Johnny: I’m sorry [looking towards his producer] Diane but I see my producer indicating to me that were out of time. [trying to shake hands with Diane] Thank you again Diane for joining us and providing our viewers and yours truly with so many insightful and challenging views of why Canada fell apart. I’m sorry we don’t have more time but I’m sure our viewers will be rushing to their favourite book stores, to the internet to get their hands on Freddy the Freeloading Country and see how the story ends. I invite our viewers to join us tomorrow, same time, same channel when our guest will be the Grand Ayatollah, Muhammad Abdullah Domeini, President, Chief Cleric and Spiritual Leader of the Holly Alliance of Muslim Municipalities who will talk about religion’s role, if any, in the break-up of Canada. See you all tomorrow.

[Cameras are off. DIANE and JOHNNY are alone in the studio]

Diane: Did you end the discussion because I was going to talk about it?

Johnny: Were you going to talk about it?

Diane: Yes.

Johnny: You know we don’t talk about it. It’s not only this network’s policy, it’s all the networks’ policy. Talking about it can also land you in jail. Canadians talked about it and look what happened to them.

Diane: Canadians did not talk about it. When asked, they simply repeated the same self-serving platitudes of politicians, corporate mouth-pieces, lawyers and lobbyist for the growth industry that profited from it. They started seriously talking about it when it was too late to do anything about it, to have an intelligent discussion about it.

Johnny: I know for a fact that you could not get your book published unless you removed the chapter that talked about it. Our lawyers, your publishers lawyers, same lawyers actually, all agreed that if you talked about it we could find ourselves before a judge facing a large fine, even jail-time.

Diane: Its not only that I wasn’t allowed to talk about it, that upsets me. Because we didn’t talk about it the presentation of my economic theory on the break-up of Canada is incomplete. Your other guest are going to have a field day disputing, even ridiculing my arguments because you did not let me finish. I can’t forgive you for that.

Johnny: I’m sorry, if it had been up to me I would have let you talk about it. How about this? Give me something in writing, before the show tomorrow, about it and how it contributed to the break-up of Canada. If the need arises, I will make your arguments for you. Hopefully in a way that “it” won’t get the network into trouble or land you or me in jail.

END OF FIRST INTERVIEW