MEDIA

New CEO of YWCA Canada
is a York psychology grad

York alumna Paulette Senior (right) (BA '90), the new CEO of the YWCA of Canada, aspires to become one of the country's strongest and best-known advocates for women, reported the Toronto Star March 6. As head of the nation's largest multi-service organization for women providing daycare, housing, emergency shelter, training and support for hundreds of thousands of Canadians Senior, a 44-year-old single mother, speaks with both the authority of the role and a passion born of personal experience. Just six weeks into the job, Senior has already stepped front and centre at news conferences and in face-to-face lobbying, urging the new Conservative government not only to live up to the day-care agreements the previous government signed with the provinces, but also to retain the federal gun registry both issues, she says, that affect the lives of women.

Senior says her life not only exemplifies the hurdles women face today but also demonstrates the importance of programs and support networks that help women meet their potential. "I have a sense of how to help people and what it is like to be in their shoes," says Senior. "When I was a child, I had dreamed of being a psychologist. Being separated and having a child to care for this was an awakening. I found the reason to go after what I wanted in life." With her mother's support, she moved back home, found daycare, applied for social assistance and headed off to York University to study psychology. A career in social agencies helping youth and women followed.

Could a Canadian be Donald Trump's next apprentice?
While he sure doesn't appear to be a favourite after last week's season premiere, York alumnus Brent Buckman (left) (BA '99) is one of 17 remaining contestants on the popular American reality program "The Apprentice", reported The Globe and Mail March 4. Buckman is in for a tough fight, as his competitors who include a Harvard MBA, a Mensa brainiac, various successful entrepreneurs and a psychotherapist are arguably the strongest contingent of applicants the show has seen in its five-season history. There's a reason why Buckman doesn't appear intimidated by the reality-TV cameras. His bio also notes that he went through "an enriched theatre program" during high school in Toronto, studying improvisation, mime, mask and clown all of which undoubtedly will be required if he wins the contest and has to start working for The Donald.

A reviewer for CanWest News Service March 6 wrote: Just our luck. A Canadian finally makes it on to the shortlist of candidates and he turns out to be the sorriest excuse for an Apprentice candidate since Nap Boy in the original, or Bow-Tie Boy in the follow-up, or Banjo Boy from the most recent edition. Buckman, has been established early on as the comic relief, the lovable loser with a mind of mush, who, according to promos for tonight's outing, ends up annoying his corporate teammates to no end. It wouldn't be because of his brilliant ideas, like naming the team Killer Instinct, would it?

The Canadian Press reported March 3 that Buckman survived the show's opening episode without hearing Trump's signature "You're fired!'" But he was also unhappy that his ideas for the task at hand to promote a membership store called Sam's Club were rejected, especially the one to install a karaoke machine outside the establishment. While his team player skills seem in doubt, Buckman already has a huge fan club rooting for him.

Why Canada should get out of Afghanistan
Canada should pull its troops out of Afghanistan, wrote James Laxer (left) , political science professor in York's Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies, in the Globe and Mail's online edition March 3. The West's mission there is no less a "march of folly," to use historian Barbara Tuchman's phrase about the US war in Vietnam, than was the Soviet attempt to impose a regime in Afghanistan with its invasion in 1979, said Laxer. In Afghanistan, Canadian troops are not engaged in peacekeeping. They are involved on one side in a civil war. The mission now entrusted to Canadian and other coalition troops in southern Afghanistan, under the command of Canadian Brigadier-General David Fraser, is no less a war mission than the campaigns being fought by the British and Americans in Iraq.

If Canada and the other Western powers pull out of Afghanistan, what will be the consequences for that country? The struggle involving the government in Kabul, the remnants of the Taliban and regional warlords will continue, wrote Laxer. At the end of the civil war, the regime that emerges is unlikely to look much like a democracy that practises human rights. It could even be a fascistic theocracy. On the other hand, the presence of Western powers, perceived in this region of the world as the forces of imperialism, will never succeed in imposing a Western-style system in the country. Not least, Canada should pull its troops out of Afghanistan for an old-fashioned, even politically incorrect, reason. It is not in our interest to put our young men and women in harm's way in a struggle that will not be won.

