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As It Happens July 7, 2025.mp3

NIL KOKSAL: Hello, I'm Nil Koksal.

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

[Music: Theme]

CHRIS HOWDEN: Tonight...

NIL KOKSAL: Retrial by fire, people in Lynn Lake, Manitoba are forced to leave their town because of an out-of-control wildfire just two weeks after they were allowed to return after fleeing an out-of-control wildfire.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Cutting remarks. Our guest tells us what the passage of Donald Trump's big beautiful bill with its deep cuts to Medicaid is likely to mean for millions of Americans with disabilities.

NIL KOKSAL: Dreams Deferred, a Palestinian student was accepted to a Canadian University Master's program on scholarship, but she can't leave Gaza City until Ottawa comes through with her student visa, and she is hardly the only one.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Tap dancing. A community in Newfoundland and Labrador got some good news this week. For the first time in decades, part of the town now has clean water coming out of the faucets.

NIL KOKSAL: Empty nesters, cowbirds, skip the hassles of hatching and rearing their young by leaving their eggs in other birds' nests. Now, new research shows how the cowbird chicks find their way back to their own kind after flipping their foster parents the bird.

CHRIS HOWDEN: And short germ memory. A new study shows that we find it much harder to learn something when we're being tormented by hackers, as in people with distracting coughs. As It Happens, the Friday edition. Radio that favours brains over bron...chitis.

[Music: Theme fade]

CHRIS HOWDEN: They'd barely settled back in after their last evacuation, but today, hundreds of people in Lynn Lake, Manitoba were told to pack up again. A wildfire is now threatening the town's power lines, which could lead to a total power cut. It's only been two weeks since residents were allowed to return home, after another out of control fire came dangerously close to their community, destroying several buildings. It was kept at bay by about a dozen people who stayed to fight those flames. One of them was Mayor Brandon Dulewich. We reached him earlier today in Lynn Lake.

NIL KOKSAL: Mayor, are the lights still on across Lynn Lake right now?

BRANDON DULEWICH: Currently the lights are on. I just got an update that the fire is on the hydro line, on the edge of it. So, suppression efforts are underway with limited resources. We're not sure how long we're gonna have the lights on.

NIL KOKSAL: What was it like for you to have to tell people there, just two weeks after they were able to come back home, that they needed to leave again?

BRANDON DULEWICH: Absolutely devastating. It's, um, I just went out and told the first busload of people going to the airport, um, you know, my thoughts are with them and anything and everything we could do to help, please reach out to us. It's heartbreaking. Just you could see the defeat on their faces. They just got home. One reassuring thing that this office and my council and myself did is we ensured that they're going straight into hotel rooms with proper living conditions this time, the first evacuation. They were on cots for over three weeks and communal showers and so, we wanted to make sure that if we ever did evacuate again, which we are doing, that people are looked after.

NIL KOKSAL: Did you think that it would happen again and happen again so soon?

BRANDON DULEWICH: No, this was something none of us anticipated. It's a new fire that started and with just limited resources, we weren't able to get control of it off the start and it's grown to a size that's pretty uncontrollable right now. We've got everything we possibly have in town trying to fight it, but it's it made its way to the hydro line and it it's due to compromise that line any minute.

NIL KOKSAL: More than 80,000 hectares, it's covering this fire, according to the Canadian Press, the last check that they did. Does that line up with what you know at this point, Mayor?

BRANDON DULEWICH: Yeah, that sounds accurate. It's, we've got winds that are just kicking up right now, going to 60, 70 kilometres and that fire is uncontrollable. We could try to slow it down, but the efforts are not gaining on the fire very much. The fire is beating us at this moment in time.

NIL KOKSAL: During the last evacuation, you did stay back to try to help protect things there. Take us through what that was like compared to what you're experiencing now.

BRANDON DULEWICH: In the stunting times, the fire came right into community. We fought it, we lost some structures. This fire right now that's burning through the hydro line is only a mere 12 kilometres outside the community. So, the reality that's entering the community in the next few days is very high as well. So, today, we're apparently gonna lose power and in the few days, I'd imagine we'll be fighting fire in town again. We're just subject to the winds changing, pushing in our direction. This year, this province, the resources are spread so thinly. There's fires everywhere, and it's hard to contain.

