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Baby Born in Jail Dies

The baby that made national headlines last year for being born in a jail cell is now dead.

 

At 26, Julia Bilotta gave birth to her child on Sept. 29, 2012 at the Ottawa- Carleton Detention Center. She was eight months pregnant when she was first jailed Sept. 24 of that year.

 

Her child, Gionni Lee, was born a month early and suffered from breathing difficulties.  Bilotta’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon explains, "He had had respiratory problems since he was born and that apparently was the cause of his passing ... yesterday in hospital.”

 

Both Bilotta and her mother, Kim Hurtubise are traumatized. Bilotta wrote on her Facebook page that her child was “sick all night” and was taken to the hospital. Bilotta then announced her infant’s death writing, “"How could this happen to us? Life will never be the same! We love you, Gionni. Mommy will be with you soon."

 

When jailed, Bilotta was facing charges of:

 

  • Use, trafficking or possession of a forged document.
  •  Fraud.
  • Accessory after the fact to the commission of offences.
  • Failure to comply with bail conditions.

 

Gionni Lee was said to have stopped breathing in the night. The police added that an autopsy will be conducted sometime this week.

CJLO News - October 11 2013

Hosted by: Carlo Spiridigliozzi

Stories by: Brendan Adams. Catlin Spencer & Saturn De Los Angeles

Produced by: Jordan Namur (Assistance by Carlo S.)

Women's activists plan campaign against driving ban in Saudi

Women's Rights activists in Saudi Arabia are turning to the web to express their frustration over a rejection from authorities to put driving in the back burner. 

In a report by Al-Jazeera, the country's Shura Consultative Council rejected a move to discuss the issue.

Conservative bureaucrats in favor of the ban say that allowing women to drive "will encourage the sexes to mix freely in public, and thus threaten public morality."

Saudi Arabia is the only country that bans women from driving. 

However this did not stop activists from backing down. They posted photos and videos expressing defiance. 

One online clip showed a woman in Riyadh driving in a vehicle her veiled dress. Motorists passing by gave her a a thumbs-up sign in approval.

A female activist who remained anonymous spoke to Reuters. She says that the online movement is part of a two-stage campaign to bring exposure to the issue and illicit support.

The campaign includes a nationwide protest scheduled this month.

Lack of care for the transgendered

Transgendered persons are finding it difficult to seek help at the doctor’s office as they face insensitive and irrelevant questions about their sexuality, and are denied treatment.

According to CBC, Chase Ross, now legally a man, says he has routinely faced unnecessary questions that include his name change and genitals, as well as being refused psychiatric treatment.

Advocacy worker with Concordia University's Centre for Gender Advocacy, Gabrielle Bouchard says this is not uncommon. Many of the complaints she hears include medical professionals refusing to address a patient as the gender he or she identifies with.

Head of the Gender Variance Program at the Montreal Children's Hospital, Dr. Shuvo Ghosh agrees saying there is little sensitivity training for health care professionals when it comes to treating transgendered people.

He says this lack of care could lead to hospital emergency rooms overflowing with complaints that could have been prevented. And that medical professionals can help improve the situation by making their patients feel more comfortable and explaining the relevance behind their questions.

Ghosh adds that those who are denied service or made uncomfortable should send an official letter of complaint to the health care establishment.

The Walking Dead: My Day at the Montreal Zombie Walk

The Montreal Zombie Walk took place this year on October 19th. This annual event has been happening worldwide since 2005 from Toronto to Paris and even Buenos Aires! The whole point of the zombie walk is to meet up in the middle of the city in your best zombie costume and stay in character as you walk around and get your photo taken by hundreds of photographers.

The Montreal Zombie Walk this year was sponsored by Videotron and had its own make up booth for aspiring zombies. As an avid horror fan, I made my own flesh wounds using liquid latex and tissue paper that I slathered in fake blood for good measure. For the event, I dressed up as a zombie beauty pageant contestant and covered my shoulders with decaying, chewed up flesh and put a bullet wound on my chest. I then paraded myself around downtown Montreal for 40 minutes, getting blinded by the flash of the photographers as I posed for several pictures with mostly older men and hyperactive children!

My zombie walk costume

The most awkward part about the zombie walk is taking the metro to and from downtown. Most people in Montreal are unaware of the event and understandably tend to avoid sitting next to zombies on the metro. I managed to accidentally make a little boy on the metro cry and hide behind his mother. Most kids who went to the zombie walk loved it however, and were in full costume with their parents.

