My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 251 - One Vince Away

Episode Date: December 3, 2020

On this week’s episode, Karen and Georgia cover the ‘Starlight Tours’ aka the ‘Saskatoon Freezing Deaths.’See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Noti...ce at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is exactly right. We at Wondery live, breathe, and downright obsess over true crime. And now we're launching the ultimate true crime fan experience, Exhibit C. Join now by following Wondery, Exhibit C, on Facebook and listen to true crime on Wondery and Amazon Music. Let's see. It's truly criminal. Hello. Welcome to my favorite murder. The podcast. That's Georgia Hart, that's Karen Kilgera. I thought you were going to say it with me.
Starting point is 00:00:55 I was like, this is going to get old real quick. I won't. I refuse. This whole thing's gotten old, everybody. What? 2020? Am I right ladies and gentlemen? What a year. Well I'm sitting here with my drink of choice for 2020 non-alcoholic beer. How is it? It's actually pretty good. People are like, which one do you like? And it doesn't matter. It just tastes like a weak pilsner. I haven't found one that I'm like, this is great. You know, I find, and this is probably, we may have even talked about this, but because
Starting point is 00:01:30 you just took a sip and it's in a bottle. I feel like whether it's in a can or a bottle or you've poured it out into a frosty glass, there's a lot of ritual around drinking that when you substitute what's in the glass, it kind of, yeah, we know that there's the escape aspect that can be nice, but there is the part where if you're just, if you got a nice cold bottle with you, that does a lot. It gets the job done in a lot of ways. I don't like these empty calories. It's just like at the end of the day and I'm like, fuck I'm stressed out. I want to open a beer and fucking drink a beer. And it's like, well, that's all you want. I want a little bit of that tinglyly drunkness, but never stops there.
Starting point is 00:02:11 So this is, this works. Well, you know why? Cause it starts to tingle and they're like, let's get this thing going. And then the tingle turns into a full on tickle. And then you're dancing. Oh, the tickle turns into an interpreted dance in the middle of it. It turns into, I got a sing. I miss it. Thanksgiving speaking of Thanksgiving. It was wonderful. It was also my dad's 80th birthday. So I drove up to be with the family, stayed in the pod. A lot of people being as judgmentals, they can't about people doing what they can do for the holidays. I would say, I would say if you're starting to get into things like that of like trying to run around and
Starting point is 00:02:59 yell at people about them seeing four members of their family, maybe dial it down a bit or look inside. Check in with yourself. How are you? How am I? Most of that people are doing things after we're all, we've all been in this for nine months. So there we know how to do things safely and trust that we've all also had serious threats and near misses and we're all scared. We're all scared. Assume everyone's as scared as you. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:03:25 I drove up. You should have seen me at the gas stations on the five getting out so quickly. My hands are like too, they're, they're horrifying. It's, it's like something out of a horror movie because of the dryness of all the, yeah, so much sand sanitizer. Anytime I'd go out and in anywhere, like you're washing your hands, but then you sanitize because you also touch the door and you know, there's a whole system. Yeah. But I had to be there because Jim turned 80. Yeah. Home gym is 80. And here's the thing. My sister was a genius because she planned ahead in a way that at the time bugged me. And then when it was happening, I was like, thank God, yeah, it's brilliant. She did,
Starting point is 00:04:06 she did one of those make a video ahead of time. Totally. Every, she sent any email to all my dad's friends, family, people that are close in our lives. And, but I would say only about 60% of the people were able to actually make and return the videos because they're all also 80 or near 80. So there were people that would just email my sister back going, I'm sorry, I can't do this. Like I literally can't figure out. And it's the funniest thing because it was, you just pressed a button and started recording it. There's not, there's not, I feel like we should give a shout out to whatever the site is because some brilliant fucking, you know, person came up. I think it's called tribute.
Starting point is 00:04:46 Yes, that's it. It's such a smart business idea. Especially in COVID. Especially. That's the thing about it. It was all these people because we were, it was a little depressing and it was similar to our Thanksgiving, which was a little depressing because we have a huge family and there's always a minimum 25 people at every holiday. So it was a little, it was a little low key. And then, you know, we did gave my dad a couple regular gifts. And then, then I was like, Oh, this is not, this is a real like downer. And then I remembered my sister's video. I was like, I think on the Jerry on top. So it was really funny. And there was like firemen in the video that he hadn't seen or talked to in 20 years because
Starting point is 00:05:29 they're all retired and it's people he hadn't seen. Then he starts telling us these stories as people show up in the video. This guy one time, then you guys showed up in the middle and I did one. We didn't know what the fuck to say. It was really short, but it was the cute. Everyone's was everyone kind of was just like trying to say something nice and we'll see you next year. But it was the cutest because I texted you this, but when my dad saw Vincent Georgia, well, sorry, but when he saw Vince, he went, Hey, there's my buddy. He was so surprised that you guys did it. He was so, it was just the cutest. It was and it was all these people going, we love you. We miss you. We'll see you next year
Starting point is 00:06:08 type of thing. So it was, it was so sweet. And I told you and Laura was, we were so honored to be included. You know, it was just like nice and we love Jim. So it was such a good idea. I mean, you're some of his best friends. It was real. It was very sweet. Yeah. But then he started telling stories. Cause of course there's all these firemen that, that and then some, some of the firemen sent my sister long emails about my dad cause they couldn't make the video work and pictures where she's like, wouldn't have been great if this was in their video, but she had to do it like separately. It was really funny. But he started talking about this thing they used to do in the firehouse. It was like,
Starting point is 00:06:46 there was a picture that came up where my dad was wearing like eight sombreros and he goes, Oh, that's hat night. So every, a different night of the week, they would have a special dinner where it would be hat night. One night it was nose night and he started to tell the story. I was like, Oh no, no, this is going to be racist. This is going to be problematic. There's going to be, and it was just like, they all wore different animal noses while they ate dinner. It was like, it was the cutest and it was stuff where he wouldn't normally like remember those stories or tell those stories or whatever. It was hilarious. That's adorable. I love that. It was really good. Can I tell you the one thing that happened
Starting point is 00:07:23 of note on our Thanksgiving, the day before, which I was like, this is going to be great to tell the podcast. And as it's gone by, I'm like, this isn't that interesting. So I'm going to make it quick. You know what I mean? Can it be nose night? Well, it was nose night. Well, so Vince is going to was going to brine the turkey and the day before and then cook it the next day. So we have the big, huge bag out because it's all this brining liquid on top of the turkey. So the turkey in the bag on the counter and we're filling, I'm holding it open. He's filling it with water, with all the brining shit inside. And then one of the sides of the bag slips from my hand and this tidal wave of salmonella
Starting point is 00:08:01 fucking brine water splashed all like poured on door dine into our dining room. So we spent the rest of the day like, what's it called? Clean like steam cleaning everything. It was just this horror moment that just felt so I know that we blame everything bad now in 2020, but it was so 2020. It was a classic 2020 Thanksgiving experience. Yes. Now, oh, I guess it's still poultry because I always just I always think it's just chicken with salmonella. I almost don't yeah, anything else. It's just raw meat. But I think I think I wouldn't be as freaked out about like, you know, a fucking steak because I eat raw steak. It's not a big deal. But sure, Turkey is just fucking salmonella study. You do not want
Starting point is 00:08:45 to eat raw now. And then I don't want it on our fucking like on our beautiful rug and on our bar stools. It like soaked into the bar stools. I almost I almost lost it. It was great. We didn't snap at each other. Like I was like, how can I this is his fault? I'm like, no, it's not. Damn it. Yeah. Good. Hey, that's progress. Yeah. That's like holding yourself in the moment and being like, wait, now, hold on. Yeah. It was an accident. So good. It was a tie the way from the way you just told it. It was your fault. Well, right before it happened, I said, maybe we should have done this in the cooler because we were then going to transfer the bag into a cooler. And right after that, yeah, it was me. If
