Your World Tonight - Canada’s new PM, Hudson’s Bay $1 billion in debt, Churchill portrait trial, and more

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Mark Carney is Canada’s new prime minister. He and his cabinet were sworn in this morning. The cabinet is smaller than the previous government’s. Carney says his main focus will be relations with the United States. And one of his first acts: taking aim at the carbon tax. There is already pushback though – from those who say his cabinet doesn’t represent the whole country.G7 Foreign ministers show solidarity with Canada, in the face of Donald Trump’s annexation threat.And: It dates back to 1670, and now Hudson’s Bay Company’s days might be numbered. Court documents show the retail giant is nearly a billion dollars in debt.Also: An art heist… unravelled thanks to a piece of tape, a storage locker, and a CBC reporter’s off-duty picture taking. The perpetrator has now pleaded guilty, and the iconic photo of Winston Churchill has been restored to the lobby of the Château Laurier. But there are still lingering questions.Plus: Canada’s sovereignty at the G7 finance ministers conference, the aftermath of protests in Bangladesh, and more.

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But it's time to imagine what we can do with more. Join Scarborough Health Network and together, we can turn grit into greatness. Donate at lovescarborough.ca. This is a CBC Podcast. I, Mark Carney, do solemnly and sincerely promise and swear that I will truly and faithfully, and to the best of my skill and knowledge

execute the powers and trust reposed in me as Prime Minister. Congratulations Prime Minister. Sworn into office and thrown into a crisis, Mark Carney is Canada's 24th Prime Minister. His immediate attention is a confrontation over 25% tariffs and threats over becoming the 51st state. Welcome to Your World Tonight. It's Friday March 14th just before 6 p.m. Eastern Time. I'm Tom Harrington. It's the same liberal gang with the same liberal agenda, the same liberal results and the same liberal promises of the last 10 years. The US-Canada conflict could drag on for years. Carney may have only a few months.

Federal conservatives are pushing for power and putting an unelected prime minister to an early test. Also on the podcast, at a conference of G7 countries in Quebec, Canada isn't interested in making it the G6. They made an argument for why Canada would be better off joining the United States from an economic perspective. There's no argument. There's no conversation about it.

You're in their country, you respect their people, period. He doesn't have any experience as an elected official, but Mark Carney is getting an introduction to federal politics unlike any prime minister before him, taking over in the middle of an unprecedented diplomatic dispute with the United States. And it may only be a matter of days until Carney's government gets dissolved for a federal election. Tom Perry has the details. It is my honor to respond to the governor general's request that I form a government.

And it's a solemn duty to serve as Prime Minister at this time of great consequence. To his supporters, Mark Carney is a serious person for serious times. Carney takes over as Prime Minister at a moment when Canada is embroiled in a trade war with its largest trading partner, the U.S. Carney says his new cabinet will focus on two main priorities. First, protecting Canadian workers and their families in the face of unjustified foreign trade actions. And second, growing this great country by putting more money in Canadians' pockets. Carney's slimmed down cabinet includes 24 members, 13 men and 11 women. It is a privilege to serve in cabinet.

Right now all of us need to be focused on helping our new Prime Minister. Those include former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who Kearney obliterated in the Liberal leadership race, who will now serve as Minister of Transport and Internal Trade. Key ministers on the Canada-U.S. file, like Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Jolie and Public Safety Minister David McGinty, are staying on in their jobs. Former Finance Minister Dominique LeBlanc

switches to International Trade. Former Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne takes over for LeBlanc at Finance. Bonjour Monsieur Carly. Bonjour, ça va? Qu'est-ce que vous pouvez nous dire? The new cabinet got down to work today, with the new Prime Minister almost getting lost along the way.

Carney's first day on the job saw him take a wrong turn on the way to his first cabinet session with staff gently redirecting him to the meeting room. Once there, Carney undertook his new government's first policy initiative. We've already taken a big decision as this cabinet because this is a cabinet that's focused on action. Carney signing an order in council to eliminate one of his predecessor's marquee policies, the consumer price on carbon, known to most Canadians as the carbon tax as of April 1st. It's my honour on behalf of my colleagues to sign this order. For Conservative leader Pierre Poliev,

who campaigned relentlessly and successfully against Justin Trudeau with his slogan of Axe the Tax, Carney's move is nothing but a ruse to fool voters in the next election. And after that election, if God forbid he were reelected, there would be a bigger carbon tax than ever before. Because Carney would no longer need your vote, but he'd still need your money. Carney has not said when that election will come, but says he'll have more to say in the coming days about how he plans to ensure his new government has a strong mandate, one

that's needed in these serious times. Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. As Carney takes over from Justin Trudeau, there's another sign he's making a break from his predecessor. The new cabinet is much smaller than the last one, cut nearly in half. Rafi Bujikane now on what the makeup of the government says about the direction Carney wants to take. You keep pointing at the group behind you, your new cabinet. It's not just a thinner row of ministers the media noticed today at Rideau Hall standing at the back of the new prime minister, but which parts of the country Mark Carney found his cuts. There's only two representatives from the west.

