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The AIH Transcript for January 28, 2021

Hosts: Carol Off and Chris Howden

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

CAROL OFF: Hello. I'm Carol Off.

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

[Music: Theme]

CH: Tonight:

CO: Injustice Is Blind, a friend of Daniel Pearl's says it's a travesty that the men convicted of the journalist's shocking murder in Pakistan may soon go free.

CH: Reproductive wrong's. Thousands take to the streets in Poland to protest a near total ban on abortion that's just come into effect. And our guest was there in the midst of the demonstration.

CO: Technical foul. A Canadian researcher says an NBA team's plan to use sniffer dogs to detect fans infected with covid-19 may sound logical, but it doesn't pass the smell test.

CH: Laughing Stocks. First a group of market duds are driven to precarious heights by anonymous investors. Then they tumble down, taking some stockholders with them.

CO: First they were stuck and then they got stuck. Commuters in Oregon caught in traffic in a snowstorm, ended up getting impromptu covid-19 vaccines thanks to a medical team that was trapped in the same line-up of cars.

CH: And fake it till you make it. Or in this case, two firefighters made it to the middle of a frozen river to rescue a helpless goose, only to realise someone had faked it. The goose, I mean. As It Happens, the Thursday edition, radio that gets the creative gooses flowing.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Reporter Daniel Pearl's friend says it's 'a travesty' that Pakistan is freeing his accused killer

Daniel Pearl Killers Freed

Guest: Asra Nomani

CH: The men originally convicted of the brutal, videotaped murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl may soon walk free. Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered the release of Omar Sheikh and three others. Mr. Sheikh was convicted of masterminding the Wall Street Journal reporter's kidnapping and murder in 2002. Mr. Pearl was beheaded in a gruesome video that the militants made public. Asra Nomani is a journalist who was close friends with Daniel Pearl. We reached her in Morgantown, West Virginia.

CO: Asra, what was your reaction when you heard about the Supreme Court's ruling today?

ASRA NOMANI: Just horrified. I'm on the East Coast in the U.S. and it was 2:08 a.m. We got the news from Faisal Siddiqi, the attorney for Danny's parents. And we learnt two to one that the Pakistani court was about to, not about free, but had decided to free Omar Sheikh and his co-conspirators. And I just thought, what a crime, what a travesty of justice.

CO: And how are Daniel Pearl's parents taking this?

AN: Oh, my gosh. I called Danny's dad immediately. And he's such an amazing wise human being. And he said Well, Asra, we at least have 24 hours left to live. Just to kind of recognise that we have life on this earth and we have another day to step forward. But, you know, he and his wife and his daughters, they are committed to continuing to fight for Danny. And I was very happy to hear that he supports extradition for Omar Sheikh to the United States. And he said to me, we all know that we can't bring Danny back, but this is not going to be good for Pakistan. This is not going to be good for the world and it's not good for journalists.

CO: So the Pakistani court has seemingly, has sided with those who say that Omar Sheikh's role in planning and carrying out the murder of Daniel Pearl was less than they first thought, while he's been in jail for 18 years. Is there any evidence to support that he didn't play the role that he was he was convicted of playing in the murder of Daniel Pearl?

AN: Omar Sheikh is absolutely 100 percent guilty and responsible for Danny's murder. You know, he admitted into the last day of the hearing that he played a "minor role" the first time that he'd ever admitted to any role. So for 18 years, he even denied that he'd ever seen Danny. So he's just a serial liar through all these years. And finally, at the last moment, he admits in this jailhouse confession that he played a "minor role". But we know, we know every detail, that he laid a trap for Danny. He orchestrated the kidnapping. He was the one who made sure that the world knew that Danny was Jewish because that put a target on Danny's back. And so Omar Sheikh is 100 percent responsible for the fact that Danny doesn't walk this earth.

CO: So what do you think is behind the court's decision? Is it a politically motivated decision to release these men?

AN: We tried so much, Carol. You know, all year. We tried so hard to play by the books, you know, and play by the rules. And this was what I was afraid of in 2002 when Danny was kidnapped, murdered and these four men convicted. I was afraid that the government was setting, you know, the stage for an appeal that could succeed to create loopholes, create a backdoor. And that's what they basically drove a Mack truck through this appeal process to and the government put forward, unfortunately, a very lame prosecution. They did not do a good job. We had judges also who I understand are literally, if you can believe this, 9/11 truthers, you know, those 9/11 deniers, whatever you call them that still to this day, do not believe that Osama bin Laden was behind the 9/11 attack. Know, there's just that mindset in parts of our Pakistani community and society, in our Muslim world, also that want to deny the extremism problem that's caused such havoc in the world. And those are the judges then that have freed Omar Sheikh and his three co-conspirators.

CO: You're one of the last people to see Daniel Pearl alive back in 2002. I know you've thought about this and talked about it? But tell us about that day. Tell us about that day that he left to go off to do that interview, as you said goodbye to him.

AN: Well, Danny was such a wonderful human being, just a very regular guy. He was visiting a home that I'd rented in Karachi,he had arrived there with his wife, Mariane, she was several months pregnant. And I had gotten a five track CD player because Danny loves music. And we played music the night before and he left then in the afternoon in a taxi that the guard from my house had gotten from down the road. And I stood there with this beautiful scent of jasmine flowers from the garden behind us and these amazing parrots overhead squawking and there was hardly any fumbling with all his stuff. He had his headset. He had his tape recorder, he had his phone, his notebook. And Mariane was standing beside me. And I waved to him, Mariane waved to him. I said, See you later, buddy. And we never saw him again.

CO: Much of the day still haunts you?

AN: It is haunting. It's just as you can probably tell in my retelling of the story, you know, details that I cannot forget. They're just imprinted in my brain. And I have always looked to [inaudible] for answers, for comfort that his father and his mother always provide in finding balance in this world to have peace. But this is a real death blow, a second death blow, you know, to the tragedy that was Danny's murder. We lost him in 2002 and now we lost justice today.

CO: Asra, I really appreciate speaking with you. I'm sorry this is a difficult day for you, but thank you.

AN: Thank you, Carol. We have to really care for this story for all journalists everywhere.

CO: All right. Bye bye.

AN: Thank you.

CH: Asra Nomani is a journalist who was close friends with Daniel Pearl, who was murdered in Pakistan in 2002. We reached her in Morgantown, West Virginia.

[Music: guitar instrumental]

Oregon Traffic Vaccines

Guest: Mike Weber

CH: A shortage in the EU, delays by manufacturers, slow rollout in Canada, there are days when it seems like it's going to take forever for all of us to get vaccinated against covid-19. So imagine being stuck in traffic during a snowstorm when someone just knocks on your window and offers you a vaccination on the spot. That's what happened in Hay Hills, Oregon, on Tuesday evening. A blanket of snow brought traffic to a standstill. And amongst all those stopped cars were health care workers carrying precious cargo vaccines that would go to waste if they weren't used. Mike Weber was in the middle of it. He's the public health director for Josephine County, Oregon. Today, we reached him at his office in Grants Pass.

