
<p>He’s a former Canadian Olympian — and one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives. And the U.S. is now offering $15 million for information leading to the arrest of Ryan Wedding. RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme was in Washington for a joint news conference with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, after seven Canadians were arrested — seven people officials say have ties to a criminal organization headed by Wedding.</p><p><br></p><p>And: Premier Danielle Smith says doctors in Alberta will soon be able to work in both the public and private health care systems simultaneously.</p><p><br></p><p>Also: The UK wants to combat scalping tickets to concerts and other shows.</p><p><br></p><p>The new rules will ban reselling tickets for a profit.</p><p><br></p><p>Plus: Alberta nearing a federal deal to build an oil pipeline to B.C. coast, Russia unleashes one of its worst attacks inside Ukraine, the Epstein files, AI earnings, and more.</p>
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Narrator/Announcer
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Reporter/Correspondent
This is a CBC podcast.
Ryan Wedding is a modern day iteration of Pablo Escobar. This Justice Department and this FBI will work with our Canadian counterparts to bring him to justice.
Susan Bonner
Wedding crashers police on both sides of the border making more arrests, raising the reward and ramping up their hunt for the former Olympic snowboarder accused of heading a deadly drug ring and still on the run. Welcome to YOUR WORLD TONIGHT. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Wednesday, November 19th, just before 6:00pm Eastern. Also on the podcast Health care shouldn't.
Reporter/Correspondent
Be about blind and outdated ideologies or politics. It should be about providing all Albertans with access to the best health care possible when and where they need it.
Susan Bonner
Alberta's premier calls it the cure for long and painful surgical wait times. A model unlike anywhere else in this country that would allow doctors to work in public and private medicine at the same time. Parallel practice and concern about a two tiered system. He may have placed 24th in the Olympics, but former Canadian snowboarder Ryan Wedding is one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives accused of ordering murders and trafficking massive amounts of cocaine. Today, some of North America's top law enforcement officials announce the arrest of people allegedly connected to Wedding Wedding while insisting they are closing in on him. Sarah Levitt has the latest.
Reporter/Correspondent
Make no mistake about it, Ryan Wedding is a modern day iteration of Pablo Escobar. He's a modern day iteration of El Chapo Guzman.
Narrator/Announcer
FBI Director Cash Patel not holding back on the former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin Ryan Wedding. The net tightening around one of the US top 10's most wanted fugitives and his network in an investigation coined as Operation Giant Slalom. The United States Department of Justice announcing today the arrest of 10 alleged associates of wedding, seven in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. Another is already in custody and one is still on the run.
Reporter/Correspondent
You do not get to be a drug kingpin and evade the law.
Narrator/Announcer
Among those arrested, Toronto area defense lawyer Deepak Paradkar. This all in connection with the murder of a key witness in a sprawling FBI case against Wedding. US Attorney General Pam Bondi described Wedding today as the leader of a transnational criminal enterprise and the largest distributor of cocaine in Canada from Mexico through the United States. His organization is responsible for importing approximately 60 metric tons of cocaine a year into Los Angeles via semi trucks from Mexico.
Reporter/Correspondent
To put that in perspective, 60 metric tons of is approximately the weight of 40 standard cars.
Narrator/Announcer
Bill Asale, the first assistant U.S. attorney at the Central District of California, alleged it was lawyer Paradkar who told associates.
Reporter/Correspondent
His lawyer advised them to kill this witness.
Katie Simpson
His lawyer told him if you kill.
Reporter/Correspondent
This witness, the case would be dismissed. That lawyer is now in custody and he'll be extradited and brought to justice here in the United States.
Narrator/Announcer
Assailee also saying at the time of Paradkar's arrest, the lawyer initially refused to leave his home. Paradkar once held an Instagram account under the name Cocaine Lawyer. The DOJ alleges a Canadian website now removed was used to contract out the hit against the witness. Wedding, who is still on the run, is facing more charges, according to Pam Bondi. We're unsealing a new indictment charging Wedding with two additional counts of witness tampering and intimidation, murder, money laundering and drug trafficking. The RCMP assisted in the arrests yesterday. Michael Duhem is the commissioner and says Wedding works closely with several Mexican gangs, including the Sinaloa cartel.
