Your World Tonight - Doug Ford defends wildfire response, Two U.S. troops members killed in Jordan, Toronto Island science program shuts down, and more

Episode Date: July 18, 2026

More than 900 wildfires are burning across Canada. One in five of those fires are burning across northwest Ontario alone. As communities are forced out of their homes - the province faces scrutiny of its handling of the emergency. But Ontario Premier Doug Ford is strongly defending his government's response.Also: Two American troops stationed in Jordan are dead - after Iran targetted U.S. bases in allied Gulf States. They are the first Americans killed in since March, as the U.S and Iran continue to trade air strikes on one another. And: Since 1960, Thousands of Toronto's elementary school students have visited the Toronto islands to learn about science and nature on overnight trips. But after sweeping school board cuts -- that program is ending. You'll hear about what's being lost, and how communities are reacting.Plus: How wildfire smoke affects people with respiratory illnesses, Women and girls lose access to humanitarian aid, Disability exhibit in Prague, and more. 

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This is a CBC podcast. It's absolutely disgusting, in my opinion, that they want to politicize and play games when people's lives are on the line. Doug Ford defends his government's wildfire response. Ontario's premier meeting with evacuees in Thunder Bay Saturday as a number of wildfires grows. And toxic smoke continues to blanket large areas of the continent.

This is your world tonight. I'm Gina Louise Phillips. Also on the podcast, we'll tell you about the dangers of wildfire smoke for people with asthma. And... At least one million women and girls have lost access to critical services and support. The UN says women and girls are being cut from life-saving supports, but the need for those supports has never been greater. More than 900 wildfires are burning across Canada.

It's triggered evacuation or... orders and alerts, in addition to air quality warnings, as smoke chokes out millions of people in cities across North America. One in five of those fires are burning across northwest Ontario alone. Communities there are forced to suddenly leave their homes as the province faces scrutiny of its handling of the emergency. But as Philip Lee-Shanock reports, today the Premier is strongly defending his government's response. First Nations are basically left to fend for themselves. Chief Wilford King of the Gull Bay First Nation says his community of 1600,

north of Thunder Bay, declared a state of emergency last week, and many evacuated so. There was no vacancy in Thunder Bay for any hotels where he placed a shelter. He and leaders of a number of communities say they feel let down by all levels of government. That not just emergency planning, but preparations for this fire season fell short. We have solutions to some of these problems, both the federal government and provincial government, must listen to First Nations. This was preventable. Linda DeBasigay is an Ishnabek Nation Grand Council Chief.

She says not only were warnings from the community not heated, they were left in the dark when it came to evacuating. And that includes the non-First Nations that are affected by this fire. People's lives are the number one thing. Don Elliott is owner of Matisse Lake Outfitters, a fly-in fishing, hunting, and canoe trip outfit based in Armstrong, Ontario, 250 kilometers north of Thunder Bay. He says he got mixed messages from Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources,

which cost him precious time. It was just mass chaos. There was rumor. It was going to be an evacuation. And then we were told it was a rumor. We left with almost nothing. He and his family ended up self-evacuating to Thunder Bay, leaving his 40-year-old business to burn.

It's gone. It's not coming back. But it's so disappointing. I keep hearing this from Aminare and the minister, all wonderful things are doing. Well, it's not happening here. You know, it's not time to politicize these emergencies, unfortunately. Ontario Premier Doug Ford dismissed much of the backlash to opposition politicians. He toured Thunder Bay Saturday where an evacuation center opened with food and accommodations.

From here, many will be offered temporary lodgings in southern Ontario communities until they can return home. Ford denied the province has cut firefighting budgets. I will not spare a penny. Not a penny. Last year we spent 271 million. There is no limit the spending. If it's $500 million this year, so be it. Minister of Natural Resources Mike Harris says the province has made an historic $650 million investment buying six new water bombers and five helicopters on top of funding increases for aviation, forest fire, and emergency services. So it's pretty unfair, honestly, to say that the province isn't doing what it needs to do. The National Assembly of First Nations disagrees.

