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The AIH Transcript for July 19, 2017

Hosts: Helen Mann and Jeff Douglas

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

HELEN MANN: Hello I'm Helen Mann.

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

[Music: Theme]

JD: Tonight:

HM: Come back from away after the wildfires forced him to flee his home in Cache Creek B.C., Dave Johnson is allowed to return home. But he's not settling in just yet.

JD: A new room was swept clean. In fact the late Frances Gabes invention a self-cleaning house was going to eliminate endless housework. But the problem was that no one really wanted her solution.

HM: Out of thin ice, 75 years after a couple disappeared in Switzerland, their bodies have been discovered emerging preserved from a glacier at a ski resort.

JD: Science not seance. Before his father's death our guest recorded hours of conversation with him, and now he is fed all that information into a computer to create an interactive Dadbot.

HM: Shore leadings. If you are feeling buoyant about your trip to a beach in northern France you should know other buoyant have washed up there. And tonight we'll find out where those thousands of yellow blobs came from.

JD: And sleeper hits, by now you may have come to feel that the ubiquitous summer pop hit Despacito is a bit of a snooze. But wait until you hear the version made up only of a woman's recordings of her snoring husband.
As It Happens the Wednesday edition, radio the guesses he was prone to record it, and hopes you'll be prone to enjoy it.

[Music: Theme]

Back To Top »

Part 1: Cache Creek Return, Glacier Bodies, DADBOT

Cache Creek Return

Guest: Dave Johnson

JEFF DOUGLAS: “It's just nice to be home.”
That is how Dave Johnson says he's feeling today. After 11 days away from his community of Cache Creek, British Columbia just west of Kamloops. Residents of Cache Creek were forced to out earlier this month by wildfires. Yesterday though, roadblocks were removed allowing residents including Mr. Johnson to return. We reached Dave Johnson at his home in Cache Creek.

HELEN MANN: Mr. Johnson, how is your house.

DJ: The house is in, there’s no problem with the house. House is fine.

HM: No loss of power, your fridge is OK?

DJ: We didn't suffer as much of a power loss as our neighboring community, Ashcroft. Our longest outage was probably four hours and that was on the day when the fire started and on July 7.

HM: So when you opened your fridge you didn't find any spoiled food?

DJ: Oh there was some fruit, some cold meat. The bread on the counter. That was basically it right there. The freezers are all fine, the food in there is all fine.

HM: How much time did you actually have to pack before you had to leave your home?

DJ: To be safe, when the fire broke out, when it started getting closer to town, especially when it was on the west side above the town, where we could see it from our deck, we started putting our things together then. And then when we had just about everything put together, then when looking right across from me the golf course, the flames appeared on the ridges above the golf course and basically was coming over the top.
I loaded everything in and just finished finish loading, the RCMP come up the street and said “It's time to go.”

HM: No where did you end up going?

DJ: We ended up going to friend's place in Thompson River Estates which is about 24 miles east of Cache Creek. While we were there, they got put under an alert but we never had to leave there and it was just precautionary because for a couple of days the wind really shifted and you know, just in case.

HM: During that time did you hear anything about what might be happening around your own property?

DJ: Yes we did. We had really good communication especially with two fellows that we know. Tom Oh, he's our acting fire chief because our other fire chief Mr. Cassidy, was killed in the flood that happened here in the early part of June of this year. And then another guy that was posting very accurate information, a fellow by the name of Rick Mullin. Every morning on Facebook we could get pictures and see what was happening and what it is. You know, when you come back into the town, you're always expecting the worst. And I have to say, when we came to Cache Creek, it wasn't as bad as what I thought it was going to be. But south of the village, that's where the Indian Reserve and Boston Flats, the trailer park that was totally wiped out. It's amazing. It just, you know, you have to see it to appreciate it. You know, it's like a war zone. You know when they used a carpet bomb in the war, that's what it looked like. It's just leveled.

HM: You folks have been through an awful lot with that flooding, losing your fire chief, and now this. It must be a lot to deal with in a very short time.

