Your World Tonight - Prairies burning, Russia's shadow fleet, redefining "CanCon", and more

Episode Date: May 31, 2025

It's a gut-wrenching, all too familiar scene - Canadians leaving their homes as out of control wildfires advance on entire towns. The prairie provinces are dealing with a record-breaking wildfire season, leaving communities engulfed in worry.Also: As ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine remain stalled, a number of countries on the Baltic Sea are sounding the alarm on increasingly provocative actions involving a shadowy fleet of ships linked to Moscow.And: As this country's best in film and TV is celebrated at the Canadian Screen Awards this weekend, the federal government is looking into redefining what qualifies as Canadian content.Plus: Reaction to Donald Trump's proposed steel and aluminum tariff increase, Canada's firefighting resources, and more

Look, it's hard being the pop culture friend. You're the one who knows exactly what new show is the most watched show on Netflix right now or you're on top of the film festival calendar. Whether you are that friend or you desperately need a friend like that, allow commotion to enter your group chat. It's a podcast hosted by me, Elamin Abd el Mahmoud, where I talk to people about the arts and entertainment stories that you need to know and we share all the recommendations of what you should be reading or watching or listening to. Find commotion wherever you get

your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. Hi, I'm Anand Ram. This is your world tonight. The smoke just blocked out the sun. Street lights come on and everything so it was pretty scary looking there last night. Ashes were coming down like snow. The prairies are burning. Massive wildfires in central and western Canada are forcing thousands of people out of their homes. And though it's not even June yet, the country's firefighting resources are already stretched

too thin. Also on the podcast, reaction from steel and aluminum producers in this country after Donald Trump threatens to double tariffs on their industry. And Canadians are resonating with homegrown industries. Film and television fit into that. Just as this country's best in film and TV is celebrated at the Canadian Screen Awards, the government is asking, is it time to reboot the definition of Canadian content? It is a gut-wrenching, all-too-familiar scene.

Canadians leaving their homes as out-of-control wildfires advance on entire towns already shrouded in heavy plumes of smoke. Parts of the prairies are dealing with a record-breaking wildfire season, leaving communities engulfed in worry. Sam Samson reports. Dozens of people rush out of a Chinook helicopter in the Paw, Manitoba. Young adults, seniors, toddlers, all holding their hats and hoods to their heads as the blades of the aircraft whip smoke-filled air above.

These Manitobans from Mathias Colombe Cree Nation had to be airlifted out by the military since forest fires rendered their airport unusable. I could see the stress, the worry, the relief. Alma Hart is a band counselor helping community members get to the next evacuation destination. Safety in communities as far south as Winnipeg, hundreds of kilometers away. Especially when I see the kids and the babies, I want to cry but I hold back and I'm just very proud of everybody for being brave. About 17,000 people have been forced from their homes in northern Manitoba

and that number is expected to grow. On Saturday, Cranberry Portage and Sturgeon Landing, communities near the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border, were ordered to leave. The nearby town of Flynnflon is still standing but all non-emergency personnel were ordered out as of 3 p.m. local time. Fire has forced thousands out in northern Saskatchewan as well. Many like Marvin Moran faced hours long drives to get to evacuation centers. You got to pay attention on the roads because some of the people don't have headlights on

and some roads they were so dusty. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is urging residents to stay cautious during this intense fire season. The next four to seven days are absolutely critical until we can find our way to a change in weather patterns and ultimately a soaking rain throughout the north. In Alberta, hot dry winds fed fires that forced thousands out in the north, including Chippewaun Lake, where the fire was so strong it pushed past firefighting forces and entered the town. The local Reeve, Brendan Powell, says the water treatment plant has been destroyed.

It's not safe to reenter the community at the moment and I think high winds and smoke and there's obviously still the fire threat in the area. Smoke from the fires is spreading far, triggering air quality alerts in the United States including Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota. Kyle Britton is a weather specialist and former wildland firefighter based in Calgary. And the outbreak of fire storms from Thursday evening in Alberta actually generated a really thick pall of smoke that went north over the Arctic and is now coming back

south over Hudson Bay and into the Great Lakes and south into the United States. So smoke can travel around the world and that's certainly what we're starting to see now. The smoke, a residual reminder of the danger thousands of Canadians still face. Sam Sampson, CBC News, Edmonton. The deadline has now passed for residents of Cranberry Portage to leave town.

