Your World Tonight - Cdn election security, U.S. national security, home buying incentives, and more

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre says he won the leadership race fair and square. Poilievre is responding to allegations the Indian government tried to interfere in the process – in his favour. Even if true, there is no evidence Poilievre was aware it was happening. Poilievre himself today pointed a finger at Liberal leader Mark Carney – saying that when Carney was an advisor to the government, he had secret talks with the deputy governor of China’s central bank.And: The two biggest parties in this campaign are trying to lure voters who want to buy homes with incentives, and tax breaks.Also: U.S. national and international security are in question after a journalist was mistakenly added to a text chat about plans to bomb targets in Yemen.Plus: Where the leaders are, U.S. brokers a Black Sea deal for Ukraine and Russia, what happens to data if 23andMe goes bankrupt, and more.

This is Michael Bublé, host of the Junos, Canada's biggest night in music. And trust me, this lineup is going to be everything. With performances by Akela, Baby No Money, Josh Ross, Nemesis, Snoddy Nose Rez Kids, a special final performance by Sum 41, and Michael Bublé. Now that's what I call a party. Don't miss the Junos, live March 30th at 8 Eastern on CBC and CBC Gem. And you're all invited.

This is a CBC podcast. Let's be honest. I won the leadership fair and square. Even my political competitors like Mr. Patrick Brown have publicly testified under oath that that was the case. It's not the race Pierre Poliev wants to be focused on. With the Conservative leader fighting to be elected Prime Minister next month, he's facing more questions about his lack of security clearance following new allegations of foreign interference in the Conservative leadership contest.

Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Tuesday, March 25th, coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. We would use all the federal land that we own across this country and build 100% affordable homes. Whether it's getting shovels in federally owned lands or taking an axe to the GST on new homes, policy pitches to make housing more affordable are starting to add up as the major parties look for buy-in from voters priced out of the housing market.

market. Conservative leader Pierre Poliev is under renewed pressure to get his security clearance amid new reports of foreign meddling. The allegations dominated the campaign trail on day three as Poliev used the focus on foreign interference to accuse his liberal opponent of being compromised by foreign business dealings. JP Tasker explains. Let's be honest. I won the leadership fair and square. Conservative leader Pierre Pauliev is pushing back against reporting by the Globe and Mail and Radio Canada that according to the country's intelligence agency, CSIS, agents of the Indian government were allegedly involved in raising

money and organizing for his 2022 leadership bid. Pauliev won that race in a landslide and he says that win was fair. Even my political competitors, like Mr. Patrick Brown, have publicly testified under oath that that was the case. The recent UG Commission report on foreign interference in Canadian politics found candidates subject to alleged meddling weren't always aware it was even going on. And sources tell Radio-Canada CESIS has no evidence Poliev knew agents of India were trying to help him win.

But this is renewing calls by some for Poliev to get his security clearance. What I will not do is commit to the oath of secrecy that the Liberals want to impose on me. Poliev has so far refused to get the necessary clearance to learn about alleged incidents like this, claiming again today if he does get a briefing, he won't be able to publicly criticize the Liberal government's handling of foreign interference. So they bring me into a dark room and they'll say, we're going to give you a little bit of breadcrumbs of intel, and then we'll tell you, you can't talk about any of this stuff anymore. Pauliev is also trying to turn the tables, saying it's Liberal leader Mark Carney who is compromised.

He met with Chinese officials while chair of Brookfield Asset Management, and that major investment firm got a loan from a Chinese state-owned bank. Why would he be collaborating with a hostile foreign regime that we have since learned executed four Canadians and took numerous Canadians hostage for a lengthy period of time? A spokesperson for Carney said the China claims are a distraction and Poliev is panicking. Carney himself says if Poliev is serious about becoming prime minister, he needs to get his

security clearance. I find it downright irresponsible that the leader of the opposition, day after day, month after month, year after year, refuses to obtain his security clearance. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh agrees. Just the allegations alone should have prompted any leader who cares about our country to say, hey, I want to know what's going on. The country's national security agencies have a task force monitoring this election. They're on the lookout for any interference that could emerge over the next 34 days.

