Note: Transcripts may contain errors. If you wish to re-use all, or part of, a transcript, please contact CBC for permission. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print. Copyright © CBC 2018

The AIH Transcript for April 9, 2018

Hosts: Carol Off and Jeff Douglas

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

CAROL OFF: Hello, I'm Carol.

JEFF DOUGLAS: Good evening, I'm Jeff Douglass. And this is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

JD: Tonight…

CO: A Four days ago all that family and friends of the Humboldt Broncos were worried about was whether the team could stage a playoff comeback. Now they, and the community, and the country, are in shock and in mourning.

JD: A reprieve retracted. Amid the heartbreak, our guest was told that his friend was among the players who had survived — only to be told this morning there had been a terrible mistake.

CO: Medical emergency. A doctor in Eastern Ghouta, Syria says more patients could have survived Saturday's chemical attacks if the local hospital itself hadn't come under siege.

JD: A building for rebuilding. The University of British Columbia apologizes for its role in the residential school system and unveils its new Dialogue's Centre, which will house some of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission archives.

CO: He dwelled in it and on it. On Saturday Todd Brassner died after a fire in Trump Tower New York. And while he lived in luxury he also lived in a building he hated — because it was named for the U.S. president.

JD: And…Back at a crossroads. In 1997 Dylan Fiddler's family died at the same intersection where the Humboldt Broncos accident happened. And tonight Mr. Fiddler returns to the heartbreaking corner of Highway 335 and Highway 35. As It Happens: The Monday Edition. Radio humbled.

[Music: Theme]

Back To Top »

Part 1: Humboldt Crash: Tobin Friend, Syria Chemical Attack, Trump Tower Resident Obit

Humboldt Crash: Tobin Friend

Guest: Brandon Ewanchyshyn

JD: The friends and families of those who survived the fatal crash in Saskatchewan have been hoping for their recovery. The loved ones of the deceased have been in mourning. Then this morning, we got this news from the coroner's office about two of the Humboldt Bronco players on that bus.

SOUNDCLIP

DREW WILBY: Late last night we were made aware of an error that had occurred and the identification of two of the individuals. As you will have seen in a news release this morning Xavier Labelle, who had previously been confirmed deceased, is not deceased, he is alive. And unfortunately, that means that Parker Tobin has been confirmed to be deceased. And we've been in touch with the families, they're fully aware and I want to thank them for their professionalism. I want to thank them for their support. And I want to thank them for their understanding. And I want to apologize to both of those families.

JD: That was Drew Wilby of the Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice speaking on behalf of the provincial coroner's office. Brandon Brandon Ewanchyshyn is a longtime friend of Parker Tobin, the player who has now been identified as deceased. We reached him in Spruce Grove, Alberta.

CO: Brandon first of all, I'm so sorry for your loss.

BRANDON EWANCHYSHYN: It's been a tough day, tough couple of days I should say, and especially this morning when the news broke. But thank you I appreciate it.

CO: How did you learn that your friend Parker Tobin was not in fact recovering in the hospital but that he had died?

BE: This morning at about 5:30 a.m. I got a text on my phone from the news director at the local radio station here in Parkland county. He had broken to me the news and initially I didn't believe it but I knew coming from him that it was most likely true but I still had my doubts. So I went downstairs, opened up my computer, cranked on TV and at the same time I found a news article online and I found a news story that was playing on the TV that confirmed my fear.

CO: And so until then you thought your friend was recovering in hospital, is that right?

BE: That's correct. Yeah, when the news broke about the crash on Friday evening I heard that Parker was being airlifted to a hospital in Saskatoon. Saturday morning I received more information that he had a bad back and a bad laceration across its face. Sunday I got actually a full list of his injuries, from a clavicle to a hip, to a lung as well as his brain bleed and stuff like that and that he was actually going in for surgery. I even received the message that he has done surgery last night. And then of course this morning waking up to find out that all that wasn't in fact someone else.

CO: And this was in fact Xavier, this is the other boy.

BE: Yes.

CO: And so you all this time you thought he was OK and you must have had mixed emotions given that there were so many casualties, but believing your your friend was maybe going to be OK — it looked like he was going to be OK?

BE: No matter how bad it was, he was alive and I was amazing for me. He was lucky to be alive, so I thought. And I knew that he was going to take the positive path of what had happened. Whether he was going to come back and announce some hockey games or work as a coach or do something else. I knew that no matter the extent of his injuries he was alive, and if he was alive he was going to make the most of what he had left.

