Day two of Duffy’s bid to sue the Senate, and his lawyer came up with some…novel arguments. And it sounds like the judge wasn’t buying many of them. For example, they tried to argue that because PMO was exerting influence on the Senate’s leadership that it should nullify privilege. That’s…creative, and utterly ridiculous. When he tried to argue that the suspension should be invalid because it was done for political purposes, the judge wondered aloud if that meant she would have to call every member of the Internal Economy Committee to testify as to their motives – and no, that wasn’t going to happen she quickly decided. They also tried to argue that because the suspension wasn’t related to legislation that privilege doesn’t apply. But that’s also ridiculous because the ability to discipline its members is among the privileges outlined in Section 18 of the Constitution Act, 1867. So good luck with that.  Oh, and the “indefinite suspension” argument is also void because it wasn’t indefinite – it was until the end of the parliamentary session, and there was a fixed election date, so it would expire at that point regardless. (Also, the Senate’s privileges allow it to expel a member, so arguing that indefinite suspension is tantamount to expulsion is also not a solid argument).

The final argument was a plea to put the Charter ahead of privilege, which would go against previous Supreme Court of Canada rulings that stated just the opposite – that the Charter doesn’t trump privilege, because that would open up a floodgate to litigation against the parliamentary process. There’s a thing called stare decisis, the doctrine of precedent that binds our common law system, and while there are rare cases where it can be challenges, this isn’t one of them. It’s actually quite audacious that his lawyer would make the case, and I’m not seeing any particular argument about how the judge should invalidate a Supreme Court of Canada ruling. So yeah. Good luck to this case, because I really don’t see it going anywhere fast.

Good reads:

• The final list of retaliatory tariffs will be unveiled today, along with the aid package for steel and aluminium producers.
• Apparently, Stephen Harper requested meetings with John Bolton and Trump’s economic advisor, Larry Kudlow.
• The bill to track departures from Canada passed as part of the sweeping motion at the end of session, and it has some people worried about what they’re tracking.
• CRA released a report citing that the tax gap – essentially people sheltering taxable income off-shore – is upwards of $3 billion per year in lost revenue.
• Meanwhile, Canada is joining with four other nations to work together to share data and combat tax evasion.
• The government is looking to restrict the sale of high-powered lasers to prevent strikes against aircraft.
• One of the First Nations challenging the Arctic surf clam fishery licence has backed down, saying that government documents filed in court prove it was a fair process.
• New procurement rules assert that companies making government uniforms must conform to labour standards and fair wage practices.
• The steel for our new supply ships is coming from Alabama – but that’s what a trade agreement like NAFTA ensures.
• Government Leader in the Senate – err, “government representative” Senator Peter Harder is one of the parliamentarians named in Abousfian Abdelrazik’s lawsuit.
• The WTO upheld Australia’s plain packaging laws for tobacco, which bolsters the recent law around it passed in Canada.
• Quebec courts have suspended the province’s face-covering ban. Again.
• The acclamation of Navdeep Bains’ nomination kicks off the Liberals’ march to the next election. There won’t be many contested nominations (which is a Bad Thing).
• Bob Rae writes about the impossibility of there being “business as usual” with the United States so long as the Trumpocalypse continues.

Odds and ends:

Maclean’s asked me to look into the dubious claims made over Conservative Twitter. Here’s what I found out.

Here’s a look at the new Senate chamber that they’ll move into next year.

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