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The Current Transcript for June 29, 2021

Host: Matt Galloway

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

[Music: Theme]

SOUNDCLIP

They don't have air conditioning there, so we couldn't stay outside for longer, just a fan. I didn't have so many things because you are not used to live this way. Right. It's something really new for us.

MATT GALLOWAY: Summer's just started, but already it is a scorcher as Vancouver, much of the West and parts of Ontario bake and people warn that this is just a sign of temperatures to come. We'll hear how designers are figuring out strategies to cope with the heat of the near future. That's coming up in an hour. Also this morning, the vaccines are flowing in Canada. Many of us are already gotten our second dose. Not everyone is so lucky, though. In 30 minutes, a trip around the world to countries where people are asking why we are vaccinating teens while they are still struggling for shots. Plus.

SOUNDCLIP

Hello. My name is Sous Sous. I'm 10 years old. I see myself walking down the runway on ripple strike marks, and then of course winning.

MG: Did you pick up a new hobby in the pandemic? 10 year old Ozzy did a drag queen persona called Sous Sous. Ozzy story. And it's a great one. Coming up. We start, though, with an inspired answer to the question, what do you do with the sights of former residential schools? Good morning. I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current.

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Beaten for speaking Blackfoot at residential school, this Siksika woman now teaches it in the same building

Guests: Viviane Ayoungman, Angeline Ayoungman

MG: Old Sun Community College in southern Alberta celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year, an anniversary all the more notable because of its beginnings. The building started out as the Old Sun Residential School. Its only one of fewer than 20 residential school buildings left standing in Canada. But instead of demolishing it, the first nation reclaimed it to educate their people on their own terms, creating a college for adult learners to take upgrading and post-secondary courses and to study six culture. Vivian, Ayoungman, is an instructor and the coordinator of the Siksika Research and Development Department at the college. She has vivid memories of the institution's past. She was seven years old in 1954 when she, along with her brothers and sisters, were forced to go to the Old Son residential school. She shared her story during a tour and a speech at the college's year end ceremony.

SOUNDCLIP

PRESENTER: A nice round of applause to Dr. Vivian Ayoungman.

VIVIAN AYOUNGMAN: [Indiginous speech] I bring you greetings, heartfelt greetings. This morning, I very purposely started my greetings in our beloved Siksika language, and I'm wearing my women's [unintelligible], the women straight up headdress. I have the full transfer rights, ceremonial rights to wear this headdress. I'm wearing my outfit for the many that were stripped away from who we are supposed to be as indigenous people.

[Sound: Door opens]

VIVIAN AYOUNGMAN: I was recruited here in 2010, I was retired from my job as treaty director of education, and my condition for working here on accepting the job was to be able to work with ceremonial knowledge keepers, because by then I knew that they were the ones that knew our roots and our history. And so I worked with a team of ceremonial knowledge keepers and it has been a hoot. It has been really wonderful working with them because I quickly learnt that I was hanging by a thread emotionally, mentally, spiritually, everything, because I did not know my roots or was disconnected, very disconnected as to who I was supposed to be as a Siksika woman. Let me give you a little bit of my background. I came to school here at the residential school at the age of seven. I didn't speak a word of English. And and I came to school... Every single one of us went through these atrocities. We didn't get to be happy. Fun-Loving giggling mischievous little brats. We became, some became institutionalised, quiet, obedient robots. I was one of them. I had to live in this place for nine years and the first six years I had to go to school here. And then the next experiment came along. I guess they weren't taking the Indian out of us fast enough. They started bussing us off the reserve and I got bussed of to Gleason's school. You know, the punishment that we endured was horrendous. We got the strap. Our parents were threatened with jail if we were truant, if we didn't come back. So my first day of school, we had to put all our stuff in a sack and then it was locked in the closet. And we got our standard issue of school uniforms that we had to wear. And later on in life, I began to think it was almost as if they told us, put everything you brought from home into this sack; your clothing, your language, your culture, your family affiliation. Tie it in that sack and throw it in the closet and we'll lock it up until you're ready to go home.

[Sound: Footsteps]

VIVIAN AYOUNGMAN: We're on the girls side. We're going downstairs to the prayer room and the cafeteria. So this room is used to be the girl's playroom right now, there's a lot of desks and so on, but this is- I do have a story about this room. I was seven years old and we were playing troll. We were jumping back and all the girls were in the game. If you got tagged, you became a troll. And we were really screaming and having fun. And my cousin was going to get tagged. And I said, [Indiginous speech], that means look out. All of a sudden, the whistle blew. We all stopped. We all stood straight because that's what we're supposed to do when you hear the whistle. So we knew somebody was in trouble and the supervisor came right towards me, grabbed me, shook me because I spoke Blackfoot. So I got sent to the principal's office. I went upstairs, I got strapped on the hands. And when I came back down, I was really crying and all the students were in a straight line. They couldn't play anymore. Group punishment, because somebody spoke Blackfoot. And I was standing up here at the front and the supervisor was telling everybody, this is what happens to you when you speak your language. I was teaching a Blackfoot language class in here, and I told the story to my students. And all of a sudden my students were cheering, clapping, and they said they didn't beat it out of you. Yay! You were so resilient. We're so thankful now you're teaching it to us. And I thought, oh, my gosh, you know, I never even thought of it that way. So a good testament to what we're doing here. We're trying to do it here. And the irony of it is that there was so much pride. And the very same people who were doing all of these atrocities to our people were forcing us to pray. How many times a day? Well, from the time we get up, we pray. We have breakfast, we pray before we eat. Then we all have to go to the chapel and pray. At supper time, we prayed. And we went for evening service. It was prayer, prayer, prayer, but just words.

