Your World Tonight - LA fires, grocers overcharging for meat, cyberattacks on schools, and more

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Two of the fires in Los Angeles are still zero per cent contained. Beyond the smoke and flames, there are worries about water quality, and electricity. And fighting an urban wildfire has its own challenges — including fire hydrants that aren’t able to provide enough water for the scale of the destruction. Canada has offered help.And: A CBC investigation shows Loblaws and other grocery stores are selling underweighted meat — meaning it’s not as heavy as they are charging for. They are including the packaging in the weight, which is not allowed.Also: Parents across Canada got a warning this week that their kids’ informationwas exposed in a cyber attack. We look at the way schools across the country are vulnerable to online hacking.Plus: Norovirus on the rise in Canada and the U.S., anger over a rape case in India, newcomers looking for housing, and more.

Mama, look at me. Brum, brum. I'm going really fast. I just got my license. Can I borrow the car, please, Mom? Kids go from 0 to 18 in no time. You'll be relieved they have 24-7 roadside assistance with intact insurance. This is a CBC Podcast. Pretty apocalyptic. We're used to seeing big fires up in the timber with the smoke and the flames and all that. It's a little different when it's running through downtown LA. The staggering scale of the Los Angeles fires still scorching across the city's sprawling geography from the Hollywood Hills to the Pacific Coast, the equivalent of 20,000 football fields.

Entire neighbourhoods from celebrity enclaves to working-class suburbs gone. And as the flames continue to rage, there is social fallout with the lack of power and water and looting in a city on fire. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Thursday, January 9th coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern also on the podcast. I was angry and I was short by what was equivalent to an entire portion. It is a violation of a mandatory federal regulation. Underweight items being sold by some heavyweight grocers

caught in a CBC investigation. Loblaws, Sobeys and Walmart, some of the stores overcharging customers for packages of meat that don't add up to what's on the label. The LA skyline is still clouded by choking smoke, but underneath there's a clearer picture of the destruction. Thousands of structures from homes to local landmarks burned to the ground, with residents and officials saying they'd never seen anything like it, and the worst may be yet to come. The CBC's Aaron Collins is in Los Angeles. The sunset fire started late last night, the most recent to send people in Los Angeles

scrambling, spreading quickly through the Hollywood Hills, threatening some of LA's most famous landmarks. You can see that whole fire there and the ridge line over here coming over the ridge here. Residents of this affluent neighborhood forced to flee. It probably took me a good 45 minutes to get down around to someplace safe. Firefighters able to keep the flames at bay here As dawn broke some relief for people returning home. You hear about the fires here and it's always Malibu, Topanga, you know more north. I never hear it.

But as crews continue to put out hot spots in the area lingering fears for people like Christine and Peratto. I mean you're home now But just behind you they're putting out hot spots That's probably a bit nerve wracking Incredibly nerve wracking The news not as good in other parts of the Los Angeles area The Palisades fire ravaged the suburbs northwest of LA

The Eaton fire has flattened or damaged 4,000 structures in the area. At least one resident here died fighting the fire. In the city of Altenita, entire blocks leveled. And you see this fire too. You see the flames went all the way up that tree. This is a hemlock. Miraculously, Myron Oak's home is still standing. The rest of the houses on his street, gone. Yeah, it's tough. It makes no sense. You can't make sense out of it. What happens happens. More than 100,000 people still evacuated from their homes. L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna says that as residents moved out, looters moved in.

If you are in one of these areas and you do not belong there, you are going to be subject to arrest." Add to that hundreds of thousands of people still without power. Officials say many others are without drinking water. Low water pressure in hydrants impacting firefighting efforts, too. Janice Quiñones is with LA's Water and Power Department. We continue to support LAFD and coal fire and water supply issues and firefighting response, including opening our water reservoirs.

Crews on the ground working the fires ringing this city, attacking them from the air too. Planes from Quebec among the water bombers. Thousands of firefighters working around the clock to turn the tide here. No easy task with more dry, windy weather forecast for at least the next day. Erin Collins, CBC News, Los Angeles. As we heard from Erin, Canada is helping out with some of the firefighting. Quebec and BC have water bombers and helicopters on site. Ontario, Alberta and Quebec are offering more equipment and 250 firefighters.

