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The AIH Transcript for May 4, 2017

Hosts: Carol Off and Chris Howden

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

CAROL OFF: Hello, I'm Carol Off.

CH: Good evening, I'm Chris Howden, sitting in for Jeff Douglas. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

CH: Tonight:

CO: A not-especially clean bill of health. U.S. President Donald Trump scores a win when the House passes a bill to replace Obamacare. A Republican representative who voted against it says it has problematic pre-existing conditions.

CH: Tapping into their liquid assets. The city of Flint, Michigan, says it's well on its way to solving its contaminated-water problem – and now it wants residents to pay their overdue bills, or else.

CO: Animal instinct. Two years ago, an Ontario woman was charged with mischief for giving water to pigs headed for slaughter – but today, a judge acquitted her, saying her actions were not criminal.

CH: The beginning of a beautiful friend ship. A Norwegian oil-industry billionaire wants to give away most of his considerable wealth – and he's starting by paying for a vessel that will help the ocean instead of harming it.

CO: An unfair man advantage. Women at last night's Edmonton Oilers game missed all kinds of line changes because they couldn't change lines themselves – they were stuck waiting endlessly for the bathroom.

CH: And...neither a borrower nor a lender be. A Toronto librarian makes the case against so-called "Little Free Libraries" – because she says those generous offerings of terrible paperbacks that fell in the bath risk undermining the public library system.
As It Happens, the Thursday edition. Radio that guesses, whether you use them or criticize them, you'll end up in someone's bad books.

[Music]

Back To Top »

Part 1: Health care vote, pig protester acquitted, little free libraries

Health care vote

Guest: Leonard Lance

CHRIS HOWDEN: Here is U.S. president Donald Trump surrounded by smiling House Republicans earlier today.

SOUNDCLIP

DONALD TRUMP: It's been a catastrophe. And this is a great plan. I actually think it will get even better. And this is, make no mistake this is a repeal and a replace of Obamacare. Make no mistake about it. Make no mistake.

[Sound: Applause]

DONALD TRUMP: And I think most importantly, yes, premiums will be coming down. Yes, deductibles will be coming down. But very importantly, it's a great plan and ultimately that's what it's all about.

CH: President Donald Trump celebrating a legislative victory with House Republicans. Today the House voted to repeal and replace Obamacare which was of course a key campaign pledge of the president's. Just six weeks ago, republican leaders failed to muster the votes necessary to pass an earlier version of the bill. Even today the vote was very tight. Not a single Democrat voted for it and 20 Republicans voted against it. One of those Republicans is New Jersey Representative Leonard Lance. We reached him in Washington DC.

CAROL OFF: Congressman Lance, you are a Republican as you know and you voted against this health care bill. Why?

LEONARD LANCE: I don't think that it will lower premiums for the American people, and I would like to see Democrats and Republicans work together. What I personally favor is purchase of policies across state lines and tort reform. And I would hope that as the legislation moves to the Senate there might be participation by our Democratic colleagues in the Senate as well as improvements in the bill. And maybe just a few specifics.

CO: This is a Canadian audience, we're not as detailed in our knowledge of this but what exactly concerns you enough about this bill the vote against it?

LL: I am concerned about the fact that I want to make sure that no American is denied coverage based upon a pre-existing condition. There are some protections in this bill but I think we should make it ironclad. And that is not a Republican principle or a democratic principle. I think that's a principle for the American people.

CO: And but there is going to be another $8 billion to help cover people with pre-existing conditions. Is that not enough?

LL: I don't think that that is enough. And I would like to have seen the CBO score, a Congressional Budget Office score to analyze the bill in a non-partisan fashion by what we call the CBO.

CO: And now this we saw, this has been a political victory for House speaker Paul Ryan. Did he offer you anything? Did he try and woo you to the side of voting in favor of this bill?

LL: Certainly I had the honor of meeting with our speaker and our speaker favors moving the bill forward. And I can understand that. But I don't think the bill in its current form is likely to pass in the Senate of the United States.

CO: So this is a political victory but you don't believe it's a health care victory?

LL: I think that we can do better. I certainly would urge our Democratic colleagues to come to the table. It was, after all, under Democratic control of the Congress with a Democratic president that the initial legislation was passed in 2010. And I do think my Democratic colleagues have a responsibility to come to the table in a way they've not done so far. And actually, I think it's the responsibility of Republicans to try to reach out to Democrats because the American people want bipartisan cooperation to improve health care in this country.
The exchanges are not working particularly well. They were one of the main components of the original legislation in 2010, and in one third of the counties in the United States. There is only one private insurer for the exchanges, and that means we have to do a better job in that regard.

CO: Do you think it's actually possible to find that common ground you said between Democrats and Republicans?

LL: I certainly hope so. And I think it's the responsibility of both sides to bring that about. And the Democrats are watching from the sidelines now. And I hope that they participate in the game, as it were. And I would hope that we Republicans would invite them to participate.
And I think that the best legislation is the legislation that is passed in a bi-partisan capacity. That was not true with the original legislation in 2010 and I think that's why it has significant deficiencies. And I think we can do better and I hope that the Senate of the United States does better.

CO: Social media is full of stories from the United States about what people are fearing will happen to their health care with the passage of this bill. People who are talking about not being on their dialysis program anymore, losing the drugs they need, losing the treatments losing all kinds of things. People are afraid. What are you hearing from your own constituents?

LL: I've had three town hall meetings in the last two months. 1400 at the first one, 900 at the second and I think 700 constituents at the third, and certainly my constituents favor bipartisan cooperation. They certainly want reform because the system is not working as well as we hoped that it could work and they want to make sure that nobody is denied coverage based upon a pre-existing condition.

CO: Were they angry?

LL: Certainly it was vigorous but I always participate in town hall meetings. I have a tradition of doing that and I've done that as well this year.

CO: Do you think this is what they wanted you to do? To vote against this particular bill?

LL: Based upon the correspondence we received in the telephone calls we've received, that seems to be the consensus in the district I serve.

CO: Just finally you heard the Democrats singing in the house “Na na na na, hey hey hey good bye”, a reference I understand, to their belief Republicans will lose in the 2018 midterm elections because of this vote. Was that was that a possibility in the back of your mind when you voted today?

LL: I always vote my conscience. I thought the behavior of the Democrats on the floor was not behavior in which I've ever engaged and I've been in a similar situation I suppose when the original health care legislation passed on a purely partisan vote. And that's not the type of behavior in which I would ever engage on the floor of the House of Representatives. And I thought it was unfortunate that Democratic colleagues did that today. And I don't think that that is in the tradition of bipartisan cooperation. And I try to lead by example, and my example has never been to conduct myself that way on the floor of the house or in fact anywhere else.

CO: Congressman Lance, thank you.

LL: Thank you very much. Have a great day.

CH: Leonard Lance is a Republican House Representative for New Jersey. Today, the House passed a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. Congressman Lance voted against it. He's in Washington.

[Music]

Pig protestor

Guest: Anita Krajnc

JD: Anita Krajnc says she was just following the golden rule.
In 2015, the animal rights activist was charged with mischief, for giving water to thirsty pigs headed for slaughter at a Burlington, Ontario meat plant. And today, a judge agreed that Ms. Kranjnc did nothing wrong: she was found not-guilty of the charges. We reached Anita Krajnc in Toronto.

