Your World Tonight - Trump threatens wildfire tariff, thousands evacuated across the country, Montreal Olympics 50 years later, and more

Episode Date: July 17, 2026

There are now about 900 active wildfires burning across the country, with dozens more added to the tally today alone. As politicians make big promises to help, crews and volunteers are working around the clock to contain the flames.And: U.S. President Donald Trump blames Canadian forest management for smoke crossing the border, threatening devastating new tariffs.Also: Is it worth it to host international sporting events in Canada? A look at the experience of Montreal — 50 years after it hosted the Summer Olympic Games.Plus: A profile of the next UK prime minister Andy Burnham, U.S. cyclosporiasis outbreak traced to lettuce served at some U.S. Taco Bell locations, and more.

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We don't direct our police. We don't direct our firefighters. We're there to support. order them any which way we can. Ontario's Premier again defending his government's emergency response as wildfires force more evacuations. His province, just one of those struggling against hundreds of rapidly spreading fires across the country. The heavy smoke drifting south now has President Donald Trump threatening higher tariffs against Canada. This is Your World Tonight. I'm Salima Shivji.

It's Friday, July 17th coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern. Also on the podcast. Any judge and any God-fearing individual that loves this country should want to make sure that our elections are secure. Donald Trump's Homeland Security Chief issues new threats to state officials, comply with the president's desire to check voter rolls for non-citizens or face possible prison time. It may feel like the new normal, but for a growing number of Canadians, the stress from this wildfire season is anything but. routine. There are now about 900 active wildfires burning across the country, with dozens more added to the tally today alone. As politicians make big promises to help, crews and

volunteers are working around the clock to contain the flames. She and Desjardin is in northwestern Ontario, one of the region's hardest hit. She brings us more on the growing anxiety and what's next. In a small Ontario community, residents are busy, pairing as a wildfire looms just a few kilometers away. The sprinkler there on top of it, John Kayserbrank has lived in Uppsala for more than two decades. His home, one of several, now linked together by a hose that's supplying water to the sprinklers on their roofs. He's staying in Thunder Bay, but returned to check on his property while he can. We find that worrying doesn't help. Be prepared and trust. So the fire is five kilometers,

the south if you see those clouds over there that's not cloud that's smoke that fire grew significantly earlier this week according to fire chief dug kaiser brink there's no official evacuation order here but people are advised to be ready and kaiser brink told everyone if you don't need to be an upsylla leave we're an elderly community probably half of half of us are seniors i did have a large concern about how we were actually going to get the word out effectively and not have somebody forgotten. He estimates about 80% of residents have left. Fire is like so large that has a volunteer fire department that it's beyond our scope of fighting. People like Henry Defrain are not taking any chances though. He's on his way out,

pulling the trailer filled with belongings, traveling with two more groups of people. I got a lot invested in campers, trucks, side by side's trailers. Better to be safe than regret it tomorrow. Others, like Matthew Schneider, decided to stay, for now at least. Well, there's still buildings here that need to have sprinklers put on them. So we're just kind of here until we're absolutely forced to leave. But Zach Stubbington didn't have the luxury of time, forced to flee his home and Armstrong in the middle of the night with his wife, two-year-old, four-month-old, and their dog. Thinking about what could happen and what might be left or what might not be left was hard and very challenging to just,

keep driving away. Now, stuck in limbo after staying in a friend's basement in Thunder Bay. They're driving about 25 hours south jammed tight in an SUV. It's still smoky there, but at least we'll have a lot more area for the kids and we'll be with my in-laws and with family. A safe place to reset with still no idea, what state is home is in, or when they'll be returning. Shia de Chaldei, CBC News, Thunder Bay. Ontario's premier, meanwhile, is promising more money and more resources to help those affected and strengthen the province's wildfire response. Doug Ford also defended his government's handling of the crisis today. Amid criticism, it hasn't done enough.