JP Tasker, CBC News, Hamilton, Ontario. From questions of national security to the national challenge of trying to secure a home. That's another big campaign issue with several parties already promising to make housing more affordable. Lisa Shing is taking a closer look at some of the proposals. The people who build the homes cannot afford to live in them. That is fundamentally unjust. Conservative leader Pierre Poliev strengthening a promise he made in the fall. A new Conservative government will put Canada first by taking GST, the federal sales tax, off of all homes under $1.3 million. He said that would save home buyers up to $65,000.

Last week, Liberal leader Mark Carney announced something very similar. No GST for first-time home buyers on new homes under $1 million. That is the savings of up to $50,000 off the price of a home. Considering the average cost of a home in Canada last month was roughly $670,000, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association that tax cut might help some but not all prospective buyers. It's gonna slowly maybe help buyers looking to buy in rural areas or more suburban pockets I think of cities. But Toronto real estate agent Justin Bregman says it doesn't address the fact many people can't even afford the upfront cost.

The down payment is still a struggle, the land transfer tax is still a struggle, and it's not helping bigger cities where likely there's not going to be new build homes under a million dollars. This is not getting it to root of the problem. Frank Clayton, urban and housing researcher at Toronto Metropolitan University says the promises don't deal with the shortage of housing supply. All this will do is increase the demand when we still have a shortage. So it probably increases prices. So it will go ahead, will ultimately have the, could have the opposite effect. When I think about ourselves and many of our friends that are in a similar situation, raising on families, it's not something that would benefit us. For Carly Wisleski and her partner, clients of Bregman who are selling their home and

buying a new one, the incentive is too narrow in scope. Even when I think about the future and like where our children are going to live and what they're going to be able to afford, I would say housing affordability on the whole, not specific to new builds, not specific even to just first time home buyers, just making it feasible for people to make that jump in the future is what would be appeal to us the most. Something NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says he has a plan to tackle. We would use all the federal land that we own across this country and build 100% affordable homes. The Conservatives say they'll pay for the GST cut partially by using money left

in the housing accelerator fund set up by the Liberals to boost supply. Lisa Sheng, CBC News, Toronto. Staying with the election it was another busy day and we have reporters traveling with all of the major party leaders starting in Halifax. Here's what else you need to know from day three of the campaign. I'm Tom Perry, travelling with the Liberal campaign. Liberal leader Mark Carney visited the Halifax shipyards and promised a re-elected Liberal government would boost defence spending, increase pay for military personnel, acquire new submarines and icebreakers, and make sure Canadian shipbuilders use as much Canadian steel and aluminum as possible.

We will deliver an unprecedented acceleration of investment in our armed forces so that we can defend every inch of our sovereign territory. Carney says his plan will create jobs, but as for a price tag, he says that will be included in the Liberals costed platform which has yet to be released. Carney spent the rest of his day at campaign stops around Halifax and welcomed back a high-profile member of Justin Trudeau's cabinet. Former housing minister Sean Fraser had said he would not run in this election to spend more time with his family now he's changed his mind. I received a call yesterday from the Prime Minister

asking if I would reconsider and step up to help out during this unprecedented economic challenge. Fraser is just the latest Liberal to have a change of heart about stepping down as their party bounces back in the polls, at least for now. Tom Perry, CBC News, Halifax. Tom Perry, CBC News, Halifax. I'm David Thurton travelling with the NDP. Its leader, Jagmeet Singh, stopped at a coffee shop in Toronto's historic Gay Village

in the city's downtown east side. Well I think this election is a really important election. Singh is making a big play for ridings around this neighbourhood. And across the Greater Toronto area, places that used to be solidly NDP but are now reliably liberal. Singh has tried this strategy before in 2019 and 2021 and came away empty. He's trying it again. Hell no. I'm never going to give up. I don't care what's going on. I'm always going to be there to fight for people.

