F... Names     FR... Names     FRE... Names     Welcome Home

FREED o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2005-01-26 published
JANSSENS, Jeanne▲ Maria▲ (née SOMERS)
Mrs. Jeanne Maria, of Port Lambton passed away on Monday, January 24, 2005, at C.K.H.A. Sydenham Campus, in Wallaceburg at the age of 92 years. She was born in Hoboken, Belgium and was a daughter of the late Jozef and Maria (PALMANS) SOMERS. Beloved wife of the late Edward H. JANSSENS (1979.) Loving mother and mother-in-law of Georgette and the late Roger APERS of Tupperville, Yvonne and Hector VAN DAMME of Wallaceburg, George and Marcia JANSSENS of Dresden, Frank and Nancy JANSSENS of Port Huron, Christine and her friend David FREED of Victoria, British Columbia and Margaret and Joe VERHOEVEN of Chatham. Sadly missed by 20 grandchildren, a step-grandchild and 37 great-grandchildren. Kind sister-in-law of Rosalia JANSSENS of Belgium and August and Josephin JANSSENS of Kerwood. Also survived by several nieces and nephews. Predeceased by an infant daughter, one sister and two brothers. Visitation will be held at the Eric F. Nicholls Funeral Home, (639 Elgin St.) in Wallaceburg, on Thursday, January 27, 2005 from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. The Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Friday, January 28, 2005 from Sacred Heart Church, Port Lambton at 10: 30 a.m. Interment in Sacred Heart Parish Cemetery. C.W.L. Prayers will be offered at the funeral home on Thursday at 3 p.m. Parish prayers will be offered at the funeral home on Thursday at 8 p.m. Donations to the Victorian Order of Nurses Nursing Education or the Sydenham Hospital Continuing Care may be left at the funeral home.

