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The AIH Transcript for June 25, 2019

Hosts: Susan Bonner and Karen Gordon

Prologue

SUSAN BONNER: Hello I'm Susan Bonner, sitting in for Carol Off.

KAREN GORDON: Good evening. I'm Karen Gordon. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

KG: Tonight...

SB: Growing concerns. The U.S. government says other facilities are full -- so it's returning migrant children to that Texas detention centre where our guest says conditions are the worst she's ever seen.

KG: Underprivileged information. In his new report, an expert from the United Nations says climate change will have a disproportionately disastrous effect on the poor.

SB: Defusing a bomb shell. Yet another woman makes a shocking allegation of sexual assault against the President of the United States -- so our guest is wondering why most media outlets seemed to shrug at the news.

KG: Standing on a corner watching all the squirrels go by. Hundreds of volunteers fanned out across Central Park to count its furriest residents -- and now the results of the squirrel census are in.

SB: Crawler ID. When a Pennsylvania woman realized she had a venomous cobra on her patio, she took some shots with her camera -- then she gave it some shots with her shovel.

KG: And pumped tentacles. First you see some limbs covered with suckers, and then the young giant squid they're attached to -- and those images mark the first time that elusive sea creature has ever been seen in the Gulf of Mexico. As It Happens. The Tuesday Edition. Radio that's surprised to see that video on social media, but you know...squids these days.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Why the media 'shrugged' after 16th woman accuses Trump of sexual misconduct

Migrant Children

Guest: Elora Mukherjee

KG: Children are being returned to the United States Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas -- the very facility hundreds of unaccompanied young detainees were removed from just days before. The removal followed a report from a group of lawyers who interviewed the children and described the conditions as inhumane. Since then, the acting head of the Border Agency has announced his resignation. But this morning it was announced that 100 children were being returned to Clint because the alternatives are full. Elora Mukherjee is one of the lawyers who visited Clint. She's the head of the Columbia Law School's Human Rights Clinic. We reached her in New York.

SB: Professor Mukherjee what did you think when you heard that children were being returned to that border patrol station in Clint?

ELORA MUKHERJEE: I was appalled. How can this decision have been made by this administration given the investigation into conditions there? I've been doing this work -- representing children and families in immigration detention -- for the last 12 years, I've never seen anything as appalling and degrading as what I witnessed in Clint last week. The children were hungry, dirty, sick, and very scared. All of them had been detained longer than the 72 hours permitted by law. And these children -- every one of the children -- who we spoke with has family members in the United States who are desperate to have their beloved children back. The children are desperate to get out of the facility. And the children don't know how or when they will be released to their family members, and their family members -- their parents -- have no idea how to get the children out.

SB: When you spoke with those children how did they describe their treatment and how it's affecting them?

EM: They said 'I'm hungry.' They said 'I'm so hungry. I'm sometimes waking up at night with hunger pangs.' They said 'I'm sleeping on the concrete floor.' Some of the children reported that there are some bunk beds in the holding cells in cages where they're being kept. But those children told me that because it's so cold in the facility at night they prefer to huddle on the concrete floor with their sibling -- if they have one -- to try and stay warm. The children told me that they want to get out of there. Most of the children who I spoke with did not have any opportunities to go outside during the days and weeks that they were detained at Clint. A handful of children told me that they did have opportunities to go outside. Three children told me that they were expected to play outside and they told me that they couldn't bring themselves to do so because they needed to conserve their energy to stay alive in there.

SB: What was that like for you to hear those things?

EM: It was heartbreaking. I have never seen children in such degrading and inhumane conditions in the custody of our federal government. This is being done with our taxpayer dollars and in our name.

SB: Now at a briefing today a Customs and Border Protection official responded to your allegations by saying that hygiene products, food, new clothing, hand sanitizer, soap, water, are, quote, "continuously available for detained children." How would you respond?

EM: There is no soap available at this facility for children to wash their hands. It strikes me as ludicrous that CBP just issued that statement when the administration's lawyer for the Department of Justice Sarah Fabian argued in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday that children in CBP custody do not deserve access to soap, do not deserve access to toothbrushes, do not need toothpaste, and do not need beds to sleep in.

SB: John Sanders the Acting Border Commissioner has announced that he is resigning this summer. He hasn't given a reason for that decision. Who do you hold responsible?

