Your World Tonight - Remembering Catherine O’Hara, Poilievre’s big test, crisis in Kashechewan First Nation, and more

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

People around the world are mourning the loss of Canadian comedy legend Catherine O’Hara. Star of both big and small screens, O’Hara was best known for her roles in ‘SCTV,’ ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ and ‘Home Alone,’ in a career that spanned five decades, earning her numerous awards and honours. O’Hara was 71.Also: Poilievre’s pitch. The federal Conservative Leader faces a major test in Calgary, as he tries to convince a crowd of party delegates he’s still the right person for the job.And: Community in crisis. The water woes plaguing the Kashechewan First Nation in northern Ontario have caused dozens to fall ill. Officials declared a local state of emergency earlier this month when the community’s water treatment plant broke. Experts are now trying to identify the source of a parasite, found in the water system.Plus: Trump’s threats against Bombardier, America’s anti-ICE demonstrations, Mexico’s ‘narco influencers’ and more.

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This is a CBC podcast. What else can we be forgetting? You just fold it in. Okay, I don't know how to fold broken cheese like that. I don't know how to be any clearer. Classic lines from Catherine O'Hara. One of the biggest stars in Canadian comedy is dead at 71. SCTV and Home Alone made her famous.

A wildly successful comeback in Schitts Creek earned her a legion of new fans. This is your word. world tonight. I'm Stephanie Skanderas. It's Friday, January 30th, coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern. Also on the podcast, Pierre grew our number of seats and grew our vote count. There's been people trying to divide us and mischaracterize our leader. A public show of support from the conservative faithful and a key speech tonight. Pierre Polyev's leadership review is at the critical stage. Is he still the party's choice to beat Mark Carney and push back against Donald Trump? Catherine O'Hara could do it all.

From sketch comedy to Hollywood blockbusters to silly sitcom characters, the Emmy-winning Canadian always left you laughing. O'Hara has died at the age of 71. And whether you knew her best as dramatic Moira Rose or The Mom from Home Alone, audiences of every generation are remembering her as a comedy legend. Alexander Silberman has more. David, what does burning smell like? Catherine O'Hara, known for memorable roles in film and television,

showcasing her warmth, range, and humanity, and making her a celebrated Canadian icon. No, no, no, no way. This has Christmas. The season of perpetual hope. O'Hara is now being mourned and remembered. She died in her home in Los Angeles Friday after a brief illness. It just felt so unreal, like I was reading news

from another world. Niko Stratus is a writer and cultural critic in Toronto. All of these things and whenever she was on screen, the scene just became hers and you just couldn't help but be sort of enamored with her. O'Hara's career spanning five decades began at home. She got her start at Second City Toronto as a waitress before joining the sketch comedy troupe herself. Hello. Did you ever feel there just wasn't enough time to say all those things you'd really like to say. In 1976, she went on to become one of the original cast members on the television version, SCTV, winning her first Emmy Award for Writing in 1982. She'll teach you to speak fast and you've ever dreamed possible.

O'Hara's success on the show led to notable film roles in the 80s and 90s in classics like Beetlejuice and Kevin's mom in two Home Alone movies. What else can we be forgetting? Kevin. Stuart Reynolds is a Canadian comedian known as Brittle Star. She was a bit of a trailblazer. She blazed a path for people like me to follow. So, yeah, tremendous impact.

More recently, Schitt's Creek would become a defining career moment, with O'Hara starring as eccentric Moira Rose. One more time. It has folded in. This is your recipe. You fold in the cheese then. Don't you, damn. You fold it in.

