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The AIH Transcript for September 8, 2017

Hosts: Carol Off and Jeff Douglas

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

CAROL OFF: Hello, I'm Carol Off.

JEFF DOUGLAS: Good evening, I'm Jeff Douglas. This is as it happens [Music: Theme]

[Music: Theme]

JD: Tonight:

CO: Grab your keys and leave The Keys. Hurricane Irma is driving thousands of Floridians to drive out of its path, but our guest says he's he'd rather hunker down and pull up stakes.

JD: Tough act to follow. Mass confusion and concern results, when the credit monitoring company Equifax announces it suffered a cyber-security breach that exposed the financial data of 143 million people.

CO: High and mighty. Ontario's Finance Minister prepares to make money selling weed, as the province rolls out its plan to open provincially owned and operated marijuana retail outlets.

JD: Don't Bogart those joints, man. Toronto dispensary founder Mark Stupak says government-run stores won't kill his business’s buzz, thanks to dedicated customers and a product the bureaucrats just can't beat.

CO: It's a serious complaint, but i0t is just for kicks. An Iranian soccer fan is protesting after the big World Cup qualifying match in Tehran this week. She wasn't allowed in because she's a woman.

JD: And… look what the cat dragged in, and out, and everywhere else. We like long tails and we cannot lie — which is why we're so fond of Cygnus, a Maine Coon cat who's got so much back he just set a Guinness World Record. As It Happens, the Friday edition. Radio that knows he's attached to it, but he still keeps it at arm's length.

[Music: Theme]

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Part 1: Hurricane Irma: Florida Keys, marijuana: Ontario government/dispensary owner

Hurricane Irma: Florida Keys

Guest: Louie C Rock

JD: For residents of south Florida, Governor Rick Scott had a simple message today: Get out now. And many thousands are taking that advice. The highways leading north are packed with cars, and gas stations are running out of fuel. But despite the Category 4 Hurricane Irma bearing down on them, some Floridians are just staying put. Jose Collazo is a DJ who goes by the name Louie C Rock. He lives in one of the most exposed areas of the state: the Florida Keys and he is vowing not to leave his home. We reached Louie C Rock on Stock Island, near Key West.

CO: Louie, what do the Keys look like right now?

LOUIE C ROCK: Well, Key West looks like a ghost town back like it looked in 1940. You know before tourism invaded evaded West. That's how we’re looking right this second.

CO: And so have a lot of people left?

LR: The most people have evacuated ever that I’ve seen.

CO: And what does that feel like for you?

LR: It just feels kind of eerie because, basically, ther’e not a lot of people in town. Basically, at this point, you know you have to be prepared for anything that comes — hope for the best, prepare for the worst. And preparation is the key right now. And we're just keep an eye on the news outlets and seeing exactly you know what they're reporting and then you know just basically hunkering down, that’s all I can do right now.

CO: But the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic is coming your way, so why aren't you leaving?

LR: OK. Well, originally I had made plans to leave, and then I came back because the hurricane started basically going away from us. And now, you know basically it's change again where you know it's getting closer to us. But I left for Hurricane Wilma, which was a drastic hurricane down here with the storm surge that didn’t hit. And the property that I'm on, we did not lose one vehicle to any flooding.

CO: But you remember Hurricane Andrew in 1992, 65 people died.

LR: Hurricane Andrew in 1992 definitely was a devastating hurricane. You know Hurricane Andrew, to be honest with you, this is not like Hurricane Andrew based on this is covering the whole state of Florida. Obviously, we're in the cone, but mostly the whole state of Florida is in the cone. Actually, what happened in Hurricane Andrew it was forecast to hit Key West, Florida and it hit Homestead. And basically some people you know we didn't have the technology we have back then. Unfortunately, some people evacuated and went to Miami and got caught in the hurricane. So basically, at this point, I see one of my Key West baseball buddies, I played here for the Key West High School baseball team, and it's like when you're playing a position he played second base. His name was Willie. And he you know once you make a decision to move fast forward when hit a ground ball up the middle that's the call that you made. It is too late now; I don't feel comfortable going into the mayhem that's going on. You know there's a lot of panic and pandemonium in the turnpikes and stuff like that I just don't feel comfortable. Had I kept going at that point when I left or whatnot I would have been one thing, but at this point I've already made my decision and I’m not going. I’ve never seen one that’s covering the whole state of Florida.

CO: Absolutely. That's why you're getting warnings. I want to play what the Florida Governor Rick Scott is saying to people like you. Here's the governor.

SOUNDCLIP

RICK SCOTT: If you're in an evacuation zone, you've got to get out. You can't wait. The roads will get worse when it gets out. I just want everybody to listen to their local officials — understand this can be a devastating storm. It's way bigger than Andrew and as we saw the devastation of Andrew. My job is to protect everybody. I want everybody in this state to be safe.

CO: All right. That's your governor…

LR: That's the governor's job to basically give that message. I respect to the governor and basically you know that's what evacuation means. But the hurricane warning is not only in the Keys, it is in Miami and up in Dade and Broward County, which is past Miami. So the whole Miami and the Keys is under a hurricane evacuation order.

CO: We were talking to two young fellows who were in this hurricane — in Irma — in the Caribbean and I asked them if they could give any advice to people in Florida what would it be? They were right in the middle when were talking to them and they said get out. Do not stay around for this. This is the most horrible, horrifying thing you could ever imagine. If you can get out, go now. That was the words from them.

LR: Yes. I've been through the feeling before. But, like I said, at this point, I'm going to stick with my decision and you know basically hope for the best. I am, like I said, prepared, we have plenty of food, we have plenty of ice and you know we've got food to last us for a while.

CO: When Harvey was approaching Texas, a local mayor told residents to write their names on their arms so their bodies could be identified. Are you going to do that?

LR: I ain’t going to be scared or what not. I'm a leader by blood and by heart, so I'll be out there in the trenches helping people. Now, if you're in a low lying area, let's not mix facts and fiction. If you're in a low lying area where you know that if it just rains a little bit on a regular storm and it gets flooded and you decide to stay there, or you're in the middle the ocean then I would say that's probably 100 per cent not a good idea. But if you’re in a safe structure building that you know could withstand you know Category 4 hurricane and you’re high up and you don't have a chance of the water rise in 20 feet I think that basically you know you're in the best shape you can be under the circumstances because my neighbor, for example, evacuated to Tampa. If you see that cone, Tampa’s got a problem. Basically we'll just have to see how it goes. But I'm not going to push the panic button. I made my decision and I'm going to stick by it.

CO: All right. Louie, I hope that you stay safe. But I appreciate you speaking with us. Thank you.

