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CBC
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
The news cycle is tumultuous. News satirists aim to deliver the laughs people 'need so badly'
Given a federal election campaign, whiplash over tariffs, a mercurial leader to the south, plus a steady stream of everything else going on in the world, satirists think humour can be the balm we need. Today's tumultuous news cycle is proving to be prime source material for satirical news outlets, but unlike their predecessors, they also face a thorny challenge: distinguishing their comedic "fake news" from nefarious misinformation and disinformation. In dark or difficult times, satirists have to "meet the moment" they're in, says Luke Gordon Field, editor in chief of Canadian satirical outlet the Beaverton. "The fact that every day we kind of live in this chaos bubble of, 'What's going to happen? What's [U.S. President Donald Trump] going to throw at us next?' ... You have to strive to do what the Onion did so beautifully after 9/11, which is give people that laugh that they need so badly," he told The Sunday Magazine host Piya Chattopadhyay. Satirical news stories won't change how someone votes or sway the course of an election, Field says. But he thinks satirists — as modern-day court jesters — can still inspire reflection and clarity, with humour as their delivery method. "Calling out the BS when we see it … and let people laugh at something that might otherwise make them stress out or cry," he said in Toronto. "Not to be a complete pessimist about the world, but it doesn't seem like things are going to get wonderful any time soon." When faced with a changing landscape where real news can sometimes seem like an Onion headline, satirists may have to try out creative new approaches, "entering the conversation" differently than before, says Christine Wenc, a founding member of the Onion and author of Funny Because It's True, a recently published historical account about the influential publication and website. She points to the Onion's attempt to buy the disgraced disinformation site Infowars as one example. "That's still hung up in court — no surprise there — but I thought that was very interesting that the Onion was kind of crossing into the real world in a new way," she said from Madison, Wis. "A good satirist should be able to kind of take on anything." Satirical fake news vs 'bad' fake news In its early days during the 1990s, Onion staffers relished folks falling for their stories, Wenc said. She recalled, for instance, a satirical piece about a "nicotine stick" smoke-cessation aid — itself a cigarette — which drew emails from smokers trying to kick the habit and seeking the made-up product. Yet with rampant misinformation and disinformation flooding the internet today, she describes a shift in thinking amongst that original crew. "Now they're like, 'Yeah, maybe we shouldn't have been quite so excited about how easy it is to fool people.'" That said, Wenc emphasizes what she calls a clear distinction. "The point of satire is to reveal and to make the world a better place, to point things out that are actually happening. And I think a lot of the bad fake news is just sowing chaos and destruction and making people afraid," she said. "Not all fake news is the same."
CBC
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
The Sunday Magazine for April 20, 2025
This week on The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay: The federal election campaign enters its final stretch With two debates down and one week to go in the federal election campaign, The Economist's Rob Russo, Le Devoir's Emilie Nicolas and Real Talk's Ryan Jespersen join Chattopadhyay to break down the state of the race and stakes for major party leaders as the 2025 election nears the finish line. Finding the funny in news satire when real life is no joke For people who work in the business of political satire and news comedy, there's no shortage of rich source material these days. But misinformation, disinformation and leaders who can seem stranger than fiction are complicating the craft. Chattopadhyay speaks with two veterans of the scene – The Beaverton 's Luke Gordon Field and a founding member of The Onion, Christine Wenc – about the challenges of skewering the news today, and how satire can help people make sense of the absurdity of real life. What the first and last words we speak say about us We may think of them as the most cherished or meaningful words we'll ever speak: Our first words as a baby, and our last words before we die. But as linguist Michael Erard explores in his book Bye Bye, I Love You, the significance of them varies according to culture and history, and their meaning is often supplied more by the listener than the speaker. He tells Chattopadhyay that they are nevertheless truly powerful, marking the beginning and end of our life connecting with others. 50 years ago, the Khmer Rouge began its reign of terror in Cambodia. Justice remains elusive April 17, 1975, marked the start of Year Zero, the attempt by the Khmer Rouge and its leader Pol Pot to "reset" Cambodia and fashion it into a new Communist society by purging swaths of culture, traditions and people. An estimated 1.5 to two million Cambodians were killed and hundreds of thousands fled to other countries, including Canada. The Sunday Magazine senior producer Howard Goldenthal looks at the legacy of that time, and how far we've come in attempts to pursue justice for war crimes since then.