EM: The resignation is a first step but it's only one step in what needs to be a complete overhaul in how children are treated in customs and border protection facilities. For years we have heard from children reporting terrible terrible conditions. What distinguished Clint from the other facilities that we had heard about is the length of time that children were detained at Clint as well as the immediate public health crisis from a flu epidemic, a lice infestation, and the inability of children to wash their hands with soap, brush their teeth, or shower or bathe for days and weeks at a time.

SB: You've said that the White House -- the administration -- needs to act immediately. But Democrats have had their problems with this issue as well. They've been divided on a bill that would get emergency funding to some of these shelters. What is it going to take politically to solve this problem?

EM: We're demanding immediate congressional hearings to investigate the conditions in which children are being held along the border. We also know from the government's own watchdog agency within the Department of Homeland Security that just as of last month there were dangerous levels of overcrowding in adult detention facilities and the American public needs to know and investigate what is happening in our name.

SB: What do you think is happening at Clint now?

EM: We need to get back to Clint to investigate what's happening. Earlier today, 100 children were transferred back to Clint. That decision is inexplicable given what we know about the facility. And children need to be released from CBP custody within 72 hours as required by the law.

SB: Professor Mukherjee thank you.

EM: Thank you for having me.

KG: Elora Mukherjee is the head of the Columbia Law School's Human Rights Clinic. We reached Professor Mukherjee in New York.

[Music]

Masai Ujiri

KG: Aside from Kawhi Leonard, he's the Raptor that Canadian fans were most hoping would choose to stay north of the border. And he's not even a player. Today, Masai Ujiri -- the Raptors' president, and the architect of the team's championship run -- spoke at a news conference for the first time since the victory over Golden State. And although he's had a lot of interest from other teams around the league, he confirmed that for now he's not going anywhere.

SOUNDCLIP

MASAI UJIRI: For me it's always been about Toronto. I love it here. My family loves it here. My wife loves it -- yeah -- which is very important. My kids are Canadians. And you want to win more. For me -- I can continue to address teams wanting me and all of those things you know like that's a blessing in life and I don't use it in the way...for me the blessing is being wanted here and finding a place that makes you happy and finding challenges that really make you grow as a person and this place has made me grow as a person. I identify with this place -- and I love it. So in my mind, I'm here.

KG: That was Toronto Raptors President Masai Ujiri at a press conference in Toronto today. He was also asked about an allegation from police in California that he pushed a deputy as he was trying to get on the court area after the Raptors championship win. He said he respects authority but said he would wait for the results of the ongoing investigation before saying anything else.

[Music]

Trump Assault Allegation

Guest: Molly Jong-Fast

KG: "She's not my type." That's how U.S. President Donald Trump responded yesterday to a sexual assault allegations leveled against him by E. Jean Carroll. Ms. Carroll is a longtime advice columnist. Last week, New York Magazine published an excerpt from her forthcoming book in which she writes about her alleged assault by Mr. Trump. She describes an incident in the mid-90s where she ran into Mr. Trump at a luxury department store in New York City. She alleges he cornered her in one of the change rooms and raped her. She's the 16th woman to allege sexual assault or unwanted sexual touching by President Trump. And our guest is wondering why mainstream media didn't seem to give the story much coverage. Molly Jong-Fast is a journalist and author. We reached her in New York City.

SB: Molly there are now several women accusing Donald Trump of sexual misconduct and the latest accuser to that accuser -- the president says "she's not my type." What do you make of that response?

MOLLY JONG-FAST: I mean it's a very Trump response. And he actually said that about someone else too -- I can't remember who. The larger question is like the idea of what he's saying when he says that it's not rape -- that's problematic. It's her appearance which I think is preposterous. I mean I think it shows his complete lack of any moral. You know he has no morality.

SB: And we're talking about the President of the United States?

MOLLY JONG-FAST: Yes. I mean depending on the math you do, it's somewhere between 15 and 22 women have accused him of sexual misconduct. I mean that was the thing with this allegation when I was writing about it on Friday was that once you get past you know a dozen, you start to realize like women are not you know all getting together to lie about the President of the United States.

SB: Since this story came out last week in New York Magazine, how did other media organizations report on it?

MOLLY JONG-FAST: So I feel we've really -- that the media -- really has failed E. Jean Carroll. Because when it came out I wrote something about it for The Daily Beast and I thought for sure that the base would ignore it because they don't really care because...

