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The Current Transcript for December 28, 2020

Host: Catherine Cullen

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

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SOUNDCLIP

VOICE: I think there’s a culture in hockey that would have discourgead a player like that, but I think that’s all changed. I really do. I remember talking to my players about it in Toronto and they’re like the first guy that comes out will be welcome. The whole key is can he help us win? They don’t care who he goes home with.

CATHERINE CULLEN: Brian Burke knows tough hockey. His career has been largely defined by a physical style of play and the hard-nosed teams he built to play it. But after his son Brendan came out, Brian applied that same fighter mentality to becoming an LGBTQ activist. In 30 minutes, Brian Burke joins. Then another heartfelt struggle.

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VOICE: He wears a wedding ring, he looks at it, he knows he belongs to someone. He may not know he belongs to me, cause that part is a little bit fuzzy now, but he belongs to someone. And that was really important for him and it actually helps him.

CC: Lisa Raitt knows how to battle for what she believes in. As a politician she had no quit. Now, as the primary caregiver for her husband with early onset dementia, she shows that same devotion both to him and to others going through the same experience. Later on, we revisit The Current’s powerful conversation with Lisa Raitt. But we begin with the heavily-scrutinized organization playing a key role in trying to manage the pandemic. Good morning. I’m Catherin Cullen, in for Matt Galloway this week, and you are listening The Current.

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Dr. Bruce Aylward on the next stages of the fight against COVID-19

Guests: Bruce Aylward

SOUNDCLIP

CC: It's hard to believe that this time last year, no one had ever heard the words COVID-19. In Wuhan, reports were just beginning to emerge of a strange new pneumonia. The World Health Organization didn't get its first warning from China about the virus until December 31st. Now, as the virus comes, as the first vaccines rather, come online, the world is entering a new stage in the struggle to control the disease. And new variants of the virus are being detected around the world, including cases right here in Canada.

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VOICE: This variant of COVID-19 from the U.K., certainly there's the potential that this could be more transmissible and there's some evidence suggesting that that's the case, but to what extent? It's still unknown and it probably is more widespread than the couple of cases that we have here in Canada, and it's probably much more widespread worldwide.

CC: That's infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch speaking to the CBC yesterday about a new U.K. strain of COVID. Joining me now to talk about it all is Dr. Bruce Aylward. He is Senior Advisor to the Director-General of the WHO. He's also a Canadian. Hello.

BRUCE AYLWARD: Hi, Catherine.

CC: Hi. So let's start with that point made by Dr. Bogoch about the new variant of COVID popping up across the world, including Canada. This idea that it is more transmissible, we're also hearing this about this South African variant as a possibility. What does it mean, do you think, for the global fight against COVID?

BRUCE AYLWARD: Well, it's still early days in terms of this new variant, Catherine. As you will have heard and others will be summarized for you. Mutations of these viruses happen all the time. What's a bit different about this one is that it's associated with a shift in the epidemiology and much more cases being occurring in certain geographic areas where this is found both in South Africa and in the U.K. So but it's still early days to really know what the implications are for the overall response.

CC: It does seem though that the implication is a lot more people could get sick, not necessarily sicker, but be affected. No?

BRUCE AYLWARD: Yeah, what we're always worried about with the with mutations in the viruses is do they fundamentally change the nature of it, in terms of the severity of the disease that it causes or its ability to transmit. And this one, so far that does not and this new study just came out today, actually, from the UK that suggests it doesn't cause more severe disease. It may be more transmissible, but again, you know, a lot of evidence points in that direction, but like I say, we've seen other viruses that we thought at other points in this epidemic were also more transmissible and in the end, it didn't turn out so. So we're still a little bit cautious. You know, at the end of the day, Catherine, we have to do the same things. And what this demonstrates is you have to do them even more aggressively, even more religiously to try and control the spread of the virus, because if you give it space, there's going to be more mutations. There will be emergence of more concerning variants as we go forward.

CC: The UK strain is getting a lot of attention, I think, particularly here in Canada as we see cases emerging. But I do want to talk for a moment about this South African variant because it seems we haven't heard quite as much about it. I was actually quite surprised to read that it's been dominating samples in South Africa since October. Should we be more concerned, do you think, about what's happening in South Africa because the caseload there really has shot up?

BRUCE AYLWARD: Well in both situations, you see, what's happening, Catherine, with this virus is they share a common change. Now they're not related and that they didn't originate in the same place, but they have a similar change. And the concern is, is that change what would leading to more transmissibility because what we saw in the Eastern Cape is a real surge of cases over the last while in the same period that the same strain became the dominant strain. When you look at the sequences across most and that's what's leading, just like the same information from southeast England to the concern that this is actually a more transmissible variant, let's say, of the virus. So that has to be your ingoing assumption because you're seeing two viruses and two different parts of the world with a similar change in its genome that is associated with increased cases and surge of cases, then that's the concern. Now, the South African variant also has a couple of other changes that are close to the area on the on the virus. They quote, for part of the virus that helps to buy into the human receptors. Now, that is what has got people more concerned and suggesting, oh, could that change the ability of antibodies that we make either as a result of vaccination or through natural infection recovery. Could that affect the ability of those antibodies to neutralize the virus? That's what have got people particularly concerned. So there's these two or three elements of it, all of which you have to look at together. Now, fortunately, at this point, no evidence of that.

CC: Now, when we talk about I mean, you said all of this a reminder that we can't give this virus space and so I think particularly for people here in Canada who are starting to hear reports that the UK variant is in the country, what is it that you want to see governments across the world do in response to news that there do seem to be some concerning variants cropping up?

BRUCE AYLWARD: Yeah, well, first off, we talk about the population, because at the end of the day, Catherine, governments can give the right advice, they can make the tools available. But it really depends on the populations themselves, you know, deciding that they are going to take the necessary steps to slow these viruses down through the social distancing, through the masking, through the hand washing, all of those measures that Canada has done, the Canadian government and provincial governments, local governments have done such a great job promoting. So we have to continue those measures, we have to roll out these vaccines because at the same time we want to do is build up population immunity. And what we've seen over the last couple of weeks is just more and more evidence of the importance of maintaining these measures as we roll out these vaccines. Because the virus, you don't want to give it space because it's an RNA virus, these things are going to mutate, they're going to change over time, and you want to keep as much pressure on this virus as possible.

CC: Now, broadly, you sound relatively optimistic. The WHO has sounded relatively optimistic about the implications of this, this variant, certainly not describing it as any kind of worst case scenario. But I wonder, is there any risk that the show is underreacting? Because I think people may hearken back to the beginning of this pandemic and some of the criticism that your organisation received, that you're a bit too slow off the mark.

