Your World Tonight - Algoma layoffs, hidden fire in a Toronto highrise, WHO on GLPs, and more

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

Algoma Steel is laying off about a thousand workers — roughly a third of its workforce. The company is pointing to the effects of U.S. tariffs. But it also had government help: half a billion dollars that was supposed to keep workers on the job.And: A fire has been burning through a Toronto highrise complex for more than four days now. But no one can see it. It’s smouldering between the concrete walls of two connected buildings, posing an especially complex challenge to firefighters.Also: For the first time, the World Health Organization is recommending GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic as a treatment for obesity. It’s a condition that affects millions, and costs billions. But how much medications can help will depend in part on who can get access.Plus: Officials in Manitoba begin another painstaking search in another landfill for the remains of two Indigenous women, the Trump administration faces accusations of war crimes in connection to strikes on an alleged Caribbean drug boat, and more.

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We were brought into a meeting at 7.30 to a.m. and notified, Christmas is 25 days away. Really? They couldn't wait another month. The tariffs and trade war have been no holiday for Canada's. steel industry. Now one of this country's largest producers is announcing major layoffs. Even after getting millions in government loans, Algoma Steel is laying off hundreds of workers. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Monday, December 1st, just before 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. If you can imagine a cigar burning, it is just creeping up and up and spreading. We can't access it. The slow burn that fire, Fighters in Canada's largest city just cannot solve, smoldering for days inside the walls of a Toronto

high-rise apartment complex, with hundreds of people out of their homes. Algoma Steel is laying off about a thousand workers, roughly a third of its workforce. The company is struggling with the effects of U.S. tariffs, but it has also had government help. Half a billion dollars that was supposed to keep workers on the job. Anise Haydari now has more on why Algoma is making the cuts. Christmas is 25 days away. Really? They really, really, really had to do it today.

They couldn't wait another month. December is not starting the way United Steel Workers' Leader Michael DePratt expected. We were brought into a meeting at 7.30 this a.m. and notified that notice was being served. He represents a majority. of the 1,000 Algoma steel workers being laid off. The company had been planning to shift how and what it manufactures to avoid U.S. tariffs.

So job cuts or job changes were expected, but not this many, and not right now. What has occurred is that the transfer to the EAF technology happened earlier than expected in part because of the market and the tariffs. The goal of today's investment is... Back in September, the federal and Ontario, government's offered the company $500 million in loans. At the time, the feds said the money was to help limit disruption to the Algoma workforce

as the Canadian company adjusts to U.S. tariffs. Fast forward to December 1st. The first thing we need to do is to support workers. No details on how the government would do that from finance minister Francois Philippe Champagne. We've been in touch with the company, certainly to make sure that we can support them. A union representative told CBC News they had asked the federal government to time. the previous loan to employment numbers, and that didn't happen. And while experts point out these layoffs are specifically about changing manufacturing technology,

the trade war has turned up the heat. Algoma's in the lead of moving away from these blast furnaces, to electric furnaces. Peter Worryon is with the Monk School of Global Affairs and a former research director with the United Steelworkers. But inevitably, there'll be job losses, but you could adjust to those through retirements, retrading such over time. They're now having to do that with a gun to their head because of the terrorists. In a statement, Al-Gomis Steel did blame U.S. tariffs for these layoffs,

which could eliminate one-third of its workforce in Sioux-Saint-Marie. This is something that was expected years from now, and it's happening weeks from now. Jason Naccarado is past president of Sue St. Marie's Chamber of Commerce. He said these jobs won't be easily replaced. Well, a thousand layoffs at our number one employer will, I think, impact every aspect of our community. all the business owners from regardless of what sector you're in. And Steelworkers rep Michael DePratt says they're just starting to work through what's next. I don't think the community can absorb this number of applicants, job applicants in Sue St. Mary.

In a press release last month, Al Goma said it finalized the $500 million loans. It's unclear how much of that money has been used or how. Any CBC News, Calgary. A fire has been burning through a Toronto high-rise call. complex for more than four days now, but no one can see it. Firefighters say it's trapped between the walls of two connected buildings they can't get at it, and residents can't get into their homes. Jamie Strasson has more on what's burning and why there's so much concern. They have never seen something as complex as... In his more than 30 years fighting fires,

Toronto Fire Chief Jim Jessup has never encountered anything like the fire that's been burning since Thursday at two Toronto high-rise buildings. The cause of the fire, unknown. Meeting with reporters today, Jessup held up a chunk of wooden particle board. This is the material, which is combustible particle board that was placed between an expansion joint. That is causing us the problem. And access to getting to this is next to impossible for our crews, and we have been trying everything. Toronto Fire is very familiar with high-rise fires, with the exception of New York. the city has more tall buildings than anywhere else in North America. But in this case, if it weren't for the line of fire trucks circling the buildings,

you wouldn't even know there was a fire. There are no flames, and Toronto Fire's thermal imaging cameras aren't even picking up heat signatures. Think of a cigar that is slowly burning, and so it is just creeping up and up and spreading. The particle board is burning inside of a joint or wall between the two buildings, Professor Ramallah Qureshi of McMaster University studies structural resistance and extreme hazards. She says the makeup of particle board is what's making this fire so complex to fight.

