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The AIH Transcript for December 14, 2018

Hosts: Carol Off and Jeff Douglas

CAROL OFF: Hello, I’m Carol Off.

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

[Music: Theme]

Prologue

JD: Tonight:

CO: Post-apprehension apprehension. After arresting a Chinese executive on behalf of the U.S., Canada wants to downgrade a feud with China — but former Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley says the government could have avoided the problem altogether.

JD: Enormous patience, and a tiny patient. Doctors in Montreal complete long, difficult surgery on a two-year-old whose skull was dangerously swollen.

CO: As a kid, he was told his dad had walked out and never returned. Now, a New York Man has found the remains of his father in his basement — where they've been buried since 1961.

JD: Don't look back. Two journalists who worked on a documentary about police collusion in a massacre in Northern Ireland are arrested — they say it's a warning to other reporters not to investigate the past.

CO: The Nth degree. One man is so upset that a Christmas tree sits in front of the "N" in the "Holland Tunnel" sign that he's demanding the holiday display be changed — and hark, the Holland anger stings.

JD: And...I feel compassion for the poor soul who misses this interview. Or, as the celebrity we got on the phone during the Winter Olympics to talk about his love of curling might put it, "I pity the fool."

JD: "As It Happens", the Friday edition. Radio that moves in Mister T-ous ways.

[Music: Theme]

Part one: China: John Manley, basement remains, tunnel tree

China: John Manley

Guest: John Manley

JD: Chrystia Freeland had a message for Donald Trump and Xi Jinping today. Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs was in Washington, dealing with a crisis: two Canadians are being detained in China, amidst a battle over trade and technology between the presidents of the world's two most powerful states. The Canadians were detained after Canada complied with a US request to pick up the Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver. US officials say they want her to face charges. President Trump, however, has tweeted intervening — if he gets the kind of deal he'd like from President Xi. That had reporters asking Minister Freeland about the politicization of all three cases.

SOUNDCLIP

CHRYSTIA FREELAND: in the case of Ms. Meng, due process and rule of law in Canada has been scrupulously followed. There has been no political interference in this process. Canada understands that the rule of law and extradition issues aught not ever to be politicized or used as tools to resolve other issues.

JD: Well, Minister Freeland might prefer not to have politics muddying the legal waters. But others say you can't un-muddy what's already a mess. John Manley was Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs under Jean Chretien. We reached Mr. Manley in Ottawa.

CO: Mr. Manley, just how much grief has this arrest brought for Canada?

JOHN MANLEY: Well, this is an enormously problematic issue for Canada. We're caught between not only two major superpowers, but two economic powers, and our two largest trading partners. And we've got ourselves in a situation from which it's going to be very difficult to extricate ourselves.

CO: But it seems that not just this but what has to happen with Saudi Arabia and what's going on with the United States after the renegotiations of NAFTA. Does it seem that Canada is quite isolated at this point?

JM: I don't think, Carol, that Canada has ever been more alone in the world than it is today. Deep in our DNA, we've been part of some what you might call imperial power. We were part of the British Empire. Our soldiers went to fight in the First World War when we weren't really even a country. We then emerged after World War 2 as part of the U.S. empire — independent, but still, we basically aligned with the U.S. on most issues. And the last 30 years of being part of a Canada U.S. Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA has further intensified our economic integration. All of a sudden all of that is up for grabs. We've never before seen the degree of animosity from the United States that we've seen from President Trump to Canada, to Canada’s business practices, and to Canada's prime minister. And now we find ourselves with no friends. We criticize Saudi Arabia for things for which they rightly deserve criticism. None of our ostensible allies, open democracies, and countries that rely on rule of law spoke out in our favour. And now we're in a wedge with China.

CO: But in this situation with China, we have been trying to get more deeply involved economically with China. The United States is to. But now, we're stuck sort of holding the bag, right? I mean we have taken on China with his arrest. Meanwhile, the president is saying I might just trade that in for I don't know soybeans or something. Has Canada been played for a fool here?

JM: Yes. Well, I think actually the president has given Ms. Meng’s lawyers quite a good reason to go to the court and say this is not an extradition matter. This is actually leverage in a trade dispute. And it's got nothing to do with Canada. It's got nothing to do with trade with Iran. Let's call this what it is. It's an attempt to get China to buy more soybeans from the Midwestern United States and call it a day. I think the attorney general of Canada could also weigh in from that point of view. Because we find ourselves in a situation where lots of warning bells should have gone off this was not an extradition of somebody who was a drug trafficker, you know a human smuggler, or any of the typical thing is that we find people getting extradited for. This is a senior executive of a global company. Yes, they accuse Huawei of doing things that they ought not to have done. But before you arrest somebody in that category, you make awfully with sure that this is really what it's claimed to be. And I think the president has made it pretty clear that's not what it was at all.

CO: It's a bit late I guess now, but was it a mistake for Canada to detain Ms. Meng?

JM: I think it was a good opportunity for a little bit of creative incompetence on the part of Canadian authorities. And somehow just miss her. This has happened from time to time that we sometimes don't always do exactly everything we needed to do. And the world wouldn't have really been any wiser about it. But once the prime minister was informed, which apparently he was, we're really obliged by our treaties to act in accordance with the law. The trouble with the prime minister having been informed — and I don't think he should have been — is that to the Chinese that means this was political. The prime minister was informed. And you know I think extradition matters, prime ministers shouldn't even necessarily know who's on such lists that there are extradition requests about. We don't run our law that way. And rule of law is one of the fundamental principles of the Canadian system. But we could also be talking about abuse of process. And to abuse legal processes is not to respect the rule of law it’s to abuse the rule of law.

CO: The overarching question is what this does to our relationship with China? And there's a bit of a poison pill in the new NAFTA deal, isn't there? That, in fact, the United States has to be notified if we should enter a trade agreement with a non-market country — read China — and so they've got us over a barrel in every direction, don't they?

JM: Well, they always do. It is a pretty big trading relationship. The problem here is intensified by the fact that the Chinese have totally mishandled this situation over the past week as well. Now the detention of two Canadians certainly was uncalled for. It was not the appropriate response. And it reveals once again how little China understands of Western democracies and of Canada's particular relationship with rule of law and our relationship with the United States. This was something that could have provoked diplomatic comment for sure. But to take Canadians hostage is outrageous. And I think this will make it very difficult politically and practically for Canada to move forward on commercial relations that would be closer with the Chinese. And what do we need from China? Well, China is key to our trade diversification strategy. And that's why this is a serious problem for us. We're not going to have trade diversification without China. It's the number two economy in the world. It's our second largest trading partner. We need them for that purpose, and I think that's become much harder to achieve. Forget the USMCA. That's almost secondary to the fact that this will cause diplomatic challenges for Canada to deal with China for years to come.

CO: Just quickly, could we de-escalate this perhaps by calling this an abuse of process, given what the president has said, and drop this extradition process altogether?

