The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - The Poilievre Win and a Lot More

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

A few comments about the Poilievre win, the royal weekend of mourning, the Ukraine developments, and then a special feature interview.  Thomas Sadowski is a face you'll recognize because of his work on television, movies and theatre.  But the work he may be proudest of is his humanitarian work and today he has a stark warning about an impending disaster facing certain countries as a result of food shortages.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. It's Monday. After a big weekend, we've got a big show because it's a big week coming up and it's going to start with a big interview. You like big? Well, right here on The Bridge. You're listening on Sirius XM, channel 167, Canada Talks, or on your favorite podcast platform. Well, as I said, we've got a big interview today. It's a big interview because it's about an issue that you should really be concerned about. Something you should be thinking about. And we'll get you thinking in a few minutes time when I introduce our guest for this day.

But first of all, we've got lots to cover in terms of making a few points about some of the developments that happened over the weekend. Because it was a pretty interesting weekend on a lot of fronts. Let's start off domestically. After much hype for months now, the Conservatives made their decision. And if you listened to Good Talk on Friday, we kept cautioning. Now, you've got to be careful. The assumption is Pierre Palliev is going to win, but you never know what might happen. You never know in these leadership conventions with the different systems that are used, there can be surprises. No surprise. No surprise. This was an overwhelming win,

unlike almost any other leadership convention we've witnessed. I mean, there were, after all, four and a times five candidates in this race. So the thought that somebody could win a majority of votes in the first ballot was always a question mark because that doesn't always happen. It's happened before, you know, somebody getting 51, 52, maybe 55% of the vote and being declared the winner in the first go-round. But what we witnessed over the weekend was a convincing, overwhelming vote for Pierre Polyev. 68%, okay, almost 70% of the first ballot vote went for Polyev.

That is a huge win. It is basically a thundering win for Polyev. And what does it mean? Well, it means in some ways, you know, all this talk about, and we always hear this at different conventions, all the talk about that leader, the new leader, has to reach out and unify the party because the party's split and, you know, they're divided loyalties and how are they ever going to put these different elements of the party together after the things they've said about each other.

That doesn't apply to the extent that it has in the past this time. Because the party was unified on the vote. You can argue about what you think about Pierre Polyev and about some of the things he said. You cannot argue about the fact that he came away from that vote on Saturday overwhelmingly supported by the majority of the party, the big majority of the party. So while keeping the party unified is always an issue for any party at any time, it's less of an issue coming out of this weekend than it could have been if it had been a much closer vote. So that's important. about is he going to begin to pivot away from some of the things he said

during the campaign to a more widely supported view in terms of the Canadian people. He did a little bit of that on Saturday. But from what I saw, he didn't do a lot of it. He didn't sort of stray from his core beliefs. And some of those core beliefs are ones that the liberals, the new Democrats, and anybody who's not a conservative is going to go after. You know, the firing of the governor of the Bank of Canada, the applause for cryptocurrency a number of different things will create some opposition will he move away from those i'm sure that he probably will move away from some of those

in some degree over the next months but he didn't rush away from them and everything indicated over the weekend, at least to me, that he's not going anywhere on those core beliefs. A brief word about Jean Charest. This is a person who's been a major figure on the Canadian political landscape for the last 35 years. Former Conservative Cabinet Minister, former Conservative leader, former Quebec Premier.

Part of the so-called saviour of the country in the late 90s after the Quebec referendum of 1995. He was humiliated. 16%. He was second, but 16%. Really? Jean Charest?

Even those who thought he was going to lose didn't think he'd get to lose that bad. I talked to a major backroom conservative over the weekend after the vote who said he'd pleaded with Charest not to run, that this was the likely outcome. But Charest believed that he could do something and he felt he should do something.

Well, he leaves after the weekend saying that he will drop out of public life and go back into the private sector, back into a law office in Quebec. And it's, you know, if that was his last political moment, it wasn't a good one to leave on. It was really, as I said, it was humiliating. All right, away from domestic politics and into the couple of comments on the royal coverage over the weekend.

