The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/09/24 at 20:00 EDT

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/09/24 at 20:00 EDT

Too many students are packed into overcrowded classrooms in Ontario schools, and it's hurting their ability to learn. But instead of helping our kids, the Ford government is playing politics, taking over school boards and silencing local voices. It shouldn't be this way. Tell the Ford government to get serious about tackling overcrowded classrooms because smaller classes would make a big difference for our kids. Go to Building Better Schools.ca.

A message from the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. From CBC News, the world is sour. I'm Kate McGilvery. Canada's population growth is slowing. New data shows cuts to immigration are the main driver. Nicholas Sagan reports. Keeping Canada populated, keeping the economic and tax base healthy, is a challenge. Toronto immigration lawyer Andreas Pellner says an aging population, decreasing birth rate,

and cuts to immigration. are impacting Canada's population growth. This is apparent in new stats can numbers, which show this year the country experienced its second lowest population growth rate in a second quarter since 1946. The report says this can be linked to cuts to non-permanent residents, following Ottawa's announcement late last year to reduce temporary residents to 5% of the population by 2026.

Pelliner says stresses on housing, health care, and infrastructure prompted the policy change. These reductions in immigration levels are a rebalancing act. Statscan says from last October to this June, there was a net loss of more than 120,000 non-permanent residents. Nicholas Sagan, CBC News, Halifax. The RCMP has charged a Royal Bank of Canada employee after he allegedly accessed Prime Minister Mark Carney's banking records. They say Ibrahim al-Hakim worked at an Ottawa bank branch and did this as part of a criminal plot. It allegedly involved creating fake bank profiles

and obtaining lines of credit for others in exchange for cash. El Hakeem was arrested in July. Police say neither Carney's private information or the country's national security have been put at risk. The Supreme Court of Canada has granted a temporary stay to the destruction of about 400 ostriches on a BC farm. This order comes days after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency moved in on the farm with a police escort

to make preparations for the cbc's caroline bargut is was at the farm and has this report dozens of people gathered at universal ostrich farms in edgewood in southeast bc praying for a miracle minutes later their prayers were answered the supreme court of canada halted in order to execute some 400 ostriches until the court decides if it will hear the case in december the canadian food inspection agency ordered a herd to be destroyed as part of its stamping out policy after 69 ostriches died from avian flu last year. The farm has been fighting the call order since then. Katie Pasitney and her family raised the ostriches

and have been fighting to save their lives. There's Q-tip, there's Frank, there's Lulu, there's Barney, there's Lorraine, there's Erica, there's Sergeant Bilko. They all have names, and they are part of our family. We are not for food consumption. The CFIA has until next Friday to file a response. It's not yet clear if the Supreme Court will hear. hear the case. Caroline Bargut. CBC News, Edgewood, B.C.

For the first time, in nearly six decades, a Syrian head of state was at the UN General Assembly. Speaking through a translator, President Ahmad al-Shara called for an end to all sanctions on his country. We call now for the complete lifting of sanctions so that they no longer shackled the Syrian people. The last time Syria was represented at the UN was in 1967, just a few years before the 50-year rule of the Assad family dynasty began. U.S. President Donald Trump did lift some of the U.S. sanctions on Syria in May, but the rest will need a congressional vote to be permanently removed. And in a medical first, doctors in London have successfully treated a patient with Huntington's disease. The disease is inherited and caused by a faulty gene. It kills brain cells and then affects the rest of the

body. This new treatment is a gene therapy injected into the brain during surgery. Sarah Tabrizi helped lead the trial. For a person who has Huntington's disease, they will be able to maintain their function longer. They'll be able to stay and work longer. They'll be able to be independent. Tabrizi says the treatment slowed the disease in patients by 75%. Huntington's is incurable and it affects about one in 7,000 Canadians. And that is the world this hour.

For CBC News, I'm Kate McGilfrey. Thank you.