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The AIH Transcript for June 27, 2018

Hosts: Robyn Bresnahan and Jeff Douglas

ROBYN BRESNAHAN: Hello, I'm Robyn Bresnahan.

JEFF DOUGLAS: Good evening. I'm Jeff Douglas. This is As It Happens.

Prologue

[Music: Theme]

JD: Tonight.

RB: All bets were off. According to a new report, British Columbia casinos unwittingly served as laundromats for dirty money. But B.C.'s attorney general says he's dealing with the problem.

JD: Nuclear overreaction? Seems U.S. President Donald Trump was a little premature declaring North Korea was nuclearizing because new satellite images show the country is renuclearizing.

RB: Blowing his chance to blow it. A Quebec clarinet player wonders what might have been after a judge orders a former girlfriend to pay him compensation for sending him a forged rejection from his dream school.

JD: Thing is looking up. After 60 years, an observatory in London, England will once again scan the night sky, thanks to a high-tech new telescope.

RB: Knight in white satin. I know, that's not a Bee Gees song, but Barry Gibb did probably wear white satin back in the disco era and he was just knighted by Prince Charles. And listen, everyone else already used Night Fever.

JD: And a shadow there. Schadenfreude everywhere else. For the first time in 80 years, Germany will not advance past the first round of the World Cup and heartbroken fans may never get uber it. As It Happens Wednesday edition, radio that knows they were very excited, but now they're on cloud nein.

Part 1: BC Money Laundering, Clarinet Lawsuit, German Football World Cup Loss

BC Money Laundering

Guest: David Eby

[Music: Theme]

JD: Prepare to have your mind blown. Now that is what officials told British Columbia Attorney General David Eby before briefing him on money laundering in the province's gambling industry. For years, dirty cash has been made clean in British Columbia's casinos -- hockey bags full of 20 dollar bills go in and a cheque or chips come out. Former RCMP commissioner Peter German was dispatched to author a report and recommend some solutions. Today Attorney General David Eby released that report called Dirty Money. We reached David Eby in Victoria.

RB: Mr. Eby, you have said these are mind-blowing revelations. How do you think the public will react?

DAVID EBY: Well they were certainly mind-blowing for me when I was sat down by the regulator responsible for gaming. What we asked Dr. German to do and the report released today was to try to share some of that experience with the public so that they can have a sense about why we're taking the steps we're taking because it's going to cost money to crack down on money laundering and the regulatory reforms that Dr. German is calling for will also cost money. So we're trying to help people understand why we're taking these steps.

RB: Give us some more examples of what this money laundering actually looks like.

DE: Sure. We released videos today. They're dated videos. They're from about 2012. And the reason they're dated is because we didn't want to interfere with any current law enforcement investigations. But the videos depict people bringing in those reusable shopping bags full to the top with bundles of 20 dollar bills bound with elastic bands in bundles of between $10,000 and $100,000. The videos show people loading up stacks of cash at wickets in casinos. They are clearly different from the kinds of bundles of bills you would receive from a bank. In addition, I've seen videos of people lugging suitcases of money and hockey bags full of 20-dollar bills. And some of these transactions -- just so you have some scale-- were $500,000 in lower denomination bills in a single transaction at a casino wicket window.

RB: So who are these people who essentially figured out how to game the B.C. lottery corporation into laundering their money?

DE: Dr. German has worked for the RCMP and identified that a significant proportion of the people in the videos are actually dupes or gamblers coming primarily from China where there is currency restrictions, so they're not able to bring money out of China. And the organized criminal gang would provide them with cash in Vancouver so they can go in and gamble and the cash came from the proceeds of crime. They would go in and gamble and they would transfer money to pay for the cash back in China. So the gang was able to get the money out of British Columbia into a more usable format and deal with these really hard to manage 20-dollar bills. In addition, in some cases Dr. German found that the people who were gambling were actually criminals themselves, transferring 20 dollar-bills into more usable forms like a cheque or chips that they would then walk out of the casino.

RB: So where are you pointing the finger? I mean this has been going on for some time now. Is it the casinos? Is it officials in B.C.? Is it the the police? Who's to blame here?

DE: You're right. It's been going on for a long time. In fact, Dr. German in his report has uncovered that the first report was in 2011. So this has been going on for more than five years. He says more than 100 million dollars at the low end as a conservative estimate has been laundered through B.C. casinos. And given the number of reports and the number of individuals and the regulator of B.C. lottery corporation who came forward and said we have a problem and the RCMP said that there was a problem. There were lots of people who blew the whistle. I'd definitely point the finger at the previous administration.

