5 must-reads from CBCNews.ca you may have missed

This week the United Nations General Assembly approved the Palestinian Authority's bid to have its status upgraded, a judge ruled that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford must vacate his office, and CBC News discovered that Canada's most active spy could have been caught a year sooner.

Here are five features from CBCNews.ca you may have missed:

Canada in the Middle East

Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird addresses the United Nations General Assembly after Canada was one of nine countries to vote against the Palestinian Authority's bid to become a non-member observer state. (Richard Drew/Associated Press)

While 138 countries in the UN's General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the Palestinian Authority's bid to become a non-member observer state on Thursday, Canada was among nine nations that voted against the motion. The Harper government had vocally opposed the bid, and as a result of the decision Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Canada "will be considering all available next steps."

Friday morning, Baird announced Canada is temporarily recalling its heads of mission to Israel and the West Bank, along with its United Nations representatives in New York and Geneva.

Hindsight in navy spy Delisle case

Canada's most active spy — who sold secrets to the Russians for 4½ years — could have been stopped a year sooner if the military and CSIS had followed their own mandatory security check rules, documents obtained by CBC News show. Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Delisle never received his mandatory security check, so his debt and failing marriage — things that often trigger a security review for people involved in security — went unnoticed.

Luka Magnotta and the Toronto police

An animal-rights group trying to track a man who was posting videos of kitten killings narrowed their suspect to Luka Rocco Magnotta and contacted Toronto police, believing he was in the city. Correspondence obtained by CBC's the fifth estate between police and the activists show Toronto police saw Magnotta — charged with first-degree murder in the killing and dismemberment of Chinese student Jun Lin in Montreal in late May — as a growing danger to society months before the grisly slaying.

Ousted Toronto Mayor Ford's next steps

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford makes a statement to the media Tuesday, saying he apologized for his actions, after a judge found him guilty of breaking conflict of interest laws. (Mark Blinch/Reuters)

On Monday, an Ontario court judge ruled that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford violated the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and must vacate his office in 14 days. The two-week limit gives city council time to decide if it will appoint a caretaker mayor or call a byelection. If a byelection is held, Ford could run for mayor.

Ford has already filed for an expedited appeal and stay of judgment until his appeal is heard.

Hillary Clinton's transformation

As U.S. Republicans are already starting to worry who should receive their stamp of approval as their next presidential candidate, the Democrats seem to have at least one woman whose nomination would please millions of Americans: Hillary Clinton. Since she lost the Democratic nod to U.S. President Barack Obama in 2008, Clinton has become secretary of state and transformed the way Americans perceive her — from too polarizing to above the partisan wars.

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Trudeau calls long-gun registry 'a failure'

Liberal leadership candidate Justin Trudeau called the long-gun registry "a failure" during an Ontario campaign stop in the Conservative riding of Glengarry–Prescott–Russell on Friday.

"The long-gun registry, as it was, was a failure and I'm not going to resuscitate that," Trudeau said while visiting the DART Aerospace plant in Hawkesbury.

"We will continue to look at ways of keeping our cities safe and making sure that we do address the concerns around domestic violence that happen right across the country, in rural as well as urban areas in which, unfortunately, guns do play a role.

"But there are better ways of keeping us safe than that registry which is, has been removed," Trudeau said.

The Liberal leadership hopeful made the comments after he was asked for his view on the now-defunct long-gun registry.

"I grew up with long guns, rifles and shotguns," explained the son of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

"Yes, the RCMP guarding me had handguns and I got to play with them every now and then," said Trudeau, quickly adding that the RCMP was "very responsible" around him and his siblings.

Trudeau went on to say, "I was raised with an appreciation and an understanding of how important in rural areas and right across the country gun ownership is as a part of the culture of Canada. I do not feel that there's any huge contradiction between keeping our cities safe from gun violence and gangs, and allowing this important facet of Canadian identity which is having a gun."

Trudeau, who worked as a high school teacher before jumping into politics, said he once took a school group hiking across Greenland armed with a gun.

"It was one of the only times that I ever taught with a loaded .30-06 slung over my shoulder. You don't usually think of teaching with a heavy-duty rifle on your shoulder, but when you're in polar bear country, you have to be aware of that."