CO: So what were your thoughts this morning when you learned?

BE: I was first, like I said very, very skeptical. There's no way they could screw that up for this amount of time — 36 hours, more than 40 hours. And, like I said, I turn on TV and my thoughts about him being in the hospital we're obviously gone and he was deceased. I instantly burst into tears and it was a very, very tough morning finding out that it was a complete 180 of what we thought was going on the past couple of days.

CO: And yet someplace else there's the family and friends of Xavier Labelle who now know that their son is alive.

BE: Yeah. And on that side obviously an emotional rollercoaster just like just us the other way around, where he was in fact the boy with the back and the rib and the clavical and the brain bleed and it’s very fortunate for that family that their boy is alive. And I really wish that he makes a full recovery and that he can still live the best of his life as he would if this never happened.

CO: You've known Parker Tobin since you were just boys, right?

BE: Yeah. We met each other at the rink probably 16 years ago, being that I am 18 years old, he’s the same age as me. Way back in those or Tim Hortons Timbits days, where we're just a little guys on the ice. We played together where I was the goalie for one game, he was the goalie for the next vice versa. Up until Atom then we played together first year Atom, second year Atom. We played together in Peewee, played together in Bantam, and we played together at Midget — always goalie partners and of course we had such good chemistry together that we could finish sentences. We would sit together on every team bus, we would room together in every hotel room, we would sit together at the team meals. We would just do everything together.

CO: What kind of person was he?

BE: He was an amazing person. He was very positive, very competitive, but at the same time you could never really find something to say negative about Parker. And I even say go out into the community here or go out into the community in the province or even now, the country and try find something negative on Parker — you will not be able to do it.

CO: And you've posted some photos of the two of, you have some great memories with him, don't you?

BE: I do. Those four photos — the one is from his graduation just this past June. His school was graduating and I was his grad date, so to speak. I got to ride on the bus with him and go to dinner with him and share that special day with him. There’s also another picture on there of us at the Canada Cup Volleyball Championship in Toronto where we were fortunate enough to win the gold medal. The other one on there is a picture in the dressing room of him and I after our Bantam Triple A season. He always liked to take a picture at the end of the year and kind of share his thoughts and I believe the caption is something like, you know, ‘thanks for being my tendy buddy it's tendy love and, you know, we're here together.’ And then the fourth picture is from a record that we broke together as tendy partners consecutively for the most number of years at the highest level, and that was a huge deal for us because we were so young and it was so cool to be in the newspaper.

CO: He does — looking at a photo of him he looks like he's got quite a sense of humour. You must have had a lot of fun.

BE: Yeah, he did have quite a sense of humour. He was always joking guy. You know how goaltenders are before games. They usually focus up they don't like to talk to anyone. They got that stern game face. Not the case with Parker. Parker was that guy that would laugh and joke up to about 10 minutes before game time and then he would turn his game face on. But he was always a very loose guy, very, very smart with the books but very, very funny. He had a good sense of humour to him.

CO: Sounds like you really admired him.

BE: I did really admire him I was really fortunate enough to be so close with him. I’m very, very sad to hear the news what happened this morning.

CO: Brandon, I just appreciate you being generous with us and talking about Parker and bringing him to life for us. He just sounds like such a great guy.

BE: Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

JD: Brandon Ewanchyshyn is a longtime friend of Parker Towbin, the Humboldt Broncos player who has now been identified as deceased. And you can see those photographs of Brandon and Parker on our website. Xavier Labelle, the player who was reported dead is in fact recovering. Dane Bumphrey is a childhood friend of Xavier Labelle. Here's part of what he had to say earlier today to CBC Saskatchewan.

SOUNDCLIP

DANE BUMPHREY: I got a phone call this morning around 8:00 a.m.. It was a long night and I woke up to a couple of friends over here on the team and they gave me the news and at first I was shocked. I didn't know what to think. It was surreal, I didn't know how to process it because I was grieving for a couple of days, right. And it was very hard. And then to have it all reverse, right. I'm still not exactly sure how to how to understand it because it's been a roller coaster of emotions, and it's of course, bittersweet because yes ,we got our friend back but there's also another family that that heard the terrible news, so.

JD: That was Dane Bumphrey, a friend of Broncos player Xavier Labelle speaking earlier today to CBC Saskatchewan. And we will have more on the accident that killed 15 people on the Humboldt Broncos bus on Friday, later on in the program.

