Your World Tonight - NDP MP crosses House floor, ships hit in Strait of Hormuz, mobile MRIs, and more

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Liberals are celebrating a political coup that brings them one step closer to a majority government. Nunavut MP Lori Idlout has joined the party — crossing the floor from the ranks of the NDP.And: Donald Trump says the U.S. could destroy what's left of Iran in an hour. But the fighting shows no sign of letting up. Iran says it is prepared for a long war of attrition. And it's doubling down on what might be its most powerful weapon — international oil flow.Also: Doctors say portable MRI machines are a game changer — improving surgical outcomes and reaching patients in rural and remote regions.Plus: Israel pushes further into Lebanon, animal rights activists push for a ban on live horse exports, the effect of the war on fertilizer prices, and more.

In the fall of 2023, Romana Didolo, a woman calling herself the Queen of Canada, drove into Richmond, Saskatchewan with a fleet of RVs and set up her kingdom in an abandoned school. So the town banded together to get the cult out by any means necessary. My name is Rachel Brown, and in this season of Uncover, I explore what happens when a conspiracy theory lands in your backyard, The Cult Queen of Canada. Available now on CBC Listen and everywhere you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. Like with any complicated issue, it wasn't just one thing that happened.

There are a variety of many things that have allowed me to really with but fondness. And I'm very thankful to be so warmly welcome. Lori Idlout stood next to the Prime Minister this morning after joining the Liberal Caucus. Unlike three previous MPs, Idlout isn't crossing the floor from the conservative benches. She came from the NDP. Her old party calls her decision disappointing. The conservatives call it fundamentally undemocratic. For her new team, it's one more step toward a liberal majority.

Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Wednesday, March 11th, just before 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. Look, we took out just about all of their mindships. one night. We're up to boat number 60. I didn't realize that that big a Navy. I would say it was big and ineffective. The Strait of Hormuz, crucial for the world's supply of oil, also narrow, making it easy to attack ships passing through, something Iran vows to keep doing. U.S. President Donald Trump is downplaying the risk and urging oil companies to keep using the route.

It's driving up prices at the pump and will soon boost the cost of what goes on. on your plate. It's becoming a pattern in this parliament, but this time the floor crossing comes from a new direction. An NDP MP is joining the Liberal caucus following three conservatives who've done the same since the last election. Olivia Stefanovic has more from Ottawa. Liberal MPs cheering on the newest addition to their team.

As former New Democrat, Lori Idlout joined Prime Minister Mark Carney for her first caucus meeting in his government. Well, I'm very honored. The Nunavut MP says she was encouraged to make the move by her family and constituents. A decision that she says will bring her territory's priorities into national focus. I am proud to join a team that will take the larger picture of meeting the current political environment and is set on meeting the immediate needs of the north. Idlout is the first NDP MP to switch sides after the defection of three conventions.

It's very clear that the prime minister has a strategy. Michael Cooper is conservative democratic reform critic. He says floor crossings shouldn't be used to change the outcome of an election, even though they are allowed in Canada's parliamentary system. It's fundamentally undemocratic. You know, I'm becoming increasingly concerned. Interim NDP leader Don Davies is condemning Idlout's departure. The move reduces the NDP to just six seats.

and takes the Liberals to 170, just two seats shy of a majority. Whether or not there's a majority government is fundamentally a decision of the Canadian people at the ballot box, and it should happen that way, not through backroom deals. But Justice Minister Sean Fraser says there's no appetite. My perspective is that nobody I'm talking to is asking for a general election right now so long as Parliament's able to work. Pollster David Colletto agrees. The CEO and founder Vabakas Data says the Liberals are,

are receiving wide support across the country and have three by-elections scheduled for next month, two in Toronto and another in Terrebon north of Montreal. This is now very much in a way a national unity government. He is pulling members of parliament from the two most opposite sides of the political spectrum. He's recruited the deputy leader of the Ontario NDP to run in a by-election. This is very much something we have not seen happen before. Indicative, he says, of the popularity of the rookie prime minister who campaigned as the best person to lead Canada through a crisis and has managed to add to the liberal ranks during these volatile times. Olivia Estefanovich, CBC News, Ottawa.

