The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - The Past Keeps Trickling Into The Present.

Episode Date: June 24, 2021

Some opening thoughts on the latest tragic news from our history of residential schools.Then a mini Thursday Potpurri --- the devices that monitor your health, and the man behind the Zapruder film.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. More tragic news about our past as it trickles into the present. Acana Pet Food, where every ingredient matters. Some companies like to brag about their first ingredient, but the Acana Pet Food team is proud of their entire bag. That's because every recipe has been thoughtfully sourced and carefully crafted with the highest quality ingredients, starting with quality animal ingredients balanced with whole fruits and vegetables. Akana pet foods are rich in the protein and nutrients your dog or cat needs to feel and look their best. Available in grain-free, healthy grains, and singles for sensitive dogs.

Akana. Go beyond the first ingredient. Beyond the First Ingredient. You know, Justice Murray Sinclair warned us there would be more. National Chief Perry Bellegarde warned us there would be more. Various officials from governments warned us there would be more. And residential school survivors warned us there would be more. All this coming just weeks after the news hit about the Kamloops unmarked graves, 215 of them, near the former residential school in Kamloops. And now last night, more news breaks from Saskatchewan. The details are still coming in and I'm not going to dwell on this issue until we have a much better idea of exactly what's known so far. But it's clear, at least from the initial stories, that the numbers are far greater than they were in Kamloops,

and this isn't the end. As I said, Justice Murray Sinclair warned us in his report years ago now, six years ago, that it was clear that there were literally thousands of kids who had died in residential schools and were buried outside residential schools in different parts of the country. So now we're starting to find out where and how many. And what still has to be determined is why and how.

Some of the facts that are clear and are known are awful. But as I said, we'll wait for more information. And your regular newscasts are going to have it all day today, and tomorrow, I'm sure. We'll meet for more information and try and have a fuller discussion. We talked to Barry Belgard a couple of weeks ago. We've talked to others in the time being,

and we will talk to more. All this comes at a time, you know, literally days before Canada Day. And many people and communities and cities and town councils and mayors are trying to determine, should we go ahead with Canada Day celebrations? Doesn't it feel a little awkward to be celebrating the country we all love at a time like this? Both this story and, of course, the London, Ontario story. It is a difficult time for all of us. And it's a difficult time to make that decision. And I think even more, what you're going to see in the next 24, 48 hours, or even more communities are going to say, whoa, how do we do this? How do we do this responsibly? How do we do this carefully? How do we do this and recognize the nature of what we're discovering,

discovering about our past and how it has continued to leak into our present with more and more knowledge of what has happened. So we will, like everybody else, stay on this story and try to find ways to discuss it in a way that, I was going to say makes sense. That doesn't sound right because I don't know how you make sense of this. But discuss it in a way that can bring as much information to the forefront so we can make decisions individually and as communities and governments about how to move forward. So on that note, there are a couple of other things I want to talk about today,

and I will, but keeping in mind, this story doesn't go away. You can't sweep this one under the rug. That's clearly what was done for decades. It can't be that way anymore. It shouldn't be, and it won't be. All right, quick break, and then we're back. does the name Darnella Frazier mean anything to you Darnella Frazier. Well, Darnella Frazier is or was 17 years old last year when she pulled out her cell phone and started recording what was going on in front of her. And it may well now be at this moment the most famous amateur shot video in the world.

What Darnella Frazier witnessed and recorded was the murder of George Floyd. And that piece of video, you know, viral isn't the right word for it. It has literally been seen everywhere in the world, and it was part and a major part of the conviction of the Minneapolis police officer who is about to be sentenced for the murder of George Floyd. So Darnella Frazier will be a name that lives

in the history of amateur video. Now before Darnella Frazier, what was, to you, what was the most famous piece of amateur shot video? And who shot it? Now, I don't remember who shot the Rodney King video. Don't remember that, but that was pretty important at its moment. But to me, the most famous piece of amateur video was shot by a fellow by the name of Abraham Sapruder.

