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 2019

The AIH Transcript for April 24, 2019

Hosts: Carol Off and Jeff Douglas

Prologue

CAROL OFF: Hello I'm Carol Off.

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

[Music: Theme]

JD: Tonight...

CO: Condemned for condemning. Saudi Arabia claims the 37 men it executed by beheading yesterday were guilty of terrorism -- our guest believes they were executed just for protesting.

JD: An outpouring of emotion over an inpouring of water. Once again, Quebeckers are working to protect their homes -- amid serious debate about how the province should handle the costs of annual flooding.

CO: Going concerns. Sri Lanka's president has asked his police chief and defence secretary to resign after Sunday's bomb attacks -- one minister though in his government isn't sure the departure should stop there.

JD: Lost for words. A father whose son was killed in those bombings says he decided to tell his child's story so that the world could begin to understand what the terrorists have taken away.

CO: Waste makes haste. The President of the Philippines suddenly announces he is ready to declare war on Canada over tons of Canadian garbage that have been rotting in his country for years.

JD: And putting the purse in trivial pursuit. A professional sports gambler has made a million bucks so far on Jeopardy -- and now some fans are wondering if he has cracked the code and broken the show. As It Happens. The Wednesday Edition. Radio that guesses his success is a daily double edged sword.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Saudi Arabia sends 'a message of fear' with mass execution, says dissident

Saudi Executions

Guest: Ali Al-Ahmed

JD: Their crimes were unclear -- but their sentences were swift and they were brutal. In Saudi Arabia yesterday, 37 people were beheaded after being tried on vague charges of terrorism. According to human rights groups, the men were convicted in sham trials and had been subjected to torture. Some had allegedly been involved in protests against the Saudi regime. One of the men who was killed had his body displayed in public after his death. Ali Al-Ahmed is a Saudi dissident and the director of the Gulf Institute. We reached him in Washington D.C.

CO: Mr. Al-Ahmed what do you know about the scene that unfolded yesterday in Saudi Arabia when these executions took place?

ALI AL-AHMED: Yesterday's mass executions in Saudi Arabia involved the execution of 37 people -- mostly protest activists across several towns. Usually these executions take place in public but we have no indication they were carried in public. Mostly they were carried inside prisons -- and by beheadings and dismemberment. One individual was dismembered and displayed for the public.

CO: The number is staggering. The thought of this is just incomprehensible. But I want to maybe try to put a bit of a human face on what happened yesterday -- and a couple of the people I know you're familiar with or you know who were executed. Can you tell us about Abdullah Al Suraih?

ALI AL-AHMED: Most of the people who were executed are young people. They are in their early 20s. Abdullah Al Suraih is one of them. He's not even 22. And he comes from a poor family. (He) lived in a shanty house, very close to the oil port in Ras Tanura. And he was one of the leaders of the protest. He gave speeches in these protests -- although he doesn't have much education because of the Saudi deprivation. And the goal of these protests were the quality, were job opportunities, were end of oppression and shooting.

CO: And he made a video, did he not?

ALI AL-AHMED: So he made several videos. One of them is speeches -- and during demonstration he made a video showing off his residence where he lived with his mother and younger brothers and sisters. It is something you can see maybe in the poorest country in Africa. This is just a few miles from the largest oil exporting terminal in Saudi Arabia -- in the world in fact. So that shows you the deprivation.

CO: So he was beheaded yesterday as was Mujtaba Al-Sweikat. Can you tell us about him?

ALI AL-AHMED: Mujtaba Al-Sweikat is one of the youngest victims of the executions. He was ready to move to Michigan to start his schooling. He's an A student, went to private school, was a handball player -- an accomplished handball player -- in fact he was going into the national team, and he was also an actor. And he wanted in his graduation letter -- he said I wanted to be an engineer. And he was arrested in the airport when he was leaving. And his charge was protest. He participated in protest. And in Saudi Arabia the terrorism law says if you agitate against the government, the king, or the ruler, you are a terrorist.

CO: And this is the idea that somehow Saudi Arabia is a partner in the war against terror. Canada looks at it the same way, and no one's going to dispute this if they are terrorism charges -- is that it?

ALI AL-AHMED: Absolutely. I remind the world who cried rivers of tears over Jamal Khashoggi's murder, rightfully, and did not believe the Saudi narrative that changed every day. This is extremely the same exact situation. The Saudi government -- it's an absolute monarchy that does not accept and or allow dissent including from women who just want to drive.

CO: Before these men -- these 37 people -- were executed, did they have anything like a trial?Did they have representation? I understand there were confessions probably extracted by torture. Was any of that reviewed in any kind of legal context?

ALI AL-AHMED: The Saudi court system is abysmal. It does not belong to modern time. Number one it's an apartheid court system and it's part of the Saudi government. If you are a Shia or black or a secular individual, let alone be a woman, you're not allowed to be part of that court system. And the judges who render these judgments, they do it under orders of the Saudi government -- they are part of it. So there is not that process that you are familiar with around the world where there are trials and so on. Mujtaba Al-Sweikat said this many times -- even to the judges -- that I was tortured, this confession was forced upon me. But the judge didn't care -- because torture in Saudi Arabia is legal, and during confessions especially its legal. You are allowed to extract confessions from defendants.

CO: As I understand there were no lawyers present during investigations, during questioning, there was no representation -- what we know of the proceedings in court -- they did not have anyone representing them. Is that right?

ALI AL-AHMED: Most of them did not. But even though those who had so-called legal representation, the lawyers had nothing to go because you are there just watching the proceeding involved and the decision is already made. It's a kangaroo court in many ways. And for this person who the judge views as a heretic who should die anyway, it does not matter if you have 10,000 lawyers.

CO: Just finally, the vast majority of these men who were executed were of the Shia Muslim minority. Why is that?

ALI AL-AHMED: Number one is there is this plan nationwide protest happening in Ramadan which is 10 days from now. The government wanted to use the weakest part of the country -- to execute these protesters to warn the Sunni population, the majority -- if they do that they will face similar. So people would not protest in Riyadh which would be a huge problem with the Saudi government. So they use the Shia as the scapegoat. This is nothing new in Saudi Arabia. They have always used the Shia, the powerless, the most weakest in terms of they don't have any support internationally and they cannot threaten the existence of the government. So they use the Shia as a scapegoat -- sacrificial lamb really -- to send a message of fear to the majority population. And that goes along also with the American vision of the Middle East that you know it's easy to link Shia to Iran -- and it's been very commonly accepted if you are Shia you are an Iranian sympathizer and that has played a huge role in the decision.

