This is it

I saw "This is it" tonight. I am amazed and dazed. He was truly unique individual. I could feel his deep sorrow, felt in his soft spoken words, his worries about world problems, while he was suffering tremendously. But he was in good shape. He was sharp, he was strong, funny and professional. I felt as if I knew him personally. He was truly one of a kind, without borders, without definition, or explanation. His eternal character will fit any place or time. Remember the time. Man in the mirror. Black or white. I'll be there. Beat it. "I love you more", he used to say to his screaming fans.

I just think that he was just too beautiful for this world, truly full of hatred, envy and incompetence. I wish he could have lived to give us more of his positive energy, his beauty and his art. It seems that the best of us really leave us very fast. As if they busy souls cannot put up with all the crap that is going on in dealing with people who are just too shallow to get the true meaning of life. Michael said it. It is love spelled L O V E. We love you Michael. Your music lives on, and you are in my hall of fame!

First 72 hours are crucial

Well, we are way beyond first 72 hours. We are in the week 7 of disappearance of Mariam Makhniashvili, Torontonian for only three months, 17 years old at the time she vanished on her way to school located in quiet neighborhood of Forest Hill.

At first, her disappearance was treated with disbelief that anything bad could have happened in such a nice neighborhood. It was not the only bias surrounding this case. Some tried to implicate the family in her disappearance, digging out father's history while living in States, contemplating that, since there were no witnesses who saw her and her brother George walking to school on the morning of September 14Th, that she had not even walked to school that morning. Media coverage was mostly based on "breaking news", rather than doing investigative journalism and look for clues and connections. It took school officials at Forest Hill Collegiate Institute three days to let their student population know about their school mate disappearance. It took law enforcement the whole week to come to the school and talk to students. It took almost a month for backpack to be found, although it was in a clear view of many individuals, and well within 5 km radius, the radius that police described as the area that needed to be searched by residents. Individuals who saw the backpack sitting for more than three weeks behind the building with the address 101 Roehampton did not make connection with the missing girl, because either they were not aware of her disappearance, or because they just did not bother taking a closer look. Typical bystander pshychology. Someone else is responsible. Find out about this phenomenon, read about Kitty Genovese whose screams were heard by hundreds of people, yet no one called police because everyone thought that someone else already did that. Assumptions, biases, delays, sloppy reporting in both law enforcement bulletins (one of police bulletins claims that Mariam and George walked on Vesta Drive on their way to school, that threw some people following closely this case totally off since walking on Vesta Drive would be detour and no one could find explanation why would they walk on Vesta Drive, it turned out later that this was incorrect), and media ( the list is too long ). And last but not least: it took more than six weeks for law enforcement to check library computers. It was said in early reports in media that Mariam frequented libraries in Toronto. Only logical was that she spent more time in the closest one: Forest Hill Library. When the author of this blog visited the library on October 13, 2009 and spoke with the librarian at the information desk, she could not find any new facts or eye witness accounts, because librarian claimed that she would be, in her own words, "the worst witness", because she does not remember people's faces. Moreover, she said that she could not remember seeing Mariam because of her apparent lack of ability to differenciate among teenagers. "They all look the same to me", she said. Mariam's 18th birthday was yesterday. Beautiful, smart, young person, who is missing now for more than six weeks, while search for her tells us how incapable as society we are to break free from our biases and our assumptions, and make use of the first 72 hours.

Photo: Forest Hill Library, Toronto

Protest at Northern Secondary School

What is this protest about?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhfh8P0FomI

It happened on October 02, 2009. The student and his supporters claim that he was "arrested for no reason". They will protest today the presence of police in Toronto high schools. It appears that the protest is drawing the attention of students from other schools and Toronto Police Accountability Coalition (www.tpac.ca), that will be represented by its member John Sewell. Josh Matlow, St.Paul's TDSB trustee is concerned about the safety of students during the protest. There is not enough space around the school to accommodate the protesters, he says in his message on Facebook.


The history of school shootings in Canada:

May 28, 1975: At Brampton's Centennial Secondary School, 16-year-old student Michael Slobodian kills a teacher, fatally wounds another student and injures 13 others before killing himself. Slobodian is the first recorded high-school killer in the country

Oct. 27, 1975: Robert Poulin, 18, kills one student, injures 4 at Ottawa's St. Pius X High School, then kills himself.

