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The AIH Transcript For February 15, 2022

[hosts]Carol Off, Chris Howden[/hosts]

CAROL OFF: Hello, I'm Carol Off.

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

[Music: Theme]

Prologue

CH: Tonight:

CO: Emergency, measured. Canada's Justice Minister David Lametti makes the case for his government's decision to pull the rip-cord on the country's Emergencies Act.

CH: Get your Act together. Conservative Emergency Preparedness Critic Dane Lloyd says the Prime Minister is trying to punish people for what they think. But his own party has questions to answer about the protests too.

CO: Hello sailor! A teacher in New Hampshire and her former students are flabbergasted when a miniature sailboat they built as a class project in 2020 turns up extremely far from home.

CH: Electric Avenue. A stretch of road in Detroit serves as the first North American test of a project that could charge up electric vehicles while they drive on it.

CO: Absolutely Feb-ulous. Some of you took exception to our story last night, describing the extreme and obvious awfulness of February. We'll hear your spirited, if misguided, defenses.

CH: And… uke can't do that on television. Australia's Prime Minister attempts to sweeten his public image by banging out a '70s hit on the ukulele -- only for the band whose song he played to accuse him of being tone-deaf.

CH: As It Happens, the Tuesday edition. Radio that wishes him better pluck next time.

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Emergencies Act: Minister David Lametti, Emergencies Act: Conservative, New Hampshire Small Boat Found

Emergencies Act: Minister David Lametti

Guest: David Lametti

CH: David Lametti is going to have to make his case. Mr. Lametti is Canada's Justice Minister. Yesterday, his government broke the glass on the Emergencies Act -- the law that's supposed to be the last-ditch tool of a Canadian government dealing with extreme crises or existential threats. But everyone from provincial premiers to the opposition Conservatives is questioning whether a protest that began with a group of disgruntled truck drivers is really the crisis that the law's authors had in mind. We reached Justice Minister David Lametti in Ottawa.

CO: Minister Lametti, I know that you know the law, but just for our listeners to set this up, that this law is used when there is an urgent and critical situation that seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians. And is such of a nature that it exceeds the capacity of authorities or the province to deal with it. And that cannot be dealt with under existing laws. Have you met that bar?

DAVID LAMETTI: I think we have. The blockades at various locations across Canada, in addition to the threats, to resist measures to remove those blockades, including by force, combined with the impact that this is having on the lives of people, on the security of people, on critical infrastructure, on the Canadian economy. The fact that it's being done to achieve a political or ideological objective. And the fact that, you know, although the federal government has been supportive and the RCMP, in particular, has been supportive, it is beyond the capacity of any one province or the provinces to do it on their own. There's an international dimension to this.

CO: Right. But can I just stop you there? Because you said that there's… beyond the capacity. We just saw the Ambassador Bridge was cleared using existing laws. It took maybe a few more days than people wanted, but was done without any… anyone being hurt. We've seen Alberta, where there's another blockade. The premier says that he doesn't need or want this act to be invoked. Doesn't it just come down really to Ottawa? And where we're seeing police who have been unable or unwilling to police a situation with civilians out of control?

DL: Well, not merely that. I mean, let's go back to the Ambassador Bridge. It was done with American tow trucks. And that is something that we are specifically targeting, the ability to… to commandeer those tow trucks because so far there has been resistance. The financing of it, as as we are beginning to know, a majority of it is coming from other places. And so we're going to need to take measures. And again, this is exactly what we're targeting in the… in the act. We're targeting measures to freeze those funds and make it more difficult for this to be organized. What we're doing, Carol, with this act is we are giving those police authorities who have the operational independence to enforce the law. We're giving them additional laws. We're giving them additional tools and resources precisely to address the issue. We're not displacing police of jurisdiction. We're supplementing them with additional laws and the resources of the RCMP. And we're making sure that we were collectively to fix this problem.

CO: Okay, but a lot of people, observers, have been saying that the police haven't used the tools they have. We've watched for weeks with fuel being taken to trucks, tickets not being issued, insurance not being revoked. You had tools. There were tools in the toolbox that never got used. So… so now you say we need more tools to deal with this when police haven't been using the ones they've got.

DL: We… we have in our… in our tradition in Canada, and I'm proud of it, a distinction between operational decision making, which we leave to the police, and political decision making, which… which we leave to politicians, elected politicians like… like myself and my government. We, as politicians, have to make sure that we provide all the means necessary, whether they be laws and other norms or the other kinds of resources that will need to be brought to bear on this kind of situation. And I think as a government, this is precisely what we are doing here. We're doing it because we have to. This is an important moment in Canadian history. I think the threat of serious violence is... is real. I think the threat to critical infrastructure is real. And people's lives and their economic well-being is also threatened. And so we have to act.

CO: I'm just wondering about the precedent set by using the Emergencies Act? We saw… we've seen the Harper government, the Kenney government, both saying that there are threats to the resource industry in Alberta by foreign funding. And using tools that they've got to… to… to go after environmental NGOs. Are you concerned that you're setting a precedent with going after the foreign funding of protest movements?

DL: Well, I think… I think we're looking at the way in which the funding has been done, and we're shining a light on it. One of the things that is… I… look, I'll be honest with you, nobody likes to use the Emergencies Act, right? And as an attorney general, I hesitate. But one of the advantages of it is it's transparency. All of what we do in these emergency orders will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. It will be subject to parliamentary approval. And will be subject to an inquiry afterwards. So everything that we do will be looked at under full light in the fullness of time, and the parliamentary… parliamentary proceedings will happen pretty quickly. And so I'm confident that… Carol, that… that will act as a counterbalance to the kinds of very legitimate concerns that you've just raised. We're not trying to hide anything with this. We're just trying to make sure that people in various parts of the country can live in security, that our economy can function, that our supply chains can function and that people aren't deprived of essential goods or services because of what amounts to an occupation in certain parts of the country.

CO: We will leave it there. Minster Lametti, I appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

DL: And thank you, Carol, for all your years. I'm a listener, and I really appreciate this, and I'm really honoured to have spoken to you today.

CO: Oh, thank you, sir.

CH: David Lametti is Canada's Justice Minister.

Emergencies Act: Conservative

Guest: Dane Lloyd

CH: Within seven days, the government must get Parliamentary support to uphold the Emergencies Act. The Opposition Conservatives haven't said for sure which way they'll vote. But today in Question Period, Dane Lloyd, the party's Emergency Preparedness critic, accused the prime minister of using the act to "punish Canadians who, in his words, hold unacceptable views." We reached Dane Lloyd in Ottawa.

CO: Mr. Lloyd, what message did you want to send with your remarks today in the House?

DANE LLOYD: Well, I wanted to send a message of concern. I think Canadians are very concerned that the Emergencies Act, which has never been invoked in our country's history, is being invoked. They're being told by the government that they'll be freezing the bank accounts of Canadians who supported protests. And I think there's a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. But when we're talking about freezing people's bank accounts for donating to political causes the government disagrees with, I think we're treading on very dangerous territory in our country.

