Richard Blackwell

U of T's Stefania Hurko was a poet and political activist who 'believed the individual could move mountains'

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 16:06:09 +0000

U of T's Stefania Hurko was a poet and political activist who 'believed the individual could move mountains'

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 02/10/2020 - 11:06

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Stefania Hurko, pictured here circa 1996, worked for U of T Libraries for more than 25 years and contributed to the cataloguing of U of T’s extensive Slavic and East European collection, the largest of its kind in Canada (photo courtesy of Marijka Hurko)

Richard Blackwell

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Stefania Hurko, a longtime employee at ��Ƶ Libraries, was an accomplished poet and activist – she once belonged to an underground liberation movement – who passionately supported Ukrainian culture and political freedom.

Hurko, who died in November at the age of 95, survived the occupation of western Ukraine by the Soviets and Nazis, worked underground for Ukrainian independence and then came to Canada where she established a career at U of T that would last over 25 years. Yet, she still managed to maintain her close ties to Ukrainian culture, publishing poetry in her native language and actively working to free political prisoners.

In 1991 she was finally able to celebrate Ukraine’s independence.

A skilled linguist, Hurko spoke English, Ukrainian, Polish, German, French and Russian and worked in book acquisitions and processing. Her knowledge of Ukrainian culture and her language skills meant she was a valuable contributor to the cataloguing of U of T’s extensive Slavic and East European collection, which numbers over 500,000 titles and is now the largest of its kind in Canada. Hurko also worked with academics interested in Slavic culture and history.

Paul Robert Magocsi, a U of T history and political science professor who is also chair of Ukrainian studies at U of T, said Hurko was supportive of his work and once helped him with complex research for a book he was writing – a section of text needed to be translated into the Galician dialect of western Ukraine.

“She had a sweet, soft-spoken and pleasant personality,” he said. “She was always smiling and upbeat and outgoing.”

While working at the library, Hurko continued her lifelong interest in writing poetry. She admired the famous 19th-century Ukrainian writer and poet Taras Shevchenko and emulated his style.

Hurko managed to be innovative while following the traditional Ukrainian poetic style, said her U of T library colleague Wasyl Sydorenko. “She was able to take her poems beyond simple literary realism to higher levels of philosophical and symbolic expression. She could be surrealistic or expressionistic.”

Hurko's poetry was published in the Ukrainian press in Canada and the United States, and she continued to write plays, poems and political satire long after her retirement from U of T.

Works by Stefania Hurko are part of U of T Libraries' collection (photo by David Lee)

Hurko was active in her support of dissidents – especially Ukrainians jailed or oppressed by the Soviet Union – and she was a member of Amnesty International’s U of T group. In 1974, she participated in a hunger strike in front of the Soviet embassy in Ottawa over the treatment of a Ukrainian dissident held in a Moscow prison. In a letter to the editor of the Toronto Star following the strike, she insisted that “there is nothing free in the Soviet Union; no free press, no free enterprise, no free thought.” The dissident was in prison “just because he wanted to act as a free man,” she wrote.

Hurko was born Stefania Deychakiwska in 1924 in the village of Yamnytsia, in an area of what is now western Ukraine, but was at the time under Polish control. After high school and teachers’ college, she worked briefly as a teacher. But the start of Second World War brought enormous upheaval to the region, which was occupied by the Nazis before later coming under Soviet control.

After the outbreak of the war, she joined the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and worked in an underground movement in German-occupied eastern Ukraine building support for Ukrainian independence. Later in the war, and after it ended, she worked in western Europe as a courier for the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council, an umbrella organization for Ukrainian nationalists.

In 1948, she met and married Eugene Hurko in a displaced persons camp in Germany. The following year the couple moved to Australia and settled in Adelaide, where their first two children were born. Then, in 1956, the family moved to Canada, where they had relatives and saw greater opportunities.

After settling in Toronto in 1963, Hurko joined U of T and worked in the Sigmund Samuel Library before moving to the Robarts Library.

Hurko had grown up in a household where art and literature were important, and she loved being around students and books, said her son Roman. “I remember once, when we were growing up, my brother getting an earful from my mother because he had put a coffee cup on a book.”

Hurko’s husband died in 1979 at the age of 65, but Stefania continued her work at the library until she retired in 1989. One day during that period, she was processing a box of books that had come in from Vienna, where her husband had gone to university and earned a PhD in law. The box contained a book from the 1930s – with her husband’s signature on the front. It was like her husband was speaking to her from the past, Roman said, but she also recognized that the book still belonged to the library.

“She made a photocopy of the page and put the book back into the system.”

A poem written by Stefania Hurko is translated to English by Roman Hurko and set to music in this YouTube video.

Hurko’s extraordinary language skills were put to good use translating poetry or text for anyone who needed it, Roman said, and after he began working in opera she would help him translate librettos.

She could recite lengthy epic poems by Shevchenko and others, Roman said, “Even into her 90s, when much of the past was in a fog, she could recite these things by heart, they were so deeply embedded in her.”

He described his mother as a “structured person” who liked to have her time and space under control, but at the same time was very artistic and loved the theatre and opera. “She was an artist by nature and organized by necessity” because of her busy job and three children, he said.

Her daughter Marijka said that Hurko’s “life of the mind” would come alive late in the evening after she returned home from work and made dinner for her family. That’s when she would write – sometimes late into the night. “She was creative, very energetic and had a strong sense of her rights. And for a woman of her time, she had an innate sense of equality for women.”

Hurko’s intense interest in human rights was often translated into action, Marijka said. “She believed that the individual could move mountains, and she was an immovable force if she really believed in something.”

Hurko saw her dream of an independent Ukraine finally realized in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved. She travelled to the country that year to do volunteer work translating documents for a cultural commission within Ukraine’s new parliament, and even bought an apartment in Kyiv so she could return regularly. She was also able to reunite with a brother and sister who had spent time in Soviet labour camps.

While her human rights work was a central part of her life, Roman said, the activism caused some misgivings in the family.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is my mother against the Soviet Union,” he said. “But as I look back on her life, I have to say, she won.”

Stefania Hurko leaves her children Marijka, Andrew and Roman.

U of T's Marilyn Smith showed memories can be faulty – with implications for courtrooms everywhere

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 20:52:58 +0000

U of T's Marilyn Smith showed memories can be faulty – with implications for courtrooms everywhere

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 01/20/2020 - 15:52

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Marilyn Smith at Elbow Falls near Bragg Creek, Alta. in 2010 (photo courtesy Ilyse Smith)

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Marilyn Smith was an expert on cognition and memory whose work at the ��Ƶ shed light on bilingualism, hypnosis, trauma and the eyewitness testimony delivered in courtrooms. She also managed to become a skilled artist and sculptor – all while balancing a demanding career with family life.

A professor of psychology at U of T Scarborough for almost four decades, Smith first arrived at the university in 1966, became a full professor in 1977 and retired in 2004. She died on Nov. 8 at the age of 77 after fighting pancreatic cancer.

Fergus Craik, a professor emeritus of psychology at U of T, describes Smith as a “very nice person who was extremely well-liked by everyone.”

She had a good sense of work-life balance, which was unusual for successful academics, he says.

“Although she was enthusiastic and committed to her work, she was also very committed to her family, and indeed to social causes.”

Smith (left) began her academic career looking at basic processes of cognition, including how people make decisions based on simple information. But she soon expanded far beyond that, writing and co-authoring papers that examined how bilingual people handle language, as well as the earliest fragmented memories of childhood and people’s memories surrounding traumatic events such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She found that those memories were not particularly accurate and faded over time.

