The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/05/02 at 10:00 EDT

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/05/02 at 10:00 EDT

1942, Europe. Soldiers find a boy surviving alone in the woods. They make him a member of Hitler's army. But what no one would know for decades, he was Jewish. Could a story so unbelievable be true? I'm Dan Goldberg. I'm from CBC's Personally, Toy Soldier. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, it's the World This Hour. I'm Joe Cummings. With a number of Canadian veterans on hand, the Netherlands is commemorating the 80th anniversary of its liberation from Nazi Germany. A very, very warm welcome to the Canadian veterans who made a long trip from Canada to attend this ceremony.

It's an honor to have you here in Groesbeek, and the people of the Netherlands are still very grateful of your efforts to bring peace again to the Netherlands. S.S. HOFFMAN At this, Lieutenant Colonel Tone Linson addressing a memorial service today at the Grossbeek Canadian War Cemetery. Twenty-one Canadian veterans of the Second World War are in the audience. The cemetery is the final resting place for more than 2,000 Canadian soldiers. Today's ceremony is one of many scheduled ahead of Liberation Day, which is Monday.

It commemorates Germany's surrender to Canadian forces in the Netherlands on May 5, 1945. Prime Minister Mark Carney is scheduled to speak to the country later this morning. It will be his first address since his election victory earlier this week. And we're expecting his main focus to be on Canada-U.S. relations. Janice McGregor has more. Mark Carney told the BBC's global audience that he's not going to head to Washington to be a tourist. He wants a serious discussion and it's going to have to be on Canada's terms. Former Conservative leader Aaron O'Toole told As It Happens last night, there's an

opportunity here for a reset. I agree with Prime Minister Carney that the relationship will take a long time to get back to what it was, but I think this could be the first step in that journey. Carney has spent the last two days taking briefings, making phone calls to other world leaders, but also provincial premiers seeking their priorities for the upcoming talks. In CARNI's 25-minute conversation with Quebec's premier yesterday in French, he reassured Francois Legault that Quebec's supply-managed agriculture industries culture, language, water won't be on the table.

But he also indicated that this negotiation is going to be handled by the federal government only at this point. Premiers are not going to have a direct seat at the table, at least for now. Janice McGregor, CBC News, Ottawa. In the days immediately following the election, Carney has spoken with a number of international leaders outside of Donald Trump. They include Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, European Council President Antonio Costa and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. General Motors has announced it is streamlining operations at

its assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario. It means starting this fall, the plant will be going from three shifts down to two. The union leadership at Unifor is accusing GM of bartering Canadian jobs to curry favor with with US President Donald Trump. But GM says it's a move aimed at helping to maintain a sustainable manufacturing footprint here in Canada. This year's spring bear hunt season has opened in Ontario. And while it's big business for the tourism sector, it's also controversial, with animal advocates saying the spring hunt is unsustainable.

A new research is showing that bear populations are declining. And Ayat Singh has more. Black bear population numbers are really a social sort of decision. Scientist Joe Northrup studies bears for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. He says black bear populations in the provinces north near Sudbury and Thunder Bay have declined significantly since 2010. We want to make sure that there's black bears around for all the different social values and cultural values and ecological values that they provide.

But the data showing population declines is only part of the puzzle. Mark Rickman is a wildlife biologist with the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters. We need to decide how many bears we want in an area as a society to determine whether or not any of those declines are of a concern. The spring bear hunt brings in as much as $50 million for the tourism sector but is divisive because it's when mother bears have young cubs and are vulnerable. The Ontario government said no changes are planned to the hunt this year but that it is continuing to monitor the population and will take action if needed.

Inayat Singh, CBC News, Toronto. And that is The World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Joe Cummings.