CO: Ms. Krajnc, what did the judge have to say to you this morning when he found you not guilty?

ANITA KRAJNC: The judge said that I, what I did on traffic island was not interfering with either the truck or the pigs. But he did say that the pigs were property. So on the one hand, I'm happy that you know that compassion is not a crime. That me giving water to the pigs is not criminal as I believe it should not be. But on the other hand, I was hoping to see some progress in terms of Canadian law on how animals are viewed.

CO: Well what did you want him to say? What did you want the outcome to be?

AK: Well, you know, a five day trial, we had incredible witnesses talk about pigs as persons because they are sentient, they’re self-aware, they have complex personalities. So I was hoping you know, the judge having listened to that testimony, having seen some of the videos that we presented, we showed a video of Pigs at the pig preserve, where there's really roaming on a hundred acres in Tennessee, and they have their own complex language in society. They’re matriarchal, they have 30 different sounds and more than a hundred types of communication when you add the body language to it. And I was hoping that there would be a more enlightened decision with respect to how animals, pigs and other animals are viewed under the law.

CO: Let's just go back to 2015 when you were outside this slaughter house in Burlington. What made you approach this particular truck?

AK: So it was just a typical vigil. It was it is a hot summer day, and so we stand outside the Fearman's Pork Incorporated slaughterhouse at Appleby Line and Harvester. And when a truck approaches, we go to the traffic island so that we can bear witness to the pigs, so that we can look inside the portholes and you know, touch them, say hi you know, say we love them and we're sorry.
And when I looked in the truck, I said let’s give them water because the pigs were panting and foaming at the mouth. Clearly they were suffering from heat, and the truck driver jumped out and said don't give them water. I said what I quoted, loosely quote the Bible. I said “When I was thirsty you gave me water”, and he said “Well they're not human you dumb broad”. He said he’d call the police and I said “Call Jesus” because I thought it was ridiculous for him to say he's going to call the police, when what I saw was injustice. Like these poor pigs being really thirsty.
So I said, you know, I just continued to get in the water and he drove off. And I didn't hear anything more about the case until about, I don't know, eight weeks later, a Toronto officer came to my door and issued a summons.

CO: And said that you had been, you were being charged with committing mischief.

AK: Yes. Criminal mischief, interference with property. And at the trial we learned that the property being referred to were the pigs.

CO: Had you ever given, in the vigils you had before, had you ever given water to the pigs before?

AK: Yes we were giving water to thirsty pigs for about two or three years.

CO: The truck driver said that he believed you might be trying to feed the pigs some substance that would make them not acceptable at the slaughterhouse and that's the argument that the Crown gave, that you were giving, that you might have been giving the pigs an unknown substance. What did the judge say about that?

AK: He said there was no evidence for that. And in fact, he didn't really feel that the truck driver simply took the pigs to the slaughterhouse and all of them were slaughtered. And he didn't mention anything. So I think that was just something that was suggested to try to perhaps justify the charge. But you know clearly, you know when we give water to the pigs, it’s because it's an act of compassion and love. Just like when somebody to help a homeless person, gives them a sandwich, “Oh is that sandwich contaminate?” You know if that ever happened, then then anyone doing that should be charged with with a crime they're committing.

CO: So if you have done this before, if you and the others have given water to pigs before, why do you think that this particular truckdriver responded in this way in order to have you pressed, have you charged.

AK: I think our group was building momentum. And the reality is that our social media videos showing us giving water to pigs is something that really moves people a lot because it shows the suffering of pigs and it shows people helping. And you know, we do social media. We take footage of just the pigs in the trucks and there's scratches. But in the summer’s heat, we try to help them and it's a small act of mercy. It's a very small act of compassion. And our group is, I think, what we're trying to do is a lot more than that. But it's, this is you know, giving water to the thirsty animals is something that is a small act of compassion that you can do in the circumstances.

CO: Do you think you will continue to give water to pigs?

AK: We have since I’ve been charged. Like I've still, I’ve been giving water in the summer, and others have. And they, you know, the first vigil that Hong Kong Pigs, they gave water to pigs. They do that at Essex Pig Saves in England and Manchester Pigs Save. And also in Sweden, and there's a new group that just started in Lima, Peru called Lima Save Movement. And they gave water to thirsty cows. So it's, it's actually a worldwide phenomenon. And if anything, it's just going to grow.

CO: Ms. Krajnc, thank you so much for speaking with us.

AK: It's a pleasure talking to you. Thank you very much.

CO: Bye-bye.

CH: JD: We reached Anita Krajnc in Toronto. Today, she was found not guilty of mischief, after giving water to pigs in a truck outside a slaughterhouse in 2015.

[Music]

Little Free Libraries

Guest: Jane Schmidt

CH: They look like quaint little houses on poles. They're filled with free books. And you'll find them in cities and towns around the world.
They're called Little Free Libraries. Some people find them quaint. Some find them a sign of good neighbourliness. And some people would rather not find them at all.
Jane Schmidt is a librarian. And she has a problem with Little Free Libraries. The Ryerson University staffer has just co-authored a critique of the book exchange system in the Journal of Radical Librarianship. We reached her in Toronto.

CO: Ms. Schmidt, among the many things you don't like about these bree book exchanges is the name. Why don't you like Little Free Libraries?

JANE SCHMIDT: Well the book exchanges themselves are just fine. I think that what we have a little bit of an issue with is the registered trademark of the term Little Free Libraries. What we are concerned about is that we live in a world of austerity agendas, and we see some disturbing trends in public library service, particularly in places like the UK and even here at home we saw recently moved to closed library services in Saskatchewan and in Newfoundland and Labrador, and here locally in Toronto, we're seeing pilot projects for staff-less libraries.

CO: OK but are you suggesting these little free libraries that people put on their front lawns are actually going to supplant the library systems of a city like Toronto?

JS: It's a little bit more nuanced than that. I think that what Todd Bol and his organization have done is has built up a really great brand, and they've become quite ubiquitous in media coverage.

CO: Just so people know, Todd Bol is the man behind Little Free Library the trademark, and not the organization itself.

JS: Yes because we always like to make sure that everybody knows we're talking about a non-profit organization itself and it's branded trademark, not the book exchanges themselves. So what we were trying to critically examine was what this non-profit organization, who has become a media darling, what they claimed to be accomplishing.

CO: OK for people who don't know, they have not seen them, these are these little kiosks, like little they look like big bird houses in the front lawns of people, with a little door on them, and you can take a book or leave a book. The idea is kind of quaint isn't it? I mean it’s just these people sort of saying I've got some books I'm not reading. You've got some books you might want to read that you find in my little box here. I mean what's wrong with that?

JS: Well there's nothing wrong with that. But what we suggest is that you don't necessarily need the branding of an organization that has trademarked the word “library” in order to do that. And that's kind of the bottom line. So yeah, it was just about disparity in image really. Why were people aligning themselves with this brand? What was this company all about, this non-profit organization I should say, and what were they setting out to do and were they really doing that? And what do they do that public libraries don't do or vice versa?

