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The AIH Transcript for November 23, 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]

JD: Tonight

CO: The jaws of defeat. There's a sense of victory in Zimbabwe now that President Robert Mugabe is gone. But our guest warns that his successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has earned his ominous nickname: The Crocodile.

JD: A return for the worse. Burma and Bangladesh agreed to a deal that would allow Rohingya refugees to go back. But a doctor tells us the asylum seekers he has spoken to are too terrified to consider it.

CO: The ire of the beholder. A German politician who referred to the Berlin Holocaust Memorial as a “monument of shame” is unpleasantly surprised of the view from his window: a replica of that exact monument, compliments of a political art group.

JD: Sins of omission. The journalism nonprofit Propublica says Facebook is still allowing illegal job and housing ads that can exclude viewers based on race, religion and disability.

CO: Foaming at the mirth. When a group of Newfoundlanders had a spur-of-the-moment bash at the Toronto airport, it seemed like a blast. But as St. John's columnist is both bashing and blasting them for it.

JD: And… stranger things have happened. And now, one Missouri orthodontist tells us how the hit Netflix series has turned his world upside down, after a character wears one of the “Brace Yourself for the Future” T-shirts. He gives his patients.

JD: As It Happens, the Thursday edition. Radio that keeps certain guests on retainer.

[Music: Theme]

Back To Top »

Part 1: Mnangagwa profile, Holocaust Memorial, Newfoundland airport music columnist

Mnangagwa profile

Guest: Leon Mighti

JD: Tomorrow, Emmerson Mnangagwa will be sworn in as President of Zimbabwe. He will be the first new president the country has had since 1980, when Robert Mugabe assumed power. The streets have been filled with hopeful celebrations since Mr. Mugabe's resignation on Tuesday. But not everyone is optimistic about his successor. Leon Mighti is a Zimbabwean living in South Africa. He wrote an op-ed for the South African online newspaper the Daily Maverick entitled "Beware 'Crocodile' Mnangagwa." We reached Mr. Mighti in Johannesburg.

CO: Mr. Mighti, why should people be wary of the next president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa?

LEON Mighti: Basically, because he was the second-hand man, who assisted Robert Mugabe throughout his 37 years of rule. So it's unlikely that he will change tact just now.

CO: His nickname is “The Crocodile”, why is that?

LM: His nickname is “The Crocodile” because he earned it from a reputation of repression, suppression and brutality. He was involved in a mass-murder in the early 80s. So it's literally because he lurks in the water and strikes, and when he strikes, it's fatal.

CO: Can you tell us a bit more about that notorious massacre? what happened there and who was responsible?

LM: So Robert Mugabe was responsible, but he instructed several generals who supported him to carry out a genocidal mission in Matabeleland, where a tribe which was opposed to his rule lived. And basically, the number is between 20,000 and 100,000 people were killed, using a brigade which is called the 5th Brigade. And Emmerson Mnangagwa actually oversaw its operations.

CO: There are many incidences of human rights abuses that Mr. Mugabe is accused of. Can you run us through some of the more egregious crimes that people accuse Mr. Mugabe of where Mr. Mnangagwa was involved?

LM: So the first one is the genocidal massacre. So it's referred to as Gukurahundi, from a Shona word which means "cleansing." Secondary to that was the abduction and disappearance of many political activists who opposed Robert Mugabe throughout the 37 years of his rule. Mugabe’s also been criticized for corruption. There was supposed to be a land reform program run in Zimbabwe, and Mugabe basically took most of the land for himself and his military generals and the political elite.

CO: One of the other areas that Mr. Mugabe has been accused of is vote rigging and election fixing. And I understand that Mr. Mnangagwa was key to that?

LM: Yes, Mnangagwa actually he was pivotal to the campaign finance and the campaign management. Most of the things where there has been rigging involved, Mnangagwa has been in the in the background. And he was central to making sure that the ZANU-PF, if they did not win fairly, would win by other means.

CO: You are in South Africa right now, and the southern Africa community has watched this very closely and was going to oppose any appearance that Zimbabwe would be taken over by a coup, and that there would be some sort of something undemocratic going on there. But despite the sort of support there seems to be in southern Africa and in the region for this change of government in Zimbabwe what has actually occurred?

LM: The army intervened to make sure that their preferred candidate rose to the leadership of the party. When they noticed that there was a lot of opposition coming from the west from the Southern African Development Community and the African Union, it is at that point that they started trying to get the people involved to try to make it look like a people's revolution. Yet, in fact, the whole process has been orchestrated, directed and masterminded by the army to bring their preferred candidate into power.

CO: But people are genuinely in the streets are they not? I mean what we've seen in the past days — this jubilation — it appears genuine. The people are cheering on the end of Mr. Mugabe, and appear to be cheering on the arrival of Mr. Mnangagwa. So how do you explain that?

LM: Well, I think there's a lot of catharsis happening right now. People have been so brutalized by Mugabe that they would have accepted any savior, including a tainted savior acting for their own interests. A lot of people have said that even though they appreciate and understand that a lot of discussions have to happen around what kind of a Zimbabwe has to be created. They're just happy to have Mugabe fall. That's also why some of the people are embracing Mnangagwa and the army because they view them as the necessary evil that saved them. However, it doesn't take away from how the army actually acted to take over the state broadcaster, to arrest several ministers who were in the cabinet that were appointed by Mugabe. Several of whom still are not known as to where are they and are they charged with any crimes? But right now, a lot of people are caught up in the euphoria of the moment. They're willing to take it by any means necessary, even if it includes the Army giving them that gift as a poisoned chalice.

CO: We've spoken with a number of people — Zimbabweans — who describe their hope. I mean these are people who are some living in exile. People in opposition saying no, this is genuinely an opportunity for something to change; for some kind of national unity government, for some kind of democracy to enter the process. We spoke to Wilf Mbanga, who says the genie is out of the bottle. So even you can't put it back. So even if Mr. Mnangagwa attempts to carry on with Mugabe did he can't because people won't allow. What do you say to that?

