Your World Tonight - Fresh Ebola concerns, Alberta’s looming referendum, Colbert’s swan song, and more

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

Global worries over the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic of Congo and Uganda filter to Canada after news Ontario is testing a man who recently been to the African region, and a Paris-bound flight to Detroit was diverted to Montreal because of a Congolese passenger, and new U.S. travel restrictions.Plus: Referendum Contemplation. The questions facing Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, and whether she plans to trigger a fall referendum asking voters if they want to stay in, or secede from Canada.And: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert signs off for the final time, ending 11 seasons of celebrity interviews and political satire after CBS axed the program amid speculation the cancellation was motivated by pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.Also: Carney government mulls changes to Canada’s labour laws, Pentagon’s Canada-U.S. defence board pushback, SpaceX’s IPO, and more.

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Oftentimes it feels like the politics of the UCP is a stage play to exercise their power to do what they want. Alberta's NDP opposition alleges the deck is stacked in favor of a fall referendum on separation after the government caucus announces a decision before it's been voted on. This is your world tonight. I'm Christine Birak. It's Thursday, May 21st. nearing 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. I overheard him say that there was a passenger who could not be taken to Detroit.

There's always going to be anxiety about a new strain of virus. Questions about Ebola screening protocols after an Air France jet is diverted to Montreal when the U.S. refuses entry to a passenger from the Democratic Republic of Congo. That's where we begin tonight. rising case counts and escalating tensions in the African nation are sparking fear in communities there. Protesters clashed with police today, setting fire to a treatment center run by a medical charity.

The anger and worry is spreading globally. But as Colin Butler reports, health experts stress the risk to Canadians still remains low. For Deborah Mistor, the first sign something was wrong came when the surgical masks went on. My first thought was, honestly, I wish I had one. As passengers searched their bags for masks, flight attendants moved through the cabin with their faces covered. They also offered little explanation about why the plane was suddenly being diverted to Montreal.

I overheard him say that there was a passenger who could not be taken to Detroit. The flight was diverted after U.S. authorities determined one passenger on board could not enter the country under new Ebola-related travel restrictions. Authorities later confirmed the passenger removed from the plane did not have the virus. Back on board, however, anxiety was growing over a virus most people know little about. There's always going to be anxiety about a new strain of virus. Dr. Rob Fowler works in critical care. He's treated Ebola patients during past outbreaks in Africa. He says for Canadians, the threat remains largely theoretical, and the public

risk low. You know, we've never had a case of Ebola in Canada. The risk to Canadians might be low, but in Central Africa, health officials are struggling to contain a growing outbreak, involving a rare strain of Ebola with no approved vaccine. This is going to be a big outbreak. Dr. Isaac Bogosh is an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto. He says the virus has already crossed borders from the Congo to Uganda and has been detected in big cities like Goma and Kampala. He says the best way to stop it is at a source. You should be diverting a ton of resource to quelling the outbreak so it doesn't go for a longer period of time. Canadian aid workers are already heading to the Democratic Republic of Congo to support

the response. Still, experts say there is no reason for panic in Canada. Ebola is not easily spread through casual contact and it's not airborne like measles or COVID. Dr. Don Vin is a rare disease specialist at McGill University. He says Canada already has safeguards in place, including screening, self-reporting and isolation protocols for travelers returning from affected regions. There's no sign that Ebola is in Canada, nor is spreading in Canada. In the end, there was no confirmed Ebola case, just a diverted flight and a reminder of how quickly uncertainty travels in a connected world.

Colin Butler, CBC News, London, Ontario. The temperature could be cranking up on a hot-button issue in Alberta. Members of Danielle Smith's United Conservative Party caucus have voted in a committee to ask the Premier to call a referendum on separation. And it comes after a petition against separation became the sudden subject of controversy. Josh McLean reports from Calgary. I have just had the opportunity to review an absolutely shocking news release. That was the moment a legislative committee meeting went off the rails yesterday in Alberta, reviewing a pro-Confederation petition submitted late last year

and tasked with recommending if it should be on the referendum ballot in the fall. That news release announced that it would. The problem, the vote hadn't happened yet. It continues on with quotes from you, Mr. Chair. Infuriating NDP opposition House leader Christina Gray, who angrily referred to UCP politics as a quote, stage play. Because it has been never more apparent than the fact that this committee is still meeting and still debating this motion,

and a press release from you as the chair has already. From there, the meeting descended into chaos, as the NDP called on committee chair Brandon Luntie to recuse himself. Ultimately, the meeting ended without a vote. Afterwards, Cabinet member Jason Nixon downplayed the significance of the premature press release. If we were to go after every member of the legislature, every time staffers make a mistake, it would be ridiculous. It's the latest speed bump on what has been a rough road to the referendum. After a judge quash, the petition gathered by a pro-independence group last week, even though. though the vast majority of Albertans opposed separation,

with the majority of UCP supporters saying they would vote to leave, Smith is under pressure to have some kind of question on the ballot come October. This element is there, and they're holding her feet to the fire. Elizabeth Smyth is a political scientist with Concordia University in Edmonton and says that separatist faction inside the UCP wields considerable power over Smith's future as premier. She has to somehow walk this line between getting a, enough for Alberta in terms of enhanced sovereignty to keep the separatists off her back. And I think this referendum is part of that strategy.