October 1978: A 17-year-old student shoots a 16-year-old to death at Sturgeon Creek Regional Secondary School in Winnipeg, allegedly for ridiculing the rock group Kiss. He is found not guilty of first-degree murder by reason of insanity.

Dec. 6, 1989: Canada's worst school shooting occurs when Marc Lepine, 25, shoots 14 women dead at Montreal's L'Ecole Polytechnique before killing himself.

Feb. 26, 1990: A jilted 17-year-old shoots 3 other teenagers, including his ex-girlfriend, at General Brock High School in Burlington, Ont. All three survive.

August 24, 1992: Concordia University mechanical engineering professor Valery Fabrikant fatally shot four of his colleagues, including the chair of the department, after repeatedly being denied tenure.

June, 1993: A teenager is wounded outside Gladstone Secondary School in Vancouver in a drive-by shooting.

Oct. 20, 1994: Two guidance counsellors who warned a mature student at Brockton High School in Toronto about his performance were shot and wounded. Phu Cuong Ta, 27, was charged with two counts of attempted murder. He is serving a 20-year jail sentence.

April 28,1999: A 17 year old student is shot dead and another wounded at W.R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta by a 14 year old boy. This was the first fatal high school shooting in Canada in 20 years.

Feb. 8, 1999: A man fires a shot at Woodland Elementary School in Verdun, Que., after a woman in an adjacent adult education centre said she had been threatened by another student. No one was injured.

Sept. 27, 1999: Alvin Brown, 23, was shot and seriously wounded outside Shoreham Public School, near Steeles Ave. W. and Jane St. in Toronto, during a confrontation. Although many students saw the shooting, none were directly involved.

April 27, 1998: A 15-year-old boy fires two shots from a pellet gun into the pool area at Harbord Collegiate, near Bathurst and Bloor Sts. A teacher and a lifeguard were hit.

Feb. 5, 2000: Dwayne Williams, 20, is shot in the back and leg at a community talent show at Scarborough's Lester B. Pearson Collegiate.

Nov. 2005: A Grade 12 student at Chinguacousy Secondary School in Brampton is shot while sitting in his car in the school's parking lot. Police say the 18-year-old is recovering in hospital.

Sept 13, 2006: Kimveer Gill opens fire at Dawson College in Montreal, killing one student and injuring 20 before killing himself.

May 23, 2007: 14-year-old Jordan Manners is shot and killed at C.W. Jefferys secondary school in Toronto. The school is locked down with students inside while police searched for the gunman.

Where is Mariam Makhniashvili and do we really care about another human being?

I have been away from the pages of my blog for few days now. I am still thinking of what happened to Mariam Makhniashvili. Her disappearance is added to Interpol page for missing children internationally.

http://www.interpol.int/public/Data/Children/Missing/Notices/Data/2009/09/2009_33509.asp

It appears that Toronto search, except for the backpack, did not give any new clues about how and why Mariam went missing. It is quite astonishing that a person can disappear without the trace ( of course, except for the backpack that was found after almost a month from the disappearance ) in the big city, and in the part of city that is densely populated. Obviously, it is almost unbelievable that her backpack was sitting in the plain view of many people, and that no one bothered to look at it.

I am just curious about how come no one was curious to take a closer look. Is it only me, or there are other people out there who would do something if they found some one's else lost property? Just questioning my sense of obligation to fellow human being. Or we will just walk by anything that we do not find personally worthy our engagement. Walk by the man slouched on the bench in subway ( maybe he is not alive any more, but his death is invisible to hundreds, thousands people walking by him on Thursday morning around 9 am at Bloor Yonge station, including me, desperately late for my assignment to be able to do anything for that poor soul). One foot was without shoe that was there, aligned with another foot with shoe on it. The man slouched, motionless. And no one stoped to check. Maybe he is still there today, five days after, because no one has time to check. If we cannot stop for human being, what to expect than for a thing like backpack.


Next time you walk by homeless person: think "Could it be me one day?"

Again about Mariam Makhniashvili - did she go to Forest Hill Library?

I will be damned if I do not find some people with little bit better memories.

First, I came across three different times of when Mariam was last seen: one is police bulletin that says she "left her apartment at 8:40 am", then there is updated police bulletin that says that she was "last seen around 8:30 am" and finally there is article in Toronto Star that says that she was last seen around 8:45 am.

