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The Current Transcript for October 25, 2022

Host: Matt Galloway

Prologue

SOUNDCLIP

FEMALE SPEAKER: Making sure all children have got opportunities to play, to play sport, to walk and cycle and be active in structured and unstructured ways is really important.

MATT GALLOWAY: The pandemic changed many things in our lives. One of those is how much physical activity kids are getting these days when with many schools shut and extracurriculars curtailed, there was nowhere near enough running around. In 30 minutes, the high cost of inactivity and how to rebuild those pre-pandemic health habits. Also this morning, when it comes to inspiring kids to get moving, Bryan Trottier has some ideas.

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BRYAN TROTTIER: So to young athletes out there listening. Especially my Aboriginal native kids. We're all a little nervous at first. Pick a sport, an activity, and try it. Try them all. You'll find something you enjoy. Then practice with energy, effort and purpose, and then you'll play with that passion and confidence.

MATT GALLOWAY: In an hour the NHL legend on his leap from small town Saskatchewan to the big leagues, why he credits the lessons of his indigenous community for pushing him towards those six Stanley Cups. We start though, in Manitoba, where officials say provincial jails are no place for asylum seekers who cross into Canada. Good morning. I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current.

[Music: Theme]

Manitoba becomes fourth province to stop incarcerating asylum seekers

Guests: Sara Maria Gomez Lopez and Lloyd Axworthy

MG: The Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, has broad powers under Canadian immigration law to detain non-citizens without trial or charge. Asylum seekers can be kept in provincial jails, including maximum security facilities, for indefinite periods of time. Each year from 2015 through 2020, there were about 2000 migrants incarcerated in provincial jails. Now, Manitoba says it's stopping this practice following British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Alberta doing the same. In 2012, Sara Maria Gomez Lopez sought asylum in Vancouver. She was a human rights activist in Mexico City, ended up spending three months at the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge, B.C. That is a maximum security provincial jail. We reached her this morning in Burnaby, British Columbia. Sara, good morning.

SARA MARIA GOMEZ LOPEZ: Hi, Matt. Good morning.

MG: As an activist, why did you seek asylum in Canada?

SMGL: Well, back in Mexico, I was doing this job as protecting people. And unfortunately, the people that we were against didn't like our job and the matter that we denounce them. And that's why we were followed and life threatened. And that's... this is the reason that I fled Mexico.

MG: You needed to leave for your own safety.

SMGL: Yes.

MG: Yeah. When you arrived here in Canada, what happened?

SMGL: When I crossed the Canadian border and after a couple of days in Canada, I present myself at the Office of Immigration and Refugee Citizenship Canada in order to start my refugee process. And two days later, in November, the seventh two officers, CBSA officers, went to the shelter that I was living and in order to ask me for more questions. And then I was asked to go with them to the library square. To the floor where their officer want to have more details about my case. So once my feet were out of premises, they arrested me.

MG: And what happened? I mean, they just suddenly decided that they were going to take you into custody.

SMGL: Yes. And I was not told why.

MG: What was that process like when they said that they were going to arrest you? What did they do?

SMGL: The lady officer just took my both hands, took my bag and handcuffed me.

MG: And where did you go then?

SMGL: I went to Georgia Street, Library Square, Vancouver, downtown, the seventh floor. To have an interview with a fear officer.

MG: Hmm. Where were you detained after you were arrested?

SMGL: Well, first of all, I was sent to Vancouver Airport to the basement where the detention centre was before.

MG: And what was that like there?

SMGL: It's a dark place. There is no natural light. It's just lights on 24/7.

MG: And did the officials say why they were detaining you, why you had been arrested?

SMGL: No, I have never learned that.

MG: So they gave you no explanation. They just walked you through the process, put you in handcuffs, and then sent you to this basement in the Vancouver airport?

SMGL: Yes, that's correct.

MG: Did you know how long you were going to be held there? Did they say at what point in time you'd get out?

SMGL: No. After. Well, after 48 hours... the first you get different reviews... detention reviews. The first one was 24 hours and the second one, 48. After the second one, I was sent to the maximum security provincial jail.

MG: That's the Alouette correctional centre.

SMGL: Yes, that's true. But I have never got an explanation about how long my detention could be. Due to the fact that my lawyer, the idea that she had it was that CBSA wanted me in detention for my full review process.

MG: Then as the process unfolded, you would need to be held in some sort of custody.

SMGL: Yes.

MG: What was it like when you got to this maximum security jail?

SMGL: Well, it was like a very wack movie for me because when you watch a movie and someone get arrested, it's... you see that this person is before a police officer and photos are taken from them on both sides. And with your name and your number in the square, right. So this is exactly what happened to me when I got to a maximum security jail. And later on I was asked to take off all my clothes before a nurse and an officer.

MG: Who were you held with in that jail.

SMGL: With general population.

MG: And so who are the people who were there with you? I mean, I don't know whether you speak with people who were there. What was that experience like?

SMGL: Well, it was a shocking moment because it's... I didn't understand the full situation. Right. I was just asking me or asking why I was there. And no one has an explanation. And it was a very dark place, lights on 24/7. And there is no freedom. And just got your green clothes. I got my [inaudible] clothes and my personal stuff to live there. And, yes, I was sent to the SS unit in Alouette in maximum security label. In general population there were some ladies that were also there for immigration matters. One of them was for around six months there. And they gradually...

MG: It crushed you.

SMGL: Yes.

MG: Did you think you were going to be there for six months? Like she had been?

SMGL: Yes, it was my idea.

MG: I mean, how did you understand that? You had fled your home country because, as you said, your life was being threatened for the work that you're doing. You try to seek safety and a better life here. And you end up in this prison where you don't know how long... Or this jail where you don't know how long you're going to be there for. I mean, how did you try to understand that? Could you?

SMGL: Well. There was not interpretation there. So with my basic English, I try to read the rules there and I learnt that if you have immigration issues you are not allowed to request for reclassification in security level. So you have to stay there in maximum. And that was my last crush moment and I started this dissociation living in jail.

MG: When were you finally freed from the jail?

SMGL: After three months on February the first, 2013.

MG: And what were the circumstances for them letting you out?

SMGL: Well, my lawyer was fighting to give me a chance to really start the refugee process, and I had all my rights to start. I didn't have any criminal felony in my past. I present myself to start the process I already had my date for my eligibility interview. So. There was no point to keep me in detention till... I mean, my 5th immigration detention review. The IRB member, the immigration, refugee board member, decided that her colleagues didn't read my full statement when I got arrested. And there is...there is a mention there why I came to Canada to seek protection. And that's why she decided to give me back my freedom.

MG: I'm going to let you go. But I mean, you're now a permanent resident in Canada.

SMGL: No. In that moment I was not a permanent resident.

MG: But, you are now?

SMGL: Yes, I am now.

