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The AIH Transcript for December 20, 2016

Hosts: Carol Off and Jeff Douglas

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

CAROL OFF: Hello, I'm Carol Off.

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

[Music: Theme]

JD: Tonight:

CO: Alive and kicking. Three months ago, Kati Mather was a hard-core fentanyl addict who had overdosed 17 times. Now she's been clean for 60 days. Tonight, she'll tell us how she turned her life around.

JD: The shots seen 'round the world. Our guest was there to photograph the art opening at the gallery in Turkey yesterday – and even after the gunman started firing, Burhan Ozbilici kept taking photographs.

CO: Sweating the small stuffed. Yesterday, we told you about the teddy bear left in a gas station parking lot – and tonight, we'll find out who left it there, and why it contains human ashes.

JD: When presents are less important than presence of mind. In tonight's story by the late, great Alistair MacLeod, one family's Christmas in Cape Breton is full of epiphanies – not all of them merry.

CO: We can't frank you enough. In our frank assessment, you'll hear no franker half-hour of radio than tonight's trip into the As It Happens archives – on the theme of people being, or people being named, Frank.

JD: And...the east of his problems. An Icelandic meteorologist keeps blocking half the country while he's giving his forecasts – and the people he's standing in front of will no longer stand for his stance.
As It Happens, the Tuesday edition. Radio that wishes they hadn't gone behind his back.

[Music]

Back To Top »

Part 1: Fentanyl addict, Turkey photographer, Iceland weather man

Fentanyl addict

JD: If you’d seen the interview, you'd remember it. It's a hard one to forget. Back in September, a 22-year-old woman named Kati Mather spoke to CBC reporter Eric Rankin at a drug hang-out in Surrey, British Columbia. She was sitting on a pile of garbage bags. She had blood on her face. And she told him about her addiction to fentanyl.

SOUNDCLIP

KATI MATHER: I have a really addictive personality. I’ve always been like addicted to something, whether it was shopping or Facebook or whatever. And I remember the day that fentanyl came out, and my dealer said, you know I’ve got these new pills. They’re fake oxys. He didn’t tell me they were fentanyl, because nobody knew what fentanyl was yet. He just said, they’re a hundred times stronger and they’re only five dollars more. And I was just liked OK, because I was getting a pretty high tolerance at this point. Every time I do dope I know I'm taking a risk I might die but… It doesn't matter how many times I’ve OD’d. I still use the next day because the withdrawals are so bad.

JD: That was Kati Mather speaking to CBC in September. Life is much different now for Ms. Mather. She is in a long-term treatment program and she's been clean for sixty days. We reached Kati Mather in New Westminster, British Columbia.

CO: Kati, when you hear your own voice from just three months ago, when you were deep in your addiction, how do you feel about that? How do you react?

KATI MATHER: Honestly like it's pretty crazy, like the change in even just what I'm saying and what I'm thinking now as opposed to then, like I just can't believe like at that point I didn't even think that there was a way out. And now I'm honestly like so happy that I don't have to live like that anymore.

CO: You're saying in that clip, you're saying that you knew you were taking a risk that you might die. You're 22 years old and so you knew in that situation that the next time you did the drugs it could kill you.

KM: Yeah I did. And I didn't care. I was so depressed and I was so… I just I didn't care I actually wanted to die. Like I didn't know that there was a way out. I just thought that this was going to be my life forever.

CO: How old were you when you started using drugs?

KM: When I started using drugs I was 14 years old.

CO: And how did you start? How did you begin that addiction?

KM: I started just drinking alcohol smoking marijuana and over time it was… it was a party scene. I was just… thought I was having a good time. And then, I don't know like it just progressed over time, like I was in an abusive relationship when I was 15 years old. And after that I just started drinking a lot to get out of my feelings and eventually drinking turned to harder drugs.

CO: At what point did you realize that you had a problem?

KM: I mean looking back now, I know now I had a problem ever since alcohol touched my lips the first time. But at the time when I was in addiction, it took years for me to actually, like my parents are telling me, I had people that I worked for, employers telling me I needed to get help. And I was just like no I'm fine I can do it on my own, I can stop whatever I want. And the first time I ever tried going and getting clean I was about 18 years old.

CO: And how hard is it to get clean? I mean because we know that fentanyl is the most dangerous, one of the most dangerous drugs they've ever seen on the street. And we're hearing from the B.C. coroner said yesterday that all these overdose deaths, reaching an all-time high, is people who can't get off the drug. How difficult is it to stop taking fentanyl?

KM: Cold turkey it's pretty impossible. Like that's one thing that's really good about the drug replacement programs right? Because it can help you wean off of it for a couple of weeks and then once you just taper off of that and then you're good. Right? Because going through the withdrawals is actually really terrible. So you know you can't die from the withdrawals, so it is possible that like if you really really really wanted to stop, and you were willing to go through those withdrawals – they last from anywhere up to like a week to two weeks sometimes. And honestly like getting clean is pretty easy right? Getting clean is not the hard part. The hard part is learning to stay clean and live clean.

CO: What was it like when you did stop taking drugs?

KM: For the first couple weeks it was pretty crazy. I mean I was… I was just like all over the place with my feelings and my emotions. And the longer you get days back to back not using, the more you start to… your life becomes a little bit more clear and you start to realize that like… what reality is right? And like when you're in addiction, you're really stuck in like the insanity of things and the cycle of just getting your next fix because that's the only thing you can see in front of you. But like 60 days in, of doing this program, I've lost the desire to use.

CO: And how did the program work? How was the program able to get you to 60 days?

KM: Well you know the main thing about it, it's support. The clients here, like it's a community. And the New West community alone is amazing for recovery. The people that I that I live with on a day to day basis, the women in this facility, we care about each other. Like if somebody wants to use, we talk about it until we don't want to use anymore. Having that support around you 24/7, counselors here all the time, like you have no… really have no excuse to go back to using.

CO: We've heard that from other people that the only way you can get off these drugs is to get into a good treatment program. How difficult was it for you to get into that program in New Westminster?

KM: Well I tried… before I had my first interview with Eric, I had been trying to get into Westminster house for over two years as a full blown addict in active addiction. I was having a really hard time because you have to call every single day. I just kept relapsing. And so when I was relapsing, it was hard to call every single day. I just kind of gave up right? And I was lucky, because after my interview with Eric, I had an opportunity that not a lot of people get, to come to treatment right away.

CO: And when you say Eric you're talking about Eric Rankin. He's a reporter for CBC Television. He’s the person who found you, he found you on the street sitting in a pile of garbage bags, and all your possessions, and blood all over your face. That was about three months ago. When you see yourself as that person? When you see yourself in that story, do you recognize yourself?

KM: No. That wasn't me. At that point in my time, I wouldn't even look at myself in the mirror. I hated who I’d become. Today I can look at myself in the mirror and actually say that I like who I am and I like who I'm becoming.

