The government came out with their updated Ministerial Directive on safeguards against using information obtained through torture, tightening the language, but still keeping some ability to act on such information in very limited circumstances, much to the chagrin of the NDP and several civil society groups. After all, the NDP have been howling about this in Question Period for months now, and now that it’s finally happened, and it’s not what they’re calling for, I’m sure that we’ll be in for weeks and weeks of this yet again in QP. That being said, some national security experts are saying that the government pretty much got it right given the complexity of the situation, so I’ll leave you with Stephanie Carvin to explain it all.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/912362929961553922

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/912363850858663936

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/912364576582365185

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/912380725088931841

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/912381103452901377

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/912381685861425154

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/912381896495071234

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/912438237293158401

Good reads:

• At the NAFTA talks, negotiators are still waiting for key American demands. Chrystia Freeland spent a dinner with counterparts talking about cultural protections.
• Maclean’s caught up with the drafters of the proposed Indigenous chapter of a renegotiated NAFTA, and looks at the issue of country-of-origin rules.
• The President of Ukraine wants Canadian satellite images to help track Russians in in Eastern Ukraine, and wants Canadian peacekeepers to help end that conflict.
• Here’s another look at some of the numbers being tossed around in the debate on the proposed tax changes.
• The Conservatives are creating a fuss over plans to close some government offices in rural areas (while the piece neglects to mention the challenge of attracting staff).
• Here’s a look at the state of the debate on the government’s proposed reforms to the Access to Information Act.
• Ontario is asking for an additional 12 judges than the current maximum they now have (assuming all of the vacancies were filled).
• CBC digs into the issue of the debate on replacing the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor along with the plans to build a new bridge.
• The NDP are crying conflict-of-interest as one of the marijuana task force members has signed on with a company looking to produce.
• Senator Yuen Pau Woo has been acclaimed as the new “facilitator” of the Independent Senators Group.
• There is chatter that any potential candidates for the nomination to replace Arnold Chan would step aside if his widow opted to run in his place.
• The Conservatives have nominated a staffer to run in Rona Ambrose’s former riding, meaning that former leadership candidate Rick Peterson won’t be running after all.
• The National Post has an interview with Charlie Angus about his dislike of politics and his vision of grassroots engagement in a more decentralized party.
• Kady O’Malley wonders why the government hasn’t scheduled any opposition Supply Days as of yet this fall.
• Stephen Gordon argues that $90,000 still makes up upper middle class, no matter where in the country you live.
• Andrew Coyne remarks on the absurdity of the class war over the tax changes when everything is about the “middle class” even though it’s not.
• Paul Wells finds the government’s claims of moral superiority around the tax changes to be a bit confused, especially when confronted with straw men in debate.
• Wells also questions the government’s plans for their new science advisor, and the inherent contradictions between having it and a minister for science.

Odds and ends:

For the Law Times, I wrote about some of the potential unintended consequences for those proposed tax changes.

Here’s a tour of some of the more interesting (and salacious) tales of Parliament Hill.

At the Invictus Games in Toronto, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made their first official appearance as a couple.