This time, Singh faces more challenges, like winning over Liberal voters and keeping NDP supporters from jumping ship. Let's be clear, there's massive challenges. I've got no illusions about that. There are some serious challenges that we're up against. Singh hopes to get around that by speaking to the high cost of housing, hoping that will

break through. David Thurton, CBC News, Toronto. I'm Rafi Boujee-Khanian traveling with the Bloc Québécois. Yves-François Blanchet is focused on energy projects today, visiting manufacturers for electric battery components in Bécancourt, northeast of Montreal, pointing to them as viable alternatives to fossil fuels. I'm saying this is where we should put our money. I even think that the federal government and Canadians should also invest their money into transition to another vision of economy.

Earlier, he was on the shores of the St. Lawrence River, near Quebec City, once again opposing any potential plan to resurrect the Energy East pipeline project. It would have carried Alberta oil through Quebec to New Brunswick. We are specifically here because this is where the pipeline would cross the river, which is totally unacceptable. One of the 800 rivers that would be crushed by this pipeline is the Saint Lawrence River right here. Both the Conservative and Liberal leaders have been talking up plans

to move more energy across Canada to counter the US tariff threat, but neither has put forward a concrete proposal to revive Energy East. Rafi Boudjikani, YoncCBC News, Bécancourt, Quebec. Coming up on the podcast, signal trouble. The Trump administration on the defensive, after a journalist was accidentally added to a national security team chat about bombing Yemen. Plus privacy concerns about personal genetic information stored with a company going out of business.

It is being called reckless, sloppy and stunning. Top US government officials sharing detailed military information in a group chat with a journalist inadvertently included in the messaging. Today some of those officials were grilled by a group of senators as the president tried to downplay the information leak. Paul Hunter has more from Washington. Director Gabbard, did you participate in the group chat with Secretary of Defense and other

Trump senior officials discussing the Yemen war plans? Senator, I don't want to get into this. Ma'am, were you on? You're not going to be willing to address? And so it went. At a U.S. Senate committee hearing, the day after word that somehow a U.S. journalist was mistakenly added into a top-level Trump administration security briefing on the messaging app Signal, on what was then an imminent U.S. military attack

against Houthi rebels in Yemen. It's a shoot down enemy aircraft. Among those grilled by enraged Democrats on Capitol Hill, Donald Trump's director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA director, John Radcliffe. Director Radcliffe, this was a huge mistake, correct? No. Was there any mention of a target in Yemen? I don't remember mention of specific targets.

Was there any mention, Ms. Gabbard, of a weapon or weapons system? I don't recall specific weapons systems being named. Some testimony asserted that details made privy to the journalist were not classified, even though they seemingly spelled out the who, what, where, and when of the attack. Say Democrats, a security leak that could have put U.S. forces in danger had the leak gone instead to an enemy. The attack sequencing and timing and weapons and targets you don't consider to should

have been classified? I defer to the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council on that question. I tell you something, this is a trip Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did weigh in yesterday. Hegseth slammed the reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic magazine, who's a highly respected, long-time Washington journalist. So this is the guy that pedals in garbage. There was no classified information, as I understand it. They used a app, if you want to call it an app, that a lot of people use.

Donald Trump, who long ago slammed his then-opponent for the White House, Hillary Clinton, for using a private server for government emails, seemed unfazed by the leak. He called the journalist a sleazebag. He's made up a lot of stories, and I think he's basically bad for the country. It is careless, It is reckless. There should be an investigation and folks... Democrats, that's Mark Kelly from Arizona, are having none of it and are calling for Hegseth to resign.

