Your World Tonight - Canadian fugitive caught, vets outraged at Trump, meal prep kit concerns, and more

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

Wedding Crashers. After a decade on the run, former Canadian Olympian and alleged narco kingpin Ryan Wedding is now in U.S. custody. The 44-year-old is accused of running an international empire built on drug smuggling and murder. Wedding was arrested in Mexico yesterday, and faces multiple charges.Also: U.S. President Donald Trump has drawn more Canadian ire: this time from veterans of the war in Afghanistan. They’re outraged over Trump’s suggestion NATO allies avoided the frontlines during the conflict. More than 40,000 CAF members served from 2001 to 2014, and 158 were killed. Thousands more were injured.And: Loss of appetite. What’s behind the recent decline in popularity of meal prep kits.Plus: B.C.’s extortion crisis, stress over public sector cuts, Liberals prep for Parliament’s return, and more.

The Alto High Speed Rail Project is on track. Expected travel time from Toronto to Montreal, three hours. Next stop, public consultations in your community. Make your voice heard. Visit altotrain.ca for more information. This is a CBC podcast. Ryan Wedding tormented several people and several families that will never be the same. But today, they get the justice that they sought. Born in Thunder Bay reached the height of the illicit.

then to the FBI's most wanted list. Now Canadian Ryan Wedding is in U.S. custody, but many questions remain about how he got there and why now. Welcome to your world tonight. I'm Onondram. It is Friday, January 23rd coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern. Also on the podcast. We've never needed them. We have never really asked anything of them. You know, they'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, little off the front lines. He's got no love for NATO, but Donald Trump is drawing fire for comments, degrading the role of tens of thousands of Canadian and British personnel during the war in Afghanistan. And, Hello Fresh makes every meal taste like an adventure.

Because nothing hits like home cooking. But for the Make It Yourself Meal Kid industry, things might be getting stale. But one Canadian company is trying to keep the business model fresh. On the run. for more than a decade, accused of running a violent international drug ring. Canadian Ryan Wedding reportedly turned himself in last night at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. International authorities had been turning up the heat for months. And as Lisa Singh tells us, Wedding now faces a long list of serious charges, including murder.

In jeans, a black baseball cap and handcuffs, Ryan Wedding was walked off the plane by FBI agents Friday, Friday, morning. He is a modern day Pablo Escobar, and he thought he could evade justice. Flanked by the heads of multiple law enforcement agencies, including the RCMP. FBI director Cash Patel stood at an airport an hour east of Los Angeles and called the arrest of Ryan Wedding in Mexico City a disruption to a major narcotics pipeline. This individual and his organization in the Sinaloa cartel poured narcotics into the streets of North America and killed too many of our youth. A Ryan Wedding from Coquitlam, British Columbia, 20 years old.

A former snowboarder who competed for Team Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics, Wedding is accused of running a billion-dollar drug operation that officials say worked with Mexican cartels to bring cocaine into Canada. This is a significant blow to a criminal network. Authorities gave few details of what. led to Thursday's arrest, Mexico's security minister posted online. A Canadian citizen voluntarily surrendered at the U.S. Embassy. The FBI says wedding was apprehended in the middle of the night after an apparent negotiation. Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell talked about what else

police seized. More than 2,300 kilograms of cocaine, 44 kilograms of methamphetamine, 44 kilograms of fentanyl. Born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, the 44,000. year old spent the last decade on the run, facing charges in the U.S. related to running a criminal enterprise, conspiring to traffic cocaine and murder, including Canadians. Among others, he's tied to the shooting death of a Niagara Fallsman in 2024 and the mistaken identity killings of an elderly Indian couple near Toronto in 2023. Last year, he was placed on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. A $15 million dollar reward offered in exchange for information leading to his arrest. Former FBI deputy director John Pistel says he could be helpful to authorities.