To the war in the Middle East, Donald Trump says the U.S. could destroy what's left of Iran in an hour. But the fighting shows no sign of letting up. Iran says it's prepared for a long. war of attrition, and it's doubling down on what might be its most powerful weapon. International oil flow. Paul Hunter has more. Even as the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran continue, with evermore buildings destroyed and people killed and wounded, so too continues Iran's response. And for the moment, that has the world's eyes trained on the Strait of Hormuz, that narrow stretch of waterway off the coast of Iran, at times just 40 to 50 kilometers wide. Through it, so much of the

world's oil is normally shipped. But now, because of the war, that's come to a near standstill, leading to a spike in global oil prices. Today, three cargo ships were struck by what are described as unknown projectiles, leaving at least one of the ships on fire. Iran has claimed responsibility. Meanwhile, there are reports Iran is now laying explosive mines in the strait. Those ships must avoid the mines. Those mines, says retired U.S. Army Major General Mark McCarley effectively force any tankers that do try to pass through into an even narrower gap to avoid them. As a result of that, there is potential for impact between those maritime oil tankers

and the mines and the devastation that results. and the significant potential for blockage of parts of the Straits of Hermos if two or three of those huge tankers are in fact taken out. All of it leading to higher gasoline prices and in the U.S. pressure on President Donald Trump. I figured it would be hit a little bit. At an event in Cincinnati, Trump said the excursion, as he called the war, has been going better than he expected. And on oil, he said, oil will be coming down.

That's just a matter of war that happens very, you can almost predict it. I would say it went up a little bit less than we thought. It's going to come down more than we, than anybody understands. Earlier outside the White House, Trump was asked whether major oil company should keep on shipping oil through the strait. I think they should. I think they should use the same. I don't know in my opinion. Look, we took out just about all of their mindship. ships in one night. We're up to boat number 60. I didn't realize that that big a Navy. I would say it was big and ineffective. But every one of their ships, just about all of their Navy is gone at the bottom of

the ship. This as Iran's response today included a warning. Said Iran, if any of its ports are threatened, all ports in other countries in the region will be, as Iran put it, legitimate targets. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Washington. The International Energy Agency is trying to relieve some of that pressure on oil supplies with its largest ever release of strategic reserves, 400 million barrels. The organization is made up of 32 nations, including Canada. Ottawa says it will do its part to help. What does that actually look like? We turn to senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong.

Peter, let's start with that strategic reserve. What impact will that have on the global price of oil? oil. Well, we'll see, right? Japan is the first to make a solid commitment, and it looks like that could come as soon as Monday. When the announcement was made, the price of oil fell back a bit, but then it bounced back, in large part because of those three oil tankers that were hit in the Gulf today. At the end of the day, the issue is oil supply and fixing the source of the problem, which is getting oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, that's got to be the priority. Have we seen this kind of release of the strategic reserves in the past? Yeah, I mean, think back just to

2022. IEA members put, I think it was 182 million barrels on the market after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And it worked then. Much of the supply disruption that we expected at the time didn't end up happening. But Susan, this is a much bigger supply crunch. So the release that they're looking at now, this would be more than double what we saw in 2022. Let's talk about Canada now. Pierre Pauliev lashed out at the government saying Canada should be able to contribute, but it cannot. Is that true? Yeah, it is true. We don't have reserves. Canada keeps like a really tiny amount that's really there just to help in case there's a spill, but it doesn't keep those big strategic reserves like the U.S. does or like Japan does. So when they say,

when the IEA says it's going to release 400 million barrels, Canada's really just not a factor in that. And why not? We're such an energy country. So the whole idea behind these strategic reserves is one the International Energy Agency came up with, and it says that anyone who imports oil should have at least 60 days of reserve on hand in a place there's a global shortage. Canada, of course, is a net exporter of oil, one of the very few among the 32 members of the IEA, so it's never needed to have one. It didn't have one when Pierre Pahliav was in government. I think this is the first time he suggested we start one. Indeed, the only time I can think of anyone raising this as a serious policy idea was in the much hated national energy program.