CO: And your sister Jessi is with you as well and she’s recovering from her addiction problems as well, is that right?

KM: Yes.

CO: How is she doing?

KM: She's doing really well. You know my sister has a four year old nephew. Sorry son, my nephew. He is the most beautiful, amazing child in the world. And you know, she has him back in her in her life today. That was a huge motivation for her to get clean. We were on the strip together, we'd been going through our addiction together. You know, she was a huge inspiration for me to want to get clean because she pretty much made the decision to come to treatment for both of us. And if it wasn't for her, like I don't even know if I'd be here right now.

CO: And when you say that, I mean we're looking at this year alone, 700 deaths from fentanyl alone, just in British Columbia. And you and your sister, how close do you think you both came?

KM: You know, just a week before I came to treatment, I’d overdosed twice in one day, and then the next day I overdosed again. So I overdosed three times in the span of two days. I've overdosed 17 times and there's been times where I've overdosed and I've woken up, and I was so mad and I was so upset that I woke up, because I just wished that would been the time that I could have just not woken up and all of that pain and misery, that life I was living would just be gone and I'd be in a better place. Like that’s honestly what I was thinking. And to look back and think about that, it makes me really sad because I had no idea that my life could get good.

CO: And your life is good now.

KM: My life is good now. I mean it's not obviously exactly where I want it to be. I'm in treatment. But I don't have to depend on a drug anymore to cope with my feelings. I don't have to depend on a drug and wake up every morning sick to my stomach. It was to the point where I would use even when I didn't want to use because I was so powerless over my addiction.

CO: What do you see in your future? How do you imagine yourself let’s say, after you finish this treatment?

KM: I honestly, I just want to help people. I just believe that if I can get help, anybody can. I'm not a special case. There's a million people out there that are addicts and there's people out there that are younger than me. You know, in the same situation that I was in, living on the street in a tent. And there, you know, addiction doesn't discriminate. There’s people out there that still have all those material items, everything that they want. They're powerless over there. And you know, there's people out there that don't even know that they're addicts yet. I just want addicts out there to know that there's a better way of life.

CO: Kati, I wish you every success.

KM: Thank you.

CO: And I hope you are able to inspire others and to help them do as you've done.

KM: Thank you so much. I hope so too.

JD: We reached Kati Mather at a treatment centre in New Westminster, British Columbia, where she is undergoing treatment for a fentanyl addiction. You can find her story on our website that is cbc.ca/aih.
And you can watch Eric Rankin's latest report on Kati and her sister Jessi on The National in the coming days on CBC Television and the CBC News Network.

[Music]

Turkey photographer

Guest: Burhan Ozbilici

JD: When the people attending an art exhibit in Ankara heard the gunshots, they immediately ran for cover. But Burhan Ozbilici stood his ground.
The Associated Press photographer held up his camera, and trained his focus on the gunman. The incredible photographs seen around the world, show an off-duty police officer with his gun raised – and the lifeless body of the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov lying below him. We reached Burhan Ozbilici in Ankara.

CO: Burhan, have you had time to think about yesterday and all the things that you saw and photographed?

BURHAN OZBILICI: Yes I remember more or less everything. It was bad. So it was shocking. I got very sad to see a man who was looking very nice, calm, natural, a very important. He was a good looking man. Just the first impression I got from the Russian ambassador, so to show him [unintelligible] killed in your eyes is terrible.

CO: And you were taking pictures. He was giving this speech in this in this lovely art gallery. There are all these photographs on the wall. At what point did you know that there was someone shooting?

BO: I was standing behind three or four rows of people, just wanted to see the photo exhibition, when they said the Russian ambassador will address. I say, well the guy is important. So I will take his picture.

And suddenly I heard the shot, and the people stand in between us, they disappeared, they fell on the ground, and they were screaming, they were crying, they were trying to hide themselves behind walls, tables.

CO: You say that other people in the gallery began to hide and to go in the corner to protect themselves. You have photographs. You took pictures of them like that. Were you afraid?

BO: Well at the beginning, I was afraid. Shocked. But after he fired either six seven shots, he started to make a politically motivated speech. So he did not fire on the people. So I went to left, behind the wall I saw the pictures of the people also, as we say in French, coincé in the corner.

CO: They were crouching in the corner, yes. But you continued to take pictures of the man giving his speech, of everything.

BO: Yes I was more or less sure he would not shoot at the people. So that’s what [unintelligible], I have to do my work. That's my responsibility as a journalist. So I have to make photo. But every second I was trying to understand, translate his movement in my mind, his reaction. He was addressing people, asking people to go away, to leave. But the people didn't, they were immobilised.

CO: They were too scared to move. They were frozen.

BO: Correct. And he got angry, he pointed at people that he might shoot. But he was not pointed to my direction. So it was a little bit a securing. Then he went a little bit behind around the body and behind the table. He took some photographs, thrown on the ground, on the floor.

CO: The photo you have of the ambassador, he's lying on the ground. His glasses are tossed in the corner. The gunman is still standing there giving his speech. And there are details in your photo that are very moving. The picture of… the bottom of the man's feet. You can see where his shoes are worn. You were there in this moment of a man's death. It was really quite shocking… it's shocking for us to see the photo. Did you feel how shocking it was when you were there?

BO: Well, I thought I had no choice, because if I run, he can find after me. If he point to me, I scared. So we are journalists. We… I faced several dangerous moments of time. So my choice was taking pictures, even if he fire on me, at least I would have some thoughts photos. So I shouldn't stay silent without making my work.

CO: You, afterwards, when you could look at your photographs and see the pictures you had taken. There are some really shocking things in those photos. You have a picture of the man standing behind the ambassador while he's giving a speech.

BO: Yes. But I did not pay any attention to other people. I was just concentrated on ambassador himself. So when I go back to office, my photo, I saw the man standing behind on the left of the photos. I was again shocked.

CO: He looks like a bodyguard standing behind the… which he was.

BO: Bodyguard or any official in normal times. I did not realize the gunmen.

CO: And so it’s a very ordinary photo. It's not very exciting a picture of this man, and yet you were taking a picture of his last moments of life.

BO: Unfortunately, yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately it was his last photos. Last minutes. Just one minute, one and a half minutes later, he has been killed.

CO: Burhan, I appreciate speaking with you. I know you have to let this all sink in but I thank you for talking to us today.

BO: You're welcome. I hope no one has the experience and no one been killed. That was a bad experience. It felt sad so sad for this innocent man and for my country, for humanity. It shouldn't be that easy to kill someone.

CO: Burhan, thank you.

BO: You're welcome. You're welcome.

JD: Burhan Ozbilici is a photographer for the Associated Press in Ankara. And that is where we reached him.

[Music]

Iceland weather man

Guest: Sigi Jonsson

JD: People in the eastern part of Iceland are feeling overshadowed and they're blaming it all on TV weatherman, Sigi Jonsson, who is personally overshadowing them. Dozens have joined a Facebook group upset that on his nightly broadcasts, Mr. Jonsson tends to block east Iceland when he stands in front of the weather map like a whole half of the country. Is this a cruel demonstration of misery of Mr. Jonsson’s bias against East Iceland? We needed to know. We called him in Reykjavik to find out.

