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The AIH Transcript for May 13, 2019

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: The trials were errors. Decades ago, researchers conducted experiments on Inuit residents of Nunavut without their consent. Now, the Territory's former premier is speaking out about what was done to him.

JD: Heed of the household. Your home assistant is not just listening for your voice — it is recording it as well. And when our guest heard four years’ worth of recordings, he found that Alexa had been disturbingly attentive.

CO: Home unsafe. Women's rights advocates in Afghanistan demand the government take women's safety seriously, after a prominent former TV journalist is shot dead on the street.

JD: Blonde faith. With her ease talent on screen, and her dulcet voice, the late Doris Day was America's biggest and most wholesome star. Her real life was not so uncomplicated.

CO: The other best man. When Kawhi Leonard sank a buzzer beater to win the Eastern Conference semifinal for the Toronto Raptors, he also sent one Punjabi wedding to the next level.

JD: And… Achilles heels. Your faith in simple, dependable bread will be shattered by the harrowing tale of a British woman who opened a bag of bread to discover an entire loaf worth of end pieces. As It Happens, the Monday edition. Radio that will never recover from this breach of crust

[Music: Theme]

Part one: Inuit skin graft experiments, Afghan journalist killed, Raptors buzzer shot

Inuit skin graft experiments

Guest: Paul Quassa

JD: In the 1960s and '70s, researchers conducted medical experiments on Inuit residents of Igloolik, Nunavut. One of the most frequent tests was grafting skin from one person onto another. And the subjects of these experiments were given little information about what was happening, or why. Now, decades later, they're speaking up. And they want answers. Paul Quassa is the former premier of Nunavut, and one of the subjects of the skin graft experiments. We reached Mr. Quassa in Iqaluit.

CO: Mr. Quassa, can you still see the scars from these skin graft experiments that were done on you?

PAUL QUASSA: Yes, they're very visible on my left hand side, closer to the where the elbow joint is. And you could see them very clearly. They’re a little bit more lighter skin than my skin.

CO: What did the researchers do? What experiments did they do on you?

PQ: They took a little slab of my skin, and they took it off, and my uncle and my cousin was also there. And what they did was exchange those skins. What I got was a skin from my uncle, a little piece, and another one from my cousin. And I always say, to put it in more humour sense, where my uncle has passed away a long time ago, but I'm keeping part of his skin alive. And they're very visible.

CO: But others who said that same thing. That they had a graft of another family member's skin put into their skin or exchanged. Did they explain to you what they were doing? Do you understand what they were trying to learn from this?

PQ: No, not at all. I mean in those days, Inuit were more such where you know here’s a researcher that came in that you know they know what they want to do. And if they asked it, we'd just say yes without asking questions for some reason. They never explained to us. I've always been curious as to what the results were, what it was meant to do, what the outcome was.

CO: How did you feel about it at the time being?

PQ: I was a young person then. I think I was about 19. And you know this was just one of the things that they did to [us]. The other one was that when I was out hunting in mid-February, we came back after a week of hunting very cold. And the researchers wanted us to not go into the house but stay another 20 minutes out so that they can find out you know how we deal with coldness. I don't know. So they did a lot of experiments. And those were the days when Inuit were experiencing a lot of events. You know dog slaughter, residential school, all these took place almost around the same time.

CO: Because there there's these efforts to assimilate to and to break down your culture.

PQ: Yes.

CO: And there was apparently something called the International Biological Program, and it was scientists around the world were doing kinds of investigations and experiments on Indigenous populations, on immigrants, on different populations to learn things. And it doesn't seem that much effort was made to get your consent or other consent. Anything signed at all? Anybody even in your community who would have agreed to this?

PQ: None, not at all. I haven't seen anything whatsoever. There was no papers, nothing signed. I don't recall signing anything.

CO: There was one doctor apparently who was part of his skin graft experiments that you were subjected to. His name was John Dossetor. And he was an expert in medical ethics. He got the Order of Canada. He said that he got community consent from Igloolick elders in order to do the work. Does that make sense?

PQ: Well, not really. You know in those days, we didn't have any elder groups as we have now. I mean I believe in those actually we had what we called a settlement council, which was appointed people being there before we could elect. I don't recall him at all. You know it dawned suddenly that sometimes they think that these people are very different. Let's see what they consist of. You know it's another human being, and I think that's how we should have been looked at as another human being, period.

CO: Well, this Dr. Dossetor apparently said he wrote in a memoir about met modern medical ethics that he thinks that maybe they should have secured more meaningful consent from you. Did anyone ever follow up or apologize for not getting your permission?

PQ: Not at all. Not at all.

CO: When you look at those scars on your arm, you said that years ago you just went along with it. But when you look at those scars as you have for your whole life, how does that make you feel what? What do you think about that now?

PQ: You know it just reminds me of all the events that took place in those years. And this was one of them. You know we were taken away from our parents. Our dogs got slaughtered. They did a lot of experiments on us without any means of getting any consent. I was one of the negotiators for the land claims, and I know what rights and so forth are now. And you know I just wish that I knew all these things in those days so that you know we could defend our rights.

CO: You mentioned all the residential schools. You know, of course, that medical and scientific experiments were done on those kids for a number of years — including on their nutrition, on treatments for tuberculosis. Last year, there was a class-action suit filed against the federal government because of those experiments. Would you now consider filing such a suit against the government for the experiments were done on you and people in Igloolick?

PQ: Well, I believe we do have that right. When this government — when the government of the day — starts you know trying to say seriously reconciliation, and this is part of the whole reconciliation process, and rightly so, I believe we all have to look at all the events that took place — whether it was for experimental reasons or any other reason.

CO: We will be watching for what you do, Mr. Quassa. And I appreciate you telling us this story tonight. Thank you.

PQ: Thank you very much.

CO: Take care.

PQ: Yeah. Buye-bye.

JD: Paul Quassa is the former premier of Nunavut, and was a subject of skin graft experiments on Inuit people in the 1970s. We reached Mr. Quassa Iqaluit.

[Music: Sombre]

Afghan journalist killed

Guest: Fawzia Koofi

JD: She was murdered in broad daylight. Mina Mangal was a prominent TV journalist in Afghanistan and then became an adviser in the Afghan parliament. On Saturday, she was shot dead in the street by two unknown men on a motorcycle. Women's rights advocates in the country are horrified, and they are heartbroken. Fawzia Koofi is one of them. She's a former member of parliament. And the leader of the political party "Movement for Change." We reached Ms. Koofi in Kabul.

