Liberal Senate leader James Cowan penned an op-ed in yesterday’s Chronicle Herald about the work that the Senate does, and the value that it provides to the legislative process in Canada. And it was an excellent read, which I’d highly recommend – it was about time that a senator was so eloquent in the defence of the institution. I do find it curious that so far it seems to be Liberal senators who are doing a disproportionate share of that defence – even though I know plenty of Conservative senators who feel the institution should be left alone (financial controls tightened, of course). Unfortunately, most of the Conservative Senate caucus, if they do speak up, are only sticking to the absurd and disingenuous party line of “the Senate must change or be abolished,” as though any of the proposed reforms would either do anything about the alleged graft of a small number (it wouldn’t), were constitutional (they aren’t), or that they could measurably be said to actually improve the institution (highly debateable, but when you look at the totality of the Senate and its work, the proposed reforms would only serve to create partisan gridlock with 105 new backbenchers for party leaders to control). I have no doubt that they want to keep their heads down because they don’t want to be accused of trying to protect their entitlements, but they’re liable to find that if they don’t speak up for the institution, that they will be the unwitting agents of their own demise, which would be an absolute shame.

Meanwhile, the CBC has new details on the RCMP investigation into the Wright-Duffy affair, and the fact that the investigator has been asking pointed questions of other Senators who were privy to details and witness to the “whitewashed” committee report. It seems that the RCMP are suspicious that the deal between Wright and Duffy wasn’t all that innocent – or that the funds came from Wright himself. The plot continues to thicken.

Thomas Mulcair wrote to the new Parliamentary Budget Officer to remind him of his request for the data on the impact of budget cuts.

The NDP are forcing a recall of the Procedure and House Affairs committee to study their proposal on new transparency measures, like replacing the Board of Internal Economy with an independent oversight body. We’ll see if it gets any traction.

In the wake of those two Royal Canadian Navy ships colliding on the way to Hawaii, we have also learned a few more details about the collision suffered by the HMCS Winnipeg back in April. Those three ships being laid up could mean a significant capability gap for our Pacific fleet, and if the damage to the HMCS Algonquin proves significant, it could mean a decision to scrap the ship rather than conduct repairs, leaving the Pacific fleet without a destroyer to coordinate task forces.

The latest attempt to cut the immigration backlog is a plan to slash “dormant” applications – those who have missed interviews or citizenship tests and the like. Oh, they can still re-apply and start the process again, under the new, substantially heftier fees.

The cabinet has approved the plan to spend funds for the Calgary flooding disaster in a mere eight days – but this doesn’t actually mean the money will flow yet. This is just the promise that the money will actually flow. Now they need to wait for all of the receipts to come in, and get audited, before the federal government starts paying out.

A fight is brewing between Quebec and the federal government over Quebec’s plan to create an “economic development bank” for the promise, because banks are federally regulated and the province can’t call it a bank without contravening the Act. Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne takes her own swing at the proposed Quebec “Charter of values” talking about Ontario’s strength in diversity.

Here is a look at the practice of barring people from entering the US for the simple admission of having smoked pot – it does happen, but it’s less likely that politicians will be stopped, if only because of reciprocal behaviour.

Here’s a preview of the upcoming G20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, later this week.

Jesse Brown looks at other reasons why Verizon may have found Canada to be an unwelcoming telecom market. Peter Nowak looks at what the next steps are, considering that the Big 3 are still demanding changes to the spectrum auction, and the government still wants a new player in the marketplace.

Economist Andrew Leach uses facts to dispute that Canada is a “petrostate.” Andrew Nikiforuk responds with more emphatic hand waving.

Andrew Coyne looks at income inequality, and finds that it has been getting better since the 1990s, not worse – in Canada, in any case.

And here’s an interesting look at the relationship between the Supreme Court and public opinion.