MEDIA

Dancers aim to teach the world
to zombie march to Thriller

On the 25th anniversary of the Michael Jackson classic, a Kitchener dancer is organizing a simultaneous, world-wide project in which fans in 15 countries are set to perform the identical Thriller dance at 6pm EST on Oct. 27 (or Oct. 28, if you're in Australia), reported the Toronto Sun Oct. 22. Last year, Ines Markeljevic (right) made the Guinness Book of World Records when she had 62 dancers recreate the Thriller moves in an event she titled "Thrill Toronto". Now, she has her sights set on the world. "I was raised on the Thriller album," explains Markeljevic, a chirpy 26-year-old former York University dance student. "I was two years old dancing to Michael Jackson." Markeljevic's one-woman mission to teach it to the world already has people signed up in more than 85 registered events in over 81 cities in 15 countries on five continents. Schulich School of Business student Polina Rogozhina (left) is organizing the Toronto event at York University. She's hoping 200 wannabe zombies will show up at 10am at the Accolade East building to learn the moves, break the record and also raise some money for the Sick Kids Foundation. "My friends are pretty excited," she says. "How often do you have a chance to be part of a Guinness World Record?"

Osgoode student wins Harry Jerome Award
When York student Denise Ann Williams, 24, was a little girl, she focused on what was in front of her: school, sports and whatever else she might learn from her mother, Barbara, a Trinidadian immigrant raising three kids on her own, wrote The Globe and Mail Oct. 26. Tonight, with her mother at her side, Williams will take in a decidedly different view – from the 42nd floor of Toronto's tallest office tower – as she reaps her latest reward for hard work: the Harry Jerome Scholarship for black law students, sponsored by one of the country's top firms, Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP.

"Law school's really hard when you don't have the funds there to help you," said Williams, a second-year student at York's Osgoode Hall Law School. "My mom is my sole source of income." Her mom, a nurse at a municipal home for the aged in Toronto, has been that and so much more for Williams and her sisters, despite the oft-reported odds against single, black immigrant mothers trying to make their way in a costly city, wrote the Globe. "There were probably a lot of times when my mom could have given up, and she didn't," Williams said. "If you don't have the motivation to get up after you fall, you're never going to make it."

In high school, Williams played basketball, won two terms as student council president and earned the Governor General's Academic Medal for graduating with the highest average. This, in turn, led to an undergraduate scholarship at York University, where she earned a four-year bachelor of science degree in kinesiology & health science from the Faculty of Science & Engineering.

Bulimia therapy focuses on emotion
Susan Wnuk, a graduate student in the York's Psychology Department, Faculty of Health, is researching group emotion-focused therapy for women with bulimia nervosa, wrote the Toronto Star Oct. 25 in its Deep Thoughts column. Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) in pretty much what it sounds like – therapy that concentrates on a person's emotional well-being. It was developed by York psychologist Les Greenberg, who is Wnuk's PhD supervisor.

Emotions, and the actions and reactions that stem from them, tend to run along a predictable path, Wnuk says, comparing it to a highway. "Your brain automatically goes down that 401." For someone with an eating disorder, that highway may involve damaging behaviour such as binge eating and purging. The key is to find more positive ways to get through an emotional event.

Film noir style on display at art gallery
Film noir is a movie term mostly used to describe stylish crime dramas motivated by greed and jealousy, reported the Toronto Sun Oct. 22. Many of the elements in classic film noir are on display at the O'Connor A Gallery, 145 Berkeley St., until Nov. 4. Mary Dykstra's 10-piece exhibition, titled Narcisse Noir, contains paintings full of shadowy figures, Venetian blinds and femme fatales. "A lot of my work is inspired by the visual image and language of cinema," says Dykstra, who lives in Toronto. The exhibit title comes from the name of a perfume first introduced by the House of Caron in 1911. It was Gloria Swanson's character in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard that enshrined the perfume when in a deep, sultry voice she said, "Black Narcissus, Narcisse Noir." Dykstra graduated with a BFA from York University in 1994 and has been painting professionally ever since.

York grad celebrates Famous Five women crusaders
Canadian women have a history that needs to be acknowledged and celebrated, but don't crack the champagne quite yet. "This is not a simple or short discussion," said Paulette Senior (right), chief executive officer of YWCA Canada and a keynote speaker at Friday's Person's Day Breakfast in Kitchener, reported The Record (Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo) Oct. 20. The Canadian government didn't recognize women as persons until Oct. 18, 1929. That was changed thanks to pressure from the Famous Five – activists Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards. Senior applauded the bravery of the Famous Five, who had faced criticism and endless name-calling but would not be dissuaded. Jamaican-born, Senior came to Canada at age 11, establishing herself as a social and community activist while in university. She holds an honours bachelor's degree in psychology and urban studies from York University.