You know, after Friday, after two days of wall-to-wall coverage, I thought, you know what, I don't think I can watch much more of this, if any. But then on the weekend, I found myself watching a lot. Not necessarily the live coverage, which had a certain predictability to it. It was kind of like, dare I say it, watching the OJ Simpson thing in rerun because it was helicopter shots of a vehicle. That's not what I was glued on. I was glued on the documentaries that were running on various channels. And in most cases, many of the specialty channels were running royal documentaries.

And, you know, I consider myself fairly well versed in the royal story and in the history of the royals. And really, that's what the royals are all about, this kind of magic mix of fairy tale and history. And so, you know, I watched a lot of these, and I'd learned things either I'd forgotten or didn't know about the royal family and about Queen Elizabeth in particular, and I came away from the weekend still marveling

at what a remarkable woman she was, and I think you can feel that way no matter whether you believe in the monarchy or not. Whether you want the monarchy abolished or not. You only have to look at Scotland yesterday. The huge crowds that turned out in the drive from Balmoral through Aberdeen and Dundee down to Edinburgh. And in every little town, there were people lining the streets.

And then in Edinburgh, it was like party time. There were thousands and thousands and thousands of people lining the streets. Now, this is Scotland. Scotland, a country that its Prime Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, its First Minister, wants there to be another referendum next year on independence from Britain. Now, that may not take away from the feeling of many Scots that yes there should be independence

those crowds don't take away necessarily from that but they show this deep and abiding respect for this remarkable woman I'm not sure exactly what it is that we're watching happening over these days leading to the funeral a week from today. Because it's not just, you know, that her image is on the money and the stamps and there are pictures of her everywhere. Most photographed women in the world, they say.

Best known person in the world, they say. It's something about the fact that she's been a constant for us, no matter where we live. This phrase about Elizabeth the Great, the phrase about queen of the world, that no matter where you were in the world, you were thinking of her over these past few days. No matter what language you spoke, no matter what culture you had,

no matter whether you had your own monarch, for so many people around the world, she was the queen. And the last thing I'd say about the royals, and this is something that happens, you know, you have an election and somebody's elected to the top post, you know, it could be the mayor, the premier, the prime minister, the president. And when they come out of sort of nowhere to become that figurehead, you go, I can't imagine that person ever being the leader. Then suddenly they are the leader,

and you see them kind of differently. And I found myself looking at that way at Charles over the weekend, that within a matter of 48 hours, he kind of grew into this figure that he wasn't before the 48 hours. I mean, I've met Charles. I've talked to Charles. Interesting guy, nice guy, kind of an awkward guy. But suddenly, now, he kind of looks like a king. You know, he has the body language. He has the way he talks to people, the way he makes them feel comfortable. I still don't know how this is going to play out for him, for his family. But I'll tell you, something's changed in the way at least I look at him.

It'll be interesting to see whether that makes a difference, whether that matters. And the third thing that happened on the weekend is the incredible story that's unfolding in Ukraine. With the Ukrainian army taking the offensive into areas the Russians thought they had wrapped up. And now all the military experts around the world are trying to determine, is this, could this be it for Russia?

Well, you'll be happy to know that Brian Stewart will join us tomorrow in his regular, what was regular in the spring, his regular Tuesday appearance to tell us what we should know, what we should be thinking about in terms of the story in Ukraine. Brian was in Europe all last week, so it'll be interesting to see what he has to say. So Brian Stewart joins us again tomorrow. By popular demand, I might add, I've had a lot of mail in the last few days

from people saying, where's Brian Stewart? When are you going to get Brian Stewart back on? Well, he'll be back on tomorrow. And it's in a way talking about the impact of Ukraine that is the reason for our special guest today. And we're going to get to that right after this. And welcome back. Peter Mansbridge here on The Bridge. You're listening on Sirius XM channel 167 Canada Talks or on your favorite podcast platform.

