World Report - March 24: Tuesday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Formerly secret intelligence files obtained by CBC show RCMP spied on respected Indigenous leaders in 1970s. Civil jury in California finds Bill Cosby liable for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 1972, awards her $59.25 million. Despite US President Donald Trump's talk of negotiations, more missiles fired at Iran, Israel, and Lebanon overnight. War in Iran fuels concerns about "sleeper cells" in North America, CBC investigates how likely that is. Information from Air Canada flight data recorders could be released today, shedding light on deadly collision at LaGuardia airport. Scientists in Geneva transport anti-matter for the first time. 

The Powering Politics Podcast is available six times a week, but you might not be. If you want to catch up on what happened this week in politics, join me, Laura Dangelow and some of Canada's most tuned-in political strategists to break down the week that was. Short on time, the weekly wrap has you covered with a new episode every Saturday. This is a CBC podcast. This is World Report. Good morning. I'm Martina Fitzgerald. CBC News has uncovered new details

about a national surveillance program that targeted indigenous leaders. The RCMPs now disbanded security service called it their racial intelligence program. In the 1970s, it spied on what the Mounties claimed was native extremism. CBC has obtained more than 6,000 pages of formerly secret intelligence files.

They show the program mainly targeted, legitimate organizations and respected leaders. Brett Forrester has the story. Parliament Hill, 1974. We come into your majority rule city, and you treat us bad, you push us around. Indigenous people were organizing like never before. Rallies, protests, a people's movement across the country. Canadians were watching.

Soon, the Mounties were, too. I knew they were doing it. It wasn't very covert. Dene leader, George Erasmus, remembers. They would park right in front. front of the Indian Brotherhood office, the Denny Nation office, and they were taking pictures of everybody in Yellowknife. Erasmus is among hundreds named in RCMP Security Service files released through access to information. They were spied on by paid informers, viewed as potentially

subversive for demanding change. We were never threatening this country. We were building it. We still are. The files name at least 30 indigenous organizations targeted and confirmed for the first time the Mountie's wire-tapped phones of the National Indian Brotherhood, now known as the Assembly of First Nations. A reminder of why the RCMP's spy unit was disbanded, explains historian Steve Hewitt. Basically, because of disruption operations that went awry in the 1970s, and there was a huge scandal, the dirty tricks scandal. The RCMP would not answer questions about the security services prying into the political and private lives of indigenous leaders. Brett Forster, CBC News, Toronto.

A woman in California has been awarded almost $60 million U.S. in a civil trial against Bill Cosby. I believe, with all my heart, this is justice for all the women. And I find a lot of joy in that. Donna Mottinger, outside a courthouse in Los Angeles, she is the latest in a long line of women suing the former entertainer and media mogul for sexual assault. Lotzinger says in 1972, she was drugged and raped by Cosby. Attorneys for the 88-year-old say he will be appealing the verdict.

Despite talk of negotiations, missiles are being launched across the Middle East. Emergency crews help people at a site in Tel Aviv, one of many, struck by Iranian missiles overnight. A spokesperson for Iran's top military command says its armed forces will fight until complete victory. Israel is hitting back, striking targets in Beirut and southern Lebanon. The CBC Sasha Petrissik has the latest from Jerusalem. In Tel Aviv this morning, they dig through damaged buildings and clean up from a barrage of Iranian missiles overnight. Most of them were intercepted. A few hit their mark. Intense air strikes in Beirut, too, as Israel continues. its campaign against Hezbollah militants. The war between the U.S. and Israel versus Iran and its

proxies continuing across the Middle East, despite hints of peace from U.S. President Donald Trump. And if it goes well, we're going to end up with settling this. Otherwise, we'll just keep bombing our little hearts out. Trump says his envoys are negotiating with Iranian leadership, though leaders in Tehran deny any talks. After three weeks, weeks of fighting, which has hit not only Iran, but vital oil and gas supplies and much of the world economy, European Union President Ursula von der Leyen, is pressing for the peace, now being presented as possible. We think that it is time to go to the negotiation table and to end the hostilities.

