Your World Tonight - Vice President Vance meets Zelenskyy, Pearson airport gold heist, GST holiday and more

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

JD Vance is at the Munich security conference, where he accused the European Union of retreating from its fundamental values. The U.S. vice-president said countries are censoring free speech. Germany���s leaders were furious. Vance also met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, working on a critical minerals deal that would be part of an agreement to end the war.The Conservative caucus meets in Ottawa. The MPs are united on several things, including criticizing the Liberals. A main target: Mark Carney, who polls suggest is the front-runner in the leadership race.And: New details from the Fifth Estate about the gold heist at Pearson Airport. Police allowed one of the main suspects to leave the country. They made the calculation – tip their hand, or let him get away?Also: Saturday is the last day to take advantage of the three-month GST holiday. We look at whether it was worth it for businesses, or the economic fortunes of the country.Plus: Iodine deficiency, auto tariffs, “Buy Canadian” apps, and more.

When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind-blowing police investigation. There's a man living in this address in the name of a deceased. He's one of the most wanted men in the world. This isn't really happening. Officers are finding large sums of money. It's a tale of murder, skullduggery and international intrigue. So who really is he? I'm Sam Mullins and this is Sea of Lies from CBC's Uncovered, available now.

This is a CBC Podcast. The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China, it's not any other external actor. On the same day a Russian drone damages the Chernobyl nuclear site, the US Vice President says he's more concerned about free speech. While JD Vance blasted European democracies, pressure keeps growing on Ukraine and Russia to sit down and negotiate. Yet there are more questions about what side of the bargaining table the Trump White House is on. Welcome to Your World Tonight. I'm Tom Harrington.

It is Friday, February 14th, coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Also on the podcast. My shopping bill is like unbelievable. GST hasn't really been that significant, to be honest. The biggest difference has definitely been at restaurants. I'm more encouraged to go out to restaurants. Pack your shopping bags, the holiday's almost over. A two month break from the goods and services tax

meant to boost business and stretch consumer spending. Some are happy the GST party's over. Others say the tax should take a permanent vacation. should take a permanent vacation. The audience of world leaders in Munich was expecting details on the Trump administration's plan to end the war in Ukraine. Instead, they got a scolding. Vice President J.D. Vance used his first big speech on the world stage to wag his diplomatic finger at America's European allies.

At the same time, he downplayed the threat posed by Russia. All of that ahead of his highly anticipated meeting with the man who wants peace with Moscow the most. Chris Brown has the details. Well, good afternoon everybody. We're of course happy to welcome the Ukrainian delegation led by President Zelensky. At the Munich Security Conference, Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky finally got some face time with top Trump officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance. Trump's team has promised they'll

bring Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and stop Russia's invasion. In exchange for its military help, though, the U.S. wants a deal on Ukraine's rare earth minerals, which Zelensky said he's not quite ready to sign, nor did he indicate he has any more certainty about the role he'll play during those negotiations. Earlier, European leaders gathering to hear Vance make the keynote speech also wanted more details. Instead, he gave them a lecture

on democracy. The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China, it's not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within. The stunned room listened

as Vance berated his host, Germany, for allegedly silencing voices on the far right, ahead of a key election. A senior EU official later said it sounded like Vance was trying to pick a fight with them, and Germany's defence minister Boris Pastorius was livid. He compared conditions in parts of Europe with those of authoritarian regimes. Ladies and gentlemen, that is unacceptable," said Pistorius. Vance's scolding capped a week of dramatic and conflicting pronouncements from Trump

and his top officials on European security. At a town hall meeting earlier, Zelensky affirmed he will not allow Trump and Putin to talk over his head. I will meet with Russians, with only one Russian guy, with Putin, only after we will have common plan with Trump, Europe, and we will sit with Putin and stop the war. While not in Munich, Vladimir Putin may still have sent a message about his willingness to compromise, or lack thereof. Overnight, Ukraine says a Russian drone smashed into one of the most dangerous places in Europe, the containment dome covering the sealed Chernobyl nuclear plant, causing damage but no radiation

leak. Now is the time to invest. All week visiting Trump officials have been pounding home the message that the US now has higher security priorities than Europe, leaving Ukrainians to worry Trump wants a fast peace deal and not necessarily a good one for them. Vance's lecturing will not ease those concerns. Chris Brown, CBC News, London.