We're happy to have you with us. I'm in Toronto today. And Toronto is the site this week of the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF as it's called, and not just here but literally around the world, it has become this little film festival it could, has become one of the most important film festivals in the world. that in terms of whatever the event may be tiff actually is that and that's why you know big stars from the film industry come to tiff each year steven steel spielberg was here yesterday um to name you know just one i have some kind of personal bias which i should declare or conflict of interest more um there was a film that debuted over the weekend on Saturday, late Saturday afternoon, called Black Ice. And it's about hockey. And it's about the impact of colored hockey,

the Colored Hockey League, that was formed in Canada in the late 1800s, which very few people seem to know about. I didn't know about it, and the impact it had, and tracing it through the whole issue of racism in hockey, not in the past, but in the present. And it is a very powerful film. It's a very important film. And I would strongly suggest,

if you have the opportunity to either see it at this festival, or it'll come up on Crave, it'll come up on TSN, it's going to be shown around the world. It's already being shown now around the world. It's a really important film, especially at a time when we're talking about hockey and some of the issues surrounding hockey. This is an issue.

And I, as I said, I suggest you watch it. And the reason it's conflict of interest for me is my son, Will, who helps out on this podcast. His primary job is working for the film production company and the media production company that is responsible for Black Ice. And that's how I was at the premiere on Saturday, thanks to Willie. And there were some, you know, there were lots of people there. You know, P.K. Subban, Nazem Kadri, Akeem Alou, Matt Dumba, a lot of players who were part of this production. And they told their stories in it. But there's more than that. It's more than

just the NHL players. It's the junior players. And some of their stories are just riveting and emotional. It's an important film. Okay, I'm not talking anymore about black guys. I want to ask you to think for a minute about this name, Thomas Sadowski. That name ring a bell to you? He is a movie star. He's a TV star. He's a Broadway star. He's all of those things. But the name may not be familiar to you.

The face certainly would. Because he's been in so many films and productions. And if you like the live theater and you go to New York and you go to Broadway, you're going to see Thomas Sadowski. Well, there's more to Thomas Sadowski than his acting abilities, which are absolutely first rate. He was here in Toronto this weekend because his latest film, Devotion, which is a story about the forgotten war, the Korean War, a war where hundreds of Canadians died in the early 1950s.

But his film is about the Korean War. But that's not what I wanted to talk to him about. Because Tom Sadowski is somebody who takes humanitarian causes seriously. And he's particularly worried about one right now. And that's the basis of our conversation. So let's get at it. Here it is. My conversation with Thomas Sadowski.

Now, one only has to look at all your film credits and your TV credits to know that you're a busy guy. But aside from being on set and worrying about all that aspect of your life, you spend a lot of time on humanitarian causes. And I want to know where that comes from. What got you started in that concern? You know, I think that my great awakening happened with Srebrenica, actually. I was a teenager when all of that started happening over there and the conflict in the Balkans. And I remember very clearly hearing about what had happened in Srebrenica as UN peacekeepers. And NATO stood by and allowed a slaughter of innocent people to happen. And I, up until that point, I think that I, the nature of how I had grown up or where I was growing up had been such that I, you know, you, you were led to believe that when the UN or when NATO,

and certainly when anybody affiliated with the United States military was sent to a place that only good things were going to come out of it. And so I think that that was the moment that I sort of woke up to a number of horrors in the world and started paying more attention. You know, I was fortunate enough to have a grandmother who was incredibly interested in world affairs, but specifically in how to make the world a better place in her own sort of small section of the world. And it just inspired in me care. You know, I was raised at the tail end of apartheid South Africa, you know, and when people started talking about how we as a country and we as a people, more specifically as individuals within a society can start making a difference, not only within our own society, but for the greater good of humanity,

we can start organizing here to affect over there. It really resonated with me as a kid. And it started a lifelong sort of passion in terms of attempting to just find a way to help make the world a slightly better place. And I've been fortunate enough to work with some pretty extraordinary organizations over the course of my life and work with a group, a couple of them now, that I'm very proud to represent, very proud of the work that they're doing, as difficult and heartbreaking and, you know, Sisyphean as it is uh it is uh it gives me a sense of uh having some sort of purpose uh in in the world outside of you know my own little sphere and um i just my experience with human beings with people

has always been that if you've given the opportunity to do some positive good, when they're handed the facts and the figures and, and the real access to their compassion is touched that the vast majority of people are more than happy to jump in in any way that possibly can to do some good in this world. And I'm, I'm honored to be able to sort of carry the message for a number of these organizations. One of which is with our friend,

