Missing B.C. man kept secret offshore accounts

A B.C. man who vanished a decade ago in a possible underworld killing set up offshore companies and bank accounts before he went missing, and is among the 450 Canadians named in the recent massive leak of tax-haven data.

Greg Cyr's ex-wife is now asking police to take a new look at his disappearance, after CBC News showed her secret financial documents found amid the leaked files.

Cyr, a 40-year-old drywaller, disappeared in 2003 after heading to a meeting in Vancouver with what police later told Miriam Byrne were her former husband's "underworld connections."

"What's frustrating for me is it took years … years to put a picture together," Byrne said after looking at some of the records. The files were part of an unprecedented leak of financial data obtained by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with the CBC and other global media outlets.

"If we would have had this..." Byrne said, pausing. "I'm speechless."

The documents show that the year before Cyr disappeared, he set up two companies through a firm called TrustNet, which provides offshore services in the Cook Islands, a South Pacific tax haven.

Cyr used one of his companies, Sentinel Holdings, to buy a $1.5-million property on Beach Drive in Victoria. The area is an exclusive waterfront neighbourhood adjoining the Royal Victoria Yacht Club and Victoria Golf Club. But Cyr kept his ownership of the house a secret from his ex-wife, even as he did construction work on it.

"I thought it was his employer's," she said.

Devoted dad

By then, Byrne and Cyr were divorced, with a five-year-old son.

Byrne said their marriage ended after Cyr confessed he had shipped some marijuana from British Columbia to Whitehorse.

Cyr eventually convinced her he had straightened out, Byrne said, and he was gradually permitted more time with their son.

Cyr once told his ex-wife that 'the one thing I've done right in my life is be a dad,' she said. (Courtesy of Miriam Byrne)

As a drywaller, he'd be up at dawn to head to job sites. Later, he ran a tile and wood import business. He became a devoted father who doted on their son.

"I remember him on the phone saying to me, 'Miriam, the one thing I've done right in my life is be a dad,'" Byrne recalled.

Their son cherished his father's visits. "Greg would ring the doorbell, our son would run up and next thing you know, all they did was roll around and wrestle," Byrne said.

So it came as a shock one day in October 2003 when Cyr failed to pick their boy up from school. He has never been heard from since.

Byrne later applied to the B.C. Supreme Court to have Cyr declared dead, so she could claim a life insurance payout for their son.

The judge heard evidence that as a youth, Cyr sold drugs and associated with the Hells Angels, and that Vancouver police had told Byrne her ex-husband was murdered by associates.

Cyr's girlfriend at the time described him in an affidavit as "frightened … like a child about to be left alone" on the day he went to the meeting from which he never returned.

But Judge Malcolm Macaulay rejected Byrne's bid, finding it was equally likely that Cyr earned money through the illegal drug trade, had sizable hidden assets and was motivated to disappear.

Cyr had fled before. Born Brent Thurston, he ran from a charge of narcotics possession in Manitoba in 1988. A warrant was issued for his arrest. Cyr eventually moved to Yukon and changed his name. The warrant is still outstanding.

It was a history Cyr kept mainly hidden from Byrne until after they were married. But she never believed he could do it again.

"He would have had our son not feel like he'd lost biggest most important thing in his life," Byrne said. "He wouldn't do that"

TrustNet stonewalls

Armed with that conviction, Byrne appealed to TrustNet for answers. She had obtained a duffle bag of documents linking Cyr to the offshore-services firm from his girlfriend. And in January 2004, three months after Cyr vanished, Byrne picked up the phone and called the company in the Cook Islands.

"I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember my heart racing and sitting at my desk and trying to be very professional and not emotional," she said.

"At that point we just wanted to get any clue as to where he might have gone, what might have happened. Something."

A record of that call is among the documents obtained by CBC News.

"Miriam Byrne called," TrustNet employee Amanda Keu wrote in a memo in Cyr's offshore account.

Keu noted that Byrne "appeared to be very distressed and was crying" about her missing ex-husband, who she believed was dead

"She just wanted to know if he was alive," Keu wrote.

But Keu clung to the Cook Islands' strict financial-secrecy laws and refused to acknowledge anything about Cyr. After hanging up, TrustNet employees tried to reach Cyr by phone and email. There is no record he ever responded.

"I remember just thinking, 'Can someone just tell me something?'" Byrne recounted.

Byrne says the files about her ex-husband, documents discovered amid a massive trove of offshore financial records, point to the need for police to interview more people in the Cyr case. (CBC)

TrustNet continued to stonewall inquiries about Cyr four months later when a receiver in B.C. faxed and called with a court order empowering him to act on Cyr's behalf. The employee who responded said TrustNet "did not recognize foreign judgments."

Privately, though, the firm eventually started having concerns. Seven months after its client went missing, the company filed a report with the Cook Islands Financial Intelligence Unit, indicating Cyr might have been involved in criminal transactions or money laundering.

But TrustNet continued to frustrate the B.C. receiver. A TrustNet employee told him that "unless he was a shareholder or office holder of the company, we could not divulge any information" about the "structure of business affairs of the company".

Secrecy for sale

In contrast, Cyr met with very little scrutiny when setting up his companies and their bank accounts.

TrustNet asked him to provide details about his business, and Cyr wrote that the purpose of Sentinel Holdings was "financing other companies and business ventures," and that the source of his funds was an import-export business.

Cyr also had to provide a bank reference, which amounted to a form letter from his local branch of TD Canada Trust vouching for the fact that Cyr had a chequing account.

The annual fee for maintaining his offshore company was about $1,500. For that price, Cyr got secrecy. A note on his file makes it clear that "the owner, Mr. Cyr, does not want his name revealed as the beneficial owner of the company."

"It was strictly superficial," money-laundering investigator Gary Clement said about TrustNet's due diligence in vetting Cyr as a client.

CBC News showed the Cyr files to Clement, who spent 30 years with the RCMP and now manages an international financial consulting firm in Ontario.

"It really enabled people like Mr. Cyr to set up businesses, set up a number of accounts using different companies without really establishing his bona fides. And that really is the case here," Clement said.

Still listed as missing person

TrustNet eventually complied with the court order in Cyr's case and revealed his assets, which didn't amount to much more than the house in Victoria.

Byrne's lawyer, Greg Harney, said he doesn't fault TrustNet for withholding information about its clients, if all that exists are suspicions of criminality.

Cyr "was a businessman, and there were perhaps issues, and none of them were ultimately confirmed by anybody, including the police," Harney said.

The Vancouver Police Department still lists Cyr as missing person on its website, even though in 2010 Harney was successful in getting the B.C. Supreme Court to declare Cyr dead.

Robert Chernochan's name appears in Cyr's offshore records. Chernochan was arrested in September in California and is charged with drug trafficking. ((Tehama County Sheriff's Department))

The department declined to discuss the case, but Harney thinks investigators might be interested in a discovery CBC News made after examining the leaked TrustNet files.

Those documents show Cyr shared details about his secret company with a friend, Robert Chernochan. Cyr authorized Chernochan, who was a real estate agent at the time, to handle details connected with the Victoria house he bought.

Last September, Chernochan was arrested in California at a truck inspection station. He was driving a tractor-trailer north to Canada. Highway patrol officers found 66 kilograms of cocaine in a hidden compartment.

Chernochan is now in jail on narcotics trafficking charges, held on $5-million US bail. Neither he nor his lawyer responded to requests for interviews.

Clement said Chernochan is someone police should talk to.

"If I was still in law enforcement and this was my case, I definitely would make that overture to the authorities in the United States to see if we could get co-operation."

Byrne said she recalls police telling her 10 years ago that they had tried to speak to Chernochan as part of the investigation into Cyr's disappearance, but he proved elusive. She had no idea at the time about TrustNet, the offshore accounts it set up and Chernochan's role in them.

"If I had this," Byrne said, "I would have marched this down to the police to say please, please ... please interview them."

If you have more information on this story, or other investigative tips to pass on, please email investigations@cbc.ca

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How were the Cleveland women held captive for so long?

Law enforcement and psychology experts looking at the Cleveland abduction case say it was likely a combination of intimidation, luck and so-called "Stockholm syndrome" that made it possible for three women to be held captive for a decade.

On Monday night, Cleveland police rescued Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, who had all been missing since the early 2000s, from a house near downtown Cleveland.

Police charged the owner of the home, Ariel Castro, 52, with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Police and prosecutors now say there is nothing to lead them to believe Ariel Castro's brothers Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50, were involved in or had any knowledge of the alleged crimes.

Marlene Dalley, who worked in the RCMP's National Missing Children's Services program for 25 years, says there's an assumption that all abductors match the same psychological profile. But Dalley says it's the circumstances of each case that determine the outcome.

Individuals "who keep people in captivity do not necessarily fit a certain profile," Dalley says. "These cases all have unique characteristics."

The Cleveland case has prompted the question of how someone could kidnap and conceal three women in a crowded residential neighbourhood for a decade without raising suspicion.

Homeowner seemed 'average'

One of Ariel Castro's neighbours, Charles Ramsey, called 911 on Monday night after seeing a woman, who turned out to be Amanda Berry, screaming and trying to escape through the front door of the house.

Ramsey told a reporter from WEWS-TV that he had barbecued with Castro in the past, and said he didn't "have a clue that [Berry] was in that house, or anybody else was in there against their will."