CO: You go further in this analysis. You're pointing out that where these Little Free Libraries turn up on front yards is principally and wealthy, upscale neighborhoods. And you say that perhaps these are really just kind of called branded philanthropy and people have the motor symbols of their values rather than as a gesture of helping people who might want to read something that they might not be able to access otherwise. What are you what are you talking about there?

JS: Well again, we're getting back to what the core mission of Little Free Libraries says that they're doing, which is they claim to be enhancing literacy and building community and bringing library services to quote unquote “book deserts.: And so my research partner, Jordan Hale from the University of Toronto, she and I had just kind of casually observed why do they always seem to be in you know The Beaches or you know, in the Annex, you know, the more wealthy, well-heeled neighborhoods, well-resourced neighborhoods in Toronto. And could we set out to determine whether or not this is a thing? Like is this really something that is just within privileged neighborhoods, and if so, how does that match up with what the organization claims to be doing. And is there a way that the organization could be a bit more purposeful and intentional in placing them in neighborhoods that are less well resourced? And is that something that is needed for that community and could they actually partner with their local public libraries in order to enhance service?

CO: What do you conclude about the about the people who are putting them on their front lawns in their motives?

JS: We didn't speak to their motives. We tried to stay away from doing ethnographic research because we could not escape the bias that was inherent in that.

CO: But you call it neo-liberal politics at street level.

JS: Neo-liberal politics at street level yes. So that's founded in the work done by a scholar with the name Rodrigo Davies who studies civic crowd-funding. And so what civic Crowdfunding is basically citizens deciding to get together and pooling money to fund services that would normally be provided by the government. You know, are we inadvertently sending a message to governments that may not think things through in an entirely holistic way that you know, why fund public libraries when you've got these local people who are going to you know just kind of run these Little Free Libraries on themselves?

CO: Have you seen anywhere where that might be the case, where that happened or might happen?

JS: Well I always like to preface this by saying that we did not set out to demonstrate that because if we did demonstrate that fact, that would mean that we had asked the question too late. And we didn't want to see that happen. But we came across a very small corner of the world in Texas where a village outside of El Paso, due to budget cuts, they had previously enjoyed access to the urban public library, the El Paso public library. And due to budget cuts, they were going to be having a levee of $50 placed on them. So it was the village of Vinton’s solution to build little free libraries, five of them, within town. And they made it clear that while they were going to build the libraries, it was going to be up to the community to keep them stocked.

CO: Now people have pointed out, in some of the reaction to your piece is that, if you go and open those little houses and look inside, it's usually quite often quite a pathetic collection. It doesn't seem to be a real genuine threat to what libraries are providing.

JS: Exactly right? I think that that's kind of the other thing. You know we didn't want to pick on that too much because–

CO: Oh you can

JS: It is what it is. But again, if you get back to what we were really trying to focus on with the Little Free Libraries, the non-profit, they speak very highly of what they're doing and the impact that they're having on the community. But I would always get back to them, and like have you looked inside one of them lately?
I always say that a reluctant reader would be very hard pressed to find something that was very appealing to them. To say that you're enhancing literacy in a community that otherwise doesn't have access to books, you're not doing that when you're providing them with access to you know, the Windows 2000 Manual for Dummies –

CO: Plumbing manuals.

JS: Self-published poetry. I don't want to discount self-published poetry–

CO: Oh no no, don't go there.

JS: But we've all seen inside a Little Free Library or a book exchange, however you want to refer to them, and sometimes the books just aren’t that great.

CO: Sometimes they help you sleep maybe. Just finally.

JS: Are you worried you might wake up tomorrow with a dozen of these boxes on your front lawn as some kind of protest?

CO: I really hope that nobody knows where I live.

JS: People really love Little Free Libraries and I'm sorry that I've pissed a lot of people off but I'm kind of just doing my job right?

CO: All right we'll leave it there. Ms. Schmidt, it's good to talk to you. Thank you.

JS: Thank you Carol.

CO: Bye-bye.

JS: Bye.

CH: Jane Schmidt is a librarian at Ryerson University. She was in Toronto. You can find more on that story on our website: cbc.ca/aih. We contacted Little Free Library for comment, but have not yet received a reply.

[Music]

Bieber’s list

CH: Last summer Justin Bieber issued a challenge to his fans via his Instagram account. "Step out of your comfort zone and challenge your friends by asking those tough questions. Like what do you think the meaning of life is? What do you think your purpose is?"
Evidently, after asking himself that tough question, the Bieb's determined being on Instagram was not his purpose – declaring it, "for the devil".
No matter. By then the Biebs was plenty busy with a much bigger purpose: namely, promoting his latest album, Purpose – via his Purpose World Tour. He's still on it – having just wrapped a show in Tel Aviv last night. Next stop, Dubai, and then on to Mumbai.
Of course, all this travelling affords the twenty-three year-old near-limitless opportunities to heed his own Instagram advice – and step out of his comfort zone. But if foregoing comfort is at all in his plan, well...the devil is in the details. As in, the details of the Bieb's India tour rider. They've just been posted to Twitter by a Mumbai-based music journalist who says he received it via a press release from the pop star's own team.
And, if that Twitter post is to beliebed, it would seem the singer and his crew are sparing no expense to ensure maximum comfort while on the India leg of the tour.
Here's just a sampling of the demands listed in the rider:
10 luxury sedans and 2 Volvo buses to transport the star and his entourage;
1 Rolls Royce, one jet, and one chopper, for the Bieb's exclusive use;
One ping pong table, a Playstation, an IO HAWK hoverboard, a sofa set, a washing machine, a refrigerator, and a massage table – to be shipped by air in large ten containers;
One masseuse, to be flown in from the southern Indian state of Kerala;
One backstage jacuzzi;
Five gourmet dishes per day – served by quote, "top culinary experts" – and renamed for the Bieb's greatest hits;
Bouquets of purple carnations – his favourite colour. Absolutely no lilies.
And finally: one special Indian yoga casket containing aromatic essential oils; jasmine, mogra, rose and camphor incense sticks.
Now, particularly in light of his insistence that you step outside your comfort zone, it might strike you as odd that the Biebs would go to such great lengths to ensure he never sets foot outside his, when touring the world. But then again, his is an entirely different world altogether.

Back To Top »

Part 2: Flint water, Oilers tickets

Flint water

Guest: Melissa Mays

CHRIS HOWDEN: It's been more that two years since Melissa Mays last consumed Flint, Michigan tap water. But that hasn't stopped the city from charging her for it.
Ms. Mays, and thousands of other residents, have received notices warning them their houses could be foreclosed on if they don't pay their outstanding water bills.
Many Flint residents say there are still high levels of lead and other contaminants coming out of their taps.
We reached Melissa Mays in Flint.

CAROL OFF: Ms. Mays, how did you react when you received this water bill from the city of Flint?

MELISSA MAYS: Well it was Friday, and I looked at the envelope and it looked like another shut off notice, which we had dealt with and we said, you know we're just gonna let them shop our poison and we'll just figure out a way to live on bottled water. But when I opened it and saw that it was a tax lien, I got scared and I felt helpless for one of the first times I believe since this whole crisis began.

CO: How much does the city say you owe?