CO: Mike, can you describe the scene when you were stuck in traffic during this snow?

MIKE WEBER: So we were holding a vaccine clinic in Cave Junction at the Illinois Valley High School, and that's why we had extra vaccines drawn up. We were administering vaccines as quickly as we could. The weather was coming in and we managed to get most of them administered. But at some point we simply had to leave. The weather was starting to get way too rough. So we grabbed our items, tossed them in all of our trucks and got on the road. And apparently we waited a little bit too long because we made it up to the top of the mountain. And as we were going over the pass, traffic came to a standstill.

CO: And as you were stuck in that traffic in the snow, what was going through your mind about those doses of the vaccine that you had drawn up?

MW: You have to understand here in Josephine County. We've really struggled to get the vaccine to give to our community. So for us, every dose is precious. And when we're on the mountain and we got the call that we would probably be there for a couple hours, we knew that it wouldn't last. We are cutting it way too close.

CO: What do you mean it wouldn't last? What are you talking about?

MW: So with the vaccine, when you open the vial and draw into the syringe, you only have six hours to administer it before you have to dispose of it. So we'd already had it drawn for about two hours when we left Cave Junction and we had plenty of time to get back, if the roads had stayed clear. But we were told it was going to be at least a couple hours. And at that point we knew we had to do it was pretty much an obvious solution for us.

CO: What did you do?

MW: Well, we had six syringes filled with vaccine that had a time limit, the clock was ticking. So thankfully, since we were coming from the vaccine clinic, we had all the gear we needed with us. We even had an ambulance with us, that was there providing medical care in case it was needed. We just started zipping up our jackets and walking door to door, vehicle to vehicle, asking if anyone was interested.

CO: What was the response?

MW: It was kind of mixed. You know, we live in an area of the country that has a pretty high rate of vaccine hesitancy. So we knew a lot of people weren't going to be thrilled. But for the most part, people were amused. Just about, just about everyone kind of laughed about it. Even the people who didn't necessarily want the vaccine, most of them thanked us for what we were trying to do.

CO: You had six of these vaccines drawn up. So how easy or difficult was it to get takers?

MW: We had to walk by about 40 vehicles before we found six people to say yes.

CO: What do you make of that?

MW: I mean, I have to acknowledge that it is an unusual situation to find yourself in. [chuckle] I know the last time I was stuck in a snowstorm, I don't think I ever envisioned somebody would have walked up and asked if I wanted a shot in the arm. So people having a little bit of trepidation about it. I get it. But the folks that did get it, they really were thrilled.

CO: And why did you do? How did you, how did you administer the shots?

MW: We actually had a clinician on scene. We had a physician as well as other staff that are qualified to give the shots. So we had one person carrying around an umbrella, another person carrying a box of supplies, including everything we needed to administer the vaccine. And I'd walk ahead and ask if they're interested. And I had the paperwork tucked underneath my coat, which probably looked even more suspicious, but we had to keep it dry. And if they said they were interested, we had them fill out their paperwork in their car. The doctor did a check with them to make sure it was safe for them to receive the vaccine in this environment. And then they just stepped out of their car exposed sleeve and got a quick jab before hopping back in and warming up.

CO: How close to the deadline for the vaccine had to come by the time you administered those six shots?

MW: We probably had another two hours left, but we wound up being on that mountain for another two, two and a half hours, so we would not have made it back in time.

CO: And now what kinds of exchanges? Just maybe give us one anecdote of the kind of exchange you had with these patients?

MW: I had a couple that were really good. One was a couple that were heading into town for a special event of some sort. I'm not sure what, but the woman was very, very upset when I told her how long the wait was going to be. We had an emergency manager on scene as well. So they were receiving all the details. So we're also providing traffic information as we walked around. But when I told her about the traffic delays, she was really upset. And then I started in on the well, I know this sounds strange, but, you know, we started in on the spiel and I explained what was going on. And she was a teacher, so she had already been vaccinated. But the gentleman she was with did not. And he asked me repeatedly if I was pulling his leg. Is this a real thing or are you serious? And when I finally convinced him he was actually going to get a vaccine that day, he started dancing in his seat. And when the doc came up to ask him questions, he took off his shirt and jumped out of the car and tried giving us his arm right away. He was so excited. It was just a fantastic experience.

CO: Now, this is the vaccine that needs to have a second dose. Right. So how are you going to manage that?

MW: So all the people that received the vaccines during that impromptu vaccination clinic on the side of the road, they all filled out all the necessary paperwork and we have their contact details and we're going to be sending them detailed information on how to get their second dose, how to follow up.

CO: All right, Mike, I hope that you are able to administer the rest of the vaccine program without as much as much difficulty as that, but the weather is obviously a factor. And thanks for telling us the story.

MW: Oh, absolutely. Happy to.

CO: Take care. Bye bye.

MW: Thanks.

CH: Mike Weber is the public health director in Josephine County, Oregon. On Tuesday, he helped give a covid-19 vaccines to people stuck in traffic in a snowstorm. We reached him at Grants Pass. And you can read more about that story and see some photos on our webpage at CBC.ca/AIH.

[Music: Percussion]

Market Gamestop

Guest: James Surowiecki

CH: Stock markets have up weeks and stock markets have down weeks, but this week the stock market has been just plain weird. First, stocks in a group of pretty marginal companies went soaring to unimagined heights. Then today, they came bouncing way back down. The poster child for this week's weirdness is GameStop, a company that sells video game cartridges from walk in stores. Business is not booming because there's a pandemic and Gamers have other ways to get their fix. But while GameStop’s actual business has been in the doldrums, the company's stock has gone on a roller coaster ride at the Financial Fun Park. James Surowiecki is a financial writer. We reached him in New York City.

CO: James, the headline as markets closed. We're just talking just after the markets have closed here. GameStop's plunge wipes out 11 billion dollars as platforms, kerb trades. What is going on?

JAMES SUROWIECKI: Well, what happened today was that a number of trading platforms, so brokerage houses either restricted or in some cases outright banned people from buying GameStop stock, AMC stock, the movie theatre chain, and also a company called Cos I think was also banned. And I think more generally the story is just that we're continuing to see just incredible volatility, incredible whipsaw. So, you know, I think GameStop closed today at something like 193 and then in after market trading, it jumped up to 237. And who knows what it'll be when we wake up in the morning. It's just been an incredible run. I mean, today, GameStop traded between 480 and 112 dollars a share.

CO: OK, let's just briefly talk about what GameStop is, because basically this is a completely anachronistic company as they sell video game cartridges in walk-in stores. I mean, so what is this stock that has created this frenzy on Wall Street?