A risky gambit, according to Smyth, in an age of social media information and online foreign interference. So now we're in a position in Alberta politics where reality has to catch up to advertising. Thomas Lukazek is a former Alberta deputy premier and the organizer behind the pro-Confederation petition that the committee was debating. This is now really only and exclusively about the Premier's survival as a leader of that party and a Premier of Alberta, and it has nothing to do anymore with the future of our province or the future of our country. Premier Smith is scheduled to give televised remarks later this evening and is expected to address which questions may or may not be on the ballot. Josh McLean, CBC News, Calgary. Coming right up. Are changes coming to Canada's Labor Code?

Some unions say they have concerns about a government review. They say it questions whether more federal workers should be denied the right to strike. And Elon Musk files the paperwork to take his SpaceX company public. What opening the books has revealed about the rocket company and the owner who may soon become the world's first trillionaire. And later we'll have this story. End of an era. Tonight's final curtain call for the late show with Stephen Colbert. a goodbye that's drawn both sadness from fans and political scrutiny.

That the show has to end not on Stephen Colbert's terms, but because of a business deal, is ultimately really disappointing and angering. I'm Talia Sav in Toronto. Later on your world tonight, what this means for late-night television. The Carney government is eyeing changes to Canada's Labor Code. Some businesses have called for the law to be modified, but the proposal are not sitting well with labor groups and opposition parties. David Thurton breaks down what those changes could be and the reaction. And that's not acceptable, so we're quite alarmed at the moment.

Christopher Manette is with Teamsters Canada, a union that represents thousands of truck drivers, rail, and airport workers. He's concerned by an attempt by the federal government to modernize Canada's a labor code. Among the changes the government is considering in a discussion paper is introducing an essential services designation. Think doctors, police officers, firefighters, those workers can't go on strike because we need to protect human life. But the government is now looking at expanding these essential service designations to other categories of workers, airline

workers, port workers, railroaders, to protect corporate profits. And that's not right. Other possible changes include reviewing Section 107, a controversial labor code provision that allows the minister to get involved to end strikes. Solidarity forever. We do not want the federal government to get involved in our business. We must force them to the table. Canadian businesses say, though, reform is needed. And I think we've seen a lot of uncertainty, especially over the last year with the election

of Donald Trump. Pascal Chan is with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Chan says labor disruptions like strikes make it tough to attract foreign investment as Canada pivots away from the U.S. But what we're hearing overseas is that they need to have that degree of certainty from Canadians. They need to know that our ports aren't just going to shut down two years in a row seemingly at random. But Canada's opposition parties are worried. Conservative Labour critic Kyle Seaback has questions about whom Ottawa is consulting.

It kind of seems like a rigged process, if I'll be honest. It seems like they know what they're going to do. His NDP counterpart, Don Davies, says the window for feedback is too short. You know, Canada's collective bargaining regime has been in place, for decades and decades and decades. You can't make changes within a month. Canada's Minister of Jobs, Patty Heidu, defends the government's work. The government doesn't have a preconceived idea yet about what kinds of solutions will propose once we get back all of the feedback from both employers and labor unions.

Heidu says there's an urgency to modernize Canada's workplaces in the face of automation, artificial intelligence and Donald Trump, making sure both workers and employers have the modern tools and rules to do their jobs. David Thornton, CBC News, Ottawa. Canada's communications regulator wants American streaming giants to contribute more money to Canadian programming. The CRTC says it will triple the amount that streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney are required to pay into a fund, promoting Canadian production.

The move would increase the levy from 5 to 15%. Streaming companies are already challenging the existing figure in court. Some American lawmakers have also protested the levy accusing Ottawa of unfair trade practices. Whether it's streaming or trade or defense, Canada's relationship with the U.S. seems more strained than ever. Today, Pentagon officials are shedding light on why they recently decided to step away from a joint defense panel. Erin Collins is in Washington. Aaron, can you walk us through this? Sure, Christine, so this is the first time we've heard from the Pentagon on this issue.

