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The AIH Transcript for May 8, 2017

Hosts: Carol Off and Jeff Douglas

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

CAROL OFF: Hello, I'm Carol Off.

Jeff Douglas: Good evening. I'm Jeff Douglas. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

CH: Tonight:

CO: Two ominous words: “Take cover”. That was the order from the U.S. Energy Department two workers at a nuclear waste site in Washington state today. After the collapse of a tunnel that was contaminated with radiation.

JD: Attempting a fire escape. Yesterday, a small Hutterite community in Manitoba had to come together to get their fire truck out of a burning garage. Today, they're taking stock of what was lost a frog in his throat.

CO: A frog in his throat. Matt Furie, the creator of Pepe the frog explains why he recently depicted his poor, hijacked character lying in a coffin. And why Pepe’s death may not be the end of him.

JD: She boldly went where no woman had gone before. The late Anne Morrissy Merick had to fight to cover the story of a lifetime in Vietnam. And tonight, a friend shares the story of Ms. Merick's life.

CO: Differently stoked for different folk. Last night, egged on by a listener, we played a folk song about a red-winged blackbird. Tonight, because some of you flew off the handle, we've got another version of that song waiting in the wings.

JD: And… It ain't seen mutton yet. But to the spiky “sheep-eating plant” that is blooming in Ontario for the first time in decades we'll spear and slowly consume any Ram or ewe that stumbles into it of its own free wool. As It Happens, the Tuesday edition. Radio that asks if you prick them, do they not bleat?

[Music: Theme]

Part 1: Nuclear site emergency, Pepe the Frog dies, sheep-eating plant

Nuclear site emergency

Guest: Tom Carpenter

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: An alarm]

SPEAKER: Well, it’s either a drill or an emergency.

JD: It was not a drill. Earlier today, an emergency was declared at the Hanford nuclear waste site near Richland, Washington. Hundreds of workers were ordered to take cover this morning after a cave-in at a tunnel on the site. No workers were in the tunnel at the time, but it is contaminated with radioactive material. Hanford is the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States. But as we go to air, officials said there was quote, “no indication of a release of contamination at this point.” Tom Carpenter is the executive director of Hanford Challenge, a local watchdog group. We reached him in Seattle earlier today.

CO: Mr. Carpenter, what are you hearing from the Hanford site? Is it still under an alert?

TOM CARPENTER: As far as I know, there's still an emergency alert site evacuation for the whole site in effect. And this is a result of a collapse of a tunnel containing radioactive materials that happened this morning.

CO: And what about the workers themselves? What are they being told to do?

TC: They're being told to take cover, which means to get into a facility where you know they don't breathe any outside air to close off all the vents. And you know that could be — the very closest facility could be — a hot trailer and they have to turn off the air conditioner because that draws in outside air. So they might be sweating away out there in some very hot facilities, which is better than inhaling plutonium particles for instance. So that's what's going on at Hanford right now.

CO: But why aren’t they evacuated and sent home?

TC: Well, Hanford has to make accommodation for evacuations of those workers. I think that's a process and it has to be done in a way that protects those workers. So that they don't even need to transfer to a van or something they don't inadvertently end up inhaling particles if that is what the problem is. So they have to do it carefully and in the right way that they're not putting anyone in danger.

CO: Can you describe this site, this storage facility, what exactly is there and what is it for?

TC: Well, the Hanford nuclear site generally is a former plutonium production site that made most of the plutonium for the arsenal of U.S. nuclear warheads. And that production mission ended back in 1986. And so the site is in clean up. But it has a lot of leftover cold war junk. A lot of it's highly radioactive. You know full of chemicals. So the particular facility we're talking about here is a storage tunnel underneath one of the so-called reprocessing plants, which is where they used to dissolve radioactive materials in acid and then recover the plutonium. And what was left over was very high level radioactive waste. So these tunnels contain everything from about 36 railway cars that were used to transport high level waste. Those cars got so hot, so radioactive that they put them in these tunnels and essentially left them there. And that was in the 60s and 70s two different tunnels. They also filled the cars with all kinds of wonderful stuff: radioactive, chemical and otherwise and simply sealed it off. So recently they've decided that they need to do something about it. So it was on the plan to take care of these tunnels. But before that happened, there was a collapse this morning. So what's in the tunnels is highly radioactive material. So what I understand happened is that a piece of that tunnel actually collapsed and there's a hole in the ground allowing high level radiation to escape out of that hole. And my understanding is that firefighters were stopped from coming within 150 feet. That there's a no fly zone over this hole up to 5,000 feet in the air that you know they're very concerned about the possible spread of contamination. So this is this is a bad day at Hanford. I haven't heard any risk of fire or explosion. So I do want to say that it's not that kind of like Fukushima-type risk. It's more like this stuff could get out of that tunnel and blow around and potentially contaminate workers.

CO: Are there communities? Are there cities or towns close by that might have to be evacuated?

TC: No, probably not. Hanford was chosen for its remote location. And this is right in the middle of the site. So the closest town is nearly 45 miles away. And it's not likely that there would be an offsite consequence.

CO: Meanwhile you have what hundreds of workers who are in this “take cover mode” that can't leave because we don't know what's outside. What they'd have to actually walk through. I mean how are they doing?

TC: Right, it’s thousands of workers. You know you can reliably expect you know for a few thousand people to be there during the day and in the immediate area, I don't know. So yeah, they are trying to get people out of there and contain the situation. I don't have the feeling yet that it's contained. I don't know how close they can get to this hole. Hanford is putting out soothing words, but they're kind of in contradiction to some of the messages and pictures I've been getting from site workers.

CO: This site — Handford — has been called “the most toxic place in the United States”. So there is a history of health problems of the workers, is there not?

TC: Oh yeah, there's a big history of elevated cancer rates with workers, with lung disease, with neurological diseases. Some of that coming from radioactive exposure and a lot of that happened in the past and some of it happening more currently from chemical exposures. So yeah, Hanford is not that safe of a place to work in my view. Hanford would take extreme exception to that. But according to the workers I've talked to, and the studies we've done, this is one of the most toxic places in America and certainly the most contaminated in the Western Hemisphere. And this tunnel is just one of many, many other areas at the Hanford site at risk of collapsing. And this was kind of a wakeup call. It could get much, much worse if there were for instance the collapse of a high level nuclear waste tank or the failure of a pool containing strontium and cesium capsules just to name two others. So there are potential disasters in waiting at the Hanford site. I don't think this qualifies as one of them. But certainly again, it's going to be very expensive to recover from this. And it is a warning to Hanford that they've got facilities out there containing lots of radioactivity and lots of chemicals. Anything can happen and it could be a bad day for not only Hanford workers, but for the communities at large.

