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The AIH Transcript for June 4, 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: Wick's end. Thirty-two years after the Tiananmen Square massacre, authorities in Hong Kong cancel an annual candlelight vigil, and arrest its organizer -- but our guest finds her own way to commemorate the event.

CH: Misdiagnosis. A former New Brunswick doctor says he is owed an apology after being publicly blamed, and investigated, as the source of a COVID outbreak last year.

CO: We all have our faults. But a Russian tennis player has been detained by French police over suspicions involving her double faults -- and some very high-stakes betting.

CH: Roots music. A late artist's plan to fill an abandoned New York building with plant life, and record the plants’ frequencies, has grown into a lush tribute.

CO: Head in the clouds. A storm chaser who thought he'd seen it all tells us what it was like to capture a breathtaking quadruple thunderstorm in pictures.

CH: And…. when the zoo is a squawking, don't come a knocking. Because of the pandemic, zoos in Sri Lanka have been closed -- and the resulting baby boom suggests the animals are really enjoying their privacy.

CH: As It Happens, the Friday edition. Radio that knows sometimes you have to breed between the lines.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: No Tiananmen Square Commemoration, French Open Betting Arrest, Texas Storm Chaser

No Tiananmen Square Commemoration

Guest: Rowena Xiaoqing He

CH: This week marks 32 years since the Tiananmen Square massacre. On June 3rd and 4th, 1989, after months of protests, Chinese troops in Beijing opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators. The exact death toll is still unknown -- but several hundred people, and possibly thousands, were killed. In 2009, on the 20th anniversary, we spoke with historian Rowena Xiaoqing He -- who would later publish the book "Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China." In 1989, she was part of the student protests in China's Guangdong Province. She told Carol how she felt after the crackdown.

SOUNDCLIP

ROWENA XIAOQING HE: I think, of course, right after the massacre, for a few years, I felt I was a survivor. And I didn't quite understand why I had that kind of... I failed to seen. Although I didn't even participate in the crackdown or anything. But I just felt it’s sinful to have any entertainment, knowing so many people were in prison, in exile or simply have been killed. And many people ask me why I did work on this topic in the past eight years, although I keep saying that I am scared? I have to fear as a researcher. And I think it's because we were silenced for too long. I think on... on the night of June 3rd, they crackdown the people, they crackdown the human beings, but they didn't crack down the spirits, and our longing for freedom and democracy. So in a sense, 1989, they didn't crack down the seeds of democracy. I think, on the contrary, it was on that night that the seeds of democracy was planted in my heart. And I'm sure I'm not just the only person who had this kind of feelings. If you look at people who are still struggling all these years to keep the memory and the struggle alive.

CH: From our archives, that was Rowena Xiaoqing He, who spoke to Carol from Montreal, in 2009. In the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre, she and other scholars and activists have worked to ensure no one forgets what happened. And for years, an annual candlelight vigil has taken place at Hong Kong's Victoria Park to commemorate the events of 1989. But today, for the second year in a row, that vigil has been banned. There's also been a significant police presence in Hong Kong -- and in the morning, a prominent activist was arrested at her office. We reached Rowena Xiaoqing He today in Hong Kong.

CO: Rowena, what is it like today to hear yourself speaking there on the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen 12 years ago?

RXH: It's just so emotional because I just came back from this candlelight vigil. I couldn't even name where that was because I think they would like to keep it private. And there were so many police outside. And I wasn't worried about it myself at first, but my students were very concerned. And I think the reason that they had to fear was because it's very unclear what would be considered illegal. Like, I was saying that I'm just attending a church event for an anniversary of the massacre. But of course, I'm not so naive. I studied Tiananmen for the past two decades. But still, I was thinking, like, what can it be wrong if I just walk out there on the street despite of all the police out there? And they said, no, you're wearing... you're in your black dress. And all of us were actually in black.

CO: I want to ask you about that in just a moment. But first, can we just talk about Victoria Park, the sea of... of candles that has happened in Victoria Park in Hong Kong for... since 1989. Last year, the police wouldn't allow it, they said, because of COVID. This year, they really cracked down.

RXH: Yeah.

CO: Can you tell us, what was... what was it like today to be on the streets of Hong Kong trying to commemorate this event?

RXH: So we first… I first went with my students to get some white flowers because, in our university campus, there's a Goddess of Democracy. That was a copy of the Goddess of Democracy that the students brought in Tiananmen Square in 1989. So we went there and then we put down the white flowers. And exactly one year ago last year, when the Victoria Park candlelight vigil was cancelled, we went there as a group to light candles for the death. It's a very symbolic and beautiful night that we were lighting candles last year. But this year, we could no longer do that anymore. We've perceived that as being risky if we do that.

CO: So how --

RXH: So we just put down the flowers.

CO: And how are police responding to these gestures, these very, very passive, gentle gestures of democracy movement? How were police responding to them?

RXH: The police were just standing outside. Not many police when we did that. But then later, when we were having their church service that we... we saw on the Internet, there were lots of police out there. And of course, the police are also in all the other churches, outside the other churches. I have students who had been to other churches, not the one that we went to. And then they were also testing us and said that, you know, the police are now outside, and they were worried. That's the situation that we are facing. That's the reality now. It's not just for tonight. It's more about in your daily life. People are scared, and... and, which is very unusual. Like Hong Kong, in the past, people were just so used to the freedom they have been enjoying. And then, all of a sudden, they started to ask, can I say this? Can I say that? Can I write this? Can I write that? So the dramatic deterioration of intellectual freedom is just so striking.

CO: Right, you mentioned that you don't... you don't even know what is illegal. And you meant... you were saying earlier that if you were simply wearing black, people were being harassed by police. What was that all about?

RXH: My students were much more experienced than I... I am, right? Because I just got to the city for a year and a half. But they, most of them have participated in the earlier 2019 movement. And they said that if you are just in black and then you will be in trouble. So what happened is that we all have a little coat of different colour. For example, I have a one in white, and my student also have her coat. And then she also immediately put on something on her hair, a colourful hairband to look like we did not just came back from a vigil. I can see where... how traumatized they have been. And I don't think that the... that the fear was imagined, just like how I felt in 1989. The younger generation just reminded me so much of my time right after Tiananmen, and I was exactly their age at that time. It pains me to see that history is just repeating itself again in Hong Kong in the younger generation.

CO: And so you were able to finally get past police, but there were arrests, and police did prevent most of what happened today, including any kind of commemoration in Victoria Park, right?

