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The AIH Transcript for January 3, 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: Stage fright. Four women accuse the artistic director of Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre Company of sexual battery and harassment. Tonight their lawyer takes says through the allegations against Albert Schultz.

JD: Ruling with a wildly inappropriate iron hand. Our guest is one of several female journalists who have come forward to say their former boss at an Alabama newspaper spanked them.

CO: The rare successful wild goose chase. The late Bill Lishman once trained a flock of geese to fly with him in a V formation and his daughter says that was just one of her creative fathers many gravity defying ideas.

JD: Her story is full of blowholes. Tonight's trip to the As It Happens archives is all about the great outdoors and it includes a story of a vacationing radio host who pitched in to help some beached whales — someone by the name of Carol Off.

CO: You're driving me nuts. Actually that's the plaintive cry of some British squirrels when a human abruptly took their acorn storage unit to a mechanic — because it also happened to be his Volkswagen Golf.

JD: And…plenty of fissures in the ceiling. Experts say that ice quakes are natural — that is cold comfort to an Alberta family who were awakened by violent tremors and then discovered their property was riddled with cracks. As It Happens: The Wednesday Edition. Radio that gives you a splitting headache.

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Part 1: Albert Schultz: Lawyer, Bill Lishman Obit, Cracked House

Trish Fagan

Guest: Gary Dimmock

JD: This morning Albert Schultz was one of the most powerful people in Canadian theater — tonight he is a man accused. Four actors have filed a civil suit accusing the actor and Soulpepper Theatre founder of sexual battery and sexual harassment. Here's actor Trish Fagan describing her experience of working with Mr. Schultz when fresh out of theatre school he cast her as Viola in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

SOUNDCLIP

TRISH FAGAN: So Viola is, for most of the play, disguised as a boy and Albert that he didn't want me to wear a bra when I was dressed as a boy, so he had me try on the shirt that was to be part of my costume and I had a kind of a low neck. And he brought me into the bathroom and had me sit down on a bench and he sat across from me and told me to lean over so that he could look down my shirt to determine how far I was able to lean over before the audience could see my bare breasts.

ANNA MARIA TREMONTI: What did you think of that at the time?

TF: You know, at that point and at that age, even though I bought everything as necessary, part of the process, part of being an actor. But even that, to my inexperienced brain, seemed off. And I remember leaving the bathroom, I think it was at the end of the day of rehearsal, so just sort of that happened and now I'm going to go home and my day is done. I remember feeling like that was creepy.

JD: Trish Fagan speaking to The Current’s Anna Maria Tremonti. You can hear the full interview on the program tomorrow morning.

Albert Schultz: Lawyer

Guest: Tatha Swann

JD: Tatha Swann is one of the lawyers representing Ms. Fagan and the other actors who are suing Mr. Schultz. We reached her in Toronto.

CO: Ms. Swann, we just heard some words from your client, Trish Fagan, describing her work with Albert Schultz. What effect did that experience, and the other experiences that are listed allegations in the suit,what effect did it have on her?

TATHA SWANN: I think that's something that only Patricia can answer, she’s certainly the best person to explain. But what we understand is that it contributed to a culture of fear, that she felt that ‘OK ,this is my casting director and he can ask me to undress, to lean over, to see me exposed under the guise of directing or a legitimate purpose as the casting director.

CO: Ms. Fagan was a member of Albert Schultz's company, Soulpepper, for more than a dozen years. Can you describe other things that she alleges happened during the time that she worked with him?

TS: The details of the claim, I think I'd prefer to rely on, but I think that that example is really illustrative. I believe there is another example where Albert used a costume change as an opportunity to slap her behind at a moment when she was on stage and wouldn't, you know, be able to react or defend herself because she was performing — that would be another incident.

CO: She also claims that he pulled out his penis in front of her.

TS: Yes, absolutely. He exposed himself to her right before she went on stage.

CO: The director of that play doesn't remember the incident but he says he believes Ms. Fagan's account and describes Mr. Schultz as a joker who would sometimes cross the line. But your clients don't call Mr. Schultz a joker. They allege that Albert Schultz is quote “a serial sexual predator who had well-developed methods for targeting actresses and luring them into situations that he considered optimal for sexually harassing and assaulting them.” Can you describe the allegations that led to that very strong statement?

TS: Yes. What we have learned is that the individual plaintiffs experienced their own instances of sexual predation where he would try to corner them alone. He would use instances, like we mentioned where they're about to go on stage, to touch them or to make sexual comments when they couldn't defend themselves. And they also understand that this occurred on a daily basis with many, many other actresses. These are only four women who have come forward to make the complaint, but we expect to see many more actresses with very similar stories.

