Roundup: Dubious slogan at the ready!

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Unveiled during their caucus retreat – err, “strategy session” – in Edmonton, the NDP’s election-ready slogan is “Change that’s ready.” While grammatically it sounds like the change itself is ready, the message is that they’re ready to form government – never mind that they have never formed government federally, and that few members of their caucus has any government experience provincially. They are largely trying to position themselves as the party with substance as opposed to style (à la Justin Trudeau) – but they nevertheless continue to speak in generalities about things like how they want to build more refineries. The captain of the Edmonton Oilers also spoke to caucus, so cue everyone swooning about hockey and politics.

There was a little drama at the Senate committee pre-study on the prostitution bill yesterday after they ejected famed dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford when she tried to speak out of turn. It was a little over the top, and she added the threat that if the bill passes, she would start airing the dirty laundry of politicians who had used sex workers, but we’ll see if anything comes of that. Bedford later released an apology that detailed her frustrations with the witnesses to date, which were echoed by fellow sex worker Valerie Scott later in the day, which had to do with everyone talking about child sexual exploitation and rape, as well as human trafficking – things that are already illegal and have nothing to do with the bill at hand, and yet their horrible stories are being used to drown out the voices of legitimate sex workers who are in the industry by choice and who have legitimate concerns about problems with the “Nordic” model, such as forcing them to testify against their clients.

The Ontario Court of Appeal has struck down the government’s limits on pre-trial sentencing credits, calling it unconstitutional because it creates sentencing disparities between similarly placed offenders. Add that to the list of “tough on crime” measures that are being overturned.

Stephen Harper will speak at the UN General Assembly later this month, which will be his first appearance since 2010.

The Correctional Investigator says that prisons aren’t doing enough to prevent inmate suicides by not doing proper screening and putting mentally inmates into solitary confinement.

Harper may not be a fan of “root causes” or committing sociology, but the government is funding a programme that does just that with missing and murdered Aboriginal women – the Aboriginal Community Safety Development Contribution Programme. They’re funding it to the tune of $5.7 million, and it was created in 2010.

Today in Franklin discovery news, the discovery validates Inuit oral histories (and they couldn’t find it earlier because they didn’t have equipment that was sensitive enough to detect it until now. There is also talk that this will be the first discovery of many, and will open the next chapter of the mystery. Michael Den Tandt looks at whether the Harper Government™ can take credit for this discovery, and the kind of legacy that it leaves.

AFN Interim National Chief Ghislain Picard has announced that he will seek the post on a full-time basis in December.

Apparently the government auctioned off a bunch of surplus medical gear – things like protective masks and face shields – for really cheap just before we found out that it could have been really useful in Ebola-stricken countries in Africa. Oops.

A senior Liberal organizer in Quebec has left the party, possibly because he was unhappy with it’s more “Toronto and Ottawa-focused” direction, but possibly not, depending on who you listen to. I also have to wonder if there aren’t hurt feelings around the party as they continue to reorganize, after they promised to make their org chart look sensible.

While Jodie Emery has filed her papers to contest the nomination in Vancouver East, one of her would-be rivals is a former RCMP officer…who was disciplined for abuse of authority. Erm, I’m not sure he’ll make it past the greenlight process.

Andrew Coyne also asks the “Are we better off with Harper?” question, and reminds us of how little the prime minister really matters when it comes to day-to-day economic matters in an open economy like ours.

And here’s a “day in the life” video of Green MP Bruce Hyer (really shot over two-plus days – you can tell by the wardrobe changes).