Your World Tonight - Ottawa: no MAID for people suffering only from mental illness

Episode Date: October 7, 2026

The Liberal government will indefinitely ban access to medically assisted death for people who are only suffering from a mental illness.Also: Calls for responsibility for online platforms that allow their users to plan violence, after revelations the Tumbler Ridge shooter used Discord to plan the attack.And: A day of grief and reflection in Israel as the country marks the third anniversary of October 7th attacks by Hamas.Plus: Lawyers for Christa Pike say she is angry and confused after her botched execution, Ozempic for kids, and a small green crab creates a huge problem for Newfoundland.

Listen to this paid content by Beneva, now on CBC Listen. There are many factors that need to be considered in business. Experience and information can help you make informed decisions. Join host Catherine Duranso and her guests as they deep dive into the world of insurance and financial products. From claim prevention, consumer psychology, and organizational health, each episode gives you real-life examples and practical advice. Tune in to Beneva's brand new Ask the Experts podcast to learn more. This is a CBC podcast. While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time.

That approach is an indefinite ban on medical assistance in dying for people suffering solely from mental illness. Ottawa's new legislation will also open the door to advanced consent in certain cases, but not everyone is on board with that. This is your world tonight. I'm Salima Shivji, also on the program. We are now concentrated on our healing, and it's not helped to think that maybe some of it could be a void. Grief, reflection, but also anger, as Israel marks three years since devastating Hamas attacks, attacks that upended the lives of millions of people in Israel and in Gaza, where daily life remains a struggle. Ottawa's position on medically assisted death has been lambasted by the opposition, criticized in a recent parliamentary report and struck down by a court.

Today, the federal government announced it will suspend one of the legislation's most contentious provisions indefinitely. But as we hear from Kate McKenna, some experts say the decision is both harsh and unfair. Canada has made a decision not to move forward. After years of study, Justice Minister Sean Fraser says Ottawa will table new legislation aiming to block medical assistance and dying for people with mental illness as a sole condition. While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time.

A decision on this has been expected for months. Without federal intervention made for mental health would be made legal starting next March. Earlier this year, a joint Senate and House of Commons committee recommended not going ahead with the change. The public conversation has evolved from the last time that the Government of Canada legislated in this space. Fraser raised concerns about people who live in places without outside. adequate access to mental health care and said there's a lack of consensus over whether a mental

illness is incurable. We already have a court challenge underway in Ontario. Dying with Dignity, CEO Helen Long says blocking mental health patients amounts to discrimination. We believe that people cannot be excluded on the basis of their diagnosis. That's what this law is in effect doing. Fraser also said the new bill will open the door for people to give advanced consent for made in cases of degenerative diseases where patients are expected to lose the ability to consent, such as Alzheimer's. He says that will likely mean decriminalizing it and letting the provinces decide whether they want to offer it, a move that didn't sit well with conservatives. We had a rare opportunity across party lines to reach an agreement.

Conservative MP Andrew Lawton says his party supports blocking made for people with mental illness, but it doesn't necessarily support allowing advanced consent. the minister has announced today is eroding that consensus and introducing division into a very complex subject. Already anti-made groups like the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition say they don't want to see advanced consent legalized across the country. Dr. Lawrence Norman Rivet is a family physician in Quebec, where it's already allowed. And most doctors in Quebec who do practice euthanasia are against euthanasia for the patients who are incapacitated, because they don't have the privilege to consent at the moment where we will kill them.

Canada's Justice Minister says the new bill and the details of what's in it will be tabled in the next few weeks. Kate McKenna, CBC News, Ottawa. Officials in BC say online platforms like Discord should bear some responsibility when they're used to plan violence. The call comes on the heels of revelations the teenager responsible for the Tumblr Ridge

mass shooting received help and direction from another user before and during the deadly attack last February. Tanya Fletcher has the details. Unfortunately, we have to put a legal obligation on these companies because they will not and have not done the right thing. A day after a co-conspirator is charged and gut-churning new details are revealed about the Tumblr Ridge shooting, got more questions of online accountability. Now focused on Discord, a platform used by the 18-year-old shooter Jesse Van Rootsilar and 30-year-old James Cody Bryant from Washington State now accused of helping plan the attack. NDP leader David Eby says the federal government needs to bring in sweeping regulations for all social media companies. If you become aware of a conversation between users