NIL KOKSAL: Are you satisfied with the response you're getting from provincial officials and the help, even if things are spread thin, you know, are they sending you the kind of help that you need?

BRANDON DULEWICH: Um, we're requesting more help everyday. It's a standing order for more personnel, more aircraft, but the, I'm not sure who it is in the province with wildfire that dictates where the resources go, but I understand that's an extremely hard job. There's, we've got thunder and lightning starting now. The fire season is actually just starting for the province right now, it should be. So, you know, they're mitigating new starts by Flin Flon, The Pas. If any more resources could come our way, we'd gladly take them.

NIL KOKSAL: How long do you think you'll be able to stay there, Mayor, given what you're seeing and how quickly things are moving?

BRANDON DULEWICH: We're gonna stay as long as we possibly can. There'll be a day-by-day kind of thing and just see what we can sustain. I know my staff with the town here, we've been going at this for six weeks already from the first fire. You could see it in everybody's faces and just everything. We're getting pretty run down already [NIL KOKSAL: Oh yeah] and it's just not letting up. It's draining though. It's, you could see it's, people are, are getting run down. I have to try force some of my staff to take breaks. You know, everybody wants to help, but you know, you got to look after yourself at the same time, too.

NIL KOKSAL: The folks who were heading out, you said you could see what they were feeling written all over their faces. What if anything did they say to you, Mayor, as they said goodbye?

BRANDON DULEWICH: You know, they just asked that we try and make sure there's a town for them to come back to and that's a number one priority. It's, we're going to do everything we can to keep the fire from entering town and losing any structures.

NIL KOKSAL: It's a lot of pressure.

BRANDON DULEWICH: Conditions are not ideal, I'll say that. You know, you can have one good day followed by three bad days. It's hard to keep the spirits up, that's for sure.

NIL KOKSAL: You obviously care about Lynn Lake, you're mayor there. What does it mean to you?

BRANDON DULEWICH: This is my home. It's a third generation for my family now. I've got a young son, so, you know, going on a fourth generation in Lynn Lake. And, you, know, it's I don't ever want to leave. I don't ever anticipate leaving. It's, I plan to live here my entire life. But the beautiful spot there is, you know, we're at the end of the road here in Manitoba, surrounded by the incredible lakes. The forest was so beautiful. There's, you know, there's not much of that left now, but in 10 years time, hopefully it regrows and it can look pretty again. But for the next few years, for sure it'll be tough to live here. It doesn't look very nice out the front window now.

NIL KOKSAL: Well Mayor, I appreciate your time in the middle of all of this. Please take care.

BRANDON DULEWICH: Thank you, thanks for reaching out and setting up this interview.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Brandon Delowich is the mayor of Lynn Lake, Manitoba.

[Upbeat electronic and piano music playing]

CHRIS HOWDEN: This Fall, about 70 Palestinian students could be studying at Canadian universities. But right now, they're trapped where they are, in Gaza, the West Bank, or other countries in the region. They've been accepted to their programs in Canada, some with full scholarships, but they're stuck in a catch-22. They can't go anywhere until they get their visas from the Canadian government, but Canadian immigration has no presence on the ground in the war zone of Gaza. So, officials can't collect the photographs and fingerprints needed to issue the security clearances the students need to get their visas. And the clock is ticking. Not only do they face losing their university spots if they miss the acceptance deadlines, but at least two prospective students have been killed in Gaza while waiting in this limbo. They were friends of Mira, a Palestinian student who was accepted to a master's program at the University of Regina. But a full year after her acceptance, she still has no student visa in hand. We're not using her full name due to concerns for her safety. We reached Mira in Gaza City.

NIL KOKSAL: Mira, what is the latest the Canadian government has told you about your visa application?

MIRA: [Inaudible] My visa application in July 2024 [NIL KOKSAL: Yeah], but actually it's still in hold right now, and we also haven't received any clear update from the immigration department regarding our cases.

NIL KOKSAL: You haven't been able to get in touch with them at all?

MIRA: No, no, everything is still in hold and there is no update from them. It's not clear why we didn't receive any kind of support from them and now, we are at risk of losing this opportunity completely. Meanwhile, I have friends who got accepted from other scholarships from other countries like Ireland, France, and Italy, they have received actively supported from their countries and now, they started studies.

