Drug Allegations and Rob Ford | Jolie, Gene Patents and Ethics | Should I Read It: Dan Brown's Inferno | Canadians Who Self-Represent | Victoria Day 2.0

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On Thursday, Gawker and The Toronto Star published stories claiming that their reporters had seen a cell phone video that appeared to show Toronto's Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. Toronto Star city hall reporter Robyn Doolittle tells Brent that the holders of the tape have "gone underground" since the Gawker story ran, but that she is still in contact with her source. CBC News has not seen the video and has not been able to validate any of the claims being made. Mayor Ford called the story "ridiculous" on Friday.

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After detecting a gene mutation in her body that has been commonly linked to breast cancer, Angelina Jolie chose to undergo a preventative double mastectomy. Her op-ed in the New York Times this week caused the stock of a company called Myriad to soar to a three-year high. That's because Myriad holds the patent for the BRCA1 gene that flagged Jolie as being at-risk. Myriad's gene patents are the subject of a long-fought case underway in the United States Supreme Court.

Brent speaks with Andrew Cohen, a contributing editor at The Atlantic and 60 Minutes' first-ever legal analyst, and Richard Gold, Professor of Law and Human Genetics at McGill University.

Do the benefits of gene patents outweigh the costs? We want to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment on this post, or tell us via Facebook or Twitter.

 

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Two-thirds of cases in family court now include at least one person who's defending themselves without the help of a lawyer. The stats climb to 70 per cent in civil court. Few do so by choice: they simply can't afford counsel. They're forced to navigate complicated legal issues and protocol alone, with little to no support from the judiciary. They often face stigma, or are branded as troublemakers.

University of Windsor law professor Julie Macfarlane interviewed over 250 self-represented litigants. Her study was published this month. It reveals a pattern of fear, anxiety and disillusionment with the justice system. One of the participants interviewed is Jennifer Muller. We speak with both.

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Dan Brown is back with a new thriller that's the odds-on favourite for beach book of the summer. "Inferno" features the return of Robert Langdon - the hero of Brown's earlier blockbusters, Angels & Demons, The DaVinci Code, and The Lost Symbol. But is Brown's latest worth the read? To help you decide, Brent speaks to Day 6 Books columnist Becky Toyne.

For your chance to win a copy of "Inferno", e-mail us at daysix @ cbc dot ca with the word "INFERNO" in the subject line, or follow us on Twitter and send us a tweet saying you'd like to be entered in the draw. Two winners will be picked at random. Contest closes Thursday, May 23 at midnight.

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*The following story contains graphic descriptions that may offend sensitive readers.

A gruesome new video clip from the war in Syria appears to show a rebel soldier named Khalid al-Hamad cutting an organ from the body of a dead pro-Assad soldier and biting into it. Al-Hamad told Time he did this after finding a video on the dead man's phone that shows him assaulting a naked woman and her two daughters. Horrible videos like these are used as propaganda tools, but there are concerns they are causing retaliatory violence to spread across the country. Brent speaks to Tracey Shelton, a senior correspondent for Global Post who has seen countless videos and photographs from the battlefields of Syria and Libya.

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Victoria Day is a time many take to open summer cottages, rebuild the garden, enjoy the outdoors, and perhaps drink a few too many to the health of a long-dead monarch, Queen Victoria. But Day 6 contributor Kathleen Phillips wonders if maybe it's time to re-think exactly why we celebrate this long weekend, and whether a different figure of Canadian royalty is better deserving of the honour.

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Riffed from the Headlines is our weekly music-meets-the-news quiz. Can you guess the story that connects the three riffs? Listen below. Email us at daysix @ cbc dot ca with your answer. Don't forget to include your mailing address, and put "Riffed From The Headlines" in the subject line. One random winner scores a Day 6 tote bag.

To find out last week's winner, follow the "Read More" link.

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| Sylvia Browne and Amanda Berry | Hockey Superstitions | Sex Abuse Allegations in the African Church | Cody Wilson and the 3D Gun | Not-So-Great Gatsby |

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On a 2004 episode of The Montel Williams Show, Louwana Miller sought out celebrity psychic Sylvia Browne to find out anything she could about her missing daughter, Amanda Berry. Sylvia's message to Louwana was blunt: "She's not alive, honey." But Sylvia was wrong - this week, after being held in captivity for a decade, Amanda escaped. Amanda's mother died of heart failure in 2006, never knowing how wrong Sylvia Browne had been. Brent speaks to Regina Brett, a Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist who got to know Louwana while covering Amanda's disappearance. Brent also speaks to Sylvia skeptic James Randi, who once offered Browne $1 million to prove her abilities. The Skeptical Enquirer study of Sylvia Browne's claims that James Randi refers to in the interview can be found here.

For videos of Sylvia Browne's predictions on The Montel Williams Show, follow the read more link at the bottom of this post.

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