  Finally The urlLink CNN Transcript of the the April 24th Edition of Newsnight with Aaron Brown. Here's the full transcript of the Brown/Lastman interview: BROWN: Mayor, you're obviously disappointed in the WHO advisory. On the facts, though, where is the WHO mistaken? MEL LASTMAN, MAYOR, TORONTO: They don't know what they're talking about. I don't know who this group is. I've never heard of them before.
I had never seen them before. Who did they talk to? They haven't even been to Toronto. They're located somewhere in Geneva. And they haven't talked to us all. They read the papers and sometimes the papers exaggerate.
And that's what's happened right here. And I want -- I invite them. I want them to come to Toronto this weekend. I want them to see what we've been doing, like the CDC were here. That's the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. The United States are our direct neighbors.
And the CDC said Toronto is doing -- you're a model for the world in what you're doing. Look, we have 1500 people in quarantine at one time. We're down to 180. We haven't had one people -- one person get SARS in the last seven days. And if we go 20 days, we've beaten it. BROWN: Well, and that -- isn't that exactly what the WHO is saying, is that they need to see three weeks of no new illness before they will reevaluate the advisory?
LASTMAN: They want to wait three weeks. In the meantime, they're hurting Toronto badly. We depend greatly on tourism. We get 22 million tourists a year. And it's hurting. Yes, our city is continuing.
They're moving the way they always do. They're working. The malls are jammed. But the hotels aren't doing much business. And the restaurants aren't. We need the tourists.
And they're hurting us. And to wait three weeks is ridiculous, when they haven't even been here in the first place. BROWN: How many SARS cases do you know of in the Toronto area right now? LASTMAN: Well, you see what we do is, we don't take any chances. We play it safe. Like 500 people went to the Philippines, Manila, Hong Kong, and back to Toronto.
We -- and one or two of them had it. We took all 500 and we quarantined all 500. There have been in total about 8500 people who have been quarantined, but not all 8500 had SARS. BROWN: Do you know how many... LASTMAN: Only a fraction of them had it -- SARS. BROWN: Do you know how many? LASTMAN: I'm not sure the exact amount, but it's a fraction of that.
BROWN: Do you have any feel yet for how much this has cost the city government or the provincial government? LASTMAN: Well, I know at the end of the 20 days, we will be coming out with a $25 million advertising campaign to let the world know, and that's only phase 1, to let the world know that Toronto is safe. You know, if it's safe enough to live here, it's safe enough to visit here. And let me tell you, it is safe. And people are not -- there's not that many people walking around wearing masks, surgical masks. BROWN: Would you say that the people -- that the residents of Toronto are too nervous about SARS right now, that they are too afraid?
LASTMAN: Some people are, yes. But most people aren't. You got to the malls, the malls are jammed. You use our city transit system, there's a million people a year using the transit system . We're -- people are still working, and they're still doing everything that they always do. BROWN: Just two other things on that.
Major League Baseball said yesterday that they recommend their players not use the public transportation system. I gather you're not very happy about that either? LASTMAN: No, that's ridiculous. I use it. And I'm going to be using it. And I'm going to be staying at a hotel in Toronto with my wife.
And I am going to be going to -- I got to restaurants in Toronto. And I'll be going to more restaurants. I'll be doing a lot of this all next week. BROWN: And just -- are you at all concerned, you must be somewhat concerned, that you might lose the All-Star game this summer ? LASTMAN: Yes, I am . BROWN: Yes.
LASTMAN: Toronto is a sports city. And in the past, we've won quite a few championships. And I want to keep winning more. And I want this All-Star game. And we are going -- we are beating this. You know, it's almost gone.
We've turned the corner. Our medical officer of health today made a statement, we've turned the corner and all we have to do is go two more weeks and we're all set. BROWN: Well, that seems to be what the WHO is saying, whether they've been there or not. This is a most difficult time for your city. We appreciate some of your time to talk with us about it tonight. Thank you, mayor.
LASTMAN: Aaron, I thank you. BROWN: Thank you, sir. For the record, and for what it's worth.... 1. urlLink The TTC claimed about 415.5 million passenger trips last year. Is that "a million people" using the transit system? Toronto alone has a population of 2.5 million. Does this mean that only 40% of Toronto's population uses the TTC?
I don't mean to nitpick, but my point is that the knee-jerk overuse of superlatives is better left in a 4th grade show and tell session. Mayor Lastman is a big boy, and he's the spokesman, to the world, for a big city. We've all apreciated his passion for the issues of the day, but please... Down one notch, that's all Im asking. 2. This year's urlLink MLB All-Star game will be held in Chicago, not Toronto as Mr. Brown and Mr. Lastman both claim . I just walked past Yonge and Dundas Square.
urlLink Kyle Rae was giving an interveiw with CNN in front of the Eaton's Centre. Let's hope he can wipe some of this Lastman egg off our collective faces. 
