"Who says it's hard to find romance in Toronto? Sometimes it even happens in the northern cement Nirvana that is York University," Shinan Govani writes in his ever-breathless National Post column "Scene" April 4. "Mandy Moore, the fresh-faced pop singer who has been called the ‘other Britney,’ and Andy Roddick, the cuddly-hot US tennis player who has been called the ‘male Kournikova,’ got mutually mushy last summer in torrid love capital T.O. – and neither can stop talking about it! Moore, who starred in last year's teen sleeper hit A Walk to Remember and next is in How to Deal with Allison Janney and Peter Gallagher, tells all in the latest Movieline magazine: ‘I was filming How to Deal in Toronto and he was playing a tournament there (held every year on the York U campus). My mother is an uber-tennis fan and had always been talking about this guy, and I was like, "Tennis? Ugh!" She dragged me to one of his matches, and I met him afterwards.’ The rest, as they say, is what rhymes with mystery."
York study finds Canadians fare well at the top court
It was a good year for ordinary citizens and a bad year for government at the Supreme Court of Canada, reports the Toronto Star April 4, based on an analysis of the court's constitutional decisions by York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School dean-designate Patrick Monahan. He said it's difficult to know whether the results signal a court that is becoming more receptive to Charter claims or that the people who brought them forward last year simply had very powerful cases. One of the court's most significant decisions last year, a constitutional challenge launched by Richard Sauve against a prohibition on inmate voting, paints a picture of judges who have little patience for denying certain Canadians their constitutional rights based on moral reasons. That's worth bearing in mind when lower-court decisions involving such issues as same-sex marriages make it to the top court, Monahan said. The Vancouver Sun carried a similar story and quoted Monahan: "Certainly there would be no evidence to suggest the Supreme Court is bowing to government."
Ontario salutes York spin-off Optech
Optech Incorporated, a spin-off company from research work at York University and a laser radar (LIDAR) systems pioneer, has won a regional innovation award from the Ernie Eves government, reports Canada News-Wire April 3. The award was presented during the Ontario Global Traders Awards ceremony in Hamilton to recognize the success of the province's small and medium-sized exporters. Optech's airborne LIDAR systems are used for topographic mapping of the earth's surface from altitudes of up to three kilometres. R&D has continued as the company has grown, and Optech now leads the world with its Airborne Laser Terrain Mapping Systems (ALTMS). Selling in the range of $1 million to $2 million, these systems are Optech's leading export product and hold about 80 per cent of the world market.
Web site advises mortgage strategy based on York study
A new Web site, www.RateMiser.ca, will promote mortgage brokerage services and offer a simple strategy – take the lowest rate mortgage available, whether fixed or variable – based on research by a York University finance professor, reports Canada News-Wire April 3. The research showed the variable rate approach saved money over the locking-in approach 88 per cent of the time from 1950 to 2000. Savings under the variable rate approach averaged $22,000 and ranged as high as $99,854 when compared with locking in every five years on a $100,000, 15-year mortgage, according to the study.