Your World Tonight - Destruction in L.A., Rideau Canal skateway reopens, Antarctic ice research and more

Episode Date: January 11, 2025

Wildfires have been sweeping through Los Angeles for five straight days. Whole neighbourhoods have been turned to ash. Despite a brief lull in the winds, they are expected to pick back up - and firefighters are still having difficulty containing the flames.Also: After a string of disappointing seasons, the Rideau Canal has opened for public skating this winter. Its the earliest opening of the skateway since 2018. But as Canada experiences warmer winters, the future of the skateway is unpredictable.And: A team of scientists in Antarctica is studying a chunk of ice drilled from deep below the earth's surface. They're hoping ancient particles within the ice will help to understand the history and future of Earth's climate.Plus: An apartment building in Iqaluit destroyed by fire, homelessness crisis in Ontario, and more

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I'm Amy Scanderis. This is your World Tonight. On the podcast, the Rideau Canal is open for skating once more. But as Canada experiences warmer winters, could it one day be a thing of the past? Speaking of historic ice, scientists have drilled deep below Antarctica, hoping to understand the history and future of Earth's climate. Plus, are the raging wildfires in California a warning sign to Canada? But first, we go to LA for the latest on those fires. Wildfires have now been sweeping through Los Angeles for five straight days. Neighborhoods have been turned to ash. And despite a brief lull in the winds,

firefighters are still having difficulty containing the flames. Six big fires are still burning in Los Angeles County. At least 11 people have been killed and some 12,000 structures have been destroyed. 100,000 people are under an evacuation order. Journalist Steve Futterman is in the Pacific Palisades for us. In the Mandeville Canyon section of Los Angeles, the Palisades Fire, the largest in the series of fires burning in and around LA pushed towards hundreds of homes. All week long fire crews have faced similar challenges, but at this location firefighters were ready when the flames began creeping closer.

The fire did start coming this way this morning. We had all our lines in place, personnel in place, so all the homes undamaged up in this corridor. Ryan Chadwick is with the Valley Regional Fire Authority in Washington State but even he knows there is only so much firefighters can do. If the winds kick up I mean we're kind of at the mercy of God right there right. At the moment the winds are mild but on Sunday night they are predicted to increase significantly. Today in the mandatory evacuation area we were in, we found virtually all the homes vacated. There was one man though who stubbornly has refused to leave. Yeah we're in good shape here. Thank God, by the grace of God and His infinite mercy I believe our street is safe. That's all I got to say man, you know it came really close, really close.

For many of course it has been a week of heartbreak. Thousands have been forced to leave their homes, homes that some will never see again. But even those whose homes haven't been threatened have been impacted. Canadian broadcaster George Stroumpelopoulos lives in Hollywood. He has friends who had minutes to escape. My friend of mine was at home, went to take a shower, got out of the shower to the knocking of their door from their neighbor saying, got to go, got to go, got to go. In that 10 minutes, her place was on fire and she was out.

I mean, I know so many people who've lost everything but the clothes they were wearing as they ran out of the house. Amidst all the life and death moments, remarkably this weekend there has been a subplot to all this. A nasty public dispute between the LA mayor and fire chief over how much money the fire department should have received this year. Today they both tried to play it down. Mayor Karen Bass.

The fire chief and I are focused on fighting these fires and saving lives and any differences that we might have will be worked out in private. Firefighters are battling the flames on the ground and from the air with helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, and longtime veterans of the department are nearly unanimous in saying they never expected to see anything this destructive.

