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The AIH Transcript for May 21, 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: Small mercies. the wildfires in northern Alberta are enormous, dangerous, and growing. So our guest is grateful that her family is safe. And that her neighbours stepped in to save her animals.

JD: Hard to stomach. A new study finds that in Nunavut, more households than ever are short on nutritious, affordable food — eight years after Ottawa created a program to solve that problem.

CO: Driving range. The late Niki Lauda was back on the track just weeks after nearly dying in a 1976 crash — just one example of the Formula 1 driver’s talent and tenacity.

JD: The toes of the town. While taking his boss's dogs for a swim in New Zealand, a truck driver discovers the perfectly preserved footprints of an ancient flightless bird called a “moa”.

CO: Can't spell developing knowledge without decay. Shari Forbes is the director of Canada's first “body farm”. Where she and others will study what happens to dead people as they decompose.

JD: And thanks for the wasp-bitality. For six months, every doctor John Wright saw about his pain missed the point, until one found it: a stinger that was embedded in his neck the whole time.

JD: As It Happens, the Tuesday edition. Radio that hopes he's covered for pre-existing conditions.

[Music: Theme]

Part one: Alberta fires, Niki Lauda obit, wasp sting diagnosis

Alberta fires

Guest: Jennifer Brewer

JD: The wildfires in northwestern Alberta are out of control. And dry, windy weather means there is no clear end in sight. One of the biggest fires right now is raging near the town of High Level, about 730 kilometers north of Edmonton. Last night, an evacuation was ordered for the community of more than 4 thousand people. Jennifer Brewer lives in High Level. And when she was told to leave, she didn't just have herself and her family to worry about. She had to worry about her animals as well. We reached Jennifer Brewer in La Crete, Alberta.

CO: Jennifer, how are you doing? Are you in a safe place now?

JENNIFER BREWER: Yes, me and my family are safe. And we are being looked after.

CO: Okay, that’s all you can ask at this point. When did you get notice that you had to leave your home?

JB: It was early afternoon yesterday. And I live just south of High Level, in between the mill — the Norbord Mill — and the town of High Level.

CO: And was it apparent to you… I mean you were obviously keeping an eye on yourself. Did it look as though yeah, I gotta get out of here?

JB: Oh, 100 per cent, 100 per cent. It almost looked apocalyptic. The sky was just red and black. And you could just see the smoke just fill the sky. It's hard to explain. It's hard to explain because you're not really thinking about it. You just want to go, and you want to pack your stuff and get somewhere else.

CO: Not just your stuff, but you had four kids you had to get ready.

JB: I did. I do. I have four kids, and I had some chickens and a couple rabbits and my dog. Plus I work at the Humane Society in High Level, and I was checking and making sure that we had plans for them as well.

CO: And what did you have at the Humane Society? What kind of animals that needed help?

JB: So we have dogs and cats there. I'm one of the attendants. We had four dogs I believe in our care at this time. And then six cats were there. I put a call out to some volunteers, and I contacted the president and stuff on the on our board. And we got people coming in building crates. And then called volunteers and shipped them all out yesterday.

CO: Wow! All of this, and plus trying to figure out how you can get your own family. What did you do with your own animals — your rabbits and chickens?

JB: So I hauled them to a farm just north of us — a friend's place. And then a lot of other people with cattle, and horses, and goats, pigs. They hauled theirs to various farms. I know people were offering up stock trailers. There's other communities down south that was offering up places in barns and fields and offering up seeds. And just a place for anything and everything you could possibly imagine.

CO: Okay, then you had to focus on your family. So how were your children taking all of this?

JB: They were worried. My youngest is four, and my oldest is 12. And we were pretty open about it. We let them know what was happening and that we had to leave and that a fire was coming. And so they were pretty worried and concerned. But we did reassure them that everybody was safe and we were going to make sure that our family was safe and our friends were safe. And firefighters and other operators and staff were going to keep our house safe as they could, and our community safe as well.

CO: So where are you staying now?

JB: We're just staying at a friend's house. They've luckily put us up. In all of our surrounding communities, people have opened up their homes, offered their campers, offered their yards, anything and everything. They are amazing. And I am so grateful to live where I do, and to know these people in the surrounding communities. And just that they were just so willing to take in everybody.

CO: You're so right. And, of course, you would do the same for them I'm sure?

JB: One hundred per cent. One hundred per cent. And this is a small town — these communities are small — and you know everybody almost. I'm blown away. But honestly, everybody is helping everybody. Just the support has been amazing.

CO: But this isn't the first time you've had to evacuate from fire. And I'm just wondering if this is starting to feel like a kind of new normal for northern Alberta? Are you feeling that you have to be ready all the time in this season?

JB: There's always a chance for sure. This isn't our first wildfire. This is kind of the first one that's actually threatened our community. We evacuated a couple of years ago because a fire had reached the log deck, which is the mill just south of us. But this is kind of the first time where we felt like we might not come back to our home. But I mean like it’s fire season. And we know that it's a possibility. And hard to explain, but we kind of know that the possibility of a fire is there. And so we have a plan to leave and we have a plan of what we’re going to do and where we're going to stay and stuff.

CO: And I'm sure that the kids pick up on that, that you know up to, you've got your plan, nobody panics, and that's so important, isn't it?

JB: Yeah, 100 per cent. We just trying to stay calm and make sure that nobody was panicking kind of thing. And honestly, I did not see any of that yesterday — none. People just were packing and going about their way. And if anybody needed help they were helping. And neighbours were helping everybody. Like neighbours just going over to another person's house to help them hook up their trailer, or fill it up with water, or anything.

CO: Well Jennifer, I'm really happy that you're safe where you are. And I hope nothing happens to your house. But thanks for speaking with us.

JB: Thank you so much.

CO: Take care.

JB: K, bye.

JD: Jennifer Brewer was one of more than 4,000 people evacuated from High Level, Alberta yesterday because of wildfire. We reached Ms. Brewer in La Crete.

[Music: Percussive jazz]

Niki Lauda obit

Guest: John Watson

JD: Niki Lauda was considered one of the greatest race car drivers of all time. The Austrian sportsman won three world championships — winning his second and third titles, incredibly, after nearly dying in a crash in 1976:

SOUNDCLIP

ANNOUNCER: World champion Niki Lauda was helicoptered to hospital from the notorious Nürburgring Circuit this afternoon, after his Ferrari had crashed and caught fire on the second lap of the German Grand Prix.

