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The AIH transcript for April 15, 2025

For more episodes of this podcast, please click this link.

NIL KÖKSAL: Hello, I'm Nil Köksal.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Good evening, I'm Chris Howden. This is As It Happens.

[theme]

CH: Tonight:

NK: The old college try. The U.S. government says it will withhold billions of dollars from Harvard -- a professor there says it is a relief to see the school taking a stand against the administration's outlandish demands.

CH: Un-free and uneasy. It's been over a month since student activist Mahmoud Khalil was detained by U.S. authorities. One of his lawyers tells us the case isn't just about Mr. Khalil's future -- but the future of free speech in America.

NK: Looking for re-insurance. Our guest's home in the Northwest Territories was destroyed by a wildfire. And as the election approaches, she wants Ottawa to make it easier for people like her to get the insurance they need.

CH: Have I got moose for you. Millions of people around the world are glued to The Great Moose Migration -- a Swedish "slow-TV" show, in which nothing happens for hours at a time, and then a moose goes by.

NK: Crystal baller. Long before Paige Beuckers became the top pick in the WNBA draft, a basketball dad who saw her in action at a local gym predicted she'd be a star -- once she finished elementary school.

CH: And...through the looking-glass. Like, right through. A reporter tells us about tracking down a local vandal who's smashing side mirrors, and pooping on cars. Which makes more sense once you learn that the vandal is a woodpecker.

CH: As It Happens, the Tuesday Edition. Radio that knows some of us just aren't capable of self-reflection.

[theme]

Part 1: Harvard Profs Suit, ELXN: NWT Wildfire, Paige Bueckers Prediction

Harvard Profs Suit

Guest: Kirsten Weld

CH: Harvard University is refusing to bow down to the demands of Donald Trump. And the school is paying for it. Yesterday, Harvard's president Alan Garber said that the university will not be complying with demands from the White House -- which are part of the Trump administration's crackdown on what it calls antisemitism in schools. Those demands included a complete restructuring of university leadership, an end to any DEI initiatives, and a comprehensive mask ban, to name a few. And after President Garber's announcement, the U.S. Department of Education froze two billion dollars in federal funding to Harvard. This back-and-forth comes just days after a Harvard faculty group announced that it was suing the Trump administration -- for demanding policy changes in exchange for federal funds. Kirsten Weld is a history professor at Harvard and the president of the Harvard faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors, or AAUP. We reached her in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

NK: Professor, what will losing these billions of dollars in grants and $60 million in contracts mean for Harvard?

KIRSTEN WELD: It's going to be a disaster for the university. We don't know yet exactly how many billions of dollars are ultimately going to be cut. We don' yet have a full accounting of where exactly the impact of those cuts are going to land. But there's no getting around to the catastrophe that this entails.

NK: And I think wherever listeners are listening from, they'll hear Harvard and they'll think prominent graduates, prominent alum, wealthy alumni. Can donations, donors, very wealthy donors, make up what we're talking about here, if it were to come to that?

KW: I think that's an open question. There are a lot of unknowns at play here. It's not simply the threatened cut of $8.7 billion in multi-year grants that was first announced. Other punitive measures have also been foreshadowed. These include levying as high as a 20 or 30 per cent tax on Harvard's endowment. They also include stripping Harvard of its non-profit status. And the impact of either of those provisions, if they were to come to fruition, let alone both of them together, I think, have not yet been publicly costed out. But I think most importantly, the issue is that whether or not some, you know, donor largesse could eventually come up with a replacement number of billions of dollars, the damage that these cuts are having is irreparable.

NK: Harvard president, Alan Garber, yesterday said, quote, no government, regardless of which party is in power, should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue, unquote. How would you characterize the way your university's leadership has been responding to the threats from the Trump administration compared to other institutions?

KW: The thing that we were all afraid of, everyone pretty much that I've spoken to or heard from in and around Harvard was afraid of, was that Harvard would cave to the Trump administration's demands in the way that Columbia University caved a week or two ago. These are not reasonable demands on which reasonable people might agree. The demand letter that was issued and sent to Harvard on April 11th represents nothing less than a shakedown. It would destroy the university top to bottom.

NK: It's quite striking to go through the list in that letter.

KW: Oh, the list in the letter is, it is difficult for me to describe it without resorting to foul language. It is obscene. It is an obscene letter. It is a letter that is going straight into the history book. And President Garber had, any university president receiving a letter like this, this letter is even more detailed and more intrusive and invasive in its demands than the letter that the Columbia administration received several weeks back. No university professor could agree to the terms of this letter and keep their job.

NK: Harvard did, has made some changes in the last week or so, ousting faculty at its Center for Middle Eastern Studies. For example, there's reporting that Harvard hired a lobbying firm with ties to President Trump, and there's other things on that list. Do you see those as concessions?

KW: Yes. And prior to yesterday's announcement that the university was going to take a fighting posture, many observers of the political winds on campus were gravely concerned because the recent moves that you cited seemed to be, for those of us reading the tea leaves, a very bad sign of what was to come.

NK: So, what do you hope the lawsuit that you and the others launched now can accomplish now?

KW: What it can accomplish now is it can establish, it can litigate out the ways in which the trump administration's demand are both in violation of the first amendment protection of the U.S. Constitution. And everything that has come out since we filed the lawsuit in this April 11th letter only intensifies the strength of the constitutional claims. There is simply a huge blanket cudgel of billions of dollars being used to carry out a shakedown that is not ultimately about improving life for Jewish students and faculty on campus. It's a dominance test. It's designed to bring the United States's great research universities to heel.

NK: You are also a Canadian, we should mention.

KW: I am Canadian. I'm from Ottawa.

NK: People are, you know, shocked by what is happening in the U.S. And never thought that they would see something like this. What is your message to listeners here who might think that this could not happen at Canadian post-secondary institutions?

KW: It has been astonishing for us to see how quickly all this has unfolded, how rapidly the ground has rearranged itself beneath our feet. That's what's happened at Columbia University and it is sickening and heartbreaking to watch. And for what? It has been a wild and horrifying ride to be on the inside of this. And to be made a spectacle and a target in this way when we just want to teach our classes and just that in and of itself, apparently, now makes us the enemy.

NK: Professor, I appreciate your time. Please take care.

KW: Thank you so much.

CH: Kirsten Weld is a professor of history at Harvard University, and the president of the Harvard faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors. We reached her in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

[lounge jazz]

ELXN: NWT Wildfire

Guest: Winnie Cadieux

WC: We got a monthly stipend to help with expenses while we were in the first year of displacement. I received $1,000 a month to help paying rent or other expenses, which really helped because I'm just on an old age pension right now. But once that stopped, then you're back to paying full for everything, and it became difficult.