[Music: Ambient Tones]

Syria Chemical Attack

Guest: Dr. Hamza Hasan

JD: Now there is no weapon that has not been used. That is what one medic said about the situation in Eastern Ghouta today after an alleged chemical attack on the city of Duma. Hospital workers report that victims began pouring in on Saturday night. At least the victims it was possible for rescue workers to get to. The attack came as Syrian government forces and their Russian allies continued their push for control of the sprawling Damascus suburb. Dr. Hamza Hassan is a surgeon working in Eastern Ghouta with the group the Syrian American Medical Society.

CO: Dr. Hasan, what are you hearing from your colleagues about the events in Duma over this weekend?

DOCTOR HAMZA HASAN: Yes. On Saturday night there was a big attack with chemical weapons, with gas. The most suspected guys it was chlorine. But there is a lot of victims — about fourty-two people were killed in the night because of this gas. So maybe there is other gas with the chlorine, maybe a phosphorous compound.

CO: Is it possible that sarin gas was involved as well?

HH: We don't know about but the big number of victims was suspected for another agent or gas more dangerous than chlorine.

CO: Can you tell us about what happened to the people who were hit with the gas? I understand that it was impossible to get to some of the people who had the gas attack in their home. No one could reach them to try and get them any assistance.

HH: That big a number of victims was because of a lack of doctors inside Duma now. And that night only about seven doctors were in the hospitals. And the hospital itself was targeted during that gas attack that night. Ambulances didn't reach the victims for about one hour or more than an hour. So that caused the numbers of affected people to be in the hundreds.

CO: The doctors are saying they had nothing to treat people with. They had only a few oxygen generators. They had no antidote. People couldn't breathe. They were suffocating to death. And doctors said they had to just watch them die. Did you hear these stories from your fellow colleagues, other doctors?

HH: I know this hospital because this is our hospitals. So I know this hospital completely, this hospitals is the only hospital in Duma. So they didn't have the capacity and the equipmentment to treat this large number of affected people. So what the doctors said is very, very true. They didn’t have oxygen and they were in their hospital. They didn't have enough medication for those affected people.

CO: Can you tell us the kinds of symptoms those who have survived, what are they suffering with now having inhaled this chlorine?

HH: They have symptoms of pain in their chest. They have pain in their eyes. They have coughing. They have apnea, some of people were and unconscious but other people found in their shelters they have severe symptoms.

CO: When you say the shelters, these were bomb shelters people were in and they were affected by the gas too. There were dozens of people who were hit with that gas in the bomb shelters, is that right?

HH: Yes they were in their shelters and tunnels. So in these places the gas caused more severe symptoms.

CO: You probably know the government of Russia is saying that its inspectors found no evidence of a chemical attack. What would you say to them?

HH: I think if investigation for this attack that has forty-two victims needs more than one hour of visiting Duma to make an accurate investigation. We need international investigation. I didn't believe any investigation from the Russian government.

CO: And the Russians and the Assad regime say that they have a deal with the rebels who were there to evacuate Duma. What is going to happen, what are you hearing?

HH: I hear that the busses for evacuation in Duma now and we'll move to North Syria tonight. The first evacuation will move now.

CO: And what will happen to Duma after that?

HH: As my friends inside Duma told me tonight, the Russian police will enter Duma after the evacuation, but they don't know how many will stay in Duma after the evacuation.

CO: Dr. Hasan we will leave it there. And please be well and stay safe and thank you for speaking with us.

HH: Thank you very, very much.

JD: Dr. Hamza Hasan is a surgeon with the Syrian American Medical Society. We reached him in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta. Donald Trump has said that he will decide on a response to Saturday's attack within the next 48 hours. However his ambassador to the United Nations is making no secret of who she seems to blame. This afternoon Nikki Haley told the Security Council that Russia has the blood of Syrian children on its hands. And she called Syrian President Bashar al Assad quote “a monster without a conscience.”

[Music: Reversed Ambient Tones]

Trump Tower Resident Obit

Guest: Rachael Cain

JD: He hated Donald Trump. But every day Todd Brassner 's lived in a building with the U.S. president's name on it — in an apartment on the 15th floor of Trump Tower in New York City. On Saturday Mr. Brassner died in a fire that broke out at the tower. In the years leading up to his death Mr. Brassner had come to feel like a very pampered prisoner in his own home, surrounded by his expensive art and hundreds of guitars and ukuleles. He resented the intense security he had to go through every day — and when he tried to sell no one wanted to buy it. Rachael Cain was a good friend of Todd Brassner. We reached her in St. Louis.