BRUCE AYLWARD: Well, it's definitely not underreacted, Catherine. The organization is out there pushing very, very hard and highlighting the fact that variants of these viruses highlight the need for rigorous attention to the control measures that have been promoted for so long. So I think to the contrary, the organisation has used this as one more piece of information to help the populations appreciate the need to maintain pressure on these viruses, keep the the different the different control measures in place. And the organisation has with the with the UK, with South Africa, with researchers around the world, embarked on a very aggressive research agenda to try and understand is there more severity associated with this disease? Is there greater transmissibility, et cetera. So to the contrary, I think the organization has been incredibly forward leaning on this on this variant, as it has all along.

CC: Well, so let's talk about that. Let's talk about the WHO's leadership. You know very well that it has been the subject of a lot of criticism. You yourself our audience may know were one of the co leaders actually have a mission to China in February. In hindsight, do you think that the WHO was too willing to accept that the numbers that China was putting forward early were accurate, to believe China when it said that there was not clear evidence of human to human transmission? Looking back.

BRUCE AYLWARD: Catherine, the most important thing to go back and look at is the disease outbreak news information that WHO published back at the very beginning of January. Now, I wasn't involved in the response at that time, but I read the data and this disease outbreak news and I immediately thought, pay attention. If I was a public health professional anywhere in the world, I would be concerned about this because in that the WHO said you should apply the measures for potential human to human transmission of a respiratory virus. And it was very clearly saying right from the very beginning, this is a virus that we are or rather, at that point that we are potentially very concerned about. So, you know, I think in hindsight, there's a lot of other people that are saying, well, who's to blame? Someone has to be to blame because this is a terrible catastrophe that's affected. So many people have died, that it affected, economies destroyed, but if you go back and look at the warning flags in the very early communications, they were there and remember, but it's taken countries that got reinfected much longer to find the virus then it took China to find the virus. Catherine, how did that happen? It's taking countries months to find the virus when it's been in their country, despite having months and months of lead time.

CC: And yet there has been considerable reporting since the early days of the pandemic suggesting that China internally had information that, for instance, this was likely to be a pandemic and that it kept that information to itself, not only from its own population, but from the WHO as well. So I'd like to ask again, do you think that in hindsight the WHO is too credulous of some of what China was saying?

BRUCE AYLWARD: Well, remember, I led the mission that went into China and looked at this disease and this was in very early February. Right? So less than a month or a month, basically after the disease that emerged. And in terms of the severe disease, the transmission dynamics, et cetera, we we were able to put the whole package together. But there was very little information we found that was not already in the public domain or being shared. So I haven't seen the information that you referred to yet. As you know, there's going to be an important mission that goes into the it's going into the country now in the coming weeks that will help look at some of those early issues. But, you know, we spent three weeks in the country.

CC: For instance, CNN reported that while China was publicly reporting that 2478 cases, newly detected cases cropped up on February 10th. In fact, internal documents suggest there were almost 6000 cases at the time. You're not aware of reporting like that?

BRUCE AYLWARD: Well, Catherine, just go back now and look at the scenes that you were seeing on TV in January, right. Remember the scenes that you were seeing in Wuhan, the country was building new hospitals. People could see that, see that happening. You saw the people in, they were calling them the spacesuits, et cetera. The warning was there for the entire world that this was something very dangerous. They were locking down an entire city. This was back in January. So to say, irrespective of the exact numbers of cases, no country's got the number of cases right. If you look.

CC: Internally they had that number.

BRUCE AYLWARD: No Catherine, just a moment. If you look here in Europe, right at the excess mortality and you look at the reported number of cases, the excess mortality, 50 percent differences sometimes. Even greater than that. No country is getting it right in terms of its numbers. So there may be differences, but the bottom line is, would that change your management of the disease? That's what you want to know, Catherine. Was the information that would change how you would and do you think two thousand versus six thousand sounds right or three thousand versus six thousand. That makes a difference on whether you're going to take it seriously outside? Come on. We have to be, we all have to be honest with ourselves in this.

CC: I do very much want to ask you about vaccines, but before we turn the page, I would be very remiss if I didn't ask you about one incident that involved you personally. A lot of people listening may know you for that controversial interview with a Hong Kong journalist back in March. You appeared to dodge a question about Taiwan and China, the line disconnected. I just wonder if you can give me your side of the story. What happened there? Did you hang up on that journal for asking about Taiwan?

BRUCE AYLWARD: Well, it's not my side of the story, Catherine. It's the story. The line got disconnected. I phoned back immediately and we have a Skype record of that. That is just one of multiple misrepresentations in the course of that interview. The interview, the questions were reshot, the order was reshot and, you know, even the even the journalists, they won't release the original footage. So, yeah, we would contest how it's portrayed. Was it a great interview? No. You know, that was frustrating in itself.

CC: You didn't hang up on her?

BRUCE AYLWARD: Was it because it was about Taiwan? No. And, you know, this is you know, that's the reality of being, you know, in the positions that we're in. These things happen. You have bad interviews, people use them in a bad way and you're stuck with it.

CC: But you're comfortable touching on topics that make China uncomfortable just to to put this subject to rest? You don't have any, you would say you don't have any problem being critical of China?

BRUCE AYLWARD: Well, that's two different questions you just asked. I mean you can ask any question about China. That's fine. Absolutely.

CC: OK, well, let's turn to vaccines now, because you are the lead on the campaign to get vaccines and other tools needed to fight COVID-19 to low and middle income countries. The WHO, you, are seeking 28 billion with a B dollars to make this happen. Give us a sense of what is at stake if wealthy countries are not willing to share vaccines and share the economic resources needed to make this happen?

BRUCE AYLWARD: Well, it's really simple, Catherine. Your lead in you know really highlights it. More people will die, more people will be sick, the economies will drag for, the global economy, the economies in industrialized countries will drag for much longer than they need to. It's as simple as that. In the interrelated world we live in today, the only way to get out of a crisis like this, a pandemic like this, is to attack this thing simultaneously and globally. You've got to reduce the risk of severe disease, you know that severe disease, which is blocking up the ICUs, overwhelming our health systems, requiring the social distancing and shutting down our economies. You've got to address that on a global scale. And that's what the program I'm leading, the ACT accelerator is all about. It's trying to ensure both the acceleration of the development of these tools, but even more important, the equitable access to them globally.

CC: Canada has you know, the government here has talked repeatedly about the fact that it's pre-ordered more vaccine per capita than any other country. I think it comes up to about nine, nearly nine doses per Canadian. A lot of talk about vaccine hoarding. Do you think what Canada is doing would be considered vaccine hoarding?

BRUCE AYLWARD: No. Vaccine hoarding is when you actually have the product and you're not using it. Now, in the course of Canada, as you've seen, there's been some great reporting showing as this virus or sorry, vaccine is arriving in the country, it's being used in real time to to get it out, get it to the older population, get it to the health care workers. So, no, it's not hoarding vaccines. Using vaccine very, very rapidly. The key now going forward is as Canada is confident that it has the vaccines that it needs, is it willing to share the doses that it has? And all indications from Canada are that they would like to be part of the global solution.