The northern Manitoba community is one of the latest facing mandatory evacuation. The CBC's Josh Crabb is in the paw, just over 100 kilometres south of the town. Now Josh, it's been several days since Cranberry Portage was put under a voluntary evacuation order. After gas and supplies started to run out, with this latest order now in effect, what are local officials saying? They told people approximately 600 residents to leave their homes by three o'clock this afternoon and ask people to drive to Winnipeg, which is about eight hours away. Emergency officials told people to go to an arena in Winnipeg and register as

evacuees. One of the main routes out of the town is closed because of fire. Residents are being asked to take a different route to head south. For those without their own vehicles, the rural municipality of Kelsey sent buses to pick people up from Cranberry Portage.

There were only a few people and they were brought to the Metis Hall in the Pau where cots are set up. Laurie Forbes is the emergency coordinator. She says a power outage is a big reason for this evacuation. Multiple hydro poles are damaged and burned and it may be several days before hydro crews can get into the area to restore electricity. We need power to power the lift stations right there's the edge and we need the water treatment plant to work. Now the water treatment plant is still working everything is still, but the longer the power is out, the more

chance that those things are not going to be maintained or be able to handle the no power. So that's a lot of bad news to hear all at once. How are the people of Cranberry Portage reacting to all this? On and they are stressed. Some people started moving out when the voluntary evacuation order this. He says there was a big lineup at the gas station with people trying to leave town. Thibodeau had his bags packed ready to go. He says visibility is limited and the air quality is poor. Everybody's stressed out about it. Not knowing is kind of hard on a person sometimes. You can't relax, you know, it's always in the back of your head there.

And it was pretty scary looking there last night. Ashes were coming down like snow. I don't know. I've never seen anything like it before. The hard part for residents is not knowing when they'll be able to go back home. Some other communities in the rural municipality have been put under an evacuation alert and Manitoba Hydro doesn't have a timeline on when the power will be restored. Anand. Thanks so much Josh. Josh Crabb in the paw. and Manitoba Hydro doesn't have a timeline on when the power will be restored. Anand. Thanks so much Josh. Josh Crabb in the paw.

As these fires burn across the country, domestic firefighting forces seem just not enough anymore. And with the warming climate allowing for fires to grow larger and burn hotter, is it time for Canada to rethink how firefighting resources are deployed? I spoke to climate reporter Inayat Singh about that earlier. So Inayat, when these forest fires start burning so intensely in so many places, how do provinces get help to fight them? So the provinces have their own wildfire fighting resources, but they can also get help from

outside. They coordinate through something called the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center, which steps in to get help from abroad. And the center told us that for the fires in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, they've already put a call out, and they really appreciate and are dependent on help they get from other countries like New Zealand, Australia, South Africa. Sometimes these nations even have their own agreements with individual provinces. And of course, there is the US next door as well. And so is the situation of firefighting these very large fires working if, you know, it's May and we're already asking for outside help? Yes and no. So yes, because these are the ways that coordination has happened in the past and it really has worked. These countries, US states, they really step up to help us when we need it and

Canada also reciprocates. But no, because we have hit capacity very quickly. It's May, we are already asking for help and the problem is this is happening all over the world. The seasons are getting worse, fire weather is getting worse. So these other states and countries that we depend on to send us help are facing increased fire themselves. Into the future, they're going to be less and less able to send that help. So that's why the expert says we need other solutions about using our resources and stretching them further. One option is to just let the fires burn. I spoke with Mike Flanagan, a wildfire researcher from Thompson Rivers University in BC.

He explained how this would work. There's something called modified response, okay? So you can do an assessment and say we will let that fire grow to this river or this highway and we'll stop it there because we don't want to spread any further. This was actually used in 2022 for a wildfire that was burning in a park in BC. Officials there decided to just let the fire burn, its natural course, because fires are a part of the landscape in Canada, but they did protect some specific things in the park, like trails and cultural sites.

But one thing to keep in mind is that firefighting, it's never going to be the only way to deal with fires. That's why everyone we spoke to is pushing for other solutions, individual actions at, you know, your individual home or at the community level to make buildings more resilient to fire so that when the fires come, you can evacuate and come back to your homes that are not damaged. Right. But of course there's new data out also about climate change's impact into these specific

fires. Yes, there's new information from the US nonprofit Climate Central that's looking at the unusually high temperatures in central Canada and Saskatchewan, Manitoba that are driving these fires. So we know that climate change is making fire where the stronger high temperatures in central Canada are at least five times more likely than they would be in a world without climate change, according to this analysis for me. And the hotter climate, with the hotter climate, it's less likely that nighttime temperatures go down.