LR: Feel free to check in with me after and hopefully the news will be good. And shout out to all your people in Canada listening to this station. You guys do an outstanding job.

CO: All right. Thanks, Louie. Take care.

LR: God bless. Bye bye.

CO: Bye bye.

JD: Louie C Rock is a DJ who lives on Stock Island, near Key West Florida. That is where we reached him. You can find more on that story on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih. Meanwhile, people on the Caribbean island of Barbuda are still surveying the damage done by Hurricane Irma there. Today, BBC reporter Laura Becker visited to Bermuda, where she spoke to a local resident Rose Brooks.

SOUNDCLIP

ROSE BROOKS: The night was restless, you couldn't get to sleep and I think you were up all night, trying to organize and keep things together. And then all of a sudden, the big crash came and then it just started bringing down everything. Everything just started to decay and just crumble.

LAURA BECKER: What's your house like?

RB: Well, the roof is off, and everything inside is destroyed. They’re gone.

LB: What have you eaten in the last few days?

RB: Nothing. Hardly anything because there’s nothing to eat and you can’t cook anything, so you have to have like biscuit, or tea, or water, or whatever and that's about it.

LB: What do you do now? Where do you go? What happens?

RB: I have no idea because I mean everyone now is homeless. No one have nowhere to go.

LB: Are you going to rebuild?

RB: I don't know. I don't know whether that is a possibility and if there is then it will be for a very long time.

LB: I mean how are you coping?

RB: We’re not coping. We’re definitely not coping. Everybody will tell you the same; they're not coping. Everyone is in the same situation and nobody can help one another. We can’t help each other because everybody needs help.

JD: That was Barbuda resident Rose Brooks, speaking to Laura Becker of the BBC.

[Music: Hip-hop]

Marijuana: government

Guest: Charles Sousa

JD: Charles Sousa is about to become the money man for what could be one of the world's largest marijuana ops. Mr. Sousa is Ontario's Finance Minister, and this afternoon he joined his colleagues in announcing the provinces plan to deal with marijuana legalization here. They are going to open provincially-owned marijuana shops across Ontario. Something like the provincial liquor monopoly, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, better known as the CBO. We reached Minister Charles Sousa in Toronto.

CO: Minister Sousa, is this actually to be called the Cannabis Control Board of Ontario?

CHARLES SOUSA: Well, we haven't determined on what the name will be or the branding of this. What we are saying it's going to be a controlled model under the LCBO. It will operate similarly, but it's separate and distinct from the LCBO stores, in order to provide controlled and safe measures to the public.

CO: And from where will the Ontario government procure its marijuana?

CS: You can only buy the province of Ontario, and for that matter any province, will only be able to buy from licensed producers determined by the federal government. Currently there’s about 58 or so producers now, they may have more. But we’ll only be allowed to buy from a licensed producer from within Canada.

CO: And for consumers in Ontario, was this the only place they will be able to purchase marijuana?

CS: So Ontario consumers will be able to purchase from some of the stores that are being rolled out as well as online. We’re offering online availability on July of next year when this is going to be required to every citizen in the province.

CO: Just as Ontario has a booze monopoly, you’re going to have a marijuana monopoly.

CS: You’re only going to be able to buy marijuana legally from Ontario stores. That's correct.

CO: That's a monopoly. And so how much is that worth?

CS: Well again, that will be dependent upon the price point and the agreements that we have with the federal government. So the taxation component of it hasn't been determined yet, but we do know that in other states where it has been legalized there is a substantial amount of revenue that's generated. We also have, and will have, substantial costs involved because of the reinvestments that we're making into the community. So the net result is yet undetermined. We anticipate at the early start that there won't be a lot of net revenue coming to the province, but over time it will evolve.

CO: So at first do you think it might be revenue neutral, you’re going to invest in the things you described. But eventually this is going to be a source of profit for the government?

CS: Well, it will be an opportunity to ensure that whatever revenues generated gets reinvested back into education and health care and substance abuse and addiction and those things that are of concern for people. As well as the youth, right? We want to protect their activity and their exposure. So we're taking those steps cautiously.

CO: And what about all these marijuana shops that have opened all over the place?

CS: So that's exactly what we're trying to combat and reduce. I mean we're trying to minimize these sorts of illicit activity and provide protection for the consumers. I mean communities are outraged that these illicit activities exist, that these shops are in their neighborhoods. So we are going to take action to ensure that that doesn't continue and we already have an enforcement that's taking place because they're illegal now. So just like the bootleggers and the speakeasies were prevalent back in the days of prohibition, we're taking the time necessary to evolve into a controlled model as the LCBO is today.

CO: But how are you going to figure out a price point for this? It’s not going to continue to do to provoke people to look elsewhere to buy their marijuana; to go to black markets, or to find other ways of obtaining it.

CS: Yeah Carol, so your point exactly I mean you can't price this too high or you're going to have illicit activity continue — and you don't want to price it too low to suggest you want to encourage the use of marijuana. So we are trying to find the right balance to do that and we need to work with the federal government to ensure that no one is overtaxing the system or that or the product, which then only allows for illicit activity to continue. So we have to take a measured approach that does exactly that to eliminate the use and also provide some confidence to consumers that if they go to the controlled Ontario store, they'll know about the quality, the assurances, the protection measures are in place. That they're not buying from some illegal activity that they have no idea what's in that substance. So we're taking those precautions as we proceed.

CO: Other jurisdictions where they have legalized marijuana have noted a spike in accidents — problems on the roads of people being high. What do you do about that?

CS: And I'm concerned about that and we're very concerned about what may take place after the federal government legislates this. That's why we're taking the steps now to get ahead of it to provide the education and the advertising and the enforcement issues. And the Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca will be coming out in the coming weeks, talking about the enforcement measures and the degree of tolerance or no tolerance when it comes to smoking and driving. I mean that won't be available to them and there'll be a number of measures to curb that activity to provide safety on our roads.

CO: But how will you detect it? Do you have what you have with alcohol, which is with breathalyzers, do you have that for marijuana yet?

CS: There are there are measures that are being used that are being tested now for the use of marijuana and the minister will come out with those details when he delivers his message.

CO: But this is pretty important. Are you going to have those kinds of measurements and the ability to determine people and find people who are high when they're driving? Will have that in time for the marijuana to be on the market?