CO: And why haven't the others come forward? What is it about Albert Schultz?

TS: My understanding is, at least until now, it was because of fear that they may not get another position. There's really no job security in an industry where you have to audition for a short term contract to perform in place for example. And so this is certainly to raise their voices to make a complaint, let alone to bring a claim, could be considered career limiting if not ending move.

CO: But so why have these women come forward now?

TS: I think certainly the #MeToo campaign and the Harvey Weinstein case and the buzz in the media has certainly strengthened their resolve. There is a feeling that the public at least might be more receptive to stories like this. And having heard about how rampant it is in the entertainment industry broadly that they may be more willing to believe the stories of women who performed on stage under the direction of Albert Schultz.

CO: Why didn't they go to police? Why have they filed a civil suit and not complained to police about these things?

TS: Going to police is always an option. For now, they decided to pursue the civil claims because they have more control over the process. I think we saw with Jian Ghomeshi the difference in the criminal process versus the civil process. In the criminal process when you make a complaint to the police it goes to the police, it goes to the Crown and the claimants lose control. With a civil claim it is them individually bringing claims and they therefore have control to move the process forward, to do any kind of discovery they may wish to do. And it's also a different level of proof. On a criminal matter you have to prove the conduct beyond a reasonable doubt. It's a very, very high bar to meet. In a civil claim you merely have to convince the court that it's more likely than not that what you're saying is true.

CO: We should point out that these are, of course, all allegations. Nothing has been proven in court. But at the same time the suits also include the company itself, Soulpepper, why and under what conditions are you suing Soulpepper as well?

TS: Well, in workplace law, so this is conduct that took place in the workplace. So on stage while these actresses were working for Soulpepper, and the law requires that employers, such as Soulpepper protect workers and provide them with a safe and healthy work environment. And we're alleging — the claimants are alleging — that Soulpepper failed to do so.

CO: But at the same time CBC has obtained a memo that says that Soulpepper hired an outside expert to review the company's anti-harassment policies and to look at any significant concerns — it did not find any. There was one particular individual who was — there were complaints against him — that man is not Albert Schultz and this man is no longer with the company. But there was nothing else. So did the women not come forward to that committee, to that review, did they not say anything at that time?

TS: The allegations and incidents took place over years. The review, my understanding, was done in 2016 — so relatively recently. Also, in terms of the review, the policy itself actually provides a flawed complaint process. The policy actually requires a written complaint to be made of harassment, including sexual harassment, to various executives at Soulpepper — one of whom is actually Albert's wife. That presents, of course, a problem to actresses who are required to complain of sexual harassment to Albert's own life. It certainly has a presumption of bias and there would be fear of reprisal.

CO: You know that theatre deals with life issues and artistic directors are known to do surprising, sometimes bizarre things, to provoke the best performance out of an actor — the accurate emotion. And directors are known to do things that would not be appropriate and normal workplace. Would you agree with that?

TS: I think it depends on the context. I don't think exposing your penis to an actress to provoke a particular reaction would be appropriate. I think I would be extremely hard to defend.

CO: So you say that you believe, and your clients believe, that Mr. Schultz crossed the line even for the license that a theatre director or artistic director would be given?

TS: Yes. Many, many lines.

CO: We will leave it there. Ms. Swann, thank you.

TS: You're welcome. Thank you.

JD: Tatha Swann is a lawyer representing four actors who are suing the Soulpepper Theatre Company director Albert Schultz for sexual battery and harassment. None of the allegations have been proven, and as we go to air Mr. Schultz has not responded. But late today the board of Soulpepper announced that it has started an immediate investigation. It instructed Mr. Schultz to step down from all Soulpepper responsibilities while the investigation takes place. The theatre's executive director has also agreed to take a voluntary leave of absence during the investigation. For more on this story, do tune in to the current tomorrow morning when Anna Maria Tremonti will interview two of Mr. Shultz's accusers.

[Music: Bass Guitar Plucks]

Bill Lishman Obit

Guest: Carmen Lishman

JD: He never wrote a nursery rhyme in his life but he was still known as Father Goose. Bill Lishman, the Canadian sculptor and inventor who convinced a flock of geese to follow him in flight, died last week. He was 78 years old. In 1993 Mr. Lishman was at the tip of a ‘V’ formation with 18 geese as they flew from Scugog Township in Ontario down to Virginia. The flight followed years of work with the help of his family to get the geese to imprint on him and his ultra-light. The adventure was the inspiration for the Oscar-nominated 1996 film Fly Away Home. Carmen Lishman is Bill Lishman’s daughter. We reached her in Scugog Township, Ontario.

