Search for 3-year-old Autistic Boy Continues

Police are searching for 3-year-old Adam Benhamma, a deaf, mute and autistic boy who went missing on Sunday. (Photo courtesy of: Handout/The Gazette)

The search continues for a three-year-old autistic boy in Laval Quebec who has been missing since April 3^rd. Adam Benhamma went missing Sunday afternoon while playing hide-and-seek with his seven-year-old sister. The family was visiting a family friend in the remote part of Auteuil district of Laval near Mille-Îlles River.

Police in Laval have been searching the frozen and flooded woods, but said the search is complicated through Adam’s inability to hear or speak. “We don’t think we will be finding the little boy alive, unfortunately,” said Laval Constable Nathalie Lorrain. “It’s almost impossible to communicate with him, and also if something happened he couldn’t scream or anything like that.”

Wendy Fournier, president of the National Autism Association believes rescuers are facing enormous challengers because Benhamma is both deaf and mute. “With a child who is non-verbal like many children with autism, they don’t respond when their name is called. A lot of kids won’t even turn and look at you if they hear their name being called,” said Fournier.

Police have also used dogs to search the area that Benhamma was last seen, but there has been no trace of the boy nor has any of his clothing been recovered.

Related: The Gazette

Tim Hortons Rolling Up the Prices

Canadian coffee chain forced to raise prices due to rising costs of commodities. (Photo courtesy of :stringparts/Flickr)

Tim Hortons announced they will be raising the prices on some of their menu items starting on April 11^th 2011. The Canadian coffee chain didn’t specify which items will be affected by the price hike, but Tim Hortons did say the price of a large cup of coffee is expected to rise seven cents.  

“I don’t think there is any question that everyone in our industry is feeling the crunch from commodity prices. At the end of January, coffee had seen a price increase of over 70 per cent in seven months.” Don Schroeder, president and chief executive of Tim Hortons told the National Post.

The price increase reflects the rising costs of commodities like sugar, cooking oil, coffee beans and wheat. The price of wheat, alone, has gone up 70 per cent over the past year. “While we know they will be cautious and prudent when looking at price increases that affect their guests, we expect that certain regions and markets in Canada will need to take price increases,” said Don Schroeder.

The news comes after Tim Hortons raised price in their US stores by three per cent. Last fall competitors such as Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks all increased their prices.

Related: CBC News Article

Ontario Releases “Sunshine List”

The Ontario Ministry of Finance released its annual salary disclosure online earlier this month. The includes the names and annual salaries of people employed in public institutions like municipalities, hospitals, school boards and universities who make more than 100-thousand dollars per year.

Ontario Power Generation CEO Tom Mitchell and University of Waterloo president David Johnston topped this year’s list, both making well over a million dollars. This year 71,478 public sector workers are making $100,000 a year or more, which is an  11 per cent  increase from last year.

This year’s list, more commonly known as the “sunshine list”, comprise of employees from the healthcare and education sectors.

Many Ryerson professors and administrators were included in this year’s list. (Photo courtesy of: Jeyan Jeganathan)

Many of Ryerson’s administrative staff and instructors made this year’s list. Notable names from Ryerson’s School of Journalism include associate professor Ivor Shapiro and assistant professor Kamala Al-Solaylee

According to the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act of 1996, the act requires organizations that receive public funding from the Province of Ontario to disclose annually the names, positions, salaries and total taxable benefits of employees paid $100,000 or more.

This video was put together for my classes’ newscast. Here’s what some Ryerson students had to say about the disclosure.

Related: Toronto Sun

Sick Shoe Slide

Vancouver Women Dead after Struck by Garbage Truck

A garbage truck hit and killed an elderly pedestrian, yesterday morning. (Photo courtesy of: diaper/Flickr)

A 79-year-old Vancouver woman succumbed to her injuries after being struck by a garbage truck, early yesterday morning while crossing Grandview Highway.

The woman was crossing northbound shortly after 7 a.m., when she was hit by the westbound travelling truck. The woman was rushed to hospital where she later died of her injuries. The causality was Vancouver’s fourth traffic-related fatality of this year, all of whom have been pedestrians. 

Speed and alcohol are not considered to be factors in the incident. The victim’s name is not being released. The investigation is ongoing and Vancouver police are urging any witness to contact the Vancouver Police Collision Investigation Unit at 604-717-3012.

Related: CBC Article

Raptors Unsuccessful in London Road Trip

Sold out crowd enjoys first ever NBA regular season game at the O2 arena (Tom Jenkins/The Guardian)

The Toronto Raptors (17-46) have landed back in city of Toronto after dropping two games to the New Jersey Nets (19-43) in London England. The Raptors and New Jersey Nets were scheduled to play in two regular season games, the first time in NBA history that a regular season game was being played outside of North America.

NBA International President Heidi Ueberroth told NBA.com,  “We think it’s the perfect time and bringing regular-season games to Europe is really the next step in the development of our fan base.”

The Raptors and Nets played back-to-back games at London’s O2 arena. This isn’t the first time the league has played games in London; they have been the stage for exhibition games in the past.

In the first match up, Deron Williams and Brooke Lopez led the Nets to a 116-103 victory. Williams recorded his fourth straight double-double since being traded from the Utah Jazz.