NIL KOKSAL: What is the emotion that you feel when you when you are constantly checking you can't get answers but as you say your friends are already doing what you have the opportunity to do, what you dream of doing. What does that feel like for you?

MIRA: It gives me the feeling of depression. The opportunity that I get in a very hard condition. And I remember when I applied to this chance, I was living in a tent in that time in Rafah in extremely hard condition, it was in December 2023. And like, I had to walk, like, 500 metres just to connect for the internet. And this did not stop me dreaming. And when I received acceptance from the University of Regina, it was like a sense of hope after so much suffering. It feels to me that there is something that I'm waiting for and despite the war and sound of bombing and sound of shelling and all people that we are losing every day, Mira, she has a dream and she has sense of hope and she's waiting, but it seems that this hope is disappear by time because it's now, it's one year, and I supposed to start my studies in September 2024. But it's almost one year now, and there is nothing have it changed. I'm still in Gaza. I'm in still facing death and bombing and shelling and also, we already lost two of our colleagues, Sally and Dalia, who got accepted in the University of Waterloo to start their degree and they were like full of dream and love and joy, and they were killed by Israel strike in December with their family with no reasons, and for me and I'm talking on behalf of many students we don't want to be counted among the dead. We deserve a better life and a better future.

NIL KOKSAL: And what are you doing to try to stay safe in Gaza right now, knowing what is happening around you, what happened to Sally and Dalia, your friends?

MIRA: Because there is no safe place. No safe place, they are targeting and bombing, very crowded. And every day I'm facing the risk of being killed because Israeli strike are targeting everything. They are targeting homes, streets, schools, universities. You cannot be safe.

NIL KOKSAL: We know that there's support from academics, from professors trying to get you and others to the programs that you have spaces in, trying to you get to safety. What if anything is the university telling you as you wait?

MIRA: Actually, we know that we are receiving support from... Many Canadian professors and universities, and this has meant so much to us, but there is a gap between the support that they are trying to provide and real hope on the ground because they are doing so much effort, but it seems that the decision-makers are not like taking action. We want to be treated as other students who are at risk. Why we are not receiving this? Why the decision-makers and immigration ministers and the Prime Minister are not taking action? Why they are not trying to do anything?

NIL KOKSAL: You mentioned you got into this program, working in a tent in Rafah. Now, [MIRA: Yeah] all this time later, as you keep waiting, what was your dream for this degree? What would this master's degree allow you to do?

MIRA: Yeah, I have accepted into, to start my master's degree in the field of industrial engineering, like the field that I have dreamed to continue my studies in, and I selected Canada because it's globally respected for its high-quality education [inaudible], and diverse and inclusive society, and also, they are, we know that Canada, one of the countries that is welcoming international students and fostering multicultural understanding. I selected this because I have a dream and a goal to return bank one day to Gaza and contribute to rebuild its education academic system and as the result of the war that all of our universities have been destroyed, and many of our academic professors have been killed. This is why I have a dream to continue my studies and not only get my Master's Degree but also a Ph.D. Degree and one day to return back and contribute to rebuild academic system.

NIL KOKSAL: Mira, I hope you get answers soon. Please stay safe and thank you for this.

MIRA: Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to not only talking about myself, but talking on behalf of many students who are still waiting and still trapped with their dreams in Gaza. Thank you for this chance.

CHRIS HOWDEN: We reached Mira in Gaza City. We're not identifying her by her full name due to safety concerns. We contacted Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, for comment, and in an e-mail response, a spokesperson wrote, quote, "Movement out of Gaza remains extremely challenging and may not be possible at this time, as countries and other actors set their own entry and exit requirements. Biometrics can only be completed after people leave Gaza, as IRCC has no presence there. This continues to be the primary issue in how quickly we can process applications from people in Gaza. The Government of Canada continues to engage with diplomatic counterparts at all levels to advocate for the safety of those affected and to facilitate their exit from Gaza," unquote.

