Note: Transcripts may contain errors. If you wish to re-use all, or part of, a transcript, please contact CBC for permission. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print. Copyright © CBC 2016

The AIH Transcript for November 8, 2016

Hosts: Carol Off and Jeff Douglas

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

[Music: Theme]

CAROL OFF: Hello. I’m Carol Off.

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

CO: It's still standing but it's definitely a house divided, and on election day the Pennsylvania home of Priscilla Shotter is about as starkly split as it gets.

JD: Actually, he has the best words because Peter Sokolowski at Merriam-Webster and he's going to tell us how the words Americans looked up defined the 2016 presidential race.

CO: Making a mockery of, well, a mockery. To mark the end of one of the most absurd campaigns in history, our guests have planned an appropriately absurd party complete with Anthony Wiener look-alike in boxer shorts.

JD: Sandy Silver's résumé just got even more interesting. Mr. Silver has been a teacher, a gold miner, he's still an avid guitar player, and tonight he's going to tell us about his new gig: Premier of Yukon.

CO: If only they just spaced out for a minute. Instead, the makers of Toblerone have probably spaced the triangular chunks of chocolate further apart forever and by judging by the angry response, sweet tooths also have sharp tooths.

JD: And bed of snails. Against all odds our guest discovers an extremely rare snail with a left spiralling shell crawling in a garden. A potential mate for Jeremy. The extremely rare snail with a similarly backward shell. As It Happens, the Tuesday Edition. Sure some poet wrote a romantic ode to snail love. Oh yes: Shelley.

[Music: Theme]

Back To Top »

Pennsylvania Voter

Guests: Priscilla Shotter, Jonathan Shotter

JEFF DOUGLAS: One of the most divisive presidential elections in American history is coming to an end. Today, after a year and a half of intense campaigning by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, people across the U.S. make their final decisions. As the votes are being counted, people are paying special attention to swing states like Pennsylvania where the fate of the election and the country will be determined. Priscilla Shotter is a voter in the Rust Belt town of Ambridge, Pennsylvania. We reached her a little earlier today.

CAROL OFF: Priscilla, at what point did you decide who you were going to vote for today?

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: Well as of this morning, I went in and was still undecided, and I went in and kind of did a back and forth in my mind and went with Hillary.

CO: And how did you make that decision?

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: I like some of the things that Trump stands for. I like some of the things that Hillary stands for. I've been a Democrat since I started voting. And I like Hillary more than I like Trump.

CO: What would have made you vote for Trump?

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: Well, I like the idea of going over and redoing the Obamacare. That is a complete mess. That was my main thing also about immigrants coming into the country. I think we need some kind of process where we better screen these people. I mean I'm all for them coming in but I think we need to keep track on them. And he kind of agrees in that situation.

CO: And what is it that drew you to Hillary ultimately?

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: The free education. I mean I have three boys, one of them is in college. I like her ideas of the Second Amendment and everything.

CO: And Second Amendment being guns. She wants some form of gun control or screening. You have two, you said three sons. Two of them who can vote right today? Did they vote?

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: All of them can vote. Only two are registered to vote.

CO: And how did they vote?

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: They voted for Trump.

CO: And what did they say were their reasons for doing that?

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: Honestly I'm not really sure. They have their beliefs. They do not like Hillary. They side with Trump. So it's been a very crazy household for the last few months.

CO: What has it been like? What are some of the discussions you've had in your household?

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: Well I always tease them when I tell them that they drink the Kool-Aid too much. But they believe everything that Trump is saying about the immigration and everything else. But they go even further into it, where they believe the e-mail scandals with Hillary, and you know, how she's a bad person according to Trump. And I think a lot of people in our area especially are, you know, we've been voting Democrat for a while but — I think really this goes all over United States is people wanted change.

CO: Thing is, that the reason why it's so interesting to see how people are voting in Pennsylvania, especially in your area, is that this is the heart of Democratic Party territory. This is the white, blue-collar workers who feel left behind. Why do you think so many are deserting the Democrats?

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: Just for that one thing that I said: they needed change. You know, we have families here that are trying to survive. They don't want to move from this area. This area is home. It's always been home for us. My father was a steel-mill worker at J&L. And you know, those blue-collar men is what built our state basically. And that's the democratic way. It wasn't Republicans, it was a democratic way. You vote the way your parents voted. And you know my dad was very vocal about Democrats and everything and how they take care of the working man. You know, I'm trying to hold on to that. But then there's, I want to say, the younger generation that want something different. You know, if it means voting Trump in. I mean I respect my boys for what they do.

CO: Do they think that it's what Trump promises he will do or what he tells them about who they should fear, who they should blame? Because that's been a big part of this discussion, is that Mr. Trump has pointed to immigrants or to Muslims and to Mexicans and said 'that's why you're not working.' What is he actually offering your boys that make them think that they might have a better future?

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: I don't know. What is Donald Trump offering you about the immigrants and everything that are taking your jobs and everything? My 18-year-old just said he's given the Americans the voice that we never had.

CO: Do you want to put your son on and I'll talk to him?

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: Sure. Hold on. Just a second.

JONATHAN SHOTTER: Hello.

CO: Hi, this is Carol. Who is this?

JONATHAN SHOTTER: Jonathan.

CO: Jonathan, how did you vote?

JONATHAN SHOTTER: I voted for Don Trump.

CO: And why did you do that?

JONATHAN SHOTTER: Well I've been listening to my parents for like a long time now. And to me it was the same things that he's been talking about and same problems that have been going on the U.S. is what really he goes to. And he speaks how it is and he goes from the heart and does what's in the best interest for the U.S.

CO: When he says that he's going to build a wall and he's going to screen Muslims, does that make a difference for you?

JONATHAN SHOTTER: Well the wall I think is an amazing idea. I mean there's already a border there as it is. So the fact that we want to reinforce it to stop illegal immigration... I mean illegal immigration, that is what it is, being it's illegal. You can't just come over the border. So him talking about illegal immigration is a big problem in the U.S. and we need to address that. As for the Muslims, I mean I think he said it a little too rough at the time, but it is a problem that we were facing, you know, radical Islamic terrorism. It's not Christian terrorism it's Muslims. So I mean, obviously not allowing a whole religion to come into the U.S., that's kind of ridiculous. You can't do that. But we need to address the situation because for the longest time Hillary Clinton wouldn't even announce that it's radical Islamic terrorism. She couldn't say it.

CO: A lot of the things he has said have been very offensive to people, to Muslims, to Mexicans, to women. People like your mother. Does that bother you?

JONATHAN SHOTTER: It really depends. I mean, to the person who came up and see one of his speeches or whatever, the first time, it seemed kind of ridiculous the stuff that he was saying. But as for me, I've been listening to him for a long time now and everything that he actually says I fully understand it. If you comprehend what he's saying and think thoroughly through it, you get what he's saying.

CO: How do you think that your life will change if Donald Trump is the president?

JONATHAN SHOTTER: Well the number one thing for me is he talks highly of the police officers because I want to be a police officer when I get older. He speaks highly of the police officers. He always thanks police officers, every rally I've seen. He thanks police officers for what they do. Hillary Clinton, and usually the Democrats think this way, is that they don't... They obviously thank the police officers, but they think there needs a reformation, there's a bigger problem in the U.S. He addresses police officers directly and that's why, 100 percent I support him for that.

