Trump's new tariff strike on Canada, Ottawa’s risky Saab selection, a former Anthropic staffer’s dire AI warning, and more

0:00Canada is complicated. And help Berda? Well, it has opinions. I'm Kathleen Betty, the host of West of Center. If you're wondering about separation or the many ways Alberta marches to its own drum, our show will help you understand what's going on out West. Tune in for a no-nonsense conversation about the politics that drive this place. And follow West of Center wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. We're entering this period in a position of strength. We have the fiscal capacity. We have been disciplined. Ottawa trying to reassure Canadians after the United States escalates its trade fight, letting more tariffs to certain Canadian goods and banning other exports like liquor. At the same time, some relief that as much as the American trade action will sting, it

1:02could have been worse. This is your world tonight. I'm Siliimashivji. It's Wednesday, September 9 coming up on 6 p.m. Eastern. Also on the podcast. Number one, an increase in digital distractions. Number two, increased use of AI. Equipping grades. Canada sees test scores for 15-year-old students drop in reading, math, and science. Experts point to several explanations, but what can be done to turn the trend around? The federal government has been quiet so far on the latest tariff whiplash from Washington. That's after the U.S. announced yesterday, it would ban some Canadian products and impose new tariffs on others. There's no word from Ottawa on how or even if it will respond. But Canadian businesses are already bracing for the impact of these new American trade measures. Tom Perry reports.

2:04This is not a conflict we sought. We certainly don't want escalation, but we do know how to respond. Finance Minister Francois Philippe Champagne, speaking to a business audience in Edmonton, offering assurances, Canada will prevail in its trade war with the U.S. but few clues about what comes next. You know, we're going to stand strong for country, for industries, for workers. Champagne didn't say how the federal government would respond to the latest salvo of trade measures from Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday issued a series of proclamations, slapping 50% duties on some Canadian exports and banning others outright, including motorcycle, some dairy products, and most Canadian alcohol. Alcohol products were already facing a 50% import tax, but Cal Bricker, President and CEO of spirits, Canada says, and all out ban will hit Canadian producers hard. I mean, we're very hopeful. You know, it's September 29th, it's all coming into effect.

3:07We're hopeful that the two sides can return to the table and get some kind of a resolution here because this isn't helping anybody. Right now, no formal talks are scheduled. Doh Dominic Leblanc, Minister responsible for Canada, U.S. trade says he and U.S. trade representative James and Greer remain in contact. Manitoba Premier, Wab Kenu, wants to see Canada rebuild its relationship with the U.S. but says that won't be easy with Donald Trump in the White House. When it comes to Trump himself, I think part of what gives him his power is people pay attention when he does all these different erratic moves. So I think we're at the stage where, yeah, just kind of don't feed the beast and just starve him of intention a little bit. As for whether Canada should strike back against Trump for his latest attacks, some are urging caution. Lisa Raite is a former conservative cabinet minister who now serves on the government's advisory panel on Canada U.S. trade. Her advice is to hold off and wait as Trump's tariffs bite into Americans' wallets. The question is on affordability in the United States.

4:09At what point does Mr. Trump lose his base and what point does he lose the voters? The U.S. administration notably withdrew new tariffs on some Canadian goods like road salt and cement to avoid increasing yet more costs for American consumers. But on other key fronts, Canada remains a target. Comparie, CBC News, Ottawa. Meanwhile in the U.S., the tariffs are biting deep. Polls show Americans are unhappy with Donald Trump's trade policies and the escalating conflict with Canada. And it's an issue that's increasingly on voters' minds as the U.S. heads to midterm elections. Katie Simpson is in Washington for us with more on American reaction to this latest escalation. So Katie, let's start with the trade fight. What are you hearing about the proclamations Trump signed last night? The dust is just starting to settle. Businesses and lawmakers in the U.S. are trying to get a better understanding of how these new measures will impact American companies and consumers.

