Note: Transcripts may contain errors. If you wish to re-use all, or part of, a transcript, please contact CBC for permission. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print. Copyright © CBC 2021

The AIH Transcript for February 24, 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: On a needle to know basis. As Alberta opens the phone lines for anyone over 75 to book their COVID shots, we ask the chair of Ontario's vaccine task force why that province's octogenarians are still on hold.

CH: Any fort in a storm. Toronto calls tiny shelters for people without homes illegal dumping. But a former resident of one of the makeshift structures says her's was a lifeline and the city should leave them be.

CO: Trial is error. An Ottawa PhD student has a court date in Turkey five months after he was arrested in Ankara. His partner tells us the charges of inciting terrorism are absurd and that Canada needs to step in.

CH: Mob seen and heard. Ontario's biggest ever mafia investigation goes bust after the defence learns police were tapping solicitor client phone calls.

CO: Moving pictures. The 60 year old photos from Alaska that our guest found at a flea market meant a lot to her, but they wound up meaning a great deal more to the people in the photos.

CH: And forewarned about firearm. Last March, a Kentucky woman got an arm tattoo expressing her refusal to pretend to be someone she wasn't. But now she'd like to stress she isn't literally refusing to wear a mask. As It Happens. The Wednesday Edition. Radio that always uses its critical inking skills.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Ontario Vaccine Wait: Hillier

Ontario Vaccine Wait: Hillier

Guest: Rick Hillier

CH: Canada's COVID vaccine rollout is hitting some speed bumps, and the size of those bumps seems to depend on where you live. In Alberta today, the province opened up the lines for anyone over 75 to make an appointment to get their shots. But it wasn't easy getting through. Here's Dr. Cheri Nijssen-Jordan, the co-lead of the province's vaccine task force, speaking to the CBC during the morning rush.

CHERI NIJSSEN-JORDAN: People are definitely getting booked at the moment. And we have about 5,000 and 6,000 people on the line at the moment. So as far as I understand, it is actually moving forward. There might be occasional glitches, but definitely people are being booked.

DAVID GRAY: Just letting you know we're getting tons of messages in -- even while you and I are talking, there's another one of somebody who's not able to get through. What are you telling people today?

CHERI NIJSSEN-JORDAN: Well, we're asking people to be patient. And we know that there's been a lot of people that are waiting for this day and this particular minute. And it's just going to be a matter of patience. You might have to go back on the line again a second time. But we are moving through those appointments as quickly as we can.

CH: That was the co-lead of Alberta's vaccine task force, Dr. Cheri Nijssen-Jordan, speaking with CBC Calgary's David Gray. And while Alberta begins vaccinating everyone over 75, Ontario announced today that it won't start vaccinating people in their 80s until the third week of March, which has many critics asking why things seem to be moving so much slower in the country's biggest province. Rick Hillier is the retired general who's chairing Ontario's vaccine distribution task force. We reached him in Toronto.

CO: Mr. Hillier, we're learning that people over 75 in Alberta's general population are booking appointments when they can get through on the line. But people in Ontario over the age of 80 in the general population won't be able to do that until sometime in March. Why is that?

RICK HILLIER: Well, that's because they have a slightly different priority for those in the most vulnerable populations and or health care workers in front of those over 80 years old. And so we've had to work through, obviously, because we want to, to give them that level of protection that we feel they need before we get to those over 80 years old. And in fact, we have actually moved the 80 year old group further forward to start with them, obviously, into March. Initially, we felt with the vaccines we had and the prioritisation it would be April, but we're actually going to be able to start early. And in fact, we will have some places that will start earlier than what I predicted, which is the 15th of March week, because we will have finished some of the other priorities a little earlier.

CO: And the priorities being long term care?

RH: Long term care, high risk retirement homes, the healthcare facilities, the patient facing health care workers and our First Nations and Indigenous adults.

CO: Well, again, why is Ontario so behind even in that? Because I'll just read you some of the stats. Alberta, almost all long term care residents and staff have been vaccinated as of February. Manitoba managed to vaccinate our long term care residents by January. Quebec is way ahead on the long term care homes. So if you're saying that you can't get to the people in their 80s because you're still with the priority of people in other provinces who have already been vaccinated. So again, why is Ontario behind?

RH: We're actually not behind, Carol. We have vaccinated all of the long term care homes in Ontario, and we probably have as many as all of those other provinces put together, I think there are 626 long term care homes alone, 775 retirement homes vaccinated is one needle. And what we are doing now is going back through and finishing off the second needle. And not everybody is doing that or completed that part of it. And that gives them the immunisation complete against COVID-19. And we have stuck to the two needle dose as part of that vaccination program to make them immune. And that's what we're doing now to finish up.

CO: Isn't that the case, that as of late February, we had in Ontario only 3.9 vaccine doses per 100,000 people, which is lower than figures in most other of the populous provinces?

RH: I don't know. What I can tell you, as of last week, every single vaccine that we had in Ontario had been utilised. So I don't know what the ratio is from that one. We've just gotten now two shipments in and we're busily ramping up to use those. I think our vaccination in arms, needles in arms, yesterday was just over 16,000. That's not nearly enough. We want to double that quite literally in the next couple of days, the next several days. And that's what we're working to do right now. But as of a week and a half ago, we had used every single vaccine that showed up in Ontario. So potentially our allocation was perhaps a little lower.

CO: So you're saying that it's the allocation -- Ottawa is responsible for it? It is not giving you as much as the other provinces are getting?

RH: No Carol, I didn't say that. Although we did have a shortage in one of the shipments that was less than what we have been led to believe was our share. What I'm saying is simply, as of last Wednesday, actually last Thursday, we had used every single vaccine that was in the province of Ontario. So the only vaccines we have now are the ones that have arrived in the last six days. And obviously, we haven't been able to use all of them yet. So we've used every one we've had right up to last Thursday. And the ones that we've gotten since then, we're using now.

CO: Let's just clarify where the blame lies in this, because if the case is that only 3.9 vaccine doses per 100,000 people in Ontario, which is lower than other populous provinces, and you're saying, well, you used all the doses you had. Are you laying this at the feet of Ottawa and the supply you're getting? Is that why you say you're behind in Ontario?