York student joins musician busker's charity performance
Longtime Our Lady Peace fan, York student Steven Isidori, filmed the band's 37-year-old frontman Raine Maida on Oct. 25 as he busked to raise money for the War Child charity, wrote The Toronto Sun Oct. 26. Isidori then rented a guitar for $10 to help drum up some change for the cause. "I'm a student. I complain how I'm poor, but today is my day off. Why not get up and do something for someone else?" said Isidori, who is studying business.

And justice forever...
The plaintiff is dead, the original judge trying the case has moved on, and more than 160,000 pages of transcript have been churned out – and still the so-called Castor Holdings trial grinds on, wrote The Globe and Mail Oct. 26. Canada's longest-running securities trial entered its 10th year in October, leaving some observers wondering whether the case would ever reach a conclusion. Castor will likely remain one of a kind, wrote the Globe. Mary Condon, a professor at York's Osgoode Hall Law School, says that recent changes to securities laws in Ontario and other provinces should speed up class action suits. While plaintiffs still have to prove fraud, they may recover some damages if misleading statements were made, and they don't have to show that they acted specifically on the basis of them. "I think things will go faster," she says.

Canada's drug bill could be cut if doctors knew prices
Soaring drug bills in Canada could be cut if doctors simply paid attention to the cost of the medications they prescribe, says a new federal report. The study, commissioned by Industry Canada and doneby IMS Health Consulting Inc., found that Canadian physicians are generally oblivious to drug prices and often prescribe an expensive pharmaceutical when a cheap one would do, reported Canadian Press Oct. 21. The IMS findings mirror those of Dr. Joel Lexchin, co-author of a study last month that demonstrated just how little physicians know about drug prices. Lexchin's paper, written with G. Michael Allan and Natasha Wiebe, concludes that doctors' ignorance of costs "could have profound implications for overall drug expenditures. Much more focus is required in the education of physicians about costs and access to costinformation." Lexchin, a professor in York’s School of Health Policy & Management, notes that other brand-name drugs in a class sometimes do work better for patients than cheaper generics, "but most of the time they don't," and the extra dollars are wasted.

Lack of frost has potential for good and bad, says York professor
Jack Frost is missing in action, setting a record for his absence from the London region, wrote Ontario's London Free Press Oct. 26. Agriculture experts and climatologists warn the longer season without freezing temperatures has the potential for both good and bad. The warming in southwestern Ontario is consistent with the models for climate change, said Mark Winfield, a professor in York's Faculty of Environmental studies. "It is not necessarily a good news story...how it will play out is still guesswork."

Struggling home-care system stretched to the limit
Advocates, nurses and health-care academics agree the province's home-care system is stressed, wrote the Toronto Star Oct. 22. Health Ministry figures show the number of clients hasjumped 75 per cent over the past four years, while funding has risen 30 per cent. Those interviewed say the problems include staffing shortages caused by shrinking wages, piecework instead of full-time jobs, growing workloads and less skilled, lower-paid support workers replacing nurses. Ontario-wide, the Ministry of Health reports there were 4,062 complaints in 2004-05 and 3,931 complaints in 2005-06. MP Olivia Chow and others question the complaint numbers. Chow said few people would figure out how to file a complaint with the Community Care Access Centres. York University professor Pat Armstrong (right), an expert in home care, said many patients have no idea who to call within the system, so complaints are often directed to advocacy groups or researchers.

Free to be she – or he
Perhaps you've thought about changing gender, began Deirdre McCloskey in a Globe and Mail review Oct. 20 of books on the subject. The story you'll learn from these good books, she wrote, is not, as people always think, that a MtF ("male to female": see, you're learning already) is "a woman trapped in a man's body." What you'll learn instead is freedom. That's all....A guy wants to go to Venice on holiday. Feel free. That's similar to cross-dressing, like what my friend Michael Gilbert, a brilliant professor of philosophy at York University, does from time to time, quite openly (Michael and I don't like closets). But one in 500 men, say, wants to go to Venice...and become Venetian. That's like MtF gender crossing. No one would say the new Venetian was trapped in an Upper Canadian body. He chooses, freely.

Children's care not for sale, says York professor
Your important article on big-box daycare (Toronto Star, Oct. 20) quotes a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Children and Youth Services as saying there will be no capital grants for for-profit centres. Unfortunately, this completely misses the point, wrote Barbara Cameron (below left), professor in York’s Atkinson School of Social Sciences, in a letter to the Star Oct. 23. The main issue is not capital grants, but operating and parent fee subsidies for child-care spaces, said Cameron.

