4 dead after mid-air crash north of Whistler

Four people are dead after a collision involving a glider and a small plane near Pemberton, B.C., north of Whistler, on Saturday afternoon around 1 p.m. PT.

Second Lt. Erin Edwards with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria said crews have recovered the bodies of the pilots and passengers from both aircraft which fell into the area of Nairn Falls Provincial Park.

Nairn Falls Provincial Park

A man who witnessed the immediate aftermath of the crash described hearing a "big bang" and then seeing a glider spiral down to the ground.

Dan Wall, who was on a bike trail near the park campground, about 50 kilometres north of Whistler, said the trees were so tall that he couldn't properly see what happened in the air.

However, after the loud noise, he and his companions saw a plane moving over the trees, and a glider falling.

"The glider hit the ground. You could hear it. You could see the debris in the air, so people started taking cover," he said.

The campground was fully occupied at the time. No campers were hurt, although an RCMP spokesman said debris fell within six metres of some campers.

The Transportation Safety Board confirmed it has sent investigators to probe the mid-air collision that killed four people and a dog near Pemberton Saturday. (Photo courtesy David Buzzard)

One of Wall's companions is a search-and-rescue volunteer, so the group headed towards the wreck of the glider. The glider came down just outside the campground, near a park maintenance area.

Wall stood back, but said there was visible fire, and witnesses grabbed small fire extinguishers from the maintenance area and started putting it out.

He did not see anyone being pulled from the gliders, but also said he didn't want to get in the way and didn't go very close.

"The glider scene was... it was pretty brutal," he said.

Wall said he did not know what happened to the small plane that he saw fly overhead after hearing the initial bang.

"Apparently, from what we heard from firefighters that arrived on scene, the plane had continued on and actually crash-landed on the opposite side of Green River, which runs alongside the campground," Wall said.

Officials with CFB Comox confirmed that four people and a dog had died as a result of the mid-air collision between a two-seat glider and a Cessna 150. The Cessna was from 100 Mile House, a community northeast of Whistler.

Officials do not know if the plane was towing the glider.

Police have notified the next of kin, but the victims' names have not been released.

The Transportation Safety Board confirmed it has sent investigators to the crash sites, and will be launching an investigation.

Witnesses at Nairn Falls Provincial Park campground area took cover as debris fell from the sky. (Photo courtesy David Buzzard)A Canadian Forces cormorant helicopter from CFB Comox was dispatched to assist with search and recovery efforts at Nairn Falls Provincial Park. (Photo courtesy David Buzzard) With files from the CBC's Theresa Lalonde and Chad Pawson and The Canadian Press

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Big Brother's power is building, warns George Orwell biographer

Earlier this month, the most talked about novelist in the English language wasn't Dan Brown, Stephen King or George R. R. Martin and his Game of Thrones series. It was George Orwell, whose most famous novel, 1984, saw its sales spike by a reported 7,000 per cent.

Of course, this happened after Edward Snowden pulled back the curtain on a massive surveillance program in which the U.S. National Security Agency could scour the data on the cellphone and internet activity of U.S. citizens. Terms like Orwellian and Big Brother became ubiquitous in the media and everyday conversation.

That came as no surprise to Michael Shelden, a professor of English at Indiana State University and the author of Orwell: The Authorized Biography.

"People realize that this problem of Big Brother watching you is not going to go away," professor Shelden told The Sunday Edition's guest host, Kevin Sylvester.

Michael Shelden, author of Orwell: The Authorized Biography, says George Orwell was prophetic on the subject of government surveillance capabilities. "Orwell could see how the power would accumulate and would be imposed whether you wanted it imposed or not." (Courtesy Michael Shelden)

"It's an incredible phrase. I think we've taken it for granted for many years, but it probably is one of the most prophetic things said in a novel in the past hundred years."

Orwell, professor Shelden pointed out, is still the reference point whenever stories emerge about surveillance of the public and increasing government controls over civilian populations.

"Orwell is the one who saw this. He's the one who got it right. Orwell could see how the power would accumulate and would be imposed whether you wanted it imposed or not. There was a certain acquiescence, of course, but he once said, 'The object of power is power.'"

But after the initial burst of outrage at the growing appetite of governments for surveillance and data on their citizens in the name of fighting terrorism, there's also a sense that a lot of people are not all that upset. Many people still happily make their private lives very public on social media and pay little heed to the omnipresent security cameras in the public sphere.

And a survey by the Pew Research Centre found that a majority of Americans think that tracking phone records to investigate potential terror threats is more important than the right to privacy.

'"We have a situation now where a lot of people take this kind of intrusion into our private lives increasingly for granted. I don't think we should.'—Michael Shelden

"We have a situation now where a lot of people take this kind of intrusion into our private lives increasingly for granted. I don't think we should," said professor Shelden.

"Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning. He felt that if someone didn't sound the alarm loudly enough, eventually a lot of the freedoms he cherished would be lost, and people would wake up one day and wonder where they'd gone."

You can hear Kevin Sylvester's full interview with Michael Shelden about the vision and continued relevance of George Orwell on The Sunday Edition's site, or through the link at the top-left of this story.

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Protests for and against Morsi spark fears of violence

Thousands of people are gathering in cities across Egypt ahead of large protests planned for today.

Many of the demonstrators want President Mohamed Morsi to step down, saying he has failed to tackle Egypt's economic and security problems.

Chants of "erhal!" or "leave!" rang out in Tahrir Square. (Amr Nabil/Associated Press)

Opponents of the Islamist president were gathering in Cairo's Tahrir Square, while supporters staged their own rallies on the other side of the Egyptian capital, near the presidential palace.

Some government backers wore homemade body armour and construction hats and carried shields and clubs —-precautions, they said, against possible violence.

"Morsi told The Guardian newspaper that he's not going anywhere and that if he stepped down there would be further chaos in Egypt," said CBC's Derek Stoffeld, reporting from the scene of the pro-government rally.

"There is sort of an expectation that if these two groups do come together there could be trouble," Stoffel said, as four men carrying big sticks and wearing hard hats walked past.

Today marks the one-year anniversary since Morsi took power and the demonstrations reflect the growing polarization of the nation.

Petition part of recall effort

The Tamarod, or Rebel, youth movement claims it has a petition with 22 million signatures, which calls on Morsi to step down. Morsi's supporters have questioned the authenticity of the signatures.

Egypt has been roiled by political unrest in the two years since the uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak, but the latest round of protests could be one of the largest.

The Egyptian leader and his Islamist allies are in one camp and seculars, liberals, moderate Muslims and Christians are in the other.

In the past week alone, at least seven people have been killed in clashes between the president's supporters and opponents in cities in the Nile Delta, while on Friday protesters ransacked and torched as least five Brotherhood offices across the country.

A 21-year-old American college student was stabbed to death on Friday during a protest outside a Muslim Brotherhood office in Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria. Andrew Pochter had travelled to the country to teach English to children for the summer.

Adding to the tension, eight legislators from the country's interim legislature announced their resignation on Saturday to protest Morsi's policies. The 270-seat chamber was elected early last year by less than 10 per cent of Egypt's eligible voters, and is dominated by Islamists, who support Morsi.

Travel advisories

The U.S. is advising citizens to "defer non-essential travel to Egypt at this time" because of unrest in the country.

"U.S. citizens are urged to remain alert to local security developments and to be vigilant regarding their personal security," Friday's advisory said.

Canada's current advisory urges travellers to "exercise a high degree of caution" when visiting Egypt. Canada advises against all travel to the Sinai Peninsula — excluding coastal resorts — as well as Port Said, Suez and Ismailia.

With files from The Associated Press

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Germany compares reported U.S. bugging to 'Cold War'

A top German official accused the United States on Sunday of using "Cold War" methods against its allies, after a German magazine cited secret intelligence documents to claim that U.S. spies bugged European Union offices.

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger was responding to a report by German news weekly Der Spiegel, which claimed that the U.S. National Security Agency eavesdropped on EU offices in Washington, New York and Brussels. The magazine cited classified U.S. documents taken by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that it said it had partly seen.

"If the media reports are accurate, then this recalls the methods used by enemies during the Cold War," Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said in a statement to The Associated Press.

"It is beyond comprehension that our friends in the United States see Europeans as enemies," she said, calling for an "immediate and comprehensive" response from the U.S. government to the claims.

'It is beyond comprehension that our friends in the United States see Europeans as enemies.'—German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger

According to Der Spiegel, the NSA planted bugs in the EU's diplomatic offices in Washington and infiltrated the building's computer network. Similar measures were taken at the EU's mission to the United Nations in New York, the magazine said.

Der Spiegel didn't publish the alleged NSA documents it cited or say how it obtained access to them. But one of the report's authors is Laura Poitras, an award-winning documentary filmmaker who interviewed Snowden while he was holed up in Hong Kong.

The magazine also didn't specify how it learned of the NSA's alleged eavesdropping efforts at a key EU office in Brussels. There, the NSA used secure facilities at NATO headquarters nearby to dial into telephone maintenance systems that would have allowed it to intercept senior EU officials' calls and Internet traffic, Der Spiegel report said.

Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger urged EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to take personal responsibility for investigating the allegations.

The United States has defended its efforts to intercept electronic communications overseas by arguing that this has helped prevent terror attacks at home and abroad.

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Mayhem marks start of 100th Tour de France

Riders at the Tour de France know to expect the unexpected. But nothing could have prepared them for the mayhem that turned Saturday's first stage of the 100th Tour into a demolition derby on two wheels.

Seemingly for the first time at the 110-year-old race, one of the big buses that carry the teams around France when they're not on their bikes got stuck at the finish line, literally wedged under scaffolding, unable to move. The timing couldn't have been worse: The blockage happened as the speeding peloton was racing for home, less than 12 miles out.

Fearing the worst — a possible collision between 198 riders and the bus — race organizers took the split-second decision to shorten the race. Word went out to riders over their radios and they adapted tactics accordingly, cranking up their speed another notch to be first to the new line, now 1.8 miles closer than originally planned.

Then, somewhat miraculously, the bus for the Orica Greenedge team wriggled free. So organizers reverted to Plan A. Again over the radios, word went out to by-now confused riders and teams that the race would finish as first intended — on a long straightaway alongside the shimmering turquoise Mediterranean, where an expectant crowd waited to cheer the first stage winner of the 100th Tour.

'We've never had to change the finish line before.'—Jean-Francois Pescheux, event director

Then, bam! Two riders collided and one of them went down, setting off a chain of spills that scythed through the pack like a bowling ball.

And this was just Day One. The bad news for riders: They've still got another 20 stages and1,982 more miles to survive to the finish in Paris.

Keeping his head and riding his luck amid the chaos, Marcel Kittel sprinted for the win, claiming the first yellow jersey.

"It feels like I have gold on my shoulders," said the German rider for the Argos-Shimano team.

The 22 teams know from experience that the first days of any Tour are always tough. Everyone is nervous, full of energy and jostling for position. Adding to the stress this year is the race start in Corsica. The island's winding and often narrow roads that snake along idyllic coastlines and over jagged mountains are superbly telegenic but a worry for race favorites — the likes of Team Sky's Chris Froome and two-time former champion Alberto Contador — because a fall or big loss of time here could ruin their Tour before it really begins.

Froome survived Day One more or less unscathed. Contador didn't. The Spaniard, back at the Tour after a doping ban which also cost him his 2010 victory, crossed the line grimacing in pain, his left shoulder cut and bruised. He was tangled in the crash that threw about 20 riders to the tarmac. Contador said he'll be sore for a few days, "but I still have enough time to recover."

Calamitous chain of events

Even for the Tour, which has seen more than its fair share of dramas in 99 previous editions, Saturday's calamitous chain of events was exceptional.

"We've never had to change the finish line before," said Jean-Francois Pescheux, the event director who helps pick the route each year. "There's never been a bus stuck before."

The blockage at the line presented organizers with two solutions: cancel the stage entirely or shorten it, he said. They took the second option.

"We announced that in French, English, and Spanish on the Tour radio so that everybody was up-to-date," he said. Then, "in the following three minutes, we were told that the finish line was cleared. At that point, we announced that the finish was back to the real, original finish line."

Because of what Pescheux called "the little bout of panic and crashes" caused by this confusion, organizers subsequently decided to give everyone the same time as Kittel — 4 hours, 56 minutes, 52 seconds over the 132-mile trek from the port town of Porto Vecchio to Bastia in the north of the island.

That means no one was penalized by Saturday's events.

"It's clear there was a moment of panic, and that's why we put everybody on equal footing," said Pescheux.

"The lesson learned is that buses, that heavy vehicles, they should avoid going through the finish line," he added.

"Everybody helped out, we deflated the tires of the bus so we could move it away as the peloton was fast approaching," said Jean-Louis Pages, who manages the finish-line area.

Organizers fined the Orica Greenedge team the equivalent of $2,100. The team's sporting director, Matt White, called the incident "really unfortunate."

"We took for granted that there was enough clearance. We've had this bus since we started the team, and it's the same bus we took to the Tour last year," he said. "Our bus driver was told to move forward and became lodged under the finish gantry."

Angry reaction

Managers at other teams couldn't agree who to blame or be angry with most.

Marc Madiot of French team FDJ.FR was forgiving of the bus driver but furious with race organizers for changing their mind about where to finish the stage.

But the sporting director for Contador's Saxo-Tinkoff team, Philippe Mauduit, sided with the organizers.

"It's not the Tour's fault if there's a guy who doesn't know the height of his bus," he said.

"What caused the problems was changing the finish," said Mark Cavendish, the British sprinter who was counting on his great speed to win the stage but who instead was slowed by the crash. "It's just carnage."

His Omega Pharma-Quick Step teammate Tony Martin suffered concussion in the crash. Peter Sagan of Cannondale, another rider who was expecting to challenge for the win, finished with sticking plasters covering cuts on both legs and his left elbow. Other riders also suffered cuts and bruises. Froome's teammate Geraint Thomas flipped over his handlebars and "really whacked the back of his pelvis," said Dave Brailsford, the Team Sky manager.

"The goal for us is to get off this island in one piece, having lost no time," he said. "It's a much tougher ask than it may seem."

"You don't know what's going to happen. But you know something is going to happen," he added.

Perhaps as soon again as Sunday. The tricky second stage features four climbs along the 97-mile ride from Bastia to Ajaccio, crossing the island's mountainous spine.

Before Saturday's stage, French Sports Minister Valerie Fourneyron met with a delegation of riders unhappy that pre-race media coverage of the race dwelt heavily on doping in cycling.

That was partly the fault of Lance Armstrong. The disgraced former champion now stripped of his seven Tour wins caused a stir by telling Le Monde that he couldn't have won the race without doping.

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Half of voters don't see Conservatives as an option

Half of Canadians would not consider voting for the Conservatives in the next federal election, a new Nanos Research poll suggests.

In an interview airing Saturday on CBC Radio's The House, Nik Nanos of Nanos Research tells host Evan Solomon "the Conservatives are turning off voters."

The online survey found that 51.5 per cent of Canadians would not consider voting for the Conservatives, compared to 36.4 per cent seven months earlier.

The survey shows there's been a significant decline in the number of "people the Conservatives can try to grab, over the last number of months, and it speaks to the tough job that the Conservatives have," Nanos said.

The national survey was conducted just as MPs closed out the spring sitting of Parliament amidst several controversies, including a $90,000 cheque Stephen Harper's former chief of staff gave to Senator Mike Duffy and RCMP investigations into the Senate expenses scandal.

According to Nanos, the survey shows Canadians may be gripped with "fever" for the opposition parties.

Survey indicates possible support

The survey showed the number of Canadians that would consider voting for the Liberals grew to 62.4 per cent, from 51.5 per cent last November.

Similarly, the number of Canadians willing to consider voting for the New Democrats also climbed, up to 58.4 per cent from 50 per cent seven months earlier.

Canadians were asked, "Regardless of how you actually vote federally, would you consider or not consider voting for the following parties?"

The online survey of 1,000 Canadians was conducted between June 16 to 19, at the beginning of the last week the House of Commons was sitting. The random online survey carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Nanos explained that the number of accessible voters can be more important than a so-called "horse race" poll, which asks voters which party would get their vote if an election was held today, because it speaks to "who has the greatest potential for growth."

Another Nanos poll, released on Friday, put the Conservatives behind the Liberals in overall voting support.

That survey showed support for the Liberals at 34.2 per cent, Conservatives at 31.3 per cent and the New Democrats at 25.3 per cent.

The national Conservative policy convention, now postponed to the fall due to the floods in Alberta, is being touted as an opportunity for Harper to reset the agenda ahead of the next federal election in 2015.

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Pakistani girl accused of blasphemy now living in Canada

A Christian girl who was falsely accused of blasphemy in Pakistan has fled to Canada, CBC News has learned.

Rimsha Masih, 14, was charged with blasphemy in 2012 for allegedly burning pages of the Qu'ran.

Although she was acquitted, supporters say her family decided to live in hiding after continued threats.

The family made the secret journey to Canada just weeks ago – arriving at an undisclosed location in Toronto, according to Peter Bhatti, who runs a Christian organization that is helping them settle in Canada.

Bhatti says that Masih, her parents and her brother and sister had to leave Pakistan in order to have safe, secure lives.

Their journey to Canada comes after Masih's case sparked an international outcry when she was arrested last August.

A neighbour claimed she had burned pages of the Qu'ran. Masih – said to have Down's syndrome – spent 25 days in an adult prison before being freed on bail.

The incident fuelled new calls for reform of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which have often been used to target religious minorities and to settle personal scores.

Police believe Rimsha may have been framed by a cleric who desecrated the Qu'ran himself and then tried to make it look as if the girl did it.

Bhatti said the girl and her family have been granted special permission by the federal government to live in Canada and that they are all relieved and happy. He said the 14-year-old is thriving in her new home.