Steve Futterman for CBC News, Los Angeles. Here in Canada, experts say the fires in California could offer a glimpse into our future. As Michelle Gassou reports, they say lessons need to be learned before fire season begins. The fires ripping through L.A. moved so fast, people fled as their homes burned. Conditions the people of Lytton, Kelowna, Jasper and Fort McMurray know all too well. But the level of destruction in California is unprecedented and a sign of what could come. Lucy Granger is with Fire Smart. California is a good place to look to to see what kind of conditions

we might see in parts of BC in the future. While there are parallels to be drawn, Canada's Western climate is wetter than California's and our coastal vegetation less prone to burn. But John Valiant, author of Fire Weather, says with climate change supercharging conditions, fires will become more powerful. You know, when the fire is raging like that, when you have a full-blown firestorm, it doesn't matter if you're in the Canadian sub-Arctic or Southern California, water has no effect on these things. Many of the homes lost in LA were built on bone-dry hillsides,

similar to many neighborhoods in Kelowna. Even so, they'd survived generations of fire starts until now. But you got to face the fact that some of these houses, these buildings were a hundred years old. So whatever fires had come through there, they'd been able to fight them off. And what's different now, again, is the notion of the unfightable fire. And that's where climate change has kind of loaded the dice in fires' favour. Michia Bourbonnais with UBC Okanagan says California's conditions are more challenging. Their urban firescapes are much more densely populated than the communities at risk here,

but they're also better resourced than Canada. You know, California does a lot of prescribed burning. They do a lot of fuel treatments and you know, the amount of resources that they can bring to a fire like this far exceeds what we can in Canada. And so I think it just really speaks to more like, you know, the scale of the issue we're doing with and just making sure that we're prepared. Granger says preparation is key and there are misconceptions about how fire spreads from home to home.

Homes don't ignite from a wall of flame during a wildfire. Research shows that 50 to 90 percent of homes that are destroyed during a wildfire are actually ignited by embers or by sparks. The good news is that by removing flammable materials from around your home and the vegetation on your property, you can actually prevent embers from collecting and then prevent the house from igniting. — Concrete steps to take with another fire season

around the corner. Michelle Gassoub, CBC News, Vancouver. Parts of Ottawa's Rideau Canal have opened to ice skaters for the season. It's the earliest skating season on the canal since 2018. But while Ottawa skaters can enjoy a good time on the ice, it won't be for a long time. Philipp Lee Shanock tells us why. Were you going to skate the whole thing? Yes.

Johnny Kung takes his daughter for a skate the whole thing? Yes. Johnny Kung takes his daughter for a skate on the Rideau Canal. He hopes it will be the first of many. The last two years haven't been great in terms of skating weather. The conditions are fantastic. It's the earliest opening since December 2018 and follows a couple years of disappointment. Last year there were only 10 days of skating.

Bruce Devine of the National Capital Commission takes care of the skateway. He says after an early cold snap there was a warm December but they got lucky. During the warm period we didn't lose much. So when we came back on January 3rd we started flooding every night and it's really cold. It's only a four kilometer stretch about half of what's open in a normal year but Devine expects the weather to hold long enough for a 30-day season. Mary Forbes says for her skating the Rideau is like the return of an old friend. It's like I don't know 15 or 20 years ago I remember it was open till March 31st

and opened early so even 30 days would be great. Steven Flissfeder of Environment Canada says after the warmest year on record this winter has been close to normal. So it is a hope that winter activities can continue at least in the short term and it's important to take advantage of them when we can. Jennifer Prew and her family came up from Vermont to take advantage of them when we can. Jennifer Prue and her family came up from Vermont to skate the canal for the first time. We're loving it we've wanted to do

this for years it was on a bucket list. But while parts of Ontario and Quebec have had consistently cold temperatures Peter Galbraith a research scientist at the Maurice Lamontagne Institute in Rimouski says the ice cover has been slow to form in the Gulf of St. Lawrence this year. There's really nothing on the ice chart at all at this time and the water is still in the Gulf a few degrees, up to three degrees above freezing. He says it's the sixth winter in a row the ice has not formed

and he says warm sea temperatures now could mean another hotter than normal summer. Back on the banks of the Rideau Beatrice Lazar, who now lives in the San Francisco area, is happy to see so many out on the ice. It's a little bit emotional because it's so sad that it's changed so much. Like I grew up here and I was used to it being open every year. The canal didn't open at all during the 2022-23 season due to mild temperatures. A first and only time in its more than 55 year history.

