World Report - Wednesday's top stories in 10 minutes

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Liberal caucus meeting today in Ottawa, with a lot of unanswered questions about who will be their next leader.  US lawmakers brush off Donald Trump's plan to acquire Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal. She's trained as a doctor, and she came to Canada to work as one. Instead she took a job at McDonalds.

Every language is a note in the symphony of our heritage. Together, they create a harmony that cannot be silenced. Discover your voice on the new APTN Languages TV channel. This is a CBC podcast. This is World Report. Good morning, I'm Marcia Young.

Liberal MPs are gathering today in Ottawa with one objective in mind, finding a new leader. Do you have a favourite candidate in mind? People haven't even declared yet. So I do have a favourite person, but I let them come out and declare first. I think that Krista Freeland would be an amazing candidate for a new leader. People like Kristy Clark from BC and others, I think, could really rebuild the party. Rebuilding the party will be a heavy lift. Finance Minister Dominique LeBlanc says he will not run.

But there are multiple people expected to bid on the job. Janice McGregor is in our Parliamentary Bureau. And Janice, what are the factors people might consider if they want to enter this race? Well, let's start with the ministers who are shouldering a big load right now. Think of Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Jolie. If Canada finds itself in a tariff war in two weeks' time, these are the ministers leading the departments at the heart of that fight. Can you do that while also mounting a national leadership campaign?

Innovation Minister François-Polip Champagne, who's also deeply engaged in cross-border conversations right now, admitted on Power and Politics yesterday that he's grappling with this. Priority number one is protecting Canada. The second thing is the Liberal Party of Canada and the leadership race. And thirdly is where am I going to be in all that? Does the Liberal Party need to put a new voice in front of voters, someone that doesn't carry baggage from the government's time in office? Or given the urgent timelines here, will it be more important to pick a leader that's already got a seat in the House that can lead from day one?

Because they can't have both, nor can they afford a bitter or divisive leadership race when they're at historic lows in the polls. Liberal Party spokesperson Parker Lunn told CBC News yesterday that the National Board of the Liberal Party is having formal and informal meetings all this week. Establishing the rules for the leadership race though apparently is going to take some time. For a contest that may need to play out over a few weeks, not months, what they decide on entry fees, fundraising rules, recruiting deadlines, voting procedures may determine who's really in a position to

mount a serious campaign. Thank you, Janice. You're welcome. The CBC's Janice McGregor reporting from Ottawa. Donald Trump is once again musing about possibly acquiring Canada when he re-enters the White House. Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line.

The U.S. President-elect says he will consider using economic force to make Canada the 51st state. Trump has made similar statements about Greenland and the Panama Canal. Let's bring in Richard Madden from Washington. And Richard, what is the latest reaction to Trump's comments? Yeah, there's been plenty. Some questioning if he's teasing or if he's serious. But leaders of Panama, Denmark, and of course Canada are all pushing back on Trump's proposed land grab.

In fact, last night, Ontario Premier Doug Ford one-on-one with Trump's favourite channels, Fox News, and made the case. Take a listen. I get it. You know, President-elect Trump is a real estate tycoon. He's made billions. But that property is not for sale. As simple as that. Now for weeks, Trump has been trolling Canada by calling it the 51st state, calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau governor, and has been posting memes showing a map of the US enveloping Canada. So I suspect we're going to hear a lot more saber-rattling from Trump in the weeks ahead.

And what are US lawmakers saying about Trump's vision? Yeah, lawmakers are pointing out that both Canada and Denmark that owns Greenland are part of NATO. So Trump's unlikely annexation of these countries would invoke Article 5, which would require the US to basically fight against themselves. It's an implausible situation. Democratic Congressman Jim Hines of Connecticut says, it's just not gonna happen. What we're talking about here are things that are never gonna happen. They're shiny things, they're little bits of tin foil and fireworks designed to distract

us from the fact that the president-elect is going to completely fail to deliver. Now other lawmakers believe this is a legacy issue for Trump. Expanding America's territory would be historic for any president. So we'll see how far Trump goes with this. He hasn't even been sworn in yet but he's once again captured attention around the world. Alright thank you Richard. You bet.

