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The AIH Transcript for July 28, 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: Papers chased. Pakistan's high court pushes Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from power, after the Panama paper's leak suggest that his family hadn't been entirely upfront about their wealth.

JD: Worst case scenario. An Ontario judge does not just dismiss a soil corporation’s lawsuit against a mild-mannered critic, he orders the company to pay her damages for dragging her into court.

HM: Acts of faith. Palestinians return to East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque after Israeli authorities agree to remove security restrictions they had imposed on the site.

JD: Big shoes to fill. A Nevada hotelier puts up his clown hotel for sale and he says he's looking for buyers who find his giant collection more charming than creepy.

HM: Taken care of business. U.S. Senator John McCain delivers the deciding vote against his Republican Party's plan for health care reform.

JD And… bumping heads. A Seattle neurologist develops an instrument he calls the encephalophone, which is really just a fancy way of saying you can play the thing just by thinking with your brain. As It Happens, the Friday edition. Radio that will now pause to make a quick mental note.

[Music: Theme]

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Part 1: Pakistan ruling, Stouffville SLAPP case, clown motel

Pakistan ruling

Guest: Shahzeb Jillani

SOUNDCLIP

SPEAKER: It is hereby declared the Election Commission of Pakistan shall issue a notification disqualifying respondent number one, Mian Muuhammad Nawaz Sharif, from being a member of the parliament with immediate effect. Where after, he shall cease to be the prime minister of Pakistan.

JD: And with those words, Nawaz Sharif was effectively ousted from Pakistan's parliament and from his position as prime minister. They were part of an extraordinary ruling today from the country's Supreme Court. Nawaz Sharif was disqualified from holding public office following a corruption investigation into his family's wealth and their links to offshore companies. After the ruling, Prime Minister Sharif resigned his position. Shahzeb Jillani has been reporting on this story. We reached him in Karachi.

HM: Shahzeb, the Sharif family has dominated politics in Pakistan for a number of decades now. Do you think that dynasty has come to an end today?

SHAHZEB JILLANI: Not really. In Pakistan, we have seen this happen before when we thought that the political career has come to an end only for the politician who bounced back after eight or ten years. Remember this is a country where the military has dominated political scene almost 70 years now. And they have either ruled the country through direct martial laws or they have tried to influence civilian government. And Mr. Sharif has had a checkered history with the army. They propped him up against Benazir Bhutto, who was a popular leader at that time. But over the decades, he has fallen out with a number of army chiefs. And many people in his camp today suspect that behind his ouster by the judiciary it is actually the military and intelligence agencies who have been at work.

HM: Given those concerns, those allegations, what is the mood like in Pakistan tonight?

SJ: Well it's a polarized country. There's obviously the opposition politician: former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan. He has been actively campaigning for the last four years to get the prime minister dismissed. Today, he has succeeded. There are obviously other people close to Nawaz Sharif, who believe that this is a bad omen for the country. This is a country where not a single prime minister has been allowed to complete their five year elected term. Nawaz Sharif was a three-time elected prime minister. He was just one year away from completing his role. And today, he has to leave the prime minister's house rather unceremoniously.

HM: The decision by the Supreme Court was unanimous to disqualify Mr. Sharif from his position. Did the judges indicate how they came to that decision?

SJ: Yes. And because of the intense media scrutiny of this case over the last several months, I think most Pakistanis are well aware of how it happened because the hearings went on for a long time. It was discussed almost daily 24/7 on national TV. And what we know is they’ve invoked some ambiguous and controversial clauses in the Constitution, which require every elected member to be honest and sagacious. It's devastating for times to come because it has set a precedent for the Supreme Court to disqualify elected members over issues of morality rather than law. I mean effectively what the Supreme Court said was that the prime minister has not been honest and forthright regarding wealth, his assets, how he made money, how he purchased very expensive flats in London and so on and so forth.

HM: Maybe you could take us through the specific allegations? You say it's about his wealth and about family assets. What is his family accused of?

SJ: Well, actually, it all started with the Panama papers. If you remember, this was last year and these are offshore companies and the number of politicians were named in those papers. Now the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was not named, but his daughter was. His daughter was seen as a likely successor, Maryam Nawaz, she was linked to an offshore company, which bought these very expensive flats in central London. And that prompted the opposition politician Imran Khan to approach the court and say the Sharif family has amassed wealth over the decades. It has remained unaccountable. And that's why they should be disqualified or he should be disqualified. Now, over the last several months, we saw how the court proceeded with this matter. They initially ordered judgment on April 20^th, effectively referring to Mr. Sharif as a Sicilian Mafia don, who has every other institution of the state under his thumb. That has never been investigated and he's been able to get away with his alleged corruption.

