Your World Tonight - More underweighted meat, corporate veterinarians, immigration crackdown, and more

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

More Canadians are finding they’ve been overcharged for meat weighed at the grocery stores. And some are saying – the enforcement isn’t strong enough. Most of the time, there are no penalties, although the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has the power to impose them.Also: Corporations are getting into the veterinary business. A joint investigation between The Fifth Estate, Marketplace – and Radio-Canada’s Enquete and La Facture looks at the changing pet care industry. And how it might affect prices when you take your pet in for health care.And: The immigration crackdown begins in the U.S. Already hundreds of people have been deported to Guatemala via military plane. Critics are questioning the tactics and the use of the military in the new president’s plan.Plus: Vancouver’s plan to deal with the Downtown East Side, sedentary kids, returning home in Gaza, and more.

I told the court that I'm wrong to imprison him. Mr. Sun, you are not the right person. There's too much being hid from you. He needs to be taken out of the court. There's too much. He was one small man in a giant wheel cut. Well, I do wish to say that it's official that I'm wrongfully imprisoned right now. Uncover, Season 7, Dead Wrong.

I asked him if he killed Pepple. He said yes and I'd be next. Available on CBC Listen and wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. And I really don't like to think that I'm paying for packaging. Grocery prices have gotten horrendous over the last couple of years. Canadian shoppers are getting a raw deal at the butcher counter in some of this country's largest supermarkets. After a CBC investigation revealed overcharging for underweight meat, the issue is now heading for the scales of justice.

And a proposed class action lawsuit. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Tom Harrington. It's Friday, January 24th coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Also on the podcast. People are scared. They were heavily armed. There was no prior announcement. They were blocking off entrances and exits. They were banging down bathroom doors to make sure no one was hiding inside. Undocumented and under pressure, Donald Trump ramps up his immigration crackdown by flexing the power of U.S. law enforcement and the military, raids on workplaces, soldiers at the southern border, and deportations on military aircraft. Many Canadians are struggling to put food on the table, so the findings of a recent CBC investigation were hard to stomach. Big grocers were caught overcharging customers for the meat

they buy. Now we're learning the problem persists. Sophia Harris did the original report and she's discovered there's a new push to hold the grocery stores accountable. I resent the fact that I feel like I'm getting ripped off. When Deborah Aikens heard about a CBC News investigation which uncovered Loblaw, Sobeys and Walmart grocery stores overcharging customers by selling underweighted meat, she weighed her ground beef. To her surprise it appeared the beef had been weighed and priced with a hard plastic packaging tray. And I really don't like to think that I'm paying for packaging.

Grocery prices have gotten horrendous over the last couple of years. Aitkins had bought the beef at a Sobe's Own store in Halifax. CBC News bought three more packages at the same store and found they too appear to have been weighed with the packaging which violates federal regulations. Calculated overcharge, six percent. In an email, Sobeys thanked CBC for bringing this to the grocer's attention and said it has reinforced its meat weighing procedures and policies. I just don't know how they're not paying more attention to this stuff. This is their business.

In 2023, another shopper, Iris Griffin, complained to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency about underweighted beef, bought at a Laubla-owned superstore in Winnipeg. Turns out, the error occurred at 80 locations. Griffin's unhappy, the CFIA issued no penalties in that case, which is typical. So you have a copy of the proposed class action there? Yeah I do. But Griffin is happy about a new proposed class action lawsuit.

It alleges Loblaw, Sobeys and Walmart misrepresented the weight of meat products and overcharged shoppers. It gives people a sense that something is being done and that the retailer is being held accountable for the money that they've taken from consumers. Sobeys and Loblaw didn't comment on the lawsuit. Walmart said a third party sold underweighted meat at one store in Richmond, BC for two weeks this past December. But a customer at that store complained about the problem on social media back in October, two months earlier. Walmart says it's investigating. It's the government's responsibility to verify compliance. Consumer advocate Jay Jackson says the CFIA needs to penalize grocers which