Well, at the heart of the criticism, I understand it, is that Canada is not in a position to help, and it should be. Is that fair? It's definitely fair. And the argument was never that we need reserves. It's that we need pipelines. The reserves, if you look at it that way, are in the ground, and the oil sands producers can run up production. Right now, they don't have a way of getting any of that new production to global markets because pipelines are full and we don't have to. enough of them. So what can we do? Well, not much, to be honest. We can ask the pipeline companies to delay maintenance and maybe find ways of moving oil a little faster, but even that only gets us like 250,000, 300,000 barrels a day. And in a hole of like 200 million barrels and growing, Susan, that's

just a drop in the bucket. Thank you, Peter. You bet. Senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong here in Toronto. Coming right up, sticker shock at the grocery store is about to get worse as the war in the Middle East raises the cost of fuel and fertilizer. And Canada sends live horses to Japan for food. But many die before they get there. Animal rights advocates say the practice should be banned. Later, we'll have this story. They sound like the stuff of science fiction,

but mobile brain scans are helping a rising number of Canadian patients in hospital operating rooms and even on the side of the road. The idea is to sort of flip the pair. Instead of the patient coming to the scanner, the scanner coming to the patient. I'm health reporter Lauren Pelly, and coming up on your world tonight, I'll have more on this growing field of high-tech health care. Oil is not the only product that passes through the strait of Hormuz. Supply chains for fertilizer, crucial for Canadian crops, are being disrupted by the war in the Middle East. That's causing a spike in costs for farmers.

And as Alexander Silberman reports, that's coming at a critical time. Cody Nagy is getting ready for spring planting on his farm near Ogama, Saskatchewan. His canola crop is just weeks away from going into the ground. But the vital fertilizer needed to grow it is skyrocketing in cost. Quite a bit of sticker shock when I'd heard the price. The cost of critical nutrients needed to grow food, including nitrogen fertilizer, pushed up as much as 60% in recent days as the war in Iran cuts off supply chains. So it's completely out of our control, which is even more frustrating.

Everywhere we look, there's stress, and it seems like that's the going trend lately. Canadian farmers are feeling the pinch of the conflict in the Middle East. A significant amount of global fertilizer trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point, essentially shut down, after Iran said it would set fire to any ships attempting to pass through. Again, this is just going to take a tough situation and make it much, much worse. Tyler McCann is managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. He says many producers still have to purchase fertilizer and will likely take a hit. A lot of farmers had been putting off making fertilizer commitments because of their own challenging financial

position. The problem is not necessarily a Canadian shortage of products, nitrogen, among the most Critical resources for growing crops is also produced in Canada, but about half of global urea, a widely used product, passes through the Gulf, and that means Canadian farmers are still hit by a spike in global commodity prices. Stuart Person is an agricultural business advisor with accounting firm MNP. He says farmers will be hoping for higher prices for their crops to offset the impact. spike in wheat canola, corn, soybeans, the major crops, that may offset some of these fertilizer or these input cost spikes. But if we don't get that spike in prices, it'd be a tough year.

In southern Saskatchewan, Nagy is thankful to have enough fertilizer already in storage bins for the spring, but worried about the fall when he'll have to buy more. Margins are tight. They're going to be tighter next year if this persists. The longer the war continues, producers could be full. force to put reduced fertilizer into the ground, but fewer nutrients will ultimately mean less food for an industry shaken by volatility. Alexander Silberman, CBC News, near Ogama, Saskatchewan. Iran-backed Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets toward Israel today as IDF forces pushed

deeper into Lebanon. The civilian death toll there is climbing, and people are desperate for an end to the violence. Susan Ormiston is in the Baccah Valley. Loud booms rocked Beirut suburbs tonight, sending up thick black smoke and orange flames lighting up the skyline. Israel's military saying it had begun large-scale strikes in Beirut after a day of escalation already. This woman lost her husband this morning. One of at least eight people killed, four of them kids, after an Israeli air strike sliced into a small factory.