LM: Well, I think that's one genie that is out of the bottle, but there's another genie that is out of another bottle. And that is for the first time, the Army has intervened in civilian politics, and they have tasted success. So I think when you look at the role that the army has played in the oppressive

regime, I don't think that the people, no matter if they want to express their genuine direction of what a democracy should be, are going to be able to stand up to a military complex with guns. So my concern is that now that the army has started to take part in you know king making, they could easily do that again.

CO: A number of people are being very cautious about what they say and how they criticize Mr. Mnangagwa. You wrote an op-ed with the title “Beware ‘The Crocodile’” and saying the party is a snake shedding its old skin. I understand you have had some quite dramatic responses to that. Are you concerned now that you're being so outspoken about this change of regime?

LM: I have been receiving a lot of threats, some tacit; some explicit; some don't come back to your country, we'll kill you; some just shut up, you're confusing the people. So it's not a safe thing to criticize. I'm moving a little bit different now. I no longer travel unaccompanied. And I'm hoping that it doesn't materialize into anything that is a tangible threat on my life, but I can't rule it out. But at the same time, this is an important conversation to have. And sometimes, people hold back criticism that should have been aired at the time, and then regrettable outcomes arise from that. So I think it's better to speak the truth, and you know hope for the best, then to withhold the truth knowing that what you believe is true should be shared.

CO: Mr. Mighti, I hope you remain safe, and I appreciate that you speak with us. Thank you.

LM: Thank you so much for having me.

JD: We reached Leon Mighti in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he studies law. For more on this story, go to our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Ambient]

Holocaust Memorial

Guest: Cesy Leonard

JD: In a speech he gave in January of this year, a leading politician with the far-right Alternative for Germany party called the Holocaust memorial in Berlin a, quote, "monument of shame", and he encouraged Germans to embrace their past. The backlash was immediate. Bjorn Hocke was reported for inciting racial hatred. And even though he wasn't kicked out of the party, the AfD did speak out against him. Still, Mr. Hocke probably didn't expect to open his blinds on Wednesday morning, ten months after his speech, to find a Holocaust memorial right outside his house. Cesy Leonard is part of the creative team at the Centre for Political Beauty, an art activist group. We reached her in Berlin.

CO: How did you manage to rent this property without him knowing that you were there?

CL: We had a car that had a license plate of the area, so it's a very small little village with 270 people. With a license plate from there, people wouldn't notice so much. And it was good luck that we got that place, and he didn't notice us. I guess he said with students from Berlin visiting this nice countryside no, and he didn't notice anything.

CO: You've gone to a great deal of trouble to get this under Mr. Hocke’s nose and in front of his house to make this statement. What do you want him to do? What would be considered to be the finish of this —the accomplishment?

CL: First of all, it's about him, of course, because he said he wants to be a candidate for the chief position of his party — of the AfD right-wing party. And it's in the German parliament with 13 per cent since September. So, of course, that's a dangerous move. And then the other side, of course, is hold of Germany through for having this right-wing party rising up into the Parliament. Fascism kind of becomes an all-day language. And through this monument what we want to say is that we have a broad, civilized people in Germany that absolutely stand against these ideologies. And I think this is kind of a sign that we’re sending with the monument.

CO: You mentioned that the 13 per cent of the general vote that the his party got, and this was after that speech that you mentioned that he made, in which he says that in Dresden this is a “monument of shame”, and that we have to address this, make a 180 degree turn in our country. That's after that that they won this, so his party is becoming far more popular in Germany, is it not?

CL: Yes, the AfD is becoming very, very popular in Germany. The mechanism and the populist work is that they've got a few people like maybe Mr. Hocke, but also others that go out with very drastic statements, and crazy statements also about shooting refugees at borders and things like that. And then the next day, they kind of go back on the statement and say no, that wasn't the way we put it. We mean it in a different way, or they have other people talking for them. So you always have this back and forth in extremism you would say. And that makes it very difficult, so I think there are also a lot of normal people I would say that that vote for this AfD party. But, of course, a lot of normal people, first of all, voted for Hitler. And that's the dangerous part that we see here, and that's something where we want to choose as art drastic and bold actions.

CO: How long will this memorial stay next door to Mr. Hocke?

CL: Well, we did a crowd-funding, and we funded it for the next five years, and we got the money together. So we hope but our landlord will allow us to have it there, and that it can stay. The best thing would be that we could rent more land around it and extend it maybe to have it at least the size in Berlin.

CO: All right, we'll leave it there. Ms. Leonard, thank you.

CL: Thank you very much.

JD: Cesy Leonard is a part of the creative team at the Centre for Political Beauty. We reached her in Berlin. And if you would like to some photographs of the memorial, head on over to our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Pop-rock]

Newfoundland airport music columnist

Guest: Robin Short

JD: To a lot of us, it was simply a heartwarming story of a dreary airport lounge that became the site of a joyous and impromptu kitchen party. Earlier this week, as you’ve likely heard, instead of grumbling, or shooting out angry tweets, a group of Newfoundlander’s, whose flight was delayed at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, broke out their instruments.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: Don’t this sound fun?]

JD: That was a group of travelers from Newfoundland, playing at Pearson Airport this week. Well, it turns out not everyone approved of the spontaneous jam session. For Robin Short, it was tone-deaf. Mr. Short banged out a column for the St. John's Telegram about the video, entitled "Newfoundlanders Perpetuate their own Stereotypes." We reached Robin Short in St. John's.

CO: Robin, are you persona-non-grata on the streets of St. John’s today?

ROBIN SHORT: Yeah, apparently so, I don’t think I'm going to be visiting any Irish pubs this weekend.

CO: Well, apparently shouldn't be at Tim Horton’s either. Do you want to hear what they're saying about to there?

RS: Sure, why not. I didn't catch it this morning.

SOUNDCLIP

SPEAKER: Is Robin Short from “The Rock”? He doesn't sound like it, right? So you know what I mean Robin Short, I mean whatever’s up Robin Short’s craw, I think he better you know just take a good hard look in the mirror, and probably reassess who he is as a Newfoundlander.

SECOND SPEAKER: If he haven't got the musical incline in him, or being happy, because Newfoundlanders are happy people. To me, I think it is wonderful that they can do that after going through a bad ordeal.