CO: Carmen, first of all, I'm sorry for the loss of your father.

CARMEN LISHMAN: Thank you.

CO: He was such an inspiration to so many people. But what was it like growing up in Bill Lishman’s household?

CL: Well, there was never a dull moment, put it that way. He had such an active imagination, an active life, an active spirit that, you know, in these last few weeks seeing his body kind of hold him back, it felt a bit like a relief when he passed because we knew it was cramping his style to be so unwell.

CO: It was leukemia.

CL: It was leukemia.

CO: Growing up with this man — there are so many pictures of the place where you grow up and everything around it — lots of geese. Just describe that scene, what was a day like with dad?

CL: Well, we were always up early. You know, he grew up on a farm so he always said ‘the best hours are between 5 and 8 a.m.’ So we were up early, we were outside, when we had the geese we were working with the geese. Of course, I say we, but I was very young when a lot of those things happened, so my brothers did more work than I did. But it was very active and it was, you know, it was a lot of fun having these goslings around all summer watching them grow and develop. And you see them go through developmental stages almost like you would a child. So they went through a stage much like teenagers where they would reject everything their parents did and when they were very little, of course, they followed you around like a toddler would. So it was it was a real joy.

CO: And eventually got around to following your dad in an ultra-light plane.

CL: That's right, yup — imprinting.

CO: So this is this is how it worked, right? This is how he managed to get the geese to follow him.

CL: That's right. Well, he was inspired by the work of Konrad Lorenz he said, you know, anything of these precocial young will see when they're born they will think to be their parent. So we would show them our faces and play them the sound of the engine through little tape recorder. So as long as those two things were together they knew they had to be with us. So we would run through the forest and they would chase after us with a tape recorder in hand.

CO: Did you learn to fly yourself?

CL: I did, in my early 20s, but I promptly decided I liked living a lot more than playing an ultra-light.

[LAUGHTER]

CO: Can you describe the moment when your dad had this idea, what was his eureka moment?

CL: He was out flying in a home-built aircraft that he made and he went over a pond and a flock of ducks came up and joined him in the air and he came home from that flight just raging. He said ‘nothing before that moment in his life was as meaningful as that moment when he could see a bird in flight. Each feather passing over itself when the bird was flapping and the bird panting in the air and just the whole experience was so magical for him he said he had to repeat it. And so really that was his motivation initially and then it turned out to be, actually, a wonderful technique for conservation.

CO: Yeah, of course, this became a way of — well it changed the way people look at the engineering of flight.

CL: Exactly.

CO: What was your dad's relationship with nature? How did he see it?

CL: He was very aesthetic and his aesthetic was very much related to nature. One of the things that I thought about a lot on the day that he passed was his comment that there are no straight lines in nature. So curved spaces and curved thinking and an imagination that runs in curved lines was really what moved him and made him feel most comfortable. I know time in a hospital was hard for him because there were so many angles.

CO: But it segues us to something that I want to play for you, because your dad was also a sculptor, and he did this remarkable giant installation called Autohenge and he was on as it happens talking about this in 1986. And if you can bear with us we’d all like to hear your dad, Bill Lishman, describe that sculpture.

SOUNDCLIP

BILL LISHMAN: First of all, the cars have similar mass to the stones that were used in Stonehenge and it really is a North American Stonehenge — I call it Autohenge. And it didn't really works, you know, when you stand there you could kind of — well you wouldn’t get the feeling of it actually being stones. But it gives you the mass and understanding of what something lie Stonehenge would be like. But also get this weird feeling about cars, you know, the temporary-ness of them. You know, they were all somebody's dream and now they're all crushed and rusty is stuck in the ground vertical.

DENNIS TRUDEAU: What do you mean when you say it gives you the same feeling as Stonehenge? How similar is it?

BL: Well it's same scale exactly and it sits on a knoll. We really looked for a good spot for it and this place where the horizon is quite a distance off and the sunsets and sunrises are spectacular from it. So it has the mystery of Stonehenge, you might say.

CO: That's your dad, Bill Lishman, talking to then host Dennis Trudeau, now 30 years ago. What's that like to hear your dad talk about it?

CL: Amazing. It feels like he's still here. And he always talked about that experience he had when he walked into Stonehenge that he thought the druids were really on to something. That there was some kind of cosmic connection that that shapes created. He had a spiritual relationship to that shape and form and he actually made one of ice too, which was less known because it promptly fell into the lake after it was made, but pieces of ice from Lakes Scugog were taken out and assembled in the same shape.

CO: And as you said, there's no straight lines in nature.

CL: There are no straight lines in nature.

