Canada’s first official definition of homelessness was published this week, reported the National Post Sept. 12. “How do you attack a problem if you can’t define it?” said Stephen Gaetz, a homelessness researcher at York University. Drafted by the York University-based Canadian Homelessness Research Network, the definition parses Canada’s panhandlers, street people and vagrants into 12 main segments ranging from the hardcore homeless to the “precariously housed”. Read full story.
McMaster gets $5.8 million to improve electronic health records
On Wednesday, $15.5 million was given out to bring together 16 private-sector, academic and not-for-profit research partners including McMaster and York universities to create the Connected Health and Wellness Project, reported The Hamilton Spectator Sept. 13. Read full story. Read full story.
Toronto mayor defends himself in court in conflict of interest case
Trevor Farrow, a legal ethics expert at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, says the conflict-of-interest rules were designed to allow for human mistakes while “setting a fairly high standard to protect an important institution, which is our municipal government structure,” reported Canadian Press Sept. 12. Read full story.
Judge blasts interrogation technique
The Reid method used by police to interrogate suspects can lead innocent people to make false confessions, according to a judge in the western province of Alberta, reported Radio Canada International Sept. 12. “Isolation, fatigue, anxiety, fear: these can all produce compliant but possibly false confession,” psychology Prof. Tim Moore of York University told the court. Read full story.
Mining mountains of data is key for Canadian businesses
Canada is a little late coming up to bat in major league R&D investment, but there are encouraging signs, wrote Murat Kristal, director of the new Master of Science in Business Analytics program at the Schulich School of Business at York University and a professor of operations management & information systems, in an op-ed in The Globe and Mail Sept. 12. Read full story.
Why harnessing the power of data is key
Today’s competitive businesses have volumes of data but not nearly enough skilled analysts to distill it into useable and meaningful forms, wrote Murat Kristal, director of the new Master of Science in Business Analytics program at the Schulich School of Business at York University and a professor of operations management & information systems, in an op-ed in The Globe and Mail Sept. 13. Read full story.
York U running back named offensive player of the week
York University Lions running back Kyle Exume has been named the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) football player of the week for the period ending Sept. 9, reported the North York Mirror Sept. 12. Read full story.
No savings for those who go digital
Customer self-service saves companies money, lots of money — yet they are charging us more when we do the work in the digital world. It’s sneaky. Big business in Canada is using the transition to digital to raise prices under the radar, wrote Paul Barter, a lecturer on technology strategy in the MBA program at York’s Schulich School of Business, in an opinion piece in the Toronto Star Sept. 13. Read full story.