Filthy Shannock, CBC News, Toronto. Another prominent Liberal cabinet minister will be leaving government after the next election. Transport Minister Anita Anand says she is not seeking re-election and will not enter the race to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader. Anand was first elected in 2019 and has served in multiple cabinet positions, including Defence Minister and Minister of Public Services and Procurement. In a statement on X, Anand says she intends to return to her career as a professor. Still ahead, we've long heard about the doctor shortage in this country. So why is it so difficult

for internationally trained doctors to practice here? We're taking a closer look at that coming up on Your World Tonight. In Iqaluit, 36 families lost their homes this week after a fire on Wednesday destroyed an apartment building. Mahnoor Mubarak tells us how the community is coming together to support the displaced families. That's the sound of sirens going off as emergency responders worked on the fire. One woman lost everything because of it. Maggie Akpig had to evacuate her building. She drove by it later that night and saw the fire getting bigger and bigger. I kind of knew that it was gonna it was gonna be gone.

She's currently staying in a hotel with her four girls. She says that she was only able to cry about what happened after her children fell asleep. It felt weird like I was very numb and I was just mostly worried about the girls how they felt. The community rallied to show their support for the victims. The City of Iqaluit has opened up a warming shelter. They're taking in donations there. People have been giving items like clothing and food where people affected by the fire can pick them up.

Volunteers at the Cadet Hall were gathered together to help there. Amber Aglukuk has been helping out with the relief efforts. She says hundreds of items have been donated and people who lost their homes are grateful. They're breaking down the moment they walk into the cadet hall and seeing how much stuff is available to them. The day after the fire a non-profit organization, the Ukutak Society, also hosted a free lunch and dinner to those who were displaced. We're opening our doors to those affected, you know, serving hot lunches and hot dinners so folks can at the very least have something nutritious in their belly in this dire time

of need. The Nunavut Housing Corporation, or NHC, is finding hotels or other housing units for those affected. They expect to begin the move into other units from this weekend. As for right now, 16 housing units are available for people to move into to meet their immediate needs so far, and that number continues to grow. The Iqaluit Fire Department is investigating the fire with support from Iqaluit RCMP and the Nunavut Fire Marshal's office. As for Akpik, who lost her home, she has a message of hope for the displaced victims. We can still help each other and stay connected.

Mahanur Mubarak, CBC News, Iqaluit. A newly released report is putting a number on Ontario's homelessness crisis. It says more than 80,000 people in the province were homeless in 2024, a number that has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Lisa Xing reports. In the frigid early hours one morning this week a man was found on the streets in downtown Ottawa in cardiac arrest. He later died in hospital. How tragic that we're in the nation's capital and someone passed on the street. Tanya O'Connor lives in the area and would often say hi to him.

He was just a part of the community and a fixture here. And to not have him here is heartbreaking. That man, one of a growing number of people living on the street or in shelters in the province, the focus of new research from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, or AMO, saying the crisis is at a tipping point. It found more than 80,000 people were homeless last year, half of them chronically so. The number has jumped 25% from 2022, AMO President Robin Jones. Those numbers are shocking. That's not the ceiling.

Those are the people that we're aware of. We know that this is the minimum. The vast majority are in urban centres in southern Ontario, but that number is growing in rural and northern communities. It's not as visible as it is in an urban centre, but this time of year it became much more evident in rural Ontario because we could see footprints going into bush areas. Cities are asking for more funding, including from the province, saying communities need $11 billion over 10 years for prevention and housing

and another 2 billion for support services. Waterloo Regional Chair Karen Redman. The reality is you're either going to pay for it now we're going to pay for it later and what we need our provincial and federal on some level partnership is to make focused investments into the gaps that we know that exist because this is only going to get worse. We feel that we're at a tipping point. The same story and problem across the country according to Michelle Biss, the National Director of the National Right to Housing Network. Municipalities just lack the funding,