It's not clear yet if California has accepted. But the premiers and the prime minister have been quick to remind Americans Canada is their closest neighbour and friend. US President-elect Donald Trump is threatening to put 25% tariffs on Canadian products. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper today and had some advice for Donald Trump. Yes, the American president has a capacity to hurt the Canadian economy. There's no question about that. But anything an American president does to hurt the Canadian economy, there's no question about that. But anything an American president does to hurt the Canadian economy

will also hurt American consumers, American workers, and American growth. We do better when we work together to take on the world, whether it's China or Russia or anywhere else. When we work together, we can't be stopped. Trudeau also said Trump's talk of annexing Canada is a tactic designed to distract from the tariffs. There are new allegations big chain grocers are overcharging you at the checkout counter. The claims follow a CBC News investigation that discovered several cases of inflated prices because of mis-weighed meat.

Sophia Harris has the details. Took the full weight that was on the label, divided it by four. When Iris Griffin weighed the ground beef she bought in order to freeze individual portions, she says it was short, 134 grams. And I was angry and I was short by what was equivalent to an entire portion. Griffin bought the beef at a Lobla owned superstore in Winnipeg in November 2023. She figures the store overcharged her $1.27, an extra 8% by including the hard plastic packaging when weighing and pricing the

meat. Under federal rules, posted net weights on food labels can't include the packaging. It is a violation of a mandatory federal regulation. Griffin complained to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which alerted La Blah that December. The grocer says, due to an error involving a change in packaging, it sold a small number of underweighted meat products in 80 stores

across Western Canada. The CFIA says it issued no fines because Loblaw said it fixed the problem. One year later, CBC News went shopping and found several packages of underweighted meat at two Loblaw stores and one Sobe's-owned location. Plus a Walmart. It appeared the meats had been weighed with the packaging. Calculated overcharges per item were between 4 and 11 percent. It doesn't surprise me at all that it's still a problem. It was something that I regularly bought that.

Terry Lee worked as a CFIA inspector for 24 years and says she often found underweighted meat in stores when doing inspections. She says both the CFIA and grocers need to do more to protect shoppers. So it's a hidden cost to consumers. The stores, they need to do more auditing. They need to get in there and they need to check their weights more often. In an email, Loblaw apologized for its mis-weighted meat and says it has reviewed all weighted products for accuracy

and refreshed in-store training. Sobeys and Walmart say they're addressing the issue CBC found with third-party partners which weighed the meat. Consumer advocate Daniel Chai says even a small weight discrepancy can, over time, add up to big profits for grocers. Potentially into millions and millions of dollars. So there's definitely a need here for some kind of rectification that consumers get compensated.

When asked, Loblaw says it will offer compensation. Sobeys and Walmart didn't respond. Sophia Harris, CBC News, Vancouver. Coming up on the podcast, the danger of a digital attack on schools, a nasty stomach bug on the rise in Canada, plus a fascinating political tableau at the funeral of former president Jimmy Carter. [♪upbeat music playing -♪》 Schools across the country are grappling with a major cyber attack that may have leaked the private information of thousands of students and staff.

As Deanna Sumanek-Johnson reports, experts warn it's part of a troubling trend that requires urgent action. You know where that student is, you have an idea probably about you know what they look like or size. Toronto father Jack Amandolia was sharing his concerns about an increasing number of cyber attacks at his son's school board when he got an email about a new breach. A major cyber incident involving Power School, the application used by many school boards across North America

to store a range of student information. It's an email hundreds of thousands of parents across Canada got. For Amandolia, one more reason to be worried. Well, knowing what kind of information school boards have about our children, it could have been anything, right? It could have been addresses and phone numbers. And so then they know, you know, a child, a gender, an age, where that person lives, student numbers. It's the latest in a string

of high-profile cybersecurity breaches hitting Canadian schools. Last month, Pembina Trail School Division, one of the biggest in Winnipeg, was hit by a cyberattack that, among other things, compromised personal information of students and paralyzed email and phone systems. Grade 10 student Sebastian Kelly says it was a reminder of how much schools rely on the Internet.

For us, that basically shut down basically everything we use. Computers, PA systems, attendance online, like there was no internet, so we couldn't access that. As any parent of a school-aid child today will tell you, gone are the days of signed paper forms. Information about everything from medical history to the names of people who are allowed to pick them up are submitted online. And all of that makes schools and information

about children prized prey for cyber criminals, says Eva Wienz, a cybersecurity expert with the company CDW. These are fresh identities. They can create something called a synthetic identity where they take an address, a phone number and a name and can create a synthetic social insurance number and try to apply for things like loans online. School boards or parents can also be asked for ransom money.

Nguyen says if there's one silver lining in these cyber attacks, it's that they will likely result in better security, like two-step authentication where a parent receives a text message with a unique code that needs to be entered to access private data. And he has a tip for parents, too. Limiting the information and where you put the information and what information you give out is key. It's something Jack Amandolia intends to do as parents and educators grapple with how to keep schools running in the digital age while keeping the information of children safe.

