Note: Transcripts may contain errors. If you wish to re-use all, or part of, a transcript, please contact CBC for permission. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print. Copyright © CBC 2018

The AIH Transcript for March 22, 2018

Hosts: Susan Bonner and Jeff Douglas

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

SUSAN BONNER: Hello, I'm Susan Bonner sitting in for Carol Off.

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

[Music: Theme]

JD: Tonight…

SB: Exercising power over power. Manitoba Hydro board members resign after the premier vetoes a huge payment to the Metis Federation for a project. And the federation president says Brian Pallister is playing racial politics.

JD: Work ethic. A minister in London, Ontario is convicted and fined for illegally employing temporary foreign workers. But he says, in a way, giving them jobs was just doing his own.

SB: Pulped Fiction. When a young adult author's first novel is criticized for racism her publisher destroys every copy because she decides the right thing to do is rewrite the thing.

JD: The family that prays together. A researcher in British Columbia describes a never before seen phenomenon he probably hopes he never sees again — a group of Orca's killing a young relative.

SB: In this case the humans jumped through hoops. After a group effort by residents of Heart's Delight, Newfoundland a pod of dolphins trapped in ice yesterday are swimming free today.

JD: And…How the waste was won. When two Ontario men stumble on dozens of bags of garbage someone dumped, they do some junk science and return all that trash to the person who chucked it. As It Happens: The Thursday Edition. Radio that guesses that's one way to get rid of the bags under your eyes.

Part 1: Manitoba Hydro, Newfoundland Dolphins Rescued, Bowmanville Trash

Manitoba Hydro

Guest: David Chartrand

JD: The board members were all appointed by Manitoba's Conservative government. So it was surprising and unprecedented to see the provinces Hydro board resign en masse this week. Nine of the 10 board members walked out after Premier Brian Pallister vetoed a multimillion dollar payment to the Manitoba Metis federation. The payment was almost $70 million for the construction of transmission lines that would run through Metis land. Premier Pallister said the payment would set an unfair precedent. But the Manitoba Hydro board had approved the payment — so 90 per cent of its members resigned. David Chartrand is glad they did. He's the president of the Manitoba Metis federation. Today though we reached him in Penticton, British Columbia.

SB: Mr. Chartrand, what does it tell you that Manitoba Hydro's board of directors resigned en masse this week?

DAVID CHARTRAND: Well, firstly I think as Manitobans we should all be concerned. It's never been done in history that the largest Crown corporation would have everyone resign — especially when great fanfare was displayed in 2016, because these were very high ranking people, very well respected and not only in Manitoba, but in Canada. A lot of these individuals that decided to put their voice to the process to see if they can help out in dealing with the challenges that Manitoba Hydro faced, but to be treated in such a disrespect by the premier of Manitoba that he would not even give them the time of day, not even give them 30 minutes to have a meeting for the last year. In fact he decided to punish them in which he's done now.

SB: Premier Brian Pallister has called the payment to the Metis Federation — the payment of $67 million, which is at the center of this dispute — he's called it “persuasion money.” What would you call it?

DC: Well, first of all that’s negotiating a settlement of replacing the land and the utilization of those lands in different economies and effects that occurred to our people. You know, it’s just sad because what Premier Pallister is attempting to do is trying to find a scapegoat. He cannot go back to his own conservative family and explain to them why he was so disrespectful to a board that has such high rank and respect in our province.

CO: Mr. Chartrand, can you explain why the Metis Federation would require this payment? What is the money for?

DC: How it works is this — the best way for people to understand is this — when Hydro is actually putting the Bipole line, which is 200-foot wide line of the hydro towers coming from over 1,186 kilometres. What they do is they go back and figure out okay what are the damaging, what are they taking away from someone? No different than private land owners, farmers when they're growing certain crops in their field, if Hydro is putting a line across there they do an analysis of exactly what the crop was what the sales, were what the lost revenue might be for that farmer and come to a number which both the farmer and Hydro come to a term of recognising and saying okay this is the cash value that you're losing and this is how we will replenish your business. We have for example wild berry picking areas that are very famous and gone back for generations. We have areas where we do our logging, we have our harvesting. We have medicinal plant collections — all of these things, so what Hydro has now done is saying ‘Here's the plan. We want to see what we've affected and the damage we've caused now to the Metis people and here’s probably what the end result would be financially.’ So the $67 million is not a lot of money if people are listening. As an individual it's a lot of money. As a nation it’s 120,000 of us and it's for 50 years.

SB: Is the premier though arguing that this is actually money to persuade, and that's his word again, you not to litigate against the hydro company and not to hold up the development of this project to move the power down south.

DC: No, I think the Premier is being a little bit more boastful and more harsh in his language when he uses the word persuasion. I think he's actually trying to depict it in some form or fashion as unethical, as backroom dealings, as something that was hush money, blackmail money, because you do not hear him saying that to the farmers. That is part of an economic loss and Hydro has responsibility to make sure it replaces what it takes. So when the Premier uses that language, trust me, he's only talking to a certain crowd, he's trying to get certain conservative family members to spark up and stand with him because he doesn't want it to be seen that he's the man that caused all this great damage in our province.

SB: What do you mean when you say he's playing to a certain crowd? What it what is he playing at?

DC: Well, let's remember what his background is. He used to be a reformer. Reformers are very strong right-wing positioned when it comes to finance, when it comes to taxes, when it comes to rights. And his ideologies have not left him.

SB: But Mr. Chartrand Manitoba Hydro is swimming in debt — that's undeniable. $16 billion now, it's expected to rise to $25 billion in the next three years. Doesn't the Premier have to consider those kinds of numbers, wouldn't that factor into his decision?

DC: If that was the number one concern, if that was, why wouldn't he meet with the board? For the past year they’ve been trying to have a meeting with him to discuss this concern. Instead for over a year he avoided them. He wouldn't meet with them because his ego took over — and this man I'm telling you his ego is bigger than our legislative assembly.

SB: Across the country there are all kinds of energy projects at play — pipelines, dams, transmission lines — they need to be built in consultation with Indigenous communities. What message do you think there is for those projects going forward in what's happening in Manitoba now?

DC: Well, I'll give you a perfect example. The Manitoba government is in partnership with Enbridge. The pipelines are coming through Manitoba. We're very strong supporters of the direction that Enbridge has taken and we work together on how we can both look at the environment and the economic side, which my concerns would definitely be raised on two fronts. So there's examples that exist, not only Manitoba, you look at Ontario. Ontario when they did Hydro lines in Ontario they had a direct partnership with the First Nations. So for him to say that this process between the Metis and Hydro should never have occurred because this is a special interest group. It's a chess game — he's playing with words, he's playing with a nation of people.

