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The AIH Transcript for January 27, 2016

Hosts: Helen Mann and Chris Howden

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

HELEN MANN: Hello, I'm Helen Mann.

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

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HM: Choice isn't free. The Netherlands wants help to replace the foreign aid that Donald Trump has withdrawn from groups that help women access abortions. And our International Development Minister says Canada will answer the call.

CH: Overdue, but not overdone. Nearly 80 years after a black man was dragged from his jail cell and shot to death, a police chief in Georgia apologizes for his department's role in the lynching.

HM: Look south, or things will keep going that way. GM announces hundreds of layoffs at an Ontario plant. And the head of the local union says Justin Trudeau should step up and follow the example of Donald Trump to protect jobs.

CH: Keep your eye off the ball. If you're sending a get-well-soon text to basketball player Akil Mitchell, don't include a winkie emoticon. It'll just remind him of the time his eyeball popped out on the court.

HM: Game of Throws. What do you get when you combine the explosive power of curling with a laser precision of crokinole? The answer will surprise you, especially if you have no idea what I just said.

CH: And first it was quick as a flash, then just a flash. A famous electrocuted weasel finds posthumous stardom, as part of an unusual exhibit at a Dutch museum called “Dead Animal Tales”. As It Happens the Friday edition, radio that hopes the exhibit is like its latest artifact: well-done.

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Part 1: Netherlands abortion, GM layoffs, weasel on display

Netherlands abortion

Guest: Marie-Claude Bibeau

CH: The Netherlands is stepping in where the United States will no longer tread. And it wants Canada to come along. In one of his first acts as President, Donald Trump cut off U.S. foreign aid to any organization that helps women have abortions. Then the Netherlands announced a fund to replace all that U.S. cash. But the country's development minister says her government can't do it alone. So on Wednesday she called up Canada's Minister of International Development Marie-Claude Bibeau. We reached Minister Bibeau in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

HM: Minister Biebeau, the Dutch say that they have got the support of as many as 20 countries for their efforts. Is Canada going to be among them?

MARIE-CLAUDE BIBEAU: Yes, we will support the efforts. Will it be directly through this fund or indirectly? This is not clear yet, but I assure my colleagues and minister from the Netherlands that we will increase our funding to sexual and reproductive health and rights. This is definitely a very important priority for our government.

HM: How much money does Canada provide now and how much more will you add to that?

MCB: I'm not in a position to give you a very specific number because it was not a way to follow up on the subject in the previous years. Because the initiative that was launch under the previous government focused specifically on maternal health. So you know I cannot make that comparison because it was not calculated the same way. But I can tell you that I've already asked last year all our partners who were working for maternal health. I sent them a letter and I talked to a lot of them to say I encourage you to enlarge to provide the full range of sexual and other give and services through the project that are already ongoing that we're only focusing on maternal health, so I told them that they could you know provide sexual education, family planning, contraception and even abortion with the Canadian financing.

HM: Now you spoke with the Dutch minister, Lilianne Ploumen on Wednesday. What can you tell us about the pitch she made to you?

MCB: Well it was an easy because we both agree on the importance of women empowerment and that sexual and reproductive health and rights is so important for women's empowerment. It's a matter of health obviously, because we don't want young girls to have babies and you know to risk their lives. We want young girls to stay in school and to have the fortunately to have a better future. So it's a matter of health, it's a matter of rights, women's rights and human rights and it's also a matter of development. We strongly believe that we need women to contribute to their communities. So that's why we definitely agree that restricting the access to abortion is really not the solution. It's the other way around. It will just increase the number of unsafe abortion it will endanger the lives of women and girls and young girls won't be able to hope for a better future.

HM: What is it besides funding that Canada going to offer to organizations that do help women access abortion services?

MCB: Well we want to work in different ways. We want to work with some multilateral organizations, but also with Canadians organization where we have the expertise. But we want to do more directly with local organizations to defend their rights, to support women local women's groups, to work in their community and to promote their own priorities. To help them have access to a wider range of services to stop early wedding early marriage for example. So we want to work a lot more with local groups.

HM: And are there any that you can identify any locations that are of particular concern, any alternatives that you're weighing?

MCB: Actually there are too many. When I was traveling and making this consultation, I had the opportunity to meet with many women in many projects. And well the need is so important. We really have to support them, to help them to protect them, to defend their rights, to change the mentalities, to allow girls to go to school and hope for a better future and contribute to their communities.

HM: Given the mandate that Prime Minister gave you in terms of promoting reproductive rights and rights in general. What new responsibilities or new ways do you feel given that the U.S. president has not only said that he opposes abortion, but is willing to cut this funding to signal that opposition?

MCB: Well, this was one of my priority as you said from the beginning, it's in my mandate letter. It was unanimous, through the whole consultation I've made for a year. And I would say it's even a global consensus that it is so important for the development of these countries we want to help. So we will definitely stand for our values and women's rights is one and we strongly believe that women are important for these developing countries to access and to improve their situation to have an increase in their in their growth in their economy. So we will be working hard to support them in this way.

HM: Will you, will your government say that to your counterparts in the United States?

MCB: I will definitely have this discussion with my counterparts from USA when I will get to meet this person. But I believe that we will be working together on some subjects and that we will be less complimentary on others. On this one we definitely don't agree. But there's so much to do in terms of humanitarian assistance and development. So, we'll choose another channel to support these countries and from our side we strongly believe that this one is an important one and we will do as much as we can.

HM: No concern about upsetting or angering the Trump administration?

MCB: I mean this is women's rights is too important for us to make compromise on that.

HM: Of course there are Canadians who are anti-abortion, individuals and groups. What do you say to those who actually look to the south of the border and feel this is a good move?

MCB: Well, I think that restricting the access to abortion does not reduce abortion. It only increase the number of unsafe abortion and it endangers the lives of women. So this is really the way I see it and we see it in our government.

HM: Minister Bibeau, I appreciate you talking to us. Thank you very much.

MCB: Thank you. Bye bye.

HM: Bye bye.

CH: Marie-Claude Bibeau is Canada's Minister of International Development. She was in Sherbrooke, Quebec. You'll find more on that story on our web site www.cbc.ca/aih. Meanwhile, today in Washington, D.C., tens of thousands of anti-abortion activists showed up to what organizers called the “largest pro-life event in the world”: The March for Life. And among the honored guests was a man whose reputation preceded him: Vice-President Mike Pence. In his time as Governor of Indiana. Mr. Pence signed some of the strictest anti-abortion legislation in the United States. He addressed the crowd earlier today making him the most senior government official to ever speak at the annual rally. And here's part of what he had to say.