CO: All right we will leave it there. Mr. Al-Ahmed I appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

ALI AL-AHMED: Thank you. Thank you very much.

JD: Ali Al-Ahmed is a Saudi dissident and the director of the Gulf Institute. We reached Mr. Al-Ahmed in Washington, D.C. And we have more on this story on our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Quebec Flooding

Guest: Rene LeBlanc

JD: People across the province of Quebec have been filling sandbags and watching the water steadily rise. The province has been hit hard by flooding which is being fueled by rain and melting snow. Nearly 3000 homes have been flooded and many residents have been forced to leave. Waters are expected to peak by tomorrow. The Montreal neighbourhood of Pierrefonds-Roxboro was flooded in 2017 as well. This time around people are better prepared. Rene LeBlanc lives in Pierrefonds. We reached him at home.

CO: Rene what is the situation at your house right now?

RENE LEBLANC: Well right now we are on alert. We're waiting. We're prepared. A lot more prepared than we were at the last time we experienced this -- two years ago. The water has risen somewhat from yesterday but it's still not alarming. We were down just looking at the water a few minutes ago, and it hasn't crested yet. But it's still you know a few feet from the street and it would have to raise a couple of feet before it gets to the sandbags and the water barriers that have been installed by the city in the borough.

CO: So your sandbags are in place. You've got that. Your house is still dry, right?

RL: That's right.

CO: And how close is the water to threatening all of that?

RL: The river at parallel street to my street -- the water is almost at the street right now. So it would have to rise again another you know three feet I would say -- about three feet before it goes over the sandbags at that street. So as I say the city has done a very good job -- well planned, well executed plan, to combat any of the flood. Contrary to two years ago when I think we were all caught unprepared. And when I say all -- the citizens, the victims, every level of government. It was chaos.

CO: And in 2017, were you under water?

RL: Oh absolutely. We were under water. The entire street here was underwater. There's about 24 homes of which at least half had 5 to 6 feet of water. We were evacuated. And in my case, in our case, we were gone for 88 days.

CO: And the situation now -- any of those houses that were flooded, are any of them swamped in this flood?

RL: Not at the moment, no. What we've done as our street here, the residents -- we got together last week and worked out a plan. So we've built our own dike of sandbags all along the street. You know a good thousand feet of sandbags -- four or five sandbags high. So we feel hopeful which is something that we didn't really have a lot of in 2017. But we're ready, we're prepared, physically and mentally. Maybe not as much because mentally of course we're all anxious and nervous about having to relive this. The stress is quite evident. And the stress is probably higher than the level of the water.

CO: Just to get into the politics of this though. As you know the Premier of Quebec, Francois Legault, he said well this is climate change, this is going to keep happening, communities like Pierrefonds are going to keep being flooded, and we can't keep bailing them out, we can't keep helping them when they're flooded, people shouldn't be living where they are. What do you say to the premier?

RL: In some cases Carol it might make sense -- you know 20 feet from the edge of the water, then it might make sense. But as a general principle, as the general policy, of you know if you've been flooded once or twice then you're going to have to move and we'll help you move -- it's a bit of a nonsense. I'll tell you why because you know we've got schools that are flooded, we've got businesses that are flooded -- and the floods are not necessarily those that are what I call in French [speaking in French] -- in other words 'living on the edge of water.' We're about 1200 feet away from the river. There are people behind me that are 1500-2000 feet away, half a mile away, and they are still being flooded. So the water you know -- yes this is definitely something that we have to cope with. And it's not going to get better. I agree with that...

CO: His climate change -- times have changed.

RL: Climate change is not a rumor, it's a fact. But if they are going to spend money on relocating people -- take that money and start looking at longer solutions, longer term solutions, permanent solutions.

CO: Right. But I think what he's saying is that as far as spending money on infrastructure, investing, all of these things in an area where people are living -- it is a very beautiful place Pierrefonds by the river there -- but saying basically why should Quebeckers subsidize, why should government money be spent in order for people to live in places now with climate change they shouldn't be living in?

RL: I can understand his comment because he's probably being pressured by other people who are not affected by this. But what I'm saying is that everybody is affected. Everybody will eventually be affected by it. You know the lakes are not going to go down. Water's going to continue to rise. And unless we find ways of building the barriers, building the dikes, installing the pump stations, and maybe in some cases having to relocate those that are you know obviously at risk.

CO: Rene we'll stay in touch and see how things are. And I hope you stay high and dry. Thanks for speaking with us.

RL: Thank you very much.

JD: We reached Rene LeBlanc at his home in Pierrefonds, Montreal. Flood waters there are expected to peak by tomorrow.

[Music]

Jeopardy Watcher

Guest: Andy Saunders

SOUNDCLIP

VOICE 1: What will your total be today? Oh you're going to add 50,000. That takes you up to 118,816. And now a 14-day total of one million sixty-one thousand five hundred fifty four. That is amazing.

[Crowd applause]

JD: What is "absolute dominance" Alex? That was the sound of reigning Jeopardy champ James Holzhauer, passing the million-dollar mark last night. The professional sports gambler from Vegas seems unstoppable. After 14 games, he is averaging more than 75,000 dollars in winnings. And that means he is likely out-earning host Alex Trebek each episode. Mr. Holzhauer is still behind the Jeopardy legend Ken Jennings in overall prize money. But his unique playing style has fans wondering whether he has mastered the popular trivia game show. Andy Saunders is the world's foremost Jeopardy expert. He runs the website TheJeopardyFan.com. We reached him in Guelph, Ontario.

CO: Andy why do you think that this guy -- James Holzhauer -- is such a force, a dominant force, in Jeopardy?

ANDY SAUNDERS: Well basically what I think he's done he's basically taken all of the things that the kind of Jeopardy analysts' -- the people who take a look at all the trends over the game over the past 15 years -- and he's been the first person to kind of really put everything together. All of the strategy, the buzzer timing, he's got the knowledge to back it up. He's not afraid to make massive bets on Daily Doubles in Final Jeopardy. And basically he's showing everyone how to play the game perfectly.

CO: What are the strategies that you've noticed that he plays?

AS: Well basically the Daily Double clues -- those are the ones where players are allowed to bet any or all of their score. He's realized that they come up in certain areas of the board, most likely in the third or fourth row of clues and in more academic categories for something like science or history as opposed to pop music for example. And so he has an idea based on past trends where those clues are going to be. He starts the game off at the bottom row -- not quite hunting for Daily Doubles as of yet because he wants to build his score up in order to take advantage of the Daily Doubles once he gets them. So what ends up happening is he'll go across the bottom row over the board, he'll pick up 5 or 6-thousand dollars, then he'll get the Daily Double. You'll be two minutes into the game, he'll have 12,000 dollars. And his opponents will be on like a thousand apiece. And it's disheartening for his opponents to try to come back from.

