Canada Next / en Canada Next: MaRS CEO on the future for startups /news/canada-next-mars-ceo-future-startups <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Canada Next: MaRS CEO on the future for startups </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-02-02T03:08:21-05:00" title="Tuesday, February 2, 2016 - 03:08" class="datetime">Tue, 02/02/2016 - 03:08</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">A young man interested in entrepreneurship speaks to representatives from MaRS at the 2015 Startup Career Expo. "˾ֱ is increasingly a “driving force” for startups", says Ilse Treurnicht, CEO of MaRS Discovery District.</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alan-christie" hreflang="en">Alan Christie</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Alan Christie</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/bbcie" hreflang="en">BBCIE</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/business" hreflang="en">Business</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada-next" hreflang="en">Canada Next</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/features" hreflang="en">Features</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/mars" hreflang="en">MaRS</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/nanoleaf" hreflang="en">Nanoleaf</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/startups" hreflang="en">Startups</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Canada is good at creating startup companies but not enough of them are high-growth enterprises, the so-called gazelles of the industry, says <strong>Ilse Treurnicht</strong>, CEO of the MaRS Discovery District.</p> <p>But the good news, she says, is that ˾ֱ is increasingly a “driving force” &nbsp;for startups, helping them not just to thrive but to succeed in Canada so that the economic benefits accrue to this country.&nbsp;</p> <p>The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute recently released a global entrepreneurship index that placed Canada second, behind the United States.</p> <p><em>˾ֱ News</em> asked Treurnicht for her analysis of the survey and her views about some recent stories in the media about Canada and entrepreneurship, including an op-ed piece in the <em>Globe and Mail </em>co-authored by President <strong>Meric Gertler</strong>: “Southern Ontario should be an innovation cluster, not a farm team.”</p> <p>The survey, she said, was a valid one and “another indication that entrepreneurship is important everywhere, and that Toronto has some good fundamentals in place, and that we have some areas where we can probably grow.”</p> <p><img alt="photo of Ilse Treurnicht" src="/sites/default/files/2016-02-01-ilse-embed.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 375px; margin: 10px; float: left;">Data on startups in Canada is relatively sparse but statistics from the U.S. and the U.K. suggest “that out of 100 startups somewhere between four and 10 become high-growth industries, the so-called gazelles.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Treurnicht &nbsp;(pictured at left) described&nbsp;a gazelle as a company that that increases its revenues by at least 20 per cent annually for four years or more, starting from a revenue base of at least $1 million.&nbsp;</p> <p>Gazelles “grow quite quickly and are major job creators, major contributors to revenue and economic growth,” Treurnicht said. “Starting up a company is important but it is not sufficient, you have to start more robust companies and more of them have to grow to scale.</p> <p>“Canada is pretty good at starting companies but we don’t have enough of them that grow to scale.”</p> <p>Our companies face “small local markets, and eco-systems that are still maturing,” she said. “We don’t have the serial entrepreneurs that they have in Silicon Valley.” &nbsp;</p> <p>In Canada, the capital contributions made to startups is about one-third of what it is in the U.S.</p> <p>“A lot of startups have to be international companies because the markets are so small here," she said. There are good reasons why so few become gazelles. “It’s not like we are stupid.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Still, there are grounds for optimism, Treurnicht said.</p> <p>“Over the last 10 years ˾ֱ has helped build the ecosystem in Toronto and the GTA. There is now a huge appetite among students to participate in such companies, and a growing appreciation among faculty, especially young faculty, to participate.”</p> <p>The survey suggests Canada is poised to do great things, she added.&nbsp;</p> <p>Treurnicht said the barriers to starting a company are very low, especially in the high-tech field. Companies focused on health care, “advanced materials” or artificial intelligence<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">&nbsp;–&nbsp;</span>firms with “hard-core intellectual property heft"<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">&nbsp;–&nbsp;</span>take a bit longer to develop so they require more investment.</p> <p>But the “deep technology competency and the feeder system” coming out of ˾ֱ “is as good quality as the rest of the world,”&nbsp;she said. That means that more companies “will grow right here, with the economic benefits accruing to Canada.”<br> <br> “This is a story about the growing momentum of ˾ֱ being a key force in making startups more successful. That is the message we want to get out. Stay tuned. There is a lot more come.”</p> <h1>Three to Watch</h1> <p>The majority of companies that have homes&nbsp;at the MaRS centre “have serious roots back to ˾ֱ,” Treurnicht&nbsp;said. They include Nanoleaf, Teabot and Chipcare.</p> <center> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/2014-09-23-nanolight-chu.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 200px; float: left; margin: 5px;"></p> </center> <address>&nbsp;</address> <address>&nbsp;</address> <address><span style="font-size: 12.6px; line-height: 21px;">Gimmy Chu, one of the University of Toronto alumni behind startup success Nanoleaf, with the revolutionary light bulb backed by investors around the world. Photo by Johnny Guatto.</span></address> <address>&nbsp;</address> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/tags/nanoleaf">Read more about Nanoleaf</a></h2> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <center> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/2015-03-11-teaBOT-1.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 300px; float: left; margin: 5px;"></p> </center> <address>&nbsp;</address> <address>&nbsp;</address> <address>teaBOT, the brainchild of U of&nbsp;T aerospace and robotics PhD candidate Rehman Merali and engineer Brian Lee, is part of the JOLT business incubator at MaRS Discovery District. Photo courtesy&nbsp;teaBOT.</address> <address>&nbsp;</address> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/tags/teabot">Read more about Teabot</a></h2> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <center> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/2015-03-15-chipcare-device.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 200px; margin: 5px; float: left;"></p> </center> <address>&nbsp;</address> <address>&nbsp;</address> <address>University of Toronto researchers James Dou and Stewart Aitchison founded ChipCare, an affordable and efficient lab-on-a-chip that can revolutionize HIV monitoring in developing countries. Rendering courtesy&nbsp;ChipCare.</address> <address>&nbsp;</address> <h2>&nbsp;</h2> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/tags/chipcare">Read more about Chipcare</a></h2> <p>There are difficult challenges that startups face, she said, but tackling those “is ˾ֱ’s thing. That is the sweet spot.”</p> <p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced a $20-million grant to the Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine at MaRS&nbsp;– the commercialization arm of Medicine By Design.</p> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/tags/medicine-design">Read more about Medicine by Design</a></h2> <p>GE Healthcare, a global company, also invested $20 million.</p> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/prime-minister-justin-trudeau-backs-commercialization-stem-cell-research-u-t-and-partners">Read more about CCRM</a></h2> <p>When global companies such as GE or <a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/jlabs-startup-incubator-selects-university-toronto-mars-first-international-expansion">Johnson and Johnson</a> make major investments here it&nbsp;shows they “want to interact with high-quality young companies, and they also want the proximity to outstanding research and the talent pipeline that comes out of ˾ֱ and its partner hospitals,” Treurnicht&nbsp;said.