Roundup: Spinning prison gangs as good news

What’s that? More gangs in prisons as we’re seeing more overcrowding, more double-bunking, more and incidents of violence that might entice prisoners to join gangs for protection? You don’t say! What’s more audacious, however, is the government dressing this up as more gang members in prison and off the streets, and yet not having any police data to back that particular claim up. Just so long as it has to feel convincing, we don’t need facts!

Martha Hall Findlay, Hedy Fry and Joe Volpe are trying to make a deal with Elections Canada about their outstanding leadership debts now that the courts won’t give them any more extensions.

Tim Uppal wants Parliament to stop “stalling” the Senate Reform Act. Um, it’s your government that’s not bringing it forward for debate. Oh, and they want the provinces to pay to “elect” (but not really since it’s just a “consultation”) federal senators. Predictably, no province except Alberta is wild on the idea and won’t pursue their own plans if they have to pay for them. Not that it matters anyway, since the whole thing is unconstitutional to begin with.

The Muskrat Falls hydro project has cleared a major legal hurdle.

An immigration lawyer trying to complain about the speed with which Conrad Black’s application was processed says he’s being intimidated by Jason Kenney’s office. Kenney, meanwhile, has come up with a raft of statistics to “prove” that supposedly bogus claimants are milking the system, though he has a history of conflating numbers to give a figure that looks terrible but doesn’t accurately reflect the truth. The Liberals, meanwhile, want to look into the refugee healthcare situation once the House comes back.

iPolitics has an infographic breaking down Bev Oda’s spending in honour of her last day as an MP. Aaron Wherry collects some of her memorable quotes over the past two years.

Elizabeth Thompson speaks to Lee Richardson about life after federal politics and what it’s like working for Alison Redford.

Emmett Macfarlane looks at the Supreme Court’s culpability in Omar Khadr still not being repatriated.

As the charges against Bruce Carson go ahead, PostMedia looks into the school he set up in Alberta and how he was apparently billing inappropriate travel expenses there.

And Pundit’s Guide looks at the second quarter returns and finds that the Liberals are still beating the NDP in terms of fundraising, and are growing their pot of smaller donations. The NDP is catching up, but in large part because of some very large bequests. Kady O’Malley takes note of the all of the late filers from the past election.