SB: You've accused the Premier of playing the race card by cancelling this payment. That's a pretty serious accusation.

DC: But I can prove it. We had a serious issue, for all those listening, regarding the rights of Indigenous people to practice by harvesting animals, big-game animals at night with a spotlight. So what he did in fact because it was an uproar by many farmers and private citizens, he played the race card. He said it's all Indigenous people. Then he went further. He said they all have criminal records, those people. This is not new. This guy has played this card before.

SB: What is this done to the energy deal to sell the hydro power to Minnesota?

DC: It's definitely going to cause a lot of problems for Hydro now, because Hydro has worked so hard to find a balance they've got to get that hydro into Minnesota or Minnesota has clauses that they can come back and charge Hydro for failing to meet their obligations and it could mean strong and high financial implications against our country and our province.

SB: You won't let these hydro lines be put on your land then, you'll hold the project?

DC: There's no way I can allow this to happen. I've been a very strong supporter of Hydro, I’ve supported throughout even though they ignored us for so many years, but there is no way that the nation are going to use a scapegoats and called special interest groups with no rights. This Premier has caused us to react and we have no choice but to use the courts. Our lawyers will be in every courtroom all the Supreme Court of Canada if necessary, and I got the financial ability to ensure I have the resources to take this all the way to Supreme Court of Canada. If it cost me a million dollars, I'll spend a million dollars.

SB: Mr. Chartrand, thank you.

DC: Thank you very much.

JD: David Chartrand is the president of the Manitoba Metis Federation. We reached him in Penticton, British Columbia.

[Music: Ambient Bass]

Newfoundland Dolphins Rescued

Guest: Tim Sooley

SOUNDCLIP

CROWD LAUGHING AND CHEERING.

SIRENS

JD: That was what it sounded like this afternoon at the harbour and Heart's Delight NewFoundland. As we told you on the program last night, a number of dolphins had been trapped by ice in the harbour for days. Today though, following a group effort involving officials and residents, the Dolphins did swim free. Tim Sooley lives in Heart's Delight and he was at the Harbour today.

SB: Tim, we just heard some of that cheering at the harbour. What was it like for everybody to watch the dolphins swim away?

TIM SOOLEY: They were very pleased. Ever was honking their horns and the fire department had their sirens going and everyone was clapping their hands and they were all glad that they got out.

SB: I guess it sounds like it was quite an eruption of noise and celebration.

TS: Yeah it was a long time because they came in there since Sunday, they’ve been there now like five or six days.

SB: So tell us about the rescue Tim. There's a picture of an excavator on a wharf down at the harbour. What was that there for?

TS: That was my buddy. He was trying to push the ice around the wharf there to like loosen it up, and with the winds they were trying to get the dolphins out.

SB: And how many boats were there trying to help the situation, help with the ice?

TS: Well there was one there and our local fishermen had his boat there too, but it was smaller, and they were tearing it up with their motors and it towards the excavators, and excavators with their bucket just pushing around the wharf.

SB: But it sounds like it was a real team effort.

TS: The community was good, everyone was cheering. Not no one getting paid for it or nothing, just volunteer it.

CO: What do you think that was about? Why was everybody so keen to get involved?

TS: I guess we're like smaller communities and I guess everyone sticks together and tries to help each other out.

SB: And help out the Dolphins.

TS: And the dolphins. And I think they knew that they were getting rescued. They knew that the ice was packing in on them and just they're in a little lake water and they were just waiting to go.

SB: You think the Dolphins knew what was going on?

TS: Yeah, they’re smart. They’ve been through this probably before, they were just lucky enough they got clear, right.

SB: I understand yesterday as it happened spoke with Wayne Ledwell and he expressed some concern that breaking the ice might actually force the Dolphins closer to shore and give them less space. What was the plan if that had happened?

TS: Well then we would have had to put them on stretchers and put them on a trailer and bring them somewhere else and put them off there.

SB: So everyone was ready for that possibility?

TS: Oh, yes. They had the trailers and everything there on the beach there waiting if that's what happened, but we would rather them to go with the ice clear because it might have hurt him the other way.

SB: So what have the last few days been like for you and for the people in that community?

TS: Pretty emotional. I just felt like helping out.

SB: Emotional how?

TS: Well I do hunt and when I’m out at the bay there are hundreds of them jumping up an hitting the boat.

SB: But this was different.

TS: Yeah it just seeing them come in like that and get trapped — they’re youngsters really like — they cry and the noise they make when they get pinned.

SB: And you think that's part of the story, that had an impact on the community?

TS: Oh yeah. And you know a lot of people are animal lovers I suppose and you don't want to see them suffering.

SB: When do you think people in Heart's Delight will stop talking about this experience?

TS: It’s something I've never seen before and the older guys that live here have never seen anything like it before.

SB: So this is Heart’s Delight lore now?

TS: Yes, I’ve never saw I never see nothing like it. I've been there now forty years.

SB: What do you people are thinking about those dolphins now? How confident are people that they're actually free and safe?

TS: I think it's going to be talk for a while. There’s going to be a lot of people thanking people for helping out. It’s going to be the talk for a while.

SB: Well, we were really glad to talk to you. Thanks for telling us about it.

TS: You're welcome.

SB: Bye-bye.

JD: We reached Tim Sooley in Heart's Delight, Newfoundland.

[Music: Industrial]

Radio-Canada Arrest Update

JD: Radio-Canada reporter Antoine Trépanier was working on a huge story and then he became the huge story. Last week we told you about the arrest of Mr. Trépanier, who reports on Ottawa and Gatineau news. It came after the reporter had reached out to the director of a local non-profit for comment through e-mails and phone calls. That prompted said director to call the police and accuse the reporter of harassment. Mr. Trépanier was trying to get a comment from Yvonne Dube, who the reporter discovered had falsely portrayed herself as a lawyer and had practiced law without a license. Despite his arrest, the story ended up airing last week. And today it's your Trépanier got some very welcome news. He will not be charged with harassment. In a press release Quebec's director of criminal and penal prosecutions concluded that quote “no criminal act was committed.”

[Music: Piano]

Bowmanville Trash

Guest: Ron Hawkshaw

JD: When you come across a pile of trash that somebody dumped someplace they shouldn't have, it's not always easy to know what to do other than swearing loudly. And you might want to follow that up by continuing to swear loudly while walking away, or you might place a call to municipal officials to clean it up. But two friends in Bowmanville, Ontario decided to take matters into their own hands and find out who it was that dumped 30 bags of garbage so they could reunite them with their waste.Ron Hawkshaw was one of those friends. We reached him in Bowmanville.

