** Needles in Prisons Debate ** Should I Read It: Rowling's The Casual Vacancy ** Google and Free Speech ** Embassy Roomies ** The South Should Secede ** Former Scientologist on The Master **

Should Canadian prisons provide clean needles?

Rates of HIV and Hepatitis C among the incarcerated are many times the national average and this week a law suit was launched to bring safe injections to inmates.

But Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is against the idea of a needle exchange program in prisons and he's not alone. Guards and correctional officers have long opposed the idea. They say the needles will make their job much more dangerous.

We have two sides of the needle debate on Day 6.

Post Potter Publication

Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling released her first work of adult fiction this week. Heavily embargoed and much anticipated, The Casual Vacancy is a huge shock if you're not steeled for some adult content and salty language.

Some reviewers have been cool to the novel. Those critical opinions might be distorted by Rowling's vast wealth and the fact that she's turned away from her young audience.

Becky Toyne gives The Casual Vacancy a go on Should I Read It.

Shutting Down Speech

Google was forced to take down a YouTube video in Brazil this week when the government said the political message broke election laws. Google operates in many different jurisdictions with complex guidelines regarding appropriateness of material. 

They often face instances of political interference from national governments and Google says they are committed to free speech.

Based on what happened this week in Brazil, should we believe them? A closer look at Google in our discussion on Day 6.

Our Condescending Roommate

Canada has been an independent nation for about 150 years but when John Baird announced last week we'd be sharing some space with British nationals in joint embassies some nationalists shuddered.

Those Canadians worried about how shared embassies equalled the loss of sovereignty or wondered how we could maintain a distinct foreign policy.

Others imagined a darker side:  having their grammar corrected, being made to eat kippers or forced to listen to Oasis for hours at a time.

Aidan Flax-Clark assesses Canada and the U.K.'s compatibility as roommates and decides we're no Laverne and Shirley.

Ditching Dixie

Barack Obama once said "There are no red states or blue states, just the United States." 

Travel writer Chuck Thompson has trouble with that word "united". He thinks the rift created by the civil war is so deep it's time to stop believing it can be bridged. His new book Better Off Without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession argues both sides would benefit from a two state solution.

Chuck's perspective is that of a northern liberal, and some reviewers have been hostile to his book, but he still scores a few points.

Frisking The Master

Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson has been adamant that his new film The Master is not a movie about Scientology.  But the self-help movement Anderson creates in the movie looks a lot like the religion founded by L. Ron Hubbard and the character played by Philip Seymour Hoffman seems to resemble him.

So we went to a former Scientologist to see what she thinks.

Kate Bornstein was a member of the Sea Org in the early sixties and sailed with Hubbard on his yacht. She was a guest on Day 6 last spring to talk about her memoir A Queer and Pleasant Danger and now she's back to tell us how much Scientology she detected in The Master.

That's it. Our final show for September. Next month we're one hundred. October marks the 100th episode of Day 6, a couple weeks after Thanksgiving. It's gonna be huge: maybe we'll even give away an extra tote bag. 

Have a great weekend and grab the podcast if you're not around a radio.

 
Brent Bambury @CBCDay6

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