[Sound: Footsteps]

VIVIAN AYOUNGMAN: We're going to is now a staff lounge area, but way back in the day of residential school, it was what would we call it, Angie? I think they call it the infirmary. But one day I was with my colleagues and we came in here and here my colleague said, oh, I'll never forget the day I came in here with your mom and she told us about how she had to spend almost a year in here because she was a TB suspect. I was totally surprised because I never even knew my mom was isolated in here. Yes, she did spend the year. She never, ever talked about it. This is my youngest sister, Angeline. [Indigenous speech], and I brought her along because I when I knew I had to talk about residential school, I, I got very emotional as soon as I woke up. Like when I asked her, can you come and join me? I couldn't even get the words out. And so I asked her, can you come and just be by my side in case I fall apart? Yeah. So this Angie. She's my emotional support and my little sister. Yeah.

ANGIE: There's 10 of us in our family and seven of us came here, and because we're- since the boys and girls are separated and then there's the junior girls and senior dorms and we never spend time as a family, we had to stay with our group.

VIVIAN AYOUNGMAN: Like she was in a different grade and I was in a different grade.

ANGIE: And, you know, when we're going to our classrooms, you know, we're all lining up and we go. And that's about the only time sometimes I see my siblings and I can't even talk to them or even smile at them or else you get punished. And but I was always so happy to see my older siblings, even just in the hallway and in the dining room because we all ate in the dining room. I was always so happy to see them, but couldn't even talk to them.

VIVIAN AYOUNGMAN: In the dining room. We couldn't even talk. Both of my parents also came to school here. She hardly ever talked about it. No, they never, ever really talked about it. Like none of us ever really talked about our residential school experience. So now we're going to the adult literacy classroom, the adult learners that are coming back just starting on their adult learning journey. So this is a literacy classroom and it's half of what was the girls dormitory. And there were rows and rows of cots. And I remember those girls used to stand at the window and put their face against the window and look out to try and see their house to see if they could see their parents. So it was like a prison. There are days when I get really angry about how we were ripped away from our parents. I think about how I was cheated of knowing the things I'm supposed to know because I was in this place. So really, really many bad memories and anger. But learning from our knowledge keepers who know these roots that are embedded in our ceremony, in our total being, I'm not as angry anymore because I think to myself, I always thought that knowledge was gone forever. I would say that working in developing this curriculum, implementing it, sitting through the courses myself, it has been, yes, a really healing journey for me.

[Applause]

[Indigenous speech]

VIVIAN AYOUNGMAN: Today is the student recognition day, but they added on a commemoration of all students who ever attended residential any residential school, and especially to acknowledge those graves, those unmarked graves that have been found. The balloons. We encourage you to send positive healing thoughts to all of the children that we found. All the children that will be found, all of those children that attended residential schools. This is for you.

[Sound: Wind]

VIVIAN AYOUNGMAN: Looking at that, it's such a beautiful, beautiful sight, but it also brings about a lot of mixed emotions for everyone here. None of us are surprised about all of these discoveries. You know, the 750 new ones that they identified in Saskatchewan and more to come. Very, very sad. And when I first heard about the Kamloops discovery, I was really upset. It's been said. It's been said and no one believed it. And then right away, I was thinking, there we go again. Everyone else out there is going to be lining up to fix things for us. No, it's got to go to the First Nations people themselves, to the communities themselves to decide exactly what it is they need to do. I know that a lot of people are eager for people to go out and do the ground sensing here at Siksika, with with all of these discoveries going on, I deferred to the tribe. I think it's got to be led and coordinated by our tribe, which they are on top of. They've talked to archaeologists that will be going out and starting next week. I do not know of any unmarked graves. I've heard stories, but I've known of students who did pass away. There were three girls that ran away from school and there was a blizzard and they froze. Two of them froze. So those I personally knew. There were others who were sick that passed away, but not like overwhelming numbers. So I know that there were students that didn't make it home. I always make claims every single space, like the dormitories, are divided into two classrooms, the girls dormitory, the top floor is the licenced practical nurse programme. This room was the supervisors. I don't really know why our leadership decided to repurpose this place as an adult learning centre when people are so traumatised to come here. I know over the years a lot of people have said I cannot set foot in that place. And a lot of people will say regardless of how much it's renovated, I can still hear the sounds, smell the smells, hear the footsteps, you know, those kinds of things. For me, when I ended up coming back here, I was really focussed on the educational journey of people, of making lives better. And I've always thought that our our leadership were really wise to turn the building into something more constructive. And our late president always used to say, you know, it's not the building, it's the people who were in the building. And then another person up north had said, you know, our elders tell us where they took your language away, that's where you have to go to get it back. You know, so there's different thoughts about these buildings. Today, what we say is, well, if it took them to find all these graves, to believe that we didn't fabricate this, it's more important for the few buildings that remain standing to stay standing as a testament to what really happened to us. So when people, I've read lots of social media, there have been people that said, why don't you just burn the place down, blow them up? I say, no, we have to keep the evidence. Olsun Community College. This building was constructed in 1929 and shut its doors in 1969. So 40 years as a residential school. And it opened as the Old Sun Adult Learning Centre in 1971. And this September 2021, it will have been a post-secondary institution of the tribe for 50 years. So we've been post-secondary institution of the tribe longer than it was a residential school. Ironically, we've been undoing what this place tried to do as a residential school. We've been teaching our language. We're reconnecting our students and our students are so grateful. And it gives me hope that our people are, not are only learning skills and tools to live in the current day and age, but to also know who they are as Siksika people. So that's what gives me hope, because we went through generations of people who didn't have the opportunity.

[Applause]

VIVIAN AYOUNGMAN: So to the young people, my message is embrace who you are, learn. Don't let them win and beat the Indian out of us. Commit to learning your language, commit to understanding more about ourselves. We were so brainwashed that so many of our people are afraid of our ways. They're scared of our ways. They're sceptical. There's no scepticism there. It's a beautiful life. It's a loving life. So I hope I have given you something to think about today. And I hope I've given a little bit of hope on the path we're on because we're resilient. We're going to bounce back. Yes. Well, we'll cry for all those that are still trying to find their path and for those that never made it home. But at the college, we're trying our very best to help our nation find that path to be Siksika strong. Thank you.