CBC
17-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
50 years ago, the Khmer Rouge began its reign of terror in Cambodia. Justice remains elusive
WARNING: This article includes a discussion of genocide and references to extreme violence. It's been 50 years since Bokhara Bun's carefree childhood of climbing trees and making mischief in Phnom Penh turned into a nightmare. The era when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia remains vivid in his mind. His early recollections of hopeful citizens welcoming black-garbed soldiers shift into memories of a disorienting evacuation at gunpoint into jungle labour camps during the sweltering Cambodian New Year season. Life-altering horror after horror followed as soldiers severed families and killed indiscriminately. Even starving children were punished as traitors for "stealing" fruit or a drink of palm tree sap from the wild instead of bringing it to the communal camps. "There's a lot of things that … you see but you cannot touch, you cannot eat ... [because] you're not sharing the food with the rest of the commune," Bun, who now lives in Gatineau, Que., recalled to The Sunday Magazine. One of his sisters was caught in that situation and brutally beaten to the point of permanent brain damage. His parents and older siblings were forced to watch but could not intervene, he said. Any challenge would have meant the execution of their entire family. April 17, 1975, marked the start of Year Zero, the attempt by the Khmer Rouge and its leader Pol Pot to "reset" the nation and fashion it into a new Communist society by mercilessly purging wide swaths of Cambodian culture, traditions and people. Today, survivors and people with connections to Cambodia reflect on the impact of the Khmer Rouge's nearly four-year rule — particularly how the drive to prosecute Pol Pot and his top leaders helped pave the way for the International Criminal Court. It also is a reminder of how justice remains elusive today. Promises turned into catastrophe By the mid-1970s, Cambodia was deeply destabilized, according to Craig Etcheson, who has extensively studied, documented and written about the Khmer Rouge organization. Embroiled in the neighbouring Vietnam War — Cambodians terrorized in particular by earlier U.S. bombing raids targeting Viet Cong bases and supply lines on their soil — the country had also suffered a half-decade dictatorship under military commander-turned-politician Lon Nol. The Khmer Rouge sold the beleaguered people on its vision of change: "a new kind of Communist party that wasn't going to make the same mistakes [previous Communist parties] had made," Etcheson said. Instead, catastrophe ensued. Cities were largely abandoned, their residents forced into rural labour crews to radically recreate Cambodia as a classless, communal, agrarian society. The regime shuttered schools, abolished money, land ownership and traditional family structures, banned religion and destroyed temples and artworks. Targets for persecution and execution were widespread: ethnic and religious minorities, artists, professionals like doctors, lawyers, teachers, and anyone remotely deemed intellectual, including people who wore glasses or were able to speak a foreign language. "They destroyed Cambodian culture right down to the roots. They destroyed the country's economy and all of its institutions. Laid waste to a lot of the land itself," said Etcheson, who later served as a chief of investigations for the office of the prosecution at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), a Cambodian and international tribunal established in 2001 to seek justice for the Khmer Rouge's atrocities. The regime was ousted in early 1979 but the suffering continued. As Cambodians worked to rebuild the ravaged nation in the 1980s and 1990s, remaining Khmer Rouge members continued to oppose the Vietnamese-backed government that followed it. Canada's role in international justice The 1990s was a period that saw the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall and brutal violence from conflicts in the Balkans and in Rwanda. Alongside those events, however, was a new collegiality in the foreign policy landscape — and an impetus to build an international tribunal for adjudicating war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, recalls Lloyd Axworthy, who was Canada's foreign affairs minister from 1996 to 2000. Against that backdrop, the U.S. approached Canada in 1997 with a proposition: a "snatch-and-grab mission for Pol Pot" ahead of figuring out "a proper judicial process" for the Khmer Rouge leader, Etcheson said. Canada was tapped as a potential partner due to its law allowing for the extradition and/or prosecution