break the rules. It's beyond me that they don't take more enforcement and heavier enforcement also sends a message. Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh sent a message to Canada's Competition Bureau asking it to hold these giant corporations accountable. Meanwhile the CFIA says it issues fines when appropriate and following CBC's investigation the agency launched a new webpage about how to spot and report mis-weight food. Sophia Harris CBC's investigation, the agency launched a new web page about how to spot and report mis-weight food. Sophia Harris, CBC News, Vancouver. Now to another CBC investigation about something close to the heart

of millions of Canadians, their pet. When they're sick, the stress can be unbearable. But perhaps even worse, the cost of treatment can be unaffordable, especially when it's an emergency. A joint investigation between the Fifth Estate, Marketplace, and Radio Canada's Enquête and La Factor explored the changing pet care industry. As Stephen D'Souza reports, those changes could be raising the rates. It's like taking your car to the car dealership. They charge for every single thing extra. At a Toronto dog park, David McEachern says while his 14-year-old parson Russell Terrier

Enzo loves going to the vet, McEachern can hardly afford the rising cost there. He just loves them there, but the prices keep going up, so at some point you've got to say enough's enough. Experts say one reason is a transformation going on in pet care and vet clinics across Canada, as corporations and private equity investors buy up independent clinics. It's a trend that's been seen in dentistry, skilled trades, even funeral homes. It's a tsunami and I think it's bigger than most people realize. Rachel Wasserman is a Toronto business lawyer.

Veterinary services are a multi-billion dollar business in Canada. She says that makes them an attractive investment target. So the research shows that when private equity buys a vet, the prices do go up quite quickly. In just over a decade, multinational corporations and private equity investors have bought up 20% of vet clinics in Canada and 50% of emergency animal hospitals. I think the big corporations are not looking after the staff.

It's just a money-making business that's so far removed from the care of animals. But now some employees are speaking out. Megan used to work for VCA, which is owned by chocolate company Mars. I think clients are being overcharged. I think staff are being underpaid. We've changed her name and voice as she fears being blacklisted in the industry. There are sort of, hmm, creative price increases where we or the management are told to creatively increase prices in areas that clients won't notice.

A lot of staff are going on stress leave. There's a lot of mental health issues. We also spoke to a woman we're calling Sarah, a former employee at VetStrategy, which owns more than 360 clinics across Canada. We're also protecting her identity. They had to use meds that got the highest rebate from the pharma company, not the best ones for the animals. In a statement to the Fifth Estate, Mars says their vet teams are not encouraged or directed to recommend unnecessary services or products. Vet Strategy Canada said some of the claims made are not accurate, but also stated that targets and incentives are in line with professional norms in Canada. But has any of this caught the attention of federal

regulators? The Competition Bureau told the Fifth Estate that while it is aware of the growing corporate presence, the deals being made are not big enough to trigger a closer look. Stephen D'Souza, CBC News, Toronto. Coming right up on the podcast, Vancouver makeover. The mayor has a plan to clean up and redevelop the downtown east side, but critics say it won't solve the crisis there. Plus, rounding them up, the Trump administration begins its campaign to deport illegal immigrants and fly them out on military planes. Later, a new study on Canadian daycare shows kids are not very active, in fact, mostly

sitting around. We look at the impact and the solutions. Big changes could be coming to one of Canada's most notorious and troubled neighbourhoods. Vancouver's mayor says he wants to revitalize the city's downtown east side. His plan includes keeping criminals off the streets. Critics say it will do more harm to the people who live on those streets. Michelle Gossoub has the details. In this neighbourhood, the current approach has failed. Speaking at a forum for

groups concerned about crime, Mayor Ken Sim announcing a major shift in his approach to Vancouver's downtown Eastside. I'll be bringing a motion to Council to pause any net new supportive housing units in the city of Vancouver, Kim says instead of providing new

subsidized homes, the city will focus on revitalizing existing buildings, arguing Vancouver is bearing the brunt of the region's homeless crisis. Sim says the city has three quarters of the region's supportive services, but only 25% of the population. But to put it bluntly, it's also time for other municipalities to step up and develop supportive housing in their communities as well.

The downtown Eastside has been in crisis for decades. But during the pandemic, conditions in the four square kilometer neighborhood deteriorated. Tents cover sidewalks and public drug use and property crime shot up. Encampments have been dismantled by police only to pop up again. Jean Swanson is a former Vancouver City Councillor and an advocate for the neighbourhood. We've got 4,000 homeless people in the city, and to say we're going to stop building the housing that they need is cruel and inhumane and won't work.