</p> <p>“It is not ˾ֱ just pushing out discoveries and startups but also the university being a magnet for global companies that recognize the strength of Toronto and the strength of ˾ֱ and its partners.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2016-02-01-MaRS-entrepreneurship_0.jpg</div> </div> Tue, 02 Feb 2016 08:08:21 +0000 sgupta 7618 at Carolyn Bennett talks with ˾ֱ News /news/carolyn-bennett-talks-u-t-news <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Carolyn Bennett talks with ˾ֱ News</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-01-12T03:47:31-05:00" title="Tuesday, January 12, 2016 - 03:47" class="datetime">Tue, 01/12/2016 - 03:47</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">“From my early days at ˾ֱ, whether playing hockey or just being a small number of us women in medicine, we were always trying to find our voice,” Carolyn Bennett says (photo courtesy Carolyn Bennett)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alan-christie" hreflang="en">Alan Christie</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Alan Christie</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/features" hreflang="en">Features</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/medicine" hreflang="en">Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/indigenous" hreflang="en">Indigenous</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/health" hreflang="en">Health</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/government" hreflang="en">Government</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada-next" hreflang="en">Canada Next</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs on the importance of “giving a voice to people who don’t have a voice”</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>When <strong>Carolyn Bennett</strong> announced a federal inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls she was wearing a t-shirt that proclaimed “honour our sisters.”</p> <p>Bennett, named Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs after the Oct. 19, 2015 election, has been honouring her sisters ever since her days as a student at the University of Toronto&nbsp;and for most of her adult life as a doctor and advocate not only for women but for those in poverty – “giving a voice to people who don’t have a voice,” she says.</p> <p>In an interview with <em>˾ֱ News</em>, Bennett talked about her days at ˾ֱ as both a student and an assistant professor, and about her portfolio, which has her taking on the monumental task of helping families deal with the horrific loss of their loved ones, but also to seek ways to prevent such tragedies from happening again. An RCMP report in 2014 said there were 1,181 missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada.</p> <p>“From my early days at ˾ֱ, whether playing hockey or just being a small number of us women in medicine, we were always trying to find our voice,” she said. Bennett graduated with a degree in medicine in 1974.&nbsp;</p> <p>“My voice became clear in the fight to save Women’s College Hospital” in 1989, when she successfully opposed a merger and preserved the unique nature of the hospital’s services, which focuses on patients becoming full partners in their care.</p> <p>“It was also a fight about social determinants of health, particularly violence and poverty – fighting for that hospital was the beginning of my political career.”&nbsp;</p> <p>The approach taken at the hospital was the same approach the new Liberal government is taking, she said – “not what we do but how.”</p> <p>The Ontario Liberal party approached Bennett to run in the 1995 provincial election. “I said I don’t know anything about politics, but I was told what you did with the hospital was political. I didn’t know that, and have always called myself an accident political tourist, just fighting for something you believe in, in particular fighting for people who don’t have their own voices.”</p> <p>She lost provincially in 1995 but won in the federal riding of St. Paul’s in downtown Toronto in 1997, and has been re-elected five times since. &nbsp;As chair of the Liberal women’s caucus she supported a national action plan to address violence against women and founded a Women in House program along with ˾ֱ PhD candidate <strong>Tina Park</strong>, seeking to elect more women to the House of Commons.</p> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/tags/women-house">Read more about Women in the House</a></h2> <p>In 2000, she wrote a book called <em>Kill or Cure</em> about Canada’s health care system. Asked what changes she has seen in the last 15 years Bennett said “we still have much further to go” in terms of differentiating between health and heal care. “We want more health and less health care. There is not yet the focus on health prevention that there should be.”</p> <p>She has talked to medical students across the country, including those at ˾ֱ. And has come away impressed by the attitude of “advocating to keep people well, not just patching them up.” She has given many speeches “about aiming to keep Canadians physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually well.”</p> <p>The inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women and girls is taking a “families first approach,” she said. “They have been pushing for over a decade for a national public inquiry not just to seek justice for the victims but for us to put concrete things in place to stop this tragedy from happening to other families.”</p> <p>On Jan. 5, Bennett and the Attorney-General of Canada, Jody Wilson-Raybould, announced the first step in the inquiry, an online survey to allow survivors, family members of victims and front-line providers to voice their opinions on who should conduct the inquiry, its timeframe, who should be heard and what issues should be considered.&nbsp;</p> <p>Bennett, who had a clinical adjunct appointment&nbsp;in the department of family and community medicine at ˾ֱ at the rank of assistant professor, spoke by video to a meeting of university presidents in Saskatoon last fall about Indigenous issues.</p> <p>“While I was speaking I kept going back to my time at ˾ֱ when we had to swim one length of the pool to graduate. It was all about making us good citizens. I am using that as a parallel because nobody should leave a Canadian university without taking at least one course in Indigenous studies. It doesn’t seem too much to ask if the goal is to create good citizens.”</p> <p>University graduates “should no longer be ignorant about our past, both the dark chapters but also the beauty and wisdom that came from the first peoples of this country.”</p> <p>Bennett pointed out that the University of Winnipeg now requires all undergrads to take a&nbsp;course in Indigenous studies and said that she would be in touch with ˾ֱ President <strong>Meric Gertler </strong>early this year to see if ˾ֱ&nbsp;would be willing to do the same.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2016-01-12-carolyn-bennett-2_0.jpg</div> </div> Tue, 12 Jan 2016 08:47:31 +0000 sgupta 7571 at Canada Next: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the world stage /news/canada-next-prime-minister-justin-trudeau-world-stage <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Canada Next: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the world stage</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-11-27T10:27:44-05:00" title="Friday, November 27, 2015 - 10:27" class="datetime">Fri, 11/27/2015 - 10:27</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">British Prime Minister David Cameron welcomes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Downing Street on Nov. 25 (photo by Georgina Coupe/Crown Copyright via Flickr)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/noreen-ahmed-ullah" hreflang="en">Noreen Ahmed-Ullah</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Noreen Ahmed-Ullah</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/political-science" hreflang="en">Political Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada-next" hreflang="en">Canada Next</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Political expert Peter Loewen analyzes Trudeau's performance, impact </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>For Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the G20 and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summits last week were an opportunity for world leaders to meet the new face of Canada.