JD: Here is Niki Lauda himself in 2015 remembering the accident on BBC Radio:

SOUNDCLIP

NIKI LAUDA: There were basically two or three drivers trying to get me out of the car. But one was to the Italian guy, who also had to stop at the scene because I blocked the road. And he really came into the car himself and triggered my seat belt loose and then pulled me out. It was unbelievable how he could do that. And I met him afterwards, and I said how could you do it? He said honestly, I do not know, but to open your seatbelt was so difficult because you were pushing so hard against it. And when it was open, I got you out of the car like a feather he said. So he must have had so much strength in this situation with a fire that he just got me out, thank God. The things I remember that I was at one stage so bad that I knew that I was going to die now. I was seeing myself falling backwards into a black hole. And so I said Jesus Christ, I am dying. So what can I do? Let's listen to the doctors. Let's stay awake. Don't fall unconscious. And keep your brain working. And this I think was essential to stay alive. At least that's what the doctor said in the end.

JD: That was race car driver Niki Lauda on the BBC, recalling the 1976 crash that almost killed him. Niki Lauda did die yesterday. He was 70 years old. John Watson was one of Mr. Lauda's Formula 1 teammates. We reached him in Oxford.

CO: John, I'm sorry for your loss.

JOHN WATSON: I mean Nicki's is a huge loss. I mean, first of all, to his close family and friends. I was very lucky to have a friendship with Nicki for a long, long time. And on two different occasions, we were teammates — once at Brabham, and then at McLaren in 82 and 83. I liked the guy a lot. I enjoyed being with him a lot. He was fun. A smart guy, that was one of the things that came through. He understood precisely what he wanted, he knew how to achieve it, and he set about achieving it.

CO: I want to ask you about the race that stays in everyone's minds. And that is what happened in the German Grand Prix in 1976, with that horrible crash.

JW: Indeed.

CO: You were there. What did you witness that day?

JW: Well, I came around about maybe a minute or maybe less after the accident had taken place. And the other drivers that were very close by and slightly got involved with the end of Nicki's accident were in the process of extracting him from what was still a burning car. And a very courageously did so. So once Nicki was out of the car, we moved him away further up the racetrack to get him into a safer position, got him to lie down on the circuit. I knelt down, and he put his head in my lap so that we were able to keep him calm, talk to him. You understand he's been injured, but he's not in any danger. We didn't know that he'd inhaled all these horrible toxic fumes. We just assumed he had nasty burns. So the ambulance came and removed him, took him to hospital, and it was only then a couple of days later that the news had come out that he was actually tragically ill — that these toxic fumes that had gotten into his lungs.

CO: And extensive burns to his body though. But those were the things that were really threatening his life.

JW: No, no, not at all. The things that really threatened his life where the injuries to his lungs, so that was the concern that he could lose his life as a consequence of that. But he had received his last rites. A priest had come in. He thought he was coming in to have a general conversation. He didn't actually anticipate that the pace was going to give him his last rites. And he decided well, I don't want to go yet. I'm too young. And he basically then used the power of his thought and mind to get his body back to recovery.

CO: But he was back at the race track 40 days later. What did you make of that comeback?

JW: Well, I think that was the most amazing thing I've seen certainly in terms of sport. The most courageous thing I've ever seen. To come back after you've been injured as he was, and very unpleasant injuries because the burns are still very, very raw, and his was head was bandaged up. Without getting too graphic, there was certainly seepage from the bandages. Yet, he was prepared to get into a race car, compete in a Grand Prix for whatever the length of time an hour and a half was, and then he finished fourth not Grand Prix, which I mean defies what I understand courage to be. But that was the character of the man.

CO: But that didn't stop him, did it — because that was just his comeback. He went on to be to be spectacularly successful in Formula 1, didn't he?

JW: Yes, he did. I mean after the Grand Prix, he continued racing up until the end of 1979, when he retired for the first time because he had a growing interest and passion in aviation. And he established Lauda Air. But then struggled a little bit in the early ‘80s. So he came back to the race cockpit and came to race. We became teammates for a second time at McLaren. And in 1984, he then succeeded in making it three world championships so that he retired finally and went off and re-established Lauda Air. And the third and final phase of his life was actually coming back into motor racing, but in a team management role, first, with the Jaguar team, but more recently, with Mercedes Benz in a non-executive director role. And one might say that Nicki's influence in the team has played a large part in the success that the Mercedes Benz has enjoyed over the past five seasons.

CO: I want to ask you what motivated Nicki Lauda? I mean I guess anyone who races like this. And just I’m quote what Nicki lauda had told The Telegraph in 2015. He said Formula 1 is simply about controlling these cars and testing your limits. This is why people race — to feel the speed, the car, and the control. If in my time you push too far you would have killed yourself. You have to balance on that thin line to stay alive.

JW: Yes, I think I’d add another compound into that. And that is competing against another driver. So that's the final element in the elements that Nicki was outlining. And he proved to be extremely successful in an era as you have pointed out that was very dangerous indeed. Many drivers tragically lost their lives. And many other drivers were severely injured. In Nicki's case, he was one of the drivers that suffered severe burns, which he carried all the way through his life. He never, never, felt the need to go and have plastic surgery to quieten down the scarring that his face carried all the way through his life. He said look, I'm the same person I was before I got burnt. Why would you not like me now? What's my face got to do with anything?

CO: You mention about how unsafe those courses were during the time that we're talking about. But he went on to really push for those circuits to be improved, didn't he? To make them safer. He said that some of them should not have been considered for a Grand Prix circuit. So some of the courses they were on. So was he able to influence the safety of Formula One as well?

JW: Well, first of all, he was avery clear spokesperson for the drivers en masse. The race that Nicki might have been alluding to was the final race in 1976, which was the Championship Finale in Japan, where there had been monsoon levels of rain falling throughout the day, and the racetrack was saturated. The race did start and the conditions were extremely taxing. I was a part of all that event. Nicki felt, and I don't know why, I think it may have been certain physical reasons. Because one of the problems he had was a tear duct in one of his eyes. There was scarring in the tear duct, and he hadn't got control over that. So I think he just felt uncomfortable. And I think he took a chance and said look, I'm not going to take that chance. I'm gonna pull out. If James Hunt wins the race, he wins the World Championship. James had to finish first, second, or third, and Nikki not finish in the points to win the championship. By withdrawing, it was an open door for James. And he went on and finished third and concluded the championship. It took courage to do what Nikki did in Japan, make no mistake. To stand up to the might of your team principal, Mr. Ferrari, and say I'm stopping because I don't feel it's safe to continue took as much courage as it did for him to get into the car in the first place.

CO: What was that rivalry he had with the driver James Hunt? Tell me about that?

JW: Well, they were contemporaries from an earlier age in Junior Formulas. They also, ironically, were close friends. They got on very well. And I mean if you can imagine, on the one hand, this sort of tall, blond archetypical good looking Brit. and this slightly what you’d have called maybe less handsome middle European Austrian. But they just clicked — the chemistry clicked. They became close friends and mates. But, of course, on the racetrack, they were rivals.

