mask wearing is an opportunity for self-expression. And New York artist and arts professor Antonius Wiriadjaja has taken that to a whole new and tasty level on his Instagram account, Foodmasku. We reached him in New York City.

HM: Mr. Wiriadjaja describe for our listeners what is going on on your Instagram account, Foodmasku.

ANTONIUS WIRIADJAJA: I make meals and then when I finish with the meals, I make them into facemasks and I put them on my face and I take a picture for Instagram. It has blown up to be more than 5000 followers. The number one video has 3.6-million views. And I'm getting messages from people just saying how much they like my masks. And I'm just thrilled to be here.

HM: How many of the masks have you made so far?

AW: 101 so far, I've made a couple that I haven't posted them yet. I'm just waiting for the right time.

HM: Where did the inspiration for this come from?

AW: It was around the beginning of the lockdown here and New York was hit pretty badly. And many of my artist friends and I, we lost our shows and our exhibits were closed down and cancelled. And during one of our meetings just to back each other up, one of my colleagues was wearing a pickle face filter on our video call. And I thought that was really interesting. So I took some kale and I put it on my face and it just brought out a good reaction. So the next day I put on a tortilla and I took a picture, put it on Instagram. And somebody said, that's really good, but can you make one out of lasagna? And I did that the next day. And then somebody said, I bet you can't make one out of noodles. And I made the noodles mask and it just kept going and going and going. And I just didn't stop. I did 90 days of masks.

HM: How do you fashion lasagna into a mask so it stays on your face?

AW: Well, I had to let it cool down. I didn't want to burn my face. So, you know, it just coagulates into something that I can stick skewers onto. And then I attached the skewers with binder clips that I usually use to clip my bags whenever I have like leftover chips. And then I took a picture and worked out.

HM: Besides the amusement that you're obviously offering a lot of people, are you trying to send a message with these masks as well?

AW: I was expressing, I guess, my anxiety and my worry and also my confusion. We didn't really know in the beginning of this shelter in place what we were supposed to do and what was keeping us safe and what was really dangerous. So I was trying my best to express it. And at the same time, it brought out a good reaction with my friends. This is also part of my work as a person who works with social media. In the past, I've worked with selfies of my scars from surviving a shooting, and I took photos of my scars every single day from the day I was released from the hospital until the day of my shooter's trial. And that entire body of work it wasn't posted on Instagram, it was very different. It has been exhibited twice already. So I've had some experience with this idea of taking a photo every single day to express trauma and using that as a way to both heal and also both to make others around me feel a little bit better about the trauma.

HM: Well, so in addition to expressing your feelings about the anxiety around the pandemic, has it helped you process or deal with those feelings as well?

AW: Well, it helped me with my cooking, that's for sure. [Laughter] I wasn't really a good cook at all. I live in New York. You know, I never cooked for myself, I think, for about seven years. And it helped me a lot with that and gave me something to do while I was staying at home.

HM: So do you actually eat the materials once you're done with the mask?

AW: Yes, except for sometimes they do fall on the floor -- I have to admit, I have failures. And those ones I compost. I have a good composting area in the neighbourhood. But I think about the majority of the masks -- I mean, I'm usually very hungry by the time I finish because they are actually my meals. Once I've finished, I take it off and eat it.

HM: Have you got a favourite one?

AW: My favourite, just because it was so hard to make, was a sour dough mask. I remember when somebody asked me to make it, I said, oh, sure, I can totally do that. It took me about a month to figure out how to bake sour dough bread, and it was all worth it in the end, but it took a long time to figure it out.

HM: Did you have to make your own starter?

AW: I did, and then I gave up and somebody sent me her starter.

HM: [Laughter] I don't think you're alone in that one. What about a least favourite one?

AW: I got asked to do mashed potatoes, and I will never do that again because I almost suffocated. [Laughter]

HM: Oh, dear, that's not good. So have you got any plans for some you can share with us that might be coming up?