  F... Names     FR... Names     FRE... Names     Welcome Home

FREED o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-08-09 published
Peter JENNINGS, Anchorman: 1938-2005
ABC's Canadian newscaster brought the world's biggest stories into the homes of millions of Americans
By Sandra MARTIN, Tuesday, August 9, 2005, Page S9
Peter JENNINGS was a high-school dropout who became ABC television's definitive face of world events in a stellar 45-year career as a foreign correspondent and news anchor. A proud Canadian who only applied for dual citizenship in the United States after 9/11, he was a man of exceptional physical grace and legendary stamina.
Counting down to the turn of the millennium in December, 1999, he was on the air for 25 hours, winning a Peabody Award for ABC and an audience of 175 million for the biggest live television event ever. During the week of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in September, 2001, he anchored ABC's coverage for more than 60 hours, providing an informed and calming presence.
Among his many coups, he was the first Canadian journalist to arrive in Dallas after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963; he used his Canadian passport to report from inside Cuba for ABC when the country was off-limits to Americans; and he deployed his expertise on the Middle East and the Black September guerrillas to award-winning advantage during the Munich Olympics in 1972.
He loved the camera as much as it favoured him. In the early part of his career, his crisp good looks and forthright demeanour damaged his credibility as an anchor. Later, after time and wrinkles had weathered his classic good lucks, critics quipped: "He's now as good as he used to think he was." Another said: "He's 10 times better than people have a right to expect because he's so good looking."
Offstage, he was as restless romantically as he was intellectually, saying "I do" four times. Like many veteran journalists, he was a reformed smoker. He started sneaking puffs at 11 and it soon became compulsive. He consumed three packs a day until he quit in 1980 after his first child was born. He relapsed for a few months after the terrorist attacks in 2001, but conquered his addiction for a second time. He was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in April this year.
Peter Charles JENNINGS was born in Toronto, the older of two children of homemaker Elizabeth OSBORNE and Charles JENNINGS, chief announcer for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio and later vice-president for regional programming. Describing his father as one of the pioneers of radio news, Mr. JENNINGS compared him with the legendary Edward R. Murrow. As a young boy, Mr. JENNINGS remembers his father challenging him to "describe the sky" and, after he complied, telling him to "go out and slice it into pieces and describe each piece as different from the next." He also credited his father and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for teaching him to respect the audience and the ethic that "everybody in the country has a right to hear themselves represented somehow on the national broadcasting system."
Mr. JENNINGS made his own debut behind the microphone at the age of 9 when he began hosting Peter's People in 1947, a weekly half-hour Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio show of music and news for children. His father, who had been in the Middle East on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation business when the program first aired, was outraged to learn his son was broadcasting for his own employer because he "couldn't stand nepotism," according to an interview Mr. JENNINGS gave the U.S. edition of Reader's Digest in 2002.
At 11, he began boarding at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, where he excelled at cricket, hockey and football. Six years later, he shifted to Lisgar Collegiate in Ottawa (where his father had been transferred to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation headquarters in the early 1950s). School couldn't compete with sports and the real world and he dropped out before graduation, much to his parents' chagrin. "He was totally bored sitting in a classroom and learning things," said Phyllis BRUCE, an executive editor at Harper Collins publishers and a family friend since 1960. "He had a terrific education by travelling and living around the world, but formal education never suited him temperamentally."
Although he ran away from school to be a broadcaster, he ended up in the archetypical Canadian job -- a bank teller. He fantasized that the Royal Bank of Canada would transfer him to the bank's branch in Havana. Instead, they sent him to Prescott, a small town on the St. Lawrence, and then to Brockville, where he was hired by radio station CFJR for his first real job in radio.
He soon gravitated to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where he hosted Let's Face It, a public-affairs show, and Time Out, an afternoon talk show. In 1962, he moved back to Ottawa for a job with CJOH-TV, where he appeared as special-events commentator and host of Vue, a daily late-night interview program that he also co-produced.
CTV lured him away to anchor the first national news broadcast out of Ottawa on the private network in 1962. Having an Adonis-like newscaster in that era of avuncular anchors moulded after Walter Cronkite was quite a departure. Naturally graceful, Mr. JENNINGS had an affinity for the camera -- and it for him. "It gave him an authority and a confidence that came across when he was covering the news that was probably inherited," remembered Ms. BRUCE, "but he certainly had the capacity to have the camera love him and he loved it back."
He was reporting on the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City for CTV when Elmer W. Lower, then president of ABC News, offered him a job as a correspondent for the network.
He left his higher-paying anchor job at CTV and moved to New York in September, 1964, to go back to reporting. "I decided, ironically enough, that I was tired of being an anchorperson," he told Jeffrey Simpson for his book Star-Spangled Canadians. "I was too young and too ill-equipped, and America I perceived as this great new canvas on which to paint, to use the cliché. I was also aware that neither CTV or Canadian Broadcasting Corporation could afford to send me anywhere."
He'd been on the job for only a few months when ABC executives plunked the 26-year-old correspondent behind a desk and made him anchor of the network's 15-minute nightly newscast. They were hoping he might entice younger viewers away from CBS's Walter Cronkite or the NBC duo of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley.
Mr. JENNINGS took the anchorman reins from Ron COCHRAN -- by coincidence, also a Canadian -- on February 1, 1965. Critics were scathing, calling him a "glamorcaster" and complaining that he was too young and inexperienced. He once jokingly asked the ABC makeup artist to draw bags under his eyes so he would look his age. Viewers didn't like his Canadian accent and the way he said "leftenant" instead of "lieutenant." When he mispronounced Appomattox, an iconic Civil War battle, and misidentified The Marine Hymn as Anchors Away at Lyndon Johnson's presidential inauguration, scathing critics sniffed blood.
He lasted three years in the anchor seat, before being sent back to the field as a roving correspondent -- a decision he never regretted for it was the making of him as a news broadcaster. Beginning in January, 1968, he spent most of the next 10 years abroad, working first in the Middle East, where he became an expert on the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. His program Palestine: New State of Mind, for the ABC News half-hour documentary series Now, was considered by many observers to be the most thoughtful analysis of its day of the confused political situation in that area.
As head of the newly established ABC News Middle East bureau in Beirut in the early 1970s, Mr. JENNINGS conducted the first interview with Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat to be televised in the United States. When ABC sent him to Munich for the non-sports coverage of the 1972 Olympics, his hard-won expertise and his dogged reporting came into play after the Black September group seized the Israeli compound.