JS: The right way to put it is it's the stock, because the company itself is pretty anodyne. Like you said, it's a legacy business. And the company had been really, really beaten down. It's, you know, lost a considerable sum of money over the past few years. And then obviously the pandemic has been incredibly hard for every retailer. So its stock had really gotten beaten down. I mean, the stock was trading at two dollars and fifty seven cents at one point. And what happened was that the board on the website Reddit called Wall Street. That's where people just kind of talk about investing ideas and sort of shoot their mouths off and whatever. They started talking about this stock and got interested in the idea that maybe it was just a lot cheaper than it should be. So even though it was not a great company, its stock maybe was beaten down. People started to buy it. Then someone joined the company who people were like, he's going to transform it. And the stock rose a little more. And then what really took off and the reason why we're talking about this stock is that the group of people on this board, just from talking to each other, started to realise that if they bought this stock in mass, they could create something called a short squeeze. It's a little technical, but the basic idea is that there were big hedge funds betting against GameStop. So they were betting that GameStop stock was going to continue to drop. And so the way you do that is you borrow shares from one person, you sell them to someone else. And the hope is the share price will drop. You'll buy back the shares and then return them. And so you'll make the profit in the meantime. The problem for short sellers is that when a stock price starts to rise very sharply, you know, it inflicts a lot of losses on them. And if you can't take the pain, short sellers have to buy the stock back to basically be able to return it to the person they borrowed it from. And that, in turn, drives the price higher. So that inflicts more pain on other short sellers who eventually maybe, they crack and they buy the stock and that drives the stock even higher. And so this ragtag group of traders and speculators on this one Internet site basically kind of created this massive short squeeze that... I mean, it's literally inflicted billions of dollars of losses on some major hedge funds in the investing universe.

CO: OK, but a lot of people regard the big hedge funds as evil. I mean, there's an idea, this a kind of David and Goliath struggle. And in fact, the things they've been saying on that Reddit site are referring to that "we're going to take down the whole f-ing Wall Street".

JS: Yeah, no, I think that's absolutely true, that, you know, I think the main impulse for what people were doing is to make money. But there was definitely a sense of like we're the little guys we're taking on, you know, the Wall Street establishment. One of the funny things is that short sellers are actually not really the Wall Street establishment. They're actually somewhat outsiders themselves. But, you know, they are a hedge fund. They do have a lot of money, and I think that's one of the reasons why it's also sort of captured people's imaginations is, you know, this idea that a group of basically random individual investors just kind of talking to each other could sort of do this and challenge the Wall Street establishment is part of what people have been so fascinated by.

CO: So where does this go from here? Does it just continue on this roller coaster ride or does somehow this actually just blow up at some point?

JS: So what will be interesting over the next week or so is to see whether the will of these individual investors to hold the stock. If you go to Wall Street, there was a lot of people reassuring each other and encouraging each other and saying, you know, hold the line, don't let the shorts break you. And, you know, they sort of elevated the stock price by a collective act of will. And the question is, what happens when that will starts to erode and what will erode it? And, you know, it may be that once the losses start, they just accelerate. I really, am not sure it's going to be really fascinating to see how this plays out over the next week or so.

CO: Do you think that if people could just go out to the coffee shop to hang out, have a drink with friends, [chuckle] to have normal life, get off their couches, step away from the screen, that this would all just go away if we could just go back to having a normal life?

JS: I think there's some element of that. Now, to be fair, my impression from spending some time on Wall Street is that a lot of those guys didn't really spend much time outside. [laughter]But having said that, I definitely think there's an element in all of this kind of boredom, of, you know, not having much else to do. And also, to be honest, for a lot of people, you know, having lost their jobs in the past, there's just a lot less to spend your money on. And so I think some of it is also people just basically are like, I don't know, I've got 100 bucks. I'm why not just take a flyer on this? And yeah, I do think that this is in some respects a kind of product of this weird, isolated pandemic, screen laden world that we live in.

CO: [chuckle] James, we'll leave it there. Thank you.

JS: I appreciate it. Thanks very much.

CH: James Surowiecki is a financial writer. His latest piece is called "The GameStop Fiasco Proves we're in a meme stock bubble". You'll find it on Medium. We reached Mr. Surowiecki in New York. And for more on the story, you can tune in to CBC Radio's Day 6 this Saturday when guest host Peter Armstrong will speak with Vox's Emily Stewart about where the meme economy goes from here.

[Music: upbeat techno]

Goose Decoy

CH: The temperature was below freezing in Monroe Township, Michigan, on Tuesday when the call came in to the local fire station, there was an injured Canada goose trapped in the ice on the River Raisin. That's when the department turned to its elite goose squad, two men with the courage to painstakingly make their way out onto that frozen river and risk a nasty pecking without hesitation. They agreed to go out and take a gander knowing the gander would also try to take them. Not long thereafter, the two firefighters were crawling purposefully across the ice sheet toward the goose, which was indeed stuck fast, inch by agonising inch. They approached, fearing they were too late. The bird was utterly silent and motionless, but they refused to give up and hoping against hope, they reached the trapped goose, which did not struggle at all as they freed it. History will record their names Brian Merkel and Ed Bellman. But so far, history does not know the name of the person who made the goose decoy they bravely liberated. All we know is it was obviously a very convincing decoy, which they faced grave danger to save. So really, Mr. Merkel and Mr. Bellman still belong to a world class group of bird rescuers. But as for who the decoy belongs to? Well, that's anyone's goose.

[Music: upbeat classical]

Part 2: Poland Abortion Protests

Poland Abortion Protests

Guest: Marta Habior

CH: Poland's abortion laws became even stricter this week, which is why thousands of people are back on the streets tonight. The Polish government has officially banned the termination of pregnancies for fetal abnormalities. That means abortions are only legal now in extremely rare circumstances. The ban comes months after the top court ruled those abortions unconstitutional. In October, that ruling set off massive demonstrations across the country now that the ruling is officially law. The protests are back. Marta Habior is in Poland's capital. She's a documentary filmmaker in Warsaw. We reached her just as police were beginning to surround the demonstrations.

CO: Marta, first of all, can you just describe what's happening around you, where you are right now?

MARTA HABIOR: Well, at the moment, we have just been blocked by the police from both sides, although basically we are unable to walk away even if we wanted to. And we don't know what's going to happen next.

CO: OK, where were you heading when you were stopped?

MH: And we were protesting in front of the constitutional tribunal.

CO: And so you can't go forward, but you can't go back either?

MH: No, we can't, we can't go either way. All always are blocked.

CO: Can you give an estimate? Do you have any idea how many people are with you right now?

MH: I would say about a thousand.

CO: And what do you think the police intend to do with you?

MH: You see what they do. If it escalates, then they just treat us with gas. That's what they do. And today, there was a moment when it was a little bit hectic because some of the protesters climbed to the fence of the constitutional tribunal and attached the flag of the stripe on the building of the constitutional tribunal. And we know that those protesters were taken by the police. Police also took some of the protesters, just pulled them from the protest. And we know nothing about their whereabouts.

CO: Can you describe who's in the crowd? What's the mix of people that are around you?

MH: I would say some young people, some people my age just around 40, but also people my mom's age.

CO: And I can hear a voice and some music. What's the rally like? What's happening?

MH: At the moment it's quite peaceful. People are just screaming "let them go" about the protesters that were being taken out and also "tell your daughter where you've been tonight" to the police. So that's what's happening now.

CO: Now, this is, of course, the people protesting against the decision to go ahead with a complete ban on access [interrupted]

MH: That's correct.

CO: Access to abortion in Poland. It's getting... [pause] ['We will rock you' playing in background]

MH: Hello. Can you hear me?

CO: Yes, I can. I'm just hearing a bit of what's around you.

MH: Yeah.

CO: Can you describe the mood in the crowd as they protest this once again?

MH: Happy and, I don't know, full of hope, I guess.

CO: When you say full of hope. When we covered the protests some months ago, there were hundreds of thousands of people in the streets and they seem to have been able to stop the government from going ahead with this. What has happened since then?

MH: The government got rid of the massive protests and they pulled out just for a moment. But now I suppose they decided to publish the ruling because they were counting on people not going out on the streets because of the covid restrictions, because of the police getting more and more aggressive with the protesters. I think they banked on people not protesting anymore being tired as well. We've been protesting since 2016.

CO: And, Marta, do you think that this will continue, that they're not going to back down? The protesters are not going to quit on this?

MH: I don't think the protesters are going to quit because the anger is growing.

CO: What is the anger, based on what impact will this new law have on women in Poland?

MH: All the anger is based on the fact that conservative ruling party decided to take away our fundamental human rights. Yesterday, a woman who got her information that she can go and do an abortion because the foetus is [inaudible]. She's been informed a couple of hours later that it's no longer possible and that she needs to carry it.

CO: When we talked before the issue, I guess, for so many women is that if you're wealthy, you can leave Poland and obtain an abortion. But it's the poor women of Poland who will be driven to more desperate ways of getting these abortions. Is that... [interrupted]

MH: Of course, that's who we protest for, not for ourselves we'll do just fine. But these women are going to have no choice.

CO: And when we covered this big protests months ago, the people in the crowd was more than just women, pro-choice women. There were lots of men, lots of conservative people. How much support do you sense you still have in Poland to support... [interrupted]

MH: I would say around 70 percent of Polish citizens support the strikes.

CO: Do you think you can be successful?

MH: I honestly don't know, because this government showed us how many times? That they are willing and ready to do just about anything without any regard to the citizens of this country. I can't tell you that I think we are going to be successful. I honestly don't know.

CO: What do you think will happen if you stay in the streets? What do you think will happen tonight?

MH: Well, if it escalates then they're going to use gas, if not they're just going to keep us blocked here for a couple of hours without being able to walk off. So, it's going to be a long night.

CO: Marta I hope you're able to stay safe.

MH: Thank you for covering this.

CO: All right. Thank you for speaking with us. Take care.

MH: Thank you. Take care. Cheers

CH: Marta Habior, was participating in the protests tonight in Warsaw, Poland.

[Music: Upbeat pop]

Newfoundland politicians shaken up

CH: Politicians running in the provincial election in Newfoundland and Labrador this week might understandably be shaken up. After a high speed chase the RCMP arrested a man near Deer Lake they say was planning to execute local politicians. George Brake is now facing charges for uttering threats and weapons possession. The RCMP found 36 knives in his truck. Today, a judge ordered Mr. Brake to undergo a psychiatric assessment. Here's what Andrew Furey, the leader of the provincial Liberal Party whose seat is in the district, had to say to reporters after Mr. Brake's arrest.

ANDREW FUREY: My first thoughts were immediately gratitude to the officers, and I understand there was even some knowledge given to them by some civilians to help mitigate this issue and help stop it from becoming a more serious, detrimental threat and to have those officers put their lives on the line in unknown circumstances. I was truly grateful for that. And then my mind went immediately to my children, frankly, and I knew they were in St. John's and not close to Deer Lake. But I think as a father, as a parent, that's where you're when you're faced with the threat that the parental instincts kick in. And that's where your first, your first thoughts go. And then immediately after that, my thoughts went to the volunteers in the district who were working at my office, but not only my office, to the other people campaigning in the beautiful district of Humber-Gros Morne, and wanted to make sure that there was no threat to any of them. And I was worried that they had heard the news and that them and their families were equally frightened as I was. You know, when anyone steps up for public office, whether it's me or Krysta or anyone of any political stripe, they do so because they genuinely want to make this a better place to live. That's what this election is about. Whether you're NDP, progressive-conservative, independent, we all stepped up and put our name on a ballot because we want to make a difference and to have a threat like this, I'm not going to lie to you, it hits close to home. It makes you question, you know, if you're doing the right thing. I do believe that I am doing the right thing. I do believe that others are doing the right thing. But it is very troubling.

CH: That was Andrew Furey, Newfoundland and Labrador's Liberal Party leader, speaking to reporters via video conference.

[Music: Jazz music]

Miami Heat Sniffer Dogs

Guest: Scott Weese

CH: Starting today, the Miami Heat is admitting a limited number of fans into basketball games, but they're taking some heat over a key component of their plan. Team officials say they'll be deploying canine covid-19 detectors to screen fans while they await admission to the American Airlines arena. The idea is that spectators line up in socially distanced groups. And if the dogs walk past your party, great. But if they stop and take a seat, you get a refund and you'll probably want to take a covid test the next day. The team hopes this will get fans back in the stands safely, but critics are warning it's no slam dunk. Scott Weese is a professor with the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph who's currently researching covid detection by dogs. We reached him in Guelph, Ontario.

CO: Scott, what's your take on the Miami Heat's plan to have sniffer dogs screened their fans for covid?

SCOTT WEESE: Well, it's an interesting idea. It's certainly one that gets a lot of attention, how well it'll work? Well, that's the big question. We don't really know if the method they're using is very effective. And it's one of these things where, you know, if it can add on a little bit of value, that's great. But if you're doing it to say, OK, everyone's covid free, we don't have to worry about doing other things then it's probably detrimental.

CO: What is the research at this point? What's the science say about the ability for dogs to actually detect covid?

SW: Science doesn't tell us a lot right now. It's pretty preliminary. We know the dog's nose is a wonderful thing and they can pick up a lot of scents at really small levels. We just don't really know how that applies to covid. They don't pick up the virus, but they're picking up the body's response to it. And there's a little bit of work that's been done showing that dogs can pick up that odour of a person that's injected through different ways, such as a skin swab, wipes of the skin or wipes of sweat. Those things are taken right off a person and presented to the dog. What we don't know is A.how accurate there are if you're a healthy person that's, you know, not sick and a lot of virus in them and how good they are in particular, just walking by someone. So it's different if a dog is sniffing, you know, a swab that you're stuck under your armpit, then trying to pick it up as you're walking by, especially if you're walking hundreds of people by.

