With parliament resuming this week, all attention is on whether or not Senator Mike Duffy will resume his duties. After all, there have been a few signs of activity in his office, with computers being updated and such, but there remains a question as to whether his health will allow it, but we’ll see. As for the question as to whether he will be getting any back pay for his time suspended without it, well, senior senators are not so keen. In fact, the phrase “no appetite” is continually used, and they are quick to point to the fact that the Senate’s internal discipline – which the suspension was part of – was based on the Deloitte audits and not criminal findings of guilt or innocence, thus his acquittal by the courts makes it largely an irrelevant issue as far as they’re concerned. I would also add that should Duffy decide to press the issue, well, there are a few well-placed senators who around this issue who are known to leak things to the media, and who will undoubtedly start doing so about any other skeletons in Duffy’s closet that they are aware of. Meanwhile, there remain questions back in PEI about whether Duffy remains qualified to represent the province, as there is still a level of distrust that he is actually a resident (and given that it sounds like he spent the bulk of his time on suspension in Ottawa, well, that doesn’t help matters much). Meanwhile, some Conservative senators are grousing a little bit that Senator Peter Harder isn’t really providing much in the way of answers during regular Senate QP (as opposed to ministerial versions thereof). I think they’re being a bit unfair, considering that he’s been on the job only a couple of weeks and hasn’t yet staffed up his office, nor really had a chance to get proper briefings from the Privy Council Office (because yes, he has been sworn into the Privy Council to take on this job, making him a quasi-minister) on the files that he is likely to be asked about, or had much in the way of a briefing binder prepared, but it does put him on notice that they do expect him to step up his game in the role of “government representative,” particularly when it comes to being the conduit for holding the government to account. These are things that are important, especially as there are no opposition voices in the Commons from Atlantic Canada or the GTA, making the Senate’s role in asking those questions all the more important.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau will be in Toronto today to welcome Prince Harry as he makes a stop there to promote next year’s Invictus Games to be hosted there.
• While at his party’s Quebec-wing AGM over the weekend, Trudeau said that Bombardier talks are ongoing.
• The mandatory long-form census will start showing up in mailboxes this week.
• Lisa Raitt confirmed that the government spent $75 million to quietly settle Lac Mégantic compensation claims.
• The Kitsilano Coast Guard station has re-opened, but doesn’t yet have 24/7 rescue capabilites.
• The RCMP have modified their recruitment requirements to now allow permanent residents as opposed to just citizens, which may help with visible minority targets.
• The Communications Security Establishment has been negotiating with the Privacy Commissioner for the past year about how to report privacy breaches they commit.
• With the move to marijuana legalization comes the warnings about the dangers that edibles pose to children.
• Competing policy resolutions on same-sex marriage are coming to the Conservative convention.
• The legacy of harassing GLBT public servants continued well into the 1980s.
• Aaron Wherry writes about Trudeau and the issue of piplines as political leadership.
• Michael Den Tandt gives the Conservatives pointers on where to find chinks in the Liberal armour (though I think he misreads the security and defence issue).

Odds and ends:

The Senate’s social media site interviews another of its procedural clerks.

Here’s a discussion about open data in Canada.