MM: The letter says that I owe 2057 dollars, but I need to pay eight hundred ninety one dollars. By May 19th which at that time was about three weeks away. And so of course the first thing I did was start thinking, OK if we have to pay it, what do we not pay? And I said OK, I guess we don't pay our mortgage payments for May, I guess we're not going to pay our car payment. Our oldest is graduating high school in two weeks and we're supposed to buy him a new suit. And I mean he's earned it and it's a suit. So I guess we're going to go to Goodwill instead. And so that's just what ran through my mind. I said you know, I mean shut offs, that's one thing, but losing our home, we can't do that.

CO: And that's what they're saying might happen? This is a tax lien for your unpaid water bill, is that right?

MM: Yes. Yes our house could go into a tax foreclosure and we could lose it.

CO: How many people are in the same situation?

MM: 8000. 8000. And we have 100,000 people in Flint, half of which are renters. So this is a large bulk of the property owners in Flint.

CO: Why do you say that you'd rather they just turned it off? Because when we’re spoken with you before, you've you told us how abysmal the water is and you have talked about that before. Is that an option, just having them turn it off completely?

MM: You can't have it shut off completely because they could cap your sewer and condemn your home, so you would still be stuck paying the sewer fee. But we got to the point where we were like we'll figure it out. We will find another way. We'll set up rain barrels, whatever we have to do because all of our water tests are coming back bad. And earlier this year, my youngest and I went through a bacterial upper respiratory infections and we have high levels of bacteria coming in through our showers. So I mean we're looking, we have the metals, we have the cancer causing by-products, we've got chloroform, and the water, the shower water burns, and that's what two shower showerhead filters rigged up.

CO: The city of Flint says that lead levels have fallen to safe levels in recent months, especially when you use filters. And they say they're only charging residents, since it was deemed safe to drink. So what evidence do you have that your water is still contaminated?

MM: We've continued to test our water and that's not accurate. The city... we never stopped receiving bills. We received bills this entire time and the water is still not safe. It's below the federal action level. It's below 15 parts per billion but that's only for the homes that they've tested and during the cold. And everybody knows that when you test in in the wintertime, all the contaminants are lower. But my neighbors, their lead levels are going higher and so are ours.
So and again we're relying on the state of Michigan, the ones who poisoned us and lied about it, and they're testing our water is not safe, because that would mean everyone is testing zero parts per billion, that's the only safe level. And that's only for lead. They're refusing to test for bacteria. So we've had to go to outside sources to actually be able to test for all the contaminants in the water because even if lead reduces, that's still not enough. So we have a lot of different bacterial outbreaks that they are not even looking at. They're just, they’ll put up a notice saying take precautions, but they're not taking that into the safety of the water overall.
So until our water tests completely zero for all these different dangerous contaminants, it's in no way shape or form safe. And again, we still cannot drink the water without a filter. And then you turn around and look at that, and the Wayne State University study proved that the filters, the tap filters actually grow bacteria. So there are people that almost died from dysentery over the summer because of these bacterial outbreaks.

CO: You and your family, I know since we've spoken with you before you've been through a lot with this water. It's a huge issue for you and for others. Just finally, how is this affecting you emotionally. When you get a notice like this, what effect does it have on you?

MM: This is the first time I felt helpless, because every time we've gotten a letter, I'm a fixer. I’m like, you know what? We’ll fix it, we’ll find a way to fight this. We are going to fight it, we're going to stand up. That's what we do here. You know Flint is made up of fighters. And that's why we've gotten as far as we have. I mean it's not near enough, and we're not safe. But that's where we are where we are.
However this time is the first time that I was told there are no options, there are nothing else, there's nothing else that can be done. You have to do this or else. And it's the first time I felt helpless and like I'm failing my children. So I can't lose our home so we're going to have to do what we have to do. And so the other 8000 residents because they're only giving us a couple of weeks and that's it.
And again, I mean we get it. Our city is going under because the state of Michigan signed us up for two different water sources, getting it from Detroit as well as the Karegnondi Water Authority. So our city is paying for two different water sources ever since March 1st when the state of Michigan decided to stop subsidizing the Detroit water. So I don't want my city to go under. I don't want it to go bankrupt.
But on the other hand it shouldn't fall on the backs of the victims, the people who are suffering and who are depressed, and I mean who are physically harmed by this to pay for those mistakes. So we're just sitting here going. This is I mean I get it, life isn't fair, but why are you still punishing the victims for something we had no say in? So it's just incredulous. You just sit here and you shake your head going “How do I explain this to my kids? How do Ire-instill hope that things are going to get better one day when every single day seems to be getting worse?”

CO: We will stay in touch with you Ms. Mays about all of this. I appreciate again speaking with you.

MM: Thank you so much. As always, thank you.

CO: Bye-bye.

CH: We reached Melissa Mays in Flint, Michigan.

[Music]

Veep MP

CH: Last time Graham Perrett watched the HBO political satire Veep, it left him in stitches.
I mean, the Australian MP laughs at the show a lot. But in this case, watching Veep really knocked him out.
Mr. Perrett was watching the show, while eating sushi. And he also felt a cough coming on. And the combination of laughing, chewing, and coughing eventually sent the MP to the emergency room.
Here's Mr. Perrett describing the ordeal today on BBC Radio 5 Live, with host Emma Barnett.

SOUNDCLIP

GRAHAM PERRETT: I was watching the show and I just laughed at the wrong time. It’s a pretty funny show and I think some rice went down my airway and I started coughing and choking and laughing at the same time. And sort of ran out of the lounge room, sort of betrayed by my wicked sense of humor I guess. And I think I hit the wall and then hit the kitchen island like a granite top. And next thing I know, my wife comes in thinking that she's going to have to do the Heimlich maneuver, and I was on the floor. I think I was knocked out for like a second or so, and had blood everywhere and she sort of had to take me up to the hospital. I was in a lot of pain but laughing as well about what had happened.

EMMA BARNETT: What injuries have you actually sustained? Because you very kindly shared a photo of yourself looking quite battered. Did you have to get stitches?

GP: Yes, three stitches in the chin and in the cheek bone, I didn’t smashed the cheek bone and thankfully my eye was OK. It was just bloody. And they had to sort of glue up my nose. They didn't stitch it. But it was obviously quite embarrassing as well.

EB: The highest compliment to the writers of this TV series Veep. But you have had the reaction from the cast and crew, haven't you?

GP: I hate to say it’s my political highlight, but I do feel like just dropping a microphone and walking away after Julia Louis Dreyfus responded to my tweet and wished me well and she hoped I was OK. For Elaine from Seinfeld to actually respond, I was like oh my goodness. But they were very lovely.

CH:That's Australian MP Graham Perrett speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live host Emma Barnett today. He was explaining how watching Veep, HBO's US political satire, recently left him in stitches.

[Music]

Oilers toilets

Guest: Joelle Martin

CH: It was a nail biter last night as the Edmonton Oilers took on the Anaheim Ducks in Game Four of the NHL playoffs. The game went into overtime, and the Ducks eventually beat the Oilers 4-3.
You'd know that, of course, if you'd experienced the excitement firsthand at Edmonton's Rogers Place. Although if you were a woman in attendance, you might have missed some of that excitement – because you were in line for the bathroom.
Joelle Martin was one of these fans. We reached her in Edmonton.

CO: Joelle, how long did you have to wait in line for the bathroom last night?

JOELLE MARTIN: I had to wait the whole duration of the first intermission and then about five minutes into the second period.