CO: But they still stayed friends?

JW: Oh yes. I mean tragically, James Hunt died 24 or 25 years ago now. But Nicki and James were friends up until we lost James.

CO: John, I really appreciate you telling us about Nicki Lauda, and what he was like on the course. Thank you so much.

JW: Thank you, Carol.

CO: Bye-bye.

JD: John Watson is a former Formula 1 driver, and a teammate of Nicki Lauda. We reached Mr. Watson in Oxford, England. Nicki Lauda died yesterday. He was 70 years old. And you can find more on the life of Nicki Lauda on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Ambient]

Wasp sting diagnosis

Guest: John Wright

JD: For six long months, John Wright was in and out of emergency rooms, with confusing and debilitating pain. Back in Canada, on the heels of a family trip to China, he was feeling pins and needles all over his body, all the time. Doctors tested him for everything under the sun. The found nothing, until he saw one doctor who finally cracked the case. The culprit: a wasp stinger, lodged in Mr. Wright’s neck. We reached John Wright in Toronto.

CO: John, it sounds like you've had a pretty rough six months. How are you feeling now?

JOHN WRIGHT: I’m actually quite well. I’m 99 per cent free of the symptoms. And I'm doing very well thanks.

CO: How did you come to be stung by this wasp?

JW: [slight laugh] We were on holiday. Our family, we were on a private tour. We left Beijing early in the morning. And by about mid-morning, outside of Beijing, arrived at a strip of the Great Wall of China. On the way down, my daughter, who has very long blond hair, had something fly into it. And sort of flicked her hair, and a wasp landed just on the left hand side of my neck — about the middle part of it — and stung me really badly. And that was the beginning of what then you know progressed over the next six months.

CO: Did you immediately have these symptoms that you later go all this treatment for?

JW: I didn't really notice anything for a couple of weeks. But then again, it seemed to progress. So the first thing that I noticed was about three to four weeks later, where I was heading to bed one night. And it felt like a little bug scattering down my neck. I literally slapped my neck a couple of times. And then what happened was this tingling sensation began over about two-and-a-half weeks — to the point where I kept track of it every single day. It began with kind of a tingling in or around where the sting was, and then gradually moved up to the left ear lobe an ear. It then moved to the back of my head, down into the left shoulder, and then around the front under the throat. At though those early stages, it was like a cluster of Christmas lights that would flash on intermittently and randomly. And they were growing more and more intense as this went on.

CO: Yikes! And how bad did it get?

JW: Bad enough that after the first week you know I went to the doctor. I didn't go to the emergency room at this stage, but I went to the doctor thinking that probably something has happened here. And I said to the doctor immediately you know I was stung in my neck right here, pointing to my neck. And then she sent me to a group of doctors to try and rule out whatever else was going on here. So over the course then of the next four months, I visited the cardiology department once for a survey of my neck to make sure that there wasn't anything clogging the arteries. The internal medicine department twice, the neurology department three times, rheumatology once, and then finally, with the tropical disease unit twice up until today. But it also involved five trips to the emergency department as it escalated and became quite severe.

CO: Wow! And you had two MRI scans.

JW: Two MRI scans and then one C.T. scan in the emergency department when I arrived one night about a month ago because what started to happen was in fairly fast sequence, my foot, my calf, my hand, and my arm would be warm to the touch. So I could hold your hand, nothing would feel any different, but it would be ice cold and inside. I would describe it to all of these people as if I had my shoe off at a rink where my son was playing hockey and my foot was on the cement. And it would be absolutely frozen. This cold wave then built up that side of my body so that about a month-and-a-half ago, it was reaching into my skull. It was also like menthol that was going across my chest. And then what happened was that it started like a monkey playing with a temperature gauge. It would go on and off and on and off. So it was very disturbing. Parts of my left foot became numb — almost like you had a piece of felt over top of the skin. So all of the nerves. I mean when you go through this and you find out what it was, was that the nerves were opening up to sodium. And the neurotoxin was going into them. And everything was firing on the left-hand side of my body, causing all of this. And so people were making diagnosis along the way, but it wasn't until the end of the six months that the tropical doctors said this is what it is and this is what's happening.

CO: Okay. Good grief! You had 46 blood tests. At one point, they thought you could have M.S. Your immune system was going. Maybe it was a fish that you ate. Why did they never consider that it might have been this wasp sting you had in China?

JW: You know, I don't know the answer to that. I went to each place and sort of pointed to my neck. People would look at it, but they would say no, we're going to go down and look at all of these ways of trying to figure out what's wrong with you by ruling all of those things out. It wasn't until I got to the emergency ward and demanded that I be referred directly to the tropical disease unit. And within 48 hours, I was assessed, and the doctor said well, it's a wasp’s sting. You've had a neurotoxin put in you. And, as a matter of fact, we can see the stinger. It's right in your neck there. And you're gonna have to wait until it fully comes out to be completely relieved of the symptoms. And the solution to it was really quite remarkable. The doctor said we can either dig it out, but we could have some problems with infection that might come with that because if you break it off something might happen. So we want you to go home and exfoliate your neck. I said what? He said well, go home and exfoliate your neck. So you get one of those exfoliators from the drugstore, rub it, and over time, the top layer of skin will be exfoliated. And it will gradually work its way through until it comes out. So I was at the doctor's today, and it's 99 per cent out. You can just see the tip of it if you look really closely. But that's what it took was exfoliation for that for that to come out. But I still would have had all of those symptoms because of the neurotoxin that had entered my body.

CO: At least they would have known what it was.

JW: I suppose, but you know it's a really important lesson to anyone who goes to a foreign country. That if you come into contact with something like a wasp or something that bites you and it looks a little abnormal. Sometimes, the family doctor is the first gateway. But remember, it's a foreign country, oftentimes tropical. And you probably should find your way to a tropical disease unit or somebody who knows what they're talking about if the symptoms actually start to grow.

CO: Well,I guess the upside is that you've had every possible kind of test. And so if there’s anything else wrong with you, you must know what it is by now.

JW: I'm very happy to report that after all of this, there's only a few things. Number one, I have a little bit of arthritis for a plus-60 year old guy, which is okay. I'm 20 pounds overweight, and slightly high blood pressure. I can live with all of that because now I've got the rest of my neurosystem back intact. So I feel pretty lucky.

CO: And you have a wonderfully exfoliated neck.

JW: It is one of the best in the country. No question.

CO: Well, John, I'm glad you're okay. Thanks for telling us the story.

JW: My pleasure.

CO: Bye.