CO: And, you know, I know it brings back things for your father but he lives on for so many people as first of all, Father Goose and the movie that was made about his remarkable achievement with the geese and with so many other things. Are you are you savouring some stories, some thoughts of your dad in these last few days?

CL: Oh absolutely. I certainly knew he had a great and varied life but the stories I've heard in the last three days have been so, so incredibly humbling. I mean, it's like he lived seven lives in one. He was witty and funny and, you know, many of them will make you laugh out loud. So there's one that I enjoy, he spent quite a bit of time travelling in the north with a company called Adventure Canada and he enjoyed making fun of experts because he thought that was great fun. Anyway, that there is an onboard expert for birds and they went for a walk and they were walking along the tundra and Dad played this little prank and he said ‘oh look at these eggs, we found a nest here,’ and he leans over and he had put an egg on the ground and that the bird expert comes out and says ‘I’ve seen that egg before.’ And says ‘I wonder what it could be from? And they start discussing it and dad says ‘well I'm going to just give it a taste.’ And he breaks it open it was a bright green, you know those thousand-year-old eggs that you can buy in the Chinese markets? And he takes a bite of it and everybody was just aghast. Anyway, he kind of got their goat and everybody had a great laugh but I enjoyed that story.

CO: What a great story and a great guy. Carmen, I appreciate you speaking with us about your dad.

CL: Likewise. Thank you Carol.

CO: Take care. Bye, bye.

JD: Carmen Lishman is the daughter of Bill Lishman. We reached in Scugog Township, Ontario. Bill Lishman, the man who inspired the 1996 film Fly Away Home, died last week. He was 78 years old. For more on Mr. Lishman’s eclectic life's work, including photographs of a sculpture Autohenge, go to our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Ambient Woodwinds]

Cracked House

Guest: Sharon Smith

JD: Today an Alberta family is badly shaken — well they were badly shaken. Frankly, their cabin is in worse shape than. They were staying at their vacation home near the village of Alberta Beach, west of Edmonton this week, when they were awakened by a loud noise in the middle of the night. And when Sharon Smith took a look around the next morning she discovered the deck was broken and there were cracks in the walls. We reached Sharon Smith at her property in Val Quentin, Alberta.

CO: Sharon, what did that noise in the middle of the night sound like?

SHARON SMITH: It's really indescribable. In the moment we were all quite terrified because we heard crashing and cracking and came running out of our bedrooms. We thought we were being broken into at first, and we looked around the yard and couldn't see any signs of a break in. So we took a quick look around the cabin and nothing had fallen off the wall or anything. Of course, the next morning when we realised that there were cracks in the walls and whatnot, the noise obviously made sense that it was the beams and boards of the house cracking is what was happening.

CO: How long did it go on that the sound is cracking?

SS: Well, I don't know because we were sound asleep, but I know that the house is still sort of moaning and groaning and cracking and it was much more obvious yesterday. But even as I'm sitting here talking to you I can hear it still kind of cracking and moaning as it's dealing with whatever the earth has done underneath it.

CO: What did you think was going on? You find out you weren't being burgled. What did you think was happening?

SS: The next morning when I got up and opened the drapes to the lake front is when I saw that the post to our deck here, which are usually at a 90 degree angle we're at a 45 degree angle and ‘I'm like oh my goodness something's wrong’ and I tried to open the door outside of the cabin to the lake front and I couldn't open it at all. So I grabbed my phone and I went outside and I saw these cracks and this huge crater in the ground. And so I immediately thought it was an earthquake but then some of the neighbours were coming out and gathering around and chatting and they thought it was just some ice shears, because sometimes the ice shears up, but there was only cracks no shears in the ice and I thought well the ice has sheared here before and never left a crater in the ground or cracks in the cabins, so I thought it was an earthquake.

CO: So the damage to the house and the land, you could see these cracks. How large a crevice did it make?

SS: The crevice is probably about 10 to 15 feet in length. It's about six feet in width and it goes down about two feet into the earth.

CO: What did it do to the cabin?

SS: The cabin has a crack that goes from one side — it's a vaulted ceiling — so it goes from one side from the baseboard all the way up the wall, all the way across the ceiling, all the way down the next wall to the floor again. It's like a crack in the middle of the cabin that split open about a quarter to a half-an-inch in some spots. And then all along that the cabin has lofts and everything in it, and a number of the lofts have cracks in them now as well and the doors, interior doors also don't shut properly, like the door to the washroom doesn't ship properly anymore.

CO: Is it dangerous to be in there?

SS: I don't think so. The structural engineer is going to be coming out to make an assessment on it. I mean, it doesn't seem to be moving any more per se. There's a big sort of six to eight inch gap and two cracks it go from the footing to the roof on the outside as well on the seating area where the cracks are on the inside.