He could be seen as a significant cooperator that could bring down a number of other people. Ryan Wedding became a wanted criminal, but also a political price. Despite authorities lauding this arrest, Luis Najira, a Mexican journalist living in Toronto, warns, wedding is just one man among. many allegedly involved in the drug trade. Every time that you arrest someone, there's 10 waiting for that spot to be filled. Who's going to be the next Friday wedding? Wedding is scheduled to appear in a California courtroom Monday.

Lisa Scheng, CBC News, Toronto. They answered the call and stood by a NATO ally. Now veterans of the war in Afghanistan are hitting back at Donald Trump for raising questions about their service and their sacrifice. David Thurton has that story. We've never needed them. We have never really asked anything of them. These are the comments from President Donald Trump that are prompting a worldwide backlash.

The U.S. President on Fox News, diminishing the contributions in Afghanistan of NATO allies, including Canada. You know, they'll say they send some troops to Afghanistan or this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, little off the front lines. British Prime Minister Kier Starrmer, among the NATO leaders condemning Trump's comments. And so I consider President Trump's remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling. Instead of Canada's Prime Minister responding, it fell to finance minister Francois Philippe Champagne. You cannot rewrite history. And one thing that I can tell you that I've heard time and time again

is the bravery and the professionalism of our men and women. After the September 11th attacks, the U.S. alongside its allies deployed troops in Afghanistan. For the first time ever, NATO's Article 5 was invoked. More than 40,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces serve, 158 Canadian soldiers died. Others, like retired Corporal Bruce Moncour, returned with mental and physical scars. I had to have two serious brain surgeries. Moncour was shot in the head by American troops. He says, given the current U.S.-Canada relationship, he wouldn't serve in the Canadian Armed Forces now.

I went because of September 11th. I wanted to fight the war on terror. of that attack on New York and Washington and Pennsylvania. And if that were to happen again today, I wouldn't go. Another high-profile Afghan vet is also responding. Prince Harry, in a statement, says, The sacrifices of many deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect. So President Trump is wrong about this, or he doesn't have a sense of history,

our recent history. Nicholas Burns is a former U.S. diplomat. He told CNN, Trump is compromising America's strategic alliance. As I remember what happened on September 11, 2001, when I was the ambassador to NATO, the first person who called me after the attacks, 3,000 people dead in New York and Washington. David Wright, the Canadian ambassador, they all bled for us. This is not the first time Trump has belittled the sacrifices of others. In the past, he suggested U.S. Senator John McCain was not a war hero. McCain fought in the Vietnam War, a war that Trump was eligible to serve in but never did.

after receiving several deferments excusing him from duty. David Thurton, CBC News, Ottawa. Coming right up, it's been months since the task force was supposed to crack down on violent extortion in BC, but some people in Surrey say the situation has only gotten worse. And thousands of workers are put on notice as the Carney government makes good on trimming the public service. Then later, we'll have this story. Stuck at home and sick of cooking. During the pandemic, many Canadians turn to meal kits as a solution.

But now, some of the industry's biggest players say demand is declining and customers are losing their appetite. When we broke down the overall price of the meals, we just felt that it was less expensive to just buy the groceries ourselves. I'm Paula Duhatchek in Calgary. I'll tell you about how meal kit companies are trying to hold on to the customers they have. That story coming up on your world tonight. BC is struggling with a spike in extortion cases and related gun violence.

And while the province is giving more funding to fight the problem, the head of an RCMP task force said this week, it's not a crisis. But as Tanya Fletcher tells us, many people in and around Vancouver's South Asian community say they're scared. On the streets of Surrey, fear and frustration have reached a tipping point. I don't feel safe. So, yeah, I mean, it's just alarming what's happening. Police are not taking any action. I don't know what they're going to do. to get things settled down. Nearly two months after BC launched an extortion task force,

brought in federal support and boosted police funding, the problem persists. In fact, many say it's gotten worse. These extortion cases are now hitting a much wider range of people. Former MLA Ginny Sims is a Punjabi radio talk show host in Surrey. Her radio station was hit by bullets in an extortion-related shooting last fall. No one was hurt, but she says the rash of shootings, left the South Asian community paralyzed.

