The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/03/16 at 14:00 EDT

Episode Date: March 16, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/03/16 at 14:00 EDT

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 Julianne Hazelwood. Just two days after taking office, Mark Carney will begin his first foreign trip

as Prime Minister, stopping in Paris and London to talk trade and security with his counterparts, Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer. Carney is also expected to have an audience with King Charles. On his way back to Ottawa, he will visit Iqaluit, where Arctic security will be on the agenda. And in Iqaluit this weekend, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says he would cancel a contract with the United States to deliver US-built F-35 fighter jets. Singh questioned how Canada can purchase military equipment from a country that has threatened

Canadian sovereignty. To maintain those aircraft and to upgrade them as one has to do, that requires an American company providing the software updates, the maintenance. It's entirely going to be coming from the states. What's to say that Donald Trump in some way delays that, stops that, prevents that from happening? It is not in our security interest and not in our national interest

to continue with that project. Singh's announcement comes after Canada's defense minister said the government would look at alternatives to F-35s. Severe weather in the U.S. is being blamed for at least 36 deaths. Powerful tornadoes have been tearing through the American Midwest and southeast. Steve Futterman has more details. Oh my god!

There are harrowing stories of people barely escaping, some posting those moments on social media. Jerrica McCoy compared it to Hurricane Katrina. We went through Katrina, but we've never experienced anything like this. She was inside a camper with her family in Mississippi when the tornado hit, knocking the camper over. All I could hear is my six-year-old screaming that she didn't want to die. You know, you don't want to hear that coming out of your baby's mouth. Entire neighborhoods have been leveled. Homes and trees, no match for powerful winds. All that's left now are scattered remnants.

In Missouri, at least a half dozen people have died. This man lives near St. Louis. I had glass flying everywhere into my face, my arms and everything. All this woman could do was hide in her basement. I thought that we were going to die. We didn't know what was happening. The storm continues to move east. Today there could be flooding and possibly new tornadoes on the east coast. Steve Futterman for CBC News, Los Angeles.

It may sound early, but this weekend marks the start of wildfire season in PEI in Nova Scotia, meaning there is daily restrictions on burning depending on conditions. Last year, Nova Scotia experienced a dramatic decrease in wildfires after the historic 2023 season that saw 25,000 hectares burned in the province. Cara McCarty is the wildfire mitigation program manager for the Halifax region. She says nearly all wildfires in the Maritimes are caused by humans. You know, in Nova Scotia, we're looking at anywhere from 97 to 99 percent human-caused fires, which is unique for Canada. If you look across Canada, a lot of the provinces have a high percentage of lightning caused

fires and we don't have that here in the Maritimes. A lot of reasons, you know, because of our weather, the amount of lightning storms we get and things like that. McHardy says last year's low numbers of wildfires can be partly attributed to a $25,000 fine for breaking restrictions. New Brunswick's wildfire season begins next month. And in Alberta, more than six months after wildfires ravaged Jasper, many people are facing the reality they won't be able to return home. More than 600 people in the town have applied for interim housing, but other residents who lost their homes have decided it's time to move on.

Bill Nixon found a placement in supportive housing for seniors in the town of Stony Plain. He's leaving Jasper after 13 years. I met a lady online and she cast a spell over me and I moved to Jasper. And she left most of my social life. So I was kind of the lame duck there anyway. I have a daughter with four grandkids so I just figured, you know what, it's just, it

was an easy call for me rather than staying in a motel for unknown period of time. Nixon lived in a seniors lodge that burned down. Of its 33 residents, only two have moved back to Jasper. And that is Your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Julianne Hazelwood.