JD: John Wright is a pollster, and the unlucky target of a rather painful wasp sting. We reached Mr. Wright in Toronto. And to hear him describe that pain all over again, or if you'd like to share that with a friend [laughs], It's on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: World music]

Part two: Nunavut food insecurity, forensics field

Nunavut food insecurity

Guest: Aluki Kotierk

JD: The program was supposed to improve access to affordable food in Canada's northern communities — where a pound of ground beef could cost as much as 20 dollars, and a frozen loaf of bread costs 15. But a new study finds that the federal government program called "Nutrition North" has had little effect. In fact, despite a budget that has increased to nearly 100-million dollars, things in Nunavut have gotten worse. The study, published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that 46 per cent of households in Nunavut were experiencing "food insecurity" in 2016 — that is up from 33 per cent in 2011, when the program was introduced. Aluki Kotierk is the president of Inuit advocacy group, Nunavut Tunngavik. We reached Ms. Kotierk in Iqaluit.

CO: Ms. Kotierk, does this report reflect what you actually see in your community?

ALUKI KOTIERK: Yes, food insecurity is an issue too common in our communities. And it's good that a report is coming out just indicating that, and providing data to confirm what we see in our communities.

CO: But we were told that this was supposed to get better. I mean there were a number of really disturbing reports about the food insecurity. And this program that was started in 2011, “Nutrition North”, was supposed to make a difference. And this study says it's actually worse. So what happened? What's the failing of “Nutrition North”?

AK: I agree, it's a very dire strait when Canadian children are going to bed hungry. And we know that Statistics Canada reports indicate seven out of 10 Inuit children are going to bed hungry every night here in Canada. I think with the “Nutrition North” program as it's established, it’s very focused on providing the subsidy to the retailer. And the measures of success I would argue are misplaced. Because often what's said is that the volume in terms of how much produce it's being sent to communities is increasing, but there is not enough information about how and whether or not this produce — this nutritious food — is actually benefiting the households that really need it.

CO: If I recall at the time, the Harper government believed that market forces would do the work for them. That if it was given into the hands of the retailers that prices would come down. Today, they're saying that prices have come down by about 1 per cent — food prices. Also, it seems that those who can afford to buy the food have more food, better food, but those who can't, which as you mentioned, all these children — 46 percent of households — having food insecurity, all these kids going to bed hungry, that there is this huge difference between the haves and the have nots. Is that part of it?

AK: And I think that this report probably alludes to the fact that that gap between the haves and the have nots is probably increasing. The focus on the retailers was a mistake. I think what really should have happened is how do we ensure that households are able to access good, nutritious food? And what kinds of good, nutritious foods do Inuit families want? And I think one of the things that we've been advocating as the rights holding organization is that we need to put supports in place to support harvesters. And when I say harvesters, I'm speaking about hunters as well as seamstresses, so that in wheat who often prefer what we call in English country foods such: as polar bear meat, seal meat, caribou meat, that they're able to capture those animals and bring them back to the communities, and use the Inuit culture — the sharing model — so that it has a positive impact on the nutritional intake of our families.

CO: Okay, so that if that's the case, if that can be put into place, you'll see possibly a support for getting more country food into communities. At the same time though, there's still groceries people need and want to get. I mean so if you can give us an idea of what it costs now to get basic things like fruit, or milk, or vegetables, or any of those kinds of staples?

AK: I quickly looked up how much a two-litre carton of two per cent milk would cost. Here in Iqaluit, it's a little bit over seven dollars. And in Resolute Bay, a High Arctic community, it's a little bit over nine dollars. And that's just to demonstrate the kind of exorbitant cost difference.

CO: And then so what about fresh produce? How accessible is it to get any kinds of fruits and vegetables?

AK: Well, that was one of the things when I was reading through the report where it talks about the increase in volumes. But the poise in terms of the quality in terms of the quality of the produce that a shipped is not always comparable to other grocery stores in southern Canada. And so one of the questions I had I wonder how much is actually consumable? Like. I wonder if it is sent, and the retailer gets the subsidy, and the subsidy for shipping it, maybe the consumer doesn't even purchase it. And maybe it then goes to our dumps.

CO: And we have seen that recently, haven’t we? A while ago, there was this very good investigation to all the food that the stores were dumping and just throwing away. And that people were going to the dump in order to actually try and get some of the produce that had been thrown out.

AK: My home community is Igloolik, which is a little bit further north from Iqaluit. And every time I go home, my father's home has things… and often I ask where are they from? And it's often from the dump. Non-perishable items that get thrown out — whether it might be flour, or muffin mix, or what have you, and we often have a big baking storm.

CO: The Trudeau government came and to power saying that they were going to fix this. This was a priority for them to get accessible food, to get better food, and cheaper food, subsidized food to the north. Do you think that they're keeping their commitment?

AK: No. At this point, I think this report shows that the commitment is not being upheld. When there is an acknowledgement of something in that dire state, there is also a duty to act. And so I think with urgency, there is the need for the federal government to look at how they can improve this. And have a focus on the health and well-being of Inuit communities, rather than having it focus on the retailer.

CO: We'll continue to follow this story, Ms. Kotierk. I appreciate you speaking with us. Thank you.

AK: Have a good evening.

CO: Take care.

JD: Aluki Kotierk is the president of Inuit advocacy group, Nunavut Tunngavik. We reached her in Iqaluit. Again, a new study, published today in the CMAJ, found that rates of food insecurity have increased, even after the implementation of the “Nutrition North” program in 2011.

[Music: Industrial]

McGahn subpoena

JD: When the U.S. Congress summons you, via subpoena, typically, you show up — usually. But former White House Council Don McGahn has decided that, nah, he'd rather take a pass at testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee. The committee wants to question Mr. McGahn about his role as a witness in Special Council Robert Mueller's investigation into whether Donald Trump obstructed justice. Mr. McGahn argues that he doesn't have to appear — that he has immunity from being questioned because he was a legal advisor to the President. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler is not having it.

SOUNDCLIP

JERRY NADLER: Over 900 former federal prosecutors from across the political spectrum, whose job was to determine when the elements of a crime have been satisfied, have stated, have agreed, that the president committed crimes that would have been charged if he were not the sitting president. And I believe that the president's conduct since the report was released with respect to Mr. McGahn’s testimony, and other information we have sought has carried this pattern of obstruction and cover up well beyond the four corners of the Muller report. The president has declared out loud his intention to cover up this misconduct. He told Mr. McGahn to commit crimes in his behalf. He told Mr. McGahn to lie about it. After the report came out, the president claimed that Mr. McGahn lied to the special counsel about what happened. Then he directed Mr. McGahn not to come here today, so that the public would not hear his testimony, and so that we could not question him. President Trump may think he can hide behind his lawyers, as he launches a series of baseless legal arguments designed to obstruct our work. He cannot think these legal arguments will prevail in court. But he can think he can slow us down and run out the clock on the American people. Let me be clear, this committee will hear Mr. McGahn’s testimony — even if we have to go to court to secure it. We will not allow the president to prevent the American people from hearing from this witness. We will not allow the president to block congressional subpoenas, putting himself and his allies above the law. We will not allow the president to stop this investigation. And nothing in these unjustified and unjustifiable legal attacks will stop us from pressing forward with our work on behalf of the American people. We will hold this president accountable — one way or the other.

