Gale free on bail.

A man accused of killing his live-in girlfriend last summer will remain free on bail until his trial.
George Christopher Gale, 29, was released in December on a charge of second degree murder of Jocelyn Bishop, 21.
An Ontario Court of Appeal judge upheld the decision by Superior Court Justice Steven Rogin.
Gale was ordered to live with an aunt in the Union area near St. Thomas.
That aunt and three other relatives pledged $50,000 each in personal guarantees.
Bishop's body was found buried in a shallow grave on the Fanshawe Park Rd.
property she shared with Gale four days after she was reported missing to the police.
A publication ban is in place covering evidence presented at the hearing.
Gale's release in December sparked a protest outside the London courthouse.

Hospital would let baby die at home

If the parents of Baby Joseph want their son to die at home — as they have professed — all they have to do is ask, officials at London Health Sciences Centre said Monday. That position, made clear in a media release issued by the London hospital Monday afternoon, does come with a twist: Doctors are willing to take Joseph to his Windsor home, but once there, they would remove him from a ventilator, an act observers have said would lead to his death in a matter of minutes.
“London Health Sciences Centre is and always has been willing to organize and pay for a medical transfer home to Windsor for Baby Joseph, accompanied by LHSC physicians and staff,” the media release stated.
But what doctors won’t do is cut a hole Joseph’s trachea to insert a tube, something that his parents have requested becase such a procedure allowed an older daughter to live another six months before subcumbing to the identical neurological condition.
“It is an invasive procedure in which a device is installed in a hole cut in the throat. It is frequently indicated for patients who require a long-term breathing machine. This is not, unfortunately, the case with Baby Joseph, because he has a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is fatal,” hospital officials wrote.
The public statement comes as the London hospital steps up security to protect staff from what had been an avalanche of criticism on social media and threats that has led to a police investigation.
The hospital has removed the names and contact numbers for members of its media relations team in the wake of threats against staff over the treatment of Baby Joseph.
The names, about a dozen in all, along with phone extensions for each, had been listed as recently as last week on the website for London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC).
But as of Monday the names and extensions had been removed, replaced with just a general phone number for the media relations department.
The removal came as hospital officials reported over the weekend that staff had been the target of threats serious enough to warrant contacting authorities. London police are investigating.
Hospital officials wouldn’t disclose Monday specific security measures. Security measures began soon after a London judge decided Feb. 17 a medical panel had been reasonable in siding with doctors who concluded to seek consent to remove 13-month-old Joseph Maraachli from life support because he has a degenerative neurological disease that has left him in a vegetative state.
Threatening posts have been made on social media.
The threats have been condemned by the lawyer representing Joesph’s parents, Mark Handelman, who has said threats interfere with the care of Joseph and others in pediatric critical care at the Children’s Hospital in London.
Baby Joseph has been in the care of LHSC since October.
LHSC doctors sought his parents’ consent to remove the breathing tube that keeps him alive.
The baby’s parents want doctors to give Joseph a tracheotomy in the belief that they can take him home, as they did eight years ago with their baby daughter, Zina, who spent time at home before returning to hospital to be treated for complications. She died six months after getting the< tracheotomy.
Joseph’s parents refused to give consent to remove his breathing tube, so doctors went to Ontario’s Consent and Capacity Board.

Seasonal flu deaths rise

Seasonal flu has claimed another life in the London area, bringing the laboratory-confirmed death toll to 11, the Middlesex-London Health Unit reported Monday.
Last year when pandemic flu hit the area, eight people died.
The good news in the latest health unit report is that the stubbornly high influenza activity in the county and city is finally showing signs of dropping.
School absenteeism was lower than the previous week with nine elementary schools reporting an average absenteeism of 10%. There were 15 elementary schools with such rates the preceding week.
Since Sept.5, 2010 123 people have been hospitalized with the flu in Middlesex and London. The majority of patients have been over 65 years of age.

New trial ordered

A new trial has been ordered for a London man convicted three years ago of stabbing his girlfriend to death.
Melvin Flores, 43, was found guilty of second degree murder in the death of Cindy MacDonald, 29, whose body was found in the backyard of her father's Commissioners Rd. home with 53 blunt force wounds, including nine stab wounds.
He was sentenced by Superior Court Justice Peter Hockin to life with no parole for 10 years on Nov. 30, 2007.
But the Ontario Court of Appeal, in a decision released Monday, said errors in the judge's final instructions to the jury were enough to order a new trial for the El Salvadoran immigrant.
The court said the instructions did not adequately draw together all the relevant factors regarding Flores's state of mind when he stabbed MacDonald.
He testified that MacDonald had told him she had aborted a baby fathered by him and planned to keep the baby she thought she was carrying and fathered by her new lover.
After he stabbed her and left her in the back yard with the knife still in her back, Flores walked to a nearby drug store where he called the police.

Chamber opposes arbitration

London’s chamber of commerce is adding its voice to the growing chorus speaking out against the provincial arbitration system that’s helped send emergency-worker wages skyrocketing.
Citing earlier concerns raised by Mayor Joe Fontana and his counterparts in other Ontario cities, the chamber is publicly urging the provincial government to change a system that’s “weighted against municipalities.”
“There is only one taxpayer in Ontario and they have reached the tax ‘wall,’” the letter, issued Monday, reads.
“If our overall tax packet continues to rise exponentially as a result of these out-of-step compensation increases for emergency services, Ontario, as a place to invest and bring new jobs, will continue to fall farther and farther behind competing jurisdictions.”
The chamber estimates the budget for London’s emergency services — police, fire and ambulance — has jumped from $85 million in 2002 to $144 million in 2011, a 71% jump in less than a decade.
By its own math, the chamber suggests those budgets could hit a combined $247 million by 2018.
The issue is particularly hot now as the city prepares to negotiate new deals with its police officers and firefighters.
Police are expecting a deal that gives each officer a 3% annual raise — far above the rate of inflation — and add about $2.4 million to the force’s existing 2011 budget of $81.9 million.
That $2.4 million has been set aside in another portion of the budget and is accounted for in the tax freeze council’s expected to approve Monday night.