Your World Tonight - Canada's foreign affairs minister speaks to the U.N., and more

Episode Date: September 26, 2026

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand addressed the United Nations General Assembly today - laying out Canada’s vision on everything from Arctic sovereignty to the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.Also: Members of a First Nation in northern Ontario are eager to return home, after a sewage spill in August prompted the community to declare a state of emergency. And: Smart glasses with video cameras are becoming more common. But some people in the night-life industry say, that's changed the way people experience the dance floor - and they're trying to bring the scene back to a more analog time.Plus: Donald Trump's plan to reduce drug prices, B.C.'s outdated fire forecasting, and more.

On September 30th, we remember the children who never returned home from residential schools. We honor survivors, their families, and communities. National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a time to remember, reflect, and learn. Listen to indigenous voices to better understand reconciliation. Visit Canada.ca. slash sharing-reconciliation hyphen journey. A message from the government of Canada. This is a CBC podcast. We are facing serious challenges in the global order,

but at their core Canadians and billions of others around the world want to live peaceful, prosperous and predictable lives. Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister addresses the United Nations. Anita Anand's speech echoing much of Prime Minister Mark Carney's messaging on the world stage. Front and center, where Canada goes next, while trying to untether some ties with the U.S. This is Your World Tonight. I'm Tanya Fletcher, also on the program.

The U.S. President pitches price matching as a way to lower prescription drug prices for Americans. But that plan could slow the rollout of new drugs and have possible price ramifications for Canadians. And... We want to go home to our community. It's a small community, but it is home for our people. Members of a First Nation in Northern Ontario

are desperate to return home. Nearly two months after a sewage spill in their community prompted a state of emergency. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand has addressed the United Nations General Assembly. Today laying out Canada's vision on everything from Arctic sovereignty to the conflicts in Ukraine in the Middle East.

The CBC's Mark Carcassol has been following the speech from Washington. So, Mark, what did she say about the future of Canada and other middle powers? Well, with respect to Canada itself, She started her address by discussing where we go from here, underlining many of the things her government has been pursuing for months now, such as ending Canada's over-reliance on one partner, that being the U.S., obviously,

as well as expanding trade beyond North America into the global market. Canada's goal is to achieve greater strategic autonomy, greater autonomy to make our own choices and to determine our own sovereign future. We can no longer afford to be overly reliant on any one partner. Instead, we are diversifying our ties and building stronger relationships with new and old partners alike. Minister Anand also called on so-called middle powers to form coalitions that share values on key specific challenges in the world,

and she gave various examples of that. Now, she also spoke about Canada's stance and its actions on several global issues and conflicts. Take us through that. Yeah, well, as part of those coalitions that I spoke of, the Minister spoke of discussing Canada's involvement in a coalition of the willing 30 states dedicated to bolstering Ukraine in its war against Russia. She also welcomed the defense partnership between Denmark, Greenland, and the U.S., called Iran the principal threat in the Middle East,

proclaiming just as the U.S. does, that Iran must never have nuclear weapons. And she also underlined Canada's support for a two-state solution to the conflict. She's reminded both sides that Hamas cannot govern Palestine and illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank must be removed. All right, Mark, thank you for this. Thank you. The CBC's Mark Karkasol in Washington. The U.S. has rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran submitted the deal to Washington earlier this week.

It would have seen the critical waterway fully open within a week and restart negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. on the condition that the U.S. lift sanctions and its naval blockade of Iranian ports. However, President Donald Trump called the proposal unacceptable, telling reporters that Iran only wants to make a deal because it's, quote, losing so badly. Well, since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to lower prescription drug prices for Americans. To do so, the U.S. President is pursuing what's called a most favored nation plan. Senior health reporter Christine Birak explains how that plan is supposed to work and why some pharmaceutical experts warn it could slow the rollout of new drugs and raise prices for Canadians.

To lower drug prices for Americans, the U.S. President is price matching. If a specific country is the lowest in the world, that's the price we pay. The White House announced that 26 major drug makers have agreed to align U.S. prices with foreign countries like Canada under a policy called Most Favored Nation pricing, or MFN. This will save states billions and billions of dollars. But newly released documents obtained through a Freedom of Information lawsuit by Advocacy Group Public Citizen reveal secret side deals that experts warn could drive up drug prices and slow down new therapies here in Canada.

