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 July 4, 2018

Hosts: Robyn Bresnahan and Chris Howden

Prologue

ROBYN BRESNAHAN: Hello, I'm Robyn Bresnahan.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Good evening. I'm Chris Howden. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

CH: Tonight…

RB: Checks on check. The Toronto area police chief thinks an Ontario law curtailing street checks, better known as carding, is empowering criminals, but says she is not suggesting the legislation should be changed.

CH: I f she’s the choice, what about choice? Among the possible nominees to fill Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat on the U.S. Supreme Court is a judge who staunchly Catholic, raising questions about the future of Roe v. Wade.

RB: The heat of the moment. Since the heat wave began in Quebec at least 16 people have died, and now ambulance services say they are overwhelmed.

CH: He's got it on flock. A 17-year-old Vancouver photographer achieves a historic sweep at the Audubon Awards for an astonishing picture of parakeets in Ecuador he got after days of waiting on the wings.

RB: A lapse of luxury. They were promised pop stars an incredible food, but got porta-potties and disgusting sandwiches. But now two guys who spent thousands to attend the Fyre Music Festival have won millions in damages.

CH: And…He is on a roll, an extremely long one. We'll speak with the New Brunswick chef who's intent on making the longest lobster roll in history, and clawing back the world record from his arch enemies in P.E.I. As It Happens: The Wednesday Edition. Radio that knows revenge is a dish best served cold, or you know salmonella.

[Music: Theme]

Back To Top »

Part 1: Police Carding, Quebec Heat Wave, Audubon Awards

Police Carding

Guest: Jennifer Evans

CH: Comments from a Toronto area police chief are raising questions about the limits the province of Ontario has imposed on the police practice known as carding. The law was brought in to restrict street stops after complaints that it was being applied disproportionately depending on race. But in a press release issued by the Peel region police chief says quote “Since the new street check legislation was introduced it restricted how officers are able to interact with members of the public. This has empowered criminals who think officers won't stop them. They now are more confident that they will get away with carrying guns and knives. We have seen an increase in violent crime,” unquote. We reached Peel Regional Police Chief Jennifer Evans in Mississauga, Ontario.

RB: Chief Evans, when you talk about a jump in violent crime, what are you and your officers seeing on the streets?

JENNIFER EVANS: Well, actually we're seeing a an increase also and just calls for service. So, last week I presented before a regional council in the city Mississauga and Brampton and talked about violent crime, specifically stabbings and shootings, so we've seen an increase in that in the last few years.

RB: When you're talking about an increase can you give us some numbers?

JE: Well, for a firearm related occurrences there's been an increase of 83 per cent since January 2013. My shootings have increased by 100 per cent. And what I've started to do is started to count the shell casings being discharged at crime scenes, because my concern is that we're seeing an increase in the victimization. So I started collecting jars of bullets on my desk so the jars from our shooting range, they're not crime scene bullets. But what the bullets have been revealing to me is a shocking increase in the number of discharge shell casings left at scenes by criminals.

RB: But those — it makes a good photo op because you can show the number of shell casings in a jar going up but it doesn't correspond to the actual number of shooting victims.

JE: No it doesn't. So the shooting victims is not as dramatic. So what I did was the jars were created only because I was going to community groups and I wanted the communities to realize that each bullet is a potential for a victim.

RB: And so when people say well that's just plain fear mongering what's your response to that?

JE: Not fear mongering if it's fact. And I say I don't want to cause fear in my community. I'm responsible for the community safety for the cities in Mississauga and Brampton so I mean the officers out here do an excellent job. So what my concern is is that I don't want criminals feeling comfortable coming into the cities of Mississauga and Brampton and thinking that they can carry their firearms or carry their knives and use them on citizens within my community because my message is is that Peel Regional Police will be out to identify them and arrest them.

RB: And you say that this provincial law restricting street checks has empowered criminals. How so?

JE: Well, I think that the language used within the legislation is restricting officers and their abilities on how they can interact with people in the community.

RB: What do you mean?

JE: Well, I think that when the legislation was created it required officers to do certain things like identify themselves so that the officer has to — are you familiar with the language of a the law at all, and regulation?

RB: I am but I'm just thinking for our listeners so just keeping this as simple and as understandable as possible.