Not only could he provide analysis of the group's background and goals, but he also hid himself and a camera crew close enough to the compound that they were able to get clear pictures of the guerrillas, their faces masked by stockings and floppy hats, dashing in and out. "It was among the most gripping episodes ever shown on live television," wrote Barbara Matusow in her 1983 book, The Evening Stars: The Making of the Network News Anchor. Undoubtedly, he helped ABC win an Emmy for outstanding achievement in the coverage of special events.
Two years later, he won a George Foster Peabody Award for his dual roles as chief correspondent and co-producer of Sadat: Action Biography, a candid profile of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat that aired on December 19, 1974. Among Mr. JENNINGS's other scoops were his inside reports from Cuba and his behind-the-lines coverage of the civil war in Bangladesh in 1971, for which he received a National Headliner Award.
He went back to the United States at the end of 1974 for an unsuccessful stint as Washington correspondent and newsreader for A.M. America, ABC's first attempt to cash in on the lucrative early-morning news market. The two-hour show, which combined news, interviews and features, made its debut on January 6, 1975, but it failed to entice viewers away from the entrenched NBC News program Today and, on October 31, 1975, it folded.
The following month, Mr. JENNINGS was reassigned overseas with the title of chief foreign correspondent. He was promoted to foreign news anchorman of ABC's nightly evening newscast, retitled World News Tonight, in July, 1978. By then a seasoned and confident journalist, he perfectly complemented his co-anchors -- Frank Reynolds, reporting from Washington, and Max Robinson, who was based in Chicago -- in the innovative triple-anchor format that Roone Arledge, the president of ABC News, had invented in an attempt to make the network's news division more competitive with CBS and NBC.
Based in London, Mr. JENNINGS not only anchored the foreign news segment of the broadcast but also served as ABC's chief foreign correspondent.
In this capacity, Mr. JENNINGS lobbied hard for complicated international stories he thought deserved exposure in the nightly news lineup and, in the eyes of the network brass, greatly enhanced the quality of the network's global coverage. Because he was stationed overseas, he often arrived at events, such as the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981, long before his American counterparts. Moreover, his constant exposure to the European perspective insulated him from the narrow and often distorted viewpoint that is an inevitable result of so-called "pack journalism," in which reporters rely largely on the same sources for their information.
As Ms. Matusow pointed out, Mr. JENNINGS's analysis of Mr. Sadat's assassination and its political consequences was "far more penetrating" than those offered by commentators less familiar with the Middle East. He was one of the few reporters to detect in the usually demonstrative Egyptians' subdued reaction to Mr. Sadat's death a sign of the former president's estrangement from his fellow countrymen.
His long-standing interest in Middle Eastern affairs prompted him to interview Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then a relatively obscure Iranian cleric living in exile in France, several months before he returned to his homeland in triumph after the overthrow of the shah of Iran. The correspondent reported on those world-shaking events from the scene early in 1979 and returned to Tehran the following November, when militant supporters of the ayatollah seized control of the U.S. embassy there, taking some 60 hostages.
Mr. JENNINGS was also on hand for the hostages' release in Frankfurt, West Germany, on January 20, 1981, filing 11 special reports in addition to performing his usual anchor chores. During his tenure as the foreign-desk anchorman for World News Tonight, Mr. JENNINGS also personally covered, among other events, the Falkland Islands war between Britain and Argentina and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, both in 1982, and Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Poland, in June, 1983. His penchant for reporting the most important international stories himself annoyed some ABC field correspondents, who resented the repeated invasions of their turf by what they called "Jennings's Flying Circus."
Still, nobody could deny that he was a tireless and relentless reporter. "I had enormous respect for him, especially for the way he covered the Middle East," said Canadian journalist Michael MacLEAR, himself no slouch as a foreign correspondent, especially during the Vietnam war. "I remember him talking about the competitiveness of the news and how only about one out of four reports you prepared got used in the newscast because of the pressure of the day's events. But he said each one has to be approached and worked on as if it will be the one that is going to be used. I think that is the approach that we all took but I admired him because he had a very established position with a major network and he still went at it as if it were his first day on the job."
Mr. JENNINGS began a new phase in his career in September, 1983, when he succeeded Frank Reynolds as anchor of a revamped nightly newscast and also became senior editor for the program. He was now competing head-on with CBS's Dan Rather and NBC's Tom Brokaw.
"For sheer professionalism, he was way out in front," said Mr. MacLEAR. " His sense of timing -- you can't even begin to compare him with Brokaw and Rather because he is so much better." His "sheer on-camera ability," as well as his "100-per-cent credentials as a foreign correspondent" are what guaranteed his longevity as an anchor, according to Mr. MacLEAR. "If he hadn't had those qualities, and being a Canadian, he might not have lasted as long."
Mr. JENNINGS outlasted his rivals Tom Brokaw (who retired in December, 2004) and Dan Rather (who stepped down in March this year). He wrote two books with Todd Brewster. The Century, a bestseller that provided a breezily informative, if egocentrically American, perspective on key events, accompanied a multipart documentary series that was hosted by Mr. JENNINGS. The duo also produced a much more personal book about values, called In Search of America, which also had a television series.
Mr. JENNINGS appeared frail in the late spring of this year. He was said to be suffering from a cold and then an upper respiratory ailment when he didn't travel to Rome to anchor ABC's coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II early in April. Then, on April 5, ABC News announced that Mr. JENNINGS had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Network president David Westin promised Mr. JENNINGS would continue to anchor World News Tonight between chemotherapy treatments "to the extent he can do so comfortably." Looking weak and speaking in a raspy voice, Mr. JENNINGS himself appeared at the end of the newscast that night to break the news to viewers.
Peter Charles JENNINGS was born in Toronto on July 29, 1938. He died of lung cancer on August 7. He was 67. He is survived by his wife, Kayce FREED, his children Elizabeth and Christopher, his sister Sarah and three former wives.
Highlights of a remarkable career
1962: Joins CTV to anchor its national news broadcast out of Ottawa.
1964: Joins ABC News.
1965-1968: Anchor of ABC Evening News while still in his 20s.
1968-1974: Established first American television news bureau in the Arab world as ABC bureau chief in Beirut.
1975: News anchor for A.M. America, predecessor to Good Morning America.
1975-1978: Chief foreign correspondent for ABC News.
1978-1983: Chief foreign correspondent for ABC News and foreign desk anchor for World News Tonight.
1983-2005: Anchor and senior editor of ABC's World News Tonight.
Books
The Century (with Todd Brewster), published in 1998.
In Search of America, a companion book for the 1999 ABC News series The Century.
Awards
Fourteen national Emmys; two George Foster Peabody Awards; several Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards; several Overseas Press Club Awards.
source: ABC News/Associated Press

