Timothy Moore, chair of the Department of Psychology at York’s Glendon College, said the practice of using “Mr. Big” undercover sting operations, a controversial police tactic designed to elicit confessions from suspects in murders and other serious crimes, is “ingenious” but carries a “high risk of incriminating the innocent.”
Moore said the “Mr. Big” technique has been successful in catching and convicting “very bad guys” who might have got away with murder. But he also called Mr. Big tactics “extraordinarily invasive and psychologically manipulative” and said the target of such an operation might have more reasons to lie about a crime he did not commit than to tell the truth, reported in the National Post, the Vancouver Sun and Postmedia May 24. Read full story.
The Quebec protests: the big picture
In the wake of Tuesday’s massive demonstration in Montreal, it’s worth standing back from the student protest – which now ranks as one of the biggest and longest in Canadian history – to ask the question: “What’s going on?”, said York social science Professor Miriam Smith in iPolitics May 24. Read full story.
York University students build lunar robot in global challenge
York University students designed and built this year’s lunar rover as part of a global university challenge, which they will remotely manoeuvre across a simulated Mars surface in the Utah desert, reported Metroland Publications’ Yorkregion.com May 23. Read full story.