Philip Lee Shanock reports. We had to start knocking off people to prioritize kids. So some of the fathers aren't going to be able to go. Their expense of Cat Lake First Nation says some hard decisions had to be made. with the fire bearing down on the community 180 kilometers northwest of Sioux Lookout. We didn't have time to really plan for an evacuation because the fire moved towards us 50 kilometers in one afternoon. Spent says many in the community of 600 will be relocated to Toronto. My message to all those who've been forced to evacuate is very simple.

Our government stands with you and will always have your backs. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, meanwhile, disputes reports that his government didn't do enough to help people get to safety. He bristled that suggestions underfunding contributed to the wildfire risk. And it's inaccurate, it's untruthful. In a time of a crisis, all levels of government need to come together, no matter if you're opposition or not. Ford promising more money and resources for the fight moving forward. We're also strengthening our fleet of firefighting aircraft. by investing $650 million to purchase five new helicopters and six new water bombers.

Nobody answered their cries. Chief Helen Pavola of the Namagusa Sagaan First Nation, formerly known as Collins, says the 130 members of her community made it out on boats as they watched their homes burn. We had no help. They had no help and they have to do it on their own. Those evacuees are now staying in hotels in Thunder Bay, 250 kilometers to the south. Mike Harris, Minister of Natural Resources, says the fire moved too quickly for help to arrive. The important part to remember about the incident in Collins is that everyone got out safe. Meanwhile, as evacuees wait to hear more about the fate of their homes,

many are also monitoring the weather. There's rain in the forecast. But Doug Coulson of Environment Canada says that's a double-edged sword. Well, the thunderstorm activity may bring some welcome rain to the area. They also have lightning associated with them, and that could generate some additional fires. Almost 200 wildfires continue to burn in the province, already devastating an area larger than all of last year's fire season in total. Philip Lyshanock, CBC News, Toronto.

Ontario isn't the only province dealing with wildfires. Nova Scotia has four active fires, the largest one burning just 100 kilometers east of Halifax. That fire has grown to around 1,700 hectares. Quebec is dealing with 180 active fires and firefighters from the U.S. and France are on their way to help over there. Around 60 fires are burning in B.C., forcing more than 3,000 people from their homes. And in the Northwest territories, firefighters are still working to contain fires burning just outside of Wrigley and Fort Simpson. U.S. President Donald Trump says he holds Canada responsible for the smoke billowing over the border.

In a social media post, he says, willful negligence is costing his country billions of dollars and Canada should foot the bill. Trump says he plans to discuss the issue with Prime Minister Mark Carney by phone today. But as Morgan Black explains, climate researchers say the claims about Canadian culpability are overblown. And I guess there's like wildfire going on in Canada or something. So yeah, you can honestly, you do notice it when you're out here, though. You can smell it. Americans in cities like Washington, D.C. are feeling the impacts of Canadian wildfires. It's just because it's so smoky. I don't like it.

I don't know. It's just very concerning. So concerning for Donald Trump, he's now threatening to add the cost of the smoke pollution to U.S. tariffs on Canada. The U.S. president is joining other American politicians blaming their poor air quality, not just on Canadian wildfires, but on Canadian government in action and poor forest maintenance. My initial reaction is to throw my hands up and say, but, but, but. Climate policy researcher Ryan Katz, Roseen, is frustrated with what he's hearing from U.S. lawmakers. He notes Canada's boreal forest is a massive 1.3 billion acres, much of it inaccessible to wildland firefighters. So you're not going to be able to prescribe burn that.

He acknowledges Canada's response to those fires could improve, but he takes issue with something raised by U.S. lawmakers this week. arson. The statistics just doesn't really point to that being a predominant cause of these fires. And in Canada, Ontario Premier Doug Ford is rejecting how U.S. officials are framing this wildfire season without offering solutions. Our good neighbors, if there's some politicians out there chirping away, well, maybe what you should do rather than complain is send support, send help. This is what our summers are going to look like for the foreseeable future. Environmental management and climate adaptation expert Ryan Ness says climate change is making wildfire seasons worse and worse.

As for his thoughts on the U.S. claims, it's largely not an informed perspective. Back in Washington, Amy Brandwine would like to see everyone do more. So, I mean, climate change, like, you know, it's not something I don't think anybody can deny at this point. The prescribed burns, forest thinning, and a healthy bank of resources to fight wildfires are all essential. But Ness notes, The best way to keep this problem from getting worse is to stop the source of the problem, which is climate change and global heating, which are setting the stage for more intense fires with more heat, more drought. A call to action for governments on both sides of the border.

Morgan Black, CBC News, Edmonton. Coming up, Britain gets its seventh prime minister in a decade this Monday, a look at the many challenges facing Andy Burnham, who today assumed official leadership of the Labor Party. And, crunchy, green, and nasty. U.S. health officials trace a parasitic infection to iceberg lettuce supplied to Taco Bell restaurants. Later, we'll have this story.

Half a century ago, the Olympic flame was lit in Montreal, Canada's first time hosting an Olympic Games. remembered for ballooning costs, but also iconic star moments. I'm Alexander Silberman in Montreal, later on Your World Tonight, the legacy of the 1976 games and Canada's new push to host another Olympics. Donald Trump's primetime speech last night failed to deliver the revelations that were promised. Instead, it was a rehash of familiar accusations of U.S. election fraud and foreign interference, with no new evidence to prove those claims.

But as Paul Hunter reports, there are concerns the recycled rhetoric is a deliberate tactic to undermine the upcoming midterm elections. The documents cover five major areas of concern. Billed by the White House as a shocker, U.S. President Donald Trump's address from the Oval Office may have sounded alarming with his suggestions of voter fraud, conspiracy, and foreign meddling.

China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China's illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files. And yet no sooner had he finished speaking than critics underlined there wasn't much new or revelatory in his comments. Even China's alleged hacking of voter data is dismissed by critics as overstated. He's literally off his rocket. And there's no other way to describe this. One-time Democratic strategist James Carville seemed hardly able even to put into words his view of Trump's allegations. The guy was, he's literally crazy. And he just rehashed everything.

I have no idea what he was trying to accomplish. And yet also today, Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security picked up where Trump left off. We've identified 250,000 non-citizens registered to vote in just four states. Despite being unable to say how many of those actually voted, Mark Wayne Mullen said if any are found to have done so. We will hunt you down and we will prosecute you. Likewise, he added, any state election officials who now refuse federal directives to strengthen election security, if any,

voter fraud is discovered later. Then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and evened prison time. Well, the only thing missing Donald Trump's speech was tinfoil. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a potential Democratic Party nominee for the White House in 2028, seemed to echo those who warn Trump is simply trying to create mistrust in the U.S. electoral system ahead of the coming midterm elections. as Trump's Republican Party struggles badly in pre-election polling. Nothing about what you watched tonight, though, was real.

It's make-believe. He wants to rig the election in 2026. He knows he's going to lose. He needs to rig the election before one vote was cast. Where any of this leads is now effectively anyone's guess. As Trump himself posted on social media today, great reviews on speech last night. Big audience. Paul Hunter, CBC News, Washington.

U.S. health officials say they've traced the source of a parasite that sent thousands of people running for the bathroom. The culprit, a specific brand of lettuce, served at certain Taco Bell locations. Those products have been pulled, and Canadian health officials say there's no sign the contamination has made its way north. DeShanna Reid has the latest. It was just like incessant diarrhea, so like very just like watery. and like constant. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says it has found the source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak. Shredded iceberg lettuce from Mexico served at Taco Bell locations in five states. Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, and the center of the largest number of cases, Michigan.