David! The Emmy Award-winning performance. bringing O'Hara a new generation of fans. Just an incredible human being that we lost. Emily Vogel is host of the Rapp podcast. No one else could do that. You can tell her passion and you can just feel her passion through the screen. O'Hara's success on Schitts Creek led to new opportunities,

a dramatic role on HBO's The Last of Us, and a role as a Hollywood producer in Seth Rogen's TV series, The Studio. In a statement, fellow comedian Mike Myers called O'Hara one of the greatest comedy artists in history and an inspiration for millions. Should have been you. That's the end. Alexander Silberman, CBC News, Regina. A crucial test of support for Pierre Pollyev as the conservative leader faces a vote on his future

and his party grapples with the question, does Pollyev have what it takes to energize his business? base and reach beyond it. Olivia Stefanovic is in Calgary at the convention. And I'm really excited to see what we could do under Pierre Polly of and another election. Alberta Conservative MP, John Barlow, arrived at the party's National Convention in downtown Calgary, eager to defend his leader. Our polling numbers are extremely strong. You know, we'll look where we are even almost a year after an election. We have remained steady. Some of the strongest numbers we've had as a party in a long time. The Conservative caucus rallied behind Pierre Pahliav at a pre-dawn meeting

before leaving his feet up to more than 2,600 party delegates in a mandatory leadership review, triggered by last spring's federal election loss. We would have preferred to win. We were ready to win and we lost. We lost, but on the other end, we had more vote than we had in the last election. It's because of that momentum, Quebec MP Gerard Del Tell says many conservatives are willing to give Pollyev a second chance, something not afforded to a conservative leader in more than 20 years, a rare opportunity that comes with distinct challenges.

We are the government in waiting. We have to prove that to Canadian. Polyev is walking a fine line between broadening his appeal to the wider Canadian population and keeping his base happy, many of whom are in Alberta, a province that could soon see a referendum on whether it should say, separate from the rest of the country. Pierre is not just a friend, a father and a proud Canadian. He is a champion of our beliefs. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith lauded Pollyev's patriotism in a social media video endorsing the conservative leader. And he has my full unwavering support to continue leading the Conservative Party of Canada. That's the kind of guy that we need running this country.

Miles Firth, a 20-year-old delegate from a small riding outside of Victoria, says young people like him are being drawn to Polyev in droves because of his focus on lowering the cost of housing and everyday living. We've seen how opportunities and growth has disappeared. And I think, you know, Polyev just needs to come in and keep hammering home that if we continue down this path, it's not, like, nothing's going to change. But in order to take on Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ontario Conservative MP Michael Barrett says Pauliev also needs to focus on fighting the trade war with the U.S. Let's be very clear, we want a good deal for Canada with all of our trading partners. So whatever we can do to help the Prime Minister get that good deal for Canadian families and Canadian workers, we want to see that happen.

As Pollyev looks for a strong mandate from conservatives to reintroduce himself once again to a broader voter base. Olivia Estevinovich, CBC News, Calgary. It's hard to know how seriously to take every threat from Donald Trump, right? Canada's billion-dollar aviation industry can't afford to ignore the latest. The U.S. President accuses this country of refusing to certify American planes. So he says he'll decertify bombardier jets and slap a hefty tariff on all Canadian-made aircraft. Nisha Patel has the reaction. When the president reacts, tweets, says something, we always take good note.

We read, we listen. and we don't panic. Industry Minister Melanie Jolie worked to reassure Canada's aerospace industry. After U.S. President Donald Trump threatened he could slap 50% tariffs on all aircraft made in Canada. We believe that this can be resolved, of course, and we will make sure that we fight for every single job at Bombardier and across the sector. Trump's latest outburst seems to be retaliation for Canada's lag in approving several U.S. made, stream aircraft. He also warned he would withdraw federal certification for business jets made by Canadian manufacturer Bombardier. Sources tell CBC News that would apply to new aircraft, not those

currently in operation. I was just flabbergasted when I heard it. John Graddock, a professor of aviation management at McGill University, said it's not illegal, as Trump suggested, for transport Canada to take its time and do its job. They'll take their time. They'll take the time required to, in fact, make sure the airplane is safe for Canadians and for that airplane to operate in Canada. Trump has targeted Bombardier before in his first term, placing a nearly 300% tariff on the company's C-Series planes. But those tariffs were overturned in 2018 by the U.S. International Trade Commission. Graddock suggests Trump's efforts this time are to even up the competition, between Bombardier and its long-time American rival Gulfstream.

