Former Governor General Michaëlle Jean has been named the new secretary-general of La Francophonie at the summit in Senegal on Sunday. Jean is the first woman and the first person from North America to helm the organisation, which has largely been dominated by African states. Unlike the Commonwealth, La Francophonie is a more problematic international organisation, dedicated more to language and culture and as a result has some fairly questionable member states with even more troubling human rights records, and it is now an open question as to whether Jean will be able to do more to steer the organisation into a new and more positive direction. Jean has spoken about the need to strengthen economic action in the developing world, apparently owing to what some call the “Chrétien Doctrine,” that assisting poor countries develop their economies will also boost their human rights along the way. Stephen Harper, who had endorsed Jean’s bit and whose government backed much of the travel that Jean did while campaigning for the post, is hoping to use the boost of having a Canadian heading the organisation to help with his maternal and child health goals. In fact, Harper used the summit to urge action on ending forced and early marriages – though his own government’s legislation on that subject is hugely problematic. In fact, I would urge you to read the speech that Senator Mobina Jaffer gave in the Senate on the bill, which raises a number of red flags as to just how much of a problem the bill is in the broader context.

Good reads:

• The Parliamentary Budget Officer has written a strongly worded letter to DND about their refusal to turn over cost data for the Iraq mission. The government, meanwhile, continues to equivocate on when and how disclosure will happen.
• A government report shows that there were no tangible threats to our embassy in Tehran before our government shuttered it, and cited security concerns at the time.
• An internal audit shows that the RCMP are not always following their own rules when it comes to their notebooks, and trials sometimes suffer as a result.
• National security figures in the government are freaking out about telecom companies disclosing even aggregate numbers about police and spy surveillance activities.
• Here’s a look at the train wreck of Julian Fantino during his time in cabinet, but he won’t be shuffled out as that would be seen as an admission of failure.
• Andrew Leach crunches the numbers about the impact that lower oil prices are having on oil sands returns.
• Susan Delacourt writes an excellent piece about the history of political rivals trying to secretly record one another, and how badly that has gone off.

Odds and ends:

Michael Den Tandt gives his seven picks for those who may try to replace Harper. He can cross Rempel off the list, as she has no interest in leadership.