There, more than 5,000 cases have been reported and over 100 people hospitalized. The symptoms, if untreated can last for weeks. Gretchen Pluse ended up in the ER with it. It feels like your intestines are like really tight or like something is like seizing them. Taco Bell says it pulled lettuce from all of its U.S. locations. An FDA investigation points to a single supplier, Taylor Farms. The U.S. company with facilities across North America, including Canada, released a statement saying it is pulling all iceberg lettuce sourced in Mexico and added none of its branded salad. or kits sold in stores are associated with the outbreak. Dr. Anisha Misra is the medical director of a lab at Ohio's Cleveland Clinic. They've been inundated with tests. We typically had about one to five samples

that would come in. Currently, we're getting over 200, sometimes up to 400 a day. The gastrointestinal illness is caused by a parasite called cyclospora found in human feces. And health experts say this outbreak is likely much larger. How many did we miss because they didn't present for care or get the right test or get the result reported? Emily Jenkins is a professor of veterinary microbiology at the University of Saskatchewan. So for every one case of cyclospora that people might pick up in a person, there's probably about 50, at least 50 cases that weren't described or picked up. Still, food experts in Canada say it is unlikely we will see links to this outbreak here. Lawrence Goodrich is a food microbiologist at the University of Guelph.

I don't think any of the contaminated lettuce has made it to Canada. If it had, we would have seen cases. Goodrich says the next key step will be to figure out how the lettuce became infected in the first place. Likely, I suspect it's due to contaminated irrigation water that somehow came into contact with human feces. You know, we'll have to wait and see what any investigation comes up with. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says there is no evidence that products implicated in this outbreak were distributed in Canada and says it's in close contact with the FDA as the investigation continues.

Toshana Reid, CBC News, Toronto. An Ontario judge has declared a mistrial for billionaire Frank Strontex's sexual assault conviction. The auto parts magnate was found guilty last month for two separate incidents dating back several decades. Strannock's lawyer argued new information from one of the complainants' lawyers raises questions about her credibility. The lawyer says a civil trial claim contradicts her previous testimony. Strannock remains convicted on a charge of indecent assault. Britain gets a new prime minister on Monday. MP Andy Burnham went from Mayor of Greater Manchester to backbencher to Prime Minister in waiting in a matter of weeks.

Today he was officially named leader of the Labor Party with overwhelming support. I will be a pro-business leader of the Labor Party as I was a pro-business mayor of Greater Manchester. We turn places round together and that is the way we ran in Manchester and we will take to the whole country. As he moves from City Hall to Downing Street, critics are asking how his regional success can translate to the national stage. The CBC's Chris Brown has this profile from Manchester. Andy Burnham's rise to the pinnacle of British politics has happened at breakneck speed.

I am going to break with the more of the same approach that has got us here. Burnham used to be an MP and he held multiple cabinet positions, but he's best known for the three terms he spent as the mayor of Greater Manchester. He's also been referred to tongue-and-cheek as the King of the North, a play on the Game of Thrones fantasy TV series involving a northern leader who challenges the establishment in the southern capital. Everyone can feel that the country isn't where it should be. Tonight could, just could, be the turning point.

Burnham won a by-election to Parliament last month, immediately throwing down a challenge to Prime Minister Kier Starrmer, who didn't put up a fight, and resigned as leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister. If Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister, you're going to see someone who can connect with people in that sort of grassroots way.

Canadian Duncan Iveson is the president of Manchester University, and he's worked closely with Andy Burnham. The ability to listen, read a room. We'll see if he can do that on the national stage. When Burnham was mayor, Manchester's economy outpaced the rest of the UK, including London. Digital and financial services helped

drive that growth and public transit improved. Mark Wrigley owns the upscale Atlas Bar on Deansgate in Manchester. Lots of people have seen him say it's not about politics so much, it's about the place. And that's certainly how I feel he's approached his mayoralty here. Burnham has said he plans to move part of the Prime Minister's office up to Manchester, sort of a number 10 north. Still, with national politics, collaboration is harder and the demands have. heavier. Critics say Burnham's ideas have never faced harsh scrutiny. Laura Evans is a member of