SB: Mr. Hawkshaw tell me about the phone call you received on Saturday morning?

RON HAWKSHAW: My friend Ron gave me a call, he was out walking his dog, and he found 20 to 30 bags of garbage just dumped on the side of the road just down the street from his house.

SB: Describe for me the area where he found this garbage? Paint a picture for me.

RH: Back Country kind of rural road. It's right beside a dairy farm. There's not much back there. Stephen's Gulch is a very well-known kind of walking trail in Bowmanville so people try and keep the area clean as best as they can usually.

SB: So your friend called you told you about this garbage. What was your reaction?

RH: I wasn't too happy. I spend a lot of my time out there. We do a lot of our activities hunting, fishing, riding — a lot of our time is spent in the woods there. So hearing that someone just turned it into their own personal dumping grounds wasn't too pleasurable to hear.

SB: Does this kind of thing happen a lot?

RH: No. First that I've seen it on that specific road anyway.

SB: Why would somebody do that? Why not just take the garbage to the dump? I mean how do people get rid of their garbage there? Why dump it on a trail?

RH: You know, I wish I had an answer to that. I don't quite know what they were thinking to just pull over and throw 20 bags of garbage off the side of the road.

SB: What did you decide to do?

RH: Well, we put a post on Facebook of where we found the garbage, big pile of garbage, we posted a picture on Facebook and within the first two or three comments one of our friends had replied and said you know, go through the garbage and see if you can find any mail. So that's what we decided to do.

SB: You went through the garbage by hand?

RH: Yup. We just threw some gloves on and started picking through.

SB: And what did you find?

RH: Within the first two or three bags we had found receipts from the 407, some phone bills, a letter from the Canada Revenue Agency. So there was quite a few pieces of mail in there with the same address on it. So it was all the evidence we needed.

SB: All the evidence you needed for what?

RH: We put all the bags back in our truck and brought it right back to their house.

SB: And what did you do when you got to the house?

RH: When we pulled up there was a lady standing out front. So I just opened my door and asked if such and such lives here and she said, yes that's me. So I jumped out of the truck and handed her the letter from Canada Revenue Agency and a couple of family photos and she gave me quite an odd look and said “That's very personal information.” So I told her that all the bags in the back of our truck are full of that personal information and I was just thinking that she might want all that back.

SB: Were you at all apprehensive about confronting this woman in this way with her own garbage?

RH: I was more than happy to do it actually. I was I was kind of hoping that maybe this would be a wakeup call for her. I didn't think it would become such a big deal in our community and I'm glad it has become such a big deal. But we discussed that before we did it. And we didn't think that calling the cops would be as good as, you know, bringing the garbage back and saying we don't really care for you to be doing this in our neck of the woods.

SB: So what was her reaction when she figured out what you were there for?

RH: She was super embarrassed. She was speechless. She didn't really have much to say to us. We did most of the talking and we just let her know, you know, we're leaving the garbage here with you and that's the end of it. And she said “OK that's fine.”

SB: And do you think this is the end of it? Will she do this again?

RH: I would imagine she won't. But there's more than enough people out there that do this kind of stuff. And with all the attention that's been brought to our story, I'm kind of hoping that people think twice about doing it.

SB: Would you do this again?

RH: Oh, absolutely. If somebody decides to dump garbage on our street again I'll be sure to pick through it and see if I can find somehow.

SB: But is that the answer Mr. Hawkshaw? Is publicly shaming people the answer to the problem of garbage dumping?

RH: In today's society, I would say yes. I mean, you can call the police and they might get a fine, maybe if the police determine there's enough evidence there. Or you can just take it to Facebook and we haven't publicly shamed anybody, we haven't released anybody's name. But she knows who she is and she knows what was done. So I'm assuming that she won't ever do anything like this ever again.

SB: What kind of public reaction — people in the area what have they been saying about what you did and how it all unfolded?

RH: Everybody loves it actually. We live in a fairly small community and most people in our community were not too happy to hear what happened. But they were happy to hear that she got her garbage back.

SB: Well, thanks for telling us about this. It's an interesting story.

RH: You're very welcome. Thanks for bringing attention to it.

SB: Bye-bye.

RH: Bye.

JD: That was garbage sleuth Ron Hawkshaw. We reached him in Bowmanville, Ontario. To read more on this story and to see some photographs of Mr. Hawkshaw and the garbage, go to our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

Part 2: London Pastor, Young Adult Author Revisions

Sugar Bats

JD: I have gone great distances to get some. I have walked briskly, I have biked — sometimes my craving is such that I have even sprinted for blocks. And then at the end of my long journey I tear off the wrapper and cram some candy into my grateful face. I thought my efforts were impressive. Now however, I'm not so sure. Because first, according to my so-called doctor, I don't need sugar to survive. And second, a creature that does travels a lot farther than I do to get it. According to an article in the journal Nature the lesser long-nosed bat is no bigger than a kiwi fruit — don't mix them up though. For one thing the bats are more crunchy and less delicious. For another, the bats are important pollinators. They pollinate the agave a plant which is the key ingredient in tequila, which in and of itself is important. The habitat of the lesser long-nosed bat stretches from Mexico to Honduras. Not a lot of 7 Elevens in that stretch. So the Kiwi-sized bats have to travel long distances to get their sugar in the form of nectar from the flowering saguaro cactus. And now we know how far one of those bats travels in a single day. They're too small to stick a tracker on. So instead researchers in Mexico put some yellow powder on bats as they came out of their cave to eat. And when those yellow powdered bats arrived at their feeding ground other researchers sprinkled them with blue powder. And to quote from Nature “At the roost the next evening, the authors found feces dyed blue, indicating that some bats had made a 98.8 kilometre round trip. That's far. And like me they fulfilled their cravings as fast as possible — even if in their case the sugar rush was just slightly more important.

[Music: Whimsical Piano & Bass]

London Pastor

Guest: Karen Callejas

JD: He pleaded guilty to charges under the Refugee and Immigration Act yesterday. But Pastor Jose Callejas told the judge “My intention was to do a good deed.” The London, Ontario pastor and his daughter Karen charged after he was found to be illegally employing temporary foreign workers. He says he was trying to help vulnerable people who had been abused by callous employers. A judge agreed that Mr. Callejas was not trying to scam anyone — but he was still handed a six month conditional sentence and a $10,000 dollar fine. The charges against his daughter Karen Callejas were stayed. We reached Ms. Callejas in Toronto.

