Satire

It's Thursday, April 19th.

Australia is suffering through extreme drought conditions and politicians down under are debating how best to combat the effects of climate change.

Currently, some experts aren't as worried though they say Australia has weathered much, much worse... Rolf Harris, Dame Edna, and The Wiggles.

This is The Current.

Shediac Suicide Talk Tape

There is a sensitive and potentially devastating issue that workplaces occasionally face. The anonymous allegation… the unknown accuser. And the story we're about to tell you is about just that. Some anonymous accusations and a whisper campaign - that for the man at the centre of the controversy - became unbearable.

Before we get into the details of the case we'd like you to listen to this next voice - not so much what the speaker is saying - but his voice. It's from a CBC phone interview in July of 2002. That was Marco Pitre, the town manager for Shediac, New Brunswick, speaking about the town's 2002 by-law banning lawn pesticides.

About eight weeks ago, Marco Pitre took his own life. He'd been the target of anonymous allegations about his job performance... accusations that were spread quietly and rapidly through a small town.

Peter Anawati has been following the story, and he was in our studio in Saint John.

Listen to The Current: Part 1

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

The Current: Part 2

Julian Sher

For police it is an ugly - but necessary job hunting child predators online. But to do so - they must constantly update their computer arsenal to combat these perpetrators in the unpredictable battleground known as cyberspace.

About four years ago... an unlikely alliance was struck when a Toronto police officer fired off a letter to Bill Gates about how his technology was enabling child predators. Gates had his top officials from Microsoft tour the police sex crimes unit in Toronto. They were not impressed. The methods police were using to catch pedophiles were old-fashioned and ineffective.

That visit prompted the cops and the computer experts to team up to create the "Child Exploitation Tracking System" meant to give police a more sophisticated tool to track predators. Investigative journalist Julian Sher - told us about that story on The Current two years ago - when it was in its early stages.

In his story we heard from Detective Sergeant Paul Gillespie, the man who wrote Bill Gates, who headed the child exploitation section of the Toronto Sex Crimes Unit. He talked about how urgent it was that police catch up technologically with predators who use the internet to commit their crimes against children.

But of course the race to keep up with - and ahead of - these online predators - continues. And Julian Sher has stayed on the story. He has written a book about child pornography, called One Child at a Time: The Global Fight to Rescue Children from Online Predators, it is published by Random House Canada. Julian was in our Toronto studio.

Music Bridge

Artist: Ray Montford
Cut: CD7 “Haunted”
CD: “The Early Sessions”
Label: Softail Records
Spine #: ES04CD

Letters

If it's Thursday, it's mail day on The Current and our Friday host, Avi Lewis joined Anna Maria in studio to read some of your mail.

Listen to The Current: Part 2

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

The Current: Part 3

Australia Drought Documentary

You've heard all the predictions over the last few months of a grim future under a new climate regime. But warnings about catastrophic droughts and their consequences already seem like yesterday's news to Australians, who have been suffering through a six-year drought … the worst in at least a hundred years.

And even as Australia sweats through its hottest years in history. Many experts expect such droughts will become longer and more frequent with climate change. Some even speculate - this one could drag on for another 40 years.

No one has felt the effects of the drought more acutely than Australia's farmers. Cattle ranches that have been in families for generations are being abandoned … wool production - is at 60-year lows. And, perhaps unsurprisingly then, there has also been an alarming increase in the rate of depression and suicide among farmers succumbing to the stress of wilting crops, dying livestock, and accumulating debt.

Drought is no longer just an agricultural issue … it has become a mental health crisis in Australia. Journalist Nicola Fell has visited some people dealing with the toll the drought is taking on farmers. From mental health workers to the farmer we're going to meet. We heard form Bill Nessner on his cattle and sheep station in central New South Wales, Australia.

This documentary was prepared for The Current by journalist Nicola Fell.

The Weather Makers

We've been listening to people for whom climate change isn't just a threat, it's a reality. So if you think climate change is a hot-button political issue in Canada, you should check out Australian politics.

Even as the drought worsens and climate change threatens everything from Australia's Great Barrier Reef to its wine industry, Prime Minister John Howard remains unrepentant about refusing to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol. He's feeling the heat from the opposition Labour and Green Parties, both of which have made climate change their ballot issue for the upcoming federal elections later this year. Mr. Howard is even getting pressure from former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern, who recently chided Australia for not taking stronger action on greenhouse gas emissions.

But if anything, Mr. Howard has dug in his heels, saying economic development takes precedence over targets on emissions reductions. Contrast that - with the man the Australian people voted Australian of the Year in January, not a pop singer, athlete or someone who wrestles crocodiles, but Tim Flannery, the author of the best-selling book, The Weather Makers: How We Are Changing the Planet and What that Means for Life on Earth. Tim Flannery was in our Toronto studio.

Tim Flannery is also he author of a new version of the book - for teen readers - called We Are the Weather Makers.

Last Word – Drought Poem

Before we sign off, we've been talking about the ways climate change seems to be making drought a way of life in Australia.

Australia has always been an arid land so much so that drought has woven its way into the country's lore and culture. So we ended the program today with an artifact from the great Queensland drought of the 1890s ... a poem called "Holy Dan," performed by Jack Herlighy. It comes to us courtesy of Australia's National Library Oral History collection.

Listen to The Current: Part 3

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

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