CO: And when you mention the swab under the armpit, the studies that have been done so far at airports in the UAE, Finland, Lebanon, they are doing exactly that. They have sweat samples that some say, that a group of scientists in France, for instance, with eight dogs that were trained to detect covid-19 and those samples, they said they could do so with 80 percent accuracy. But how controlled are those studies, do you think?

SW: Well, the studies tell us that dogs can pick it up in certain situations. They're picking up a swab of sweat or there's some other similar things, but they're not picking up just that person walking by. And they're also doing it in very controlled conditions. And the more you take them from the lab, you get in other smells and other distractions, making it harder for the dog to detect. So if they're good, 80 percent of the time in the best case situation with the best case samples, what does that mean when you get them out of those situations with poor samples trying to pick it up when you come by? And that's the big question. How effective are they really going to be in a real world, high volume situation?

CO: Also, you mentioned that the dogs are not actually smelling covid-19. They're not picking up the coronavirus, they're picking up the body's reaction to it. So if somebody is a carrier, if they have an asymptomatic infection, would the dogs be able to smell that?

SW: Well, that's one of the big challenges because we don't know what they're detecting, which makes it harder to train. We can't just say here's, you know, a bottle of eau-de-covid let's train the dogs and off you go and the other good point. So there is the asymptomatic infections. We're worried about the people that have, you know, maybe early infections and they still could be producing a lot of virus. But if they're healthy, is their body producing a lot of whatever the dog detects? And we don't know that. We know, again, from the experimental studies that, yes, they can detect asymptomatic carriers in some situations. But how does that kind of work in the real world? We just don't know because we don't understand what the dogs are doing.

CO: The way that the Miami Heat says it's going to use the dogs is that they would come down the row, people that are waiting in line, waiting to go into the arena for the game. And if the dog stops at somebody, then that person is immediately said, OK, our dog has detected covid in you, you and the people with you, the group that you're going, you're out of here, will pay you back, we’ll get you reimbursed for your tickets. But that's it. Can the dog really in the crowd like that going down the line detect, even if the dogs can figure out that there's covid here, can they find out who that person is?

SW: That's a good question. Like, dogs are very good if they've got something that they can detect and it's very specific, the dog could find that right person, potentially. It's just do we excrete enough of that? Are they going to pick it up from their level? And what I haven't seen with the Miami Heat's plan is any follow up testing we'd like to say is, OK, you pull the person aside and you don't let them come in. That's reasonable. That's being cautious. But you want to get them tested, because if you find out that 95 percent of the time when the dog signals on someone, they aren't infected. Then, you know, you've got a problem there. And the other thing is we don't know all the people that are positive that got by because, you know, they're not going to be perfect. And the big messaging is, I think, for me is you wanna try it, OK? You just can't rely on it to replace anything. It can be there to help as an add on. And we'd like to see if it works. But you can't use that as an excuse to say, let's cram more people in the building or let's not distance them or let's not do all these other things. It's not going to give you enough protection. That you can be lax with your other protocols.

CO: What will give you confidence? What good has to happen with this experiment of dogs sniffing out covid? Before you'd say, yeah, that's that's something that we can reliably use in an airport, people getting on a plane, people going into an arena.

SW: Yeah, well, we need real world type research. So what they would ideally do in a situation, you do it exactly in a basketball game so people would walk by the dog, the dog would say yes or no, and then you would go and you would get a swab and you wouldn't know that night. But, you know, after the testing gets started, going ok, there are this many people that came in with this virus, how many were picked up by the dogs and how many times did the dog signal on someone that didn't actually have the virus. That should tell them if it picks up 95 percent of them or if it misses all of them. That's really what we need to know if you're going to do it at that. Yes. No. Person level, It's a little bit different than if you want to use a dog for something else. Like we want to go into a long term care facility or a homeless shelter or a migrant worker housing unit, say, OK, there's something going on here. The dog sniffs around, says ok, there's covid here somewhere. Then the testing unit comes in to figure out what the problem is. There's maybe more potential there than at that individual. Yes, no. Level, because if you're getting on a plane, you want to make sure that whatever they've done to make sure the person next to you is free is very accurate and not convinced the dogs are going to be that really good. Yes, no individual person level tool.

CO: All right. We'll leave it there. Scott, this is really interesting. I appreciate you telling it to us. Thank you.

SW: No problem, have a good day.

CH: Scott Weiss is a veterinary professor at the University of Guelph who's researching dogs ability to detect covid-19. We reached him in Guelph, Ontario.

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Cloris Leachman Obit

CH: Those who knew her describe Cloris Leachman as equal parts, funny and fearless, two qualities that served her well over the course of her seven or so decades in show business. Her enormous talent ranged from cutting comedy to powerful drama, to delightful absurdity and beyond. Think of Phyllis on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Grandma Ida on Malcolm in the Middle, or her Oscar winning dramatic turn in The Last Picture Show. Not to mention this:

CLIP: [Clip from Young Frankenstein] Would the doctor care for a brandy before retiring? -- No, thank you. -- Some warm milk, perhaps? -- No, thank you very much. No, thanks.

CH: Cloris Leachman as Frau Blucher in the Mel Brooks film Young Frankenstein. The acclaimed actor died yesterday. She was 94 years old. A decade ago when she sat down for an interview about her life, in her memoir with the CBC's Brent Bambury. It became clear that the crackling energy that gave life to her performances was also fed by an irreverent commitment to defying convention and in the nicest way possible, just not giving a rat's rear end about doing what was expected of her. From May of 2010, here's part of that interview, starting with her response to a question about the source of the hutzpah that took her from sheltered beginnings to a really big life by way of an early talent for the piano.

CLORIS LEACHMAN: Well, this may not be the answer, but I am always seeing how things work. We live way out in the country, outside of Des Moines, Iowa.

BRENT BAMBURY: When you were a little girl?

CL: Growing up, and there wasn't anybody else out there. So I think, I watched. I was the oldest of three girls. I didn't know how to talk to a boy. I didn't know any boys. So I watched I remember in high school we'd double date and I kind of have my head turned around to see what they did in the back seat. [Laughter]

BB: But, there's something pushing you forward to get you out of Des Moines to help you learn the piano.

CL: I think my mother always never pushed me, never. But it was like inviting me. She brought this cardboard keyboard home, I tell about it in the book. Black and White Keys on cardboard and she'd sing what I would play with my right and then I'd play my left hand and she'd sing those notes, then I played with both and she'd sing the melody and I would sing the harmony. And that taught me how to harmonise. I've been harmonising ever since.

BB: But by the time you left Des Moines, you could play the piano, you could go over that piano behind me, right now.

CL: I'm going to go.

BB: Are you going to go? Play Rhapsody in Blue! Do the whole thing.

CL: Oh, it takes about 17 minutes.

BB: We got all kinds of time.

CL: I haven't played for a long time.

BB: Just just do whatever you feel like playing for us.

CL: This is pretty. [Playing Clair De Lune on the piano]

BB: Oh, that is beautiful. What is that?