RB: Well, that's a bit of a head scratcher. I mean why was this allowed to go on for so long?

DE: In some ways it's incredibly puzzling when you watch the videos that police, that government weren't asking the question where did all of these 20 dollar bills come from and how is this connected to gang violence that we're seeing in communities across British Columbia? So that's a head scratcher. And then personally reflect on the fact that responsibility for gambling oversight was in the Ministry of Finance and that gambling generates a significant amount of revenue for government and clearly somebody made the call that it was preferable to take little chips around the edges rather than go at the heart of the problem because there is a financial consequence. We've budgeted a $30 million financial consequence in this year's budget for cracking down on this activity, expecting a reduction in the activity of these high roller tables as a result.

RB: So just a minute here. Are you saying that the B.C. government is complicit in this money laundering?

DE: Oh, absolutely. It's very clear to me that the B.C. government, the previous administration knew what was happening and I encourage your listeners to check it out. Check out the videos online and ask themselves the question: do they honestly believe that this money came from legitimate sources? And anyone who believed that or suggested that was clearly fooling themselves.

RB: So who should be held accountable?

DE: Well, certainly the failure of action on the reports that were generated lies with the previous administration and they have been held accountable to an extent. They're no longer in government. And it wasn't just this issue, it was many issues that combined to put them in opposition and so relief in terms of this report, we're moving forward and the accountability has shifted to me. The accountability has shifted to our government to implement the recommendations that Dr. German has put forward to make sure that were restoring confidence in British Columbia and in Vancouver. This note that the Vancouver model of money laundering that was described in Dr. German's report was taught by anti--money laundering experts as something to watch for and avoid. So we've become an international example of what to avoid and our government's goal now and our government's responsibility now is to restore British Columbia's reputation and also we are calling on the federal government to join us to put the necessary resources and crack down on organized crime and financial crime.

RB: But are you saying that people should be arrested here? Should there be charges laid?

DE: There are actually two law enforcement investigations underway right now and I have certainly confidence in the police that if they need additional resources to do that work to [unintelligible] government and in their ability to get to the bottom of criminal accountability for what's taking place.

RB: You mentioned organized crime, but today you also said that money laundering is connected to the inflated real estate market in B.C. Can you explain that?

DE: Yes. Anti-money laundering prosecution and so on is very much like a waterbed. If you press on one area, you increase surveillance and pressure on one area. It pushes the water or in this case, the illicit funds into another area and we're very concerned that that area is real estate. And so we want to chase it in and get this criminal activity out of British Columbia entirely.

RB: This report contains 48 recommendations to fix the problem. Which is the most important in your view?

DE: The number one recommendation was really the initial recommendation that Dr. German made to us, which is direct the casinos not to accept this cash unless they can prove where it comes from. And that literally overnight reduced our suspicious cash transactions from the peak. reduced it by 100 times and so that measure alone was critically important. The other piece that's so important about this report is that British Columbians know and Canadians know what's been going on so that both the federal government and Canadians understand why additional resources might need to come into addressing this issue that we face quite acutely in British Columbia and particularly Metro Vancouver.

RB: Mr. Eby, thanks very much for your time today.

DE: Thanks for having me.

JD: We reached B.C.'s Attorney General David Eby in Victoria, British Columbia. Today a report by former RCMP commissioner Peter German on money laundering was made public. B.C. Liberal MLA Jas Johal responded on behalf of the party by commending the report but accusing Mr. Eby of playing politics, saying: "Our attorney general has sensationalized this issue, so now we are asking where's the beef? Where are the arrests? Where is the prosecution? What is he doing about it?"

[Music: Bridge]

Clarinet Lawsuit

Guest: Eric Abramovitz

JD: Eric Abramovitz was crushed. The Montreal clarinetist had just received word that he had been rejected by the school of his dreams. Only the rejection had been faked. The story became public after a Toronto judge ordered Mr. Abramovitz's former girlfriend to pay him close to $400,000 as compensation for forgery that side-tracked a stellar musical career. Mr. Abramovitz is now an associate principal clarinetist with both the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Nashville Symphony. We reached him in Nashville.

RB: Mr. Abramovitz, you won this ruling earlier this month. Have you received the money from your ex-girlfriend yet?

ERIC ABRAMOVITZ: No, that is a whole another process that has to take place to -- first she has to be served the ruling by a government official and then my lawyer would help me out. However, it's going to be difficult to say the least just because even finding her will be a challenge. I've no contact with her at the moment and no one that I know does. So it's a long road ahead still if I want to see any money.