[Sounds: Indigenous cheers and applause].

MG: That's Vivian Ayoungman at the Old Sun Community College in southern Alberta who also met her sister Angelline Ayoungman. And that story was produced by the CBC's Elles Choe. There is a national Indian residential school crisis line that offers support and crisis referrals for residential school survivors and others. You can call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The number is 1 866 925 4419. The CBC News is next. And then they have covered outbreaks. They have vaccine rollout plans and they have politicians who desperately want to deliver on them. They do not have vaccines, though. In six minutes, we'll take you to the Caribbean and to parts of Africa where covid is spiking and there are not enough doses to go around. I'm Matt Galloway and you're listening to The Current on CBC Radio One. Stay with us.

Vaccine inequity around the world

Guests: Dr. Vishi Beharry, Brenda Okware, Itai Rusike

MG: Good morning. I'm Matt Galloway, and you're listening to The Current.

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MG: Still to come, it is hot in British Columbia, dangerously hot in 30 minutes, how to keep buildings cool in a place that was not built with 40 plus degree weather in mind. But first, how to get more vaccines to more countries and why we need to do that quickly.

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SOUNDCLIP

The most important thing is that the fact remains that lower middle income and low income and poorer countries of the world are still in receipt of less than one percent of the vaccines that have been produced thus far and we believe what is required to change this around.

MG: That was Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley. The Caribbean country is one of many using the COVAX vaccine sharing programme. 276 thousand shots have gone into arms in the island nation so far, but it is quickly running out of doses for its population of one point four million people. Earlier this month, the director of the Pan American Health Organisation urged G7 countries to ramp up deliveries to Latin America and the Caribbean. Dr. Vishi Beharry is the president of the Trinidad and Tobago Medical Association and a family and emergency physician. He also runs a mass vaccination site and joins us this morning from Freeport. Doctor, good morning.

DR. VISHI BEHARRY: Hi, good morning.

MG: If you go back to the beginning of this pandemic last March, what was the situation like in Trinidad and Tobago compared to other countries in the region?

DR. VISHI BEHARRY: It definitely was one of having the pandemic under control or at least the initial phase of it. I think as a country, we did well. We shut our borders early, able to contain spread. And we had a low number of cases and certainly a low number of deaths. And we did well for many months. Subsequent to that, we had some spikes and that was related to movement. So once the there were gatherings and movements in our country and the first one was around the time of our general elections, somewhere about in August. And we saw a spike two weeks later. Then we had another spike after the Easter holidays. And then now we have a huge spike.

MG: And what's the situation now with that third wave?

DR. VISHI BEHARRY: At this point, we have crossed 800 deaths to spread. The number of positive cases would be to cross over 200, which is a significant amount for our population, or deaths remain in double digits. And it is certainly a lot of fear on the ground, concern from persons who are afraid of contracting the virus while many are having limited movement. Many have been unemployed. Businesses have shut. Unemployment rate has gone up. All of these things are creating difficulty. So some people are moving just to be able to find food or to be able to seek out a job. And that, of course, is creating additional movement. Vaccination has not been happening as fast as we need to simply because of the availability of vaccines. And all of that put together create a little bit of a difficult situation for us at this point in time.

MG: Let's talk about the vaccination programme T&T signed into the COVAX programme. How many vaccines has the country received through COVAX?

DR. VISHI BEHARRY: When we signed into the COVAX programme was signed in as a team member. So we put [unintelligible] vaccines through COVAX and basically we would have paid down for a transfer of about 120,000 doses. And that was in September last year. Subsequent to that, we have only received about 66,000 doses. About two thirds of what we have had for one third is still outstanding. I don't think we have a date yet as to when we will receive that security COVAX facility. It's only a small amount of vaccines that we can get compared to the amount needed for our population or to herd immunity.

MG: How frustrating is that for you? I mean, I mentioned that you are an emergency and family physician. You're also running a mass vaccination clinic. So when you see a slow trickle of those vaccines coming in, how frustrating is that for you?

DR. VISHI BEHARRY: It's very frustrating. I mean, we understand the situation that our government in is in in terms of accessing the vaccine. Even many of our private sector companies have tried to access vaccines for purchase on the commercial market. And even that is not available. Or even if it is, most of the companies prefer to deal directly with the government. And then when they do indicate that there's a long wait in line for the orders and it's just very difficult when you see lots of people willing to take the vaccine, I believe we don't see a true hesitancy as of yet because with this spike, more people get scared and they think, well, if they take the vaccine, they should not be as badly off lightly so will not end up in hospital. And so there are lines, there is a rush to the vaccination sites to get vaccines. What is even more frustrating than to run a mass vaccination site is when the appointments and you vaccinate 2500 to 3000 persons a day in a mass vaccination fight like the one I run. And you have 300 to 400 people that be coming at the end of the day hoping that the extra vaccines that they could get, one that's most difficult for somebody and say, well, vaccines are done because we've only been allocated the amount for the appointments book for that the at the Nasdaq site. That is done because there isn't a ready supply of vaccines to have a walk into this or to vaccinate first come, first serve and so on.

MG: What are you most concerned about as this continues? I mean, we're 15,16 months into the pandemic and there are many parts of the world north of you where it seems like the finish line is in sight. So what are you most concerned about?

DR. VISHI BEHARRY: I am concerned about how long it would take us to get to the finish line and the fact that we are, if not already, but we are very near having that sort of event in our country. While vaccination is not going to stop the death of everyone from spreading, at the end of the day, if it spreads rapidly in our country, then it can overwhelm our part of the health care system and overwhelm our regular health care system. And that is going to create a bit of a panic in our country. So concerning is how soon we can get vaccines to vaccinate and achieve an immunity and reduce the possibility of a collapse of our health care system.