CO: And what message do you think that… that you're sending or did you want to send to the protesters themselves?

DL: Well, you know, I'm sending a message to all Canadians, not necessarily to the protesters, but you know that we will stand up for the basic rights, the rights of Canadians. And that we're not going to just let this government impose this Emergencies Act without being held accountable. And that's what we intend to do is hold them accountable.

CO: The rights of Canadians to what?

DL: Well, the rights of Canadians to peacefully protest. Of course, we think the blockades should come down. But anytime you have a government talking about seizing the bank accounts of Canadians, they haven't been really clear. But it appears they're talking about seizing the bank accounts of people that may have donated to the convoy many weeks ago before we've seen what it's become right now. And I find it very concerning that the government is contemplating this course of action.

CO: Just tell us a bit about the change that you said that the blockades have to come down. We've seen a tremendous amount of support from people in your party for the… the protesters, for the blockades. We've seen the interim leader, Candice Bergen, has supported the truckers. We've seen Pierre Poilievre say that he stands with the truckers. We've seen Andrew Scheer say the same thing. And so what is it that's changed your mind about this?

DL: Well, on my… my mind has not changed on this. And I think we need to draw a clear distinction. It's not about supporting protests or not supporting protests. Canadians have the right to protest. But what I can say is that we've always been consistent, that we do not support blockades. We didn't support blockades when back in 2020, they were blockading rail lines or blockading pipelines. And we don't support blockades when they're blocking, you know, critical infrastructure junctures at our border. And I was very pleased to see before the implementation of the Emergencies Act that police forces using the powers that they have at their disposal were able to de-escalate the situation. And now we've seen the blockades at Coutts, and the Ambassador Bridge have dissipated.

CO: I'm just looking at your… your own newsletter. And back in… almost exactly two years ago when there were protests against the… Indigenous people were having. And you said, I support people's right to protest. But as soon as I heard these people were blocking rail lines, ports, trying to prevent people from getting to where they need to go, getting to work, really disrupting in a critical way our economy, it really angered me. Do you feel the same way about how people are disrupting the lives of those in Ottawa?

DL: Well, I think, you know, I've been… I've been very clear, and the question that you asked earlier is that we don't support blockades. You know, people --

CO: No, I'm sorry, sir. I understand you're not supporting the blockades. But in this case, you just talked about how disruptive this has been for the lives of people in Ottawa. They can't get to work. They can't live their lives. So I'm asking you if you see the situation they are going through differently than the way you saw things in 2020?

DL: Well, yes, like anytime there's blockades, I don't support that. But, you know, fundamentally, Canadians have a right to protest. Ottawa, the Parliament Hill, is a place where Canadians protest. I was pleased to see that Mayor Jim Watson, you know, has come to a compromise where the truckers have moved their trucks out of residential areas. I think that's incredibly positive. I think we need to balance people's fundamental right, freedom of expression, with the right of people to, you know, have quiet enjoyment and living in their neighbourhoods. And so it's all about it's not an either/or argument. We need to find a way that we can come to… to a balance on this, where people can have a reasonable right to express their views in our nation's capital. But at the same time, ensuring that you know, folks who are living in some of the residential areas in downtown Ottawa have the ability to, you know, live their lives and without too much interruption.

CO: Right. And so, you're saying this now after three weeks. And we have seen in recent days, Pierre Poliievre say, I'm proud of the truckers. I stand with them. We've seen the same thing, Andrew Scheer giving the thumbs up. We have seen Candice Bergen. We've seen other members of your party until within recent days giving their support and encouragement to those who are in… in the downtown part of Ottawa, disrupting people's lives. So how do you think that plays for… for those who have been listening to leaders, people, principal players of the Conservative Party, giving support to those who are conducting themselves in this way in the city of Ottawa?

DL: Well, the thing is… is that the, you know, my colleagues who are… who are supporting are supporting, they're sympathizing with the goals of the outcomes. We want to see a plan for mandates to end. We don't want to see blockades that disrupt people's lives. And so what we're saying is, is that, you know, you have a right to protest. We want to see movement on the issue. That is your concern. And as for the three weeks, I mean, I agree, three weeks is a long time. The people of Ottawa have been impacted by this. But we have to ask not what the opposition parties have done to this, but what have the parties that are in power at the municipal level, at the provincial level and the federal level? How could they have allowed this situation to continue on for three weeks, and they're only just taking action now?

CO: Woah, woah, woah. They've been taken… there's been the Emergency Act in Ontario, Emergency Act in Ottawa. And, again, I'll quote more from your 2020 newsletter. You said, when we don't take strong stands, we are emboldening those radical activists and their allies to flaunt the rule of law. So isn't Justin Trudeau now taking exactly the kind of strong stand that you were advocating back in 2020?

DL: Well, I mean, back in 2020, I wasn't advocating for the use of the Emergencies Act. Government has the tools at their disposal. They need… they need to enforce the law. And they're just pulling the Emergencies Act right now because Canadians have seen how ineffectual this Liberal government has been, how ineffectual the Liberal prime minister has been. And so they're trying to pull out this emergency act in order to look like they're doing something about this. But really, they've failed.

CO: We will leave it there. Mr. Lloyd, thank you.

DL: Thank you very much.

CH: Dane Lloyd is a Conservative MP and the party's Emergency Preparedness Critic. He was in Ottawa. And the action in Canada's capital wasn't restricted to politicians and protesters. Today, Peter Sloly stepped down as Ottawa chief of police. Chief Sloly had faced widespread criticism for the service's handling of the protest. Canada's Emergency Preparedness Minister, Bill Blair, used to be Toronto's Chief of Police. Here's how he responded to the news.

SOUNDCLIP

BILL BLAIR: I've known Chief Sloly for 25 years. I worked with the man. He's a… he's a fundamentally decent man faced with a very difficult job. And… and frankly, I'm very saddened by this turn of events. At the same time, I think there's… there is an important job yet to be done to restore order and… and… and… and provide effective policing services to the people of Ottawa. And I spoke to the mayor a little earlier. And you know, we're all committed to ensuring that we serve appropriately the people.

REPORTER: What is your understanding about why he resigned at this time in the middle of a crisis?

BB: I have no insight into that.

REPORTER: What impact do you think it's going to have on the handling of it?

BB: I think the institution of policing is important to the community. I think the people of Ottawa need the delivery of effective police service, and I'm going to do everything we can as a government to support the city of Ottawa to ensure that the RCMP, the OPP and other police services are here to help the Ottawa Police Services do the job. Again, I don't have any insight into the internal workings of of the city or the police services, but we are all committed to do what is required.

[crosstalk]

BB: One at a time.

REPORTER: Who is in charge? Who is in charge right now of dealing with the situation on the street? And are you confident that the Ottawa police is in good hands?