[Acoustic guitar music playing]

CHRIS HOWDEN: Like human parents, cowbirds outsource their childcare to nannies. Unlike human parents, the nannies are not given any choice in the matter. The brood parasites, as they're lovingly known, don't raise their own young. Instead, they lay their eggs in the nests of other species. That's a move that saves them all the time and energy that goes into child rearing. But unlike other birds, cowbird chicks don't grow up to have a strong attachment to their host parents. And now, a new study is providing insight into how they reconnect with their flock as they mature. Mac Chamberlain is a Ph.D student at the University of Illinois and the lead author of the study. We reached him in Urbana, Illinois.

NIL KOKSAL: Mac, these birds don't get attached to their host parents. What's going on?

MAC CHAMBERLAIN: No, they don't, which is very surprising and unique among songbirds. Most songbirds would get attached and would grow up to believe they're that songbird. So, if I put one warbler in a different warbler's nest, it will believe it's that second warbler species when it grows up. So, it will sing those songs, mate with those types of birds, or at least try to. But yeah, cowbirds are able to avoid this somehow, so we're unsure on the mechanism on how they avoid that, but it's very clear that at a certain age, they get very tired of their host parents and they want to get out of town.

NIL KOKSAL: How do they make that clear?

MAC CHAMBERLAIN: We've hand reared birds here in our lab. I haven't personally, but other lab mates of mine have. And even just in the hand, it's very clear that cowbirds versus other birds, other songbirds, if you rear them, if you raise them in a lab, they get very attached to you. They imprint on you. But cowbirds, they don't want anything to do with you. There's a lot of avoidance, and they stop begging from you for sure. And... When, if we think about wildlife, a cowbird, when they start looking like cowbirds, they're going to start getting a lot of aggression from other bird species, just in general. Because there's a lot birds out there who don't like cow birds, and they attack them on sight.

NIL KOKSAL: And that sort of gets to what I wanted to ask you next. It's important that they find other cowbirds, a flock and there's a pretty tight timeframe on that.

MAC CHAMBERLAIN: Yes, so they, we don't know exactly when it happens, but we know that they leave their host parents around a month after leaving the nest, and then, they need to at least find some adults before the end of the summer, before around August time, because they need to migrate south. They need to start grouping up with adults and migrating south, and even within that time, the sooner it happens the better, because there's a lot of learning that happens, so the earlier that happens the better.

NIL KOKSAL: Your work looked at how this reunification happens. And there was a prevailing theory, at least since 1995, about reconnecting with their parents in particular, not just the general flock, right?

MAC CHAMBERLAIN: Yes. So, in 1995, there was a paper by Hans and Fleischer, which their, what they found evidence for was that juveniles who were caught with adults were more likely to be caught with adults that were related to them. So, the idea here is that these adults, because it's so beneficial to have your kid have these experiences early on, these adult cowbirds, we thought might be seeking out their own children to kind of give them a leg up on the other cowbird kids to make them the best cowbird possible. But what we found in our study was we found no evidence of this happening. We found that the adult cowbirds caught with our juvenile cowbirds were not related to our juveniles. And then, when we did catch adults of our juveniles, they were, it was at a completely different time and in a different area than where we caught the juveniles, so we found no evidence that these juveniles were associating with their parents.

NIL KOKSAL: When you did that genetic testing to figure that out, I mean, what are those moments like in the lab?

MAC CHAMBERLAIN: It's a lot of pipetting from one vial into the next into the next into the next. But yeah, it's a lot of hurry up and wait. It's like the way that I like to think of it. We collect all of our samples during, you know, a very short couple of months, and it's, it's go time, go time, go time. And then, we have, you know, nine more months to process 100 samples and then, send them off and wait to get the results back and then, stare at them on a screen for a while. So yeah, the going in the field is definitely the fun part being in the lab it's just kind of extra leg work afterwards.

NIL KOKSAL: And is it, from what you saw, I mean, do you believe it's random?

MAC CHAMBERLAIN: Um, I, I do, I do believe that I think it might be area dependent, where this first study was done. It was on the east coast and the habitat there is very different than the habitat here in illinois and very central to the United States. And we have a lot of corn fields, a lot of agriculture, a lot of like grassland. And in this area, we have a very dense cowbird population, and some early evidence is showing that cowbirds in this area have a really hard time defending territories. Whereas on the East Coast, cowbirds defend breeding territories very easily. So, I think when these juveniles, if you're on the East Coast and you're in an area that there's only really one breeding female cowbird, if you bump into a female cow bird, it's likely going to be your mom. Whereas if you're an area here where there's tons of female cowbirds and they're all mixed together and there's no defined territories, if you bump into a cowbird on a random chance, it's likely not going to be your parent. So I do think there's a lot of randomness going on in this, of this community raising the child together.