RB: Just take us back to the moment you received this fake rejection from Colburn Conservatory of Music. What was going through your mind?

EA: It was very disappointing of course when you have your heart set on something so much and you really want it. But you know, there were many other clarinetists there that day at the audition that were also working hard and they wanted it very much and they were at a very high level.So you hope it goes well but you understand that if it doesn't, you learn from every failure.

RB: And for those people outside of the music world, can you give us a sense of why this opportunity with the Colburn Conservatory of Music was so important to you?

EA: Yes. It was a very important opportunity because first of all, the teacher that I would have gotten to study with, Yehuda Gilad, he's one of the best teachers in the world, no doubt. Most students that have ever studied with him have gone on to have great careers all over the world. In addition, attending the Colburn Conservatory comes with all tuition, all expenses, room and board covered. So many universities and music schools all over the world are very expensive. So to attend such a world renowned school for free is quite something. And then living in sunny California where there would be no winters. That was a big plus.

RB: So you got this rejection. And I take it you went home. How was your then-girlfriend behaving towards you as you went through that rejection?

EA: Yeah, believe it or not, she was the one that was there consoling me. She was the shoulder that I was leaning on. So at the time, I thought man, my girlfriend is very nice and comforting. But it's kind of disturbing to think back and knowing that she's actually the one who caused it all.

RB: And how did you find out that she had forged this letter of rejection?

EA: When I had gone back to audition two years later for Mr. Gilad, we had an awkward exchange where he said to me what are you doing here? You rejected me. And I said no, you rejected me. And I was very confused from that exchange. So then I started doing some little bit of digging and I'd gone back to an e-mail exchange I'd had with the fake Yehuda Gilad and I forwarded it to him, to the real one. And I said is this your email address? Is this an exchange that you had with me? And he confirmed that it was not his e-mail address and he had never seen that. So that was when I first knew that something had gone awry. But I still didn't know it was my girlfriend who did it. So then a few months later I was trying to figure out who may have done it. And at first I wouldn't have even entertained the thought that it could have been my girlfriend, someone who I loved and trusted so much. But it started sinking in. And finally one day, me and my friend tried to log in to the fake e-mail account that was created for Yehuda Gilad. And I remembered one of her old passwords and I just on a whim tried it and surely enough, it logged right into the fake e-mail account and it listed her own personal email address as the recovery email address. So that was all the evidence that pointed to her being the culprit.

RB: What was that moment like for you?

EA: It was very crushing and it was just a feeling of overwhelming betrayal. And yeah, it was really a lot to take in. At the same time, me and my friend who cracked the case, we're pretty happy with ourselves for our detective work. So I was feeling the whole range of emotions that night.

RB: Were you angry?

EA: Yes, I was angry but probably more sad than angry, just to think back on my relationship and realize that everything was a lie.

RB: But you must have also wondered why on earth would she do this?

EA: Of course. I'm still wondering that. And of course I can speculate that it was out of jealousy or because she didn't want me to leave town. But I really don't know what is actually going on and what the psychology of someone who would actually do this. I don't think I'll ever know the real reason.

RB: Did you ever confront her about it?

EA: Of course I wanted to, but my parents and some friends recommended that I just seek legal counsel which was probably wiser because nothing I would have said would have done any good. So I proceeded with that.

RB: What began as a very personal thing between two people in a relationship, it's now made headlines around the world. Your ex's name and picture are out there. She's on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm wondering if there's any part of you that feels any sympathy for her.

EA: I wouldn't say I have any sympathy for her but I don't wish any ill will to her. Obviously a person who can do -- somebody that just needs some help and I hope that she gets it. I hope that she can turn her life around. And I hope that this story, she'll learn from it maybe and it won't happen to someone else down the line. I'm not angry at her. I've kind of gotten over it and tried to be optimistic about life and obviously I think that I've still been able to achieve my goals despite the setbacks that she put me through. So I'm lucky that I landed on my feet.

RB: What about this impact on the way that you trust people now? Has that changed?

EA: Many people have asked me that and surprisingly I don't think it has. Perhaps I'm a little bit more cautious but I like to think of my situation with my ex-girlfriend as a total outlier and a freak thing that happened. And maybe I'm optimistically naive but I still try to open up and trust people just the same. Perhaps a little bit more cautious, but yeah, I haven't changed much in that regard.

RB: Mr. Abramovitz, thank you very much for talking to us today.