And we don't know what deal they're getting. Mina Tadrus evaluates drug policy at the University of Toronto. He says, most favored nation pricing isn't unique. The problem comes down to secrecy. And in every country, even our government is negotiating prices that we don't know what deal they're getting. And so every country gets a special deal. Every insurance company gets a special deal. And no one ever knows what that deal is.

While the Trump administration says deals with drug companies will save billions, redacted agreements that have been released show drug companies being given significant exemptions. One reveals carveouts for Eli Lilly's popular weight loss drugs. And that carve out is new. of this past weekend, we now understand that the JLP1 drugs are not going to be subject to most favored nation pricing. Dr. Thomas Huang at Brigham and Women's Hospital led a study in the Lancet examining the policy. Another deal suggests Pfizer agreed to share revenue with the U.S. government if it raises

drug prices outside the U.S. Dr. Wang says raising foreign prices aligns with Washington's broader goals. It's not sufficient for the administration for prices to be lower in the U.S. There's also a deep desire at the highest levels of the executive to raise prices outside the U.S. too. High medicine costs are part of the cost of living crisis. To offset U.S. revenue losses, Toronto family Dr. Nav Persad warns drug makers could try to make up the difference outside the U.S. To whatever extent America is able to extract lower prices from pharmaceutical companies, it could raise drug prices here in Canada as offshore manufacturers seek to.

level out their level of revenue. Innovative medicines, Canada, representing major pharmaceutical companies, also warns these U.S. deals could delay new cancer treatments entering Canada. Some experts worry that without true price transparency, there's no way to know who is actually paying the lowest price for drugs or how Washington's moves will impact everyone else. Christine Beirak, CBC News, Toronto. Still ahead, tiny, wearable computers built into lenses.

What we now know as smart glasses are becoming more common. But what role do they and the privacy concerns they raise have in social settings, say a dance floor? Why some in the nightlife industry are decrying the technology. That story is coming up later on your world tonight. To Quebec now, four people have been killed in a helicopter crash. Provincial police say it happened mid-afternoon today near a community about 50 kilometers southeast of Montreal. all. The helicopter reportedly went down in a field and caught fire. All four people inside were pronounced dead at the scene. The Transportation Safety Board is now sending a team of investigators to the site.

It has been nearly eight weeks since Neshkandiga First Nations' most vulnerable members were sent to a hotel in Toronto. A sewage spill at its only nursing station prompted a state of emergency and evacuation. And as Sarah Laa reports, evacuees are growing restless. We want to go home to our community. It's a small community, but it is home for our people. Wayne Munez is Nishkanaka's former chief. More than 250 people from his community have been staying in Toronto since early August.

Munez says they miss eating traditional food and being out on the land. There's a portable school set up at a hotel. Those are the kind of things that we're facing. Nishganiga is part of Nishnabi-Aviyazki Nation, or NAN. The political territorial organization represents 49 First Nations across treaties 9 and 5. Mune has appealed to NAN chiefs for support during this week's annual Kiwaywin Conference. This cannot be a norm where people are evacuated every time an infrastructure unit goes down. The chiefs voted in favor of calling for urgent action from the federal government to help in Ashkenaga.

The community's current chief, Gary Kwasis, is in Toronto. with evacuees. He says remediation work at the nursing station has only just begun and could take another month to complete. Well, the timeline is probably going to change because of the weather and it's getting cold up there. A temporary nursing station has been set up in Nishkaniga, but Kwasi says it lacks privacy and can only provide basic care like painkillers and bandages. All of this is compounded by the fact that Nishkanika has been under a boil water advisory for 31 years. years, the longest in Canada's history. The Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority supports 33 First Nations in the region,

28 of which are remote, including Nishkaniga. Janet Gordon is the authority's vice president of community health. She says infrastructure challenges often prevent health care services from being delivered in these communities. Lack of space, workspace, and lack of accommodation. Gordon says being under evacuation for so long also puts people's mental health at risk. While there are nurses at Nishaniga's hotel, she says going from a remote First Nation to Canada's largest city is a major culture shock. Being in an environment that

doesn't feel like home or doesn't feel safe. Indigenous Services Canada says Nishkanaga is leading repairs at its nursing station with hopes to complete them in early October. It says three nurses are at the community's temporary health care facility and wrap around services. services are being provided in Toronto. Still, Quasice says his people are worried they won't make it home before the snowfalls. Sarah Law, CBC News, Thunder Bay, Ontario. British Columbia's wildfire seasons have been getting longer and more intense. But it turns out much of the data forecasters used to predict fire behavior is more than 30 years old.