of those accused abroad of war crimes or crimes against humanity. After extensive legal analysis, Canada declined, Axworthy said. "At the time, caution was the watchword," Axworthy said. But another factor was Canada's failed case against Imre Finta, he added. The Second World War-era, Hungarian police captain resettled in Canada after having been convicted at home for helping to send thousands of Jews to concentration camps. "The whole idea of bringing [Pol Pot] to justice fell through, and I regret that … but learned from it," Axworthy said. "And I think that's what gave us even more impetus to get involved in the development of the International Criminal Court." By the following year, Pol Pot had died of natural causes at a Thai-Cambodian border camp, and the Rome Statute — which established the International Criminal Court — was adopted by member nations around the globe. Axworthy describes the court as an important first step in "establishing a stronger rule of law and around that principle of personal, individual accountability" — versus state accountability — for the most serious international crimes. It was hoped that it might even deter future atrocities, he said. If the court had already been established, Pol Pot could have been apprehended and "brought to a place like The Hague," Axworthy mused. "The court actually gives us the vehicle that we didn't have." Around the same time, Cambodia's leadership — with United Nations assistance — had started moving ahead on what would be a years-long process of trying senior-level members of the Khmer Rouge. Retired Ottawa police superintendent Isobel Granger already had other international peacekeeping missions and investigations under her belt when, in 2015, the then-staff sergeant was assigned to Cambodia. There, she interviewed survivors, collected physical evidence that was still emerging decades later and mapped crime sites to build the strongest case possible against surviving leaders who had given the orders. She was frequently the first person many survivors had ever opened up to about that era. One woman reluctantly shared a long-buried story of being inconsolable at being left behind because there was no room on a truck. She later learned she'd escaped a trip to the killing fields. Granger recalled another conversation that left a man in his 50s curled up like a small boy, consumed by his memories. Granger, who has also travelled to Rwanda and stood before burial sites in Kigali, said it's important for people to come to terms with what survivors of genocide have experienced. "The veneer of civilization is very thin," she said. "People should actually, if they can, go to those places to see what can happen when we don't see each other as human beings." Justice 'a rather elusive notion' After the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia was led for decades by Hun Sen, a one-time Khmer Rouge commander who later defected. He continues to head the country's senate, though his son took over as prime minister in 2023. In some ways, Hun Sen allowed international investigators surprising access over the years, said Etcheson, but having pacified and reintegrated Khmer Rouge members into Cambodian society, he also hampered efforts at prosecuting beyond a handful of the movement's top brass. The ECCC eventually convicted three officials before the tribunal concluded in 2022. Justice, noted Etcheson, "is a rather elusive notion." "The entire [judicial] process was something of a large-scale, socio-political experiment to find out how much justice we could get in Cambodia. And we found out: some. Not as much as many people wanted." 'How do you find justice?' Back in Gatineau, Bokhara Bun echoed Granger's sentiments that people need to remember the atrocities perpetuated in his homeland. During the four years of the Khmer Rouge reign, an estimated 1.5 million to two million people — a quarter or more of Cambodia's population at the time — were executed or died from starvation, malnutrition or illness. "You were learning day by day to survive and you're constantly in the fear of being called to be executed," Bun said. "If you hear your name, [you're] already dead." He remembers stumbling into a ditch hidden under a densely boughed mango tree that was filled with bodies. The youngster had been tasked with herding cattle and one pulled him into it. Fearful of being discovered at the ghastly site, he immediately clambered out, pulling the cow with him to go find water where he could wash away the gore. "That killing [of] another human without remorse.… That's the thing that [I'm] afraid of the most: that this story can come back again," he said. Cambodia became "the worst hell on Earth," he said.