The Sapruder film. And I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about. Abraham Zapruder, on November 22, 1963, was standing in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. And he had his little kind of hand-cranked movie camera. I don't know, was it Super 8, something like that. It was certainly 8mm. And he was standing in Dealey Plaza, and it was a big day.

It was an exciting day for the city, because President John Kennedy was in town. He was making a visit. And part of that visit was his drive through downtown Dallas on the way to give a speech. And he was in a limousine, open-topped. I think it was the last time they used an open-topped limousine for a U.S. president. He was in the back seat with his wife Jackie,

and in the front seat was the vice president. No, I'm sorry, not the vice president. In the front seat was the governor of Texas, John Connolly. Anyway, when they rounded the corner right in front of Abraham Supruder, whose camera was rolling, some shots rang out. Rounded the corner onto Elm Street, in front of the Texas School Book Depository, some shots rang out.

Fired from one of the top floors of the School Book Depository building by Lee Harvey Oswald. And it was in that moment that John Kennedy was assassinated, and it was all on film. Sapruder had it recorded in his camera. And sort of word got out that there was this old guy who had been filming this moment, because it wasn't live on television.

Nobody else saw it. There were a number of still shots, but here was film, what became known as the Zapruder film. So word got out that there was this guy who had film. And sitting in the, when he was in their Los Angeles office of Life magazine, that night was a fellow by the name of Richard Stolle. Now, Richard got word from his Dallas freelancer that there was somebody by the name of Supruder in Dallas who had apparently shot this on film. And so Richard Stoll, he did what a journalist does.

He pulled out the phone book. Supruder is not a common name. It's not like Smith. He looked up in the Dallas phone book, and bingo, there was Abraham Sapruder. He called him that night, November 22nd, and said,

my name's Richard Stolle. I work for Life magazine, and I hear you were recording this. And Sbrooder says, yeah, that's right. And Stolle says, I'm on my way to Dallas. When can we talk? When can we meet? I'd love to talk to you about your film.

And Sbrooder says, well, how about 9 o'clock tomorrow morning? So Stolle, the reporter that he was, arrives at 8 o'clock. He didn't want to take any chances. He gets there, and already there's a bunch of people outside, other journalists who are trying to make a deal with Sapruder, but Sapruder had made a promise that he was going to talk to Richard Stolle. And they got into Sapruder's house, and Sapruder turned out to like Stolle, found him honest and straightforward and courteous and the whole bit.

And they cut a deal. And that original deal doesn't sound like much now, but it was a heck of a lot of money then it was fifty thousand dollars that stally promised on behalf of life for the print rights to the video so in other words like frame by frame they made an agreement that on one particular frame I think it's so 313 frame 313

said now you can't use that one because that was the one that actually shows the impact shot and basically John Kennedy's head literally exploding. 26 seconds long is the film. That frame they agreed not to use. Then Stolle later negotiated full rights, Six seconds long was the film. That frame they agreed not to use.

Then Stolle later negotiated full rights, so video rights as well, for $150,000. Now, the deal was they never showed that one particular frame, at least initially. I think it was 12 years was the delay before they actually showed it. When they showed it, people were absolutely shocked. It kind of destroyed some of the conspiracy theories that were out there, and it added to others. Anyway, my story's not about the Subruder film. It's really about Richard Stolle, because Stolle then had a huge impact on,

well, on society in many ways. Because not only had he negotiated the Subruder deal, which was a huge thing for Life magazine, it was the heyday of Life magazine. It was a weekly at that time. But after a few years, the Time Life people came to Stolle and they said, you know, we want to try something different.

One of the most successful parts of the weekly Time magazine is the little people section. It's kind of like one page or part of one page where it would highlight sort of things that are going on with particular people, kind of a celebrity page. We want to make that its own magazine and we'll call it People Magazine.

And Richard Stolle said, I'm in. Count me in. I'm there. And he was the founding editor of People Magazine. So here's a guy who had an enormous impact on the American journalism scene. Not only had he been part of bringing the Supruder film to America's attention the most definitive footage of what actually happened on November 22nd 1963

and the very kind of basic journalism way that he chased it down, you know, phoning getting the name out of the phone book phoning the guy, making a deal to meet him getting there an hour early just to make sure, and then cutting the deal on the spot, on the day. It's pretty impressive. But then, you know, you're going to be knowing your life in journalism circles for that. But then he says, okay, I'm going one more. you're going to be knowing your life in journalism circles for that.

