The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/19 at 20:00 EST

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/19 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 is our. I'm Tom Harrington. High-speed rail advocates have long argued for a line connecting Quebec City and Toronto.

The federal government says such a project will soon be on the rails. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today a design and development plan. Sarah Levitt has more. Today I'm announcing the launch of Alto, the largest infrastructure project in Canadian history. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promises Canadians a high-speed rail line from Toronto to Quebec City will happen.

Slashing travel times by half, getting you from Toronto to Montreal in three hours. Today was the announcement. A design and development plan will begin with a consortium. That plan has an estimated cost of 3.9 billion dollars. This, as the federal government, is an unsure footing, with Trudeau set to step down. At Montreal's central station, passengers heading to Toronto via train express excitement and skepticism. I think it's an election coming up.

It is possible a future government could modify or cancel the project. Sarah Levitt, CBC News, Montreal. More than 20 investigators are combing over the wreckage of the Delta flight that crashed at Toronto's Pearson Airport Monday. The fuselage is still blocking the airport's two longest runways while the questions about how the landing went so wrong remain unanswered. Nicole Williams reports. It was an experienced crew. Airline CEO Ed Bastion defending the team on board Delta Connection flight 4819 in an

interview with CBS. There have been plenty of questions about what went wrong Monday. The plane landing hard, bursting into flames as it skidded along the windy and snowy runway before flipping over. It's trained for these conditions. They fly under all kinds of conditions at all the airports in which we operate. There's nothing specific with respect to the experience that I'd look to. Investigators remain on scene, poring over the wreckage to determine what happened.

Crews on standby to remove the plane currently blocking two of the airport's busiest runways. The airline has confirmed 20 of the 21 passengers who were sent to hospital have been released. Nicole Williams, CBC News, Toronto. An Ottawa judge 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.

Today King was given 12 months, with nine months' credit for time served. King's lawyer Natasha Calvino calls it a balanced decision. We're not saying that things didn't happen over the course of the freedom convoy that was beyond our purview and that was not intended by leadership, even peripheral leadership by Mr. King. But you cannot sentence one person for the actions of others. During the protests, hundreds of truckers and thousands of demonstrators took over downtown Ottawa for about three weeks.

They were protesting against COVID-19 public health measures. Ottawa says it has bought a half a million doses of bird flu vaccine to prepare for potential health threats. The Public Health Agency of Canada says 60% of available doses will go to provinces and territories. Another 40% will be kept in a federal stockpile. PHAC says risk to the general public is low and is not recommending broad vaccination.

President Donald Trump is calling Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator without elections. Trump's outburst in a social media post comes after the Ukrainian president said Trump was being influenced by Russian disinformation. Here's Zelensky speaking today through an interpreter. We are seeing a lot of disinformation and it's coming from Russia. Unfortunately, President Trump, with all due respect, is living in this disinformation

space. Zelensky also said he would like Trump's team to be more truthful after Trump suggested Kiev was to blame for the war. The third anniversary of Russia's invasion is next week. And that is your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Tom Harrington. Thanks for listening.