RCI | English : Interviews

There is growing concern from civil libertarians and privacy experts about the state of Canadians' privacy as the country heads to a general election this fall.

Federal political parties collect lots and lots and lots of personal information about Canadians, but unlike businesses and most governments there is no limit to what they can do with it.

"I can go to my bank, I can go to my telco, I can go to all sorts of businesses and say, 'Please give me a copy of all the information you have on me,'" Halifax privacy lawyer David Fraser told CBC News' Yvonne Colbert in a story published Tuesday.

Civil libertarians and privacy experts want the federal government to go further in protecting Canadians' personal information in the political field. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

"I can do that with government as well, but I can't do that with a political party, and so they remain in the shadows."

Equally concerned is Sharon Polsky, president of the Privacy and Access Council of Canada.

Calling the problem "insidious," she says the increasing use of artificial intelligence allows federal parties to accumulate more and more information about individual voters.

"We don't know who is running these computers, where in the world they're located and who has access to the information in them," Polsky told the CBC's Colbert.

Sharon Polsky, president of the Privacy and Access Council of Canada, says what political parties do with the personal information they collect on millions of Canadians remains entirely up to them. (Anis Heydari/CBC)

"It's like a science fiction movie of the far distant future that we're living in."

For some elaboration, I contacted Ms. Polsky at her Calgary office on Wednesday.

ListenEN_Interview_4-20190731-WIE40

Remember when we were kids and sometimes responded to a slight--real or imagined--by vollying back, "It takes one to know one?"

I confess it never occurred to me that the retort was anything more than a rhetorical attempt to even a score and salve hurt feelings.

Until today.

Gauthier is making some changes in people's lives, offering haircuts coupled with a positive philosophy. He posted this photo on his Facebook page last year, writing, 'Give away love, light and grace like you're made from it.' (Straightedgebarber/Facebook)

Turns out,  "It takes one to know one" can be a booster rocket propelling us up a path of generosity.

Came to me following a conversation I had with a 44-year-old man in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan named Jason Gauthier.

When Gauthier is not spending quality time with his 16-year-old son, he cuts hair.

Gauthier moved to Moose Jaw to be with his son and things in that department are working out just fine. (City of Moose Jaw)

His clients?

A whole bunch of them are persons who are homeless, a condition Gauthier is well acquainted with.

Before he became a barber, Gauthier was a lot of things: addict, convict, homeless person.

At the moment, he's a mensch.

Gauthier says he's repaying a kindness given to him 12 years ago by a woman he had never met. (YouTube)

I asked him--after all the misdirected runs through the jungle when he was younger--how he wound up behind a barber's chair, helping homeless persons.

(Hint: turns out that generosity is contageous and it really does take one to know one.)

Gauthier, seen here posing with his tools, talks to RCI's Terry Haig about his barber shop, his clients and how he got there.(Straightedgebarber/Facebook) EN_Interview_4-20190730-WIE40

Fifteen Canadian organizations representing patients, health professionals, hospitals, and pharmacists are urging Ottawa to take action to prevent what they say could be the "draining of Canada's medicine supply." which is already dealing with shortages.

The letter to Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor was signed by--among others--the Canadian Pharmacists Association, the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Patient Safety Institute.

A letter to Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor from 15 organizations warns that Canada simply can't supply medicine for itself and the U.S. (CBC)

It expresses concern about new legislation in the U.S. that will allow Americans to import cheaper medicines from Canada and was published before Democratic Party Candidate Bernie Sanders accompanied a so-called "insulin caravan" to Windsor, Ontario on Sunday. (Please see story elsewhere on this page.)

"The Canadian medicine supply is not sufficient to support both Canadian and U.S. consumers," the letter states.

"The supply simply does not, and will not, exist within Canada to meet such demands."

On Monday, I spoke with Joelle Walker.

She is vice president, public affairs for the Canadian Pharmacists Association.

Joelle Walker, vice president, public affairs for the Canadian Pharmacists Association, discusses the letter sent to Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor last week with RCI's Terry Haig. (Andrew Brown/CBC) EN_Interview_4-20190729-WIE40

Hunted for many years, the great white shark could finally be back in Canadian waters, thanks in part to conservation efforts.

These majestic animals are being closely monitored by international teams of scientists who are attempting to document their apparent resurgence in the Northwest Atlantic.