CO: OK, so their questioning even your bonafides, whether you’re even from “The Rock”.

RS: Yeah, that's right. I might be expelled to the United States.

CO: You might be a come from a way even worse.

RS: That's right. I'm a townie, so that's pretty bad as it is. The townies are those from St John’s. I'm halfway there to being expelled.

CO: But they're also saying that you just don't understand just happy people, trying to make good of a bad situation.

RS: Exactly, yeah, the bad situation. I mean and that was the thing you know these people at Pearson Airport were trying to make good of a bad situation. Yeah, their flight was delayed all of 30 minutes. Boy, that's pretty tough. I’d trade that any day of the week for some of the situations I've been in when I've been traveling. Look, you know what? The thing is throughout the column, there was never any intent, and there was no disparaging remarks towards the people you know who were partaking in the sing-along. That's not my issue. My issue is, again, it feeds the stereotypes of some folks from you know from mainland Canada, and what they have of Newfoundlanders.

CO: But come on, Robin, some people go their instruments and sang a few songs: “Grey Foggy Day”, “Sweet Forget Me Not”, and people clapping. Come on! I mean you being a bit of a curmudgeon?

RS: Well, no, I mean I'm not. You know what? When you have these stereotypes sure, yeah, it's a great old time. When was the last time we saw the Jamaicans having a great old reggae time at Pearson? Or the folks from Mexico breaking out the mariachi band? I mean it is the need that great to pull out the guitars and get up and dance? Look, it’s feeding the stereotype of oh yeah, look at the Newfoundlanders! Oh boy, look at them dance. Sing us a song. Now dance. And it's a stereotype that has been there for years, and years, and years from you know our brothers and sisters in mainland Canada.

CO: But you go on in your column you tie this incidence — this little party in Pearson Airport — you say it plays into what people say about us over Muskrat Falls, and the project there, and the pathetic jesters of the Far East Coast have clearly aired again.

RS: Oh clearly, I mean that's a common refrain that you know, again, from folks in Ottawa, Bay Street in Toronto. Look at the predicament that Newfoundland has itself in now. My goodness, what are they doing down there? And again, it was just a drawing a comparison. I wasn't comparing Muskrat Falls to you know the sing-along in Pearson.

CO: Yes you are! You are saying this is this is more evidence of all these people in Pearson singing along, and then they're also patronizing us because of the mistakes?

RS: No, it goes back to what I was saying with regards to the stereotypes with you know with regards to Newfoundland, and you know their abilities or inability to manage to manage themselves. When you hear so many times my god, you're from Newfoundland. I've never been in a dory, I've never hunted, you’re telling me you’ve never been in a dory? You’re from Newfoundland! No actually, I'm from St. John's, a fairly cosmopolitan city. There are stereotypes of this province that I think it's time… we’re better than that.

CO: But you also don't just question what happened at Pearson; you actually criticized traditional New Foundland music. You compare it to dental surgery.

RS: That's my personal feeling. I don't like Newfoundland music. Some people don't like country. Some people don't like pop. I’m just not crazy about traditional Newfoundland music; in fact, I know a lot of people who are not crazy about traditional Newfoundland music, but that’s just a personal preference.

CO: Is there a way to celebrate Newfoundland culture without making a character out of it?

RS: Absolutely. Just as there's ways of you know celebrating First Nation's culture, celebrating black culture, there are many ways of celebrating it without making a caricature. Absolutely, I agree wholeheartedly.

CO: And so you don't fault these fellows for bring out their accordion and their guitar, and playing a few songs?

RS: Well no, I mean why not have some fun because you got to wait 30 minutes at a Toronto Pearson International Airport gate? I don't know? Is there such a need to do it because you've got to wait what 30 minutes? I don't quite get it. I don't understand. I mean if they were there for a couple of hours, yeah sure. Once again, you just know that people were saying oh look, there's the Newfoundlanders. Look, they got their cordines out. And I don't like that. I don't like that stereotype of the province. Like I said, I think we're better than that.

CO: All right. I'm sure we're going to hear from people about this.

RS: Yeah, no question, Carol. I mean I don't doubt it. But I do know one thing: that you know, obviously, I'm getting killed on social media.

CO: Oh you’re in good company, we’re being killed on social media Rob. And I wouldn’t worry about that.

RS: Oh boy, oh boy. So far, the grand tally is 40 emails — the 40th just came in about 10 minutes ago, and exactly 21 support my thoughts on this.

CO: Well, you may be getting more after we play this on As It Happens.

RS: Well Carol, thanks very much for your time.

CO: Thanks, Robin. Take care.

RS: You too. Bye bye.

CO: Bye

JD: Robin Short is a columnist for the St. John's Telegram. We reached him in St. John's. You can read Mr. Short's original column on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

Back To Top »

Part 2: Rohingya deal, orthodontist T-shirt

Rohingya deal

Guest: Naveed Iqbal

JD: The government of Bangladesh says it's struck a deal with Myanmar to send back what could be hundreds of thousands of refugees. The refugees, however, are Rohingya. And they were driven from Myanmar by what both the UN and the US now call ethnic cleansing. This is what one Rohingya woman told her doctor and his translator, when they asked if she'd go back.

SOUNDCLIP

DOCTOR: If the Burmese government said that you could come back, would she go back?

TRANSLATOR: [speaking in a foreign language] no, they will not go.

DOCTOR: Why?

TRANSLATOR: They have no safety.

DOCTOR: No safety. Do you feel safe here?

TRANSLATOR: Yeah, they are safe.

JD: That was a Rohingya refugee, speaking to her doctor through his translator that she's too afraid to return to Myanmar. That doctor's name is Naveed Iqbal. Doctor Iqbal a Manchester physician, he was in Bangladesh as a volunteer with the NGO MedGlobal. We reached him in Manchester.

CO: Dr. Iqbal, your patient says she can't, or won't, go back to Burma. How typical is that of the people you spoke with?

NAVEED IQBAL: It was pretty much every single patient we spoke to about a possible return to Myanmar. And every single one of them said they just cannot go back because of fear, also because of what’s happened to them, to their families and how they lost their loved ones when the villages were burnt completely, so pretty much every single patient that we met said that they cannot go back through fear.