And Bombardy has done a great job of designing and building and servicing their fleet of airplanes, and it's not a much better job than Gulfstream has. So Gulfstream is looking to kind of stop the floodgates of Bombardier airplanes. Bombardier's stock fell more than 6% today. In a statement, the company pointed out, it's an international company that employs thousands of people in the U.S. and has been expanding its American operations. I think there's no place for it. There's no place to play political games with people's lives.

David Charchant is vice president of the union that represents Bombardier employees. He says Trump's tariffs worry workers on both sides of the border. It's putting in jeopardy the American aerospace industry just as well because we are so heavily integrated and we're in the same ecosystem. For now, Trump's threats are just that, so there's still a chance for a smooth landing. Nisha Patel, CBC News, Toronto. Hundreds of GM workers in Oshua, Ontario, walked off the line for the last time today. The layoffs are part of widespread cuts

across the automakers' supply chain. Everybody's saying goodbye. They gave us, we had a meeting, and they said, oh, thank you for all the hard work that you've done and everything. It's all good vibes inside. Yeah, there's no sense of getting stressed out over something. You have no control over.

I put the blame on Trump. When one door closes another one, open? I'm going to be laid off as of today, yeah. About 1,200 jobs will be cut in total. GM announced the layoffs last year after Trump imposed tariffs on auto imports. It's the latest blow to Canada's auto sector, which has seen production drop since the start of the U.S. trade war. Coming right up, after more than 60 people test positive for a nasty parasite,

health officials rush to discover how it contaminated the local water plant. We've got the latest from a northern First Nation. And more anti-ice protests erupt in Minneapolis and other U.S. cities, while the Trump administration stirs fresh outrage over its choice of targets. Later, we have this story. I'm Jorge Barrera in Mexico City. The recent kidnapping of a 20-year-old influencer, caught on video, shows the conflict between cartels, has found a new battlefront, social media.

And the way of silencing that propaganda or that messaging is to silence the messenger. Now a wrong post can become a death sentence that's coming up on your world tonight. Officials are still trying to figure out how a parasite got into the water at the Kachatchewan First Nation. The federal government says it's working with the community to upgrade the water treatment plant and remove the parasite. But 63 people have already fallen ill. Jonathan Migno reports. For nearly a month, there have been daily flights out of KSachuan First Nation because their water treatment plant is broken. People are leaving their homes behind for hotel rooms in Timmins,

cactus case in Kingston, and Niagara Falls. Fifteen-year-old Keisha Paul Martin arrived in Niagara Falls with her family on January 14th. It is quite hard on some of us sometimes, especially with missing our home, because we do have to leave our pets back in the reserve. Now there's a new concern. The community's water supply is contaminated. Casuchuan officials say water testing has confirmed the parasite called Cryptosporidium is in the water. Sixty-three people from the community have tested positive for the parasite. So it can contaminate rivers, lakes, and water systems from a run of, like, so the transmission is from fecal of the contaminated or already infected people and animals.

BM DESTA is an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Guelph. He says the parasite would usually get filtered by working water treatment plant, but now we'll need to be flushed out of Kossetuan's faulty system. Indigenous Services Canada is it supporting the community's call for an engineering assessment to upgrade the water treatment plant and remove the parasite, which is already making people sick. So some of the most common symptoms that we've seen presenting

both with the nursing station and other sites where community members are currently displaced to, have been nausea, vomiting, some have been presenting with a low-grade fever, and diarrhea or who still has been generally the most important. Chris Thin is Kesatchewan's health director. He says most healthy people get better on their own in two to three weeks, and he's not aware of any serious illness,

so far. But for some, this new water crisis brings back some bad memories. I think there's going to be a heightened sense of trauma from this. I know it's hard on them mentally, especially when the spring breakup comes along every April. Sinclair Williams hasn't trusted the local water for 20 years. In 2005, there was an E. coli outbreak in Kossetuan. The community evacuates every spring because of the risk of flooding. This puts the water system at risk. Local leaders want to move the community to hire They signed a framework agreement with the province and federal government seven years ago. Last year, an $8 million grant was approved for a planning study into the move.