  F... Names     FR... Names     FRE... Names     Welcome Home

FREED o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-08-11 published
JENNINGS, Peter (1938-2005)
Much loved husband of Kayce FREED, father to Elizabeth and Christopher JENNINGS, uncle to Tegan SCHIOLER and brother to Sarah JENNINGS. Very peacefully, the evening of August 7, 2005, surrounded by family.
Peter's many philanthropic efforts included The Coalition for the Homeless, Women In Need and Teach For America.
He had broad interests in the arts, was a trustee of New York's Carnegie Hall and a founding director of the American wing of Friends of the National Arts Centre.
He was a recent recipient of the Order of Canada.
Donations in his memory would be welcome to any of the above causes or to support lung cancer research.
A Memorial Service will be held in Peter's honour in New York at the end of September on a date to be announced, as well as a special event in Ottawa also to be arranged.
Condolences, donations and tributes at: www.mcgarryfamily.ca

  F... Names     FR... Names     FRE... Names     Welcome Home

FREED o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-05-06 published
Charged, tried, acquitted, killed
Nate Dawg 'lived by gun, died by gun'
Had threatened a key Crown witness
By Dale Anne FREED and Nick PRON, Staff▼ Reporters▼
Nathanial " Nate Dawg" LESLIE may have dodged a murder rap two months ago, but he couldn't duck the bullets that snuffed out his life outside a west-end strip club early yesterday morning.
Homicide detectives are looking at revenge as a possible motive in the slaying of the 23-year-old wannabe gangsta rapper, who died in a hail of bullets after narrowly avoiding two other recent murder attempts.
Three weeks ago, a gunman peppered a bus shelter at King St. W. and Dufferin St. with shots but missed LESLIE.
It's believed LESLIE had armed himself and did some shooting of his own at those hunting him, a police source said.
His death came in the midst of a city-wide spasm that saw three homicides in less than 24 hours. A woman was stabbed to death on Wednesday night in a home near Finch Ave. E. and Brimley Rd., while a man was killed yesterday afternoon near Jane St. and Finch Ave. W.
LESLIE had been warned by his lawyer, Friends and police to get out of town after he was acquitted of second-degree murder in the February 2003, killing of Bruce PANCHO at a Yorkville nightclub, Friends said.
"He knew he was going to die," one said. "He knew he was targeted for death from the moment he was acquitted."
LESLIE had at least two close calls in the 60 days of freedom following his release from custody after the trial. But his luck ran out on Wednesday at about 2: 30 a.m. in front of the House of Lancaster, on Bloor St. W. near Lansdowne Ave. He was shot "numerous times" in the stomach by an unknown gunman, who then disappeared into the night, police said.
The police officers who patrolled the west-end area weren't surprised by his slaying.
"You live by the gun, you die by the gun. It's street justice," one officer said.
During his trial, jurors were never told that LESLIE had threatened a key Crown witness, a lifelong acquaintance of his who was standing just a few metres away when PANCHO, a stranger, was shot in the chest after he accidentally bumped into LESLIE on the dance floor.
Even the judge at his trial seemed to think LESLIE was guilty, saying while jurors were out of the courtroom that the key witness had "compelling evidence" LESLIE was the shooter.
LESLIE was also a suspect in two other murders, sources told the Toronto Star. He was also suspected of assaulting several inmates at the Toronto (Don) Jail.
Jail spokesperson Chris CROISIER said LESLIE had been carrying a switchblade at the jail but eventually handed it over when confronted by guards.
LESLIE's death has brought a "strange kind of relief" to the mother of the man he was acquitted of slaying, she said in an interview last night.
"I lost my child and it hurt me from the bottom of my heart," Georgia DUFFUS said. "My justice comes from God. I don't want to say this is justice because I feel really awful. I don't want to seem as if I'm rejoicing.
"When I walked from that courthouse without getting any justice (after LESLIE's acquittal,) I felt crushed, like I was let down by the system," she said.
"I feel sorry for his family members, his grandmother and his father, who were there throughout court."
The lawyer who represented LESLIE at his trial, Laurence COHEN, was visibly shaken by the slaying, saying he was aware of the threats against his client. COHEN told jurors that the case against LESLIE was one of mistaken identity.
"This is just another senseless act of violence," COHEN said yesterday. "My condolences to his family. He had a lot of people who cared for him."
Despite his apparent penchant for violence, LESLIE died without a criminal record, although he had been in some minor trouble as a juvenile. The murder rap had been the first criminal charge against him.
Acquaintances said he could be kind and considerate, with a lively sense of humour. But on the street, LESLIE was known as a violent man with a "short fuse" who usually carried a gun. He also had a penchant for writing violent rap lyrics -- once singing on a Toronto radio show.
One song he penned -- found in his pocket when he was arrested read in part:
They say I'm armed and dangerous
And known to kill strangers.
So do not approach
Cause you'll probably get smoked.
The Crown attorney's office had discussed appealing LESLIE's acquittal on the murder charge but decided against it, said prosecutor Kerry Hughes.
"It's very rare that a jury acquittal is appealed," she said.
LESLIE dropped out of high school and, although he never had a job, he always had money, buying a $150 bottle of champagne on the night PANCHO was slain, his trial heard.
Friends say he fathered two children, with two different women, living with one or the other while he was selling drugs.
He had a "Day One" tattoo on his right forearm and "Gangsta" tattooed on his left forearm. He had been known to carry a 9-mm Walther P38 semi-automatic handgun tucked into his waistband.
Friends describe LESLIE as being blasé about the threats against him during the last two months of his life. One recalled him saying: "I'm trying to get my computer back from the cops. Oh, by the way, someone just took a shot at me."
Although he knew he was a marked man, LESLIE told Friends he didn't want to leave the Parkdale area, where he had lived all of his life.
When he was the target of a massive manhunt in the PANCHO slaying, complete with wanted posters on newspaper boxes, LESLIE remained in Parkdale, sleeping in different places almost every night, a friend said.
"He knew if he was seen on the streets, he would be dead. He went the way he wanted to go."
A second man, described by police as an associate of LESLIE's, was wounded in the shooting, and found nearby, on the west sidewalk of Margueretta St. He was taken to St. Michael's Hospital, where he underwent surgery and is expected to recover, police said.
One neighbour said she heard a woman screaming just before the shooting. Bullets were sprayed everywhere. One hit the porch roof of a house part way down Margueretta St.
Police were on the scene within minutes, the resident of the house said.
"I saw two guys lying on the ground. I heard people screaming. I saw the cops, the firefighters."
Police sources said beer bottles from inside the House of Lancaster were collected yesterday to obtain fingerprints.