JD: That was House Judiciary Chairman, Democrat Jerry Nadler, speaking today about former White House Council Don McGahn's decision to defy a subpoena to testify in front of his committee.

[Music: A loud note]

Forensics field

Guest: Shari Forbes

JD: This summer, a strange and somewhat morbid construction project is starting Becancour, Quebec. It's called a "body farm" — or "The Secure Site for Research in Thanatology" — and it's the first of its kind in Canada. Shari Forbes is a forensic expert, and the director of the project. We reached Ms. Forbes in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. And a brief warning: Ms. Forbes will be discussing decomposing boddies.

CO: Ms Forbes, how would you describe a body farm to someone who has never even heard of it before?

SHARI FORBES: A body farm is a human decomposition facility. So it is a facility where people can donate their bodies to science. And scientists, police, or forensic researchers can conduct research and training to better understand what happens to the body following death.

CO: Can you just describe what they actually look like? How will these bodies be laid out?

SF: So they are placed just very naturally actually in the environment. All of our donors are clothed, again to recreate real life. And then they are left to decompose. And otherwise, we visit them every day. We monitor using cameras and observations. And we just try to collect as much data as we can on a daily basis.

CO: And this is forensics that you doing this for. So what can you actually learn? What could the police glean in knowledge from what you can tell them about this decomposition?

SF: There's actually a lot we can learn. We try to assist the police to improve the way we search for victim remains. So some of our research will train and work with cadaver dogs, and try to enhance their ability to look for missing persons. We can improve the way we estimate how long an individual has been dead. And that's time since death. That's probably our biggest challenge, and it can really slow down an investigation if we can't provide an accurate frame. And we can also improve the way we identify victims. Unfortunately, often remains are found in the skeletal stage, which is extremely challenging to then identify who that person was during life.

CO: I guess anyone who has watched crime shows knows that the police are always having their biggest problem trying to estimate the time of death. So can this actually help in determining that?

SF: Yes, that's our intent. As I mentioned, it is our biggest challenge because it's something we're often asked to do for the police for a death investigation. Currently, we use forensic entomology — the study of insects — as our most accurate method. But we're always looking at other methods.

CO: Okay, ongoing with apologies to those who are having dinner right now.

SF: [laughs] Yes, my apologies too.

CO: Like, the insects tell you a lot. The study of the bugs themselves, what do you learn from that?

SF: So that we can study their lifecycle. So flies, and apologies again about this, but flies will lay eggs on the body, and those will become larvae. And sort of like a caterpillar goes through stages to become a butterfly, so do larvae. And they emerge as adult flies, but each one of those stages can actually tell us how long they've been present on the body. And what that can tell us is the minimum time since death, or the minimum time that that person has been exposed to the environment.

CO: I'm presuming you're not squeamish in any way?

SF: I'm not. I've certainly learnt to have a strong stomach. And it is required in this kind of research.

CO: I mean the smell alone you can't immunize yourself against that. How do you cope with that?

SF: I think we just get used to it. There are times that it does still affect me, but it's less and less each time I do research. Over time, we do acclimatize ourselves to that. And we just try to remember the reason we're doing the research. So my research is actually on decomposition odour — that's really important to what I do in terms of understanding how cadaver dogs search for bodies. And I just try to focus on that — especially when it's really bad.

CO: And what kind of reaction have you had from the neighbours around Becancour, where this body farm will be?

SF: Thankfully, they have been immensely supportive. We always notify our community where we're going to have such a facility. And we did that publicly with our community in Becancour, and they have been really supportive. They understand the importance of our research, and the science behind what we do. And as long as it's not too close to them, and they certainly won't have any impact from odour, they seem to be quite okay with the concept.

CO: Okay, so those are your neighbours. But I mean you need people to donate their bodies, right? And how is that going?

SF: So far, really well. It has surprised me how many people have already shown interest. Some people have actually already consented to donate to our facility. And we haven't started construction yet. So I've been really surprised, pleasantly surprised, with the response from our community. And especially from those considering already to donate — because often people don't consider donation until later in life, but we're having a range of individuals contact us.

CO: Now, from your accent, we know that you hail from Australia, and that you actually established one of these sites there. So why do you need to do one in Canada? What's the difference between what you'd learn there and what you’d learn here?

SF: The major difference is the environment. So what we have learned and what we know is that the rate of decomposition will be almost completely dictated by the environment the body is in. So in Australia, we’re a hot and dry climate, and we know that bodies will actually mummify in those kinds of conditions. But I would not expect that to happen in the very cold and snowy climate of Canada. I anticipate that bodies will preserve in winter here. But we do need to study that to actually be able to confirm to the police what will happen. And again, it links back to our ability to estimate time since death. What I know from Australia I simply could not apply to an investigation in Canada — because they really are two extremes in terms of climate.

CO: Well, as you head into the other season in Quebec, where after the cold and the snow is the hot humidity, I wish you the best of luck with your strong stomach and with your project. And thanks for speaking with us.

SF: Thank you very much.

CO: Bye

JD: Shari Forbes is a forensic expert and the director of the Secure Site for Research in Thanatology. We reached Ms. Forbes in Trois-Rivieres.

[Music: Acoustic guitar strum]

Dave Bookman obit

JD: There's Dave Bookman, in the video for "You Will Know", by The Inbreds — waiting outside a Toronto club called The Opera House for the band to show up. There he is sitting at a picnic table in a photo tweeted by Ben Kowalewicz, singer for Billy Talent. And here he is, in audio posted by Dave Bidini, introducing Mr. Bidini's former band The Rheostatics in 1996, when they were opening for The Tragically Hip at Maple Leaf Gardens.

SOUNDCLIP

DAVE BOOKMAN Rock and roll is about dreams. It’s about passion. It’s about why we get out of bed in the morning. Rock and roll is about friendships, meeting new people, and sharing experiences. Rock and roll is why we are all here this evening. Rock and roll is why life is great. It’s about all you people, and all the bands here. Tonight, you’re going to meet new friends. You’re going to share experiences. It is with that passion that The Tragically Hip welcomes you to Maple Leaf Gardens. And please welcome from Etobicoke, Ontario, The Rheostatics.

