The former Inspector General of CSIS is decrying the dismantling of her former office, saying that the job of keeping an eye on CSIS from the inside, full-time, simply cannot be done by the Security and Intelligence Review Committee, and denied that there was any duplication of efforts (thus blowing away another of the talking point justifications for axing the office). But hey, why do we need someone to watch the watchmen? It’s not like we have anything to worry about – right?
Elections Canada’s investigators have traced alleged robo-call organiser “Pierre Poutine” as far an on open WiFi connection, where the trail grows cold.
Apparently there are tensions within the RCMP over the changes being made to clean up the Force’s image. It seems that some members feel they’re being unfairly cast in the same light as a “few bad apples,” while Commissioner Paulson says that they need to wake up because everybody has a part to play in cleaning up the Force.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is disturbed by the arguments that Elections Canada put forward in the Supreme Court hearing on the Etobicoke Centre election.
The Calgary Centre Conservative nomination vote will be held on August 25th, with six candidates vying for the spot. And it seems that the party decided to waive the rules for Joan Crockatt so that she could still run despite not having a party membership for the prescribed period of time.
Pam Palmater outlines some of the reasons why allowing private property on First Nations reserves is a bad idea (one of which is that it gives provinces control over the land, which is then easier to expropriate).
Peter O’Neil takes another look at the people behind Ethical Oil.
Here is an excellent rebuttal to Pauline Marois’ decision to run against the Queen, reminding her that history is not on Marois’ side. Remember the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Quebec Act of 1774? Yeah, the monarchy never did anything for Quebec… Meanwhile, Dan Gardner rebuts all of those who call the Queen of Canada a “foreigner,” even though she has more of a connection to this country than most of republicans.
And Susan Delacourt muses about the decline of political journalism into “churnalism” in Canada as elsewhere.