MG: Just briefly, what would you say to a country like Canada? There are many people from Trinidad and Tobago who have settled here in this country, large diaspora. What would you say to the Canadian government?

DR. VISHI BEHARRY: Definitely the small country. We have received aid from many other countries and at this point, not being able to access vaccines, a little help would be nice in terms of, you know, support for vaccines or have accessibility and availability of vaccines. If ever it comes to a point where kind of Canada can support or send vaccines for us and it'll be something we'd be happy to have.

MG: I appreciate speaking with you this morning. Good luck in what you're involved in. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

DR. VISHI BEHARRY: Thanks for having me.

MG: Dr. Vishi Beharry is president of the Trinidad and Tobago Medical Association. Let's head to Africa now, where Uganda is being hit hard with its second wave of covid. Access to vaccines is also a serious problem there. Dr. Brenda Okwareis a public health specialist in Uganda. She's also the scientific coordinator of the covid-19 Clinical Research Coalition. This is an international collective trying to help countries with fewer resources manage the pandemic. The doctor is in Kampala. Good morning to you.

DR. BRENDA OKWARE: Hello.

MG: Tell me about the second wave of covid in Uganda. How bad is the spread of the disease in your country right now?

DR. BRENDA OKWARE: All right. So we we just had our first cases of covid last year in about March. And at that time, the government had been very proactive about taking measures to control the pandemic. So the borders had been closed, restrictions had been put in place, and they were building up on their previous preparedness for an outbreak. This was because of the ongoing threat from Ebola from the neighbouring countries. So we seem to control the pandemic quite well during the first year. So come April, May this year, we start to see another rise in cases. And these were individuals who are presenting in more critical states, requiring more hospital admission and a markedly much faster rate in terms of doubling the number of cases, as well as those requiring hospitalisation. So around about that time, it was obvious that we're definitely entering into another wave of the of the pandemic. So we've seen a two fold increase in death and we're definitely seeing a higher number of deaths over the entire period. So that is where we are right now. Many of the areas of covid treatment centres that were it as treatment facilities have have or are close to their treatment capacity, that is the situation right now.

MG: What's the situation when it comes to vaccinations? I mean, how many vaccines have arrived in Uganda and how many people have? What's the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated?

DR. BRENDA OKWARE: So vaccines have come through the COVAX facility, Anisha donation was close to nine hundred thousand doses, and this, of course, falls short of our target. So the national target was to try and vaccinate close to 21 million people. But they made that prediction, assuming that there would be use in the AstraZeneca, which at the time had been approved for use in the adult population, so 18 and above. So those were the initial targets. So that was our first and main batch or biggest batch of vaccines that we got. And it was rolled out in a staggered approach trying to target those who would be at highest risk based on their occupation, but also taking into consideration things like age. So that was our first batch of vaccine that we received. But of course, it it quickly ran out once we got into the whole drive of the vaccination rollout. So recently and by recently, I mean in the past week, we've got another donation of close to one hundred and seventy thousand doses. And this was a donation from France. And this has been rolled out this week. So in total, we are still quite shy of quite short of our target. If you look at the numbers in terms of those who have received at least one, does it close to a million. So a little over nine hundred thousand individuals have received at least the first dose. The second dose is not so great. High numbers are still in in on the lower side. So a little about 70 thousand individuals has received both the first and the second dose.

MG: How eager are people to get the vaccine? I mean, is there any concern with hesitancy or is this really a story about supply?

DR. BRENDA OKWARE: Initially, there was some concern about the vaccine. If you look at the time at which it was rolled out, it was around about the time we're starting to see incidences of concern amongst individuals who had taken the vaccine, the adverse events that were being seen in some of the individuals. So having to roll out a vaccine with all that background information going on and all the misinformation and the barrage of the flood of information that comes in through multiple sources, there was a little bit of hesitancy initially in the uptake of the vaccine. But as we got as we got more and more into the rollout of the of the vaccine and into a much better what I would say place Ogier, the uptake from the community actually increased. I wouldn't say it's yet at its most optimal level, but it definitely increased at least once. People started becoming more and more aware of the actual second wave and its severity and the impact that it would have on them, but also on people that they knew. So there was definitely increase in uptake.

MG: We've been talking on this programme about Kovács and the promise of the Kovács initiative to try to vaccinate the entire world. That promise seems to have fallen short in many ways. And yet in this country, in Canada, we're vaccinating teenagers. Right now, we are working our way through a lot of people who are getting second doses. How do you react knowing that young people in Canada who are at a lower risk of covid-19 are getting vaccines long before some of the most vulnerable people in your population are getting access to a vaccine?

DR. BRENDA OKWARE: When you look at it the first thing that is glaring, of course, is the disparity or the difference in health experiences to to know or to be aware that just because of the location where you are or the the sort of context in which you are you are unable to get the sort of care that you need, that I always find, especially in the field of of health care. That said, different countries and different regions do have their approaches and their strategies on how they are going to deal with the pandemic. But maybe something which they keep forgetting is that this is indeed a global problem. So fixing it in one part of the world, while it's still not just smouldering but overflowing in another part of the world, does no one any true justice. It will just be a matter of time before it starts emerging and re-emerging in different parts of the world. So such a problem is such a challenge, which is of great global importance or great global impact needs to be addressed globally. And what that means is that everyone who has or who is at risk needs to be able to have equal opportunity to the available resources as well as the available innovations to be able to deal with this pandemic and which in this case happens to be vaccines. And I speak like that from a point of understanding our health system, prevention is our best solution. So anything that would much earlier on prevent us from having to go into that state where we have so many people who we cannot treat, we kind of manage who we do not have resources for, it's definitely worth putting in maximum resources and maximum emphasis on. So that is that's what I think. If I could mention just one other thing, General. If you look at maybe the way in which the vaccines have been distributed, I think one of the crucial factors that determines how quick a particular group of individuals is able to access a particular innovation starts from the level of research. So if right from the beginning, even some of these low and middle income countries are part of the research that's going on into vaccines, are part of developing the solution. Their populations are included in all the early work that goes into the research and development. This in itself will make it even more possible and faster for them to be able to access the different resources. And that is the sort of thing that the Clinical Research Coalition is trying to do just to highlight the needs of low and middle income countries in the ponded.