RXH: Yeah, that's what we read in the news. And it's a very difficult decision because I really wanted to go to Victoria Park because our identity is always connected with this space in social movements especially. And I also felt that the Hong Kong people have... have been holding the candles for me and for many of us who did not have the luxury inside China to do that. And they remember for us, and it's my turn now to go over and to support. But as it turned out, the Victory Park was closed in the afternoon, yeah.

CO: These young people, the students you're with, they remind you of yourself in the days of Tiananmen… the Tiananmen Square protests and the Tiananmen massacre, is that right?

RXH: The students now, the students in Hong Kong now, they actually reminded me of my time in the post-Tiananmen period. When they asked me why... if we should just have a private discussion session on campus or in my home, my immediate reaction was no. But at that time, I couldn't tell them why I didn't want to do that. But later, I was... when I think about it, I was able to articulate to them. I said that because if we have a closed-door gathering, it will reminded me too much of my time in the 1990s when I had to close all the doors and windows and to light candles with my best friend. And we didn't have to turn off the lights. And I do not want to do that because Hong Kong... in Hong Kong, there's still open commemoration activities in the church. I said that I would probably do that next year when we can even go out, but I do not want to do that now.

CO: What is it that can give those young people the hope that you felt in 1989?

RXH: I always talk to them about my experience, and tell them not to lose hope. I always told my students that this is not an end game. After the Water Movement and after the passing of the National Security Law, I know that many of them were talking about an end game, and I told them there's never an end game. We might lose many battles, but we are going to win the war. History is on our side.

CO: Rowena, I will be watching to see what happens with you, with your students. This is quite a spirit that you have described that is not extinguished. And once again, it is really good to talk to you. Thank you.

RXH: Yeah. Thank you so much, Carol.

CO: Good night.

RXH: For having me. Night.

CH: Rowena Xiaoqing He is a Tiananmen historian in Hong Kong. She completed her PhD at the University of Toronto. And we've posted more on this story on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[music: tense piano]

French Open Betting Arrest

Guest: Stephanie Myles

CH: Yana Sizikova is having a tough couple of days. Yesterday, the Russian tennis player lost her opening round doubles match at the French Open. Then, she was arrested by French police. And today, French reporters started putting out stories, based on police sources, suggesting that she had been detained in relation to match-fixing allegations. The questions seem to stem from some very high-stakes bets -- bets that were placed on a critical moment in one of Ms. Sizikova's matches at the tournament last year. Stephanie Myles is a tennis reporter and commentator. And we reached her in Paris.

CO: Stephanie, how are people at the tournament responding to Yana Sizikova's arrest?

STEPHANIE MYLES: You know, she was actually released tonight after about 24 hours. It's an interesting thing, especially in the first week of a Grand Slam tournament. There is so much going on. I mean, the top doubles team -- men's doubles team in the world tested positive for COVID, both of them -- they're both out, injuries, accidental trips that have pulled players out of tournaments. But it's an interesting story because I think she's just a little fish in a rather much bigger operation.

CO: Wow!

SM: And I suspect that they have a pretty good investigation going on said operation.

CO: All right. So what are the allegations as far as we know? Because there's... neither the police nor Ms. Sizikova have made any official statement.

SM: Well, this is what they seem to have been looking at. And, you know, the allegation is backed up by the fact that a lot of the betting organizations, if they see unusual betting patterns on something that seems fairly random and innocuous, they will flag them, and they will alert the authorities. So in this particular case, we're talking about the fifth game of the second set of this match between she and her American partner were playing two Romanians. And there was a heavy load of betting that all of a sudden appeared on the Sizikova and her partner, who was an American, to lose that game. And in that game, if you know anything about tennis, she double-faulted twice. And then she slipped on another on another point, and so lost that game very quickly, which obviously would have paid out a significant amount of money that was wagered on that particular game. Because in tennis, you could bet on someone to win or lose. You could bet on someone to go three sets or five sets, but you can also bet on individual games or even individual points. So when... when you have the combination of an unusual level of wagering on a particular game, and then this type of thing happens in a game, which is theoretically obviously possible, you could double fault twice in the game. It happens. But the combination of those two things renders it suspicious. And so, at the time, last October, it was flagged. And so she comes back in to play the French Open for the first time in her career and loses her first-round match, six-one, six-one with a different partner, goes and has a massage -- I don't know why she needed one after six-one, six-one -- And came out, and there you go, there are the authorities, and they take her into custody.

CO: Wow!

SM: So it must have been quite an evening for her.

CO: But if she... these were doubles, why wouldn't they also arrest her partner?

SM: Well, I think part of that was the fact that she was the one who was serving. So, therefore, a lot of the... of the outcome of that game was directly in her control. And at the time, it's... I mean, I actually personally know the... the player that she was playing with, who is a much higher-ranked player and makes a much better living. And there's never… you know, there's never been a hint about any issues with her. But... but mostly, it had to do with the fact that Sizikova was the one who was serving. As I said, the two double faults and another easy error, and the next thing you know, it only takes four points to lose a game. And so the game was lost quickly. And again, a significant amount of money was bet on that particular game out of all the games in that match and out of all the matches that were going on that day. So those are the types of things that raise flags with the betting concerns. And, you know, if you have that amount of money to bet on this particular game, you have to have a lot of people in a lot of different countries who are kind of cooperating to come up with that kind of money to bet on these games. And so, these are the kind of things that the gambling units and the people who try to regulate betting tend to look for. So interestingly, with her, she has a French lawyer, and the lawyer says that she cooperated with the authorities last fall. And, of course, as lawyers will do, said that she had been completely cleared of anything at that time. But, you know, they've come to see her again and put her in custody eight months later. So I suspect they are looking for a bigger fish, and they're hoping that she could help them in that endeavour.

CO: It's interesting, as you know, tennis has a reputation for being a very polite sport that is sort of above the fray. We… we associate match-fixing more with soccer and FIFA, where there's been big investigations there. But how widespread do you think [chuckling] it's possible that match-fixing happens in tennis?

SM: Oh, it... it's a huge thing. The thing that makes this stand out is the fact that it happened at a Grand Slam tournament. I mean, to use Sizikova as an example, she's earned about 23,000 dollars this year. And she played one match at the Australian Open in February, which is also a Grand Slam level tournament. And for losing that match at the Australian Open, she made 10,000 dollars. So basically, she earned half her income this year on multiple dozens of matches in that one match. She doesn't often play at this level. So what happens is that there are... there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tournaments all around the world where, let's say, the total prize money for the entire tournament is 15,000 dollars. And... and even if you win it, you're not going to make your expenses for the week. So these... these tournaments are populated with up-and-coming youngsters who are just trying to earn their first ranking points, and, you know, more veteran players who are still trying to hang on, and again, still chasing the dream. And there is a lot of match-fixing going on. They don't catch a lot of players, but there is a lot of it going on, to the point where when tennis shut down last year because of the pandemic from March through August, there was a lot of betting on, you know, random inter-club matches between two guys in Ukraine at some indoor facility who could barely even hit the ball. Like, people were betting on this. So that's right. I'm not sure people realize exactly what a big betting sport it is.

