Interpreters are pictured at work in sound booths during a press conference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Sir John A. Macdonald Building in February 2021. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
Survey suggests Translation Bureau’s existing interpretation resources could be better used, says AIIC
The July online survey was conducted in the wake of the House of Commons’ decision to pursue a six-month pilot project exploring, in part, the use of external interpretation service providers.
Cole Davidson exits as Liberal research bureau comms head
Plus, Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal has a new special assistant for legislative and parliamentary affairs. ‘We’re prepared to step in’: church occupants readying ‘private security force,’ deny convoy links as community groups push back
An extremist-financing expert says feds should crack down on convoy-related not-for profits as community groups say they're 'deeply suspicious' of The United People of Canada.Telecommunications reliability top issue in July following Rogers outage
A network outage at Rogers Communications in July led to discussions with the federal government about telecommunications resiliency.Co-ordinated, vitriolic online attacks against female journalists prompt police reports, calls for action from media organizations
Several police reports have been filed in Ottawa and Toronto by journalists and columnists for the Toronto Star, The Hill Times, and Global News over incidents of online abuse that directly name a contributor.RCMP Act must be ‘carefully examined’ to protect police independence from political interference, says senior civilian Mountie
‘The evidence is clear that there was interest by the minister's office with respect to specific information about firearms,’ says RCMP Chief Supt. Darren Campbell.
Parliamentarians back Canadian delegations to Taiwan in face of China’s threatening response to Pelosi’s visit
'I don’t think we should be seen as being intimidated or anything along those lines,' Liberal MP Judy Sgro says about a parliamentary delegation to Taiwan. India looks to quickly wrap draft of interim trade deal with Canada, as both sides discuss additional early pact
Canada and India hope to reach an Early Progress Trade Agreement by the end of this year to pave the path towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. Loss of eastern seat, division of municipalities under fire in proposed Quebec riding redraw
The province will keep its 78 seats, but commissioners have proposed a rejig that would see eastern Quebec lose one seat, with a new one carved out north of Montreal. If Poilievre wins leadership, but fails to pivot to the centre, Quebec Tory MP Godin says he will ‘reflect’ on his own ‘future political life’
After the Conservative leadership election concludes on Sept. 10, party unity will depend on the direction the new leader decides to go, whether that's leaning into populism or pivoting to the centre, say Tories. Interpreters are pictured at work in sound booths during a press conference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Sir John A. Macdonald Building in February 2021. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
Survey suggests Translation Bureau’s existing interpretation resources could be better used, says AIIC
The July online survey was conducted in the wake of the House of Commons’ decision to pursue a six-month pilot project exploring, in part, the use of external interpretation service providers.
Ford helps undermine Ontario’s public health system, then eyes more privatization
Years of underspending by the province at a time of increasing immigration and an aging population have fuelled a race to the bottom in Ontario’s public health.Merrick Garland should not fold, here’s why
The clearest sign that the GOP has become fascist-leaning, if not outright fascist, is its reaction to the recent FBI warrant to search Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago.Is health care burning in Canada?
Provincial governments need to show courage and co-operation as the solution to better health care actually lies in interprovincial cooperation and a focus on health, not just money.
What does ‘Canadian’ mean when we’re talking film?
We need a fair way to determine which productions should be considered Canadian, and the current 10-point system isn’t only flawed, it’s exclusionary.Bloc on full offensive over Liberal challenges to Bill 96, as feds keep eye on implementation
Bloc MP Denis Trudel recently accused the Liberals of already working to dismantle the controversial language law through the government's proposed reforms to the Official Languages Act. Can we set aside ‘Group Think’ long enough to fix environmental assessment in Canada?
The Liberals have kept the environmental laws that were gutted by the last Conservative government, and the 2019 Impact Assessment Act does nothing to make things better.
No logic to Taiwan’s exclusion from ICAO assembly
Taiwan provides services to more than 72 million passengers annually, serving as an integral hub for travellers and trade in East Asia.Is Canada giving Cuba the cold shoulder?
While European countries have rushed in to help Cuba recover from an August lightning strike, Justin Trudeau has yet to issue a statement of support or empathy to the Cuban people, let alone provide any humanitarian aid.The perils of falling into the ‘Russia said, Ukraine said’ trap
Propaganda and misinformation are not the sole purview of the Russians. We need to be wary of all sources from this conflict with Ukraine.
Agriculture industry advocates for plan to keep grain moving amid ‘perfect storm’ of challenges
A dozen agriculture industry organizations released a four-point-plan with recommendations for how railways and the federal government can help with the movement of grain.Calls to combat Islamophobia prominent in record-setting June for federal advocacy
To help protect Canada’s Muslim population, the NCCM’s representatives are pushing for the Liberal government to develop a national action plan to combat Islamophobia.Women’s advocacy groups to push feds for easier abortion access in Canada, fearing ‘clawed back’ reproductive rights
While advocacy organizations are pushing for greater access to abortion in Canada in the wake of the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade in the U.S., anti-abortion groups are ramping up their own campaigns.