Trudeau blamed not only the Conservatives but also previous governments for polarizing the gun debate.

"We have a government, or successive governments, that have managed to polarize the conversations around gun ownership to create games in electoral ways — when you don't have to have a conflict," the MP from Quebec said.

"There is no concept, no idea that gun ownership is ever going to be under attack for law-abiding hunters and farmers across this country. But we need to keep the cities safe. And I don't see that that's an unsolvable solution," Trudeau said.

Quebec in long-gun registry battle

The federal long-gun registry was first created by the Liberal Party in 1995, in the wake of the 1989 massacre at Montreal's École Polytechnique, where a gunman shot and killed 14 women, mostly engineering students.

The "$2-billion boondoggle" registry was loathed by much of rural Canada and opposed by the Conservatives, who after several attempts finally abolished it in April after passing Bill C-19, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act, in a final vote of 159-130. Trudeau voted against the abolition of the federal long-gun registry.

The Quebec government went to court to preserve its share of long-gun data and in September, a Quebec Superior Court judge sided with the province.

While the federal government has destroyed millions of records of registered long guns, it is currently appealing the Quebec court ruling blocking it from destroying the data from Quebec's portion of the federal long-gun registry.

No stranger to public scrutiny, Trudeau said his biggest challenge is getting Canadians to know what he does and doesn't stand for.

In an exclusive in-depth interview airing on CBC Radio's The House — his first national English broadcast interview since entering the Liberal leadership race — Trudeau told host Evan Solomon "my biggest challenge is getting people to know everything that I am and everything that I'm not."

"I'm someone who is driven by my values, my sense of wanting to contribute to a build better country and people come at me with certain pre-conceptions," Trudeau said.

Liberals, Trudeau and Alberta

When asked what part of his father's legacy was a liability to him now, Trudeau took a deep breath before answering and said "not a lot," adding "but I would say the consequences of the National Energy Program."

"The fact that what was a well-intentioned proposal that was counting on the fact that oil prices were going to rise, when in fact they fell and hurt Alberta, and hurt one region of the country greatly, left a lasting legacy that I continue to fight to this day."

Trudeau made Calgary his first campaign stop after launching his leadership bid in Montreal.

"When I spend an awful lot of time out west, I spent a lot of time talking with Albertans and building bridges with the new progressive, exciting Alberta — and all someone has to do is bring up a misstatement from the past and divisive politics wins again. And that's something that I'm going to work very, very hard through my actions, not just through my words, to demonstrate that I'm beyond [that]," Trudeau said.

It was the young Trudeau's own comments about Albertans, which he made during a 2010 interview, that recently re-surfaced and touched off a political firestorm days before a byelection in Calgary.

While Trudeau conceded he "may have hindered a little bit" his party's chances in the Nov. 26 Calgary Centre byelection, he rejected the suggestion his 2010 comments are indicative of the "real" Justin Trudeau today.

"I think you get to know someone over time by the sum of what they say, what they talk about, what they propose, how they act. And I think voters are looking for real people — not spun, sound-bited, massively controlled politicians — that they can get a sense of."

Trudeau offered an apology for saying that Canada wasn't doing well because "it's Albertans who control our community and socio-democratic agenda," but continued to argue his comments were being misinterpreted and that they were directed at the government of Stephen Harper and not Albertans in general.

Coalition and merger talks

When asked about comments he made in 2008 praising the Bloc Québécois for supporting a Liberal-NDP coalition, Trudeau told Solomon "a moment of crisis" required the opposition parties to set their differences aside.

"In any situation I will work with all other parties who share my interests and my values, and sometimes it will be the Conservatives on certain initiatives, other times it might be the NDP, other times it might be the Greens or the Bloc. I'm not so ideological that I consider someone who is elected to the House of Commons is somehow illegitimate to work with," said Trudeau.

Asked if he would ever enter into a coalition with the Bloc, Trudeau said he could not foresee a situation where one would be required given that the separatist Quebec party was decimated in the last federal election.

"I don't think we'd ever come to the point of a coalition being necessary. I am running to win for the leadership of the Liberal Party and to win the prime ministership of the country. I do not think we're ever going to have to build any sort of coalition."

Trudeau closed the door to the idea of a merger with the Opposition New Democrats, saying, "I'm alway open to talking to anyone about proposals that'll make Parliament work better, but I am opposed to the idea of a merger."

