Is a 15 year security guarantee enough for peace in Ukraine?

When everything is moving all at once, your workforce, your tech stack, your business, you don't need more tools. You need one solution. That's why Paylossity built a single platform to connect HR, finance, and IT with AI-driven insights and automated workflows that simplify the complex and power what's next. Because when everything comes together in one place, growth comes easy. Experience one place for all your HCM needs. Start now at paylossity.com slash one. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Paul Hunter sitting in for Neil Coxall. Good evening. I'm Chris Howden. This is As It Happens. Tonight, bending the truce. Donald Trump says a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia is closer than ever. But a Ukrainian MP tells us he's not sure where the U.S. president is getting his information. Going deep, they're about to resume the underwater search from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, and an independent investigator says it has the best chance yet of solving the enduring mystery of the plane's disappearance. Passing on the smell test, a British researcher who spent 15 years cataloging the distinct scents of cities and towns around the world shares her olfactory insights, including the smell of Montreal in the morning. The most famous sisters in Canada. The death of Annette Dion has people around the world remembering her and the other Dionne Quintuplets as mid-century Canadian celebrities. But our guest says that fame was often a hardship. Worn enemy. Now that the Christmas dust is settled, we'll hear Rock Carrier's reading of the hockey sweater, the tale of a timeless rivalry in a time before online shopping. And an utterly goaded holiday tradition. Yevla Sweden's famous straw ruminant has been attacked yet again. And this time it wasn't arsonists or birds, but nature itself. As it happens, the Monday edition. Radio that reports on a serious bleat-down.

It might seem like our first story tonight has been our first story before. U.S. President Donald Trump has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine. And he has subsequently insisted that peace is on the horizon while the drone attacks and bombings continue. Yesterday, President Trump met with President Volodymyr Zelensky at Mara Lago to discuss a 20-point plan to end the war. After talking to President Vladimir Putin on the phone, and Mr. Trump emerged from the talks claiming that peace was, quote, closer than ever before, unquote, while warning that it also might not be. Olexi Goncherenko is an MP with the Ukrainian opposition. We reached him in Odessa. Olexi, Donald Trump has said that peace in the region is, quote, closer than ever before. Do you see it the same way? I hope he knows something more than I do. Because unfortunately, I see that Russia doesn't want any peace and they're just trying to win time. But I hope I'm wrong and President Trump is right. The U.S. through Trump has committed to security guarantees now for up to 15 years. Volodymyr Zelensky would have preferred a 50-year commitment. What do you think? Would 15 be enough? Better something than nothing, but definitely 15 years is not enough. This war in Ukraine is already lasting for 12 years. It's not... four years war, it's 12 years war, which has started in 2014. So the time passes quickly. Also, we need to understand that Russia is a constant threat. So 50 years definitely is better than 15. And in general, I mean, if we're speaking about security guarantees, why should we limit it with some number of years? The United States has a lot of these type of agreements with japan with south korea and i've never heard that any of these agreements are limited with by time so i don't know why they should be limited in case of ukraine how do you interpret that limitation It's hard to say, but I really don't know. And 15 years is not a long term. It's okay, maybe medium term time span, but not more. What do you think about the reliability of security guarantees anyway, or the effectiveness of them? When it comes to boots on the ground, Ukraine has been on its own regardless, right? It's better than nothing. And it's also needed for us just to carve in stone that we with the United States, we are allies. Definitely Ukraine needs it. But I think United States also needs it.

