Your World Tonight - Flight attendants defy back to work orders, Alberta byelection, "YouTubification" of streaming, and more

Episode Date: August 17, 2025

Thousands of unionized Air Canada flight attendants were supposed to be back work. But they are still on the picket lines in defiance of the federal government's return to work orders - and the airline remains grounded. That's leaving many to wonder - what comes next?Also: Voters in the Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot will decide if Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre gets a seat back in the House of Commons on Monday. You'll hear why this byelection is unlike any before.And: There's a shift happening in the war for your eyeballs. Streaming platforms like Netflix are starting to realize that the big stars aren't in Hollywood - they're on YouTube. And they're bringing in big-name content creators to grow their subscribers.Plus: Saskatchewan's bid to keep its coal plants, Sudan's humanitarian crisis, and more.

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This is a CBC podcast. Hi, I'm Kimberly Gale. This is your world tonight. Air Canada is not telling us to go back to work. The government is not telling us to go back to work. Our union will tell us when we go back to work. And that will be when we get a fair and equitable contract. Air Canada flight attendants are digging in.

Their union says they are defying Ottawa's back-to-work order. and it accuses the federal government of caving to the airline's demands. Also on the podcast. I just want to be a home where it's quite frustrating because you can't do anything, just wait. The work stoppage has left tens of thousands of people stranded, scrambling to re-book flights home. And European leaders will join Vladimir Zelensky in Washington Monday for talks on ending Russia's war in Ukraine.

Thousands of Unionized Air Canada flight attendants were supposed to be back at work by now, but they are still on the picket lines in defiance of the federal government's return to work orders. And the airline remains grounded, leaving many to wonder what comes next. Jamie Strachan has more. We will remain strong.

We will not back down. At a rally today at Toronto's Pearson Airport, Air Canada flight attendants made it. clear they have no intention of returning to work. Wesley Lysoski, president of the Air Canada component of Kupi, which represents more than 10,000 flight attendants, said members will defy an order that would have meant reporting to work starting at 2 p.m. Eastern on Sunday.

We go back with respect when we go back. Air Canada had said flights would resume Sunday evening after the federal government intervened and ordered binding arbitration. but scrapped that plan by midday, canceling hundreds of flights after what it called QP's a legal directive to workers to remain on strike. On Saturday, after the one-day work stoppage canceled about 700 flights and stranded more than 100,000 passengers, jobs minister Patty Hajju ordered flight attendant back to work less than 12 hours after the strike and lockout began, saying the two sides showed no signs

of reaching a deal. Now is not the time to take risks with our economy. A work stoppage would cause thousands of Canadians to be stranded abroad and across this country, and this is simply unacceptable. Members of QPie picketing at Pearson like Lillian Speedy were irate at the government's quick intervention. To legislate us back to work 12 hours after we started, I'm sorry, snowstorms have shut down Air Canada for longer than we were allowed to strike.

On a number of recent occasions, the liberal government has ordered binding arbitration to force striking workers back on the job, setting a dangerous precedent, says University of Manitoba Labor Studies Professor Adam King. Experts and observers have been warning that if they continue to use these forms of back-to-work orders, that eventually they would produce a crisis where workers would respond with a more assertive and aggressive defiance of those orders. King says the penalties for the union could be significant, but a number of factors could change that. Now, the question is, how do workers, this union and the broader labor movement respond? If labor mobilizes in support of the flight attendants, they may very well be victorious in this. When they tell you that you are going back to work, you say, hell no, we will go. At Pearson today, an overwhelming show of support by a cross-section of private and public unions and labor leaders, including Ontario Federation of Labor President Laura Walton. You are not just 10,517.

You are over a million strong in Ontario. You're over three million strong in Canada. And let me be clear, if we don't get it, shut it down. If we don't get it, shut it down. Air Canada says it intends to resume flights as of tomorrow evening. But it's unclear at this point how that will happen. Jamie Strachan, CBC News, Toronto. The strike has left thousands of passengers facing even more uncertainty when it comes to travel.

Quabina Duro is at Montreal's Trudeau International Airport. Quabina, what have you seen at the airport today? Kimberly, I've been at the picket line in Montreal all day. the flight attendants here striking have been loud and energetic. Even in the morning, when it was pouring when they were here, some were here at the Trudeau International Airport, and others were at the headquarters of Air Canada in Montreal. And their message is, you can't fly without us.

