Don’t shun Tamil Tigers, expert says

Canada should refrain from listing the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization, the director of a Sri Lankan think-tank told students at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School Wednesday, reported the Toronto Star March 17. “In the last several years, many of us in Sri Lanka have struggled with this issue of how to deal with the LTTE (the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam),” Rohan Edrisinha, a law professor at the University of Colombo and director of the Centre of Policy Alternatives said. “It’s a very difficult issue,” he said. “But…the reality is that we have to engage with the LTTE.” Edrisinha spoke at Osgoode as part of a speaking tour of Canada. Human Rights Watch has strongly criticized the Tamil Tigers for continuing to enlist child soldiers in its cause.


Internet viruses could help ecologists control invasive species


Studying how computer viruses spread through the Internet is helping ecologists prevent invasions of non-native species, reported ScienceDaily, an Internet science and technology magazine produced in the US, March 16. New research published Wednesday in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology describes the use of network theory by two University of Windsor researchers to predict how the spiny water flea – a native of Russia – will spread through the Canadian lake system. The story says biologist Norman Yan of York’s Faculty of Science & Engineering has demonstrated that predation by the spiny water flea causes an average loss of three zooplankton species.


On air



  • Bernie Wolf, an economics professor at York’s Schulich School of Business, says more and more auto parts suppliers will be squeezed out as the big three car manufacturers lose market share, reported CKLW-AM “News” in Windsor March 16.
  • Alexandra Rutherford, psychology professor in York’s Faculty of Arts, talked about a University of Alberta study suggesting a person’s hand shows personality traits, on Global TV’s “Global News” in Saskatoon March 15.