DJ: It is. I mean the last flood we had was a very localized flooding. It had no effect on where we live. That was actually what is known as the Cache Creek. It's a very, if you saw it today, and saw it basically, two and a half, in the early part of June, you wouldn't think it was the same creek. Today it’s barely enough water in it to run down into the [unintelligible].

HM: We've heard a lot about air quality warnings over the last week or so. Yeah what's it like now?

DJ: Oh it’s terrible. This morning it was absolutely, the worst I've ever seen it this morning.

HM: Can you describe what it looks like?

DJ: If you can imagine the heaviest fog, it’s like that except when you're breathe in, I'm still huffing and puffing. I don’t know if you can hear it in my voice. My throat is just killing me now, even though it has cleared up since this morning. But I had to work early this morning so I was in it, even with a mask on, it still affected me.

HM: Do you normally have respiratory trouble?

DJ: I have. I don't want to say you know I suffer slightly. I'm not as asthmatic or anything like that. But when it gets this bad, I think it's bad for everybody. You know it's just, all you can smell is smoke and all you can taste is smoke. You know, even inside the house today, I'm running a reverse thing on my AC unit to filter everything out. It's getting better in the house now but it’s the worst I have ever seen today.

HM: What's the mood like in town today?

DJ: Well I would say it's cautious is probably a good word. I mean everybody is glad to be back. There's no doubt about that. Everybody's glad to be back in their own house, their own bed all that. But it's still, you know, none of the… you know the Cache Creek is not a big village and so there's, I think there's only one gas station right now that's operational.

HM: And in terms of sort of a sense of relief at being home, do you feel settled? I mean do you feel like you're safe to completely unpack?

DJ: No, no we're not. We're not going to unpack everything. We're going to have everything ready by the back door, our basement door where we can load everything back into my truck and get out of town if we have to.

HM: What kind of effect do you think it has on you and your wife emotionally dealing with the uncertainty, the ongoing threat?

DJ: Now that we're back home, I don't think it's… we're fine, really. We’re blessed for what we have. If we lose it, that's what you have insurance for. It's the irreplaceable stuff and what we're thinking of doing is, I think my wife will probably load up one of the vehicles this weekend and she's going to take my stuff down to her sister's place in Abbotsford. You know, the stuff that we can't replace.

HM: Well listen I really appreciate you taking time to talk to us about all of this and I wish you the very best of luck.

DJ: The thing I'd like to say is for all the volunteers and the firefighters, you know our volunteer fire department and all the people that came into town to help. You know they're the ones that need the big thanks. You know, we had the United Way here today helping out, in the park, you know helping people. So you know, it's a recovery process. There's no doubt about it. But you know, at least the town’s still here.

HM: Yeah. No for sure. Mr. Johnson, thank you very much for speaking with us. Take care.

DJ: You bet. Thank you.

JD: That was Dave Johnson, a resident of Cache Creek, British Columbia. We reached him at his home, where he returned yesterday. And today BC new premier John Horgan extended the state of emergency that was issued to deal with the wildfires for two more weeks. The current state of emergency was to end Friday.

[Music]

Glacier bodies

Guest: Bernhard Tschannen

JD: They thought it was going to be another predictable day up in the mountains, doing maintenance work by the ski lifts. But then, last week, one worker at Switzerland's Glacier 3000 ski resort saw what appeared to be very large black stones on a glacier. He decided to take a closer look. And discovered that they weren't stones at all.
When Bernhard Tschannen went out to see for himself, he was startled by what he saw there. Or rather, by whom he saw – and by just how long they'd been there.
Bernhard Tschannen is the CEO of the Glacier 3000 ski resort. We reached him near Vaud, Switzerland.

HM: Mr. Tschannen, tell us what was discovered near a ski lift on your resort last week?

BERNHARD TSCHANNEN: So last Thursday, late afternoon one of our staff from Glacier 3000 found two bodies on the glacier, pop out of the glaciers. So it happened while he was doing some maintenance work on the glacier and life. He was driving a slope machine and by doing that he was looking the glacier and he saw some stones, something black and he thought it strange, it's too big to be stones. And then he went closer and he could see that it was two dead bodies. So what he found first was the backpack and a man shoe, two lady shoes, and some water bottles. So it was quite a shock for him. Then he informed our security manager and which informed me and then we contacted police and we went to see the next morning, early Friday morning. And the police then called the helicopter, they cut out a block out of the glacier to take the two bodies and the material two of them, to do the examination and to identify the two persons.