It passed an emergency resolution this week, saying the federal and Ontario governments let communities down by failing to have an adequate emergency plan in place before the fires started. Fultes-Shanock, CBC News, Toronto. Elsewhere, wildfires are burning in BC, the northwest territories and as far east as Nova Scotia. Crews there are fighting an out-of-control wildfire about 100 kilometers northeast of Halifax.

In BC, the situation has been intensified by lightning strikes, sending the number of fires past 100. Most of them are burning out of control. Stephanie Cramm has more. A helicopter gathering water to douse a wildfire near Pemberton, B.C. Earlier this week, that fire inched close to Colleen Sedwick's farm. Fire started up here. Looks like a volcano up top. Started wrapping around.

Went down this way. BC Wildfire came up and went down the path to the dyke yesterday when it hopped the creek. She says the farm was spared from any major damage. It's all hands on deck, clearing, tilling the fields here behind us, spreading water everywhere. We prepared for the worst and just hope for their best. That's Rick Van Kesteren with BC Wighton. Fire Service. The organization is monitoring conditions this weekend. He says the province is at risk for increased lightning, but a storm traveling through northern

BC will bring plenty of much-needed rain. What we're hoping to see is hopefully less activity as the storm progresses, so to say, because it's trending wetter than it was before. To the east, the Boston Bar region was evacuated earlier this week, with many residents like Kyle Wood heading to Chiluac. When I was leaving, there's half the hill is like candling. There's smoke, there's really smoky. There's, you can see flames.

Half the mountains basically on fire, it felt like. To the north of Boston Bar, a wildfire near Clinton is raging out of control. On Friday night, an evacuation order was issued for the Big Bar Lake and Meadow Lake regions. Colton Davies, an information officer with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District's Emergency Operations Center, says that fire is moving quickly. The fire appears to be moving north with the way the winds are blowing, and obviously it seems like pretty significant movement from some pretty big winds that have happened on Friday. He says 131 properties were evacuated and anyone camping in the area are also urged to leave.

There is some reprieve for a community in the Northwest Territories. After being away from their homes for three weeks, Mayor Les Wright says residents of Fort Simpson can return starting today. We're definitely excited and it is safer. We were waiting for the weather to change. And we have less fire activity. A little bit of smoke, but this isn't necessarily from this fire. But the area is still dealing with evacuations. Officials say a fire north of Wrigley has moved closer to the community and that residents should stay away.

Stephanie Cram, CBC News, Edmonton. As wildfire season gets longer and the fires get bigger, it means many Canadians are inhaling more smoke. Kamee-Vernay tells us what that means for people with chronic respiratory illness. We first brought you this story in April. In this bag, my better puffer. Nine-year-old Roland Latimer has asthma and never leaves home without his puffers. My lungs, like, close up. I could, like, lose breath and maybe even die.

He understands the danger of wildfire smoke. He knows about Cardi. In 2023, the death of nine-year-old Carter Vibeye. shook British Columbia. Hi, Amber. Amber, Carter's mom, remembers his last day. We got all the kids ready. We walked down to the park, and by like about noon, the smoke started to, I started to notice it coming in.

That evening, Carter suffered a severe asthma attack. And I just knew that we needed to take him to the hospital and get them checked out. At one point, they started having to do CPR on him. The doctor asked us to step outside of the hospital. room and he told us there was nothing more that they could do. Wildlife smoke is linked to roughly 1,500 deaths in Canada every year, according to the Lancet countdown.

Dr. Sarah Anderson, scientific director at the BC Center for Disease Control, says those deaths are just the tip of the iceberg. We see higher risk of people going to the ER for asthma attacks and for heart attacks. People have a harder time controlling their diabetes. Wildfire smoke contains particles so small that when they reach the lungs, they can enter the bloodstream and damage organs. That is especially dangerous for people with asthma. Pretty much every health impact that you can imagine,

we know that wildfire smoke has an effect on it. To protect yourself from bad air quality, Anderson says to run air purifiers indoors and reduce outdoor workouts. Amber Vey has been advocating for better air quality monitoring. At the time that Carter passed, we checked the air quality on our phone, not knowing that our closest air quality monitor was 100 kilometers away, and it told us that the air was safe.

