With the clock ticking down to the end of the current parliament, the government is going to start lighting a fire to getting C-51 passed over the next two weeks, before the Easter break. That means accelerating the committee hearings to largely stuff them in the next week, with lots of witnesses in single sittings and little time to hear from each of them. It’s not a surprise that the government would use this particular tactic again to ram though contentious legislation, as they’ve done repeatedly, because they apparently have little capacity or desire to actually do the due diligence that they’re supposed to when it comes to these kinds of bills. Not surprisingly, there’s going to be plenty of opposition to large parts of the bill, and some of those who do support parts of the bill are at least concerned that there’s not enough study of the ramifications, or that there is enough needed oversight. But will the government make changes? Unlikely. Adding their voices to the opposition to the bill over the weekend was the Canadian Bar Association.

Good reads:

• Civil servants from Public Safety are warning the government not to remove the “green” requirement for infrastructure project funds because of climate change mitigation needs.
• The cost of veterans using medical marijuana jumped tenfold over the last year to $4.3 million, which is also uncomfortable for a government trying to push an anti-pot message.
• Stephen Harper is meeting with the Secretary General of NATO before the debate on a renewed Iraq mission begins – not that NATO is involved in that conflict.
• The Canadian Press got a look at the documents behind the government’s $24 million attempt at marketing Canadian oil to Americans.
• If you ignore all of the utter nonsense about attrition and the talk about electing Senators, this is a decent interview with Senator Denise Batters.
• Patricia Treble traces all of the Canadian connections to the discovery and re-burial of Richard III.

Odds and ends:

Thomas Mulcair says he doubts any of his MPs will see their salaries garnisheed at the end of the month for the satellite offices, because the matter is before the courts.

It was a record year for privacy breaches in the federal government last year, due in part to screw-ups by Shared Services Canada. Remind me why that was such a good idea.

Here’s an interesting look at post-war denazification and how that can be applied to the current issue with ISIS recruits.