Your World Tonight - Dalhousie lockout, lack of spare military parts, remembering Graham Greene, and more

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

The first day of school is a lunch bag letdown for students at Dalhousie University in Halifax. A lockout means most classes have been cancelled, and it’s not clear when they will start up again.And: The military has a spare parts problem. A CBC exclusive on Canada’s battle readiness.Also: The legacy of Graham Greene. The Oscar-nominated Canadian actor died yesterday. He lit up stages and screens for decades, leaving a powerful legacy for Indigenous talent.Plus: Landslide in Sudan, Trump says he will send the national guard to Chicago, Chinese students launch a class action lawsuit over delayed study permits, rebuilding the Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza border after October 7th, and more.

All right, look, I am not going to lie to you. I love when an album drops, and it just, I know it's going to define my entire summer. And that is how I'm feeling about this new Lord album. My name is Alameen Abdul-Mahmood. I host a show called Commotion. And that is where we talk about the biggest stories in entertainment and pop culture, like this new Lord album, or the Haim album, or whatever great new music is defining our soundtrack for the summer. Come hang with us.

Follow Commotion wherever you get your podcast. This is a CBC podcast. Pretty upset about it. I prefer that, like, we start as soon as possible. I mean, I'm paying for this. I'm here, and I'm ready to go. On campus, but out of class, Dalhousie University students show up for the first day,

only to see a management faculty contract fight derail the start of the school year. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Tuesday, September 2nd, just before 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. The government of Canada just told me that we got your back. And I had the priority of parts that are available in the Canadian system. With the Russian threat ever present, Canada has a big job leading the NATO mission in Latvia. But old questions about aging equipment and the forces readiness for action hang over a dangerous frontier. As students returned to school today across the country, thousands in Nova Scotia could not.

Atlantic Canada's biggest university, Dalhousie, has cancelled most classes because of a contract dispute with faculty, leaving students frustrated. Kayla Hounsel reports. Not the sounds usually heard in the beginning of September at Dalhousie University in Halifax. No students typing furious. no professors lecturing. Instead, they're on the picket line. And students are not sure what they should be doing. Classes were supposed to start today. I have no classes. Savannah Burden is a first year student from Newfoundland. I'm just moving to Dow, just trying to figure it out, trying to find

my classes, and it's hard because it's like we don't know what's going on. We don't know when class is going to start. It's very overwhelming. Elizabeth Tia is just starting a science degree. I think it's like important that they do it. I support it fully. It's just like, it sucks that it has to happen now. Members of the Dalhousie Faculty Association have been off the job since August 20th after being locked out by the university when the two sides were not able to reach an agreement on a new contract. The union, which represents nearly 1,000 professors,

instructors, librarians, and professional counselors, then went on strike two days later. We had no choice because otherwise they would lock us out for two weeks, save our money, make us do our class preparation for free, and then recall us the day classes start. So we only went on strike to guard against more abusive behavior on the part of the administration. David Westwood is the president of the Dalhousie Faculty Association

and a kinesiology professor at Dal. He says the faculty is asking for child care, parental leave benefits, and more money. The university is offering a 6% wage increase over three years, but the faculty is asking for 14.25% over three years. That's the amount of deficit we're in, simply to keep pace with cost of living. That's not a wage increase.

That's climbing out of a wage hole. But the university says it can't afford to pay its professors more. It says Delhousie has to reduce expenses by at least $75 million by the end of the 2027-28 fiscal year. There's no date for talks to resume, leaving nearly 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students directionless. Walid Umaru is an international student from Egypt. It shouldn't be that way, right, because you know,

definitely paying a lot and you just want to come, settle in, have your classes start, and just go everything smoothier. But having all these issues, it's a bit like, you know, like worrisome. Not the way any student would like to start what should be an exciting time thinking of bright futures. Kela Hounsel, CBC News, Halifax. Some international students from China are also stuck in academic limbo, and they're launching a class action lawsuit against the federal government. The group of 25 would-be graduate students says their application to study

in Canada is being held up over unfounded national security concerns. Thomas Dagla reports. Basically this year is very painful year. For Yisen Chang from Hangzhou, China, it's been an agonizing 16-month wait. Accepted

last year to a PhD program in computer science at UBC, Chang says federal immigration officials are still reviewing his request for a study permit. Biggest loss for me is the one year time. Like how much would you pay for like one year in your 20s? It's priceless.