CL: Clair De Lune.

BB: Clair De Lune. Bravo, fantastic, Cloris Leachman playing the piano live and completely, [laughter] [CL continues playing piano]. You have to come over and talk to me now.

CL: This is 'to a wild rose

BB: To a wild rose, it's beautiful. It's fantastic, Cloris Leachman, live on Q, come over and talk to me some more. I hate to take you away from the piano because clearly you adore it.

CH: Cloris Leachman speaking with and playing for Brent Bambury on CBC Radio's Q in 2010, Ms. Leachman died yesterday. She was 94 years old.

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B.C’s one year covid update

CH: It has been one year since B.C. Confirmed its first case of coronavirus. Dr. Bonnie Henry is B.C's Provincial health officer. This morning on the Early Edition, she reflected on the past year. She described the difficulty of striking a balance between the public's freedoms and necessary restrictions.

BONNIE HENRY: You know, if we don't do enough, the virus can take off. And that has impacts on the economy. It has impacts on our lives. If we do too much, you know, we're, we're affecting people's lives and the economy as well. So finding, just right, is probably not possible. And so we've erred on the side of doing a little bit too much, but trying not to go too far, because I believe that the biggest risk is if we have too much transmission of this virus. So we are trying very much to find a balance that gives us that flexibility to have some positive things in our lives and some of the important things that we need. There's so many essential workers that have to go to work. So how do we make sure that that's safe for them too. And making sure that we find that ability, all of us every day to take a deep breath, to do something that gives us just a moment to calm down, to have to have a bit of joy in our lives. That is also so important. And I've said from the very beginning, you know, go outside right now, especially. It's winter, the virus is transmitting very easily. We're in this sort of strange period I call it a period of challenge and hope. We have hope. We have vaccines. But it's slow and way slower than we want. We now all need to find that time every day where we can do a little bit of something for ourselves, for our family. We're in this long marathon and we know that we get most tired near the end. I've run marathons. I know how it feels. You get emotionally tired, physically tired, and we're at that point right now. So this is a very difficult time. And when I talk about doing more for many of us, the vast majority of us who are doing our best right now, it's about reaching out and supporting each other and supporting those we know who are bending the rules, or a few of those rules don't belong to them or don't apply to them. Reaching out and bringing them along too and for people who feel these rules don't belong to them, I'm talking to you too. It's never too late to rejoin our fight, our challenge here to get through this together in the next few weeks and months.

CH: That was BC's provincial health officer, Dr Bonnie Henry, speaking with the CBC's Stephen Quinn this morning to mark one year since the province's first confirmed case of coronavirus.

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Monday story correction

CH: Now, a correction to a story we aired this week, on Monday, we spoke with Maria Guesser of the NGO Compassion in World Farming. She told us that Germany is moving to end the practise of culling male chicks after they're born, which is done because they can't produce eggs. In our interview, Ms.Guesser told us that unwanted chicks are either shredded, alive or gassed. She said that shredding is,"what most of them do". But she's since contacted us to say she was incorrect. After more research, she says that most chicks in Germany are actually gassed and that according to the poultry industry, shredding is no longer a common practise. But no hard numbers are available about how often it is still done. We apologise for the error.

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Part 3: English Opera Training

English Opera Training

Guest: Jenny Mollica

CLIP: I want us to do our NG sound, so do that for me. Show me where it's going with your head. So I want, oh, oh, oh, oh.

CH: Those breathtaking sounds were actually breath fixing sounds. What you just heard was a trainer from the English National Opera doing a session with covid patients, a kind of zoom vocal lesson aimed at combining inspiration and respiration. The pandemic has silenced the stage at the Opera House, but instead of sitting idle, its staff are pitching in to help people recovering from covid to master their breath. Jenny Mollica is with the English National Opera. She developed the Breathe program and we reached her in London, England.

CO: Jenny, first of all, how difficult is it for these covid patients to breathe?

JENNY MOLLICA: Well, what we were finding in our conversations when we first started to design this program was that people who are suffering with long covid and with those long covid symptoms are particularly struggling with breathlessness, which normally comes from a kind of disordered breathing pattern. And often as well, if you haven't been somebody that's paid a lot of attention to your breathing normally, which many of us don't, it's quite hard for patients to know what getting back to normal breathing looks like. So a lot of people on the programme that we've worked with had quite high levels of anxiety about their breathing, which is obviously another big thing that's gone with long covid has been this, that breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety and the anxiety and breathlessness.

CO: So how does singing help someone to recover that to to learn or relearn how to breathe?

JM: Well, singing has long been proven to improve health and general well-being. You know, it releases endorphins. It tones our abdominal and intercostal muscles in the diaphragm and it stimulates circulation. But it also has been proven to help us breathe more deeply and specifically within the context of opera singers are trained in full diaphragmatic breathing. So they really are trying to make the most of what they've got when it comes to breath.

CO: And so this programme that the English National Opera has developed with these covid patients. What kinds of singing are they doing? What kind of songs are they singing?

JM: And so on the program, we've specifically chosen lullabies for participants on the program. And that's really important because the ENO Breathe program is a combination of working with body and mind. And obviously lullabies by their very nature are calming and soothing and actually within the context of opera, often in an opera, a lullaby happens at a moment where a character needs to soothe another character. The other thing about lullabies is that they cross cultural boundaries and they sit very well in a non-specialist singer's vocal range. So one of the things about the ENO Breathe program is that we describe it as a breathing and wellbeing program. So we do sing on it. But actually singing is the vehicle to helping people to get to their intended outcome, which is managing their breathlessness.

CO: And so, I mean, you could structure a program that's very technical and breathing techniques. But this idea that they would be singing songs that would have this emotional effect as well. That's really, there are more layers to this then just some kind of therapy, aren't there?

JM: Yes. The breathing exercises that we're doing, they all have very clear intentions to them in terms of what we want the patients to achieve physiologically. But actually, from the patient's perspective, they're immersed in these beautiful, soothing lullabies in an environment that feels calm and relaxing. And that's really, really important. And what we find is that often the learning is more memorable for them, because if you're in a moment of panic or anxiety, you don't normally remember a medical exercise very well, but you could remember a lullaby and sing it back to yourself. And that's what a lot of patients on the pilot program said to us, is that they could remember that moment in their lullaby and they could sing that to themselves and bring their breathing back down to a more stable pattern because they'd use the lullabies.

CO: That's so lovely. And so how did this collaboration with the medical profession, where did this begin?

JM: Well, back last June at the ENO, we were really wanting to explore how we could work across arts and health. And we started to have a lot of conversations with GPs and Medics about how the ENO could be useful at this time. And at the same time, back in June, that was really when the conversation around long covid was really emerging. So it was really being recognised as a significant issue and as we started to discuss those key symptoms of long covid around breathlessness, it really became clear to us that actually is that opera company we had potentially quite useful and relevant skills and expertise that we could bring. And at that moment, we were introduced to the respiratory team at Imperial College Health Care Trust, who supported us in the design of the program and really assessed its rigour with us. And actually prior to that, we'd had an existing relationship with Imperial because before, you know, Breathe, our brilliant costume department at the ENO had been making scrubs for their staff during the pandemic as well. So it's a really lovely evolution of that relationship with that hospital.