MG: Doctor, I'm grateful to speak with you. I know that you're busy and the situation that you've described is a very serious one. Thank you for telling us about it. And I wish you the best of luck.

DR. BRENDA OKWARE: Thank you so much.

MG: Dr. Brenda Okware is a public health specialist in Uganda and also the scientific coordinator of the covid-19 Clinical Research Coalition. She was in Kampala. Well, further south, Zimbabwe is in the middle of a third wave of covid. Itai Rusike is a public health activist in Zimbabwe and executive director for the Community Working Group on Health. He's in Harare. Good morning to you.

ITAI RUSIKE: Morning, Matt. How are you?

MG: I'm well. Tell me about the third wave in Zimbabwe. How bad has this been?

ITAI RUSIKE: Yes. Let me start by saying, you know, given our current deep economic situation in Zimbabwe needs to be commended for its good progress of the covid-19 vaccination, but it urgent needs to ensure a continued supply of vaccines in the country. But unfortunately, at the moment, the third wave, which is the upon us and this third world, like the highly infectious and we are experiencing, you know, the delta variant. So as a result, we have seen an escalation of our new covid-19 cases and we have seen a surge in the number of people needing hospitalisation. We are seeing also an increase in people who are dying from covid.

MG: You mentioned vaccines, which vaccines are being used in the country right now?

ITAI RUSIKE: Zimbabwe is approved vaccines from China. These are Sinopharm vaccines. We have also approved the Russian vaccine, Sputnik. And also from India,Covaxin.

MG: You mentioned the China and the Russian vaccine. Are you getting vaccines as well through COVAX at all?

ITAI RUSIKE: Unfortunately, up to now Zimbabwe it's not vaccines from the COVAX facility. They are currently raising issues to do with technicalities. Last time they were saying they do not have adequate capacity to manage the [unintelligible] chain for the other vaccines, such as Johnson and Johnson.

MG: What's your sense as to how many people have been vaccinated, the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated so far?

ITAI RUSIKE: Yes, in order to achieve the herd immunity, Zimbabwe is looking at vaccinating at least about 60 percent of the population, which translates to about 10 million Zimbabweans. And so far since February, because our national vaccination programme started in February, we have vaccinated about 750,000 people. And these are the ones who got their first jab and translating to about five percent of the population. And we have also vaccinated about 500,000 people. And these are the ones who got their second jab, because the vaccines that we are using currently, they are two jab.

MG: How worried are you given, as you said, the arrival of the Delta variant? How worried? Are you that the number of people vaccinated is still so low that this is growing very slowly?

ITAI RUSIKE: We are very worried, mainly because our borders are very porous. So we also still have a lot of people who are coming from neighbouring countries such as South Africa, Zambia, where they are also experiencing the third wave. And our health system is always been broken, it is at its weakest. And we are worried that our healthcare system will become overwhelmed. Right now, we are seeing no hospital beds running out. Similarly, we are seeing more so, you know, liquid oxygen, you know, running out of institutions. So, yes, we are very worried. And there is too, generally, you know, complacence amongst the population. Definitely, you have to be worried because a lot more people may need hospitalization.

MG: What do you think the implications are of the discrepancy between Canada vaccinating teenagers? This is a country where close to 70 percent of those old enough have received at least one dose of the vaccine and the very, very low vaccination rates in your country. What are the implications of that discrepancy, do you think?

ITAI RUSIKE: I think I cannot hate to appreciate that nobody is safe until everybody is safe. And it is quite a worry to see a country like Canada now even opting to vaccinate, you know, 12 year olds. And we were hoping to see some solidarity. We were also hoping to see some social justice cooperation, you know, from rich countries like Canada in terms of sharing some of the surplus vaccines that they have. There's need to address vaccine nationalism. And it is quite sad that a lot of people are still dying in Africa because of challenges of accessing vaccines, while the rich countries, like Canada, are now even opting in or to vaccinate children like 12 year olds.

MG: And so is that what you want now from a country like Canada? Is a supply of vaccines for this country to redirect vaccines to countries like yours?

ITAI RUSIKE: I think we really look up to countries like Canada in terms of sharing, you know, the surplus vaccines that they had. If you look at Zimbabwe, all the initial vaccines with donations from the government of China, donations from the government of Russia and donations from even the government of India. So we are looking at, you know, rich countries like Canada also sharing the surplus vaccines that they have with the global south.

MG: Itai, I wish you the best of luck and I'm really grateful to speak with you. You have a lot going on. So thank you for taking some time to speak with us.

ITAI RUSIKE: Thank you, Matt.

MG: Take care of yourself. Bye bye.

ITAI RUSIKE: Bye bye. Thank you. Keep safe.

MG: Itai Rusike is a public health activist in Zimbabwe, executive director for the Community Working Group on Health. He was in Harare. Well, coming up after your regional update,

SOUNDCLIP

VOICE 1: Just do a little work as possible, to be honest.

VOICE 2: How you do it?

VOICE 1: Stay in the shade, do no work and drink plenty of ice water.

MG: Everybody has their own strategy for keeping cool as temperatures at last hit. Record highs in ninety seconds, how to build cities strategically for a much hotter future. I Matt Galloway you're listening to The Current on CBC Radio One.

Designing homes equipped to beat the heat; and Sous Sous, the 10-year-old drag queen

Guests: Hannah Teicher, Ozzy Horvath

MG: Hi, I'm Matt Galloway, you're listening to The Current,

SOUNDCLIP

VOICE 1: We live in a townhouse and it's pretty hot in there and because of the pandemic, we're working from home. And so I called in to work this morning and said we can work from home and I'm not going to have our son in school either. So we had to take today off and just looking for shade,

VOICE 2: we live in the apartment, it's a main floor. Yeah. So it was really hard there and it was impossible to stay longer and because we don't have air conditioner there, so we couldn't stay inside for longer.