Sam nut at a world child, a at War Child Canada, War Child US. Where is your focus right now? What do you worry about now? Where are you trying to make a difference now? Well, I think the world is potentially unaware of something truly cataclysmic that is rapidly approaching, and that is going to be a historic scourge of food insecurity. I mean, you're already talking about somewhere around 830 million people, it's estimated are going, going to bed hungry, every night, you're talking about an estimated close to 350 million people in this world who are suffering through acute food insecurity. Now, for for folks who don't know exactly what that entails, acute food insecurity. Now, for folks who don't know exactly what that entails, acute food insecurity

is when an individual, their life and livelihood is in imminent danger because of lack of nourishment. So you're talking about orders of degrees of magnitude greater than the, on shocking levels. And that reality is sparked by a refugee and internally displaced person's situation that is of historic proportions. You now have the war in ukraine which is the bread basket of an extraordinary part of the world the floods in pakistan um you know there is uh not to mention the the massive amount of conflict in these already suffering um areas that are going to make getting humanitarian aid into these places even more dramatically difficult. The country of Yemen by itself is suffering through a period of time that, frankly,

beggars the worst of nightmares. It's that area right now, I think that is, it is sounding the most out and add in, of course, the ravages of climate change to all of that as well. That's the area right now, I think that, that is, that keeps me up at night, frankly, I think that we are, we're about to enter a period of time of human suffering that most folks, I think, are unfortunately unaware of. And when the images and things start coming out, when the reality starts hitting, because those numbers, when you talk about 830 million or 350 million you know those those numbers are they're staggering you know you you talk about 50 million people living on on the edge of famine literally on the edge of famine 50 million that's the population of canada no that's every single living human being in the entire country of Canada. Plus another thousand million. So why isn't the world listening? I mean, this is cataclysmic stuff you're talking about.

And there have been those who've been trying to sound the alarm, especially through this year. Ukraine, as you mentioned, has obviously taken a lot of attention and a lot of donation money and a lot of work going into trying to help that population. But at the same time, these warnings have been going out, but it's almost as if nobody's listening. Well, I think that very well may be the case uh the sad reality is that these are not um standalone problems uh when you're dealing with you know all the additional things that are happening in the world the genocide that's

happening in myanmar um you know you you're dealing with very important and worthwhile social justice conversations that are happening with indigenous populations and, you know, and current governments. You're dealing with the things that are happening in Venezuela and South America. There's a lot that is going on. So, yes, column space, as it were, gets eaten up pretty quickly. Now you're also dealing with the reality that I think that, you know, and one of the things that it's, first of all, backtrack just a moment and say that it's a great honor to speak to you, particularly as somebody who I admire for the way that you've talked about media literacy throughout your career. And

certainly recently, some of the things that you've had to say about it, I've found to be just really thought provoking and inspiring and important. And I think that there is a way in which we as a people are being in our Western world with the opportunities that we have to be of service and to do good in the world are being failed as citizens in terms of how we are being informed about what's actually going on. You mentioned that Ukraine, the Ukraine crisis takes up a lot of airspace, but it also takes up a lot of donation money. And that is true. And, you know, every single organization that I work with is more than supportive of the innocent men,

women and children who are suffering in that conflict and wants to ensure that innocent people are being taken care of and supported. You're talking about a massive displacement crisis that's going to happen over there, and it's going to affect Eastern Europe and inevitably bleed through into the rest of Europe as well. So that is something that needs to be paid attention to. However, it is very important to also recognize that when you're talking about Ukraine, and you're talking about being of service to the population, you know, the United Nations efforts to take care of the refugee situation over there have already been overfunded. You're