SB: Ms. Callejas, how are you and your father reacting to this sentence?

KAREN CALLEJAS: We are very sad and we are very shocked at how immigration decided to basically punish my father for just trying to help individuals, foreign workers that came to him for assistance because they were being abused.

SB: The judge said yesterday, “I accept this was not a scheme designed to defraud or take advantage significantly of others.” What was it like to hear the judge acknowledged that?

KC: To be honest with you I was very impressed with the judge. I could definitely see in his face he was very touched. He was moved. I bet you there was about to be tears in that courtroom. Myself, I was about to cry because I'm hearing that my father being a pastor, from being a victim of suffering because he was a survivor of 22 massacre in our country Guatemala and grateful to the blessed country of Canada that opened the doors in order for us to be safe. So he's very grateful to the country, and so he said you know if I have a saying that in any way I apologize from the bottom of my heart. And we could see that the judge was very touched and definitely, you know, acknowledged that and complimented him and said you have a lot to offer the community.

SB: Well, tell us tell me how your dad first came into contact with these temporary foreign workers.

KC: So it all started because we on a temp agency. We've been operating since 2011 and we've been working with local workers. It happened about a year ago when these foreign workers sought my father's help more likely because, you know, they found out he's a pastor in the city. He from Guatemala, Spanish speaking and basically came to him because they were scared to go to ask their own boss for help because they were threatened that if they asked for help they would be basically deported back to their countries or just get on a plane and sent back.

SB: What was going on with these workers? What was happening with them, were they mistreated?

KC: Yes they were definitely mistreated. A lot of them were not getting the proper safety equipment to work at the workplace. A lot of them were working under very hard conditions, not safe conditions. They were not attended for medical care if they needed it. Some of them felt toxic with all the chemicals that they had to work under. Some of them were hurt at the workplace and they were not taken to the hospital. They were working over were hours in on getting paid very minimum.

SB: Was there any recourse for them, anything they could do about these conditions?

KC: When they approached their employers they were threatened that or they didn't like it, well then they can just get on the plane and go back to their country.

SB: So what did your father do then? I understand he hired them himself, is that right? What did he hire them to do?

KC: So what he did was basically hire them to work in the field of agriculture, which we know there's a high demand for. And at the same time help out our local farmers get the job done, which I know they suffer from not being able to get any locals actually doing the jobs they were willing to do. And they were just happy how these guys were working so well because we made sure that they got treated well and they got paid well. So we were always advocating on their behalf and advocating if they ever needed medical assistance.

SB: So what did your father do to check to see if hiring these workers out this way was legal?

KC: Well, when they came to him they came to him with valid passports and valid work visas. And my father thought, you know, a valid passport valid work visa was sufficient to help them get the job right. He wasn't very aware of all the foreign worker laws. And I guess at the moment when they came to him in urge of help he said he could think of it that moment was to help them.

SB: So he wasn't aware that legally these foreign workers were only legally permitted to work for the employer who brought them in?

KC: That's right and that's why they decided to punish my father for that reason.

SB: What happened to the temporary foreign workers that your dad hired — it turns out illegally — after he was charged?

KC: They were all deported back to their home countries.

SB: And after they were deported what did they do about your father's case when your father was charged?

KC: When they found out that my father was getting charged for helping them they were crying, they were very upset because they never thought Canada that would be so hard on my father and them. And they were willing to help him as much as they could. And they all decided to go to lawyers and get declarations defending my father, that all he did was help them from being victims of abuse. And all my father did was open the doors, open his heart and protected them, so they were very supportive.

SB: They put all this in letters?

KC: They did. And those were the letters that the judge read yesterday in court, which he said that although he only got to read three of them, but he said they very well supported what my father said in court yesterday, that, you know, this was no scheme, no taking advantage of no workers. He believes that this was only intended to help them.

SB: So looking back on everything that's happened, would you do anything differently?

KC: Well, you know, I’d definitely do a lot more research into immigration law. It's hard to say, because I myself am a social worker, and I've been taught in this country that, you know, if somebody is being abused you report it, you help them right. That's all we were trying to do helping them get out of that abusive situation.

SB: Will your dad continue to do this kind of work?

KC: You know, the judge actually encouraged him to continue helping people, that he's got a lot to offer to the community, the farmers and the agriculture environment and the economy. But just to get that right assistance from the immigration lawyer to make sure that everything is under control and he's aware of everything that he needs to do.

SB: Ms. Callejas, thank you for talking to us today.

KC: No problem.

SB: Bye-bye.

KC: Bye-bye.

JD: We reached Karen Callejas in Toronto.

[Music: Industrial]

Young Adult Author Revisions

Guest: Keira Drake

JD: Keira Drake 's first novel was ready to be published and she was excited to get it out into the world. Then she woke up one morning to a lot of tweets with a single message — her book was racist. So she decided to fix it. And that didn't just mean a difficult extensive rewrite. It also meant destroying every hardcover copy that had already been printed. Ms. Drake is the author of the young adult novel The Continent. We reached her in Salt Lake City.

SB: Ms. Drake, can you describe for us your reaction when you when you found out that your book was was being called racist?

KEIRA DRAKE: I was surprised. The book had been circulating in advance copies for about seven months and there was a lot of enthusiasm for the book. I was initially sort of wanting to defend myself saying no, no, no, this was not my intention. And as the day went on I sort of realized, oh my goodness a lot of these criticisms are really valid and that we need to address them.

SB: Well, let's help our listeners out. Describe for us briefly what The Continent is about.

KD: The Continent is a story, it's young adult fiction, and it is the story of a girl who comes from a place called The Spire, in which the societies there have transcended the ways of war, so there is no bloodshed really, no war. It's a very peaceable place. But there is a continent about 500 miles or so to the north on which to a less-advanced nation exists and have been at war for about 300 years. And the citizens of the continent and the more elite citizens will sometimes tour in heli-plane above the continent to see the spectacle and violence of battle — because it is something that is very unfamiliar to them, and it's sort of like a look into their past. Vaela, the main character, is a cartographer and she is working on a map of the continent and she receives the opportunity to go there. And so tragedy ensues, she becomes stranded on the continent as a very sheltered girl with no survival skills whatsoever in the middle of a war zone. And so, you know, what she has to do is try and find a way home. But at the very least survive.

SB: So she's surviving in the midst of these of these two peoples. What were people upset about in your writing?

KD: In the original version of the book the two cultures portrayed on the continent closely resembled existing cultures. There was one group that resembled Native Americans both in dress and the sort of stereotypical negative trope behaviour. It was unintentional, but when it was pointed out to me it seemed extremely obvious.

