Hey, what harm could possibly come from appointing a former military industry lobbyist as Minister of Defense.

The Chronicle-Herald reports on a planned $5 million sole-source contract being granted by the Department of National Defence to a partner of the company which employed Gordon O’Connor as a lobbyist:

As the Jurist points out, what makes this all the more questionable is that there’s no need for this contract to be rushed since there aren’t any plans in the foreseeable future to deploy these vehicles.

A new study pegs the number of excess deaths in Iraq since the 2003 invasion at 600,000. You can read the actual study here (pdf).