JM: My hope is that there are people burning the midnight oil at the Justice Department to see if that advice can be given to the attorney general. The thing is that would have been easier without the arrest of the two Canadians. Now, perhaps this is an abuse of process. On the other hand, we cannot appear to be caving in to bully tactics by China. But I actually do think it's an abuse of process, and it should be brought to an end as quickly as possible. But the communication of that would be very tricky.

CO: Do you think that Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau played this badly?

JM: Well, I don't think they should have been playing it at all. If there's a politician that's on the hook on this it's the attorney general, Wilson-Raybould.

CO: All right, we will leave it there. I appreciate speaking with you, Mr. Manley. Thank you.

JM: My pleasure. Thank you.

JD: John Manley was the Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs under Jean Chretien. He's now the chair of the boards of CIBC and CAE, he is also a member of the board of Telus — which, like a number of Canadian telecommunications companies, has significant business interests with Huawei. We reached Mr. Manley in Ottawa. For more on that story, check out our website: www.cbc.ca/aih. And stay tuned because we do have an interview with a colleague of one of the detained Canadians coming up.

[Music: Ambient]

Basement remains

Guest: Mike Carroll

JD: Mike Carroll has always wondered what really happened to his father. The New York man was just 8 months old when his dad disappeared. And every time he asked his mom about it, she told him he just left, and never came back. But when Mr. Carroll started digging up the basement in his family's house — he realized the truth was much closer to home. We reached Mike Carroll in Lake Grove, New York.

CO: Mike, first of all, can you tell us about the moment when you were digging in your basement that you realized that you had discovered something?

MIKE CARROLL: Basically, my two sons were actually doing the digging, and my son Christopher came upstairs and told me, Dad, you might want to come downstairs and see this. I got down there and then I was able to get into the hole. My kids were like pretty much carrying me down into the hole. And then yeah, we noticed something that was definitely it wasn't normal. So I said you know we need to just dig a little bit more just around it just so I could see what's going on. And then that's exactly what we did. And yeah, it was surreal.

CO: But what you saw in that hole were the remains of something… of some living…

MC: Exactly.

CO: Did you know in your heart that you'd found the remains of your father?

MC: In my heart, yes. And that's what I felt from the start. And then, of course, we had to wait for the DNA. But I kind of knew all along.

CO: What did your mother tell you over the years about what had happened to your dad?

MC: Well, you know the common one is he went out to get cigarettes, and he never came back. There was another one where she said that he went to take the garbage out and he never came back. There was a few times when she said he was in the Korean War, so he may have had a girlfriend in Korea, and he went back to see her. That was one of the ones.

CO: And you and your siblings did you just accept those excuses?

MC: Absolutely. I mean we wouldn’t have known any different. What are you supposed to do? I knew it was weird. You know kids are smart. And all these years, I knew something was not right.

CO: And your mom remarried. She married somebody else, and he moved in.

MC: Yes.

CO: Did they talk much about your father?

MC: No. If I brought it up, it was don't ask anymore because you know he was a bad guy. Or you know we don't want to talk about that and whatever. So I never brought it up.

CO: What made you suspect that there was a chance that he didn't leave, and something else had happened to him?

MC: There was a there was something that was kind of like floating around the family. We all kind of quietly spoke within each other, you know? And we're like yeah, it's kind of weird, you know? This is weird. And then my brothers and sisters would say yeah, it's really weird. We don't believe any of it. But there's a couple of things that did occur. We had friends that knew us. They said there was something suspicious. We were like what do you mean? And they would say yeah, it was just really weird how your dad was just gone and stuff. And like yeah, I guess you're right, you know? And then the next thing you know I'm older now, and I work in respiratory therapy. And they call me down to the E.R. because we have somebody with a cardiac condition. I walk in there. I see the name, and I'm familiar with the name. I go I think I was a paper boy. And he goes well, that's really weird. What's your name? I said Mike Carroll. He goes what? I go Mike Carroll. He goes who is your mom? I said Dorothy. He goes oh my God, I’m your dad's brother.

CO: What?

MC: And I was like well, I didn't even know he had a brother, you know? He goes yeah. I go so where's my dad. He goes I don't know. He left when he did. And it was a really weird transaction. It was just really weird. And then I caught up with the guy, and we were talking, and he said that he felt that he was under the house.

CO: Under the house… like buried under the house?

MC: Yes, because he was just a kid too when his brother left. But that that's an odd thing. Then I decided to go to psychics you know just for fun.

CO: So you thought you maybe should consult the psychic, right?

MC: I did it for fun. I did it not because of downstairs. So I was thinking like I’m just going to go do it for the heck of it. So I go and I meet the lady, and you sit down, and not long after she starts, she goes there’s a male coming in. And I said who is that? She goes it’s a father figure. I said I don't want to talk to him.

CO: What did the psychic tell you?

MC: Well, she said well, your mother's bringing him in. So I said oh, I guess she wants me to talk to him. And that was my first recollection of thinking my dad was now on the other side. So then after that, I did go to ones, I didn't say anything. Nothing was ever brought up. And then one day, my sister and I said maybe if we have the two of us go mom will come through. and we went to a lady, and she's the one who wound up saying to us that my dad never left.

CO: The psychic said that to you? That your dad never left, and what did you make of that?

MC: Well, now it was confirming our suspicions like maybe all these things that people were saying were true. Maybe what you know these people were saying and kidding around about was actually true.

CO: You had a stroke a while back, and so your sons were doing the digging. But you’d gotten into that hole when they helped you get into it, and this was your dad. Did you feel much about him? Because you were so young when you lost him, did you have a connection at that point?

MC: To be honest with you, Carol, all I could tell you was I felt total peace. And I made sure that I touched him because I needed to touch him. And it's weird, but I did.

CO: And now the authorities have done the analysis — the DNA analysis — and it confirmed that it is the remains of your dad?

MC: Yes, it is.

CO: And how did he die?

MC: Blunt force trauma. And it's now considered a homicide. And I don't know what they're going to do at this point, but everybody in this story is now gone. I'm hoping to give him the proper military burial because he was in the Korean War.

CO: Does this all change in sort of retrospect how you feel about people in your family?

MC: No, it doesn't change much actually. We've all been through a tough time. It confirms everything that I've felt in my heart. You know sometimes you've got to be careful what you ask for because if you get it, you know you may not be happy with what the outcome is. We found him, and now it opens up another bag of worms as far as a thousand questions.

CO: And that's where I was going because I wonder how important is it for you to solve the mystery of who killed your dad?

MC: In all honesty, I personally know in my heart what happened. But it's a delicate situation for the whole family. So I'm going to refrain from saying how I feel about it. You know if you have a gut feeling about something, but you know there's no way of proving it. So I can't really do anything about that right now.

CO: Well, Mike, I'm glad that you are going to have the opportunity to give your father, this this Korean War vet, a proper burial. And I really appreciate you telling us the story. Thank you.

MC: All right, thanks.

CO: Take care. Bye.

