MEDIA

Bilingual people think twice as fast
Mythili Viswanathan (right), a graduate student in psychology at York, was featured in the Toronto Star’s Deep Thoughts column on April 3.

Viswanathan is looking at whether being bilingual from a young age can help the brain's abilities as we grow older. Cognition isn't rigid, she says, so life experiences can change its ability over time. Bilinguals were consistently faster at performing certain tasks, no matter the age group. This is not because they're more intelligent, she says, but because their brains are used to suppressing the information they don't need to use. "You're able to fully focus on the task at hand," says Viswanathan, who speaks English, Tamil and Cantonese.

The importance: This can help promote learning another language early on. "Globally we're moving towards bilingualism more and more," she says. "It's important to understand how the bilingual experience changes your experiences across the life span."

Future teachers reach out to help
About 70 teacher candidates in York’s Faculty of Education are trying to "change the world, one school at a time," wrote the Toronto Star April 5. They held a solidarity walk and social justice workshop April 4 in hopes of raising $7,000 to build a school in Haiti. The students, who are working with a non-governmental organization dedicated to supporting development projects in the impoverished nation, believe exposing new teachers to the power of social justice will inspire them and their future classes to help those in need.

Student's synchronized skate team wins world bronze
Like most of her teammates, Londoner and first-year York University student Allison Proudfoot made the committed commute to Burlington and Waterloo every day for skating practice, reported the London Free Press April 2. But obstacles such as injuries and distance don't deny desire or destiny – a lesson the Canadian champion Nexxice synchronized skating team proved with a stunning bronze-medal performance at the world synchronized skating championships before 6,530 wild fans at the John Labatt Centre Saturday.

New inductees in York’s sports hall of fame
Four former university athletes and one builder will be inducted into the York University Sport Hall of Fame during a dinner and ceremony next month, wrote the North York Mirror April 3. Former football coach Nobby Wirkowski and athletes Trish (Barnes) Stone (BA ’85), Paula Lockyer (BA ’86), Gary MacDonald (BSc ’79) and David Steeper (BSc '79) were all named in an item that also noted the Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony takes place May 31 at the Montecassino Banquet Hall in Woodbridge.

Canucks pull strings in Hollywood
Expert puppeteers and former York students Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon, both 36, have just inked a deal with Disney that will keep their fingers doing a lot of high-profile talking, wrote the Toronto Star April 4. The monkey puppets of Shannon's and Hopley's creation named Ooh and Aah started this weekend as the new hosts of Playhouse Disney. The pudgy primate brothers, who aren't in Canada yet, will also be featured in videos that play during lineups for rides at Disney theme parks. And, Hopley and Shannon returned last week from the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in Los Angeles where they worked the orange carpet as Josh and Parker, the stars of “Mr. Meaty”.

Uppal's poetry intrigues Griffin prize judges
From an unprecedented 483 submissions, the shortlist for this year's Griffin Poetry Prize was finally narrowed down to seven writers, six of whom happen to be men, wrote the National Post April 4. The judges named Priscila Uppal (right), professor in York’s Faculty of Arts, among the finalists for the Canadian shortlist, for her book, Ontological Necessities (Exile Editions).

The Post also cited part of what the judges said: " 'Who are you?' one of Priscila Uppal's poems keeps asking itself. Are you the oyster shell of the new millennium, the sundial waitress in her two-bit automobile with a licence to fish, the wristwatch of the nation, the woman's shelter of the soul? The poems in Ontological Necessities are all that and much more."

When it comes to literary awards in this country, said the Post, the Griffin may be relatively new on the scene, but it's quickly ascending the ranks in popularity, with poetry readings that have gone from small crowds of 150 in its first year to over 800 people at a sold-out event last year. Its trustees include big-name authors like Margaret Atwood and [Glendon English Professor] Michael Ondaatje, and the awards ceremony itself rivals even the Gillers in glitz and glam – perhaps something to do with the fact that Elana Rabinovitch, daughter of Giller prize founder Jack, happens to also be the publicist for the Griffin.