CO: Right, we'll be watching this story. Mr. Carpenter, thank you.

TC: OK. Well thanks for having me on.

JD: Tom Carpenter is the executive director of Hanford Challenge. We reached him earlier today in Seattle. After that interview, officials at the Hanford site said the last of the employees in the vicinity of the tunnel were released from work early. Workers continue to monitor the area for contamination.

[Music: Instrumental]

Pepe the Frog

Guest: Matt Furie

JD: In truth, he is really just a laid-back, chill dude, who happens to be an anthropomorphic frog. But his face has been splashed all over the Internet. And through no fault of his own, he has been turned into an Internet meme and labeled as a hate symbol. Well now, fans are in mourning because Pepe the Frog appears to be dead. In a strip issued on Saturday, which was Free Comic Book Day, Pepe was depicted lying in an open casket and various newspapers have since reported that he had indeed been killed off. Only one person can tell us for sure whether that is true or not. His name is Matt Furie. He is the artist who created Pepe. We reached Mr. Furie in L.A.

CO: Matt, we need to know the truth. Is it the end of Pepe the Frog?

MATT FURIE: Well, the end is a chance for a new beginning. So you know I don't think anything is really final. Is death really final? I'm not sure. I think I think the thing about the end and death and things like that it that it's not really the end. Like Pepe can be a soul and I think souls can live on after death as love.

CO: OK, it’s very philosophical, but we're seeing him in a coffin in your cartoon. So what are we supposed to understand by that?

MF: Well, I think the phenomenon with Pepe is it's totally outside of myself and to truly understand Pepe as a cultural phenomenon you have to understand him outside of myself as an artist. And Pepe’s popularity has grown on the Internet because of everybody's kind of collaborative remixing and reinterpreting and re-sharing him on the Internet. So I as the creator of Pepe was just doing a little bit of art therapy for myself and laying him to rest. And just to be fair to him as a character I created he just needed to rest.

CO: Well laying to rest is the operative term here. So describe what’s going on in this cartoon?

MF: Well, in actual sequence of the cartoon. I think that the image that got shared a lot was just simply the one panel of Pepe laying there in a coffin with some flowers. With a picture of him looking kind of bright eyed and hopeful next to his dead body and then it continues on to showing his three best friends kind of mourning the loss. And Landwolf holds up a cheap whiskey and says here’s to you buddy. And just pours it down and ends up pouring it all over his face.

CO: Pepe’s face.

MF: Yeah, pouring it all on Pepe’s face and then drinking it down.

CO: When we last spoke with you the reason why people think that you actually may have put Pepe to rest is because he has been co-opted hasn't he? By all kinds of other interests, in particular by people who turn him into an extreme right-wing character. He's had Nazi tattoos on him by others who've drawn him. He's in KKK garb. He's had Donald Trump's hair. Last time we spoke the Anti-Defamation League was labeling Pepe a hate symbol.

MF: Well, I think I've had some time to kind of process all of this. And obviously I'm taking a bigger look at this situation. You know Pepe was around for years and years. For almost a decade as just a regular meme — an Internet meme — that was you know he stood for all kinds of weird stuff. You know sadness, happiness, smugness, frustration, anger, violence and you know redemption. So he stood for a lot of things, but once he kind of got stamps that institutional recognition of a hate symbol as well as you know proliferated throughout the news media and used in the relatively small but loudest group of the Internet. You know these kind of alt-right trolls. I think kind of solidified him as a symbol of hate or whatever, but I don't I don't think that that that's the end of the story. And if you're listening to this and you're interested in a story like Pepe tell your friends, neighbors, teachers and whoever else that Pepe is a chill, loving frog. Because I'm going to need some help. You know I'm just one man.

CO: OK, so what can you or others do to reclaim Pepe as the chill frog that you made him into?

MF: Well, I think it's just as simple as continue wearing Pepe on T-shirts and if somebody gives you a problem or calls you a racist or something assert that you're not a racist. And tell them that it's just a cartoon frog and that you love them and then give them a hug and then sit down and have tea and you can really have some back and forth and this is where we are today. And I think every moment is an opportunity to change people's opinion. So I'm not going to give up yet, but I'm going to take a break because it is some heavy stuff.

CO: You must have been getting calls because it's odd that Pepe can actually be a news story. But news outlets have reported that you killed Pepe.

MF: Right. Well, that's just what I did was I just killed him. As a creator, I can do that. But of course, as I mentioned before, Pepe as a cultural phenomenon is beyond me, so I didn't anticipate any kind of media attention from this. I was just doing a strip in a free comic book that was handed out by my publisher. Then all of a sudden, there were some big news stories.

CO: You know when we talked to you last you were a bit shaken. When the Anti-Defamation League labels your character a hate symbol it it's you know of concern. Have you ever thought of just giving him up completely?

MF: I have a lot of characters and I have thought about that. But it's kind of awkward for me to just give him up completely and then have it just like be done with. Because I can say whatever I think he is. And I think he's a symbol of love and I'll just continue saying that.

CO: OK, where's Pepe going? What are you going to do with him?

MF: I got some plans for Pepe that I can't really discuss. But he's going to rise from the ashes like a phoenix. So stay tuned for that.

CO: OK. The chill Frog-dude is going to rise from the ashes like a phoenix.

MF: That's right. That's right in a puff of smoke. A puff of marijuana smoke.

CO: Yeah, I can I can picture that. But I will be able to see that at some point I guess. That's where you're going to take him?

MF: Indeed.

CO: Matt, it is good to talk to you. Thanks.

MF: Hey, you too. Take care.

JD: That was artist Matt Furie, creator of Pepe the Frog. We reached Mr. Furie in L.A.

