Should Supreme Court judges be able to do their jobs in French and English?

The Commissioner of Official Languages thinks so.

At a news conference today accompanying the release of his annual report, Commissioner Graham Fraser called the ability to interpret the law and deal with lawyers in both languages "a competence requirement " for appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Environmental groups say the confusing array of proposals emerging to tax carbon can be sorted out with one simple rule, "follow the money."

The Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation held a briefing in Ottawa Thursday to explain how a carbon tax system could work in Canada.

Canadians are facing a barrage of proposals for a carbon tax to cut greenhouse gasses and the two environmental groups say people need to understand what's being pushed politically.

Ever since facing criticism about being too tight-lipped about our mission in Afghanistan, the Department of Foreign Affairs has been holding regular weekly briefings with reporters.

Usually there are one or two central figures who will provide on-the-record comments, and then a group of senior officials from various departments provide background information.

The Prime Minister's Office got a little ahead of itself this morning and almost triggered another diplomatic incident over Afghanistan.

This time it was PMO communications staff who told reporters travelling with the Prime Minister that after a bilateral meeting last night with Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, Berlusconi had decided to lift the "caveats" that currently apply to Italian troops serving with NATO in Afghanistan.

Reporters travelling with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his three-day, four-country European tour have been wondering for a little while now, just what is this all about?

Why Europe? Why now, and what exactly is the prime minister doing here?

Harper's office says the trip is about talking to European leaders in advance of the G8 leaders summit in Japan in July. On the agenda, the PMO says, climate change, trade and the global economy.

Harper has so far met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But what do leaders talk about behind closed doors? And, does any of it matter?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his entourage have just touched down in Rome for another brief stop on a whirlwind of brief stops in Western Europe.

Rome will probably be the high point for Joe Comuzzi. The former Liberal MP from Thunder Bay-Superior North is one of the few members of the Conservative caucus who is of Italian descent and he was lucky enough to be invited on the prime minister's trip.

In Canada the fall out from the resignation of Maxime Bernier as minister of foreign affairs is front page news. And it's being noted in papers around the world.

The London Times' North American section leads with the Bernier story. Le Monde also has the Bernier story at the top of its Americas section.

Evidently tired of waiting for Stephen Harper to kick-start his long-promised public inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, the House ethics committee may take matters into its own hands this week.

It is expected to debate and vote on an opposition motion Thursday that would soon order Mulroney back before MPs for more testimony — regardless of the seemingly stalled inquiry process.

It must be frustrating to travel to an entirely different continent and still find no escape from the parochial preoccupations of home.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is finding that part of the job never changes.

In Paris this afternoon he made himself available to reporters.

His press secretary even warmed up the accompanying media with enthusiastic encouragement to ask questions on as wide ranging an array of issues as possible. "Productive questions will get productive answers," he broadly hinted.

As for Harper, he gamely tried to steer the event in the direction of the many important and interesting international issues on his agenda.

But, you know, things never seem to work out the way you plan.

Parliament Hill has been buzzing like an overheated BlackBerry as everyone speculates about the implications of Maxime Bernier's resignation as minister of foreign affairs and what the government's next move will be.

Bernier already has a new desk in the House of Commons. He has been shuffled off the front bench to the second row behind Bev Oda, the minister for international cooperation, his former understudy.

But a quick visit to Bernier's website shows that he has been too distracted to update his page. His home page tells visitors he is "The MP for Beauce and minister of foreign affairs."

It continues: "Welcome to maximebernier.com. In the communications age, this new tool will enable you to track me online as I perform my duties as an MP and a minister."

Of course, in the communications age, all you need is an old tool like a cheap radio or TV to know what this minister has been up to.

Oh, there is a photo gallery on his site. But no pictures of his ex-girlfriend.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was pretty much the last item on Nicolas Sarkozy's agenda today.

Even though the prime minister's military plane touched down in Paris just after noon, Sarkozy was unable to meet the PM until the supper hour.

Harper killed some time by attending the official opening of an art exhibit commemorating the exodus of hundreds of French families to Quebec City four hundred years ago.

There was a modest ribbon cutting and a quick tour of the show by the artist involved.

Reporters were able to take it all in for a few minutes before they were escorted up three flights of stairs to a library featuring books about Canada. There were even a few about Stephen Harper himself.

