2 Nigerian students face deportation from Canada for working at Walmart

Sitting inside a church, University of Regina students Victoria Ordu and Ihuoma Amadi start as a prairie wind rattles the front door.

Ordu glances over, eyes wary, before flicking toward the window at the back of the church she now calls home.

Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo, controversial gun victims’ ‘advocate’ deported to Nigeria

It’s the end of the Kemi Show.

Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo, 48, the often controversial but always outspoken community advocate, was deported to her native Nigeria on Friday.

“I’ve been criticized by the public and colleagues for associating with her,” said Const. Scott Mills of Crime Stoppers. “But the bottom line is we solved some crimes because of my association with her and we have received info in a timely way, where we got guns off the streets and saved lives.”

Mills said he received a Facebook message from her last week saying that she was being deported, and thanking him.

A Friday flight took her to Nigeria.

Olunloyo’s Toronto story started in 2007 when she arrived at Pearson International Airport from Nigeria, via the U.S., with her children. She filed an unsuccessful refugee claim and subsequent appeals, which also failed.

It’s not clear how much time she had spent in the United States; at least one of her three sons is an American citizen.

But soon after her arrival in Canada she thrust herself into the spotlight, claiming to speak for the families of victims of violence. She was the “voice” at news conferences for victims of gun violence such as Jarvis St. Remy and William “Junior” Appiah.

She wrote on blogs, calling for justice for murder victims. She gave sound bites to reporters.

She became a celebrity of sorts.

But in July 2009, Olunloyo’s story unravelled when the Star reported that she was wanted in the state of Georgia, where there were seven outstanding warrants for her arrest.

There were warrants for failing to appear in court on charges that included cruelty to children, simple battery, terroristic threats/intimidation of a juror or court officer, and obstruction of an officer. A fifth was for bail jumping.

Olunloyo then told the Star the cases were resolved, but clerks at the Newton County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia said otherwise.

The story wasn’t the only chink in her armour.

The 6-foot-tall Olunloyo, daughter of a well-known politician in Nigeria, was often embroiled in unpleasant exchanges on social media with those who questioned her motives or called her out for being a publicity hound. Some of her exchanges were with other Nigerians, some lasting days and weeks.

One blog claims Olunloyo declared on Facebook her interest in running for Nigeria’s highest office. The blogger claims Olunloyo had also declared online her intention to seek an appointment from Nigeria as its high commissioner to Canada.

Olunloyo claimed at one point that she would be “killed” if she was deported to Nigeria because of her online outspokenness. Her MP, Mike Sullivan, asked to have her deportation delayed until her application to stay in Canada on compassionate and humanitarian grounds was decided.

While some families of victims of gun violence were relieved to have Olunloyo speak for them and reach out to the media, some were turned off by what they called her publicity-seeking stunts.

Vesna Cikovic, mother of Boris Cikovic, the victim of a gang robbery in a west Toronto park in 2008, said Olunloyo took advantage of those in mourning.

“Who gave her the right to call herself a community advocate?” asked Cikovic. “She said whatever she felt like, wrote untruths on blogs. I read something she wrote about (Boris) and I disliked it and knew that I didn’t want to have anything to do with her.”

Cikovic said victim’s services helped her and her family get through the aftermath of her son’s murder. “I’m glad Kemi is gone. Good luck,” she said.

Mills, meanwhile, stands by Olunloyo’s assistance, adding: “The relation with her resulted in solving some crimes and prevented some (crimes), and guns being taken off the streets.”

Source: Toronto Star

New Music : Dirty Whine [cover] - Teye ft Ledge

Dirty Whine Cover by OptimusTee (also known as Teye) ft Ledge.

London 2012 football: Canada beats France to win bronze

Team Canada celebrates their 1-0 victory over France in the bronze medal soccer match at the London 2012 games.

It will be remembered as the greatest moment in Canadian women’s soccer history, an improbable goal in extra time that has given the country an Olympic bronze medal.

Diana Matheson scored in extra time to give Canada a 1-0 win over France here Thursday afternoon to set off a raucous celebration of a team a nation has grown to love.

After fighting off the physical and mental fatigue during a difficult week under intense pressure — to say nothing of a second half entirely dominated by the French — the women won Canada’s first medal in a traditional team sport since 1936.

