Your World Tonight - Canada’s countermeasures for U.S. steel tariffs, Trump on Iran timing, push for new airlines in Canada, and more

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney takes steps to protect Canada’s steel and aluminum industries from U.S. tariffs, including plans to adjust counter-levies by July 21st, depending on how much progress is made with the Trump administration.Also: As Israel and Iran trade airstrikes for a seventh day, the U.S. President delivers a timeline for determining whether to send American warplanes into the conflict. Donald Trump says there is still room for Tehran to negotiate a deal, and he will make his decision within 2 weeks.And: The push for new airlines to operate in Canadian skies, even if they are 100 % foreign owned.Plus: Ottawa working on a plan to help Canadians stuck in Israel and Iran, new details about the search and rescue of a missing Quebec toddler, Ontario’s Premier Ford under fire, and more.

It's not just you. News in Canada and around the world is moving at an incredible pace, which is where we come in. I'm Jamie Poisson and I host Frontburner, Canada's most popular daily news podcast. And what we try to do is hit the brakes on a story that you actually want to know more about. So try us out. Follow Frontburner wherever you get your podcasts, Frontburner, stories you want to follow five days a week. This is a CBC podcast. We must reinforce our strength at home and safeguard Canadian workers and businesses from the unjust U.S. tariffs that exist at present. Reinforced steel and aluminum.

The Prime Minister announcing new measures to help protect an industry hard hit by U.S. tariffs, trying to limit foreign imports as job losses pile up and the deadline for a deal with Washington gets closer. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Thursday Thursday June 19th coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern also on the podcast. I heard a lot of bomb sound here east of the Iran. I feel like I wasn't safe there. I mean the airline all closed so I couldn't fly. I decided to just flee, run away from this way.

Canadians trying to get out of a war zone with Israel and Iran trading more deadly strikes and Israel's defense minister escalating his threats against the Ayatollah. Pressure building as US President Donald Trump puts a new timeline on his decision on whether or not to enter the fray. on whether or not to enter the fray. Music Weeks have passed since the U.S. spiked steel and aluminum tariffs to 50%. Now just days after talking to Donald Trump face to face about some kind of a deal, Prime Minister Mark Carney says he's stepping in to help Canadian industry.

But it's action some say is too limited and too slow. Olivia Stefanovich reports. Steel and aluminum workers are on the front lines of this trade crisis. These are the workers who will help us build one strong Canadian economy, the strongest economy in the G7. Just days after meeting Donald Trump at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Prime Minister Mark Carney is trying to ramp up pressure on the US president. The government is responding to the impact of the unjust US tariffs with multiple tools. Carney says Canada may hike tariffs on American steel and

aluminum products or lower them. It depends how negotiations go on a new trade deal. Ottawa is trying to ink an agreement with Washington within the next 30 days. The tariff adjustment will happen on July 21st. We have a deadline in order to achieve that and if it's in Canada's interest we'll sign if it's not we won't. Trump hiked tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% earlier this month. Kearney didn't respond with matching counter levies, given that talks continue with the

U.S. Industry Minister Melanie Jolie says the federal government is aware of the urgency. We know that the Canadian steel and aluminum workers are very anxious and they want us to come up with a solution really, really quickly. Now, the federal government has announced new measures aimed at stabilizing the steel and aluminum sectors. Starting at the end of the month, Ottawa will restrict federal procurement to Canadian suppliers and producers from reliable trading partners. The government will also

limit the amount of steel countries can sell in Canada. And it's important for the US administration to understand the pain that's felt in their industries, in their economy. Jean Simard is the president and CEO of the Aluminum Association of Canada. He's disappointed the announcement doesn't immediately include new retaliatory tariffs. Simard says workers can't wait another month for relief. 30 days at 50 percent, it's a long walk in the desert. The Canadian Steel Producers Association was supposed to hold a press conference in Ottawa

with the United Steelworkers, but it was cancelled after Carney's press conference. The steel producers say they weren't briefed on the government's announcement and call it underwhelming. The Prime Minister will speak to the premiers about the government's response tomorrow, ahead of next week's NATO summit in the Netherlands, where Carney will try to secure new steel and aluminum customers for Canada. Olivia Stefanovic, CBC News, Ottawa. Iran hit a hospital. Israel is threatening to assassinate Iran's supreme leader.

As the war between Israel and Iran stretches into a seventh day, the attacks are escalating, the positions becoming more entrenched, and efforts at diplomacy are getting more complicated. Senior international correspondent Margaret Evans has the latest from Jerusalem. The long reach of Tehran, finding its way through Israeli defences again, direct hits landing with the power to destroy. Here emergency workers clear debris in the central city of Ramat Gan and at a hospital in Beersheva in the south, the point of impact a surgical department whose patients had been moved to air raid shelters.

