Conversations That Matter

Ep 422 - Can Genomics Save the Taz? Guest: Carolyn Hogg

Ep 422 - Can Genomics Save the Taz?

Guest: Carolyn Hogg

By Stuart McNish

 

The Tasmanian devil is a less than cuddly carnivorous marsupial with an international reputation, thanks to Looney Tunes. The “Taz” appeared in cartoons in 1954 and was still on television well into the 90s. The devil is important to Tasmania as a tourism attractor because people come from all over the world to see it.

 

In 1941, the devils became officially protected by the government of Australia. Unfortunately, that protection isn’t protecting their health. Since the late 1990s, devil facial tumour disease has dramatically reduced the devil’s numbers and now threaten the survival of the species. In 2008, the devils were declared an endangered species. In an effort to save them, the Australian government started to send Tasmanian devils to zoos around the world as part of the government’s Save the Tasmanian Devil Program.

 

For the past 12 years, Dr. Carolyn Hogg has been working with the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, utilizing genomics as a vital tool to save  this endangered marsupial. Dr. Hogg is a conservation biologist who has been working with threatened species for over twenty five years. Hogg is the science lead for the national Threatened Species Initiative, a program generating genomic resources for Australia’s threatened species, as well as co-lead of the Australasian Wildlife Genomics Group at the University of Sydney. 

 

We invited Dr Hogg to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the role genomics is playing in an all-out effort to save the Tasmanian devil.

Why Canada Needs Immigrants

Ep 421 - Why Canada Needs Immigrants 

Guest: Patrick MacKenzie

By Stuart McNish

 

Even with uncertain economic conditions ahead, Canada’s labour market is still hot – unemployment is running at 4.9%, which is, in essence, full employment. There are more than one million job vacancies across the country. Some sectors, like health care and social services, are seeing vacancies and demand for workers climb higher and higher.

The Immigrant Employment Council of British Columbia develops and promotes solutions for BC employers to attract, hire, and retain immigrant talent that can meet current and future labour force needs. Its employer-focused resources and programs help businesses of all sizes and sectors across BC integrate skilled immigrants into workplaces.

Immigrant Employment Council of BC CEO Patrick MacKenzie recently attended a meeting of high-level international officials in Berlin, where they examined migration issues and policymaking processes across Europe, North America, and Australia.

With Canada on track to bring in a record number of immigrants in 2022, MacKenzie says, “It’s worth asking whether non-humanitarian admissions reflect employer and sector needs, whether immigrants will be set up for success if economic conditions worsen, and how we can make BC the number one destination for the talent we need.”

We invited Patrick MacKenzie to join us for a Conversation That Matters about filling staff shortages with high quality talent from around the world.

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Has Canada Lost Its Way?

Ep 420 - Has Canada Lost Its Way?

Guest: Ken Coates

By Stuart McNish

 

“Canada is a country without a centre, without a purpose”, says Ken Coates, a Distinguished Fellow and Director of the Indigenous Affairs Program at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and a Canada Research Chair at the University of Saskatchewan. It’s a jarring statement, one Coates says is, “an apt description of the state of the country.”

 

Coates says, “on one level, the idea that Canada’s future is uncertain seems absurd. The country routinely places well in global comparisons.” While that is true it also masks the reality of crumbling sectors of the economy, investment in education, investment in natural resources and infrastructure projects that are stalled or mothballed. Coates adds, “Canadians don’t seem to care.”

 

I invited Ken Coates to join me for a Conversation That Matters about Canadians need to turn our attention to the issues that are bubbling to the surface and could dramatically change our quality of life.

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Searching for Innovative Addiction Treatment

Ep 419 - Searching for Innovative Addiction Treatment

Guest: Hirpal Hundial

By Stuart McNish

 

The numbers are staggering – almost five people a day in BC are dying from what the Coroners Service calls “illicit drug toxicity,” also known as opioid deaths. That adds up to 1,095 people from January 1, 2022 to the end of June. 

 

Hirpal Hundial says, “There has been nothing transformative or innovative in the field of addiction medicine to assist people going through detoxification for the last 25 years.” The current solution is to switch users from their opioid of choice to an opioid agonist therapy like suboxone or methadone, both of which research demonstrates produce marginal benefits. Hundial says, “Time is up – we need access to innovative and transformative solutions, otherwise there will continue to be escalating numbers of deaths.”

 

One such alternative is ibogaine, a psychoactive substance that shows promise in the treatment of opioid users. In New Zealand where the use of ibogaine is legal, a study available online at the National Library of Medicine reported that “a single ibogaine treatment reduced opioid withdrawal symptoms and achieved opioid cessation or sustained reduced use in dependent individuals as measured over 12 months.”

