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The AIH Transcript for February 2, 2017

Hosts: Helen Mann and Jeff Douglas

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

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

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

[Music: Theme]

JD: Tonight:

HM: He left Tunisia for Canada, hoping for a better life. Instead, today in Montreal, a funeral was held for Abubaker Thabti, one of six people killed in the attack on the mosque in Quebec City.

JD: No place like home. The late author Bharati Mukherjee spent decades exploring what it meant to be an immigrant. Tonight, her husband Canadian writer Clark Blaise shares his memories.

HM: Baby on board. A family of six Syrians leaves a refugee camp in Jordan. And just hours after arriving at their new home in Fort McMurray, becomes a family of seven.

JD: Keep the faith. After the only mosque in Victoria, Texas burns to the ground. Local Jews and Christians step up to help the city's Muslim community.

HM: Everything is coming up Rosie. An artist salutes the Women's March on Washington with a modern day homage to Rosie the Riveter that makes it to the cover of The New Yorker.

JD: And straighten up and fry right. How one group of pig farmers turned a true story about dwindling reserves of frozen pork bellies into a false story about a shortage of bacon in the U.S.A. As It Happens the Thursday edition, radio that urges bacon lovers not to make any rasher decisions.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Montreal service for mosque attack victims, Fort McMurray Syrian refugees, Women’s March artist

Montreal service for mosque attack victims

Guest: Tarek Dhouibi

JD: Today in Montreal, thousands gathered for a public memorial for Abubaker Thabti, Hassane AbdelKrim and Khaled Belkacemi. Three of the six men who were murdered in Sunday's attack on the Quebec City mosque. Here are some of what Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said to the crowd.

SOUNDCLIP

DENIS CODERRE: [Speaking: French]

JD: We are here to pray for our martyred brothers, victims of terrorism, racism and Islamophobia. Mayor Coderre was not alone, a leader of Islamic Cultural Centre joined the provinces Premier and the Prime Minister in denouncing intolerance and violence in the wake of Sunday's attack. But Tarek Dhouibi had a very personal reason for being at the ceremony. He was there to remember his friend Abubaker Thabti, with whom he came to Canada, from Tunisia. We reached Tarek Dhouibi in Montreal.

HM: Mr. Dhouibi, first of all, please accept my condolences on the loss of your friend.

TAREK DHOUIBI: Thank you very much. Thank you very much, I appreciate.

HM: Can you tell us what today's ceremony meant to you?

TB: It was a bit long for all people waiting for the parade, but we heard good speeches from all parts. And we are so glad and so proud of our government — federal government — and the province for the like. So they made good speeches and they we’re really glad.

HM: There were so many people there, what did it mean for you to see that crowd there to remember your friend and the other people who were killed?

TB: So there is a lot of people from different origins and mainly three religions and the mean for me that we are together against terrorists.

HM: You were there to remember your friend Abubaker Thabti, what kind of a friend was he?

TB: Abubaker Thabti was a very good guy. I met him in Tunis a few years ago and he was a good son for his parents and he helped his brothers and sisters during their education. So he paid for their education. So he worked hard during the years to found a family. He has a boy, Mohamed. He had a six year old when they moved to Canada five years ago. Then they get Merriam, she is three right now. So he worked hard during his life for his family and for his friends. He helped a lot of people in the. So I am one of those people. He helped me when I arrived to Canada, so he arrived on October 2011 and I arrived a month later. He was seeking for the job. He hasn't a lot of money, but he shared everything with me his shelter, his car, his food until I started walking. So I think he's a really good guy.

HM: I understand the two of you both. You talked together about a life in Canada when you were back in Tunisia. What did he hope for from life in this country? Why did he want to come to Canada in particular?

TB: So we have only one hope: getting a better life for our kids. So we thought about our kids first. So we made that choice of Canada. It was the perfect destination for us because it's a new country with a lot of opportunities and a good atmosphere to live. So democracy, liberty, so that's why we made that choice and that's why we decided that it will be the country of our kids.

HM: Mr. Thabti was a pharmacist back in Tunisia. What kind of work did he find in Quebec?

TB: So all of us, we had good jobs in Tunisia. We moved to Canada and we were in obligation to start from the beginning. So I started working small jobs and he had the same thing to do. So he started to work as a simple worker in an organization preparing chicken. Then he upgraded quickly and right now here he was the supervisor until a few days ago.

HM: Now you mentioned his wife and children. Are they getting a lot of support?

TB: Yes from the community and from all people in the city, but it's not enough to replace the father. So he was a good father, he spent lots of time with his kids. Playing with them all the time and to go everywhere with his kids. So it's really hard to replace that moment with the family. Even money is not enough to replace the father because he has a great responsibility towards his kids to raise them and to take care of them. We can't buy the love of a parent with money.

HM: And you have lost your very good friend. How are you feeling with you and your family about your future in Quebec right now?

TB: Yeah I'm feeling it's really a very bad feeling about the sensation of the lack of security and I’m starting asking a lot of questions about the future. Is it a good idea to stay in this city? in that society if you are not welcome? So maybe it will be a good idea to move again and to seek another place. We are trying to change the reality to make the future a better place for our kids, but we don't have any assurance about that. So we are not sure about it. If it gets to get better maybe we will stay and continue living right there. If not so much because I don't like to earn money and one day I will be absent for my family. So we need really to stay with family. So freedom and family and happiness is beyond everything.

HM: Mr. Dhouibi, really thank you very much for talking with us. We appreciate it. And once again I'm very sorry.

TB: You’re welcome, there is no problem Madam.

HM: Bye.

TB: Goodbye.

JD: Tarek Dhouibi ‘s friend, Abubaker Thabti was killed last Sunday at his Quebec City mosque. We reached Mr. Dhouibi in Montreal.

[Music: Orchestral]

Fort McMurray Syrian refugees

Guest: Doug Doyle

JD: For over a year, members of a church in Fort McMurray have waited to welcome a refugee family from Syria and then on Tuesday night, at last, that family of six arrived at the airport. And then a few hours later became a family of seven. At some point during their trip that day from Amman, Jordan to Frankfurt, Germany to Calgary and finally to Fort Mac, the mother’s water broke. But Ibtesam Alkarnake wanted her baby to be born in Canada so badly, she didn't tell anyone. We reached Pastor Doug Doyle in Fort City Church in Fort McMurray.

