Your World Tonight - U.S. trade rep on CUSMA, Quebec anti-corruption probe, Robert Munsch’s “last hurrah”, and more

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

The Trump administration is casting doubt on the future of the Canada/U.S./Mexico trade deal. A top official suggests the three-way pact could be replaced by separate bilateral deals — a change that would send shockwaves through the markets, businesses, and cause more uncertainty for the Canadian economy. It comes as all three countries prepare to review the deal starting next year.And: Quebec's anti-corruption police launch a criminal investigation after allegations of a cash-for-votes scheme among the provincial Liberal Party.Also: A serious and silly conversation with best-selling Canadian children’s author Robert Munsch. He has dementia and Parkinson’s disease and has been approved for medical assistance in dying. He talks to chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault about what that means for him, and the plans for his legacy after he’s gone.Plus: Bank of Canada rate holds steady, dangerous addition to street drug supply, Sophie Kinsella dies, and more.

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Donate at lovescarbro.cairbo. This is a CBC podcast. Our economic relationship with Canada is very, very different than our economic relationship with Mexico. So it makes sense to talk about things separately. As Canada, the U.S. and Mexico get ready to review their free trade agreement, a top trade negotiator says North America's long-running three-way partnership could be broken up. in favor of separate deals. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner.

It is Wednesday, December 10th, just before 6 p.m. Eastern, also on the podcast. Yes, we are pleased to see this resilience, but going forward, we continue to expect fairly modest growth. Canada's key interest rate remains unchanged, and so do the concerns about the country's economy. Uncertainty, sluggish growth, yet. still managing to fend off the effects of a trade war better than anyone expected. When Donald Trump signed on to Kuzma in 2020, he called the new North American Trade Pact a breakthrough. A breakup may be the better term tonight. The president's point man on trade is again floating the idea of replacing the agreement with bilateral deals.

Katie Simpson has our top story from Washington. Ambassador Greer, thank you so much for coming today. The top trade official within the Trump administration, U.S. trade representative Jameson Greer, sat down for an hour-long Q&A session in Washington, offering the most extensive insight yet into what President Donald Trump wants to happen to Kuzma, the Canada-U-S.-Mexico trade deal. Could it be exited? Yeah, it could be exited. Could it be revised? Yes. Could it be renegotiated? Yes. And all of those things are on the table.

The pact is up for review next year and is widely expected to be renegotiated. However, Greer suggested Trump is open to abandoning Kuzma in favor of separate bilateral trade deals with Canada and Mexico. Our economic relationship with Canada is very, very different than our economic relationship with Mexico. The labor situation is different. The import export profile is different. The rule of law is different. Greer's comments were striking enough. The moderator of the event followed up seeking a clarification.

So it sounds like if I could sort of infer what you're saying is that, yeah, we could end up with separately two rather than one agreement. You could have a couple of protocols attached to the agreement. You could have a replacement. I mean, there are a lot of things that you could do now. While the Trump administration's threats are generally taken seriously by the Canadian government, the president has used this kind of rhetoric in the past as a negotiating tactic. and it could be part of the U.S. strategy heading into the Kuzma Review. Trump wants concessions from Canada and Mexico, changes to the deal in order to promote

American interests, more manufacturing at home, better terms that favor American producers, including dairy farmers. This is going to be a year of incredible consequence for Canada, and we don't know how it's going to play out. Eric Miller is the president of a trade consulting firm, the Rito Potomac Strategy Group. He says there is no way to predict what Trump is going to do in this difficult moment. What happens in the next few months will determine bilateral relations between Canada and the U.S. for the next generation. And so buckle up.

American lawmakers will soon get a better sense of the Trump administration strategy. It must submit a report to Congress about the deal by January 2nd, though it's unclear if that report will be made public. If the U.S. were to pull out of the pact, it could mean even more uncertainty for Canadian businesses, workers, and the economy. Katie Simpson, CBC News, Washington. Canada is weathering the trade war. The question is for how long. The central bank highlighted a resilient economy today after keeping its key lending rate at 2 and a quarter percent.

