World Report - October 21: Tuesday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

Toronto Blue Jays advance to the World Series for the first time in 32 years.Canada's inflation rate jumped to 2.4% in September from 1.9% in August, Statistics Canada says.Canada's Auditor General's report finds callers to the Canada Revenue Agency were subjected to long waits and inaccurate information.Former French president Nicholas Sarkozy begins a 5-year jail sentence for accepting illegal campaign contributions.Japan gets its first female prime minister.A tight mayoralty race in Calgary means a recount is likely.The Vatican agrees to return rare native artifacts to Canada.

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This is World Report. Good morning. I'm Marcia Young. The Toronto Blue Jays heading back to the World Series. The last time that happened was 32 years ago. Late in the evening, the Jays defeated the Seattle Mariners 4-3 in game 7 of the American League Championship series. And as the CBC's Jamie Strachan reports, the big win was sealed. by a historic swing. And a swing and a fly ball to left field.

Back goes a Rosaray now. She's gone. Who else but George Springer? Down 3-1 in the seventh inning, the 36-year-old heart and soul of this Blue Jay team lifted a three-run home run that put the Blue Jays ahead for good, earning a spot in the World Series for the first time since 1993. I'm just so happy for everybody here.

our city, our country, this is for them. Springer's 381 foot blast set off a sustained frenzy and will take a place as a seminal moment in Toronto's long and storied sports history. The crowd and the pop and the outfield reaction and it was incredible. I'll remember it forever. And it was nuts. I've never seen anything like it. It was like we're in the locker room. People were popping beer, champagne. I'm soaked. As it has been all year, it was a team effort. All hands on deck.

Pitcher Kevin Gosman, who started two games in this series, came out of the bullpen and was the winning pitcher. Not surprising, says manager John Schneider. I've said proud about a million times this year. Bottom of the order strikes again to set it up for the big boys, you know. So it's how we do it. It's a total team effort, and you never know who it's going to be. Next up, a date in the World Series with the storied Los Angeles Dodgers.

Game one Friday in Toronto. This is a season to remember. Jamie Strasch and CBC News, Toronto. Groceries and gas are behind a big jump in Canada's annual inflation rate. This morning, Statistics Canada released its September report. It shows a spike of half a percentage point rising to 2.4% from 1.9%. The numbers will feed into the Bank of Canada's decision next week. It will make its next interest rate announcement on Wednesday.

It's going to be a busy day for Canada's Auditor General. Karen Hogan is tabling six new reports in Parliament today. One takes a deep dive into the Canada Revenue Agency, specifically its call centers and wait times. The report found callers were subjected to long waits and inaccurate information. The CBC's Janice McGregor joins me now from Ottawa. And Janice, what can you tell us? Marcia, even though the tax agency has been lowering its performance, standards over the last decade, it's still falling short. In the most recent fiscal year,

only 18% of callers actually reached an agent within 15 minutes. And last June, specifically, only 5% of callers were helped on time. And when callers do get through, are they consistently getting reliable information? Well, apparently not. The audit tested the accuracy of how call centers answered both general and account-specific tax questions. Answers to business or general benefits inquiries were correct just over half the time. Answers to individual tax questions were accurate only 17% of the time. The audit also tested the CRA's online chat bot and found the artificial intelligence tool provided accurate information for only two of the six questions they tried out.

But managers at the tax agency don't prioritize accurate assistance when they evaluate employee performance. Only 9% of a call center agent's score has been based on actually giving correct and complete answers. Well, 45% of the evaluations are actually based instead on productivity measures like logging on and off the system on time and taking your scheduled breaks. Okay. The audit also raised troubling questions about the IBM contract to provide these. call center services. That's right. A contract that was originally supposed to have a minimum value of 50 million 10 years ago, it's now ballooned to 190 million. And Shared Services Canada couldn't confirm whether the contractor's invoices were being properly reviewed for accuracy. IBM's system is supposed to provide callers with accurate real-time updates on where they sit

in the queue. It doesn't. Over 8 million calls last year were deflected instead to a recording not even giving the caller the option of waiting to speak to an agent. The minister responsible for the CRA, Francois Philippe Champagne, already knew he had a big problem on his hands. In early September, he announced a 100-day plan to improve service, calling the performance of these call centers unacceptable. Thank you, Janice. You're welcome.

The CBC's Janice McGregor in Ottawa, and this story is the second-most red story at cbcnews.ca, and it is on our main page. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is beginning his five-year prison sentence. Sarkozy waves at supporters outside his home as he's driven away moments later. He's greeted by crowds outside the prison in Paris. Sarkozy was convicted of conspiracy for accepting money from Libya to finance his election campaign. He served as France's president.

between 2007 and 2012, he is the first elected leader of France to serve time in prison. Japanese lawmakers have elected the country's first female prime minister, but critics say the progressive move will not mean progressive policies. Kaspo Vint has more from Tokyo. 64-year-old Sanaei Takai Kui Shattered one of Japanese. 64-year-old Sana'a Takaichi shattered one of Japan's long-standing glass ceilings in a parliamentary vote after winning leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party earlier this month. She inherits an LDP government on a losing streak, tasked with revitalizing a stagnant economy and reversing a plunging birth rate. Takaiichi's a traditionalist who opposes same-sex marriage and allowing married women to keep their maiden names.

She also wants to change the post-war constitution to build up Japan's military to counter China. Her hardline stances have already led to a political paradigm shift. Last week, Kometo, a centrist party and LDP ally for about two decades announced it was leaving their coalition, citing policy differences with Takaichi. As well, Takaichi will have to hit the ground running when it comes to diplomacy. She's attending the APEC summit in South Korea at the end of the month, And in just under a week, she'll host her first foreign leader as prime minister, U.S. President Donald Trump. Kazbovind for CBC News, Tokyo. Jeremy Farcos could be the new mayor of Calgary, but the margin of victory was less than 600 out of about 350,000 votes cast.

And a recount is likely to take place. Counting the ballots took all night. Joti Gondack lost her bid for re-election by placing third. She explains why she feels she lost. I think people are tired, and I think a lot of people gave up. I think a lot of folks were struggling with affordability. They were struggling with the teacher strike, and they're very much struggling with what they're seeing online.

I can tell you that the vitriol and the hatred is jarring, and it's something that I've experienced over the last four years. All the ballots still have not been counted in Edmonton. They were sent to the Vatican more than a century ago. Now indigenous artifacts and cultural heirlooms are being returned to their communities in Canada. The move follows years of talks between the Catholic Church, indigenous leaders, and Ottawa. Megan Williams has more from Rome. The objects, including a rare or century-old, innuviluit sealskin kayak, were sent to Canada here to Rome

for the Vatican's World Exhibition in 1925. They've since been held in the Vatican Museums. Now sources tell CBC they'll be back in Canada before the end of the the year, a gift to Canadian bishops with the explicit understanding that they will then hand the items over to indigenous communities. The items will first go to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatno, which has the proper facilities to preserve them. Their experts will analyze the objects to confirm their origins before a committee of indigenous representatives decides where they should go. A source told CBC the handoff is church to church, not directly with indigenous representatives.

allowing the Vatican to avoid setting a precedent of returning artifacts directly to nations or peoples demanding them. It took the same approach when handing the Parthenon marbles to the Greek Orthodox Church instead of the Greek government two years ago. The return of the indigenous artifacts marks another step in reconciliation and the end of a long journey for cultural objects that have been out of reach of the communities that want them back home. Megan Williams, CBC News. Rome. And that is the latest national and international news from World Report News anytime, CBCnews.a.ca. I'm Marcia Young.