[Music: Ambient]

Sheep-eating plant

Guest: Alex Henderson

JD: It is known as the “sheep-eating” plant. And for the first time in 31 years, the big specimen of Puya Chilensis that lives in Canada's Royal Botanical Gardens, also known as RBG, is blooming and it's flowering. Which, for Alex Henderson, is thrilling and, at times, frightening. Mr. Henderson is the horticulturalist cautiously tending to the sheep-eating plant at the RBG’s Mediterranean Garden. We reached him in Burlington, Ontario.

CO: Mr. Henderson, first of all describe this plant?

ALEX HENDERSON It's a pretty crazy looking plant. It's got a long, snaking trunk on it that's probably about 15 to 20 feet long and then it rises up into the air and on the top of the trunk is a rosette of strap-like leaves that have got razor-like spines on them that face forwards and backwards. And then rising from the leaf rosette is a large flower spike and if you look at it it's kind of like reminiscent of a medieval mace. The flower spike at the top contains these amazing flowers. So it's unlike anything I've ever seen before.

CO: How long have you had it at the Royal Botanical Gardens?

AH: It was planted in 1986 and to that some context. That was the same year as the Chernobyl disaster and the Simpsons cartoon was created and Brian Mulroney was prime minister.

CO: That long ago that long ago! And so where does it come from?

AH: It comes from Chile and it grows in the Andes in a very, very arid climate. So it doesn't get a lot of rain there. Part of the reason the plant looks the way it does with these razor sharp spines is an attempt to stop predation. If you imagine living in that area and you're a predator you want to get access to food sources that have got plenty of liquid. So what the plant has done is to arm itself to stop production.

CO: All right, so everyone who's heard the introduction to this story wants to know why is it called a “sheep-eating” plant?

AH: There's some evidence to suggest that as well as preventing poaching, the sharp spines on the plant can actually entangle sheep if they get too close to the plant. Once the sheep is entangled, it can't get out of the plant and it starves to death. And as it breaks down and decays, it releases nutrients back into the soil around the plant. Essentially the dying animal fertilizes the plant.

CO: Now do you think that's a mythology or do you think that's true?

AH: Well you know, I've spoken to various people about it and some people believe it. I don't think there's been a documented account of this. But yet, I've read information and literature to the effect that Shepherds in Chile will actually burn the plant to protect the flocks. I was actually working with the plant that other day and I nearly cut my hand open on it. So I can imagine that if you got caught in that you would never get out again.

CO: You could become fertilizer.

AH: Yeah, exactly.

CO: But is there any documentation — any incident — of this plant eating a sheep anywhere?

AH: Well, the thing is the plant doesn't actually eat the sheep. It's not what you'd classify as a carnivorous plant. It's actually classified as a protocarnivorous plant, which essentially means it might be evolving towards carnivory, but it isn't carnivorous just yet. It's very complicated and it depends on you know what you believe.

CO: Well, a sheep is a pretty big creature. But it's quite possible that other animals could actually die in this plant I would imagine?

AH: Yeah, absolutely. Other cases scenarios have been like birds and other small mammals, which is kind of interesting because it's pollinated by birds. You know it's quite a sinister plant when you think about it like that because it allows the bird to come along and pollenate it and then gets rid of it after the fact.

CO: Now it's this plant you have the Gardens has actually flowered, is that right?

AH: That's correct, yes. It was planted in 1986 and in its natural habitat, the Puya chilensis normally takes anywhere from 20 to 25 years to flower. Ours has decided to flower in its 31st year and I think it's probably because it's not in its natural habitat and it's a bit of a late bloomer. But you know I've known about this plant in my professional career for about 20 years now and this is the first time I've ever seen one flower. For me this is probably a once in a lifetime or a once in a career kind of life event. So it’s pretty exciting.

CO: And they're quite stunning the colour in these flowers, is that right?

AH: Yeah, it's almost like a neon green and you have to see it to believe. It it's really stunning. Each flower is sort of like about five to seven centimeters long and they're really quite stunning. I've certainly never seen a flower color like this before.

CO: How many other people have? I mean if it's 25 years, or in your case 31 years, this must be some kind of a great moment for someone in horticulture?

AH: Yeah, it's like you know this is what we call bringing out the nerd in the plant people, right? You know, it brings out the plant geek in all of us. It’s a once in a career opportunity see this flower.

CO: Have you had a lot of people — a lot of nerds — coming to check out your flower?

AH: Yeah, we've got a few come in through. But we'd like to get some more people here because it really is a stunning thing and you know you take one look at it it's really not like anything you've ever seen before.

CO: Is it pollinated? Is it possible that it could produce seeds or propagate at all?

AH: This plant is actually termed monocarpic, so it puts so much effort into producing seeds that once the seeds are produced, the plant actually dies because it has completed its life style. So in its natural habitat the plant is pollinated by birds, particularly humming birds. So we're going to try to figure out if we can work out some pollination method with the flowers to produce some viable seeds, which then we can propagate and grow the plant on. But we're also going to see if we can kind of injure it slightly at the base so it will produce some offsets which we might be able to propagate as well. So we’re kind of come at it from two different angles.

CO: What does that do when you injure it at the base?

AH: It can sometimes stimulate reproduction and that can produce new offsets, which are kind of like babies, or what we call pups. And then you can perhaps grow on a new plant from the parent plant.

CO: But if you can't get a new plant or get a seed that can propagate a new plant that's it. You don't get any more of this plant.

AH: That's it. So no pressure, right?

CO: Well you've got to get it you got this has to work.

AH: Yeah, we're going to try as hard as we can. You know if it doesn't work we'll try to look at one from another source because other botanic gardens do grow them. But it be a neat story if we could you know get offspring from the parent plant.

CO: Well meanwhile, look out for those spiny thorns.

AH: Yeah, absolutely. I tried to get pictures the other day and I was precariously balanced on a ladder and I was desperate not to fall off on it and become fertilizer.

CO: Alex, it's great to talk to you. Thanks.

AH: You too Carol. Thank you.

CO: Bye.

AH: Bye.

