Saturday is World AIDS Day. It’s the perfect opportunity to educate ourselves about the latest research on HIV prevention, treatment and stigma. In today’s The Conversation Canada, we’ve got a companion piece to our story earlier this week tied to World AIDS Day. Three researchers – from the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia – urge us to recognize that negative judgment and feelings about HIV are tangled up with racism, transphobia and homophobia.

Toronto’s Gay Village serial killings, meantime, have renewed simmering tensions between the city’s LGBTQ community and police. Canadian academic Carolyn Strange of Australian National University provides an interesting history of the relationship.

Another academic at an Australian institution, Māori Dominic O'Sullivan of Charles Sturt University, writes today that New Zealand has forged a very different relationship with its Indigenous population than Canada on the “duty to consult.” Māori elect members to parliament from designated Māori constituencies – and the right to participate offers much more than consultation does here.

The Māori are also blazing a trail when it comes to environmental protection of Indigenous areas, says Courtney Mason of Thompson Rivers University. Mason writes that as local communities encounter an ever-growing number of barriers to food security, including climate change, it’s increasingly clear that Indigenous lands must be protected from development.

Finally, what’s the role of educators when sexual violence happens in our schools? Jen Gilbert of York University writes that if educators start listening to students, they may hear new stories of masculinity and femininity echoing through school hallways.

Five compelling reads for you as we head into the weekend. Enjoy!