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The AIH Transcript for January 15, 2021

Hosts: Carol Off and Chris Howden

Prologue

CAROL OFF: Hello. I'm Carol Off.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Good evening. I'm Chris Howden. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

CH: Tonight:

CO: An embarrassment involving riches. Our guest has watched his Bitcoin stash grow to be worth hundreds of millions of real world dollars. But all he can do is watch because he can't remember the password that would allow him to access it.

CH: A grim view. As Ottawa issues dire projections of where the pandemic will go from here, a Toronto doctor says his colleagues have been told to prepare for the moment when overwhelmed hospitals will face heartbreaking life-and-death decisions.

CO: Glass half empty. Canada's only maker of mouth-blown, hand-cut crystal is raising a goblet and calling it a day after COVID-19 shattered its sales.

CH: Boarder patrol. Skateboarding magazine Thrasher celebrates its 40th anniversary this month, proving the sport has staying power and so does print.

CO: No harm, one fowl. A bird that was believed to be from America was set to be killed under Australia's strict biosecurity rules, but now, Joe the pigeon will be spared.

CH: And a multi-paul choice question. While goofing around on Facebook, a guy named Paul O'Sullivan discovers a bunch of other musicians named Paul O'Sullivan. And that is the origin story of the Paul O'Sullivan Band. As It Happens. The Friday Edition. Radio with its finger on the Pauls.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: This man owns $321M in bitcoin — but he can't access it because he lost his password

Bitcoin passwords

Guest: Stefan Thomas

CH: 2021 may be off to a crummy start for the rest of us, but Bitcoin holders still have plenty to cheer about. After a drop in value, the cryptocurrency bounced back in a big way this week, trading today at more than 44000 dollars per coin. That, astonishingly, is three times the currency's October value. And for people like Stefan Thomas, it theoretically means big bucks. After all, Mr. Thomas was such an early adopter of Bitcoin that he produced one of the Internet's most watched videos extolling its virtues.

[SOUNDCLIP: STEFAN THOMAS: What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is the first decentralised digital currency. Bitcoins are digital coins you can send through the Internet. Compared to other alternatives, Bitcoins have a number of advantages. Bitcoins are transferred directly from person-to-person via the net without going through a bank or clearinghouse. This means that the fees are much lower, you can use them in every country, your account cannot be frozen and there are no prerequisites or arbitrary limits.]

CH: A 10-year-old video explaining bitcoin produced by open source developer Stefan Thomas. Needless to say, Mr. Thomas knows a thing or two about the cryptocurrency and he owns a bundle of it. When he created that video in 2011, he was paid in Bitcoin: 7002 bitcoins to be exact -- worth an eye watering 321-million dollars Canadian today. So he would be a very rich man right now...if he could find his password, which he cannot. We reached Stefan Thomas in San Francisco.

CO: Stefan, how is it possible that one measly little password stands between you and hundreds of millions of dollars?

STEFAN THOMAS: Yeah, it's a really good question, isn't it? [Chuckles] Yeah. So as you heard the video just now, you know, I was very interested in Bitcoin back in 2010, and we won a bounty for making that video that you heard. And once we had won that bounty, I was planning to kind of invest it in kind of promoting Bitcoin and telling more people about it. But then one day when I was trying to access it, I realised that a technical glitch -- the main copy that I was using had failed and I had two back ups, so I wasn't too concerned at that initial moment. But then when I tried to access the first backup, it didn't work. And then the second backup is the now famous secure USB stick, the encrypted USB stick with the 10 tries. So that's when I knew I was in trouble.

CO: Okay, so this happens, right? And we all know we lose our passwords. And so a little thing comes up when we're going to our bank or whatever, which says "Did you forget your password?" And then you push it and then you go through a business of changing your password. So that's not available to you?

ST: No. Bitcoin is a decentralised system. And so if you hold your bitcoins like I did in a completely independent wallet, so not with an exchange, not with a bank, not with any kind of institution, but yourself, then it's just like cash. It's like gold -- if you lose it, you lose it. There's no recovery process for that. I mean, since then, a lot of people have come up with all kinds of clever solutions, like metal wallets, where you can put down your secret keys and things like that. But most of that didn't exist back then. Back then, you have to kind of come up with your own solution. And apparently I didn't do a very good job of that.

CO: Yikes. How many people are like you who have put their passwords someplace they can't find it? Because we know that this has been a very good year for Bitcoin. How many people do you think are not able to access their fortunes?

ST: In The New York Times article about this, they had an estimate, which was something like 100-billion or more than 100-billion dollars are locked up in these wallets. And so you can imagine it's probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who are in my situation.

CO: So what is it like for you? I mean, how many sleepless nights do you have thinking about the fact that you have hundreds of millions of dollars that you can't get at?

ST: So the way that it ended up playing out was after I realised I lost the coins, I was completely destroyed. Like when I think back to that, it's hard to even wrap my head around how I felt those couple of weeks. And I tried everything. I would stay up all night trying different ideas for how to recover or just like staring at the ceiling for hours. And then after a couple of weeks of that, I got to a point where I started to realise that, yeah, the chances of recovery were not very good. And we'll get into, you know, what that last little glimmer of hope is. But at the time at least, I sort of had to make a decision. Either I let this define the rest of my life and I keep thinking back to it and I just, you know, like you said, like lose sleep for the rest of my life or I just face the fact that this money is gone, these bitcoins are gone, and I move forward and I get back to work. And I chose the latter.

CO: Okay, so what's the last glimmer of hope?

ST: So the USB stick with the 10 tries, like there is a way to take a scanning electron microscope and take apart the physical chip and literally go into the silicon chip and take away layer by layer, like a few atom stick. And then with that technique, you should be able to bypass that limit of 10 tries. And then you can have a supercomputer try, you know, billions of passwords per second. Now, the problem is that, first of all, that requires a specialised laboratory. It's very expensive. Only a few people in the world can do it. And even then, it's got a high risk and it could just fail, and then the chip is destroyed and you don't get a second try. So back then, it definitely wasn't worth it. I think now it probably is worth it, but it still requires a lot of organising and logistics and even then it's not guaranteed.

CO: Yikes. What a gamble. So what happens if hundreds of millions of dollars now is sort of locked up, unable to be accessed by these people? Where does it go? Who gets it?

ST: That's a really interesting question. And it kind of gets into economics because, you know, it's essentially because I'm not selling those bitcoins, that means that there's a little bit less supply in the market. And so potentially the price is infinitesimally higher, right. You know, other holders in theory, in theory profit -- although you have to imagine because of this risk, maybe there are people that maybe don't invest in Bitcoin because they're worried about this. And so maybe that kind of makes up for it and kind of that reduces the price.