With files from Radio-Canada's Denis Babin

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Obama's Keystone XL decision will set tone for 2nd term

It's a decision U.S. President Barack Obama put off during this year's election campaign, but now that he's won a second term, his next move on the proposed oil pipeline between Alberta and Texas may signal how he will deal with climate and energy issues in the four years ahead.

Obama is facing increasing pressure to determine the fate of the $7-billion Keystone XL project, with environmental activists and oil producers each holding out hope that the president, freed from the political constraints of re-election, will side with them on this and countless other related issues down the road.

On its surface, it's a choice between promises of jobs and environmental concerns. But it's also become a proxy for a broader fight over U.S. energy consumption and climate change.

"The broader climate movement is absolutely looking at this administration's Keystone XL decision as a really significant decision to signal that dirty fuels are not acceptable in the U.S.," said Danielle Droitsch, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Once content with delays that have kept Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.'s proposed pipeline from moving forward at full speed, opponents of Keystone XL have launched protests in recent weeks at the White House and in Texas urging Obama to kill the project outright. On Capitol Hill, support for the pipeline appears to be gaining.

But Obama has shown little urgency about the pipeline, which would carry Alberta's oilsands crude nearly 2,700 kilometres from Hardisty, Alta., to refineries on Texas's Gulf Coast. The pipeline requires U.S. State Department approval because it crosses an international boundary.

The pipeline became an issue in the campaign, and Obama put it on hold while a plan was worked out to avoid routing it through Nebraska's environmentally sensitive Sandhills region.

TransCanada revised the route, but that caused the lengthy environmental review process to start over. In the meantime, the company split the project into two parts, starting construction in August on a southern segment between Oklahoma and Texas even as it waits for approval for the northern segment that crosses the Canadian border.

Although the lower leg didn't require Obama's sign-off, he gave it his blessing in March anyway, irking environmental activists who see the pipeline as a slap to efforts to reduce oil consumption and fend off climate change.

"At a time when we are desperately trying to bend the emissions curve downwards, it is wrong to open up a new source of energy that is more carbon intensive and makes the problem worse," wrote former U.S. vice-President Al Gore, now a Nobel Prize-winning climate activist, in an email.

New capacity not needed, report found

The pipeline's proponents are touting access to affordable energy to try to find bipartisan appeal on the issue.

"It's just a no-brainer," Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said. "Canada is going to export this oil. It's either going to come to the U.S. or it's going to go to Russia or China. Even Democrats that aren't really excited about oil and gas development generally can figure that out."

Protesters including U.S. actress Daryl Hannah, centre, denounce the planned Keystone XL pipeline outside the White House in August 2011. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty)

But critics point out that there's abiding questions about how much of the oil piped to the U.S. would actually remain there. Oil companies' own plans show they intend to export much of the refined products to Asia and Europe.

And it's been hotly debated whether the increased oil-carrying capacity from the pipeline is even needed. A report commissioned by the U.S. government itself rebuts the idea, saying that there is already enough pipeline capacity to the U.S. to deliver petroleum from Western Canada until at least 2030.

The messy politics may demonstrate why Obama punted the decision until after the election. Now both sides are applying pressure with renewed vigour.

A TransCanada spokesman said the company expects a decision by the State Department, which is determining whether the pipeline is in the national interest, in the first quarter of 2013, and hopes to start construction on the upper portion shortly thereafter. The longer the decision drags on, the less realistic that timeline appears to be.

Officials in Nebraska are close to completing their own study of the revised route, with a public hearing planned for Tuesday ahead of a final decision by Gov. Dave Heineman.

With files from CBC News

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Calgary major's manslaughter verdict in hands of jury

The military jury weighing the fate of a Canadian reservist charged in a fatal training accident in Afghanistan has adjourned for the night.

Maj. Darryl Watts, 44, faces charges that include manslaughter, unlawfully causing bodily harm, breach of duty and negligent performance of duty.

Cmdr. Peter Lamont, the military judge overseeing the court-martial in Calgary, delivered a two-hour charge to the five-member jury panel late Saturday afternoon before sending them out to begin deliberating.