and Defense Department officials said today that they describe the Joint Defense Board that they've pulled back from as a premier bilateral defense policy talk that occurs between the U.S. and Canada. So, you know, what does that mean? It's been happening since like 1940 and some of the concrete policies that have come out of that over the years are really notable, right? So NORAD came out of these talks. So did the construction of the Alaska Highway. But I should say that Mark Carney said on Tuesday that the last time the board. met was at the end of 2024 and that pausing it was more of a signal from the Pentagon than a huge deal. Okay. So what have we learned about why the U.S. has decided to pause its participation? Right. That's the key question, right? All of this came out of a social media post on Monday when the U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby announced online that Canada had failed

to make credible progress on its defense commitment. So it was pulling back from this board. Today we got specifics on what he meant by that. So first off, these Defense Department officials that spoke today say they haven't seen a plan from Canada on how it's going to meet its commitment to spend 3.5% of GDP on defense by 2035. That was their key point. Canada has recently announced reaching an earlier commitment to get military spend to get 2%, but that's not good enough for the Americans. Another irritant that they touched on was the review by Canada of its purchase of F-35

fighters. The official said that review lacked transparency, and they suggested it was an example of the prioritization of politics over our shared responsibility for North American defense. So, Aaron, how does all of this impact how Canada and the U.S. work together to defend North America? Yeah, Christine, I think that's the key question, right? For Canadian sitting at home, like, are we more or less safe because of this? And there's a couple of key points from what we were told today, I think, that are good to highlight first. And perhaps most significantly, they say it does not impact operations of our binational North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, right?

So that's key. And secondly, the officials say they'll be constantly monitoring Canada's progress towards the new defense targets that every NATO partner, including Canada, committed to reach. So that's that 3.5%. And you could read that. That could suggest that this pause could be more, become a restart sort of, thing if those commitments are met down the road, or at least if there was a plan to meet them. And I should say that the federal government has said its goal is to get defense and defense-related

spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. All right, Aaron. Thanks for this. Aaron Collins in Washington. Backlash is intensifying over the Trump administration's plan to create a nearly $2 billion fund to compensate people who feel they've been victimized by the justice system. Critics call it a mega slush fund to give cash payouts to the president's supporters, which could include rioters involved in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Katie Simpson reports from Washington. I was outraged. I was angry. When former Washington, D.C. police officer Michael Fanon first learned about this new Trump administration fund, it rekindled a familiar sense of rage and disappointment.

Phanone was severely beaten by rioters during the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. The same people who now may qualify for compensation from the Department of Justice. As if it wasn't enough that he went and pardoned those individuals, he's now going to use American taxpayer dollars to pay them. Backlash has been mounting ever since the Trump administration revealed plans to create a nearly $2 billion anti-weaponization fund, a program that will allow individuals who feel the justice system was weaponized against them can apply for cash payouts.

Just to be clear, people that hurt police get money all the time, okay? Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is not setting any boundaries around who may or may not qualify, saying a five-person panel will adjudicate claims on a case-by-case basis. According to a Department of Justice memo obtained by PBS News, examples include Americans who had their online speech censored by the government, parents silenced at school board meetings, and suspects charged by the FBI. I mean, people were destroyed. They went to jail. Their families were ruined.

There is bipartisan opposition to the plan, including from Republican Senator Susan Collins. I do not support the weaponization fund. And from Democrats, including Senate, Minority leader Chuck Schumer. It's the most blatant act of corruption in American history. Lawmakers have postponed a plan vote on a funding bill in order to give them more time to ask questions about the fund. And two U.S. Capitol police officers have also filed a lawsuit to try to block it. Still, Michael Fanon expects the Trump administration will push to make this program a reality.

Anyone in America who's shocked or surprised by this hasn't been paying attention. This is what Trump supporters voted for. And so, you know, my anger has since turned, like I said, to the American people. Vennone is disappointed by the lack of outrage over the way the Trump administration has reframed the history of the capital attack. Betraying me and betraying my colleagues who fought to defend democracy. Because what did we do it for? Vanone says he still regularly gets death threats and worries this fund will inspire more political violence. Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington.

Investing in space has historically been a financial black hole. Elon Musk is hoping to erase that by betting on AI to catapult the value of his company into the stratosphere. The world's richest person plans to take SpaceX public with a record-breaking offering. Lane Harrison has the details. Elon Musk's Space X is looking to launch. an initial public offering that could be worth more than a trillion dollars. That could immediately make it one of the most valuable publicly traded companies on Earth, with a focus on the future of AI in space. And investment advisor Joseph Likoski says excitement is building as shares of the company

could be available by mid-June. It's a historic IPO. It is going to have volatility to the likes that we probably had never seen before. SpaceX has grown to be the world's largest space business with Starlink Internet satellites and reusable rockets. At the center of its ambitions to attract investors is a plan to build AI data centers, not just on Earth, but in orbit by 2028. Like any other company, they want to raise a boatload of money. They want to continue to innovate. And it's really hard to do that, you know, when you're private. They're talking about raising $75 billion. You just don't do that by passing around the hat. Going public brings extra scrutiny to what has largely been an unprofitable business.

