Speaker Scheer feels that decorum has been improving in the Commons, and while it’s not perfect, he thinks that we mostly don’t notice the improvement because only the bad behaviour gets noticed. He also says that some of his discipline is quiet, so that it doesn’t draw more attention to the behaviour in question. As a regular attendee of QP, I’m not sure how much of this I would attribute to Scheer himself. Some of the “improvement” can be attributed to the NDP’s unctuous sanctimony with their so-called “heckle ban” – which they do break all the time, but they are on the whole quieter than the Liberals (well, those who don’t feel the need to yell constantly anyway). Scheer however seems just as reluctant to bring the hammer down in public as Milliken was, and at times he seems to ignore some pretty unparliamentary language. Suffice to say, I’m not terribly convinced.

It seems that not all Conservatives are happy with Bev Oda’s spending habits, or the fact that she has been changing her expense reports without explanation.

Harper’s new Hunting and Angling advisory panel contains groups that receive *gasp!* foreign funds! Oh noes! Will Senator Nicole Eaton feel the need to go after them too?

Here is a great analysis piece about why CSIS needs the Inspector General’s office, and why it doesn’t make any sense to shutter it.

The government has won its appeal in blocking an RCMP union. Vic Toews has said his forthcoming bill to update RCMP disciplinary procedures won’t include union provisions until the courts settle it.

New Brunswick has gone ahead and tabled their legislation to run Senate “elections” in that province by 2016, never mind that it’s actually a boneheaded idea of dubious constitutionality that doesn’t actually make any institutional sense, and is ripe for a Court challenge, but it sounds “democratic” so it must be good.

Here’s a look at the impact of closing the Experimental Lakes Area, as their funding is cut in the current federal budget. Meanwhile, more photos of deformed fish have been released from sites downstream from the oil sands. Who wants to bet that this will play into the debate next week?

A UN report says that Canada has been “complicit” in torture. Not that the Conservatives will do anything about said report.

And Stephen Harper is headed off to London for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. In his absence, both the Commons and the Senate will be signing off on a congratulatory message by means of a motion debate on Monday.