HM: It must've been, not only as you say, shocking, for the man who made the discovery but for you as well to get up there and see what he had found.

BT: Absolutely. I was a bit prepared. I mean, he was thinking that he was looking at stones and then suddenly it was two dead bodies coming half out of the glacier. So I already saw them in the pictures and it was not just a shock because we could see the... I mean it was a big surprise to news but then to see the bodies, they were quite mummified, in very good shape as well. The clothes were very well conserved. Yeah it was a big surprise but not a real shock.

HM: How quickly did the police or anyone else realize who these people likely were?

BT: Officially identified, the police just informed today morning, when we saw the two dead people, a man and a woman, we were quickly thinking that it was already decades ago. We were first thinking 70 to 90 years looking at the clothes they were wearing, the shoes. And our staff knew as well that there was a story that the two people from [unintellgible], from the other side of the glacier in the valley. A couple was missing since it long time ago, and it's now confirmed. It was her husband and a wife which had the farm on the Bernese side. So they went over Glacier 3000 to cross it to go to the farm. The plan was to come back the same day or the day after. But sadly, on 15^th of August 1942, they were missing since then and they never came back. And the family was looking for them for more than two months. But then the winter came so they had to stop the search.
And the very sad part is that they had seven kids, very young kids which were left behind. And by today there are still two of the seven kids living, the two daughters which are quite happy now that they know what happened to their parents 75 years ago and that they finally can say goodbye to them.

HM: What happened to those children after their parents died? Do you know?

BT: I just know from the media or from Switzerland and they said that the kids were split between different families, that they were the lost. They didn't have much contact for some years. And then one of the brothers, they went to the glacier to meet again together and since then they were again closer.

HM: Do you know if they kept looking for their parents?

BT: They said yeah, they were looking for their parents and their grandparents. Some of my staff said that they just talked a few years ago to a gentleman who informed that he was looking for his grandparents that they probably will come out one day of the glacier. This now happened 75 years ago. So I would say the story is very sad in the beginning that two persons had to die in a crevasse, leaving behind seven kids. There is some happy end that finally the glacier gave back to two bodies by melting, and that the family knows what happened 75 years ago and that they can say good bye to their parents.

HM: Do you know why it's taken so for the bodies to be discovered?

BT: The glacier, 70 to 80 years ago was much bigger than today. And we believe that they fell in the crevasse and that they died in this crevasse. Seventy years ago the glacier was quite stable or even growing a little bit. So now the last 10, 20 years, the glacier lost in size and so slowly every year we lost half a metre, one metre, one and a half metres depending on the heat in summer and the quantity of snow we receive in winter. And so they came out a few days ago and by chance some of our stuff found them on the glacier short after they appeared.

HM: Are cases like this common in the Swiss Alps?

BT: No, common we cannot say. I think there will be some more bodies coming out of the glaciers as they generally melting with the climate change. There was one other… different three other people two three years ago in the upper valley on the glacier, and they were missed as well since 70, 80 years. It was a group of I think four or five persons who went for alpinism and they never came back and they found these three bodies two years ago.

HM: Do you know how many people might be missing over the years?

BT: So in the state of Valais, they are still missing 280 persons. They believe that some of them will come out of glaciers that will be found in the next years. But for sure, it's not a common story.

HM: All right. Well thank you very much for telling us the story.

BT: Thank you too. Thank you.

HM: OK bye-bye.

JD: That was Bernhard Tschannen, the CEO of Glacier 3000 ski resort. We reached him near Vaud, Switzerland.
We've posted more on that story – including some photos – on our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Dadbot

Guest: James Vlahos

JD: When a family member is dying, it's natural to focus on everything that will be lost. So, when one California journalist found out his dad had terminal cancer, he decided to find a way to keep his father's memory – and memories – alive. Before his father died, James Vlahos plugged his father's memories into a computer, and created what's known as a "chatbot". But that project prevented his father from being totally lost. Because now Mr. Vlahos can talk to "Dadbot" whenever he likes. And Dadbot talks back.
James Vlahos wrote about the experience for Wired magazine's August issue. We reached Mr. Vlahos in Berkeley, California.

