The Current for Feb. 1, 2022
Today on The Current:
As part of our series looking at China, we're talking about the trade and investment wrapped up in the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing — and why some Canadian entrepreneurs say China is still a land of opportunity despite human rights concerns and diplomatic tensions. Matt Galloway talks to Constantine Karayannopoulos, CEO of Neo Performance Materials, which operates several rare earth processing plants in China; Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the China Institute at the University of Alberta; and Sarah Kutulakos, executive director of the Canada China Business Council.
Then, Earlonne Woods was serving 31-years-to-life in prison when he met Nigel Poor, an artist who taught art to inmates. Together, their podcast Ear Hustle brings listeners inside prison for a personal look at life behind bars. They tell us about their friendship and how the podcast came about.
And an escalation in the violence in Yemen is sparking fresh concerns over the humanitarian situation in that country — and bringing up questions about Canada's weapons contract with Saudi Arabia. We talk to Ahmed Mahat, head of mission for Yemen for Médecins Sans Frontières; Thomas Juneau, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and author of the book Le Yémen en guerre (Yemen at war); and Ardi Imseis, assistant professor of law at Queen's University, who spent 12 years as a UN official in the Middle East and has helped investigate Yemen's civil war.
