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The AIH Transcript for May 10, 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]

CO: Rapid escalation. A journalist in Israel tells us how protests over proposed evictions led to rocket fire from Israel and Hamas in a matter of days -- and what made today such a perfect storm.

CH: Unacceptable losses. A human-rights activist in Kabul says the deadly attacks targetting schoolgirls are further proof that Afghanistan is unravelling -- and that the government isn't doing enough to stop it.

CO: Turn off the red light. Amsterdam is building a so-called "erotic centre" in the name of safety -- but a sex worker in the city says it feels more like a punishment.

CH: Hashtag-blessed. One of the more than a hundred priests in Germany who are defying the Vatican this week by blessing same-sex unions tells us why he believes love should win.

CO: No bonus about it. A British train company sends an email promising a special one-time pandemic payment to employees -- but it's really a cybersecurity test, which is a real kick in the caboose.

CH: And …waiting on the wings. An entomologist tells us about the plan he's hatched to prepare for Brood X -- and the trillions of cicadas which have just started to burrow up out of the soil after lying dormant for 17 years.

CH: “As It Happens”, the Monday edition. Radio that thinks he's in for a brood awakening.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Israeli-Palestinian Tensions, German Pastor Same Sex, Brood X Cicadas

Israeli-Palestinian Tensions

Guest: Anna Ahronheim

CH: Things have escalated incredibly quickly in Israel. Over the weekend, Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, injuring hundreds of Palestinians. Today, Hamas launched rockets into Israel. And by nightfall, Israel had retaliated. Gaza's Ministry of Health says subsequent attacks have killed 20 Palestinians, nine of them children. This all comes in the midst of significant political upheaval on both sides -- and a postponed Israeli Supreme Court decision over the proposed evictions of six Palestinian families living in East Jerusalem. It's a perfect storm that is changing by the hour. Anna Ahronheim is a military and defense correspondent with the Jerusalem Post. We reached her in Tel Aviv earlier today.

CO: Anna, there seems to have been an extraordinary escalation in recent hours in Jerusalem, in Israel. Can you tell us what the latest news is?

ANNA AHRONHEIM: There's definitely been an escalation over the past few hours, most of it coming from the Gaza Strip. And all of that is because of what's happening and what has been happening in Jerusalem over the past few days. There Has been images coming out of hundreds of Palestinian worshippers being injured in clashes with police, police using stun grenades and smoke bombs and throwing them into the Al-Aqsa Mosque. And for groups in the Gaza Strip like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, that's a red line that cannot be crossed without them responding. And we are now seeing that response.

CO: Now, you mentioned the situation in the Gaza Strip. Tell us what is happening as far as the rocket fire, both from Hamas and from the Israeli Defence Force?

AA: So, the Israeli Defence Forces, actually, I was speaking to senior officers just yesterday. And they were telling me that they were expecting a lot worse. And they were happily surprised that Gaza hadn't really responded in the way that they had expected. But now, I mean, with over 50 rockets fired towards Israel, seven of them towards Jerusalem, it's a major, major escalation. And the IDF spokesman, when he spoke with reporters, including myself, just a few moments ago, he warned that all options are on the table, including a ground operation. At the moment, I don't believe that the IDF will start a ground operation in Gaza. They have begun and have confirmed to have been carrying out strikes on specific Hamas members. There's also been reports of three children who were killed in Beit Hanoun, though that's unclear if it was an Israeli airstrike or because of a rocket that was fired from Gaza but fell short. So it's going to be a night full of tit-for-tat. More rockets fired from Gaza and more retaliation by the Israeli Air Force.

CO: Can you just tell us a bit more about what you understand happened at the Al-Aqsa mosque and why police moved in with these stun grenades and rubber bullets?

AA: What happened at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the past few days is something that many people are saying could actually be a political issue. That the police who are getting their orders from [the interior minister] who is a big Netanyahu supporter. A lot of people are blaming him. But to take politics aside, [chuckling] I don't like talking politics. The police, they say that the protesters, the worshippers, had rocks at the ready, had bottles at the ready, and they were thrown at the police. And that one day, they went into the temple mount.

CO: And there's some who are reporting on the situation there said that the police did not seem to be doing much to de-escalate. In fact, quite the opposite, that they seem to have had orders to act very, very tough in that situation. You mentioned the politics. What would be right now the reasons for trying to escalate the situation during this particular time?

AA: I mean, there's a lot of talk saying that this is the perfect storm for Netanyahu, who has once again lost a mandate to form a government. He calls himself "Mr. Security". And a lot of people say that when he's at risk of losing support, he will go the security route and fan the flames for an escalation. And you're right. It does not look like they work to de-escalate the situation in any way. It's quite unfortunate because we're now going to see a few days of rocket fire on Israel, and very likely a loss of life on both sides, especially now when the Palestinian arena is so unstable. The elections were cancelled. You have Hamas and Fatah, who are always trying to one-up the other on who has the support of the Palestinian street. So all of that put together, and the Israeli police should have really, really, really seen the situation differently and reacted differently.

CO: Or maybe they did. And one other background situation that people are pointing to as being also part of this is that there was to be a court case concerning the evictions of Palestinian families from a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. That was to start happening this week. It's not going to. What effect did that have had?

AA: It had a major effect. It's been a court case that has gone on, I think, since the 1970s, if I'm not mistaken. It's now been postponed. But this has always been something that the Palestinians and their supporters have said is illegal. And there were a lot of clashes. And you even had an extreme right-wing Israeli minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, go and set up his office in that neighbourhood. But now, right now, I think the main issue that... that really has set off Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad were the pictures from the videos coming off of Al-Aqsa.

CO: Just on a personal note, you are... you're in Tel Aviv. You have children, a young baby. What are you expecting to happen this evening? What concerns do you have?

AA: I mean, for my own security, this is something that I've been covering for... for years now, the various confrontations between Israel and Hamas. It's something that... that for me it will be completely different now, even it's supposed to be in four minutes there's going to be sirens. And to have to wake up my son, who I put to sleep, pick him up, bring him to the bomb shelter. Young children should not have to be in that situation.

CO: Anna, we'll let you go. I know it's going to be a very tense night. And I appreciate that you spoke with us. Thank you.

AA: Thank you. Have a good evening.

CH: Anna Ahronheim is a military and defense correspondent with the Jerusalem Post. We reached her in Tel Aviv earlier today.