HM: Pastor Doyle, you were at the airport to welcome this family. Did you have any clue that the mother was in labor at the time?

DOUG DOYLE: No, not a clue at all. You know we got the family settled in, picked up all of their bags, got them into the vehicles, went from the airport into the city, where we got them settled into a townhouse, got things put away and then the mom Ibtesam, kind of pulled our coordinator of the Refugee Committee and the translator who are both women into a corner and started having a you know a little private conversation and it was there that she explained that her water had broken some time earlier and that she was probably needing to get to a hospital. And then what she did was said, but not yet because we had brought some food in for a meal for the family because they would be hungry and she said we have to have the meal all together first before that happens. And so that's how it all got started. And then we went to the hospital or I didn't, a group went to the hospital. My wife went to the hospital and the hospital, Northern Lights were just marvelous in receiving her. There was Arabic speaking nurses that made things a little easier. There was a female doctor which she would only be treated by a female doctor. And at about 6:07 in the morning about 10 hours after they arrived a six-pound-three-ounce baby boy was born healthy, it was great.

HM: So what did you folks all make of the fact that she was able to wait that long given that she was clearly in labor?

DD: Oh she's an amazingly strong woman, who's been through a lot right? So adversity is definitely something that has been character forming for her and she wants her whole family to be here in Canada. She didn't want anything to get in the way of that.

HM: Has she said why it was so important for her to have the baby here?

DD: Oh she wanted the baby to be Canadian. There's just no question about that. And the idea I mean we knew that she was pregnant and we knew there had been the challenge of whether she would fly or not because she was entering her eighth month of pregnancy. So they did a health check declared her you know safe to travel. So she came. But I mean they were expressing concerns just about the conditions of where they were living and having a baby where they were. And they just kept telling us we communicated through phone the WhatsApp app and Google translate. And their passion was we want to get to Canada and we really want our child to be born there and Canadian.

HM: You've been at this for quite a long time. You began the process back in November of 2015. How did your church come to make this decision?

DD: We're a church that wants our faith to have feet and be active in not just words. We want to serve our city, but at the same time we want to make a difference in our world. And as we saw what was happening in Syria and in other places of the world. We thought getting involved in refugees was a way to make a difference in one family's life. We can't change everything, we can't change the tide of history, but we can sure make a difference and show a little love to one family. And so we started that process. And in our particular church family the Christian Mission Alliance, we have churches all across the country that have been doing the same thing. So it may be part of the heart of who we are to want to make a difference.

HM: Did everyone in the congregation think this was a good idea? Did you have anyone resisting?

DD: I wouldn't use the word resisting. But our congregation would reflect the diversity of thought and opinion of Canadian society. So you would have some people who would question it. You know people who would say I'm not sure I want to leap into the middle of that particular project.

HM: Now of course we all know what Fort McMurray went through with the big fire last year — fires really I guess — a lot of you people had to flee your own homes. What did that do to this effort? How did that affect your feelings and the practicalities of what you were dealing with?

DD: Yeah the fire is a transformational experience for our city and for everybody who went through it. As we went through it, it looked like the family might arrive real early in the middle of us dealing with this and we thought no we can't do this. This is just inappropriate it just doesn't. But then once we got back into the city, people just began to talk about the fact that we were refugees. We fled for our lives from flames and then people began to think of the Alkarnake family and say wow that family, we fled, but we didn't worry about getting shot at while we fled. We didn't worry about where our next meal would come from. We knew that we would be able to do something with our homes rebuild our homes have insurance. And all of a sudden even a lot of people who had maybe a little bit of hesitation turned around and said Yeah we got to welcome these people like we were welcomed by the cities of Alberta and the rest of Canada. And so yeah it was it was a transforming moment for us that upped our compassion level incredibly.

HM: Any concerns that you would have trouble settling them given how much damage the city suffered?

DD: No, we're in we're in good shape. This city is a resilient community and the rebuilding is happening even now. I mean it's tough for some people there's no question about it, but the city is rebounding. We have found them a great townhouse to live in. The economy is beginning to pick up a little bit. One of the reasons why we connected with this family is the skills on the employment front that the dad has. He's a mechanic, he's a trucker, he's worked in a bakery before. It's just a lot of opportunity for his skill set to find employment. A lot of those jobs are opening up right now in Fort McMurray.

HM: Well congratulations on I guess you now have a family of seven on your hands?

DD: We do, absolutely.

HM: Oh great. Well it's nice to hear their story and how you guys have all been pulling together. Thank you very much.

DD: You are most welcome.

HM: OK. Bye bye.

DD: Bye.

JD: That was Pastor Doug Doyle of Fort City Church. We reached him in Fort McMurray on Tuesday night, the family of Syrian refugees that church sponsored landed at the airport in Fort Mac. And then just hours later, the mother welcomed a baby boy. She was so determined her son would be born in Canada. She never told anyone her water had broken in transit.

[Music: Pop]

Women’s March artist

Guest: Abigail Gray Swartz

JD: If you should pick up a copy of New Yorker magazine next week, the image on the front is going to be instantly recognizable to you when it's not the guy with the top hat and the monocle, Eustace Tilly. In fact, it's not a guy at all. It is an homage to the famous Second World War image of Rosie the Riveter. But this Rosieis African-American and instead of a bandana, she is wearing that trademark knitted pink hat. A symbol of the Women's Marches attended by millions of women and women and kids around the world after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. It is a dream come true for the freelance artist behind the painting, who submitted it on a whim last week with no idea the New Yorker would say yes. We reached Abigail Gray Swartz in Freeport, Maine.

HM: Ms Swartz, First of all, congratulations on landing a New Yorker cover.

ABIGAIL GRAY SWARTZ: Thank you so much.

HM: Has this been a dream of yours for a long time?

