Mike Duffy’s charge sheet has been released, which gives us a few more details about the 31 charges he is now facing. Some of those include the contract he gave to a friend for little or no work, of which some of those funds were funnelled elsewhere – including to a make-up artist and personal trainer – and that some of the claimed expenses were to attend funerals or other such ceremonies. Duffy of course denies any wrongdoing. Here is an updated timeline of the whole expenses scandal in the Senate.

In related news, the woman who claims to be Duffy’s daughter in Peru is now speaking to local media about her cause to be acknowledged.

The Board of Internal Economy is set to meet today, and the NDP are prepared to vigorously defend their “satellite offices,” and are trying to use arguments like they actually save money – really! – and that this is all a media distraction from government scandal. Colour me sceptical.

RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson responded to the Maclean’s article on the need for faster rollout of police carbines with an email to the entire Force, stating that they are working on the rollout and then getting into a bit of a back-and-forth blame game with the author of the report that recommended them, who shot back at Paulson, and on it goes.

PEN Canada, which promotes freedom of expression, is also being audited by the CRA. Some of the concerns are the “grey areas” around political activities that charities engage in, of which they are only allowed to use ten percent of their resources on. Here’s a list of other charities that are having their books checked.

In the wake of the downing of MH17, John Baird announced more sanctions against Russia, accusing them of having a hand in bringing down the plane. He said that while sanctions may not work in the short term, they do in the long term as with Burma and South Africa.

Amidst the whinging by Conservatives that the courts are being mean, Aaron Wherry takes apart their arguments and turns around the notion that parliamentary supremacy is under attack, when more often than not, it’s a case of MPs abandoning their responsibilities.

After the Green convention in New Brunswick, Elizabeth May made a pitch for electoral cooperation, which means non-competition between the Liberals, NDP and Greens in ridings to defeat Conservatives. Good luck with that – nobody wants to give up the funding advantage of running a full slate, or the ability to say that they’re a national party running a full slate. Nor does it deal with the disenfranchised voters from the parties who would be not competing, or the ultimate issue of voting for a candidate rather than to defeat a party. It’s never been a good idea, and I don’t think that May will get any traction with it – lest she want to roll up the Green Party’s national campaign save the two seats they already hold.

A grassroots database for missing and murdered Aboriginal women is being started up, though it sounds like it’s more about remembrances for families than it is about gathering information on the crimes themselves (and it should be noted that the RCMP report noted that the murder investigation clearance rate is no different with Aboriginal women than it is than for non-Aboriginal women).

Independent MP Brent Rathgeber is writing a book about the decline in MPs understanding their responsibilities as legislators.

Here’s a bit of a look at Tony Clement and his obsession with selfies.

And in a rather terrible story, the mayor of La Prairie, Quebec, on the south shore of Montreal, was stung to death by wasps over the weekend.