The Montreal Zombie Walk had several special events at the venue. There were zombie dance classes, where you could learn how to pop and lock it! There was also Le Musée du Rock 'n' Roll who brought their truck to the event and plenty of other cool organizations and people that barely noticed because of all of the cool zombie costumes. The thousands of people at the event made a giant rainbow of grey and red that distracted me from most things that day.

The zombie walk is really a showcase of zombie craftsmanship and creativity. Although the huge groups of people attending the event make it extremely overwhelming (to the point where it feels almost like a sort of claustrophobia simulator) the costumes and attitudes of the attendees are breathtaking! Costumes were very elaborate, to the point where some zombies had their own jaws ripped off, had saws embedded into their skulls or even had pieces of their own brains falling onto the side walk! Zombies would burst into the middle of crowds and scream hysterically to scare off photographers.

Apart from the wonderful costumes and entertainment, I was unfortunately disappointed with the Montreal Zombie Walk. I knew that the zombie walk consisted of walking, but the walking part itself was exceedingly long and overcrowded. Some zombies were in character, while others were talking on their cellphones. The crowd didn't seem to have any particular goal either. There weren't any humans for us to eat or chase after, and we didn't know what our destination was. We were essentially a group of costumed people walking around aimlessly for an hour!

The Montreal Zombie Walk is an event for people of all ages. People even dressed their dogs up as zombies to celebrate the event. In spite of the fact that walking is a bit of a dull way to spend your afternoon, the costumes at the event were fantastic and are making me look forward to next Halloween.

The pictures in this article were taken by the talented Yu Chen Hou.

--DJ Patricia hosts FunkShui! every Sunday from 2 to 3 pm.

CJLO News - October 10 2013

Hosted & Produced by: Carlo Spiridigliozzi

Stories by: Hannah Besseau, Jordan Namur & Saturn De Los Angeles

Canada taking flak for spying on Brazil, reason unknown.

Canada is under scrutiny for spying on it southern neighbor, Brazil, for economic reasons, leaving experts figuring out why.

In a report by CBC News, the news comes after a TV report shown by Brazil's Globo TV network.

It explains how a Canadian agency used phone and email metadata to map the communications of Brazil's Mines and Energy Ministry.

Former intelligence officer Michel Juneau-Katsuya thinks the country has to justify doing it for the sake of national security. - and that includes economic security. 

But Professor Jean Daudelin is not convinced. He finds it odd for Canada to spy on a nation which only brings one percent of both imports and exports. 

While intelligence expert Wesley Park believes that Canada may could have just been asked by other nations to do it, on the grounds of sharing intelligence info to other Western countries.

Ottawa has been quiet since the news report broke out, saying that Canadian intelligence officials are 'reaching out' to its Brazilian counterparts.

October 9th, 2013

Cross-country oil pipeline to undergo public hearings

Enbridge's Line 9 Pipeline will be going through a round of public hearings in Ontario and Quebec. 

In a report by CBC News, the Alberta-based oil company is in the middle of upgrading their pipelines in order to reverse its crude oil distribution and increase its capacity. 

However, this upgrade has residents and environmentalists concerned for their safety.

Dave Lawson is an executive in charge of the pipeline.

He argues there are too many bad rumors that's been misinforming the public.

Enbridge explains that if any leaks do happen, people from the control center in Edmonton can detect the problem, prompting staff on patrol to fix it immediately.

Despite the scrutiny, environmental experts are applauding the open discussion on the pipeline. 

Queen's University faculty Warren Mabee says that the conversation that Line 9 has brought is something worth having in discussing how Canada will use its energy resources in the future. 

Protestors disturb official visit to new World Cup stadium

About 50 protestors interrupted a visit by the Secretary General of FIFA to a new stadium in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.

According to BBC News, the protestors condemned the Brazilian government for spending so much money on the stadium and on other World Cup preparations. Critics said that the money would be better spent funding public education and health.

The government has also been under fire for building a stadium of more than forty thousand seats in a state which does not have a team in Brazil's top football division. In response, the Brazilian government claimed that hosting World Cup matches in this area will draw worldwide attention to the natural beauty of the site. 

The completed stadium will cost about $230 million.

source: BBC News

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