CO: There are those who are saying that this now just belies the value of investing in this kind of bitcoin for all the advantages it has that you don't have to deal with institutions and governments, that obviously it has its pitfalls. And so are you one of those? Are you one of the people who think that maybe this kind of currency is not a good idea?

ST: So this experience has definitely changed my opinion about Bitcoin in terms of I was one of those people that was very excited about, you know, everyone can be their own bank and that sort of thing. And once it happened to me, I realised, like, you know, if this can happen to me, who was like a professional Bitcoin expert -- and I know there's lots of Bitcoin experts listening right now saying that this could never happen to me. But for me personally, I kind of was very humbled by that experience. And I said that, you know, probably for most people, average people, it's probably not a good idea to be your own bank. I think it's really nice that we live in a free country where we can have the choice and we can pull our own bitcoins if we want to, and I think that's a right that I would fight for. But at the same time, I think that, you know, as a practical matter, for most people it is probably better to hold their bitcoins with a custodian like an institution that specialises in securing and storing bitcoins.

CO: Which undermines the whole idea, right?

ST: Well, not really, because it's still independent as an asset class from the national governments, right? Like, we're living in a world where governments are printing money to support the economy, and it does bring a lot of big risks. And so I think it is valuable for there to be asset classes that people can seek refuge in.

CO: All right. Well, sounds like something people should think twice about before they get involved with. And that's a cautionary tale from you. Thank you Stefan. Good to talk to you.

ST: Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

CH: Stefan Thomas is the founder and CEO of a micropayment service called Coil. He's also the unhappy owner of 7000 bitcoins he can't access. We reached him in San Francisco. And for more on the story, visit our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Retro Music]

Nova Scotian Crystal closes

Guest: Denis Ryan

CH: What began as a dream nearly 30 years ago is about to end due to COVID-19. In 1993, renowned Irish musician Denis Ryan of Ryan's Fancy fame had the idea to start a crystal company in his adopted home of Halifax. He eventually sold his share of the company, but he's still saddened by the news that NovaScotian Crystal has announced it's shutting its doors at the end of February. We reached Denis Ryan in Halifax.

CO: Dennis, how did you hear the news that NovaScotian Crystal was shutting down?

DENIS RYAN: Well, I sort of knew for the last few weeks talking to some of the workers and stuff. And then Anne Campbell, who I've known for the last eight or nine years -- Anne called me a few days ago, saying that she was going to make the announcement yesterday and they're going to close it down the end of February. So it's just been a bit of a shock for all of us. Mind you, the retail shop wasn't open in downtown Halifax for the last few months -- all driven by COVID and some construction in the area. But as you probably know, Halifax has a fantastic summer season, it was like 125 cruise ships and the waterfront is just full of tourists. And of course, this past year has been a total disaster. No cruise ships and very little tourists.

CO: And Anne Campbell told you that was the reason why was because of the cruise ship trade that was no longer available to them?

DR: Because they do a huge business in the retail business, right. And they develop a lot of catalogue business through the tourists that come. But more than that, the shop itself closed down. Stemware is a big part of the business and it takes probably three or four people to make one piece of glass. This is the only company in North America and maybe one of the only ones in the world that everything is made from scratch, hand-made. And you have two or three craftsmen on the platform, sometimes four, that are very close to each other, and they're passing the tools that they use -- the iron and stuff from one to another. They all have different techniques and strategies and stuff. And that really wasn't COVID compliant, so to speak.

CO: Because it's such an intimate work, isn't it, that kind of artisanal craft. You said you talked to some of the workers, some of these people -- these are exceptional craftsmen. What did they say to you about how they felt since the announcement was made?

DR: Well, you know, the announcement was only made yesterday. And I was talking to our production manager, who's the son of one of the founders that they brought over from Ireland. He was a master craftsman and he married a Canadian and blah, blah, blah. And a lot of those the older guys that came over, you know, (they had) 37-40 party people working there and 90 percent of the employees are now Nova Scotians. And I think they're shattered, but some of them aren't surprised. You know, I've been out of business for the last 10-12 years, but I do meet them all over. They are great people. And they are the spirit and the soul of the business. If you haven't a craftsmanship, you have nothing.

CO: Full disclosure for me, I have some very cherished pieces of crystal from NovaScotian Crystal. And I'm not alone, so many people have that. Just maybe describe why it's different. I mean, the patterns are very distinctive and they speak to Canada and to Nova Scotia, maybe describe them for us.

DR: Well they do. Our common patterns, citadel pattern which is obviously named after Citadel Hill. You know, the Inverness pattern -- you know where that's from. The Annapolis pattern. So they're all to do with areas in the province. And, you know, it's been a great industry. And each piece is individually made, you always got to keep that in the back of your mind. But is that important these days, in this modern era? I'm not sure. But there's no two glasses. Any cut glasses, there are no two that are identically the same. All the cutting is done with the eye and the touch and the feel of the cutter. And a good cutter takes five or six years to learn his craft. And blowers can take many years. To become a master craftsman, it's probably eight or ten years. And they just love what they're doing. To some people, it looks boring -- but these guys, generally, and ladies know what they're doing. And you know, people that have used their product, I mean take local people for example -- "Sid the Kid," Anne Murray, Princess Caroline Sting, Phil Collins, Fidel Castro.

CO: So now because it is so celebrated and you say it's international -- it was just doing great guns as a business, so do you think that the Nova Scotian governments could have stepped in? Isn't this kind of a logical business to help survive the pandemic?

DR: Yeah, I do agree with you. But I'm not a person -- I think six or nine months ago, it might have been. But everybody has got their hand down to the government, and I think this is important because I think once we get through this period here over the next six months or nine months or a year, you know, I think the government should give a helping hand. And I presume they're pursuing that avenue. It is very sad to me because it's my little baby. And I know I haven't been involved in it for 13-14 years, but I was responsible for building and bringing those guys to Canada. And they've been a great addition to our community in more ways than one.

CO: But it sounds like you don't believe this is necessarily the complete end of NovaScotian Crystal, do you think it will rise again?

DR: [Chuckles] What a great name for a song. You know what? I think it might -- between you and me, even though there's hundreds of thousands of people listening. Hopefully it will. I think they've hit a wall at the moment, and anything I can do to help, maybe do something in the summer or whatever, I'd be more than glad to help these guys out. And I love all these guys. Hopefully I'll get together with of them all, over the next week or so -- and have a drink from a nice NovaScotian Crystal glass and dream a little and see what happens and see what the future holds.

CO: Denis, I hope you're successful with that. And I really appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

DR: Thank you Carol. All right then. Bye.