RH: No, I didn't say we were behind Carol. I said we've used all the doses that we had available to us. We would have loved to have had more. I'm not blaming anybody. I'm simply saying that up to last Thursday, we had used all of the doses that have been delivered to Ontario until that day. Then on Thursday of last week and yesterday afternoon, we received additional shipments and that's what we're using now. So we couldn't do any better than that. And so the amount of vaccines that we had versus the population works out to whatever percentages that it is. But we've used them all up till last Thursday.

CO: You know, there's a lot of criticism out there about how Ontario is doing this and that it is not rolling this out quickly enough, that it's disorganised, that you haven't got things set up as you should. If you could do this again, if you could roll back the clock, how would you do things differently?

RH: Well, let me just think of how we would do things differently. I'm just trying to think of actually, at this moment, if I would be able to offer anything up to that. I think we would have insisted not to start on certain systems put in place. But here's what I would say to you -- and I know I'm repeating myself. But as of as of last Thursday, we had used all the vaccines that had come to us. And so I'm not sure how much faster you could be than that. And is it pretty doing it? No, this is a complex rollout. The prioritisation makes it more complex because you're trying to get at every single most vulnerable group, those in the most vulnerable circumstances, and those are smaller populations that you can't bring to the vaccines -- in most cases, you have to take the vaccines to them. So you have to go to 626 long term care homes and and 775 retirement homes, as opposed to having those 150,000-175,000 people come to a mass vaccination centre where you could churn them through 10,000-20,000-30,000 a day. And so that part of it is very very difficult to do. But we've done it. And everybody wanted to do it faster, there's no doubt about that. Just as we were getting really fast, the vaccine drought occurred. Now we're turning that machine back on. So I'm not sure what we would redo, there'd be time to go back and learn the lessons of it.

CO: Just finally, by 15th of March when you believe you're going to get these doses, are you going to be set up to start putting those doses immediately into people's arms? Or is your machine not going to be up and running by then?

RH: No, the machine is partly up and running now. We haven't turned it all on because our capacity in Ontario is more than 300,000 vaccines a day when we turn it all on. And never in any time in the next six months do we see in the forecast and allocation coming to Ontario, that we'll ever reach that capacity with vaccines coming in. So we are ready. In fact, you will see vaccines going into the arms of the 80-plus year olds before the 15th of March, without question. And we will be ready to carry on with the rest of them based on the doses that we have on the 15th of March.

CO: We will be watching. Mr. Hillier thank you.

RH: I know you will. [CO chuckles] Thank you Carol.

CH: Rick Hillier is the chair of Ontario's Vaccine Distribution Task Force. We reached him in Toronto.

[Music: Hip-hop Music]

Ontario Mafia Charges Dropped

Guest: Joseph Loiero

CH: Project Sindacato was seen as the biggest police investigation into organised crime ever conducted in Ontario. And now it sleeps with the fishes. In late January, prosecutors quietly stayed charges against six people allegedly connected to the Italian mafia. The decision came after defence lawyers accused York Region police officers of intercepting solicitor client phone calls, which is illegal. It's a stunning end to a massive investigation that probed illegal gambling, drug trafficking, money laundering, and fraud. And police will also have to hand back 35-million dollars worth of goods they'd seised, including several Ferraris, Rolex watches, cash, and property. Joseph Loiero is a producer on the CBC Investigates team that broke the story. We reached him in Toronto.

CO: Joseph, as you know, there was a lot of fanfare when police first unveiled Project Sindacato to reporters. What are they saying about it now?

JOSEPH LOIERO: Well, that's a great question. Police put on a big show back in July in 2019 when they made the arrest and they made the seizures. And now, interestingly enough, even though the charges have all been stayed, all they have to say is they stand by their investigation and they're proud of their work still. And it's a shame they think that the Crown has decided not to proceed with the charges, but no real actual explanation beyond that in terms of how things fell apart.

CO: Okay. But there was a different story in the summer of 2019. Can you just tell us about this show and tell that York Region police put on four reporters on that occasion?

JL: That's right. A big show back in July of 2019. They made a point to show reporters, show the public all the things they seised, 35-million dollars worth of goods. We're talking five Ferraris, 19 other luxury cars. There were 27 homes. Luxury liquors. Rolex watches. Almost a million dollars in cash. So you had police showing off the money, showing off the watches, showing off the booze, putting videos of them seising the Ferraris on their social media. So they definitely made a point of making sure that this was public back then.

CO: Nine people in Canada arrested and charged with being part of a criminal organisation with ties to the mob in Italy. What's happened to those charges and those people?

JL: All nine of these individuals have had their charges stayed. And the last round of six had their charges stayed, just last month after a court date here in the Greater Toronto Area where the federal Crown prosecutor decided to state the charges and not pursue this any more. So after an 18 month, 8-million dollar investigation, there's essentially right now nothing to show for it.

CO: What happened, what was wrong with the case?

JL: The defence lawyers lay out what they believe were severe and actually illegal, unlawful breaches of solicitor client privilege -- alleging police were actually listening in on calls between lawyers and the accused, which they were not authorised to do. They were not allowed to do as part of this investigation. And eventually the case just fell apart.

CO: Okay. Recording solicitor client phone calls and using it as evidence -- I mean, isn't that detective school 101? Isn't that like you can just get to know that from watching cop shows that you don't do that, right?

JL: Yeah, maybe they hadn't watched The Wire. But we spoke with an independent lawyer who had nothing to do with this specific case, but who is familiar with police accountability cases. And she essentially said just that, that you learn this in first day of cop school. And so maybe they must have missed that class because this is a pretty basic principle and something that they should have known better to have not done.

CO: Yeah. But this wasn't just a couple of cops, right? How many agencies were involved in this investigation?

JL: There were eight agencies in total involved in this. There were even authorities from Italy who are part of this investigation. The defence does focus their accusations on breaking the solicitor client privilege on York Regional Police and the Canada Revenue Agency. The CRA was involved because there were some money laundering and tax evasion allegations.

CO: But how much of the actual case depended on the evidence that these solicitor client phone calls that produced?