One of her greatest contributions was her work on eyewitness testimony in legal trials, according to Colin MacLeod, a former colleague at U of T Scarborough who is now a professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo. Smith wrote an influential paper published in Psychological Bulletin in 1983 that showed efforts to enhance the recollections of witnesses using hypnosis were ineffective. Despite attempts to use hypnosis to “refresh” the memories of witnesses to a crime, “controlled laboratory studies have consistently failed to demonstrate any hypnotic memory improvement,” she said.

Smith’s work “pointed to some of the problems with thinking of hypnosis as a key to memory; that it can’t be relied on,” MacLeod said.

More broadly, Smith’s work uncovered evidence that many memories are faulty. In a 1997 article in the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, she wrote that while “the model of memory held by many therapists is that memory is like a video-recorder, keeping a permanent record of all experiences,” the model she adhered to, as a cognitive psychologist, was that memory “is not a passive recording of information, but an active, re-constructive process.”

In addition to her research, Smith also revelled in teaching and gladly conducted the introductory psychology course for undergraduates, according to MacLeod. Many professors were not interested in taking on that task, “but she thought that was an important course to teach,” he says, and she kept it up for her entire U of T career.

Joan Foley, former principal of U of T Scarborough, describes Smith as a “devoted and effective teacher” and says that “students gravitated to her courses for all the right reasons.”

Among Smith’s innovations, Foley says, was a fourth-year seminar course on psychology and the law. It proved so popular that the format had to be altered to accommodate 50 senior undergraduate students instead of the 20 that had been planned. The course looked at how perception, memory, attention and decision-making influence legal processes. It also covered topics related to eyewitness testimony, lie detectors and hypnosis.

Marilyn Chapnik was born in March 1942 in downtown Toronto, the second of three children of Polish immigrants Lily and Chiam Chapnik. She went to Clinton Street Public School and then to Harbord Collegiate before working part time at Woolworths and Honest Ed’s. A strong student, she was accepted into pre-medical studies at U of T.

It was at U of T that she met her first husband, Larry Smith. Since Larry was heading to Harvard University for graduate work, Marilyn decided to transfer to psychology in order to attend graduate school in Boston. She tried to get in to Brandeis University, but found the private research university to be unwelcoming to women; she ended up with a full scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she completed her PhD.

After finishing their programs, the couple returned to Canada. Smith began her teaching and research career at Scarborough College (now U of T Scarborough) in 1966.

Marilyn Smith (centre back row) and extended family in a photo from November 2018 (photo courtesy Ilyse Smith)

Smith had three daughters, Cynthia, Ilyse and Natalie. Natalie recalls the appeal of some of the material from her mother’s studies on perception.

“I remember going to her office, and she would have big boards with different optical illusions on them. As a kid that was the part that I latched on to.”

Ilyse, meanwhile, remembers experiments on the perception of colour. The word “green” might confusingly be written in purple ink, for example, and the test was to see how quickly a subject could name the proper printed colour. “It was fun to take some of those tests and participate in some of the experimental work she was doing,” Ilyse says. “It was quite relatable. She had a fantastic way, as a parent and as a professor, of taking the theoretical contents and making them very accessible.”

Her children say that while Smith was dedicated to her work, it didn’t take over her life and she was still able to make time for family, friends and hobbies. She took up an interest in sculpting and painting, producing impressive interpretive works that she gave away. She played tennis, was an avid bridge player, and was an accomplished cook and baker.

“She always prided herself broadly in life on her efficiency, and she brought that same mind-set to the way she cooked,” Ilyse says.

In 1986 Marilyn and Larry divorced, and nine years later she remarried to David Kendal. The couple skied and travelled together, spending time at a cottage and at a condo in Florida.

Marilyn Smith and David Kendal visit India in this undated photo (photo courtesy Ilyse Smith)

In a eulogy for his wife, Kendal said she was sometimes described as blunt and direct – words that imply there was a sharp edge to her.

“This was not the case with Marilyn,” he said. “Yes, she always told it like it was, and she certainly didn’t sugarcoat things, but she did it with such humanity. You always felt love and support and you always knew where you stood.”

After her retirement from U of T in 2004, Smith took up another career as an arbitrator, working for Ontario’s Workplace Safety Insurance Appeals Tribunal and travelling across the province for hearings. She retired as vice-chair of that organization just two years ago.

Her friend Joan Grusec, a retired U of T psychology professor, says Smith had strong opinions and liked to offer advice, but she was always respectful and genuinely wanted to help people. She was also very collaborative, in her academic research and her personal life. “She was a catalyst,” Grusec says. “She was good at organizing people and getting them together to produce a good product.”

Grusec visited Smith just a few days before her death, and says “we had a great conversation about the old times and present issues.”

Marilyn Smith leaves behind her brother Jerry and sister Donna, husband David Kendal, daughters Cynthia, Ilyse and Natalie, stepsons Dorian and Aaron, as well as 12 grandchildren.

Justice Rosalie Abella receives U of T alumni award for 'unwavering commitment to human rights and equality'

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 20:00:00 +0000

Justice Rosalie Abella receives U of T alumni award for 'unwavering commitment to human rights and equality'

noreen.rasbach Fri, 10/04/2019 - 16:00

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Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella on stage at the Jackman Law Building: U of T, she said, “allowed me as a young woman to luxuriate in the prospect that anything was possible” (all photos by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella, a champion of human rights and social justice, was presented with the Rose Wolfe Distinguished Alumni Award for 2019 at a heartfelt ceremony witnessed by about 200 of her friends, colleagues and family.

Abella, a ��Ƶ alumna who has served for 15 years on Canada’s highest court, is an expert on equality and discrimination who has been instrumental in extending legal protection to women, refugees and same-sex couples.

The presentation of the award was made in a venue that was named in honour of the judge herself – the Rosalie Silberman Abella Moot Court Room and Atrium in the Jackman Law Building. Before the ceremony, Abella visited with about two dozen law students at an informal reception, answering their questions and chatting about legal issues and principles.

At the formal presentation, U of T President Meric Gertler noted that the award – named after Rose Wolfe, the late chancellor who served from 1991 to 1997 – is presented to “the U of T graduate who stands out for their professional achievements, dedication to charitable and social causes, and service to the university.”

President Gertler said that Wolfe “will always be remembered for her generosity and compassion, as well as her deep commitment to education, the arts and social justice,” and “there are few people who embody these values more fully than Justice Rosalie Abella.”

Abella “is a passionate champion of human rights for all, including those who may be marginalized by public opinion or majority rule,” President Gertler said. Her public service “has made an impact across the country and indeed on jurisprudence around the world. Her life and work are an inspiration to all of us.”

Justice Abella (right) is formally presented with the Rose Wolfe Distinguished Alumni Award for 2019 by (from left) Scott MacKendrick, immediate past president of the U of T Alumni Association, Chancellor Rose Patten and President Meric Gertler

Abella was born in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany in 1946, and came to Canada as a refugee in 1950. She graduated from University College in 1967 and received her law degree from U of T in 1970. She then practised civil and criminal law and was appointed a Family Court judge at the age of 29. She was named to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1992, and was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2004.

Tye Farrow, president of the U of T Alumni Association, noted that Abella has held many key positions over her long career, including chair of the Ontario Law Reform Commission and chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board. He pointed out that she was also the first sitting judge to be elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, has received 39 honorary degrees and is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in classical piano.

Overall, Farrow said, “her impact on the Canadian legal system, and her unwavering commitment to human rights and equality, is extraordinary, as is her profound humanity.”

He told her the Alumni Association “is very honoured for this opportunity to recognize your outstanding contributions to the ��Ƶ, Canada, and in fact, the world.”

In accepting the award, Abella praised U of T as “home,” saying the university “allowed me as a young woman to luxuriate in the prospect that anything was possible.” She and her fellow students, she said, “all believed in the perfectibility of the human condition...absolutely nothing felt beyond remedial attention. Over all, “we genuinely believed that the joint application of talent and hard work would open any door.