Imagine one burns and produces enough heat to burn the next one and then the next one and the next one. But it's all within that particle board in such a condensed environment. So you have a slow burn. A byproduct of slow-burning particle board, carbon monoxide, about 300 residents have been displaced since last Thursday, staying with family or in area hotels. We're just hoping if we can get back as soon as possible. It's been kind of good, but also, like, you know, difficult adjusting, just waiting on every update. I'm just like, you know, every time there's an update, I just, you know, immediately read it, hoping for good news. I know they've been working really hard to figure out the situation.

We just want to make sure when we go back it is really safe and that we won't need to be evacuated again. Jessup says at this point there is no end in sight. We are doing our best. The entire city has mobilized and every resource we have is being put to solve this problem. No firm timelines on when this mysterious unseen fire will be put out. Jamie Strachan, CBC News, Toronto. Coming right up, working in the web,

Bank, a Canadian activist alleges she was assaulted and robbed by Israeli settlers, and the White House defends a controversial attack on a Caribbean boat, with lawmakers from both parties suggesting it may have been criminal. Later, we'll have this story. Obesity is one of the most serious public challenges of our time. And global health officials say drugs like Ozempic could help tackle it. I'm health reporter Lauren Peli, and later on your world tonight, I'll break down guidance from the World Health Organization on GLP1 medications and what it could mean for access here in Canada. A Canadian woman volunteering in the occupied West Bank is recovering tonight after she

and her colleagues say they were attacked and robbed by Israeli settlers. They are part of a pro-Palestinian group working in the region. Tom Perry has the latest. So I have facial bruising and contusions in a concussion. I have severely bruised ribs. One eye is blackened and her body still aches. This Canadian woman from BC and her three Italian colleagues recuperating in an apartment in Ramallah after they say they were attacked early Sunday morning by a group of Israeli settlers in a small village in the occupied West Bank. The group fears being targeted or deported if they're identified so were not revealing their names.

Ten mass settlers entered. Two of them had assault rifles. Many of them were armed with clubs. They came in. I began to try to film them. They smacked me across the face, so I threw my phone away. They threw us to the ground and then took turns beating us. The group was in the village helping Palestinians keep watch against settlers. attacks. The woman says the attackers stole phones, passports, and personal belongings. The assault lasted roughly 15 minutes, she says, with the attackers delivering a message as they left. They said, you are not to come back. You are not supposed to be here. After the attack, Palestinians from the village took the woman and her colleagues to a hospital in Jericho.

The four activists are with Faza, a group that brings foreign volunteers to Palestinian communities in the West Bank to try to deter settler violence. Manal Tamimi is director of the group. It's getting more dangerous day after day and I'm sure that even in the near future it will be worse than this. Human rights groups and the United Nations say there's been a spike in attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians. The UN says more than a thousand Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli security forces and Israeli settlers since the attack of October 7, 2023. More than 40 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed in the same area in that same time. As for this latest attack, Global Affairs Canada says it's aware of reports

of a Canadian being injured and that it strongly condemns violent acts committed by extremist settlers. The Canadian and Italian volunteers say, once they've recovered, they hope to return to the West Bank Village to continue their work. Tom Perry, CBC News, Jerusalem. In Washington, the Trump administration is facing war crime accusations in connection to one of its controversial strikes on an alleged Caribbean drug boat. It follows reports the U.S. Defense Secretary ordered one attack and then a follow-up to kill any survivors. Katie Simpson has more. The president has a right to take them out if they are threatening the United States of America.

White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt aggressively defending the actions of the U.S. military. As she confirmed some elements of a report about American actions in the Pacific that have raised serious concerns, confirming the U.S. carried out two strikes on one suspected drugboat on September 2nd, saying Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the operation, which was conducted by Admiral Frank Bradley. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.

The admission follows a report by the Washington Post, which said the second strike was ordered after two survivors were spotted clinging to wreckage. It was done reportedly to satisfy a verbal order from Hegsef to kill everyone on board. Leavitt was careful with her words. She denied, Hegeseth ordered everyone be killed, though she did not deny the second strike was meant to kill any remaining survivors. If the facts are, as have been alleged, that there was a second strike specifically to kill the survivors in the war in the water, that's a stone cold war crime.