Carney saying there's a reason. The numbers in the cabinet are all necessarily smaller because the cabinet is much smaller and the cabinet is much smaller because it's focused on the issues that are most important to Canadians. We have very capable exceptional members from Western Canada. Those members, Jonathan Wilkinson of Vancouver returning to natural resources and the Honorable Terry Duguid, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Duguid is an MP for Winnipeg. Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Liberals have not had an environment minister from the

West for the last four years. And to bring in the Manitoba representative, Carney moved a minister who was frequently butted heads with the resource development-friendly prairie provinces. But putting Stephen Gilbo of Quebec on a different file is not appeasing Alberta Premier Daniel Smith. I think that the Prime Minister has made his views very clear about keeping oil and gas in the ground. He's made his views very clear about not wanting a transparent carbon tax, he wants a hidden one. In reducing his overall roster, Carney also cut down the number of Quebec ministers from nine to six.

He's going to have to show a little bit more of interest towards Quebec. Jérémie Gilleau is a political strategist and former liberal staffer. He points out Quebec is a key electoral battleground for the grids if they hope to stay in government. But though some names are gone, many of those who remain have been in place since Trudeau's days. Conservative leader Pierre Palievre says that's a problem. These same liberal MPs voted to hike the carbon tax, double the debt, double food bank lineups. With fewer faces also come fewer files. Gone is the word labor from any minister's title. You might say it's just a name.

Well, the name means something. Something NDP leader Jagmeet Singh seized on. He's signifying clearly that he is not interested or not prioritizing labor unions, workers. That is very problematic to me. Trying to carve out space for himself, he has lost among Canadians as the next election crystallizes around who is better suited to take on U.S. President Donald Trump's economic threats. The key issue Carney hopes voters consider as they judge the makeup of his new cabinet. Rafi Boudjikaniann CBC News, Ottawa.

To go a little deeper on today's events in Ottawa, let's bring in David Cochran, the host of CBC's Power and Politics. David, based on what you saw and heard, how do you think the new Prime Minister is trying to frame the choice for Canadians? Well, you heard there from Mark Carney a lot today. He talked about this being Canada's new government, Canada's new government, Canada's new government. He said it again and again in his speech after the swearing-in ceremony. This is what we heard from Stephen Harper back in 2006, right? It is meant to signal change, even though a lot of the faces behind him were very familiar and largely the same. He talked about a government that was faster, more focused, more action-oriented,

you know, when the criticism of the Trudeau government is that it was too slow to respond to the key issues facing Canadians. So he wants to signal that verbally, back that up with action, and then he pivoted to the contrast, you know, to Pierre Polyev, saying negativity doesn't solve the economic challenges we face, and negativity is not going to win you a trade war. So essentially saying that he is change, he is urgent and safe change, and that Pierre Polyev is essentially nothing but pure negativity and it's not going to solve anything. And then we heard from Pierre Polyev, the conservative leader later this afternoon, warning Canadians that don't be

fooled by this. This is change, but only in a cosmetic sense. The cabinet and the caucus are overwhelmingly people who Justin Trudeau relied on in the past and saying that all of the problems you had when you were ready to give up on the Liberals a month ago when the polls were much better for the Conservatives, they're still there. Houses are expensive, housing is scarce, inflation is under control but prices are still high. Switching in Mark Carney for Justin Trudeau changes the face of the government. It doesn't change the reality on the ground.