Journalists, politicos react to LaFlamme’s shock ouster at CTV
Plus, former Liberal MP Anita Neville was named as Manitoba's lieutenant governor on Aug. 15, and former journalist turned vice-regal consort Whit Fraser has a new novel out.
Inside the Local Campaign pulls the curtain back on the ground-level game in Canada
Plus, Canada’s chief statistician Anil Arora and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra receive Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award, and Penguin Random House to host a 'Day of Solidarity with Afghan Women' at city hall.
Ministers Marci Ien, Diane Lebouthillier see policy adviser moves
Plus, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino has a new Western and Northern regional adviser.
Tory tango: Quebec Senator Larry Smith joins the Canadian Senators Group
Plus, Catherine Stewart is Canada's new climate change ambassador, and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly recently announced 11 diplomatic appointments. Staffing updates for Treasury Board President Mona Fortier
Plus, Miles Hopper has a new job off the Hill after exiting his post as senior policy adviser to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
New manager of advertising hired for Trudeau’s office
Plus, Hill Climbers checks in on Tourism and Associate Finance Minister Randy Boissonnault’s office, where there’s a new Quebec regional affairs adviser on board. 
Integrated post-secondary programs a solution to Canada’s tech talent shortage
To scale up Canada’s tech workforce, we need to create and facilitate more affordable, inclusive education pathways to digital technologies careers.
Time for a culture shift where disability inclusion is concerned
Persons with disabilities are the largest untapped resourced in the Canadian labour market, too often forgotten in other diversity hiring campaigns.
Closing the First Nations infrastructure gap benefits all in Canada
Bridging a $30-billion infrastructure gap will create economic opportunities in a post-pandemic world that will bring significant economic activity to all regions of Canada that will benefit all Canadians.
‘Everybody’s going to be at risk’: some public health advocates warn against focusing monkeypox messaging on GBTQ+ men
Community health organizations are calling for targeted financial and ‘wrap-around’ support from the federal government for those required to quarantine as a result of the monkeypox virus. Visa issues for AIDS conference leaves ‘black mark’ for Canada amid questions over discriminatory processing: opposition MPs
'This is an international conference and people are already saying that the government is embarking on a process that discriminates against certain participants,' says NDP MP Jenny Kwan.
The definitive history of Canada’s role on the United Nations Security Council
The first definitive history of Canada's time on the UN Security Council is a must read for anyone interested in Canadian foreign policy.
Harold Johnson’s book Peace and Good Order is among five shortlisted books for this year's Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. 
'I kind of just go ahead and do what I feel I should do, and get myself into situations where I’m thinking, "Oh, everybody here knows more than I do. But anyway, here goes." It served me very well,' says former Supreme Court chief justice Beverley McLachlin.
Patterns of interference, intimidation, and harassment of individual Canadians by the Chinese Communist Party ‘demand a response’ from the Canadian government, says veteran journalist Jonathan Manthorpe in his 2019 book. 
COVID-19: economic impacts and prospects
There are some potential game changers for outcomes—a vaccine; and a resurgence in international leadership and cooperation. Closer to home, we need a Canadian economic recovery plan that will boost confidence in the future with strategic and measured investments in long-term challenges and adjustment support for Canadians and businesses left behind by the coronavirus.
In what was supposed to be a period in which backbenchers and the opposition could wield more influence over the political debate, power and influence is arguably even more concentrated among a narrow cast of mostly familiar figures.
If we want to really honour Shannen Koostachin and the many children like her—we need to speak up, keep talking until government takes immediate action to end the inequality. If they don’t—vote them out because kids like Shannen are worth the money. The time for patience is over.- The 2022 Terrific 25 Staffers ranking
- Conservative party leadership: who supports who
- Cabinet's communications and chiefs of staff list, 2022
- The 50 MPs in ridings where 142 former residential schools are located
- All the federal leaders' stops during the 2021 campaign
- The 24 ridings AFN says First Nations voters can decide the election outcome
- The former MPs who are running again in 2021
- How Trudeau's cabinet ministers did in the last election
Time for media to stand up against vile threats of violence
It's unusual for media to take a united stance on any issue, but to stand idly by and watch women and BIPOC journalists be subjected to vitriolic threats and harassment would be more egregious. 
When a prime minister can’t even go into a pub without attacks
When Stephen Harper was prime minister, he popped into The Prescott tavern in Ottawa's Little Italy neighbourhood for one of their famous meatball sandwiches. He wasn't massively popular at the time, but no business suffered for welcoming the prime minister into its establishment. 
