Calling shenanigans on abuse of process

Liberal MP Sean Casey is calling shenanigans on the government’s continual use of in camera meetings of the veterans’ affairs committee, which are an abuse of process, and he’s threatening to call a privilege motion about it. Meanwhile, over in the public accounts committee, it appears the Conservatives are using their majority to block further appearances by the auditor general, which could very well be another troubling sign of the times. Because it’s not enough that the Conservatives have a majority — they have to be dickish about everything while they’re at it, apparently.

All the
drama and the crises that Canada found itself over Afghan detainees began because of American abuses in places like Abu Ghraib, which led to our turning
our detainees over to Afghan authorities (where they were subsequently abused). And
now, we have signed an agreement whereby any future detainees that we may find
ourselves in possession of as a result of our training mission in that country
will now be turned over to . . . an American-run facility.

The government is continuing the largest
ever crackdown on supposed “fraudulent” citizens, stripping them of their
citizenship status. There is no price tag attached to the project, and one has
to wonder what kind of accountability measures are in place to ensure that
these are all, indeed, people who achieved their citizenship by fraudulent means
and that those who are caught up in this unfairly have a mechanism of recourse.

NDP leadership hopeful Brian Topp has
decided he won’t run in the by-election in Toronto Danforth, despite the fact
that he lives in Toronto. He plans to run for a Quebec seat at a future date.

Here is a look at the need to spend to save at the nascent Shared Services Canada, where the plan is to start consolidating
IT services across the government over the next eight years.

A woman who used to be a lieutenant colonel
in the Canadian Forces says the national anthem doesn’t represent her,

given that women are excluded from it. More fuel for the fire that Senator
Nancy Ruth has lit under Harper?

PostMedia has a series on 10 years of
medical marijuana in Canada.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel’s
performance in QP last week was exemplary, and it’s attracting notice.

And this Sunday will mark 80 years of the
Statute of Westminster, which gave us complete autonomy as a colony and led to the establishment of a separate monarchy, paving the way to a
number of other distinctly Canadian institutions.