• The Globe and Mail and CBC.ca also did substantive stories on the shortlist April 4. Each focused on the question, as the Globe put it, will it be third time lucky for Don McKay? The veteran Canadian poet, noted the paper, was short-listed for the third time in the Canadian division of the annual Griffin Poetry Prize.

Bullying is a community issue
Debra Pepler, a professor at York University's LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence & Conflict Resolution, was the keynote speaker at the third national conference on bullying, safer schools and safer communities April 3, wrote The Ottawa Sun April 4. Pepler is the founder of Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network, a federally funded program that works to promote safe and healthy relationships among Canadian youth.

"We're really trying to change professional practice around how teachers deal with youth, how we train parents to deal with kids, how we get coaches to be positive as opposed to being bullying towards their kids," said Pepler. "We are forced to look beyond the school and recognize that bullying is not a school issue – it's a community issue, a societal issue," said Pepler. "We need to deal with bullying issues in every setting."

Tories flunk early childhood education test
Early Years Study 2: Putting Science Into Action, by internationally renowned child development expert Dr. Fraser Mustard, Margaret Norrie McCain and Stuart Shanker of York's Faculty of Health, is a 185-page follow-up report to the groundbreaking 1999 Early Years Study: Reversing the Real Brain Drain commissioned by the former Ontario government, wrote the Winnipeg Free Press April 4. Released last week, and largely ignored by the media, the report places Canada's haphazard efforts at early childhood education at the very bottom of all 30 nations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Bowman helping with Stax CD reissue series
It's a long way from Memphis to Toronto's York University. Miles apart and of very different culture and heritage, there's one strong link, though: the world's foremost expert on the great music of Stax Records teaches there, wrote the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal April 4 in a review of Stax 50th Anniversary Collection (Universal).

Rob Bowman (right), professor in York’s Faculty of Fine Arts, has written the book on Stax, the fabulous Soulsville U.S.A., as well as the booklets for many of the reissued box sets from the Memphis label's archives. His role as co-producer of this fine anniversary collection bodes well for its quality. The Stax catalogue is undergoing a major revamping, thanks to new owners. Wisely, they've brought Bowman on board to start things off with this deluxe double-disc of hits.

Feds invest $900-million in aerospace sector
Bernie Wolf (left), a professor of economics in York’s Schulich School of Business, was interviewed by host Beverly Thomson, about a $900-million federal loan to Canada’s aerospace industry on CTV’s “Canada AM” April 3. Below is a partial transcript of his comments.

Thomson: Well, how should Canadians see this? Is this something that is necessary for the industry and thereby a good thing for the country? Or is it something specifically aimed at getting votes in Quebec?

Wolf: Oh, I think it's both. I mean, yes, the Tories or whoever is in power certainly want votes in Quebec. But besides that, whereas I don't really favour these kinds of basically what amounts to a subsidy – although the way they've structured it it's a loan – basically in the aerospace industry it's done all over the world. The Europeans do it, the Brazilians do it, the Americans do it, so we need to be competitive.

You know, I travel pretty well the world as a professor of international business [Wolf continued]. And when I see the kind of infrastructure that we have elsewhere, compared to what we have here, there's almost no city that doesn't have rapid transit from its airport to downtown. I mean a really fast train…. We don't have a high-speed link between Montreal and Toronto.... We also need to put more money into education. And we've been very slow to do these things. And then it takes us forever to decide something. And after that it takes us forever to implement it. If you look at the Chinese, they make up their mind they're going to do it, they do it. We procrastinate. And we're going to be left behind.

Brampton's AcceleRide buses will stop at York
The first of nearly 100 AcceleRide buses are expected to start rolling in Brampton in September 2010, wrote the Brampton Guardian April 4. The Phase One route that should take two years to completely implement will run from the downtown bus terminal east along Queen Street to York Region, and south along Main Street to Mississauga. It will connect to York University and the Spadina subway line into Toronto, the Vaughan business centre, Mississauga city centre and GO Transit to Toronto.