NK: And in terms of insurance rates, what they were at the time, what were they? What would it have cost?

WC: Cost me $7,000 a year to insure my home, which was totally unaffordable for me. Again, on an old-age pension, that's more than half of what I would earn in a month.

NK: As you think about who will form the next federal government, and you think of your vote, what would you like to see and hear about what the government might do to help people who, I mean, the growing number of people whose homes are under threat from natural disasters and who can't afford insurance?

WC: Well, I would really like to see them address this issue. I know there is some work being done on it through G7 countries and whatnot. I don't understand it to the full extent, but they are working on it, and some other countries do have, like, public-private partnerships or whatever in making insurance available to people that are less fortunate or can't afford it. And I'd like to Canada push a little bit harder. So, whoever gets in, I'd like to see them continue this avenue to try and make insurance affordable wherever natural disasters may hit. There's examples of it in the Northwest Territories as well. For communities, they were unable to afford insurance through regular insurers. For community infrastructure and the Association of Communities built an insurance reciprocal that allowed communities to buy affordable insurance so that they could protect their infrastructure. And if whoever is put in as our government this time could work towards something like that for vulnerable people in places where insurance is either unaffordable, unavailable, not, you know, something that people can reasonably expect to get.

NK: There is one riding representing Northwest Territories. How are you going to make your decision? How will you choose who you'll vote for?

WC: In deciding, it's a little bit tough. Usually, it's by the person. You know, if someone's strong who is able to and has shown that they have spoken up for the people in wherever they've been representing in the North. In the past, we've had MPs that were not part of the federal government party and they did very well for us. So, in the North, it is usually on an basis rather than party.

NK: Is that what you'll do this time?

WC: Yes, I will actually because I only know one person that's running. The other people are unknown to me. And the person that I know is very active in her community and fighting for people all over the North through the various organizations she's been with and leading. So, yeah. I think I've made my choice there.

NK: And that's Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty, who's running for the Liberals?

WC: It is Rebecca Alty, yes.

NK: Winnie, I thank you once again for your time. Please take care.

WC: I will, Nil. You too. Thanks for calling.

CH: Winnie Cadieux lost her home and business to the 2023 wildfire in Enterprise, Northwest Territories. She now lives in Hay River -- and that's where we reached her. She's one of the voters across the country we're speaking to during this election campaign -- and asking where are you feeling the squeeze?

[acoustic guitar]

Paige Bueckers Prediction

Guest: Gary Knox

CH: The sound of reigning NCAA basketball champion Paige Bueckers being picked first overall in last night's WNBA draft. That wasn't really a surprise. Ms. Bueckers' ascent to stardom has been apparent to anyone who's seen her play for the University of Connecticut over the past few years. Or paid any attention to U.S. college basketball at all. Or been in a Nike store, where she's the first college student to have her own shoe. It's been apparent even longer for anyone who watched her play high school basketball in Minneapolis. But not many people can say they knew she'd be a star when she was in elementary school. Gary Knox is the exception. In 2013 he posted a photo of her on Twitter with the caption: "Remember the name: Paige Bueckers. 6th grade, think Diana Taurasi. Best 6th grade G I've ever seen." We reached Mr. Knox in Golden Valley, Minnesota.

NK: Gary, are you getting lots of calls and messages from college or WNBA teams asking you to scout after last night's draft?

GARY KNOX: No, but I have been getting a lot of texts and tweets that say, hey, they need to sign you up to be a scout, you have a great eye for it, it's just been crazy, the last 24, 48 hours.

NK: Would you consider it?

GK: Oh, absolutely. My background is pretty much a gym rat. I've probably spent half my life in a gym, either playing basketball, or watching basketball, or studying basketball. As a matter of fact, I'm a photographer. And most of my background, you know, the way I got where I am today, is from the lessons I learned playing basketball. So, that's pretty much my dream job is to have anything in basketball

NK: There's not actually, there is actually a link, I think, between all of those things, because, you know, the skills you would have on the court would help you in photojournalism, and then the eye you need to be a great photojournallist, I think, had something to do with you, you know, capturing that moment mentally and in a photograph back in 2013. You're at the gym, as you often are, as he said, what were you doing there when you first saw Paige play?

GK: Well, I was actually there watching my daughter who played varsity for Hopkins. A few people, dads, came over to me and said, hey, did you see the sixth grade over there on the freshman court dominating? I said, no, I haven't seen her. So, I looked over there and automatically I said you know what, I see her right away. It was almost like a child prodigy, you know, someone who was playing, you know how you see someone playing Beethoven, or Adagio for Strings on the violin. She was just over there different, you know, her footwork was impeccable, she had a real jump shot that was above her head. You now, the girls, they tried to rough her up a little bit or bump her off her spot, but she would just use her skills and use that to her advantage. You know, she'll have space and then she'll just let it fly.

NK: So, how long were you transfixed watching her play?

GK: The rest of the night because I was there watching my daughter on the varsity corridor, went down to the freshman corridor, and that's where I stayed.

NK: And what did your daughter think of this? [chuckling]

GK: She loved it. They played together for one season. They made it to the championship game in the state tournament.

NK: But that initial time you saw Paige, you ultimately went up to her parents before putting your picture and your blog together.

GK: At the time I had a blog, a website going, and I also had a Twitter account, I was big into Twitter, so I seeked out Bob, her dad, and got permission from him, asked him if I could tweet out something about his daughter, he said sure, he gave me a thumbs up, and the rest is history.

NK: Yeah, it sure is. Oh, and the future at the same time. What did, I mean, I'm sure they knew how talented their, their daughter was, but did you talk to him at that time about, you know, how, where did she come?

GK: It was unspoken language like it was understood. You know, the fact that she was and a high school gym -- an open gym -- playing with the high school girls, it goes without saying. It's like everyone, you know, it was a foregone conclusion. Everyone knew she was special. It was just undeniable. You could see the future. And at the time, I wasn't really comparing Paige to Diana Tarassi. I was just comparing her to Diana Tarassi as an analogy because it draws a comparison between Paige's potential and Tarassis's established greatness.

NK: She's, that's a WNBA star for those who don't know, who's just retired. But I see what you're saying. You weren't saying the direct replica. You're talking about the kind of player and maybe legend she could become

GK: Oh, absolutely. And give Paige all the credit, she in a sense proved me right, you know, without doing it.

NK: Yeah. So, what was it like to see Paige drafted first?