"She is doing wonderful. She is studying in school, every day, she going to school, she is learning, she is starting talking more," he told CBC's Laura Lynch.

Still, Bhatti refuses to say where she is, citing worries that she could still be a target for extremists.

Officials in Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's office have refused to comment on Masih's case, citing privacy concerns.

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How the Toronto Raptors helped spark a hoops factory

With Brampton, Ont., native Anthony Bennett making history by becoming the first Canadian No.1 NBA draft pick and with predictions that Thornhill, Ont.-born Andrew Wiggins could follow suit next year, the Greater Toronto Area seems to be building a reputation as a hoops factory for budding basketball stars.

And there could be more to come. Myck Kabongo, Kevin Pangos, Tyler Ennis and Dwight Powell are just some of the talented Toronto-area players considered to have bright futures in the league.

"You can keep going," said Leo Rautins, a television analyst for the Toronto Raptors and the former head coach for the Canadian national men's basketball team. "Right now I don't see this stopping. I think this is a cycle that's going to continue and only get better.

"You're going to consistently see Canadians at a very high level, Canadians making it to the NBA."

Over the last eight or nine years, Basketball Canada has concentrated its efforts to grow the game and offer more opportunities for development, Rautins said. But the explosion of talent may have much to do with the NBA establishing a team in Canada in 1995.

"I think the simple answer is all these kids now grew up with the NBA," Rautins said. "The NBA came in '95 and since that point everyone of these kids have seen it, tasted it, felt it. And as a result, it's been laid out for them as far as a path and a potential opportunity. And I think we're seeing the benefit to that."

Toronto and the surrounding areas, with its large population pool and the ability to offer more opportunity and more competition, would obviously have an advantage to cultivate new talent.

And with the establishment of the Toronto Raptors in 1995, Toronto-area kids had a greater source of inspiration.

"What it did was it had players looking and seeing themselves on the court," Rowan Barrett, the executive vice-president at Basketball Canada, told CBC News. "If you're a six-foot-five kid and you're in Grade 7, you're the biggest, tallest person in the building. It's maybe hard to relate, hard to understand where I fit in.

"And being able to watch these athletes 6-7", 6-8", running up and down the court, all of a sudden there was a vision for those [kids]. 'This is what I can do with this ability.' And what that did, it sparked the club environment. Just an explosion there."

Instead of kids starting to play at the age of 13 or 14, now they began at the age of six and seven, much like in hockey, Barrett said.

But having a superstar like Vince Carter join the roster drew more kids to the basketball court. Bennett himself said Carter's legendary performance at the Slam Dunk contest in 2000 and his role as a Raptor, inspired him to play.

"I definitely think a big part of it is that," said Dwayne Lubin, who coaches the local Toronto Fire basketball team. "I think when the Raptors first came, you just had your major fans. And I think Vince excited the younger group, the younger generation. He was the biggest star in basketball at that time."

This has led to a huge spike in the participation of kids and a big boom in basketball training programs, he said.

Another mini-explosion of basketball interest was sparked when Brampton, Ont.-native Tristan Thompson went fourth and Pickering, Ont.-native Cory Joseph went 29th in the first round draft of 2011.

"There was such a huge growth after Tristan and Cory. Once those guys made it through, kids got to see them on TV and being drafted. Almost the next day, parents were trying to get their kids into the gym as much as they could."

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Obama meets with Mandela family

Barack Obama, on his first official tour of South Africa, met privately with the family of critically ill Nelson Mandela today.

The meeting took place in Johannesburg at the Nelson Mandela Center of Memory, which is part of the former South African president's foundation.

The White House didn't say which Mandela family members Obama met with, but it did confirm that the president's wife Michelle was not present for the visit.

The president and First Lady will not be meeting with the ailing 94-year-old Mandela, who has been in hospital since June 8 with a lung infection. The White House said that decision was made in accordance with the Mandela family's wishes.

"Out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and comfort and the family's wishes, they will not be visiting the hospital," the White House said in a statement.

Obama told reporters on the flight to South Africa on Friday that he was grateful that he, his wife and daughters had a chance to meet Mandela previously. Obama hangs his photo of the introduction he had to Mandela in 2005 in his personal office at the White House — their only meeting, when Obama was a senator.

"I don't need a photo op," Obama said. "The last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned about Nelson Mandela's condition."

"Outside of the medical issues, there were grave moral and political considerations here. A visit could have been seen as politically opportunistic and South Africans are extremely sensitive right now about Mandela's dignity. President Jacob Zuma met with Mandela a few months back, and pictures were published with Mandela looking unresponsive and frail; it backfired politically for Zuma," said CBC's Susan Ormiston, reporting from South Africa.

'The last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned about Nelson Mandela's condition.'—Barack Obama

"There was also the pragmatic matter of how to get in and out of the Pretoria hospital quietly, with it surrounded by the world's media. Even if Obama's team had decided with the family to visit, with no pictures, the president would have been asked about Mandela's condition.

Obama met with South African President Jacob Zuma Saturday morning, greeting each other's wives with kisses with a military honor guard standing by holding flags from both countries. Their meeting was at the grand Union Buildings, where Mandela was inaugurated as the country's first black president in 1994 after 27 years behind bars under racist rule.

The two leaders later held a joint news conference in Pretoria.

Obama told reporters that Mandela continues to shine as a beacon of the power of principle and standing up for what's right.

The U.S. president also said South Africa's transition from apartheid to a free nation has been a personal inspiration and an inspiration to the world.

He said the recent outpouring of love for the critically ill anti-apartheid icon shows the deep yearning for justice and dignity in the human spirit. That yearning transcends class, race and country, he added.

Thomas Coutts and Calvern Hugo stand outside Johannesburg University Soweto Campus, where Obama is meeting with students. (Susan Ormiston/CBC)

Obama has said the imprisoned activist's willingness to risk his life for the cause of equal rights helped inspire his own political activism. Obama said his message during the visit will draw on the lessons of Mandela's life, with a message that "Africa's rise will continue" if its people are unified instead of divided by tribe, race or religion.

"I think the main message we'll want to deliver if not directly to him but to his family is simply a profound gratitude for his leadership all these years and that the thoughts and prayers of the American people are with him and his family and his country," Obama said on his flight into the country.

Obama also is paying tribute to the fight against apartheid by visiting the Soweto area Saturday afternoon for a town hall with students at the University of Johannesburg. At least 176 young people were killed in Soweto township 27 years ago this month during a youth protest against the apartheid regime's ban against teaching local Bantu languages. The Soweto Uprising catalyzed international support against apartheid, and June is now recognized as Youth Month in South Africa.

The university plans to bestow an honorary law degree on the U.S. president, while protesters are planning demonstrations against U.S. policy on issues including the U.S. detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the war in Afghanistan and global warming. Hundreds marched to the U.S. Embassy on Friday, carrying signs that read: "No, You Can't Obama," a message inspired by Obama's "yes, we can" campaign slogan.

Obama, the son of an African man, has been trying to inspire the continent's youth to become civically active and part of a new democratically minded generation. Obama hosted young leaders from more than 40 African countries at the White House in 2010 and challenged them to bring change to their countries by standing up for freedom, openness and peaceful disagreement.

Obama wraps up his South Africa stay Sunday, when he plans to give a sweeping speech on U.S.-Africa policy at the University of Cape Town and take his family to Robben Island to tour the prison where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years behind bars.

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Youth key to helping families fight stigma of mental illness, suicide

After 18-year-old Steven Hutchison took his own life in his dorm room at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., earlier this year, a lot of his close friends kept in touch with his parents.

Young people who had known the popular, ever-smiling athlete brought his mother, Myrna Hutchison, a memory book with notes from groups of his friends and told her they wanted to do something.

'What we know is that Steven struggled and suffered in silence.'—Myrna Hutchison

"It just seemed that we needed something to help get us through this," says Hutchison.

"We needed to work towards a common goal and I thought maybe we could start planning an event of some sort."

That event unfolds today on the streets of Hutchison's hometown of Arthur, Ont., north of Kitchener. More than 500 people have signed up to take part in the Get In Touch For Hutch walkathon and race.

But Get In Touch For Hutch is more than a chance for participants to lace up their running shoes and get some exercise.

Funds raised will be directed toward organizations that support youth mental health. And from it all, organizers hope they can get young people talking and lay more groundwork for removing stigmas attached to suicide and mental illness.

"What we know is that Steven struggled and suffered in silence," says his mother.

"There was an amount of personal pride there that didn't allow him to feel comfortable talking about his feelings or the pressures or everyday stresses that he may have been experiencing like we all do."

"Our ultimate goal is … to erase the stigma that's attached to that. We don't want people to feel judged or ridiculed or to be any less of the person than they truly are because they talk about their feelings or emotions."

Ultimate goal

Getting people to talk about suicide and mental illness is not always easy. People may not wish to talk about feelings of depression. Deaths by suicide are not always publicly identified as such by families, or identified in the same way that deaths from cancer or heart disease might be described.

Instead, it could perhaps be a "hunting accident." Or maybe a person's death would be described as occurring "suddenly, at home." Or maybe it was only whispered about — or not talked about at all.