&nbsp;</p> <p>In between the selfie requests from delegates, being mobbed in Manila by shrieking fans and cracking jokes with President Barack Obama, Trudeau discussed refugees, economic growth and climate change and delivered a pointed message: Canada is a country that defines itself by its shared values, not its cultural differences.&nbsp;</p> <p>Assistant Professor <strong>Peter Loewen</strong> of political science is the director of the Centre for the Study of the United States at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. He spoke to <em>˾ֱ News</em> about Trudeau’s debut on the world stage.</p> <hr> <p><strong>How did Trudeau do at the G20 and APEC, as the world grappled with terror attacks in Paris, Beirut and Mali?</strong><br> I think Trudeau made a great first impression. He was well received, and he was confident, and he did this all under trying circumstances. These events are highly choreographed, which in some ways reduces risk, but they also offer limited opportunities for genuine influence, for a strong moment, or for a decisive encounter. For example, I imagine that Trudeau’s insistence that he would stand up to Putin was about as effective as Harper’s effort to do the same during their last meeting.&nbsp;</p> <p>So, the question is more about whether he was good enough and not about impact. Whether he had one is another matter. We shouldn’t expect too much of such meetings. Most the work is done before, so there is not a lot of room to influence outcomes.&nbsp;</p> <p>Now, with all of that said, there is one more final consideration. Trudeau comes into these meetings as the most junior (or among the most junior heads of government). This matters, because many of these leaders have had a lot of interaction with each other, and he’s had very little, obviously. This makes it hard to compare him with the impact that Harper might have had, for example. But it also highlights that Trudeau has a lot of room to grow, to build relationships, and to make the most out of these meetings in the future. The fact that his first meetings went well is perhaps a good sign going forward.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>How was Canada’s response on refugee resettlement and ISIS − affirming Canada’s withdrawal of air strikes and vowing to add more military trainers − received by other world leaders?</strong><br> On the first issue, I suspect the White House was pleased to have Canada providing an example of an open and relatively ambitious response. The response of the American public, and especially the response of their representatives, has been, frankly, disappointing and even shocking. I can appreciate very much that the public has concerns about refugees. They don’t know the ins and outs of migration, of how terrorist acts are planned, or of how refugees are resettled. We can, for a time, forgive them their lack of information while still wishing more of them.</p> <p>But for politicians to do what the US Congress has done, and do what so many governors have done, essentially saying there are no circumstances under which refugees would be welcomed and supported – that puts them very much on the wrong side of history. I imagine President Obama looks at the Canadian example with some interest and surely some envy.&nbsp;</p> <p>On the ISIS withdrawal of jets, I suspect this is a wait-and-see issue. Canada can make a great contribution even without fighter jets, but we will have to see what that is. We will also have to see whether Canada’s commitment changes as France increases its campaign to have other parties join the fighting more actively and more deeply.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Did anything come out of the meeting with Obama that signals to you that there’s a changed relationship with the U.S.?</strong><br> Nothing material, actually. Has Keystone XL been approved, for example? My own sense is that perhaps 95 per cent of issues between Canada and the US are determined by economic and political logics. The remaining five per cent has to do with the personalities and warmth of the two leaders. We shouldn’t expect much of these meetings and we should keep the pressure on the American government to take a reasonable approach towards the production of oil in North America. &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>What are some issues Trudeau and Obama can bond over, or where they will differentiate?</strong><br> I have no idea, to be honest. I often wonder how world leaders have any time for friends. It will be interesting, however, to see whether they do develop the kind of personal connections that might allow them to do some big things in the time Obama has left. I certainly think it’s the case that the relationship between Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan, and then George HW Bush was helpful at the margins for things like addressing acid rain and marshalling support for the first Gulf War.&nbsp;</p> <p>Perhaps Trudeau and Obama can develop enough of a rapport to move the needle on the five per cent of things that are really open for discussion.</p> <p>(<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/23308277225/in/photolist-BvF1LH-9AuPwP-p7MS4V-odgsEG-nJauaC-6K9B4c-6K9AA4-6KdHDA-6KdGpW-6K9Bj4-6K9A6n-6KdJBS-6K9AQX-6KdJVY-6KdJdN-6K9wrg-6K9yFa-6KdDz5-6KdFiN-6K9y1Z-6K9wMV-6KdFGb-B4Q8TM-rrmYhC-AsLXVE-A9Heus-AsLWDw-6KdEfs-6KdFvC-6K9ymk-6K9z1V-6KdDUb-6KdCEW-6K9xG6-6KdEzh-gkXmtA-gkiiPW-gkiizC-gkhW9u-gkhWoC-6K9v4Z-pp3ZuP-nMKNzm-B7JdMz-A9RmW4-Av5MvK-AtaUwR-AsM1cy-Av5Txz-B7Jkwr">See the original of the above photo on Flickr</a>)</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-11-27-trudeau.jpg</div> </div> Fri, 27 Nov 2015 15:27:44 +0000 sgupta 7482 at Canada Next: Munk panels on terrorism, ISIS and the global refugee crisis /news/canada-next-munk-panels-terrorism-isis-and-global-refugee-crisis <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Canada Next: Munk panels on terrorism, ISIS and the global refugee crisis</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-11-24T09:07:45-05:00" title="Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - 09:07" class="datetime">Tue, 11/24/2015 - 09:07</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">“If we show that we react we will start to get played like a violin,” Aisha Ahmad, assistant professor of political science, told the packed room (above photo and middle photo by Johnny Guatto/ bottom photo courtesy Tina Park)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alan-christie" hreflang="en">Alan Christie</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Alan Christie</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/refugees" hreflang="en">Refugees</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/politics" hreflang="en">Politics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/political-science" hreflang="en">Political Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/munk-school-global-affairs-public-policy" hreflang="en">Munk School of Global Affairs &amp; Public Policy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/international" hreflang="en">International</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada-next" hreflang="en">Canada Next</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs held two sessions about terrorism on Nov. 20, with one over-arching theme emerging:</p> <p>To suggest that Canada and other countries stop accepting Syrian refugees in the wake of the ISIS attacks in Paris is both ludicrous and immoral.</p> <p>The first event, organized by the Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, brought together alumnae and faculty to discuss&nbsp;<a href="http://ccr2p.org/events-data/a-roundtable-on-understanding-the-isil-confronting-non-state-terrorism">understanding the ISIL and confronting&nbsp;non-state terrorism</a>.</p> <p>The second event, held just&nbsp;a few hours later, brought&nbsp;<a href="http://munkschool.utoronto.ca/event/19500/">panelists from&nbsp;˾ֱ, Waterloo and Carleton </a>to debate&nbsp;the ISIS attacks and their meaning for immigration, security and refugees.