You know, Donald Trump talks about, I think the quote was a couple of thorny issues. I think he said yesterday. Presumably one of them is security guarantees. The other, you know, land taken by Russia in eastern Ukraine. On that, Volodymyr Zelensky's been clear and firm. What do you think about the people of Ukraine on that? Would Ukrainian people accept territorial concessions? We need to clarify what we mean by saying concession. If you're naming concession as Ukraine accepting that part of our territories is Russia, then it will never happen. It's just unacceptable. If we're speaking about concessions, like recognizing the fact that part of our territories are controlled by Russia, that is the fact. And the Ukrainian people are ready to accept this. And to say, yes, this is illegally occupied territories. We don't know when these territories will be returned. That's it. That's life. We continue to live. Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, is now alleging that both yesterday and today, Ukrainian forces attempted an attack on the residents of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Volodymyr Zelensky denies that. What can you tell us about this? you know russia is lying all the time and like it sounds ridiculous immediately after negotiations where ukraine which we really want peace as soon as possible and russia it looks like russia is afraid that the negotiations were really quite effective and now they're looking for justification why they want to continue the war so that's one more lie from russia unfortunately a very predictable thing How do you think Vladimir Putin might respond? I don't know. They're saying that now they have right for some awful attack. It sounds, again, ridiculous because they're making awful attacks for more than three years and for 12 years, as I told you. So I think that they are just trying to get out of peace process and Russia doesn't want peace. Where does this go? I mean, you know, you talk about the number of years it's been going on, going back to Crimea, I suppose. I mean, how does it end? That's a very good question. I don't know the answer. Maybe that will end when one country will disappear, Russia or Ukraine. Or maybe it will end tomorrow and for decades we will live like this. Nobody knows, really. But before Russia, still Russia is an empire and in imperial way looks at the world, the threat will be there, not just for Ukraine, but for the whole planet.

Vladimir Putin has any interest in a deal in peace. I mean, Trump, after two-hour phone call yesterday is, you know, saying Vladimir Putin is interested in, in at least seeing this revised 20-point plan. Do you believe that? No, I don't believe this. Vladimir Putin is not interested. But I believe that President Trump can leave no option, no other option to Vladimir Putin than to accept peace. That is in the possibilities of the United States. But will he do this or not? I don't know. You're a member of the opposition in Ukraine. It's sort of your job to oppose and be critical, I guess, of Volodymyr Zelensky. What do you advise him in terms of the path forward? He is doing good job abroad. He needs to continue diplomacy. We need to end this war as soon as possible. And then he needs not to run for president anymore. And by this, he will save his heritage as a president who protected the country in the most needed moment. But it's time for him to leave after the war will be finished. Do you think we'll be having this conversation? This time next year? I hope not, but really, I don't know. Alexei, thank you for taking the time today. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. Happy New Year. Same to you. Alexei Goncharenko is an MP with the Ukrainian opposition. We reached him in Odessa.

It's been described as trying to find a particular needle in a haystack composed entirely of needles. For more than 11 years, searchers have been trying to find the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. The flight carrying 239 people went off course and vanished after leaving Kuala Lumpur in 2014. To date, some small pieces of the Boeing 777 have washed up along the coast of Africa and in the Indian Ocean, but the bulk of the aircraft has never been found. Water Robotics firm Ocean Infinity is set to resume in a relatively small section of the Indian Ocean, the company will be paid $95 million, but only if the wreckage is found. Jean-Luc Marchand is a former European air traffic control official who was devoted years to his own investigation of the MH370 disappearance. We reached him in Ren, France. Jean-Luc, you're in touch with family members of people who died on this flight. How are they feeling about the chances that this time, this new search, will finally give them answers? Well, they are expecting some, not a lot, because they have been promised so many things before, so they are in the expectation mood, if I may say so, but they are hoping, since they are lobbying in the last two years have been successful. And they hope that this search will be successful. That's clear, because the hypothesis is new. Nevertheless, they are afraid that this could be the last one. Oh, dear. Of course. I mean, I guess there's a certain way of thinking that you can't search forever, I suppose. Exactly, exactly. There were so much money put on the table by the Malaysian so far that it's doubtful that it will continue to pay endlessly to search for the aircraft. Hundreds of millions of dollars has been spent already, right? And years of time trying to find this thing. Can you tell us briefly what makes this search group this time so certain that this... I want to say small, but relatively small patch of ocean could be the right place. The key issue is the new hypothesis. Before the hypothesis was that the aircraft was not piloted. This time, the new hypothesis is taken into account is that it has been piloted until the end. And thus, there is very few areas to search for. How does that lead? to this though, is it that I'm going to guess here, you tell me if I'm right, that if it was piloted,