JD: Dave "Bookie" Bookman was a force in the Canadian music scene. And his force derived from faith: faith in the music he loved, whether it was a huge band like Coldplay, or an unsigned band with just a few songs to their name. Dave Bookman — a much-loved presence on Toronto radio for decades — died early this morning in hospital. He was 58. On Twitter, musicians, writers, and fans from across the country are paying tribute to a man whose support helped put them on the map. Or whose encyclopedic knowledge helped them at a tough time. Including drummer Tyler Stewart, who tweeted that, when Barenaked Ladies needed a piano player in 1995, "Bookie" directed them to Kevin Hearn — who still plays piano for the band today. He spotlighted independent bands on The Indie Hour on Toronto radio station CFNY. He hosted Nu Music Nights at The Horseshoe Tavern. And he expertly interviewed everyone who came through the city — most recently, while working for Indie 88. In a tribute on the Indie 88 website, his longtime friend and colleague Josie Dye wrote, quote: "I used to think people like Bookie only existed in novels. Now I know, novels were written because of characters like Bookie."

[Music: Banjo]

Part three: Radio Canada investigation: Migrants, moa footprints

Renfrew crash

JD: Almost two years ago, in Renfrew, Ontario, four teenagers crashed their car into a rocky outcropping. They were all members of the Renfrew Timberwolves junior hockey team. And in that crash, the driver and one of the passengers were killed. Police said the young men had been drinking at a place called Shooters Bar and Grill. After the accident, it lost its liquor license, and was forced to close. And now, criminal charges have been laid against a server who was working at Shooters Bar and Grill at the time of the crash. It's unusual for servers to be prosecuted criminally. And Brent Sylvester, the general manager of the Timberwolves, says it's dividing the community. Here he is speaking with CBC Ottawa.

SOUNDCLIP

BRENT SYLVESTER: It seemed like it almost was gone away. And then the charges were laid, and it brings it right back to the forefront. And for the families, maybe open some wounds that may have been healing. And now they're torn back open again. So I think a lot of people are just in a fog because they don't know which side to be, on more or less. And it's just a terrible situation to go through again, after a period of time where healing has started. And now it's raw again. Everybody is going get dragged through the mud, and that's the sad part. That's the real, true sad part of this whole thing. Because like I say, you're gonna have people if you want to say on her side — pointing the finger at the kids. And then you have the families pointing the finger at them. Who's winning here? Nobody, absolutely nobody, we're just hashing something that we already know. And it's sad. It's just very sad.

JD: Brent Sylvester, the general manager of the Renfrew Timberwolves, speaking with CBC reporter Laura Osman. Although civil charges against bars and servers after a collision involving alcohol are fairly common, criminal charges are rare.

[Music: Sombre]

Radio Canada investigation: Migrants

Guest: Brigitte Bureau

JD: It was one of the darkest days in Guinea's history. Nearly ten years ago, soldiers in the West African nation stormed a peaceful protest inside a sports stadium. One-hundred-fifty-seven people were shot dead. More than a hundred women were gang-raped. At the time, As It Happens spoke to an opposition politician who was injured during the attack. Here's what Sidya Toure told Carol in 2009.

SOUNDCLIP

SIDYA TOURE: And they just start to shoot people, you know? They start to shoot, they start to kill people, and the most difficult thing I have seen all my life. They start to rape ladies and girls in the stadium. I never imagine this kind of thing can arrive in my country. And when people start to run, they directly start to fire on them.

JD: One of the key military leaders accused of carrying out that massacre, was Colonel Tiegboro Camara. He was formally charged in 2012, but his trial was never held. Around the time the colonel was charged, he also became a close ally of the Canadian government. That's a key finding in a Radio-Canada investigation published today, looking into a little-known anti-human-smuggling mission the Canadian government has spent millions of dollars on, since 2012. Brigitte Bureau is the investigative journalist who reported the story. We reached her in Ottawa.

CO: Brigitte, this Colonel Camara in Guinea stands accused of grotesque human rights violations. And yet, you reveal in your investigation that he went on to become a trusted collaborator with the Canadian government. How so?

BRIGITTE BUREAU: We are told by different sources that Colonel Tiegboro Camara was the strong arm of the Canadian anti-smuggling operation in Guinea. As you know, Canadian police officers are not allowed to conduct searches or make arrests in foreign countries. So they need to rely on local authorities to do this. And in Guinea, he was one of the main allies of Canada in this. And we’re told by people that he was a tremendous help to people. A colonel that was formally charged of such atrocious crimes — because we know that in that massacre in 2009, there were over 150 people that were murdered, hundreds were tortured or brutalized, and more than 100 women were raped. And this was during a peaceful protest in the stadium in Conakry, Guinea's capital.

CO: A key source for you within this was someone that you call only as Robert. And can you just tell us why he was compelled to share what he knew about this collaboration with Colonel Camara?

BB: I think because years later, for some of these people that worked on this operation, some of these people think that they did a good job. That they had to fight what could have been terrorists going through the migrants coming to Canada. But even within these people that we spoke with some who had direct contact with the migrants said that you know what? We didn't really see any big terrorist threat. All we saw were regular folks trying to get a better life. And Robert was one of these people — a former federal employee who was close to this operation. And saw things that years later, still bother him. And it bothers him to know that the Trudeau government is still maintaining this strategy, and has even extended it. Because under the Harper government, you know it was an anti-smuggling operation of migrants coming by boat. It has now been extended by land, sea, and air. And the Trudeau government is now spending 18-million dollars a year on this strategy — more so than the Conservatives were spending at the time.

CO: And this is called the Migrant Smuggling Prevention Strategy, created by Mr. Harper, maintained by Mr. Trudeau's government. And you spoke with the man who was put in charge of that at the time, Ward Elcock, who downplayed the idea that there was this collaboration with this colonel in Guinea. What did you learn about how much Mr. Elcock must have known about the colonel's involvement?

BB: He denied that Colonel Tiegboro Camara played any role in Canada's mission. But at the same time, he said that he vaguely remembered him because of an operation to repatriate a Canadian with Sri Lankan roots who was involved with migrant smuggling in Guinea. So he doesn't say that you know he had no dealings with him, but says you know he didn't play a role in our big mission. And he said to us also you know, Guinea anyway wasn't that big of a deal in the whole strategy. But we did find going to travel reports at the time that Mr. Ward Elcock went to Guinea at least four times between 2012 and 2014. And according to documents that we got, some of those trips was to thank the Guinea government for their participation in the anti-smuggling operation of Canada. Even spent 3,600 dollars at one point for this reception where there were 60 guests and 12 Canadian representatives in that African country.

CO: The purpose of this program, what did you understand was the purpose? Was it really to prevent to people smuggling, which is a crime? Or was it just to prevent people from coming to Canada?