CO: What do you think? How will he make your life different?

JONATHAN SHOTTER: He will give me a chance. Me as an American voice that I don't think anybody has ever had before. He's not tied to you know lobbyists who give him money and force him to think a certain way. He thinks what's best for the country. He thinks what's best for the people in general. You know, Hillary Clinton's getting money from Goldman Sachs and Wal-mart. Billionaires who are making money and are donating to her campaign because they want her to think a certain way. And when she gets in the office, that's what she's going to do. She's going to help them out. She's not going to help us. I mean, I didn't donate to her campaign, so what does she care about me? So Donald Trump is giving a voice to the people. He's giving a voice to everybody - there's people that are voting that didn't even have a chance, didn't even have an interest in voting before. Now they do.

CO: Well Jonathan, I'm glad to speak with you. I wonder if I can speak with your mother again, please?

JONATHAN SHOTTER: Yes, Here she is. Thank you.

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: Hello?

CO: Thank you, Priscilla, for letting me speak with your son. Just a final question. As you made your decision, how offensive did you find some of the things Mr. Trump said about women?

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: Very. Very offensive. I look at it and I have a girlfriend of mine and we were saying, you know, everything that he was saying about women, we find it offensive. And I don't understand how some women can ignore that. To me, that's what I always said. He's not presidential material. If you look in history, none of our presidents would ever come out... I mean Obama didn't do anything or say anything that radical. Why does he have to be so radical and so hurtful towards women?

CO: Well Priscilla, I can imagine that dinnertime conversations are very interesting in your house.

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: They are. It's been going on for months now.

CO: Well if nothing else, it has stirred a debate for people like yourself and I appreciate speaking to both of you. Thank you.

PRISCILLA SHOTTER: Thank you.

CO: Bye bye.

JEFF DOUGLAS: That was Priscilla Shotter in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. We reached her earlier today after she cast her ballot for Hillary Clinton. We also heard from her 18-year-old son, Jonathan. He voted for Donald Trump.

Satirical Election Party

Guest: Sarah Fraser

JEFF DOUGLAS: Across the U.S. and around the world, people are planning to get through the election with the help of a drink. But the host of a podcast called Hey freeze decided sitting in their respective kitchens drinking everything on hand was not an appropriate way to mark the end of such an absurd campaign. So the Plan-B party more suited to the occasion a satirical celebration in a Washington D.C. comedy club. We reached organiser Sarah Fraser in Washington D.C.

CAROL OFF: Sarah, when did you come up with the idea for this particular kind of an election night party?

SARAH FRASER: Shortly after we had read about, in some online publication, that Donald Trump's hotel here in D.C. was going to have this insane election night hotel suite. And it was 6000 square feet and a 20 seating dining room table and a gym and a private entrance and two bedrooms and it was just so opulent and so over the top. And so when I saw this and the original price was $33,000 to rent this suite. And since they continued to drop it and drop it. But when I saw that I thought, oh my god. Our listeners, we have to raise the money and rent it, and just have this ridiculous party to kind of really celebrate how crazy this election has been, and have a petting zoo and a wall and immigrants and all the things that are American but that Donald Trump was preaching against. So that's how it started.

CO: And so how much money did you raise to rent this party room?

SARAH FRASER: We ended up raising fifteen hundred dollars. And so the campaign was not... it was very controversial because we had lots of our fans saying well look you know I don't really support Hillary either and I don't support Trump and we're upset about both candidates. Why don't you have a party kind of just, you know, sort of mocking them both. And I think if we'd made the switch earlier to do that, we probably would have raised more money. And you know, there was a lot of controversy. A lot of people didn't want their money to go to Trump, even if it was this party that was ridiculous.

CO: And so what are you going to have at this party?

SARAH FRASER: So the party's new location is a great little comedy club, a historic comedy club here he called the D.C. Improv. And we listened to our fans and we said, OK we're going to just celebrate how completely asinine this whole election has been. So Hillary Clinton's e-mail server is going to be there, and we actually set up the e-mail unsecure server hillary@gmail.com so people can e-mail us all night to that e-mail. And we're going to have people attending the party e-mailing from that. We have a wall, we have lots of friends that are immigrants, first generation, second generation. They're coming. We have an Anthony Weiner look-alike who's this model who's walking around in his boxer shorts with a baby doll, and a ridiculous Carlos Danger, you know, sign on. So we're just celebrating all things crazy about that.

CO: Now are there a lot of people who just can't get in this kind of party mood?

SARAH FRASER: Well you know, not for our party. The reaction has been really really great. We're expecting over a hundred people. And people have been excited to celebrate this way. I'd say, in general, people are nervous here in D.C. You know, I went to vote early this morning and you could just feel that in the air. But in D.C. there's no other party like what we're doing and I think people appreciate that. I think people want to be a part of something that really kind of, you know, calls out the elephant in the room that — in a lot of cases, you're voting for the candidate, or you're voting against the candidate, so people want to recognize that. So we've had a great outpouring.

CO: There are a lot of people saying online and elsewhere that they can't do a party, they're not going to have a party, they're not going to go to a party, they just want to stay in a room by themselves and watch it privately, maybe drink heavily, and just get through. Just somehow suffer through. That they, no matter who wins or who leads, it's all very depressing for everybody. You don't feel that way.

SARAH FRASER: I don't. I feel like, look I'm sure you feel this way about, and many people that live in Canada feel this way about Canada. You know, it's a great country. It will prevail. I feel the same way about the U.S. no matter who wins. We'll get through it. It's four years. The country will have great moments, it will have questionable moments, but I don't think this is the time for us to be depressed. I think, this is what's great about America. You know you have the ability to kind of celebrate this stuff and not be prosecuted for it. So why be alone? You know, come out and celebrate and recognize what it was, and then we'll all move on together.

CO: All right. Well have fun.

SARAH FRASER: Carol, thank you so much. We will.

CO: Thanks, Sarah. Bye bye.

SARAH FRASER: Take care. Bye.

JEFF DOUGLAS: We reached Sarah Fraser in Washington, D.C. where she will be partying tonight.

[Music: Theme]

Jeremy the Snail Update

Guests: Jade Melton

JEFF DOUGLAS: Regular listeners to this radio program might recall a heartbreaking story of loneliness that we covered several weeks ago. The story of a British snail named Jeremy who's extremely rare left-spiralling shell ruled out the possibility of mating with most other snails because of where it left Jeremy's meeting mechanism. As a scientist we spoke to at the time put it quote, "essentially their bits are in the wrong position." But now it is full steam ahead for those backwards bits. Jeremy the snail has found a love. Jade Melton played the role of matchmaker. She is an amateur snail scientist and we reached her home in Ipswich, England.

CAROL OFF: Jade how did you find this lefty snail?

JADE MELTON: I found him crawling up a tree in my partner's garden.

CO: Were you looking for one? Because there was a call-out from the University of Nottingham for a snail just like this one. Did you know about that?

JADE MELTON: I found Lefty before Jeremy was found. So I've had Lefty quite a long time.

CO: And did you know that Lefty is an unusual snail?

JADE MELTON: Yes, I knew straight away when I saw him.