HM: Mr. Vlahos I know a number of people who have recorded oral histories from elderly or dying family members, but what made you decide to put your dad's memories into a computer like this?

JAMES VLAHOS: I did an oral history project where I recorded a dozen or more hours of him talking. When I got it professionally transcribed, it printed out 200 pages of single spaced type, filled a binder and it’s a great resource but it's also an inert resource. And at the time that I was doing this and at that time that I was losing my father to cancer, I was also getting very interested in artificial intelligence and beginning work on a book on that topic. And it dawned on me that there might be another way that I could share his story and maybe just a little hint of his personality through an artificially intelligent chatbot.

HM: And your chatbot, your dadbot is meant to be interactive. Can you tell us how that works?

JV: So if you were to sit down and use the Dadbot, you would pull out your phone, you'd fire out Facebook Messenger. You would see John Jay Vlahos Bot as a contact. And you would send him a message and he would send you a message back and the conversation gets going just like that. It's primarily in that interchange, that, you know, text messaging back and forth. But then also there are clips of the audio from the oral history recording where he sometimes sings some of his favorite songs. He tells a few signature stories and some favorite jokes as well.

HM: We have a recording of your father singing one of his songs. I'd like to listen to it for just a moment now.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: John Vlahos singing]

HM: What was it like recording these stories and songs in these sessions with your dad?

JV: It was beautiful and sad. There was no pretense about what was happening. He was dying. He knew he was dying. I knew he was dying. We knew why we were sitting down to do this. So it was it was difficult but it was very satisfying for him to just lay out his whole life story. And you know, to have some sense or knowledge that you know was down for his descendants to know and hear.

HM: Did he tell you what he thought of your dadbot idea?

JV: He did, he was supportive of the idea. And when he eventually got to do an interaction session with it, with my mom who was primarily messaging with the bot, he said it was really cool. And he said you know something for me was a compliment which was just that he thought the bot sounded like him. I think he said exactly like, those are things that I have actually said. So that was good for me to hear, that it had fidelity was this sort of strange distortion of him that was unrecognizable to him.

HM: I think probably many of us have questions that we wish we had asked our parents or other loved ones and just forgot to. And I'm wondering you know you had all these sessions, but when your dad passed away in February do you think you got all that you wanted from those conversations?

JV: Yeah that's a, that's a tough question. I think he saw the task, he wanted to share a lot of facts. Here was my favorite class when I started at Cal, and here's who I was friends with or whatever it was. I think when I got done and reflected on it later, I wanted even more feelings. What did you feel like at that point in your life then? When was when was a dark moment and how did you get out of that?

HM: How do you feel now when you hear his voice?

JV: It can hit me in a couple of ways. I can make him feel closer sometimes, or I can be painfully aware that I'm talking to a computer program that I created that very clearly is not him.

HM: Do you think this is something a lot more people will be doing in the future, uploading part of themselves or family members to the cloud, being able to access these stories or songs the way you were?

JV: I think there's a huge appetite for it because it's ancient and pervasive. Right? The desire to keep someone who has gone, to keep them around. And even just from conversations I have with people about the dadbot, there's hardly a person who doesn't say like “Oh gosh, I wish I wish they would that kind of technology is perfect now or I wish we could do more with this.” So, the desire is very clearly there. What's left where is how good the technology is, how fast will it get better, you know does it… we’re in a weird place now where it's not good enough to even be worrisome in any bigger way. But I have wondered like what if I could make this perfect version of a dadbot. Would that start to get a little too weird and that sort of blurring the line between you know the real person versus this new thing that's been created?

HM: Lots of questions. Listen I appreciate you talking with us. It's been really good to talk to you. Thank you.

JV: You're welcome.