AW: I'm making a bunch of tea egg masks right now because somebody very kindly -- the nice thing about posting things on the Internet is sometimes people reach out to you -- so somebody sent me a bunch of teas, like very nice and fancy teas. And I'm also making another one that's gingerbread, so it's more Christmas themed.

HM: Would you ever wear any of these on the street or would you just take the photos inside?

AW: Oh, no, no, not at all. I only wear fabric masks outside because it's the thing that actually keeps me safe. Again from surviving my shooting, I am also immunocompromised, so I would never put myself and other people in jeopardy.

HM: Well, that's very good to hear. The masks are really delightful to look at. I mean, we were all talking about how fun they are and it's good that you're sending that message out too. Thank you so much. It's been nice to talk to you.

AW: Thank you so much Helen. It's been great talking to you.

TS: Antonius Wiriadjaja is the creator of the Instagram account Foodmasku. He's in New York City. You can see some of the images of those masks on our webpage: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Shawn Turcotte

TS: The Turcotte family really loves Christmas. We're talking Clark Griswold putting 25000 lights on his house, causing all of Chicago to lose power level of Christmas joy. Okay, maybe not that much, but the Turcottes do really love that movie. In Family Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, a very eager father goes to great lengths to have the perfect holiday. And so the Turcottes decided to bring the movie to life on their front yard in Ottawa. Shawn Turcotte spoke with CBC Ottawa about what his family's yard looks like and just how many lights he has on the house.

SHAWN TURCOTTE: We're up to 2,500 lights now.

ROBYN BRESNAHAN: Whoa. Have you turned it on yet?

SHAWN TURCOTTE: We have. We've had them on for a few weeks, which is what kind of started all this attention. We actually went to the old fashioned glass, incandescent lights as well. So it's really lit up the neighbourhood.

ROBYN BRESNAHAN: [Laughs] Well, any power outages the first time that you lit them up?

SHAWN TURCOTTE: We had a few breakers, pop. Yes, yeah, yeah. We had to do some re-cording of our extension cords of different areas throughout the house to make sure we didn't blow the breaker panel.

ROBYN BRESNAHAN: Beyond the lights, what else have you done to recreate the Griswold theme?

SHAWN TURCOTTE: Well it's there last year with my daughter when we were talking about doing this and she made a comment to my wife. And we told we're doing this as our theme this year. And she said, dad, if we do this, we're all in. I said, okay dear. So we're all in. We we picked up the car. It's not the exact car from the movie, but it's very close. It's a 1980 Chevrolet Caprice station wagon. Picked that up in Toronto, got that going. And last weekend we went to pick up our actually family Christmas tree at a tree farm we used to visit a tree farm. And we were coming back from Richmond into Stittsville and we drew a lot of attention. There's a lot of people taking pictures and there were a lot of people videotaping us. And our kids were just hungry, it was two o'clock in the afternoon. So we decided just to go through the McDonald's drive-thru with the car and the tree, and then it really took off. We got a lot of attention. We got a lot of social media out of it. It was pretty cool.

ROBYN BRESNAHAN: You bought a car just to fit in with the theme here?

SHAWN TURCOTTE: Oh, yeah.

ROBYN BRESNAHAN: Wow [Laughs] I mean, this is some dedication to the Christmas spirit. Is this something you do every year but on a different theme?

SHAWN TURCOTTE: Yeah, we're a big Christmas family, so we decorate a lot inside the house and outside. We typically put up 12 Christmas trees throughout the inside of our house, including real and fake trees. But this year it's a whole another level. So this year with the Christmas vacation theme, we're focussing on the outside. We have the station wagon parked on the front yard with spotlights on it, with the Christmas tree on it, with the big roof ball. We have Cousin Eddie, he's showing up hopefully in a few days, along with his RV and a lot of other good fun stuff coming up in the next couple of days.

TS: Shawn Turcotte speaking with CBC host Robyn Bresnahan about how he turned his front yard into Clark Griswold's Christmas dream.