SOUNDCLIP

MIKE PENCE: I like to say over there at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue we're in the promise keeping business. That's why on Monday, President Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy to prevent foreign aid from funding organizations that promote or perform abortions worldwide.

[Sound: Cheering and whistles of approval]

MP: That's why this administration will work with the Congress to end taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion providers. We will devote those resources to health care services for women across America. And that's why next week, President Donald Trump will announce a Supreme Court nominee who will uphold the God given liberties enshrined in our constitution and the late-great Justice Antonin Scalia. You know life is winning in America. Today is a celebration of that progress; the progress that we've made in this cause. You know I've long believed that a society can be judged by how we care for our most vulnerable: the aged, the infirm, the disabled and the unborn. We’ve come to a historic moment in the cause of life. And we must meet this moment with respect and compassion for every American. Life is winning in America for many reasons. Life is winning through this steady advance of science that illuminates when life begins more and more every day.

CH: That was American Vice-President Mike Pence, speaking at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. earlier today.

[Music: Ambient]

GM layoffs

Guest: Mike Van Boekel

CH: General Motors had gutting news for workers at it's Ingersoll, Ontario CAMI plant today. More than 600 of them will be out of a job by July. The company had previously announced it was moving production of its Terrain SUVs to Mexico. Mike Van Boekel was among the first to hear the news this morning. He's the Unifor Union chair at the plant. We reached Mr. Van Boekel near Woodstock, Ontario.

HM: Mr. Van Boekel, what are you hearing from your members today?

MIKE VAN BOEKEL: Oh they're very very upset, rightfully so.

HM: Did any of them see this coming?

MVB: No nobody, we've been booming. We've been hiring, they're hiring a lot of people, they want to hire more people next week still, but it just makes no sense. It's ridiculous.

HM: Well did you get any kind of official warning?

MVB: No, just a phone call this morning that said they're laying off.

HM: GM though put out a statement saying and this is the quote they, “provided Unifor advance notification of labor impacts related to product changeovers and transition”. What kind of notification might they be talking about?

MVB: They told us at 6:30 this morning that they're going to go to the floor at 8:00 o'clock, so yeah they gave us advance notice of an hour and a half.

HM: So that that's as far as you know that's all the all the word you got?

MVB Yeah, well since I’m the head guy that's the only time they talked to me. It was brutal.

HM: And you said that up till now you thought they were going to be hiring new people?

MVB: They are hiring, we hired about 600 people in the last year alone and they're still hiring now.

HM: And how are the lines going? I mean is the product moving?

MVB: Oh we’re busy. Six weeks ago GM made an announcement: we build the Terrain and the Equinox at our plant. And six weeks ago GM made an announcement that they're taking the Terrain to Mexico because we can't keep up; we're overcapacity. We have ran every Saturday over time, all three shifts for eight years. Last year in the fall they came to us and asked us even though we're going six days a week for eight years if we could add Sundays. So we've worked Sundays the last four months. They came to us about six weeks ago and said we don't have enough capacity. We've got to take one of the vehicles and move it to Mexico. They hired a thousand people in Mexico to start building this truck in July. They're hiring a thousand and now they tell us six weeks later we don't have enough work, so we got to let you guys off this summer. It's totally inexcusable. The Terrain is getting moved to Mexico. Last year in 2016, they didn't even sell 50 of these vehicles in the country of Mexico. Yet they're moving the vehicle there. It's a nice way of helping out Canadians and their jobs.

HM: The Economic Development Minister in Ottawa said in a statement that, “our thoughts go out to those affected. We remain optimistic about the strength and future of Canada's automotive industry.” What do you say back to the Minister today and answer the government?

MVB: Proof's in the pudding. There's no backing from the government. This is what's going to happen. They got to get more serious. Maybe they should be listening to the guy in the States because I think he may be starting to make more sense regardless of what some people are thinking.

HM: Is that what you think is going on here?

MVB: Oh, I just think GM made $12 billion last year they reported. Apparently they want $12.1 billion it's not near enough. Why do you move a vehicle to Mexico? Strictly for one thing, so they can make more money on it. It's one of the highest selling vehicles here. They have booms for them. We can't keep up even though we've been working eight years on Saturdays. So they moved to Mexico six weeks later they announce that we're doing layoffs.

HM: Unifor’s president, Jerry Diaz has said the layoffs are evidence of what's to come. If this country doesn't renegotiate NAFTA. What do you think?

MVB: Yeah I agree one-hundred per cent. It has been going downhill ever since that agreement has been gone. And these are good middle class, good paying jobs, but I don't think our government gets it — I know they don’t.

HM: All right, so while you and Mr. Diaz may blame NAFTA, we want to play for you what Conservative leader Rona Ambrose had to say earlier about today's layoffs.

SOUNDCLIP

RONA AMBROSE: Listen. We don't lose jobs south of the border to Mexico because we don't have free enough trade. We lose them because we're uncompetitive. Whether it's labor costs or energy costs, people leave if they can't do business and there isn't an environment to do business.

HM: What do you think Mr. Van Boekel, do you think that Rona Ambrose is onto something?

MVB: No, I think she should go find the Minister for Employment and get the E.I. forms ready because 600 more people are losing their jobs.

HM: So you don't buy that there's a tax disadvantages and other things that may be playing in here?

MVB: Oh. I think just use this as a disadvantage is for the Canadian people to try and compete. We're not we're never going to compete with Mexico, they pay their workers nothing. But now you’re going to bring vehicles from Mexico that sell nothing in Mexico and bring them back here? It makes absolutely no sense. We're the number one profitable plant for GM that they told us in the last couple of years. Over $2 billion profit out of our plant. Apparently they want $2.2 billion. It's totally ridiculous.

HM: You mentioned earlier the guy in the south. What lessons do you think Justin Trudeau could perhaps learn from Donald Trump?

MVB: Well, sometimes you just got to… it’s not about free trade, it's got to be fair trade. That's that's my opinion.

HM: How would that play out?

MVB: I mean that's a bigger conversation than just auto. That's a whole bunch of things.

HM: Do you fear that GM because they're trying to appease Mr. Trump in the States instead of moving jobs to Mexico from U.S. plants will move them continuously from Canada?

MVB: No this was in the plan way before Trump got elected. GM doesn't just do this on a whim. They knew this was coming months ago. That's what's crap. We're also in a bargaining year, we’re their number one profitable plant. We’re the leanest plant four years in a row by the Harbor Report, which is the Bible of the industry. We are the number one plant in North America pretty well in every factor and that's counting every single manufacturers from Toyota, Volkswagen, Chrysler and Ford. We're number one and they take the jobs away from the number one plant. So apparently it doesn't matter what you negotiate. We're already the leanest, we are the cheapest around here and they're still leaving the jobs. So I guess we’ll do what we can at the bargaining table. Apparently it doesn't matter if you make games for the workers or not. If they're going to leave they're going to leave. So I guess I will try and get what we can at the bargaining table.