JD: We reached James Vlahos in Berkeley, California. And the story about how he created dad bought is online now at Wired.com

Back To Top »

Part 2: Frances Gabe Remembered, French Foam Balls, and more

Frances Gabe obituary

Guest: Allyn Brown

JEFF DOUGLAS: Frances Gabe always hated housework. So much so, that she made it her life's work to figure out how to avoid it. And to that end, she patented the self-cleaning house. Now the idea didn't exactly take off. But she was happy to show you how it worked, if you took a peek inside her home in Newberg, Oregon. In fact, 20 years ago, former As It Happens host Michael Enright interviewed her about it on this very program.

SOUNDCLIP

FRANCES GABE: How does it clean itself? That's what you want to know.

MICHAEL ENRIGHT: Yes. In some detail.

FG: Of course. The cleaning system is smallish apparatus in the ceiling. They're not intrusive in the least. There's another one, a different type, a long narrow one along the baseboard at the junction between the floor and the wall. And one of them dispenses water and the other one dispenses forced air. And when you want to clean the house, you open the valve and you turn on the switch.

ME: It's like a sprinkler system, is it?

FG: Yes. Yes it is. But it isn't at all like a car wash. Please don't say that, it hurts me.

ME: No, I certainly won't.

JD: That was Oregon inventor Frances Gabe but discussing the features of her self-cleaning house with Michael Enright on this program in October of 1997. Well we have learned this week that Ms. Gabe died at the age of 101. She passed away last December, but the news of her death was slow to circulate.
Allyn Brown knew Frances Gabe Well. He is her former lawyer and a close friend. We reached Mr. Brown near Lincoln City, Oregon.

HELEN MANN: Mr. Brown, we have just heard your friend Frances describing her self-cleaning house. But you have actually been in it. Was it as wild as it sounds there?

ALLYN BROWN: Yes. Yes it was. I should say though that I never actually did see it in operation. It was always in some sort of need of repair. Understanding she did all this by herself, all the plumbing, building all the walls. She did everything by herself on a shoestring. I mean she didn't have much money and so it was a marvel to see. And whenever I'd come out to see it work, something would happen and it wouldn't work. But she would always tell me when she would get the thing going.

HM: It's hard to imagine what it would be like living with surfaces that can survive a sprinkler system. Was it comfortable to sit in the home?

AB: Well in my opinion, not particularly. She developed a type of fabric through some chemical process that would not mold and would dry quickly. But it was kind of strange texture, kind of strange to touch. Plus the house was actually fairly small. The first time I saw the movie The Hobbit and saw the houses in there, my first impression of them was it looked like Gabby's house. I called her Gabby. She called me Allyn. It was unusual to say the least.

HM: There's also the closet. I guess she didn't want to take things off the hangers when she laundered them. Do you know how that worked?

AB: In theory, the concept with the closet was that you would hang your clothes up there and when you turned on the house, your clothes would get sprayed and washed. And then afterwards she had a chain system that it would then move to a closet and you would get air dried.

HM: You knew her for years. Did she ever tell you how she came up with this idea?

AB: I asked her that question. I mean, you can't help but wonder, certainly when you walk in and see the place. And I asked her once we got pretty well acquainted where the idea came from. And she said, first I had to swear I would never tell. Because she said if people knew where this idea came from, then they'd really think I'm crazy.

HM: OK.

AB: So anyway she told me and I’m going to keep her promise.

HM: Do you know whether part of it was because she hated housework?

AB: Oh absolutely. She was always concerned about the plight of the woman always having to do the drudgery and the work and the house cleaning. And she thought males got all the fun to go out to build things and be outside and she thought housework was a ball and chain for women in the world.

HM: You were a lawyer for many years. How did you actually first meet her?

AB: I opened a law practice in Newburgh in 1970. I just literally hung up my shingle. I was full of ambition and had a lot of time on my hands, and she was one of the first clients that ever walked to my door. And she had a problem with a neighbor which turned out would be a lifelong situation. She had issues with all her neighbors. They usually had to do with her large dogs and they'd get out and chase the neighbor's horses or cows and scare some of their kids. And so she always had issues and to understand the facts surrounding the complaint that was addressed to her. I went out to her place and was just dumbfounded by what I saw out there.

HM: Were you honest with her about any concerns you might have?

