Professor Timothy Leduc to discuss climate refugees at film screening April 29

Environmental studies Professor Timothy Leduc (MES ’01, PhD ’07) will be part of a panel discussing the environment, following a free screening of the documentary film Climate Refugees. The screening will take place Friday, April 29, from 6:30 to 8pm in Room 2158 JJR MacLeod Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building, 1 King’s College Circle, University of […]

Professor Obiora Okafor elected to UN Human Rights Council advisory committee

Last week, York law Professor Obiora Okafor was elected to the advisory committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Nigerian-born professor brings his expertise in international law, human rights law,  and immigration and refugee law, especially as it relates to Africa, to the advisory committee. “The committee is the think tank of the […]

CC-RAI research partnership to host Canadian premiere of 'Sun Come Up' April 1

The Climate Consortium for Research Action Integration (CC-RAI) will host the first Canadian screening of the Oscar-nominated documentary, Sun Come Up – A story of the world’s first climate change refugees, at York University’s Keele campus on Friday, April 1. Students interested in how climate change will affect people in Canada and abroad are welcome […]

Judge blasts ruling by refugee board member with zero acceptance rate

The day the Toronto Star broke the story on a wide variation of acceptance rates by refugee board members, a Federal Court judge issued a decision chastising an adjudicator who had not granted asylum to anyone in three years, wrote The Star March 9: In an order issued Friday on an appeal by failed refugee […]

Refugee board disputes Professor Sean Rehaag's study on bias and refugee boards

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 […]

Osgoode Professor Sean Rehaag's study raises concerns about bias on refugee board

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 […]

Centre for Refugee Studies provides statistics on refugee status in Canada

After medical and security checks, anyone arriving in Canada may apply for refugee status, wrote the National Post Aug. 13, in a story that used statistics provided by Michele Millard, coordinator of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University: The process takes anywhere from six months to 15 years. A new law passed this […]

Program teaches students how to improve refugee settlement experiences

A York University certificate program aimed at training front-line workers who deal with refugees has graduated its first cohort of students and is already showing promising results.  The Certificate in Refugee & Forced Migration Issues Program, run out of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and the Centre for Refugee Studies, teaches students how […]

York Centre for Asian Research awards six graduate scholarships to fuel innovative research projects

Six York students have won five awards for their research on Asia or Asian diaspora this year from the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR). Vanessa Lamb (right), a second-year doctoral candidate in geography, is the 2010 Vivienne Poy Asian Research Award recipient. Her research interests include the politics of the environment and development, feminist political ecology […]

From Roman times to today, covered in one mother of a book

The Romans were celebrating mothers in about 1250 BCE when they began honouring Cybele, the mother goddess. Even so, motherhood throughout the ages has not always been given the respect it deserves. That’s something York women’s studies Professor Andrea O’Reilly knows a little about. She is general editor of the recently released Encyclopedia of Motherhood, a […]