HM: What kind of things can you push for there?

MVB: Everything, our members are upset, they have every right to be upset. What the heck, they're leaving anyway. So might as well get what we can. They only made $12 billion, so maybe they can afford a little bit.

HM: The layoffs are supposed to go into effect in July. What are you going to do between now and then?

MVB: We will start meeting with the company next week already to try and come up with programs to mitigate the losses. They got lots of money, we can put incentives in for people to retire. we can put in packages for people who want to leave. There's a lot of things we can do. We'll find ways to use their money that they're making.

HM: What about the impact on your community generally?

MVB: It’s terrible the 600 layoffs here at times although all the suppliers plus I mean the Tim Horton’s on the corner by CAMI, all the people that stop in there. It's going to be felt right across the whole community. It's terrible for the community.

HM: Mr. Van Boekel, I know it's a bad day for you. I really appreciate you talking to us.

MVB: No problem, it is a bad day.

HM: Thank you.

MB: OK. Bye.

HM: Bye bye.

CH: Mike Van Boekel is the Unifor rep at the GM CAMI plant in Ingersol, Ontario. We reached Mr. Van Boekel outside Woodstock. You'll find more on that story on our web site at www.cbc.ca/aih. After recording that interview we received a statement from GM. It reads in part quote, “The notices today have no relation to the Terrain or Mexico, this is strictly related to the end of the older generation Equinox production in July.” unquote.

[Music: Rock]

Weasel of display

Guest: Kees Moeliker

CH: Most animals die in ordinary ways, but some die in ways so spectacular, their corpses get put on display at a museum. Take the so-called “CERN weasel”, which was actually a stone marten. Not that it's alive to explain the distinction. It found its way into one of mankind's greatest technological achievements. The Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator used by scientists to study things like the birth of the universe. The “CERN weasel” did not find its way out. And when Kees Moeliker learned of this, the director of the Rotterdam Natural History Museum knew it would be a natural addition to his exhibition “Dead Animal Tales”. We reached Mr. Moeliker in Rotterdam, The Netherlands

HM: Mr. Moeliker, How did you acquire the infamous “CREN weasel” for your museum's exhibition?

KEES MOELIKER: In April last year, the first “CERN weasel” collided with the largest machine in the world. We immediately told them we were interested in acquiring the specimen because well it's a fine example of how man and animal collide. But unfortunately the animal was disposed of, so we were kind of disappointed. But when last November there was another occasion. The people over there were aware of our interest and they secured the poor creature. And we drove down there and collected it.

HM: So that animal’s bad luck was kind of your good luck?

KM: Well, you know we are a natural history museum, so are into dead animals — we are not a zoo.

HM: I guess not. Given what the CERN Collider is I mean how did this animal die?

KM: Well, it jumped over a fence of a power station that's feeding the CERN Collider. It is a high voltage transformer and it jumped from the fence of the transformer and then it was it was actually electrocuted and died instantly.

HM: I would imagine really pretty quick given the voltage?

KM: Yes. Yes, 18000 volts.

HM: What did this thing look or smell like when you picked up the carcass?

KM: Well, it pretty much looked like what you expect from an animal that had been electrocuted. The complete fur was burnt, well when you when you bend over your head over a candle some of your hair gets burned. That's how this creature looked and especially the feet, they were cooked and darker than the rest of the body.

HM: How did you get it back to Rotterdam?

KM: We had one of those handy cool boxes or refrigerators. And we bought a block of ice from a supermarket and it arrived safely frozen in Rotterdam in good shape.

HM: What inspired this dead animals with stories exhibition in the first place?

KM: We want to show that animal and human life sometimes and even more and more collide; with dramatic consequences for both. And that's because the habitat of animals and human more and more comes together. We kind of share the same habitat. For example, cities and built-up areas where we both live human lives intermingled as well. Sometimes this goes wrong for both parties.

HM: Was there a particular incident that sort of kicked off this whole thing?

KM: Yeah this was a long time ago when I started to work here in the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam as a curator. And on a beautiful evening in June 1995 mallard duck crashed into the window of my office and got killed and it fell down landed on its belly. But next to this dead duck when I looked out the window I saw a live duck and this live duck started to mount the dead duck. So this was another collision and of course the consequences were kind of dramatic. I mean this was the first case of homosexual necrophilia in this particular duck species.

HM: OK.

KM: Well, it made me think about the impact of the human environment or the behavior of animals, which of course wasn't really natural what happened there.

HM: Right. There's also fish in your collection I gather?

KM: Yeah there is there is a group of drunken youngsters in the Netherlands who had the habit of swallowing the fish from their aquarium after a lot of beer. And when the gold fishes were finished they caught another one from the aquarium that's an armored catfish. And those people there were not aware of the anti-predator strategy of this fish. And so when this fish was swallowed, the catfish erected the spines of his fins and got stuck in the man's throat. And of course this was dramatic for both the fish and the man.

HM: Yes.

KM: He tried to push it through or pull it out. He drank more beer. He tried lubricating with honey, but it all failed to dislodge the animal. So he ended up in the hospital which happened to be next door to the museum here. Where the doctors immediately informed me about this fish and asked if I was interested in the specimen for our museum. I said of course. But I urged them to take care of the patients first. And they did. The poor man was in the Intensive Care for a week.

HM: Wow.

KM: And we got the fish. So we're all happy.

HM: Do you have a favorite in your collection?

KM: Well, there is the hedgehog. It's a pretty common mammal here in Europe and they're fond of dairy products, especially ice cream. And this was when the first victim of the McFlurry ice pot was recorded here in the Netherlands and was a hedgehog that got logged in the ice cream cup and it suffocated.

HM: Oh dear.

KM: And of course is very dramatic and it's because people throw their garbage out on the street or alongside the road. So we got this hedgehog together with the ice cream pot and we displayed it as such to point people to the dramatic effects of their behavior. And the good news is that McDonald's decided to change the design of this ice cream pot in favor of the hedgehogs.

HM: Do you have any funeral rights at your museum.

KM: [Sound: Laughing] no no. We do have that duck today. And we celebrate the fate of the poor duck and we try to find ways to prevent birds from colliding with glass buildings. That's the only ceremony we have here and it's on June 5th every year at 5:55 p.m. the exact moment when the poor deck crashed here again.

HM: What about this latest addition? Does the weasel have a name?