AGS: It has. Yeah, at first it was sort of a dream that I didn't know that I had. But I think I've been a pretty strong dream probably for the past three years.

HM: So you sent this this cover design unsolicited. Did you ever expect you'd get a response like you got?

AGS: No I didn't. I mean I had hoped because every freelance illustrator has a little bit of hope, but we send out so many pitches and queries and submissions so often that you just sort of get used to maybe not hearing back. So yeah it was a nice surprise.

HM: Right. And so then tell me about this image. It's based on the classic Rosie the Riveter. Most people know this, but you put her in a pink so-called “pussy hat”?

AGS: Right. So what happened was I came home from the March and I was someone asked me this if you know you're going to do any art in response to the March? and I thought about it and I am a knitter and I watch other knitters on social media — mostly on Instagram — sharing hat after hat after hat that they were working on. And it was sort of this unifying activity even before the March and women were giving them to friends or giving them to complete strangers. And through it women were learning how to knit too which was really cool to see. And so I knew that it would be an important symbol. And then just seeing all the images flood in. these seas of pink and men and women both wearing the hats. It was just pretty obvious to use it in some fashion. And I was thinking about how during World War 2, we as women had to work in the factories and we had to ration you know silk stockings for parachutes and we had to knit for the soldiers. And how in this day and age were sort of being called to make again. But instead of making it for the soldiers we're making it for ourselves. Which I thought was really a nice symbolism because not only are we reclaiming the word, but we're reclaiming sort of that domestic thing. Because women don't often do things for themselves, so it felt natural to go with Rosie because here she was a woman that was stepping into that role while the soldier was away from home.

HM: Right, now in your case though Rosie is a woman of color. Why was that important to you?

AGS: Right. Well it's important to me as an artist. It's one of my goals to represent diversity. I try to in my editorial work compose editorial art can be sort of one step up from a stock image photo. And for some reason that seems to be very white-washed. So I would always with my editorial work try to offer a balance. And so I knew this was just another venue to do that. And also recently I'd heard or read how particularly children of color in school and how important it was for them to continue to see images of Barack Obama in their schools. And so it just was a natural thing to also do a woman of color for the cover of The New Yorker.

HM: As you probably know there's been a lot of conversation after the March about the fact that it was led by women — white women — and not focusing perhaps enough on issues that women of color face. Were you aware of that when you were there do you see that as a potential problem or an opportunity going forward?

AGS: I was aware of it. I was aware of it ahead of time and there was another reason that I decided to use a woman of color just because there needs to be more representation. I mean even in our own there is you know own little controversies in our March in Augusta, Maine with representation in making sure everyone is represented as speakers. So I understand that that's really important and I do agree that women need to step up. White women and use their privilege and you know show up at the Black Lives Matter rallies and not just you know focus on the topics that only affect themselves and their skin color, but that affect all women.

HM: what kind of response have you had to that cover and the news that you got it?

AGS: It's been really crazy. I've received a lot of great e-mails ranging from people who you know just really enthusiastic and congratulate me to people who are sharing their own stories of their mothers or grandmothers, who were their own version of Rosie when they were young. And that's been it's been really special to read that, but everyone I think everyone sort of through the consensus is that it's such a positive powerful image for a lot of people right now. And so I've had people tell me like we needed to see this, which is which is pretty nice. It’s all very surprising because normally I do art and it goes out there and it'll be you know online for a little bit. It's usually attached to an essay. So the art isn't usually the predominant focus. But this time it is. And it's pretty wild.

HM: Congratulations once more, I look forward to seeing it in my own hands.

AGS: Thanks.

HM: OK. Bye bye.

JD: That was freelance artist Abigail Gray Swartz in Freeport, Maine. Her painting of an African-American Rosie the Riveter wearing a pink hat from the Women's March will be featured on the upcoming issue of The New Yorker. And there's more on that story on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Horns]

SOUNDCLIP

SPEAKER: High demand could lead to a shortage of bacon here in America.

JD: So over the last few days, you have probably heard that story and it was probably delivered exactly that same way. It's a BLT S.O.S. Seems the U.S. may be facing a serious shortage of bacon. Or something along the lines of maybe: Swine of the Times: America Struggles to cope with a Deficit of Bacon. Because that's how news anchors deliver the kicker isn't it? To differentiate rather than the fun stuff from the horrible stuff they deliver it with an amused pause. Sometimes though that pause isn't quite long enough is it? Like in the case of this bacon story which should have only been a long pause. Yes the Department of Agriculture did report that the inventory of frozen pork bellies was at its lowest level in 50 years. That low level being 17.8 million pounds, which actually sounds like way too much to a lay person and also to a pig. And yet, the Ohio Pork Council did seem to be sounding an alarm and OPC news release declared that pig farmers were producing lots of pigs, but quote, “our reserves are still depleting.” The release concluded quote. “For more information and updates go to www.baconshortage.com. Well, it turns out that it's just the pork belly reserves that are depleted and that Americans will continue to enjoy the too much bacon that they're used to probably forever. And Rich Deaton president of the Ohio Pork Council seems a bit baffled as to why everyone thought there was a bacon shortage just because he told them there was a bacon shortage and also because his organization created the website www.baconshortage.com. He told the New York Times quote, “We can't control how the news is interpreted.” So you could say that like a batch of overcooked bacon this publicity stunt crumbled.

Part 2: Bharati Mukherjee obit, Texas mosque fire

Bharati Mukerjee obit

Guest: Clark Blaise

JD: “My writing has always been about what does home mean? Where do we find it?” Bharati Mukherjee said that in a speech in 2007 and the Indian-born, American writer asked those questions and many others over and over again over a career that spanned decades. Ms. Mukherjee died this past weekend. She was 76 years old.Some of her best known works include the novel “Jasmine” and “The Middlemen and Other Stories” a collection that won her the National Book Critics Circle Award. In October of 2011, Carol moderated a roundtable discussion at the International Festival of Authors. Ms Mukherjee was part of that event. And here is part of what she had to say about her novel “Miss New India”.

