The CBC’s sources are telling them that a complete reorganisation of the military procurement system will be a highlight of the upcoming Throne speech. Whether that reorganisation is to put it in a new agency under the direction of a single minister, or as a permanent secretariat comprised of bureaucrats (and presumably outside consultants) remains to be seen, but hopefully there will be a system where there is some accountability, and a single responsible authority rather than the murky mess that is the current system where everyone is involved but nobody is responsible or accountable.

The information commissioner is warning bureaucrats about their novel new ways to try to circumvent Access to Information laws, and how they are going well beyond the guidelines for ministerial records that the Supreme Court laid out. Kady O’Malley delves further into the directive and the way in which it errs on the side of secrecy rather than transparency.

A video of Justin Trudeau being accosted by a woman in Steinbach, MB, over his pot policy has been making the rounds, and Trudeau handled himself quite well in the face of illogical arguments – and then it was revealed that the woman’s husband was Vic Toews’ executive assistant. (Also, if the woman’s 16-year-old daughter is drinking and smoking pot, then perhaps she should look in the mirror at her own culpability rather than coming up with a bizarre argument as to how Trudeau would make it worse).

In other video, Dean Del Mastro avoids the media, and when they go looking for him, he freaks out on them and demands they make an appointment – which, you know, he’s been avoiding. Del Mastro’s lawyers says that they will be fighting the charges in the courts, but it has been pointed out that it’s hard to see how this could possibly be resolved before the next election, and the cloud of these charges would make it pretty much impossible for Del Mastro to run again.

The Supreme Court has ruled that police can use sniffer dogs in warrantless searches on reasonable grounds of suspicion, which have to be ascertainable facts rather than just hunches.

The head of the CRA is launching an investigation into how a mob boss was given a $400K cheque when he owed the government some $1.5 million.

Internal memos from the CBSA reveal plans to drop the hammer on that boatload of Sri Lankan refugee claimants, which included aggressive measures to intervene at the Immigration and Refugee Board in order to keep them from getting status. So far, 105 of the 492 claimants aboard have been granted status, while 113 have had their claims rejected.

A new report says that even Environment Canada’s most optimistic climate change projections will mean that we are likely to see a two-degree rise in temperatures – seen as a tipping point in that will disrupt ecosystems and sea levels – by 2050. Yikes.

As Justin Trudeau’s Liberals – and the Conservatives and NDP – prepare to do battle over the middle class, it remains a point of contention among economists that there may not be any real problem with the middle class at all (in Canada, at least).

In a rather dismaying tale, the government is evicting an 85-year-old farmer from his property so that they can expand the airbase at Trenton. The ironic aspect of this story is that the farm was a gift from the Crown to his direct ancestor for his Loyalist service during the American Rebellion.

Here’s a look at the new NDP candidate in the Bourassa by-election – Stéphane Moraille, a lawyer and former pop singer, who says the debate on the Quebec “Charter of Values” is what people are asking her about, and she plans to defend the Canadian Charter and the tenets of multiculturalism.

A former Canadian correspondent from the war in Afghanistan, who now lives in the country full-time, has just released a book that says that the war in Southern Afghanistan has been lost, as Canada turns its back and leaves the country next year.

Stephen Harper has appointed a new Usher of the Black Rod – RCMP Superintendent Greg Peters from PEI, who has been involved in protocol matters for the Mounties for the past several years. Liberal PEI Senator Downe tweeted that it demonstrated that Harper could make a good Senate appointment from PEI after all.

Part two of Natalie Stechyson’s series on GLBT parenting in Canada looks at the patchwork of laws around parental rights.

And iPolitics gives a flowchart to show how to deliver Harper-approved UN speeches.