CO: Wow! OK, [chuckling] we'll leave it there. Stephanie, it's great to talk to you. Thank you.

SM: OK, thanks for having me.

CO: Bye.

CH: Stephanie Myles is a tennis reporter and the author of "Bianca Andreescu: She the North". We reached her in Paris.

[music: indie rock]

Texas Storm Chaser

Guest: Mike Olbinksi

CH: It takes some pretty special weather to impress Mike Olbinksi. He's a storm chaser. And as a veteran in his field, he has seen and photographed some truly mind-blowing meteorological phenomena. So it's pretty rare that a storm makes him react like this.

SOUNDCLIP

MIKE OLBINKSI: Freaking losing my mind right now! Look at this, double hail cores coming down! Monstrous! Oh, my God, another... we got microburst, hail, microburst. And then look at this one happening right now. Ohhhhhh!!! [astounded chuckling] I'm done! This is, like, ridiculous!

CH: [chuckling] That's Mike Olbinski's reaction to spotting a quadruple microburst at sunset. Mr. Olbinski is a photographer and a storm chaser. And we reached him in Phoenix, Arizona.

CO: Mike, we heard you getting very excited there, but maybe you can just paint a picture for us of what this storm actually looked like?

MO: Yeah, when I was recording those videos, I was trying to comprehend what was happening. It's one of those storms where you get in front of it, and it looks pretty good. And you're just excited because the whole day had been really, really frustrating. And we were basically headed back to the hotel and going to watch a basketball game. And then we were like, well, we'll keep an eye on these storms just in case. And the storm looked really good. And we're like, hey, we can get... we can get on the other side of it by the time at sunset, and we'll see what happens. And so, you know, we're standing there, and it's pretty, and there's some great downbursts on the left, and sunset's colours start coming in. But then it's weird when you're in front of these storms because things change so fast that you almost don't realize it, you know, kind of until you look away and then look back for a second. And it was just suddenly there's just massive columns of hail and rain in a form of like microbursts just happening before our eyes. And there were two giant ones for just a little bit. I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is just incredible. And then my friend, you know, I looked away for a second, and my buddy Brett's like, look, there's another one coming down right here. And so you look up, and you see, like, a third one just coming out from above the other two, and then another one to the right of it. And it starts crashing down. And it's just... it's mind-blowing. It was... it was just so much power, you know, the... the lenses and the pictures you see don't, you know, show you how close you are actually to the storm. It was just right in front of us.

CO: OK, and we're going to, of course, because this is Radio, [chuckling] and we do can't do justice to it. We will be posting pictures for our listeners. But where exactly were you when... when you saw this?

MO: This was south of Andrews, Texas, which is a little bit north of Midland-Odessa.

CO: And you were not, of course, in this... these bursts of rain and hail, were you? You were just taking --

MO: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. [dry laugh] Well, you know, I'm a photographer. And so for us, we were trying to capture things without, you know, a lot of raindrops on our lenses and things like that. And we weren't sure how big the hail was in that. So we could actually hear it coming at one point. Like, we... you know, we had the four massive columns of hail and rain crashing down. And I was just in such, you know, euphoria, like watching this, that, you know, I didn't really notice that even above us, Brett's like, um, I think we need to go. It looks like it's starting to crash down in front of us, too. And, you know, you look up, and you can see more falling out above us.

CO: Now, if you can put it in layman's terms because [both chuckling] I'm sure there's no science behind this. But what exactly does that? What made what you call a quadruple microburst?

MO: Oh, I don't know what would make four of them kind of happen, but... but microbursts are just kind of they happen a lot in especially here in Arizona and out there where it's just a massive more like a tight, compact area of rain in downward wind that kind of explodes out of the bottom of a dust storm. And... and it's just a lot of downward tape without getting too technical. And having four at once was just kind of... I've never seen that. Usually, you know, you got one big column kind of coming down. You can see it coming, and it just kind of moves towards you. And... and I've been chasing for a long time. So and I know I've seen some photos of this in different places, but I just had never seen it personally in front of me.

CO: And, of course, what makes it so spectacular, not just that there's these four columns of rain and hail coming down, but that you have this extraordinary sunset around it.

MO: Yes!

CO: And that's the thing that is just so striking, right? Just maybe... just describe the colours that you have in this.

MO: Oh, it's just... it was incredible, you know, and so I do a lot of time-lapse. So I was time-lapsing like the left edge of the storm with a really tighter lens. And just looking through it, I mean, the sun was kind of just exploding the colours through that left side. There was low clouds, and the hail core was kicking out a rain foot, you know, like a hail foot off it. It was just... the colours were extraordinary. Just to capture it kind of at that time. And I think a lot of people were standing there going no one's going to believe the photos that we post because they're going to think we Photoshopped this, you know? And it was actually tough. Our cameras, they're all picking up, you know, oranges and pinks and then the blue from the storm because the sun had actually set. You know, we just still had some of that colour coming through. And we're like, no one's going to believe this [CO chuckles]. And we... we worked really hard trying to make sure that our colours were right. And we're not like, hey, we don't want to make it look like we've just enhanced this so people would go nuts about it. Like, we... we all edited photos, and they all looked pretty much the same. So we're like, yeah, that's what it looked like, you know? It was amazing. One of the... one of my favourite moments chasing in like 10 years.

CO: Wow! And what have your friends and your fellow storm chasers said about these... these pictures?

MO: The response has been great. You know, I mean, it's... they kind of went semi-viral for us a little bit. You know, my buddy and I, [chuckle] on Facebook had a combined reach of, like, over a million people reached with the photo, and... and thousands and thousands of shares. And so... but other chasers, too. You know, it was... it was actually what made it even a little bit better for us. And it's hard out there. There's so many people chasing storms that we were the only people on that storm, the only storm chasers that we know. We have the only photos of it that we've seen, and that's incredibly rare out there. Usually, on any storm, there's at least a couple other people at the very least.

CO: But it's interesting that the storm chasing that sort of gets on the weather channels and whatnot. It's very dramatic in chasing tornadoes and looking into hurricanes and just being in the middle of danger. But what's so striking about this is a quiet beauty to it, right? I mean, obviously, [chuckling] not to be inside of it. But to look at it from the outside was just... was just so... so simple.