  F... Names     FR... Names     FRE... Names     Welcome Home

FREED o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-10-06 published
15-year-old's death renews call for crosswalk
By Dale Anne FREED, Staff▲▼ Reporter▲▼
Neighbours in the area where a Toronto teen was killed while crossing a busy Scarborough street say they've been demanding a stoplight or crosswalk there without success.
Parisa Kabir BHUYAN, a 15-year-old Grade 10 student at Riverdale Collegiate Institute, was only a few blocks from home when she was struck by three cars as she got off a Toronto Transit Commission bus near Danforth Rd. and St. Clair Ave. E.
She had just left the northbound Danforth bus at Linwood Ave. when she bounded into heavy traffic at about 7: 30 p.m. Tuesday.
"We need a crosswalk here, or a stoplight," said Tony PALMA, who heard brakes screeching from inside his home across the street.
"A lot of people have been hit by cars on this street. I know at least five people who have been hit by cars over the last 10 years," said PALMA.
"It's 60 km/h here, but cars typically fly down this street at 70 or 80 km/h. They drag-race on this street, too."
"We've been begging for a crosswalk here,' said long-time resident Gerry Damovski.
The driver of a northbound Chevy Lumina whose car struck the girl as he passed the bus appeared to be driving within the speed limit, said a witness.
While Parisa's family made funeral preparations, Friends and classmates were undergoing grief counselling at her school, where the flag flew at half-mast yesterday.
"She (Parisa) was very well-known, a wonderful all-round student. She participated in a number of different clubs," said principal Ralph NIGRO. " Our big focus was dealing with the young people who were quite upset."
Parisa, a member of the Muslim Students Association, was a happy teen who offered support to students trying to fast during Ramadan, said a friend.
She was a talented dancer and had entered a contest at her school that was to take place next month, her Friends said.
"It was very tragic event... sad news involving a beloved student at the school," NIGRO told the students over the public address system yesterday morning as they observed a moment of silence. "We're all saddened by it."
The investigation continues.

  F... Names     FR... Names     FRE... Names     Welcome Home

FREED o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-10-29 published
Body of boy, 12, found in basement
Family engulfed in pre-dawn horror
By Scott SIMMIE and Dale Anne FREED, Staff Reporters, Page A1
It was shortly before 3 a.m. yesterday when residents at the north end of Coady Ave. in Leslieville awoke to a horrifying sound: Guttural, almost feral, screams of shock and grief.
"Mommy, Mommy, Mommeeee," wailed a distraught girl in her teens, lying collapsed on the sidewalk. "No, Mommy, nooo!" she cried, lit both by the streetlight and the flashing red from the first police cruiser on the scene.
Inside 96 Coady Ave., the body of a 12-year-old boy had just been discovered in the basement, the body of her brother, Jamie CHAVEZ.
The cause of his death has not yet been determined. An autopsy yesterday was inconclusive.
"Information collected at this point has not given us a conclusive cause of death," coroner Dr. Trevor GILLMORE said last night.
"Further testing and investigation will be required."
Homicide detectives were monitoring the case pending definitive autopsy results, police spokesperson George CHRISTOPOULOS said last night.
Neighbour Louise COLE, who lives several houses down the block, said she heard the dead boy's older brother, Abel, 18, yell to his mother, Karen CHAVEZ, from the basement of 96 Coady: "Mom, I found him."
COLE said Abel told her he noticed a "bin" in the basement. "He gave it a kick and opened the lid and there was his brother."
The mother called police as soon as Abel found the body, COLE said. It was the second time she called police in the early-morning hours, COLE said. CHAVEZ had called police about 1: 30 a.m. when she found Jamie missing after she got home from work, COLE said. Police searched the house but found no trace of the boy, the neighbour said.
CHAVEZ had phoned COLE before she called police the first time, hoping he might be at her home, where he often visited. But she hadn't seen him.
When police left after finding nothing on the first call, COLE said, she told Abel to "go look in the (backyard) shed."
The shed was locked, and Abel went to the basement to find a screwdriver to break the lock. That's when he found his brother.
In addition to Abel, Jamie's sisters, Vanessa, 16, and Veronica, 14, two teenage cousins and an 18-year-old friend of Abel who has been living in the house for six months were also in the house Thursday night.
Another friend of Abel said he knew Jamie made it home from school. "I saw him at about 7 p.m. He was washing dishes in the kitchen," said the friend, Jermaine, who wouldn't give his last name. "He was by himself. They were in the living room. It was all cool.
"I left at about 7: 30 p.m. They were just eating chocolate cake."
CHAVEZ had separated from her husband, Alex, about two months ago and was working nights at a packaging and labelling factory to support her family, said COLE's husband, Ronald.
A mass for Jamie, a Grade 7 student at St. Joseph's Catholic school, was held yesterday at the neighbouring Catholic church. His classmates presented poems and memories, principal Anthony TACOMA said after the mass as grieving students walked by, some holding a remembrance poster about Jamie, one holding a candle. Grief counsellors, a social worker and a school psychologist were called in to help students and staff deal with the death, he said.
"He was a very well-liked boy (and) a hard-working student," said TACOMA, who had tossed a football with Jamie and his Friends the day before he died.
It was a long and difficult day on Coady Ave. yesterday.
The screams of the sister who had collapsed on the sidewalk became part of a disturbing chorus as at least two teenage boys and the mother, in utter panic, ran shrieking up and down the sidewalk.
Helter-skelter they ran, bolting frantically back and forth in any direction except toward the house from which they'd come. Within minutes, five police cars and two ambulances had arrived, along with a paramedic supervisor vehicle.
"My baby, my baby," screamed the mother with such anguish that one neighbour who heard her said she got goosebumps.
Officers quickly began cordoning off the area with yellow police tape, asking a freelance television cameraman who was videotaping on a porch across from the home to move to the far end of the one-way street.
One of the teen boys who'd been running finally stopped, exhausted and numb, and buried his head against an officer's shoulder. The policeman wrapped his arm around the boy, gently patting his back.
Another teen emerged from the neighbouring half of the semi-detached home.
"How are you doing tonight?" asked another officer, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder.
As night began to fall, police took out more yellow tape and began marking off the front yard of the home.
Asked if it was now a crime scene, an officer replied: "It always was."
Across the street, three teenage girls stood silently holding a photocopy of what appeared to be a school photo of Jamie.
"When I first heard the news I started bursting out crying," said Shaneika BECKFORD, 15. "It's really sad. I don't know why it had to happen.
"I need to know why he died. I just saw him yesterday."

