The Toronto Raptors are on the hunt for a new look, but fans are divided about changing the NBA team’s colours to black and gold, an idea said to be under consideration. . . . A black and gold jersey – implying toughness, strength, success and winning – could be a big seller, said Vijay Setlur, sports marketing instructor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, in the Toronto Star Jan. 10. But sports marketing experts agree they’ll need to win to make any rebranding work (the Raptors haven’t made the playoffs in five seasons). “[Rebranding] is designed to infuse the club with a new vitality and a new energy,” Setlur said, “but it has to be followed hand-in-hand with performance success. It can never be a cure-all.” Read full story.
‘Our students trace their roots to 165 countries’
Rated among the top educational institutions in North America, Toronto-based York University boasts a large community comprised of 55,000 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, and more than 250,000 alumni around the world. What’s more, York’s 11 Faculties and 28 research centres are thinking bigger, broader and more globally, partnering with 288 leading universities worldwide. Under the leadership of Mamdouh Shoukri, York’s President and Vice-Chancellor, a large delegation including three deans recently visited Kolkatta to discuss collaboration possibilities with five universities in West Bengal led by the University of Calcutta. In an exclusive interview, Dr. Shoukri, an outstanding educationist and institution builder, shares his vision, mission and multiple objectives of the visit, reported the Hindu Business Line Jan. 12. Read full story.
The Nadon hearings: 10 key issues in the Supreme Court showdown
For the first time in its 139-year history, the Supreme Court of Canada is being asked to decide whether a judge chosen to join its ranks was lawfully appointed. Prime Minister Stephen Harper chose Justice Marc Nadon in September from the Federal Court of Appeal to fill one of three slots reserved for Quebec on the court. After a legal challenge, Justice Nadon stepped aside without sitting on a single case. . . . Justice Nadon swore an oath of office in front of Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin in early October. Now the Chief Justice and the rest of the court will have to make a legal ruling on his appointment. “It looks like a conflict of interest; however, there is no other practical resolution of this problem,” says Ian Greene, a professor emeritus of political science from York University, in The Globe and Mail Jan. 13. Read full story.
Michael Greyeyes
The recent rash of suicides among Canadian armed forces veterans has raised public awareness of the cost of war on military personnel returning from combat. So Michael Greyeyes’s new full-length show, A Soldier’s Tale, is certainly timely, reported Now Magazine’s Jan. 9-16 issue. . . . Greyeyes, who has a long history in dance and theatre as a performer and is currently also a professor of devised theatre and movement practice at York University, started Signal Theatre in 2010 to create hybrid, intercultural works. With A Soldier’s Tale he hopes to challenge the often stilted paradigm of separate episodic text and movement seen in many dance-theatre productions. Read full story.
John Greyson: Political filmmaker
In anticipation of his upcoming TIFF talk, we spoke with York University Professor John Greyson, a noted Toronto filmmaker and activist, about his time behind bars, the secrets to a successful hunger strike and the universal appeal of Robert De Niro. . . . “There’s a very healthy instinct to want your life to return to normal almost immediately,” said Greyson in The Grid Jan. 9. “Don’t think it will – that was advice that came from my friend Jim Loney, who was held hostage in Iraq for three months in 2006, and it’s so true. Going back to work has been challenging. I’m back full-time [teaching] at York, but the muscles aren’t quite what they were. There is also the fact that our experience brought with it a whole lot of obligations and new responsibilities, so in some ways there’s no going back.” Read full story.
Pearson strives for better preparation after extreme-weather debacle
Canada’s largest airport was embarrassed this week, caught ill-prepared to cope with ice and frigid weather in January. The decision to halt incoming North American flights on Monday night and Tuesday morning caused inconvenience for thousands of passengers travelling to or through Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, and it took days to clear up the mess. . . . As the GTAA undergoes its review of what went wrong and how to improve operations for extreme weather, one difficult issue to tackle will be how much money to invest in equipment that would be able to better withstand colder temperatures, assuming the combination of woes this week is a rare occurrence, said Fred Lazar, a professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, in The Globe and Mail Jan. 10. Read full story.
Target’s profitability in Canada now ‘years away’
A widening data security breach has hurt Target Corp.’s crucial holiday sales, and the results have spilled over into its fledgling Canadian business, raising questions about how quickly the retailer can turn its operations around. . . . “The new risk to the [Target] Canadian business is that we are no longer the top corporate priority with the damage done to domestic US customer confidence by the data breach,” said Jim Danahy, director of the Centre for Retail Leadership at York University’s Schulich School of Business, in The Globe and Mail Jan. 10. Read full story.
Look for Trudeau to get a bump in the polls from his new baby
Trudeau’s own father won elections in 1972 and 1974 after becoming a dad and Brian Mulroney also won re-election in 1988, on the heels of Canada’s last baby-born-while-in-office, reported the Ottawa Citizen Jan. 10. . . . Voters like their leaders to be strong, and good leaders know it. . . . In 1999, a leaked campaign memo advised Dalton McGuinty to consider wearing shoulder pads to appear more physically imposing. When the Harper Conservatives dismantled Stéphane Dion, they did it by portraying him as weak and ineffectual. It even works the other way around. Surveys conducted in the late 1970s by York University showed that voters believed Pierre Trudeau was taller than Joe Clark, despite the fact that he was actually many inches shorter. The lesson is simple. In a world that is hyper-sensitive to imagery and remarkably open to persuasion, those who project strength are seen to be leaders – and vice versa. Read full story.