KM: “CERN Weasel Number Two” and we are very happy that it reached the museum in good shape and that we can show it. Because it's probably the finest example of the kind of thing we exhibit here in Rotterdam.

HM: Mr. Moeliker, It's nice to speak with you.

KM: Thank you.

HM: Thank you very much.

KM: Nice to speak to you too. Thank you very much.

HM: Bye bye.

CH: That was Kees Moeliker, who spoke to us from the Rotterdam Natural History Museum in the Netherlands, where he is the director. Recently, he added the stone marten that died after wandering into the Hadron particle accelerator to the museum's “Dead Animal Tails” exhibit. you can see pictures of that exhibit and learn more about this story on the as it happens web site: www.cbc.ca/aih. “CERN Weasel Number Two”, may you rest in peace.

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Part 2: Lynching apology, crokinole curling

Lynching apology

Guest: Louis Dekmar

CH: It's nearly eight decades late. But Austin Callaway has posthumously received an official apology. In 1940, the young black man was taken from his jail cell in Georgia by a group of men. He was later shot dead. No one was ever held responsible for the murder. At a church last night, police chief Louis Dekmar offered an apology for the lynching of Mr. Callaway. We reached Chief Dekmar in LaGrange, Georgia.

HM: Chief Dekmar, how did you first learn about Austin Callaway and what happened to him?

LOUIS DEKMAR: One of the captains of the police department came in and told me that she had overheard a couple of African-American, elderly women whisper that they had killed our people while looking at some historical photographs. And one pointed to a picture and made that statement. When I learned of that, I began inquiring around as to any sort of incidents that occurred that involved the police and the suspicious death. And then it didn't take long before I learned of the Austin Callaway lynching.

HM: So was it well-known in your community?

LD: No, no in fact, the mayor who was raised here all his life didn't know about it. I think there were significant quarters in the African-American community that knew about it. But I would be surprised that many members of the white community were aware of it.

HM: When you started this research into that case, were you able to find much?

LD: Online, locally I was not. There was no police record of his incarceration. No the police record of his arrest. No police record of his subsequent abduction. So all the information I got was from second parties: NAACT, news accounts most of them outside of Georgia. There was a smaller news account here in the LaGrange paper, but that ran for about one day.

HM: And what did the LaGrange paper say?

LD: Just essentially that a young African or a young Negro had been abducted from the city jail and was found shot multiple times and later died.

HM: That was it?

LD: That was essentially it.

HM: And how did Austin Callaway end up in jail in the first place?

LD: Based on news accounts for assault on a white woman, which back in those days could mean almost anything from whistling to you know making eye contact to you know some sort of physical assault. But the fact is there is no record. All we have is you know the news accounts of the nature of the arrest.

HM: How old was he at the time?

LD: Even that is unclear. Some accounts indicate 16 others indicate 18. He may have been as old as 21 or 22, so even that kind of records is not verifiable.

HM: How long had he been in that jail before he was pulled out and killed?

LD: Within hours. He was incarcerated in the city jail and several hours later was forcibly taken by at least six individuals that were wearing hoods and at least one was armed with a firearm.

HM: And his body was found you said on a roadside?

LD: Outside of town about nine miles.

HM: Why wasn't anyone ever held responsible for his murder?

LD: That was the nature you know regretfully and sadly of the times. It was just not a priority. It wasn't a priority not only for the police, but for the community in general — the white community — which you know was the community members that you know held the seats of power whether they'd be elected or academic or the media or the police.

HM: Why was it important for you to make this official apology last night given it's been well I guess nearly 80 years since Mr. Callaway’s murder?

LD: We say it's been 80 years, but the effect obviously, is still a challenge for the police department when I have members of the African American community standing in the lobby whispering to each other about officers that were formerly employed here you know responsible for killing people. And recognizing that attitudes and traditions about life are passed on through each generation, so African-Americans that were alive decades ago and they share incidents of terror lynching in that oral history about those times is passed down the generations and those frame the opinion that the contemporary generation has of the police. And the fact is that our history, our past, forms and shapes the present.

HM: Many people are noting how unusual it is for public officials like yourself to make a formal apology like this for something like a lynching. Why do you think that kind of thing is so rare? Why is there such hesitance?

LD: I don't think it's just with police. I think institutions by their nature are always apprehensive to admit they're wrong because they think it undermines confidence and they want to have the support of the communities they serve. I think the paradox is when institutions acknowledge that they're wrong. That in fact what it does is garner more support and confidence because people like to know that if something's wrong it's been acknowledged and it's going to be fixed and it's going to be made right. More importantly it's not going to be repeated.

HM: How did various members of your community there respond to this apology?

LD: Everyone has been extremely supportive complimentary both in the white and black community. And we're about 50/50 in terms of our demographic makeup.

HM: Were any of Austin Callaway’s relatives there?

LD: They were.

HM: And have you spoken with them?

LD: I've spoken with them before the acknowledgement and apology. I've got one of them waiting outside right now to speak with again.

HM: What's their reaction to all of this?

LD: Appreciative and very gracious and accepting the acknowledgment and apology.

HM: We're living in an era where there's a lot of perceived injustice right now. If something were to happen in your community that you felt was wrong would you be willing to come forward with a contemporary apology?

LD: Certainly. And in fact in those instances where we have been wrong, we've always tried to address it in a way that to make it right and ensure folks that that's not consistent with the expectations and standards of our agency.

HM: Well it's really good to talk with you Chief Dekmar, thank you very much.

LD: All right mam, I appreciate it.

HM: All right. Bye bye.

LD: Bye now.

CH: That was LaGrange police chief Louis Dekmar. We reached him in LaGrange, Georgia.

[Music: Piano]

Basketball eye

CH: His opponent on the basketball court was reaching for the ball. He grabbed Akil Mitchell's eyeball instead. In the moments that followed the New Zealand Breakers forward was not sure what had happened to him. He knew he was in pain and then slowly a sense of horror overcame Mr Mitchell, his eye ball was no longer in its socket. Mr Mitchell told New Zealand radio host Daniel McHardy about what happened. If you're eating you may want to stop for a minute and afterwards you may not want to eat again for a few days.

SOUNDCLIP

AKIL MITCHELL: I kind of felt the finger go into my eye and hit the floor. And I remember thinking oh man, he poked me in the eye. This was kind of bad, but I felt it kind of out of place and that's when I kind of freaked out a little bit. That kind of sense something was wrong so I you know just reactionary stuck my hand out there to kind of feel around and kind of with the palm of my hand felt my eyeball kind of on the side of my face. Which is when I knew I was worse than I thought it was.

DANIEL MCHARDY: OK. So what are your senses telling you thenwhen you recognize that it's not supposed to be there?