5:10Sources I've been speaking with tell me that while this is an escalation, the Trump administration did not go as far as many had anticipated. It's obviously still not good, but it wasn't the worst case scenario that some had feared. I'm told American business leaders are getting some credit for quietly raising concerns with the White House. That is viewed as one of the reasons why there were not more actions at this time. We're also aware that some Republicans in Congress have complained in private, and that may have helped temper the U.S. response. To be clear, though, the Canadian industries and companies hit by the product bands and the tariffs, it's painful. But given Donald Trump's threats and taunts on social media and the warnings from the U.S. trade representative, the blow was more narrow than expected. Right. We're hearing very little from the White House today. Yeah, this morning we staked at the office of Jameson Greer, Trump's top trade official to try and ask about these new moves. Well, he didn't stop to answer our question. His office later did something unusual.

6:11It sent out a press release about a podcast interview Greer did last week. That's considered old, but it didn't get much attention when it came out. In it, Greer criticized the Prime Minister for calling this a trade war. He says the U.S. doesn't use the word war. This is instead about business and economics, describing the Canadian reaction as unhinged. Okay, and Katie, this all comes as the president hits the campaign trail ahead of those midterm elections for an unusual convention. Yeah, the president will deliver two speeches in two nights at the Republican Party midterm convention in Dallas. The first time the party has ever held one of these. It's basically a pep rally for Republicans ahead of the November vote. Donald Trump will make his case as to why his party must maintain control of the House and the Senate. It's a difficult moment for Trump and Republicans. He was reelected partly on his affordability message, promising voters that he would lower the cost of living. But between the trade war with Canada, global tariffs, and the Iran War driving up the

7:11cost to fuel, affordability is still a major challenge in the U.S. Expect Trump to do what he typically does. The blame is predecessor for lingering problems. He'll frame his economic policies as a way to re-shore and rebuild American industries, and he will aggressively defend his agenda. The question is whether it will be enough to motivate the same coalition of voters that sent him back to the White House. Okay, the CBC's Katie Simpson in Washington. Thanks for this. Thanks. CBC News has learned that Ottawa began negotiations to buy six Swedish surveillance planes without knowing if they would meet our military's requirements. As Marie Brewster explains, it turns out there were some gaps with sources telling us the aircraft fell short on key standards in its latest assessment. Are the requirements important? Of course they are. Canada's Secretary of State for Defense Procurement, Stephen Führer. CBC News has learned the government chose to proceed with the purchase of the Global I Surveillance Plains from the Swedish Company SOB without a firm guarantee it met all of

8:15the Air Force's requirements. In light of the trade war with the US, Führer says its vital Canada expand its defense industry. We need to leverage this money to stimulate our economy. We need to become more independent. Normally, the military's list of expectations when buying something is circulated ahead of time. It's the sort of thing that helps government decide what's the best product and gives defense companies a chance to figure out how hard it will be to deliver. But sources tell us the military presented its requirements to the Swedish Aircraftmaker in late June after the Prime Minister's announcement. The Global I will lead modifications because at the moment it meets only a handful of the military's needs. I think it really does undermine the process. It makes us look very, very amateurish. Alan Williams, a former senior defense procurement official, says the rules are there to prevent government from buying things haphazardly. And in order to do that, you need to prepare a rigorous and final statement of requirements,

9:21which tells everybody this is what we need. The problem is the process in the past has been extremely cumbersome, sometimes taking decades to deliver the equipment the military needs. It's important to recognize that military requirements are not handed down from on high. Philip Legasse is one of the country's leading defense procurement experts who says in the end, the government ultimately decides what to buy. It means that the government has to come out and accept the operational risk that it's impossible. And I think that's the challenge, right? Is who wears the operational risk that we're asking the Canadian Armed Forces to accept? In this case, the military is concerned about the globalized radar coverage, its relatively small cabin size, and the absence of air-to-air refueling, critical for Arctic missions. Bob Testpilot, UC Hamitolia, is confident the obstacles can be overcome. We have the spiraling development process on how to improve our systems across the board at SOB. And depending on customer requirements, of course, you can put another type of radar in the