Loophole allows for big campaign spending
Critics have seized on the practice of Toronto’s city politicians spending much more on fundraising than on actual campaign expenses thanks to a provision in the Municipal Elections Act that excludes fundraising and certain other expenses from spending limits, wrote The Globe and Mail April 3. Robert MacDermid, political science professor in York’s Faculty of Arts, who has studied local campaign financing and is part of a watchdog group called Vote Toronto, said the loophole "makes a mockery" of the spending limits. "It makes the whole thing seem unethical, almost, because there's a cap that doesn't prevent expenditure on the largest expense," MacDermid said. "…something has to be done about it. It's absurd."

Waterway claims are behind seizure of sailors, says Rahnema
As Britain and Iran narrowed their differences over 15 British naval personnel seized in the Persian Gulf, some experts warn the situation is still volatile, wrote the Toronto Star April 3. "We must understand how significant claims to the waterways are in this region," said Saeed Rahnema, head of the School of Public Policy & Administration in York’s Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies. "The Iran-Iraq war was fought over the Shatt al Arab," a waterway flanking the two countries, he recalled. The combined death toll was more than 1 million.

Leaders share vision of decentralization
Stephen Harper and Mario Dumont are undoubted soulmates when it comes to decentralizing Canada's federation, reported the Canadian Press in an article published April 2 by the Kingston Whig-Standard. Between them, the prime minister and Quebec's new official opposition leader have certainly left the impression in the past that they'd love nothing more than to strip the federal government down to the bare essentials, ceding powers wholesale to the provinces. But even if Harper remains true to his past views on the subject, Patrick Monahan, dean of York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, doubts that Dumont does. He suggests Dumont's talk of autonomy is strictly a "nod" to old-style Quebec politics, allowing him "to parade appropriate nationalist credentials."

But should Dumont become premier, Monahan predicts he would forget decentralization, focusing instead on his centrepiece promise to modernize the Quebec economy and dramatically scale back the role of the state. "Yes, Dumont was big on the Allaire report. But that was a different era, that was about big government, we've gotta have more Quebec programs, we've gotta have more powers," Monahan says. "Now, what Dumont is talking about is getting the state out of doing things."

Tension over Islam is ‘moral panic’, says prof
To urban political theorist Stefan Kipfer (right) at York University, the primary fissure in multiculturalism is not the tension between reason and religion but "the eruption of moral panic about a cultural enemy." Islam. It is a panic, he says, created by a post-9/11 narrative that Islam is a threat to Western values, pointed out The Globe and Mail’s Michael Valpy in his March 31 column triggered by remarks made about "reasonable accommodation" by Mario Dumont, leader of Action Democratique du Quebec. When France passed its law forbidding the wearing of religious symbols in schools, "nobody was in a panic about Sikhs or about Jewish people or about Catholic crosses, and that situation was similar to what happened in Ontario," said Kipfer. "The panic was about sharia [Islamic tribunals], the panic was not about other religions" being given powers to resolve family disputes under the province's Arbitration Act.

Kipfer rejects the suggestion that the controversy was more about the devolution of state legal powers to all religious groups than it was about religion. Why, he asks, is there not moral outrage about the Roman Catholic Church being the only faith allowed to have fully publicly funded schools in Ontario? "Why is the attention on Islam? I don't think it is possible to say it has nothing to do with the fact that we happen to be in a geopolitical confrontation."

Cellphone providers make pitch for youth
With the arrival of number portability, cellphone service providers are stepping up advertising campaigns directed at younger users, reported the Toronto Star April 2. But securing long-term contract loyalty from the 18-to-35-year-old demographic is no walk in the park. It's a group with an appetite for content that is all about "downloadables and heavy duty use," said Alan Middleton, a marketing professor with York's Schulich School of Business. And it is a group that knows how to haggle. "There is no fixed price, everything is negotiable," he added, making the group attractive to service providers because of their download habits.