MO: Yeah, and it... it's kind of like, in a way, I chase a lot of dust storms out here in Arizona -- another thing that I'm kind of known for. And when you look at them, you know, when they... when they pass over you, most of the time, they're not that dangerous. It's more zero visibility is bad. But when you're looking at them, there's almost like this peace and calm because the wind is calm where you are, even though there's this wall of dust coming, and it looks, you know, magical and impending. And... and this was the same way. You know, there's... you, as a storm chaser, I knew what was going on with those. And there's a lot of power, you know, behind that. And I think the hail might have been kind of small, you know, so luckily, it wasn't, you know, like a massive downpour of like a tennis ball-sized hail over that town and destroyed cars and businesses and stuff like that. But... but you can see the power. But where we were, it was just like calm, you know? Other than some, like, wind blowing into the storm. So... and with the sunset colours, it did, it gave it this, like, air of beauty and serenity. At the same time, it was this incredible power. And... and that's what's cool about storm chasing, at least for me, is it's not all about, you know, tornadoes and things like that. You know, you can find beauty in anything. And on this day that we were chasing, this was a storm no one was even on. It was a marginal day. There was no tornado risk. And we happened to witness something that, you know, we hadn't seen before, at least us personally. And that's what makes all this worth it.

CO: And now we can all see it with your picture. And so we'll make sure people, our listeners, get a look at that, Mike. And it's really great to talk to you. Thank you.

MO: Thank you so much.

CO: Bye.

CH: Mike Olbinski is a photographer and a storm chaser. We reached him in Phoenix, Arizona. You can find more on that story, and see that photo, on our webpage at: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[music: folk]

Part 2: New Brunswick Doctor, New York Plant Art

New Brunswick Doctor

Guests: Dr. Jean-Robert Ngola, Joel Etienne

CH: Last year, a New Brunswick doctor found himself personally, and publicly, blamed for a COVID outbreak in the province. Dr. Jean-Robert Ngola was outed as "Patient Zero" online, suspended from his job, and charged with violating the provincial Emergency Measures Act. That charge has now been withdrawn -- and evidence shows it was extremely unlikely the physician was responsible for bringing COVID to Campbellton, New Brunswick. Dr. Ngola did take a short out-of-province trip, but it has emerged that many health professionals regularly traveled across the river to Quebec during that time. Now Dr. Ngola is demanding an apology from New Brunswick's premier, Blaine Higgs. We reached Dr. Jean-Robert Ngola in Louiseville, Quebec, and his lawyer, Joel Etienne, in Toronto.

CO: Dr. Ngola, how did it feel to hear that this charge against you for violating quarantine rules had been withdrawn?

DR JEAN-ROBERT NGOLA: Many emotion, many emotions. Because, you know, I'm facing this public shame, this problem with the justice. They harmed you. And you cannot live your life properly because you know that you have the problem with the justice. To hear today that they withdraw those charges, I think that is the first step for my healing.

CO: And at one point, the RCMP was investigating you on criminal charges, which they... they stopped doing that. They still pursued you on these other charges that would have fines. And now, does it seem that all investigations, all possible charges have ended?

JRN: Yeah, they stopped their original instigation about me. And for me, it's the beginning of my healing, my feelings to come back again to the society, to continue to live life like… to have a normal life. Because now I know that there is no charge upon my persons. And so I can continue now to start my healing.

CO: What has it been like for you? It's been more than a year since you were diagnosed with COVID, and then blamed for the outbreak in New Brunswick at that time, wrongly so. And what has this year been like for you?

JRN: This year was not easy. I built my life in New Brunswick with my patients, family and friends. And suddenly, you lose everything. Morning you are a physician. Afternoon, you stop being a physician after some more hours. Morning, you are a good person to society and granted the respect of a citizen. And in the afternoon, everybody was they hunt you, your government, your love, your employer, your society. They hunt you, treating you like a criminal. And you become like a small animal to be hided in your house. After that, you have to face this public shame.

CO: You actually feared for your life, didn't you?

JRN: Of course. Of course. Because when you receive, by example, the message by Facebook, people saying that we have to come to destroy your house. We have to come to destroy your house. You have to go back to your country. It was awful.

CO: And at the same time, your daughter was also diagnosed with COVID, your four year old daughter?

JRN: Yes, it was the same day. The same day. But we are together in my house, and facing this problem together. What can we do? Because we cannot face this public shame.

CO: To go back to that day, you tested positive. Within hours, someone had leaked your positive test information. Your private information was on Facebook. Within hours of that, the premier of New Brunswick was talking about a medical professional who was responsible for the outbreak. Is that right?

JRN: Yeah, my diagnosis was made around 11:00. I opened my Facebook, full of messages, full of messages. On two hours later, on the TV, the premier claim the local epidemic is due to the responsible person.

CO: So what you're referring to is that is that the premier, Blaine Higgs, he then went into his press conference and said that an irresponsible medical professional, he didn't name you, but you'd already been named on Facebook that you were “Patient Zero” -- and that you had brought this infection in. And without any evidence at all. And, in fact, there has never been any evidence that you were... in fact, many other people could be. I just want to talk to briefly to your lawyer, Joel Etienne. You're there, yes?

JOEL ETIENNE: Yes, I am.

CO: Hi. How is it that they zeroed in on Dr. Ngola as being the one responsible? What... what evidence was there that there were other sources of that infection?

JE: There was no evidence. And public health officials, the people in charge in the Restigouche region told public safety, told the RCMP, Dr. Ngola, there's no Patient Zero. He's done nothing wrong. We're... we're handling things perfectly well and things are going well. Leave us alone. And it appears that the premier's office, in collusion with the public safety, did an end run on their own public health authorities and engaged in this witch hunt, this scapegoating, which at one point in time had 21 senior Mounties, investigators investigating in the Restigouche area, in Campbellton, this matter for... as a criminal investigation.

CO: And just... now, it was “The Fifth Estate” -- CBC's “Fifth Estate” -- that did an investigation into this, pointing out, first of all, that by the time they were blaming Dr. Ngola, it was impossible to have found out that he was the source of it and within hours. And that they also show that there are many other possible health workers who were crossing back and forth between Quebec and Campbellton, New Brunswick. Is that right?

JE: When Premier Blaine Higgs pointed the finger at Dr. Ngola, they never... the government never informed the public that 91 -- 91 -- medical officials were coming in and out of Quebec and New Brunswick, almost on a daily basis without self-quarantining, including Jean-Robert’s supervisor who lived in Montreal.