It comes a day after Israel's defense minister allowed businesses to start opening up again, calling it a message of victory aimed at Tehran. Surveying the damage, Israel cats delivered a new message saying Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, cannot continue to exist. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also toured the site, waiting along with the rest of the world to see if the United States will join Israeli efforts to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities. President Trump will do what's best for America.

I trust his judgment. He's a tremendous friend, a tremendous world leader, a tremendous... Israel isn't waiting for Washington. Its fighter pilots again hitting targets across Iran. Iranian state television showing a hit on the Iraq nuclear facility. Residents in Tehran are still fleeing the capital, including this man who asked not to be identified for his own security. So far, the Islamic Republic is trying to control the situation, he says,

but honestly, you have to see Tehran. I've never seen it like this. Everyone sees regime change as Israel's real target. I hope it happens. Iran's ambassador to the UN in Geneva insists Iranians are rallying around the flag. that you can observe a great solidarity in our country. All people have become united. Ali Bahraini denies U.S. claims that Iran wants to send a delegation to Washington, pointing out they had already been negotiating. And it was Israel that by attacking Iran and starting an aggression destroyed everything. Bahraini says if the U.S. does send its planes to assist Israel, all bets are off.

There is a red line set for the United States, and if the United States crosses that red line, then our military forces will respond very firmly to those involvements. It's not clear how seriously Washington may take that threat, but it will certainly send chills throughout region anxious to avoid the war spilling over into their own countries. Margaret Evans, CBC News, Jerusalem. We still don't know what Donald Trump will do, but the U.S. president is hinting at when his decision could come. The U.S. president is still considering joining the Israel-Iran war, adding American military

might to an already explosive conflict in the Middle East. From Washington, Sam Sampson reports. I have a message directly from the president. They were Donald Trump's words, but White House press secretary Caroline Levitt read them out. For days, U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran war seemed imminent. Today, a new timeline. Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future,

I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks." That's a quote directly from the president. Another Trump deadline. But that also means more time for Iran to negotiate with the world how it will handle its nuclear program, something the White House says it's been working on for weeks. Iran can and should make a deal. We sent a deal to them that was practical, that was realistic,

or they will face grave consequences. For a week, Israel has been attacking Iran because it says Tehran is almost ready to build a nuclear weapon. It's attacking Iranian nuclear and military sites. But only the U.S. has the ability to bomb the country's main underground facility using massive bunker busters carried by U.S. B-2 stealth bombers. Carlton Haley is a fellow in the defense program at the Center for New American Security. It is the only weapon in anyone's arsenal globally that's able to successfully target and potentially even eliminate facilities like Fordow.

It was designed originally with the intent of attacking and destroying targets specifically built into mountains. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told the BBC Thursday that the U.S. president should stay out of the fighting. President Trump will be remembered forever for a war that it was not his war but dragged in. And this will be a quackmire and this will be hell for the whole region. There is a risk of U.S. action failing, which former Director for Arms Control at NATO, William Alberg, says would only lead to even more escalation.

Iran knows that this is a target and if the U.S. decides to go, they might put all of their assets in the area to try to ambush the U.S. forces, to try to jam our equipment, to make sure their bombs are less accurate. That would cause an even worse crisis because then the U.S. would be engaged in combat without any real end state. Both the White House and Iran say negotiations, including talks in Geneva starting tomorrow, need to have a chance. But it's unclear if diplomacy can achieve Trump's bottom line, that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. Sam Samson, CBC News, Washington.

Coming up on the podcast, Canadians trying to escape the war in Israel and Iran promised help from the government. Ontario Premier Doug Ford apologizes for remarks some Indigenous leaders thought were racist, plus a call to make the Canadian airline industry more competitive by allowing more foreign players. The missiles flying back and forth between Israel and Iran have forced the closure of airspace in the region,

making escape difficult for anyone trying to flee, including Canadians. Today Ottawa finally announced plans to help. Tom Perry reports. We are very concerned about Canadians in the region. The federal government once again forced to consider how to extract thousands of Canadians from a war zone with Israel and Iran pounding each other with bombs, drones and missiles. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Annan says Ottawa will help Canadians in both countries book commercial flights home, but anyone seeking that assistance will first have to make their way out of Israel or Iran.

Given that the airspace isn't open, once Canadians have crossed the border into neighboring countries, we have consular services available to them and in fact we are heightening our consular services, deploying more consular officials to the region, including to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey and Armenia. Global Affairs says more than 4,000 Canadians are registered in Iran, a country where Canada has no embassy. More than 6,500 are registered in Israel, though the department stresses these lists are voluntary, so the real numbers are likely much higher.