CO: Just tell us how rare it is to have this snail that you've got?

JADE MELTON: Well according to Dr. Angus, he reckons one in a million. So that's pretty rare.

CO: And when did you learn that Professor Angus Davidson was looking for just such a snail?

JADE MELTON: I found out last week. A friend actually informed me, and I got into contact right away.

CO: And so you are you you're kind of an amateur snail scientist are you?

JADE MELTON: Yes.

CO: A malacologist, is that right?

JADE MELTON: Yes, malacologist is mollusc related.

CO: Why are you so fascinated with snails?

JADE MELTON: Ever since I was a child, I've just always had a lot of them. You know? I never wanted people to stand on them or anything. It's just something that's always been with me.

CO: We spoke with Professor Davidson when he was looking for this snail. Remind us why this is such an unusual creature?

JADE MELTON: Well in the garden snail, Cornu aspersum, is their Latin name. They usually have their coil spire on the right side of their bodies. And the thing is with Jeremey and Lefty, this is on the left side so everything including their shell and all their organs is on the wrong side basically.

JADE MELTON: So they are unable to mate with normal garden snails.

CO: They can only mate with a snail just like them?

JADE MELTON: Exactly.

CO: It has this spiral going the other way and the organs on the other side?

JADE MELTON: Yes, so I guess that's why they're so rare because there's not many of them.

CO: You said one in a million?

JADE MELTON: Yes.

CO: You put the call out to everyone in the world including here. We were looking for this snail ourselves. But you found it so now have they got together, is it — Has there been an encounter between your snail and Jeremy?

JADE MELTON: I'm currently looking off to both of them. They're in their own little tank, and they've not actually physically mated yet, but they had some flirting encounters last night, which was a positive sign.

CO: What are flirting encounters like with snails?

JADE MELTON: They crawl up to one another, and they just touch each other gently with their tentacles, their eyestalks and they will kind of like caress each other — for a while.

CO: Sounds very sweet?

JADE MELTON: Yeah it is very sweet, but with snails it's always a slow approach.

CO: And now how long does this foreplay go on?

JADE MELTON: It can be anything from say, a couple of hours, to an all night thing really.

CO: Good heavens! And where does where does it go? How does this — climax?

JADE MELTON: They use love-darts, which are calcified little bits of icicles that they fire into one another.

CO: At what distance do they fire these little darts?

JADE MELTON: Well they have to be right next to each other.

CO: And if it hits the mark, where is it? Because I know there's no male and female with snails. So what is exactly - what is the snail aiming for with the dart?

JADE MELTON: Their sexual organs are on the side of their head. And that's what they're aiming for. I've seen Lefty actually try to mate with a normal Garden snail, with its organs on the right side and he just continually tried to get into the position where he would try and make it happen. But the other snail wasn't having any of it. It is just impossible. It was quite sad really, because he obviously wanted to seal the deal.

CO: Is Lefty happier now that he's got this or he or she has his proper mate?

JADE MELTON: I think the snail is yes. I mean they're both eating normally, which is always a good sign with snails.

CO: Are you expecting to see some action soon?

JADE MELTON: Hopefully in the next couple of nights, as they both ate some food last night. So that means they’ll have some energy. So I hope you though use it.

CO: And then after they've actually mated, who actually has the babies?

JADE MELTON: Both of them will potentially have eggs. That's usually what happens in snails after they mate. Both of them will carry the egg.

CO: And is that it? They have no more connection with each other?

JADE MELTON: They're not monogamous, so to say. That is, they are not faithful to each other.

CO: What are the chances that any of those eggs will have snails who are also "Lefties?"

JADE MELTON: Well that's what we're waiting to find out. Because this has never been looked at before. So that's what we're waiting to find out from them.

CO: Well Jade, we'll check back with you and see what happens when the — when Jeremy and Lefty have their kids. Take care.

JADE MELTON: Thank you very much.

CO: Bye bye.

JADE MELTON: Bye.

JEFF DOUGLAS: Jade Melton is an amateur malacologist. That's a mollusc expert. How could I say malacologist, and not mollusc? She found a mate for Jeremey, the snail. We reached her at home in Ipswich.

[Music: Theme]

New Toblerone

JEFF DOUGLAS: If you were really that concerned about Toblerone customers, you would have consulted them. This must be up there with the dumbest corporate decisions of all time. I'm upset, Toblerone. I'm sorry, but I really am. Fools! Just four of the many, many tweets about the new Toblerone bar. And since no one ever overreacts on Twitter, these people are obviously heartbroken, and they will never recover. Because to keep costs down, the company that makes Toblerone, recently reduced the weight of the bars and to do that it put bigger spaces in between the trademark triangular chunks of chocolate. And this change reopens an age old question - Why does Toblerone even have trademark triangular chunks of chocolate? Well here's a clip from a company of video addressing that question.

SOUNDCLIP

We don't know why they chose the triangle. One story says that the shape was inspired by the Matterhorn, which is a very high mountain in the Alps, and a symbol of Switzerland.

JD: By the way, the word Toblerone is put to — No no no! We don't care! Go back — one story says it was “inspired by the Matterhorn?” What about the other stories? Because listen, people are all exercised about the spacing between the triangles, but what they're ignoring is that the triangles themselves are the problem. Yes they're delicious, but they hurt. The Matterhorn is majestic. But no one thinks, "I wish that would fit in my mouth." And no one ever walked into a place that sells food shouting, "give me your pointiest item!" What I'm suggesting is this, the people who are so upset about the new gaps - might really be upset about the old triangles. And if you disagree with me about the triangles, maybe you're just hiding the truth from yourself. That you agree with me about the triangles. Or maybe you think I'm missing the point. But the truth is, I would never miss the points - at all. Here's Stella Ella Ola with Pressure Points.

[Music: Pressure Points / Indie Rock]

JD: Stella Ella Ola with Pressure Points.

CO: All right, we have to take a short break now. But there are still lots to come on As It Happens.

JD: When we return. Famous past words. Yes, at long last the U.S. election campaign is over. And tonight an editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster Dictionary, helps us make sense of the past year and a half. By sharing the words that made the least sense to voters.

CAROL OFF: Two out of three is extraordinary. She may not have won the Booker, but last night Madeleine Thien was awarded her second major literary prize for her novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing.

JD: Oh I'm sorry.

CO: Yeah, Well I think we got it.

JD: That's it, I'm done talking.

Back To Top »

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Election

Guests: Peter Sokolowski

CAROL OFF: Hello again and welcome back. I’m Carol Off.

JEFF DOUGLAS: And I’m Jeff Douglas. This is As It Happens, the Tuesday edition. Part Two, coming up.

CO: Well he's certainly got experience. Sandy Silver has taught kids and mined gold, and he's a pretty good guitarist. But his latest job is a bit of a surprise. After a historic election, Mr. Silver is now the Premier of Yukon. He'll tell us what he has planned for the territory.

JD: And we're going to have an interview with a North Carolina lawyer keeping track of voter intimidation in her state. And a conversation with a Puerto Rican lawyer, who like everyone else in Puerto Rico, cannot cast a vote for president. Stay tuned.