</p> <p>˾ֱ professor <strong>Randall Hansen</strong> told the later session that “the attack on Paris constituted, as Francois Hollande said, an act of war. ISIS has launched an attack on a NATO member state.”</p> <p>Hansen said, “our overriding goal after Paris, after&nbsp;Beirut, after untold atrocities committed against Muslims, our goal should be the destruction of ISIS. The only question is how.”</p> <p>He also said “the events in Paris have nothing, absolutely nothing to do with refugees. Despite earlier reports, none of the terrorists was a refugee, and the overwhelming number of refugees coming &nbsp;to Europe now are fleeing war, poverty and state breakdown. They are running from, not with, ISIS.”&nbsp;Hansen is director of the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at the Munk school.</p> <p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had&nbsp;commited&nbsp;to taking&nbsp;in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2015 but the federal government announced on Nov. 24 that it is altering the timeframe,&nbsp;with the deadline now Feb. 29, 2016 instead of the end of 2015.&nbsp;</p> <p>The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Nov. 19 to tighten controls on Syrian and Iraqi refugees and 31 Governors say they will not accept them into their states.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Stephen Toope</strong>, director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and the moderator of the late afternoon session, said the vote in the U.S. Congress is “absolutely illegal under law and absolutely immoral.”</p> <p>He said the Syrians are legitimate refugees with a “well-founded fear of persecution” and countries “have a duty to protect, and a duty not to expel them from your borders.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Assistant Professor <strong>Aisha Ahmad</strong>, a specialist in international security at the Munk School, said Canada should not alter its commitment to accepting Syrian refugees. “We should not react because it [the Paris attacks that killed 130 people]&nbsp;was intended to force a reaction. Staying firm on the course on refugees is critical,” she said.</p> <p>“If we show that we react we will start to get played like a violin. It is not safe, it is not appropriate that we behave reactively to attacks like this,” Ahmad said. Canadian government policy should be “based on evidence, reason and maximizing our security interests while staying true to our Canadian values.”</p> <p>Toope&nbsp;posed a question to the panelists written by an audience member: “What would success look like in the fight against ISIS?”</p> <p>Ahmad said “a key priority is to undercut their financing.” She had noted earlier that ISIS is the richest terrorist organization in history, bringing in billions of dollars from oil wells in captured areas; the selling of seized antiquities on the black market and taxing both citizens and businesses in Syria and Iraq. ISIS even has its own currency, she said.&nbsp;</p> <p>“If you push them out of their territorial strongholds and they no longer get to behave like the imaginary state that they think they are, they start to act like all the other crappy jihadist terrorist organizations around the world and they’re not as sexy anymore …you will start to see their appeal decline.”</p> <p><img alt="photo of Munk panel and audience" src="/sites/default/files/2015-11-24-MunkPanel-embed.jpg" style="width: 625px; height: 388px; margin: 10px 25px;"></p> <p>Lorne Dawson, a professor in the department of sociology and legal studies at the University of Waterloo, said “we have to de-legitimize the movement, strip away what sociologists would call the structural plausibility of this group – that is about degrading them, about cutting off the supply of foreign fighters and perhaps decapitating the leadership.”</p> <p>Dawson said ISIS “is an organization [that] by its internal structure and rationale for existence [shows that]&nbsp;as it is cornered, it will be absolutely vicious in its capacity to lash out, and they do have those foreign fighters. We have to steel ourselves to paying a real price” in attacking ISIS. “There will be terrorist attacks in the west; there will be more Parises…we have to steel ourselves in blood to accomplish the greater purpose.”&nbsp;</p> <p>ISIS, Ahmad said, is in an “ideological battle” with the west and its members are firmly convinced that non-believers are “apostates and sinners, and must be killed, and that includes refugees.”&nbsp;</p> <p>To have western countries accept refugees “is a tremendous blow to the ISIS narrative that it, and only it, can protect them.” Ahmad noted that Canada&nbsp;is taking in women, mothers and their children, and ISIS hardly sees them as possible insurgents strapping bombs to their bodies.</p> <p>The earlier session, sponsored by the Canadian Centre to Protect, based at the Munk School, heard from <strong>Arne Kislenko</strong>, an adjunct professor in the international relations program at the Munk School for International Studies.&nbsp;</p> <p>Kislenko, who worked for Canada Immigration at Pearson airport, said he has interviewed terrorists and he is quite nervous about politicians connecting the Paris attacks to accepting or rejecting refugees.</p> <p>“Saying things like ‘we have to rope it in to make sure that our national security is honoured’ is ludicrous,” Kislenko said.&nbsp;“It’s ludicrous. To the best of my knowledge none of the perpetrators was actually linked in any way, shape or form” to Syria.</p> <p>“And frankly even if they were, I say very bluntly, we are a civil society” and should accept refugees, Kislenko added.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Kathleen Davis</strong>, who is completing her doctorate in international law at ˾ֱ, said it is important to not react harshly to the terrorist attacks by blocking refugees.</p> <p>“I think the natural inclination as we have seen on social media (with people saying no to accepting refugees) and in other forums is to allow fear and anger to be our guide. But fear and anger are never good advisers.”</p> <p><img alt="photo of Canadian Centre for Responsibility to Protect conference" src="/sites/default/files/2015-11-23-munk-centre-protect-sized.jpg" style="width: 625px; height: 469px; margin: 10px 25px;"></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-11-24-munk-panel-ahmad.jpg</div> </div> Tue, 24 Nov 2015 14:07:45 +0000 sgupta 7473 at Canada Next: John Tory on the future of Canadian cities and the role of ˾ֱ /news/canada-next-john-tory-future-canadian-cities-and-role-u-t <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Canada Next: John Tory on the future of Canadian cities and the role of ˾ֱ </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-11-18T03:52:11-05:00" title="Wednesday, November 18, 2015 - 03:52" class="datetime">Wed, 11/18/2015 - 03:52</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">“˾ֱ is in the top 20 [universities] in the world and it is a huge selling point in terms of attracting not only investment but attracting the best and brightest to Toronto,” John Tory says (photo by Bora vs. Bora via Instagram)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alan-christie" hreflang="en">Alan Christie</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Alan Christie</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/political-science" hreflang="en">Political Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/mowat-centre" hreflang="en">Mowat Centre</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada-next" hreflang="en">Canada Next</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">˾ֱ</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">“The better the city is, the better ˾ֱ is, and vice versa.”</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>When Toronto Mayor <strong>John Tory</strong> meets with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in December he will be heartened by indications from the PM that he is “friendly to cities.”</p> <p>Tory, a ˾ֱ alumnus (Trinity College, 1975), told <em>˾ֱ News</em> that he discussed the role of cities in telephone conversations with Trudeau during the recent election campaign. If the new government keeps its commitments, he said,&nbsp;&nbsp;Canadians will be "better off when it comes to investment in transit, housing and other infrastructure projects in cities.”