CO: Did you miss anything.

JM: I did. I missed that first Ducks goal in the second period, and just five minutes of playoff game.

CO: And how long was the line?

JM: I would say where I was, if I could count an estimation would be somewhere around 75 to 100 women.

CO: And what was it like in the men's lineups? You weren’t in it but did you see them?

JM: I did. I didn't see a lineup. I was near section 208 and my husband went to the washroom and I didn't even see a line of when he went in.

CO: All right. And did he miss any of the game?

JM: No. He actually went to get a couple of drinks, some 50/50 ticket, and I think he went to see his parents too in a different section.

CO: Now the issue here is that they have appropriated some of their women's washrooms for men. Is that right? That's what I've heard. Yeah. Because there are a fewer women who are at the game and so the guys were complaining. And that's something that I guess men aren't used to when they find out that there might be a long lineup and like how women experience bathrooms.

JM: No. And when there is a little bit of a line up, they're impatient.

CO: When you were waiting in line, were there are comments that people were making?

JM: Yeah most by men passing by making comments either about wow is this line up for the woman's washroom? Yes. Because the washroom went in front of different concessions for beer and drinks, they would, they’re like “Excuse me, excuse me. Wow. This line-up is in the way” And then there's boys that make silly comments about “Why do you have to go pee so often or…”

CO: What? They said that?

JM: Yeah. That's why the lineup is so long because we have to go pee more often.

CO: And did anyone put them in their place?

JM: I don't think so. I think we were all angry enough that we just bit our tongues.

CO: Now is that part of the problem is that the women are putting up with this and not complaining as the men clearly did?

JM: I guess so. But like I think you yourself said, I didn't know that they actually closed the women's washroom until you know last night. I just thought it was because they didn't make enough washrooms for men or women. I didn't know that they specifically were making women's washrooms into men's washrooms.

CO: Apparently they've done it before. And the CBC contacted the Oilers Entertainment Group and they said that the practice at Rogers place is to switch genders on washrooms depending on the type of audience, and hockey playoffs draws predominantly a male crowd. And that's what they did.

JM: Yeah, I don't know what to say about that. I can understand for say like a Dixie Chicks concert or a Spice Girls concert. Something like that. Obviously there will be less men. But how about, like what did they do with Garth Brooks? I think that's an equal crowd. And with I think hockey playoffs, it's a community thing. I don't think it matters gender-wise like lots of men go with their buddies. Lots of men go with their wives. And girlfriends just go together as a group of girls.

CO: You mentioned the Dixie Chicks and the entertainment group, the Oilers Entertainment Group says that the Rogers place, they've switched it in the other direction when it's been Dixie Chicks, or I guess Lumineers, Dolly Parton. Those concerts were the men's washrooms were taken over for women.

JM: Yeah that's what I heard. And I can understand that for Dixie Chicks more so women, but even Lumineers confuses me a little bit because the people that I saw that went, or the fact that my husband really likes the Lumineers, I don't think that they can pick what gender gets more washrooms. Unless you can put, you know when you buy your ticket, if you're a male or female, how do they know?

CO: Did you make decisions about how many beverages you might drink based on the situation you encountered at the bathroom?

JM: Definitely. I thought I would actually be OK. So I got to the game around 7:00 so that we could watch the warm up a little bit. And I nursed one drink from 7:00 o’clock until the end of the first period and then I had to go to the washroom, and then because of that experience of having to wait to go to the washroom, I didn't drink anything my second period at all. And then the third period again I just slowly nursed a drink.

CO: How much did you pay for your ticket?

JM: I got them from my in-laws who have season ticket so I paid 200 per ticket.

CO: And for the privilege of studying for the washroom for 20 minutes.

JM: Yeah well I paid a cost of having to miss part of the game and having to miss the experience of being just in the arena or, because part of play-off season is high fiving, getting in conversations with the community around you, and I missed out on all that so I would say that that's kind of a cost.

CO: But you get to hang out with all those women in line.

JM: We didn't really talk because we're so angry.

CO: Joelle, thanks for speaking with us.

JM: Thanks so much.

CO: Bye.

CH: That was Joelle Martin. We reached her in Edmonton.

[Music]

Pickle juice soda

CH: It soothes muscle and menstrual cramps. Contains antioxidants. Improves your gut health. And there are those who swear by it as a hangover cure.
It's not necessarily true that pickle juice does any of that stuff. But it certainly has its fans – people who guzzle the stuff like it's water, only magical.
Now, I'm not here to judge those weirdos. I'm just here to tell you, objectively, that there are a lot more of those weirdos than you might have thought or hoped. As proven by the runaway success of Grandpa Joe's Pickle Juice Soda.
This horrible product, which may both taste like and signal the imminent apocalypse, sold out quickly as soon as its existence was announced online. "If you're the kind of pickle lover who relishes all things pickle," the Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop website proclaims, "then this is gonna be a really big dill."
It goes on to explain, bafflingly, that it's "Made With Pure Cane Sugar". So is it just bubbly pickle juice, which is disgusting, or is it sweet bubbly pickle juice, which is unimaginably disgusting?
I don't want to talk about this anymore, so let's go back to 1975. July 3rd, 1975, to be exact, when As It Happens managed to secure an interview with a giant in the world of pickles: W.R. Moore, whose nickname was "Bill The Dill", and whom Alan Maitland introduced as "the world's foremost authority on pickles". Here he is, blowing the mind of our former host, Harry Brown from our archives.

SOUNDCLIP

HARRY BROWN: Tell me something. I understand that something in the order of eight pounds of pickles are consumed by every man woman and child per year in North America. Is that about right?

W.R.MOORE: Yeah, that's absolutely true. And in Canada alone over 2 billion pickles. If they were all converted to little two inch sized pickles with the equivalent size and that's how many the Canadians alone consume.

HB: Two billion time two. If you stretched, if all the pickles in this country were laid end to end–

WRM: You could make up a belt around the Van Allen Radiation Belt around the outer surface of the atmosphere.

HB: Then aren't you just a little bit paranoid about this threat? Surely there is no threat to a custom that that involves eight pounds per man woman and child in North America per year. Surely the pickle is not threatened.

WRM: Well no we don't feel threatened but we feel that there are still a few people here and there that we haven't found the perfect people for their palate. And we're constantly devising new flavors and new sizes, new shapes and new colors even. And you know, we can make a pickle cocktail, cordial, liqueur flavoured, so you can get pickles without having a hangover. So we're constantly looking for those nuances that will appeal to some new part of the populace to make sure we can get up to nine pounds per person, you know?

HB: Mr. Dale, you better be careful what you do with the shape of a pickle. There’s something very very

WRM: Sacred?

HB: Sacred, sexual I was going to say about the shape of the pickle.

WRM: No no it’s sacred. Now I’ll tell you a funny thing about that. Now in North America, the people believe that a pickle must have warts. But in Europe, believe it or not, they don't believe that pickles should have warts. So our plant breeders have a devil of a time. So they have wartless pickes overseas and wart pickles here, and the latest thing in pickles is a seedless pickle. And that's given rise to the People's Liberation Movement which we have founded.

HB: Mr. Dill, I don't think we're ready for anymore.

WRM: [unintelligible] from listening.