Then I was talking to a plumber who said he had his van wrapped with the name of his company. He goes, I just realized I'm advertising my phone number to all these people who could then give me a phone call and threaten me. She adds realtors no longer want sold signs posted online since their face and phone number could make them an easy target for that sale. Since the start of 2026, Surrey has seen an average of two extortion cases reported per day. Some of them involving shootings. Last weekend, police say residents of a house that was targeted returned fire shooting back in self-defense. You've got a lot of people out there now that are so afraid

that they are considering taking the law into their own hands, and that cannot happen. The pressure on police evident at an update this week from the head of BC's Extortion Task Force, our CMP Assistant Commissioner John Brewer. So I wish I would say to everybody here. There's not a crisis. A crisis is what's happening out there with drug overdoses. That's a crisis. People are dying.

This is a threat to public safety, absolutely, and I take it very seriously. But please, the police here are working hard. That response triggering widespread backlash, including from BC Premier David E.B. I'll speak bluntly. If Mr. Brewer does not feel that urgency, does not feel that this is a crisis, then perhaps he's not the right person to head up this task force. A day later, Brewer apologized. Still, he insists progress is being made and says officers have now executed.

search warrants and made arrests in Alberta. And they're working with their counterparts in Ontario too. There's no place for them to hide. We have investigative techniques in identifying these groups and who's controlling them. Surrey's mayor is now calling for a national commissioner to oversee a countrywide extortion investigation. Tanya Fletcher, CBC News, Surrey. Thousands of federal public service workers are receiving warnings they might be laid off. The notices they received are part of Ottawa's effort to regain.

reduce the federal bureaucracy. 40,000 positions are on the chopping block, but unions and workers they represent say the lack of information about the process leads to stress and anxiety. Marina von Stackleberg has the latest. Everyone's very stressed, a bit depressed. As the Kearney government makes good on its promise

to thin the federal bureaucracy, many public servants like this one are scared they could soon be out of work, and they're scared to talk about it. CBC News is keeping this employee anonymous and changing her voice over her fears speaking publicly could get her fired. Our whole office has been told we might be affected and they're waiting to let us know based on how much of our job they can replace with AI. The letter she got says, quote, new technologies including artificial intelligence present us with opportunities to streamline. Consequently, you have been identified as an affected employee.

Not knowing is pretty stressful. Workforce adjustment notices are going out across departments, telling staff they could face reassignment or layoff. In a lot of cases, our members are now going to be competing for their jobs. It's going to be like the hunger games. Union leaders like Sean O'Reilly say details about who is losing their jobs, where and when are piecemeal. He's with the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada.

That union says 2,700 notices have gone out this week alone. with global affairs and health Canada the hardest hit. I got a feeling that it's going to be a longer drawn-out process. The Federal Treasury Board is in charge of the layoffs, but it won't give a clear picture of the cuts. Sharon DeSuzza, President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, says 5,000 of the workers she represents got notices just this week. Right now, we don't know which department will be hit next

and what services will be cut. Unions warned Canadians will feel the impact. Government transformation minister Joel Lightbound says the opposite. The services will be as good and better as we move forward with a bold agenda to transform government using new technologies. Former senior bureaucrat Jim Mitchell, who's written a book about transforming the public service, says the reductions are needed. The size of the public service has grown faster than it should have, and the result is a public service that's too big. doesn't work as efficiently as it should. And frankly, there's often too many people doing too many different things that don't need to be done.

The government insists it's doing what it can to limit actual layoffs, including offering buyout packages for early retirement. Marina von Stackleberg, CBC News, Ottawa. Prime Minister Mark Carney and his cabinet are back at the table for day two of their planning retreat, discussing domestic priorities, trade and security, Of course, Canada's relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump was on the agenda.