JD: Alex Henderson is a horticulturalist at Canada's Royal Botanical Gardens, or RBG. He's also the RBG’s curator of collections. We reached Mr. Henderson in Burlington, Ontario. And you can find a photograph of the Puya chillensis, the “sheep-eating” plant, on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Morning birdcall/ Brass]

Jellyfish stings

JD: It does not help. It could even make matters worse. So where did the idea come from? Who was the first person to walk up to a victim of a jellyfish sting, bend down, examine the injuries, stand up and say yeah, I better pee on that. If you were that sting victim and you said OK. I have bad news: that is not sound medical advice. Someone peed on you for no reason. Well for no good reason. And this is not news, but a study in the journal “Toxins” is new and thus news. It is a thorough investigation into which methods for treating jellyfish stings will actually help. And the results surprised even the scientists who did the research. They were specifically looking at how to care for people stung by Portuguese man o’war’s. And if you thought lemon juice would help, no. Shaving cream, no. I'm not sure why you thought that, but no. And urine, well as we've already established, that will make everything and — I mean everything — worse. But what most shocked Dr. Tom Doyle, the co-author of this study, was that sea water and ice, the treatment actual doctors recommend, also exacerbated a sting rather than curing it. Dr. Doyle told the Guardian quote, “But that's the nature of science. We have to hold up our hands

and say we were wrong.” Yes. Or if you're a proponent of the urine cure, zip up your pants and say you were wrong. So what does work? Well, first apply vinegar. That will stop any further venom from coming out of the thousands of minuscule stinging capsules the man o’war's testicles released into your skin. Ouch! Second apply heat. Either water that's around 45 degrees Celsius, or a heating pad of some kind. So there you go. Now all of us amateurs can treat our own man o’war stings because, in the end, it doesn't take a medical whiz to solve the problem. Or a wiz of any kind.

Part 2: Hutterite fire, Anne Morrissy Merick obit

Hutterite fire

Guest: Sam Waldner

JD: Yesterday, a small Hutterite community in Manitoba awoke to a terrible fire. And initially residents were helpless to do anything about it because the fire had engulfed the community garage where the fire truck was parked. Luckily no one was hurt, but the damage is extensive. Sam Waldner was among those who came out to fight the blaze. We reached Mr. Walder at the Decker Hutterite community in Manitoba.

CO: Sam, I understand you were back at the site of the fire earlier today?

SAM WALDNER: There's over a million dollars’ worth of damage and there's a lot more loss. That's about what it's insured for but insurance will not cover value to replace what was there. We will have to make do the best we can.

CO: And what does the site look like?

SW: It looks like a scrap yard. Pieces of torn tin it was metal clad the building inside and out, so naturally as the wood burned out the pieces of tin fell down because there's nothing to hold the screws back in. There was no wood left. The fire commissioner determined what caused the fire and basically he came up with the same thing that we thought had happened. It definitely was a lightning strike.

CO: Did anyone see the lightning?

SW: No, not actually the lightning that started it. That's that happened around 3:00am, we heard this terrible loud thunder clap and we were sure it must have hit something. But I don't know why we didn't go and look? It was not until 5:00 in the morning. Somebody had to take a vehicle and go to Winnipeg for a doctor's appointment. And by going to the garage where the vehicles were parked, he’d smelled the smoke and he looked around he saw the fire through the cracks. Then he raised the alarm and everybody came running.

CO: You went to the fire?

SW: Yes we did.

CO: What was it like? This is Monday morning. What did it look like when you got there?

SW: I was only half dressed. I hurried so much that I just put my trousers on and a jacket and ran. And by the time I got there, the west end of the building the fire was about 30 feet higher than the roof and the roof is about 30 feet high. To me it was heart rendering to see something we worked so hard to put there and now everything that’s there is gone. It's dust. Vehicles and tools and machines and machinery is all done.

CO: And when you saw it engulfed in flames like that. Were you mentally doing inventory of all the things that were probably in there that you would lose?

SW: Not really. Then I was focusing on getting stuff out because it was hot, dark and dangerous to go in. And I knew it was full of machinery. So I went to the far east — the fire started on the west — I went to the far east end and we managed to open the big door there and started to pull out like there was a tractor with some parts missing so we got that out. There was a combine in that and got that out and there even was a 1929 Model A sport coupe I was working on. I got help and three of us pushed that out of the fire. And then we worked our way west as far as we could because there are more vehicles: pickups, big trucks and stuff like that in there. But we could not get everything out. It was too far gone. The ceiling started dropping, so we had to we had to escape. We had to get out of there.

CO: I understand though one of the most important things you did get out was the fire truck which was in there?

SW: We managed to get the fire truck out and it was still functioning. Yes. So we sprinkled water before the fire departments from all around came. So we tried, but we didn't do much with what we had.

CO: How long did it take to fight the fire — to put it out?

SW: Well, it started at about 5:20am roughly till just around noon. The firefighters started rolling up their hoses and getting their things away. Then our ladies were nice enough that we have a lunchroom in this in another shop because the firefighters were not presentable because they were working in mud and in water. So our ladies prepared a good hot dinner some soup, some coffee and some meat and we just couldn't see them leaving without doing the best to show our appreciation of what they did.

CO: How did people in your own community when they could now see all the damage and what you lost. How did they react?

SW: Devastating. Like just this morning, I could see there was two or three of the ladies here with their children walk up towards the fire, find something they could sit down on and just sit and look at the heap of trash that's left there. And in that staff — in that trash — there are still five vehicles in there somewhere. We don't know how devastating that will look. But I think it will be scary because they will have no tires and no wheels. The glass will be broken and the paint will be off. It was a very hot fire. There was lots of oil in there. There were tires in there like a farm shop would be.

CO: And no one was hurt?

SW: No one was hurt, but it was so scary that we had to do a roll call to make sure that we can account for everybody. And fortunately, we could account for everybody.

CO: Well there's something to be thankful for then.

SW: Yes, absolutely.

CO: All from a single bolt of lightning?

SW: single bolt of lightning, but it got in and it literally smashed the main control box and made a hole in the box. And then when the fire commissioner found the broken fuses they were literally blasted apart as if you would have had some dynamite in them and blasted them. So there must have been a lot of power there.

CO: A lot of respect for nature.

SW: Yes, absolutely.

CO: Sam, I'm glad everyone is safe and I'm sorry about your farm.

SW: Thank you.

CO: I appreciate you speaking with us. Thank you.

SW: OK. Thank you.

CO: Bye.

JD: We reached Sam Waldner at the Decker Hutterite Colony in Manitoba.