Officials believe it could be years before that move actually happens. Jonathan Migno, CVC News, Subbury. Luigi Mangione will not face the death penalty. A U.S. judge today dismissed his federal murder charge, calling it technically flawed. Mangione is accused in the 2024 Manhattan killing of a health insurance CEO, The 27-year-old still faces other charges, including a murder count in New York, where the death penalty is off the table. On the streets of Minneapolis, crowds of protesters are voicing their opposition

to the continued federal immigration crackdown. This comes a day after two journalists were arrested for filming an anti-ice protest at a church, a move that has drawn widespread condemnation and added to the nationwide tension. Katie Nicholson reports. This is what democracy. They started early. Faith leaders outside ICE headquarters in Minneapolis, part of a day of nationwide protest. Just as Attorney General Pam Bondi announced arrests connected to another protest two weeks ago.

When demonstrators interrupted a church service where a pastor works for ICE, Bondi posted this video today. You have the right to worship freely and safely. And if I haven't been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you. Among those arrested? So right now is kind of mayhem in here. Former CNN anchor Don Lemon, now an independent journalist who live streamed the event inside and now faces a federal civil rights charge. I'm just here photographing.

I'm not part of the group. I'm just here photographing. And local journalist Georgia Fort, who recorded this brief message last night before her arrest. I don't feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press because now federal agents are at my door. The arrests condemned by press freedom advocates and politicians, including Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The administration is behaving no differently from police states and authoritarian regimes

across history. They've arrested a journalist for the crime of doing his job. Bondi's deputy, Todd Blanche, was asked about Lemon's arrest. What are you looking for me to do? Jump up and down? But Blanche had slightly more to say on the federal investigation into the death of Alex Preti, led by the FBI. Preddy was gunned down Saturday by federal border agents. Blanche, acknowledged with carefully chosen words, the Civil Rights Division is involved in the probe. I expect the Civil Rights Division here at Maine Justice will be part of that effort, but I don't want to overstate what's happening.

I don't want the takeaway to be that there's some massive civil rights investigation that's happening. The involvement of the Civil Rights Division, something of a reversal. A wave of federal prosecutors resigned earlier this month, in part because justice officials declined to open a civil rights investigation after Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent. The U.S. President who last night described Alex Pretti as an agitator insisted today the protesters in Minneapolis were professionals. Undaunted, thousands gathered in downtown Minneapolis for a second frigid Friday in a row,

once again demanding ICE leave their state. Katie Nicholson, CBC News, Washington. The development firm of BC billionaire Jim Patterson says it's not selling its industrial building in Virginia. The U.S. government wanted to buy the site and turn it into an ice processing facility. That news triggered backlash against Patterson, including calls to boycott his businesses. Patterson's firm didn't say why it ended the deal. Donald Trump is taking credit for a pause in strikes on Kyiv. Ukraine has faced a brutal winter with some of the coldest days likely still to come. That's why Trump claims he convinced Vladimir Putin to halt attacks on the country's energy sector. But as

Chris Brown reports, Ukrainians are skeptical. The quiet in Kiev's skies hardly amounts to a truce, but it is perhaps a small break in Russia's unending attacks on Ukraine's power grid. And U.S. President Donald Trump is taking the credit. I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kiev and the various towns for a week. And he agreed to do that. And I have to tell you, it was very nice. Calling Putin nice. is repulsive to Ukrainians, as Russia's leader has continuously bombarded generating facilities

in the capital to the point that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian families shiver without heat every night and hundreds of thousands of others have fled. Pensioner Kostiantin believes Putin is manipulating Trump again. I trust neither Putin nor Trump, he said. Putin will just stockpile his missiles and keep firing. President Vladimir Zelensky expressed a similar sentiment, though more diplomatically, as he thanked Trump for his efforts. The real situation at our energy facilities and in our cities tonight, and in the coming days, we'll show the results, he said, on social media. Other Ukrainian officials said Putin has simply diverted his attacks from energy to logistics such as railways, with seven major hits on key infrastructure in the past 25.