That's important because firefighting efforts at night are now just as intense. There's no break for these firefighters. In the past, crews could take breaks. Now experts tell us that crews are working sometimes 24-7 to contain some of these fires, and they're burning out. A strange situation. Thank you, Anayath.

Thank you. The CBC's climate dashboard provides live updates on active fires across the country. Just go to cbc.ca slash climate and set your location for information on everything from temperature to air quality where you live. Still ahead, as Russia presses for another round of peace talks with Ukraine, countries along the Baltic Sea are warning NATO to stay vigilant. You'll hear why they fear a covert fleet of ships are dangerously escalating tensions

in the vital waterway. It may feel like a trade war déjà vu. US President Donald Trump is stepping up his tariff threats on imported steel and aluminum, saying he will double them in just a few days' time. Canada's industries are already dealing with the effects of 25% tariffs. Now they're bracing for more. Sarah McMillan reports. Here we go again.

Keenan Loomis is the president and CEO of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction. He says Donald Trump's planned tariff hike just adds to an already turbulent year for the steel industry. We're going to bring it from 25% to 50% the tariffs. The U.S. president made the announcement yesterday in front of a cheering crowd at a Pittsburgh steel plant. Loomis says the existing 25 percent steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by Trump in March have already made business difficult, though he says there are companies including in his city of

Hamilton, Ontario that have managed to avoid layoffs so far. I don't know how that calculus changes for them under a regime in which they are now faced with 50% tariffs at the border. It's going to be very difficult. And then you try to figure out how does this impact the auto industry because so much of the steel that's made here in Canada goes into the auto industry. I thought we would be going in a more positive direction and things seem to be worsening. François Racine is the president and CEO of Aluc-Québec, which represents the aluminum

industry, one of Quebec's biggest. It's almost the destruction of Canadian exports of aluminum products to the U.S. He says the drastic tariff increase will be a huge blow to producers locally, but also south of the border. I failed to understand the reasoning behind it,

again, because it will make US companies less competitive, it will make aluminum products more expensive. Racine believes pressure from within the US would be the most likely reason for Trump to change course. In a statement on social media last night, industry minister Melanie Jolie called the tariffs unjustified and unlawful, saying Canada is fighting back with retaliatory actions, domestic support packages and diversifying trade.

But when it comes to finding other trading partners for steel, it could be easier said than done. The backdrop of this is that there's a surplus of steel in the world. Ian Lee is an associate professor at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University. This will have a disproportionate impact, a very negative impact on that industry and more largely on the Canadian economy. In a post on X Today, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the federal government will stand strong to get the best steel for Canadians as it negotiates a new economic and security relationship with the

U.S. Sarah McMillan, CBC News, Toronto. A ground search has resumed for two missing children in Nova Scotia. Six-year-old Lily Sullivan and her younger brother Jack have been missing for nearly a month. Their parents say the children wandered from their home in Lansdowne Station, a rural community about 140 km northeast of Halifax. The disappearance sparked an extensive search through dense woods. Efforts were scaled back days later, but there have been subsequent searches since then.

A BC couple say their painful experience of stillbirth was made even worse by mistakes from the health care system. As one expert tells CBC News, it's an example of why Canada needs national standards to not only prevent stillbirths, but also to help grieving families. Jodie Martenson reports. As October 21st came just to the mailbox here. Nick Bourdignon was still grieving when he was checking the mail about a month after his wife delivered their daughter Stillborn at 33 weeks. Inside was an envelope addressed to their deceased daughter, Michaela Poppy, by name, with the initials SB for Stillborn in front.

It was an invoice from a BC health authority for an autopsy and an itemized list of tests. I'm looking at a piece of paper that says everything they did to her is just wrong. So walk me through what you see. The invoice showed the autopsy had been completed two weeks earlier. So where was Michaela's body? Nick and his wife Laura had agreed to an autopsy to be conducted at BC Children's Hospital to try to understand what had gone wrong. Laura says the invoice set her back in her grief. There is no reason why she was there that long.

She was alone unnecessarily in the hospital and that being me feel horrible. Like I should have done something about that. The couple filed a complaint. The health authority reversed the charges and apologized. CBC News showed the Bourdignan's documents about a similar situation that happened two years earlier. That mother's baby was left for eight weeks in the morgue. She also received an apology in a letter.