[Music: Ambient]

Flood electric shock

JD: He worked around the clock. And it nearly killed him. Recently, Richard Lafontaine had been helping his neighbors pile sandbags around their homes. Mr. Lafontaine lives in Gatineau, Quebec, where flooding has affected hundreds of homes. But on Saturday afternoon, he suffered a serious electric shock when the pump he was using came in contact with water. He is currently in stable condition at the hospital. The house where Mr. Lafontaine was helping out belongs to Diane Parisien and Andre Beaudin. They spoke to CBC Ottawa’s Judy Trinh yesterday.

SOUNDCLIP

DIANE PARISIEN: He started building up the wall with the sandbags and he was coordinating everything and he was working hard. And us, we stayed all day and all night with him. And he says you go in bed. You go and lay down, so we went and lay down in a basement. Then came back and I said you your turn to go to sleep. No, no, no, no, everything is under control and kept working.

ANDRE BEAUDIN: They were a good 24 hours without stopping.

DP: He worked and worked and work and the next thing that happened is that I saw police going across. And the police looked at me and I said oh my gosh, something must be wrong you know. And I ran in and I saw him on the floor.

AB: And on the floor he was in the water.

DP: On the water.

AB: He was passed out and his heart stopped two times. And the daughter got him alive again.

DP: I think she's only 19.

AB: She did that. She was only 19 and she was very good at it.

DP: She’s an angel. She saved his life.

AB: After that, the ambulance came up and they took over. The electric shock.

JUDY TRINH: How did that happen?

AB: Because we got some electric pump and I don't know he fell off in the water.

DP: And when I saw that he was not moving and they were doing this. I thought oh my God, this man died for us, you know? And then the girl, she waited until he started to be blue and purple and then when it started she started to do this and this is when he started to come back.

JD: Diane Parisien and Andre Beaudin, speaking to CBC Ottawa's Judy Trinh yesterday. They both live in Gatineau, Quebec, where their neighbor suffered an electric shock after helping them pile sandbags around their home.

[Music: Ambient]

Anne Morrissy Merick obit

Guest: Denby Fawcett

JD: At the Cornell University student newspaper, she became the first female sports editor in the school's history. And as a field producer for ABC News during the Vietnam War, Anne Morrissy Merick defied military leaders who wanted her to stay behind the lines. Ms. Merick was a pioneer. She was a trailblazer for women in journalism. She died last week of complications from dementia. She was 83-years-old. Denby Fawcett worked as a journalist alongside Ms. Merick in Vietnam. We reached Ms. Fawcett in Honolulu.

CO: Ms. Fawcett, what a loss to lose Anne Morrissey Merick.

DENBY FAWCETT: Yes, it definitely a loss and a towering figure from an earlier age.

CO: You got to know her when you were quite young. You were both quite young and you were in Vietnam. Can you tell us about the first time you met Anne Morrissey Merick?

DF: I was in Vietnam when I was 24-years-old and she was older than me. I think about 10 years older. But I got to know her better when we had the time when we were about to lose — female reporters — our rights to cover the war. And this happened after William Westmoreland, who was the commander of the American forces in Vietnam at the time had seen me when he come to visit some soldiers after a particularly bad battle and didn't like the idea of seeing a female in out in the field in such a dangerous place.

CO: Well more than just didn't like it. He was shocked.

DF: Yeah, he was shocked.

CO: What was this girl doing there?

DF: Yeah, he asked me oh you know how long have you been here? And he talked about putting in a rule where female reporters could not stay out in the field at night, which would have terribly handicapped our reporting. Because you can't just say when you're out somewhere in a battle oh, I'd like to return. I'd like to go home like you have a taxi to take you in and out of the war. So that would have discriminated against women because there was no rule like that for male reporters.

CO: What did Anne Morrissy do? She stepped in right? And she went after this Westmorland edict?

DF: I'm of that type where I figure things will work themselves out. This is such a ridiculous edict. It will never be enforced. But she was the key fighter in this battle. And so she went all the way to the U.S. Defense Department to say this shouldn't happen.

CO: and she won. But I mean this this is more than just a victory for you and the women who are there in the 1960s in Vietnam. This was a break through, right? I mean this is you and Anne Morrissy Marick paved the way for women in the next decades to be able to go into combat and to cover the stories.

DF: Yes, and it's not so much us. It was the war. Because it wasn't an official war, there was no censorship and there were no prohibitions against reporters moving anywhere they wanted to go. So this helped women a lot because people could then see that women could do the jobs. You know that oh, they're not going to run away crying when a firefight starts or the other soldiers are not going to risk their lives to protect these women, which was one of the arguments.

CO: Anne Morrisy though had already cut her teeth on a man's job even before then because she was a sports journalist. They called her at one point “a girl sports editor”. She had already been blazing this trail.

DF: Yeah. This I didn't realize till I wrote an obituary myself about her. And I knew she'd done that, but I didn't know what a big deal it was at the time. And it is just fascinating to read about even I believe the Chicago Tribune just ridiculed her. You would think it's funny they would write about a college sports writer, but it was such a big deal at the time that the national press covered it just mocking her.

CO: Well, I have the quote from your article it is enough to get angry, but the quote is, “She can write a fashion review giving a description of the costuming in Dartmouth green or Harvard crimson and what accessories the athletes carried. Oh yes, her readers will expect to find somewhere what the score was.”

DF: Yeah, I thought that was so wonderful when I came across it. You know so antique and so good to bring out today to remind younger women of what it was like and what women reporters even in college were against.

CO: What was she like?

DF: She is very intense. And one thing that came out in some of the articles I read she was not like a feminist of today. She was more like an old-fashion woman. Very feminine, very tiny and cute and so you would see that and some people might dismiss her as they did in the articles you read as kind of cute quote, “spunky little lady”. You know but underneath that was a strong determination to do what was right and to stick up for her rights. And she was smart too and good writer and a thoughtful person and a good person.

CO: And did she keep up in her career?

DF: No, she didn't. She came back and did some reporting for ABC — some producing. She was a producer. So after Vietnam, she did keep up with that. But then she gradually retired. She was getting older and led a comfortable life in Florida.

CO: What a great story about this woman.