CO: Sigi, the whole world wants to know. Where are you going to stand during your weather forecast tonight?

SIGI JONSSON: Regrettably I have to… I have to say that I'm going to stand by the east eoast not by the west coast as I did yesterday.

CO: Why have you decided to move?

SJ: Well actually… I didn't mean to… You mean to the west coast?

CO: Yes, to the west coast.

SJ: Well, because there were some people on the east side that aren’t so happy with us. Sometimes we go over the eastern part of the country and they can't see the temperature numbers and the wind. They are getting pissed at us, the weather forecast, for doing that.

CO: And why were you doing that? Why did you… standing in front of East Iceland and not letting people see their part of the country?

SJ: Yeah well we usually, we just stay over the sea so we don't usually do that, but it happens and it happens sometimes, but not often. And there were just people who was setting up a Facebook group which they called “Please don't stand over the east part of Iceland.” And well, people I think people just found this pretty funny and they were also saying we want left-handed weather forecasters for Christmas.

CO: So why a left-handed weather forecaster?

SJ: Yeah because if you're left-handed then you will stay over to the west coast instead of the east coast. So I just decided yesterday to give them that Christmas present and stood over by the West Coast and used my left hand.

CO: But now you've decided you're going east again.

SJ: Well, I was told to do so.

CO: Woah, who told you to do so?

SJ: It was the producer head at the TV station that didn't want so sudden changes.

CO: Oh I see. So the very dramatic change to stand in the west and not in the east.

SJ: Yeah that was pretty big change.

CO: It was too much for people to take.

SJ: Yeah, too much, yeah.

CO: Now, do people in east Iceland, do they feel that somehow they don't get respect.

SJ: No, no I don't think so. I think this was just a small group that was just having some kind of fun. All this things got bigger and bigger and bigger you know.

CO: They said their Facebook group is very polite. It said “stop standing in front of East Iceland, dear weather forecaster.” So they called you dear. That’s very polite, very nice. They’re not hostile.

SJ: Yeah, very nice.

CO: Why can't you just get a stick or something and point to things? Why do you have to stand on one part of the country or the other?

SJ: Well I don't know. Once upon a time, we had to stick. And I’m actually that old. It was… I used to use a stick. That was about 20 years ago. But then with modernates, they thought it was not cool enough I think.

CO: But a stick would be the answer to your problems. Then you wouldn't have to stand in front of part of the country.

SJ: Yeah that's right. And using a stick it's a little bit respectable I think.

CO: I'm all for the stick myself.

SJ: Yeah [sound: laughs] that's good.

CO: I think it's cool. I think it's cool to have that I think –

SJ: Yeah I think it's nice to go back to the old days sometimes. And maybe use things like the stick like we used to do.

CO: People try to Photoshop you out of the forecast, did you know that?

SJ: Yeah I saw that picture. That was pretty funny. I mean we were joking about that, that we should maybe wear green shoots one day ourselves, so that we wouldn't stand in the way.

CO: Well because if you wear a green suit against the background, they won't see.

SJ: Yeah we have green background. And so if you have a green suit, then you won't be seen and you would be invisible. Green pants and hat.

CO: That's what they did to you. They photoshopped you out and just left your head and hands.

SJ: Yeah. That was pretty funny I think.

CO: Is was funny. It didn't offend you.

SJ: No no no no no way.

CO: So what is the weather in Iceland today?

SJ: Well actually it is getting cold now. It has been very warm and people have been worrying that we would get red Christmas. But it seems to be that we will get white Christmas all over the country and I think everybody's happy about that.

CO: What’s ‘red Christmas?’

SJ: That's when you have no snow.

CO: Oh you call it red Christmas?

SJ: We call it red Christmas. Don't ask me why. But that’s what do we do. I don't know why.

CO: We call it a green Christmas because everything’s green.

SJ: You call it green, yeah.

CO: Why Red?

SJ: Yeah I don't know. I haven't actually thought about it.

CO: But you're going to have a white Christmas?

SJ: Yeah we're going to have a white Christmas and we're happy about that.

CO: All right, well happy Christmas to you.

SJ: Yeah Happy Christmas to you too.

CO: Bye Sigi!

SJ: Bye bye.

JD: Sigi Jonsson is a weather forecaster for the Icelandic public broadcaster RUV. We reached him in Reykjavik.

Artichoke

JD: And back here in Canada, we have learned from Global TV in Calgary that it can be hazardous to hold a potluck on live television. In a video that's rapidly spreading around the Internet, traffic reporter Leslie Horton invited her colleagues to sample her home-made artichoke dip. It did not go well.

SOUNDCLIP

LESLIE HORTON: So this is artichoke dip. OK so you think that's OK. Right? Is that too much for you, Gerard?

GERARD PICARD: That's a lot.

SCOTT FEE: Why me? I can't do this.

LESLIE HORTON: How does it smell Scott?

AMBER SCHINKEL: It’s like vinegar or something.

SCOTT FEE: I thought it smelled like a barn.

GERARD PICARD: Is it edible?

SCOTT FEE: At first I was like, well it’s not that bad, but the vinegar.

LESLIE HORTON: No, there's no vinegar in there. So here's what’s in there.

AMBER SCHINKEL: What? That's like all that I can taste is vinegar.

[Sound: laughing, gagging sound]

GERARD PICARD: Oh my god.

SCOTT: I can’t finish it.

LH: OK, Scott.

SCOTT FEE: I'm not trying to be rude here.

LESLIE HORTON: It's OK. I agree with you. I totally agree with you.It's artichoke dip but something went terribly wrong.

SCOTT FEE: Why are you doing that?

JD: That was the sound of Global TV Calgary hosts choking on traffic reporter Leslie Horton's artichoke dip.

Back To Top »

Part 2: Reading: "To Everything There Is a Season"

CO: Hello again, and welcome back. I'm Carol Off.

JD: And I'm Jeff Douglas. This is "As It Happens", the Tuesday edition -- Part Two.

[Music: Theme]

JD: Coming up:

CO: We don't know everything that goes into a hot dog. But we know at least one person who did – and she drove it around. You'll hear an interview with a woman who won the job of driving the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile – on "The Frank Episode" of "As It Happened."

JD: In case you missed the "ed" on the end of "Happened": it's the first in a series of trips into the As it Happens archives. And along with that frankfurter-related story, we're going to have past stories about Frank Lloyd Wright, and the art of being frank – lower-case F. Stay tuned.

[Music]

Teddy bear update

JD: You could call it soft news. At least, in the literal sense.
Last night, we told you about a teddy bear, found in a gas station parking lot in Richer, Manitoba. And security footage showed that the teddy bear had tumbled out of a truck during a gas stop.
Staff found human ashes inside the bear. And they went looking for the stuffed animal's owner. Now, after a week-and-a-half, that owner has been found. Tracey Snow talked to CBC Manitoba reporter Kelly Malone.