[Music]

Nixon Half Sandwich

TS: September 22nd will probably be able to celebrate the anniversary the way we usually do by gathering family and friends, making a pile of buffalo barbecue sandwiches, taking a few bites of each, and leaving the half eaten sandwiches on our plates. At least that's the customary way of celebrating the historic day, September 22nd, 1960, when Richard Nixon ate half a sandwich. At the time, he was the U.S. Vice President. He was in Sullivan, Illinois, and so was a young Steve Jenne who picked up that half eaten sandwich, took it home, and put it in the freezer. He's had it ever since. During the holidays, we will be looking back at some of the more tasty and unusual stories we covered this year -- Mr. Jenne's was one of them. Carol spoke with him on September 23, one day after that half sandwich turned 60. He was in Warrensburg, Missouri.

CO: Steve, as it turns 60 years old, how is Richard Nixon's sandwich doing?

STEVE JENNE: Well, probably a lot better than I am because it hasn't aged at all. It's well preserved and at home safely in my freezer.

CO: Now, after 60 years in the freezer, there must be a fair bit of freezer burn there.

SJ: Well, it's inside a plastic bag and inside a glass jar that's well sealed. And all of that is inside another plastic bag stored away, tucked away in my freezer. And when I look at it through the glass, it doesn't look like it's shrunk or gotten moldy at all.

CO: And can you still tell if it's a sandwich?

SJ: Well, yeah. It's a bun with a couple of bites bitten out of it. So, yeah, if you know what you're looking at you can say, oh, yeah, that is a sandwich, isn't it? [Chuckles]

CO: And the couple of bites were actually made by Richard Nixon himself.

SJ: Right. I'm going to guess maybe three bites. By looking at the sandwich, there's more than one, maybe only two, but it looks like three bites.

CO: Right. We spoke with you back in 2006 and heard the story from you. But just some reminders of some detail. So you were a Boy Scout at the time in Sullivan, Illinois. How did you come to be in the company of then Vice President Richard Nixon?

SJ: Well, because back then there was not such a need for the security that we see today. Of course, in 1960, it was three years before the Kennedy assassination that changed everything, of course. So when they asked for security, our Boy Scout troop was available and I said, let's just put the Boy Scouts around the picnic table. I just happened to be the lucky one right behind Vice President Nixon. Everybody was jostling for a position and I was trying to keep people back.

CO: Okay, so you're 14 years old and you got a serious job there. You're the security man. So did do actually see him get the sandwich?

SJ: Yes, I did. Yeah, they had a young girl present him with the sandwich. What he was having that day was buffalo barbecue, like pulled pork, but it was buffalo meat. And then she stepped back and that's when he proceeded to take a couple bites. And for each bite, he made a nice comment. And I think that's probably why he didn't finish the sandwich, because there's only so many things you can come up with to say in front of thousands and thousands of people, if you take a single bite out of a sandwich. [Chuckles] So after three bites, he set it back out on the paper plate and excused himself to go elsewhere to make his political speech. And that's when thousands of people followed him. And that sandwich stayed there on the picnic table, on the paper plate, and nobody else thought about picking it up. So I decided that I would.

CO: Okay. So what went through your mind about that sandwich?

SJ: I thought, well, I'm going to take that. I put it on the paper plate, hopped on my bicycle, sped home and told my mother about it. And she said, "What do you want me to do with it? What you want to do to?" I said, freeze it. So she did. She put it inside a plastic bag and put that inside a musselman's applesauce jar. And it's been there for 60 years now.

CO: And your mother was never tempted to throw it away when thinking maybe you forgotten about it and it's just time to clean out the freezer.

SJ: Oh, yeah. She thought about it.

CO: But a single power outage, could have killed that little sandwich, right?

SJ: You're right. And it almost did. We had a huge blizzard on Easter Sunday, actually, as it was an ice storm that knocked out power. But my dad was always resourceful. So he already had a backup generator. And in fact, I think I drove out there through all the ice with that sandwich for that express purpose of having him put that into their freezer, which was hooked up to his generator. That worked. Yes.

CO: How old was the sandwich at that point?

SJ: Oh, gosh, it would've been 18.

