The company behind a proposed data centre in Olds has hired former government insiders to lobby on its behalf. zurl.co/CbpiC
Brett McKay
@brettmckay.bsky.social
Reporter for the Investigative Journalism Foundation Email: brett.mckay@theijf.org Signal: brettmckay.23
Almost unnoticed, people are dying in explosions and accidents across southwestern Ontario linked to invisible toxic gas leaking from long-buried wells.
Thousands of forgotten gas wells are killing people in southwestern Ontario
Almost unnoticed, people are dying in explosions and accidents across southwestern Ontario linked to invisible toxic gas leaking from about 27,000 long-buried gas wells.
nationalobserver.com
Nearly half of the $366,000 donated to separatist third-party advertisers came from anonymous sources, but the list of named contributors includes a data centre company, a city councillor and a UCP constituency association president. theijf.org/brief/ucp-as...
UCP association president, Wetaskiwin councillor donated to separatist campaigns
Ten pro-separation groups are fundraising as third-party advertisers ahead of the October referendum
theijf.org
#Alberta 's online gambling market goes live Monday. Here's a look at the multi-year corporate lobbying campaign that shaped the province's regulations. thetyee.ca/News/2025/08...
Alberta’s Insider Lobbyists Delivered for Gambling Companies | The Tyee
A long campaign to expand sports betting has paid off, despite the known risks.
thetyee.ca
Alberta education policy blocks child abuse prevention programs in schools ‘Due to the recent changes to the AB Education Act, our free presentations are temporarily unavailable’ theijf.org/article/albe...
Alberta education policy blocks child abuse prevention programs in schools
‘Due to the recent changes to the AB Education Act, our free presentations are temporarily unavailable’
theijf.org
Alberta Education’s strict requirements for learning resources and external presenters related to human sexuality, sexual orientation or gender identity have blocked child abuse prevention programming from classrooms. zurl.co/sgfnd
Alberta education policy blocks child abuse prevention programs in schools ‘Due to the recent changes to the AB Education Act, our free presentations are temporarily unavailable’ theijf.org/article/albe...
Alberta education policy blocks child abuse prevention programs in schools
‘Due to the recent changes to the AB Education Act, our free presentations are temporarily unavailable’
theijf.org
New from the revolving door files: Spokesperson for Alberta health ministry now lobbying for Big Tobacco, Pharma theijf.org/brief/press-...
Spokesperson for Alberta health ministry now lobbying for Big Tobacco, Pharma
After leaving her post as the press secretary to Alberta’s health minister in 2025, Jessi Rampton joined Canadian Strategy Group as a consultant lobbyist.
theijf.org
She used to speak for Alberta’s health ministry. Now she’s pitching to ministry heads on behalf of the tobacco and pharmaceutical giants and healthcare companies. zurl.co/t1EHU
Private schools and childcare companies were top donors to the Alberta education minister’s constituency association. zurl.co/ZTpNY
Hey, just in case you need to hear it, you should totally leak information to Alberta journalists. The good ones are good with secrets. Tell a friend. #ableg.
Pro-Israel media ‘watchdog’ fighting CRA’s attempt to revoke its charity status Auditors allege HR Canada Charitable Organization acted as a ‘conduit’ for HonestReporting Canada, carried out no charity work
Investigative Journalism Foundation@theijf.org · last mo.Alongside HonestReporting Canada, HR Canada Charitable Organization claims to fight anti-Israel bias in news reporting. Now it’s battling the CRA to keep its charitable registration. zurl.co/boEMK
Publicly, the UCP have said they won't take beds away from voluntary addiction recovery centres in Edmonton to make space for the province's forthcoming forced treatment program. Internal Recovery Alberta docs tell a different story. zurl.co/IRjG4
Edmonton addiction treatment and detox sites eyed for forced treatment program, document reveals
Rush to create compassionate intervention beds has ‘cannibalized’ existing programs, says NDP mental health critic
zurl.co
Alberta won the 2025 Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy after the Alberta Information and Privacy Commission found the provincial government had repeatedly violated its own freedom of information laws. cfe.torontomu.ca/index%2ephp/...
A blanket smother-up: Alberta government wins secrecy award for opaque access-to-information process | Centre for Free Expression
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government has been selected as the provincial winner of the 2025 Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy after Alberta’s information a...
cfe.torontomu.ca
Publicly, the UCP have said they won't take beds away from voluntary addiction recovery centres in Edmonton to make space for the province's forthcoming forced treatment program. Internal Recovery Alberta docs tell a different story. zurl.co/IRjG4
Edmonton addiction treatment and detox sites eyed for forced treatment program, document reveals
Rush to create compassionate intervention beds has ‘cannibalized’ existing programs, says NDP mental health critic
zurl.co
Documents obtained by the IJF show Alberta’s government is considering converting space in voluntary addiction treatment centres in Edmonton into involuntary treatment beds to support forthcoming ‘compassionate intervention’ legislation. zurl.co/IRjG4
Today, we launched the Free Access for Journalists program: free access to the IJF’s 23 million+ rows of public interest data for reporters across Canada. Learn more about this program and check your eligibility today: theijf.org/free-access-...
