Our Officers of Parliament are saying that Mark Adler’s “witch-hunt” bill to ensure that they don’t have partisan pasts rings hollow considering that they jointly sent suggestions to the Commons about making their offices more transparent in the wake of the Christiane Ouimet affair, and nobody followed up on that. Of course they didn’t, as there wasn’t any partisan advantage to it.

In Quebec, Pierre-Karl Péladeau insists that the newspapers he owns will be independent in their coverage. And while I will be the first to say that yes, owners tend to have little control over the actual reporting that goes into papers, the perception will nevertheless be there. And no, Péladeau has no intention of selling his shares, (which are enough to give him a controlling interest in his companies). Andrew Coyne notes Péladeau’s many contradictions, including the notion that he’s a good businessman when he largely thrived within regulated monopolies.

The agricultural sector is excited about the prospect of a free trade agreement with South Korea. The auto sector – and by extension Ontario – is not. PostMedia has an explainer of what’s at stake in the agreement.

Oh, look – the UN High Commission for Refugees wants Canada to do more for Syrian refugees. Imagine that. I guess Chris Alexander, like Jason Kenney before him, can’t just use the UNHCR as their shield to do as little as possible when it comes to refugees in this country after all.

Radarsat-2 has become so essential to Canada’s maritime surveillance that the Department of National Defence is burning through its credits for the satellite’s data, and they could run out by mid-2016 unless DND can come up with more money to purchase more data credits. The European Maritime Safety Agency is one of the other organisations that is purchasing data credits for their own uses.

Defence analysts and industry representatives are incredulous that DND can say that the delay of $3.1 billion to their capital budget won’t affect any procurement project currently in the works. Then again, considering how many have been reset to zero in recent months… Not surprisingly, DND’s former head of procurement, Alan Williams, says the claim is ludicrous and “part of a continuous charade of deceit.” Ouch.

Three years after that major hacking attack on the Treasury Board’s computer servers, cyber-attacks remain the number one concern of federal departments to their security.

Five years later, the Afghan detainee scandal has virtually become consigned to the history books with nobody concerned about it any longer. Matthew Fisher reflects on his time in Afghanistan as out troops begin their final pullout.

The government programme designed to give income supports to the families of missing and murdered children saw only “modest” uptake in its first year of operation. It was designed to help about 1000 families annually, but there are questions being raised about its eligibility criteria.

The Liberals are asking the Elections Commissioner to investigate mail-outs that the NDP sent out do the riding of Bourassa during the by-election that they claim were campaign advertising using parliamentary resources. The NDP say that they did nothing wrong, and that the letters were went before the writ dropped. Eyebrows are also being raised that Olivia Chow has just sent out a householder touting her accomplishments in Ottawa, just before she is expected to announce her run to be the mayor of Toronto.

Talk of erecting a giant “Mother Canada” statue on Cape Breton Island, to face Europe as a remembrance of Canada’s war dead, is meeting with local opposition.

Samara Canada conducted a study on the riding association websites across the country for the various political parties. As expected, it’s a pretty mixed bag of results, but it was also noted that given riding redistribution this year, it’s not surprising that a number of sites would have become defunct, and that next year may be a better measure. I would also add that I’m not sure that how to become a candidate is the most worthwhile measure of what’s contained on the site, since one might expect some greater level of participation in the local riding association before one wants to jump into the nomination process. But maybe that’s just me.

It looks like Ottawa-Orléans will be a hotly contested Liberal nomination, as not only is retired Lieutenant General Andrew Leslie planning to run, but so is failed leadership candidate David Bertschi and former cabinet minister Gar Knutson. Bertschi has the issue of his leadership debt to contend with, and may prevent him from being “green-lit.”

And seeing as yesterday was Commonwealth Day, BuzzFeed produced a list of ten reasons why the Commonwealth is awesome. You’re welcome.