CO: That's so interesting. So, the English National Opera, they sort of stepped in. They wanted to play a role. Many people have described this battle with covid as being in a war. And it just seems that so many are stepping up to say, what can we do for the effort? And you have as well. So what kind of response have you had from the people who have come for this?

JM: Well, we've been really encouraged by the evaluation that we had from the pilot programme that took place in the autumn. So patients were assessed on a range of things, from wellbeing to breathlessness and anxiety scores. And what was really interesting is that by the end of the program, 90 percent of patients who took part in it said that they felt they'd had an improvement in how they were managing their breathlessness and improved breathlessness. And also 91 percent said that their anxiety levels had reduced. And the other thing that we were really encouraged to see was that 100 percent of the people who took part said that they would continue to use the exercises in their everyday life. And that's quite important for us, really, is the program, we meet once a week, for an hour, for six weeks at six, live online lessons over six weeks, and then a whole bank of digital resources that patients can access. But I think the more that patients are doing the exercises in their own time and singing the lullabies, the more that they can deepen their practise. And obviously breathing and being mindful of your breath and your posture and how you're breathing. The more you're doing that on a daily basis, the more you'll feel the benefits and results. So, We were really encouraged by how much the patients have taken it up and used it.

CO: Lessons we'd all like to learn. So, maybe you can expand this program beyond the long covid patients. Jenny, it's lovely to speak with you. Thanks so much.

JM: Thank you very much for having me on.

CO: Bye.

JM: Bye.

CH: That was Jenny Mollica with the English National Opera. She's developed a program in which opera instructors work on breathing techniques with covid patients. We reached her in London, England.

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Bell Canada’s bad connection

Guest: Michael Spratt

CH: Bell Canada's annual Bell Let's Talk Day has become a pretty reliable predictor of several things: viral celebrity videos, equally viral critiques about corporate social responsibility and of course, reminders to check in on friends and family. But for one group of Canadians, checking in remains hard to do, thanks to Bell, Canada. For years now, the company's contract with Ontario jails has been the target of inmates and lawyers alike. They say it's restrictive conditions and steep fees are unreasonable and damage the mental health of incarcerated people and their families. Michael Spratt is a criminal defence lawyer who spoke with us about this issue last year. He says despite a pandemic inspired experiment with calling cards, little has changed since then. Here's part of Mr Spratt's 2020 conversation with Carol.

MICHAEL SPRATT: When inmates are actually able to access a phone, they're the first thing they have to do is be able to call someone who can accept a collect call, because that's the only way you can make calls from jail, to someone, ultimately the inmate's family or the inmate themselves that can afford very high call rates. So you have to call someone on a landline. They have to be able to be there to accept the charges. And that person then can't forward you on to a cell phone or a three way call. So there's no way to even sort of get around the requirements that it has to be to a landline.

CO: Okay. So besides the inconvenience of all this, what does it actually cost that phone call?

MS: Well, this is the real rub. These phone prices are very expensive and their prices that no one else in actuality pays. We're talking at least a dollar, a call for local calls and up to 30 dollars for a 20 minute long distance call. And because inmates are often transferred away from their support or away from where they live, phone bills can reach thousands of dollars a month.

CO: So I guess the public might think, well, well, jeez, I mean, it's not a country club. I mean, it's the profit side, put that aside for a moment to say, well, they have to have control over where those phone calls are going and who they're going to? They don't want people directing criminal activity from from inside. So what's wrong with having that kind of control over who they call and when they call?

MS: Well, there's a few problems with that. The first is that mostly these calls are being made to treatment centres, to addiction counsellors, to mental health supports, to friends and family and to community supports like jobs and places for people to live when they get out of jail. And by cutting them off from those supports, we're setting them up for failure. And in the end, study after study has shown that when we cut people off like this, there's a higher likelihood that people who aren't treated and are cut off and are treated inhumanely are at a higher risk of reoffending. And no one, I think, in our communities want to see that.

CH: Michael Spratt is a criminal defence lawyer based in Ottawa. He spoke with Carol last January about Bell Canada's contract with Ontario jails. According to Mr. Spratt, that contract was renewed in June. In an updated statement today, a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of the Solicitor General told us,"Work continues on implementing a new modernised inmate telephone system that will permit inmates to call cell phones and international numbers at lower rates". For more on this story, visit our website at CBC.ca/AIH.

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Montreal curfew suspended for homeless

Guest: Mary Martin Goodleaf

CH: It's been a cold winter for Montreal's homeless population, but now there's hope for some warmth. This week, a Quebec Superior Court judge ruled that the nightly curfew would be suspended for people experiencing homelessness. Shelters have opened up for people needing a place to sleep at night, but there's still an urgent need and not enough beds. Advocates have been planning to open a warming tent in downtown Montreal's Cabot Square. No public money has been allocated for the project, just yet. But as the curfew was lifted, a local couple wanted to help. The owners of a hotel in Kahnawake have donated over 25,000 dollars alongside gas and generators to help make the tent reality. Here's Mary Martin Goodleaf, co-owner of the Host Hotel and one of the people behind this donation sharing the story with the CBC today.

MARY MARTIN GOODLEAF: I heard the story of Raphael Andre and it really, really hit home for us. And it was something that kept me up at night. It bothered me a lot. And for him to have passed away in such an undignified manner, it was just something that needed to be done, something that we were able to help with. And we reached out to [inaudible] and asked if there was anything that we could help with. And that was one of the things was a warming tent.

SEAN HENRY: I need to ask you, you're in the hospitality business, and that's an industry that was hit pretty hard because of the pandemic. Are you taking a big financial hit with this donation?

MARY MARTIN GOODLEAF: Yes, we are. We're taking a big financial hit. But, you know, money can always be made back.

SH: Right.

MARY MARTIN GOODLEAF: I think that this is at the forefront and is more important right now to raise awareness to. Just to acknowledge, acknowledge the crisis that's happening in Montreal right now with the homeless. We have about 50000 homeless people in Montreal. And I visited different areas of the world and have been L.A. I've seen their tent city. Our city can't turn into that, regardless. It's not OK. This is Montreal. I mean, we're big on community and we're big on taking care of each other. And it's just getting out of control now and it's a need.

CH: Mary Martin Goodleaf speaking with CBC host Sean Henry on DAYBREAK, Montreal. She and her husband donated over 25,000 dollars out of their own pockets for a warming tent. That tent will serve as Montreal's homeless population.

