Roundup: A registry that’s not a registry

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To the utter delight of the Conservatives, the NDP have pledged to reinstate the long-gun registry, with Mulcair uttering the line that duck hunters would only need assault rifles if they were hunting pterodactyls. But wait – an NDP aide later took issue with the characterisation that the NDP want to reinstate the registry itself – they just want to be able to track every gun. Which…pretty much implies a registry, whether there are criminal sanctions applied to it or not, so well done with that bit of cognitive dissonance. And if memory serves, the Liberals needed to have the criminal sanctions if they wanted to make the registry fit under federal laws, as it would otherwise have been provincial jurisdiction, so that may be an additional hurdle. (In case it bears reminding, the Liberals have eschewed reviving the registry).

Good reads:

  • Leona Aglukkaq admits it was a bad idea to read the newspaper during QP. Will she also admit that she doesn’t pay attention and just answers questions at random?
  • There are questions whether NDP MP Dennis Bevington is breaking ethical rules when he uses his parliamentary privilege to get information on government spending on green energy when he co-owns a renewable energy company.
  • There are problems with quality control after the demise of the Canadian Wheat Board? You don’t say! Meanwhile, the government won’t let a group of farmers buy the remnants.
  • The government’s banner week on veterans issues continues with revelations that they have been underspending on fixing up the graves of war dead.
  • The man who exploited the Heartbleed Bug to steal data from CRA has been handed 16 new charges.
  • The new Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal criticised the Supreme Court decision on Marc Nadon’s eligibility to the Supreme Court, saying that Quebec Justices are elevated to the Federal Court because of their knowledge of the Quebec legal system.
  • One medical microbiology group plans to challenge Elizabeth May’s Lyme disease bill at Senate committee, calling the preamble “anti-science.”
  • Here’s an odd tale of a court case involving alleged harassment and misconduct in the RCMP ranks.
  • The government has given some more details of their new “Express Entry” immigration system.

Odds and ends:

The Public Service Integrity Commissioner has just been named the new head of the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Lisa Raitt has been found to be cancer-free after her surgery.