CO: Rachel first of all, I'm sorry for the loss of your friend.

RACHEL CAIN: Thank you very much for your concern and thank you for wanting to know more about Todd Brassner.

CO: Can you tell us about this apartment that he was living in in Trump Tower?

RC: When I visited Todd it was a really beautiful place and Todd was so proud of the Warhol, a painting that Andy he had done of him. He had a great collection of many, many guitars. He especially loved the one that he bought from Buddy Miles. And it was signed by Jimi Hendrix and he had, you know, Larry Rivers, he had Lichtenstein and he was one of the largest collectors of Robert Indiana stuff. So I would say, you know, it was a beautiful place and Todd's spirit, you know, he was a beautiful person, a wonderful man.

CO: He's been described as a bon vivant, a storyteller. What was he like to hang out with?

RC: Fun. Todd was, he was glib. He was so well-spoken, so intelligent, just one of the best friends anybody could have. And he really loved music so that, you know, really brought us together on many levels.

CO: And you mentioned all these instruments. There were 100 vintage electric guitars, apparently there was 150 ukuleles.

RC: Yes, he was quite the collector and he loved to play. And that's another thing he loved to play Blues. And, you know, I met him when I did a concert for the Jimi Hendrix foundation. And that was when in the mid kind of 90s he also met Buddy Miles, because Buddy Miles, myself, Richie Havens and Larry Coryell actually played together at this benefit and that was how I met Todd. And then ever since that time, you know, we were friends. And the last time I actually spoke to him was about a month ago.

CO: So there he was living on the 50th floor of the Trump Tower amongst all these friends and these instruments and then Donald Trump became president. How did his life change after that?

RC: His life, according to him, became a living hell. No one wanted to live in that building anymore. In fact, he really wanted to sell his place but there were no buyers. There was no way that he could get any kind of money, you know, that that would be adequate for the place. And going in and out of the building was almost an impossibility. So much Secret Service, you know, searching the trunks of cars because there could be bombs contained in them and just everything that you had to go through to get in or out it made it hard for them to see a doctor. It just made everything difficult. And he hated it. I kind of felt like in the end, especially because the last time we spoke it was about a three hour conversation, and he was really very depressed and pretty much ranting a lot about these conditions at Trump Tower and just how much he really wanted to leave. So I kind of felt like it was almost Todd versus Trump Tower in way.

CO: What happened? What do we know? This is in the 50th floor, a major fire. What happened?

RC: I don't know and I don't think that that's been released yet. If it has I have not heard about it. I heard that Todd died actually through our mutual friend of ours Bernard who is a bass player. I could barely believe it because like I said talking to Todd and then and then just having him be gone in the senseless fire that could have been prevented had there been sprinkler systems, which Donald Trump vehemently fought against.

CO: That's right he was among the real estate developers who said that they didn't want to include sprinklers in their system because it would add four dollars per square foot to the cost of an apartment.

RC: I know. And then the way he callously you know tweeted about his very safe, sound building but neglected to even tweet or say any words of kindness or even recognize the death of Todd Brassner.

CO: Yeah. Donald Trump tweeted about the fire saying he praised the firefighters and he bragged that it was a very well built building.

RC: Right, exactly. And he bragged about all that neglecting to say, as many people noticed, because I followed some of these tweets and other people said you know people like Mia Farrow, who just reminded him but what about the man who died, Todd Brassner? Not a word. Not a tweet.

CO: When you spoke with your friend, with Todd Brassner just a month or so ago, what was he saying to you about the building?

RC: He just said it was a living hell. The apartment, at this time, was worthless to sell. Most of the other wealthy people had moved because a lot of them had secondary homes. But he was not in good health, so it was not so easy for him to just buy a new place and get out, especially since he couldn't sell it. He was lonely and I think he, as I said, really felt depressed and trapped in that place.

CO: Rachel, I appreciate you talking to us about your friend and sorry about that.

RC: Thank you.

CO: Bye.

RC: Bye. We retrace a Rachel Cain in St. Louis. Ms. Cain was a friend of Todd Brassner, a resident of Trump Tower in New York City who died in a fire there on Saturday.

