A fragile ceasefire takes hold, but not for Lebanon

Hi, it's Paige from Giggly Squad, and this episode is sponsored by Experian Boost. Summer glow up, check. Credit glow up, even better. Boost your credit scores instantly by getting credit for bills you're already paying, your phone, utilities, rent, and insurance. I wish dating kind of worked like that. Connect your bank account, add those on-time payments to your Experian credit file, and your FICO score updates right away. You could instantly raise your FICO score by an average of 14 points with Experian boost. Download the Experian app for free today. Results will vary. Users who received a boost improve their FICO score 8 from Experian by an average of 14 points. See App Store or Experian.com for details. Results will vary. Not all payments are boost eligible. Users who received a boost

improve their FICO score 8 from Experian by an average of 14 points. Some may not see improved scores or approval odds. Not all lenders use Experian credit files and not all lenders use scores impacted by Experian Boost. See Experian.com for details. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Neil Kuxel. Good evening. I'm Chris Howden. This is as it happens.

Tonight, hope struck down. Lebanon awoke to news of a ceasefire and a surge of optimism, which was shattered by deadly Israeli strikes, an aid worker in Beirut, describes the aftermath. The reprieve among the reproofs, Despite the ongoing war of words between Iran and the U.S., Norway's foreign minister tells us the two-week ceasefire is the best possible result for the region and the world in the short term. It's been decades since the body of his first victim was found, and a 62-year-old New York architect has finally confessed to being the Gilgo Beach serial killer, pleading guilty today to killing eight women. Bursting with eggs excitement, biologists in Northern California believe their conservation efforts are making a difference for the California Condor.

because a pair of birds appear to be tending to the region's first egg in a century. Band-Aid solution, with their school board threatening to cut several middle school music programs, high schoolers in BC step in to ensure nobody pulls the strings. And achieving omnipotence, new research finds that merely doing hours and hours of meditation every day for a week can completely rewire your brain and body. As it happens, the Wednesday edition, radio with Namaste in power.

While all sides argued over whether Lebanon was included in the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, people in Beirut were taking cover. Hours after the ceasefire was announced, Israel launched its largest attack yet in its war with the Iran-backed group Hezbollah. Israel claims that within 10 minutes it hit more than 100 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including targets in residential areas in central Beirut. Lebanese civil defense said at least 254 people were killed and hundreds wounded, making it the war's deadliest day in that country so far. Pakistan, which is leading peace negotiations and Iran, say Lebanon was included in the truce, but Vice President J. DeVant says the U.S. did not agree to that.

Christopher Stokes is the emergency coordinator for doctors without borders in Lebanon. we reached him in Beirut. Christopher, was there at all a moment when the ceasefire was announced that you and your team, the Lebanese people that you work with, could breathe a sigh of relief and maybe even celebrate? Yes, but it was a very brief sigh of relief. The ceasefire was announced in the middle of the night. So everybody woke up, everybody was following the news here in Lebanon,

and everybody woke up with a sense of optimism. but we've ended up with a day that started with a lot of optimism but has ended with a lot of casualties actually. Where were you when these strikes from Israel began? Actually, I was in the office of Midasal Frontier here in Beirut, and then we heard explosions. We looked out the window. We could see the smoke rise in different parts of Beirut,

and there was a general sense of panic in the city was these were unannounced strikes by the Israeli Air Force and these are strikes really in very dense, heavily populated areas. What did it feel like for you in the building that you were in? I think for all our teams here across the country

it's been very difficult and it's been very difficult for the staff in the hospitals I have to say. We had a large number of injured arriving patients with dismembered limbs. We even had a seven-year-old child this morning who'd lost six members of her family, a young girl in one of the strikes in the south of the country

and our ER doctors were working to try and save her life. So, yes, there was a feeling that perhaps the war was going to end and these strikes started early in the morning and really intensified during the afternoon and that hope was shattered. What state are those hospitals in, given this most recent war? What are their supplies like? What do they need right now? Yeah, I think the healthcare staff across the country are doing an amazing job. And basically they're working around the clock. One of the things that we've seen is they work in shamed. shifts, but not in the shifts that we would understand in Europe or Canada, but they live 10 days in the hospital. So hospitals often have cleared a floor. And so the Lebanese doctors and

nurses, and sometimes our own teams actually are in these hospitals. And they live there for 10 days there and then they leave for 10 days. They go back home. Because it's very dangerous to drive in and out. So they prefer to stay in the hospital, be available 24 hours and work 10 days in a row, even if they don't see their families there, they're exhausted, there are issues around supply. Financially, the situation is very difficult in Lebanon. So it's a really tense environment, and this indiscriminate bombing has really made it worse. And are the strikes continuing, or have they abated for now? Yeah, so that's a very important question for us, because we were, and for our teams, we were hoping

