Another day, another unanimous judgement from the Supreme Court of Canada against the government and one of their “tough on crime bills.” This time, it was the Truth in Sentencing Act, which limits the credit for time served in pre-trial custody – time which is normally given credit for because it is seen as “harder” than in federal or provincial jails, as it is generally more cramped, has poorer conditions, and offers no programming or rehabilitation. Of the seven justices that rendered the decision, five were Harper appointees, so it’s not like he can even claim that these are Liberal activist judges out to get him – only that the government likes to push the limits of the constitutionality of their bills as far as they can. The ruling didn’t strike down the law, but sets a precedent that restores some judicial discretion to the credit for time served to 1.5-to-one as the Act allows.

The government has announced that Jim Flaherty will get a state funeral on Wednesday in Toronto. Normally the protocol is for Governors General, Prime Ministers, and sitting members of cabinet, with some eminent Canadians that Cabinet decides. That Flaherty was three weeks out of sitting is probably a reasonable exception to the rule, but we should probably be aware that the so-called Layton Precdent, followed by bending the rules for Flaherty, means that we’re dangerously bordering on a “state funerals for everyone!” policy, or at the very least, acrimonious and bitter debates over who becomes “deserving” of having one from this point on, which is the whole reason why rules around them exist in the first place. PostMedia has a look at what state funerals in this country entail, and their history.

Suspended Senator Patrick Brazeau was released on $5000 bail, and on the condition that he enter into a rehab facility within 72-hours.

The Heartbleed Bug is forcing more government websites to shut down, as CRA remains down as they continue to patch the bug on their servers.

The Auditor General has smacked down the Public Service Integrity Commissioner and his deputy over the handling of two whistleblower files, citing gross mismanagement, unreasonable delays and “wrongdoing” under the Act. The Commissioner, Mario Dion, said that he recognized that there were problems and has been working to overhaul the processes in his office to correct the problems so that they won’t happen again. It nevertheless harkens back to the first Commissioner, Christiane Ouimet, whose demise came after then-Auditor General Sheila Fraser cited her office for even worse gross mismanagement and abuse of office.

The PMO is cooperating with the RCMP on the ClusterDuff investigation, and has turned over a hard drive that apparently contains emails from Harper’s former legal advisor, which were previously believed to be deleted.

Senator Linda Frum carried on her assertion that promoting voting is a conflict of interest for Elections Canada over social media, complete with questionable assertions that encouraging voting is a partisan activity. Andrew Coyne laments the complete absurdity with which the Conservatives’ worldview has skewed the debate on the elections bill, and he dutifully shreds them for it.

Kate Heartfield writes about our increasingly useless conventions about unparliamentary language, throwbacks to an era where merely mentioning things was shocking, and which now serves to weaken the ways in which we can hold the government to account.

Justin Trudeau spoke with CBC Radio’s “On The Coast” about what he means by “Middle Class.” When asked about the attacks on his “lucky” upbringing, Trudeau notes that he was also raised with the value to serve and give back to his community.

In Maclean’s, Martin Patriquin writes about the epic collapse of the separatist vote in Quebec, and it’s a really great read.

Oh noes! Terrible homosexual activists may or may not have tried to have an anti-gay US speaker denied entry into Canada under laws against incitement to hate. He was eventually allowed to enter upon appeal.

A Canadian armoured truck builder is facing extradition to the US on fraud charges after he cut corners and delivered substandard trucks to the Americans, and shipped some of those vehicles to Nicaragua to keep his teetering business afloat.

The problem of developing superbugs has Health Canada moving to phase out antibiotic growth promoters in Canadian livestock. The phase out is expected to take three years.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is pointing out that most of the jobs going to Temporary Foreign Workers are those that Canadians won’t do because they consider them too menial, but these are jobs that need to get done.

Oh dear. A recent “health scare” means that country singer George Canyon won’t be seeking the Conservative nomination in the riding of Bow River after all.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel won her nomination by acclamation, but she ran it as though it were contested in order to ensure that she didn’t take it for granted.

And Scott Feschuk mourns the loss of “madly in love” Dimitri Soudas as the executive director of the Conservative Party, noting that we’ve deprived ourselves of the most romantic election ever.

Shameless self-promotion alert: I was on CBC Radio’s The 180 today, talking about the importance of open nominations to our democratic system. Have a listen.