CC: In fact, one of the ministers in this country said excess doses they are willing to share, but the question we don't know the answer to is, does that mean only once we have vaccinated all Canadians who are interested in getting the vaccin or we talking about just targeting sort of key most vulnerable populations first? Would you encourage Canada one way or the other in terms of how it makes that decision?

BRUCE AYLWARD: Yeah, that's a great issue. And it goes back again to the conversation, the answer to the last question, right. To get out of this, you have got to get out of it at the same time globally, which means sharing doses in real time ideally. And if you look at the principles that we put out, we issued a set of principles last week about dose sharing with Kovacs, that's the facility we've established to try and roll the products out globally. One of the things that we highlighted was ideally this would be early access and basically, ideally, even simultaneously with the use of the vaccine in the country, which eventually would be donating it.

CC: I want to ask you about the broader.

BRUCE AYLWARD: And that's tough, right Catherine?

CC: And so how do you make that tough sell? Give me the sort of key point. Canadians too right? Who are thinking, OK, well, that might mean I have to wait a little bit longer to get vaccinated.

BRUCE AYLWARD: Yeah, well, I mean, Canadians are great people, right? And they have a fantastic history of caring about others around the world. And they really see themselves as part of a global community. And I think it's a combination of a moral argument, it's a combination of an economic argument, but it's also a health security argument, as we've just seen in our previous conversation about these variants. Right? You have got to control this thing globally to reduce the risk to your own population's health, to your health security, to your economy and it's in the best interests of Canada to get the world sharing these vaccines globally.

CC: So Canada recently announced almost half a billion dollars, 485 million dollars to support vaccines, testing therapeutics, some of this through your ACT project. Is Canada doing enough?

BRUCE AYLWARD: I thought that was fantastic. And Canada is actually playing a real leadership role on a couple of fronts in this regard, Catherine. For one thing, is this the scale of the contributions that it's making? No, it's not enough in the short term, but it's a great step in the right direction. But this is going to require all of the G7, G20 countries really stepping up. Like you said, it's a 28 billion dollar financing gap. Now, that's a pittance compared to the domestic stimulus financing that's going into the G20 countries, over 12 trillion dollars already, but it's a lot of money. And Canada has done a great job. It's out there financing at a substantial level. It's also financing across a range of solutions, not just vaccines, but also therapeutics, also diagnostics, because it's going to take a holistic approach to control this disease. And so I think Canada's been providing some great leadership on this. Is more needed? Absolutely. And that's going to be essential to get out of this.

CC: OK, well, we're going to leave it on that note, but we thank you very much for your time today.

BRUCE AYLWARD: Catherine, thank you for the chance to speak.

CC: That's Dr. Bruce Aylward. He is a Senior Advisor to the Director-General of the World Health Organization. We reached him today in Geneva.

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Sports leagues should vaccinate their players to build public's confidence: Brian Burke

Guests: Brian Burke

CC: Hockey fans will know my next guest for his drive to win, whether as the general manager for the Vancouver Canucks, Anaheim Ducks, Toronto Maple Leafs and more or for his broadcast work. Brian Burke has helped grow the game of hockey around the world. Brian's new book is Burke's Law: A Life in Hockey. Brian Burke, good morning.

BRIAN BURKE: Good morning Catherine. How are you?

CC: I'm doing well. I enjoyed your book, but I want to start with this upcoming NHL season first. It's expected to start in a few weeks. We are, as you know very well, in the midst of the second wave of COVID here in Canada. You look at what's happening in the United States, obviously terribly concerning the number of cases we're seeing. And so I just wonder how you feel about launching into this new season in the midst of a really pronounced second wave of this pandemic.

BRIAN BURKE: Well, I think there's risk, obviously. And the number one priority is the safety of our players and staff. There will not be fans attending in any of the games in Canada, but at least initially. But I think it's important we get back on the ice and do it safely. And I think that the various health authorities in the different provinces in Canada are satisfied that that can be done.

CC: Why is it important to get back on the ice?

BRIAN BURKE: I think it's really important for people, like I'm watching the world just like a hawk. I'm watching the NFL. I think sports are really important part of our society and a diversion for people at a time quitefFrankly, right now is a tough time for everybody. So to me, I think it's important we get back on the ice and I'm excited that we're going to.

CC: I want to talk a little bit about the way this is being structured. We're looking at an entire Canadian division, the seven Canadian teams. What do you think about that? Does it does it make sense? And what do you think it's going to mean in terms of the hockey we're going to see?

Well, I don't think we have a choice for the 14 day quarantine. Any U.S. team that comes across the border right now has to quarantine for 14 days. So we really don't have a choice on that, given what the Canadian health authorities, the position they've taken and which is reason why I'm not being critical. I really don't think we have a choice. So I think this is the only option. But I think it's an exciting option for Canadian hockey fans.

Is is it good for the league or does it end up sort of dividing things a little bit?

You know, it's like everything else in this past year.

It's upside down. Short term.

Yeah, it's good for the league. It's produced some exciting hockey. Canadian fans are excited to see the Canadian teams, but I think a steady diet of of eight or nine games against one opponent, I think that will cure people of their enthusiasm for it after one year.

I think it'll be exciting for a society for a year.

But this is what the league used to be when there were only six teams. They would play each other eight, 10 times. And I don't think fans want to see that. And no Sidney Crosby, no. OK, and so some of the star power that resides south of the border is gone. They don't get to play the existing Stanley Cup champion, Tampa Bay Lightning. So there's a lot that's wrong with it, too. But again, we're making the best of the circumstances that have presented themselves to us.

OK, I'm going to be a little bit cruel here and leave your predictions to the end of our discussion, because I want to talk a little bit more, sort of staying with covered by a little bit more about your book. I was so interested in the way that you talk about what you learnt from Pat Quinn and being progressive when you're looking at your hockey team. I saw an interview where you described yourself as as as being a bit thinking of yourself as a as a progressive leader, somebody who was looking to the future of the game. There's that hilarious story where you're in Vancouver talking about making your scouts lug around these thirty pound laptops and everybody thinking that they're crazy. But I wonder, in the midst of covid, what do you think the NHL needs to do when it comes to being forward looking, maybe not rethinking the game? It's the way the game is being played. But but but at least tweaking it.

I don't think anything -- right now, the key here is to get everyone vaccinated. I mean, that's the only way that we can get back to normal with full buildings and large crowds. And we're several months away from that being meaningful. And I think probably July is optimistic. August possible, September likely. But I think, you know, we have to get our fans and players and everyone vaccinated. That's the key to filling up the buildings again. The way the game itself is played, I think is really in great shape. The game is faster than it's ever been before. The one by-product, I think you will see of this divisional players, you're going to see a lot more anger and a lot more truculence and a lot more animosity amongst the teams. When you play a team, when you play a team that often, then things pile up fast, grudges pile up fast, you're going to see a spike in fighting and and hitting.