AB: Oh yes. I had a lot of time on my hands and so I would spend time with her. We actually had a number of things in common. She had a lapidary studio where she was polishing agates and semi-precious stones and made her own jewelry. And as a kid I was a rock hound. She also was a ceramist. She had sculptures of reclining nudes around her yard, you know half grown over with ivy.

HM: Is that true that the art pieces weren't the only things that were sometimes nude in the garden.

AB: I never saw her. But one of the complaints of her neighbors was she would do work in the garden stark naked. And I've talked to people who were firsthand accounts of coming upon her naked in her yard.

HM: It sounds like, you said she didn't have a lot of money. Was she able to foot her legal bills?

AB: Not really. No. I mean when you were out there, it was a hot summer day, she gave me a Pepsi. She said “Do you like Pepsi?” and I said “Well, sure.” When she said “Now what's this going to cost me?” And I said “Well, this cold Pepsi on this hot day. That's good enough for me. That's payment for me.” And she says “Well that suits me just fine.” And so from then on she'd call me up say “Can you come out and see me? I have a cold Pepsi for you.” I kind of got myself into a bit of a bind on ever going beyond Pepsi for charging her for legal service.

HM: You know, for a while there it looked as if her self-cleaning house idea was getting a lot of attention anyway but it didn't really take off. Was she terribly disappointed?

AB: Well I wouldn’t say terribly disappointed. I mean she liked the challenge. She loved the attention that she got by giving tours. But there was always the impression that there was going to be a big payday. Somebody was going to acquire this concept and make it, and turn it into money.

HM: And she didn't have a patent, right?

AB: Yes she did. She did that patent on her own. She made the acquaintance of a person I think at university in Minnesota. She talked to him a lot about patents. He told me that her that the patent that she filed was his longest patent he'd ever seen.

HM: So what's happened in the house now?

AB: I read in the New York Times that somebody’s living in it. It's not surprising that it's still in existence because this thing was made out of cement and rock. It could withstand a bombing, I'm sure.

HM: How are you remembering Frances Gabe? How do you choose to think of her?

AB: She was a delightful person. You know she was prickly and demanding of people. She never really quite realized that you get more with sugar than you do with vinegar. So as a result, she put a lot of people off in her sort of arrogant, demanding ways. But to me, she knew that she was that way and she kind of got a kick out of it. So I never quite grasped whether she was true genius and I didn't recognize it or she led a life of delusion.

HM: Well thank you very much for sharing your memories with us. It's been a pleasure to speak with you Mr. Brown.

AB: You’re entirely welcome.

HM: Okay, bye-bye.

JD: Allyn Brown is the former lawyer and close friend to Frances Gabe. The Oregon inventor died at the age of 101. We reached Mr. Brown near Lincoln City, Oregon. There's more on that story on the As It Happens website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Trudeau: Quebec City

JD: Justin Trudeau says he's disappointed by what's been happening to Quebec City's Muslims.
The Prime Minister was in the Quebec capital today. His visit comes after a handful of citizens in nearby St-Apollinaire voted to block what would have been the area's first Muslim cemetery from being built near their homes.
Days before the vote, a package was sent to Quebec City's Islamic Cultural Centre. That's the mosque where six people gunned down in January. The package contained a defaced Koran and a note suggesting a pig farm as the place where they should bury their dead.
This afternoon, reporters asked Prime Minister Trudeau for his thoughts.

SOUNDCLIP

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: I think Quebeckers understand that diversity is a source of strength. And when we had that terrible attack in January here at the mosque in Sainte-Foy, I saw myself. How over 10,000 people came out in the streets to recognize that that hateful act did not represent Quebeckers or Canadians. And to see the strength of reaction of citizens of Quebec City, of this province emphasizing that Muslim Quebeckers, Muslim Canadians are our brothers and sisters and that we stand together, is what I know to be true of Quebeckers in general and something that we will continue to stand strongly for.
On the issue of the Muslim cemetery, certainly I'm pleased to see that various authorities are looking to move forward and ensure that discrimination doesn't happen, that people who are proud Quebeckers, proud Canadians who also happen to be Muslim will have the capacity to bury their loved ones here in their country. And that kids and grandkids who've lost their grandparents will be able to visit them regularly here at home. This is something that I think everyone can understand, that it is important that we all stand together on this and if there's a role for the federal government to play, we will certainly play it but I don't think it surprises anyone. To hear us pronounce strongly on the side of diversity and inclusion because I think that is one of Canada and Quebec’s greatest strengths.

