Even the most ardent acolytes of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford should be starting to question daily reports that the man at the centre of the internationally-watched crack video scandal knows more than he is admitting to know.

Ford, who has said he does not smoke crack cocaine and has denied the existence of a video of him smoking from a crack pipe, has been towing a consistently-shifting line about how little truth there is in allegations made by two news organizations, and a bevy of doozies from other news groups (even those seen as close allies) in their wake.

A new report from the Toronto Star cites sources very close to the mayor confirming that just one day after reports of the video surfaced, Ford told his closest advisers not to worry about the video because he knew where the video was.

The report says during a May 17 strategy session with a handful of his inner circle, Ford shared the address where the video was being held (two apartments on the 17th floor of a Dixon Rd. apartment

Read More »from Rob Ford scandal: sources tell Star mayor knew location of video

Word that Canada has expelled a diplomat from the African nation of Eritrea reflects the longstanding vulnerability of immigrants from conflict-ridden or economically poor countries are to extortion originating in their homelands.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has declared Semere Ghebremariam O. Micael, head of Eritria's consulate general in Toronto, persona non grata and ordered him to leave Canada by Sunday, June 5, for levying a "diaspora tax" from Eritrean expatriates.

"Canada has repeatedly made clear to Eritrea to respect international sanctions and Canadian law," the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Department said Wednesday in a news release.

"The Eritrean government is welcome to propose another candidate to represent it in Canada, but that person must be prepared to play by the rules. Our resolve on this matter should not be further tested."

[ Related: Ottawa expels Eritrean diplomat over continuing 'diaspora tax' ]

The move follows news reports Micael's office was

Read More »from Canada turfs Eritrean diplomat over ‘diaspora tax’

There's probably no better example of the tension between B.C. aboriginal fishing rights and Canadian law than the case of Patricia Kelley.

After a nine-year legal battle involving more than 200 court appearances, the Sto:lo First Nation woman was given an absolute discharge in B.C. provincial court earlier this month on charge of violating the Fisheries Act. The federal government also was ordered to pay her almost $2,500 for almost all the salmon it confiscated from her in 2004, according to the Chilliwack Times.

Although the conviction stands, Kelley, who also uses the aboriginal name Kwitsei Tatel, felt vindicated, telling the Globe and Mail this week she had struck a blow for aboriginal rights.

The case, which began when federal fisheries offices confronted her as she was preparing to unload a crate of freshly caught sockeye salmon at a Fraser Valley processing plant, turned into a gruelling ordeal that involved personal humiliation.

At one point she was arrested for drumming and

Read More »from 9 years and 200 court appearances later, aboriginal B.C. woman free to fish

Robert Fowler is pictured in Ottawa on September 22, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickA $1 million bounty apparently paid to secure the release of a Canadian diplomat taken hostage four years ago appears to have been at the centre of an argument inside the ranks of al Qaeda, which seems to have played out like a dysfunctional case of office politics.

Canadian Robert Fowler, North Africa’s highest-ranking UN diplomat at the time, and his colleague Louis Guay were taken hostage in Niger in 2009 and held for four months before they were finally released.

According to fresh reports, their freedom was secured following the payment of $1 million. Hostage taker Moktar Belmoktar appears to have ordered the capture and the subsequent release before splitting from al Qaeda's North African branch to conduct his own operations.

[ Related: Diplomat Fowler freed in 2009 for about $1M, docs reveal ]

The Canadian Press reports that a letter, secured from a Mali building once occupied by the international terrorist group, outlines the inner strife caused by the previously unknown payday.

Read More »from Ransom for Canadian diplomat may have caused dysfunction inside al Qaeda

Liver cancer is bucking the declining trend in cancer rates, tripling among Canadian men and doubling among women since 1970, CBC News reports.

New statistics released by the Canadian Cancer Society show the death rate for all cancers continues to decline for everyone except women over age 70.

But liver cancer, which has a high death rate, has been increasing annually since 1970 by 3.6 per cent for men and 1.7 per cent for women, the society's figures show.

"This cancer is one of the fastest growing cancer types in Canada with regard to new cases and deaths," says the report's executive summary. "An estimated 1,550 men and 490 women will be diagnosed with liver cancer this year.

"Major risk factors for liver cancer include viral hepatitis infection (hepatitis B and C), smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity."

People in lower income brackets are at higher risk of liver cancer, the report says, and face more barriers to detection and treatment.

[ Related: Should genetic testing for cancer be

Read More »from New stats reveal that liver cancer is on the rise in Canada

Henry Morgentaler, one of Canada’s most controversial and celebrated faces and the doctor credited with launching abortion rights in Canada, died on Wednesday, according to several reports.

Morgentaler was 90 years old. It was not immediately clear how he passed away. CBC News reports that Carolyn Egan, a member of the Ontario Coalition of Abortion Clinics, spoke with Morgentaler’s family, who said he passed away peacefully at his Toronto home.

The doctor is credited with leading Canadian women’s rights movement when he broke the law and opened the country’s first abortion clinic in Montreal in 1969. His work made him the most notorious name in Canada’s polarizing abortion debate, garnering him both credit and criticism through his extensive career.

[ Related: Canada would be very different for women if not for Morgentaler: advocate ]

Praised by the pro-choice movement and panned by its pro-life opponents, Morgentaler lived his life in the spotlight. He faced charges and saw them cleared.

Read More »from Women’s rights crusader Henry Morgentaler dead at 90

The B.C. Court of Appeal hears a case regarding convicted drug dealer Jean Gingras.We will have to wait until the British Columbia Court of Appeal rules to know for sure, but Jean Gingras might be barking up the wrong tree.

The convicted B.C. drug dealer is appealing his sentence on the grounds that he was confused through much of his trial because it was conducted in English.

The Vancouver Sun reports the francophone complained he was confused and misunderstood much of what happened during last year's trial because of his imperfect English, even as he was forced to listen to recordings of conversations in which he seemed to speak fluent English to an undercover police officer.

The decision to grant the appeal notes that during the trial, Gingras told the court he understood “like 75 percent of what you’re talking about, but sometime you got some expression that I don’t ... I don’t know what is says.” It also notes that Gingras declined the use of an interpreter on several occasions.

[ Related: Rob Ford's office reportedly tipped to location of video ]

The Sun's Kim Bolan

Read More »from Convicted B.C. drug dealer who cites language barrier in appeal is questioned on fluency

The Canadian flag flies near the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 15, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian WyldThe border city of Windsor is adorned with a number large Canadian flags and, considering its skyline wraps tightly together with Detroit, its American cousin, there is perhaps no city in the country more aware of the strength and pride that comes with the national symbol.

Which leads us into what is being called “The Great Canadian Flag Debate” – a discussion over whether to erect a high-rise-sized pole at a downtown intersection and post the mother of all Canadian flags, for everyone to see.

The Windsor Star reports that a debate over whether to fly a massive, and I mean massive, Canadian flag over an area of the border city's downtown has garnered its supporters and its detractors.

And, sadly, the debate has apparently prompted some to accuse those detractors of racism.

According to the Star, city councillor Fulvio Valentinis has expressed some doubt about the project, mostly on the technical aspects of flying a flag that is about 20 meters wide and 10 meters tall.

Will a flag of that

Read More »from Windsor’s Canadian flag debate leads to attacks on patriotism