NIL KOKSAL: So, what do you take away from all of this in terms of family structure for birds like these ones?

MAC CHAMBERLAIN: Well, that's a really good, I really like the way you phrased that question because birds like these ones. The, the reason why cowbirds are so interesting to study and really like light a fire underneath me is because there aren't a lot of birds like these ones. Brood parasites in general make up less than 1 per cent of all birds. So, studying this type of, like you said, this family structure, this reproductive strategy, this whole way of living and growing and having a family and having kids and a generational succession of social behaviours, this whole concept completely gets flipped upside down when you take out the variable of a nest family, and you have these, all these new strategies and all these behaviors and all this new concepts that come up when you study these like really kind of upside down-backwards mating structures. So, I think it's very interesting. It's very cool and it's, it's very novel, I think, compared to other birds.

NIL KOKSAL: Thank you for this Mac, I appreciate it.

MAC CHAMBERLAIN: Yeah, of course. Thank you for having me. This has been a great talk.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Mac Chamberlain is a Ph.D. Student at the University of Illinois. We reached him in Urbana, Illinois.

[Upbeat music playing]

CHRIS HOWDEN: Welcome back to class everyone. Please open your textbooks to chapter 47 and we'll begin. What is a hamster? Well, scientifically, it's a member of the family Chrysetidae. Yes, yes Alan, that family does include voles. Thank you for asking. But what kind of hamster is your pet hamster? Well, there are four possibilities. It's either a golden or Syrian hamster, a winter white dwarf hamster, a Campbell's Dwarf hamster or of course, the inimitable Robarovsky hamster. You've likely noticed their capacious cheeks which they use to gather food while foraging. In fact, their name comes from the German word hamstern which means too for it. Can I offer anyone a lozenge? [Coughing sounds] We've all been there either, as the coughers or the coughees sitting in a lecture or a meeting that's punctuated by surreptitious sniffs and nose blowing, or just straight up unapologetic hacking. That was distracting before COVID showed up. Now, it's exponentially more distracting, not just because of the sounds, but because of what the sounds are warning us about. Well, a new study entitled pathogen prevalent auditory distractions may differentially impact retention of newly learned information has concluded it's pretty much all in the title there. After running some tests, the researchers found that sounds connected with illness make it harder for us to absorb new facts. As lead author Kerry J. Fitzgerald told SciPost, quote, "Students may be better able to ignore distracting sounds that are neutral compared to distracting sounds, that are indicative of pathogens," unquote. I'm pretty sure none of us would pass a pop quiz on hamsters right now, thus proving that conclusion. And if you've got a rebuttal, cough it up.

[Upbeat hip hop music playing]

CHRIS HOWDEN: Donald Trump got his 4th of July wish today, and was able to sign his One Big, Beautiful Bill Act into law at a military picnic complete with a fighter jet flyover. But the passage of the landmark legislation has many Americans feeling far from patriotic, disability advocates among them. For weeks, people with disabilities have been at the forefront of protests over the bill, including some wheelchair users whose wrists were zip tied during demonstrations on Capitol Hill. But their pleas against its promised cuts to Medicaid were not enough to stop the Republican-controlled House and Senate from sending the legislation to the President's desk. And now, they're fearful about what the future holds. Wes Holloway is an artist and teacher who was paralyzed from the shoulders down in an accident and relies on a Medicaid waiver for in-home care. We reached him in Washington, DC.

NIL KOKSAL: Wes, this, of course, is a day where many Americans are celebrating. How about you?

WES HOLLOWAY: I'm trudging along, trying to keep my mind both actively engaged, but also trying to be with community and friends and family as well. I don't know if I've slept very much in the past few days.

NIL KOKSAL: Just give our listeners a sense of the kind of care the Medicaid waiver you have right now helps you get.

WES HOLLOWAY: So, I require quite a bit of care from caregivers to come in and help me get up out of bed, help me get dressed, help me do my bathing. So, the waiver basically keeps those services going in home, in my apartment, rather than being in a nursing home or hospital.