Independent Senator Angus King among the lawmakers who support a bipartisan review of this attack, as does former military judge advocate Dan Marr. Killing them while shipwreck, while they're or to combat, they're out of the fight, is a war crime. Lawmakers have complained for weeks about the lack of transparency and evidence around these strikes, which have now killed dozens of people. Attacks that are part of a broader pressure campaign, says the Trump administration, against Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, as it claims it's going after illegal drug trafficking operations. It is the duty of the commander-in-chief to protect the homeland from that,

type of attacks, which we consider terrorist attacks. Republican Congresswoman Maria Alvira Salazar not only supports Trump's operations, she's rooting for regime change. She sees it as a possible opportunity for American companies to get involved in Venezuelan oil production. And I do know that everyone in the hemisphere from Argentina to Canada would love to deal with American companies, including the Venezuelans. Trump's next moves are still being finalized, meeting today with his national security team,

as concerns about these actions intensify. Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington. Officials in Manitoba have begun another painstaking search for the remains of two indigenous women believed to be lost somewhere in a landfill. For years, their families and communities have been calling for more effort to find their bodies. Cameron McIntosh has more.

Amid the regular commotion of Winnipeg's Brady Road landfill, the largest and busiest in Manitoba. The beginnings of what Vernon Mann hopes will be a successful recovery operation. I'm happy that they're finally actually going to do something in. Man has two children with Tanya Nipanak, a First Nations woman missing since 2011. It's believed she was killed,

her body dumped in the landfill. A short police search was called off after a few days in 2012. Nobody deserves to be there. and to have somebody that you love and care for being there is just, it's terrible. The province is trying again, starting with a search for another woman, killed a decade after Nipanak. Ashley Shingoose, otherwise known as Buffalo Woman, was murdered along with three other First Nations women in 2022.

It's believed her remains are also in the Brady landfill. Earlier this year, remains of two of the other women killed in 2022, Mercedes Myron and Morgan Harris were recovered from another Winnipeg area landfill. Search the landfill. Search the landfill. After families and indigenous leaders

staged numerous demonstrations, pushing for a search, outraged over the notion of indigenous women being thrown in the garbage. Somebody goes missing, we go looking. Manitoba's NDP Premier Wob Canoe says the same type of search that was successful for Myron and Harris

is being tried for Shing. I just told her parents, like, I hope you feel that this is the value and the respect and the dignity that we hold for your daughter. And I hope we're able to bring her home and bring her home soon. Given the time that is past, Canoe concedes the search for Neepanak will be more complex, but is committing to it. Kaira Wilson is Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. We will continue to search for as long as we need to to bring these women home. We won't stop until we find them. While the odds of finding both women are unclear, it comes at a critical time.

Sean Lamb, the man police say they believe killed Nipanak, was just granted statutory release for manslaughter convictions in the killings of two other women. Charges against Lamb in Nipanak's death were stayed. Man says finding Nipanak is as important as ever. Being able to bring her home and put it at arrest properly would be something that is just, I don't know, It's even hard to explain.

Plans are to search for at least a year. Cameron McIntosh, CBC News, Winnipeg. Manitoba has a new detox center for people suffering from meth addiction. It's a first in Canada with the province saying it is trying to keep the public safe. But patients can be held up to three days in a room that looks like a cell. And critics worry the effort is actually criminalizing addiction. Karen Paul's reports. The new sobering facility in central Winnipeg

features locked 3-meter-by-3-3-meter rooms with a toilet, sink, video surveillance, and an intercom. There's medical supervision, but no comforts. What we've been doing has not been working. Bernadette Smith, Minister of Housing, Addictions, and Homelessness defends the plan to deal with one of the highest meth-use rates in the country. Manitobans have said they don't feel safe in their communities. We know that people aren't feel.

safe when they're doing substances either. We can't keep incarcerating people and we can't keep our health services tied up. Methus can cause agitation, aggression, and violence. But some say holding people against their will for up to three days criminalizes addiction. We demand justice. We demand empathy. James Foray attended a recent rally at the Manitoba legislature. Yeah, it broke my heart knowing that people would be locked in there for 72 hours. You know, This is not a humane way of trying to deal with anybody that has a drug issue. Like, I've been in the institutions. I've been in jails. And this was a jail.

Dr. Jeanette Poulin practices addictions medicine in Ontario. She says the rooms are a safe place during withdrawal. That high-acute, high-risk state where they could be supervised and supported in a way to help reduce those harms to themselves and others. But there are also concerned. about what happens when people are released, often right back to the streets. At Day Street, you're literally in so much pain, physically and mentally, you're only thinking about getting more. Monica Ballantyne has struggled with addiction and homelessness.