Against the run of play, Canada launched a full-out attack into the French box in the 92nd minute. Sophie Schmidt’s shot hit a French leg and bounced back to Matheson who made no mistake on the shot.

It was an incredible end to an incredible week for the women, who lost a heart-breaking semi-final to the United States, 4-3 in extra time, marked by dubious officiating.

And then it was the French, who had soundly beaten Canada 4-0 at last year’s World Cup, who took over a listless game in the second half and had several chances to break through.

They had taken one shot off the post, one off the bar and one off, it appeared, the face of Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod in a desperate attempt to score.

But with extra time looming, and Canada obviously exhausted, Matheson and Schmidt combined for the historic goal.

“I feel amazing,” Matheson told CTV moments after her winning goal.

“We thought as a group we’d earn this medal and we did. Our goal coming in was to be on the podium and that’s what we were focusing on (not the U.S. result).”

Matheson also felt the bronze medal will boost interest in women’s soccer across Canada, and set up Canada’s role as host of the 2015 World Cup.

“We came in (to Olympics) wanting to leave a legacy for Canadian soccer and we did that.”

Track Review: UrkelAce, 'Recovery Tale'

Track:  Recovery Tale. 
Artist:   UrkeAce
Poetry: Marz(Blk Krws)

I’ve been listening to UrkelAce's new track and I’m quite satisfied with what I’ve heard. The track “Recovery Tale” is my favorite of what Wunda Records has released so far.

Seyi ‘UrkelAce’ Akinlade who has been on several features including the popular “Hold you down” by T-obay brings his 1st solo track titled “Recovery Tale” to the world. He decides to produce this song with some help from his Wunda Records team mate and Producer Yung Jeff.

UrkelAce digs deep on "Recovery Tale" battling loneliness and exploring the emotional lows of love gone awry with lyrics like, "You Gave Me One Shot Of Love, But You See, I'm An Alcoholic"  Instead of relying on massive cinematic synths, the producers create a fleeting atmosphere that evokes the song's theme of fickle love. This single will find a nice spot on late-night playlists, when everyone else has gone home. This is going to be a hit, I can feel it already.

Video Directed By William Turner (Willy Verse)

Concert Review: Wizkid In Toronto

Wizkid and Skales at the concert's press conference

There was some extensive publicity about Nigerian artist, Wizkid's first concert in Toronto, Canada at the Lagondola banquet hall. The news about the concert spread like wildfire among the Nigerian community in Canada, most of my friends were hyped up about the event and I was convinced that it'll definitely be a concert to remember for ages. To be honest I'm not really big on going to concerts as I don't particularly care for the big crowds and the inevitable obnoxious person sitting behind, beside or in front of me, however I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity of seeing wizkid, one of the quickest-rising stars in Africa.

I went to the concert with a couple of friends and we got to the venue early. The concert was meant to start at 9pm but I guess it was running on "African" time and didn't start till 11pm. We got in at 11 and we got a table close to the stage and waited for the show to begin. The hall got filled up quickly and most people in the audience were Nigerians, but there were also some Ghanaians and other African nationalities there. I understood there were some few non-Africans there too.

The show began with local acts who were virtually unknown and there were no information provided about these acts to the audience, after the Canadian acts performed, EME's skales was up next. Skales sang his hit single "Mukulu" along with some songs on the E.M.E.album, after he finished the audience clapped and cheered at this moment everyone was waiting expectantly for the main performer to come on.

Then the audience heard the beginning of his song "Love My Baby" and the crowd went wild. Wizkid came on stage singing the song and the audience joined in, singing all the words and screaming. He interacted with the audience, performed like the star he is, and brought all his songs to life. For most of the show, the audience sang along and he seemed pleased by the response he got. At some point, skales who acted as his back-up singer was staring at the crowd in surprise and amusement because the audience had taken over his job!

Switching back and forth between singing and rapping, primarily in English, wizkid was never less than enthusiastic, an entertainer above all, and one used to much larger stages than this one but he only performed for 20mins. Accordingly, the show had the feeling of a significant event. The crowd was slickly dressed, skewing young and African.