CO: But he is a professional sports gambler, right? So he does have that sangfroid -- that ability to just not be nervous about these things, to take great risks.

AS: Exactly. Because as a professional sports gambler he has bet massive amounts of money on sporting events (so) what's one trivia question? And I think that's what separates him from anyone else who's really played the game before -- is that you know he's able to not be afraid to bet 25,000 dollars on one question.

CO: But then what does this do to the actual game show? Because if he sets a new standard, if he sets a new strategy, does it kind of sabotage the show as we know it?

AS: I mean I think he's certainly showing that the game can be played to this level. But I also think that there are very few people who might be able to play the game to this level. Because he's shown on other shows -- he was on the American version of "The Chase" a few years ago. And Mark Labbett known over in the U.K. as "The Beast" has still said that James is the best player he's ever played against. So you've got you know a player who is already above the average Jeopardy contestant in terms of how much he knows. And he's figured out the signaling device in order to basically signal on more than half of the clues. And he's got the strategy perfect. So you'll probably see other people try to emulate his strategy. But I think my worry for these people in the future is they're either not going to have figured out the signaling device just as much as James or they're not going to have the requisite knowledge in order to pull it off and they'll find themselves actually having lower scores.

CO: The guy just seems to know everything.

AS: And moreover not only does he know a lot, he knows he knows a lot. So he can go in confidently and think that okay I am 90 percent to get this clue right -- I'm a gambler, I'm being offered even money. What gambler isn't going to take or put in as much money as they can when they're being offered even money on something where they're 90 percent?

CO: I mean watching Jeopardy quite often, I know what the answer is -- I just can't retrieve it. And then you add to that the pressure of money on it, and then you're in a public forum, and you're on TV. I guess it's not just what you know -- it is your ability to pull that out of your head so quickly because most of us feel "Oh just give me a second I'll get it." But you can't, right?

AS: Right. And I mean that quick recall is another reason why James has been able to do so well. I mean back on April 15th there was a player from Ottawa who was on the show who I knew before as one of Canada's top trivia players. And it just seemed like he'd figured out the buzzer, she didn't. And it snowballed because you lose confidence.

CO: So now the viewers are comparing him to Ken Jennings who was the guy who won 74 consecutive games, considered to be I guess the biggest winner of Jeopardy. How close is he to beating or joining Ken?

AS: Well he's still just under a million and a half away from doing so. But the thing is with James, James is averaging 75,000 dollars an episode -- whereas Ken when he won his 74 games he was only averaging 33,000 dollars an episode. So you know James is approaching Ken much faster.

CO: All right well we'll be watching this contestant. It's good to talk to you Andy thanks.

AS: Thank you so much Carol.

JD: Andy Saunders runs the website TheJeopardyFan.com. We reached Mr. Saunders in Guelph. And we have more on this story on our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Vantablack

SOUNDCLIP

[Music: "Reset" by Gesaffelstein]

JD: That is "Reset" by Gesaffelstein. A French producer whose music and aesthetic are very very dark. In the videos for his new album "Hyperion" -- he is clad entirely in black. And I mean entirely: his hair, face, and body are covered in a shiny black substance. And yet apparently he thought, I need more black. And so he found the most black: Vantablack. A material that absorbs 99.96 percent of all visible light. According to the company that makes it, Surrey NanoSystems, quote, "When it's applied to a three dimensional object, Vantablack is so black that it becomes extremely difficult to discern any surface features and three dimensional objects appear to become two dimensional." Finally, a black that was sufficiently black for Gesaffelstein. And earlier this month at Coachella he performed in front of a nine-metre tall monolith of Vantablack. A set so black that it freaked the audience out. And the crew. According to the guy producing Gesaffelstein's show, quote, "One of our sound engineers was on stage and found himself in the monolith. He became confused and lost his balance. He fell. Hit the surface. And I was like 'okay, that's 20,000 dollars." What he's getting at is that when you create a background that absorbs all light you also have to absorb the cost. Vantablack is pricey -- because it's not paint, it's a spray-on coating that forms a nanostructure. Also you can't touch it, or you wreck it -- which makes transporting the set a big challenge. So it's extremely expensive and extremely impractical. But I guess Gesaffelstein figures that it's worth ending up in the red to be in the black.

[Music]

Part 2: Sri Lanka: Minister

Sri Lanka: Minister

Guest: Harin Fernando

JD: In the wake of Sunday's bombing, Sri Lanka's president is promising action. Today, Maithripala Sirisena demanded the resignation of the country's defence secretary and its police chief over what the government is calling "a major lapse in intelligence." Sri Lankan security officials were given detailed warnings about the terror plot but failed to intercede. Now there are demands that the president's job should also be on the line. Harin Fernando is Sri Lanka's Minister for Telecommunications. He was one of the first to go public with evidence that the government had received warnings. We reached Minister Fernando in Colombo.

CO: Minister Fernando as you know the president of your country has fired the men he holds responsible for not warning about this plot. We have a defence minister and inspector general of police. Do you think that that's sufficient?

HARIN FERNANDO: Well I think that's a good start because how it works in Sri Lanka is the defence secretary is the one who coordinates the entire defence effort and the law and order is with the IGP. Unfortunately, we don't have a defence minister as such or a law and order minister.

CO: But we do know that the president is the one to whom they report. The president is ultimately the person in charge of both the police file and the defence file. What do you understand the president knew or didn't know about these attacks?

HF: Well today we had a debate in parliament which is to bring back the emergency law. So the entire day of debate was on what were the lapses, who were responsible, what we should do to take this forward and to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Because it came as a surprise for the people and even for me as a politician as the youngest minister in the cabinet at the moment because we were never alerted that such a threat was at large.

CO: But at the same time, do you think that the president should resign? Should he step down? I mean given everything you have just said people are highly sceptical about how he handled this. He said he didn't know. But he would have known, should have known, could have known as they say. Does that satisfy you? I mean do you think okay you have an interim period but are you worried...

HF: My personal opinion would not matter because I've always wanted his resignation -- not now, some time before as well. So therefore my opinion would be quite biased because I've always been somebody after the coup that happened in Sri Lanka as you are aware we had two prime ministers at once -- it is unconstitutional. So I was one of the vocal people who was not very satisfied with what went on. So I was, from that day onwards -- from last maybe end of October -- I've been lobbying for it. So if I say 'yes I do want it' -- it may think that it is not relevant to this because I always had an issue with him. But having said that at this moment I want to take a step back, I want to consolidate with all parties, with all former leaders -- we have a former president in parliament, a five-time prime minister who's sitting right now, so they have so much of experience amongst themselves. So we need to be as one country right now and try to sort it. Either ways, the presidency (election) wants to be called by November so therefore there will be a change of government. So they need to first consolidate, make sure Sri Lanka is safe for the citizens for this beautiful country to stand up on their feet again.

