Roundup: New Bloc leader, almost the same as the old leader

The Bloc Québécois have chosen a new leader, Mario Beaulieu, who like their last leader, is not in caucus. And his rival, André Bellavance, who is a sitting MP, had the support of their three other MPs as well. No word if Beaulieu will try to get a seat before the next election in one way or another, or where he plans to run in the next election, which is kind of an important consideration. Beaulieu also wants to press hard on separatism, because sovereignty unites sovereigntists after all. Never mind that the loss of appetite for the topic helped to sink the PQ in the last federal election, he wants to press ahead with it. Already, Gilles Duceppe is mighty upset with Beaulieu’s comments about past leaders, and some high profile members, including some riding presidents, are already talking about tearing up their membership cards over Beaulieu’s comments and positions on certain issues. And we wonder why this constant idea of choosing leaders from outside of the caucus is of particular concern, and remains a bigger problem within parties than the narrative that these kinds of leaders bring in “new ideas.”

A former prison chaplain talks about the changes she saw during her time working in institutions, courtesy of this government – a doubling of prison populations, and the rise in double-bunking, which makes prisoners more stressed and harder to rehabilitate, and doesn’t help them better integrate into society once they have served their time. She also said that the deficit reduction plan has been extremely hard on corrections officers in this changing environment, and that contracting out chaplaincy services was part of adding to that more difficult situation, as she was burned out by the time her contract ended. It’s a thought-provoking read.

Two years ago, the Canadian Forces were given a solution to dealing with their backlog in investigating soldier suicides, and they didn’t implement them. Shouldn’t we have a minister’s resignation for this kind of mismanagement? Oh, wait – that doesn’t happen under this government. Never mind.

Access to Information documents show that the department of Public Safety was indeed left scrambling after the revelation of the Heartbleed Bug vulnerability on the Internet, and that it took CRA a full day to shut down their e-file service, during which time those 900 SINs were stolen (though the RCMP caught that hacker and he is due in court next month). CRA and CSE have asked for lengthy extensions to their ATI requests.

The National Energy Board is going to spend $21 million over the next two years moving into new Calgary offices – more than they’re spending on pipeline inspections and audits.

Here is a profile of Montreal law professor Roderick Macdonald, who has taught some of the biggest legal minds in the country (including Supreme Court justice Rosalie Abella) and whose thinking has had an influence on same-sex marriage and the residential schools apology.

Administrative law professor Paul Daly writes about the potential court challenge that would arise if Stephen Harper tries to appoint the former Federal Court judge he just appointed to the Quebec Court of Appeal to fill the upcoming seat on the Supreme Court. Judicial musical chairs indeed.

Paul Wells makes the case that Stephen Harper’s 24/Seven videos are building a narrative toward his re-election, with the kinds of good news stories that he presents in them. While he encourages the opposition to pay attention to those narratives, one has to wonder – if the public’s not actually paying attention to them either (the viewer stats on those videos are abysmal), does that mean they’re actually getting through to the public either?

In amidst a lament for the heckling in QP, Susan Delacourt writes about the disappearing moderate middle in Canadian politics, and hopes it’s not too late to keep it from becoming as deeply polarized as things have become south of the border.

And the government’s consultations on the forthcoming Canada 150 celebrations yielded top ten lists of icons around the country that were largely Liberal or NDP politicians, like Pierre Trudeau or Tommy Douglas, and their accomplishments like the Charter or healthcare. Oh, but they’re not worried about partisanship, says Shelly Glover. I guess we’ll see how much of these get translated into the final celebrations, and that they won’t simply be celebrations of Canadian wartimes past.