CS: Absolutely that's why we're taking the steps today. That's why we're advancing on this now ahead of that, so that we can have the appropriate measures to provide the appropriate enforcement. We're concerned about it. I mean we don't have a lot of time. The federal government has made clear that they're going to enable this on July of next year. As a province, we have to take every measures necessary to be ready. Not only to supply the product to curb the illicit activity, but to also enforce it to ensure that we have the proper measures to determine who's under the influence while they're driving. And one of them will be you can't smoke and drive. There's going to be a number of measures. In fact, the only place you're going to be able to smoke marijuana will be in your private residence and nowhere else.

CO: But you’re recognizing that you may have marijuana being sold in Ontario before you have the tools you need to find out who's smoking it and where?

CS: Carol the federal government made clear that they are making it available to all citizens across the country, regardless of the province. They are saying that they're going to make it available to everybody online if the provinces don't get onboard. We're taking the steps necessary to ensure we combat it, eliminate illegal activity and have the appropriate measures to enforce it and protect people. We’re trying to provide every measures we can to reduce harm.

CO: We will be watching. Minister Sousa, thank you.

CS: Thank you, Carol.

JD: Charles Sousa is Ontario's Finance Minister. We reached him in Toronto.

Marijuana: dispensary owner

Guest: Mark Stupak

JD: If Minister Sousa is right, that could be bad news for the people who run Ontario's private dispensaries. Mark Stupak is the founder of Toronto's SoCo Medical cannabis collective. We reached Mr. Stupak in Toronto.

CO: Mr. Stupak, what is the arrival of government marijuana stores going to mean for you and your business?

MARK STUPAK: I'm not entirely sure? Most people buy their cannabis online these days and it gets them into via Canada Post, or by a delivery guy. So I'm not sure that this is a real competition to anyone?

CO: But you're going to be illegal?

MS: People like me will be illegal, but you have to remember they were illegal for the past 40 years. And my understanding is that the penalties will have to be figured into this equation next spring. And just like now, if you get busted this is just part of your business. Whatever penalty we’ll be subjected to next spring will also be part of the business.

CO: And do you suspect that the penalties will not be so prohibitive that you would shut down?

MS: I can't speak for myself because we're dealing purely with medical patients and we feel that the current regulations do not even mention anything about medical patients. But knowing the people that I'm dealing with I don't know it's hard to say.

CO: What do you mean?

MS: Let me put it this way: this plan would have been brilliant if this was before the Internet. Now that we have internet and everyone is connected, their 150 stores just sounds a little bit like from 1990.

CO: We just spoke with Minister Sousa and he says basically it's not just storefronts — the Ontario government is also going to control the online sales in Ontario. He said it will be a monopoly — they will have a marijuana monopoly in Ontario. That's how it's going to be and that no one else is going to be allowed to sell marijuana but them.

MS: OK. But right now, we have criminal charges and it does not stop anyone from either setting up a business or selling pot. I'm not sure what will happen in a year's time because the penalty let's say is the same as now, how will this prevent anyone from not selling pot online? Unless the government is proposing some kind of a huge crackdown again, which I understand. But if you don't do a crackdown and you don't sell pot cheaper than your competition this is not going to work.

CO: Well, I think that is the suspicion, isn't it? That the authorities have been holding back because of the lack of clarity in how the government and is going to proceed now that the pot is going to be sold to the Ontario government, and probably to other provincial governments, that they will be cracking down on storefronts like yours.

MS: That's for sure. But you have to remember what keeps people like us in business and it’s usually the price. If you're dealing with people who have medical permits living on the welfare and $2 this way or that makes a huge difference then the government providing pot let's say twice the price. I'm not sure how that will play?

CO: OK. We just asked him about that too and about competitively priced pot. And he said absolutely, that is their intention is to have a price point that is going to be able to be competitive so that it will discourage people from looking elsewhere. And that he said that the product will be of high-caliber as well to discourage people from looking elsewhere. He said he's not going to just be able to have a monopoly, but he's going to put out pot that people want.

MS: Then I will close down. I mean if it truly is like this then my customers — my patients — will be gone. Now do I believe that will happen is no. The government is famous with LCBO specifically for keeping prices high. I'm not sure about recreational a people, that’s not my patients. I know about medical patients and they're extremely broke. So if you increase their prices they will simply go back to the original source where they were getting it. I wish the government good luck and I really wish they mean it. I really do, but I don't know.

CO: Really wish they mean what?

MS: I really wish they would lower the prices below the street value. So if the Government proposes to sell pot below $10 a gram, then yes they will eliminate the black market. If, on the other hand, they keep selling at above $10 a gram, then I don't believe the market will be gone.

CO: Do you think that they can also compete in terms of quality?

MS: Sure. I mean maybe not at the beginning when you're learning. But eventually of course, why not? It's a plant; anyone can learn to grow it.

CO: And what do you think in general about this monopoly? About them having the Cannabis Control Board of Ontario, as opposed to allowing small retailers to sell it?

MS: I find this ridiculous. It's like going back in time. You could simply say we have 150 licenses and let's have a bidding from private citizens for running stores across the province according to whatever rules the government comes up with. It would cost government no money and everybody would be happy. This way this will cost a lot of money to the taxpayers and my bet it will not work because you have to compete on price. If you don't compete on price, you'll lose.

CO: All right. We'll leave it there. Mr. Stupak, thank you.

MS: No problem.

JD: Mark Stupak is the founder of the SoCo Medical cannabis collective. We reached him in Toronto.

Long tail cat

[Music: Cygnus X-1 by Rush/ Rock]

JD: This is the two part of Rush song Cygnus X-1 — the literal and metaphorical tale of an astronaut aboard a space ship named for Don Quixote’s horse, who enters a black hole, and emerges in Olympus, where he attempts to reconcile the duality of mind and heart. It's long… that's extremely long… like 10 minutes and 25 seconds long. I bring the song up because I was reminded of it when I read about a Silver Maine Coon cat who lives in Ferndale, Michigan. His name is Cygnus. Now he may or may not be named after the Rush song, or the constellation Cygnus, which actually does contain the actual Cygnus X-1, which incidentally is an X-ray source. I should mention that “Cygnus” is, of course, the Latin for “swan”. Does it seem like I'm stretching the story perhaps? Like it's getting longer and longer in a way that seems unusual to you? Well you know that ties in neatly into the tale of Cygnus the cat, he's fluffy, he's a little over 2-years-old and his tail is 46 centimeters long, more than 17 inches. And if that seems unusually long, you're right. It is — as certified by Guinness World Records — the longest tail ever measured on a domestic cat. Much longer than the average tail: 30 centimeters, or 12 inches. That's as long as one and-a-half LP covers together, such as, for example, to have “A Farewell to Kings” by Rush, which features Cygnus X-1. In sum, a cat has a tail of record-breaking length and if it took me a surprisingly long time to get to the point, well I think you can say the same about Cygnus.