[Music: Rhythmic Synth Plucks]

Page 7 Vandal Talkback

JD: The perp is known as the Page 7 vandal. And according to librarian Georgia Granger the suspect is well-read and armed with a sharp pencil. Last week we spoke to Ms. Granger the Scottish librarian, after one of her patrons noticed that someone had marked page seven of all the books she checked out — Ms. Granger thought it might be spies using the library to drop off secret messages in code. It turns out she was right. except the spy was just a regular who marked the seventh page of each book they borrowed to keep track of what they had read. After our interview many of you shared your own experience with secret codes beyond the Dewey Decimal.

CO: D. G. Forsyth emailed us to say “I knew immediately what was going on. Our dad, born in Glasgow, Scotland, made weekly trips to our local library to return and pick up batches of books. To keep track of which ones they'd already read Dad would pencil in the space in the library letter A of the East York Public Library stamp.”

JD: And Howard and Carol Thornton wrote quote “At Canmore public library some patrons have been leaving their cipher for years, along with a reading of the book from one to ten.”

CO: But some of you felt markedly different. Andrew Thorne wrote “Notes in the margins are sometimes fun and I do like the brief sense of community that comes from reading a book that someone else has clearly enjoyed, but I despise when people mess with the printed words. It draws the eye immediately and ruins the experience of discovering that passage myself through the natural flow of text.”

JD: And finally on Facebook Sandra Givens wrote, “In my library system we would call that defacing public property. Writing in library books is a big no-no, as is dog-earing page corners, tearing out recipes you want to keep or using books to soak up cat urine from your carpet. All things patrons have done.”

CO: Thank you to everyone who wrote. To comment on anything you hear on the program or to tell us about your own experiences, find us on Twitter and Facebook both @CBCAsItHappens all one word. Our email is aih@cbc.ca or call us at (416) 205-5687.

Back To Top »

Part 2: Humboldt Crash Intersection, UBC Dialogue Centre

Humboldt Crash Intersection

Guest: Dylan Fiddler

JD: As you heard earlier on the program tonight we are remembering the 15 people who lost their lives after a crash involving the Humboldt Broncos team bus. This morning Tanner Gerwing and Tom Bollefer spoke with CBC News Network. They are friends of three Broncos hockey players, Morgan Gobeil and Jacob Wassermann, who survived the crash, and Jacob Leicht, who sadly did not. The friends shared some of their memories with host Heather Hiscox. Here's part of that interview.

SOUNDCLIP

TANNER GERWING: I moved away to Saskatoon for university so last time I saw Morgan was over Christmas. We got together watched the world junior game together and just sat there and talked for like three hours, and it was nice we had a good time.

HEATHER HISCOX: what about you, Tom?

TOM BOLLEFER: It was after their game three. We all went to Boston Pizza and we just ate and talked about old stories and Morgan shared a memory of us, all three of us downstairs in his basement when we were about Grade 6, playing Jenga. And we are too loud and his dad came down and yelled at us and so we had a video of it we were playing Jenga and it knocks down and you can hear three of us just whisper Jenga.

HH: Really?

TB: Yeah, it was kind of fun reminiscing of time.

HH: What about playing hockey together? How often did you guys, when you were growing up, play hockey together?

TG: Road hockey in front of Morgan's house every day. Weekends we'd be out there four or five hours at a time, Game 7s. Morgan was always the first pick in road hockey. Jacob, his dad would drive and drop him off with all the other guys that lived across town, and just play all day.

HH: Who's the goalie?

TB: It is either me or Morgan usually.

HH: Oh my goodness. Those are great memories. So bringing you back here home is the saddest of things. How did you hear about your friends?

TB: I was I was sitting at home eating supper with my mom and my dad actually got a call from one of my, I play with the Kindersley Klippers, and he was a scout there and we were longtime friends with him. We get a call from him saying there's a tragic bus crash and we just — like our hearts dropped. We just — the only thing we could focus on was them just hoping they were OK.

JD: That was Tanner Gerwing and Tom Bollefer, friends of some of the Humboldt Broncos. In the coming days we will learn more about what happened in the moments before this collision. But we already know that it happened at an intersection where tragedy has struck before. Near the site of Friday's crash there are six white crosses in the ground. They are there as a memorial to Dylan Fiddler's family, who died after an accident in 1997. We reached Dylan Fiddler in Kingston, Ontario.

CO: Dylan, how did you learn about the location of this crash involving the Humboldt Broncos?

DYLAN FIDDLER: I read it on Facebook Saturday morning. My first thought wasn't where it was, my first thought was, wow what a tragedy that has occurred. It didn't clue into me where it was until my fiancé brought up that it was close to where I'm originally from. At that time I looked into it and realized that it happened to be at that exact same location that I had a tragedy in my family happen.