GK: I had shivers. It just brought chills to me that someone that I noticed in 6th grade and followed all the way, I saw her up close and personal in high school from 8th Grade all the way to her senior year. And I watched her from afar at UConn. And I also followed her in the box score when she went to the Olympics and won gold. And to see her dream finally come true, you know, there's a whole saying that hard work pays off. She's the epitome of hard work paying off because she didn't get here by accident. I'm impressed with what she did, but I'm not surprised.

NK: And are you planning to travel to see her play for the Wings?

GK: Well, my daughter just got tickets for me to see, I believe it's May 21st when Dallas comes to Minnesota, so I'll be front and centre at that game.

NK: Nice! You going together with your daughter?

GK: Oh, absolutely.

NK: Well, I hope those scouting gigs start coming in, Gary. A pleasure speaking with you. Thank you.

GK: No problem.

CH: Gary Knox is a photojournalist for KARE 11, a local Minneapolis TV station. In 2013, he wrote a tweet predicting the WNBA's first-round pick Paige Bueckers would one day be a star. We reached him in Golden Valley, Minnesota.

[indie rock]

SOUNDCLIP

[this sounds the same]

CH: What you can't see there are three moose, standing in the woods. And then, they keeping standing there. And then, one of them walks a little bit, and then they all stand there again. This is the spectacle that has hypnotized millions of viewers in Sweden and around the world: the migration of dozens of moose to their summer grazing pastures. A fairly high-stakes journey for the moose, since they want to eat nice grass. A fairly low-stakes journey for anyone glued to the screen, or so you'd think. But people get into it. Like, all the way into it. As one devotee told the Associated Press, quote, "“I feel relaxed, but at the same time I’m like, 'Oh, what if there’s a moose? I can’t go to the toilet!’” Unquote. You can watch it too, if you want to feel relaxed yet unwilling to pee. Just search "SVT play moose" and you'll find the livestream. [slow and distorted] And then, you know, get ready for life in the slow lane.

[ambient]

Part 2: Mahmoud Khalil Lawyer, Rockport Woodpecker Vandal

Mahmoud Khalil Lawyer

Guest: Esha Bhandari

CH: It's been nearly 40 days since Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by ICE officials at his home in New York City. And today, the former Columbia student and permanent U.S. resident remains in a Louisiana detention centre -- under threat of deportation. He was the first person arrested under U.S. President Donald Trump's crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza. Since his arrest, several other student activists across the U.S. have been detained and are also facing possible deportation. And on Friday, an immigration judge in Louisiana ruled that Mr. Khalil can be deported. Esha Bhandari is a deputy director at the ACLU who's representing Mr. Khalil. We reached her in New York.

NK: Esha, how is Mahmoud Khalil holding up? When was the last time you spoke?

ESHA BHANDARI: We spoke earlier this week. And he is very strong and he's determined to fight this case through to the end.

NK: Describe for our listeners where he is, where he's being held.

EB: It's being held in an immigration detention facility in Louisiana. It's in a rural area, it's far from major population centers, it is hard to get to, and it's a facility that holds hundreds of other immigration detainees. It's run by a private contractor, and the U.S. Government notoriously sends a lot of people to be detained, this is civil detention, it sends a lot of people to be detained in facilities in rural Louisiana and Texas.

NK: What has he told you about what it is like there when you have spoken?

EB: I think anyone in detention would tell you that it's difficult. And I think for him personally, the circumstances are especially difficult because he's, of course, awaiting the birth of his first child. And so, to be separated from his wife at this time is particularly tough, and I think especially because Louisiana is so far from his home, he's a New York City-based person, his community is here. To be so far away from your supporters is difficult, but I think nonetheless he has been getting an outpouring of support. People have been speaking to him on the phone, on video, and, you know, I think he's making the best of the circumstances. But, of course, the government should never have been able to take him so far away from his community and detain him thousands of miles from his home.

NK: We know that the U.S. government, specifically Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is citing a rarely used statute to justify potential deportation, saying that they can do this because they can deport people who pose, quote, potentially serious, adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States. The ruling on Friday, the immigration judge in Louisiana said, he could be deported. The U.S. Administration, though, has not said he's responsible for any crimes on the campus. What is at the heart of this in your view?

EB: The heart of this case is really about government power and its ability to unilaterally decide to punish people for engaging in lawful speech, speech that is protected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. And the government isn't even attempting to make any other showing here. They've acknowledged that Mr. Khalil's speech -- that Mahmoud's speech -- was all perfectly lawful. And they've never even tried to argue otherwise because their position is that it doesn't matter. The secretary of state has the unilateral authority to decide that someone's speech poses a foreign policy threat to the government. And that is a very troubling, chilling position to take. And there's no reason it would be limited to this particular issue.

NK: That Friday ruling is not the final word. It doesn't mean he will necessarily be deported. Jurisdiction comes up, has come up a lot in this case, who ultimately is going to get the final say on what happens to him?

EB: The immigration court hearing is not the final word. What the immigration court hearings demonstrated, in fact, is that those courts are not the right forum to hear these constitutional claims because the immigration judge made all it was considering was the secretary of state's statement. And once the secretary of state put in that letter saying that Mahmoud's a foreign policy threat, that was all she needed to find him deportable. So, we are still asking the federal court to exercise its jurisdiction to hold that his detention is unlawful and unconstitutional, and to ultimately decide that this policy that the government has announced of using and abusing immigration law to censor viewpoints that it disagrees with. But that policy is itself unconstitutional because it violates freedom of speech protection.

NK: I know when you try to consider timelines on something like this, it's already been close to 40 days, as our listeners heard, since he was detained by ICE. I mean, how much longer could this drag on?

EB: One of the unfortunate things about this case and Rumeysa Ozturk's case and the other cases is that even one day in detention is too long because it sends a message to other people that if you dare to speak out in a way that might offend the administration, you too could end up in detention and possibly need weeks to get out. One other disturbing aspect of this policy is also that you have no notice. Nobody can be told in advance what speech or what you say could actually render you subject to detention and deportation.

NK: You mentioned Rumeysa Ozturk, and people may have seen the video. I mean, it was so widely shared of ICE officials, you know, masked ICE officials, taking her into custody. It's quite a striking video that I think a lot of people will remember. The U.S. administration has said, they said when Mr. Khalil was taken into custody, that this was the first and there would be others. We've seen Mohsen Mahdawi, another Columbia university student, a friend of Mahmoud Khalil's, detained yesterday, just after his own naturalization interview. So, what is the broader defence strategy for you and your colleagues at the ACLU? Because these aren't the first and they're not the last.

