Penelope Reed Doob, Chair of the Dance Department in York University’s Faculty of Fine Arts, discussed the difference between ballet and opera companies with The Globe and Mail in a May 13 story about the National Ballet of Canada being a tenant in Toronto’s new opera house. Everybody knows everyone else’s strengths and weaknesses in a ballet company, Doob told Sandra Martin, because you spend so much time working and touring together. “You don’t have the soprano coming in from Bulgaria and the tenor from Argentina and so on.” In Doob’s opinion, dance is intrinsically more collaborative, especially in the creation of new ballets. You don’t have a composer writing the music and somebody else doing the libretto, she said, and “then it comes together and you teach it to the chorus and then the conductor comes in and the stars fly in later.”
Should the bank cut rates? Yes, says Fred Lazar
The National Post asked economists whether banks should cut interest rates as business and labour leaders fear a climbing dollar is a threat to growth and productivity. Fred Lazar, economics professor at York’s Schulich School of Business, said yes. He said David Dodge, governor of the Bank of Canada, sees inflation all around him, as the child in the movie The Sixth Sense sees dead people. “When did the Canadian economy become fully disconnected from the US economy, or indeed from the global economy? The US economy either may slip back into recession or may continue to grow slowly. But there is no inflation threat on the horizon. The European Union economies are likely to be dragged back into recession by Germany and the sharp appreciation of the euro against the US dollar. The Japanese economy is going nowhere. So where is the underlying strength needed to kindle the inflationary fires in Canada? Dodge is now following a policy path that is 180 degrees different from those of the major central banks in the world. Either he is brilliant, or he is too proud to admit that he has made a mistake in pursuing a quixotic adventure tilting at imaginary inflationary windmills.”
York grad appointed to Immigration and Refugee Board
Denis Coderre, federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, has announced the full-time appointment of Laurel Cropley, a graduate of York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, to the Immigration and Refugee Board in Toronto, reported Canada News-Wire May 13. Cropley is an adjudicator with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. Previously, she was a mediator with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, and was an adjudicator for Immigration Adjudication.
On air
- Dennis Raphael, health policy and management professor at York’s Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies, was interviewed as part of coverage last weekend of the Canadian Public Health Association convention where health care policies relating to the poor in Alberta came under fire, on CBX-AM News, Edmonton, May 12.
- Brock Fenton, biology professor in York University’s Faculty of Pure & Applied Science, questioned the effectiveness of bats as an alterative to chemical protection against West Nile virus, on CBC Radio’s “Metro Morning,” Toronto, May 12.