DF: Yes it is. And you know it's very interesting to think back at that you know both the good old days, especially for women. And then also to remember the bad old days when you hear someone so accomplished as Anne called a girl or a little lady or even when she was in charge of 25 or 30 people covering a space shot she was described in one article as “a girl in a man's world”.

CO: Ms. Fawcett, great to speak with you. I really appreciate you telling us about Anne Morrissy Merick.

DF: Oh thank you. You're welcome.

CO: Bye bye.

DF: Bye.

JD: Denby Fawcett covered the Vietnam War for the Honolulu Advertiser. She worked alongside Anne Morrissy Merick, who was a field producer for ABC News at the time. Ms. Merick died last week. She was 83-years-old.

[Music: Ambient]

Red-winged blackbird follow-up

JD: We should have known better. With spring in the air, it is best to tread lightly around red-winged blackbirds. The notoriously territorial birds are mating and they're ready to dive bomb anything that comes near their turf. And last night, like an unsuspecting dog walker perhaps, we just casually strolled our way through his script and played a song about those feisty birds. Only to then be subjected to a cacophony of tweets from equally feisty listeners on Twitter Andreas Dolberg wrote qoute, “You played a lovely cover of Red-Winged Blackbird. But your listeners might want to know it is a David Francey song.” Dee Girdler added, “A hat tip in order to three-time Juno winner David Francey, who wrote recorded and made famous Red-Winged Blackbird.” And that wasn't all, there were emails too… Lots of emails. See the original song suggestion came from a listener named Diane Suter who wanted to hear James Keeleghan’s version. And not that we are blaming MS suitor for all the ruffled feathers

Part 3: Kosher cheese charge, Killer whale autopsy

Stephen Fry blasphemy

JD: Harsh? Yes, perhaps. But the words Stephen Fry dared utter on an Irish TV program two years ago apparently did not incur the wrath of God. And while the skies did not part and Mr. Fry was not struck dead immediately, his words were enough to raise the hackles of at least one mortal and briefly got the attention of the Irish police force. But the Gardai investigation into whether Mr. Fry committed blasphemy — the investigation being prompted by a viewer complaint — has now been dropped. Apparently due to a lack of outrage from the public at large. Nevertheless, the ensuing controversy has prompted major political parties in another far off country to call for repealing similarly outdated legislation. An end to New Zealand's blasphemy law could come within weeks and for the record, here Mr. Frye's comments on God that sparked the minor furor. This is from a 2015 episode of “The Meaning of Life”, with host gay Byrne, which airs on Ireland's public TV station RTE.

SOUNDCLIP

GAY BYRNE: Suppose it's all true and you walk up to the pearly gates and you are confronted by God. What will Stephen Fry say to him, her, or it?

STEPHEN FRY: I will it is the Odyssey I think I. I’ll say bone cancer in children. What's that about? How dare you! How dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault. It's not right. It's utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain? That's what I`d say.

GB: And you think you're going to get in?

SF: No, but I wouldn't want to. I wouldn't want to get in on his terms. They're wrong. Now, if I died and it was it was Pluto and Hades and if it was the twelve Greek Gods then I would have more truck with it. Because the Greeks didn't pretend not to be human in their appetites and in their capriciousness and in unreasonableness. They didn't present themselves as being all seeing, all wise, all kind or all beneficent because the God who created this universe, if it was created by a God, is quite clearly a maniac. An utter maniac and totally selfish. We have to spend our life on our knees thanking him? What kind of God would do that?

JD: Actor and comedian Stephen Fry speaking on Irish public television in 2015. An investigation into whether or not Mr. Fry committed blasphemy with those remarks has been dropped by the Irish police force. And listen, lest you dare surrender onto that great Canadian sin of smugness. Canada has an act of blasphemy law on its books. Section 296 of the Criminal Code states quote, “Everyone who publishes a blasphemous libel is guilty of an indicted offense and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.” So be careful.

[Music: Rock]

Kosher cheese charge

Guest: Richard Rabkin

JD: “That's not kosher.” That expression usually means something is not right and it does apply here. But in this case, those three words also mean exactly what they say literally. And for the company Creation Foods, and its vice-president Kefir Sadiklar, that could also mean jail time and serious fines. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has charged Mr. Sadiklar and his company with sending fake kosher cheese to Jewish summer camps in Ontario in 2015. Richard Rabkin helped bring this case to the authorities. He is the managing director of the Kashruth Council of Canada, or COR. We reached Mr. Rabkin in Toronto.

CO: Mr. Rabkin, what has the Canadian Food Inspection Agency charged this Creation Foods and its owners with?

RICHARD RABKIN: So as far as I understand, they have charged them with one count of making a false document. Two counts of using the document as if it were genuine and sending it to the two summer camps in question. And two counts of unlawfully selling food that doesn't meet the requirements of the Kashruth applicable to it and using a forged document to sell that kosher food.

CO: What was allegedly wrong with the food?

RR: The food was not kosher. It was cheese in this particular instance. And in order for cheese to be kosher, it has to have two components. First of all, all the ingredients used in the cheese need to be kosher. And the second component is that a rabbi needs to actually be there during the production watching the entire process and actually pouring coagulant into the cheese.

CO: But now what the allegations are is that it's not just that well they didn't know or things got mixed up. It appears, from the documents, that what they're being accused of is having deliberately tried to pass this cheese off as kosher. Is that right?

RR: That's correct. And I can kind of take you through the steps a little bit if you like?

CO: Please.

RR: So this happened two years back and we have a kosher supervisor who acts in the particular summer camps in question. So they received a delivery from Creation…

CO: Just so people know, Creation Foods is the company.

RR: So they delivered a bunch of different things, cheddar cheese being one of them. But this cheddar cheese did not have any kosher insignia. So the kosher supervisor then said to the representative from Creation Foods hey, this product doesn't look kosher because there's no kosher symbol. And their representative from Creation said oh, well let me send you a kosher certificate. So what he's saying is I guess in you know 99 per cent of cases the kosher product has a kosher symbol on it, but that might be a case where perhaps there's an industrial production in or for whatever the case may be and they use a kosher certificate to explain and prove that this product is kosher.

CO: So they sent the certificate here. This is Kefir Sadiklar, who is the person in charge Creation Foods. He sent the certificate to the camp. Is that right?