The business of ABC Learning Centres is not early childhood learning; it is subsidy harvesting. This multinational corporation is after the steady stream of profit that comes from the difference between the cost of offering low-quality services and the amount of the ongoing government subsidy.

If the province hopes to prevent such daycare centres from taking over our child-care system, it must end operating subsidies to commercial child-care services, with grandparenting for existing owner-delivered services, wrote Cameron.

The new prenatal exam: Are you blue?
Even a short period of depression can have lasting effects for a new mother and her family, wrote The Globe and Mail Oct. 23. "Women who are depressed need support in their role as mothers," says Concordia University psychologist David Forman. His conclusion was echoed by many participants at a conference last week in Toronto on the topic of maternal health run by the Association for Research on Mothering at York University.

Schulich EMBA ranked No. 17 worldwide
The joint Executive MBA offered by Kellogg School of Management at Chicago's Northwestern University and the Schulich School of Business at York University is ranked No. 17 in the world – the highest standing of any program offered in Canada, according to this year's Financial Times survey of EMBAs, wrote The Globe and Mail Oct. 23. It is the first year the Kellogg-Schulich joint program has participated in the survey. The highest ranked EMBA program worldwide is another Kellogg collaboration – with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

• The Edmonton Journal also noted Oct. 23 that the Schulich joint Executive MBA program with Northwestern University was the highest Canadian ranking.

Canada needs national front against white-collar crime
An offensive against white-collar crime under the RCMP has so far been a huge disappointment, wrote CanWest News Service Oct. 23. According to a recent report prepared by Peter Cory, chancellor of York University and a former Supreme Court justice, and Marilyn Pilkington, professor and former dean in York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, Integrated Market Enforcement Teams have been hamstrung by high staff turnover and lack of strong leadership, among other difficulties.

Accused will have a tough time fighting direct indictments, says Osgoode prof
James Stribopoulos, a criminal law professor at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School, said direct indictments in the case of 14 men accused in connection with Canada's largest terrorist sweep are exceptional, but have been upheld under constitutional challenges, wrote the National Post Oct. 23. "They would have to show there is an ‘oblique’ motive, that is the word the case law uses, on the part of prosecutors – essentially, that this was being done to subvert the right to a fair trial," Stribopoulos said. "That is a very difficult thing to show."

Have we all gone doggone crazy?
Our tendency to "humanize" our pets is the main reason the pet industry is currently touted as one of the top growth industries, wrote The Globe and Mail Oct. 23. Kathryn Denning, professor of anthropology in York’s Faculty of Arts, reflects: “It's wonderful that people are trying to extend their care [by treating their pets as children]...but at the same time, you do have to look at it and say, ‘Well, isn't that obscene, that some people can afford to put their dog in a doggie hotel with a television set in it, while there are people sleeping under bridges?’”

Lifting the lid on the PQ's constitutional manoeuvres
The Parti Québécois' latest push for a Quebec constitution may be more of a political ploy than anything else, experts say, but it's legal under the Constitution, wrote the Ottawa Citizen Oct. 25. The bill has virtually no chance of becoming law, with the PQ holding less power than the Liberals and l'Action démocratique du Québec. That hasn't stopped constitutional experts from questioning the PQ's motives.

"If it weren't for the context of wanting to stimulate eventual secession, there wouldn't be anything unusual or surprising about a province wanting to bring its constitution up to date," said Peter Hogg, professor emeritus and former dean of York's Osgoode Hall Law School. "What they're planning to do is presumably have a more modern provincial constitution that could, in principle, serve as the constitution of a sovereign state in due course."

York takes its show on the road to the West
A made-in-Winnipeg strategy to help students pick the right university has spread across western Canada, wrote the Winnipeg Free Press Oct. 25. When the 10th annual Canadian Universities' recruiting fair comes to six city high schools in early November, Winnipeg will be one of four stops for the 46 schools, including York University, on a circuit that has so far spread to Saskatoon, Calgary and Vancouver.

Universities become big-time investors
The value of Canadian university endowment funds has reached an all-time high, surpassing $10 billion, according to a new survey, wrote the Ottawa Citizen Oct. 26. The latest figures from the Canadian Association of University Business Officers show the country's ivory towers have come of age as a fundraising and investing force, generating average annual assets worth $1 billion. The Citizen noted that Standard and Poor's debt-rating agency ranked York University eighth in a list of the top investor universities with a per-capita endowment value of $6,687, or a total of $246 million.