EB: As we've been arguing in the courts and speaking out in public about this, we're trying to emphasize that this is not immigration enforcement. Nothing about this is normal. This is not ordinary immigration enforcement, this is a program of censorship using immigration law to achieve its ends. And this is what the First Amendment is designed to protect against. The First Amendment doesn't allow the government to use its own levers of power to pick and choose which viewpoints are permissible to be expressed. But we're unfortunately seeing the opposite here, and I'm hopeful that the courts will recognize and see this pattern and acknowledge that these individual cases are not just individual cases of immigration enforcement. They're part of this larger attempt to really censor and chill any opposition to the administration's ideology.

NK: But there's also another pattern, as you likely well know, Esha, that is emerging, and this is a pattern of this administration openly ignoring court orders. Just yesterday, we were covering the mistake in deportation to El Salvador and the Trump administration ignoring the Supreme Court decision in that case. So, even if future rulings were to come down in your favour, in your client's favour, what makes you believe that they will actually lead to their release?

EB: We would fully expect that if any court orders the release of either Ms. Ozturk, Mr. Halil, anyone else that's currently in a detention facility, that the government will abide by that, as they have to. These courts are fully empowered to hear these claims of individual rights, and we would expect the administration to abide by those rulings.

NK: Esha, I appreciate your time. Thank you for this.

EB: Thank you very much.

CH: Esha Bhandari is a deputy director at the ACLU who is on Mahmoud Khalil's legal team. We reached her in New York.

[hip-hop]

Seniors Housing Advocate

CH: Fred Sandeski received the Queen Elizabeth Platinum Jubilee Medal last year for his outstanding work to help the unhoused. As early as tomorrow, he might be unhoused himself. The 71-year-old has severe COPD, and is visually impaired. He was placed in a care home temporarily while his wife, Teresea, was recovering from a major surgery; Ms. Sandeski uses a wheelchair. She’s paralyzed from the waist down. The couple have been paying out of pocket for continued respite care since then. But now, after an assessment, the Saskatchewan Health Authority has rejected their request for an extension to stay at the home. Fred and Teresa Sandeski told the CBC about the challenges they're facing.

SOUNDCLIP

FRED SANDESKI: There's questions on my heart. I'm a brittle diabetic. I have epilepsy. And I have trouble walking 10 feet without having to sit down and catch my breath.

PETER MILLS: Yeah. Fred, Teresa, we got a statement from the government. We asked them for comment and they just emailed us and said, we can say that the Ministry of Health and the Saskatchewan Health Authority are in contact with Mr. Sandeski to discuss the appropriate services that are available to him. Has that happened?

FS: Oh, they've discussed it a number of times. And the options that they've given me is to go home and make sure that healthcare are providing the services. If that doesn't work, then I can always go to the private industry and come up with a private bed in the other senior homes. But they're privatized. I have to come up with $3,000 up front before I can even get in. So, they're just telling me to use home care, go home, and die.

PM: Fred, considering the statement, and there's a possibility they are listening or will hear this interview, what would be your message directly to the Ministry of Health right now?

FS: There has to be something else done because they're not looking after the seniors or the low-income sector at all.

PM: Teresa, what's happening on Wednesday? What are you guys doing now?

TERESA SANDESKI: At 1, the community is coming together as a rally. Some will think it's a protest, but it's a rally, but it's also to show the government that we have our community supporting us and feeling that this is very ridiculous what they're doing to Fred. He's worked in the community for 20 years as an advocate for people with disabilities, work barriers, free income tax. He's done all of that free, no money from the government. And they can't even have the decency to give him a bed so he can pass away. That is not integrity at all.

CH: That was Fred and Teresa Sandeski, talking to Peter Mills, host of The 306, yesterday.

[vocalization]

Rockport Woodpecker Vandal

Guest: Billy Baker

CH: When a story breaks, journalists rush to the scene. And Billy Baker is no exception. When the Boston Globe reporter heard that residents of Rockport, Massachusetts were dealing with a serial vandal, he immediately paid a visit to the small seaside town. And what he found wasn't your average perp. It was a red-crested menace with a beak like a jackhammer. A pileated woodpecker -- maybe even more than one -- has been wreaking havoc and waging an all-out war on car mirrors in several neighbourhoods in Rockport. Billy Baker braved the bird zone, spoke to locals, and lived to file his story. We reached him in the safety of his home in Essex, Massachusetts.

NK: Billy, we, I mean, just when this was pitched in our story meeting, we were laughing right away and intrigued. When you pitched going on a road trip to Rockport to cover this story, what did your editors think?

BILLY BAKER: I mean everyone loves a good animal story, [NK chuckles] that's why you're talking to me. But it had been in the local newspaper in Rockport and I was like, is this a real thing? Is this a local paper making a little something out of nothing? So Rockport, Massachusetts is what you would picture if you picture, like, that quintessential New England seaside town with the red barns on the water and the lobster boats floating in the harbour. And it's also the sort of place where they don't want you to park your car just anywhere. [NK chuckles] So, I drove there, parked my car. And as I'm getting out, a woman comes flying out of her house and I assume she's gonna tell me to move my car. And instead, she's like, quickly, shut your side mirrors so the bird doesn't get it. I was like, oh, okay. And now, I'm a little paranoid. I'm looking to the sky, like, where is this bird, you know? [NK chuckles] And every house I knocked on, you know, the kind of most awkward, you know, knock you can make. Hi, I'm a Boston Globe reporter. Have you been attacked by a woodpecker?

NK: [chuckling] I mean, as door knocks go, that's not the worst one that you probably have to ever do, but.

BB: But I mean, in every case, they were like, thank God you're here, yes! And then, they'd walk me to their backyard and show me both side mirrors on their car had been broken by this rogue woodpecker. I mean, everywhere I went, people just had a story, or they were showing me their defensive methods, which were wrapping their side mirrors in carpet, or beach towels, or plastic bags, anything that would discourage this bird from seeing his own reflection, thinking it was a rival male. So, I mean, it's a known thing that songbirds during nesting season will try and chase off other rival males, but most songbirds don't have the beak that's able to smash windows that this pileated woodpecker has. It's the largest woodpecker in North America. It's not rare, but it's not common. I've been hearing from a lot of birders who said they've looked for this their whole lives and never actually seen one.

NK: Are people there sure that it's just a single woodpecker doing all this damage?

BB: Well, the experts say it's most likely a single juvenile male, probably establishing territory for the first time. So, being extra aggro, you know, but who's to say?

NK: And neighbours have a joke about where his female partner might be?

