Oh Julian Fantino – you’ve really done it this time. When a group of veterans came to meet him about the closure of eight service facilities, Fantino was an hour late, sending his parliamentary secretary and two MPs who are also veterans to assure them that the changes won’t really impact them, which just incensed the veterans. And when Fantino did show up, things got heated, and he stormed out saying that he wasn’t going to be finger-pointed to as one of the veterans was emphatically saying “You’re going to promise me that I won’t see any changes in service,” at which point said veterans filed down to the press theatre and denounced Fantino and the government. And it was quite the press conference to watch. To cap it off, Fantino put out a press release to highlight the “roundtable” held and to express his disappointment with PSAC, who brought the veterans to the Hill. Yeah, good job there. On a similar note, Fantino’s department is demanding repayment for $581 from the family of a soldier who committed suicide. No, seriously.

During QP yesterday, the Speaker shut down one of Mulcair’s questions about the investigation into former Senator Mac Harb’s alleged mortgage fraud because it has nothing to do with the administrative responsibility of government. Nothing. At all. And yet Mulcair went out into the Foyer to vow that he won’t be silenced. Um, really? How exactly is a retired opposition senator’s personal financial arrangements related to government business in any way whatsoever? I’d really like to know the answer to that.

And then there’s Ralph Goodale, who is convinced that the Privy Council Office is withholding documents on the ClusterDuff affair because the Access to Information request was rejected under the rules around legal opinions. Which is all that PCO would be providing in that case since the Senate is not a government department and isn’t supported by PCO. Goodale is a former cabinet minister – he knows this, and he’s just being ridiculous.

Speaking of the Speaker, here is his ruling on QP questions from yesterday. He also shut down Charmaine Borg’s attempt at raising a question of privilege because Senator Degenais wrote a mean letter to her because it never actually impacted on her duties as an MP, nor, I might add, was it in any way misogynistic like Borg claimed.

It looks like Leona Aglukkaq may be in the same boat as Shelly Glover after hosting a fundraiser in Ottawa that was attended by people who get money from her in her capacity as the minister responsible for northern development. Oh, but care was taken to ensure that “only appropriate donations” are accepted, says her office. Not actually the point, but thanks for trying.

A loophole in the number of rounds allowed in semi-automatic weapons is being interpreted by the RMCP as deliberate. Err, except the man who helped draft the law, the former policy advisor to then-justice minister Kim Campbell, says that’s not the case at all.

The PBO is apparently going to try and develop a model to try and predict the costs of future natural disasters, after a year of a great deal of spending on them with the Calgary floods and whatnot. He also hasn’t received half of the information that he’s requested on the government’s budget cuts, not that this is a surprise.

Canadian and American oil producers want the government to take its time with rail safety rules around oil tanker cars so as not to affect the competitiveness of shipping their products by rail. And the award for the most tone-deaf lobbying goes to…

The government made a largely symbolic move and barred Ukrainian government officials from coming to Canada in protest over the handling of the demonstrations in that country. No word yet on whether there will be targeted sanctions, but Baird assures us that he is monitoring the situation “hour by hour.”

The Leader of the Government in the Senate is getting a boost to his office budget, which is actually less than it was under Marjory LeBreton once you factored in the resources she got from PCO as a cabinet member. The Leader of the Opposition in the Senate is also getting an increase in budget to bring his office a little more in line with his counterparts, so that there are good resources in place for their job of holding government to account. Meanwhile, the Senate is also looking at updating their code of conduct to include codifying ways of punishing errant senators.

The Interim Privacy Commissioner released a report on privacy concerns with national security agencies, and made recommendations for better oversight and accountability.

Yet more talk about parliamentary reform has Brad Trost looking to institute preferential ballots for committee chair elections, while Kennedy Stewart wants e-petitions that can trigger debates in the House – because everyone wants to talk about chemtrails and UFOs, and one might add that if there’s enough room in the calendar for this, then why not simply restore evening sittings so that MPs can get a few more hours of actual debate in during the week? (Also, don’t call populist measures trying to “increase democracy” because populism is emphatically not democracy). Kady O’Malley throws cold water on Maurice Vellacott’s concern trolling over the work of the subcommittee that deals with private members’ bills. Elsewhere, Aaron Wherry has dug up the attempts to make voting in the House electronic, which have thus far failed and should – not only does voting allow MPs to congregate, but they should be seen to stand up and vote, which has a lot more symbolic impact than pushing a button.

Curiously, the government hired a top oil lobbyist to help negotiate the transfer of the Environmental Lakes Area, and nobody can quite figure out why.

Neil Macdonald unleashes a scathing indictment of those who blithely sit by while the value of our dollar plummets, and who say nothing as ten percent of our purchasing power evaporates which will lead to higher prices when we never got promised discounts when our dollar was high.

Here is PostMedia’s Hill roundup, which tells me that apparently “Manuary” is a Thing. Will nobody put a stop to this beardy-weirdness?

And my column this week looks at the straw men that the NDP have been putting in the window when it comes to their Senate abolition campaign and their tendency to fight them rather than the reality of the Upper Chamber.

Up today: Tony Clement is going to table a bill to prevent public servants from creating costly and unnecessary red tape for businesses. Because they simply create it for the fun of it?