SOUNDCLIP

TRACEY MALONE: My aunt has actually called me up and asked me if I still had Mom and Dad. And I said, I think so. And she says check you know, I just was online, she said, and I was tagged in a post on Facebook. And your mom and dad is in Manitoba. I’m like oh my god, no. So I got the number from her and called the gas station and sure enough they were there.
My mom and dad they both passed away within a year of one another. And that was just one of them things that I could go to when I was feeling down and upset and just hold and it just gave me a lot of comfort.
We started off in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and we made it to Ontario. And we ended up getting into a car accident, writing off our vehicle. At that point we had to get a rental vehicle and we headed out to Edmonton Alberta. It was a pretty straight go except for the couple of days away with the accident, being in the hospital, and my mom was right there…my mom and dad was right there with me the whole time, until you know, they fell out. My aunt said one of them didn't want to come up come to Alberta so they just dropped out.
It was truly a miracle that they were found and that they can go back home where they belong and be with family. And I just want to thank everybody. From the bottom of my heart

JD: Tracey Snow talked to CBC Manitoba after being reunited with a teddy bear containing the ashes of her parents.

[Music]

Reading: "To Everything There Is A Season"

JD: How do all those letters make it to the North Pole? Does this fax number for Santa's Workshop still work? How do Santa and his reindeer circle the globe in one night flat? How does he not get sick from all the milk and cookies?
Christmas is full of mystery. But at some point, the holiday becomes less about the guy in the red suit, and the gifts and more about reflection on the mystery of the Christmas spirit. And that can be a hard transition, as one boy discovers in Alistair MacLeod's "To Every Thing There is a Season" – the first of our holiday readings on As It Happens this year. Here is Les Carlson, reading the classic tale of one family's Christmas in Cape Breton.