I think before we get to fighting, I do want to ask you, you talked about the importance of getting players, fans, everybody vaccinated. There were those reports suggesting that the NHL wanted to buy vaccines for its players. Do you think that's a good move.

Yeah, I do. And I know the outrage that that will create in Canada. People say Oh, they're jumping the queue and. But everyone's going to get the vaccine anyway. And if these guys are travelling and are, you know, breathing heavily, all the things that are wrong -- and also there's a lot of people are reluctant to get the vaccine. And I've heard people in pro sports say, like if LeBron James gets the vaccine, that's going to convince a whole lot of people in the US that are uncertain right now that it's a good thing. So to me, if this will aid or improve the numbers that get the vaccination on time, then I think it's a great idea.

But before let's say like like folks in remote indigenous communities where there's a really big risk, like, well, the timing is going to be pretty crucial, I would think.

Yes. And you'll be able to point to a group at any point, Kathryn, and say that groups more entitled. So who's the most entitled? OK, the frontline workers, we'll, all agree. First responders we'll all agree. Key politicians. I think the prime minister should be vaccinated before anyone else. You will always be able to point to a set of people and say, well, they're at higher risk or they're more entitled. Then fine, put the players behind remote indigenous communities. I agree with that. But you'll always be able to point to a group and say they're more entitled than hockey players. What I'm suggesting is, if these athletes are going to come in contact with the public, and if they are role models that will actually improve the vaccination numbers, do it. Otherwise no, don't do it.

OK. We said we were going to dig in on fighting. So let's let's talk about that there. As you know very well, talk for years about should fighting be banned in hockey? You are against it, I guess. Tell the folks listening why you think fighting needs to remain a part of hockey.

Well, first off, the people in the game, there's not a huge split in the game. Most of the people who want fighting eliminated are outside the game. And so, you know, my attitude is very simple. And if you don't like it, then watch other sports like we have fighting. It's a very tiny part of our game, but it's an important part of our game.

What makes it so important?

Accountability. Basically, it's accountability. People say, well, I don't like stage fights and you only do it to sell tickets. Well, if we're doing it to sell tickets, we're doing a pretty poor job of it because you're likely to see a fight, I think. And every two and a half games now or something crazy, it's it's way down. And the league is systematically eliminated as a tactic. And that's a good thing. I don't want to go back to the old days. When I played in the American League we had six, seven fights a night. That's not what I'm talking about. But I love the accountability in the game. And if you run a goaltender or you run a star player, you're going to have to fight somebody. And I hope we never lose that.

How does that idea of accountability coexist with what we're learning about the serious implications of head injuries that people are sustaining in hockey? And I I know you mentioned this in the book that they don't just come from fighting, but but aren't there other ways to find accountability?

No, not in my mind. And the fact of the matter is that head injuries from fighting are a tiny, tiny percentage of the concussions that are suffered by players.

So as far as you're concerned, it's here to stay and as you were saying, in fact, maybe it's going to be on the rise this upcoming season. Yeah, OK. I want to talk a little bit more about the personal aspect of your your work, folks. We mentioned this earlier. May know well about your son Brendan, who came out who is a real voice for diversity in hockey and who unfortunately passed away in 2010. He was only 21 years old. Can I ask you to just tell people a little bit about Brendan?

Well, Brennan was a student manager at Miami University hockey team in Oxford, Ohio, and he was just a great kid, a sweet kid and a very smart kid with a keen interest in politics. And he came out he came up to us before that, of course, but not long before he passed away in a car accident, he came out very publicly in Canada and said, you know, I'm Brendan Burke and I'm gay. And it was a non-event in our family. Like, my kids were raised in a home that had no racial humour, tolerated no homophobia. And so it was a non-event. And I remember Brendan came up to me and said I hugged him and said, you've given us a million reasons to love you. This doesn't change any of them. But he was tragically killed with another young man that was in the car with him, Mark Reedy, in a car accident in a blizzard. So great loss for our family. We created the You Can Play project to commemorate his memory and make sure that his memory lives on. And I miss him. He's a great kid.

You you have been very vocal on LGBTQ issues, a grand marshal and a pride, at least one pride parade, I believe you continue. You and your family continue to do campaigns, commercials. I wonder whether you consider yourself an activist.

Absolutely, yeah, I mean, I march this this is a cute story. So Rick Mercer has marched with me in the Pride Parade before we came back from Afghanistan together, went back from visiting the Canadian forces, went back, slept for two hours and then marched in the Pride parade. So this year, this is there was no pride parade recognised March, the parade route, which was my with my daughters and my my ex. We marched the parade route symbolically in honour and memory of Brenan, marched in the Pride Parade, I think three times here and twice for sure. And I marched in Calgary twice and I marched in New York two years ago. So yes, I am an activist on behalf of the LGBTQ community. I'm proud of it.

Let's talk about how hockey is doing on that front now. No player in the league has ever publicly identified as gay. There's no doubt there are gay hockey players. What do you make of that?

Well, I think I think there's a misconception, because people say to me, when one is a hockey player going to have the courage to come out and my experience talking to people from the LGBTQ community is it's not about courage. It's not about sponsors. It's not about how they're going to receive the difficulty of coming out for most people. And again, this has been relayed to me, not my own experience. I'm not gay, but a close family member that absolutely disapproves. And they're worried about splitting the family and worried about losing the approval that normally a parent, but often an uncle or not, that says I'm from Minnesota.

So I was not that well.

And so often a close family member that totally disapproves and says all gay people should go to hell of that player is not going to come out and support his family if he can avoid it. So that says that most of them, I think when we do have a player come out because we do have gay players, statistically, we know that we've had gay players, we have gay players. There's no question in my mind. But one, that first player does come out. He's going to find, I think, a very open and welcoming landscape. He'll find a bunch of idiots to like even the people online that wrote horrible things after Brendan was killed. There is people online writing that, oh, God, God took him away because he's evil.

That's why he was killed. I mean, that's how stupid and sick people are. So this person that comes out, the first player, he's going to encounter some of the ignorance and bias that has built up over centuries. But he's going to find a very welcoming workplace and public in my mind.

I want to ask you about another rights issue that, you know, it's certainly not just the NHL is confronting right now. Right now, all of all of society, I think, in the last year has been seised with this discussion around Black Lives Matter and fighting racism. The NHL has been criticised for the way that that it's handled some of this. So one person who wrote the NHL basically did the minimum when it came to acknowledging Black Lives Matter. How do you think the NHL is doing?