AM: That's just you know I kind of lost he just immediately started thinking about it and I hope I can see again. But then when I kind of calm down a little bit, took a few deep breaths and try to get out of the situation as best as possible. I never lost consciousness. Could still see with it even though it was you know kind of on the side of my face. I remember rolling over at this point I kind of knew it was out of place and I kind of moved my hand a little bit. To see if I could get up and do something else. And I kind of heard the crowd go you know take a deep breath. And I mean this is pretty bad. It was out of my socket so I couldn't really blink which I think was the worst by like believe it or not. That's kind of like torture. You know I just didn't think my hair was really dry and really red. And I remember telling people I just want to blink. I just want to blink my eye. Believe it or not after about 30 minutes, once I got in the ambulance they kind of gave me some pain medicine and some saline drops in my eye and I kind of felt it fly back into place which is also a really strange feeling, but it felt so good to be able to blink again.

DH: Have you seen the incident on video?

AM: I can’t watch it. I’ve seen screenshots and short snippets of me kind of squirming around on the floor. But I can’t watch the actual thing — the actual injury. I don't know if I'm ready to try.

CH: Akil Mitchell is a forward with the New Zealand Breakers basketball team. He was speaking to radio host Daniel McHardy about how his eyeball fell out of his socket during a game recently. He has since made a full recovery.

Crokinole curling

Guest: Liz Wreford

CH: Put the right two things together and people consider you a genius. Peanut butter and jelly. Hall and Oates. Or crokinole and curling. Yes, I said crokinole and curling. Some of you are so excited right now and some of you think I'm making words up. To the second group: crokinole is a board game invented in southwestern Ontario that involves flicking chips toward the center of an octagonal board. Now, some inventive people in Winnipeg have decided to take the game outdoors and combine it with another Canadian pastime: curling. It has been dubbed crokicurl. Liz Wreford is one of the creators. We reached her in Winnipeg.

HM: Ms. Wreford, you were just out on the ice there at The Forks in Winnipeg where this new game has been set up. So how was your first try at crokicurl?

LIZ WREFORD: Oh, it was great. It was so much fun to try. We've been thinking about this for about the last 8 months and so for it to just finally be able for us to play and all ready to go is very exciting.

HM: How did you first come up with this idea of combining crokinole and curling?

LW: Well we're a landscape architecture and architecture firm in Winnipeg. So a lot of our work is about finding ways to get people to inhabit public space and get people excited about being outside. And so we were just kind of playing crokinole in the office actually, which we do for a diversion sometimes and we thought — hold on a second — has anyone ever put those two together? They must have. And so we kind of did a bit of a search and found that no one actually ever had. So we spent the next two weeks getting a little bit obsessed about it and developed the rules and did a drawings and pitched it to The Forks and they ate it up really quickly.

HM: Wow. I hate to say this, I have to admit I had never heard of crokinole until this story came out.

LW: What! [Sound: Laughing]

HM: I know!

LW: It's going to be the next big thing. I think this is the resurgence of crokinole actually.

HM: What have I been missing? How do you play it?

LW: How do you play crokinole? Well it's an octagon-shaped board on a table top. It's made of wood and you can play it with teams or you can play it one against one and there's a bunch of chips — wooden chips — and you flick them basically into the middle of the circle. It's a little bit like shuffleboard, but you don't put any sand or anything on the board and you try and knock your opponent's chips out of the way and you have to hit the opponents chip to be allowed to leave your chip on the board. And there's a little button in the middle that's depressed a little bit and that's the 20 point button. If you get your chip into the button and you take a chip out of play and that's 20 points. Whoever has the most points at the end wins.

HM: So was that the whole thing that inspired it? You thought button, buttons curling?

LW: Well it kind of looks a little bit like it. there's sort of like a target that you have to get everything into the middle and you know there's a lot of similarities there. They’re just both such amazing Canadian pastimes.

HM: While I don't know crokinole, I do know a little bit about curling. So how do the rules of this game work when you're dealing with curling too?

LW: Well, it's played on a 40 foot wide a surface that's octagon-shaped just like a crokinole board. And we play it with curling rocks. We have junior curling rocks that are actually made of like a really dense plastic, which is perfect for outside. Each person goes on opposite sides of the ring can you shoot into the middle and try and hit each other’s rocks out of the way and try and get them into the button in the middle, which we actually have a little depressed ice surface right in the very middle of the rink.

HM: How hard is it to get some points?

LW: It's not too hard. But there's an art to it. It is its own new sport. It really isn't one or the other. I think if you're good at curling you're not necessarily good cokicurl. I think potentially someone that's really good at crokinole might be able to pick this up better. But you don't actually slide with the rock. You just kind of push it from the side and you try and hit the other person's rock the other way. But it's super doable and very accessible to everybody. And I think everyone's going to have so much fun.

HM: Did you have any challenges getting me. You know I don't know what to call it? Do you call it a rink?

LW: I don't know I don't really know what to call it either. I hope nobody skates on it!

HM: Did you have any trouble getting the facility together?

LW: No, The Forks has been amazing. They've been working with us for a few months. We had a few leveling issues at first because it has to be very level and then last week the snow all melted and the ice just melted away, so they were they were almost done and it was supposed to open last week and they actually had to start all over again about four days ago. But it’s cold enough now and it looks like it's going to stay cold, so we're lucky.

HM: Right. People who know Winnipeg at all know The Forks is a pretty popular area. Are people are going to be lined up to get on to this thing?

LW: I think they might be. I think we might actually have the figure out some way to get people to line up or sign up early or something like that because we've had so much interest. I'm actually now a little bit worried that it's going to be hard for people to play. But I think what's going to happen is it's going to just become a real community of people and everyone is going to give everybody else a chance and a little turn to play and we're asking that everybody limits their time to an hour, so that we can share the sport with everybody.

HM: Maybe it'll be like hockey rink time where you've got people playing all through the night just to get some ice time.

LW: I think it might be. I think next year we might need more crokicurl rinks.

HM: What is your ultimate hope for this game?

LW: Well you know, we've talked about that a lot. And I think it seems like it's going to really be embraced by everyone across Canada. We've heard things like this is the most Canadian game ever in the world. I've had interest just actually from B.C. like all the way across Canada, tons of interest in Ontario and The Prairies. And I think just no one can believe that it actually exists and I hope people come to Winnipeg to play it. But I also hope that it starts spreading across Canada and it starts popping up in cities and towns all over the place.

HM: The Olympics next?

LW: I think it might be. It might be a long shot. We may have to perfect the rules. We're working on that, but yeah.