[music: Ambient]

German Pastor Same Sex

Guest: Father Christian Olding

CH: He doesn't have the Vatican's blessing -- but he's giving his anyway. Father Christian Olding is a progressive Catholic priest defying the Vatican. He's one of more than 100 priests in Germany blessing same-sex unions. They're part of the "Love Wins" movement that emerged after the Catholic Church said God "cannot bless sin" this past March. Which came as a surprise to some, because Pope Francis was widely seen to be more inclusive towards the LGBTQ community. Father Christian Olding held a service last week and plans to hold more. We reached him in Geldern, Germany.

CO: Father Christian, I understand you have blessed several unions since last Thursday. What have these days been like for you?

FATHER CHRISTIAN OLDING: I have been very surprised by all the reactions we got throughout the last week with watching these blessings.

CO: Just give us a sense of what that meant for the couples whose unions you blessed, the same-sex couples?

FCO: The same-sex couples, they get very emotional throughout the service. And they told us that they felt welcome. Sometimes for the first time they were within churches. So it was the kind of giving them back a home within this Catholic Church. And that made myself very sad that we have suggested them that they were not welcome throughout the last decades.

CO: And how many same-sex couples did you... did you marry? Whose unions did you bless this these past days?

FCO: There were these 10 in the Church, but the whole “Liebe gewinnt”, as we call it here in Germany, we got 108 different services throughout whole Germany where they have been blessed, many, many more same-sex unions.

CO: Do you want to tell people what “Liebe gewinnt” is?

FCO: It's a way that was our reaction to the Vatican, who said no to the possibility of blessing sam- sex unions. And furthermore, the Vatican says that same-sex life is sin. And that was the point for many, many priests in Germany. We cannot longer say that same-sex love is a sin. And so we want to show another way of handling this love. That is why we started this campaign, “Liebe gewinnt”, “Love Wins”, to show these couples that they are welcome, that their love is representing the love of God. And so there is every right for them to get a blessing within the Church.

CO: There was great expectations that the present pope would be open to this. He said that... Pope Francis had said so clearly that who are we to judge? What did you make of it when in March, the Vatican issued this statement saying that you priests could not bless same-sex unions?

FCO: I think we have to look who said that we are not able to bless it. It's not the pope himself. And I think the pope has to deal with many, many different people's opinion within the Catholic Church. I wish he would say it, but I can understand that within the politics of Catholic Church, he's not able to do it at this point. But that's also why I think we have to show that we are not longer willing to accept that when the Vatican says we will not discuss about it any longer, then we have to rise up and stand for a discussion culture that is much more democracy as Church is maybe comfortable with.

CO: As you point out, it was a specific office within the Vatican that issued this decree. And in this decree in March, it said that God does not and cannot bless sin. He blesses sinful men. He may recognize that he is part of the plan of love, but he cannot bless this relationship. And so when you read that, when you saw this come out of the Vatican, how did you respond?

FCO: I was very sad. I just shook my head and thought that cannot be true, that white men in the Catholic Church who have left the 70 years, many of them, much behind them, write these sentences. I do not agree with the fundamental point of this decree, which says God cannot bless sin. Who's allowed to say that same-sex love is sin? I really cannot understand it. If we Christians always confess God is love, and we say every human is a picture of God and is created with dignity. And then people start to live love. I can not understand why at this point, people are getting to the view to say this kind of love is sin.

CO: How many... at this point, how many priests have said that they are going to bless same-sex unions in Germany?

FCO: I think about 200 priests

CO: And this initiative is to bless same-sex unions that are civil unions, right? You're not giving what Catholics call the sacrament of marriage to these couples.

FCO: Yes, and that's the next point. [chuckling] A blessing is not the same as a sacrament. So the next question that's rising up within the Church is the question, why do just heterosexual couples get a sacrament, and the same-sex union does not earn sacrament? So at this point, we have to do the next steps and to think about the way to react to diversity of relationships. And as we talk in Europe very much about diversity, about respecting different kinds of living. I think we also have to react in the Church to diversity of life. And we have to think about how we can get a sacramental celebration for different kinds of relationship? And if you go back in the tradition of Catholic Church, there were times where we had much more than the seven sacraments because there were times when we realized life is complicated, life is diverse. And so we have to get different kinds of answers to this.

CO: And where do you go next? Are you going to champion women priests and priests who can marry?

FCO: [hearty laughter] I think that also questions that are at the moment this has been discussed and that they will be discussed very much more in the future. But I think at the moment, it was our point to say we are not willing to do it in a secret right to bless same-sex unions. Every priest who's at the moment doing this campaign, “Liebe gewinnt”, has already blessed secretly same-sex unions. And at this point, we have to confess that we will not longer do this in a secret way.

CO: Father Christian, it’s all very interesting. We will be watching. [chuckling] You’re on the cutting edge of something. And I appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

FCO: Thank you very much.

CO: Good night.

FCO: Good night.

CH: Christian Olding is a priest in Geldern, Germany. That's where we reached him.

[music: jazz]

Brood X Cicadas

Guest: Michael Raupp

SOUNDCLIP

[the all-too-familiar buzz of cicadas blends in harmony with birdsong and wind, the sounds of an ice cream truck pierce the tranquility]

CO: Michael, how exciting is this for you as you watch Brood X emerge?

MICHAEL RAUPP: Carol, this is like our Super Bowl. We wait 17 years for this phenomenal event that happens nowhere else on planet Earth except right here in the eastern half of the United States. And in my community, once every 17 years. So I'm really quite excited about this.

CO: I can actually hear some of the chirping there.

MR: Well, those are the birds. The birds are just snapping their beaks. They know that the cicadas are coming. They're excited. We're beginning to have our early emergers appear. I'm talking to my birds right now and telling, hold on, [CO chuckles] cicadas are coming. Get ready.

CO: All right. Now, this is... lots of places get these cicadas. We get them in Canada, but nothing like what you see in these states that you just mentioned. So what exactly is going to happen in the coming days when they emerge? Just describe that scene.

MR: It's going to be remarkable. In my backyard, I have about 30 cicada holes per square foot. Carol, that translates into about one-point-three million cicadas per acre. We could literally see tens of thousands of cicadas emerging simultaneously over the span of several days. About dusk, we'll begin to see the lawn start to move as the cicada nymphs come out of the ground. This is the immature stage. They're going to make a mad dash for a vertical structure. It could be a tree. It could be a house. If you stand still, it could be you. They will ascend the vertical structure, their skin will split open, and the beautiful adult cicada will emerge from that exoskeleton. And then in about a week or ten days, the males -- and the males are the only ones that sing or chorus -- they're going to be able to rock out. Remember now, Carol, these are teenagers. They've been underground for 17 years, living a COVID-like existence, social-distancing. So when those teenagers get up and out of the ground, they're going to go to the treetops. It's going to be a big boy band up there, [CO chuckles] a Cicadapalooza. It's going to be all about romance as that cicada adult tries to convince that special someone that she should be the mother of his nymph.