JE: I think that's the hard thing. I think there's been such a misunderstanding of what the legislation is and it's impossible to really, you know, shorten it down. But I think what it is now, so it's important for the officers to go up and say, first of all, everyone doesn't have to talk to the police unless they are being investigated for criminal offense, unless they're driving a car. So if you phoned the police department and say there's some suspicious character on my street at 3:00 in the morning, the officers who would have approach say ‘OK, you don't have to talk to me. They have to produce the card. In Peel you present them with a card with your name. So I present them with a card saying Jennifer Evans name and on the back it shows how they can complain and how they can contact Peel police. So I think the language of the legislation is confusing, not only for the citizens, but for the police as well.

RB: But what evidence do you have to prove that Ontario's restrictions on street checks have actually led to an increase in crime?

JE: All I've said is I think the language restricts it and I think that I have seen a dramatic increase in violent crime in the last year.

RB: But this is a provincial regulation and there are statistics in other places that actually don't back up your logic. In Ottawa for example, between 2014 and 2016 when there were no carding rules, no rules on street checks, the Ottawa police carted tens of thousands of people and shooting incidents actually increased.

JE: And I'm unaware of the statistics going on in the other jurisdictions. I can only speak to what's going on in Peel.

RB: Right. But those are the statistics in an Ottawa jurisdiction. So does it not feel a bit too simplistic to basically say that crime is going up because of the presence or absence of a single police technique?

JE: No, I think what's happened is, I think because of the miscommunication with regard to that, I think criminals feel empowered to carry firearms and carry weapons and do criminal acts more than they ever did before.

RB: But how do you actually know that? Where's the evidence?

JE: Well, right now I think we're going to wait to see. I think we're seeing it in the evidence and the statistics. I've been looking at the statistics and that's what I'm seeing. So that's what I spoke of.

RB: I totally understand that. But just going back to how you can actually link those two things it still doesn't seem very clear.

JE: Well, I'm not sure how clearer I can get. The fact is I can tell you that in 2015 we had zero homicides by firearm. Last year we had nine, this year we've had five already. And I'm just counting, if you look at shell casings being discharged within the region of Peel. So you don't think it's a concerning trend when there's 135 shell casings discharged in 2015, and then last year we had 426 shell casings left at crime scenes.

RB: So are you suggesting that fewer of those crimes would have taken place if there weren't these restrictions on street checks?

JE: No, I'm suggesting there's been an increase. That's all I'm suggesting. There's been an increase and there's evidence of that.

RB: How do you balance whatever benefits that you think that street checks might bring with the collateral damage that it causes communities who feel targeted by the police?

JE: I can tell you that when the regulation came out, it was effective January 1st 2017, but following the negative impact that I saw as a result of the discussions around this discussion of street checks Peel Regional Police were the very first police service to stop doing street checks. We did it eight months before anyone else and we abided with the language or the regulations way before any other police service did. So I recognize there's been a big negative media attention and negative connotations to communities and this is why my concern has always been about community safety. So this is why right now I'm focusing on victims. And so I'm trying to establish other ways that I can get out into the community and talk to them about how we can work together and how to make a safer community.

RB: But what message do you think that sends to these communities?

JE: The message I think I sent was two years ago when I was the first police chief to stop doing the — to introduce the language of regulation eight months before the regulation came into effect.

RB: Right, but now you're saying you want to reverse that.

JE: I've never said that at all. I think this is exactly what happened two years ago. I've never said that at all. All I said was that I'm seeing an increase in shell casings and violent crime.

RB: Okay, but you want to be able to change the language of the street checks, correct?

JE: I don't want to do anything. All I'm doing is telling you that I've seen an increase, and that's all I'm saying.

RB: So what do you want changed then when it comes to street checks?

JE: What I would do is I'm just bringing my concerns to the people of my community and I leave the laws and changing the regulations to the politicians.

RB: Okay. Chief Evans, thank you very much for your time today. Good to talk to you.

JE: Thank you.

RB: Bye.