EA: My pleasure. Bye-bye.

JD: Eric Abramovitz is an associate principal clarinetist with both the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony. We reached him in Nashville. The CBC does not have Mr. Abramovitz's former girlfriend's version of events. She did not participate in the court case against her and did not respond to the CBC's repeated requests for a response. You will find more on this story on our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Bridge]

JD: "Football is a simple game," goes the famous quote from former England captain Gary Lineker. "Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win." But at the World Cup in Russia earlier today, things were not so simple.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: World Cup soccer match]

There’s going to be another goal here. This will be it. Son Heung-min. Two now. That is it. All over.

[Sound: Crowd cheering]

Wild and incredible scenes in Kazan. It feels like the end of the world. It’s certainly the end of the World Cup for Germany.

A game ending, and weltschmerz beginning: that was the call immediately after Germany's national soccer team lost to South Korea. A loss that knocks the defending World Cup champions out of the tournament in the first round for the first time since 1938. Gunther Schroth has been a sports reporter for 30 years -- and a German football supporter for 40. We reached him in Baden Baden.

RB: Gunter, tell me the emotions you were feeling as you hear that clip.

GUNTER SCHROTH: You know what, it's maybe even worse to hear that in English than it is in German. The German reporters were just softer. It was the end of the world for them too, but it was not this little cheerful thing that you can hear in the English report. I have been asked this afternoon whether the German expression schadenfreude -- joy if you see somebody else who crash into an accident -- if it does apply to this situation and it actually does. The world is full of schadenfreude. And the German team kind of deserved that.

RB: Oh, they deserved it? I just want you to go back when you said that the German reporters, they were softer in their announcement, how so? Were they apologetic? Were they telling you it was going to be okay? What was that?

GS: I mean that they were shocked and they didn't want to show how shocked they were. They're not used to report a German team falling out of the World Cup in the group stage. So they didn't really have the word to show how that feels and they didn't even have any words to describe that sort of disappointment but also kind of the feeling that you think this team deserves to get out of the World Cup. Everybody was waiting for the German team to like finally show that they're good, that they're in shape but they just weren't able. And trying to to tell that to your radio and TV listeners, it's kind of something these reporters are not used to. So they were pretty mellow.

RB: Why do you say the German team deserved to lose?

GS: You know what? The first game against Mexico started the whole business, the whole discussion is Jogi Low still the right coach, the right manager for that team because that mixture of taking a little bit too light and being a little bit too arrogant and being convinced oh, we're going to make it into the finals again, this the best team we ever had, even better than in 2014. That mixture of too much pride and too much confidence was wrong from the beginning. And now you see that the psychological moment has not just been right.

RB: I understand that shortly after the game, you stepped out onto the streets. What did you see? What did you hear?

GS: Nothing. No honking, no cars honking. A national moment of silence. Germany -- 18 million people -- were silent. At least this is my impression.

RB: So nobody was talking to each other. Nobody looking at each other in the eyes?

GS: You know there are no words for that. Germany losing -- not winning a World Cup is just something you're not ready for. You're not prepared for that mentally, psychologically. So I'm ready to read the papers tomorrow and to listen to all the experts and try to find words for the fact that we're just another team getting out at the World Cup like a lot of other teams. Now we're starting to talk about Jogi Low. Not in two or three days but like the next two or three hours, we think the discussion about the coach is going to start. And when we asked him -- we had them in an exclusive interview for the radio -- we asked him so how do you feel after that? He just had one word to say. He said bad. He feels bad.

RB: He feels bad. No kidding. How are you going to console yourself tonight?

GS: [Laughs] I have a lot of good buddies here. Our reporters and all the people here in the national broadcasting centre here in the middle of Germany are just going to go out, have a beer or two and watch the next game and try to have fun and try to find a way of watching a World Cup without having your own team. I might consider you don't have a Canadian team playing there though, I might consider to choose the British and support them.

RB: What? Are you serious?

GS: I'm totally serious. Of course. I like the British. Germans like the British. We do listen to British music. We watch the Premier League and I like Harry Kane and I like the song they're making up, the British -- what's that? Rock Me Like a Harry Kane? It's a charming song actually. It is. Check it out.

RB: Well, it seems like that shock, you've gotten over that pretty quickly. So congratulations on that. Gunter, thanks so much for your time this evening.

GS: You're welcome. Bye-bye to you too.

RB: Bye-bye.

JD: Gunter Schroth is a sports writer with the German broadcaster ARD. We reached him in Baden Baden.

