The Prime Minister has finally announced his choice for the new Supreme Court Justice to fill the seat left by Justice Fish nearly a year ago. And yes, this one is qualified, as he currently sits on the Quebec Court of Appeal, where there isn’t a whole lot known or said about him. It has been noted that this is another male appointment – six out of seven for Harper, including Nadon, which keeps the gender imbalance on the bench. This appointment won’t face a “vetting” by a Commons committee, but considering how much of a face that process proved to be, I’m not sure that it’s any great loss.

Privacy Commissioner nominee Daniel Therrien appeared before both the Commons Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics committee as well as the Senate’s Committee of the Whole yesterday for confirmation of the appointment, and he gave some frank assessments of the government’s legislation in which privacy is a concern, and he too would like to see the lawful access provisions split out of the “cyberbullying” bill. As for the areas where he may actually be in a conflict of interest, Therrien has said that he will have an interim replace him on those files, but thus far, he certainly looks better than the portrait that was painted of him. Oh, but he was going to be a lapdog, everyone said. How many times has this actually happened? Why can’t we expect civil servants to take their jobs seriously, no matter who appoints them?

Day two of the Sona trial, and Sona’s lawyer seems to be setting up the case that it was Andrew Prescott who set up the misleading robocalls and not Sona. Remember that Prescott got an immunity deal from the Crown. Prescott is set to testify today, and we could finally see some answers in this trial.

It looks like today is the day that the new prostitution bill is going to be introduced, and it is likely to be a version of the “Nordic model” of criminalizing purchasers. Emmett Macfarlane notes that public consultation that the government touts should be a tertiary concern when you’re dealing with Charter rights, while the Ottawa Citizen editorial board points out that the government probably should have left well enough alone and left the regulation of prostitution to the provinces and municipalities, as hoping to eliminate the practice is merely wishful thinking.

The NDP are gearing up for procedural war after the Procedure and House Affairs committee decided to delve deeper into their mass mailings that skirted the rules, of which millions of individual letters were sent out. The NDP, of course, cry partisanship and that the other parties are ganging up on them, and wonder why their mailings were targeted as crossing the line when others weren’t. (Hint: Don’t refer to upcoming elections for a starter).

The golf industry thinks that people should be able to get tax deductions for entertaining on golf courses. No, seriously.

The Commons veterans affairs committee has produced a report that recommends 14 different changes to the New Veteans Charter, and it was adopted unanimously. Many of the recommendations include clarifying benefits rules, making reservists equally eligible, and increasing the levels that can be received.

Manitoba Senator JoAnne Buth has decided to resign after only two years, and will take up a position with the Canadian International Grains Institute. This will leave twelve vacancies in the Senate once Hugh Segal and Romeo Dallaire make their exits.

Senator Munson recalls covering the Tiananmen Square massacre back during his reporter days.

Here’s a look at how those new US coal regulations will get them most of the way to their Copenhagen targets (but not all the way).

My column this week looks at the growing number of vacancies in the Senate, and the growing crisis of representation that is being denied, and that there will be another shock to the institution when a mass of appointments are made at once, leaving it again vulnerable to PMO control.

And Colin Horgan wonders why a government that was so concerned about Canadians’ privacy rights that they cancelled the long-form census could be writing legislation around warrantless searches of data by police and other such matters.