SB: Trump's base you mean?

MOLLY JONG-FAST: ...that he really could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and they wouldn't care. But I thought the mainstream media would treat this as a major story because it's not just an allegation of sexual assault it's an allegation of rape against the President of the United States. And just that fact alone should make it absolutely breaking news. But instead what happened was the New York Times put it in the book section and the Washington Post -- it was like A1 but below the fold or it wasn't on the front page. And then the New York Post actually killed a story about it because they were told from on high that they had to kill it.

SB: What do you think is behind this lack of interest or surprising placement of this story by the mainstream media?

MOLLY JONG-FAST: So I think it's two things. One is that media is completely burned out -- that there are so many Trump scandals about so many things: the kleptocracy, corruption, or you know on the brink of war with Iran, and then we're on the brink of war with Venezuela. You know there's a constant drumbeat of like crisis at all times. Then I also think some of it is that she is an older woman -- and I think culturally the media very much wants to ignore older women in their plight. I see people on Twitter say well it was not believable, she's not that good looking. She's in her late 60s early 70s -- you know this happened 20 years ago. But it's this sort of weird -- I think there is this a little bit of the culture that is so misogynistic.

SB: But he is the president and what effect do you think it has when the president appears to brush off these allegations and most recently using the argument she's not attractive enough to rape?

MOLLY JONG-FAST: It's terrible. I mean I think it's terrible. I think it's terrible for the culture. I think it's terrible for women and feminism. I think it's terrible because it encourages misogyny. I mean what's funny about this is it's the same as what he did with white nationalists -- it's just a little bit different circumstances. You know he refused to disavow white nationalist. He said things like there are good people on both sides. You know there's a lot of winking and shrugging towards white nationalist. And so he does this sort of tacit approval of such things and it moves the Overton window. It says like the government doesn't really have a problem with domestic terrorism. That's the message that it sends. And that's what's happening with this -- is he's saying violence against women you know...and that's really really scary, and just like with the white nationalist stuff I don't know how we undo that.

SB: Besides the media and beyond Trump's base, why isn't this resonating politically?

MOLLY JONG-FAST: Look the best case scenario is Democrats are just too busy -- that they're so overwhelmed with all of the corruption in the administration that they can't handle another piece of corruption.

SB: Really?

MOLLY JONG-FAST: Well I mean that's the best case scenario. The worst case scenario is they're just not effective enough and that they're not brave...

SB: "They're not brave" -- what do you mean?

MOLLY JONG-FAST: They're not brave -- you know they're so worried about public sentiment and they're so worried that it will hurt them politically that they don't want to hold the president accountable. I mean that's the worst case scenario is that they're just so mired in self-interest that they won't do what's right. I mean we have come to a place in American politics where people need to start doing what's right.

SB: What about the Republicans?

MOLLY JONG-FAST: Well the Republicans are like no one is ever going to hold the president accountable except Justin Amash because the Republicans are terrified of a mean tweet or a primary challenge or to have junior show up in their district. I mean these congressmen are terrified of Trump. And it's because ultimately they're just not brave and they're not putting their country first. They just are caring about their re-election and think that they can wait this Trump thing out and they're just not doing the right thing and they feel no need to do the right thing which is sort of shocking to me. But in some ways I guess we should expect this from our politicians. But it's very disappointing.

SB: And what about women in America? For the most part, do you believe they're as galvanized as they were say at the time of "Me Too?"

MOLLY JONG-FAST: I hope so. I mean our only hope is that American women will say no -- like this is not okay. I mean we saw this in the midterm -- a lot of women you know they ran for office, they went out and they voted, they said this is not okay -- this is not the world we want to live in. We'll have to see what happens in 2020. It's a very scary time. Trump is a historically unpopular president but that doesn't necessarily matter. We are in a very scary sort of uncharted time and we're going to have to see what happens.

SB: Molly thank you.

MOLLY JONG-FAST: Thank you for having me.

KG: Molly Jong-Fast is a journalist and author. We reached her in New York City. And for more on what Ms. Jong-Fast had to say, go to our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Rainbow Crossing

KG: The debate was about painting colours on a street -- but most responses were black and white. Last night Richmond BC's city council voted 8 to 1 in favor of installing a permanent rainbow crossing in the community. But several dozen residents showed up to have their say, and most of them voiced their disapproval of the plan. Here's what one of those residents had to say.