SOUNDCLIP

BHARATI MUKERJEE: My seven novels — this being the eighth — have always been about the Intercontinental migration. I realized that the really big story of migration and identity is happening in places like India. Young women from third tier, fourth tier cities with very little education, but English fluency because of they went to missionary schools. These are young people who are into overthrowing the social tyrannical traditions that I was brought up in. Their saying I want to be happy. I want money. I want power. And they're perfectly willing to break with the traditional religious fatalism orient in India.

CAROL OFF: It's not so easy for the women is it? I mean this is a lot easier for young men in your novels?

BM: I mean it's incredibly hard because it means that you're really murdering your past and you're metaphorically murdering your parents. You're saying murdering God in a way by saying that I am. This is what I want, I'm entitled to personal happiness and I'm going to take my chances. I don't want an arranged marriage and I don't even want to marry I just want to live with a guy and feel that I'm in love or lust.

JD: That was Bharati Mukherjee in conversation with Carol at the International Festival of Authors in 2011. Ms. Mukherjee died over the weekend. She was 76 years old. When we reached her husband, Canadian writer Clark blaise in New York.

HM: Mr. Blaise, first of all, I'd like to say how sorry I am for your loss.

CLARK BLAISE: Thank you.

HM: You were married for a very long time. You'll have a lifetime of memories…

CB: 53 years

HM: 53 years. Given all of the many memories you have, what are you focusing on today as you remember your wife?

CB: Well focusing on trying to preserve what is her essence that is her as Hindu’s would say her soul. And not fetishized certain memories, her clothes or food or things that pass. Let them pass. I'm trying to hold on to the things very turn of light like her writing and things like that. I think that little excerpt you played shows very much something that we worked on together. The idea that immigration is violent not because of what Trump might say that you know there are violent immigrants on our streets. But it's violent because it does involve a certain amount of self-murder. You do kill off yourself and so her little middle range novels are quite violent largely because she was involved in that process herself.

HM: Well, can you share some of her own experience with us and how it was for her to go through that immigrant experience?

CB: Well, she went through it twice. She went through it when she first came over to the United States as a student and then she went through it with me in Canada when she was teaching at McGill for 12 years. And so she had two different kinds of immigration. One was to the U.S. where immigration was in a sense open, but very ignorant. That is after 1965 and they didn't really care who or what you were. Where as in Canada she felt that it was still very quite British in its immigration ideas that you know you Canada is structured along French and English lines and everyone else was sort of thrown to the side.

HM: Yeah, she did indicate that it had not been a positive experience for her especially in Toronto as I understand it.

CB: Exactly.

HM: She wrote an essay about her experiences published in Saturday Night titled “The Invisible Woman” Is that how she felt? That she was said not seen that she was invisible?

CB: She was seen and not seen. I mean that is she was visibly seen as the visible minority as it was called in those days. So she was very much seen, but she was not seen as a person or not seen as an individual.

HM: How did your wife's upbringing in India influence her writing later?

CB: It was very interesting. I mean she was born into a privileged situation. not really in her early years, I mean she was born into a joint family with 50 people in the same house and her family only had one room. But later on her father was able to buy himself out of the house and build his own house and build his own factory and build his own fortune. And so she had by and large a privileged upbringing after her first eight years, which were entirely traditional. But it was something that she felt was an imprisonment that she was forced to be the pliable daughter who would be accept the husband and accept everything that the that her class and caste demanded. And so when she'd wrote away to the University of Iowa to get into the Writers Workshop, her father was very agreeable saying OK. You work there for two years — you scribble there — for two years and I'll find you a husband. Within a year she had found me and the scribbling became in fact, her profession.

HM: What about her experience in coming to the United States. How did that affect her? How did it transform her writing?

CB: She felt that there was an openness in the U.S. experience that was not really there. Certainly if she had gone to Britain as her parents had or if she'd stayed in Canada. America didn't care particularly where she came from or what she was or anything else like that. She could be anything she wanted to be. So there was a freedom there that allowed her to experiment. So that was an important aspect of her growing up. You know in a sense we grew up together, we married at 23 and we are both very unformed people at that time. So we had to develop our own separate characters and our own joint character. Growing up in Canada and in the U.S., I am Canadian, so you know Canada was very much more comfortable for me than it was for her. Giving up Canada for me was very much more painful than it was for her. Coming to America meant that she could write everything she wanted to write and be everything she wanted to be.

HM: What was her writing process like? I mean you are a writer yourself. Did you did you write together? Did you influence each other as you were writing or just present work once it was complete to each other?

CB: We influenced each other all the time and we wrote two books together and as co-authors, but we were each other's first reader you know. And when we were together I mean there were many years in which financially we had to have separate campuses that we worked on. I was in Iowa and she was at Berkeley. But you know we were always very close about our writing and I learned a great deal from her and she learned a great deal from me.

HM: The New York Times has quoted a piece of your wife's writing it reads, “Make the familiar exotic. Americans won't recognize their country when I get finished with it and make the exotic the India of elephants and arranged marriages familiar.” How did she achieve that do you think?

CB: Well, that's very much the center of her of her world. She despised the exoticism of India or the exoticism in the in the Western literary world of India. She saw it as you know as normal everyday life. And she also despised the kind of particularism that America or the West represented itself as being. I mean she saw the west as exotic and so she went about making America with its farmers and suburbanites and urban exotics and all that and the Bay Area and its New York and its Iowa as being a kind of exotica. And she looked upon her Calcutta background as just normal Calcutta.

HM: She’s left us a wealth of things to read. I appreciate very much you taking time to remember her with us. Thank you.

CB: Thank you very much.

JD: That was Clark Blaise. We reached him in New York City. Mr. Blaise's wife, writer Bharati Mukherjee died over the weekend. She was 76 years old.

Texas mosque fire

Guest: Shahid Hashmi

JD: The only mosque in Victoria, Texas has been reduced to a burned-out shell. Last weekend a fire ripped through the building. Authorities are still trying to figure out if it was arson. But out of that a loss has come remarkable generosity. An online fundraising campaign has now raised over a million dollars for the community to rebuild. And while they go about doing that, a local synagogue and Christian churches have said come on in. Dr. Shahid Hashmi is the president of the Victoria Islamic centre. And we reached him in Victoria, Texas.