about causing harm, violence against children or anybody, you should have an obligation to report that to police, just like anybody that overheard a conversation applauding violence in their community, would naturally call 911. Discord says it voluntarily provided information to police shortly after the February massacre. In a statement today, the company says it has a zero-tolerance policy for anyone who supports, promotes, or engages in violent acts. Former CISD director Ward Elcox says tougher scrutiny is warranted,

but being able to prevent crimes in real time is harder than investigating them after the fact. Given that the communications were not encrypted, It's apparent that the communications were intercepted, were recoverable, which allows the investigations to perceive. Whether or not you can access such communications as they're happening always, that's a tall task. The federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. Court Tuesday outlines disturbing exchanges in the chat logs. About six months before the shooting, Bryant allegedly advised Van Routselaer it would be smart to be armed with a handgun during the attack. Van Rutzler writing, bringing three guns with. will ensure I don't have problems with my weapons.

I'll always have a backup throughout the whole thing, adding, I might even bring four guns if I decide to make a handgun. The RCMP has still not confirmed which firearms were used in the school shooting. Public Safety Minister Gary Ananda Sangaree was pressed on it in Ottawa today. Is it a political decision not to tell us what that was used? Absolutely not. What happened yesterday with the arrest? It speaks to how complicated this is.

There's avenues in this investigation that we have probably not seen in the past. All while pressure mounts on Canadian authorities to do something, anything, to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again. Tanya Fletcher, CBC News, Vancouver. Coming right up, a potential legal fight after a botched execution. A Tennessee death row inmate is awake in hospital as the state is ordered to preserve all evidence from her failed lethal injection. Plus, new recommendations from the World Health Organization

about when weight loss drugs can be used in children. And later, we'll have this story. They're the zombies of the water, so they can come back to life after frozen. Beneath the waters of Newfoundland lie a voracious predator. They're designed to kill. Green crab are a threat to local lobster, but could they also make good food for people or pets? There's a sweetness to it.

I'm Peter Cowan in Placentia Bay. I'll tell you about plans to turn a pest into profit. Coming up on Your World Tonight. A Tennessee judge has ordered the state to preserve all evidence in the botched execution of death row inmate Krista Pike. Pike regained consciousness last night a week after she was given two rounds of injections during her scheduled execution. As Katie Nicholson reports, her lawyers are now hinting at potential legal action. I do not have an explanation. Randy Spivey was told his client was brain dead on.

Monday night. The next day, Krista Pike was very much alive. Krista woke up and began talking. From the steps of a Nashville courthouse, Spivey, described her condition after last Wednesday's botched execution. She has a blood clot in one of her arms. She has pneumonia. She is not able to swallow yet, so she is not eaten. Both of her arms and hands are tremendously swollen. Pike was rushed to hospital after she survived two doses of the lethal injection pentobarbital. Even though the state had been told she had a condition that made lethal injection

more difficult, dangerous and painful. Lawyer Luke Enon is part of Pike's legal team. We've certainly warned them that this exact thing would happen. An emergency motion filed Friday by Pike's lawyers states that the execution team used at least seven needles and that one was bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed. Pike was sentenced to death 30 years ago after she was found guilty of the torture and murder of her 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer. Spivey says Pike was at peace about her fate at the execution.

She was kind and polite as they worked for an hour stabbing her arm with needle after needle. And then she felt the burn of the pin of barbattle. The failed execution, the second in Tennessee this year, now under the microscope. And executions in the state are on hold. That, the assistant attorney general told the court today, appears to include Pikes. There is no pending execution order from Ms. Pike. There is no allegation that one is coming. The embattled head of Tennessee's prisons quit in the fallout, while today Judge Aisha Miles ordered the state to preserve all of its evidence. We want all drugs, syringes, IV lines tubing that are within the state's possession, needles, catheters, medical supplies.