MC: Bye bye.

JD: We reached Mike Carroll in Lake Grove, New York. We have more on this story on our website.

[Music: Electronic]

Tunnel tree

Guest: Cory Windelspecht

JD: O Christmas tree. O Christmas tree. Much anger thou can'st give me. Every December, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hangs decorations on the Holland Tunnel, which connects Manhattan and Jersey City. A tree and two wreaths, strung in front of the letters that spell out the tunnel's name. A little holiday cheer, is the idea. But this year, the decor is causing an uproar. New Yorker Cory Windelspecht is fed up. And he's needling the agency to make a change. We reached Mr. Windelspecht in New York City.

CO: Cory, first of all, just tell us what you see when you approach the Holland Tunnel right now?

CORRY WINDELSPECHT: Yeah, that's the million dollar question. I mean I know what I see. I just see a gangle of mess. It just causes anxiety when I stare at it. It's a hard thing to explain.

CO: Now for people who don't know that the Holland Tunnel, when you pass it, there’s a huge, huge sign over top of that toll, and it says “Holland Tunnel” most of the year. What does it say now?

CW: What they do is you can imagine the word “Holland” and “Tunnel”. They put a wreath over the “o” in Holland, and that matches perfect. And then in the word “Holland” in the “n” they put a tree. It just doesn't look right. It's just a tree in the middle of an ‘n’. And then in the word tunnel — in the “u” in “Tunnel” there's another wreath.

CO: When you read that… it's radio; we can't show it to them. But when you read that, what does it read as?

CW: It’s [trying to pronounce something]. I don't even know how you would pronounce it?

CO: Or if you put the Christmas tree with the “n”, it kind of looks like [trying to pronounce something].

CW: It just is a mess. It's a mess. It looks awful. If you're a local here, you will sit that tunnel for 40 to 50 minutes at a time just trying to get into it. But you're just stuck staring at it, which makes you more angry.

CO: But Cory, these are Christmas decorations. This with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey they hang these up to make you feel happy. These are things that are supposed to bring you cheer.

CW: And nobody's questioning that we don't want it. And just for the record, we're not asking for anything to be removed. We just ask that the tree just move over one spot. So the tree, which is shaped like the letter “a”, would go over the letter “a”, which happens to be right next to the letter “n”. So it's literally moving it over two feet.

CO: But what about the “Tonnel”.

CW: I don't know. I don't like it, but it doesn't bother me. Some people it really bugs them. So if they could fix that then yes, I'm all for it. And for me to judge somebody to say well, that “u” doesn't matter that's no different than someone judging me by saying the “n” doesn't matter. So I can just tell you what bothers me is that tree on the “n” that's what started this movement. Because the response from people is oh my god, that has annoyed me for so long. Thank you for saying something. And for every like a hate message I get that tells me to get a life, and I'm some kind of person just getting 15 minutes of fame, you know I get 10 of the nice ones.

CO: Okay, you call it a movement because you didn't just get annoyed by these. You've been seeing them for years these decorations. What have you done in order to try and change this?

CW: So I never really did anything to be frankly honest outside of my own friends on social media. I used to always post it. And when I posted it, it would get a little bit of following on Facebook. But the response was always oh my god, it looks horrible. Why is that like that? And then this year I made that video. I can't explain it the video went viral. Don't ask me why this year and not the year before.

CO: Okay, so now the Port Authority is letting people vote about this, right? Your petition has created all this controversy and all this interest. And so now the Port Authority is saying okay, here are some alternatives. What are they offering you?

CW: The options are option one to not change anything. Option two would be to do what I would prefer was to just move the tree from the “n” over the letter “a”. Option three is moving the tree from the “n”, over the letter “a” and then taking that wreath off the word “Tunnel”. And then option four is just a conundrum. I don't know what they're doing there. They take an extra tree and they add it to the “a”, but they keep the “n”? Option four is horrible.

CO: So if they did actually change this, do you think that there would be just as many people who are responding — maybe even more?

CW: No, I don't. And the reason I say that I mean there's gonna be a lot of people that that are coming out of the woodwork now to hate on it, and that's cool. That comes with the territory. So those people that didn't see it. They're not going to see it whether it's on the “n” or the “a”. They wouldn't even notice. If the Port Authority just moved this when I first asked them, and this didn't go viral, and they just move it, no one would even have noticed. That's what makes this whole thing really funny. And all these people go why is this news? I don't know why it’s news? I have no clue why someone in Canada, All due respect to your show, cares about the Holland Tunnel? I don’t get it at all.

CO: Oh no, this is just up our alley, to tell you the truth.

CW: Well you know, I'm trying to look at it as a positive. And I think that's why this is national news… or now I guess international. There's just so much negative news, especially in America, there's so much negative news with our government and all this stuff right now. And whether you're pro-Trump, anti-Trump, any of the stuff that's been going on right now, so I think it's an escape for a lot of people to have a good holiday debate. It's a festive debate. And that's not my words. That's coming from hundreds, if not thousands, of messages saying thank you for something in the news that’s not negative.

CO: Okay, Cory, it's great to talk to you. Merry Christmas.

CW: Merry Christmas to all you, and I love Canada. You guys are great.

CO: Thanks. Bye bye, Cory

CW: Thank you.

JD: Thank you, Cory. Cory Windelspecht is in New York City. To see the Holland Tunnel and the tree that angers him so, head to our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Ambient]

Part two: 3D skull, Northern Ireland documentary, encore: Mr. T

3D skull

Guest: Alexander Weil

JD: A two-year-old girl arrived at the hospital in Montreal with a skull so enlarged, she was unable to lift her head on her own. And so began major surgery to reconstruct her skull. It involved 210 screws, a 3D-printer, a black pen, and 12 very stressful hours. The surgery, we are happy to report, was successful — and the girl is now recovering. Dr. Alexander Weil led that surgery. We reached Dr. Weil in Montreal.

CO: Dr. Weil, when this little girl came to your hospital you knew you had a pretty complex case on your hands. But just how much trouble was she in?

ALEX WEIL: She suffered from a very advanced case of hydrocephalus, and she suffered from consequences of that hydrocephalus having gone untreated. You know hydrocephalus is an abnormal accumulation of fluid inside the brain. Because it had gone untreated for so long, her brain was stretched out and thin — almost as if you had dilated a water balloon in the centre of her brain. And so one of the consequences of that is that she was very neurologically delayed, and the second consequence of that is that her head was very, very, very, very large.

CO: Her head was about the size of a basketball by the time you saw her, right?

AW: Her head was the size of a basketball, correct.

CO: And how much pain was she in?

AW: So it wasn't so much pain. I would say she was severely limited functionally. Her head was almost like a bowling ball if I can use that analogy. Weighing her down, and so she can move her arms, she can move her legs, she can see, she can smile and interact. But she was immobilized by the sheer weight and size of her head.

CO: Was her brain developing?