CO: Now the Alberta Energy Regulator has confirmed seismic events in the Alberta Beach area. So was it an earthquake?

SS: They're saying it is either an earthquake or an ice quake. Nobody from Environment Canada or Alberta Energy has come out yet. We haven't seen anybody and nobody's talked to us. But the reporter who first took the story here, from Global News, she put the contact into them wondering, because I said ‘I think it's an earthquake.’ Initially they responded to her saying there's no seismic activity in the area. And then she got an e-mail by about 4:30, quarter to 5:00 yesterday saying that they were confirming that there had been two seismic occurrences in this area the evening before.

CO: What is an ice quake?

SS: I have no idea, but CBC Radio in Edmonton had a geologist on their morning radio show today and they were going to be explaining that. The simple understanding that I have of it is that when the temperatures quickly go up and down, like they have here in Edmonton, that water freezes quickly and then when it thaws the earth can open up. So I don't know whether they've decided that this is an earthquake or an ice quake. But I was in town earlier today and it goes from our cabin area all the way around the lake, which is a you know probably about 70 cabins worth, so you can imagine how big that is. And then right in town where the beach is the ice is, the ice is pushed up about four feet. Whether that's because it was an ice quake or an actual earthquake I don't know, but the earth right at our property is right open.

CO: Now are you going to be able to stay in that cabin, is it safe to stay?

SS: Well I think it's safe to stay. There's been no more heaving of the cabin per se, so we're staying here. Ironically, we were booked to be here because we're installing a bunch of new windows all along where it shifted.So those windows just showed up today and we took the week off to be here for the work and some of the other windows can probably be done. So we'll stay here for the week but we don't live here, we vacation here. So, of course, we'll have to wait for the structural engineer and if the structural engineers says it's not safe to be habitable then, of course, we won't be staying out here. But at this point we don't have that information from a professional so hardy Albertans, we’re taken the risk.

[LAUGHTER]

CO: Good thing you didn’t put those windows in first before the damage.

SS: No kidding. Although there's no cracking or anything in the windows so we're thankful it hasn't damaged that part.

CO: Sharon stay warm, stay safe and good to talk to you, thank you.

SS: You're welcome. Take care.

CO: Bye, bye.

SS: Bye, now.

JD: We reaached Sharon Smith in Val Quentin Alberta.

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Part 2: Spanked Journalist, Toronto Homeless

Spanked Journalist

Guest: Veronica Pike Kennedy

JD: Alabama is reckoning with yet another round of allegations of a powerful man accused of doing inappropriate things. Not too long ago, of course, it was Roy Moore the now defeated Republican Senate candidate who faced allegations of sexual misconduct with teenaged girls. This week it is H. Brandt Ayers. Mr. Ayers is a former newspaper publisher who recently admitted to behaving unacceptably toward several of the female reporters who worked in his newsroom in the 1970s — he spanked them. The story would not have come out if it were not for Veronica Pike Kennedy. Ms. Kennedy worked at the Anniston Star newsroom back then and came forward with her story this week. We reached Veronica Kennedy in Birmingham, Alabama.

CO: Veronica, these are shocking allegations that you've put out about this former publisher, once your most senior boss at the time in the 1970s. Why have you come out with this story now? This has happened many decades ago.

VPK: What started it all was this #MeToo and you've probably heard of the Roy Moore allegations. And while I've told people in the past, it's almost like it didn't register. But now because of the #Metoo I think it's registering.

CO: Who is this man Brandt Ayers?

VPK: Brandy became publisher I believe in the 60s — A Very powerful man, in many ways a big fish in a small pond. The Anniston Star was considered one of those newspapers where young people wanted to work.

CO: So there you were in February 1975. What led up to this assault?

VPK: Brandy had come in that morning — on those Saturdays I was still in college. I just happened to be there during the morning, and quite frankly, I think he was waiting for his chance. But he came into the newsroom and brought his editorial for Sunday. And he said ‘I'll come back and you can tell me how good this is.’ He did come back and he said ‘Well, what do you think?’ And I said ‘This is really very good, you're right. Who wrote it?’ You know, just joking and he said ‘Oh you've been a bad girl. I’m gonna have to spank you.’

CO: He said that? He said those words?