So had we have had real-time accurate air quality monitors in 100-mile, at that moment, we might have stayed inside instead. With the help of the BC Long Foundation, Amber started Carter's project. So far, they have installed 20 monitors across the province. What's the air quality? Gold River, where Roland Latimer lives, now has one. And that's a relief for his mother, Trisha.

Before we had those, it was always a guessing game. It is... 31. 31, we're in the green. For Amber, it's about empowering families and ensuring no other kids are lost. We always said that Carter was going to do something great in his life. he's going to make a difference in this world.

Camille Verney, CBC News, 100 Mile House, British Columbia. Still ahead, students are often told to reach for the stars. But in the country's most populated city, they rarely see them. A beloved nature program has been trying to fix that since the 60s. But the island escape has been sunk in the latest round of funding cuts. We'll have that story later on your world tonight. New Brunswick is getting top marks for reducing internal trade barriers. The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses gave the province an A in its

annual report card. But the president of an Ontario construction company isn't buying it. Jewel-Mack contracting alleges the New Brunswick government discriminated against it, violating a 2017 agreement on interprovincial trade. A first-ever hearing on that dispute wrapped up this week. Jacques Petra has more. We've never been wanting to put up many barriers. Premiers, including New Brunswick's Susan Holt, have been talking for a year and a half about opening up internal trade between provinces to offset the impact of U.S. tariffs. Over five days last week, Holt's government found itself accused of not walking the walk. I'm not asking for different rules for Julemac. I just want the same rules as the local contractors get. Derek Martin is the president of Julemac contracting.

The Ontario company says the New Brunswick government applied more stringent rules on four bridge projects it worked on. than it does with local contractors. It demanded different materials. It sent design drawings back multiple times, costing time and money. Martin says that violates the Canadian Free Trade Agreement signed by all provinces in 2017. He filed a complaint under the agreement, fighting, he says, for contractors everywhere. It's more for narrow up the fence posts and keep everybody engaged under the same rules

and basically enforce it going forward. A panel of three trade lawyers heard the case over five days. New Brunswick's lawyers said this wasn't a trade issue. Julemac's work was often late and of poor quality, and that's why it made so many demands of the company. That led to long technical testimony on topics like concrete pouring methods and work site fuel spill tray requirements. For all the mundane details, the hearing was a mile.

massive significance. It means that the internal trade court is still alive and well, and it's being used as intended. Ryan Manucha is a research fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute who studies interprovincial trade barriers. This is the first dispute hearing under the 2017 version of the trade agreement. Manucha says all provincial governments will watch closely for how the deal is interpreted. Here we'll get some key doctrine issues settled, which will bring greater clarity for other potential future litigants and may encourage more use of the internal trade court, which is a healthy after effect of this dispute. Ontario, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia all intervened in the case, filing arguments on how

the text of the agreement applies or doesn't to procurement and to the handling of infrastructure contracts. The case shows that despite all the political rhetoric about lowering trade barriers, the legal reality is complicated and contested. A ruling is due by the end of August, though the panel can get it. itself an extension. Jacques-Protra, CBC News, Frederton. Two American service members have been killed in Jordan when Iran targeted U.S. bases in Allied Gulf states. As Julia Wong tells us, they are the first Americans killed since March.

Two U.S. service members have died, according to U.S. Central Command, as the fighting in the Middle East intensifies. The military says the deaths happened in Jordan in an Iranian attack, and that another service member is missing. Four others were taken to hospital but have since been released. An advisor to Iran's supreme leader says if the U.S. continues to strike, Iran will move into a phase of complete offense and destruction. Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Mark Kimet says he expects U.S. attacks will ramp up even further. This is the first time we've had American troops killed since March.

That in many ways is a red line to. the administration and to President Trump. Reacting to the deaths, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media. Godspeed heroes, their sacrifice only stiffens are resolved. Julia Wong, CBC News, Washington. Russian officials say Ukrainian drones killed at least eight warehouse workers and left dozens of others injured. Video posted to social media shows a fire raging at a facility about 50 kilometers east of Moscow. with massive plumes of smoke towering over it.