HM: It sounds like a lot of fun and I'm sure it'll be really busy this weekend. All the best with it.

LW: Thank you so much.

HM: OK. Bye.

LW: Bye.

CH: Liz Wreford is a landscape architect at Public City Architecture and one of the creators of crokinole curling or crokicurl. She was in Winnipeg.

[Music: Rock]

Dog reggae

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: A dog is harmonizing its howls with the As It Happens theme song]

NANCY LOPRESTI: How’s that?

MARY LOU FINLAY: Oh, that’s lovely. What a beautiful voice she has, every night?

NL: Every night at 6:30 she does this.

CH: From 2005, that is Pickles the poodle harmonizing with the As It Happens theme. The humans were Pickles's owner, Nancy LoPresti and our former host Mary Lou Finlay. Now Pickles obviously appreciates music. There's also the possibility that she hates it a lot. Either way she is moved by it. And now a new study confirms that she's not the only one. It was conducted by the Scottish SPCA and the University of Glasgow. Researchers played different music to dogs: classical, Motown, pop, reggae and soft rock and monitored what they did. Well the dogs responded to all the music. The study says that they spent quote, “significantly more time lying down and significantly less time standing.” Unquote when any music at all was playing, but they seem to especially like the soft rock and the reggae. Now it is not clear exactly what soft rock or Reggae the dogs heard or how we know they were lying down because they were happy with the music and not because they literally wouldn't stand for it. But let's assume they were prone to enjoy the mellow songs which is why they were prone. And I guess that means we'll poor Pickles an apology.

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Part 3: US chefs win Bocuse d’Or, dumbest laws

May/Trump Newser

CH: Today, two world leaders held a press conference at the White House. One of them answered reporters’ questions in the traditional manner of politicians. Calmly and clearly while studiously dodging any thorny issues. The other one was Donald Trump. Here are British Prime Minister Theresa May and the U.S. President taking questions from the BBC's Laura Kuenssburg.

SOUNDCLIP

LAURA KUENSSBURG: Prime Minister, you've talked about where you agree, but you have also said you would be frank where you disagree with the President. Can you tell us where in our talks you did disagree and do you think that the President listened to what you had to say? And Mr. President, you've said before that torture works. You've praised Russia. You've said you want to ban some Muslims from coming to America. You've suggested there should be punishment for abortion for many people in Britain, those sound like alarming beliefs. What do you say to our viewers at home who are worried about some of your views and worried about you becoming the leader of the free world?

DONALD TRUMP: This was your choice of the question?

[Sound: Laughter heard throughout the room]

DT: There goes that goes that relationship.

THERESA MAY: On the issue that you raised with me, Laura. Can I confirm that the President… I’ve been listening to the President and the President has been listening to me. That's the point of having a conversation and a dialogue. We have been discussing a number of topics; we'll carry on meeting and discussing a number of other topics. And there will be times when we disagree and issues on which we disagree. The point of the special relationship is that we are able to have that open and frank discussion. But I'm clear also that there are many issues on which the United Kingdom and the United States stand alongside one another.

DT: We have a great general, who has just been appointed Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis and he has stated publicly that he does not necessarily believe in torture. I don't necessarily agree. But I would tell you that he will override because I'm giving him that power. He's an expert, he's highly respected. He's the “generals’ general”. As far as again Putin and Russia, I don't say good, bad or indifferent. How the relationship works out, I won't be able to tell you that later. I've had many times where I thought I'd get along with people and I won’t be able to tell you that later. I've had many times where I thought I’d get along with people and I don’t like them at all. And I’ve had some where I didn't think I was going to have much of a relationship. And it turned out to be a great relationship. So Teresa, we never know about those things do we? But I will tell you one thing I'll be representing the American people very strongly.

That was U.S. President Donald Trump speaking at a press conference in Washington earlier today with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

[Music: Percussive]

US chefs win Bocuse d’Or

Guest: Philip Tessier

SOUNDCLIP

SPEAKER: United States!

[Sound: Thunderous applause and cheers]

CH: That is the sound of a victory that was a long time coming. This week, Team USA won gold at the Bocuse d’Or for the first time in the competition's 30 year history. The Bocuse d’Or is hosted in Lyon, France; it is considered the culinary equivalent of the Olympics. Team France often dominates the competition — quelle surprise — but this year finally it was America's turn. Chef Phillip Tessier is the coach of Team USA. We reached him in Paris, France.

HM: First of all, Chef Phillip Tessier, congratulations.

PHILLIP TESSIER: Thank you very much.

HM: What did you think when you heard that you’d won?

PT: You know it's interesting, when you're there you dedicate so much time and effort to get to that point. And I think we kind of knew we were at that point once we have gotten to the announcement that we were going to win and this was happening. It is kind of hard to believe, it's been a long road to get there, so it's pretty amazing.

HM: I'm wondering if you could tell us a bit about the competition itself?

PT: Yeah absolutely. I mean it started 30 years ago and it was really just about bringing community and chefs together. And basically you have 24 countries that have qualified to compete against one another. And it's just two chefs in a box, what we call a candidate and a commis or an apprentice and then myself the coach across from them to kind of guide them through you know the process. And it is basically a five-and-a-half-hour race to do the most extraordinary food that you can. And it's a pressure cooker and you’re in an auditorium with people with faces painted and flags waving and drums beating. The ambiance is like a soccer stadium… or should I say football?

HM: Right.

PT: And yeah it's pretty incredible environment and atmosphere. And you know you really have to be there to experience it.

HM: Now, you said you're on your feet for five-and-a-half-hours. Is that without a break? You're cooking and preparing the whole time?

PT: Yeah you're just basically running the race and there's literally not a moment to lose from the time you start to the time you go. You get about an hour before as well. So all told here and there about seven hours with your head down just going for it.

HM: And all that time, how many dishes are you preparing?

PT: So, basically the way it’s set up, you have a dish. this year was a vegan dish, which we found out just two months ago. We only had two months to really plan that. About five months ago in September, we found of that we had to plate a chicken with a crayfish, a famous dish from Lyon. But each country had to represent in a different way. So you’re basically preparing 14 portions of each one. So you do the plated dishes and then the meat goes down to about 35 minutes later. And that has a whole platter that you have to create yourself. And that's the presentation on the platter that is paraded before the judges and the auditorium and then it's broken down into plates afterwards so that the judges can taste.

HM: Forgive me for thinking two months is a long time. I worry if I got company coming on Saturday and I haven't decided what I'm cooking by Thursday.