However, the information we have on these animals is rather rare, as it is very difficult to track them.

That's why Heather Bowlby of the federal Canadian Atlantic Shark Research Laboratory and two other scientists will be heading to sea in early August to try and tag new white sharks using satellite technology.

The team will try to build on the success of its previous mission.

Last year, they were able to mark the "first great white shark in in Atlantic Canadian waters" off the coast of Nova Scotia, nicknamed "North" says Bowlby.

Here is a video of the operation:

https://www.facebook.com/FisheriesOceansCanada/videos/2190240797914636/?video_source=permalink

They work in partnership with the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Division and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, which successfully tagged six more animals in 2018.

The American group is also preparing a population estimate for its region, where there is evidence of what scientists call a "hot spot" of sharks at various stages of their lives enjoying abundant seals off Cape Cod.

But how difficult can it be to tag one of these elusive creatures? It's a question we asked Heather Bowlby:

Biologist Heather Bowlby explains how they tag great white sharks.(Photo: Schalk van Zuydam/AP Photo)EN_Interview_1-20190726-WIE10

Monitor great white sharks recovery

In the 1970s, 60 to 70 percent of the white shark population disappeared in Canadian waters due to "extensive fishing," says Bowlby.

In an effort to protect the marine world's greatest — and most mysterious — predators, the Canadian government has put in place new legislation.

But biologists must now be able to track animals to see if these efforts have been successful, as Bowlby explains:

Photo of Heather Bowlby and her team, Nathan Glenn (right) and Art Gaetan (left) (Credit: Canadian Atlantic Shark Research Laboratory/ H. Bowlby) EN_Interview_2-20190726-WIE20

The Canadian Atlantic Shark Research Laboratory is not alone in tracking great whites in Canadian waters. Last fall, a non-profit group, the Ocearch, already captured and tagged seven great whites off Lunenburg and Halifax.

They gave names to the different sharks such as "Hal" or "Jane" and thousands of people are following them on the organization's global online shark tracker.

https://twitter.com/OCEARCH/status/1153714628775403520

The organization recently applied for a permit to conduct a return visit off Cape Breton from September 13 to October 4.

A come back would be good news

When we asked Heather Bowlby if a return of the great white shark would be good news, she replied with great enthusiasm:

"I think so, absolutely! Typically, when a top predator can increase, it means that the ecosystem is healthy enough to support them."

If the surge of great whites is verified, it could mean a lot, according to the biologist:

EN_Interview_6-20190726-WIE60

She went on to explain that their return to Canadian waters could be explained by the proximity of a large group of sharks as well as food:

Photo of a great white shark jumping out of the water as it hunts Cape fur seals near False Bay, on July 4, 2010. (Credit: CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)EN_Interview_7-20190726-WIE70

Are great white sharks dangerous?

Many people tend to link great white sharks with Hollywood horror movies such as Jaws.

But are these cruelly effective hunters with several rows of serrated teeth really dangerous? For Bowlby they can be,

As Canada heads to a fall election, count on a lot of politicians and pundits to remind the rest of us about the importance of so-called kitchen table issues--jobs, taxes, social security, health care, the economy--issues people supposedly discuss around their, well, kitchen tables.

(Actually, Tory leader Andrew Scheer took it to a literal level earlier this month when--in an apparent bid to win over members of the country's dairy industry--he levelled some strong criticism at some parts of Canada's revamped Food Guide, touching off a back-and-forth with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.)

Nutrition experts say there is no research showing a Beyond Burger is a healthier food choice compared to eating beef. (CBC)

Meanwhile, a lot of Canadians are discussing another kitchen (or dining)  table item; the Beyond Meat plant-based burger, designed taste just like meat.

This spring the California company Beyond Meat that created the burger and is developing others  escalated its pitch for the Canadian market by lining up fast-food and grocery chains to carry its products.

Ethan Brown, founder and CEO of Beyond Meat, says comparing the nutritional composition of a Beyond Burger with beef is too simplistic because it doesn't factor in the reported health risks--such as cancer and heart disease--that are associated with eating red and processed meat. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

So far, the burger has been a major success, but lately there's been blowblack from many health-conscious Canadians concerned--among other things--about the amount of sodium in the burgers.

The company says the fears are ill-founded--that its plant-based products don't come with the major health risks of certain meats, pointing to studies that support that view.