SOUNDCLIP

VOICE 1: The rainbow crossing may cause confusion. That the crossing is only for LGBTQ community -- and not for the public to cross. It may pose danger to driver. The rainbow colour can distract senior drivers, kids, especially at nighttime. It's not easy to risk to be visible while they are using the crossing.

KG: That was a resident arguing against the painting of a rainbow crosswalk in Richmond, B.C.. Another resident argued that if the city installed a rainbow crosswalk it may have to field other requests for customized crosswalks -- for instance a Star of David for the Jewish community or a "totem" for First Nations people. Another opponent said that people in the LGBT community are, quote, "already wealthy and powerful" -- and the money would be better spent elsewhere. But not everyone was against it. Kelly Green sits on the council and she explained why she was voting in favor of the permanent rainbow crossing.

SOUNDCLIP

KELLY GREEN: People shouldn't have to erase themselves for the comfort of others. Harmony via erasure is not harmony. LGBTQ orientation cuts across ethnicities, ages, abilities, religion, and they belong here because they are a part of all of us. A rainbow for the LGBTQ community is not political. It is not ideological. It is an affirmation of human rights and dignity. LGBTQ people face daily discrimination and we must affirm that we love all our neighbours.

KG: That was Richmond, B.C. councillor Kelly Green speaking at a city council meeting last night in favour of a permanent rainbow crosswalk. The vote late last night was 8 to 1 in favour.

[Music]

Giant Squid Video

Guest: Nathan Robinson

KG: There he was on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico -- marine biologist Nathan Robinson, braving turbulent waters to study the mysteries of the creatures beneath the waves. That sounds exciting! But the most exciting part of that expedition for Mr. Robinson occurred while he was doing something that was mostly pretty dull -- going through hours and hours of footage from an underwater camera the team had placed deep in the ocean. That meant looking at a lot of nothing. Until...suddenly he spotted something. One particular amazing something captured for the first time in footage taken on that side of the world. We reached Nathan Robinson in Eleuthera, in the Bahamas.

SB: Nathan Robinson you were making your way through hours and hours of footage and then you start to see part of something emerge. Can you describe what you saw?

NATHAN ROBINSON: [Chuckles] Yes. I had been watching -- in total I recorded -- about 120 hours of footage. And it was right towards the end of this whole set -- I'd just seen about five hours of almost complete nothing...the pitch black of the deep ocean. And the only thing you can see is a little bit of marine snow which is all that particulate matter from the surface as it floats down through the water column. And then all of a sudden on the left hand side of the screen -- very faintly -- you see this tentacle shaped thing kind of creep in very briefly -- it hangs around for about a minute. It seems to be tracking the e-jelly which is that little light in the centre of the video then it vanishes. It comes back about two or three minutes later (and) does the exact same thing. And as this is going on I'm getting more and more excited. And then, it vanishes. And you never quite know in these videos if you're just going to see the edge of something and then it will vanish or whether it's going to fully come into view. And then my heart just stopped because you see that moment when that strange shape comes back into view. And while it once had that kind of really long thin shape as all those tentacles peel back -- I had that kind of dawning realization that we might be seeing something that's only been seen a few times before in history. And it was a giant squid.

SB: How giant a squid was it?

NR: So this is actually probably a juvenile. This squid -- we estimate it is around 10 to 12 foot in length so around three to four metres but that's still on the smaller side for these individuals. A giant squid can grow up to around 14 metres -- around 45 foot in length -- when they're fully grown adults. Now most of that is tentacle not the body of the squid but that's still a huge animal.

SB: So you see this creature on the video. What's the first thing you did?

NR: [Laughs] When I identified it as a squid -- so I've just been watching the video and Edie (Edith) Widder -- she's the director of an organization called Team Orca. And she is the person who came up with the design of the Medusa which is the deep sea camera that we used to spot the giant squid. She was actually sitting just in the mess -- in the dining area -- just next to me while I was in the lab going through the footage. And I jumped up out of my chair. I ran over to Edie. I honestly don't think I said anything. I think I just gestured come over here with probably a bit of a wild glare. And Edie immediately knew that something was up. She jumped up, ran over, and we kind of watched through the footage together. And it's one of those things that I think -- as Edie watched it you could see her getting more and more excited. But the first thing we really wanted after that was to get confirmation. So there are a couple of squid experts on board. So we got their attention, brought them over, made them watch the video. And the more people we showed it to, the more everyone's like "Yep, I think that's a giant squid."