CO: Dr. Ngola, has the premier offered you an apology?

JRN: He must. Because he is the leader of my province. One, you did something wrong. You know that what you did was wrong. He know that very well. I'm not also wrong for me, but also all of my community. We have to face the pandemic, but to face the public shame of my community, what I was living. And he must do that because he did something wrong that put my life in danger because it was not correct. Without any investigation, to point somebody that you are the person zero, he can say that you didn't name my names, but my name was also already published on Facebook, everywhere. He had all these informations.

CO: Dr. Ngola, I appreciate speaking with you. And Mr. Etienne, I appreciate speaking with you as well. Thank you both.

JE: Thanks very much.

JRN: Thanks very much. Thank you.

CH: We reached Dr. Jean-Robert Ngola in Louiseville, Quebec, and his lawyer Joel Etienne in Toronto.

[music: glassy guitar riff]

Rosanne Casimir Folo

CH: Rosanne Casimir says there is no roadmap for what happens next. But there is clearly a tremendous sense of direction. Speaking to the media today, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Chief provided an update on the Nation's preliminary discovery of the remains of 215 children, on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Chief Casimir reiterated that the community is expecting to receive a final report by the end of the month -- and will share its findings with the public. In the meantime, she says there are a number of things that need to happen now. And some things community members don't want -- beginning with the destruction of former residential school buildings in Kamloops.

SOUNDCLIP

ROSANNE CASIMIR: Tk’emlups members chose to keep the buildings. It serves as a reminder for future generations. On the grounds where our language, our culture, was targeted to be eradicated, we are reclaiming our culture and revitalizing our language. Announcement of the $27 million from the federal government, the $27 million is not new funding. The federal government had already allocated that money toward implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation recommendations, but it had not been spent. How far will this go? This is a great question to ask the former commissioners from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Former Justice Murray Sinclair has already shared on this. So our costs are still to be determined as we are still investigating. The records. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate ran the Kamloops Indian Residential School. To date, they have not released any records. I have met with Bishop Joseph from our local Catholic Church, who we have an existing relationship with due to the relationship with the Church on our reserve. This was just the first meeting since the news came out. The Archbishop of Vancouver has said that he has already shared the information with the TRC, and we will be following up with that. In the end, what we do want. We do want an apology, a public apology, not just for us, but for the world who also shared in those suffrages. Holding the Catholic Church to account, there must never been... there has never been an apology from the Roman Catholics. So some actions for people to consider would be truly honouring the children -- and a call for a national day of prayer. And recommending Sunday, June the 6th, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.

CH: Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir, providing an update on the Nation's preliminary discovery of 215 children's remains at a former Residential School in Kamloops -- and requesting a national day of prayer this Sunday.

[music: ambient]

New York Plant Art

Guest: Kelly Schroer

CH: In Newburgh, New York, there's an abandoned house that sits at the corner of Grand and 2nd Streets. Decades ago, it was the ornate Victorian architecture that turned heads. But now, it's the overgrown vines and ivy that weave through the boarded-up windows. Those invasive plants are what grabbed artist Martin Roth's attention. Mr. Roth died in 2019. But he left behind elaborate plans to transform the building into a giant garden, and use technology to make the plants inside sing for the public. Independent curator Kelly Schroer collaborated with Martin Roth before he died. And after spending years on the project she is about to see it come together in full bloom. We reached her in Newburgh, New York.

CO: Kelly, how did you get involved with this idea to turn an abandoned building into a garden of sound?

KELLY SCHROER: Well, I am an independent curator and founder of Strongroom, which is a non-profit arts organization based here in Newburgh, New York. You know, I've known of Martin's work for a little while, and I knew that I really wanted to work with him. He was really drawn to this building, both for its history and especially the beauty in the nature of taking over this building. So he... he really was the instigator. And I... I'm the facilitator. [chuckling]

CO: OK. And... and... and sadly, he passed away in 2019, so --

KS: That's right.

CO: Did you think that the idea was not going to happen because he wasn't there to make it happen?

KS: Yeah. So, you know, it's taken us several years to get to this point. So 2019, we kicked off our first campaign to raise the funds to complete the project. And that's when he passed away, very unexpectedly. He was only in his early 40s. So, you know, I, at that point, you know, felt very committed to the project already and really wanted to see it through. So, you know, with the blessing of his family and, you know, people that knew him and really cared about him and his work, we decided to try to complete it, you know, for him.

CO: And what... what's it like? When you walk... just put us through this installation. What do we see when we step inside this building?

KS: Well, we're still building it right now. So, but what you will see when you walk in, we'll have, you know, big sort of beautiful bushes and flowers initially. And you'll cross... you'll sort of turn a corner, and you'll see this kind of crisscrossing path. There will be different kind of plants, some of which we will be planting and some which are already in the space. So it was really interesting to Martin to cultivate the kind of weeds and these crazy trees that have kind of taken over the building and really integrate those into the garden. So it's... it's not a very manicured garden. It's... it's cultivating what's already there. And then we're going to add a lot of beautiful flowers and plants as well.

CO: When you talk about the trees that have taken over the building, there is no roof on this, right? It's in the... it's under the open skies.

KS: Yeah. It's just... it's just a brick facade. It's been like that for a few decades. So nature has truly taken over the building. It's covered in vines. The windows are boarded up. And there are full-grown trees growing out the top of the building. It's quite... it's quite amazing, actually. And the fact that it was, you know, designed by one of the most famous landscape architects, it's this really kind of ironic and poetic, you know, cyclical [chuckling] gesture with this project.

CO: Right. Because this building is... it's an old building that was quite… it's derelict now, but it was... it was designed by somebody who actually designed gardens.

KS: Yes, exactly. Yeah, Andrew Jackson Downing. He's known as the father of American landscape design. And he was both an architect, but also a landscape architect. And was really, really influential in the mid-1800s for his philosophies around landscape design, which really centred around integrating nature with the home.

CO: He never could have imagined that one of his buildings would so completely integrate the building with the garden, I guess, eh?

KS: Exactly. And that's really what Martin was so excited by.

CO: So we don't just see vegetation and trees and plants, we hear them, right? This is key to this. Martin Roth has done this... this kind of technology where he's actually recording the sounds of these plants. We're just going to have a little listen to a recording of corn plants that he created an installation in 2015. So here is that.

SOUNDCLIP

[sound: a sort of bright, expansive chime that almost sounds like wind chimes as a gentle breeze rustles through them. Pairs nicely with a merlot.]