BB: Yeah, they think she's embarrassed. That she's hiding out and, you know, this is, you know, one neighbour said something like, of course it's a guy. This is such a guy thing. [NK chuckles] And we want to find the woman and be like, honey, did you see any signs before you got together? Because we're talking 20 side mirrors on cars. This wasn't one or two. This has been going on for weeks. It actually began when one woman posted on Facebook on April 1st saying that this woodpecker had shattered her car windows and people thought it was an April Fool's joke. And then, it just continued and continued. When I was there, I ran into a guy who the day before had been sitting in his pickup truck and the bird hopped on the windshield and shattered the windshield while he was sitting inside of it.

NK: Was he terrified?

BB: When he heard the knocking, he said he thought his girlfriend was knocking on the window and then he looked up [NK chuckles] and there's a giant woodpecker just going to town on the glass.

NK: And you didn't actually see it up close, maybe that's a good thing, maybe bad, i'm not sure at this point.

BB: No, I did not. We looked, you know, high and wide and we sent a photographer who did, like, a full-day stake out. But of course, you know, that's how reporting works. Everyone, you know, tells you something happens all the time. And then, you show up and it doesn't happen.

NK: Yes. And they're calling it King Kong?

BB: So, what I most wanted was to hear it because, you know, there's some hyperbole in the descriptions, but apparently it does sound nothing like a bird. You know, it was compared to, you know, monkeys in a tree. It's described as crow-sized, but to talk to the neighbours, it's more King Kong-sized, you know?

NK: What do people there want to happen at this point? They're excited that you're there hoping you can affect some change, but this is not a government official or a political scandal.

BB: No, yeah, I honestly didn't get the sense that they wanted it to end. It was kind of an interesting thing that they had this celebrity in town and they, you know, sightings were being recorded, windows, broken windows were being shared. It was, I mean, look, I'm talking to Canadian radio about a murderous woodpecker. [NK laughs] And I mean he's trying to murder another male peacock, he just can't seem to find one.

NK: Right.

BB: It's been a fun story. It's gone weirdly viral. I've got hundreds of emails from people that want to tell me every woodpecker story in the world, and I've heard every Woody Woodpecker joke you could come up with, but I'm not sure I'm going to stop until I see this thing. It is not very far from my house, so I think I may become one of these weirdos [NK laughs] just sitting next to my car with the mirrors tucked in just trying get a sight of something howling like a monkey in a tree.

NK: Good luck to you, Billy, on that adventure. I appreciate this. Thank you.

BB: Yes, thank you. Thank you!

CH: Billy Baker is a reporter with The Boston Globe. We reached him in Essex, Massachusetts.

[uptempo]

Pro-Vegimite PM

CH: To Australians, it was just a softball question for a prime minister, with an election just a few weeks away. But to Australian expats in Canada, it brought a deeply concerning development to the fore. During a press conference this morning, a reporter asked Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to comment on the case of Toronto cafe owner Leighton Walters. Mr. Walters has been told he must remove imported Vegemite from his shelves because it doesn't meet Health Canada regulations. Today, he got unwavering support from Mr. Albanese.

SOUNDCLIP

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I stand with the Aussie cafe owner. [laughter] I can confirm here today that I am pro-Vegimite. And, indeed, I actually put a lot of Vegemite on my toast when I ate bread. So, I love Vegemite, that's a good thing. I did hear the report on that, it's rather odd that they're letting Marmite in, which is rubbish, frankly. Let's be clear here, pro-Vegimite, anti-marmite, that is my position.

CH: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese showing support for an Australian-Canadian cafe owner caught in a dispute over Vegemite regulations. And I have a feeling Liza Robinson would feel for Australians in Canada, too. Ms. Robinson is the curator of a museum dedicated to Vegemite. In 2023, we called her up to mark the quintessential spread's 100th birthday -- and to get her best description of the...distinctive taste.

SOUNDCLIP

LR: It's salty, salty.

NK: Like a sharp cheese or...

LR: Yeah, kind of. Yeah. I mean, it's a very unique taste. It's very unique. I mean, and of course, cheese and vegemite sandwiches are, you know, famous in Australia as well, of course.

NK: And there's Marmite too out there. I know they're very different, but how are they different?

LR: Well, to be quite honest with you, I can't comment on that. I have never tried Marmite.But it's interesting. It's a very... Of course, Marmite was the original sort of salty paste that was originally created and Vegemite spun off that here in Australia. But you know, everyone that was born and raised on Vegemite pretty much has never, would never taste Marmite, would never even have it in their pantry.

NK: [Chuckles] It would be sacrilegious. What do you say, though, to people who are shocked that it is so beloved, but also that it's still around and so popular after a century?

LR: Well, it's look, that's an amazing story. And I think celebrating on Tuesday at the manufacturers offices where Vegemite is made down in Port Melbourne here, there were hundreds of people there celebrating and they played the jingle that was created for their marketing campaign back in the fifties and sixties. And honestly, the whole... I don't know, there's something about Vegemite, it just goes through you. It's like in your blood, it's in your DNA, you know, it's like and everybody has a vegemite story. It's very much part of our culture and you know, it's yeah, it's a very... And it was never more prevalent for me than being at this event last Tuesday. It was just amazing! People singing the jingle. [singing] "We're happy little Vegemites, as happy bright, as bright can be. We all enjoy our Vegemite for breakfast, lunch and tea". I mean, everyone was singing it.

NK: Well done. The museum itself. Tell me about some of the exhibits.

LR: So, we have half the museum is memorabilia and historical artefacts and packaging, and the other half is sort of new merchandise where people can buy logo Vegemite products and things. And we have a video that we've produced telling the story of the history. And, we've got the jingle going 24/7.

NK: Well, you might get sick of it after a while. No, maybe, the song, I mean.

LR: Look, people ask me that, but I actually sort of tune out so I don't hear it all the time.

NK: Do you remember the first time you tried it as a child?

LR: Not the first time, but I mean, I distinctly remember, you know, my mother boiling fresh eggs and she would cut the toast up into little, like, long pieces and we'd have it on... Vegemite would be on it. And you dip your Vegemite toast in your boiled egg.

NK: Is that how we should try it for the first time?

LR: Actually, no. I just like. I like a really good sour bread toast with a light smear of Vegemite. That's just the best.

CH: From Our Archives, Liza Robinson speaking to Nil in 2023.