HM: Now things got quite dramatic in this court case when there was some debate over the use of a particular Microsoft font. Can you tell us what that's about?

SJ: Yeah, this was one of the many controversies that came out of this court case. It had to do with the Microsoft font “Calibri”. Some of the documents that Mr. Sharif’s daughter submitted to deny any wrongdoing — any corruption — were dated February 6, 2006, and they in this particular font. And the judges questioned the validity of these documents because they said this particular font wasn't commercially available until June, 2007. So they were suggesting that somebody had doctored these documents.

HM: You mentioned that the fact that no prime minister Pakistan has been removed by voters, only by judges, generals, assassins and, of course, the inability of any of them for whatever reason to complete a full five year term. What impact is that having do you think on Pakistan?

SJ: It puts the army in that position where they are the final arbiters of how power is manifested in this country. They have often used the courts to pressurize politicians. They’ve used the media. I can tell you that members of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, were calling newspaper organizations and television news channels to throw a particular line and the line was that the prime minister should resign. And it made me think that if they can call news channels with this request, what could they be doing with the Supreme Court? I think Pakistan I feel has entered a new phase, where much of our political class will have to look over their shoulder that they do not fall out of line with the military or they could be very easily kicked out of the parliament.

HM: How much has it captured people that this prime minister may have been brought down by a Microsoft font.

SJ: I think Mr. Sharif himself really underestimated. He really thought that this will go. They will never have any corruption and wrongdoing. It didn't really capture the public's imagination. Who have to suffer the water shortages, power outages, with poverty and transport problems, you know? They weren't really concerned with the power games taking place in the capital, Islamabad, between the army and the army and the judiciary and the parliament and so on. You know the country is divided today. There are some who believe that corrupt politicians will be held to account. There are others who believe that this country had a chance of moving on on the Democratic part. And once again, it has been derailed.

HM: Shahzeb, thank you very much for explaining all the nuances for us. We appreciate it.

SJ: All right, thank you.

HM: Bye bye.

JD: Shahzeb Jillani is a freelance journalist and a former BBC Pakistan correspondent. We reached him in Karachi. And for more on the resignation of Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, go to our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: String orchestra]

Stouffville SLAPP case

Guest: Katie Mohammed

JD: Katie Mohammed is a teacher and a mom who lives in Stouffville, Ontario. And last year, she was concerned about the potential for contamination in a nearby aquifer. And so she took to Facebook and she posted a few comments expressing frustration, but without resorting to vulgarity or threats. Then, United Soils Management, the company at the center of her concerns, sued her for libel. Well this week, a judge dismissed that case calling it meritless. And then, using new so-called “anti-SLAPP” rules that target “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” S-L-A-P-P. The judge ordered the company to pay Ms. Mohammed damages for her troubles. We reached Katie Mohammed in Stouffville.

HM: Katie Mohammed, did you think all of this trouble could possibly come from a Facebook post in a Stouffville mothers group?

KATIE MOHAMMED: Not in a million years!

HM: What was it like for you to find out this week that the libel case against you had been dismissed?

KM: Oh, it was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

HM: Can you take us back to where this all started? When did you find out that your Facebook post had actually caught the attention of this soil company?

KM: It was actually the first day of school, my son's first day of SK, my daughter was at daycare that day. The three of us were snuggling on the couch and I got a knock at the door. And I answered the door and it was a man and he had told me that he was there regarding comments I had made on Facebook about a company. And I said well, I don't know what you're talking about? And he said oh, well you will soon. And then he left.

HM: And then when you opened it up, what did you find?

KM: It had mentioned that they were intending to commence an action against me regarding my comments on Facebook. And that I needed to apologize to reduce the damages. And when I read it, I assumed it meant that if I apologize that there would be no lawsuit commenced against me. So I did what it said and I apologized that night.

HM: Was it to be posted the apology on Facebook as well?

KM: I can't remember the exact details, but what I did is I apologized right on my post.

HM: And did you retract what you had said as well?

KM: I retracted and I apologized, yes.