Canadians are eating up U.S.-based Beyond Meat's plant-based burger. But is it better for you than beef? (Elizabeth Chorney-Booth)

Nutrition experts interviewed by CBC News say there is no hard scientific data--at least not yet--to show that a processed ;plant-based patty trumps an old-fashioned hamburger.

To try to get a better reading on the issue, I spoke with Kate Comeau, a dietician and a spokesperson for Dieticians of Canada.

ListenEN_Interview_4-20190726-WIE40

Tonight, Shauit and the Moroccan group Wachmn'Hit will give their last concert in a city near Montreal, in the French-speaking province of Quebec.

Shauit is a Innu singer and songwriter from Maliotenam, a First Nations reserve north-east of Quebec. Wachmn'Hit is a Morrocan group composed of three members : Ahmed Ouahid, Nawfal Merzoug and Amine Saylani.

What brings them together is their music : reggae.

Together, they participated in an intercultural project entitled From Mashteuiatsh to Rabat, during which Shauit travelled to Morocco for two weeks to participate in a musical residency, a concert series, similar to a concert tour, but given in one place.

This first part of the project set up by Pasa Musik, in collaboration with Boîte interculturelle, an organization that brings communities together, took place in May.

For the second part of the project, Wachmn'Hit travelled from their city of Kenitra to make Darija, the Moroccan Arabic language, resonate in the indigenous community of Mashteuiatsh.

We spoke to Shauit who won the award for Indigenous songwriter of the year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards in December, preceded a few months earlier by the award for best album in Indigenous or Francophone language at the Indigenous Music Awards.

We started by asking him what he did in Morocco:

Shauit talks about the musical residency. (Photo: Jawad Elajnad)EN_Interview_1-20190725-WIE10

What Shauit really appreciated was discovering the similarities between his community and theirs. He was determined to tackle prejudices about Islamic countries.

I want to fight Islamophobia because I think it's really stupid. When you think of Arabs, you automatically think of bombs and that's a real problem for me because it's not just that. I went there and I didn't see any weapons, gunshots, bombs or anything like that. We really need to stop thinking like that.Shauit, Innu singer and songwriter

(Here is the first song that came out from the project)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMmpvU300Is&feature=youtu.be

Arabic and Innu brought together

As Shauit explained, the artists created new songs, mixing their languages: Arabic and Innu.

The Quebec singer told us more about this mix and how reggae music brought them together:

Shauit talks about the languages they used to compose the songs (Photo: Jawad Elajnad).EN_Interview_2-20190725-WIE20

During his stay in the Moroccan capital, Shauit also learned a few words in Arabic, such as the translation of "We are all from this Earth". For their part, the members of Wachmn'Hit also learned a few words from the Innu language:

It was really cool to have someone who does a chorus next to you and speaks your language. I think it was the same for them. So it was really cool and a real friendship came out of it.Shauit, Innu singer and songwriter

Innu-aimun or Montagnais is an Algonquian language spoken by over 10,000 Innu in Labrador and Quebec in Eastern Canada. It is part of the Cree–Montagnais–Naskapi dialect continuum and is spoken in various dialects depending on the community.

With his songs, Shauit tries to promote the language and make the new generation to learn it more so that Innu can survive.

A cultural exchange

The purpose of this exchange was also to discover each other's cultures.

When he visited Morocco, Shauit arrived in the middle of the Ramadan period observed by Muslims around the world as a month of fasting, prayer, reflection and community.

They are not allowed to eat or drink anything during the day until nightfall.

(Shauit shared a few moments he enjoyed in Morocco on social media, including this one where artists combined their traditional instruments into one symphony)

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx-B85WHS5Q/

To get to know the culture,

There's something of a housing crisis in Vancouver.

No, not just the one you read about constantly that centres on the ups and downs of the real estate market and the ability of first-time buyers to afford a home.

Qmunity, an LGBT community centre in Vancouver's Davie Village, says it fields housing questions daily. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

For members of the city's LCBT community, it goes deeper.

It's called discrimination and it's heaped on top of the already extremely expensive housing market.

Anyone who has ever been part of a minority knows the routine.

Vancouver's Davie Village in the West End is packed with LGBT resources, alongside shops and restaurants. But the area's desirability has priced out many renters. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Like its ancestors, it works many ways--sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle..

