Late last week, as news came out that the Canadian government had been instrumental in getting a number of Syrian “White Helmets” and their families out of that country and that a number of them would be resettled in Canada, there was a bit of a public scrap between Conservatives as the party’s foreign affairs critic gave a position on the situation that Rempel hadn’t been consulted on, despite the fact that she’s the immigration and refugee critic. Her musing publicly as to whether the boys made the decision without her is one of those signs that perhaps not everyone is singing from the same song sheet in Andrew Scheer’s Conservative party – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – but not consulting the relevant critics before freelancing an opinion to the media is a bit of a faux pas. Whether it was sexism (per Rempel’s insinuation) or just arrogance on the part of O’Toole, remains to be determined, but it was certainly illuminating for observers.

On the subject of Rempel, the Hill Times has an extensive profile of her, which is a good read that I’d encourage everyone to do. It’s a pretty fair piece, and I would suggest to people that her persona over social media is not representative of who she is as an MP. Which isn’t to say that her social media persona isn’t a problem – it very much is, particularly when she sends her followers on the attack against someone who she has a disagreement with. But that aside, she’s the kind of MP who takes the time to do her actual job of things like reading the Estimates and the Public Accounts, and who can follow debate and ask questions that aren’t scripted (and indeed, she tends to eschew talking points whenever possible). We need more MPs who take the job as seriously as she does.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau attended the funeral of the two killed in last week’s Toronto shooting, and said he’s looking to practices in other countries to curb gun violence.
• The Americans have rebuffed Canada’s attempt to join high-level NAFTA talks between the US and Mexico.
• The federal government won’t move to decriminalise other drugs despite the calls from cities to do so (seriously, they don’t have the political capital right now).
• The government’s attempt to put all infrastructure spending on an online map has hit hurdles because not everyone has the same reporting requirements.
• The government is also looking at a “tiered” compensation for those public servants affected by the Phoenix payroll fiasco.
• The Parliamentary Protective Service is looking for an outside investigator to help deal with harassment complaints, after they had a backlog of them.
• The government is mandating “scientific integrity” policies for all departments by December 31^st(not that it would help a future government acting in bad faith).
• The justice department is set to give its approval for roadside saliva testing devices to detect THC.
• Former Conservative House Leader Peter Van Loan has decided to retire as of September 30^th.
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at how federal boundaries are set, given the drama happening with Toronto right now.
• Paul Wells takes a trip to Queen’s Park to see Doug Ford in action.
• In case you missed them, here are my columns on certain newspapers of record ginning up Senate expense drama, and the brewing problem with MP casework.

Odds and ends:

From me in Law Timesare litigation funding stories touching on personal injury firms, insolvency disputes, loans, and cost protection insurance.

Tristin Hopper explains why Alberta separatism is the dumbest idea alive.

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