The beginning of the letter looks very similar. Standardizing this process going forward will be key to reducing the risk of this occurring again. This was 2022, right? Two years later. The executive director of BC Children's Hospital responded to CBC News in a statement offering sincere apologies to both families, saying staff is taking action and hospital leaders plan to sit down face to face with the Bourdignans next month. That just horrible story just speaks to a larger issue of not having things in place. President of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of

Canada, Dr. Lynne Murphy-Kolbeck, says what happened to the Bordeignans is a symptom of a bigger problem. She says Canada needs uniform, higher standards of care to prevent stillbirths and better support for families in their grief. You need a national plan. If you have everything in place and it's dealt with every time the same way, with the same respect and the same process. You won't hear stories like that. The UK and Australia have national action plans to decrease stillbirths as well as national bereavement care guidelines. According to the World Health Organization as many as 30 to 40 percent

of stillbirths are preventable. As a country we aren't addressing it to the degree that it needs to be addressed. After they complained, Nick and Laura got a call within days to pick up Michaela's ashes. They've placed her purple, heart-shaped urn on their mantle. She's back home. Jodie Martenson, CBC News, Maple Ridge. INTRO Israel is accusing Hamas of rejecting a ceasefire deal proposed by the US. Israel backs the proposal, which would see fighting paused for 60 days while hostages are freed from Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

Earlier Saturday, Hamas responded to the proposal with amendments, including guarantees the deal will lead to a permanent end to the war. The militant group says it has not rejected the proposal. Russia says it is ready for another round of peace talks with Ukraine starting next week, though Ukraine has so far not committed. It points to a buildup of Russian troops on its northeast border as a sign that Moscow

plans to launch a renewed offensive. And earlier Saturday, Ukraine issued evacuation orders for 11 villages in the northeastern Sumi region as Russian forces make territorial gains in the area. Meanwhile, countries on the Baltic Sea are warning of increasingly provocative actions involving a shadowy fleet of ships linked to Moscow. Dominik Velaitis has the details from Latvia. Yes.

Yes, yes. It's mid-May and a tense standoff unfolds in the Baltic Sea. This is Estonian warship Papa 6732. Follow my instructions. Alter your course to 105 immediately. Over. As the Estonian Navy attempts to stop and inspect a ship belonging to Russia's Shadow Fleet passing through its waters, a Russian fighter jet appears ominously in the skies above.

Sent by Moscow to prevent the vessel from being seized. Estonia's foreign minister, Marko Sakna, tells CBC News it was a serious and unprecedented incident. This fighter jet actually first time as well entered to NATO airspace. Close to one minute is heavy violation. It's not a long period but one minute is a serious violation because one minute for fighter jet it can be even in Latvia already. So this is something new and we need to understand that it was not probably the last time.

The unflagged ship was eventually escorted to Russian waters by the Estonian Navy. It's part of a large and covert network of vessels with obscured ownership used by Russia to evade sanctions that were imposed following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Lithuania's Prime Minister, Gintautis Paloukas, is among NATO allies who've also criticized Russia for sending a fighter jet to protect the vessel, saying the move increased tensions in the Baltic Sea, one of the world's busiest maritime regions. It's a highly significant escalation by Russia. It's a sentiment shared by Russia expert Keir Giles at the British think tank Chatham House.

First of all, it is the overt intervention by Russia, plainly claiming the shadow fleet as their own and trying to warn people off from interfering with it. Second, of course, it's a direct military threat. These are all things which in the current fraught context of relations in the Baltic Sea region ought to be treated with extreme seriousness by people around the region." This month, the European Union blacklisted a further 189 ships associated with Russia's Shadow Fleet, taking the total number of those sanctioned by the bloc to 342.

And when you include vessels sanctioned by Britain and America, that number rises to more than 700. Your request will be denied. Analysts say Russia's move to send a military jet to protect its shadow fleet signals a new, even more dangerous escalation. One that NATO and its allies say demands greater vigilance in waters that have long been a flashpoint for East-West rivalry. Dominic Velaitis for CBC News, Riga, Latvia. Flash floods have killed more than 150 people in central Nigeria.

You can see how everywhere is destroyed. It's really so unfortunate. A local resident surveys the damage to a house that's been torn apart by floodwaters in Mokwa. The market town, about 380 kilometers west of Abuja, has been one of the hardest hit since torrential rains began on Wednesday. Emergency management officials say at least 500 homes have been destroyed in the region, displacing more than 3,000 people. Multiple roads and bridges have also been washed away. Local officials say the number of dead is expected to rise as they work to recover more people believed to be trapped under debris. The 2024 movie The Apprentice is a portrait of the current US president as a young man.