CO: Some of the people who say that it's is not just that of fear, there is nothing to go back to. Their houses or burn down, their cattle was it was taken or destroyed, there's nothing there.

NI: Absolutely, I mean a lot of them were just leading normal lives in their village, and all of a sudden, they realize the army is approaching. In some cases, it was sort of a local Buddhist community that were approaching with machetes, and they just literally had to drop everything that they had and run for their lives. Sometimes it was like a half an hour warning because the message got through that they were on their way, so they managed to get some of their belongings. But a lot of the times they had to just drop everything. Some of them were working in the fields nearby, and they ran home to their children. And some, unfortunately, didn't make it in time. The army had already arrived and started burning the homes. And there were some horrific stories of what happened to the relatives. There was indiscriminate firing. They lost their loved ones. And some escaped. And some of them saw their own children being burnt alive, especially when they were running into the hills, and it looks down at the village. So it was all these sort of stories that they all came and presented to us. And that's where the fear comes from.

CO: This trauma that they are suffering from, which will stay with them. But at the same, time they're now being told that this is a deal that's been signed between the two countries — between Bangladesh and Myanmar, also known as Burma — and that's it. The issue is resolved, and these 620,000 Rohingya who have fled the country into Bangladesh are told they can go home now. What would they do?

NI: This is extremely worrying. And many NGOs, including Amnesty, have echoed the same concern. And this is a concern that we have is that is just not practical in many ways. These people have escaped, and they've just dropped everything, and they don't have anything to go back to. And to suggest that they will just willingly go back to either life in a concentration camp, or sort of fear of being killed. It’s just not possible, and I think there will be fierce resistance from the from the refugee community, especially where we are working along the border. And they will not do that.

CO: Is it revealing that Aung San Suu Kyi — the civilian leader of Myanmar — won't refer to them as Rohingya? She says they've signed an agreement on the return of displaced persons from Rakhine state.

NI: Well absolutely, I mean they were never recognized. I mean they've lived there for centuries, but they felt that they were never recognized as Burmese. For example, they were called Bengalis, which in their view, is a derogatory term because of the fact that they are not locals, and they belong to Bangladesh. And there came a point where they were asked to carry ID cards because they were Bengali Muslims, and they refused to do that because they feel that they were part of the Burmese society. But, unfortunately, they were never allowed to integrate. For example, they had very poor access to health care, and their socioeconomic status was a lot lower. So they did tell me that. They said that the life was very difficult, but if they were just left alone, they would have survived, and they would have preferred to be in their homes right now, if it wasn't for the threat to their lives.

CO: So there's nothing really for them to go back to. Even if they can get into the country, their villages have been destroyed, there’s been scorched earth in the area where the army called its clearance operations. At the same time, it doesn't seem that they are welcome to stay in Bangladesh.

NI: That's right. And that's really unfortunate. I mean as MedGlobal organization, we have to be careful what we say. We have to remain neutral, but you can see that it is stretching resources locally because Bangladesh is a very poor country. It’s one of the poorest in the world, and you can see sometimes that when we spoke to local seniors, and sort of government officials. Is that the resentment is building up that the refugees are getting more attention from NGOs, while the locals are ignored. And also, sort of economically, it’s stretching them as well. Officially, they are still not supposed to be there. In the past, about a couple of years ago, the army was able to stop them at the border because they there were sort of sporadic arrivals, but when they came in large waves, they were unable to stop that.

CO: But if the Bangladeshi military — the authorities — say well, this deal is signed and now you go back. And they start to force them to do so, how might the Rohingya respond?

NI: This is of great concern. I think there will be resistance. I mean they're very soft and they're very fragile people. If you look at them, over 90 per cent of them are malnourished. But when it comes to the point where they might be forced to move, this is our biggest worry. And there will be some threat to life I think at one point, where they will refuse to leave. And we've got people who are in severe post-traumatic stress because of what happened. We've got children who have stopped eating because of the trauma they've been through. So this for them, they think that they will be going back to their deaths if there were to be sent back. And if that's the case, they will put up stiff resistance. And this is where we’re worried about the local security of individuals.

CO: Very worrying. Dr. Iqbal, I appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

NI: Thank you.

JD: Dr. Naveed Iqbal is a Manchester physician, and a volunteer with the NGO MedGlobal. We reached him in Manchester.

[Music: Ambient]

Listener Response: Iron Lung

JD: On last night's show we introduced you to Paul Alexander. Mr. Alexander is a polio survivor, he lives in Dallas. And he's also one of the last Americans still using an iron lung to help him breathe. If you haven't seen one of these machines before, they were state-of-the-art in the 'forties and 'fifties. They're big, they’re heavy, they’re pressurized ventilators that help people breathe. They draw oxygen into their lungs by creating a vacuum. They're loud, they’re claustrophic and very nearly obsolete. Well, after sixty-five years of using one every day, Mr. Alexander told us his iron lung has never stopped him from fulfilling his dreams — whether that is travelling to Mexico, or getting a degree in law, during which time he brought his iron lung to the school dormitory. Well, after hearing his story, we heard from you.

CO: On Facebook, Anne Newman commented: "Such an inspiration. Best wishes, Paul Alexander". And Nancy Strand wrote: "In 1952, my two-year-old brother had polio. He was hospitalized for two months. He was affected in his left leg and gluteus. He has had a severe limp all his life. He started wearing a full leg brace about seven to eight years ago, and is in a good deal of pain."

JD: Barbara White sent this: "When I graduated from Respiratory Therapy in '73, I went to work in Edmonton at the UofA Hospital. One whole ward was polio patients. Iron lungs, permanent ventilators, cuirass ventilation at night and frog-gulp breathing during the day. It was an education in itself. It's not so long ago, and is a stark reminder of our good fortune to have Universal Health Care."

CO: And finally, Lesley Lovell commented: "What an amazing, brave man. He has lived his life, despite the dreadful effects of polio. I hope this persuades parents to get their children immunized."