like intentionally driven into the ocean, that the pilot, what, that he took the plane to a random place that wouldn't be a logical place to look? Well, looking at all the elements and the facts and the tangible evidences that we have, there are a few places where to go and to fit with these evidences. So if a pilot was on board and we have demonstrated that it was, then it means that These places, the different spots identified by different groups, are likely to be the one where the aircraft will be found. So let's talk about the ocean floor in this area that's going to be searched now. What kind of depths are we talking about? And what would it look like? In our area, it's between 4,000 meters deep to 5,000 meters deep. In other places, it could go a little bit further to 6,000 meters deep. But, you know, the systems... are capable of searching there. The issue is it is not a flat area. The seabed is a lot of valleys and high mountains, if I may say so, such that you have to be within the right valley to find the debris. If you're not, you might miss them. If they get a hit, let's say they find something. What could it be? Like, what would it look like? The fuselage still? We've seen bits and pieces wash up on faraway islands in sort of relatively early days. Like what would be left down there for searches to discover? If we look at the evidences, you see the few debris that have been found have a very reasonable size to certain extent. They are not small pieces. If the aircraft had crashed, It would have been millions of small pieces. The fact that we found large pieces relatively means that to our analysis, the aircraft broke in large pieces. We should find three, four main pieces of the fuselage. Engines. separated and pieces of the wings also spread a little bit around. So the aircraft broke probably in large pieces. And that would tell you that this was one of the pilots doing this intentionally, if that's the case. Is that right? Today, it's true that the hypothesis of... One of the pilots being the major suspect or the main suspect is really true, especially since recently we have proven and demonstrated that everything was calm in the cockpit until it disappeared from the radar. And that the transponder, the system transmitting or responding to the radars, was switched off manually. And no action was put on the column.

of the control column of the aircraft, meaning everything was calm in the cockpit. I don't want to go too far down the what-if lane, but what if they find it? Would they find the black box? Would that still be, you know, accessible in terms of the information that it would have held? Well, if we are right with the scenario and large pieces, it means that actually the black boxes will be still there. fully intact and they will be in their compartment. So the difficulty will be to extract them. After so many years, they will be normally, perfectly readable and basically intact. For the families that you've spoken with many times, you know, their loved ones are gone and we know that the plane crashed. What will they take from this if the remains are found? What does it mean to them? Two things, basically. One is they know and they will know for sure that their loved one are dead. But the second important element is if this is true, then they can have them passing the gate. Knowing where they are will help them passing the gate to the other world, which they could not do so far. And that's a big worry for them and big sadness for them. Where's your gut on this right now? I think they're going to find it? I hope they will, because it will end up all this mystery. And also it will help everybody to, let's say, rest in peace to certain extent and to calm down. Jean-Luc, thank you so much for speaking with us. Pleasure. Bye-bye. We reached Jean-Luc Marchant in Ren, France.

Thank you. You already know that a picture is worth a thousand words, but Kate McLean McKenzie would like you to know that a place is worth a thousand smells. She's a researcher at the University of Kent, who has spent the last 15 years analyzing and recording the smells of 40 towns and cities around the world. Ms. McLean McKenzie uses the olfactory information she collects to create visual maps that capture what each location smells like. And now she's putting together her findings in a book entitled An Atlas of Sents and Smells. We reached her in Throwley, England. Kate, what does it smell like where you are right now? It smells like slightly woody from the desk that I'm working at, a little bit warm from the heating the studio that I'm in, and there's a vague smell of sort of British damp green wood outside. All right. Well, that's more than I expected already. That's a lot. Are you a better smeller now than you were before you started this research? I don't know if it's getting better at smelling, but it's getting better at differentiating smells from each other and also being able to describe them. So a large part of the interesting fun with smellscapes is the fact that we've got a limited vocabulary for them and developing that vocabulary so that other people can understand what actually in the environment is a key feature. So interesting words, smellscapes. How do you define that? What does that mean? It's basically it's the olfactory equivalent of a visual landscape. A smellcape is a similar thing. It's what comes to your nose in the vicinity that you're in. The smellscape sort of like gives it an overarching frame of reference, if you like. It puts it more in the city context. But yes, so I make smell maps of urban smellscapes. Have you done any in Canada? I was in Montreal in May with a group of folks at a conference and we went out at 5.5.30 in the morning. And it was actually, it was a cold and wet morning. We climbed up through Park Royal. And there were smells of the sort of like the trees in there, the leaves on the ground, the earth on the ground. And then as we came back down into the city, there were more of sort of like of the traditional sort of like urban early morning smells, transport to an extent, coffees, bagels, food coming out from different places where we sort of like hit that warmth.

