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Your World Tonight
Trump accuses lawmakers of sedition, Trans Mountain expansion proposal, Ryan Wedding, and more
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<p>U.S. President Donald Trump accuses multiple Democratic lawmakers of sedition, and says it is punishable by death. They are all military or intelligence veterans, who made a video reminding active military they are obliged to refuse illegal orders.</p><p><br></p><p>And: Alberta's premier says a B.C. proposal to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline isn’t enough. Danielle Smith wants a new pipeline — backed by Ottawa. But B.C. isn’t on board.</p><p><br></p><p>Also: A day after seven Canadians were arrested in relation to an alleged drug lord, we're learning more about the former Olympian now being compared to Pablo Escobar. And Ryan Wedding himself is still nowhere to be found.</p><p><br></p><p>Plus: PM Carney to UAE, Conservatives pitch a plan to overhaul immigration bill, new proposal to end Ukraine war, and more.</p>
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Also on the podcast, if they want to go the northern route, then clearly you're talking about getting rid of a tanker ban that B.C. passionately believes and people on the north coast passionately believe is important to that economy. British Columbia is piping up about big plans to pump more oil to its coast. With Ottaw considering options. BC is in favor of upgrading an existing pipeline rather than building a brand new one. But Alberta isn't listening. Hang them. That's the US President's response to Democratic lawmakers who posted a video directed at active military members telling them they have a duty to refuse illegal orders. And it doesn't say which orders. But as Paul Hunter reports, it got the commander in chief's attention. I'm Senator Alyssa Slotkin, Senator Mark Kelly, Representative Chris d'. Aluisio. The video itself is startling enough. Six Democratic lawmakers, one after the other, straight to camera with a blunt message to their fellow Americans in uniform. We want to speak directly to members of the military and the intelligence community. Defend the US Constitution, they say refuse to act on illegal orders. Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren't just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. It comes as the US Military's commander in chief, President Donald Trump, is under fire for what some say are illegal military strikes in the Caribbean on boats Trump says are carrying illegal drugs to the US and as Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to various US Cities is in places being challenged in court, Trump has now torn into those lawmakers on social media. Seditious behavior from traitors, he wrote, and then separately writing punishable by death in all. Caps on that, wrote the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom. This man is sick in the head, said senior Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer. He is lighting a match in a country soaked with political gasoline. For White House press Secretary Caroline Levitt, the question Caroline, this morning, President Trump accused six Democratic lawmakers of seditious behavior punishable by death. Just to be clear, does the president want to execute members of Congress? Ms. No. Let's be clear about what the president is responding to. Levitt characterizing the video this way. You have sitting members of the United States Congress who conspired together to orchestrate a video message to members of the United States military, to active duty service members, to members of the national security apparatus, encouraging them to defy the president's lawful orders. When Levitt ended the briefing, a reporter shouted, the video speaks only to unlawful orders. But Levitt didn't reply, all of it underlining yet again the seemingly ever spiraling political atmosphere in this country. Democratic senators now say extra security will be provided for the lawmakers who made the video. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution. That video nonetheless is now heard clearly by those it's aimed at the US Military. Its final line? Don't give up, don't give up, don't give up. The ship military code for keep fighting. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Washington. Alberta's premier says she's not interested in a B.C. proposal to increase oil capacity. The pitch involves expanding an existing pipeline, but Daniel Smith is determined to get a new project off the ground, even as B.C. officials argue that idea is little more than a pipe dream. Erin Collins explains, we agree on expanding Trans Mountain pipeline as well, but as you can see, I would like to see expansions in all directions. No real surprise there. Alberta's premier likes all the pipelines. Danielle Smith, clear An expansion of the existing Trans Mountain line, which runs from Edmonton to Burnaby, isn't enough to get a deal done with the federal government. Smith pushing forward with her province's own pipeline plans. We know that we've got a little bit more work to do on the technical side to be able to submit our pipeline proposal for consideration to the major projects office. We've targeted the spring on that. Well, the federal government says it's open to the idea of another line to the B.C. coast, but would need that province and first nations on board. No easy sell on the western side of the Rockies. Well, there's no proponent. There's no route. Right. BC's Environment Minister, Adrian Dick's okay with expanding Trans Mountain, but not convinced a new line makes sense. If they want to go the northern route, then clearly you're talking about getting rid of a tanker ban. The BC passionately believes, and people on the north coast passionately believe is important to that economy. Scrapping that tanker ban, something many first nations in the area oppose. Marilyn Slett is the head of BC's coastal First Nations. Slett says they haven't had the chance to voice their opposition