The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/11/06 at 07:00 EST

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/11/06 at 07:00 EST

We love Zadie Smith for her novels and her essays, not to mention her incredible jumpsuits and beautiful headscarves. She's kind of iconic, but she's also just a mom who has a teen to deal with. I tentatively suggested to my daughter, hey, I wrote this piece about being a teenager. Before I even got to the end of the sentence, she was like, hell no. Get that away from me. You could literally be Zadie Smith and your kids still might not want to listen to you.

But if you want to listen to more, of Zadie, you can head to my podcast. Bookends with Matea Roach. From CBC News, it's the world this hour. I'm Joe Cummings. The Union representing Quebec's medical specialists are launching a legal challenge today to the province's controversial Bill 2. It changes the way doctors are paid and threatens to crack down on anyone protesting those changes. Allison Northcott has more. In its legal filing, Quebec's Federation of Medical

Specialists says the province's new law is draconian and a flagrant violation of several charter rights. It's asking the court to suspend parts of the law. It changes the way doctors are compensated, tying part of their pay to performance targets. And if they use concerted actions or pressure tactics to protest the law, they could be fined. I submitted my resignation. Dr. Trevor Hennessey has been speaking out about a lack of resources in the Utawe region for years and says the new law has further eroded his trust in the government. The failings of the government are trying to be passed on to the shoulders of the physicians.

Earlier this week, the Quebec government said it would suspend two elements of the law for now, affecting how specialists and family medicine clinics are compensated. We're doing that for the Quebecers and also for the doctors. Quebec's Treasury Board President, France-Elin Durant-So, said the goal was to calm the waters and bring the doctors' federations back to the table. But so far, that hasn't happened. Allison Northcott, CBC News, Montreal. The Supreme Court of Canada announces today

whether it will be hearing a case involving a B.C. farm ordered to call hundreds of ostriches. The birds are among a flock that contracted avian flu last year. Caroline Bargut reports. It's been an emotional morning for us, as you can imagine. Katie Besitney has been waiting weeks to find out if the Supreme Court will hear a case that will decide the fate of hundreds of ostriches. in the BC Interior. Her mother is the co-owner of universal ostrich farms. Sixty-nine ostriches on the farm died of the avian flu. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency ordered the remaining

300 or so culled. For nearly a year, the farm's owners and hundreds of their supporters have been fighting to save the birds. If the court decides not to hear the case, that call order will stand. We're going to find out whether or not they start killing, healthy, vibrant, perfectly amazing animals. Paul Daly is a law professor and research chair. in administrative law and governance at the University of Ottawa. I think the most likely outcome is that the Supreme Court will not decide to hear the appeal. He says if that is the case, the farmers can go back to the federal government with new information and see if they'll reconsider the call.

Caroline Bargoot, CBC News, Vancouver. Supreme Court will also announce today whether it will hear an appeals case in a challenge to Saskatchewan's school pronoun law. The law prevents children under 16 from changing their names or pronoun. at school without parental consent. In passing the legislation, the Saskatchewan government invoked the Charter's notwithstanding clause. It's the largest study of its kind in Canadian history.

100,000 people in Ontario are being tested to see if they carry genes that put them at higher risk of cancer and heart attack. Jennifer Yoon has the details. The human genome is an extremely rich source of information. Our bodies contain thousands of genes. Some mutations put us at higher risk. risk of cancers and heart disease, but many of us don't know which mutations we could have. Researchers like Dr. Raymond Kim are testing out ways to change that. As part of a study

out of Toronto's University Health Network, Kim and his team will test the genomes of 100,000 people for genetic conditions associated with several cancers and heart disease. The goal is to expand testing to the broader population over five years, but they're starting with cancer patients. Makeup helps them to see if we have to be concerned of any other cancer. Genetic counselor Jenna Scott says this study could be an opportunity to see who would benefit from wider screening and what kind of resources it would take. How do we roll this out on an even larger scale? Part of that preparation, Scott says, should include reducing barriers to screening and care.

Jennifer Yun, CBC News, Toronto. And that is the world this hour. For CBC News, I'm Joe Cummings. Thank you.