SB: Can you describe for us one of these stereotypical descriptions?

KD: One group initially was called The Topi, which sounds very close to an existing nation. The Hopi Indians they were portrayed with reddish skin and war paint that sort of thing, they were sort of similar in dress. I hadn't imagined them as Native Americans, but the description certainly looked that way. So when I went back to revise, I not only had to reconstruct culturally and physically the two cultures on that continent, but to really address some story elements that led to, you know, the enactment of these certain tropes.

SB: And yet there are still critics who tell you that even after reading the revised versions they don't believe you've gone far enough, that the changes you made were really just minor. What do you say to them?

KD: I say the changes by no stretch of the imagination were superficial. The book was essentially gutted. There are many similar passages, there are many existing passages from the original of course that are intact, but the story was rewritten to tell the story and meant to tell without the problematic content. I can't please everyone and I didn't rewrite the book to please anyone in particular. I wrote the book to correct the problems that were, in my opinion, unacceptable.

SB: And you had sensitivity readers helping you with your revisions. What are your thoughts on how they worked with you as an artist?

KD: Personally a lot of people I think they hear the word sensitivity reader and they think censorship. And for me the experience was not like that at all. It was incredibly helpful. There's a difference, to me, between censorship and criticism. And in no way during this process was I censored or told what to write.

SB: But how troublesome is this idea of the line that you describe, where you're trying to be sensitive and you're trying to be aware of the criticism, and yet you're trying to respect your own artistic freedom? The artistic world has been seized with this debate and there have been lots of cautions raised about trying to write to please other people. How worried are you as a writer about that risk?

KD: Well I have received a lot of criticism actually for going back and choosing to revise the book. Some people really hear the word sensitivity reader and they just roll their eyes, you know. They're like ‘Oh what has it come to now? Does everything have to be approved before it's even written?’ And you know that sort of thing. I don't think they understand really what sensitivity readers do, which is simply to take a look at text and offer suggestions that help the book become more accessible to all readers. And, you know, to point out certain tropes and things of which the writer might not be aware.

SB: Well Ms. Drake, it was good for you to talk to us. And good luck with the book.

KD: Great, thank you so much.

SB: Thank you. Bye-bye.

KD: Bye-bye.

JD: Keira Drake is the author of The Continent. It is set to be published on March 27th. We reached Ms. Drake in Salt Lake City. And we have more on the story on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Guitar]

Bento The Keyboard Cat Obit

SOUNDCLIP

DANCE MUSIC. CAT MEOWING

JD: Some of you may recognize that mildly annoying tune. It is from a YouTube video with millions of views. In the compelling short film an orange tabby wearing a t-shirt taps its paws to the beat on a miniature drum and a keyboard with some human help. The oblivious star of that clip was Bento — also known as Keyboard Cat. Sadly, earlier this month the modest actor musician died of liver cancer. As Twitter user @AskDerrickWeaver wrote quote “RIP Keyboard Cat. May he forever tickle the ivories with his gifted Kitty Paws.” Charlie Schmidt announced his pet's death recently. It is the second Keyboard Cat he has had to say goodbye to Mr. Schmidt's cat Fatso, the star of the original clip shot in 1984, died a long, long time ago. In 2010 Mr. Schmidt adopted Bento. As he told the Washington Post he wanted to quote “keep the spirit of Fatso alive.” Here's a clip from a Bento tribute that was posted to YouTube a few days ago.

SOUNDCLIP

CHARLIE SCHMIDT: I by adopted Bento in 2010 from a shelter. As it turns out we have very similar personalities and this cat makes me make art because he's always motivating me to take pictures of him, to draw pictures of him. He just is motivating artistically. It's just that simple. He's my best friend. A lot of people know him Keyboard Cat.

JD: That’s a clip from a YouTube video entitled Keyboard Cat Bento: A Tribute. That clip you heard was originally part of an ad for Cat Adoption. Bento the cat died earlier this month. He was 9 years old.

[Music: Whimsical Orchestra]

Clapping World Record

JD: Obviously he had a lot of time on his hands. It takes a while to master the art of clapping and not the kind of clapping you do when the credits roll at the end of the movie for example, which may I digress — why do people do that, the actors can't hear you. As I was saying, serious speed clapping isn't the kind of clapping most of us do — hands apart then together, then apart then together — to produce this sound.

SOUNDCLIP

HANDS CLAPPING

JD: For one thing serious clappers don’t really separate their hands, they just kind of slide them up and down on each other as though they're rubbing them to warm up. And even when you watch a serious speed clapper clap in slow motion, it is hard to tell how the sound is being produced at all, let alone how it is produced so quickly. And yet at the tender age of nine, Seven Wade figured it out. Yes Seven was nine. He watched a video of speed clapper Eli Bishop setting the world record by clapping one 1,020 times in one minute. He became obsessed with beating that record. And after a concentrated training regimen he did it. Guinness World Records recently announced that Seven is the new champion of rapid fire applause thanks to the performance captured in this video. In 60 seconds he clapped 1,080 times. This is our sound of the day.

SOUNDCLIP

SEVEN WADE CLAPPING HANDS RAPIDLY

JD: Seven stop. Our sound of the day: Seven Wade who's nine. He's Seven, he's nine — I'm confused. That was Seven Wade setting a new world record for speed clapping. He clapped 1,080 times in one minute, we just listened to the whole thing — I can do 12.

Part 3: Killer Whale Baby, Philadelphia Underground Railroad, Los Angeles Asphalt

Killer Whale Baby

Guest: Jared Towers

JD: In December of 2016 Jared Towers got a call about some killer whales making some unusual vocalizations. And that is as weird as it might sound because Mr. Towers is a cetacean researcher. And so he got on a boat and he headed out off the north-eastern coast of Vancouver Island. And that is when he and his colleagues witnessed something never documented before — infanticide among killer whales. Now more than a year after that event, his research has been published in the journal Scientific Reports. Mr. Tower's works for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. We reached him in Alert Bay, British Columbia. And a warning some of the details in this story are graphic.

SB: Mr. Towers, take us back to the day when you received word about these strange killer whale vocalizations. When you finally caught up with the whales, how strangely, unusually were they behaving?

JARED TOWERS: Well, that's a good question. When we first located the individuals they were traveling quite quickly. We didn't think there was a whole lot unusual going on with the exception that they had been making strange vocalizations. And one of the young whales was bleeding a little bit. We didn't quite know what to make of it. But other than that, you know, they are surfacing, they were in travel mode and we didn't see any signs of distress or commotion until about an hour later when the two unrelated groups that were traveling together came together. And then there was quite a bit of splashing on the surface and the male, an adult male swam underneath the boat with the brand new baby of an unrelated female in his mouth.