“We graduated positive, hopeful, feisty and somewhat ingenuous.”

When she started practising law in the early 1970s, she said, she didn’t know what a feminist was, “let alone how to be one.” Indeed, she said, she didn’t question whether there were objective barriers for women and never wondered why there were only five women in her law school class of 150 students.

Since then, Abella said, she has seen remarkable change, including the implementation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a revolution in expectations between men and women, and demands by minorities, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, and those with different linguistic and sexual identities “for a revised social contract and consciousness.”

There has also been a discouraging backlash to some of these changes, she noted, but she remains confident that “change will continue in the right direction.”

Justice Abella speaks on stage with former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci, who once served as dean of U of T's Faculty of Law, vice-president and provost of U of T, and interim president of the university

After the presentation, Abella sat on stage with Frank Iacobucci, former dean of U of T’s Faculty of Law, former interim president of U of T and former justice of the Supreme Court, for an informal chat about her personal background, and her views of the law.

Abella talked about her parents, and their harrowing experience being separated during the Second World War. Her father, who had trained as a lawyer in Poland, was not able to practise when he arrived in Canada because he was not yet a citizen. Abella said that when he told her this – she was four years old – she blurted out: “Then I’m going to be a lawyer.”

Abella also talked about meeting her future husband, historian Irving Abella, while at U of T and pursuing him for three years before they married. He was “smart and delicious,” she said, and shared responsibility for looking after their two sons. At the age of 29 she was the first pregnant woman to be appointed to the bench in Canada.

Abella said one of the most controversial projects she took on during her career was chairing the Royal Commission on Equality in Employment in the early 1980s. Instead of adopting the U.S. approach to equality – that everyone be treated the same – she recommended acknowledging and accommodating differences so people could be treated as equal. Employment equity legislation later adopted this approach so that women, Indigenous Peoples, people with disabilities and members of visible minorities would get fairness in the workplace.

Overall, Abella said, she takes the Canadian “living tree” approach to the law, where the constitution is interpreted in a way that takes into account changing social realities.

The rigid “originalist” view – held by conservative U.S. jurists – that legal principles are set by those who write a constitution and are therefore immutable, is a problematic approach, Abella argued. “To me that is an anemic and sclerotic approach to something that should be a living, breathing document that grows with the times.”

In summing up the event, U of T Chancellor Rose Patten said it was fitting that Abella receive an award named for Rose Wolfe, who was beloved at the university and beyond for her commitment to social justice and education. The award is one of U of T’s highest honours, she said, and it was deservedly presented to someone who has “made Canada and the world more equitable and more just.”

Edward Iacobucci, dean of the Faculty of Law, speaks with Justice Abella

Desmond Morton – historian, author and former U of T principal – 'was everything a public intellectual should be'

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Desmond Morton – historian, author and former U of T principal – 'was everything a public intellectual should be'

noreen.rasbach Fri, 09/27/2019 - 00:00

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Desmond Morton was principal of the former Erindale College – now U of T Mississauga – from 1986 to 1994 (photo by Steve Jaunzems)

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Desmond Morton was a teacher, author and rigorous academic, but also a brilliant communicator who brought history to life for the Canadian public.

Morton was a soldier and political organizer before joining the ��Ƶ, where he spent 25 years of his career at Erindale College, now U of T Mississauga. His energy and enthusiasm boosted Erindale’s reputation, and as principal from 1986 to 1994 he helped expand the campus and cement ties with the community.

He died on Sept. 4 at the age of 81.

Morton brought a “sense of place” to Erindale, both as part of U of T and as an important contributor to Mississauga and the Peel region, said Ian Orchard, acting vice-president and principal of U of T Mississauga. Because of Morton, “it is in the DNA of UTM that it is a community itself, but also contributes to the broader community.”

Morton lived near the campus in Streetsville (now part of Mississauga), was engaged in local politics, and encouraged students to study local history.

While at U of T, and later at McGill University, Morton was a prolific and high-profile commentator on Canadian military, labour and political history. Over the years he wrote dozens of op-ed pieces and was interviewed often in print, radio and television.

Morton was a central player in the revitalized public interest in Canadian history that exploded in the 1980s and 1990s, said historian Paul W. Bennett, a long-time colleague and friend who is now director of Schoolhouse Consulting in Halifax. “He popularized Canadian history and did so in a way that paid respect for scholarship. He combined serious research, exquisite writing and very refined communication skills.”

Desmond Morton speaks at an Ontario Federation of Labour conference in the late 1980s or early 1990s (photo by Steve Jaunzems)

Through a series of national history conferences, Morton brought together historians with radically different views, Bennett said. “He was a bridge builder [and] he just loved raising the level of discussion.” He was highly supportive of teaching at all levels, and was involved in presenting awards to the top history teachers across the country.

A quintessential absent-minded professor, Morton could be forgetful. He sometimes locked his keys in his car, left his glasses behind, or could be seen with his pant leg tucked into his sock. “He was a brilliant man who was so consumed by his thoughts and ideas, that the mundane and routine were not bothered with,” Bennett said.

Morton described himself as a political, military and industrial relations historian, noting that this “really adds up to the single specialty of human conflict, both violent and otherwise.” He wrote 40 books, including his seminal A Short History of Canada. First published in 1983, its seventh edition was released in 2017 and soon made it back on the bestseller lists.

“He had the ability to write straight-laced scholarly history with the best of them, but he also had a gift for a story and an eye for detail,” said historian Jonathan Vance, a professor of history at the University of Western Ontario. “He never forgot that history was ultimately about people.”

Morton was Vance’s external examiner for his PhD, and later became a friend and colleague. As a person, Morton “had an acerbic wit, but at heart was a kind and genial fellow,” Vance said.

Long-time colleague Robert Johnson, Professor Emeritus of history at U of T Mississauga, said Morton challenged established ideas and respectfully looked for weaknesses in people’s arguments. “He was a thoughtful, independent, contrarian voice that was profoundly important in public discourse,” Johnson said. “He was everything a public intellectual should be. He wasn’t somebody who was on a soapbox or riding a hobby horse. He asked important questions and poked holes in everybody’s dogmas.”

Desmond Dillon Paul Morton was born in 1937 in Calgary. His mother was from New Brunswick and his father, from Toronto, was an officer in the Canadian armed forces. Morton and his mother and sister moved to New Brunswick to stay with his grandparents while his father was away fighting during the Second World War.

In an autobiographical essay written in 2011 for the Canadian Historical Review, Morton said that his initial knowledge of history was gleaned from his grandfather’s Book of Knowledge encyclopedia, and faded British history books. He avoided athletic pursuits as much as possible, but learned – from a retired sea captain – how to build model wooden ships. He kept up that hobby for the rest of his life.

Former Governor General David Johnston (right) presented Morton with the Pierre Berton Award for teaching Canadian history in 2010 (photo by MCpl Dany Veillette/Rideau Hall)

After his father returned from the war, Morton and his family moved to Barrie, Ont., then to Regina. In Saskatchewan he was first exposed to political debate, when leaders such as Louis St. Laurent, C.D. Howe, Tommy Douglas, M.J. Coldwell and George Drew came to town to campaign. It was also while he was in Regina that his byline first appeared, after he wrote a letter to the CBC Times magazine. When his letter appeared in the publication, “my ego exploded,” he wrote in his memoir. “I have never quite forgotten the absurd ecstasy of seeing my name and words in print.”

In 1949 the family moved to Winnipeg, and Morton was enrolled in a private boys’ school. It was there that he started his own military career, joining the school’s cadet corps. But soon the family was off again, this time to Kingston, Ont., where Morton went to high school and joined the army reserves. His father was then transferred to Tokyo as a military attaché during the Korean War. In his summer breaks in Japan, Morton worked for a Canadian army administrative unit, and when the family returned to Canada he decided the military was where he wanted to make his career. He enrolled at College Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean, south of Montreal, then after three years continued his education and training at Royal Military College in Kingston.