CH: Denis Ryan is the founder of NovaScotian Crystal. He was in Halifax. The company he founded is shutting its doors at the end of February.

[Music: Drum & Bass Music]

Joe the Pigeon

Guest: Kevin Chelli-Bird

CH: In recent days, people around the world have been deeply troubled by the story of Joe. Joe was a pigeon who was facing death, suspected of entering Australia following a long journey from the U.S. -- in violation of Australia's biosecurity rules. Joe's dire situation even inspired a question to Australia's acting prime minister, Michael McCormack.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK: I'm not aware of Joe's plight or flight or future. I'll have a look into it and get back to you. Good luck Joe. [Laughter] But if Joe has come in a way that has not met our strict biosecurity measures, then bad luck Joe -- either fly home or face the consequences.

CH: Following those comments, we've learnt that Joe's prospects are looking brighter. It turns out the bird's origin story was wrong. Officials believe Joe, who was named for U.S. President elect Joe Biden, is highly likely a local and say his leg band suggesting he's from across the pond is a fraudulent copy of a legitimate one. The bird showed up in Kevin Chelli-Bird's backyard last month. Yes, that's Chelli-Bird. We reached him in Officer, Australia -- south east of Melbourne.

CO: Mr. Chelli-Bird, did you have any idea that the bird that landed in your yard would make such an international flap?

KEVIN CHELLI-BIRD: If I had known it took me down the rabbit hole I ended up going down, I think I would have just let him be. [Chuckles]

CO: So since that tape clip that we listen to the acting prime minister, there's been a lot of ups and downs for Joe the Pigeon. What did you make of the reaction to the news that he had landed in Australia?

KEVIN CHELLI-BIRD: It just sort of, well, got out of control, really. [Chuckles] Originally when I went on radio, it was just to try and garner some more information so I could try and get the bird back to whoever owned it.

CO: And why did you believe that it belonged to somebody?

KEVIN CHELLI-BIRD: Well, it had a band on its leg. And when it first arrived, it was in a very weakened state and I managed to capture it and I got the details on the band and I contacted a local pigeon association and gave those details and hopes that they could let me know who owned it. And they basically said, well, we have got no record of that particular banding. So then my son, who lives nearby, called in and we had a look on Google and threw up that it could have been an American bird. It was actually American Racing Pigeon Band -- or so we thought at the time.

CO: Because then lots of information came in suggesting that there was a bird, a pigeon missing from Oregon. Just give us that background.

KEVIN CHELLI-BIRD: When we did some of the Googling initially -- on the band, it had ARPU, AU20 5622. And when we put that in it came up as 'Crooked River Race or something' -- anyways, crooked river. And when we logged on to that website, it was a pigeon racing site. And it showed this particular bird was registered to some highland loft, it was called. And when we touch that part of their website, it brought up the record on the bird, and showed it had been in four or five races. And the last race it was in, was on the 29th of October last year. And all the details showed that it hadn't arrived anywhere. So that's sort of going, whoa, watch out. And then to try and get more information, we typed in ARPU, which brought up the American Racing Pigeon Union. And they have a lost bird site. So I put the details into that. And they came back several days later and said it belongs to a gentleman in Montgomery, Alabama.

CO: So what were the theories as to how this bird, if it had been from the United States, how did it end up in Australia? What were people projecting?

KEVIN CHELLI-BIRD: Well, at the time, the only thing I could think of was maybe there'd been a storm or something, and it had been blown off course and ended up over water. And there was a boat and it landed on the boat. Where we live is not far from the ocean. Well the boat had come across to Australia and once it saw land, it flew off and happened to be flying across our place. And we have a bit of a water feature in the back yard. And it was obviously thirsty, landed there, and decided to stay because it felt safe here, I guess.

CO: Why is it that then it became a story that the bird was going to have to be destroyed? What was behind that?

KEVIN CHELLI-BIRD: I received a phone call from the Australian Agricultural Department saying it's come to our notice that you have a pigeon that could have come from America, and sort of said, listen, it's illegal to import a bird without a licence. And I said, well, I haven't imported this bird. And she said, well, it's illegal to keep a bird that has come in from overseas unless it's going through the quarantine. I said, well, I'm not keeping it. I said it happened to have landed in my backyard and it seems to want to live there. And then she said, well, we need to come and capture the bird. And I said, we're going to quarantine. She said, no, we'll euthanize it. I said that's a bit rough, you know. And anyway, that was the initial contact. And then I received a phone call later that day from a gentleman who said he'd been asked by the Agriculture Department to come and do a risk assessment on the property. I wasn't there. So I just said, listen, you can't enter the property because I'm not home. But you're welcome to have a look from the outside. And that's sort of where it was at that point of time.

CO: And so just at the point where it looked like Joe was going to be on death row -- what is it that they discovered about the pigeon that got him this reprieve yesterday?

KEVIN CHELLI-BIRD: Yesterday, one of the journalists I'd spoken to, rang me and said, listen, the Melbourne Pigeon Rescue is trying to reach out to you. And he gave me a number and I contacted them and they said, listen, the pigeon we believe is a local pigeon. Apparently pigeon breeders in Victoria or in Melbourne use these bands, they can buy them online. For some reason, the bands they use, American Racing Pigeon designation or whoever makes them, has exactly the same information. The only difference is, is apparently it is a stamp or something on the American ban it's like a copyright or something. I'm not exactly sure. And this pigeon had this band on and they said we have five other pigeons in our loft with similar bands. So that was it. I don't know why they would do that.

CO: Joe wasn't an American at all. Joe was a local bird.

KEVIN CHELLI-BIRD: Yeah, Dinky-di Aussie.

CO: [Laughs] Apparently, it's not even a racing pigeon, right?

KEVIN CHELLI-BIRD: No, no. I don't know what he is. They said he's a turkey, something or either they think.

CO: So he's been spared. I mean, is he happy in your water feature still?

KEVIN CHELLI-BIRD: Yeah. Yeah. He was here this morning having a drink. He's fine. He is sitting on the yard somewhere here.

CO: Okay well, I'm glad that you have Joe -- maybe you can call him Joey since he's an Australian bird now.

KEVIN CHELLI-BIRD: Yeah. Yeah exactly. So yeah, we'll keep him in the yard and I can get back to living a bit of a normal life.

CO: [Chuckles] All right, Mr. Chelli-Bird thank you.

KEVIN CHELLI-BIRD: No problem at all. Thank you very much.