Reporter/Correspondent
Ryan Wedding is still operating somewhere in Mexico. This has given a serious impact to the organization.
Narrator/Announcer
The State Department has also raised the reward for any information leading to wedding's arrest from US$10 million to 15 million. Sarah Levitt, CBC News, Montreal.
Susan Bonner
In a first for Canada, doctors in Alberta will be allowed to work in public and private health care simultaneously. The province says it will cut wait times and allow patients to get quality care quicker. But as Sam Sampson reports, some say it could reshape the system in favor.
Reporter/Correspondent
Of the wealthy because healthcare shouldn't be about blind and outdated ideologies or or politics. It should be about providing all Albertans with access to the best health care possible.
Sam Sampson
In a seven minute video released on social media Wednesday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith promises to modernize the province's health care system specifically with a new way to address long wait times for elective surgeries.
Reporter/Correspondent
Calling it the dual practice surgery model.
Sam Sampson
The province says it will introduce legislation to allow doctors to work for both the private and public health care systems so a surgeon could do publicly funded surgeries during work hours and then take on privately paid for surgeries in their off time.
Reporter/Correspondent
We need to find a solution that results in lower wait times for surgeries, doctors empowered to perform more surgeries than they can now, and no more extra taxes or fees for taxpayers.
Sam Sampson
More than 80,000 Albertans are waiting for elective surgeries right now. Alberta contracts private surgical clinics to provide things like hip and knee replacements on an outpatient basis. But Patrick Fafard says this is different. He's a professor emeritus of the Graduate School of Public and International affairs at the University of Ottawa.
Reporter/Correspondent
A bit more dramatic this that physicians can use public hospitals, publicly funded hospitals, to deliver care to patients, and those patients will pay the physician, the surgeon directly. This has never been done before.
Sam Sampson
Despite the premier's promise that this will cut down public wait times, Fafard worries the new system could actually drain public resources since there might be more money in private surgeries and then there's a bigger, more societal impact of this.
Reporter/Correspondent
Are we comfortable as a country with the fact that we have two parallel streams and that some of some people with additional means can gain access in a way that the rest of us cannot?
Sam Sampson
Doctors would still be required to do a certain number of public surgeries every year. The province promises no public money will fund these private surgeries. In fact, the premier says this is a solution since there's no public funds to pay for all the surgeries needed in the first place.
Reporter/Correspondent
To say, yeah, you know, we have a demand and we just can't meet it through public funding kind of feels like admitting failure of the Canada Healthcare act, to be honest.
Sam Sampson
That's one red flag Dr. Keith Wolstenholm picked up from the video. He's an orthopedic surgeon in Red Deer, among others. He's not sure which of his colleagues actually has extra time to do more surgeries.
Reporter/Correspondent
I can also tell you that nobody wants to work in the hospital on evenings and weekends as it is because it's hard work and nobody wants to work at nighttime.
Sam Sampson
Wolstenholme says he doesn't necessarily think this new system could be good or bad. He needs more details to decide. He Sam Sampson, CBC News, Edmonton.
Susan Bonner
Now to a plan that could transform Canada's energy sector. It's already causing tension between provinces. Alberta says it's nearing a federal deal to build an oil pipeline to the coast of British Columbia. But the proposal still has plenty of hurdles, including buy in from B.C. olivia Stefanovic reports.
Reporter/Correspondent
Canada is one of the very few.
Olivia Stefanovic
Countries in the world who can develop.
Reporter/Correspondent
Natural resources in a sustainable and responsible way.
Unidentified Politician/Official
On the question of green lighting a new oil pipeline, Finance Minister Francois Philippe Champagne says the federal government can grow the economy while protecting the environment. Some of his liberal colleagues are more skeptical.