So David, the question Canadians also have today is an election. When might it be? But also, what's the thinking behind when the election would take place? Well, the plan is for Parliament to come back on the 24th of March, at least according to the parliamentary calendar. There's no world, any of us sees that happening. Mark Carney will be back at Rideau Hall again next week, most likely looking for a dissolution of parliament and then an election. That sets up a voting day of either around April 28th or May 5th. Those are the dates everybody's sort of looking at. They want to go fast. They don't want the opposition to have a platform and question period when Carney doesn't have a majority and he doesn't

even have a seat. They want to take whatever momentum exists in the polls and use it, not see it evaporate like happened with Kamala Harris in the United States when she replaced Joe Biden and then had to wait for months for the November election. And another key thing, Tom, is the conservatives have a lot of money. They have a lot of money in the bank. And until you call an election, there are no limits on what they can spend on advertising on any platform. The minute we go into an official

election period, spending limits come into place. David, thanks for this. You got it. David Cochran, host of CBC's Power and Politics in Ottawa. Coming up on the podcast, awkward diplomacy. The US Secretary of State comes to Canada, amid the president's expressed desire to make this country the 51st state. Plus, down by the bay, Canada's oldest retail chain struggles to restructure and reinvent itself. Later, we'll take you to Bangladesh, where a burgeoning refugee crisis is only one challenge facing a new government. This week's G7 meeting in Quebec ended with a non-starter, as far as this country is concerned.

Asked about Donald Trump's desire to make Canada the 51st state, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Jolie told her U.S. counterpart, there's nothing to talk about. Kate McKenna is there. Mr. Rubio, is it appropriate for a G7 member to threaten the sovereignty of another G7 member? That question dogged U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio over his two days in Charlevoix, Quebec, until today he ignored reporters asking if he agrees with his president's proposal to annex Canada. Finally, he said this. There's a disagreement between the president's position and the position of the Canadian government.

That disagreement is whether Canada is better off as its own country. The president has made his argument as to why he thinks Canada would be better off joining the United States for economic purposes. Canadian Foreign Minister Melanizio Li says it's a non-starter. What I said to the secretary is Canada's sovereignty is not up to debate. Period. Canada's sovereignty wasn't on the agenda of the G7 foreign ministers meeting. But when journalists started asking about it, Julie says she had to tell her European colleagues Donald Trump's not teasing. Yeah, I think many of my colleagues coming here thought that this issue was still a joke.

But I've said to them, this is not a joke. Allies have been slow to respond. To be honest with you, Canada only works as a state. We don't need anything they have. On Thursday, Trump went off about annexing Canada in front of the NATO Secretary General. He sat completely silent. We're masters in our home. We're in charge. Prime Minister Mark Carney dismissed a question about whether Canada needs to drum up more international support.

It's always nice when people say nice things about you, but we don't need it. We're not seeking it. Still, some allies said today they've got our back, including German Minister Annalena Baerbach and UK Minister David Lammy. Your country stands together. Canada's unity inspires us. We Europeans, we Germans and Canada are not only partners, we are close friends. I recognize that there has been anxiety here in Canada at this time. How could I not with Canadian family? But I'm absolutely clear that Canada will remain and continue to be a proud sovereign nation. Meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani says his country is staying out of

it. It's not my job, but for me Canada will be Canada over the next years. This is not the problem between Italy and America, the problem between Italy and Canada, but it's not my job. Despite this, Melanesio Lee says it was a good meeting, with foreign ministers unanimously agreeing to support the US-brokered ceasefire proposal in Ukraine. Kate McKenna, CBC News, L'Amalbé, Quebec. Foreign ministers at the G7 issued a warning to the Kremlin.

In a joint statement, the group threatened more sanctions on Russia if it does not agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine. The U.S. is hoping Vladimir Putin will accept the American-backed proposal. Donald Trump posted on social media today he spoke with the Russian president and believes there is a good chance the war will end soon. Putin has said he agrees with parts of the deal, but several details still need to be worked out. New information is emerging about the financial situation at the Hudson's Bay Company and it's not looking good for the iconic retailer.

It owes nearly a billion dollars. As Anise Hidari reports, that means some tough choices for the company. Actually I wasn't surprised to hear about the Bay because I think they went too up market. Jan Clark is enjoying a coffee in Calgary's Market Mall near a huge Hudson's Bay location. She's not shopping there today and hasn't for a while. And too expensive for the ordinary person to shop at.