CO: And at what point will you renew your call for the president to step down?

HF: Well I think this coming one week -- the two weeks -- we will need answers. Just sacking defence secretary or the IGP would not be sufficient enough. I saw one of the former ministers of justice have requested the president -- who is with the president's party and is sitting alongside the president for all the support and the moral support -- asking to arrest the former defence secretary and the IGP for questioning and to see where it went wrong and what are the answers. So it should be credible. If it is not credible enough, those answers and the lapses, well then we have to push for it.

CO: The world and Sri Lankans of course were absolutely shocked and surprised to see the documents that emerged so soon after the attacks that showed the names of one of the organizations that did the attack was there, names of individuals, address. Information that should have been passed on. We spoke to the cardinal yesterday -- the Archbishop of Colombo -- who said he would have cancelled Easter church services had he known this information. You were one of the people who made that information public, why did you want Sri Lankans to know that?

HF: Well I was shocked. I myself am a church going person. I myself celebrated Easter. I was 5 hours away from Colombo in my constituency. So it was more in the mountains in the centre of Sri Lanka. But my children were in Colombo. They went to church in Colombo to a different church. But this all could've have been anyone. So I was quite annoyed. And this was in the air -- it had come on the 11th to our secret deliberations. And also the Indian agency called RAW had given this to the police on the 4th of April. So who neglected this and how can the president say that he didn't really know. So right now he has sacked -- he has taken some action, but we will want answers. And we want more answers from him -- credible answers. Or else I'm pretty sure the entire parliament will stand in one voice.

CO: We recently spoke with the former UN Special Rapporteur for counterterrorism who warned that Sri Lanka's heavy handed police tactics have been helping recruitment of extremists. So parliament has now voted to give sweeping police emergency powers. Do you think that's an advisable course?

HF: Well at the moment we ignore the option but to impose emergency because there should be questioning done because the military had to get involved. Police to an extent there's an argument they failed in their duty -- the intelligence had given the reports. There clearly seems to be a breach at some point and therefore at this moment we stand vulnerable. We are very carefully. We are a community that lives very harmoniously. The general Muslims are not having the same sentiments that the extremist did have. So we are mindful. We are very careful about it. And the government do not have any intention to have the emergency for long. We will hope it's only going to be a couple of days -- maximum for a week -- until we apprehend most of these perpetrators or people who have been aiding them.

CO: I know you have to get to a meeting so we will leave it there. Minister Fernando thank you.

HF: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

JD: Harin Fernando is Sri Lanka's Minister of Telecommunications. We reached him in Colombo.

[Music]

BerMax caffé

JD: Winnipeg is in shock this afternoon. Last weekend, police were called to investigate a hate crime at a local cafe. A woman was assaulted. The interior of the restaurant vandalized. And anti-Semitic graffiti was spray painted on its walls. Jewish leaders called it the most brazen act of anti-Semitism that they had ever seen in Winnipeg. Today, however, in a stunning turn of events Winnipeg police charged the owners of the BerMax cafe themselves with public mischief. Here's Winnipeg police chief Danny Smyth.

SOUNDCLIP

DANNY SMYTH: We have certainly seen a lot of extreme violence throughout the world recently. Attacks targeting Jews in synagogues in Pittsburgh, and an increase in anti-Semitic violence. Attacks targeting Muslims in mosques in New Zealand, in Quebec, and certainly an increase in Islamophobia. And more recently attacks in Sri Lanka targeting Christians and foreigners in Colombo. These are important issues for all of us to deal with. And I speak often of the importance of denouncing these horrible and cowardly acts and calling out the people who are involved in the. Last night investigators formed the belief and came to the conclusion that the incident here in Winnipeg this past weekend was staged. We have laid public mischief charges against three individuals. These of course are the café owners themselves. I am hugely disappointed and frankly angry that this family has used hate and racism in such a disingenuous way. In doing so they have allowed cynicism to creep into this discussion. Cynicism that trivializes genuine victims of hate. Cynicism that risks reinforcing stereotypes that the Jewish community here locally and throughout the world have fought hard to dispel. This staged event has set in motion an investigation that has utilised significant resources from our major crimes division and our general patrol division. Over 25 officers have invested nearly a thousand hours through a busy holiday weekend trying to bring this investigation to a close. In the end, we found evidence of a crime. It just wasn't a hate crime.

JD: That was Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth, speaking at a press conference today in Winnipeg.

[Music]

Philippines Garbage

Guest: Anthony Ho

JD: Politicians are kind of known for talking trash, aren't they? But this week the President of the Philippines is threatening to send it. Rodrigo Duterte says he will "declare war" on Canada if the Trudeau government fails to take back more than 100 shipping containers full of garbage.

SOUNDCLIP

RODRIGO DUTERTE: Loaded the containers through a ship. I will advise Canada that your garbage is on the way. Prepare a grand reception. Eat it, if you want to.

JD: In addition to those threats, the Canadian government is also facing pressure here at home. Last week, a human rights organization called Right On Canada released a legal opinion saying Canada is breaking an international treaty by failing to extradite the trash. Anthony Ho is a lawyer with the Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation. He prepared that opinion. We reached Mr. Ho in Victoria, British Columbia.

CO: Mr. Ho the President of Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, says that we Canadians can eat this garbage if we want. Would you even want to get that close?

ANTHONY HO: Well I think it represents frustration that is being felt by not only the Philippine government but also the Philippine citizens and environmental groups on the ground. We have been following this issue for five years without resolution.

CO: So what do you make of the threat though -- the president saying that he's going to just declare war on us, ship it back, to dump it in Canada, and we can do with it what we want?

AH: I think that the Canadians -- when we hear this story about the illegal dumping -- we are just reminded that when we all just throw out our garbage, it doesn't just magically disappear. That it does end up somewhere. And in this case, and in many other instances, it may end up in places that we don't expect.

CO: Maybe you can tell our listeners how did all this garbage end up in the Philippines? Our garbage.

AH: Well in between 2013 and 2014, a Canadian based export company shipped about a hundred container vans -- that's about 2500 tons worth of waste from Canada to the Philippines. Now when Philippine authorities inspected the container vans they discovered that the vans actually contain household garbage. And in some cases contained adult diapers. When the Philippine authorities realize this, they notified the Canadian government back in March of 2014 to seek the assistance of Canada to take back the waste. In this instance we have an obligation under international treaty called the Basel Convention to ensure that the waste is taken back to Canada for proper treatment and disposal. But for five years the Canadian government has not taken any concrete steps to ensure that they comply with our international obligations.

