Roundup: Accusations of intimidation

As you may have noticed during QP, the narrative around Harper’s spat with the Chief Justice is now being characterised by the NDP as an attempt to intimidate her and the courts, which is kind of unsettling. Mind you, Thomas Mulcair isn’t exactly pure when it comes to attacks on the Supreme Court based on conspiracy theories, as recent history shows. Aaron Wherry rounds up more reaction to the dispute here. Brent Rathgeber blasts the PMOs use of selective and disingenuous facts to try to smear the Chief Justice for the sake of fundraising dollars. Irwin Cotler took questions about the situation over the Twitter Machine. Andrew Coyne wonders when Conservatives of good faith will start to challenge the party’s leadership over the damage they are doing to our institutions.

The Huffington Post began digging into Conservative Senator Don Meredith’s credentials, given that he’s taken to calling himself “Doctor” recently, even though said credentials are merely honorary. More to the point, it turns out that both his bachelor’s degree and master’s – which were both achieved in two years total – came from the unaccredited and unregulated California State Christian University where phony degrees are essentially paid for, while his honorary doctorate also comes from an institution that doesn’t have degree-granting capabilities. Apparently Senate leadership started asking Meredith about his degrees for “caucus management reasons,” but it would also appear to be yet another case of PMO not actually doing enough due diligence when it comes to their Senate appointments. Incidentally, Meredith did eventually repay his expenses for that Washington trip that he was denied approval for twice.

The government has decided to put the First Nations Control of First Nations Education bill on hold following the sudden resignation of AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo, likely because he was their point of contact for the majority of First Nations communities, and they need to sort out how to go about moving forward (and more importantly, how to move ahead without calling another national meeting of every chief, which would be unwieldy and cumbersome in their estimation). Regional chiefs are going to be meeting to name an interim national chief before next year’s elections, but that could be difficult because the AFN certainly seems split over the bill.

As the 2007 changes to the Elections Act get ready to head to the Supreme Court for being too onerous to voters, the government argues that the rules were just tough enough – as they look to make them even tougher with the Fair Elections bill. The Court hasn’t yet decided if it will grant leave to hear the appeal.

In another preview of today’s Auditor General report, there are clues as to why National Household Survey data was delayed. Apparently it was largely because of problems with income data, which sounds like a pretty big deal.

On an unrelated Auditor General note, it seems that some senators are scrambling to repay any expenses that may raise questions, no matter how minor, before their office gets audited.

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has been getting a head start on lobbying the government around the upcoming prostitution bill, apparently in support of the Nordic Model where buyers are criminalised – something that will inevitably wind up before the courts for the very same reasons that the previous laws were defeated, given that it would put sex workers in the very same dangerous situations as before. Not surprisingly, groups representing actual sex workers are advocating for the New Zealand model of decriminalisation.

Canada Post lost $29 million last year, as mail volumes continue to slide.

Canadians with live-in caregivers hope they’re going to be spared any kinds of crackdowns to the temporary foreign worker programme because of the shortage of such workers in Canada. Of course, that’s another whole area for which it has a lot to do with wages people are willing to pay, and as someone who was friends with an English nanny who tried to make it in Canada before giving up and heading back, there is a major cultural problem in this country in the way we treat our live-in help.

Access to Information documents showed that Health Canada’s managers and employees were all concerned about library closures within the department, and how that would affect not only the quality of the science it produces, but also their international reputation.

In advance of negotiations with the public service over reforming sick leave benefits, Tony Clement has assured the public service unions that their pensions are safe.

NATO’s top commander, US General Philip Breedlove, was in Ottawa yesterday and said that the situation in Ukraine is showing the importance of NATO as an organisation now that Russia is threatening the peace in Europe, and that it’s causing a paradigm shift within the organization. Breedlove also said that Russia’s fomenting separatist movements in Ukraine could mean that it could achieve its aims without an actual invasion.

Glen McGregor interviews Liberal nomination candidate and retired lieutenant general Andrew Leslie, and discusses the housing controversy, his decision to run in Ottawa-Orléans, and his take around veterans issues.

In Alberta news, Alison Redford made her reappearance at the Legislature six weeks after her ouster as leader, but wouldn’t answer questions on the outstanding allegations, like the “sky palace” penthouse suite that was eventually cancelled.

And here are videos of the two musical numbers from Saturday’s Press Gallery Dinner. Well worth checking out. (Lisa Raitt and Megan Leslie were especially terrific).