CO: And people have mentioned that the bus would have just passed a place that has six crosses: three big ones, three small ones at that very site. Who are they for?

DF: The three bigger ones are for my mother my uncle and aunt. The three small ones are for my three young cousins, who are also involved.

CO: And how old were you when that happened>

DF: At the time of the accident I was six years old.

CO: You and your brother were not there?

DF: No we were not.

CO: Can you describe this intersection?

DF: The intersection runs north and south. And there are no stop signs or yield signs. The road east and west, there are stops found on both sides and both roads are 100 kilometre zones. On the southeast side of the intersection there is the houses with a few trees surrounding the house or by the road.

CO: And how dangerous is it?

DF: For two tragic accidents to happen 20 years apart, that's quite a long time in perspective for some tragic accidents. I wouldn't consider it to be a dangerous intersection. It's tragic definitely what happened in both situations, more so this recent one. But for me, my thoughts and my opinion, I don't consider it to be dangerous.

CO: But when you learned this bus had been hit, this collision with the truck was in that very same intersection, what went through your mind?

DF: My first thought was ‘Oh no not again.’ Nobody likes to deal with a death or tragedy, and what a coincidence that it happened at that same location, in almost the middle-of-nowhere Saskatchewan. It’s definitely heart wrenching thinking about all these Humboldt Broncos and the staff and the bus driver and everybody involved. My family is just one family, but with this recent one there are thirty-plus families affected, which is devastating to say the least.

CO: At that intersection people have noticed that — you mentioned the trees there. There's a copse of trees right at that corner. And people are speculating as to whether or not it's a bit of a blind intersection because of that. Is that something you ever noticed?

DF: I would have to disagree with the people are commenting on not. But again, everybody has their own opinions. At that bluff of trees the road, if you're heading west, there's a stop sign. If you stop at that stop sign there are no blind spots, there should no incidents. If you stop there, there should never ever be a tragedy happen. Going north there’s no stop signs, you just follow through. Whether or not something will happen. I'm not sure. I mean there are some suggestions I would maybe throw out so it would prevent anything happening again, like rumble strips or making it a four way stop. But again, those are just my opinions.

CO: I understand after your mother and your family members were killed in that crash you stayed in the region, you and your brother, you lived there with relatives and you had to cross that intersection as a young person. Do you remember that?

DF: Yes, so my brother played hockey. I was part of most of the teams growing either the water boy or equipment manager. So he traveled those roads as well and his mindset is the same as mine. We don't like the passing there any time, it brings up memories you don't like. Nobody likes to think about that a tragic event that happens. We're still — in the summertime I cross there, I went back home and every time I pass that intersection I honk and my fiancé was with me in the summertime and she asked why a honked. And I mentioned to her that that is the location where my family had passed away and I honk in memory of them.

CO: You also must have memories of what it is to be on a bus traveling with hockey players, with all the expectations of going to a game. What do you think it was like on that bus before the accident?

DF: It’s hard to comment on that. I couldn't even imagine being on that bus. But from being on a bus with another junior team in Carrot River, going on the bus was almost like taking a road trip with your friends. You would get on the bus, you travel and you were either laughing or maybe watching a movie a Don Cherry movie or Slapshot or playing cards. Being on the bus really brings the bond together of a team. And I think at that location, at that spot — but again I'm just speculating — but they're getting fairly close to the destination. I'm pretty sure the coach spoke up and said “OK, everybody we need to start getting in the zone, we need to start thinking about the game thinking about how we're going to play.” And at that point a bunch of the guys were starting to get in the zone. But again, that's just my speculation. I couldn't imagine being on that bus.

CO: When you think about those last moments that those young men and boys were having some fun, having some joy, filled with expectation, filled with energy — it's good to remember them that way, isn't it?

DF: Exactly. And I think that's what we need to do is to continue praying and sending support out there no matter where we are.

CO: Dylan, I appreciate you speaking with us. Thank you.

DF: Not a problem. Take care.

JD: We reached Dylan Fiddler in Kingston, Ontario. And if you'd like to read more on the story and see photographs of that intersection, visit our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Ambient Tones]

UBC Dialogue Centre

Guest: Alfred Waugh

JD: Today British Columbia took a step down the road toward reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. This afternoon University of British Columbia President Santa Ono, apologized for the university's role in perpetuating the residential school system. Here's some of what he had to say.