That order, Enon says, paves the way for Pike to take legal action. It's the very first step of what will be a long legal battle, we presume. I've been studying and writing about lethal injection for 36 years, and I've never seen a case like this. Deborah Dena was a law professor at Fordham University. She says Pike has several legal avenues, including civil suits. First of all, her attorneys want the governor to commute the sentence. so she's entirely off of death row.

If that doesn't happen for any reason, that may end up going up to the Tennessee Supreme Court. If it does, Deno says Pike can argue double jeopardy that it should be thrown out because a second execution attempt, even if by another means, would amount to a second punishment for the same crime. Katie Nicholson, CBC News, Washington. The World Health Organization is demanding transparent information from Russia on a suspected plague death.

Russian authorities say the 28-year-old woman died on Friday from pneumonia of undetermined origin. She had been working at a plague research institute in Siberia. WHO head Tedros Adenum Gabriasis says the details shared by Russia are not sufficient. WHO has requested further information on the lab tests conducted on the individual who died and the contacts more detail on what. prompted the public health measures and details about the health status of the contacts. Russia insists there is no risk of an epidemic, but some 200 people have been placed in quarantine.

The 87-year-old woman whose eviction sparked nationwide protests in Spain has died. Last month, Marie Carmen Abascal was removed on a stretcher from her lifelong home in Madrid, kicked out by the new landlord after being unable to afford dramatic, rent increases. The eviction sparked national outrage and widespread demonstrations demanding affordable housing. Yesterday, Spain's Prime Minister announced a snap election after Parliament failed to agree on a new housing bill. Memorial ceremonies were held around Israel today to mark the third anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7th attacks. 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 others taken hostage. The attacks sparked a forceful retaliation from Israel and a devastating war in

Gaza. As senior international correspondent Margaret Evans reports, even as Israelis unite to mourn that dark day, many are questioning whether their government did enough to prevent the bloodshed. An Israeli flag lowered to half-mast in early morning light at the Kabuts-Kafar-Aza is Israelis marked October 7th. The scars, still fresh, Three years later, trauma especially close to the surface in Israel's tight-knit border communities with Gaza, where so many were killed by Hamas militants. Community leader Tzian Ragev says residents are only just returning to the kibbutz. So people don't feel secure yet.

They need to take the time. On the other hand, this is their home. It's hard for me to talk about this now. Oritz Sadikovic's ex-husband was killed in the attacks. We are now concentrated on our healing, and it's not helped to think, but maybe some of it could be a void. That's anger mingling with the sorrow in the air

over perceived and unacknowledged security failings by the Israeli government. Protesters targeting the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in particular. In Jerusalem, And Tel Aviv, they carried signs reading, No forgiveness for the failure. The same people who were in power three years ago are still in power. None of them have accepted responsibility. Israel holds elections in three weeks' time,

but political scientist Ruvon Hazan says they won't shift a moribund peace process with the Palestinians. Even if Netanyahu loses the elections, we're not going back to peace talks. Because after October 7th, we were burnt very badly. And it'll take us quite some time to be able to come back to the realization that between the river and the sea are two people, and neither one is going away. Analyst Dimitri Diliani says few Palestinians see much difference in terms of their aspirations for a Palestinian state between Israel's pro and anti-Netanyahu camps. There is, of course, a difference in the language, but the core of dehumanizing the Palestinian people is the same.

And I don't think any rational person would argue otherwise. At some of the Israeli memorials, the sound of explosions could be heard in nearby Gaza. A reminder of the daily scars still being inflicted there. and of the unfulfilled promises made under the auspices of Donald Trump's Board of Peace and the international community led back them. Margaret Evans, CBC News, Jerusalem. As Margaret mentioned, a ceasefire agreed to almost a year ago has slowed the fighting in Gaza but hasn't stopped it.

Israel continues to bombard the strip while Hamas holds onto its weapons. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed and millions displaced over the three-year war, and a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation is making survival there even more difficult. Sasha Petrissik reports. Paula Almaschri jostles for soup daily, lining up on a crowded Gaza street for hours.