[Music: Bridge]

JD: For 27 weeks in 1978, a song Barry Gibb had written or co-written was at the top of the charts. He had four number ones in a row as a songwriter -- a record that still has not been broken. And of course, as the Bee Gees, he and his brothers became the most famous faces and falsetto of disco. And that was just one year. So you would hope that by this point, someone would tap Mr. Gibb on the shoulder and say good job buddy. Well, I'm sure lots of people have, but this week that someone was Prince Charles. He did the tapping with a sword. When Mr. Gibb knelt down to receive this acknowledgement, he was just Barry. When he stood up, he was Sir Barry. Typically for a night, he shared the credit thanking his late brothers Maurice and Robin. "I want to acknowledge how responsible my brothers are for this honour," he said. "It is as much theirs as it is mine."

Part 2: North Korea Nuclear Upgrades, Greenwich Observatory

North Korea Nuclear Upgrades

Guest: Jenny Town

JD: It has been just over two weeks since the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a pledge to denuclearize following the Singapore summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. And just last Thursday, Mr. Trump said "The big thing is it will be a total denuclearization which has already started taking place." It hasn't. In fact new satellite images reveal that since that deal was signed, North Korea has actually been making rapid upgrades to its only known nuclear reactor. The images were released today by the monitoring group 38 North. Jenny Town is the managing editor of 38 North and a research analyst at the Stimson Center. It is a nonprofit think tank based in Washington D.C. We reached Ms. Town in Beijing.

RB: Ms. Town, what exactly do these satellite images show?

JENNY TOWN: So what we're seeing on the imagery is that some of the infrastructure improvement projects that had started over the past couple of months before this summit took place have continued and they've made progress. And so especially on improvements to the secondary cooling system for the five megawatt reactor, which is the plutonium production reactor, as well as an engineering building near the experimental light water reactor. And this is the new reactor that has not yet started, but that could also potentially produce plutonium once it has come online as well. And there are other infrastructure improvement projects around the main Yongbyon nuclear research facility that indicate that operations are continuing despite the ongoing negotiations. And I think it just sort of underscores the urgency of actually getting to the details of a nuclear deal and really trying to get to some specifics about freezing and shutting down the fissile material production program.

RB: And you're absolutely sure that this work continues to go on after the summit with U.S. President Donald Trump?

JT: Yeah. So the imagery that we saw is from after the summit. And there have been notable improvements since imagery from before the summit. This has been ongoing. And you know, we would expect it to continue until there is an actual agreement because realistically there is no specific agreement in place right now that prevents North Korea from making these actions. And the only thing that has been publicly committed to is just the freezing of the nuclear missile testing as well as some gestures on the nuclear and missile test sites as well. So not the actual physical material production or the nuclear weapons manufacturer or the missile manufacturer at this point in time.

RB: So what concerns you most about this?

JT: The biggest fear right now is that you have the summit -- had all the optics and all the publicity that the president wanted and it worked well to his base. But the mission is far from accomplished. You know all they really came away with on paper is setting an agenda for negotiations. And now those negotiations actually have to take place and we need to get some detail on paper that's implementable that will actually stop the program and again start to roll back what we can.

RB: So after this summit took place and Kim Jong-un committed to complete denuclearization, did you actually in your heart of hearts think that that was going to happen right away?

JT: Right away, no. Not at all. And it's not going to happen unilaterally. It's not going to happen for free. Again, this was the agenda for negotiation. And those details need to be worked out. And you know the way that the North Koreans have always approached this is that you know it's not just the nuclearization of North Korea. It's the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, which carries a lot of other baggage with it, meaning the road to denuclearization paved with a fundamentally different political relationship between North Korea and the United States and South Korea and the rest of the world. And until that relationship changes, you probably won't get to the end of that line.

RB: How do you think the Trump administration might respond to these images?

JT: Well, I think it's a wakeup call for them. There's still a lot of work to be done and there's a lot of details to be hashed out. And North Korea is not simply going to stop and wait for the U.S. to get its act together.

RB: Do you think the United States is being naive about this? Because Donald Trump tweeted on June 13th that there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.