SOUNDCLIP

SANTA ONO: Failing to confront a heinous history, even if it is one that we did not cause, is to become complicit in its perpetuation. This is not a result that we, as a university, as a community, can or should accept. That is why today, on behalf of the UBC community, I apologize to you who were so affected by that system. For our participation in a system that has oppressed you, excluded you and through intention or inaction, continues to cause offence this very day.

JD: Mr. Ono was speaking at the opening of the new Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre on the UBC campus. The building will house records from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and it will serve as a hub for information and dialogue on residential schools on the west coast. Alfred Waugh’s mother was a Chippewan residential school survivor. Mr Waugh is the architect who designed the building. We reached him in Vancouver.

CO: Mr. Waugh, what did you think of the apology from Santa Ono today?

ALFRED WAUGH: Well, I think it's a sign of the times and it goes a long way to kind of the reconciliation of what my mother and what many First Nations people have gone through in our history.

CO: You mention your mother's own experience in the residential school system. Can you tell us about that?

AW: Yeah, she spent I believe two to three years — she's no longer with us so I can't consult her directly — at the Holy Angel school, which is near Fort McMurray in northern Alberta. And it had a deep enough impact on her that it affected her throughout her life.

CO: And how did that experience stay with her as an adult?

AW: It was a great conflict because even though she was Chippewan and First Nations it was kind of drilled into her and her sister that you almost were ashamed of your own heritage. For example she wouldn't date any First Nations men for a long time because they were thought of as being lazy and good-for-nothing. And that kind of thing was something I think she struggled with most of her life. The Catholic Church kind of embedded that sense of guilt and fear in people, right. And the struggle came about in points in her life where she wanted all of us to get baptized. And at that time my brother and I were, I was a teenager, 13, and my brother was 2 years younger than me. He got baptized but I refused to get baptized. So it was this ongoing struggle she had with her identity.

CO: And you’ve spoken elsewhere that her life ended quite tragically.

AW: Yeah, she a hunting guide up in Mackay Lake Lodge up north of Yellowknife, and I got a call just a couple of days before her birthday, when was going to turn 50 in 1999, that my mom had passed and I guess she had been drinking and she put a rifle under her chin and ended her life. And I had to get on a plane the next day and go up there to get her stuff and organize the funeral.

CO: Mr. Waugh, I'm so sorry.

AW: Yeah. Yeah, so it’s a tough thing because, you know, she was proud of proud of me but I feel a struggle within myself because I left her at 13 because her life was a bit chaotic and I didn't like the drinking and things like that, so I moved in with my father. And so her and I had a bit of a rift but she was always proud of me. And she was the one tha actually made me go to university in a sense. When I was in high school I was working on oil rigs in the Mackenzie River for Shehtah drilling. And she took me aside even though I wasn't living with her and she said, you know, “You're too smart to stay up here. You've got to do something with your life.” She always wanted me become attorney so I took that to heart and even though I was scared to leave Yellowknife on my own, I went to Lethbridge and did a degree there and eventually went to UBC and graduated from architecture.

CO: How did you use or incorporate your mother's experiences into the design of this building? This is what’s being called the Indian Residential School History Dialogue Centre that’s just opened. What influence did it have on your design?

AW: She went to a residential school and the thing about residential school it was always a confining environment. So it made you feel imprisoned. And she made sure at a young age we always appreciated the outdoors. So part of this building's design is really no matter where you are in the building, no matter what the content you're looking at, you can turn around and you can look out and engage in the natural landscape.

CO: I understand there’s also a stand of charred cedar wood that’s at the entrance. And what does that symbolize?

AW: It represents all the people that have gone to residential school and had to endure and fight this history. And in the end the survivors and the children of the survivors, like myself, I think I've become a stronger people because they had to kind of reconcile what their families have gone through and move forward with a stronger sense of identity. The building itself, it forced me to seek other ways of representing First Nations culture without being literal or didactic because even the director Linc Kesler, he said, you know, the building is going to be visited by First Nations all over Canada, so it can't be representative of one nation. So I started to look at symbolism like the charred cedar and also the copper roof on the building. To me it makes a reference to the chief's copper which was important to the Salish and the coastal people out here. And then the woven wall, as you descend down into the exhibitory, the longhouses or the Salish longhouses used to use bulrush mats to keep the draft out. So we developed a woven cedar wall that I first used in the First Peoples House at the University of Victoria. So it's through subtlety that we sort of represent First Nations people.

CO: It sounds so inspiring and a great tribute to your mother. Mr. Waugh, thank you.