Well, I think the NHL has been ahead of the curve on this, and it's done a tremendous job. But I also think we need to do more like we're not in a place where we want to be the thing. I'm more of a half glass full guy. And to me, so when this metoo movement started with was racial, like a team, a little recording that called a racist slur, I said at the time, I mean, in real time, I said, well, let's have our me to moment. If we've got systemic racism in the game, let's bring it out right now. Let's deal with it and punish these people. And if so, is there a question in your mind about whether or not there's systemic and the line was very short, as I thought it would be now? Well, a lot of people came forward and said they've been victims of racism in hockey was very short. We didn't have coaches who are doing this. We're never team-mates. I suspended the guy when I worked at the league. I was the first we're the first sport to suspend a player for a racial comment. I did it with Chris Simon. He called he called my career a racial slur and I suspended him. That was back where I worked at the league and I left the league in ninety eight. So that was more than twenty two years ago. So I don't think it's a huge problem. Do I think we're perfect? No. Do we have to do better. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think this week. But if you look at the stuff, the league did work like Mr. Snyder with the programmes he had for disadvantaged youth and people of colour. The league already had a number of programmes in place, but we have to do better. I'm not I am not minimising this issue.

So what does that what does it look like concretely? What kind of changes would you like to see?

Well, I think the first off, the issue we have is in my mind, and it affects racially disadvantaged or economically disadvantaged families disproportionately. And therefore it's a racial issue. But there is the biggest issue we have is the cost of the game to play. This game has become frighteningly expensive. And so we and that affects people of colour disproportionately. So the number one thing is we want people to play and enjoy this game. We have to make it affordable and keep it affordable. That's number one. Number two, we have to do a better job on hiring and promoting people of colour within the game and women and other minorities, LGBTQ, we haven't done a good enough job there. And that's partly because of the racial base of the players that have played the game. There's a lot we can do better. But what I always start is, look, we've taken some big steps in the right direction. But yeah, we've got to do better, no question in my mind.

Do you think a kid who's who's starting out their hockey life right now and is black or indigenous or just a person of colour is the reality, though, that they're going to hear some? Some. Racist slurs and received some racist treatment as they go through from.

Well, it should be zero tolerance like the GTA tell their policy of zero tolerance if a player is called a racial slur and it can be verified. And that's the tricky part. Someone else has to hear it. All right. But even if no one else hears it, if the player reports that the offending player is supposed to be written up and reviewed or undertaken, they're trying to get to zero tolerance. So I think that's realistic. And they want to know. So, yeah, probably likely. Just like my son was a victim. A lot of slurs about being gay. And you're talking about attitudes and ignorance and bias that have built up over centuries. Gatherum, these are not Dorsch to kick in. These are mud walls that are rolled over time. I look at the progress we've made with the LGBTQ community and it's significant. I said to Brendon, you're so much lucky to be a young gay man at this time. You're so much luckier than a young gay man. In my time when I went to high school where that many gay kids, my high school, the 3000 kids in my high school, not one gay kid.

Yeah, that you know, of course. Of course. We had gay kids. Yeah. But you were afraid at that point you took your life in your hands.

So we've made progress. We're making progress. And I just I can't stand when we focus on what we haven't done, we tend to ignore what we have done. And having been an advocate for the LGBTQ community for 10 years now or longer, 12 years, to me, I focus on I'm very grateful for the progress we have made. But yeah, we got to do better. We got to do more. No question.

OK, listen, I promised folks predictions and we've got just two short minutes left, Brian Burke. So looking ahead to the hockey season, we're really going to switch gears here. I feel like it's brutal to ask you this, but I'm going to go ahead and do it. Who's who's going to take home the Stanley Cup?

I don't do predictions. I will tell you what I think. What I think Tampa Bay is the defending champion, and I see no reason why they can't repeat, I think St. Louis again and Washington two prior winners are right where they should be. Their team that intrigues me the most is Colorado, because I don't think they can win with their goaltending, but I think they'll switch out of goaltender and they'll be the best team in the league.

CC: I think I would be persecuted if I didn't ask you, given the role that you once held with the Toronto Maple Leafs, you know, when's it going to happen for those long suffering Leaf fans? What do you think?

BRIAN BURKE: Well, I'll tell, Montreal's in the best position for playoff success of the Canadian teams, but I think Toronto's made some good moves. So they're moving north. They've been moving north for the last three or four years. They're going the right way. I don't think they're good enough yet.

CC: What kind of timeline are we talking about here? Here I am asking you to make predictions again eh. It's just cruel.

BRIAN BURKE: Yeah. I'm not gonna. I'm not going to humour your request, but I think they're moving the right way. That's all I'll say.

CC: OK, OK. Anything else to say about what you expect for this upcoming season, Brian Burke?

BRIAN BURKE: No, I'm excited. I'm excited to get back to work. I'm excited to see the game back on the ice.

CC: Excellent. Well, listen, thank you very much for taking the time today to talk to us about your perspective on hockey and also your new book.

BRIAN BURKE: OK, thanks, Catherine.

CC: Take care. Brian Burke's new book is Burke's: Law A Life in Hockey. We reached him today in Toronto.

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Lisa Raitt on taking care of her husband as he struggles with young-onset Alzheimer's

Guests: Lisa Raitt

CC: During my time on Parliament Hill, I've come to know Lisa Raitt as a passionate, principled politician, someone who was well-liked across the political spectrum, even when the cameras were off. My experience with her was that she was always warm and really just very decent with everyone she dealt with. Well, this fall, many, as many of us saw a different side of the now retired member of parliament.

SOUNDCLIP

[Clip of Lisa Raitt and her husband, Bruce Wood]

CC: That is a glimpse into a very private scene that she posted on Twitter. You hear Bruce Wood, her husband, who has young onset Alzheimer's. It was 4:00 in the morning and Bruce was growing more agitated. The video has been viewed by tens of thousands of people. More than half a million Canadians are living with dementia, 16,000 of them are under the age of 65. Matt Galloway went to visit Lisa and Bruce in their home, a short drive outside of Toronto. Bruce was out for a drive with his support worker. Being in the car calms him. Here's Matt Galloway conversation with Lisa Raitt.

MATT GALLOWAY: Hi.

LISA RAITT: Hi, Matt.

MG: Thank you for having us here.

LISA RAITT: Well, welcome to Moffatt, Ontario.

MG: How are you doing?

LISA RAITT: It's not a great day. It's not. It's we're at a point you know, three weeks ago when I posted the video, I thought this was as bad as it's going to get and it's gotten worse. And despite the fact or in spite of the fact that there's a lot of good people trying to help us get through it, it's still the reality is for 24 hours a day, you're living it. And Bruce's psychological behaviour problems have escalated. And the area that you feel at the most is lack of sleep. So that's why it's not great right now, where none of us are operating on any level of sleep that's necessary for a human to have.

MG: Can you talk a bit about that video that you posted? What was going on?

LISA RAITT: Well, it happened last night again, so it's pretty fresh in my memory.