Here at home, political battle lines are being drawn, even redrawn. The federal liberals are preparing to choose a new leader and prime minister. The conservatives have been holding campaign-style rallies, priming themselves for a possible election this spring. But their long-standing lead in opinion polls appears to be evaporating. As Tom Perry explains, that has Conservative MPs turning their attention to one potential rival. All I can say is good morning folks, happy to be back. No comments from me today.

As they arrived for their caucus meeting, most Conservative MPs didn't want to talk, but those who did wanted to talk about one subject. I just want to address Mark Carney's comments. Um, Mark Carney again admitted his own lie. Carbon tax, Carney's failure to provide any transparency to Canadians. Conservatives taking shots at Liberal leadership contender Mark Carney, accusing the former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor of a wide range of transgressions. Conservative House leader

Andrew Scheer berating reporters for not asking Carney tougher questions. So why isn't the media holding Mark Carney to account? He's about to become the Prime Minister because a small group of Liberal Party members are going to install him. Carney is an acknowledged front-runner in the Liberal leadership race, but he hasn't won just yet. Still, pollster David Coletto of Abacus Data understands why conservatives are targeting him.

Well, I think they believe he's going to replace Justin Trudeau. And so he's going to be their primary opponent. And what the polls are showing is the Liberals are gaining momentum, that some polls are suggesting that if Mark Carney were the leader, he would do very well, hypothetically, against the Conservatives. Colletto's own polling shows the Conservatives still hold a wide lead over the Liberals, just not as wide as it was, before Justin Trudeau decided to step down. Another factor driving voters, Colletto says, is Donald Trump and

his repeated threats against Canada's economy and sovereignty. If we think of Canadian politics as a story, the villain in that story has been Justin Trudeau and Pierre Pauli has been trying to make himself out to be the hero. But Justin Trudeau, that villain is now off the stage and a new, bigger, badder, more aggressive villain has entered and I think that the Conservatives are trying to make Mark Carney that villain when in fact Canadians think it's really Donald Trump. Colletto says conservatives still hold the advantage in fundraising and the

fact that the Liberals no matter who leads them have been in power for a decade and carry all the baggage that goes with that. But the political landscape has changed in both Canada and the U.S. The next federal election could be, at the very least, much different than the one the conservatives and other parties had been planning for. Tom Perry, CBC News, Ottawa. Coming right up, the Golden Guys. CBC tracks down one of the suspects in that dramatic gold heist at Toronto's Pearson Airport.

Plus, just one more shopping day. The GST holiday ends Saturday, but did it make a difference? Later, there's an app for that, eh? The Buy Canadian campaign gets a digital update. We have exclusive new details tonight on the audacious gold heist at Toronto's Pearson Airport that made international headlines. CBC's The Fifth Estate has tracked down one of the suspects abroad and in an exclusive interview with police, they learned he was allowed to leave the country when he could have been arrested. Fifth estate co-host Stephen D'Souza has the story. We've checked, we've done search for us, we've looked,

we've done production orders on banking records and everything. Detective Sergeant Mike Mavity heads up the team investigating the biggest gold theft in Canadian history. Even though Peel Regional Police charged nine men last year, he says they still haven't found most of the more than 20 million dollars in gold. New details obtained by the Fifth Estate show that investigators believe some of the gold may have been sold just two months after the heist, allegedly at a Toronto area jewelry store. We've also learned new details about one of the key suspects, Simranpreet Panasar. He was an acting

manager at the Air Canada cargo facility. He is crucial to this whole thing. Okay. Absolutely crucial. He is the top of the food chain. In an exclusive interview with the Fifth Estate, Mavadi said they identified Panasar as a suspect early on. But three months after the heist, Panasar resigned and was preparing to move to India. Mavadi says investigators faced a tough choice. Do we arrest him, try and get his phone and do all that stuff, or do we let him leave? It was early in the investigation, and officers didn't want to tip off other potential suspects. The downside is all the other

people that we haven't identified now know we're onto them and they can start covering their tracks or fleeing or do whatever. After weighing their options investigators let Panasar go. Working with local journalists the fifth estate tracked him down in India. He said he's innocent and wrongly implicated. Meanwhile police say some of the missing gold could have ended up in Dubai. It's also where another key suspect Arsalan Choudhury is likely hiding. Gold is interesting because it's actually rather hard to track. Jody Vittori is a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She's studied how criminals move illicit funds, including gold, internationally.