Morton was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, and studied for two years at Oxford, but returned to Canada to perform his military service training officer-cadets, then moved to the army’s historical section. By this time his interest in politics had deepened, and he was persuaded by then Ontario New Democratic Party MPP Stephen Lewis to become assistant provincial secretary of the NDP. He was responsible for membership and fundraising. “I never worked harder or more happily,” he wrote. “My recreation was producing what political parties call ‘literature,’ a stream of pamphlets on issues, organization, or anything I wanted to discuss.”

After a brief stint working on a PhD at the London School of Economics, he returned to Canada, got married in 1967 to Janet Smith, and in 1970 published his thesis as his first book, Ministers and Generals, about British army officers’ attempts to command the Canadian militia.

Former Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion with Morton at his installation as principal in 1986 (photo by Steve Jaunzems)

In 1969 Morton accepted a job teaching history at Erindale. He thrived in the fast-growing, diverse community of Mississauga, and participated in local politics, including working on two early campaigns of long-time mayor Hazel McCallion.

“He was incredibly efficient and productive,” said Catherine Rubincam, Associate Professor Emeritus at U of T Mississauga. “He published at a ferocious rate and he taught with great energy.”

Morton was an expert at multi-tasking, Rubincam said. He would open his mail while attending long meetings, she said, but still manage to listen and participate in the proceedings.

At U of T he had the flexibility to work on a wide range of historical subjects, although his core interest was military history which he saw as “the study of people under deadly stress, making decisions and suffering from the decisions of others.”

In the early 1980s Morton was contacted by Edmonton publisher Mel Hurtig and asked to write a history of Canada that was “short enough to be bought in the Edmonton airport and finished before the buyer landed in Toronto.” Hurtig’s further instructions, Morton said, were that it had to include women, begin with First Nations and not Confederation, and not shun controversy. The result was the wildly popular A Short History of Canada. The book, as a Toronto Star reviewer said, cemented Morton’s reputation as a “first-rate storyteller” as well as a consummate historian.

Morton took on an administrative role at Erindale, as vice-principal of humanities. Then in 1986 he was named principal. He didn’t move into the opulent principal’s residence, however, as his wife Janet was confined to a wheelchair with complications from diabetes, and he wanted to stay in the house they had adapted to her needs.

Morton was an energetic and efficient administrator, said Rubincam. “He sized up situations very fast,” and then made decisions quickly.

Morton shakes hands with Ignat Kaneff as he receives an honorary degree (photo by Steve Jaunzems)

One of his major successes was the construction of the Kaneff Centre to house the social sciences faculty as well as a lecture hall and a gallery. A local donor – Ignat Kaneff, a Bulgarian immigrant who had become a successful builder in Mississauga – funded the project. Morton also spearheaded two innovative joint programs with Sheridan College.

Morton’s wife Janet died in 1990, and in 1993 he was approached by McGill University to help launch their new Institute For the Study of Canada. He decided to go, and it was in Montreal that he met his second wife Gael Eakin, whom he married in 1999.

Morton’s reputation continued to flourish at McGill, where he maintained his prolific production of textbooks, essays, newspaper articles and public appearances. He retired from teaching at McGill in 2006, but continued to write and comment on history and public affairs.

He leaves his wife Gael, children David and Marion, a granddaughter, four stepchildren and four step-grandchildren.

'An urgency to contribute': U of T's Choong Chin (C.C.) Liew considered a visionary for work on cardiovascular genetics

noreen.rasbach — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 20:34:32 +0000

'An urgency to contribute': U of T's Choong Chin (C.C.) Liew considered a visionary for work on cardiovascular genetics

noreen.rasbach Mon, 09/16/2019 - 16:34

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Choong Chin Liew, known as C.C., "really had a vision of translating basic research in genomics into a practical application for the benefit of humankind,” says Peter Lewis, Professor Emeritus of biochemistry at U of T (photo courtesy of the Liew family)

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Research & Innovation

Choong Chin Liew was a visionary research scientist whose work on cardiovascular genetics is still paving the way for early detection of a wide variety of diseases from simple blood tests.

Liew, who died in August at the age of 81, was also an enthusiastic mentor to many medical researchers, an entrepreneur and a devoted family man who loved Ontario’s cottage country.

Liew, known to everyone as “C.C.,” arrived in Canada from Malaysia in 1962 to do graduate work at the ��Ƶ with Charles Best (pictured left with his wife), the co-discoverer of insulin. He became an assistant professor in 1970, achieved full tenure in 1979, and was a Professor Emeritus in clinical biochemistry and medicine at the time of his death.

Liew’s early work was on diabetes and heart failure, but he is best known for developing what he called the “Sentinel Principle,” the concept that many diseases can be detected and monitored through their gene expression in the blood. Because of the transfer of information between blood cells and tissue cells, he postulated, blood tests can unlock information about diseases elsewhere in the body.

Liew was active in transferring his discoveries to the private sector, earning many patents and founding companies that are still in the process of developing diagnostic tools. A blood test for early assessment of colorectal cancer risk, based on the Sentinel Principle, is currently on the market. Other tests, for several other cancers and even Alzheimer’s disease, are in development.

“C.C. really had a vision of translating basic research in genomics into a practical application for the benefit of humankind,” says Peter Lewis, Professor Emeritus of biochemistry at U of T, and a colleague and friend of Liew’s for several decades. “His goal was to turn the discovery, from back in the 1990s, into a practical application for the prognostication of disease from a drop of blood.”

A younger C.C. Liew at his microscope (photo courtesy of Liew family)

Liew was “driven,” Lewis says, and “there was not enough time in the day for all the activities he was pursuing.” But he was a delight to work with and very modest about his accomplishments, Lewis adds. “He didn’t seek out recognition publicly, and really flew below the radar.”

Liew’s enthusiasm for research was infectious, and that energy influenced many students who worked with him. ”I got a positive vibe from him,” says Mansoor Husain, who spent time in Liew’s lab as a medical trainee and is now director of the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. “He obviously loved science. He always had a sparkle in his eye and excitement in his voice when he talked about research.”

As well as being passionate about the work, Liew was also welcoming, and trusted his students, Husain says.

Liew maintained that vigour right until the end of his life, as he continued to work to apply his discoveries. In recent years he collaborated with Alberta-based entrepreneur and scientist Jacqueline Shan, on research into potential applications of his techniques in treating Alzheimer's disease. Shan, co-creator of Cold-FX, recognized that Liew’s work on early detection of illnesses from the analysis of genomic markers in blood was revolutionary, and might lead to the creation of targeted medicines for Alzheimer’s patients.

“He was one of the best scientists I’ve ever seen,” Shan says. “He was very persistent,” even in his later years when he was ill and having chemotherapy treatment. “He worked harder than anybody in the lab. He had an urgency to contribute.”

At the same time, Liew was very caring, she says, and concerned about his colleagues’ families and health. On one long-distance airplane trip, he offered her tips on getting to sleep, so she would be fresh upon arrival, she says.

C.C. Liew and his wife Eng in 2017 on a family trip to Sungai Siput, where he was born (photo courtesy of Liew family)

Choong Chin Liew was born in 1937 in the small village of Sungai Siput in what was then called Malaya. (It became part of Malaysia in 1963). His father was a teacher from China who had moved to Malaya, while his mother was a Chinese-Malayan from Penang. Liew did not have a peaceful childhood, he noted in an autobiography he wrote in 2010, because of the Japanese invasion of Malaya during the Second World War and Japan’s persecution of its Chinese population.