And that means it's less reliable in extreme conditions. Georgie Smyth has that story. We're seeing burnt out root plates and not much left of a living forest. Neil McLaughlin from the BC Wildlife Service is examining the aftermath of a convective wildfire, not far outside Clinton, BC. Trees are blackened and every step disturbs thick ash left by the Pear Lake fire. There's a lot of evidence of the impacts of drought and how we're seeing pretty extreme fire behavior and extreme impacts. He's a fire forecaster, trying his best to predict.

BC's fires in a year's long drought. According to the federal government's drought monitor, BC's southern interior is officially the driest place in Canada. What I'm seeing is what would have been a very intense forest fire moving through this area. It's made these forests explosively flammable. We're going to expect to see a lot more of this as our climate's changing, but wanting to be able to predict these things with better skill. Convective or column fires burn hotter and spread quicker, and they're harder to predict, partly because the modelling software that considers inputs like wind, humidity, and forest condition is at least 30 years old. Really, our underlying tools have very little data that informs that extreme fire behavior

where we're shifting from a wind-driven fire to a column-driven fire. And what we're seeing in BC more and more is extreme column-driven fire behavior. At the provincial coordination center in Kamloops, Neil shows a simulation of the bald-range fire, an event that forced more than 12,000 people to flee Summerland in early August. After fire, surged towards Okanagan Lake. The models didn't see it. Simulations get about halfway to Summerland after one day of simulation, whereas in reality they did reach Summerland in the overnight hours. The data behind these prediction tools is conceptually robust, but it was collected when forests weren't. is affected by climate change.

We try to collect as much data as we can, but yeah, there are limits. Shaline Haynes is a researcher at the Canadian Forest Service. She says ultimately humans make the important decisions about responding to fire, not models, but they're trying to plug the gaps. And there are some tools that can signal when these are more likely to occur, but we don't have them integrated into our models yet to say, this is what this is going to do, and this is how fast this is going to move.

Confidence is a big part of forecasting, says Neil. The growing gap between the modeling and what happens in reality in these extreme fires makes it harder to have faith in the systems. And if we're not making an effort to collect that data on the ground to inform these models, they're not going to make good predictions.

It's as simple as that. An upgrade of these fire modeling tools is coming, but it'll be years away and likely still won't include new data on these increasingly frequent extreme fires. Georgie Smyth, CBC News, near Summerland, BC. In Cochran, Alberta, Rob Lowe and Lisa Larson are on either side of the fence. Literally, as neighbors, yes, but also figuratively on the separation question

in this fall's provincial referendum. Tomorrow they speak with the Sunday magazine's Pia Chattapadai about bridging that divide despite their differences. Canada's been falling for over a decade. and as an Alberta, I don't really want to be a part of that. But I feel like there's so much more growth to do within Canada versus separating. I don't think a political stance defines a person. I haven't said I wouldn't treat Rob any differently no matter what happens.

This doesn't affect our relationship. She's incredibly articulate, very thoughtful. How could I not admire that and respect that? You can hear their full conversation and more dispatches from Alberta. On a special edition of The Sunday Magazine, That's coming up tomorrow morning right after the 9 o'clock news. Overseas, at least 12 people have been killed in more than 30 wounded in a suicide bombing in northwestern Pakistan.

The attacker ramp an explosives laden vehicle into a police checkpoint in Dera-Ismail Khan district earlier today. The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack. Regions around the country's border with Afghanistan have repeatedly been hit by militant violence, frequently targeting police and security forces. In Paris, some 800,000 people cheer and wave Vatican flags as they try to get a glimpse of Pope Leo the 14th.

He is the first Pope to visit France in 18 years. But not all French Catholics are feeling rapturous about his visit. It comes just days after the organization that was created to redress decades of sexual abuse in the church released, final report. Freelance reporter Kyle Brown with that story now, and a warning, some listeners may find details in this story disturbing. In front of Notre Dame Cathedral, activists chant 330,000 victims, the estimated number of people sexually abused by priests and other adults connected to the Catholic Church between 1950 and 2020. Most of them, children. As police arrived to disperse

the demonstrators, 67-year-old Gerhard Checks continues to blow the whistle on church officials. He says a priest raped him when he was 11 years old. I'm angry at both the church and the state for ignoring decades of sexual violence, he says. The compensation victims have won from Aeneer is a travesty of justice.