CBC
12-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
The Sunday Magazine for April 13, 2025
This week on The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay: Making sense of the week's global trade turmoil U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs may be on pause for many countries. But the tit-for-tat battle with China is only escalating, while the rest of the world braces for what may come next. Chattopadhyay speaks with Carlo Dade, director of international policy at the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy, about the week's global trade turmoil. Then, York University associate professor of political economy Gregory Chin helps explain China's strategy and how the country's role in the trade war affects the world. Embracing uncertainty: Why fear of the unknown isn't always a bad thing It's a word that has come up a lot lately: uncertainty. Whether it's the impacts of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff decisions, concerns about the cost of living or a general sense of unease about the future, many things feel unpredictable right now. But author and journalist Maggie Jackson says there may be a silver lining in that sense of unease. Jackson joins Chattopadhyay to discuss her newest book, Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure, and what the science of uncertainty can tell us about the upsides of embracing the unknown. Four Canadians share what's driving their decisions ahead of election day In just over two weeks, Canadians will cast ballots in our country's 45th federal election. Many voters have made up their minds, while others are still mulling the options. Chattopadhyay speaks with four voters from different parts of Canada about what's on their mind as they survey the major parties, the issues that matter to them most right now, and what factors will inform their decision come election day. National pride is riding high. But what does it really mean to be Canadian? U.S. President Donald Trump's bluster about making Canada the 51st state has sparked a surge in Canadian patriotism, just in time for the federal election. But what does it really mean to be Canadian? The current wave of national pride tends to play up nostalgic tropes about hockey and hosers. But Canada is changing, and a new sense of Canadian identity may be emerging today. The Sunday Magazine 's Pete Mitton explores the meaning, power and pitfalls of Canadian pride.
CBC
30-03-2025
- CBC
Gisèle Pelicot's daughter alleges her father, the convicted rapist, abused her, too
In new memoir, Caroline Darian shares what the investigation and high profile trial was like for her family Image | Caroline Darian Caption: Caroline Darian is the daughter of Gisèle Pelicot, a woman who was at the centre of a mass rape trial in Avignon, France, last year. (Olivier Roller) Open Image in New Tab Media Audio | The Sunday Magazine : Caroline Darian, daughter of Gisèle Pelicot, tells her own story Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it. The explosive mass rape trial of Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men in Avignon, France, may have come to an end Dec. 19, but for his daughter, Caroline Darian, the story was nowhere near over. That trial ended with Dominique Pelicot found guilty of repeatedly drugging and raping his then-wife, Gisèle Pelicot, over the course of a decade, as well as inviting other men to do so while he filmed the abuse. Fifty other men, most accused of raping her while she was unconscious, were also found guilty. During the trial, Dominique Pelicot was convicted of taking and sharing intimate photos of his daughter without her consent Earlier this month, Darian filed a legal complaint against Dominique accusing him of drugging and sexually abusing her, allegations he denies. Since her mother's abuse was discovered in 2020, Darian has dedicated herself to raising awareness of chemical submission, a term used in France to describe plying others with psychoactive drugs for criminal purposes. Darian's association and social media campaign, M'endorpas: Stop Soumission Chimique, translates to "Don't fall asleep: Stop chemical submission." Darian, 46, shares what the ordeal has been like for her mother and herself in a new memoir, I'll Never Call Him Dad Again. She spoke to Piya Chattopadhyay, host of CBC Radio's The Sunday Magazine, in New York this week. Here is part of their conversation. The last number of years have been tremendously difficult for you and your family. I'm just wondering, how are you holding up? That's a good question. You know, I'm going because I'm fighting. Because I'm engaged with this cause against chemical submission. And now it's become a part of my new normal life. So I was going to say I'm fine. I'm fine, but sometimes it's still difficult. By now, many people know your mother's story, but today we're actually going to be talking about your story, which begins in a suburb near Paris where you grow up with your mum, your dad, your two brothers, David and Florian, in the 1980s and '90s. What was family life like? We were a happy and a united family. I was pretty close [with] my father, my mother, my two brothers. We have so beautiful and fun and funny memories. I mean, we had a good childhood. I think we were really, really privileged … because our house was always full of people, full of festive moments. And even if sometimes it wasn't easy, of course, because life is not easy, we really thought that we were happy. What was your relationship specifically with your father like when you were young? He was my confidante. He gave me a lot of things when I was a child. He was there for me. He [taught] me to swim, to cycle. He was there for encouraging me during my studies. So we had a close relationship, like daughter and father, and where I used to talk to him about a lot of things…. It was a really precious relationship with my father, and I lost it. As time goes on, you and your brothers, all