Ottawa

Who cares if Pamela Wallin owns an apartment in New York?

Tease the day: It’s open season on Canada’s expense-challenged Senators

Adrian Wyld/CP

Pamela Wallin owns a bachelor apartment in New York City, just a couple of blocks away from Central Park. The property was transferred to Wallin, the Toronto Star reports, at the tail-end of her stint as consul general in the city. For her part, Wallin says she rarely visits the place. Why any of this information is important is an open question. Does it matter that Wallin owns the apartment? Beyond their mandated residences, are Senators’ properties, wherever they may be, of interest to the broader public? Readers can answer those questions for themselves. But what we have here is an informal declaration of open season on Canada’s Senators, particularly the handful whose expenses are being audited. There’s a point where newsworthiness fades away and gotcha for gotcha’s sake begins, and as reporters dig up more and more “dirt” on Canada’s troubled Senators, that line’s worth looking for.


What’s above the fold this morning?

The Globe and Mail leads with Alberta’s projected $4-billion budget deficit. The National Post fronts Canada Revenue Agency’s potential back taxation of parents after revoking the charitable status of a Christian school fund. The Toronto Star goes above the fold with the latest, young victim of the city’s gun violence. The Ottawa Citizen leads with Canada’s new ambassador of religious freedom, Andrew Bennett. iPolitics fronts Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber’s move to the Commons’ Aboriginal affairs committee. CBC.ca leads with police opposition to accused murderer Oscar Pistorius’ bail application. National Newswatch showcases a Toronto Star story about Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin’s New York residence.


Stories that will be (mostly) missed

1. RCMP watchdog. The Mounties’ complaints commission will investigate the claims of police wrongdoing in B.C. made by Human Rights Watch in a report released last week. 2. Mandatory minimums. Crown attorneys are crowding a Toronto courtroom in defence of the government’s new gun laws, as six cases involving gun violence are heard this week.
3. Private clinic. An Alberta clinic is denying allegations that it helped its patients, who pay thousands of dollars a year for care, jump queues for colonoscopies at a public facility. 4. Washrooms. The University of Regina will convert some of its single-toilet facilities into gender-neutral washrooms, a change that requires nothing more than a new sign on the door.

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