CH: That was Kevin Chelli-Bird in Officer, Australia speaking about Joe the Pigeon. And there's more about Joe's saga on our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Funk Music]

Sound of the day: Bird Song Competition

CH: In Canada, hockey is the sport that gets a lot of people riled up. In the U.S. it's football. But in Suriname, it's bird song competitions -- although no one really gets that riled up. If anything, it's more of a meditation. But the competition is still fierce. People all across the South American country spend several thousand dollars and several years training their songbirds. And every Sunday morning at dawn, they gather in the capital, Paramaribo, with their avian athletes. Then they wait for hours in silence as referees take note of the bird's performances on a chalkboard. A bird song competition in Suriname is our Sound of the Day. [SOUND: Relaxing bird sounds] I couldn't tell who was winning. The soothing sound of birds singing in Paramaribo, Suriname, part of a weekly competition. That was our Sound of the Day.

[Music: Piano Music]

Part 2: Federal COVID projections

Federal COVID projections

Guest: Michael Warner

CH: The numbers out of Ottawa today were dire. The federal government announced its latest national COVID modelling. The newly released projections show the pandemic accelerating with 20,000 total deaths in Canada by the end of next week. That's about the same time that a serious slowdown at one of Pfizer's vaccine plants is supposed to start cutting into Canada's supply. But from Michael Warner and his colleagues, this is about more than numbers. Dr. Warner is the medical director of critical care at Toronto's Michael Garron Hospital.

CO: Dr. Warner, as we know, the vaccine flow is going slow while the modelling shows numbers of infections going up. What is that going to look like in your ICU?

MICHAEL WARNER: Well, it's hard to know, Carol, because the bulk of the vaccines we know were coming a long time from now for most of the population. I think the good news is, at least in Ontario, there's a dedicated effort to make sure that our long-term care home residents and health care workers are vaccinated first. And that's where much of the mortality and morbidity has come. But the delay in getting the vaccines on the ground in Canada will prolong the duration of this pandemic and the public health restrictions that we'll need to face.

CO: And, of course, you're on the front line of it. And so this is in your ICU. You're now dealing with a memo that's telling you to prepare for the possibility of triage. What does that mean when you're dealing with patients?

MW: This is what I have to do. So for every patient that is in the hospital, they either need ICU or could need ICU, we're supposed to complete a form called these short term mortality risk, you and another physician. And based on that short term mortality risk at level-one triage, we're only supposed to offer life support to those patients who have a greater than 20 percent chance of being alive a year from then. But at level-three, the bar rises to greater than 70 percent. And if the patient doesn't meet those criteria, then we do not offer them life support -- we offer them palliative care and they will die. And that's a decision that we have to make based on the criteria that are given to us, not based on our clinical judgement necessarily.

CO: How will you make those decisions about who lives and dies?

MW: I don't know, Carol. I've never had to do that before. There's no course in medical school called triage. There's no rotation in residency called not offering life support because you don't have enough beds. In Canada, we're not used to this. In the developing world, this is their reality. But we're fortunate enough here to really never have faced this before. And I don't look forward to it. I hope it never happens. I think it would be akin to, you know, battlefield medicine, whatever, you know, military physicians have to deal with in war zones, because I haven't done that before. So I imagine there'll be some evolution from what is written on a piece of paper right now.

CO: And are you prepared -- mentally prepared -- to do that?

MW: No, I am. To be honest, I'm just looking at what's right in front of me., and what's right in front of me, as I said, in the hospital right now are 50 percent of my patients in the ICU with COVID-19. There are patients about my age in the ICU with COVID-19, and their families aren't with them. We've had Zoom meetings today between patients and families as patients are expected to die, you know, in the next day or two potentially. So it's hard to think about triage when you're caring for patients, you know, on a continual basis in such a difficult situation where much of the human touch of being a physician has been taken, and because we can't see the patients through the eyes of their family members, that their family members aren't there with them.

CO: You said elsewhere that in Ontario it feels like you're hurtling toward a cliff.

MW: Yeah, I mean, nobody knows what the future will hold. But I mean, this is a numbers game. But there are people behind the numbers. The people are real and they're dying and they're suffering and they're alone. But the numbers will lead to more faces in our future in the ICUs across this province. I mean, today we were moving patients from Toronto to Kingston. I mean, that's never been done before because Kingston has beds, but Toronto doesn't have beds.

CO: And you already have people who can't go in to see their loved ones who are in these ICUs. And if they're now going to be so far away, it must be for both patient and family even more alienating.

MW: I guess there's a sense of comfort in knowing that your mother, father, brother, sister is in a hospital five kilometres away as opposed to 250. But we have to remember that most of our patients get COVID-19 from a household contact, which means that if they're sick, their entire household is isolating for at least two weeks, which means that end of life, that could be a Zoom call instead of, you know, holding your mother's hand as she dies. And I've been in so many of those experiences, those scenarios, and I remember every one. And they are -- they are the worst thing ever, I don't wish them upon anyone. And I mean, I have parents, I have a wife, I have children, I couldn't imagine not being with them as they take their last breath. But that's the reality, not just in Ontario and Canada, but in the entire world right now.

CO: I have been hearing you and reading your comments for months now since the beginning of this. You've been a voice for all of us in Ontario as to what is like in the ICU. And I just wonder what toll this is taking on you.

MW: Well, you know, Carol, I really wish I had nothing to say. I wish I could just focus on my craft of being a physician, being a father and a husband and being with my family. But I think it's important that the public hears, you know, everyone has a different view. But my view from the frontlines and, you know, I'm not afraid to say certain things -- and the public health physicians and politicians who have to manage a lot of different things other than what I have to manage, need to understand what's happening behind the scenes. And many people don't have a mental model of what COVID looks like because it hasn't been around a long time. People have seen people die of cancer and a stroke or heart attack. But you've never seen someone die from COVID unless you've seen it. And I've seen it many times and most of the public hasn't. And I think communicating that to the public is a service that they can perhaps adjust their behaviour if they need some coaxing. And if politicians need to take a view of COVID, that's a little bit different from what I've seen so far, hopefully I can have some influence for the better.

CO: Dr. Warner, thank you.

MW: Take care Carol.

CH: Michael Warner is the medical director of critical care at Toronto's Michael Garron Hospital. That's where we reached him.

[Music: Synth Music]

Carbon Monoxide Leak

CH: Last night, a carbon monoxide leak in a Saskatoon apartment building sent 29 people to hospital. But it could have been a whole lot worse. An emergency room doctor at Royal University Hospital rang the alarm bell when he realised that a patient he was treating had all the signs of carbon monoxide poisoning. And when the fire department arrived at the apartment, the levels inside were as high as 400 parts per million. With levels that high, people can die within two or three hours. Jean Romero lives in the building and her entire family was feeling sick during the day on Thursday. She told CBC Saskatoon about the moment they realised something was really wrong.