HM: No. I tell you though, there is something I'd like to know before we leave. How do you measure the quality of a pickle? By its flavor or by its crunch?

WRM: No we think that the crunch is more important, and we've developed an audible crunch meter and this is a little flat rule thing that you pull in and out, and you have a cruncher and a crunch listener and you crunch the pickle and the people pace off the distance.
And of course, if you don't hear it except for very close, we call those “denture dills”. We're not, we don't think those are good. They're too soft. So a good cook pickle has an audible, 20 paces.

HM: Thank you so much.

WRM: Thank you for thinking pickle.

HM: Good bye.

WRM: Bye-bye.

CH: Former As It Happens host Harry Brown, speaking pickle expert with W.R. Moore, "Bill the Dill", as he was know on July 3rd, 1975. As you heard, Mr. Moore did discuss pickle drinks, which probably means he would have been thrilled to hear about the new Pickle Juice Soda. Which, for me, is a dill-breaker.

Back To Top »

Part 3: Plastic melting ship, Niagara play

DeRozan $100

CHRIS HOWDEN: There's an unsettling sense of déjà vu in the Toronto Raptors locker room right now.Last night, the Cleveland Cavaliers trounced the Raps 125 - 103 in Game Two of their NBA playoff series. The Raptors are now down 2-0 as the series returns to Toronto on Friday night for Game Three.
This is the same scenario the Toronto squad found themselves in last year. They bounced back but ultimately lost the series in Game Six. And like last year, the thorn in their side is Cavaliers star forward Lebron James. "King James" has been so good that Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan is trying to outsource the impossible task of stopping the All-Star.
Here's Mr. DeRozan speaking to the media following Wednesday's loss.

SOUNDCLIP

DEMAR ROZAN: I give him credit. You know they play extremely well together. They moved the ball extremely well. Every single guy on the team understands what is going to get the shots with the ball coming, rotations every day. So you've got to kind of be locked in and keyed in, you know, to perfection and be able to get out there close the out and not try to run them off the line.

REPORTER: When LeBron’s playing like this, what can you do to slow him down?

DR: I mean sometimes it’s not even about LeBron. LeBron’s going to be LeBron. We got to key out other guys. You know, you find somebody who stopped LeBron, you know, in these moments. And you know, I give you 100 dolalrs. You know, but it’s on us to be able to take out all of the key players and not let them get going in first to take advantage of that.

CH: Toronto Raptor Demar DeRozan speaking with the media following his team's Game Two playoff loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Raptors shooting guard is offering $100 to anyone who can stop Cleveland star LeBron James. And if you think you're qualified for the job. Apply now. The Raptors will try to redeem themselves on Friday as the series returns to Toronto for Game Three.

[Music]

Plastic melting ship

Guest: Nina Jensen

CH: All ships are supposed to be buoyant, but this one might actually make you buoyant, or at least it might slightly reduce that sinking feeling. It's a ship that promises to remove plastic waste from the ocean. Lots of it. Five tons every day. The project is the brainchild of Norwegian billionaire Kjell Roekke, in partnership with the World Wildife Fund, or WWF. And it's not just his brainchild, it is also his wallet-child: Mr. Roekke, who's made his fortune in the oil industry – is paying for the ship in full.
Nina Jensen is the Secretary-General of the WWF in Norway. But today, we reached her in Manado, Indonesia.

CAROL OFF: Ms. Jensen, as you know there are tons of plastic waste products on our oceans. What difference can this man make?

NINA JENSEN: Well hopefully a huge difference, at least that's both our ambition and intention. There is no doubt that the oceans are filling up rapidly with plastics and the problem is that the majority of it isn't just floating around on the surface, it's actually disintegrating and separating into much smaller pieces in the so-called micro plastics. And this is the real hidden problem that we really need to try and get to.

CO: And that's a big task. And so can you tell us a bit about the Kjell Roekke and the man who is putting up the money for this. Why is he doing it?

NJ: The way that I know him, he has always had a huge passion and interest in the oceans. He started out his career as a fisherman and has basically spent his entire life and created thousands of jobs and his entire fortune from the oceans. I think he is now very concerned about the trends that he see both in terms of pollution, in terms of climate change, and he really wants to give something back to the oceans from everything that he has gotten out of them.

CO: Have you got to know him a bit? I mean he made his fortune in the oil industry, so fossil fuels being one of the big issues with pollution and with climate change and also the basis for manufacturing plastics. Is he feeling a bit guilty?

NJ: Maybe. I sure hope so. I mean there's no doubt that on this particular issue we are miles apart in terms of our opinions and standpoints. WWF, we're obviously working to transition away from fossil fuels whereas he himself, or his companies are still very much focused around oil and gas. This is something that I have continuously challenged him on and will continue to do.
Regardless of that, I think it is very admirable that he is now actually taking so much of his time and spending a large part of his fortune on actually trying to make a big difference.

CO: And before we go on to the project do you still support the the oil and gas industry? Is he still a proponent of the industry?

NJ: Well he is the key owner behind a major Norwegian company called Aker. And what they are doing is predominantly in the oil and gas industry. But this is an initiative that he is taking from his own pocket. So it doesn't have anything to do with his companies. So he wants to keep them separate. So I see that it's difficult to separate them given one impacts on the other end.

CO: And because he made the fortune in the oil and gas industry. Is that right?

NJ: Exactly.

CO: What were you going to do with this? This is a research vessel that will have a crew of about 30 people and up to 60 scientific staff, some laboratories on it. What do you think you'll be able to achieve?

NJ: So we're at the starting point of a long journey it will take about three years for the vessel to be built, and the intention is for it to be a research and expedition vessel for scientists from all over the world.
We will have permanent staff working for the daily operations but then an independent science committee will decide what particular research projects will actually go ahead and what particular areas this ship will be exploring and what kind of research is supposed to be undertaking.

CO: But what exactly will it be doing?

NJ: We will select a particular ocean area to the sea floor or the water column that is impacted the most, try to also collect adequate number of samples and also collect a large proportion of the waste because the ship actually has a special incinerator onboard that can burn up to five tons of plastic per day without releasing any harmful emissions to the environment.

CO: But people will want to know how you're going to do that. How do you incinerate plastic that right and not be polluting?

NJ: So it's a new technology with a special temperature and kind of oven where you melt the plastic and you have particular filters and mechanisms that keeps the harmful emissions from getting out.

CO: How much of the plastic will you be able to deal with in that way? I mean we're talking about a sea of plastic waste, aren't we?

NJ: Yeah. No that's absolutely right. So I mean I wish I could say that we could handle a lot, but we know that probably by 2050, the oceans will be filled with more plastics than fish. So it will take a lot more for one vessel to fix this. But the intention is definitely to collect as much as we can. The ship can hold up to a hundred and twenty tons of waste in addition to what is being burned and processed on board. But this will only be one part of the ship's purpose.

CO: What else will this ship do? Mostly research it sounds like.

NJ: Yeah mostly research, but research into particular solutions. So for example trying to suck out the microplastic from the oceans. These are very small particles that nobody really has a solution to how to actually get rid of. And if we were able to come up with a solution to that, that would be miraculous.

CO: Wouldn't the biggest solution be, I know this isn't your project, the biggest solution is to stop using them, especially the plastic bags which make up most of that surface plastic that you're going to be wrestling.