CO: OK, what is going on with that technology?

KS: Well, I really learned about this through Martin, of course. Essentially, it's a sensor that clips onto the leaf of the plant and another sensor that connects to its roots. And the way he described it to me very beautifully was that it amplifies the... the heartbeat of the plant. But, you know, plants have these kind of frequencies, and this technology essentially converts the energy, I guess you could say, of the plant into a musical note. And so that's what you're hearing. So we're not sure actually exactly what this will sound like, but we will have sensors on several different plants in the garden. So when you enter, there will be some kind of similar kind of ambient sounds. And that's... that's the... the plants forming an orchestra, so to speak.

CO: You have had to piece this together with... from Martin's drawings, conversations, things that he said before he died. How does it feel to finally bring his project to life?

KS: Yeah, it's... it's been an emotional roller coaster, really from the beginning. Because when he proposed the project, I just absolutely loved it. And, you know, this building is right in the centre of a lot of, you know, activities. So it's something that we see every day living here. So the fact that he chose this building was also really important to me and to the community here. And then, on top of it, just the concept is just really emotional and beautiful. And then, of course, we lost Martin. He was such a visionary artist, you know? When you would experience his work, I think it has an immediate sort of emotional impact. And so it's just even more… [chuckling] even more sad to... to, you know, lose him. But really, I just at this point, I just feel, you know, sort of a responsibility to... to finish it for him. And I also really just love it so much. I just really wanted people to be able to experience his vision.

CO: Kelly, it sounds just lovely. And it's nice to speak with you. Thank you so much.

KS: Thank you.

CO: Bye-bye.

CH: Kelly Schroer is an independent curator who is bringing a posthumous installation by artist Martin Roth to life. We reached her in Newburgh, New York.

[music: bright piano]

DL: Zoo Boom

CH: Dateline: Colombo, Sri Lanka.

[music: Dateline theme]

CH: Date Night can be tough when the kids are around. Especially when they're not your kids. And they're accompanied by adults. And they're all staring at you. It's not bad enough that the creatures in zoos have to live in the animal equivalent of an IKEA showroom -- where everything looks "just so", but is actually just so artificial. They also have to spend their days being gawked at by humans. Living this kind of meta-life makes it hard to meet a mate. Let alone to mate with the mate you've met. So it's not hard to see why it was a relief for the animals when the pandemic led to the shutdown of the National Zoological Gardens in Colombo. Because they could finally hook up without an audience. The result is what the New York Times calls a "pandemic baby boom". The paper reports that zoo births went up by an impressive 25 per cent over the past year. Even more impressive, some animals that almost never breed in captivity there reproduced -- including a white peacock, and -- in a rare positive case of a "black swan event" -- a black swan. A zoo official told the Times, "Animals are actually having a less-stress and relaxed time with no people around." Which is proof -- as if we needed it -- that when the zoo got busy, the animals couldn't.

[music: folk]

Part 3: Australia Mystery Man, Argentina Illegal Fishing

JT On Catholic Apology

CH: Justin Trudeau is turning the spotlight onto the Catholic Church. This afternoon in Ottawa, reporters asked the Prime Minister about the church's refusal to share residential school records with survivors. In the wake of the discoveries at the Kamloops residential school, survivors groups are redoubling their demand for what they say is vital information about what they and their loved ones endured. But so far church officials in Canada and Rome remain unwilling. Here's some of Prime Minister Trudeau's response.

SOUNDCLIP

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: As a Catholic, I am deeply disappointed by the position that the Catholic Church has taken now and over the past many years. When I went to the Vatican a number of years ago, I directly asked His Holiness Pope Francis to move forward on apologizing, on asking for forgiveness, on restitution, on making these records available. And we're still seeing resistance from the Church, possibly from the Church in Canada. I think it's going to be a really important moment for all of us, particularly Catholics across the country, to reach out in our local parishes, to reach out to bishops and cardinals and make it clear that we expect the church to take up... step up and take responsibility for its role in this and be there to help in the grieving and the healing, including with records that is necessary. It's something a number of other churches -- the United Church and others have done. It's something we are all still waiting for the Catholic Church to do.

TONDA MCCARLES: You say it's up to Catholics to pressure the Church to release those documents. Your government has the documents and copies of many of them. Why not rescind any agreements that give the churches a say in their release? Why not compel disclosure?

JT: I think if... if it is necessary, we will take stronger measures. But I think the pressure that we've seen by many Catholics like myself over the course of the past many days, wondering why the Catholic Church in Canada is silent, is not stepping up, is not showing the leadership that, quite frankly, is supposed to be at the core of our faith. Of forgiveness, of responsibility, of acknowledging truth, these are things that I am very hopeful that the Catholic Church will very soon change its approach on. And if it doesn't, as you say, Tonda, we have tools that we can use. Because truth is at the heart of understanding our past and preventing further damage to the future -- that's why it was called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. And we need to have truth before we can talk about justice, healing and reconciliation.

CH: That was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responding to a question from Tonda McCharles of the Toronto Star.

[music: horns!!!]

Australia Mystery Man

Guest: Derek Abbott

CH: For more than a decade, Derek Abbott has been fascinated by the case of an Australian mystery man. What we know is that the man was well-dressed. He had a half-smoked cigarette sitting on his collar, as if it had fallen out of his mouth. And he was dead -- found lying on Somerton Beach, just south of Adelaide, in 1948. There were very few clues as to the man's identity. And in the intervening years, very few more clues have emerged. But now, Mr. Abbott and his wife have edged closer to solving the mystery of the so-called "Somerton Man". Especially after the police exhumed his remains at their request -- for a new examination of his DNA. We reached Derek Abbott in Adelaide.

CO: Derek, are you on pins and needles as you wait to hear the results from this "Somerton Man" 's exhumation?

DEREK ABBOTT: Yes, it's very exciting news, and something I've been waiting for for a long time.

CO: Do you remember how you first learned about him?

DA: Well, I was from, originally from, London in the U.K., and I had not heard of this case at all until about 1995. I happened to be sitting in a laundromat, watching my washing, turning around. And because I was bored, I picked up a magazine and [chuckling] I read an article about it. And so that's the first time I ever heard of it.

CO: And he'd already been dead. The body had been found in 1948. So this is still a mystery and still capturing people's imaginations in Australia all those decades later?

DA: Yes. And it turns out there's kind of like news articles about it here almost every year now. [laughing] My next article that exposed me to it was in 2007, and it had published the so-called secret code the Somerton Man had written on the back of his poetry book.

CO: Uh-huh!