AW: Her brain had stopped developing and even started regressing in terms of its thickness, but also in her function.

CO: You did something quite drastic in the surgery to help her. What was the most daunting part about cutting into her skull? Cutting it into pieces as you did?

AW: A lot of the techniques we did in this procedure are things we do day-in-day-out. What was particularly different in this case was the amount of things we did in one day to this patient who was quite small. And so she was two years old when we operated on her in early November. And when you do such a large reconstruction of the skull — and particularly her skull, which was very large — one of the risks was blood loss. Children that are two years old, they don't have a large reserve of circulating blood volume, and so they don't tolerate blood loss quite as well as an adult for example. And blood loss, unfortunately, is one of the consequences of the operation because we removed so many pieces from her from her large skull. And so that was certainly one of the challenges and one of the things we had to address. The second one and you have to understand this is a patient for all her life has been living with very large fluid cavities in her brain, a stretched out brain that was stretched out thin, thin, thin around this enlarged skull. And then in one day we completely altered that homeostasis. We removed about two litres of fluid, and there was three litres to begin with. And then we decreased the layer around the brain, and we removed all her skull and reassembled it almost like a puzzle and put it back in.

CO: I guess the most fascinating thing is the image that I've seen of the model you used, which was you had a 3D helmet-like model of her skull — how it would have to be assembled. How did that work?

AW: Firstly, we were able to take the patient's C.T. scan, and through computer software with a company in the United States and with engineers, we were able to reconstruct her scan on 3D space and do a virtual surgery. Whereby, as a team, we sat around a computer and planned out where we would remove these pieces of her bone, and how we would rearrange them to give her her new skull. So we did it almost like a virtual surgery on a computer. And finally, we were able to, through a 3D printer, print out her skull before and after. In addition to doing that, we printed out these shells that would serve survey guides during surgery so that we could precisely cut out the parts of the bone that we wanted to cut out, and also a guide to help us reassemble the bone.

CO: But how did you stick the bits together? Because if you cut the skull, and you used the model. How did you reassemble it? What did you use?

AW: We cut with a saw, and we reassembled with plates and screws. It’s almost like construction in the sense that we used plates and screws. And in her case, we used the bio-obsorvable plates and screws so that she won't have them her whole life. And add over the next months and years they're going to disappear as her bones fuse.

CO: How different does she look now?

AW: Quite drastically different. Of course, her face is the same. But her skull is much smaller. It's not a normal-appearing skull. I would say the height is very similar, but it's still wider than what you actually would expect normally in society. The reason being the base of her skull was very stretched out from the hydrocephalus, and there is a lot more risk of bleeding in extending the surgery down to the base. We had to fit a skull on to the base of her skull. And so her skull still is a lot wider, but it's much better than it was. Cosmetically, it's better, but it's not normal. But more importantly, functionally, it's much better. Already, she's able to move her head around, whereas before she couldn't. She moves it side to side, front back. And have a much better hope of being able to sit up and hopefully eventually walk, and progress, and all the things we want kids to be able to do.

CO: And will she have something like a normal quality of life?

AW: I don't think she will have a normal life. I don't think her cognitive or intellectual functional reach would be considered normal. But I do think that we've increased her chances of having a more normal life. And we've avoided a lot of complications that come from being immobile like pressure sores and various problems. And interestingly, we've looked at her scans that she had before surgery and after, and we looked at her brain, and it’s interesting that her brain is actually a bit thicker than it was, which is a good sign. It means her brain is a bit healthier, and she's already started to do things that she didn’t do before surgery. So on top of the mobile functionality that’s improved, I think we've potentiated neurological progression and development.

CO: Just extraordinary. Good work, Dr. Weil.

AW: Thank you. Thank you. It was a big team effort. You know I'm speaking to you now, but you know, of course, I had neurosurgeon colleagues, cranial colleagues, and then a big team of nurses, and engineers, and anesthesiologists, and most importantly, devoted parents and a resilient, courageous patient — who we are very much in awe and proud of.

CO: Thank you so much for telling us the story. Thank you.

AW: Thank you for having me.

JD: Dr. Alexander Weil is a pediatric neurosurgeon. We reached him in Montreal.

[Music: Guitar]

Northern Ireland documentary

Guest: Trevor Birney

JD: More than two decades later, the wounds left by the deaths of six men are still raw in the small Northern Ireland village of Loughinisland.

SOUNDCLIP

SPEAKER: There was just a sense that something wasn't right.

SPEAKER TWO: Somebody somewhere helped these people cover this up.

SPEAKER THREE: We were thwarted all the time. Every question we asked, we were told we can't tell you. That's national security.

SPEAKER FOUR: They were absolutely ruthless.

SPEAKER FIVE: I'll never forget their words: we will leave no stone unturned. And those words rang in my ear to this day because I don't think they ever lifted a stone — never mind turned it.

JD: That is a clip from the trailer for the 2017 documentary "No Stone Unturned." It's an investigation into what is known as the "Loughinisland massacre" — the 1994 killings of six men in a pub. No one was ever arrested for that crime. But in August, the two journalists who helped make that documentary were. Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey were arrested over the suspected theft of documents from Northern Ireland's police ombudsman that pointed to police collusion in the shooting. They have since been released on bail while they await charges. We reached Mr. Birney in Belfast.

CO: Mr. Birney, when you started on this documentary, did you ever imagine it would lead to your own arrest?

TREVOR BIRNEY: Not at all, Carol, not at all. When we began on this documentary, we really believed that we were doing a service in pursuing the truth behind the deaths of the six man at Loughinisland in 1994.

CO: And now you're accused of theft, and you face being charged under the Official Secrets Act, and possibly the Data Protection Act. These are serious charges. Were you actually taken away? Were you arrested? Have you been incarcerated?

TB: Well indeed, yes, I was at home with my wife and three daughters on the morning of the 31st of August, when there was a loud rap at our front door. And my wife looked out to realize that there were several police cars outside, and a lot of armed police officers. We thought that they wanted just to search our home. They told us that it was in relation to “No Stone Unturned”, and they were seeking documents. But after like 10 or 15 minutes, they led me into a separate room, and they told me I was under arrest. And took me away, put me in the back of a car that brought me to a police station in downtown Belfast where I was held for 14 hours. Meanwhile, the same events were occurring at Barry McCaffrey's house — my colleague. And all in all it was an incredibly dramatic day, and a day that we never really would believe would happen even in a very polarized society as Northern Ireland. We never thought that the chief constable of Police would react to our documentary, which identified the chief suspects, identified the failings and police, and identified the collusion that had occurred between the police and the loyalist paramilitaries.

CO: The story you were exposing is what happened on the day — June 18^th, 1994 — when loyalist paramilitary gunmen went into a bar — Heights Bar — in the village of Loughinisland, and opened fire. Can you tell us what happened there, and why no one was ever brought to book for that?