Ramsey recalled regularly seeing Castro puttering around in the yard: "He just comes out to his backyard, plays with his dogs, tinkers with his car and motorcycles, and goes back in the house. He's somebody where you look and then you look away, because he's not doing nothing but the average stuff."

But there seems to have been some evidence of deliberate deception on Ariel Castro's part. In an interview with London's Daily Mail newspaper, Castro's son, Anthony, said that he seldom visited his father's house, but noted that there were locks on doors to the basement, attic and garage. When he last visited the house, two weeks ago, Anthony said his father barred him from coming inside.

Matt Logan, a forensic behavioural specialist and former RCMP officer, says there's a tendency to think that an individual would have to be fairly sophisticated in order to keep up appearances while holding another person captive for years on end.

"But the more I look at this case, I'm guessing that it's actually going against that," Logan told CBC News, adding that Castro was just very lucky in what he'd done.

Suggestions of abuse

On Wednesday, Cleveland police Chief Michael McGrath told NBC's morning show Today that the three young women were physically restrained and only allowed outside "very rarely" during their decade in captivity.

"We have confirmation that they were bound — that there were chains and ropes in the home," McGrath said.

Wendy Christensen, a former RCMP officer who is now head of investigations for the Missing Children Society of Canada, said that keeping three women captive for so long would have to involve some sort of mental and physical intimidation.

"I find this particular case fascinating in that we have three victims … all living under the same roof for years," and that Castro was "able to keep up the facade for so long," Christensen explained in an email interview.

"I think that this speaks to the level of terror and psychological abuse that these victims suffered on a daily if not hourly basis."

Echoes of other long-term abductions

Wolfgang Priklopil held Natascha Kampusch captive in his home outside Vienna for more than eight years before she managed to escape in August 2006. He committed suicide soon after. (AP Photo/Austrian Police)

The circumstances of the Cleveland story echo those of other long-term abductions, including that of Elizabeth Smart, a 14-year-old who was taken from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah, in June 2002. She was found nine months later, being held in a house 29 kilometres from her home. Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee were eventually convicted for kidnapping.

Then there's the case of Natascha Kampusch, an Austrian woman who was kidnapped by Wolfgang Priklopil in March 1998 and held in the cellar of his home outside Vienna for more than eight years. After Kampusch escaped in August 2006, Priklopil committed suicide.

Amanda Pick, executive director at the Missing Children Society of Canada, says that long-term kidnappings often lead to what is known as Stockholm syndrome, the phenomenon in which the abductee begins to identify with and even feel compassion for their abductor.

"Children begin to believe that if they co-operate, that no further harm will come to them," says Pick, adding that they "start to feel empathy and sympathy and almost positive feelings when the trauma of the abduction doesn't continue."

Victims may resist leaving

This can lead to a situation where a victim feels it is safer to stay with the abductor, former FBI profiler Brad Garrett said in a 2011 interview with CBC News.

Garrett referred to the case of Jaycee Dugard of Lake Tahoe, Calif., who was abducted in 1991 and held captive by Phillip and Nancy Garrido for 18 years. (The Garridos were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 2011.)

California native Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped in 1991, at age 11, and held hostage for 18 years. (Associated Press)

"They interviewed people that said [Dugard] came to the front door of the house to talk to people [Phillip Garrido] worked with, but never stated a problem or attempted to leave. Clearly she did not feel OK leaving and felt OK on some levels to stay there," Garrett said.

Christensen says that sexual abuse is often a feature of long-term abductions such as this, and that female victims may bear children while in captivity.

Police will be conducting a paternity test to determine the father of Amanda Berry's six-year-old child, who escaped with her.

One of Ariel Castro's neighbours saw him out with a young child just a week ago. When he asked who the child was, Castro answered that it was the daughter of a girlfriend.

The presence of a child in a kidnapping scenario can lead to the development of a family dynamic, says Christensen, and the appearance to outsiders that the captor and captive are romantic partners.

"In those cases, people close to the abductor have been interviewed and never thought anything was wrong, as the abductee did in fact appear to be a wife or girlfriend of the abductor," says Christensen.

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Acadia students return from Cancun after resort death

Police in Mexico said Sydney Taylor fell from a third-storey balcony in Cancun. (Facebook)

There were tears and hugs when a flight from Cancun arrived at the Halifax airport Wednesday night carrying the classmates of Sydney Taylor, the 21-year-old Acadia University student who died in Mexico on a graduation trip earlier this week.

Police in Mexico said Taylor fell from a third-storey balcony and died of a traumatic head injury on Tuesday while vacationing with friends. They said alcohol was a factor.

Taylor was among a group of more than 120 students from the Wolfville university staying at the Hotel Gran Caribe Royal. Parents and university officials greeted the returning students at the airport.

University president Ray Ivany boarded the plane to talk to the students.

"They've been through a traumatic 24 hours," he said. "Getting back home is pretty emotional for them. It's going to be difficult. I mean, we all knew Sydney, and she was a wonderful young woman, a wonderful student. The next couple of days with convocation is going to challenge for the whole community."

Ivany said the students are concerned about Taylor's family and were asking questions about them.

The university said it's still trying to figure out how to honour her memory during this weekend's convocation.

"Sydney's father specifically requested that we both honour her memory and give the students a chance to celebrate their accomplishments, because that's what she would have wanted,' said Ivany.

Taylor would have graduated with honours in political science.

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Ariel Castro arraigned on kidnapping, rape charges in Ohio

A Cleveland man was arraigned Thursday on charges of rape and kidnapping after three women missing for about a decade and one of their young daughters were found alive at his home earlier in the week.

Ariel Castro looked down at the ground for almost the entire court proceeding, biting his collar and signing documents with his handcuffed hands. He didn't speak. Bond was set at $8 million.

The women found alive after a decade in captivity endured lonely, dark lives inside a dingy home where they were raped and allowed outside only a handful of times in disguises while walking to a garage steps away, investigators say.

The 52-year-old former school bus driver has emerged as the lone suspect.

While many questions remain about how Castro maintained such tight control over the women for so many years before one of them made a daring escape Monday, the horrors they suffered are beginning to come to light.

Police say the women — Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight — were apparently bound by ropes and chains at times and were kept in different rooms. They suffered prolonged sexual and psychological abuse and had miscarriages, according to a city councilman.

Castro has been charged with four counts of kidnapping — covering the captives and the daughter born to one of them — and three counts of rape, against all three women.

The women and Castro have given lengthy statements to police that have helped build their case, said Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba.

None of the women, though, gave them any indication that Castro's two older brothers who were arrested with him were involved, Tomba said. Prosecutors brought no charges against the brothers, citing a lack of evidence.

"Ariel kept everyone at a distance," Tomba said.

'Sounds pretty gruesome'

One thing that remains a mystery, he said, is how the women were kept in the house so long.

"As far as the circumstances inside the home and the control he may have had over those girls ... I think that's going to take us a long time to figure that out," he said.

The women, now in their 20s and 30s, vanished separately between 2002 and 2004. At the time, they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

At a news conference, authorities would not discuss the circumstances of their kidnapping and captivity.

City Councilman Brian Cummins earlier said: "We know that the victims have confirmed miscarriages, but with who, how many and what conditions we don't know."

"It sounds pretty gruesome," he added.

They never saw a chance to escape over the last 10 years until this week when Berry got out of the home and ran to freedom, alerting police who rescued the other two women while Castro was away from the house.

In newly released police audiotapes, a 911 dispatcher notifies officers on Monday that she's just spoken to a woman who "says her name is Amanda Berry and that she had been kidnapped 10 years ago."

An officer on the recorded call says, "This might be for real."

After police arrive at the house, women can be heard crying in the background. Then an officer tells the dispatcher: "We found `em. We found `em."

Tomba said of Berry, "Something must have clicked and she saw an opportunity and she took that opportunity."

He said the women could remember being outside only twice during their entire time in captivity. "We were told they left the house and went into the garage in disguise," he said.

Also in the house was Berry's six-year-old daughter. A paternity test on Castro was being done to establish whether he fathered the child.

Women welcomed home by jubilant family, neighbours

While prosecutors announced charges against Castro, federal agents searched a vacant house near where the women had been held. Officials would only say their search was an attempt to get evidence in the case against Castro, but they refused to say what they found or what led them there.

Castro was in custody and couldn't be reached for comment. A brother-in-law has said the family was shocked after hearing about the women at the home.

Few people in Cleveland, outside the families of the women, thought there was any chance they were still alive.

Gina DeJesus, with her thumb raised, arrived at home to jubilant crowds of family and neighbours. (John Gress/Reuters)

Berry, 27, and DeJesus, who is in her early 20s, were welcomed home Wednesday by jubilant crowds of loved ones and neighbours with balloons and banners. Family members hustled them inside, past hundreds of reporters and onlookers.

Neither woman spoke.

"This is the best Mother's Day I could ever have," said Nancy Ruiz, Gina's mother. She said she hugged her daughter and didn't want to let go.

Ruiz said she spent time with all three women after they were rescued. "There's no word to describe the beauty of just seeing them," she said.

DeJesus' father pumped his fist after arriving home with his daughter, and urged people across the country to watch over the children in their neighbourhoods — including other people's kids.

"Too many kids these days come up missing, and we always ask this question: How come I didn't see what happened to that kid? Why? Because we chose not to," he said.

The third captive, Michelle Knight, 32, was reported in good condition at Metro Health Medical Center, which a day earlier had reported that all three victims had been released. There was no immediate explanation from the hospital.