Reporter/Correspondent
People in my community are proud of the coast, proud of our coastal economy and committed to protecting it, especially those.
Unidentified Politician/Official
From British Columbia, including Victoria. MP Will Greaves And Patrick Wyler, MP for West Vancouver, Sunshine Coast, Sea to Sky Country.
Reporter/Correspondent
It's going to have to have provincial buy in and indigenous support that remains an obstacle. I think at this point we continue to make our position clear.
Unidentified Politician/Official
Ravi Callan is BC's Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth. His government recently signed a declaration with coastal first nations asking Ottawa to uphold a ban on oil tankers off the province's north coast.
Reporter/Correspondent
Having discussions about a hypothetical project that has no private sector proponent at this time, it actually distracts from all the good work we could be doing together.
Unidentified Politician/Official
But CBC News has learned Ottawa is considering making an exemption to that rule, along with changes to industrial carbon pricing and the industrial emissions cap, all part of a reset in relations with Alberta Premier Daniel Smith.
Reporter/Correspondent
Yes, I think the prime minister fully understands and has the same sense of urgency that I do.
Unidentified Politician/Official
Smith's office says it's been meeting with the prime minister's office since June and they're now entering the final stages of a memorandum of understanding, or mou, to make a new oil pipeline viable.
Reporter/Correspondent
The way you show Albertans that the country works again is that you ensure that their product isn't landlocked and that there aren't unfair rules that are preventing investment.
Unidentified Politician/Official
A senior government official says Ottawa is open to approving a new oil pipeline if Alberta does the consultation work required.
Reporter/Correspondent
Well, certainly disappointing hearing that the tanker.
Ban will be bypassed, but Terry Tiedge.
Unidentified Politician/Official
Says there's still strong opposition. He's the regional Chief of the B.C. assembly of First Nations.
Reporter/Correspondent
You know, government needs to be careful.
In how it proceeds in terms of inclusion of first nations and how decisions are made, especially in major projects.
Unidentified Politician/Official
Alberta's Indigenous relations minister continues to visit coastal first nations in an attempt to earn their support in the event the province can create the conditions for a new oil pipeline and find a Olivia Stefanovic, CBC News, Ottawa.
Susan Bonner
Coming right up, real talk about artificial intelligence as concern about a market tech bubble widens. And in Ukraine, more than two dozen people killed in Russian drone and missile strikes across the country. Later, we'll have this story.
Reporter/Correspondent
British authorities say they're cracking down on marked up concert and sports tickets, outlawing charging a higher resale price than originally paid. But here in Canada, yeah, it's not going to work.
The fact of the matter is, is that you may not be the only.
Sam Sampson
One that wants to see Taylor Swift.
Reporter/Correspondent
In the city of 3 million people.
Sam Sampson
With 45,000 tickets sold.
Reporter/Correspondent
I'm Anees Hidari in Calgary. Coming up on YOUR WORLD tonight, why Canadians probably shouldn't expect high demand concert tickets to have lower prices anytime soon.
Susan Bonner
The financial markets faced a critical test today. It came in the form of Nvidia's after the bell earnings and questions about an AI bubble with repercussions for pension holders in Canada. Senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong is in Toronto. Peter, what did we learn today?
Reporter/Correspondent
Well, Susan, we learned that if there is an AI bubble that's going to pop, it's not going to pop today. If this was, as they call it, a make or break moment, boy, did Nvidia ever make it. The earnings exceeded just about every expectation. And remember here, Nvidia has become almost like a proxy for AI. They make the exact kind of chips that drive AI. So if it's doing well, demand for AI in general is doing well. And the concern is that they just couldn't possibly keep up with the expectations and the momentum. But for today, at least, it didn't just keep up, Susan. It beat those expectations. Revenue was up $35 billion. That's 17% better than the previous quarter, up 94% from a year ago.
