Two well-known York grads spoke warmly of the University on CBC Radio One’s “Metro Morning” show in Toronto on March 1 as the show focused on the lives of retired host Andy Barrie and his replacement, Matt Galloway (BA Hons. ’94).
Guest Jian Ghomeshi (BA ’95), host of the national CBC Radio show “Q”, told listeners, "Matt and I also have an agenda that the rest of the CBC needs to be York grads as well." Galloway responded, “Let’s hear it for 4700 Keele St.,” as Ghomeshi called out "Represent!"
There were also frequent references during the show to Galloway starting out at York’s CHRY radio station.
Legal appeal focuses on rights of former NHLer
Rob Ramage’s conviction and four-year sentence for dangerous and impaired driving could be in jeopardy because, in gathering the evidence, police violated the NHL veteran’s rights, wrote the Toronto Star March 1 in a story about an Ontario Court of Appeal hearing. [The case concerns a crash that killed his passenger and longtime friend, former Chicago Blackhawks captain Keith Magnuson. A York Regional Police constable took a sample of Ramage’s urine as he lay in hospital following the collision.]
Last summer, the Supreme Court of Canada restated the principles judges should consider in these decisions and the Ramage case is the first major test of how those principles will be applied in Ontario. “This case has to be looked at in a serious manner on appellate review,” said Alan Young, a professor in York’s Osgoode Hall Law School.
In the past, Young said, judges have been divided over whether taking a sample of a bodily substance without a warrant or an accused person’s consent is a serious violation of the Charter.
In Ramage’s case, the Newmarket trial judge, Justice Alex Sosna, said while he doesn’t condone what Const. Andrew Cole did, taking the urine sample amounted to a minimal intrusion on Ramage’s “bodily integrity” and the evidence could have been obtained with a warrant in any event, so the infringement of Ramage’s Charter rights was relatively minor.
However, in comparable situations, said Young, other judges, including Canada’s late chief justice Antonio Lamer, have taken a different view. They have concluded that when officers have an opportunity to obtain evidence through lawful channels, such as a warrant, and deliberately choose not to do so, the violation of an individual’s Charter rights becomes extremely serious.
Judges might be willing to cut officers some slack if the law is murky, but in this area, it’s hard to imagine the law being anything other than crystal clear, Young said.
Gold for poetry
Former fencer, figure skater and springboard diver Priscila Uppal’s present specialty is pentameter, wrote The Vancouver Sun Feb. 27. That’s iambic pentameter – in which poet Pindar feted ancient Greece’s Olympian athletes. Many cultural contributors were honoured then, said York University literature professor, editor and novelist Uppal, who is poet-in-residence for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. And not just long ago. Olympic medals for art in sports were awarded from 1912 to 1948, she said, and ought to be again. Hear, hear. Cheer, cheer.
The couple who beat breast cancer – and a haven for recovery
Cancer sufferers who have good support from a partner also show a better recovery, wrote England’s The Daily Telegraph March 1. A study in 2008 from The Ohio State University found that women with happy marriages had better outcomes and saw steady reductions in their cancer-related stress. In December 2009, a report from York University, Toronto, in the journal Psycho-Oncology, concluded that for couples able to overcome the challenges associated with the illness, there is the “potential for mutual growth, and a deepening and strengthening of the relationship.”
As students gather online, schools are heading there to meet them
York University has hired four “e-ambassadors” to monitor its 4,000-member Facebook site, its 3,000-follower Twitter feed, its Flickr program for photos and Vimeo for sharing videos, wrote the Toronto Star March 1.
“There’s a ‘cool factor’ with social media that you don’t get any more with e-mail,” said Donna Cope, director of print and e-media communication in the Admissions & Recruitment Department. “The less corporate the video, the more grainy the photo and more open the discussion between students, the more believable it is.”
Marketing specialist faces big challenge at symphony
This could be Joanne Kovich’s toughest job yet, wrote The Sault Star March 1.
Attendance at Sault Symphony Orchestra concerts is waning. Audience members under age 30 are rare. Subscriptions have slumped more than 50 per cent in the past decade.
Kovich (BA Hons. ’97), recently hired as the group’s new public relations and marketing specialist, is expected to increase audience numbers by 50 per cent and to encourage more young people to study at the orchestra’s School of Music. Just 20 students are taking lessons from nine faculty members. The school was founded in the mid-1990s.
Still, Kovich couldn’t wait to start her new job in late February. “There’s so few opportunities in Sault Ste. Marie to do marketing and public relations in the culture industry,” she said in a recent interview. “I jumped at the opportunity.”
A Sault native, Kovich studied sociology & communications at York University and public relations at Seneca College. She spent nine years promoting music in Toronto, including the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival and the Gemini and Genie Awards during a four-year stint with The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.
York grad researches Cape Breton’s ‘lady’ landscapists
York grad Linda Revie (MA ’90), a Cape Breton University professor and English scholar who concentrates on Canadian literature and culture, is painting a picture of community history with an ongoing research project, wrote Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Post Feb. 27.
Revie, who received her master’s degree from York University’s Faculty of Arts, has a research policy grant to investigate The Sydney Painters Club, a Cape Breton art association founded in 1908 by a group of “lady” landscapists.
Foley hopes to take flight with Seahawks
The ink on the contract is dry and now the real work starts for former York Lion Ricky Foley, wrote DurhamRegion.com Feb. 26.
The 27-year-old Courtice resident recently signed a deal with the National Football League’s Seattle Seahawks and will head to his new home next month, knowing there is plenty of hard work ahead. “I have a lot of goals in front of me,” Foley said in a recent interview. “Signing a contract is not the end of the road by any means. I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
On air
- Research by Mazyar Fallah, a professor in York’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science in the Faculty of Health, about the colour red and motion perception, was featured on CBC Radio’s “Quirks & Quarks” Feb. 27.
- Alan Middleton, a marketing professor in the Schulich School of Business at York University, spoke about the potential for endorsements for Olympic athletes, on Toronto’s 680 News and CBC Radio across Canada Feb. 26.