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Jun 23 2025

The Roundup: US v Iran. Pride cancelled. VOA gutted.

MON JUN 23 2025
David Akin's Roundup
US v Iran. Pride cancelled. VOA gutted.
Note to readers: Well, I thought I'd be paddling around Algonquin Park today and there would be no Roundup today but a storm like I've never been underneath pounded us on Saturday. Hours of booming thunder, rain with a quantity and intensity I've seen only during hurricanes -- same with the wind. Trees were being knocked down around our site and while my tarps and tent by and large held fast, we woke up to a soaked campsite with forecasts for more thunderstorms Sunday! Not much chance to dry out. Not much chance of a dinner campfire. So we packed up and paddled home. Didn't get the experience we wanted but a unique experience nonetheless. We were among the lucky! 

Algonquin Park camper seriously injured during wild storm
Injury sustained in the northeast part of the park.

Canoeists putting in at Kiosk access point are stranded; to be evac'ed by chopper. But their vehicles are stranded for the foreseeable future!  Kiosk is the launch point for all the popular Brent runs one of which my daughter was planning to do in August!

We were on Rock Lake. (Launched at Whitney)  Here's some reports and video from Lake of Two Rivers, a morning's paddle away from our site.

In any event, I found myself home with the opportunity to put out today's Roundup ... 
Elsewhere
Satellite images show damage to Iran’s Fordow nuclear site
Satellite images show the damage to the entrance of Iran’s Fordow nuclear site a day after the U.S. launched a series of bombings. The Pentagon deployed specialized warplanes armed with bunker buster bombs capable of hitting targets like the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, which is buried deep within a mountain in Iran. This marks the first time the U.S. has directly attacked the Islamic Republic and is fueling fears the U.S. could be drawn into a wider conflict. Global’s Candice Cole reports.

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to praise U.S. President Donald Trump following the attack, calling it a “bold decision” that will “change history.” The strikes have left the entire region on edge. Mike Armstrong reports from Jerusalem about the response in Israel.

As the conflict in the Middle East intensifies,  Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Europe working to bolster Canada’s defence capabilities and our relations with European allies. Global’s Mackenzie Gray is travelling with the prime minister and reports from Brussels. [Global National]
President Trump is betting the United States can repel whatever retaliation Iran orders, and that it has destroyed the regime’s chances of reconstituting its nuclear program. [NYT] (🎁 link)
Please read carefully our Travel Advisory, country information, and any recent security alerts. [U.S. Department of State]
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre weighed in as well on Sunday. “Allowing the genocidal regime in Iran to get a nuclear weapon would have been reckless. American and Israeli actions to stop it from getting one are 100% justified,” he said. [Global]

Canada is looking to reduce its defence procurement reliance on the U.S. due to strained relations over tariffs and Trump's repeated talk about Canada becoming a U.S. state. [Global]
Canada
Iranian Canadians and Jewish organizations watched the situation in the Middle East with growing concern on Sunday, as U.S. airstrikes sparked fears of intensifying conflict. [Global]
The Government of Canada and its network of missions abroad remain fully engaged and are focused on the safety and security of Canadians in the Middle East. [Global Affairs Canada]
Former Liberal minister John McCallum dead at 75
A statement says McCallum passed away peacefully Saturday surrounded by family.  I first encountered John McCallum in print, while studying history at the U of G, I read his Agriculture and Economic Development in Quebec and Ontario until 1870. Excellent work of economic history. I then had the good fortune to get know him as one of Paul Martin's cabinet ministers, then as an MP in opposition to Stephen Harper, then again as a minister to Justin Trudeau and ambassador. He was most fun to be around in opposition and was among my favourite MPs in that role. Prayers for his family and friends.  [Global]
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The Provinces
Montreal's Canada Day parade cancelled for a second year in a row, organizer says
Chief organizer Nicolas Cowen announced the decision in a news release, citing a number of reasons for the cancellation including potential municipal worker job action, difficult relations with city departments and planning problems. It's the second consecutive year in which Montreal won't have a parade — an event that began in 1977. [CP]

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is looking to finally win a seat in the legislature after a year of sitting on the sidelines. He's running in one of three provincial byelections today as a candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona, where his predecessor Rachel Notley last won 80 per cent of the vote.[CP]
Speaking at the official opening ceremony at the Scotiabank Saddledome, Smith — a former Rotarian herself — described Alberta as “Canada’s economic engine,” pointing to the province’s population growth, economic climate and natural resource wealth. [Calgary Herald]
School bells haven't applied to her brother and sisters in two years. They were kicked out of school when officials realized they were undocumented. Zapata is undocumented, too, but said her school hasn't figured that out yet. [CP]
Aurora
Media
Voice of America: Hundreds of reporters fired as Trump guts outlet
Steve Herman, VOA's chief national correspondent, called the dismantling of the outlet, which was set up during World War Two to counter Nazi propaganda, a "historic act of self-sabotage". [BBC]
Science and Technology
Your A.I. Queries Come With a Climate Cost
All those prompts come with an environmental cost: A report last year from the Energy Department found A.I. could help increase the portion of the nation’s electricity supply consumed by data centers from 4.4 percent to 12 percent by 2028. To meet this demand, some power plants are expected to burn more coal and natural gas. [NYT] (🎁 link)
The Calendar
  • 0320 : Hoboken, Belgium - PM Carney visits the Antwerp Schoonselhof Military Cemetery and participate in a wreath-laying ceremony.
  • 0915 : Brussels, Belgium - PM Carney meets with Belgium PM Bart De Wever
  • 1100 : Brussels, Belgium - PM Carney participates in the Canada-European Union Summit
  • 1100 : Toronto - AI and FEDDEV Min Evan Solomon participates in a Tech Week event at Xanadu.
  • 1310 : Brussels, Belgium - PM Carney , European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speak to reporters.
Yesterday

  • Hardisty, AB -  CPC MP Damien Kurek and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre campaigned in the riding of Battle River--Crowfoot.
  • Wainwright, AB -  CPC MP Damien Kurek and Conservative leader  Pierre Poilievre campaigned in the riding of Battle River--Crowfoot.
Issued this day ...
… in 1969. Sc 495. .Sir William Osler.  Design: George Sarras Fanais.
Canada Post press release at time of issue:  Sir William Osler (1849-1919), Bart., M.D., F.R.S., F.R.C.P., D.C.L., L.L.D., D.Sc., whose dedication to the science of medicine led to recognition as a world medical figure and one of the finest diagnosticians of his day, is commemorated on the 50th anniversary of the year in which he died. The youngest son of a pioneer missionary, Osler was born in Bond Head, Ontario, on 12th July 1849. From Trinity College, Toronto, where he had enrolled in 1867 with a short-lived purpose of entering the ministry, he transferred to the Toronto Medical School; later he studied medicine at Montreal's McGill University where he took his M.D. in 1872. He established himself in private medical practice for a short period at Dundas, Ontario; an offer of an appointment as lecturer on physiology and pathology at McGill was promptly accepted and, in the following year, at the age of 25, he was named a full professor at the same institution. Dr. Osler's medical teaching career continued at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he served from 1884 to 1889; Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, 1889-1904, and Oxford University in England, 1904-1919. In his teachings Dr. Osler believed that lectures alone were not enough consequently he originated his famous bedside clinics, a revolutionary method of teaching. He was an ardent advocate of vaccination and anti-typhoid innoculation, which, with respiratory diseases, were his special interest.Osler was to succomb to pneumonia, the symptoms of which he readily recognized as those against which he had battled on behalf of others for so many years. His terminal illness overtook him in the October prior to his death on 29th December 1919.

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