CO: And so they... this is... they're all up there. So the sound we heard before we began this conversation, that sound, that's just the males going at it like that?

MR: Yeah, the males are the ones that make the noise. There are three species that will be emerging simultaneously. So they'll use specific calls to bring everybody of that same species together in the same place. Once they're together, eyeball-to-eyeball, then the male will use his courtship songs to try to convince that special someone that she's the one. And there'll be a little choreography. And she'll also make a little clicking noise like this [a sort of clapping sound]. That signals that he's the one they're going to hook up and mate, and the rest is going to be pure fantasy [CO laughs] on the part of the cicadas for a brief moment. Then she will go out to the tips of branches and lay her eggs.

CO: That's it? Like after seventeen years, all this. And then what happens? She lays her eggs, and then what happens?

MR: Basically, her final act of contrition, along with the males, will be to rein back down onto Earth and fertilize the very plants from which they were spawned. In about six to ten weeks, those eggs will hatch in the terminals of branches. The tiny cicada nymphs, which are now the size only of a grain of rice, will tumble to the Earth, and they will burrow underground and suck plants sap underground for the next seventeen years.

CO: [chuckling] Oh my gosh! OK, so that's the whole... that's the whole cycle. They... after that seventeen years, the whole show is over in a matter of weeks?

MR: Yes. Unfortunately, it's all over in a matter of weeks. They'll be out again. Each adult lives from two to four years. And because they emerge over a several-week period, they'll only be with us for about two months above the Earth. Then 17 years down below.

CO: You have been studying these insects for a long time. So you don't… [chuckling] like this is a very small window for you to do your research, right?

MR: Auh, but the great thing about this, Carol, is that this is Brood Ten, but there are 15 different broods of periodical cicadas in the United States. In the off years, when we're not having periodical cicadas emerging here in Maryland, I will simply travel to adjacent states to witness this remarkable event over and over again. So I get to witness this many, many times.

CO: You just follow this show wherever it's going to show up and appear, right? That's your job. [chuckling]

MR: Yeah, I'm kind of a cicada groupie, Carol. [CO laughs] You hit the nail on the head. I just can't resist going out and... and witnessing this… this spectacular event.

CO: Now, a very, very serious side, though. What... what will these cicadas tell you? Because we know there's so many things that are changing. In fact, these are coming earlier than they have in the past, in the month of May, what do you hope to learn about the state of our planet?

MR: They're going to teach us a lot, I think. With global climate change, we're looking at range expansion. So pretty soon, who knows? They may cross the boundary, and you may have these delightful creatures. We're also seeing them emerge earlier in the year. Again, as the ground is warmer, we believe they may begin to start emerging earlier than they have in the past. And finally, we think that some of these broods that are now 17-year cicadas may actually become 13-year cicadas because the ground is simply warmer. These guys are little geniuses at transferring information, materials and energy up and down food webs. So their role in the ecology of our natural systems here is very, very curious and interesting to me.

CO: Well, Michael, I hope this show lives up to expectations. It sounds like it's going to [chuckling] in these coming days. It's good to talk to you. Thank you.

MR: Thank you so much. Cicadas never disappoint. And in this year, when we had a lot of surprises in many different dimensions, this is something we can count on, look forward to and just go out and really enjoy Mother Nature at her finest.

CO: And you don't have to wear a mask to do it.

MR: No, absolutely not. We don't have to wear a mask to do it. It'll be spectacular.

CO: Take care. Bye-bye.

MR: Thanks so much.

CH: Michael Raupp is an entomologist at the University of Maryland. We reached him in Columbia, Maryland.

[music: orchestral]

Phishing Test

CH: Let's see: an email warning me that my "Azamon" password has been breached, so I should confirm my credit card details by responding to "JeffBozos@amazorn-dot-com". And another one insisting I send a 4000-dollar deposit to "Netfilx Headquarters" in Saskatchewan, or else my TV will be arrested. We all get this junk in our inboxes. "Phishing" emails designed to panic us, so we click a link and unwittingly send all our financial information to some scammer. But once in a while, we get an unexpected email that actually lifts our spirits. Like the one 2500 employees of the UK's West Midlands Trains company received out of the blue. The email thanked them for risking their health to work during the pandemic. And said that, to acknowledge the "huge strain [that] was placed upon a large number of our workforce", all recipients would be getting a bonus. All they had to do...was click on the link. You wish you didn't see where this was going. But you do. After clicking, they were told the whole thing was a "phishing simulation test", created by the company. So not only were the employees not getting a bonus, they had failed the test. The train employees' union describes it as a "a cynical and shocking stunt". But West Midlands Trains harrumphs that "We take cybersecurity very seriously", blah blah blah, et cetera. Well, okay. But you'd hope a train company would know ahead of time that something was going to go off the rails.

[music: indie rock]

Part 2: Afghan Schoolgirls Attack, Amsterdam Erotic Centre

Afghan Schoolgirls Attack

Guest: Jawad Zawulistani

CH: The scene at the funerals this weekend was sombre and quiet. The only sounds that broke through were muffled sobs, and prayers for the dead. Community members north of Kabul were burying more than 80 victims -- most of them schoolgirls aged 11 to 18 -- killed in a series of bomb blasts outside a high school on Saturday. Most of those killed were from the persecuted Hazara ethnic minority. The Afghan government has blamed the Taliban, which continually targets the Hazaras. But the group has, once again, denied responsibility. Jawad Zawulistani is a Hazara human rights activist. We reached him in Kabul.

CO: Jawad, these girls, young schoolgirls, with their lives ahead of them and so many of them now dead, what does that loss represent to their community and to your community?

JAWAD ZAWULISTANI: It's very difficult for the families to cope with the loss of their hopes, with the loss of their young girls, young children, in whom they had invested so much hope. The girls who were killed in that attack and the community is one of the most impoverished communities in Afghanistan. And the school they attended is located in one of the most impoverished communities in Kabul. And they are coming from the very poor communities, most of their family members are daily wage workers. And they were maybe the only children of that family who were going to school to get educated for the first time. And that their daughters would be educated and they would have a better life than their parents. The magnitude of the pain, the magnitude of the suffering of the community, is unimaginable.

CO: The way this attack took place, too, it was clearly designed to have the maximum number of casualties among these children, these young women and girls. Can you tell us a bit about how this was executed?