HM: Tell us about how the Christian Jewish community in Victoria responded after this fire at your mosque?

SHAHID HASHMI: Well that community has always been very friendly with us all along. Even before this incident happened, but when does fire happened and the mosque was destroyed. Four or five different churches of Lutheran, Unitarian, Presbyterian an Episcopalian Church and Jewish synagogue, they offered their place for us to do our worship while we are waiting for all the things to settle down.

HM: OK. Now what about the impact that those offers have had on members of your mosque? What are people saying about the response?

SH: They're very appreciative. We have a you know big notes of thanks for everybody. And we just are humbled by the type of support that we have gotten, not only from our local community, but internationally.

HM: Tell us about the night of the fire. How did you find out that the building was burning?

SH: We were kind of on you can say on the alert of you know what was going on. In the middle of the night about 2:00 o'clock, the imam woke up and he just for some reason he checked the camera's situation and he found that there was no camera working and the doors were open. That's the message you got. So knowing that something had happened in the past, he just drove over to the mosque. And by the time he reached there it was already on fire. The fire engines were already working there and he just crying in tears. He called me and I just jumped off the bed and we both rushed over here. And then of course the rest of the community showed up later on.

HM: What went through you while you were watching that fire?

SH: nothing but shock. Nothing but shocked that anything such like this could happen. We just watched it burn down over the next three hours and now it's just a bad dream. It felt like a bad dream.

HM: How much of your masks history has gone with that?

SH: You know all the records and other religious books and everything is burned down. That is definitely gone down. I used to keep records of not only newspapers, but correspondences and of course the financial status and all that that is all burned. The building itself is gone, which was you know everybody commented on over how beautiful the building has been. The local community Muslims and Christians and Jews have been commonly enjoyed that building with each other over the past. Now the next you know one day you are so down practically crying and. The feeling sorry for yourself, but the next day when the community got together we had a just a boost in our hour of faith in humanity.

HM: Meantime I guess that the fire officials have been investigating. Have you any concerns that this might have been a deliberate attack?

SH: Well, obviously the concern is there, but right now we are hoping and praying that it was an accident. Our you know definite hope and prayer is that it's not anything intentionally set.

HM: There's been so much anti-Muslim rhetoric lately and of course even from some of the highest levels of the U.S. government. How has that affected Muslims in your community in Victoria, Texas?

SH: Just concern just being cautious, I don't think that we want to politicize this event period. And I don't want to you know I don't think there is any direct connection to it. But of course across the nation like everybody else we are definitely concerned about it.

HM: In addition to the local support you've had within your community you've had people from all over the world donating to this fund to rebuild the mosque.

SH: Yeah, that is true.

HM: What does that mean to you?

SH: Well, it just means that everywhere in the world there is good. It is good in the majority and this is this is always that the majority of humanity, no matter what race, creed, faith you belong to. Majority of people are good. It's only a minority that sometimes destroy and of course the media exploits that. We everybody likes to hear bad news more and want to watch TV and radios whatever. A whole lot more about the bad news, nobody talks about good news as much as the bad.

HM: But you have some good news even though you had this bad?

SH: Definitely and this is typical, everywhere there are tragedies something good comes out of it. As a believer in in our faith, we're told that a true believer when he has good times good things happen to him, he grateful. When something tragedy strikes, he is patient.

HM: Dr. Hashmi, It's a pleasure to talk with you. Thank you so much.

SH: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

HM: All the best. Bye.

SH: You too. Thank you.

JD: Dr. Shahid Hashmi is the president of the Victoria Islamic Centre in Victoria, Texas. That's where we reached him. And you can find more on that story on the As It Happens website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Orchestral]

Richard Fadden on QC mosque attacks

JD: He retired from government almost a year ago, but when Richard Fadden speaks people still listen. Mr. Fadden was of course the National Security Adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Before that, he held two ministerial posts and he was the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS. And earlier today, he spoke at a conference on security put on by Carleton University and as he left the stage, he was asked by reporters about Sunday's massacre at the Quebec City mosque.

SOUNDCLIP

REPORTER: I'd like to hear you about what happened in Quebec City over the weekend. You said in terrorism is still a big concern. Was there any failure in the Security Agencies Police Services in your view what would happen on Sunday?

RICHARD FADDEN: I don't think so. And the reason I say that is it's almost impossible to deal with lone wolves. And from what I can understand Mr. Bissonnette acted entirely alone. As soon as we get more than two people who communicate with each other. The chances of catching them goes up almost exponentially. But if somebody wants to act entirely on their own, it's almost impossible. The only way you can find a way of dealing with this is if somebody from someone's family or community is willing to you know register a concern first with the individual and maybe later with the police. But that's fraud as well. You don't want to develop sort of a Stasi-like environment where everybody is snitching on everybody. But at another level if you know that somebody is about to you know throw a bomb or kill people, you need to have a way to make sure this has become known. So I don't think it's I don't think it's a failure. It's just something we're going to have to live with. If a single individual wants to go off and do harm. It's really hard to catch them.

REPORTER TWO: Do you think politicians should be more careful with what they say?

RF: I think all of us should be more careful with what we say. Me, you and everybody else. I think you really do have to be careful about the impression that's being given. And I think generally speaking people are. Part of the difficulty is though you know I may read one of your or listen to one of your reports. I'll take one sense of it and somebody else will take an entirely different sense. It's impossible to be perfect, but I do think people have to be careful.

JD: Richard Fadden speaking to reporters at a conference earlier today in Ottawa.

Part 3: Syrian lawsuit, Eritrean smuggling trial, brain machine study

Syrian lawsuit

Guest: Almudena Bernabeu

JD: A woman in Spain is trying to take her brother's killers to court. Her mission however is complicated by the fact that her brother died in Syria and she believes it was at the hands of the regime. Which means it was not easy for her to get her hands on evidence. But this week, the woman known Amal, filed a legal complaint in Spain. It is being called the first criminal case in a Western court against members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. Almudena Bernabeu is her lawyer. We reached her in Madrid.

