“Does it matter whether I was involved from the very beginning? No I don’t think it does,” said psychology Prof. Michael Friendly, Faculty of Arts, in a Feb. 21 Toronto Star article on an independent review of the analysis undertaken by the Star on the issue of racial profiling by the police. He was responding to criticism by Professor Edward Harvey of University of Toronto’s sociology department, who said Friendly should have been involved in the Star project from the outset. Referring to the sociologist’s comments, Friendly said, “I don’t know what Ted Harvey has done. But I tried to take into account as many factors as were available in the database, simultaneously and in some combinations. And there was still a strong difference between blacks and whites.” Friendly is also the coordinator of York’s Institute for Social Research.