NIL KOKSAL: So, losing that home care that you have access to, would that automatically mean that you wouldn't be able to live there anymore? You'd have to go into a facility?

WES HOLLOWAY: Absolutely. The kind of nursing care that I would need would only be available in a nursing home or, like I said, some sort of group home or care facility where that would be possible.

NIL KOKSAL: What did it take to get the waiver you have right now in the first place?

WES HOLLOWAY: Um, well, I moved to DC from Texas and of course being Medicaid being a kind of state-based system, it's not like you can just carry over, you have to reapply. And so from that, getting the waiver actually took a year. So, for that year, my family and myself were paying out of pocket for my caregiver support and I had to kind of make that decision of getting less hours so that I could afford it. So, the bare bones minimum of what I could get by and the caregivers that I had found were such great dependable people that I couldn't again risk losing them and going to an agency because they didn't want to work for an agency. So, they were flexible enough with and they were willing to in the interim, like work for less and work for less hours. Even for that full year.

NIL KOKSAL: It's, it's such a, it's such an important relationship, an intimate relationship. I mean, they're part of your family in your home in a, in a way, when we're talking about connections and the trust you have to build. Um, as you know, the bill requires able-bodied adults to work a minimum of 80 hours a month to be eligible for Medicaid and brings in more frequent eligibility checks for all Medicaid recipients. So, why are you convinced, Wes, that it's going to end up meating cuts to coverage for people with disabilities?

WES HOLLOWAY: The home-based community services are always the first to go when it comes to any Medicaid cuts in any state, even though we know from past experience that it is actually more financially feasible to keep us in the community with community-based care than put us in institutions. Lawmakers always kind of go that route, I think, because it's the easiest to say. I think also, it's beneficial politically because if we're shut away in institutions, we don't have the voice to say what's happening to us. With, when it comes to work requirements, for someone like me even, I'm a teacher and I work the school year, right? So, the summer months where I'm not working, it could automatically kick me off my Medicaid because showing that I'm quote unquote, "unemployed." And the fact that the more that we are like, reporting our disability. My disability is not going anywhere. You know, I've been paralyzed for over 22 years, so they're still, if they're requiring these quote-unquote "check-ins," it just gives more opportunity for people to fall through the cracks. And the quote-unquote, "Cost- saving" is people getting kicked off. And if this is happening to 17 million people and America, and our only option is to go to nursing homes, the bottleneck of people trying to get beds will be so insane that that will become not an option either, and people will just be dying.

NIL KOKSAL: There are those, you know, in the U.S. who hear things such as work requirements and they think that that doesn't sound unreasonable, particularly if it means tax cuts for them that will help them. What would you want to say to them?

WES HOLLOWAY: Basically, we're all just one accident or injury or unforeseen illness away from becoming disabled. It takes one moment to your, for your life to change. And then, these services are absolutely necessary. So, if you don't have relationships or the resources, you are literally have no other options.

NIL KOKSAL: There is some time before these, these cuts take effect. The end of 2026 is when they're supposed to begin, and they are set to roll out over a span of 10 years. What kind of contingency plans are you making, Wes?

WES HOLLOWAY: Right now, it's a lot of community building, making sure that I'm seen and heard, speaking with representatives, trying to keep my eye on the ball, but also speak up for the people that can't. And also just some self-care and finding respite and [NIL KOKSAL: Yeah] what what I can and cannot control.

NIL KOKSAL: Wes, I'm really glad we could speak today. Thank you for this.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Wes Holloway is an artist, teacher, and disability advocate in Washington, DC. That's where we reached him.

[Upbeat chiming music]

CHRIS HOWDEN: Olivia Tremblay will be representing Toronto on the world stage because she represented Toronto in LEGO. Nine-year-old Olivia's baseball-themed recreation of the city of Toronto earned her the title of Mini Master Model Builder at a local LEGO competition last week. Now, her work is headed to Denmark to go on display at LEGO headquarters where it will be judged against other displays as part of the Global Model Builder competition. It's the first time ever that a child's model has been part of that competition. Ms. Tremblay told the CBC what her Toronto Lego masterpiece is all about.