10:23front that scans in the front, maybe a fighter radar or something, if that is your requirement. Another consideration, the government is convinced the global eye, even if it's not perfect, is the aircraft that can be acquired the fastest, given that it's already in service with other nations. Marie Brewster, CBC News, Ottawa. Coming right up, declining test scores. Canadian 15-year-olds see their performance drop in basic subjects, and they aren't alone. Plus warnings that artificial intelligence could one day threaten humanity. And later, we'll have this story. Alina's underway for a mine set to make Canada the world's largest exporter of uranium. For remote indigenous communities, it's an economic opportunity like never before. The buy the things that I couldn't provide with the low-income jobs that I did have before, right? So this created more of a boost in my income and boost in confidence. I'm Helena Maholik in La Lache Saskatchewan. Later on your world tonight, what communities stand to gain and lose from the Rook 1 Mine.

11:29Students, test scores are sliding around the world, and Canada is no exception. New data shows Canadian 15-year-olds are losing ground in math, science, and reading. They still outperform many of their international peers, but as Diana Summonack Johnson reports, experts warn changes are needed to turn things around. But globally, you've almost seen what has been described as a collapse in reading scores. When it comes to basic skills like reading math and science, Canadian students are part of a major global trend. A trend we may not want to be part of, declining test results in these core subjects. Louis Vellante is distinguished professor at Brock University, whose research focuses on international assessments. Much of the declines that we've observed in reading math and science are essentially mimicking the global declines as well. So there were significant drops in the minor tested domains of reading and mathematics,

12:35not so much in science. PISA tests run by OECD are given to 15-year-old students every three years. This year, 760,000 students across 91 countries and economies took part. Compared to other countries, Canada performed very well, but that's not necessarily a sweeping win. Our scores in math measured in points against the OECD benchmark dropped 42 points between 2006 and 2025. That's give or take about two grade levels worth of learning. In reading scores declined by 37 points, with a particularly steep drop in the last three years. Many, including Vellante, point to screen time and technology as a factor. So number one, an increase in digital distractions. Number two, increased use of AI. A third notable factor, which has more to do with a global context, is ongoing teacher shortages globally.

13:38And I think when you put those three together, they are being attributed to really having a negative impact on overall reading scores. Tasha Osman, who teaches math and science to high schoolers in Quebec, says tackling reading problems could improve performance in other subjects too. So one of the issues is that students are having is reading for meaning. And I teach advanced mathematics. They had their first test this morning. And students were asking me things that were directly written in the question. Paul Bennett is a veteran teacher and principal who now runs Halifax-based consultancy firms schoolhouse institute. He says we need to look at who's doing better than Canada and ask why. I think we've lost ground to the countries in Asia who have focused much more on test preparation. They're much more in favor of direct instruction. They've had great success in teaching that way. Bennett says we also need to take a look at the regional disparity between the provinces to figure out how to best support Canada's students and prepare them to compete globally

14:43in a rapidly changing economic landscape. Diana Sumanag Johnson, CBC News, Toronto. Concerns are being raised about the push to continue to develop artificial intelligence. A researcher at Anthropic recently quit his job and now says people in the industry believe AI could kill us by the end of the century. Jacob Coxen's warning has some critics calling for increased oversight. Jamie Strassian has more. Jacob Coxen, a researcher at Anthropic recently quit his job at one of the world's largest and most valuable AI companies. Coxen who also spent time at OpenAI said in a series of social media posts, neither company is acting responsibly, saying the powerful technology could kill us all by the end of the decade. I was blown away by how big this is, how much it's blowing up, how many likes it's gotten. The University of Montreal's David Kruger welcomes the attention Coxen's stark warning has garnered. Kruger is currently on leave from his teaching job and has founded the nonprofit Evidable, which focuses on the risks around AI.

