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Kids pick Kielburger for prize

Former winner of same award inspired young activist

The Toronto Star, CURTIS RUSH, STAFF REPORTER, April 18, 2006

Free the Children founder Craig Kielburger.

Craig Kielburger, a child rights activist and the Stars newest columnist, has been awarded the 2006 World Children's Prize, commonly referred to as the 'Children's Nobel Prize.'

The 23-year-old Kielburger will be presented with the award by Queen Silvia of Sweden at a ceremony on Thursday in Stockholm.

The prize, established by the Swedish Children's World Association in 2000, recognizes Kielburger's leadership and development efforts through his youth-driven charity, Free The Children. The Toronto-based organization works to free children from poverty and exploitation by creating accessible education possibilities.

Free The Children, which Kielburger founded in 1995 as a 12-year-old, has built more than 425 schools in 23 countries, providing education to 35,000 children every day.

The prize comes with a $40,000 (U.S.) cash award, which Kielburger says he will use to continue the success of Free The Children, as well as support a new fundraising program called Adopt A Village in which Canadian students adopt a village overseas, particularly in Africa, to help set up schools.

Kielburger was selected for the World Children's Prize by an international child jury of 16 young people, primarily from developing countries. It consists of former child soldiers, slaves, refugees and street children.

Its a very humbling experience, Kielburger said from Stockholm. A lot of awards are given out by adults ... This is the only award globally given out by children.

Kielburger said he is excited to receive the award because he is still in the early stages of his charity efforts. He said he thinks this prize will raise the profile of the award in Canada and empower children around the world.

To award this to a 23-year-old, he said, and to a youth-based organization, sends a message not only to Canadian kids who have been active in fundraising, building schools and engaged in our programs, but also to young people globally that you don't have to wait to be an adult to make your voice heard and make a positive contribution to the world.

Kielburger said the timing of the award carries extra significance because the first World Childrens Prize was awarded posthumously to Iqbal Masih for his fight against child labour.

It was the death of Masih 11 years ago in Pakistan that inspired Kielburger to take up his cause.

Kielburger remembers reading the newspaper at his home in Thornhill and was grabbed by a headline: Battled child labour, boy, 12, murdered.

Kielburger was in Grade 7 at the time.

He (Masih) was shot to death riding his bike in front of his house and many people believe he was shot because he was speaking out against child labour, Kielburger said. I was inspired by his murder. I felt so angry.

Kielburger ripped out the newspaper clipping and took it to school. I read the story and said I need your help, Kielburger recalled.

He enlisted classmates in a cause to help children around the world who were being exploited. Eleven friends joined and thats how Free The Children was born.

Kielburger has never looked back.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the 11th anniversary of our organization, Kielburger said proudly.

Past recipients of the World Children's Prize include South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela and his wife, human-rights activist Graca Machel.

Other prize winners this year are The Association of Orphan Heads of Households, a Rwandan network of 6,000 orphans which received the Global Friends Award, and Jetsun Pema, the Dalai Lamas sister, who received the World Children's Honorary Award for her work with Tibetan refugee children in India.

Kielburger is an award-winning author and three-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Kielburger is currently pursuing a degree in peace and conflict studies at the University of Toronto.

His campaign to educate children and teachers on social-justice issues is featured every second Thursday in the Toronto Stars GTA section and online on the Stars website. You can view the special page by logging n to thestar.com/globalvoices.

Associated Press

Mom sought men to sexually assault girl, 10, before death: Warrants

The Associated Press, Published Wednesday, September 14, 2016

WARNING: This story contains disturbing details.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The mother of a 10-year-old New Mexico girl found dead and dismembered told police she sought men online and at work to sexually assault her daughter, according to warrants obtained by the Albuquerque Journal.

Michelle Martens told police that she had set up encounters with at least three men to sexually assault her daughter, the Albuquerque Journal reported. The child's death sparked vigils and outcry across the state.

Boy, 8, found dead; mom faces charge

Canadian Press, (various newspapers across Canada, including the Toronto Star) Aug. 16, 2006.

ISLE LA MOTTE, Vt. A Montreal mother recovering from alleged self-inflicted wounds will be charged in the coming days with murdering her 8-year-old son, whose body was found in Lake Champlain, a Vermont state attorney said today.

I am going to prepare a charge of first-degree murder, Grand Isle States Attorney David Miller said in a telephone interview. Read More ..