An image presented as evidence during Watts's court martial shows Canadian Forces troops on a firing range near Kandahar City in 2010. It is alleged Watts didn't enforce safety regulations during tests of a fragmentation mine, leading to the death of a soldier. (Canadian Forces)

"The time has come for you to make your finding," Lamont said. "You have now heard all of the evidence. In every court martial there are two judges. I am one — you are the other," he said.

"You are the judges of the facts. You — not I — will determine the evidence in this case.

"Make your decision without sympathy, prejudice or fear," Lamont said.

The jury is being sequestered until a verdict is reached, but gets to decide on its own timeline of when to break for the night and resume deliberations in the morning. The panel decided to adjourn on Saturday at about 6:15 p.m. MT.

Cpl. Josh Baker, 24, died and four other soldiers were injured when a Claymore anti-personnel mine, packed with 700 steel balls, peppered their platoon on a training range near Kandahar City in February 2010.

The Crown argues that Watts, who was the platoon commander, turned a blind eye to safety standards and abdicated his duty as a leader during the exercise.

"Maj. Watts, being the platoon commander having ordered his platoon onto that range, is responsible for the conduct of the range," senior prosecutor Maj. Tony Tamburro said in an interview with reporters Saturday.

"He can delegate certain tasks to his subordinates, but he still remains accountable for the way those tasks are performed."

Watts had no training with land mine, defence says

The defence countered that Watts had no training on the Claymore, so he handed over responsibility for safety to his second-in-command, who was an expert on the weapon.

Cmdr. Lamont told the panel it had to be sure within a reasonable doubt that Watts was guilty of the charges he has been charged with and that every person charged with an offence is presumed to be innocent.

"You must find the accused innocent of the offence unless the prosecution proves it beyond a reasonable doubt," Lamont said.

Canadian Forces personnel handle a Claymore directional fragmentation mine, the type that killed one of their own on a training range in Afghanistan in 2010. (Canadian Forces)

The platoon, which was stationed at Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar city, usually visited the Kan Kala firing range about once a month.

The day of the accident, the range was divided into four training sections.

The initial test of the anti-personnel mine went off without a hitch. But when a subsequent firing occurred, the ball bearings fired backwards, hitting Baker and four others.

Videos of the accident show several soldiers, including Watts, standing around watching the tests. They were not inside armoured vehicles or standing behind them for cover, as set out in Canadian Forces safety guidelines.

Maj. Tamburro acknowledged that it was a difficult case to prosecute.

"Negligence cases are always somewhat difficult because we're not alleging crimes of intent here. No one has ever alleged that Maj. Watts intentionally harmed anyone or killed anyone," Tamburro said.

Cmdr. Lamont also warned the jury not to go beyond deciding the guilt or innocence of the accused.

"Punishment has no place in your discussion or in your decision," Lamont said.

"It is my job — not yours — to decide what kind of punishment is appropriate."

With files from CBC's Meghan Grant

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3 dead, more feared missing in Tokyo tunnel collapse

At least three people are dead and others feared missing after parts of a tunnel collapsed on a highway west of Tokyo, trapping vehicles as smoke from a fire inside initially prevented rescuers from approaching.

Local media reported that at least three bodies had been found. Officials said they are not certain how many people remain trapped inside.

Video footage from cameras inside the tunnel, after the fire was extinguished, showed firefighters picking their way through cement roof panels that collapsed onto vehicles inside the Sasago Tunnel, about 80 kilometres outside the city.

Rescuers look for the injured among fallen roof panels in the Sasago Tunnel. (Kyodo News/Associated Press)

However, local media reported rescuers had suspended work out of fears of another collapse in the tunnel.

A woman who escaped from her rental car after it was trapped in the 4.3-kilometre-long tunnel told authorities she was unsure about the condition of five other people who had been in the vehicle with her.

Another two vehicles were known to be buried in the rubble, suggesting at least seven people were trapped inside, according to a statement by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

It said two people were confirmed injured, one of them moderately.

The cause in the collapse of about 100 metres of the tunnel was under investigation.

Police vehicles, fire trucks and ambulances were massed outside the tunnel's entrance. A man who said he saw the collapse and alerted authorities to the emergency told NHK television he managed to escape after he was ordered to flee.

The roof and windows of another vehicle parked on the roadside outside the tunnel were crushed, and the injured occupants reportedly taken to a hospital.