JL: Wiretapping was a large part of this case. It was definitely one of the foundational components of it. There were other elements that York Regional Police do lay out that were part of their investigation. They do say they were quite focussed on following the money when it came to money laundering and doing the maths to try to figure out the finances. So it wasn't the only component, but it was definitely a large part of it.

CO: So is it that they just went too far? I mean, does this happen that police cross a few lines and there are wiretaps and that maybe they just went too far or that this defence team was too sharp?

JL: Well, the defence say it's more than just going too far. They say it was actually illegal. And they say the irony in all of this is that their clients were being investigated for potential criminality. But what they're saying is it was the police themselves, the ones who are sworn to uphold the law, who were behaving in an illegal manner. But the other concern from speaking with other lawyers is that this, generally speaking, this might actually happen more often than we think. And the concern being not everyone has the ability to hire high priced, high ranking lawyers to defend them and uncover things like this. And their concern is that police in general might just think that they're able to get away with this. And so it happens more often than we would hope.

CO: Are they able to remount this case? Can they put the wheels back on and get it back on the road?

JL: If you ask the lawyers for the accused, they would say there's zero chance. We spoke with an independent lawyer on this topic as well, and they would say, based on the allegations of what occurred here and the severity of it, there's absolutely no chance. And the public is essentially left with nothing now after all the millions of dollars spent on this work, that there's no way that they would revisit this. And part of this all stems from the fact that there was an independent report done by Toronto Police Services looking into the alleged misconduct by the officers in York Regional Police. And that report has never been seen by defence counsel, it was never entered into evidence, but it was seen by the federal Crown prosecutor who then stayed the charges after seeing this report. So the thought being whatever is in that report is so damning, there's no way they'd ever want that entered into evidence. So there's pretty much zero chance that this will be revived.

CO: Yikes. And so meanwhile, what happens to the five Ferraris, the 19 luxury cars, 27 homes, gambling machines, luxury liquor, 38 Rolex watches and all that other good stuff that makes up the 35-million dollars of goods that were seised -- where does it go?

JL: Well, I guess the accused are going to be able to drive them, drink them, live in them, and spend it as far as they're concerned going forward. All of that with a few exceptions of illegal gambling machines potentially that were seised and a couple of other things. All those luxury items, the cars, the booze, the cash, the Rolexes, they go back to the accused and they'll be able to enjoy them just like they did before.

CO: Wow. Okay Joseph, we'll leave it there. Thank you.

JL: Thank you very much Carol.

CH: Joseph Loiero is a producer with the CBC Investigates team. We reached him in Toronto. And you can read the story he and his colleagues published at: cbc.ca/news.

[Music: Pop Music]

Alaska Photos found

Guest: Jennifer Skupin & Walkie Charles

CH: Jennifer Skupin loves a good flea market find. And years after she first headed home from a Dutch flea market with a trove of old photos, they're still paying dividends. They were believed to be about 60 years old and they appeared to have been taken in Alaska or somewhere similarly remote. And for a long time, that's all Ms. Skupin knew. Then CNN got involved and the Internet worked its magic. And now the mysteries of those mid-century images have been unlocked. We reached Jennifer Skupin in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

CO: Jennifer, what were your impressions when you first saw these images back in 2008?

JENNIFER SKUPIN: I was really amazed. So many nice portraits of people, bright colours, and families. I mean, what I assumed would be families. And most of the pictures were obviously from Alaska, really remote areas. And I had no idea at first. I looked at the slides. There were handwritten notes on a few of them so I could figure out that a few of those names or words on those slides were probably places like Anchorage. So, yes, it was a bit of a puzzle, really.

CO: And so what got you involved getting CNN to help you identify what the pictures were?

JS: So when I first bought them, I tried to connect with a few cultural institutes in Alaska back then, but it was a dead end and I ignored it. I put it away for a while until I realised that I should give it a try again because the world is more connected. And I reached out to Francesca.

CO: Francesca Street at CNN. And so what happened when she put those photos out to the world?

JS: It was quite amazing because I did upload them on the Google Drive, and I could see immediately that people were commenting on those pictures and that first people would be identified. So I was, I think, with the very first comment and the very first person identifying somebody, it was already successful for me, because I thought, Okay wow, who knows where this might reach? So I was really happy.

CO: One of those people who you heard from is on the line with us right now, Walkie Charles, who is a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. And hello Walkie.

WALKIE CHARLES: Hello. How are you?

CO: Good.

WC: Thank you for having us.

CO: Well, it's our pleasure. And so how did you identify the photos? What did you first see that you knew who was in the pictures?

WC: Well, as Ms. Jennifer said, she reached out to multimedia, which in many cases is Facebook. And someone posted a photo of her mother and she said, "Look world, there is this photo of me and my mother and two older sisters." And she said, "Someone found these and there's more photos like this." And then from there, that Facebook post got very viral. And "Oh, I just found me," this is what one woman said. And so I thought, "Oh okay let me let me see if there's anything." And lo and behold, there was about a dozen or more photos from my community. And about 75 percent of those people have already left this world.

CO: Did you find yourself in those photos?

WC: I found myself with my dear sister. Very rare opportunities for anybody in rural Alaska in those times to capture moments like this because we didn't have access to cameras. And then to bring us back -- I think it was the end of the tuberculosis epidemic in rural Alaska when these photos were shot.

CO: How old are you in the photo?

WC: I was three.

CO: Oh my gosh. I know that photo. I can picture it now. What strikes you about them? I mean, the people, they look very healthy and happy. What does it strike you about those photos?

WC: This was a moment in time before the outside influences had become more popular, when people were happy being who they are without any outside interference. Education had just came in. Religion had just come in. And Alaska had just become part of the United States in 1959.

CO: The thing also in the photos is a picture of your brother, isn't there, who you didn't live into adulthood. What connection did that give you when you saw that photo?

WC: Sorry....we've never had any child photos of him. And to see him in such a state where every photo of him is, he's happy. It brought back that, I guess, that emotion of happy, not just him, but every child was back then because there was nothing that separated them. Everybody was a community because there was no outside interference about anything. And so these photos are truly what community ought to be. This photo was just amazing how the seven year old child knew his role as not just a child, but also a member of his family and his chores are to haul that snow because there's no running water at that time.

CO: Just so people know, he has a bucket of snow that's for melting, for cleaning, I guess.