In the final game of the London series, the Raptors and Nets played the wildest game of the season. The game took three overtimes before the Nets prevailed, 137-136. Andrea Bargnani led all players with 35 points. Up and coming second year player, DeMar DeRozan, averaged 30 points in both games.

“We kept fighting the whole time. We were seven points down but we came back and had the chance for a win. It’s a tough loss but we played every minute,” said Jose Calderon in the losing effort.

Related: Sekou Smith Hang Time

The Eyeopener’s Love & Sex Issue

Ryerson University’s independent school newspaper, the Eyeopener, released their annual Love & Sex issue this week.

The issue has become recognized for its use of full-on male and female nudity. The issue is always released around the time of Valentine’s Day and is a very common issue amongst other North American university newspapers.

The Eyeopener has been criticized for their racy issue in the past, but editors believe the issue provides a platform to discuss important topics.

“The purpose behind the Eyeopener’s Love & Sex issue is really to be controversial,” said Shannon Higgins, Editor-in-Chief. “The campus paper is a good place for that conversation.”

This year’s issue covers the matter of whether sexual and romantic fantasies live up to reality.

Internet: Content vs. Profit

Daily newspapers might be a thing of the past with more newspaper chains opting to use the internet. (morgueFile)

A decade ago, the internet was a foreign platform for most newspapers. Editors and newspapers feared that shareholders would backlash over the notion of free online content. According to Clay Shirky, newspaper chains were concerned with their content being shared openly online. The resistance of content sharing by newspapers via the internet was based on the idea that scarcity is valuable.

 Newspapers could not predict that the internet would grow as much as it did, but many, as well as Shirky, claim, “The ability to share content wouldn’t shrink, it would grow.” Wikileaks is an example of how of media outlets have been successful with journalism-free content.

“What we are seeing is an era of specialization of content where new media is the sharp end of the lance in newsgathering, said Jeffrey Dvorkin, a professor at University of Toronto’s journalism program. “Not-for-profits are doing the investigative aspects and contextualizing of journalism; and newspapers and MSM are reverting to being “sense-makers” of it all.”

Since the late 90s, newspapers in North America have been publicly traded to companies with obligations to shareholders rather than their readers.

 “In that culture clash, the shareholders won and the newspapers were forced to return larger and larger profits,” said Dvorkin. “This was done by cuts, efficiencies, a diminishing of excellence and a search for a monetized product.” Just recently one of the most recognized independently owned newspapers, The Huffington Post, sold their company to AOL.

Ivor Tossel, a freelance writer for the Globe and Mail, agrees with Shirky’s comment, “Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism” and society pays for the journalism. With the introduction of online, traditional journalism has become devalued. Newspapers are no longer dishing the money out for good valued journalism. As Tossel said, “I love being paid.”

Source: Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable

Cholera Outbreak in Haiti

A malnourished child sleeps in the arms of a nurse, in Cité Soleil. (UNICEF/Marco Dormino)

Since the outbreak of cholera was declared in late October, the Ministère de la santé et de la population of Haiti has reported a total of 3,790 deaths and over 180,000 sickness-related cases.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake last January that killed over 200,000 people.

Even before the earthquake, sanitary conditions in Haiti were poor.

According to the BBC, there has been no documented outbreak of cholera in Haiti since the 1960s.

Cholera is a bacterial illness, which affects the intestinal system. The illness is caused by drinking contaminated water, and it can cause profuse watery diarrhea, a high fever and vomiting, leading to death due to rapid dehydration.

At a clinic , patients are screened for diarrhea and dehydration, Port-au-Prince ( Gerald Martone/IRC)

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), only 12 per cent of the Haitian population receives treated tap water and  17 per cent have access to adequate sanitation facilities.

The CDC’s agenda involves controlling the outbreak, so that fewer people die from cholera. “The reality is that we have a serious problem here,” CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell told CNN.

Haitian authorities and aid agencies are emphasizing drinking and using clean water as the current outbreak continues to spread. Infected individuals could easily spread the illness further by preparing food without proper hygiene.

“We expect we will be working very hard for many months to come,” CDC epidemiologist Jordan Tappero told CNN.

Source: CNN Health

Related Links: Cholera Update

Africa’s Largest Country May Split

After years of war and fighting, southern Sudan has reached a crucial moment in their 55 year history of ethnic violence, a referendum on independence.

Sudanese women at a refugee camp in Chad.(Michael Wadleigh/Physicians for Human Rights)

Southern Sudan, Africa’s largest country, has scheduled their declaration of independence for July. In the 1920’s Sudan was divided into Northern and Southern Sudan. Since their succession from the British in 1956, the north and south have been in civil war.

Although the North and South have been in war for decades in the past six months, there has been almost no major ethnic violence. All signs point to the Muslim-North and the Christian-South dividing.

The South has suffered from decades of civil war and marginalization.
With their existing issues many are worried South Sudan could be the next Somalia, destroyed by ethnic violence and civil war.

According to Oxfam, only one in seven children who live past their first year die before the age of five.

According to New York Times, ethnic fighting swept the south with several thousand people killed in military-grade attacks in 2009, fueled by longstanding ethnic rivalries and a sudden, suspicious increase in high-powered weaponry.

If the South surpass the 60 per cent of registered votes needed to ensure the outcome’s validity.

Source: New York Times

Related Links: Voter Turnout Passes 60%