SB: What makes a giant squid so significant?

NR: You're talking about an animal that's inspired myth, has inspired a legend, for millennia. Think about how many of those old school maps you have and you have that giant squid like dragging a ship down into the depths. So the amount of stories or movies that have been inspired by these incredible animals. And they are indeed one of the largest animals on this planet but they're also one of the least known. I mean there are stories and so much kind of mythos inspired by these animals but it's all built around a couple of dead bodies that have floated to the surface in just a handful of locations around the world. Getting footage of these animals in the natural environments and alive is like lightning striking.

SB: And I guess this is only the second time it's happened and your colleague who you mentioned -- Edie Widder -- recorded the first giant squid in Japan. She's part of this second sighting. What's her secret?

NR: The secret is the device. Edie invented this device and device is called the Medusa. And the Medusa is a really unique way to conducts deep sea exploration. Generally if we were going to try to explore these deep sea habitats, we might take a submersible or a remotely operated vehicle or an rrv. Because when you go down past the thousand metres or even just below a few hundred metres of the water column such little light from the surface penetrates -- it immediately becomes very very dark. So if we're going to explore, the first thing we do is we turn on bright lights and we look around and see what's there. However for most of these animals, especially some these mobile animals, they can see that lights from a long way away. So we predict that while we're trying to scout out these habitats we are probably scaring away a lot of these kind of visually attuned deep sea species. The key to the Medusa is it's a very low light camera, it has red LEDs to provide that little bit of illumination to get an image. And red is an important colour because most deep sea species don't see the colour red. And in addition it's got that look which is a ring of LEDs that makes a pinwheel pattern that imitates the bioluminescent pattern of a deep sea jellyfish. So as opposed to creating lights that scare away animals, you actually have a tiny -- very subtle -- light that creates or acts to lure, brings these animals to you.

SB: Well I wish you luck with your future explorations. Thanks for telling us about it.

NR: It was an absolute pleasure.

KG: That was Nathan Robinson in Eleuthera, the Bahamas. He's the director of the Cape Eleuthera Institute. If you'd like to see some of the footage his team captured of the giant squid, visit our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music]

Part 2: UN: Climate Human Rights

UN: Climate Human Rights

Guest: Philip Alston

KG: Philip Alston says we are at risk of a "climate apartheid scenario." He is the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. Today, he released his report which says climate change will disproportionately affect the poor. He's scheduled to present the findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday. We reached Philip Alston in Marseille, France.

SB: Mr. Alston what do you mean when you say a "climate apartheid scenario?"

PHILIP ALSTON: Well we're already facing a pretty major crisis in most countries around the world in inequality. But the advent of really serious global warming is going to hugely exacerbate that problem. What's going to happen is that the poorest in our societies in the north and certainly the poor in the countries of the south will bear the brunt of climate change. The wealthy will be able to protect themselves to a significant extent. Developing countries will bear something like 75 to 80 percent of the total cost of climate change. So we're really setting up the sort of two tier society that characterized South African apartheid.

SB: Why are the poor disproportionately affected by climate change?

PA: The poor live in low quality housing. They live in the areas that are most readily subject to massive displacement from flooding or fires or droughts. They lose a lot more when they're affected. The rich can recover. The poor can't. They have less of a social safety net to rely upon and they are just more vulnerable generally to natural disasters.

SB: Your report also says that climate change will threaten democracy and basic human rights. How do you see that happening?

PA: I think that the scale and the depths of the changes that are needed in all of our societies in order to avoid the really catastrophic consequences of climate change if we haven't managed to bring about really deep transformation within the next decade, those changes are going to upset the status quo in a great many ways. Governments are already talking about climate emergencies which can imply of course the suspension of civil rights in order to achieve certain objectives. I think we're going to see hugely contentious debates in all of our societies as you have in Canada, and as we see in the United States in Oregon right now. And there's a risk that governments are going to have to intervene. They're going to have to learn how to respond to the large scale social mobilization that is going to have to happen if climate change is really going to bring deep change to our societies.

SB: Can you give me a concrete example of what might happen to challenge democracy and human rights?

