As the results of the Senate audit draw closer, and senators are complaining anonymously about the way in which it’s being handled by the Auditor General’s office (and those that they’ve subcontracted to), what has been missing from the reporting is the blow to morale that has taken place in the institution. The constant air of suspicion, the questioning of expenses that should be no problem (like stamps for Xmas cards being sent to the States, or as the article describes, single phone calls and sandwiches) has made not only for some unhappy senators and staff, but it’s sucked the life out of the place, and their focus on the grown-up policy work of parliament – which we should expect from the Commons but don’t end up getting – is being completely sidetracked by the way this audit is being handled, and the time that it is consuming. It’s also to the point of invasive, where one senator mentioned that she had been asked for her personal journals by auditors. And the problem has become that because of the actions of those couple of bad apples – Duffy, Wallin, Brazeau, and Harb – that all senators are under a cloud of suspicion and are unable to push back without it looking like they have something to hide, rather than the fact that there is a genuine feeling like they are being abused by auditors who don’t understand the role of the Senate. One does have to wonder if there won’t be any long-term damage to what is going on, especially as blame is being laid on the institution, and not on the person who made appointments without due diligence.

Good reads:

• DND isn’t exactly backing up the bombastic claims by Jason Kenney and James Bezan of near-confrontations with Russians in the Black Sea.
• This week the PBO will have a report on the kinds of government loans and guarantees that parliament is no longer voting on (which is a very big problem).
• Public sector unions are up in arms over new security clearance procedures, which include fingerprints and credit checks.
• Former CSIS operatives and officials cast doubt on the story being told by that Syrian man arrested in Turkey for helping those UK schoolgirls cross into Syria.
• Emmett Macfarlane writes about how the courts shouldn’t be immune from criticism.
• Here’s a good guide to political polls as we head into the next election.

Odds and ends:

Here’s the Ottawa Citizen’s Gargoyle roundup of last week’s smaller stories.

Tabatha Southey wonders if the panic over the niqab isn’t just a fear of operatic tropes.

Mike Moffatt talks to The 180 about the “Economist Party,” and what it might look like.