JT: Well, precision has never been his strong suit. And I think he quickly rolled back that tweet as well. You know, I think this is really the test of the administration. It's hard to say how far they can actually get. Do they have the right approach? They're certainly trying something a little bit different than what's been done in past administrations. And it very well could serve to go further down the road than what we have in the past just by having the relationship and having a top down mandate. But again, I think they're naive to think that it's going to be quick or that it's going to be easy. And I think there's also the problem, we've heard some rumours of proposals of saying hey, North Korea should send out a certain percentage of its fissile material stockpiles or a certain percentage of arsenals and they have to understand as well that what we know of North Korea's nuclear program is really still just estimates. We don't have an accounting of what North Korea's full arsenals and full capabilities really are. A lot of these estimates, a lot of these are based on what we know of their production capabilities and how long they've been working on it. So I think they really need to have a very serious and kind of methodical look at this situation and a methodical approach to this situation too because these bandaid moves in these big gestures aren't going to cut it.

RB: Ms. Town, thanks very much for your time.

JT: Sure. Thanks for having me.

RB: Bye-bye.

JT: Bye.

JD: Jenny Town is the managing editor of 38 North, a monitoring group that closely follows North Korea affairs. For more on this story and to see the new satellite images released by 38 North, go to our website cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Bridge]

JD: Sixty years after he became the first black player in the NHL, Willie O'Ree will be immortalized. Yesterday Mr. O'Ree learned that thanks to a push from his hometown of Fredericton, he will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this year. Back in 1958, he played the first of 43 games in the NHL, which was remarkable not only because he was black -- which everyone knew -- but also because he had been blind in one eye after being hit with a puck, which no one knew. Willie O'Ree is now 82 years old and is the NHL's diversity ambassador. This morning he spoke with Shaun Waters on CBC Fredericton's Information Morning.

SOUNDCLIP

WILLIE O’REE: When I see the initial call from Lanny McDonald and John Davidson and they informed me that I had been selected to be in the Hall of Fame, I had tears in my eyes and I was half crying and half smiling. But it was wonderful news. I had been pacing back and forth here in my home just waiting for the call hoping it was good news. And finally I got the call and the only thing I can say is I'm just thrilled and overwhelmed.

SHAUN WATERS: What does it mean to you to get a young child interested in hockey?

WO: I've come in contact with just so many boys and girls over the years and I've had calls from young boys and girls calling and telling me about coming to their school and talking about setting goals for yourselves and believing in yourself. So that means a lot to me.

SW: How much do you think it meant that you were the first player to break the colour barrier in the NHL? I'm just curious. What does that significance --.

WO: Well, that was a goal that I set for myself. I had two. The first one was to play professional hockey. The second was to play in the National Hockey League. You know, I look in the mirror and I don't see a brown man or a black man. I just see a man. I knew that I was a black player but when I went out on the ice, I just wanted to be just another player Basically from time to time I did have some problems, but it took a while for the other players and fans in the stands to recognize me, that I did have the skills and the ability to play.

JD: That was Willie O'Ree, the NHL's first black player and the NHL's diversity ambassador. He was speaking with Information Morning's Shaun Waters. This November, Mr. O'Ree will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

[Music: Bridge]

Greenwich Observatory

Guest: Louise Devoy

JD: It is where the prime meridian sits and the historic home of Greenwich Mean Time -- both impressive for sure, But another resident of Greenwich wants to carve out some space for itself. This week, the Royal Observatory Greenwich announced that after 60 years, it will begin studying the sky again and it is able to do that because it has just installed a new cutting edge telescope. The device is called the Annie Maunder astrographic telescope. It is named for one of the first female astronomers to work in Greenwich. Louise Devoy is a curator of the Royal Observatory Greenwich. We reached her in London.

RB: Ms. Devoy, wwhy has the Royal Observatory decided to study the sky again after 60 years?

LOUISE DEVOY: It's been quite a break, yes. Sixty years ago, astronomers had to really battle against light and smoke pollution as the City of London started to encroach on Greenwich. We're a couple of miles out of town here. But these days now with all these amazing new cameras and digital technology, we can actually filter out certainly some of the light pollution. We've still got a little bit of air pollution from London City Airport and just general smog. But after the Clean Act of 1956, the conditions improved significantly. So we're really lucky now.

RB: So basically astronomy had to be moved out of London into the countryside.

LD: Absolutely. By the 1930s and World War Two, it was becoming almost impossible to do the high-level precision astronomy that the astronomers wanted to do here. So gradually during the 1940s and '50s, they started to move the telescopes down to Herstmonceux, a beautiful rural location down in Sussex away from all the smog and the pollution and the lights and it was much more suited.

RB: Some people might be surprised at that and think that surely there is more light pollution, more air pollution now than 60 years ago.