four hours. Kayakalas, the European Union's foreign policy chief, says Russia isn't even making token moves towards peace. Russia is targeting hospitals, schools, apartment buildings, critical infrastructure, energy infrastructure in order to bomb and freeze Ukrainians into surrender. Donald Trump sees things otherwise, and his negotiators are pressuring Ukraine to give up unconquered territory in the east in exchange for security guarantees. But again, Russia's foreign minister indicated, his side still expects what amounts to Ukraine's total surrender. Security guarantees can hardly ensure a reliable peace, said Sergei Lavrov. Meanwhile, in Kiev, these kids struggle to keep their routines, practicing gymnastics in thick

hats and gloves. We have a generator, said the coach Yulia Plennis, but it only keeps the lights on, the heat. This winter has been the hardest and coldest, she says, since Russia's invasion, now almost four years ago. Chris Brown, CBC News, London. You're listening to Your World Tonight from CBC News. And if you want to make sure you never miss one of our episodes, follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in. More than 20,000 people die each year in violence. turf wars between Mexican drug cartels. Thousands more are kidnapped and disappear.

Now these conflicts have spread to the online world with frightening, offline consequences. Jorge Barrera reports from Mexico City. Wearing a dark tracksuit top, looking calmly into the camera, Nicole Pardo, a 20-year-old influencer known as Le Nicolette, appears in this hostage video, reading from a script.

She says she worked for a faction of the Sinaloa cartel who gave her money to bribe police officers in Sinaloa, a northwestern state in Mexico. The Sinaloa cartel is one of the most powerful drug trafficking groups in the world. CBC News confirmed the authenticity of the video that circulated on social media three days after two men in a white car grabbed Pardo at gunpoint in broad daylight in Kuliacan,

the capital of Sinaloa. The kidnapping was captured on her in-carbara. video system and also posted to social media, reaching Pardo's hundreds of thousands of followers. Journalists raised the abduction with Mexican President Claudia Seenbaum and her public security minister Omar Harfush. They said authorities were trying to find Pardo. The kidnapping added to a list of over 20 social media influencers who've been kidnapped or killed across Mexico in the last five years, 12, over the last five years.

12 over the last year. The social media space is kind of this kind of propaganda war that takes place between the cartels. Mexico's real-life conflicts between cartels often puncture the social media sphere, says Deborah Bonello, managing editor with Insight Crime. And the way of silencing that propaganda or that messaging is to silence the messenger.

But not all victims are part of crime groups. Some are drawn by the allure of drug. cartel lifestyle and cross a line promoting a specific brand or product linked to one faction or another. It's a little bit like sort of gangster rap in the U.S. in the 80s and 90s. Neli Peña is an influencer from Kuliacan. Events like Pardo's kidnapping scare her. She says she often thinks twice before clicking publish. Pardo was suddenly released on January 24th. Next day, on Sunday, a video surfaces showing her tearfully thanking the congregation of a Catholic

Church for their prayers. The sort of novelty about this story, actually, is that she survived. CBC News reached out to Badao for comment. She said she wasn't yet ready to speak about her ordeal. Jorge Berera, CBC News, Mexico City. Finally tonight, it was a journey of 22,000 kilometers, from northern Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina. And some people thought it was crazy.

Yeah, yeah. A lot of people thought it was nice. Okay, we're going to start. That was the beginning, recorded on her vlog of an epic cycling trip by Nova Scotia's Ashley Miles, the first woman to bike the entire length of the Pan American Highway.

Miles admits there were times she thought about quitting, including early on as she was passing Calgary. It was like, man, you could just turn, left and be at home, it's like 4,000 kilometers and then you're there. But she kept going. Frequently fighting mental and physical exhaustion, Miles sometimes slept outside in culverts or under a tarp. She was also knocked off the road by two bouts of food poisoning.

So this is my little tarp situation. This is day three of being sick. Somewhere around the Gulf of Mexico, she said she said, She knew she would finish this, and after 118 days, Miles arrived on the southern shore of South America, making the pain all worth it. I think those mini breakdowns are necessary to keep going, breaking down, and then being like, okay, let's go again. 22,000 kilometers later, her mission complete, Miles returned home, geared down, and rolled into the history books. This has been your world tonight for Friday, January 30th.

I'm Stephanie Skanderas. Good night. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca.com.