He's not alone. Chang is one of 25 Chinese students all enrolled in Canadian graduate programs related to science, tech and math who've turned to a Toronto immigration lawyer for help. I think they're being treated discriminately here. Lawyer Vakas Bilsen has filed an application with the federal court demanding immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada provide the students with answers. He says his clients have all been undergoing lengthy security screenings involving the intelligence service ceases.

The decision-making process was not transparent because the students was not told why an extensive security check was required in their specific circumstances. But Bilsen has a hunch. He points to a case in 2023 involving a would-be PhD student from China barred from a Canadian engineering program. The federal court ruled the man could be pressured by Beijing into spying. And now the lawyer fears that decision is having ripple effects on his clients.

They're facing this uncertainty, and this is not setting a good example for other international students. If they were studying romance languages, nobody would be concerned. Ward Elcock is a former director of CIS. He says it stands to reason. Chinese students are being given a closer look, even though each security screening can be a painstaking process. It means going through databases. It means checking with allies in some cases.

If it's taking longer because the service is understaffed, that's another issue. In the meantime, students like Li Zhen in Beijing are left in limbo. He's awaiting word on a study permit to attend the University of Montreal. Canada closed the door to China. In a statement to CBC News, Canada's Immigration Department acknowledges some students are experiencing longer than normal wait times for processing.

But a spokesperson insists all applicants are subject to the same screening, no matter what country they're from. Thomas Daigle, CBC News, Toronto. The Alberta government is rewriting its order for school libraries to remove some books

from their shelves. The rules are aimed at books with explicit sexual content, a draft list from Edmonton Public Schools, included the color purple, the godfather, Jaws, and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Atwood took to social media to condemn the policy. Premier Daniel Smith says the new order will be

to remove books with pornographic images and leave the classics alone. Coming right up, is the Canadian military weaker than the sum of its parts? That's a key question facing Canada's leadership position. heading the NATO mission in Latvia. And was he breaking the law to fight lawlessness? A U.S. court rejects Donald Trump's use of the National Guard

to enforce immigration rules, even as the U.S. president says he'll send troops to Chicago. Later, we'll have this story. I'm Deanna Sumanek Johnson in Toronto. An Oscar-nominated actor has died, leaving behind a rich legacy of memorable, groundbreaking roles. A producer, a writer, director, could say, I want Mr. Green to play a trombone in a big band.

Graham would do it and do it with such an excellence that it would change the way others look at the industry and at him. Reflecting on the life and career of Graham Green, that's coming up on Your World Tonight. Canada's Army has a spare parts problem, and it's hampering a NATO mission led by Canada in Latvia. The issue is affecting military vehicles, equipment, even the battle readiness of our troops. Defense correspondent Murray Brewster has the exclusive details.

Drive like a boat. Drives like a boat. What kind of boat? Prime Minister Mark Carney, recently walking a gauntlet of military vehicles at Camp Adagi in Latvia. So this is cutting edge. All of it spit and polish. Tanks, armored vehicles, draped in camouflage and looking showroom ready. If only the Prime Minister would have known what it likely took to get them to that parking lot. CBC News has obtained internal D&D documents that show during a recent training exercise alongside NATO allies in Latvia this summer, up to 30% of the Canadian contingent was considered

combat ineffective because vehicles were not available, mostly because of spare part shortages. The government of Canada just told me that we got your back. Colonel Chris Reeves is the Canadian commander of the NATO Brigade in Latvia. He acknowledges supply chain issues notably with the Leopard 2 tanks are something they're trying to manage. We have not completely squared that away. The readiness that I have is very high, and I have the priority of parts that are available in the Canadian system.

