"We were naive to assume there was ever a peaceful world [after the fall of communism in 1989]. The interests that have always motivated states and peoples and religions and ideologies and classes and races didn't end just because the Cold War ended," historian Jack L. Granatstein, distinguished research professor emeritus of history at York University, told The Ottawa Citizen March 1. He was one of several Ottawa-based diplomats and foreign affairs observers the Citizen interviewed about the current global instability.
Peace play brings omens of war
Aristophanes’s anti-war play Lysistrata, in which the women of the warring Athens and Sparta withhold sex to force their men to broker peace, was performed around the world Sunday to foster debate, reported the National Post March 3. The war 2,500 years ago "was a very long, very destructive, very damaging war. There was a great deal of war-weariness at the time this was written,'' said Matthew Clark, a classical studies professor in York’s Faculty of Arts. "Everybody laughed at the humour. But the war went on. They weren’t in the end, changed by it all."
Star's analysis not "junk science"
Toronto Star publisher John Honderich defended, March 1, the Star’s methodology and conclusions – which have come under attack – of its finding that Toronto police treat blacks differently in discretionary situations. "Our confidence is based on the independent evaluation of an internationally renowned statistician, Michael Friendly, [York professor in the Psychology Department, Faculty of Arts], who has examined the same data, scrutinized our methodology, and double-checked our findings."
Unique accounts from Canada's past First Drafts: Eyewitness Accounts from Canada's Past, edited by historian Jack L. Granatstein, distinguished research professor emeritus at York University, and Norman Hillmer, is a highly original and compelling compilation of eyewitness accounts of our country's diverse history, reports the Guelph Mercury in its book section March 1.
On air
- Roger Kelton, Chair of York’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science, discussed changes in the workplace that have resulted in males expending less energy, on "Health on the Line" (DHC-TV), Feb. 28.