The speakers of both the Senate and the House of Commons thanked Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko for his address to a joint sitting of Parliament today.

Both also congratulated Yushchenko for Ukraine's hosting the World Cup tournament in 2012.

Right sport, wrong tournament. In 2012, Ukraine and Poland will actually co-host the UEFA Euro Cup, the premier challenge of the Union of European Football Associations — not the FIFA World Cup, which is the tournament hosted by the sport's international body.

Although those who follow these things closely will probably just roll their eyes at such a mistake coming from people who still refer to the sport as soccer.

In May of 2007, Jeff Monaghan, a civil servant with Environment Canada, was led out of a government office tower in handcuffs.

He was accused of leaking a government policy paper on climate change a week before it was to be released to the public.

Now, newly released documents under the Access to Information Act show the Mounties brought in their crack anti-terrorism unit to pursue the case.

The setting of today's labelling announcement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper was a carefully chosen apple orchard with a red barn in the background.

Bushels of shiny red apples, even though they are not in season, were laid out just so. The topic was the sometimes misleading label "product of Canada."

Agriculture experts have long argued that this label is hurting Canadian farmers because foods grown in other countries — apples from China, olives from Europe and pineapples from the Caribbean, for instance — are often labelled as products of Canada simply because they are packaged here.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's attacks on his home province of Ontario — now that it is being run by Liberals — have become so commonplace that even other Ontario Conservative MPs have chimed in.

But now the federal government appears to be broadening its offensive.

This morning, International Trade Minister David Emerson was speaking to a conference in Ottawa about increasing trade between Canada and the European Union. When discussing the importance of provincial involvment to a room full of European ambassadors as well as business leaders from both sides of the Atlantic, Emerson praised Quebec's efforts in this area and said he hoped Ontario would "find the religion soon."

The comment seemed out of place for a man who was elected in B.C. as a Liberal, then quickly crossed the floor for a cabinet position.

Emerson usually refrains from such overly partisan attacks and the timing of this one felt off as well: Just the night before, Quebec Premier Jean Charest recognized Ontario as a partner in his efforts to strengthen Canada-EU trade links.

Last Wednesday, Political Bytes told you that on May 29, Prime Minister Harper would be giving a lunch speech to the Canada UK Chamber of Commerce in London.

We also told you the Chamber was selling sponsorships for the lunch.

Well today the sponsor list has been released.

There are two Platinum sponsors, Petro-Canada and RBC International Wealth Management.

In the Gold category five companies ponied up; CIBC, Access Self Storage and Fasken Martineau Stringer Saul LLP, Nexen and Rio Tinto plc.

Silvers went to Fairmont Hotels, Pengrowth Management Ltd. and TD Securities, and the three Bronze sponsors are Air Canada, Ernst & Young and the Ontario International Marketing Centre.

Remember last March when Prime Minister Stephen Harper filed a $2.5 million libel suit against the Liberals over statements published on the party's website alleging the Tories offered a bribe to the late Independent MP Chuck Cadman?

Today the Liberal Party filed a Statement of Defence in the case arguing that Harper's claim constitutes "a fundamental attack on freedom of political expression."

The Liberal Party states the comments were "fair" and "made in good faith and without malice on matters of public interest."

The party denies that Harper has suffered any damages, and describes the $2.5 M claim as "excessive." The party contends that if the Prime Minister suffered any damages it was from Harper's own actions, by failing to explain his own words as recorded on audio tape by a journalist the day the Tories met with Cadman.

The Statement of Defence concludes by arguing the purpose of Harper's claim is to stifle public debate and limit the opposition from fulfilling its duty in investigating and communicating the matter.

The party is asking that the lawsuit be dismissed with costs.

After two years of planning a new future for the Canadian forces, the Conservative government today announced what it called the Canada First Defence Strategy.

The strategy is essentially the plan to replace six old and, in some cases, rusting pieces of equipment with new ones, which is what the Conservatives promised to do in the last election campaign, two and a half years ago.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is promising to spend as much as $30 billion over 20 years to replace ships, vehicles, rescue and surveillance planes, and fighter aircraft. But not all of this is new.

In fact, planning for all of those projects has been under way for some time. In some cases, plans to purchase the equipment had been announced but then cancelled and then, in at least one case, reannounced when the Conservatives took office.

The prime minister said the Canadian Forces would be expanded to 100,000 soldiers, sailors and air crew, which is also a number already promised.

