Pt 1: Bashir Makhtal - By the time this episode aired, Bashir Makhtal had been in an Ethiopian prison cell for 504 days and counting. He's a Canadian citizen originally from Ethiopia, and was charged with terrorist activities for allegedly having ties to a rebel movement there. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Read more here

Pt 2: Dina Babbitt, Auschwitz Artist - Dina Babbitt lives in a small cabin with a big yard in the mountains of Northern California. There's a room -- just off the kitchen -- that she calls the cat room, where she feeds strays. It's also where she keeps the boxes she's filled with copies of the paintings that saved her life.

Read more here

Pt 3: Dina Babbitt, Auschwitz Artist (Continued) - The sign on the iron gates that frame the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp reads: "Work Sets You Free." The cold irony of that motto is in even sharper relief as we heard the story of Dina Babbitt.

Read more here

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Satire

Music: The Current theme, getting interrupted

Whoa whoa. Let's stop it right there. Great little jingle. Hard not to hum along. But that theme ... it's mine. Like, I kind of own it. And it's about time someone coughed up some serious dough for it.

And I know it's hard to imagine a Canada without that opening theme to The Current. But, with all due respect, those are my chord progressions - and a little show called As It Happens is willing to pay through the nose for that little ditty.

Currently, I'm not a guy to leave a listener hanging, so might I suggest this little number. It's way cheaper.

Music: Former Hockey Night in Canada theme

Bashir Makhtal - Accountability


Parliamentary Secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister

By the time this episode aired, Bashir Makhtal had been in an Ethiopian prison cell for 504 days and counting. He's a Canadian citizen originally from Ethiopia, and was charged with terrorist activities for allegedly having ties to a rebel movement there. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

We first told you about Bashir Makhtal's story on June 3, 2008. after that, The Current asked repeatedly for an interview with Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson. His office did not answered our requests.

Deepak Obhrai is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Foreign Affairs Minister and traveled to the Ethiopian capital in March 2008 to press Mr. Makhtal's case. Mr. Obhrai joined us from Ottawa.


Bashir Makhtal's Lawyer

Lorne Waldman is Bashir Makhtal's lawyer in Canada and joined us in Toronto.


Listen to Part One:

 

Dina Babbitt, Auschwitz Artist

Dina Babbitt lives in a small cabin with a big yard in the mountains of Northern California. There's a room -- just off the kitchen -- that she calls the cat room, where she feeds strays. It's also where she keeps the boxes she's filled with copies of the paintings that saved her life.

She painted the originals back in the 1940s, when she was a prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp. She painted them at the behest of Joseph Mengele, the notorious Nazi doctor and war criminal known as "The Angel of Death."

By 2008, Dina Babbitt was 85 and an accomplished artist. But she was also fighting a legal battle with the curators of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to get her original paintings back. But the museum wants to keep them as part of its complete display.

In late June 2008, a group of Jewish high school students from New York City planned to deliver a petition to the museum calling for the paintings to be returned. Dina also had the support of hundreds of American artists as well as the United States Congress.

Hers is an amazing story of struggle and survival and Dina Babbitt joined us from her home in Felton, California.


Music

Artist: Ray Montford
CD: A Fragile Balance
Cut: #1 - Honour This Land
Spine: AFB07CD
Label: Softail Records

Listen to Part Two:

 

Dina Babbitt, Auschwitz Artist (Continued)


The sign on the iron gates that frame the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp reads: "Work Sets You Free." The cold irony of that motto is in even sharper relief as we heard the story of Dina Babbitt.

We began our second segment with her recollection of Joseph Mengele, the "Angel of Death," having her paint portraits of some of the Roma prisoners at Auschwitz.


Music

Artist: Chris Velan
Cut: CD2 "Long Way from Home"
CD: "Twitter, Buzz, Howl"
Label: Maple Music
Spine #: MM1101

Last Word - The Hockey Song

On June 9, 2008, we learned that CTV bought the rights to the Hockey Night in Canada theme song. The agreement was reached after talks broke down the previous Friday between composer Dolores Claman and CBC Sports.

But all is not lost. Tom Connors Junior, who manages the career of his dad, stompin' Tom Connors, began floating the idea of licensing the The Hockey Song to The CBC. We closed this episode with part of that song.

Listen to Part Three: