Your World Tonight - Trump calls on NATO, pregnancy complications, massive winter storm, and more

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

As the price of oil surges, U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that NATO faces “a very bad future” if U.S. allies don’t help to open up the Strait of Hormuz. Trump claims he has asked seven countries to escort ships through the strait, but Canada isn’t one of them. Foreign leaders are reacting cautiously to the request. Prime Minister Mark Carney hasn’t said how Ottawa will respond.And: Research in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests better care after mothers give birth could save lives, or avoid hospitalization and long-term disability.Also: A massive winter storm is spreading heavy rain and deep snow across a huge swath of Eastern Canada and the US. The system reaches from northern Florida to northern Ontario and beyond — spawning tornados in some places, and huge dumps of snow in others.Plus: Man arrested in Nova Scotia for labour trafficking, U.S. health care workers lured to B.C., the Middle East war’s economic impact on China, and more.

In the fall of 2023, Romana Diedelow, 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. A lot of oil under that land.

We strongly encourage the other nations to get involved with us and get involved quickly and with great enthusiasm. The U.S. President is keeping track of who is and isn't answering his call for help protecting oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump says there have been some promises. of aid, but he doesn't want to name the countries. So far, no country has publicly voiced its support, including Canada. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. It is Monday, March 16th, just before 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. I haven't even dreamed of something like this, not even in my worst nightmare. The highest snowdrifts in decades, blistering winds, tornadoes, bizarre temperature changes and torrential rain.

Giant storm systems are blasting parts of Canada and the United States. Oil prices across the globe continue to surge, and Donald Trump is asking for help, specifically from countries that rely on oil coming through the Strait of Hormuz. He says those countries have relied on the U.S. for protection for decades, and he's going to remember who steps up and who doesn't. Paul Hunter reports. As the U.S.-Israel assault on Iran rolled through the weekend,

the war now in its third week with Iranian retaliation, including a drone strike on a fuel tank at the Dubai International Airport. Off the coast of Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, so crucial to global oil transport, remains effectively paralyzed over fears of Iranian strikes targeting tankers. And with Donald Trump on the weekend, calling for help from other countries to now use their military forces to help reopen the strait. From South Korea, where they demonstrated against Trump's demand to Germany. There will be no military participation.

Where refusal was succinct. This is the country's defense minister. We have a situation which we did not provoke, which we don't cause at all. To Britain, where in also, denying Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Kier Starrmer, framed it like this. If we are to send our servicemen and women into harm's way, the very least they deserve is to know that they do so on a legal basis and with a proper thought-through plan. In short, it's become clear. In seeking the aid of allies on this, historic U.S. allies are saying no. Here's the U.S. president at the White House this morning.

Some are countries that we've helped for many, many years. We've protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren't that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me. Trump critics note that after months of taking on U.S. allies, with trade tariffs and other pressures to fall in line with U.S. interests, Trump has done the U.S. no favors with its friends, including U.S. NATO partners.

Here's Democratic lawmaker Adam Smith. President Trump has been basically offending all of these people and pushing them away, slapping tariffs on them, making it very clear that he doesn't care about the partnership or the alliance. And here's retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson. He stuck his hand in the middle of a hornet nest here, and now he wants help. It's going to be very, very difficult.

All of this, as the U.S. President was confronted with another, sobering marker. With a handful of U.S. service members killed so far, the number of wounded, some gravely, has now passed the 200 mark. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Washington. Canada's potential involvement came up for discussion when Prime Minister Mark Carney met with his UK counterpart, Kier Starmour. Canada says it has not been formally asked to take part in securing the Strait of Hormuz. But as Ashley Burke reports, it has not ruled out defense measures in the region. Canada's Prime Minister

at 10 Downing Street meeting with his UK counterpart, Kirstarmer, a key NATO ally resisting Donald Trump's calls to send warships to the Middle East. There's a really good opportunity today to tackle the really difficult issues. The two world leaders discussing the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, condemning Iranian attacks,

the toll it's taking on civilians, and raising concerns it could all escalate further. This on the same day Donald Trump continues his public push for help to secure the Strait of Harmuse. We strongly encourage other nations whose economies depend on the strait far more than ours.

Canada's defense minister says the U.S. hasn't come knocking on Canada's door for help. There has been no formal ask of Canada. David McGinty says the U.S. didn't consult Canada before going to war with Iran and won't be drunk. Iran and now.

We have no intention of getting involved offensively in the prosecution of the war in the region. Instead, he says, Canada is still considering helping Gulf countries from Iranian strikes. It will depend on the nature of any kind of ask. It will depend on the nature of what assistance we can provide. For operational reasons, I can't go into any more detail than that. Canada does have naval ships it could send to the Gulf. But the president of the Global Affairs Institute, Dave Perry, says the Canadian Navy would be put in harm's way

and have to rely on other warships for protection. So right now, any asset you put into that region would be worried about not just the mines that the Iranians have started to lay in some quantity, but also their drones and their missiles. And our ships that we're looking to replace right now don't have a very sophisticated high-end air defense aspects. He says Canada also doesn't have what Gulf states need.

The ultimate thing they'd be looking for are air defense interceptors and systems. and unfortunately Canada doesn't have that. We're years behind in acquiring that for ourselves. Perry says that leaves Canada playing a largely symbolic role that could involve sending planning staff to help allies coordinate the assets they do have. Ashley Burke, CBC News, Ottawa.

Coming right up, new mothers face serious health problems in the weeks after their children are born. A study suggests those problems aren't being properly tracked. Also, political divisions south of the border may help the health care system north of it. A recruitment drive in BCC sees hundreds of doctors and nurses taking work in the province. Later, we'll have this story. I'm Chris Brown in the Chinese city of Yulu, which has been nicknamed the World Supermarket. It's where Amazon, Walmart, and other big and small brands source their household goods,

and it vividly shows the impact that the war against Iran is having on the United States. China, the world's second largest economy. Fruit costs, now the price is high. Shipping prices are surging, raw materials cost more, and supply chains are buckling under the strain. I'll have that story coming up on your world tonight.

Pregnancy and childbirth can be some of the happiest times in life. They can also be some of the most dangerous. About 3% of people who give birth in Canada experience severe complications. sometimes weeks later. New research suggests better follow-up care could avoid hospitalization,

long-term disability, and even death. Toshana Reid has more. It's just the worst pain you could ever imagine. Paige Eaton of Kitchener, Ontario, says she knew something was wrong after her emergency C-section in 2023. She had a fever and chills, but says she was reassured by her care team it was normal.

I have 104 fever. Days later, she was readmerect. to hospital with a serious wound infection. It progressed into septic shock. It's really hard to describe the pain of sepsis unless you've been through it. You feel like you're going to die. Life-threatening complications like pages, although rare, are the focus of new research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Experts analyzed data for more than 1 million births in Ontario between 2012 and 2021. They found that 30% of severe complications like sepsis, preeclampsia, and hemorrhage occurred within the six-week postpartum period,

a period where there is less monitoring for the person giving birth. It's about recognizing that maternal health is bigger than the delivery room and making sure that our health system supports people throughout pregnancy and after birth. Julia Maraca is a senior author of the paper, an associate professor at McMaster University. The data also found 16% of severe complications occurred during the pregnancy period. with acute appendicitis being a leading cause. This translates to thousands of different human beings who have experienced these events that we have not been accounting for.

The research also suggests other factors contributed to a higher likelihood of complications, like living in a rural community, being an immigrant, or having a pre-existing condition like diabetes. What these higher rates often reflect is differences in access to care, different social conditions. Researchers say the findings highlight the need, for better follow-up care and support in the postpartum period. And sometimes we focus on the baby more than on mother.

Sarka Lysonkova is a perinatal epidemiologist at the University of British Columbia. Overall education and information that is given to pregnant women should be more thorough. As for Paige, she had emergency abdominal surgery, followed by weeks of IV antibiotics and at-home nursing care, all while caring for her newborn son. If you feel something's wrong and you're having symptoms, don't settle, listen to your body, like advocate for yourself. She hopes sharing her story can help others at a critical time in their journey as a parent. DeShonna Reid, CBC News, Toronto. Communities across Canada are facing doctor shortages.

BC decided to look south of the border to help solve the problem. The province launched a recruitment blitz aimed at health care workers. The numbers are in. show many were eager to leave the U.S. for life in Canada. Tanya Fletcher reports. So what was it that made you decide to leave the state? Well, there was probably one moment that... That moment for Dr. Anne Hurdman-Royle was a mass shooting

at the hospital where she worked in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Four people were killed, including two fellow doctors. I was just so horrified. I came home from the lockdown, and I just told my husband, we have to get out of here. The next day, she began the application process. to move to BC and started her job as a pathologist at Nanaimo's hospital in October. Since then, she's been getting calls on a weekly basis from colleagues in the U.S.

hoping to do the same, many of them frustrated by the brain drain, as she puts it, under the Trump administration. One of us is getting out is how it felt for friends and family. The red tape being cut, it's been a lot easier to do. A year ago, BC streamlined the hiring process and began recruiting doctors and nurses in Washington State. Oregon and California. Come to BC.

The Blitz has generated 2,800 applications and more than 400 higher so far. Josie Osborne is BC's Minister of Health. This makes a real impact. So, for example, we've had 89 physicians except jobs. Even if half of those are family doctors and they all attach a full panel of patients, that's over 50,000 British Columbians that will have access to primary care. Data provided to CBC shows new hires taking jobs in larger cities and rural communities all over BC. The government is now looking to expand the campaign to reach other parts of the U.S. as well.

We are looking now specifically at where people are coming from and what opportunities there might be for even more targeted marketing campaigns. And it's not just B.C. several other provinces are actively recruiting in the U.S. as well. Manitoba announced in January it had hired 13 American doctors, and in August, Nova Scotia had licensed 19. We're headed in the right direction, but it's not the full answer to the problem that we have. Dr. Rita McCracken is a researcher at Simon Fraser University and has spent years studying Canada's doctor shortage.

She says in the past the licensing step has been too slow. But now many provinces have sped up that process. She adds recruitment campaigns like this are effective, but the rest of the health care system has to keep up too. We need provincial resources to go not just into the hiring of individuals, but also setting up the system where those individuals are going to work. Back in Nanaimo, Dr. Hurdman Royal is now applying for permanent residency. I've started enjoying my job again. I don't live in the hospital. The true elusive work-life balance, I guess it's been on Vancouver Island the whole time.

A place she hopes to call home forever. Tanya Fletcher, CBC News, Nanaimo, BC. A massive winter storm is spreading heavy rain and deep snow across a huge swath of eastern Canada and the U.S. The system reaches from northern Florida to northern Ontario and beyond, spawning tornadoes in some places and huge dumps of snow in others. One of the hardest hit is Sudbury, Ontario. Kate Rutherford reports. I haven't even dreamed of something like this, not even in my worst nightmare. Diego DeLeo was outside his home. marveling at the drifts of snow that are paralyzing traffic on side streets and putting his back

into wielding a huge snow scoop for the first time. He arrived from Italy only weeks ago. I cannot explain to my family. Like, there's no words to explain what is going on around here because it's crazy we'll never see anything like that. Environment Canada says at least 40 centimeters of snow whipped by high winds, blanketed the cities of Sioux-St. Marie and Sudbury. Forecasts had ranged up to 80 centimeters in certain areas, but the agency is still crunching the numbers on how much snow fell and where. The mayor of Sudbury, Paul Lefebvre,

says it's certainly historic for his city, with both snow and rain, creating a special kind of challenge. For the first time, city snow plows are going to the homes of essential workers to dig them out so they can get to fire stations and the regional hospital. We're seeing doctors and nurses that were there,

that we're not able to come in this morning. So we're also accompanying trying to respond to them to make sure that they can get to work. Provincial police say as many as 45 transport trucks were stranded on a highway near the town of Tamiscoming near the border with Quebec. All caught in a fast-changing and massive weather system that's stretching from Florida to northern Quebec

and across the maritimes. A huge band of snow that turned to ice pellets and rain in some parts and may yet freeze over as forecasters say temperatures could go back down below freezing. South of the border all along the Atlantic Coast and inland, the situation was even more mixed. Weather reporters on CNN struggled to convey the scope of the upheaval, affecting coastal and Great Lake states in the U.S. Over 500,000 customers already without power.

And we've had 90 tornado warnings and over 385 severe thunderstorm warnings. issued in the past 24 hours across over 20 states. Across the eastern half of the U.S., more than 3,000 flights had to be canceled, either because of heavy snow or heavy wind and rains. Environment Canada says it expects the storm to continue into the night and perhaps beyond that. Meteorologist Jeff Colson says it's bad news for people who had already put away their shovels and snowblowers. Probably not the message that a number of, Snow-weary people want to hear in northeastern Ontario.

This looks like an active storm track, bringing more storm systems coming in from the prairies or the American Southwest. It unfortunately looks like we've got a lot of winter still left to go. Kate Rutherford, CBC News, Sudbury. It's been called modern slavery, forcing vulnerable people to work long hours for little or no pay and controlling them through threats or deceit. Police say labor trafficking is on the rise across Canada. Now RCMP in Nova Scotia have charged a man alleging he exploited a Japanese immigrant for his labor.

Kayla Hounsel has more. It's really, really sad. And I was crying sometimes because I don't know who I can trust. This 24-year-old came to Canada from Japan with a dream to learn English. Police say he became a victim of labor trafficking. I really got scared. We're not saying his name to protect his privacy. He arrived nearly two years ago to study at a language school in Toronto.

The school arranged his accommodations in a homestay. That's where he met the man, he says, extorted him. His host's boyfriend, Trevor Annen. I was completely trusting him since I got here. When he finished his language program, he says, As Annan told him the two of them should move to Nova Scotia together, that he could work for him. He did. 65-year-old Annan is now charged with a form of human trafficking known as labor trafficking.

It's not the same thing as just being underpaid. Sergeant Jeff McFarlane is with the Nova Scotia RCMP's human trafficking unit. He says when a person is forced to work, deceived into working with a false promise of immigration status, or exploited through threats, that's criminal. The person says you're going to do this and you're going to work for this very small amount of money and if you tell anybody about it, I'm going to have you deported. The 24-year-old says he lived with Annan at a campground in rural Nova Scotia, where he says he worked excessive hours doing everything from landscaping, washing dishes and other odd jobs. For nearly a year's worth of work, police say, he was paid a total of $300.

He said, don't need money. Then I'm going to send you Japan. We caught up with Annan at a recent court appearance. Mr. Adon, do you have any response to the allegations against you? No comment. Julia Drydeck is the executive director of the Canadian Center to end human trafficking. She says labor trafficking is a nationwide issue. It's most common in low-wage or seasonal industries, fishing, farming, construction,

industries where we often find temporary foreign workers. Identified cases are going up. Whether or not it's actually increasing or we're just getting better at detecting it. We're not quite sure. Labor trafficking calls to the Canadian human trafficking hotline more than tripled in 2023. The number jumped significantly again in 2024, with a total of 100 calls that year. I didn't enjoy Canada yet. The man in Nova Scotia has found a safe place to live. He hopes his story will prevent others from falling victim to this kind of trafficking. I want to enjoy

this Canada general life. I want to get a chance. A chance, he hopes, starts soon with a new job. Kayla Hounsel, CBC News, Churchpoint, Nova Scotia. Returning now to our coverage of the war in Iran, among the countries Donald Trump wants to enlist in the conflict, China. China depends heavily on Iranian oil and on the Middle East as a market for its goods. It's already feeling the repercussions, but so far, Beijing wants no part of the war. Chris Brown reports. For an economy as big as China's, the impact of the war in the Gulf is vast, but also complicated. In the city of Yiwu, about 300 kilometers south and west of Shanghai, you can see that. Yiu is notable because it has the largest wholesale market for household goods in the world,

a labyrinth of shops, sell toys, jewelry, electronics, almost anything you'd want. Which boots would be going to Egypt, going to Saudi Arabia right now? Yes. For this one, like this, and this one. Running shoes. Yes. 70% of Suad Bing's footwear customers are in the Middle East. Her family owns factories that produce high-quality, steel-toed boots,

and other construction safety equipment. Free cost, now the price is high. The price of sending a shipping container to the Middle East, used to be about $1,200 U.S. per container. Now it's closer to $6,000, leaving 25,000 pairs of her shoes in limbo in a stalled supply chain. So we must have a new customer. I cannot wait, waiting, waiting, with you. Yes.

Just outside the city, Li Tonguei's warehouse is filled with boxes of ceramics and kitchen supplies. Pre-ordered machinery parts are also piling up. So this is industrial for Iraq. Some of that's for Lebanon. He says another serious impact of the war on Yiwu is that the raw materials many things are made of are suddenly more expensive. Plastic products have risen 40% he said

this will have a significant price impact on the entire supply chain. But it's not just what China sends out that's affected. China is the number one importer of Iranian oil in the world. and gas prices at the pump here have already spiked 12%. But countering the energy crunch are China's major investments in clean energy, renewables and batteries that help give its economy resilience.

Rocky Yi is with the Chamber of Commerce in this area, and he sees an opportunity in the crisis. This is like the Iraq War. The United States finished the war and left, but Iraq needed Chinese goods to rebuild. I believe the same goes for Iran and even Israel. That captures the pragmatic mindset of many in the business community in China that in spite of the short-term costs,

there could be even greater opportunities when the war ends. Chris Brown, CBC News in Yiu-W, China. Finally tonight, there are few sounds as Canadian as this. Except that's not actually a flock of Canadian geese. It's two goose collars competing. this weekend in Halifax for the title of Best in the Maritimes. They make the sounds using goose calls. If you've never seen one, think of a clarinet that's been smushed down to just a few centimeters.

Steve Hutt was one of the judges. Yeah, it's a musical instrument. It's a reed musical instrument. So it'll start off with a hail call to greet the geese. Then it'll build into flockwork and a little bit more excited to get the geese working in. Then it'll lay down. And then the geese will leave you. They'll call hard at them.

bring them back. So you have to be able to visualize this in your mind as they're blowing the call. There's been a resurgence in the sport, thanks to social media, and the room was packed with competitors and spectators, most of them bird hunters. Tim Why Not caught the bug just over a year ago when a friend took him out on a hunt. He now practices constantly, even when he's watching his son playing a completely different sport. I'd bring my goose calls to the football games and sit there and make a whole whackin' noise to the point where parents are just like, are we going to get geese landing down here? Because they're just like, what is going on? Ernie Richardson was named the winner. Here's a little bit more of him and Matthew Wilson, who won the duck calling contest.

See if you can visualize the story they're telling. Thank you for joining us. This has been your world tonight for Monday, March 16th. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca slash podcasts.