Asylum rejection rates have no bearing in the quality and consistency of decisions made by adjudicators, says Canada’s refugee board, reported the Toronto Star March 4: In fact, the board insists that each decision must be examined on a case-by-case basis. “Statistics on the acceptance and rejection rates of individual IRB members who determine refugee […]
If you were a refugee seeking protection in Canada, you wouldn’t want to cross the path of David McBean, wrote the Toronto Star March 4, in a story about a new York study that shows evidence of bias among different adjudicators on the Immigration & Refugee Board (IRB) of Canada: According to an analysis of […]
What does the economic crisis in Europe mean for the future of the European Union? That’s the question York faculty from economics, public policy and history will grapple with at a round table discussion tomorrow. Round table Discussion: The European Union in Crisis? will take place from 2 to 4pm at 305 York Lanes, Keele […]
Neuroscience researchers are increasingly coming to a consensus that bilingualism has many positive consequences for the brain, wrote the Los Angeles Times Feb. 26, in story that also appeared in the Chicago Tribune and on numerous US television news websites. Several such researchers travelled to this month’s annual meeting of the American Association for the […]
Researchers from the Faculty of Science & Engineering at Toronto's York University are currently touring India on a mission to establish key partnerships and collaborations with Indian research organizations and educational institutions, wrote Mumbai's The Hindu Business Line Feb. 27. The delegation of 12 researchers is visiting several top-tier universities and institutes across the country such […]
Professor Robert Latham, director of the York Centre for International & Security Studies, spoke to CBC Radio's Metro Morning about the challenges inherent in using the developing situation in the Middle East as a teaching example in the classroom, including the role social media is playing in Egypt, Libya and other places in the Middle […]
A delegation of researchers from York's Faculty of Science & Engineering will begin a nine-day mission to India today to establish partnerships and collaborations with the country's researchers. The group will visit seven top-tier universities and research institutes during their trip. Along the way they will stop at the India Institute of Technology's facilities in Mumbai (Bombay) and Madras, […]
Mastering a second language can pump up your brain in ways that seem to delay getting Alzheimer's disease later on, scientists said Friday, wrote The Associated Press and The Canadian Press Feb. 18 [via sympatico.ca], in a story that was featured in reports by more than 300 newspapers, television stations and radio stations around the […]
Declarations by European leaders that multiculturalism is a failure are not applicable to York Region, academics and immigration advocates said, wrote the Aurora Banner, Feb. 18: The dialogue sparked by the leaders mystifies York University City Institute director Roger Keil, himself a newcomer from his native Germany in the 1990s. “I’m puzzled (that) the national […]
Professor Laurence Packer in the Faculty of Science & Engineering's Department of Biology spoke to Global News February 12 about the sudden death of the Royal Ontario Museum's bee colony. Over 20,000 bees died in a 48-hour period. You can watch the segment on the Global News website. Packer is a bee expert who has […]
Although Quechua dates back to the time of the Incas and is spoken by millions in Peru, its success as a written language has been limited. Despite its official language status, it’s considered marginalized and is dogged by stigma and misconceptions. During the first half of the 20th century, however, there was a sudden flurry […]
If collaboration across industry, academic and public sectors is key to bridging Canada’s innovation gap, how do you make university research more accessible to the people and organizations who need this expertise? York University has answered this challenge by launching Innovation York (IY). Strategically located in York Region, IY is the public face and conduit […]
In her recent book, Berliner Chic: A Locational History of Berlin Fashion, York humanities Professor Susan Ingram explores the emergence of Berlin as a fashion capital against a backdrop of politics, ideology and war. The launch of Berliner Chic will take place Wednesday, Feb. 2, from 4 to 6pm in the Senior Common Room, 010 […]
York students have a chance this summer to join an archeological dig of an ancient village in Israel’s Negev Desert. Horvat Tsalit flourished during the turbulent years from King Herod to the violent Bar Kochba War (circa 30 BCE to 135 CE). According to ancient historian Flavius Josephus, it provided sanctuary to Judean militias fleeing […]
A United Way report last week highlighted a problem in Toronto: our city’s poor are increasingly concentrated in crumbling highrise towers, mostly in the inner suburbs, wrote Edward Keenan in EYE Weekly Jan. 20: The report addresses a subject that National Film Board filmmaker-in-residence Katerina Cizek has been studying for two years, while making films on […]
Is snacking on morsels of human flesh wrong? Apparently it is, if it involves murdering the person first – even if you’re stranded at sea without food or water. According to common law, necessity is no defence to murder. Such a 19th-century case of murder and cannibalism is highlighted in Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Allan Hutchinson's […]
‘Green jobs’ have been increasingly touted as the solution to job loss and environmental crisis. Will Canada transition to a cleaner economy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and employs a new generation of workers? Are green jobs the only link between environmental policy and employment policy? Defining green jobs raises further questions. What is a […]
In her ongoing effort to illuminate the experience of Muslims in the West, York Professor Haideh Moghissi has recently produced her second book on the subject, Muslim Diaspora in the West: Negotiating Gender, Home and Belonging. Released in December, the volume of essays by scholars from both sides of the Atlantic explores issues of race […]
Documentary is affiliated with York's Global Suburbanisms Project Take a glimpse into someone’s life that is otherwise invisible to most, wrote The Globe and Mail Jan. 5 in a story about the groundbreaking, web-based work Out My Window, by the National Film Board of Canada, that offers glimpses of lives within housing developments: Zanillya Maria […]
How can we respond faster and better to disasters such as last year’s earthquake in Haiti? That’s the challenge speakers, first-response practitioners, emergency managers, researchers and educators will discuss at the The Haiti Earthquake of Jan. 2010: Lessons Learned seminar next week at York. The seminar, being held one year after the earthquake, will take place […]