[ambient]

Part 3: Hungary LGBTQ+ Events, Anti-Anxiety Salmon

Hungary LGBTQ+ Events

Guest: Dávid Bedő

CH: Protesters spent weeks trying to stop it. But now, Hungary's parliament has passed a constitutional amendment that gives the government sweeping new powers to ban public events by 2SLGBTQ+ groups -- including Pride parades. The law goes as far as allowing the use of facial recognition technology to identify anyone who attends banned gatherings -- and provides a constitutional basis for denying the gender identities of trans people. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's far-right Fidesz party says these are all, quote, "child protection" measures. Opposition lawmakers argue they're part of a harmful power grab by the ruling party. Dávid Bedő is a member of parliament with the opposition Momentum party. He and a group of other opposition politicians and protestors attempted to physically block the entrance to a parliament parking garage ahead of yesterday's vote. We reached him in Budapest.

NK: Dávid, Orban hinted that these changes were coming. Hint is maybe too mild a word, but you knew that this was likely going to happen. Did that help you prepare for it? Does it hurt any less today knowing the reality?

DÁVID BEDŐ: No, I don't think it hurts any less. And, yes, hint is maybe a mild word for it because he outright said in his yearly review that was in February that they are going to ban Pride. And Pride organizers shouldn't organize anything this year because it is going to be banned. And not long after that, a few weeks later, they introduced a new law that is effectively banning Pride or any assembly that goes against the safety of children, whatever that means. It started getting real four weeks ago when they first passed the law itself because there's two parts of the law. So the first one was the law itself, the law for assembly. And yesterday, they voted on the 15th amendment of the constitution. And these two things go hand in hand. Because in the constitution what they did is, in the constitution, we have a number of human rights, basic rights, and what they did is they changed that. So before, there was no any kind of hierarchy between these basic rights. And now, they changed that. And now, the protection of children is basically a higher right than any other basic human right. And four weeks ago when they passed the law for the new assembly law, what they changed there is they basically outright said that any gathering that is a danger to the, to the progress of the children or dangers to children should be banned. And that is not permitted. And this is not only about Pride. This is pretty much about any assembly, any demonstration, any protest that goes against the government.

NK: You were just out protesting, and you've been protesting for weeks. What have you seen out on the streets as people opposed what was coming?

DB: Yeah, well, a lot of people joined. So, we started protesting four weeks ago on the day when the first law was passed. Our first protest was actually inside of parliament. We lit smoke bombs inside of the chambers. And then, we held a demonstration just outside of the parliament. And the demonstration has been ongoing for the past four weeks, pretty much every week. This week, we already had two demonstrations, one yesterday and one Today. I'm just coming from one. A lot of people are on the streets. And a lot of people are very very angry. And not only because of banning of Pride, but everyone sees this as another nail in the coffin of Hungarian democracy.

NK: People who are most directly affected, people whose lives that this impacts, what are they telling you on the street?

DB: Well, I would say that a lot of, not just the LGBTQ community is affected. Obviously, they are affected the most because they have been a target of government propaganda for the past four to five years, ever since they passed the first child protection law, which specifically targeted the LGBTQ Community. Obviously, they are the most riled up. They're feeling, like, the most, like, targeted community right now. A lot of LGBTQ people I know here in hungary are planning to leave the country, unfortunately. But getting back to my original point, unfortunately, they're not the only one affected by this. Pretty much everyone who was opposing this current regime -- this current government -- is affected by this law because this basically gives the tool for the government to ban any protest, any demonstration that they feel might endanger their power.

NK: Given how broad the impact is, as you underline there, what is the broader response you're hearing from Hungarians? Are there people who feel that they're happy about this decision?

DB: Obviously, there's the supporters of the government who feel like this is only about Pride and they're happy that they're banning Pride. There are people like that as well. I don't meet these people very often, maybe only in comments and only in social media messages. But the majority of the population, I would say, are in support of Pride and they are against this new law that they just passed recently.

NK: Is there any sense that you get that all of this opposition, all of these protests will lead to some sort of change?

DB: I would say that, right, just because of the protests, probably not. We're going to have an election next year in 2026, and it's very, very important for us right now to stand up to this government and show that they cannot do anything. Because our biggest fear is that this will have an impact on the next year's election, and they will try to use every tool at their disposal to stay in power, including cheating on the elections. So, that is why it's very important that now we are on the streets demonstrating so the government can see that they cannot do anything that they want.

NK: I interviewed, last month, an organizer with Budapest Pride. And they said that despite the risks, they were planning to go ahead with the parade on June 28th. That still seems to be the case as of today. What do you make of that decision?

DB: I absolutely support it. We're gonna be there on the 28th of June. We're going to stand-up to this government. I just recently came home from Paris, where I met a number of other liberal leaders from all across Europe. And I invited all of them to join us to protest on the 28th of June and participate in Budapest Pride because it's very important that as many people show up as possible because the law itself says basically that they can fine anyone who participates in such an event. So, it's very important that tens of thousands of people show up so it's even harder for them to find all these people.

NK: What do you imagine June 28th is going to be like?

DB: I hope it's going to be the biggest Budapest Pride ever.

NK: Dávid, I appreciate your time. Thank you for this.

DB: Thank you. Thank you as well.

CH: Dávid Bedő is an MP for Hungary's opposition Momentum party. We reached him in Budapest earlier today.

[ambient electronic]

Sudan War Anniversary

CH: There are a lot of humanitarian crises right now. But aid agencies are saying that, of all of them, the Sudanese civil war is the worst. The conflict began two years ago today. Since then, almost 13 million people have been displaced, and 25 million people -- half the population -- are facing hunger. Ravina Shamdasani is the chief spokesperson for the UN high commissioner on human rights. She told the BBC about the latest in Darfur.

SOUNDCLIP

RAVINA SHAMDASANI: And we are particularly worried about what may come for Al Fasher. What we've seen the Rapid Support forces do in previous incidents where, for example, when they took over Al-Janina, again, there were mass killings, sexual violence, looting, and displacement. And we're very worried that this is a sign of things to come.

TIM FRANKS: One of the extraordinary, one of the chilling things about this is it seems to be that a lot of the evidence of these appalling acts are recorded by the perpetrators themselves, almost as sort of trophies. I mean, goodness knows why they're doing it, but it does suggest that there's almost an expectation of impunity from the people carrying out these appaling acts.

RS: That's exactly right. There's a brazenness that characterizes these acts. We've heard accounts of men walking in and raping the women and saying to them, we are your men now. We have accounts of RSF militants who've killed young men and then gone to the mothers of those young men, and said, we will protect you now. Can you imagine the fear? Can you imagine the panic and the anxiety that now you're in the hands of these people? And there is a brazenness that is fueled by impunity. And this is why when we talk about solutions, when we talk about how to bring this conflict to an end, one of the key things is pushing for accountability. If the international community were to speak with one voice and say that ICC jurisdiction needs to be expanded across Sudan, and if there were indictments for high-level officials that would go some way towards, you know, sending the message that this impunity is not here to stay, that there will be accountability.

