The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/13 at 20:00 EST

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/13 at 20:00 EST

In Scarborough, there's this fire behind our eyes. A passion in our bellies. It's in the hearts of our neighbors. The eyes of our nurses. And the hands of our doctors. It's what makes Scarborough, Scarborough. In our hospitals, we do more than anyone thought possible. We've less than anyone could imagine.

But it's time to imagine what we can do with more. Join Scarborough Health Network and together, we can turn grit into greatness. Donate at lovescarborough.ca. From CBC News, the world this hour, I'm Tom Harrington. Reciprocal makes tariffs really fair. Donald Trump said he was going to impose reciprocal tariffs today. Instead, he ordered a study of the effect of those tariffs on any countries that put those charges on U.S. goods. And among

Trump's targets, this country. Canada's been very bad to us on trade, but now Canada's going to have to start paying up. Canada's going to be a very interesting situation because, you know, we just don't need their product. And yet they survive off the fact that we do 95% of what they do. He also repeated he still wants Canada to become a U.S. state. But Trump admitted tariffs may drive prices up in the short term. Inflation is already on the rise in the U.S., hitting 3.9% in January. The study on tariffs should be done by April 1st.

B.C. must be ready to defend against these unjustified tariffs. BC Finance Minister Brenda Bailey says part of that preparation for Donald Trump's threatened tariffs includes a government hiring freeze. She's also announced an election promise to deliver a $1,000 rebate for grocery purchases cannot be kept. The reality is at the time that this commitment was made, it was a very different time than the world after November 25th, when Trump announced 25% tariffs on their closest trading partner. We do not get to make decisions in a void or a world that is unchanging.

And we too are deeply disappointed. Bailey tables the next provincial budget on March 4th, the same day as Trump's deadline for those 25% tariffs on Canada. Almost one in five Canadian businesses are already seeing cancelled and delayed orders due to the threat of U.S. tariffs. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says 18% of small and medium-sized businesses are reporting disruptions and pauses. The Federation's chief economist and vice president of research says the uncertainty

around the tariffs is almost as damaging as the levies themselves. 20% of the businesses that responded say they are looking at reducing their workforce and hours of work. Four earthquakes struck an area west of Fort St. John, B.C. just this week. Two of the tremors measured 4.4 and 4.2 on the Richter scale. John Cassidy is a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada. He says BC's energy regulator confirms a link to hydraulic fracking. Certainly when you see earthquakes in the magnitude 3, the larger, there'd be a close

eye-tect on this region for the next little while. But it is always monitored and there are quite a few seismic stations in that part of the province because we know that these events have been happening for many years now. Cassidy says the quakes were very shallow and happened close to fracking operations. A federal court is hearing arguments on whether the current suspension of parliament is illegal. At the Prime Minister's request, the Governor GeneralGeneral prorogued the House last month. That has allowed the Liberals to select a new leader. Two Nova Scotia men are arguing there is no reasonable justification for parliament to

be prorogued. The hearing is expected to last two days. Dozens of people were injured when a car plowed into a crowd in Munich, Germany today. The attack comes as the city prepares to host foreign leaders for an international security conference and Germany prepares for a national election. Rebecca Collard reports. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz just hours after the incident saying the attackers should be punished and made to leave Germany.

Police say a white Mini Cooper overtook a police vehicle and plowed into a group of demonstrators. A suspect has been detained, a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker whose application was denied. The attack happened just hours before international leaders, including US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, began to arrive in Munich for the annual Munich Security Conference. Some 5,000 officers are deployed in the city to ensure the conference's security.

Germany is just 10 days away from a federal election, where security and migration have been top issues. Rebecca Collard for CBC News, Berlin. And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Tom Harrington. Thanks for listening.