VOICE 3: We live in a condo and of course it is sweltering there. And so we're using the excuse of bringing a grandchild down. He's going to water. And so in a little while I'll probably step my toes into that water. If nobody's looking. I need the break. And there are we have fans, of course, in portable fans, in our condo. But there is no air conditioning and it is extremely hot.

MG: Extremely hot. Voices in downtown Vancouver as a heat wave sweeps through western Canada. Yesterday, Litten B.C. hit a Canadian record with a temperature of 47.9 Degrees. That's 47.9 Hotter than it's ever been in Las Vegas. The advice from doctors is to take refuge inside from this kind of heat. But what if your so-called refuge is the place that you live and it's feels more like a sauna than a cool retreat? Hannah Teicher thinks a lot about what to do with buildings that were not designed with 40 plus degrees summers in mind, she's the researcher in residence for the Built Environment at the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions. She's in Victoria. Hannah, good morning.

HANNAH TEICHER: Good morning, Matt.

MG: How are dealing with the heat so far?

HANNAH TEICHER: Well, I'm doing OK. I'm in the air conditioning, but I know a lot of people do not have that fortune.

MG: Telling me about which buildings- I mean, we were hearing about people in condos who, you know, they don't have air conditioning there. They are just having a fan that is moving around kind of hot air. What are the buildings that are most concerning to you this week as the temperatures get into the 30, 40 degree range?

HANNAH TEICHER: Hmm. Well, I mean, as you look around Vancouver and all of the building that's happened over the past few decades, all of those towers are glass. And that's going to be an increasing problem. I mean, it can be good for the view, but it's definitely not good for energy and for heat. And so that's something we're really going to have to think about a lot going forward. I think we're going to have to look at seriously retrofitting both buildings and the spaces between buildings.

MG: You saw those photos perhaps from Squamish, where there were tempered glass panels on people's desks that just kind of exploded in the heat yesterday. I mean, when you say that those tall buildings just wrapped in glass are not suitable for this, tell me more about that and what the issues are aside from exploding glass panels that would be present themselves in hot weather.

HANNAH TEICHER: Yeah, I mean, I don't think the buildings are going to start exploding, so that's good.

MG: That's good. Yes.

HANNAH TEICHER: There's there's just a lot of solar heat gain as the heat is beating down and those windows and there's no external shading, all of that heat is just coming in and heating up the spaces. And so one of the simpler things that we can do is exterior shading, because that prevents the heat from entering the building to begin with. And when we're building new buildings, we really need to think about how we're orienting those buildings to the sun, reducing the amount of glazing, adding exterior shading and using cool roofs. Those are just some of the things we can do. But I mean, obviously, we're not going to entirely rebuild a city for heat. And so we also have to really look at retrofitting the spaces between buildings. So that means a lot more vegetation, trees and plants, also green roofs and walls and cool roofs and cool pavements. So there's a lot that we can do that is in the urban spaces and not directly the buildings themselves.

MG: So we'll talk about the new buildings in a moment. But I mean, for the old building stock, what do you do, if this is the way of the future and the temperature is going to keep increasing? How do you factor adaptation into that? What specifically can you do?

HANNAH TEICHER: Yeah, I mean, there's already a huge move to retrofit buildings for energy efficiency. So in a way that can be an opportunity. Now, we really need to think about adaptation for all types of extremes, you know, including flooding and extreme rain events and heat. So we need to consider all of that as we retrofit the buildings and be really comprehensive in those retrofits and get as much as we can. So like I said, I mean, one of the simplest things is going to be exterior shading. If you're going to go further, you can increase the insulation in the walls, which can help with both cool and heat.

MG: We know the Vancouver is already one of the most expensive cities to live in. How do you square affordable conversation around affordability with retrofits that could be expensive?

HANNAH TEICHER: Yeah, it's not going to be cheap or easy, but in terms of the cost, we really need to think about avoiding future costs, because right now, weather related disasters and extreme weather are having more and more economic impact. So it's already having a noticeable impact on GDP. And, of course, GDP is just one place to start. You know, it doesn't begin to capture all of the social impacts. So we really need to look at avoiding those future costs. And this is going to require major investment from all levels of government.

MG: I was going to say, do you need government to pump money into those retrofits so that the cost is then not just downloaded to the people who are still, you know, already struggling to find a place to live?

HANNAH TEICHER: Yeah, I mean, we absolutely do. Affordable housing is already a major issue, and we cannot just pass the cost of this onto the residents of those buildings.

MG: What about the buildings that are yet to be built, that are still in the planning stages? What has to happen to rethink what those buildings might look like?

HANNAH TEICHER: Well, in the building space, people talk a lot about future climate. So we're still in a trend where we tend to design for the climate of the past. And we know that that climate is gone. It's coming back. So the climate is only going to get more extreme from here on out. And there is really good data and really good projections that we can use to design and build to. And so we need to be building for the climate of 2040, 2050. You know, just like we're looking at net zero pledges out to 2050. Now, we need to be looking at that time horizon in terms of what the climate is going to be and what our buildings need to look like.

MG: And so for those, you mentioned, green roofs, for example, is that the way to try and think about how to reduce the, you know, the heat footprint of a building like that?

HANNAH TEICHER: Mm hmm. Well, I mean, you've probably heard about the Urban Heat Island. And so that's a major issue that urban areas can literally already be a few degrees hotter than surrounding areas. And so there's a lot that we can do with surfaces, both in terms of roofs and pavement. In L.A., there have already been tests on some lighter materials that you can put onto pavement to make some cooler. And so that's something that we should increasingly look at and try to use strategically to bring that urban heat island down.