HM: I know that you've been advised not to get into what the posts you put up actually said, but the judge did tell them in his ruling in the case. They were basically expressing concern that future generations could be hurt by contamination because of dumping in a local pit. Is that a fair summary?

KM: I think so.

HM: What did you do after the retraction? What happened next?

KM: Afterwards, I wanted to make certain that I did exactly what it said in the letters. People are mentioned in that first letter that I got, so I sent them all personalized apologies. And then I thought you know I didn't think anything more of it until the Friday after the first week of school and I got another knock at the door and it was the same man. And he said Katie Mohammed, it's a lawsuit now. And he handed me the envelope. And I went into the kitchen and I opened it up and I read through it and I just collapsed on the floor when I found out that they were suing me for $120,000.

HM: What went through your mind?

KM: Oh my goodness, I was terrified. I mean you start to think OK, well there's two options here: I can either fight it, or I can pay the claim. And with both of those thoughts the enter your mind are where am I going to get this money from? And am I going to have to sell my family home to do this? And what about my kids’ education funds? Am I going to have to go through those? And it was just the thought of even being a teacher in the community thinking what is the community going to think about this and what are they going to think about me? And I mean it was just a sickening feeling.

HM: What did the judge say in dismissing the case?

KM: I know that it was a very long ruling that he released. And from what I understand, I mean I'm not a lawyer, but from what I understand, he found that the case had no merit. So it was dismissed.

HM: I'm just wondering there you are part of this mother's group in Stouffville. Your post I'm assuming you think is an honest concern. And then you become subject to a lawsuit. How does that make you feel?

KM: Well, to be honest, it made me feel silenced. I mean I've spent the last ten months worried about saying really much of anything. And even using social media I felt nervous. And I'm just so happy with the ruling because I'm starting to feel like I can just be me again. I'm starting to feel like I got my life back.

HM: You were even nervous as I understand it about speaking with us?

KM: Yes. It's a difficult thing to go through where you just don't know what the outcome is going to be and your mind starts going to all different places of worst case scenarios and being worried that my words have caused so much grief for everybody involved. I felt silenced. I felt, like I mentioned before, spending the last ten months feeling that what I said got me into trouble. It would I would imagine it would make anybody feel silenced and feel very careful with what they're saying and very careful on what they're posting.

HM: Will that continue for you do you think?

KM: Now that I have the ruling, I feel a lot more confident and I feel that free speech has been protected. And it's a good thing to know that we have these anti-SLAPP laws to know that you can participate in matters that affect your community. If it hadn't been for the SLAPP laws then I don't know where I would be financially trying to fight this in the courts?

HM: Do you think this case sends a message to other individuals or corporations that might try to file a libel suit?

KM: I would hope so.

HM: Well, I thank you very much for speaking with us today. We appreciate it.

KM: Thank you so much.

HM: All right, take care. Bye bye.

KM: OK, bye bye.

JD: We reached Katie Mohammad in Stouffville, Ontario. And we have more on this story on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Country]

Clown motel

Guest: Bob Perchetti

Tonopah, Nevada is a historic mining town on the road between Reno and Vegas. And for the past 22 years, it has been home to the infamous Clown Motel, offering visitors cheap rates and a massive clown collection. Now, however, that motel is up for sale, ideally to a buyer who will respect its heritage. Bob Perchetti is the owner of the Clown Motel. We reached him in Dillon Beach, California.

HM: Mr. Perchetti, why are you unloading your clown motel after all this time?

BOB PERCHETTI: Well, the number one reason is because on my next birthday I’ll be 80 years old. So I retired from the State of Nevada after 31 years in 1994. And at that time, I took over the Clown Motel as the owner and I've been there for 22 years.

HM: So it's time to move on?

BP: Time to move on. I have five daughters, three sons and 14 grandchildren, so I need to spend some time with my family.

HM: You're going to be busy.

BP: I'm going to be busy. I hope to be busy.

HM: So for those of us who've never spent a night at the Clown Motel, can you describe the experience for us?

BP: Well, it's like any other motel except the fact that it's been called “the scariest motel in the United States” and it's a little different because we live in an historic mining town called Tonopah, Nevada, a small town of 3,000 people. It’s the second leading silver producer in the state of Nevada behind Virginia City. And our rates are low. A lot of people come just to see the clowns in the atmosphere. They're just nice rooms with two queen beds and we have clown pictures on the walls. We have wireless internet. We have Dish TV. We have coffee in the morning and we have happy clowns.