MG: What is your message to governments about this? I mean, we're going to be speaking more about what's happening elsewhere in the country. What's your message, just briefly to governments about what you went through?

SMGL: Well, we have seen too many different videos and news regarding how Canada welcomes those that already had the refugee status from overseas. But there is a huge history in Canada about that and the fact that you are a refugee claimant or asylum seeker in this country. It doesn't mean that you don't deserve this welcome. So my request for the government is that please take in your hands human rights, because no one deserve to be treated in the way that general population in prisons here are.

MG: Sara, I'm glad to talk to you. Thank you very much.

SMGL: Thank you. Thank you for having the opportunity to speak.

MG: Sara Maria Gomez Lopez was detained in, as you heard, a maximum security facility for three months when she sought asylum in Canada in 2012. It's now ten years to the day that she crossed the border into Canada, and she's now a permanent resident living in Burnaby, British Columbia. Lloyd Axworthy is chair of the World Refugee and Migration Council, also a former Liberal Minister of Immigration and Employment under Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Lloyd Axworthy, good morning to you.

LLOYD AXWORTHY: Oh, good morning, Matt.

MG: You listened to Sara talk about being imprisoned for three months, not knowing how long she was going to be in prison, not knowing why she was actually imprisoned. What are the most common reasons for detaining migrants who are crossing the border into this country?

LA: Well, I think there's just a basic sort of attitude of, well, I would call security enforcement, that's crept into our system, contrary to our Charter, contrary to the laws of Canada and as a result, people who are coming here, as you clearly point out in the interview, are fleeing this kind of intimidation or those kinds of suppression are now faced when they get to Canada. I think it's a scandalous situation. And fortunately, changes are now being made because provincial governments are understanding just how wrong it is and the need to find a better solution.

MG: And again, these are people who often are convicted of no crime. They're detained, officials say, often for administrative reasons.

LA: Well, that's right. I mean, I think the source of the really strong evidence was developed by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, where they documented a whole number of cases where families were being separated, where people were being detained because there was some suspicion that they might take flight. And these were all based on discretion of individual border officers. And there wasn't really any recall or appeal or oversight as to whether those decisions really made any sense. I mean, there could well be in some cases people coming into Canada and that they have a criminal intent. Well, and I think that that should be clearly monitored. But right now, it really is... It's almost an automatic in so many cases. And we've got still thousands of people incarcerated in provincial jails that don't deserve this kind of treatment and doesn't say much about our sensibility of the country.

MG: Manitoba has announced that it will cease this practice. We asked to speak with the justice minister for that province. He wasn't available to speak with us this morning. But you did meet with him. What did you say?

LA: Well, just to give you a background, Allan Rock was the former minister of justice and I, who worked together on various refugee cases, were approached by Human Rights Watch to see what could be done to really work first at the federal level to try to really recommend and suggest changes. At the same time, we undertook to talk to provinces and I was able to get in a meeting with the Minister Goertzen and along with Allan. We made the case clear. He listened very carefully, he said he would look into it. And to his credit Manitoba made the decision [inaudible] other provincial governments. So I think there is a momentum building to kind of really disband the system and rethink what we're doing. But I think it's... Now it's really up to the federal government, I think, to take the next logical and correct step.

MG: Let me ask you about the federal government in a moment. There are some provinces that have yet to sign on to this, Quebec and Ontario. Among those that have yet to stop those incarcerations, why do you think that is? How much does politics have to do with this, do you think?

LA: Well well, as you know, Matt, one of the things that I think is really... I find disturbing is an increasing sort of regression on our views about the displaced persons and refugees, those are who are fleeing or seeking sort of serious problems in their own countries. Refugees don't come because they see it as a vacation and they're fleeing corruption or conflict or drought or exhaustion or whatever it may be. There's a whole range of reasons, and I think Canada has been one of the few countries in the world that has recognised that and has been responsive. But this particular little angle is on the dark side, and I think it needs to be cleared up. And I think that what you'll find in some of the provincial groups is that there is the sense that, oh, this will look like we're opening the doors on refugees. And there's that kind of basic animus towards this idea that we are, you know, the border is being invaded. That's one of the great fallacies of our time. But there is a political issue, and we have political people in this country who are sort of slamming these issues and in the House of Commons and legislatures trying to exploit the plight of people for their own political gain.

MG: You've turned your attention, as you say, to the federal government. We asked Marco Medicino, the public safety minister. He's responsible for CBSA, for comment. We didn't hear back in time for this segment, but what do you want the federal government to do when it comes to this?

LA: We've had actually a series of good discussions with the minister and his staff about that really to disband the sort of putting of the refugee asylum seekers in the jails, find other forms of shelter, other forms of the ways in which they can wait out their hearing. And I think we were making some progress. But it seems that the minister kind of ran into some roadblocks inside the agency itself. And, I'm not sure exactly what they were, but there's no question that one of the things that is long overdue with the border agency is a real program of proper oversight so that these things can be managed. And I, you know, having been an immigration minister and I know that there is a power of ministerial discretion, but they're not allowing it to be exercised in these kinds of cases.

MG: Well, let me ask you more about that, because, again, we asked to speak with somebody from CBSA. We didn't hear back in time. But what are the concerns you have around oversight? I mean, what are the concerns... The CBSA has said in the past that jailing migrants and refugees is a last resort. But you say there's a lack of oversight there. Tell me more about that.

LA: Yeah, well, I think what you're finding right now is that individual border officers are making decisions about detaining people and where they go. And as you've just heard from the interview with Ms. Lopez, I mean, it's done in the most kind of autocratic way. I mean, you know, arresting, putting handcuffs on, going into detention centres. I mean, that's not the way that Canada should work. And I think there's just a sort of a kind of a culture or an outlook and one way of clearing that is an oversight where there is a mechanism to be able to examine these kinds of situations and correct them and also to do some serious education and retraining along the way. And also, I think one of the things is to re-emphasise the importance of a ministerial discretion on humanitarian grounds.

MG: Just about out of time. You're confident that things are moving in the right direction when it comes to this discussion?

LA: Well. I know I have to say this, I know that the minister himself is sympathetic, but I think as a government they're going... It will have to sort of take a strong stand with some of the people within the agency and simply say this is not acceptable. And I would. So I'm hopeful in that case that the fact that we've got leadership coming from some of the provincial governments to disband the agreement is a sure sign that it's on its way out. I think all it needs is the federal government and some of the other provinces have together got in on the train.

MG: We'll keep an eye on this. In the meantime, Lloyd Axworthy, great to speak with you. Thank you very much.

LA: Thank you for the call.

MG: Lloyd Axworthy, chair of the World Refugee and Migration Council, co-chair of Manitoba's Immigration Advisory Council. He was also minister of Immigration and Employment under Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Lloyd Worthy was in Winnipeg. Your CBC News is next. And then...