But now, shareholders will decide how much the company is worth as Space Axe trades on the open market. Though in this deal, Musk will still retain the majority of voting control over the company's directions. The critical breakthrough that's needed for us to become a space-faring civilization is to make space travel like air travel. SpaceX has long been known for its goal of getting humans to Mars,

but most of its revenue last year came from its internet offering, Starlink, and it now owns Musk's unprofitable X-A-I. I think it's safe to say that at this point, SpaceX is less a space company and more of an AI data company. Eric Berger wrote Liftoff, a book chronicling the company's early days. He says Mars is still a goal on the horizon.

Very much in the near term, focused much more on these audible data centers. Musk's use that as a profit source that could eventually fund some kind of Mars mission. They're biting off a lot. We're going to see if it's more than they can shoot. As SpaceX brings more AI on board, there are reports that OpenAI and Anthropic are both eyeing their own public offerings. Experts say they'll be watching SpaceX closely as it tries to go public this summer. Lane Harrison, CBC News, Toronto.

The final curtain is officially closing on a 33-year television institution. Stephen Colbert will host The Late Show one last time tonight with the show's cancellation drawing intense public and political scrutiny. Talia Sarv has more on what the end of this era could mean for late night TV. Welcome one and all to The Late Show. I'm your host Stephen Colbert. The familiar opener from a man who needs no introduction, cementing himself a household. name over an 11 season run.

But an announcement by CBS last July, confirmed by Colbert himself, next year will be our last season. The network will be ending the late show in May. Has the comedian taking his final bow with the late-night franchise on Thursday. CBS claimed it was a cost-cutting measure, citing huge financial losses for the show. The idea that Stephen Colbert is the one that's going off the air seems unfathable to me. But host of CBC's commotion, Elamene Abdel-Mamud, says there's fair skepticism around the cancellation being, at least in part, politically motivated.

Colbert openly criticised CBS's parent company Paramount for settling a hefty lawsuit with President Trump days beforehand. He was a top-rated one in his life. And never shied from political jabs. Just last week, Colbert mocked Trump for praising Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. You're a great leader. Sometimes people don't like me saying it, but I say it anyway because it's true. I only say the truth.

Congratulations. I only say the truth was Donald Trump's one billionth lie. There's not many performers out there who have his track record for holding up a mirror to American society and the political establishment and the media establishment. Eric Deggans is a TV critic for NPR. He says satire is a great way of distilling effective criticism of administration. making the likes of Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel targets. That's why so many politicians are so uncomfortable with really good satirist. Non-political show, Brian Allen's Comics Unleashed, is set to fill the vacant slot at the network.

But experts say the demand for late-night talk TV is strong and can remain relevant as media consumption shifts to streaming and viral clips. Robert Thompson is a professor for television at Syracuse University. It was a genre designed for TikTok, decades and decades and decades before TikTok even existed. It's completely modular. You can chop it up. However, Deggans warns it will still be a struggle financially. I think these late-night shows are going to have to figure out new sources of revenue

or new ways of reaching viewers beyond just taking their content and throwing it on YouTube and letting Google make most of that money. One thing's for sure, Colbert's curtain close will be felt. Thank you so much for being here. Talia Sar, CBC News, Toronto. Finally tonight, for almost 90 years, people have wondered what happened to Amelia Earhart. The trailblazing American pilot disappeared while flying over the Pacific in 1937, with no trace ever found. But a bronze statue of Earhart met a better fate this week, returning to its rightful place in Harbor Grace, Newfoundland and Labrador.

I honestly didn't think it was we'd ever find it, but I'm very pleased, and it's kind of full circle. That's Sam Bruce. His late grandfather, pilot and Earhart fan, Roger Pike, donated the statue to Harbor Grace, the place where Earhart began her famous 1932 solo flight across the Atlantic. Then last year, the 300-kilogram artwork was stolen, cut off at the base. People feared it had been melted down or thrown into the ocean. But four months later, it was found, in the woods, in rough shape. Metal sculptor Morgan MacDonald. It was in pieces. It was, you know, she had been cut off at the neck and chest and legs. And I think everybody was hopeful that it could be put back together and repair. McDonald was tasked with that repair job. He spent months at his Newfoundland bronze foundry welding and reinforcing the piece.

His admiration growing as he worked. I'm going to miss her because, you know, she was in the foundry for, you know, last year. You'd wake up every day, you know, you'd start your day, you know, to have a cup of coffee and, you know, start your practice in the foundry. You know, it's a bit of, you know, bittersweet for me because, you know, she's back where she's rightfully belongs, but she's not in the foundry there anymore. So it's a bit of an emptiness feeling. Yesterday, the town rededicated the statue on the 94th anniversary of Earhart's celebrated departure

from Harbor Grace. Thanks for being with us. This has been your world tonight for Thursday. May 21st. I'm Christine Birak. Good night. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca.ca.