HM: And all those clowns, do they start in the lobby and then as you say go all the way to the rooms?

BP: Yeah, we have some pictures in some of the rooms. We have a couple suites that are full of clowns and clown pictures. They're a little more upgraded with the larger TVs and the new carpet and stuff like that.

HM: Do you know how many clowns you have?

BP: Over 600.

HM: Where do they all come from?

BP: All over the world. Clowns have come to us from Europe, Asia, the Far East, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii. People send us clowns, they bring these clowns and I've actually bought clowns too, of course. I bought a couple collections of clowns. And I'm gone to yard sales, to senior citizens, thrift shops and it's been an experience through all these years of buying all the clowns and increasing the inventory, but they're all unique and different.

HM: How did the collections start?

BP: It started with a man by the name of Leroy David and sister Leona. We have a graveyard right next door to the Clown. A historic graveyard that was there from 1901 to 1911 and Mr. David's father, Clarence, is buried in the graveyard. He died in a large mine fire there in Tonopah and he wanted to do something with this piece of property next to the graveyard. So he and Leona they had a clown collection in Las Vegas and they decided to go ahead and put the clowns to work. So they decided to build a motel around the collection he had — the small collection.

HM: Right. So you're not only the creepy motel because you've got clowns, you're next to a graveyard?

BP: Next to a historic graveyard. Tonopah was discovered in 1900, and the graveyard was started in 1901 until 1911. But all the deaths from the miners in those early years were all buried in that graveyard.

HM: Do people come to the motel thinking the place is haunted?

BP: Oh yeah, they do because the Ghost Adventures came there and spent almost four days and they sequence on the Clown Motel. They didn't find any ghost. They looked for ghosts. They found them in the graveyard, but they didn't find anything in the motel.

HM: So yeah, the people who come to the motel are they largely people who love clowns or people who are creeped out by them?

BP: Well actually, we get both. But mostly the people who come there are the ones who love clowns. I've had people come in to get a room and register and all of a sudden they kind of scream and get anxiety and say oh my god, I can't stay in here. So I have to carry the registration cards outside for them to sign them out there. And then I have to go into the motel rooms and cover up the pictures with towels or take the pictures off the wall so they can spend the night there because they just got a lot of anxiety. It runs both ways. Most of the people who come there are no fear of clowns and they're happy with the clowns. And they're hoping for some type of an experience with the ghost of the clowns.

HM: You'd kind of think people who are showing up at your motel knowing it's called the Clown Motel, seeing the clowns outside would know that they're going to have to deal with some clowns?

BP: Oh yeah, for sure. And they have no problem with that. I've never had anybody that actually rented a room and went into the room and said I can't stay here. It’s just too much for me. I've never had that happen.

HM: Is there a lot of maintenance dusting all those clowns?

BP: Oh, of course there is. Actually that's a true story. And we try to do that all the time. There's a lot of that.

HM: So have you had any interested buyers?

BP: Actually, you know what? Since the word got out that the Clown Motel is going to be for sale, the phone has been ringing a lot. Just since I left to come down here to California for a couple of days, I’ve had seven people. I told them to take the names and numbers and I'll be glad to call everybody back. We`ve had seven people already call and say they're interested about the details about the Clown.

HM: Is it going to be hard for you to leave?

BP: Well, I'm never going to leave Tonopah, that's my home. I've been there since 1938, July 21^st. And I'm never going to leave Tonopah, so I'm five minutes away from the Clown. So if someone takes over the Clown Motel it’s going to stay the Clown Motel. I’m never going to let them change that. I would like to see him actually improve it and make it more of an attraction. But I'll probably stop in there every day just like I have for the last 22 years and just say hello to my clowns.

HM: Is there any one in particular that you like the best that you're going to say hello to?

BP: I’ve got a couple of favorites that I’ve always liked. You get after all these years and after taking them and dust in them and changing them and putting them different shelves in different positions you get something about the fascination of clowns. Something I've always had that I've always liked clowns and so I will miss them, there's no doubt about that. I will positively miss the clowns. But, like I say, I'm not going to be that far away. I'll be glad to visit them I'm sure.

HM: Well, you know I wish you luck in selling the place. I have to admit I'm one of the people who's kind of creeped out, but I do appreciate your own love of clowns.

BP: Well, I thank you for that very much.