OLIVIA TREMBLAY: In the left corner, I built like a mini baseball diamond with the Blue Jays playing like a baseball game. Then there's a big Blue Jay that's blasting off from the baseball field. And behind that Blue Jay, there's big baseball glove that's sort of buried in the ground. And beside that glove, there is like a model of a person but made out of Lego that's like, um, about three inches big.

JILL DEMPSEY: You know what I think is really cool is that you are able to recreate the CN tower.

OLIVIA TREMBLAY: It was really cool, and that's the first thing we worked on because we wanted to get like, the hardest stuff done first, and that took most of the bricks up also.

JILL DEMPSEY: You have a lot of landmarks, but there's also personal things that you've built into this. What were those personal things?

OLIVIA TREMBLAY: So, behind the glove on the other side, there's like my dog. His name is Benny. And inside the Rogers Centre, there's my family on the four bases. I just feel like they need a place in history.

JILL DEMPSEY: You may have to act as a tutor for some of the adults who want to build like a...

OLIVIA TREMBLAY: I'll think about that.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Olivia Tremblay speaking to Jill Dempsey, guest host of Metro Morning yesterday.

[Upbeat funk music playing]

CHRIS HOWDEN: Jonathan Toews is going home to Winnipeg. This week, the three-time Stanley Cup champion and former captain of Chicago's NHL team officially signed with the Winnipeg Jets. That's a huge deal for Jets fans and for Mr. Toews, who was born in Winnipeg, but has been playing for Chicago his entire career. It's also a big deal because when he comes back, the 37-year-old will be making a comeback. He stopped playing in early 2023 because he was dealing with chronic inflammatory response syndrome and symptoms of long COVID. At a press conference today, Jonathan Toews talked about what this new beginning means to him.

JONATHAN TOEWS: All the memories flooded back from my childhood of just why and when I fell in love with the game of hockey. And it really all started by being a young kid going out to the Winnipeg Arena and watching games and just being in that atmosphere. And it's just surreal to be sitting here right now putting this jersey on. It's that new feeling like you're getting drafted again. You're a young kid. So, there's definitely that excitement. That's something I'm really looking forward to, and... I think as you grow as a person, you kind of take a little bit with you everywhere you go, but there's parts of you that'll never change and I'll always be a Winnipegger through and through, and it's a dream come true to come back and play in front of my friends and family. And it's an honor and, you know, as some of you may know now, I've been outspoken a little about some of the things I've done off the ice to try and heal and get healthy again. I think as hockey players, we've all had very structured routine lives since, you know, we're young kids, and all of a sudden I didn't have that, so that was kind of a challenge in itself. But I'd say probably as the year went along, I got stronger every month, and I was working out, taking care of myself, but also just enjoying life, and let's say these last five or six months, things have really trended in a direction since I started skating back in February and March. Those were the moments where I'm like, okay, still got the hands. The hands are still there. The feet will catch up, and things have slowly gotten better since then. So, that in itself has really reinforced this positive cycle in a way too, so...

CHRIS HOWDEN: Winnipeg Jets player Jonathan Toews speaking at a press conference in Winnipeg today.

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CHRIS HOWDEN: For decades, the water that came out of the tap in Wabana on Newfoundland and Labrador's Bell Island wasn't just undrinkable, it was the color of motor oil. The water has been a huge problem in the town for a generation. It's full of contaminants like arsenic, manganese, and iron, meaning most people haven't been able to drink their tap water for years. But that has finally changed. On Wednesday night, the town announced that phase three of a water system upgrade is complete, meaning part of the community now officially has drinking water. Teresita McCarthy lives on Wabana. She's the Executive Director of the No. 2 Mine Tour and Museum. We reached her on Belle Island.

NIL KOKSAL: Teresita, I'm trying to imagine what it was like on Wednesday when everyone finally got this news. How did people react?

TERESITA McCARTHY: The round of applause was incredible. I felt like breaking out into song and singing, 'Amen,' but I certainly wanted to. But you know, you have to envision living in a community that has had a boil water advisory for about five decades. And so, you know, at the end of the day, to get information like that, they can now turn on their taps and get a drink or turn on their tap and wash their clothing without worry about the water getting dirty and their clothes getting spoiled. There's a whole [inaudible]/

NIL KOKSAL: What will, what will this news, this change mean for you personally? Is your home going to get water soon?