PA: One could certainly focus on the mass migration dimension -- given what's happened in Europe with the refugees from Syria and Iraq and elsewhere. There's certainly reason to be concerned about that because the climate change migration will be on a larger scale. But I think the much deeper problem is the capacity of democracies to be able to respond to the changes that we have no option but to introduce within a very short period of time governments in Canada, governments in Australia, the United States, are currently sort of pushing back and saying we're not going to do this -- we don't believe it's necessary. They will soon see that there is absolutely no option. That's going to lead to very significant public protests. It's going to lead to huge resistance from entrenched economic interests. And governments are going to have to discover new ways of trying to bring about some sort of consensus which saves their people from the devastation that climate change will otherwise unleash.

SB: Well people do seem to be more mobilized. There are more people talking about climate change and their concerns. There are more people demanding more from politicians. Can the grim future that you're predicting be avoided do you think?

PA: I think we need a really major mobilization. One of the main points of my report is to say that the human rights community which in some ways is the best place to be able to mobilize people, to be able to alert them to the fact that their rights are threatened very seriously, has not so far taken climate change very seriously. It sees it as just one other issue -- one other box to tick. But it's not saying if we really care whether it's about people's right to life, whether it's their right to free speech, or whether it's their right to food and to housing -- we absolutely have to factor climate change big time into all of those equations.

SB: Is the U.N. doing what it should be doing on this issue?

PA: I think the problem with the U.N. is that it tends to silo issue. So it has parts dealing with development, with security, with human rights, and with environment. But the parts dealing with human rights, development, security are really paying lip service to climate change. They're not seriously integrating it into what they're doing. And so it's relegated to a role of a fairly marginal part of the organization which is indeed jumping up and down and saying this is a crisis but it's not fundamentally affecting how the rest of the organization is operating. And that has to change.

SB: It sounds like a lot of bureaucracy to overcome.

PA: Well yes but if the bureaucrats need to be persuaded by the general public that this is an issue -- it's the same thing with governments, neither bureaucracies nor governments normally take the initiative in relation to things which are difficult and where there is not public pressure to bring about change. So it's the broader community that has to start mobilizing to insist that they don't want to drown. They don't want to burn. They don't want to die of thirst. And they need to make sure that climate change is put seriously at the centre of our governmental agendas.

SB: Mr. Alston thank you very much.

PA: My pleasure. Thank you.

KG: Philip Alston is the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. We reached him in Marseille.

[Music]

Boris Johnson Hair

KG: Boris Johnson's hair has once again captivated the British public. But this time it's not the untidiness of the Prime Ministerial hopeful's ruffled blond locks that have people splitting hairs. This time it's all about length. A few days ago, police were called to the home he shares with his partner Carrie Symonds. Ms. Symonds was shouting and there were sounds of plates smashing. There was a lot of press coverage, and Mr. Johnson refused to answer any questions about the incident. Then yesterday, a picture was released to the newspapers showing the happy couple sitting in a field -- apparently in extreme harmony. Mr. Johnson's campaign said they were taken last weekend. The thing is though in the field picture his hair appears to be much longer than the style that he's currently sporting -- fueling suspicion that the photograph is actually dated. And this morning, on LBC, host Nick Ferrari grilled Mr. Johnson about his locks.

SOUNDCLIP

NICK FERRARI: Did you know this picture was being put out?

BORIS JOHNSON: I am aware of all sorts of pictures of me out on the Internet. It is entirely up to newspapers to decide what they want -- but the longer we spend on...the longer we spend...

NICK FERRARI: I am guaranteeing you 20 minutes...

BORIS JOHNSON: Let's get on.

NICK FERRARI: Did you know this picture was out there?

BORIS JOHNSON: Of course I knew that there was a picture like that in existence...

NICK FERRARI: And you knew it was put out...

BORIS JOHNSON: Whether it was the decision of the -- it's up entirely to the newspapers to decide what they want to print.

NICK FERRARI: When was it taken?

BORIS JOHNSON: Well hang on -- listen -- you're asking me...

NICK FERRARI: So that's a state secret...

BORIS JOHNSON: It's not a state secret.

NICK FERRARI: So when was it taken?

BORIS JOHNSON: It's not a state secret. It just happens to be something that I don't want to get into.

NICK FERRARI: You won't even tell me when the picture was taken?