She says a lack of housing is at the core of the neighbourhood's problems. But Sim argues hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into the downtown east side with little change. Clint Maulman is the chair of Save Our Streets, a coalition concerned about public safety. It organized the forum where Sim made the announcement. The panel of experts on housing commented that they were appalled to hear that we would concentrate or ghettoize people with mental health and addiction problems in one area."

Swanson sees that concentration of struggling people differently. The ghetto is a place where people who are excluded from other areas build a community. Simms' new approach to the neighborhood will also focus on building a business and cracking down on gang activity. No gangs have no place in our city and to them I say this, get out of Vancouver. It's unknown how much this change in policy will cost but those who have lived on the street like harm reduction advocate Guy Felicella worry about what it will bring. Unfortunately the only people that suffer out of this are the people who are struggling on the street.

A new plan to help a long-suffering neighborhood soon to be tested. Michelle Kassoub, CBC News, Vancouver. Ontario's premier says he will trigger an election next week. The fixed election date is in June next year. Ford says there's a very specific reason he's calling it now. We need a mandate from the people to fight against Donald Trump's tariffs, the attack he's coming against our families, our businesses, our communities. And with a strong mandate, we will be able to fight with Donald Trump to make sure we

stop the tariffs and make sure that we give certainty to the people of Ontario. Ford didn't name a specific date, but a typical 30-day campaign would mean voters head to the polls on Thursday, February 27th. While Canada's political leaders talk about Trump and cross-border trade, America is homing in on border security. U.S. immigration authorities are ramping up raids and arrests as the president tries to make good on his promise of mass deportations. Paul Hunter reports from Washington. Security video shown to a US news outlet shows what appears to be the tail end of the

raid. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE agents with a man apparently handcuffed after being apprehended at a seafood depot in Newark, New Jersey yesterday. The latest signal, President Donald Trump's long-promised deportations of undocumented migrants in this country are underway. People were fingerprinted. Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, a city that has pledged to protect migrants, says there was no warrant. None of these people were rapists or murderers or criminals. We believe that there were three people who they say were undocumented that they detained, but they also detained folks that were in fact citizens of this country.

One person showed their military veteran identification and was still questioned anyway. People are scared. Amy Torres is executive director of the Alliance for Immigrant Justice. And what we learned from folks that stayed behind was that ICE walked in like it was their empire's own conquered land. They were heavily armed. There was no prior announcement. They were blocking off entrances and exits. They were scrambling up delivery ramps. They were banging down bathroom doors to make sure no one was hiding inside. It may sound like a scene out of the movies but the expectation in the US now is that such scenarios will be playing out throughout

the country in the days and weeks to come. It's believed there are some 11 million undocumented migrants in America. Trump has suggested all are now targets. He's already using the U.S. military to help out. The White House releasing photographs of a number of migrants being marched onto a military cargo plane in Texas for deportation. Well, they're scared of being deported right away.

Texas immigration lawyer Margie Villalobos tells CBC News she's hearing from countless migrants, including those in the U.S. legally, who now fear for their future. They want to know, are we going to be okay? Am I going to be fine? Am I going to get deported? Is my mom going to get deported? Is my dad getting deported? Do we have any rights?

Trump maintains the first raids will go after criminals, repeating that message today in North Carolina. The murderers, these are people that have been as bad as you get, as bad as anybody you've seen. But few believe the raids are restricted to those. Indeed, as cities beyond Newark brace themselves, New Jersey Congresswoman LaMonica McIver put it like this.

Trump's attacks on immigrant communities is now at our front door. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Washington. Hamas says it will release four Israeli hostages tomorrow, all of them soldiers, all of them women. They will be exchanged for almost 200 Palestinian detainees. It is the second swap under the Gaza ceasefire deal. With that agreement in place, Palestinians are returning to the southern part of the territory. As they discover the extent of the devastation, many are searching for loved ones they believe

are buried in the rubble. Chris Brown has the story. Amid Gaza's hellscape and with the ceasefire quieting Israeli bombs, Ashraf Zakut and his daughter Islam have returned to what used to be their home in Ra'fa, but their house and all of those around it have been smashed to pieces. Barely a wall is left standing. The family is here to search for the body of Mahmoud, his son, her brother. He refused to leave, says Islam Zakoot.