SOUNDCLIP

LES CARLSON: I am speaking here of a time when I was eleven and lived with my family on our small farm on the west coast of Cape Breton. My family had been there for a long, long time and so it seemed had I. And much of that time seems like the proverbial yesterday. Yet when I speak on this Christmas 1977, 1 am not sure how much I speak with the voice of that time or how much in the voice of what I have since become. And I am not sure how many liberties I may be taking with the boy I think I was. For Christmas is a time of both past and present and often the two are imperfectly blended. As we step into its nowness we often look behind.
We have been waiting now, it seems, forever. Actually, it has been most intense since Halloween when the first snow fell upon us as we moved like muffled mummers upon darkened country roads. The large flakes were soft and new then and almost generous and the earth to which they fell was still warm and as yet unfrozen. They fell in silence into the puddles and into the sea where they disappeared at the moment of contact. They disappeared, too, upon touching the heated redness of our necks and hands or the faces of those who did not wear masks. We carried our pillowcases from house to house, knocking on doors to become silhouettes in the light thrown out from kitchens (white pillowcases held out by whitened forms). The snow fell between us and the doors and was transformed in shimmering golden beams. When we turned to leave, it fell upon our footprints and as the night wore on obliterated them and all the records of our movements. In the morning everything was soft and still and November had come upon us.
My brother Kenneth, who is two and a half, is unsure of his last Christmas. It is Halloween that looms largest in his memory as an exceptional time of being up late in magic darkness and falling snow. “Who are you going to dress up as at Christmas?” he asks. “I think I’ll be a snowman.” All of us laugh at him and tell him Santa Claus will find him if he is good and that he need not dress up at all. We go about our appointed tasks waiting for it to happen.
I am troubled myself about the nature of Santa Claus and I am trying to hang on to him in any way that I can. It is true that at my age I no longer really believe in him yet I have hoped in all his possibilities as fiercely as I can; much in the same way, I think, that the drowning man waves desperately to the lights of the passing ship on the high sea’s darkness. For without him, as without the man’s ship, it seems our fragile lives would be so much more desperate.
To everything there is a season — from Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven.”
My mother has been fairly tolerant of my attempted perpetuation. Perhaps because she has encountered it before. Once I overheard her speaking about my sister Anne to one of her neighbours. “I thought Anne would believe forever,” she said. “I practically had to tell her.” I have somehow always wished I had not heard her say that as I seek sanctuary and reinforcement even in an ignorance I know I dare not trust.
Kenneth, however, believes with an unadulterated fervour, and so do Bruce and Barry who are six-year-old twins. Beyond me there is Anne who is thirteen and Mary who is fifteen, both of whom seem to be leaving childhood at an alarming rate. My mother has told us that she was already married when she was seventeen, which is only two years older than Mary is now. That too seems strange to contemplate and perhaps childhood is shorter for some than it is for others. I think of this sometimes in the evenings when we have finished our chores and the supper dishes have been cleared away and we are supposed to be doing our homework. I glance sideways at my mother, who is always knitting or mending, and at my father who mostly sits by the stove coughing quietly with his handkerchief at his mouth. He has “not been well” for two years and has difficulty breathing whenever he moves at more than the slowest pace. He is most sympathetic of all concerning my extended hopes and says we should hang on to the good things in our lives as long as we are able. As I look at him out of the corner of my eye, it does not seem that he has many of them left. He is old, we think, at forty-two.
Yet Christmas, in spite of all the doubts of our different ages, is a fine and splendid time, and now as we pass the mid-point of December our expectations are heightened by the increasing coldness that has settled down upon us. The ocean is flat and calm and along the coast, in the scooped-out coves, has turned to an icy slush. The brook that flows past our house is almost totally frozen and there is only a small channel of rushing water that flows openly at its very centre. When we let the cattle out to drink, we chop holes with the axe at the brook’s edge so that they can drink without venturing onto the ice.
The sheep move in and out of their lean-to shelter restlessly stamping their feet or huddling together in tightly packed groups. A conspiracy of wool against the cold. The hens perch high on their roosts with their feathers fluffed out about them, hardly feeling it worthwhile to descend to the floor for their few scant kernels of grain. The pig, who has little time before his butchering, squeals his displeasure to the cold and with his snout tosses his wooden trough high in the icy air. The splendid young horse paws the planking of his stall and gnaws the wooden cribwork of his manger.
We have put a protective barricade of spruce boughs about our kitchen door and banked our house with additional boughs and billows of eel grass. Still, the pail of water we leave standing in the porch is solid in the morning and has to be broken with the hammer. The clothes my mother hangs on the line are frozen almost instantly and sway and creak from their suspending clothespins like sections of dismantled robots: the stiff-legged rasping trousers and the shirts and sweaters with unyielding arms outstretched. In the morning we race from our so frigid upstairs bedrooms to finish dressing around the kitchen stove. We would extend our coldness half a continent away to the Great Lakes of Ontario so that it might hasten the Christmas coming of my oldest brother, Neil. He is nineteen and employed on the “lake boats,” the long flat carriers of grain and iron ore whose season ends any day after December 10, depending on the ice conditions. We wish it to be cold, cold on the Great Lakes of Ontario, so that he may come home to us as soon as possible. Already his cartons have arrived. They come from different places: Cobourg, Toronto, St. Catharines, Welland, Windsor, Sarnia, Sault Ste. Marie. Places that we, with the exception of my father, have never been. We locate them excitedly on the map, tracing their outlines with eager fingers. The cartons bear the lettering of Canada Steamship Lines, and are bound with rope knotted intricately in the fashion of sailors. My mother says they contain his “clothes” and we are not allowed to open them. For us it is impossible to know the time or manner of his coming. If the lakes freeze early, he may come by train because it is cheaper. If the lakes stay open until December 20, he will have to fly because his time will be more precious than his money. He will hitchhike the last hundred or hundred and fifty kilometres from either station or airport. On our part, we can do nothing but listen with straining ears to radio reports of distant ice formations. His coming seems to depend on so many factors which are out there far beyond us and over which we lack control. The days go by in fevered slowness until finally on the morning of December 23 the strange car rolls into our yard. My mother touches her hand to her lips and whispers “Thank God.” My father gets up unsteadily from his chair to look through the window. Their longed-for son and our golden older brother is here at last. He is here with his reddish hair and beard and we can hear his hearty laugh. He will be happy and strong and confident for us all. There are three other young men with him who look much the same as he. They too are from the boats and are trying to get home to Newfoundland. They must still drive a hundred and sixty kilometres to reach the ferry at North Sydney.
The car seems very old. They purchased it in Thorold for two hundred dollars because they were too late to make any reservations, and they have driven steadily since they began. In northern New Brunswick their windshield wipers failed but instead of stopping they tied lengths of cord to the wipers’ arms and passed them through the front window vents. Since that time, in whatever precipitation, one of them has pulled the eords back and forth to make the wipers function. This information falls tiredly but excitedly from their lips and we greedily gather it in. My father pours them drinks of rum and my mother takes out her mincemeat and the fruitcakes she has been carefully hoarding. We lean on the furniture or look from the safety of sheltered doorways. We would like to hug our brother but are too shy with strangers present. In the kitchen’s warmth, the young men begin to nod and doze, their heads dropping suddenly to their chests. They nudge each other with their feet in an attempt to keep awake. They will not stay and rest because they have come so far and tomorrow is Christmas Eve and stretches of mountains and water still lie between them and those they love. After they leave we pounce on our brother physically and verbally. He laughs and shouts and lifts us over his head and swings us in his muscular arms. Yet in spite of his happiness he seems surprised at the appearance of his father whom he has not seen since March. My father merely smiles at him while my mother bites her lip.
Now that he is here there is a great flurry of activity. We have left everything we could until the time he might be with us. Eagerly I show him the fir tree on the hill which I have been watching for months and marvel at how easily he fells it and carries it down the hill. We fall over one another in the excitement of decoration.
He promises that on Christmas Eve he will take us to church in the sleigh behind the splendid horse that until his coming we are all afraid to handle. And on the afternoon of Christmas Eve he shoes the horse, lifting each hoof and rasping it fine and hammering the cherry-red horseshoes into shape upon the anvil. Later he drops them hissingly into the steaming tub of water. My father sits beside him on an overturned pail and tells him what to do. Sometimes we argue with our father, but our brother does everything he says.
That night, bundled in hay and in voluminous coats, and with heated stones at our feet, we start upon our journey. Our parents and Kenneth remain at home but all the rest of us go. Before we leave we feed the cattle and sheep and even the pig all that they can possibly eat so that they will be contented on Christmas Eve. Our parents wave to us from the doorway. We go six kilometres across the mountain road. It is a primitive logging trail and there will be no cars or other vehicles upon it. At first the horse is wild with excitement and lack of exercise and my brother has to stand at the front of the sleigh and lean backwards on the reins. Later he settles down to a trot and still later to a walk as the mountain rises before him. We sing all the Christmas songs we know and watch for rabbits and foxes scudding across the open patches of snow and listen to the drumming of partridge wings. We are never cold.
When we descend to the country church we tie the horse in a grove of trees where he will be sheltered and not frightened by the many cars. We put a blanket over him and give him oats. At the church door the neighbours shake hands with my brother. “Hello, Neil,” they say. “How is your father?” “Oh,” he says, just “Oh.”
The church is very beautiful at night with its festooned branches and glowing candles and the booming, joyous sounds that come from the choir loft. We go through the service as if we are mesmerized.
On the way home, although the stones have cooled, we remain happy and warm. We listen to the creak of leather harness and the hiss of runners on the snow and begin to think of the potentiality of presents. When we are about a kilometre from home the horse senses his destination and breaks into a trot and then a confident lope. My brother lets him go and we move across the winter landscape like figures freed from a Christmas card. The snow from the horse’s hooves falls about our heads like the whiteness of the stars.
After we have stabled the horse we talk with our parents and eat the meal our mother has prepared. And then I am sleepy and it is time for the younger children to be in bed. But tonight my father says to me, “We would like you to stay up with us a while,” and so I stay quietly with the older members of the family. When all is silent upstairs Neil brings in the cartons that contain his “clothes” and begins to open them. He unties the intricate knots quickly, their whorls falling away before his agile fingers. The boxes are filled with gifts neatly wrapped and bearing tags. The ones for my younger brothers say “from Santa Claus” but mine are not among them anymore, as I know with certainty they will never be again. Yet I am not so much surprised as touched by a pang of loss at being here on the adult side of the world. It is as if I have suddenly moved into another room and heard a door click lastingly behind me. I am jabbed by my own small wound.
But then I look at those before me. I look at my parents drawn together before the Christmas tree. My mother has her hand upon my father’s shoulder and he is holding his ever present handkerchief. I look at my sisters who have crossed this threshold ahead of me and now each day journey farther from the lives they knew as girls. I look at my magic older brother who has come to us this Christmas from half a continent away, bringing everything he has and is. All of them are captured in the tableau of their care.
“Every man moves on,” says my father quietly, and I think he speaks of Santa Claus, “but there is no need to grieve. He leaves good things behind.”

JD: "To Every Thing There is a Season," was written by Alistair MacLeod in 1977 and read by the late Les Carlson. You can find the audio for that story, and all of our holiday readings, on our website at cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Nina Simone Lifetime Grammy

JD: It's great that the Grammys people just announced they'll be presenting a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award to Nina Simone. But, with all due respect, Grammys people: what took you so long?
Ms. Simone was born Eunice Waymon. She grew up playing piano at her mother's church in Tryon, North Carolina. She was so good that her community raised money to help her pursue a career as a concert pianist. But of course, she was black. And she said that prevented her from getting further in classical music. So she started playing and singing jazz in bars. And that’s when she became Nina Simone: she changed her name so her mother wouldn't find out she had started playing "the devil's music."
She went on to record numerous albums, to fight for civil rights, and to earn the title the "High Priestess of Soul". She also earned 15 Grammy nominations and a Grammy Hall of Fame Award before she died in 2003. And now, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Finally. And obviously.

