LONG GUN REGISTRY FOE GETS A HIGH PROFILE APPOINTMENT: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has positioned a high-profile Manitoba Conservative MP who led a Parliamentary battle against the federal long-gun registry as the chair of a top-secret panel of MPs that will vet candidates to fill two crucial vacancies on the Supreme Court of Canada. Mr. Harper’s appointment of Candice Hoeppner (Portage-Lisgar, Man.) to the panel was quietly announced in a news release posted on the Justice Department’s web site last Friday, the same day the other two Conservative MPs on the panel elected her as its chair during the group’s first meeting. (The Hill Times)