December 09, 2009

It's Wednesday, December 9th.

The Chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP says the conduct of the officers involved in Robert Dziekanski's death "fell short of that expected of members of the RCMP."

Currently, The RCMP has resolved to do more to diminish those expectations in the future.

This is The Current.

CIHR and Pfizer - Downie

We started this segment with Doctor Bernard Prigent. He's the Vice President and Medical Director of Pfizer Canada, the Canadian division of the world's largest pharmaceutical company. And he is also a newly appointed member of the Governing Council of the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR).

The institute hands out nearly a billion dollars worth of public research money every year. And the appointment of a pharmaceutical executive has sparked a lot of criticism. Nearly 4,000 people have signed a petition denouncing his appointment. And this week, members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health tried -- unsuccessfully -- to pass a motion calling for the Prime Minister to revoke Doctor Prigent's appointment.

Jocelyn Downie is one of the people who created the petition. She is a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy at Dalhousie University. And she was in Halifax.

CIHR and Pfizer - Rouleau

Some opposition members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health were unsuccessful in their attempt to pass a motion this week calling for the Prime Minister to withdraw Doctor Prigent's nomination. But committee member Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett says that doesn't mean they're giving up on the issue. We aired a clip.

We requested an interview with Doctor Prigent. He wasn't available to talk to us this morning. But there are those who say Doctor Prigent would be a welcome addition to the Governing Council of the Canadian Institute of Health Research. Doctor Jean Rouleau sits on the institute's Governing Council. He's also the Dean of Medicine at the University of Montreal.

Nortel Redux

It's been almost a year since Nortel -- Canada's one-time technology darling -- filed for bankruptcy protection. And whenever we do a story about Nortel, we usually call on Julie Ireton in Ottawa.

Julie is a business reporter for CBC in Ottawa and has done stories for CBC News about the large bonuses given out to executives at Nortel while workers fight for the money they're owed and the plight of disabled workers at Nortel. But today Julie brought us an update on a Nortel story we aired a year ago.

As part of our Work in Progress series, we wanted to find out what happened to two employees of Nortel Julie introduced us to last January in the documentary, 16 Rounds and Still Standing. It told the story of Marc Lavoie and Paul Arbour .. both of whom worked at Nortel's Research and Development headquarters here in Ottawa. The title of the doc came from the fact that they had both survived 16 rounds of layoffs. And as a matter of fact after the documentary aired, survived at least another 3 rounds of cuts. We heard from reporter Julie Ireton with more on where these two Nortel workers stand now.

Cold Case # 2 Promo

Coming up on Friday, we'll have the second in our series called Canadian Cold Cases. The series is produced by the CBC's David Ridgen. It looks at criminal cases that have remained unsolved for many years. On Friday, David will bring us, The Bomb That Killed Wayne Greavette. In it, he recreates the moments leading up to a grisly murder and then works with the murdered man's family as they begin an investigation of their own. We aired an excerpt.

Iranian Detention - Maziar Bahari

For 118 days, Maziar Bahari was confined to Iran's notorious Evin prison ... left to wonder if anyone outside its walls could do anything to get him out. He suffered through months of beatings, torture and many moments of hopelessness before he was finally released in October.

Maziar Bahari is a dual Canadian and Iranian citizen, and a reporter with Newsweek Magazine. He was detained in June while covering the protests against the results of Iran's Presidential election. And he was watching from London, England as another round of anti-government protests roiled Iran earlier this week resulting in arrests of what is believed to be hundreds of people.

Maziar Bahari is a correspondent with Newsweek Magazine.

Last Word - Sisters of Mercy

We ended the program with Leonard Cohen's, Sisters of Mercy.

Artist: Leonard Cohen
Cd:The Essentiel Leonard Cohen
Cut: 3, Sisters of Mercy
Label: Columbia
Spine: TV2K 86884