He insisted on staying. He said, this is my place, my country, and I won't leave it. Heavy equipment is scarce, so it's a painstaking task to shift crushed concrete, rebar and bricks. Friends say it was six months ago that 24-year-old Mahmoud, an engineering student, was in the family's house as Israeli ground forces attacked. He was studying for his masters and wanted to continue his PhD, says his sister. He had goals and dreams, but the war started and stopped everything.

I'm upset and very sad, says his father, but we hope to find him so we can bury him and he can rest. As many as 10,000 bodies may be buried under Gaza's rubble says Gaza's emergency service. Every day dozens more are found and the death toll ticks higher with more than 47,000 dead and counting say local health officials. Nearby, there's another family with another desperate search. Only they discover the worst. They find human remains, some bones and clothing,

with ID in the pocket confirming the identity of a missing relative. As Palestinians use the ceasefire to conduct painful searches, Israelis are also coming to observe the impact of 15 months of war on the territory next door. In the community of Deir Eot, where Hamas gunmen killed dozens on October the 7th, a lookout lets people see the destruction in places like Biet Hanun and Jabalia, only a kilometer or two away. As Israel Shimon peers through his binoculars, he says once the remaining Israeli hostages are returned, he wants the war to resume. We're not finished the job yet.

What's the job? Destroy all the buildings of the terrorists. There's not much left to be destroyed. For the Zakwat family, this day ends in disappointment. The search for Mahmoud's body turns up nothing, but they'll keep looking. He was Zakwet's second son to be killed in the war, but at least his family have a body to bury and a place to grieve. Chris Brown, CBC News in Deir Eid, Israel.

Defence Minister Bill Blair says Canada should be able to meet NATO's defence spending target within two years. That is six years earlier than the Prime Minister told NATO leaders in July. The alliance requires member nations to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence. Blair says achieving that goal depends on the government coming up with the money. But the military is ready to expand its capabilities. We know that we want to get this job done as quickly as possible. And we're looking at not just the acquisition of new platforms,

planes and ships and submarines, etc. Those are important investments that Canada is going to have to make. But there's some foundational work going to have to make, but there's some foundational work that we have to also do, and that work has already been, is well-entrained in order to make sure that we've got the people, the skill sets, the foundations, the training capacity, housing and childcare for our workers.

Blair says the updated timeline isn't only about threats from Donald Trump. The president has said Canada is relying on American protection, even suggesting it should become part of its southern neighbor. NATO says Canada currently spends roughly 1.37% of GDP on defense. Monday marks 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be in Poland to attend a ceremony at the notorious Nazi death camp to mark the anniversary.

But today in Ottawa, one Jewish survivor shared his story. The CBC's Nicole Williams was there. He was so desperate. He was so desperate. In a bright room in the nation's capital, David Moskovich shares his story and is brought back to Auschwitz. And then they put us on those cattle trains and they loaded us up, jammed us into those trains. Even 80 years later, his memories of what happened are still clear. That whole day there was snow there and people, dead people, all over the place. I saw one of my uncles. Now 95, Moskovich was just 14 when he was

brought to the death camp from then Czechoslovakia. My mom went straight to the gas chamber of course which we didn't know. Six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, approximately half a million of them at Auschwitz. On the day it was liberated there were just 7,000 survivors. Naomi Azrieli is chair and CEO of the Azrieli Foundation, dedicated to Holocaust education. The Holocaust was not an inevitability. It was the culmination of a long history of prejudice and discrimination. Moskvic eventually made his way to Canada and started a family. For the first time in my life,

it felt like a direct link was being thread between the past and the present. Hannah Alberga says stories like her grandfather's are more important now than ever, with symbols of antisemitism on proud display. On January 6th, 2021, watching the mob that stormed the US Capitol, I saw a man wearing a dark hoodie with a skull,