Second, the persons who saw the backpack behind 101 Roehampton, cannot say with certainty was it two or three weeks ago.

Third, but I am sure there will be more, is personnel from Forest Hill Library. So far I spoke with two employees. The first one did not know anything because she was just new employee. The second one, I know for sure is not the new employee, and I spoke with her this morning. These are some interesting things that came out from our conversation: to her all the teenagers are the same, therefore she cannot remember seening Mariam, she was surprised that it was mentioned in the press* that Mariam frequented the library ( she never heard of that ), and that she cannot confirm for me if Mariam had library card ( because of privacy laws ). So, I went home empty handed. Sometimes when you do not find anything, you actually find something, no matter how paradoxical this may sound. I found out that for some reason it is very hard for people to remember anything about Mariam. As if she was invisible: her peers cannot remember talking to her, no one can remember seening her on the street that morning, the librarian cannot remember if she ever saw her in the library, her backpack was "invisible" for three weeks, and so on. Mariam is now missing for more than four weeks, and I am just hoping that the police knows much more than they are willing to share with us.




She was last seen at 8:45?

* http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/698988 ( article that quoted MM father saying that she spent her time in the library )





She was last seen at 8:30?





















She left home at 8:40?

Sleuthing on one month's anniversary of Mariam's disappearance

Today I went sleuthing with my fellow sleuther who I met on the Internet. First we visited 101 Roehampton. It was pretty quiet. Except for the few media: City TV and CTV News doing interviews on the street, Police Field Command ( still there although it was mentioned on the local news last night that "it will most likely be removed tomorrow", obviouslu it was not ).

We were wondering how come the backpack found its way over 4 feet fence from the property of 101 Roehampton to the air vent on 12o Eglinton East. We were also wondering about the "pine trees" that protected the backpack from the elements, as reported on cp24. The backpack was found in the area with no pine trees, and the only pine trees ( and not so dense ) can be seen along the fence between two properties.

Then we walked back to Bathurst/Eglinton area. Took a closer look to Forest Hill Collegiate and it's surroundings. Here is the video I recorded to present the location of backpack and Mariam's route to the school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNLseaAEedk&feature=player_embedded

Report from 101 Roehampton

I spent about half an hour talking to tenants of 101 Roehampton. This is what I found out.
Few of them saw big black backpack behind the building. One tenant describes it as "very big, very full".
The tenant who lives on the ground floor and has his little "backyard" moved the backpack several times, but did not make anything of it because he NEVER KNEW that the girl was missing, or that the description of backpack was in the media. When the backpack disappeared from the spot he saw it last time, he thought that someone had found it.
I spoke with another tenant who told me that, when her car was vandalized in the underground garage few months ago, she reported it to the superintendant and asked him if he would call the police, and he told her that there was NO POINT OF CALLING!!!! the police because they would not come anyway. The tenant called police by herself and police was surprised that anyone gives an advice NOT TO CALL THE POLICE. I am telling you this just to describe that the super of that building may not be very smart and vigilant person, therefore, it does not surprise me that he did not call the police either. By the way, his apartment is located on the ground floor, right next to the apartment of the tenant who was moving the backpack around.
Another tenant also saw the backpack, and she said that it was there for a long time, but she thought it belong to a student from North Toronto Collegiate that is just across the street from 101 Roehampton. She said that students from that school go behind their building all the time, to smoke and just hang out there.
I cannot believe that the backpack was there all the time, and with all the coverage about Mariam, NO ONE FROM THAT BUILDING noticed that backpack resembles the one belonging to Mariam.
Also, what is the likelihood of such an important piece of evidence to be hidden from view in the backyard of a person WHO EVEN DID NOT KNOW THAT MARIAM WAS MISSING!!!!
Also please note that there are two high schools close to 101 Roehampton. One is North Toronto ( just across the street), and another one is Northern Secondary ( about three blocks towards east ).

Where is Mariam? Week three...

I am going over previous posts and media appearances by family, and I realized that one of the very important questions that, I guess, law enforcement needs to answer is whether Mariam was capable of leaving on her own. There must be a way to analyze someone's personality in that regard. I guess they have psychologists who are able to develop profiles.