“To escape these upheavals our family moved deep into the jungle,” Liew wrote. “There, we were able to wait out the war in safety.” But after the war there was more turmoil, as the British colonial government tried to crack down on communist insurgents, in what developed into a bloody guerrilla war.

Liew’s family moved to the city of George Town on Penang island, where he went to high school before studying biology at Nanyang University in Singapore. After graduation he taught and worked as a teaching assistant, then decided to pursue graduate work overseas. He wrote to Charles Best, who was then head of the physiology department at U of T. Best offered him a fellowship.

Liew arrived in Canada by boat in 1962. He noted in his biography that “I was only one of thousands in a history of Chinese immigrants to Canada, over a time span that stretches back to the eighteenth century.” He was lucky, he added, because “by the time I arrived in the 1960s, Toronto was considered quite welcoming.”

Liew was intensely committed to his studies, and often slept in the lab. He also stayed away from the demonstrations and protests that were erupting on campus in the 1960s. “I had already experienced more than a fair share of war and politics in Malaysia,” he wrote. “I had left all of that behind in the forests of rubber.”

But it was a tough time, as he found the Canadian winters difficult, and he struggled to work and live in an English-speaking environment.

Eng and C.C. when they were dating: She moved to Canada two years after he arrived and they marrried soon after (photo courtesy of Liew family)

Two years after his arrival in Canada things improved when his girlfriend Eng came from Malaysia to join him, and they were married at Toronto City Hall a few months later.

After getting his master's degree in physiology and a PhD in pathological chemistry under renowned U of T professor Allan Gornall, Liew conducted post-doctoral research in Britain and in New York. He had planned to return to Malaysia, but an explosion of anti-Chinese violence there in 1969 changed his mind, and he took a job at U of T as assistant professor in clinical biochemistry.

Liew’s daughter Gailina says her father was absolutely devoted to the pursuit of science, but he also carved out time for his family. “We would have supper with him every night, but it would be late because he would be working in the lab.” She and her brothers would occasionally spend evenings and weekends in their father’s lab at the Banting Institute on College Street.

“I remember sometimes helping to wash test tubes.”

The family also accompanied Liew on his sabbatical travels, including time in Europe and a three-month tour of Chinese universities. There was always music in the house, Gailina says, because her father loved classical music and opera, and learned to play the piano.

C.C. (second from left in front row) with his family this past June in Lisbon, Portugal (photo courtesy of Gailina Liew)

In the mid 1970s Liew bought a cottage north of Toronto, cementing his connection to Canada. Several of his colleagues at U of T had cottages, he wrote in his memoir, and “it seemed to me like the thing to do in Canada.” The cottage was a place to relax, read and write, he wrote, and became a treasured weekend getaway.

In the 1990s Liew’s work evolved into the study of cardiac gene sequencing, and in 2000 he established a lab at Harvard Medical School in Boston to continue the research. He made significant discoveries linking gene expression with disease, and found that changes in blood genes reflected broader changes in health.

Recognizing the commercial possibilities of this research – and the need for capital to pursue the work – Liew formed a private company called GeneNews, which is now traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the name StageZero Life Sciences. Later he created other business ventures to apply the Sentinel Principle, including companies in Malaysia and China. His long-term aim, he wrote in his memoir, was to “build a personalized health management system that would allow anyone to manage their own health from the information that can be read in a single drop of blood.”

For several years, he worked closely with his daughter Gailina, who held senior executive positions at GeneNews thanks to her background in molecular genetics and her experience as a lawyer. It was a privilege working alongside her father, she says. “He was the scientific visionary and the rest of us just had to help capture all that thinking and turn it into a product.”

Liew’s most important goal throughout his life of research “was to make a positive difference to the patient” by helping prevent diseases or detect them early, Gailina says. But he also touched people all around the world, because he was so outgoing, gregarious, generous and kind-hearted.

Liew died after several years fighting multiple myeloma, but ”he was working up until his last day,” Gailina says.

He leaves his wife Eng, brother Jack Chor, daughter Gailina, sons Allan and Victor, and seven grandchildren. The family has set up an endowment fund in C.C. Liew’s memory to award scholarships and grants to support research aimed at improving human health.

Meet Nathalie Des Rosiers, Massey College's next principal

noreen.rasbach — Mon, 27 May 2019 22:04:58 +0000

Meet Nathalie Des Rosiers, Massey College's next principal

noreen.rasbach Mon, 05/27/2019 - 18:04

Cutline

“It was always understood that Massey should see itself in the forefront of a social justice vision, and an enlightened way of looking at the world in all its complexity,” says Nathalie Des Rosiers (photo by Richard Lautens/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Topic

For Nathalie Des Rosiers, the next principal of Massey College, one of the college’s key roles is to nurture ethical leaders who understand the inequalities of society and strive for social justice.

Des Rosiers will become the sixth head of Massey on Aug. 1, succeeding Hugh Segal, who is retiring on June 30 after a five-year term. (Massey’s leader was known as “master” until 2018, when the title was changed to “principal.”)

Des Rosiers is a former law professor, has served as general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and was a dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. Since 2016 she has been a Liberal member of the Ontario legislature for the riding of Ottawa-Vanier, and she’s used that position to push for stronger human rights in the province.

Des Rosiers will be giving up her seat in the legislature in the coming months to take the job at Massey, which she described in an interview as a “jewel in the Canadian academic and intellectual landscape.” She sees Massey as producing “ethical leaders who will operate in all spheres of life: the private sector, non-profits, the academic sector and the public sector. This is an important role and we want to equip them with skills, emotions, intellectual connections and depth.“

Massey College is a graduate students’ residential community affiliated with, but independent of, the ��Ƶ. It has 60 resident and 85 non-resident junior fellows, who are full-time graduate students at U of T. But the Massey community also includes senior fellows who are prominent academics and members of the Quadrangle Society – leaders in business, arts, politics, philanthropy and community service.

Those links to the world outside of academia are crucial in keeping Massey’s junior fellows grounded in the real world, Des Rosiers said. “People in academia often suffer from the difficulty of opening the door from the ivory tower and connecting to the outside world. Massey is an expert at that connection, and fosters it, and should continue to do that. It is extremely important in this day and age.”

While forging those links and ensuring that junior fellows contribute fully to the community and the world, Massey must continue to keep social justice in mind, Des Rosiers insists.

“The concept of ethical leadership requires a deep understanding of the systemic inequalities of our society. [We must look for] answers, not only from the political side, but from the economic side, and the science side.”

The mission of Massey is to nurture learning for the public good, and act in the public good, she said. “I think it was always understood that Massey should see itself in the forefront of a social justice vision, and an enlightened way of looking at the world in all its complexity.”

While she promises to support all the academic studies and projects undertaken by junior fellows, she said she will be particularly interested in scholarship that is “inspired by social justice action” and which may have an impact on “some of the systematic issues in our society.”

Outgoing Principal Hugh Segal describes Des Rosiers as “an accomplished academic leader, experienced former Dean of Law, renowned scholar, and articulate advocate for fairness, civil liberties, inclusion and academic excellence in both official languages. Her time as principal will be of immense and compelling benefit to Massey College, the ��Ƶ and the broader community they both serve.”

U of T President Meric Gertler congratulated Des Rosiers. “Massey College is a vital Canadian institution and a prominent part of the wider ��Ƶ community,” he said. “Nathalie Des Rosiers is well suited to lead the college forward, as an accomplished scholar with an impressive record of leadership in the academy, in her profession and in public service.”

Des Rosiers said she has given a number of talks at Massey over the years, and it was in February, after delivering a speech at the college, that she was approached about applying for the job as principal. “I was intrigued by what we all like about Massey — its interdisciplinary work, its support for the future of ideas, and creating good leaders for Ontario and for Canada.”