Starting point is 00:09:29 it was anyone's fault, it was mine because it did slip out of my hand. I'm just saying based on your the information you gave me. I'm not like if you're like, we should have done this in the cooler. And here's why you just intentionally drop it. Thank God I like for some reason horde cleaning appliances. Wow, that's good. I think everything went like, you know what the funniest thing was? My sister made these mashed potatoes and she made them earlier in the day. And then she had Nora and I try them and they were perfect. They were so good. We were both like, ooh, like we both got big spoons to just keep on eating. But it was like breakfast time. But we were like, hmm, these are perfect. When
Starting point is 00:10:09 she served them at dinner time, they had turned a little sour. Oh no. And we couldn't figure out like how or why. And she was super bummed because obviously like mashed potatoes are the key to Thanksgiving. And then later I was like, you know what, I'm kind of glad because if you had the original version, I would have eaten so much more. But instead it was like, it's like, it's tricks, thick like girls, you know, that you they were like, if I put extra pepper, I won't want to eat this or that kind of shit. But it just like happened to us. I love that. I use the flakes, the like box of flakes of mashed potatoes. So it didn't taste good anyways to begin with. You do instant mashed potatoes. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes. I married
Starting point is 00:10:55 a Midwester. That's what he fucking wants. CYO camp. Come on. We're not lazy. We're just like like a shortcut. You know, true, true, true. That was weird that I just don't care. I would think I care, but I don't. It's best. Yeah. Like when you're when you're and then we stop talking about Thanksgiving if you want. I know when we first met Vince and I, he was telling me about how Thanksgiving he has to have that green bean casserole. You know, the one with like the fake can, the can of fucking cream of mushroom soup and the can of fucking green beans and then the onions on top. And I, we had never had that. And I was like, well, maybe we could try it. We can make cream of mushroom soup and we
Starting point is 00:11:37 can get fresh green. And I started like trying to make it nicer. And he was like, no, no. He like put his foot down. He's like, that's not what we fucking do. I want the trash version of it because it has all the, that's like the, my mother's many recipes that involved several cans of cream of cream, something soup, Campbell's cream of something soup. You need the sodium, you need the like preservatives, all the different things are interacting in a very specific way to get you that flavor. And it just is the exact flavor you had when you were eight or whatever. Yes. I don't know. We never use cream of anything soup. And whenever we, we didn't use something normal as a kid, I always just assumed that the company was
Starting point is 00:12:19 anti-semitic. I just assumed my mom knew something I didn't like cream of soup companies were anti-semitic. So I probably like have spread rumors about certain companies being anti-semitic just because we never use them. And it's purely like Janet didn't like it. Exactly. My mom was really hardcore. She would not use margarine and she would not use anything but best foods, real mayonnaise. Any miracle whip was, I remember being at friend's houses when the mom would make us like a turkey sandwich and it was a miracle whip instead of mayonnaise that mom never had.
Starting point is 00:12:56 I don't think I've ever had it. No way. So weird. It's like, it's, it's, it's sweeter and like there's something else going on entirely as opposed to just this is your like sandwich meat moisturizer that you're using to get the bread down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That you've had forever. It brings a whole like, it's almost going into the ambrosia area of like what is, what,
Starting point is 00:13:18 it's too desserty on like a turkey or salami sandwich. It's crazy. I'm telling you the, the composition of my refrigerator when I moved in with a guy from the Midwest has changed so drastically. There's shit in there that I would have never like, what's the thing of not miracle whip, but it's the whipped cream one. Cool whip? And then we have like, I would never, I, my mom was always big on like real maple syrup. You have to use real maple syrup and he wants the fucking log cabin or whatever. So we have
Starting point is 00:13:47 both of them. Sure. It's just, it's like when I sit calm, you know? It's, you know what it is? I will never not think it's a great conversation when there's a group of people at a dinner table. God, I miss people when there's a group of people at a dinner table or get a restaurant or whatever. And people start talking about like, what was your blanks from blanks?
Starting point is 00:14:11 So it's like people talking about it, like arguing about whether Cheetos are better than cheese puffs, which I actually thought for so long. I'm sure I've said this on the podcast before. I used to think cheese puffs were, were made for movie brand. I was, I always thought those were fake. Really? I was like, well, yeah. Like she's, she's props.
Starting point is 00:14:31 Cheetos. Like they can't use the Cheeto brand. So they're calling them cheese puffs. They're probably not. Oh, I see what you're saying. Cause they look so real too. They're like, not real fake. They look like. Yes. They just look like. They look like tiny, tiny. They look like packing materials.
Starting point is 00:14:47 Yes. But orange. Yeah. I love that. What, what was the thing your family ate the most, you know, every night? What was your like normal meals? Did you have pizza fried it? Minute rice? Yes. Like this frozen corn, like as a, as a dessert, as a vegetable, you're poor, poor Karen.
Starting point is 00:15:10 My mom, like my mom was hardcore about it has to be real, like dairy products basically, but then she was like, she would absolutely thought out a thing of like Brussels sprouts and boil them and then just put them straight on your plate where you're like, sorry, how as an eight year old am I supposed to get this down? It's like a sitcom joke on your plate. Yeah. She, it, but minute rice got us through. It was always like a minute rice, some dry chicken breasts. Yeah. We definitely did like the rice aroundy thing and yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:40 Yeah. But we never, my mom never did stuff like hamburger helper, which I was always like. Oh, I wanted it so bad. That seemed like standard. Yeah. I did too. Yeah. Once she got a job, we stopped, but we'd go to what my, my like soft spot is for Mimi's cafe.
Starting point is 00:15:55 You know that place? Yeah. And actually when I was on dough boys, I did Mimi's cafe cause I was like, that's my like childhood love. It's like a, it's a faux French cafe, like Denny's type of thing for anyone listening. It's just like, but it's not French at all. No. But I actually never heard of it until that one that was over by your old apartment. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:17 I thought it was new, but it's been around. Oh yeah. It was an Irvine in the 80s or 90s, I think. Yeah. I loved it. I loved it. It was like when our family was happy, we, that's when we were there. Yeah. Um, what else? What do you got? What are you watching? What are you doing?
Starting point is 00:16:32 Oh, shoot. Okay. So did you watch the undoing? The Nicole Kidman Hugh Grant? Oh, I started it and I hated it, but it gets, I didn't get to the twisty part. To the big twisty tourney. Yeah. I didn't mind. I liked it. I Hugh Grant, I can watch him read the newspaper. He is a brilliant actor. They were great. They were great. Her, I could stare at her pores all day long because they're not there.
Starting point is 00:16:58 She is, how does she look younger than when she was in dead calm when she was 19 years old? Nothing makes sense about Nicole Kidman. It's a, it's a, it's a Hollywood joy to watch a woman that gorgeous thrive and just continue to be in a million things. Right. It's great. But it ended and it's that thing is like, if I say one thing, it'll be spoiler central. So I know, I know the spoiler. So I think I'll go back because I didn't find out till
Starting point is 00:17:25 after we were like, this is fucking boring. This is just fucking rich people. Like, I think there was a real rich people aspirational. It's almost like the Kardashians for adults is what it feels like. We're like, you see Donald Sutherland playing the piano in that apartment in New York with 80 foot ceilings and parquet floors and a view of the park. And you're just like, like that, that's what, that's what it's all about. I, you know, I was in the middle of listening to this book. It's called uneasy street by Rachel Sherman and it's just interviews with like aspirationally wealthy people and how they live their lives and what they're all like pretty anonymous. So they openly talk
Starting point is 00:18:06 and they're all in New York and they're all couples. And so one couple usually has an inheritance in the other works and how that dynamic works and couple, you know, it's gay and straight couples, it's couples with kids, everything, but it's like though it's a peek into how like generationally wealthy fucking people live. And I was in the middle of it. So I, and I was just like, holy shit. So that might have deterred me a little. Sorry. That's a book. It was an audio book. It's an audiobook on easy street. Yeah. Wow.