Paul Hunter, CBC News, Washington. Hey guys, it's JD Vance, the vice president. And you know there was so much excitement around Usha's visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided that I didn't want her to have all that fun by herself and so I'm going to join her. US Vice President JD Vance is heading to Greenland later this week. Vance's wife was already set to go along with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. President Donald Trump has been strongly suggesting the US will attempt to take over Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark. In a social media post, Vance suggested the move is about protecting North

America. A lot of other countries have threatened Greenland, have threatened to use its territories and its waterways to threaten the United States, to threaten Canada, and of course to threaten the people of Greenland. So we're going to check out how things are going there. And I say that speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the to threaten the people of Greenland. So we're going to check out how things are going there. And I say that speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it's important to protecting the security of the entire world. Greenland's Prime Minister has already called the visit a provocation.

It is definitely not a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. You can't even call it a truce. But after three days of talks in Saudi Arabia, the United States says there is an agreement to scale back fighting in a critical region. Briar Stewart explains. On a windy afternoon in Odessa, a few residents stand on a pier jutting out into the Black Sea. Off the coast is a cargo ship. a few residents stand on a pier jutting out into the Black Sea.

Off the coast is a cargo ship, a vessel meant to be protected under a new deal brokered by Washington, but Ina Zelesnyech, an Odessa resident, doubts little good will come from it. The Russians never keep their word, she said. All of these deals will not be in Ukraine's favour. After separate discussions in Saudi Arabia with Russia and Ukraine, the White House announced that both countries agreed to a ceasefire only on the Black Sea. The agreement calls for the protection of commercial ships and requires both sides to

prevent them from being used for military purposes. But Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says there's no clarity on what happens if the deal is violated. I understand why, he said, because the American side really wanted all of this not to fall apart. Under the agreement, the US will help restore market access for some of Russia's exports. But the Kremlin is insisting that has to happen before the deal is implemented. It wants Western sanctions lifted on Russian ships and companies that produce and export food and fertilizer.

It also wants some financial institutions reconnected to the swift international payment system. We're in deep discussions with... U.S. President Donald Trump says they are reviewing Russia's demands. There are about five or six conditions. We're looking at all of them. In 2023, a deal to protect commercial shipping in the Black Sea fell apart when Russia pulled out, but Ukraine created its own shipping corridor. Ships now reach Odessa by hugging the coast of Bulgaria and Romania as they transit the Black Sea.

Last year, Ukraine managed to export nearly $25 billion worth of agricultural products, a figure comparable to pre-war levels. Ukraine has been doing extremely well in the Black Sea. They've driven the Russian ships off the Black Sea. And secondly, they've opened their own trade route. Lieutenant Colonel Glenn Grant is a retired British officer who used to work as an advisor to Ukraine's defense minister. He says Kiev gets very little out of this deal. Ukraine is only giving the concessions that it has to give to keep America on side. It does not, it cannot block America.

And for now, Washington seems willing to ease at least some sanctions on Russia in an attempt to try to persuade Moscow to start negotiating. Briar Stewart, CBC News, London. The Oscar-winning director of a documentary on the Israel-Palestinian conflict in the occupied West Bank says he was assaulted by Israeli settlers and soldiers. Hamdan Balal is co-director of No Other Land, which took home a statue at the Academy Awards this year. He says he was filming a raid by settlers when they turned on him. He and witnesses say he was beaten, then arrested.

The Israeli military says soldiers intervened after Palestinians threw rocks at the vehicles of Israeli citizens and security forces. Balal believes he was targeted in part because of the attention to his film. This is like let you think, why they attacking you like this. It's like hard attack after the Oscar. In the beginning, yes, there's attack, but not like this. The army, they try to stop the Scythia, but this is the attack. They came, the soldiers, they came attacking me with the Scythia. Balal was released earlier today after spending the night in prison.