Friends and teammates of Daron Richardson wore purple and sold bracelets to raise money for the Do it For Daron campaign at their high school on Feb. 8, 2011. (CBC)

Get In Touch For Hutch joins initiatives such as D.I.F.D (Do It For Daron), a foundation created after the 2010 suicide of Daron Richardson, the 14-year-old daughter of former Ottawa Senators assistant coach Luke Richardson and his wife Stephanie, in taking a more open, public approach.

And they're being driven in large part by the young people who were immediately touched by their deaths.

"To be honest, I think the initiative started with the youth and … our goal was to support that in any possible way," says Stephanie Richardson.

"When we had young people ask us, 'Would you be upset if we made helmet stickers, would you be upset if we made bracelets,' our answer was always no."

D.I.F.D. aims to increase awareness and get people talking about youth mental health, and works with the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre towards those goals. Richardson says the achievements of the initiative have been remarkable.

"I think for Luke and I, as time went on … we were determined … that this wasn't going to be ignored. Our goal was that those conversations would happen in every home, in every school, in every hockey rink and in the community at large.

"And then you saw big people step up, like the Ottawa Sens Foundation, and say we're open to this conversation, we're going to have a night."

Otttawa-area youth take part in an event in May 2011 to raise awareness about youth mental health. The youth sat in the buses to represent the three busloads of Ontario children and youth that would kill themselves that year. (Courtesy Royal Ottawa Mental Health Group)

The Richardsons, who now live in Binghamton, N.Y., where Luke is head coach of the Binghamton Senators, were back in Ottawa this week and received honorary degrees from Algonquin College.

Stephanie has taken part in various public events and was on hand in Ottawa in April when Olympian Clara Hughes announced she will do a cross-country bike ride to talk to people about mental health.

"It's pretty powerful to see people get behind it, but it's more just to create that dialogue and it became … the need for the kids to speak and use their voice and they kept doing it and I would say that it was more everybody following that lead," says Stephanie.

For Hutchison, there is the hope that the message resonating from today's event in Arthur will get people thinking differently about mental illness.

Something simple

"I think we have to find opportunities in everything we're involved in. For example … I think back about my boys going to hundreds of different arenas across Ontario and never once seeing a poster or banner about mental health support or Kids Help Phone or the crisis line," she says.

"I haven't followed up with Brock, but I wonder about even something as simple as having a magnet or a sticker in that dorm room that had the crisis line on it — if Steven had seen that, would he have taken a second thought to make a call rather than end his life the way he did?"

Both Richardson and Hutchison have seen another phenomenon emerge: because people know of their family's experiences, they approach them with stories of how suicide has touched their families.

Stephanie Richardson, wife of former Ottawa Senators assistant coach Luke Richardson, is pictured at the Scotiabank Place during the IIHF Women's World Hockey Championships in Ottawa on April 3, 2013. The Richardsons' foundation Do It For Daron was the official charity of this year's WWHC. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

"The biggest showing of support for me has been that people have started talking. People are feeling OK to get in touch with me to share their personal stories," says Hutchison.

"I know stories, two in specific, that have been shared with me just recently in that people have experienced losses through suicide 20 years or so ago and just now are having their first conversations about that."

Richardson says "what is happening is overwhelming." At Algonquin this week, students stopped on stage to thank her and her husband and tell stories of themselves or others they know seeking help.

"Because of the conversations and because of the openness of our daughter's death, there has been major change and it's not because of us. It's because each person sees [themselves] in it and they're comfortable" telling their stories.

Richardson would like to see discussions of mental health issues become mainstream in the education system, and that there be no different value placed on any death, whether it is by cancer, heart disease or suicide.

Mixed blessing

"I don't understand why the value is different…. That really does not make sense to me, but it seems … some people feel like there's a shame with it, that there's a lesser value of that person. That makes absolutely no sense to me."

Ultimately, for the Richardsons, going public about their daughter's death wasn't necessarily a choice.

"I think it just came with part of our life, with the career that my husband had," says Stephanie Richardson.

"It's a mixed blessing, but we are also very blessed that we do have therapy and we believe in it and that is very, very helpful to have medical help for ourselves."

One thing, she says, though, is that being public about suicide doesn't "take away our despair, our loss or the endless unanswered questions."

Luke Richardson, left, and Dr. Raj Bhatla, chief of psychiatry at Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, speak on the issue of teen suicide in Ottawa on Feb. 24, 2011. (Sean kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

"Being public didn't help that. It didn't make it any easier. It didn't make it any worse but it doesn't make it easier. I certainly wouldn't want someone to think if they were public that it eases that sense of despair, loss and desperation to want to answer all those unanswered questions."

Dr. Raj Bhatla, chief of psychiatry of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, says there are a variety of ways families might cope with the suicide of a child. They need to be able to make the choices that suit them best, he says.

"It's really a private choice of the family. It's neither good nor bad to go public," Bhatla says.

"There shouldn't be a value judgment — go forward publicly or you don't go forward publicly. It's really for each individual family to make that choice. The losses remain."

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Neil Macdonald: Republican response on gay marriage a spectacular display of intolerance

Wisely, House Speaker John Boehner and the rest of the Republican leadership on Wednesday resisted the politician's natural attraction to swarms of television cameras.

Shortly after the Supreme Court issued what amounted to a judicial declaration of equality for gay Americans wishing to marry, Boehner issued a short, restrained statement.

He expressed disappointment in the decision — Republicans want marriage defined as between one man and one woman — but noted that it was the result of "checks and balances" within the American government.

In other words, Boehner understands this nation practises constitutional democracy, not majoritarianism. Legislators here are limited by the constitution, and the constitution is interpreted by the courts.

But Boehner's statement was no sooner in the hands of the press corps than out marched 11 of his caucus members, determined to change the party message.

What followed was a spectacular display of intolerance from a fading era, as the hardline rump of the GOP emerged once again as its public brand.

Their main point: the Supreme Court had no authority to overturn the euphemistically titled Defence of Marriage Act, which denied a range of federal benefits and privileges to gay citizens legally married in the 13 states (plus the District of Columbia) that allow it.

DOMA, as it is known, was passed by a Republican-controlled Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton 17 years ago. Clinton has since repudiated it, as the public has grown ever more tolerant of gay rights. Republicans have not.

Rep. Stephen Scalise of Louisiana stepped up Wednesday to set the tone.

The Supreme Court is supposed to override the wishes of voters, or their elected officials, if those wishes offend the constitution, which is exactly what the court ruled DOMA did.

"It's a sad day when unelected judges change the definition of marriage and turn their backs on the will of voters and … their elected representatives," he declared. Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania then accused the Supreme Court of wanting "to dictate to the American people what elected legislators can do."

"We see a Supreme Court that is out of control, that will override voters' wishes," said Rep. Randy Weber of Texas.

"The people have final say on such matters," thundered Scott Garrett of New Jersey.

Well, no, they don't, as Boehner noted in his statement. The Supreme Court is supposed to override the wishes of voters, or their elected officials, if those wishes offend the constitution, which is exactly what the court ruled DOMA did.

An earlier Supreme Court did the same in 1954 when it forced the board of education in Topeka, Kansas, to desegregate. Back then, most Southern voters supported Jim Crow laws, and so did their politicians.

Consistency, though, is not something that hobbles the Republican rump.

The very same group railing about unelected judges Wednesday wanted those same unelected judges last year to overturn another law passed by Congress: President Obama's sweeping health-care reform.

They also seemed unbothered on Tuesday, when those unelected judges weakened a key piece of civil rights legislation passed by Congress, the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

But on to the outraged 11's second point: Gay marriage is unnatural, and bad for children, and undermines the very existence of American society.

"Marriage has been debased by this decision, and the moral fibre of our country is affected greatly," said Doug Lamalfa of California, adding that churches will now somehow be forced to "perform things that they are against."

Redefining marriage, declared Louie Gohmert of Texas, is "usually tried at the end of a great civilization." It's a common, incomprehensible right-wing theme: Gay marriage will ultimately overwhelm and destroy heterosexual marriage.

Unfortunately for Republicans, most Americans seem to think differently. Poll after poll nowadays suggests the Supreme Court was perfectly in line with public opinion on the issue.

Which probably explains why Boehner and other GOP leaders, who'd like to win some swing ridings in the midterm elections next year, remained relatively mute on Wednesday.

The third point of the angry 11: The Supreme Court is ungodly.

"What we now have," said Gohmert, "is a holy quintet who goes against the laws of nature and nature's God."

The quintet would be the court's four liberal judges, plus Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing-voter who wrote the DOMA decision. Nature's God would be the Christian God.

Marriage "is something God created," said Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. "That is something God will define. The Supreme Court, though they may not think so, have not yet arisen to the level of God."

That would be the view of many evangelicals. Several other church groups, though, supported the court's decision. The National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., rang its bells in celebration.

And in any event, it's settled law in America that church and state are strictly separated.

But the 80-plus members of the Republican rump regard "moderate" as a pejorative term.