BB: When you ask what was the real goal? We did talk to François Crépeau, he's a former UN special rapporteur on the Human rights of Migrants. And he was telling us he says you know, we keep seeing internationally that we're trying to stop smugglers. And for sure, there are some really bad people that are smugglers. But he says let's not fool ourselves, the real reason we're doing this is we do not want migrants. Because we wouldn't be going through all of this if we didn't want migrants. And he says that it is quite hypocritical in his view because the reason there are smugglers it's that because we are closing down our borders. And people that fear persecution in their country often have no other choice but to use smugglers to get out — because that's the only way they have to get out of a very bad situation.

CO: So we don't know what happened to any of the people who were trying to… if they were trying to come they Canada. Because, according to your report, it's not even clear that anyone who was planning to come here was actually stopped. But that a lot of people got stopped in wherever they were as they tried to escape from the situation. Do we know what happened any of those people?

BB: No, and first or foremost, you bring up such an important point. What happened first to the smugglers? Ward Elcock himself acknowledged that although in Canada we were saying that these people needed to be prosecuted, almost none of them were. There were about three to five people, Mr. Elcock told us off the top of his head, that were arrested and prosecuted. But for very small offences, document forging and so forth. And then I asked but how many boats do you know then that you stopped? And he said well, it's hard to know how many boats. And we only know of two documented cases of smugglers boats that were stopped. And he said, and this was so interesting, that it was mostly a question of ventures having to be stopped before they even took place. And he was giving me examples. He says you know, at one point, we had heard of people wanting to buy a boat to transport migrants. So we sent a whole bunch of people to activate, to tramp around the boat just to scare them off. So we're talking about three to five smugglers. Two boats, maybe four, 122,000,000 dollars that the Canadian government has spent since 2010 on this operation. And to answer your question on migrants, for sure when you intercept those smugglers, all of a sudden you have migrants that have nowhere to go.

CO: Brigitte, we will leave it there, and continue to follow your reporting on this. Thank you so much.

BB: I appreciate it. Thank you, Carol.

JD: Brigitte Bureau is an investigative journalist with Radio-Canada. We reached her in Ottawa.

[Music: Ambient]

Nan Winton obit

JD: When Nan Winton read the news on television in 1960, it was considered an "experiment". Not because Ms. Winton was an amateur — because she wasn't — but because she was a woman; the first woman to read news on the BBC. Nan Winton died last week in Dorchester, England. She was 93 years old. By the time Ms. Winton was asked to read the evening news and weekly Sunday evening bulletins, she was already an experienced journalist. But her time on air was short-lived — after a year she was removed from the position. The BBC said viewers found it "unacceptable" for a woman to read the news. It would be another 15 years before another woman would take her place. Ms. Winton spoke about that time — and what it was like to get fired by the BBC editor — in a 1997 documentary titled "A Night In With The Girls."

SOUNDCLIP

NAN WINTON: I was asked/told would I do the nine o'clock news on a Sunday night? And I didn't realize, at the time, what a revolutionary thing it was. I really didn't realize. But I did realise everybody was getting very excited about it. And I didn't have any trouble from the press or from the public. It was the editorial staff who were a bit dodgy. They were men in their middle years, and they'd come from Fleet Street. And television was very new in those days. And I don't think women reporters were too popular on Fleet Street. And they certainly were a bit ambivalent about me. At the beginning, they thought they'd done terribly well. And then there was a lot of criticism. They were very, very serious about the news. I mean much more serious than they'd been about London and the southeast. This was very, very serious stuff. And then, of course, I was taken off it altogether. And then put back on. And this doesn't increase one's confidence really. And then, of course, the final axe by Michael Peacock, who called me into the office, and sat me down, and sacked me. But he didn't say why. He didn't explain anything. And he was a cold man anyway. And I was furious.

JD: That was Nan Winton, the first woman to read the news on TV for the BBC. She was speaking in the documentary "A Night In With The Girls." After she was fired, Ms. Winton went onto work at ITV, and remained a TV and radio reporter until she retired. Ms. Winton has died. She was 93 years old.

[Music: Ambient]

Moa prints

Guest: Kane Fleury

JD: When a New Zealand truck driver took his boss's dogs for a dip in a river, he had clear expectations about his future: two wet, smelly animals. Michael Johnston had no expectations at all about the past, let alone the distant past. But then he saw something.

SOUNDCLIP

MICHAEL JOHNSTON: I brought the dogs down cause it’s a pretty good spot. Not many people around here.

REPORTER: Yeah.

MJ: And, yeah, we were walking into the water and came across the odd-looking footprint. And looked a bit more, and found a few more with it.

REPORTER: Well, what did you think they were when you first saw them? I could say a really large chicken, but you know that would be a lie.

JD: Mr. Johnston is right: the prints didn't belong to a really large chicken. In fact, it's suspected they belong to an ancient flightless bird, from New Zealand, called a Moa. Acting on his hunch, Mr. Johnston contacted the Otago Museum right away. That's where the news of the find reached Kane Fleury. He's the museum's natural science assistant curator. So he went to the site, with a snorkel and a wetsuit, to inspect the prints — and he confirmed they belonged to something more unusual than a chicken. We reached Kane Fleury in Dunedin, New Zealand.

CO: Mr. Fleury, when you first went out there to inspect these prints, what did you make of them?

KANE FLEURY: I was absolutely blown away when I first saw them. It was kind of summer low flows at the time, so I kind of still donned a snorkel and a wetsuit, and jumped into the river anyway. And as soon as I peered down into the water, I was just blown away by the quality of the prints. I was kind of expecting quite a lot of wear around the edges of them from kind of you know just the river eroding them away. And yeah, the prints were amazing. That crisp, square edges on them. And they were just very, very well preserved.

CO: And what animal — what creature — made these prints?

KF: So the prints, they're very large, they're about 30 centimetres by 30 centimetres. And they're made by an extinct bird that was endemic to New Zealand called the moa. They ranged in size from about the size of a large turkey, up until the giant moa, which were up to you know just over two metres tall. So they range from about 20 to 30kgs, to probably about 250kgs. So they were a very unique group of birds that were only found in New Zealand.

CO: When did they go extinct?

KF: About 700 to 8000 years ago. And they went extinct within about 100 years of human habitation of New Zealand. We know that they were quite a slow growing species that was slow to reach sexual maturity. So any high hunting or predation pressures on a species like that can very quickly wipe them out.

CO: How unusual is it to find these?

KF: So it's quite unusual. So fossil sites of footprints, well before this discovery, were only known from about 10 sites in the North Island. So New Zealand has two islands, aptly named the North Island in the north and the South Island in the south. We'd only found footprints in the north, and there hadn't been a major sort of discovery like this in the south. So these are highly significant to the moa story because they were found on the South Island, where Moa kind of evolved, and then they spread into the North Island. Coupled with that, the sediments that these are preserved in ranges between about a million to about 12 million years old. That potentially means that these are some of the oldest evidence of moa in New Zealand.