But the bank's governor is still worried about the next few months. Senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong is. in studio. So Peter Tiff Macklin says the economy is weak, unemployment is high. Wouldn't those be good reasons for the Bank of Canada to cut rates? Yeah, look, if there's one thing we've had to say over and over again this year, it's that these are not normal times. This is not a normal economic crisis. And so the solutions won't be the same ones that we usually see. Reading through the Bank of Canada's decision, the basic argument is that the economy is doing better than expected. So is that enough to keep the bank on the sidelines, as they say? It's enough for now.

You know, yes, things are indeed better than expected. But Bank of Canada, Governor Tiff Macklems, says the overall story that he sees in the Canadian economy is still one defined by weakness. The Canadian economy is going through a difficult structural adjustment. That is going to take some time. You know, when you talk to companies, they're being very cautious about their investment plans. They're cautious about their hiring plans. So, yes, you know, we are pleased to see this resilience, but, you know, going forward, we continue to expect fairly modest growth. So in the last bank statement, Tiff Macklin repeatedly said monetary policy was at the limits

of what it can do. Did anything change? No. His core argument last time was that monetary policy changes to interest rates can't help target specific sectors. They can't help businesses find new markets. They can't reconfigure supply chains. And if you look at where that resilience he was talking about, where that comes from,

it's not the sort of stuff that can be bolstered by slightly lower interest rates. Well, where is the resilience coming from? So there's two key parts. One is that new data from Statistics Canada has shown the economy was actually on more solid footing than we thought heading into this trade war. But also the tariff exemptions that we've seen have meant the severe damage in sectors like, say, steel and aluminum, that that hasn't spilled over into the rest of the economy, at least not yet. Okay, now to the markets, their now betting rates will stay where they are

for quite some time. How can they be so short? Well, the fact is they can't. It's a best guess based on what we've heard from the bank so far. Here's Catherine Judge, senior economist at CIBC Capital Markets. Yeah, so we see the Bank of Canada keeping the overnight rate at 2.25% through the end of 2026. Our forecast depends on customer, largely getting renewed, but perhaps some sectoral tariffs remaining in place. We do think there's scope for aluminum tariffs to go down or be eliminated. Those are some big ifs, though, if Kuzma gets renewed, if things continue down the road as expected. So obviously, a lot of wiggle room left there.

Thank you, Peter. You bet. Senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong in Toronto. Trade and the economy have been a big focus on Parliament Hill. Now the House of Commons is about to rise for its winter break. and though the minority liberals are just two seats shy of a majority, they are struggling to find opposition support to pass their agenda. As Olivia Stefanovic reports, it's unclear if that will change in the new year.

Look, it's a minority parliament. It's functioned well. On his way out of what was likely the last liberal caucus meeting of the year, Prime Minister Mark Kearney held up a Christmas music record, gifted to him by one of his MPs, as he defended his governing record. We're making progress. We're making progress. Canadians might we expect us to make a lot more progress.

When he became Prime Minister last March, Kearney promised big changes. At speeds, Canadians didn't think possible. And while his government has, yes, made a series of big announcements, it's only passed a handful of new laws. Well, we have a lot to get done. We have a lot to get through. Cue the blame game. Government House leader Stephen McKinnon accuses the official opposition of obstructing the government's priorities.

It's an amazing thing. The Conservatives have been talking it out every time we bring it up in the House. This government controls the timeline in this Parliament, and it's completely at their feet. Meanwhile, Conservative House Leader Andrew Shear says the Prime Minister is the one responsible. He expects Canadians to have confidence in him to negotiate on behalf of Canada around the world. He can't even do that here in Parliament. Although the situation is still not as bad as last year, when the Trudeau government's legislative agenda grounded to a halt,

there are signs of problems. In his first order of business, Carney repealed the consumer carbon price and put a middle-class tax cut into effect. But the bill to make those changes official legislation hasn't even made it to the Senate. Neither has the government's proposed border security changes, criminal justice reforms, or the bill to implement the budget. I look to the Carney government at 2026 to demonstrate that they understand they're in a minority parliament. Interim NDP leader Don Davies says the liberals aren't showing a willingness to work across party lines. You can't get anything done, nothing in this House of Commons, unless the liberals have the support of another party. This parliament still is fragile. It's a minority.