FEMALE SPEAKER: This pandemic has changed the way kids are moving. Kids are less active and sitting more. Kids are on their phones and tablets more. Eek.

MG: Eek, indeed, it's a problem that many countries are grappling with, including beyond the pandemic. Inactive kids. New reports show that Canada is getting low marks when it comes to getting young people up and moving. The pandemic certainly didn't help. But what do we do now? We'll talk more about this coming up in 6 minutes. I'm Matt Galloway. You're listening to The Current on CBC Radio One. Stay with us.

[Music: Theme]

Getting Canadian kids moving again after pandemic inactivity

Guests: Mark Tremblay and Connie Wanlin-Iskra

MG: Good morning. I'm Matt Galloway and you're listening to The Current.

[Music: Theme]

MG: Still to come. Hockey Hall of Famer Bryan Trottier looks back on his storied career and his Saskatchewan Cree and Metis roots and looks ahead at what he'd like to see change in hockey for a better future. But first, an epidemic of inactivity.

[Music: Theme]

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MALE SPEAKER: If I'm sitting down and playing a game, I can easily just end up sitting there for like 12-16 hours. Which isn't. Good.

MG: It isn't good, but it's not unusual. A series of new reports are shining a light on the toll that inactivity is taking on young Canadians. One study from the World Health Organisation put an actual dollar value on what's lost. If kids aren't active. Juana Williamsen is with the Physical Activity Unit at the W.H.O.

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JUANA WILLIAMSEN: Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions. What we've done is work out how much new preventable cases of these diseases would cost the health care system directly. And we know now that that's 27 billion U.S. dollars, that these conditions would cost the health care system every year.

MG: In 2019, only 15% of Canadian kids were meeting minimum physical activity requirements. The pandemic didn't make it any better. This week, another report, this one from Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance ranked Canadian Kids 28th in the world when it came to overall physical activity. Mark Tremblay is the president of that organisation, senior scientist with the Healthy, Active Living and Obesity Research Group at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute. Mark, good morning.

MARK TREMBLAY: Good morning.

MG: These numbers don't sound good, as I say. How would you and we'll talk in detail about this, but broadly, how would you rate how kids are doing when it comes to being active in this country?

MARK TREMBLAY: Well, it's certainly not it's not where we want it to be. The participACTION... The biannual participACTION report card was released three weeks ago today. That's our best synthesis of the current evidence that's available and gave a grade of D to the kids, which actually aligns perfectly with the global average from the active Healthy Kids Global Alliance report that you just mentioned, which was also a global average of a D.

MG: So quantify that for us. What does a D mean in terms of how little kids are getting out and moving around?

MARK TREMBLAY: So it means that around 30% of kids, less than one in three, are meeting the minimum public health targets for physical activity, which recommend that school age kids achieve, on average, 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. That doesn't have to be all together. That's spread throughout the day. But despite that very modest, you know, we're asking for 1/24 of the day for kids to be out playing and and being active. And seven out of ten kids in Canada don't achieve that.

MG: Let's talk about why people will look not so far into the Rear-View mirror and say the pandemic changed everything in our lives and getting out and moving around is one of those things. How much did the pandemic impact kids' physical activity?

MARK TREMBLAY: Yeah, for sure. It was another burden to deal with. So the grades before the pandemic weren't good. So, this is a deeply rooted problem. But this report card, the participACTION 2022 report card speaks only the information gathered during the pandemic and the overall physical activity grade went down from pre-pandemic, from a D-plus to a D and the sedentary behaviour grade went down from a D plus to enough. So you know, it takes a fair number of percentage points to, to move those letter grades down. So there's no doubt and everyone's intuition and personal experiences would align with this, that on a population level, kids were moving less. I mean, sports programs were shut down, kids weren't going to school and having PE and recess. The message was, you know, stay in your house, stay safe, you know, that sort of thing. And we're digging out of that hole now.

MG: But as you say, I mean, the marks weren't particularly great before the pandemic. So there are other things going on. I want to play you something from a grade 11 student in Toronto. This is Bjorn Lino, who does workout and try to go for walks, but also understands the powerful lure of video games.

SOUNDCLIP

BJORN LINO: The games are very, very fun and they're designed to be addictive and particularly time consuming. But at the same time, you need to get outside. And sometimes I find that I can flex like usually in the evening if I've just done my work and I have the chance, I won't go out for a short walk around the block. I'll usually just turn on my computer and start gaming. I'll do maybe one and a half hours on a weekday and two and a half hours on a weekend per day. And then my friends, though, every single day will be playing sometimes up to 4 hours and they'll just do it late into the night. Gaming's kind of like a it's a fun release activity that I do, which is to calm down, you know, because I have schoolwork. So I just want something to do outside of school work where I don't really have to think, just I can just play, you know.

MG: So we parents have often used, you know, the screen as kind of one of those complaints. Put that screen down, get off the tik tok. You need to go out and you know it's going to burn your brain. You know, you have to go and do things. How much do these devices actually impact kids' physical activity? Is that a red herring or is there something to that?

MARK TREMBLAY: No, for sure. I mean, they displace what could be active time. And on top of that, they have other consequences of their own. The type of material, the way it's being delivered, it affects everything from eyesight, to brain health, to emotional health, to heart health. So certainly they're a big part of the picture. And so this whole conundrum now needs to be dealt with through a lens of both sides of the coin. And we need to reduce sedentary behaviour, which is predominantly and soon almost exclusively digital media use while also trying to increase physical activity. And where the appeal of physical activity becomes second seed to the appeal of a video game, I'm not so sure. I guess it's a testament to the ability of the video game developers. But when I speak to people, when they've come back from vacation, where we have discretionary time, I see smiles on their faces and you hear stories about all the activity that they did. I don't hear people that, you know, we went to Jamaica and we spent seven days in the room playing a massive video game competition. You know, they wrote snorkelling, swimming, doing stuff that can be done all the time. I don't know where we lost that. And then that's the challenge to come back to. And in fact, countries that are succeeding have been able to do that better than Canada has.

MG: Well, okay. So what else is going on then, aside from the video games? I mean, you talk about getting back to things. You can imagine, again, kids running around, the parents would say, you have too much energy. You need to go outside. I'm sorry, you have to go and burn out some of that energy. And the kids go out and they run around. Whether they live in a house or in an apartment, they find places to go and, you know, burn off that steam. What else is going on that would lead to these numbers being so low in this country?

MARK TREMBLAY: Well, during the pandemic, a lot of those things were truncated, right? Sport programs, recreation programs, things were closed. People... kids weren't walking or biking to school and so on.

MG: But as you say, even before, even before the pandemic, just 15% of the kids were meeting those targets.

