The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/06/04 at 11:00 EDT

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/06/04 at 11:00 EDT

The ocean is vast, beautiful, and lawless. I'm Ian Urbina back with an all new season of The Outlaw Ocean. The stories we bring you this season are literally life or death. We look into the shocking prevalence of forced labor, mine boggling overfishing, migrants hunted and captured. The Outlaw Ocean takes you where others won't. Available on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. From CBC News, it's the World This Hour.

I'm Joe Cummings. At least for the time being, Canada won't be responding to the Trump administration's tariff increase on Canadian steel and aluminum. Here's Prime Minister Mark Carney. We will take some time, not much, some time, because we are in intensive discussions right now with the Americans on the trading relationship.

Those discussions are progressing. I would note that the American action is a global action. It's not one targeted at Canada. So we will take some time, but not more before we start. The latest Trump trade action increases tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%. Carney says the tariffs are both unlawful and unjustified. Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada has decided to hold the line on interest rates.

The central bank is out today with its June setting, and it's keeping its influential rate where it is, at 2.75 percent. Here's Governor Tiff Macklem. The Canadian economy is softer, but not sharply weaker. And we've seen some firmness in recent inflation data. Against this backdrop, we decided to hold the policy rate unchanged as we continue to gain more information on U.S. trade policy and its impacts. Macklem says in the months to come, the central bank will be less forward-looking than usual

and quote, more attuned to risks. The bank's next rate setting is set for July 30. The wildfires burning across the prairie provinces are now sending plumes of smoke across the Atlantic Ocean and into Europe. They've forced tens of thousands of people from their homes, and thousands more are being told to be ready to flee at a moment's notice. In northern Saskatchewan, hundreds of homes and structures have been destroyed, leaving the evacuees waiting and hoping that their property will be spared. Alexander Silberman reports.

Wildfire tore into La Ronge, Saskatchewan, mere hours after evacuees got out, crews still battling to protect the remaining homes and businesses against unrelenting wind gusts of up to 90 kilometers per hour. They just can't battle the flames with those kinds of winds. Mayor Joe Hordusky says firefighters from eight communities are continuing to fight to save buildings. I don't blame people for panicking. It's become a very, very dangerous situation.

Hundreds of kilometers to the northeast in Dener Beach, near the Manitoba border, fire tore into town. The last firefighters on the ground airlifted out, with conditions too dangerous to keep up the fight. The Saskatchewan government says more than 400 homes and buildings have been destroyed so far. Alexander Silberman, CBC News, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. The Liberal minority government faces its first real parliamentary test today as MPs

vote on last week's throne speech. In a vote the Liberals lost back on Monday, the opposition amended the speech to include a call for an economic update before parliament breaks for the summer. Now we'll see how the government responds and keep in mind today's vote is a confidence vote, which means if it doesn't pass, we could be headed for another general election. Game one of the Stanley Cup final is set for tonight in Edmonton. It's the Oilers against the Florida Panthers with Edmonton captain Connor McDavid saying his team is prepared and focused on what lies ahead.

It can feel like it's larger than it is. At the end of the day it's another series and then we're playing another great team and you got to beat them before anything else happens. So they have our complete focus. All of our energy is in going into beating the Florida Panthers. There should be nothing else on anyone's mind. This is a repeat of course of last year's final which ended with Florida winning the Cup in seven games. For the Panther franchise it was their first Stanley Cup. The Oilers have five to their credit, the last one coming 35 years ago. And that is The World This Hour.

For news anytime go to our website cbcnews.ca. For CBC News, I'm Joe Cummings.