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Part 3: As it Happened: The Frank Episode

As it Happened: The Frank Episode

JD: Chickens that can fly. A two-hundred-year-old beer. A foul-mouthed cockatoo. And an interview with the world's leading expert on nose-picking.
These things may seem improbable. They may even seem disgusting. But I assure you, they are all real, and all have been the subject of interviews on this very program.
Over the holidays we will be digging into the As It Happens archives, to bring you some blasts from our past – through encore presentations of As It Happened: The Archive Edition. So here we go, with our encore presentation of As It Happened.

[Music]

JD: Hello this is As It Happened, The Archive Edition. I'm Jeff Douglas. All summer long we will be bringing you some of the very best from the As It Happens archives. This week's theme: Frank. We’ll interview a police officer named Frank tasked with delivering evidence to and from court, that evidence being a trout.

SOUNDCLIP

FRANK WHEELER: Then it started to thaw out, and then it starts to get pretty smelly

JD: We'll hear from a man with Down Syndrome who offers some frank advice to Ann Coulter after she uses a deeply offensive term to describe President Obama.

SOUNDCLIP

FRANK STEPHENS: I can tell that she is a beautiful woman who does not to bully anyone.

JD: And we’ll speak with a woman whose job is traveling the United States driving the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile.

SOUNDCLIP

LISA LEPENE: I can cut the mustard on the road, that's why I have the job.

JD: As it Happened: The Archive Edition. Radio you can relish.

[Music]

JD: It is the vehicle that makes everyone feel like a wiener. And when Lisa Lepene graduated from college, she dreamed of feeling like a wiener too. So she applied for a job to be a driver of the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile. Yes, a driver is what she truly wished to be. Because if she drove an Oscar Meyer wiener, everyone would be in love with she. In July of 1992, Lisa Lapene spoke with As It Happens guest host Jeffrey Stevens about piloting a seven meter long hot dog.

SOUNDCLIP

JEFFREY STEVENS: Let me let me start by asking you to tell us what does this Wienermobile look like?

LISA LEPENE: OK well it's a 23 foot long hot dog on wheels. The body of the vehicle is an actual round orange hotdog and the base is the bun, and the wheels underneath the bus.

JS: How many of these are there?

LL: There are six of them throughout the United States. It's over all 50 states.

JS: Are these Wienermobiles difficult to drive… these 23 feet long hot dogs?

LL: Well, you do have to watch your buns on the highway.

JS: I beg your pardon?

LL: You have to watch your buns.

JS: Could you explain that for family radio.

LL: They stick out a foot and a half on each side of where the driver sits. So it’s the actual buns of the vehicle, and they are wider than normal cars. So when you go around corners or if you're changing lanes, you have to make sure that you don't scrape your buns on another car or on a corner.

JS: Or take out a pedestrian with your buns.

LL: Right. That would be tough to explain.

JS: it certainly would. Do they do they give you any special instructions on how to drive this monstrosity?

LL: Well we went to Hot Dog High.

JS: I beg your pardon?

LL: Hot Dog High is a training session in Madison, Wisconsin, for people get this job. It’s one week long. And we start driving a Chevy van, which is what the Wienermobile used to be, it was converted. And we practice driving a van then we practice driving the Wienermobile and having our partner stand outside when you have to back up so you don't hit the tail of your winner on anything.

JS: Have you ever been stopped by the police while you were driving your Oscar Meyer Wienermobile

LL: Well not for speeding. They will stop us to look inside.

JS: Why?

LL: They're curious. A lot of people have never seen the inside of the Wienermobile. A lot of people just see it driving down the street. And so they will pull us over and you know, you see the sirens going in you're a little nervous, and they pull you over and they say, oh we just want to look inside.

JS: Is that a typical reaction from people along the way to this curiosity?

LL: Oh you should see, when we're on a highway, how shocked some people look. I'm surprised we haven’t gotten into any accidents yet because people actually take their hands off the wheel. Last week we were driving in Michigan and we passed a truck driver who not only took his hands off the wheel when he saw us but picked up a camera and took a picture of us while he was driving.

JS: Have you caused any accidents that you know of among distracted motorists.

LL: No we haven't but we’d like to remind everyone to be careful.

JS: If you see a 23 foot long hot dog coming down the road, be careful.

LL: Don't hit our buns.

JS: Tell me, why do you do this?

LL: Oh I can cut the mustard on the road.

JS: You can cut the mustard on the road.

LL: That's why I have the job. And one of the best feelings is making people happy. And you can cheer up almost anyone’s day by showing them a 23 foot long hot dog that's driving around and playing carnival music out the loud speaker and giving them a whistle to bring home to their kids.

JS: I think on that note we'll say good night Lisa.

LL: Bye bye.

JS: Bye.

JD: As it Happens guest host Jeffrey Stevens in conversation with Lisa Lepene in 1992. We reached Ms. Lepene in Middleton, Wisconsin. And if you have never seen the Wienermobile today is your lucky day because we have posted this story to our Web site at CBC.ca/aih where you will find a picture of the car so you can catch up on your pop culture references.
Coming up later on As It Happened: The Archive Edition, we'll hear from Frank Stevens a man with Down Syndrome who had some frank words for American pundit Ann Coulter after she referred to President Obama by the r-word. That and more still ahead on As it Happened, the ‘Frank’ episode.

[Music]

Hot dog archaeologist

JD: As a meal hot dogs are timeless. And by that I mean they can last forever. In 1989 a group of archaeologists from the University of Arizona were digging through the trash at a landfill site on Staten Island in New York. They were trying to figure out why some garbage will not decompose. Doug Wilson headed up the team. He spoke with former As It Happens host Michael Enright in October of 1989.

SOUNDCLIP

MICHAEL ENRIGHT: Mr. Wilson, can you explain what this project at the landfill on Staten Island is all about? It sounds on the surface of it to be kind of strange.

DOUG WILSON: Archaeology, as you know, is the study of looking at ancient materials and ancient remains. So what we're doing on the Staten Island project is just taking it into the modern age. We're looking at modern refuse in order to see what we're doing in our own society. Now a big aspect of that is seeing what we can do about the ‘garbage crisis,’ what we can do with these amount of waste we're building up.

ME: What are you looking for and what have you found that is of interest to you?

DG: What we’ve found is that things do not degrade as rapidly as people might suspect. For example a 1970s landfill in Chicago, we found a hot dog which had stayed in the ground in perfect condition for 15 years. We found meat fat and meat on the bone still, 15 years old.

ME: What does that tell us? Does that mean there are preservatives in all this meat?

DG: No it's more telling us that in the landfill environment, things so not degrade rapidly. A lot of people have the concept that landfills are big compost piles.

