The Current for Nov. 19, 2020
Today on The Current:
Proposed changes to Canada's medical assistance in dying law have been described as an existential threat to dignity by some disability advocates, who argue their communities need greater assistance in living instead. Matt Galloway speaks to Catherine Frazee, professor emeritus at Ryerson University's School of Disability Studies, and Senator Chantal Petitclerc, who is sponsoring Bill C-7 in the Senate.
Then, on Wednesday Jessica J. Lee won the $60,000 Writers' Trust Hilary Weston Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, for her memoir Two Trees Make A Forest: In Search of My Family's Past Among Taiwan's Mountains and Coasts. She joins us to discuss the connection between family, nature and her ancestral homeland of Taiwan.
Plus, in February we spoke to Shawn Bath, a diver who has single-handedly hauled mountains of trash out of the sea off Cupids, N.L. Bath had just received the donation of a boat to help his work, from the family of late Port de Grave fisherman Lindsay Petten. That boat was refurbished and launched this week. Shawn tells us how it went.
Also, we talk to Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman about efforts to secure COVID-19 vaccine doses for some of the world's poorest countries.
And have you watched the Netflix show The Queen's Gambit? Chess master Dorsa Derakhshani knows all too well what it feels like to be the only girl in chess tournaments. She tells us more.