Hosted in partnership

Sustainability Network and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Register at sustainabilitynetwork.ca

June 27th, 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Sustainability Network,
215 Spadina Ave,Toronto

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – and making a connection to the Ring of Fire.

Resolution 66/142 Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the General Assembly, March 30, 2012 and recognized and reaffirmed several areas including:”…Recognizing the value and the diversity of the cultures and the form of the social organization of indigenous peoples and their holistic traditional scientific knowledge of their lands, natural resources and environment…”

On May 9, 2012 Rick Bartolucci, Minister of Northern Development and Mines stated: “Ontario is blessed with an abundance of natural resources at a time in history when the world is developing faster than ever and demanding these resources. We are taking advantage of this incredible opportunity in the Ring of Fire to further open up Northern Ontario by bringing thousands of jobs, new infrastructure and economic opportunities to cities, towns and First Nations’ communities.”

The Sustainability Network is pleased to host a dialogue on “ENGOs and First Nations: A View of the Horizon and Reconciliation” in partnership with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. We are inviting our peers and leaders within the environmental, legal, resource and non-profit community to be engaged through a facilitated panel discussion. We will discuss critical environmental elements impacting reconciliation in Canada and how the environmental sector can influence reconciliation going forward.

Panelists will present their perspectives on the current and future climate regarding resource extraction, free, prior and informed consent, Aboriginal relations and more.

Panelists:

• TRC Commissioner Chief Wilton Littlechild, former representative of the United Nations will discuss the role of the TRC and the relevance of the environment in reconciliation.

• Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler, Nishanwbe Aski Nation (NAN) will detail NAN’s position on the environment including the Ring of Fire and impacts on the future in the north.

• Justin Duncan, Ecojustice – Eastern Program Director and Staff Lawyer will give his perspective as an environmental advocate with an eye on Ontario’s Ring of Fire, and impacts to healthy lakes, rivers, wildlife and wilderness.

• Craig Ford was very recently Vice President, Corporate Responsibility at Inmet Resources. He is a strategic, visionary and well regarded corporate responsibility mining executive.

  The panel will be moderated by Jennifer Henry, Executive Director at KAIROS.

The following appeared in the June 11th edition of YFile. Kevin McKague is a Core Faculty member of IRIS.

Kevin McKague (PhD ’12), a graduate of the Schulich School of Business, is this year’s recipient of a gold Governor General’s Academic Medal. He is dedicated to finding a way to alleviate global poverty and increase sustainability.

Kevin McKague

In his PhD thesis, Making Markets Work for the Poor, McKague investigated how low-income countries can maximize the objectives of all individuals in value chains, including improving the social and financial benefits for low-income participants and private sector organizations. His research site examined the work to strengthen the dairy value chain by CARE Bangladesh. It focused on improving incomes among 35,000 small and landless dairy producers in northwest Bangladesh.

McKague credits his family and growing up on a farm as being important in his focus on entrepreneurship, sustainability and alleviation of poverty. “My family have always be interested in public service,” says McKague. “I travelled to India and Africa in my early 20s to work in international development. I did my Masters of Business Administration at the Schulich School of Business and ever since then I have been putting entrepreneurship together with development.”

When he thinks about advice for future graduates, McKague is quick to quote the Greek philosopher, Aristotle. “Where your talents and the needs of the world cross; there lies your vocation,” says McKague, “I think it is important to combine what it is that is needed with what it is you can do to overlap your skills and passion with the needs of he world.”

The Governor General’s gold medal is awarded for outstanding academic achievement at the graduate level of study. It is the most prestigious award that can be bestowed on a Canadian graduate student. McKague will be presented with the medal on behalf of the Governor General by York University. Accompanying the medal is a personalized certificate that is signed by Governor General David Johnston.

While at York University, McKague was active as an adjunct professor at the Schulich School of Business. He was a senior research fellow with the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability. He was also a research fellow with the Aspen Institute, an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. He was a member of the Board of Governors at York University and was the founding board member and president of the Foundation for Sustainable Enterprise and Development.

McKague has more than 10 years of experience as a leader in managing innovative research, education and consulting projects involving sustainable enterprise and international development. Most recently, he worked on major projects with the International Finance Corporation, the United Nations Development Program’s Growing Inclusive Markets Initiative, the International Development Research Centre and the Canadian International Development Agency on issues of sustainable business approaches and pro-poor private sector development.

The co-author of Creating Sustainable Enterprise Networks and author of a number of award-winning MBA teaching cases as well as author or supervisor for the development of more than 70 case studies of inclusive and sustainable business models.

McKague has an undergraduate degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, which focused on international development, and an MBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business, with a specialization in Business and Sustainability. He has worked in Africa, including Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan and South Africa, as well as in India and Bangladesh.

Now a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Strategy Department in the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, McKague is continuing his research and teaching with an emphasis on issues at the intersection of poverty alleviation, entrepreneurship, sustainability and international business.

This year’s recipients of the annual President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards (UWTA) are being honoured for their innovation and commitment, as well as for having significantly enhanced the quality of learning by York students.