  F... Names     FR... Names     FRE... Names     Welcome Home

FREED o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-10-30 published
Boy's home drew noise complaints
East-end home where body was found drew noise complaints
By Debra BLACK, Staff Reporter With files from Dale Anne FREED
Neighbours of 12-year-old Jamie CHAVEZ, whose body was discovered in the basement by his brother, had lodged a number of complaints with the city's housing agency about noise, rowdiness and lack of adult supervision at his east-end home.
Complaints had been made to Cityhome, Toronto's non-profit housing agency, in May and June, said a complainant who asked not to be identified.
"I called many times," he said, adding three households complained.
They were told nothing could be done. "We were concerned about the noise, the carrying on, kids not going to school, the lack of respect for the standards of the neighbourhood, those standards simply being quiet.
"Nobody gets upset with kids playing, but basketball in the street at midnight is ridiculous. And a gang of 10 kids on the porch being loud. If my door is shut and my television is on and I can still hear them across the street, it's too loud."
And now, he said with a quaver in his voice, one of the street's children is dead. It's too awful to contemplate, he said. "It's one of our kids. One of our children on our street. Dead."
Jamie CHAVEZ was found dead early Friday morning in a bin or barrel in the basement of his family's Coady Ave. home. Cause of death has not yet been determined. An autopsy was inconclusive.
"We're still in the process of pursuing further testing," said coroner Dr. Trevor GILLMORE.
Neighbour Louise COLE said Jamie had been reported missing to police at about 1: 30 a.m. by his mother Karen CHAVEZ after she found him missing when she got home from work. CHAVEZ had first called COLE and asked if Jamie was there. COLE said he wasn't.
When police arrived the first time they searched the house and found no sign of the boy.
After they left, COLE told Jamie's brother, Abel, 18, to check the shed in the backyard. He went to the basement for a screwdriver to break the lock on the shed and found his brother's body, COLE said.
CHAVEZ then called the police again, she said.
Yesterday, the family home appeared virtually abandoned except for a couple of bicycles locked to the porch railing and a pumpkin propped on a white plastic chair.
Neighbours say CHAVEZ lived there with her eldest son Abel, Jamie, two sisters -- Vanessa, 16, and Veronica, 14 -- and two teenage cousins. An 18-year-old friend of Abel's had also been living there for six months. CHAVEZ had recently separated from her husband, Alex, and was working nights at a packaging and labelling factory, said COLE's husband, Ronald.
But not everyone on the street had complaints about the family or noise. Other neighbours described the family as "nice" and weren't concerned about the loud music or late-night gatherings on the front porch.
"The kids were not bad," said Helen CULLEN, a pensioner who lives down the street. Often she would see the children playing road hockey, she said.
"They're just like other kids... they were a bunch of teenagers. What do you expect? (Jamie) was polite. He was not a bad kid. He never sassed you or anything. The mother did a good job with them."
Elise PARENT, who also lives nearby, didn't know the family well, but said she wasn't bothered by the teens hanging out.
"You could see a family, a single mother and a lot of kids, not flowing in money," said PARENT. "It was a hangout for kids in the neighbourhood. They would hang out until 1 in the morning. They were good people. They never made any trouble."
Throughout the day, police officers came and went from the house, continuing their probe.
Flowers and cards of condolences were placed lovingly behind the police tape at the foot of the lawn.
One card read: "Sorry for your loss. But he will still live on in our hearts. From Matthew, Daniel and Sarah."
A mother and son brought red roses and a cross with the Lord's Prayer written on it.
They placed it on the lawn and then stopped to look at the other bouquets, cards and candles. The boy had attended school with Jamie -- they were in some classes together, his mother said.
Later, a former employer of Jamie's father, Alex, came by to pay his respects.
He placed a bouquet of flowers on the lawn and shook his head in dismay.
"I didn't know the kids or the family," said Cam YOUNG, adding Alex worked for him as a mechanic for a number of years. They haven't been in touch recently, but he felt moved to do something.
"Alex is a nice, nice man. Very soft-spoken.... I just read about it in the paper. It's a tragedy."

