Canadian Senate ‘not accountable’

The [Canadian] Senate is “just reinforcing the public’s view that [it] is in fundamental need of reform, and that’s pretty clear,” said Patrick Monahan, dean of York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, in a Globe & Mail story Nov. 11. “They’re not accountable.” He was reacting to the recent adjournment of the upper chamber, effectively killing the Liberals’ top two legislative priorities: an act to create a parliamentary ethics commissioner and a bill to create seven new ridings in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta in time for an election this spring.

Air Canada’s new sponsor, Hong Kong businessman and Canadian citizen Victor Li, faces a climate in which low-cost airlines are gaining a larger foothold, reported The Globe & Mail Nov. 11. But Fred Lazar, an economics professor specializing in the airline industry at York University’s Schulich School of Business, predicts that WestJet has one more year of growth in the domestic market before it reaches saturation. “There really is an upper limit to the potential market share of these low-fare carriers. Beyond a certain point, they start looking more and more like the major carrier in that market. They no longer differentiate themselves. And that becomes a very dangerous thing to do.” Lazar said shrinking isn’t the right way for Air Canada to go. He said the airline needs a significant domestic operation in order to feed passengers across the country to its main international hubs in Vancouver and Toronto. He said there are important lessons in the history of the US airline industry, where Pan American Airlines and Trans World Airlines failed because they did not have adequate domestic feed.

A failed refugee claimant, twice ordered deported from Canada, received a life sentence Nov. 10 for brutally slaying two York University students, a young man and his sister, who had spurned his romantic overtures, reported The Globe & Mail and other major Toronto newspapers Nov. 11. Mehaboobbhoy Adamjee, a 34-year-old Sri Lankan, was enraged that Nuzhat Amiji, 23, had rejected his marriage proposal, which he saw as a way to resolve both his financial problems and his immigration status. He stabbed her and her brother, Naeem, 20, on or about Nov. 6, 2001. Nuzhat was a second-year student pursuing a double major in French and communications in the Faculty of Arts at York. Naeem was a first-year student in the Business and Society Program, Faculty of Arts.

• Lewis Molot, professor in York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, discussed garbage collection, an issue in Toronto’s municipal election, on CBC Newsworld’s “Absolutely Canadian,” and what the new city council should do about municipal waste management, on a panel on Goldhawk LIVE (Rogers Television) Nov. 10.
  
• Dr. Joel Lexchin, health policy and management professor with York’s Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies, discussed how brand-name drug companies are trying to block access demanded by increasing numbers of American states and cities to cheaper Canadian drugs, on a feature aired on CBC Radio’s “Noon Edition” in Saskatchewan and “Mainstreet” in Halifax Nov. 10.