“Let us hope that the model of those generous and giving people who reached out to the families of SARS victims will inspire all of us to better behaviour,” wrote Martin Lockshin, director of York’s Centre for Jewish Studies, with Rachel Turkienicz in the July 3 issue of The Canadian Jewish News. Of 35 people who died from SARS in Toronto, at least five were Jews, and the authors hoped their article would “stimulate a discussion about how people should behave toward their friends and neighbours after quarantine” and to think about the ethical aspects of the tragedy in a Jewish way.
Charest sent signals at Glendon
Quebec Liberal leader and now Premier Jean Charest quietly took his vision for renewing federalism to the rest of Canada last February, weeks before the Quebec election call, when he spoke at Glendon College in Toronto, noted the Montreal Gazette. “Governed by the Quebec Liberal Party, Quebec will assert itself as a leader within the Canadian federation and will strengthen its autonomy,” Charest said in a low-key speech to students at York University’s bilingual liberal arts school, as the Gazette described it. Low-key is also the approach Charest will take when he makes his debut on the national stage at an upcoming premiers meeting, the newspaper added.
On air
- An interview with John Saul, social sciences professor at York’s Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies, about US President George Bush’s six-day tour of Africa, American aid to Africa and military intervention in war-torn Liberia was aired on CBC Radio July 7, in Winnipeg, Calgary, Regina, Ottawa and Quebec City.
- Comments by Patrick Monahan, dean of York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, about an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada of an Ontario Court decision allowing same-sex marriages by a group opposed to such marriages, were aired July 7, on CBC TV’s “Canada Now,” “The National” and CBC Newsworld. Monahan’s opening remarks at the Public Record Conference on Constitutional Cases held in April at Osgoode were also aired on CPAC-TV July 3, along with discussion of equality rights by a panel that included former York law school dean Peter Hogg.
- CBC Radio’s “Morning North” in Sudbury talked to Cynthia Chataway, psychology professor in York’s Faculty of Arts, July 4, about her national study into the strengths of community in seven First Nations across Canada, including the nearby Batchawana First Nation.
- A presentation by Jamie Cameron, professor at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, to the national Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications May 29 meeting to discuss the current state of Canadian media industries, was aired on CPAC-TV July 4.
- Sergei Plekhanov
, political science professor in York’s Faculty of Arts and a member of York’s Centre for International & Security Studies, spoke about suicide bombings in Moscow and the connection to the situation in Chechnya, in an interview on CBC Newsworld’s “Newsworld Sunday” July 6.