The way her father was describing her, I got an impression that he, as a parent felt need to "supervise" her all the time. What was the reason for that? She is 17 years old girl, and by that time most of the teenagers are capable of being independent, even in new surroundings. I was about her age when I went to USA for one month high school student exchange, from former Yugoslavia, with limited knowledge of English ( the one that you learn in school ), all by myself, and I was allowed to go places alone. It is really hard to get lost in the big city, even if you do not know the language very well, so I am not sure what Mariam's father meant when he said that she was [I]supervised all the time.[/I] I can think of some reasons why a parent would want more supervision for the child. One example is if the child is on autistic spectrum, high functioning (which can mean that the child is very good in school. academically, and structured setting, but not very much street smart and usually very naive). If that is the case, I would say then the parent has a valid reason to give more support and supervision to the child. Maybe there are some other cases, if the child was a drug addict, for example. Again, I am just wondering: was Mariam capable of leaving by herself because she was not happy with how things were going (as her brother said in one of his appearances)? If she was: where did she go? Or better to say: put yourself in her shoes and imagine you are a teenager, with no money, no IDs, no friends, limited knowledge of the town? Probably to a place where you've been before? Just thinking: if she decided not to go to school that day, and went somewhere else, was it possible that she met some misfortune not in front of FHCI, or even entire neighborhood of Forest Hill, but somewhere else. But where?

I am going over previous posts and media appearances by family, and I realized that one of the very important questions that, I guess, LE needs to answer is whether Mariam was capable of leaving on her own. There must be a way to analyze someone's personality in that regard. I guess they have psychologists who are able to develop profiles.


The way her father was describing her, I got an impression that he, as a parent felt need to "supervise" her all the time. What was the reason for that? She is 17 years old girl, and by that time most of the teenagers are capable of being independent, even in new surroundings. I was about her age when I went to USA for one month high school student exchange, from former Yugoslavia, with limited knowledge of English ( the one that you learn in school ), all by myself, and I was allowed to go places alone. It is really hard to get lost in the big city, even if you do not know the language very well, so I am not sure what Mariam's father meant when he said that she was [I]supervised all the time.[/I] I can think of some reasons why a parent would want more supervision for the child. One example is if the child is on autistic spectrum, high functioning (which can mean that the child is very good in school. academically, and structured setting, but not very much street smart and usually very naive). If that is the case, I would say then the parent has a valid reason to give more support and supervision to the child. Maybe there are some other cases, if the child was a drug addict, for example. Again, I am just wondering: was Mariam capable of leaving by herself because she was not happy with how things were going (as her brother said in one of his appearances)? If she was: where did she go? Or better to say: put yourself in her shoes and imagine you are a teenager, with no money, no IDs, no friends, limited knowledge of the town? Probably to a place where you've been before? Just thinking: if she decided not to go to school that day, and went somewhere else, was it possible that she met some misfortune not in front of FHCI, or even entire neighborhood of Forest Hill, but somewhere else. But where?

I am going over previous posts and media appearances by family, and I realized that one of the very important questions that, I guess, LE needs to answer is whether Mariam was capable of leaving on her own. There must be a way to analyze someone's personality in that regard. I guess they have psychologists who are able to develop profiles.

The way her father was describing her, I got an impression that he, as a parent felt need to "supervise" her all the time. What was the reason for that? She is 17 years old girl, and by that time most of the teenagers are capable of being independent, even in new surroundings. I was about her age when I went to USA for one month high school student exchange, from former Yugoslavia, with limited knowledge of English ( the one that you learn in school ), all by myself, and I was allowed to go places alone. It is really hard to get lost in the big city, even if you do not know the language very well, so I am not sure what Mariam's father meant when he said that she was [I]supervised all the time.[/I] I can think of some reasons why a parent would want more supervision for the child. One example is if the child is on autistic spectrum, high functioning (which can mean that the child is very good in school. academically, and structured setting, but not very much street smart and usually very naive). If that is the case, I would say then the parent has a valid reason to give more support and supervision to the child. Maybe there are some other cases, if the child was a drug addict, for example. Again, I am just wondering: was Mariam capable of leaving by herself because she was not happy with how things were going (as her brother said in one of his appearances)? If she was: where did she go? Or better to say: put yourself in her shoes and imagine you are a teenager, with no money, no IDs, no friends, limited knowledge of the town? Probably to a place where you've been before? Just thinking: if she decided not to go to school that day, and went somewhere else, was it possible that she met some misfortune not in front of FHCI, or even entire neighborhood of Forest Hill, but somewhere else. But where?