SOUNDCLIP

[Clip of Lisa Raitt and Bruce Wood]

LISA RAITT: At about 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. Bruce will wake up and if he doesn't go back to sleep right away, he'll start muttering. It's almost like catching a spark. And I'll say to myself, please go back to sleep. But if he doesn't, he'll start jabbering to himself and he'll get louder and louder and louder and then he'll jump out of bed. And then he'll start fighting with the bedsheets or fighting with a phantom person in the room. He'll demand that I get up to fight this person as well. He always has flashlights around him and he'll start taking the flashlights and banging the mattress, banging the bed. And it gets really intense. There's lots of cursing and it'll go on, this morning it went on for an hour and 15 minutes.

SOUNDCLIP

VOICE 1: What can I do?

VOICE 2: I don't know. Get up and go.

VOICE 1: OK, I will.

VOICE 2: Right now.

VOICE 1: OK.

VOICE 2: Jesus Christ.

MG: It's scary to watch. Are you fearful for your own safety as this is unfolding?

LISA RAITT: My sons are. Yeah one of them's coming home next week from university early. He doesn't want me to be alone. And I am, yeah. I mean, we we've breached. I always said that there's this line in the sand that if he ever became physical with me, that that would be it and we crossed that boundary last week, unfortunately. And I was, I moved out of the room because he was becoming so agitated. I thought I had to distance myself. And I came down to sleep on the couch and he found me and he just punched me in the head.

MG: That's awful.

LISA RAITT: It's awful because he's a good man. So you tell yourself it's the disease.

MG: In that moment, you're asking in the video, you asked Bruce, what can I do?

LISA RAITT: Yeah.

MG: What are you trying to figure out, you know, to do in that moment?

LISA RAITT: Well, what I learnt from that is I shouldn't be asking him what I can do because he doesn't know. And what I should be doing is trying to divert and try to match my calmness with his anger. So I've learnt that from the video going out because people have provided good feedback. I have learned that there's a lot of folks out there who are using cannabis, both THC and CBD to try to help the calming. And I've gotten lots of information sent to me about that. I fully reported to Bruce's physician and they are prescribing the best mix of antipsychotics and tranquillzers to try to keep them from becoming violent. So that's the kind of help that I ended up getting. Did it come because I posted the video? I don't know, But posting the video gave me the strength to talk to others about what I needed. And it's giving permission to people to tell the really bad stories. There is an online community of people who whose partners have young onset and you find them on lots of different chat boards. There's one that I go to a lot and you can put in the search line extreme violent at night, really wants to go for drives all the time, fighting with bedcovers and you'll find four or five streams of people talking about it. So what I wanted to do is bring it out of the shadow because you suffer in this silent and alone.

MG: You said that you had a line that couldn't be crossed and that the line was crossed.

LISA RAITT: It was, yeah.

MG: So what happens after that?

LISA RAITT: So what I said to him in the moment and it hasn't happened again, I said if you do that again, I will call the police, which I will do. And what that means is he ends up going to the hospital and then he's not released until they can calm him down again because he's not safe to come back into the home with me. And then he's in the system and the system because of covid-19. It's a bit of a mess. So that is a big fear of mine having to take that last step. But we all now know that if that happens again, that's where it's going to go. He doesn't have any cognition of that. I think I told that to him. So I'm telling myself out loud, but the second part of it is I told the doctor and they moved very, very quickly to try to get the right prescriptions to calm him down. And, you know, some of your listeners, Matt, may be critical about the fact that we're using pharmaceuticals to calm him down. But the reality is he's 6'2, he's 250 pounds and he can kill somebody. And if you're going to have to live with that, you're going to have to have the tools in place in order to deal with what's coming at you.

MG: Does telling yourself that that you would take that step, does that help?

LISA RAITT: Yes, it's an acknowledgement. Also, I told myself that we are going to have to find long term care facility for him. And I started that process after I put the video out as well. But wait times for LTC have doubled since COVID doubled its two years. So anything I'm looking at is private. And even then it's a year and I guess it's the other part of it. This is really expensive. It is out of reach of the normal Canadian family and it's in my reach only because he has, he was recognized when he was still working to have this. Therefore, he has disability insurance. A lot of people get fired before the diagnosis and lose all the benefits. So, you know, touch wood, we're lucky.

MG: Yeah, but it's not easy.

LISA RAITT: Understatement.

MG: Yeah. And it's I mean, it's obviously your decision to make and it's an impossible decision, but if that line gets crossed and if you're actually worried and if your family is worried for you, there are people, you know, who would be asking why would you stay true?

LISA RAITT: But we also can't allow him to be put into a long-term care facility without having those emotions under control, because that's just giving somebody else the set of problems. So the goal right now is to find that magical mix of calmness so that he can go and live in a place where he's going to get better care because the psychological side is one thing. And then you have your daily living tasks that he can't do. He can't shower, he can't shave, he can't dress himself. He's getting to the point where he can't feed himself. So I do those things right now.

MG: What is an average day like for you? I mean, there's parts of, you know, normal life, dog's asleep, snoring on the floor, and, you know, it's a snowy day here. What is an average day like for you?

LISA RAITT: Right now, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It's, you know, from 4:00 a.m. until 10 p.m. He's an out of control toddler with a lot of strength and the temper tantrums to go with it and the inability to sit down or sleep or nap or and no patience and wanting everything now and constant attention and demand. So it's significant. And then maybe a couple hours sleep and then awake for another hour and then a couple hours sleep and then awake for another hour. But you know what, Matt, here's the thing, this disease is so cruel. If you get 15 minutes of the clarity of what you once had in a relationship with your husband, when you're sitting down and you're watching something, Family Feud on television, you live for those moments and then you almost think to yourself, I can deal with the 23 hours of real crappy time to get this one snippet. But the reality is your body can't like the stress on a caregiver is super significant. And I thought I could just, you know, barrel through anything in life and I'm hitting my limit.

MG: Can you go back to \when he was diagnosed with young onset Alzheimer's?

LISA RAITT: Yeah.

MG: How old was he?

LISA RAITT: 56.

MG: 56?

LISA RAITT: Yeah. And at the time, the doc said he probably was showing real symptoms for two and a half years before that. And like I can see the symptoms going way back.

MG: OK, so I mean, knowing now what you know, when did you start to notice a change in his behaviour?

LISA RAITT: 2011.

MG: You're very quick in saying that.

LISA RAITT: Yeah, because I thought about it a lot. My life, unfortunately, has been measured in elections. So it was the 2011 election that I saw a huge difference in how he approached that election. 2012, he wouldn't order in a restaurant and then he started having trouble at work reading documents. And then in 2014, when we had the the gunman come into the House of Commons, it was pretty scary. My kids were pulled out of school by their teachers, which was really smart and sheltered and Bruce didn't call me that day. He didn't want to know if I was OK. It didn't even occur to him that I was in any kind of danger or worry or like nothing. It's like business as usual. And I thought, what the heck is going on? This man clearly doesn't love me. He doesn't care about me. And I thought we were heading for a terrible marital breakdown and turns out he had Alzheimer's. Turns out that's a story you hear an awful lot.