Susan Bonner
But Peter, what are the markets watching here? That perhaps there's just unsustainable amount of steam?
Reporter/Correspondent
Yeah, that's not just what the markets are worried about now. It's what they're worried about yesterday. It's what they will be worried about again tomorrow. The fear, of course, is that AI and these companies adjacent to them, the chip makers like Nvidia, they just can't keep up with the momentum. So much of the growth we've seen in stock markets has been in this small handful of technology companies that if they start to lose ground, the broader markets could very quickly be in for a serious correction.
Susan Bonner
And Peter, it's been observed that what's going on in today's market feels eerily similar to the market leading up to the 1999 tech bubble bursting.
Reporter/Correspondent
It is, and I talked to a lot of people about that because you can sort of feel it. But one point was made to me, Susan, that unlike the dot com bubble where you had pre revenue companies, companies weren't even making money. The companies we're talking about today are very profitable. They've got global distribution. AI is going to help their business. But if somehow AI ends up being a flop, it's not like Amazon or Microsoft are going to suddenly go out of business.
Susan Bonner
This is an American company traded on an American index. How much should this matter to Canadians?
Reporter/Correspondent
Look, the problem here is that with a bubble, when it pops any bubble, it generally has such a big blast radius that other companies get caught up in the sell off whether they should or not. Remember also Canadian pension funds, they hold an awful lot of Nvidia stock. The Canadian pension Plan has like $8 billion in Nvidia stock. So after today, it's almost like we' to reset the clock, reset those expectations, wait now for the next round of earnings results, see where we're at. Are we starting to match up with those expectations or are these companies even saying at a little bit we invested too much in one sector, need to pull back? And what impact will that have?
Susan Bonner
We'll talk to you again. Thank you, Peter.
Reporter/Correspondent
You bet.
Susan Bonner
CBC senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong in Toronto. At least 25 people were killed and dozens more wounded in one of the worst Russian attacks on Ukraine in years. Drones and missiles struck targets across the country overnight, including an apartment building. It comes as Ukraine's president travels to Turkey looking to resuscitate peace talks. Chris Brown has more on the developments.
Olivia Stefanovic
A nine story apartment building in the city of Ternopil took a direct hit from the Russian attack, collapsing the top floors and leaving people buried under concrete rubble. My son is still in the apartment on the ninth floor, said Oksana Kobel. He said, mom, everything's going to be fine. Don't worry. But he hasn't been heard from since. From time to time, rescuers stopped and listened for sounds of life, bringing out one survivor in the bucket of a crane. But as more debris was removed, the death toll soared. There are now 25 people dead. 17 of the survivors in hospital are children, said Interior Minister IHOR Klymenko. Russia has hit cities in western Ukraine in the past, but rarely this hard, using more than 476 drones and 48 missiles. NATO jets in Romania also scrambled after some of the drones briefly entered the country's airstrike. There were other ugly scenes in eastern Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv, where dozens of people were hurt in attacks there. Ukraine has suffered significant setbacks in the ground war as well. Russian troops are now inside the strategic city of Pokrovsk after one of the most ferocious battles since Vladimir Putin's all out invasion began almost four years ago. Still, for all of Ukraine's challenges, Putin's tactical wins remain far from adding up to anything close to a strategic victory. His troop losses have been immense and Ukraine's long range attacks have dealt repeated blows to Russia's oil production and its economy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Turkey for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan we talk substantively about diplomacy, said Zelenskyy. Russia must understand there can be no reward for waging war and committing killings. Reuters and Britain's Financial Times are reporting the US Is again pushing Ukraine to surrender territory to Russia in Donbass that Putin's troops have not yet conquered and to cut the size of its army, neither of which Zelensky has said Ukraine will ever do. Ukraine's president will now return to Kyiv, where the US Administration has sent two top Pentagon officials to continue the discussions. Chris Brown, CBC News, London Israeli airstrikes.