Students react to new tuition policy
The Toronto Sun March 9 interviewed and photographed Shamini Selvaratnam (left) , vice-president of the York University Federation of Students, who said student tuition has gone up 150 per cent over the past 10 years and the Liberal government should have found a way to maintain its two-year freeze.

Looking for meaning in declining Oscar ratings
If less popular films mean a less popular Oscars show, asked The Toronto Star March 5, what does that mean for the future of one of the biggest cultural events around? "In some ways you can see it in how the broadcasting world has been divided and subdivided, networks trying to make more and more media product and make it cheaper and cheaper," said Scott Forsyth (right) , professor of film and political science at York University. "It may be a decline, or the same audience may consume a number of different products."

Glendon psychology professor comments on magic dream weavers
Aggressive disbelievers are threatened by magicians, reported The Ottawa Citizen March 4. "They think you're demonstrating that you're smarter than they are in some way," says James Alcock (left) , a psychology professor at York University who doubles as an amateur magician. "If you're doing a card trick, they'll come and grab the cards out of your hand. Or they'll shout, 'He's got it up his sleeve.' They'd rather destroy it than be shown incapable of figuring it out." Believers, on the other hand, are so flabbergasted by the magician's art that they can conceive of no rational explanation. According to Alcock, that's partly because the architecture of our nervous system condemns us to "magical thinking," which he defines as interpreting two closely occurring events as though one caused the other. "Rationality is always going to be something we impose on this underlying structure of magical thinking," he says. "We have to learn it. Large sections of the population have never had that teaching."

York-trained performer leads Brockville students in a re-enactment of disaster
Alumna Deborah Dunleavy (left) (BA '74), a Brockville storyteller and the founder of the 1000 Islands Yarnspinners, is leading a Grade 9 class in putting together a dramatization of the J.B. King drillboat disaster, reported the Brockville Recorder and Times March 2. Dunleavy will be helping the drama students develop and stage a skit which tells the story of the disaster, in which 30 men died when the drillboat the J.B. King was struck by lightning and exploded more than 75 years ago in June 1930. Dunleavy has had an active and successful career specializing in the performing arts for well over 20 years. The author of several books, Dunleavy's repertoire of stories comes from personal experience, family truths and lies, and history.

Graduate knew career path at early age
For author, illustrator and York alumna Leslie Watts (right) (BA '84 Glendon), her mind was made up pretty soon when it came to what she wanted to do as a career, reported The Daily Press (Timmins) March 4. "My mom said when I was five I wanted to write and illustrate books," she said. "It's one of those things I feel I was born wanting to do. Although sometimes I wonder if it's wise to go into an occupation you chose in kindergarten." The Stratford, Ont.-based writer is slated to speak at the 18th annual Daily Press Literary Awards set for May 9. Watts has also written for television, including the show "The Eleventh Hour," and she hopes to speak on that experience, as well as striving to make a living in the field. "Trying to make money as a fiction writer, it's not a good plan to have," she said. "It's nice when it happens, but I think it's very rare."

Filmmakers from York get a break on national TV
Small films made by a pair of Algoma natives and York students were set to get some big exposure on national television over weekend, reported The Sault Star March 3. "The JR DIGS Show" on Global was to air works by Desbarats native Chris Nash and Sault native Chris Pozzebon. Nash and Pozzebon are film students at York University. "It's good. I have nothing bad to say," said Nash of the small-screen showing. "Exposure's not a bad thing. More people know I'm out there and hopefully more people will like my work."

