The International Commission of Jurists has looked over the dispute between Stephen Harper and Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin around accusations that she was “lobbying” against the appointment of Justice Nadon. The ICJ declared that McLachlin did nothing wrong – and that Harper owes her an apology. In response, the PMO responded that they saw the response and “noted it.” At least it wasn’t yet another angry denunciation of “activist” judges protecting their own, or some other nonsense. Meanwhile, the Canadian Bar Association has responded to all of those Conservative MPs whinging that the courts are doing an “end run around democracy” by reminding them that the courts are an essential part of our democratic system, ensuring that rights are respected and that laws are applied properly. Not that it will soothe the sting being felt by sore losers, which is really what those complaints are all about.

Despite those stories of charities being targeted for audits, it seems that they’re not planning any kind of organised response to the CRA’s activities – in other words, they all want to keep their heads down and not attract attention.

The government appears to be sitting on some $730 million in uncashed cheques for things like tax refunds and other benefits payments that haven’t been collected, despite some efforts to get them to those Canadians to whom they are owed.

Newfoundland and Labrador has lost a bid to challenge the contract with Quebec over the Upper Churchill Falls, and vows to go all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

Budget cuts are threatening the defence diplomacy programme, which is being felt by having defence attachés having their workloads doubled, and travel and hospitality budgets slashed so dramatically that the programme can’t work effectively, and add to that, there seems to be a lack of focus for where liaison officers are supposed to be directing their efforts. But hey, it’s not like this kind of thing is important, right?

A tightly-fitted bearing on the HMCS Toronto which generated too much noise – a liability for a military vessel – ended up costing $685,000 when they removed the stern flap to try and find the cause of the sound.

Conservative MP Jim Hillyer has sent out householders that declare that he wants the abortion debate reopened – or rather, that he was rather cutely saying that he was shedding light on the debate re-opened by NDP MP Niki Ashton’s cancelled motion in the Commons and Justin Trudeau’s “bozo eruption.” Nevertheless, Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett reminded him via Twitter that Hillyer’s leader promised not to reopen the debate, and yet here we are.

Omar Khadr’s American lawyers are being threatened with having their security clearances stripped because documents questioning the legal basis of the charges against Khadr made it to the media, all of which continues this gross cycle of abuses being perpetuated against him.

Aaron Wherry continues his series of frank discussions, this time on carbon pricing.

With the debates over the Middle East and other crises turning into toxic battles over social media, Susan Delacourt offers some thoughts on tactics to deal with them, from offering the disinfectant of sunlight, or depriving anger of oxygen.

Scott Reid ponders the damage that Mike Duffy could cause the Prime Minister as he moves his media strategy toward revenge and taking down as many of his former Conservative colleagues as he can, which could do a lot of damage the closer the trial is to an election. Reid also notes that Harper is vulnerable because of weak jobs figures – something that Jason Kirby expands upon, and which may be bad enough for Harper to want more Senate news to distract from.

Kelsey Johnson offers some perspective on Harper’s refusal to fill Senate seats from the agricultural lens, and how it’s weakening Parliamentary oversight from that perspective.

And John Geddes takes us through some essential works of art at the National Gallery as part of Maclean’s series on how to be a better Canadian.