JD: I think we can safely say that very few people would agree that things were looking up during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. But people were, because every so often, actually fairly often, someone would say something odd, inexplicable, or nonsensical, sending voters to the dictionary.

SOUNDCLIP

You could put. Half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.

He cares about the middle class. Give me a break. That's a bunch of malarkey.

I also have a much better temperament than she is.

And what is Aleppo?

You're kidding?

No.

JD: The folks at Merriam-Webster Dictionary have been keeping track of all word searches. Word uses, misuses by the candidates and their campaigns. Peter Sokolowski is the editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster. He has been making note of all election-related vocabulary. We reached Mr. Sokolowski in Springfield, Massachusetts.

CO: Peter, what are the election words that really stand out for you?

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: Well this year we have kind of two categories: words that have had spikes individual spikes from an injured individual utterance. Like for example when Bernie Sanders said “equivocate" when he was talking about minimum wage. Or when President Obama, talked about the word “populist” in describing Donald Trump's feelings and the word sacrifice when Mr. Kahn, the father of a soldier in the United States Army, who used that term during the Democratic convention.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: But really the big spikes seem to be "deplorable," which was used by of course Hillary Clinton, and "big league" or "bigly," take your pick from Donald Trump.

CO: OK. We have that clip and because it is controversial what he actually did say. Let's listen to what Mr. Trump is saying here…

SOUNDCLIP

I'm going to cut taxes "big league," and you get to raise taxes "big league."

CO: OK. So what people think he said is "bigly," but what is he actually saying do you think?

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: Well he's saying "big league." In fact, some linguists used a spectrometer to determine that in fact, he did sort of close his glottal stop and create a "g" at the end of that, so that was scientifically determined. But part of our problem with that term is that a "big league" in that way is usually used to describe a noun or as an adjective. A big league candidate for example.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: But he's clearly using it there as an adverb, and we as English speakers we tend to hear adverbs with that "ly" ending we really want to hear that "l-y" there. So there's I think a kind of gravitational pull toward "bigly.

CO: But there is a word "bigly," is there not?

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: Absolutely, we do enter it as what we call a run-on at the entry for "big."

CO: Now you mentioned "deplorable," but it was used as a plural "deplorables" by Hillary Clinton. Is that such a word?

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: Well as it happens, we don't enter deplorable as a noun. And I think that's one of the interesting things about her use. We enter it as an adjective. And you know, sure enough, people heard that and they probably heard. Like with "bigly." Something was off. Something was missing.

CO: Did people look up "braggadocios?"

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: They sure did.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: [I mean the fact is "braggadocios," isn't in the dictionary. It's an old form of "braggadocio," is a "braggadocio." And so again he, Donald Trump, used what you might call it an archaic form of that term.

CO: I understand that we're going to play another clip from... this is a story we did last night about the "Mazel Tov Cocktails," instead of "Molotov Cocktails." And I know you didn't get people looking that up on your site, so here is that clip.

SOUNDCLIP

You look at Jay-Z, and we talked about this that night, that he might be working on but one of his main videos starts off with a crowd throwing "Mazel Tov Cocktails" at the police.

CO: So we, of course, put out a call for who had a good recipe for a "Mazel Tov Cocktail."

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: I think there are some. I think it has been determined that there was a bar, or two, that in fact had one on the menu.

CO: OK, so that was you? You should have that at the Merriam Dictionary.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: Well, maybe in the future, we tend to, of course, we record the language as it's used. So we tend to have a little bit of a lag. In other words, we have to sort of encounter the word in the wild before we can put it in the dictionary.

CO: There is one word that it's just too sad to be funny and that is when we heard from Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, asking what "Aleppo" is? And what did you get at on your site about that?

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: Yeah there's a combining that's "l-e-p-o," and of course people didn't know you know sort of what they were looking up. So I mean there's "lepo," which has to do with like “lepocyte,” which is a rind or a husk something on the exterior.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: And we do enter that and people keyed "lepo" and that's what they got. And that just does show, yeah it does show, that people are educated by the candidate.

CO: I understand you had a 9000 percent surge of people looking up the word "demagogue."

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: Well, "demagogue" has been one of those words that started way back in the Republican primary. It was a term that was used by Republicans, who were competing with Donald Trump. And that's a word that has sort of risen all year long. It doesn't mean that the word has been uttered frequently, or that the word is always in the headlines, but the word has certainly been on people's minds.

CO: Also oddly enough "democracy.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: Exactly. We see we see that there are certain sort of cyclical words like "presumptive" or "entitlement" that we expect during a during a presidential election. But yeah, the word democracy the most basic words, for example, today we see the word "ballots" and the word "election." Are in the top 10 at this hour. I don't always assume that curiosity means ignorance. There's a lot of reasons to look up a word. You may want to know about its roots or of some very subtle element of its definition.

CO: When did you see a spike in people looking up the word "stamina?"

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: Well, "stamina" was obviously the third of their presidential debates that was in September. The words "temperament" and "stamina," both spiked. And these were words that were sort of, that were used by Donald Trump to describe his own strength. And Hillary Clinton's weakness, presumed physical weakness, of course, that was shortly after her her little fainting episode when she had pneumonia.

CO: And now "Bad Hombre" or "Hombre," that was during the debate Mr. Trump used that expression. What kind of activity did you get for "Hombre?"

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: Well again people have trouble spelling these words he said "Bad Hombre." The fact is, we do enter "Hombre" with an "H" as an English word simply meaning a man or a guy or a fellow. And it is a word that entered English, as you might expect, in the middle eighteen hundreds. At a time when there was a lot of exposure in the American Southwest to speakers of Spanish, but people searched on the word with an "o-m-b-r-e," which is the French word for "shadow," for example. which is entered, it's the name of a card game in English.

And also people searched on the word with a "U" "umber," which is, of course, the dark brown colour, and you might remember it as part of the crayon set.

CO: Well, it's excellent to see how many people actually want to know what's actually being said and what it means. And Peter it is great to talk to you, Thanks.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: Thank you so much.

CO: Bye bye.

JD: Peter Sokolowski, is a lexicographer and the editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster. We reached him earlier today in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Madeleine Thien on q

Guest: Madeleine Thien

JEFF DOUGLAS: The book is called Do Not Say We Have Nothing. And in terms of accolades, it has attracted pretty well everything. Last month it took home the Governor General's Literary Award, and made the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize. And last night in Toronto its author, Madeleine Thien, was awarded what is widely considered to be Canada's top literary honor, The Scotiabank Giller Prize. That distinction comes with the financial reward of one hundred thousand dollars. While this morning Ms. Thien sat down with Tom Power, host of CBC Radio's Q, and she described the overwhelming elation that has, of course, followed her win. But the conversation soon turned to the bond that has developed between herself, and her fellow nominees.

SOUNDCLIP

MADELEINE THIEN: And surprisingly we kind of bond almost instantly, so we were together in Halifax, and then Vancouver, and then Toronto. And of course, you know, we read each other's books. We have a lot of time together in green rooms. We drink a lot of champagne and water together, and you fall in love with each other. I think that's really true. I fell in love with some of my fellow nominees. And I mean one of the most beautiful things that has happened is that one of the nominees, Catherine Leroux, she's going to be the French translator of my book, which is beautiful.

