On websites, drug users are sharing recipes on how to crack the code for OxyNEO – a new version of the drug OxyContin – which is designed to turn gel-like when dissolved in liquid so it can’t be pulled into a syringe. “So far Health Canada doesn’t really seem to have learned any lessons from OxyContin,” says Dr. Joel Lexchin, an emergency room physician and professor in the Faculty of Health at York University.
Lexchin says Health Canada has the power under the Food & Drugs Act to require that Purdue Pharma have a prominent statement in all of its promotions of OxyNEO warning of the potential for abuse, and that drug company sales reps should be required to deliver the same message to doctors, reported The Vancouver Sun May 22. Read full story.
Canadian universities that made the FT exec ed top 70
Some familiar Canadian names dot the top-70 list of international business schools in the Financial Times ranking of executive education programs released this week, including York’s Schulich School of Business, reported The Globe and Mail May 18. Read full story.
York grad’s film chosen for Student Film Showcase
Jeff Garneau, a graduate of York University’s film production program, was “pleasantly surprised” his short was one of 10 selected from across the country for the ninth annual Student Film Showcase, part of the Toronto International Film Festival, reported InsideToronto.com May 19. Read full story.
Natural gas distributors target growth
Mark Winfield, chair of the Sustainable Energy Initiative at York University, says natural gas is a better alternative than coal or nuclear in the power system, and is better than oil in transportation, but it is still a fossil fuel – and pollution issues grow worse as the industry relies more heavily on unconventional sources like shale gas, reported The Globe and Mail May 21. Read full story.
Growing number of Ontario college students need help in grade school math, study finds
Thousands of first-year students at Ontario community colleges are taking catch-up courses in basic math skills that they should have learned in grades 6, 7 and 8, according to an alarming new joint study by York University with Professor Emeritus Graham Orpwood, and Seneca College, which looked at 35,000 students, reported the Toronto Star’s Parentcentral.ca May 19. Read full story.
Toronto shouldn’t gamble its waterfront on a casino
For York environmental studies Professor Roger Keil, director of the City Institute, the waterfront must be looked at holistically, as an integrated ecological system rather than a patchwork of discrete parcels, reported the Toronto Star May 20. Read full story.
York Professor Geoffrey Reaume says there have always “been mad people within the academy”, although they hid their histories for fear of losing jobs and credibility, but that there is a course and a conference on madness (on the weekend), “is one indication about how much has changed since the early 1990s,” reported by the Toronto Star May 19. Read full story.
- Reaume also appeared on The Agenda with Steve Paiken on TV Ontario on Friday May 11. View video here.
What makes a great judge? Allan Hutchinson, a distinguished research professor at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, attempts to answer this question in his latest book, Laughing at the Gods: Great Judges and How They Made the Common Law, reported Canadian Lawyer May 21. Read full story.
The man accused of murdering York University exchange student Qian Liu will commence trial April 2, 2013, reported the National Post May 18. Read full story.
Jessica Thyriar, 21, of York University says she always has to scrounge for money to pay her fees because the money she gets from OSAP barely covers tuition, but for other students, OSAP provides more than they need, reported the Toronto Sun May 20. Read full story.
Ontario students pay tuition costs that soar $1,000 over the national average, but have yet to mobilize like Quebec students, to which York University’s Vice-President of Campaigns & Equity, Alastair Woods, says that students in Ontario aren’t disengaged, they’re scared, reported Now May 21. Read full story.