  F... Names     FR... Names     FRE... Names     Welcome Home

FREED o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-11-01 published
Damaged shelter lacked sprinklers
Facility still met building, fire codes
40-year-old man died in Sunday fire
By Dale Anne FREED, Staff▲ Reporter▲
The Fred Victor Centre, where a 40-year-old man died in a fire Sunday night, met building and fire code standards even though it did not have sprinklers in residential areas, the centre's executive director says.
Sprinklers are located in the garbage area and parking and ground-level areas of the centre, which provides permanent housing for 194 previously homeless people, Mark ASTON said yesterday.
He said the fire code didn't require them in residential levels. Fire department spokesman David SHEEN confirmed that the four-storey centre complied with sprinkler standards.
Fire victim Abdirazak (Nero) KAILLIE was found in his second-floor apartment, next to the apartment where the blaze started, police Det. Matt MOYER said.
ASTON said smoking was a possible cause of the fire, but added, "that would be speculation at this point." He said smoking was permitted in the apartments.
KAILLIE's distraught sister and mother arrived at the fire scene Sunday night and spoke with police, MOYER said.
Born in Somalia, KAILLIE had lived in the centre for about 18 months, said Keith HAMBLY, director of Fred Victor's housing and shelter services.
"He was well liked in the community," HAMBLY said. It was a "fresh start for him."
One friend said KAILLIE was receiving disability payments.
About 50 Fred Victor residents were affected by the fire and were offered room at downtown shelters so they wouldn't have to go back on the streets, ASTON said.
"If we have a way to prevent such tragedies in the future then we have a responsibility to consider it," said Brendan AGNEW- ILER, a spokesperson for Mayor David MILLER.
Toronto Fire Chief Bill STEWARD/STEWART/STUART said he wants sprinklers made mandatory in all new residential construction. He said the department is supporting a private member's bill on mandatory sprinklers in new residential construction that is scheduled for second reading at Queen's Park on Thursday.
STEWARD/STEWART/STUART acknowledged that retrofitting residential buildings with sprinklers would be costly. "The industry indicates it costs about $3.50 to $4 per square foot," he said. If the Fred Victor board has the money, he said, "then in the interest of public safety, why not?"
STEWARD/STEWART/STUART said there were 259 fire deaths in Toronto between 1994 and 2004, of which 223 were on residential properties.

  F... Names     FR... Names     FRE... Names     Welcome Home

FREED o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-11-20 published
'He died as a man. He died as a friend'
The Victim, Father, role model, passionate reggae dancer, Amon BECKLES was a centrepiece in his family
By Jessica LEEDER and Dale Anne FREED Staff▼ Reporters▼
Amon BECKLES was a star reggae dancer with dreams of going professional, a daddy to an 18-month-old daughter, and a Central Tech student on the brink of adult life.
To his four younger siblings, who grew up in awe of everything from his PlayStation and basketball prowess to his addiction to mayonnaise "sangwiches", he was a family centrepiece.
"He was a role model in my life," one brother said.
The likeable 18-year-old's dreams were cut short Friday when he was shot in the neck just outside the Toronto West Seventh-day Adventist Church on Albion Rd. where he had come to mourn his best friend, Jamal HEMMINGS, 17, his reggae partner and a homicide victim.
Nadia BECKLES, Amon's mother, was in the church when she heard gunshots. "I didn't know it was my son," she said. "I just heard somebody say his name."
A day later, she's planning for his funeral.
"I want them to know his death will not go in vain. He died as a man. He died as a friend."
BECKLES's family, gathered to mourn their own in the cramped living room of his grandmother's west Toronto house last night, spoke out on the condition none of their names be used. But not because they're scared. "We are handling it in our own way," said an aunt. "I don't know what to think right now. I'm in shock."
Even in his absence, BECKLES brought laughter to his family, many of whom grew up dancing at his side in a group run by two aunts called No Mercy.
"We'd dance in the gym, outside, in the back streets, everywhere," said one of BECKLES's cousins. "We loved to dance. We'd do it instead of doing nothing. We're still close as a family. Since the death happened, we're just..." she trailed off.
The teen was with her cousin at HEMMINGS's funeral. She said HEMMINGS was "pretty much a part of our family" and grew up dancing reggae with them.
"Jamal and Amon were best Friends; wherever Jamal was, you'd find Amon. They were like brothers," said Jamal's father, Michael HEMMINGS.
BECKLES was with HEMMINGS the night of November 9 when HEMMINGS was fatally shot, said Det. Sgt. Mario DITOMMASO. Just over a week later, BECKLES himself became a homicide statistic -- number 69 for the year -- gunned down outside the church where he'd gone to mourn his friend.
"Friends of his were trying to give him cardio-pulmonary resuscitation," said Const. Ewan MacLEOD, who arrived on scene just before 1 p.m. Friday.
Minutes before Pastor Andrew KING began the funeral service, he said he was told "shooters are in the church."
Even though KING knew there could be violence, he decided not to call police on advice from members of a community housing group who gave him the grim news, he told the Star.
"Two people from the community housing group came up and whispered to me that shooters were in the church," KING said yesterday outside a church service held at a nearby high school while forensic identification officers finished their probe of his Seventh-day Adventist Church.
He said he and the housing workers spoke about what to do. "They advised me not to call the police. I was apprehensive."
But KING thought they would all be safe inside the church. "We were terrified of the situation but we put our safety in the Lord Jesus Christ and we were protected.
"At the end of the service I realized there were guns in the church, more than I'd like to know. At lot of people were in there packing (guns)."
Suddenly the church filled with "popping noises," the sound of gunfire, the pastor recalled. "All of a sudden there was pandemonium. We realized someone had been gunned down outside the church.
"We asked everyone to lie down quietly inside the sanctuary and not to move. We didn't know what was going on outside," he said. "I was looking at a casket in front of me. I realized there's another dead person outside the front of the church."
Det. Colin RAY said KING should have called police. "If he knew ahead of time there were guns in the church -- guns can only lead to disaster -- he should have called police."
BECKLES's grandmother said police "failed my grand_son. They can't correct that failure. He's dead.
"Anybody with any kind of sense at all would know there should have been somebody (from the police) there. In my opinion they did not serve and protect my grand_son."
Police Chief Bill Blair said BECKLES had spoken to homicide officers about HEMMINGS's slaying, but said police had no reason to believe the man was at any risk. "There was no indication that he was attending that funeral service or that he was at any risk, otherwise steps would have been taken."
Blair's spokesman Mark Pugash could not say if police will attend BECKLES's funeral. "Assessments are made in each case on what is necessary. Clearly one of our greatest concerns... is protecting public safety."
BECKLES's family said yesterday they believe he died simply because he knew what happened the night HEMMINGS was shot.
"They've got who they wanted," BECKLES's grandmother said, adding she does not know if her grand_son knew the shooter's identity. But she did offer one guarantee: "There was absolutely no gang activity. None."
Police confirmed yesterday that BECKLES was a "potential material witness" to HEMMINGS's killing. But DITOMMASO said he was more than a witness: police had also been looking into BECKLES's own activities. He was known to police and was "the subject of an ongoing investigation," DITOMMASO said, adding the teen was interviewed once after HEMMINGS's death.
"His information was not very accurate," DITOMASSO said.
"If he had been more forthcoming to police, it's entirely possible the people responsible for the original homicide (of HEMMINGS) would have been arrested," said Pugash.
Although the shooting occurred in the heart of Crips gang territory DITOMMASO said the death was not gang related.
DITOMMASO said police have narrowed witnesses' descriptions to a single suspect. He was described as wearing a three-quarter-length blue, hooded coat, a dark baseball cap and dark pants.