The CBC's Richard Madden in Washington. Winds whip up the flames in Pasadena, California. Four major wildfires are now burning in the Los Angeles area. And the Santa Ana winds are making it impossible for firefighters to get the flames under control. More than 50,000 people have been forced to leave their communities.

Some at a moment's notice, this man works at a seniors facility in Pasadena where residents had to be carried to safety. It's just tough. It's tough. They can't get up. They're stuck on the wheelchairs. We gotta lift them up, put them in the vans,

and then take the wheelchairs at the same time. So we gotta get everybody out of here. Universal Studios has closed its theme park in Hollywood today because of the extreme fire conditions. CATL is the world's biggest battery maker. It's based in China and now the Pentagon has put it on its list of companies linked to the Chinese military. As Lisa Sheng reports, tension is rising over technology and trade between China and the US. This can of course be seen as a bit of an escalation. Matt Geraci with DC-based Think Tank Atlantic Council says it's another wrinkle in US-China relations. The US Department of Defense

adding Chinese tech giant Tencent and the world's largest battery maker, CATL, to a list of companies it says work with China's military. The designation, of course, also illustrates the complexities of a push to more broadly decouple the United States from China. Both Tencent and CATL call the move a mistake, coming at a time when relations are increasingly strained, as incoming US President Donald Trump threatens to levy 60 percent tariffs on all imports from China, and as they are embroiled in a tech rivalry in the electric vehicle industry. China firmly opposes the US creating discriminatory lists under various pretexts, said Chinese

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiaquan. The designation could affect U.S. firms working with these companies. CATL currently supplies batteries to car makers, including Tesla, and it's working with Ford on making those batteries at a plant in Michigan. This action may give a company like Ford a bit more pause on how or whether to proceed with its budding partnership. Geraci says while this action primarily risks a company's reputation, it could open the door to an outright ban. Lisa Sheng, CBC News, Toronto. Italian TV commentators are celebrating the news. Journalist Cecilia Sala is on her way back home after three weeks in an Iranian prison.

The 29-year-old reporter was detained in Tehran on December 19, just three days after Italian police arrested an Iranian engineer on a US warrant. It was suggested Sala was being held as a bargaining chip to ensure the engineers release. Italian officials say Sala's freedom required intensive diplomatic effort. Starting this year, Canada is cutting the number of new permanent residents. The initial target was to admit half a million people in 2025, in part to help labor shortages. But in a survey conducted by CBC, nearly two-fifths of respondents say they're not working in their field of expertise. Vanessa Lee has been looking at the struggles of internationally trained doctors.

I was practicing in the Dominican Republic for three years. Like other international medical graduates, Ismender Ramirez has spent thousands of dollars to write and pass Canadian medical exams. But for two years she has been waiting for a residency, a crucial stage where doctors gain hands-on experience in hospitals and clinics. During this time she has worked at McDonald's and is currently a medical assistant. We are willing to work hard and to do what it takes just to get to our final goal.

Advocates say more funding and residency spots are needed. The vast majority of placements go to graduates from Canadian medical schools. Last year, just over 670 international medical graduates were successful, but about 930 didn't get a position. Stephanie Price is with the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada. In order to put more people into a residency program, you have to have more people there to be the mentors.

And so I think that is a significant bottleneck. The path to becoming a doctor in Canada is not simple. Not only can qualifications vary depending on country of origin, all 13 provinces and territories have separate licensing requirements. Dr. Joss Reimer. Even me as the president of the Canadian Medical Association, I find it challenging to understand what the different options are and how they work. Roughly 6.5 million Canadians don't have a family doctor.

Across the country, there are thousands of internationally trained physicians who could bring down that number, but aren't able to work in their field. Vanessa Lee, CBC News, Toronto. You can read more about the survey and our methodology at cbcnews.ca slash welcome to Canada. That is World Report. I'm Marcia Young. [♪upbeat music playing.♪ [♪upbeat music playing.♪ [♪upbeat music playing.♪ [♪upbeat music playing.♪

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