They've seen to it that the House hasn't passed a single piece of substantive legislation this session, including initiatives supported by Boehner.

They've reveled in attempts to repeal Obamacare (37 times so far) and they'll no doubt attempt to thwart the bipartisan immigration reform legislation on its way from the Senate.

John Boehner and the Republican leadership might want to court the powerful Latino vote if that's what it takes to achieve power, but not the rump.

The path to power, the rumpers insist, is not to change the party's positions, but to explain them better.

Boehner evidently thinks otherwise. On Thursday, he told reporters he has no plans to re-draft the Defence of Marriage Act, as much as the rumpers might want to do battle.

Democrats, meanwhile, regard the rump with a shrug, and probably even some quiet gratitude.

Asked at a news conference Wednesday to react to Michele Bachmann's comments about the Supreme Court's lack of deference to God, Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi replied, with a wide smile: "Who cares?"

A giggle ran through the room.

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Chris Hall: Cancelled convention gives Harper time to wade through flood of problems

Stephen Harper already stood knee-deep in trouble before floodwaters inundated downtown Calgary, washing out the Conservatives' policy convention in the prime minister's home base.

Harper expected to be standing before frustrated party delegates last night to acknowledge that, yes, the past six weeks have been difficult, but no, the government remains firmly in control of its agenda despite a spring sitting beset by scandal and political distractions.

Instead, the prime minister remained largely out of sight in humid Ottawa — a town known for generating more heat than light — working this week on plans to re-invigorate and renew a government that's given up ground.

Polls suggest a sharp decline in voter support for the Conservatives, while Liberal leader Justin Trudeau – so far – has defied every effort by the Conservatives to brand him as too immature and flighty to lead the country.

The expenses scandal in the Senate – the institution Harper and other westerners vowed to reform once in power – oozed into the prime minister's own office, where Harper's former chief of staff Nigel Wright inexplicably dashed off a personal cheque to cover Mike Duffy's improper expenses.

Things aren't much better on the legislative front. The government did get its budget through, and a number of significant crime bills. But the deficit remains obstinate and the trade agenda is stalled.

Negotiations with the European Union remain unfinished, with the Americans now starting their own talks with the EU. There's still no White House approval for the Keystone XL pipeline, public opposition to Northern Gateway continues to build, and now there are daily demonstrations in Ontario against even the modest plan to reverse the flow of a pipeline known as Line 9 – to carry Alberta bitumen east to New Brunswick and beyond.

It's not the way Harper intended to mark the mid-way point of his first majority mandate. But it's also far too early to count the Conservatives out with two years to go before the next election.

Still in control

This is a prime minister who takes the long view, and there are signals inside the party of what he can and will do to re-brand both the Conservatives and his government.

Some of those moves are intended to put a new face on a government that will seek a fourth consecutive mandate in 2015.

First: Shuffle the cabinet in July.

Harper has not done a full-scale overhaul of his cabinet since taking power in 2006. This time, most observers believe he will, replacing long-time ministers who don't want to run again, with younger, but seasoned MPs.

The theory here is that the renewal has to be complete if Harper expects to win a fourth term. The same old faces won't sell new ideas. And too many cabinet ministers have not only been around the table for six years now, some of them remain in the same portfolios they first held.

Second: Re-tool the Prime Minister's Office

This is perhaps most troubling for the prime minister. Since Nigel Wright's resignation, the actions of senior advisors in the PMO have been both clumsy and heavy-handed at the same time. How else to explain using political aides to try to disrupt JustinTrudeau's news conference on the Hill, or trampling the efforts of some Conservative MPs to discuss abortion during time allocated for just those kinds of statements before Question Period.

Some strategists complain privately that when Nigel Wright resigned, the PM lost the only person willing to tell him what he needs to hear.

Some insiders believe Harper has to give backbench MPs more latitude to bring social issues to the floor of the Commons, knowing he has enough control of caucus to defeat them. Better to allow that freedom than to arouse resentment inside the ranks.

New Policies

The bigger challenge is to come up with new policy priorities to carry the government over the next two years.

The government has done well exploiting wedge issues – think scrapping the long gun registry and the Canadian Wheat Board – that distinguish Conservatives from the other parties.

The question is identifying those types of issues for the Throne Speech expected this fall. Here's a sampling of what insiders are saying.

First: Do something about the Senate.

Conservative hard-liners insist anger over the expenses scandal is so deep that the prime minister can formally put abolishing the upper chamber on the public agenda. It won't help the party in Quebec, but it will pit the party firmly against the Liberals and force the Quebec-based New Democrats, who favour abolition, to stand with the government.

Second: The economy.

Conservatives believe Harper remains the most credible leader on economic issues. But he has to finalize some of the initiatives the government has begun: the trade pact with Europe, and approval for at least one of the pipeline projects that will take Canadian oil to new markets. And the government needs to erase the deficit before the next election.

Third: Reduce the size of government.

Since the Conservatives took power, the federal public service has added 60,000 jobs. That's entirely counter to the commitment to smaller government. Look for the government to push a more aggressive agenda of job cuts over the next two years, and to pursue plans requiring public servants to contribute to their pensions on a 50-50 basis with the government.

Those are some of the things Harper intended to speak about last night, before the Calgary convention was postponed to the fall.

Now he has time to work on changing the face of his government, while hoping the anger directed at the Conservatives recedes along with the flood waters in Alberta.

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Calgary floods spotlight cities' costly failure to plan for climate change

Many Canadian cities and towns are ill-prepared for the rising frequency of catastrophic weather events like the southern Alberta floods, and it's a problem that taxpayers will ultimately end up paying for, climate change experts say.

"There are other disasters waiting to happen in other parts of Canada, but Calgary is a good poster child for inaction on warnings they received not too long ago," said James P. Bruce, former Environment Canada assistant deputy minister.

Many have heaped praise on southern Alberta's emergency response after extremely heavy rain pummelled communities, with several months' worth of rain falling in the span of hours for some areas.

"From a disaster response point of view, the Calgary mayor did a fantastic job in running the whole show," said Kaz Higuchi, a York University professor in environmental studies and former Environment Canada scientist.

But a community's ability to react during a disaster is one thing. Minimizing the impact of a flood is another. Now, the province faces a potentially decade-long cleanup effort that could cost $5 billion by BMO Nesbitt Burns estimates.

Disaster risk management experts say the Alberta situation should serve as a wake-up call to municipalities across the country of the need to spend money and time mitigating the risks before disaster strikes, especially as climate change is predicted to bring bigger and more frequent severe weather events.

"We go from disaster to disaster … being sure that we protect a life so people are protected and then finding the best way how we pay for that," said Slobodan Simonovic, author of Floods in a Changing Climate: Risk Management. "But what we are doing is we are simply reacting to that, paying for that. We are not investing in the reduction or minimization of the future."

'Tremendous increase'

On average, Canada gets 20 more days of rain now than it did in the 1950s. While flooding – the costliest natural disaster for Canadians – was once mainly a spring event due to the combination of frozen ground and rainfall, it's now increasingly happening in the summer.

'The climate change community is predicting that we will be seeing a tremendous increase in these heavy and extreme rainfall events.'—Slobodan Simonovic, risk management report author

"The climate change community is predicting that we will be seeing a tremendous increase in these heavy and extreme rainfall events," said Simonovic. "They're going to be much more frequent."

Since the 1950s, the cost of natural disasters has also risen 14-fold, according to the Centre for Research in the Epidemiology of Disasters.

Before 1990, only three Canadian disasters exceeded $500 million in damages. In the past decade alone, nine surpassed that amount.

Simonovic notes that it's not only in the federal government's interest to help communities minimize the risks of disasters because of the amount of money it forks over for relief, but also because there are economic benefits to prevention.

Studies around the world show that the economic benefits of disaster mitigation can range from $3 to $10 dollars for each dollar spent on prevention.

Feds active in past

Bruce says decades ago the Canadian government took a more active role in trying to reduce the risks to life and property from floods, ensuring municipalities weren't building on vulnerable flood plains.

The Flood Damage Reduction Program, which ran from 1975 until 1990, saw the federal and provincial governments share costs of mapping all the floodplains and creating standard flood risk evaluations.

The federally initiated program also got provinces and territories, with the exception of the Yukon, to agree to inhibit development in the floodplain areas. Alberta didn't join until 1989, a year before the program began to disintegrate.

"I think they were worried about what that would mean, designating all of downtown as floodplain," said Bruce.

But the federal government hasn't sought a similar approach to helping communities prepare for the increased risk of disasters expected from climate change.

Bruce helped write a 2010 guide for municipalities that helps them figure out specifically how climate change could affect them and then design a way to minimize the risks of future damages. The voluntary guide saw uptake in several provinces across the country and aims to help municipalities wade through an area where there's dire need for long-term planning but currently little financial impetus.

"Many municipalities have risk management framework, applied to investments and structural problems. None of them had a risk management frameworks that they applied to climate change," said Bruce.

U.S. helping municipalities

In the United States, the federal government has clearly signaled that it will help the local governments mitigate the risks that come with climate change.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama outlined a sweeping climate change plan. Part of the plan includes new standards for roads to ensure they are built above flood levels. It also states that local governments will get assistance to help them plan for extreme weather.