But then he says, okay, I'm going one more. I'm going to develop the most popular magazine in America. And that became People magazine. And in some ways, you can argue about the impact of this because it wasn't exactly fluff journalism, but it wasn't hard journalism either. And it began the trend that we started to witness in magazines and papers and television and to some degree radio of the move towards celebrity.

That's what happened. That was the impact of People magazine. So why is all this talk today about Richard Stolle? Well, Richard Stolle passed away. June 16th, at a hospital in Evanston, Illinois. He was 92. But his name branded

into the history of American journalism on two fronts. You know, you don't hear about Richard Stolle when you talk about the Sabruder film. You don't hear about Richard Stolle when you talk about the Subruder film. You don't hear about Richard Stolle when you talk about People magazine.

But when you scratch a little bit, it's all there. It's all there. It's him. He's the man. He's the guy. Okay, here's my other story. Last year when the pandemic started, it wasn't long, I'd say it was a couple of weeks after the pandemic started, that my son came to me. We were watching, I think we were watching an NBA game.

Yeah, we were watching a National Basketball Association game. I think the Raptors were playing. I guess it wasn't, it was when they started playing again. Remember, and they were in kind of a bubble. They were training. They were sort of getting ready. They were in that bubble in wherever it was, in Florida, in Orlando or somewhere.

And Willie says, look at these guys. They are all wearing the same ring. And I said, yeah, okay. And he says, you know what that ring is? It's called an aura or an aura ring. It comes from Europe. It's a European manufacturer of it.

I said, okay, why do I care? And he said, it's kind of a health ring. And all the NBA teams have bought them for their players because they kind of give you a heads up that maybe something's not right in your body. It doesn't mean it predicts you've got COVID, but it starts to signal that you may have a problem. And I said, well, a ring? What is it?

Something kind of like hokey pokey, you know, thing? He said, no, no, no. There are sensors in the ring that monitor a lot of different things in your body. Your heart rate? I said, there's lots of things that do that it says no but it goes on it you know it monitors your sleep not just how long you sleep but your sleep patterns and rapid eye movement and all this stuff and um heart heart rate but heart

rate variability as well it measures the number of steps you take every day it does a whole bunch of things and it mixes it together to give you an overall rating oh it also monitors your your temperature your body temperature not like what they do in the airport scanner things, but it monitors your body temperature over time, and it comes up with what your particular range is, and it gives you warning if you depart from that, either up or down, by 1.8 degrees.

And all these things together are like an early warning system. So you know where this is leading, right? Both Willie and I have those rings. You know, we figured, okay, we've got to be careful. We've got to get these. And we did. And, you know, I use mine every day. When I wake up in the morning, I go through all the data

and try to figure out what exactly it's telling me. so I found it interesting this week to read, once again, on theverge.com. We've had some interesting stuff out of theverge.com in the last couple of weeks. A number of things. The guy who, the CEO of Oura, it's O-U-R-A. I'm not sure, I'm not exactly sure the correct way it's pronounced, but Oura. The CEO is a fellow by the name of Harpreet Rai. Harpreet Rai. He often tells a story about a March 2020 Facebook post.

So this was, you know, as the pandemic started. An Oura Ring user posted that the device said that his overall health score had dropped below his normal level, which prompted him to get tested for COVID-19. And the test ended up being positive. The company heard from other users too. So this ring was kind of out there before COVID, right? It was during that period when COVID started that they started to think there may be something about this combination of stats that this ring comes up with

that can give you a sense of kind of where your body is as as rye says it's just like the warning light for your car take it into the mechanic we don't know what's wrong but something looks off i think that's where the industry is heading and when he says the industry is heading he's not kidding because there's far more than Aura that are doing this. Aura may be one of the most sophisticated ones because it tracks a lot of data. You've got to charge this thing up every four or five days. And there are little sensors on the inside of the ring

that touch your body and and they come up with all this data but you know here are some of the some of the things some of the other devices that work fitbit you know fitbit's been around for a while started off very basic just i think it was when it first came out it just did steps the number of steps a day you take but now it it does a lot of stuff and it's more sophisticated than the way it looks and the whole the whole nine yards um so one study published in early 2020 found that data from fitbits could predict state-level trends in flu-like illnesses. Other research found that wearable devices could detect signs of Lyme disease.