Starting point is 00:18:35 It's really interesting. After the undoing ended, I was on streaming HBO streaming. I think we're going to talk about the same show. Is it murder on Middle Beach? Dude. Oh my God. Okay. I, when it started, I was like, someone recommended it to me. The dad did it. The dad did it. The dad did it in the first episode. No. But how, how many episodes are you in?
Starting point is 00:18:56 So there's total of four episodes. There's only three that are up right now. So we just, we are like obsessed. We watched it the minute it came out. So we watched all three. How many of you watched? How are you still on the dad when there's literally anyone that's just That's why I said, like in the very beginning, I was like, this is boring. It's the dad. And then it was like, Hey, switcheroo. What's up multi-level marketing? What's up fucking family members? What's up? Like, what's up with the hottest fucking guy I've ever seen in my life, the documentary filmmaker who's
Starting point is 00:19:23 Zach Efron? Yeah. He is total Zach Efron. He is. 2.0. But with a heartbreak. It's, His life has been horrifying.
Starting point is 00:19:32 It's awful. I feel so awful for that guy. Every interview, I mean, here's the thing. It's funny to match that up. And it's an unfair comparison entirely, but to match that up against a show like the undoing where you can watch it trying to surprise you. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And then this thing comes on and I'm just like,
Starting point is 00:19:53 That's someone's lived life and like it's, And he's been making it for 10 years. So he's uncovering these things in this. I mean, it is, if you haven't seen Murder on Middle Beach. Yeah. I don't really recommend, and sorry for the spoilers, but you'll see. Well, I don't think that's the dad. It's the first episode. And I think that that's what everyone's assuming is that it's the dad and the beginning. And then it just goes off the fucking rails.
Starting point is 00:20:15 I feel like. It is. I just was like, it makes me feel like I'm from the most normal family of all time. It definitely made me feel better about my insane family. Like, Yeah. But also it made me go, I think I don't know anyone from Connecticut. I think that's like
Starting point is 00:20:34 More importantly, what are those people doing over there? Yeah. Intense living in Connecticut. Yeah. And it's all like secretive. It's all like no one can know how many secrets we have. There's, it's, it's about the secrets. They are, it's like their miracle whip. The secrets in Connecticut. They've got, they got a lot of miracle whip in their closets. Yeah, they do.
Starting point is 00:21:00 Along with those skeletons, along with a 24 foot skeleton. They have a miracle whip. Now it's 24 feet. Well, how tall is it? 12. Fuck, that's not as cool. I'm the one that lied and said it was 20. I bought it.
Starting point is 00:21:15 Because I love it. I also don't really understand like inches and feet. No. My dad yelled at me once because I said something was, it was something like this where I was like, that's 12 feet tall and he was, what are you talking about? And it was, it was like seven feet tall or something, but he just, a sailing's only eight feet tall. And I was like, why are you acting like that's something that everyone is taught in school? Whatever.
Starting point is 00:21:38 Sorry, I've never, I've never put up drywall. I didn't know that. I didn't either. Well, now I have a six over six foot husband to be like, if he laid down, how, how many of this is with this? Yeah. For social distancing, that's what I think every time is you're certainly not one Vince away from me right now. That's right.
Starting point is 00:21:58 And you should be. Absolutely. Should be. That's so funny murder on Middle Beach. So fucking good. I'm so glad you watched it too. So the last episode is this Sunday, but I assume I feel like we would have known if he solved it.
Starting point is 00:22:13 You know what I mean? I don't know because the whole thing like I've had, you ever heard of table parties before? No. No. In like the whole multi-level marketing, what is it called pyramid scheme kind of like a similar thing I've heard of where it's just money. You're not even selling anything.
Starting point is 00:22:31 It's just like people on top and people have to buy in to get to the top. I want to know what was really going on. First of all, like this, the, the documentary could have been about that alone. Yeah. And the down. There's plenty. It gives and gives. I'm, I can't believe there's only one more episode.
Starting point is 00:22:46 I was hoping there was at least three more. Yeah. Well, I feel like just like sad Zac Efron has a future in, in movies. So yeah. And documentaries. So we'll see more of that. This is a huge spoiler, but I'll just say this to you. The part where he goes back to the house and the woman who lives there as a grief counts.
Starting point is 00:23:05 Who loves her mom too? Oh. And then the thought of that when he's standing in his old bedroom, like the thought of sitting in my old bedroom makes me teary, but also your mom was killed there. Not yet. Not in his bedroom. It's not a spoiler. It's just like heart wrenching.
Starting point is 00:23:23 It's horrible and like he said, like that, like my, my whole life changed immediately. Like it just changed like on a dime, which is, it is that thing. And if you think of me recording or this past many so did my bedroom where it's just literally piles of like old books and where my parents changed my bedroom. Like my foot wasn't out the door and my mom was just like, get rid of all of this. Like if I can age you TV, that shit a minute you walked up the door, she's like, we need an office and we need a place to do sit ups with this weird machine that got put in here in 1987 has never been touched again.
Starting point is 00:24:03 Never. It never worked and it hasn't been touched. So don't worry about it, but it's still fucking here if you want to try it, but it's repping. It's repping the, the abs we've all dreamed of this. That's our aspirational abs machine. I love it. In my room for some reason.
Starting point is 00:24:17 I mean, are there real abs? They're only aspirational. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. Murder on middle beach. Mandalorian. I'm kind of being forced to watch that relationship watching it.
Starting point is 00:24:27 Sure. Good. It's good practice. You give. You receive. Yes. You know how I said last week that I was really obsessed with doll houses like mid-century modern doll houses?
Starting point is 00:24:39 Okay. My new thing that I'm obsessed with scrolling are bees because I was, there was this thing called cottage core. Have you heard of it? No. It's this like aesthetic lifestyle, mostly women and who have this, it's almost like a, like a little house on the prairie style aesthetic, like back to the prairie, making things with your hands.
Starting point is 00:25:05 Everything is twee and darling and, and I think, you know, like baking things. So like the quarantine is really fucking boosting it. So I was like, this sounds very Mormon. It does, but it's not. Yeah. But it's, it's very millennial and like Gen Z ish. So I was like, what if I start raising bees in my backyard? And then I looked it up for five minutes and it's really fucking hard.
Starting point is 00:25:30 So instead I'm just following this Instagram called Mr. Dot Mrs. Bee Rescue. And it's this couple in San Diego who go to like, people call them, they're like, Hey, there's bees in my wall. And like they just, and they film it and it's fucking fascinating. Like they pull out these honeycombs and they're like, here's, this is the queen. And here's how well you can tell by this. And it's obsessive. It's obsessive and I'm obsessed with it.
Starting point is 00:25:54 Okay. Well, Mr. Mrs. Bee Rescue, I, you might as well say like, I want to raise baby sharks like bees. What were like painful and violent kind of past time. No, I'm not talking about, I'm not raising wasps. Bees aren't. They're like little bumblebees, you know, they sting you. Yeah, but not me because they probably like me.
Starting point is 00:26:20 Oh, I see. You're the snow white of bees. Good. Would you have a bee beard? Like in the Guinness Book of World Records. Definitely. It's like little red writing hootish, you know, it's like, wait, that reminds me. The last movie that I saw in the movie theater, my friend, Ropter Boski and I, we were writers
Starting point is 00:26:41 on our show together. And we just became, we would just go to the movies all the time. And we kind of didn't care. It was just like, let's go see a movie and see what we can start. So one of the last movies I saw in the movie theater was this documentary about a woman and it's called Honey Land. And if you like bees, you might want to check this film out because it's a documentary where the documentary filmmakers went and kind of like lived there.