Do you have a reward card with you? For many reasons, fewer Canadians have been shopping at Hudson's Bay, and it's hit a breaking point for the company. The Bay, essentially, is out of money. Court documents released this week show it has about $3 million in cash on hand. It's a drop in a huge bucket of debt. HBC has more than $1 billion in mortgages or other debt with collateral, plus another $520 million in debt not tied to anything. Unfortunately

they're all in the same pile. That five hundred and twenty million is owed to hundreds of companies and Dina Kovacevic says they may be at the bottom of the food chain unless the Bay can prove it needs to pay say a clothing supplier to stay in business. Kovacevic is an editor at Insolvency Insider. So if the company comes to the court and says, we need X, Y, and Z suppliers to continue supplying to us, and we owe them millions, and there's absolutely no way they'll keep supplying unless they get paid,

then the court will allow those payments to be made. Take your stairs when you are coming down, okay? So I can go up but not down? Yeah, you, you or... Escalator and elevator repair companies are on HBC's list of unpaid creditors. So are department store mainstays like Estee Lauder, Polo Ralph Lauren and Nike. From hundreds of stores across Canada in the 90s, across its brands, HBC once boasted endorsements from Canadian celebrities like Anne-Marie and Céline Dion. Now a dramatic fall for the Bay. The

company says shoppers stopped walking in their doors and market experts agree. Canadians have significantly changed their habits over the last 10 years and particularly since the pandemic. Jim Dennehy is a retail analyst and heads up customer lab in St. John, New Brunswick. He doesn't seem any ways out of this financial mess. So the avenues of escape are going to require more creativity and I don't know very many people who are pointing to an obvious escape for them this time. At this point the company says it can pay its employees, though experts say they probably won't get severance pay, as for the customers, a mixed bag.

Gift cards are still valid, but Hudson's Bay Rewards Points, once known as Club Zed, are worth zero right now. Points are similar to unsecured creditors. Just like the escalator repairman, they might not get paid. And he's had our CBC News, Calgary. Ontario has revised down the number of confirmed measles cases because of an analysis error. The province says 350 people have become infected since the outbreak started in October. That's less than Thursday's figure of 372.

Despite that, health officials are warning about the spread of measles. In a statement today, Ontario's chief medical officer stressed the importance of vaccinations, saying most current cases involve people who were not inoculated. Investigators in Denver are looking for the cause of a commercial plane fire. Oh, what happened? It's on fire. That's scary. Eyewitness cell phone video shows passengers and crew walking out onto a wing to escape.

178 people were on board at the time. 12 were taken to hospital. The American Airlines flight was traveling from Colorado Springs to Dallas when it diverted to Denver. The company says the plane was experiencing an engine-related issue. Helicopters are now banned from flying a busy route near Reagan International Airport in Washington DC. That's where a mid-air collision earlier this year killed 67 people. The Federal Aviation Administration says helicopter traffic will be restricted on other routes in the area and it is reviewing flight safety in eight more major cities. The

measures follow recommendations made by investigators looking into the January 29th disaster involving a passenger jet and a military helicopter. We cannot accept that international community forgets about the Rohingyas. The UN's top diplomat is visiting Bangladesh. Antonio Guterres is taking a first-hand look at the worsening situation involving more than one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. Bangladesh is trying to secure more international aid for those refugees but it's not the only crisis the government is struggling to manage. South Asia correspondent Salima Shivji is there. The anger is palpable at this protest in Dhaka as a young woman yells at the line

of police officers in front of her, outraged over a spike in violent crime across Bangladesh. At another rally, those injured in last July's protests that toppled the previous regime raise their voices. I need proper treatment for my bullet wound, this man says. It's been seven months since the student-led demonstrations grew into a full-fledged revolt. Hundreds of students were killed but the protesters succeeded in ousting then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused of corruption and a crackdown on dissent. Now those students have started a brand new party vowing to shake up the country's political landscape. It's taken

months of meticulous planning for what they know is a daunting task, says National Citizens Party spokesperson Samantha Sharmeen, rebuilding democracy. The Bangladeshi democratic system doesn't work. It's not democratic at all. So Bangladeshi people are struggling. The country's interim government, led by Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus, could call elections by the end of the year. But the priority, he says, is implementing reform before a vote. Only hopes for a swift change in the country have faltered

since the initial euphoria after the uprising. The interim government has struggled to get a handle on a steep rise in crime and persistent protests, with Bangladesh's economy also fragile. The desperation over double-digit inflation is plain to see around this government ration truck, overwhelmed with demand. Many here have waited hours for a chance to get discounted rice and oil, and the prospect that they might not make it to the front of the line is fueling discontent. This is where people have some sort of issues with expectation and reality.

Disillusionment has set in for student leader Mahfuz Alam, who was recruited by UNICEF to advise the interim government. The 27-year-old says bureaucrats and the police are reluctant to work with those now in charge. All are thinking that the interim government will go within one year, so why should we follow their dictates? Why should we listen? So this is the reality.

