Rick Fredrickson's Trust Fund

The family and friends of Rick Fredrickson have set up a Trust Fund to assist him with his mounting costs in the fight for his rights as a father. The fund is at TD Canada Trust and I believe you can donate at any branch, just give them Rick's name. I, myself, plan on donating as soon as I can.

On a personal note: I must say that Rick and his family are a gracious group of people and are only looking to keep one of their family members with them. Please help them if you can.

Rick Fredrickson is being shafted, AGAIN

Today, Saturday October 28th, was supposed to be the day that Rick (the Saskatoon father fighting for the right to raise his son) was to meet his son. Once again Nicola Roller and her husband have blocked the visitation attempt. You see, this week Justice J.A. Ryan-Froslie ordered that Rick be able to see his son and that the visitation happen as soon as possible. The Judge believes, as I do, that it is imperative that the child see his father as soon as possible. This child is in his formative stages and is making bonds that will be important to him for the rest of his life. The Rollers blocked the order simply by appealing it. Family Services advised Rick that they can not enforce an order that is being appealled.

I am both shocked and appalled at this couple's behaviour. Nicola herself is an "Art Therapist" for children. You would think with her experience and education she would understand the importance of a child having his father in his life. She has chosen to ignore this basic need, and in my eyes basic RIGHT. Which leads me to believe that she does not have the child's best interest at heart and is instead selfish and self serving. I do hope the the esteemed judges that ultimately decide this case, take her attitude and behaviour in to consideration when making a final decision with relation to the child.

Malcolm Watson revisited...

Since my last post about the American citizen (that is as of now serving his probation, for sexually abusing a student, in St.Catherine's) much political blustering has taken place. The immigration minister is looking in to it, McGunty declares we are not the USA's dumping ground and Niagra area politicians are horrified. Yet Mark Watson is still here. Still living amongst us.

Several have stated that they wonder if what Mr. Watson did (have sexual relations with a 15 year old) is even illegal here. While the age of consent is 14 years old here (hopefully to be raised by parliment to 16 very soon) there is a stipulation that persons in the position of authority that take advantage of those under their care, push the consent age to 18. Therefore I see no reason that people are questioning of the legality of his actions. He was a teacher in a position of authority and trust, over a student. A position that he took advantage of. So it is my opinion that he could/would have been charged and convicted here as well.

Living in Canada for 3 years, is equal to 1 year in a US Jail

A teacher in the USA, Malcolm Watson, was caught having a sexual relationship with one of his students, a 15 year old girl. He was charged and found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree sexual abuse. While they are minor convictions, you would think he would have done some jail time. Not the case. The judge gave him a choice, 1 year in jail or be exiled to Canada for 3 years. The only time he would be allowed in the US is to report to his probation officer. He must also stay away from the victim until the end of his probation in 2009 and register as a level 1 Sex Offender. It should be stressed here that Malcolm Watson is an American citizen, not Canadian. His wife and family are Canadian however.

The District Attorney says that the 15 year old girl's family is happy with the sentence. I wonder if anyone has asked the parents of 15 year olds in Fort Erie, Ontario if they are happy with the sentence. While the victim's family no longer has to worry about him, now a whole new country, province and town do! An anonymous US law enforcement official was quoted as saying "He's Canada's problem, not ours."

Those involved in the deal including the District Attorney, Defense Lawyer and Judge all seem to think that Canada will willingly accept a sex offender without question. Their attitude is that we will not take action and dropping a sex offender on our lap will be tolerated...not just tolerated but ACCEPTED.

Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Minister Monte Solberg has been made aware of this particular case, let's hope the man does his job and boots Mr.Watson out of Canada. I really don't care if this will make him a man without a country. My Canada does not include other country's sex offenders!!

http://www.montesolberg.ca/EN/3116/ You can find all of Mr.Solberg's contact information here if you wish to make your feelings known about this case.

