Satire

It's Wednesday, November 5th.

Election day in Saskatchewan. And the biggest issue of the campaign is "out-migration". It turns out that people are packing up and leaving the Prairie province in droves.

Currently, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Alright, cue the wind tunnel: (Wind SFX)

We know you can't resist the sound of that Prairie wind….

Hmm… so you want to play hard to get, huh? Hit the crickets boys! (Cricket SFX)

Couple of minutes of this and we'll have you back on the Prairie in no time.

Just be thankful I didn't crack open a can of wheat rustling on your sorry behind.

This is the Current.

Arar/Watt Clips

What role did Canada play in deporting Maher Arar to Syria? Arar is the Syrian-born Canadian citizen detained in New York over a year ago. It's still not clear why American officials sent him to Syria, instead of honouring his request to be deported to Canada.

Earlier this week we spoke with Arar's American lawyer, Steven Watt. Watt says that under US law, authorities would have asked Arar where he wanted to be sent.

Maher Arar and his supporters are calling on the Canadian government to hold a full public inquiry into his case. The prime minister and Graham have both rejected that call. Graham did, however, call on Syria to hold its own inquiry. He says he's asked the Syrian government to investigate the allegations of torture, and the treatment of detained Canadians.

Arar/Neve

As we heard, Maher Arar said he told U.S. officials that as a Canadian citizen, he wanted to be sent back to Canada. He says he said the same thing to a Canadian consul and a lawyer. Instead Arar was sent to Syria.

To talk about how this could have happened, Anna Maria Tremonti was joined by Alex Neve. He is the Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada in Ottawa.

Irwin Cotler

The lack of answers isn't just frustrating Arar and his lawyers. Even members of the Liberal government are demanding to know more about the role of Canadian officials - and the RCMP - in the deportation.

Liberal MP Irwin Cotler is on the foreign affairs committee which is also calling for a public inquiry into the affair. He joined Anna Maria Tremonti from Ottawa.

Listen to The Current: Part 1

The Current: Part 2

Saskatchewan Election – Report

Well after a 28-day election campaign, you might expect one party to pull far ahead enough to predict a winner. Not in Saskatchewan though - where the governing NDP and the opposition Saskatchewan Party are still in a dead heat on this - election day.
One of the big themes during the race was out-migration residents leaving Saskatchewan for greener pastures.

Last weekend, members of the Saskatchewan Student Coalition gathered on a highway to stage a mock hitchhiking - out of the Province.

And yesterday a new study warned that Saskatchewan could be heading for a crisis because of its changing demographics. For more on this we were joined by the author of the report, Janice Stokes. She is with the Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy.

Saskatchewan Election – Analyst

To talk more about out-migration and what , if anything, Saskatchewan can do to solve it, Anna Maria Tremonti was joined by Ken Rasmussen. He is a professor of public administration at the University of Regina.

Bridge Music

Zubot – Trigger 0:48 ends
Performer: Zubot and Dawson
CD: Chicken Scratch
Cut: CD 13 “Lonely Jackson Trigger”
Label: True North Records
Spine #: TND 277
www: www.zubotanddawson.com

DNTO – Pot Satire

Well, here's a possible solution to Saskatchewan's problems. Canada has a new growth leader in the agricultural sector. According to a recent story in Forbes magazine, the country's traditional exports of timber, grain and cattle have been eclipsed by Canada's marijuana exports: a multi-billion dollar business, based mainly in B-C.

So what would happen if that business was transplanted onto the Prairies?

Listen to The Current: Part 2

The Current: Part 3

Refugee Camps – Settlement in Winnipeg

Today 47 Sudanese and Somali refugees are looking around at their new Canadian homeland. Last night, the Somali refugees, 17 in all arrived at Toronto's Pearson International Airport before boarding a bus to Hamilton. There, they'll settle as a group.

We listen to what refugees Hussain Ali Omar and Mohammad Abdoulaye Sheikh had to say about their long journey to Canada. Hussain Ali Omar and Mohammad Abdoulaye Sheikh arrived last night at Pearson international Airport from the Dabaab refugee camp in Kenya. Seventeen Somalis are settling in Hamilton, while 30 Sudanese moved on to Winnipeg.

Marty Dolan was there to meet the Sudanese refugees as they climbed off the plane in Winnipeg. He is the Executive Director of the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council, a private company contracted by the government to help refugees settle in their adopted communities. He was in Winnipeg.

Refugee Camp – Panel

More than 100,000 refugees from Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, and Ethiopia fled to the camp after Somalia's civil war in 1991. The Kakuma camp is in the same region - and it's also home to tens of thousands of refugees.
In Kakuma, food rations are delivered twice a month and some police won't venture into the sprawling camp at night.

The camp opened more than a decade ago and the United Nations is now trying to shut it down. It's just one of many refugee camps around the world that have outlived the conflicts that created them. Critics say aid groups are perpetuating the problem by continuing to prop up these refugee camps. Aid groups say forcing refugees out is only adding to their plight.

Jahanshah Assadi is a former special envoy to Kenya for the United Nation's High Commisioner for Refugees. He is now the group's representative in Canada. Clea Kahn is an aid worker with Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Bridge Music

Conjure One – Conjure One
Performer: Conjure One
CD: Conjure One
Cut: CD 10 “Sleep”
Label: Netwerk
Spine #: 0 6700 30289 2 9
www: http://www.conjureone.com/

Reagan’s Farewell Speech

Yesterday, the CBS network decided to cancel its television mini-series "The Reagans". Scheduled for November sweeps week, the show was rumored to portray a not-so-complimentary profile of the Ronald and Nancy Reagan White House. With the mini-series on the shelf, we figured this might be a good time to check in on the Ronald Reagan legacy.

We ended today’s show with excerpts from Ronald Reagan's farewell speech broadcast on January 11th of 1989. America was a very different place nearly 15 years ago but the Reagan agenda covered territory that the current White House would certainly recognize today.

Listen to The Current: Part 3