adults now, are noticing your mom beginning to experience things like memory loss, fatigue, unexplained gynecological problems. What are you and your family thinking is happening at that time? The first symptoms started back in 2013, 2014. We noticed that she started to [lose] weight. She was often tired. Sometimes we got some phone calls with her and she had some incoherence. Around 2016, we asked her to go to [the doctor] because we were afraid that she was developing a kind of mental disease, like dementia, like Alzheimer's or something like that. So she started to see some doctors, and doing some exams, and they never found anything. In 2020, everything you thought you knew was shattered. Your father was caught filming up women's skirts in a local supermarket. That led police to thousands of photos and videos of your mother. She was drugged, unconscious, and being raped by him and scores of other men. When you first heard about it, those first moments, what was going through your head? I was in shock and it was like everything inside of me fell down. It was like all my own worlds collapsed, all my foundation. Because I realized, through this phone call, in a few seconds, my life would never be the same. I had to realize that I didn't know my own father. You write that there was this resurgence of these fond memories and you write, "it makes me feel like I'm being waterboarded by the past." What did you mean by that? I wanted to look at all of these childhood memories differently ... to me it was authentical moments. It was real moments of love or sharing, but probably not for him, not for my father. I'm not able to call him that. My dad is dead, even if he's still alive. You go on to write "I fear that I'll never be able to hate him." How have you worked through these complex, these complicated feelings? During the very beginning of this trial, I saw him, and for few seconds … I looked at him as my dad. And then I stopped. It's a mental process, because I needed to get some answers. I needed to get the truth. Before this trial, there was more than two years and a half [of] investigation. So we discovered so many things, [such] terrible things that when I looked at him in this court, I looked at the criminal. What was it like for you in that courtroom, Caroline, hearing about the awful things that he had done to your mother? It's started to help me with my mourning process. I felt so angry. What a damage within our own family.… When you had to listen every day [for] four months, all of these things, it hurts. WATCH | Gisèle Pelicot's daughter describes the pain and anger of her mother's rape trial Media Video | Gisèle Pelicot's daughter describes the torment of her mother's rape trial Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. You also have the whole world watching. Watching my mom, yeah. Supporting my mom. We were really proud of her…. And even if we're all still in pain, what she did shows an extraordinary woman. We've all heard of your mom, but they also found two deleted images of you in your 30s asleep in a bed. The lights are on. The covers are pulled back. You're wearing a top and underwear. The police call you and say, we want to show you these two photos. I can't imagine what that moment is like for you. It's unbearable. For some few seconds, few minutes, I don't even recognize me. This is what we call a dissociation phase where you are in a post-traumatic situation. He was convicted on charges of taking and sharing intimate photos of you without your permission. But you believe those photos provide evidence of further crimes. What do you believe happened? Very serious things, which are similar [to] what my mom went through…. I know that he drugged me. And he probably touched me, probably raped me. But, you know, I don't have the proof like my mom has. You have no memory of this. No, like my mom. You confronted your father at the trial. He denied drugging you and sexually touching you. He still denies that today. I said, 'I know what you did.' And he said, 'I didn't do anything, Caroline.' Image | FRANCE-JUSTICE/ Caption: Darian, centre, arrives at the courthouse with her brothers, David Pelicot, left, and Florian Pelicot, right, to attend the verdict in the trial of their father and 50 co-accused December 19. (Alexandre Dimou/Reuters) Open Image in New Tab You yell at him at the end of the trial. I think you yelled, "You're lying! You don't have the courage to tell the truth." It was really difficult to yell at him, to say that within this court, when you are not allowed to say anything…. But it was the only time that I had the opportunity to tell what I had in my heart to my father. It was the very last time, because I will never see him again. You have filed a formal legal complaint against your father, accusing him of drugging and sexually abusing you. He has always denied this and he continues to. His lawyer has noted that the prosecutor in the previous trial said there's not enough "objective elements" to prosecute. So as I understand it, the police will investigate. Prosecutors will decide whether to proceed to trial. And I hope so. You know, when you are desperately looking for the truth, for your own restoration, for your own reparation, to be able to go on with your normal life — because you know when you have some deep conviction but you are the only one who's yelling it, telling it, but no one hears you, no one believes you — it's so hard. And I have a chance. My brothers believe me, my husband believes me, my friends, but the justice [system] doesn't believe me now because there's not enough evidence. So I [have] now with this new complaint to the French justice to please reopen up this case and go to get further investigation because they were overwhelmed with this file because they were focusing on Gisèle, and that's OK. But please do not forget any other potential victim within this family. If you're in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.