WC: Yes. And it wasn't work. It was a daily activity.

CO: Jennifer, if I can just go back to you for a moment, whosever taking these photos, you don't know who it is, but it looks like people trusted them, that they that they were comfortable with whoever was the photographer. Do you think you can find out who took them?

JS: There were a few guesses that it might be a stewardess. There are some connexions to KLM. I'm not sure if I will find out who the photographer is, but that is also really secondary now listening to Walkie and the other people who have identified themselves.

CO: Walkie could you ever imagine that somebody on the other side of the world would be able to bring you home the way that Jennifer has with these photos?

WC: No. It's a beautiful gift that we did not anticipate. Jennifer could have just said, "Oh slides. Oh people. Oh never mind," and left them. But she saw something in them that sparked her curiosity to see if there was any connection somewhere in the world. It really, truly, especially during this pandemic has connected us back to who we were and what we are as a community and these photos truly define the meaning of community and family and for that on behalf of my family, my people, my state of Alaska, I would like to publicly thank Jennifer for finding this program of photos.

CO: Thank you Walkie. Do you want to respond, Jennifer?

JS: Well, I'm really touched and it's my pleasure. I'm grateful that I'm now connected to you, Walkie, and that I could make people happy who I don't even know on the other side of the world.

CO: Well, I hope you can both meet at some point when all this is over. And it's been really lovely speaking to both of you. Thank you Walkie Thank you Jennifer.

WC: Thank you so much.

JS: Thanks so much.

CH: Jennifer Skupin is a creative director in Germany who came across a trove of old photos at a Dutch flea market in 2008. Walkie Charles is a professor of the Yup'ik language at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and one of the people pictured in those photos. We reached her in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. And we reached him in Fairbanks, Alaska.

[Music: Guitar Music]

CO: I know you're in a hotel shelter now, it's where you're living. Is this the same place?

JJ: Yes.

CO: Are you still in jeopardy like that?

JJ: They moved me down to the third floor yesterday.

CO: And can you get out from the third floor?

JJ: I can get down one flight and then the crews would have to carry me down the other two. But it's a lot more feasible than expecting that they can safely carry me down 15 flights of stairs with my walker.

CO: Some people in Toronto might see these structures going up in their neighbourhood parks and consider them ugly and that they are unable to use the park. So what do you say to them?

JJ: I mean, to put the aesthetic of the shelter and have them be more important than people not freezing to death, it's pretty terrible. And I can only speak from experience, but I was in a Dufferin Grove Park.And I was really surprised by the love and support and the kindness of the residents there. They were delivering us food. They donated blankets. They donated tents. Like we had the most amazing support there. And the park was large enough that we could be in our own little space and not interfere with anyone else's enjoyment of the park.

CO: Is it a solution putting up tiny houses in the park -- what's the ultimate solution for for the homelessness you're facing?

JJ: Affordable, safe, permanent housing.

CO: And so if Toronto wants to fix this problem, that's what they need to do?

JJ: Yes. I was told recently that they announced that they were going to build 1,200 more units for affordable housing. I don't know how many of those are wheelchair accessible. But before COVID began, there were 136,000 people on the waiting list for housing in Toronto, and I am one of them.

CO: Well, Jennifer, I hope you do get housing and I appreciate you speaking with us. Thank you.

JJ: Thank you.

CH: Jennifer Jewell lived in a makeshift shelter in a Toronto park. She's now in a hotel that's been converted into a shelter. We reached her in Toronto. And for more on the story, visit our website: cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Calm Music]

Rwandan Opposition Figure

CH: Once again, a Rwandan opposition figure is dead. And once again, the Rwandan government denies any involvement. Last night we told you about the killing of Abdallah Seif Bamporiki in Cape Town, South Africa. He was shot on Sunday when making a delivery for his store. South African police are investigating. The murder is the latest in a string of deaths amongst Rwandans in the diaspora that opposition leaders believe are targeted assassinations. Here's what Mr. Bamporiki's friend, Kennedy Gihana, said to Carol last night.

CO: He had been, it seems, lured to the place where he was killed by this idea that he was to deliver some furniture from his business to this address. But he must have been very conscious of any traps because he knows that there have been these attacks on any dissent in the diaspora.Why do you think that he trusted that delivery?

KG: You see it, all [inaudible] in the diaspora, especially those who are now advocating for human rights and democracy, every second they look at their shoulders, but because that place he has been doing his business, he has been doing business at that side for quite some time. So he didn't believe that someone would want to harm him at the shop. But because of always being cautious, that's why he asked his friend to accompany him. So every day he has been cautious, but when is your day? You never know.

CO: So that while he was waiting to be paid, instead of being paid, the gunmen came out and shot him dead, but not the other man who was with him.

KG: Yeah, no, for sure, but this has been the method of operation of a random military gym, if you know how they killed Patrick, they asked the friend to befriend him for almost two years before he set him up for killing.

CO: You just mentioned Patrick Karegeya, and that's whose grave you last saw your friend at. Seif was with you, where he gave apparently a very touching speech about the death of Patrick Karegeya, who was strangled to death, right?

KG: Yeah, it is actually trading now to all social media. The speech he gave, it was a great speech advocating the [inaudible] fighting for the freedom, for democracy, for the. It was a very touching speech. Yeah. The memorial was on Saturday for not only Patrick, but also other members of the opposition who has been killed by the military regime in Rwanda, not only outside the country, but also inside Rwanda, including those who are in prison, those who are now in different safe houses, those who have disappeared.

CH: That was Kennedy Gihana, a Rwandan opposition leader in South Africa, speaking with Carol last night. After we went to air, we received a response to that interview from the Rwandan embassy in Ottawa. It reads, "We deny Rwanda's involvement in Mr. Bamporiki's sudden death in South Africa. Any allegations implicating Rwanda from the so-called opposition groups are unfounded and untrue. These allegations are mere speculations that are as unreliable as their authors. We anticipate the outcome of the investigations to be made by South African relevant authorities."