Women lured into Castro's vehicle, police say

Police submitted four affidavits detailing the allegations against Castro — four kidnapping charges and three rape charges.

The affidavits say Berry, DeJesus and Knight each were lured into Castro's vehicle and then held captive at the home on Seymour.

"During this time period, the victim was repeatedly sexually assaulted by the defendant," Cleveland police Det. Andrew Harasimchuk wrote in each of the affidavits.

Castro was accused of twice breaking the nose of his children's mother, knocking out a tooth, dislocating each shoulder and threatening to kill her and her daughters, according to a 2005 domestic-violence filing in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court.

The filing for a protective order by Grimilda Figueroa also said that Castro frequently abducted her daughters and kept them from her. Figueroa died in April 2012 after a battle with cancer.

Figueroa's father, Ismail Figueroa, said Wednesday that Castro would regularly lock his daughter inside a second-floor apartment in the house where they lived when they were first together.

Later, when they moved a few blocks to the house Castro purchased — the house from which, years later, the three women would escape — he kept a close eye on her and refused to let people come inside to visit her or even let her pick up their children from school, said Angel Villanueva, who is married to Grimilda Figueroa's sister.

Grimilda was "not allowed to go nowhere," said Villanueva. No matter where she wanted to go, "it had to be with him."

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Expenses audit faults both senators and rules

An independent audit on the housing claims for three senators, due in the Senate today, will conclude they shouldn't have made the claims but that the rules are also unclear, CBC News has learned.

Senators Mike Duffy, Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau have claimed tens of thousands of dollars in housing allowance claims in recent years.

CBC's Hannah Thibedeau reported that the Senate committee handling the audit report met Wednesday night and that Duffy and Harb were both there. Brazeau, a former Conservative who now sits as an Independent, is currently suspended from the Senate over a criminal charge in a separate matter.

The senators expenses were investigated by the accounting firm Deloitte. The Senate is expected to release a response to the report this afternoon that will include new rules for senators.

Thibedeau reported that the rules around claiming per diems are changing. Senators currently can claim a per diem for any day that they are in Ottawa, whether the Senate is sitting or not. That will change, so that per diems can only be claimed if the senators are in Ottawa for Senate business (when the Senate is sitting or to attend committee meetings for example), plus 20 extra days if they are in Ottawa for other activities related to Senate work.

Other areas where the rules will be tightened up include mileage and taxi claims. Receipts will now be required for all taxi use; previously, senators could claim $30 without a receipt.

It was the housing allowance claims being made by senators that first prompted the Senate to launch the review.

Since 2010, Harb has been claiming his primary residence is outside the capital, even though he had lived in Ottawa for decades before that time and owns several properties in the city. However, he says that he moved to a bungalow near Pembroke, Ont., about 145 kilometres from Ottawa and has been claiming expenses for maintaining what he says is a secondary residence near Parliament Hill he needs when he attends Senate sittings.

Senators who live more than 100 kilometres from Ottawa are allowed to claim housing expenses of up to $22,000 a year.

Harb's home near Pembroke is now for sale. He says he is selling the property because he has lost his right to privacy. He listed it about two weeks ago.

A media report Tuesday said Harb will be ordered to reimburse the taxpayers $100,000 for claiming expenses for housing and meals. However, Harb told CBC News he is "100 per cent confident" the Deloitte report will vindicate him.

Duffy repaid $90,000

Senator Brazeau is also being audited by Deloitte, because he claimed his primary residence is in his father's apartment in Maniwaki, Que.

Conservative senator Mike Duffy, pictured at a dinner in Halifax in February, is under scrutiny for his housing allowance claims. Devaan Ingraham/Canadian Press. (Devaan Ingraham/Canadian Press.)

Brazeau, however, also lives in a house in Gatineau, Que., just across the river from Ottawa.

Duffy is also under review by Deloitte. However, Duffy has already repaid the Senate $90,000 for claiming a house in P.E.I as his primary residence although he has been a longtime homeowner in Ottawa. Outside the Conservative caucus room Tuesday, he told reporters, "The process is working as it should."

Harb did not want to speak about the Deloitte report, because, he said, the Senate told him not to until it was released.

A fourth senator, Pamela Wallin, is also being audited by Deloitte, but the firm has asked for more time to complete its report on her travel expenses between Ottawa and Saskatchewan.

The Senate has already passed new rules stating that senators must provide a driver's licence, health card and proof of where they pay provincial income tax before they can receive the $22,000 housing allowance.

Charlie Angus, the ethics critic for the NDP, asked in question period in the House of Commons Wednesday: "Will the government promise to turn over tomorrow's internal Senate audit to the police to ensure that there at least be some investigation of the senators who have been ripping off the Canadian taxpayers? At least do that."

Government House leader Peter Van Loan replied: "None of us yet know what those audits say. They will be looked at by the Senate committee tomorrow. Then, I believe, they will be released. Certainly that is our expectation, as it is very much our government's expectation that the rules must be followed and that if any monies were inappropriately reimbursed, they must be reimbursed to the government."

The RCMP does not have to be asked by government to open an investigation.

Early Thursday, an internal Senate committee will receive the Deloitte audit and review it in a private meeting. The committee will then table the report in the Senate, and shortly after, the report is expected to be made public.

The report can only make recommendations. If Harb and Brazeau are found to have claimed money inappropriately, an order to reimburse the funds will come from the Senate.

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Toronto marathon runner, 18, died of heart abnormality

The father of a teenager who died while running the Toronto marathon says his daughter died of an anatomical heart abnormality that is rarely detected.

Steven van Nostrand said a coroner determined the stress of the late stage of the marathon caused an artery to constrict, to the point that his daughter's heart stopped.

Emma van Nostrand, 18, collapsed just a few kilometres from the finish line during Sunday's marathon. She died later in hospital.

Her father spoke with the coroner Tuesday afternoon. He said the family was comforted to learn the abnormality was not genetic.

"One of her major arteries is not at the normal angle coming in through the heart," said van Nostrand. He said increased stress levels would cause the arteries to close off.

"It's something that's both very hard to revive a person from that situation even if you're in a hospital, you can't always revive them. Also it's sudden and unpredictable and nothing you can easily test for."

The coroner told van Nostrand that the abnormality made Emma a "walking time bomb" and something as simple as walking up stairs could have caused her death.

School to pay tribute

Emma was set to graduate from Riverview High School in Cape Breton next month. Grief counsellors were sent to the school to help her friends on Monday.

Her family met with the principal Tuesday afternoon and learned that the school will still award her diploma and honours certificate.

"They actually postponed honours night tonight until next week," said van Nostrand. "Emma's siblings — her brother and two sisters — are going to accept it on her behalf."

Van Nostrand said several businesses have also come forward and offered to establish a scholarship at the high school in his daughter's memory.

Classmates described Emma as an athlete who played on the soccer and basketball teams. Her parents are both runners.

The race was Emma's first full marathon. Her mother was also participating.

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Amanda Berry 911 call under review

The actions of the 911 operator who took the frantic phone call from Amanda Berry that ultimately led to her rescue, along with two other women, are under review following complaints from the public, according to a statement from a city official in Cleveland.

"While the call-taker complied with policies and procedures which enabled a very fast response by police, we have noted some concerns which will be the focus of our review, including the call-taker's failure to remain on the line with Ms. Berry until police arrived on the scene," Martin Flask, director of public safety, said in a statement Tuesday.

Flask added that the operator took the call and sent information to a dispatcher in less than 90 seconds, which meant that police were on the scene in less than two minutes.

Berry was rescued from a home near downtown Cleveland on Monday along with Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight — all of whom disappeared separately about 10 years ago. Authorities say it appears the three were held captive.

The owner of the home, Ariel Castro, has been arrested along with his two brothers. The men have not been charged but could appear in court Wednesday.

Amanda Berry, right, hugs her sister Beth Serrano after being reunited in a Cleveland hospital on May 6. (WOIO-TV/Associated Press)

During the call, which lasts about 100 seconds, Berry tells the dispatcher her name and asks for police, explaining that she has been kidnapped and missing for 10 years.

An audibly upset Berry asks when police will arrive, and the operator says that officers are being sent to her location.

During one segment of the call, the dispatcher tells Berry three times that she should talk to police when they arrive.

When Berry asks again when police will arrive, the operator says, "I told you they're on the way, talk to them when they get there."

Cleveland police are also facing questions about their handling of the case and have launched an internal review to see if they missed anything.

Authorities say police went to Castro's home twice over the past 15 years but not in connection to the women's disappearance.

Castro called in 2000 to report a fight on the street but no arrests were made.

In 2004, officers went to the home after child welfare officials alerted them that Castro, then a school bus driver, had apparently left a child unattended on a bus. No one answered the door and police ultimately determined that there was no criminal intent.

However, two neighbours say they called on two separate occasions.

Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter saw a naked woman crawling in the backyard several years ago and called police. "But they didn't take it seriously," she said.

Another neighbour, Israel Lugo, said he heard pounding on some of the doors of the house in November 2011. Lugo said officers knocked on the front door but no one answered. Police walked to the side of the house and then left.

With files from The Associated Press

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Cleveland missing women were bound, chains found in home

The three women held in a Cleveland home for about 10 years were physically bound and only allowed outside "very rarely," the city's police chief told a U.S. TV network Wednesday morning.

"We have confirmation that they were bound — there were chains and ropes in the home," Michael McGrath told NBC's morning show Today.