 

The report went on to say, “Ibogaine's legal availability in New Zealand may offer improved outcomes where legislation supports treatment providers to work closely with other health professionals.” The same is not true in Canada.

 

We invited Hirpal Hundial, the Director of Clinical Services at Universal Ibogaine, to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the risks and the benefits of ibogaine in addressing one of our biggest health challenges.

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Is Ukraine vs. Russia a Proxy World War?

Ep 418 - Is Ukraine vs. Russia a Proxy World War?

Guest: Jeffrey Simpson

By Stuart McNish

 

Is the Ukraine-Russia war a proxy World War? Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says, “It is!” He contends NATO is “using Ukraine as a battering ram against the Russian state.” He says, “Russia is the target of one of the most ruthless proxy wars in modern history.”

 

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, in a Washington Post article, confirmed that America’s goal is to “‘weaken’ Russia,” saying that “the only way to deal with a rogue regime is to reduce its capacity for harm.”

 

1. Anthony Pfaff, a Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council, wrote, “With Russia already believing the war is effectively a battle against the West and NATO, there is the possibility that a potential Russian defeat could motivate Putin to expand the conflict by attacking NATO countries.”

 

More than six months into the conflict, Russian casualties continue to mount and the impact of the war is being felt in countries around the world. Cut off from normal trade, Russia has turned to another pariah state – North Korea – for weapons. This, in addition to Iranian drone purchases, shows sanctions are hurting Moscow. As a member of the Security Council at the UN, will the purchase of weapons from North Korea jeopardize Russia’s status? Will the Russian invasion of Ukraine escalate from a proxy war to a world war, or is it a global conflict already?

 

We invited Jeffrey Simpson to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the expanding risks associated with Putin’s determination to reclaim the Soviet Empire.

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A New Spirit of Capitalism

Ep 417 - A New Spirit of Capitalism

Guest: Drew Erdmann

By Stuart McNish

 

“Even before the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09, the excesses of unchecked capitalism were manifest – what once seemed like a virtuous drive to maximise returns on investment for everyone came to seem like a race to the bottom. The wealthy got increasingly wealthy, workers’ wages stagnated, the environment suffered, and parts of many countries were left behind,” states a new book published by the Trilateral Commission, “A New Spirit of Capitalism.”

 

It is clearly time for a reset. The book’s authors go on to say, “The problems got harder to ignore once the first bubble popped.” And then came COVID-19 – a pandemic “which exposed weaknesses in globalisation’s relentless pursuit of low cost production; the crisis highlighted instead the value of supply chain security and resilience, and a collaboration between state and business,” emphasises co-author Drew Erdmann.

 

Erdmann goes on to point out, “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine demonstrates state and business can and do work together to mobilise assets and economies to serve strategic objectives.”

 

We invited Drew Erdmann to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the role and manner in which a “New Spirit of Capitalism” can address the issues of our times.

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BC Legends

Ep 416 - BC Legends

Guest: Carole Taylor

By Stuart McNish

 

“British Columbia is rich with people of legendary status – people who looked the hardships of life in the eye and stared them down,” says Carole Taylor.  “Along the way, the tales of their seemingly impossible feats became folklore. In other words, they are larger than life.”

 

Carole Taylor, a legend in her own right, set out to document BC’s living legends. She says, “I wanted to ensure we recognized and preserved the stories of these extraordinary women and men from them. I wanted to capture their personalities, their drive, their enthusiasm and great devotions.”

 

Taylor interviews artists, businesspeople, social advocates, environmentalists – along with others like Doug and Diane Clement, who convinced us to get off the couch and move; Ratana and Aaron Stephens, who guided us to consume organic food; Chief Dr. Robert Joseph, who showed us the path to reconciliation; and Jody Wilson-Raybould, who showed us what courage looks like when standing up to a Prime Minister.

 

Taylor says, “I focused on 26 extraordinary people who have contributed to our province and their reach has been global. These are the people Teddy Roosevelt was talking about, whose ‘faces are marred by dust and sweat and blood. People who err, who come up short time and again.’ Jimmy Pattison, Brandt Louie, Dempsey Bob and Joe Segal are just a few of the BC Legends I sit down with this fall.”

 

We invited the host of “BC Legends with Carole Taylor” to join us for a Conversation That Matters about why preserving the stories of our legends is a gift to future generations – and future legends.

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Is paper the right environmental choice?

Ep 415 - Is paper the right environmental choice?

