Your World Tonight - Conservative campaign dysfunction, SE Asia earthquake, Canada's brain gain and more

Episode Date: March 29, 2025

More than half-a-dozen Conservatives who spoke to CBC News describe the party's election campaign as "dysfunctional" "highly disorganized" and "a mess." The sources include individuals both inside and outside the campaign.Also: The number of people killed by a massive earthquake in Myanmar has grown to more than 1,600. And that number is expected to rise futher as rescuers search for survivors in the rubble.And: As the Trump administration battles with universities in the U.S., some high profile professors are moving to Canada. Could the U.S. brain drain be Canada's brain gain?Plus: Dispatches from the campaign trail, Tesla Takedown protests, and Malaysian business owners fume over new rules for tobacco sellers.

When Eric and Lyle Menendez murdered their parents in 1989, most people assumed they did it for the money. But over the course of their trials, the Menendez brothers told a very different story. Now, after spending most of their lives behind bars, new developments in the case could lead to the brothers getting out. This week on Crime Story, I speak with Robert Rand, the journalist who's covered this story longer than anyone else. Find Crime Story wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast.

This is Your World Tonight. I'm Julianne Hazelwood. Thank you very much, everyone. It's great to be back here in Winnipeg as a Prairie boy. I always feel kindred spirits. Conservative party sources say their campaign is in need of a change. They tell CBC News it's dysfunctional, disorganized, and out of step with voters, and they blame the people at the top. Also on the podcast, we'll bring you up to speed on what the other major parties are doing on the campaign trail. And? I'm leaving Yale because we have a regime that's targeting the media, universities,

education and our social welfare system. Brain Drain from U.S. universities becomes Canada's brain game. Thank you very much everyone. It's great to be back here in Winnipeg as a prairie boy. I always feel kindred spirits. Pierre Polly-Eve might feel kindred spirits with the people of Winnipeg but within his own party, conservative sources tell CBC News this election campaign is not so harmonious. They say the leaders carefully managed events disguise a highly disorganized campaign. And they fear if the conservatives don't pivot, it could cost them the election. The host of CBC's The House, Catherine Cullen, joins me with more.

Catherine, what seems to be the problem? Julianne, more than half a dozen conservative sources are telling CBC News that there are a few problems. First, the campaign itself, which was described to us as a mess, highly disorganized and dysfunctional. Our sources are both in the campaign and outside and we've agreed to withhold their names because they fear reprisals for speaking out. They say power is centralized with Polyam's chief advisor Jenny Byrne, that too many decisions have to go through her and that it's unclear to many what the master plan is. That despite the

party having been trying to force this election for months, some people learned what they were doing on the campaign just hours before it actually began. Sources also say that at the upper echelons of this campaign there is yelling, aggression, and the belittling of staff with one source telling us that a particular staff member was treated in a way that could only be described as bullying. We asked the campaign for comment but a spokesperson declined. And there's also been an increasingly public dispute about the issues the Conservatives are choosing to focus on in this campaign. What can you tell us about that? That's right and it's fueled in part by public dispute about the issues the Conservatives are choosing to focus on in this campaign.

What can you tell us about that? That's right and it's fueled in part by disagreements between the federal Conservatives and their Ontario counterparts. One of our sources described this as civil war. Earlier this week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford's election campaign manager, Cory Tenak, publicly called out the federal Conservatives, saying they were failing to give enough attention to Donald Trump when his treatment of Canada is clearly the valid issue for many Canadians. Here's what tonight had to say at an event at

Toronto's Empire Club. In the campaign cockpit every buzzer and alarm is going off and the plane is like going and it's like pull up pull up pull up. I'll make the case tonight, and hopefully this will permeate the Conservative Party war room somewhere. You've got to get on the $%&% ballot question that is driving votes, or you are going to lose. Now, it's worth noting tonight and Jenny Byrne have crossed paths many times over the years.

There's clearly a difference of vision between the federal and provincial parties too. The fact this is spilling out into the open is what leads one source to call this conservative civil war. But the more pressing issue here, whether the ballot question is the right one, our conservative sources say both Poliev and Byrne do not want to make a bigger shift

than they have already made. Conservative strategist Kate Harrison, who has worked on past campaigns, was on today's episode of the House defending the Conservative approach. Two-thirds of voters still say that their number one issue is cost of living and affordability. I think that there is a link that Conservatives can make between the policies of the last nine years, yes, the threat and the impact of tariffs and this existential threat that Canadians face, without it having this be a referendum on Donald Trump alone.