ME: Right.

DG: But if you were to take that hot dog or that meat out to your compost pile throw water on it every day, mix it up. it would probably degrade in a matter of weeks. However in the landfill environment where you do not have as much moisture, where there is no oxygen to mix with it, you can only rely on a certain kind of microbiological organisms called anaerobic bacteria and those, at least as it seems, are taking much longer than we would expect to break down organic paper and plastic material.

ME: How do you determine the age of something you find in a landfill. I assume you don't use carbon dating or any of that?

DG: No no we're quite lucky as archaeologists in that respect. We can simply pull out the newsprint which is very well-preserved, and read the date off of the newsprint.

ME: So if your dog is wrapped in a copy of the Sun Times, you just read the date on it.

DG: Absolutely. We can get within the month and the year.

ME: Well, good luck. Thanks for talking to us. Good night.

DG: Bye.

JD: A 15-year-old frankfurter. That was former As It Happens host, Michael Enright, speaking with archaeologist Doug Wilson in 1989.

[Music]

Frank Lloyd Wright homeowner

JD: Linda McQuillen always believed her home was unique. She just couldn't quite put her finger on why but her belief was borne out when she discovered that her house in Madison, Wisconsin was designed by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Carol spoke with Linda McQuillan in October of 2015.

SOUNDCLIP

CO: Linda how did you react when you discovered your home was in fact designed by Frank Lloyd Wright?

LINDA MCQUILLEN: It was a pretty shocking experience. You know when you buy a home, you buy a home that suits what you want for a living space. And I thought I had gotten the perfect home and I was very happy with it. And then when I was contacted by these folks who had been researching my home, I didn't believe that it was going to be a reality. I just assumed it's one of these things, they're checking it out, and it's not going to pan out to anything.

CO: So but you bought this house in 1989 right? And did you… what does it look like? Did you have a sense that this was a very special house? Was it preserved?

LM: It was not preserved. It was actually quite neglected. And my family, when they saw it, said no way we are not going to live in this house. It is going to cost too much to refurbish it. And they thought it was horrible. But when I opened the front door and saw it for the very first time, it was clear to me that there was a lot of potential in this house.

CO: Like what did you see that made you want to buy it?

LM: Well first of all, the windows. They are a leaded glass window with a very unique pattern, and there are windows everywhere. It’s a bright sunny house. I assumed all along it was good, just a really good copy of Frank Lloyd Wright prairie style home. But there were some misleading features that took away a good share of the right identity, so it didn't really look like a Frank Lloyd Wright.

CO: These were things people added on to it? What did they do?

LM: Yes. They put a huge two story addition on the back of the house and then on the outside, it was bricked all the way around with a dark brick that was never the kind of thing that Frank Lloyd Wright would have done with any of his homes.

CO: It was the locks on the front door I guess that were kind of a thing.

LM: Well, that was… his name is Mike Lilek, he is the curator of the American System Built Home in Milwaukee Wisconsin, and he has taken that house apart and put it all back together, totally restored it. So he knows the details of the house. So when he walked up the steps he saw the door lock and he knew immediately it was an American System Built Home.

CO: Interesting.

LM: But they were very coy about it. They didn't tell me…

CO: Until recently.

LM: Yeah. Yeah.

CO: You mentioned this American System Built Home and this is what what you have. What is that? This is Frank Lloyd Wright’s design called ‘System Built House.’

LM: Right. It's a prefabricated project that he started just before World War One. He designed over 900 interchangeable floor plans, and you could work with the local builder and select one of those floor plans, and the builder who had the contract with Frank Lloyd Wright would purchase the design from Wright, and all the materials. Frank Lloyd Wright’s intent was that this this would be an option for people who didn't have the ability financially to purchase a custom made home, which is what he had always done previous to this.

CO: And it's great to talk to you. Thank you.

LM: Thank you.

CO: Bye bye.

JD: That was Carol speaking with Linda McQuillen in October of 2015.

[Music]

Dateline: Lost diploma

And now from 1983, here is former As It Happens host, Alan Maitland.

SOUNDCLIP

ALAN MAITLAND: Dateline. Grand Rapids, Michigan.

[Sound: Beeping]

AM: Frank Swanson, if you're still hunting for your graduation diploma, the one you got in 1936, we know where it is. Lillian Nozynski fished it out of her coach. Nozynski was doing a little bit of house cleaning. “You know how you put your hand down in the couch, when you clean it?” she commented. And there it was. But Nozynski can't find you. The city's schools can't help, and there's no listing in the phone books. The coach incidentally was a hand-me-down and has since fallen apart.

JD: From 1983. That was late As It Happens host Alan Maitland.

[Music]

Uncolourful Oratory

JD: According to a study out of Purdue University, a straightforward less lyrical style of speaking gets your message across best. In short, it is best to be frank when you're talking. Alice Eagly led this study, and her research shows that “vivid expression” often distracts the listener. She is a professor of psychology at Purdue in West Lafayette, Indiana and she spoke with former As It Happens host Michael Enright in 1993.

SOUNDCLIP

MICHAEL ENRIGHT: Professor Eagly, most of us probably believe that when it comes to public speaking the best way to win the audience I guess, is to be vivid and use lots of images and metaphors and all kinds of things. You say no, it's not that at all. Tell me what you found.

ALICE EAGLY: Well I've carried out some research in which we would question such a generalization. It appears to us that sometimes, vivid expression actually distracts the listener from the overall point that you're trying to make. So that's because they're caught up in your images and your vivid speech, y es they're paying attention, but they may not be paying attention in the way you want them to. That is they see the point in the logic of your arguments and agree with your conclusion.

ME: So things could be almost hyper-vivid so that the image just stays in the mind and distracts the listener from the speech.

AE: It can and perhaps not even a hyper-vivid image, not an extremely unusual one, but simply something that catches people's attention and makes them think about that small detail as your talk. They may be concentrating on that small vivid image you’ve provided and then fail really to track them the arguments that you're making, you've put together, the points that you would like them to put together in their minds.

ME: Professor Eagly, most North Americans say their greatest fear is in fact speaking in public, even more than being afraid of heights. What would you recommend to them on the basis of your research?

AE: We wouldn't recommend that they not use vivid imagery, but we would recommend caution in the timing and the use of those within a speech.

ME: Not to overdo it, I guess.

AE: Not to overdo it, and not to and not necessarily to integrate the vivid imagery throughout the points of the speech when you're trying to get across more logical kinds of arguments that you want people to think about more deeply. And that you think those arguments are particularly persuasive in relation to your point. It might not be good to put a lot of vivid imagery in there, or jokes at that point either. However at the beginning of a speech, it might not be a bad idea.

ME: To grab their attention.

AE: To attract their attention, to get their sympathy perhaps, to make yourself likable to them, whatever to wake them up.

ME: We will take that warning on the label, and thank you very much indeed for being with us tonight.

AE: You're welcome. Good talking to you.

ME: Good night.