they lack the resources, they lack the authority to be able to act but the reality is is that all of the responsibility is in fact being downloaded onto municipalities. A spokesperson for Ontario's Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing told CBC News it's investing three billion dollars in affordable housing and shelter supports over the next three years and is calling on the federal government to pay its fair share. Lisa Shing, CBC News, Toronto. More than six million Canadians don't have a family doctor. Meanwhile, there are thousands of physicians in this country who trained abroad but aren't

allowed to practice here. And even though there have been changes to make it easier to get those Canadian credentials, significant hurdles still exist. Wakos Chugtai has been digging into this story. Wacoss, given Canada's doctor shortage, why are so many internationally trained doctors not able to practice here? So all 13 provinces and territories have separate licensing requirements. Depending on the province and the pathway they choose, internationally trained physicians or ITPs may need to initially write up to four exams. And these tests, they can add up. One of them costs more than $3,200.

And even after they pass those exams, there's no guarantee they're going to actually get a license. Why is that? So the most common next step is landing a residency spot. The majority though are reserved for graduates from Canadian medical schools. Ismelda Ramirez, trained as a family doctor in the Dominican Republic, she hasn't been able to land a residency. She says when she asked for feedback on how she can improve her application, she didn't get any answers.

If there's something that they think I need to reinforce so I can be a better doctor for the patients, I'm open to it because at the end of the day, we care about people, we just want to help, we do not want to harm. Several provinces have added or they're planning to add more spots for ITPs. Stephanie Price is with the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada. She says we don't actually have enough doctors to act as those mentors in residency programs.

So the colleges are looking at other ways to assess ITPs. We wanted people to look exactly like a Canadian trained physician. And now that model has shifted and there's more of a recognition of the risk of there not being enough physicians. And so we're looking for competence, not equivalence. model has shifted and there's more of a recognition of the risk of there not being enough physicians. And so we're looking for competence, not equivalence. We're still looking for a competent physician, but it broadens the number of people who you would allow to apply. Okay. So how is that model or that assessment changing? So roughly in the past two decades, all of the provinces except PEI have introduced this

additional pathway, which they call a practice-ready assessment. It's an intensive 12-week workplace-based clinical assessment where ITPs are evaluated under the supervision of a doctor. Now how this program is delivered and the exact timeline varies across each province. Dr. Viren Nick is with the Medical Council of Canada. He says these types of programs may be better for experienced international doctors instead of having them do another residency. There are hurdles though. To qualify for this program they must have recently practiced medicine. So for some provinces that means working as a doctor for about six months in the past three years. Now since they can't actually practice here that means they have to leave Canada altogether for a while. Ogunafego Akpomi,

she worked as a family doctor in Nigeria before moving to Canada in 2016. She's passed all of her exams but hasn't yet landed a residency. She's gone back to Nigeria a few times including in 2023 she went back to work as a doctor for four months. It's not fair because you can actually get that experience even here in Canada so why not utilize the opportunities that are available here for us. So is there a way for ITPs to get that experience here in Canada instead of having to go back? So Akpome and Ramirez they both work as clinical or medical assistants in their provinces. These aren't regulated jobs and generally they can only perform limited tasks under the supervision of a doctor. But some other provinces including BC and Alberta have what's called an associate

physician program for ITPs and to qualify you actually have to pass a Canadian medical exam. But none of these programs actually count towards recent Canadian experience. Dr. Naik says that should change. An opportunity for them to have some exposure, some orientation to the Canadian healthcare system in that clinical assistant or associate physician role so that they can get used to important cultural competencies that are unique to Canada. Nick says there are discussions taking place right now to look at how to change the rules to help ITPs get a license and practice here in Canada. Wakas, it's so helpful to understand all the processes around these as we try to navigate