TB: June 1994 was a pretty special time across Ireland. There was rumours in the air of cease fires after 25 years of conflict. Ireland had also qualified for the Soccer World Cup, which was being held in the United States that summer. And on the night of the 18th of June, several man had gathered in a tiny little bar. And they’d gathered to watch Ireland versus Italy, which was being played at Giants Stadium in New York. And just shortly after halftime, a masked man appeared at the door with a rifle and opened fire killing six man, all shot in the back, and injuring five others. All the victims were Catholic, and the attack was quite clearly sectarian in its motivation. And there was a police investigation launched immediately. But what we now know as a result of an investigation by the Independent Office of the Police Ombudsman here in Belfast that really despite the fact that they had found the getaway car, that they found the balaclavas, the boiler suits, even the weapons, and even some DNA belonging to the suspects, the police failed miserably in their attempts to bring anyone to court. No one was ever charged with the murders. Never mind brought to justice.

CO: But in your documentary you're talking about a cover up and collusion on the part of the police, right? And you're suggesting that the police did not want the murderer brought to book for this. Why is that?

TB: Right. Well, what happened is that as a result of the Good Friday Agreement, we have this Office of the Police Ombudsman who handles complaints against the police. And the families went to the ombudsman several years ago and asked for an investigation to find out what went wrong. And in June 2016, the ombudsman, Dr. Michael McGuire, travelled down to the village of Loughinisland. And there, on a beautiful summer's afternoon, he told the family the news they always feared. And that is that police had colluded with the killers. This wasn't simple incompetence. This was collusion. That was the findings of the police ombudsman. And what is at the very centre of it is that there were what are known as informers. There were people who were working estate agents within the gang that planned, carried out, and ultimately got away with this attack. And that was what is most horrific for the families.

CO: Okay, but you’re accused — you and your partner is accused — of stealing documents in order to tell that story. Is there truth to that?

TB: Absolutely not. Neither myself nor Barry McCaffrey are guilty of any allegation of theft or handling stolen goods. What we actually say in the film, and Barry says that very clearly, is that we were leaked documents in 2011. And from 2011 until the film come out, we had the document. And the document that was leaked to us we used in the film. We don't deny that. So for police to say that we were involved in theft is really quite malicious. They don't like the fact that the truth of what went on in Loughinisland. And what went on since Loughinisland is now in the public domain. And instead of going after the killers, they've decided to come after the journalists.

CO: In your documentary, you reveal identities of those suspected of having done the murder, you show the evidence, you recreate it in a way that people who saw the film just last week at a screening were gasping at some of the facts. But as it turns out, it's appears that you and your partner may face criminal charges while the men who committed this murder will walk free. Is that the case?

TB: Well, that is the irony. Could you imagine being the daughter of one of the victims, and instead of seeing the man that shot your father in the back being pursued, you see the journalist who brought the story to the world? We felt that we had to name the suspects in order to fully understand and comprehend the scale of the collusion and the scale of the cover up that went into Loughinisland.

CO: All right. We will be following this case closely, Mr. Birney. I appreciate speaking with you tonight. Thank you.

TB: Thanks, Carol.

JD: Trevor Birney is an investigative journalist who worked on the documentary "No Stone Unturned". We reached Mr. Birney in Belfast.

[Music: Sombre]

Encore: Mr. T

JD: During last February's Winter Games, the humble sport of curling got a major celebrity endorsement: Mr. T. Mr. T, himself, was so thrilled by the sweeping and throwing and yelling "Hurry hard!" that he tweeted about it repeatedly. Those tweets became a sensation. So, of course, we had to find a way to get Mr. T on the phone, to talk about his newfound love of curling. So as we approach the end of the year, we're re-playing some of our most memorable interviews. Mr. T is, of course, on that list. Here is his conversation with Carol.

SOUNDCLIP

CO: Mr. T, How's the armchair curling going?

MR.T: It’s really going good. See, first I want to say I'm embarrassed about all this attention. And I was just relaxing at home and said yeah, I like curling. And you know and boom and you know wow! But I'm just a student in it. I just want to learn and I want to see and you know I got to understand the rules and all that, you know? So I liked what I saw, you know? I liked the finesse, and then the cool and the calmness of everything. I like the strategy. You know I like things like that. And then like I said, me being an athlete who played football, boxed, wrestled — all the tough stuff. You know this is calming.

CO: But you're Mr. T, I mean you’re macho. There's something wrong with this picture that you're watching and enjoying these nice Canadians sliding rocks across.

MT: That’s what makes Mr. T who he is; that’s controlled mayhem, you know? I am a tough guy, but I'm not a bad guy, which means my toughness is for righteousness. But I'm not a predator; I don't go starting on stuff, you know? I don't run from it either. You know I admire the strategy of curling; it looks so cool. I did the rough stuff, and that’s what makes me able to appreciate curling. You know there's no trash-talking. I like that there's no getting each other face. And I like how they release the stone. Wow! They make it look so effortlessly. And then the way that you know the sweepers move down the line, and not touch no other stone. Wow! That takes practice. I know that, and then I got understand you know even though I grew up on the south side Chicago, around the cold, you know I got to keep understanding that the game is played in the cold, you know? So you know I got to understand all that.

CO: Do you understand the rules to curling?

MT: No, that’s why I say I’m learning as we go. You know I’m studying it just like if I want to play golf, I've got to understand golf, I've got to understand what's points, what's out of bounds, I got to understand the lingo, to the dress code, what do I need, you know? Like I was saying earlier, for me being a ex-rough-tough-guy, I know I need some knee pads; I hope that's not against the rules. I got me some elbow stuff, you know? I know I’m going to slip down you know? So I got to learn that; I got to practice that. But at the end of the day, when I see the finished product, and see whichever team how they go out with their strategy, how they gracefully let go of the stone, and how they move and talk, and the instructions. It’s different; I like it.

CO: Now, do you know what they're saying? When they are hurling the granite down, there's something they’re yelling. I just learned yesterday what they're saying.

MT: Some kind of language, but they’re telling whoever the sweeper is what they need to do. I know that much, you know? I mean some kind of minor but what is it they tell them they will sweep which what they need to do. I knew that…. Tell them exactly what she sees what you like because you know you're the captain of the ship; you know you’re looking at the vertical and horizontal as they go down. So now you can guide your other teammates, tell them what to do, and sure that’s what it means. You know after it’s said and done, I'm sure that's what it meant.

CO: Well, apparently, they're saying hurry, hard. Hurry, hard. What do you think that means?

MT: Well, sometimes they say that, and I know sometimes they don’t; I watch, you know? So right there I’m learning. I’m learning the scoring system, one point, three points, other little stuff. You know I want to learn to practice what kind of exercise I should do, and other stuff. And do I need more yoga? Do I need to go see the masseuse more to loosen up?

CO: There's a bunch of etiquette as you know around curling. And one of them when I was growing up I learned — didn't know what it means, but Canadian Club and 7 Up is something. Rye and ginger — performing-enhancing drinks in curling. Did you know about that?