BB: The Ottawa Police Service, the city of Ottawa and the Ottawa Police Service, are responsible for policing the community. However, I believe that all three orders of government: the federal government, the provincial government and the municipal government have a responsibility to this country and to the people of Ottawa. And so I've had that conversation with… with… with the mayor this morning. I know my colleague is speaking to the province. We'll make sure that all three orders of government step up and do what is required.

REPORTER: I don't hear you saying you… yes, you have confidence that the Ottawa police can handle this right now.

BB: I have confidence in the institution of policing. And… and in… in the power of the law to… to help bring resolution. We brought forward some pretty important measures yesterday that I think give us some very significant tools.

CH: Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair speaking to reporters in Ottawa after learning that Police Chief Peter Sloly had resigned.

[Music: Indie rock]

New Hampshire Small Boat Found

Guest: Sheila Adams

CH: When you teach Grade Five, you know that the best-laid lesson plans often go wildly awry. So finding creative ways to engage your tween students can be a serious challenge. Sheila Adams taught Grade Five science, and she's been in that boat before. She's also been near a boat: the miniature sailboat she and her students built in 2020, which they released into the ocean. Now, a year and three months later, their ship has come in -- after a long journey. We reached Ms. Adams in Hampton, New Hampshire.

CO: Sheila, can you tell us where did this sailboat end up?

SHEILA ADAMS: It ended up in a small island off of Norway, about the middle of Norway.

CO: And who found it?

SA: We had to try to find someone that would go find it. We knew it landed there, according to our GPS. So we actually reached out to someone that owned a rental property, who then turned it on to a Facebook group and said, can anyone go to this latitude and longitude and try to find it? And a family volunteered to go get it as soon as their son came home from school. And they thought it was across the way from their house. And sure enough, they went over there and found the remains of our boat.

CO: [both laughing] What was your reaction when you heard that at least some of the remains had made it all the way to Norway?

SA: I was totally surprised. At one point, the GPS reading looked like it was going to go towards Iceland. And then we lost track of it for quite some time. And then when we saw it on the island, it's like, well, great, it made it there. But now we really want it to… someone to find it and take it to a school.

CO: Okay. Just… let's just go back and go through the assignment that this began as. Because this is for your class, right?

SA: Yes!

CO: So what did… what were you trying to teach the students at that point?

SA: Well, we had done a school-wide project earlier on boats, and I really wanted the students to find an interactive way to learn more about ocean currents, the weather, convection and also include math. And we were also studying social studies and history and the explorers' routes. And then, you know, it doesn't hurt to learn more about geography, too. [chuckles]

CO: So you actually built a little sailboat?

SA: Yeah, it's about five feet long. It was actually premade, but we had to put the pieces together.

CO: Okay, so not… it's five feet. So that wasn't little. That was… [both chuckling] that was a --

SA: No!

CO: Okay. And what… what was it? Just the boat? And where… did you send a message? Was it kind of a message in a bottle here?

SA: It is kind of a message in a bottle. We put things in the cargo hold and then sealed it up. And then the key point was to try to find a ship that could take it out for us. If we put it out where we live, we're on the continental shelf, and it would just come right back to us. So we were trying to find a ship that would take it out, possibly in the Gulf Stream. The ship took it to the middle of the Gulf Stream, and it's a living classroom, so it's a tall ship. So the students were engaged in it all. And they deployed our boat along with another boat of this exact same type, and we watched the two of them sail off, watching the GPS coordinates on a map.

CO: How did the kids feel about that?

SA: They were enjoying it and watching… every day we watched where it went. They would call it up. Some students would watch it at night to see where it pinged. It pinged every six hours. And students would come in in the morning and say, did you see where it is today? And then sometimes, it didn't ping because the satellite did not receive any signals, so we assumed it was upside down. So we learned about disappointments.

CO: Right! [both laughing] At one point, you thought you'd lost it, right? So when did you realize that you hadn't lost it?

SA: The last ping was in September 30th, and then we heard nothing until January 30th.

CO: Wow!

SA: So, just two weeks ago.

CO: And what happened, do you think, in between?

SA: Well, we're fairly certain that it lost its sail at some point and lost the keel and then just floated. And we're not sure how it got into the middle of these islands, either? So there might have been a high tide that… or a storm that pushed it. During the summer, we know there was lots of hurricanes or big storms, so we wish we had a camera on it.

CO: But you didn't. So at one point, you thought you didn't have it. And then, just in January, how did the kids feel when you got a ping, and you realized it was still going?

SA: Well, I actually am retired now. But I went back into school and had told them individually what was happening. And we actually had video of them retrieving it from the family. They documented everything, and they took it to a school, and we showed them what happened at school when they opened it, too. So it's been very exciting, [chuckling] needless to say.

CO: Now, what is left of the boat?

SA: It's just the cargo hold that had the GPS in it. And fortunately, it landed right side up in order to give its last signal.

CO: [chuckling] But you would put things in the cargo hold. What was there?

SA: Well, the students decided to put in descriptions of where we lived, maps, we wrote a letter in French and in Spanish just in case. We also had stickers of our school, a COVID mask with all of our names on it. We took autumn leaves and pressed them in wax paper. We had some 3D printed items, and we had some coins.

CO: Oh, that's lovely! But you didn't put any messages in Norwegian? [laughing] You didn't think that's what you'd need?

SA: [laughing No! No, didn't anticipate that. [laughing]

CO: Wow! And so, what did the students there who received the boat, when they opened it up, what did they think of the cargo?

SA: Well, one of the things that they were hoping for was having money inside. They thought it would be a treasure. So when they found the coins, they were a little happy about that. [CO laughs] But they were very excited. They… and the Norwegian TV was there while they were opening it up. It was very exciting for everyone.

CO: Will there be an opportunity for your students, or your former students, to actually speak with those in Norway who got the boat?

SA: This Thursday, we're doing a video chat. We're six hours time difference, so we're going to do it right as we get to school, and they are going to do it after school.

CO: Wow, that's so exciting! Sheila, it's a great story. Thank you.

SA: Thank you.

CO: Bye-bye.

CH: Sheila Adams is a retired teacher. We reached her in Hampton, New Hampshire.

[Music: Funky guitar]

LR: Lousy February

CH: February is pure garbage. Or so we posited yesterday, when we brought you snippets of an epic piece of February-bashing from a report by a St. Louis journalist a few years ago. In his piece, he spoke darkly the bare trees, the general bleakness, and the worn-down look of the sad, sad, February people. Well, some of you didn't take so kindly to that.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: Talkback machine beep]

ALISON: This is Alison from Val-David, Quebec. I wanted to comment on your bashing of the month of February. I've lived through 80 Februaries, [laughing] and I'm so happy to still be alive despite being very, very ill. To see another February is a great treat for me, and I want to tell you why. Because the days are getting longer, first of all. I noticed the dawn coming earlier in the morning and the light shining later in the afternoon. And the other thing is about the trees you mentioned. You have the possibility of seeing much further, especially here like where I live in the Laurentian Hills, up and down the hills, you can see way over the valleys in February because there’s no leaves. And that's a treat. You notice things you wouldn't notice otherwise. And every tree has a special form of its branches. So let's look at the beauty of February and the goodness of it. Also, if we didn't have winter, where would we be living here in the north? We need our four seasons to protect nature and everything else.