Middleton said cellphone service providers could find themselves being forced to form alliances with other media companies that appeal to the demographic – sites like Facebook or channels such as MTV. "It will depend on who forms the best alliances with content providers like music, fashion and entertainment, including sports, hot shows and movies," said Middleton. "Youth is the new battleground," said Middleton. "The next one will be retirees."

Italian Canadians were detained at Petawawa during war
In a story April 1 about a wooden model ship carved by an Italian Canadian interned at Petawawa during the Second World War, the Toronto Star asked Roberto Perin (left), a York University history professor and co-editor of the book Enemies Within: Italian and Other Internees in Canada and Abroad, to provide the background: At the outbreak of World War II there were about 110,000 Canadians of Italian origin and most were British subjects. (Prior to 1947 and the introduction of the first Citizenship Act, there was legally no such thing as Canadian citizenship.) Italian consulates were active agents of fascist propaganda in the '30s, he says, and brought Italian artists and athletes to Canada so people would favourably identify them with the fascist regime. The propaganda was effective: About 3,000 Canadian residents were members of the Fascist Party of Italy, he says. In the police raids that occurred after Italy joined the war as part of the Axis powers, innocent people were swept up with those perceived to be disloyal. Perin makes comparisons to provisions in today's anti-terror legislation where suspects may be held without being charged. He says fewer than 1 per cent of Italian Canadians were interned during the war.

New products, ads reflect our diversity
Canada's largest cable TV company, which is carrying this year's Cricket World Cup on its ATN specialty channel, is just one of many mainstream companies trying to reach out to Canada's increasingly diverse population through new products and marketing schemes, reported the Toronto Star March 31. Sometimes it's a matter of simply translating an existing offering into another language. At other times, it's a question of adding more diverse faces to English- language advertisements. If companies make only cosmetic changes, for example in their ad campaigns, without following through on the service or product side, they won't get the business, cautions Ashwin Joshi, a professor of marketing at York University's Schulich School of Business. "If you give a segment what they want, you get their loyalty," Joshi says.

EMBA programs compete for high-paying students
Costing as much as $95,000 for an 18-month program, EMBAs are easily the most expensive degrees on the market, reported the National Post March 31. Students study part-time, remain in their jobs and graduate with an MBA. Canadian business schools offering EMBA programs are locked in stiff competition for these high-paying students. As the nation's business capital, it stands to reason that the most active scene in the battle of the business schools is Toronto. Battling for market share in Hogtown are the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and York University's Schulich School of Business.

Lawyer’s conduct ‘deplorable’ in condo fraud, says prof
Imagine being able to buy an $11,000-parking space in a classy Markham condominium project and then getting a mortgage on it for $185,000. Or buying a storage unit assessed at $31,000 in a Toronto condominium on Spadina Ave. near Queen St. W., and getting a bank mortgage of $201,650, noted the Toronto Star March 31. In total, TD Canada Trust shelled out $1.9 million in mortgages on condominium units that were actually worth as much as 90 per cent less than the financed amounts. The strange story of the overpriced parking and locker units came to light recently in a discipline decision released by the Law Society of Upper Canada. In January, a society hearing panel found Toronto lawyer Steven Michael Mucha guilty of professional misconduct. During the six-day hearing last summer, Toronto lawyer Reuben Rosenblatt (left) testified as an expert witness for the Law Society. Rosenblatt teaches real estate law as an adjunct professor at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School and is regarded by many of his colleagues as the dean of the real estate bar in Ontario. In testifying before the Law Society panel, Rosenblatt described Mucha's handling of the 16 real estate files as "deplorable."

Husband gets life for killing York grad
Teacher Aysegul Candir (BA ’97) was stalked, ambushed and shot to death by her estranged husband in the parking lot of the Bramalea high school where she taught, a jury has concluded, reported the Toronto Star April 2. The seven women and five men, sequestered since Friday, deliberated about 17 hours over three days before returning their verdict of first-degree murder just after 10: 30am. in Erhun Candir's eight-week trial. Since coming to Canada from Turkey, Aysegul also graduated on the dean's honour list from York University with a history degree.