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Part 2: Equifax hack, Iran soccer ban, Cherokee Freedmen

Equifax hack

Guest: Pam Dixon

JD: 143 million. That is the number of people in the U.S. that have potentially had their personal data leaked, following a hack at Equifax earlier this summer. The credit monitoring company made the announcement yesterday. And on its website, the company said that, quote, “limited personal information” of customers in Canada and the UK has been accessed as well. Pam Dixon is the executive director of the World Privacy Forum, that is an NGO that focuses on privacy and security issues. We reached Ms. Dixon in Portland, Oregon.

CO: Ms, Dixon, It sounds like we're hearing about data breaches at big companies quite often now, but how significant is this one?

PAM DIXON: This is a very significant breach and it's fundamentally different than most of the breaches that we routinely hear about. A lot of the breaches we hear about are from retailers when our credit card numbers are compromised. But this particular breach with Equifax, this is a breach of the building blocks of our identity. And it's much more serious.

CO: OK. Like what? What are those building blocks?

PD: So, for example, our social numbers, home addresses, our precise date of birth and for some individuals what also has been breached is driver license numbers.

CO: And what about credit card information?

PD: Credit card information some of it has been breached, but it's really… I have to tell you… credit card information is very simple to fix. You just simply get a new credit card number. But once an identity thief has your name, your date of birth and your government-issued number, such as an SIN, that's really a goldmine for creating the most pernicious forms of identity theft that exist.

CO: And who would have done this? Can you paint a picture of that hackers might be who did something like this?

PD: Well, certainly someone clever and certainly someone who plans to use the information in some way. So Social Security numbers can be sold on the dark web, you can sell a person's you know date of birth and name and Social Security number for a lot of money. Further, you know identity theft rings tend to purchase this kind of information and they can be abroad and just simply hammer out all sorts of fake documents. And then you know pass them off to folks who are within the country to then make a lot of purchases and to create a lot of mischief. One of the disturbing things that we have here is that there have been quite a few cases — and we've worked with some of these individuals — where their identity was stolen. And it's again, it's a very deep identity theft where you have the government ID number like an SSN, or an SIN, the date of birth, the name and that type of information. And then what happens is that criminals can then literally commit crimes as you. It's a very tough data breach for those reason.

CO: Of the 143 million people, there is an unknown number of them who are Canadians who have been affected — either part of that number or in addition to it. Our own privacy commissioner has asked the company to give us a report on Canadians who were affected. But so far, the company — Equifax — is providing very little information. Why do you think that is?

PD: I don't know, but it is very, very concerning because three countries were involved in this breach: Canada, the UK and the US. And there's already remediation made available for US residents, but there's no remediation that I have seen yet for Canadians, or for folks in the UK. I find this troubling. I also would like to see specific numbers of Canadians and folks in the UK who have had their data breached and what elements were breached because otherwise we're really left wondering about a lot of information. But I would say this: Equifax is a credit bureau, and as such, they have a lot of information most companies never got about us — not all in one place. So it is safer to assume the worst here and to be very alert for any signs of problems.

CO: OK. Now, there's another element to this story, which is what Bloomberg is reporting: three senior execs at Equifax apparently sold shares worth almost 1.8 million U.S. dollars days after the breach was discovered and before it went public. So the company is saying that the three execs didn't know about the breach when they sold the shares. What does that look like to you?

PD: Well, the optics aren't very good, are they? I certainly can't speak to the intent of the executives. I have to take them at face value, but I do admit that the optics are quite bad here.

CO: You mentioned this is a credit bureau. For consumers I mean they need to rely on these bureaus, even though the companies, if you want to get an apartment, you want to rent something and you want to get some credit. You need to go to an Equifax or a company like that in order to get your record to prove to you to someone that you have a good record. So people are really stuck, aren't they? I mean there is no other way of actually getting this kind of credit rating.

PD: No. I mean there are three primary credit bureaus, at least in the U.S., and due to credit reporting laws, we just really don't have a lot of options in terms of in other words, I did not personally choose Equifax as a business that I'm giving my information here. They are going to get that information because they’re a credit reporting bureau. And the credit system is fairly similar in other countries and you know the credit reporting bureaus, no matter what they're operating in, have a profound duty to maintain our information in a secure manner. Because again, this information comprises the building blocks of our identity and we can't avoid this harm. In order to be fully-functioning members of society and purchase you know cars, or lease cars, or rent an apartment, or buy a house, or you know have a credit card, or open a bank account, we are going to have to interface with credit bureaus. So you know because we don't have choices the security of the information becomes even more important. And you're right, you have to have a relationship with the credit bureaus.

CO: All right. We'll leave it there for now. I'm sure we'll be on to this story in the days, weeks, or years to come. Ms. Dixon, thank you.

PD: Thank you.

JD: That was Pam Dixon, she is the executive director of the World Privacy Forum, speaking about the enormous hack of Equifax. We reached Ms. Dixon in Portland, Oregon.

[Music: Electronica]

Iran soccer fan

Guest: Guest.

JD: Tuesday night's World Cup qualifier soccer match between Syria and Iran was a hot ticket. Fans came from all over the region to watch the game at Tehran's Azadi Stadium. But only some fans were allowed in: Syrian men and women and Iranian men. Iranian women are not permitted to attend men's soccer matches. And so a group of fed-up fans showed up to protest, Instead. The demonstration got national coverage. and now, even some Iranian MPs are taking their side. We reached one of those fans. We are not using her name, or revealing her location because she fears repercussions.

CO: Why did you want to take part in this protest?

GUEST: Because I'm a soccer fan and I love football, but we cannot go to the stadium and we cannot encourage a national team and favorite team. So I wanted to protest and ask why we can't?

CO: What did your sign say? You had a sign in the protest. What did it say?

GUEST: Yeah, one of them was, “I want to see it in Azadi Stadium too.” And one of them asked FIFA to help us. And one of them was, “the women's seats in a stadium are empty.”

CO: And so some women did buy tickets, didn't they? They actually were able to purchase them and thought they would get in then and that didn't happen. Did those women join your protest?

GUEST: Yeah, yeah, they sold out 200 tickets to women and when they saw it, they announced that it was a bug in the system. That's funny that in our country, selling soccer tickets to women is a system bug.

CO: And so there was some kind of glitch that allowed them those women to buy the tickets. But Iran was paying Syria in this game and there were women from Syria who had come to watch the match and they got in, is that right?

