D-Day, 70 years later - Michael's essay; Erasing Tiananmen; Lifelines - Hugh Segal; Do What You Love; Mail about The Novel Cure; How We View Animals; Richard Ford; Losing Jack MacAndrew
This week on The Sunday Edition for June 1, 2014....
This week on The Sunday Edition for June 1, 2014.
D-Day, 70 years later - Michael's essay: (20 secs) The almost celebratory atmosphere around an anniversary that commemorates the deaths of thousands is a public-relations ploy that dishonours their memory.
Erasing Tiananmen: (5:20) On the 25th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square, Michael speaks with Rowena Xiaoqing He about the successful campaign by Chinese authorities to rewrite this horrifying chapter in their country's history. Rowena Xiaoqing He was a student in China 1989, who now lectures at Harvard. Her new book is Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China.
Life Lines: (28:13) Senator and soon-to-be Master of Massey College Hugh Segal, on why Rudyard Kipling's poem If, has been important in his life ever since he first heard it in grade six -- part of our occasional series about poetry called Life Lines.
Do What You Love: (41:37) In this season of inspirational commencement addresses, the mantra, DWYL - "Do What You Love", is everywhere. The writer Miya Tokumitsu thinks it's a dangerous message that disguises elitism as noble self-betterment, and distracts us from caring about people who just have to work, in lousy conditions for low pay, to put food on the table.
Mail: (1:04:30) A listener writes to us about our interview with the authors of The Novel Cure, An A-Z of Literary Remedies.
How we view animals: (1:06:54) The intensification of farm animal production has happened at warp speed, and mostly out of sight. But gradually, we are becoming aware of the brutality of so-called factory farming, and the suffering it inflicts on animals. Michael talks to David Fraser of UBC's Animal Welfare Program, about the changes he has observed over his 40-year career in the way humans consider animals.
Richard Ford: (1:30:04) The award-winning American novelist Richard Ford has a passion, bordering on an obsession, for Canada. In fact, his latest novel is called simply that -- Canada. Michael spoke to Richard Ford recently on-stage at the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival in Montreal.
Farewell to Jack: (2:09:28) Canada has lost several giants in the fields of journalism and the arts recently; Knowlton Nash, Farley Mowat, Alistair MacLeod and Mavis Gallant have been remembered and honoured, from coast to coast. Jack MacAndrew, who died last week, may have been less well-known across the country, but he was a household name in the Maritimes, and he was a friend and colleague to many of us here at the CBC. In tribute to Jack, we re-broadcast an essay he wrote in 1986 about his decision to move back home, to Prince Edward Island.