'We all agree that there is a new reality now, which is climate change. Unfortunately, those that have to pay the bills are taxpayers or property owners.'—Claude Dauphin, Canadian Federation of Municipalities president

A new Climate Data Initiative will also provide climate preparedness tools and information for state and local governments, plus the private sector.

The news came after a study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that predicted the risk of flooding in the U.S. would increase by 45 per cent by 2100, largely due to climate change. Ultimately, it's in the government's interest to reduce risk since it funds a flood insurance program that's already draining its budget with payouts.

Canada is currently the only G8 country where people cannot buy insurance for overland flooding. Private insurers cover sewage backup, but won't offer flood protection because the small population base of Canada means it's difficult for the companies to cover the cost of their risk. As a result, provincial and federal governments foot the bill for large-scale floods, meaning all taxpayers are on the hook.

"We all agree that there is a new reality now, which is climate change," said Canadian Federation of Municipalities president Claude Dauphin. "Unfortunately, those that have to pay the bills are taxpayers or property owners."

A 2010 report by the insurance industry's Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction recommended that Canada adopt the United Kingdom model — where the private sector offers flood insurance on the condition that the federal government take steps to mitigate disaster.

As an example, insurers offer coverage to residents in flood plains if the government builds a dyke to try to prevent flooding.

Simonovic, who is director of engineering for the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, says the federal government never responded to the report. "We didn't succeed at all," he lamented.

As climate change brings increased frequency of flooding events, the likelihood that Canada's insurance companies would want to partake in a joint federal government initiative looks dismal.

"With more frequent floods and with more higher damage, I think we're getting further and further from the involvement of the private sector," said Simonovic.

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BlackBerry shares open 25% lower on TSX

BlackBerry, based in Waterloo, Ont., reported a first-quarter net loss of $84 million US on Friday, compared to a $518-million net loss a year ago, but short of expectations. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

Shares in BlackBerry were down by as much as 25 per cent when stock markets opened Friday, after the company posted a disappointing $84 million net loss in the first quarter.

BlackBerry shares, which closed at $14.48 US on the Nasdaq stock market in New York Thursday, were trading at below $11 in what's known as premarket trading on the Nasdaq this morning.

Those losses held when the broader markets opened at 9:30 a.m. ET.

More than 40 per cent of BlackBerry shares are held by so-called short sellers, who bet against the company. That's a heavy weight on the stock, and heavily shorted stocks tend to move up and down in much more extreme ways.

Short interest in BlackBerry has almost doubled over the past 12 months.

The quarterly loss came in at 16 cents per share. While the $84 million figure is narrower than the $518 million the company lost in the same period a year ago, it wasn't what analysts had forecast.

The results were the first since BlackBerry unveiled its newest phones, the Z10 and the Q10, which BlackBerry is banking on turning the company around.

Cost-saving plans will continue

The company said it shipped 6.8 million smartphones in the first quarter, an increase of 13 per cent from the previous quarter when sales of the new phones were just getting started.

Chief executive Thorsten Heins said about 40 per cent of those phone shipments were of new models, well short of the ratio that analysts were expecting.

Sales rose to $3.07 billion from $2.81 billion a year ago.

"During the first quarter, we continued to focus our efforts on the global rollout of the BlackBerry 10 platform," chief executive Thorsten Heins said in a release.

Heins hinted that the company's numbers aren't showing signs of improving in the near term. He said he expects BlackBerry will book an operating loss in its second-quarter earnings results, due to heightened competition in the smartphone industry.

"The company will also continue to implement the cost savings and process-improving initiatives it started last year," he added.

With files from The Canadian Press

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Mayor of flooded-out High River says he gets the frustration

The mayor of High River says he understands the community's frustration as officials try to plan a safe return to the flooded Alberta town.

Provincial inspectors are going house to house in the town 70 kilometres south of Calgary to determine which buildings are habitable and which will have to be condemned.

About 13,000 residents were removed from High River last Thursday as the Highwood River swamped much of the town.

The people of High River are anxious to get back in and start the rebuilding process, said Mayor Emile Blokland.

"This is their community," he said. "This is where their neighbours are, their friends are, and we'll put this town back together again."

One of the outstanding safety issues is the huge body of water that formed in town during the flood, said Calgary South East MLA Rick Fraser.

"The last thing we want is to put people in homes and say we have to evacuate because this lake decided to drain," he said.

Short-term housing is being offered at the University of Lethbridge.

Town officials said a re-entry plan would be revealed on Friday.

Cargill Meat Solutions, which employs 2,000 people in High River, could be back in production next week. Cargill's facilities weren't flooded, but the company needs access to potable water in order to resume operations.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford, who visited the meat plant on Sunday, said it's a critical part of Alberta's beef Industry.

The town is still trying to get its sewage system back on line. The provincial government has provided a pump and irrigation piping to bring their systems online.

The province has also pledged $50 million to help with the cleanup in High River.

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How Canada's banks help money move in and out of tax havens

The murky world of offshore finance physically resides mainly in tropical islands, but it is not a world unto itself. As the recent leak of secret tax-haven files attests, offshore havens rely for their existence on the financial infrastructure of the big wealthy countries.

And in Canada, our banks play a role.

Scotiabank's name appears 1,839 times in the leaked offshore files. Royal Bank comes up more than 2,000 times. CIBC is named in 1,347 leaked documents.

The leaked records are full of examples of money moving into and out of offshore havens via Western-world banks, or of those same banks setting up accounts for offshore companies, or providing essential assistance to do so.

Canada's big banks have, as a group, 75 subsidiaries in locales considered to be offshore havens. There are CIBC and Scotiabank branches in the British Virgin Islands, Royal Bank affiliates in Jersey, an arm of the Bank of Montreal in Luxembourg and a TD presence in Bermuda and Barbados, for example.

Here are four ways big banks can help move money offshore:

Reference letters

Tax havens aren't entirely a financial Wild West. Over the years, they've brought in measures in response to concerns about money laundering (though those rules are often easily circumvented). In many jurisdictions, someone setting up an offshore corporation or account must provide a reference letter from their bank at home. Sometimes called a "letter of good standing," it's a document that typically confirms that a person has satisfactorily had an account for a number of years.

Canadian banks say such letters are routinely requested for a host of reasons, most having nothing to do with offshore dealings. "Signing letters of good standing has nothing to do with where the money is going," said CIBC spokesman Kevin Dove. "It's just stating that you are a client or this individual is a client and not in default."

But CBC News has found cases amid the leaked offshore records where it's clear the banks were providing reference letters to be used for offshore dealings. CIBC, TD and Bank of Montreal officials signed those letters, all addressed to a firm that sets up offshore corporations in the British Virgin Islands. The wording of all three letters is nearly identical, and appears to have come from a template found among the leaked files, authored by offshore services agency Portcullis TrustNet.

"We write in connection with [our client], whom we understand wishes to utilize your services as a company service provider," all three letters start off.

In other cases, banks provided reference letters, apparently unwittingly, that were used for offshore businesses that ran into trouble. RBC wrote one such letter in 2008 for a director of Future Growth offshore mutual funds, months after the funds were the subject of a cease-trading order from the Ontario Securities Commission. TD Bank provided a statement of good standing in 2002 to Greg Cyr, a B.C. man who was wanted on a 14-year-old charge of narcotics possession and who set up an offshore company to quietly buy real estate in Victoria before he disappeared the following year, amid evidence of underworld connections.

In a statement, Royal Bank said it could not comment on individual cases. But in general, "when requested, we may provide a letter of account in good standing," the bank said. "Clients may require such letters for a variety of reasons.… Letters of good standing attest to our relationship and dealings with an individual client, to the best of our knowledge."

Wire transfers

The leaked files show a company controlled by big-time Toronto swindler Peter Sabourin sent funds in 2004 from a Scotiabank account to the British Virgin Islands to set up an offshore corporation.

Wiring money has never been easier — even to and from a tax haven — and it helps that Canada's big banks have so many subsidiaries in jurisdictions considered to be offshore centres. Amounts of $10,000 or more are recorded by a federal tracking program, but the program's mandate is to curtail money laundering and terrorist financing, not tax evasion.

The leaked tax-haven records are full of examples of clients wiring money between offshore and Canadian bank accounts. In other cases, money is wired between two offshore locales via Canadian financial institutions, which serve as an intermediary or "correspondent bank."

In one example, a company controlled by big-time Toronto swindler Peter Sabourin sent funds in 2004 from a Scotiabank account to the British Virgin Islands to set up an offshore corporation. At the time, it was publicly known that Sabourin was being sued for millions of dollars in fraud (the plaintiffs won in 2007).

The money that goes through tax havens is not necessarily illicit. But Michael Hudson, a senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, said that "dirty money often goes through big banks."

CIBC's Caribbean subsidiary has two branches and a wealth-management centre in the British Virgin Islands. (CBC)

"There are many rules that require banks to know their customers and to do anti-money-laundering checks," he said. "The question is, how aggressively they do this and how often they turn a blind eye?"