You're going to go hide, you're going to do your substance, your tolerance is lower, and they're going to overdose alone. Dr. Michael Krause says a sobering center is just one part of an intervention. He heads addiction's research at the University of British Columbia. If you keep them too long and detain them and not offering them proper withdrawal support and management, then it's torture for them. This is not what you want. You want to engage them with the system of care.

Dr. Rob Grierson is the medical director for the Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service. His staff is on the front lines. He says this approach does include aftercare. Access to addictions care, access to mental health professionals available either on-site or very close to this. The sobering center is part of what's become a controversial addiction strategy that also includes the province's first supervised drug consumption site opening in January. Karen Paul's, CBC News, Winnipeg. This is Your World Tonight from CBC News. If you want to make sure you stay up to date and never

miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in. In a major shift, the World Health Organization is updating its recommendations for popular drugs such as OZemPEC. The change reflects the way many people are already using the medications as a treatment for obesity. But how much of an impact this could have will depend on who can get access. Lauren Pelly reports. Obesity is one of the most serious public challenges of our time. The World Health Organization says more than 1 billion people around the world are impacted by

obesity. In a landmark move, the global body now recommends the use of GLP-1 medications, drugs such as semaglutide, known by household names like Ozempic and Wagovi. WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adenholm-Gabresius stressed this is a complex disease that requires lifelong care. But let me be clear, medication alone will not solve. the obesity crisis. The WHO also recommends interventions like a healthy diet and physical activity alongside drug-based treatments. The guidance marks a new direction at a time when demand for GLP1 drugs is sky high. I think it's very important for the WHO have weighed in now.

Canadian researcher Dr. Daniel Drucker helped discover the GLP1 hormone that led to the development of a new class of diabetes drugs. Over the last decade, they've also become known as powerful weight loss tools. But Drucker says global access remains a challenge. It's a tragedy as a human being to know that there are great medicines available that could improve the health, but 95% of people can't access them. The WHO says the global economic cost of obesity is predicted to reach $3 trillion U.S. per year by 2030. Yet GLP1 therapies are projected to reach fewer than one in 10 people who could stand to benefit. The organization's new guidelines call on countries to improve access, and Drucker says that means Canada as well.

Many insurance companies and many provincial formulas will not reimburse for these medicines currently. It is a very expensive medication that I have to pay for out of pocket. Lisa Schaefer has struggled with obesity most of her life and has used GLP1 drugs for more than 10 years. But the Vancouver resident doesn't have diabetes, so her drug plan doesn't cover the roughly $500 cost each month. wouldn't do that for any other chronic disease. Schaefer is the Executive Director of Obesity Canada. She hears from plenty of patients in the same situation as her, people living with obesity who don't meet insurance criteria to access these drugs, which still typically require

a diagnosis of diabetes. We're seeing more often people going, guess what, I now am pre-diabetic, or guess what, I'm formally diagnosed with having diabetes, which means now my medication is covered. That is heartbreaking for us to see. Studies show more than 10 million Canadians are now coping with obesity. Lauren Pelley, CBC News, Toronto. We close tonight on the water with a shipbuilding project, so obviously DIY, some onshore worry about an SOS.

But authorities say this homemade houseboat meets all the rules and safety standards. He has met every regulatory compliance for that boat. His engine size, the flotation that he has, He knows his regulations. Peter Barry is a harbour master in Windsor, Ontario, describing the never-landing, a registered vessel with a rickety design. It's propped up by two-by-fours, floating on blue plastic drums. The boat looks like a backwoods shack, bobbing on the water.

It does have solar panels, a lifeboat, communications and navigation equipment. It's been inspected several times. And last week, the U.S. Coast Guard stopped the boat on the St. Clair River. It wasn't in distress, just a check-in based on the boat's appearance. By Friday, it reached Port Sanilac, Michigan, on Lake Huron. The boat's captain is a bit of a mystery. CBC's been unable to make contact, but Port Sanelac boater, Wayne McCarty, says he brought him down some dinner the other night. Well, it just seemed like the right thing.

do. You know, he's by himself, him and his dog. He's very well versed in the world. He's an electrical engineer by trade this time of year that everybody thinks, you know, this is crazy to be out on Lake Huron, but he's got backup systems for backup systems. He wants to at least get to Chicago by Christmas. Coast Guard officials aren't the only ones paying attention. A Facebook fan page has more than 2,000 followers. Many are cheering on a free-spirited adventure. Others, worry, it's a shipwreck waiting to happen. Officials hope the boat seeks safe harbor at least until the spring. Thank you for joining us. This has been your world tonight for Monday, December 1st. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again.

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