JD: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaking earlier today in Quebec City.

[Music]

Exploding car

JD: Barry Chalifoux had made the same drive many times before. Every week, he gets in the car and makes the three-and-a-half hour journey from Loon Lake, Saskatchewan to English River First Nation.
Last week, however, his commute went horribly wrong – when he noticed smoke coming out of the hood of his 2015 Ford Edge.
Mr. Chalifoux told Julianne Hazlewood, host of CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning, about his ordeal.

SOUNDCLIP

BARRY CHALIFOUX: Within seconds, I see the fire. And even when the smoke was coming in I was already trying to push the brakes and move over to the side of the road but there was absolutely no brakes whatsoever. Just a big sense of fear and overwhelming sense of fear just hit me. And I honestly didn't know what to do at that second besides just hopefully try to get out of my vehicle. And it wasn’t long when the vehicle kind of slowed on its own, but I could feel the heat and I couldn't see anything. The cab was completely filled with smoke. I tried to get out. There was absolutely no way I could get out. There was no power so I couldn't unlock the doors and it was actually really scary.

JULIANNE HAZLEWOOD: Once it does stop, you try to get out yeah try to get out.

BC: Yeah I tried to get out. It was kind of crazy because I tried opening the door, it wouldn’t unlock, and tried pushing the unlock button, that wouldn't work because there was absolutely no electricity. Fire must have got a battery or something by then, or the joints or the electrical wiring. But I just sat there for a second and started feeling my leg getting really really really hot. I pulled on the panel with the door. As I jerked on that and pulled the door handle, the door finally unlocked and I jumped out.

JH: As this was all happening, did you think that you would make it through or were you thinking that this was it?

BC: The thought came to my mind that if I don't get out of here, I'm going to die either by the smoke or this fire because I can't breathe. It still scares me to this day getting into vehicles. Like, I have a rental right now. I drive with the windows down. That fear is there and it's probably going to be there for a while.

JD: That was Barry Chalifoux, talking to Saskatoon Morning host Julianne Hazlewood. Mr. Chalifoux suffered third-degree burns and nerve damage as a result of that fire.

[Music]

French foam balls

Guest: Jonathan Hénicart

KG: The scene is surreal: kilometres of French beach, running south from Calais, all covered in what looks like yellow foamy balls. From a distance, they're somewhere between cute and beautiful. Closer up, they are neither.
Jonathan Hénicart is the President of Sea-Mer, an NGO dedicated to the protection of the region's coastline. We reached Mr Hénicart in Wimereux, France.

HM: Mr. Hénicart, can you describe for us what you saw when you first went to look at these yellow balls?

KG: We saw some yellow things on to the beach. It was like pieces of yellow Styrofoam. And but we realized that it was not the foam. We realized that it was looking like playdough that we give to children.

HM: Right playdough.

KG: Yeah, playdough and then we realized that it was really like paraffin wax.

HM: So how many of these balls did you see?

KG: It's impossible to say. Maybe thousands, maybe millions of them.

HM: Wow. How big are they?

KG: Some are very small like half-centimetres. Some are like one centimetre. And the biggest ones are 10 centimeters large.

HM: And when you pick them up, what do they feel like?

KG: It's a bit wet and you can you can break it very easily in very large numbers more pieces.

HM: So what are they?

KG: So in fact, this paraffin wax is used in many many things. They use it for making candles of course. They also use it in medicine. And this product is carried by ships. Once they have discharged their cargo in the ports, and once they have left the boat, they are allowed to wash their tanks and then to throw this residues overboard and that's it. They are allowed to do this. But far from the coast here we can see that it was really close to the seashore and then we think there was some additional pumps to remove this product from their tank.

HM: Right so you think this is washed ashore after it's been cleared out from the ship's tanks. Would this be this volume? Could that just be from one boat?

