Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec crowns 2013 winner

Kennedy Crawford and Alyssa de Hoop from the University of Guelph took home first place on Tuesday at Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec, an annual case-study competition that challenges students to create a business plan for a brand….The third-place team of Telly Carayannakis and Mishba Bholat, both from York University, won $1,000 courtesy of Chevrolet, reported Marketing magazine March 27. Read full story.

Montreal is stalled as reforms move forward
The city of Montreal, which suspended all non-essential construction work in October when allegations of widespread corruption involving municipal contracts began flowing like raw sewage from the Charbonneau Commission, sent 50 construction contracts to Quebec starting in mid-December to be investigated. None of the investigations have been completed….Some states in the U.S. have adopted a system where businesses guilty of corruption must pay for an independent auditing service to oversee finances. This alleviates the need to close companies and lay off thousands, said Margaret Beare, professor at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, in The Gazette March 27. Read full story.

Is CIJA better or worse than what came before?
It’s been two years since Canada’s mainstream Jewish advocacy groups were amalgamated under the umbrella of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA)….Sally Zerker, a professor emeritus at York University, is still angry about the way Congress was dismantled. “It was a totally undemocratic process. Congress wasn’t shelved – it was destroyed. There was no foundation for the decisions [that CIJA] made. The problem for CIJA, as far as I’m concerned, is that they don’t represent the Canadian Jewish community,” Zerker said in the Canadian Jewish News March 28. Read full story.

Degrees of certainty
“The more we experience instability, the more we desire certainty.[…]Yet there is no certainty about economic (or other) outcomes either from education or from non-commercial, ‘basic’ research,” wrote Melonie Fullick, a PhD candidate at York University, in University Affairs March 27. “For those trying to get a good start in life, there’s no tuition refund if we fail our classes or find the job market unfriendly at the end of the degree.[…]So the question becomes: what will guarantee our ability to cope with the future? A long-term focus on broad learning, which can (it is argued) help us to adapt to the changing structure of careers? Or a short-term focus, on skills designed to prepare students for specific, immediate positions?” Read full story.

Who’s who in CSR in Canada: Schulich School of Business, York U
“I thought it might just be hype, but they do talk about [sustainability] in accounting class,” said Liane Langstaff, a joint JD/MBA student at the Schulich School of Business and Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, in Justmeans March 28. She was one of a few students I spoke to at a recent Schulich student/industry CR networking event who emphasized that sustainability content was embedded into many of their core MBA courses. It’s a testimonial for the Toronto-based business school ranked No. 1 Canadian school and No. 2 worldwide by the Aspen Institute’s Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey on preparing students for the social and environmental complexities of tomorrow. Read full story.