But there's some beautiful words that come out from it that I will leave until the book comes out. So do you like walk up to things and? Sniff them? You sound like it's strange. It's completely normal. Really? I'm not judging. I'm not judging. I always say, actually, I lead groups of people out doing this. And I have to say it, it looks transgressive, but it's actually not. And nobody's ever been arrested yet for sniffing things. If you go up to the humans in doing, you might risk that. So you may want to think carefully. But yes, I mean, we go out, we smell just by breathing. So it's sort of like you refocus how you experience the world. So we use our eyes to see where we're going. And on a smell walk, you... take in all the information about your environment has to come through your nose. So you're really concentrating on what you can smell both at a distance and when you go close up to things that are curious that you actually sniff in detail pretty much more like a dog or other animals would. It's a bit subjective, though. You know, somebody might smell one thing, somebody else in the same spot might sense something else. Does that play out that way? It absolutely plays up that way. And what I find really fascinating about this area of research is that you have moments of agreement. And that's the beautiful thing on the smell walk where people think that they haven't got a very good sense of smell or they won't find anything. And when somebody says, oh, I smelled this, and somebody else goes, oh, I did too. You start to see this amazing connection about how we do very often smell very similar things. We just might frame it slightly differently. But then there's also moments where people say, no, I didn't get that. So they actually understand other people's experiences of the world as they are subjectively taken in. And you are going around the world, is that right? Yeah, it's all the continents, and it goes from Antarctica through to Kiev in Ukraine, from Montreal, through to where should we go, Singapore. I think there's a bit more of a focus on Europe, but that's because largely for me they've been easier to get to, and it's been easier to organize those. What does Antarctica smell like? Sadly, I didn't get to go to this one, but there was a researcher from a UK university who was at the Rovara base, sort of like British Antarctic Survey. She was there for two months, and she said it was, she was expecting it to smell much more of seal and penguin. So those are the two really defining smells of around there. But she found a dead seal, and she said it smelled strangely of leather.

And then there was the smell of the sort of like the heavy machinery that's used on the base to actually keep it clear and keep it functional. What keeps you smelling, Kate? 15 years is a long time to be doing this. Because it is the stories that come from it are just magical. It's like smell just directs you to the similarities and the differences and the way that humans live together. and the smells that we generate through our everyday activities, and the fact that they're so personal to people as well. Everybody has a smell story that is very poignant to them, and so there's an emotion attached to it, and there's this beautiful idea about the complexity of a smellcape. It's all a jumble, and it's all a mess, and it's fun actually playing detective to unravel what's there. Do you have a single favorite smell, Kate? I do. Inside a garden shed, it's amazing. It's lawn mower, it's cut grass, it's possibly a bit of creosote, it's the warmth of the asphalt on the roof and a little bit of the wood itself that the garden sheds made of. You'd maybe want to go outside and take a sniff around. Thank you so much for taking the time. Pleasure. You're very welcome. Thank you so much for having me on. Kate McLean McKenzie is working on a book that maps out the smells of 40 locations around the globe. She's in Throwley, England.

In 1966, Adman Stig Yavlin had a vision. What if they built an enormous straw version of the traditional Swedish Yule goat, you know that one, and put it in the central square of the town of Yavla, Sweden. It's possible that he was hallucinating due to having eaten mistletoe. But even after what must have been a horrendous come down, he insisted on bringing this monstrous vision into being. And in so doing, Stygiavlin condemned dozens of big goats made of straw to horrifying public deaths. Since 1966, there have been 60 Yavla goats, 43 of which have met with brutal ants, mostly by being badly damaged or utterly destroyed by arson. Others have been hit by cars, kicked to pieces, dismembered by jeering teens, and disemboweled by jeering birds. But this year, it appeared that the goat had defied the cruel winds of fate. And then along came the cruel winds of fate.

