Mark Warawa did rise in the House of Commons yesterday, and he did talk about sex-selective abortion and, just as Aaron Wherry predicted, he did win his simmering showdown with his party whip. In doing so, he took the hard road to succeeding as a backbencher; indeed, the easier route would involve introducing, say, a private member’s bill to strengthen the criminal code that earns the support of the government. The National Post‘s John Ivison called Warawa’s stand a “giant leap for backbench democracy.”

But what happens next? Warawa has now spoken against sex-selective abortion, and Hansard has recorded his remarks for posterity. The spring season seems to have come and gone, as Ottawa’s winter transformed neatly into summer without much in between. What of the Wherry-coined Spring that caught the House’s attention? What do its practitioners do for an encore?

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What’s above the fold this morning?

The Globe and Mail leads with the European Union’s refusal to back down from a pledge to label Canadian oil exports as dirty. The National Post fronts the FBI’s arrest of Ahmed Abassi, the third suspect in an alleged plot to derail a Via train between New York and Toronto. The Toronto Star goes above the fold with Abassi’s conversations about contaminating air or water and killing thousands of civilians. The Ottawa Citizen leads with the “crisis” in the Senate related to expenses improperly claimed by a trio of Senators. iPolitics fronts NDP Leader Tom Mulcair’s real prospects of winning the next election. CBC.ca leads with the survival of a Bangladeshi woman after 17 days caught in the rubble of a collapsed garment factory. National Newswatch showcases the resignation of Nova Scotia cabinet minister Percy Paris after he allegedly assaulted a fellow MLA.

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Stories that will be (mostly) missed

1. Corruption. Former Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt was arrested yesterday and questioned on charges of gangsterism. Vaillancourt had served 23 years as the city’s chief magistrate.	2. Passports. A Canadian family has lost the ability to apply for passports for five years after the feds determined the family obtained a passport and allowed an impostor to use it to enter Canada.
3. Terrorism. Aaron Yoon, a man who was said to influence two Canadians who died at a fatal hostage taking in an Algerian gas plant last January, faces a new trial in Mauritania.	4. Religion. In the wake of census data suggesting membership in the United Church has dropped by 30 per cent since 2001, the church’s General Council is cutting 28 jobs in its Toronto office.

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