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Good reads:

• This week’s first ministers’ meeting is expected to get testy, and lo, the oil and gas sector is not explicitly on the agenda (to which Trudeau insists it’ll get discussed).
• Oh, look! Data on rural work camps and violence against women! It’s something that does happen, despite the Conservatives deriding the association made.
• Dairy producers are the beneficiaries of import quotas under TPP rules (and lo, I wrote about this being likely two months ago based on the CETA experience).
• Federal lawyers are objecting to the UCP trying to join the Saskatchewan court challenge on carbon taxes. (It is unusual for opposition parties to be party to a case).
• A lot of doubt is being raised as to whether the government will actually end arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
• Apparently Canada’s “feminist” foreign aid policy is too unfocused and spread too thin to have a meaningful effect (not to mention is underfunded).
• The Commons foreign affairs committee was supposed to have an in-camera meeting with Chinese officials, but that has been cancelled.
• The Privacy Commissioner is calling for tougher digital privacy laws.
• Environment Canada is an outlier in that it generally doesn’t track the e-waste of its weather balloons (in part because it’s too costly as we’re a vast country).
• The CFO of Hwawei was arrested in Vancouver for extradition to the United States, and that could trigger backlash from China.
• Raj Grewal’s lawyer says that all of Grewal’s gambling loans were from friends and family, and are entirely traceable.
• Ontario’s chief controller resigned after she refused to sign the Ford government’s attempt to sell the “true” size of the deficit as $15 billion.
• The New Brunswick premier wants Energy East to be revived, but TransCanada isn’t interested. It’s like there are economics at play!
• Kevin Carmichael looks at the Bank of Canada’s sudden caution on raising interest rates, in large part because of the oil price shock.
• Colby Cosh looks into Statistics Canada’s programme of testing municipal wastewater for signs of cannabis consumption.
• Chantal Hébert looks at the federal-provincial  battles over pipelines, that will play out well after the next election.
• Chris Selley disputes that there’s a crisis around the French language in Ontario.
• Andrew Coyne looks at how far Andrew Scheer is willing to go to get the far right vote on the immigration issue as he rails against the UN global migration compact.

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