RR: That's correct. So a few hours later, he sends a certificate to the camp. And you know our kosher supervisor there looks at it and says something looks a little bit off about the situation. So he asks one of our rabbis from the head office and he in fact agrees that something doesn't look kosher here, so to speak. Forgive the pun. And he says send it to the head office. So at that point this is a day or two later and we are examining it here in the office myself and some of the other rabbis here. And we noticed a problem. You see the kosher certificate, first of all, when you look at it at first glance the font looks a little bit different, something looks a little bit off about it. That was the first kind of strike if you will. The second thing was that there was a product code in the kosher certificate and the product was 141269. So as we looked this up in our database, and we have a very robust software program that tracks all of this, there was no record of any 269 product code. Now we had a 259, but not a 269. So then we just use some software that you can get freely available on Internet and it shows all the properties of the document and shows this has been photoshopped. It shows at what time it's been photoshopped. Where, by whom and exactly what was done. So this was obviously the nail in the coffin so to speak and that's when we knew that we needed to kind of proceed further and contact the people that we contacted.

CO: Contact the authorities. So you're saying it was forged?

RR: The document was forged.

CO: But why would why would they go to all this trouble? I mean it sounds like a lot of work. I mean surely there are other customers if you're not going to produce kosher cheese then then go to another market. Why would any company go to all this effort to forge these documents?

RR: Well, Carol it's a good question and I asked myself that at the time and still do. And to be honest, it's hard for me to put myself in the shoes of somebody who is forging kosher documents and selling non-kosher cheese to anybody and passing it off as kosher. Let alone Jewish children at a summer camp. So it's hard for me to understand. I mean the only analogy that I can use is it's just a kin to somebody selling certified nut-free products to a summer camp that is not nut-free and kids have allergies at that camp and they're intentionally selling this nut-based product as nut-free. So you know to us, to people who keep a kosher diet, it's the same thing. You know if it's spiritual poison so to speak.

CO: And so if it were and we know that there are cases where people have provided nuts to children where there are allergies. this is getting into very serious territory. Are the authorities and is the is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency taking this seriously?

RR: Well, I think they are. I mean they pressed criminal charges and that's the first time that the CFIA has done so. So we certainly appreciate what they've done and the fact that they've gone to these lengths.

CO: We should point out there were two camps involved in this of children's camps where there were issues with the food that were sent by the company. Did any of the kids end up eating any of that?

RR: Our belief is that they didn't.

CO: Mr. Rabkin, I appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

RR: Thank you Carol.

JD: Richard Rabkin is the managing director of the Kashruth Council of Canada, or COR. We reached him in Toronto.

[Music: folk]

Jeremy Corbyn

Today, at a country club in London, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the U.K.'s Labor Party promised to lower taxes for the rich. Just kidding. He's Jeremy Corbyn. He was at a conference center in Manchester and he promised that if Labor wins, he will punished what he called quote, “tax cheats, rip off bosses and greedy bankers.” Mr. Corbyn launched his party's election campaign with accusations that the economy is rigged in favor of the wealthy and he also said that Labor will somehow find ways to take advantage of Britain's plan to leave the EU. And he also said that people are disillusioned with politics and the growing gap between rich and poor.

SOUNDCLIP

JEREMY CORBYN: Our challenge to a rigged system is bound to meet hostility. Change always involves taking on vested interests. And there is a real danger that the Tories scare mongering and spin machine will make some people settle for less than they should. Resign themselves to things the way they are. Underestimating just how many more burdens the Tories could impose if their mission to rig the system for the rich isn't halted. The stakes are very high. We know from last week's local elections how big the challenge is. We have to convince the skeptical and undecided. They're not sure which way to turn. Who can blame them? People are alienated from politics and politicians. Our Westminster system is broken and our economy is rigged. Both are run in the interest of a few. Labor is under attack because we are standing up to the elites who are determined to hijack Brexit and pay even less tax and take even more of the wealth that we all create.

[Sound: Thunderous applause]

JC: Labor is under attack because we're standing up to the corporate interests plundering our National Health Service. How much more will be privatized if the Tories get another five years? We’re drawing a line under decades of privatization from energy to rail to health to social care.

JD: For the record, that was Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's Labor Party, at a campaign event in Manchester today U.K.’s election June 8th.

[Music: Jazz]

Killer whale autopsy

Guest: Andrew Brownlow

JD: Lulu was one of the last killer whales in the waters around the UK. So when she was found dead last year, having apparently drowned after becoming entangled in fishing lines off the coast of Scotland, it was a tragedy. And a tragedy not just for her, but for her whole dwindling population. And now new tests have complicated the sad story even further. Because the results from those tests show that Lulu was contaminated with mind-bogglingly high levels of toxic PCBs. Andrew Brownlow is a veterinary pathologist, and the head of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme. We reached Dr Brownlow in Copenhagen.

CO: Dr. Brownlow, how contaminated is this whale?

ANDREW BROWNLOW: In terms of the levels of PCBs that we found in Lulu. She had levels in her blubber between 20 and 100 times the levels that we think are benign in marine mammals and mammals in general. So she was one of the most contaminated animals that we've ever looked at.

CO: How do you think she came to be that contaminated? Mostly with PCBs it seems.

AB: That's right. I mean it's sort of it's shocking on some levels, but also in others it's actually totally unsurprising given what we know about these contaminants. To give you just a very brief sort of summary of what PCBs are and how they work. They're very small molecules that build up over time and throughout the food webs. So they accumulate through the sort of the fish and the marine mammals and then these are killer whales that feed right at the very top of the food chain of course. So they feed on seals and porpoises, which themselves feed on fish, which themselves feed on smaller fish and what have you. So they are absolutely at the top of the pinnacle. So it's not unfortunately not surprising that they have these incredibly high levels of PCBs.

CO: But you say that this one is the most contaminated, so is it because of her age that she was contaminated? or are you worried that there are more sources of PCBs that she may have been subjected to?

AB: No, I don't I don't think that she has been particularly overexposed. I think she is an animal who has had two things that have contributed to this. One is that she was probably quite an old lady, so she lived a relatively long life. And therefore, during that life, she had accumulated gradually each year a little bit more of this burden. And the other is a function of how PCBs can be got rid of by contaminated animals. And that’s through things such as the blubber being broken down during lactation. So if an animal lactates and if it has a calf then it can actually pass the PCB burden through the very fatty milk and into the calf. Now because she'd never reproduced she had never become the point to which she was able to sort of ovulate it would seem from looking at her ovaries.