VPK: Oh, yes. You knew that you were going to get assaulted if he said those words “Oh, you've been a bad girl.” And I honestly thought he was joking until he started coming around my desk and I literally held on as tight as I could to the seat of my desk chair — and he was three times my size. And he literally picked me and the chair up, turned me over the desk behind him, and we had these things at the time called pica poles. They were metal rulers basically, that newspaper lay out folks used to measure copy. He started hitting me with that, I think it was like the first thing he found. He said “How old are you? And I'm going to use many licks as you are old.” And I had been counting because I was a reporter, I wanted to know exactly what was going on. And I think he was 15 or 16 and I just blurted out “I'm 18.” Even though it was a little bit older than that, I just knew I wanted him to stop hitting me. And so he did. And he said “Well, I hope this teaches you to not be a bad girl anymore.” And he turned around and walked out.

CO: That is just — but there were other people in the room. There were other reporters. What did they do?

VPK: Well, there was one other reporter in there. And this young man was basically my age, this was his one of his first journalism jobs and he just couldn't believe what he was seeing. And I was absolutely humiliated, I was angry. When you're in a situation like that and you’re young — and this was the 1970s. A lot of people don’t want to say things were different then — but the truth is things were different then.

CO: You didn't feel you could take it anywhere, you didn't complain, didn't take it to police or did you tell anybody else outside?

VPK: I I will say that there were women in the newsroom who I did tell. One of them said you’ve got to do something about this.

CO: Said that to whom? Who did they complain to?

VPK: They said that to our executive editor and his name was Cody Hall. He's long since gone to that newsroom in the sky, but always seemed to be a really good man, but never would do anything about this. He promised us that he would but certainly never did. And I didn't tell the police, I didn't tell my parents.

CO: What would your parents have done?

VPK: Oh, my my daddy was he was a really good man, but he was a blue-collar worker and absolutely a World War II hero. And there is no doubt in my mind that he would have taken his 38 pistol and walked into The Anniston Star and killed Brandy — he would be in jail forever. So I couldn't tell him.

CO: You're not the only woman he did this to, in fact one, he apparently claimed that he was consulted a doctor who told him to spank a female reporter because she was psychologically ill and that would help cure her he claims.

VPK: Do you know any doctor alive who would give that kind of advice? Especially to a woman who was having some psychological problems. Of course Brandy said he couldn't remember the name of the doctor.

CO: The astonishing thing is that the reporter who has put the story out actually got a question to Mr. Ayers asking him about these spankings. To which he said “As a very young man with more authority than judgment. I did some things I regret.” So he doesn't deny that he did this to any of you.

VPK: When he was a very young man he was 40 years old. That's not a very young man especially in the 70s. When my daddy was 40 years old he was getting gray hair. So he can say youthful indiscretions all he wants, but that's not what it is.

CO: Veronica, did you stay as a reporter? Did you try to move on and stay in your profession?

VPK: That's what I did. I did not forget it happened, but I was determined that I was going to be a reporter. And I just refused to let him get me — just absolutely not gonna happen.

CO: Veronica, I admire you. I admire your courage. I admire you for coming forward and telling this story.

VPK: Well, thank you very much. I'm glad I did it and hr needed to be made accountable.

CO: Take care, Veronica.

VPK: You too. Bye, bye.

CO: Bye.

JD: Veronica Pike Kennedy was a journalist at The Anniston Star in the 70s. We reached Ms. Kennedy in Birmingham, Alabama.

[Music: Lo-fi Hip Hop]

Paul Sorvino

JD: So many disturbing details emerged from the stories surrounding disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein last year — and one thing that stood out was the way Mr. Weinstein would allegedly attempt to blacklist any of the actors who spurned him. One of those actors was Mira Sorvino. Ms. Sorvino claims that she had long suspected Mr. Weinstein smeared her reputation after she rejected multiple aggressive sexual overtures from him. And last year, two directors came forward seemingly confirming the suspicions, saying that Miramax, Mr. Weinstein's company, had warned them off of working with Ms. Sorvino. Now her father, Paul Sorvino, has a warning of his own. A TMZ reporter asked the Goodfellas and Law & Order actor about Mr. Weinstein's efforts to derail his daughter's career. Here's a bit of what Paul Sorvino had to say.

SOUNDCLIP

PAUL SORVINO: If I were to answer you I might put everybody in jeopardy. But if I meet him on the street he —he ought to hope he goes to jail, because if we come across I think he will be lying on the floor somehow, magically.

TMZ REPORTER: Funny you should say that. So today we actually reported that the DA is making strides in their case trying to bring criminal charges to Harvey Weinstein.

PS: He’s gonna go to jail.

TMZ REPORTER: Yeah?

PS: Oh good, good for him if he goes, because if not he has to meet me and I'll kill the [EXPLETIVE] — real simple.

TMZ REPORTER: Did you know about these accusations before?

PS: No I did not.

TMZ REPORTER: Did you learn about this like the rest of us did it?

PS: No I did not. I sure didn't.

TMZ REPORTER: You proud of your daughter?