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Elections Canada investigates call complaints in 56 ridings

Elections Canada investigators are tracking complaints of misleading or harassing phone calls in 56 ridings during the 2011 federal election campaign, newly released court documents show.

The documents show exactly how widespread the investigation has become since it was first revealed that the election agency was looking into allegations of misleading phone calls in Guelph, Ont. The documents, known as information to obtain a production order, cover phone records for customers of Vidéotron in Quebec and of Shaw in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario. A production order for Rogers hasn't yet been publicly released.

The phone records requested cover nearly one-fifth of Canada's 308 ridings. Elections Canada has said they are looking into complaints from 1,399 people in 247 ridings.

Elections Canada investigator John Dickson says in the Shaw production order that he believes the information will help him identify whoever made the calls.

He also says the agency got 99 complaints of misleading or harassing calls before the first media report last February. Once the news broke, the agency got another 1,048 complaints, not including the 252 complaints from Guelph. Some people reported both misleading and harassing calls.

'Not an isolated incident'

Of the 36 ridings Dickson is investigating — another investigator is looking at 20 ridings in Quebec — a Shaw security official said the same incoming phone number called "at least several" of the complainants on May 1 and 2, 2011, at least six times, he wrote in the production order.

There are complaints from another 217 people in 31 of the 36 ridings who weren't Shaw subscribers, he said.

The production order details what each person remembers from the calls, but shows the difficulty of trying to investigate what many wrote off as prank calls almost a year before they were interviewed.

One voter from Winnipeg told Elections Canada that he called back a number that showed up several times on his call display and thought that he had reached a call centre.

The man, whose name is blacked out of the documents, says the number was from an area code in North Dakota, where he has a relative, so he dialed it, thinking it was a call from the relative.

The call was answered, and while the recipient went to see whether they could find someone by the name he provided, the man says he heard the sounds of a call centre in the background.

"He stated that he heard people making calls with respect to voting and it sounded to him as though the calls were being directed mostly to the Toronto area. He said he heard people talking about carrier trouble and targeting Ontario, and he heard people mention Guelph and Thunder Bay," Dickson recounts in the document.

In the House of Commons Friday, New Democrat MP Craig Scott said what happened in Guelph was "clearly not an isolated incident."

"Conservatives can no longer pretend that this is just a few rogues in Guelph," Scott said.

Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre provided no new explanation, referring only to the party's co-operation with investigators on the Guelph allegations.

Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett called for Conservative MPs in the ridings hit by allegations to speak up.

"Will Conservatives come clean to Canadians, or are they waiting for the RCMP to once again raid their headquarters?"

No interviews with Conservatives

However, the production order shows it's taking months for the party's lawyer to arrange interviews for Dickson. He first spoke with Arthur Hamilton on Aug. 7, in a phone call in which Hamilton asked Dickson to go through him with any requests.

"On Aug. 30, 2012, I spoke with Mr. Hamilton by telephone and discussed with him the issue of whether the Conservative Party or its candidate in several [electoral districts] noted herein made such calls. He advised me he would look into the matter and reply," Dickson wrote.

"On Sept. 20, 2012, Mr. Hamilton advised me he will put the request forward for a response. On Oct. 2, 2012, Mr. Hamilton advised me that he will attempt to arrange for me to speak directly with the appropriate campaign official. On Oct. 30, 2012, Mr. Hamilton advised me that he anticipates being able to facilitate such meetings in the near future."

Conservative officials have repeatedly denied any link to the misleading phone calls and say they ran a clean and ethical campaign.

The records were released as part of a Federal Court case in which six applicants, backed by the Council of Canadians, are challenging the election result in their ridings. That case will be heard Dec. 10.

The justice of the peace who granted the production order also granted Dickson's request to seal the names and phone numbers of the complainants he mentions in the document.

The case has drawn enough media attention, Dickson wrote in the request for the production order, that the complainants would "garner attention from the media and otherwise which could cause them to decide not to co-operate further with the investigation." It could also cause a chilling effect for witnesses who haven't come forward yet, he added.

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5 must-reads from CBCNews.ca you may have missed

This week the United Nations General Assembly approved the Palestinian Authority's bid to have its status upgraded, a judge ruled that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford must vacate his office, and CBC News discovered that Canada's most active spy could have been caught a year sooner.