JZ: First, a car bomb exploded in front of the high school while the girls were leaving their classes and getting out of the school. And then, two IED explosions followed the car bomb attack. And some of the people were the first responders who rushed to the scene to help the victims of the first explosion. And they fell victim to the following IED explosion. And the sad thing was that for several hours, there were no one to help. Police arrived on the scene two hours after the incident took place, and the ambulances came even after that. So that was maybe one of the reasons that the number of casualties rose so high because there were nothing to transport, to carry the victims, people took the injured and the dead on their shoulders and on the motorcycles, on the bicycle available there to take them to a nearby hospital or a centre where they could be attended to.

CO: You can only just imagine how terrifying that must have been for those girls leaving that high school and trying to... trying to escape these attacks for them, for their families. This is just so shattering, isn't it?

JZ: It is so shattering, the incident itself and the number of people it killed, the number of dreams it's shattered. I cannot find a word strong enough to explain the pain of the families, the suffering of the families and the trauma and pain the community is going through. Most of the families even do not have enough money to treat their children who are lying on hospital beds. But also,. It is a very traumatizing and damaging experience to look after the dead or the injured ones after an incident happened in Kabul. They search every hospital bed by bed, they search... go to mothers, go to the morgue to find and to identify the dead bodies of their daughters. And in a lot of cases, they have to check the bodies several times to make sure that they can find their children, they can find their daughters and sons. Because a lot of people get so disfigured, so burned, that it's very difficult for their family members to identify their victims easily.

CO: This was not the first attack, even in recent times, on the Hazara community near Kabul. You... you've had another school where 30 people were killed, that unbelievable attack on the maternity hospital that killed the mothers and their babies as well. Do you feel that you are getting the support from Afghan forces? Are they are they looking out for the Hazara? Are you getting any protection from these kinds of attacks?

JZ: Not, unfortunately, if they were able or willing to provide protection for the community, we would not have seen so much pain. We would not have seen so much bloodshed and suffering of our children. That is one of the main reasons that the community members believe that the Afghan government is intentionally ignoring their demands and is being indifferent toward their suffering. And that's why their demands for protection always remain unheard. No security has been provided while the community has repeatedly asked for the government to provide them the security.

CO: There are a number of Hazara leaders who are suggesting that the community itself should take up arms and defend itself. Is that the right approach, do you believe?

JZ: The community is in a very desperate situation. The community members are full of anger, and they are in a very desperate situation. But I personally believe that that is not the solution. If the community referred to self-protection, then what's the government for? What's the security forces for? What is this very detailed security apparatus for?

CO: The Hazara community that has been as a minority and persecuted minority in Afghanistan was somewhat protected by the existence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. They are now going to leave September the 11th. What is your biggest fear as to what is to come in these next weeks and months?

JZ: Everyone feels frightened, and they are fearing for their lives. They are fearing for the gains they have made. Hazaras, Afghan women in general, they are fearing that they would be more at risk after this. They will be more exposed to attack after this by the Taliban and by other extremist groups in the country.

CO: Jawad, we will leave it there. We will be following developments in Afghanistan. It's very, very alarming what's going on there right now. I appreciate you speaking with us tonight. Thank you.

JZ: It was a pleasure to speak to you.

CH: Jawad Zawulistani is a human rights activist in Afghanistan's Hazara ethnic minority. We reached him in Kabul. And you can find more on this story on our webpage at: www.cbc ca/aih.

[music: horns!!!]

Thunder Bay Nurse

CH: Terri Lacroix finally got to say thanks. The Thunder Bay woman's husband died in 1993. Ms. Lacroix remembers that day as the hardest of her life. Over the decades, she's also remembered the young nurse who helped her husband through that time -- and then turned to helping her. This winter, she decided to track down that nurse. She didn't have much to go on but she did have social media. Her post read, in part, "This is going to be a shot in the dark, but what the heck. I am looking for a nurse." This spring, Terri Lacroix got a message back from that now-retired nurse, named Cathy Duguay. Earlier this month, they spoke for the first time in years. Here's what that sounded like, starting with Terri Lacroix talking about the day her husband died, so many years ago.

SOUNDCLIP

TERRI LACROIX: I was really, really on my own. And then this… I don’t want to call her little girl. She was a young woman. This young woman was with me during the worst day of my life. And I never saw Cathy again. I appreciated her that day. I really, really did. But I just didn't have the chance to thank her for what she did for me that day. You know, it was... it was so traumatic that I, you know, things just... it was just a crazy time.

CATHY DUGUAY: I remember because it was kind of a learning experience for me when he came in. Like, I had to do a lot of things with doctor's orders and as a student. He was very sick, so I had a lot of things to do. And then when I went with her in the pastoral room, I believe that was for sure the first time I was ever with somebody who was told that their loved one passed away. So it just stuck with me. I knew I was with her. So when I contacted her, I said, I don't know if you're remembering me when you think back, but I was definitely with you.

OLIVIA LEVESQUE: Terri, how... when you got this message, what was that like?

TL: Truly amazing. And well, now that I have Cathy on the line, I just want to tell you how much I appreciated you that day. You know, you had... you know, well, maybe you have an idea, but you have no idea how much you helped me.

CD: Oh, you're quite welcome. It's crazy to be retired and to have somebody reach out to you. Truly amazing. It's very satisfying to know that you had a career, you touched somebody’s life.

TL: I think when the pandemic is over, we might have to have coffee.

CD: Yeah.

CH: That was Thunder Bay's Terri Lacroix and retired nurse Cathy Duguay speaking with the CBC's Olivia Levesque earlier this month.

[music: uke-led pop number]

Amsterdam Erotic Centre

Guest: Angela de Vries

CH: In ordinary times, Amsterdam would be full of tourists right now -- drawn to its beautiful museums, gardens, and churches. And, of course, to its cannabis cafes and its red-light district. Both of which are famous worldwide. And both of which concern the city's mayor. After greenlighting the closure of a number of brothel windows, Femke Halsema is moving ahead with plans for a five-storey "erotic centre" to be built outside city limits. She says it's about making sex workers safer. But a lot of them say they didn't ask for any such complex. Angela de Vries -- we're using her working name -- is a sex worker and hostess with the Prostitution Information Centre in Amsterdam. That's where we reached her.

CO: Angela, can you just start by describing this erotic centre the mayor has proposed? What does it actually include?

ANGELA DE VERIES: Well, as described by the mayor and other people, it would include a working place for about 100 sex workers. It would include several cafes, restaurants and other entertainment. So for a full evening of entertainment, you could go there.

CO: All right. So what's your reaction to this idea?