A harrowing recreation of the collapse of the 2025 Yavla Goat. Well, sort of harrowing. The hay sounds really as dramatic as I was hoping. The semi-harrowing event was recorded by the 24-7 webcam through which the world, or somewhere between eight and 14 people in the world, watched in horror as the front legs of the defiant creature of hay buckled and it fell forward, succumbing to the vicious buffeting of Storm Johannes. Of course, this will not be the last straw. goat. Another will rise next year, once again to face the cruelty of birds and humans and winds, and once again to probably face a goat-wrenching end.

We're going to take a short break now. When we return, we'll unwrap the last of our classic holiday readings. This time, Rock Carrier's The Hockey Sweater, about a young, die-hard Habs fan who would rather have unwrapped nothing at all than the horrifying Maple Leafs jersey he got. And she was one of five and nine decades later, the last of five. We'll remember the late Annette Dion, the last surviving member of the famous Dion quintuplets. I'm Chris Howden. And I'm Paul Hunter. Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk, and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16,000 fast-moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey, who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started at Vanta.com. This week on two blocks from the White House. A sudden escalation in the ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and Canada. Donald Trump is imposing 50% tariffs on many Canadian exports. We're asking, what's up with these new tariffs and what does it mean for the Canada-U.S. relationship? Join me, Willie Lowry, and my fellow Washington correspondence, Mike Crawley and Katie Simpson as we break down U.S. politics from a Canadian perspective. Find and follow two blocks from the White House wherever you get your podcasts. Before they were even old enough to walk, Annette Dion and her sisters were national celebrities. She was one of the Dionne Quintuplets, born in Corbe, Ontario in 1934. At the time, their very existence was considered a medical miracle. For a set of quintuplets to survive past infancy was almost unimaginable. But the media attention and tourism frenzy that followed their arrival came at a great personal cost to the girls and their family. Later, they spoke out about the exploitation they endured. Annette Dion died last week. She was 91 years old and the last of the Dion quintuplets. Carlo Tarini was a friend and longtime spokesperson for Ms. Dion and her sisters, and we reached him in Montreal. Carlo, I'm sorry for your loss. I wonder how are you processing Annette's passing? Well, it's been painful. I have to say it wasn't totally unexpected. You know, she'd been ailing for the past couple of months, and I think she's in the better place now. Also, her sister passed away some six months ago, and they were so close and so much in tune with each other that I have a feeling that she's, Annette might have let go at some point because her sister was no longer there for her. When was the last time you saw Annette? I saw Annette just about a week ago. She was in the long-term care facility. She had been...

having bouts of Alzheimer, and her memory was slowly going. But, you know, she still recognized me, but she had the hardest time. Now, you first met Annette and two of her sisters years ago. How did you first come to know them? Well, it's a fairly long story before I shorten it. Basically, I was asked to work on the launch of the... the launch of the book that they had published by a publishing house and i We spent a couple weeks together, and I asked him, why did you come out with a book now? And they told me, because we had to put food on the table. And I was quite surprised, seeing as they had been the most famous children on the face of the earth for some 15 years or so, you know, to put it in perspective for some of your listeners who don't know the story of Dionne Quintuplets, they were perhaps 10 times bigger than the Kardashian family. They were on the news all the time. Because of their birth, their miracle birth, they survived. They were the first living quintuplets on the planet. And according to scientists, there were a one in four billion birth of quintuplets, identical quintuplets. As children, they were spokesmen, they were spokespersons for Kellogg's Cereo, Paul Moll of the company, Eatans, and Atkins Bay. And they raised quite a few dollars, and the entire government made them wards of the state, basically. They appointed someone to run over to administer their trust fund, and that money was squandered during those years. And they asked me if I could give them assistance, and I did. And you ended up helping them get a settlement from the Ontario government, correct? That's right. They received some $4 million back in 1998. After pretty much a year and a half struggle to call attention to what had happened. Basically, they were exposed in a theme park called Quintland three times a day, as the sign said, weather permitting. and millions and millions of people from across North America and the rest of the world came to visit to see these miracle children. Like zoo animals. You know, in the 1930s, you have to remember that this is the Great Depression. And there is just not any good news around. And the birth of the sisters at that time in the 30s was perceived as a miracle. They were perceived as miracle children, miracle babies. At one point, Pierre Burton, the historian and the broadcaster,