TOM POWER: I'm going to take it back to last night, and you're sitting in that in that chair, that I'm sure wasn't incredibly comfortable. And then you name gets announced, and you have that that brief moment of shock, and then you stand up and you and you walk up. And you give this very moving acceptance speech. I'm just going to play a clip from it if you're unable to watch it last night

MADELEINE THIEN: I wish my mother was here. She arrived in Canada 42 years ago and passed away too young in 2002. She wanted me to be free in this world. To live with confidence to love and be loved. She taught me how to be kind and how to be brave.

TOM POWER: Madeleine, I understand your mother was in many ways the inspiration for you to write this story. Can you tell us that story?

MADELEINE THIEN: Yes she is. She passed away just after I had published my first book and she's sort of in all of the books in different ways in different forms. And I think the grief of losing her is in all the books in different ways. In this case, the novel starts off with a stranger coming to town in a way a young woman escaping from her life in China. And the mother takes her in. And she changes their lives. And my mother did give refuge to someone when I was a child, and I have always remembered it and how courageous my mother was, and she had very few resources, which she was an incredibly generous spirit.

TOM POWER: And yeah, Madeleine, your partner is a writer as well, who has been shortlisted for the Giller Prize twice. What did you guys talk about at the end of the night last night?

MADELEINE THIEN: He's so happy, and in fact in that moment, when they announced the book in my name I didn't totally comprehend you know? And I turned to look at him, and his face was just overflowing with joy. He was so happy and then I knew that I had won. I had to turn to see the expressions of other people, and you know we just woke up early this morning and watched the sunrise in Toronto, and it was beautiful.

JEFF DOUGLAS: That was author Madeleine Thien speaking with Tom Power on q on CBC Radio earlier today. Last night at a gala in Toronto, Ms. Thien took home the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing.

Police Death Inquiry

Guest: Mike Metatawabin

JEFF DOUGLAS: Lena Anderson killed herself in the back of a police truck on a Northern Ontario First Nation in 2013. The 23-year-old mother was being held there because the indigenous police force had no jail cell in which to detain her. It is just one example of severe deficiencies in the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service. The force receives funding from the provincial and federal governments, but it does not fall under the Ontario Police Services Act, which would guarantee a minimum level of police resources. A coroner's inquest into her death concludes this week, and the head of the police board Mike Metatawabin is among those who have delivered testimony. We reached Mr. Metatawabin in Thunder Bay.

CAROL OFF: Mr. Metatawabin, how did Lena Anderson come to die in the back of a police truck?

MIKE METATAWABIN: Sadly, there's something unexpected that happens so suddenly. The circumstances as to why she did it. We don't know, but she committed suicide in one of our vehicles.

CO: But why was she being held in that vehicle?

MIKE METATAWABIN: Because the facility that was offered, or the detachment, I should say. If you want to call it a detachment, was no longer deemed "safe" or "appropriate" for use as a detaining facility.

CO: And it was said you could escape through holes in the floor it was just decrepit. It was as you say, calling it a facility is kind of a stretch.

MIKE METATAWABIN: Yes. Yes. Even calling it the facility itself, yes.

CO: So are you saying that the back of this police vehicle was actually a holding cell?

MIKE METATAWABIN: It was kind of a last-minute policy implemented, where if you had to hold somebody. Right now the only place I was able to see in the back of the vehicle.

CO: How long had Lena Anderson been in the back of that vehicle before she took the drawstring out of her pants, and hanged herself?

MIKE METATAWABIN: There was a time lapse of 60 minutes in total, and she was left unobserved.

CO: And what state was she in at that time?

MIKE METATAWABIN: She was, in somewhat of a distraught state. Because she had been, she had awakened to the service being at her house and then also the possibility of the house and then from there things just escalated that brought her to a distraught state. That's how it all started.

CO: They had apprehended her only child. Is that right?

MIKE METATAWABIN: That's what I understand.

CO: And she had been drinking and then she was then in custody?

MIKE METATAWABIN: Yes.

CO: A lot of the police who work in that community are working very long hours. They're paid less than others. They have no facility because that what you've described is a decrepit building that it can't function and that they have to they have a very very wide territory that they are policing is that right?

MIKE METATAWABIN: Well the territory that they're covering is the size of France, and that's what's all of Northern Ontario going from the Manitoba border all the way across to the Hudson and James Bay borders, the coastline. And then down to the Highway 11, I guess.

CO: And so these officers had been working for 24 hours straight at the time when Lena Anderson killed herself, is that right?

MIKE METATAWABIN: Sometimes these officers are worked through the night, and quite often alone. So it's very unsafe for them especially to be working alone. It is very stressful for them.

CO: You are the head of the police board and you and the police services in Nishnawbe Aski. Have services like other parts of Ontario. Why is it so impossible to provide the services for your community that exist elsewhere in the province?

MIKE METATAWABIN: Well there's a few reasons. Number one, it's not just the police or the Nishnawbe nation. We don't have the funding. The funding is provided by both Canada and Ontario, and it's taken forever, I mean it's still ongoing.

MIKE METATAWABIN: We're still negotiating for adequate resources, and we're still nowhere near that.

CO: Your budget is about 27 million dollars annually?

MIKE METATAWABIN: Well just to give you an idea, over the course of the summer, I found out that the estimated cost for the Ontario Provincial Police if they were to cover the territory on an annual basis they estimate between seventy to eighty million dollars.

CO: So almost three times as much, two and a half times what you're actually getting in money to do your patrolling?

MIKE METATAWABIN: That's right.

CO: What would it have taken? I mean it's impossible to know what would have happened if Lena Anderson had been held properly. But what could have made a difference what could have what would you have needed to at least give a chance for Lena Anderson to have not killed himself that day?

MIKE METATAWABIN: Well, she would have been transported directly to the facility and then all held in a proper holding cell with all the systems in place and monitoring systems in place. Had we had adequate resourcing like everything that the regular or municipal police force would have.

CO: And do you think that it's possible that that anyone in southern Ontario will learn that you need to have better resources if you're going to police properly in the north?

MIKE METATAWABIN: Well you know, I'm asking that same question. Are people actually getting it? Are people actually learning anything? How many more people need to die or how many more inquests do we need to go through? We've gone through at least three or four inquests. And with all that the recommendations are pretty much similar.

MIKE METATAWABIN: You're dealing with a region that's remote. You're dealing at a population that saw, survived the assimilation and residential school policies that were implemented. Well, we're dealing with the issues, everybody's coming to grips with. A lot have moved on, but we still have a lot that are still dealing with the issue.

CO: Mr. Metatawabin, I appreciate speaking with you, thank you.

MIKE METATAWABIN: Thank you very much.

CO: Mike Metatawabin is the chair of Nishnawbe Aski Police Service Board. We reached him in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Rubik’s Record

JEFF DOUGLAS: At the World Cube Association event in Indonesia, this past Sunday. It all came down to the Dutch competitor Mats Valk. Mr. Valk had done the exercises; he had limbered up his fingers. He had solved Rubik's Cube and all manner of disarray, and now he would show the world here's what it sounded like.

[Sound: competition recording / sound of Rubik’s Cube being solved/]

JD: You can hear Mr. Valk. He has remarkable wrist control. He also has the eye of the tiger.