talking to the degree of 110% funded of what they've asked for. And that's just what governments have managed to kick in. You're not talking about what NGOs or individual donors have done in order to pass aid over there. Now, on the opposite side of the spectrum, you have South Sudan, Sudan, the DRC, you have a number of places, Yemen, you have a number of places where not only are they suffering under conflict, but, you know, the World Food Program isn't being fully funded in order to help these situations. The United Nations is asking for donor nations to step in, and you're talking those fundings have been done somewhere around the level of 20%, as opposed to 110% for Ukraine. Where does that come from? Where does that disparity come from? There's a number of very worthwhile discussions to be had about that. What's most important, I think, to me is to recognize that it is happening and that people

do know that it's happening and that they start to ask their governments, talk to their governments, talk to their NGOs and say, yes, and yes, Ukraine, and we can't forget the absolutely catastrophic suffering that is happening in the Sahel. Catastrophic. We can't forget that there is also an extraordinary proxy war that's being fought in Yemen by the Saudi regime that, you know, not only the government of my country, but the government of your country is kicking in 10s of billions of dollars in equipment to help propagate. I mean, that that is a reality. There is a certain unfortunate soul crushing recognition that happens when as a member of a country, you see a picture from a war zone in a faraway place that your country is in no way shape involved in that you're aware of,

and you see a made in the USA stamp on a bomb, or a piece of military equipment and the heartbreak that i have the heartbreaking duty that i have in this moment is to inform my brothers and sisters my beautiful brothers and sisters in canada that that is actually going to be happening for you as well i mean the there's a lot of equipment the saudi regime is using to fight this war in yemen against people who are deeply painfully suffering. And right there on the sides of some of these troop transports and weapons of war is that Made in Canada label. And we as a people not only have a responsibility to reach out and say, how can we help lift

folks up, but how can we stop the suffering? And we need to be informed. So bringing it all back to media literacy, yes, but the media, we have 24 hour a day, seven day a week news channels, you telling me that there's not an extraordinary amount of time that can't be dedicated to some of these stories. There's not an extraordinary amount of time that can't be given to the reality of what's happening over there. I mean, we are talking about biblical levels of suffering. Let me pick up on that. Yeah, please.

You know, as a last point, and I get your reaction to it, but I totally agree with you that this is where the media can make a difference. And it's proven that it can. When you mentioned Ethiopia in 1984, there had been warnings about the drought and what the impact it was going to have, but not until a television crew, and it was a Canadian television crew, went into Ethiopia and told that story with the powerful images of, you know, aid workers holding babies that were dying in their arms and mothers who were starving to death on the, you know, trying to get to somewhere where they could get food or water for their families. Until those pictures came out and everything that followed those pictures, the world didn't react. But then, you know, it did react.

You mentioned Srebrenica and the impact it had on you until the market was bombed in Srebrenica. And the television pictures were put out of what happened and the horror of that marketplace and all the people who died in it. The world didn't react. But it reacts on pictures, or at least it used to. I don't know. Sometimes I worry that we've been so used to horrible pictures, horrible images, and horrible stories that the amount of reaction is not like it used to be.

I could be wrong on that. But we haven't the the the likelihood of what's going to happen as you've described it the cataclysmic scenes that could be happening as early as this fall in huge swaths of the world uh until we see it we the reaction of governments and people and it was people who made ethiopia happen that's right that's. Of the work that was done there. But your thoughts on that, because there obviously is an impact in the way the stories are told in the amount of time and space that's given to those stories. I couldn't agree more that this is the,