CH: Jennifer Evans is the Peel Regional police chief. We reached Chief Evans in Mississauga, Ontario. And there's more on that story on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Upbeat Banjo]

Quebec Heat Wave

Guest: Benoit Garneau

CH: A record breaking heat wave continues to scorch Eastern Canada today. And few cities are being hit as hard as Montreal where 12 people have died from the heat since Saturday. At least 17 have died province wide. The temperatures are such that ambulance services in Montreal are being stretched to the limit as calls pour in from those suffering in the blistering heat. Benoit Garneau is a spokesman with Urgences-Santé, the emergency medical ambulance service in Montreal. That's where we reached him.

RB: Mr. Garneau, just how hot is it in Montreal today?

BENOIT GARNEAU: Today it's very hot. It's 36 degrees Celsius out there. And with the humidity it's around 40 degrees.

RB: Give us a sense of what that heat feels like to people who were living in those traditional walk up apartments and they don't have any air conditioning?

BG: Oh yeah. It's very heavy for them. It's really hard for them and it causes that they have to call 911 unfortunately. So we responded to many calls since last Sunday and that we have no breaks. So it's very hard for our citizens in Montreal.

RB: When those people are calling 9-1-1 and your paramedics respond, what kind of condition are the paramedics finding them in when they arrive?

BG: Well, it depends on the case. But many of the people are weak, they feel weak, very weak. They feel dizzy, nausea, vomiting sometimes they're confused, sometimes they're fainting. So most of the calls that we do are for these kind of calls, yes.

RB: We often hear that the heat affects the very young and also the very old. But how does it get to a point where people actually die from the heat?

BG: Sometimes it's really because they don't drink enough and they have a medical condition. For older people it’s lung disease, heart disease, for young children they are not able to drink by themselves. So that’s what’s happening.

RB: You say your paramedics are working flat out. Can you just describe the volume of calls Urgences-Santé has handled since this heat wave began?

BG: 30 per cent more calls than we have usually. So to give you numbers, since Sunday we made 1,200 calls a day. So it's 250 more calls than we do usually.

RB: How are your paramedics holding up?

BG: Well, it's been hard for them too. They're beginning to be tired but we're lucky to have them and they're doing a wonderful job. Our paramedics and our dispatchers, too.

RB: Its hotin other parts of Canada as well. We're hearing record temperatures on the east coast, where we are here in Ontario it's very, very hot indeed, yet we're not hearing about the same number of deaths in other places. So what do you think it is about Quebec. Why are people dying there?

BG: Oh that's hard to say. For that death here in Montreal we have the public health that counts all the deaths that we have for the heat wave right.

RB: I guess one stark story that we have heard is one hospital in particular doesn't have any air conditioning. Yeah that seems very, quite shocking for people.

BG: Yes, unfortunately there are still some places where there's no air conditioning but we have to do with it when we have to transport the patients we're going to transport them hospital. That's about what we could do.

RB: The president of Urgences-Santé said today that you have reached the limits of the capabilities of our services and we now need the collaboration of our citizens to provide quality of service to all. What does that mean exactly that you have reached the limit of your capabilities?

BG: Well, we'll get more calls than that and we won't be able to respond to all the calls. Of course, we add some more paramedics on the road and more dispatchers, but there is a limit. So the things that we do is that we ask our citizens in Montreal to call 911 only if it's a life threatening situation. If it's a minor problem, a minor injury if they can stand up, we asked them to call 811 to get some advice and if the case is serious they're going to transfer to 911 and we were going to respond with an ambulance at this moment.

RB: This heat wave is not over yet. How worried are you that more people might die before it cools off?

BG: Of course, we hope that nobody else will die, but if we can save some lives and we're doing the best that we can to do it but in some way we have no control really no control of the death of certain persons.

RB: Mr. Garneau, I appreciate your time, I know how busy you are. Thank you very much for talking to us.

BG: OK, thank you.

CH: Benoit Garneau is with the emergency medical ambulance service Urgences-Santé. We reached him in Montreal.

[Music: Piano Ballad]

Audubon Awards

Guest: Liron Gertsman

CH: Teenagers, what are they up to? With their Instagram and their Snapchat and their hashtags and their trips to the heart of a jungle in Ecuador where their astonishing patience and talent allow them to get an amazing award-winning photo of exotic birds. Let's focus on that last kind of teenager for now. It's one guy, 17-year-old Liron Gertsman. His breathtaking photo of cobalt-winged parakeets won him first place in the youth category of this year's Audubon Awards. Not only that — he swept the top three prizes. It is the first time that's happened in the history of the Audubon Awards. Liron Gerstman lives in Vancouver but we reached him today in Anchorage, Alaska.