CH: And then there's Fred, who took the time to write to us as well. "February is the brightest month," he said in his email. "You have lengthening days gleaming off a mature snow cover. I was out last night with the waxing gibbous Moon, and the midnight was so bright I could see colours. Also, February is the month of anticipation of sugaring, and birds, and frogs... and the green of spring." Well, thank you to Alison and Fred for those responses. You are almost convincing.

[Music: Jazz]

Part 2: Fishing Boat Down, Detroit Electric Vehicles Charging Road

Fishing Boat Down

Guest: Lieutenant-Commander Brian Owens

CH: The mayor of a port town in the Galicia region of northwestern Spain has called it "a tragedy on a scale that we cannot remember." It's one that has connected her country with Newfoundland and Labrador -- whose premier, Andrew Furey, has offered his condolences and said: "Like the people of Spain, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have a historic attachment to the sea. An attachment that is fruitful, but which all too often results in tragedy." In the early morning hours, a Spanish fishing vessel sank off the coast of Newfoundland. As we went to air tonight, three people had been rescued, at least seven people were dead, and more than a dozen were still unaccounted for. Lieutenant-Commander Brian Owens is the senior public affairs officer with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax.

CO: Lieutenant-Commander Owens, just take us back to overnight, and how did your search and rescue team learn that this Spanish fishing vessel was in trouble?

LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER BRIAN OWENS: Shortly after midnight last night, we received a signal from an emergency position indicating radio beacon, commonly referred to as an EPIRB, indicating that there was an issue with a vessel, a fishing vessel. It was approximately 250 nautical miles east of St. John's, Newfoundland, on the Grand Banks. Once we received this notification, we tasked a CH-149 Cormorant helicopter, a Hercules aircraft to search and rescue, a Canadian Coast Guard vessel and numerous vessels of opportunity that were already fishing in the local area. These are like local fishermen or commercial vessels that are in the area to assist in the search.

CO: So it was dark. It was night still. What kind of a sea did… did you have?

LCBO: Last night, the indication was that there was reduced visibility, approximately one-quarter nautical mile. And that the seas were approximately four metres. Since that point in time, the visibility has increased to approximately four nautical miles. The winds, though, have increased to 40 Notts. And the seas have grown to five to five and a half metres.

CO: It's not not highly unusual, but that's an… that's not an easy sea to do a search and rescue operation in, is it?

LCBO: No, it's not the ideal conditions. Of course, anyone that has actually been out in the North Atlantic in the wintertime understands that the conditions can go… go this way. They can actually get quite worse than this. So it is a bit of a challenge for the search and rescue organization to look for individuals. But it's not out of the ordinary to see seas like this off the Grand Banks, but certainly does complicate the efforts a little bit.

CO: What did they encounter? What did they find when they got to the place where… where the signal was coming from?

LCBO: When the initial fishing vessels that were closer to the area than our aircraft, they found some debris in the water, and one of the vessels found a life raft. Inside a life raft, they found seven individuals. Four, unfortunately, that had passed away, but three that actually were… were alive. They were brought on board that fishing vessel. Additionally, what they found was debris, lifejackets, buoys, things that would float from a fishing vessel. And the determination was that the vessel had sunk.

CO: When you say seven people, then four of them had passed. What were the conditions? Was it hypothermia, or had they been injured? Do you know anything about how they died?

LCBO: No, I don't. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the medical condition of the individuals. And I wouldn't be able to share that at this point because of the privacy concerns with that. The three individuals that were recovered, they're onboard one of the fishing vessels still right now, you know, getting warm, giving them some food and so on. We haven't received any information as to what transpired before the events to figure out any other sort of causes or any better information as to what transpired. Hopefully, in the near future, we'll be able to get more information from them to determine. And certainly, in the longer term, anyone that does the investigation on this, which wouldn't be our organization, but other federal institutions would investigate this and have a better idea of what transpired.

CO: And since the first discovery, three more people have been found dead at this point. Is that right?

LCBO: That is correct. During the run of our core searching, we found an additional three individuals in the water who have been recovered. And now, the search continues for the remaining 14 individuals.

CO: How many life rafts did you know were… were dispatched?

LCBO: At present, we found two life rafts. One with the survivors inside. The second one was found, but there was nobody inside. It was empty. We haven't received any… received or recovered any other life rafts.

CO: So tragic. And you said that when the rescue operation included vessels of opportunity, you're talking about other fishing vessels. What… can you tell us a bit about those who took part and how they took part in this rescue operation?

LCBO: So this is a common event when a search and rescue occurs that other vessels that are on the water can be anything from tankers, cargo carriers, other fishing vessels, regardless of nationality. If they're in the area, they can be tasked, and most mariners will readily accept the opportunity to help search for one of their colleagues on… in the water. So these two fishing vessels, because we have their known location, we had requested their services, so they immediately started searching the area in vicinity of where the location of the beacon went off. So they were the first to come across the life rafts and recovery of the three survivors. They've remained on station, helping with the search. Obviously, being on the water, they're able to look closely and determine if there was anything in the water of note. And with luck, hopefully, we'll be able to find the remaining 14 individuals?

CO: Were those Canadian fishing vessels?

LCBO: No, they're Spanish fishing vessels.

CO: Okay. And so… but now, we're learning from where most of these fishermen came from, just how tragic this is for that community. And people who fish for a living have great bonds, don't they? And so, what… what are you hearing the reaction of people in Newfoundland Labrador near where this vessel went down?

LCBO: I haven't seen specifically with any reaction, but I, having been involved with the search and rescue community for as long as I have, I can understand the feelings and emotions that are being stirred at this point in time. Regardless of nationality, any professional mariner that's out on the ocean, we know the risks. We understand conditions in the environment. And certainly, when one of our colleagues, our fellow mariners, go missing at sea, it brings back certainly anyone that has passed in the past. But also, certainly, you know, our thoughts go to them. And certainly, we wish you all the best to them for a speedy recovery.

CO: We know that there are people in their home village wanting the news, wanting to know who survived. And so, are you able to know if there will be any more survivors? Is this a rescue operation or, at this point, a recovery operation?

LCBO: This is still a rescue operation. Our focus is search and rescue. We have seen in the past individuals that have gone in the water and survived for many hours. We see this as an opportunity as we continue to search to find these missing individuals. We are not looking at any sort of end to this mission at this point. We're going to search throughout the evening, overnight and tomorrow morning to hopefully find the remaining individuals. The unique opportunity is that at night, we're able to see any sort of strobe lights, any sort of reflective material, any sort of flare. So we're hoping that overnight we'll be able to find some of this debris in the water, hopefully from one of the sailors that has this on them.

