World Report - Thursday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

U.S. Police probe if blast at Trump hotel in Las Vegas is linked to New Orleans attack.2 victims in Calgary domestic violence case remembered as amazing mother and grandfather.The CEO-to-worker pay gap is still enormous — but a new report says it narrowed slightly in 2023.

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We begin in the United States where authorities are investigating whether an explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas is linked to the deadly truck attack in New Orleans. It comes as more details emerge in the two cases. Freelance reporter Steve Futterman has been following the story for us. Steve, what's the latest? Well, John, there are many interesting possible links between Shamsud Dean Jabbar, the suspect in New Orleans, and the suspect in Las Vegas. Now, this morning, there are numerous reports identifying the Vegas suspect as Matthew Leibelsberger. Now, as for the possible links, some of them are quite evident. Both men used electric vehicles as their weapons. The vehicles were both rented from the same online rental

platform, and the events happened on the same day within hours of each other. The new developments, numerous organizations, including CBS News, say both men served in Afghanistan around the same time. There are reports from other media organizations suggesting that they may have served at the same time and possibly at the same base. So lots of suggestions of links, but nothing official. Remember, there are 1.2 million people in the U.S. Army. There can be unusual links, I'm sure, between any two people. But remember yesterday in New Orleans, the FBI was saying very clearly that it did not believe the New Orleans suspect acted alone. Meanwhile, Steve, New Orleans is still on high alert. Tell us more.

Well, today in New Orleans, they will play the Sugar Bowl football game. It's a quarterfinal game in the college football playoffs, Georgia against Notre Dame. Now, tens of thousands of fans are in New Orleans from those two schools. The game was supposed to take place last night after the deadly incident there. The game was delayed until today. Now at the Superdome where the game takes place, we are told there will be increased security, more bomb-sniffing dogs, more undercover cops. Police have been inside the stadium since yesterday making sure nothing dangerous might

be inside. And of course, security is also increased today again in the French Quarter. Steve Futterman in Los Angeles. Thanks, Steve. Thank you, John. Here in this country, the family at the center of a holiday tragedy is now speaking publicly. Two people were killed following a dispute during Christmas dinner, leaving two children orphaned. As Omar Sharif tells us, it's a case of intimate partner violence. I knew right from then on that life is never, ever, ever going to be the same for this family again. Peter Wardzala speaking about what happened before his older sister and father were killed. Anya Kaminsky and Stanislaw Wardzala were found dead in different homes in Calgary's

Northwest by police on Sunday, days after an apparent dispute during Christmas dinner. Police say Anya's husband, 38-year-old Benedict Kaminsky, was responsible. There was something off about things were just obviously bothering him that it's like, why are these things bothering you? You know, like the way that my sister's cutting pickles and stuff, like, you know, three times in under a minute, he's arguing about it with her. She told me specifically that this is it. It's over. She's done with him. She cannot handle this relationship anymore. The week after, police found Anya and her father Stanislaw's bodies in separate homes. Benedict was found dead in a rural area 80 kilometers northwest of Calgary a day later. Messages of love for Anya

and support for the family poured out from the community and from the Rocky View School Division where she taught and a message of awareness among the tragedy. When we think of domestic violence, we think of it as it's a private thing, it's a family thing. It's really not. This is a public safety concern. There was risk for other people and this is a very far-reaching epidemic. Kim Roos with the Calgary-based Fear Is Not Love says more education will help. And the right kinds of support for everyone involved could go a long way. Hama Sharif, CBC News, Calgary. An American January 6th fugitive is seeking asylum in Canada.