RB: First of all Liron, congratulations on winning, not only first prize, but second prize, third prize of this competition as well. How did you react when you found that out?

LIRON GERTSMAN: It was pretty hard to believe. I got the phone call that I’d won the competition in May and I was driving en route to the Okanagan with my mom and we were pretty stunned. It was pretty hard to believe. And then later on we found out that it was a sweep, honestly, I thought it was a mistake at first. It was pretty amazing and it’s been very exciting.

RB: Can you describe what your winning photo looks like for us?

LG: Yes. The winning image is of cobalt-winged parakeets taken in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador. And what they're doing in the photo is they're visiting a site known as a clay lick, which is where parakeets come to eat nutrient rich clay, which counteracts the acidity and toxins in the fruits that they eat. So these parakeets need to come here once every few days in order to please their stomachs and feel good and not get sick from the fruits that they eat.

RB: So how many parakeets did you get in your photo?

LG: Hard to say. I haven't done a count, it must be something like 100. But there were close to 400 or 500 of them total.

RB: That is extraordinary. And what else is pretty amazing is the journey that it took to take that photo. Tell us what that involved?

LG: So in order to get to this part of the Amazon I flew from Vancouver to Texas to Quito, Ecuador. And then from Quito we took a regional flight into the Amazon basin and then a three hour motorboat trip up the river and then in our canoe and then a half an hour hike. And every day when we were based in the Amazon we would go on that canoe and then the half hour hike for three days until on the third day we finally got to see the parakeets.

RB: That's amazing. I understand that parakeets, they're actually animals that are not very willing to be photographed. Can you tell us a bit more about what you learned about them?

LG: Yeah, so the parakeets, every day when we were looking at the clay lick they would fly in through the canopy and the first day they flew in, second day they flew in, third day they flew in. But every day they would slowly inch down towards the ground. But twig snaps and they would all fly away. So each day they would come lower and lower coming towards the clay like something would happene, maybe it was a snake maybe it was a hawk — something would scare them off. Until the third day, which after five hours on the first day, five hours on the second day, then after about three hours on the third day we finally got the parakeets coming down.

RB: When you took that picture did you know that it was a winner?

LG: When I looked at the picture on the camera screen I thought ‘That’s special, this is pretty special,’ the moment was just so amazing. I thought if there was going to be a picture that might have a chance at winning something this could be it.

RB: What about the other two pictures that got you second and third place? Can you just briefly describe those for us?

LG: Yes, one of them is of a hummingbird taking off, the silhouette against the sky and that was taken in the cloud forest in Ecuador. And the other one is a close up of the talons of a bald eagle which was photographed in Delta, British Columbia.

RB: What is it specifically about birds that fascinates you?

LG: You know, I've never really known what about birds drew me in, but I can tell you that bird migration and bird behaviour is just so fascinating to me. To think that there's birds that are flying around the globe from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back every year, that there's animals that can do that aon their own is just so incredible and it's amazing for me to think about.

RB: I'm talking to you while you're in Alaska right now. What's the the best picture you've taken on that trip?

LG: It's a good question. I think it's a toss-up between yesterday I had an amazing experience with a grizzly bear family a mother with her two cubs. And then another amazing experience also yesterday, was photographing Arctic terns, one of these world traveling migrants a pair of them interacting at a lagoon and right down downtown Anchorage.

RB: Okay, a lot of people who were on summer vacation right now your age they might be like hanging out at a shopping mall. This seems like a pretty extraordinary thing for you to be doing.

LG: Yeah, it's just what I love to do. And I mean, somehow every summer I end up in places that are really cool. But I love doing it.

RB: What would be your dream bird to photograph?

LG: I really love shorebirds, there are birds like the Sandpiper family that migrates across the globe. They breed in the Arctic and many of them fly all the way down to South America. And there's one that's critically endangered called the spoon-billed sandpiper and that would be a dream to see and photograph.

RB: Liron, is this a hobby or do you think that we might start seeing your work on the cover of National Geographic in the future?