So rather than pivot further, what is likely to happen, one source suggests, is a bigger counteroffensive against Liberal leader Mark Carney with persistent attacks to drive down his favourability. Catherine, thank you very much for this. Thank you. That's Catherine Cullen reporting from Ottawa. And now to the other major political parties. Ashley Burke begins our campaign coverage with the Liberal leader

as Mark Carney, a political newcomer, looks to win a seat in the House of Commons for the first time. Who's ready? Liberal leader Mark Carney launching his campaign office in Ottawa a week after announcing he's running in Nepean, a battleground that borders his main rival, Conservative leader Pierre Polyev's riding. Who's ready to stand up for Canada? Who's ready to stand up for me, help me to get elected here in the PNIC. Unlike his opponents, Karne doesn't have a seat in the House of Commons and has never held public office before. One of his writing organizers, Simran Sandhu, says some people are asking about it when they're knocking on doors.

The cons I would say is basically the he doesn't have that much of a political background. He was more an economist so but I think that's what we need right now. That's what Canada needs right now. The event caps off Carney's first week of his campaign where he toured Atlantic Canada, southern Ontario and Quebec, and paused his campaign twice to deal with Donald Trump's escalating trade war. My colleague David Thurden has more now on the NDP campaign.

Get food, get food. Got it. Jagmeet Singh is back in the nation's capital, the theme of the day for the NDP campaign. Good food, good mood. Got it. Jagmeet Singh is back in the nation's capital, the theme of the day for the NDP leader, food prices. Especially with Donald Trump in the White House. With all of the threat of Donald Trump and the threats of tariffs, one of the things that's on people's minds is the fact that food is already so expensive.

Will these trade wars and these tariffs mean that my food prices are going to go up even higher? Singh spoke today at a food bank. A big thank you to the Parkdale Food Centre for the tour today. He committed the New Democrats to introducing a mandatory code of conduct for grocery giants. We would impose an emergency cap on food prices to stop them from ripping you off. Singh says that cap would apply to essential food items like pasta, frozen vegetables and infant formula.

Food prices are exceptionally high in the territories and the NDP says it will reform Nutrition North, a subsidy program for northerners. Singh is traveling to campaign Sunday in B.C.'s Lower Mainland. My colleague, Rafi Boujikaneen, is covering the Bloc Québécois. The challenge is Donald Trump. My colleague, Rafi Boujikaneen, is covering the Bloc Québécois. The challenge, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet admits, is Donald Trump. His party has been struggling to elbow its way into the conversation about the U.S. president. This afternoon, it became the first in this campaign to release its platform, which reads

as its attempt to do just that. So it says it will present a private members bill that would force Ottawa to put the first draft of any free trade agreement up for a vote at the House of Commons. There's also a reference to independence. The Bloc wants to prepare the world for a third referendum on Quebec sovereignty.

My job is to convey two things. Who are we and how would we behave coming a yes? Before getting there though, the bloc will have to convince Quebecers it is best suited to deal with Trump while it won't be aspiring to form a government that would have to do just that. Rafi B. Joukani on CBC News, Ottawa.

["The New York Times"] Still ahead? Hundreds of anti-Elon Musk protests are happening around the world this weekend, including in Canada. Fueled by anger over Musk's alignment with Donald Trump and his slashing of the US government, the Tesla takedown movement wants to hit the billionaire where it hurts, his company's stock price. More on that later on Your World Tonight. The number of people killed in Friday's earthquake in Myanmar is now more than 1,600. That grim figure could grow significantly as rescuers search for survivors trapped in the ruins. It was the largest tremor to hit the country in years and was also felt in Thailand,

where workers are still missing under the wreckage of a high rise. Our South Asia correspondent, Sleema Shivji, is in Bangkok tonight. The search in the rubble is painstaking, with buildings flattened and unrecognizable all over Mandalay, Myanmar's second biggest city, close to the epicentre of the massive earthquake. Some victims so deep under the mangled concrete and yelling for help that rescue workers resorted to digging with their bare hands. I'm so worried, says Ye Ung, whose wife was buried but breathing. They're telling me not to talk to her too much because she's so weak.