Still, she said she enjoys politics and feels it is a worthwhile pursuit, so “I’ve lost a little bit of sleep over this decision.”

Des Rosiers said she is a strong supporter of Massey’s journalism fellowship program, which each year brings a group of Canadian and international journalists to the college for a year of academic study and interaction. “I think journalism is essential to Massey because it traditionally has been the bridge between people in active life, and the world of ideas. Journalism itself is a function for the public good which we should support.”

Overall, Des Rosiers said, “my goal is to enhance the national reputation of Massey, and its international connections, ensuring that we support our junior fellows so that they feel empowered in their vision of themselves and their own projects.”

In the short term, Des Rosiers said she wants to meet all of Massey’s senior fellows and as many Quadranglers as possible, then talk to junior fellows when they return in the fall. As a fully bilingual francophone she’d also like to see some more French on the Massey College website, and a continued effort to draw French-speaking fellows and scholars to the college.

Over the longer term, she said she would like to expand Massey’s already significant outreach to the Indigenous community, perhaps by creating an elder-in-residence program.

Dexter Voisin to become new dean of U of T’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 17 May 2019 15:10:27 +0000

Dexter Voisin to become new dean of U of T’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 05/17/2019 - 11:10

Cutline

After two decades as a professor at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, Dexter Voisin will take up the position as dean of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work for a five-year term (photo by Sean Blackwell)

Topic

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Mental Health

Poverty

Research & Innovation

Truth and Reconciliation

Dexter Voisin, a renowned expert on community violence, mental health and HIV prevention, will become the ��Ƶ’s new dean of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

Voisin, after two decades as a professor at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, will take up the position on July 1 for a five-year term.

He said he is excited to assume the leadership role at a faculty known for its excellence in both teaching and research.

“This is a world-class faculty at a world-class university. The faculty is ranked among the top in North America, and the university among the top 20 globally. Yet they are both distinctly known for innovation,” he said.

Compared to other social work faculties, U of T’s “is unique in that you have a large faculty embedded in a multi-faceted institution that is so nimble, in terms of moving towards innovation and making change,” Voisin added.

Another big draw for Voisin is the broad, interdisciplinary focus at U of T, where the social work faculty can interact with academics working in public policy, education, kinesiology, and other “sister disciplines which align well with social work.”

Voisin replaces Faye Mishna, who is completing a ten-year term as the faculty’s dean.

“I sincerely thank Professor Faye Mishna for her leadership over the past decade,” said Cheryl Regehr, the university’s vice-president and provost.

“The Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work is ideally situated to welcome Professor Dexter Voisin as its new dean. Professor Voisin’s exceptional leadership, insight and keen dedication to collaborative administration will be invaluable to the faculty and its exemplary work in the years to come.”

Voisin said his first priority at U of T is to become familiar with the faculty, students, staff, and alumni and learn the “local context” of the Faculty of Social Work.

“One of my early priorities will be amplifying a lot of the already exceptional work and the capital that already exists in the school,” he said.

Voisin’s own research focuses on how community violence affects mental health, academic performance and risky sexual practices that can lead to HIV infection, particularly among emerging adults. While these issues may not be as apparent in Toronto as in Chicago, they are present here, he said.

“When looking at my research foci – like disadvantaged populations, child welfare, individuals exposed to neighbourhood violence, structural inequality and poverty – those are conditions that exist not just in Chicago, but in Canada and across the globe.”

Gun violence and homicides may also not be as acute a problem in Toronto as Chicago, he noted, but it is still an issue, and there are many other factors that have an impact on low-income and marginalized populations in the city, and which need deeper study.

“I will be trying to understand how I can take insights from the U.S. contexts, as well as from other global settings, and bring it to bear on the pressing needs that are prevalent in Toronto,” Voisin said.

Voisin has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from St. Andrews College in Laurinburg, N.C., a Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Philosophy and PhD from Columbia University in New York.

He said the multicultural fabric of Toronto is an exciting draw, especially after having grown up in Trinidad and Tobago, the most culturally diverse island in the English-speaking Caribbean. “Diversity is strength, because there are unique needs for every sub-group, and those sub-groups also have important expertise and insights that need to be part of the conversation when you are thinking about the issues that are present in these communities,” Voisin said.

Voisin added he is also interested in Indigenous reconciliation, which he sees as a broad human rights issue in Canada. “That for me is central. It is a priority that the government, the university and Faculty of Social Work supports, a real cross-system commitment to an important issue.”

With his research often cited in the U.S. media and globally and his commentary sought out on public policy issues, Voisin said he will advance the public profile of U of T’s social work faculty.

“It is important to take the knowledge and the insights that we have in the academy, and bring them to bear on larger societal discourses,” he said. “I’m very big on breaking down the artificial barriers between the university and community and public spaces. Social work, as a values-driven profession, should be at the foreground of some of these complex conversations.”

Voisin has had an influence on public health policy in Illinois, through his appointments to state-level committees and advisory work as a director of the STI/HIV Intervention Network and co-director of the Center for Chicago HIV Elimination.

As he makes the shift to U of T, Voisin will be shepherding the launch of his new book, to be released this summer. America the Beautiful and Violent: Black Youth & Neighborhood Trauma in Chicago is expected to get considerable press attention when it is released, and he hopes he will be able to use the publicity to raise the visibility of the social work profession and U of T’s social work faculty.

“I’m excited about working with other administrators across the university, around their shared vision, elevating the profile of the school of social work, and advancing the impact of the institution,” he said.

“My initial goal would be to promote the important scholarship, teaching and community impact that is already happening, amplify it, and work with the faculty, students, staff and alumni to create a shared vision moving forward.”

The unique way Germany handles press conferences: U of T symposium considers journalism in digital age

noreen.rasbach — Mon, 22 Apr 2019 04:00:00 +0000

The unique way Germany handles press conferences: U of T symposium considers journalism in digital age

noreen.rasbach Mon, 04/22/2019 - 00:00

Cutline

German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a Bundespressekonferenz in July of 2018, with Gregor Mayntz (right). Mayntz will be taking part in a media symposium at Massy College on Wednesday

Richard Blackwell

Topic

City & Culture

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Citizen Lab

Digital Media

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

Journalism in Canada and around the globe is under siege as attacks on journalistic integrity abound. What is the best way to improve the public trust in journalism, and at the same time strengthen the foundations of democracy?

That question will be front and centre at an April 24 media symposium co-hosted by the German Consulate General in Toronto, Massey College and ��Ƶ Communications. “(Un) Truth – Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age” will examine journalism from European and North American perspectives, looking at the media’s role in promoting democracy through the presentation of facts.

The sessions will be moderated by Jeffrey Dvorkin, director of the journalism program at U of T Scarborough, and will include German and Canadian panelists including Globe and Mail columnist Elizabeth Renzetti, Toronto Star Public Editor Kathy English, German journalist and author Ursula Weidenfeld, and Peter Loewen, a professor in the department of political science and the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. Ron Diebert, director of Citizen Lab at the Munk School, will be delivering the final keynote on targeted espionage.

Another keynote speaker will be journalist Gregor Mayntz, chairman of the unique German institution, the Federal Press Conference (Bundespressekonferenz). The BPK, created just after the Second World War and run by journalists, convenes three press conferences a week to which politicians, bureaucrats and other leaders are invited. The BPK is a powerful institution, and politicians ignore it at their peril. Because of it, the levers of political communication are in the hands of journalists, not the politicians.

Mayntz spoke to U of T News in advance of his presentation to the symposium, which will take place at Massey College on Wednesday.

How does the Federal Press Conference format help maintain the quality of news coverage, compared to what happens in North America?

When you look at the White House, where the President can decide not to invite some journalist [to attend], we see the advantage of the Federal Press Conference. We fix the rules, we host, and the politicians are our guests. Our rules are very simple: Every member can ask any question.