This would be the end of it this afternoon, but there's been a big building blown up in Beirut tonight. And there are reports of strikes a couple of hours ago. So it's not clear what the night will bring us. The IDF has been posting on social media that their strikes have targeted Hezbollah headquarters, military arrays, and command and control centers in Beirut, Beka, and southern. Lebanon, what areas from what you know? How does that align with what you're seeing and experiencing? It's difficult to match with what we're seeing because we're seeing a lot of civilians coming to these places, into the hospitals, families, survivors of killings where the whole family has been

decimated, people just going in the street in their ordinary business and then the building behind them is blown up and they're taken out. And we had a man. here brought to us, well, brought to Ruffy Carey Reed, lost both his legs. So these strikes in densely built up areas are very heavy on the civilians. So any military that exercises these kind of operations within densely populated areas knows that they're going to be killing civilians as well. The U.S. President gave an interview to the PBS News Hour. it's being quoted by Associated Press.

He says that when he was asked about these latest strikes on Lebanon by Israel and said, quote, that's a separate skirmish, unquote. Israel has said that it needs to continue its campaign against Hezbollah so that this two weeks ceasefire does not include Lebanon in Israel's view. Where does that leave you and the Lebanese people that you're trying to help? What hope is there from where you sit that things? you know, what people were breathing a sigh of relief about this morning might actually come to be. Well, that use of word skirmish is really quite inappropriate in this context. You've got over a million, 1.1, 1.2 million displaced, people living under tents, in schools. They're all over the place here in Beirut. I see them every day.

And we, in Mitzan Montereux, we work for them in these collective centers as well. they're living in terrible sanitary, unsanitary conditions. And a lot of civilian casualties, actually. It's been very, very, very heavy on the salin. There's no way that we could call this a skirmish. It's really a war with the Lebanese civilians at its centre. So we're just hoping that it will end. And in particular, we're hoping that greater care is done.

to spare the lives of civilians and these attacks. Also on ambulances, by the way, in hospitals, damaging hospitals by the Israeli forces really have to stop. Christopher, I appreciate your time. I know it's an extremely difficult day. Please take care. Thank you.

Christopher Stokes is the emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Lebanon. He's in Beirut.

For decades, Rex Hewerman led an unassuming life as an architect, commuting to work in the city from his home on Long Island, New York. But he was actually a serial killer who dumped the bodies of the young women he killed near the beach town of Gilgo. And today in court, Mr. Hewerman finally pleaded guilty to seven murders and admitted, he had killed an eighth woman as well. The case exposed police indifference to the lives of the young female escorts he targeted. Robert Colker is a journalist

who wrote a best-selling book about the case called Lost Girls. We reached him in New York. Robert, is this how you thought this case would come to a close? I did think that Rex Herman would eventually want to talk, whether that was before or after a trial was an open question in my mind.

You've interviewed so many of the facts. family members of the victims leading up to this day. What's your sense of what this result, this plea will mean for them right now? It's been a very long road. The case first went public at the end of 2010. And over the many years that I've been in touch with family members of many of the victims, they all sort of resisted the idea of closure. They all thought that that was sort of an impossible ideal.

But they certainly wanted answers. And a guilty plea gives them already today some more detail than they had. He actually detailed the cause of death in each of the case is strangulation. And that's something that they weren't necessarily sure about. So this is the beginning of a new chapter where they're going to get more answers. Through his lawyer, he said he was motivated to change his plea because he wanted to spare his own family, but also the victim's family. families, you know, the ordeal of a trial. That's just hearing that for the first time or, you know, when I was reading the coverage,

that's a hard thing for many people I can imagine to square in their minds, someone who is admitting to doing the most horrific things. Yes. And even his lawyer hedged it a little. He said that he thought that his client was trying to spare the feelings of families of the victims. He didn't say that he had that conversation with Rex Heerman. And so it seems to me there are other reasons to plead guilty. He might not want to sit through a trial and hear lots of people telling the story that he would like to tell himself.