They don't want her to waste her energy. She was later rescued to cheers after 30 hours under the rubble, one of the lucky ones. The death toll has exploded over the last 24 hours as a clearer picture emerged of the damage the earthquake wrought across the country, long isolated from the world. Hundreds are still trapped and injured and modeling by the US Geological Survey shows the number of dead is expected to rise into the tens of thousands because of how shallow and powerful the quake was, the worst to hit the region in more than a century. In Bangkok, the Thai capital,

more than a thousand kilometres from the epicentre, rescue crews work with excavators to clear the remnants of a skyscraper under construction. That's now just rubble, with more than 80 people still trapped under the concrete slabs. As they search through the dust and debris, family members wait anxiously for any news of their loved ones, after authorities said they detected signs that some 15 people were still alive. Ubon Ratsenawet says she's praying for a miracle,

that her husband of more than 30 years is one of the survivors. that her husband of more than 30 years is one of the survivors. It's the only hope I have left, she says. The same prayer for Niracha Hapum, who wants her boyfriend back safe. I hope miracles are real, the 23-year-old says. I'm waiting to see him. Her boyfriend helped her out of the collapsing, swaying building on Friday, but then went back in to rescue two friends. They're all now missing.

It was their first day of work in the building. As the frantic race to find survivors continues into a second night, aid is now slowly trickling into Myanmar, mainly from the military junta's allies, China, Russia and India. But it will be a long and slow rescue process. The United Nations says severe damage to roads and a shortage of medical supplies are causing problems for the humanitarian rescue operation in a country cut off from the world and in the grips of a civil war

that's already left so many so desperate. Salima Shivji, CBC News, Bangkok. Southeast Asia has the highest percentage of tobacco users in the world according to the World Health Organization. The government in Malaysia is taking steps to curb smoking in that country. But as freelance reporter Dave Grunabam tells us, business owners who sell tobacco products are fuming. products are fuming. Q Kok Ming is a hands-on owner at a small and formal open-air food court just outside Kuala Lumpur.

Just behind his chair is a brightly lit wall displaying packs of cigarettes and vapes that are for sale. About one-fifth of Malaysians age 15 and older smoke. For men, it's one in three. Q says cigarettes and vape sales are about 20 percent of his business. From day one, this is how their setup is. It's all part of the aggregate income in a shop to sell beer and stuff, to sell cigarettes and sell fruits and drinks.

But an incoming regulation in Malaysia will only allow shops that specialize in cigarettes and vapes to openly display them. Business owners like Q will have to keep the products out of sight and only bring them out when a customer makes a purchase. Similar regulations were implemented in Canada province by province starting in 2002. Those rules, along with higher tobacco taxes, led to about 2 million fewer smokers over a 10-year period, according to the Canadian Cancer Society. You see comparable results in countries around the world, which ban point-of-sale displays. Kew says without the displays, sales will drop significantly at his shop, along with thousands of similar types of eateries across Malaysia that also sell cigarettes and vapes.

To us, selling things is fair. Everything is legal. Cigarettes are legal. Vape is legal. Views is legal. So I don't see anything wrong. Why should they come after us to ask us to cover our products to sell it? Banning Point of Sale adds not just prevents impulse buying, in which people then smoke more, it also prevents first-time smokers. Mandy Thu from the National Cancer Society of Malaysia points to the fact that smoking and vaping leads to increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and other health issues. Ultimately, our goal is not targeting smokers or eatery owners.

We are targeting smoking as an issue and we're trying to decrease the rate of smoking. The Malaysian Vapors Alliance says the display ban will place unnecessary restrictions on consumers' access to crucial product information, including nicotine content. It also points to vapes as a tool some smokers use to kick the habit. At Kew's Food Court, customers are given the upcoming new requirements mixed reviews. 28-year-old Aston Yew calls this policy sensible. So I think overall when they are not on display, it attracts less customers and thus overall on a net basis improves the health of Malaysians.

Wai Siaming is also a non-smoker, but he does not support the regulation. Yes, either you completely ban it or you don't, yeah. So if it's allowed, then it should be allowed to be displayed. The new regulation starts April 1st, but after a chorus of complaints from many business owners, Malaysia's health ministry announced this past week that it will not fine violators until October 1st. Fines for first-time offenders can be as high as $6,500. Dave Grunebaum for CBC News, Pedaling Jaya, Malaysia.

The crescent moon has been spotted over Saudi Arabia, which means the holy month of Ramadan is coming to an end and Eid al-Fitr begins on Sunday morning. The crescent moon was seen over all Gulf countries except for Oman. Muslims in that country as well as Iran will celebrate Eid on Monday. Israel is expanding its ground operations in southern Gaza. Israel's military says it's moving into a neighborhood in Rafa. The goal of the operation, it says, is to expand a buffer zone in the Gaza Strip. The IDF says its troops have destroyed Hamas infrastructure in the area. In Khan Younis.