MG: What?

LISA RAITT: That people get divorced, people lose their jobs with young onset before they're diagnosed, and then everyone goes, oh, that's what it was.

MG: People perhaps have an idea of what Alzheimer's is. What's, aside from the age, what is specific to young onset Alzheimer's?

LISA RAITT: From what I can tell, it's big personality changes. Its mood changes. It's the young part is important because you're still able bodied, but you're really not cognitively there. You lose your executive function. So it's more than just losing your keys. It's the inability to plan anything out. But it's the emotional changes that I think are ones that are overlooked. You go from somebody who could be very sunny and lovely to somebody who's got a real anger issue and uncaring and not enjoying life and that's a good signal of what's going on.

MG: 56 is young, right? So what's happening in your life at that time?

LISA RAITT: Well, I am nine years younger than him. So I was in my 40s. I had lost the 2015 election. The government, we had lost the government. I was still a Member of Parliament and I was you know, it was the end of March and I'm sitting in a in a room with a doctor telling us that he has young onset Alzheimer's. And I wasn't even, I couldn't even understand what the doctor was saying. It was just unbelievable. Never had to cross my mind that he had this problem. And from then, you know, the old ways kind of kick in and we're going to beat this and we're going to live our best lives. And we did. And the one thing, if I could give any piece of advice for anyone out there, I spent an awful lot of money travelling and I have zero regrets. It's all embedded in my mortgage. I don't care. I did the line of credit thing and we travelled and I've got beautiful memories. And I didn't realise how little time I was going to have to travel with him. It really went quick. We only had three years.

MG: What are some of the things that you had to put into place once you got the diagnosis?

LISA RAITT: Powers of attorney and wills. Very important, because at some point you lose the ability to make decisions, and I wanted Bruce to be able to make his own decisions on those two things. And he did. And then the second thing was we got married. I never thought I'd get married again. We're second marriage. So he got diagnosed and I sat with my girlfriends in Ottawa at a restaurant and we decided to put a wedding together in six weeks in Cape Breton. And we did it. And I'm glad because it gives him his security. He wears a wedding ring, he looks at it, he knows he belongs to someone he may not know. He belongs to me because that part is a little bit fuzzy now, but he belongs to someone. And that was really important for him and it actually helps him.

MG: You can imagine that there are some people who wouldn't take that step right. Having just got that diagnosis, knowing what's in front of them, would turn the other way.

LISA RAITT: I respect that choice. I've seen it in the community. I know somebody very well whose partner decided this was not going to be for them. I respect that decision. It's not for everybody.

MG: Can I ask why it was for you? I'm prying. I'm sorry. These are weird.

LISA RAITT: You're an interviewer. You're supposed to.

MG: No, but, so why was it for you?

LISA RAITT: Why was it for me?It was the right thing to do. Sense of duty. I would never abandon anybody. And quite frankly, I was brought up in Cape Breton to do this. My grandmother looked after my grandfather when he had a stroke, when he was paralyzed. My aunt looked after her husband, who had MS for 35 years. This is part of life and I'm glad I did, because, quite frankly, to have a relationship when there are no suspicions about motivation, because he can't have motivation, it's just raw emotion all the time. It's kind of refreshing and absolutely wonderful. Like you feel the best of love.

MG: How did your relationship change when his condition worsened and you needed to become essentially a full-time caregiver?

LISA RAITT: Yeah, it's insidious how that creeps up on you. All of a sudden, you wake up one day and you realise I'm not I'm not a wife anymore and want to know when when he called me mom, he calls me mommy. When he's going through the house, he'll say, Mommy, Mommy. And it's not because he thinks I'm his mother. Hopefully I don't look that old, but it's because I fulfil that role of dressing him, of shaving him, of cleaning him. In his mind he's a little boy. He thinks he's a young boy. It was probably August of this year when it fully became apparent that I was no longer his wife and I just stopped telling him I was his wife.

MG: How do you come to understand that and wrap your head around that?

LISA RAITT: You know what and I'm not trying to take a phrase from another important part of life, but love is love and I love him. And I know I love my kids. And I know love can be different in different ways, doesn't have to be physical all the time. And if he sees me in the light of being someone that he loves as much as his mother, that's OK, because I know how much I love my kids. You know what I mean? It doesn't bother me in that sense. He's expressing his emotion and his love for me, and that's OK, as long as it's a loved one.

MG: There are practical changes that you have to make in life as well as you become a caregiver. I mean, learning this must be a really steep learning curve for you as well.

LISA RAITT: I have nothing else to do but read as much as I can. All my books are on Alzheimer's, but I find the best information, quite frankly, is coming from working with a group of people who are our caregivers for their spouses. We talk on Thursday nights. It's based in the United States. I made the choice to be anonymous and.

MG: Was that important?

LISA RAITT: Yeah it was.

MG: I mean you're a public figure.

LISA RAITT: It really was, and not from the public figure kind of side, but the same reason why you don't put a lawyer on a jury because you don't want to direct people. You don't want to be the all answer person all the time because you have been public. And it allows me to be public in Canada and private in the United States. So I find that to be helpful because we compare notes all the time. And then honestly, there's this website and I'm going to give it. It's the ALZ Connected website. alzconnected.org. Great web chats. I don't actually put my story up, but I certainly lurk and I Google to find out what the next thing is coming for me.

MG: the house, I mean, there are cameras that are around. We're here in kind of the dining room. Tell me a little bit about that and what you have to do in the house.

LISA RAITT: Cameras were put in when I was commuting into downtown Toronto when he didn't have a caregiver with him. They're two ways. You can speak to them. And it allowed me to have comfort that he was OK. Cameras now are more witness to history as to what's going on in the house. My kids have access to the cameras so they can view and see what's going on at any given time if there's a problem. And, you know, when Bruce disappears into one part of the house, I can track him. And it's always on my phone, so if I have to lock myself in a room, which has happened, I will be able to see what he's doing or if he's left the house via the cameras.

MG: Can you talk about that? About locking yourself in a room. You have a safe room.

LISA RAITT: I do, which is in the basement and I've chosen not to use it now because there's only one access in and out. So if the stairs get blocked, I can't get out. So it's not really a safe room. It's an unsafe, safe room. So I've made sure that there are certain rooms in the house that have locks on them and that have heavy pieces of furniture that can be moved in front of it.

MG: And you've had to use those before?

LISA RAITT: Mhm. Yeah, on occasion, once or twice in the past week. In the past week. Prior to the new mix of, of drugs. So. I can't imagine what that's like. I hope you don't have to I don't wish this on anyone, but it happens and people have to know that. Find yourself help. Emotionally, find yourself help through a doctor. Don't be afraid to make hard decisions because the decision is bad either way, keeping him at home or or having having been placed in a facility that will care for him. And the other thing is that I hope that employers are listening because everyone understands cancer, everyone understands chemo. Everyone understands loss of a child. As horrible as all those things are, nobody knows what Alzheimer's like for people in their 50s dealing with it with a spouse.