KG: I think so. But the problem is that in Netherlands, they got the same something at the same time. So we don't know. We don't know really which boat did this. If there was one or two.

HM: So this is a very large stretch of coastline that is experiencing this then, if you're saying it's also in the Netherlands.

KG: Yeah, it's very large and the quantity is crazy. The beach was really totally covered with this yellow things.

HM: Now how do you know for sure that it is paraffin wax?

KG: At first sight, we guessed that it was this product. It's not the first time that we get some funding of this product. And then we received some analysis given by French authorities that confirms that this is an industrial paraffin wax.

HM: Now you said this wasn't the first time. Has it happened often?

KG: It’s the third time within one year. The first time it was not yellow, it was a pink paraffin wax, and then this winter, we got three tons of this paraffin wax but it was white. And now we received some yellow one. I don't know maybe they think it's funny to send us some different colours each time.

HM: What is the impact for the local environment?

KG: The problem is that it's proven that feeders ingest this kind of product. The problem is also that even if we say that it's not toxic, the quantity, the enormous quantities makes it toxic because the local wildlife will live with this and it will come in addition with so many so many pollutions.

HM: Is there a health risk to people if they consume if they eat that sea life?

KG: If you said that no, but can’t say. It depends on the quantity you eat. If you're eat it during one week I think you're going to die for sure. But is said that this product is not dangerous from small ingestion.

HM: Is anything being done to make sure this doesn't keep happening?

KG: Well it depends on the regulations, the International regulations. It looks like regulations are too light. It’s too easy for ships are able to do what they want. So I think we need to check what they do and also to have harder regulations.

HM: All right Mr. Hénicart, thank you very much for telling us what's happening.

KG: Thank you. Bye Bye bye.

KG: Jonathan Hénicart is the President of Sea-Mer, a French environmental group. He was in Wimereux, France.

[Music]

Sound of the Day: Snoring Song

JD: Undoubtedly, it’s the song of the summer. And now, Despacito is on track to become the most watched streaming video ever.
At last count, the song by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi featuring rapper Daddy Yankee had racked up two-point six billion views on YouTube, in just six months. Universal Music claims the song has already topped the most-streamed list – reaching 4-point-6 billion times across all streaming sites.
And, of course, the song has inspired many parodies – such as "I wear Speedos" and "Take a seat-o" – a song by a singing dentist about getting your teeth fixed.
Perhaps the most inspired re-imagining of the song is by a grandmother who painstakingly recorded her husband snoring over four years, and – with her nephew's help – re-mixed the snores, to the tune of "Despacito". This is the result – our sound of the day.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: Despacito remixed from snoring sound effects]

JD: I'm assuming the original didn't sound that good, the snoring that is. The sound of a man's snoring remixed to the tune of Despacito.

[Music]

Parliament fight

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: crowd shouting, horns honking]

JD: That was the sound in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan today, as members of the opposition brawled with members of the government over a 36-billion-dollar infrastructure bill. What you heard was – Just a second. That was actually the sound in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan last Thursday, as opposition members brawled with government members over that bill. This is what it sounded like yesterday.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: crowd shouting louder, horns honking, announcer shouting]

JD: I do apologize for the mix-up. In both clips, people were shoving each other, and throwing stacks of paper, and also chairs.
In neither case was there blood or serious injury. Almost as though the whole thing was a pantomime of a brawl and no one was really trying to hurt each other.
Well, essentially, that's exactly what it was. And what the semi-frequent brawls in Taiwan's parliament almost always are. According to Cindy Sui, the BBC's Taiwan correspondent, the opposition routinely uses these donnybrooks to slow or stop the passage of legislation. And politicians must be seen to be participating – to appear to literally be fighting for what they believe in.
Now as extreme as this all sounds, it seems to work. Ms. Sui refers to Taiwan's democracy as "one of the most vibrant in the world". So is it preferable to the dull, partisan verbal attacks from the opposition in Canada's parliament – which are inevitably followed by the dull, un-illuminating verbal responses from the government? I don't know – but it's feud for thought.

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July 19, 2017 episode transcript

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