Deanna Sumanac-Johnson, CBC News, Toronto. A different kind of virus is hitting Canadians these days. Doctors are warning of a spike in cases of a ferocious stomach bug, also known as norovirus. Experts don't yet have an answer why. Jennifer Yoon explains. I just started throwing up and it was really bad. It's a rough time to be living in a dormitory at the University of Guelph in Ontario.

First year Edward Chow isn't the only one experiencing intense bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. There's a suspected norovirus outbreak that's infected at least 100 people. Now a race to contain the virus, which can spread in crowded settings. Belinda Scott is the vice provost of student affairs at the university. Our students live in residence, but they also come to the athletic center, they go to the library, they go to class, and so we want to make sure that our entire campus is as healthy and safe as possible.

Dormitories aren't the only places where norovirus can thrive. Daycares, cruise ships, and long-term care homes are also especially susceptible. And more people across the country are getting sick. The Public Health Agency of Canada says it's seeing more cases in several provinces like BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. It is by far the most common viral gastroenteritis that we see. Brantford infectious disease specialist Dr. Dale Kalina says it doesn't take much to get sick. A very, very small amount of that virus can cause the full-blown disease.

It can be spread through contaminated foods like oysters or touching a contaminated surface, then touching your nose or your mouth. Vomiting, diarrhea, unable to eat, nauseous. Once infected, most people should be fine after 24 to 48 hours. For some vulnerable groups, though, it can be life-threatening, says Dr. Carl Weiss, the chief of infectious diseases at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. Very young or the very old or people who are under therapy

with different types of immunosuppression, it can be a more severe condition. Across the United States, there's a surge. A record number of norovirus outbreaks across the country. 91 all at once in December 2024. More than double the year before. Dr. Weiss says once there's an outbreak, there's nothing to be done but to ride it out. There's no real treatment for noroviruses.

It's like really symptomatic treatment. The important thing is really hydration. People have to rehydrate themselves. Alcohol-based cleaners won't kill the virus. So the best way to avoid getting sick? Wash your hands with soap and water. Jennifer Yoon, CBC News, Montreal. Thousands gathered in Washington today for the state funeral of former U.S. President

Jimmy Carter, who died last month at 100 years old. Family and dignitaries shared reflections on Carter's character and political legacy. Paul Hunter reports. With Jimmy Carter's casket draped by the US flag front and center inside the packed National Cathedral in Washington, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau among those on hand, the five surviving US presidents looked on from the two front rows, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. It fell to Biden at Carter's request to eulogize the one-time Georgia peanut farmer who rose to the White House, who lived to be 100, the oldest ex-president ever.

Throughout his life, he showed us what it means to be a practitioner of good works and a good and faithful servant of God and of the people. The decades-long friendship between Biden and Carter began in the 1970s when Biden became the first politician outside Georgia to publicly Jimmy Carter's enduring attribute, character, character, character. It was a message echoed by speaker after speaker, respectful, generous, a life of purpose and public service. Carter's grandson, Joshua. He built houses for people who needed homes. He eliminated diseases in forgotten places. He waged peace anywhere in the world. Wherever he saw a chance, he loved people.

And he became president. And he won a Nobel Peace Prize. But Jason Carter, another grandson, also emphasized a key part of Jimmy Carter's appeal, the folksy, regular person Carter. Something Carter exhibited as president and then for decades afterward at the modest home in Georgia, he shared with his wife Rosalind. And one of the best ways to demonstrate that they're regular folks is to take them by that home. First of all, it looks like they might have built it themselves. Second of all, my grandfather was likely to show up at the door in some 70s short shorts and Crocs.

Carter's presidency lasted just one term, his bid for re-election foiled in part by high inflation and a hostage crisis in Iran. But as so many at the Cathedral noted, his goal was to always act with honesty, love, faith, and goodwill. An epitaph few would deny. Carter's body then left Washington aboard Air Force One bound for his burial as Carter wanted back at his hometown in Georgia. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Washington. In India, frustration and anger are building in advance of a verdict in a highly charged murder trial. Five months ago, a medical resident was raped and killed while on duty in a hospital.

The trial of her accused killer has gripped the country and a verdict is expected next week. South Asia correspondent Salima Shivji has the story. We deserve justice. She deserves justice. The rallies and calls for justice are no longer as frequent or as loud but the fury and frustration lingers in Kolkata. It's been 150 days since a trainee doctor was raped and murdered while on duty at a public hospital.