It's an opportunity to fine-tune their message before Parliament returns on Monday. Rafi Bujicanyan has more from Quebec City. All through our values have been clear. The latest elephant in the room, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand vaguely responding to U.S. President Donald Trump's disinvitation to Canada from joining his Gaza Peace Board, something he declared on social media. The government must demilitarize and disarm. The government source tells CBC News, the Foreign Affairs Department, got an official invitation letter to the board

while Prime Minister Mark Carney was traveling abroad last week. But the disinvite only came through Trump's post, which provided no motive. That's a fairly petty personal retaliation. Janice Stein believes Trump did it to spite Carney after his speech in Davos earlier this week, which encouraged middle powers like Canada to diversify their trade partners. Stein teaches conflict management at the University of Toronto and was one of the guest speakers to Cabinet on Friday. There was during the hour a discussion of trade policy.

She says Canada must now stick to the path Carney laid out at the World Economic Forum, build those new trade relationships with other countries despite any further threat of retaliation. by the U.S. This is not over in 2026 and it's not over in 2028. This is a long-term fundamental readjustment that Canadians need to make now. Albertans are very independent people. Carney's speech is hardly the only Canadian development that Trump administration is watching. On Friday, U.S. Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessent appeared on the right-wing outlet,

Real America's voice and commented on Alberta's separate. separatist movement. Rumored that they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not. Sounds like you may know something up there. What people are saying? For now, it's finance minister Franz-Bel-Philippe Champagne who responded to that, saying a stronger economy, including for Alberta, would help fend off the anger in that province. Canada is taking steps with Alberta to do things differently, to grow our resources,

to create growth in the country. And Canadians are very proud. We're a proud nation with proud values and a very strong economy. So I would say, you know, thanks but no thanks. What's unclear on all these issues, what Carney is thinking. The Prime Minister abruptly left the cabinet retreat without speaking to journalists, his office says, due to scheduling reasons. Rafi Bucanee on CBC News, Quebec City.

Demonstrators in Minnesota are out in the extreme cold. to send a message to the Trump administration. They want the thousands of ice agents in their state gone. A weeks-long immigration crackdown has seen a woman killed and a five-year-old detained. Paul Hunter has the latest on what organizers are calling a day of truth and freedom. Even as the bitterly cold temperatures sank to the mid-minus 20s, wrapped in thick scarves and parkas, thousands turned out in Minneapolis this afternoon, all shouting anti-ice slogans, carrying signs, urging ICE agents out.

Out of Minneapolis, out of Minnesota, all part of a statewide protest today, with businesses closing in what's described as a general strike. It's the latest pushback against Donald Trump's deployment to Minnesota of thousands of U.S. immigration officers known as, ICE agents, a surge aimed at detaining and deporting undocumented migrants, actions that have roiled Minnesota and indeed much of the U.S. With scenes of agents yanking people from their vehicles and using tear gas and flashbang grenades against demonstrators.

37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed in her car by an ICE agent two weeks ago. We're standing up for just immigrants' rights and any people. people of color. There's so many people that are just being detained just because of the color of their skin and, you know, just human rights. People's constitutional rights are just being violated and we need people to know what's going on in Minneapolis. And the occupation now! Not far off at the Minneapolis airport, more anti-ice demonstrators. Here, more arrests. Reportedly some 100 people detained. Demonstrators with their hands in police zip ties marched by authorities onto buses as the crowd chanted.