Ukrainian drones struck two sprawling warehouses overnight, both of them owned by Russia's largest online retailer. In another incident, falling debris from a drone caused a fire at an oil depot near the capital. In a statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the facilities were being used to supply parts and navigation equipment for Russian drones. The attacks are the deadliest Ukrainian strikes,

inside Russia in more than two years. More than one million women and girls have lost access to humanitarian aid. A recent UN report found women-led organizations are being forced to cut services, even as the need for those services, is increasing. Freelance reporter Chris Ochoam Ringa brings us that story from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The desperate cries of civilians caught in fighting in eastern, Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 7 million people have been displaced since the conflict between government forces and the M23 rebels escalated in 2021. Women and girls have paid a heavy

price. Many are survivors of sexual violence. But after the U.S. slashed foreign aid followed by other donors, vital supports for these women and girls are disappearing. The fundings of this report are deeply disturbing. A recent report by UN women found more than 1 million, women around the world have lost access to life-saving supports since 2025. Sophia Coltup is UN Women's Head of Humanitarian Action. UN Women has spoken to 855 women's organizations working in 52 countries who have told us that these women and girls have been turned away due to funding cuts that are dismantling their organizations.

The report says cases of conflict-related sexual violence doubled over the same time period. At the same time, women's organizations in countries like Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, and the DRC have been forced to scale back operations. Some are at risk of shutting down temporarily or permanently within the next year because of funding shortages the report found. Caroline Kasongo is the coordinator for Care International in the DRC. The budget cuts come at a time when humanitarian needs continue to increase due to conflict, displacement and health crisis, she says, they risk reversing the progress made in protection, gender equality and community resilience. It's just heartbreaking how we have to prioritize.

David Stevenson, the World Food Program's country representative in the DRC, says the situation has had a devastating impact on the communities. So this is something that I have to do every day with my team is decide on where we can make the biggest impact when we have such a limited amount of resourcing. Aid groups say women are sleeping deeper into poverty. More girls are leaving school and fewer survivors of violence are receiving the care they need. UN women is urging governments and donors to restore funding, warning that without urgent support, millions of women and girls in conflict zones could be left without the services they rely on. on to survive. Chris Ochamringa for CBC News, Kinshasa.

Before he died in 1958, Hans Verz was an insatiable collector, amassing thousands of items, from paintings and photographs to sculptures and satirical cartoons. Taken together, his collection tells the story of how disability was portrayed in Europe throughout history, and remarkably few people have ever seen it. Freelance reporter Rob Cameron takes us to a museum in Prague where some of that collection is now on display. Shimon Kriesel, chief curator of the Medical Museum of the National Medical Library in Prague,

opening cupboard after cupboard containing boxes of little figurines. Shimon is the custodian of one part of the Vertz collection consisting of hundreds of ivory, bronze and porcelain figures, showing people with various disabilities, as well as itinerant musicians. Virtz collected it all in the early 20th century. Art historians have been looking what is the message, what is the context, what are the metaphors that the images of a disabled were used for throughout the history of art.

And Wirtz says, okay, that's all nice, but these are also pictures of disabilities. people. How the collection ended up here is fascinating. One winter's day in 1938, Hans Wurz, director of a Berlin Institute for Children with Disabilities, knocked on the door of a similar institution in Prague, the Yedlitschka Institute. He just fled Nazi Germany and accompanied by his wife Rosa and perhaps 7,000 paintings, photographs, prints, books, newspaper cuttings and figurines. he was seeking refuge. Verz had become a marked man in Berlin, especially after publishing his catalogue of the collection,

the Nazis were particularly incensed at his inclusion of Joseph Goebbels in the book's list of what he called, in the language of the time, famous cripples, due to the Nazi propaganda chief's club foot. A lot has changed in how we view disability, but for Radik Musilek, from the Yedlitska Institute, who is in a wheelchair and teaches teenagers at the institute,

sometimes things can go too far the other way. Sometimes you can see that people with disability are like superheroes. I think the life and truth is something between. We are normal guys. We try to live normal lives, but word normal is a little bit complicated, because what is normal. The Institute's Cafe is now hosting an exhibition of the Vortz Collection, one of the rare occasions it's been shown in public since the 1930s.