SB: And this all happened very quickly. Describe for us what this this adult male was doing with this calf?

JT: He had to grab that by the fluke and so as he was swimming forward the body of the infant was trailing along underneath him. And when he came up to the surface there was no way that that little baby could come up and take a breath. So he essentially drowned the baby over the course of the next 10 minutes or so. While he was doing this the infant's mother was chasing him around and the rest of her pod were also helping to chase him around. And meanwhile his old mom was trying to get between him and the others to try and deter them from coming up on him and maybe trying to get their baby back.

SB: How significant was what you saw that day?

JT: As a cetacean researcher it was it was very significant. You know, I have a whole new appreciation for the behaviour of these individuals. And a lot more insights into their evolution, social structure, mating strategies, that I nor I think anyone else had before.

SB: Well how do you explain what you saw and what was driving this kind of behaviour?

JT: Infanticide is quite difficult to observe even in land mammals. It's something that doesn't happen very often. So in an animal like a killer whale spends most of his time underwater, it's probably even more rare to observe. You know, the reasons for infanticide, there's a few of them. And for the most part when different species engage in as behaviour it's to create a breeding opportunity, especially when it's committed by a male. And that's, you know, kind of a self-serving behaviour because by removing the infant he forces the female to become fertile again much quicker than she would if she were continue to have that infant to live with her and she’d be lactating during that time feeding the baby. So that end of lactation forces her into a fertile state and he can have an opportunity to breed. And so we're guessing that that's what was happening here and there's a bit of evidence to support that. We of course can't prove it until she gives birth again and we can confirm with genetics that it might be his offspring.

SB: And what about the relationship between the two opposing pods if you will?

JT: Yeah. You know, that's the other thing is that prior to this event whenever observing killer whales in social groups, which most of the time, you know, I go out and see these killer whales there are more than one family group present. And I never had any reason to believe before that their associations were anything but mutual. But now I know that you know different sex and age classes of killer whales have different priorities and sometimes certain individuals might not have a choice who's travelling them or not.

SB: And I understand that the killer whale structure that the females are the leaders, so if the females are the leaders of the family that would suggest that perhaps they would have more choice in who they breed with. Does that challenge that assumption?

JT: I think it does. I think it refutes previous belief that females even exercised choice when it comes to mating. We certainly know that they are pod leaders and that they look after their families. But, you know, when it when it comes to mating behaviour you've got to realize that the male killer whale is much bigger than a female and especially if he has surviving mom with him he might be a force to contend with.

SB: If I could take you back to that moment when you actually saw the calf drowned. Describe for us how the incident played out and how it eventually ended?

JT: Over the 10 minutes or so between when we first observed splashing and then we watched as the male swam underneath the boat with the baby hanging out of his mouth. There was just a lot of chasing going on. It was unlike anything any of us had ever seen my colleagues Gary Sutton and Muriel Holley were in the boat and we were awestruck by. We were a little bit horrified but I think mostly we were fascinated. You know, we wanted to see how it how it played out. And finally at the end, you know, the mother of the infant struck the male with such force near the surface that he came up to the surface upside down and his blubber were shaking like a bowl of Jello. And there was spray and blood flying through the air and he didn't give the baby up though. And I think at that point it's safe to say it had drowned, so the mother and her group grouped up and just change their behaviour. They settled down and the perpetrators also just settled down and they spent the next four hours taking turns passing the baby back and forth between them. They were holding him by the tail and then they’d hold it by the pectoral and then and then we wouldn't see the baby for long periods of time probably because they were dragging it along under water and then it got too dark and we had to go home. So we don't know exactly what happened in the end.

SB: And you think you'll ever see anything like this in your career again?

JT: Probably not. You know, I'm just one of a handful of killer whale researchers around the world and nobody's ever seen it before. So I think it may be some time until anyone ever sees it again.

SB: It's a fascinating story. Mr. Towers, thanks for telling us about it.

JT: You're welcome.

JD: Jared Towers is a killer whale researcher with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. We reached him in Alert Bay, British Columbia

[Music: Ambient Synth]

Autumn Peltier U.N.

JD: My heart is not for sale and neither is our water. Those are the words of 13-year-old Autumn Peltier. Ms. Peltier is from Wikwemikong First Nation in Northern Ontario. She calls herself a water walker, and since she was eight the Anishinaabe girl has been fighting to protect Canada's waters. Now she has taken her call for action to the United Nations. Today, on World Water Day, Autum Peltier spoke at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Here's part of her speech.

SOUNDCLIP

AUTUMN PELTIER: I need to get right into this message so you feel where I'm coming from. I can't stress enough what I have learned about the water from my elders in our ceremonies. Many people don't think water is alive or has a spirit. My people believe this to be true. There are studies now that prove this. We believe our water sacred because we were born of water and live in water for nine months. When the water breaks new life comes. But even deeper than that we come from my mother's water and her mother's water and so on. All the original water flows through us from the beginning and all around us. Where I come from I'm so fortunate I could still drink the water from the lake but sometimes I question it. Not far from where I live there are communities that have lived through boil water advisories. I ask myself, why is it this way and why in my province? Why in my country? I really started to think. My mind wandered and thought, ‘What if we ran out of water.’ I didn't really understand this because I always hear the problems in other countries around the world having no water or very polluted water. Everything is connected this issue of clean water and this impacts our health and well-being. These thoughts bring me to a story shared by my grandfather about the world. We use this word when we say we are going to town or the city what it really means where your heart is. My heart is in our land and our water. My heart is where I come from. Ask yourself for your heart is, where is your spirit? My heart and spirit is where my community is and where my ancestors are buried, where the water is fresh and I can drink from the lake. My grandfather told me to remind everyone where your heart is. As we need our land to live and we can't be here without the land and the water. We are all connected. My heart is not for sale and neither is our water and our lands.

JD: 13-year-old water activist Autumn Peltier speaking today at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Today marks the launch of the Declaration of the International Decade for action on water for sustainable development.

[Music: Piano Ballad]

Philadelphia Underground Railroad

Guest: Jim Duffin

JD: Along the path of the Underground Railroad the Philadelphia home of William and Letitia Still was an important way-station. Mr. Still was the son of freed slaves. He was a prominent abolitionist. In the 1950s he and his wife sheltered hundreds of fugitive slaves in their home. And while the deeds of Mr. Still were well documented, the actual location of his house was not. Not until December when local preservationists finally tracked it down. Now the city has designated that house as an historic site. Jim Duffin is the volunteer preservationists who found the house. We reached him in Philadelphia.