Palestinians mourn several people killed by an Israeli airstrike. Israel resumed bombing Gaza last week in an effort to pressure Hamas to free the remaining hostages. Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 850 Palestinians since then, according to Gaza's health ministry. A large group of protesters clad head to toe in the Turkish flag sing their national anthem. Hundreds of thousands of Turks demonstrated against the jailing of Ekrem Imamolu on corruption charges. The popular mayor is seen as challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His arrest is widely viewed as politically motivated

and set off the largest mass protests in Turkey in over a decade. We are here for the justice of the country. Unfortunately, our country is now... We are here for our rights, this protester says. There's lawlessness in our country. We no longer have faith in the rule of law. More than 2,000 protesters have been arrested since mass protests began 10 days ago.

The global anti-Tesla movement continues to make moves this weekend. Protesters angry with the electric automaker CEO Elon Musk demonstrated in hundreds of communities from Berlin to BC's Lower Mainland. CBC's Jennifer LaGrasse has more. Dozens of people protested outside of a Tesla dealership in Ottawa with signs that say Elon Musk go he must and nobody elected Musk. The rally is one of many across Canada, the United States and Europe. People are calling the movement a Tesla takedown. Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla, an electric vehicle company.

The billionaire also oversees the US Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. In recent weeks, it has led major cuts to government spending and programs, leaving Musk facing a lot of backlash. Musk, stay in your lane. Protester Ella Heider is an American who's lived in Canada for 30 years.

I feel strongly that Musk is helping to overthrow democracy in the US, and he also has fascist leanings. Elon go away. That's protester Jean Obey's message to Musk. We have to defend democracy. Tesla's shares and electric vehicle sales have been hard hit. In December the company was trading at an all-time high but since then its value has dropped by about 40 percent. There's also been several incidents of targeted vandalism towards the vehicles. Tesla has not responded to CBC's request for comment, but in a previous interview Musk talked about the impacts his political work has had on his business.

I think a great wrong is being done to the people of Tesla and to our customers. We don't usually see that dramatic a reaction. Ken Wong is a business school professor at Queen's University in Ontario. As long as Musk is involved with US President Donald Trump, Wong predicts that Tesla will suffer. Elon Musk is seen as number one, not an elected official, and therefore we have no control over him per se. As long as people feel some uncertainty

about Donald Trump and his unwavering support of Elon Musk, you're going to see this kind of behavior persist. Because we simply need to feel in some sense that we're doing something to exert some control over our environment. I don't necessarily love what Musk is doing. Gad Elmosnino is the vice president of technology with Club Tesla Quebec and has owned a Tesla

since 2011. Despite being a supporter of the company, he doesn't agree with the actions of its CEO. I think he is affecting the general perception of the company overall and that's unfortunate because it's an amazing company with amazing products. He says he'd like to see Tesla distance itself from Musk. But in the meantime, he hopes people will realize that just because someone owns a Tesla doesn't mean they subscribe to Musk's beliefs.

Jennifer LaGrasa, CBC News, Toronto. The interim president of New York's Columbia University has stepped down, a week after agreeing to a list of demands by the Trump administration. It pulled funding from Columbia, accusing it of not doing enough to protect Jewish students who felt harassed by pro-Palestinian protests. But now as international students in the US are having their visas revoked and other academic institutions are coming under ideological scrutiny, some see the moves as a government-led chill on freedom of expression. Chris Reyes reports. Up, up with liberation! Down, down with deportation!

A chorus of alarm and anxiety is getting louder by the day. As the Trump administration's crackdown on students involved in last year's pro-Palestinian movement continues with arrests and cancelled visas. This week, a University of Alabama student Elereza Deroudi from Iran was reportedly taken from his home by US immigration agents while another Ramesa Osterk, a Turkish national doing her PhD at Tufts University near Boston, was handcuffed and hauled away in the middle of the day on a public street. CCTV security footage clearly captured

the moment it happened. Fatima Ahmad is executive director of the Muslim Justice League. I think a lot of the students are really very worried that because they have been speaking up about Palestine, about the violence there, that they will now be targeted like their friend was. That fear comes as Columbia University, where some of last year's largest pro-Palestinian encampments took place, loses its leader once again. Dr. Katrina Armstrong resigned on Friday,

just as the university agreed to yield to demands from the Trump administration that include restrictions on demonstrations, new disciplinary procedures, and a review of the university's Middle East curriculum. In a statement, she wrote, I appreciate having had the opportunity to play a small part in navigating this vast enterprise through some of the most difficult moments in its history. The world needs Columbia University and you can be assured that I will do everything I can to tell that story. On the streets protesters are vowing not to let up. In New York they've regularly gathered calling for the release of a Columbia University student Mahmoud Halil a US permanent resident

