The verdict is in, and former Conservative staffer Michael Sona has been found guilty of aiding and abetting the fraudulent robocall scheme in Guelph in the last election – though the judge made it clear that Sona was not the only one involved, and cast a lot of doubt on the testimony of Andrew Prescott, who was given immunity in exchange for said testimony. All throughout the process, Sona had tweeted about the poor quality of the Elections Canada investigation, and the judge seemed to echo some of those sentiments, but nevertheless found Sona to bear some culpability. The Conservatives, meanwhile, insist that they ran a clean and ethical campaign, and that this is just a couple of bad apples – but as Michael Den Tandt notes, the number of bad apples are piling up on the watch of this prime minister, and that question of judgement which Harper claims to be an issue when it comes to Justin Trudeau can be laid as much at his feet as well. Sona won’t be sentenced until mid-October, and he sounds like he’s preparing for the worst – prison time. There remains the possibility for him to appeal, but the grounds for appeal are fairly narrow and they would have to prove that the judge erred, and they couldn’t introduce new evidence in the case, such as having Sona testify in his own defence, which he didn’t during the trial.

The government has announced its plans to legislate away the Canada-US price gap, which leaves many to wonder why a party that espouses the free market is suddenly interested in price controls. (Answer: retail politics). The problem of course is that the reasons for the price gap are myriad and complex, as the Senate study on the phenomenon, and it will be incredibly difficult to find a legislative fix to it. Add to that, a fix could have a bearing on inflation in this country if it’s done over a drawn-out period rather than all at once. I asked a couple of economists about that over the Twitter Machine and this was their response:

@journo_dale @MikePMoffatt My guess is approximately nothing. At best, a one-time adjustment in price levels, like when the GST/HST changes

— Stephen Gordon (@stephenfgordon) August 14, 2014

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/500034633917292544

https://twitter.com/mikepmoffatt/status/500034734987415552

Banks and other financial institutions want the government to create a single, comprehensive list of those who they have levied sanctions against rather than the current patchwork system tat is hard to maintain and enforce. The government says they’re “reviewing options” when it comes to the sanctions regime.

The Canada-EU trade agreement looks like it could cap the number of domestic wine stores selling only Canadian wines, which is a bit unusual but the more to open up trade markets, or something I guess.

With the Board of Internal Economy referring the NDP’s use of staffers in the Bourassa by-election to Elections Canada, the NDP are identifying Conservative and Liberal staff who also worked on those by-elections. Both of those parties say that those staffers were on unpaid leave, which would seem to be a very different kettle of fish than using up overtime owed, as was the NDP claim, because the issue has to do with payment, and overtime would have a dollar figure attached one would think. Suffice to say, the NDP are looking to spread mud around.

John Geddes writes more about the government plans to get medical groups to endorse their new anti-pot ads, and reminds us of how clumsily and badly this government’s previous anti-drug ad campaigns have been, going against all expert advice on how to best get the message across. Justin Trudeau agrees that the rates of marijuana use by teenagers is too high, but thinks that these ads will be basically partisan ads paid for by taxpayers.

The Canadian Press takes their Baloney Meter™ to the Conservative claims about Trudeau’s marijuana legalization plans, and finds them to be “a lot of baloney,” which should be no surprise at all.

Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin says that she’s “moved on” from her spat with the prime minister over the Nadon appointment, and said that some tensions between the courts and the government of the day are natural.

A BC Court has struck down the prohibition that said that licensed medical marijuana users can only smoke or vaporise it rather than turn it into ingestible products. This could be especially useful for the parents of children with rare forms of epilepsy for whom an oil derivative is most helpful, but for whom Health Canada insists they get those children to inhale it. Now we’ll see if the government plans to be obstinate and appeal the ruling.

Maclean’s takes an educated guess as to what went wrong with those Statistics Canada job figures (hint: seasonal adjustment is a real thing).

And with Ministry of Silly Walks signs showing up on Sparks Street here in Ottawa, some of the locals are taking it to heart.