LD: Yes, certainly we're so used to being dazzled by street lights and artificial lights today. But now with these digital filters and processing software. we can try to eliminate the worst offenders of that light pollution and it's just remarkable how even when you look up at the sky and it looks very washed out with the naked eye, when you use these digital technologies and apply the filters and processing, you can see amazing galaxies and nebulae. It's a whole new world up there.

RB: What can you tell us about the new telescope that you have installed at the observatory?

LD: So the new Annie Maunder astrographic telescope is actually made up of four different telescopes -- different sizes, different specifications, combinations of lenses and mirrors. And the idea is that we can use this whole suite of telescopes to look at the sun safely using certain filters. We can look at galaxies, the moon, the planets. So we've got this whole range of instruments that we can use and look at almost anything really.

RB: Have you looked into it?

LD: I have. Yesterday we took some fantastic images of the sun. And it's also slightly different in that traditionally you always associate astronomers looking through an eyepiece at a telescope, but now it's all done through computer screens. You're not physically looking through an eyepiece anymore. It's very surreal and sort of disjointed, but incredible as well.

RB: Right because all our mums and our teachers when we were young told us not to look directly into the sun. So I guess you can do that in a safer way.

LD: Yes, with these special telescopes now with the proper filters and looking at the screen instead of looking through an eyepiece, you can see incredible features on the sun, whether it's the bubbling gases, the filaments, prominences shooting out of the atmosphere or the sunspots. You can see all of this detail much more safely.

RB: It's interesting that you mentioned that you were able to look at the sun because the telescope is named after an astronomer, as you mentioned, Annie Maunder. And she had a part in looking at the sun and studying the sun. Tell us a bit more about her.

LD: So Annie Maunder joined the royal observatory in September 1891 as one of our first four female lady computers as they were called then. So these were ladies with a background in mathematics who would process the data effectively, all manual, and having to take all the raw data no crunch to make it a better format. And part of her role involved taking daily photographs of the sun using a specially adapted telescope and camera. And she did this for several years and then she married her colleague Walter Maunder who was head of the photographic departments and unfortunately under civil service rules, Annie wasn't permitted to continue working as a married woman. So Annie and Walter continued their exploration of the sun if you'd like, by organizing these solar eclipse expeditions with their friends and with amateur groups. So she was still able to really contribute to observing the sun and she captured some incredible images of the sun's atmosphere during eclipses using some of the cameras that she designed herself. So it just seems very fitting that we can name this new technology, this new facility in her honour in recognition of her work.

RB: How do you reflect on the fact that back then she had to quit her job after she got married?

LD: It just seems so strange to us these days. There are so many more opportunities for women, both in astronomy and other sciences. Annie really faced so many challenges throughout her life. She was not permitted to be given her degree at Cambridge even though she completed the Mathematical Tripos. She wasn't permitted to join the Royal Astronomical Society until 1916. She was a very determined lady and I think she really wanted to fulfil her ambition and she was going to overcome those challenges come what may.

RB: What do you want a new generation of would-be scientists and astronomers to know about her?

LD: I think it would be great to really recognize the fact that she was very dedicated to her work. She never really gave up. She wanted to share astronomy with as many people as she could. She often gave public lectures. She wrote popular astronomy books. So she was very much engaged with a wider audience and I think that's very much our guiding principle as well today, that we really want to share this knowledge and these incredible ideas and images with so many people.

RB: What's the best thing for you about working at a working observatory again?

LD: I think the best thing now is the fact that we can be so much more reactive. Previously we've had to try and link current astronomy to historical events, but now we can also be more reactive and if there's something happening, if there's a transit or an eclipse or a viewing of something, then we can get our astronomers involved, get those images and really talk about it.

RB: Louise, great to talk to you. Thanks very much.

LD: Thank you Robin.

RB: Bye-bye.

LD: Thanks. Bye for now.

JD: Louisa Devoy is a curator at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. We reached her in London. If you'd like to see some of the photographs of the telescope and the sun, head to our website.

[Music: Bridge]

JD: It's over. But it wasn't over easy. Four eggs in a bird's nest are all it took to delay the setup for one of Ottawa's largest outdoor festivals. Construction at Blues Fest was put on hold when it was discovered that a killdeer was nesting right in the area where the main stage was supposed to be built up. Then yesterday the festival finally got approval from Environment Canada to move the four eggs. And last night, someone licensed to handle migratory birds began the pain staking process. That person was Monika Melichar, who is with the Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary in Minden, Ontario. And here she is speaking to Ottawa Morning's Hallie Cotnam today.