SB: Mr. Duffin, how did you finally find the house after all these years?

JIM DUFFIN: Basically it was a process of elimination. I had looked at some of the different biographies that had been written about William Still and they mentioned what street he lived on in the city but they didn't mention which house. And so I realized that what I had to do was basically use a process of elimination and look at every single house that was on the street.

SB: Sounds like a lot of work.

JD: Yeah it was. I eventually got it down to two houses. I knew it was either one side street or the other, but I didn't know which one. And I was about to basically give up and figure well we'll never know and I thought I'm gonna check one more source. And I checked this digitized database of abolitionist newspapers and I found a newspaper ad that his wife had placed in a newspaper in 1850 and it said which side of the street their house was on. And from that point I knew exactly which building it was.

SB: What was it like the first time you visited?

JD: It was pretty amazing. When I first saw the house my first instinct was I saw the new later brick on the front and I thought oh the house is gone. But then when I looked a little more closely I realized no this house probably just got a new brick front put on it because that had happened and a lot of other buildings in that part of the city. And I also noticed that the front steps were still the original marble steps and once I saw that I just immediately knew this was the place and it's still here. And it just was so heartwarming to think that, you know, this important site in Philadelphia as well as American history, was still there and we could still tell the stories of all these people that escaped seeking freedom.

SB: Well, what do we need to know about William and Letitia Still?

JD: Well, I think we really need to know about their incredible courage, doing the right thing at a time when everything a large part of the culture was against. Not to mention even the law, the federal law because in 1850 the United States Congress passed something called the Fugitive Slave Act, which basically meant that effectively any African-American anywhere in the United States could be seized and if the person who captured them claimed that they were a slave they could take them back to the south. And that African-American, by the way the law was structured, had no right to defend themselves and speak up with their own defense. And so and it meant that anyone who aided and helped any fugitives could be arrested and risked similar things happening to them. So it was a sort of act that took a great deal of personal courage to undertake.

SB: I understand that Mr. Still was in fact able to help hundreds of slaves, including incredibly his long-lost brother. Can you tell us that story?

JD: Yeah, that is an amazing story. In 1850 a man showed up at the Pennsylvania Anti-slavery office, who came to the Still seeking information on his family. And so as he was talking to William Still he gave the details of his family's background and he mentioned how he and his brother were separated from their parents and how they were originally in Maryland and then they eventually ended up in Alabama. Then he mentioned that his parent’s names were Levin and Sidney and the moment William still heard that he realizes this man was his long lost brother that he had never actually seen, William had been born after that. And so they this incredible reunion — but it was bittersweet because the man had left his wife and children behind. They were still enslaved and so he was seeking to raise money to try and purchase their freedom and Still had helped him with that and helped his brother tie in with the abolitionist networks and his brother ran around and gave talks and helped raise money so he could eventually purchase his wife and children's freedom.

SB: So many incredible stories from that time. And now this house has been designated a historic site. How important is that?

JD: I think fairly significant, particularly in the context of Philadelphia and it's African-American sites. It's one of the things that I noticed early on when with my background in history and then also interests in local history, I've noticed that there are a lot of state historic markers that different places throughout the city marking important sites relating to Philadelphia's African-American history. But the thing that struck me about most of those markers are they appear to what to me or what I would just basically call tombstones. They marked places or buildings that were significant in African-American history. But in a large number of cases those buildings were all gone. And so when I discovered this building and realized that not only is the site incredibly significant, but we still have that building right in front of us. I was just really pleased. And so to have a physical building and a place that you can actually take people to and say this is precisely where it happened, this is a story of what happened here, I think is very meaningful because people can relate to something visceral like that as opposed to an abstract space.

SB: They'll stand there and hear the stories in a different way.

JD: Yeah.

SB: Thank you for telling us about it.

JD: Sure.

SB: Goodbye.

JD: Goodbye.

JD: Jim Duffin is a volunteer preservationist. We reached him in Philadelphia.

[Music: Ambient Synth]

Lucy Usoyan

Guest:

JD: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was welcomed to the White House when he visited last May. As you may remember however, peaceful protesters were not welcomed at the residence of the Turkish ambassador in Washington D.C. A violent brawl broke out when a group of men violently attacked the protesters. Nine people went to hospital. The men were later identified as President Erdogan’s bodyguards. Today the U.S. attorney's office dropped charges against 11 of the 15 bodyguards. From our archives here is guest host Helen Mann speaking with Lucy Usoyan, a Kurdish activist who was hurt at the protest.

SOUNDCLIP

LUCY USOYAN: They were only wearing these professional suits, you know, ties and blue and black suits and so relatively looks peaceful. Then I saw a different team breaking in through that that group and there was like four or five absolutely different people. They were in very good shape and they were physically fit. When I saw that I felt ‘Oh my God this is the very, very bad. They ran towards us and they began to beat everyone. And because I was on the frontlines — I don't know how I ended up being on the ground and then they began to beat me on the head.

HELEN MANN: According to NBC News the men who beat you were president Erdoğan's bodyguards. Was that apparent to you at any point?

LU: Yes I believe it's true, because those people they were professionals. And when I was watching videos today when they were beating me, police officers were trying to take him on one of the guys away from me. And he just jumped to the face of the officers. They also injured police officers.

HM: What would you like to see happen to these bodyguards?

LU: Well, according to police sources here in Washington from the 2nd District, I learned that they said bunch of them have been arrested. But I can understand that, you know, Turkey they have enough influence and enough attorneys to get them released and get them ahead of the country. I would really ask for justice. I would really ask the U.S. government take this action very seriously. And, you know, place some measurements against it so that justice can be preserved.

JD: From our archives, that was Kurdish activist Lucy Usoyan speaking with guest host Helen Mann in May of last year. Today the U.S. attorney's office dropped charges against 11 of 15 bodyguards involved in that brawl.

[Music: Ambient Tones]

Los Angeles Asphalt

Guest: Bob Blumenfield

JD: In Los Angeles you don't have to be a celebrity to be the hottest thing in town — everyone is hot. And with global temperatures rising the city is especially at risk. So officials are trying to make the city cool, literally, as well as figuratively. They're going to paint the asphalt streets with high tech light gray paint. And the idea is to reflect sunlight rather than absorb it, which will make things less hot, which will make residents less inclined to turn on energy intensive air conditioning, which in turn contributes to global warming. The Initiative was proposed by Council member Bob Blumenfield. We reached him in L.A.