who intensely wrote about the sisters, researched it, and said that they had been more popular than Niagara Falls as a tourist attraction. Surely, their experience brought a cost for the broader family. What did you learn from her about the impact it had on Annette and her siblings? Well, obviously she told me a lot of sad stories. You know, they weren't allowed to see their parents except on the weekends because the ministry as a social welfare took them away from her parents to basically put them on display. Am I right that late in life, Annette and Cecil sort of made great efforts to warn people of the risks for... childhood celebrities and and the exploitation of children. Kid fluencers, I think, is the term. What was their message? Well, I... Obviously, today kids want to be famous. They want to be on the web. Back then, the Dionne Quintuplets were the original influencers. Basically, their lives were filmed and photographed and made into movies, and people kept the prize of everything they went through. She was also an individual, though, wasn't she? I mean, Annette was part of this family that had so much attention because of the quince. But she was an individual. What will you remember about Annette? Well, you know, I'll always remember she had such a love for nature and for children and for playing the piano also. And as a matter of fact, she took quite an interest. There is now a museum in North Bay, Ontario, which is built, which is actually their Bert home, which is a small log cabin, which was transferred to North Bay, where people can see, you know, you know, playing the piano, which she did from the earliest age to the last couple years when her tried to stop her from playing. But she always loved music. She loved children. She later became a spokesperson for kids' help from. That was also a cause that was very close to her heart, basically. How do you think Annette would like to be remembered? You know, I think she'd like to be remembered smiling, which... As a child, she was basically forced into smiling for the photographers. And, you know, she was, she, in her later years and in the past 25 years that I've known, she basically came to make peace with her youth, never spoke out about it very much unless she was quizzed. But it was never something that she would, it was never an issue that she would raise.

You know, I have to say she had such a special bond with her sister, Cecil, and they were very loving people. A smiling Annette Dion. What an image to leave us with. Thank you, Carlo. Thank you, Paul. Carlo Terini is a friend and former spokesperson for some of the Dion quintuplets. We reached him in Montreal. Well, by now you know whether Santa was good to you or not, and by extension, whether you were good or not. Although, to be fair, some of you probably didn't do anything naughty to deserve the subpar gifts you may have received. The occasional missed mark is just a fact of Christmas and life. But if you're anything like Rock Caria, you'll find a way to make the most of it. It's what he did when he turned one of his most traumatic childhood memories of the holidays into the Christmas classic The Hockey Sweater. With the last of our holiday readings for this year, here's Mr. Carrier himself with that story. The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons. We lived in three places, the school, the church on the skating rink. But our real life was on the skating rink. Real battles were won on the skating rink. Real strength appeared on the skating rink. The real leaders showed themselves on the skating rink. School was a sort of punishment. Parents always want to punish children, and school is their most natural way of punishing us. However, school was also a quiet place where we could prepare for the next arcade game, lay out our next strategies. As for church, we found there the tranquillity of God. There we forgot school and dreamed about the next hockey game. Through our daydreams, it might happen that we would recite a prayer. We would ask God to help us play as well as Maurice Richard. We all wore the same uniform as he. the red, white and blue uniform of the Montreal-Canadian. The best archeteam in the world. We all comb our hair in the same style as Maurice Richard. And to keep it in place, we use the sort of glue, a great deal of glue. We laced our skates like Maurice Richard. We taped our sticks like Maurice Richard. We cut Alice picture out of the papers. Truly, we knew everything about Maurice Richard.