They were Syrians living and working in Lebanon. Abed Mohammed Suleiman, an agriculture worker, shows us where shrapnel pierced his tent. He was sleeping with his wife and kids when they heard a huge blast. The kids were screaming and crying. I hugged them. We went outside and saw a catastrophe. Body parts everywhere, he said. Why would they target this place? He shrugs. We don't know. There's nothing here, he says.

A wave of airstrikes Wednesday swept across Lebanon at a car parts shop in the Beka Valley, in Beirut's southern suburbs, and at dawn pounding into an apartment building in the heart of the capital. But Sima Ramadan lives across the street. Enough is enough. This is a nightmare. When will it end? We can't endure more. But the Israeli military says it's still intercepting missiles

coming from Lebanon sent by the Iran-backed Hezbollah. The IDF is reinforcing its positions along the northern Israeli border. Hezbollah drew Lebanon back into war 10 days ago, sending missiles and drones into Israel in reaction to the death of Iran. Iran's supreme leader. Israel responded with an intense air campaign. Normally, the IDF sends out warnings with time for people to evacuate before a series of air attacks. But the men we spoke to at the cement block factory say, this time, there were none. We've asked the IDF to clarify.

What is clear is the growing number of casualties, nearly 640 dead in 10 days, according to the Lebanese government. We met a woman in shock at the Rejak Hospital near the factory. She lost six family members this morning in that strike. The last day, we arrived at our hospital, 45 injury. The hospital coordinator Yusuf Al-Atar says two of the injured kids are in critical condition, one with a brain hemorrhage. Why children?

I don't know. It's a war. No, nothing is fair. Not fair and brutal, with escalating pressure from the IDF and no retreat from Hezbollah. Susan Ormiston, CBC News in the Baca Valley, Lebanon. Ottawa says it's taking more steps to fight anti-Semitism. Jewish leaders have been demanding action after three Toronto area synagogues were hit by gunfire. Surrounded by more than 20 of his liberal colleagues, the public safety minister,

announced $10 million in funding, Gary Ananda Sangare says the money will help Jewish institutions upgrade security. Canada's Jewish community is anxious, fearful, and those feelings are quite justified. When you attack a single group of Canadians, and in this case, Jewish Canadians, you attack all Canadians. No one was injured in the three shootings. Police are investigating to see if they are linked. So far, there are no suspects. Canada sends hundreds of horses to Japan for food. An investigation by animal rights advocates reveals some of those horses suffer injuries, illness, and even death in transport.

It's reigniting calls for more changes to the way exports are done or even an outright ban. Karen Poles has been. that story. When we found out there was going to be a Winnipeg shipment that day, we thought, well, let's track it. Video shot by animal rights advocates shows 86 horses being loaded onto trailers one day

before a December 24 shipment to Japan. They're driven from Carol Isle Farms in Swan River Manitoba to an interim feed lot six hours closer to Winnipeg. The stop meant to reset the clock and keep the shipment under the 28-hour legal limit for

transporting horses without food. water or rest, says Caitlin Mitchell, director of legal advocacy with animal justice. It's supposed to be to improve legal compliance, but I certainly have concerns about whether it's meaningfully helping the horses. In fact, drone video from the same shipment shows a horse trapped under a steel gate. Clearly struggling to free themselves and no one, it seems, was around to help them. Hours later, that horse and others were transported to the Winnipeg Airport. That's were then conservative Senate leader Don Plett, arrived to observe the loading process.

These horses were absolutely treated with the highest degree of care. At the time, the Senate was debating a bill to end the practice of live horse exports. If horses are being injured, we're dying in transport. That is serious. The horses arrived in Japan and were sent to quarantine and a fattening facility.

Now, Japanese documents show one horse suffered from convulsions and died of chronic enteritis. One was found with two 15-centimeter lacerations that exposed muscle. Others had fever, leg wounds, and diarrhea. But Canadian Food Inspection Agency documents found the horses appeared to be in good condition, and they closed the file. Well, it's problematic because the CFIA uses those records to tell Canadians what's happening with this industry.

