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Jul 21 2025

The Roundup: RCMP culture. Lobbyist rules. Japan election.

MON JUL 21 2025
David Akin's Roundup
RCMP culture. Lobbyist rules. Japan election.
Canada
RCMP watchdog found ‘clear call for change’ in workplace culture: Documents
An independent assessment of the RCMP watchdog, prompted by an anonymous email from employees, uncovered concerns about favouritism, a lack of transparency, heavy workloads and “a toxic environment.” The workplace assessment of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP found “a clear call for change and action at the leadership level to restore credibility and trust within the organization.” [Global]
The industry has seen a unique pattern emerge, where Canadian firms own a large chunk of U.S. production capacity — something Trump says he wants — and still face aggressive trade measures. [National Post]

"While some of the other nations around the world are retreating right now from investing in global health, Canada can and should be stepping forward swiftly, to save lives," said Justin McAuley, a director with the Canadian branch of the ONE Campaign. [CP]
The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada (OCL) has released a new interpretation [and] these new interpretations will dramatically change the federal lobbying regime, reducing the de minimus threshold below which no registration is required from 28 hours to 8 hours over a four-week period. Going forward, nearly all in-house interactions with federal officials will require registration, other than truly de minimus one-off meetings. Additionally, these new interpretations will materially limit the ability of former senior public office holders employed by businesses to rely on the threshold exemption in engaging in post-employment lobbying. [Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP]
The Provinces
Jasper’s slow rebuild one year after wildfire is a ‘full box of emotions’
On July 24, 2024, a devastating wildfire swept through the remote mountain town in Jasper National Park in Alberta's Rockies, incinerating a third of its structures. [Global]
The cabinet features 19 women, MLAs from Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, the North and the Interior, and eight people of colour, one Jewish member and one Indigenous member. Forgot to share this when the shuffle happened! [Global]
Aurora
Elsewhere
Japan election: PM vows to stay on despite bruising election loss
The result could destabilise Japan's government at a pivotal moment in trade negotiations with the US. [BBC]

Japan’s far-right Sanseito party has emerged as a major winner in the country’s upper house election, riding a wave of nationalist rhetoric, anti-immigration warnings and populist pledges on tax cuts and social welfare. [Al Jazeera]
“[The China Dissent Monitor] is maintained by a small team in Taipei that scrapes Chinese social media platforms daily to collect information about demonstrations happening in real time, before censors can remove the posts. The team has logged more than 10,000 protests since its launch in 2022…. But the entire project may shut down within a few months, due to the Trump administration’s deep cuts to State Department grant funding for human rights and pro-democracy initiatives. [Austrailian Strategic Policy Institute]
Media
Trump sues Wall Street Journal reporters, owners after Epstein story, court records show
U.S. President Donald Trump sued the Wall Street Journal and its owners, including Rupert Murdoch, on Friday, seeking at least $10 billion US in damages over the newspaper's report that his name was on a 2003 birthday greeting for Jeffrey Epstein that included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets they shared. [CBC]
The bill’s quick passage showed most Republicans falling in behind Trump’s view that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a left-wing “monstrosity.” But the resistance from Murkowski and other lawmakers from rural states exposed an uncomfortable truth about federal funding for public media stations: Rural stations — often in red states — depend heavily on federal funding to survive, unlike stations in larger markets that can better tap donations from listeners with money to spare. [WaPo] (🎁 link)
Science and Technology
Vanishing data in the U.S. undermines good public policy, with global implications
The Canadian Data Rescue Project is supporting U.S. data rescue efforts, and setting up preventative measures for Canadian government data. “As researchers focused on data management (Kristi) and behavioural sciences (Albert) and whose work tackles the significance of research with open access data, we have been concerned about how the data sets that scholars around the world rely on have been vanishing from U.S. government sites. Vanishing data is of dire concern far beyond the U.S., including for Canadians. [The Conversation]
The agency is closing the Office of Research and Development, which analyzes dangers posed by hazards including toxic chemicals, climate change, smog, wildfires, water pollution and more. [NPR]
The Calendar
  • 0900 ET : Markham, ON - Public Safety Min Gary Anandasangaree marks Rouge National Urban Park's 10th anniversary.
  • 930 ET : West Block - PM Carney meets with a bipartisan delegration of United States senators.
  • 1000 ET : Fredericton, - Health Min Marjore Michel and LPC MP David Myles make a funding announcement
  • 1200 ET : Calgary, - LPC MP Corey Hogan makes a funding announcement
  • 1330 ET : Yellowknife, - Environment Min Julie Dabrusin and Crown-Indigenous Relations Min Rebcca Alty speak about a conservation project.
Issued this day ...
… in 2005: Sc 2116. Alberta Centennial. Design: Mathias Reinicke.

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