Susan Bonner
Hit targets in Gaza and Lebanon. The military says it's targeting Iran backed Hezbollah on the border in south Lebanon. Israel accuses Hezbollah of trying to rearm since the two sides agreed to a U S backed ceasefire last year in Gaza. The health ministry says Israeli airstrikes have killed 25 people. The ID it was responding to militants opening fire on Israeli forces in Kunis. No soldiers were injured in that incident. After months of calling it boring stuff and a democratic hoax, the US President is expected to approve a bipartisan bill making the Jeffrey Epstein Files public. The documents could include names of the sex traffickers, rich and powerful associates, but it still isn't clear what will see the light of day and what will stay secret. Katie Simpson reports from Washington.
Reporter/Correspondent
This feels like a victory, a long overdue victory.
Katie Simpson
There is a sense of hope among some of Jeffrey Epstein's survivors that finally there may be accountability. Annie Farmer says she was 16 years old when the sexual abuse started. She is optimistic whatever new documents are released will expose Epstein's vast sex trafficking.
Reporter/Correspondent
Operations in terms of names of people that not only participated in these crimes, but the people that enabled the crimes and the people that funded the crimes.
Katie Simpson
Anytime now, US President Donald Trump is expected to sign the Epstein Files Transparency act into law. It means the Department of justice will have 30 days to prepare and release most non classified documents, including but not limited to investigation notes, flight logs and banking records. Attorney General Pam Bondi suggesting the DOJ is willing to comply.
Narrator/Announcer
We will continue to follow the law with maximum transparency while protecting victims.
Katie Simpson
Victim names and personal details are among the materials that are supposed to be redacted or withheld. Also, the DOJ does not have to release files that could compromise ongoing investigations. Dave Leventhal, an American journalist who has long covered the Epstein case, says that exception is significant since Trump just ordered new investigations targeting prominent Democrats.
Reporter/Correspondent
There could be an argument by the government certain information cannot be released in the Epstein files because of an ongoing investigation that's likely to be highly controversial because it's an easy thing for the government to say.
Katie Simpson
The newly ordered investigations contradict a memo published by the DOJ and FBI in July. The agencies had declared there was no evidence to justify additional investigations into uncharged third parties. At the time, authorities said it was one of the reasons why no further Epstein files needed to be made public. Without citing specifics, the attorney general now says something has changed.
Narrator/Announcer
Information that has come for information. There's information that new information, additional information.
Katie Simpson
Lawmakers say they'll be watching the DOJ's actions closely. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal says he's concerned authorities will not follow through.
Reporter/Correspondent
There is no credibility in this Justice Department, which is why our oversight and.
Olivia Stefanovic
Scrutiny will be so important.
Katie Simpson
With so much public pressure on the Trump administration to act, some survivors say that support gives them comfort as they wait for answers. Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington.
Susan Bonner
This is yous World Tonight from CBC News. If you want to make sure you stay up to date and never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts, just find the follow button and lock us in. Too late for the Taylor Swift tour and too far away to help Toronto Blue Jays fans who paid thousands to get into the World Series. But it's one of the most aggressive efforts yet to combat ticket reselling. The UK wants to make it illegal to mark off prices above face value, a crackdown Canadian sports and music fans have wanted to see and are still waiting for. Anise Hedari reports.
Reporter/Correspondent
Eighteen hundred dollars? Dude, those tickets were 20 bucks weeks ago on TikTok. This Blue Jays fan wasn't happy with World Series ticket prices. He was looking at a reseller's website.
This feels like it should be illegal because $5,000 for nosebleeds?
It might be illegal soon, at least in the United Kingdom. That country says it will ban reselling the tickets to concerts, shows and sporting events at increased prices. Daniel Gumbel is with UK Music, which represents that industry. He says they support targeting websites that sell access for way more than a ticket's face value.
This is to target those sites and make sure that they aren't able, those resellers aren't able to post tickets on there at hugely inflated prices. Yeah, it's not going to work.