Starting point is 00:27:09 And it's kind of fascinating in a way, she, that's what she does. And she like talks to her bees and it's good. It's good, but it's also like, it's that kind of thing where we're so enured in ourselves in America and thinking like, this is how everyone is. We think everything's westernized. It's amazing to go watch a beekeeper in North Macedonia and what her jam is on the day to day. It's like her mom in this house that seems to not have electricity and her mom is really
Starting point is 00:27:42 old and it's just like, you got to see it. It's a really beautiful movie that we at first, Rob and I were just kind of like, okay, we'll go see that. You know what it was? I was late and so we were supposed to see something else and then we had to go see the bee movie. What's it called? But then Honey Land.
Starting point is 00:28:00 Honey Land, okay. But then once we saw it, like we were like, we talk about it and we were both like, yeah, I think about that all the time, like it's one of those guys. I love that. Okay. Oh, that reminds me of, did you see the happiest season that just went up on Hulu and it's created and directed by friend of the family Cleo Duvall and also was written as well by friend of the family from Wild Horses, Mary Holland, who's the fucking, her character
Starting point is 00:28:29 in that movie is like the best character I've ever seen on in a movie. That's, she's weird and I love her and it's so much. She's the greatest. Mary Holland is a friend of the family and just a great individual, like a great person to run into in a green room backstage at a show. She's just a lovely human being, but everyone is, so I feel bad that I haven't seen that movie yet because everyone on Twitter loves it, they're raving about it, they're talking, they're getting into it.
Starting point is 00:29:02 Yeah, I got choked up in it at the end, you know, at the end of like, it's a rom-com, so of course, like it pulls at all these heartstrings and shit, which I didn't even know I had them anymore. You do, they're in there. Yeah, people are, what I love is people are talking about it and they're talking about, like, apparently, if it is on Hulu, it had its premiere numbers were the biggest they've ever done. Amazing.
Starting point is 00:29:30 Yeah, it makes me so happy for all those people. It's such a talented, astounding group of people in the first place. And then basically, yeah, there should be a lesbian rom-com. There should be, there should be all those things. Congratulations to Mary Holland, to Cleo Duvall, to Dan Levy. Oh, Dan Levy's in it? Oh, Jesus, I have to see this thing. He's great.
Starting point is 00:29:54 I read a book, I'm just finishing it now, that was so good. So, I think his name is pronounced, Miquel Jolette, or Jolette. Oh, I just talked to you about it, like, three episodes ago. About Hollywood Park? Yes. You told me about it? Yeah, on the podcast. Oh, that's horrifying.
Starting point is 00:30:13 Don't remember that. Oh, no, yes, I do, because I said, oh, I have it now. Now I can read it. Okay. Oh, well, I read it, I did it. It's great, isn't it? I read a big, long, actual, hardback book, and it is... He was incinin on as a child, like it is.
Starting point is 00:30:31 It's so bananas. It's unbelievable. Oh, it's so heartfelt. I highly recommend listening to it, because he narrates the audiobook, and his music is in it, they're like, interspice? Interspersed. I read the hardback. Maybe that's why I didn't think of it.
Starting point is 00:30:49 That's horrifying. Well, anyway. Well, I'm glad I got the credit. I'm glad I got the credit. Vote. I also vote for that. It's a double Z. It's so good.
Starting point is 00:30:58 There is... Here is a podcast I listen to on my drive back or my drive up that is trigger, trigger, trigger, and be careful. It's such a sensitive topic, but oh my God, it's an old podcast called Hunting Moorhead. Those Canadian journalists know how to... Hunting what? Hunting Moorhead, and it's about online child. It's about pedophile websites and child sex abuse materials, which I learned in this.
Starting point is 00:31:32 They don't call it child pornography because that makes it seem like that's somehow okay. It's child sex abuse. It's such an unbelievable podcast. Every episode, I was like, oh my God, and it was really compelling, really difficult, like really difficult. Yeah. I don't know if I'm in a good headspace to listen to that right now. I feel like no one is, and maybe I shouldn't make this recommendation, but it's important.
Starting point is 00:32:00 It's stuff. There are people working really hard to fight it, and it brought up some very difficult questions that I think are... It made it very fascinating. I just think... I feel like the Canadian journalists kick ass. They really... Yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:18 I don't know. You can't go wrong. Oh, I'll just say this real quick. My notebook in front of me from my therapy appointment this morning, here's what my notebook says. Hope is smart. Oh. That's all.
Starting point is 00:32:31 Okay. Hope is smart. Oh, yeah. I love that. Yeah. That's my big... That's my big problem. Vulnerability, hope, these things that they all kind of connect, and I just...
Starting point is 00:32:46 I find them repulsive. I want no part. And because things were shitty for so long, then it's just like you... To hope for better to want something else, it was just like, I don't have time for that, and it's not going to happen. It's for other fucking people. It's for normal people who can live normal lives. They get to have that.
Starting point is 00:33:06 Yeah. Yeah. Today is that day where Spotify sent a bunch of people. This is the podcast you've listened to the most this year, and how many hours. And so a bunch of people were posting it to us on Twitter, so I just want to say, these are just the people who posted this today. They're ours, and this is your number one podcast. That's so cute.
Starting point is 00:33:28 I love that. Aaron, Kenz, Sammy, Em, Bex, Megan, H, which I think her name is Heather, but it just says H. Karina, Kells, Alex, Emily, Lynn, Maddie, someone named Antagonist, Ashley, and Natalie all sent us pictures of their Spotify thing. And one person, I didn't write down which one, listened to 17 hours of our show in a row. Oh my God. Honey, are you okay?
Starting point is 00:33:58 Honey, were you on the longest road trip of all time? Oh yeah, maybe it's that. It was making me laugh, but thanks you guys because people were being so sweet and saying, I've spent the last year with you and saying super lovely messages because they got their notification. So they were letting us know. That's so cool. I didn't know that was a thing.
Starting point is 00:34:17 I love it. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Rad. Exactly right news. Really quick. Okay. Here's some news about us.
Starting point is 00:34:25 This Friday, December 4th, at five o'clock Pacific Standard Time, eight o'clock Eastern Standard Time, Karen and I are doing a live streaming of our mini-soad. So the mini-soad is going up on Monday. You'll be able to watch it as a live stream on Friday if you're in the fan cult. So it's only on the fan cult. Make sure that your fan cult membership is up to date because so you can get in there and then be there for the first time that we do something live that isn't an actual live show.
Starting point is 00:34:54 Oh my God. There might be like a Q and A. You might be able to ask a couple of questions. We don't know what we're going to fucking do. Elvis, I'm sure we'll stop by because I'm going to force Vince to bring him into the room. I mean, there's going to be so many surprises. Yeah. I can't wait to put on makeup.
Starting point is 00:35:11 I'm just like looking around the room. There's a light switch. You might show you what this painting is for. Finally, see Karen's light switch. I'll read what all those books are in that picture. Great. It's going to be wild. God.
Starting point is 00:35:24 And then we have a podcast network too. Did you guys know that? We do. And we have a fucking shit ton of rad podcasts on it. It feels like this growing family and I'm so excited. And so this podcast will kill you, return for their fourth season on Tuesday. And they are doing typhoid fever, which is so awesome. This podcast will kill you is one of our foundational podcasts.
Starting point is 00:35:49 That's right. We started this network with them. We are talking about all the new kids all the time, but this podcast will kill you has been there from the beginning and they have been killing it from the beginning. Yes. Karen and Aaron. My God. They're so good.
Starting point is 00:36:03 They have such a, they have a huge fan base and we really admire and appreciate them and we're so glad that they're on this podcast network because the idea that they weekly get to bring and explain to different diseases, communicable diseases, they're visionaries. They are. It's so cool. Oh, and then murder squad is doing this week. Matrice Richardson's death, which I covered a while ago and it's like just one of those cases that can't, you can't get out of your mind.