CO: So how did our adult diapers end up in the Philippines? What's the story behind that as far as you know?

AH: Well as far as we know this company is a plastic export company based in Ontario and these shipments of waste came in various batches that was shipped over a couple of months. The declarations on the documents accompanying the transfer of these wastes indicated there were plastic scraps. But on inspection they were not. They were household garbage.

CO: So were they mislabelled?

AH: Well certainly the declarations were inconsistent with the content. I can't speak to whether or not there was any intent or anything like that. But nevertheless the fact that we have these shipments that were sent to the Philippines under a declaration that was false and that any authority that the Philippine government or customs officials may have given to allow for that shipment to enter into the Philippines was given under a false understanding and as such these shipments are considered to be illegal traffic under the convention.

CO: But this company did this, right? Whether it was a mistake -- they just mislabelled it, things got mixed up -- the company is responsible. Why is it the Canadian government's obligation to take the garbage back?

AH: Well for many years the Canadian government indicated that they could not take back the waste because they did not have the legal tools necessary to compel a shipper to return the waste. Now those applicable legislation was amended and came into force in 2016 which now allows the Canadian government to compel shippers to return waste in the case of illegal trafficking. And in fact in 2017 our prime minister told the world at the Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that there is now quote "theoretically possible" for Canada to take back the waste. But since telling the world that, the Canadian government has still not taken any concrete steps to ensure that the waste does get returned to Canada ultimately for proper treatment and disposal.

CO: And we keep reading and also covering this story. And the government has said, yeah we are strongly committed to dealing with this, it is going to be resolved. But then nothing happens. So what could compel the government to actually follow through on its promises?

AH: Well my client and four other allies in the Philippines, they're all focused right now onto the conference of the parties to the Basel Convention which will take place in the end of this month in Switzerland. And the mechanism here really is raising public awareness and putting political pressure onto our government. My client and her allies are hoping that this story will allow Canadians to see what we are doing and to remind them that when we throw out our garbage at the end of day it doesn't just magically disappear. This issue is not just about false labeling -- it is, I think, part of a bigger issue about waste generation and what we ought to be doing to reduce our generation of garbage.

CO: All right we'll leave it there. Mr. Ho thank you.

AH: Thank you very much.

JD: Anthony Ho is a lawyer with the Pacific Center for Environmental Law and Litigation. We reached him in Victoria, British Columbia. Yesterday Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Canada is working hard to address this issue and that she thinks a solution can be found in the coming weeks.

[Music]

Nujeen Mustafah

JD: When Nujeen Mustafah was 16-years-old she began the dangerous journey from Aleppo in Syria to a new life in Europe. It is a dangerous journey for anyone -- even more so for Ms. Mustafa who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. She chronicled her journey in the book "Nujeen: One Girl's Journey from War-Torn Syria in a Wheelchair." Now 20-years-old, she lives in Germany. She advocates for refugees with disabilities. And today, she became the first person with a disability to address the U.N. Security Council. Here's part of her speech.

SOUNDCLIP

NUJEEN MUSTAFA: I will start by posing a question: what does it mean to be a person with disability in Syria? For me, it meant not being able to go to school, hang out with friends, or go to the cinema. It was almost like house arrest. I was fortunate however. My family was very supportive. And I didn't have any fears. That until the war broke out. I quickly realized that I was the main obstacle standing in the way of safety for my family. We lived in a tall building with no lift (elevator). If we needed to evacuate, I would need to be carried down five flights of stairs. For weeks, I heard military helicopters buzzing over our neighbourhood -- ready to drop bombs at any moment. My mother would carry me to the bathroom and stay with me there until the bombs passed. Every day we would hear of relatives and acquaintances who had been killed. Every day buildings in our neighbourhood would be bombed. Every day I feared that I would be the reason my family was one or two seconds too late. My brother even called us "the walking dead." It took the bombing of a funeral in June 2015 where some of my relatives died to convince our family that we needed to flee and leave our home and everything we knew behind. However you look at it you are at greater risks just because you have a disability. This is why it's so important and heartening that you members of the U.N. Security Council are taking the time to listen to the perspective of a young woman with a disability from Syria. But this is not just my story. It's the experience of thousands of Syrians with disabilities who struggle to survive because of the limited services still functioning in the country. Lack of accessibility and the constant threat of violence especially against women and girls. There is very little data on how many people with disabilities live in Syria or have fled to neighbouring countries and what our needs are. And without this data the programs and policies just don't meet our needs. We are invisible. People with disabilities were forgotten in times of peace. What do you think we expect in times of war? But this does not make it right. And you need to count us because we count too. The Security Council's job is to protect all civilians including people with disabilities. No one left behind should not just be words you say. I might be the first person with disability to address the council and I hope I won't be the last. This should not be just another meeting where we make grand statements and then move on to the next item on your agenda. You can and should do more to ensure that people with disabilities are included in all aspects of your work. We cannot wait any longer.

JD: That was Nujeen Mustafa, a 20-year-old Syrian refugee who uses a wheelchair. She was speaking to the U.N. Security Council in New York today.

[Music]

Lyra McKee

JD: As an investigative reporter and writer, Lyra McKee was devoted to finding the truth. Today, her family and friends are looking for the truth themselves as they say goodbye to the 29-year-old journalist. As we told you last week Ms. McKee was fatally shot at a protest in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, also known as Derry. The New IRA has admitted responsibility for her death offering its, quote, "full and sincere apologies." Today at Ms. McKee's funeral, Father Martin Magill spoke about her warmth, about her determination, and about her death which he hoped would be a turning point for Northern Ireland.

SOUNDCLIP

FATHER MARTIN MAGILL: I commend our political leaders for standing together in Creggan on Good Friday. I am however left with a question: Why in God's name does it take the death of a 29-year-old woman with her whole life in front of her...

[Crowd applause]

FATHER MARTIN MAGILL:...the death of a 29-year-old woman with her whole life in front of her to get to this point?

JD: Father Martin Magill speaking today in St. Anne's Cathedral in Belfast at the funeral of Lyra McKee. The 29-year-old journalist and author was shot and killed during a protest in Northern Ireland last Thursday night.

[Music]

Part 3: 'Hug your kids extra tight,' says father of boy killed in Sri Lanka bombings

Sri Lanka: Father

Guest: Alex Arrow

SOUNDCLIP

CHRISHANTHINI RAMESH: [Crying] Oh my Jesus. I love my Jesus only.