[Music: Guitar Music]

Ottawa Student Turkey

Guest: Omer Ongun

CH: The pressure is mounting on Turkey to release Cihan Erdal from prison. But the Canadian permanent resident learnt this week he will indeed face a criminal trial this spring. Mr. Erdal is a PhD student at Carleton University. Last September, he was in Istanbul visiting family and conducting research on youth uprisings when he was arrested and accused of inciting terrorism. While he waits for his court appearance, Mr. Erdal has kept busy behind bars with his academic research. In fact, he's prepared presentations for two conferences this week in Brazil and Ottawa. His partner, Omer Ongun will be presenting his work in his absence. We reached Mr. Ongun in Ottawa.

CO: Omer, what does it tell you about Cihan that he is still working on his academic research while he is in prison?

OMER ONGUN: It doesn't surprise me. That's who he is -- always making the best of his conditions. And he actually sent me a note and he says, "I will continue to work for the public good, seeking the truth, reason and justice without ever losing sight of intellectual integrity." And that's what he's trying to do -- producing, working, reading.

CO: It's an irony that he is doing his research on his thesis, he is studying youth uprisings, and he's in jail for his political activities.

OO: Oh yeah, absolutely. It's really interesting I will say, maybe in a sense shocking, to see that he has become the subject of his own research. He was really trying to understand peaceful protests, youth political participation of young people. Now he's become that he's behind the walls in prison. And I am doing my best, and I suddenly got pulled into this, so I am presenting on his behalf in different conferences. He's not giving up. I'm not giving up.

CO: Well I guess you can't go to these conferences, but you will be presenting his work.

OO: Yeah, I am actually presenting his work. I'm first studying it, I'm trying to understand. And there's a conference this Thursday in Brazil, which I am presenting live on video. So that's going to be also an interesting experience for me.

CO: When we spoke with you last September, you told us how Cihan called you in the middle of the night, he was in a panic, the police were banging on his door, they had come to arrest him. What have you learnt since about the accusations that he is facing?

OO: Four months after his initial arrest we finally have the indictments. He's being criminally charged for fomenting disunity of the state. And this is really based on these two Facebook posts that he had on different dates. Those are just anti-war posts. His defence lawyers believe that actually Turkish authorities realised they could not directly connect him to any of these about the Kobani protests in tweets and letters. So therefore, they support his social media accounts or anything that could be viewed as subversive.

CO: In the fall that was the theory is that he was linked to a letter, simply a letter, written in 2014 that had called for the Turkish government to step out to help this Kurdish town of Kobani that they haven't been able to tie him to even that, and now they have found some other things?

OO: Yeah, what they did is basically two Facebook posts and those are basically linked to news, to other webpages or articles that are vaguely critical of the governments on different dates. It has no connection with the Kobani protests. But it shows the arbitrariness of this arrest.

CO: Cihan was in solitary confinement at the beginning -- horrible conditions, having inedible food served to him. Have things improved? Are his conditions any better?

OO: His conditions are better. He had to stay there for about a month, which was extremely worrying. We had to campaign a lot, write several petitions, and then he got out of that. He's been receiving letters and books. Basically, Carleton University professors have been sending articles and materials. But we also had to fight for it because Turkish prison management basically told us that there is nobody here that speaks English. So we don't know what these books are talking about, so they refused to give them to him. And then we were like, come on, right -- you can do better. Finally, they did. And in fact, he's been receiving tons of letters from all around the world, which keeps his morale high. So he's in a much better condition at the moment.

CO: Cihan is your partner, but he is not recognised as your partner in Turkey. And does that mean that you can't see him? You don't have the visiting rights as a family member?

OO: This is also one of those things that we probably take for granted, because, I mean, here in Canada, we are a common law partner. He's my spouse for 10 years. But now in Turkey, where he's detained, I am not seen or I'm not recognised as his family member, so I'm not able to speak with him. The last time that I spoke with him was on that night in September.

CO: Oh my gosh. The reason why he was in Turkey at that time was to see his parents. He was worried about them. Are they able to see him and have contact with him?

OO: Yeah. They are over-60 farmers in the Greek border of Turkey, olive farmers. So you can imagine, right, this was a big shock to them. They were able to speak with him. They got pretty emotional at first, but now they're really trying to stay strong. I talk to him every day and they really see me as their son right now, which is actually amazing.

CO: There are members of the European Parliament who have condemned Cihan's imprisonment. He has support -- as you say, letters coming from around the world, human rights organisations. Has the Canadian government helped?

OO: Global Affairs Canada has been monitoring. But unfortunately, they haven't really condemned the arrest. We know they can do more. But I also want to mention this, some people also tell me, "Cihan is not a Canadian, right?" And then I say, well, it's true that Canada has limited say in what happens to Cihan as he's not a Canadian citizen -- Canada should not approached us only as a consular matter, but as a human rights issue. Arbitrarily rounding up and arresting leaders of an opposition party, so we cannot say that this is outside of Canada's interest because it goes against Canadian values.

CO: Do you think he is destined to become a Canadian citizen while he's in prison in Turkey?

OO: He is. Because again, this is our chosen home. This is where we feel Canadian. So he is destined and he is aspiring to be a Canadian citizen.

CO: Omer I wish you success with presenting the work of your partner in that conference in Brazil. And I appreciate getting an update from you today. Thank you.

OO: Thank you so much for giving me the floor and the platform. Have a wonderful day.

CO: You too.

CH: Omer Ongun is the common law partner of Cihan Erdal, a Canadian permanent resident who's been in a Turkish jail since September. We reached Mr. Ongun in Ottawa. In a statement, Global Affairs Canada said it was aware of Mr. Erdal's detention and that Canada had, "raised concerns with Turkish authorities and continues to monitor the case closely."

[Music: Drum Music]

No Regrets?

CH: When you get a tattoo, your goals are to choose something that sums up who you are at the time and to have no regrets, which means that if your tattoo is supposed to be the words "No Regrets," you want to make sure it doesn't end up reading, "No Regerts." Leah Holland of Kentucky knew exactly what quotation she wanted on her arm. It was something a friend had said to describe Ms. Holland herself, essentially, that she always is herself. And last March, she decided it was time to get that quotation in permanent ink. It wasn't time, as she revealed when she responded to a trending question on TikTok.

VOICE: [SOUNDCLIP: What is the dumbest tattoo that you've ever got?