McGrath said the women were only allowed out "once in awhile," but they didn't appear to be malnourished.

"Their physical well-being was very good, considering the circumstances," he said.

McGrath also said he expected charges to be filed against the suspects on Wednesday.

Amanda Berry, 27, Michelle Knight, 32, and DeJesus, about 23, had apparently been held captive in the house since their teens or early 20s, police said.

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Canada's foreign-born population soars to 6.8 million

The debut of Canada's controversial census replacement survey shows there are more foreign-born people in the country than ever before, at a proportion not seen in almost a century.

They're young, they're suburban, and they're mainly from Asia, although Africans are arriving in growing numbers.

But the historical comparisons are few and far between in the National Household Survey, which Statistics Canada designed, at Prime Minister Stephen Harper's behest, to replace the cancelled long-form survey, which was eliminated.

The new survey of almost three million people shows that Canada is home to 6.8 million foreign-born residents, or 20.6 per cent of the population, compared with 19.8 per cent in 2006, and the highest in the G8 group of rich countries.

It also shows that aboriginal populations have surged by 20 per cent over the past five years, now representing 4.3 per cent of Canada's population, up from 3.8 per cent in the 2006 census.

Almost one in five people living in Canada is a visible minority.

And in nine different municipalities, those visible minorities are actually the majority.

Statistics Canada, however, isn't handing out detailed comparisons to the results shown in the 2006 census.

That's because many comparisons with the past can only made reliably at a national or provincial level, said Marc Hamel, director general of the census. He said the agency suppressed data from 1,100 mainly small communities because of data quality, compared with about 200 that were suppressed in 2006.

"For a voluntary survey, it has very good quality. We have a high quality of results at a national level," said Hamel.

Until 2006, questions on immigration, aboriginals and religion were asked in the mandatory long-form census that went to one-fifth of Canadian households. When the Conservatives cancelled that part of the census in 2010, Statistics Canada replaced it with a new questionnaire that went to slightly more households, but was voluntary instead of mandatory, skewing the data when it comes to making direct comparisons.

The result is a detailed picture of what Canada looked like in 2011, but it is a static picture that in many instances lacks the context of what the country looked like in the past at the local level.

Industry Minister Christian Paradis said the NHS "provides useful and usable data for Canadian communities, representing 97 per cent of the population," and that more Canadians responded to the survey than its predecessor.

"More than 2.5 million households returned the survey, achieving a response rate of 68 per cent and making this the largest voluntary survey ever conducted in Canada," Paradis said in a release. "Our government will be looking at options to improve the quality and reliability of the data generated by the 2016 census cycle."

Most immigrants from Asia, Mideast

What the NHS does show is that, overwhelmingly, most recent immigrants are from Asia, including the Middle East, but to a lesser degree than in the early part of the decade. Between 2006 and 2011, 56.9 per cent of immigrants were Asian, compared with the 60 per cent of the immigrants that came between 2001 and 2005.

The Philippines was the top source country for recent immigrants, with 13 per cent, according to the National Household Survey. although a footnote warns that the survey data "is not in line" with data collected by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. China and India were second and third as source countries.

The decline in the share of Asian immigration was offset by growth in newcomers from Africa in particular, and also Caribbean countries and Central and South America.

As in the past, newcomers are settling in Canada's biggest cities and are generally younger than the established population. Newcomers have a median age of 31.7 years, compared to the Canadian-born population median age of 37.3.Statistics Canada in Ottawa released the first part of its voluntary National Household Survey on Wednesday, after the Conservatives dropped the mandatory long-form survey more than two years ago. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Of Canada's 6.8 million immigrants, 91 per cent of them live in metropolitan areas, and 63.4 per cent live in the Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver areas.

The Toronto area continues to be the top destination for immigrants, but newcomers are increasingly settling elsewhere, especially in the Prairies. Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax and Montreal all saw their shares of newcomers expand, compared to the 2006 census.

While Statistics Canada did not make the comparison, the Toronto area drew in just 32.8 per cent of recent immigrants in the past five years, compared with 40.4 per cent in the 2006 census and 43.1 per cent in the 2001 census.

Analysts had been anxious to see whether province-driven immigration policies had led to growing numbers of immigrants settling in smaller towns and cities, but the NHS does not make comparisons at that level.

The survey does show that suburbs in particular are a magnet for visible minorities. The Toronto suburbs of Markham, Brampton, Mississauga and Richmond Hill all have visible minority communities that make up well over half the population. The same pattern is seen in areas around Vancouver: in Richmond, Greater Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey.

Aboriginal population rises

Aboriginal peoples are also claiming a larger share of the Canadian population. More than 1.4 million people told Statistics Canada they had an aboriginal identity, comprising 4.3 per cent of the population compared to 3.8 per cent in the 2006 census.

The aboriginal population grew by more than 20 per cent between 2006 and 2011, compared with 5.2 per cent for the non-aboriginal population. However, Statscan warns that not all of this growth was because of people having more babies. Rather, changes in legal definitions and survey methodology account for some of the difference.

First Nations populations grew by 22.0 per cent, while Métis people grew 16.3 per cent and Inuit by 18.1 per cent.

While the data so far does not delve into social conditions among Aboriginal peoples, the NHS does offer a glimpse. aboriginal children are far more likely to be living with a single parent, usually a mother. Half the foster children under the age of 14 are aboriginal, the survey shows. And less than half of First Nations children live with both parents.

As for religion, Canadians are increasingly turning their backs.

While two-thirds of Canada's population said it was Christian, almost one quarter of respondents said they had no religious affiliation at all. That's up from 16.5 per cent a decade earlier in the 2001 census.

At the same time, immigration patterns have led to growth in the numbers of Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist worshippers.

The 2011 NHS collected social and economic information that communities need to plan services such as child care, schooling, family services, housing, roads and public transportation, and skills training for employment, Statistics Canada says.

The other two parts of the survey will be released on June 26 (covering labour, education, place of work, commuting to work, mobility and migration and language of work) and Aug. 14 (providing data on income, earnings, housing and shelter costs).

With files from CBC News

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Queen of the North ferry captain recalls sinking

When the Queen of the North set sail on the night of March 21, 2006, captain Colin Henthorne and his crew were set for what should have been a routine voyage down B.C.'s Inside Passage from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island.

According to Henthorne, the weather was crisp and clear and the ship was in excellent condition. There was nothing to indicate that the trip would end with the BC Ferries vessel at the bottom of Wright Sound.

Henthorne told CBC News that after an hour on the bridge, he retired to his cabin and went to sleep, a routine he said happened hundreds of times throughout his career.

But a short time after falling asleep, the captain got a rude awakening. The situation had become anything but routine.

'I knew we were in deep trouble and I was in for a long night.'—Colin Henthorne, captain of the Queen of the North the night it sank

"I was wakened up by someone pounding on my door and shouting at me to get up and get up to the bridge, so I said, 'OK, I'm coming,' and before I could get fully dressed, the ship hit the ground," Henthorne said.

"I knew straight away that we had run aground, there was just no mistaking that. There was so much hard pounding and shaking and banging and the ship shaking and things falling off my desk, and I knew what it was — there was no mistaking it," he said.

The Queen of the North's route took it through B.C.'s scenic Inside Passage from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy. (BC Ferries/CP)

"My first thought was we hit ground, and I knew we were in deep trouble, and I was in for a long night."

Henthorne said the ship's alarm bells were ringing at a deafening volume. Once on the bridge, he took a quick look at the radar and another look out the window in an effort to determine the ship's location, but there wasn't enough information available to reach a conclusion.

Henthorne said he quickly reached for the public address microphone and ordered all passengers to the emergency embarkation deck where they would board life-rafts and lifeboats.

The Queen of the North was divided by 11 bulkheads, or compartments, that run across the ship and each one had a water-tight door. Two of those doors remain open during voyages, but in this emergency situation, it was crucial that they be closed to prevent flooding.

From his position on the bridge, Henthorne was unable to contact the engine room to determine whether anyone would be caught and crushed to death if he closed the water-tight doors. It was the first of many life-or-death decisions he was forced to make that night.

Strike site at Gil Island (source: RCMP dive team)

"Although there's an alternate escape from each compartment, I have no way of knowing, from where I am on the bridge if those escapes have been cut off by something else, by damage, by flooding or what," said Henthorne, "By closing the water-tight doors, I could be cutting off the escape of the people who are in there.

"That was the toughest decision I've ever made," he adds, "It wasn't a difficult process to arrive at the decision, as far as I was concerned that was the only decision, but it was a tough one to carry out."

Henthorne ordered a crew member to close the doors. Fortunately, he would later learn, none of his crew was trapped or injured because of the decision.

Controlled chaos on board

Henthorne said his crew headed to their stations in the moments following the crash. By the time he was on the bridge, radio calls had already been made. The captain said he saw the light of a vessel off in the distance and ordered flares to be fired.

The situation was complicated by the fact that Henthorne did not immediately realize that the ship was not aground, but adrift in deep water. According to the former captain, usually when a ship goes aground, it stays aground, but in this case, the Queen of the North had run over a reef, ripped the bottom out of the ship and slipped back out into deep water.

'There was a fear … that it might roll over completely.'— Henthorne

Then the ship began to list, tipping over to one side.

"There was a fear ... that it might roll over completely, but I ordered everyone over to the port side which was the high side and started evacuating straight away," said Henthorne.