MARK TREMBLAY: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. No, we've become this, um, socially accepted indoor, screen based society. And the, you know, data from Statistics Canada bears this out that people report actually much more time on screens than the guests that you just had announced, that, you know, it's in the area of 7 hours of discretionary screen time, discretionary, not school based that that kids are... And of course, your screen time is predominantly when you're sedentary. And so this is a dominant feature in their life and it's displaced what used to be in my era was really fun time outside horsing around.

MG: Kids in Finland got an A-minus on this overall score. Now I'm not in Finland, but my understanding is they have screens there, they have video games there. So what are they doing differently in that country than we would be doing here?

MARK TREMBLAY: For sure, there are screens everywhere. I travel the world and I do research in sub-Saharan Africa. Everyone is on screens. So that's not the issue. I think the difference is if you look at the Act of Healthy Kids, Global Alliance, Global Matrix, so this is a big spreadsheet, if you will, of 57 countries and ten different indicators. The indicators can be clustered into behavioural indicators like we've been talking about, you know, sedentary time, physical activity, active play, active transportation. And then there's another category of, of indicators that relate to the sources of influence on those behaviours. So things like family, school peers, community, the environment, government, things like that. And when you cluster those together and assign the grade, Canada does very poorly in the behavioural grade. We're 43rd in the clustered behaviour grade, but we're 12th in the clustered sources of influence grade. So it's like we have the infrastructure, the documents, the strategies, even even the structures in our society to accommodate physical activity. But it's not achieving it. Countries like Finland, Denmark, Slovenia, Japan, their numbers much better align. So they do very well in terms of their structures and infrastructures and their behaviours align with that. And I believe it's a cultural orientation. I think it's a social environmental issue where we have just become complacent in Canada, but rather ironically on a global level to being an indoor society and others have not. And they embrace the physical activity through a variety of domains, by transportation, by play, by sport, by physical education. It's embedded in their lifestyles.

MG: It's really interesting. Stay on the line because I want to bring one other person into our conversation. Connie Wanlin-Iskra is a mom of two kids, 12 year old and a 15 year old. They live in Halifax. Connie, good morning to you.

CONNIE WANLIN ISKRA: Good morning.

MG: I want to ask you about the pandemic and your kids. How did what we have been through over the last few years impact physical activity when it came to your children?

CWI: Well, I need to preface by saying we have a very unique situation and we're very blessed you know, my husband and I both work part time. We both have the opportunity to work from home. My husband works completely from home, you know, so. So we're really lucky. We have very good careers. So, you know, that being said, physical activity has always been a priority in our family. And, you know, the pandemic just shifted things. Both kids have been in sports. My daughter's in dance and synchronised swimming. My son is in badminton and baseball in the summer. And so, you know, with both dance and synchro pivoted to zoom sessions. You know, my son wasn't able to do badminton, but we made it a priority to get the kids out for walks, get the kids out for long bike rides. And that's something we did before. We have a two hour rule in our family. So that means the kids have to be either outside or active for 2 hours every day. So you know that that's much, much more than the rule.

MG: Let me stop you there because you have a 12 year old and a 15 year old. How do you convince a 12 and a 15 year old that in the space of all the things they have to do, they need to be active for 2 hours a day? I ask this as a parent.

CWI: Well, because we add everything up. Right. So, you know, if you look at it and go, okay, well, first of all, we've always walked to school. So we live on the same street as our school. So that was easy and that was a short amount that added up. That was like 10 minutes when they were in school. Then they had, you know, recess, they had gym during the pandemic. They didn't have those things. You know, but again, you know, we took them to do stuff outside. So how do you convince them? I guess we started really young. Like this is something we've done since they were really little. And so they got used to the idea that like activity and being active was important. You know, it's a priority in our family, you know, but it's not like, okay, we have to go on the big two hour walk now. It's like, okay, let's go... You know, it was let's go for a little walk before mom has to do work, before, you know, Dad has to do his thing. Okay, it's lunchtime. Let's, like, go for another little walk or, you know, maybe we have time for a longer bike ride. You know, it was those kind of things. And then we add up, okay, there's an hour and a half session of zoom, you know, dry land training. Okay, that's an hour and a half. So we only needed an extra half an hour. So we always look and add up. Right. You know, and now that they're back into their sports, it's definitely easier. But during the pandemic, yeah, it was. It was a lot, especially we live in Halifax. It rains. It snows. It's not always fun to be outside when it's raining and snowing.

MG: But you've made it important. You've said that it's important. I mean, what do you see in your kids if they aren't active? Do you notice a difference in them?

CWI: Yeah. They don't sleep as well. You know, and you know. And then the screen thing, we have never policed the screen. What we make sure, you know, we look at positive direction versus like a punishment. So the positive direction is let's get outside, let's be active. If we're outside and active, that we can't also be inside on our screens at the same time. Right. So the focus for us is let's make sure we get this out happening because we know the screen thing is going to happen too right, especially during the pandemic because they were doing school, etc., online.

MG: Do you have a word of advice for other parents before I let you go? Who might... I mean, maybe they can't figure out how to fit 2 hours in, but they might be wondering what they could do, to your point, to motivate positive motivation to get kids moving.

CWI: It's just every little bit right. And we lead by example, right? So, you know, I ride my bike to work, you know, and so they see me doing that, we also ride with them to school to make sure they're getting there safely. Right. But, but it's, you know, when we put our devices down and we make, you know, even a little bit, even if it's like, okay, we don't have time, but we're going to go, you know, stand on our deck and take a few deep breaths because that's all we have time for. Every little bit helps. Right. And I'm a psychologist. So for mental health, I always say to clients, every little bit helps, right? If you don't have 2 hours, that's fine. But if you can even add like five more minutes, if you can park a little bit further when you walk your kid to school, park a little bit further, right? Like look for opportunities to like just be moving.

MG: It's part of a lifestyle. Now, Connie, I'm glad to talk to you about this. Thank you very much. There's a lot to think about here.

CWI: Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for having me.

MG: Connie Wanlin-Iskra is a mom of two kids. We reached her in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Mark Tremblay is still here. He's president of the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance. What do you make of that, Mark? The two hour thing might seem like a stretch for some people, but if you make it a routine, as Connie was saying, it becomes in some ways part of your life.

MARK TREMBLAY: Definitely. And in children around the world, it is routine, it is normal. And previous generations of Canadian kids, it was entirely normal to do this. So, you know, we've experienced adrift that is associated with technological advances, increased auto dependence, increased availability of seductive, entertaining things to do while sitting inside. And this has slowly just eroded the amount of time that we spend. And so it's also unfortunately, it's adjusted our frame of reference. So now even your comment about Connie, who's doing a wonderful job, is that this 2 hours is extraordinary. Something should be written about it, you know, and it is very routine and in fact, even meagre, perhaps in previous generations. So we really need to recalibrate the lifestyles of our kids or the consequences... Well, in fact, we're seeing the consequences now, first, with the mental health breakdown of our kids, but the physical health breakdown of them as well. It's important.