one of the great powers of the fourth estate and i would as is always true with great power comes great responsibility so i would also say it is one of the great responsibilities of the fourth estate too is to make space make time and make space. The corporatization of media, which exists in a way now, in a much different way than it did in the 90s, and certainly in 1984, may be quite an albatross to have to drag, uh, in terms of, of getting these specific stories out. Um, and nonetheless, uh, it is to do in order to function. I just, I wish that space and time were given more to the journalists. Clarissa Ward jumps to mind from CNN, somebody who is unapologetically and unafraid to sort of walk into the midst of wherever it is that things are happening and be there. You know, she did it in Bangladesh. She's done it in Myanmar

during the junta. I mean, with great physical risk to her and her crew, but it was important for her to walk through the markets over there and talk to people and show what was going on. It was a powerfully affecting story. And one that was important for people to see. I wish she would have been given more time to tell that story. I mean, the genocide of the Rohingya people alone is something that sort of beggars belief. And it is only one small drop in the bucket as opposed to the amount of suffering that is happening certainly in Africa and parts of the Middle East. The media's responsibility is to make that space,

to make that time. They have it. They have it. They have the ability. They have the funds. They have the space. They have the time. What they need more than anything,

I think, is the directive. Not necessarily from inside, but they need the directive from outside. You know, the media goes where people tell it to go. Ultimately, I think that on some sort of level in this day and age, unfortunately, they go where people tell them to go. There are some outliers, people who are willing to take that risk or willing to, as it were, get out of the hotel and get out into the environs um where these things are actually happening uh and we as a people with access to um a global internet with access to uh information um from uh reporters who you, I think, outside of the space in which they've been given the AOK. I think of people like Matt Taibbi and Chris Hedges and Abby Martin and, you know, these

sort of insurgent reporters who go into these places and tell these stories. Not that I always agree with the conclusions that they come to by any stretch of the imagination, but I want to have the information where Nia Kaleck and these people who go to these places and see this stuff and talk about it in a comprehensive, intelligent, challenging way. I want to be challenged. I want to know. I want to know that there are people out there who are in these places talking about these things. If I agree with them or don't agree with the conclusions that they come to, it's really neither here nor there. But it's been put into my mind that this is something that is actually

happening. You're not going to see, unfortunately, those kinds of people showing up in corporate media, you know, what I wouldn't give to have Abby Martin show up on CNN, you know, what I wouldn't give to have Chris Hedges have a rate, a regular spot on MSNBC. That's never going to happen. You know, they won't even interview Noam Chomsky. But I know that these people are out there and they have their platforms. It's just a matter of getting to those platforms and directing people, those platforms where these discussions are being held and the media will follow suit. Eventually they start seeing that this is happening. So I sort of feel like my job in whatever small way that I have it, uh,

as a, uh, uh, you know, somebody with a tiny little platform is to stand on top of it, wave the flag and say, there are very important things that are happening and very intelligent people are having very important discussions about it. And if you want to participate, you should go over there. You know, and so I think, you know, being the media being willing to have uh

me show up and talk about it uh a little bit is a is a worthwhile thing uh but more importantly i think the media making space to have people who are on the ground not only necessarily reporting about it but people who are there who are witnessing it. I'm less interested to know what a billionaire family of influencers is up to at any given moment than I am, say, an aid worker from Afghanistan who works specifically with helping women to become breadwinners within their family and and get education even under taliban rule i don't need to know that person that person's name i want to know that person's name the media doesn't need to to to continue to bring in people whom i already know i want to learn about other people you know i i want the there's a great um anti-apartheid activist in the UK, wonderful Welsh, I sought out information about what was happening over there.

And when I came across the information that he was providing, it was life changing for me. And I feel like making, I never would have known his, he didn't show up in any media. But now that I know it, I will never forget it. You know, the impact that it had on me, knowing that he was doing the work that he was doing, that he was invading rugby pitches in the UK when the South African team was coming to play. That was important for me to know about because it told me that not only was it important to know what was happening in South Africa, but that even in the UK,

you could use your, your voice there in the UK and use something like sports to interrupt human suffering. It's so important and so inspiring and so valuable. And people don't necessarily have access to that kind of inspirational story or personality anymore because uh you know we're we're a society that gets easily sidetracked um and you know there there may be some some some discussion that's worth having about whether or not that is somewhat intentional you know is it intentional that