PS: My daughter is a wonderful person, courageous and a wonderful human being. And doesn’t deserve to be treated that way by this pig. So this pig will get his comeuppance. The law will get him. He's going to go to jail and die in jail. But if he doesn't, Harvey come here, I have some News for you. I'll just slap him around, I won’t do anything terrible.

JD: Actor Paul Sorvino, father of Mira Sorvino, with a few choice words for Harvey Weinstein last night.

[Music: Jazz Band ]

John Tory

JD: For days now homeless people and advocates in Toronto have been sounding the alarm. As people struggle to stay warm in this dangerously frigid weather, they claim that the city has been giving mixed messages about the availability of shelter beds. Some who called the city we're told there was no room in Toronto’s six shelters, only to arrive to find beds empty. Today Toronto Mayor John Tory addressed the issue publicly.

SOUNDCLIP

MAYOR JOHN TORY: The truth of the matter is that we are seeing dramatically increased demand from previous years. Even with increased capacity this leaves us too close to the edge in these unprecedented weather and social conditions. And so to help address this issue in the short term we have now taken action to again extend the capacity of the Better Living Centre as of last night. Within the sites considered the federally owned armouries have always been and remain an available option along with other city sites. Staff has been in touch with the armed forces personnel since December. They will now be requesting from the government of Canada formal confirmation that the Moss Park armoury can be made available as a 24-hour respite centre for up to 100 beds until April 15th.

JD: John Tory the mayor of Toronto addressing what he calls the unprecedented homelessness crisis.

Toronto Homeless

Guest: Doug Johnson

JD: Doug Johnson is a Mennonite pastor who has been helping homeless people find places to get out of the cold. We reached Mr. Johnson in Toronto.

CO: Mr. Johnson, first of all, you just heard Toronto Mayor John Tory addressing the media today. What do you make of what he had to say?

DOUG JOHNSON: Well, I'm tired and I've just come in here at the end of the battle, I was in it previously for many years to have the shelter shortage address. And so I'm tired today but happy, it feels like we've won the short-term goal that we were saying was a short-term goal. And you didn't play the part where he apologised. I was especially disappointed that last month the mayor had essentially accused people like Cathy Crowe and OCAP of lying about people not being able to get shelter beds for people.

CO: And Cathy Crowe is a nurse, she's been on the streets for a long time helping homeless people find a place to stay. So they have been saying for some time, and you had been saying, that this is a crisis and this was was before we had a cold spell that is the worst in almost 60 years.

DJ: Yes, yes. So it's good to see that the city recognises this for that for the crisis it is. I think it took too long for Mayor Tory to come to that conclusion. I'm glad we haven't had a high profile case of somebody freezing to death during this cold snap. I think citizens of Toronto came together to put people up in hotels. for instance. and a lot of people put in extra effort to make sure that we didn't experience one of those really awful freezing deaths.

CO: Now you just mentioned how it’s a long time coming. People were saying ‘come on mayor, get on with this, this is a crisis.’ Why do you think he changed his mind? I mean, people are cynically saying that politics stepped in, 2018 is an election year, that this is what brought Mayor Tory to confront what people have been telling him for some time.

DJ: I think he was sensing the rising anger in that city, not just activists, but among all kinds of regular people who could feel the bitter, bitter cold and couldn't imagine people being turned away from shelter beds in the bitter cold. And I think it was too late but he felt like he had to act. I think, you know, we do need a mayor here in Toronto that will respond before it gets to such a boiling point.

CO: I want to go back to what happened the other night — this record cold night on Monday — and people were looking for some place to stay and the city was saying that the shelters were full. And what did you discover? What did you go out and learn about what was available?

DJ: Well this is something that I had — previously I was a street pastor here in Toronto for eight years — and we regularly dealt with this where the city would present to the public these numbers of beds available each night, but when you would call there would be no beds available, constantly told to by central intake. So I just decided to make such a call and then to record it. So that was the second such call I'd made within a week where were central intake in fact told me no beds were available. And this time I specifically asked about the Better Living Centre, which John Tory has constantly been saying has room, we're not full the capacity. And they told me specifically the Better Living Centre didn't have beds available.

CO: You actually went to investigate. How did you do that?

DJ: Well, I'm staying with old friends here in Toronto about a 20-25 minute walk from the Better Living Centre, so after making that call then I went down myself to see if they had any beds available. And in fact they did say that they could take somebody in for the night. So there was a disconnect between the city and the agency running the shelter there. I don't think that's a miscommunication though, I think it's intentional — something that the city's been doing. When this happens once or twice you can understand it as a mistake. If it happens night in and night out and you start hearing from shelter operators and you start seeing the way the city manipulates stats and you and you realize it's an intentional strategy.