Now it stars two American actors, was directed by an Iranian Danish filmmaker, and is up for five Canadian Screen Awards. The celebration of the best in Canadian TV, film and digital media is underway this weekend, and as Makda Gebreselasa reports, this year's awards come as the federal government is pondering a remake of what Canadian content means. Just for the weekend, instead of elbows up, it's going to be spotlights up. It's lights, cameras and action at the Canadian Screen Awards' final big night. This year's event holding added meaning of Canadian pride during a time of ongoing tensions

with the U.S. Tammy Frick is the CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Canadians are resonating with homegrown industries. Film and television fit into that. So we're really pleased to be focusing in on that. But what makes up Canadian content could soon be changed by the Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission. Earlier this week, it wrapped a two-week hearing on modernizing the definition of CanCon. To make sure that it reflects how content is created, financed and shared.

Federal legislation has long required broadcasters to air a certain percentage of Canadian content. To help with that, there's a definition of CanCon set by the CRTC in 1984. It includes a 10-point system requiring Canadians fill key creative roles. For example, a Canadian director gets you two points. Six points are needed in all. Dave Forget, with the Directors Guild of Canada, says that kind of criteria remains crucial for many reasons, including qualifying for financial support. The potential change comes in the wake of the Online Streaming Act passed in 2023, which updated broadcasting laws to include online services. The Motion Picture Association Canada, representing streamers like

Netflix and Disney, was one of many players weighing in at the hearing, arguing global streamers shouldn't be held to the same standards as traditional broadcasters. Global streamers are also battling the CRTC in court. Last year, they filed an appeal after the Commission ordered online streaming services making 25 million or more to fork over 5% of their domestic revenue, with the money going to a fund to support the making of Canadian content. Anthony Q. Farrell, who represents the Writers Guild of Canada, is all for more being required from global streamers.

The streamers who are making money off of Canadians put a little money back into the system and help us make some more great Canadian shows. Whether CanCon's definition gets a complete reboot or sticks closely with the old script is still a cliffhanger. No release date is expected anytime soon. But for this night at least, the focus is on the current CanCon contributors and who will take home the top awards for the best in the biz on Canadian screens.

Makta Gebre-Salasa, CBC News Toronto. And you can watch the 2025 Canadian Screen Awards tomorrow starting at 8pm Eastern on CBC TV or streaming on CBC Gem. Well, speaking of CanCon, we've all seen Toronto streets masquerading as New York or Washington in TV shows. But we leave you tonight with the story of a small Mississippi town that's the heart of one of the year's biggest films, yet it wasn't shot there. Deke Harp has been selling this sound in Clarksdale, Mississippi for years. To him, and the people who live here, this is the home of the blues. It didn't start with a band or anything. It was out in the fields. They were doing hollers,

and they had to fife and drum. And that's what brought the spirits up in the fields, they were doing hollers and you know and they had to fife and drum and that's what brought the spirits up you know in the people that were working in the fields. There are legends of people with the gift of making music so true. That identity central to the smash-hit supernatural thriller Sinners reuniting actor Michael B. Jordan and acclaimed director Ryan Coogler. Though it's set in Jim Crow-era Clarksdale, it was shot in the more film-friendly state of Louisiana, and that didn't sit well with some residents like retired teacher Brenda Luckett. You've used Clarksdale and we don't even have a movie theater, but you would have known that had you come to Clarksdale.

So community organizers started a petition to get a public screening going. Dave Houston was part of that effort. So we know all over for the crossroads and when you see those scenes and you, we know what's going on, but it's time for the world to know that that culture was, it came right here,

was birthed right here in Clifestill. Only chance we got it was split up. And earlier this week, it all came together. Warner Brothers helped equip the local auditorium for several screenings, with the cast and crew showing up, including Ryan Coogler. It's a movie that is meant to be participatory. You know what I mean?

Y'all can talk back to the screen. You know, not too loud for folks trying to hear the dialogue. You know what I mean? And I hope we got y'all right. Y'all ancestors right on this one, man. It was a great thing for our city, and it was a great thing for the culture here in Clarksville, Mississippi. We had a lot of emotions pouring out, man.

People was, they was clapping, they was happy that it came. We leave you now with a bit more music from the film's blues-inspired score composed by two-time Academy Award winner Ludwig Corensohn This has been your world tonight. I'm on and wrong. Thanks for listening For more CBC podcasts go to cbc.ca