Here are five features from CBCNews.ca you may have missed:

Canada in the Middle East

Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird addresses the United Nations General Assembly after Canada was one of nine countries to vote against the Palestinian Authority's bid to become a non-member observer state. (Richard Drew/Associated Press)

While 138 countries in the UN's General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the Palestinian Authority's bid to become a non-member observer state on Thursday, Canada was among nine nations that voted against the motion. The Harper government had vocally opposed the bid, and as a result of the decision Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Canada "will be considering all available next steps."

Friday morning, Baird announced Canada is temporarily recalling its heads of mission to Israel and the West Bank, along with its United Nations representatives in New York and Geneva.

Hindsight in navy spy Delisle case

Canada's most active spy — who sold secrets to the Russians for 4½ years — could have been stopped a year sooner if the military and CSIS had followed their own mandatory security check rules, documents obtained by CBC News show. Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Delisle never received his mandatory security check, so his debt and failing marriage — things that often trigger a security review for people involved in security — went unnoticed.

Luka Magnotta and the Toronto police

An animal-rights group trying to track a man who was posting videos of kitten killings narrowed their suspect to Luka Rocco Magnotta and contacted Toronto police, believing he was in the city. Correspondence obtained by CBC's the fifth estate between police and the activists show Toronto police saw Magnotta — charged with first-degree murder in the killing and dismemberment of Chinese student Jun Lin in Montreal in late May — as a growing danger to society months before the grisly slaying.

Ousted Toronto Mayor Ford's next steps

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford makes a statement to the media Tuesday, saying he apologized for his actions, after a judge found him guilty of breaking conflict of interest laws. (Mark Blinch/Reuters)

On Monday, an Ontario court judge ruled that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford violated the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and must vacate his office in 14 days. The two-week limit gives city council time to decide if it will appoint a caretaker mayor or call a byelection. If a byelection is held, Ford could run for mayor.

Ford has already filed for an expedited appeal and stay of judgment until his appeal is heard.

Hillary Clinton's transformation

As U.S. Republicans are already starting to worry who should receive their stamp of approval as their next presidential candidate, the Democrats seem to have at least one woman whose nomination would please millions of Americans: Hillary Clinton. Since she lost the Democratic nod to U.S. President Barack Obama in 2008, Clinton has become secretary of state and transformed the way Americans perceive her — from too polarizing to above the partisan wars.

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Aboriginal HIV infections a growing problem in Canada

Aboriginal AIDS activists in Canada say they are trying to lower the high rate of HIV infections among First Nations, Métis and Inuit people.

The Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network is launching a national awareness campaign in Winnipeg on Saturday — to coincide with World AIDS Day — with the goal of reducing the number of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths.

"We need to say to our own community, 'Listen to the messages about HIV and AIDS. Protect yourself. Go get a test if you put yourself at risk,'" said Art Zoccole, president of the network's board.

"These are our future generations, and there is a responsibility of us in the aboriginal community to take care of each other and [get] everybody involved."

While First Nations, Métis and Inuit people represent 3.8 per cent of Canada's population, they account for 7.5 per cent of Canadians living with HIV, according to 2006 census figures.

As well, aboriginal people accounted for 12.5 per cent of all new HIV infections in Canada in 2008, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

That all means the HIV infection rate for aboriginal Canadians was 3.6 times higher than the rate for other Canadians in 2008.

The federal health agency says injection drug use is the main way aboriginal people get exposed to HIV, and the number of cases continues to rise, especially among women.

Risky lifestyles

Research is underway to find out why the infection rate is so high, but there is concern that an alarming number of aboriginal Canadians are engaging in risky lifestyles.

The agency has found that aboriginal HIV cases attributed to injected drug use has gone up to more than 50 per cent in the period spanning 2001 to 2008 from 18 per cent before 1995.

Brenda Pelletier says her family has withdrawn from her since she was diagnosed with HIV about 12 years ago. She is now speaking to aboriginal communities about HIV and AIDS. (Karen Pauls/CBC)

Brenda Pelletier, 60, of Winnipeg said she contracted HIV 12 years ago after she shared drug paraphernalia with a friend who she knew was HIV-positive.