BORIS JOHNSON: No. Why should I?

NICK FERRARI: Because it's not recent -- is it? Your hair in this photograph is not your hair currently, is it?

BORIS JOHNSON: If I may say so, this conversation is now descending into...

NICK FERRARI: Well I'll be the judge of that. It is currently the Nick Ferrari show. Actually if you come for this job that might change as well. Who knows? But if the board were to come out of the back of the scrum. This is a quite an old picture, isn't it?

BORIS JOHNSON: Nick I'm not going to comment...

NICK FERRARI: It is before the haircut you know -- from the Turkish chap...

BORIS JOHNSON: You're wrong about that because I no longer have -- unfortunately -- I no longer have my haircut by the Turkish chap. I have my haircut by a very very nice person called Kelly or possibly Tamara...

NICK FERRARI: When did you last have your haircut?

BORIS JOHNSON: You are going to have to ask Kelly or Tamara.

KG: That was Boris Johnson -- would-be leader of the UK Conservative Party, giving host Nick Ferrari the brush-off about the length of his hair in a supposedly recent picture.

[Music]

Calls To Action

KG: Four years ago, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its 94 calls to action. Now some Winnipeg elementary school students are answering with their own versions of those recommendations. For the past two years, Grade 4, 5, and 6 students at Winnipeg's Laura Secord School have been creating a book of drawings, poems, and interpretations of each action. And last night they presented that book to members of the community. It's called "Answering the Calls: A Child's View of the 94 Calls to Action." CBC's Austin Grabish spoke with Grade 6 students Kalvin Keating and Maddie Armstrong-Wilson at the event.

SOUNDCLIP

MADDIE ARMSTRONG-WILSON: When I started I didn't even know what Truth and Reconciliation is. I know then a lot of people didn't know. So that was pretty cool. As we started to learn about it more, we got a better sense of it because I know that when we started it was like "oh yeah Indigenous people didn't have it so good." That's pretty much the extent of what I knew. I learned a lot about residential schools. And the biggest thing I learned is that the last residential school closed when my teacher graduated high school which actually in theory wasn't that long ago which was really interesting but also kind of sad especially since you know like they were really bad. As I learned more about it, it got sadder but it was kind of interesting to learn about.

AUSTIN GRABISH: What do you know about the TRC's Calls to Action?

KALVIN KEATING: Well I know that if every single Call to Action is filled out our world could be a really better place. One of the worst things I found out was that 80 percent of inmates in Manitoba are Indigenous. And so that could be prevented if we actually do something about it and realize they're there instead of just forgetting about it because residential schools should never be forgotten about. They should just be changed.

AUSTIN GRABISH: What do you want the government to do? It sounded like you had a pledge up there.

KALVIN KEATING: Well I want them to start actually realizing that these people aren't like -- they're Indigenous -- they have different stuff than we do. So they have sweat lodges and stuff to help them when they're traumatized. And if they just get out of jail and nobody is there to help them then there's nothing they can really do because people spend a lot of money when they're in jail on them to keep like them in the cell and stuff like that. They could be spending that money on programs to help them get out of jail rather than to keep them in.

KG: That was Kalvin Keating and before him you heard Maddie Armstrong-Wilson. They're two of the students at Laura Secord School in Winnipeg who've contributed to a new kid friendly version of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action. Teachers behind the projects say copies of the students book will be made available in libraries throughout the Winnipeg School Division.

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Cobra Killed

Guest: Kathy Kehoe

KG: There are certain hierarchies in the animal kingdom -- predators that outrank other predators. And it can be kind of fun to imagine what might happen if two powerhouses were to meet. Elephant versus rhinos or crocodile versus shark. Well yesterday an unusual match up took place in real life in a suburb outside of Philadelphia when Kathy Kehoe found herself next to a five foot long venomous snake. We reached Ms. Kehoe in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania.

SB: Kathy Kehoe when did you first realize there was a cobra outside your apartment?

KATHY KEHOE: Well I feed the birds -- and blue jays are outstanding watchdogs. And they were very frantic. They have different calls for different types of predators. And I knew that something unusual was out there. So I got up and walked over and looked down and it was a snake. So I opened my screen door because I could only see the back of the snake. I wanted to see what kind of a snake it was. And I looked and I saw the spot on its head -- I gave its tail a little nudge. And it went up and the hood opened up and I said it's a cobra.