Because of that, pollster David Coletto says Carney may look for an opportunity to get a majority in the new year. I'm not personally writing off the idea that come the spring we might be in another federal election. Carney was elected last spring primarily to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump. So far, the trade war remains far from resolved. Olivia Estevenovic, CBC News, Ottawa. Coming right up, the leader of Quebec's Liberal Party says he will cooperate with a corruption investigation, looking into the alleged use of public money for political gain. And an animal tranquilizer is made.

making Canada's street drug supply even more toxic. Later, we'll have this story. I'm Adrian Arsnow in Guelph, Ontario. Having a conversation, Robert Munch calls his last hurrah. The best-selling Canadian children's author has dementia and Parkinson's disease, and life now isn't easy. Do you sometimes dream that you are a younger version of yourself? Yeah.

I dream, I'm on stage. When things are bad, that's the place. I retreat to. We talk about how he's holding up being approved for medical assistance and dying and how he plans to ensure there are new books for years to come. That's coming up on your world tonight. It could be a major hit to a party trying to get back into power. Quebec anti-corruption police are launching an investigation into the provincial

liberal party. There are allegations of a vote for. for cash scheme during its leadership race. With an election scheduled for next fall, the party picked a new leader in June and was hoping to convince voters they are ready to govern again. Alexander Silberman reports.

For us, it's important that we get the truth and all the truth. Quebec liberal leader Pablo Rodriguez, under fire, his party facing the start of a criminal investigation by anti-corruption police, promising to fully cooperate. And if people did anything wrong, then they'll pay the price, they'll suffer the consequences. The investigation by UPAC, Quebec's anti-corruption unit, comes after the alleged use of National Assembly Funds for partisan purposes. In November, the Journal de Moreal published unnamed leaked text messages, suggesting liberal party members who voted for Rodriguez during the party's June leadership race, received cash rewards. Corpakers don't want to go back to the era of corruption.

of the Liberal Party. Opposition Partsique Quebecois-MNA, Alex Poissano, says the investigation is important, suggesting wrongdoing within the party could be widespread. It's more than just what's happening with Pablo Rodriguez. It's a liberal party

that has a culture of corruption in the organization. Political watchers say the anti-corruption investigation is hurting the Quebec liberal's image. At a time when polls suggest the PQ is surging ahead of the governing Coalition Avenir Quebec,

while the Liberals struggled to build back support and become a contender. The optics are very, very bad for both Pablo Rodriguez and the Liberal Party of Quebec. Daniel Belin is director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. It's part of a narrative in Quebec that opposition parties have used for a long time, that the liberals are corrupt and so forth. And what's happening now is helping them, giving them fresh ammunitions. The party is also dealing with other challenges. Two liberal MNAs were recently expelled from the party's caucus.

The hit to the Liberals' reputation has some faithful party members calling for Rodriguez to step down. He's only been party leader since June. Alexandre Trambley Michaud is a long-time member and past Riding Association president. He says Rodriguez should put the interest of the party before his own and resign. But the liberal leader says he has no plans. to consider stepping down. It's not about me. I'm there. I'm duty elected by the members.

There's nothing that I've done wrong. It remains unclear what potential wrongdoing the anti-corruption unit is looking into. Upaq only confirmed the launch of its criminal investigation, but it would not reveal any details or whether their investigation was linked to the Journal de Maureale investigation. Alexander Silberman, CBC News, Montreal.

Elections, Alberta has approved. approved a recall petition for the province's premier. The petition says Daniel Smith doesn't spend enough time in her riding and ignores local constituents. Smith denies that, saying she regularly meets with people in the riding and has helped implement some infrastructure projects. 20 United Conservative Party members are now facing recall petitions, more than a third of Smith's caucus.

The next step is a three-month window to gather enough signatures to trigger a recall vote. The overdoses are worse, and reversing them is harder. There's new danger in Canada's street drug supply, a tranquilizer used on cats, dogs, even horses, being mixed with other drugs, posing a risk for users and the people who help them. John Hernandez reports. It was kind of a feeling of horror, honestly.

Amy Evans recalls when she found out about a new chemical in the toxic drug supply, one that can cause longer overdoses with severely slowed heart rates. She says there has been a sudden surge of cases over the past few weeks where drugs have tested positive for an animal tranquilizer called metatomedeen. We've seen people do tiny amounts of a drug that has metatomedean in it and they're losing consciousness almost immediately. Evans is the general manager of the overdose prevention site in Vancouver's downtown east side. Hundreds of people use the center each day. Many get their drugs tested there. For the past month, Evans says her team is finding metatomedeen in just about all of them. It's not approved for human use and their overdose medication doesn't counteract it.