Yeeda Topham killed her baby son but walks free

Australian Associated Press
December 05, 2008

A WOMAN who killed her infant son by jumping with him from the eighth floor of a city apartment block has walked free after being convicted of manslaughter.

Yeeda Topham, 40, of Roleystone near Perth, had pleaded guilty in the West Australian Supreme Court to a charge of unlawfully killing 21-month-old James Topham on November 5 last year. Read More ..

Mother Charged with Killing Her Baby

Firefighters Find Baby's Body In Washing Machine

Fire Officials Claim Fire Intentionally Set

NBC4-TV, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

LOS ANGELES, USA -- Murder charges are expected to be filed against a woman whose infant son's body was found in a washing machine after firefighters doused what they say was an intentionally set fire, authorities said Tuesday.

Latunga Starks, 32, was taken into custody last night, according to the Sheriff's Department Web site.

Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Dennis Shirey identified the mother and her nearly 3-month-old son, Michael Kelvin Thompson.

Mother found guilty of drowning autistic daughter

The Toronto Star, By Peter Small, Courts Bureau, March 01, 2008

Xuan (Linda) Peng has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the drowning death of her 4-year-old autistic daughter Scarlett in a bathtub in the family home.

A Superior Court jury returned its verdict Saturday morning after two days of deliberations.

Scarlett Chen was discovered unconscious by her distraught father David Chen in the tub on the second floor of the family's townhouse on Rosebank Dr., near Markham Rd. and Sheppard Ave. E. on July 12, 2004.

Peng told police that she had put their daughter down for a nap in the adjoining bedroom, and had no idea she had climbed into the bathtub, which the woman had filled with water to clean some kitchen utensils.

However, seven months later, homicide detectives charged the 36-year-old Chinese immigrant with first-degree murder. The charges were later reduced to second-degree murder. Read More ..

Woman held in beating deaths of sons

Associated Press, Globe and Mail, Tuesday, May. 13, 2003, Page A15

TYLER, TEX. -- A woman accused of fatally beating two of her sons with rocks spent Mother's Day sobbing and muttering in a jail cell.

Deanna LaJune Laney, 38, remained on suicide watch yesterday at Smith County Jail, where she was held in lieu of a $3-million (U.S.) bond on capital-murder and aggravated-assault charges.

Ms. Laney is accused of killing Joshua Laney, 8, and Luke Laney, 6, and injuring their 14-month-old brother, Aaron. The toddler remained in critical condition yesterday at a Dallas Hospital.

In a call to emergency workers early Saturday, Ms. Laney reported that she had just "bashed their heads in with a rock," Sheriff J. B. Smith said. Read More ..

Mother Shoots father, has his Baby and then kills the Baby and Herself

Investigation into the Death of Zachary Andrew Turner (18 July 2002 to 18 August 2003)

Zachary Turner, a 13 months old baby, died at the hands of his fugitive mother, Dr. Shirley Turner, who killed him and then committed suicide on August 18, 2003.

Turner was facing extradition to the United States to stand trial for the 2001 murder of Dr. Andrew Bagby, Zachary's father.

28-year-old Dr. Andrew Bagby was found shot to death in Keystone State Park, 55 kilometres northeast of Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A.

Turner fled to Newfoundland, Canada where Zachary was born. She was out on bail against the wishes of U.S. authorities at the time of Zachary's death. Read More ..

Globe and Mail

Canada's largest national newspaper

Some mothers have had enough hugs

The Globe and Mail
October 6, 2006

Toronto - As a female friend of Frances Elaine Campione put it, this after Ms. Campione was charged on Wednesday with murder in the death of her two young children, "That mother needs a hug."

In that line, widely repeated in Toronto and national media outlets, is a telling clue to what is so wrong with much of what happens both in the nation's family courts and in its child-protection system -- the pervasive view of the female of the species as constantly nurturing (except, you know, when she allegedly kills) and as in need of constant nurture (hugs all 'round, no matter what).

For the record, Ms. Campione was arrested two days ago after she phoned 911 to report that there were two dead children inside her Barrie, Ont., apartment, and shortly after, didn't police arrive to find the bodies of her own little girls, one-year-old Sophia and three-year-old Serena.

She and her estranged husband Leo were reportedly in the throes of a nasty custody battle, with Mr. Campione accused of assaulting his wife and the older child, and Ms. Campione allegedly alarmed, and/or depressed, at the prospect of losing that fight.

And The Globe has confirmed that involved with the family was the Children's Aid Society of Simcoe County. At the moment, the nature of that involvement is unknown -- except as it has been reported by neighbours who saw social workers at the apartment and say that, for a time recently, the girls lived with their paternal grandparents.