LG: Well, I hope so. It's more than a hobby, it's a passion and I'd love to maybe one day in the future turn it into more of a profession.

RB: We'll watch for your name. Liron, great to talk to you, congratulations again.

LG: Thank you so much.

RB: OK, bye-bye.

CH: That was Liron Gerstman, a bird photographer. We reached him in Anchorage, Alaska. And you can finally Ron's photo on our Twitter @CBCAsItHappens.

[Music: 90s Pop]

Robby Müller Obit

CH: That's a scene from Jim Jarmusch’ 1986 jailbreak film Down by Law. Three cellmates are on the run after a montage of fast paced clips shows their joyful escape, the camera shifts to monotonous tracking shots of the trio floating through a swamp. The mood and eventually their stolen boat sink. They realize there are now prisoners of the Louisiana bayou rowing in circles. Robby Müller, the Dutch cinematographer behind that deceivingly simple sequence, died today. He was 78 years old. In addition to Down By Law, Mr. Müller worked on a host of other highly acclaimed auteur films. You'll find his signature stark and moody camerawork in Paris, Texas, Repo Man and Dancer In The Dark, just to name a few. As a film student in the 60s Mr. Müller ditched traditional studio based approaches to filmmaking — they were too calculated. He favoured a freeform approach, aiming to capture reality and all its natural imperfections. In an EYE Film Institute documentary Mr. Müller put it plainly, insisting quote “I have no systems, no ideas of how it should be done. I find it on the set,” unquote. He was particularly known for his lighting techniques, so much so that he was nicknamed the ‘master of light.’ In that same EYE documentary his long-time friend and collaborator director Wim Wenders recalled how Mr. Müller stood firm in his decision to use unorthodox techniques when the lab tried to correct colours in their film the American friend. As Mr. Wenders explained quote “Normally directors of photography correct any fluorescent lights that are on the set because some of them have horrifyingly false colours and Robby said we're going to keep them all. We're going to keep all the defaults. The things that other people took as our mistake, we used it as a virtue,” unquote.

Back To Top »

Part 2: U.S. Supreme Court, Lobster Roll

U.S. Supreme Court

Guest: Stuart Leavenworth

CH: The hunt is on for a new U.S. Supreme Court justice. President Donald Trump has been interviewing potential candidates and is expected to unveil his decision on Monday. One of those interviewed was Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a staunch Catholic who once taught at Notre Dame University. In what may be a preview of combative nomination hearings to come, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein once said to Judge Barrett “The dogma lives loudly within you.” Stuart Leavenworth has profiled Judge Barrett for McClatchy Newspapers. We reached him in Washington, D.C.

RB: Mr. Leavenworth, why would a Democratic senator accuse a judge of having dogma live loudly within them?

STUART LEAVENWORTH: Well, the judge in question, Amy Barrett, coauthored a paper in which she argued that Catholic judges should consider recusing themselves in cases involving capital punishment because the church's teachings were so strong in opposing capital punishment. So that kind of opened the door for questions about whether she was going to apply her faith, her religion to decisions of the court.

RB: What else can you tell us about Amy Coney Barrett?

SL: So Judge Barrett was born in New Orleans and she's had a very interesting career. She was a law professor at Notre Dame and before that she clerked for Antonin Scalia.

RB: What other boxes do you think she ticks for president Donald Trump?

SL: One thing that's going on in D.C. right now is the age old debate about whether Trump is going to nominate kind of a Washington insider or somebody from outside. And so Judge Barrett has really kind of come — I wouldn’t say come out of nowhere — but she certainly become elevated as a prospect very quickly in this town. And it's largely because, I think, that Trump's base and, particularly evangelicals, are strongly supporting her and want Trump to nominate her on Monday.

RB: But what about her gender? I mean, that seems to be a pretty big deal. Insiders saying that if President Trump appoints a woman then his critics can't say that he is upending women's issues.

SL: Yeah, well I think one of the reasons that a lot of pro-life groups are supporting Judge Barrett is because they think she'll have a better shot at being confirmed. And, you know, she is a mother of seven. So, you know, in terms of the whole storyline she's got this kind of interesting life story that makes her a lot different than the other leading candidates. And, you know, no matter who gets nominated, the issue of abortion is going to be front and centre in the confirmation hearing. And it's going to be pretty intense.