But the minister just told me that that's one of his top priorities, and he's actively working on it. The internal documents, however, paint a stark picture, saying not only tanks, but Lave 6 light armored vehicles, command and control vehicles, and utility trucks that tow howitzers, have all been pulled off the road at various times. The government's pursuing a major rebooting of the Canadian Armed Forces. Defense Minister David McGinty, noting that some of the $9.3 billion recently announced by the Carney government,

he is meant to help unplug supply chain bottlenecks and refill spare part bins. We're going to take our lead from the professionals who run the Canadian companies. in our forces. We're obviously working with them to see what their needs are and how to get those needs met. But the shortage of spares has been chronic and intractable for years. This is not acceptable. Andrew Leslie is a retired lieutenant general and former commander of the Canadian Army who says decades of underfunding is partly to blame, including the former Trudeau government's plan to give the military more money to buy equipment, but also force D&D to cut elsewhere. The Ukraine's desperate fighting as a result of the 20,

2022 invasion has been going on for three years. By now, for heaven's sake, we should have figured out how to keep our troops in harm's way with the right levels of equipment, with the right levels of spare. Not all of the woes are money related. Some of it is bureaucracy. For example, the leopard tanks. Spare parts are manufactured in Germany, but instead of shipping them directly to Latvia, D&D has required they be sent to Canada, where they're logged in the system, and then ship back to Europe. Marie Brewster, CBC News, Ottawa. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has arrived in the Chinese capital, Beijing.

He will join 25 other heads of states of non-Western nations. Earlier China's president, Xi Jinping, welcomed Russia's Vladimir Putin to his home for meetings, calling him an old friend. Together, Xi, Putin, and Kim are set to take center stage at a massive military parade on Wednesday. The parade is significant for Xi as he seeks to assert Beijing's economic and diplomatic might on the international stage. A U.S. judge says U.S. President Donald Trump broke federal law when he deployed the National Guard during immigration raids and ensuing anti-ice protests in L.A. back in June. Now Trump says he's sending troops into Chicago.

Paul Hunter has more from Washington on Trump's law enforcement take. in major American cities. Chicago is a hellhole right now. As U.S. President Donald Trump frames it, Chicago is in desperate need for the U.S. National Guard to go into that city and, in a sense, save it from itself. You can go to Afghanistan, you can go to places that you would think of.

They don't even come close to this. Many take issue with that suggestion. Underlining Chicago's crime rate broadly is dropping. But this past weekend, weekend, dozens of shootings left multiple people killed and wounded. And so, says Trump, well, we're going in. I didn't say when, we're going in. When you lose, look, I have an obligation. This isn't a political thing. I have an obligation. All of that in the weeks since Trump sent in National Guard troops first to Los Angeles, then Washington, D.C. in both cases, citing the need to

push back on violence. Today, after a court challenge on Trump's moves by California Governor Gavin Newsom, a federal judge in that state ruling Trump's action in L.A. was illegal, that military force cannot be used within the U.S. to enforce domestic laws. Trump says he'll challenge that in the Supreme Court. No federal troops in the city of Chicago. In Chicago this weekend, the city's mayor made his position clear. We're going to defend our democracy in the city of Chicago. And here's Illinois Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker this afternoon. None of this is about fighting crime or making Chicago

safer. None of it. For Trump, it's about testing his power and producing a political drama to cover up for his corruption. And yet, in Chicago, the view by some at street level is maybe something needs to be done. Here's Chicago and Amina Huck. The residents deserve more. They deserve to feel safe. The crime should not take over the city. The crime should not make residents feel like they can't live everyday life.