ADV: Well, first of all, 100 sex workers sounds like OK, but it's much less than the current number of windows now available in the red-light district. And the other thing is that the city wants to have it instead of the red-light district. We are sort of OK with it if it were an addition and not a replacement of the current situation. Because the current situation is not bad for the sex workers.

CO: Right, but it seems that the mayor of Amsterdam doesn't think you should be happy with this because she says that... that she is… or this plan is to protect sex workers. She said she describes that she has seen tourists come to the district, and they're ogling the women in the windows. They're laughing at them. And she says, and this is a quote, “As a woman, I cannot accept this kind of humiliation of women.” She seems to be saying that she's doing this for your own good?

ADV: Yes, that's what they claim. Yeah. And of course, it's not nice to have people shouting in front of your window and making fun of you. But of course, there is a reason why the women are there. There are several good sides of working in the windows. And I appreciate the mayor's feelings about this, but it's her personal feelings, and that's the problem. She decides what's better for us.

CO: What is it like being in one of those windows?

ADV: Well, I personally do not work in the windows. I work as an escort. But in the windows, the women who work there are independent entrepreneurs. So you run your own shop, and you decide what clients you let in and how much you charge them. It's completely up to you. And a lot of girls prefer to work in the windows because you don't have to advertise, you know, which takes a lot of time. You don't have to put photographs online. You can... you actually see the clients. You see the person, you let in. The rules... the working locations have alarm systems, force window... glass on the windows, you know? So you can't force your way in. And there's a lot of cameras, police cameras and CCTV. So... so it has a lot of advantages.

CO: But is it... is it, as the mayor suggests, that it's humiliating when there are these people ogling and making... and laughing and pointing?

ADV: Oh, that happens, yeah. But not nearly as much as they say it's go... it's... it's happening. And it's also something that you know that's going to happen. It's sort of a calculated risk. And the problem is that the trouble, the nuisance is caused by over-tourism and the way certain people behave. And very notorious are the bachelor parties. Nobody wants that in front of their door. And the reason why they behave like they do is usually because they are drunk. So it would be a better idea to close all the pubs, but that's not going to happen. So it feels like the sex workers are blamed for this situation, which they didn't cause.

CO: Hmm, and so instead of dealing with these tourists, maybe finding them or... or policing them, it's the prostitutes that have to take the... have to be moved.

ADV: Exactly, exactly, yeah. And the mayor, when she became mayor, we were... we were happy because she isn't anti-prostitution like many other politicians are, but she has this... still has this view that these women are vulnerable women who are being exploited. You know, and need to be rescued in a way, but that's not the case. And we have seen that before in other protest because this... this desire to remove the red-light district has started earlier. And people went on the streets, went protesting. And then when they said, they actually said, oh, those women don't want to protest out on the street. They are being forced by their pimps. But we do not have pimps [chuckling].

CO: Do you think that the city, the mayor, is... this is a way of shutting down the red-light district?

ADV: Yeah, I think so, yeah.

CO: The mayor has also signalled that she wants to ban foreign tourists from the cannabis cafes in Amsterdam as well. So what does all that say about the direction that your city is heading?

ADV: I think our city is heading to be a very decent city. [chuckling] With high-class tourism and decent people. And I think this area, the red-light district, has been a prostitution area for centuries. Sometimes we say we were there first. And they sort of want to clean it up. And I think it's a shame because it's a very unique area. Also, by relocating sex work in some sort of remote area, you are removing it from public life. And we always state sex work is work, and people choose to do that work.

CO: And it's part of the fabric of your society?

ADV: Yeah. Even in countries where sex work is illegal, it still exists. Only the working conditions are much worse.

CO: Angela, we’ll leave it there. It's really, really good to talk to you. Thank you.

ADV: OK, thank you so much.

CO: Good night.

ADV: Night.

CH: Angela de Vries is our guest's working name. She's a sex worker and hostess with Prostitution Information Centre in Amsterdam. That's where we reached her.

[music: glassy guitar riff]

Dr. Kyle Lowry

CH: Kyle Lowry knows the value of practice. So he's been giving the media plenty of time to get his new handle right. For the last few weeks, the Toronto Raptors point guard has been telling post-game reporters that they'd better learn to address him as "Doctor Lowry", if they want him to keep answering questions. Of course, he's teasing -- I think. But he's also been teasing the fact that yesterday, Acadia University gave him an honorary doctorate degree, to recognize his strong commitment to community work off the court. Here's part of Dr. Kyle Lowry's acceptance speech and address to the 2021 graduating class of the Nova Scotia university.

SOUNDCLIP

DOCTOR KYLE LOWRY: I'm a kid from North Philadelphia, one of the toughest places in America to grow up. And I'm going to be honest with you, according to the statistics, I shouldn't be here with you today. I grew up in a row house with me, my mom, my brother, my grandma and my cousin. A place where you need to be in the house when the streetlights came on just to avoid the gangs, the drugs, the shooting and all the violence that went on. Basically, the hood. I will go to the park, and you have to be careful who you hung out with because honestly, you never know what was going to be the situation. It might be a drive-by shooting, might be some drug activity. [chuckle] And, honestly, some mornings when I used to walk to school, you would see the ATF getting ready to raid the house. It's kind of a tough situation to be in, but I figured it out. I found a way to make it through. Growing up the way I did, it defies you. It hardens you. I had to protect myself and my family. I mean, who could I actually trust that wouldn't bring harm to my family? That's all I had was my family. But over the time, I had to slowly learn how to adapt, adjust in my way of thinking to allow other people to help me. It was then, when I allowed myself to open up, that I was blessed and fortunate to have some really great people come into my life that, hands down, would play a major part in the trajectory of my future. Today, I can humbly say, and I can humbly confess that I am not standing where I am on my own volition. There are two things that I've learned throughout my journey. Success cannot be obtained without struggle, and it definitely cannot be accomplished alone. My mom worked two jobs. My grandma did also. They did everything to provide, to take care and protect me and my brother, no matter what the situation was and how hard they had to work. And I vowed that I would always pay it forward. No matter what the situation is, I was always going to pay for it and give back, no matter what it looked like for me. My service wasn't dependent on whether I became a professional athlete or not. I always knew that no matter where I ended up in life, that I would always give back in everything I had, whether that be my time, my financial resources, my mentoring, whatever was needed of me because I know what it looks like not to be seen. I know what it looks like to be overlooked. I know what it looked like to be stereotyped, forgotten, counted out - all of that just because of were you from, how you grew up, what you looked like, where I lived, where I came from. I just wanted to make... I just want to make a real impact, no matter what. Thank you again, Arcadia University, for this prestigious honour. It is one I will cherish forever and never forget. Yours truly, Dr. Kyle Lowry. [warm chuckle] Sounds even better when it's official.