TF: A lot of the worst atrocities have been placed at the door of the RSF, the paramilitary forces fighting the Sudanese National Army. Do you also have concerns about how Sudan's army is itself waging its war?

RS: We do. We have concerns about the perpetration by the Sudanese Armed Forces of serious human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law. We saw this when they took over Khartoum. Dozens of people were brutally killed. And we have reports as well of ethnically motivated summary executions by the Sudanese Armed Forces as well as militia that support them.

CH: That was Ravina Shamdasani, chief spokesperson for the UN high commissioner on human rights, speaking to Tim Franks on the BBC's NewsHour.

[ambient]

Quebec Autism Camp Closure

CH: For years, Camp O-Carrefour has welcomed children and adults with autism -- providing much-needed support to them and their families. But now, they've all been left in the lurch. The camp on Quebec's Ile-d'Orleans abruptly closed this week. The general manager told the CBC that the decision to shut down was difficult, and came down to recruiting and maintenance costs. Jean-Sébastien Roy's 16-year-old daughter Malaurie attended the camp on some weekends, and had planned to spend weeks there this summer. Mr. Roy says the closure has left him and a lot of other people in a tough position.

SOUNDCLIP

JEAN-SÉBASTIEN ROY: Well, it came out of nowhere because we got a phone call from the coordinator. And here, I'm not blaming anyone who provides care to my daughter and other autistic kids, but it was totally out of the blue.

JULIA CARON: What was it like this weekend when you went to pick up Malaurie and you got to see the other parents and knowing this could be the last time she attends this camp?

JSR: Yes, it was quite something because all the young ladies who were there were in tears and it was quite emotional because they've been so nice and so good to my daughter and ourselves. And knowing that it's all over, so it was really sad to see that.

JC: Tell us just a little bit about what this camp has meant, not only for your daughter, Malaurie, but just for your family.

JSR: Well, for my daughter, it was good for her mental health and she really enjoyed this place. But for our family, it was great because it's such a beautiful place on Ile d'Orléans. It's a place where we were more than happy to send our daughter, and it would give us the opportunity to have quality time with my other daughter, who's turning 20. And the first thing we did was to pick up the phone and try to find, we contacted other organizations. And I was born in Arvida in Saguenay, so the first thing we did was to call back home and see with Autism Sagne et Lac Saint-Jean if they have, you know, a spot available for my daughter. And so far, we only have a week, but, you know, we have some concerns. Are we stealing someone else's spot? So, there's a domino effect here. And it shows how fragile the system is right now. And also, we were more than happy to know as parents that she was in good hands at the Camp O-Carrefour because the infrastructure is really nice and the care that we're provided by the people who worked there was amazing. And we were very happy with this service. And now, we have to find something else.

CH: Jean-Sébastien Roy's 16-year-old daughter, Malaurie, was planning to attend Camp O-Carrefour this summer -- before it abruptly shut down. He was speaking with Julia Caron on Quebec AM.

[ambient]

Anti-Anxiety Salmon

Guest: Erin McCallum

CH: It's tough being an Atlantic salmon in Sweden. A couple of years after they're born, the fish go through something called smolting -- and their journey downstream from freshwater to the Baltic sea begins. It is not a relaxing journey: there are predators and boats and hydropower dams -- and increasingly, there's anti-anxiety medication in the water. Which did not necessarily help with all that other anxiety-inducing stuff. A group of researchers in Sweden wanted to know for sure what those drugs were really doing to salmon in the wild. So they gave them a healthy dose of benzos and sent them on their way. And then, reported their findings in a new study published in the journal Science. Erin McCallum is a Canadian environmental scientist and co-author of the paper. We reached her in Umeå, Sweden.

NK: Erin, where do you start with something like this? How do you go about giving salmon anti-anxiety meds?

ERIN MCCALLUM: [chuckling] That's a good question. We were interested in doing this study because pharmaceuticals are becoming environmental pollutants. So, we used a slow release implant to give the medication to the fish in our study. This allows us to control the amount of the pharmaceutical that we're giving them, and do so in a way that doesn't contaminate surrounding environment.

NK: They were raised in hatcheries, we should say, in Sweden -- these salmon -- before they were released into the wild. So, it's not, you weren't [chuckling] pouring this medication into open water, lest anyone was concerned.

EM: No, exactly. So, these fish were raised in a hatchery until they were two years old. And then, it's at this time in their life cycle that they would be released from the hatchery and make their downstream migration towards the sea.

NK: And what was your team's initial thinking -- initial hypothesis -- about what might happen once these medicated fish started their trip?

EM: Yeah, so, our study is one of the first studies to try to answer this question in the field, especially at such a big scale, so out in the wild. And what we knew from the lab already was that when fish are exposed to anti-anxiety medications, they can be more bold and more likely to take risks. And this also can make them a bit less social with other individuals. And so, we weren't exactly 100% certain how this might affect a larger behaviour like migration success, but it seems like perhaps these underlying behavioural tendencies like boldness ended up making it so that the anti-anxiety exposed fish ended up being more successful at making it to the sea.

NK: And so, the fish that were exposed to these benzos reacted differently, as you said, but specifically to dams that have spinning turbines, you found that they were two to three times faster than fish that we're not exposed to the medications.

EM: Exactly.

NK: Why is that?

EM: So, hydropower dams block salmon migration downstream and upstream in rivers around the world. And as a kind of big wall in their environment, when salmon come up against it, it seems like they can hesitate for a bit before figuring out how to navigate this barrier. And it seemed like the fish in our study, instead of hesitating, they kind of just went for it and were more likely to pass through this barrier more quickly.

NK: Less inhibited, more emboldened? Is that fair?

EM: Yeah, you could say that they're more embolden, more likely to take risks, perhaps less scared of this new feature in their environment.

NK: More salmon who were medicated made it to the Baltic Sea, right? But it's still a change from their natural behaviour. So, what do you do with a result like that?

EM: Yeah, exactly. So, it's good to keep in mind that any change from an animal's natural behaviour could potentially, you know, it looks beneficial on a surface level, but it also might come with a cost. So, for our study, we don't really know what the consequences are of the salmon perhaps making it to the sea in larger numbers, or perhaps altering the timing that they might arrive there. They could be exposed to new environments or predators, and we'd have to do more research to figure out what those consequences would be.

NK: And what ultimately it could all mean for wild fish populations. And you only tested certain drugs, but we already know that there's quite a variety of them in the water.