We wait for the food is finished and take a ticket. Joining many desperate voices shouting for handouts. It's the only way two out of three Palestinians get food here from aid agencies. So this is terrible life. It's so difficult life. Almost a year after a ceasefire that was supposed to end the war and ease the humanitarian crisis for Palestinians, the UN still calls daily life in Gaza brutal. Housing is inadequate and dangerous with teetering buildings

and rows of frame. tents. Mohamed al-Arabi tightens ropes to prevent his from flying away. We just keep piling on nylon, he says. We've been squatting here for three years. Children are only now returning to

shattered schools. Hospitals are still closed or struggling. And the conflict? Israeli airstrikes continue almost daily. killing more than 1,400 Palestinians during the ceasefire, according to Gaza's health ministry. Hamas agreed to disarm, but hasn't given up its weapons,

as neither side lives up to its ceasefire commitments. It's left Gazans like Mohamed Bargoud squeezed. It's very expensive. He cannot buy. He walks through the market, seeing more produce, more eggs for sale, than last year, but he can't buy much. What I'm dreaming before and what I'm feeling now, it's empty. Why? Because there's no work. There's no money.

That leaves most Gazans dependent on international donations, like bags of wheat provided by Canada and unloaded at a dusty warehouse. The World Food Program's Willie Nieko says it leaves too many here vulnerable. With such high unemployment, with no livelihoods, almost everybody depends. on humanitarian aid. That aid is about to be cut in half, he says, because international donations are drying up. Leaving food and peace mere hopes in Gaza. Sasha Petrosic, CBC News, Toronto.

The conflict has played out well beyond the Middle East. Here in Canada, reports of hate-motivated incidents are on the rise. Just this morning, three Israeli flags were found burning outside. a Christian center in Toronto. The flags were part of a display to show solidarity with Israel and the Jewish community ahead of the October 7th anniversary.

Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke about the anniversary earlier today. This is a somber anniversary of an unspeakable tragedy. The government has been taking actions at home to protect the Jewish community, protect all Canadians, but particularly the Jewish community.

And it's probably beyond protection is about the ability to truly thrive, live their lives freely and openly. Are GLP 1 drugs like OZMPIC safe for children? New recommendations from the World Health Organization say they can be used, but only in certain circumstances, and only by children older than nine. Health Canada already has its own guidelines in place. Deshauna Reid has more. More than 170 million children and adults and globally now live with obesity. Since 1990, childhood obesity rates have quadrupled. It's a global problem with no one-size-fits-all solution.

We need to be driving these rates down. New guidelines from the World Health Organization does not recommend children nine and younger undergo weight loss surgery or take medications for obesity, including GLP-1s. Dr. Luys Maria DeRigil is the Director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety. The WCHO recommends prioritizing other interventions in this age group, dietary interventions, physical activity. But for older children, 10 to 19, surgery may be considered in severe cases

if patients are physically and mentally mature, and medications can also be an option, including GLP-1s, but only if other medically supervised interventions have been unsuccessful after six months. Still, the panel of experts caution there's a lack of evidence around safety and long-term effectiveness on the use of weight loss drugs in children. We realize that this is a rapidly evolving field.

There are still pending questions related to when the treatment should stop, how long should it continue. Last year, Health Canada approved GLP-1s for obesity treatment in children 12 and up. And 2025 National Treatment Guidelines recognized GLP-1s as an option for families and care providers to decide. It's very hard to treat. Dr. Marina Ibarra is a pediatric endocrinologist at the London Health Science Center Children's Hospital. She says GLP-1s have been a good tool. We saw weight reduction, DMI reduction. We saw improvement in quality of life.

Childhood obesity can cause cardiovascular issues, diabetes and fatty liver disease. She wants to see GLP-1s become more accessible through public health systems. Currently, families must pay out of pocket. or have coverage through private insurance. GLP1 is still a new drug that we don't have long-term data. So I make that very clear to everybody. The data we have, though, it's very reassuring. And there's more benefits than risks so far.