People are having overdoses and of course we're responding as we normally would with naloxone and that cancels out the fentanyl that's in the drugs that they've taken. But there's nothing we can do for the metatomedeen. Its implications, its effects on human beings are really not fully understood. Dr. Paxton Bach is with the BC Center on Substance Use and says not only are the overdoses concerning, but so are the withdrawals. It's accompanied by really high heart rates, high blood pressure, and potentially puts people at risk of even more concerning consequences like seizures or even theoretically death. Provincial health authorities across the country have issued warnings that the sedative is becoming increasingly prevalent. Health Canada identified Metatomedeen more than 500 times while

testing drugs seized nationwide between July and September. Toronto drug policy analyst Dan Wurb says it's likely the result of an illicit market that's constantly changing. What we're seeing are these completely unregulated markets that are controlled by drug traffickers that have been incredibly effective at penetrating really across almost the entirety of North America, and they are just changing the recipe at will. Dip it into the drug sample here. Back at the overdose prevention site, Evans fears the worst is yet to come. I do think that we will see more and more deaths as time goes on because of metatomedean.

A toxic drug crisis that's claimed more than 50,000 Canadian lives since 2016, with a new ingredient now flooding the streets. John Hernandez, CBC News, Vancouver. The U.S. has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. Washington says the tanker is used to transport oil from Venezuela and Iran, which both face sanctions from the U.S. Washington also says the tanker itself has been sanctioned for involvement in illicit oil shipping and foreign terrorist organizations.

President Donald Trump has ordered a military buildup near Venezuela. He has said it is to combat illegal drug smuggling. This is Your World Tonight from CBC News. If you want to make sure you stay up to date and never miss one of our episodes, follow us. Follow us on Spotify, Apple, wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in. Iceland is the fifth country to boycott the 26 Eurovision song contest over the inclusion of Israel. Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and the Netherlands announced they were out last week. Israel has taken part in Eurovision for decades because its public broadcaster is a member of the European Broadcasting Union. Several countries were calling for a ban this year over Israel's conduct during the war in Gaza, and allegations it tried to influence this year's Eurovision vote.

The British author who went by the pen name Sophie Kinsella has died at 55. She was battling an aggressive brain cancer. Best known for her shopaholic series, Kinsella's writing reached millions of readers and helped shape the modern romance genre. Magda Geraselasseh looks at the impact of her life and work. It's declined. Can you try again?

Really declined. Her best-selling stories fly off shelves and lit up the big screen. Best known for her confessions of a shopaholic series, the British author known as Sophie Kinsella, was always brewing up romantic comedies. I sit at home, I drink my coffee, I make up my stories. Her real name was Madeline Sophie Wickham. Once a financial journalist, fiction became her true calling.

More than 50 million books of hers sold around the world. while she traveled near and far to meet her many fans. Jill Jemitt met her during a book signing in Toronto in 2017. It's just that funny, relatable humor in her books, I think, that makes people love her so much. With more than 30 books, Wiccan made a lasting impression on the literary world. One of the founding mothers of the modern romance genre. Elise Murray, a romance novelist in New Orleans, is a longtime fan. She gave women permission to be their entire selves, messy, imperfect, hurting, grieving, angry, confused.

She gave women permission through her books to be those people, to be vulnerable, to be real, to be authentic. She was that way in her life, too. Last year, Wickham let the world in on her fight, revealing in 2022, she had been died. diagnosed with glioblastoma. Glioblastoma, or GBM, is a highly malignant brain tumor. Dr. Warren Mason is the medical director of the Jerry and Nancy Penser Brain Tumor Center in Toronto. It's a disease that is quite rare. The incidence is about $4,000 per 100,000 per year. It is treatable but not curable.