Ice out. Operations continue. Unabated here in Minneapolis. U.S. Border Patrol commander at large Greg Bovino speaking with reporters this morning, addressing the latest flashpoint in what's been happening. The detainment of a five-year-old boy yesterday, along with the boy's father, Conejo Arias. That child is in the least restrictive setting possible. When I say that we're experts, both Border Patrol and ICE, in dealing with immigration cases,

that involve children, probably the most experienced anywhere in the United States by any domestic law enforcement agency. And here's Marcos Charles, acting executive director of ICE operations. We did not target the child. Adias fled from law enforcement officers and left his child behind. Again, middle of winter in a car. We will enforce the law as it's written. All of this as temperatures dipped further and as demonstrators marched through down,

downtown Minneapolis, demanding changes, but seeing none. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Washington. Well, they're billed as a way to make life easier in the kitchen, but new numbers show Canadians may be losing their appetite for meal kits. As the cost of living creeps up, sales for some of the most popular companies have nosedived. Paula Duhatchik explains the fight for customers and why it may be a losing battle. Because nothing hits like home cooking. But after a surge in demand during the pandemic, the hype around meal kits is wearing off.

At Canadian company Good Food, sales are down 21% compared to a year ago. German rival HelloFresh says in its latest quarter, North American orders fell about 17%. The industry is, to be generous, is plateauing. Daniel Clark is an associate professor of entrepreneurship at Western University. It seems like it's a zero-sum game, that every dollar won, comes at somebody else's expense. Research firm Sarkana says about 12% of Canadians use the kits, a number that's been steady for years.

Vince Scabalone is an analyst with Sarkana and says companies are struggling to find new business. Canadians are facing these economic headwinds and they're cutting back on discretionary spending and as convenient as meal kits are and restaurant meals are, they are a little bit more expensive than doing your own grocery shopping. What I try to do more on the weekends, I cook more in bulk and then I freeze it.

Former customer, Sandra Lee Scalia, lives in Calgary and used to be a big fan of meal kits. These days, she's back to heating up leftovers. I try to make it enticing, but in the long run, it's probably better just to save your dollars and buy your groceries yourself. In its latest earnings call, Good Food said it's prioritizing actions that improve repeat behavior. Hello Fresh said in a statement in part, it's growing its share of long-term loyal customers. Fresh Prep is Canada's most sustainable meal kit. Meanwhile, there's a new-ish player in the market that's trying to grow. We get lots of comments and letters sent to us about how it's life-changing, save their marriage, etc.

Drew's sued is one of the co-founders of BC-based Fresh Prep. The company sells what it describes as zero-waste meal kits and recently expanded to Quebec in Ontario. We use reusable bags, reusable ice packs, reusable containers for our kits. And so we kind of feel like we're running a very different business altogether. Still, experts say now that the industry's initial buzz has died down, any company that wants to find new customers will have to steal them from someone else. Subscribe today and get up to $207 off. Paula Duhatchek, CBC News, Calgary.

We end tonight with an introduction of sorts to, a star student at Columbia University, who one day could even be your co-worker. Hello, I am Emo. How can I assist you today? A fixture in Colombia's engineering lab, Emo, speak several languages, including French, Chinese, and Arabic, is known for being very attentive to detail and even has an album called Hello World with the debut single Metal Man. I just want to feel. Yeah, if that song sounds a bit artificial, well, good ear. That's because emo is just a robotic head,

taught to look and act like a human. And what we were able to do is train a robot to move its lips when it talks, to make it more realistic so that it looks alive. Hodlipson is with Columbia's Creative Machines Lab. His team trains robots to appear more realistic in face-to-face conversations. For emo, that meant a lot of self-reflection and a ton of binge watching. It looks at itself in the mirror,

and it just makes faces, like a child making faces in the mirror, and then goes to YouTube and watches people and how they move their lips when they talk, when they sing, when they emit all kinds of sounds. All that practice, along with dozens of mini motors underneath its latex face, allows emo to look and sound almost lifelike,

almost. We also had a hard time with sounds that involve lip puckering like the sound at the end of hello. Between, Beyond, Blue, Matt, Hat, At. Lipson knows his technology will be a disruptor, but says it's key for robots to communicate naturally in the future if they're going to work alongside people. So for now, the robot uprising is on hold. Emo is still a research project. That has a music career and a struggle with consonants. This has been your world tonight for Friday, January 23, 2026.

I'm Anandrum. Thanks for being with us. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.