CO: Ms. Koofi, what can you tell us about how Mina Mangal died?

FAWZIA KOOFI: In her case, her family is claiming that her ex-husband committed the murder.

CO: But now, not that she was just murdered. She was murdered on her way to work, in broad daylight. She's in Kabul, one of the safest areas, going to work as she has a job with the parliament's Cultural Affairs Commission. If she's that vulnerable to attack at that point, what protection is there for other women in Afghanistan?

FK: That's the whole point. Her murder while going to the office indicates how vulnerable women of Afghanistan are, and how less protection and how less justice has been given to those who have already been killed. I mean three years back, we remember [another woman] was brutally killed in the streets of Kabul. I was part of the investigation committee. No justice, no proper trial, nobody went to prison. If her case would have been taken serious, I am sure it would have been lessons learned for others who want to commit such crimes. And a sign of strengthening rule of law. But everyday this happens as it's part of our culture, as women deserve to have such a such a life. And then the interesting thing is that people then link it to family violence and domestic violence. As if a woman is victim of violence, she deserves to be killed. And there is no protection. We have cases like this that happen almost all over Afghanistan. No trial, no transparency, no accountability.

CO: Okay, we don't know who killed her at this point. No one has been arrested. But her family has talked about the violence that she faced in a marriage that she ended a couple of years ago. Her family seems to be very supportive of her. They filed a complaint, alleging the domestic violence. It was referred to family violence court in Afghanistan. That was dropped. The family protested. Mina Mangal, meanwhile, she wrote on Facebook that she'd received threats and she feared for her life. All of these things would indicate that she would need some protection and that wasn't there for her, was it?

FK: No, it was not there for her. And the sad thing is that those who are officials — are the security officials — and those who are in power — the man leaders — they have this mentality that if women ask for their rights, if women are vocal, if women go out to work, they are against the norms of the society. So they deserve to be killed. Almost every day, other women come to me with similar kind of threats that they receive on their phones by some kind of links of family members or colleagues or somebody who is not happy with her work. And the moment she refers to the courts or she refers to the police, police are the one who actually then start abusing her.

CO: Can you tell us a bit about Mina Mangal? She was well known as a TV journalist — a TV presenter — in Afghanistan before she went to work at Afghan parliament. What do you know about her?

FK: I don't know her personally. I only know her through TV. You know, she was a talented girl. It's not very common in Afghanistan that you divorce at a young age. But because she stood against the odds. And I think anyone in Afghanistan, any woman who stands against the odds, either through character assassination or through you know a physical killing; they try to put an end to her life.

CO: And we hear there are stories all the time about women and girls, and what happens to them in Afghanistan with this impunity that seems to be around. Do you worry for your own safety?

FK: No one is safe. As a woman, if I start breaking boundaries, say if I start to be vocal as she was, she was a TV presenter, and, of course, it's not very common in Afghanistan for a woman to work on TV and media. You know, I was also attacked many times, and you know by Taliban, by illegal militias. And up to now, still, there has been no investigation.

CO: The one thing that Mina Mangal seemed to have was a very supportive family. And her father told the BBC I have lost an intelligent and active daughter. I'm asking the government why they could not protect my working daughter. And I have lost her. I urged them to protect my other daughters and other women like them who come out of the home to serve our society. Is this a father who is going to see justice for the death of his daughter?

FK: We're trying our best. We will try to mobilize through my party also, but with other civil society activists. I know the government has other priorities. Elections are their priority. But I think the government should be able to protect its citizens. And the sad thing was that she was very young. I mean she was the new version of woman in Afghanistan, which I mean that's what they want you do. They want to silence the woman to give a message to other woman so that you know they become afraid and don't get out of their houses. We, in the meantime, want our international supporters like you know Prime Minister Trudeau and others to stand by woman of Afghanistan. Because women of Afghanistan are not only victims by Taliban wrong policies, but victim of our own government's wrong policies.

CO: I just mention that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has put out a statement in in support of Mina Mangal, and regretting what has happened to her and her death. But I appreciate you speaking with us tonight, Ms. Koofi. Thank you.

FK: Thank you.

JD: Fawzia Koofi is a former member of Afghanistan's parliament, and the leader of the political party "Movement for Change." We reached Ms. Koofi in Kabul. You can find that interview on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih

[Music: Instrumental]

Raptors buzzer shot

Guest: Dolly Kambo

SOUNDCLIP

ANNOUNCER: Kawhi up top. Looks at the clock, turns the corner, for the wiiiiiinnnn.

[Sound: Buzzer and an explosion of the crowd]

ANNOUNCER: It goes in!!! Kawhi Leonard with the game winner!

JD: It was like something out of a movie. Last night, Toronto Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard delivered, just as the buzzer rang out. It is a game seven that will go down in franchise history. The Raptors beat the Philadelphia 76ers 92 to 90. And for Dolly Kambo, That victory was personal… sort of. She's a huge Raps fan in Guelph, Ontario. She watched the game, along with 500 other guests, at a Punjabi wedding reception. We reached Dolly Kambo in Guelph, Ontario.

CO: Dolly, can you just set the scene for us at this wedding reception yesterday, and you are a little bit distracted, right?

DOLLY KAMBO: Oh my goodness, I was. Before even going to the wedding I was just thinking I don't want to miss the wedding because it is our family event, right? But then I didn't want to miss the Raptors game either. So it was just you know one of those days or the moments I should say so. So very destructive, you know? Both very important.

CO: A Punjabi wedding is quite something — especially this one like with about 500 people at this wedding.

DK: Definitely. It's very normal for us to have so many people at a wedding.

CO: Very exciting event, but yet, you're not the only one who's distracted, right?

DK: Oh no. Oh no. There were so many people they have their phones with them at the wedding. They were just watching you know that the scores of the game because the game had started at 7 o'clock. So you know? And then the wedding was like we had a cocktail from six to seven, and then I mean it was a little bit delayed. But everybody was on their phones checking the score.

CO: You took your phone with you. How were you watching the game on your phone?

DK: Oh my goodness, I had my son downloaded the Raptors app on my phone. I couldn’t have missed it.

CO: What did he think when you said I know I'm going to our relatives wedding reception, but can you download the app so I can watch the game during the wedding?

DK: You know, he laughed. But he knows his mom, you know? He knows how much we love basketball, and this was a very important game. He just laughed and downloaded it.

CO: And so you were watching it, other people were, the speeches had started, but people weren't able to focus. Is that what happened?