15:45There's been a culture of downplaying, ignoring, and even in many cases like outright lying about these risks to the public. Coxen's posts were amplified by Evan Huberinger, a current team lead at Anthropic who responded. Jacob is correct here. We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans. All of it is reignited, the push to better regulate a technology that increasingly permeates every facet of human life. Kruger says the threat is not overstated. It's basically like the sci-fi AI takeover scenario, and that happens because AI goes rogue, it disobeys our instructions, it pursues its own objectives, and it's very smart, and it breaks out of a bird box we try and put it in. Many AI innovators have warned about this for years. The University of Toronto's Jeffrey Hinton, called the Godfather of AI, lists a number of practical threats posed by AI, it being employed by terrorist groups, or used to corrupt the democratic process, but he recently told CBC much is unknown.

16:45The thing that worries me most is still this long-term risk of AI getting smarter than us, and we don't know how we can then coexist with them. We don't know whether they will actually take over from us. Western universities, Luke Stark, is more skeptical, pointing out that humans are still the decision-makers. I do think that AI tools, as currently being developed, do have some dangers to society, but those dangers are very much under the control of humans. There continues to be calls for better global regulation and guardrails, but it has been slow and disjointed, says the UN Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk. The need for AI governance is widely acknowledged. But where is the action? Canada's Minister responsible for AI, Evan Solomon, said today, warnings like coxins are nothing new and says the government is doing all it can to protect Canadians against a technology, many experts stress is unpredictable and often uncontrollable.

17:46Jamie Straschen, CBC News, Toronto. Canadian rapper Canon has been acquitted of sex crimes. He was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a Quebec City hotel in 2010. Canon, whose real name is Canon Abdi Warsame, denied the allegations during his trial. He insisted the encounter was consensual. In her decision, the court of Quebec judge said she did not entirely believe Warsame's testimony, but she could not find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Iran says it has attacked 10 American ships near the Strait of Hormuz, a retaliation against the U.S. after it sank five Iranian oil tankers. The latest round of hostilities has sent oil prices soaring and has ratcheted up pressure on both sides. Sasha Petrusik has the latest. Missiles fly into the night in video released by Iran as it claimed hits on eight tankers around the Strait of Hormuz. But it's the targeting of a U.S. warship that drew the ire of Washington.

18:50The first known direct attack on the fleet since the conflict started six months ago. Iran's ballistic missiles missed. The U.S. responded, though, by striking five Iranian tankers in retaliation. One of them is seen sinking in a video released by the U.S. military. As ships that disabled in the Strait with gaping holes in their sides, global energy markets reacted. The risk to supplies pushing the price of crude oil above $100 U.S. A barrel. This just as the flow of oil and gas through the narrow strategic strait has been restarting slowly. But right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward. U.S. President Donald Trump insisted again that the U.S. has the upper hand and that Iran can't afford to continue fighting. And they're doing very poorly. Their country is in shambles right now.

19:51I think the war will end immediately after the election, because they can't hold out and they love it. With Iranian TV boasting Tehran is making the U.S. pay for its aggression, Iran has shown no sign of winding down its attacks. It also targeted U.S. military facilities in Jordan without any hits, according to Jordanian officials. And the revolutionary guard in Iran says it will soon be tightening rules on tanker traffic through the Strait, introducing new restricted zones. If a vessel enters those as a revolutionary guard spokesman, they will be subject to our sanctions. Former U.S. Naval Intelligence Officer Sean Hensler worries that with more missiles flying escalation is a real danger, especially if Iran's attacks on U.S. warships succeed.

20:55Even though we have the most sophisticated ages, you know, air defenses in the world, a leaker getting through is a possibility. And then there would be a significant, I think, reaction by the United States far more than you've seen thus far. Both big impacts on the region and on the world economy. Sasha Petrisek, CBC News, Toronto. Sombra music echoes through the streets of Oslo as thousands of people gathered for the funeral of King Harald V. He was laid to rest today after a series of ceremonies. Several foreign dignitaries were in attendance, including Britain's Prince William and Ukrainian President Velodimir Zalensky. While Died last month at 89, he was Europe's oldest reigning monarch. He is succeeded by his son, Hokhan. All three Cape Breton counties affected by widespread flooding over the weekend have