HM: Thank you Mr. Perchetti.

BP: Any time. Give me a call any time. It’s nice talking to you.

HM: Nice to talk to you too. Take care.

BP: You take care too.

HM: Bye bye.

JD: That was Bob Perchetti, owner of The Clown Motel. we reached him in Dillon Beach, California. If you would like to see some pictures of his clowns and the motel, go to our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Jazz]

Broccoli pushers

JD: Two Denver Broccoli salesmen are in prison this weekend. There was a problem with their product. Their story begins in March of last year. That is when a man known as 22 Jump Street purchased a relatively small quantity of broccoli from a greengrocer. Mr. Jump Street then resold the broccoli to two other vendors for a total of $10,000. Now $10,000 is a lot to pay for a few bags of broccoli and that seems to be what the buyers were thinking as well. They had been under the impression that they were buying marijuana. So to clear up the confusion, they asked for a second meeting with Mr. Jump Street. And so, according to the press release from the local district attorney's office, Mr. Jump Street grabbed some more broccoli and a friend and they set off for the rendezvous outside a mall. Then things got serious. A fight broke out. Mr. Jump Street's associate pulled out a gun, the buyers took off across the busy parking lot as he fired a total of 11 rounds, hitting one of the buyers in the torso. Mr. Jump Street, whose legal name is Tercell Davis, has pled guilty to attempted murder. He will be sentenced early in August. Last week, his associate was sentenced to 16 years for attempted murder in the first degree. The gunshot victim has since recovered, but as District Attorney George Brauchler put it, quote, “This may be the first time that broccoli has been bad for someone's health.”

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Part 2: Al-Aqsa Mosque, mind music

Al-Aqsa Mosque

Guest: Rami Khouri

JD: Palestinian worshippers return to Al-Aqsa mosque for Friday prayers today, after two weeks of unrest. The mosque is part of a hilltop religious compound in Jerusalem, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount. It is one of the city's most revered sites and this is not the first time it has become a flashpoint. Israel installed extra security measures at the mosque earlier this month after an attack that killed two Israeli policemen. Palestinians responded with a boycott and massive street protests. All the new security devices were taken down by Israel yesterday morning. But even as Palestinians celebrated, there was chaos around the mosque and clashes with Israeli security forces continued. Rami Khouri has been following these developments. He is a senior fellow in public policy and a professor of journalism at the American University of Beirut. We reached him in Beirut.

HM: Mr. Khouri, what went on with Friday prayers at the mosque today?

RAMI KHOURI: There was a pretty quiet prayer service today at midday Friday, which is the big prayer of the week for Muslims. The Israelis had prevented young men under the age of 50 from coming in. So it was mostly older men and women and young kids. So the mosque itself was pretty quiet, but there was tens-of-thousands of Palestinian men and women who were not allowed into the mosque, who congregated in the streets around the mosques throughout Jerusalem as they have for the last two weeks and they peacefully put their prayer mats down on the ground and prayed.

HM: So even though the security measures have been removed, the protests continued?

RK: Well, it's not really a protest. It's a resistance. You know if the Israelis prevent you from going to pray in your own mosque in your hometown peacefully. You insist on going near the mosque and praying and this tactic worked very well. And the situation should get back to the status quo, which has existed for the last 50 years since 1967. Now the status quo is an Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, which is internationally recognized as an occupation. Which Palestinians reject, but they're not fighting it militarily. They are now using nonviolent civic protests whatever they can. And this is this is a new development.

HM: In terms of this resistance as you maybe want to call it. What was the role if any that was played by the leadership?

RK: Very little. The local Palestinians in Arab East Jerusalem, about 320,000 or so, they're under Israeli security control, but they don't have political representation in Israel. And they're not part of the Palestinian Authority under the PLO and Mahmoud Abbas. Therefore, they're kind of orphans. They're leaderless and they're on their own. And what happened in the last two weeks is they basically took charge of their own decisions on how to react to the Israeli security measures. And they essentially turned to a combination of local religious leaders and some respected people in society doctors and academics and things, business people and things like that. And together, the local people made the decisions, they consulted with the Jordanians, they consulted with the Palestinian Authority and they consulted informally with other Palestinian groups around the region. But they were taking the lead in Jerusalem. So this was a pretty serious blow to the role of the Palestinian Authority, the PLO and Mahmoud Abbas, who have become really pretty dysfunctional in the last 10 years or so. And it's no surprise that we're at this situation.