MG: It's not just housing. I mean, schools across many parts of British Columbia were closed yesterday because of the heat. What's the urgency in fixing schools and other public buildings?

HANNAH TEICHER: It's very urgent. And I mean, a lot of those buildings are already undergoing retrofits as well. Even, you know, for seismic. That's a huge risk out here. And so, again, in every retrofit, we need to start integrating these considerations. I mean, we should have seen this coming, but maybe we didn't. And so now we can see what it's really going to mean to start to live with extreme heat. And so we've got to factor that in.

MG: Part of dealing with this current heat wave. People have seen it at hardware stores is, you know, trying to figure out how to get your hands on an air conditioner. The International Energy Agency says that most families in hot countries have yet to purchase their first air conditioner. But over the next 30 years, that is going to change and two thirds of the world's households will get themselves AC. What does that going to mean in the larger conversation on climate change, do you think?

HANNAH TEICHER: Hmm. I mean, it's definitely a concern because air conditioning uses electricity, which will tend to increase emissions. I mean, of course, we're hoping to get to a less electricity being largely renewable, but we're nowhere close to that now. And that's really just a hopeful projection at this point. So we need to think a lot about using passive strategies so that we're not just increasing emissions with the cooling that we choose to use.

MG: Hard to tell people that when they're sweating in their apartment, though.

HANNAH TEICHER: It is really hard. And so that's why we also just have to work on the electric grid and increasing the renewable supply. You know, the optimistic estimate is that by 2050 we'll be getting 90 percent of our electricity from renewables. And so we need to also put a lot of resources into developing that renewable capacity. Again, in BC, we're lucky that way. We have hydro, but a lot of places are not like that. So we need to be switching to renewables.

MG: It's the 29th of June. Summer is just underway and there is still the potential for, you know, forest fires, the air quality concerns that forest fires bring. There could be further heat waves. Is your sense that politicians are doing enough if we're having this conversation about not just what's happening now, but how to future proof those buildings and larger society, are politicians having the conversation at an urgent enough level, right now?

HANNAH TEICHER: I mean, the conversations have become pretty urgent, you hear a lot of talk about the climate emergency and the climate crisis, and it's not just politicians. I mean, it's all of government and government staff and also NGOs and businesses. I mean, everybody's starting to talk about it much more seriously. But clearly, we also need to do a lot more. There have been a few recent assessments of adaptation in Canada, and Canada is a little bit behind in developing adaptation. And so maybe events like this are really a good impetus to start working harder on that. I mean, we can see that climate change really impacts every area of our lives, from public health to the economy to resource management. It's an urban issue. It's a rural and remote issue. And because it transcends all of those boundaries, the solutions need to do the same.

MG: Is your sense I mean, when you say that everybody's talking about this, but when they hear that the you know, the temperature is warmer than it's ever been in Las Vegas, that that's the kind of thing that's going to move people in a meaningful way from talk to action.

HANNAH TEICHER: I mean, I hope so. It seems like the proverbial wake up call. And we I think the wildfires are very much in people's minds. I mean, in the West across B.C. last year, we experienced the wildfires coming up from the western U.S. And so on top of not being able to go outside because of covid, we couldn't go outside because we couldn't breathe the air. So I think there's a lot of worry about that and that all of that will come together and and start to spur some real action.

MG: How to stay cool. And I appreciate speaking with you this morning. Thank you very much.

HANNAH TEICHER: Thanks a lot.

MG: Hannah Teicher is the researcher in residence focussing on the built environment at the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions.

[Music]

MG: You're listening to The Current on CBC Radio One, my name is Matt Galloway. What did you discover about yourself over the course of this pandemic? Over the past year, people have had a lot of time for self reflection. Some of us conquered sour dough from scratch. Others picked up running or woodworking. For 10 year old Ozzy Horvath, his passion project was the creation of his drag queen alter ego. Susu, as she's known, was brewing inside ozone for a while. But thanks to an invitation from the Canadian drag trio, The B Girls, a star was born. Here's Rachel Matlow's story Sous Sous, the 10 year old drag queen.

SOUNDCLIP

SOUS SOUS: Hello, my name is Sous Sous. I'm 10 years old today. I'm going to be making some very special audition [unintelligible].

OZZY HORVATH: A lot of people are just discovering what they just like to do. And that's also true with the story of Susu and how she became a drag queen. It was just like amazing how her whole personality and everything that she was was just growing inside and just growing and growing and growing. And then, boom, here she is like, just crazy. My name is Ozzy Horvath. I'm 10 years old. I live in Toronto, Ontario. So Sous Sous was a character for a long time that I would just go up to my mom and I be like, [in Sous Sous's voice] Can I have some water? I'm very thirsty.And then my mom's friend, Michael Boyack, he's in this dreg group called The B Girls, and they've been around for a long time

BARBIE- Q: My name is Barbie-Q.

CONCHITA: My name is Conchita. And of course, I'm a hard core up.

OZZY HORVATH: And they started this show in the beginning of quarantine called Quarn Queen. And they asked my mom, like, would any of your kids like to do something in it? And we had the idea of, like, what if we put Sous Sous in drag and we just, like, laughed our heads off? There's such an amazing idea. And then we got the makeup on with the wig, the like sparkly eye shadow and big poofy blonde curly hair and the heels and the pearls. And I was just like, oh, my God. It was amazing how much it just like looks like Sous Sous, like what she would be. I never really thought of her having a physical form, but once we gave her that body, it just like, can't imagine Sous Sous without it just. I have loved Rupe All for a long time, even just like first or second grade, I was learning about what drag was and I didn't really understand it then, but I quickly caught on to like the culture of drag. We watched this movie, Paris is Burning.

SOUS SOUS: This is actually, my foot movie I actually saw it in the movie theatre once. It was very good.

OZZY HORVATH: And before it the whole quarantine thing, these people came to this one day and they, like, sort of educated us on like drag history and everything like that. If it's a very hippie school. I go to the Grove Community School. They educate us well, like everything we should know from racial justice to drag, I guess.