MT: No, se that right there, I’m learning again. See, I don't drink; I just do water, you know? Me, I just would want to curl and just have fun, drink water, and stay warm — maybe hot chocolate. Is that against the rule? Can I have hot chocolate?

CO: No, no, it’s fine; you could get that at the club for sure.

MT: That's what I'll be doing. I'll prefer a hot chocolate. Yes, yes.

CO: OK, but what I'm hearing is this suggestion that you might like to get out. I'm trying to picture Mr. T out there on the ice with his little broom, working the granite. I mean do you want to play? Do you want to get involved in curling?

MT: Yeah, yeah, see that's the problem I got there. Because you know I have the old football injuries, the knees, and stuff like that. So I don’t know if I’m good to be the sweeper or what not. At least I’m honest, I know I’m not that light on my feet to miss someone else’s stone as I go down. It’ll be a total mess! It’ll be like the Three Stooges if I try to sweep the stone. Everybody would be falling, they’d be taking pictures, and they'd be selling them on the Internet. I’d be the joke of the town, you know? It’s like any sport: you want to know what you’re good at. So I wouldn’t be good at being a sweeper, or a pusher, whatever the title is.

CO: Well, I learned just when I was coming here to talk to you that you're 65, so you're a senior citizen; you shouldn't be out on the ice.

MT: Yeah, I want to know can I get into the senior citizen bowl, you know? And do I get a little break? I like the sport, like I said, because there’s no trash-talk — I ain't seen it yet. I miss the old time where people have good sportsmanship. You win, you fight hard, you do the best you can. As I was taught, you were with modesty you lose with dignity. You know my TV personality is “Hey, Fool!”, and this, and that. But deep inside, it’s humility. Notice I say humility — gotta get that T in there.

CO: Well, Canadians are loving your hashtag. #curlingiscoolfool.

MT: Yes, yes, yes, because I'm respecting the sport. Like I said, I'm not going to come in to clown or whatnot. I do want to learn more about it, you know? Slowly, I’ll eventually get to the ice, I'll get to the rules, I'll get to the equipment. You know and I’m a fan, I'm a spectator, you know? So I like to watch it, you know? And so I'm enjoying it.

CO: Are you going to be watching the game tomorrow: the U.S. women face off against the Canadian women — that is going to be quite the game.

MT: Yes, yes, I was watching a little bit of the hockey. Boy, you guys are still tough up there, you know? So, of course, I'm going to be watching, you know? Sure, I'll pull for my country. But at the same time, I respect true sportsmanship.

CO: Mr. T, it's great fun to talk to you. Thank you.

MT: Oh, thank you for allowing me to talk.

CO: Enjoy the Olympics.

MT: I will. Thank you so much.

CO: Bye

MT: All right. Bye bye, now.

JD: That was Mr. T on the phone with Carol off last February — one of our favorite interviews of 2018. And you can hear that interview again, which I know you want to hear it again, or you can share it with a pal. It's on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

Music: Folk

Part three: China: International Crisis Group, reading: To Everything There is a Season

Thunder Bay Police Board

JD: The problems within the Thunder Bay police board are so severe, it cannot function. That's according to Senator Murray Sinclair, who was investigating the board for the Ontario Civilian Police Commission. In a report released today, he found that the police board failed to deal with systemic racism against First Nations people in the city. The board has now been stripped of its power, and an administrator has been appointed for at least a year. Hours earlier, the vice chair of the board, Don Smith, resigned. But he is not going quietly. Earlier today, he spoke with Radio-Canada. Here he is reacting to the critical report.

DON SMITH: Well, I mean it's criticizing because it was initiated for political reasons quite honestly. Under the Police Service Act waits stands, there's very little as far as operations that a police service board can do as far as interference with the activities at the management of the police service. That being said, there are some things that the board can do. The previous board initiated many, many initiatives to work with the First Nations to try and make things better. I mean there's a list of them that go on and on, and on. Quite frankly, I mean there's some very positive things in that report. But there are some things that I would challenge any police board in Ontario to be meeting those standards. Thunder Bay just happened to be the target. I mean we were we were chosen. We were basically accused of being dysfunctional. I can't deny the fact that there are issues — there is racism issues. I don't agree with the extent that we've been labeled. One of the problems that I have with the whole situation is that it's easy to point a finger, ok? Which has happened with both these investigations. It's harder to come up with a solution.

JD: Don Smith is the former vice-chair of the Thunder Bay police board, he was speaking with the CBC earlier today.

[Music: Percussive jazz]

China: ICG

Guest: Richard Atwood

JD: Canadian officials have finally been allowed to see Michael Kovrig. Mr. Kovrig is the Canadian diplomat who was on leave from Foreign Affairs when he was arrested this week in Beijing. The Chinese government say it's now investigating him for undermining national security. But he and another Canadian were arrested amidst outrage from China, over Canada's decision to comply with a US request for the arrest of a Chinese executive in Vancouver. Mr. Kovrig had been working as the China analyst for a peace and security NGO called The International Crisis Group, or ICG. Richard Atwood is the group's chief of policy. We reached Mr. Atwood in New York.

CO: Mr. Atwood, Canadian officials have finally been able to make contact with Michael Kovrig. What does that mean for you and your colleagues who are working toward his release?

RICHARD ATWOOD: Well, we're very relieved that the Canadian ambassador got in to see Michael. And we still urge the Chinese authorities to give him regular consular access. But most of all, we would like Michael to be released immediately. We don't see any justification at all for his detention.

CO: Have you been given any more information as to why he's being detained?

RA: No, we haven't formally. Some senior Chinese officials have said that he is suspected of endangering Chinese national security. But we have not been told anything formally. And we can see nothing in his work either for Crisis Group since February 2017 or before that. So the Canadian diplomatic service that would justify his detention or that lends any credence to the allegations.

CO: What was Michael Kovrig doing for your organization in China?

RA: Well, Michael is our senior Northeast Asia expert. He is based in Hong Kong. He travels regularly to Beijing to meet with Chinese officials. He's met with dozens of Chinese officials over the past two years since he's been working for Crisis Group. He travels sometimes to conferences organized by Chinese organizations. He appears on Chinese media. He has friends in Beijing. So he travels regularly to Beijing. He works predominantly on Chinese foreign policy, on China's role in international peace and security, and particularly China's role where we believe that China can help avert or find solutions to conflicts. So about this time last year, we put out a report on China in South Sudan looking at how China could help end the South Sudanese conflict. A few weeks ago, Michael put out a piece on China's role in African peace and security. Since the beginning of this year, we've put out a series of reports on the Korean nuclear crisis. Most of those reports have a section: “The view from Beijing”. And this reflects very much Michael's interviews with Chinese officials. We've tried to reflect accurately the views of Chinese officials in our reporting. So really all our work has been extremely transparent, we've kept nothing hidden from the Chinese authorities, and we really see nothing in his work for Crisis Group that would justify his detention.