DK: That's exactly what happened. And then the host — the emcee — they noticed as well. But nobody was being very disrespectful or you know their eyes were on their phones, but their ears were like listening to what they are saying. So it was doing two things at the same time.

CO: OK. So when did the master of ceremonies realize that this is pointless. We're just going to have to turn this over to the game?

DK: Well, even in their speeches they were talking about Raptors games. So they kept people glued. They were mentioning that Okay, we know that the Raptors game is happening. Okay, this is the score. This is the score. So the people who didn't have their phones, they could actually hear you know where the game was heading. So when it was about ten seconds left, the last few seconds, then suddenly they said okay, the game's going to be on the big screen. And I just cannot describe you the happiness of that hall where that five hundred people were like oh my gosh.

CO: Okay so with these screens, there's a whole bunch of screens, it’s a big hall. And these are screens where at weddings you're seeing pictures of the bride and the groom as babies, you're seeing family pictures, you're seeing all of that, right? That's what these big screens are for.

DK: Exactly. There were about I think four to five screens in that hall.

CO: Okay, so this nail-biter of a game had been so close. And now, you're talking ten seconds. Many people are thinking this is going to go into overtime, right? What was it like watching that?

DK: Oh my goodness, everybody's like breath was like you know they were on hold. Nobody could think anything. It was like pitch silence first. And as soon as the basket was you know there, it was like it was so loud, so loud. People were waving, people were clapping, everybody got up from their seats, and they came to the dance floor. And it was just amazing. I felt like that I was actually watching the game myself. And like you know it was just… I just can't describe the feeling, you know?

CO: This all being described as probably just I guess only the single biggest moment in Toronto Raptors franchise history. So you didn't want to miss that.

DK: Oh no, definitely. And I don't think it was an epic moment that I don't think that. I don't know if it will happen again. I hope not we get into that situation where this thing happens. But it was like history was like a great basketball last night. And I'm so glad, so glad, that even at the reception that we were actually able to witness this.

CO: Did it change the wedding? Did people get back into the mood of the actual thing?

DK: They did. After that, like five minutes, everybody came, danced, and you know it felt like that so much… how do I describe this? There's a burden on your brain that you're thinking oh my gosh, oh my gosh, right? Like your tone. But as soon as the event happened, everybody was back into the normal routine. They were on the dance floor happily dancing away.

CO: Well Dolly, I'm glad you told us this story. And I think everyone has one of that of who was watching the game or part of it. And thanks for sharing yours.

DK: No problem. Thank you so much.

CO: Bye.

DK: Thanks. Bye-bye.

JD: Dolly Kambo watched last night's Raptors-76ers game seven from a wedding reception. We reached Ms. Kambo in Guelph, Ontario. That incredible, game winning shot by Kawhi Leonard when the buzzer rang out was heard around the world. And here's how that play was called, and how that call sounded, in Turkish, Mandarin, and Portuguese.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: Clips of the play in Turkish, Mandarin, and Portuguese.]

JD: That’s some awesome work. Those were the calls from last night's game winning shot in Turkish, Mandarin, and Portuguese. But the favourite call on social media came from the Korean announcers. Here is what their call sounded like.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: The call in Korean]

JD: That is what the end of the Raptors game sounded like last night to Korean language viewers.

[Music: Ambient]

Bread ends loaf

JD: It began like any day — with Timea Ganji's family chatting around the breakfast table in their kitchen in Nottinghamshire, England. And then, with an eye on the clock, Ms. Ganji started making her kids' lunches — which meant opening the bag with the loaf of bread inside. That was moment Timea Ganji ever experienced normally. Time stopped. The room suddenly felt ice-cold. All Ms. Ganji could hear was her own ragged breath, as she stared down at the impossible: a standard-sized bagged loaf of bread from Kingsmill Bakery — made up entirely of end pieces. With trembling hands, she flipped through the slices. This couldn't be real, she told herself. But it was: every single slice in that bag was a heel. The typically reserved BBC summed this tale of horror up with the anodyne headline, "Woman's surprise at Kingsmill loaf full of bread crusts." The Daily Mail came closer, with "Mother is left stunned after she opens a Kingsmill loaf to find it made entirely of CRUSTS." "CRUSTS," appropriately, is in all-caps. What do you mean, "Are there seriously news stories about a woman getting only end pieces in her bagged loaf of bread?" Of course there are stories about a women getting end pieces in her bagged loaf of bread! Stories that quote Timea Ganji saying, probably through sobs, although it's not mentioned, quote, "In the morning, I just wanted some toast and to make sandwiches and I was just staring at it. I don't really understand how it can happen." And "It just looked like a normal loaf when we bought it." Unquote. The bakery is investigating. And the rest of us are struggling to cope in a world where, suddenly, the most reliable foodstuff can betray us. Our deeply held trust in bread has instantly, and forever, become a loaf-hate relationship.

[Music: Island music]

Part two: Privacy song, Doris Day obit

Privacy song

Guest: Geoffrey Fowler

JD: Alexa wants to be your friend. And to sell you lots of stuff from Amazon. The company's Echo speaker activates when you say Alexa’s name. And Alexa helps you find out the weather, play music, buy stuff. But most people don't realize that Alexa also has a very good memory. She is recording everything you tell it — and those recordings can be listened to by Amazon employees. Geoffrey Fowler is a technology columnist with the Washington Post. He decided to find out just how much of his family's life his Echo had recorded. We reached Mr. Fowler in San Francisco.

CO: Geoffrey what are some of the private moments that you've discovered your Alexa device has been recording in your home over the past four years?

GEOFFREY FOWLER: It recorded a member of my family talking about some medication. It recorded a friend talking about a business deal that she was closing, and she didn't realize she was sitting next to a microphone. It also recorded random snippets of “Downton Abbey” for some reason that seemed to set it off somehow.

CO: And you had like spaghetti timer requests and the usual things you ask Alexa to give you, right? All that was recorded as well.

GF: That's right. From the last four years, there were thousands of these fragments of my life — kind of a unwelcome walk down memory lane. Because you know a lot of this stuff in the moment when it happened I never thought that it would be recorded and stored on a tech giant’s servers for them or anybody else to kind of go through.

CO: But it wasn't just the commands you made with the prompt word when you ask Alexa to do something. That was recorded and stored. But other things that you hadn't even prompted the device to listen and those recorded as well, is that right?