SB: Councilman Blumenfield, how exactly does this special paint work?

BOB BLUMENFIELD: Well, it's kind of like sunscreen. It actually uses a zinc element and it increases the reflexivity of the street in such a way that it lowers the temperature of that street.

SB: And it's also supposed to help with what's called the urban heat island effect. Can you explain what that is?

BB: The urban heat island effect is when you have a lot of concrete and buildings and the sun is just absorbed and it ends up creating a hotter climate than would otherwise be if you had trees and more natural elements around. And so the idea is how do you how do you reduce that heat island effect. And there are multiple ways to do it. But one of the innovative ways that we're pursuing as part of the overall strategy, includes this cool pavement's.

SB: So how much do you think this cool pavement, this paint can lower temperatures in L.A.?

BB: We've seen 10 to 15 degrees differences on the temperature of the street in the pilot street in my district.

SB: 10 to 15 degrees?

BB: And actually sometimes when it's hotter we've had even 30 degree differences.

SB: Wow.

BB: Now that’s of the temperature of the street. And then the question is how does that impact the surrounding area? And the air doesn't go down by that amount with just one street, but the idea is that if you do this on streets and you combine it with other things like better tree canopies and cool roofs and, you know, a variety of different things you can actually bring the temperature down of a community.

SB: So what have you learned from the pilot? What has it taught you?

BB: We did the last road just this fall. We're seeing that it does make a difference on the temperature. What we're continuing to investigate is the durability of that difference over time. So in order for this to be a financially viable solution it needs to be able to be effective for a longer period of time. So we're testing, that how long it'll be durable and, you know, whether the impacts diminish over time. And what can be done to to improve that.

SB: How does it look? I'm trying to imagine a street that's coated in light gray. We're so used to seeing dark roads. What's the visual effect?

BB: It doesn't look that strange at all. I mean, when you see a concrete street it tends to be a lighter color. And so when you see an asphalt street that has been basically slurried with this material.

SB: Have other cities tried this?

BB: Our pilot was the first street in the state of California to use this coating on a public street. It had been tried before. In fact, we had tried it before in parking lots and other areas like that and that's sort of what got us going on this is if it could be used in a parking lot maybe could be used on a street. And, you know, the big difference of course is how many cars are driving on the street, and the repeated tires over the material, does that lower its effectiveness.

SB: Right, because this is costing quite a bit of money. It's $40,00 per mile. Is this something that a city like L.A. can afford?

BB: Well, you know, right now the estimate is as you said it's actually between 25 and 40 thousand a mile. It's not always 40,000 mile and it's in the pilot phase. So the idea is if we were to roll this out we would look for ways to get economies of scale, to potentially have this become part of the regular process that we do with a street when we have to put a slurry seal on a street, which is something we do often in order to fix that street and make it better. Maybe there's a way that this material can be mixed in with that so that it doesn't have to be a unique coating, maybe there can be something as part of the coating that we have to do anyway. So all of these things are being investigated, but in order to test the product we really have to test it is as much of a controlled environment as we can and not have all these other variables in play and just basically coat the street and see what happens. And that's what we've been doing.

SB: L.A. is already known for its horrible traffic jams. I mean, you think of L.A. and you think of those images of all those cars. Shouldn't the city be looking at solutions like discouraging car use and more energy consumption to tackle climate change?

BB: Well, they're not mutually exclusive by any means. I mean, we have all sorts of programs to deal with those and — you know when you're talking about traffic mitigation when you're talking about energy reduction — that's the meat of our of what we do on sustainability. This is sort of a new element to look out of how we can also, you know, use other tools. Just like what you know mentioned the cool streets that doesn't mean that you don't try to get an urban canopy which we know is extremely effective in lowering the temperature. And, you know, there's lots of different things. This is not a a cure-all or a one off solution. But it's part and parcel of what we need to look at.

SB: And you think it's working?

BB: Well, it's in its early phases. We've got this pilot program in effect. Another thing we just got a grant for basically a $400,000 program where we're going to look at the Urban Heat Island Effect in an area in Canoga Park to investigate cool street sort of one mile out from a major transit corridor and see how that works. So it's definitely interesting, innovative, it appears to be working in terms of lowering the temperature of the street that it's on, and we'll have to see if it can be more broadly applied and how that can play out and the cost effectiveness of it.

SB: Councilman Blumenfield, thanks for telling us about it.

BB: No problem. Have a wonderful day.

SB: You too, bye-bye.

JD: That was Bob Blumenfield, the L.A. council member who proposed the initiative to paint streets there with heat reflecting paint. We reached him in L.A.

CANADA READS: Craig Davidson

JD: On Monday the 17th season of Canada Reads will begin. And we haven't done a thorough panelist-by-panelist check through the years, but we are reasonably sure that this is the first time there has ever been a tornado hunter at the table. Saskatchewan storm chaser Greg Johnson will be defending the memoir Precious Cargo by Craig Davidson in the 2018 Canada Reads debate. We are airing readings from the books in contention by their authors. Tonight, Mr. Davidson reads from his story, which is about the year he spent driving a school bus for a group of special needs kids and the unexpected ways he connected with them through stories.

SOUNDCLIP

CRAIG DAVIDSON: Over and over I'd hear the kids stories — repeated, embellished, glossed. The same terrain covered and recovered until a well-worn path had been carved. I mean, I could recite them from memory. I knew when the moments of high drama would arrive and I knew my own role — when to respond with an appropriately encouraging ‘oh’ or ‘ah.’ But I never got bored of those tales. They were like a book or film for which you had a long fondness. You take it down off the shelf or pop it in the VHS player — Jake was right, I was old — and read a few pages or watch a few minutes and unfailingly it fills you with this deep satisfaction. There were a safety blanket of sorts to the kids and really that's what they became to me too. I felt snug and happy within the parameters of their tales. We tell ourselves stories in order to live — another wiser writer said that — but after hearing these kids stories I was left thinking ‘do we not also tell stories to live vicariously in ways we cannot?’

JD: That was Craig Davidson reading from his memoir Precious Cargo: My year driving the kids on school bus 3077. Mr. Davidson's book will be defended by storm chaser Greg Johnson on this year's Canada Reads. The Canada Reads podcast is available now and it features special episodes on each of the five authors. It is available through CBC, iTunes or whichever podcast app you favour. The first day of the debate is Monday.

Provide Transcript Feedback

CBC would like to acknowledge the support of the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund.

March 22, 2018 episode transcript

Social Sharing

More from this episode