Not so fast, says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who issued a statement thanking his friend Trump for his efforts. But vowing to continue airstrikes on both Iran and Lebanon. Sasha Petrusik, CBC News, Jerusalem. The U.S. State Department is warning groups supportive of Iran could target U.S. interests or Americans abroad. The war in the Middle East is also fueling concerns here at home about sleeper cells in North America.

Ethel Mousa looks at how much of that threat is real, and how much is pure speculation? Analytics say that Google searches for terms like Iranian sleeper cell have been spiking in recent days. It's not just the U.S. media raising concerns about Iranian operatives living quietly among us, waiting to be activated to carry out attacks. Shortly after the heavily fortified U.S. consulate in Toronto was targeted by gunfire, Ontario's premier Doug Ford said, I believe there's sleeper cells all over the world, as we know. We're in the U.S. They're in Canada here. A string of shootings targeting synagogues across the GTA

and a gym owned by an outspoken critic of Iran's regime is raising tensions and fueling anxiety. But Dan Stanton, who spent more than 30 years with Canada spy agency thesis, says deploying sleeper cells is not how the Iranian regime typically operates. They don't use sleeper cells in that sense of deep cover agents. They use what we would call criminal proxies. These are people that would do surveillance, harass people or try to kill people.

People like former U.S. national security advisor John Bolton. In 2022, an Iranian national was charged for attempting to arrange his assassination on U.S. soil. Well, I think all of us who were targeted by Iran should be worried, but so should other people now that this attack has begun. CESIS says they've been monitoring threats from Iran for many years, and that a violent extremist attack remains a realistic possibility, with the most likely scenario being a lone actor, inspired by the conflict in the Middle East. It'll move to CBC News, Toronto.

I have the duty to follow the evidence where it leads. That's what we'll be doing. Canada's Transport Minister Stephen McKinnon commenting on the investigation into that deadly collision between an Air Canada plane and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport. More answers should come today as to what may have been the cause. It's taken a while. for the whole investigative team to get to New York. Their arrival delayed by a number of things, including delays at the nearby Newark Airport. As Katie Nicholson reports,

the pace of the investigation has also been slowed by another issue plaguing the U.S. aviation industry. We have LaGuardia that was shut down. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homondy running through the significant obstacles they faced getting investigative teams to the crash site, including the Homeland Security funding shutdown, plaguing airport security. Our air traffic control specialist who was in line with TSA for three hours

until we called in Houston to beg to see if we can get her through so we can get her here. There are also safety concerns. There is a tremendous, tremendous amount of debris. The violence of the crash tore the nose apart and spilled toxic liquids. and dangerous debris across the tarmac and killed the two pilots, Antoine Forre and Mackenzie Gunther. Miraculously, a flight attendant reportedly thrown 100 meters still strapped in her seat, survived. As did the two firefighters in the truck that collided with the jet. Answers to how that happened may be slow and coming, but they are coming, Homandy said.

In order to get to the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, The report authority and the emergency responders cut a hole on the roof. The data recorders were intact, and the NTSB hopes to share some of the information they contain today. And potentially, information about whether or not the air traffic control tower was understaffed at the time of the incident. Katie Nicholson, CBC News, New York. Scientists in Geneva have just done something they've never done before. Transported antimatter. Truck ready to move.

This was a very delicate operation involving nearly 100 volatile antiprotons. If those particles come into contact with actual matter, even for an instant, it would be annihilated in a quick flash of energy. This morning, scientists suspended that antimatter in a vacuum in a specially designed box. The box was loaded onto a truck and the goal to drive that truck without any particles seeping out. Generally, everything was as expected. and the particles are still in the trap and everything went well here. So no disaster, no particle loss. We are still waiting the final report, but it sounds like the experiment was a success.

And that is the latest national and international news from World Report. I'm Martino Fitzgerald. This is CBC News. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca. Podcasts.