GF: That's right. So those random snippets of “Downton Abbey”. There's no Alexa character on “Downton Abbey”. I Found dozens of these cases where it just kind of went off on its own.

CO: How did you find out? What access did you get to your record?

GF: The crazy part is I didn't get any special access at all. Amazon keeps this list for anybody who uses an Alexa device. If you dig around a bit, you can find your way to Alexa privacy settings, and you know both listen to the recordings and delete them if you want to.

CO: But why does Amazon store all this information, all these snippets of our lives?

GF: That's the million dollar question… or maybe it's the billion dollar question for this whole industry. You know Amazon wants to treat this like kind of an either or. Either we have this great functionality of artificial intelligence and voice assistance that can be at our beck and call around the house. Or we can have our privacy. But I think that's not true. For example, Amazon's arch rival in this space is Google. And its assistant last year — Google Assistant — changed the way it works, and it no longer keeps the recordings of our conversations. So it doesn't really have to be this way.

CO: But is there any reason for it? I mean would there be a purpose? Will they use the material in any way?

GF: Sure. I suspect that one of the reasons that they're gathering this data is because they can. There's no laws against it really. And there's no industry standards that would stop them. And most people aren't aware it's happening. Now when you ask Amazon, they say that this is really about artificial intelligence. They use these recordings to keep training Alexa to recognize more accents, more voices, more weird sonic situations. But the question is how many of these recordings do they really need to get that done. And I think they've overreached here and are storing too much.

CO: But is it your sense that Amazon employees are listening to these recordings?

GF: So part of the way that you train artificial intelligence is you have humans tell it whether I got the thing right or wrong. So yes, Amazon has acknowledged they have humans sometimes who listen to these recordings to see if they got it right or wrong. And in some cases, we've learned through some reporting from Bloomberg that they even know the geographic location of the device that did the reporting.

CO: So not just finding out about what conversations are going on in your house, they know your address.

GF: That's correct.

CO: Okay.

GF: Now, you wanted to illustrate how much Alexa had recorded of your life. And you created a little song using her recordings, which you put to the tune of “This Land is Your Land”. And we're just going to play a little snippet here for our listeners. Here it is.

SOUNDCLIP

SONG: She spies on our homes to train her A.I. All of our questions, and even fart jokes. Amazon employees, they get to listen. Your voice now belongs to Amazon.

CO: [dry laugh] Okay, musically, not going to the hit parade. But you've made your illustration here. Fart jokes? Did they record your fart jokes?

GF: Oh indeed. I discovered when I was going through my collection of recordings that some houseguests had been asking Alexa a lot of questions about farts.

CO: Uh huh. Anyway, what you're describing and everything it's amusing. So it doesn't seem like it's dangerous in any way. It doesn't feel like a threat. And we know that people are willing to give up all kinds of private information to Facebook or whatever in exchange for this connectivity. So do you think that people really care?

GF: I think people do care. I think the world has changed a lot in the last year. I think we've realized that the tradeoffs that we made for Facebook turned out to really be not in our interests. And anytime data is collected, it can and will be used against you. And we're at danger of repeating some of those Facebook mistakes in our homes. And so that's what I think we really need to be aware of and to stop.

CO: We saw with Facebook people decided to delete Facebook when they found out how intrusive it was. So can people just unplug? Or has that train kind of left the station now?

GF: Well, Amazon says that its Echo Dot, so it’s least expensive Alexa speaker is the best-selling speaker of all time — of all humanity. So these things are already in millions and millions and millions of homes.

CO: But these speakers are just like training wheels, aren't they? I mean we're going to have something monitoring what's in our fridge, what we're eating for dinner, what we're reading, what we're doing when we're sleeping, what we're growing in our gardens. So I mean maybe we should just give it up?

GF: Well, that's certainly what Amazon wants, right? They want data about all these different things so of course they can sell us more things. But at the end of the day, I believe that technology is going to make our homes run better. That's going to make them run smarter. They're going to be more energy efficient. These are all things that this technology and data can help us get. But we don't have to give up our privacy in this way to make it happen. We just have to make the choices as consumers for the products that put the ownership of the data in our hands.

CO: I hope you're right. Otherwise, just unplug. Thanks, Geoffrey.

GF: You bet.

CO: Bye.

GF: Take care.

JD: Geoffrey Fowler is a tech columnist with The Washington Post. We reached in San Francisco. And we are more on this on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih

[Music: Deep pulse]

Climate emergency

JD: Today in the Ontario Legislature, NDP leader Andrea Horwath — the Leader of the Opposition — introduced a motion to recognize climate change as an imminent threat, and to declare a climate emergency in Ontario. Now, given that the Progressive Conservatives have a majority, the motion had little chance of passing. But it resonated strongly within Ms. Horwath's party — especially for Environment Critic Ian Arthur. The NDP MPP for Kingston and the Islands delivered an emotional speech in the Leg today. Here's part of what he had to say, for the record.

SOUNDCLIP

IAN ARTHUR: Canada is warming at three times the global rate. Flooding has quadrupled since 1980. I don’t know how to do this without this. It’s our world, speaker. One-thousand-three-hundred-and-twenty-five forest fires last summer in Ontario. Two-hundred-seventy-five thousand hectares. Seventy people dead in Montreal from a heat wave. We cannot feign ignorance. The signs have been there for decades. The government is ignoring global warming to the point of criminal negligence. What it is doing is unforgivable. It has dismantled what few environmental protections we had. The minister's climate change plan is a sham. It is nothing short than a dereliction of duty, and he will be remembered for overseeing the most regressive environmental policies of this century.

JD: That's NDP MPP and Environment Critic Ian Arthur speaking today in the Ontario Legislature. Rod Phillips is Ontario's Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. Speaking before Mr. Arthur, he defended the government's climate plan

SOUNDCLIP

ROD PHILLIPS: We talked about renewable natural gas. We talked about ethanol fuel standards. We talked about how we would manage emissions from our largest polluters. We talked about our carbon trust — 400 million dollars that would support investments that reduced carbon and carbon emissions. And we put all of those pieces together into a pragmatic and straightforward approach. When they talk about cap and trade as opposed to a carbon tax, the economists that they rely on for that advice know that a cap and trade or carbon tax system needs a price per tonne of carbon that is at least 10 to 15 times higher than Justin Trudeau's carbon tax. So if that is their plan, then speak about .50 cent a litre gasoline. Speak about 70 cents a litre gasoline, and stand up for it, and support it. And then we can debate the approaches that you have.