</p> <p>Tory said&nbsp;he is&nbsp;heartened by the Liberals'&nbsp;stated willingness&nbsp;to run a deficit. “Often in the past, parties make commitments, but when they get into government say, ‘things are much worse than we thought, and the money just isn’t there.’&nbsp;In this case, they fully acknowledge the price to be paid for the expansion of transit and infrastructure.”</p> <p>The mayor noted that Trudeau’s funding commitment extends to public housing.</p> <p>“There is no daylight between us as mayors, at least big-city mayors, that the two issues that require the most assistance from other levels of government on an urgent basis are transit and housing.”</p> <p>Another encouraging sign from the new federal government is Trudeau’s commitment to “having the cities at the table with him to discuss our issues, something that hasn’t been done often. And he has committed to an annual conference with big-city mayors, something that has never been done.”</p> <p>To further emphasize the point, Tory pointed to the letters of mandate Trudeau sent to all members of his cabinet. “In almost every case he sees a significant role for cities, either in investments or cities giving advice to the federal government. That is a change for the better.”</p> <p>Tory is working closely with the ˾ֱ on several fronts. City Council agreed earlier this year to ask Professor <strong>Eric Miller</strong>, the research director of ˾ֱ’s Transportation Research Institute, to do a study on TTC ridership, which is due in January.</p> <p>(<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/7119320@N05/14915815999/in/photolist-oJ4srn-ah31LS-ah31GS-agZd5v-agZd2V-agZcZn-agZcXe-ah31v5-agZcRZ-agZcQR-ah31qC-ah31oY-ah31mG-ah31iA-agZcDD-ah31eJ-ah31c9-agZcwT-ah318w-agZcs2-ah314b-agZcnR-agZckg-agZchv-ah2ZTj-ah2ZRj-ah2ZP5-ah2ZM3-agZc7H-ah2ZH5-ah2ZFJ-agZc2c-ah2ZC3-agZbV2-agZbTi-ah2ZuN-ah2Zt9-ah2Zrf-agZbM4-ah2Znf-agZbGT-agZbEF-agZbCD-ah2Ze1-agZby2-agZbvZ-ah2Z6N-agZbrT-agZbpk-agZbmV">Image below by Sean_Marshall via flickr</a>)</p> <p><img alt="photo of streetcars" src="/sites/default/files/2015-11-18-streetcars-embed.jpg" style="width: 625px; height: 469px; margin: 10px 25px;"></p> <p>The Mowat Centre, an independent think tank located at the School of Public Policy &amp; Governance at ˾ֱ, released two reports recently on “community benefit agreements” (CBAs) and anchor institutions, of which ˾ֱ is one. Both rely on public-private partnerships (P3s) for major projects.</p> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/addressing-income-and-wealth-inequality-local-level">Read more about the Mowat Centre reports</a></h2> <p>On Nov. 14 Tory suggested that such P3s would be useful to keep projects on time and on budget. &nbsp;He pointed to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT now under construction.</p> <p>The Mowat Centre also referred to the LRT as an unofficial CBA. Asked whether such agreements are the way of the future, Tory&nbsp;said yes. "Look at the revitalization of Regent Park where there were community benefits agreements entered into where developers and the community, and other partners worked together to create jobs.</p> <p>“And something really positive: When the project came to an end, there were fully trained skills trades people who then worked in other projects in the city. They found a permanent calling.” CBAs, he said, will be a major part of the newly announced revitalization of Lawrence Heights.</p> <p>“The notion that (CBAs) should extend to public transit should come as no surprise. They provide plenty of opportunities for the transfer of skills to people looking for employment, local people. This is going to be a feature of that type of project.”</p> <p>Tory has talked to ˾ֱ President <strong>Meric Gertler</strong> about the president’s commitment to becoming a partner with the City of Toronto.</p> <p>“He made it very clear to us,” Tory said “that ˾ֱ employs hundreds of experts, hundreds even in the area of urban affairs that take in environmental matters, transit matters and anti-poverty matters, and will make them available to us because that is part of the contribution he wants to make to having a better city. It is quite sensible – the better the city is, the better ˾ֱ is, and vice-versa.”</p> <p>Tory studied&nbsp;political science at ˾ֱ and fondly remembers the great professors he learned from – <strong>Robert Bothwell</strong>, <strong>Paul Fox</strong> and <strong>Michael Marrus</strong> among them. Tory listened to lectures from Marrus 35 years ago and was so moved that he has attended events recently to hear him speak again, including a Holocaust Remembrance service.</p> <p>“That is one of the great things about going to a great university – you get the best teachers. I am sure there is the same level of excellence there today.” After graduating in 1975, Tory obtained his law degree at Osgoode in 1978. He sat on ˾ֱ’s governing council from 1995 until 2001.</p> <p>As mayor, Tory has travelled to London and Texas to promote Toronto. “One of the biggest selling points is the critical mass and excellence of the post-secondary institutions in Toronto.</p> <p>“˾ֱ is in the top 20 in the world and&nbsp;that is a huge selling point in terms of attracting not only investment but attracting the best and brightest to Toronto.”</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-11-18-canada-next-toronto.jpg</div> </div> Wed, 18 Nov 2015 08:52:11 +0000 sgupta 7455 at Canada Next: why this country should welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees /news/canada-next-why-country-should-welcome-25000-syrian-refugees <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Canada Next: why this country should welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-11-12T07:33:51-05:00" title="Thursday, November 12, 2015 - 07:33" class="datetime">Thu, 11/12/2015 - 07:33</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"> (photo by Mohamed Azakir / World Bank via flickr)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/terry-lavender" hreflang="en">Terry Lavender</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Terry Lavender</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/syria" hreflang="en">Syria</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/refugees" hreflang="en">Refugees</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/international" hreflang="en">International</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/english" hreflang="en">English</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada-next" hreflang="en">Canada Next</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Refugee crisis is rooted in past, says director of Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Ask <strong>Ato Quayson</strong> about the Syrian refugee crisis and he‘ll start talking about the end of the Ottoman Empire.</p> <p>The director of ˾ֱ’s <a href="http://www.cdts.utoronto.ca/">Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies</a>&nbsp;isn't trying to duck the question. And he knows the subject is urgent&nbsp;–&nbsp;the new <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-syrian-refugee-plan-1.3315554">federal cabinet met on Nov.12</a> to discuss just how to bring 25,000 refugees to Canada.</p> <p>He’s trying to explain that not only do the roots of the current crisis lie in the past, but that refugees have been fleeing failed states for many years.</p> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/tags/refugees">Read more about the refugee crisis</a></h2> <p>Quayson, who&nbsp;co-teaches a second-year Introduction to Diaspora and Transnational Studies course,&nbsp;is an acclaimed literary scholar specializing in postcolonial and diasporic writing. (<a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/top-urban-history-association-prize-ato-quayson">Read about Quayson's latest, award-winning book</a>.)</p> <p><em>˾ֱ News</em> spoke to him about the course and the refugee crisis.</p> <p><strong>What is the Introduction to Diaspora and Transnational Studies course about?