HM: Let let's step back a little bit to explain for those who haven't been following the story perhaps what security measures were put in place and why?

RK: There was a killing of two Israeli guards in the Aqsa area by three Palestinians who came from Israel itself, they weren’t from Jerusalem. And the Israelis in return decided they had to make these security measures, which the Palestinians rejected. And the Israelis tried to counter with other ideas. They said well, we'll take down these metal detector gates and we'll put cameras instead. Or we'll put these barriers that make people wind through lines and they can be checked. But the Palestinians rejected all of these…

HM: Why? Why was it so controversial to have metal detectors when you're talking about a scene where people were killed?

RK: Well, people were killed because there's an occupation and there's people killing each other all the time. There's a war going on.

HM: I appreciate that, but I want to talk about the specifics of what's happening at this site. Isn't it important to keep it safe and secure?

RK: Absolutely. And that should be safe for everybody, but it's also a situation where any change in the status quo that has existed in the last 20 years since the Jordanians and the Palestinians and the Israelis reached an agreement on how the site should be managed, which is essentially saying that the Palestinian local religious leaders run Al-Aqsa. So for Palestinians, this is not only a religious issue. It is an issue of national integrity and identity. And any small little change is rejected because they see it as something that could escalate over time. This has been the case for decades and there's been hundreds of people who've died in confrontations at the Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. There's nothing new. This is just the latest example. The only thing that's new here is there was mass civil peaceful protest by the Palestinians in the form of prayer. This forced the Israelis to back down.

HM: I want to know why? What's different this time around? Because these Israelis actually backed down quite quickly. What was it about the nature of those protests?

RK: So the size of this was something that scared them, the persistence of it and the other thing was that the issue of Jerusalem for Christian and Muslim Arabs resonates deeply and widely all across the Arab world and the Islamic world. You have people in Indonesia who were demonstrating and people in Morocco. The solution is to negotiate a permanent peace agreement.

HM: In terms of the protests that have taken place the last week or two, this step back by Israel. Do you think that this is the beginning of a bigger change?

RK: It's too early to tell. The Palestinians are in a very delicate situation where the people in Jerusalem have pretty much taken control of their own destiny and we don't know what this means going down the road? If it means that the PLO under Mahmoud Abbas is going to be weakened in terms of its political leadership role? If local people are going to emerge and play a bigger role in Palestinian society in Jerusalem? If this is going to elicit a reaction from the Israelis, who will say look, we can't keep controlling this occupied Palestinian population with military force or with cameras or with fences or with metal detectors or by shooting them as we were doing now. We have to find a political solution. So it's possible that the intensity of what happened might bring about a change on both sides. Hopefully it will bring about a change externally too in people like the United States, the Europeans and why not Canada play a role too.

HM: Mr. Khouri, thank you for talking with us.

RK: My pleasure.

HM: Bye bye.

JD: Rami Khouri is a senior fellow in [public oolicy and a professor of journalism at the American University of Beirut. He was in Beirut. Since the unrest began with the deaths of two Israeli policemen, Five Palestinians have been killed in clashes and three Israeli civilians were stabbed to death by a Palestinian, according to the BBC. As of Friday night in Jerusalem, Israeli police lifted all age restrictions on visitors and opened all the gates to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

[Music: Ambient]

McCain vote

JD: It was called the “skinny repeal.” But even that slimmed down version of the Republican's new health bill couldn't quite squeeze through the U.S. Senate. In a dramatic early-morning vote, three Republican senators broke ranks and voted to kill the plan that would have repealed parts of what some call Obamacare. The most dramatic vote was made by Arizona Senator John McCain, who had returned from brain cancer treatment to have his say on the bill. Here is the sound as Senator McCain cast his “No” vote. This is from MSNBC’s live broadcast.

SOUNDCLIP

SPEAKER: John McCain entered the chamber, gesturing to get the attention of the clerk. He was recognized with a thumbs down and he voted “No”. You heard applause from the Democratic side. Bernie Sanders is still animated about it.

JD: That was the sound of U.S. Senator John McCain voting down the Republican's latest effort to repeal Obamacare. The bill failed after three Republican senators refused to support it. After the vote, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer spoke on the floor of the Senate.

