The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/01/22 at 04:00 EST

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/01/22 at 04:00 EST

It is a wild time in the world right now. And sometimes it's actually hard to figure out what's what. The current is here to help. My name is Matt Galloway and we bring you conversations to expand your worldview, solutions to some of the wicked problems of our time. Like is Canada underreacting to Trump's takeover threats and our phones rewiring our brains? We'll also bring you great stories you might never heard of before, including

why are we suddenly obsessed with doppelgangers? You can find The Current wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube. We'll talk to you soon. From CBC News, the world this hour. I'm Neil Herland. President Donald Trump is blaming Canada for a large number of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. Trump was asked once again last night about his plans for tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Canada very much so. They've allowed millions and millions of people to come into our country that shouldn't be here.

They could have stopped them and they didn't. And they've killed 300,000 people last year, my opinion, have been destroyed by drugs, by fentanyl. The fentanyl coming through Canada is massive. The fentanyl coming through Mexico is massive. And people are getting killed and families are being destroyed. On his first day back in the White House, Trump said that he's considering 25% tariffs against Canada, starting February 1st. Canadian officials are still plotting their next move if Trump goes ahead with the tariffs.

John Baird was Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. I think you want to think of what is the most effective response, not necessarily what is the most vindictive response. One of the concerns that I would have is that what if you brought in a 5% tariff and then said if you retaliate I'll bring it to 10%. We should probably be playing chess here and not checkers, but obviously there has to be some sort of response. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is calling for diplomacy, not retaliation. She says Canada has a short window to defend against Trump's tariff threat and she wants to keep Alberta oil flowing into the US. As Donald Trump withdraws the United States from several international agreements

China is trying to fill that void aiming to take a bigger role on the global stage. Lisa Xing has more. China's vice premier Ding Xuexiang at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, saying the country is a staunch supporter of true multilateralism, the message that it's a team player and it's echoed elsewhere. By China's foreign ministry expressing concern over US President Donald Trump withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. And in a strategically timed meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin just hours after Trump's inauguration, Chinese President Xi Jinping saying he will guide China-Russia

relations to a new height this year, a clear sign China is positioning itself as a world leader, according to Gregory Chin, political economy professor at York University, as Trump threatens higher tariffs China is reducing them. Chin says that's one reason other nations may bolster relations with the country while the US distances itself. Lisa Sheng, CBC News, Toronto. Meantime the new Trump administration is directing that all US.S. federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on paid leave, and that agencies develop plans to lay them off.

The decision comes in a memo from the U.S. government. A First Nation in Northern Ontario is mourning the loss of a 10-year-old girl to suicide. The community has never lost someone so young in this way, but as Sarah Law reports, suicide rates across the region's First Nations are on the rise. Very friendly, always smiling, always joking. That's how Mishke Gogomane's chief Merle Loon

describes Jenea Skunk. Loon says the community has been open about the death of the 10-year-old in December. Loon says Jenea was being bullied. Since of the 10-year-old in December. Loon says J'Naya was being bullied. Since J'Naya's death, more children have come forward. There have been more than 600 suicides in the region's First Nations since the mid-'80s. Across Canada, suicide rates are about six times higher for First Nations youth compared to non-Indigenous youth.

Janet Gordon, with the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority, says First Nations need help closer to home. Saul Mamakwa, Kiwatinong's MPP, agrees. He says taking people out of the community for care is a short-term fix. And then when we send them back to the community, the same setting, we throw them back into the river. Loon wants the provincial and federal governments to help build a new land-based health and

treatment center. Ottawa says it's working on creating a funders table to help make that happen. Sarah Law, CBC News, Thunder Bay, Ontario. And that is your World This Hour.