CO: There's a very curious moment at a press conference earlier this week in Beijing. It was with a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, who first denied any knowledge of Michael Kovrig's case. But then suggested that if he'd been conducting activities in China on behalf of the ICG, then he should be reminded that the International Crisis Group is not a legally-registered NGO on mainland China. And, of course, everything is reading tea leaves here. But the hint is that the ICG might have been carrying out activities that they considered somehow unlawful. So what do you make of that?

RA: Well, we had we had an office in Beijing from 2007. We established the office in 2007 after consultations with the Chinese Foreign Ministry. We closed our Beijing operations in December 2016, just before the new NGO law was passed. And since then, Michael's been working out of Hong Kong, which is not subject to the same law. Now, he travels regularly to Beijing. He regularly meets with Chinese officials. This is the first time we've ever received any suggestion from Chinese authorities that Crisis Group is not compliant with their laws. And this comes really after more than a decade of good and productive engagement with the Chinese authorities. So again, that also came as a surprise to us. Another Canadian former ambassador who worked with Michael Kovrig said that in China there are no coincidences. And so the possibility that this was just a coincidence that he should be arrested at the same time that Canada had detained a senior executive in Vancouver, it can't be a coincidence. Is your sense that these two events are linked?

RA: Well, if the Chinese authorities haven't explicitly linked them, obviously many other people have in the media. But I think also recently over the last few hours Prime Minister Justin Trudeau linked the two. I can't speculate about any links between Michael's detention and the Huwei case — just to say again that we see no justification in anything that Michael's done for Crisis Group since February 2017, or indeed anything that he did before that for the Canadian diplomatic service, that would justify his detention.

CO: We know that from other stories we have done that people who are detained in authoritarian countries like China people back home are never certain what to do. Whether to rattle the cage, or say nothing, to get advice going both ways, it's always really, really painful trying to figure out what position to take. How open to be. What to say. Are you feeling the same? Are you wondering just what is helpful and what is hurtful at this point?

RA: Well, I'd just say that we're working very closely with the Canadian authorities, the Canadian government. I know that Canadian officials are really working around the clock to secure Michael's release. We are doing the same. We're doing everything possible to get him released immediately. And again, we call on the Chinese government to release him immediately. And you know we hope that they do that.

CO: The leader of the official opposition in Canada is urging the prime minister to get directly involved at the highest level in China. Do you think that that would be helpful?

RA: Well, again I want to offer advice to the Canadian government about this. We're working closely with the Canadians. We welcome Prime Minister Trudeau's statement. I think that was a very, very welcome step.

CO: We will leave it there. Thank you very much, Mr. Atwood.

RA: Thank you very much.

CO: Thank you.

JD: Richard Atwood is the Chief of Policy for the International Crisis Group. We reached him in New York. You'll find more on China's detention of Mr. Atwood's colleague Michael Kovrig, and fellow Canadian Michael Spavor, at our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Ambient]

Reading: To Everything There is a Season

JD: Tonight's holiday reading sends us to the East Coast, and has me feeling nostalgic. Which is inevitable when you hear Alistair MacLeod's classic Christmas tale "To Every Thing There is a Season" -- no matter where you grew up. It's Christmas time on Cape Breton in the 1940s. As a family awaits the arrival of their eldest son — and the presents that come with him -- a young boy learns what it means to grow up, and appreciate the true meaning of Christmas. Here is Les Carlson reading Alistair MacLeod's "To Every Thing There is a Season".

SOUNDCLIP

LES CARLSON: I'm speaking here of a time when I was 11, and lived with my family on a small farm on the west coast of Cape Breton. My family had been there for a long, long, time, and so it seemed had I. And much of that time seems like the proverbial yesterday. Yet, when I speak on this Christmas 1977, I am not sure how much I speak with the voice of that time or how much the voice of what I have since become. And I'm not sure how many liberties I may be taking with the boy I think I was? For Christmas is a time of both past and present. And often, the two are imperfectly blended. As we step into its nowness, we often look behind. We have been waiting now it seems forever.

LC: Actually, it has been most intense since Halloween, when the first snow fell upon us as we moved like muffled murmurs upon dark country roads. The large flakes was soft and new then, and almost generous. And the earth to which they fell was still warm and as yet unfrozen. They fell in silence into the puddles and into the sea where they disappeared at the moment of contact. They disappeared too, upon touching the heated redness of our necks and hands, or the faces of those who did not wear masks. We carried our pillowcases from house to house, knocking on doors to become silhouettes in the light thrown out from kitchens. White pillowcases held out by whitened forms. The snow fell between us and the doors, and was transformed into shimmering gold beams.

LC: When we turned to leave it fell upon our footprints, and as the night wore on, obliterated them and all the records of our movements. In the morning everything was soft and still. And November had come upon us. My brother, Kenneth, who is two-and-a-half, is unsure of his last Christmas. It is Halloween that looms large as in his memory as an exceptional time of being up late in magic darkness and falling snow.

LC: Who are you going to dress up as it Christmas, he asks? I think I'll be a snowman. All of us laugh at that and tell him Santa Claus will find him if he's good, and that he need not dress up at all. We go about our appointed tasks waiting for it to happen. I'm troubled myself about the nature of Santa Claus, and I'm trying to hang onto him in any way that I can. It is true that at my age I no longer really believe in him, yet, I have hoped in all his possibilities as fiercely as I can. Much in the same way I think that the drowning man waves desperately to the lights of the passing ship on the high seas darkness. For without him, as without the man’s ship, it seems our fragile lives would be so much more desperate. My mother has been fairly tolerant of my attempted perpetuation, perhaps because she's encountered it before. Once I overheard her speaking about my sister Anne to one of the neighbours; I thought and would believe forever, she said. I practically had to tell her.

LC: I have somehow always wished I had not heard her say that as I seek sanctuary and reinforcement even in an ignorance I know I dare not trust. Keneth, however, believes with an unadulterated fervor. And so do Bruce and Barry, who are six-year-old twins. Beyond me there is Anne who is 13, and Mary who was 15, both of whom seemed to be leaving childhood at an alarming rate. My mother has told us that she was already married when she was 17, which is only two years older than Mary is now.

LC: That too seems strange to contemplate. And perhaps, childhood is shorter for some than it is for others. I think of this sometimes in the evenings, when we have finished our chores, and the supper dishes have been cleared away, and we are supposed to be doing our homework. I glanced sideways at my mother who was always knitting or mending. And at my father who mostly sits by the stove, coughing quietly with his handkerchief at his mouth. He has not been well for over two years, and has difficulty breathing whenever he moves at more than the slowest pace. He is most sympathetic of all concerning my extended hopes. And says we should hang on to the good things in our lives as long as we are able. As I look at him out of the corner of my eye, it does not seem that he has many of them left. He is old we think at 42. Yet Christmas, in spite of all the doubts about different ages, is a fine and splendid time. And now as we passed the midpoint of December, our expectations are heightened by the increasing coldness settled down upon us.