The World Health Organization says, until they have more evidence, healthy diets, physical activity, and other supports should be the first line of defense. Tashana Reid, CBC News, Toronto. Newfoundland waters are dealing with an invasion by a small, clawed menace. Green crabs are destroying fishing stocks and threatening the local ecosystem. Fishermen have been trying to control the spread, pulling ponds of crabs out of the water.

Most of them end up in the dump. Now the federal government wants to find a way to turn these pests into profit. Peter Cowan explains. So we're going to fertilize our fishing today. Roy Murphy is heading out in his boat to catch something, nobody wants. Below the waters of Newfoundland's Placentia Bay lies a European invader, small green

crabs. Murphy pulls out one of the dozens caught in his trap. They're designed to kill, that's just like a saw blade, look? They cut the flesh of the scallop and the muscle, whatever, and they're just like vice grips. Green crab have been around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for decades, but were

first spotted in Newfoundland 20 years ago. They likely arrived from Europe in the ballast water of big ships. They're voracious eaters, including juvenile lobster, they're threatening Murphy's most valuable catch. So what I'm doing now, I'm going to catch as many as I can, whoever wants them for fertilizer or whatever, I'm going to try to destroy as many as I can. Murphy is doing this on his own, but a federally funded project has also removed 700 tons of

green crab in the last few years. The crab ends up at Merv Wiseman's facility in North Harbor, crushed into a tan-colored crab smoothie. It's almost a shame, really, in some ways to see some. out of the ocean and just put into landfill. He's tried cooking and eating the crab, but they're not very big. He used toothpicks to pick the small amount of meat from the claws and legs. There's a sweetness to it, so it wouldn't take much to get hooked on it, but there's not a lot of meat.

Until now, Fisheries and Oceans Canada hasn't wanted to turn green crab into a commercial fishery. They worried about spreading crab to new areas. They're the zombies of the water, so they can come back to life after a froe. Lynn Lush studies them as a senior biologist with fisheries and oceans Canada. She says now that the crab are found in more areas, a commercial harvest is less of a risk of spreading them to new places. She's reviewing proposals to use the crab for human or pet food as fertilizer or even to extract compounds from their shells. It's an opportunity to make money off of it and would continue to remove those animals from the ecosystem to ensure that balance can be attained with the native species there. On the wharf in Dunville, Ken Viscount is unloading tubs loaded with crab, too many to count.

He says whatever they're used for, someone needs to keep fishing them. They're killing everything else that's eaten the water that everybody's making a living it. Humans brought the crab here, and now it's up to humans to find a way to get them out. Peter Cowan, CBC News, Dunville, Newfoundland. And finally, the clock ticks towards falling back to standard time in some parts of the country. about three weeks from now. But for the first time in decades, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories won't see any change. They're sticking with daylight saving time permanently, offering an extra hour of sunlight in the evening. Officials argue that will mean

better health without that big disruption to sleep routines twice a year when the clocks change. Not so, says this sleep expert. What are they talking about? All the evidence is the opposite. That's Simon Fraser University psychology professor Ralph Mistelberger. He says the human circadian clock runs slightly slower than 24 hours, which makes waking up to daylight essential for keeping that clock in check. What happens if you don't have that morning light? Your circadian clock drifts a little bit later.

You will end up having a harder time falling asleep at an early time. You'll have a little bit harder time waking up in the morning. Mistelberger says moving to permanent standard time would make the most sense. University of British Columbia economist Patrick Bayliss co-authored an analysis with Mistelberger and other experts, published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. He says the science on the matter is pretty clear. The fairly large hill of evidence we have that looks at what variation in solar time does in terms of sleep, in terms of health, in terms of performance on scholastic exams, and in terms of economic performance, all of that points to more light earlier in the day,

just kind of generally being better, at least early enough, in the day that you're not forcing people to wake up before they get hit by sunlight. Those in Saskatchewan, of course, are the lucky ones able to ignore all of this time change back and forth. They've had the same time all year round since 1966. Thanks so much for being with us. This has been Your Will Tonight for Wednesday, October 7th. I'm Salima Shivji. Good night.

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