It's relatively easy to bring gold through Dubai under certain conditions. Once you do that, it's relatively easy to sell the gold. You want to sell? Yeah. The Fifth Estate put that to the test. We visited the city's bustling gold market, posing as sellers with no paperwork to back up our imaginary inventory. It took us just three tries and we found someone who appeared willing to buy. Vittori says if the high thieves did the same thing, the gold will likely never be found.

Once it particularly is intermixed with other gold, it's pretty much untraceable after that. Stephen D'Souza, CBC News, Toronto. The full investigation, Inside Job Airport Gold Heist, airs tonight on the Fifth Estate at 9 on CBC and CBC Gem. You can also watch it on YouTube. The federal tax holiday is about to end. Saturday is your last chance to save on items such as diapers, toys and groceries.

The measure was to give Canadians some financial relief and help boost the economy. But as Anis Hadari explains, it may not have been worth it. Well, I guess if I did add it up to numbers it would show up. Out shopping in Toronto, Andrew McCray shrugged off the idea that no GST changed much for him. In terms of behaviour or buying, it had no bearing whatsoever. And there were other mixed reviews out there about how much of a difference the sales tax holiday made. He's not like, oh, now I can go for a vacation, or now I can buy a Playstation. My shopping bill is unbelievable and so the GST hasn't really been that significant to

be honest. The biggest difference has definitely been at restaurants. I'm more encouraged to go out to restaurants. And it's restaurant owners who have been speaking up, like Stout Irish Pub's Erin Gamelin in Toronto. She says her customers have really appreciated the temporary GST cut. I think it was a much needed relief when they saw their bill. They were very excited to

see that tax break reflect on their bill. It was much less than they were expecting. Restaurant leaders want the cut to stay in place to help a sector they say is struggling. Kelly Higginson is CEO with industry group Restaurants Canada. This is actually working and stimulating the economy and providing Canadians with the relief that they needed to be able to treat themselves on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis. But those reviews aren't as hot in other parts of the business world. One of Canada's largest payment processors has said it saw fewer card transactions in the first month of the GST cut compared to the year before. Monaris suggests the tax break didn't boost sales and that

matches the predictions of many economists. You called this a nightmare several months ago has the dream come true? Government managed to use several billion dollars in one of the worst ways I could imagine, so I suppose so. Rob Jelazo is an assistant professor of economic analysis at the University of Toronto. He points out the federal government is giving up 1.6 billion dollars with this GST cut. We knew that this was going to be an expensive policy with the general idea that it would make people feel like life was more affordable. I think that at a fundamental level that hasn't shifted.

We've certainly spent a lot of money." And it also cost money for businesses to change their systems last year and that's time and money being spent again to put the tax back. That's for a policy many retailers say didn't boost sales. Jennifer LeBlond owns Stealing Home in Calgary. I mean I think it was just was such a non-starter. I think we didn't feel that it was fantastic or like terrible. It just didn't really do anything. So by Sunday say goodbye to the tax cut that just didn't cut it for everyone. NECDARI, CBC News, Calgary. Canada's auto sector is hoping to catch a different kind of break. In this case avoiding Donald Trump's potentially damaging tariffs.

The industry is bracing itself for a head-on collision. Business reporter Nisha Patel breaks down the potential impact on Canadian car makers and car buyers. They're already really expensive. Buying a car is a big financial decision and at the Canadian Auto Show in Toronto, tariffs are making that decision more difficult. My budget will change if tariffs are a significant difference. It is frustrating, yeah. Particularly when we had a free trade agreement in North America

and all of a sudden we're getting hit with tariffs. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports, plus an additional 25% on steel and aluminum. That makes the auto industry especially vulnerable. It is a tax, it is born by the consumer, it's born by businesses. Brian Kingston speaks for Canadian vehicle manufacturers. He says if tariffs go ahead as planned, the costs would be passed on.