MG: What have you learnt that you didn't know from a distance now that you're in this that you think other people need to be aware of?

LISA RAITT: It's going to go violent. It will become violent. Young onset Alzheimer's ends in violence in some way, shape or form, and you can't stop it. It's just a deterioration of the brain and you have to be prepared for some really tough decisions and not to be ashamed. The day that I had to call the police the first time, I was so ashamed. I spent the rest of the day going neighbour to neighbour to neighbour to explain why I did what I had to do. I should never have to do that.

MG: And why did you call the police, if you don't mind me asking?

LISA RAITT: Oh, because he took a pair of hedge clippers and started bashing the car door and the front door and he was very rude and I was extremely worried he was going to be violent.

MG: And you felt like you needed to explain to the neighbours why the police were here?

LISA RAITT: Yes, I did. And I won't do that again.

MG: Did they understand?

LISA RAITT: The close ones did. The other ones just like to gossip.

MG: Because part of this is about what happens in your house, but it's also like stigma is a real thing and I just wonder how that impacts you?

LISA RAITT: So I have a great group of friends and I love them dearly and they're all there for me. But I will tell you I will tell you that there is a lot of chat that happens amongst people who are going through it right now, talking about how there are friends that just disappear, that you never see them again because they can't handle it.

MG: Do you feel that families like yours have what you need from government?

LISA RAITT: Look, young onset Alzheimer's, there's 16,000 families in this country that are dealing with it. I don't think any of them are well served by any level of government or any society. And I know it's really tough for me to say that because I know Alzheimer's Society tries to do, but it's such a small portion of people that a lot of the times were left to our own. In the United Statesm they've got a group called Hilarity for Charity and Seth Rogen and his wife Lauren, and they are they're doing really amazing things for caregivers, really amazing things. So I'd like to see something like that up here.

MG: What do you need? I mean, what do families like hers need?

LISA RAITT: I need a place where Bruce can go to be comfortable to do activities that are appropriate to his age and his physical ability. Activity, that's what really matters. That's the break people need to be everyone wants to have a dignified life and to feel useful, and we're just not even thinking about those kinds of groups. There's a group out west called You Quest in Calgary. They've set up their own group of 10 people who go out and do recreational therapy at a local place, but all of that's gone in COVID.

MG: Yeah, I was going to say, I mean, what happens in the midst of a pandemic?

LISA RAITT: Well, I'm lucky enough that I have caregivers who agree to come into the house. But if any of us get COVID, that's all over and then you're on your own. But I do know in the community that, you know, people who were attending day programmes, they just don't exist. But there are no day programmes for Bruce in this part of the world. I don't even know if there's one in Toronto that would be appropriate for for him. But I do know there's lots of people who have this.

MG: There is money that goes into national dementia strategy, something like $50 million that the government put into it. What would that accomplish, do you think?

LISA RAITT: Hey, look, any money going into anything is good. So you don't you know, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth kind of thing. They've done well. They've got a strategy. They're going to do well on certain things. They're going to bring awareness. And I'm hoping that this will actually spur on private donations. This thing gets dealt with by private donations, by setting up private foundations or private groups that are funded by by charitable donations or even by user pays and run by families. I think that's going to be one of the ways in which to really get at the day to day issues people are feeling.

MG: You talked about the 15 minutes or so and the day that you just smiled when I said that you kind of look forward to what happens. What do you love about those 15 minutes.

BRUCE: It's just normal. It's just normal.

MG: And what is normal?

LISA RAITT: Normal is having your partner know who you are and watching television and smiling at a joke or saying, I'm really tired. That's it. That's really it.

MG: Do you get that every day?

LISA RAITT: No, I do not. No. Once, once every three days. And less and less.

MG: What's your biggest concern in where you are right now.

LISA RAITT: That we can't get the symptoms under control quickly enough, so that there's no damage to me or the house or anybody else?

MG: Who do you turn to? Like what are you doing to hang on and take care of yourself in this? You talked about the hours and, you know, waking up at four o'clock in the morning. That's a long day and that's a lot to carry. What are you doing to take care of yourself?

LISA RAITT: So the hardest decision I made in the past 24 hours. Sorry, that's Ruby. She likes to be fed. The hardest decision I've made in the last 24 hours is that I'm going to start vacation. And my vacation is not a vacation. My vacation is just to be able to cope. So I've let the folks know who need to know that I'm going to have to take some time because caregiver stress kills caregivers. And I know when I've hit my limit and I'm there. I'm there. And I as much as I love what I do and as much as I get gratification out of what I do, I know where I work. would rather have me 100 percent than they would have me at 25 percent. So I'm going to take vacation.

MG: And is that hard? I mean, as an ambitious.

LISA RAITT: Really hard.

MG: Ambitious is making the best case.

LISA RAITT: Even in the note that I wrote to my boss, I said, I can't believe I'm writing this note. I didn't even take maternity leave. But I know I've hit the limit. I'm there.

MG: I appreciate you telling us what you're in the midst of. It's important. I mean, it's not easy and posting that video is not easy, but I think it's really important for people to know a bit about this. There are a lot of people who, you know this already turn to you for some information, for some advice. To to talk openly about this is really important.

LISA RAITT: Thanks, Matt. I had some really good people tell me some hard truths a couple of months ago about the impact in their lives of caregiving on their parents. And as a result, I made a choice that I got to and my kids have a big impact too, right. They want me around and it really does come down to that. Yeah. You hear the old adage, you got to put your own mask on first before you put the mask on the person next to you kind of thing. And I think talking about it allows other people to have that recognition moment. And if it's only one family out there that I help, I'm actually good with that because it matters.

MG: But you need help yourself too, so take care of yourself.

LISA RAITT: I will.

MG: Thank you.

LISA RAITT: Thanks, Matt.

SOUNDCLIP

LISA RAITT: Hey you. Come on in and say hi to Matt.

TINA: He's right there.

LISA RAITT: Bruce, this is Matt Galloway.

MG: Hey Bruce, how are you?

LISA RAITT: You're not allowed to shake hands.

MG: You're not allowe to shake. You have to do this.

LISA RAITT: You're not allowed to shake hands, sweetheart.

MG: There you go.

LISA RAITT: How was your drive?

BRUCE: Good.

LISA RAITT: Good. Matt this is Tina.

MG: Hey Tina. How are you?

TINA: Hello.

LISA RAITT: Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

TINA: He had a good nap.

LISA RAITT: He had a good nap?

TINA: He had a little sleep in the car.

LISA RAITT: Did you have anything to eat, sweetie?

TINA: Yes he did. He had a bacon wrap, the whole thing.

CC: That's Matt Galloway conversation with former Member of Parliament, Lisa Raitt. Her husband, Bruce, has young onset Alzheimer's.

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Dec. 28, 2020 episode transcript

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