crossbones and large white letters on it that said, Camp Auschwitz, work brings freedom. Moskovich himself, disturbed by what he saw the day of US President Donald Trump's inauguration. Elon Musk giving what many, including Moskovich, think was a Nazi salute, something Musk has dismissed. I never thought in my life I would ever see this again. Especially such an important guy like him, the wealthiest man in the world. Noah Shaq is interim president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and says Canadians should be paying attention to what's happening on this side of the border too. Fire bombings of synagogues with gunfire directed at Jewish schools,

with calls for violence in our streets and people being intimidated, harassed, bullied and assaulted. The promise of Canada is in jeopardy. With the number of Holocaust survivors greatly diminishing, stories and lessons like Moskvich's become all the more precious. Nicole Williams, CBC News, Ottawa. When you send your child to daycare, how active do you think they are? Based on a new study from Western University, the answer is not very. It suggests toddlers are spending the majority of their time just sitting around.

One stunning number, preschoolers are sedentary for more than 40 minutes out of every hour. Diana Sumanek-Johnson now on the risks and the solutions to get kids moving. Let's work together. There we go. On this frigid January day, toddlers in Toronto's NIAID daycare are building a block tower. But on most other days, their caregivers take them outside, even to a neighbouring forest and ravine. Registered early childhood educator Lisa Cloutier says it's a back to basics approach. They're going to try to climb the bleachers and jump off the top. They're going to try to climb the tree.

It's back to the things I think that we did as we were kids. It's something that according to a new survey is not happening nearly enough. Western University studied 107 daycare children in London, Ontario between the ages of 2.5 and 5 years old. The kids wore accelerometers, a kind of motion detection device, to measure their movement. It found preschoolers spend a lot of time sitting more than 40 minutes out of every hour while in child care. Yet the benefits of vigorous activity for young kids are many, says Sophie Phillips.

The postdoctoral-associated Western University School of Occupational Therapy is the study's co-author. Things like motor skill development, so that's children being able to use and move objects as well as move their bodies. The challenge is striking a balance between that physical activity and also hitting those literacy and numeracy benchmarks during traditional circle time. Western University Professor Trish Tucker also co-authored the study. She says there's another reason we aren't seeing more movement in daycares.

There are a few provincial guidelines. Ontario, for example, has outdoor play requirements. BC, for example, is one of the leaders in Canada that has some guidance around physical activity and screen time, but not all provinces do, which really leaves the you know decision-making and programming to the individual child care center. Tucker has developed an online course that incorporates more movement into children's days. It shows care providers how to use small spaces and how to deal with very cold days. All useful says Jennifer Usher, program coordinator at

Medicine Hat College's Early Learning and Child Care program. If we're setting up little stations or obstacle courses for the kids to explore, we can really get them moving and that just makes me feel good in my heart. As the move away from screens and toward a more active, healthy life gets an early start. Deanna Sumanac-Johnson, CBC News, Toronto. We close tonight with a pro football player getting a hand after his team's season slipped through his.

Bateman is back in the whole season comes down to this play. Whoa, flip it, got it. Oh the ball was dropped. He had the two-point conversion in his hands! Andrews did not hold on. It was the kind of pass Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews can catch in his sleep, but ended with the kind of disappointment that brings nightmares. It happened in the closing seconds of last weekend's NFL playoff game between his Ravens and the Buffalo Bills.

Andrews dropped an easy pass that would have tied the game in the dying seconds. Buffalo won, ending the Ravens' season. But the story got a second, wonderful life. In the aftermath, Andrews started getting lots of harsh and hateful social media criticism. All too common these days, right? Bills fans took note. But instead of piling on, they started stacking up donations.

Hey guys, as you may have seen, we are making a fundraiser for Mark Andrews and Juveniles with Diabetes. Bill's fan Nicholas Howard kicked off the idea. A GoFundMe campaign for a charity that supports kids with type 1 diabetes. The organization works with Andrews, who also lives with the disease. Today, that fundraising effort surpassed $100,000. Howard says he

wanted to boost the spirits of a player who needed it, even if he's on the other team. Next up for the Bills and their generous fans, the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday for a chance to play in the big game. Makes me almost want to root for Buffalo. Almost. This has been your World Tonight for Friday, January 24th. I'm Tom Harrington. Thanks for listening.

Stay safe and take care of each other. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.