21:59lifted their local states of emergency. More than 200 millimeters of rain fell in some parts of the island in less than two days. It washed out roads and culverts. Officials say two of the eight bridges that were damaged will need to be replaced. A new uranium mine under construction in northern Saskatchewan is bringing hope of jobs to local indigenous communities. The mine is expected to provide hundreds of employment opportunities while it's operating. But as Helena Mahalic reports, the project is also raising concerns over what happens when the mine shuts down and so do the jobs. Construction is just beginning for next-gen's mine, but it's already changing lives. The company is offering training in remote indigenous communities to prepare people to work in the mine. Bobby Marceland from Birch Nero's Denny Nation says he jumped on the opportunity to be trained as an electrician. Before this, Marceland was getting by, scaling fish, and working odd jobs to make ends meet.

23:01At 36, he says learning a higher skill and now getting paid for it is a second chance at life for him and his nine-year-old daughter. The buy the things that I couldn't provide with the low income jobs that I did have before. So this created more of a boost in my income and boost in confidence and away, you know. The Rook 1 site is expected to generate 459 full-time jobs and yield around 30 million pounds of uranium a year. Marceland has the potential to make Canada the largest exporter of the mineral worldwide. Next-gen CEO Lee Courier says it comes at a time when the need to generate electricity is high and the demand for nuclear energy continues to grow. When you consider a number of the world's OECD countries are committing to tripling nuclear energy by 2050, the demand profile for nuclear energy is just incredible. It's being built on Treaty 8 land, the traditional territory of the denay, Cree, and Métis people.

24:02Those we spoke to in the communities say genuine reconciliation efforts have been made, and that overall, their enthusiastic about the economic potential this project brings. Ronald Lemague owns MR Equipment and Services in Clearwater River Denay Nation. He hopes the mind will invest in Indigenous businesses long-term. I call them Renta Feathers. It's usually just bigger companies looking at people like me, just stand there logo and use a little percentage of what we're making, but I'd rather see the established businesses that they can keep people employed in the future, even if these minds moon won. As much good as the mind is bringing community advocates like Nicholas Herman are already bracing for the day when it all comes to an end. It's a very short amount of time that they're going to be done, their operations, and they'll be going right and that's part of business. They are a business at the end of the day. Next gem says once construction is complete in 2030, the mind has a lifespan of 24 years,

25:06and people in the north wonder how to ensure these changes provide for the community long after the mind is gone. Helena Mahalek CBC News, Clearwater River Denay Nation. And finally, Jeremy Dutcher, there performing at St. Thomas University in Frederickton, after he received an honorary degree for his accomplishments as an artist. The member of the Nguid Cook First Nation has already won two Polaris music prizes as well as a Juno Award. At 35, he's also now the youngest person to be granted an honorary degree by the university. It always feels like coming home when I'm here, but especially this morning, it was nice to see people in their regalia and their ribbon skirts and bringing their cultural pride.

26:06Dutcher mostly performs in the Willustigweeg language, which is classified as severely endangered. He draws from traditional songs, archival research, and his two-spirit identity. He's known as a song carrier, which he says is a great responsibility. In cultures that didn't rely on the written word, songs and stories become more than just entertainment. They're like tangible and physical ways of learning who we are and how we relate to each other. So a song is very important. The musician says ever since he was a young boy, he's felt a need to help people understand how music can teach and connect people across generations. If we imbue art and music and culture with importance and with value, then I think the next generation is going to want to pick that up in an excited way. Dutcher says he hopes his honorary degree shows that you can learn in a classroom, but

27:07also in many other places. It's important for young people to see that research can look like a lot of different things, and like methodology can look like a lot of different things. And sometimes it's just sitting at the kitchen table of your elder and having a conversation that leads you to another thing, and another thing, and another thing. It's as broad as you can let it be. Thanks for being with us. This has been Your World Tonight for Wednesday, September 9th. I'm Suleima Shivji. Gennady. For more CBC podcasts, go to CBC.ca slash podcasts.