SOUNDCLIP

MONIKA MELICHAR: We are in the final stage right now. We've been up here since five o'clock this morning moving at one metre at a time and allowing the parents to nestle down again on the eggs. Now we have the platform, the artificial platform is on top of the makeshift nests that we made away from the stage. And the next step now is to move the eggs from the platform and put them into the new nest and that is where they're going to stay.

HALLIE COTNAM: Have there been any concerns that the parent birds weren't following?

MM: Well, there's been a few little incidents where we thought oh no, they're not coming back fast enough. But so far so good. They've always come back. They've always sat down back on to the nest, onto the eggs and incubated them. So it's been really great.

HC: You know Monika, there must surely be people in this city who say you know these birds are not endangered. There's plenty of them around. Scoop them up and get on with the show.

MM: Yes, there most likely is and there's also a lot of people that understand that we're losing our species of wildlife. I mean we are losing our populations and every life is important and we should really do the proper thing as concerned and caring citizens and make sure that we don't do any harm.

HC: Are you feeling any pressure from the festival organizers to speed it up?

MM: Not at all. Not at all. They have been absolutely wonderful, cooperative, very caring and concerned over this whole situation. And I give them a big thumbs up for that.

JD: Monika Melichar is with the Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary in Minden, Ontario. She was in conversation with Hallie Cotnam on Ottawa Morning earlier today and she completed the killdeer move shortly after that interview. The eggs are now safely nesting in an artificial nest nearby.

JD: Airbus says confusion surrounding Brexit could "lead to severe disruption and interruption of U.K. production." The senior executive of BMW U.K. says Brexit is "a decisive issue that ultimately could damage this industry." And the chief executive of Siemens U.K. is also worried. He described British foreign secretary Boris Johnson's to heck with Brussels attitude as "incredibly helpful." All told, these three companies employ more than 50,000 people in the United Kingdom. But apparently Boris Johnson would like these enormous businesses to mind their own business. According to some EU diplomats who were at a gathering last week, someone asked Mr. Johnson about these public statements of concern from these corporate leaders to which the tousle haired scamp replied, "F business," except without the implied asterisks. Certainly a concise response, just not especially thoughtful, helpful, diplomatic, considerate or you know, good. So naturally a labour MP asked the foreign secretary for some clarification and justification in Britain's House of Commons yesterday, at which point Boris Johnson replied, "It may be that I have from time to time expressed skepticism about some of the views of those who profess to speak for business." Well, that answer has more qualifications than the CEO of a multibillion dollar company. It almost, almost obscures the fact that he is dismissing the heads of three major corporations as professing to speak up for business which suggests that he is not really listening. And if he is not, then British business may be truly facing a major problem.

[Music: Bridge]

JD: Willow Goldberg knows what addiction can cost. Goldberg is a teenager in Shelburne, Vermont. She lost her dad to drug addiction, to the drug addiction that consumed his life. When she graduated from high school earlier this month, he was not there to see it. Ms. Goldberg is determined not to be among the over 50 per cent of children of addicts who repeat the destructive pattern. And so she conjured his memory and channeled her grief into a message of hope for her fellow grads during a speech she made at her graduation ceremony.

SOUNDCLIP

Throughout my high school experience, I faced many challenges. One of them was losing my father. I couldn't stop him from doing drugs, but I could do something that made him proud. I dedicated myself to do good in school. Even if I had a huge paper or I got distracted in class, I would still try. We all need that one thing to hold on to, the one thing that defines us as a person. Addiction killed my father but it didn't kill him. The part my father held onto, the part that will live on no matter what in the hearts and minds of others is example of love. No matter what, even when I didn't live with him, he kept a journal for me. Here's a small but mighty sample. "Dear child of mine, I miss you every second. I will always love you. Willow Sierra Goldberg. I will always think of you. Love, Dada." So why am I telling you this? You are going through huge transitions. It's the beginning of adulthood where your life is in your hands. That's scary and the only advice I can give you is the advice I've learned myself. Pick one thing. One strong value to hold on to. For my dad it was the love that made him him. For me it was committing to schoolwork. The one thing I could control. I wasn't living at home. Conflict was all around me. I needed to ground myself. So I chose something I could control over when all else was at sea. It helped me too because I don't want to make the same mistakes he made. This was my light in the darkness, committing to a positive value and letting others into my life. Thank you.

JD: Willow Goldberg speaking at her high school graduation earlier this month in Shelburne, Vermont.

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June 27, 2018 full episode transcript

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