He also said the defence budget would be doubled in 20 years, which may happen. But defence spending, of course, is notoriously at the whim of whoever is in office.

Everyone knows Stephen Harper is a big hockey fan.

They also know the prime minister is a big fan of Canada's military.

So, it's no surprise that he followed up a major defence announcement today in Halifax by watching Team Canada take on Finland in defence of its world championship title.

Harper and Defence Minister Peter MacKay laid out the government's ''Canada First" strategy. It calls for a major expansion of Canada's military to 100,000 soldiers and reservists.

The strategy also commits to substantial investments in ships, aircraft and land combat vehicles.

No word yet on how much the government invested to secure tickets for today's game.

Public Works Minister and Senator Michael Fortier isn't often quoted on the news of the day.

He does not have a seat in the House of Commons and is not easily found to be scrummed.

But when he does talk publicly he often surprises people with his take.

Today, Senator Fortier was interviewed on Radio Canada's all news network with host Christiane Charette. He was asked about the controversy surrounding Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier's former girlfriend and her alleged connections to biker gangs.

An audience with Prime Minister Stephen Harper is such a rare thing for journalists these days, reporters have been known to leap out of their desks and sprint for the chance to grab a little tape.

And that was exactly the scene at newsrooms across Ottawa Thursday when the Gallery announced the Prime Minister would talk to reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons, in precisely ten minutes.

The logic is not immediately apparent but some opposition MPs are hailing today's non-meeting of the federal justice committee as "progress."

The committee chair, Conservative MP Art Hanger, walked out of the committee about five minutes after the meeting started. But at least this time he explained why.

Hanger has abruptly walked out of at least six previous committee meetings, which brings them to a screeching halt.

The reason for the stalemate is the so-called Cadman affair — allegations that senior members of the Conservative party offered the late Independent MP Chuck Cadman a life insurance policy if he agreed to vote against the previous Liberal government in 2005 and bring it down.

The Prime Minister's Office has yet to publicly confirm that Stephen Harper will be travelling to London this month, but the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce has no such inhibitions.

The Chamber confirms that Harper will be its lunch guest on May 29th and promises the he "will be making an important announcement" at the event. In fact, tickets are already on sale!

More interesting to some perhaps, is that the Chamber got permission from the PMO to raise money from the event by offering introductions and photos with the PM to "sponsors."

Sponsorship is a label that might raise an eyebrow here, but apparently carries no freight in the UK.

It isn’t just children who need rules.

Apparently, if you want politicians to behave well, you have to lay down the law with them, too.

More questions and not a lot of answers today about the future of Atomic Energy of Canada.

They came at the House of Commons standing committee looking at budget spending at the Department of Natural Resources.

Minister Gary Lunn was on the hot seat answering questions about Atomic Energy's future.

As of tomorrow it will be one month to the day that the government received a report on the Mulroney/Schreiber affair.

Dr. David Johnston recommended the inquiry be limited and that the commissioner even consider holding some of the inquiry behind closed doors.

Which brings us to our next point: what about that commissioner?

Is it Burma or Myanmar?

The name of the country devastated by a cyclone over the weekend is disputed.

The federal government was clearly serious when it said it wanted to get Canadian Brenda Martin out of a Mexican jail as quickly as it could.

Correctional Services Canada chose the speediest — and most expensive — method to transfer Martin to Canada, a Challenger jet.

How expensive? $82,787.

That's the amount that Fox Aviation, a Montreal-based firm, is billing the government for the chartered flight. The invoice includes 10+ hours of navigation and incidentals such as landing and air fees, and parking.

CSC said the decision to order a Challenger was made based on a number of factors including availability, security and the location of the offender. Clearly, Ottawa was also considering the emotional state of Martin who had been languishing in a Mexican jail for two years before she was convicted and who has been routinely described as distraught and suicidal.

There are three types of air travel available to CSC when it needs to transfer prisoners across international boundaries: an RCMP plane, charters and commercial flights.

The House of Commons adjourned early today and all afternoon committee hearings were suddenly canceled.

A water pump in the downtown core of Ottawa failed this afternoon and water pressure is low.

The reign of Defence Minister Peter MacKay is over.

After nine years as the "sexiest MP" in the male category, MacKay was defeated this year when Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier won more votes from political staffers on Parliament Hill.