CO: Well, I hope you do find them, and you have some success. And Lieutenant-Commander Owens, I appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

LCBO: Thank you.

CH: That was Lieutenant-Commander Brian Owens of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax.

[Music: “Mini-Update” theme]

Mini-Update: Ohio Ice Fishing Huts

CH: Now, an update on a story you heard last week. During an otherwise pedestrian debate about ice fishing safety during a council meeting this month, the mayor of Hudson, Ohio made an ominous suggestion: that ice-fishing huts… could lead to prostitution. Mayor Craig Schubert's non sequitur earned him no small share of ridicule. Especially after a similarly left-field incident last year, when he called for school board members to resign over an optional book in a college-level class at the local high school that he called "child pornography." Well, apparently, the mockery was too much: yesterday, Craig Schubert announced yesterday his resignation -- saying that his attempt to inject some "dry humour" into last week's council meeting has been "grossly misunderstood". Although it may not have been the misunderstanding that was gross.

[Music: theme continues]

Detroit Electric Vehicles Charging Road

Guest: Stefan Tongur

CH: If electric cars are the way of the future, then finding ways to charge them will be too. The standard method is a charging station -- which means we'll have to make a lot more of them. Although there is another possibility: that roads themselves could charge up the vehicles driving on them. The first-ever such road in North America will be part of a pilot project in Detroit. Stefan Tongur is a Vice President at Electreon. He's in charge of the project and has put similar roads in place in Germany, Sweden, and Italy. We reached Mr. Tongur in Los Angeles.

CO: Stefan, can you tell us a little bit about how this technology works?

STEFAN TONGUR: Absolutely. So it works… basically, we put coils underneath the road, so you don't see anything on the road. You can drive any vehicle type on it. If you have a vehicle with our receiver and a subscription, you would be able to charge wirelessly on the road while driving or standing still. So it's… it's wireless induction technology and works seamlessly well with… with the system as we know it.

CO: And can you get a full charge while doing that?

ST: Yeah, I mean, depends on how much you drive on the road. But eventually, you know, we can eliminate range anxiety and… and, you know, deploy it initially for commercial fleets because we know they need to have high utilization on the vehicles, and we know what they drive. But eventually, when the roads are there, yeah, you can charge, you know, going long distances and, you know, charge a full battery on it.

CO: Just describe the stretch that you would drive on in order to get this charge?

ST: So, in this case, we have a mile of road that will have, so it depends on your use case. So, for example, we have a use case in a pilot in Israel where we have one static station at the train station, and then we have a loop going four kilometres to and from the university. And we have 700 metres of dynamic charging, which means we're charging while driving. And that, together with the 10… five to 10 metre stop at the end station, allows you to charge… to operate the bus 24-7 without stopping and charging. So that gives you an idea.

CO: Right. So how does this kind of charging power, how does it… how does… how is it different from charging stations?

ST: Well, in a few different ways. Because in this case, you don't have a plug to, you know, mechanically plug it in. It works seamlessly. So you can… you don't need to… it's automatic, and it's perfectly safe. You don't have any maintain… you know, maintenance is very low on it. So it's just the perfect way of not only stopping still and charging like we, you know, used to fuel your own car, but instead doing it a bit more smart. Because the roads are there, right? So essentially, we're just transforming these roads roads that we have into the charging assets and making it much more compelling to go to large-scale electrification and also support the grid. Because it will be very stressful for the grid when... when every car, you know, we have a low amount of electric vehicles now. And if we… if we hit the targets, I think Canada is 100 per cent electrification in 2050. And we need to have an enabling technology and charging infrastructure that supports that and makes it easier for the grid as well.

CO: Do you have to actually stop your vehicle on this stretch of road, or do you drive along it?

ST: Both! So we bring the charging to when you need it, actually. So if you… if you drive and you need to have the vehicle in operation, we'll… we'll charge it while driving. If you are standing still anyhow, let's say in the taxi queue or at the loading dock or at the garage or a depot, then we can, you know, charge while standing still. So actually, it's both.

CO: So this is a pilot project, right?

ST: That's correct.

CO: How many of these would you need to have in order to make a difference? Because as you point out, there are… it's going to be a lot of demand on the grid when we get to the point where we have a lot of vehicles, maybe half of all the vehicles on the road, being electric. So, how many of these would you need in order to actually make a dent? Make a difference?

ST: So the way we see it, we start with point-to-point traffic where you have the use cases. So if you take buses or... or taxis or grace trucks, those kind of use cases where you have last-mile delivery, where they are regionally kind of separated, and we know where their hub points are, those are easy for us to electrify. And that we can, you know, that's our target now. We do one mile. So when you… we already have five pilots in Europe. So coming to the U.S. now with this project in Detroit, it's more about setting the stakeholders together, the partnerships, bringing the users, demonstrating the benefits of wireless charging and then you can grow from there. So I think this is necessary. We're getting policy behind it. We're getting the industry behind it. We're getting users behind it. So from this, we can grow into more large-scale projects and eventually help, you know, electrify it. Because if we spread the energy over time and space, you know, allowing more charging during the day, that will ease the burden of this kind of large-scale execution, as pointing out. That's our aim: to make it more cost-effective.

CO: Right. But you're not a public utility. So what do you charge to people who are going to use this stretch of road?

ST: Well, the cost is, you know, determined by how many uses in the… in the… on the road stretch. So we haven't… you know, that's a question I will come back to as we see… as we develop the use cases.

CO: Right. So… but how much interest have you seen in municipalities and governments to… to use your technology?

ST: Well, a lot, actually. And this is thing, you know? We started the project, for example, in Israel. We started with… with that pilot. And the bus operator understood what we're doing. So suddenly, now we have a commercial deal of 200 buses. And we are doing the same thing in Sweden and in Germany and in Italy. And, you know, the great thing here in the U.S., we're starting here with great partners and great place. You know, looking forward to the future mobility. And the interest is coming from, you know, lots of different states, a lot of different cities and also other nations. So the interest is there. We just need to, you know, demonstrate the benefits now, get it out there and make sure that we can help address the challenges that we face if we don't have it.

CO: Okay, so now how would your technology work in Canada, where the road is under ice and snow for a good part of the year?

ST: Well, actually, it's… it's pretty simple where I come from. I come from Sweden, and we also have a lot of snow and ice and salt. So, where we've demonstrated… we have a one-mile road there, and the results are very encouraging that, you know, it doesn't have any impact. As long as you don't elevate the vehicle too far from the road, it's… it's pretty, you know, consistent, and it makes it easier because you don't need to maintain the road to get the… and the charging infrastructure seamless. So we see actually kind of an advantage for that. So, yeah.