He did not have his phone with him. The reality for these two brothers is pain and loss, remembering their younger brother Mukdo, who was handing out water to fellow protesters minutes before he was shot dead by police last July. I am still learning how to live my life without him. Mukdo's identical twin, Snigdho Rahman, can only hope his brother's death wasn't in vain. Our future generation cannot give their life just like Mugdo's.

So this is the time to reform everything. Even if frustration grows at the slow pace of change in a country that's endured decades of turbulent politics. Salima Shivji, CBCNews.com. You're listening to Your World Tonight from CBC News. And if you want to make sure you never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in. It was an art heist that got international headlines after happening right in our own and lock us in. It was an art heist that got international headlines after happening right in our own backyard. A famous portrait of Winston Churchill, stolen from Ottawa's Chateau Laurier and replaced with a fake.

In court today, we learn more details about what happened. But as Paul Hunter reports, there is still one big question. Mr. What did I need man accused in one of the most notorious art heists Canada has ever seen the brazen theft of an original print of Youssef Karsh's 1941 photo of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill taken by Karsh after a wartime speech by Churchill on Parliament Hill, stolen from its place on the walls of the Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa more than three years ago, replaced on the wall by a fake which went unnoticed for months until a hotel employee

realized what had happened. The theft of the Roaring Lion, as it's known, sparked global headlines and a hunt by Ottawa police spanning two continents before its recovery last fall in Italy, having been bought by a collector at auction in the UK. A hearing today at an Ottawa courthouse just a block from the Chateau was to effectively bring the case almost to a close. Arrested last year, Wood today pled guilty on three charges, theft, forgery, and trafficking in stolen goods. Then, in an agreed statement of facts, fresh details of the crime emerged.

That police found DNA on duct tape found on the fake Churchill, later matching Wood's DNA found on a toothbrush obtained in a search warrant. The court heard Wood had likely been planning the heist for months before eventually taking the karsh, and that its path to the auction house in London may have been from Canada through Mexico, then on to the UK. How are you feeling, madam? Very good. Today's the day. Hotel General Manager Jean-Vivre Dumas was among the witnesses called by the Crown with

a victim impact statement. She testified about the emotional toll on hotel employees from the theft and called the portrait irreplaceable. But Woods' lawyer suggested to the court, when you boil it all down, it's just a print made from a negative. Nothing special. He's arguing for a suspended sentence. The Crown wants two

years less a day in custody, the maximum penalty faced by Woods, 14 years. On that, Wood addressed the court directly at the very end of the hearing, apologizing profusely for what he called his heinous crime, apologizing to the widow of Yusuf Karsh, to the Ottawa Police Services and to the Chateau Laurier, explaining he needed the money to help his brother suffering deep mental illness. Wood's sentence will be delivered April 14th. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Ottawa. We close tonight at a Tim Hortons in Hamilton, Ontario.

Inside, the coffee's hot. Outside, the weather is warming up. But that means, at this Tim's, it's not roll up the rim. It's more like roll up and swim. Yeah, it's been there for freaking ever. Like I don't... If they fix it, I would be shocking. I just know it's been here for forever and I've been going around. I remember trying to come in one time in a car and just in a small... It's a little brutal. Yeah.

These customers are talking about a puddle. Not just any puddle. This one's been around for the past decade, maybe longer. The slushy, murky, oily water stretches near the entire length of the parking lot. So big you could try to do the front crawler. So persistent it's become a city landmark. Lake Timicaca, as it's been dubbed by the locals. Water that ebbs and flows with every spring thaw or summer downpour. There are now postcards for sale showing the sunset over the hammer's largest inland sea. Someone even tried to put it on Google Maps. Hamiltonian Max Goodes says

what started as a nuisance has become bit by timbit, a quirky feature of Hamilton geography. It's a true Hamilton success story in a lot of ways. We are really proficient with upcycling concepts, spaces, and spinning stories that might not be necessarily entirely positive into something that has something either wholesome or a comedic takeaway that has something either wholesome or a comedic takeaway or otherwise something that's like Hamilton legend. As for why the legend of Lake Timicaca seems to double and double, officials at the City of Hamilton say it's not their problem. The underground pipes are fine.

The water woes, they say, are a matter for the property owner. Tim Hortons isn't commenting, even though more than their cup runneth over. This has been Your World Tonight for Friday, March 14th. I'm Tom Harrington. Thanks for listening tonight. Stay safe and take care of each other.