Julie Podbent is the vice president of QPi Local 4091, and she's a flight attendant as well. I love my job. I love my passengers. I think my passengers know when I get on board. That's where I'm meant to be. That's where all my flight attendants want to be today, but they don't want to do it for free. I don't think anybody comes to work for free. To our flight attendants stand strong and united because they are stranded.

It's the unknown for them, and we want them to be in solidarity and know that we are all fighting. Flight attendants here say they will be picketing into the evening, and they plan to be back right here at Trudeau International Airport in the morning. Now, thousands of passengers continue to be affected as well, What are they saying? So people have been telling me that they're getting messages about their flights being canceled. And some of them are arriving to the airport just to find out. And I spoke to one woman, Caroline Fremont, and she was in tears, Kimberly, because she just wanted to go home.

She lives in France. Well, it's quite frustrating because you can't do anything. Just wait, wait. And they tell you to call the number, whatever, and they don't answer. for some of them they wait for hours and they just sorry we can answer you and that's the end of it I also met a couple who is celebrating their honeymoon in Lisbon Sabrina Horan is supposed to be flying out with her husband today

but they say that they're missing out on hotels and some of their excursions because of the ordeal that is happening with this labor dispute we like I said we haven't slept we've been calling, we're tired, and we lost out on some of our hotels as well because we're getting there late, so it's been very frustrating. Air Canada says it will try to resume service,

but flight attendants are adamant that they are going to stay striking until Air Canada goes back to the table to give them an offer that they feel they deserve, and they say they won't stop making as much noise as they are now until that happens. Thanks for this, Coabina. Thank you.

The CBC's Cobina Duro in Montreal. Still ahead, some of the most popular names on YouTube. Everyone from Mr. Beast to Miss Rachel are inking big deals with big streamers like Netflix, who want to expand audiences with established creators. That's later on Your World Tonight. Officials in Nova Scotia are expecting an out-of-control wildfire in Annapolis County will continue to grow. The Long Lake fire was a little more than 400 hectares in size on Friday.

It's now more than 1,100. Jim Rutterham is the director of the province's fleet and forest protection. Today is very low humidity and wind and warm and it's everything we don't need for helping us put out fires. Ottawa also announced it has accepted a request from Nova Scotia for federal assistance. No details yet on what that will include. In Newfoundland, there is cautious optimism tonight when it comes to its wildfires. A regional state of emergency in and around St. John's was lifted yesterday, and some health care services that were impacted have resumed.

Cooler weather is providing crews an opportunity to fight back, while some residents are ready to flee. Katie Nicholson met with some people in the community of Freshwater. Freshwater, Newfoundland, may be under an evacuation alert, but at the United Church, it was business as usual. We have a lot to be thankful for, not the least of which is wind shift. Yesterday in Carbonear, it was enough to choke you. Both Carbineer and Freshwater are south of the Kingston fire,

the largest of three major fires burning in Newfoundland and Labrador, approximately 95 square kilometers. On Friday night, a massive wall of smoke pushed south down over the hills into carbineer and freshwater. It looked like a big set of jaws coming in when... Jerry Strong caught it on camera. And it was just coming in so fast, like it was just moving in. Something like out of Game of Thrones or, you know,

Dune or something that's just big monstrous. wall coming in at you, yeah. Strong packed up just in case. It's old family pictures and old, you know, stuff that can't be replaced. If we, you know, that's the stuff I don't want to lose. He's driving his camper to his daughters in St. John's. In the back of the car is all full of stuff as well. Those in freshwater, very aware of how destructive the Kingston fire has been,

consuming roughly 100 structures. The province says its growth has been minimal. but it remains very active. Province-wide, 4,500 people have registered as evacuees with the Red Cross. Many are staying in nearby communities. Ingrid Peacock opened her freshwater cottage to a family. They're one of the lucky ones that the house is still there, but who knows how long it's going to be before poles are up

and electricity is re-established and the house is cleaned out. We have other friends of ours who lost their houses and it's really sad. It's been very topsy-turvy, especially the last, I'd say, four or five days. We've been constantly watching the fire progress. David Rietcotter works with the village council and the church. So I had to collect and gather up all the documents and so on, things that were required. So I got that done, and I also got a suitcase ready, clothes thrown in, photos, that kind of thing. Cooler weekend temperatures have helped fire crews.

The province says ground crews have ensured the Paddy's Pond fire near St. John's is holding steady. In central Newfoundland, the Martin Lake fire grew minimally. Today, water bombers and choppers are continuing to dump water on it. For Riet Conner, this summer, a warning of sorts. Most people are acknowledging that this is sort of the new norm. This is the way it's going to be. Climate change has altered the way the weather is going to be here in freshwater in Newfoundland. they wait and watch the Kingston fire, packed and ready to go.