GUEST: Yeah, yeah, we were at the stadium and the police said if you want to enter the stadium you could go as a Syrian woman. And we watched every Syrian woman go to the stadium, but they didn't allow us to go. And they were very sad because we don't have the right to encourage our national team. And if we want to encourage our national team we should be a fan of Syria. That's funny and also sad.

CO: Yes it is, both at the same time, and so police warned you that if you want to sleep in your own house tonight you should leave and not be part of the protest. And so how dangerous was it for you to be doing that?

GUEST: Yeah, it was somehow dangerous. And they didn't let us to approach the door of the stadium from 50 metres. And they tore my banner there and my papers and told this sentence that you said.

CO: And so they warned you that they would arrest you and we're not using your name in order to protect you. So had you ever taken part in a protest for women's rights in Iran before?

GUEST: No, no, I hadn't the chance.

CO: And so where did you come from? I understand you came quite a distance in order to take part in this protest?

GUEST: Yeah, yeah, I took a seven hour bus journey to Teheran and it's about 400 kilometers.

CO: Now one of your signs you said that you wanted FIFA — the football federation — to do something. What would you like FIFA to do?

GUEST: I like FIFA. I want FIFA to force the Iranian Federation to let our women go to a stadium because if FIFA asks the Federation to enforce it I think and the Iranian Federation cannot do anything and it will allow women.

CO: What's the name of the stadium?

GUEST: The name of the stadium is “Azadi”, which imeans “freedom” in Persian. And that's funny because half of our people in Iran cannot go to that.

CO: That was one of the one of the many ironies that you founded at this. You're a football fan. Have you been able to attend any matches in Iran before?

GEUST: Yeah, yeah, once, I went this stadium actually and pretended to be a guy and they didn't find that I'm a girl and I went. It was a really nice experience and I really liked that. But now, I want to go as an Iranian woman. And we don't want to go as a guy, or we don't want to go as a Syrian woman. Why? It's our right.

CO: What do the authorities — what do the Iranian authorities — say in answer to your question: why can't women go to soccer matches?

GUEST: They say it's a bad situation in the stadium and they say men insult to the players. And it's not a good situation for women to be. But we say if men do this why should we be punished? They should be punished, but they don't answer it.

CO: And so you've taken part in this one little protest or demonstration. Do you think you’ll do that again?

GUEST: Yeah, I think so. And I think it's our work to force our government to do this. So we should try and try and we want all of our countrymen to do this too, and we want all of the people to support us.

CO: You want to see Iranian men supporting your desire to see the football matches?

GUEST: Yeah, yeah, Iranian men and also Iranian women because if we want to come to a conclusion and if we want to get our rights we should be more than this and we should be much more than this. And we want also our football players to support us too.

CO: All right. We will be following this story and I appreciate you speaking with us. Thank you.

GUEST: You're welcome. Thank you.

JD: That was a fan of Iran's national soccer team — whose name and location we are withholding because she is nervous about repercussions. She demonstrated outside Tuesday's World Cup qualifier between Iran and Syria in Tehran's Azadi Stadium because, as a woman, she is not permitted to attend men's soccer matches. And there is more on that story on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Ambient]

Cherokee Freedmen

Guest: Marilyn Vann

JD: Marilyn Vann is a descendant of the Cherokee Freedman, of Africans who were once enslaved by the Cherokee Nation. And as such, she was entitled to full Cherokee tribal citizenship, thanks to an agreement that goes back to the time of the U.S. Civil War. And in 2005, she got that citizenship. But then in 2007, the Cherokee Nation changed its constitution, to keep the Freedmen out. So Ms. Vann took them to court. Last week, the court ruled in her favour. We reached Marilyn Vann in Oklahoma City.

CO: Ms. Vann, what was at stake for you in this court battle on behalf of the Cherokee Freedman?

MARILYN VANN: What was at stake was our rights to remain as members of the Cherokee Nation, an Oklahoma-based Indian tribe. If we had lost the case, the tribe could have removed us against our will, and our family members who are not registered currently in the tribe would never have been able to register as members.

CO: And when you heard the judge rule in your favor, what was your reaction?

MV: Very pleased. I was not surprised because I thought the law — the history — was on our side and I thought that our attorneys, as well as the Department of Justice attorneys, had presented very well in the court before the judge in 2014.

CO: Can you describe for us who are the Cherokee Freedmen?

MV: The Cherokee Freedmen are or persons of African ancestry, whose ancestors were either enslaved by Cherokees prior to the Civil War, or they were free blacks you know generally mixed black-Indian Cherokees legally living in the tribe. These are the people who had rights to tribal membership — perpetual rights — based on the 1866 treaty between U.S. government and the tribe and also were listed on the Dawes Rolls made about 1900 is Friedman tribal members.

CO: OK. Just unravel it a little bit because it is really fascinating and complex. So the Cherokee Nation owned slaves — African slaves, is that right?

MV: Yes, there were five so-called “civilized tribes”, which grew wealthy and powerful largely because they enslaved people. And this was the basis of the wealth and the economy of those tribes — there were big plantations. So there had been slavery in most Indian tribes, but it wasn't based on a colour. And a lot of the times that person who had been enslaved say a war captive, they were adopted into the tribe and then they just went on them and the line after them as members of the tribe. So this was something entirely different than the history of this tribe.

CO: But now before we get to this treaty in 1866, go back to the year before, which is the end of the civil war in the United States. What side did they take during that civil war — the Cherokee Nation?

MV: Well, the Cherokee Nation in 1860 was signed a treaty with the Confederate States and a large part of that reason was in order to protect the slavery.

CO: And so did the Cherokee fight on the side of the Confederacy?

MV: The Cherokee nation fought on the side of the South to preserve slavery. And yes, the Indian tribes or some of them — the slave-owning ones — they did fight on the side of the South.

CO: So you say that in 1866, this treaty which gave freedmen and their descendants their rights to be Native Cherokees. So what changed? How come you had to go to court to fight this?

MV: in time, tying the tribal governments began to be wealthy based on opportunities that the U.S. government allowed. Also the Freedmen people they did not want to support a particular chief. And so instead of going to the Freedmen people and trying to get their vote, it was just well, we'll just block them.

CO: And this is in 2007 where they actually change the constitution to keep descendants of Freedmen out?

MV: Yeah, the constitution was changed in 2007, or they tried to change the constitution I should say. It was a big scam.

CO: And you've been fighting this for the past 10 years?

MV: Yes mam, we've been fighting hard.

CO: And you won.

MV: We've won, that's right.

CO: What does that mean for people who are Freedmen and are descendants of the Cherokee Freedmen?