HM: Ms. Bernabeu, your client has lived in Spain for years, but her brother had remained in Syria. How did she come to find out that he was dead?

ALMUDENA BERNABEU: One of her nephews actually saw a photo. One of these four was put out by the Syrian community and he recognized his father. We're talking about my client Amal’s brother. She was one of their closest. She's one of the oldest sisters in it. And this nephew contacted her first to see if she saw the same thing that he saw in that photo. That in fact that was his dad.

HM: Where did this photograph that showed her brother's dead body. Where did it come from?

AB: The photograph was one of the many that were spread by members of the Syrian diaspora, the Syrian community in exile. An archive was recovered from a defector from the Army forensic police, who fled the country taking with him a collection of about over 20,000 photos of civilians tortured and killed in their detention centres in Syria.

HM: What did Amal say to you about the effect seeing this photograph had on her?

AB: Well, first it was this little shock and she actually broke in tears, call her husband, closed her shop and really didn't know what to do she had to bring the news to the family. They all have been really worried about the whereabouts of her brother. She was kept from that information from knowing that the brother had been disappeared for about four months and she was very shaky. It was later on that I was given the remaining photos of the whole body and I was the one to show them to her for the first time and that was a very hard moment. Because also the body was an additional clue if you wish that I had in my possession. I was kind of caring to show her left no doubt that I was her little brother.

HM: Did the full body show a photo show in any clear way how he might have died?

AB: There were absolutely clear signs of torture. There was some burns and lots of it less specific. But there is absolutely unequivocal signs of having been subject for a longish period to torture, but there’s not a thing that there will be determined to be the cause of death.

HM: How did the photographs lead to Amal filing a criminal complaint in Spain?

AB: Well, Spain has a particular procedural rule that allows when certain crimes had at stake, we’re talking about international crimes on particular level of you know gravity or seriousness that our law allows victims of Spanish nationality to bring suit — a criminal suit — and to request Spanish judges and prosecutors to investigate and properly prosecute the case. When it comes to the crime of terrorism, which is what we have here — what we are alleging — is that before the actual conflict in Syria as we now all speak about it in as a national conflict. And I think the world needs to know the state of Syria through its institutions the security forces, intelligence forces and other state civilian and even civilian institutions. They organized a campaign aiming to stop all the demonstrations in Syria since March 2011, which is called in Syria the “Arab Spring”. There are order to take extreme measures to try to end this demonstrations.They started by intimidating arbitrarily arresting people and after that, they started shooting directly to the demonstrators and then suddenly the systematic arrests and people disappearing for weeks and months and years at a time. And we have a lot of survivors that have testified to that and they were taken to jail from local jails to then Damascus, where they died. Where they disappeared and no one knew. That is really a state terrorism that is using your own state to commit crimes with a political purpose or with a political aim. And that's what we are getting in that legally speaking, in Spain when you have such crime if you have a victim with Spanish nationality at the time of the crime that the crime occurred you can then assert jurisdiction to investigate this case.

HM: So who specifically are you going after with this suit?

AB: We are going after nine members of the security forces and intelligence forces and one member of the government.

HM: And what do you hope to achieve?

AB: You know the hopes are many and I think success in this case is not always jailing someone. I think where we're hoping is to set a very rigorous and clear record that these abuses committed up to this point were inflicted by the state. To prove their responsibility and acquiescence of every single institution and members of the state in facilitating this enormous amount of violence. And I think yes of course if I can dream for accountability that maybe making these people's life uncomfortable or exposing them as would they are what was happening, so It would make it a little more difficult for them to just you know recycle into negotiating a peace agreement and then they can leave finder after a thing without some account of responsibility. Some accountability I don't think the Syrian peace process and future can be taken seriously. Too many people have died and people have suffered.

HM: Are there other victims? Has the case take in other people than Amal's brother?

AB: There are so many and we have been in touch with so many. But the problem has been that they are outside of Syria at this point in Spain, we only have Amal. You know I know one little dream, a first step that there will be extraordinary is that we learn of other additional victims that may be connected to the Spanish jurisdiction case based on nationality for instance as well as they maybe come forward. So I'm hoping that this can be the first national prosecution of many.

HM: Ms. Bernabeu, Thank you for taking time to talk to us.

AB: My pleasure. Thank you very much.

HM: All right. Goodbye.

JD: Almudena Bernabeu is a lawyer. We reached her in Madrid. Her client, Amal is attempting press criminal charges against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, which she says is responsible for the death of her brother.

[Music: Bluegrass]

Suicide survivor

JD: She is a mother, she is a teacher, a wife and she is a suicide survivor. This afternoon in Saskatoon, Wynona Cenaiko spoke openly about all of the above in front of hundreds of Indigenous and Northern youth, at the Ignite the Life Youth Suicide Prevention Conference. And she also shared her story with Sheila Coles, the host of the CBC's Morning Edition in Regina.

SOUNDCLIP

WYNONA CENAIKO: I, like so many other kids in the world, in my community, your community, in communities all over the place. We don’t know that they're struggling, but they are. I had physical abuse in my home, I was raised with drug addiction, alcoholism, I survived sexual abuse. I had a single mom and it was hard to pay the bills sometimes as well, so we went without. When you get to high school and you want so much to fit in like all teenagers do. And your emotions are running wild. You can't control them because you're growing. One day I just didn't want to face everything. And it's sometimes it's harder to fake a smile. Like I was tired of faking happiness and I felt like I was alone and so it didn't matter anyways.

SHEILA COLES: You didn't reach out to your mom, to any friends, you really felt you were isolated and couldn't talk to anyone?

WC: I think because in the back of your mind, you kind of know that this is dumb in this sense and you wonder if people will take you seriously.

SC: And we don't go into detail, we don't need to go into detail about what happened it didn't work. What you what you had planned to do yourself didn't work. And what brought you through the period after that and helped turn things around for you?