There was more bad news to come. The next significant update Henthorne received was that water levels were above the rubbing strake, which is a band of steel that wraps around the boat.

The Queen of the North, moments before it sank. (themonsterguide.com)

"The rubbing strake is level with the car deck, and the significance of it is that when the water's above that, it means that you're sinking, you're going to the bottom, because there's no water tight integrity above the car deck," said Henthorne.

"That was the point that told us that we were going to the bottom, that there was no stopping it."

Shortly after that, word reached Henthorne from the engine room that water was gushing through at an alarmingly fast rate.

"The engineer said it was like the Slocan River, it was just flooding through there," he said.

Passengers calm and co-operative

Henthorne said the evacuation of the ship went smoothly with passengers and crew remaining calm and quiet throughout the process.

Ninety-nine passengers and crew were evacuated off the Queen of the North, but two passengers are presumed to have gone down with the ship. (CBC)

"There were a couple of older guys [passengers] there helping people into the life-raft, just taking their hand and helping them take the step across," said Henthorne. "They were so well organized, the two of them, I looked at them twice and I almost thought we had a couple more crew members that I didn't know about."

Once the last of the passengers appeared to be safely off the ship, Henthorne had a fleeting moment of reflection as he stood alone on the ship deck. He spent more time on the Queen of the North than he did in any of his homes. The ship he knew so well was strange and unfamiliar.

"In the stark light of the deck lights I looked inside the ship," says the captain, "And for such a familiar place, it looked, being empty and with the bright fluorescent lights on inside, it just looked very stark and empty and cold."

Henthorne said he then ran up and down the passenger decks, doing one last-minute check, pushing each door open and yelling loudly in the hope that no one else was on board. After that, he and his two remaining deckhands climbed the ladder off the ship and into an awaiting Zodiac life vessel.

Watching the massive ship sink

As they floated in life-rafts and lifeboats in the waters of Wright Sound, the passengers and crew of the Queen of the North watched the hulking ship sink into the sea.

"A lot of people said it looked like something out of a movie, and it did, because where else do you get to see a ship sink," said Henthorne.

'It just went straight down, straight as an arrow, disappeared, gone.'— Henthorne

"It just settled lower and lower in the water and as I was watching it, all I could think about was 'my beautiful ship,'" he said, "Alternately praying for a miracle that would save it and. if that wasn't happening, just hurry up and get it over with."

The lights on board the ship went out deck by deck as the electricity shorted out in the water. Windows exploded from the pressure as the vessel sank lower into the ocean.

"You know that there's no stopping it, there's no power on Earth that's going to stop it from sinking," said Henthorne.

"When it got near the end, it rose up until the bow was vertical, absolutely pointing straight at the sky," the captain remembered. "Then, it just went straight down, straight as an arrow, disappeared, gone."

Missing passengers

Arriving at an accurate count of crew and passengers proved to be an extremely challenging task for the captain. At one point during the evacuation he counted 102, one more than the target number of 101. After a few more tries, he counted 101.

It was a while later, after some passengers had been picked up by coast guard vessels and others sent into nearby Hartley Bay, that Henthorne says he reached a count of 99 — two short of the number of people recorded on board at the start of the trip.

Gerald Foisy and Shirley Rosette of 100 Mile House, shown in this undated handout photo, are presumed to have died in the sinking of the Queen of the North. (Handout/CP)

When speaking about Gerald Foisy and Shirley Rosette, the two passengers who have never been found and were ruled by a judge to have died in the sinking of the ship, Henthorne's demeanour becomes even more serious as he searches for an explanation.

"I don't know how they could've disappeared, I simply don't know," he said.

"One of the things when we were counting people in the boat and I had my megaphone, I said, 'Is anybody missing a travelling companion?' and nobody spoke up. Nobody noticed that they were not there."

Henthorne pointed out that, to his knowledge, the cabins on the ship were searched and the cafeteria was closed.

"There weren't that many places that they should've been," he said. "They could've been somewhere where they weren't authorized to be, I don't know."

The captain said no one fell out of a lifeboat or raft after the evacuation and that the possibility exists that they may have disappeared in Hartley Bay. He reiterated that he is simply not sure what happened.

"It's troubling that I can't tell you why or come up with something better about where they are or what might've happened. I just don't know."

First a hero, then fired

Henthorne and the rest of his crew were treated like heroes in the first few days after the sinking. The crew received a letter from then-premier Gordon Campbell congratulating them for their "amazing rescue work" and "selfless courage."

The captain also received a personal note from BC Ferries CEO David Hahn, thanking him for his professionalism and calm under pressure.

'It was a rough few years. It was one step at a time for us.'— Henthorne

After the incident, Henthorne's plan was to re-group by going home to see his family, but he planned to get back to work fairly quickly. He felt that a short break and some trial sailings with supervisory support would suffice.

But after a month, he and the rest of the crew were informed that no one would be going back to work until the Transportation Safety Board of Canada had finished its investigation.

Ten months after the sinking of the Queen of the North, Henthorne said he received a surprise phone call from a BC Ferries human resources worker. He had been fired. Many members of his crew had been demoted.

"It takes everything out of you. You feel completely lost, completely deflated and you just feel like your legs have been knocked out from underneath you," said Henthorne.

"Especially considering the kudos I had been given. There hadn't been anything negative and the company came out with its own inquiry, there was nothing negative in there, no blame attached, so that was a pretty awful shock."

Henthorne initially fought his dismissal through WorkSafeBC and won by alleging he had been fired for raising safety issues. But, BC Ferries appealed that decision with the Worker's Compensation tribunal and won. It successfully argued that Henthorne failed to accept ultimate responsibility and accountability as an on-duty manager for the workplace accident.

Picking up the pieces

Recovering from being fired by BC Ferries proved difficult for Henthorne. He said the circumstances of his dismissal and a struggling industry meant job opportunities were scarce.

The former captain ended up looking for jobs that were unskilled and outside his profession. When he did get back into his chosen field, it was starting much further down the professional ladder. He said it was difficult to make ends meet.

"It was a rough few years. It was one step at a time for us as a family to go through that and a bit of a roller-coaster ride," Henthorne said.

"There were times when I thought I had it made, then realized I didn't have it made. Trying to sleep at night wasn't easy."

In 2012, more than six years after the Queen of the North disaster, Henthorne was able to find a job that satisfied him professionally. He was hired as a rescue co-ordinator with the Canadian Coast Guard's Rescue Centre in Victoria, a position he still holds today.

Thinking about it every day

Henthorne says he still thinks about the sinking of the Queen of the North on a daily basis. It plays a prominent role in his life and he expects that to continue moving forward.

But despite the painfully vivid memories, he says the experience has allowed him to change his outlook on life.

"I'm a little more appreciative and able to take joy in everything that's in our world," he said, "I go outside and I look at the sky and the stars and the world around me and I just feel fantastic.

Transportation Safety Board investigators sent a probe to photograph the wreck after the Queen of the North sank. (TSB)

"I feel triumphant, I want to celebrate, I feel joyful, in a way that there's more to it than there was before."

Henthorne knows that the incident will haunt him for the rest of his life, so he has changed his focus to dealing with the memories in as positive a manner as possible.

"The incident is going to be part of my life for the rest of my life. I think that's inevitable, there's nothing I can do to change that," Henthorne said.

"My responsibility is how I respond to it. I can sulk about it, I can sit around and fume about it or whatever, that's not going to help," he adds. "It's kind of my job now; I have to make this thing the positive that I want it to be."

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The revival of 'baby boxes' for unwanted infants

Baby boxes — a convent practice that dates to medieval times — are seeing a revival around the world, including in Canada where Alberta became the second province on Monday to offer the safe haven for unwanted infants.

Alberta's Covenant Health, a Catholic-run health-care provider, opened baby boxes in two Edmonton hospitals: Grey Nuns Community Hospital and Misericordia Community Hospital.

The Alberta service comes three years after Vancouver's St. Paul's Hospital brought the 12th century idea to Canada in May 2010.

Three months after opening its so-called angel cradle, a two-day old baby was left in the bassinet at St. Paul's, accompanied by a paper listing the date of birth, ethnicity and family history. No other child has been left there since.

Here are frequently asked questions about the concept of baby boxes, their use around the world and how they work.

How does the 'angel cradle' system work?

Baby boxes are known by many names around the world, including baby hatches, foundling wheels or newborn safe havens. All three Canadian hospitals using the system refer to their baby boxes as angel cradles.

Around the world, baby boxes are often located along the exterior of a hospital or church so a mother can anonymously leave a baby in it.

The three Canadian angel cradles operate in a similar way. A three-foot-tall door that opens at waist level is located in an inconspicuous area near the emergency department.

In Edmonton, the half-sized door opens to reveal a bassinet outfitted with a blanket and a teddy bear. An alarm goes off 60 seconds after the door opens, alerting a nurse in the triage area to a potential delivery.

Using a "digital peephole" — a camera that looks into the bassinet — the nurse ensures that someone's left an infant and not something else. The peephole also allows the nurse to make sure the mother is no longer present, ensuring the hospital won't infringe upon the promise of anonymity by opening the door while the mother is still standing there.

Once the area is clear, the nurse opens up an internal door to access the bassinet and brings the baby into the hospital where it undergoes a medical check. The child is then handed over to Alberta's Human Services ministry for adoption.

Where did the idea come from?

