Faulty hair analysis found in review of two cases

Advocates for the wrongly accused are calling on provincial governments to review all criminal cases involving hair evidence after the Manitoba Justice Department released a groundbreaking study that shows flawed hair analysis tainted two murder convictions, reported The Globe and Mail Sept. 16. Dianne Martin, a professor at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, said the type of review that Manitoba conducted is rare in North America. “The very, very few reviews of old convictions that have been done have found significant cases of error,” Martin said. “But Manitoba has put this issue squarely on the table now, and I bet there will be some [provinces] who follow.”


York grad heads English at Windsor


Karl Jirgens has been appointed head of the University of Windsor’s English Department, reported The Windsor Star Sept. 16. Jirgens, in his 40s, is editor-in-chief of Rampike Magazine, a semi-annual literary publication he launched in 1979. He is also the author of two works of short fiction and is well-known and respected in Canada’s literary circles. He was educated at the University of Toronto, York University (MA ’80, PhD ’90) and the Ontario College of Art and Design.


Seniors pay a price for GIC safety


In a talk to Toronto financiers, AIM Trimark’s vice-president of tax and estate planning Jamie Golombek, cited a study by Moshe Milevsky, a finance professor at York’s Schulich School of Business, showing GICs have had negative tax-adjusted returns the last three years, reported the National Post Sept. 16. The study – “The Erosion Effects of Income Taxes and Inflation on GIC Investment Returns” – concludes “the strategy of rolling over so-called risk-free GICs outside of a tax shelter is a sure way to destroy long-term wealth,” said Golombek.


On air



  • Brendan Quine, a space physics professor with York’s Faculty of Science & Engineering, was featured in Rocketry, the third in a series on the planeteers who are competing for the lander challenge, aired on Discovery Channel’s “Daily Planet” Sept. 15.