York Career Centre wins kudos
Campus employment centres can be a pot of gold at the end of the academic rainbow for many graduates,reported The Edmonton Sun March 4. York University's award-winning cyberguide www.yorku.ca/careers offers online workshops, passwords to job listing Web sites and many other online tools designed to help its students create a unique career path. Its walk-in employment resource service offers one-on-one career advising and more. "We help students be strategic about choosing a job and how to take a seemingly ordinary job and maximize your ability to get the most out of it," says Cathy Keates (right) , associate director of York's Career Centre. "So many students want career-related experience. Sometimes, it's about thinking outside the box." That can include volunteering to undertake new tasks, such as writing a press release for an event planner if you're interested in a public relations career. "On the surface, the job may not be related to [your field]...but sometimes you can mould it to get the experience you want," Keates says.

Student summer business can develop transferable skills
In a season when many students are scooping ice cream, flipping burgers and hanging out with friends, others are testing the entrepreneurial waters, reported The Toronto Sun March 8. Running their own summer business allows them to earn not only a paycheque, but employable skills that will boost career prospects. "Everyone has his or her own motivation, but students ...who want to run their own summer business often know they have an entrepreneurial spirit and want to be their own boss," says Jenny Peach (left) , programs co-ordinator at the York University Career Centre. "When you are your own boss you will have to know all aspects of the business," she says. "Students will develop many transferable skills that are essential to any career. Some of these skills include communication, time-management, problem-solving, critical thinking, relationship building and risk-taking."

Summer job hunt: why internships are crucial
It's that time of year. Not only is coursework piling up but summer job hunt season has hit a fever pitch, wrote Richard Bloom, in the latest in a series of columns for The Globe and Mail (March 3) on his life as an MBA student at the Schulich School of Business at York. In my program, said Bloom, as in many business schools nowadays trying to cater to students' desire for flexible studying schedules, internships aren't required. But while early graduation is an attractive proposition, especially for those of us floating around the age of 30 and with some years of work experience under our belts, a summer internship may have much more value. At the Schulich School of Business, a program [to pay stipends] is in place for students in the arts and media specialization because administrators realize that getting experience in the field is essential and because there are very few recruiters from those sectors looking for MBAs-in-training. I'm hoping to be able to use one of those bursaries to fund a summer job in the media sector.

York feminists provoke columnist's ire
If you are unaware of just how bad things are for women on the 40th anniversary of International Women's Day, wrote Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente March 7, you can consult the experts at York University, which is so feminist it even teaches feminist geography. Just in time for IWD, a helpful press release promises fresh insights on how women are being oppressed by globalization, by cutbacks in health care, by the male business establishment, and by non-inclusive pedagogies, whatever those are. If you want an update on "anti-racist, post-colonial and transnational feminisms," York's the place for you. The trouble with these experts is that almost every claim they make is wrong. What impoverishment? What rise in racism? Women in the west, even minority women, have never been more economically and socially equal than they are today. Yet, when it comes to women who really are oppressed, western feminists have nothing useful to say.

New MBA skill: suitcase packing
Business schools are offering courses in marketing, finance, accounting and economics with an international bent, as well foreign languages, reported The Globe and Mail in a special-section guide to MBA programs published March 7. Bernie Wolf, director of the international MBA program at the Schulich School of Business at York University and one of the program's founders, says it was started in 1989 because the thinking back then was that "Canada is awfully oriented toward the United States and that we need to have people who are able to participate in a global business world." The Schulich program offers an MBA plus global orientation and fairly in depth knowledge of a particular region and its language. "That makes you quite valuable to a company that wants to engage in business in that region," Wolf said. "But even if it's a different place, if you have investigated a particular region, you become much more culturally sensitive." Students can study abroad at as many as 30 of the world's top business schools in such countries as China, Japan and Spain. While some students sign up for the program because they want to work elsewhere, many end up working in Canada for companies that have a global orientation. "Sometimes you start in one place and end up in another place," Wolf said. "We do intend to prepare people for a specific region of the world, but we are also keen to have people be generalists."