“Teaching excellence is the foundation of York’s reputation as one of the leading Canadian universities,” said York President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. “These recipients are outstanding individuals who are to be commended for their commitment and dedication to creating a stimulating and rich learning environment for our students.”

The recipients are chosen from four categories: full-time faculty with 10 or more years of teaching experience, full-time faculty with less than 10 years of experience, contract and adjunct faculty, and teaching assistants. They are selected by the Senate Committee on Awards. The goal of the awards is to provide significant recognition for excellence in teaching, to encourage its pursuit, to publicize such excellence when achieved across the University and in the wider community, and to promote informed discussion of teaching and its improvement.

Each award winner will have their names engraved on the President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards plaques in Vari Hall. They will also be recognized during Spring Convocation ceremonies.

The recipients of the 2013 awards are:

Professor Dawn Bazely of the Department of Biology in the Faculty of Science will receive the award in the Senior Full-Time Faculty category. The Senate Committee on Awards was impressed with the evident time and effort Bazely puts into thinking and writing about teaching, and making innovative changes to her courses. Students praised her ability to bring her research and life experience into the classroom, noting that she is a great mentor and wonderful role model whose passion inspires.

“It is a great honour to receive this award, especially because I have spent five of the last six years being the director of a research institute. To my mind, teaching and research go hand in hand and are completely intertwined,” says Bazely. “Those teachers who most inspired me during my undergraduate and graduate student times are (were) also outstanding and quite famous researchers. Not only were they my role models, but I also consider the wonderful students that I have had the privilege of teaching at York to be important role models for learning, teaching and research.”

Professor Peter Tsasis, jointly appointed to the School of Health Policy & Management in the Faculty of Health and the School of Administrative Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, will be awarded in the Full-Time Faculty category. Students clearly value Tsasis’ inclusive classroom environment where he uses multiple innovative and challenging learning strategies to engage all learners, wrote the Senate Committee on Awards. Letters in support of the nomination speak to his leadership in the use of diverse forms of experiential learning, as well as to his outstanding mentorship and commitment to students’ success.

“It is a tremendous honour that I am to receive this award,” says Tsasis. “I would like to thank my colleagues for their support, and the students, for whom I am given the privileged opportunity to help impact their learning journey.” In 2010, Tsasis received recognition for outstanding leadership as an undergraduate program director at the School of Health Policy & Management, and in 2011 he received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, in the Established Career Category, also at the Faculty of Health.

Annette Louise Bickford (PhD ’02) of the Department of Sociology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) will receive the award in the Contract and Adjunct Faculty category. The nomination notes Bickford’s integration of student experiences into her teaching to increase understanding of complex theoretical debates. Those writing in support of the nomination speak of Bickford’s knowledge and her passion for sharing it, as well as her ability to encourage and challenge students to re-examine their views. Committee members noted not only her success as a hard-working, caring and respectful teacher, but also her commitment to continual improvement and contributions to the scholarship of teaching.

“I’m inspired by critical pedagogy and convinced that education is politically charged around issues of power and identity. I strive to foster egalitarian, collaborative educational spaces that challenge us to analyze and act upon social injustices, and to envision alternative, transformative conditions. My goal is to support students in their intellectual growth as people who think for themselves,” says Bickford. “It is a great honour to receive this award, and a privilege to work with York University students and colleagues whose intellectual curiosity, courage, perseverance and willingness to consider new ideas and diverse perspectives – all hallmarks of critical consciousness – are exemplary.”

Janet Melo-Thaiss of the Departments of English and Humanities in LA&PS won the award in the Teaching Assistant category. Melo-Thaiss brings a good deal of experience as a course director at other universities to her recent work at York as a teaching assistant. She has an impressive breadth and versatility in her teaching and shares her experience when mentoring other teaching assistants. Committee members noted that students appreciate her ability to help them see and achieve their potential; ensuring that they learn, but making it fun at the same time.

“My teaching practice is based upon my firm belief that while imparting knowledge is one of my roles, encouraging students to draw on their own knowledge and experience is as important. My goal is to help students to access ‘what they already know’ and build confidence in their own voices,” says Melo-Thaiss. “So, for me, the classroom is not just about teaching my students about literature or writing, it is also about raising their awareness and sensitivity towards knowledge and wisdom. By encouraging students to approach knowledge from multiple perspectives, they benefit because they begin to ‘think about thinking’. In my experience, the positive ripple effects of the latter are quite profound.”

The following appeared in the April 22 edition of YFile.

CERLAC invites submissions from eligible undergraduate students of York University to the annual Telelatino Network “Mundo Canuck” Essay Prize competition.

The Telelatino Network “Mundo Canuck” Essay Prize is awarded annually to two York undergraduate students, to recognize exceptional writing on the experiences of Hispanic people in Canada. Two prizes are granted each year, one of $800 and the other of $450. The Prize was established in 2009 by a donation made to York University by Telelatino (TLN), a Canadian television channel that broadcasts programs of interest to the Hispanic and Italian communities.