But Canadian music industry expert Eric Alper is skeptical both of whether it will work in the UK and whether we could see something like that work at home. He says a law like this doesn't change supply and demand.
Sam Sampson
The fact of the matter is that.
Reporter/Correspondent
You may not be the only one that wants to see Taylor Swift in the city of 3 million people with 45,000 tickets sold. It's the overwhelming opinion of economists that these sort of laws really don't protect consumers in any sort of significant way.
Victor Matheson is a professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. He studies the money in sports and he says there may be an unintended consequence when laws like this come to play.
This is just more likely that the Bruce Springsteens or the Toronto Blue Jays or the Bare Naked Ladies of the World are gonna go out there and just charge more for the tickets in the first place.
The other reason Canadians might not see savings governments here just might not do anything.
The UK tends to be ballsier from a competition standpoint.
Bass Bedner is managing of Toronto based policy group, the Canadian Shield Institute in Canada.
I'm not sure if it's that we're polite sometimes or just have an aversion to any kind of market intervention, but let's be real.
Narrator/Announcer
The resale market is not a free market.
Reporter/Correspondent
It's a highly moderated market where prices are largely determined and calibrated by Ticketmaster.
As for the UK law, it's unclear yet how it will address the claims that online bots. Bots buy up tickets before anyone else can. Economist Victor Matheson says either way, don't expect to pay less.
I'd certainly much rather see Taylor Swift make money out of a Taylor Swift concert than a Russian bot farm.
Narrator/Announcer
Don't say I didn't say.
Reporter/Correspondent
I didn't warn ya.
Because if resellers can't charge more, artists could. As long as someone's willing to pay. And he's hit. Ari, CBC News, Calgary.
Susan Bonner
Finally tonight, it is a huge achievement for a small country. As next year's FIFA World cup approaches, a tiny Caribbean nation has earned a spot on soccer's biggest stage. Obispo gets the header out.
Reporter/Correspondent
Curacao have done it for the first time in their history.
Katie Simpson
Curacao are World cup bounce.
Susan Bonner
The island country of Curacao, tying Jamaica last night in Kingston. The draw was enough to finish first in the qualifying group and clinch a berth in the World Cup. A first for Curacao, which becomes the smallest country to ever play in the tournament based on the capacity of most World cup venues. In theory, about half of Curacao's inhabitants could fit inside the stadium population just 156,000, roughly that of Kelowna, B.C. or Cambridge, Ontario.
Narrator/Announcer
We are the smallest country to ever.
Reporter/Correspondent
Make it to the World Cup.
Narrator/Announcer
We will show everyone that we are small, but we are big at heart.
Reporter/Correspondent
I didn't expect this because I thought.
Narrator/Announcer
Jamaica was a strong team, but we did it.
Katie Simpson
Finally, we did it.
Susan Bonner
Sitting off the coast of Venezuela, Curacao is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The team relies heavily on players born and raised in the Netherlands. Prior to Curacao getting in, Iceland had been the smallest country to play in the World cup qualifying in 2018 with a population of about 350,000. Thanks for joining us. This has been youn World Tonight for Wednesday, November 19th. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again.
Olivia Stefanovic
Foreign. For more cbc podcasts, go to cbc ca podcasts.
Episode: "Olympian on the run, private health care in Alberta, combatting ticket scalping, and more"
Date: November 19, 2025
Hosts: Susan Bonner & Stephanie Skenderis
This episode of Your World Tonight covers several major stories shaping Canada and the world, including:
Context: Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding is accused of running a transnational cocaine smuggling operation, likened to infamous drug lords Escobar and El Chapo.
Key Developments:
Notable Quotes:
The episode’s style is fact-driven, brisk, and incorporates both urgent reporting and measured expert analysis. Hosts and correspondents provide context, punctuated by striking soundbites from officials, experts, and individuals affected by the stories.
This summary provides a comprehensive guide to all major news and analysis from this episode, designed for those who want a well-rounded understanding without listening to the full show.