JD: Thank you for all for all your thoughts on this story. In case you missed that interview, we've got it posted on our website, along with a video of Mr. Alexander's daily routine: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Jazz]

Dateline: Ottawa skating rink

JD: Dateline: Ottawa.

[Music: Dateline theme]

JD: Who wants to go skating? I should say, "Who wants to go skating with a few conditions?" Conditions such as: skating for a maximum of 40 minutes after booking 48 hours ahead, and implicitly agreeing not to sue Queen Elizabeth?" I saw a few hands go down. But listen, grab your skates anyway, because you might as well — you're paying for it. For a while now, there has been a kerfuffle on Parliament Hill over the Canada 150 Rink, which is being installed smack-dab in front of the Parliament buildings. As you can imagine, they are not just throwing down an sheet of vinyl, and turning the hose on. The total cost, including insurance, extra security, construction, and dismantling, will be 5.6 million bucks. So that's controversial. Although, it wasn't just the per-rink cost that was bugging people — it was the original per-day cost. Because, for a long time, the plan was to open it on December 5th, and close it on January 1^st, the Toronto Star calculated, meant the project would cost 215,385 dollars each day. Plus, as I mentioned, there's obviously limited room, so you have to book passes 48 hours in advance. And those passes entitle you to 40-minutes of skating, no hockey sticks, no hockey pucks, no figure skating allowed. And there's another little clause, too, where you agree that, if you should take a header, you, quote, "will not hold Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada", unquote, legally responsible. Or anyone else for that matter. But today, after a lot of grumbling, Heritage Minister Melanie Joly had good news: the Canada 150 Rink will now be open until the end of February, which means more Canadians will get a priceless opportunity to skate on Parliament Hill. And when I say "priceless", I mean that Minister Joly didn't mention how much this extra two months are going to cost.

[Music: Show tune]

Orthodontist T-shirt

Guest: Wes Allai

JD: For many of us, trips to the dentist often end in pain, and with some free stuff that doesn't really make you feel much better. As drool cascades out of your frozen mouth, someone might hand you a little plastic bag with a toothbrush, some toothpaste, or horror of horrors: some dental floss. But at Dr. Wes Allai's office in Missouri, it's a little different. Dr. Allai an orthodontist, and decades ago, he designed a T-shirt that he's been handing out to patients ever since. Well now, his giveaways are getting some serious attention from more than just the people whose teeth he straightens. To his surprise, one of his T-shirts made a cameo on a well-known Netflix show. We reached Dr. Allai in Springfield.

CO: Wes, just first of all, I want you to describe this T-shirt for us?

WES ALLAI: Well, it's a T-shirt that I developed in 1982, when I got out of my orthodontic residency in Indiana. I came up with this idea, and it kind of ties together the space program NASA, and the wires that we're using in orthodontics was really the inspiration for the T-shirt. And it's, basically, just some astronaut's doing braces on the back side of the earth, and the space shuttle has pulled up.

CO: You forgot the key thing on the T-shirt, which is what it says.

WA: Well, it says “Brace Yourself for the Future”. And that just came to me, and it sure has held up over time. I copyrighted that, and the design. And so 35 years ago, I started giving these to all my patients. And this is the only place you can get one due to the copyright.

CO: So you started handing these out in 1982, after you designed them. How many do you think you have given out to your patients over those years?

WA: Oh, probably 30,000, or something like that. I start about 500 patients a year, and everybody gets one. It's been a lot.

CO: So let’s wind the present, when this T-shirt makes a cameo appearance in what program?

WA: Well, it appeared in “Stranger Things” on Netflix in season two: Episodes five and six, Dustin, one of the characters in Stranger Things, is wearing my T-shirt in both of those episodes. What happened was I was watching the World Series last month on television, and about 10 o'clock in the evening here, one of my patients Facebooked me, and said you know I'm watching Netflix, and Dustin on the series is wearing the T-shirt that you gave me 25 years ago. And then about five minutes later, she Facebooked me back, and said and I just talked to my mom, and she still has her T-shirt from 30 years ago when you stringed her teeth.

CO: How did you react though when you when you were told, and then you actually saw for yourself that Dustin was wearing your T-shirt?

WA: Well, I was shocked, and I wanted to confirm that it was my T-shirt. I knew it was, and I'd gotten several Facebooks over the next couple of days regarding that it was my T-shirt from other patients and various things. And then one of my family friends that’s with the Motion Picture Association confirmed also that that was my shirt. And my reaction was that's amazing that they came up with my shirt after 35 years of practice, and it fit perfectly with their show.

CO: “Brace Yourself in the Future” in the 1980s, and this is the is the future.

WA: Exactly.

CO: And now, there's all kinds of fans looking for stuff from “Stranger Things”, apparently it's quite the merchandising opportunity — the clothes the characters are wearing, etc. So are people trying to get your T-shirts?

WA: Oh yes, they're getting them. One of my daughters — I have four daughters — and one of them has set up a website and an Etsy account, and people are buying them. And we're going to team up with Dustin and his organization — the CCD organization — for his disease, and we're going to contribute proceeds from the sale of these T-shirts to his foundation. He has a condition called cleidocranial dysostosis, which is a disease that affects only one in a million people born, but it affected him, and it has many dental implications when you have this. They’re typically congenitally missing teeth, and generally, always require braces.

CO: Now, you have a copyright on the T-shirt?

WA: Yes I do, I've had the copyright since 1982.

CO: And so it's up to you if you want to sell this?

WA: Exactly. Exactly right.

CO: Are you hoping to meet Dustin, and maybe get a signed T-shirt?

WA: That's one of my goals is to get some shirts from him that are signed, and maybe place some in the lobby of my office, and that type of thing. And it’s just a neat thing that's happened to me in my career.

CO: All right. It's fun. Wes thanks for speaking with us.

WA: Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you so much.

JD: Dr. Wes Allai is an orthodontist in Springfield, Missouri. That's where we reached him. And if you'd like to see some photographs of those terrific T-shirts, visit our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Music Robin Short probably wouldn’t like.]