As one art historian told me, the collection shows people with disabilities were never absent from art. They were everywhere. Rob Cameron for CBC News, Prague. Located just a short ferry ride from downtown Toronto, the Toronto Islands are a popular day trip for city dwellers and tourists looking to escape the hustle and bustle. And since 1960, thousands of elementary school students have visited the islands

to learn more about science and nature on overnight trips. But after sweeping school board cuts, that program is ending. Hayden Waters looks at what's lost. A World Cup match players on the Biggs crew, but this corner of the cafe isn't paying any attention. Instead, it's huddled over plates of nachos and drinks, listening to school staff swap stories about their final few days. I lost it. Like, I was in full tears and I was sitting in the gazebo after, I'm like, the kids. Like, they can't forget the kids.

And then like, before that, it was about, like, do you have fish? And I didn't know what to do with the fish. And I was just so upset. This is an ad hoc gathering, thrown by those who live on Toronto Island, a way of saying goodbye to their longtime neighbor. After 66 years, the Island Natural Science School is shutting down. It's one of five outdoor education centers the Toronto District School Board is closing or dropping leases with. Laura Thompson was one of the teachers. Everyone keeps asking how I'm doing. I'm mostly sad for the students.

Thompson's been at the science school for three years now. In the fall, she goes back to a traditional classroom. She worries what's lost in the closures. It's one of the few areas in teaching where you actually get to see the immediate effects. I had students telling me last week that they used to be really afraid of insects. And then one girl said, and yesterday there was an ant on my face, and I just brushed it off, right? More than six decades of grade six classes have made the trip to Toronto Island for overnight trips to the science school. Students explore nature by riding bikes, banning birds, feeding chickadees, and playing games like predator prey.

The program shared space with the island's elementary school, which is not closing. John Goodyear is a retired teacher and site supervisor at the science school. You don't particularly remember an individual worksheet from your elementary school, but you certainly remember traipsing through the woods and getting bit by a mosquito. Good Year recalls how big of a deal it was for many kids, some staying overnight away from home for the very first time. Other students had never left the city at all, or were new Canadians, unacquainted with the outdoors.

Linda Wilson worked as an early childhood educator in the building housing design school. They came from the inner city. They had never seen a star. The other one was one kid pointed one day and he goes, what's that, what's that? And I said, it's a frog. He didn't know what a frog was. So, so sad.

And why are we losing this? The school board blames the outdoor ed closures on budget woes, claiming the centers need tens of millions of dollars in maintenance and repairs. Wilson puts the blame on Doug Ford's government, which handles education. The province stepped in and took over supervision of the board a year ago. The TDSB says it's keeping two outdoor education centers open, and it plans to work with external ones. But staff from the science schools say demand will exceed capacities, so not all students will be able to go. Andreas Cariani just graduated grade six. His class went to the island in June, some of the final students to attend the side school.

If I were the grade five, so I'd be like, oh, shoot, I'm not going there. So it's like a huge honor to be the last ones to go there. Hayden Waters, CBC News, Toronto Island. And we end tonight with a huge star fulfilling a childhood dream at a small Toronto venue. 500 lucky fans packed the intimate horseshoe tavern last night to watch Shania Twain play the legendary stage for the first time. She regularly sells out the world's biggest stadiums, but this was a gig on Twain's bucket list she hadn't yet checked off. In fact, the Queen West Club rejected her at the start of her career.

Now five Grammy wins and 100 million record sales later, the Canadian superstar told the crowd it meant a lot to return to her native province and play the iconic club. up in northern Ontario. And the dream in my little bar bands at the time, all through my youth and my teens, was to, and even in my 20s, was to play the horseshoe table. The venue opened in the late 1940s and has hosted music royalty, like the Rolling Stones, the Strokes, Willie Nelson, and now Shania Twain. I feel it's like a very full circle moment.

I have the comments with all you beautiful people. Twain played some of her memorable hits, as well as new songs off her seventh studio album titled Little Miss Twain, like this one called Fated Blue Jeans. She's come a long way since singing in bars at age eight in Timmons, Ontario. I think it's fair to say it looks like she made it. This has been your world tonight

for Saturday, July 18th. I'm Gina Louise Phillips. Thanks for being with us. Good night. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca. com.