JD: That is the voice of Chrishanthini Ramesh. On Sunday, her son and daughter were attending Sunday school in the basement of the Zion Church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. Her husband who was serving as an usher for the congregation upstairs. Then a man approached with a heavy pack. Chrishanthini told the BBC what happened next.

SOUNDCLIP

CHRISHANTHINI RAMESH: The man told my husband he was carrying a camera and wanted to film inside. My husband said he couldn't enter and forced him to leave. As I went into the church the bomb exploded. Bomb blast.

JD: Chrishanthini's husband Ramesh Raju died in the blast. He is being credited with saving many of the congregants inside. Across Sri Lanka, 11-year-old Kieran Shafritz de Zoysa had been sitting down for brunch with his mom and his grandmother and a bomber entered the breakfast room at Colombo's Cinnamon Grand Hotel. Kieran's father Alex Arrow was back home in the United States when he got the news about his son. We reached Mr. Arrow in Las Vegas.

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

ALEX ARROW: Thank you Carol I appreciate that.

CO: How did you learn about what had happened to your son?

AA: So on Saturday night 8 p.m. my time which is 8 a.m. Sri Lankan time. I called just to talk with him and he could not pick up the phone. And he texted me, "can't talk now dad" -- because it turns out he was in an elevator going down to the restaurant at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel to have breakfast with his mom and his grandma. And that was the last interaction that I had with him.

CO: That's where he was when the explosion happened having brunch in that restaurant.

AA: Exactly -- the Cinnamon Grand Hotel. And I was just -- after that -- making dinner for my girlfriend's daughter and my girlfriend. And we were just having a normal evening. And the phone was ringing. But I didn't pick it up because you know you don't pick up the phone in the evening on Saturday night when you're not expecting calls. And half an hour after that I got a knock on the door. And it was my neighbour who said that there's been a bomb blast in Sri Lanka and I have to call his mom right away. So I immediately did. And what had happened was he was without a pulse upon arrival at the hospital so the fact that they had him on a ventilator was not doing anything for him. And you can inflate somebody lungs but if there is no circulation in their blood then it does absolutely no good to be inflating their lungs.

CO: Alex at what point did they tell you that he was lost?

AA: I guess that was the moment. Because when he was asking for permission to take him off the ventilator -- he said you can't do that without a parent's permission. And his mom won't give him permission, so will you? And I said I can't say those words -- I'm not even there. And then you know his mom started to go through some things about his life that I could tell she was just beside herself with agony. And she was saying things like he still needs to come back and go kayaking with you because you know we just had this nice kayaking outing on the lake in San Diego near where I live. And he had talked about that on the plane. She goes you can't take him off the ventilator because he needs to go back and go kayaking. He said he has to go kayaking. And I was saying look if he was without a pulse for the 10 minute ride from the restaurant to the hospital and you've been ventilating him since then...he's already gone. There's no way he could have survived without a pulse and he hasn't had a pulse for the 90 minutes while been trying to massage his heart. So he's already gone. That was when I realized that -- I actually never said that they could take him off the ventilator I just...

CO: But you knew. You knew that he couldn't have survived.

AA: That's when I knew.

CO: And what about his mother and his grandmother who had been at brunch with him? Are they okay?

AA: They both survived the attack. I know his mother had some degree of shrapnel wounds. But yeah they're both okay. And I don't think either of them have any permanent injuries. I mean he was just sitting in the one chair where the shrapnel hit. You know the terrorists had no aim or plan -- you know he just wanted to do maximum damage. And he did it. You know he got the most amazing person who will never get to contribute to this world what he was going to do. My son was going to be a neuroscientist. He was going to work on Alzheimer's. He was at the top of his class in both the schools he was going to. In his Sri Lankan school, he was the only student there who had got what they call an "A double star average" -- their stars are plus here like a double A plus average you only get in the school -- they had given him a special award ceremony for that. He was studying Mandarin and Sinhala -- the language of Sri Lanka. And he was the most worldly kid. You know his mom had taken him to five continents. And I was all for that. I mean when he was with me he would be teaching me about the parts of the world that I had never been to. I was learning about the world through my son.

CO: I'm so sorry Alex. I know this is very painful to talk about. But I'm wondering why you are talking about it? Because you have done a number of interviews. You wanted to talk to us. What is it that compels you to do that?

AA: Because Kieran was going to be a famous neuroscientist. And now he's not. Now, his only fame -- when people look up his name -- will be this. Will be that he was killed at age 11-and-a-half in the 2019 Easter bombings in Sri Lanka. That's what he's known for now. And you know next week the news cycle is going to move on to something else. So I want the world to know what has just been lost. I want the world to know what was lost in this person who worked so hard in his 11 years to do everything right and this terrorist took him. And I don't want that to go unnoticed. All the work that he put into his school and studies was going to help him. And now at least we can talk about it and remember it.

CO: I completely appreciate what you're saying. And I think other people could too. Just so many of the victims on Sunday were children -- cutting across all ethnicities, all classes, and all of them gone -- all these promising young people. If you could speak to them -- if you could share the moment with all the other parents who lost kids in those attacks in Sri Lanka, what would you say?

AA: I would say life is more precious than we realize until something awful happens. And when you have kids or anyone close to you -- just don't take anything for granted and treasure every moment because you know little day to day things that annoy you should not annoy you. Because life is delicate and in a minute everything can change. And in Kieran's memory and everyone who was lost in the attacks memory, we should treasure what we have and love each other and don't take anything for granted.

CO: Alex thank you.

AA: Thank you for listening to Kieran's story and for remembering Kieran for what he was.

CO: And thank you for sharing Kieran's story.

AA: Thank you.

JD: Alex Arrow is the father of Kieran Shafritz de Zoysa. The 11-year-old was among the more than 350 victims of Sunday's bomb attacks in Sri Lanka. We have more on this story on our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Reading: Green Velvet

JD: Krzysztof Pelc's short story "Green Velvet" is in his own words -- a tale of "immigration, furniture, and termites." It's probably the only story you could say that about. But it is not just the novelty that made it the winner of this year's CBC Short Story Prize. Mr. Pelc was born in Warsaw. He grew up in Quebec, and is a professor at McGill. He says he keeps a file of things that he has seen and overheard that might provide fodder for his writing. In this case a scene described to him by a friend of a couch in a dumpster in the rain which became the seed for the story you're about to hear. Krzysztof Pelc reading Green Velvet.

SOUNDCLIP

KRZYSZTOF PELC: "The things people throw out," my father exclaimed.