CH: That's Dr. Kyle Lowry addressing Acadia University's 2021 graduating class. Yesterday, the Toronto Raptors point-guard received an honorary doctorate degree for his charity work and long-standing community service off the court.

[music: hip-hop]

Part 1: Pipeline Hacking, Old Golf Course Found

Pipeline Hacking

Guest: Rick Holland

CH: Its operator was hacked on Friday -- and today, America's largest pipeline for refined fuels is still offline. Colonial Pipeline was forced to shut down its network of more than 8,850 kilometres of pipeline running from New Jersey to Texas, after a ransomware attack. A criminal hacker group called DarkSide has claimed responsibility, but says it didn't mean to cause widespread disruption. The cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows has been researching the cyber gang and its motives. Rick Holland is its Chief Information Security Officer. We reached him in Dallas, Texas.

CO: Rick, as cyber attacks go, just how much damage has this one done?

RICK HOLLAND: This is definitely a game-changing one. However, the pipeline getting shut down was more a decision from the company versus the attackers that were going after it. So the sky is not falling, but this is certainly capturing a lot of headlines.

CO: Well, the pipeline, the Colonial Pipeline, which carries almost half of the diesel petrol jet fuel that supplies the east coast of the United States, that's a lot, right? So they've basically had to shut down while they work this out.

RH: Yeah, they took a precaution to shut down the segment of their environment that controls all of those systems just to make sure that the ransomware attackers did not target it.

CO: Do they know at this point, or would they know at this point what the ransomware targets actually have, what... what data they were able to... to grab?

RH: Based on previous history of DarkSide, I would presume that, at this point, they've received some kind of email. It has examples of what has been taken. There will be a dollar amount associated with it and then a deadline for them to act by. So I feel pretty confident that they have at least received that at this point.

CO: A dollar amount. Just give us a sense of what they would have received? They now know what data was... was lifted. Then they're told how much they have to pay, and by when they have to pay it or else?

RH: Exactly. In fact, DarkSide has a web portal set up that their victims… they don't call them victims, of course, they call them customers, that their customers can log into a web portal and then negotiate with the ransomware actors.

CO: Any idea how much money they're demanding?

RH: I don't know in this case. DarkSide, in particular, is very pragmatic in their extortion attempts. DarkSide tries to have reasonable amounts. We have seen average prices for this particular group be hundred to two hundred thousand dollars, somewhere in that range. But they target it. They understand how much revenue a company makes. And they try to find something that would be affordable for that company. In fact, on their website, they actually have a quote. They say they don't want to kill your business. You know, they want to help you with your business. Of course, they're not really helping. [CO chuckles] But, yeah, they don't want to put a company out of business.

CO: And do the companies... how often do companies actually pony up and pay these... these ransoms?

RH: You know, we don't actually know because of across the globe different levels of breach notification requirements and things like that. Many places, the U.S. as an example and a lot of areas, there's no requirement to disclose that you have been breached. So you really don't know the full extent of it. Now, what will happen in the case of DarkSide and other extortion crews, they will be public and say, hey, this organization did not pay us. We're going to put all of this data out here for free for the next six months. And then if we ever target this company again, there is no chance that we will decrypt any of their... their confidential data. So they do try to put some pain points in there for companies that decide not to pay them.

CO: But do they also put out the message that if you do pay us, we will destroy that information and call it a day?

RH: Yeah, and DarkSide in particular is... it's one of the things that they're very focussed on their brand. A, they want their victims to know that they will decrypt the data, they will destroy the data. So they're very, very big on that, where you have other ransomware groups that you pay them, and then they never decrypt the data. DarkSide’s tried to differentiate by having a very positive brand. Although I always struggle with the no honour amongst thieves, [CO chuckles] I can't help myself but not trust them, Carol.

CO: What is there? Is there a code of ethics with DarkSide?

RH: That's what they're purporting to have. They say that they don't strike certain victims. In fact, they just did a new launch of software in March, and they updated their... their kind of conditions for using that software. But they won't target hospitals, places that are doing COVID-19 research, funeral homes, nonprofits. There's probably about seven or eight different types of companies. Higher education is another example, colleges and universities. So they say that they won't target those, which does differentiate them from some other extortion actors that are, you know, cast a very wide net, and they don't really care who they target.

CO: Who exactly is... what is DarkSide? I mean, does it have a head office someplace?

RH: I would say it's probably a distributed group. We started tracking them in August of last year. They're quite prolific. To give you an idea of the scene. You know, even before DarkSide, we were tracking probably 25 large extortion groups. But then DarkSide has come on the scene. When they first came into the market, if you will, they said they had previous history with extortion. They wanted to do things different. They wanted to disrupt. We know that they specifically don't target Russian-based organisations. You could assume or make some kind of connection that they don't want to strike the ire of Russian officials or that they may, in fact, be Russian in nature. But beyond that, we really don't know. But I would imagine it's... it's a significant group of people. It's not one or two people in a basement. There's... there's a large group of them.

CO: Is it just about the money, or is there any cause behind them?

RH: In this case, it's... it is about profit. It's about revenue from their customers, again, as they like to call them. They are seeking money.

CO: OK, now, so you can track them. And I would imagine the authorities are also tracking them. Did they ever get caught? Do any of these extortion companies ever get busted?

RH: Yeah, you do... you do see a history of cyber-criminals across the board that will get indicted, but then it's like whack-a-mole. Something new finds its place. So even if we do arrest or expose a particular criminal group, especially if they're operating in Russia, they're very unlikely to face any kind of legal charges in the... in the Western world.

CO: How will we know what Colonial Pipeline decides to do? I mean, if they suddenly... if all goes back to normal, they... they go back online, the pipeline gets turned on again. Can we assume that they have paid the ransom?

RH: Not always, because depending on how good your backups are, just like we all want to back up our home computers in case something crashes there, you know, imagine companies do that at a very large scale. So in some cases, companies choose not to pay a ransom because they're very confident in their disaster recovery program and that they have their data. That's actually why the ransomware actors have started to then extort the data itself. Not only do we encrypt your data, we have a copy of it. So even if your backups work, we can still give your, you know, your confidential data, your customer data, whatever the case may be, out. So that's how the ransomware actors kind of adapted to people saying, no, we're good, we've got the backups. Now, backups alone are not enough.

CO: But meanwhile, Americans can expect to see more transport trucks with petroleum products on the road and perhaps paying more at the pumps?