Who was arrested and detained earlier this month? he was a prominent organizer of the protests at Columbia and the US government has accused him of supporting Hamas a representative for American Muslims for Palestine says Halil's case is part of a bigger issue This case is about of a bigger issue. This case is about the kind of America that we want. Will we live in a democratic nation that upholds its values, its constitution and laws, or will we allow it to be reshaped into an authoritarian state that suppresses dissent and silences justice?

Civil rights groups have vowed to keep fighting the deportation orders in court. state that suppresses dissent and silences justice. Civil rights groups have vowed to keep fighting the deportation orders in court. Chris Reyes, CBC News, New York. The Trump administration's battle against higher education has led to three prominent U.S. academics leaving Yale University and taking up posts in this country. As Deanna Sumanak-Johnson reports, experts say the U.S. brain drain could be Canada's brain gain. I truly believe that the University of Toronto has a commitment here, as does the country of Canada,

to be a vanguard of democracy. More than just a philosophy professor, Jason Stanley is a prominent public voice. Stanley, who until recently taught at Yale, authored the book How Fascism Works and has been an outspoken critic of what he sees as anti-democratic practices of Donald Trump. Which is why Stanley said he'd accepted an offer to teach at University of Toronto's Monk Center. And the only reason I'm leaving Yale is because of this.

We have a regime that's targeting the media, universities, education and our social welfare system. The Trump administration's crackdown on academic institutions has taken several forms. Universities have been instructed to curb pro-Palestinian protests on campus, which the administration alleges are anti-Semitic. Researchers applying for federal grants are being questioned about whether their work deals with gender studies or climate change. But some of that could potentially spell out good news for Canadian institutions

that are now in position to scoop up some of those top scholars. You can call it brain gain. Remy Quirion holds the position of chief scientist in Quebec. He is the chief scientific advisor to the province. That's something we're working on at the moment like in Quebec and I know also the Canadian government is thinking about that to say maybe at first recruiting back Canadian that are in the US that were thinking of doing their career in the US but now are questioning it. They say maybe I should go back to Quebec, I should go back to Canada. But this move is happening at a tricky time for Canadian institutions. Federal caps and international student

enrollment hit especially colleges but also some universities badly, triggering massive revenue shortfalls, layoffs and program suspensions. Gabriel Miller, president and CEO of Universities Canada, says he's calling on the federal government and all the campaigning leaders to invest into Canada's universities, in part so they can compete on the global market when trying to attract top academic talent. All of the parties in this election campaign need to acknowledge that Canada has to attract the best and brightest for us to grow our economy in the future.

We need to make it easier to bring the best and brightest here. The wait time for a study permit to get through our immigration system is too long for people. As Canada's academic institutions try to not just survive but thrive in a challenging global moment. Deanna Sumanac-Johnson, CBC News, Toronto. And finally, the Juneau Awards take centre stage this weekend. A celebration of Canadian music and talent. And for the first time in the show's history, the nominees for Best Album of the Year are

sung in four different languages. That's Elisapi's version of Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time. The Inuk singer created an album of covers, her favorite rock and pop classics from when she was growing up in Sao Luis, Quebec. She translated all the tunes into a nuke-titude, and that's what she called the album. My little project I've been wanting to do since forever is to sing songs that are dear to me, that remind us of, you us of our memories when we were kids. So it was like a gift I wanted to do to my family, to myself.

Then you have Sukka's debut, Undisputed, performed in Punjabi. The Toronto rapper only started releasing music a few years ago and has already established a Canadian and international audience. The nominees whose albums are sung in English are Josh Ross, a country music artist from Burlington, Ontario, for complicated, and Calgary pop star Tate McCrase, Think Later. The two are leading the Junos pack with five nominations each. Roxanne Bruneau's Submergée is the final contender for Best Album of the Year. At first she thought it was a mistake. Shouldn't she be in the francophone category?

She asked her manager. But no, she's up for the Juno's top prize. And it's Canadians who ultimately decide who's in the running. The nominees for best album of the year are based on sales and streaming numbers. The artists have already proven themselves among listeners across the country. This has been Your World Tonight for Saturday, March 29th, 2025. I'm Juliane Hazelwood.

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