RB: And, of course, this is the issue of pending Roe versus Wade, which is the decision which established a constitutional right to abortion. I just want to play you a bit of tape, this is from John Oliver’s program Last Week Tonight and it is a super-cut of commentary from CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

SOUNDCLIP

JEFFREY TOOBIN: And Roe v. Wade is doomed. It is gone because Donald Trump won the election. Abortion will be illegal in quite a significant part of the United States soon. All this fantasy talk about oh I don't know if Roe v. Wade is going to be overturned — of course it's going to be overturned. Roe v. Wade is going to disappear. It arrived in 1973 and it will die shortly.

RB: In your view will judge Amy Coney Barrett, will she help up end Roe v. Wade if she's nominated to the Supreme Court?

SL: Well, we don't really know, but we do know what she said in the past on this issue. Some of her comments basically were a prediction that she didn't think the court was going to overturn Roe vs. Wade any time soon. On the other hand she signaled that she is OK with challenging the past precedents of the Supreme Court if she feels like they do not comport with her view of the Constitution. So, you know, what we could end up with in this country is a situation where certain states can criminalize it, others would still allow it to occur. But, you know, that was basically a situation we had before Roe vs. Wade.

RB: That's a bit curious. If it's not for certain that she will quash or upend Roe vs. Wade, how come she's being boosted by evangelicals?

SL: Well, it's partly because of her strong religious views. It's also because she has written several times about the whole issue of Supreme Court precedents whether they should be automatically upheld or whether some of them should be looked at. So they feel much more comfortable with her than say Brett Kavanaugh in really making a major decision like this one to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

RB: If she is indeed President Trump’s nominee what do you expect will be the tenor of her confirmation hearings?

SL: In this case, I think it will be very, very intense. But I think it's also pretty clear that Trump will probably get his nominee confirmed given the current configuration of the U.S. Senate.

RB: Is there any chance that she wouldn't be confirmed?

SL: Well, it all depends on various senators. And some Republicans have come forward said that they will not support a nominee who would overturn Roe vs. Wade. Historically, you'll find that nominees will not say with any specificity how they would rule in such a case.

RB: As a journalist Mr. Leavenworth, what is the most interesting part of covering all of this for you right now?

SL: Well, I mean as we are here in Washington, D.C. on the Fourth of July you can almost bet that there's a lot of people in this town who are not celebrating and throwing up fireworks and, you know, having backyard barbecues — they are on the phone lobbying the White House for particular nominees. So that's going on right now before us. And Trump has said he's going to make this decision over the weekend and announce it on Monday. Well, wow, that means a lot of people in this town are working overtime trying to either tear down a potential Supreme Court nominee or to boost somebody they like.

RB: It's all happening pretty quickly. Mr. Leavenworth, it was good of you to pick up the phone on this July 4th holiday and talk to us. Thank you very much. Have a great Fourth.

SL: OK, you too. Bye, bye.

CH: Stuart Leavenworth is a national correspondent with McClatchy Newspapers. We reached him in Washington, D.C.

[Music: Upbeat Acoustic Guitar]

Churchill Omnitracs

CH: Residents of Churchill, in northern Manitoba, have had to deal with their fair share of challenges recently. As you've heard on this program the only rail line going into the community was damaged by flooding over a year ago. Residents have spoken about their difficulties making ends meet with rising costs on goods. Last week, they were asked to conserve propane. Omnitracs, the company that owns the line, has previously said it can't afford to fix it. While there was hope that the company had come to an agreement with a consortium that would take ownership yesterday, Omnitracs put out a statement saying the deal had fallen apart and that the sale may not be possible. Niki Ashton is the MP for the community. She held a press conference earlier today about the situation in Churchill. Here's some of what she had to say.

