December 17, 2009

It's Thursday, December 17th.

A Toronto doctor who treated Tiger Woods is under investigation for allegedly providing performance enhancing drugs to athletes.

Currently, Well, I suppose four hundred satisfied mistresses can't be wrong.

This is The Current.

Cape Breton RCMP Investigation

On December 2nd, 2008, the RCMP got a 911 call from Wagmatcook First Nation in Cape Breton. The caller said that a man named John Simon was in his home and that he was drinking and suicidal. A few hours later, John Simon was dead. But he didn't kill himself. He was shot three times in the chest by an RCMP officer.

We should warn you at this point that you're going to hear some harsh language in this half-hour ... language that may not be suitable for children.

After John Simon was killed, a Critical Incident Team that included RCMP officers was assigned to investigate. And for the last year, John Simon's family has been waiting for its report.

Earlier this week, RCMP officers drove out to Wagmatcook to deliver the news. The investigation determined the officer acted appropriately and that no charges would be laid. Mr. Simon's family isn't impressed. We heard from Charlene Isadore, John Simon's step-daughter.

The CBC's Joan Weeks has been following this story since Simon's death last year. She was in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Letters

It's Thursday. That's mail day on The Current. And our Friday host, Linden McIntyre joined Anna Maria in studio to help with the mail.

Eldercare: He calls his patients the "fragile elderly" -- older people who aren't able to hop in the car to visit the doctor. So Doctor John Sloan has devoted his career to giving them full time home care. Monday on The Current, Doctor Sloan outlined his vision of care for an aging population. And he found that hospitals are often not the best place for these patients to be. His thoughts prompted an outpouring of mail from listeners who were experiencing many of the situations he described.

Humiliating Canada: The United Nations Climate Change Conference wraps up tomorrow in Copenhagen. Protesters highlighted Canada's record on the environment hoping to embarrass the Canadian government into some action. Tuesday on The Current, we heard from Roger Gibbins. He is the President and CEO of the Canada West Foundation. And he gave us his perspective on Canada's role at the conference. We heard lots more in the mail.

Activists in Copenhagen argue that rich countries have a moral obligation to address climate change in order to help the developing world, which is feeling the effects of climate change much more acutely. But according to Joshua Greene, humans have a tough time thinking that way. He's a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He is currently writing a book on how the moral brain works. And he was in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Calgary Zoo: Over the last four years, the Calgary Zoo has had its share of troubles. Last Friday's death of a capybara -- a large rodent -- was the latest in a string of deaths that includes two elephants, a hippo and 40 cow-nosed sting rays. Tuesday on the program, we discussed the very existence of zoos. After hearing this segment, we heard from you with your thoughts.

The Calgary Zoo is not the only zoo struggling with how to best care for its animals. The Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic will be sending four rare Northern White Rhinos to a conservation area in Kenya this weekend. It hopes they can be bred more successfully in the wild. Pete Morkel is a veterinarian with Back to Africa, an NGO group that is helping return zoo animals to Africa. He's helping the Dvur Kralove Zoo with the transfer. And he was in Dvur Kralove nad Labem in the Czech Republic.

Request Count: Time for our weekly update. Our only request this week was for Environment Minister Jim Prentice, who is representing Canada in Copenhagen. Mr. Prentice declined. That leaves us with 29 requests and only 4 interviews.

The Debate Over Cap and Trade

If you heard the program yesterday, you'll recall that we spoke with James Hansen. He is the Director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA and one of the most respected climate scientists in the world. And as you might have guessed already, he's no fan of the carbon cap-and-trade approach to dealing with greenhouse gas emissions.

But despite James Hansen's protests, a cap-and-trade system is one of the options on the table at the United Nations' Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen. Washington is moving forward with cap-and-trade legislation. It is already befor ethe U.S. Senate. And Jim Prentice -- Canada's Environment Minster -- says Ottawa will have to consider whatever the Americans do.

So we wanted to delve deeper into cap-and-trade to look at how it would work and who stands to benefit. And also why the debate is pitting environmentalists against one another. Daphne Wysham is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. And David Doniger is the Policy Director of the Climate Center at the Natural Resources Defense Council. He was in Copenhagen this morning.

Last Word - Nellie the Elephant

We ended the program today with a song about an elephant. Earlier we heard about four rare rhinos who will make their way from a Czech Zoo to a conservation area in Kenya. Here in Canada, critics are trying to get the Edmonton Zoo to send Lucy the Elephant to a warmer climate in California. And half-a-century ago, a fictional elephant named Nellie was immortalized in song for making a daring escape from a circus. It was a children's hit in the 1950s. We ended with a version by the British punk band, Toy Dolls.