RCI | English : Interviews

Many of the several hundred students barricaded at Hong Kong University have surrendered to police early this morning. However, it seems unlikely that the protests, now several months old, will abate anytime soon.

Colin Robertson, is Vice-President at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, an independent, non-partisan research institute related to foreign policy a former diplomat, as Canadian Consul in Hong Kong,

Former Canadian diplomat in Hong Kong gives his analysis of protest situation thereEN_Interview_1-20191119-WIE10

Reports this morning say only a handful of student protesters remain in the university, but without food or water so that situation is likely over.

As Robertson says however, with about 2 million supporters of the movement, the overall protest situation will likely continue. He also suggests that with such strong support the legitimacy of the Beijing supported Carrie Lam government is in serious doubt.

Police hold a student protester on the ground as clouds of tear gas spread around the university this week (via CBC)

While there has been some suggestion that China could send in the military, Robertson thinks that unlikely at this point, if for no other reason than the international optics that would represent.

It also appears unlikely that neither the Hong Kong government or China will relax their positions, in light of protesters demands for democratic guarantees or reforms.

Police have been accused of excessive use of force, including use of rubber bullets. (Tyrone Siu-Reuters July 2019)

Fears of a mass exodus of ex-pats with Canadian, British, U.S. and other citizenship seems not on the immediate horizon.

Nonetheless, Hong Kong’s status as entry point into the vast Chinese and wider Asian market, and an exit point for those same countries is weakening, as Robertson says, due to the uncertainties and disruptions of the protest movement, and in the shadow of the U.S-China trade dispute. This is says is not good for Hong Kong, for China, for Canada-because of a long trade relationship, as well as for other countries with similar trade and business ties with Hong Kong.

Additional information-sources

CBC News report Nov 18/19

Canadian Press (via CP24) Nov 18/19: Canadian universities encourage exchange students in Hong Kong to head home

Imagine the millions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and the millions more planets orbiting those stars, Now imagine a cluster of galaxies, perhaps thousands of them.

Toby Brown (PhD) is a post-doctoral fellow at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. He is also leading an international team of some 30 astronomers studying the process that kills galaxy clusters far far out in deep space.

ListenEN_Interview_1-20191114-WIE10

The universe is a “star factory” converting gas into stars which form galaxies and as Brown says, they all have life cycles. But the team of astronomers is trying to determine the phenomena that changes galaxies from creating stars,  to what stops them from creating stars thereby resulting in their death so to speak.

Toby Brown (PhD) Of Mc Master University in Hamilton Ontario, leads a team studying the process of the death of galaxy clusters (supplied-McMaster U )

The answer seems to lie in the extreme forces created by this unimaginable mass of thousands of galaxies in a cluster: extreme gravity, extreme speed, and extreme heating of plasma  around the cluster.

Four of the 66 radio telescope antennas of the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) project, in the Chajnantor plateau, Atacama desert, some 1500 km north of Santiago Chile Canada is a partner in this telescope, which is part of the Event Horizon telescope system. Toby Brown is currently leading an international team of astronomers styding a distant galaxy cluster (MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images

As for Earth, we’re part of the Milky Way galaxy in a galaxy group, which is a smaller number of galaxies than a cluster and where the forces of gravity and superheated plasma are not nearly as great.

A time lapse image of ALMA, a state-of-the-art telescope system and is the largest ground-based astronomical project in existence. It aims to study some of the furthest galaxies in the universe. (C Malin-ALMA)

So Brown says the Milky Way and our own Earth and Sun will not suffer the relatively quick death of a cluster death.

Brown points out that our neighbouring galaxy is Andromeda and the two galaxies are moving toward each other. He says they will collide or “merge” in something like four to five billion years. But unfortunately it seems no one will be left to witness the event. Our own sun will be burning out around that time and as it does, it will expand outward, absorbing Mercury and Venus and frying the Earth.

An illustration showing the predicted merger of our Milky Way galaxy with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. In this image, representing Earth's night sky in 3.75 billion years, Andromeda, left, fills the field of view and begins to distort the Milky Way with tidal pull. (NASA/ESA/Z. Levay R. van der Marel, STScI/T. Hallas/A. Mellinger)

So potentially for Earth, not a happy ending either way.