And here's city alderman Raymond Lopez, a Democrat. I had two teenagers shot in my community this weekend alone. So when I hear my Democratic colleagues tell me, don't worry, crime is down. Trump stay home in Washington. I have a real hard time accepting that. The real question for many, how far will Trump go? Suggesting again today that after Chicago, he may well send troops into Baltimore. Hinting also, this kind of thing may be in place for the long haul.

Paul Hunter's CBC News, Washington. There are desperate pleas tonight from Sudan's Darfur region. Tarrantial rains triggered a massive landslide that buried a remote village. Hundreds are either dead or may. missing. Aid agencies warn relief efforts will be slow. As Ethel Mousa explains, it is an added misery to an area already serving as a refuge for people running from a bloody civil war. Video posted to social media shows people frantically digging away at mounds of mud, likely looking for survivors, of a deadly landslide in central Darfur's Mara Mountains.

It happened before, but this time it was very serious. Shahab Mohamed Ali is with the NGO Islamic relief. He says the rugged volcanic region has narrow roads that can be difficult to reach and maneuver. Especially during the rainy season, because in the rainy season there will be some water streams that is difficult to cross. The Mara Mountains are located southwest of Elfashir, North Darfur's capital city and the epicenter of fighting between the rapid support forces paramilitary or RSF and the country's. army. The two factions have been locked in a civil war for more than two years. These families who had taken refuge in the Maram Mountains, one, they had been displaced by the conflict and now this natural disaster. Arjaman Hussein is with Plan International. The charity is trying

to get aid to those affected by the landslide, but the conditions are making it impossible. Most of the humanitarian transportation activities are on hold currently. And once it gets moving, it will need the approval of both the RSF and the Army to reach the area. So tragedy within the tragedy. Antoine Girard is the UN's Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan. He says the situation could get worse in the coming days and weeks. We may see other landslides, we may see floods, we may see other communities affected. in the rainy season.

Meanwhile, Arjaman Hussein says he doesn't see Sudan's conflict abating, nor the need for humanitarian aid, especially for children. We understand there are multiple other humanitarian crisis currently in the world, which get a lot of attention and rightly so. But Sudan is currently the largest humanitarian crisis in the sense that it has the largest number of refugees and the internally displaced people anywhere in the world. The U.N. says nearly 13 million people have been displaced by Sudan's civil war

and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed. Now, a landslide has destroyed a safe haven for those trying to escape the fighting. Ivel Musa, CBC News, Toronto. As Israel calls up military reservists to widen its offensive in Gaza City, residents of some Israeli villages near the border are being told to return home. But for some families, going back to live at the sites of the October 7th Hamas attacks, it's complicated. Susan Ormiston traveled there to see how people are starting to rebuild.

This is very painful. Yeah. It's painful to see and it's painful to be around, but it also reminds me why we're here. Neve Rijewski walks us around Kibbutz Niroz. Some homes still blackened shells, just as they wore. after Hamas militants torched this community nearly two years ago.

Because this is the family that lived here? Yeah, that's right. The Kadam family. We're looking at family photos posted at the entrance to one destroyed home. They were all murdered in the 7th of October.

More than 120 people, one in four here, were killed or taken hostage. Near Oz had been evacuated ever since. This is like a memorial. Yeah, in many ways, it's a monument

and it's important to know. why we're here and who was before us. It can be all forgotten. Rachevsky is part of a group of 30 Israeli youth who are moving to Neroz to rebuild and encourage other families to come back. The Israeli government recently reopened 12 areas, just a few kilometers from the Gaza border. The military, calculating in June, there was no immediate security threat.

But you can still hear the war. And with a new offense of underway in Gaza City, some families resent being forced back. After being out of our home for almost two years, we wanted to come back when it's quiet. When we are not going back to a war zone. Yail Raz Lachiani lived in neighboring Nahal Oz. Hamas militants killed 15 people here and took eight hostages.

Do you think you all in the board, community can live next to Palestinians in Gaza again? Look, former me would say time will tell. Because back in the past, I believe it's possible. Today, I can't tell. I have to start and fix myself, my family, my community, my country, before I'm dealing with what going on. The new houses are here?