Guest:Dr. Chris DeArmitt

By Stuart McNish

 

On June 22nd of 2022, the Government of Canada introduced its “Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations,” legislation that states that plastic checkout grocery bags are considered single-use if the bag breaks or tears if “used to carry 10 kilograms over a distance of 53 metres 100 times.”  A plastic straw is considered single-use if after washing it 100 times in a dishwasher, it changes shape. Does that make the straw or the bag a bad environmental choice? A paper straw that may survive a single use is not considered a bad environmental choice.

 

Plastic knives and forks are treated the same way if, after 100 washes, they change shape – then they are considered single-use and a bad choice. The day before recording this conversation, two paper catalogues arrived in the mail: unsolicited and unneeded. They won’t be used – is that a bad environmental choice? 

 

“When it comes to banning single-use, we might be better off focusing on paper rather than plastic,” says leading plastics scientist Dr. Chris DeArmitt. He is the author of “Phantom Plastics,” a book that examines the prevailing thoughts about plastics. He points to the Bank of Canada, which studied plastic versus paper for the country's money and the decision was to print plastic money rather than paper because it was the better environmental choice.

 

Heresy, you say! How can that be? DeArmitt claims, “Life cycle analysis is the answer. Plastic money has seven times the lifespan of paper money.” When looking at the total impact of paper money, the carbon footprint and environmental costs far exceed that of plastic. DeArmitt starts by pointing to the weight of paper, saying, “The extra fuel required to transport paper over plastic is just one element in the life cycle analysis of money. And then add in the impact of harvesting trees, mashing them into pulp and paper and the limited lifespan.” And he says, “It all adds up to plastic being the best choice.”

 

DeArmitt continues, “Litter is created by people who can stop doing that by making better choices… When you attach value to plastic, it does not clog drains or end up in the sewer. The proof of that is in money. There are more than eight billion plastic bank notes printed each year and they do not get discarded.”

 

We invited Dr Chris DeArmitt to join us for a Conversation That Matters about plastics, their myths and their misconceptions.

 

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Fighting for Truth and Justice

Ep 414  - Fighting for Truth and Justice

Guest: Matthew Caruana Galizia

By Stuart McNish

 

 

In the afternoon hours of October 16th 2017 in Bidnija, Malta, the car of investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia was ripped apart by a powerful bomb. “My mother had to go to the bank, she left the house and then I heard the explosion,” said Matthew Caruana Galizia in an interview for the Allard Prize for International Integrity. His mother was a fearless Maltese journalist who was assassinated for ceaselessly uncovering corruption in her country. Her car was found more than a city block from the ignition point of the blast. It was a powerful message to anyone who dared to expose corruption at the highest level in Malta.

 

In recent news, one of the men accused on the bombing has confessed saying, had he known who she was he would have asked for money to kill her. According to “The Guardian”, George Degiorgio said, “if I knew, I would have gone for 10 million, not 150,000” Euros. He went on to say, “for me it was just business. Of course I feel sorry.”

 

When the Panama Papers were released, Caruana Galizia traced millions of dollars back to the power elite in Malta. Despite increasing intimidation and threats she dug into the details of the money and those behind it. Her blog was extremely popular and had subscription rates that eclipsed the major media outlets in the country.

 

Matthew says, “Journalists in Malta were expected to cover up for powerful people, to partake in the culture of silence, and my mother refused to do that.  This put her in an ultra minority.” Fellow Maltese blogger Manuel Delia says, “When political parties are threatened by a journalist, they will isolate them, dehumanize them. In the case of Daphne, they will demonise her.” In an interview before her death Daphne said, “They have made me into what is in effect a national scapegoat.” 

 

Daphne Caruana Galizia is the posthumous co-winner of the Peter A. Allard Prize For International Integrity, which was awarded in Vancouver on October 21, 2020. We invited her son Matthew to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the unveiling of corruption and the high price Daphne paid for her brave pursuit of the truth.

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Do Universities Matter?

Ep 413 - Do Universities Matter?

Guest: Joy Johnson

By Stuart McNish

If knowledge is empowerment, does the place where you garner that knowledge matter? “The answer is yes, it does matter,” says Joy Johnson, the President of Simon Fraser University. Johnson continues by noting, “a university degree carries with it exceptional career prospects, higher pay and it opens a person’s mind to the realm of the possible and pushes the boundaries of the seemingly impossible.”

 

There are many careers that are simply unattainable without a university degree such as in health, the sciences, technology, business, law and education. There is also a perception that universities are a place where you can explore ideas from a variety of perspectives and that you are free to do so. 

 

Stuart McNish invited Joy Johnson, the President of Simon Fraser University, to join him for a Conversation That Matters about the complex, diverse, and critical role of universities in our economy and society.

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