JEAN ROMERO: We were just sleeping and the kids were doing their thing. Then we heard -- what do you call this? When the fire people came. Then I look out the window, the fire people went in the school. So I just didn't think about it. Maybe it's fire or something. Then my kids went right away "Oh mommy we have to go out." The fire people are here. Then they had to check their level, I guess. The level of carbon monoxide in the building was 300 -- yeah or something like that.

DAN ZAKRESKI: It must have been scary?

JEAN ROMERO: Yeah. An ambulance and everybody is here. And they even have a translator to translate to keep us warm in case we don't have nowhere to go. And I stayed in my vehicle, my family was in the biggest ambulance you can ever see. And later on they took them to the hospital. Then I was still here waiting for the instruction from the fire people. Then after a while they said, oh, just go in there and go to your family because we don't know where to go yet. So I went to the hospital. I wasn't feeling great either. I thought, oh, I work nights and I didn't have much sleep -- maybe it's just a headache or something. Then to check my level, it's high. So the four of us were on oxygen.

DAN ZAKRESKI: Were you scared?

JEAN ROMERO: Very scary because I am scared for my family because I'm supposed to work night. What if it had happened midnight when I'm gone and my family are sleeping? I come home in the morning, they might be dead. So that's the thing with carbon monoxide because you cannot smell it, right. You won't even know it happened.

CH: That was Jean Romero speaking with CBC Saskatoon reporter Dan Zakreski about a carbon monoxide leak in her apartment that sent 29 people to hospital.

[Music]

40th anniversary Thrasher magazine

Guest: Michael Burnett

CH: You may not have read the magazine, but you've almost certainly seen its logo. The word Thrasher, in bold letters -- for a long time, spouting flames -- plastered on T-shirts, telephone poles and skateboards over the decades. This month marks the 40th anniversary of Thrasher magazine, a print publication from the early 80s that remains in print, unlike so many of its peers. Its motto is "skate and destroy." And it certainly has destroyed the competition. But it's also built things, including a community of readers unlike pretty much any other. As a kid, Michael Burnett was amongst them. Now he's Thrasher's editor in chief. We reached Mr. Burnett in San Diego.

CO: Michael, you're now the editor in chief of this publication. What were your earliest memories of reading Thrasher?

MICHAEL BURNETT: I found it in a punk rock record store in Lubbock, Texas, and was just mesmerised by the images because I didn't realise that skateboarding could be this. I didn't understand that there were tricks and people flying through the air, I'd only seen like the banana boards of the 70s. So it was completely mesmerising because as a kid in the 80s in Texas, you were really fighting to find any scraps of counterculture or something outside of traditional sports.

CO: But now, because it is counterculture and it is this 40 years of this counterculture -- at the same time and things have changed. I mean, there's just so much online. There's YouTube. People have all kinds of access to the things that you saw for the first time in his magazine. Why do you think Thrasher is still around 40 years later?

MB: I feel like we have this very dedicated audience that we really are in touch with. We really live and breathe it with them. We're not covering it from afar. The people that work for us, the people that photograph and video and do all that stuff are skateboarders and they're really enmeshed in it. We also have an advantage that a lot of other publications don't have in that we have a dedicated industry that we're very involved with. So our advertisers, we have long term partnerships with you know, we're not at the whims of the Nabisco ads. We also have worldwide skate shops, which in a lot of places are kind of the hubs of the skateboarding community. And so we have relationships with those. And a big part of hanging out at the skate shop is checking out the new Thrasher when it comes in.

CO: And my sense is it from people who talk about Thrasher, is that the reason why it survived when so many other skateboard magazines haven't, is it's not just about the merchandising but it's about the art, it's about the language. Your motto is "skate and destroy," is it not?

MB: Mm hmm. Yeah. It's an ongoing cultural experiment that is skateboarding. And different people around the world, they invent it in their own way, in their own community. And then we kind of get to sample the best of that stuff and showcase the most exciting things. And once you get in there, especially as a teenager, I just remember there's so much to learn and so much to discover. And you can make art and make videos and there's music that goes along with it. It's really its own ecosystem.

CO: And what is the story that it tells about skateboarding?

MB: It's that get out there and do it. And that skateboarding is all of us. You know, there's no way to cheat at skateboarding. It's not like a sport. It's you and a board and the concrete. And [chuckles] it really separates the diehards from the looky loos pretty quick.

CO: And what's the conversation? Because it seems that skateboarders always seem to be eyeing the landscape for places to skate, right? I mean, is that part of the conversation?

MB: Definitely. That's part of the the wild aspect of it is taking advantage of parts of the infrastructure in the landscape that other people are ignoring. You know, an empty pool to most people is, 'oh, I guess we're not swimming,' whereas that's such an exciting thing to skateboarders. You know, we're often in the drains, we're in the sewers, you know, the sidewalks and the stairs and the hand railings. It's like the entire world got turned into a skate park through the imagination of kids riding skateboards.

CO: Now, Thrasher over these decades, especially on the covers, it's been pretty White and, well, almost exclusively male, right. So is that starting to change?

MB: Definitely. I think everyone's realising they need to rethink their assumptions and work harder. And that's a big part of our mission. And the exciting thing now is that through social media, we're able to find so many different people more readily than the old model of, you know, having five photographers in the entire world. And it's really cool because, like I said, skateboarding is so individual. And when somebody has their own take on it from a different point of view or a different background, that to me just enriches skateboarding so much and makes the whole thing better and more interesting. But like everyone and everything, there's lots of work to do and a lot of assumptions to reconsider. So we're right there with it doing our best.

CO: And are you considering a geriatric version of Thrasher for those older skateboarders now whose knees [laughter] need to know how to recover and have taken on, probably, a lot of wounds?

MB: You know, it's funny because skateboarding is pretty young, but we're getting to the point where we're having lifelong skaters. So the assumptions of like how long you can skateboard are being questioned all the time. One of the original innovators of modern skating, Tony Alva, is I think he's 61, and can still jump stairs and skate pools. And it's funny to see, like, what can you do. Because I remember as a teenager hearing a pro skater was 23 and I was like "Oh my gosh, 23? That guy needs to hang it up." [Laughter] And and now I'm in my mid-40s still happily skating -- not like the kids but in a way that I enjoy, you know.

CO: Michael, it's good to talk to you. Thank you.

MB: Thank you.

CH: Michael Burnett is the editor in chief of Thrasher. The skateboarding magazine celebrates its 40th anniversary this month. We reached Mr. Burnett in San Diego.