TERESITA McCARTHY: No. So personally in my home, nothing has changed. And you might say, oh my, that's tragic. But it isn't, because for 35 years probably, my husband has been bringing water to the house. And we've been buying bottled water. So, nothing in my house has changed, and luckily we don't have dirty water the same as in other areas of the town. In other areas of the town, when they turn on their bathtub, the water looks like Coca-Cola. [NIL KOKSAL: Oh my]. So, they stopped buying white sheets or white clothing. We just have the boil water advisory because the water isn't safe to drink. So, for us, nothing has changed. For the Museum and Mine Tour, it's a red letter day [NIL KOKSAL: Yeah], because the [inaudible] Jackie has to bring in large bottles, five-gallon bottles of water in order to... Of coffee and tea and make breakfast and any other thing that requires water has to be bought in.

NIL KOKSAL: It's really going to be life-changing for everyone who has it in their home now, this clean water. How long before you think you'll get to make the switch?

TERESITA McCARTHY: Well, you have to remember we live in Newfoundland and Labrador. Our spring is short and so is our summer. So, you know, we start to get a bit of frost in late fall and then, of course, we're into the winter months. They can't do anything about infrastructure if the ground is frozen. So, we'll be very fortunate if the upgrades start in the fall of the year and then, maybe stop and then, resume in the spring. Do I know that for a fact? No. Was there a timeline given? No. Am I anticipating a shorter turnaround? Not necessarily, but certainly as my poor mother, God rest her soul, would say, I'm living in hope and dying in despair.

NIL KOKSAL: Well, the mayor told our CBC News colleague, Teresita, and you likely know this already, that about $7 million has been spent on these repairs, provincial and federal government funding mostly, yeah, in that $7 million. Still a ways [TERESITA McCARTHY: Yeah] to go, as you well know. Why has it taken so long?

TERESITA McCARTHY: Well, that is a $50 million dollar question really. Something that I can't answer with any degree of certainty. I will tell you that I served on council from 2014 until 2017. I know during that time, the town consultant and the town were working at a fever pitch pace to try to get something done, and we were able to garner some funds to do it, but it didn't get started until probably 2018 or 2019 when we were no longer in power. These things take a long time. Bureaucracy moves at a very slow pace. So, I do believe that the reason why it took so long is because... It just took so long. It was as simple as that. It's a long process.

NIL KOKSAL: It is, it is. And we've certainly heard of these kinds of situations, maybe not 50 years, 50 year situations, but elsewhere across the country. Perhaps it shouldn't [TERESITA McCARTHY: Yup] take so long, but are you just a very patient person, or you've just been accustomed, you've become accustomed to this reality, Teresita?

TERESITA McCARTHY: You've read my mind because the Bell Island people are so used to this environment where we have no drinking water available and we have been patient people and we've been told they're working on it, and we're been told that for 30 plus years. So, yes, my dear, we are patient people, and we do realize it does take time. But you know what? There's light at the end of the tunnel. And that's why I feel like breaking out into a song [NIL KOKSAL: Yeah] because I know, even if it's in a year, even if it's in two years, we know that in the immediate future, we will have drinking water.

NIL KOKSAL: In all of those decades, you never thought about leaving Bell Island.

TERESITA McCARTHY: Bell Island is an incredibly beautiful place. The people are incredibly kind. The vistas, the landscape, the flora, the fauna, the history is indescribable, unbeatable. So why would you leave a piece of Heaven because you can't get a drink of water when you can find your way around it?

NIL KOKSAL: Teresita, it's been a pleasure. Thank you.

TERESITA McCARTHY: Thank you, my dear.

CHRIS HOWDEN: Teresita McCarthy lives in Wabana on Bell Island in Newfoundland and Labrador. That's where we reached her.

[Music : Outro]

CHRIS HOWDEN: You've been listening to As It Happens on the CBC Listen app. Our show can be heard Monday to Friday on CBC Radio One after Your World Tonight.

NIL KOKSAL: And you can always read more about the stories and conversations we feature on As It Happens on our website, cbc.ca/aih. I'm Nil Koksal.

CHRIS HOWDEN: And I'm Chris Howden.

The AIH Transcript For July 04, 2025

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