Dropping the In & Out appeal

The Conservatives have quietly decided to drop their appeal at the Supreme Court over the In and Out affair, and they’re paying back the money they owe to Elections Canada “under protest.” It had been mentioned that nobody wants to fight a war on two fronts and that possibly the Robocon allegations have shaken them up more than they want to admit.

Today’s Robocon revelations are that the
mysterious “Pierre Poutine” may have in fact used a real address in Joliette,
Quebec (not the “Separatist Avenue,” obviously), in dealing with RackNine, though

considering that the phone logs show only that it called from Guelph, the person
behind it might never have actually been to Joliette. Meanwhile, Elections
Canada is looking for PayPal Canada’s records as part of the investigation
into the Guelph robo-calls. There are new questions about RMG’s role in the
Mississauga East-Cooksville riding and what they were paid to carry out. And
Elections Canada has launched an online complaint form for people who want to
report any robo-calls in the last election that directed them to a wrong
polling station.

Speaker Scheer has ruled that internet
hacker group Anonymous breached Vic Toews’ privileges as an MP in
threatening him, and the House has voted to send the matter to the committee for procedures and
House affairs. So that they can call Anonymous as a witness?
Brilliant thinking, MPs! Meanwhile, Dean Del Mastro’s attempt to get the former
staffer behind VikiLeaks to answer questions at the ethics committee (despite
it not being that committee’s purview – that would be the aforementioned procedures and House affairs) hits a few snags as opposition MPs point out just
what they’d be asking the investigation to look at – such as going through
Toews’ divorce papers to ensure that the tweeted portions were indeed accurate.

Conservatives on the immigration committee
have put forward the recommendation that the minister cap applications to deal
with the backlog. Err, you guys do know what happened the last time the
government tried to impose caps, right? How it actually made the problem worse?

Yeah, and that’ll change this time how?

The government voted down an NDP opposition
day motion to spare Veterans Affairs from budget cuts, under the argument that
the cuts are to the rampant bureaucracy and red tape, not
services. Meanwhile, former soldiers are complaining about the demeaning and
abusive treatment they’re receiving at the hands of the Veterans Appeal Board.

Here’s a look at how the Conservatives are planning to rebuild the National Research Council from a body focused on pure
research to one focused more on commercializing Canadian discoveries.

Conservative Senator Doug Finley believes
that any group that protests developing the oil sands should lose its
charitable status. Because the only shady foreign money is the kind that
opposes development, not the kind that encourages it.

And if you’re curious, Evan
Solomon interviewing Niki Ashton is possibly the

most awkward and painful NDP leadership candidate interview imaginable.