THE ESSAYS:
Winning essays will provide critical reflection on the experiences of Hispanic people in Canada, highlighting their past, present and future contributions to Canadian society and/or addressing the challenges they have successfully overcome as members of a minority group in the Canadian context. Essays may be based on work done for a course. Length: 2,000-2,500 words maximum. They may be written in Spanish or English, and will be judged by the following criteria: critical insight, originality, relevance, clarity of presentation, coherence of argument and persuasiveness.

ELIGIBILITY:
The essay’s author must be an undergraduate student registered in an academic degree program at York University (any Faculty or College, including Glendon). Eligible students must be Canadian citizens, Ontario residents and demonstrate financial need.

PROCEDURE:
For this year’s competition, submit an electronic copy of your essay to cerlac@yorku.ca no later than 28 June 2013. A panel of York University professors associated with CERLAC and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) Program at York will act as judges for the contest. The winner will be announced in August 2013. Prize winning essays will be announced by TLN and by CERLAC and published on-line on their websites. The winners will also be announced on TLN (which may also interview and profile each winner).

Submit to: cerlac@yorku.ca 
Deadline for submissions: 28 June 2013

More information: contact CERLAC at 416.736.5237 or cerlac@yorku.ca

Deadline: July 31, 2013. Nominations limited to York University students only.

The Michael Baptista Essay Prizes recognize annually, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, an outstanding scholarly essay of relevance to the area of Latin American and Caribbean Studies from a humanities, social science, business or legal perspective. These prizes offer an opportunity for York University faculty to recognize outstanding student work in the area of Latin American and Caribbean studies at York University.

If you are a York faculty member who graded an exceptionally accomplished piece of student work (at the graduate or the undergraduate level) of relevance to these regions this past academic year, we encourage you to nominate the essay in question.

The prize includes a monetary component of $500 per awardee.  Winning essays will be considered for publication by CERLAC (the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean at York University).

The essays may be from a full or half course during the 2012-2013 academic year, or a summer 2012 course.  Major Research Papers at the graduate level may also be nominated.  Submissions should be no longer than 35 double-spaced pages (exclusive of bibliography).  Deadline extensions are available in instances where significant re-writing is required to shorten the work to within that limit.

TO NOMINATE:
Request a nomination form from CERLAC: cerlac@yorku.ca OR download the form here:http://www.yorku.ca/cerlac/Baptista-Prize-Nomination-Form.doc

Submit the nominated paper and accompanying form to CERLAC no later than July 31, 2013.  Both can be submitted electronically via email to: cerlac@yorku.ca. Hard copies are not required, but can be sent to: CERLAC, 8th Floor, York Research Tower.

PLEASE NOTE: ONLY FACULTY MEMBERS CAN NOMINATE A PAPER. Students may not self-nominate. Nonetheless, we encourage students who have received top grades and high praise on their papers to bring the existence of this prize to the attention of their instructors, so that they might nominate the paper if they so choose. A student may have only one essay entered into the competition in any given year (if more than one is nominated, the student will be asked to choose which is to be entered into the competition). Faculty members may nominate no more than one paper per level of study (max. two overall) in any given year. For the purposes of this award, an “undergraduate student” is a student enrolled in an undergraduate program who has received no prior post-secondary degree.

The papers submitted will be reviewed by two to three faculty readers with research interests in Latin America and the Caribbean. Both the prizewinners and the nominating faculty members will be advised of the decision approximately by the end of September 2013.

The Michael Baptista Essay Prizes recognize annually, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, an outstanding scholarly essay of relevance to the area of Latin American and Caribbean Studies from a humanities, social science, business or legal perspective. These prizes are funded by the friends of Michael Baptista, and the Royal Bank of Canada where he was a Senior Vice-President until his untimely death.

More about the essay prize: http://www.yorku.ca/cerlac/projects.htm#baptista

Baptista Prizewinning Essays: http://www.yorku.ca/cerlac/publications.htm#baptista

If you have any questions please contact CERLAC at 416.736.5237 or cerlac@yorku.ca

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Interested in Latin America and/or the Caribbean? Want to receive information about related academic and cultural events, opportunities, and current affairs?

LACYORK Informational listserv on Latin America and the Caribbean is a moderated listserv managed by the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) at York University in Toronto, Canada.
To join: send a request for subscription to LACYORK with your full name and email address to cerlac2@yorku.ca.

LACYORK is intended as an electronic venue for information-sharing among scholars and practitioners interested in:

• the culture, political economy, and human and social development of Latin America and the Caribbean and their diasporas;
• inter-hemispheric relations;
• globalization from a regional perspective;
• social justice and human rights issues in the region.

On the list is posted:

• current news from conventional and alternative sources on important regional events and issues;
• information about new publications, bibliographic resources, useful websites, conferences, and other events (the latter mostly – but not exclusively – taking place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada);
• employment, internship, study, and volunteer opportunities in the region (or in relevant organizations worldwide concerned with human rights, labour, the environment, women’s issues and development)