Until the early 20th century, convents used foundlings wheels, a wooden cylinder built into the wall where mothers could lay their babies inside, then rotate the wheel to bring the child inside the structure. Mothers would then ring a bell to alert the nuns to the child's presence.

High-tech hospital baby hatches like this one in Rome, which features a heated crib, are replacing the foundling wheels once used by convents in the city. (Tony Gentile/Reuters)

It is believed that Europe's first baby hatch opened in Rome in 1198 under Pope Innocent III, who was frustrated by the number of abandoned newborns found floating in the Tiber River. Most closed in the 19th century with the introduction of modern health-care services.

In Canada, all three baby boxes are operated by Catholic organizations. The two Edmonton hospitals that opened baby boxes on Monday are run by Covenant Health, which describes itself as Canada's largest Catholic health-care organization.

St. Paul's Hospital, home to the inaugural Canadian baby box, is run by Providence Health Care.

Why allow baby boxes?

Proponents of the baby box say that the anonymous drop-off can prevent infanticide or dangerous abandonment of babies.

At the opening of the B.C. angel cradle in 2010, Dr. Geoff Cundiff, head of the department of obstetrics and gynecology, said that nearly once a month a woman giving birth in the hospital left her child at the facility. He worried about the infants who were left in dumpsters or worse.

Baby boxes enjoyed a revival in Europe in the 1990s after a rise in the number of newborns who were abandoned or found dead.

There are currently no studies that prove that the creation of baby hatches has reduced the rate of infanticide or infant abandonment.

Opponents argue that the anonymous dropoff locations violate a child's right to know their biological parents' identities and could put the infant in medical jeopardy since doctors won't know the infant's medical history.

In 2012, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child called for a ban of the practice of using baby hatches in Europe. The committee said it violates Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says children must be able to identify their parent.

A member of the committee told BBC that baby boxes are a throwback to the past that send a "mistaken message" to pregnant women that they are right to abandon their babies.

In unveiling its new angel cradles, Alberta's Convenant Health countered the UN concerns about baby boxes.

"We recognize that unsafe abandonment still occurs in our society, and this preventative measure at least gives a child a chance to know its history and be reunited if later the parent(s) come forward," Gordon Self, Covenant Health's vice-president of mission, ethics and spirituality, said in a press release.

How prevalent are baby boxes?

Today, the concept is used around the world.

Baby boxes enjoyed a revival in Europe in the 1990s. (iStockphoto)

Germany resuscitated the idea in Europe in 2000 with the establishment of what it calls babyklappes. More than 90 baby-box locations now exist.

Studies suggest that more than 200 baby boxes have been installed across Europe in the past decade alone. More than 400 children have been abandoned in the hatches since 2000.

Other European countries offering baby hatches include Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Latvia, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Vatican City. The United States, Pakistan, the Philippines, India and South Africa also have baby boxes.

In Japan, a baby hatch called Stork's Cradle was set up in 2007 at Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto City. Eighty-one children were placed in its care over the next five years.

Isn't it illegal to abandon a child?

Under Canada's Criminal Code, anyone who unlawfully abandons a child under the age of 10 so that its life is likely endangered or its health is put into jeopardy can be charged with child abandonment.

After the creation of B.C.'s Safe Cradle program, Vancouver Police said they wouldn't charge mothers who left infants at the hospital baby box because it wouldn't be considered unsafe abandonment. However, charges would apply if the baby showed signs of mistreatment.

Fifty U.S. states have created newborn safe haven or so-called Baby Moses laws to legally protect parents who abandon their children at sanctioned safe havens.

The state laws differ in what is considered a safe haven. Some states include 911 responders as well as fire and police departments in the sanctioned safe haven list, and almost all include hospitals. The laws often specify that the children must be infants born anywhere from within the first 72 hours to up to 30 days.

There are few statistics about child abandonment. In the U.S., the last time nationwide figures were collected on the topic, according to a 2005 University of Vermont study, was in 1998, when about 17,400 infants were reportedly illegally abandoned by being left in dangerous locations or in hospitals.

No known statistics are kept in Canada. A spokesperson for B.C.'s ministry of children and family development said infant abandonment is "extremely rare."

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How do you fight back against online defamation?

A CBC Go Public story about a B.C. teacher who has been victimized for two and a half years by a cyberstalking ex-girlfriend demonstrates the inherent difficulties in removing defamatory material from the web.

"Mark Twain said a lie can make its way halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its shoes on, and he was speaking long before the digital age," says Karen Eltis, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. "Today, it's even more of a problem."

'Mark Twain said a lie can make its way halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its shoes on, and he was speaking long before the digital age. Today, it's even more of a problem.'— Karen Eltis, University of Ottawa law professor

Eltis says that in most cases like this the victim is looking to "contain the damage." But she warns that even if you successfully sue someone, as the B.C. teacher did, it doesn't mean you'll be able to scrub the offending material from the World Wide Web.

While teaching in Malaysia several years ago, Lee David Clayworth dated a woman named Lee Ching Yan. After they broke up, the woman started posting slanderous material about him on websites, suggesting, for example, that he was a pedophile and that he was having amorous relations with his students.

He sued her in Malaysia, where she was found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay Clayworth the equivalent of $66,000 in damages. The Malaysian judge also ordered search engine providers Google, Yahoo and Bing to block Clayworth's name from being searchable.

But due to differing international interpretations of cyber-law, a Malaysian judge cannot compel a company in California to remove offensive material, and so Clayworth's name continues to come up in search engine results.

Clayworth, who now lives in Vancouver, says the online harassment continues to this day.

Search engines unwilling to 'arbitrate'

Matt Earle, president of Reputation Guard, a Toronto-based firm that helps clients improve their online standing, says that because search engines exist to index material on other sites they don't have a mechanism for dealing with defamation.

"The reality is they won't arbitrate decisions about this," says Earle.

A better chance of getting results, Earle says, is directly approaching the sites where the offensive material is posted.

He says that sometimes, simply sending a "nice email" that explains why you feel you are being libelled is enough to compel a site to remove the material.

But Earle warns there are a number of sites, like the ones where Clayworth was defamed, "that are set up on a borderline-extortion business model." They charge money to remove defamatory material, he says.

Eltis says that sending a cease-and-desist letter to the site in question is the next obvious step, followed by the threat of legal action. But if the site is based outside of Canada, the problem becomes one of legal jurisdiction.

As Halifax internet-law expert David Fraser points out, American-based sites are subject to U.S. law, which protects freedom of expression and does not hold them responsible for content posted by their users.

It's possible to still sue them, says Eltis, but it first requires a process of determining which jurisdiction will hear the case, and that process can be drawn out and costly.

For several months after the cyberstalking began, Lee David Clayworth said he started every day by checking to see what defamatory material his ex-girlfriend had posted about him overnight. (CBC)

Not only that, but if a person is being libelled on numerous websites, the way that Clayworth has been, suing every single one of them might ultimately be futile unless you have the patience and the financial means to see it through.

The most immediate outlets available to individuals are social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, where they can attempt to defend themselves against malicious falsehoods, says Katie Clark, a national leader for crisis and risk at Edelman Canada.

But Clark warns that engaging the issue this way might actually embolden the stalker further.

'Burying' bad content

Another PR strategy is to try to influence search engines. If a negative story is coming up in the top five search results for your name, one of the most effective strategies is to try to overwhelm the search engines with positive material about you, says Barbara Jesson, president of Jesson + Company Communications, a Toronto-based public relations firm.

For example, if you're being defamed as a criminal, you could choose to emphasize your positive achievements, such as notable career accomplishments or charitable work.

One of the ways an individual or company can influence search engine results is by publishing new and positive content in a variety of places, because search engines tend to place more recent stories higher in its search results.

Jesson says another strategy is search engine optimization (SEO), which is a tactic used by most websites of loading up their stories with the best possible search terms in order to ensure they appear at the top of search engine results.

"Our solution has often been just to bury the [bad] results, because you can't win when you're playing with someone who is irresponsible and malicious," says Jesson.

Earle says that another possibility is to address the allegations head-on by posting a statement or rebuttal on a third-party website.

Finding credible news sites

The ideal situation, Earle says, is to somehow manage to get a trustworthy news source to listen.

Most online readers are savvy enough to know the difference between an unsavoury, gossip-mongering site and a credible news source, he says.

Referring to Clayworth's story, Earle says, "People will read it and think, OK, CBC — [it has] editorial standards, quality, someone had to research it. The CBC's not just going to write anything."

But even if a spiteful story is buried online, it's still there – and could be dug up by a potential employer doing a cursory online background check.

Clark says that if you're applying for a job, it's wise to acknowledge, and disavow, nasty material about you that might be on the web.

"Prospective employers are looking at information online, so if there's information online that is disparaging or says something that you don't want, transparency is probably always the best option," says Clark.

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Transcript: Amanda Berry's phone call to 911

Read a transcript of Amanda Berry's phone call to 911. The led police to a house near downtown Cleveland where Berry and two other women who went missing a decade ago were found on Monday.

Caller: Help me. I'm Amanda Berry.

Dispatcher: You need police, fire, ambulance?

Caller: I need police.

Dispatcher: OK, and what's going on there?

Caller: I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years, and I'm, I'm here, I'm free now.

Dispatcher: OK, and what's your address?

Caller: 2207 Seymour Avenue.

Dispatcher: 2207 Seymour. Looks like you're calling me from 2210.

Caller: Huh?

Dispatcher: Looks like you're calling me from 2210.