MV: Well, what it means is that we can remain in the tribe. Our children can register in the tribe, our grandchildren, nieces and nephews. It means it'll be easier for them to learn their cultural, language. And also it means that the true history, including the contributions of the Cherokee Freedman, will be preserved.

CO: But you mentioned the Cherokee Nation is quite well-off, or it’s well-established. Does that mean that there will be opportunities for Freedmen within that tribal society?

MV: Yes, this will assist in opening up more opportunities for our people, many who are well-educated, who can be assets to the tribe.

CO: How many people are we talking about here?

MV: Well right at the moment, the tribe recognizes about 3,000 Freedmen tribal members. But for 10 years, the tribe had a moratorium and not registering additional Freedmen tribal members. So potentially there could be about 30,000 people.

CO: What does this mean for you personally?

MV: It means that the rights that our ancestors fought for will not be extinguished. This is what it means to me. The Cherokee Nation — my citizenship in the tribe — is part of who I am. It is part of who my ancestors were. And you know just imagine yourself, I know nothing about your ethnic or citizenship background, but if someone got up and was trying to take that away, or somehow through some fraud did take it away. How would you feel to be denationalized? Well, that's how we feel.

CO: I will leave it there. Ms. Vann, congratulations on your victory.

MV: Well thank you very much. Thank you. In Cherokee that is “wado”.

CO: OK. Thank you. Bye bye.

MV: Good bye.

JD: We reached Marilyn Vann in Oklahoma City. For more on her story and the story of the Cherokee Freedmen, go to our website: www.cbc.ca.

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Part 3: Pierre Berge obit, Dyson Award

From Our Archives: no charges crash

JD: 40 years later, and members of the Atikamekw community in Central Quebec are still haunted. In the summer of 1977, a van carrying five Indigenous people and two white men skidded into a river. The white man survived. The indigenous passengers did not. This week, provincial police finally said there would not be criminal charges brought forward in the case because of a lack of evidence. The case remerged last year, when a coroner's report was uncovered. And that report revealed how the white male driver had been drunk at the time of the crash, and that he did nothing to save his indigenous passengers. In March of 2016, As It Happens interviewed Cristelle Sary, who was advocating on behalf of the victims’ families. She gave Carol some details on the crash from that coroner's report.

SOUNDCLIP

CRISTELLE SARY: The whole thing is pretty mysterious. One of them was in the front of the Econoline, one of them was in the back with four Aboriginals, one Aboriginal was in the front. The van went off the road and into the water. Apparently, the one in the back kept saying let's get out, let's get out, broke the window in the back — they were in about two metres of water. He escaped, went on the roof. The driver went to the five people — the five Aboriginals — went through the van, escaped himself and kept telling them get out, get out and no one would have gotten out. If you're in a van and if there's an accident, everybody would be reaching for the back window. You wouldn't have to convince them to come out of the van.

CO: The two white men in this case, they both got out and what did they do?

CS: They swam to shore. This was on June 24, 1977, so as you know this is Saint Jean Baptiste Day, it's a big holiday in Quebec. They were soaking wet. We still don't understand how they were able to make a fire. So five people just died in front of them and they're able to stay there, make a fire, walk in the morning 12 miles to get back to the city of Saint-Michel-des-Saints, have a little coffee at the local coffee place and then walk over to the Quebec Police office and do a report.

CO: They stopped for coffee?

CS: They had nice fire, slept and stopped for coffee in the morning before they went to see the SQ.

CO: In any of the documents that you have now obtained, is there an interview with the men as to what happened?

CS: So what I have in front of me is a written deposition by one of the witnesses. It's the driver who wrote what happened. And then his friend corroborated the story and signed the same deposition. They wrote actually that they were able to drink about 18 beers in the course of the whole day. And as you know in 1977, this was not a criminal act to drink and drive.

CO: So they admitted in their statement that they had been drinking for much of the day?

CS: Exactly.

CO: Do people have faith that the SQ will actually review what happened in this 1977 crash?

CS: I don't think that the Atikamekw people have faith in the SQ. And these people just want answers to their questions and they want to be able to mourn. They haven't been able to mourn.

JD: Cristelle Sary, speaking to Carol in March of 2016, about the 1977 drowning deaths of five Indigenous people in Quebec. This week, Provincial Police — the SQ — announced there would be no criminal charges in their deaths.

[Music: Sombre]

Pierre Berge obit

Guest: David Croland

JD: In the fashion world, they were a perfect pair: Yves Saint Laurent came up with the designs; and Pierre Berge put those designs on the map. Mr. Berge, the long-time partner of Yves Saint Laurent in both business and in life, died today. He was 86-years-old. Pierre Berge is credited with transforming France’s fashion scene from exclusive haute-couture, to a profitable, ready-to-wear industry. And he would go on to wear many different hats. He ran the Paris Opera for a time, became an outspoken supporter of France's Socialist Party and later, he was a major benefactor for AIDS Research. He was also well-known in New York City, where he had an apartment in the 70s with Yves Saint Laurent. David Croland remembers those years. Mr. Croland is a fashion illustrator, and he was photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's boyfriend at the time. We reached Mr. Croland in New York City.

CO: David, when you think about Pierre Berge in the 1970s, what images come to mind?

DAVID CROLAND: I met Pierre in 1970 actually in New York City in the autumn. In those days, Pierre and Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino would come to New York for quite a long season — maybe three or four weeks — and do the social season in New York, which was amazing. The fashion world was less crowded then. The Kings were Halston in New York, Yves in Paris and Valentino in Italy and we all converged. I met Pierre at a party in New York through my friend who I've known since we were both 17, and she was a big model and I was just a male model.

CO: And so where did you meet? Was it was at a party where you met Pierre Berge?

DC: Yes, it was. Yves walked in with Pierre. You could tell Pierre had like kind of a ring of protection around Yves, very observant of the scene, obviously, and very observant watching out for Yves. I noticed that early on about his love for him. And I was with Robert Mapplethorpe, who was my boyfriend at the time, and Pierre took a liking to both of us and was very supportive of both of our work. Of my illustration and me being a model, he sort of recommended me to work and wear Yves’s clothes from quite a few publications actually.

CO: What kind of a stamp did Pierre Berge put on haute-couture and on fashion at that time?

DC: Well, Pierre, he wasn't a fashion person. He didn't come from the fashion world. He created with Yves the whole Saint Laurent mystique and aura and just the perfect person to guide and make everything easier for Yves in the world that sometimes can be extremely nerve wracking because of the demands put upon it.

CO: He was very political, wasn't he? He was he was very coy. He was a socialist party supporter in France. He was associated with Francois Mitterrand. Tell us a bit about what you know about that side of Pierre Berge.