In another story the same day about business students learning etiquette, The Globe wrote that Canadian business schools have started offering "soft skills" training aimed at making bungled business lunches and networking faux pas a thing of the past. Good etiquette training is an essential complement to academics, says Adeodata Czink, an etiquette specialist who has done workshops at the Schulich School of Business.

'We're in a dark period,' Young says of Tory plans to stifle tokers
Potheads beware, Canadian Press warned in a March 7 story that noted the Conservative government has no plans to relax marijuana laws. Public toking became more common in parts of Canada as the former government moved to loosen laws. But police in some areas are once again cracking down. "I think we're in a dark period right now," said Alan Young, a marijuana activist and professor at York's Osgoode Hall Law School. "They're going after growers and seed dealers, and more people are being charged with simple possession." Young says pot activists fighting to keep the cause alive are out of luck, but not forever. "It's dead for the time being," he said. "This issue goes in cycles." Young predicts that Ottawa won't be able to indefinitely ignore a growing number of pot users. "We're a drug-consuming culture and we've got to start regulating it."

Jane Doe case presents challenges, says Young
A BC judge who quashed one of the 27 first-degree-murder charges the so-called Jane Doe count against Robert Pickton, ruled that the charge didn't meet the minimum Criminal Code requirement for spelling out details of the offence. The decision could create problems for the prosecution, reported Canadian Press in a story that ran in The Globe and Mail March 4. "I don't think there's an insurmountable problem," said Professor Alan Young of York University's Osgoode Hall Law School. "But when you're not clear on the identity of your victim, you lose a lot of context and background evidence that may help." Circumstantial cases are about building inferences upon inferences, Young said. "To me, it's not the kiss of death that you only have an unnamed, anonymous victim," he said.  "But it does make things more difficult forensically and strategically for the government because if you don't know who the victim is, you can't lead evidence of their whereabouts in and about the time of the homicide. The story also ran in The Edmonton Journal March 5.

The Windsor Star noted March 6 that York alumnus Peter Ritchie (right) (LLB '70), Pickton's defence lawyer and a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School, is among the best-known lawyers in British Columbia but his current client accused serial killer Robert Pickton ensures his celebrity will be nationwide. When asked about Ritchie, Len Doust, another Vancouver lawyer and one of the profession's most highly regarded jurists, said "He's just a very, very good lawyer." The Star also noted Ritchie is reluctant to talk about himself and about his other passion in life bluegrass music.

Activist judges usually aren't, says Monahan
The Supreme Court of Canada the favourite whipping boy of Stephen Harper and the Conservatives can hardly be described as activist, wrote a columnist in The Vancouver Sun March 4. Separate papers by Sujit Choudhry of the University of Toronto faculty of law and Patrick Monahan, dean of York's Osgoode Hall Law School, reveal that from 1984 through to 2003, the government won roughly two-thirds of the Charter cases that appeared before the court. In other words, the court only invalidated a law or granted some other form of relief to rights-seekers in one-third of cases. Monahan looked at the record of each individual judge on the court, and found that former justice Claire L'Heureux-Dube whom conservatives routinely derided as a "radical feminist," and that's one of the nicer things they had to say about her would only have granted relief to rights-seekers in 21 per cent of cases, meaning she voted to uphold the law 79 per cent of the time.

Historians form group to save 19th-century heritage building
One of Toronto's oldest buildings has brought a group of heritage preservationists including York historian Craig Heron (right) and the developers that would build a high-rise over it to City Hall to battle over its future, reported the National Post March 3. Bishop's Block, a building on the northeast corner of Adelaide and Simcoe Streets that was built between 1829 and 1833, has been labeled one of the city's first hotels by historical experts who have started a coalition called the Bishop's Block Social History Project. Before taking the issue to the Toronto Preservation Board yesterday, Heron talked about the long history of Bishop's Block named after John Bishop, the butcher who had it built and its many incarnations as a hotel under names such as O'Connor House and Pretzel Bell Tavern. "This building does not just represent architectural details but should reflect the interior, social and cultural life of a building," Heron said of the coalition's desire to have the interior restored as well. The board deferred a decision on its recommendations until April.