He may not want to sit there and listen to all the ways that he made mistakes and the ways that he got caught eventually. He might prefer to just sit back and let interviewers come to him for the next 10, 20 years and ask him questions so that he can control the flow of information. I think this is a bid for control. You've been writing about this for so long as our listeners heard. And in the New York Times magazine, years ago, you said what started out as indifference and apathy soon curdled into obstinence, willful ignorance, and corruption. Everything the police needed to solve the case they had almost on day one. What went wrong?

Why did this take so long? It really is a very sad story of a police department that, was in over its head and closed ranks, circled the wagons, and didn't collaborate with other agencies the way that they should have. They had a little bit of contact with the FBI at the beginning, but then they shut down, contact with anyone else, tried to do it themselves. And if they had just collaborated with other agencies the way they eventually did in 2023, 13 years later, they would have done a record search that could have turned up the car of Rex Herman, which is exactly what they found 13 years later. It's really, it's a stunning just how they missed it and how that clue sat in their file for 13 years.

What changed to get to the point where there were more answers and then an arrest and now this plea? An entire culture had to change. There were folks running the department who were corrupt and didn't want the FBI paying attention to their activities. and so they didn't want to collaborate with the FBI on anything else, didn't want to share their work with state officials either. It was really a closed shop. They also rejected modern ideas like searching cell tower records. They thought there was no point in doing that. It turned out that cell tower records were crucial in catching this killer.

And, you know, finally it took a change of leadership and a new task force with several different agencies involved to get to work. and within six weeks, they rediscovered this lead about the car and had their man. What have the families you spoken with over these years told you about what they want the world to know about their loved ones? The family members have always been in a very peculiar situation because when their loved ones went missing at first, they were encountering nothing but apathy from the media, from the police quite often as well. and it took forever just to get names on the official list of missing persons. There was a lot of bias against these women because of their class and also because of their profession. They were sex workers.

I think times have changed a little bit and there's a lot more humanization of victims in these cases. But the fact is back then, people like Rex Herman could target sex workers because they thought that they would not be missed. And the sad, awful tragedy is that as far as long as long as. enforcement was concerned, they really weren't missed. Their disappearances weren't taken seriously. So to answer your question, these family members want people to know that their loved ones were loved, that they, that they weren't missed, that they always were missing to them, that they miss them, that they were human beings beyond what they did for a living. Going back to that quote from your earlier writing, the willful ignorance and corruption,

you're talking about one police department, but do you get the sense that the attention around this case, the times changing ever slightly, as you've said, have changed enough to prevent a case like this from unfolding. I see norms slowly changing. Today, the district attorney in Suffolk County, who of course was not involved 20 years ago or 10, 15 years ago, he was up there with family members of the victims. And one by one, victim by victim, he mentioned the names of different family members and not only recognized that they were there today, but also said to them straight out, we're sorry for your loss. This is something that probably would not have happened 15 years ago. And so I think that that's possibly spreading, that it's out there, that there's

a thought to not just treat these victims as plot devices in a serial killer story, but to talk about them as human beings whose lives mean something. Robert, I'm very glad we could speak. Thank you for this. Thank you. Pleasure talking to you. We reached Robert Colker in New York. York.

California condors have not had an easy flight path. Decades ago, the once abundant birds of prey were pushed to the brink of extinction by human activity. Numbers reached a startling low point in the early 1980s when the population dropped just 22 birds. In the decades since, conservation efforts have helped revive the species, but in northern California, they remain especially elusive. That is why this is exciting.

For the first time in over a hundred years, wildlife biologists suspect a pair of condors there are tending to an egg. Chris West is a senior wildlife biologist with the Urock tribe, which has been working closely with Redwood National and State Parks on Condor Restoration. We reached him in Oric, California. Chris, I know you haven't actually been able to see the nest with your own eyes yet. There is a lot you don't know. But what does that mean for your excitement level at what could be coming?