Starting point is 00:36:33 I can't wait to hear what Paul Holes has to say about this case because it's so confounding and so sad and clearly there's some big fucking issues with the police department of surrounding it. So take a listen to that. And the connections of the people involved in the police department, that's very upsetting. And finally, some very exciting news. We've been talking about it. Hopefully you've listened to the trailer, but our Law and Order SVU podcast hosted by
Starting point is 00:37:01 Kara Klink and Lisa Trigger, it's called That's Messed Up and it is premiering on Tuesday, the 8th. They're hilarious. And it's fucking magical and it's so, it's such a cool concept. They're interviewing people who have been on the show. Lisa has auditioned for SVU before, they have these weird connections. It's just, and they're both such a lovely, funny women. Yes, they're hilarious.
Starting point is 00:37:27 They're both very talented comedians in their own right and have been doing stand-up for a long time. So them coming together and recapping their favorite show and many, many, many people's favorite show, Law and Order SVU is just going to be great. We're so excited. So definitely rate, review, subscribe. They're coming out Tuesday, December 8th. That's Messed Up, an SVU podcast.
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Starting point is 00:38:22 Okay, and January is going to be my month for HelloFresh. I am so sick of takeout. I miss cooking so much I haven't lifted a knife or a pan since early fall. So I can't wait to get back in the kitchen and HelloFresh makes it so easy and also makes it so that my food tastes good, which is hard to do on my own. It gives you everything, everything you need. So get up to 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping on your first box at hellofresh.ca slash murder20 with code murder20.
Starting point is 00:38:54 That's up to 20 free meals plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder20 and use code murder20. Goodbye. Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast against the odds. In our next season, three masked men hijack a school bus full of children in the sleepy farm town of Chowchilla, California. They bury the children and their bus driver deep underground, planning to hold them for ransom.
Starting point is 00:39:24 Local police and the FBI marshal a search effort, but the trail quickly runs dry. As the air supply for the trapped children dwindles, a pair of unlikely heroes emerges. Follow against the odds wherever you get your podcast. You can listen ad free on the Amazon music or Wondery app. So speaking of Canadian journalism, it's funny you brought that up. So I'm doing this story from Canada that I had heard about vaguely, but didn't know a lot about. And now I'm amazed by, I'm doing Starlight tours, aka Saskatoon freezing, the Saskatoon
Starting point is 00:40:03 freezing deaths. Okay. I've never heard of it. Oh, okay. So I got information from the website, The Conversation, an article by Michelle Stewart, the Saskatoon star Phoenix, a bunch of articles there by Jason Warwick and CBC articles, one by Dan Zekresky, the Washington Post article by Denine L. Brown, McLean's article by Megan Campbell.
Starting point is 00:40:28 A criminal, of course, does an excellent episode where they interview someone who's really involved in the case. Of course, it's good. And then there's a book that talks about this called Dying for Improvement by Shereen Razak. So this is the Starlight Tours. All right. Let's talk about Saskatchewan, Karen, which is, I know, one of your favorite topics. It's a pro, huh?
Starting point is 00:40:50 It's a province in Canada, too. It's in Canada, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is definitely a province in Canada as of October 2020, just recently, Saskatchewan has the highest crime severity index in Canada and is said to have the highest murder per capita rate in all of Canada. Oh, welcome to like in Saskatchewan. Wow. Uh-huh. The largest and most highly populated city in Saskatchewan is Saskatoon.
Starting point is 00:41:22 Saskatoon. Yes. Which is, it's between Alberta and Manitoba, guys, since we all know where those are, it's right in the middle. Saskatoon has a population of over a quarter of a million people. And I went into my favorite murder email just to find someone describing what it's like there. And someone named Rawa said, I'm from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, up in Canada, where we are known
Starting point is 00:41:47 for the freezing cold and the flattest land you can imagine. They say if your wife leaves you, you can see her going for three days. Then she says, my attempt at a dad joke, but it was excellent, it was excellent, but not to talk too much. It is, they call it the Paris of the Prairies. So it seems like a lovely little city, but it does have the second highest crime rate in the province and that includes crimes committed by law enforcement. So according to government statistics, about 75% of the male prison population and 90%
Starting point is 00:42:22 of the female prison population are native Canadians or First Nations people, a statistic which is at least in part due to systemic racism and mistreatment by police officers. So one of those racist practices is what's been coined by the locals as starlight tours. So once thought to be just an urban legend or a rumor, a starlight tour describes a practice by police officers picking up often inebriated or rowdy indigenous people and instead of taking them to the station for booking or to the drunk tank to sleep it off, they're driven to the outskirts of town, kicked out of the vehicle into the often below freezing temperatures and without adequate winter clothes and made to walk back to town on foot or dye trying.
Starting point is 00:43:12 So there was nothing to prove that those weren't just rumors until one man made it back alive. And this set off a huge fucking firestorm in the city. So on the night of January 28, 2000, it's freezing cold and Daryl Knight, I think he's about 30, he's a member of the Kree Nation, he's hanging out at his uncle's apartment when sometime before dawn there's like a little fight that breaks out, Daryl's not involved but he had been in trouble with the law before and he had promised his family that he wouldn't do anything wrong. So he left the party being like, I'm not, because someone called the cops, he's like,
Starting point is 00:43:50 I'm not going to be here when they get here. He doesn't want any trouble. Exactly. But he had only made it to the street before he ran into those cops that were on their way and thinking he was involved in the fight, they arrested him. So the officers put him in the back of their cruiser and they take off with Daryl, of course thinking that they're going to throw him in the drunk tank or, you know, whatever, but as they head in the opposite direction of the police station, Daryl starts to get nervous
Starting point is 00:44:15 and he's like, what the hell's going on? He said it was like a chilling silence from the two cops who are white in the front seat and he is freaking out a little bit and they drive him to an isolated spot three miles outside of Saskatoon. So there they shout to him, quote, get the fuck out of here, you fucking Indian. And they slam his face on the hood of the car. They remove his handcuffs and get back into the police car, leaving him stranded. It's sub zero temperatures.
Starting point is 00:44:45 He only has on a light jacket for warmth. And he yells after them as they drive away, like, I'm going to fucking freeze out here. And they say, that's your fucking problem. So Daryl finds himself alone on the outskirts of town. It seems like an industrial area. And he later said, I thought I was dead, but something told me don't give up. So he starts walking. He gets what he later says felt like 50 miles since it was so freaking cold.
Starting point is 00:45:11 But it was actually about two miles and he ends up making it to a power plant, which seems deserted because it's like five in the morning at this point. So he desperately bangs on a door. There's no answer. He continues around the building, banging on doors, hoping there's somebody there. And at this point, he's not even cold anymore. He is starting to warm up, which sounds great. But as Daryl knows and anyone who spent, you know, their life in this climate knows, that's
Starting point is 00:45:40 actually one of the last signs of hypothermia before death is you heat up and you start peeling your clothes off. So finally, fucking against all odds, a night watchman at the power plant on his rounds. Here's the banging and opens the door to find Daryl standing there. There's icicles on his eyebrows and eyelashes. The night watchman's like, what the hell are you doing here? It's five o'clock in the morning. And Daryl tells him about the police ditching him.
Starting point is 00:46:06 The night watchman's like, I don't, doesn't really believe him, but he lets him in anyways and calls a taxi for Daryl. Daryl says, thank you. You probably saved my life. So Daryl finally makes it home. And you know, now he's certain that those rumors about the Starlight tour is real. His family wanted him to call the police and report what happened. But it's, you know, of course he doesn't want to.
Starting point is 00:46:28 That's, you can't call. So did it. Yeah. Exactly. And you know how police cover for each other. But he had memorized the two officers badge numbers before they ditched him, which is pretty incredible, but he just didn't want, he didn't want to call the cops. You just wanted to stay quiet.
