As Parliament debates a pair of bills on expanding the powers of CSIS, a case involving CSIS and foreign wiretaps was granted leave by the Supreme Court, meaning it’ll be heard sometime later this year. Why this is important is because it involves a Federal Court judge chastening CSIS for basically misleading the court into what they were going to do with a warrant they obtained, and if you’ve paid attention to what the Conservatives has been saying about their new anti-terror bill this past week, it’s been a lot of “we don’t need oversight because they’ll need judicial warrants!” Well, as this case shows, sometimes CSIS doesn’t tell these judges the truth when they go to get those warrants, so you see where the problem lies. Meanwhile, Terry Milewski shows us the times when SIRC didn’t really do their job when it comes to overseeing CSIS – just as the government insists that they’re “robust oversight.” Oh, and there were those times when CSIS wasn’t really honest with SIRC either. But by all means, let’s keep insisting that the status quo of a review committee is just fine instead of actual oversight. Nothing to see here, move along. And while the government continues to insist that oversight over intelligence agencies are “needless red tape,” Aaron Wherry reminds us that red tape is pretty much the role of Parliament, meant to constrain the powers of government.

Good reads:

• The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada is urging the government to move the proposed Victims of Communism monument.
• It looks like the two NDP members of the Board of Internal Economy were voting on repayments that affected them personally, potentially putting them in a conflict of interest. The NDP position is that everyone is in a conflict of interest. NDP-turned-Liberal MP Lise St-Denis talks about how the NDP tried to intimidate her into joining the satellite office scheme, and her refusal led her to cross the floor.
• One in five federal public servants say they’ve been harassed on the job. I can say that I faced harassment from full-time staff when I was working a contract job in the public service, and they wouldn’t intervene because he was full-time and I was not.
• Some MPs are wary of the government’s plan to put the RCMP in charge of Hill security, in part because the RCMP are the government’s police force while Hill Security is independent and answers to parliament as a whole. Apparently the RCMP were as off-guard about the suggestion as everyone else.
• Michael Den Tandt says the Supreme Court decision on doctor-assisted dying will force MPs to deal with the issue, and given the timing, it could turn into an election issue as well.
• At a speech in Calgary, Justin Trudeau refuted that he has a mistrust of the military and pointed to the 18 veterans running for the Liberals in the upcoming election, and reminded Harper that they can debate policy without questioning patriotism.

Odds and ends:

Uniforms for federal employees like Mounties and park rangers could soon be ethically sourced.

Despite the provincial and federal NDP throwing everything they had into the provincial by-election in Sudbury, federal NDP-turned-provincial Liberal Glenn Thibeault won the race.

Sana Hassainia is not running again.

MP Sana Hassainia announced this morning not seeking re-elex: http://t.co/Vl2XfEcG6q My translation. #cdnpoli #polcan pic.twitter.com/qEMPiqFUAX

— Dylan Robertson (@withfilesfrom) February 5, 2015