Hockey culture is Canadian culture, for better or for worse
To be a white, male hockey player is to embody an idealized version of Canadian identity. The cracks are starting to show. Annual Features
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Politics This Morning: House Foreign Affairs Committee cancels Russian gas turbine hearing
And the latest census data on language shows the rise of South Asian languages and the decline of French.Conservative Leadership 2022
TERRIFIC 25 STAFFERS SURVEY 2022
TOP 100 LOBBYISTS IN 2022
The Hot Room Podcast
Seeing 'beyond the snippet' with CPAC's Michael Serapio
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The Canadian Free Trade Agreement’s single-minded focus on eliminating so-called barriers to interprovincial trade creates its own hurdles to issues like better environmental policy and stronger worker protections.
Quebec has suffered more deaths from COVID in the first six months of 2022 than the total for 2021—a pattern that mimics global trends. The WHO reported last week that cases doubled in the previous six weeks. 
We want to work with governments across the country to start putting in place solutions to challenges in our nation’s supply chain.
As supply chains become increasingly interconnected, it’s more important than ever to ensure ours remain resilient to external pressures.
With the U.S. pursuing a net-zero economy more clearly than ever before, new landmark climate legislation opens all kinds of new opportunities for collaboration.
More than 50 countries have dropped all COVID-related air travel restrictions, including vaccine mandates, and Canada should do the same.
The rise of the far right means that BIPOC and other marginalized journalists are under siege; the coronation of Pierre Poilievre will only make things worse. 
The organizers of this conference are adamant they do not want to start a new party. The conservative movement has been down that path before, resulting in three easy Liberal majorities in a row.
The real attack on Trudeau isn’t that he’s going on vacation, it’s that, by going on such a trip, he’s essentially setting himself apart from the millions of Canadians who could never afford such a holiday.
Parliamentary inviolability does serious damage to the constitutional notions of the separation of powers, the rule of equality before the law, prosecutorial discretion, and the independence of the judiciary. Prime ministers, unwittingly or not, have unleashed powerful forces when they told government managers to embrace private-sector management practices while leaving their accountability requirements intact
In an excerpt from his new book 'Government: Have Presidents and Prime Ministers Misdiagnosed the Patient?', Donald Savoie says a misdiagnosis of problems in the public service has led to prime ministers and presidents debasing these institutions. Lessons from Cobalt for Ontario’s Ring of Fire
Governments and mining companies will have to admit that Canada’s lax domestic regulatory structure for mining must be abandoned.Catching up with former Hill staffers
Among others, Sean Joudry, a former digital director in Erin O’Toole’s OLO, is now a senior adviser to Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, and former PMO regional adviser Ayesha Chughtai recently joined Deloitte Canada.String of staff additions, one departure for Agriculture Minister Bibeau
Plus, there are two new staff to note in Government House Leader Mark Holland’s office.On a lighter note: Jean Charest, Michèle Dionne play The Newlywed Game
Plus, Conservative leadership contender Pierre Poilievre laments high housing prices after assisting man out of a window in recent video, and the 'Amphibus' strikes the front gate outside of 24 Sussex. Former Conservative MP Peter Kent joins Centre Ice Conservatives
Plus, Mike Blanchfield has bid adieu to the Canadian Press, and the National Arts Centre is rolling out the red carpet for the first fall fundraising gala since 2019.‘A churn that never stops’: Trudeau shuffles nine senior bureaucrats
The prime minister recently announced nine appointments to the public service senior ranks and congratulated three retirees, including Shelly Bruce, chief of the Communications Security Establishment.Trudeau announces major shakeup in senior ranks of public service, also appoints new deputy clerk of the Privy Council Office before Sunday’s election call
Former deputy clerk of the Privy Council Christyne Tremblay will remain in the PCO as a senior official.Lawn Summer Nights returns to make ‘CF stand for Cure Found’
Ottawa Lawn Summer Nights at the Elmdale Lawn Bowling club is back every Wednesday in July to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis Canada. 
‘We need to talk’: Bangladesh seeks ministerial meeting with Canada to discuss the removal of a convicted killer
Bangladeshi High Commissioner Khalilur Rahman says Canada is protecting a convicted killer, while not protecting a diplomat posted to Ottawa. ‘Timing is essential’: quick delivery of arms needed ahead of ‘intense’ fighting, says new Ukrainian ambassador
'The only [place] where negotiations are happening are on the battlefield,' says Ukrainian Ambassador Yulia Kovaliv on the pathway to end the war.
Samara delves into detoxing democracy with Aug. 18 panel
Panellists for a Samara Centre for Democracy webinar will dig into how we can mitigate online toxicity to create safer spaces for democratic participation on Aug. 18. Photograph courtesy of Pixabay
Summer in the city: A man cycles along Wellington Street in downtown Ottawa on Aug. 3, 2022. 
Bill Graham, pictured in 2006 when he was the interim Liberal leader following Paul Martin’s defeat. Graham, a former federal Liberal foreign affairs minister and defence minister, died on Sunday, Aug. 7, at the 83, of cancer.