SOUS SOUS: I think it's a very good time to come up with some house names, I came up with that to my self. First one, house of hand sanitizer. For the second, house of toilet paper. Third one White [unintelligible].

OZZY HORVATH: Actually, everybody sort of helps. My sister is 15. She did the makeup and hair. My brother is 13. He did the camera work. He filmed the whole thing. And then my mom and I just like we go in the backyard, just brainstorm different ideas. Usually they're quarantine tips.

SOUS SOUS: I got some top threes here today to help you get through the tough times in quarantine.

OZZY HORVATH: For the first like three videos.We made a script, but from there on, it was actually just improvised.

SOUS SOUS: We have these clothes pins and looking to write positive nice little proud messages on them. Let's get writing.

OZZY HORVATH: Like, I would replace my mind with Sous Sous mind when we were doing the video. So I would just like get into that headspace and just like, say what Sous Sous would say.

SOUS SOUS: And now I've just finished all of them. Sean bright. Laugh often. Just like listen deeply. Just positive messages.

OZZY HORVATH: So the outfits were actually my sister's old dance performance outfits that just all match Sous Sous's personality. Oh, yeah. So these are my mom's pearls. They're very shiny and white. I don't think they're- they're not real, but I love them. A hilarious. And like I said, with the hair, the makeup and the outfit, it also just matches Sous Sous so much. And that's why it's literally in every single video.

SOUS SOUS: My pals, [unintelligible].

OZZY HORVATH: Oh, yeah, so the Madonna video was amazing. I can't believe how good that turned out.

SOUS SOUS: [Singing Vogue]

OZZY HORVATH: like we watched the Vogue video and we, like, copied all the, like, moves. And then, like, there's this slow motion bit where there's scarves and like like fabric blowing behind her while she's dancing. And so we did that and we put it in black and white, too. And it was so funny.

SOUNDCLIP

SOUS SOUS: [Singing Vogue] Madonna is incredible too, she's just the absolute best. Is she still alive?

OZZY HORVATH: Hello, my name is Ozzy, I'm a friend and a big fan of Sous Sous. When we did the Ozzy interviewing Sous Sous video, oh, man, it was amazing because you could see how, like different Ozzy was Sous Sous. They seem like two different people.

SOUS SOUS: These aren't just normal eyelashes. So I don't have to put [unintelligible] on my arms.

OZZY HORVATH: We all have to give those eyelashes a try.

OZZY HORVATH: Ozzy was like all nervous, shy, like asking all these like questions and Sous Sous was like confident, just sitting up straight, like answering all the questions.

SOUNDCLIP

OZZY HORVATH: OK, if you are to be quarantined anywhere else, where would you be comfortable?

SOUS SOUS: I'd be contained in the jungle with lots of chimpanzees around, because I had chimpanzees like to greet each other. So what? I need help, I could just gather a little team team.

OZZY HORVATH: Well, I don't know how many chimpanzees know how to do makeup, but, yeah, I don't know.

OZZY HORVATH: It's just really fascinating how different me and Sous Sous are. She's not afraid. She's not like, [in Sous Sous's voice] oh, I'm so nervous. [Back to own voice] No, I don't think I've ever said worried or nervous in Sous Sous's voice because that's not who she is. And she definitely did help me discover a lot about who I am. It's funny because Sue Sue was actually before I came out. And then the actual drag part came out after I came out. I was around like seven. There was a Super Bowl performance and it was Maroon five and he was looking beautiful and I was like, Oh, wait a minute, what's going on here? Usually I would like a girl, but Maroon five, huh?

[Music]

OZZY HORVATH: And then in grade four, I went up to my friend and was like, hey, can I talk to you for a second? My best friend Alver and I told him, I don't know if you know, but lately I've been having feelings for boys and I think I'm gay. And he was like, oh, I support you no matter what. Ozzy, I love you so much. You're my best friend. And I said, OK, I love you too. But like should I come out to my teacher and classmates? And what he said was, Ozzy, it's your choice. If you want people to know who you are, I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't or should come out. But that is your choice. And I ended up doing it and I was really like I was just really happy that that's what he said. And he wasn't like, yeah, yeah, I do it. I want to see how they react. Or like, oh, no, don't do it. They'll hate you for it. But like, he's such a good friend, he knows me so well that he's just like, Ozzy, it's your choice if you want people to know who you are. And I didn't like make it like a big news thing, like I didn't go up on a podium and like I'm gay. No, I just was like, oh yeah, you know, I'll have a boyfriend someday. Yeah. I'm so grateful that this is how the world has changed and people can actually be free to show their true colours and they don't have to be worried. Of course, it's not all quite done yet with like all the people who don't think that this is what God wants. But I'm glad that it is making progress from where it started. I really, really am excited for what's to come with Susu. She definitely has big hopes and dreams.

[Music]

SOUS SOUS: I see myself walking down the runway on ripple [unintelligible] rocks and then, of course, winning.

OZZY HORVATH: I really hope when I'm old enough I can make an Instagram account for Sous Sous. And also, if it gets to this, it would be my dream, my dream, to have a Sous Sous YouTube channel. That would just be the best.

SOUS SOUS: That's all the time I have today. Bye bye.

MG: That's Rachel Matlaw's documentary Sous Sous, the 10 year old drag queen, you can check out Sous Sous videos on the B Girlz Facebook page, and that is B Girlz with a Z at the end. That is The Current for this Tuesday. Coming up next on CBC Radio One, it's Q Shawnee Kish, musician from the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario and a previous winner of CBC Music's Searchlight competition, will speak with Tom Power about a career that started out as a Shania Twain impersonator, a debut E-P that's out now and how her music evolved as she embraced her identity as a two spirit person. That conversation coming up in just a moment on CBC Radio one. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening to The Current. And we'll talk to you tomorrow.

Tuesday 29 June, 2021

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