Mike Duffy says that he looks forward to his day in court, and wants it sooner rather than later. Considering that the court system is a little jammed, that may not happen sooner. In the aftermath of the charges, Kady O’Malley delves further into the reasons why Nigel Wright wasn’t charged with bribery even if Duffy was charged for accepting said bribe (hint: proving the intention of “corruptly” makes it a high bar for prosecutors), as well as the rules around sitting parliamentarians testifying before the courts. Stephen Maher looks at those charges relating to what Duffy was charging the Senate for partisan activity and wonders what the party knew about those expenses.

Chris Alexander has given the film and TV industry his personal assurance that the new changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers programme won’t be an inconvenience for foreign actors or directors coming to work here, and told them that if they have problems to contact his principle secretary directly. So there’s that. On the other hand, he wouldn’t commit to reducing the wait times for permits, so that could also be an issue going forward.

The Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories has declared the Truth in Sentencing Act to be unconstitutional. Here goes another legal challenge to the government’s “tough on crime” legislation.

Liberal MP Sean Casey writes about the government withholding information with respect to that poll they conducted on Canadians’ attitudes toward prostitution, saying that it informed them that Canadians were opposed, only to find that when it was leaked to the Star that Canadians are actually divided on the subject.

The government’s plans to move mentally ill female inmates to a special facility in the Brockville Mental Health Centre are on hold because they haven’t finalized their funding agreement, while these high-needs inmates remain in segregation or in physical restraints because the correctional officers don’t know how to handle them properly.

Chris Alexander calls the downing of MH17 a “brutal act of terror.” Um, don’t terrorists normally claim responsibility? Nobody has for this, which is part of the problem. I’m not sure that Chris Alexander leaping to conclusions helps anyone. (Remember, this guy used to be a diplomat).

Here’s a look at the coming negotiations with public sector unions as their contracts all come for renewal.

The RCMP have started tracking the number of suicides among serving and retired members, which is 31 in eight years, pointing to problems with PTSD and other operational stress injuries and how the Force is handling them.

Maclean’s looks more into the perception that CRA shies away from going after big tax evaders once lawyers get involved, and why they appear to be behind their other counterparts.

Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall continues to say appallingly ignorant things about our parliamentary system.

In advance of the Green Party’s federal convention this weekend, Elizabeth May is backing a policy resolution to condemn “illegal” Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.

Susan Delacourt notes the outrage over the publicity stunt of the fake shark, and notes the corresponding lack of outrage when it comes to advertising served up as fake news, just like Stephen Harper’s 24/Seven videos and other government-funded advertising that blurs the lines of partisanship.

Andrew Coyne thinks the Senate needs to be reformed to remove its absolute veto because you can’t reform it any other way – err, but you’d still need to go through the same constitutional amending procedure to reduce its powers, so why not be more ambitious? Also, his examples of the Senate exercising their veto are fairly specious, considering that they have a constitutional duty to push back against a majority government, such as in cases like free trade where they felt it should be put to the electorate, or in the case of the Jack Layton climate change bill, a minority Commons where the opposition is trying to unconstitutionally govern in spite of not forming the government. I fail to see why they need to be punished for doing their jobs.

And Tabatha Southey finds the government’s logic on their laws odd, whereby the slimmest of majorities in a poll on prostitution is enough to barrel ahead with the dubiously constitutional C-36, and yet three quarters of Canadians supporting either decriminalization or legalization of marijuana is not enough to move them to act on that.