Narita mascot

JD: When he first arrived in Japan, he had only one plan: find the airport. And not just any airport — the greatest airport on Planet Earth: the international airport in Narita, about an hour's drive east of Tokyo. And since then, despite his freakishness, he's been embraced by that city of 130,000 people, and now, by the entire country of Japan. And the fact that he's a half-eel, half-airplane was no obstacle. In fact, it seems to have helped. On the weekend, Unari-Kun, the official cartoon mascot of the city of Narita, was named Japan's favourite mascot. More than 800,000 people cast their ballots for Unari-Kun, rocketing him ahead of "Chiryuppi", a so-called "lovely boy", wearing a hoodie with horse ears and eyes. And also "Try-Kun", a plush rugby player with T. Rex arms and an enormous head, both of which suggest he himself would be a real liability on the actual rugby field. It's a big win for Unari-Kun, whose back story tells us he is an alien with a thing for fancy airports, which makes sense, because he is an eel with wings, jet engines and the tail of an airplane. Coincidentally, the city of Narita would like to be known for its fancy airport, and its freshwater eels. It's almost like Unari-Kun was designed to be Narita's mascot, except, of course, he came from space. Nevertheless, the mayor of Narita was deeply moved that his most famous eel-plane resident won the national mascot contest. "I'm close to crying," he told the crowd after Unari-Kun's victory. Well, it is a big deal. Years after his arrival on this planet, the extraterrestrial eel-plane monster with engines under his wings is finally centre stage, after years of jet-lag.

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Part 3: Facebook ads, Puerto Rico restaurant

MMIW Saskatchewan

JD: They came to speak for the ones they lost. This evening, families in Saskatoon are wrapping up their testimonies at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. But not everyone is sure they'll get a chance to share their story. During the commission's visit to Saskatoon, there's been an overwhelming response from families and survivors who want to testify. Krista Shore from Regina is amoung them. Ms. Shore was 12 years old when her mom Barbara Ann was murdered. And now, twenty-one years later, she isn't sure she'll ever get the opportunity to speak on behalf of her mom. Ms. Shore says she contacted the inquiry three weeks ago to schedule a public hearing. She hasn't heard back yet. But she is determined to get answers. Here's what she said in an interview with CBC Saskatchewan earlier today.

SOUNDCLIP

KRISTA SHORE: People want to talk about just you know the circumstances of their death in the aftermath. I want to talk about everything that I witnessed, and I seen as a young girl. I've seen them perpetuate violence towards my mum when she was somebody that was suffering with substance use. She was a residential school survivor, and that's in our blood line, you know? My mom had a lot of doors shut on her face. She had a lot of shame and blame tactics used on her. A lot of threatening and criminalize patient towards her as an Indigenous woman, versus what other ethnic backgrounds. And you know I carry that around. I know those experiences. I have very similar story to a lot of things you know that I watched play out as a child come into play in my life as a mother. You know I was just about stolen off the streets in my own neighborhood from somebody who wasn’t First Nations. You know I've been brutalized by the police. You know trying survive being a little kid with not much of any support or anything, or a foundation to really stand on. I deserve to be heard today. And I will not leave until they hear me, and give me that honour. Nobody told my mom to just wait. Nobody gave my mom an appointment to die. She was stolen from me. She was taken. And they’re here in my territory, where I belong, where my roots are ingrained in this land here. And look at this honestly as part of my ceremony. And I deserved to be honored and listened by my own people in my own homeland, and to be able to be cared for.

JD: That was Krista Shore, telling CBC Saskatchewan why she still hopes to share her story at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

[Music: Sad piano]

Facebook ads

Guest: Julia Angwin

JD: Facebook said it would stop. Last February, the social network announced it was cracking down on some ads that could be specifically tailored to exclude people based on factors like race and religion. The issue was raised by the journalism non-profit ProPublica, which revealed that it could post ads for housing and jobs, and choose which races, ages and genders would not see them. So this week, ProPublica conducted a test to see whether Facebook had made good on its promise. Julia Angwin is an investigative journalist at Propublica. We reached her in New York City.

CO: Julia, first of all, just tell us about a few of these ads that you tried to post to Facebook recently?

JULIA ANGWIN: So we at Propublica set up a fake Facebook page that claimed to be a housing offering, basically a housing company, and we placed rental ads, so come rent this apartment. And we made them pretty not specific, but we just wanted to try whether we could get them through Facebook’s ad buying system, and we chose audience to target our ads to audiences that excluded minorities, people with disabilities, lots of different characteristics.

CO: Just give us an example. Like how specifically did you state that?

JA: So very specifically one of our ads is, I'm reading it right now, luxury apartment for rent. It's targeted to people who are 18 to 65, and it excludes anyone who is Hispanic.

CO: And the way this works is not that you don't say in the ad Hispanics need not apply, right? How is it done? How do you actually target that without explicitly saying you're not allowed to respond to that?

JA: Yeah right, back in the old days, people actually wrote like you know only whites or whatever in their ads. Now, Facebook provides you know what they call “micro-targeting”. So when you buy or ad, they have a little dropdown menu of who you want to target your ad to, and there’s actually a little dropdown menu of who do you want to exclude from seeing your ad. And you could just choose different categories. And the only people who ever see your ad are the ones who you've chosen to show it to.

CO: Was it just Hispanics that you tried to exclude in these fake ads you put on Facebook?

JA: Oh no, we tried all sorts of things. We bought dozens of ads. We excluded African-Americans, we excluded mothers of high school kids, we excluded Jews, people from Argentina, people interested in wheelchair ramps, anything that we could find that was basically a sensitive category that is prohibited under the Fair Housing Act. Discrimination under those categories is generally prohibited under the Fair Housing Act.

CO: And so the ads were posted?

JA: Yes, the ads are approved. Most of them within seconds, some within minutes, and they went live on Facebook. We immediately deleted them the moment they went live because we weren't actually seeking to rent anything. We just wanted to see if we could get that approval.

CO: And so within seconds, anything take longer than a few seconds to be approved?

JA: Yeah, the ad that took the longest time to be approved was the one where we excluded potential renters who were interested in Islam. That one took 22 minutes, but it did get approved.

CO: Is this legal to have this exclusion — to allow ads like this onto Facebook?