Additional information

Live Science: T Brown: Sep 19/19: Something Is Killing the Universe's Most Extreme Galaxies

Camille Labchuk took a vow of silence over the weekend.

Bound for no ashram to meditate, the silence was simply another step in her relentless pursuit to protect animals, who--she is always quick to note--lack the power to advocate for themselves.

Labchuk is the executive director of the animal rights group Animal Justice and making life better for animals requires money to fight court battles in pursuit of, well, animal justice.

Lawyer and Animal Justice executive director Camille Labchuk is a relentless advocate for the rights of animals in Canada. (Courtesy: Animal Justice)

Hence, the silence Labchuk and her fellow animal rights activists lived on Saturday.

Labchuk, her supporters and her co-activists, raised more money that they had originally hoped, marking another victory in a year that has produced many, including the ones making the most news--a new law to ban keeping whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity, passed by Parliament in June, and new legislation introduced last month in Ontario, strengthening the province's animal cruelty laws.

I spoke with Labchuk by phone at her Ottawa office on Thursday.

EN_Interview_4-20191114-WIE40

A dire report from Canadian medical, veterinary and economic experts begins with the words, ”Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is now recognized as a global threat that if not addressed will have a devastating impact on the health and welfare of the planet that may be difficult to reverse.”

It suggests that increasing incidence of anti-biotic resistance could result in the deaths of almost 400,000 Canadians, and a hit to the Canadian economy in the hundreds of billions of dollars just within the next couple of decades

Gerry Wright (PhD) is the director of the Michael DeGroote Institute of Infectious Disease Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario.

ListenEN_Interview_1-20191113-WIE10

Funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, The Council of Canadian Academies recently brought together experts in a wide variety of fields from microbiology, epidemiology, veterinary medicine, public policy, economics and others, all to discuss the growing number of anti-biotic resistant bacteria, the so-called “superbugs”.

Professor Gerry Wright (PhD) of McMaster University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hamilton, Ontario. (supplied)

Their report is called “When Antibiotics Fail:The Expert Panel on the Potential Socio-Economic Impacts of Antimicrobial Resistance in Canada”

The numbers are staggering.

The report says that within a mere 30 years, if the rate of resistant bacteria increases to 40 percent, the untreatable infections could kill almost 400,000 Canadians, and cost Canada about $500 billion. This would be through some $120 billion in hospital costs coupled with a decline of some $388 in gross domestic product over those three decades

Currently about 26 % of bacterial infections are resistant, and as bacteria evolve, scientists estimate that could increase to 40%, with severe consequence for society. (iStock)

Even if resistance to first line drugs remains constant at the current rate of about 26 per cent, the Canadian economy would still shrink.

Beyond the economics however is the direct effect on health care and the ability to safely carry out almost all kinds of surgeries from heart surgery, to joint replacement, to childbirth and everything in between, where the risk of untreatable infection will increase, sadly often leading to deaths.

One of many bacteria types from soil samples growing in the McMaster lab is search of creating new anti-biotics. (Nicholas-Waglechner-McMaster U)

Professor Wright says the report now puts actual numbers to the state of the problem and with that the purpose of the report is a wake up call to citizens and to policy makers backed by these hard figures.

Additional Information

The Conversation: G Wright;  Antibiotic resistance could destroy our way of life

CBC: L. Kane: Nov 12/19: Drug resistance likely to kill 400,000 Canadians

Canadian Press (via Health): L. Kane: Nov 12/19: Report predicts drug resistance likely to kill 400,000 by 2050

PostMedia:S. Kirkey: Nov 12/19: More deaths, fewer joint replacements, huge costs: The superbug crisis

CCA report: When Anti-biotics fail

As we reported yesterday, Canada's own very own version of Archie Bunker has exited, and it sure didn't go unnoticed across Canada--making front page news across the country.

Don Cherry finally rolled snake eyes Saturday night, going after newcomers to Canada for not buying poppies.

After pushing his luck for years, it was one giant, clumsy step too many.

Don Cherry and his sidekick, Ron MacLean, pose for a photo during the unveiling of their joint star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto on Monday, July 25, 2016. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Canadian Press)

It cost him his job and he says he's not about to apologize.