SB: What did you do?

KK: Well [laughs] I said a bad word and it slithered around the side of the building and I went out to see where it was going because I didn't want it to get underneath the building and turned around and came back and I was like oh no no. So I went back inside and shut the screen door.

SB: How big was the snake?

KK: It was about four and a half to five feet. And it was looking for some place to go or hide to -- I don't know -- nest.

SB: Do you know a lot about snakes?

KK: A good bit. I'm just an amateur. I've been catching them since I was a youngster on a farm. I just find them fascinating.

SB: But not cobras...

KK: Well not cobras [laughs]. They are indigenous to Asia. And they're not indigenous to Pennsylvania.

SB: You go back in your house. What happened next?

KK: Then I started thinking the snake is looking for a place to hide or curl up. Something has to be done. First I wanted to capture it but that immediately left my mind. And then I thought if this gets away and gets in the apartment complex -- in between the walls -- bad things could happen...it's a poisonous reptile. And I immediately became worried for the community and my neighbours.

SB: Did you consider calling someone for help?

KK: No. Because by the time that would've happened -- I kind of immediately, it was like contain the snake and then call for help and get people. I unfortunately I wound up killing it but that was the only second best thing I could think to do.

SB: What did you do?

KK: So I watched it. It went across my patio. I went out and got my shovel. It went through the grass. I tapped its tail so that it would stop. It stopped and it raced up and its hood went out. And I took the point of the shovel and pinned it to the ground by its head. And then I'm out there without a phone for a couple minutes. One of the neighbours went by in his car and I flagged him down. And he said, why am I stopping? I said because I have a cobra pinned here. He called the police and they dispatched animal control.

SB: So you didn't actually kill the snake -- you just pinned it down?

KK: Eventually I did kill it. I wasn't going to let go. I kept it pinned because it kept squirming.

SB: Did you ever think that this was not a safe thing to do?

KK: Well yes. But there are a lot of children -- young children -- here that play here. There's a playground. People's animals. I just wasn't going to let this animal get away because I felt it was dangerous to the community. And I'm pretty cautious. I pretty much know what I'm doing. I took my time I was calm, but was I scared? Oh yeah.

SB: Cobras aren't normally crawling around Pennsylvania. Where did this one come from?

KK: This one is probably an escapee from a hoarding situation that happened in this complex in March. Animal Control came in and I believe they took out 28 reptiles: Asian cobras -- rattlesnakes. The animals weren't properly contained so it was a very irresponsible thing to do.

SB: Do you feel a little different these days about your garden and about anytime you hear the birds?

KK: Well the birds haven't been anxious outside of a little territorial fighting. But as for myself, before I step outside -- I don't open the door till I look left, right, and left again on my patio.

SB: Well let's hope you don't see another cobra. Thanks for telling us about this Kathy.

KK: Thank you for having me.

KG: Kathy Kehoe lives in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania -- which is where we reached her.

[Music]

Squirrel Census

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[Animal making sound]

KG: The spine-tingling battle cry of the Eastern Grey Squirrel. Well...or maybe it's the sensuous mating call of the eastern grey squirrel. I'm not an expert. Nor were the people who spread out across the 340 hectares of New York City's Central Park last October. They were just enthusiastic amateurs with two key attributes: a love of squirrels and an ability to count. And that's how the Central Park Squirrel Census was conducted. Why it was conducted is a separate thing. And the answer is: Jamie Allen. He's from Atlanta, Georgia. About eight years ago, he wondered how many squirrels might be in his city's Inman Park. And unlike everyone else who has wondered about what's in their local park, he did something about it -- he organized a squirrel census, and then produced a bunch of graphic representations of the data. The squirrel counters gathered. Now, Inman Park is only 73 hectares. And as I mentioned Central Park is more than four times that. So last year's census required a carefully coordinated effort. For days more than 300 volunteers split up to enumerate the park's population of eastern grey squirrels. The final tally: 2,373. Of course that tally is just one of the elements of the giant report which includes maps, a booklet, and a 45-rpm record described as an "experiential soundtrack of the park." So the report comes with sound even if its findings aren't totally sound -- scientifically speaking. But it's a fascinating combination of facts and fun. So like the squirrel itself some of it is fluff -- but a lot of it isn't.

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June 25, 2019 Episode Transcript

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