WC: forever as siblings we had always said that we're better than this and we don't have to live this way and when we get to make our own choices we will. I give a lot of credit to my older brother, who took the brunt of everything and constantly reminded us of that like we can be better than what we were given. The next day, I mean nothing changed in my world, it still sucked and I was still facing everything that I had faced the day before. But I had that one moment of weakness when I had forgotten what my brothers had said. And the next day I was so thankful to be alive. And I remembered and I was kind of mad at myself thinking if my older brother can stay strong for me I should be able to stay strong for him. So I just kept fighting my way through and it sucked and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think about it again. But I never acted on it again because I had found that strength and I had remembered what we had said our whole lives that we will do better than what we were given.

SC: And now you're a teacher?

WC: Yes, I am a school teacher. I am a grad student. I'm a mother of two.

SC: What would you say now if you could talk to that younger Wynona?

WC: I would remind her that nothing lasts forever. And I tell that to my students actually that the life you were given may not be the one you want, but it doesn't have to be that way forever.

JD: That was Wynona Cenaiko speaking with CBC Regina's Sheila Coles. She also spoke earlier today at the Ignite the Life Youth Suicide Prevention Conference in Saskatoon.

[Music: Ambient]

Eritrean smuggling trial

JD: Italian authorities were triumphant last summer when they announced that they had finally arrested Medhanie Mered, accused of smuggling thousands of people from North Africa to Europe. And they clung to that claim even as dozens of people came forward to tell them that they were horribly mistaken. And that the man they had in custody was actually an innocent Eritrean refugee by the name of Medhanie Berhe. We first brought you this story eight months ago. Today, that same man is still in custody and that is despite a mountain of evidence suggesting that Italian authorities have the wrong man. And this week, Facebook engineers came forward with alleged proof of Mr. Berhe’s innocence. Eden Berhe has been watching all of this unfold. She is Medhanie Berhe’s sister. We reached her in San Francisco.

HM: Ms. Berhe, it appears everyone except Italian authorities is saying that this is a case of mistaken identity. Why then do you think your brother is still in jail/

EDEN BERHE: Because they don't want to be humiliated. That's why I mean they make a big mistake. And then you know the propaganda like you know a smuggler and killer. And I think you know they have pressure to admit that they made a mistake without investigating whether he is the real Medhanie Mered or not.

HM: Do you believe your brother and this human smuggler even look alike?

EB: No, not at all. The real smuggler is much older and my brother is only twenty nine years old. For me they don't look alike at all.

HM: Besides sharing the same first name, is there anything that they have in common in your mind?

EB: No, not at all. The real smuggler has a family, my brother he never get married or have children.

HM: When is the last time you had a chance to speak with your brother?

EB: It was on May before he was arrested in Sudan. I tried to contact him, but he didn't answer me. And then my sister that lives in Sudan told me that they arrest him in Sudan. But we thought that the police in Sudan they deport Eritreans back Eritrea. So first we thought they're going to deport him, but all of the sudden we saw him in the news accusing him that he's a murderer and then smuggled in a lot of people and that's not my brother.

HM: Have any members of your family seen him since that arrest?

EB: Yes. My older sister, she tried to visit him in prison. However, they denied her visitation because they say that it's not her brother because they don't share the same middle name and last name. But however, she turned his trial so she saw him for a couple of minutes.

HM: what kind of paperwork do you have or any member of your family maybe have that could help with this identification? Is there anything?

EB: we provide all his Eritrean identification. His Baptism, his a school records. We even tried to provide DNA all that things. Recently, the Eritrean government wrote a letter saying that the guy that arrested in Italy is Medhanie Berhe, not Medhanie Mered. So I don't know why they know what they're looking for more information?

HM: Did your brother have any identification on him when he was arrested?

EB: He said he carried his Eritrean identification when he was arrested in Sudan. However, they discarded and they denied that you know finding the I.D.

HM: So you think the people who arrested him deliberately threw it away?

EB: Yes. While he was in Sudan, they didn't tell him why he got arrested. They just tortured him and sent him to Italy. He was very confused because he wasn't sure why they arrested him and tortured him.

HM: This week in court, Facebook came forward with new information and they argued the man in custody is not the human smuggler authorities claim he is. They basically backed your brother's position here. What exactly did they tell the court?

EB: They gave my brother’s account. They investigated the account was open in Eritrea and it shows that he was in Ethiopia and Sudan. However, the two accounts that belong to Medhanie Mered shows that he was in Libya, in Dubai and in Sudan. The places where he used smuggle. They're also tried to contact him by a What’s App phone number and then it shows that now he's in Dubai.

HM: So basically they're saying that the human smuggler was operating in Sudan in 2013. The prosecutors are saying that, but Facebook is saying that your brother wasn't in Sudan until 2015, so they couldn't be the same person?

EB: Exactly as we told them. We told them that my brother was in Eritrea until November 2014 and then he escaped to Ethiopia and then move to Sudan in 2015.

HM: So do you think this new information when Facebook testifying would make any difference will it make a difference in your brother's case.

EB: We don't know what to say because every proof that we provide them, they're just not accepting it they are denying. They don't even have a single proof that he's the real Medhanie. But provide them a dozen of this is papers and a lot of evidence. They're just making it more and more complicated.

HM: And some of that testimony is from Medhanie Mered’s alleged victims as well. So are they saying the same thing this is not the right man.

EB: yes. Two of the people went to Italy and testified. However, the prosecutors deny it because they say that their name doesn't show that they were in Italy. However, all the immigrants that you know go to Germany and other countries, they don't take their fingerprints in Italy. Just because they couldn't find their fingerprints in Italy they just discard their testimony. So this really hurts. They went all the way there to testify.

HM: Do you and your family hold out any hope that your brother will eventually be released?

EB: I hope so. I I'm really hoping so because it's been nine months. All of our family are very devastated because you know it's not fair. They're not even letting us to talk to him. So I'm hoping you know that they will set him free soon. So I don't know what to provide more evidence than this?

HM: Well, I hope you get the resolution that you're looking for and I appreciate you talking to us.

EB: Thank you so much. I really appreciate.

HM: Thank you. Goodbye.

EB: Goodbye.

JD: Eden Berhe is the sister of Medhanie Berhe, who is believed to have been mistakenly identified and prosecuted as a human smuggler. We reached Ms. Berhe in San Francisco.