Starting point is 00:46:45 But then just one day after Daryl's Starlight tour, the body of 25 year old indigenous man Rodney Nastis is found shirtless in an industrial area just north of the power plant where Daryl had walked to. So same area. And then a month later on February 3rd, 2000, 30 year old Lawrence Wegner, again, another indigenous man is found in a field near that same area. Both of them are dead. He, Lawrence is wearing only a t-shirt, socks and jeans.
Starting point is 00:47:16 You know, it's the middle of fucking February and was last seen alive early on the morning of January 31st. So there's an inquest into their deaths and they come up inconclusive. The report on Wegner says the cause of death was hypothermia from prolonged exposure, of course, but there's no mention of homicide or how he got out there, you know, what he was doing out there. And in fact, when police had discovered his body, they had hadn't treated the scene like a crime scene.
Starting point is 00:47:42 So there's footprints everywhere in the snow. There's like looky loose Saskatoon police Sergeant Bob Peters later admits that the crime scene was contaminated because investors, because investigators curiosity and lack of training. There's mother, Mary, she says her son was wearing boots and an expensive jacket the night he disappeared, but they're never located. The only thing that changes after this inquiry, it's a jury inquest into the deaths is the jury recommends, quote, a standing order requiring police officers to record in their notebooks
Starting point is 00:48:15 the names of individuals they take into police vehicles for whatever reason, which can you fucking believe that wasn't already in place. Like you have to write down if you take someone into custody for whatever reason. I'm making that rule. Oh, yeah. Now you need to take this fucking take a binder and start writing names down. Okay. Well, if they're trying to fucking kill people with the weather, they're not going to write
Starting point is 00:48:38 those names down. So all these things are like, it's all just a bunch of dumb bullshit red tape. It all depends on you believing that the police officer has the best intentions, which clearly they don't. I mean, how, how are people, this is just like the story I did last week, how, how was the trust supposed to be there if the trust is broken over and over again? And then it's like, no, no, no, but we're in charge and let us, let us manage ourselves. Totally.
Starting point is 00:49:04 It's, it's, we'll be, we'll oversee ourselves. That doesn't work. Okay. So, so these deaths though, give Daryl the confidence he needs to come forward with his story. And so the media picks it up and obviously the treatment of Aboriginal people causes just total outrage in the province. There's protests and, you know, angry people and Amnesty International and other groups
Starting point is 00:49:28 get involved and demand action. So all these people write letters to the local newspaper and like call into local talk shows and saying how angry they are. And one call comes into the Star Phoenix, but this caller tells the reporter to look into the papers archives for a story that was published before written by journalist Terry Craig. So the story is about a mother who claims the police hadn't properly investigated her son's freezing death.
Starting point is 00:49:58 So the journalist goes and finds the article, it's her son was named Neil Stonechild and he had died on the outskirts of town in 1990, 10 years earlier. So Neil Stonechild was a Salto First Nations teen. He was just 17 in November of 1990. He was already known around town with social services youth workers as a bit of a troublemaker. So he looks like that 80s, 90s cool BMX dude. He looks like he'd been over the edge with Matt Dillon, like the kind of long hair in the back.
Starting point is 00:50:35 So he'd been convicted of breaking and entering earlier that year. And it actually walked out of a group home for young offenders. He was supposed to be in earlier in the week. And so there was a warrant out for his arrest. But despite his antics, the social service workers who knew Neil described him as likable and pleasant. His issues were exacerbated by alcohol, but he was going to AA meetings regularly before he walked out of the group home.
Starting point is 00:50:59 And one of his social workers said that he was a smart kid with a lot of potential and that he had a terrific personality and he could have been anything he put his mind to. So Neil and his friend Jason Roy go out drinking November 23rd, 1990. Just after midnight, the teens, they've been drinking, they go to an apartment building because a friend of theirs is in one of the apartments babysitting. But she hadn't told them what apartment she was in because she was like, fucking, I'm babysitting, stay away from the apartment, you're drunk. So they just start banging on all the doors, which totally sounds like something my friends
Starting point is 00:51:35 and I would have done at that age, you know? So that prompts someone to call the police. So Jason Roy, the friend is cold and tired. He's like, let's just get out of here. But Neil doesn't want to back down. And so Jason ends up like ditching Neil and heads in the opposite direction to go into another friend's house. And a few minutes later, though, he says two police officers drive up to him in an alley
Starting point is 00:52:00 and they ask him for his name and they say, do you know the young man sitting in the back of the seat of the car? They have someone in the back of the car and he immediately recognizes that it's Neil. Jason, though, was also one at the time and he also had a lengthy criminal record. So he gives the officers a fake name. He's like, I don't know. He says he doesn't know who Neil is kind of trying to get out of it. He later says that Neil was screaming his name and blood running down his face as they
Starting point is 00:52:26 drove away with him in the back seat of the car. Oh my God. I know. When the cruiser pulls away, Jason says, Neil, swore and screamed at him, they're going to kill me. They're going to kill me. Five days later on November 29th, 1990, 17 year old Neil Stonechild's frozen body is discovered by workers in an undeveloped industrial area on the outskirts of Saskatoon.
Starting point is 00:52:49 So he's found face down in the snow. He's only wearing jeans, a light jacket. He's missing a shoe. And there's news footage from that time that just show him lying out there. It's not super close, but it's so disturbing and I can't imagine that just coming up. I mean, it's so disturbing. The Saskatoon police concluded that he had died while trying to walk to an adult correctional center and that he was overcome by the cold.
Starting point is 00:53:15 And of course, they deny that Stonechild was abandoned by the officers. And of course, his mom doesn't believe this. There's no way her son would have walked anywhere when the temperatures were below. It was 28 degrees Celsius, below 28 degrees Celsius. So Neil's aunt reports that at the funeral home, she and Neil's sister saw that he had cuts across the bridge of his nose. He has bruises. It's obvious to them that he had been beaten up.
Starting point is 00:53:42 And Neil's uncle also says that he noticed bumps on Neil's head and skin missing on his wrists, thumbs and hands. And he thinks that maybe the scratches and all that came from Neil trying to pull off handcuffs. Yeah. On December 5th, so that's like six days later, the Saskatoon police service closed the investigation into the death of Neil Stonechild, despite the visible injuries to Neil's body. When the investigation is closed, it's done so before they received the coroner's report
Starting point is 00:54:14 or the toxicology report and prior to even completing witness interviews. So they have no information, basically, and they closed the case. And they just state that the cause of death was hypothermia, which is like, no shit. But what is the fucking cause? Jason says that he spoke to police twice about his allegations. He says the police officer took a statement from him. He says he approached a homicide investigator several months later, but he never heard from the police again.
Starting point is 00:54:43 Okay. So back to present day, which is the year 2000, Star Phoenix reporter Leslie Perot publishes an article on February 22, 2000 that connects Daryl Knight's allegations with Stonechild's death a decade earlier. So she like, you know, this fucking Canadian journalist ties them all together. And it's thanks to this, I think anonymous caller who's like, you need to look into this other case. It's like, I don't think people have remembered it maybe.
Starting point is 00:55:13 So an inquiry is open and the two officers who had allegedly taken Daryl Knight on his Starlight tour. Their names were Hatchin and Munson. And they testified that they didn't break any laws and that Knight was never assaulted. But they both have different stories individually of what happened. And Hatchin claims that Daryl asked to be dropped off on the edge of town. His attorney argues that Daryl was well known to the police and had dealt with them before and had said to them, look, boys, drop me off anywhere.
Starting point is 00:55:45 Just don't take me and just don't take me in like take me anywhere. Just please don't take me to jail. The power plant was just where they happened to be. So then Munson's attorney denies that the drop off was motivated by racism. He said, there have been other individuals around Saskatchewan who said that they have been dropped off by different police forces. Some are aboriginal, some are not aboriginal. I have my doubts that race was a factor.