to lifting the ban directly to the federal government. You know, I just feel a level of mistrust, and that's really because, you know, they have not taken the time to meet with their communities. We hear about these, and we hear about these discussions through the media. Ottawa says those negotiations could bear fruit in the coming days, but political watchers say they are navigating a political minefield. It'll be interesting to see how the federal government manages those relationships with provinces like Alberta and British Columbia. Gary Wilson is a political scientist at the University of Northern British Columbia. The federal government is also facing what we might call an existential crisis. It is trying to reinvigorate some of these big projects that will help us to diversify our markets and our economy. That crisis, the looming threat of a more volatile United States, the push to insulate Canada's economy from the us A balancing act that requires keeping bc, Alberta and First nations happy, too. Erin Collins, CBC News, Calgary. Environmental groups at the Global Climate Summit have called out Canada for increasing investment in fossil fuel energy. With less than two days left in the Global Climate Summit, the UN Secretary General is urging the countries at COP30 to agree on environmental measures. Antonio Guterres spoke to the gathering, saying the world will overshoot the one and a half degrees of warming agreed to in Paris 10 years ago. And he says communities on the front lines of climate change need help to adapt. For millions, adaptation is not an abstract goal. It is the difference between rebuilding and being swept away, between replanting and starving, between staying on ancestral lands or losing it forever. Adaptation needs are skyrocketing, and the overshoot will push them even higher. For the first time in decades, a Canadian prime minister has met with a president of the United Arab Emirates. Today in Abu Dhabi, the two leaders laid the groundwork for a potential trade deal. As trade with the United States gets scaled back, Mark Carney is looking to double the amount of business Canada does with other countries. But some say the UAE is not the right partner. Karina Roman reports. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is the largest in the United Arab Emirates. A palatial setting adorned with gold leaves and floral pillars. It has 82 white domes, can hold up to 80,000 worshipers. And the prayer hall floor is covered by the largest hand woven rug in the world. We have the whole thing behind us. Prime Minister Mark Carney was given a tour by the mosque's Director general. What an extraordinary privilege to receive such an expert demonstration and guide to absolutely extraordinary monument. This was the only part of Carney's day that the UAE allowed Canadian cameras to film. Earlier, behind closed doors, Carney met with the UAE President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and signed a financial investment agreement. Agreement 10 years in the making. Former parliamentarian Jean Charet is co chair of the Canada UAE Business Council. You know, one of the reasons these things either get done or not done is leadership. The Prime Minister also announced the start of free trade talks with the goal of getting to an expedited deal. What it says to Canadians is that if we are going to diversify our trade, if we're going to prosper, we have to go out there and actually drum up some business. Carney also met today with the heads of some of the biggest sovereign wealth funds in the world. Part of his effort to attract billions in foreign investment to Canada. Mina Al Arabi is the editor in chief for Abu Dhabi's English language newspaper, the National. It's incredible to think that nobody's come here since 1983 from the Prime Minister's Canada. But I think Mark Carney is a different type of prime minister. But human rights groups worry the price to be paid for increased investment and trade with the Gulf state is Canada's silence. The UAE faces allegations it's funding a paramilitary group that's committing atrocities in Sudan's civil war, allegations it denies. The Prime Minister is embarking on this trip in the wake of unprecedented horrors. Yonah diamond is senior legal counsel with the Raoul Wallenberg center for Human Rights. Prime Minister Carney can send the simple message that we refuse to build our economy on the backs of emaciated corpses and mass graves. That cannot be the cost of doing business. Canada has called for more diplomatic efforts to restore peace and security in Sudan. And senior government officials say Carney raised a number of security issues in his meeting with the UAE president today. But the Prime Minister's office would not confirm Sudan was one of them. Sudan will be a pressing topic at the G20 in South Africa. This weekend where Carney is headed next. Karina Roman, CBC News, Abu Dhabi. Coming right up, Conservative MPs pressure the Liberal government for fixes to the immigration system. Also comparing the results and the risks, a new study on how private health care in other countries affects mortality rates. And looking for peace between Russia and Ukraine, there's a new proposal from the United States. It is a plan for capitulation for surrender for the Russian conditions. You can find any of the synonyms you want, but there is nothing about peace. The 28 point plan that some Ukrainians say amounts to one country's surrender, that's later on YOUR WORLD tonight. The federal conservatives are pitching a plan to overhaul Mark Carney's signature immigration bill. They claim the liberal plan is weak on enforcement and security vetting at the border and the current system is at risk of collapse without serious reform. Olivia Stefanovic reports. Canada's immigration system being a hot mess is a well established fact, supported most notably by dramatically falling public support for more immigration. Leaning into that public dissatisfaction, Michelle Rumpel Garner, the conservative's immigration critic is laying out a series