AE: Good night.

JD: From 1993, that was former As It Happens host Michael Enright in conversation with psychology professor Alice Eagly. At the time Professor Eagly was teaching at Purdue University in Indiana.

[Music]

R-word tweet response

JD: American political commentator Ann Coulter is well-known for making offensive comments. But in 2012 Ms. Coulter went even further than usual. While watching the presidential debates between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. Ms. Coulter tweeted “I highly approve of Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retard.” The R-word was in reference to President Obama. One man uniquely positioned to respond to Ms. Coulter saw her insult as an opportunity to educate and to give her some frank advice. Frank Stephens is a Special Olympics athlete and global messenger for the organization. He also has Down syndrome. And in October of 2012, he wrote an open letter to Ann Coulter about her use of the R-word. Carol spoke with Mr. Stevens, who was at home in Fairfax Virginia.

SOUNDCLIP

CO: Mr. Stephens, what went through your mind when you first learned that Ann Coulter had described President Obama as a “retard”?

FRANK STEPHENS: I thought, wow what a woman that needs to learn some manners.

CO: What did you want her to know? What was the message you wanted to give to Ann Coulter?

FS: I wanted to give her a message saying that you can’t stand tall when you’re stupid to bully someone small. And that it never makes any sense to bully anyone, especially the big man of Washington.

CO: So she was saying that about President Obama, but tell us why this hurt you personally.

FS: The r-word is very offensive and degradable. It's like carrying a giant curse word coming out of someone's mouth.

CO: How often have you heard, have people used that word to you?

FS: A lot. I mean, from people who don't understand those who are different. We are different in people's eyes. And in God's eyes too.

CO: Your letter is really beautiful, you know that?

JFS: Thank you.

CO: It's not angry you're not trying to hurt Ann Coulter. You're very very nice to her there.

FS: I am because there people in this world that need to have a change. She needs to change. I can tell that this is a beautiful woman who does not need to bully anyone. And one who needs to learn to have a heart.

CO: Can you read a bit of your own letter? The place where it says, “after I saw your tweet.” Could you read that paragraph for us?

FS: I certainly will. “After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me. You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV.st, 2015. It’s going to bring up to 20 to 30 centimeters of snow. In the state of Indiana, there’s going to be lots of snow. Once the snowstorm is over, the air is going to turn brutal cold. People in Indiana. Be prepared. Have your winter boots ready. Have your winter jackets ready. Hats, gloves, scarves, ski pants ready. Order your pizza, order your Chinese food. Buy cases of Pepsi. Buy cases of Coke. Do your grocery shopping. Don't wait till last minute. Do it. Right. Now. Have your Ipads charged. Have your Ipods charged. Have your cell phones charged. When you go for a walk, be very careful so you don't slip and fall in the state of Indiana. Make sure to have your shovels ready. Snow scoops ready. Snow blowers ready. Snow plows ready abd salt trucks ready as well. People in Indiana, be prepared for a major snowstorm on Sunday February 1st 2015. Take care, stay safe.

JD: From February of 2015. That was As it Happens’ favorite weather watcher Frankie MacDonald delivering the forecast straight from Sydney, Nova Scotia.

[Music]

Fishy evidence

In 1974, Frank Wheeler was a constable with the Ontario Provincial Police and he was in charge of keeping a key piece of evidence under protective custody. That key piece of evidence was a two kilogram trout a fish and it was part of a lengthy poaching trial in Kitchener, Ontario. And Constable Wheeler stored the trout in his home freezer for more than a year and a half. Except of course, for the times when he had to take the fish to court. Former As It Happens host Barbara Frum got Constable Wheeler on the line in November of 1974.

SOUNDCLIP

BARBARA FRUM: Constable, how did you get so lucky to get put in charge of Exhibit A?

FRANK WHEELER: God, I don't know. I was the only one with a freezer I guess.

BF: What shape was this fish in when the trial started?

FW: It was in good shape when we started, you know, because I kept it frozen since the night it was seized. In the freezer and it was in good shape when we seized it.

BF: Exhibit A has been to court now how many times?

FW: I think it’s nine times it's been in court.

BF: What kind of shape’s he in?

FW: He’s getting a little ripe at times. But whenever it thaws out, as long as I keep him frozen, he's all right. But the minute it starts to thaw out, then he starts to really get pretty smelly.

FW: A lot of people are going to want to get out of court in a hurry.

BF: Yeah.

FW: One lawyer get sick one day bu tI don't know if the fish had anything to do with it or not.

BF: And every night you have to scoop up Exhibit A and take it home to your freezer.

FW: Every time there’s a court adjournment, I bring it in and take it to court. And then after court I take it back home again.

BF: Why can't you get this thing embalmed.

FW: Well we can give it to anybody else because we lost continuity on the evidence. I got to keep it in my possession and nobody else’s. If I give it to somebody else, then we’d have to bring the other party to court to say that that's the fish that I gave him and then he gave it back to me after.

BF: And what is this guy charged with again?

FW: Just an attempt of theft of fish. That’s all.

BF: What's going to happen to this fish when the trial is over?

FW: It depends on the outcome of the trial. If they're convicted of this, then the fish will go back to the Spring Bay fish hatchery. If it's dismissed, then we've got to give it back to the person we seized it from.

BF: I'm sure he doesn't want to see it again.

FW: No but we have to have a receipt signed, so we got to take it back. We can’t close it off completely until we got that fish back to the accused or the complainant.

BF: What a punishment for poaching.

FW: You ought to believe it.

BF: Your wife must love you.

FW: Oh yeah, she loves me.

BF: Bring that thing home every night [sound: laughter]. Constable, thank you.

FW: OK fine.

BF: Hope it's over soon.

FW: I hope so.

BF: Bye.

JD: That was Ontario Provincial Police Constable Frank Wheeler speaking with late As It Happens host Barbara Frum in 1974. And the fish tale does not end there. Constable Wheeler had to keep the trout in his freezer for nearly two years. And once the trial wrapped, no one involved wanted it. And so for reasons that I cannot explain, the staff As It Happens decided to adopt the dead fish. Personally I think they ‘caught’ have done better.
The story gets even fishier. On the day the trout was to be picked up, two people posing as As it Happens producers showed up and stole it. The police were called and Frank Wheeler was once again caught up in the case of the dead fish. And that is all we know about the tale of the stolen trout. So if you know what happened to that fish, let me know.

[Music]

JD: That's it for this encore presentation of As It Happened: The Archive Edition. You can also find all the episodes on our webpage, cbc.ca/aih. Click on As It Happened, under the features tab. Listen again or share them.
[Music]
Our thanks, very special thanks, to Keith Hart and the team at CBC Radio Archives. To our writer, Chris Howden, for help with the words. And of course, to our technician, Reynold Gonsalves.
As It Happened: The Archive Edition is produced by Laurie Allan. I'm Jeff Douglas, have a good night.

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Dec 20, 2016 episode transcript

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