"I didn't think anything of it — like, you know, sharing — because when they said, 'Use clean needles,' I just thought, 'Hmm, OK, clean needle, I got one,'" she recalled. "Four days after that, my friend died."

Pelletier said since she was diagnosed with HIV, she has been in and out of the hospital with pneumonia, tuberculosis and other ailments.

Zoccole said more education is needed on how the virus is contracted, how people can protect themselves, and how people should get tested.

The theme of the network's Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week campaign this year is "Getting to Zero," which means zero new HIV infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero cases of discrimination against people with HIV and AIDS.

Workshops on aboriginal HIV and AIDS issues will be held in Halifax, Regina, Toronto, Iqaluit and Victoria in the coming days as part of the campaign.

Ottawa investing in programs

Zoccole, who has had HIV for eight years and currently heads up the Toronto-based group Two-Spirited People of the First Nations, said there are very few agencies that provide services for HIV-positive aboriginal people in large cites.

There are even fewer resources for those in small and remote First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, he added.

"It's concerning," said federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

Aglukkaq said the federal government is investing in research, education and treatment programs, including a Health Canada project to develop aboriginal-language terminology concerning HIV and AIDS.

"We have translated a number of terms to the appropriate language of the aboriginal population," she said.

Aglukkaq said while the availability of HIV- and AIDS-related services in remote communities is an issue, there are hospitals in a number of areas that can provide treatment.

"Education is fundamental in getting to the bottom of this, and we have to work in partnership with the community to educate young people," she said. "But it has to be done in partnership with the community."

Stigma remains in some communities

But Zoccole said sometimes those very communities are part of the problem.

"There's still stigma and discrimination. So when that happens, sometimes, the result is that the person living with HIV and AIDS needs to move and relocate to a place that's safe for them," he said.

Art Zoccole of the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network says some people don't know what a female condom is, or how it could help women protect themselves from HIV infection. (Karen Pauls/CBC)

"They almost get ostracized from their communities, and it's very unfortunate … Aboriginal people need to take a greater stand against, you know, this kind of discrimination that we're doing to our own family and in our own community. It's not right."

Pelletier said her own family has withdrawn from her, with some members even changing their phone numbers.

"They dumped me. They didn't want nothing to do with me," she said. "You feel like you're not good enough to be with people, unless they are HIV [positive] too."

But Pelletier said she is trying to be part of the solution by taking part in a speaking tour organized by a non-profit aboriginal service agency in Winnipeg.

"I go into communities and I talk and I'll tell them how I got it, if they ask," she said. "I hope that they have listened."

Pelletier and others say the best way to stem the rise in HIV and AIDS cases among aboriginal people is by teaching young people — in a culturally appropriate way — how to protect themselves.

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Thousands rally in support of Egypt's president

Tens of thousands of people waving Egyptian flags and hoisting large pictures of the president are demonstrating across Egypt in support of him and Islamic law.

The Saturday rally, organized by the Muslim Brotherhood, is seen as a test of strength for Islamists seeking to counteract large opposition protests held this past week.

The Islamists argue that the liberals, who are still labouring to create a cohesive opposition nearly two years after the uprising that ousted longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, do not represent the vast majority of Egyptians.

The Brotherhood and harder-line Islamists won nearly 75 per cent of the seats in last winter's parliamentary election. But liberals highlight the fact that President Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Brotherhood's political party, won only 25 per cent of votes in the first round of presidential elections. He went on to win the runoff by just over 50 per cent, after a divisive race against a former regime figure.

Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly liberal and secular forces, took to the streets twice this week opposing Morsi's decrees to grant himself sweeping powers.

Draft charter enflames tensions

On Friday, up to 200,000 people packed the streets of Cairo alone, vowing to bring down a draft constitution approved by allies of Morsi, and demanding he repeal the decrees that neutralized the judiciary.

Morsi says he acted to prevent courts led by former regime holdovers from delaying a transition to democracy and dissolving the assembly that wrote the draft constitution.

"The people support the president's decision!" chanted crowds outside Cairo University, where more than 10,000 had gathered by midday. They held posters that read "Yes to stability" and "Yes to Islamic law".

The draft was passed by an Islamist-led assembly early Friday and is expected to be presented to the president Saturday. He will then decide on a date for a nationwide referendum, possibly in mid-December.