Having experienced brain surgery, chemo, and radiation treatments, Wicham poured it all into her art. Her last book is all about a successful novelist, cancer and the life she celebrated, as she shared in this ITV interview. I could turn this extreme event into something that was hopeful and optimistic and full of love because that my journey has been full of love. It was her loved ones that had to share the hard truth with the world. Through social media, they wrote she died peacefully

with her final days filled with her true loves. family and music and warmth and Christmas and joy. Wickham was 55 years old. Magdegebera Salas, CBC News, Toronto. His books have delighted readers for decades, but Robert Munch has never crafted closing chapters quite like this. The beloved and best-selling children's author is facing serious health problems. Still, the 80-year-old has a surprise for his fans,

in what he suggests will be his last. interview, Chief Correspondent Adrian Arsenault sat down with Robert Munch for a conversation that was a little serious and a little silly, just like him. You made us laugh the other day in a social media post. I can't remember which daughter it was of yours who posted it. You were at Costco. She was saying, he's fine. My dad's fine. We're going shopping. And then you said, for a coffin, which was A little dark there, Bob. A little dark, but very funny.

You're not afraid of being a little dark sometimes, eh? A little dark, yes. It's great to hear Robert Munch laugh. The man who spent decades making kids giggle deserves that broad smile he wears in this moment. Because life with dementia and Parkinson's disease isn't especially easy for him right now. I tell people I'm fine. I'm not fine.

You know, fine. What does not find really mean for you? Well, I fall down. I forget words. I can't open anything. There's all these little things that you take for granted. I had a fall this morning. I don't like that.

Every time it happens, I think, well, I won't do such and such, but it keeps happening. I'm sorry you had that. Is it frightening when that happens? Yeah. He's perched in his walker, a table in his sprawling basement office, the shelves full of his treasured books, all arranged neatly. I'm so embarrassed. Love You Forever. Mortimer. Just some of what has made him, Canada's

best-selling children's author. And here's some news he's sharing for the very first time. There are even more books to come one day. When's the next one coming here? I don't know. Doesn't know, because those new stories likely won't see the light of day until he is gone. There's about 50 stories in that. When I'm dead, they'll still be putting out Robert Munch books. Well, your stories are going to live forever. Is that a good feeling or a strange feeling? That's a good feeling.

People always say, you know, he'll live forever. Well, nobody lives forever. Maybe you can hear it in his voice, Munch, making one of his wild expressive faces. Brows, raised high, eyes crossing slightly. It's funny. He's funny. Communicating like that seems second nature, as natural for him as telling his stories. In your brain, what does it feel like?

In my brain, the stories are all stacked. They're locked. I can't trust the rest of my thinking. But the stories are your friends. The stories are my friends. This is, he suggests, his last interview, his last hurrah, as he puts it. He made headlines a few months ago when he revealed he'd been approved for medical assistance in dying. A decision his wife, Anne, says they are both at peace with.

Both of us feel that that's a choice that is valid and legitimate. Fortunately, for both of us, maybe especially me. That's a long ways away. Even so, Robert Munch understands people worry, and for them, he has a message. Don't worry, I'll be okay. No matter what, right? Yeah. Adrian Arsnow, CBC News, Guelph, Ontario.

You can stream Adriens. interview with Robert Munch right now on the National's YouTube page, or wherever you stream CBC News, or you can watch it tonight on the National. We close tonight with a Christmas commercial created not in Santa's workshop, but with the magic of AI, landing on the internet like a lump of coal. On the surface, it's a pretty typical entry in the genre of festive advertising. released last week by McDonald's Netherlands, carolers singing a remixed version of a classic song

amid scenes of holiday chaos and disappointment, shoppers fight at the mall, dads struggle with lights, dinner gets burned, then the main character finds warmth and peace at his local McDonald's. As the technology gets more and more sophisticated, it all looks pretty realistic. But viewers quickly noticed those uncanny, slightly off markers of AI.

And the ad was pulled after just three days. Hide out in McDonald's till January is here. McDonald's put out an AI commercial that is so bad. It's worse than I thought. The AI generated the entire thing. And all I have to say is why. The backlash was swift, with many blasting McDonald's for not using real actors and sets. Some called the ad creepy and inauthentic.

But the company that made it says just, because its AI doesn't mean it wasn't a lot of real work. The Sweet Shop is an international film studio. In a social media post, its CEO said the ad took a team of 10 people seven weeks to create. She said there were sleepless nights creating and editing AI prompts, and the work hours even exceeded some of its traditional film shoots. For its part, McDonald says it has been a learning moment for the company, as it explores the effective use of AI.

No AI here, folks. We're all real. Thank you for joining us. This has been Your World Tonight for Wednesday, December 10th. I'm Susan Bonner. Talk to you again. CBC Podcasts, go to cBC.ca slash podcasts.