You'd see a new vehicle price go up by as much as $6,000. And with the auto industry's supply chain so deeply interconnected, counter tariffs from Canada could quickly lead to factory shutdowns. If you go down that path into a tit-for-tat tariff situation, the ability for Canada to maintain that for an extended period of time is very difficult. North American automakers like Ford and GM say they're making contingency plans, but it's tough to plan when the U.S. president keeps shifting gears. Today, Trump said he would unveil new auto tariffs on April 2nd, but gave few details.

And earlier this week, more threats in an interview with Fox News. If we don't make a deal with Canada, we're going to put a big tariff on cars, could be a 50 or 100 percent because we don't want their cars. We want to make the cars in Detroit. Tariffs are a key part of Trump's economic plan. They can raise revenue to pay for his promised tax cuts. But Brett House, an economics professor at Columbia Business School, says they could come at a cost for U.S. companies. We saw during the last round of tariffs from the

first Trump administration that the net losses to industry far exceeded any of the gains in narrow parts of the steel and aluminum sector that added jobs. For car buyers here trying to make sense of it all, there is one positive. New car inventories are returning to normal after years of supply chain disruptions. So there's some stock of vehicles already in Canada that may not face price pressures from tariffs. Nisha Patel, CBC News, Toronto. The crew of a helicopter that collided with a jet in midair in Washington DC may not have heard instructions from air traffic control.

The collision happened near Reagan International Airport killing the 67 people aboard both aircraft. National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy says ATC told the helicopter to pass behind the plane but the recording from the chopper suggests the crew may have missed it. That transmission was interrupted, it was stepped on. They may have not received pass behind the because the mic key. They were communicating with air traffic control at the time. Hamedi also says the helicopter was flying higher than it should have been.

But that may be because of bad data. The plane crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since 2001. The Vatican says Pope Francis is in hospital in Rome. The 88-year-old Catholic leader was admitted today after he reportedly struggled to speak during a meeting. Francis has been diagnosed with bronchitis and is undergoing more tests and treatment. An update from the Vatican says his condition is stable and he has a mild fever. Rwandan-backed rebels say they've entered Bukavu, the second largest

city in eastern Congo. The M23 fighters first took over the nearby airport, which the Congolese military had been using. The rebels seized the city of Goma in late January. Goma is a hub in the region and hosted many millions of people displaced in previous fighting. The United Nations is warning the escalation in the combat has left 350,000 people without shelter. 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, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just find the follow button and lock us in.

For decades, it's been a staple in Canadian kitchens, one of those blue and white boxes of basic table salt, protecting us, whether we knew it or not, from a potentially dangerous medical condition. But that condition seems to be making a comeback. Not only because of our changing diet, but the growing use of fancy gourmet salts. Jennifer Yoon explains.

Why do all recipes call for kosher salt? From kosher salt... Grab an unrefined salt like Himalayan pink salt, to pink Himalayan salt, soft crunchy flakes with a rich smoky flavor, even smoked sea salt. These days there are so many varieties of salt to choose from but what most don't have that plain old table salt does is iodine. It's a mineral that's essential to the body and not having enough can lead to serious health problems. For pregnant women, it's especially crucial for a baby's development.

She was about this tall. Toronto pediatrician Dr. Anna Banerjee waves her hand about three feet off the ground, describing a teenager she recently saw with severe iodine deficiency. Had the classical face of creatinism and was intellectually, deletes severe intellectual deficits. Creatinism is an irreversible medical condition, all but eliminated in Canada. Salt iodine.

It's so rare because the Canadian government required iodine to be added to table salt back in 1949. It was a major public health victory, the Canadian government required iodine to be added to table salt back in 1949. It was a major public health victory, but now because the manufacturing has changed and the diet, people's diet have changed, we're starting to see iodine deficiency again. Most processed foods don't use iodized salt. Boston Medical Center endocrinologist Dr. Elizabeth Pierce says people have forgotten how important iodine is for their health.

People alive today were not around in the 1920s. They don't remember what iodine deficiency looked like or how devastating it was. And I think most people don't really know why there's iodine in the salt anymore. Pearce says Canadians used to see the problem. People without enough iodine who get a goiter, an enlarged thyroid gland which looks like a big lump on the neck. One recent study found almost 12% of Canadians studied had moderate to severe iodine deficiency. And new research out of Quebec suggests pregnant women are not getting enough in their first

trimester. We only need trace amounts on a daily basis. It's a problem that can easily be fixed, says McMaster University's Philip Brits McKibbin, who studies Canadian iodine intake. We need more, I think, research and evidence to support practices to ensure that the population as a whole has adequate iodine in their diet. Brits McKibbin says the government could also mandate iodine in other food staples, like bread.