DC: I think that side, which is I wouldn't say the opposite of the fashion world. The fashion world is political also, but a different kind of politics and energy. I believe that that part of him — the political side — with the fashion side made him one of the most well-rounded people I've ever met. He also flew airplanes, he was a great collector of art. I think it was him that started with the Andy Warhol collection also and the portraits that Andy did of Yves. His skill at collecting art and the diverse quality of their art collection and their houses is phenomenal.

CO: Very important part also is the kind of support he gave for causes, including during the AIDS epidemic he was very much involved in trying to get support for research. Can you tell us a bit about that?

DC: Yes, well we saw that happen in New York in the early 70s, Aids wasn’t here. It was a very glamorous, louche time. And then when AIDS first appeared, it came seemingly out of nowhere — It was horrible. And he very early on as a champion of young people, champion of talent and it hit the fashion world first and a succession of people that we knew got sick and died. So he was an early champion of that for sure.

CO: And I know your own partner Robert Mapplethorpe succumbed to AIDS, is that right?

DC: Yes. Robert died 10 years after we stopped being boyfriends. But yes, that happened to dear Robert.

CO: What did Robert Mapplethorpe think of Pierre Berge?

DC: Loved him! Pierre and Yves took Robert under their wing on Robert's first trip to Paris in 1971. They brought him to La Rive Gauche and said you can have anything you want and he said well, I just want a black shirt. Anyone else would have walked out of there with bags clothes, but not Robert — quite polite and quiet. And, of course, Robert was extremely beautiful physically, but he was also a very polite, well-mannered boy, which was a plus in those days because basically you didn't just go into our crowd because you looked beautiful. Talent and brains figured into your staying in the crowd and Robert had both.

CO: It sounds like Pierre Berge had a lot of brains also. But he was also very critical just a few years ago where he was lamenting the death of haute-couture. The quote was “The time of Channel, Balenciaga, Dior and, of course, that time is over. To me that whole industry now is all money and marketing. It is all something like a lie.” Is there some truth to that?

DC: Yes. But then again, it was a different time. It was before cell phones, the conversation people had were with each other. You had a conversation with someone, you looked at them, you spoke with them. At a fashion show, you had people looking at the fashion. Not photographing it on their phones so that they could see it later, missing the whole point of a live show. It was more elegant in those days. Those days are over. It was just a much more quieter time and more exclusive, only because of the nature of the business. And today it's inclusive because of the nature of the business. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing though; it's just the way it is.

CO: And do you think that if Pierre Berge could get started today would he be somebody do you think you'd find in that scene today?

DC: I think that if he found someone comparable to or Yves was young and he was young again, yeah. I mean the whole fuel behind his relationship with Saint Laurent was love. It was based on love. It was based on trust and then seeing the talent that Saint Laurent had. Nurturing it and protecting him. I don't think there's a lot of people around today that do that, quite frankly.

CO: David, it's really very interesting and lovely to speak with you. Thank you so much.

DC: You're welcome and have a great rest of the day.

JD: David Croland is a fashion illustrator and a former model for Yves Saint Laurent. We reached him in New York City.

[Music: Folk]

Fort Mac Strongman

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: that gross fight scene from Game of Thrones. You know the one!]

JD: What you just heard was an infamous scene from “Game of Thrones”, in which two characters go head-to-head in a fight to the death. One of the fighters is Gregore Clegane — aka the mountain — played by Hafpor Julius Bjornsson. He manages to defeat his opponent using a cunning strategy: he squeezes his eyes out. When he's not giving sensitive performances on screen, Mr Bjornsson is also a professional strongman. He stands six-foot-nine and weighs just a little over 400 pounds. And this weekend, he will be competing in a Strongman competition in Fort McMurray. Before the competition began, Mr. Bjornsson spoke to the CBC's David Thurton about his role on Game of Thrones.

SOUNDCLIP

HAFPOR JULIUS BJORNSSON: Season four, when I fought the Read Viper, when I when I when I squeezed the guy’s eyes out, of course. That’s the biggest scene I was in and the scene everybody you know talk about and still are talking about as probably the best fight scene in TV series of all time.

DAVID THURTON: And that took a lot of work on your part, right? Can you tell me about what it what you had to do to train to prepare for that?

HJB: Yes, we prepared ourselves with a specialist sword teacher for a few weeks in Belfast. So I had to fly out for a few weeks to Belfast to train for that fights with Pedro Pascal, the guy I fought against. So we were there for a few weeks preparing for a fight and then we went to Croatia in Dubrovnik and shot the scene.

DT: Did you ever think that you would ever gain this amount of popularity — you’d be this famous?

HJB: It wasn’t a goal for me to be popular or be famous, you know? it just kind of like happened to me. It wasn't a goal or a dream to be in movies or television shows. You it just kind of like happened to me. You know they saw me, they called me and it just happened, you know?

DT: And do you think your career in acting is going to grow?

HJB: Definitely. I am still acting, you know, both in movies, commercials, still in Game of Thrones. So I'm still doing it, I love it, probably equal to Strongman, so I'll do both.

JD: That was Hafpor Julius Bjornsson — the mountain on “Game of Thrones” — speaking with CBC Fort McMurray correspondent, and our own little mountain, David Thurton.

[Music: Culutral]

Listener Response: bat stories

JD: Same bat time — new bat stories. That's kind of our new motto here it As It Happens. Earlier on in the week, of course, we played you some clips of an Irish family that found a bat in their kitchen. The video featured Tadhg Fleming screaming, “Catch him, Derry” as his father, Derry Fleming, tried to catch the creature with a towel… with a couple of towels.

CO: Do that again.

JD: “Catch him. Derry, Derry, catch him!” Anyway, last night, we spoke with both those men. I'm not making fun, I love them both. Both heroes I should say. That interview is on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih, Derry! And since we started covering this story, we've been receiving your stories and we shared some yesterday and today, we've got a brand new bat batch.

CO: Barbara Johnstone told us a story about her “Nanna” in Ontario who often found bats in her living room. She writes: What's a Nanny to do? Call the local constabulary to remove them. I spent summers with Nanna Lou, and witnessed many a uniformed officer chasing bats around her tiny cottage kitchen, waving brooms, towels, batons etc.. — while my Cockney nanny yelled “Get ‘im gents, get ‘im good!”

JD: “Get him, Derry!” Eline Brock in Quebec City wrote to us with what she called, quote, “the bat story to end all bat stories.” She told us about a summer in 1994, when bats started coming out of her woodstove. She writes, quote, “My living room soon looked like a scene reminiscent of a Hitchcock movie, with five or six bats now flying in all directions. My husband ran to open doors and windows to provide escape routes. I ran outside, screaming son in my arms. One-by-one, bat after bat flew out of the front door and windows. I stopped counting after 23.”