CO: You know about these prints, who found them, because of a truck driver who was out walking dogs and saw the prints. This is a fellow Michael Johnston, and he was intrigued. When he contacted you, what did you think?

KF: Yeah, so Michael's a local truck driver in an area which is quite a rural community. He was blown away by what he had seen. He was just hoping that someone could confirm what he'd found and would kind of do something about it. So it's super cool that he managed to get in touch with us, and was keen for us to go about protecting the prints. Because once he’d found them, he was pretty worried about them. And he's a bit of a local Joker. So he was a little bit concerned that we weren't going to take him seriously with this find. But we did take it very seriously.

CO: And you are sure because this three-toed, 30-centimetre square footprint is actually not his idea of a joke.

KF: [laughs] No, no, I don't think he could have made these ones up. These ones too kind of perfect in the preservation and variation and the detail within them. So you can see as the moa walked through the clay that the toes kind of spread. In some of the prints, the toes of kind of splayed in and splayed out. And you can see kind of the definition of the fleshy part of the foot as it walked through the mud on that day long, long ago. So we're very certain. Also, because he’d only seen five of the seven prints when he alerted them to us. And I found another few. So that kind of definitely confirms that they definitely weren’t fakes.

CO: But now actually get out these prints, you had to divert the river, is that right?

KF: Yeah, so the river that they’re found and has a fairly major watercourse. So we needed to get a resource consent and water permits to be able to divert the whole river around the meander where they were found. And then we needed to pump out a swimming hole that they were found in to be able to cut them out. And so that had a number of logistical challenges to actually get to the prints.

CO: What do you think preserved them so perfectly?

KF: So the preservation process for prints like this involves them being kind of so the moa would have walked through some.. I would say that the mud was kind of not super wet and sloppy, but it was quite firm when it went on. And it also wasn't kind of gloop so that it kind of pulled it up. So it was probably the perfect, wet mud to walk through for preservation at the time. And then after that, it probably dried in the sun, and then was covered by another form of sediment over the top to protect them. So it's kind of a freak chance of events to preserve a set of footprints like this.

CO: And then it has someone walking their dog at the same time and that same place at the right time. Just finally, can you imagine that when these footprints were made, when these moa were walking in that river and that sediment, and looking for something to eat, how different was it then in what might have been there than it is now?

KF: So the environment would have been a lot more forested at the time. It would have likely been a wee bit warmer than it is now as well. And there would've been a lot more trees around. And so a lot of the plants in New Zealand are actually evolved to kind of avoid moa grazing. So we have long pointy leaves that looked down into their eyes, so they can't get into the into the foliage. And heaps of plants have lots of like prickly sort of coverings on them, and then juicy leaves and berries in the middle to try and stop moa actually eating them. So there would have been a lot more bush around at that time than what there is at the moment. So they were a hardy bird that ate all sorts of things. So we could have expected a lot more bush rather than the farmland that's round there at the moment.

CO: All right, well good discovery. And it’s good to talk to you, Mr. Fleury. Thank you.

KF: No, thank you for calling.

CO: Bye-bye.

KF: Bye.

JD: Kane Fleury is the natural science assistant curator at Otago Museum. We reached him in Dunedin, New Zealand. And we've got more on that story, including some photographs of what Moas looked like, on our webpage: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Acoustic guitar]

Traffic ticket trucker

JD: The ’80s were, by-in-large, totally awesome. But there are a lot of things from the '80s that should stay in the ‘80’s: Mullets. Giant shoulder pads. "Manimal". And traffic tickets. But for the past couple of weeks, 30-year-old traffic tickets issued in Toronto have been coming back to haunt people.MIt happened to truck driver Garry Prentice. His license was suspended for a week over an old ticket he didn't even know he had — he says it cost him thousands of dollars in missed work. Mr. Prentice told CBC Toronto reporter Natalie Nanowski what happened.

SOUNDCLIP

GARRY PRENTICE: I drive a truck for a living. I'm an owner/operator, so I'm also self-employed. And I was driving like I normally do. And my girlfriend called me last Friday, and said that I had a letter from the Ministry of Transport, which she opened for me. And it was a letter of suspension — my license is under suspension. I had no previous notification of the suspension before this. So it was a total shock.

NATALIE NANOWSKI: Did you find out why it was suspended?

GP: No, we tried to go online — because it says you go online, pay your fine, and whatever. So we tried to go online and find out what it was about. And couldn't find out anything — it said I had to go to the courts. I actually got a ride into the court in Sarnia, Ontario, and found that the ticket is from October 16, 1988.

NN: Okay. Do you remember that ticket?

GP: No, not at all. It's 31 years ago. Apparently, this happened in North York. So it's a Toronto ticket. And so I phoned, I paid the fine, first of all, because I got to get my license back. I need to work. I've lost a week now. And then the other thing is so that the ticket was like $87.25 — very minimal. But then they get you with this reinstatement fee of 275 dollars, which to me seems like that's a big tax grab.

NN: To reinstate your license.

GP: To reinstate your license — because they've suspended it.

NN: What's the ticket for?

GP: They told me that the ticket is for failing to stop at a red light.

NN: Do you remember that?

GP: No, I don't.

NN: Where were you 31 years ago?

GP: To be honest, I was probably in Toronto or the area. But exactly where, I don't know.

JD: Truck driver Garry Prentice speaking with CBC Toronto.

[Music: Industrial]

China protest song

JD: Maybe you think the trade war between China and the United States is just a bunch of angry talk so far. And maybe that's what Chinese fans of "Game of Thrones" thought, too, before they tried streaming the final episode — only to find a message announcing a "media transmission problem". The problem wasn't technical. An HBO executive told the Wall Street Journal that it was streaming had been restricted after an edict from the Chinese government. Because of tensions over trade. But while Chinese fans wait impatiently to see the finale, they can at least be inspired by his powerful song about an epic battle.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: What is this?]

JD: Catchy! That's a stirring new Chinese song about the international trade war, entitled "Trade War". The song begins, "Trade war! Trade war! Not afraid of the outrageous challenge!" And that verse ends with the line, "If the perpetrator wants to fight, we will beat him out of his wits!" The most popular interpretation of that complex song is that it's about the trade war, which its lyricist — a retired Chinese government official — confirmed, when he said, quote, "Since the trade war broke out, I felt the urge to do something." Unquote. Now, obviously, things are already more dramatic than we thought. Already, China has scored two big points — this powerhouse propaganda track, and censoring "Game of Thrones". Will the U.S. strike back by withholding the live-action remake of "Aladdin"? Or, since Will Smith looks really weird as the Genie, would that even be punishment? I digress. The point is: this has gone farther than I thought. And China and the U.S. are long past the point of just trading, trading insults.

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May 21, 2019 episode transcript

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