Do politicians feel compelled to show up and participate?

They are not forced to come. But the reputation of a politician depends on his or her attitude, and how clever they are when confronted with our questions, outside of the protected space within the ministry.

So it helps them if they perform well in this environment?

I think so. And in the past we have seen the opposite, when someone came and didn’t answer the questions very well, and then they lost their job. This has happened once or twice over the years.

In North America, some politicians are trying to go around the traditional press, and communicate with constituents directly through Twitter, Facebook or other means. Is that an issue in Germany?

Yes, we see this trend in Germany as well. Every politician thinks it is better to communicate directly with the public. But if you see the number of viewers on their own Facebook pages, it is sometimes just 20, or 200. It’s not nearly as big an audience as the politician can get if they come to the Federal Press Conference. We have 900 participants – almost all newspapers and broadcasters are members.

How does the Federal Press Conference handle bloggers, web outlets and other new media?

We have some members who are bloggers. Our requirements for membership say you have to make a living from your profession, and you have to cover foreign policy. If you can fulfil these requirements, you can be a member.

Are there any restrictions on how members handle the material from the press conferences?

The members decide how they will cover what happens at the press conference. If they want to cover the whole press conference, or one sentence, or nothing, they decide on their own.

In asking questions, is priority given to traditional media?

No. Every member has the same right as the others. Whoever puts their hand up first will get the first question. Sometimes, before we start the press conference, we ask which themes and topics are of interest to more than one member. Then those will be discussed first. But the principle is that every member can ask any question. We also work with the foreign press association, so if you are a correspondent from a Canadian newspaper, and you become a member of the foreign press association, you can attend the conference and ask any question you want.

Does this format help strengthen trust in the media, and guard against accusations of “fake news”?

Yes, it may help. You can ask questions over and over again, and the politicians who are our guests have the chance to give answers that give the whole picture in some circumstances.

Would this kind of format work in North America?

I don’t know. Sometimes I wonder why the idea of freedom of the press involves waiting for the government to invite journalists to a press conference. It is more direct to have journalists decide when a press conference should be. They should invite the politicians.

What can journalists do to fight against accusations of fake news?

The only solution is to do the job as we have done it for decades: to report what you know to be the truth.

Is a robust media environment crucial to any Western democracy?

I am deeply convinced that a functioning democracy doesn‘t happen by itself – and won‘t stay in place by itself. You have to pay attention to essential preconditions, and among these a free, robust and responsible media is not the least important one.

This interview has been condensed and edited.

'Intellect, humour and insight': Jane Millgate wrote seminal study on Sir Walter Scott, was inspiring mentor to students

noreen.rasbach — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 20:03:47 +0000

'Intellect, humour and insight': Jane Millgate wrote seminal study on Sir Walter Scott, was inspiring mentor to students

noreen.rasbach Mon, 03/11/2019 - 16:03

Cutline

English Professor Jane Millgate in 1986 (photo courtesy of ��Ƶ Alumni Magazine)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Humanities

Victoria College

Subheadline

Jane Millgate was one of the world’s foremost experts on the literary works of Sir Walter Scott, but she was also an effective administrator and an inspiring mentor to young scholars.

Millgate started teaching English at Victoria College in 1964, and spent more than three decades at the ��Ƶ working with generations of students, mainly on the subject of 19^th- century literature. For five years in the mid-1980s, she was vice-dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science, and she was a fellow of Massey College and a founder of the Toronto Centre for the Book.

Millgate died on Jan. 26 at the age of 81. She leaves her husband, U of T English Professor Emeritus Michael Millgate.

Millgate was best known for her work on Scott, the groundbreaking 19^th-century Scottish author, poet and historian. Her 1984 book Walter Scott, the Making of the Novelist was a seminal study that showed how Scott created a new kind of historical novel, and how his work affected the trajectory of British, American and European fiction. Millgate's book was highly influential and is still cited by scholars as a foundational work on the author. She wrote several other books and dozens of papers on Scott and other American, English and Scottish authors.

“Jane’s contribution to Scott studies is startling in its range and significance,” said her longtime friend and colleague Tara Wallace, now a professor of English at George Washington University.
Wallace chaired a special symposium to honour Millgate’s work at an international Walter Scott conference in Aberdeen in 2014. At the session, top global scholars spoke about how Millgate’s scholarship “influenced them deeply or changed their thinking,” Wallace said.

Wallace said Millgate was a very confident person, and not just about academic subjects. “She used to tell me how best to cook something, or the best way to arrange flowers. But when she gave advice, it was just advice. It was not prescriptive.”

A group of international Walter Scott scholars met for dinner in Toronto in 2015 to celebrate Millgate's work. Millgate is second from right (photo courtesy of Tara Wallace)

Millgate was also very supportive of her friends. When Wallace’s father died in 1991, Millgate encouraged her to attend a conference in Edinburgh and then arranged all the details for the two of them to spend a brief followup vacation in London. “She was there for [her friends’] on important occasions, or for help in difficult times.”

Wallace, who had been a student and teaching assistant of Millgate’s at U of T, said her mentor stood out as a teacher of graduate students because of “how much respect she had for us all.” Millgate “didn’t lack confidence in her own readings, but she always gave us lots of space to figure things out on our own. She was listening to us very, very carefully.”

Her graduate seminars were so stimulating, Wallace said, that after class the students would immediately gather at a café or bar and continue to discuss the subjects at hand.

Undergraduates, too, found her an enthusiastic teacher. Carol Gray, who went on to a career as a librarian, vividly remembers Millgate making a tough course on Victorian fiction a pleasure to attend. “She brought intellect, humour and insight to every one of her classes,” Gray said. “Everything seemed, to her, to be fresh, new and worth exploring.”

Cynthia Good, another former student who later became president of publisher Penguin Canada, described Millgate as someone who clearly loved her work as an academic and scholar. “She had an intellectual toughness that impressed me,” said Good, who was Millgate’s teaching assistant for a time. Victorian fiction became a passion of Good’s after she took Millgate’s course in that subject. “I longed to be like her, as an academic and a woman. There were not many role models in those days.”

Millgate was also a respected administrator during her years as vice-dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. Mary Nyquist, now a U of T English professor, was director of women’s studies at New College when Millgate was in the dean’s office. She said Millgate’s “active encouragement of cross-appointments made a huge difference to the ability of our program to appoint new faculty.” Those appointments, in turn, made it possible for the program to develop into what is today the highly successful Women & Gender Studies Institute, Nyquist said.

In 1984, Millgate, in her administrative role, spearheaded the year-long celebration of the centenary of the admission of women to U of T. Nyquist was a member of the organizing committee, where she was able to observe Millgate’s skills. “I saw first-hand how carefully Jane listened to others’ suggestions, how skilfully she delegated tasks, and how thoroughly she followed up on every single detail.”

Millgate was an inspiring leader, generous to young scholars and never intimidating, Nyquist said. She managed to be both highly professional and warm. “Her laughter, which I can still hear, was infectious.”

Millgate was born Eunice Jane Barr, in Leeds, England in 1937. She attended Leeds University and the University of Kent. In 1960, she married Michael Millgate, who was lecturing in English literature at Leeds University.

The couple came to Canada in 1964, and Jane began teaching at Victoria College. Michael initially was a professor at York University but moved to U of T in 1967. The couple shared similar academic interests, as Michael was a specialist in English and American literature, specifically William Faulkner and Thomas Hardy.

Millgate at Walter Scott's library in Abbotsford (photo courtesy of C. Ruth Miller)

U of T President Emeritus Robert Prichard described the Millgates as “true citizens of the university and scholarly life at large.” While Jane on her own was an excellent teacher, scholar, leader, mentor and colleague, Prichard said, “paired with Michael, they ranked with the great university couples of their generation.”

