After 53 days detained in Egypt, John Greyson and Tarek Loubani have lost and gained – gone is the footage Mr. Greyson said he shot of Dr. Loubani treating wounded protesters, and gained is a sense of obligation to help the hundreds arrested that same August day but who remain imprisoned, reported The Globe and Mail Oct. 14. “They made us promise,” Mr. Greyson said, adding that the pair are considering a legal fund. “They said, ‘You’ve got to tell our stories.’ For them, there was that feeling, ‘Nobody’s listening. We’re really disappearing in here.’ ” Read full story. If it were up to him, Toronto filmmaker John Greyson said he’d go back to Egypt, reported the London Free Press Oct. 12. “We’re stubborn, we’re going back,” Greyson said in a telephone interview Saturday, a day after he and London, Ont., emergency room doctor Tarek Loubani returned to Canada after being held in an Egyptian prison for 50 days. The two men said they made critical miscalculations when they were detained on Aug. 16 in Cairo. The North York Mirror reported Oct. 11 that University President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri said he was “relieved and grateful” the men had been released from detention and looked forward to Greyson returning to the university.
Projection: A memoir about a daughter, a runaway mother, a life lived half in fiction
In the Sao Paulo suburb of Guarulhos in 2002, two women who share a love for red lipstick and little else walk briskly out of a theatre and begin to fight about Maid in Manhattan, begins a book review in The Globe and Mail Oct. 12. The fight is about more than a chick flick. The women are mother and daughter, both writers and academics, yet they know nearly nothing about each other. The daughter in this tale is celebrated Canadian poet, novelist and York University literature professor Priscila Uppal. In her first memoir, Projection, she lays bare her intense reunion with her mother, who abandoned the family when Uppal was 8, draining the bank accounts (even the kids’ piggy banks) and fleeing back to her home country of Brazil. Left with her brother to care for their quadriplegic father, Uppal somehow managed, scoring straight As in school – she writes that a child therapist praised her “excellent coping abilities.” Read full story. Read another review in the Winnipeg Free Press Oct. 12.
Outliving your savings and the 4% rule
One of the rules of thumb about retirement often mentioned by financial planners is the 4 per cent rule, reported the Toronto Star Oct. 14. Moshe A. Milevsky is a finance professor at York University. His most recent book is The 7 Most Important Equations for Your Retirement: If the rule means that you start by withdrawing 4 per cent of the value of the portfolio at retirement – and then adjust that by inflation every year regardless of how markets perform over time, then it is a horrible rule of thumb. The spending rate over time should depend on the markets, interest rates, how your portfolio is performing and your attitude to longevity risk. You cannot pick a rule at the age of 65 (and say) that is how you will behave over the next 30 years. Read full story.
Rogers said to launch new Wow! Mobile retail kiosks for wireless plans
Rogers Communications Inc. is launching a retail venture called Wow! Mobile to market its own wireless plans and brands as well as those of Telus Corp., reported the National Post Oct. 15. Sources say the venture aims to roll out 100 kiosks in enclosed shopping malls across Canada during the next 12 to 18 months. The strategy is a necessity for telecom providers, says Alan Middleton, marketing professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, given the pace at which gadgets become redundant and need to be replaced. “We are now in an era where, for so many tech products, ubiquity is the strategy, because [tech providers] need to be anywhere, anytime somebody wants to upgrade or update something,” he said. Read full story.
How to shield against interest-rate and housing dangers
RioCan chief executive Edward Sonshine is intimately aware of two of the most pressing macroeconomic risks facing Canadian companies today: interest rates and volatility in the housing market, reported . The Globe and Mail Oct. 15. “Anyone in business today has to assume that their cost of capital will likely be more expensive in the future than it is today,” says James McKellar, professor of real estate and infrastructure at the Schulich School of Business. Read full story.
Intermarriage data from U.S. poll cause stir here
The Pew Research Centre survey of 3,475 U.S. Jews, released Sept. 30, caused a stir among North American Jewish leaders when it was widely reported that it found an intermarriage rate of 58 per cent among American Jews, reported the Canadian Jewish News Oct. 15. York University sociologist Randal Schnoor said the common view that it’s just a matter of time until Canadian intermarriage rate catches up to the American one is too simplistic, mostly because the Canadian Jewish community is more traditional than its U.S. counterpart. Read full story.
Toronto Argonauts’ Andre Durie catches on as Chad Owens’ understudy
When they’re on the field together, Argonauts receivers Chad Owens and Andre Durie do their best to rev each other up, reported the Toronto Star Oct. 13. Off the field, however, where the close friends are also fellow football dads, Durie and Owens work on cooling each other down. Durie, who grew up in Clarkson, currently has the second-most receiving yards among non-imports. It’s another remarkable season for the former star running back at York University. Read full story.
From Phil Dixon to Andrew Wiggins: How Toronto became the epicentre of Canada’s basketball
While there are pockets of talent elsewhere across the country, Toronto is the epicentre of the Canadian basketball boom, reported the National Post Oct. 12. Ten of the 18 players invited to the men’s senior national team training camp this summer – and eight of the 12 who played in the FIBA Americas tournament – grew up within a 45-minute drive of Toronto. “In terms of overall development, younger athletes are getting opportunities now,” said Bill Pangos, father of Kevin Pangos and the head coach of the York University women’s team. Read full story.
On target; This Bloor West renovation went according to plan
When setting his sights on the bull’s eye, two-time Olympian master bowman Robert Rusnov rarely misses, reported the National Post Oct. 12. Winning archery competitions requires focus, and when it’s about renovating a home, he’ll tell you the same: “Vision is everything.” It’s that kind of drive that propelled Mr. Rusnov, a native of Richmond Hill, to the top of the archery ranks. While studying psychology at York University and earning a degree in electrical engineering from Ryerson University, he continued to make his mark among Canadian archers every year from 1992 through 2000. Taking on the best in the world was one kind of challenge, but creating more living space in a smaller century home for a growing family was another. Read full story.