An apartment that you show up to see and really need and want that was on the market yesterday is somehow JUST been rented.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, centre, poses for a photograph with Rosalba Fasan, left, and Aleisha Woodman during a breakfast hosted by PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) before marching in the Pride Parade in Vancouver in August 2018. (Darryl DyckCanadian Press)

If you're part of a same sex-couple, don't for a sec think you,re going to receive as many responses to a rental inquiry as your straight, white neighbour.

There are currently an estimated 3,800 members of Vancouver's LGBT community, though the number could be way higher.

Not all of them have a problem finding a place to live, but more than a fair share do.

Heather Wong-Mitchell. (Courtesy: Qmunity)

"At least daily, we have someone either calling or coming into the space saying, 'Can you help me find a place to live?'" the manager of finance and administration at Qmunity, an LGBT centre in Vancouver's West End neighbourhood, Heather Wong-Mitchell, told the CBC's Alex Migdal in a story published Sunday.

I spoke by phone about the not-so-pretty Vancouver housing picture with Wong-Mitchell on Thursday.

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The Vikings or Norses originally came from the Nordic countries but they did not stay there indefinitely. From the 8th to the 11th centuries, they began raiding and trading in parts of Europe, but also in some parts of the North Atlantic.

They established long-term colonies in Iceland, Greenland and what they called Vinland. According to the Nordic sagas, Vinland was a vast country where people, whom the explorers called Skraelings, already lived.

It was not until the 1960s that proof that the Norses arrived in North America was finally found. An archaeological excavation documented the presence of northern cultural material at the L'Anse aux Meadows site on the island of Newfoundland along Canada's Atlantic coast.

For seven years, archaeologists Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad excavated the site and uncovered a series of Icelandic-style turf structures and a plethora of objects associated with Nordic culture. These included a bronze cloak pin, a spindle whorl made of soapstone and iron rivets typically associated with boats.

Photo of Paul Ledger and Véronique Forbes' excavation site at L’Anse aux Meadows (Image courtesy of Linus Girdland-Flink).

Thanks to the radiocarbon associated with these artifacts, researchers were able to establish that the site had been occupied for a short period of time, around the year 1000 AD.

Now, further excavations at L'Anse aux Meadows may suggest that the Norses may have occupied the site longer than expected. Archaeologist Paul M. Ledger directed the research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Paul Ledger is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He explained to us that their findings were unexpected as they were originally looking for something else:

Photo of archeologists Paul Ledger and Véronique Forbes examining the cultural horizon. (Image courtesy of Linus Girdland-Flink)EN_Interview_1-20190724-WIE10

What archaeologists have found exactly are finely laminated layers rich in wood debris, charcoal and other charred plant remains, many of which were not native to North America.

Vikings might have stayed longer in Canada

As Ledger explained, what they found is not necessarely Viking, "it's more likely that this material relay to an Indigenous occupation on the site based on the radio carbondates from the material we got from this layer."

But what is interesting is that this cultural horizon is where the researchers know that Norses used to be. If archaeologists find evidence that these series of layers that appear to have been trampled by humans or animals come from Vikings, this could be evidence that they stayed longer in North America than we thought.

In the paper, Ledger and his team notes that these “layers of peat may not be as evocative as artifacts such as a ringed bronze pin, or a finely crafted lithic projectile point. Yet, they present new horizons for examining the environmental legacies of inter- and intracontinental movement of people within North America prior to 1492.”

The archaeologist told us a little more about what we know of the Viking presence before Christopher Columbus' arrival:

Photo of Linus Girdland-Flink and Paul Ledger draining the excavation with a bilge pump (Image courtesy of Véronique Forbes).EN_Interview_2-20190724-WIE20

What were the Norse doing in North America?

We know for a fact that Vikings lived in Canada, but why did they come here and what did they do? This is a question we asked Paul Ledger:

EN_Interview_6-20190724-WIE60

Now, the team is planning on going back to L’Anse aux Meadows with students from Memorial University of Newfoundland and colleagues from the U.K. to do some more excavations. Their goal is to try and find "the extent of this layer...

As the world moves forward (or backward) in the wake of this spring's report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services that showed that at least one million species are threatened with extinction, we might want to listen and learn from form the planet's Indigenous peoples, who--by the way--own or manage at least a quarter of the world's land surface.