  F... Names     FR... Names     FRE... Names     Welcome Home

FREED o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-12-15 published
Sobbing pals recall their 'rose'
Kitchen volunteer fed hungry with food from own fridge
Pattern of abuse started early in victim's life, cousin says
By Jessica LEEDER, Staff▲ Reporter▲ with files from Dale Anne FREED
Rose McGROARTY was known for putting the needs of others -- to eat a good meal, find shelter, have a shower -- before her own. Even among close Friends, the 46-year-old rarely talked about her aches, the causes of the bruises beneath her sweater, why she spent so much time volunteering at the Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre, or made it her home away from home.
If only she had, mournful Friends said yesterday, her fate might have been different.
"I can't help thinking that I wish I had known what you were going through," a friend wrote to McGROARTY in a letter read at a packed memorial service at the community centre. The building houses the kitchen where McGROARTY spent six days a week the last three years volunteering and making Friends -- until she disappeared last month. Her dismembered body parts have been found throughout the city.
But a family member said it would have been out of character for the hard-luck woman to tell anyone if she was a punching bag. She learned early, the cousin said yesterday, to distract herself and not dwell on what was really going on.
"I understand that she didn't have a whole lot of money in Toronto," said Kimberly CAMPBELL, a cousin who grew up with McGROARTY in London, Ontario "The catch here is that it didn't start (in Toronto)," she told the Star in a phone interview. "But Rose Marie was the type of person, no matter what anybody did to her, she would never talk about it."
A pattern of abuse in McGROARTY's life started early, when she was about 6 or 7, CAMPBELL said. She was living in London at the time, and with her mother unable to care for her -- for reasons that are unclear -- McGROARTY moved into a boarding house run by Edith SANDERS.
In 2002, SANDERS was convicted for enslaving and torturing children, including CAMPBELL, her adopted daughter, from the 1950s to the 1980s. SANDERS' victims testified at her trial that while under her care, they were beaten with hockey sticks, tortured with a cattle prod and forced to eat animal feces. SANDERS was sentenced in January 2003 to four years in prison on four counts of assault and three counts of assault causing bodily harm. She died last year while on parole.
The conviction stemmed from allegations brought by CAMPBELL and other siblings; none of the charges that resulted in conviction related to McGROARTY.
"Rose Marie didn't have a fighting chance (in life,)" CAMPBELL said, recounting their tormented childhood. "Dysfunctional leads to dysfunctional. She didn't get the education she needed, she was abused mentally and physically, and yet she went along in life and tried to accomplish and do the best that she could.
"It sounds to me that she was doing wonderfully for what she experienced in her lifetime. She was such a forgiving person."
"This was Rose's home. This was a very important place for her," said Peggy-Gail DEHAL- RAMSON, a Parkdale community advocate.
Nearly 100 people gathered at the memorial service, one of two held for McGROARTY yesterday. Leaning on canes -- and each other and wiping wet cheeks, those whom McGROARTY treated like family lamented their great loss. At times, centre general manager Victor WILLIS had to pause to console the crowd.
"There's such a disconnect between who she was and how she died," he said. "We will not let another woman be harmed in our community."
Three women who worked alongside McGROARTY in the kitchen each day, Michelle WALDRON, Jean McGRATH and Sugar WALKER -- who had a red silk rose pinned to her top -- sobbed uncontrollably during the reading of farewell letters they wrote to their friend.
"Knowing someone like you, Rosie, you really were a 'rose,'" one letter said. "A good friend. A beautiful person. A 'rose' could not be so sweet as you!"
Greg DOWE, 25, met McGROARTY through his grandmother, Marjorie, who frequently offered up her Dunn Ave. apartment for McGROARTY when she needed a reprieve.
"This is just like killing a part of my family," DOWE said. "She's the kind of person who would give up their life in order for somebody else to live. Everything about her was to make everybody else happy."
Later in the afternoon, Father Vaughan QUINN asked 20 parishioners to remember McGROARTY and her good works at a service at the Missionaries of Charity Convent, near her apartment.
WALKER said McGROARTY had been trying to mend fences with her mother and two children, in their 20s, after years of estrangement.
After the hour-long service at the Parkdale community centre, Friends stayed to trade favourite stories about McGROARTY. She was a rare volunteer who allowed the very hungry to come back for seconds -- if the food ran out, she wasn't above running home and taking from her own fridge.
Robert WISZNIOWSKI, McGROARTY's 50-year-old common-law husband, has been charged with second-degree murder.

  F... Names     FR... Names     FRE... Names     Welcome Home

FREED - All Categories in OGSPI

FRE surnames continued to 05fre003.htm