LEAH HOLLAND: Okay, I'm just going to go ahead and let you guys know that I won. So I got this tattoo. I've wanted it for a couple of years basically means, like, you know, 'Being true to yourself in real and like not pretending to be something you're not.' I got this March 4th 2020. And it says "Courageously and radically refused to wear a mask."]

CH: That phrase, again, is "Courageously and radically refused to wear." Tattooed on the inside of her left forearm, clearly visible if she has a T-shirt on or her sleeves rolled up. Now, Leah Holland has strenuously clarified that she's only against wearing a figurative mask. She's all for the kind of masks that protect you and others from coronaviruses. She told BuzzFeed News, "I spent the entire summer wearing cardigans so that could not be misconstrued. For most of the summer. I was mortified." Now that she's unmasked herself, though, she sees the humour in her untimely tattoo. She's feeling more chipper. And you can't spell chipper without PPE.

[Music: Hip-hop Music]

Meat Smoker

CH: The pandemic has forced a lot of us to convert things into other things. Beds became workstations, pyjamas became formal wear, and every room in our places became dining rooms and or bars. But Bretton Selent Niverville, Manitoba really pulled a MacGyver. He and his wife own a dance studio, which unsurprisingly has been closed. So Mr. Selent decided to build something a meat smoker out of a filing cabinet. He explained it to the CBC.

BRETTON SELENT: With lockdown, we were shut down. So I thought, you know, why not build a smoker out of nothing? So I went to the local MCC, found a filing cabinet for 20 bucks. I put some castors on it with some piping and ductwork for a basement and put it all together, some trial and error, cut some holes in it. And I wasn't expecting it to work. And it did. And Yeah so all in about 35 bucks. Kind of a win. So, yeah, how this works is down the bottom drawers, we have our firebox. Firebox obviously, coals, your wood -- kind of whatever, kind of what you're using cherry pick your hardwood. Throw it in there with the coals. Heat rises, of course we all know that. So when the heat rises, second drawer -- I have no no water in here, but we just cut a hole in it, just allow the heat to rise a little bit quicker. We can also put a pan of water and onions and that kind of stuff and call it water pan, water drawer. Not using it today. And then third and fourth shelves are your smoking. So we got trays in here. We have holes drilled in the bottom to allow the smoke in the heat to rise. Got some baked potatoes on here, as well as some venison going on right now. And then the fourth drawer would again just be another meat locker so you can run multiple meats kind of at a time. I have other greats that we put in there. And so as it's going, heat rises, smoke rises, and then pulls from the top exhaust to kind of expel that smoke.. To make this thing safe, to actually eat meat out of, we just did a really big burn inside to burn off any old paints and chemicals and that kind of stuff. So pretty much we lit fires in every box, lit this sucker up like a Christmas tree and just let it burn and burn out all that chemicals and get it back down to kind of a raw metal.

JAISON EMPSON: Tell me a bit about the different kinds of meats that you've cooked on this thing.

BRETTON SELENT: Yeah, so so far, our first cook was it was a venison roast. Then we tried a whole chicken. Then next we actually did a full turkey, which is probably like the best turkey I've ever had. And then we did a brisket and we did pork loin and then sliced it up from back bacon. And that all turned out good. So I'm slowly kind of learning and checking off my list. I think the next one is going to be a big pulled pork -- so a big pork shoulder.

CH: That was Bretton Selent of Niverville, Manitoba, speaking with the CBC's Jaison Empson about the meat smoker he made out of a filing cabinet. He's one of CBC Manitoba Lockdown Showdown Superstars -- that's a project showcasing some of the talents people have picked up during the pandemic.

[Music: Drum & Bass Music]

Part 3: Europe's Patient 1 Doctor

Europe's Patient 1 Doctor

Guest: Annalisa Malara

CH: To many Italians, Dr. Annalisa Malara is a hero in every sense. On February 18th, 2020, she and her colleague diagnosed Europe's first ever COVID-19 patient. It all began when a healthy, active man went into Dr. Malara's hospital for treatment for cough and a fever. The subsequent diagnosis sent Europe into a panic and led to multiple lockdowns in the region. Dr. Annalisa Malara is an anaesthesiologist at Policlinico San Matteo Hospital. We reached her in Pavia, Italy.

CO: Dr. Malara, it's been a year that you have been in this pandemic, how are you holding up?

ANNALISA MALARA: It's not easy because we faced three waves of the pandemic. And now we are all very sad because cases are arising again and we have to work many hours in PPE. And it's very difficult. And yes, we are sad.

CO: More than a year ago in February when this man came to you, what state was he? He was a healthy young guy. So what condition was he in when you first saw him?

AM: At the beginning, he came to the emergency room of our hospital, which is a very little hospital in the north of Italy. And he had cold and fever from one week and he wasn't too bad at the beginning. But after 24 hours when I saw him, he was very bad and he was in distress. And at the beginning he had a very little pneumonia. And after 24 hours, it became a huge pneumonia. And I saw a CT scan. And what I saw was an ARDS. And at that moment, he was dying, actually. So I had to take him in the intensive care unit as soon as I could.

CO: Now the rules were a year ago that you would only give tests for COVID if somebody had been in China -- if they are coming back from China. Why did you decide in this case that you were going to break that rule?

AM: Because he had very severe ARDS and it developed very quickly. And from the images that I saw in the CT scan and from the laboratory exams, I was quite sure that it was a viral pneumonia. So I asked to myself, why I should not perform that exam? Because for me the coronavirus was a possibility. And I had that patient under my responsibility. So I had to perform that exam anyway.

CO: Now, when you say ARDS, it is acute respiratory distress that he was under.

AM: Yes, yes. Yes.

CO: And so when you when that test came back positive, what was the reaction? That was a big deal throughout all of Italy, wasn't it?

AM: After the positivity arrived, I was shocked because I knew that that positivity was a big problem, not just for me, not just for the patient, but for everyone.

CO: And why was that? Tell us why that was a big shock for everyone.

AM: Because we thought that the virus was very distant from us. It was in China, and nobody thought that it could be in Italy between us and also because that patient wasn't considered at risk. So finding him positive, a person that didn't want to go to China, it was very dangerous.