the Conservative Party and she ran against him twice for mayor and lost. You know, we have a lot of crime. We have a lot of issues here where people, you know, drugs. He hasn't improved the situation around homelessness. Burnham is already being squeezed, needing to appease labor MPs wanting big spending, nervous financial markets that want absolute fiscal discipline and supporters that don't want tax hikes. Where is the money going to come from for any of his new ideas? Andy Burnham has helped generate some good buzz about Manchester, but with only three years left before a mandatory general election,

he'll have little time to prove whether the King of the North can truly fix what many feel is a broken kingdom. Chris Brown, CBC News, Manchester, England. 50 years ago today, Montreal hosted Canada's first ever summer Olympics. Those games are looked back on as both a display of athletic excellence and an example of how not to host a major international sporting event. As Alexander Silberman tells us, Canada's Olympic Committee is now testing the waters to see whether enough time has passed to give it another go.

At Montreal's Olympic Basin, Hundreds of the world's top athletes are facing off in the Canoe Sprint World Cup, a storied venue still in use. Half a century after the opening of the 1976 summer games, Danita Fitzpatrick was one of the fans in the crowd. The fact that this is still standing and is still a very useful and productive venue really does show that investment in sport has longevity. The Olympics put the city on the world stage.

and added a landmark to Montreal's skyline, the Olympic Stadium and Star Moments, including Nadia Komenech's first-ever perfect 10 in gymnastics. Cominetsch is returning for the anniversary celebrations. The young generation realizes that there is no limit in what a city or they can do. But the games are also remembered for troubled construction and ballooning costs. The Olympic Stadium with a faulty roof and a one-year-old. billion dollar price tag that took taxpayers three decades to pay off.

It was certainly a strong learning moment. Simon Pierre Lacasse is a history professor at Concordia University. And I don't think that one would argue that there has been such a case of a mega project that has been so poorly managed afterwards. The memories have made hosting another Olympics, a political non-starter for many Montrealers. But Canada's Olympic Committee hopes public perception is shifting. It wants to bring back the winter games in the next decade. Andrew Baker is Chief External Affairs Officer. So we really believe that when done right, the games can leave a lasting positive impact on communities.

The International Olympic Committee is now aiming for a more sustainable approach. Baker says a bid could involve several host cities teaming up. We have the venue infrastructure existing. That would allow us to really focus our energies on only having to build infrastructure that serves community needs. Some former Olympians have other ideas. Bruce Kidd competed in track for Canada at the 1964 Summer Olympics and studied sport policy at the University of Toronto. He says Canada should hold off on a bid for now and invest in improved sports programs and facilities instead. We've got to get the balance right. And at the moment, another Olympic bid would not do that. Montreal's focus for now, a celebration of the past.

Alexander Silberman, CBC News, Montreal. And finally, a familiar voice to music fans, Natalie Main's lead singer of the Chicks, with the band's 2006 hit Not Ready to Make Nice. The American Country Trio is set to headline the Churchill Park Music Festival in St. John's Tomorrow Night. And it turns out they are ready to make nice with local musician Carla Pilgrim.

She's going to be their opening act. As soon as I heard that they were coming, I was like, it's mine. I'm having it. This is my opening act. I'm opening this show. Pilgrim made it happen herself, reaching out to the festival promoter. And while she's opened for some popular acts before, landing this gig was a dream come true. There's something different about getting to open for an act that I looked up to so much.

Like, I mimic them. I performed in tribute show, chick's tribute show. I just would really love to just meet them and just tell them, you know, they had such a huge impact on girls, young girls like me, who didn't have anyone around them that played the way that they play. Pilgrim says being in her 40s has given her more confidence and a sense of deserving what she's achieved. And we'll leave you tonight with one of the songs that she is sure to put on her playlist tomorrow.

This has been your world tonight for Friday, July 17th. I'm Salima Shivjee. Good night. Thanks so much for being with us. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.