One of two top-ranked undergraduates candidates at Schulich School of Business and a 2012 winner of a $10,000 scholarship from Commercial Real Estate Women, Amanda Acchione dreams of one day being an entrepreneur in the real estate sector, wrote the Financial Post on Oct. 29. “I have sticky notes, which have the words ‘aha moment’ at the top and then at the bottom the words ‘not so much,’ ” she said. “I am a sticky note person. I use them a lot for things like thinking about the business I’d build. There are many aha moments that later end up with me checking off the ‘not so much box.’ But I try to focus on the good ideas and make the ones that don’t work better.” Read full story.
The role of the State: Panitch and Gindin on theMaking of Global Capitalism – Part II
Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin have just released their latest book, The Making of Global Capitalism. Gindin is the former Research Director of the Canadian Autoworkers Union and Packer Visiting Chair in Social Justice at York University, and Panitch is Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University. In this groundbreaking work, Panitch and Gindin demonstrate the intimate relationship between modern capitalism and the American state, including its role as an “informal empire” promoting free trade and capital movements., reported rabble.ca Oct. 26. Read full story.
Worker paid $1.25/hour gets second chance to prove case
David Doorey, a professor of labour and employment law at York University, expressed disappointment with the initial ruling in a blog. He found the tribunal’s findings in relation to damages for future wages to be problematic. “The original panel’s decision upheld a practice of paying $1 per hour to a disabled worker based on a very narrow and technical reading of the limitations clause. That interpretation was wrong in law, in my view, and contrary to the spirit of the code. Thankfully, the reconsideration panel agreed,” reported the Law Times Oct. 29. Read full story.
GreenSpace: When you choose coffee, have a heart for the birds
With each sip of your morning brew, you can choose to help – or to hinder – the Baltimore orioles and many other species that winter in Central and South America…The connections between here and there are incredibly strong. Bridget Stutchbury, a conservation professor at York University in Toronto, has banded wood thrushes – an iconic Pennsylvania species – near Erie.They wound up at a shade coffee plantation and research site, El Jaguar, in Nicaragua, where forest losses pretty much match losses in the wood thrush population. A wood thrush banded there was recovered later outside Philadelphia. Farmers are feeling financial pressure to clear their shade farms. Buying shade-grown coffee “removes the pressure,” said Stutchbury. With increasing awareness, more shade-grown coffees are available. Yes, they cost more. You can get a pound of Maxwell House for less than $6, and most specialty coffees cost more than double that, reported Philly.com Oct. 29. Read full story.
McMaster, HHS lost $100m in drug research cash
An expert in the drug approval process agreed it’s “just the luck of the draw.” “It’s unusual,” said Joel Lexchin, professor of health policy and management at York University. “It’s not unexpected.” Lexchin says pharmaceutical companies have halved the dollars going to research and development in Canada to about six per cent of sales in roughly the past two years, reported the TheSpec.com Oct. 26. Read full story.