CO: The whole country -- it was a national emergency, wasn't it, to stop the spread? How did things change at that point? How quickly then did you start finding more cases? Did you find that your intensive care unit was filled with patients?

AM: After three hours, we had either three patients positive. After one day we had almost 15 patients. And after four days, our intensive care was full.

CO: Italy had one of the worst epidemics in Europe. And 95,000 people died in your country. If you had not identified that, if you hadn't found that case and identified that this was someone who got COVID in Italy, do you think it would have been worse?

AM: Yes, I think that because I think that time was very precious. And if we had to wait one day-two days, I think that it would become worse, the situation.

CO: You have been declared a national hero. You have received awards -- your country's top civilian award you were given. What does that mean for you?

AM: I don't think about myself as a hero. I think about myself as a medical doctor that was doing her job. And yes, I'm not a hero because I was afraid, I'm afraid, and I'm tired, and I'm human.

CO: We're talking to you at the end of your day. You've been in the ICU in your hospital all day as you are every day dealing with patients. What keeps you going? How do you keep your spirits up?

AM: Because it's my job. It's whatI am called to do. I am a kind of doctor that is not so common.

CO: Well, Dr. Malara I think you are a hero, and I appreciate you giving us time after your long day. Thank you.

AM: Thank you. Thank you.

CO: Good night.

AM: Good night.

CH: Dr. Annalisa Malara is an anaesthesiologist at Policlinico San Matteo Hospital. We reached her in Pavia, Italy.

[Music: Goblet Drum Music]

Belleville Big Puzzle

Guest: Maxine Olive

CH: As we just heard in that story about the filing cabinet meat smoker, we've been doing more things with our hands while we've had extra time on them, one of which is doing jigsaw puzzles -- an oddly monotonous way of distracting ourselves from the monotony. And in a monumental achievement in monotony, one Ontario woman took her puzzling to puzzling heights. Over the weekend, Maxine Olive completed a 40,320-piece Ravensburger puzzle, and she did it in an unprecedented 150-hours. Her feat has yet to be officially certified as a world record by Guinness, but she's pretty sure all the pieces will fall into place. We reached Ms. Olive in Belleville, Ontario.

CO: Maxine, have you caught up with your sleep yet?

MAXINE OLIVE: [Chuckles] Yes and no. I was definitely way more exhausted yesterday. I'm feeling it a little bit today, but I'm definitely more functional.

CO: Can you describe this puzzle, this 40,320-piece puzzle you put together?

MO: So the master puzzle itself is about six feet wide by 22-and-a-half-feet long, and it's broken down into 10 individual Disney scenes from what they consider some of their most iconic movies like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, the ones that everyone knows and loves. Each of those individual sections is about 4000 pieces each. And if it's a corner piece, it has two traditional sides to it. If it's one of the pieces in the centre, it only has one side because they all need to interconnect together to form the master puzzle.

CO: Okay, so why did you do this? [Chuckles]

MO: [Laughs] Well, my friend sent me a link a while back to a 50,000 piece puzzle that's 27 panels of different wonders of the world. And that encouraged me to go out, look up how many of these big puzzles, in fact, exist, what they look like? And I was interested in the 50,000 piece puzzle, but when I found the Disney one, I just figured everyone would probably -- they would just enjoy it more. There would be more entertainment value in watching it come together because everyone loves Disney, it's a part of everyone's childhood, there's so much nostalgia involved in it, almost everyone in their life is probably seeing some kind of Disney movie.

CO: But how did you come to decide to make it into a kind of Guinness World Book marathon?

MO: I called the company Ravensburger actually to find out more information about it, to discover that their fastest completion time was the gentleman down in the States who managed to do it in 423 hours. And my thought process is that that's kind of high. Like I feel like I could just crush that record. [Laughs] And so I decided, well, you know, everyone says I'm extremely fast, I might as well try to prove it.

CO: Okay, it's one thing to decide you're going to put together a 40,320-piece puzzle, another one to decide you're going to do it in record time. How long did it take you?

MO: Approximately 150 hours.

CO: Did you sleep during that time?

MO: I did, yes. The first two days we were sleeping about six-seven hours a night, and it progressively got less and less to the tune of between Saturday and Sunday we went almost 34 hours straight where I only took a one hour nap in between.

CO: And the sleeping time, is it is it included in your 150 hours?

MO: No, we only timed it whenever I was touching the puzzle.

CO: Wow. Okay. All right. So touching the puzzle, I've tried to do puzzles -- I mean, a thousand is probably max for me. I'm always chuffed when I can do that. What is the hardest part of putting a 40,000 piece puzzle together?

MO: The sheer size, the reason it takes as long as it does is because puzzle difficulty is exponential, not incremental. You would assume if you can do a thousand piece puzzle in an hour, you can maybe knock off the 4000-piece puzzle in four hours or so, if it's only 4000 pieces higher. But the sheer size of it, and just to be able to reach across the board to place your pieces and try to see where you're working, that makes it infinitely harder.

CO: The video you made is that you're not just reaching across the table, you're crawling over this thing in order to put it together, right?

MO: [Laughter] I had to actually sit on the puzzle to do some of the parts that were further away. I tried to move my table, "I'm still not at the right angle. I still can't see and touch everything properly."

CO: But how did you even have the space for it? It is 22 feet long and six feet wide.

MO: We cleared all the furniture out of my living room on the day that we assembled the master puzzle. And we had pre-measured a couple of different people, just a second and third opinion to make sure that I wasn't going to do this only find out, "Oh no! It doesn't fit."

CO: Are all the pieces jumbled together? Do you have to sort it all out over the whole floor or can you get this in little sections or what?

MO: No, they come in sections so each of the ten different panels came in its own individual bag.

CO: Thank goodness. [Laughter] And was there a point when you figured I'm going to quit?

MO: [Laughs] I was able to keep my willpower pretty strong. And it was definitely the last day where I was really exhausted. And after I'd taken the one hour nap, I felt better for a few hours and then it got to a point where it was so "How is there possibly more? It's not done yet?" [Laughter] But as soon as I started the border, my energy came back. This is all of a sudden possible.

CO: Was there moments when it was all kind of swimming? I mean, Disney characters alone would sort of get you into another headspace. But where you starting to hallucinate at any point?