NJ: Absolutely. We need to replace the oil based plastic with biodegradable materials. And we need to have proper waste treatment facilities in the different countries where landfills are currently filling up and being flooded with plastics and other wasteful materials.
The micro plastics and the oceans aren't just originating from plastic bags it's coming from our fleece sweaters, it's coming from the Q-tips. We're basically surrounding ourselves in plastic so I couldn't agree with you more. We need to stop using this extremely harmful material.

CO: We will leave it there. And Ms. Jensen. Thank you.

NJ: Thank you.

CH: Nina Jensen is the secretary general of the World Wildlife Fund or WWF in Norway. We reached her today in Manado, Indonesia. And you can find more on the story of the Norwegian oil billionaires waste removal ship on our website, cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Exercise lawsuit

CH: They called themselves Chop and Steele. Together, they were an unstoppable fitness duo.
Back in November, the pair appeared on WEAU-TV's morning show Hello Wisconsin to give tips and tricks on staying fit. They duelled with tennis racquets. They karate-chopped twigs they'd gathered outside the station. And they stomped on a number of small baskets. Here's a clip from that appearance.

SOUNDCLIP

Well, an impressive feat by our strong man duo. And what they're doing to educate people, that is coming up.

STEELE: You can still do all these strongman tricks from just stuff you find around your house and run around your yard or whatever. So that's what we want to show you.

CHOP: But actions speak louder than demonstrations.

HOST: Let’s get to some of the action right now.

STEELE: And we're going to go, ready?

CHOP AND STEELE: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.

CHOP: We found some sticks actually in your in your parking lot.

STEELE: That’s all it takes.
We’re going to reverse roles here.

HOST: OK

CHOP: I'm Chop, but this time he's going to be doing the chopping.

HOST: Sounds good.

STEELE: Normally we say don't try this at home. Go ahead try this at home.

HOST: All right, perfect.

STEELE: One [Sound: stick breaking]. Two [Sound: stick breaking] Three [Sound: stick breaking]. That’s a little big. Four [Sound: stick breaking].

CHOP: Ready?

STEELE: Yup.

CHOP: One [Sound: basket breaking]. Two [Sound: basket breaking]. Three [Sound: basket breaking].

HOST: Nice.

CHOP: Four [Sound: basket breaking].

STEELE: Right, so that’s five in like probably under 10 seconds.

JD: Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, performing some "exercises" on Hello Wisconsin as the fitness duo Chop and Steele.
Now if stomping baskets and karate-chopping twigs don't seem like part of a genuinely helpful health regimen to you, you are correct. And WEAU-TV has since figured that out too. Which is why Gray Television, the company that owns the station – is now suing Mr. Pickett and Mr. Prueher.
The station is complaining it was "fraudulently induced" them to book the pair for a live interview. It also contends that the men infringed on the show's copyright.
As you might expect, the two comedians are staying strong. In interview with Mercury News, Nick Prueher said, quote: "If they had done their due diligence, that I feel like is the responsibility of a news organization, they would have known this was a goof."
And Hello Wisconsin wasn't the only program to fall for the trick: according to Deadspin, the comedians have also convinced seven other channels in the U.S. to book them for media appearances. Which suggests they're not the only ones who are kind of unfit.

[Music]

Alaska slap

CH: The job of the press, as the old saying goes, is to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable. Which is great. Unless the comfortable you're afflicting decide to afflict you back.
This past Sunday, the Alaska Dispatch News published a story by reporter Nathaniel Herz, about a state senator named David Wilson. It was about a bill Senator Wilson had introduced. The article quoted people baffled by cuts in the proposed legislation, and suggested a possible conflict of interest. It also raised questions about why, exactly, the senator had proposed the legislation in the first place, which the senator refused to answer.
It didn't make State Senator David Wilson look good, but you would probably say it was fair and reasonable. Although Senator Wilson would not say that.
On Tuesday, Nathaniel Herz was in the Alaskan Capitol building. His smartphone was set up to record in case he landed an interview. And when he saw David Wilson in the stairwell, he asked the senator what he'd thought of the article. At which point, the senator allegedly slapped him and said, "There we go."

SOUNDCLIP

DAVID WILSON: What did you think? Was that reasonable?

NATHANIEL HERZ: Reasonable.

DW: Fair.

NH: Fair.

[Sound: Slap]

DW: There we go.

NH: Was that serious or playful or like? Hm… yeah he slapped me. That was interesting.

CH: Alaska Dispatch reporter Nathaniel Herz, telling a state senator that her colleague, David Wilson, had just slapped him.
Mr. Herz has filed a report with the Juneau Police Department. So far, Senator Wilson has not said a word about the incident.

[Music]

Niagara play

Guest: Jessica Carmichael

CH: The curtain's fallen before it even went up.
A touring school play about gender identity is causing controversy in the Niagara Region. Boys, Girls, and Other Mythological Creatures is about an 8-year-old boy named Simon who likes to play dress-up. His brother does not like his fondness for princess costumes. The story follows as he explores where he fits in best.
Now, six schools in the region have unexpectedly cancelled scheduled performances of the play, five of them from the Niagara Catholic District School Board, or the NCDSB.
The company behind the production, Carousel Players, has been putting on children's shows for the last 45 years. Jessica Carmichael is the Artistic Director. We reached her in St Catherines.

CO: Ms. Carmichael, what was your reaction when you heard that the play was being pulled from these schools?

JESSICA CARMICHAEL: I was disheartened and very surprised. Certainly it was unexpected and we had no answers from the cancellations that the emails that we received, other than school activities were conflicting now with performances that had, some been booked a year in advance.

CO: Was that what you heard from the school board itself? Or what do you make of the reasons why they were canceling your show.

JC: Well you know within 48 hours, to have five schools suddenly cancel and all send us the same message, I felt that was unsatisfactory and I felt that there might be another reason why they were canceling especially because we had just performed the day before the cancellations in our first Catholic School Board show and we had been in conversation with the principal two weeks before about how the donor who had given this free performance to the school was feeling nervous suddenly about the content.

CO: Can you tell us what the play is about. This is called Boys, Girls, and Other Mythological Creatures.

JC: It's a play really about asking our friends and family to accept us as we explore who we are. And that's Simon, Simone hasn't had a chance to do that yet, and that they are still trying to figure that out. They've been boxed in by their gender. They don't quite identify solely as a boy or with just boy things, that our society has taught them to identify with, because they are a boy, labeled a boy. And that the play is about us celebrating that. We can we can have children explore themselves being a girl who is empowered and likes to you know wear pink but also play with trucks and shoot bows and arrows.

CO: A lot of kids have already seen it. So what age are they watching this play?

JC: The ages are from six years old to 10 is what we worked very carefully with members of the Catholic School Board and the Public School Board who sit on our outreach committee. And together with them, we identified that because of the new curriculum changes in the social studies and health and physical educations curriculum that are designated by our Ontario government, that Grade One to Four was appropriate for this play to be shared with those audiences.

CO: OK. Now you said that the schools themselves have not given you reasons why you said they had they had scheduling, conflicts or whatever. But the director of education for the Niagara Catholic School Board, which is the board that oversees those schools, John Crocco, he has said in the statement that the play was not age appropriate for the kids who were watching it, from a predominantly primary audience and that he said that it was not presented to them as a play about gender identity. They didn't know that that was what the play was about. How do you respond to Mr. Crocco?