Mothers Who Kill Their Children

Ontario woman convicted of son's starvation death granted full parole

Canadian Press
Wednesday, May. 22, 2002

KINGSTON, Ont. (CP) -- An Ontario woman who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in one of Canada's stiffest penalties for child abuse will be released on full parole after serving less than half her term.

Lorelei Turner, 38, and her husband Steven were convicted of manslaughter in July 1995 for beating and starving their three-year-old son John to death in a case that horrified Canadians who followed the trial.

But on Wednesday, a panel of the National Parole Board in this eastern Ontario city ruled Turner will be released but placed on probation until July 2011.

Until then, she must remain within 25 kilometres of her residence, is not allowed unsupervised contact with anyone under 16, and must continue to receive counselling.

"The board would have looked at the risk and obviously found a low risk to reoffend," Carol Sparling of the National Parole Board said Wednesday.

Teen Girl Murders Baby

Woman accused of throwing son off Oregon bridge

The Associated Press, U.S.A., November 4, 2014

NEWPORT, Ore. -- A woman who said she threw her 6-year-old son off a historic bridge on the Oregon coast was arrested after the boy's body was found in the bay, police said.

Police and firefighters in the coastal city of Newport, Lincoln County deputies and the Coast Guard searched the bay with boats and a helicopter after Jillian Meredith McCabe, 34, of Seal Rock called 911 at 6:25 p.m. Monday to report throwing her son off the Yaquina Bay Bridge.

The boy's body was found at 10:23 p.m. in the bay after it was spotted near the Embarcadero Resort, police said.

Mothers Who Kill Their Own Children

Affair led to mother murdering her own kids

Days after buying another woman Valentine's Day flowers, a Sydney father came home to find a trail of blood leading him to the bodies of his two young children lying next to their mother, a court has been told.

Australian Associated Press
Aug 24 2009

The woman had given the couple's three-year-old daughter and four-year-old son rat poison and an unidentified pink liquid before smothering them and killing them, court papers said.

She then tried to take her own life, the NSW Supreme Court was told.

Doctors agree the mother, from Canley Heights in Sydney's west, was suffering from "major depression" when she poisoned her children on February 19 last year.

She has pleaded not guilty to the two murders by reason of mental illness.

As her judge-alone trial began, the mother's lawyer told Justice Clifton Hoeben his client didn't think life was worth living after learning about her husband's affair.

Canadian Press - New Brunswick woman ruled responsible in burning of baby's body

New Brunswick woman ruled responsible in burning of baby's body

ST. STEPHEN, N.B. - A New Brunswick judge says a woman who burned and dismembered her newborn son is criminally responsible for her actions.

Becky Sue Morrow earlier pleaded guilty to offering an indignity to a dead body and disposing of a newborn with the intent of concealing a delivery.

Judge David Walker ruled Friday that the 27-year-old woman may have been suffering from a mental disorder when she delivered the baby but that that was not the case when the baby's body was burned and its remains hidden.

It is not known if the baby was alive at the time of birth.

At a hearing last month, the court heard contrasting reports from the two psychiatrists. One said Ms. Morrow was in a "disassociated" mental state when the crime occurred. The other said she clearly planned her actions and understood the consequences.

Mother sentenced to more than two years jail time in connection to death of infant son

The Toronto Star, April 3 2013

A woman has been sentenced to 27 months in prison in connection to the death of her nine-week-old son in a bizarre case where the infant boy's body has yet to be recovered.

Both parents Ricky Ray Doodhnaught, 32, and Nadia Ayyad, 24, have been implicated in the case that dates back to November 2011 when Children's Aid workers along with York Regional Police attempted to seize two children under a court order from a Vaughan home.

Mother in custody battle burns 6 year old son to death and herself and home

Investigators: Mother son afire in blaze that killed both

Associated Press, USA, published in Toronto Star, Oct. 24, 2019

LAS VEGAS USA- A Las Vegas woman who waged a court custody battle for her 6-year-old son set the boy afire earlier this month, igniting a house fire that killed them both, police and arson investigators found. Gasoline was detected on first-grader Gavin Palmer’s clothing, and the deaths of the boy and his mother, Renai Palmer, were investigated as a rare arson murder-suicide, Las Vegas police homicide Lt. Ray Spencer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal for a Wednesday report. The Clark County coroner’s office said Thursday the cause and manner of the two deaths remained under investigation.