Well, it's very exciting. We've been working on bringing condors to this region for about 17 years now. And we're a few years into actually getting birds out and into the air. So it's really exciting that a couple of these birds have kind of taken it upon themselves to take the next step and start working towards bringing the next generation of wild condors to this area. They're doing important work. What signs have you seen to make you believe there is actually an egg there? Last year, this same pair started doing kind of pair forming behavior where they were going off away from the rest of the group. And as soon as you see a male and female of breeding age spending time away from the rest of the group,

you really get suspicious because they're very social and they hang out in large social groups. But they never pulled anything off last year. So we kind of had in mind that we should keep an eye on them this year. And when that behavior started again, we started really taking notice. Eventually we got a signal from the mail. We have radio transmitters and GPS transmitters on each of the bus. birds, one on each wing, and we got a mortality signal for a male, which usually means bad stuff, means that the bird hasn't moved for some time.

What it turned out being was that he was just hunkered down so well on an egg and incubating that he wasn't moving. So when we got that signal, we started looking at the GPS data, and it showed us that he wasn't transmitting any GPS information, which then indicated, oh, he's probably inside of a nest cavity sitting on an egg and not moving. And so it just kind of snowballed from there. We started just watching them more closely, watching the GPS information more closely. And that's the way we've been able to monitor this nest is just through GPS information and then watching the birds when they do come in to feed at carcasses.

What has made the condor population as low as it is in the northern part of California? How did it get to this point? Well, the population was zero for about 120 years. And I think that, you know, you have to go all the way back to the causes for the original declines, which are a little more complicated than the limitations on the population now. The number one cause of mortality for reintroduced condors, where we know what caused the death of the animal, is lead toxicosis stemming from ingestion of lead ammunition. And that started all the way back when Euro-American settlers first arrived in the West

and brought firearms with lead projectiles with them and started harvesting game in the wild. That was coupled also with intentional removal of predators, which was largely done by, aside from shooting, by lacing carcasses with toxins like strychnine. And so the wolves and the bears were eliminated from the landscape using those methods, but it also took a really heavy toll on scavengers like vultures and condors and eagles at the time. If this egg does hatch, these birds A-0 and A-1, as you've called them, are inexperienced. So what might that mean for the survival rate of their offspring?

First, we have to get over the hurdle of just being able to get a chick in the nest. You know, again, like you mentioned, these are really inexperienced parents. I did notice in the GPS data that the first time that A1 took over the nest, he walked out of the nest and went for a flight on the first day and on the second day, not for very long, but for at least an hour each time. And that could be enough for the egg to have been chilled at that time and died. So we're hoping that didn't happen. And it was probably, you know, his first time incubating an egg. He replaced A-0 in there and he was like, oh, I've got this thing. to sit on, what am I doing here?

You know, and after a few days, he really got locked in, and he has spent periods of time in there up to eight days straight without leaving. So hopefully at this time, we know that he's doing really well, and even if the egg fails, or if they get to a chick and they don't take adequate care of the chick and it fails, you know, this is all a learning process for them. And if they do fail and then they try again next year, they'll have had a chance to kind work through a lot of these issues and figure out, oh, this is what I do when I have the egg phase and this is, you know, what I do in this situation. And I think that they'll go, you know,

they'll be really locked in immediately and, you know, it just makes them that much better parents every time they go through it. You, you and your colleagues from the York tribe have put a lot of work into reviving this population. For you, what is it about these birds that, that inspire you? I always reflect back to my first time when I was just an intern at Ventana Wildlife Society in Big Sur. And it was my last day in the field of my six months. And the birds that we had been working through those six months to get this cohort of condors released, that was the day that they managed to finally catch thermals. And I saw the whole group of them soaring over the hilltop where we had done the release.