[Music: Pop Music]

The Paul O’Sullivan Band

CH: There's a point usually midway through a concert when the singer deigns to introduce the rest of the band. But if The Paul O'Sullivan Band ever plays a show, that probably won't happen. And you might be thinking, yeah, if Paul O'Sullivan is the frontman, he's obviously a massive egotist. Anyone who names a band after themselves is. Well, yes and no. Yes, singer-guitarist Paul O'Sullivan did name the band after himself, but he also named it after the other singer-guitarist and the bassist and the drummer. The Paul O'Sullivan Band is made up of four guys named Paul O'Sullivan. [SOUND: The Paul O'Sullivan Performing Carly Rae Jepsen's song "Call Me Maybe"] That is The Paul O'Sullivan Band with their version of Carly Rae Jepsen "Call Me Maybe" that's from their new EP "Internet Famous" which came out a couple of weeks ago. It was recorded remotely, not just because of the pandemic, but because the four Pauls live hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Two are in the U.S. and the other two are in England and the Netherlands. They've never all been in one place at the same time. Here's Baltimore, Maryland Paul O'Sullivan telling CBS how they came together from so far apart. CBS added the overly loud music.

[SOUNDCLIP: PAUL O'SULLIVAN: The one night I was just kind of indiscriminately adding Paul O'Sullivans on Facebook and a good amount of them accepted my friend request. And eventually their stuff started showing up in my, you know, my news feed. And I'm like, wait a minute, we're all musicians. And it felt like the universe was, like, daring me to do something with this serendipitous, you know, scenario.]

CH: Long story short, three Pauls O'Sullivan agreed to join Paul O'Sullivan in his exercise in international cross paul-lination. And now from their four locations, in a rare tribute to the value of social media, the cosmopaulitan musicians have made an EP of pauly-phonic sound together.

[Music: Synth Music]

Food Delivery

CH: For a lot of us, food delivery services have been a lifeline during the pandemic. But for restaurants, they've been a double-edged sword, helping them stay connected with customers on the one hand, but taking a hefty cut at the same time. That situation inspired Toronto developer Randy Singh to serve up something different, creating the website "not-ubereats.com." The premise is simple, but for local restaurant owner Diana Hyunh, it's offered the sense of community she was craving. Mr. Singh and Ms. Hyunh spoke with CBC Radio's 'Here And Now' this afternoon.

RANDY SINGH: So over the holidays, I started seeing articles about a lot of local restaurants closing and that really resonated with me. And I wanted to see what I could do to help. And through those other articles I was reading I saw, you know, these delivery providers are taking 30 percent and a lot of the restaurants can't even make their margins and be profitable on these platforms. And I noticed there were a lot of restaurants coming out with their own delivery services and in-house ordering so that they could reduce those fees and you can go directly to the restaurant. And so I started this as bit of a pet project to really showcase these various restaurants that you can go on their search and order directly from them, either by calling or using their website, which has links there. So it's been really humbling.a And I'm really glad to see that restaurants are reaching out and getting up to the website.

DIANA HYUNH: There has been, of course, a lot of challenges during this pandemic. We decided to join Uber-Eats because they have a lot more reach, they have such a large database of users and it really helps us to get our name out there. But like if there's a website that does it for free and, you know, isn't going to cut into our margins, you know, it's great that Randy created this website for us all.

RANDY SINGH: So we've gotten the support all across Canada, from Vancouver to Montreal and of course, more areas in the GTA. And we've gotten some queries from Amsterdam, Netherlands. Some in the States as well. And it'll be really cool to see that, you know, people really want to support their local communities during this difficult time. And I want to do what we can to help, and I'm glad to see that other people feel the same way.

JILL DEACON: What does this mean to you, Diana, as a restaurant owner, just knowing that there's community support, there's initiatives like Randy's just because -- just to try to help restaurants during this tough time?

DIANA HYUNH: It means a lot because like, we need to lean on each other to get the word of mouth out. And like, you know, a website like this really does help spread the word.

CH: Randy Singh is the code developer of the new website "not-ubereats.com" for clarity -- inspired by its predecessor, "not-amazon.ca." Diana Hyunh is the owner of Cici's Pizza and Wings in Toronto, one of the restaurants featured on the site. They spoke with the CBC's Jill Deacon earlier today.

[Music: Banjo Music]

Part 3: AGO returns painting

AGO returns painting

Guest: Clarence Epstein

CH: A Canadian organisation that's dedicated to the restitution of Nazi looted art has some questions for the Art Gallery of Ontario. In November, the gallery sent a 17th century painting called "Still Life With Flowers" to a 95 year old woman in the U.K. The museum says it was presented with what it calls a strong claim that it had been removed from her family under Nazi duress. But the Max Stern Art Restitution Project at Concordia University says it has reason to believe that the painting may have belonged to the gallery of the man it's named for. Now, they're calling on the AGO to disclose what it knows about the paintings history. Clarence Epstein is the director of the Max Stern Art Restitution Project. We reached him outside Montreal.

CO: Mr. Epstein, can you describe this painting?

CLARENCE EPSTEIN: Yes. This is a still life by the artist or the attribution of Jan van Kessel the Elder. Jan van Kessel the Elder was the grandson of Jan Brueghel the Elder and a very successful painter in his own right in the Flemish golden age.

CO: And what is it depicting?

CE: It's a bouquet of flowers, you know, sitting on a table with a very dark black backdrop to bring out all the rich colours of the foliage of the flowers that he represents.

CO: It's very pretty. Very colourful, isn't it?

CE: It is. It's striking.

CO: Now, what makes you think that the Art Gallery of Ontario might have given this painting to the wrong person?

CE: Basically, we were led to believe via a series of communications that we received from the middle of November when the announcement of the van Kessel was made by the Art Gallery of Ontario, that our restitution was taking place. And about a week or so after the announcement, we also received a communication from the representative of the heirs stating the fact that the painting was recovered and that it had been formally in the hands of Max Stern, which confused us greatly because we weren't aware that this painting had a connection with Max Stern until we started delving into the Art Gallery of Ontario's website to find out that they had registered the painting as having belonged to Max Stern and before it had belonged to the David family.

CO: If the family did own this painting and it was something that they were forced to sell, the family says they had to sell it in order to survive. They had it in their possession, but it had been at the Gallery Stern before that. So what's the significance of the fact -- and there was information from the AGO at some point that the Gallery Stern sold this painting in 1937, what's the significance of that date?

CE: So in the years from 33 to 34, when Max Stern's father was ill and eventually passed and left his gallery to his son, Maxx Stern, it coincided with the rise of the National Socialist government. And part of the exercise that the National Socialist government conducted against Jews in all professions was the gradual degradation of their rights: personal, commercial, human. And in those stages Max Stern, the young gallery owner, metaphorically had a noose put around his neck, and from 33 to 37, it slowly got tightened and he was forced to liquidate his assets, including all the paintings in his gallery. Ultimately, in 1937, the last act of the gallery, which were the final four sales and the closure of the building itself and the exile of the family is the most egregious year in those five years that Max Stern and his family had to live through.