Retired U of T English Professor Henry Auster recalls parties at the Millgates’ house, which were organized by Jane. “She was a self-taught cook, but a very skilful one. She was witty and lively, with a kind of acerbic English sense of humour.” The Millgates’ wide circle of friends included eminent scholars from England and the United States, Auster said.

After Millgate retired from U of T in 1997, she stayed active as a Professor Emeritus, attended English department events, and hosted lunches for her former colleagues at her home. She also continued to work on what is known as the “Millgate Union Catalogue of Walter Scott Correspondence.” Housed at the National Library of Scotland, this huge catalogue lists more than 14,000 letters to and from Scott, and indicates where the originals, copies or transcripts are located.

Wallace said Millgate travelled all over to find letters, and to see them for herself before adding them to the catalogue. The reference work is a huge contribution to the study of Scott, Wallace said, describing it as a “rich archive that will prove invaluable to generations of scholars.” Millgate began working on the catalogue in 1995, and continued to contribute to it long after her retirement.

Indeed, she kept up her interest in Scott right until the end. “The very last conversations I had with Jane were about chapters of my upcoming book on Scott – and she was, as ever, equally generous and merciless,” Wallace said.

“We all have biological parents, but Jane was an extraordinary intellectual parent.”

Educator and public speaker David Booth 'really thought teaching was the best and most important profession'

noreen.rasbach — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 17:48:00 +0000

Educator and public speaker David Booth 'really thought teaching was the best and most important profession'

noreen.rasbach Thu, 02/14/2019 - 12:48

Cutline

Professor Emeritus David Booth at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) in 2016 for its 50th anniversary (photo courtesy of OISE)

Topic

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Professor Emeritus David Booth was an influential educator, prolific author, and staunch advocate for literacy who saw the value in all forms of reading, from classic literature to social media postings.

For more than 30 years, Booth taught and mentored undergraduate and graduate students at the ��Ƶ's Faculty of Education and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, spreading his enthusiasm to generations of teachers. His influence went far beyond U of T, as he wrote dozens of books and gave hundreds of presentations and speeches around the world.

He died on Dec. 22 at the age of 80.

Booth’s many books ranged from children’s stories to poetry anthologies to literacy guides for teachers and principals. Some were designed to help teachers integrate poetry or drama into the classroom, others dealt with how to get boys to read, and one was a handbook to help schools challenge censorship and book bans. His last book, What is a ‘Good’ Teacher, was written with Richard Coles and published in 2017.

But it was as an inspirational public speaker that he may have had the most impact. In his presentations, he was enthusiastic about teaching, unequivocally supported teachers, and showed he understood what they were up against, particularly on the subject of reading and literacy. His presentations at educational conferences were full of humour and understanding of teachers’ challenges, and showed deep empathy for the children they were teaching.

Booth’s lectures and talks were legendary, and teachers who heard him speak were inspired by his message. Sheilah Currie, a teacher who is the president and founder of the ReadUP Reading Clubs for children in east-central Toronto, said she first heard Booth speak when she was doing her teacher training. “He was funny, and empathetic…his talks were just very, very engaging.”

David Booth, with his grandchildren Mara and E.J. (photo courtesy of Booth family)

Years later, Currie asked Booth to be on her board. He agreed because “he knew the problem with literacy, and how at-risk children often fall through the cracks.”

Currie said Booth was a highly effective “cheerleader” for her organization. “He was a much-loved member of our board, bringing lightness and laughter to our meetings, contributing great ideas, and making us all feel that we were doing noble work.” Booth, she said, was “one of those rare people who lifts up others and makes them feel they are special when, in reality, I think it’s David who was special.”

Booth was effective at getting his message across because he loved teachers and wanted to help them get better at their jobs, said Glen Jones, the dean of OISE. “He really thought teaching was the best and most important profession,” and he offered practical advice that could be used in the classroom.

Jones said he has received dozens of notes from Booth’s former students since his death. “They wanted someone at OISE to know how David Booth had changed their lives.”

One of Booth’s areas of expertise was how to influence reluctant readers. In a 2010 paper, he noted that too many parents and teachers regard only novels, poetry and literary non-fiction as proper reading. “Many boys and men think that they are not readers because they don’t choose one of those genres,” but that is a mistake, he wrote. Graphic novels, sports stories, and even video-game manuals or text on a screen are all legitimate forms of reading, he argued. The key is to make sure people think carefully about what they do read, and become “critical and discerning readers.”

David Hutchison, a former graduate student of Booth’s who is now a professor of educational studies at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., said Booth “really thought outside the box. He wasn’t dismissive of the emergence of the new social media and the different ways young people are communicating. He embraced that and found ways to integrate that into literacy development for them.”

Booth worked closely with academics who focused on literacy methods, and with classroom teachers with boots on the ground, said Dan Tobin, president of Stenhouse Publishers, which handled many of his books in the United States. “He really spanned that bridge between theory and practice as well as anybody I know.”

His books, Tobin said, were “practical, with innovative ideas and solid theory, but also so many practical suggestions.”

In one of Booth’s books, called Exploding the Reading, he got 1,000 students to study a 200-year-old folktale and then interpret the text. The analysis underlined how readers of different ages interact with a story, and was a highly innovative way to delve into the relationship between writer and reader, Tobin said.

Many of Booth’s books were collaborations, as he strongly believed in getting ideas and voices from as many sources and angles as possible, Tobin said. Overall, Booth was “an evangelist for reading, for good literacy practices, for teachers and their importance in the field, and for student voices. He was an articulate spokesperson on all levels. Everybody knew David Booth and knew his work and had great affection for him.”

Tobin said Booth had a dry sense of humour and was very entertaining, but was also bit of a contrarian. “He was kind of a cheerful curmudgeon.”

David Wallace Booth was born in Sarnia, Ont. in 1938. He took his teacher training at McMaster University in Hamilton, and began teaching drama in Hamilton area schools in 1960. Later he taught summer drama programs in universities across North America and around the world.

Booth’s early work teaching drama boosted his skills as a speaker, said Jones. “He was a dramatic soul. One of the reasons he was regarded as an outstanding public speaker was this dramatic bent. He was a master of the raised eyebrow and the dramatic pause.”

Booth completed a graduate degree at the University of Durham in the U.K., and later earned a diploma in Commonwealth Studies at the University of Oxford. After working as a school board consultant in Toronto, he joined the ��Ƶ’s Faculty of Education in the early 1970s. He was with the faculty when it merged with OISE in 1996. From 2008 to 2012, Booth was chair of the centre for literacy at Nipissing University in North Bay.

“He really thought teaching was the best and most important profession,” OISE Dean Glen Jones said about David Booth

Booth had one son, Jay, who is often mentioned in his writing, especially in his work on literacy and boys. In an introduction to his 2002 book Even Hockey Players Read, Booth said his motivation was to “look at the literacy world that my son finds himself in as a young adult male.”

Jay said his father was “incredibly caring, patient and supportive. He was exactly the same with his grandchildren – even the smallest thing was always a big deal to him and he always was so proud and supportive of everything they did.”

Booth always found time to help out friends and family if they needed him, no matter how hectic his work schedule, Jay said. “He was the busiest person I knew, and somehow he was still always there for everyone.”

Booth’s longtime friend and colleague Larry Swartz, a literacy consultant and OISE instructor, said Booth provided the people around him with wisdom, support, and laughs. “His teachings and insights came from working with students, in his own classroom, as a consultant, and as a professor,” Swartz said. “He would find the gem within any student, young or old, and he would shape that.”

Booth gave positive, uplifting advice to anyone who asked, Swartz said. “He was authentic, and he had a never-give-up outlook on life.”

David Booth leaves his brother Jack, son Jay, and two grandchildren. There will be a celebration of his life at U of T in the spring.