So what the heck just happened here?

Everyone has an opinion.

For what it's worth, I figure there's no better person to ask than author, sportswriter and broadcast personality Bruce Dowbiggin, who currently hosts the Not the Public Broadcaster website.

Bruce Dowbiggin (cbc.ca)

Dowbiggin and Cherry once worked together and have had their share of dust-ups over the years.

But I, too, have worked with Dowbiggin and he didn't win a bunch of awards for being dishonest.

I called him today at his home in Calgary.

Here is our conversation.

ListenEN_Interview_4-20191112-WIE40

Over 104 years ago, as the First World War raged around him, a Canadian surgeon sat in an ambulance in a part of Belgium that had already seen more than its fair share of carnage and fighting and would see a whole lot more through the rest of the 20th Century.

Poppies surround a newly unveiled statue of Lt.-Col. John McCrae to commemorate the Second Battle of Ypres and his poem 'In Flanders Fields,' during a ceremony in Ottawa on Sunday, May 3, 2015, 100 years to the day that he wrote his famous poem.(Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

Taking a brief respite from the horror he had just witnessed, the surgeon, a Canadian named John McCrae, wrote a poem that lives to this day--in elementary schools where young Canadians recite it, to the poppies that people around the world wear to commemorate those who died in the so-called Great War.

Born out of heartache, written in the midst of insanity in the spring of 1915, In Flanders Fields may be the most famous poem ever written by a Canadian.

David Calderisi (courtesy of David Calderisi)

For Remembrance Day, I asked a friend, noted Canadian actor David Calderisi, to share both the poem and the history of its origins.

Be forewarned: like the war from which is sprang, it is not a pretty history.

ListenEN_Interview_4-20191111-WIE40

It’s an alarming thought, but leaving sponges, clamps, needles, probes inside patients after surgery is a possibility, and a new study shows it happens all too often in Canada.

A new report puts Canada in a bad light in this regard.

Tracy Johnson is Director of Health Systems Analysis and Emerging Issues at The Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Tracy Johnson of the Canadian Institute of Health Information talks about their latest report on the state of health care service in CanadaEN_Interview_1-20191111-WIE10

The report from the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) notes that between 2016 and 2018 some 543 medical objects have been left inside patients in Canada.  It also seems that the problem is getting worse. The report notes these latest results show a 14 per cent increase over the previous report.

While the report showed Canada fared well compared to some 34 other countries in medical care and results, the number of objects left inside patients was the worst among the 12 countries recording such data, including Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway, which reported on this statistic. Other countries like the U.K., Australia, and the U.S. don’t report on these cases.

It also showed a 14 per cent increase over the previous reporting period five years earlier.

While this indicates a serious problem Johnson notes the study has 57 indicators of health care and in 32 of them, Canada is on par with international health systems.

While hospitals have instituted a checklist to count all supplies and instruments before and after operations, a new technology is being added to the supplies checklist during operations. It is a "black box" which records the video and audio during surgery (CBC)

Canada has better breast and colon cancer survival rates than the other OECD, and fewer deaths from heart attack and stroke.

Johnson says the report is important for hospitals and staff to know whether procedures are working, or not, and adjust practices accordingly.

While instruments, sponges, etc are counted before and after surgery, a variety of distractions, some major, and changes in personnel during operations, can result in lost counts.

One new technology just being adopted is an audio and visual recording of the surgery to be used as a record for review and can also be used as a teaching tool to help avoid mistakes.

Additional information

Canadian Press (via CBC): Nov 7/19: Surgical objects being left inside patients in Canada

CBC: R Marchetti: Nov 6/19: Medical device used in labour falls out of patient 10 weeks later

Blackburn News: A. Loiselle: Nov 7/19:  More than 500 objects left in patients during surgery

CBC News Video Report (YouTube) Objects left in patients- How can it be prevented?

It's November--time to partake in a long-standing Canadian rite of passage: ugly professional football.

The Canadian Football League conference semifinals take place Sunday--the first hurdle for any team looking to win the 2019 Grey Cup in two weeks time.

Montreal hosts Edmonton and Calgary hosts Winnipeg. 