Supreme Court appointments likened to choosing an Osgoode dean
US presidential elections are fought over which candidate will have the power to fill Supreme Court vacancies, wrote columnist Norman Spector in The Globe and Mail March 6. Millions of dollars are raised by interest groups most famously by pro- and anti-abortion forces, but lately by corporate heavyweights, too. Think of the millions of dollars Americans could save, if as some Canadians pretend appointing a judge of the Supreme Court is akin to appointing the dean of Osgoode Hall Law School. Think of the energies that could be redirected if all that matters is the number of cases a judge has decided or whether he or she comes highly recommended by the bar association. Since 1982, Canadians, too, have been living under a system of constitutional supremacy. Who gets to sit on the Supreme Court should matter as much to us as it does to them.

Fax problems will cause review of all bank systems, says Middleton
CIBC, already the subject of several embarrassing privacy breaches, is at the centre of another fax mishap, this one a bizarre tale involving the brother of one-time hockey enforcer Marty McSorley, reported The Toronto Star March 8. Gerry McSorley the former NHLer's sibling and owner of Flite Hockey, which makes skates and other equipment says the bank told him several months ago it had inadvertently been faxing confidential information intended for him to someone else, even though he had told CIBC about his new fax number after he moved the business. "This latest development is going to be reverberating through the offices of all the banks," said Alan Middleton, a marketing professor at the Schulich School of Business at York University. "It's not good news for anybody. Everybody's going to be looking again at what systems they have in place." But CIBC stands to lose the most, Middleton said.

York authors' book on strategic planning puts focus on flexibility, creativity
Most managers have been exposed to enough strategic planning formats and change management formulae to last them to eternity, said The Globe and Mail March 8, in a review of a book co-authored by two York writers and a consultant. For authors, the trick is to come up with something that sets them apart but is still workable, while touching all the familiar, and usually requisite, bases. The authors of Strategic Organizational Change Ellen Auster (right), a professor at York University's Schulich School of Business, Krista Wylie, a consultant, and Michael Valente, a York PhD student handle that challenge adeptly. They bring together the emotional and practical elements of a strategic change program often authors only concentrate on one or the other and add an important focus on flexibility, creativity and spontaneity that's often missing.

Fine Arts alumna directs play that probes flu pandemic
The gallows humour in Kevin Kerr's Unity (1918) is an acquired taste, reported The Windsor Star March 9. Ever since the play's first production in Vancouver in 2001, audiences have had mixed reactions to the humour in the play which focuses on the struggle of a small Saskatchewan community to deal with the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. But York alumna Sonia Norris (MFA ’03), who has directed University Players' production of Unity (1918), opening tonight at Essex Hall Theatre, thinks people are missing the point if they don't give the play a fighting chance. "The gallows humour is the basic problem with the play," she said. "Most of the time people don't see the humour and have treated it as a heartbreaking, serious story with a dirge-like pace. It has ruined many productions," said Norris. "In my (theatre) community in Vancouver, I saw so many fall victim to AIDS and have to face the same dilemma this play poses."

Columnist-blogger remembers days at Glendon
Perhaps Quebecers don't come to Ontario because of what happens when they get here, wrote York alumna Miranda Emmerson (BA ’04 Glendon) in the London Free Press March 9. In high school, she said, I worked at a local truck stop. For a while, a group of Quebecois passed through several times a week. One night, they came into the restaurant looking upset – they had just been told to speak English because they were in Canada. Right, because Canada isn't a bilingual country. A couple of years later, while attending Glendon College, York University's bilingual campus, a friend from Quebec said: "Tu n'es pas Ontarienne." I was too cool to be Ontarian, she said. It's people like the one who told the truckers to speak in English who create negative perceptions of all Londoners. If we are going to open up the road to the Forest City, we must open our minds.