PT: If you think about live this way, you know if you're if you're a gymnast right there’s a time to perfect all of the moves. And then there's a time to put it all together and choreograph it. And if you think about it like for example, what we did in 2015, we counted all of the ingredients that we used. There's 130 ingredients you know 28 plates that you're putting out. And there's two of you and one of them going is an apprentice. If that puts it into maybe perspective: to be able to choreograph all of the work that goes into that five-and-a-half-hour time frame. So it's pretty an extraordinary task.

HM: Your meat dish was essentially chicken and crayfish, but that doesn't do it justice. Can you tell us what you ended up presenting?

PT: Basically there's a minimum of three garnishes that you have to present. We did a carrot garnish with onion cream, kind of wrapped in a pretzel — a cracker if you will. And then we did a very beautiful potato crepe with potato puree, truffles and a kind of salt-and-vinegar chip if you will that we had kind of created in a dome shape that was clear. In addition to that, we did a custard of corn trying to use ingredients from our country, with a foie-gras mousse. And then the chicken itself was with a morel sausage. And you know 40 per cent of your score in this competition is taste. And that's really what we're focused on all year long and my goal as a coach is to keep Matt focused on the food and developing the flavors and refining the techniques. And the sauce was a roasted crayfish. And in our case, we used lobster bones and chicken stock together and finished with crème fraiche. It's just a really great balance between kind of the richness and the brightness of the shellfish flavor.

HM: I'm getting the five-and-a-half-hours now.

PT: Yeah, it’s a little different than just a fried egg.

HM: What about the vegan dish. You mentioned that being a challenge. I don't know I always hear chefs’ distain people who want vegan and vegetarian food. How do you present a vegan dish with the same kind of love and panache?

PT: I’ll say that it’s definitely a challenge I mean I think we love working with vegetables and the versatility that they offer. And so in some ways it was exciting. But in other ways it was really challenging to get kind of richness and depth of flavor that you would get from you know having the fat that you get from cream or eggs or butter. So it was definitely a challenge, we kind of hit a brick wall and then you know we were allowed to bring two ingredients with us. The rest of the ingredients had to come from a market which you go into the night before and you have 30 minutes to shop through and grab the ingredients that you want. So you know we brought asparagus and we brought green almonds from California and you know based everything around that. So kind of really working the balance of say those who developed a red wine sauce, I got to say it was really delicious when we got there, but we had some bad food along the way as well.

HM: Right. It's hard to imagine that people of your caliber would produce any bad food?

PT: Well, you know I think it’s all in perspective. You know I mean when you're trying new things you always fail on certain levels and you know then you get to the point where it challenges you to overcome that. I mean I think sometimes you don't hit the mark.

HM: Were there any hiccups along the way in the competition for you guys?

HM: Yeah, you know get you get put in this three by six meter box with four burners, an oven and just the two of you and there's all these things that are challenging. You’re in France, everything is different in the equipment that we're using and you know we had a real struggle with one of our garnishes. It kind of stuck to the mould and we had to find the solution to it. But somehow we got through it and everything came through at the end. So the meat service, I’ll never forget those 35 minutes that's for sure.

HM: How did you get it out of the mould?

PT: Well, we looked at each other and said what are we going to do? And I said let's put this steamer and pray and so we did. Sometimes you have to improvise to find the solution and use your training in the moment to get you there.

HM: So how are you celebrating the win?

PT: Well, a couple of days in Paris resting for the moment and then we'll see where it goes from here.

HM: Where are you all eating tonight in Paris?

PT: Somewhere quiet.

HM: Congratulations. I'm sure all of your fans back in the States are going to be really proud of you. Thanks.

PT: Thank you. Thanks for having us.

HM: OK. Bye.

PT: Bye.

CH: Chef Phillip Tessier is the coach of Team USA, who won gold at the Bocuse d’Or earlier this week. It's the first time the Americans have won gold in the professional cooking competitions 30 year history. We reached Chef Tessier in Paris, France and there's more on that story on the As It Happens web site: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Electronic]

Atlantic storm

CH: Residents of New Brunswick are still reeling from the severe ice storm that hit the province earlier this week. About 55,000 people throughout the province are still without power. 20,000 of them are in the Acadian Peninsula, according to the most recent figures from NB Power and the CBC is reporting that it appears two people have died. At least three communities have declared a state of emergency. And New Brunswick Public Safety Minister believes that a state of emergency might have to be declared for the whole peninsula. Kevin Hache is the mayor of Caraquet. Today he briefed CBC Radio's Maritime Noon on the situation in his town.

SOUNDCLIP

KEVIN HACHE: Well, the street we’re referring to from the video, we have almost the same situation right here in Caraquet. Yesterday we had an NB Power crew planting new poles. We have parts of the city that are blocked because of falling poles in the middle of the road. There are poles in the residential area. People can't get out of their house with cars. So it’s a very sad moments with Arcadian Peninsula because of it.

Norma Lee McLeod: So people can't get out of their homes with their cars because the lines are down around them?

KH: Exactly. Yes. And we have our firefighters are going in the streets with their sirens on to look if there’s people in the houses that need help. We have a shelter here in Caraquet, we have a generator. So there's some food there and we’re inviting people that if they don't have electricity at home that he can come here to warm up. We have Internet. We have power so people can charge their phone. But yes there are people still stuck in their house. But a lot of the people support each other, so a lot of people know people that have electricity or have a generator, so they go there. So we're still going good even though the situation is bad.

NLM: Is this a storm like any you've seen before?

KH: No not at all. And I think you know what happened with this storm is that you know we had rain already in winter. We had freezing rain, but nobody ever imagined it would get to that point. When you look outside it is sad. I had a tree — you know I love trees — and I have a bunch on my property and half of them are just cut have, they're broken and I had to cut a bunch of branches to be able to get out of my driveway. You know it's just as anybody really thought that it could get so bad so quick.

CH: That was Kevin Hache, mayor of Caraquet, New Brunswick speaking with normally McLeod on Maritime Noon earlier today.

[Music: Ambient]

Sunday Edition promo

CH: Just eight years ago, there were heady musings that the election of a black man as president in the United States meant the beginning of a so-called “post racial era”. But however high the hopes and however lofty and inspiring Barack Obama's rhetoric may have been. The U.S. is arguably more racially divided now than it was when Mr. Obama came to office. And with Donald Trump now sitting in the White House, few African-Americans seem to have much hope things will improve. Michael Eric Dyson is an ordained Baptist minister, and a professor of sociology at Georgetown University. He's the author of “The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America” and his new book is called “Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America”. He's Michael Enright’s guest on the Sunday Edition this weekend. In their conversation Michael asks Professor Dyson how he responds when people tell African-Americans that slavery, lynching and segregation were in the past — not the fault of white people — and that they should just move on and stop harping about racism.