CO: Does it seem though that the David family then bought the painting from the Gallery Stern in that period of time?

CE: That is what we believe is a possibility. The David family were one of the most important collecting families through the Gallery Stern and one of his best clients. And so we know that the David family acquired multiple works through the Gallery Stern, and that those works were acquired during this problematic period. And as it relates to German restitution law, when there are multiple claimants regarding property like a painting during the Nazi era, it is the first individual that is persecuted that steps forward to make the claim.

CO: The AGO says the reason why it was moved to restore this painting to the David family is that the the last remaining heir who would have any connection to it is 95 years old, and she remembers seeing this painting hanging in her family home. And so that it was important for her, the AGO believed, to have her reunited with this painting. Is that an important consideration?

CE: Well, I mean, it's a sentimental comment, but has nothing to do with the chronology of the injustice. If indeed the AGO made a decision based on sentimental points and not factual points related to restitution and the rights as it relates to restitution in Germany, then they have omitted an important and serious consideration, which was that despite Max Stern's ownership of the painting, they felt it was important to deal with a sentimental request rather than a factual request. And I find it hard to believe that the AGO would have made that kind of decision, especially if they had conducted an extensive research exercise regarding the ownership of the painting. And that's what we're asking them for.

CO: There are so many works of art, aren't there, that were looted, that were sold for ridiculous prices that people lost because of the Nazis, forced out by the Nazis. And people died not ever having recovering those works of art. How often, though, are there competing claims for that looted art?

CE: Well, that happens. And it's normal for there to be competing claims based on different points of research. And it behoves a museum to meet out all of these various bits of information and determine what is the complete story. In Canada, Carol, there are museums that have dozens of works with gaps in their provenance as it relates to the World War Two period. We all are aware of that. We are trying to work towards filling those gaps as much as possible. And in this case, there are glaring gaps in this van Kessel paintings, ownership history during World War two, that the AGO has not confirmed, that they know how to fill. And that to us is problematic.

CO: We will leave it there. Mr. Epstein I appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

CE: My pleasure, Carol. Have a good day.

CH: Clarence Epstein is the director of the Max Stern Art Restitution Project. We reached him outside Montreal. The Art Gallery of Ontario sent us a statement that says in part, "A previous version of the provenance notation for Still Life with Flowers on our website's Spoliation Page, erroneously made reference to Gallery Stern. That error has since been corrected in consultation with the Commission for Looted Art in Europe. The AGo has no documentation that suggests the painting was ever purchased or owned by Gallery Stern.".

[Music: Guitar Music]

Chris Croner

CH: 50 years ago, Chris Croner heard an ad on the radio, an organisation called Meals on Wheels was looking for volunteers to help deliver hot meals to people in need. Mr. Croner decided to sign up, and half a century later, you can still find him going door to door delivering meals across Vancouver's downtown Eastside. Chris Croner spoke with CBC Vancouver about the community he serves and why volunteering has become even more important during the pandemic.

CHRIS CRONER: When you go to the room, you go up and, you know, "Is there something I can do? You've got a letter to be mailed or, you know, whatever." Once you go in the room, it looks like everything's going, you ate the meal from yesterday, blah, blah, blah. You try to get a little wrap going to them, and everybody's different. They might be on medication and they don't want to talk or they want to do this or they're happy to see you. "I'm so happy you're here." And they've got good praises for meals and we enjoy the food and it's making us better. And, you know, that's happy. I like to hear that. I'm like an up-person, so I like to hear the happiness and we've got to live together in this world. So it's good to have neighbours and friends.

STEPHEN QUINN: I imagine you've seen a lot of people come and go over your five decades of doing this.

CHRIS CRONER: I've even walked in and found them dead. You know, it's sad, and I'd be the only one, then I'd have to close the door, go down and tell the manager, and then I got to wait for the coroner to come -- so now the meals are going to get cold and whatnot. You know, it's just one of those things. But you live and you die. Nothing's guaranteed anymore.

STEPHEN QUINN: What is it like for you when something like that happens?

CHRIS CRONER: Well, first time it was a shock, you know, and it kind of scares you a little bit. It's just a shock to the system. I understand why it's a hard time to get people to go and be volunteers on the Downtown Eastside, but somebody's got to do it. I mean, we've got to help people. We've got to live together in this world, you know?

STEPHEN QUINN: I understand you just found out that you're winning a medal from the governor general for your 50 plus years of service. What do you think about that?

CHRIS CRONER: Well, I was quite shocked. I don't do it for money or medals or pats on the back or anything like that. I do it because we're all humans and we got to eat. Three things in life we need: air, water and food. And it's a necessity of life. I think everybody should get involved in their communities. That's what builds a community. You know, you've got to give a little, you know, to make it work. So that's the way I was raised. If you're successful in the community, you put something back, not necessarily money, but your own time, and you can't put a value on that. So I enjoy doing it and I'll continue doing it until I can't do it anymore.

CH: Chris Croner speaking with host Stephen Quinn on the Early Edition this week. For 50 years, Mr. Croner has been volunteering with Meals on Wheels and delivering hot meals to people living on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

[Music: Bass Music]

Quirks & Quarks Promo: Brown Tree Snake

CH: Since its accidental introduction to Guam in the 1940s, the invasive brown tree snake has eaten its way through most of the island's forest birds. In an effort to protect some of the remaining birds, researchers built nest boxes protected by what they thought would be on climbable slippery metal posts. But you can't keep a bad snake down. Conservation biologist Julie Savidge and her team were testing their nest posts and were astounded to witness the snake literally tie itself in a knot, using a never before seen climbing technique to get to its prey. Here she is speaking with Quirks and Quarks' host Bob McDonald.

JULIE SAVIDGE: We had a test arena on Guam where we would put two to four snakes inside for a night and then record their movements with time lapse video. And most of the video was pretty boring. And then all of a sudden a snake wrapped its body around this metal cylinder and then basically start to wiggle up the baffle or the cylinder.

BOB MCDONALD: Now, when you say rapids body around, what shape did it take?

JULIE SAVIDGE: The snake forms a loop similar to a lasso. And that's why we basically called this lasso locomotion around the body. And it creates a knot or an interlocking region as it forms this loop with the posterior part of the body, that would be the tail area and also the anterior part of the body towards the head. And then this loop or lasso squeezes the cylinder to generate friction and prevent slipping. It was like nothing I had or any of us had ever seen before.

BOB MCDONALD: How hard is it for the snake to do this?