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Corky Lee Obit

Guest: Shirley Ng

CH: Corky Lee once said he thought taking his camera out of his bag was like drawing a sword in a fight, specifically, "to combat indifference, injustice and discrimination and try to get rid of stereotypes". His purpose is evident in his work, which spans decades. Mr. Lee was a New York born photographer who captured the lives of Asian-Americans. As his family said in a statement, Mr. Lee could always be found with his camera around his neck. Whether he was documenting a community event or a moment of social injustice, he became known as the unofficial Asian-American photography laureate. Corky Lee died this week of covid-19. He was 73 years old to talk about his legacy. We reached his friend, Shirley Ng.

SHIRLEY NG: Shirley, first of all, I'm sorry for the loss of your friend.

SN: Thank you.

CO: His photographs have had a tremendous effect on lots of people. What kind of reaction are you hearing from them?

SN: Everybody is shocked. They're grieving, they just have the reaction of like, oh, no, not Corky, because there's just no one else like him.

CO: Can you tell us a bit about his work? About the photography of the Asian-American community that he captured with his photographs.

SN: When I got to know him, you know, back then, his photographs were early on, was film, so a lot of a lot of black and white, obviously, and a lot of things that he captured was things that the mainstream media wouldn't capture. One of his first photographs he sold was of Asian-American man, a victim of police brutality. And no one believed that happened. He actually had that photograph. And that's kind of let him down this road of being a photojournalist and advocate. It's this lack of Asian-American representation that spurred him to document that, hey, this does happen to us or that we are this way or that we actually exist.

CO: And what are the other things that he captured? Because this is decades of photography, isn't it? He was as a young man, he was able to cover the reaction to the Vietnamese war. He was a reaction to the rights of workers in some of the industries where a lot of Asian-Americans worked. Tell us a bit about the kinds of moments and events that he was able to capture.

SN: Oh, currently there's a photograph that he took of Yuri Kochiyama, that is a Japanese American woman who was also an activist. And in the photo, she's part of a protest outside a Chinese restaurant about unfair wages. He documented that because it's showing activism in the community, this ethnic community and that Asian-Americans are interested in social change and that we do have a voice. Many times we are silenced because we're not represented in the news or they or they don't come and photograph our activism. So he's got it all. He will document that if someone challenged him, he said, well, listen, I have a photograph of that. And that was the kind of attitude he had.

CO: He was apparently of the influence to actually pursue photography after he saw a photo from 1869 of the transcontinental railroad, the completion and the workers. And there were no Asians amongst the workers in that photograph. And that stunned him because he knew that there were thousands who had built that railroad. Did he ever talk about that?

SN: Oh, yes, yes, yes. Seeing no Asian faces was just in his mind, all of our minds is that this was wrong! We were purposely omitted from history, omitted from our contributions of the foundation of America. He had this mission to recreate that photograph. And as you know, he had done that already to put Asian faces into that photo, not just Asian faces. He sought out to help the descendants of the railroad workers to be put in that photograph so their family and their legacy can be honoured.

CO: What do you think is the story that would not have been told about Asian-Americans had Corky not found a camera?

SN: Oh, you know, it's so hard to fathom, because Corky has been around for so long doing that. I would say if we didn't have him around there would be so much things that we would be struggling for like an organisation called Asian-American Legal Defence and Education Fund on their Twitter today posted up a photo of him advocating for Chinese language ballots in New York City. He not only used his voice and his camera, he actually, based on their photo they tweeted, he was actually giving a demonstration how this paper ballot was Chinese language and even some space with some Korean can be retrofitted into this paper ballot machine back in the day. So, he wouldn't just talk, the talk. He actually went more than that. He would actually go forward and well, I'm going to try to get this done.

CO: And he actually, he showed up at an anti-racism march that you organised last year during the pandemic. What did he tell you about why it was important to attend that event for him?

SN: This march was organised to go walk from Chinatown, [inaudible] Chinatown to West 4th in the village. And we had a good turnout. And because we're not like as example, I gave like the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, we're not going to be televised. You won't be covered from mainstream media. But it's these small events that doesn't get the coverage. But you're going to get the coverage from Corky Lee. I mean, we did have a local news station that did interview us about the march beforehand and at the end, but they were the only ones. It would have been great if we had like paparazzi, you know, just within all these mainstream media, can see that, wow, Asian-Americans are activists. They organised a march and they marched from here to there and they have a voice. But, you know, it's like this riddle. If a tree falls and no one hears it, did it happen? You know, it happened. And Corky captured his photograph because no one and no one would come or very few people would come to document it.

CO: How will you remember Corky Lee as your friend?

SN: Oh, passionate, activists, generous. Just [pause] like this walking historian full of information that you never think you needed to know, but once you knew of it, there wasn't any way that you could not forget it. And that's just the way he was. Any time he could educate you and not in a tell off way, he would. Even when he was in a hospital, I heard he was making friends of a Tunisian nurse saying how he was at the I don't know, we're at a Tunisian parade documenting them. I'm sure they had some very interesting conversations. Anywhere he goes, he's making friends and connecting in that way.

CO: Shirley. I really appreciate you telling us about your friend. Thank you.

SN: Thank you for wanting to cover his life.

CO: Take care.

SN: Bye

CH: That was community activist and journalist Shirley Ng speaking about her friend, Corky Lee, the photographer, died of covid this week. He was 73.

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Talkback chicken story

Guest: Leslie

CH: We asked and you delivered, after we egged you on our story about the out-of-control chickens on the island of Key West, Florida, had us turning to you in search of further chicken related weirdness. Last week, we told you how the city had banned bird loving residents from feeding the occasionally aggressive local birds. And that reminded one of our listeners about a poem she'd written describing her 10 roosters in affectionate detail. Now another story has come into talkback and ruffled our feathers, in a good way. Here's Leslie Tomblin remembering her chicken Scruff.

LESLIE: This is Leslie Tomblin, I live in New Westford, are our chicken Scruff. She actually just passed away this week, but she was quite the interesting chicken when she was young. We noticed that she was, her shape was different than the other chicken. She had like a hunchback and oftentimes her feathers didn't grow in on her shoulders. And she was a funny little thing. So we called her Scruff because she was really scruffy looking. One winter, she got a really poopy bum and I couldn't clean off her bum. And so I brought her in the house and I washed her butt in the sink and then I left her down there to dry out. So later on, I went down to check on her and I couldn't find her anywhere. And the ceiling tiles were out of our bathroom. So I called my partner Paul to come and help me look and we couldn't find her. And so Paul sat down on the toilet and then he had an epiphany. What if she's in the toilet? So he stood up, lifted up the lid and there was Scruff sitting in the toilet. She was soaking wet. So we had to take her out, dry her all off and let her dry. And the other thing about Scruff, she always gets to... She would get to come in the house and go around and we would feed her and she'd cluck and visit and have a great time and then leave. So it was sad to lose her this week. Anyways, that's my chicken story.

CH: Oh, well, here's to you, Scruff. And thanks to Leslie Tomblin for that call. You can always reach us on email AIH@CBC.ca Or you can leave a voicemail on TALKBACK by calling 416-205-5687.

January 28, 2021 Episode Transcript

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