And in between his wrist and…. Was that it? Was that it? That was the whole thing? How long was that? Four point seven seconds? He solved a Rubik's cube in four point seven seconds. Do we have a longer version of that because this segment was supposed to last 60 seconds? We do. OK. OK. That was a long one.

JD: OK. Once again the sound of Mats Valk solving a Rubik's cube in four point seven four seconds and setting a new world record. And then some people clapping because he set the new world record. Anyone want to hear that in slomo? No? OK. You are listening to As It Happens on CBC Radio, Sirius XM, and for our voting friends in the States, Public Radio International. You can download the CBC Radio app to listen to great content when you're on the go.

Back To Top »

Yukon Liberal

Guest: Sandy Silver

JEFF DOUGLAS: It may not be the election most of us are talking about today. But for northern Canadians, It is a big one. Last night the Liberal Party swept to victory in Yukon, pushing out the Yukon Party, which has governed there for the last 14 years. And the man who now finds himself Premier is anything but a career politician. Sandy Silver was a teacher in Whitehorse, and a gold miner in the Klondike, and he plays in a band in Dawson City. Until last night he was the only Liberal MP in Yukon's legislature. We reached Sandy silver in Dawson City, Yukon.

CAROL OFF: Mr. Silver, did you ever expect to go from the Liberal's only MLA to being the Premier in one night?

SANDY SILVER: I don't know if that's the right word, no. But we still remember election night five years ago and one of the guys that won this time was a good friend of mine from back in Nova Scotia. We grew up there together and we looked at each other at the time and we saw the devastating result five years ago and we both knew that that was a lot of work to be done, but we had an opportunity to to change the Yukon Liberal Party and we worked really hard at it.

CO: Well the Yukon Party, which has been running the territory for 14 years, placed very badly in fact that leader, Darrell Pasloski, came in third in his own riding.

SANDY SILVER: Yeah 14 years is a long time in politics for sure. You know we didn't run a campaign against the Yukon Party, but we did run a campaign for change and I think that really resonated with people we had such a strong slate of candidates. And we ran a positive campaign. And you know the thing in the Yukon is, people pay attention, and people come out to vote. We have a very very high turnout and, you know, as much as the politicians want to make spin. The Yukon is at the door, they want to see the platform.

CO: What did you promise that got you elected?

SANDY SILVER: We didn't make grandiose promises and that's what got us elected. And you know, we all heard the same thing, that is don't move forward on the economy without the environment considerations. The First Nations governments must be at the table when you are discussing our economy. We in Yukon have 11 of the 22 First Nations that have signed self-governing agreements. And when it comes to governance, these individual First Nations communities, they put their traditional territory out for everybody. As long as they are at the table. We wanted to move forward with that spirit and intent from those that do.

CO: Were the indigenous people in the Yukon feeling that they had been left out over the past 14 years? Is that what you heard?

SANDY SILVER: Well you're asking me, and I'm absolutely biased, but yes, I would say that was definitely the case. And if you take a look at the candidates that did run for us. I would say that would be the proof that that was true. This was a milestone moment. We've had a few of them. Ran for us a couple of chiefs. They left their government and ran on a territorial basis. And I really believe that this was a milestone moment in Yukon political history. You're seeing the volunteers behind the scene the folks that are you know in our think tank you know these individuals are tired of of banging heads I guess with territorial government and antiquated way of looking at the resource industry tourism industry you name it. And they've decided instead of banging those heads against the wall then they were going to infiltrate that that government.

CO: But you've also said that you want to grow the economy and the way you want to do that is through mining and resource development. So, do you have indigenous people on the side for those plans?

SANDY SILVER: Absolutely. You know the Yukon economy is relent a lot on the resource extraction industry. But we've had a government that had an antiquated way of doing that. I went down to a meeting of mining executives a couple of months ago and I went in there swinging, essentially saying look you know, there has to be partnerships. First Nation's governments have the right to be at the table. They are the resource rulers, and I went on a huge rampage and at the end of it the said, "are you done?" We know this. This is, you know, this is the way the business is done we just need certainty. And talking with First Nations chiefs and leadership this is how we're going to do it in the Yukon and it's on our terms.

CO: OK. Now Yukon Party leader and old Premier, Darrell Pasloski, he said that he thought that the Yukon should have been an exception to the Federal Government's carbon tax. You've just been on the phone, I understand with Prime Minister Trudeau. Did you talk about that carbon tax?

SANDY SILVER: We absolutely did. We reiterated the fact that you know every jurisdiction in Canada is unique and we live in the north. We are the north, and no special circumstances would be... it would be hard to find a place where you wouldn't want to look at an exemption. So if you take a look at the Vancouver Protocol that all of the premiers signed onto when they said, "yes we will work on carbon pricing mechanism," the north was considered. When talking about the north, you need to make sure that the rules that you do put in place don't negatively effect where there is no alternative.

CO: So did you ask the Prime Minister for an exemption for the Yukon on the carbon tax?

SANDY SILVER: No, I agree with that Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Chamber of Mines and international community, that carbon pricing is the most effective method for reducing our emissions and to moving to that low carbon economy.

CO: Now I understand aside from politics, you play guitar and you're in one of the Dawson City house bands. Are you going to keep moonlighting?

SANDY SILVER: Well I'm going to see how busy the schedule gets, but maybe being the Premier, I'll be able to step up. As far as who I am allowed to play with.

CO: What bands are you playing with?

SANDY SILVER: There was a legendary band here in Dawson City called the Pointer Brothers and I got a chance to play drums with them actually for two years, every weekend. And did a recording with another band called the Undertaking Daddies and the lead singer of the Undertaking Daddies is outgoing going NDP candidate, Kevin Barr. So yep, the Yukon is a small place and we got to get along.

CO: And you all rock at night?

SANDY SILVER: Absolutely.

CO: All right, Premier-Elect Silver, it's good to talk to you. Thank you.

SANDY SILVER: Thank you very much. Come on up and see our Yukon.

CO: You bet. OK. Bye bye.

SANDY SILVER: Bye bye.

JEFF DOUGLAS: Sandy Silver is Yukon's Premier-Elect, and we reached him in Dawson City.

From the Archives: Lazarette the Chicken

Guests: Jackie Calhoun, Becky Calhoun, Marian Morris

JD: Like blowing air into a drowning fish. It might sound like a rhetorical statement designed to point out the utility of an exercise, but it turns out that our gill-bearing friends do sometimes require mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. And if done in a timely and effective manner, it can prevent them from going the way of all fish, so to speak. In fact, the technique was used on a grand scale just last week by the staff of Colchester Castle Park in Colchester, England. Dozens of prized koi carp were being housed in a temporary holding tank, while their pond underwent maintenance. staff arrived in the morning to discover that vandals had broken into the area and slashed the tank. So staff wasted no time in performing mouth-to-mouth on as many of the dying fish as they could and managed to save several of the larger ones. Now this story reminded us of many other incredible stories of animal resuscitation. That have been covered on this program, like this one. Back in 2006, As It Happens guest host, Dianne Buckner, spoke with Jackie Calhoun; his wife, Becky; and his sister; Marian Morris, a nurse. They shared how they were able to bring Jackie's pet chicken, Boo Boo, back to life using mouth-to-beak resuscitation. Here's some of their conversation from our archives.