He's speaking about the independent national authority for recognition and reparation. The temporary bodies set up to redress decades of church abuse. About 2,000 people have sought reparations from Ineer. Survivors were awarded an average of $59,000, paid from a fund financed by the church. Ineer will be replaced by a new body with cases handled by church diocese. Nicole, who did not share her last name, is also a survivor of sexual abuse by a priest. I was nine years old, she says. The church accused me.

me of trying to seduce the priest. She says the new organization set up to support survivors has no credibility, because it's being run by the very institution that failed to bring sexual predators to justice. At a Paris conference, some survivors expressed gratitude for the psychological and financial support they received from Ineer. The first thing Ineer told me was, we believe you, says Philippe Gomez. Multiple priests abused him over five years, he says, starting when he was seven. They listened to me, says Gomez, for 30 hours, which I didn't spend just talking. I cried and cried, he says, adding that he'll never enter a church again.

Ineer's outgoing president, Marie de Rhin de Vaux-Crescent, admits the church is still fumbling with the scourge of child sexual abuse, as is French society. France has been rocked by numerous reports of sexual assault in schools and after-school programs. Yet the government is failing to invest the resources, she says, for child protection. Hope Leo the 14th will meet seven victims of sexual abuse on Sunday at the pilgrimage site of Lour. The private discussion is a far cry from the public reckoning demanded by activists like Arno Gale, a survivor who organized the Notre Dame Demont and who accuses the church.

of being tied to what he calls crimes against humanity. It's an affront to human dignity, says Gale, that the Pope is received with fanfare and allowed to say mass on the Chancesilles. The sexual violence continues, says Gale, citing recent reports which describe how the church has moved priests from parish to parish rather than bring them to justice.

Kyle Brown for CBC News, Paris. elsewhere in Europe, after winning two state elections this month, the alternative for Germany is arguably more powerful than it's ever been. The political party takes a hardline stance on immigration, promises to ban wind power development, and wants to purge the civil service. If those proposals sound familiar, it's because the AFD looks to the U.S. mega movement as a guiding light for electoral success. Jessica Singer has more. We basically like Trump and he likes us, which is good. Christian Machek is at an AFD rally in Berlin, thousands of miles away from the United States.

According to statistics gathered by a German election research company, Trump isn't actually popular in Germany, but Matchak says the American president is an inspiration to many people gathered here. I was happy. He congratulated the RFD for a good campaign, and it's a good sign. Just give us hope, so that we're not alone, yeah. The AFD won big in a recent state election in nearby Saxony-on-Halt. Elon Musk and Trump congratulated the party on its victory on social media.

Its welcome praise for some AFD politicians who say the president has inspired some of their policies. I would say make Saxony-Anhalt great again. Hans Thomas Tills Schneider is an AFD politician in Saxony-on-Halt. He wrote the party's proposed cultural and education policies. They include banning gender-inclusive language and ending funding for anti-racism programs in schools. We will make Germany great again. We will rebuild our wealth, our freedom, our liberty.

Eric Langenbockers with the American German Institute in Washington, D.C. He says a lot of the AFD's messaging far predates Trump's time in office, but the president provides a blueprint for gaining mainstream support. Trump represents a model, a model of how you can whip up the base, make electoral gains, and maybe even how you can seize power. Langenbacher says a lot of the AFD's cultural and education policies echo Trump's. The AFD wants to revise history lessons to focus more on the country's achievements rather than its dark past. Similarly, Trump has attacked cultural institutions such as the Smithsonian Museum,

arguing they focus too much on the negatives of history, such as slavery. Maybe Trump's greatest influence is by proving that what I like to call the politics of fantasy are possible. Langenbacher says the AFD also echoes some of Trump's migration policies. It promises to create a deportation task force, revoke citizenship from immigrants who commit certain crimes, and expand detention centers for deportees. It's the same thing that I'm sorry to take place in Trump times, right? And Kristen Richter recently moved from Detroit back to her hometown in Saxony-on-Halt.