Rick Fredrickson wants to be Dad

While DNA tests have proven that baby Liam is biologically Rick Fredrickson's son, Rick wants to be his dad. Rick (of Saskatoon, Saskcatchewan) had an off and on relationship with Liam's mother Oriole Bird, during which time Liam was conceived. However the mother did not inform Rick of his impending fatherhood (and in fact claimed in documentation, to not know who the father was-a lie disproved by her relatives that all very well knew Rick was the dad), instead arrainging for a family friend to take the child. Close to the child's birth Rick did find out about baby Liam through Oriole's stepbrother and since then has been trying to get help to get custody of his son. Liam was born in April, DNA tests proved Rick's fatherhood in July, yet here we are in October and Rick has yet to meet his son. Nicola Sherwin-Roller and her husband are refusing to relinquish custody and have made demands that Rick must abide by before they will let him see the child. Even after a judge ordered visitation rights to Rick and Barb Hesketh-Jones (his fiancee) last month. I would like to know why has this couple not been looked at for contravening a court order?

The first issue that the Roller's stated in their case against Rick, was that Children's Haven (the access facilitator) had voiced concerns about Rick's fiancee being in on the visits. The insinuation was that the facility did not want anyone other than Rick to visit. Then the Rollers went on to demand that Rick not refer to himself as "Daddy" or take any pictures of his son. It is absolutely absurd that this couple is not only depriving this man of his rights as a father but want to downgrade him to a strange man that visits Liam once a week for an hour, while at the same time making a demand for child support. They said through their lawyer that they don't 'need' the money, but they want it anyway. Because they were given custody by the mother, they feel they have the same rights as the mother. I beg to differ and would really like to know why the courts have been messing around this long.

Are the courts waiting until the child is old enough to remember it all and be thoroughly traumatized? Give that child to his father now and let the Rollers (who have NO biological connection to him) try to fight for custody or visitation rights. I mean really, this one is a no brainer.

Now I refer back to the insinuation made by the Roller's that Children's Haven was against Rick's fiancee Beth being involved with the child. Through Children's Haven's own lawyer (Marty Popuscul) we learn that they have denied staff had any issue with Beth attending the visits. Haven reiterated that their purpose is infact to help children and their parents be together. Not to hinder the process. The general policy of restricting visits to "just parents" is not carved in stone and in this particular case would be changed, due to the Court Order. Nicola proved by insinuating such things, that she is not beyond distorting truth to further her own agenda (which I really question as to whether or not includes Liam's best interest)

Perhaps Nicola thought that her personal connection with the facility would help her, as she stated in a sworn affidavit that she was a regular donor and at one time sat on the board for the facility (in the 90s). The only thing that that proves to me, is that the use of this particular facility is indeed a conflict of interest and the court should designate a different facility.

Nicola's lawyer also tried to pressure Rick's lawyer in to stopping him from going to the media. I hope that Rick and his lawyer completely disregard these "requests". While the media can often be a hinderance, in this particular case I believe it could help. Perhaps a "well to do" benefactor or legal experts will see Rick's story and step forward to help him.

Far too often in this day and age, fathers and mothers are walking away or doing far worse to their children. Here is a man that wants to wholeheartedly take on the responsibilites of fatherhood, but is being hampered by a couple that has no biological connection to the child and a court system that moves at a snails pace.

The Patriot Guard Riders

While I live in Canada and have had no contact with this group of people, I felt that I wanted to make a post about them. You see we've heard bits and pieces about them for months in the media, but most people don't know what or who they really are.

The PGR organize in response to another group, Westboro Baptist Church (they are an independant Baptist church, with no affiliation to any other Baptist association or organization). The WBC is a religious group out of Topeka, Kansas, that is lead by Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. This group is extremeist in it's views against homosexuality. This anti-gay stance is the foundation of most of their 'protests'. It is the position of this group that homosexuality 'enablers' are damning most of the world to hell. It should also be noted that 90% of his 100 or so followers are relatives of Phelps, through blood or marriage (not accusing, just wondering if a portion of that is incestuous).

So this small group has taken it upon themselves to 'judge' the world, for not being 'rabidly anti-gay' like them. I see that Mr Phelps decided to ignore the passages in the bible such as:

Matt 7:11 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

Matt 22:37-40

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.


The followers of Phelps, ignoring God's commands of love and non judgement, have taken up their Rabid Anti-Gay cause and protested many events. Then the abhorrent occured. They decided that they would begin protesting at the funerals of military personnel that died in the line of duty. And they did this with much noise and hate, carrying signs with statements such as: "God Hates Fags", "America is Doomed", "Don’t worship the dead" & "Military Fags". They spout hateful things and can make quite a spectical. Not only disrespecting the deceased, but the family and other loved ones. A time of grief and deep sorrowed further tainted by hate propaganda.