DA: And I thought, hey, this is a good project for my students to maybe not crack this code, but at least test it to see if it actually really is a code or not.

CO: OK, when you talk about the poetry book, this is how... I mean, why Australian police have been baffled by this for so long. He was wearing a suit. He had... his shoes were nicely polished. He was lying on the beach. There was no labels in his clothes. He had no possessions with him. But there were these interesting bits of these clues that were tucked into his clothing. So this is one of them. Can you tell us what they found?

DA: in a tiny little fob pocket in the waistband of his trousers, they found a tiny little piece of paper rolled up that they had missed the first time. And on it was just the printed words "Tamam Shud". And no one knew what that meant at the time, so they published it in the local paper. And someone came forward and said, oh, yes, I know what that is. That's the last words in a book of poetry called "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam". So the police published this and said the piece of paper is printed, and so it's obviously been torn out of the page of the poetry book. Has anybody got a copy of this poetry book with the page torn out? One was handed in, and it matched the torn bits of paper in terms of the weight and texture of the paper and stuff. And they were convinced this was the right copy.

CO: Right!

DA: And... and on the back, mysteriously, were two or three phone numbers and some strange letters pencilled in on the back cover that looked like some sort of secret code.

CO: SOh, what secret code did you think that was?

DA: Well, no one was ever able to crack it back then. And not even the secret services and people like that had a go at it. [hearty chuckle] So I said this is a project for my students to perhaps not crack the code, but at least see if we could determine if it was even a code in the first place. We tried all the kind of known World War Two-type codes that were known at the time. And we came to the conclusion that it wasn't a code. In fact, it's the first letters or words of the English language. So it's like a... it's like a huge acronym. Some people do that as a kind of memory jogger. So [dry chuckle] we... we came to the conclusion it was nothing of importance.

CO: But what was important was that somehow all of this led to you meeting your wife or the woman who would become your wife?

DA: Correct. Because one of the phone numbers on the back of the book happened to be a lady that lived five minutes' walk from where the man was found dead. She had trained as a nurse. She had a child out of wedlock who was about one years old at the time. Her name was not published in the papers, but I was able to figure out her identity. But by the time I found out who she was and how to contact her, she had already died two years earlier. So I'd just missed her. So I thought, well, does she have any descendants? And found that she had a son, a male ballet dancer. By the time I figured out his name and how to contact him, he had just died two months earlier, so I just missed him again. So following down the same investigative path, I said, oh, well, does he have any descendants? Luckily, she was alive -- his daughter -- and I interviewed her. And this wasn't planned, but the following day, we decided to get married.

CO: Just like that?

DA: Isn't that a weird twist? [both laughing]

CO: I suppose it is strange. [DA laughs] OK, so all this was destined, maybe that was the whole purpose of this if there was some kind of invisible hand here. The man on the beach has led you to this place. But now, of course, you want to find out who he is. So do you think that you'll find out that perhaps the man on the beach is related to your wife?

DA: That was a hypothesis because my wife's father was born out of wedlock and was a year old at the time the Somerton Man was found dead. His mom, the lady who the Somerton Man had a phone number of, was very evasive with police and claimed she had no knowledge of the guy. And it's all a bit strange. So you kind of join the dots and think, hmm. I let the facts speak for themselves. And I think once DNA is extracted from the exhumed body of the Somerton Man, we will know the truth one way or another.

CO: Wow, that's quite something. We'll leave it there, Derek. And I hope you get your answers.

DA: Thank you very much.

CO: Bye-bye.

DA: Bye.

CH: Derek Abbott is a professor at the University of Adelaide. He's been investigating the mystery of the "Somerton Man" for over a decade. We reached Mr. Abbott in Adelaide, Australia.

[music: Hip-hop]

Chantel Moore Annivarasy

CH: In New Brunswick today, Chantel Moore's friends and family are wearing yellow shirts and dresses to mark one year since her death. On June 4th, 2020 an RCMP officer shot and killed the Tla-o-qui-aht woman during a wellness check, initiated by a call from her concerned ex-boyfriend. For Chantel's mother -- Martha Martin -- it was the beginning of a year that would only get worse. In November, her son, Mike Martin, died by suicide at a correctional centre in Surrey, B.C. Today, Ms. Martin says she has unanswered questions about both her children's deaths -- and especially about police actions the day Chantel was killed.

SOUNDCLIP

MARTHA MARTIN: You know, how does... how to somebody end up losing their life, you know, being fatally taken the way she was, you know, she had three shots to the back, two in the chest. Her leg was completely broken at the bottom. You know, what kind of wellness check is this? I think, you know, for transparency, what are we asking? Do we... do we need to push harder for all of our police to be wearing body cams so that they are accountable for their actions? I think, you know, that's the biggest part is how do we hold them accountable for their actions? And what are they willing to do to be transparent so that people will have trust in them again?

NICOLAS STEINBACK: How do you... would like to see this tragic event change this province or... or Canada?

MM: It's not only our province. You know, I did some summer reading. And, you know, there's... there's other names that they’re indigenous people who have lost their lives last year. Eishia Hudson on April 8th, 2020. Jason Collins, April 9th. And these two shootings were taken... were done in 12 hours of each other. And this was in Winnipeg. Another young fellow, Stuart... Stuart Andrews, April 18th of 2020. Everett Patrick, April 20th of 2020. We have another young fella, Abraham Natanine, on May 5th of 2020. I mean, these are... there's no ending to this list. You know, we have another young lady, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, on May 27 of 2020, my daughter on June 4th, and Rodney Levi on... so it's not only in New Brunswick that this change has to be, you know, addressed. It has to be addressed across the country, not just here, but across our country.

CH: Martha Martin's daughter Chantel Moore was shot and killed by a police office in Edmundston, New Brunswick one year ago today. Ms. Martin spoke with Radio-Canada's Nicolas Steinbach ahead of the anniversary.

[music: acoustic guitar]

Argentina Illegal Fishing

Guest: Marla Valentine

CH: The boats approach the waters of Argentina. And then...they disappear. They don't literally become invisible, of course. But the fishing vessels do disappear from all electronic tracking systems. An international non-profit called Oceana decided to investigate. It researched the behaviour of hundreds of ships over the past three years, and found they came from as far away as China and Spain. And as many of the ships approached Argentina's fishing grounds, they vanished from radar. Marla Valentine is an ecologist with Oceana. She led the investigation into what, exactly, these fishing vessels have been doing. We reached her in Washington, D.C.

CO: Marla, what do these fishing fleets actually do in order to go dark?

