Last summer, 21 students from York’s Lassonde School of Engineering spent three weeks in the Holy Land, learning essential lessons about business, life and global markets, reported the Financial Post Dec. 14. Their itinerary ranged from business lectures and meeting entrepreneurs in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem, to pitching their business plans and touring Israel’s modern streets and ancient sites. Read full story.
Opinion: The health effects of income inequality
“Imagine the response – from industry, government and the public – if a plane was crashing every day…. A report by Statistics Canada highlights a preventable cause of premature death having exactly that kind of impact,” wrote York University health policy and management Professor Dennis Raphael in the Montreal Gazette Dec. 14. “This study demonstrates that income inequality is associated with the premature death of 40,000 Canadians a year – that’s 110 Canadians dying prematurely each day.” Read full story.
Gifts for bookworms
Roy Henry Vickers is a world-renowned artist whose intensely coloured paintings merge nature and First Nations symbolism, reported the Vancouver Sun Dec. 14. His paintings have been given to royalty, including the Queen, and he is a recipient of the Order of British Columbia, the Order of Canada, a Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and an honorary doctorate of letters from York University. He has been painting for 40 years and to commemorate that anniversary, he released a new collection of his work, aptly named Storyteller. Read full story.
Is personhood an animal right or human privilege?
The battle to grant personhood to a 26-year-old chimpanzee was rejected by a U.S. court last week and while the case was the first of its kind, it’s unlikely to be the last, reported RN Dec. 15…. Kristin Andrews teaches philosophy at York University in Toronto, and she has no doubt about the correctness of the approach. “It’s not enough to just change a few laws. If that’s all we do, then the autonomy of animals like Tommy, the chimpanzee, is never acknowledged,” she says. “Instead, we need to recognize that some higher functioning animals can feel pleasure and pain … that they have some awareness of past and future … that they’re capable of making decisions about their own lives.” Read full story.
Police can search cellphones in arrests without warrant, Supreme Court rules
Benjamin Berger, a law professor at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, said the court is softening rights protections, reported the Globe and Mail Dec. 11. He pointed to the first search-and-seizure ruling under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the 1984 case Hunter v. Southam, when the Supreme Court said that warrantless searches are inherently unreasonable. “Those strong rights protections of the early charter years are very firmly in the rear-view mirror.” Read full story.
Stuck on the sidelines
“The consequences of being a great city is that the demand for the (limited) existing housing stock is not going to diminish, especially when we have 125,000 people coming to this region every year,” said James McKellar, a real estate professor in York University’s Schulich School of Business, in the Toronto Star Dec. 11. “All you have to do if you really want to cool the housing market is adjust the immigration rate or raise interest rates.” Read full story.
Ontario Court of Appeal ruling shrouded in secrecy, with even judge’s name censored
Nearly every single piece of information in a recent Ontario Court of Appeal ruling is being kept secret, reported the Toronto Star Dec. 11…. The three-judge panel found that publishing their full reasons could compromise the identity of a confidential informant, without offering any further details. “In camera hearings and heavily redacted reasons are serious departures from the open justice rule and are not permissible unless justified,” said Jamie Cameron, a professor at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School. “The (Court of Appeal’s) reasons in this instance do not explain why such a high degree of secrecy was necessary, and that is problematic.” Read full story.
The shame game: humiliation in the digital age
Teens, achingly aware of visibility, vulnerability and imbalances of power, are developmentally susceptible to both shaming and being shamed, reported Chatelaine Dec. 11. “As youth enter adolescence and create their own identities independent of their parents, their strongest motivation is to have friends and belong in a peer group,” explains York University psychology Professor Debra Pepler. “When these relationships go awry, it hits to the core of the developmental tasks – which are to develop an identity and a strong sense of who they are and where they stand.” Read full story.
Who made the 2015 CASSIES shortlist?
A total of 60 awards will be handed out to 53 cases at the 2015 CASSIES but who will be going home with Gold is yet to be seen as the shortlist was revealed today, reported Strategy Dec. 11. York University’s “this is my time” campaign has been shortlisted. Read full story.
Prescription drug ad law notable for ‘lack of teeth’
Canada is failing to enforce its law banning advertising for prescription drugs, a new review indicates…. University of British Columbia public health researcher Barbara Mintzes and Joel Lexchin of York University in Toronto reviewed Canadian cases of drug ads from 2000 to 2011, reported CBC News Dec. 11. Read full story.