Caller: I can't hear you.

Dispatcher: Looks like you're calling me from 2210 Seymour.

Caller: I'm across the street; I'm using the phone.

Dispatcher: OK, stay there with those neighbors. Talk to police when they get there.

Caller: (Crying)

Dispatcher: OK, talk to police when they get there.

Caller: OK. Hello?

Dispatcher: OK, talk to the police when they get there.

Caller: OK (unintelligible).

Dispatcher: We're going to send them as soon as we get a car open.

Caller: No, I need them now before he gets back.

Dispatcher: All right; we're sending them, OK?

Caller: OK, I mean, like ...

Dispatcher: Who's the guy you're trying -- who's the guy who went out?

Caller: Um, his name is Ariel Castro.

Dispatcher: OK. How old is he?

Caller: He's like 52.

Dispatcher: And, uh -

Caller: I'm Amanda Berry. I've been on the news for the last 10 years.

Dispatcher: I got, I got that, dear. (Unintelligible) And, you say, what was his name again?

Caller: Uh, Ariel Castro.

Dispatcher: And is he white, black or Hispanic?

Caller: Uh, Hispanic.

Dispatcher: What's he wearing?

Caller (agitated): I don't know, 'cause he's not here right now. That's why I ran away.

Dispatcher: When he left, what was he wearing?

Caller: Who knows (unintelligible).

Dispatcher: The police are on their way; talk to them when they get there.

Caller: Huh? I - OK.

Dispatcher: I told you they're on their way; talk to them when they get there, OK.

Caller: All right, OK. Bye.

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McGuinty admits moving gas plants was his decision

Former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday it was his decision to close gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga, which he testified were too close to schools and homes.

Speaking before the legislature's justice committee, McGuinty said he only knew the full cost of cancelling the Mississauga plant when it was made public by the auditor general on April 15.

Relocating the Mississauga plant was originally tipped to cost $195 million, but the auditor general later determined it cost more than $275 million.

Last week, it emerged that the cost of moving the Oakville plant has jumped from estimates of $40 million to more than $300 million.

Progressive Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli grilled McGuinty about when he knew the full cost of cancelling both plants.

"When did you know the cost of Mississauga was more than $190 million and more than $40 million for Oakville?" Fedeli asked

"We found out about these numbers when they were made public by the OPA [Ontario Power Authority] and by the auditor," said McGuinty.

McGuinty also said he took responsibility for relocating the plants, which he said was the right thing to do because of their proximity to schools and residences.

"We got 17 gas plants more or less right, but we got two very, very wrong," he said.

Fedeli pointed to a memorandum of understanding that suggested government officials knew the full cost of cancelling the plants was much higher than what the government was saying publicly.

"I don't believe your answer," said Fedeli.

In his questions, NDP MPP Peter Tabuns suggested the decision to relocate the plants had more to do with preserving Liberal seats in ridings where the gas plants were due to be located. The plants were cancelled a year apart, the Mississauga decision occurred just days ahead of the 2011 provincial election.

"There was a strong sense that my government had made a mistake in choosing those locations," said McGuinty.

McGuinty admitted he should have cancelled the Mississauga plant sooner.

McGuinty had blamed the heated debate over the gas plant cancellations last fall when he suddenly prorogued the legislature and announced his resignation as premier.

Both opposition parties say Premier Kathleen Wynne wasn't as forthcoming as she could have been when she testified about the gas plants last week.

Wynne has said she was not involved in the government's decision to scrap either plant.

With files from the CBC's Lisa Naccarato and The Canadian Press

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Girl, 6, found in Ohio home is daughter of missing woman

A police official in the Midwestern U.S. city of Cleveland says a six-year-old girl found in a house where three missing women were kept for years is the daughter of one of them.

A frantic emergency services call led police to a house near downtown Cleveland, where the three women were found Monday.

Dozens of police officers and sheriff's deputies searched a home south of downtown Cleveland. (Mark Duncan/Associated Press)

Police say Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were held inside the house since they were in their teens or early 20s. Knight disappeared in 2002, Berry in 2003 and DeJesus about a year after that.

The women appeared to be in good health and were taken to a hospital to be evaluated and reunited with relatives. They were released from Metro Health Medical Center on Tuesday morning.

Cleveland police Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said the young girl found in the home is believed to be Berry's daughter.

Three brothers have been arrested and are expected to be charged, officials said during a media briefing Tuesday morning. The suspects were identified as Ariel Castro, 52; Pedro Castro, 54; and Onil Castro, 50.

Police offered few details about what happened to the women since they disappeared and said more information would be released later.

Investigators will have to speak with the women to learn more about their ordeal, authorities say.

"These three young ladies have provided us with the ultimate definition of survival or preservation," said Stephen Anthony, special agent in charge of the FBI's Cleveland office. "The healing can now begin. "

Neighbour thought home vacant

Neighbour Juan Perez told NBC's Today show that he rarely saw Castro or anyone else at the house.

"I thought the home was vacant. I thought he probably had another property and he would just come and check and see if everything is OK." Perez said. "I didn't even know anybody lived there."

The women's escape and rescue began with a frenzied cry for help.

A neighbour, Charles Ramsey, told WEWS-TV he heard screaming Monday and saw Berry, whom he didn't recognize, at a door that would open only enough to fit a hand through. He said she was trying desperately to get outside and pleaded for help to reach police.

"I heard screaming," he said. "I'm eating my McDonald's. I come outside. I see this girl going nuts trying to get out of a house."

Neighbour Anna Tejeda was sitting on her porch with friends when they heard someone across the street kicking a door and yelling.

Tejeda, 50, said one of her friends went over and told Berry how to kick the screen out of the bottom of the door, which allowed her to get out.

Speaking Spanish, which was translated by one of her friends, Tejeda said Berry was nervous and crying. She was dressed in pajamas and old sandals.

At first Tejeda said she didn't want to believe who the young woman was. "You're not Amanda Berry," she insisted. "Amanda Berry is dead."

But when Berry told her she'd been kidnapped and held captive, Tejeda said she gave her the telephone to call police, who arrived within minutes and then took the other women from the house.

With files from CBC News

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Teacher 'powerless' to stop ex-girlfriend's cyberstalking

A Vancouver teacher says his career has been derailed by an ex-girlfriend who won't stop posting countless defamatory and offensive comments about him on the web.

"I feel not only shut out of my own profession — but any job I apply for," said Lee David Clayworth, 35, who has applied for several teaching jobs since January, with no positive response.

He believes prospective employers are turned off by the web postings. "This is a dark place. It's a very, very dark place to be … and I am powerless."

For several months after the cyberstalking began, Lee David Clayworth said he started every day by checking to see what defamatory material his ex-girlfriend had posted about him overnight. (CBC)

He said he's been cyberstalked relentlessly for 2½ years, despite a court ruling ordering the material be removed and his ex-girlfriend jailed for contempt of court.

"The secondary part of it — where the court order is enforced — people just ignore it," he said.

Clayworth is a Canadian who dated a woman named Lee Ching Yan for several months while he was teaching in Malaysia in 2010.

Theft, hacking and harassment

After they split up, she broke into his apartment and stole his laptop and hard drive, along with other personal belongings.

She then hacked into his email account and sent messages to all of his contacts — posing as him — talking about how he had sex with underage students.

"Little did I know, this was just the beginning of this campaign of harassment and cyberstalking," said Clayworth, who has several glowing references indicating he is an exemplary teacher.

"The support I received from my [former] school, from colleagues, from students, from my principal, from my deputy principal was incredible."

Lee Ching Yan was found guilty of contempt of court, for continuing to harass Clayworth with online postings after a court ruled they were defamatory. (CBC)

Court documents show Yan retrieved nude photos of Clayworth that were in his computer — pictures she had taken — and posted them on several sites.

She's also placed hundreds of comments on various social media sites, accusing him of disgusting, even criminal, behaviour.

"I did a Google search of my name and I saw profiles listed saying … I am a psychopath, I am a child molester, a pedophile, I am involved with my students and so on — and then that just steamrolled," said Clayworth.

"I remember waking up in the morning and going online. Two hundred new postings would be there from throughout the night. And the things they said were the most hurtful."

Useless court rulings

He sued Yan in Malaysia, where the judge found her guilty of defamation and ordered her pay him the equivalent of $66,000 in damages. However, the harassment didn't stop.

"We'd both be in court for proceedings and, you know, four hours later, she would be at it again. Online, posting stuff," said Clayworth.

The judge then ordered Yan imprisoned for contempt of court — for continuing her smear campaign — but she left the country. Clayworth believes she's now in Australia.

"Everything that was digital and saved in my life — whether it was in the hard drive or laptop — is just at the disposal of this woman," said Clayworth, who returned to Canada in January when his contract at the Malaysian school ended.

"It will never stop … it will go on and on. It's been almost 2½ years now."

The court also ordered search engine providers Google, Yahoo and Bing to block Clayworth's name from being searchable, but that has also proved unenforceable.

He's sent the court order to all three companies, but said he's had no positive response.

"There are people out there who could help me out and I've been through the proper channels to be helped out. And people just ignore it."

Go Public contacted the search engine providers, but only Google sent a response.

Google no help

"Google's search results are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the web. Users who want content removed from the internet should contact the webmaster of the page directly," said spokesperson Wendy Bairos.

"We do not remove content from our search results, except in very limited cases such as illegal content and violations of our webmaster guidelines."