Relentless snow in the first half and a cameo from the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made for a truly Canadian championship Grey Cup game in 2017. (Canadian Press/ Getty Images)

Winners advance.

The thing about November Football in Canada is that it tends to be about way more than wins and losses, unless, of course, your team is involved.

Most Canadians, I would wager, can tell you about November Football games they remember, even when their team was not involved.

Winnipeg quarterback Matt Nichols unleashes a pass against Calgary in the West playoffs last year. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)

Most will likely not remember the score, but they'll very likely remember the setting.

November Football, you see, is about coming to grips with the reality that Old Man Winter is not about to turn tail and head off in another direction,

It's about realizing those mean, bleak conditions you see on the tube or witness live are going to be with us for another five months or so.

Prepping the field in 2017 before the Toronto Argonauts stunned the Calgary Stampeders 27-24 to win the 105th Grey Cup in Ottawa. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

November Football is, in fact, a not-so-sneaky preview of what's about to happen.

True, the mud-caked uniforms and grime-stained faces of the players that we used to carry in our memories are no longer a part of the spectacle, thanks to the invention of artificial turf.

Still.

Rites of passage are allowed to evolve.

Bruce Dowbiggin. (cbc. ca)

A man who has spent more than his share of time partaking in all this is my pal Bruce Dowbiggin, author, sportswriter, broadcaster and host of the Not the Public Broadcaster website.

I spoke with him at his home in Calgary on Friday.

ListenEN_Interview_4-20191108-WIE40

Eli Pasquale died of cancer on Monday. He was 59.

He was a terrific basketball player, a Canadian Basketball Hall of Famer.

For lovers of the game, he was a big part of our collective consciousness back in the 1980s--not just because he helped win five straight university titles at the University of Victoria or went to two Summer Olympic Games.

No, it was the way Pasquale played that inspired so many of us.

Pasquale was a fierce competitor at both the university and international levels. (Courtesy: University of Victoria Vikes)

A gritty overachiever, he served as an inspiration for every kid sitting at the end of players' bench watching way-more-naturally-talented guys getting all the playing time.

Pasquale made those kids believe in themselves and in their ability, no matter how slight it might be--a belief that a lot of them were able to carry into the real world.

After Pasquale died this week, one of Canada's foremost sportswriters, Michael Farber, wrote on Twitter:

"Can't think of anyone who extracted more of his innate basketball talent than Eli Pasquale, Canada's point guard in the 80s. RIP"

Pasquale led the University of Victoria to five straight university championships. (Courtesy: University of Victoria Vikes)

And there, as so often is the case when Farber writes, was the secret to all that inspiration Pasquale delivered to the rest of us.

I spoke by phone with Farber on Thursday at his home in Montreal.

ListenEN_Interview_4-20191107-WIE40

I'm an old guy so I'm forced to confess that I lack the intense terror that Greta and her friends feel about where this planet is heading.

For me, the terror remains mostly above my shoulders.

For the young people--the ones taking to the streets around the world--the terror goes a whole lot deeper.

Maybe that's why Greta and her friends refuse to pull their punches as they confront the environmental insanity.

And Neither does an open letter in the journal BioScience, released Tuesday, the same day Donald Trump officially notified the United Nations that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate accord this time next year.

Entitled, “World Scientists Warning of a Climate Emergency," the letter begins: "Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to 'tell it like it is.'

"On the basis of this obligation and the graphical indicators presented below, we declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency."

Sound like anyone we know?

A tiny dynamo and force of nature from Stockholm, maybe?

The letter appears to confirm a couple of things: 1. A growing number of scientists are firmly in Thunberg and her friends' corner, and 2. more and more scientists are prepared to leave their labs to help persuade the rest of us that the kids know what they are talking about.

Of the 11,258 signatures to the letter from 153 countries, 409 were from Canada.

Professor Lonnie Aarssen was one of 409 scientists from Canada to sign the letter in BioScience.. (youtube.com)

One of them is Queens University biologist Lonnie Aarssen, author of "What Are We? Exploring the Evolutionary Roots of our Future."

I spoke with professor Aarssen on Wednesday.

ListenEN_Interview_4-20191106-WIE40