JD: For the record, that was Ontario's Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Rod Phillips, speaking today in the Ontario Legislature. He was responding to a motion from the NDP to declare a climate emergency. That motion did not carry.

[Music: Happy piano]

Doris Day obit

Guest: Tom Santopietro

JD: She was America's girl next door, in what's often referred to as a "simpler time". Except, of course, it wasn't simple at all — as Doris Day herself later said. Doris Day — the actress and singer known for her beautiful voice, and her light, virtuous on-screen persona — has died. She was 97 years old. In 1959’s "Pillow Talk", Doris Day plyys opposite Rock Hudson. Here's a clip of that film — which centred around a romance blossoming over a shared party line.

SOUNDCLIP

ROCK HUDSON: Miss Morrow, why are you so fascinated with my personal affairs?

DORIS DAY: I'm not fascinated, Mr Allen, revolted.

RH: You don't see me going down to the phone company complaining about your affairs.

DD: I have none to complain about.

RH: It figures.

DD: What do you mean it figures?

RH: Well obviously, you're a woman who lives alone and doesn't like it.

DD: I happen to like living alone.

RH: Look, I don't know what's bothering you. But don't take your bedroom problems out on me.

DD: I have no bedroom problems. There's nothing in my bedroom that bothers me.

RH: Oh, that's too bad.

DD: Mr. Allen, let's try to be adult about this, and work out some sort of schedule where I can make my business calls and you can make your… whatever you call the calls you make.

JD: That was Doris Day in her 1959 comedy "Pillow Talk". The actress and singer died today at her home in Carmel, California. She was 97 years old. Ms. Day is widely considered one of the top female box-office stars in Hollywood history — even though she had been out of the limelight for decades. Tom Santopietro wrote the 2007 biography "Considering Doris Day." We reached Mr. Santopietro in New York City.

CO: Tom, when you hear Doris Day and Rock Hudson having that exchange, what comes to mind for you?

TOM SATOPIETRO: Oh, the terrific chemistry that they had — which all was generated by the fact that they really liked each other in person. And it's a perfect pairing because Doris had such great energy, and he reacted with this kind of bemused detachment. And they met in the middle and sparks flew. It was really great.

CO: What is it about Doris Day that made you want to write a biography about her? And this wasn't that long ago. This was in 2007. Why did you want to do that?

TS: I really wanted to write about her because I think she's an enormous talent who never got her full due. And she's one of the great pop vocalists we've ever had, you know revered by everyone from Paul McCartney to Tony Bennett, and a terrific actress. So I wanted to look at that legacy and why she spoke to us and why she became literally the biggest movie star in the world.

CO: So I mean what do you think it was about Doris Day that appealed to the movie-going public so much?

TS: Well, I think it started with. She had that one in a million singing voice. It was such an intimate singing voice. And then it turned out she was so at ease in front of the camera, audiences felt comfortable with Doris Day. And I think what topped it off in terms of her appeal is the fact that she was really well liked by both men and women. And that's what makes a huge movie star.

CO: I guess that the image of her that we all know is of this very wholesome, all-American girl, the girl next door. This idea that she was pure, but though you know, and she knew, and she eventually made clear that this was a complete piece of mythology, wasn't it?

TS: It was a piece of mythology. Now, what was genuine was that she had a wholesome personality, and very optimistic. Where that it was a mythology was people mistaking that image on screen with her personal life — because Doris Day had a very difficult personal life.

CO: But there are those who I guess co-stars who joked that they knew Doris Day before she was a virgin. What did that mean to her? How did she feel about being regarded as America's perennial virgin?

TS: Well, she didn't like it. And you know she disliked the word image intensely. And I think what was one of the points I wanted to make in the book is exactly what you said. You know the wisecrack, I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin. That came from Oscar Levant. But if you look at those films, the films with Rock Hudson and James Garner, you know Doris Day is almost always an independent career woman with a fantastic job, a huge apartment that as a New Yorker, I could never figure out how she could afford that. But she really was a role model for so many women because there were very few people like that onscreen at the time.

CO: Just back to her relationships with men, she was married four times I believe. And three of those marriages ended in divorce. But even the marriage that did survive was troubled financially, wasn't it?

TS: Yes, this is where she had such difficulty. You know her first husband beat her while she was pregnant. And the second husband said I don't want to be Mr. Doris Day. And it was her third husband, and it was very sad because they were married for 20 years. And after he died, she discovered that in cahoots with a crooked lawyer, he had stolen her money. And it was really he was trying to, besides being dishonest, trying to escape the enormous shadow of Doris Day. So you know a very complicated legacy, which I think was part of the reason why she became this enormously influential animal rights activist. Because she said from the animals, there's nothing but unconditional love.

CO: There was one relationship that's quite famous and quite lovely, and that was her friendship with her co-star Rock Hudson. And somebody who was also considered had an image of being the sort of quintessential sexy guy. A man who came out as being gay, and then died of AIDS. She stayed with him the whole time, didn't she?

TS: She did, the whole time. And this, of course, is this is who Doris Day was — this very genuine, loving person. And so when Rock Hudson was dying of AIDS, Doris had a cable TV show at the time, and she wanted him on this show. And he really wanted to appear for her sake. And it was a shocking appearance because he was so sick. And my point being that this is a time back in the 80s. He was the first celebrity where we learned he had AIDS. And people it was like they were scared of saying the word, let alone touching anybody with AIDS. And there's Doris Day on camera, hugging her friend —because that's all that mattered to her.

CO: That was so significant, wasn't it? Because I mean it's there is still so much stigma around the disease. But at that time, people were shunned and avoided. And not even talked about when they had AIDS. And that embrace of Rock Hudson was so significant, wasn't it?

TS: It really was. I think it sent a signal to people you know in that same way that when you saw footage of Princess Diana hugging patients with AIDS, you know? It was saying to people we have to treat everybody the same. And we're in this together. And I thought it was an enormous testament to their enduring friendship. You know Doris and Rock had known each other for 30 years by then.

CO: You wrote about her. Your biography came at a time when she had been she was in her 80s, she had been out of the limelight for some time then. What did she think of you approaching this idea of writing about her at that point?

TS: Doris called me after the book came out, and she was so happy with the book. And I'm not saying that at all in the sense of being a wonderful writer. But I think mine was the first book that took her seriously as a great artist. And I was saying look; this is one of the great singers and versatile actresses of our time. And we had this fantastic talk for an hour on the phone. And I say to everybody that image you got on screen, she was even nicer on the phone.