MARLA VALENTINE: Each of these fishing vessels is equipped with a device known as an automatic identification system. And these transponders were developed for maritime safety to keep vessels from running into each other and... and other objects. And so it's actually a fairly simple matter to turn your device off. It's just a little switch. And then, all of a sudden, we don't know where you are or any information about your activity.

CO: And what's your understanding as to why these fishing fleets are doing that?

MV: There are a number of reasons to turn off your vessel's automatic identification system, including personal safety of your vessel in a dangerous scenario. But there is a more sinister reason to disable this tracking device, and that is to conduct activities that are potentially illegal, such as fishing in an area where you would not otherwise be authorized to fish.

CO: What have you learnt as to what they are doing around Argentina's exclusive economic zone?

MV: In a three-year period, we saw close to 800 vessels conducting 900,000 hours of fishing, which is an astronomical amount. Just a third of that fishing is more than some countries do in an entire year. There were Chinese vessels that were squid jigging. These vessels run out huge lights behind their vessels, and they bring up squid from the depths and then catch them by the tons with nets and lines. And then there were also trawlers primarily from Spain and Korea. And these trawlers drag these massive, sometimes football-sized field nets behind their vessels and just catch everything they come across. And sometimes these can be very damaging to the habitat if they drag along the bottom because it will tear up anything that... that happens to be there.

CO: And as you know, these kinds of practices in some cases are illegal, but certainly damaging are not new. So what is it that your report is revealing that we didn't know before?

MV: One thing that was really surprising to us was the number of times that vessels were going dark. So we detected over six thousand instances of vessels turning off their tracking devices within one nautical mile of Argentina's exclusive economic zone. And the time that these tracking devices were off added up to 600,000 hours in which we don't know what their activity was. Were they crossing into Argentina's EEZ to fish illegally? Were they encountering other vessels and exchanging their catch? There's no way of knowing what these vessels are up to. And there's also very little reason for them to be hiding their activity if it were not for suspicious reasons.

CO: What's your greatest fear as to what these fishing fleets are doing to the stock that's in that region, and that is part of that... I guess that... that food chain?

MV: The primary target of these fleets were squid. And that is a key component to the diet of many species, such as tunas and sharks and sea lions and whales. And so, without this food, these organisms are going to have to travel farther and farther afield trying to find the resources that they need to live and reproduce successfully.

CO: these instances where these vessels went dark, you said 6,000. You are actually able to determine what countries these fleets are principally coming from, right?

MV: Yes, absolutely. There were over 400 Chinese fishing vessels in this area, followed by vessels from Korea and Spain. And then, we had a number of vessels that were actually classified as unknown because the vessels will have input false information into their tracking devices to hide their origin and identifying information.

CO: Is there anything that Argentina can do to prevent this?

MV: Well, I know that Argentina is actively engaged in enforcing their waters, their Coast Guard, their Navy. They have satellite flyovers to identify where these fishing vessels are. But the oceans are really vast. A few fishing boats in one location can be exceptionally hard to see. When the vessels are on the outside of Argentina's EEZ, what they're doing is not illegal, although it is a very fine line between what is legal and what is sustainable and responsible.

CO: So have they actually tried to stop these vessels? Have there been instances where the Argentine authorities, the maritime authorities, have tried to intervene?

MV: There's numerous stories in the past few years of Argentina's fleet engaging with vessels that have crossed into their waters. And these stories are what initially inspired my team of data analysts to investigate more deeply the story happening in this region.

CO: And so what is Argentina... how is it responded to your... your report?

MV: Well, I'm hoping that they will take the data that we have provided. Our data does include very specific locations of where these fishing vessels are acting year after year. And if we can narrow down specifically where the vessels are going to be, it's much easier to target enforcement in these regions.

CO: Is enforcement actually possible?

MV: I think so. It's more sort of a matter of hide and seek. If we know where they're hiding, then it's easier for these vessels to be removed from the waters or fined.

CO: But they're doing a pretty good job of hiding, aren't they?

MV: Well, it's very hard when there's several hundred vessels that are doing the hiding. You can target maybe the most dense of the areas. But certainly, catching all of them would be difficult.

CO: All right, Marla, very interesting. We'll leave it there. Thank you.

MV: All right. Thank you so much.

CH: Marla Valentine is Oceana's illegal fishing and transparency campaign manager. She was in Washington, D.C.

[music: Hip-hop]

“Ideas” Promo: Cornelia Oberlander

CH: Tonight on "Ideas": the life and work of pioneering landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. Ms. Oberlander died in May, in Vancouver. She was a hugely important figure in the field of green design. She created the atrium of the New York Times building, the rooftop garden of the Vancouver Public Library, and the beautiful grounds of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. Cornelia Hahn Oberlander escaped Nazi Germany when she was 18. From tonight's episode, here she is reading a letter from her grandmother, just before she left the country.

SOUNDCLIP

CORNELIA HAHN OBERLANDER: Now, I will try and translate it. In your dreams, you are thinking of gardens that you have created. Fine columns with thick clematis growing on it, a little summer house and lots of roses. You will create these gardens out of many memories. Everything that is beautiful, you will find and you will bring that into your garden. You have to bring beauty into everything and the new forms that you will give the land and also the people who use it with your whole heart. Whatever you do in your work will be the seed for the next generation. And that's what I stand for. Isn't that amazing? She wrote that.

CH: That's Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, from tonight's episode of "Ideas" with Nahlah Ayed. You can hear the full episode, after "As It Happens".

[music: indie rock]

Space-out Competition

CH: The...[bit of a pause…] Sorry. Just … zoned out there for a sec. And, actually, it was kind of nice. We're always making our brains do stuff. Well, not me but most of us. The inadvertent zone-out may just be a brain's way of saying it needs us to be a bit more advertent about the whole thing. Giving our overtaxed meat computers some real down-time -- so they can just wander like free-range chickens, scratching and pecking where they pleases. Laying their... idea eggs...or whatever. Look, don't overthink it. That's the whole point. It's also the whole point of South Korea's annual Space-out Competition during which competitors gather -- typically, amid the hustle and bustle of city life -- and proceed to do as little as possible. Keeping their bodies still as they let their minds roam free. According to organizers, "Traditionally, there has been a conception that spacing out is kind of a waste of time. However, this misconception needs to change…" And so, over the course of 90 heart-slowing minutes of non-adrenaline-filled competition, contestants' heart rates are monitored. Slow and steady -- but not asleep -- wins the race. Late last month 2021's new champion was crowned, leaving the other 30 or so other hopefuls -- well, totally relaxed. Because just competing was a weight off their minds.

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June 4, 2021 Episode Transcript

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