MG: So what do we do about this? I'll ask you in a moment about individual activities, but systemically and societally, what do we have to do? And part of it's about, you know, the built form and the environment that we live in. But what could governments do to make sure that the conditions are there so that physical activity is more present and more alluring for not just kids, but for all of us?

MARK TREMBLAY: Yeah, well, I think governments are part of the picture and they could commit to substantial, sustained funding that is in alignment with the degree of the problem. Physical activity has been a fringe public health issue forever. It doesn't receive near the resources or attention that many other important public health issues do as well. So. So we need to elevate its importance and we need to invest in it accordingly.

MG: Invest what? Invest towards what specifically?

MARK TREMBLAY: Yeah, I think we need to invest in decaying infrastructure for different facilities where kids would use things. I think we need to invest in the social environment. I think we need to reteach people. And this can be done through nostalgia and other things for people of my generation. I'm in my sixties, you know. I mean, I lived outside as a kid. There was nothing inside to entice me to be there. And in fact, many people listening will remember that the standard punishment as a kid my age was to be grounded. It meant you had to stay inside. And it's such a bizarre concept today where we cannot get our kids to go outside. And so I think it needs to... really back to the basics, you know, so governments yes, governments need to pay attention to this. They need to help to do what health promotion activities need to be done, make sure facilities are there. But I think parents, communities need to do things as well. We need to give kids permission, affordances, opportunities to use what is out there in the great outdoors. And this is the fundamental message if listeners get nothing other than the fact... get outside. And Connie spoke to this. When you get outside, even if you don't go outside to be active, you will be more active than you were inside.

MG: And there doesn't need to be some sort of structure. You don't need to be in a hockey league. You don't need to be playing badminton.

MARK TREMBLAY: Not at all. I mean, if you're in a hockey league, don't quit it. But this is the add on and this was the hope, which I think is disappearing, but that the pandemic did get families outside more. The grades and the participation report card for active transportation went up, the grades for active play went up, the overall grade for activity went down, sedentary behaviour went down. But people were finding creative ways, necessary ways biologically driven ways to get outside and do something. And they did that something and our hope was that they would preserve that. And that I think was much more natural in previous generations and remains natural in countries that are succeeding in this area. While they bring back PE, sport recreation program. So if we add the two together, that's going to be a big leap forward. Unfortunately, I think what we've done is return to the old normal and my guess is the next report card, the grade is still going to be a D.

MG: Mark, lots to think about. Get outside. Thank you very much.

MARK TREMBLAY: My pleasure. You, too.

MG: Mark Tremblay, senior scientist with the Healthy, Active Living and Obesity Research Group at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute is also professor... pardon me, professor of Paediatrics at the University of Ottawa in the Faculty of Medicine. How are you getting kids outside? Any advice on increasing those statistics when it comes to healthy, active living and making sure that kids are as active as possible? We will pass on your advice if you get in touch with us. Email us Thecurrent@cbc.ca, this is The Current. My name is Matt Galloway. As food costs continue to rise, many people are feeling the pinch. We know that food banks across this country are seeing more first time users come through the doors than perhaps ever before. A lot of families are thinking differently about meal planning as they head for the checkout because of the high cost of food. We're bringing you a special coverage this week on the growing cost of groceries and what this means for Canadians. From seniors to students to food bank users, often those groups kind of mix all together. Scott picks up food from the Richmond Food Bank in British Columbia.

SOUNDCLIP

SCOTT: I'm here at the Food Bank and it's because of prices are going up. And in order to get all the vegetables that I need and the nutrition, if I'd be just eating mac and cheese, you know, ramen noodles and like my health would be going down. If it wasn't for the food bank, but grocery stores. Wow. The cost of meat. I should probably be a vegetarian, but I'm not. I'm losing weight. Yeah. And, like, I shouldn't. I've got no more weight to lose. Food costs are going to continue to keep going up. Yeah, we're just starting to feel this, and I'm starting to make a little larder, stockpile of foods because we're just one tiny incident from having a complete supply breakdown and supply chain breakdown again and I'm worried.

MG: He's not the only one. A lot of people thinking about the high cost of food. And tomorrow on the program, a special program, taking a look at how Canadians are stretching their food dollar and how we got to this place in the first place. What is it that is leading to this high cost of food? That's coming up tomorrow on The Current. Well, coming up after your regional update, Hockey Hall of Famer Bryan Trottier on the message that he gives to Indigenous youth about how his First Nations heritage shaped who he became as a hockey star. He's here in 90 seconds. Stick around. This is The Current.

Bryan Trottier on being one of the NHL's elite Indigenous players

Guest: Bryan Trottier

MG: Hello again. I'm Matt Galloway. You're listening to The Current.

SOUNDCLIP

ANNOUNCER: SOUND: Hockey play-by-play for the Stanley cup victory in 1980

MG: The Stanley Cup Victory in 1980, the start of a dynasty that would see the New York Islanders win four straight Stanley Cups. And that Most Valuable Player was one of the spark plugs on that championship team. Bryan Trottier was a young Metis player from Val Marie, Saskatchewan, went on to win many more cups and trophies in his career. His memoir is out today. It's called All Roads Home: A Life On and Off the Ice. And Bryan Trottier is here in studio with me, Bryan Trottier. Good morning.

BRYAN TROTTIER: Good morning, Matt. Pleasure to be here. This is awesome.

MG: Does it ever get tired hearing that call? Hearing the call of you winning the Stanley Cup and being named the most valuable player?

BT: There's no... That's... people ask me often. And it's probably the most often like what your greatest moment in the game of hockey is when Bobby Nystrom scored the overtime goal. That made me a champion for the first time because that's a dream come true for me. As an eight year old, your eight year old dream of raising the Stanley Cup. So at that moment is going to be forever etched in my life. Still thanking Bobby Nystrom, for that goal.

MG: How old were you when you won the first, your first Stanley Cup?

BT: It was 1980. I was 24 years old and I was and really what happened was like a week later when everything dies down, I started thinking, how am I going to do this again? Because I don't want to lose that feeling of being a champion and you got to defend. And that became like just the altered next dream. So yeah, it never gets old. Never gets old.

MG: What is it like to lift the cup? I've seen the cup. You touch the cup. You're not allowed to pick it up, though, unless you've actually won the Stanley Cup. So when you pick it up, is it heavier than you think or...