It was a green velvet sofa. We stood at the corner of our street, a spot where neighbours occasionally put out broken chairs or soiled mattresses. We contemplated it as if it belonged to a foreign species. But who were we kidding. We were the foreigners, whereas that sofa wouldn't have been out of place in the new café down the street which we walked by every day and never went into. Neither of my parents saw the point.

The sofa must have appeared on the curb in the last hours, being clear of any autumn leaves, which otherwise littered the street. We were on our way to the grocery store to bring back soda bottles for deposit, each of us carrying a case of empties. The velvet covering was the colour of drinks served in small glasses in old French paintings. Just by sitting there, it made the curb look like the set design for a play. My younger brother Reza, shouting with joy at the irreverence of furniture out on the street, threw himself onto it. The sofa took him in softly, without a squeak.

It seemed clean enough, with no visible stains, and just the faintest tarnish of elbow wear on the armrests. My father had already walked on, shaking his head at what I knew was Western profligacy, at the buying and the throwing out just to buy more. But Reza's shouts of joy made him look back. He considered the sofa the way a farmer considers a neighbour's cow. Finally, he took some hesitant steps back and sat on one end of it himself, with greater caution than my brother, and we cheered. It was a grand morning.

My father never was a risk taker. In fact, over his lifetime he took a big risk exactly twice. The first was leaving his country with my mother, both in their late 20s, barely out of university, with a newborn in tow and no clear prospect but that of fleeing the certainty of persecution. Reza was born later, a native citizen. The passports of that whole generation of Iranian émigrés said "mathematician," or else "dentist." My father was the first. He had left behind his mother, his mother tongue, and a land of sour cherries that grow nowhere else in the world.

The second risk my father ever took was to bring up that green velvet sofa into our home. Our small third-storey rental, which tried its best to dissuade him. The three of us barely wrestled it up the metal staircase. Its weight, my father assured us to keep us motivated, was testament to the quality of the craftsmanship. He needn't have: I thought taking in that sofa was the greatest thing my father had ever done. Up to that point I'd never suspected him capable of such an impulse. Even today, it makes it easier to imagine him, almost two decades younger than he was then, picking up and leaving his only country with a young wife and child.

As we were lugging it up, I was already thinking how a green velvet sofa such as this would change our lives. The strength of its gravitational pull, I thought, was so great that we would be forced to adapt to it. The music we would listen to as we sat on it would be different from the music we listened to now, which was all plucky Persian strings. The books I would read on it would necessarily be different, too. They would be books written by those authors the Grade 10 girls discussed while puffing on cigarettes outside school premises, whom I'd heard nothing of, but longed to know. I would invite friends home to see the sofa, and sit on it. I would pretend it was a natural reflection of our family's joie de vivre, rather than a dumpster find offered to us by chance. I thought of how I should best dress to match it. I might need entirely new clothes. The sofa offered the promise of Western glamour, of a whole other existence.

My mother shouted at us from the top of the stairs. She was right, of course. There was no space for it in our small living room. To soothe her, my father called the sofa a "chesterfield," which did sound more dignified, British almost. It didn't work. "Who knows who's lied down on that thing," my mother said from the top. "Or worse," she added, and looked meaningfully at my father.

The third-storey apartment also balked at the green velvet, like a body rejecting an organ not of its making. The angles of the front door proved unworkable. The thing was lodged halfway in, flipped on its back, its innards showing. The ugly dark springs, oily and coated in black dust, had taken us aback. While it had sat elegantly on the sunny curb, who would have suspected the stained wooden skeleton and intricate coiling within.

My brother and I were barricaded inside the apartment, and my father was blocked outside, standing helplessly at the top of the stairs, the toppled sofa wedged in between us. My father asked for a tape measure, a piece of paper and a pencil. Then, sitting on the steps, the sofa's howling springs overhanging his head, bent over in a pose I'd often seen him in, he drew the door, the stairs, calculated the angles and all the possible rotations. Finally after some minutes, defeated, he stood up and proclaimed, "It won't go in."

My mother drew air through her teeth, in a way we were all familiar with. Her eagerness to prove my father wrong won over her disapproval of the alien object on which strangers had laid down or worse. She called our downstairs neighbour. A young man who worked in a bicycle store, whom she fed Iranian pastries because she thought he was too thin. He came out of his apartment looking sleepy and stood on the stairs considering the sofa.

"It's amazing," he said.

My father took in the compliment gratefully, but showed him the piece of paper and its scribblings. He pointed out the angles, the impossible rotations. Our neighbour barely glanced at it. Coming closer, he seized one of the four round pegs that served as the sofa's feet and quickly unscrewed it. Relieved of its three remaining feet, the sofa narrowly passed through the door. Many years later, over noisy family dinners where my own kids stumbled over their second-generation Farsi with their grandfather, we would refer to this overturned proof as the Sofa Impossibility Theorem. That day, my parents' faces betrayed each one's allotted triumph.

My mother had the victory of practice over theory, while my father had his green velvet sofa.

Our new find stayed in the hallway while the living room was readied for it, and Reza spent the afternoon slumped across its length, reading comic books by the mound of wet sneakers in the entrance way. It jarred with everything else in the apartment, to my delight. I knew our own furniture had come over in a half container, sailing on a large ship for two months. Small rosewood tables and chairs with arabesque shapes inlaid in nacre, and chests that remained empty, done up in a similar fashion. Countless antediluvian rugs, which had belonged to a grand uncle who'd grown pomegranates for export. I considered it all embarrassing and out of touch, like something out of One Thousand and One Nights. It instantly betrayed our exact origins to anyone who walked in. All of it now rattled against the new arrival. My father tried to fend off the contrast by shifting the existing furniture to one side of the room, which made it seem even smaller, and letting the green sofa have the other side.

During the first days, we took turns sitting or lying on it. Reza attempted to have breakfast on it before being called back to the table. The overturning of the Sofa Impossibility Theorem helping, even my mother seemed to come around to it.

It had been ours for less than a week when our mamani came, as she did every Sunday for lunch. My father had extricated his mother from the motherland a decade earlier through much bureaucratic maneuvering. She was a short compact woman of the likes you didn't see around, dressed always in black. It was not clear whether she considered her arrival to the land of Mini-Wheats and low waist jeans a blessing or a curse. She criticized our Farsi, and fearing her remarks, we hesitated to speak during her visits. At her insistence, my father sent us to Iranian school on Saturday mornings, while all the other boys played ball or slept in. Also on her account, we were made to read a weekly 10 pages of old Persian poetry and memorize a passage to recite. For these torments, we blamed our mamani.