</strong><br> We get students to understand how complex the field of diaspora and transnational studies is. For example, this semester we’ve looked at gastro-nostalgia – the role that certain ethnic food stores and restaurants play in binding communities together – and the transnationalism of the industrial food system. Students were surprised to learn that the Subway sandwich chain is the largest purchaser of tomatoes in the world. Thus, when Subway decides to change its purchasing policy or to pay attention to the ethics of the production of the tomatoes that they purchase, it can affect the entire supply chain. And the current refugee crisis has given us an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between dispersal, mobility and what it is to be a citizen in the world today.</p> <p><strong>What did you teach students about the refugee crisis?</strong><br> What I did was place the current situation in a geopolitical context. I took students back to the end of the Ottoman Empire, a long process that stretched throughout the 19th century, up until the early 20th century. Syria was a very wealthy province of the Ottoman Empire, and by the end of the 19th century it&nbsp;included Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and parts of Iraq. After 1918, the British and the French split the province into the individual countries we have in the region today. Now ISIS seems to be trying to restore the integrity of the old Syrian province.</p> <p>The other thing I told them is that there is a historical template for the current refugee crisis. In 1912 and 1913, there was a massive population movement in the Balkans – we’re talking hundreds of thousands of people. Several thousands died. The Balkans had for several centuries been of geopolitical interest to the Ottoman, Hapsburg, and Russian empires. Several countries in the region were under Ottoman rule by the start of the wars in 1912-1913. The refugees that have arrived in Europe now number about 250,000 to 300,000 – much fewer than the hundreds of thousands that were moving all over the Balkans just before the First World War. So Europe has seen this before, but there seems to be no greater level of sophistication in dealing with the refugees now than there was in 1913.</p> <p><strong>Could the Syrian refugee crisis have been prevented?&nbsp;</strong><br> Definitely. When the trouble started in 2011,&nbsp;eight million Syrians were displaced, both internally and externally. Of the externally displaced,&nbsp;four million found themselves in Turkey and Jordan alone. The length of time that it was taking to process these refugees in Turkey and Jordan was so long that a whispering went around the camps that it was actually quicker to get refugee status in Western Europe than in Turkey or Jordan.</p> <p>Europe should have known there was trouble coming. It was clear that Jordan and Turkey did not have the capacity to process the many refugees. The UN Refugee Agency is not only underfunded but infrastructurally incapable of coping with the scale of the crisis. In the longer view, the crisis might have been prevented by the non-intervention of Western powers in Middle East affairs.</p> <p>And by this I am not only referring to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, but Russia’s earlier occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It is the Russian misadventures in Afghanistan that first produced the template for Muslim fighters warring against "infidel" occupying armies. And it is this template that was reproduced in Iraq and that ISIS has extended into Syria.</p> <p><strong>Canada has pledged to admit 25,000 refugees by the end of 2015. Is this good for the country?&nbsp;</strong><br> Studies show that refugees do impose an economic burden in the short term, but in the long term, 19 out of 20 refugees are success stories. When you start thinking long-term, admitting refugees can only be a plus. Canada has a labour shortage. So this is actually a time to solve two problems at once. Get them into the system, find jobs for them. Of course, many people are worried that some of these refugees may be importing violence. But the real potential for conflict is within the refugee community itself. Refugees sometimes import the conflict to their new home. Therefore, mechanisms for creating intracommunal harmony should be a priority for the Canadian government. Once there is intracommunal harmony, the problem of such communities becoming seedbeds for terrorists will be ameliorated.</p> <p><strong>You’re a renowned English literature scholar. What’s the connection between English literature and diaspora studies?</strong><br> In my mind, literature and diaspora studies are inseparable because at the heart of both is the concept of mobility. One of my areas of interest is postcolonial studies – studies of empire, of post-imperial formations, of the relationship of the West and the rest of the world and so on. One of the things that kept coming up was the impact of all these major changes in the world on minorities, and often these minorities are on the move.</p> <p>At first I did not see the connection between diaspora studies and my earlier interests in postcolonial literary studies. But once the question of mobility came to me via my study and teaching of diaspora and transnational studies I was forced to interpret literature in new ways. So now I read literature from the perspective of mobility; who is moving, why, what are their means of locomotion and what are the enigmas of both arrival and departure that inflect personal and collective identities.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-11-12-CN_syrian_refugees.jpg</div> </div> Thu, 12 Nov 2015 12:33:51 +0000 sgupta 7438 at Canada Next: researchers explain what the return of the long-form census means for Canada /news/canada-next-researchers-explain-what-return-long-form-census-means-canada <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Canada Next: researchers explain what the return of the long-form census means for Canada</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-11-10T09:46:26-05:00" title="Tuesday, November 10, 2015 - 09:46" class="datetime">Tue, 11/10/2015 - 09:46</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">The long-form census is “extremely critical” in determining demographic trends, says Timothy Chan. “The more granular the data, the better.”</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alan-christie" hreflang="en">Alan Christie</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Alan Christie</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/social-work" hreflang="en">Social Work</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/engineering" hreflang="en">Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada-next" hreflang="en">Canada Next</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Alan Walks: “It was actually harming Canadian business, harming the competitive aspect of businesses and entrepreneurs not to have this data”</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The new federal Liberal government is bringing back the long-form census for 2016 and no one is more grateful than University&nbsp;of Toronto researchers.&nbsp;</p> <p>The 61-page census was killed by the former Conservative government in 2011 prompting outrage from urban planners, health care advocates, scientists and demographers.</p> <p>On Nov. 5, one day after being sworn in as minister of innovation, science and economic development, Navdeep Bains announced the return of the mandatory census, saying “we need good, reliable data.” Most Canadians receive the short census of about six pages but 2.9 million households will get the longer one in May.</p> <p>There is a financial penalty for not filling it out, but Bains did not specify what it would be. In 2006, 93.5 per cent of the population filled out the forms.</p> <p>Professor <strong>Michael Carter</strong> in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering said “we are very grateful, so pleased to know it is back. We were very upset about” not having it.&nbsp;</p> <p>The long census had substantial practical benefits, he said. Carter is founder and now co-director of&nbsp;the Centre for Research and Healthcare Engineering. He has worked on projects with hospitals, on home care, long-term care, medical labs and mental health institutions.</p> <p>One area where the long-form census provided value was in the department’s work with Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) in Ontario, particularly with a project that took in Scarborough and parts of eastern Ontario.</p> <p>His department used data from the census to produce maps showing where the demand for services was the greatest, allowing the LHINs to work with their respective suppliers to meet those demands.