On the ace, when the referee blew his whistle, the two teams would rush at the park. We were five Maurice Richards, taking it away from five other Morris Richards. We were ten players, all of us wearing with the same blazing enthusiasm the uniform of the Montreal Canadian. On our backs, we all wore the famous number nine. One day, my Montreal-Canadian sweater was too small, then it got torn and had holes in it. My mother said, Rock, if you wear that old sweater, people are going to think we are poor. Then she did what she did whenever we needed new clothes. She started to leaf through the catalogue, the Eton Company, sent us in the mail every year. My mother was proud. She did not want to buy our clothes at the general store. The only things that were good enough for us were the latest styles from Eton's catalog. My mother did not like the other forms included with the catalog. They were written in English, and she did not understand a word of it. to order by hockey sweater she did as she usually did she took out a writing paper and wrote in her gentle schoolteacher's hand cher monsieur Would you be kind enough to send me a Canadian sweatsh for my son, Rock, who is ten years old and a little too tall for his age? And Dr. Robitai thinks he's a little too thinned. I'm sending you three dollars. And please send me what's left if there's anything left. I hope your rapping will be better than last time. Monsieur Eaton was quick to answer my mother's letter. Two weeks later, we receive the sweater. That day, I had one of the greatest disappointments of my life. I would even say that on that day, I experienced a very great sorrow.

Instead of the red, white and blue Montreal-Canadian sweater, Mr. Eaton had sent us a blue-and-white sweater with a maple leaf on the front, the sweater of the Toronto maple leaves. I had always worn the red, white-and-blue Montreal-Canadian sweater. All my friends wore the red, white, and blue Never had anyone in my village ever worn the Toronto sweater. Never had we seen a Toronto maple leaf sweater. Besides, the Toronto team was regularly trounced by the triumphant Canadians. With tears in my eyes, I found the strength to say, I never wear that uniform. My boy, first, you are going to try it on. If you make up your mind about things before you try, my boy, you won't go very far in this life. My mother had pulled the blue-an-white Toronto maple leaf sweater over my shoulders, and already my arms were inside the sleeves. She pulled the sweater down and carefully smoothed all the creases in the abominable maple leaf on which, right in the middle of my chest, were written the words Toronto maple leaves. I wept. I... I'll never wear it. Why not? This sweater fits you like a glove. Maurice Richard would never put it on his back. You're not Maurice Richard. Anyway, it's not what's on your back that counts. It's what you've got inside your head. You're never put in my head to wear a Toronto maple leaf sweater. My mother sighed in despair and explained to me. Rock, if you don't keep this sweater, which fits you perfectly, I'll have to write to Monsieur Eton and explain that you don't want to wear the Toronto sweater. Monsieur Eton is an English, and he'll be insulted because he likes the maple leaves. And if he's insulted, do you think he'll be in a hurry to answer us? Spring will be here and you won't have played a single game just because you did not want to wear that perfectly nice blue sweats. So I was obliged to wear the maple leaf sweater. When I arrived on the rink, all the Maurice Richards in red, white and blue came up.

One by one to take a look. When the referee blue is whistled, I want to take my usual position. The captain came and warned me I'd be better to stay on the forward line. A few minutes later, the second line was call. I jumped into the ice. The maple leaf sweater weighed on my shoulders like a mountain. The captain came and told me to wait. It need me later. On defense. By the third period, I still had not played. One of the defensemen was it in the nose with a stick, and it was bleeding. I'd jump on the ice, my mom had come. The referee blew his whistle. He gave me a penalty. He claimed I'd jump on the ice when there were already five players. That was too much. It was unfair. It was persecution. It was because of my blue sweater. I struck my stick against the ice so hard it broke. Relieved? I bent down to pick up the debris. As I straightened up, I saw the young vicar on skate before me. My child, he said, just because you're wearing a new, Toronto maple leaf sweater. Unlike the orders, it doesn't mean you're going to make the laws around here. A proper young man doesn't lose his temper. Now take off your skates and go to the church and ask God to forgive you. Wearing my maple leaf sweater, I went to the church where I prayed to God. I asked him to send as quickly as possible moths that would eat up my Toronto maple leaf sweater.

You've been listening to the As It Happens podcast. Our show can be heard Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 following your world tonight. You can also listen to the show online at cbc.ca slash AIH or on the CBC Listen app. Thanks for listening. I'm Paul Hunter. And I'm Chris Howden. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cBC.ca slash podcasts.