Asked about the various ways it plays a role in the offshore world, Scotiabank said in a statement that it has "well-established know-your-customer practices, as well as processes to monitor accounts for unusual activity and report suspicious activity to the proper authorities." The statement continued: "Scotiabank operates with integrity and is committed to operating at Canadian compliance standards or higher in every country where we operate."

Accounts

Canada's big banks are well placed to supply the documents needed to open an offshore bank accounts or to wire money into them. And because the banks have so many branches in offshore jurisdictions, they sometimes provide the offshore accounts themselves.

In an episode documented in the leaked offshore files, a Scotiabank manager at the bank's British Virgin Islands subsidiary contacted local offshore services provider Commonwealth Trust in 2007 and set up meetings with its staff to try to drum up business from offshore corporations needing bank accounts. "Scotiabank actually just contacted us to see if we would refer clients to them for bank accounts," a Commonwealth Trust employee wrote in a Jan. 31, 2007, email. "They are coming to meet with [a colleague] to give more information about their service."

Not publicly known at that point, however, was that Commonwealth Trust was under investigation by the country's financial regulator for breaches of anti-money-laundering rules and had received an order the same day requiring it to take major corrective action.

Regardless, Scotiabank's efforts were largely in vain. Staff at Commonwealth Trust expressed in multiple emails to each other that the Canadian bank's know-your-client policies were "extremely stringent" and "inflexible." Because of that, a boss wrote, "I wouldn't do business with them."

The files show that Royal Bank, too, petitioned Commonwealth Trust to refer clients, albeit back in 2001. One Commonwealth Trust client who opened an account at Royal Bank was the Future Growth group of mutual funds, which used an offshore account at Royal Bank's branch in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, until 2004. The mutual funds were later the subject of regulatory investigations in Ontario and Quebec.

CIBC offers offshore accounts as well, and their clients have come under scrutiny, with account-holders at the bank's FirstCaribbean subsidiary the target of an ongoing probe by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service into possible tax evasion. As part of the IRS investigation, an agent alleged in court documents filed in late April that in one instance, "tens of millions of dollars" were transferred into and out of the U.S. using numerous accounts held by an American taxpayer and by several shell companies he controlled; the taxpayer never reported any income from the transactions, the IRS alleged. In a half-dozen other cases, accounts at FirstCaribbean — which operates in 18 Caribbean countries — were used to funnel money by people charged with or convicted of crimes including tax evasion and conspiracy to launder money, the IRS said.

Credit cards

When wiring money is not an option, credit cards provide a way for people to spend their offshore money while sidestepping the taxman.

"This goes on all the time," said Raymond Baker, president of Global Financial Integrity, a U.S. non-profit that campaigns to stop illicit movements of money.

"You can open an account in, for example, a Caribbean tax haven and you can get the bank that is handling that account to issue you a credit card.... In effect, you're buying with money that has been accumulated in a disguised corporation in a tax haven."

As the leaked offshore records show, a couple of Canadian banks were commonly cited options.

When contacted by clients for guidance on where to set up a bank account in the British Virgin Islands, offshore services agency Commonwealth Trust often replied with a boilerplate email citing some of the services provided by different banks. In one such email dated Aug. 25, 2009, CTL noted that CIBC subsidiary FirstCaribbean International Bank offered "secured credit cards" to clients.

"Arrangement may be made whereby the credit card account can be paid off in full each month out of the main chequing or savings account, thus allowing the credit card to function similar to a debit card," the email said.

In a separate case, clients using offshore credit cards furnished by a different Canadian bank came under scrutiny. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service named RBC clients, and those of several other global banks, in an investigation into use of offshore credit cards. RBC had advertised its accounts as "a safehold" providing "confidentiality and financial advantage."

If you have more information on this story, or other investigative tips to pass on, please email investigations@cbc.ca

With files from Sophia Harris, Asher Greenberg and Alison Crawford

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Alberta floods: Keeping up with Calgary Mayor Nenshi

A roar of applause greets Mayor Naheed Nenshi as he ambles up upon a riser above thousands of Calgarians gathered in a stadium parking lot to volunteer with flood relief efforts.

With a microphone clutched in his hand and some much-needed sun shining at his back, Nenshi looks like a rock star — a term more than a few people have used to describe him this week.

"This is Calgary, folks. This is the spirit of this community," he tells the crowd, prompting more applause.

A hardhat-clad volunteer looks on as Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi speaks at McMahon Stadium. (John Rieti/CBC)

Nenshi, Calgary's mayor since 2010, has been leading in the public eye since the flood struck. His week has been a blur of press briefings (over 11) and interviews (dozens), private events with emergency personnel and public visits to flood-struck zones. You can follow most of the action on Nenshi's popular Twitter account.

On Monday, Nenshi was obviously excited as he surveyed the parking lot of McMahon Stadium, where the CFL's Stampeders play. Over 2,000 people turned out for the event that Nenshi was worried would only draw 50. There were actually too many volunteers to put to work. Many signed up to help city efforts in the coming weeks.

That didn't seem to bother the volunteers who lined up to hug Nenshi inside the volunteer tent.

"This is re-energizing me," Nenshi said, after embracing one Calgarian.

After a few minutes he left the tent, reluctantly opting for high-fives instead of hugs as he made his way through the crowd. As he got into a white SUV headed for the Calgary's Emergency Operations Centre he was all smiles — calling "shotgun" with boyish delight.

An hour later he was all business again, holding a lengthy news conference about the latest developments in Calgary's flood-ravaged downtown.

Public service pride

Nenshi goes out of the way to praise his staff at every chance — from the city workers desperately trying to drain flooded streets, to police and fire officials, to the inspectors who have to make the unenviable decision whether people can get back into their homes.

Nenshi scrums with reporters. His communications team says he's done dozens of one-on-one interviews throughout the crisis. (John Rieti/CBC)

"They're the ones doing the hard work," Nenshi told CBC News. "So I have to keep going."

Nenshi says he has three jobs.

The most important is to give people the information they need to stay safe. On Sunday that meant tearing into people who attempted to canoe on the swollen Bow River. More commonly, that advice is about road closures and damaged infrastructure that should be avoided.

His second job may be what he's best at — giving hope and courage to people affected by the floods.

"We're heading into tough times," Nenshi said. "As people get into their homes and their home is in trouble, people will feel despair… we have to lift them up with our love and support."

His third job? Staying out of the way as relief efforts continue.

Daorcey Le Bray, Nenshi's communications advisor, calls the mayor's schedule "intense and flexible."

"We're always weighing where he needs to be," Le Bray said, adding the mayor does most of his flood tours at night to avoid getting in the way of cleanup efforts.

Connection with Calgarians

You'd be hard pressed to find a Nenshi detractor in Calgary these days — some polls suggest his approval rating is over 70 per cent — which is especially good as he heads into this year's municipal election.

His ability to communicate with Calgarians is obvious at the volunteer event.

"You're the man, Nenshi," one volunteer said as he approached to shake the mayor's hand.

"I just want to thank you for the way you've represented our city," said another.

Nenshi read the crowd well. With some people he whispered, perhaps sharing a secret or two. He posed for photos with almost everyone. And with some, he's quick with a joke. "I went to bed last night and the water went down… maybe I should sleep more," he said, a reference to the limited rest he's had during the flood.

Donn Lovett, a political consultant and "frequent antagonist" of the mayor said Nenshi "Gets an A-plus," for his handling of the flood.

"I was pleasantly surprised," Lovett said. "I didn't know how he would perform under pressure."

Politically, Lovett said, nobody could beat Nenshi before the flood. Now, he said, nobody should even bother running.

Little moments matter

Nenshi talks with five-year-old Anna Selk, right, who brought him a thank-you card. (John Rieti/CBC)

Later, at the Emergency Operations Centre, Nenshi bounces between two television cameras, doing interviews for three different shows. It's the first time that day he's had to do one-on-one interviews.

Maryjane Bridges-Selk and her five-year-old daughter Anna look on from the sidewalk.

Once he's free of microphones, Nenshi comes over and kneels down to Anna's height. She hands him a hand-drawn card featuring a picture of Pete the Cat, the main character in a book Nenshi read to her class a while ago.

Inside, it reads: "Dear Mayor Nenshi, thank you for keeping Calgary strong!"

Nenshi is clearly touched.

"My heart is full," he tells the next interviewer.

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Why the U.S. hasn't nabbed Edward Snowden yet

As surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden hopscotches across the globe to avoid extradition to the United States, some wonder how mighty America could ever fail to catch its most famous fugitive.

But experts suggest that the intense public interest in the former National Security Agency contractor is helping him stay free, at least for now.

"This is a case where there are mixed feelings, so the United States is walking a tightrope, I think, with a lot of its own people who are really upset by what they've just found out," said Albert Berry, a professor emeritus in international economics at University of Toronto's Munk School for International Studies.

"The United States government probably doesn't want to appear very aggressive in this case, because their back is weak, so to speak."