Anthony Vo was convicted over the riot at Capitol Hill and attempted to seek asylum in Argentina, Mexico, El Salvador, Vietnam, Belarus, and Russia, before packing up his snowboard and heading north of the border to Whistler. The CBC's Emily Ferrier has the story. Anthony Vo is supposed to be behind bars in the U.S., but instead he's hitting the slopes in Whistler. He crossed into Canada last June seeking asylum in this country. I know a lot of people disagree with me being here, but I've also received a lot of support from people here, and I'm really grateful to be here. Vo was sentenced to nine months in federal prison for his connection to the January 6th riot. He's now looking to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised

pardons to the more than 1,500 people who were charged after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to disrupt certification of Joe Biden's election victory. He's already made too many promises in the public spotlight that it would look really bad if he didn't. And he's a man of his word, so. In his refugee claim documents, Vo said the riot was a peaceful protest and that it was subverted as a part of domestic regime change operation to politically assassinate Trump and his supporters. But Constance McIntosh, a Dalhousie University law professor, says his case will likely go nowhere. So we'll always give people the benefit of the doubt and hear their claim and evaluate it. So I'm not surprised that they're hearing it. That's how our process works.

We give everybody a fair hearing. But I would be extremely surprised if this was a successful claim. Vo's mother, Annie, who was granted asylum in the United States after fleeing Vietnam in 1991, was also arrested in connection to the riots and is awaiting trial. Vo said he hopes to stay in Canada until the situation is safe for him to return to the United States. Emily Ferrier, CBC News, Toronto. The annual report into the wages of Canada's top executives have found the gap between executives and employees narrowed slightly in 2023, but Canada's top paid CEOs still made over 200 times more

than the average worker that year. Philip de Montigny has all the details. After two years of inflation-driven profits, which boosted CEO premiums, the pay gap between workers and chief executives in Canada is shrinking. In 2023, the 100 highest paid CEOs made 210 times as much as employees. Compare that to more than 240 times in 2021 and 2022. David McDonald is a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. We have seen workers clawing their way back. He points out

workers' wages increased by nearly 7% in 2023. Meanwhile, company profits were down from the record levels of 2022. The profits of the companies are still at historic highs. They're just not quite as high as they were in the inflationary period of 21 and 22. HR specialist Annie Boisla calls for a maximum wage ratio, where the highest salary in a company can only be so many times larger than the lowest. It's always possible to increase the remuneration of the president, but then you have to increase the lowest income as well in the company. In the U.S., CEOs made 268 times more than employees on average in 2023. Publicly traded companies there are required to report

their respective pay ratios, but no limit was set. One company's chief executive earned as much as 10,000 times the median worker pay. Philippe de Montsigny, CBC News, Toronto. Meanwhile, low and fixed income Canadians were supposed to get a new automatic tax filing service to help them with their tax returns this year. But instead, they're getting an old program that was a flop when it was first tried out in 2018. Darren Major has that story. None of the things that they're piloting have been automatic tax filing. An automatic tax filing service is something advocates like Elizabeth Mulholland have been calling for. She's the CEO of Prosper Canada, an organization that works with low-income canadians it's also

something that the liberal government has promised since 2020 only people who owe taxes are legally required to file each year but that means thousands of low-income canadians miss out on tax benefits the parliamentary budget officer estimates that with an automatic service, the government would pay out almost $2 billion in additional benefits. The 2023 budget promised to pilot it last year. But instead, the CRA expanded the Simple File program, which mails invitations to taxpayers and asks them to contact the agency to help complete their returns. Something Mulholland says can be a barrier. We know that many people with low incomes are afraid to open correspondence from CRA. Their view is it's generally bad news, so they try to avoid it.

More than 100,000 people received invitations, but only a few thousand people used the Simple File program in 2023, according to the CRA, and almost half turned to the private sector to file their return. Jennifer Robson is an associate professor in political management at Carleton University. If you're standing back and thinking about this from the side of individual taxpayers, particularly those who are in lower and modest income, it's definitely defeating the purpose. Both Robson and Mulholland believe the CRA will eventually launch an automatic system, but say progress so far has been slow.

Darren Major, CBC News, Ottawa. And that is the latest national and international news from World Report. You can listen to us live every morning on the CBC News app. Just tap on the local icon. I'm John Northcott. This is CBC News.