JA: Well, the Fair Housing Law in the United States is very clear that you can't discriminate in advertisements for housing. So the publisher and the person placing the ad are both liable for making sure that their ads don't discriminate. I don't think there has been a test in court right now of whether Facebook's advertising dropdown menus are definitely covered under that law. Certainly, the law is very clear that you can't discriminate in your housing ads. I think really the only question that hasn't been decided by courts is does the drop down menu exclude African-Americans the same as putting a line in your ads saying you know only whites need apply.

CO: It does seem to be a violation of their promises and commitments. Can you tell us what Facebook has said it allows and doesn't allow?

JA: Facebook said in February that it was going to make sure that it got rid of discriminatory advertising like this on its platform. And they put in place a system they said that would reject any ads for housing, credit and employment, which are the three that are covered under anti-discrimination laws. They would reject any ads in those categories that used racial categories. They said that for other sensitive topics like religion, you know wheelchairs, etc, they would require advertisers to self-certify. To click a little button saying I agree that my ad is not discriminatory.

CO: What has Facebook said since you published this story?

JA: So Facebook said it was a technical failure. They didn't describe what that failure was because we did try a lot of different types of ads. And they said they were going to work on it, and fix it, and make their self-certification system even stronger and broader than it currently is.

CO: This has not been a good stretch for Facebook, has it? I mean the discovery of $100,000 worth of divisive political ads by Russian accounts. There was, as you discovered, ads that were allowed on where buyers were trying to reach people who identified themselves as Jew-haters, and other anti-Semitic categories. And now, you're discovering this. Is Facebook facing up to this problem?

JA: I think this raises the question about whether Facebook can regulate itself. They are lucky in that the industry is the least regulated you know probably portion of our economy. And they did say you know when this came to light last year, you know we will take it upon ourselves to make sure that you know advertisers are not violating the civil rights laws on our platform. Then they went forward and they didn't do that. So now, separately, they're asking Congress just to let them self-regulate that they won't let foreign actors buy political ads. They're asking the public to let them self-regulate that they're not going to allow people to target categories are as offensive as Jew-haters. I think it raises the question about whether Facebook can self-regulate itself. You know there's not a good example of them doing well by that.

CO: We will leave it there. Julia, thank you.

JA: Thank you so much.

JD: Julia Angwin is an investigative journalist at Propublica. We reached her New York.

[Music: Piano]

Peter Dutton Manus Island

JD: For weeks now, hundreds of refugees have refused to leave a detention centre on Manus Island in northern Papua New Guinea. Today, police didn't give them much of a choice. They stormed they now-defunct centre. Refugees recorded videos of the officers dismantling structures in the camp, and throwing away people's belongings. The Australian government wants the refugees to take shelter at different facilities on the island. But local human rights activists say the buildings at those facilities are still under construction, and they don't protect the detainees from frequent violent attacks by locals. Today, Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton responded to the crisis on a talk radio show in Sydney, with host Ray Hadley. Here's part of what the Minister said.

SOUNDCLIP

PETER DUTTON: Obviously, we're very keen for people to move out of the Manus Regional Processing Centre. I think it's outrageous that people are still there, and they have trashed the facility. They are living in squalor, and the Australian taxpayers have paid about 10 million dollars for a new facility.

RAY HADLEY: Now, I didn't quite understand where these people were coming from? We're talking, firstly, economic refugees. Fit, healthy young men, who should be much more productive than what they are at the moment. But they have winged and whined about the detention centre for a number of years, since Labour decided to put them there. And now, all of a sudden, they're given the opportunity to go elsewhere, and so they want to stay in the filth they are now.

PD: Well, this is a choice they're making. And the difficulty is you've got people back here that might be well-intentioned, they could be big-hearted, thinking they're doing the right thing, but by telling these people not to engage with the authorities, not to accept the package to return back to your country, except once and for all, because our position will never change. You are never coming to Australia. They think by staying that somehow they're going to exert pressure on us. And some of them believe that you know if there's violence with the police that the footage will be broadcast back here, and that will twist our arm, and will change the policy position. Under no circumstance will these people be coming to Australia. These facilities aren’t like Jails. People aren’t locked up, they can come and go.

RH: Well, they've had, basically, their own personal butlers and cleaning maids up there for a number of years. And now, because the electricity is off, the water off, what else do they expect?

PD: All right. It's like the tenant that won't move out of the house when you've build a new house for them to move into. And you know you've given them six months’ notice, which we've done up there. We've said there’s new facilities available, we want you to move. The only difference between the two is that you know you've got to prepare your own meals with food provided at the new centre. You get the a-la-carte service at the current centre. All the medicals provided for free. In the end, you know the 50,000 people that arrived on 800 boats has cost the taxpayers, so far, 11 billion dollars.

JD: That was Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, in conversation with talk radio host Ray Hadley today on the situation on Mannis Island.

[Music: Ambient]

Puerto Rico restaurant

Guest: Miriam Gonzalez

JD: After two months without power on Puerto Rico, crews are supposed to be working around the clock to restore power. Now, some of that emergency work has stopped. Whitefish Energy Holdings, which was initially hired to do the work, said it wouldn't continue until it was paid 83-million dollars. The government of Puerto Rico has already promised to cancel that company's contract by the end of the month. For residents, as you might imagine, the frustration is growing. Miriam Gonzalez owns a restaurant. We reached her in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.

CO: Miriam, what did you think when you heard that White Fish has stopped working in Puerto Rico?

MIRIAM GONZALEZ: It was not worried. It was not a worry when we heard that they were not going to be here because we were not satisfied with what they were doing. Nobody has seen any difference. And then, all the comments and everything that they were saying on the news and everything is that it was a bad company. They only had two employees — that they were using us to make money and get famous.

CO: They now say they've done 83 million dollars of work. They want to be paid for it. They're not going to work until they get it. But you haven't seen evidence of their workers?

MG: I haven't seen it. And the Puerto Ricans haven't seen it because at least the metropolitan area would have light — something would have light — nothing has light. There's not one city that has 100 per cent light. Every city could have 10, 20, 15 per cent light, but none of our cities have a 100 per cent light. They're not doing anything. If you are here you don't see anything being done.