And I was watching these birds soaring in circles. And I was like, wow, I helped do that, you know, and it was just such a tangible, for me, a tangible result of the effort and the sweat and the blood that I had put into those six months. And there was just no other reward that I had experienced like it. Oh, I can hear the smile in your voice as you recall that memory and those moments so vividly. What are catching thermals? What do you mean by catching thermals? Oh, you know, they've been flapping around. a little bit, but we had some free-flying birds that were soaring over the hilltop where we had a,

you know, the rising air coming up the ridge gets to the high point and then creates a rising column of warm air. And that's what condors and vultures and eagles when they're soaring, they'll find these rising columns of air and they'll use that to keep themselves aloft without flapping and they'll just soar in circles and get higher and higher. And so, yeah, the whole group of was doing that that day. It's been a pleasure, Chris. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, and thank you for your interest in our program. Chris West is the manager of the Northern California Condor Restoration Program

and a senior wildlife biologist with the Uruk Tribe Wildlife Department. We reached him in Oreck, California. Okay, I've never led a meditation before, so let's never led a meditation before, so let's We're just going to see how this goes. Find yourself a comfortable place to sit where you feel solitary and grounded. Close your eyes, unless you're driving, then you can open them every 30 seconds or so. Focus on your breath. Make sure you're breathing in and also out, but not at the same time.

Let your body feel heavy, like a sleeping bag full of applesauce. Don't think about anything, just the desperate gulp of your in-breath and the shuddering wheeves of your out-breath. We're done. We've rewired your body and brain. Oh, I should have warned you we were doing that. Now you're totally different forever. But that's good. According to this new study, that meditation streamlined your brain function, enhanced your neuroplasticity, improved your cell's metabolic flexibility, improved your immune response, and, quote, shifted small RNA and gene activity in ways linked to brain-related biological pathways, unquote. Now the last bit does sound like a bunch of random words a dog would throw up after eating a grade six science textbook. But sure, meditation does all that stuff. And this study proved it by having 20 healthy adults meditate for a mere, wait a minute, 33 hours over seven days, in between informative lectures and group-based healing activities, that's too much.

I can rewire my brain by watching 33 hours of Gray's anatomy in seven days. And I'll learn how to do a tracheotomy. I'm sorry, it is actually amazing that just by sitting and focusing on your breath for 4.7 hours a day for a week, you can change your brain and body. I am just never going to have time for that. So instead of being mindful, I'll just have to keep being mindless.

We are going to take a short break now. When we return, Norway's foreign minister says the temporary ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was welcome news, but that yesterday's progress is already under threat because of Israel's attacks today on Lebanon. And tuning their own horns on behalf of everyone else's horns, we'll hear from three devoted high school musicians who are determined to save middle school music programs. Stay tuned. I'm Chris Howden. And I'm Neil Kuksal.

This week on two blocks from the White House. The Canada-U-S.-Mexico Agreement on Trade officially comes up for review on Canada Day. So we're asking what happens after that July 1st deadline? Join me, Willie Lowry, and my fellow Washington correspondence, Paul Hunter and Peter Armstrong, as we break down U.S. politics from a Canadian perspective. Find and follow two blocks from the United States. White House wherever you get your podcasts. And watch us on YouTube. New episodes drop every Wednesday.

for diplomacy. And I register that both the US and the Iranians are selling this as a major victory from their respective sites. That tends to be typical of successful agreements that both sides claim victory. But for me, the most important thing is that we could have been up to something extremely dramatic, a very, very alarming escalation of an already dangerous situation. And we ended up with the best possible result for now, which is that they will sit down and talk. Yeah, the for now is key, I think. Many would agree. Much has to happen over the next two weeks. How much confidence can you place in what is set to happen with these talks? Well, I mean, this will of course be difficult because the sides are a part on key issues.

so it's not going to be easy at all. But on the other hand, I think that I see a motive on both sides. I think President Trump realized that this war was highly unpopular in the United States, but also in the world and was becoming very costly and very difficult, because although the U.S. and Israel clearly decimated the important parts of the Iranian military capacity, they retained a capacity to close the Hormuzerite and to inflict significant, damage on neighboring states. And the US and Israel were not able to take that out.

I think the wildcard now is what's happening with Israel, because when the ceasefire was presented last night by Shabasharif, the Pakistani prime minister, it was a ceasefire that also included Lebanon. And initially, Israel said that they supported the ceasefire. They would also stop attacks on Iran, but they did not feel bound by the, you know, the ceasefire in Lebanon. And that is now becoming a problem because Iran and actually supported by the lead mediators in Pakistan say that part of the deal was that the conflict also in Lebanon would come to an end or at least to a ceasefire. So what makes me somewhat worried

right now is the fact that we've seen massive attacks from Israel in Beirut and in the Beka Valley and in other parts of Lebanon even today. And that has made things more complicated. Our listeners are hearing about the impact of those attacks. We're speaking about the situation in hospitals and the casualties in the aftermath of those attacks. What will your country do, the others signing on to the statement that the Canada has signed on to with other European countries, to ensure that Lebanon and its people are not forgotten? So we also have signed that important document. Our prime minister has joined it.

and we very much welcome that it also specifically calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon because although we have been talking quite a lot about, understandably so, about the attacks on Iran and from Iran to neighboring states, there has been a parallel war going on in Lebanon, which were triggered by this war. There was no war in Lebanon before the 28th of February. There have been many before, of course, but there was a relative peace.