RH: I'm not going to lie. I did fill up my car and my wife's car today, just topped it off because we already seen the prices increasing. So definitely there... there will be an impact there. Hopefully, they get the pipeline up and running, you know, in the next couple of days. Plus, it's hurricane season coming here in the U.S. as well. So it's always good to have a full tank of gas just in case you need it.

CO: OK, perfect storm. Rick, it’s good to talk to you.

RH: Thanks so much for having me on, Carol.

CH: Rick Holland is the chief information security officer at Digital Shadows, a cybersecurity firm. We reached him in Dallas, Texas.

[music: jazz]

Bring Back The Students Contest

CH: The University of Lethbridge in Alberta wants to get its students safety back to school. And it's willing to pay for it. The university is offering free tuition for a full semester -- among other prizes -- as part of a new contest. The only thing students have to do is receive a COVID vaccine shot by September 8th. And since Alberta just opened up vaccine eligibility to everyone 12 and older, the university is hoping to have as many students as possible vaccinated before the new school year. University of Lethbridge president Mike Mahon spoke with CBC Calgary about how the contest will work.

SOUNDCLIP

MIKE MAHON: We're calling it "It's Worth A Shot", David. [DG chuckles] And we're excited to introduce it today, the day that the eligibility for students like ours opens up. So we're pretty excited about it.

DAVID GRAY: I like this notion. And given the prize, it really is worth the shot, isn't it? So what do students have to do to get into this?

MM: Yeah, so basically what they have to do is once they've had their shot, and of course, any shot is a good shot, they can go on our website and sign up. They have to do so before September 8th. And then we have the draw on September 10th. And the draw is actually for nine full tuitions - seven of them for our undergraduate students, one for our students on our Calgary campus and one for our international students. And then we also have a few other prizes. We have three 500 gift certificates for the bookstore so that those students can buy their books. And then 20 Bridge Buck prizes, which is basically putting 20 bucks on their food card so they can have a meal on us.

DG: Wow!

MM: So it's worth... it's worth registering, for sure. Our students are desperate to come back to campus. We've seen soaring challenges around student mental health. And so we have been talking about how do we create a sense of optimism in our students? And then, more recently, how do we ensure that they can come back to campus safely? And so this is where the idea emerged.

DG: How tough has this year been on your students? Do you get a sense of that from your chair?

MM: Oh, you bet. We've been doing a lot of surveying, and our students have struggled mightily. You know, many of them are having to balance living in a dorm room and having that dorm room serve as both their bedroom, their living room and their office. Others are very much on their own back in their communities and missing their friends. So it's really important from my perspective that we find ways to create a safe environment for our students to return in the fall.

CH: That was University of Lethbridge president Mike Mahon speaking with "Calgary Eyeopener" host David Gray this morning.

[music: folk]

Justin Trudeau Health Workers

CH: Today, Justin Trudeau was offered a glimpse of the toll the pandemic is taking on our health workers. The Prime Minister was marking National Nursing Week by holding an online meeting with nurses and nursing students in Manitoba. One of the speakers was Dan Carlo Buenaventura, a nurse on a medical unit at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, and a member of the Phillippine Nurses Association of Manitoba.

SOUNDCLIP

DAN CARLO BUENAVENTURA: Honourable Prime Minister JT, and honourable members of the parliament, fellow nurses, good afternoon to all of you. This really has been a challenging and sad times for everybody. I have seen passing of patients in my... in my few years working as a nurse so many times, but over the last year, have been... have been different. I have never been witness to patients dying by themselves. [breaking down] And those patients who are dying on their own… sorry… who had been dying only... who have been in the bed of death and had been only with us or for that particular time at the bedside. I have not seen the smile on my coworkers' faces for a very long time, and quite frankly, I've actually forgotten some of... some... some of them and how they completely look like without their... without their PPE. These are only some of the challenges that the pandemic had brought along in our nursing... in our nursing profession and daily grind. But some of the more burdening challenges that we still face, I think, are rooting... are deeply rooted on the staffing issues. And nurses have been working long hours, time after time. I think some of my colleagues here have mentioned that already. And we have been stretched so, so thinly that some of us are... have been emotionally and physically tired over... over the last year. And, of course, I know that many of us nurses have pledged to come and work for our patients. And as we say, we will answer the call day in and day out, eight hours or 12-hour shifts, whatever shift that is, whoever we have to care for, whatever age, race, religion, beliefs, whatever kind of illness, we will be there. But, of course, we are asking that the government to please continue to support us. Mr. Prime Minister, we haven't had the collective agreement for many years now, and that alone is something that, you know, I know would boost the morale of many of the nurses and show that the... that the nurses are... are looked after and are taken care of by our government.

CH: That was Winnipeg nurse Dan Carlo Buenaventura speaking to Prime Minister Trudeau this afternoon.

[music: ambient]

Old Golf Course Found

Guest: Chris Powell

CH: The fairways needed some work. There are no perfectly manicured greens or gleaming white sand traps. But throughout the pandemic, day by day, Chris Powell is slowly bringing a long-lost golf course near his home in Wales back to life. The nine-hole course was designed in the 1920s by Alister MacKenzie -- the same architect who designed Augusta National, which hosts the Masters. But decades ago, nature took over, and the Welsh course slipped from most people's memory. Mr. Powell is now trying to revive it -- and he's planning a charity tournament to raise money for the UK's National Health Service. We reached him in Rhayader, Wales.

CO: Chris, you've been out on that course today. How is it looking?

CHRIS POWELL: It's looking really good. The... the grass is growing back, and is nice and green. And the bracken hasn't started growing yet, so looks really good.

CO: And how did it look when you first went up there and started to try and rediscover this... this golf course?

CP: Well, it was about this time last year that I started, and... but there was lots of dead bracken that was covering the fairways and covering a lot of the greens. And so all that had to be cleared out of the way in order to be able to play it.

CO: How did you even know that there was a golf course amongst all that bracken?

CP: I’d always known there's a course there because I used to ride my pony up there when I was a kid. And it was always just called the old golf links. But I didn't really know where many of the greens were. I was just a bit inquisitive, and I just started thinking, I wonder where they all were. And I found a website that's called www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk, and that had a course map on... on its site. And so I found quite a few more by using that.

CO: And so you... have you been able to find all nine holes at this point?

CP: Yes, I have got them all found now. I’ve cleared all the greens, all the tees. The biggest problem was clearing, well, two or three of the fairways were completely covered with sand and bracken. And that was the biggest job, is to clear an area that would allow the poles to land and still be found because they were just disappearing under the bracken and we couldn't find them. So there's a couple of holes that were completely unplayable.

CO: You were going up there and you were... you were hitting balls even before you cleared out the bracken, right? [chuckling] Did you lose a few before you actually started getting down to where the…. where the holes were?