CO: We are, of course, going to hear her voice in a moment singing. But I wonder if that's your best memory of Doris Day is singing “Que Sara Sara”? Or is another one — another image that stays with you?

TS: Any image of Doris Day singing stays with me. That sounds like a huge statement, but I really mean it. And you know if you're playing “Que Sara Sara”, that's a great choice because it became her theme song. And at first, she thought oh, this sounds like a nursery rhyme. I don't know if I want to sing this. And then she came to embrace the philosophy in the song. It really helped her deal with all the ups and downs of her career and life and how she remained optimistic.

CO: Tom, thank you.

TS: Thank you very much.

CO: Bye

JD: Tom Santopietro wrote the biography "Considering Doris Day." We reached him in New York City. You can look for that and more on the life of Doris Day on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih. Doris Day died today. She was 97 years old.

[Music: Piano]

Part three: FOA: Derek Boogaard anniversary, homeless Vatican

FOA: Derek Boogaard anniversary

JD: Today marks eight years since the death of NHL player Derek Boogaard. Mr. Boogaard was an enforcer. He died of an accidental drug overdose. And to commemorate the anniversary of her son's death, Joanne Boogaard published a letter to Derek in the Regina Leader-Post. She writes about how much the family misses him. She also says that the research done on his brain will help athletes in the future, as researchers learn more about the effects of brain injury in sport. A year after Derek Boogaard's death, we spoke with his father, Len — who has made it his mission to understand the circumstances of his son's death. From our archvies, this is Carol's conversation with Len Boogaard.

CO: Mr. Boogaard, what compelled you to begin digging into the circumstances of Derek's death?

LEN BOOGAARD: Derek, Derek was an addict. And he had gone into rehab in September of 2009. Subsequently, he relapsed. And during his relapse, there were questions that I had, inconsistencies in his treatment, etc. Every time I would ask a question you know the door would basically be slammed in my face. And to me that was a red flag.

CO: Asking questions of whom?

LB: Well, there were certain incidents that had taken place. I knew that Derek was being prescribed Ambien…

[crosstalk]

CO: That's a sleeping pill.

LB: Yes it is. Yes. So he was addicted to Ambien. I knew that during his tenure with the Rangers that he was being prescribed Ambien. So after his death, you know I had asked one of the NHL substance abuse doctors you know whether or not you know somebody that had a concussion was allowed to be prescribed Ambien. So he subsequently referred it to the other doctor from the substance abuse committee. And I never heard back from that doctor.

CO: You started to dig into a bit of a paper trail on the prescriptions, who was issuing them, trying to find out who knew what and when they prescribed some of these drugs to your son Derek. What did you discover?

LB: It wasn't surprising what he was being prescribed for. And I could understand initially why he was being prescribed. I knew that you know during his latter years, particularly the last three years of his career, that he had sustained a number of injuries, and that he would be prescribed pain medication for those injuries, etc. I guess I was surprised at the amounts and the extent.

CO: Give us a sense if you would of the range of drugs he was getting and how many of those drugs he was getting?

LB: Well, it was just dependent upon the circumstances. I can give you an example in October of 2009, Derek had gotten into a fight. So he had lost one of his teeth. So he went to a dentist after it that happened. The dentist prescribed him with Vicodin. And then during the course of the next almost 30 days, he would receive seven prescriptions for Vicodin.

CO: And Vicodin is what?

LB: Is an opiate. It's an addictive opiate.

CO: So he was in rehabilitation in 2009. It was on his record that the substance abuse committee was looking after him — supposedly looking after him. He changed teams. He went from the Wild to the Rangers during this time. Do you have a sense that any of the information about Derek's addiction was being passed on to other doctors? Were they aware of it? Were they giving him prescriptions with the knowledge that he had substance abuse problems?

LB: Initially, when Derek had signed with the Rangers, he had met with somebody, a fellow by the name of Doug Risebrough. And Doug Risebrough was the general manager of the Minnesota Wild. And he was the one responsible for bringing Derek into the Wild organization. When Doug left the Minnesota Wild organization, he joined the Rangers organization. And in June of 2010, just prior to the free agency draft, Derek and Doug had sat down. And they had discussed at length you know Derek's previous problems — his addiction problems. So going into it, the Rangers were cognizant of Derek's addiction problem. There's no doubt in my mind. I would subsequently learn that you know in September of 2010, that Derek was back on the oxy. So I got a hold of the Rangers. I let the Rangers know what was going on. And I was under the assumption that they were gonna do something for him.

CO: One of the things you've discovered that was reported in The New York Times, which has written extensively about this, is that there was a Rangers doctor who knew that your son had an addiction to sleeping pills in the past. And yet, he wrote nearly ten prescriptions for Ambien, the sleeping pill, during Derek's one season with the team.

LB: That's correct.

CO: Is there anyone who you tried to get to answer for that?

LB: Well, I managed to get the doctor's records. And it looked initially like he did due diligence. He got a hold of Dr. Lewis at the NHL Substance Abuse Committee because in his notes, he indicate that he was aware of that Derek had a problem. And so then they decided on another drug called Restoral. And there was one prescription for that. And then for reasons unknown the doctor just started prescribing Derek Ambien again.

CO: Derek was also getting pills — prescription drugs — off the street.

LB: That’s correct.

CO: Did the doctors know about that?

LB: I would imagine that you know when he was in rehab the first time, yes, this all came out.

CO: What do you make of all this? I mean he had multiple doctors as players at that level do. And they're looking after different things, different injuries, different specialists. Is it just a matter of records weren't being kept well enough? Or do you think that at some level they didn't have his best interest in mind?

LB: These players, they’re you know they're a status symbol in the community. The players are held up on a pedestal. And you know everything is catered to them, their every want, their every whim. And there's no doubt in my mind that some of the doctors are you know in that same category where they look up to these players. And you know these are professional athletes, and this is their job. And you know they're going to get injured. And you know we have to get them back on the ice as quickly as possible. So you know let's medicate them.

CO: But isn't that a conflict of interest of that the doctors they're treating them, it's a status thing, get them back out on the ice, that's the objective, not the health of the player himself?

LB: From what I've seen over the years, the majority of the players are just cannon fodder. You know if a player gets injured, he doesn't want to sit out because he knows that there's you know a thousand kids or other players that are standing behind him waiting to take his spot. So the players, and as well as the doctors, are quite prepared to take the medications or dole out the medication.