She says one of her daughters was recently called a racial slur at a playground. She worries the AFD's anti-migrant rhetoric is fueling racism in her community. It's something she says she observed while living under Trump. As soon as he was in power, everybody knew, now we can say what we're really thinking, right? And that's something I'm definitely afraid of. The AFD's popularity is growing throughout the country. It's leading opinion polls nationally, sending a message to the far right within Germany and abroad that political tides are in their favor. Jessica Singer-CBC News, Saxony-on-Halt, Germany.

From smartphones to smart glasses, people have become somewhat used to the idea that we could be caught on camera at any given moment without our knowledge. But some people in the nightlife industry say that's changed the way people experience the dance floor. And now they're trying to bring the scene back to a more analog time.

Talia Ricci explains. It's an era many may refer to you as the good old days. No phones, no other plans, just letting go and being present on the dance floor. Today, patrons and venue owners must decide what role technology plays in these spaces. And Dakin Niteghi, owner of Toronto Music Venue Wiggle Room, is trying to get ahead of it. He created a new policy banning smart glasses. It's mostly a safety concern for everybody, really. It's kind of sneaky to have a camera that nobody is aware.

of. I think inevitably everyone's going to adopt a similar policy. Niteghi says there aren't any plans to completely ban photos on the dance floor. He says his guests are generally respectful. Why not? It's part of the experience. It lets you relive the experience. But one of Toronto's newest nightclubs is taking this idea of privacy a step further. Bradley Blaylock says Complex 19's policy is no cameras at all. We really want to make sure that people can have the time that they want. here and do whatever they want here without the fear of them getting their photos taken.

It's a practice that's more common in Europe and Montreal and something the Complex 19 team wants Toronto to experience. Blaylock says the staff put a sticker on the guest's phone cameras and also offer lockers to store it. The memories that you want to keep with you are the ones that you are making in real life. Just one night, you know, in your life to kind of just put your phone away. Professations Professor Natalie Coulter says as technology becomes increasingly prevalent, the way younger people show up to spaces that are meant to be social and free has shifted. I think young people aren't experimenting publicly the same way that we used to. I think there's not sort of the same sense of sort of going out and being free.

Taking risks, challenging systems, more and more, it's becoming a privileged kind of space of being where you're not being recorded. But here's another reality venues and DJ's face. It's a tough time to be an artist and to run a business. And most promotion nowadays is done through photos, videos and posts online. Jodi DeWald, owner of Toronto Listening Bar The Little Jerry, says cutting out social media completely isn't always realistic. It's become like almost a necessary evil because in order to promote,

in order to get new people to your events, you have to post on Instagram. There's all sorts of new things we have to talk about now, like AI flyers, smart classes. Still, she's noticing some people beginning to move in the opposite direction. Duwold says some parties are going back to being promoted through email lists rather than public social media posts, echoing the way underground events were organized before social media became central to nightlife.

In my eyes, it's about taking massive corporations out of the underground music scene and that could only be a good thing. Talia Ritchie, CBC News, Toronto. Finally tonight, pumpkins and other Halloween decorations are starting to reemerge as we transition fully into fall. And in Squamish, BC, one particular homeowner is putting up some spooky decor to scare away hungry bears. It's a constant battle at this time of year.

The handles are chewed off, not ripped off, chewed off, chewed off. because they're trying to get into it. Stephen Fryer says black bears are spotted around his neighborhood almost daily. The wafting smell of garbage tempts them onto many properties. Frustrated when none of the other bin deterrence worked to keep them away, he had an idea for a crafty backup plan. The wife had asked me like, hey, can you? I'd really like the Halloween decorations out, you know?

Can you get the Halloween? I thought, you know what perfect time. And so came out a motion-activated zombie, placed strategically on top of the garbage bins, and it worked perhaps a little too well. It absolutely scared the bear to the point where it beat itself as it walked away. The North Shore Black Bear Society's Holly Reisner applauds the relatively harmless creativity.

The bear does respond to it. So it's good to know black bears are timid by nature. With such proven effectiveness, the Halloween fright may just be a tool other homeowners will use as well, especially since BC conservation officers have received more than 13,000 calls about nuisance black bears this year alone. As for Fry, he expects his zombie will have a permanent place in his yard. We'll keep it up as long as we need to, as long as he's doing his job. A spectacular job indeed. This has been your world tonight for Saturday, September 26th. I'm

Tanya Fletcher. Good night. Podcasts, go to cBC.ca slash podcasts.