The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/01/23 at 14:00 EST

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/01/23 at 14:00 EST

Hi, I'm Josh Block, host of Uncover Escaping Nexium from CBC Podcasts. I pull back the curtain on the secretive self-help group that experts call a cult and follow one woman's harrowing journey to get out. The podcast was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine and named one of the best podcasts of 2018 in the Atlantic. Listen to Uncover Escaping Nexium on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, the world this hour. I'm Tom Harrington. Donald Trump says America doesn't need anything from Canada.

The president spoke virtually to a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Trump complained about US trade deficits with other countries, adding that Canada has been particularly, in his words, unfair to America. It's not fair that we should have a $200 billion or $250 billion deficit. We don't need them to make our cars and they make a lot of them. We don't need their lumber because we have our own forests, etc., etc.

We don't need their oil and gas. We have our, we have more than anybody. Statistics Canada puts the U.S. trade deficit with Canada at between six and eight billion dollars. NATO's new secretary general was asked about President Trump's call for peace talks on Ukraine. Mark Rutte says it would depend on the terms. If we get a bad deal it would only mean that we will see the president of Russia high-fiving with the leaders of North Korea, Iran and China. And we cannot accept that.

That would be geopolitically a big mistake. It has to be sustainable. And for it to be sustainable, we have to make sure that Putin will never, ever, ever again try to get a square kilometer of Ukraine in the future. In the meantime, Ruta is urging all NATO members to increase their defense spending as the alliance faces a number of crises. A U.S. federal court judge has temporarily blocked President Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship. That's the right guaranteeing citizenship to anyone born on American soil. Four states challenge the measure as unconstitutional

because it violates the 14th Amendment and Supreme Court case law. The temporary legal block applies nationally. Trump signed the order on his first day in office. The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear a legal challenge to Quebec's controversial secularism law. Known as Bill 21, it bans some public sector workers from wearing religious symbols such as hijabs while at work. Kate McKenna reports.

We are here welcoming the news that the Supreme Court of Canada, the highest court in the country, has decided to grant leave to our constitutional challenge of Bill 21. Stephen Brown is the CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, one of the groups challenging Quebec secularism law. It bans some civil servants, including teachers, from wearing religious symbols at work. Civil Liberties advocates have long said it disproportionately affects Muslim women who wear hijabs. Can't go after the rights of some Canadians without going after the rights of all Canadians. Quebec preemptively invoked the Not Withstanding Clause, which overrides some sections of the Charter when it passed the law.

The idea was that it would be shielded from legal challenges. In a statement, Quebec's justice and secular ministers say they're prepared to defend the law until the end. Kate McKenna, CBC News, Ottawa. The deadline for candidates to submit their names in the Liberal leadership race is just hours away, but the field of those who want to replace Justin Trudeau is already taking shape. Marina von Stackelberg has more on the frontrunners. I have just left the party office where I deposited my papers to be an official candidate.

Leaving Liberal headquarters in Ottawa, leadership hopeful Carina Gould says the government she was house leader of didn't do enough to deal with the cost of living. I know that young people in general feel disenfranchised. They're worried about the future. And I'm here to say to all young Canadians, I get it. Former Finance Minister Krista Freeland spoke briefly before a meeting of Liberal MPs. We can never again be in a position where the leader is the only person who decides who the leader is. Former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has a new add-out. When the markets crashed in 2008, I worked with a Conservative Prime Minister to protect Canadian homes. I got it done.

Liberals choose a new leader March 9th. Marina von Stackelberg, CBC News, Ottawa. A former Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault against children in Nunavut. The incident happened between 1978 and 1982 when Eric DeJager ran a church in the community of Iglulik. He was previously convicted of 32 counts of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 19 years in prison. DeJager was released on parole in 2022.

And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Tom Harrington.