Yeah. The government has ended most of the housing subsidies for families evacuated from border areas and has a five-year plan to rebuild new homes are under construction. I feel like from this foundation can rise something new, something great. Rachevsky shows us the frame

of his home to be right at the perimeter fence of the kibbutz within sight of Gaza. Can you hear the airstrikes from here? We can. Mostly at night. I do think about it every time I hear

that explosions. What people that don't have two meters of concrete above their head feeling about this explosion. And it's heartbreaking, you know. Heartbreaking. For me. He wants the war to end

to start reconstruction on both sides of the border. Susan Ormiston, CBC News, Niroz, Israel. 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.

Canadian Graham Green is being remembered today as an actor who paved the way for indigenous talent. His career spanned decades with roles on screen and on stage. The Oscar nominated actor died yesterday at 73. Dianna Sumanak Johnson looks at his love. He says, life and legacy. You finish your pipe. Born to an Anida First Nations family in Ontario, Graham Green didn't become a famous actor young. He worked as a draftsman, a steel worker,

and built theater sets while landing small roles in theater and television. His life experience allowed him to create memorable characters on stage and screen, each lifelike and different, like Leonard Quinghagach on Northern Exposure. Clearly to you, as to a lot of people, life is a dance. And for that, you need a partner, a husband.

In 1991, Green played the role that got him noticed worldwide as Sue Medicine Man, kicking bird in the Kevin Costner directed movie, Dances with Wolves. Welcome. Welcome. Green took the opportunity seriously. I'll be damned if anybody's going to push me off this heap. I know I'm going to fight as hard as I can to stay there and get more writers, more actors,

more storytellers, more film crews, you know, anybody in the technical end to seriously get on board. Actor Tom Jackson, who lost out the role of kicking Bird to Green, became lifelong friends with him in the 1990s. He says Green's talent broke boundaries. Director could say, I want Mr. Green to play a trombone in a big band. That's Korea would do it. He would do that and do it with some.

such an excellence that it would change the way others look at the industry and at him. In 2007, Green took to the stage as Shylock in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's The Merchant of Venice. He also took parts in major blockbuster franchises like Die Hard and Twilight. The artistic director of Canada's imaginative film festival, Lindsay Montour, says the impact of his roles on indigenous artists and audiences alike was major. I think that, you know, to our people, it didn't really matter if he was, you know, a sidekick or a supporting role. Like, his presence was so huge on screen that it didn't really matter. He was just that great. Greatness that was recognized just earlier this year when Green received the Governor General's Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award.

He reflected on it in an interview on CBC Radio's Q. That was a major coup, I thought. Wow. Why me? A modest question with an answer known to his many fans around. the world. Graham Green was 73. Deanna Sumanack Johnson, CBC News, Toronto. Finally, the results were quite striking. As summer draws to an end and many Canadians begin to consider the need to head for hibernation, a new health study is urging people to keep doing even small amounts of physical activity, walk up a hill, play with your kids, lift a load of groceries now and then. Many of you would just think that physical activity is a pain, exercise is a

pain. It's another thing we have to do and we're busy with other things. That's University of Sydney Professor Emmanuel Stemotakis, a leading expert in physical activity. As he addressed Oxford University students last fall, he admitted, most people don't exercise regularly. So his latest findings explored a new scientist are getting attention. He found that as little as one minute of vigorous, unplanned activity, just five or ten seconds at a time, could add six years or more to people's lives compared to people who did nothing. The professor studied results from 3,300 U.S. subjects, many in poor health, and the biggest longevity gains were for people who said they didn't exercise.

All activity picked up by the trackers is incidental activity, because we know these people are non-exercisers. So, as you turn away from summer towards a hectic fall, the professor wants you to find time just a little bit to do simple things that really could change your life. Thanks for joining us on your world tonight for Tuesday, September 2nd. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. cbc.ca slash podcasts.