Thousands of students will graduate from the University of Toronto, York University and Ryerson University over the next few weeks at ceremonies that will also honour a wide range of well-known people, noted The Globe and Mail June 4. Among the honorary degree recipients at York University, said the paper, will be jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, economic theorist Amartya Sen and publisher Avie Bennett, the University's retiring chancellor. At the University of Toronto, honorary doctoral degrees will be presented to such notables as Six Nations Chief Roberta Jamieson, Edwin (Honest Ed) Mirvish and broadcaster Patrick Watson, said the Globe. Ryerson University honorary doctorates will be presented to Ted and Loretta Rogers and Sheela Basrur, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, among others.
Canadians becoming more urban in outlook
The vitality of Canada's cities is part of the June 28 federal election to pick a new government, but the debate will be felt sooner, wrote Seattle Times columnist Lance Dickie June 4. Canadians are slowly coming around to the essentially urban character of their nation, said Roger Keil, an environmental studies professor at York University. Keil sees them stepping away from the powerful mythology of farm, forest and resources that made provincial government the core of Canada's political system. This federal election, wrote Dickie, may turn in part on how Canada's great cities see themselves filling what Keil describes as the gap between economic importance and political relevance.
The perfect story
The Canadian Press story on York psychology Professor Gordon Flett’s study of perfectionism continued to get wide play. Flett, a Canada Research Chair in Personality and Health who teaches in the Faculty of Arts, has helped develop a 45-item questionnaire to identify perfectionists. The story was picked up by the Kingston Whig-Standard, the Timmins Daily Press, CFTO-TV Toronto’s “World Beat News”, and CFPL-TV London’s “News Now – Evening Edition”.
On air
- In an election-related discussion of what federal party leaders will do for the city of Toronto, John Honderich, the mayor's special ambassador on cities, said extending the TTC subway to York University is a key issue, on CIII-TV Toronto's "Global News" (Ontario) June 3.