CO: What do you want to come of this? You've spent a lot of time digging out these files. You pried it out of their fingers. They weren't going to give it to you, and you still didn't get a lot of the names and the data that you should have had. What do you plan to do with this now?

LB: I guess to sum it up is that you know life is all about choices. And with those choices come the consequences. And, unfortunately, Derek you know made some poor choices, and you know he's responsible in a large extent for you know for his own death, etc. But there are other people that enabled that. And when I sit back, and I look at you know the documentation that I was able to comply the things that should have been done that weren't done. You know even as an example that after you know, I had informed the Rangers of Derek being back on the oxy, I managed to get a hold of the drug testing records. And Derek was being tested almost two or three times a week, and he was failing those drug tests. And he started failing those drug tests in December of 2010. And they just ramped right up until up until the first week in April of 2011. And you know he was testing positive for morphine, you know oxycodone, oxymorphone, but nothing was done. So why have a drug testing system in place if you're not going to look at the results or do anything about it? And so it's one of these I guess there's got to be accountability in terms of the doctors, the substance abuse program, etc. My goal in this I guess is to prevent this happening to any other players.

CO. Mr. Boogaard, I know this has been really difficult to talk about. But I really appreciate you telling us this story. And I do hope it results in not having any more deaths of this kind among the players.

LB: Great. Thanks very much for your time.

CO: Bye-bye.

LB: Bye.

JD: From June of 2012, that was Carol in conversation with Len Boogaard, father of the late NHL player Derek Boogaard. Today marks eight years since Derek Boogaard’s death.

[Music: Acoustic guitar]

FOA: Janet Kitz obit

JD: In 1917, the city of Halifax was rocked by a massive explosion. And for decades after, there was very little written about the events or the people that had been affected — until Janet Kitz began her research. Ms. Kitz was one of the most prominent historians on the Halifax Explosion. She immigrated to Nova Scotia from Scotland in 1971. Not long after that, as a student at Saint Mary's University, she began her research. She would publish three books on the explosion, including the very well-known "Shattered City." Her work looked at the stories of the people who had died in the explosion — and those who survived. Janet Kitz died on Friday. She was 89 years old. In December 2017, 100 years after the Halifax Explosion, Ms. Kitz spoke to CBC Nova Scotia's "Mainstreet", about how she got started with her research. Here's an except from that interview.

SOUNDCLIP

JANET KITZ: I was doing courses at Mary’s, and had to do a term paper. [sighs] The subjects which were suggests that didn't interest me as much as all that. And then the professor said do you know much about the Halifax Explosion? And I said No, I don't. Well, he said you might be interested. So I started doing research. And when I showed him some of the work I'd done, he said this is interesting and exciting. You should go ahead with it. You've dug up some things that I've never heard of before. So I went ahead with it. Then Marie Elwood, who was curator of history at Nova Scotia Museum, phoned me and said you know there are boxes of explosion-related mortuary bags. These were the linen bags with drawstring tops, which were used to put the effects of people who ended up in the official mortuary. And some of them were never identified. I would find if, I checked and address, the whole family had gone. So there was nobody to identify these — some of them. The person who was in charge of the mortuary was a provincial civil servant. And so when the mortuary was eventually closed, he put the unclaimed belongings — the bags of unclaimed belongings — in the basement of Province House. So Marie and I went along to see them. Well, first thing I lifted out was a child's school exercise book — a notebook from Richmond school. And there was a list of spelling words on the first page, which ended lull eternity away forever. Well, as we crouched in that basement, we were both shivering practically. You know it was a strange sensation. But we both agreed that it was high time something was done with them.

JD: That was an excerpt from a 2017 interview with Janet Kitz, an historian of the Halifax Explosion. Janet Kitz passed away on Friday.

[Music: World music]

Homeless Vatican

Guest: Cecilia Carponi

JD: Hundreds of homeless residents, living in an abandoned building in Rome, have just seen the light — literally. In the building on Via di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, it has been occupied since 2013. Recently, officials turned off its electricity, after years of unpaid bills. But this past weekend, however, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski personally intervened. Cardinal Krajewski an aide to the Pope. And he himself reactivated the electricity supply to the building — despite opposition from local authorities. Cecilia Carponi is a member of the Spin Time Lab collective, that is an activist group that occupies the building, and provides shelter to homeless residents. We reached MS. Carponi just outside the building, in Rome.

CO: Ms. Carponi, can you describe this moment when the lights came back on — when Cardinal Krajewski was able to throw the switch?

CECILIA CARPONI: Yes, of course. It was an amazing moment. Everybody was so happy that they started to dance and sing and shout. It was a very moving moment.

CO: And how many people are living in this building?

CC: Nearly 500. Thirty per cent of these people are Italian, and the rest of them come from all over the world. And we have 98 children, and also people which are in very delicate health conditions.

CO: How long had they been going without electricity in that building before the Cardinal came?

CC: Since last Monday morning. So six days.

CO: Five hundred people living in this building, 100 kids, and they had no electricity, no refrigerators, no power of any kind?

CC: Exactly, and no water because the higher levels needs electric power to bring the water on.

CO: The authorities, why had they shut the power off to that building?

CC: Because the bills weren't paid for a long period of nearly six years. And that's why they decided to take the electricity away from us.

CO: So this Cardinal is an aide to the pope. He's in the Vatican. How did he get involved?

CC: Because we have a nun which works inside the building. She has a workshop with the occupants, but also open to the citizens — to all the city. And she realized that this situation was becoming tougher and tougher. And she decided to call Konrad Krajewski, which had already had people living inside the building. There is a woman which has a bad heart condition, but she hasn't money in order to buy the meds. So I don't know how many months ago he came inside the building, and took a list of meds for her, and came back with all the meds pay on his expenses.

CO: So this Cardinal had helped with medication before for people.

CC: Yes.

CO: He's part of the charitable mission at the Vatican. But he wasn't just bringing some help. He actually climbed down into a manhole to restore the power. How do people react when they saw this Cardinal from the Vatican going to do that?

CC: [laughs] We were very surprised. In fact, when he said I want to go and see the electric power centre, we said it may be a tiny little bit dangerous. I don’t know. You need to go downstairs. But he said no, I really want to go. I need to go. And we discovered after that that he was an electrician before becoming…

[crosstalk]

CO: Cardinal.

CC: Priest. Yes. And he went downstairs, and he did it on his own with his bare hands.

CO: OK…

[crosstalk]

CC: Amazing!

