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

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/20 at 00:00 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 Neil Herland. British Columbia is making major changes to its Safer Supply Drug Program.

The province says it's being done to prevent drugs from being diverted away from the people they're intended for and sold on the street. Michelle Gassoub reports. BC 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 BC'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 B.C. 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 Gassoub, CBC News, Vancouver. The Mounties say they've arrested a man and a boy in connection with the murder of four people on a First Nation in southern Saskatchewan. Two men and two women were found dead last week in a home on the Carry the Kettle Nakoda First Nation, east of Regina. The Mounties say 18-year-old Darius Resaid faces four counts of first-degree murder, and the boy who cannot be named also faces charges. The Premier of Alberta is pushing back on corruption claims involving her province's

health care system. Danielle Smith addressed the issue Wednesday. The former boss of the agency that runs Alberta Hospitals has made allegations about procurement and contracts signed with private providers. Terry Reath reports. The former CEO says she was abruptly fired in January, two days before meeting with the Auditor General. Then the entire board of Alberta Health Services was let go later that month just before an internal investigation was supposed to be delivered. So on the allegations,

Premier Smith again just saying that they will be investigated. I was not involved in these procurement decisions. I had nothing to do with the process decisions or the implementation. My actions were straightforward. The government made a policy decision to expand surgical facilities to tackle the critical issues of wait times. She is pointing the finger directly at Alberta Health Services. She says it was dragging its heels in approving contracts for the chartered surgical facilities. She says AHS wants all surgeries done in hospitals, not private facilities.

Terry Reath, CBC News, Edmonton. A high-speed train between Toronto and Quebec City is one step closer to reality. The Prime Minister announced plans for the project in Montreal Wednesday. Justin Trudeau says the rail line would be a game-changer for Canadians. It would whisk 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 it will cost an estimated 3.9 billion dollars and there's no guarantee the line will get built. U.S. 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 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

Ukraine was to blame for the war. And that's the CBC News.