SOUNDCLIP

JACKIE CALHOUN: Well I came in for lunch and I heard some commotion in the chicken yard. And you know, when there's commotion in the chicken yard, you've got to go check it out. I found Boo Boo floating in the pond, face down. I went over there and I picked that chicken up. And I said in the name of Jesus, you're going to live and you're not go die. I start squeezing it. I gave us a chicken Heimlich, I guess, you know? To see if I could get some life back into it. Couldn't get much response. So I just wrapped it up in a towel and gave back to Becky. I said, "you got to speak to the Lord about this chicken. “Because I got to go to work. But after I left home, going back to work I thought, "I could've given that chicken mouth-to-beak resuscitation, but I couldn't because I had to go to work.”

JACKIE CALHOUN: Then along comes Sis a few minutes later. Sis, tell her what happened.

MARIAN MORRIS: I just stopped to check on Becky, and there was a dead chicken there. And I am a retired nurse and I just decided on a whim to see if I remembered how to do CPR. And so I opened its little beak and I blew in it's mouth and it's popped open. So I started chest compressions, and I'd blow in its mouth and his eyes would pop open. And I did that for a while. I told Becky that she needed to get it warm. It was wet. I had to go, so I left it. I knew it. I knew it was alive. But I didn't know if it would keep on living.

DIANNE BUCKNER: What did you think when the eyes popped open like that?

MARIAN MORRIS: I cracked up laughing.

DIANNE BUCKNER: Laughing?

MARIAN MORRIS: Well, it was funny.

DIANNE BUCKNER: What happened next?

MARIAN MORRIS: I laughed and then Jackie came back later.

JACKIE CALHOUN: Yeah, about mid-afternoon, I came back and that chicken was still alive. And Becky told me, she said, "you won't believe what your sister did!" I said, "well if she can do it, I can too." So I took that chicken out front in the sunshine. And then for 15 minutes, I gave it chicken mouth-to-mouth. I'd blow into it and then let it go down and blow into it and it would make a sort of a gurgling sound. I'd blow into it, and well, I had to get back to work. That evening when I came out of the chicken was still damp and everything, so we dried it out with the hairdryer and put it into ICU. You know ICU is a cardboard box in the office that we laid the chicken in. It had life in it.

DIANNE BUCKNER: How could you tell? How could you tell at this point?

JACKIE CALHOUN: How could we tell that still had life in it, Becky?

BECKY CALHOUN: It was holding its head up and his eyes were open and it couldn't stand up. It would kind of flop from side to side. So we knew it was reviving, it was a lot better than it had been earlier. And so it wasn't until the next day he took it out on the front porch and put it in the sunshine. And I was sitting out there on the front porch. And I was reading about Lazarus being raised from the dead and about that time, that things squawked and jumped out of the box. I called my husband and said, "you will not believe it. This chicken has just been revived!"

DIANNE BUCKNER: And so Jackie came running at that point?

BECKY CALHOUN: I called him and I told him that Lazarus, we named her Lazarette now. Started standing up and walking around. It wasn't real steady yet, but by the next day it was straightened out and walking real good.

JEFF DOUGLAS: From February of 2006. That was Jackie Calhoun; his wife, Becky at the end there; and his sister, Marian Morris. Speaking with As It Happens guest host, Dianne Buckner, from their home just west of Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

Election: Puerto Rico

Guest: Andres Lopez

JEFF DOUGLAS: Imagine you live in a U.S. state with a population of 3.5 million people. Then imagine that no one in your state has the right to vote for president, no one. Now imagine you're in Puerto Rico, where they don't have to imagine that scenario. Puerto Rico of course is not a state. It is a territory and although Puerto Ricans are American citizens, they cannot cast a ballot for U.S. president, congress, or state senate for that matter. Andres Lopez is a lawyer in San Juan, Puerto Rico. That's where we reached him.

CAROL OFF: Andres, how does it feel to not be able to vote today for the president of the United States?

ANDRES LOPEZ: Well you know, I would have to be honest. I wish that we could. The vote is really what makes every American equal, and to not have the right to vote on a day like today. Really makes me want to fight very hard for the right to do so. Because every American ought to be able to vote for their president, for their representatives. And it's something that we take very seriously and we hope to change very soon.

CO: Do you pay taxes?

ANDRES LOPEZ: We actually do. We pay a number of federal taxes. Of course as you know, the nation was founded on the concept of no taxation without representation. I think that there's going to be a bigger wave for Puerto Rico to be fully put on an equal plane with the rest of the state.

CO: Well so you pay taxes, you are citizens… Why can't you vote for the president?

ANDRES LOPEZ: Look, so Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States back at the tail end of the 19th century, and back then really wasn't in vogue to hold territories for indefinite period or in perpetuity. In fact, it's the history of the United States that every territory eventually graduates to full statehood and in Puerto Rico's case it's really something that doesn't make sense. And the idea is that to hold a group of over three and a half million American citizens here in Puerto Rico without the right to vote for their elected leaders, who make laws that affect our everyday lives is really not consistent with the values and the ideals that founded this country.

CO: So I mean you are able to vote in primaries right?

ANDRES LOPEZ: Correct, and that's one of the incongruities. You know President Obama and Hillary Clinton they all travelled to the island during primary time and then of course during the general election they are justifiably nowhere to be seen because Puerto Rico doesn't have a vote come November time. And again that's something that is really misaligned.

CO: Not only do you pay federal taxes, but the number of Puerto Ricans have been in the military have fought in wars. And how do the vets the veterans in Puerto Rico feel about this?

ANDRES LOPEZ: Well you know you're absolutely right. And in fact, the number of Puerto Ricans who serve in the military and war veterans is disproportionate to just about every other state. So you can imagine it's a little bit of a double whammy to be able to serve your country to defend the freedom that everybody else enjoys. And at the end of the day, if you live in Puerto Rico you can't cast your ballot for your commander in chief. So it really is something that adds insult to injury.

ANDRES LOPEZ: And when you think about the impetus for change and why things have to change. The veterans are the first group of folks that you really think about. To them I think this is where the greater injustice is committed.

CAROL OFF: Your grandfather is Puerto Rican and he also he fought in World War II. Is that right?

ANDRES LOPEZ: He sure did, and you know it's really what moves me to fight for greater recalling for Puerto Rico because he actually felt the inequality of Puerto Rico's current situation in a very visceral and a very personal way. And you know, now I think of every story that he told me and every sacrifice that he made I feel special duty to make sure that I honour his memory by really getting Puerto Rico to that finish line that he so much wanted to see.

CAROL OFF: How long how long have you been trying to right this wrong? How long have Puerto Ricans been trying to get into being able to vote for the president?

ANDRES LOPEZ: Right, so look next year we will be 100 years old — Next March we will be 100 years as American citizens. The formal push for statehood has existed in some measure or another for a number of years. It wasn't until 2012 that a first vote, people took to the ballot and voted in favour of statehood it was manifest. So I think that today with the election of a pro-statehood governor you're going to see many many headlines about a greater push towards equality. So it has existed in a number of fashions throughout the past few decades. And I think it's taking a greater hold with each with each successive generation that really asks itself the question, "why isn't it that we have full equality? Why is it that we have we moved to Florida. We are full-fledged citizens. But if we fly back to Puerto Rico we are not?" It just doesn't make any sense. So we hope that it's a common sense solution that is in keeping with the best traditions of America.