A research team at Mount Sinai Health System in New York used wearables to predict disease flare-ups in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases, like Crohn's disease, which is terrible for those who are afflicted with it. Research showed that Apple Watches could detect changes in the heart rate variability of healthcare workers up to seven days before they were diagnosed with COVID-19. Heart rate variability, which tracks the time between heartbeats, is a good proxy for how the nervous system is working. Often it seems to be very telling, said one researcher,

of something going on in the body even before people realize something is going on in the body. Other types of data are useful. Stanford University study found that heart rate, daily steps, and time of sleep as measured by smartwatches changed in a small group of users before they developed symptoms of COVID-19. So this has turned into a real industry, right? And has become popular and like everything else in today's world. You don't have to attach a huge computer to your body to do all this.

It can be as simple as a watch or a ring or a little thing that sits on your belt. I mean, there are lots of different ways these work. Anyway, you can go to theverge.com. You can find this article. I wonder what's it called here so you know how to look it up. The next step for wearables could be illness warning lights i think it's important to uh to keep in mind the conclusion here too though um in the case of the ring the ring gives users a readiness score which incorporates metrics like sleep quality heart rate body temperature if it detects that someone's body temperature is elevated, it gives people the option to pause activity goals and enter a rest mode. Because the ring tells you what your activity

should be based on all your past performances and your past stats. But it gives you that option. If things start to look, hey, something's not right here, it tells you to pause on your activity. That's the product's warning light, says CEO Rye. He thinks it'll be the main approach for the next few years. As he says, this is important, these devices cannot diagnose or treat. But what they can do is say that something's a little bit off in your baseline.

So you should probably want to monitor things a little more carefully. So there you go. And that's not just justification for me buying this ring and Willie having one too. It's actually been a kind of a comfort to look and certainly be able to tell when you're off, when you're like you haven't been doing enough, because it tells you. Don't you think you might want to get up and walk around a little bit? You'll get a little,

well, you know, it's obviously it's hooked up to your smartphone. It'll give you a little warning. Okay, let's look ahead, because remember this end of this week we're into the uh pause mode a bit of a hiatus for the bridge we will always be here on wednesdays uh with smoke mirrors and the truth through the summer we figure bruce and i figure the election will be called somewhere around the middle of August. And if that's the case, we'll certainly be back by then. And so will Good Talk with Chantal Hébert. That'll be back as well. In the meantime, I told you, I think I told you last week

that I put in a request for Aaron O'Toole. Well, there'd been, and I don't know whether you've noticed this lately, but I certainly have, there'd been stuff in my account that for some unknown reason went into spam or into the junk mail. And I didn't see it when it was initially sent. Anyway, the O'Toole people got back to me just yesterday or the day before yesterday and said, hey, we're in. We'd love to do a feature interview. So we're just trying to arrange scheduling on that. And hopefully that'll come up in the next week or two. And as soon as we've nailed down a date, we'll let you know.

So you can plan accordingly. So we'll look forward to doing that interview. And I think that I might want to try and do something special around this whole issue of the discoveries at residential schools. And so I've got a couple of ideas on that, and hopefully I can let you know maybe as early as tomorrow when that might happen. So obviously there are things coming up, and while we're on hiatus, we're going to be close

and always around when something of importance pops up. So that's it for this Thursday. Tomorrow is the weekend special. If you've got something you want to say, you better get it into me now. And we'll wrap that up on tomorrow's final weekend special for the next little while. I'm Peter Mansbridge. This has been The Bridge. Thanks so much for listening.

It's always a treat talking to you, and we'll talk to you again tomorrow. Thank you.