CO: What strategy, what's the intention?

DJ: The intention is to be able to say we're not full, te city can keep saying well we're 94-95 per cent full we're not 100 per cent full. But that the only way they can get below that there are actually over 100 per cent each night, because there are people that want beds that are sleeping on mats on the floor, that are sleeping on cots, that are slumped over in chairs at that central intake centre. And those people aren't getting in beds and they aren't counted in the city's occupancy.

CO: And you mentioned this central intake where people can call and find out where there might be a place. I mean, first of all, have access to a phone. And we're hearing that some people are saying they have been kept on hold in central intake. I mean, who can do that?

DJ: It's really impossible and so I was working with a woman volunteer, a grandmother who's out on the street trying to get people to come in from the cold, and she's talking to people and she's calling from her own cell phone and her hands are getting frozen while she's waiting half-an-hour on hold to try and do intake with people when they're saying there's no beds. I mean, they don't even promise —they don't say oh well we have a bed for you let's do intake and we'll get you to it. It's not even an actual promise that you'll get a bed if you do all that.

CO: We heard good news from the Mayor, as you point out. But what has to be done?

DJ: Well, there's two councillors that have done very good work and listening actually and working with activists — Kristyn Wong-Tam and Joe Cressy — And what they realized going into this winter is given that those kind of crises can come up. And that's why you don't run the system at capacity all the time. The Council has mandated twice, first in 1999 and then in 2013, that the shelter not run above 90 per cent capacity on regular basis. The city bureaucrats have never met that target. They've never proposed a plan to actually meet that target. And when Kristyn Wong-Tam and Joe Cressy and others propose that there be a thousand extra beds in the system ahead of this winter, that was shot down along with the plan for the armouries. And that's what we would have needed to meet that 90 per cent mandate. And if you're running at 90 per cent instead of at 100 or 102 per cent, then you can you can handle an influx better and plan for it appropriately.

CO: We will leave it there and follow this story. Mr. Johnson, I appreciate you giving us some of your time today.

DJ: Thank you so much.

JD: Doug Johnson is a Mennonite pastor who has been helping homeless people find safe places to stay warm during this dangerous cold snap. We reached him in Toronto, and there is more on this story on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Ambient Bass]

Acorns Car

JD: If you have ever sat in your car with your breath freezing, impotently turning the keys over and over again, you know it is not uncommon for a car to break down during the winter. But in the case of Andrew Wilkins of Surrey, England the problem was not the cold. Mr. Wilkins had recently come back from vacation, and he discovered the shift stick in his Volkswagen Golf was stiff. So he took it over to the mechanic, but just before he handed it over he discovered a potential clue — the glove box was full of acorns. Mechanics then spent two hours emptying acorns from the car — from everywhere — including the gearbox. And that was why he hadn't been able to move the stick. And while Mr. Wilkins is very happy to have his car running again he is also sad to have disappointed the squirrels who have used his Golf as an acorn warehouse. In an interview with The Independent he said quote “I feel bad. I ruined their winter and all their hard work” unquote. Back in March of 2015 we covered a similar story. Here's part of Carol's conversation with car mechanic David Evans from our archives.

SOUNDCLIP

DAVID EVANS: I started driving it back to the workshop and it was struggling to go over 40-mile-an-hour and because he didn't have any sort of engine power torque that’s what was causing the gear change to be so prolonged. And my first initial thought was a blocked exhaust.

CO: So you brought it into the shop and you opened up the hood?

DE: So I’ve got it on the ramp and then checked the temperature of the exhaust to see if there was any temperature change between before the cap and after the cap, that seemed to be clear. But then we sort of looked into the engine a bit more. So I took air filter off then we took the actual panel out and that’s when we discovered all these nuts.

CO: You discovered all these nuts?

DE: Yeah, basically underneath the panel filter there should be an open box and it was just rammed full of nuts.

CO: How many nuts are we talking about here?

DE: Well, hundreds. Once we removed all the nuts from the whole air filter system they actually filled up supermarket carrier bag.

CO: What's the theory? I can guess, but what’s the theory about how the nuts got into her engine?

DE: We're thinking it’s either a squirrel or a mouse. It was taking them off of the bird table coming to the front of the house and then in the garage and climbing up into the engine bay crawling along, going through a big boxThat whole system was just completely full, you couldn't get any more in there.

JD: That was a mechanic, David Evans, speaking to Carol about finding customers engine chock full of nuts back in March of 2015. If you want to see all those nuts we've got photographs. Go to www.cbc.ca/aih.

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January 3, 2017 episode transcript

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