Katie Nicholson, CBC News, freshwater Newfoundland. Burning coal is a major contributor to climate change. Ottawa wants to phase out all coal-fired power plants by 2030, but Saskatchewan has other ideas. It's working to extend the life of its coal-fired plants for decades to come. As Alexander Silberman reports, that's setting the province up for a clash with federal regulators. The steady hum of the coal plant, a fixture in Estevan, Saskatchewan,

a small prairie city where the dirty rock under the surrounding hills has powered the local economy for more than a century. It's in our livelihoods. It's in our DNA. Mayor Tony Surnick says the industry is part of the local identity for the city of 10,000 people. Mining equipment is a roadside attraction. There's even a museum dedicated entirely to coal. But Estevan was bracing for that all to change, with a looming federal deadline to phase out the fossil fuel by 2030.

We were expecting a third of our population to go away. Cernick says the local economy was already hurting in anticipation. A thousand jobs are tied to two coal-fired power plants and a mine. Everybody was kind of planning for the worst. But the worst case, a shutdown, avoided for now. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe claims Ottawa doesn't have jurisdiction over electricity generation. We're going to be operating those plants into the future. The province is preparing to keep burning coal for decades, despite high levels of emissions.

It hopes extending the lifespan of three power plants will help ease a transition to nuclear power. But experts warn the decision could spark a costly fight with the federal government. We know that burning coal is the dirtiest way to produce power. Brett Dolter is an economist at the University of Regina, an expert in climate change policy. He says Sask Power, the province's electricity provider, was preparing to comply with federal regulations. There was a plan, and now we have this possibility of wasting a lot of money to switch horses midstream to go with reinvesting in. What is an outdated technology? An environmental group is already challenging the plan to burn coal in court.

and the federal government says it has an agreement with Saskatchewan on a mission reduction that expires at the end of next year. In downtown Estevan, Mayor Surnick says pushback is inevitable when taking on federal policy. I worry more about having our reliable power which keeps us safe shut off without replacing it with someone. Residents are also clinging to hope that coal will continue for decades to come. Linda Chamney's fiancée works at the power plant. It's been around forever and I'm glad it's staying. If the plants keep running, Saskatchewan could soon be one of the last places in Canada to burn coal, investing in the fossil fuel at a time when the rest of the world is leaving it behind.

Alexander Silberman, CBC News, Estevan, Saskatchewan. A high-stakes meeting planned for Monday at the White House just got bigger. leaders of several European countries will now join Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky when he meets tomorrow with U.S. President Donald Trump in an attempt to strike a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. Cameron McIntosh tells us more from Washington. If peace is indeed near,

the Ukrainian army recruits on this firing ring engineer Harkiv aren't feeling it. What's important is our guys are dying, says this soldier, going by Kalsai Keshah, they're just talking. Little faith in politicians and even less appetite to cede any territory to Russia. We have our land, our cities. Another soldier, Kalsine Boomer, says. They should remain ours.

We have to stop the killings. That's the stark choice-facing Ukrainian President Vlodomier Zelensky when he meets U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington. You don't have the cards. Famously berated and humiliated on his last trip, this time he's not going alone. The leaders of the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Finland, and the European Commission will be with him, all meeting virtually today, preparing to present a unified front.

After his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday, Trump told them Putin wants Ukraine's occupied Dombas region. Zelensky insists Ukraine won't give it up and wants Trump to guarantee Ukraine's security and independence. This is our main task. We need security. to work in practice, like Article 5 of NATO, and we consider EU accession to be part of security guarantees.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is traveling with Zelensky. Our position is clear. International borders cannot be changed by force. Europe is willing to put soldiers on the ground to enforce a peace deal. There's no deal until there's a deal. Friday, Trump offered no details. Now the White House says Russia is agreeing to some security guarantees. Ultimately, it will be up to Ukraine to make a deal,

says Trump's special envoy, Steve Whitkoff, who was in the meeting with Putin. The one thing that the president cannot agree to on behalf of the Ukrainians is any sort of land swap. That is for the Ukrainians. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, was also in the meeting. I'm not saying we're on the verge of a peace deal, but I am saying that we saw movement, enough movement to justify a follow-up meeting with Zelensky and the Europeans. All as the fighting continues.

On Friday, Trump said he wanted a ceasefire. He didn't get it and came out of the meeting agreeing with Putin's insistence to only cease fighting when there's a full deal. Zelensky says he's wary of being pushed into a bad deal. It's impossible to do this under the pressure of weapons. So it's necessary to ceasefire and work quickly on a final deal. We'll talk about it in Washington.