AW: You're welcome.

JD: Alfred Waugh is a Chippewan architect and the designer of UBC’s new Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. We reached Mr. Waugh in Vancouver.

Back To Top »

Part 3: Palestinian Journalist Killed, Carp Bubble Wall

Palestinian Journalist Killed

Guest: Jan Egeland

JD: The Palestinian journalist killed on Friday while covering mass protests along the Israel-Gaza border was about to start a new job. The Norwegian Refugee Council says it hired Yasser Murtaja, 30, to document the effects of violence on children in Gaza. He was due to begin on Monday. Instead, the journalist died from a gunshot wound he sustained while filming protests along the Israel-Gaza border for Palestinian Ain Media. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have vowed to investigate.

CO: Mr. Egeland, what is it like for you to watch the final footage that was captured by Yasser Murtaja?

JAN EGELAND: Well, it's really heartbreaking because Yasser was a good contact of ours. A wonderful Palestinian journalist committed to document the suffering of the civilians in Gaza where he lived. We had agreed that he would be working full time for us from this Monday on for a while to document the situation for children. And then he was killed by an Israeli sniper just before this weekend.

CO: When you look at the images that he captured what does it tell you about how he spent his final hours?

JE: He spent his final hours at a distance from the protest. You see in the very distance Israeli snipers. You see children, families, you see people peacefully protesting on their land for their rights. It's incredible what happened, really. What kind of a nations shoots over a fence into somebody else's territory to kill a reporter that had a clearly marked ‘press’ sign on his vest.

CO: We spoke with a Palestinian journalist at the first event when there was violence. He describes that there were was a group of demonstrators who did go much closer to the wall or the fence. They had rocks they had burning tires, certainly not anywhere near the force that the Israelis had. But he said that there was that that movement and that the Israelis say they had to act in order to protect their territory. What do you say to that?

JE: Well, I I think it's absolutely correct that the tires were burnt. Those burning tires say that we burn tires because people shoot at us. And they…

CO: They’re smokescreens, you mean?

JE: Yes, smokescreens to not get sighted. Not very wise of these people I mean, these are youth inmost demonstrations are people who do not do what the majority would do at peaceful demonstrations. The point is that no one was dangerous for anyone on the Israeli side.

CO: Can you tell us a bit about your journalist, about Yasser Murtaja?

JE: Well he was 30 years old he was a father. We saw him as a very accomplished journalist. I think his greatest dream was to leave Gaza and see something else.

CO: Mr. Murtaja was flying a drone to get footage of the protests from above. And Israel's defense minister Avigdor Lieberman has suggested anyone flying a drone in that situation above IDF troops is putting themselves at risk. What do you say to that?

JE: Well, I don't even follow the argument. I mean, a drone is used as a journalistic tool now. He wanted to have images also from above. It was big demonstration. A lot of things were happening. He also wanted to document the potential use of force, again, from the Israeli side. I mean, are we going to shoot a journalist with drones now in our countries? No. I mean, Lieberman is saying all sorts of extremist things. He has to stop that. And all of us who are friends of Israel need to tell them that extremist policies have no place in a democratic Israel.

CO: He also says, or an an IDF spokesperson says actually, that the Israeli Defense Forces did not intentionally fire on journalists, and that they say it's still under investigation whether or not he was even killed by the IDF. What do you say to that?

JE: Well, I think now I look forward to that investigation. Many investigations are done by the Israeli military on themselves and come out inconclusively. What would be very good is if there was an independent investigation. Israel has a very independent and good judiciary, it's my experience they could do this investigation.

CO: What can you do at this point? What will the Norwegian Refugee Council do about someone who was working for them and who has been shot and killed, this journalist? Some are saying that there is a place to have this investigate is an international war crime.

JE: Well, we would ask for an investigation. I mean, we were in dialogue with Yasser, the journalist who were supposed to start work for us today, Monday. He was on his own account there for the demonstrations. We wanted him to now start to document all of the effects of the violence and the blockade and the occupation on children because we do a lot of trauma care. We hope that the countries that believe in international law will follow this up and ask for investigations and that there is accountability for those who are behind the shooting of an innocent civilian.

CO: Mr. Egeland, I appreciate speaking with you thank you.

JE: Thank you very much.

CO: Good night.

JE: Bye-bye.

Back To Top »

Provide Transcript Feedback

CBC would like to acknowledge the support of the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund.

April 10, 2018 episode transcript

More Stories Like This