Reza was lying on the sofa as usual, reading his comic books. It was so long that his feet barely crossed its middle point.

"Where did you get this?" mamani asked, as if addressing a cat holding a bird between its teeth.

My father tried to put it delicately, he called it a "chesterfield" again. It didn't work this time either. Mamani interrupted him.

"Off the street?" she said with distaste.

"People will throw out anything," he said defensively.

Our mamani said only one more thing before walking out of the living room that day.

"It could have termites."

The judgment of parents is impossible to avoid. And that of parents from the old country, I have learned, is inescapable. Dreams of becoming a poet or a journalist, progressively shift towards mathematics, or dentistry. Love at first sight is requestioned and grows elsewhere, as love on second thought. Resistance is futile.

There was no further talk of the sofa as we ate our eggplant and tomato stew. Mamani had said her bit. But the next day, I caught my father bent down on all fours, peering underneath the green sofa as if looking for lost change.

Sensing my presence, he rose up, looking flustered.

"Do you see anything?" I asked.

He knew there was no use pretending.

"No, although I'm not sure what I'm looking for. They could be inside the wood. The only way to know would be to saw through it, and see if they've burrowed in."

I had never heard of termites in Canada. It seemed like one of those diseases of the past that must once have been very bad, but that they now had vaccines for. My father dealt with it the only way he knew how. He engaged in a fit of reading.

Over family meals, he would now glumly mention, "Can you imagine that the total weight of termites on earth is five times the combined weight of all humans? And that termite mounds can grow to be 30 feet high? The termites don't even live inside them. The mounds are just ventilation systems for their underground tunnels, like having skyscrapers for lungs. And they can turn a house to rubble in two weeks. Once they're in, you can't fight them. All you can do is give up the lease and move out. They eat money also. I read a story of a bank in Tehran that lost 100 billion rial in banknotes to termites in its vaults."

I thought of how, having little money, and no spare banknotes lying around to be eaten, we were in the clear. But I said nothing. As a family, we tried hard to look down on money. Though we loved to talk about it. A favourite dinner game was to discuss what we would do if we ever won the lottery. Reza had the most fanciful dreams, listing off cars, jetplanes, submarines. While my father always insisted he would not change a thing. He would keep his job as an overqualified administrator, his colleagues wouldn't suspect anything. But soon he would begin contradicting himself, and concede certain large purchases. A grand piano, for starters. And a swimming pool. Much thought was given to the type of swimming pool, its optimal shape. To my father, a swimming pool of one's own was the most Western thing imaginable. Of course, we never did play the lottery, my father being professionally informed of the odds. But it didn't stop us from talking.

I caught him once more in the living room, arms crossed, staring at the sofa.

We both stood in silence, until he said, "Why else would anyone throw out a perfectly good couch?"

That Sunday it rained. I had spent the day at a friend's, and I came back home after dusk. As I got closer to our corner, I saw two familiar figures leaning into the dumpster, a few feet away from where we'd first seen the velvet green sofa.

I could now see one half of it sticking out of the dumpster, its insides showing. That stained wooden skeleton. My father stood on a chair, bent over our toppled sofa, and I heard him panting with effort. Next to him, our mamani stood on a chair of her own. She held up an umbrella over them both as the rain came down, her arm stretched straight up to cover her only son. Both of them had their backs to me. My father was furiously sawing at the sofa.

Immigrants own no tools. I imagine he must have borrowed the wood saw from the downstairs neighbour, though I never asked. Today, I also imagine how his suspicion grew, how that one sentence from our mamani took root within him over an entire week, how a single look from her had been enough to shift the balance. I imagine his sudden change of heart. How he'd had to unscrew the sofa's feet once again to push the thing out, this time by himself. To defend his family, to keep his home from being turned to rubble in two weeks. And how, after it was all done, he'd had to get to the bottom of it. To know for certain whether there'd been termites after all. But that day, I hurried past, up our steps and into our home, the dream of a new glamorous existence irreversibly deferred.

JD: That is Krzysztof Pelc reading his CBC Short Story Prize winning submission Green Velvet. As the recipient of this year's prize, Mr. Pelc will receive six-thousand dollars from the Canada Council for the Arts, and he will attend a two week writing residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. And his story has been published at cbc.ca/book.

[Music]

Dame Time!

JD: For a brief period last night, the Wikipedia page for the NBA team the Oklahoma City Thunder contains some misleading information. Someone edited the page so that under team ownership it said "Damian Lillard." Now that is misleading because the Thunder are indeed actually owned by an investment group. But also not completely wrong because last night Damian Lillard did totally own the Thunder. Mr. Lillard is a point guard for the Portland Trailblazers who were playing the Thunder in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The Blazers were up 3 games to 1 in the best of seven series with a chance to clinch. The score was tied 115 to 115. Just seconds remaining. And Damian Lillard is dribbling between half court and the three point line. Here is the call on NBC's Sports Northwest.

SOUNDCLIP

ANNOUNCER 1: They want the last shot.

ANNOUNCER 2: Damian clears mid-court. He's got 11. Tied at 115. Crowd raising to their feet. George will defend Lillard. Spread floor. Lillard with 47 tonight. Working it down to 2. A deep three! Oh! Blazers win the series!

JD: Here are the pictures you are missing: Damian Lillard takes his time. Then he pulls up and shoots from 37-feet away with one second left. He sinks it. He does not smile. He does not jump in the air or even change his expression. Instead, just before he's mobbed by his teammates he turns to the Oklahoma City bench -- and waves goodbye. It is astonishing. It is brutal. And it continues to boggle the mind no matter how many times you watch it. Just as it boggle the minds of everyone who watched it happen live. Which included three sportscasters on Korean television. Listen for the trademark phrase for when Damian Lillard does something incredible. That being: "Dame Time."

SOUNDCLIP

ANNOUNCERS: [Yelling] Dame time!

JD: And finally, here is how it sounded in Mandarin from the Chinese broadcast. The highlight here is not the screaming. It is the fleeting moment about 15 seconds in, when one of the commentators just can't seem to talk anymore and just sort of exhales in disbelief at what he has just seen.

SOUNDCLIP

ANNOUNCERS: [Yelling and exhaling sound].

JD: That is how it sounded in China when Damian Lillard sank an impossible 3 pointer to knock the Oklahoma City Thunder out of the playoffs. That brings us to the end of Dame Time for this Wednesday April 24th.

CO: As It Happens is coming back again tomorrow. We have very little time for this. I'm Carol Off. Have a good evening.

JD: And I'm Jeff Douglas. Good night.

Back To Top »

Provide Transcript Feedback

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

April 24, 2019 Episode Transcript

More Stories Like This