</p> <p>“One of the major concerns with health care,” Carter said, “is that it is relatively easy to measure utilization but how do we measure the true demand for it? The long-form census is a valuable asset for that.”</p> <p>Carter said “people are panicking about the baby boomers” reaching old age and the data from the long-form census will be invaluable in assessing their needs.</p> <p>Associate Professor <strong>Alan Walks</strong>&nbsp;in the department of geography's&nbsp;program in planning&nbsp;said he used the long-form census “all the time. I’ve done a number of studies – inequality in Canadians cities; neighbourhood inequality and my current project is looking at the relationship between rising Canadian household indebtedness and inequality in Canadian cities.”</p> <p>He has also looked at gentrification in cities and commuting patterns and the implications of using different modes of transportation.</p> <p>“As a geographer and planner I have been interested in not only looking at these issues in kind of a macro perspective but looking at neighbourhoods. The long-form census has been absolutely integral to all of that” because of the high quality of the data at the neighbourhood level, he said.</p> <p>When the long form was killed, “we couldn’t do a lot of things we normally do,” and had to rely on the 2006 census. It meant not being able to update Statistics Canada data at the neighbourhood level. The 2011 census was of little use to researchers, he said.&nbsp;</p> <p>Re-establishing the longer form will allow his department to update previous research, Walks said, “and provide us with significant new data to find out how things are on the ground in Canadian cities today.”</p> <p>The census “absolutely” has practical benefits, Walks said, and “it’s kind of ironic because the previous government was arguing against having the long form on privacy grounds, but municipalities, provinces, businesses, civil society organizations, universities said the data was&nbsp;useful, and there were very few reported cases of people complaining because of privacy issues. [Not having the long form]&nbsp;didn’t make any sense; it was actually harming Canadian business, harming the competitive aspect of businesses and entrepreneurs not to have this data.”</p> <p><strong>Timothy Chan</strong>, associate professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering, and director of the Centre for Healthcare Engineering, said he used the long-form census in a study to determine where defibrillators should be used in public places, examining population densities and high risk areas for cardiac arrest.</p> <p>The long-form census, Chan&nbsp;said, is “extremely critical” in determining demographic trends. “The more granular the data, the better.”</p> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/tags/defibrillators">Read more about Chan's research and defibrillators</a></h2> <p>The return of the long-form census is something Professor<strong> David Hulchanski</strong>&nbsp;of ˾ֱ's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work had urged. Renowned for his work on income polarization within cities, Hulchanski told <em>˾ֱ News</em> earlier this year that the death of the long-form was&nbsp;“a big loss, in that the census provided us with cross-tabulations of everything, not only what the income is, but the income by diversity, by age, by type of job, by renting or owning – allowing all kinds of analysis.That’s what we lose. We can’t do that with the voluntary National Household Survey – it undercounts so many groups that it’s just flat-out inaccurate. We cannot use it.”</p> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/gap-between-rich-and-poor-widening-says-u-t-david-hulchanski">Read more about Hulchanski's research</a></h2> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-11-10-canada-next-long-form-census.jpg</div> </div> Tue, 10 Nov 2015 14:46:26 +0000 sgupta 7421 at Canada Next: what the new cabinet says about the country's future /news/canada-next-what-new-cabinet-says-about-countrys-future <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Canada Next: what the new cabinet says about the country's future</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-11-05T10:41:01-05:00" title="Thursday, November 5, 2015 - 10:41" class="datetime">Thu, 11/05/2015 - 10:41</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his newly appointed cabinet (photo courtesy Foreign Affairs, Trade &amp; Development Canada)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alan-christie" hreflang="en">Alan Christie</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Alan Christie </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/rotman-school-management" hreflang="en">Rotman School of Management</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/politics" hreflang="en">Politics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/government" hreflang="en">Government</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada-next" hreflang="en">Canada Next</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">David Soberman: “Typically this country has been run by white males. The reality is that white males represent a minority of the Canadian population.”</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The swearing-in of a new federal cabinet is the beginning of a massive shift in the way Canada will be governed, several experts at the University of Toronto say.</p> <p><em>˾ֱ News</em> interviewed the professors after Justin Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister at Rideau Hall on Nov. 4, followed by 30 members of his cabinet.</p> <h3><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/meet-new-cabinet-ministers-university-toronto">Read about the ˾ֱ members of cabinet</a></h3> <p>Providing analysis of the new government were <strong>Tony Dean</strong>, a professor in the teaching stream at the School of Public Policy and Governance, <strong>Robert Schertzer</strong>, an associate professor in the department of political science and Professor&nbsp;<strong>David Soberman&nbsp;</strong>of ˾ֱ's&nbsp;Rotman School of Management.</p> <p>Dean, a former secretary of the Ontario cabinet and head of the Ontario Public Service, said “I think we’ve seen today an affirmation of the signals that were sent during the election campaign and election night – a government with a completely different style, one that is more open and inclusive. That is a decision only a prime minister can make.”</p> <p>The practical application of that, Dean said, will see “the government engaging with more people, the civil service and communities across Canada” when it comes to formulating new policy.</p> <p>“That is a very fresh and exciting message that will be well received by federal public servants.”</p> <p>Dean said Trudeau’s plans constitute a “shift back to the more traditional way of governing, both internally and externally” allowing Canadians “to help the government in [policy]&nbsp;breakthroughs.” &nbsp;</p> <p>He was particularly pleased at the make-up of the cabinet committees, including one on diversity and inclusion. Not only did Trudeau appoint 15 women to cabinet, important portfolios went to visible minorities and First Nations representatives, including Harjit Sajjan&nbsp;in defence and Jody Wilson-Raybould in justice.</p> <p>Considering the ties between Trudeau’s office and the ˾ֱ, including alumna&nbsp;<strong>Katie Telford</strong> – the new PM’s chief of staff –&nbsp;Dean predicted that the government will be offering employment to graduates of political sciences programs here.&nbsp;</p> <p>Schertzer, who served as chair of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism in 2009-10, said Trudeau’s statement that “government by cabinet is back” means cabinet ministers will be in the spotlight on some major issues, with much more independence than under the Stephen Harper government.</p> <p>The new cabinet contains five ˾ֱ alumni – Dr. <strong>Jane Philpott</strong> is Minster of Health; <strong>Catherine McKenna</strong> is Minister of the Environment and Climate Change; <strong>Kirsty Duncan</strong> is Minister of Science; Dr. <strong>Carolyn Bennett</strong> is Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs and <strong>Dominic LeBlanc</strong> is Government House Leader.