SOUNDCLIP

NIKI ASHTON: People in Churchill have had enough. They've had enough of Omnitracs’ games. They've had enough of feeling as though they're being held hostage, and that was a word that I kept hearing repeatedly yesterday. They're sick of seeing the federal government share empty words of rhetoric, or words that they feel are empty when there is no action. There was one woman yesterday, Eleanor, who said “what are they waiting for us us to starve to death or to freeze to death?” And she was talking about the shortage of propane as well. There was somebody who said that that this — and I heard this repeatedly in different ways — but they talked about Churchill dying. and those of us that know Churchill know that this is one of the most resilient places in Canada. It's a place that knows how to deal with being remote. It's a place that knows how to deal with some of the toughest climate. It's a place that knows how to deal with difficult to ups and downs in terms of the economy. but this is a community that because of Omnitracs, because of the way the federal government is dealing with it is, is breaking — this community is breaking, people are leaving. Now I want to be clear that I put the blame in major part on Omnitracs. What we're seeing here and what we saw yesterday, the words they shared yesterday, are nothing short of bullying tactics. People have invited Justin Trudeau to come up and visit Churchill and to see firsthand what is going on. And it came up yesterday. We heard why is our prime minister spending Prime Minister spending so much time travelling the world when we here in Canada are hurting so badly, when we know that the issues that we're facing are of national importance. The only deep water Arctic sea port in our country shut down, a northern railway shut down, a community breaking down. And they said we want the prime minister to come up here and we want him to show backbone and that is what I want to say today. We need to see backbone from Justin Trudeau when it comes to dealing with Omnitracs.

CH: That was Niki Ashton the NDP MP for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski speaking earlier today. Omnitracs has said it will quote “continue to pursue any and all opportunities to sell Hudson Bay Railway Line and related assets,” unquote. Also in a statement to CBC News yesterday a press secretary for Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr wrote quote “The people of Churchill and all Manitobans can be sure that our government is here to defend their interests,” unquote.

[Music: Ambient Tones]

Shakespeare Exam Question

CH: Here's a brainteaser: Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the tallest mountain in the world? Trick question, it was always Mt. Everest, it just hadn't been discovered yet — classic. Here's another one. How does Shakespeare present the ways in which Tybalt’s hatred of the Capulets influences the outcome of Romeo and Juliet? Trick question, Tybalt doesn't hate the Capulets, he is a Capulets. Unfortunately for the people who wrote the second question it wasn't intended as a brainteaser, it was an actual question on an actual exam given to more than 14,000 students in the U.K. last May. A question that mixed up the Montague's, Romeo's family and the Capulets, Juliet's family, which includes her cousin Tybalt. That is a pretty serious mix up given that the whole Montague-Capulet feud is, you know, the reason for every single thing that happens in Romeo and Juliet, which is why the U.K.s office of qualifications and examinations regulation or Offqual is recommending the board that prepared that exam be fined 175,000 pounds — that's $304,000 Canadian. So I guess that answers Juliet’s famous brain teasing question ‘What's in a name?’ And the answer — whether you're Juliet, Romeo or a confused exam writer — is a lot of heartache and a pretty costly penalty.

[Music: Whimsical Piano]

Lobster Roll

Guest: Alain Bosse

CH: Today in a sporting arena in Shediac, New Brunswick a chef with a vision is engaged in a possibly quixotic quest to achieve his dream — the world's longest lobster roll. And for Alain Bosse it's personal. Of course he's driven by the sheer glory of the achievement. But he's also driven by a desire to snatch victory from Sediac’s rivals in Charlottetown P.E.I. They are the current record holders having reached about 61 metres with their own lobster roll. We reached Alain Bosse just as he and his team put the finishing touches on their monstrous sandwich.

RB: Mr. Bosse, are you in the room with the lobster roll right now?

AB: I am in a room with the lobster roll, the lobster, the people — it’s mayhem here, it’s wonderful.

RB: What does it smell like?

AB: Lobster, a lot lobster all 180 pounds of lobster.

RB: Wow. Can you describe what it looks like for us?

AB: I can. Basically we have a long, long lobster roll that goes from one end of the building to the other in an arena, picture like a skating rink more or less this arena and big tables all the way around and we've got two rows of bread going from one end to the other. So that's side by side and then it connects at the end as one sandwich with a circle, that’s basically what it looks like. We're going to hopefully beat the world record of the longest lobster roll ever.

RB: Can you describe, I mean what are the people doing in front of you right now?

AB: They're staring at me going “Why are you talking on the phone? We want to take pictures of you.” They're all excited to be honest with you. We've got all kinds of lobster that’s being readied right now with all the volunteers ready to have their bowls in their hand to go fill the lobster roll. And we've got about 100 people already here — we're expecting close to 400 people.