CO: So at this point, the lights are back on, everyone's cheering, okay. But the electrical company is not happy. What happened? The police I guess came?

CC: Yes, five minutes later that the electricity went back on, the society which requests the electricity arrived, and they wanted to take the electricity power away again. But all the people were exactly on the spot from which you can go downstairs. And we avoid that they take the electricity away again.

CO: And I understand people — the occupants — were shouting as this happened, and preventing the police from turning off the lights again. They said without light there is no life. We cannot live.

CC: Exactly. Yes, exactly. It's true.

CO: Okay. Now, you referred to this as an occupation — the fact that there live living there illegally or they are regard it as not being legally in this building — is that what's at the sort of the heart of this?

CC: Clearly, it's an occupation. So it's illegal. But the occupants an association which works inside the building, we really want to pay the bills. The problem is that the bills are now on house order expenses. And it's not possible to transfer the debt to the occupants.

CO: So if I understand what you're saying, is that three hundred thousand euros is what's owed here. Even if you had the money, they wouldn't take it from you?

CC: No, because we should give the money to property and ask the property to give the money to this electrical society. And he clearly wouldn't. That's why we want that bills are on our name — on the name of the occupation.

CO: Uh huh. Because are they trying to force these people out of the building?

CC: Yeah.

CO: Okay. It seems though that the Interior Minister of Italy, Matteo Savini, is part of the right-wing government of Italy. They are opposed to your occupation. They're opposed to this idea of the electricity going back on again. Is that because a lot of the people there are they refugees? Are they immigrants?

CC: Yes. Yes, that's why. They know that the 30 per cent of the people living inside the building are Italian. And also, there is huge and massive arrestees phenomenon. So Savini is saying that before helping foreigners, the Cardinal should have helped Italians. But the truth is the Cardinal help everybody — Italian or coming from all over the world. He just helped people in need.

CO: All right. We will leave it there. Ms. Carponi, I appreciate you telling us this story. Thank you.

CC: Thank you.

CO: All right. Goodnight.

CC: Goodnight.

JD: Cecilia Carponi is a member of the Spin Time Lab collective. We reached her in Rome.

[Music: Sad piano]

Chow chow owner

JD: Dolly is what you would call a showy creature. But she can't really help it. She's a Chow Chow. And though her owner, Joyce Lappin, takes her to a hair salon to help her look her best, she was concerned about the negative attention her pet was attracting when the two went out for drives around Nova Scotia. Here’s Ms. Lappin, in conversation with CBC reporter Jon Tattrie.

SOUNDCLIP

JOYCE LAPPIN: Well, it's shocking for most people. They actually double take thinking I might have a bear or a lion with me, and especially little kids. Their eyes just almost pop right out of their heads. Her appearance is definitely people double take. Well, I know when we drive down the roads… she needs to go for a car rides because that's what chows like. Because they like the cool breeze on their face, and they like to smell things.

JON TATTRIE: What sort of concerns have people had?

JL: Well, it's because, John, she literally hangs. Like she doesn't even grip on. Her legs just hang right out. It’d be one thing if she was tucked in more with just her paws hanging out over the edge. But it almost looks like she's falling out of the car. But inside the car, she's actually connected with like a harness and almost like someone would use to go say on a roof or clean windows. She's got a four-point harness which is connected to the back seat of the driver's side. She just looks like she's ready to jump. And, of course, to people that are that care about a, first of all, what's he going to do to the dog's well-being? And b, an accident. And nobody wants to run over a dog.

JT: So there's no way she can get out of the car, but you wanted to kind of reassure people. So how did you decide to put that sign on the side of your vehicle?

JL: Well, the last time I got pulled over… mind you, she was a lovely RCMP officer — it was in Coal Harbour. And I saw the lights four or five cars back, and I thought oh no there's an accident. Oh no, she was coming to see me. She said I'm really sorry, but it looks like your dog's going to jump out the window. And most people like myself you know we don't want to see any harm done to the dog. Even though the dog's harnessed in, could you please bring your dog in? And other people would roll like they roll down their windows when they come up to me at the lights, and go is your dog gonna jump? Is your dog safe? And so let's just try to avoid it all. Yeah.

JT: What does the sign say?

JL: Oh, the sign says hello, my name is Dolly. And I am harnessed in for safety.

JT: And has that had an effect? Do people read?

JL: They love it. They go thank you. Thank you very much. That's an excellent idea. What I did was after I contacted the RCMP in Coal Harbour, and I talked to the girl there at the desk, and I said to her I just want you to know that I've done this. And if the police officer ever sees me out and about and I didn't want her to be thinking I was cheeky I'm not taking on her advice. It's just the dog cannot go for a car ride without hanging out the window like that.

JD: That was Joyce Lappin speaking with CBC Halifax reporter Jon Tattrie. How about you? How much do your dogs like going for drives in the car? We bet you've got some stories. Give us a call: 416-205-5687. Send us an email, maybe a pic: aih@cbc.ca

[Music: Horn]

Dateline: Spanish slide

JD: Dateline: Estepona, Spain.

[Music: Dateline theme]

JD: Apparently, grown-up politicians in the town of Estepona agreed that a slide down a steep incline between two streets was a great idea. That maybe someone said, "No, it is a bad idea, and very dangerous," and someone else said, "No, it is a good idea and fun and safe," and then the first person said, "I understand now, objection withdrawn, let's make the huge steep slide." Because there it is: a slide, 38 metres long — that's 124 feet — at an angle ranging between 32 and 34 degrees, smack-dab in the middle of the town. Apparently, the walk between the two streets used to take ten minutes. And you can take the new walkway if you want. But the main attraction is the slide — which starts at the top of a dirt heap and ends in a big pit of sand. And at the top, there is a list of safety instructions: sit up, one at a time, and keep your arms in. And yet, 24 hours after its grand opening, the slide was ungrandly closed. We'll update you when we find out why. Quick update now: the 38-metre slide with no guardrails that sends people flying into a pit of sand has caused several injuries and everyone's mad about it. Someone tweeted that it's a, quote, "danger to citizens." Someone else put up a photo of her scraped elbows after a trip down — adding, "I'm not putting up one of my butt, which is worse." And a tweeted video shows someone hurtling down the slide at astonishing speed before rocketing off the end, and almost right out of frame. Town council has pointed out that a thousand people went down without incident on the very first day day. But they're having the company that built it do a safety review anyway. And if it checks out, I guess you'll be able to go down again — if you're so inclined to be so dangerously inclined.

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May 13, 2019 transcript

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