of amendments the official opposition wants to see in the Liberals proposed bill to tighten the refugee claim and asylum system. The immigration measures in liberals Bill C12 fail to substantively address these problems. Bill C12 was carved out of the Liberals proposed border security legislation to help it pass faster. Now the Conservatives are demanding substantial changes, namely a reduction to social services that could incentivize asylum seekers to make a claim. Some of the Conservatives continuously full of hot air. Government house leader Stephen McKinnon is not impressed. He says the amendments should have been introduced in the last sitting of parliament and it's time to move on from that kind of nonsense. The conservatives also want to make it easier to kick out non citizens, including convicted sex offenders and those who have no legal reason to be in Canada. It's a free for all into the country that way. Conservatives are also demanding answers after a high level official said border agents have lost track of 10% of asylum seekers. To speed things up because we are short staffed, we're allowing people into the country without first doing that security screening. Okay, hold on. Weber is the national president of the Customs and Immigration Union. He urged MPs at the House Citizenship and Immigration Committee this week to reinstate screening interviews scrap during the pandemic for an online system. Weber says 10,000 asylum seekers haven't submitted the required information. This is a terrible thing. Border officials did not counter that claim but say face to face interviews are still done and only low risk individuals are given the green light to use the new online system. Adam Sidinsky is the co chair of the Canadian association of Refugee Lawyers. It seems odd that CBSA would have lost track, to use his words, of so many claimants, particularly as refugee claimants in Canada have a significant incentive to keep their address and their location up to date so they can get to their refugee hearings and have a decision and be on the pathway to permanent residence in Canada. While the House Citizenship and Immigration Committee studies the online asylum system, the federal government faces a battle to fulfill a key election promise. Olivia Stefanovich, CBC News, Ottawa. New research is shedding light on how the privatization of healthcare can hurt patient outcomes, including avoidable deaths. More Canadian provinces are incorporating private care into their health systems, a shift that has experts divided. Christine Birack breaks down the report. Surgeons who elect to be part of this dual practice model. As governments in Alberta, Quebec and Ontario make plans to privatize more healthcare services, a new report featuring a comparison between countries shows a lot depends on who pays for health care and who delivers it. Out of 25 OECD countries, the ones with greater for profit privatization have worse outcomes, including lower life expectancy and higher avoidable deaths. Catherine Scott is a senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Different governments are pursuing options for privatization to help balance to the books at huge cost. While most of this country's health care is still publicly delivered, it may be surprising to know Canada's already above average when it comes to private financing, with payments coming from out of pocket spending and private insurance. Still, Dr. David Jacobs, a radiologist in Toronto, says if done right, privatization can speed up access. What's most important for the Canadian public is getting access to care. Our wait times are absolutely punishing for the patient population. But Dr. Melanie Bechard, chair of Doctors for Medicare, says without more doctors, privatization only moves doctors and staff out of hospitals. So it doesn't really shorten the waitlist, it just rearranges it so that those who have more money can get seen faster rather than those with the biggest medical need. While the new report didn't look at scans and testing, Alberta's auditor general recently found after the province moved to privatized diagnostic services, an unusually high number of errors were reported, including missed or incorrect diagnoses of serious conditions, going from 25 a year before privatization to 145 after including Leda Bablitz in Edmonton. I started out not having cancer. I didn't have to go through any of this, babletz was told she had breast cancer. After her breast was removed, she learned it was a mistake. She says the government didn't hold the company accountable either. It can't happen because that could be damaging to a private interest. The damage to me receiving a mastectomy I didn't need was listed as not that harmful. Alberta said diagnostic privatization would save millions. Instead, the canceled contract cost taxpayers tens of millions. Babletz worries more private financing and delivery of health care will leave others in the same boat, or worse. Christine Birak, CBC News, Toronto this is your 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. Accused of cutting Ukraine out of a renewed push for peace, American officials insist they consulted with Kyiv on a new proposal to end Russia's war. But after hearing about the plan and what Ukraine could be forced to give up, some in the country are skeptical. Briar Stewart reports. In Ternopil in western Ukraine, crews still work to recover the dead after Russian missiles slammed into an apartment building. On the sidewalk, stuffed animals and candles for a growing number of victims. I came to pray for the children that went to sleep peacefully and didn't have a chance to to wake up, said resident Maria Lucia. Against the backdrop of so much grief, there's frustration over reports that Moscow and the US drew up a 28 point peace proposal. It reportedly calls for Ukraine to give up the Donbass region in the east, where Russia continues to try and claw away more land, and for Ukraine to cut the size of its military by 40%, suggestions Kyiv has rejected many times before. In a video released by the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin, wearing a military uniform, is seen inspecting Russian troops and then later saying Ukrainian soldiers should be given the opportunity to surrender. Meanwhile, in Kyiv, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky met with the US Secretary of the army of Thursday afternoon. Best regards to President Trump, and says that he soon will be speaking to Donald Trump. He has grown increasingly frustrated with both sides of this war. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says Ukraine hasn't been excluded and has been part of the negotiations all along. They've been engaging with both sides, Russia and Ukraine, equally, to understand what these countries would commit to in order to see a lasting and durable peace. But many Ukrainians say what appears to be on the table now is a non starter. Everything is very negative. It's like, what the hell is this? Hannah Schieles spoke to CBC News by zoom from her apartment in Odessa where she needed a generator to power her laptop for electricity because Russia's relentless attacks on the energy grid has led to multi hour blackouts. It is a plan for capitulation, for surrender, for the Russian conditions. You can find any of the synonyms you want, but there is nothing about peace. And she says the government wouldn't be able to convince the population otherwise. Not after nearly four years of Russia's all out war and so much loss. Briar Stewart, CBC News, London. He is the former Olympic snowboarder. Now an alleged drug lord who police say is hiding out in Mexico. Protected by drug cartels, Ryan Wedding continues to evade authorities. But a day after the FBI provided an update on his case, law enforcement experts say it shows they're getting closer. Alison Northcott has the latest. His enterprise is making a billion dollars a year. Ryan Weddings alleged criminal enterprise is described as a billion dollar drug trafficking operation and the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada. In a U.S. grand jury indictment unsealed this week, former FBI agent Kenneth Gray says the scale appears to be expansive. He has been very effective moving lots and lots of drugs from Mexico into the United States and on to other locations. The court documents outline how the former Canadian Olympic snowboarder is allegedly at the helm of a major operation spanning Colombia, Mexico, the United States and Canada, with associates promoting a climate of fear through violence and murder. One of the alleged victims was an FBI witness in a case against Wedding. Court documents show an associate of Weddings allegedly paid a Canadian crime blogger to post pictures of the witness so he could be located and killed on social media. The blogger who was arrested this week allegedly wrote, this guy single handedly ratted out one of the strongest underworld networks that this world has seen. Good chance he'll never be found again. In January, other Wedding accomplices located the witness. He was followed into a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia, where he was shot in the head and killed. One of the things that we know about drug trafficking and drug organizations is that they have to engage in violence. Michael Vigil is a former chief of international operations for the U.S. drug Enforcement Administration, and they will engage in violence to protect their criminal enterprises. And Ryan Wedding is no exception. While several of Wedding's associates, including Canadians, were arrested this week with help from the rcmp, Wedding himself remains on the run. He controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in this world. At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. attorney General Pam Bondi said wedding remains on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. The U.S. has increased the reward from 10 to $15 million for information that leads to his arrest and hopefully they'll get the head of the snake shortly. Former B.C. solicitor general and Chief of Police Kash Heed says the arrests and indictments this week could bring law enforcement officials a step closer to Wedding's arrest. The organization has been exposed. The elements of the organization are starting to collapse. It's only a matter of time in my experience, experience in my opinion, before he's actually captured. Other experts say Weddings Network is large scale and coordinated and dismantling that would be a major undertaking. Alison Northcott, CBC News, Montreal. We close tonight in Hamilton, Ontario with a long overdue book finally getting returned to the public library. There isn't a fine and we're thrilled to have it back. We hope that everyone will look under their beds, look in their closets and return those old library materials. Speaking with local broadcaster CHCH, Hamilton Central Library spokesperson Shelley McKay confirmed there are no late fees anymore. If there were who, this would be a doozy. The library was recently reunited with a copy of the Excellent Woman by Anne Pratt. It's a Victorian era household guidebook for Christian women, book number 54 in the library's collection, published in 1852 and likely checked out around that time. Greatly. Indeed, is it to the credit of a woman that her husband should be known and honoured for her sake? I don't think that hardcore feminists would like this book. Robert Moore says his father first found the book in the 1970s while doing maintenance work at a local school. In storage all these years, Moore recently found it after his father died. He noticed the library stamp and decided to finally return it. The pages are a bit worn, but it's still in decent shape. The book will be cleaned up by library archivists and the Excellent Woman will soon be available for public viewing. You just won't be able to sign it out. Thank you for joining us. This has been youn World tonight for Thursday, November 20th with I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. For more cbc podcasts, go to cbc ca podcasts.