He reminds Canadians they can also get iodine in vitamin supplements, seafood, and dairy products. Jennifer Yoon, CBC News, Toronto. Buy Canadian has become a sort of rallying cry in response to Donald Trump's threats and comments. But knowing what to buy or not to buy at the grocery store isn't always easy. Some young entrepreneurs across the country downloaded that challenge and updated the campaign.

Now, not only is there an app for that, there's actually a bunch of them. Vanessa-Lee has that story. Let's try to see if these are Canadian or not. Grocery shopping is different these days for 29-year-old Christopher Dip and 23-year-old Alexandre Amila. The Montrealers are using Buy Beaver, for 29-year-old Christopher Dip and 23-year-old Alexandre Amila. The Montrealers are using Buy Beaver, a new app they created to make it easier for shoppers

to identify Canadian products. Amila sees it as part of a bigger movement. Canadians are trying to support more and more Canada and the local businesses here. And I think that's very positive, and I want to amplify this movement in every way possible. The app is community-driven, relying on users to comment, rate and share information.

It says made in Canada from domestic, but imported ingredients as well. Dip explains how it works. You can scan the barcode, then it will rate the product as either Canadian or not on a scale of one to five, and it will rate it based as either Canadian or not on a scale of one to five and it will rate it based on where it's made, where the ingredients and the materials are from and finally who owns the brand or the company.

Similar apps have launched overnight with a common cause. You see that it's got four out of five maple leaves on our meter here. Edmonton's William Boytank and Matthew Sudeby's app also relies on crowdsourcing. So this was about a week ago. We were in our kitchen and I was trying to figure out if what I was eating was Canadian. And I had to jump through several hoops to try and figure out what I was eating. And eventually I came up with the idea. Shop Canadian has a hundred thousand products in its database. Half have been reviewed. And it already has a hundred thousand downloads. Canadian has 100,000 products in its database. Half have been reviewed.

And it already has 100,000 downloads. It's cool to see that we're making a difference. I mean, in our wildest dreams, we were hoping to keep a couple hundred dollars in Canada, maybe support one or two local businesses. But now, you know, with the traction we've gained and, you know, the people using our app, we're able to do a little bit more.

The Buy Canadian sentiment is having an impact. Ashley Chapman, a family-owned Chapman's Ice Cream, says it has seen a bump in sales. I would say yeah maybe 10 percent. So yeah, very significant. Especially for January which is typically the lowest sales month of the year. The creators of the apps know they're not perfect and are working around the clock to ensure all of the information is accurate. A labour of love for their country. Vanessa Lee, CBC News, Montreal.

We'll close with a Valentine's Day reminder. If you're still shopping for a last-minute gift, the clock is about to run out. But if it's love you're looking for, it is never too late. There was an ad on the radio looking for volunteers to help out at nursing homes without walls. Then they gave me a phone number. A few years ago, New Brunswick resident Dave Steele wanted to give back to his community. After his wife died, he decided to join a program that supports seniors in the province. He volunteered to make weekly calls to check in on others who were living alone.

One of the names on his list was Brenda Trafford. She had been part of the program since her husband died, and one day there was a new voice on the line. I got a call on a Monday and it was a male voice. And my musical mind went, ooh, that's an interesting sounding voice. Steele and Trafford had their weekly chats and found out they had a lot in common. One day, Dave floated the idea of meeting each other.

Those meetings became a thing, and so did Dave and Brenda. Eventually, Brenda and I decided we kind of liked each other and enjoyed each other's company. We both enjoyed eating. And I don't know, things just progressed after that. The couple is going on five years together. They like to share meals, crafts, puzzles and love a good road trip. We enjoy traveling together and I love her because I can go to Fredericton and we don't have to stop for a pee like she does.

When nature calls the timing may not be right. When love calls, timing is everything. Steele and Trafford are now looking forward to celebrating her 90th birthday together. Young or old, widow or widower, the window for finding love stays open longer than you think. This has been Your World Tonight for Friday, February 14th. I'm Tom Harrington. Thanks for listening tonight. Stay safe and take care of each other. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.