SCOOP: I obtained the itinerary and other documents relating to Edmonton police Chief Warren Driechel’s February 2026 Israel trip. @mbueckert.bsky.social of @cjpme.org says it’s “much worse than any of us expected.” open.substack.com/pub/theorcha...
SCOOP: Edmonton police chief visited illegal West Bank settlements during Israel trip
Warren Driechel also met with members from an undercover unit that less than three months earlier executed two unarmed men in Jenin after they had surrendered.
open.substack.com
In a buried report, oil regulators pinpointed nearly 600 wells operating illegally, threatening Oklahoma’s drinking water. Then there were 1,400+ wells that had operated for decades without any limits at all — grandfathered in from an earlier era. With @readfrontier.bsky.social
Oil Regulators Found Hundreds of Wells Violating Oklahoma Rules. Then They Ignored Their Findings.
Oklahoma took on an ambitious project to catalog all of the state’s injection wells, which shoot toxic waste generated by oil drilling back into the ground. Despite records showing risk of drinking wa...
propublica.org
B.C. and Ontario have enacted laws that extend some protections to gig workers, and platform giants like Uber and DoorDash appear to be lobbying to keep similar policies from being adopted in other provinces. #bclab #onlab
DoorDash and Uber Try to Halt the Spread of Gig Worker Protection | The Tyee
After BC introduced safeguards, companies are lobbying Alberta and Saskatchewan.
thetyee.ca
Uber and DoorDash are lobbying to keep Alberta and Saskatchewan from introducing employment protections for gig workers. DoorDash has also donated thousands to Sask. political parties. zurl.co/b6rRD
Companies lobbying Sask. government also major party donors
Investigative Journalism Foundation@theijf.org · 2mo agoPrivate health-care companies and major mining operators registered to lobby the Government of Saskatchewan are also major funders of the political parties they’re trying to influence, according to the IJF’s data analysis. zurl.co/0uNOI
Now we know why police seized phones of ex-mayor Gondek and Calgary councillors. Police investigating money-for-voting allegations and the head of a major private-sector development planning firm. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
RCMPinvestigating allegation of money for council votes in Calgary city hall corruption probe: court doc | CBC News
The RCMP are investigating an allegation that the principal and founder of a local planning consulting firm offered campaign donations in exchange for votes from Calgary city council.
cbc.ca
Check out the video from my collab w/ @alexanderquon.bsky.social and CBC Sask.
Alexander Quon@alexanderquon.bsky.social · 2mo agoWATCH: A web of companies helps to mask the identity of big political donors in Saskatchewan. Over the last ten years, the seven companies connected to the Rawlinson family -- including Rawlco Radio -- have given more than $460,000 to the Saskatchewan Party. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAMX...
NEW: Some of the largest funders of Sask. political parties are companies with no public profile. I went through corporate registries in three provinces to find out who was behind them, and found 5/6 of the top donations to the Sask. Part last year trace back to one influential family. zurl.co/23RQH
Web of companies masks identity of big political donors in Saskatchewan
Hundred of thousands of dollars pass through cryptically named corporate accounts to Sask. political parties
zurl.co
For most of the last ten years, corporations, unions, etc. were barred from funding political parties, so there isn't a long term analysis possible. Though the influence of corporate money in politics was immediately obvious when brought back last year: thetyee.ca/News/2026/03...
PR Firms and Lobbyists Gave Thousands to the UCP in 2025 | The Tyee
Changes to election laws to allow larger donations called ‘incredibly dangerous and unwise.’
thetyee.ca
A Dave you know you know@notjustdave.bsky.social · 2mo agoWe're gonna need the same kind of analysis in Alberta. I wonder if some of that $600 million Sam Mraiche's companies have scored in contracts with the province has made its way back to the UCP. #AbLeg
Do you have $10,000 to spare? The Saskatchewan Party took in the most political contributions in 2025, but the largest individual, corporate, and union donations went to the NDP. zurl.co/SXz8l
NEW: Some of the largest funders of Sask. political parties are companies with no public profile. I went through corporate registries in three provinces to find out who was behind them, and found 5/6 of the top donations to the Sask. Part last year trace back to one influential family. zurl.co/23RQH
Web of companies masks identity of big political donors in Saskatchewan
Hundred of thousands of dollars pass through cryptically named corporate accounts to Sask. political parties
zurl.co