CP: Yeah, I did. Last summer in particular, I used to go up and I'd have one club, a ball and a sickle with me. And when the ball disappeared into the bracken, I’d go in with the sickle and cut in and clear it and make sure I could find the ball.

CO: This isn't just any old course, is it? This was a course that was designed by none other than Alister Mackenzie. Famous --

CP: It was, indeed.

CO: Yeah, for all the courses he's designed, like, well, I guess most notably the Augusta National. And so why... why did this... why did this course end up being grown over? Why... why wasn't it…. why didn't it become famous?

CP: Yeah, a couple of questions that I haven't had answered is, firstly, how come he actually got to design it? Because he was very expensive. You know, in his day, he used to charge ten or fifteen pound a day, which was a huge amount of money in the early 1920s. So, firstly, I'm not sure how local people afforded to get him to design it, but I think, secondly, went into disrepair eventually, I think there just weren't enough golfers in this area. There weren't enough members to make it viable and to upkeep the course to the way it should be.

CO: Do you think that it is viable?

CP: It’s certainly viable as it is now. As I say, I've played this evening. Four of us played this evening. We ended up having a really good time. The only way to stay current and stay playable is for a bit of constant maintenance, which takes a lot of time and effort.

CO: Who actually owns this piece of land?

CP: The area in which I live is called the Elan Valley, and it has the reservoirs which supply Birmingham with all their drinking water. Birmingham is about 75 miles away, and all the water goes from our area to Birmingham. And all the area that the course is on is owned by the Elan Valley Trust. And so I had to get permission from them to hold the competition on the course. And also, from the local farmers who graze their sheep on the land.

CO: Oh! [chuckling] So you do have some…. some grass cutters then that might help you with this project?

CP: Yeah, exactly. There's no grass cutting to do as such because the sheep keep the grass down. It's... the biggest job is just clearing away all the old bracken that is very efficient at hiding your ball if you hit into it.

CO: What do you see this becoming? You think that people come to know the Rhayader Links? Do you think they will become famous?

CP: I think that's probably very doubtful. I would like to hold an annual competition. I plan to have a charity game.

CO: So you're going to have the Rhayader Cup?

CP: Yeah. So it's going to make money for the NHS and have a charity day. I would like to make that an annual event.

CO: Is it also possible, though, that Mother Nature is telling you something, that she reclaimed this piece of land? Maybe she'll do it again?

CP: Yeah, very likely. Couple of the farmers have been very helpful and very supportive of me, and they've said that they will try and clear some of it with their bigger tractors rather than me just have a little mower to do it, because there are quite a lot of walkers that walk over that hill. There’s a footpath over it. And they see me with my lawnmower on top of the mountain, cutting grass and just wonder what on Earth I'm doing.

CO: [chuckling] But do you think that some others, some of the farmers, might help you with this... with this endeavour?

CP: Yeah, yeah, I do. They've been very helpful and very supportive.

CO: All right, well, we will watch for this becoming well, maybe... maybe just modestly famous, and lots of people looking for interesting golf experiences. So maybe they'll head your way?

CP: Maybe, maybe.

CO: Chris, it’s great to talk to you. Thank you.

CP: That's no problem.

CO: Best of luck.

CP: All right, bye now.

CH: Chris Powell is restoring a long-forgotten, decades-old golf course near his home. We reached him in Rhayader, Wales.

[music: piano]

Ideas Promo

CH: Tonight on "Ideas", a documentary on the contested legacy of Alexander Graham Bell. He's widely known for inventing the telephone. But his life's true passion, and the project he focused on his entire life, and funded with his earnings from the telephone, was the education of Deaf people. He helped spearhead a movement called Oralism, and believed all Deaf people should learn to lipread and speak rather than use sign language -- to the detriment of many Deaf people. Joanne Weber is the Canada Research Chair in Deaf Education at the University of Alberta. af people. Joanne Weber is the Canada Research Chair in Deaf Education at the University of Alberta.

SOUNDCLIP

JOANNE WEBER: Because he invented the telephone, and because he was a brilliant man, and because hearing people are audio-centric, that, of course, they supported AG Bell in his push towards Oralism. So when we talk about Deaf education nowadays, we frame it as the Deaf child must learn to talk. But the problem is not everybody had the one ear that I have. And no matter what you do with them, they cannot learn to speak. And so with this population, there's always been an attitude of, oh well, they're just unfortunate. They just didn't work hard enough. They didn't have enough intelligence. Their parents weren't good parents. Oh well! So what you're saying about this population, you're saying that basically they're not important people. They're second-class citizens. We don't bother giving them a language because they'll never fit to become like us, human people. So that’s the legacy that AG Bell left us. And it’s a terrible legacy.

CH: That was Joanne Weber -- Canada Research Chair in Deaf Education at the University of Alberta. You'll hear more on Alexander Graham Bell's legacy in the Deaf community tonight, on "Ideas", after "As It Happens".

[music: piano]

Quote/Unquote: Horse Doping

CH: First, Medina Spirit ran for the roses and won. A dirt-kicking, hoof-thundering, mouth-frothing wonder -- because that colt, majestic as he is, was a real long shot. And yet he beat the odds, and took home the crown at this year's Kentucky Derby. How? Hard work that's how. Training. Focus. Some carrots. And some stick! Aided and abetted by the beautiful communion of man and beast. And now this accusation is putting it all in jeopardy. Because a post-race blood test showed "double the legal threshold of the steroid betamethasone". But Medina Spirit's legendary trainer, Bob Baffert, swears there was no wrongdoing. And he's going to fight this. Just like he's fighting the four other steroid scandals with his horses. Because he's a winner -- who plucked a yearling out of obscurity, and found his raw talent like a needle in haystack. Using one of many needles he may keep under the haystack. For this reason, Mr. Baffert has been suspended from Derby host Churchill Downs. Is he down about the Downs? No. Just listen to him on Fox News today.

SOUNDCLIP

BOB BAFFERT: Churchill Downs came out with that statement. That was pretty harsh. And I think they had to just, you know, it's... with all the noise going out, you know, we live in a different world now. This is America is different. And it was like a cancel culture kind of a thing.

CH: Straight from the horse's mouth: Bob Baffert very clearly explaining exactly how double the legal limit of a steroid ended up in a horse that came out of nowhere to win one of the most competitive horse races in the world: cancel culture. Wait. Does that… does that sound right? Um. Maybe just cancel everything I just said. And Mr. Baffert, if you're listening, it might be time to get off your high horse.

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May 10, 2021 Episode Transcript

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