JULIE SAVIDGE: Well, it's really hard. It's a very slow movement and it takes a lot of energy. It's interesting because the snakes paws quite frequently while they're doing this lasso locomotion and you can actually see the snake breathing really heavily when it's passing.

CH: Conservation biologist Julie Savidge speaking with Bob McDonald about the lasso locomotion of the invasive brown tree snake on the Pacific island of Guam. You can hear that whole interview tomorrow at noon on Quirks and Quarks.

[Music: Pop Music]

Nova Scotia rural healthcare

Guest: Kevin Murphy

CH: Drive about an hour and a half east of Halifax and you'll arrive in Sheet Harbour on the Eastern Shore. It's a community of 5000 people. It has a hospital, a grocery store, and most other things a resident would need. And by almost any measure, it's a rural town. But not by the federal government's measure, which means any health care worker looking to work there or in other rural communities doesn't qualify for a federal program offering incentives to attract doctors to underserved communities. Eastern Shore MLA Kevin Murphy has been trying to fight that since 2013. We reached Mr. Murphy in Porters Lake, Nova Scotia.

CO: Mr Murphy, can you give us an idea what the need is for doctors and health care workers right now along the eastern shore of Nova Scotia?

KEVIN MURPHY: Well, I think our situation is typical of many other communities across Canada that are rural in nature. We are always looking for primary health care practitioners to serve in our communities. So there is a need there, that's for sure.

CO: But when you say the community is rural in nature, there's always a need. But yet the issue you've brought to the attention of Ottawa is that the country doesn't consider Eastern Shore communities to be rural. Is that right?

KM: Yeah, we happen to be blessed to live so close to an urban area with all the major things that you would expect in a major city. But at the same time, we're cursed to be so close to a major urban area. So the constituency that I represent is about an hour outside of the core of metro Halifax, Dartmouth, and we have three community hospitals in our area -- in Musquodoboit Harbour, Middle Musquodoboit, and Porters Lake -- or pardon me, Sheet Harbour. Those are all about an hour or hour and a half, close to two hours away from Halifax. And by definition of Statistics Canada, which is their metrics that this program uses, were classified as being part of the greater Halifax area.

CO: So you're part of the Halifax Regional Municipality, but these are small towns and even villages. And people have to go a long way in order to get access to some of these services, right?

KM: Yeah, that's exactly it.

CO: So now what are you asking Ottawa to do? How would you like to have places like Sheet Harbour and Porters Lake, how would you like to have them redefined?

KM: Well, I think, you know, the exercise largely involves somebody who's shaping the policy for these program to look at a map. And I understand, you know, we're one of hundreds of communities across Canada that they're trying to serve. You know, the reality is that I think anybody, once they have a look and have an understanding of the geography involved, they'd be hard pressed to say that we're an urban centre or, you know, we would be in a blanket situation with Halifax. And so that review, as far as I understand it, has been initiated and is now complete and is awaiting the minister, who is Carla Qualtrough, to review it and then implement whatever recommendations are in that review. So we're hopeful there's going to be a positive outcome.

CO: Some of the programs that you're not qualified for because you're considered to be part of a large municipality -- one of them that you've cited that there's a doctors or nurses student loan forgiveness program that allows for tuition relief for health care practitioners who will go to work in rural Canada. And even though you are where you are and Sheet Harbour is two hours from Halifax, they don't qualify for those programs, is that right?

KM: Yeah, that's correct. And the situation was brought to my attention by a constituent of mine who was looking to practise in Sheet Harbour as a nurse practitioner. And she brought this particular anomaly to my attention. And when I looked into it and, you know, began experimenting by plugging in various postcodes for rural parts of HRM and should add not just the Eastern Shore, but all around the urban core, they found that the circumstances were the same. And that resulted in some outreach to my MP for Central Nova, Sean Fraser. And began the advocacy effort to get the program changed.

CO: The effect of not having the qualified people, being able to attract them, what does that meant during the time of COVID, during this past year, especially in your emergency departments?

KM: Yeah, well, I think, you know, this situation is similar to many with COVID. It's certainly magnified any weaknesses, for lack of a better term in the system, delivering service to people, particularly in rural Nova Scotia. So I think it stands to reason that if you're short staffed to begin with, that, you know, COVID just magnifies that, it amplifies it when you have a doctor or a nurse who has to self isolate for 14 days, you know, for COVID reasons, you know, and you're understaffed to begin with, it obviously magnifies the issue. And the end result is a decrease in services. And the worst result is that emergency rooms are closed due to lack of staff.

CO: You brought this to the federal government's attention that this is one of the reasons why you're having a hard time attracting staff. But how long do you think it'll take before there's a fix?

KM: Well, we're closing in on the two year mark now, and I understand that it's a large program that serves Canada from coast to coast to coast. And it covers not just family doctors and nurses, but other professions that the communities are trying to attract into their areas. So my experience in government is that there is a bit of a domino effect. You know, you can't just change one aspect of a program without reviewing and ensuring that you're not negatively impacting another aspect of the program or some other part of Canada. So I do understand that it takes a while to do these kinds of things. And I'm optimistic that with the review we can get to the end result, which I hope is a positive change for not only my community but other communities across Canada in similar situations.

CO: Well, you're a very patient politician, I would say. [Chuckles]

KM: [Chuckles] Well, sometimes the wheels of bureaucracy turn pretty slow. Sometimes that's a good thing. But I can appreciate that it's frustrating in many regards for many people.

CO: We'll leave it there. Mr. Murphy, thank you.

KM: Thanks very much for your interest.

CH: Kevin Murphy is the MLA for the Eastern Shore. We reached him in Porters Lake, Nova Scotia.

[Music]

Merlina

CH: Over the years, a lot of really bad stuff has happened in the Tower of London: imprisonment, murder, that kind of thing, which is why it's haunted. And now there's this, the much loved raven, Merlina, queen of the tower's legendary ravens hasn't been seen for several weeks. She is presumed dead. The ravens that call the Tower of London home are there by royal decree because as legend has it, if the flock of ravens there and unkindness of ravens is the collective noun, is less than six individuals, the kingdom is headed for certain doom. All of which makes Merlina's unplanned departure a delicate matter from a public relations standpoint. The tower's Raven Master was doing the media rounds this week to get out the reassuring message that while Merlina is greatly missed, she hasn't triggered a boom in British Doom quite yet. There are seven ravens in residence for just this kind of situation, not to mention a breeding program or put another way, an heir and a spare. But I wouldn't count Merlina out quite yet. She's described as free spirited and let's be honest, she wouldn't be the first to seek a speedy exit from the Tower of London. The humans there may miss her, but why assume she's given up the ghost? More likely, she's found a new and improved haunt. And frankly, that's her call.

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January 15, 2021 Episode Transcript

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