And now, you know, the fact that this war did not end, but it's actually escalating, might challenge the completion of this ceasefire. And remember we saw this morning that ship started to be able to sail through the Hormusgrates. Right now, Iran has posed some new limitations because they feel that Israel has not lived up to their part of the ceasefire. Frankly, the images of the attacks, particularly on Central Beirut, today, has been quite disturbing. In terms of the straight, it's completely closed as we speak, as I understand it. Is that your understanding?

Yes, I think at least the opening that started this morning has come to a halt. I don't know if it's completely closed, but it's definitely not completely open. And, of course, nobody expected everything to be sold overnight. But the very, very, key element of this agreement is that the straits are opened. And here we will working with a lot of other countries, we will be very, including Canada, by the way, very insistent on the fact that the end state here has to be a full opening in full compliance with the UN Convention of the Law of the Seas, which stipulates very clearly that when you have an international strait, which is defined as a narrow area that connects two parts of the open sea, that there should be uninterrupted,

legitimate throughfare for all ships. And we need to get back there. We don't want to see a situation where any country, and definitely not Iran, is de facto allowed to tax or control or limit ships that go through. And just finally, Minister, as you well know, Donald Trump has been very critical of NATO, talking about leaving the alliance.

Is that relationship salvageable at this point? What would it take to write that relationship in your view? Well, you know, our alliance that both Norway and Canada belongs to has now been around for 77 years and four days because NATO just had its birthday the other day. But NATO survived all this and I think it will also survive this time. But it takes some effort. It takes some maintenance.

And Secretary General Mark Guter is in Washington today carrying a message from all of us, I would say, all Europeans and Canada, that the alliance is important to us, but we think it's also important for the U.S. in the long run. The major difference between President Trump and President Vladimir Putin in Russia is that President Trump has friends who are ready to help and assist him, but also expect him, his help and assistance. and that is what the alliance is all about if a country is attacked from the outside. Minister, I'm glad to have you back on our show. Thank you for this. Thank you very much. Espin Bart Ida is Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs.

We reached him in Jon Ossoff. Schools across the country are facing major cuts, But when faced with 1.6 million in cuts in their district, a group of BC high school band students came together to oppose them, ensemble and fortissimo. This week, the Greater Victoria School District Board will meet to discuss plans for next year's budget. The document proposes cuts to career guidance, counseling services, and middle school music ensembles, such as choir and jazz band. But three students at Mount Douglas Secondary School say those music programs are integral, and they've launched a last minute, $250,000. fundraising campaign to try to stop them. Mudita Shikere and Zach Kiriaku are grade 11 students.

Jeff Zang is in grade 10. We reached them all in Victoria earlier today. Mudita, I'll start with you. How did you find out about these potential cuts? So our band instructor, Mr. Y, he talked to us that there was going to be a budget cut meeting happening and how music programs in middle school, especially jazz, choir and musical theater going to be cut. So we decided that we would attend this budget meeting since it was open to the public.

We found out about the numbers and like how much was being cut and we decided we should probably try and do something about that. A lot of other people heard that from your band teacher, no doubt, but the three of you decided to go and take things further. Jeff, had you been to a district board meeting before? No, this is my first time doing any of this, so it's all very exciting. And you've all benefited from these programs. Zach, what instrument do you play?

Right now, my main instrument is trombone, and I play that in the bend and jazz band, but then I also play bass and violin in our strings program at Mom Doug. And Jeff? I play alto and Barry saxophone in my school bands and other jazz bands outside of school. So music has been a big part of your lives. Medita, what about you? I play the clarinet in concert band, the tenor sax and jazz band, and I also sing in the choir. Amazing.