I remember first reading of this awful group. I was sickened and appalled that they could wrap themselves around free speech and religion, yet propagate and promote hate. A short time later I had cause to smile and give a little sigh of relief. A new group had formed. A group that would protect and support the families and love ones of the military dead. They would stand for the War heros and drowned out the messages of hate. In August 2005, The Patriot Guard Riders were born in Kansas (albeit not yet with that particular name), created by members of the Kansas American Legion Riders (legion post 136).

On October 11th, 2005 this group successfully completed their first organized mission. The funeral of Sgt John Doles in Chelsea, Oklahoma. The Patriot Guard name was decided upon that same October (wanting to recognize the many different contributors to the group) and announced to the riders attending the October 27th, Tonganoxie Mission to Honor SPC Lucas Frantz. The group grew through the various Legion Rider contacts, and spread country wide.

From then to now the PGR has grown in size and broadened the work they do for their country, which includes: Honor Missions, Send Offs & Welcome Homes, Fallen Warrior Scholorship Fund and Help on the Homefront.

A group I deeply admire, yet a group I hope we never have need for here in Canada, as that would mean we have hate mongering groups like Phelps and his followers.

It's NOT TD, It's CIBC Visa products

Again I received the dreaded auto dialling call from Voxdata. This time it was during the day, instead of the evening. It rang FIVE (I know because that's how long it takes my answering machine to click in) times and then the dead air took up almost 5 minutes of my answering machine's memory.

I called Voxdata again and this time spoke to a very nice gentlman by the name of Will. He was very apologetic about the calls continuing, especially after my call last night to Chris at Voxdata. He advised that he is scrubbing my telephone number from their files and I will not hear from them again. However he warned that it could take up to 4 weeks before I stop hearing from CIBC, as he has to send in a complaint to them on my behalf. Overall he was a much pleasanter experience than yesterday and left me feeling confident that this will be taken care of.

The vexing part is I am NOT and never have been a CIBC client. So their annoying attempts at getting me to be one has only ensured that I NEVER will be.

416-224-0391...Telephone spammer? TD Bank are you aware of the harassment?

The telephone number 416-224-0391, has begun to call me numerous times in the evening over the last little while. When I answer there is dead air and I would hang up annoyed. I assume that it is an automatic dialler. Well tonight I had had just about enough of this, so I called the telephone number back. There was a recorded message, "Thank you for calling. You have reached Voxdata. Voxdata is a customer service call entre which has been requested to make a courtesy call to your telephone number. Have a nice day." And then the line goes dead. I then reverse looked up the telephone number and could only ascertain that it was a telephone number originating in the Toronto area. My next step was to google search the telephone number and there was only 2 hits. Both for a forum where someone else was being harassed by the same telephone number back in March of this year. The person with the similar complaint believed that TD Bank was the company that was using Voxdata. I wonder if TD is freely giving our telephone numbers to this company knowing that some of their customers and non-customers are being thoroughly annoyed by them?

I then googled (gawd I love Google) Voxdata and found them on Monster.ca of all places. There I found a telephone number for their office in Toronto (416-224-8482). I called and pressed '0' for immediate assistance. A female answered the phone and when I told her that I was pissed she immediately handed me over to a male voice that identified himself as Chris. Chris asked what the calls were about and I advised him that I did not know as there was dead air when I answered. He stated that he was going to have my telephone number removed from their system. I suppose we will have to wait and see if my complaint was successful.

I just wanted to throw this little experience out there so if any of you are getting these annoying calls you may find some resolution, as I hope that I have.

An Attempt To Ban Harry Potter

Laura Mallory, a mother of four, of Loganville Atlanta wants all Harry Potter books banned from schools. She believes the books are 'evil' and indoctrinating children in to the Wiccan religion. While in most places this suggestion would be simply laughed off, she is in the one place that has a history of strange bannings. The most recent to memory, was the elimination of funding for spanish language fiction and considering a proposal to tweak the library's ILS to prevent users from proceeding in Spanish. There was a public outcry of course and the board was forced to recind their position on Spanish fiction and remove the 'tweaking' consideration from the agenda.