CO: The fact that she was infertile is that anything to do with the PCBs in her body?

AB: We don't know for certain. There could have been other things that were that were causing it. We know for example that she's from quite a small population that is relatively inbred. So there may be other factors. But we do know that PCBs can interfere with the reproduction system. So it's very plausible that one of the reasons that she wasn't able to become reproductively active and therefore have a calf as described was because of the levels of PCBs that she had in her in her body.

CO: What other effects would the PCBs have had on Lulu's life?

AB: Well, the interesting thing about this I suppose isn’t sort of why she had such a high level of contaminants? But it was how she actually managed to survive with that high level of contaminants? Because the important thing is that it didn't actually kill her. What killed her was that she became entangled in some fishing rope. But PCBs can have a number of different effects. They’re very small molecules, so they can interfere with a lot of sort of normal physiological processes. So the immune system can get compromised. In some cases there's evidence that PCBs can actually cause cancers.

CO: The fact that she died being tangled up in these nets is this possibly because of the PCBs? I mean did she become disoriented or weakened by them?

AB: Well, we will never know. I mean it is it is a theory, but it would only be speculation. We don't often see killer whales become entangled. In fact, actually this is the first one we've ever had on record. In Lulu's case probably a large majority of these pollutants were locked away in her blubber. So they weren't going around her blood stream. Once something happened like for example, she became entangled. She would have started breaking down her own reserves of energy and the process of doing that when she starts using her own blubber reserves means that the PCB burden is now going around her body.

CO: Can you tell us what's been done with the whale’s remains?

AB: She was collected by the museum. So her entire skeleton is now on display at the Museum of Scotland. I mean killer whales are relatively rarely strand around the coast of Scotland. In the past 20 years, we've only had eight cases because of the interest in these amazing creatures and also because of their very unique and very special role in the ecosystem. We use the opportunities for the strandings to try and learn as much as we possibly can about these animals.

CO: Finally what does this tell you about the future of killer whales?

AB: The population that Lulu came from, which is a small population, which we know that they have a particularly high burden of PCBs because of the fact that they are marine mammal eaters. So they are exposed to very high levels of very long period of time. And these populations are very vulnerable and very threatened. And I mean for a number of reasons perhaps some of them to do with the breeding structure of them, but probably some of them to do with this contaminant. These particular groups may actually disappear from Scottish waters. So Lulu's little group is probably going to go extinct.

CO: Dr. Brownlow, thank you for speaking with us.

AB: You're welcome.

JD: Andrew Brownlow is a veterinary pathologist, and the head of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme. We reached him in Copenhagen.

[Music: Ambient]

Iowa politician

JD: Rod Blum's week is not off to a good start. Yesterday, the Republican congressman from Iowa agreed to an interview with a local TV station called KCRG. The reporter asked Congressman Blum about the town hall meeting that he was hosting later that evening. Specifically about the congressman's plan to pre-screen all the residents attending to make sure there were no passkey out of towners in the audience. Congressman Blum only listened to a few questions from KCRG reporter Josh Scheinblum before deciding that enough was enough. Here is part of that exchange.

SOUNDCLIP

JOSH SCHEINBLUM: Congressman, I'm sure you know the drill. You're having your first town hall meeting since January. What are you expecting?

ROD BLUM: Discussion of the issues just like typical. I'm not expecting I guess anything one way or the other.

JS: So one thing that's a little less typical is you want to see IDs for this. Can I ask why that decision was made?

RB: Because we want people from the first district to be at our town halls. We don't want people from outside of the first district. We don't need people from Chicago there or Des Moines there or Minneapolis there. I don't represent them. They should go talk to their representatives at they're town halls. I don't know why they would want to be at one of my town hall meetings to start with?

JS: Well, I think some would make the case that you represent all Iowans. The decisions that you make impact all Iowans, so shouldn't all Iowans have a voice at the table or at least have the option to?

RB: I don't represent all Iowans. I represent the first district of Iowa. That would be like saying even though I live in Dubuque, go vote Iowa City in the election because I'd like to vote in that district.

JS: Would you still take donations from a Republican in Iowa City?

RB: This is ridiculous! This is ridiculous! He’s just going to sit here and badger me.

JS: We just asked why you wanted to do the interview? That was it.

JD: Congressman Rod Blum, walking out of an interview with KCRG reporter Josh Scheinblum in Iowa yesterday.

[Music: Jazz]

Longest note

JD: From a performance of Casino Rama in Ontario is Kenny G.

SOUNDCLIP

[sound: A long held note]

Kenny G you went on to hold that note for nearly four minutes, which is nowhere near the record he set in 1997 for playing an E-flat nonstop for 45 minutes and 47 seconds. And that awful ear-splitting triumph is possible only if you have mastered what is called circular breathing. You inhale through your nose and exhale through your instrument. Mr. G has clearly mastered it. So too has the Nigerian bandleader singer/songwriter and saxophonist Femi Kuti. son of the legendary father of Afrobeat Fela Kuti. And on Sunday, during a concert at the New Africa Shrine in Nigeria, Femi Kuti had a blast. For 46 minutes and 38 seconds.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: A long held note]

JD: That was .7 per cent of Femi Kuti’s epically held note. All in attendance at the show we're so pleased to have witnessed his remarkable achievement. Even though every second of it two were simultaneously boring and irritating. Mr. Kuti really blew it. But it turns out, he blew it at blowing it. Because despite initial reports that he had broken the world record he and his people missed a big honking deal. A guy by the name of Vann Burchfield, who held a note on his saxophone for 47 minutes and 5.5 seconds back in the year 2000.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: A long held note]

JD: OK, that was a not quite short enough clip from a video of saxophonist Vann Burchfield setting a new Guinness World Record for longest held note on a saxophone in the year 2000. So unfortunately, Femi Kuti was wasting his breath. But he says he'll try again. He tweeted quote, “I believe I've still got a bit more energy in my tank.” We hope he does and Mr. Kuti, wherever you are, the next time you feel like you're ready to sustain a record length note hold it right there.

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May 8, 2017 episode transcript

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