This posting labelling Clayworth a 'horny teacher' was just one of hundreds the court found Yan was responsible for. (CBC)

When Yan was told the Malaysian court deemed the postings were illegal, Bairos suggested that didn't make any difference.

"Again, even if we did remove the name it would not make the content disappear from other places on the web, since Google's search results are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the web."

Clayworth said he's also tried to get the posts removed from various websites, with limited success. Some sites didn't respond, while others were helpful.

The manager of one site — liarsandcheaters.com — got very upset when Clayworth complained to the site's web host company, which then shut it down temporarily.

"Do you really want to start a war with a website that sometimes gets over [20,000] visits a day?" wrote the manager.

"You may send the court order. However, because of you, we are relocating to Germany so it must be from a German court. That was your choice. In the meantime … the post will remain permanently for the rest of your life."

Even when websites have taken the offensive posts down, Clayworth's ex-girlfriend simply puts them back up, he said.

Authorities outpaced

Lawyers and police told Go Public there is little recourse for victims in Clayworth's shoes, because his court orders are from Malaysia.

Halifax internet law expert David Fraser pointed out that American-based service providers and websites are governed by U.S. law, which protects freedom of expression and does not hold them legally responsible for content users post.

"These companies have a very large user base and have a large number of complaints, many of which are frivolous, and they have to filter through them."

He said sites often do remove posts voluntarily, but in most cases only a U.S. judgment forces them to do it.

Lawyer David Fraser says internet service providers do take offensive posts down voluntarily, but if they are based in the U.S. they often won't honour foreign judgments. (CBC)

"If it's a judgment that is contrary to U.S. public policy … you may be completely out of luck," he said. "They will tend to err on the side of leaving it up because they are going to err on the side of freedom of expression."

Fraser said he has never heard of a search engine blocking someone's name from being searchable, as the court ordered Google and others to do in this case.

Clayworth also went to Vancouver police, hoping it could get Interpol involved, to eventually get an international arrest warrant issued for Yang.

Det. Mark Fenton told Go Public the best they could do is initiate a whole new investigation and — if they could get the Crown to approve a charge — issue a Canada-wide warrant for Yan's arrest.

That wouldn't help Clayworth, though, because Yan is not in Canada. "The authorities really aren't interested," he said.

Fenton said police share his frustration. He said the numerous legal and jurisdictional obstacles they face make it almost impossible to help victims of internet harassment, even when both parties are in Canada.

"The internet and society has moved at such a fast pace, that government and law enforcement are unable to keep pace," said Fenton. "This is a huge mess … and it feels awful."

As bad as it is for him, Clayworth feels worse for young people — like his former students — who are increasingly victimized.

"I know what it was like to walk into school as the teacher who has got this going on — so for a teenager I can only imagine," he said.

"Now, the internet is like a hunting ground, basically. Where you can just throw anybody you want up there that you don't like and let the whole world rain down on them. It's an insane concept."

Submit your story ideas to Kathy Tomlinson at Go Public

Follow @CBCGoPublic on Twitter

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Name game begins for William and Kate's royal baby

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge hardly fall within the definition of normal parents-to-be, since their first-born will be third in line to the throne.

But Prince William and Kate are apparently wrestling with one common conundrum facing couples awaiting their first child: Just what to name the baby?

"We have a short list for both [a boy and girl], but it's very difficult," Kate was widely reported as saying the other day.

Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, visits Naomi House Children's Hospice near Winchester, England, on April 29, 2013, the second anniversary of her marriage to Prince William. (Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)

"My friends keep texting me names."

British bookmakers have lists of possible names, too. Ladbrokes' betting pool is even offering odds on monikers as diverse as Adele (200 to 1, and likely inspired by the powerhouse U.K. singer) or Elvis (500 to 1, another interesting musical nod).

But those who temper their speculation with historical insight point to other more likely influences over the name of the baby expected in mid-July.

"Royal baby names tend to be chosen on the basis of tradition, after previous monarchs or royal godparents," says Carolyn Harris, a Toronto-based royal historian and blogger.

So a name like Elizabeth, Anne or Mary might find favour if this child is a girl. Charles, George, Edward or James might be possibilities if it's a boy.

Rumours and speculation about the baby's sex have flown fast and furious, but nothing official has been confirmed. On Sunday, British tabloids were reporting that William's brother Prince Harry was telling friends the baby is a boy. Reports a few days earlier also hinted a boy is in the cards when Kate apparently bought a very fancy pale-blue baby buggy. Then again, other reports suggested Kate almost let it slip she's expecting a girl.

Bets on Alexandra

If the oddsmakers are to be believed, Alexandra was the prime choice for a girl — one bookie even temporarily suspended betting on that possibility.

Ladbrokes was still putting Alexandra at the top of its list last week, at 2-1 odds, and it's a name that Harris says holds a lot of royal history.

"There were three kings of Scotland in the Middle Ages named Alexander. So at a time when Scotland is discussing devolution, naming a royal baby Alexandra would reinforce the Crown's connections to Scotland."

This March 3, 1927, photo shows nearly-one-year-old Princess Elizabeth - full name Elizabeth Alexandra Mary - who became Queen Elizabeth in 1952. (The Royal Collection, Marcus Adams/Associated Press)

Then there's the fact that Queen Victoria's first name was actually Alexandrina, in a nod to her godfather, Alexander the First of Russia.

King Edward VII, who reigned from 1901 to 1910 and whose popularity wavered over time given that he dabbled with both gambling and mistresses, had a very well-regarded wife named Alexandra. And the current Queen, whose second name is Alexandra, also has a cousin with that name who is a hardworking member of the Royal Family.

But what if William and Kate, like so many parents, want to do something a bit different with the name of their first-born?

As much as they might want to, observers consider it unlikely they will stray too far from the royal ways, particularly for the child's first name.

"I think simply that there's a kind of institutional stuffiness that we call tradition that will be forced upon them," says Ninian Mellamphy, a longtime royal watcher and professor emeritus at Western University in London, Ont.

Beatrice and Eugenie

Within that tradition, though, there may be ways to bring in a name that hasn't had a high profile on the royal roster.

"Drawing on royal tradition doesn't always mean a well-known royal name," says Harris, pointing to Beatrice and Eugenie, the 20-something daughters of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.

"Princess Beatrice is named after Queen Victoria's youngest daughter Beatrice and Princess Eugenie is named for Napolean the Third's wife. These were names with royal antecedents, but more obscure ones."

Of course, royal names of children high in the succession to the throne tend to be long ones — although rarely as long as that of Edward VIII, who was officially Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, the last four names being the patron saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

While few other royal names have rivalled that for length, second or third names have given royal parents the opportunity to acknowledge the other side of the family or bring in other historical influences.

Arthur — of Arthurian legend — turns up frequently, and Philip (for the Queen's husband, the Duke of Edinburgh) registers in the names of both William and his father, Charles.

This time around, Harris wouldn't be surprised if Elizabeth or Diana (for William's mother) were among the names for a girl, and Philip or Charles or Michael (for Kate's father) show up if it's a boy.

Mellamphy considers Philip would be a "nice nod in the direction of the ordinary bloke," since Philip, like Kate, married into royalty.

But Mellamphy sees reason to be cautious about Diana, particularly as a first name.

"I think in royal history that Diana will remain unique now because there was all that praise, but all that blame as well. I think if you were called Diana, you'd in some way inherit some nuances of her foolishness."

Even choosing Diana as a middle name seems questionable in Mellamphy's mind.

"I have a funny feeling she's too well remembered and there's too much ambiguity about our memory of her."

Prince William - full name William Arthur Philip Louis - amuses his parents Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, during a photo session at Kensington Palace in London in December 1982. (Associated Press)

Still, William has shown stubborness and determination in the past, and clearly values deeply the memory of his mother (he gave Kate her iconic sapphire engagement ring). So seeing Diana in his daughter's name would not be a total surprise.

Whatever name the child ends up with wouldn't necessarily have to be the name he or she would use on the throne.

The Queen's father, George VI, opted for his fourth name, and continuity with his father (George V), rather than use his first name, Albert.

Victoria went with her second name when she became queen in 1837. At that time, Harris says, the name Victoria would have been considered foreign and unusual for a queen.

Now, though, it's a name that seems very regal, and which Ladbrokes puts at 6-1 odds for the next royal baby.

What about Matilda?

One name not on the Ladbrokes' list, but which Harris thinks would be intriguing, is Matilda.

"It's interesting that considering succession reform, and that if the baby is a girl, she will one day be queen. I think it would be interesting if Matilda was chosen just because she was the first woman to make a claim for the English throne in 1141," says Harris.

Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, leave the King Edward VII hospital in central London on Dec. 6, 2012, after she was treated for a severe form of morning sickness in the early stages of her pregnancy. (Alastair Grant/Associated Press)

"I don't think it's a likely choice but it's an interesting one historically."

Mellamphy also looks deep into history and sees names that are unlikely to figure in the considerations of Kate and William.

"They couldn't go back to the beginning of English kings with Aethelstan and names like that, you know, Alfred — not to mention Ethelred the Unready."

While Harris sees the strong historical precedent facing William and Kate, she still expects they will be able to exert some personal influence over the name.

"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have always approached royal protocol their own way," says Harris.

"They were together for many years before becoming engaged. They were able to have a certain degree of private life early in their marriage by living in Anglesey in Wales, and so clearly the baby's name will reflect their own wishes as well as royal traditions."

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