Your important article on big-box daycare (Toronto Star, Oct. 20) quotes a spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Children and Youth Services as saying there will be no capital grants for for-profit centres. Unfortunately, this completely misses the point, wrote Barbara Cameron, professor in York’s Atkinson School of Social Sciences, in a letter to the Star Oct. 23. The main issue is not capital grants, but operating and parent fee subsidies for child-care spaces, said Cameron.
The business of ABC Learning Centres is not early childhood learning; it is subsidy harvesting. This multinational corporation is after the steady stream of profit that comes from the difference between the cost of offering low-quality services and the amount of the ongoing government subsidy.
If the province hopes to prevent such daycare centres from taking over our child-care system, it must end operating subsidies to commercial child-care services, with grandparenting for existing owner-delivered services, wrote Cameron.
The new prenatal exam: Are you blue?
Even a short period of depression can have lasting effects for a new mother and her family, wrote The Globe and Mail Oct. 23. "Women who are depressed need support in their role as mothers," says Concordia University psychologist David Forman. His conclusion was echoed by many participants at a conference last week in Toronto on the topic of maternal health run by the Association for Research on Mothering at York University.
Schulich EMBA ranked No. 17 worldwide
The joint Executive MBA offered by Kellogg School of Management at Chicago’s Northwestern University and the Schulich School of Business at York University is ranked No. 17 in the world – the highest standing of any program offered in Canada, according to this year’s Financial Times survey of EMBAs, wrote The Globe and Mail Oct. 23. It is the first year the Kellogg-Schulich joint program has participated in the survey. The highest ranked EMBA program worldwide is another Kellogg collaboration – with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
- The Edmonton Journal also noted Oct. 23 that the Schulich joint Executive MBA program with Northwestern University was the highest Canadian ranking.
Canada needs national front against white-collar crime
An offensive against white-collar crime under the RCMP has so far been a huge disappointment, wrote CanWest News Service Oct. 23. According to a recent report prepared by Peter Cory, chancellor of York University and a former Supreme Court justice, and Marilyn Pilkington, professor and former dean in York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, Integrated Market Enforcement Teams have been hamstrung by high staff turnover and lack of strong leadership, among other difficulties.
Accused will have a tough time fighting direct indictments, says Osgoode prof
James Stribopoulos, a criminal law professor at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, said direct indictments in the case of 14 men accused in connection with Canada’s largest terrorist sweep are exceptional, but have been upheld under constitutional challenges, wrote the National Post Oct. 23. "They would have to show there is an ‘oblique’ motive, that is the word the case law uses, on the part of prosecutors – essentially, that this was being done to subvert the right to a fair trial," Stribopoulos said. "That is a very difficult thing to show."
Have we all gone doggone crazy?
Our tendency to "humanize" our pets is the main reason the pet industry is currently touted as one of the top growth industries, wrote The Globe and Mail Oct. 23. Kathryn Denning, professor of anthropology in York’s Faculty of Arts, reflects: “It’s wonderful that people are trying to extend their care [by treating their pets as children]…but at the same time, you do have to look at it and say, ‘Well, isn’t that obscene, that some people can afford to put their dog in a doggie hotel with a television set in it, while there are people sleeping under bridges?’”
On air
- Dr. Joel Lexchin, professor in York’s School of Health Policy & Management, in the Faculty of Health, spoke about a new study of drug prices, on CBC Radio Two (Halifax) Oct. 22.
- Pat Armstrong, sociology professor in York’s Faculty of Arts, spoke about an increase in the number of Ontario nurses, on CBC Radio’s “Here and Now” (Windsor, Ont.), Oct. 22.
- Andrea O’Reilly, president of the Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) at York, and a professor in York’s Atkinson School of Arts & Letters and the School of Women’s Studies, spoke about permissiveness and mothering, on CFJC-TV (Kamloops, BC) Oct. 22.
- Alan Young, criminal law professor in York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, spoke about new legislation introduced by the federal government, on CP24-TV’s “Legal Briefs” Oct. 22.