The last two nights and this morning were really heavy in our area. A lot of big booms, a lot of vibration in the building. Jeremy Murray is from Toronto, but is right now stuck in Israel in a town just outside Tel Aviv. He registered today with the Canadian Embassy about possibly getting a flight home, but hasn't heard much. The directions haven't been very clear. I understand it's a strenuous situation globally and you know countries are doing supposedly the best they can you know so we'll wait to see what else they say. For now Murray's plan is to fly to Greece then home to Canada next week if flights

out of Israel resume. Pegasalari from Edmonton is worried about close friends who traveled to Iran to visit family three weeks ago and who are now struggling to get home. Their flight was actually to Dubai and it got cancelled. So they're going to now have to find alternate ways to go potentially to Tehran. Nobody's going to Tehran. Everybody's avoiding Tehran.

So they are going to have to find a way to go to the border to get to Turkey probably and to go to the border to get to Turkey probably and from Turkey to somewhere else. With internet and cell service disrupted in Iran, Salari says she's not sure how her friends are doing, but she worries block roads, heavy traffic and fuel shortages will make any journey to a neighboring country a harrowing one. Salari has family of her own in Iran, including her 72-year-old mother-in-law. Her best choice, she says, is to stay put, shelter in place, and wait for this fighting to end.

Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is apologizing for comments he made about First Nations communities. Ford accused them of coming hat in hand to the government for money. It comes as Indigenous leaders are pushing back against Ford's controversial bill aimed at fast-tracking mining approvals. Philip Lee Shanock reports. I sincerely apologize for my words.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he let his passion get the best of him, faced with First Nations opposition to Bill 5, the legislation that allows cabinet to exempt special projects from provincial laws, regulations and municipal bylaws. Ford says projects like the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario will benefit Indigenous communities. I get passionate because I want prosperity for their communities. I want prosperity for their children and their grandchildren. On Wednesday, Ford appeared frustrated and suggested Indigenous

communities should support it because he says it will bypass so-called red tape and speed up projects. You can't just keep coming hat in hand all the time to the government. You've got to be able to take care of yourselves. Those comments that were very deeply troubling, but also racist. NDP MPP Salma Maqwa represents the rioting that includes the Ring of Fire. He says Ford is calling Indigenous people beggars and says Bill 5 will steamroll over environmental assessments and treaty rights. Bill 5 is a legislative bulldozer.

But Linda Dubosage and the Shinnebec National Grand Council Chief was among the group present when Ford made his apology. I can share that the Premier has committed to continue and having that ongoing dialogue with our rights holders in a respectful way. Riley Yesno is a distinguished scholar at the Yellowhead Institute in Toronto. She said Ford's comments were racist. She paints us out to be these like mooching, begging, like exploitative sort of people. Yesno says she didn't feel Ford's apology was sincere and says offers of billions of dollars in equity and projects like the Ring of Fire will not sway all communities.

Not because they haven't had enough money dangled in front of them, but because the way that the government is going about it is really disrespectful. And she cautioned that the federal government's proposed legislation, Bill C-5, that would grant sweeping powers to the government to fast-track projects deemed in the national interest could face similar opposition. Unless you have strong enough working relationships with First Nations, it's going to be held up by protest, it's going to be held up in court. Already Ontario's Council of Chiefs and the Assembly of First Nations has called on Ford to repeal Ontario's

Bill 5 and start meaningful dialogue or face legal challenges and a summer of protests. Phillip LeShannock, CBC News, Toronto. Nova Scotia's government is offering as much as $150,000 for information about two young siblings missing for more than a month. Lily and Jack Sullivan were last seen in early May near their Lansdowne station home. Police believe the children wandered off in the woods. They insist there's no evidence the kids were abducted. Where did she go and how did she survive? Just some of the unanswered questions surrounding a Montreal area toddler who was

missing for days before being found alone on the side of a highway in eastern Ontario. As Sarah Levitt reports, the case is also renewing calls for a change to the Amber Alert system. It's the best feeling, you know, and the best ending for a search that we could possibly have hoped for. A conclusion so improbable yet amazing. A three-year-old girl found alive after a four-day search. CBC is no longer naming the girl to protect her identity now that she is safe. Bill Dixon is with the Ontario Provincial Police. When I got the phone call all I heard at first was she's been found and my heart sank. And then no she's been found alive and it was the most and I still get it the most incredible rush. The three-year-old was last seen with her mother near St. Albert, Ontario, where she was eventually found.