SOUNDCLIP

CHUCK SCHUMER: I would say to my dear friend the majority leader we are not celebrating. We are relieved that millions and millions of people who would have been so drastically hurt by the three proposals put forward will at least retain their health care. Be able to deal with pre-existing conditions. We are relieved not for ourselves, but for the American people. All of us were so inspired by the speech and the life of the senator from Arizona. And he asked us to go back to regular order. To bring back the Senate that some of us who have been here awhile remember. Maybe this can be a moment where we start doing that.

JD: That was U.S. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer speaking in the Senate early this morning, after the Republicans latest plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act was voted down. Republican Senator Ted Cruz had a very different view of what went down this morning. Here's what he told Fox News.

SOUNDCLIP

TED CRUZ: It's the single moms, it's the truck drivers, it's the steel workers, it's the working men and women who were left behind tonight. That's unfortunate. And you know there are going to be a great many Americans who tonight feel a sense of betrayal. Feel a sense of betrayal that politicians stood up and made a promise. I'll tell you this. If you stand up and campaign and say we're going to repeal Obamacare. And you vote for Obamacare those are not consistent. And the American people are entirely justified in saying any politician who told me that and voted the other way didn't tell me the truth. They lied to me. But I will say also the democratic process is a long process. In the next 24 hours and the next week, Democrats will crow exultantly. They will claim total victory for a collapsing and failing law that is Obamacare. I understand the frustration and anger of the American people. That frustration and anger is going to be heard by members of the Senate.

JD: That was Texas Senator Ted Cruz speaking after his party's failed vote to repeal Obamacare earlier this morning.

[Music: Jazz]

Michael Stone obit

JD: His friends and students called him an inspiration. And Michael Stone's death came as a shock to the thousands who followed his meditation and yoga teachings. Mr. Stone died in Victoria on July 16th after an overdose. Early toxicology tests show the presence of fentanyl in his body. Most of Michael Stone's global following did not know that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. A statement released by his family after his death suggested that he had acquired drugs on the street to self-medicate. Erin Robinsong spoke to CBC Toronto's “Metro Morning” about her friend and how he coped with his condition.

SOUNDCLIP

ERIN ROBINSONG: He told me a few years ago about the bipolar, but I think I only really truly understood the immensity of what that meant for him when this happened, which it just feels so strange to have known that and not have understood more or asked more or listened to more. He was a very strong, very functional person a lot of the time. And so I would hear about it, but he was also so good at being good when he was good. And he was so incredible that I think somehow that was what I was mostly aware of. And now, I feel really sad about that.

Andrew Nichols: What are some of the questions you've been struggling with since he died?

ER: It's brought so many questions. Death is a question. It’s like how does he exist now? And then there's also the question of how his work can continue? He was working on four books, several — I’m not sure how many — online courses, he had a huge community of thousands of people around the world. And how do these things continue? So I think everyone is asking that right now. And the ingredients are there. He wasn't the kind of teacher that made himself indispensable. I think he actually was always trying to do the opposite to be able to reach more people and just that people really became their own teacher. He's like here's some tools, go and use them. So I wonder how his work can continue without him and I think that it can. And also I mean another huge question that has been on my mind and on so many people’s is just on the fentanyl crisis. I mean so many people are dying. 2,500 People died last year in Canada and the deaths are increasing. And what are we going to do?

JD: That was Erin Robinsong, speaking with Andrew Nichols on CBC Toronto's “Metro Morning”.

[Music: Electronica]

Mind music

Guest: Thomas Deuel

JD: Most musical instruments require nimble fingers, good hand-eye coordination and a certain amount of energy to play. But to play a movement on a new instrument, you don't need to make any movement at all. All you need is your brain. Dr. Thomas Deuel is a neurologist who recently created the encephalophone. That is a device that plays notes according to a person's brain signals. And Dr. Deuel says that this brain computer interface could one day help people with motor disorders. We reached Dr. Deuel in Seattle.

HM: Dr. Deuel, maybe we could start by describing what the encephalophone looks like?

THOMAS DEUEL: It's more impressive what it sounds like than what it looks like, but basically the user — the operator — is wearing an electrode cap, which looks a little like a swim cap with wires coming out of it. And the cap is connected to an amplifier head box, which is sort of the brains of the unit and that is also an analog to digital converter. So this is just a sort of an electronic box and then that in turn is connected to a computer, where we do most of the signal processing computation. And then that in turn gets passed to yet another computer, which generates the music.