As you know, the district is saying that they're dealing with a $1.6 million budget issue, that there's very few areas, that they can actually make reductions that, as they put it, are not tied to a collective agreement or contract. Music is one of them. Other areas are seeing cuts. What do you make of what the district is saying there, Jeff? We believe that their options are limited. It's a large cut, and the point of the fundraiser is that we can take these matters into our own hands to at least keep music alive in middle schools for next year. We should let our listeners know elementary and secondary programs are not set to see any reductions.

Larger band and string programs also are not set to see any reductions. Yeah. When we're talking about smaller ensembles like these jazz band or choir, these middle school music programs, how for you, Zach, has being in these programs changed you? One of the biggest changes is I was always a very nervous person when I was younger. And so I think being able to have these opportunities, especially to play on stages, which really helped me getting confidence. to myself. And yeah, I don't think I would have done this if I hadn't been able to play music. Carolyn Howe is the president of the Greater Victoria Teachers Association. She wrote a letter to the board and wrote in that letter, quote, in part. For many students, these programs are not extras.

They are the reason school feels joyful and worth attending, unquote. Does that ring true with all of you? Yeah, I feel like that resonates with all of us. I mean, I'm enrolled in. I'm enrolled in, um, two of my school's jazz bands right now. And that's every morning at 7.30 a.m. I come into the school to play jazz music. And I did the same in middle school. And so did Zach. Yeah.

I was just checking your online fundraiser before coming to speak with you. I think it's around $24,000 at the moment, which is certainly a lot of money. But $250,000 is also a lot. And that's a long way to go. How are you feeling about your chances of getting to that number before the board meeting? To be honest, it is a lot of money, and with our given amount of time, we were only given a week

to raise this amount. So the chances of reaching that amount is very slim, but with the amount of attention we've gained, and a lot of people have reached out to us about this, I think we can certainly make a difference and somehow influence the school board to, like think about their budget decisions for next year. Also across all of the middle schools in Victoria that are being cut, some smaller schools are being heavily affected by these cuts and even like maybe $10,000 from our fundraiser could help revitalize the music programs.

Jeff and Zach, you've also been door knocking. Who else have you been speaking with? We've gone around to a few different music stores. talk to people at Longham McQuade, Tapestry. We put some posters up at Herman's, but we've also talked to people just on the street about it. Yeah, and we found a lot of support in our music community. When we went to Tapestry, some of the people working in the store offered to spread a message on social media, which eventually reached some larger musicians. Clearly, music and these programs have given you all a lot. I've taught you a lot. What has waiting into this

process taught you. I think it's taught us that we really shouldn't give up on the things that we love. And we're all very passionate about music. And it's really taught us just to believe that we can still make change and let our voices be heard. Yeah. At the beginning, I feel like it was really demoralizing with how short of a time span we had and how difficult it was for us to gain traction. But then after reaching out

to so many members of our community, especially we worked with advocacy for music and schools. Their chair, Paula Marchese, helped us like so much with spreading the word, getting our campaign together, and contacting media stations. Zach, Jeff, Mudita, I appreciate this. Thank you. Thank you. Mudita Shikere and Zach Kiriaku are grade 11 students at Mount Douglas Secondary School. Jeff Zang is in grade 10. We reached all of them in Victoria earlier today.

On October 21, 1966, thousands of tons of coal mining waste slid down a mountain site into the village of Abervan, Wales. The black mass engulfed a local school and the surrounding homes, killing 144 people, more than 100 of whom were students. 60 years later, Gaynor Maggwick remembers the day like it was yesterday. She was eight years old and was the last day of term when a monstrous rumbling sound filled her classroom. Shortly after that, the classroom window went black and she was swept away. Ms. Madgwick survived, but she spent three months in hospital recovering from her injuries. Her brother Carl and her sister Marilyn both died. Now six months before the 60th anniversary of that disaster, Gainer Maggwick is donating personal items

belonging to her and her siblings to the National Museum of History in Wales. We reached her in Aberfan, Wales. Gaynor, these kinds of items are so meaningful. How did you come to the decision that you wanted to share them and let them go to the museum? My family and I felt that these personal items needed to be preserved for future generations to come. You know, these personal items to Carl and Malloran are part of their actual DNA. You know, they were children and they played it called. played with his ball.

