Russia’s national lyricist, Canada’s language laws, and the rehabilitation of a code-breaker

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This week, a look back at the career of the late Sergei Mikhalkov. During World War Two, Mikhalkov wrote the lyrics to the Soviet national anthem. Decades later, he composed the words for Russia’s national anthem– to the same piece of music. Also, a conversation with Keith Spicer on Canada’s 40-year-old language laws. Spicer was the country’s first enforcer of bilingualism. Finally, the British government apologizes for its treatment of Alan Turing, who helped break the Nazis’ war codes.

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Apology campaign for British Nazi code-breaker

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There’s a campaign under way in Britain to press the government to issue an apology in the case of Alan Turing. Turing is considered the father of the modern computer and contributed to the defeat of Germany during World War Two by cracking secret Nazi codes. Turing committed suicide in 1954 after being prosecuted for being homosexual. Anchor Lisa Mullins finds out more about the campaign from Richard Gill, a professor of mathematical statistics at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.