CO: And do you have… do you have any pilot projects for Canada?

ST: Everything is in the planning, so I think we'll… we'll be happy to… Canada is a leader in climate change policies. And, you know, we're looking forward to doing projects in Canada as well. Hopefully, with great partners.

CO: Okay. We'll leave it there, Stefan. Thank you.

ST: Thank you, Carol. Bye.

CH: Stefan Tongur is a Vice President at Electreon. We reached him in Los Angeles.

[Music: Disco?]

Australian PM Uke!

CH: This week, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government is polling at 34 per cent. His own deputy prime minister apologized for calling him a "hypocrite" and a "liar". Five of his MPs crossed the floor to join the Labor Party. And he played the ukulele on TV. That sounds unrelated, but it's not. On Sunday, the Australian version of 60 Minutes featured a long profile of Prime Minister Morrison. In which the PM was brutally honest about his failings -- such as, that he works too hard, is maybe not that great a cook, and maybe prays for Australia too much. There were tough questions about the extremely ill-advised trip he and his family took to Hawaii in 2019, in the middle of horrifying bushfires at home. Which he addressed by having his wife address them. It was an attempt to make a man known as a political animal seem approachable. Capped off with a scene around the family dinner table, where Mr. Morrison plunked out a tune on the uke.

SOUNDCLIP

SCOTT MORRISON: Everyone knows the chorus. Yeah, take me to the April sun in Cuba. Oh. Take me to the April sun in Cuba. Oh. I can’t remember the words. [laughing]

CH: That was a '70s hit called "April Sun in Cuba" by the New Zealand band Dragon. Or the first line of the chorus, anyway. Some people probably enjoyed it. But judging by social media, a lot of people did not. They've been cranky about some of his recent pre-campaign stunts. Which, in turn, made Mr. Morrison cranky, in an interview with Sydney talk radio station 2GB.

SOUNDCLIP

SM: People were having a crack at me the other day because I went to a hairdressing --

HOST: Oh no! We saw that too. [laughing]

SM: yeah, I know. let me… let me talk. Let me be serious for a minute.

HOST: Okay, but I've got 20 seconds till the news.

SM: Let me finish. what occurred there. I go into workplaces all the time. People show me how to weld. People show me how to do other things in factories and manufacturing plants. These were trainees and apprentices who wanted to show me what they're learning on the job. So if people want to sneer at me for that, [host laughs] if they want to sneer at me for other things like playing the ukulele, fine. They’re sneering and millions of Australians who just get on with their lives and do a great job.

CH: Well, to be fair, unless millions of Australians get on with their lives and do a great job by playing ukulele, then the critics are really just sneering at Mr. Morrison. And those critics include the band Dragon, whose song he played.They issued a statement that reads, "It is a cynical move for a politician to co-opt music in an attempt to humanize themselves come election time. Maybe if his trip to Hawaii had not been cut short, he could have learnt the lyrics to the rest of the chorus.” Ouch. I guess by striking some chords, Mr. Morrison really struck a chord.

[Music: Acoustic guitar]

Part 3: Former Marineland Whales Die, Kindness Week

Manitoba Border Shop

CH: A long-awaited reprieve today for some Manitoba businesses: the RCMP says the blockade at the Emerson border crossing will be over by tomorrow. The Mounties say a resolution has been reached and that demonstrators who've blocked Highway 75 since last Thursday are dispersing. Simon Resch owns a duty-free store near the border. This morning, he talked about the effect the protests have had on his already-struggling store.

SOUNDCLIP

SIMON RESCH: It's feeling pretty desperate, to be honest. The situation at the border since the pandemic began has been desperate. But with the addition of, you know, the trucker convoy and the absolute and total blockade of the southbound and the northbound lanes, what it means for us at the duty-free shop in Emerson is that we haven't registered a sales since last week. That's, of course, on top of the last two years, we've been operating somewhere between five and 20 per cent of our pre-pandemic revenues. And so, a matter of sales for us at this point in time, you know, it's a necessity of life. It's… it's not a luxury. We definitely need them. And as things are, we… we just can't make the sales. I was out there this morning about an hour ago. It looks like the convoy has grown in size. There have been some vehicles added to the southern end of it. I did not see any RCMP or motor carrier division officers on scene, and so it's very concerning. And the situation is, like I said, desperate for us.

MARCY MARKUSA: What was your reaction to the announcement that the federal government is invoking the Emergencies Act?

SR: Thrilled. I was thrilled. I think it's long overdue. You know, it's not just the town of Emerson or the province of Manitoba. It's not the Emerson Duty-Free shop. The Emerson-Pembina Crossing is a major, major trade asset that our nation shares with the United States. We heard our deputy prime minister state yesterday $73 million every day is what our country exchanges with the United States at Emerson alone. You know, it might not seem obvious that there's a threat to our sovereignty or to our trade posture, our foreign policy objectives as a nation when we have a minority group of activists on a highway. I mean, it seems a little bit absurd, but that really is what's going on. Canada cannot realize its trade objectives, its foreign policy objectives if we cannot operate our ports of entry and if we can't manage our border crossings. From a personal perspective, I would ask where the Civil Liberties Association is for me personally? Do I not have the right to earn a living in Manitoba? What… you know, what do I say to my employees when they ask, where's my paycheque going to come from?

CH: Simon Resch owns the Emerson Duty-Free shop near the Canada-U.S border in Manitoba. He was speaking with Marcy Markusa, host of Information Radio.

[Music: Acoustic guitar]

Former Marineland Whales Die

Guest: Naomi Rose

CH: For animal rights advocates, transporting five beluga whales from Marineland in Ontario to an aquarium in Connecticut was never a good idea. The aquarium was given permission to move the whales last year after promising they'd be part of a research project, not public performances. But this week, Mystic Aquarium announced that a second Marineland whale had died. The first whale died last summer. The Animal Welfare Institute has called for an investigation into the deaths. Naomi Rose is the organization's marine mammal scientist. We reached her in Washington, D.C.

CO: Naomi, what was it like to hear that a second beluga whale had died at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut?

NAOMI ROSE: I am distressed. I think this is a real tragedy that these whales are ailing. And not only has another whale died but there's another in intensive care. This isn't good.

CO: And what do you know? So, one's in intensive care. We know another whale died in the summer. So, what do you know so far about the cause of death?

NR: The whale that died in the summer was the only male who was imported, Havoc. And he apparently had some kind of pre-existing condition that was related to gastric abnormalities, gastric ulcers and other abnormalities that may have been exacerbated -- may have been worsened -- by the transport itself. And then he died within three months of the transport. Almost certainly related to the stress of being moved like that. And then, within nine months, we have another whale dead, and that's definitely not normal, and it's not good.

CO: There were… before these animals were moved to Connecticut from Marineland, there were a number of organizations that were… who are trying to stop this movement of the whales. They said that it would be detrimental to their health. Do you think that this move from Marineland to Connecticut was a contributing factor?