&nbsp;</p> <p>“It is a strong front bench,” Schertzer said. “The cabinet is certainly younger and gender equity was a driving force” behind Trudeau’s choices. Many good people were left out but other jobs remain available, including junior positions such as cabinet secretaries (parliamentary assistants who often respond in Question Period when the ministers aren’t available).</p> <p>Trudeau’s commitment to consult widely, including such things as inviting the provincial premiers to accompany him to Paris at the end of the month for a climate change conference, is laudable, but Schertzer said “consultations can get complex very fast” given the lack of consensus on some major issues.</p> <p>Trudeau said after the swearing-in that the cabinet “is what Canada looks like.”</p> <p>Soberman agreed, saying “this is one of the most diverse cabinets in Canadian history. Typically this country has been run by white males. The reality is that white males represent a minority of the Canadian population and having a cabinet that is more representative in terms of gender and aboriginal people (among other things) is wonderful. Having a cabinet that is more representative of Canadians will tend to be more sensitive to the needs of groups who historically have suffered.”</p> <p>Soberman said “the cabinet is geographically balanced (every province and one minister from Nunavut) and this is a benefit of having strong representation across the country. While the Liberals have most of their seats from Central Canada and the East Coast, they have 50 seats west of Ontario and this only marginally less than the number held by the Conservatives. The cabinet is more diverse in terms of the professions that people have. There are also fewer career politicians by virtue of having so many new faces in Parliament. Other professions are represented (journalists, teachers, soldiers, and astronauts, for example) in addition to lawyers who historically have made up a significant percentage of cabinet ministers.”</p> <p>It is noteworthy, Soberman said “that Wilson-Raybould, a former B.C. regional First Nations chief was made the Minister of Justice and Attorney General. It is important that Trudeau chose a First Nations person to handle a portfolio with many challenging issues that directly involve First Nation people including continuing investigations into the residential schools, police treatment of First Nations people or the investigation of missing First Nations women. I think this is a good thing.”</p> <p>Trudeau kept two portfolios for himself:&nbsp;Youth and Intergovernmental Affairs.</p> <p>“Keeping these as part of the prime minister’s responsibility underlines how important these roles are to him,” Soberman said. “First, Trudeau won the election largely because of strong support from young voters, he himself is one of our youngest prime ministers and he is committed to making government policy more sensitive to the needs of youth.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Secondly &nbsp;I think that intergovernmental affairs have been frosty under Harper especially with [Ontario]&nbsp;Premier <strong>Kathleen&nbsp;Wynne</strong>, the leader of Canada’s most populous province and second with the new NDP premier of Alberta, Rachel Notley. By taking on this role himself, he is giving people the message that he wants to have a more cooperative working relationship with the provinces.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-11-05-CN_Group_with_design_mark.jpg</div> </div> Thu, 05 Nov 2015 15:41:01 +0000 sgupta 7412 at Predicting tornadoes months or even seasons in advance /news/predicting-tornadoes-months-or-even-seasons-advance-0 <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Predicting tornadoes months or even seasons in advance</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/tornado.jpg?h=8dd7ea19&amp;itok=ldfhtmCH 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/tornado.jpg?h=8dd7ea19&amp;itok=9R-G8Aid 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/tornado.jpg?h=8dd7ea19&amp;itok=11zt7onL 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/tornado.jpg?h=8dd7ea19&amp;itok=ldfhtmCH"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>dp_sunny</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-08-13T09:53:53-04:00" title="Thursday, August 13, 2015 - 09:53" class="datetime">Thu, 08/13/2015 - 09:53</time> </span> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/don-campbell" hreflang="en">Don Campbell</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Don Campbell</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada-next" hreflang="en">Canada Next</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Forecasting model developed at ˾ֱ could help with disaster planning, building codes</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><div> <p>A new model for predicting tornado activity could allow experts to prepare forecasts months or even seasons in advance, researchers at the University of Toronto say.</p> <p>“The aim is to predict ahead to the following year or subsequent years about whether we’ll get above or below average tornado activity in a given area,” said&nbsp;Vincent Cheng, a postdoctoral fellow in the Ecological Modelling Lab at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC). &nbsp;</p> <p>Developed by Cheng, Professor&nbsp;George Arhonditsis&nbsp;and Professor&nbsp;Bill Gough&nbsp;in UTSC’s Climate Lab along with colleagues at Environment Canada, the model uses large-scale atmospheric variables like those used by weather forecasters. But instead of trying to predict a tornado on any specific day, it looks at variations in monthly and seasonal tornado activity relative to changes in atmospheric conditions over the same period.</p> <p>Cheng said the model predicts how different conditions in the atmosphere during a thunderstorm will affect the risk of a tornado. The key variables the model relies on includes the instability of the atmosphere and vertical windshear, which is the change in wind speed and wind direction at different heights. These variables are important since there’s a much higher risk of a tornado taking place when air is able to rise quickly coupled with a big change in wind speed and direction at different heights above the ground.&nbsp;</p> <p>Cheng’s model also takes into account the lack of accurate records in tracking tornadoes. Tornado reports rely solely on eyewitness observations, which means they’re better monitored in more populated areas. The model bypasses that by showing the strong relationship between atmospheric variables and actual tornado occurrences.&nbsp;</p> <p>The result sheds light on why actual tornado activity in Canada is vastly underestimated. &nbsp;&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;&nbsp;<br> “From observations there are only about 60 reported tornadoes in Canada per year, but that number is more like 150,” said Cheng (pictured below). “When we apply the model to areas where the monitoring network is lacking we find the greatest difference is in the Northern Great Plains and the Canadian Prairies.” &nbsp;</p> <p>[photo of Vincent Cheng with computer screens showing tornado] &nbsp;</p> <p>Cheng said there is also a significant data gap in northwestern Ontario and that more attention should be paid to that part of the province. The model is explained in a research paper that was published in the journal Nature Communications.&nbsp;</p> <p>While much remains unknown about how tornadoes actually form, when one does it produces a narrow, violently rotating channel of air that runs from the base of a thunderstorm to the ground. They are one of nature’s most hazardous weather events, capable of causing significant destruction and devastation including severe injuries or death.&nbsp;</p> <p>Canada is second only to the United States in the number of tornadoes experienced, with more than half of them ocurring in the Prairies and Northern Ontario and a third in Southern Ontario.&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;<br> The goal, said Cheng, is to be able to predict whether there will be above-average or below-average tornado activity in a given area over a given time. This information can play an important role in disaster planning or determining how resistant to tornadoes buildings need to be in a given area.&nbsp;</p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 13 Aug 2015 13:53:53 +0000 dp_sunny 1 at