Trump, meanwhile, posted to social media. Big progress on Russia. Stay tuned. Cameron McIntosh, CBC News, Washington. Federal by-elections rarely garner national attention. But that's exactly what's happening in Alberta. On Monday, voters will decide if conservative leader Pierre Paulyev gets a seat in the House of Commons. But as Emily Fitzpatrick tells us, this by-election is unlike any before.

Conservative Party leader Pierre Paulyev now has a potential. back to the House of Commons. It all started in June when a by-election was called in the rural Alberta riding of Battle River Crowfoot. The winner, Conservative Damien Couric, who handedly won his seat in the April general election, stepped down so conservative leader Pierre Polyev could run. But he won't be alone. 213 other candidates are in the running, the largest federal ballot in Canadian history. The odds are in Polyev's favor, but political scientist Lori Williams says not only does he have

to win, it needs to be a clean sweep. He's got to win decisively. Nobody has won this riding by less than 70%. In the last election, it was almost 83%. He definitely needs to be closer to 83 than to 70% if he's going to avoid exaggerating the questions about his leadership. The rural riding has been a Tory stronghold for a century, but this election looks a lot different and comes with a much bigger spotlight. Some locals like grain farmer Humphrey Bannick wonder how Pauliev's lack of connection to the area will affect them. I don't think our riding will gain much. It's gaining notoriety and know that we're out here and maybe a little more of the issues, but there are 300 and some odd ridings in Canada to say that we're going to be on a pedestal and our issues are going to be held at a much

higher level, I think, I'm torn by it. It's not just Polyev's fate that's garnering attention. Many of the 214 candidates on the ballot are involved with a protest group that says it's pushing for electoral reform. So for the first time in Canadian history, Elections Canada is using a blank ballot. Voters won't be marking a box with the traditional X. Instead, they must handwrite the name of their preferred candidate in a blank space. And Lori Williams says that could deter some voters.

Clearly, some people are worried about how to cast this ballot. They're not sure how to do it. That might just be too much of a hurdle for them to overcome. And they might decide, well, he's probably going to win anyway. I don't need to turn up. So, again, that could affect the overall percentage. Elections Canada expects the results of Monday's by-election to take longer to report and publish.

But they've made an exception to start counting ballots two hours before polls close and will continue counting until a winner is determined. Emily Fitzpatrick, CBC News, Edmonton. the government negotiate an end to the war in Gaza and the return of all hostages. They worry the government's offensive to take over all of the territory will endanger the lives of the hostages still held there. Dozens of people have been arrested for blocking roads and clashing with police. In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, ending the war now, without defeating Hamas, will only ensure a repeat of the October 7 attack.

In Sudan, two years of civil war has created the world's largest humanitarian crisis. An estimated 150,000 people have died, while 25 million people face starvation or outright famine. And aid workers are questioning why so little attention is being paid to the crisis. Crystal Gamansing reports. What's happening is known is clear at the issue with the lack of proper response. Jerome Tubiani is angry.

The MSF operations advisor with decades of experience in Sudan says the world has been reliably hopeless when it comes to stopping the violence in North Darfur. The first thing we should ask is for those people to be safe is for the siege to stop. And then, of course, that will imply that those who want to leave could leave, those who want to stay could stay. And those like us who want to bring aid could get.

besieged, attacked, starved, key findings, and the title of a recent MSF report which Tubiani contributed to. It cites direct observations and over 80 interviews conducted between May 24 and May this year. Tubiani says there should be no doubt about the civilian murders, specifically non-Arabs being killed, and acts of sexual violence against women and girls as weapons of war, acts that have proven are war crimes under international law. Two years on, the war between the paramilitary group, rapid support forces, also known as RSF, and Sudanese armed forces keeps escalating in a brutal struggle for power. A major offensive by RSF on the Zam-Zem displacement camp in North Darfur in April forced tens of thousands to flee.

Nearby Al-Fashire, North Darfur's capital is isolated, and people face starvation, according to the World Food Program. It has not been able to deliver food assistance by road there for over a year. An attempt in June resulted in five workers in the aid convoy being killed. Civilians who managed to reach a displacement camp in Tawila are now enduring a cholera outbreak. The environment itself is prone to disease, says Dr. Ahmed Daffala. He's hoping all origin.

organizations will do their best to provide medicines and necessary supplies. The degree to which the international community has failed Sudan, we don't have time to even express. Nathaniel Raymond is the head of the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab. Weather is the critical factor. And right now, the rainy season is just starting. You can see from space, the wadis filling up with water. And so it's basically both sides are trying to gain advantage before the roads become impassable and the rivers flow.