NR: Yes. In answer to your last question, absolutely, the move contributed to their condition and led to their deaths, in my opinion. But if they'd been healthy at the time of the move, it would have been a pretty routine procedure. They can still be completely stressed out. It can still lead to problems. But, statistically speaking, they probably would have been fine had they been healthy before the transport. We were among those groups that were opposed to this import. But not simply because we were worried about the stress the animals were going to be subjected to. We were also concerned about the precedent it was setting by allowing these belugas from Marineland who are descended from wild-caught Russian whales. As you may know, they are the offspring of those wild-caught Russian whales. We didn't want to be part of the trade in Russian belugas. We didn't want the U.S. to be part of the trade in Russian belugas.

CO: They were moved there because they said they wanted to do research. They weren't being moved to entertain people. But they said it was research purposes. What do you know about how the whales were used or being treated there?

NR: Well, there is no other option at Mystic but to have them also be on public display. So they were also going to be used to entertain visitors. However, they were imported for research purposes. That's the only legal way Mystic could have brought them into the country because they're descended from those Russian belugas. Those belugas are considered depleted under U.S. law. And the only purpose for which they can be imported is research. Mystic has a reputation as being a research facility. It does, you know, legitimate research. I cite them all the time. But given the health problems these whales apparently had before they were transported, I really don't know what happened here. Why did they transport a whale that had gastric ulcers? It's just a foolish thing to do.

CO: Do you know anything about the conditions the whales were living in when they were still at Marineland?

NR: I've been to Marineland several times. It is a very troubling facility. The facilities are overcrowded. Mystic pointed that out in their application for the permit that they were removing these whales from overcrowded conditions. But that is not the purpose of the import. It wasn't to relieve overcrowding or to rescue these whales from overcrowding. It was for research. So basically, something has to be done in Maryland. It's quite clear now that the whales that were transported were not healthy. So clearly, something's going on in Marineland. But something's going on at Mystic, too, because they shouldn't have brought in unhealthy whales. They should have waited until they had done something at Marineland to bring these whales back to full health before they transported them.

CO: So what do you think should be and should have been done at Marineland? Just to give us a sense of what alternatives there would have been to removing these belugas from the crowded conditions they were in?

NR: Well, one thing is breeding should stop at Marineland, and it has. Because the law has changed in Canada and it does not allow breeding of captive cetaceans anymore. So that's good. Somebody should go in there who has a lot more expertise than Marineland apparently has and try to fix what's broken there because something's broken. If they're brought back to full health, then I think they need to be taken away from Marineland because Marineland isn't taking proper care.

CO: Taken away and to go where?

NR: Well, we are building a sanctuary in Nova Scotia. We being the Whale Sanctuary Project. I'm on the board of that organization. And we are building a sanctuary for cetaceans in Nova Scotia. And I would hope that some of them at least could go there. But we can't take all of them. There's about 40... 40 whales at Marineland. And if you ask me, that's a hoarder situation. You know, like I said, some of them could go to a sanctuary if they were healthy enough. And then the others would have to be distributed amongst public display facilities who, believe me, are anxious to get their hands on belugas. Beluga breeding is… except apparently at Marineland is that just because of the overcrowding, I think they have nothing better to do. Hasn't been terribly successful in North America. So all of the facilities that currently host belugas are eager to acquire some. It's one of the reasons Mystic imported these five. So I think homes could be found for them, but they shouldn't be moved while they're still unhealthy. That is putting them at excessive risk.

CO: Can any of these animals then be released into the wild?

NR: No. The parents, who were wild-caught, they've been in captivity for so long I'm not sure they would survive release. They would also have to be taken back to Russia, which is a fairly expensive proposition. And the rest are captive-born, and they've never known the wild. And so, being a beluga in the wild is a fairly sophisticated job, and these poor animals don't know how to do it. And I'm not sure they could learn. Because we wouldn't know how to teach them. We're not belugas in the wild, either.

CO: Naomi, I appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

NR: Oh, you're welcome. Bye-bye.

CH: Naomi Rose is a marine mammal scientist with the Animal Welfare Institute. We contacted Marineland for a response to Ms. Rose's criticism of its facilities. Marineland sent us a link to a report authored by the park, which is critical of the proposed Whale Sanctuary Project that Ms. Rose mentioned. The report details environmental and economic concerns about the proposed site. Marineland did not respond directly to the issues raised by Naomi Rose.

[Music: Ambient]

Ice Castle

CH: It all started when Steve Kasstan's daughter was six. The Saskatoon man filled some buckets with water, went out in the minus-40 weather, and built an ice castle for her. Sonia is now thirteen, but the tradition has continued -- with varying themes. Over the years, there was a castle with gothic-inspired arches, complete with lighting. A pink castle. And this year, they built two giant rainbow castles in their front yard.

SOUNDCLIP

STEVE KASSTAN: We start it in November. We kind of plan it out. And so, she kind of makes the general plan. So this year was… the plan was to have two castles. And then, on top of that, is to… she picks out the colours. And so, this year we went for it’s kind of like this rainbow theme. So it's an ice castle. They're made out of buckets of ice and slush. It's eight feet tall. The small one is eight feet by eight feet, but kind of like a cube with windows and an arch. And the larger one is about 12 feet wide, with these big, tall walls that you can look through and… and it's bright, it's full of colour.

JENNIFER QUESNEL: That's the thing I noticed from… from far away down the street. It looks like a marshmallow rainbow castle just sort of rises up in your front yard.

SK: Yeah, it's kind of like gumdrops. And I mean, the inspiration for it kind of comes from trying to spend time outside with my daughter in the wintertime, and to find a way to enjoy winter. And so this was one of our ways to do it. And the idea behind the buckets and slush is just we figured it would work. And so, lots of trial and error in terms of making it and figuring out what temperature is good and what type of buckets and stuff to use. The first few years, it was pretty small, maybe two or three feet tall. There is one year I decided just to try and push my luck and try to see, can I build an arch? How… how far… how far can I go? And with that, I kind of realized just how strong ice is and how sturdy it can be. And so it really helped me understand where the limits are.

JQ: How do you get the ice out so cleanly? Like, looking at the actual blocks that make up this castle, it's funny because there's… there's blocks in it they're almost surrounded by what looks like blue raspberry Slurpee.

SK: Yep, exactly!

JQ: [laughing] Which is the slush.

SK: Yeah, it's pretty easy, actually. It's… it's just like getting a popsicle out from like a freeze pop of you just add… you add a little bit of hot water to the bucket and it'll pop right out. [chuckling]

JQ: Wait. There's people like stopping and waving at you.

SK: Oh, yeah. Exactly. Happens all the time. And lots of kids, too. We've had the kindergarten class at the Caswell Community School come by and they do a lesson. They've walked the whole class over and they do a lesson on shapes and colours. And the kids, you can just kind of hear the giggling. And so once I know there's kind of giggling outside, I kind of know someone's visiting.