Now, though, many are asking, how did she survive? In terms of an answer, there's very little information. Sources tell Radio-Canada the toddler was dehydrated and covered in bug bites. They say she told officers she was waiting for her mom, and they say she likely spent the entire time outside on her own. The last few days have been like I'm reliving 2020 says Amélie Lemire. In July of that year her two daughters Remy and Nora Carpentier were abducted and killed by their father who then took his life. In that case an an amber alert was sent out.

Lemure thinks one should have been sent out for the three-year-old. I think the criteria to launch an amber alert need to be revised, Lemure says. It varies province to province, but police in Quebec launch an alert if a child under 18 is abducted in danger of serious injury or death and if they have a description of the means of transportation child and suspect. Everybody was looking at the options we had. Benoit Richard is with the Surter du Québec.

He says the province has about 9,000 kids under 18 go missing every year. If we were to issue an amber alert, that would be something that the people would take on the side and don't look at it anymore. Police say media alerts were the reason a key witness was found. A dairy farmer told Radio Canada she called police after realizing they were looking for someone matching her description. The child's mother, 34-year-old Rachel Ella Todd,

has been charged with child abandonment. She may be the only person with some of the answers, but has told police she doesn't remember anything. Sarah Levitt, CBC News, Montreal. Police in Montreal have arrested a protester who smeared pink paint on a Picasso. smeared pink paint on a Picasso. Security escorted the man out of the Museum of Fine Arts this morning. He's been charged with mischief. The 21-year-old says he is an environmental activist. He's reportedly part of the same group that recently spray-painted two other Montreal

sites. They want further climate action from the Canadian government. The 1901 Picasso painting was under glass and not damaged. 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. Canadians have plenty of complaints about the airline industry. High prices,

poor service, a lack of options. They are problems the Competition Bureau says could be eased if Canada allowed full foreign ownership of domestic carriers. Business reporter Nisha Patel explains. We know that competition makes a big difference for consumers. Canada's Competition Bureau says the airline industry is too concentrated. The agency is calling on Ottawa to change that, says Deputy Commissioner Anthony Durochet. One new competitor on a given route can decrease price on average 9 percent, and there's also many more advantages to competition for consumers,

including better choice, better service and innovation. Among the recommendations, letting foreign companies take full ownership of Canadian airlines that only operate domestically, as well as raising the cap on a single foreign investor from 25 percent to 49 percent. We have to be open to foreign sources of capital and experience that we can tap into for the benefit of consumers. Currently, Air Canada and WestJet dominate together taking up 64% of the market. Flair Airlines has a 10% share and Porter Airlines 9%. Kelden Bester, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project and a

consumer advocate, says the report has been a long time coming. Our airline market is not working for Canadians. Bester agrees that restrictions on foreign ownership should be loosened, but he had hoped for a more robust plan to improve travel to smaller cities and rural areas. The reality is, the way that Canada is laid out and our population is spread, the market, even if it's working perfectly, will not deliver air service to communities that deserve it. And so there really is a role for government intervention. Air travel infrastructure is often lacking in northern and remote communities, where the population is smaller. John Gradek, a professor of aviation management at McGill

University, says introducing services in those markets is a challenge. We live in Medicine Hat or you live in Yarmouth or you live in Blanc-Sablons. You know you're in trouble if you want to get on a flight and it's gonna cost you an arm and a leg. Air Canada and WestJet haven't commented on the report while Porter warned allowing foreign airlines to operate domestic routes would hurt smaller carriers. Graddick says right now there may not be political appetite to invite outside ownership. Influence by foreign carriers may not be in the best interest of Canadians.

And that to me is too high a risk. The Competition Bureau's findings are meant to advise the federal government but don't hold any legislative weight. Ottawa says it's carefully reviewing the report. Nisha Patel, CBC News, Toronto. Lots of kids dream about making it big in music and reaching a global fan base. But how many are able to do it while performing traditional Cree music with their dad. Those are teenage sisters Cree and Danae Sayre and their dad Chase.

They are from Saskatchewan's Payaput First Nation and they've been invited to perform across North America. After gaining a huge following on a less traditional platform, the family's TikTok videos have racked up hundreds of thousands of views. They've even branched out into holiday themes. Behind the scenes, mom Kristen handles the hair braiding and creates her daughter's dresses using bright colorful fabrics and shimmering beads. 13-year-old Cree says she loves performing.

When I sing, I look at the crowd and they're smiling, laughing, and it makes me smile because it makes me happy that I'm bringing joy to somebody else. The family has a full summer of appearances ahead and is planning much more online content creation, bringing songs and culture that date back centuries to a new generation. Thank you for joining us on Your World Tonight for Thursday, June 19th. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. For more CBC podcasts go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.