the united states government would would rather have you paying attention to all the silly things that are happening uh various different places and paying attention to the fact that how many billions of dollars of arms are going into these various different conflict regions, how much drawdown of old military equipment is ending up in the hands of God only knows who. You know, we can't, we can't always be sure when you send military, military arms into conflict regions, particularly with regimes, say like the Saudi regime going into Yemen,

where those things are going to end up. And sometimes you have, end up having, you know, extraordinarily brave men and women getting shot with their own bullets. And that's a, that's a nightmarish thing. Thomas, I'm glad we've, we've had this discussion. You're obviously hugely passionate about this issue and, and we need that passion. We need that passion in people like you. We need it in people like me and we need it on the, on the part of people in general. So I'm glad we've had this discussion.

I wish you luck in, in, in this mission of yours and that other thing you do as well. Good luck in general. So I'm glad we've had this discussion. I wish you luck in this mission of yours and that other thing you do as well. Good luck in that. I appreciate it very much. And thank you for being one of the people who makes the time. Take care. You too.

Thomas Sadowski. I really enjoyed that discussion. You know, Thomas is clearly somebody who is not shy about making his position clear and taking as much time as he can to make it clear. And, you know, I think we're better for listening to it and making our own judgments about how we want to move forward on this. We mentioned in the middle of that conversation a mutual friend to the two of us, which is Samanthaantha nutt

dr sam nutt who is from war child canada and sam's been on this program a number of times before she's worked with thomas in the field overseas and you know she's uh as as we speak and as you listen she's on a she's on a plane to uganda right now um to you know do good work and helpful work and try to make a difference uh in uganda in the next a couple of weeks uh that she's there she travels all over the place you know she goes to y, which is a war zone, to try and help kids. And, you know, Sam's with War Child Canada, right? Anyway, we thank, you know, we thank Thomas Sadowski. And, you know, and we do wish him luck on his film as well.

He's here in Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival. His film's called Devotion. It's about the Korean War. Important subject. Forgotten subject. And if you get a chance to see it as well, that would be great. Okay. You know, I mentioned in that interview Ethiopia in 1984

and the Canadian television crew. You know who that was, of course. That was my friend Brian Stewart. And Brian will be with us tomorrow to try and update us on the latest situation in Ukraine. Because the story has turned, like it's turned on its head in the last few days. But is it just a momentary turn? Or could it be something real that indicates how this is going to play out? That's what we'll talk to Brian about in tomorrow's broadcast. As you know that every Tuesday, at least through the spring, we tried to connect with Brian.

The hiatus has cost us that information and that insight into the Ukraine story, and we bring it back as of tomorrow. So looking forward to having that conversation. All right, let's wrap it up for this day. You know, I was going to say a special edition of The Bridge. Well, special in the sense that it was a special interview, and I'm glad we did it, but also had an opportunity to update you on my thoughts on everything from the Pierre Palliev resounding victory over the weekend to the latest on the royal situation,

which will play out throughout this week. You know, it's going to be interesting to see how you know how people will stay engaged with this story and if they will stay engaged with the story for another week the funeral isn't until a week today um i'm not sure how you know there are things happening each day, but this isn't like 25 years ago on the death of Diana, where there was also this week. It wasn't quite as long as this one will take, but it's sort of the car crash happened on a Saturday night in Paris, and then the funeral was the following weekend so some similarities in the length of time but the difference on the diana story was that every day there was a major new development on the investigation into that car crash and it was a huge moment it was the biggest television audiences that have uh that have played out uh then, in 25 years.

Those were huge, huge numbers because of her popularity and because of the bizarre nature of the stories that week. So it'll be interesting to see, it'll be interesting to witness how we all play this out. As I said, on the weekend, I wanted to kind of leave it for a while, but found myself watching more than I thought I would. So let's see how this week turns out. Okay, enough babbling away, PETA.

Let's move it on. I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks so much for listening to The Bridge today. We'll be back in 24 hours.