To put it simply, Indigenous peoples simply do a better job of taking care of the land in three of the biggest countries in the world, a finding that likely would be replicated in many others.

An aerial shot of the new (as of 2018) conservation area, which lies adjacent to Blooming Point beach on Prince Edward Island. (Nature Conservancy of Canada)

A new Canadian-led study, published online Tuesday by the scientific journal Environmental Science & Policy (ahead of inclusion in the November issue) finds that Indigenous-managed lands have equal-or-higher biodiversity than protected areas in Australia, Brazil and Canada. (Schuster et al Indigenous lands)

The researchers' analyses found that the total number of birds, mammals amphibians and reptiles was highest on Indigenous-managed lands in the three countries.

Protected areas like parks and wildlife reserves had the second highest levels of biodiversity, followed by randomly selected areas that were not protected.

The report expands on a study lead author Richard Schuster of Carleton University published in May of last year and follows a study published by a Carleton colleagues, Joseph Bennett and Cassie Hill  this spring that showed a lack of needed cooperation between governments and Canada's Indigenous peoples.

Richard Schuster is Liber Ero Postdoctoral Fellow at Carleton University and the lead author of the paper published Tuesday in the scientific journal Environmental Science & Policy. (Twitter)

I spoke by phone with Schuster on Wednesday about the latest findings.

New Brunswick in late September 2016. Carleton University's Richard Schuster discusses his just-released study on land management in Canada, Australia and Brazil with RCI's Terry Haig. (Chris Bailey) EN_Interview_4-20190724-WIE40

The Inuit of Nunavik are an Indigenous people who live in an isolated region of northern Quebec where conditions can be very harsh. This isolation makes them quite unique in a variety of ways, including genetically.

A new study from The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital) of McGill University in Montreal shows that this population has mutations that are unique in the world and that certain genetic variants are even correlated with brain aneurysm.

To reach this conclusion, the researchers analyzed the genetic characteristics of 170 Inuit volunteers in Nunavik, a region in the Canadian Arctic. They were recruited over a period of 25 years, mainly after doctors sent them to Montreal for brain aneurysm screening.

(Below is a relationship tree diagram showing Nunavik Inuit (bottom corner) with other Indigenous populations. Credit: The Neuro)

Inuit population in Canada’s Arctic are genetically distinct from any known group. (Credit: Sirui Zhou/The Neuro)

In what they claim to be a first, researchers have managed to map a part of the genetic profile of this specific population.

Sirui Zhou, lead author of the paper and researcher at the Neuro, spoke about her findings with RCI.

Relationship tree within Nunavik and Nunavik Inuit with other indigenous populations (Treemix) (Credit: Sirui Zhou/The Neuro)

To establish the uniqueness of this population, researchers compared their profile with other indigenous populations, from the Inuit of Greenland to indigenous groups in North and South America, Alaska and Siberia.

In addition to being unique, they discovered that Nunavik Inuit may also have genetic components from ancient Arctic indigenous populations as well as specific genetic traits:

A. Genetic grouping (PCA plot) displaying Nunavik Inuit and Worldwide populations, each color represent one population, B. Clustering of Hudson Bay Inuit and Ungava Bay Inuit. (Credit: Sirui Zhou/The Neuro)EN_Interview_1-20190723-WIE10

Distinct genetic signatures

As Zhou explained, the Inuit of Nunavik have distinct genetic signatures that adapted to their particular environment. She gave us an example:

Sirui Zhou gives an example of a genetic trait that has adapted to Nunavik's environment. (Photo: Justin Nobel / THE CANADIAN PRESS)EN_Interview_2-20190723-WIE20

A need for more non-European genetic studies

This study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is one of the rare genetic studies to look at non-European people.

Understanding the genetic makeup of non-European peoples, especially those isolated populations with unique genetic background, such as Nunavik Inuit, could improve our ability to deliver medical therapies tailored for them as Sirui Zhou explains:

Sirui Zhou talks about the importance of doing more genetic studies on non-European populations (Photo: The Neuro)EN_Interview_6-20190723-WIE60

Now, the team at the Neuro will try to map the entire genome of the Nunavik Inuit to better understand it. Zhou also hopes that this study will inspire other genetic studies on Inuit or Aboriginal people.

With files from CBC and McGill University