CO: Wow! We also heard from people who loved Bats. I think these people may have even loved bats too. Mike Swarbrick writes. “I love my bat babies. They live in a ravine with a creek behind my house in Arnprior, Ontario. Did you know that they might eat at least 1,000 mosquitoes per night each? I did some research. They are our friends. They have never bothered me or entered my house.”

JD: Yes well, bats are nice. As always, we love to hear from you. Our email is aih@cbc.ca. Our phone number: 4162055687. And I think that's the end of Bad Week here at Bat It Happens.

[Music: Folk]

Dyson Award

Guest: Robert Brooks

JD: So-called keyhole surgeries are terrific — they've been a great advance. Where patients used to have to be in hospital for days and suffer a large incision for, say, a routine gallbladder surgery, they can now pop in for a few hours, get the surgery done and go home. There's less pain, there's fewer complications, less chance of infection for patients. But even minimally invasive surgeries like surgeries do still pose a risk of complications. Robert Brooks and Justin Wee have an idea that they think can reduce that risk. And this week, they won a cash prize for that idea. We reached Robert Brook's, recent Ph.D. graduate from the University of Toronto, in Toronto.

CO: Mr. Brooks, first of all, congratulations on winning a James Dyson Award.

ROBERT BROOKS: Oh, thank you.

CO: What was the problem that you set out to solve with this?

RB: So what I found during my Ph.D. at the University of Toronto is that medical error is actually the third leading cause of death, that's after cancer and heart disease. I mean each year, this affects 138,000 Canadians and kills over 17,000. So we found that up to 12 per cent of all medical error is caused from applying too little or too much force in surgery. So if you're going to suture something closed, you're going to tie a knot to close up a wound. If you tie that not with too little force, there's a chance that it’s either going to come undone or it's going to leak and we would call this you know internal bleeding or sepsis, but on the other hand, if you that not too tight, you'll actually cut off the blood flow to the tissue. I mean you can see that if you grab your finger really hard you notice it turns red. It's the same sort of effect on tissue. And then you'll have sort of you have another complication later on where you get more scar tissue. So you really do need to be precise to get a nice outcome.

CO: Now, yes, I would think that with that rate of death from medical error you'd want a nice outcome. This is called Force-Film, which is your invention. What does it actually do?

RB: Our Force-Film can be wrapped around any minimally-invasive surgical tool, including ones at the hospital already has — we can retrofit them. And it gives the surgeon effectively a virtual sense of touch to help them be more precise and reduce errors. A good analogy I think would be like the backup camera surgery.

CO: But what kind of message does it send?

RB: So what it does is it measures all the forces — all the sort of pushing — that done at the tip of the surgical instruments and it wirelessly overlays that onto the surgical display that the surgeons are looking at during minimally-invasive surgery. So they see the inside your body through a camera and we overlay on the side of that kind of like your turn signals or blind spot detectors on your car.

CO: You'd think that someone would have come up with something like Force-Film earlier than this?

RB: Yeah, we had thought so too. It was our first instinct was just to Google it and see if we could buy it? And we couldn't find it anywhere, so we ended up having to make it.

CO: A lot of inventions probably come from that. But so what kind of response have you had from surgeons since you've developed this?

RB: I think it's been overwhelmingly positive. One of the big events we had recently is we decided to take this to I guess one of the largest searchable conferences in the world that was happening at San Diego this year. And we got a booth there and we had an opportunity to talk to 40 different surgeons from different surgical specialties. And the overwhelming majority of them would use the system right now, especially in research and training. The technology is still very rough, so a lot of them had improvements that they want to see to it. But the general concept is you know kind of that's great! I don't know why we didn't have that before.

CO: How expensive is it going to be for them to be able to get this kind of a tool? I mean you're in early stages, so it's a prototype. But what do you think it will cost a hospital to be able to purchase something like this?

RB: So it'll depend on the procedure because it depends on how many instruments they use. But right now, we believe we can sell the device at less than 1 per cent of the overall procedure cost. And that's because we have a reusable instrument, so that they sort of pay for it upfront and they can keep using it for quite a while.

CO: Presumably cleaning it.

RB: Exactly. So tour instruments are cleaned with steam just like all the other instruments.

CO: But your tool is durable enough to take that steam?

RB: Yes. And that's one of the things we were actually going to be using the prize money from the James Dyson Award to improve. We really want to get this up past a year of life, hopefully up into the two year region — I mean shoot for the moon.

CO: And what does this mean for us — the public?

RB: Well, hopefully less people should be affected by force-related medical errors and help reduce the number of deaths from that.

CO: Well, I think that's a really good idea.

RB : Oh, thanks!

CO: And Mr. Brooks, it's good to talk to you thank you.

RB: Thanks for having me on.

JD: Robert Brooks is the co-inventor of Force-Film, and he, along with his research partner Justin Wee, won a James Dyson Award this week for designing technology that could reduce the risk associated with minimally-invasive surgery. We reached Mr. Brooks in Toronto.

[Music: Folk]

Climate change parasite

JD: I am a host. And if I have to, I will be your host. As uncomfortable, debilitating and even disgusting as it might be, I will provide all the hosting duties you find necessary… if it will save you from extinction that is. I mean if I'm being frank, being a host is nauseating in every way. I should probably clear this up before I go on; I'm not speaking to you humans right now. I'm talking to the parasites… not humans. Hosting the show is not disgusting at all… hardly at all. Anyway, but hosting an organism that feeds on you, lays eggs on you, or in you and exploits your body for its own needs. Obviously, that is not ideal. But, according to a new study in the journal Science Advances, Parasites everywhere are in trouble. The researchers say that at least five to 10 per cent of all parasite species, possibly more than 30 per cent, might be wiped out by 2070. And yes it's because of climate change. But no, as awesome as it sounds, it would not actually be awesome because parasites play a key role in ecosystems. Not only do they help keep wildlife populations under control, they are extremely important in food chains. So yes, they infiltrate animals and turn them into zombies, or reduce their bodies to husks and then explode out of them. But just because they're gross doesn't mean they're not important. Unlike any given big-eyed, cuddly-looking mammal, parasites are a hard sell in terms of the public consciousness. And really the only way to save these species from extinction is to reduce emissions. But I recommend that we all do our parts… by giving the parasites access to our parts. And even though being a host is physically awful, frequently humiliating and just super gross. I mean it's the worst.

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September 8, 2017 episode transcript

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