A brutal crime that horrified India, fuelling protests across the country. Many gathered here, like Jola Chatterjee, feel it's their duty to keep calling for justice. Women, not only in India, but in the whole world, we are not safe. We are not safe like men. At the hospital where the 31-year-old doctor, who can't be named, worked, there's not only a shrine in her memory,

but also posters and graffiti everywhere on the sprawling grounds, signs denouncing the rape, and what many see as a reluctance from authorities to investigate the crime fully. One man who volunteered at the hospital has been charged with the trainee doctor's rape and murder. His trial held behind closed doors, far from the cameras, with no media allowed in. It has just wrapped up with a verdict expected next week. But two other men arrested for failing to protect the crime scene, the former head of the hospital and a senior police officer

were released last month. That angered the victims' parents, who were convinced more people were involved in their only child's murder. And they need support, says Dr. Asfakula Naya, also a trainee doctor at the same hospital, ARGICOR. He says the family is relying on their daughter's former colleagues to push for justice and a stiff sentence if the accused is found guilty.

It should be an example that never happened before. Everyone should get fear showing the punishment. A harsher sentence will make people think twice before they do it again. Yeah, not twice. A thousand times they should think. But others are pessimistic a harsh sentence will make any difference. Justice is a very long process for us. 22-year-old medical student Debeshmita Das says the last five months have been marred by persistent fears over safety as she attends her classes.

How can a murder happen inside the hospital on duty? How can we feel safe when we do duty? I'll be doing my internship in three years. her classes. She says many dorms at the teaching hospital still have little to no security, with change painfully slow to arrive. Salima Shivji, CBC News, Mumbai. The challenges of finding decent housing are not new to Canadians, whether it's because of sky-high prices or a lack of supply. A recent CBC News survey suggests those struggles are intensified for recent immigrants trying to start a life here.

Alexander Silberman explains. Cheers for the new home! Vanit and Deeksha Jen are celebrating, finally finding an apartment in Saskatoon. The couple arrived from India last year with extensive work experience in engineering and human resources only to spend months hunting for work and a place to live. We were worried a lot. Being new to Canada was the biggest obstacle with no credit history, references or jobs. Landlords kept saying no.

At one time I was feeling like we should give up and maybe we should go back to our home country. They found a room to rent inside someone's house, planning to stay a month. But Vineeth Jens says that turned into six, until they eventually found a place. There was always a tension back of our mind that we need to get into some bigger accommodation so that we can plan our future. The Gens are among many newcomers to Canada reporting challenges finding housing. In a survey conducted for CBC News, 8 in 10 newcomers say they've had a positive experience settling in Canada, but just more than half of the 1,500 surveyed say they found a home that is affordable. The cost of rentals continued

to grow across Canada in 2024 and the Federal Housing Agency says most units are still too expensive for the average renter. Supply just can't respond quickly enough. Steve Pomeroy is a professor and housing expert at McMaster University. He says a massive spike in non-permanent residents like international students created a surge in demand for rentals and while new units are being built the market needs time to catch up. You know people can get on a plane anywhere in the world this morning and arrive tonight but we can't get a house on a production line this morning and have it ready for tonight. It takes us five or six years to get a housing

built. So should Canada build more homes or welcome fewer people? Experts and economists say a nuanced approach is needed to make housing affordable. Daniel Bernhardt is CEO of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, which helps settle new immigrants. He says newcomers are needed to keep growing the economy. Simply saying that we're going to slow the population and therefore solve all of our problems I think is actually very short-sighted and distracts us from the work that we need to do.

Welcome to our new home, Diksha. In Saskatoon, the Jens are glad to finally have a place of their own. And despite the challenges, they're happy to call Canada home. Alexander Silberman, CBC News, Regina. club player thinking if you're lucky you can maybe win a single point. Well what if that's all you needed? The odds were stacked against them. A high school student still learning the game, a 72-year-old with a bad shoulder,

competing this week in Melbourne against top pros at the site of the upcoming Australian Open on Centre Court. And with the winner taking home more than $50,000 in prize money. The caveat? Each match was just one point It meant one well-hit shot or a small blunder on the other side even a gust of wind Was all the underdogs needed to pull off the impossible. And there were plenty of upsets. Paul Fitzgerald used his big serve.

The 56-year-old Melbourne dad managed to knock out three professionals, making it all the way to the semi-finals, before getting beaten by Australia's fourth-ranked women's player. In the end, reality set in. The abbreviated format notwithstanding, there was no Cinderella ending. And the final match featured two professionals. Thank you for joining us. This has been Your World Tonight for Thursday, January 9thbc.ca slash podcasts.