how to deal with a doctor shortage. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Wakas Chugtai in Toronto. A team of scientists in Antarctica is studying a chunk of ice drilled from deep below the Earth's surface. To you or me, it might just look like a massive icicle, but to the researchers, it's a time machine, giving them a look back more than one million years into Earth's past and insight into its future. Karen Pauls explains. Deep in Antarctica, a team of scientists has been drilling into the ice to the rock nearly three kilometres down. We break the ice at the bottom and then we pull the whole drill and the cable up to the

surface and take the four and a half metre of ice core out. Dortha Dal Jensen is a Canada Excellence Research Chair at the University of Manitoba. She's part of the team. It's an enormous success. We're so thrilled. They've extracted an ice core that, when laid out end to end, is longer than eight Eiffel Towers and provides a record of 1.2 million years of Earth's climate. It's like having a measuring tape. It's all in one. And this is the first of its kind. That's climate. It's like having a measuring tape, it's all in one. And this is the first of its kind.

That's right. Dahl Jensen says that's important because ancient air bubbles and particles in the ice might help solve a climate mystery. Specifically, what happened 900,000 to 1.2 million years ago when Earth's climate became less predictable, more rapidly changing

between cold and warm periods, and some researchers say our ancestors came close to the ice ago when Earth's climate became less predictable, more rapidly changing between cold and warm periods and some researchers say our ancestors came close to extinction. It's a riddle for us. We just don't understand what causes the climate to change like that. Scientists believe CO2 and other greenhouse gases were responsible. Preliminary research suggests levels then were as high as they are today. So the fact that we can measure so many different things in the ice cores make it extremely valuable.

But this isn't the oldest ice discovered on Earth. That was retrieved in Antarctica last year by American scientists dating back six million years. John Higgins of Princeton University headed that team. The continuous record is kind of a whole book that goes back 1.2 million years. We are in the practice of kind of finding bits of ice that are much older but are kind of incomplete books, or only part of a book. Higgins says this research is especially important at a time when some people still don't believe in climate change. Well, ice cores give us really a unique record of Earth's past in that they trap little bits

of essentially ancient atmosphere. And so they're really the closest you can get to going back in a time machine and look at what those atmospheric changes have been and how they have affected Earth's climate in the past with an idea about how those might be relevant for understanding how Earth's climate might change in the future. This latest sample is being kept at minus 50 degrees Celsius. It's being cleaned and cut into pieces

so it can be transported to labs around Europe where scientists will do their analysis. The first results expected late this year. Karen Pauls, CBC News, Winnipeg. I was Soul Man That's Soul Man by Sam and Dave. One half of that classic 1960s duo, Sam Moore, has died. Moore was born in Miami in 1935 and started performing as a teen with a

doo-wop act before turning to gospel. Everything clicked in 1961 when he met Georgia-born gospel singer Dave Prater while working as an emcee at a Miami nightclub. They had a couple of failed singles before hitting it big in 1966 with You Don't Know Like I Know. Over the next couple of years, Sam and Dave racked up seven top 10 R&B singles, most recorded at Stax Records in Memphis. Biographer Robert Gordon wrote that they were quote, both high-energy performers and their force mushroomed when they were together. They were double dynamite, each at full tilt.

But what made for an electrifying on stage performance was more contentious behind the scenes. They split in 1970, they got back together, but things were rocky. But none of their personal drama affected the enduring success of their hit songs like this one. The duo was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, four years after Dave Prater died in a car accident. Sam Moore's death on Friday in Florida was due to post-surgery complications, according to his rep.

He was 89 years old. We'll leave you with more Sam and Dave. This is Hold On, I'm Coming on Your World Tonight. I'm Stephanie Scanderis. Thanks for listening. If you get cold, yeah, I will be your cover. Don't have to worry, cause I'm here. Don't need to stop me, baby, cause I'm here. Just hold on, I'm coming. Hold on, I'm coming. Hold on. I'm coming home