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. Three heli-skiers are dead after being swept away by an avalanche in southeastern British Columbia. Two groups of skiers had just finished skiing the bowl and were waiting in a staging area. A transport helicopter was nearing the group when the pilot observed an avalanche and sound of the siren. One of those groups was able to run out of harm's way while the other group swept away into the tree line. Staff Sergeant Chris Clark is with the BC RCMP. The avalanche

happened yesterday in the village of Caslow near Kootenay Lake. Four people were caught in it, three from BC, one from Idaho. One of the BC men is in hospital with critical injuries. There are questions tonight about 23andMe, Chapter 11 and 15 million users. The popular DNA test kit company has filed for bankruptcy and is looking for a buyer. And there's concern the personal information collected from millions of saliva swabs may also be for sale. Anise Hidari reports. They can actually tell a company a lot about us and that information can be weaponized. Megan Kopis didn't like when her family got genetic testing done. She didn't want a private

company to have that type of information. So when she heard 23andMe was going bankrupt, she got nervous. This data is extremely valuable and as such it will be used and we don't have agency and how that data is used. So we have to protect it. Copas, who lives near Calgary, was relieved when she found out her family used a competitor, not 23 and me, but she still wants all their genetic code deleted. We got the happy moment where grandma found out what her ancestry was and she is happy and that data needs to be used for absolutely nothing else and I want to make sure of that.

That's the real threat that's exposed here. First of all, the fact that that information is potentially, number one, public, but number two could be sold to the highest bidder. Robert Falzon is the head of engineering for Checkpoint in Canada, a cybersecurity firm, and he says that when a tech company like 23andMe has your data, it could potentially sell that data, but you can't change your genetic information if it ends up somewhere you don't like. It was to be commercially sold to, say, an insurance company who then chose to use information

on maybe you're predisposed to some sort of you know disease that they're choosing them not to cover you and you you have no idea why. Your DNA is the key to amazing information about your health ancestry and traits. Losing control of who has their DNA has already hit millions of 23andMe customers after a big data breach back in 2023. So how does 23andMe protect your a big data breach back in 2023. So how does 23andMe protect your privacy? The company says its customers can still delete their personal information while it's going through the bankruptcy process.

Do it now, because we don't know how much longer you're going to have the opportunity to do that. Brent Arnold is a lawyer who specializes in data breaches with Gowling WLG in Toronto. He points out, at the end of the day, if a company like 23andMe goes bankrupt and gets sold, your DNA will go along for the ride. There's nothing that would stop them from selling this data on as part of a sale of the overall business. 23andMe has already uncovered genetic insights. Officials in California and New York State have warned customers to delete their information from 23andMe, and tech experts agree, if you don't want a company to have access to your DNA, delete it,

or don't give it to them in the first place. Welcome to 23andMe. And he's had our CBC News Calabri. Finally tonight, a library caught in the middle, literally, of a cross-border fight, gets some help from a best-selling author. The author, Louise Penny, sent us $50,000 and because she has at heart the library

for us to continue to be able to promote the literacy. Sylvie Boudreau, president of the Haskell Free Library in Stansted, Quebec, talking about a recent donation helping with a unique renovation. Built in 1904, the library straddles the Canada-U.S. border. The main entrance is in Vermont, and up until this week Canadians were allowed to enter without going through customs. But new and tougher U.S. border rules will end that century-old tradition. That's where Canadian author Louise Penny enters the plot. The award-winning novelist has been outspoken about the Trump administration's aggression

towards Canada and recently told CBC Radio's The Current about her decision to cancel her US book tour. I just realized that when Trump brought in the 25% tariffs, that I just, I couldn't enter a country that had declared war on us. Honestly, how dare I go into the United States for my own personal benefit while my countrymen and women are suffering. In a social media post on Friday,

Penny said the Haskell Library is a beacon of friendship and called the US decisionS. decision to limit Canadian access shameful and petty. The Library is now raising funds to build a new entrance on the Canadian side of the border. And Penny isn't the only one writing checks. In just a few days, the Library has raised more than $150,000 with donations pouring in from both sides of the border. Thank you for joining us. On Your World Tonight for Tuesday, March 25th, I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. For more CBC podcasts go to cbc.ca slash podcasts