BT: You don't want to jinx yourself. So that was kind of the rule, like you don't want to go touch it, or because you haven't earned it, basically. And so when I was Rookie of the Year, Gordie Howe presented me with the trophy. So I got to sit with Gordie and Colleen and the Stanley Cups right next to them and I'm like, Oh my God, it's such a natural thing to just reach out and touch it, but it's so shiny and glossy. So when you actually win it, you want to go over and hug it. And it's so cool to the touch and feel the names that are engraved and immediately start reading some of the names. You see Gordie Howe, his name and Jean Beliveau and Bobby Orr and Bobby Hull. You think, Oh my God, they're going to put my name on there forever and you grab it. It's so cool to touch and such shiny silver you lifted up over your head. You feel like a weightlifter. And it's not. It's a lot heavier than anything. It's not a piece of tin, it's heavy... It's what, 40 pounds, but at that moment it's light as a feather. You pump it up over your head... your fans are screaming at you, We love you and I love you, too. And you know, that moment is just spectacular.

MG: Could you have ever possibly imagined that moment growing up in Saskatchewan?

BT: Yes. That was the dream. That was the dream, like. Yeah, like I remember when they handed the cup to Jean Beliveau, I was sitting on a little blanket and I looked back at dad and said, Dad, I want to lift the Stanley Cup like Jean Beliveau. And all he said was like, Well, you better start practising because like, you know, I was young, and I could skate, but we didn't have minor hockey. So he taught me how to stick handle and shoot right handed. And I eventually moved to left handed and he got tired of yelling at me, I guess, because he stopped yelling. He taught me how to shoot right handed, you know, the all the techniques and how to stick handle. And it was just a powerful dream for a young kid to have who's from remote Saskatchewan. And I thought, yeah know, I think I have a chance, you know, and then you get playing with good players, you know, like our little teams would unite Climax and Val Marie we'd go out and win some tournaments and I'd think, oh my God, we are on our way to the NHL, all of us. And then you're 15, 16, you play junior hockey, you play with Tiger Williams and new buddies and you're like, oh my God, we're on our way to the NHL. And Tiger was on a mission, too. So it really helped having him as a mentor in junior hockey. And then you go to the Islanders, they have Mike Bossy, Clark Gillies as linemates, Denis Potvin, you know, future Hall of Famers, Billy Smith, and that... These guys want to win as much as I do. And it was great having that kind of team-mates around you and support and you know, parents who believed in you and family and a little community back in Val Marie and you go nowhere without all that support. And, you know, it's a powerful dream, but it's a motivating dream. And, you know, it's possible. It's hard, it's not easy, and it's not supposed to be easy, if it was easy everybody would do it. But that's what makes it magnificent.

MG: Tell me about Val Marie. What do you remember about growing up there?

BT: It's vibrant when I was growing up, it like... It was 300 plus, you know, wonderful community, lots of little stores, shops and garages and very community minded. Skating rink was the most popular place along with the beer parlour. It wasn't a bar, it was the beer parlour, and it was at the hotel. And, you know, dad always stopped for one for the road and grandpa's house right behind the hotel. So they had homemade wine, so people would stop by their house on the way home. So we would sit there and we enjoyed all of that atmosphere because it was community, it was family. There was lots of music around with our family. So it was a bit of a hub. Grandpa's house in town, sports was abundant. And for all of us kids that enjoyed sports, it was spectacular. And plus, the skating rink, we had the skating rink and the curling rink was right there. So Dad had us curling at a young age and, you know, skating on teams. He was my first coach. And, you know, there's lots of lots of dynamic in that town which really made it a fun place to grow up.

MG: When did you realise you were good?

BT: I would probably say age 10, 11, 12, you know, we got picked up by Climax to go play a couple of tournaments. My buddy Bernie Syrenne and I. So we got to play there. So I felt, oh, my God, I'm good enough to play on Climax's team because they were, they were a fantastic little team. They had four or five or six players that were spectacular players. They always kicked our butts. But then when we go to junior hockey at age 16, I felt like this is a stepping stone, but it's a tough, tough stepping stone. I'm playing against 20 year old guys, but I think about age 16, 17. I started feeling like I have a chance. I have a real chance, you know, gauging myself against some of these best players. And skill wise, I was still small, but I was quick and I kind of had a good... I was a give and go guy. So, I could pass, you know, I could finish a little bit. So about age 15, 16, 17, I think you get a real taste and then you get like good coaching like Stan Dunn in Swift Current, Earl Ingerfield in Lethbridge and all of a sudden you think, Wow, these guys believe in me too. So I think I really have a good shot. And then all of a sudden you're drafted. And then wow, it's really getting serious and you still don't make it. You get drafted, you just still don't make it. And Bill Tory and Al Arbour, the first thing they said to me after I signed my contract was like, So you think you made it? I'm like, No, sir. They go, right answer because then you got to make the team and then you got to stay on the team every year after that. So you got to stay hungry. And it's not easy, but it's wonderful in the sense that the minute you take things for granted, you lose that hunger. So that's kind of a message for all... you got to stay hungry, stay hungry all the time.

MG: Your dad is a huge presence, as you mentioned, in your life. And he was Metis.

BT: Yes.

MG: Tell me a little bit about what he talked to you about when it came to your heritage and who you were.

BT: Well, my mom was Irish and dad was Cree, Metis, Chippewa. So grandma from the States was Chippewa and grandpa was Cree/Metis in Canada. So we had this wonderful diversity within our family. And I love both sides cause we, you know, we had all different kinds of food. We all had different kinds of culture likes and it was really wonderful growing up in that atmosphere. You know, we stayed grandma and grandpa's in town on sleepovers, so we couldn't understand if people were... But mom and dad taught us early, really early, like six, seven, eight years old. You know, people make fun of you. It's because they're jealous. So discrimination to us was just jealousy.

MG: You said you always felt accepted in those communities.

BT: Yeah. And it was wonderful. Whenever we went to my dad's side of the family, whenever we went to events whether it was powwows or family gatherings, there was just this wonderful joy and lots of music. And I couldn't understand why people would say, you know, all these strange, horrible things about the natives because, you know, you get stigmas obviously in every ethnic group. And but I just really enjoyed it and I felt accepted because I was grandpa and grandma and Trottier's grandson. And, you know, just looking back at pictures, I looked a little more native then, I think, than I do now. But even then, you know, I kind of felt they blended in on both sides... On mom's side, I blended in, on dad's side, I blended in. So I never felt like an outcast. I felt extremely welcome because I think both parents were kind of respected in their communities. So I didn't feel discrimination to that degree. It was outside of the community. When I started to feel it, but even then, we were taught at an early age... well that, you know, it's like sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you and just let it roll off your back because everybody has some kind of a mixed breed or some kind of ethnic background and there's ugly stigmas about everybody. So just don't get involved in that junk.

MG: You saw it first hand at a tournament that you went to in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, that you write about. You were watching an all native team. What was happening there on the ice?

BT: Well, the crowd was kind of rooting against them, and these kids were just so fast. They were lightning quick. And here's my mom, full Irish, she was praising these kids how well they passed the puck, how unselfish they were, how graceful they looked on their skates, I'm thinking, mom, why are these people saying all these strange things? They're just jealous. And so that was kind of a big, big taste of it and getting a chance to meet their parents and some of the team after and seeing their humour and how what a joy they were having the same joy I felt as hockey players. I'm like, it's really not... It's not true what these people were saying.