JC: This professor that is an absolute misinformation from the Catholic School Board and John Crocco. We have always, in the last year and a half since we began creating the marketing for this play, when we send out the description that he only quotes in his news release with that is a comparing at all times that talks about the themes and curriculum connections. And those are imagination, friendship, self-expression, gender, bullying, social studies. And we crafted those with the NCDSCB, consultants who are appointed to us, to come and work with us that carrousel players and sit on our outreach Committee.
And what we do once they've booked that we send them study guides. And those are created by Brock university students who are in the education department, and they look at the curriculum and they create activities around those themes of curriculums we've identified for that age group. And those materials are sent out at least four weeks in advance to all principals and teachers to look at so that they can do pre and post show activities around the play.

CO: In a letter from you from the Carousel Players, from your company, you said that you believe the cancellations be based on this information grown out of fear, intolerance, transphobia homophobia, and misogyny and Mr. Crocco takes exception to that. He doesn't think that that's fair. What do you base that claim on?

JC: I base it on a few things. And I wasn't just directly speaking to the Catholic School Board. We have seen transphobic comments all over Facebook from parents who have identified in public threads misinformation before seeing the play about how our play is teaching kids if a boy plays dress up, he might be a girl. And that we're telling people that a girl, because she plays with cars at seven, she might be a boy. Or a boy who likes to plays dress up, and these are quotes, she should be born a girl. That it couldn't be further from the truth, and then they go on and on about biology and how you know gender fluidity doesn't exist and you know, so on.
But also I had a conversation with a principal, the only Catholic school board we were able to go to who told me that our play’s message went against the Catholic faith.

CO: But do you think that those views that you saw, both on Facebook and that one school administrator, do you think that that is the basis for the decision to cancel these performances?

JC: I do. Absolutely. Yes. I've heard nothing to the contrary. So even in the statement that John Crocco has put out saying it's not age appropriate, the content is inappropriate, he doesn't say what that content is.

CO: But he also says in this letter that their school board, the Niagara District Catholic School Board is dedicated to a safe and accepting environment for all students regardless of gender, gender identity, race, color, sexual orientation. He says they're committed to ensuring all students grow in a safe, inclusive, accepting climate, respect dignity and trust consistent with the Gospel values.
He's seems to be making a case that they don't have this bias and prejudice that you believe is the basis for the cancellations. What do you say to them?

JC: Then why, I guess my question is then why are they canceling?

CO: Ms. Carmichael, thank you.

JC:Thank you very much.

JD: Jessica Carmichael is the artistic director with St. Catherine's Ontario Theatre Company Carousel Players.

[Music]

Gym napercise

CH: We've all been there: your mind says "work out", but your body says "stretch out". I'm there right now, in fact – debating whether to hit the gym or hit the sack.
Now if I was in Sidcup, a southeast suburb of London, I could possibly combine a little power training with a little power napping. Because the local branch of the chain of David Lloyd Fitness Clubs recently became the first to offer up group slumber classes.
Yes, the good folks at David Lloyd aren't just equipped to help you get into shape, they'll help you give into sleep. Here's how the club's website outlines what it's calling "Napercise".
Quote: "The frantic nature of modern life means that few of us seem to get enough sleep, and if you're a parent, a good night's rest becomes even more of a luxury. So we've created a new group class – for exhausted mums and dads to help boost their mental and physical well-being. Our mid-afternoon studio sleep session is 45-minutes long and is designed to reinvigorate the mind, the body and even burn the odd calorie."
Now I'm guessing, depending on your approach to health and fitness, and your willingness to pay someone to facilitate it for you, that this concept strikes you as either dumb, or a dream.
For residents of Sidcup, at least, many fall into the latter camp, judging by the response so far. Still, for most Napercise is but a dream – at least for now. Ironically, signing up for the class has turned into a bit of a "you snooze, you lose" situation.
A sentence at the top of the online registration page – conveniently posted in all-caps for those prospective participants who may already be primed for sleep – reads as follows: "WE'RE SORRY BUT THIS CLASS IS NOW FULLY BOOKED. TAKE A LOOK AT THE TIMETABLE TO SEE WHAT OTHER GREAT CLASSES ARE ON AT DAVID LLOYD SIDCUP."
Which means for most of the club's patrons, it's fitness as usual. Which is perhaps as it should be: brawn before yawn.

[Music]

Free throw study

CH: You might get criticized for doing it on the basketball court. But a new study says adopting the granny-style free throw isn't underhanded at all.
Researchers at Yale University say the technique is actually the best way to take a free throw in basketball. To prove their point, they did some math.
They considered the chances of the ball being on target depending on the style, speed and accuracy of a throw. And they found that, if you’re at controlling the release angle and speed, the odds of the ball going in are slightly better if you do it granny-style.
That said, the researchers say amateurs are better off using an overarm method instead because they risk throwing the ball too high due to their mediocre control.
Maybe Rick Barry, former NBA player and pioneer of the granny-style free throw, can explain it better. Last December, he spoke to guest host Helen Mann on this program. And he was not impressed with the technique used by NBA rookie Chinanu Onuaku.

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HM: What's wrong with Chinanu Onuaku’s technique?

RB: So there’s a lot of things wrong with it. His feet are too wide; he’s got too much wrist involved he takes his hand off the ball. You know I'm not saying this to disparage him. I respect and admire that he's done this on his own. It's so obvious to me the things he's doing wrong that I could have corrected in a very simple way, and spent a couple of days with him when he was at Louisville and now for the last you know year and a half or two years or whatever he would have been practicing the correct way.

HM: Explain to us the advantages of this underhand throw because you know most players aren't using it?

RB: Well, I don't know why people have an aversion to doing it because in the old days men used to shoot that way. Two hand underhand; nobody made fun of them. Now all of a sudden it's like wow you can't shoot that way. I mean you know that's not masculine. I mean it's ridiculous.

HM: So what makes it so accurate?

RB: Well, what makes it accurate it is a very soft touch shot. And physicists have done studies and all on it you can Google it on the Internet and they all came out and said that it's the most efficient way to do it. There's less moving parts. The shot is softer. Everybody is copycat and everything else in the world to try to do things that other people do exceptionally well other than the underhanded free throw and the way I did it.

HM: Do you think is just more important to these guys to look cool than to be accurate?

RB: Obviously it is, Shaq told me that he said I'm a hip hop kind of guy and their in my image.

HM: Did you try to get Shaq to do it?

RB: Yeah. Yeah. He didn't want to do it. The bottom line of it is that you have to have enough personal pride to want to be the best you can be at whatever it is you do in life. And that means you should try anything that's not against the rules in order to go and get more proficient at it. How do you live with yourself if the most simple thing the easiest thing in the game of basketball when no one's trying to stop you, the only thing constant same size ball, same size basket, same distance every single time you get to the line with no one trying to prevent you from doing it and you can't make four out of every five? You should be ashamed of yourself.

CH: That was Rick Barry, pioneer of the granny style basketball free throw, speaking to guest host Helen man on As It Happens last December

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May 4th, 2017 episode transcript

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