CAROL OFF: All right we'll leave it there, Andres. Thank you.

ANDRES LOPEZ: Thank you very much.

JEFF DOUGLAS: Andres Lopez is a lawyer in San Juan, Puerto Rico. That's where we reached him.

Voter Intimidation

Guest: Alesha Brown

JEFF DOUGLAS: Casting a ballot is supposed to be an easy undertaking. But for many voters in North Carolina today, it was a headache. At some polling stations the wait took more than an hour. One county saw all its voting computers go down with a technical glitch and that is not counting all the issues that North Carolina voters saw in the weeks leading up to election day. Alesha Brown, has been attempting to track all of that from the long line-ups to reports of voter intimidation. Ms. Brown is a voting rights lawyer with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. And for weeks now she has been fielding calls from voters through an election protection hotline. And today the phone was ringing off the hook. We reached Alesha Brown in Durham, North Carolina earlier today.

CAROL OFF: Ms. Brown, I know you've been fielding calls all day from voters in North Carolina. What kinds of fires are you trying to put out?

ALESHA BROWN: Well we have a number of issues that are coming in from voters across the state. Voters are being turned away from polling locations that aren't their particular precinct, and they're being sent away as opposed to being offered a provisional ballot.

CO: Is that a departure from what you would what they would normally encounter?

ALESHA BROWN: Sure, well under North Carolina law you are allowed to vote out of precinct. It just has to be in your particular county. So in the instances where voters are in their county, but they're being denied at a precinct outside of their precinct that's improper. A lot of people are saying, "you know what I've been voting here for 10 years or for X amount of years and now they're telling me this is no longer my polling location."

CO: Are you finding that this is in counties where there is a predominance of African-Americans?

ALESHA BROWN: A majority of the voters who are calling what these issues are African-American.

CO: I understand that they computers at polling stations in one North Carolina County, in Durham County, are actually down. Is that the case?

ALESHA BROWN: That is correct. And so we actually just received good news from the Durham County Board of Elections who said that they will ask the State Board of Elections to allow them to leave their polling locations open for an additional hour and a half today because of those electronic issues that the check in process.

CO: There have been controversies about the vote in North Carolina for some months now we know that in September it was reported the executive director of the state Republican Party, e-mailed county election boards urging them to restrict access to early voting in order to benefit the Republican candidates. Are you seeing an effect of that?

ALESHA BROWN: There were a number of cutbacks in both hours as well as the number of locations of early voting sites that were open for instance in Mecklenburg County. There was a significant decrease in their early voting polling location which led to a lot of voters call us during the early voting period and expressed frustration with the limited number of polling sites. The same thing in Guilford County. In Guilford County there was only one site that was open and that was the Guilford County Board of Elections. A number of people you know when they hear, "OK guys early voting has started." You know, they assume that they can go to any early voting site to cast an early absentee ballot. But that wasn't the case and because the number of this I think Guilford County didn't open until the following Thursday.

CO: There's about half a million people in Guilford County and one polling station?

ALESHA BROWN: That's correct.

CO: And how troubling are these issues for you?

ALESHA BROWN: It's always troubling when access to the ballot has been denied or restricted in any sort of way. We have to call a spade a spade, and there are they are restrictions if you're looking at it in terms of comparison to the last presidential election.

CO: And the advanced polls some are saying that in Henderson County in North and North Carolina that African-American neighbourhoods noticed that people were yelling at them, threatening them, and they were worried about going out to the polls or what effect that would have. Another election worker in Lee County was seen to be carrying a baseball bat with Trump on it near a polling station. Did you hear anything like this?

ALESHA BROWN: There have been a number of reports of voter intimidation throughout the state, and we've been monitoring those issues. Everything from, you know, folks wearing paraphernalia typically associated with hate groups. There are some instances of racial slurs you know folks parking out in the parking lot with Confederate flags or you know things that can be seen as viewed as intimidating.

CO: Have you seen this level of controversy of difficulty for voters before?

ALESHA BROWN: I think there has been an increase the, if not actual voter intimidation, the perception of voter intimidation. Right. So people being afraid because you know, they hear the stories about you know, the Republican letter that you reference earlier and they hear stories from their friends about racial slurs and they hear stories about you know maybe the Klan you know being present at a polling site and so there is a lot you know a lot more fear in a heightened perception of intimidation. This isn't really the 1960s. Right. So you know even if you know people are intimidated or they hear the horror stories.

ALESHA BROWN: The message I'm receiving primarily is this is kind of scary that I have to go to the polls to do this. But no one's going to deter me from voting. And if something happened to me to protect myself, to do whatever I need to do to protect myself.

CO: But there are a lot of African-American voters who did vote in the 1960s or tried to who must have memories of this disease. Is this bringing a lot of that back for them?

ALESHA BROWN: Absolutely. Absolutely and I can't speak for the for the accurate order African-Americans in my family and others who are you know family friends who you know had said this is just a stark reminder of what happened back in the '60s. I even have you know some older folks in my family who had said you know be the Carolina law that was passed in. A shocking reminder of Jim Crow laws, right? Where they would implement various policies such as the grandfather. You know which said that if your grandfather couldn't vote you couldn't vote which was obviously a restriction on African-Americans because most of their grandparents were slaves and they didn't have a right to vote.

CO: Just to clarify you're offering to this in 2013. Republicans in the state passed sweeping law that would cut all kinds of access to voting. It was overturned by the federal court which said that it was it it would target African-American voters with almost surgical precision.

ALESHA BROWN: That's correct.

CO: We'll leave it there, Ms. Brown, thank you.

ALESHA BROWN: Thank you.

JEFF DOUGLAS: Alesha Brown is a voting rights lawyer with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. We reached her earlier today in Durham, North Carolina.

David Bowie Emoji

JEFF DOUGLAS: What do an avocado, bacon, and David Bowie all have in common? Now obviously several things, but the answer I'm looking for is that they're all part of a new batch of emojis coming with the next Apple update. The new set of icons feature different professions in both male and female versions. Teachers, judges, farmers, mechanics. All will soon be available and in five different skin tones. And if none of those convey the exact feeling you want to text, you will be relieved to know that there is also a clown, a gorilla, and a modified version of the peach emoji, which looks less like a butt. But as for Bowie, developers obviously had a lot of looks to choose from. They went with his face on the cover of his 1973 album, Aladdin Sane. So the emojis, male and female, will feature that signature thunderbolt across the cheek. And now from Aladdin Sane, David Bowie with Drive-In Saturday.

[Music: Drive-In Saturday / Pop]

JD: From his 1973 album Aladdin Sane, David Bowie, with Drive-in Saturday. And that is it for As It Happens for this Tuesday, November 8th. Coming up later CBC Radio's live. U.S. election special.

CAROL OFF: As It Happens will be back again tomorrow with lots of, you guessed it, post-election coverage. I'm Carol. Good night.

[Music: Ending Theme]

Back To Top »

Provide Transcript Feedback

CBC would like to acknowledge the support of the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund.

The AIH Transcript for November 8, 2016

More Stories Like This