CO: You have a restaurant. Have you been able to keep it open at all?

MG: What we're doing is my older son is doing a barbecue outside, so we sell now hamburgers and chicken kebabs.

CO: And what kind of a restaurant did you have before?

MG: I have a Mediterranean-Caribbean restaurant that cooks right in front of you, with a professional chef at five employees in the kitchen.

CO: And you can't do that now?

MG: Oh no, I can’t turn on — I don't have any light. And then the generators are going for the amount of money so ridiculous. Like I tried to rent a generator from a company here called Cat, they wanted $600 a day.

CO: Wow!

MG: And then you want to buy a generator for a restaurant my size, even if I only use half the restaurant, they want $20,000-$30,000. I don't have that amount of money. I don't have that kind of money.

CO: What are you going to do? Because I'm sure you know that a lot of people in Puerto Rico have left and gone to the United States. What are your plans?

MG: My plan is to stay here and make my island strong again. I don't plan to leave at all. I'm going to make this happen as a matter sooner or later. Something has to be done. I'm working now on buying a used generator from an area that already has light. So if I get to get that, I'm going to turn on half of my restaurant, and at least hire half of my people back. But I will stay here and fight and barbecue my food every single day if I have to, and make sure that this island becomes what it was — even stronger. Because the ones that stayed behind are the ones who are going to rebuild it.

CO: But you also need customers, and some of the restaurants are saying that the tourism is way down, the hotels aren't functioning properly, there's none of the convention traffic that you used to get and so many people have left, especially professionals, middle class-workers, people with money. If they have options, they're leaving. So what's happened to your customer base?

MG: this happened before. A lot of people left, and then when the light and everything came back, they came back. When everything was fine, they all came back. But right now, yes, there's a lot of professionals leaving. But there's a lot of professionals staying back, and they're willing to help this Puerto Rico. We need to stay strong as a town, as a city, as what we are because if we start all running away because we can’t do something. My mother is a cancer patient — my mother has had cancer — she just had an operation or her heart. I had to send her to the States with my brother because of her condition. She could not be in Puerto Rico because of her health.

CO: I can tell that I mean you're an upbeat person, you're being positive, you're trying your best and what are you doing to keep your spirits up? How are you keeping your hope alive?

MG: To be very, very honest, I look up in the sky, and I ask god for help, and strength. And I've worked all my life — I’m a workaholic. I hadn't visited a church in such a long time. And I go to church now every Sunday.

CO: You’ve become religious.

MG: I don’t think I’m religious. I practice Buddhism. I practice meditation. You know I just look for a little bit more. I go to the temple more. I hug somebody when I feel sad. I cry. I’d never cried so much in my life as I've cried this past two months. I have never cried so much. I cry almost every day. You can see TV. Imagine going to your house, and you have to dream to have light. And if you don't, all you have is mosquitoes and darkness. So you look for that neighbour that’s in the same situation as you, and you invite him to a glass of wine, or invite him to a juice, or beer, or just to talk.

CO: And meanwhile, you're also praying the power comes back on. But do wish that there was somebody more actively I mean whatever god might be doing, do you wish to see the government, and especially Washington, do more to try and get your get Puerto Rico working again?

MG: Oh yes, of course, that's all we all want. Now, the important thing to everybody is White Fish, White Fish is not the important thing. The important thing is Puerto Rico. The president of the US and the governor of Puerto Rico need to realize somebody needs to do the job.

CO: What's the rest of your day going to be like? What are you doing now?

MG: Thanksgiving day, we're going to try to make Thanksgiving dinner on a barbecue, so we don't know how that’s going to turn out? And it's just neighbours and we're going to get together downstairs and see what we could do out of it.

CO: Well Miriam, I admire your spirit, and I appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

MG: You take care. Blessings to you.

CO: Bye bye. Thanks.

MG: Bye bye.

JD: We reached Miriam Gonzalez in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.

[Music: Spanish guitar]

Cancer patient lottery

JD: Diane Bishop from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland has hit the jackpot twice. Ms. Bishop won Atlantic Lottery's Super Set for Life prize: 1.5 million bucks. And that's not even the most significant time she beat the odds: last week, her doctor gave her the news that she is finally responding to chemo treatment. Ms. Bishop is a single mother, she has two boys, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer last year, and she made news in Newfoundland after she told CBC despite the physical toll of surgery, the radiation, the chemo, she couldn't afford to stop working. She also couldn't afford to travel to Toronto for a clinical trial. Strangers responded to the story, they showed up at the convenience store Ms. Bishop manages to offer donations. After she won the lottery, she’s going to give that money to another cancer patient. Diane Bishop spoke to CBC St. John's Carolyn Stokes last week. Here is some of what she had to say:

SOUNDCLIP

DIANE BISHOP: Well when I called CBC, It started off as I had no idea how I was going to give up work because financially, I couldn't afford to survive. And it was like OK, I was struggling with the stress of that, and I was struggling with OK, if I have to go to Toronto I have no money. Now, I have to come up with more money. So how do I do all this? So it was a lot of stress. And then, all of a sudden, I put my notice in at the store. The very next day, I win the Super Set for Life. Then, you know I get this other news that you know my cancer is disappearing, and the chemo is working. So I've gone from no hope, to it's like this big ball of weight has just been lifted off my shoulders. The stress is gone. The you know anxiety is gone of being sick. I mean I know I can beat stage 4 because you know you’re a ticking time-bomb, but it's given me hope that maybe it can go dormant for a while, or maybe it can disappear for a while, and you know I can live my life. Because I mean there's no financial strain there's. Right now, I mean I feel completely healthy, other than the chemo aches and pains, I feel great. So if I can stay this way, I'm content. But I got my miracle because I wanted my boys looked after, and I got that one. So if I didn't get anything else, I was content with that wish. And our financial troubles are gone, right? So it's like I can't ask for anything else.

JD: That was Diane Bishop, a cancer patient from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, who recently won one-and-a-half million dollars in the Atlantic lotto, and then got the news from her doctor that she is responding to chemo.

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November 23, 2017 episode transcript

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