In the year since the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Alfashire, there's been no action. Tubiani says suffering is happening on many continents, but Africa shouldn't be forgotten or condemned to fatalism. Crystal Gamansing, CBC News, London. There's a shift happening in the war for your eyeballs.

The big streamers, like Netflix, are starting to realize that the big stars aren't necessarily in Hollywood. They're on YouTube, and they're bringing in big-name content creators to grow their subscribers. As Ali Shiasan tells us, the strategy appears to be working. YouTube and the streaming giants are competing for your living room TV. And according to audience tracker Nielsen, YouTube has been outpacing all of them for four consecutive months. YouTube Canada's Andrew Peterson says that means more people are watching YouTube on TV. Over 17 million Canadians watch YouTube every month on the big screen. And so YouTube is redefining TV.

Last year, YouTube introduced changes that allow creators to make episodic content, something you can click through with a television remote. The Living Room being the number one fastest growing screen for YouTube in Canada. So what's a streamer like Netflix's got to do to keep up? Netflix is basically trying to meet their viewers where they are, like YouTube. Philip Mai at the Social Media Research Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University has been studying the YouTubeification of streaming companies. He says the streamers are using YouTube as an unofficial R&D lab.

They see a hit, like Children's Education YouTuber, Miss Rachel. Hi, friends. I'm so excited to learn with you. Influencers' stunt show The Side Men. Hello and welcome to what is one of the most requested sidemen Sundays of this year. Indie animation series, Amazing Digital Circus. Then it's ring ring, Netflix calling. Hi, would you like to make a version of your show? Netflix might like it too.

So it's a cheaper way of doing development without having to pay for the pilot. Kevin Lardwichekyll, the creator of Amazing Digital Circus, got that call within six months of uploading the pilot onto YouTube. It had already garnered hundreds of millions of views. They reached out and they were like, hey, this is something extremely. And then we just started talking and I think the rest is history. As with other YouTube to Netflix shows, Amazing Digital Circus gets to keep their YouTube channel. That and creative control is often part of the deal.

Netflix and Amazon Prime also being very cognizant that we've gotten here because we know what we're doing and being able to let the creatives just do the creative they can and then just supporting. They reach a new audience and licensing money to scale up production. What does the streaming company get out of it? More eyeballs, with the potential of original content with the YouTuber. The competition between streamers and YouTubers is less contentious, more symbiotic. Philip Mai at the social media research lab says they're using each other to amplify their offerings. I'm surprised if they haven't done this earlier. The tug of war over the living room remote isn't over.

It's just no longer between you and the other person on the couch, but streamers and YouTube. Ali Shiasan, CBC News, Toronto. Gentlemen, pull start your engines. It's the annual lawnmower race in West Sussex, England, where the ordinary ride on grass cutters have their blades removed and are transformed into hires. speed machines. Dozens of teams compete in a 12-hour overnight race on a track in a farmer's field. And whoever makes the most laps wins. There's only two nice places, down the main straight and up the back straight.

The rest of it, you have to cruise and coast around the corners. Otherwise, it just literally rips the bars from your fingers. and I don't fancy going to any tonight. No accident and emergency this time, but pit crews make repairs. Welding parts and replacing tires. They were going up the road, down the road, the local copper left town. He just couldn't control them. The annual race has been held since the early 70s.

The idea hatched in a pub south of London, where Jim Gavin and some friends were talking about the prohibitive cost of competing in motorsport. Why doesn't somebody start a new type of motorsport? We leave out all cash prizes, all commercialism, all sponsorship. Price stays down. We get the normal guy in. Everything with cars and bikes had been done, they floated the idea of combine harvesters. And then it came. And it was a lovely early summer's evening. And there were lawnmowers all over the place. You could hear them buzzing away like bees in a jam pot. We stuck up a notice on the wall just they're saying British Grand Prix for lawnmowers.

Like that, about 40-50 lawnmowers turned off. This year, the Bullseye Racing team claimed victory, completing 420 laps of the 1.4 kilometre course. It's unbelievable, mate, really. There's so much time and effort and hard work and late nights and effort goes into just trying to make sure you solve every problem before it happens. And, yeah, we've done it.

We've done it. You've been listening to Your World Tonight. I'm Kimberly Gale. Thanks for being with us.