MG: Were you surprised at the level of antagonism, racism that they were facing? These kids are just playing and they're great.

BT: When you're young. Yes. But, you know, and I just understood it as always that people are jealous. So not that I shared that message with that team from La Bret, but later on in life when I get into the native communities, I share that story. And it's a good story because it's just jealousy, because there's so much talent in these native communities when it comes to art and music and sport and and love of hunting and nature and all this stuff. And, and there's this pride, I think, that swirls within us. And we talk about that more than we do all the negative stuff, which is the discrimination.

MG: When you ended up being brought into the Islanders organisation, I mean part of it is you write about how you felt like family in some ways they welcomed you in as a young player, but you're a rookie, so you take a bit of hazing as well and little bit of teasing. Tell me about some of the things and practical jokes, I suppose, that they threw at you.

BT: Oh, every day was was something different, but it was, you know, hey, kid, you know, you move into the big room, you're just getting a little closer to the back door and the little stuff like that, like, oh, don't get too comfortable here, you know? We know that it might just be temporary, but it was good natured teasing. I think the guys all respected how hard I worked at practice and what I was trying to do to help the team win. And I think that's I think what you want to show your new team-mates is that you're hungry as they are and you just want to be a part of this wonderful group known as the Islanders. And this is our identity and we're part of this. And that's kind of how I was growing up all the way through hockey was I wasn't one of I was part of something that was great. And that was the team. And team has a wonderful sense of feeling. It's just like family, it's like home. So when you're in that group, your family, you're at home. And that room was... that locker room is a home.

MG: Tell me about bringing your parents the first time from Val Marie to New York City.

BT: Here I am, this little kid from Val Marie. And, you know, my ride to the NHL, which had a lot to do with them. And here I am able to take them to New York, bring them to New York, and they get to experience New York City, a Broadway play, this wonderful magnificence of New York and all that comes with it. So, I mean, they're probably as proud as I am at the moment. They're proud of me. I'm proud of them. And we get to share this sense of like, wow, the accomplishment that we managed to do together.

MG: So different time in hockey. I mean, now everybody is on specialised diets and the pictures of... you paint, pictures of, you know, the players in their stalls in the dressing room, smoking in the dressing room. [laughter]

BT: Yeah. It was walk into dressing room for the first time seeing guys with cigarettes and, and over in the corner, you know, I'm like, wow, this is like the NHL. This shouldn't be smoking in the NHL while guys put in like the atomic balm on their legs, getting ready for the game, trying to warm their legs up like, oh, my God, this is the NHL, the things they do to prepare themselves. You know, I was just over my head as far as like just getting what that first dressing room, locker room shaking players hands. And it's bigger than you can imagine and more powerful than you can imagine. But there's electricity and an excitement that you can't express because these guys are just loving the game, doing what they love to do best. And, you know, here's this little kid, you know, coming from Saskatchewan, walk through the locker... they made it special.

MG: Tell me... I mean, because there are great lines in hockey and you're part of an incredible line The Trio Grande.

BT: Oh, I love it. Yeah.

MG: Tell me about that line.

BT: Well, the Trio Grande was spectacular. It'd be Clark Gillies on the left and Mike Bossy, the purest goal scorer in the history of the game on the right. And Clark and I were kind of like chuckling because here we are playing with Mike Bossy, who just scored at will, basically, you know, he could score any which way... you give him the puck. And that's what we did. We found a way to get him the puck. And, you know, Clark was basically our big brother on the ice. You know, no one bothered us. We didn't have to worry about people knocking our blocks off. There was a price to pay. And he was a big presence for us and we needed that. And he was a high skilled player. He could score. He was powerful. He was the epitome of the power forward of our generation. You know, he could skate. He could fight, he could scrap. He was just a great leader in that regard. So for me, just a give and go guy, I can put the left leg, moved to the right, go to the net, get maybe a rebound, you know, go back to centre ice and pat my players on the back for scoring a pretty goal. But you know, I like to punch in a couple of goals myself, but really what made it was a chemistry and a friendship and a bond and we all cared about each other. We all wanted to win.

MG: Mike Bossy I mean, he was, as you said, an extraordinary player. You say that his career was a tragic one. Why so?

BT: Well, I say that because he didn't play long enough for me. Like, he quit too soon. And I was devastated when he couldn't come to training camp that year. And I went to the house and said, Mikey, come on down, we'll get you going.... naw, I really can't. I can't. And I felt devastated. I felt like almost like, Mike, I need you. And there was like a disconnect for me so that immediately I was a little selfish about that. And then looking back and saying, you know, had he played another four or five, six, seven years with me... Because I was... I just felt we'd had five more good years together. What his numbers would have been, what... how he'd be in the record books forever. Like his goals per game, I think. I think Mario's the only one who was even close. Mario Lemieux is the only one is close. Like he's over a goal, a game. And that to me is impressive because he's like, he's just a goalscoring machine.

MG: We lost him right around the same time as Guy LaFleur. What goes through your mind when you think of some of those greats of the game who are slipping away.

BT: It's more impactful and it hurts more because it's Mike and to lose Guy shortly after and to lose the greats like Gordie Howe. And then we lost Roger Berry recently, like those to me were... Much like Gordy, Jean Beliveau and those guys, Stan Mikita like I... They hurt. But we don't do them justice if we don't celebrate them as much as possible and we don't keep them present. As I've told their families, like I want to keep their memories alive. I want to celebrate their lives. And that takes away some of the pain.

MG: What do you want to do with that? I mean, how do you want to keep their memories alive?

BT: By talking about them and telling people the wonderful stories that and the experiences we share together as team-mates, as friends and making sure that, you know, they're not forgotten. They're always there, ever present. They're present with me all the time. And that's the same with my mom and dad. They're gone, but they're with me every day.

MG: How do you think the game has changed since you played it? I mean, you take a look at a line like that. How would that stack up against some of the lines that we see right now?

BT: God, we talk about this and we talk about this as alumni and we say, how do you think we do in today's game? And we'd love the opportunity to compete because there's a competitor in all of us and a little bit of a gladiator, I guess, to a degree. But I think all of us really enjoy that competition and the comparisons. When you talk to the players of the sixties and seventies, you know, they say, Oh, we'd beat your 80s team. I said, Oh, yeah, well, we would have beat your team, hands down... But that's the pride all of us have in those championship teams is to be able to like, compare ourselves to some of the great teams, the Boston teams of the early seventies and the Montreal Canadiens late seventies. But it really is spectacular. The game is so fast. These players are so skilled and nutrition and training and all the stuff that they do is just spectacular. McDavid. Mike Bossy called him the fastest human being he's ever seen on a pair of skates. And I agree. And you got all these, the Sidney Crosby's and I'm such a Patrick Kane fan myself. And I love the skill of these players. And if you look at what Makar does in Colorado and MacKinnon, I'm like, Oh my God, the speed. And I'm totally impressed. I think it's spectacular. The goaltending just the game is progressing and the speed of the game is so... It's a fun game to watch.