[Music: Rock]

Brain machine study

Guest: Ujwal Chaudhary

JD: They have absolutely no control over their bodies. Now however, they may have a new way to communicate. Researchers in Germany have developed a new brain-computer interface that is able to read the thoughts of patients with “”locked-in syndrome”. So far, it only works with yes or no questions. But for people who previously were not able to respond at all. Those are two very powerful words Ujwal Chaudhary is one of the researchers behind this interface. And we reached him in Tubingen, Germany.

HM: Dr. Chaudhary, how long had some of the patients in your study gone without being able to communicate?

UJWAL CHAUDHARY: One patient he was unable to communicate for three years. So first time she went into “locked-in” state in 2007. But since as we all know that if a patient goes into a “locked-in” state there are several technologies which can be used for communication. So she communicated with those devices until 2010. And after that there was no means of communication. The searchers before me in my group tried different technology, but none of them worked. And so she was without communication from 2011 until 2014 and we communicated with her for the first time with our new technology in 2014. So it was quite overwhelming for the family.

HM: Now in the past, a lot of times people have been able to communicate by blinking or as you say other means. In what circumstances does that not happen?

UG: So we have to understand the difference between “locked-in” and “completely locked-in”. So if the patient is to has the eye movement or the eye blinking, they are said to be in “locked-in” state. But once they lose the eye blinking of the eye movement they are in “completely locked-in” state. So like I said several technologies out there which can be used for communication by patient who has eye blinking or are in ‘locked-in’ state. But once that transition into “completely locked-in” state there is no means of communication available for them.

HM: So what were the reasons that the patients in your study were “locked-in”?

UC: All of our patients, they suffer from a neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. So amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS is the progressive nero-degenerative disorder which destroys the motor skills of the body. By that I mean to say the patient is first of all unable to move the arm then their feet and they are on the bed eventually. So there comes a time in their life when they are unable to breathe. If they decide to live then they have to go for artificial ventilation and once they for artificial ventilation as you know they cannot speak any more than they use other technologies like eye blinking, hand movement or sign language or communication.

HM: How does the brain-interface computer that you have created work then?

UC: Our brain computer interface allows all the binary communication that is and that is comunication in the form of yes or no. So what we do we present simple sentences with no answer like: you were born in Paris? Or you were born in Berlin? And the patient thinks yes or no depending on what they want to answer and while they are thinking yes or no, we acquired their brain signals and we feed that to our algorithm and our algorithm at the end of the thinking period says your answer was yes or your answer was no.

HM: what is the algorithm measuring?

UC: The algorithm is measuring the change in the concentration of hemoglobin in the brain when they're thinking.

So how accurate is the result?

UC: as of now, and the classification accuracy of our system is 70 to 75 per cent. So that's why what we do. We ask a particular question seven times and based upon our probability. If a patient answer your question seven to eight times in a similar fashion then we know that yes this is the answer he or she wants to answer.

HM: Can you give us some examples of how you've used it, the kinds of questions that you've asked people? Not just in terms of testing their birthplaces that sort of thing, but in terms of things that really matter to their lives?

UC: The real challenge lies in answering the open questions. The open questions are the questions which can only be answered by the patient. Like are you in pain? You want to visit your particular family member? You want to go here or there? I want to give you an example, which is well not funny, but still it's quite funny. So the family member they wanted to ask that they wanted to marry a man and then she was very keen on getting the blessing of her father. So she wanted us to ask do you give a blessing to my marriage? So we asked this particular question many times. Why many times? Because the first time we asked He said no. And so to be sure that he was saying no, we repeated the question several times. So we repeated this question 15 times instead of 10 times and then t13 time he said no.

HM: 13 times out 15 he said no?

UC: Yeah, at same time, they wanted to ask are you happy that your granddaughter is graduating? The answer was yes all the time. And then when we asked do you want to repeat the graduation ceremony of your granddaughter And the answer was No all the time. So although he was happy for her granddaughter, he did not wanted to go out in public because he might be fearing that negative social environment around him. So this is what we decipher from this yes and no answer.

HM: Right. Can I ask what happened in terms of that marriage

UG: They eventually married. Nothing can stop the love.

HM: You said earlier that this one woman you spoke of at the beginning of our conversation had said how much this had meant to be able to communicate. Can you just give us a sense of all of what this what this does mean for people who otherwise have no way of saying what they're thinking?

UC: Before we started a study, we know that this kind of patient they always report good quality of life because before entering into that “completely locked-in” state there are several questionnaires and people ask those questions. And then for those kind of questions they all of us report a high quality of life, but they have no means of communication. So for example, let's say that the patient is in pain and that particular patient has no means of communicating that he or she is in pain. So that's quite unbearable pain. But imagine that now those patients are able to say yes I'm in pain. This is quite a feeling.

Dr. Chaudhary, it's fascinating and it sounds like it's making a big difference. Thank you for talking to us about the work you're doing.

UC: Thank you for having me.

HM: OK. Goodbye

JD: Ujwal Chaudhary is one of the researchers who developed a new brain-computer interface that can be used to read the thoughts of patients suffering from “locked-in syndrome” when they’re answering yes or no questions. We reached Dr. Chaudhary in Tubingen, Germany.

[Music: Ambient]

Turkmen President guitar

JD: Presidential elections in Turkmenistan are next month. We don't need Nate Silver to predict the winner. It is going to be the country's authoritarian ruler Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who won last time… with a remarkable 97 per cent of the vote. But a guaranteed landslide does not mean that Mr. Berdymukhamedov has stayed off the campaign trail unfortunately. And unfortunately it has not stopped him from breaking out his guitar. This week, a video emerged of the President strumming and singing to a group of workers who are pictured dutifully clapping along with blank expressions on their faces. Here is Turkmenistan's President with our sound of the Day.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: Singing, clapping and acoustic guitar]

JD: Turkmenistan's President singing happily to a group of workers, who are engaged in a spontaneous mandatory clap along. They're also going to have no choice, but to vote for him in next month's election.

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Feb. 2, 2017 episode transcript

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