That's what they used to justify continuing this practice. Animal rights advocates found nearly 250. cases of injury and illness and at least nine deaths in 18 shipments between September 2024 and September 2025. The bill before the Senate died last year when the federal election was called. Mitchell is now pushing Ottawa to ban live horse exports by amending regulations under the Health of Animals Act. Plet, now retired but still an industry advocate, wants a different approach. If there are a problem within the system, let's fix the system, not kill it.

The CFIA says information about deaths or serious injuries during air transport and at Japanese quarantine stations is being proactively provided to Canada. But it says animal health after arrival is within Japan's regulatory oversight. Karen Paul's, CBC News, Winnipeg. This is Your World Tonight from CBC News. If you want to make sure you stay up to date and never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get to. your podcasts, just find the follow button and lock us in.

Getting an MRI often means enduring long wait times or traveling long distances from home. But there are now mobile options where the machines come to the patient. The practice is still relatively new and it's expanding access to life-saving scans. Lauren Pelley reports. That was just over the moon in terms of knowing that they were able to use technology. Dave Evans had surgery to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland

last fall. Later, he learned his surgical team in London, Ontario, did something novel. They used a mobile MRI machine to scan his brain midway through the procedure to make sure they got as much of the growth as possible. It's reassuring to know that you can do this.

Dr. Neil Dugel is a neurosurgeon at London Health Sciences Center. Since operating on Evans in October, he's since used his hospital's new portable MRI during five more pituitary surgeries. These are complex and risky operations, since this tiny gland is flanked by arteries and nerves that lead to the eyes and brain.

If we injure those arteries, that can lead to catastrophic hemorrhage, stroke or death. Usually surgeons remove as much tumor as safely possible, then wait for a traditional follow-up MRI to see what's left. And that's really where having the instant feedback is what I think a game changer. More Canadian health care teams are now using portable MRIs and CT scanners. There are at least 16 mobile devices operating across the country, and some are shared by multiple communities. The technology is incredible. It continues to get better and better, and I anticipate than it will. Yale University researcher Dr. Kevin Scheth studies these mobile machines.

Unlike traditional scanners that are large, more expensive, and stay in one place, Sheath says portable options can reach patients in remote and rural areas that don't have access to other types of brain scans. His own research showed mobile MRIs are nearly as effective as standard MRIs in detecting strokes. The idea is to sort of flip the paradigm instead of the patient coming to the scanner, the scanner coming to the patient. That's the case in Edmonton. The country's first mobile stroke ambulance has spent the last decade diagnosing strokes with a portable CT scanner right on the roadside. I think it's also really important that the limitations of these devices are clearly communicated.

University of Minnesota researcher Francis Shen warns the image quality still isn't as high as stationary units. And there are real differences between some of the lower field scanners that will be highly portable. Even so, clinicians say there's huge potential for these innovative devices in the not-so-distant future. Lauren Pelley, CBC News, Toronto. Finally, tonight, a few days ago, Fredericton's Julia Reed took her place at the starting line of an indoor track.

Her goal? Setting a world record. Watching, cheering and clapping were friends, family, a couple of independent witnesses. And there was also a special someone who was running with her. Oh, yes. So my toddler was in the stroller. So the record was, of course, the one to pushing a pram for a female with, yeah, so with my toddler in the stroller. Running with a 17-month-old in a stroller presented more than just physical challenges. I felt ready that day, but I know my daughter had been going through a little bit of a sleep regression, so the time that we met for the attempt, it was getting really closer to her nap, but she was happy and it was so cool to see her, you know, loving the attention, to be honest.

And with her daughter smiling all the way, Reid did run the distance in three minutes and 17 seconds, 18 seconds faster than the previous record. Reed says she got the idea just after her daughter was born. At first, because I was a little nervous and I didn't really want to tell anyone because I'm like, maybe people think I'm like a little silly for doing this. But if you have something you want to put your mind to and achieve it, it doesn't matter if it's running, biking, if it's just going for a walk. but I think that's something very important, especially for postpartum moms, to try to, you know, get out of the house and do something because it's not always easy.

Reid's record time isn't official yet. She has sent the video to the people at Guinness and is waiting for a response. Thank you for joining us on Your World Tonight for Wednesday, March 11th. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.com. podcasts.