LC: The clothes my mother hangs on the line are frozen almost instantly, and sway and creek from their suspending clothes pins like sections of dismantled robots. The stiff-legged rasping trousers and the shirts and sweaters with unyielding arms outstretched. In the morning, we race from our frigid upstairs bedroom to finish dressing around the kitchen stove. We would extend our coldness half a continent away to the Great Lakes of Ontario, so that it might hasten the Christmas coming of my oldest brother Neil. He is 19, and employed on the lake boats — the long flat carriers of grain and iron ore whose season ends any day after December 10^th, depending on the ice conditions. We wish it to be cold — cold on the Great Lakes of Ontario so that he may come home to us as soon as possible. Already his Cottons have arrived. They come from different places: Cobourg, Toronto, St. Catharines, Welland, Windsor, Sarnia, Sault Ste. Marie. Places that we, with the exception of my father have never been. We locate them excitedly on the map, tracing their outlines with eager fingers. The cartons bear the lettering of Canada Steamship Lines, and are bound with rope knotted intricately in the fashion of sailors.

LC: My mother says they contain his clothes, and we are not allowed to open them. For us, it is impossible to know the time or manner of his coming. If the lakes freeze early he may come by train because it is cheaper. If the lakes stay open until December 20^th, he will have to fly because his time will be more precious than his money. He will hitchhike the last 60 or 100 miles from either station or airport. On our part, we can do nothing but listen with straining ears to radio reports of distant ice formations. His coming seems to depend on so many factors, which are out there far beyond us. And over which we lack control. The days go by in fevered slowness, until finally on the morning of December 23, the strange car rolls into our yard. My mother touches her hand to her lips and whispers thank god. My father gets up unsteadily from his chair to look through the window. Their longed-for son and our golden older brother is here at last. He is here with his reddish hair and beard. And we can hear his hearty laugh. He will be happy and strong and confident for us all. There are three other young men with him who look much the same as he. They too are from the boats, and are trying to get home to Newfoundland. They might still drive 100 miles to reach the ferry at North Sydney. The car seems very old.

LC: They purchased it in Thorold for two hundred dollars because they were too late to make any reservations. And they have driven steadily since they began. In northern New Brunswick, their windshield wipers failed. But instead of stopping, they tied lengths of cord to the wipers arms and passed them through the front window vents. Since that time, in whatever precipitation, one of them has pulled the cords back and forth to make the wipers function. This information falls tiredly, but excitedly from their lips. And we greedily gather it in. My father pours them drinks of rum, and my mother takes out her mincemeat and the fruitcake she's been carefully hording. We lean on the furniture or look from the safety of shelter doorways. We would like to hug our brother, but are too shy with strangers present. In the kitchen’s warmth, the young men begin to nod and doze; their heads dropping suddenly to their chests. they nudge each other with their feet in an attempt to keep awake. They will not stay and rest because they have come so far. And tomorrow is Christmas Eve. And stretches of mountains and waters still lie between them and those they love. After they leave, we pounce upon a brother physically and verbally. He laughs and shouts and lifts us over his head and swings us in his muscular arms. Yet in spite of his happiness, he seemed surprised at the appearance of his father, whom he had not seen since March.

LC: My father merely smiles at him. While my mother bites her lip. Now that he's here, there's a great flurry of activity. We've left everything we could until that time he might be with us. Eagerly I show him the fir tree on the Hill which I been watching for months. And marvel at how easily he fells it and carries it down the hill. We fall over one another in the excitement of decoration. He promises that on Christmas Eve, he will take us to church and the sleigh behind the splendid horse that until his coming, we are all afraid to handle. And on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, he shoes the horse, lifting each hoof and rasping it fine and hammering the cherry red horseshoes into shape upon the anvil. Later, he drops them hissingly into the steaming tub of water. My father sits beside him on an overturned pail and tells him what to do.

LC: Sometimes we argue with our father, but our brother does everything he says. That night, bundled in hay and voluminous coats, and with heated stones at our feet, we start upon our journey. Our parents and Kenneth remain at home. But all the rest of us go. Before we leave, we feed the cattle and sheep and even the pig all that they can possibly eat, so that they will be contented on Christmas Eve. Our parents waved to us from the doorway. We go four miles across the mountain road. It is a primitive logging trail and there will be no cars or other vehicles upon it. At first the horse is wild with excitement and lack of exercise. My brother has to stand at the front of the sleigh and lean backwards on the reins. Later, he settles down to a trot. And still later to a walk, as the mountain rises before him we sing all the Christmas songs we know and watch for the rabbits and foxes scudding across the open patches of snow. And listen to the drumming of partridge wings. We are never cold. When we descend to the country church, we tie the horse in a grove of trees where he will be sheltered and not frightened by the many cars. We put a blanket over him and give him oats.

LC: At the church door, the neighbours shake hands with my brother. Hello Neil, they say. How is your father? Oh, he says just oh. The church is very beautiful at night with its festooned branches and glowing candles and the booming, joyous sounds that come from the choir loft. We go through the service as if we are mesmerised. On the way home, although the stones have cooled, we remain happy and warm. We listen to the creak of the leather harness and the hiss of runners on the snow and begin to think of the potentiality of presents. When we are about a mile from home, the horse senses his destination and breaks into a trot. And then into a confident lope. My brother lets him go and we move across the winter landscape like figures freed from a Christmas card. The snow from the horse's hooves falls about our heads like the whiteness of the stars.

LC: After we've stabled the horse, we talk with our parents and eat the meal our mother has prepared. And then I am sleepy, and it is time for the younger children to be in bed. But tonight my father says to me we would like you to stay up with us awhile. And so I stay quietly with the older members of my family.

LC: When all is silent upstairs, Neil brings in the cartons that contain his clothes and begins to open them. He unties the intricate knots quickly, their whorls falling away before his agile fingers. The boxes are filled with gifts neatly wrapped and bearing tags. The ones for my younger brothers say from Santa Claus. But mine are not among them anymore, as I know with certainty they will never be again. Yet, I'm not so much surprised as touched by a pang of loss at being here on the adult side of the world. It is as if I have suddenly moved into another room and heard a door click lastingly behind me. I am jabbed by my own small wound. But then I look at those before me. I look at my parents drawn together before the Christmas tree. My mother has her hand upon my father's shoulder. And he is holding his ever present handkerchief. I look at my sisters who have crossed this threshold ahead of me. And now, dach day journey farther from the lives they knew as girls. I look at my magic older brother who has come to us this Christmas from half a continent away, bringing everything he has. And all of them are captured in the tableau of their care. Every man moves on says my father quietly. And I think he speaks of Santa Claus. But there is no need to grieve. He leaves good things behind.

JD: That was Les Carlson reading Alistair MacLeod's "To Every Thing There is a Season". We'll be airing more of our holiday readings throughout December, including "The Shepherd" on Monday, December 24th.

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Demeber 14, 2018 episode transcript

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