MG: Do you still enjoy watching the game?

BT: Oh, absolutely. We don't miss the playoff games. Our family, we were glued to the TV. We're big hockey fans. And, you know, we cheer for the best players. I always cheer for the best players regardless of what team they're on. You know, I haven't lost my Toronto Maple Leaf. I was a fan when I was a kid and I still pull for the Leafs.

MG: You wore number ten.

BT: I did. For George Armstrong. Yeah. Dad said you're wearing number ten. I never argued. George Armstrong was big and it was big in our home, as big as the Maple Leaf crest. And, you know, just a big figure for all of us who were probably indigenous at the time.

MG: I was gonna say, what did he mean for the community? Because that was... You think of him now people look back on him as a trail breaker, as somebody who was, you know, ahead of the curve. But at that moment, what did he mean for you and for your family and the community?

BT: Well, he was a pioneer for a lot of indigenous kids. But beyond that, he was a great player and he played on Maple Leafs, you know, Canada's greatest team. We thought, you know, Montreal Canadiens don't get any better than that. And he made it. So that's an inspiration. The Freddie Sasakamoose, the Jim Neilson's like they were inspiration for all of us. And, you know, if they can do. Maybe I can, too. And hopefully people look at myself and John Chabot and Ted Nolan and look at [inaudible] if they can do it. Maybe. Maybe I can, too. So that's kind of what it meant to us.

MG: You say you still haven't lost your Maple Leaf affection. I mean, the team that people love to hate, hate to love.

BT: Yeah. Yeah. I was so jealous when Tiger Williams got drafted by the Maple Leafs. I said, why, Tiger, like you son of a gun.

MG: Let me ask you about hockey now. The game is still played, you know, in rinks across this country. But there has been a lot of attention on Hockey Canada and the scandal around Hockey Canada and issues of how, you know, the organisation which you know, oversees hockey handled sexual assaults and allegations of sexual assaults and where the money was going and who knew what. What was your reaction? You've been around hockey a long time. What was your reaction when you heard these stories?

BT: It's tragic. I just don't know enough about it. I'm still in Pittsburgh, so we don't get as much on that as... to make a real great comment on it. But anything to do with sexual abuse, absolutely not. It's just tragic.

MG: Do you think that there's a problem with the culture of hockey? This is what's come out of this conversation in many ways is that people believe that the culture of the game is somehow broken, that it doesn't speak to what the game could be. Do you think there's a problem with the culture of hockey?

BT: I can't speak to that. I can't speak to the culture of hockey in general because a lot of us, we take great pride in being ambassadors of our game. We're ambassadors of the NHL to a degree, but we're ambassadors of hockey. And I'm so proud when people say hockey is Canada's gift to the world, and that's really what we represent. We represent hockey and hockey culture to a degree is all about teamwork. It's all about acceptance. It's all about working together, being dependable, responsible, all those things that have to do with desire and dedication. Those are the things I believe stand out more about hockey than the negatives and whatever negative, obviously that's going to get a headline, but we don't like the negatives. And when there is a negative, it obviously it has its moment and, you know, it's tragic. And we want to make sure that, you know, it gets proper attention, I'm sure. But for me, I think what we represent, I think, is as former NHL players and people who grew up with the sport, we love our game. At the same time we recognize that we don't do it alone. You know, I think Mark Messier had the best title for a book, you know, no one does it alone because you need a team, you need your coaches, you need your parent support, you need to get a community behind you and the fans in the seats cheering you on. It gives us energy and I think all of those things are positives. All those things are wonderful, you know, you eat right, you get the right kind of sleep. You exercise. It gives us good muscle development. There's so many good things that come out of the sport.

MG: You're still playing occasionally with this alumni team?

BT: Well, I got my hip done in 2018. I've slowed down a little bit, but they still make me gear up and go take a couple face offs and pass on the puck. And it's wonderful because it doesn't matter what little thing I do out there, I come off the ice and some of the fans say, you were great out there. I said, I don't know what game you were watching. I was just kind of bustling around and trying to stay up and not get run over. But it's really a great game. And the fact that I'm at the age now where people don't want to run over me anymore, which is great, in these alumni games, they're like, okay, watch out for that old guy, Trottier. But no, a lot of us still get on the ice, John Chabot... We just did a game. Way up north again, we were in Grassy Narrows out in Manitoba.

MG: And this is an indigenous...

BT: An Indigenous alumni hockey team. Yeah. And, and we're so proud of it. We got, we got to go out to a hockey day out in [inaudible], which is in New Brunswick area. And it was fantastic. The hockey fans are everywhere and hockey is for everybody. And I just want to bring a lot of attention to our little indigenous youth because they're wonderful little hockey players, good little athletes. And I'm so proud of them.

MG: It's a great pleasure to meet you. You've lived some life and it's a great story. Thank you very much.

BT: My pleasure. Great fun. Thank you for today.

MG: Bryan Trottier's book is All Roads Home: A Life On and Off the Ice. It's out today. And that's The Current for this Tuesday. Q's up next on CBC Radio One this morning, the actor musician very funny man from Flight of the Conchords, Bret McKenzie on the program. Before we go, as you may have heard some sad news from the world of entertainment. The actor Leslie Jordan died, just 67 years old. You might have seen him most recently on shows like Will and Grace, American Horror Story, RuPaul's Drag Race. In recent years, though, he was perhaps best known for what he was doing on Instagram, he put out these amazingly funny and really heartwarming posts trying to lift people's spirits, especially during the pandemic posts like this recent video that celebrated his new condo.

SOUNDCLIP

LESLIE JORDAN: Well, guess where I am. I'm way up in the sky in a new condo that I just bought. 67 years old, and I have my first condo moving on up to the east side to a deluxe apartment in the sky. Moving on up....

MG: The great Leslie Jordan loved to sing so much so that he released a gospel album last year called Company's Comin', featured some of the biggest acts in music, including Dolly Parton and Brandi Carlile. Dolly Parton wrote a lovely piece on Twitter about Leslie Jordan yesterday, talking about how much she will miss him as an actor but also as a friend. We'll leave you today with a little bit of Leslie Jordan performing Further Along featuring Chris and Morgan Stapleton. I'm Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening to The Current. I'll talk to you tomorrow.

LESLIE JORDAN: [Music: Further Along by Leslie Jordan Ft. Chris and Morgan Stapleton]

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Tuesday October 25, 2022 Full Transcript

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