You know, Marilyn's little panclass school books as well. Carl's Little Belt, so that he wore to school in Panclass that day where they died. They're all very personal and poignant to the family. So donating them will give us some comfort. But when we hand over the items,

they're like a part of our family's life. It will be very tough and difficult. to let go. Yeah, I was wondering that because there's the decision and then there's the actual act. When will that handover happen? We're looking at the end of April and they will be permanently displayed

at the museum the end of May. So each item will have its own record and description of what they depict of Carla Malarin because the little dress was, found buried and in the wall of the home when he was renovated by the new people that bought the bungal

the dad always liked to preserve things for life so he had put it in the wall of the house he was buried in the wall and the new owners who renovated the actual house found it all sealed and wrapped up in brown paper Carl's ball was found

in the corner of the loft we as family thought we'd lost it many years ago and we were very saddens and heartbroken. And then when we sold the house, the family then sent us a picture. They had found Coles Bowl right in the corner of the loft where Dad kept all his items. So we were very emotional. We cried. We shed tears because all these items came to life again. You're also sharing your own diary and your sister's diary. That's another level of donation entirely. How did you come to that decision?

My diary I wrote as a child because I was a child survivor of the other one disaster and I was seriously injured in hospital for three months and I wrote that diary because there was no psychological support I started the writer diary of how I was feeling and how I perceived and observed my family to be feeling because my mother was very ill at the time and she was sedated and when then many years after I actually thought because I moved house so many times.

I'd lost the diary. And that I was absolutely heartbroken and I was devastated. So I made the decision on the 50th anniversary to actually donate it to St. Fagin's Museum. And it has a special place in the museum in the glass box. And then, obviously, 60 years on now,

with Marilyn's little school books in Panclass, she actually had the school book. She didn't take them to school that day because it was half day Thanksgiving and Mam told her to leave the books at home. Her last recording on her report that she was report writing every month was she was writing about different disasters.

She drew around her little hand on the paper being distracted in class and that is in itself, it's so poignant. It's so breathtaking just to hear you describe it and for us to visualize it in our minds eye gainer. What do you hope visitors take away from what you've given them, this diary? It will give people and visitors the opportunities of sharing our memories with future generations around the world.

It also encourages other people to donate personal items and to part with them. Have people been hesitant? Some people, there are few people who are in the process of donating. But as we speak, there's nothing that actually is a statement of a whole family story. Gainer, as much as you're comfortable sharing, what do you remember about what happened that day? I was eight and a half going to school and the weather was bad. The terrible noise was like airplanes crashed. a terrible rumbling, rumbling,

horrendous sound. I then made an instinct decision to try to get up from my seat from in the classroom, in the middle of the classroom, to run for the door. And I looked through the window and all the flurry from the mountain had literally covered the whole class and school.

I was pinned at the back of the classroom, covered in all debris, desk. Beams, the roof had caved in. There were children around me. One little boy had died by the side of me. There was another little boy laid under me, and there was a boy opposite me as well, and all injured.

I couldn't move. The walls of the class had all opened up with the pressure of all the debris. I was in there a while. I couldn't move. I'd broken my legs, and then it was my grandfather, Dan Richards,

who had actually saved me. I was carried out and I was handed, handed to my father, who was there waiting and my mother. I was taking them rush to hospital and I stayed there for over three months when I got to learn that my brother died, my sister died, all my friends had died, a generation that I had completely been wiped out. I came home Christmas Eve and I came home to a completely different house. because obviously my siblings are gone. My mother was severely sedated because she was so much in grief.

Do you feel, can you feel, given what you've been through at peace? I would say no. I don't think I will ever have peace until the day I die because I'm so passionate about keeping the memory alive and the trauma literally never ends. the psychological trauma is with you forever. Gainer, I thank you for your time. Please take care.

Thank you. Take care of all. Thank you for ringing me. Gaynor Madjwick is a survivor of the Abervan disaster. We reached her in Abervand Wales.

You've been listening to the As It Happens podcast. Our show can be heard Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 after your world tonight. And you can, of course, also listen to our show online at cbc.ca.ca slash AI.H or on the CBC Listen app, or of course, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Neil Cokesall. And I'm Chris Howden.

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