The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/19 at 17:00 EST

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/19 at 17:00 EST

Did you know it was nearly eight o'clock at night in Washington when Donald Trump set a date for Canadian tariffs? I think we'll do it February 1st. And his plan for steel and aluminum just sort of slipped out on the way to the Super Bowl. It's going to have a 25% tariff. The new U.S. administration is making news that matters to Canadians whenever and wherever it wants. And we stay on top of it. I'm Stephanie Scanderis, the weekend host of Your World Tonight from CBC News. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, the world this hour. I'm Tom Harrington. A high-speed rail corridor

between Toronto and Quebec City is one step closer to reality. The Prime Minister laid out the plans for the project today in Montreal. Justin Trudeau says the rail line would be a game changer for Canadians. It could get passengers from Montreal to Toronto in three hours. A high-speed rail network between Quebec City and Toronto with stops in Trois-Rivières, Laval, Montreal, Ottawa and Peterborough. It'll span a thousand kilometres with a hundred percent electric trains that will reach speeds of 300 kilometres an hour. This initial design phase is expected to take four to five years and will cost an estimated

three point nine billion dollars. Trudeau says the rail service will be known as Alto. An Ottawa court has sentenced Pat King to three more months of house arrest. King was one of the organizers of the 2022 convoy protest in Ottawa. He was found guilty in November on five charges, including mischief and disobeying a court order. The Crown had been calling for a 10-year prison sentence. In total, King was given 12 months with nine months credit for time served.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she's taking seriously allegations made by the former CEO of Alberta Health Services. The former CEO claims she was being pressured to sign or extend contracts with private clinics, despite the fact they would lead to higher costs. Smith says her government will support an auditor general's investigation, but adds AHS has been resisting changes brought by her government. AHS leadership has always shown us resistance and it is clear that they would rather keep all surgeries in hospitals only operated by Alberta Health Services which would have resulted in 62,000 fewer surgeries for Albertans last year. Athana Mencelopoulos, the former CEO, filed a $1.7 million wrongful dismissal suit this week.

BC is making major changes to its safer supply anti-addiction program. The province says it's being done to prevent drugs from being diverted away from the people they're intended for. Michelle Goussoud reports. B.C. is introducing sweeping changes to its controversial Safe Supply Program. People being prescribed opioids will no longer be able to take them home. Effective immediately, those drugs will need to be ingested in front of a health care worker. Josie Osborne is B.C.'s Minister of Health. We've heard concerns about these medications being diverted and ending up in the wrong

hands. The Safe Supply Program has been under attack by the BC Conservatives and the announcement comes about two weeks after the release of a leaked Ministry of Health briefing that said a significant portion of opioids prescribed in BC were being diverted. There is a robust market in very realistic looking but counterfeit medication that is laced with toxic drugs. The province will also investigate around 60 pharmacies it alleges are contributing to diversion.

Michelle Gasoob, CBC News, Vancouver. President Donald Trump is calling Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, a dictator. The post on his platform Truth Social comes a day, every suggested it was Ukraine who started the war with Russia. Anna Cunningham is the latest from London. This is a scathing post by the US President Donald Trump calling the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky a dictator without elections. Trump said Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a country left. The post follows comments Zelensky made this morning saying Trump was living in a disinformation

bubble after the US President on Tuesday seemingly blamed Ukraine for starting the war, saying Ukraine could have done a deal to prevent it, a line well used by the Kremlin. President Putin praising the outcome of Tuesday's talks in Saudi Arabia and saying no one is excluding Ukraine. Trump also writes that Europe has failed to secure peace. That will not go unnoticed by EU and Western leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who joined a meeting virtually in Paris to discuss Ukraine's future and Europe's security. Anna Cunningham, CBC News, London.

And that is your World This Hour for CBC News. I'm Tom Harrington. Thanks for listening.