MO: [Laughs] Not hallucinate, but that two days stretch before I went to sleep, I was just staring at the pieces. Normally I can knock pieces together and almost as though I can see where they need to go before they're actually there. But I was just staring at the pieces and went, "This just looks like nonsense to me. It just looks like murk. I'm going to take an hour nap." [Laughter]

CO: Well, now, would you encourage anyone to try to do this? To try and best your record?

MO: To beat the record, you would need to be very very fast at puzzles coupled with an insane amount of willpower, [laughter] It almost killed my mine, and I've been pretty fast at puzzles all my life. I would love the challenge if someone thinks they can go faster. Absolutely. 100 percent.

CO: You mentioned there is a new 50,000-piece puzzle out there. Do you think you might invest in that?

MO: I would love to do that. Honestly, if I could afford the puzzle and thave he space to do it, I would even love to do it somewhere in the community that I could donate it after. It's some type of mural because obviously it's far too big to hang on the wall of most houses.

CO: Well, Maxine, this is most impressive. And anyone who does puzzles will be in awe of you listening to this. And it's good to talk to you. Thank you.

MO: Awesome. Thank you so much.

CH: Maxine Olive is a puzzling whiz from Belleville, Ontario. That's where we reached her.

[Music: Calm Music]

Atwood Songs

Guest: Joshua Hopkins

CH: In 2015, the brutal murders of Nathalie Warmerdam, Anastasia Kuzyk, and Carol Culleton shook the Ottawa Valley. They were killed by an abusive man who'd had relationships with all of them at different times. Now a family member is paying tribute to the women in a unique performance. Joshua Hopkins is the brother of Ms. Warmerdam. He's also a singer who had the idea for a performance called "Songs from Murdered Sisters," a cycle of eight songs with lyrics by Margaret Atwood and music by Jake Heggie. The work was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera and Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra. We reached Joshua Hopkins in Florida, where he's currently performing with the Palm Beach Opera.

CO: Joshua, why did you want to turn your grief into song?

JOSHUA HOPKINS: I felt helpless when my sister was murdered in 2015. I just felt like there was nothing I can do and felt powerless to really help my sister. And I felt this need to use my voice to tell Nathalie's story and also to honour her in a way through art. Being an opera singer, being a baritone, I have a voice and I felt it was necessary to use that voice to speak out. When she was murdered, I was actually in Ottawa working at the National Arts Centre at the time. I was just a 90-minute drive away from where she lived and where I grew up in the Ottawa Valley. And I had already spoken with the National Arts Centre Orchestra about future projects. My wife and I had a meeting to discuss the commissioning of a new work that would address these murders to honour Nathalie to honour Anastasia and Carol.

CO: You mentioned these are the three women who were all murdered by the same man. He had had previous relationships with him, but they were known by the women, including your sister, to be a dangerous man.

JH: Yes, he was on probation and facing a weapons ban at the time that he went on his rampage.

CO: In this performance, there is an empty chair beside you representing Nathalie, right?

JH: Yes.

CO: Can you just tell us what she was like?

JH: Natalie was warm. She was supportive and kind. She was 11 years my senior. And so our time together was really spent when I was quite young, growing up together. But I do remember very vividly that we got along extremely well, being 11 years apart. We were both involved in community bands together. She played the flute, I played the clarinet and also some piano. So we really, as a family, we gathered together to do these musical and theatrical activities. And we were all involved in those types of things.

CO: Did you have any idea that her life might be in danger?

JH: Not to this extent. I've been living in Houston for 17 years now, and I knew that at the time of the murders that she had been separated from Basil for a number of years -- their relationship had been a few years prior. But at no point did I ever think that her life would be in danger like this.

CO: This work, lyrics of the songs are written by Margaret Atwood called Songs for Murdered Sisters. What is it that you say not just about Nathalie but about women who were faced with what Nathalie was faced with, with this man?

JH: Margaret made the Sisters plural for a reason -- it's because that over the years there are thousands of sisters that we have lost to domestic violence, to femicide, to intimate partner violence. And it's a very private issue for so many women because you're dealing with violence that is behind closed doors. So much of the time the question really that I think needs to be asked more is of the man "Why is the man so angry? Why is the man seeking the vengeance?" Rather than, well, why didn't she leave him? It seems to be the the question of choice. And to me it's much more important to investigate the mental structure of the men and society. In the third song, which is Anger -- it deals with the anger of the perpetrator. It does come from the perspective of my perspective of the mourner for sure, basically equating the emotion of anger with the colour red and this idea that anger is red. And when my sister opened the door to him, red was standing there.

CO: A woman who wrote a review of the song cycle for the Globe and Mail, her name's Jenna Siemonov -- I think that's how you pronounce it. She writes that maybe because I'm a woman, she says there's something amazing about hearing a man, a low-voiced strong-sounding man wailing for these victims. What do you make of that?

JH: Because we are living in a strongly hetero patriarchal society that's formed to bring so many more advantages to men, I think it's in a way rather freeing for us to witness a man speaking out about this and being an ally. And it's my hope that with this project, we start to change men's mindsets and attitudes about how they think about women and girls, and encourage men to challenge and speak out against hurtful language, sexist jokes, and bullying.

CO: What do you think your sister -- what would Nathalie think of this performance if she could see it?

JH: Well, I hope that somewhere she is able to witness it, in whatever form. One of the most beautiful elements of this film is that her spirit exists and the journey, the emotional journey, that I take through the cycle at the end, I do come to realise that she is here with me. Initially she is pictured as an empty chair, but there is this vision of this light and this spirit that exists that I witnessed within the film. And I think she would truly be honoured by it. That was another thing that we shared -- she was always very enthusiastic and supportive about everything that I did in my career as an opera singer, and would try to come to as many performances as she could and certainly talk to all of her friends about where I was singing and what I was up to. And she was very very supportive in that way.

CO: Joshua, I'm glad to hear about all this and to learn about your sister. And thank you for speaking with us.

JH: Thank you. It's my pleasure.

CH: That was Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins. We reached him in Palm Beach, Florida.

Back To Top »

Provide Transcript Feedback

CBC would like to acknowledge the support of the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund.

February 24, 2021 Episode Transcript

More Stories Like This