Starting point is 00:56:11 Okay. Either way, could we get it to stop fucking happening? You're acknowledging it's a practice that happens. Yeah. It's they're intentionally trying to kill people by cold. Yeah. Yeah. So the prosecutor says that the officers deviated from the code of conduct and that they did
Starting point is 00:56:29 whatever they wanted to do and their detainment of Daryl Knight became unlawful the minute they decided to take him anywhere other than the police station. Yeah. Yeah. Both officers are convicted of unlawful confinement in September 2001. The maximum sentence for that is 10 years, but they're only sentenced to eight months in prison. The Saskatoon police service does fire them after they're convicted and the chief of Saskatoon's
Starting point is 00:56:57 police service is also let go. Saskatchewan Justice Minister Chris Axworthy orders a review into the treatment of native Canadians in the justice system and police chief Russell Sabo apologizes to the Aboriginal Justice Reform Commission saying the two officers, quote, failed to live up to their oath of office. Okay. So in a television interview, he also says that the abandonment of Aboriginal men by Saskatoon police, quote, happened more than once and we fully admit that. And in fact, on behalf of the police department, I want to apologize.
Starting point is 00:57:31 It's quite conceivable. There were other times I think it's important we take ownership when we do something wrong and correct the behavior. So wow. Yeah. That's what I'm kind of unheard of, maybe not in Canada, but sorry is that the race, he did say the race was a factor in that. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:50 Okay. Good. So then in 2003, the Saskatchewan Provincial Government holds a commission of inquiry known as the Right Inquiry, WRIGHT, because it's led by Justice David Wright into Neil Stonechild's death all the way back in 1990. So they open that back up. There's Larry Hartwig and Bradley Sanger argue their innocence and they say they didn't have any contact with Neil that night and Neil's family testify and Jason Roy testifies to
Starting point is 00:58:19 what he saw. Finally, they get a chance to fucking, you know, I'm sure had been so frustrating for them that no one was listening for fucking over 10 years. So after hearing from 43 people, testimony from 43 people, over 20 months, the inquiry ends on May 19th, 2004, and the circumstances around Neil's death, unfortunately, are still considered an officially unknown, which is very shitty, but Justice David Wright does release his findings in October, 2004. And his report, I think people weren't expecting much and it went way further than anyone thought
Starting point is 00:58:56 it would. And he concludes that Neil Stonechild had been in police custody the night he died despite the officers denying it and that the marks on his wrists and his nose were likely caused by handcuffs. Wright also accepted the account of Jason Roy and believed everything he said, you know, describing seeing a bloodied, his bloodied friend in the back of the police cruiser. Jason's testimony led to he got death threats and he said he was so distraught he attempted suicide at one point, but ultimately he says he's glad he played a role in helping, like,
Starting point is 00:59:34 in showing people that they can stand up for themselves. So the officers, Hartwig and Sanger, are dismissed from duty in November, 2004, within a month of their reports release. They appeal, their appeal is rejected, and the courts uphold the findings of the inquiry. So it's fucking, you know, it's not great, but it's an acknowledgement, I guess, which is so much further than ignoring it. Or covering it up. Right.
Starting point is 01:00:03 I mean, like the idea that someone did get in there, it's also so overt. That's kind of what's upsetting to me about it is it's so overt and it's so egregious. Yeah, it's like in your face, we can do whatever we want. And we're going to do it in the most like, it's one thing to be like, oh, this, this kid, I'm, you know, we're going to judge him because he has a record or something, and we're going to like, make life hard for him to try to get him to stop, you know, having a record. That's one thing that still is not a good way to do it, but it's, it's not that.
Starting point is 01:00:37 It's trying to kill a person by, by putting them out into the freezing cold. It's in your mind. I mean, there's like utter disregard of a person's life. Yeah. Absolutely. The report, he also goes on to say that relations between the police and First Nations people are problematic and he includes a comprehensive like, like notes on how police can start to earn back their trust because it's really fucked up at this point.
Starting point is 01:01:04 Saskatoon's mayor that year is defeated in his run for reelection by a former officer who had broke ranks and spoke out at the inquiry, despite I think a lot of old school officers at the time were like, you know, don't fucking rat and all of that stuff. The police chief was fired. And for the first time, a First Nations woman is appointed to head of the city police commission. So yeah, as per rights recommendations that he had wanted implemented, among other things there, they want, he want Aboriginal officers added to the municipal police forces in Saskatchewan, which was done.
Starting point is 01:01:43 There's GPS tracking systems now are standard in all police cars, video surveillance now tapes anything that happens in front of the cruiser and as soon as the police open the back door to place someone inside immediately starts recording video and independent body now investigates complaints against police. So everything was enacted, which is, you know, pretty stellar. Yeah. It's surprising. The police invited local Amnesty International officials to head a diversity advisory committee.
Starting point is 01:02:21 So all officers took several days of diversity training and all new recruits have taken a full week of diversity training. And the number of Aboriginal police officers has nearly doubled since the inquiry. Wow. And a lot of steps have been taken to prove that, you know, there has been a problem and we're trying to address it. I think that the, you know, the heads of the First Nations people are now kind of interacting with the police and the government to like really address these problems.
Starting point is 01:02:54 So well, and they're in, they're not just interacting as people who have been victims of the police, but now they get to be there with people with power. They had, you know, the idea that there's a First Nations woman in charge of the police commission is what you said, like that is. So there's actually someone there that if you go and have an interaction, there will be someone that, that knows like what you're talking about and believes you. What's so important that seems to me in this is that, that the police need to understand the culture of the people that they are like to serve and protect.
Starting point is 01:03:32 It's not the same, you know, it's just, it's a different culture and an understanding and an empathy towards that is so important to like, clearly they weren't seeing them as real people as humans. And so it's so important that diversity training to be able to see that. So okay, this, this is a little fucking bananas, a little tidbit because of course everything isn't all grand and shit, of course. Not trying to say that. In fact, in 2016, a student named Addison Herman was working on a project about police
Starting point is 01:04:05 brutality, a school project, and when he looked up the Starlight Tours on the Saskatoon Police Services Wikipedia article, like he went to the Wikipedia page to look up the Starlight Tours and the entry was missing. There's no entry on the Starlight Tours. So he, you know, is young and smart, so it does a little tiny bit of digging and he's able to uncover that between 2012 and 2016, the Starlight Tours section on the page had been deleted several times and then he tracks the history of the entry and because you can fucking do that, everything is traceable.
Starting point is 01:04:39 He covers that the registration on the IP address that had deleted it came from the Saskatoon Police Service. Yeah. Yeah. So an internal investigation is done, blah, blah, blah, it's all fucking lip service. On March 31, 2016, a police spokeswoman announced that the section on Starlight Tours had been deleted using a computer within the department, but said investigators are unable to pinpoint exactly who did it.
Starting point is 01:05:04 But it's like, you can tell the fucking desk it came from, you know, it's 2016, you can tell these things. But they're like, we delete all or everything off the servers every 30 days. We can't tell who it was, we just know it was from the office. But the problem is not where it got deleted from. The problem is that it got deleted because that's erasing the history that they are responsible for and that's the problem. This is colonization, this is the effects of colonization, where then you have a whole
Starting point is 01:05:37 group of people who are treated terribly, who are like the entire thing of it is like, you can break it down into like, oh, well, we sorry, we can't trace how that, but it's like, no, this is whitewashing, that's what whitewashing is and that's why it happens. Because people do massively fucked up shit and then they just want to act like nothing happened and how dare you speak to us about how we do things. It's the how dare you thing when it's like, no, no, how dare you think that you can just go kill children, go kill these people, go put them out because those people need to be weeded out and they need it.
Starting point is 01:06:20 I mean, obviously, that's what happened, but it's like, you can't make a go with it. Well, it didn't happen because in 2016, there's still someone in that fucking, in that police station taking this entry down, so it didn't get weeded out. Well, right, because you can't do a week of sensitivity training and think that that's going to change racism. It's called systemic for a reason. It's because it's in the veins. And also, guess what?