CH: That was Steve Kasstan speaking with CBC Saskatoon reporter Jennifer Quesnel about the two giant rainbow ice castles in his front yard.

[Music: Folk]

Kindness Week

Guest: Jim Munson

CH: Everyone has their favourite month. February is no one's. Except Alison and Fred, as you heard earlier. And if you had to give a name to the week in the middle of February, especially during nationwide unrest and a global pandemic, we could not say that name on the radio. But it may surprise you to learn that this week does, officially, have a name. I have the Act passed by Parliament right here in front of me: Quote: "Throughout Canada, in each and every year, the third week of February is to be known as "Kindness Week". Unquote. Okay, now Jim Munson has some explaining to do. He's the former senator who brought forward the private member's bill proposing the act. We reached him in Ottawa.

CO: Jim, happy Kindness Week!

JIM MUNSON: Isn't it wonderful to say that? [CO chuckles] And it's the first one that has been legislated. It's law in this country. And it's good to be kind. And I think that we have to have an everyday space for kindness and every day of the year.

CO: I'm sure… you live in Ottawa. You only have to just look around to see what's going on there. We're all looking, watching it on TV. Who knew this was Kindness Week?

JM: I think this is to now more than ever is a time to have to have acts of kindness and acts of tolerance. And there is another face of Ottawa, for example, right now, I'm looking at the Ottawa Rideau Canal. I went skating this morning. I saw children on the canal and people enjoying themselves. And when it comes to acts of kindness, I was thinking of watching a few children skating. And one child fell down and he hurt himself. And the other child skated up behind him quickly and said, are you okay? Are you okay? Can I help you? A simple act of kindness. So I like to focus on those kinds of things as much as we have to accept what's taking place in Ottawa today.

CO: Yes, the acts of kindness, everyday acts of kindness that we see. Like you just mentioned. But what we're seeing in… in… you were in politics, you know what this means to be in a week where we have the Emergencies Act enacted the same time it's supposed to be Kindness Week, so a lot of contradictions right now in a country, right?

JM: Well, I think governments do what they think that they have to do. Remember, I turned 75 last year. And I'm old enough to remember and have covered as a journalist the FLQ crisis in the early ‘70s in Quebec. We saw what took place there, and as a reporter, you saw what was taking place and the government at that time. And Mr. Trudeau invoked what was then called the War Measures Act. It upset a lot of people because of civil liberties. I don't think today we're faced with the same kind of situation. There are people who do have their views and we have to respect the idea of protest. It's a charter…. charter rite. But at the same time, there are other acts of things going on in this town that are perceived by the government as being dangerous to the state. But that doesn't mean that as a society, we can't live with each other and try to… to use the tools that we do have. Because, you know, I think that, and I believe that, kindness is an antidote to hatred.

CO: What does that say to you that we need an act by parliament to remember to be nice to each other?

JM: Well, what it says is that I think we have to be reminded who we really are and what our moral fibre is about, and what our national character is about, and how this nation was built by immigrants, and that we are living in a nation where we've had a lot of opportunity over the years, particularly living through two world wars and… and other serious issues and disasters. That at the end of the day, Canadians can come together. So what it says to me in the sense of… of who we are as a nation. Kindness Days are everywhere in the world. And this wasn't my idea. This… I was simply the messenger for Rabbi Reuben Bulka. And you remember the rabbi at the National Cenotaph every Remembrance Day ceremony who would talk about the gratitude and dignity of all of us. And he had this idea for a Kindness Week. And he came to me and asked me if I would introduce this bill in the Senate. And I jumped on it. And the reason why I jumped on it because as my work as a senator, I worked long and… and lovingly, I think, and kindly in the disability community and autism groups and Special Olympics and so on. And I saw so many acts of kindness. So I carried his message, and his message and his vision and got the collaboration that worked at that particular point to have all parliamentarians to buy into this. It did take five years and two parliaments. It seems simple, but I think that if we wake up each, every and every morning and think just for a moment, who can I be kind to today? As opposed to who do I have to take on today? Who can I… Who can I help today? I think we have to have an attitudinal shift of some sort and a massive scale. And if it's the law to be kind, [chuckle] then why not?

CO: We're seeing, though, they… you talk about the kids helping each other in the skating rink, singing are you okay? but at the same time, seeing an Ottawa that is nasty. And you worked… you were Jean Chretién's director of communications in the early 2000s. You know how nasty politics can be. Is that… do you think that if you want a role of kindness, do you think that… that our political system, our politicians set a good example?

JM: That's a very tough question to answer. I think our politicians… and what I discovered when I was in the Prime Minister's Office is that… and I told reporter friends of mine, what did you just discover when you were in the Prime Minister's Office? And I said I discovered public servants and politicians who were trying to do something for the common good. And that doesn't matter what political stripe you come from. I think that events get in the way of sometimes doing things in the common good. And I think it's an opportunity for politicians in this particular parliament to the lower temperature. To lower the temperature of the language that is being used. You can be firm in your beliefs. But as this kindness bill has shown, all parliamentarians agreed to it unanimously. How can you be against kindness? I know people will say that that's pretty simple, but it's a complicated environment we living in. But I still think you still have to be sensitive to other people's ideas. And to take that in stride because it's not always personal. You know, it's about your place in society and the political place in society. I wouldn't want to live in any other country in the world. As my old boss would say to me, Jimmy, we live in the best country in the world. And it's… I still firmly believe that. But along the way, there are disruptions, and that… that challenges who we are as a nation. But I think that the bottom line still is that we do have the moral fibre to stick together. And we'll get through this.

CO: Jim, it's good to talk to you.

JM: Carol, it's my pleasure. And be kind.

CO: [both laugh] Okay. Bye-bye.

JM: Bye-bye.

CH: Jim Munson is a former Canadian senator. We reached him in Ottawa. And you can find more on that story on our webpage at: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Instrumental]

China Real Snow

CH: China's Winter Olympics have been hit by something unexpected. It began over the weekend when some sort of white stuff just started falling from the sky. And it didn't just disappear. It was driven around by the wind in something we'll refer to as a "blizzard". And over time it piled up into what, for lack of a better term, I'm going to call drifts. After a giant slalom run in Zhangjiakou, where a lot of the Nordic events are being held, Norwegian skier Henrik Kristoffersen complained, quote, "I didn't see [blank]" -- where the blank was a four letter word starting with "s". The word was not "snow". But that's what I'm talking about. And the reason that snow would wreak so much havoc on a Winter Olympics is that it isn't a regular feature of winter in that part of China. It gets plenty cold there. Just ask the shivering athletes. But, to keep everything white and slippery, organizers have had to pipe in water to feed snow making machines. You might wonder why Beijing was given a Winter Olympics, then. Great question!

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February 15, 2022 Episode Transcript

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