Atleast this time around the Board of Education is being more reasonable. Their attorney, Victoria Sweeny says "If schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban Macbeth and Cinderella."

My problem is more with the ignorance of Laura Mallory. It is obvious by her stance that "Wicca is evil", that she has no clue about the religion. Wicca is older than Christianity and indeed a peaceful and loving religion. The creed by which they live is "Do what you will, harming none". It is also a Wiccan belief that anything of a negative nature that you do will come back to you three fold. I have done much research on the various off shoots of Wicca and have found nothing that would point to the religion being evil. So I wonder where Laura Mallory gets her information from, if she has bothered to research anything at all. I would hazard a guess that she has not even cracked a Harry Potter book open, to get an understanding of what the books really do promote. The themes that I got from the books were loyalty, friendship, trust, love and overcoming adversity. Hardly subjects that one could construe as evil.

The System Didn't Kill Your Son

Ety Shokrabie cried out yesterday that the system killed her son. Sepehr "Danny" Rabti was shot and killed by two gunmen at the car dealership where he worked. One of those accused was previously granted bail on a gun offense (arrested at Yorkdale Mall for carrying a cocked and loaded .45-calibre semi-automatic handgun). While, as a mother, I feel her pain - I can not agree with her accusations towards the judicial system. Any person that, whether in the heat of passion or in cold blood, kills another human being is solely responsible for that act. Not the murderers parents, school officials, friends, neighbours, society or the judicial system. While all of the previously mentioned can be factored in to the mental state of the murderer, they can not and should not be held as accountable.

In the end we all have choices to make. We choose to live negatively or positively. We choose good or evil. We choose. We choose. We choose. Everyday people rise up out of the negativity that surrounded them in youth. They make choices to better themselves and to better the world arround them. They do wonderful things, in spite of where they were first rooted and raised. They are strong enough because they choose to be strong enough.

We have come to a place now that no one can take ownership for their own actions.
And each time a victim makes claims like the above mentioned, well they give the criminals another excuse. Another excuse for their own actions. There are far too many excuses already, NOT reasons mind you. Jodie Wheatle and Marcel Blackburn are accused of killing Danny. They are, right now, facing the judicial system for their actions. They will answer for what they have done, of that I am confident.

Don't get me wrong, something needs to change. I personally am all for Gun Laws being tightened and even first time offenders being denied bail if found with a gun. But as things stand now, judges and justices of the peace must follow the rules laid out before them. They enforce the law, they do not write it. So instead of throwing accusations about like tissue, why not work for change? Go to your MPs and Judicial representatives. Form lobby groups. Join lobby groups. Form/sign petitions. Make your voice be heard. That is productive and helpful, instead of accusatory and inflammitory.



The pessismest in me wonders if someone is laying groundwork to sue the system. Trying to cash in........

This is Johnathon....

http://www.johnathon-madden.memory-of.com

Johnathon Robert Madden was a beautiful 12 year old boy with so many possibilities laid infront of him. Then the unthinkable happened. His 16 year old brother viciously murdered him and attempted to murder his stepfather. I do not write this to encourage your anger towards Johnathon's brother. Kevin was wrong and deserves to be punished for his actions. But now, after 3 years, what good is anger? There is too much of it already in this world and I do not think that Johnathon would have wanted to be the reason or root of more of it. I find, I myself have no energy for the anger. I feel only sadness and concern for Johnathon's mother.

I have watched this story unfold since day one. How could I not? I have two sons. As I have watched them grow these last three years I have so many times wondered and have been horrified at the thought. The thought that one of my sons could do that to the other....well it is unimaginable. Each time my mind wanders there I have an ache in my heart for Johnathon's mother. I can not even come close to feeling what she feels. I can not imagine what she thinks and how she possibily deals with this. Now that Kevin has been sentenced as an adult and Johnathon can be known for who he was, I hope that there is some peace and healing.

Johnathon's mum....if you ever read this, please know that my heart and prayers have always been with you from the start. I hope you find strength and peace in all that has happened and that which is yet to come. You had and still have the love of a very beautiful boy.