EM: Exactly. We studied two drugs, but there are hundreds of different pharmaceutical products that are being used worldwide. And so, we only looked at two of them and showed that they did have, or at least one of them had, an important effect on fish behaviour. And hopefully, more research like this will happen in the future.

NK: And as you and your colleagues do that kind of work, in terms of right now, what kind of solutions are there or precautions that can be taken to keep these drugs out of the water in the first place?

EM: Yeah, that's always a good question. And there are several different things that we can do. And I think one of the main ones is that wastewater treatment, which is one of the main sources of pharmaceuticals to the environment, could be improved so that they can be upgraded to have newer technologies that are better at breaking down and removing pharmaceuticals from wastewaters before they're released back to our rivers, lakes, and streams. But another interesting angle is actually putting more effort into researching how can we design pharmaceuticals that are greener or better for the environment? So, can we designed a pharmaceutical that breaks down more readily, so that they don't end up having this kind of long persistence in the environment. So, that would be another interesting solution that could help this problem.

NK: Glad we could speak, Erin. Thank you for this.

EM: Yeah, thank you so much for inviting me.

CH: Erin Mccallum is a Canadian environmental scientist and an assistant professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. We reached her in Umeå, Sweden.

[folk]

Winnipeg Loud Bathrooms

CH: Squeaky stall doors, sloshy toilets, hissing faucets, and humming pipes. All sounds we get used to in public bathrooms. But now, a pair of teenagers in Winnipeg are using decibel meters to answer a simple question: are those bathrooms loud -- or dangerously loud? Leo and Sammy Marcus are twin brothers. Their experiments have won multiple awards at this year's Winnipeg Schools Science Fair. One of those awards is the Junior Science Innovator Award. They told the CBC why they wanted to look into bathroom sounds.

SOUNDCLIP

LEO MARCUS: So, I have sensory processing disorder, and when I was younger, and when many people are very young, they find washrooms incredibly loud and they find them scary or painful and they do not want to be in those washrooms because of that. So, I wanted to know if what I was feeling, and what other people was feeling, was actually founded in the sounds of the devices we're making.

MARCY MARKUSA: And a bathroom's got, like, flushing toilets. And then let me think here, there's running water, there's air dryers, right? Hand dryers. So, how did you do this experiment?

SAMMY MARCUS: So we would go to paper towel dispensers, hand dryers, urinals, and toilets. We would take out our decibel meter. We have it record the highest sound for a five to 10-second duration, 30 to 35 centimetres away from the device. So, we go up to these devices, we take out a tape measure, and we measure 33 inches, which is the average three-year-old ear height. We test our height at start of study, 50 --

LM: Three inches.

SM: We tested average female, average adult female ear height, which is 59 inches, and 63.5 inches, which is the average adult man ear height. So, we would test all those with our decibel meter, and we would write it down as well as the location, date, and what brand of device it was.

MM: So you recorded all the variables.

LM: Along with any variations.

MM: Got it.

LM: We tested 289 devices and made 1,277 measurements.

MM: Wow, okay.

LM: And that's divided about two to 10 in total.

MM: What did people think when you were standing in there with the device you're looking at here, just so radio listeners know, it looks like it's just a small little size of a phone maybe. It's got a, obviously, microphone at the top of it to record the sound data. But you're going to have to be holding this up and standing in the bathroom, so what were people thinking? Were you hiding in a stall when you're doing this or what?

LM: Along with the decibel meter, we also had a tape measure, a clipboard, lots of sheets of paper, and a pen with us, [MM laughs] along with the bag to carry it all in. The most interesting thing someone said to us is when we were testing at our school, someone walked into the bathroom, looked at us testing in front of one of the urinals, and said to one of their friends who was also entering the bathroom, bro's testing the urinals!

SM: And then ran out as fast as he could.

MM: [laughing] I'm guessing so, yeah.

CH: Twin brothers Leo and Sammy Marcus speaking to Marcy Markusa on Information Radio in Winnipeg today.

[pop]

Prince George Duck Stamp

CH: Ken Ferris loves to paint ducks. The "Canadian Duck Stamp" competition loves paintings of ducks. They're perfect for each other. The Canadian Wildlife Habitat Conservation stamps are used to validate federal migratory game bird hunting permits, and the proceeds go toward habitat protection. This year, Ken Ferris won for his painting "Northward Bound – Greater Scaup." He talked to CBC Prince George about his victory.

SOUNDCLIP

KEN FERRIS: It was very exciting. For me, I have won the competition three times, but it's been 25 years since I won the last time. So, it was really nice to get that phone call to say that you were selected amongst, I believe there was about 41 entries from across Canada, so I was chosen the winning stamp design. So, it is very exciting. And I've been entering it for a number of years now. And in the last five years previous to my win, I was second twice and third once. So, I was quite elated to get that phone call saying you won. The painting is of its waterfowl. They are called greater scaup, and they're kind of a black and white duck. So I painted something a little different from the normal stamp designs, whereas usually it features a pair of ducks, a male and a female. But mine, I did a scene with which was from the Rockies and there's six ducks on the water in an early spring setting, snow and ice still around, and it's kind of a blustery looking day. And plus, I put 10 ducks in the distance flying as well, so it was a whole scene. So, something a little different from what I would normally paint. But obviously, it impressed the judges enough that they chose it.

JASON PETERS: What is it about painting wildlife that is so meaningful to you?

KF: I've been brought up around wildlife. My dad was a game warden, gosh, 100 years ago, and you know, he really inspired me to look at nature. And for some reason, I really took a shining to birds, and that's been my passion. I mean, I'm a bird watcher, I have a few hundred bird books, and so I'm an avid, and I enjoy seeing nature. And I look a lot more at landscapes now and interesting backgrounds, more so than I used to. I would just concentrate maybe on a bird or an animal -- mostly birds -- and just put a simple background. But now, I look at completing a whole picture, you know, with a really nice background. But there's just something about painting feathers, and it's something I've always enjoyed doing.

JP: What was it like emotionally just to see your image in its final form on a stamp?

KF: It's interesting how well the image comes out. Like, it's, I mean, it's a small, little image, but you can actually still see my signature on there, my little printed signature that I do on the original painting, you could actually make that out on that stamp. So, it's actually quite remarkable and it is pretty darn exciting, too, when you put that open and you see your stamp. It's an actual minted stamp, too. So, it's, you know, pretty exciting.

CH: Artist Ken Ferris talking to Jason Peters, producer of Daybreak North about winning the annual "Canadian Duck Stamp" competition.

The AIH Transcript For April 15, 2025

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