CO: So it was 18 years old. Now, of course, we know all the things that happened to Richard Nixon after he nibbled that sandwich, including leaving the office under a cloud of an impeachment, everything else. I mean, so a lot worse things happened to him than to the sandwich. Why did it stay so important to you to keep Richard Nixon's sandwich?

SJ: I think just because, you know, year after year, I thought, you know, I've had it five years, I've had it 10 years, 2020 -- 60 years later, I can't get rid of it now. So yeah, I'm going to hang onto it forever.

CO: Okay. Now you have a new book which is called The Sandwich That Changed My Life. And what do you want people to learn from your experience?

SJ: I don't know if it's an instructional type of a book. It's more down home, small-town Americana.

CO: Well, your book sure sounds like a slice of life.

SJ: Good point. Yes, yes. Yeah, it's a slice of life. You can't get more Central America, central United States than Sullivan, Illinois. It gives you a glimpse into what we did back in 1960.

CO: Steve it is good to talk to you. Take care.

SJ: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

TS: That was Carol speaking with Steve Jenne in September, a proud owner of a sandwich half eaten by Richard Nixon 60 years ago. We've posted that story on our webpage: cbc.ca/aih. Over the next month or so, As It Happens will be digging into the archives for some of the most memorable interviews from the past year. And we'll have our annual holiday programming as well, including Barbara Budd's reading of Bone Button Borsht, and Alan Maitland's reading of The Shepherd, which will air on Christmas Eve, of course, Thursday, December 24th.

[Music]

Correction: Elizabeth May

TS: On yesterday's programme, we told you about some lasting scars on Parliament Hill. The government's in the midst of a 10 year renovation of the centre block building. They've decided to preserve bullet holes in the walls, the result of the 2014 attack. Green MP Elizabeth May told us she was baffled by the decision not to patch over them. Now, all of what I've just said is correct. What was incorrect, however, was when I told you Ms. May was in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Instead, she was on the other coast in Sydney, B.C.. We regret the error. If you want to read more about that story, go to our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Part 3: Old Christmas card

Old Christmas card

Guest: Justin Schiller

TS: A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you, that's a standard message in the billions of Christmas cards we buy and send each year. It was also the message in the very first Christmas card ever sold 177 years ago in 1843. An artist named John Callcott Horsely created the card and it created quite a scandal. Now that card is for sale again at an online virtual fair. Justin Schiller is selling it. He's an antiquarian books dealer in Kingston, New York, where we've reached him.

HM: Mr. Schiller described this card for us, what does it look like?

JUSTIN SCHILLER: The first Christmas card was created with very much a mid Victorian style of a family of maybe six or seven people pushed together with celebration, toasting in their hands of glasses of wine to offer to the recipient of the card. And at the front of the card is the young girl who is simply taking a sip of wine from a glass being offered by one of the celebrants.

HM: And when you see a young girl, how young are we talking about? Can you guess?

JS: I'd say seven, eight years old.

HM: That caused quite a stir, right, back in 1843?

JS: [Laughs] Much more than they ever realised. Exactly. It would not have been anything unusual to most people except the Temperance League was just starting up and this was all they needed to start protests. And eventually I believe that the cards suppressed.

HM: Just because of this girl drinking the wine on it?

JS: Well, yeah, you have had the child not been there they might have objected to the people drinking, but they couldn't do much about that. But with a young child, it took three years before the next Christmas card was even attempted to be printed.

HM: You know, I think a card now printed with the child drinking alcohol would be controversial. But the fact that this thing was stopped from publication, what does it tell you about the time?

JS: Yes, exactly. I agree that it would be unreasonable to think otherwise.

HM: Is it a pretty card? Is it something that's, you know, attractive for someone who might want to own it?

JS: Oh, it's very attractive. It has, as I say, it's a lithograph about a normal postcard size, but hand coloured in the centre and on either side uncoloured -- one is a scene is of adults offering aid to a poor person. On the other side, they are offering food. So it's very much a promotion of charity.

HM: Now you are asking for 25,000 dollars U.S. for this card. What makes it worth that money?

