The government christened another building
in Ottawa yesterday – the new RCMP headquarters, now to be known as the “MJ
Nadon Government of Canada Building” after former RCMP commissioner Maurice
Nadon. Government press releases lauded how Nadon was the first commissioner to allow women to train to become Mounties. Too bad they omitted all the other, less
savoury aspects of Nadon’s career, like his involvement in blatantly illegal
activities in the 1970s that eventually led to the RCMP being broken up and its domestic intelligence services spun off with the creation of CSIS. That’s
quite the role model they’re looking to honour!
The government disputes the fact that the perimeter security agreement is ready to go. But other sources have told reporters that
they’re simply trying to book a suitable photo op with President Obama, which
would, of course, be the most crucial part of any agreement for a party that
governs by press release and photo op.
What’s that? Tony Clement was a no-show at
an international freedom-of-information event? You don’t say! Meanwhile, the
interim auditor general says that yes, rules were broken with the G8 legacy
spending, but there’s no point in auditing it any further, making it a matter
for Parliament to deal with. Sadly, because of the majority mandate, it’s
unlikely we’ll see much action on that anytime soon – and seeing as voters
didn’t deem it something to worry about during the election, I fear this matter
will soon be relegated to obscurity. Transparency and accountability everyone!
Here’s an interview with CP’s Murray
Brewster about his new book on the Afghan conflict.
The Conservative war room has branded the
phasing out of the per-vote subsidy as “ending the tax on voting.” Seriously.
This kind of ridiculous rhetoric, Canada, is why we can’t have nice things.
Kady O’Malley gives us the first 10 private member’s bills to be debated in the House of Commons this session.
And Susan Delacourt looks at some questions around polling as we head into the Ontario election.
Why you can trust Xtra