HM: Maybe to give our listeners an idea of how it works, we'll play a short sample of you playing the phone with an orchestra. Let's listen.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: A jazz orchestra and you really can’t even distinguish the encephalophone. Incredible!]

HM: It sounds like you were kind of feeling in gaps in the music there. How were you doing that? How do you actually play those sounds with your brain?

TD: So the device uses a signal in the brain from the electrical activity in the brain that is turned on and off with movement. It's also turned on and off, importantly, when you think about movement. Not only when you move, but when you think about moving. So I'm thinking about moving more and less and that is turning into notes in the instrument.

HM: So you're not concentrating on actual musical notes?

TD: Not directly, but much in the way that a person who learns how to play a violin might start by thinking about where their fingers are before they get to thinking about the notes that come out much. As I've learned how to use the device more, you can start to think about notes more directly and then the rest of that kind of happens.

HM: Because that was pretty musical. I mean it did sound like that what you were thinking did fit in with those chords.

TD: It did. And we have some pretty good control over it. We're cheating a little in the sense that it's within the same key. So it's never going to play too wrong of a note. And I'm improvising there, so it's not at the point of accuracy where I can follow a precise musical score.

HM: In your study, you tested the instrument on 15 individuals. What did you have them do?

TD: What we had them do was a lot less exciting than the performance because we wanted to control things rigorously and measure the accuracy of the device scientifically. But what we did was we had novice individuals, meaning people who had never done this before, and we had them attempt to match a target note. So we played a note and they tried to hit that note three times in a row within 10 seconds. And we just measured how accurate they were.

HM: So what was the result?

TD: All 15 people did much better than random. And then there was a range of accuracy levels ranging from around 48 per cent accurate up to 92 per cent accurate depending on the individual. So we have a lot of hope that this first study just simply shows that people who have never used it before have some accuracy where with training people can get much more accurate than that.

HM: Where did the idea come from? Where did you get the inspiration for this device?

TD: I had in my life been pursuing music and neuroscience; somewhat separately. They're kind of two passions of mine. And when I was doing research and studying neurophysiology ,which is EEG and basically those brain waves as a fellow at the University of Washington. I was thinking about people who had taken this EEG signal, turned it into sound or different types of music in the past and I said you know, I think I can do this better. And I can make it a device that is accurate and can generate music volitionally meaning with control in real time. And I kind of combined these two things together. Initially is more of an artistic or musical endeavor. And then, as I began developing it, I thought about how I could bring it back into the other part of my life where you know I'm a clinical neurologist, so I see patients in the hospital and treat them for neurological disorders like stroke. And I thought you know I might be able to use this device to help those people play music again when perhaps they played music before and lost that ability.

HM: Are there other potential applications for people with disabilities beyond playing music?

TD: Well yes, so in our initial studies that were starting soon at Swedish Hospital here in Seattle are to simply see if people with motor disability can generate music and just enable them to play music that they hadn't before. But what we plan to do further is to try to see if we can help them out with their cognitive rehabilitation and with their motor rehabilitation. So stroke patients are undergoing intensive physical therapy to try to get them stronger and more coordinated with their limbs that they've lost some of their power from. And we hope to use the device in parallel with the physical therapy to try to improve that. We have no proof yet that will work, but we have high hopes and some evidence to suggest that that will work. So that's kind of where we're going with it.

HM: Right. And yet, at the same time, there are those who have lost the ability to play it must give them great pleasure to think that they can and perform again somehow.

TD: Yeah, I am quite certain about that. I think it would be very inspiring for say a musician who used to be able to play the piano to be able to play a piano again without having to move. And one device that we are going to be using at the University of Washington and here at the School of Music and the digital and experimental arts program that I'm part of we have a disklavier here. So it's a piano that's remote controlled. We're going to combine the encephalophone with this disklavier and then people will be able to play an actual piano rather than just playing digitally created sounds. They'll actually be thinking and be able to have key move down and play an acoustic piano.

HM: All right, sounds amazing. Thank you very much Dr. Deuel. It's a pleasure to talk to you.

TD: OK, thanks so much for having me.

HM: OK. Bye bye.

JD: That was Dr. Thomas Deuel, a neurologist at the Swedish Hospital and creator of the encephalophone. We reached him in Seattle. And if you would like to see a video of Dr. Deuel playing encephalophone, head to our website that is of course: www.cbc.ca/aih.

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July 28, 2017 episode transcript

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