JS: Essentially, this is a publisher's file copy. I've had about four copies of the card in the past and this is the finest one we've ever had. Usually they're marked up with their own readings of some sort. But this card is completely in fine shape. The artist is a man named John Callcoott Horlsey, who was a popular artist of the day. He was commissioned to do this. The scene is actually very reminiscent of the frontispiece to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, which coincidentally is said to have been issued the same week as this card in December of 1843.

HM: So it's not necessarily that it was inspired by a Christmas Carol just happens to have the same aesthetic?

JS: Exactly. I think it was probably the spirit of the time.

HM: Do you know anything about who would have sent or received this type of card, given that it would be so unusual at the time of it?

JS: It was relatively expensive of the cards sold for one shilling each, which I think was a lot of money in those days -- relative to the cost of books and life in general. So it would probably have been the gentry or the the wealthy or upper class,.

HM: What proof is there that this is the first printed Christmas card ever sold?

JS: There are several books published on the subject as well as you can begin looking it up in Wikipedia. It's very well documented.

HM: Uh huh. How did you acquire it?

JS: I purchased it several years ago from a private client.

HM: So how hard is it for you to sell it now?

JS: You know, as a professional, I'm not having a fire sale. I enjoyed the card. It is what it is. It represents a lot of history. And I also want it to go to the right person.

HM: Well, you're very successful, obviously, at what you do. And this is very timely given the season we're getting into. Thank you so much for telling us the story.

JS: Well, I appreciate your expressions of interest. Have a happy holiday and everyone stay safe and happy.

HM: You too Mr. Schiller. All the best.

JS: Thank you. Bye bye.

TS: Justin Schiller is an antiquarian books dealer. He's selling the world's first commercial Christmas card from 1843. We reached him in Kingston, New York.

[Music]

George Borden obit

Guest: Craig Smith

TS: In some parts of Nova Scotia, a poem is read on Remembrance Day. It's called The Black Soldier's Lament. It's about the men who served in Canada's first primarily Black battalion during the First World War. The poem was written by retired Air Force captain and director of the Black Cultural Society of Nova Scotia, George Borden. Mr. Borden died on Sunday. He was 84. in 2017,he spoke to the CBC about that first Black battalion and the fight to have their sacrifices recognised.

GEORGE BORDEN: I can feel it. To me that feeling is part of me. The fact that today in the military, Canadian military, a Black person can hold any position that they are capable of holding and in that day you couldn't even get to hold a rifle. And they came back. They came back the very same thing they were left with. They were still not considered full citizens. They were still disrespected. They were not hired or employed.

TS: Craig Smith is George Borden's nephew and he's the president of the Black Cultural Society of Nova Scotia. We reached him in Halifax.

HM: Mr. Smith, I'm sorry for your family's loss.

CRAIG SMITH: Thank you very much.

HM: How have you been remembering your uncle?

CS: You know, through his poetry. You know, the last five years, we saw a fair bit of each other as I'm board chairman and president of the Black Council Society of Nova Scotia. And he is a member of the society, but also somebody who helped a lot with regards to the planning of events that honoured the No. 2 Construction Battalion and our annual Remembrance Day event. So he was kind of a constant figure from time to time sitting on boards and committees, coming in and out of the centre.

HM: In fact, it seems like that's part of your family's double tradition, serving in the military and serving Black history in the province. For him, what brought those two things together?

CS: Well, you know, the military, obviously, he had a 32 year career and his two older brothers, Wilfred and Curtis, both served in the military as well. He had three uncles, my grandfather's brothers, who all served in the military, as well as my grandmother's brothers. And his grandfather, my great grandfather, George Weland, served as a member of the No. 2 Construction Battalion. So there was military, you know, all woven through with the tapestry of the board from his family. And then when you look at, you know, serving the community and being active in the Black communities, there's that legacy as well that touches both families. And so, therefore, I think it was a pretty easy thing for him to be involved in some of those things.

HM: Right. We just heard him in that clip. What made the number No. 2 Construction Battalion so important to him?