Surprisingly, wizkid didn’t look much out of place but rather steady throughout the performance of his radio-friendly songs that had him pulling out every trick possible to incite more deafening, throat-shredding wails from girls. Wizkid's songs contain of an emergent style loosely called Afrobeats by some, a mélange of hip-hop, R&B and other traditionally urban sounds with elements that hark back to older African styles. Wizkid who is signed to Akon's Konvict Music label, a rare example of a mainstream contemporary African star being given an opportunity to work with an American record label. Akon performed with Wizkid in Lagos earlier this year.

In all, it was a good show but a really brief performance by Wizkid. The show had some downsides to it, as the concert started late and most people who traveled miles to Toronto weren't allowed into the concert due to some alleged incidents. The main sponsors of the concert Microbell Media Group released a press statement about the incident. Personally I feel the event was rushed and unorganized which is not new with Nigerian parties. Also it is in my opinion that there was no tangible difference between the services extended to VIP ticket holders and regular ticket holder. I'm a fan of wizkid’s music, but my takeaway from the concert is that Wizkid as a person seems sleazy and narcissistic. Here are some twitter reactions to the concert:

Shooting victim just missed Eaton Centre gunfire

One of the victims of the Colorado movie theatre shooting narrowly missed witnessing another shooting — in the food court at Toronto's Eaton Centre last month.

News of the shooting at The Dark Knight Rises premiere first broke on Twitter early Friday morning from panicked moviegoers trying to make sense of what they'd just experienced.

And as the morning wore on and the police investigation continued, the name of one of the victims appeared on Twitter.

"My friend Jessica Ghawi was killed in the #Aurora Shooting — she was an aspiring sportscaster — she will be missed," Natalie Tejeda (@natalietejeda) tweeted Friday morning.

Ghawi's parents told KSAT-TV in San Antonio, Texas, that their daughter, who had recently moved to Denver, was killed in the shooting, the station reported.

Ghawi's brother Jordan wrote on his blog that their mutual friend, who was with Ghawi at the theatre, said Ghawi was shot twice, and the second bullet "appeared to strike her in the head."

Ghawi, who went by the Twitter handle @JessicaRedfield, last tweeted "MOVIE DOESN'T START FOR 20 MINUTES," just after 10:30 p.m. local time to another Twitter user whom she'd been teasing for not going to the premiere.

And in an eerie coincidence, Ghawi's last entry on her personal blog was about witnessing the aftermath of the shooting in the Eaton Centre on June 2.

Busted Coverage, a sports blog Ghawi wrote for, tweeted a link to her last blog post.

She had been at the Eaton Centre and grabbed a burger and poutine in the food court. She had initially been looking for sushi — which would have led her to the sit-down sushi restaurant and prolonged her time in the food court — but "an odd feeling" led her outside, she wrote.

"Gun crimes are fairly common where I grew up in Texas, but I never imagined I'd experience a violent crime first hand," she wrote on June 5.

The receipt for her burger was time-stamped 6:20 p.m. Gunshots rang out in the food court only minutes later.

Outside the mall, chaos descended on the streets as emergency vehicles arrived on scene.

"Standing there in the midst of the chaos all around us, police started yelling to get back and make room. I saw a young shirtless boy, writhing on a stretcher, with his face and head covered by the EMS as they rushed him by us to get him into an ambulance," Ghawi wrote. "The moment was surprisingly calm. The EMTs helping the boy weren't yelling orders and no one was screaming like a night time medical drama. It was as if it was one swift movement to get the boy out of the mall and into the ambulance. That's when it really hit me. I felt nauseous. Who would go into a mall full of thousands of innocent people and open fire? Is this really the world we live in?"

"I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday," she wrote a few days after the shooting. "I was reminded that we don't know when or where our time on Earth will end."

culled from ifpress.com

A Boeing 727-200 Home Project

An option to a new $200K stick home:  A used multimillion dollar aerospace quality home.

Bruce Campbell of Portland, Oregon,USA has converted a Boeing 727 Jet to a home. Paying $100,000 to Olympic Airways in Greece.He acquired the jet at the end of its flying life from Olympic Airways in Greece, had it flown from Athens to Oregon, and finally towed to his land. (The average home in the USA costs $186,000-so $100,000 doesnt seem too bad).