Starting point is 01:06:48 If you did it, it's still, it might not be on Wikipedia, but it's in God's fucking Wikipedia, guess what? That guy you always claim that you love so much, God, he fucking knows. She. Well, and also everyone in your town knows, all the families of the people who were murdered know. Right. And here's what you're too stupid to know is 16-year-olds can go in and rewrite that
Starting point is 01:07:09 entry on Wikipedia, because that's what fucking Wikipedia is. This is modern life. That's how modern life works. And I think the modernization of us now and the public having video, they said the same thing about the racism isn't getting worse. It's just being fucking filmed now, and that's the same thing happening in Canada where there's so many of these cases that are being brought to light, and these people are like, this isn't new.
Starting point is 01:07:37 You're just finally seeing it. You're seeing what we see every fucking day. And you're finally listening to people who it's been easy for you to ignore in the past. It's been easy for us to ignore in the past. Definitely. So recently, a local newspaper found that Indigenous students in Saskatchewan are more likely to be stopped by police than non-Indigenous students. Indigenous people receive harsher sentences than non-Indigenous people in Saskatchewan.
Starting point is 01:08:05 And I said that 75% of the male prison population and 90% of the female prison population is aboriginal. It's said government commissions have been set up to address these concerns, but schools on reserves get less funding. The majority of kids in the foster care system are aboriginal. And of course, as we know, a disproportionate number of aboriginal men and women are missing and murdered each year. What's the podcast?
Starting point is 01:08:33 It's Missing and Murdered. Yeah. That's a great part. There's like a couple seasons of that. I should definitely check out the podcast, Missing and Murdered. Ever since Daryl Knight survived his starlight tour, his entire family has been living on the Saltu First Nations Reserve outside the city. Daryl says he doesn't feel safe in Saskatoon.
Starting point is 01:08:53 He feels like a target. There are other suspicious freezing deaths that are possible cases of starlight tours and something they go back as far as the 1960s. So just last week, November 25, 2020, marked the 30th anniversary of the death of Neil Stonechild. His big brother Chris remembers Neil as a caring person with a big heart. He says he loved life. His mother Stella says, quote, not a day goes by when I don't shed a tear for my boy.
Starting point is 01:09:22 And as of 2020, no Saskatoon police officer has ever been convicted for causing a freezing death for a starlight tour. And that is the story of starlight tours. Whoa, I've never heard of that. I'm glad you told it. It's a horrifying story. Yeah. And I guess this is why we end on fucking hooray's.
Starting point is 01:09:41 Do you want to go first? You want me to go first? Go ahead. Yeah. Okay. This is from rebecca.teski26. My fucking hooray is since I'm not going home for Thanksgiving, I decided to put the money I would have used for gas to different use and help provide groceries for a family
Starting point is 01:09:56 in need. It wasn't much, but hopefully helpful. It's fucking awesome. Oh, nice. I know. Yeah, that's great. Let's see. This is from Annie McGonagall.
Starting point is 01:10:05 And it says my fucking hooray is celebrating the one year anniversary of creating a social work department at a pediatric clinic serving primarily kids on the autism spectrum. Throughout this past year, myself and now two incredible other social workers have created a department that's provided intensive mental health care for over 50 new families in the Chicago area. So proud of my clinic, my coworkers, myself, but mostly my clients that work so hard every day. The kids I serve model strength, courage, and finding the good in all things.
Starting point is 01:10:37 Woo. Oh my God. Amazing. That's awesome. Amazing work. Good job, Annie. Thank you for that work. Okay.
Starting point is 01:10:45 This is from Chelsea Paige Ricketts. My fucking hooray is that today, after over three years, my super religious parents who hate having a gay daughter finally invited my girlfriend to Thanksgiving dinner. I have no idea if meeting her changed their view of my relationship at all, but they're finally trying and that's all I can really ask. Fucking hooray. Wow. I know.
Starting point is 01:11:07 That's big. That's a huge step. Incredible. That's really something. Yeah. That's that hope we were talking about. That's some hope. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:11:16 That's some hope. I just saw that little Zupa and it says, my fucking hooray is that I got a real Christmas tree for the first time ever this weekend with my boyfriend and for our new apartment together. Yay. My sister got a Christmas tree while I was home and I swear to God. I mean, if you can get your hands on something that's like, even if it just smells like pine, even just like it's just like one of those, this air fresheners car.
Starting point is 01:11:44 It's so nice to be marking time in a way that actually registers. Any little decoration that you have around your house. Yeah. I love having string lights up that aren't Christmas color, so I can have like little Hanukkah stuff, just like white and blue. Like, it feels good. It feels good. What you celebrate, actually celebrate it this year, because I'm definitely one of those
Starting point is 01:12:08 kind of people. Whatever the holiday is, I'm one of the kinds of people that's like, it's not worth it. I'm, you know, whatever, I don't want to bother or whatever, and I think this year of any, the idea of just the celebration of, it's the end of the year, it's a time of like charity, it's a time of giving, it's a time of caring about other people. All those things, however, whatever it means to you and whatever it looks like to you, I highly recommend this be the year that you do it. It makes a difference.
Starting point is 01:12:39 That's a good idea. It makes a difference on your own subconscious, even if you're like, oh, it's just me in my apartment by myself. It's like a reminder every day to, you know. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. That it's like, this is the season overall for people to like remember to care and like reach out to each other and connect and like now more than ever, basically.
Starting point is 01:13:01 Seriously. Put up decorations for every fucking December holiday. Get it all going. Celebrate all of them. Do it. Do it. Like go on a Christmas. Whatever pagan ritual you might be able to look up and find, they don't celebrate it.
Starting point is 01:13:17 Oh, fuck. Then you have to take them all down, but that's a celebration in and of itself and it's just showing respect. Yeah, yeah, yeah. People have different beliefs. That's right. Or just like that can eat a ton of candy canes, whatever that means to you, whatever you can do.
Starting point is 01:13:32 Oh, I love it. Vince has the cookies that he likes to have baked, like the just peanut butter with a Hershey kiss in the middle. Oh, those are the goddamn best. He just has to have those every year. They're so good. When you get one of those hot out of the oven so that the Hershey's kiss is a little bit milky.
Starting point is 01:13:50 The sugar is like kind of crunchy on top. Oh my God. Stop. Are you kidding me? I'll drop some off for you. Would you really? Yeah. Oh, wait.
Starting point is 01:13:59 We can do an exchange because then I can give you that moisturizer that I have. Yeah. Okay. We'll do it. I should probably get a Christmas present too. Okay. Fine. I'll get you seven Hanukkah presents and stick them in a bag.
Starting point is 01:14:11 Yes. Well, thanks for listening, guys. Here we are, face to face. Guess what? Hmm. Today is December 1st. It's the last month of 2020. We're wrapping this fucking POS up in a big, beautiful bow, a non-denominational bow.
Starting point is 01:14:31 And we're going to get through these last 30 days and then have a true cleansing, a ritual of some kind. Let's do that. Let's do a witchy, crystal-y moon thing. Yeah. We need to. Right? It's such, isn't it weird that it's already December?
Starting point is 01:14:47 In some ways, it's like the longest and also then the fastest year of all time. Absolutely. Absolutely. These walls, that's all I've seen. I mean, it is, but we're making it, guys. We're holding hands to get, via podcast, we're doing it together and we're doing our fucking best and even if we're not, we intend to at some point in our lives. And things are going to get better, manifest it, believe it, light a candle, say it to
Starting point is 01:15:16 yourself, because it already is starting to and they're, yeah, and we can, this can all get better. We deserve hope. That is what we fucking deserve. Yes, we do. And hope is smart. That's right. So have a little and stay sexy.
Starting point is 01:15:33 And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Hey. Yeah. Elvis, do you want a cookie? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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