Egypt's constitutional Court rules on Sunday whether to dissolve the assembly. Liberal, secular and Christian members had already quit the body in protest of what they call the Islamists' hijacking of the process.

Brotherhood rallies pro-Morsi camp

Near Cairo University, dozens of Brotherhood buses stood parked after transporting people from outside the capital to the rally.

Thousands others arrived on foot, chanting in support of Morsi as they marched. Among supporters of the rally, which also calls for Islamic law, are the Gamaa Islamaiyya — a fundamentalist group that fought an insurrection against the government in the 1990s — and the Salafi Nour Party, seen as more conservative than the Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood had originally said it would hold Saturday's rally in Tahrir Square, where the opposition has erected dozens of tents since Morsi issued his decrees last week, but changed their location to avoid confrontation.

The group said it cancelled its rally in the southern city of Luxor after clashes between rival camps broke out there Friday.

Clashes sparked by the two-week old crisis have left two dead and hundreds injured.

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Mexico swears in new president Pena Nieto

The party that ruled Mexico for seven decades will return to power with a president from a new generation to govern a country that has changed dramatically in the 12 years since the Institutional Revolutionary Party last held the top post.

Enrique Pena Nieto will take the oath of office Saturday after campaigning as the face of a new PRI — a party that claims to be repentant and reconstructed after voted out of the presidency in 2000. The PRI ruled for 71 years with a mix of populist handouts, graft and rigged elections.

Canada's Gov. Gen. David Johnston will be attending the ceremony.

Pena Nieto has promised to govern democratically with transparency. But his first moves even before the inauguration showed a solid link to the past.

In announcing his Cabinet on Friday, he turned to the old guard as well as new technocrats to run his administration.

"I don't think there is any such thing as a 'new PRI,"' said Rodrigo Aguilera, the Mexico analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit. "There is a new generation of PRI members, but they don't represent any fundamentally different outlook."

Demonstrations expected

Pena Nieto assumed office in the early seconds of Saturday during a brief ceremony with outgoing President Felipe Calderon at Mexico's historic National Palace.

Pena Nieto at a news conference last week during his visit to Parliament Hill in Ottawa. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

He was to take the formal oath of office later in the day.

The swearing-in ceremony at Congress and then a speech at the National Palace were set to be low on pomp and high on security as Calderon made a smooth transition his goal.

Six years ago, Calderon's security unit literally had to muscle him past blockades and protesters to get him into Congress so he could take the oath of office after a razor-thin, disputed victory over a leftist candidate.

Demonstrations were likely outside Congress this time as well and at the city's key monuments. But the country's main leftist party pledged not to swarm the podium this time, and it planned no mass protests like those that paralyzed central Mexico City six years ago.

Mexicans divided, ambivalent

Mexicans for the most part seemed more focused on the end-of-the-month pay day and Christmas shopping than the arrival of a new president.

Divided and ambivalent, many people are wary of a return to the old days, but they're also weary of Calderon's National Action Party and the spike in violence during his six-year attack on organized crime, which has had a toll of 60,000 deaths by some estimates.

Government worker Antonio Vidal, 37, was confident his country wouldn't see much of the PRI of old.

"We've invested heavily in our democracy," he said. "It's very closely watched by civil society, so I don't think the PRI can return to their ways of fraud."

Alma Rosa Martinez, a 40-year-old real estate agent, said she had a very bad feeling.

"It took 70 years to kick them out of power," she said. "How long will it take to kick them out again?"

Focus on economy, jobs

Pena Nieto has pledged to make economic growth and job creation the centerpiece of his administration, with campaign manager and long-time confidant Luis Videgaray the point person.

Videgaray, a 44-year-old economist with a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will lead the treasury department.

Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, a 48-year-old former state governor who is known as a political operator and deal maker, has been named secretary of the interior, a post that will play a key role in security matters.

A bill proposed by Pena Nieto would gather the police and security apparatus under the control of the Interior Department and create a new national anti-corruption commission. Those changes are expected to pass Congress next week.

Pena Nieto has also promised to push for reforms that could bring major new private investment into Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, the crucial but struggling state-owned oil industry. Such changes have been blocked for decades by nationalist suspicion of foreign meddling in the oil business.

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