Snowden, 30, has spent the last month in Hong Kong after leaking details about a secretive U.S. surveillance system called Prism that sifts through huge troves of phone and online data.

On Sunday, the U.S. fugitive wanted on espionage charges flew to Moscow, in what was described as the first leg in a journey to Ecuador.

But when Snowden failed to get on a connecting flight to Cuba as expected, U.S. authorities and media outlets around the world began wondering where the American was and what his plans actually were.

There are suggestions he's still in Russia and that the U.S. has amplified pressure on the already tense relationship between the countries.

Russia said on Tuesday it would not accept any blame over Snowden's efforts to evade prosecution in the U.S.

"We consider the attempts to accuse the Russian side of violating U.S. laws, and practically of involvement in a plot, to be absolutely groundless and unacceptable," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Lavrov denied Snowden is in Russia.

Meanwhile, China on Tuesday denied it helped Snowden get out of Hong Kong.

"The United States' criticism of China's central government is baseless. China absolutely cannot accept it," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.

Espionage charges pose a problem

So far, though, American pressure has reaped little in the Snowden case.

Reports suggest the U.S. government has spent nearly 10 days seeking action by Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, on the Snowden case, asking it early on to provisionally arrest him in anticipation of his extradition. The U.S. also revoked his passport.

But on Sunday, Snowden flew safely to Moscow. Asked for an explanation, Hong Kong officials blamed the process for his escape, saying the U.S. failed to "comply with legal requirements under Hong Kong law."

Snowden left Hong Kong on Wednesday in search of a new haven. (The Guardian/Associated Press)

White House spokesman Jay Charney said he didn't "buy" the technical issue, but by that point U.S. officials were focused on pressuring Russia to hand over Snowden.

Media reports suggest the U.S. could have requested an Interpol red notice, essentially an international arrest warrant sent out to all member countries, but espionage charges are considered political, a domain that Interpol avoids.

Snowden is charged under the 1917 Espionage Act with unauthorized communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified intelligence, but he also faces the non-political charge of theft of government property.

Political charges help Snowden

The political nature of the key charges could also help Snowden skirt extradition treaty agreements.

Ecuador, Snowden's apparent destination, has an extradition treaty with the U.S., but it includes an exception for crimes or action of a political nature.

Vancouver-based extradition lawyer Gary Botting suggested that the official agreements between countries to transfer suspected or convicted criminals are often subject to the political climate.

"Extradition is always ultimately a political decision," said Botting.

On the other hand, the lawyer noted that even if Snowden lands in a country where there is no extradition treaty, that nation could negotiate a diplomatic solution for the single case.

But the public outrage and the politicization of the case currently works in Snowden's favour, ensuring countries are far more hesitant to acquiesce to the U.S. demands.

"The more it is politicized, the more likely it is that the country where he ends up will say, 'Well, we can't extradite him, because you're trying to extradite him for a political purpose or for a political reason or for a political crime,'" added Botting.

An online petition calling for the U.S. to fully pardon Snowden had by early Monday surpassed the threshold of 100,000 signatures necessary to secure an official response.

Botting said that the U.S. needs an overhaul of its strategy if it expects to succeed with extradition.

"If the United States wants him back, they're going to have to minimize the political part of it and stick to the legalities of it and be very persuasive of the minister of justice wherever he ends up," said Botting.

Nothing to lose for Ecuador

Ecuador, meanwhile, said Monday that it had received a request for asylum from Snowden, but had not yet decided what to do.

University of Toronto professor Berry said Ecuador is a small country, but one determined lately to defy the U.S., sometimes for domestic political gain.

"They don't feel they have a great deal to lose," said Berry, since Ecuador is not economically linked to the U.S.

Ecuador President Rafael Correa's left-wing government has railed against American imperialism and given the boot to a U.S. airbase in the country.

As well, Berry notes that any country willing to help Snowden will be regarded well by the general public. "They're kind of tapping into a lot of support around the world," he said.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has spent the last year holed up in London in the safety of the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was granted diplomatic asylum.

Watch your back

Amnesty International said Monday that no matter where Snowden lands, he has a right to seek asylum due to a "well-founded fear of persecution" he'd face in the U.S.

Even if the asylum bid fails, Widney Brown, senior director of international law and policy at Amnesty International, said "no country can return a person to another country where there is a substantial risk of ill-treatment."

Last year, the UN special rapporteur on torture said the American government used cruel and inhumane treatment toward Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier arrested for allegedly passing classified material onto WikiLeaks, for holding him in solitary confinement for nearly a year.

Then again, some say trouble could find Snowden wherever he goes.

"It's not a James Bond world out there," said Botting, but he suggests that the deeper Snowden gets into the spy vs. spy world, the more care he'll need to take.

"You have to watch your back."

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Rob Ford's friend 'Dave' made calls to mayor's radio show

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is employing a man who has made repeated calls to his weekly radio show in the past, CBC News has learned.

The mayor and his brother, Coun. Doug Ford, have hosted a radio show on Newstalk 1010 for more than a year.

The Fords have long insisted that incoming calls aren't planted and have said they do not screen out unfriendly calls.

Since they began hosting the show, a male caller identified as "Dave" has been put on air on at least six occasions, calling from different parts of the city.

CBC News has learned that the caller is David Price, the mayor's current director of operations and logistics.

Sources say staff in the mayor's office put a stop to his calls once they found out the identity. The calls ended months before Price was hired by the mayor.

In March of last year, "Dave from Scarborough" called in to say that LRT stood for "left-wing redundant transit," as opposed to light-rail transit.

The next month, the same "Dave from Scarborough" slammed the proposal from the city's medical officer of health to reduce speed limits.

That May, a "Dave from Etobicoke" offered his take on stores charging for plastic bags:

"That, in my humble opinion, is fascism, and it's ludicrous that comrade [former mayor David] Miller and his merry band of big-brother, I know better than you, paternalistic, heavy-handed, Looney Tunes socialists should be setting the agenda of this great city of Toronto," the caller said.

The radio station says it's not uncommon for callers to appear multiple times on a show.

Price did not return calls from CBC on this story.

He is a long-time friend of the Ford family and was involved in the election campaign of the mayor's brother.

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Flooded downtown Calgary has half of power restored

Just over half of Calgary's downtown has had power restored, according to city officials.

Four out of seven power zones in the downtown core had power as of 7 a.m. MT, Bruce Burrell, Calgary Emergency Management Agency director, said Tuesday morning.

"I want to have people going back in and having a sense of normalcy as quickly as possible," said Burrell.

"These people [city workers] are working all the time, not only looking at we need to do today, but what does this need to look like three or four days from now.

"And, folks, this is a big disaster, we're going to be working on this for a few more weeks."

C-Train service across the city and parts of the downtown core has also been expanded, including on some lines which are now fully operational. For the most up to date information on service, visit Calgarytransit.com.

A number of bridges have also been reopened, either partially or in full.

Late Monday night, city officials asked all downtown employees to stay home Tuesday, even though parts of the downtown core had been reopened.

Officials said streets were a traffic mess following a partial reopening of the core over the weekend, and they asked that the core be open to residents only.

"We have a lot of work to do downtown, and it's best to stay out of the way of people doing that work," Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said.

He urged Calgarians to continue helping out neighbours as the city recovers from last week's floods.

"There is nothing preventing you from knocking on your neighbour's door," Nenshi said.

Nenshi also cautioned against people using generators indoors and said that restoring power to the Beltline community is now one of Enmax's top priorities.

With water beginning to recede, the city is taking steps to begin restoring some normalcy for Calgary residents.

Power was restored to much of the downtown core Monday and transit officials are hopeful some C-Train service could be restored by Wednesday.

Enmax made the decision to restore power following inspections by city officials to make sure the buildings were safe. A small number of businesses in the area may still be without power because of specific electrical or structural issues that need to be resolved, city officials say.

The area where power has been restored and is open to the public is west of Second Street S.W. to the Bow River, plus land north of Riverfront Avenue between Second Street S.W. and Centre Street.

Over the past few days, TransAlta has managed to reduce the flow rate in the Bow River significantly.

A number of areas are still off-limits to the public, including Prince's Island, although the Peace Bridge has reopened to the public.

Officials are cautioning people that while disinfectants in the city's water might make it taste funny, water is still safe to drink.

There is no boil water advisory in Calgary.

Some trains could resume Wednesday

As well, Calgary Transit is hoping to have trains from the northeast, west and northwest lines running downtown by Wednesday, so long as the electrical system works and is deemed safe.

The south line is still facing significant issues and will not be opened at this time.

"We are actively pumping, as we have been since Saturday so there's actually some in-built pumps within both of the tunnels that we've been using and we've brought in additional pumps," said Doug Morgan with Calgary Transit. "We're at the point where we're ready to get into those to do some power-washing and see what the state of the infrastructure is."

The C-Train tracks by Erlton Station have buckled due to flood waters and are not operating.

The tracks will be rebuilt by crews who had been working on the LRT extension for the new Tuscany Station in the northwest.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford has warned the cleanup effort could take up to 10 years.

Map of downtown areas with power

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