RB: I know this might come as a bit of a shock to you, but for those people who have never actually had a lobster roll in their entire lives before, what goes into making one?

AB: Lobster meat, I did a recipe of my own so I did lobster with a little bit of celery, a little bit of green onions and chives, salt and pepper and mayonnaise, that's it — and then the bread.

RB: And the bread, which you actually have to bake during this competition?

AB: No, we baked the bread yesterday, it took us 12 and a half hours to bake this long bread in a pizza oven. Slowly, we pulled it a quarter of an inch at a time, every 20 seconds.

RB: There must have been a lot of pressure not to break it.

AB: Yes, extreme pressure, yes. The whole lobster roll has one tiny weak spot right now and of course that's the part that I'm filling. Nobody else is allowed to touch that area.

RB: Now what is at stake here with this with this competition?

AB: This is the Guinness World Record. It's as simple as that. It's a fun exchange that happens between Prince Edward Island and Shediac, New Brunswick, and it's really friendly, to be honest with you. And every year during their festival they beat this festival and vice versa. Last year we had 180 feet long lobster roll. They beat it with close to 190 or 200 or something like that. And yeah we're ready for rock and rolling here in about an hour or so.

RB: OK, now have you actually reached the magic length to beat your rivals?

AB: I'm just going to say that it's gonna be mayhem here when we announce it, when we measure it. We're going to measure this officially, so officially, unofficially we'll know in about an hour.

RB: OK. How long does it have to be?

AB: To beat the record over 200 feet.

RB: Who's going to eat all of this afterwards?

AB: We've got 400 people waiting in line that bought tickets to get a piece of this lobster roll.

RB: Is it still going to taste good? Isn't it going to be a bit soggy?

AB: Oh, not at all. It just came out of the refrigerator right now as we speak. I'm seeing them putting the meat into the tray to go into the lobster roll. As a matter of fact I've got to go.

RB: Okay. I don't want to keep you, but I just need to know, when are you going to find out if you've set the record?

AB: We're going to do the official measurement exactly in an hour. And I'm going to tell you we're going to meet the record and we're going to be way up there — we're going to be close 225 feet.

RB: What are you going to do to celebrate?

AB: We're going to scream. We've been at this for, literally, 48 hours nonstop.

RB: Chef, it was good to talk to you. Thanks so much.

AB: It's my pleasure. Thank you very much.

RB: Enjoy that lobster.

CH: That was OK that Alain Bosse, aka the Kilted Chef. We reached him earlier today in Shediac, New Brunswick. And you can see pictures of the lobster roll on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Piano]

Fyre Festival Lawsuit

That’s Major Lazer, one of the scheduled headliners at last year's Fyre Festival, the super fancy lifestyle extravaganza — VIP air travel, gourmet food, luxury accommodations and private white sand beaches. It was to be an immersive music festival. Well it was immersive, but less like being immersed in a deluxe hot tub and more like soaking in a dirty bathtub full of rainwater and Axe body spray — it was chaos. None of the scheduled acts played. The food was terrible. The tents were just tents. It was hot and there was no water or medical staff. So hundreds of people who'd paid up to $13,000 U.S. for a ticket to an exclusive event attended by supermodels were trapped. I know you may not be sympathetic — rich kids disappointed and uncomfortable for a brief period isn't exactly a predicament for Amnesty International. And yet, for being ripped off and subjected to mental anguish two attendees have just been awarded $2.5 million — each. In a not at all melodramatic statement, the plaintiff’s lawyer said that Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland quote “lured these young men away from their homes to another country. It was a very dangerous and scary situation,” unquote. Well OK, yes Mr. McFarland is definitely a scam artist who lied about almost every aspect of his immersive music festival. In fact, since pleading guilty to fraud involving the Fyre Festival he has been accused of committing more fraud by selling fake tickets to real events. And he's pretty much broke. So those plaintiffs, each of whom paid 13,000 bucks for VIP tickets, probably won't see much of their award. Still, put together that's five million bucks for a lousy weekend. Which, like the disgruntled plaintiffs themselves, may be seems a bit rich.

Back To Top »

Provide Transcript Feedback

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

July 4, 2018 episode transcript

More Stories Like This