CS: Well, you know, I think if we think back historically for a long time, up until the time that the late Senator Calvin Ruck wrote the book on the No. 2 Construction Battalion a lot of us didn't even know who they were or that they existed. And so once they became a known entity to us, in particular at the Black Cultural Centre, we started to do a celebration starting in 1993. And then every year since then that recognised who they were as a military entity within Canada. And so for him, he just wanted to make sure that they were, you know, given their just due. And unfortunately, we're still at the point now where we haven't had the official apology to the members or descendants thereof over the fact that they had to fight for two years just for the right to defend their country. And so, you know, I think especially later in his life, it kind of became his mantle of picking up to want to make sure that these men were going to be honoured, at least hopefully in his lifetime. Unfortunately, now we know that that isn't the case, but I think it's not far off.

HM: Would you be willing to read the poem he wrote about the Black Canadians who served in the First World War?

CS: Certainly. [Reading] The bugle called and forth we went

To serve the crown our backs far bent,

And build what ere that must be done;

But ne’re to fire an angry gun

No heroes we no nay not one.

From Scotia port to Seaford Square

Across to France the conflict there,

At Ville La Joux and Place Peronne

For God and King to right the wrong –

The number two six hundred strong.

The peace restored the battle won

Black sweat and toil had beat the Hun.

Black blood was spilled black bodies maimed

For medals brave no black was named,

Yet proud were we our pride unshamed.

Then give to us more daring chores

That we might prove our courage strong

Preserve the right repel the wrong,

And proud we’ll sing the battle song.

HM: You note that he did not live to see the Canadian government apologise. You think that apology is coming. Did he believe it was going to happen?

CS: Yes. Yeah, especially in this last year, I think we were closer than ever to having something worked out or moving towards a collective understanding. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit and I think that's kind of what derailed things. But I think that the open letter that he put in the paper to the government and to the military was one of the catalyst that helped to continue to move it to the forefront and to keep it in people's minds.

HM: What would that apology have meant to him if you were able to hear it?

CS: Well, I think it would have meant that that the fight that he had put forward to to have that happen became a reality. That in particular, I guess, for his grandfather, it would have been something that he would have been very proud to see. And I think just the idea of the government finally recognising the fact that these men, these proud Canadians, did nothing wrong but wanted to serve their country. And so that, you know, it is an apology that is owed to their memory.

HM: And, you know, it seems when you look at all the things that he did, George Borden, was kind of a Renaissance man. When you look at what he accomplished in so many different areas, what do you think is the legacy that he should be remembered for both in Nova Scotia and Canada?

CS: Well, I think you're right when you talk about the Renaissance piece of it. I think that, you know, the the poetry and the books that you've written are used here in Nova Scotia schools. He was somebody who cared deeply about the province, who cared about the Black community, who was also, especially in these last number of years since losing his legs, and I think coming to reality with his own mortality wanted to make sure that he had a legacy that was going to last. And I think that the things he's done, in particular writing The Black Soldier's Lament, making sure that he was acknowledging and fighting to get the No. 2 Construction Battalion acknowledged will mean that his legacy lives on with that.

HM: Craig Smith, thank you very much for sharing his story with us. I appreciate it.

CS: Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

TS: Craig Smith is the president of the Black Cultural Society of Nova Scotia, and he is the nephew of George Borden, who has died at age 84.

[Music]

Sound of the day: Igor Levit

TS: Igor Levit usually performs in hushed concert halls with pin drop perfect acoustics. He doesn't wear a winter parka when he plays or weaved through barbed wire fences to get to the stage. But that was the scene today when the classical pianist played a solidarity concert in the middle of the Dannenroder Forest, or at least what's left of it. Swaths of the 250 year old German forest are being cleared for a highway expansion, and for months demonstrators have been camped out amongst the trees protesting. Here's how it sounded when Mr. Levit sat down on his makeshift stage and played an arrangement of Danny Boy for the activists who fondly refer to the Dannenroder Forest as Danny. It's our Sound of the Day. [Igor Levit playing Danny Boy]

December 4, 2020 Episode Transcript

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