SOUNDCLIP

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: Yeah, well it's a common question and the first thing we want to say is cause you’ll never let us get over it. You know we always try to get out of the parameters of race and you keep dragging us back in. You know you know it blames black people for the very burden of race that we bear because people have invented race for their advantage. We have to address it. We suffer the consequences of it. And now we're being charged with having created it because we lament or sometimes lambaste the way in which we are you know victimized by it but to pretend that black people invented race or are the ones who are perpetuating a legacy of inequality is to profoundly misunderstand the nature of you know acknowledging race without trying to capitulate to racism. And acknowledging that white brothers and sisters invented race for their benefit, but many white people continue to blame black people for merely acknowledging that the problem exists. So we blame the doctor for ignorance acknowledging and diagnosing the disease that exists.

CH: Professor Michael Eric Dyson speaking with Michael and right now you can hear their conversation this weekend on the Sunday Edition after the 9 o'clock news.

[Music: Guitar]

Dumbest law

Guest: Trevor Bruintjes

CH: There are awards you want and awards you don't the British Columbia town of Smithers won a prize from that second category this week: the un-coveted Paper Weight Award, from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, for having some of what the CFIB deems the most outrageous red tape for small businesses. Smithers’s ofence: requiring a renovating local business to spend ten thousand dollars building a sidewalk to nowhere. Trevor Bruintjes is the general manager of North Central Plumbing and Heating, the Smithers company that was required to build the lonely sidewalk. We reached him in Smithers, British Columbia.

HM: Mr. Bruintjes, as the Shel Silverstein pawn goes, “there is a place where the sidewalk ends and before the street begins”. Where does your sidewalk end?

TREVOR BRUINTJES: My sidewalk ends between… I don't know it's 33 meters of sidewalk and it's doesn't end. It goes nowhere. It's just a sidewalk all alone.

HM: What’s on either side of it?

TB: It's just a green space, kind of a meridian — a ditch — between the highway and the frontage road. And on my portion in front of the building that I currently am occupying it's 33 meters of concrete.

HM: So if I step off your sidewalk at one end, what does my foot land on?

TB: A little bit of dirt. And then you're going to be in about a three foot ditch.

HM: OK. That doesn't sound too good.

TB: No. They've angled it so that it comes back on to the highway…sorry, back onto the frontage road. So then you're on the edge of the road — the shoulder of the road.

HM: Do you think it's dangerous where it's located?

TB: It's pretty useless where it's located. I mean every now and again we see somebody walking on it, but not very many.

HM: how far away is the next closest strip of sidewalk?

TB: It's about 500 meters north of where I'm at.

HM: So why did you have to build this sidewalk?

TB: So a lot of municipalities have a development fee when you do a renovation or you build a new building for instance you have a lot you want to put a new building on it you may be required by the municipality to upgrade the services such as the sidewalks or paving the alleyways or you know you may be required to put in you know trees and planters and things like that to go with the theme of the town or whatever they require. And it's a development fee they call it.

HM: Did the city say what it's trying to achieve with this particular focus on a sidewalk?

TB: I don't think they targeted me specifically for the sidewalk. I think if anybody does a renovation along this particular strip of frontage road they would be required if they do a renovation over $100,000 the town will do an audit to see if there's some development things that they would have to do to get the building approval building permit to do that work. And that could be another chunk of sidewalk you know maybe you know 400 meters down the road, who really knows. But the threshold has been moved from $75,000 from before the sidewalk to now it's $100,000, so more renovations can be done without having to trigger that development cost.

HM: Given the location of your building, how did you react when you found out about this requirement?

TB: It was pretty silly and actually I didn't actually know because it's a leased building it was the owner of the building that had to foot the bill to do the development. I stood where he was going what are you doing over here? And he said the town's requiring me to build a sidewalk and I just kind of rolled my eyes and said that's about the silliest thing I've ever seen. And then as it's been constructed, yeah it is pretty lonely just sitting there all by itself.

HM: Did you try to get out of this?

TB: Oh totally. We offered to you know you can ask for a variance you know say this doesn't make a lot of sense. Do we really need to do that? And in the case of the back of my building they did give us a variance on having to pave the alleyway because there's not enough drainage back there, so the variance made some sense. But we did offer some money in lieu of building the sidewalk so that they could do some other. But I guess that goes against some sort of municipal rule in British Columbia. And so yeah we had to put in the sidewalk.

HM: When you see someone walking across a section of sidewalk. Does everyone in the office get together and cheer?

TB: Totally. We go hey look, somebody is running across our sidewalk or walking across our sidewalk. At the first snowfall this year we were quite surprised to see the bright orange town of Smithers sidewalk equipment there clearing and sanding our piece of sidewalk.

HM: Oh see you're actually on the list for getting the snow cleared?

TB: Oh absolutely. A lot of the town's people would have you know would make even more of a spectacle if they didn't.

HM: Now what message do you think that this Paperweight Award is trying to send?

TB: I think I think it points out that sometimes rules lack the logic. You know the idea of a development fee and to put development in place. It does make sense, but there are definitely places where it doesn't make sense and even Mayor Bachrach said himself, you know when he saw the finished product he said I'm going to catch some flack for this. Because once it was in place you could just tell that it didn't it wasn't a very logical use of time, effort and our money to put that piece of infrastructure in.

HM: What kind of attention is it getting? And you know what kind of comments is it eliciting now that all these people are taking notice?

TB: Everybody thinks it's very very silly. I mean I've had people all over the world. You know Dublin and Australia and different places contact me and go is this actually a piece of sidewalk? And it's true it really is. It's gone viral in its own little way and it's done a great job of promoting the new location for North Central Plumbing and Heating that had spent 40 years in its old location and moving it here was a big step for us, but now everybody knows that if you want to find North Central Plumbing and Heating you just have to look for the sidewalk to nowhere.

HM: Anyone suggested you have a sidewalk sale?

TB: Oh totally. We're definitely going to do one in the spring for sure.

HM: You want all our plumbing supplies we show up at your place in the spring.

TB: Totally.

HM: Right Mr. Bruintjes, thank you very much.

TB: Hey no problem at all. Have a great day.

HM: Nice to talk to you. Bye bye.

CH: That was Trevor Bruintjes in Smithers, British Columbia. His company was required to build a sidewalk to nowhere last year. This week, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business gave Smithers its Paperweight Award for the most outrageous red tape for small businesses. The city's mayor Taylor Bacharach has said he wishes the CFIB had contacted the community to understand the reasons for the bylaw which include increasing walkability. He also said that funding for a gravel trail connecting the sidewalk to the overall pedestrian network had been approved.

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Jan. 27, 2017 episode transcript

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